Chapter 6: Griffins and Zebras
"What's that noise?" Silvershot asked as he and Applebloom got closer to the door to the deck.
"I don't know, but it doesn't sound good." Applebloom shivered.
Silvershot and Applebloom got closer to the door and put their ears up to it. They could hear the screaming of ponies on the other side and the squawking of an eagle. He knew what the squawking was coming from and he was scared. He immediately turned to Applebloom and gave her a soft but scary glare.
"Applebloom," Silvershot said. "Go back to my cabin and stay there. You'll be safe there. Will you promise you'll go there and stay until I come back?"
Applebloom nodded and ran down the staircase to his cabin. Silvershot waited until she disappeared before he got his throwing star out. A faint glowing aura surrounded his hooves and then his throwing star popped into existence. Silvershot placed some magic and then counted from three before opening the door.
"3...2...1...Go!" Silvershot counted down.
He opened the door and galloped outside.
"Griffins!" a pony yelled, before getting mauled by one.
Griffin pirates were raiding the ship and Silvershot was unprepared for such an attack. Griffins, with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, attacked the ship crew without remorse. The pirates wore bandanas over their feathered heads and metal talons over their natural ones. Some of the ponies were doing fine by fending off griffins until they reached safety in the ship, but others weren't doing so well. Some had been mauled and suffered numerous and deep claw marks on their body. Some of them were even thrown off the ship. Behind Silvershot's ear, he could hear Rainbow Dash fighting some griffins near the bow of the ship.
"Rainbow Dash!" Silvershot galloped to the back and threw his throwing star at the griffins. The griffins dispersed away from Rainbow Dash, who stood confused. "You need to catch ponies that get thrown off the ship. You are our fastest flyer and we need your help."
"On it!" Rainbow Dash saluted.
Rainbow Dash took off into the air. A wave of dust erupted behind her and covered Silvershot's face. Confident that he could trust her to rescue members of the crew who were thrown off the ship, he headed back to the main deck where most of the fighting was happening. Some ponies were handed guns to use to scare off some of the weaker pirates, but many more replaced them.
The rifles each pony had could not penetrate some of the diamond plated armor the griffins had. These "guns" had advanced rapidly over the year since Silvershot had received them from Goldhoof. The firing mechanism shot gold bullets and it could be shot by any pony, regardless of race. More bullets could be held, giving them the ability to hold five bullets instead of one.
Silvershot's only weapon was his throwing star, and it was a good enough to fight back. He threw his throwing star at any griffins he saw. The tips of the star bounced off the heads of the beasts with a loud thud and it was strong enough give a severe concussion. Silvershot was taught by his father to deal lethal blows whenever attacking, but he had learned for himself how to deal non-lethal strikes.
There was a pegasus on the ground, around two years younger than Silvershot was, who was about to get ripped to shreds by a commanding officer pirate. Silvershot leapt into the air and intercepted the impaling talon.
"Leave this ship before I kill all of you," he warned. "This is your one and only warning and you better comply."
"The famous Silvershot Crimson, how wonderful to see you," the griffin hissed. He stared at Silvershot with one eye since the other eye had an eye-patch. "One pony can't defeat the rest of my crew."
"Who says I can't?"
"I say so; got a problem?"
Silvershot's throwing star was locked against the talons of the griffin. He couldn't move it away, even with his magical powers. The talons hooked themselves around the throwing star, allowing the griffin to throw it away.
Silvershot, now weaponless, looked to the scared pegasus behind him. "Run, kid."
The pegasus ran away like a scared bobcat. When Silvershot turned back, the griffin took advantage and swiped at him. He blocked the attack with his golden boots. Silvershot took the chance to make one good comeback to scare the griffins off the ship. He already predicted enemy griffin's attacking style and was prepared to pull the coup de grace. The blasting winds blinded the griffin and he made a foolish mistake. His talons moved horizontally across from him. Silvershot easily avoided the attack by ducking and then bucking the griffin under the jaw. His bones cracked under Silvershot's kick and he fell to the ground.
With a broken jaw and pride, the griffin got back up and signalled a retreat to his men. A shrieking, squawking sound roared through the air and the near fifty griffins flew away to their pirate ships. The griffin Silvershot faced against flew away last. Silvershot wanted to ask him one final question.
"Why did you attack our ship?" he asked him. "There's nothing on this ship that is valuable for you pirates."
"You don't know the half of it," the griffin replied. "Ciao."
He left him alone with his thoughts. Silvershot stared intently at the griffins as they disappeared into the cloud bank nearby. He forced himself to look away and to assess the status of the shipmates and the ship itself. Finn and Cookie Dough were compiling the statuses into a report when he met them.
"Injury report?" Finn asked Cookie Dough.
"Over twenty ponies injured, but no fatalities," Cookie Dough said in relief.
"Damage report?"
"The main mast is destroyed, some of the sails need repairing, and one of the propellers was destroyed when the griffins boarded the ship. Other than that, we can still make the trip to the Zebra kingdom. We will need to stop at port to make repairs."
"Sounds good. Bring the medical team to fix these ponies up. We will be behind on our trip by a few hours since we are short on pony-power."
"Pardon me, Finn. Can I talk to you for a second?" Silvershot politely requested.
"Of course Silvershot, can you give me a minute?" Finn asked Cookie Dough.
"Of course! I'll be back with the medics!" Cookie Dough galloped away with a smile on her face.
"Now wha-"
"Why are you acting like nothing happened here! Everypony could have died!" Silvershot exclaimed, interrupting him.
