//------------------------------// // So it begins // Story: Fighting Never Ends // by Tx Avenger 218 //------------------------------// Dawnspear is a lush, beautiful and well built city about a few miles away from the Griffon kingdom. The city isn’t built by stone entirely, rather it is more wood and open as one would expect. Unlike the Griffon Kingdom, the city within the mountains is more for those who wish to be safe in the event of a massive war that could break out with them, while Dawnspear is more open but still well defended.   Unfortunately, the city was built close to a swamp that is teeming with water associated predators and insects. The trees and plant life are incredibly thick, allowing any and all who dare walk its murky waters be met with much difficulty. Because of this, the once griffon controlled and popular city of Dawnspear is now under the temporary control of the Ligers through careful planning, sabotage and force.   Using the swamp as their cover, the Ligers were able to infiltrate the city in the dead of night and capture it by morning. Using this city as well as it’s people as a bartering chip, we’ll see just how much of a head start the Ligers can get in this war.   <<<>>>   Tiberius Onyxclaw walks to the entrance of Dawnspear while his general, Marcus Steelwing, remains far behind with a contingent of griffon soldiers in case something went wrong. General Baron Von’ Butch called for a parlay to allow both of whom to speak without a confrontation by a rookie or undisciplined soldier on either side. They both walk at an even pace until they both stand at even paces away from both sides of their armies. Tiberius stands adorned with a bit more armor than he used to be wearing but unarmed save for his natural weapons. Baron is unarmed as well, wearing the same clothing and armor he was wearing at the meeting moments ago.   “Baron.”   “Tiberius.”   “It would seem whether or not you got your perpetrator, this war wouldn’t have been preventable.”   “You know me too well Tiberius.” The King narrows his eyes.   “I didn’t earn my place as king by stealing my father’s place that’s for sure.”   “Hm, quite.” Now Baron is just trying to piss off the griffon king, actually he already did that when he took over one of his city’s.   “Enough talk, Baron. What is it you wanted to talk to me about?”   “Simple really: your son, and I promise the safe return of every single one of your griffons.”   Tiberius visibly cringes at the request, an entire city’s population… for his son. A choice no father would be willing to make, harder for the leader as well.   “M-My son?”   “Yes, your son. You give us him, and we give you back all of your captured griffons safe and unharmed. The same can be said for your son while he is in our custody.” Baron says with a smile in his voice. His words may seem genuine, but the Ligers and Griffons have always had conflict no matter the cause.   Safe and unharmed is a rare case coming from the ligers involving the griffons.    King Tiberius Onyxclaw is no tyrant by any means, he will not willfully sacrifice hundreds of his own people unless there was a way to save them.   However, his son is just as important to him as any number of his own people.   “Well, what is your answer?” Baron impatiently asks.   Tiberius ignores him and continues to contemplate his next words. If I give up my son… Oh Tartarus I would never forgive myself if anything bad happens to him. But if I don’t give him up, what would the rest of my people think, even my guards. They would all think that I regard my son above them all no matter how many lives are threatened. Tiberius heavily weighs his options.   “We can’t stay out here forever Tiberius. Make your choice now, or I will make it for you.” Baron says grimly. With time over, King Tiberius sighs.   “I am sorry, Baron. But I will be keeping my son, thank you very much.”   “Hm, shame really. Good luck with sleeping knowing the many lives you just damned for the sake of one.”   “Taunt all you want Baron, but my griffons are strong. They will not break so easily.” Tiberius says proudly before turning around and walking back to his soldiers.   “We’ll see about that.” Baron turns around and heads for his soldiers.   As soon as Baron makes it close to the gates, his men open the doors where he is greeted with his second-in-command. “Sir, what do you want we should do now?”   Baron looks back at the army of griffons, then up where he notices a lone vulture high in the sky. He smiles.   Already the buzzards are gearing up for a feast… interesting.   <<<>>> “Sire?” General Marcus asks his king.   “Pull back the troops. If they see us all attacking at once, they’ll execute all the hostages within a moment’s notice. We need to form a new plan.”   “Yes sir. Griffons! We’re moving out!” Marcus yells, rousing the soldiers up almost instantly.   