"No pony is dead, and they were just pirates, that is it. We can make the trip and back to Equestria."
"I have this weird feeling those pirates were here for more than just stealing."
The softness of a pillow felt nice against Armonia's mane. His dream was blissful, but it wasn't real. He dreamt of a silver-maned stallion with a grey coat who was skilled with throwing weapons. The pony in his dreams had a wife, a real family, and a home. This pony was having a better life than he was.
"How long do I have to be gone?" Armonia asked himself as he stared at the ceiling.
He turned to his right to look out the stone window. Outside of his apartment room, Afriki's market place buzzed with the bartered trade of zebras, ponies, and griffins. Armonia got up from his bed with a loud growl of pain. The night before he fell asleep, he was shot with an arrow by a ballista. He was lucky that the arrows weren’t large which would have made it difficult for him to pull it out of him.
His leg was bandaged up with a bloodstained cloth, but he still managed to get up and walk. His mission was to destroy the element of sacrifice by any means necessary. His only possible way of destroying the element was to rely on the help of a zebra colleague.
Armonia found his cape at the foot of his bed and put it over his head. He made sure that the hood covered his mane and his eyes to conceal his identity; he was notorious in Afriki.
He hid a dagger under his cape and made his way to the door. He wasn’t sure if he should go out that day since he was being hunted down, but he had a responsibility to Equestria to destroy the element. He latched his magic grip on the doorknob and turned it slightly. He could see the reflection of his face, the face of a war-torn hero. He swung open the door, went through it, and closed it behind him.
Closing the door behind him meant no turning back from his mission at hoof.
A crowd of zebras and ponies had massed in front of Armonia’s apartment, where Armonia took the chance to blend in with the population. At this point, anything could happen to him, but he hoped that it would be something pleasant. The more he walked in the crowd, the more he could feel the claws of death reaching ever so slowly to him. A pony’s breath wafted against his cape and Armonia knew somepony wanted to talk to him.
“Armonia, is that you?” the somepony whispered into his ear.
“I finally found you.” Armonia whispered back without looking back.
“More like the other way around.”
“Ponies say, across Equestria, that you are the only pony to be able to destroy anything. Even magic you have learned to ultimately destroy.”
"How come you make that sound so evil? I'm not that cruel Armonia."
"Are you here to take the element?"
"Of course, just give it to me and I'll destroy it somewhere else."
"I want you to destroy it right before my eyes, Danja!"
Through the thin cloth of his hood, he could see crossbow ponies jumping from rooftop to rooftop to track down him and Danja. Danja wasn't going to let him get away. She wanted the element of sacrifice intact and not destroyed. With no choices left, he was forced to make an escape. He bucked Danja in the chest as hard as he could and galloped through the mass of ponies and zebras. He shoved them out of the way to avoid the crossbow bolts that rained down from the sky.
He was given a single second to look back at his pursuers before the crossbow bolts came at him again. Danja got back up from the ground and waved a hoof at Armonia.
"You can't escape my grasp Armonia! I will have immortality if it's the last thing I do!" Danja screamed.
"And your soul will be mine, Silvershot!" Danja's voice echoed in Silvershot's head when his eyes blinked into the real world.
In the memories, Silvershot realized that Armonia dreamt of the future the same way Silvershot envisioned the past. A theory ran through his mind that the element of sacrifice can unlock memories. The element had infinite magical power, and it was very much possible. Then he thought of Danja. Why did she want the element of sacrifice? If Armonia was the only one to use it, why would she need it? Silvershot did use the element of sacrifice before he destroyed it, but he hadn't figured out then how he used it.
His mind was shocked by all the information he was trying to process in his head. Maybe talking to Finn would calm him down. He walked back to Finn who was steering the ship and explained to him the recent memory he experienced. He explained every single detail so Finn wouldn't miss anything.
"My main concern is who is Danja, and how does she know me?" Silvershot asked.
"Danja was an old friend of Armonia. She went insane, saying that the element of sacrifice can grant immortality to the user. I don't know why she wanted to live forever and I don't know how she knew you," Finn replied while still steering the ship. "All I can say is that she was a tough zebra to defeat because she was never defeated in battle."
"Armonia defeated her though," Silvershot paused. "Right?"
Finn was silent for a second and didn't respond to Silvershot's last question. "Look Silvershot, during that pirate raid earlier, I noticed that your weapons are outdated and weak. Could you bring it to the blacksmith so it could be augmented a bit? I don't want you to get into a tight spot again because of a weak weapon."
"Yeah, I'll go do that. Thanks for talking to me." Silvershot said goodbye.
"Hey, wait," Silvershot turned back to him. "If you need to talk, just talk to me again or Cookie Dough. Don't forget you also have Applebloom too."
"Yea, thanks for the advice. I'll see you later."
"Why in bloody tartarus is the petraphyte not ready?" Danja asked her followers. "You said the petraphyte would be ready by nightfall but it hasn't even grown in the last few hours!"
"We need more power," one of the followers answered fearfully. "Our remedies can't conjure enough heat to bring life to it."
"Then find something else to use! I will not accept failure from the hooves of ponies!"
Danja gritted her teeth when she started thinking that she might lose. She only had one more night to live and she planned on going out with a bang. She had waited for over a thousand years to seek vengeance on the pony race and it was finally time to raise her scythe for the killing blow. If it weren't for the incompetence of her followers, she would be happy that Equestria was destroyed sooner.