Tiberius looks back to the city and sighs while turning forward. I hope I made the right choice. He walks forward to move with his troops.   “Sire!” A single griffon shouts as he points back to the city. Everygriffon turns around to see the liger army starting to pool out of the city from its various entrances. Damnit! I knew it was only a matter of time but I was hoping for more time. “What are your orders?”   “Form a defensive line! We’ll let them come to us.” The griffons follow their king’s order and begin forming the line with shields at the front, swords behind and spears with shields just above the line.   “You sure you're ready for this sir?” Tiberius looks to the side to see his general handing him his sword, sword being an understatement. More like the tooth of a full-dragon he killed many moons ago.   He isn’t called a legend for nothing.   “You forget who you’re talking to my friend.” Tiberius says with a smile as he grabs his sword and a shield. Followed closely by his friend Marcus with his own battle-axe and shield.   “Just making sure.” They both take up places beside each other in the middle of the line. “You aren’t as young as you used to be.”   “Hm, says you.” The line is finished and all the griffons wait as the liger army charges and barrels at them like a massive herd of boulders falling down a hill. “Like old times, huh?”   Marcus looks at the charging ligers and smiles. It’s been too long since he was in a proper battle. “Yes.” The general looks around at his fellow griffons and sees the worry on some of their faces. Most of the battles that have taken place between griffons and ligers was never in an open battlefield where the ligers ballista’s and arrows could easily take away the griffons height advantage and the sheer muscle mass will clearly outmatch the griffons.   “Hold my fellow griffons!” Marcus yells “They may be bigger and taller than you, but remember the old saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall!” he yells. He smiles as he hears more than a few griffons chuckling and preparing for the fight about to commence.   They make it to the 100 yard mark.   “Hold!”   75 yards   “Hold!”   40…   “HOLD!”   30…   “GET READY!!”   20…   “AANNNNND… P-“   TAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAK   The liger army stops in its tracks within 5 yards of its adversaries as a large spray of red mist and body parts emerge from their first two lines. The rest of the ligers are covered in the spray of blood from their comrades. The only thing the griffons suffer are new red polka dots on their shields and helmets.   A large metal bird flies above them moments later before climbing into the air again.   “What the-“   <<<>>>   “That was too fucking ballsy for my likes. Nearly took out some of the griffons.” Swift pulls up and banks to the side. He looks out the side. “Alright, alright alright. Take into account of the sudden wind change close to the ground, and for god sakes don’t go too close that I actually hit them.” Swift mentally prepares himself as he moves into position to attack again. Seeing as how the liger army has stopped, he needs to take out another of the front lines to really make them run with their tails between their legs.   TAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAKTAK   More bullets fly from the guns of Swift’s Avenger as he tears apart another of the front lines, albeit easier since they aren’t as close to the griffons.   “Haha, gotcha- Whoa!” He yells as a sudden rush from a rouge wind nearly throws him off course. “C’mon, c’mon’ c’mon!” He yells frantically as he tries to pull up in the direction the wind is coming from but he’s too low to the ground. “Damnit! Don’t do this to-!” Before he can finish, the controls suddenly jerk to the opposite direction in rapid movement, causing the plane to instead of fight against the wind, is now being carried with it into the air.   As the plane gains height again, Swift is momentarily stunned as to what the hell happened. What the-? What happened? I didn’t do that. He quickly grabs the controls as the plane tilts. Worry about that later. He shakes his head and looks over the side to see the ligers running.   “Alright, that got them scared, now to put the fear of the heavens into them.” He mutters as and begins to climb, right past the clouds until he levels out at around 2000 ft. Slowly he breathes in and exhales calmly before steeling himself. “Let’s do this.”   Completely turning the plane upside down, he dives.   <<<>>>   “What was that?! Where do they think they are going?!” General ‘Von Butch yells as he watches his army retreating straight back to his city.   “Sir, what are your orders?” his second-in-command asks.   Baron growls intently before glaring back to his soldier. “Orders?! The orders stand! Kill those griffons!” he yells angrily as he points to the motionless army across the way.   “B-But sir! What if that… thing comes back?! Our forces don’t have anything to take out something that fast.”   “It flies doesn’t it?” he glares to his second-in-command. He hesitates before nodding. “And what do we do to things that fly?”   “…*Sigh* We pluck their wings sir.”   Baron smiles, “Good, now the next time you see that creature, you-“   “INCOOOMMMING!!” A liger sentry yells while pointing to the sky. Baron growls in anger at the interruption before turning around. His growls lessens as he spots a dot coming straight down for his retreating army.   “BALLISTA’S! Get the ballista’s ready to fire!” He orders his soldiers.   “We can’t sir! They can’t aim that high!” he hears a soldier reply.   With nothing to hit that creature barreling straight down, he watches. “Curses.”       <<<>>>   In one quick motion, the metal bird launches something round straight down at the retreating ligers before pulling up as it drifts over the griffons.   In a massive, red, hot, fiery explosion, the rear of the liger’s army becomes decimated. Flesh and fur becomes ash and fire from the mysterious force while some ligers die from the sheer force of the explosion itself. A large plume of black and white smoke rises into the air as the remainder of the forces hurdle into the city, the explosion being just outside the city itself, lightly scorching the front gates.   The griffons stare at the carnage in front of them. Body’s fur and flesh with holes the size of their talons riddle the body’s while some are missing their limbs all together.   “Sire?” Markus asks his king, who is just as stunned as everyone else. He looks up as the metal creature soars above him and his soldiers, most of them cringing in fear at the thought of it directing it’s attacks at them.   That… thing looks familiar. He watches as it flies back to the Griffon Kingdom and disappears behind the mountain.   “Tiberius?” Markus knocks his king out of his stupor. “Orders?”   He looks back to Dawnspear before turning back to the city in the mountains. “Back to the kingdom. We need to rethink our plan.” King Tiberius says as he begins walking.   “Yes sir. Let’s move out!”   When they make it to the mountain, there’s no doubt about it. The metal flying bird that nearly destroyed the entirety of the liger army is none other than the very same vehicle that belonged to Swift Wind. Tiberius along with his son, general and soldiers stare at the machine in front of them. A whole new feeling flowing through them now that they know it’s more than a glorified, fancy flying machine.   The cockpit opens slowly, allowing Swift Wind in one motion to jump out. He lands easily on both his feet before standing tall.   He smiles before crossing his arms. “So… can I help now?”   <<<>>>   “You proved yourself that much is true. But my father put me in charge of the offensive against the ligers. You don’t control my soldiers. You want something, you come to me, got it?”   “I understand. If the ligers really hate you that much, they won’t attack the ponies, if the general was even serious about that part, unless they destroy the griffons. My point in mind, better to stop them here than stop them later.” I say.   Alan stares at me for a second, trying to find any hint of a lie I may have. He doesn’t. “Alright then. There will be a meeting tomorrow in the war room. A guard will come by your room in the morning to bring you to it.”   “Thank you.”   “I will admit, I’m curious to see what other tricks you have at your disposal.”   “In due time. For now, I’m still light headed from the fight. I think I’ll turn in.” I turn around and begin walking away.   “I won’t keep you. Good night.”   “Buonanotte.” I wish him good night. I turn back to see the confused look on his face before he continues walking. “Hm, nice.”   “Ooof!!” Suddenly something hits my stomach, causing me and the other to stumble back.   “S-sorry about-“   “Watch where you’re going dweeb!”   D-Dweeb?! “Hey! I said I was-“   “Whatever I don’t want hear it.” The obviously female but bitchy griffon says. “Out of my way.” She shoulders me hard and continues walking past me. I just stare at the griffon walking away from me. Judging from her armor, and her attitude, she'd have a tough time staying in my kinds military. “Hey! Eyes up here.” She yells back to me. Now that I realize it, I think I was staring somewhere I shouldn’t.   “Wha- but I- You- Gaahhh!!” I groan in frustration and jog to my door before I decide to blow her head off. As soon as I shut the door, I drop hard onto my bed.   “Ehhhhhhhh… this gonna be a looooooonnng war.”   ---------------------------------------------------------   Well, I think this is starting to come together nicely. Still looking for some more proofreaders and editors folks.   Comments and feedback will definitely help me in the long run.   Hope this New Year starts off good for you all as it did me.