//------------------------------// // Ch 9: The Sacrifice // Story: Friendship is Survival // by rlogic1994 //------------------------------// Friendship is Magic Ch 9: The Sacrifice By Rlogic1994 (Visit the tumblr for Frigid: ask-frigiddrift.tumblr.com!) Another Griffin crashed to the ground, bloody clumps of feathers raining onto the ground around him. Shrieks of pain and anger filled the air. More were coming. “We gotta get the hell outta here!” “Ya don’t need ta tell me, RD! Twi! What do we do! Twi?” She was frozen in fear. Her legs were locked up and she was shivering, her face drained of color. “What is it?!” “I was trying to reach the pony front by extending out my magical conscience, but when I rubbed against one of the griffin’s minds, I felt power that I’ve only felt once before in my life; when I visited the court of the Griffin King Acheron.” “Oh my mother of dear sweet Celestia…the King?! You mean the guy who completely wrecked that town we were trying to hold singlehandedly?” “Yeah. We better hurry the buck up!” But no matter how much they tried to hurry, wave after wave of griffins kept them from their task. And miles ahead 2 ponies waited for their number to be called. “Fourty Seven Fifty!” “That’s us! Come on!” But before they could take another step an exhausted pony came running up to them. “You girls are spec ops right? We need you now! Come on and follow me!” They looked to the communications tent and back at him. Scootaloo shrugged and followed his lead to a secluded tent. The Staff Sergeant was standing over a map with several small miniature ponies on it. The other troops around her turned to face the newcomers. “Finally! Took ya long enough. Remember how I said if we needed some troops to fill in I’d call ya? Well we got a few MIA’s so we need some substitutes for recon and retake. You up for it?” “That didn’t exactly sound like you’re giving us a choice so yeah we’re up to it.” She nodded and gestured to the map, speaking fast about the situation. “About 2 hours ago I sent out a recon party to this sector here by that clearing in the trees. They were told to report all findings upon reaching the site an hour into the mission. We never got any transmissions. When we tried to hail their radio the line was dead. We need some troops to go in and check out what happened. That and if needed take the area back. We’ll get you weapons so you don’t have to worry about that. The outfit rendezvous is at the edge of camp on the north eastern side.” “That doesn’t sound too bad. Just some recon…and payback!” said Frigid, relishing an opportunity to get back at the creatures that had taken her friend from her. “Oh and there’s one last thing. There was a transmission but it was only a few seconds long. It was garbled but from what we got from it, a soldier was yelling ‘He has a-a staff and it glows with magic! He-he’s got stars on the side of his coat! I think he’s Acher-’ and it cuts off there. We don’t know what he meant but from the sound of it, there was a griffin sage there. So be careful, because from what I’ve seen of the war torn towns laid waste by them, those sages are powerful.” “Will do.” They geared up with automatic rifle saddles, one barrel on each side, the sleek black metal shining in the sun. They also grabbed a couple of motion grenades and a combat knife for each of them. They then trotted outside and towards the north east corner, both stuck in their own thoughts. “Griffin magic? What the hell did I get myself into!” “Hmm Griffin magic, huh? Well the bigger they are the harder they fall!” Not paying attention, Frigid almost ran into a brown pegasus, who dodged at the last moment. “Woah! Watch where you’re-wait are you the spec ops?” “Yeah…” “Then It looks like we’re all here. Well we’re not gonna get anywhere with this from here, so let’s go.” He trotted and then broke into a sprint towards the forest. By the time they had caught up with the group, Frigid and Scootaloo ran into the midst of a lot of annoyed glares. “I thought you said you were spec ops? What the hell is this if you can’t keep up?” “Well we were kind of knocked out of the sky by an explosion and then had to cauterize out own wounds so I guess we’re a bit damn tired.” “…alright then, I guess you are spec ops. Just…try to keep up.” They took to their wings and, having trained agile maneuvering through closed spaces, were able to navigate through the trees with ease, much to the surprise of the rest of the group. In a few minutes they reached the trees outside the clearing, where a gruesome scene was laid out. “Oh my Celestia. Have they no mercy.” “What the hell is wrong with them.” Before the group of ponies six troops in torn uniforms, beaten black and blue, were hung from magical gallows created by a eerie glowing staff in the hands of the largest griffin any pony had seen. His uniform consisted of a single cape, which was made of what looked like dragon scales with a few stars in a line on one side. It glinted in the sunlight, its thousands of scales letting off a light show of multicolored rays. His chest was at least twice that of the average griffin and his wings even more so. At the end of his huge legs were talons covered in metal armor that looked like they could tear steal like paper. Finally the stars on the cape made sense; It was the King. “I got an idea,” whispered Scootaloo, to which Frigid looked over with shock. But it was too late, the orange mare was already slinking through the trees to the other side of the clearing. Although the rest of the group couldn’t spot her, Frigid had learned to spot the mare even in the darkest of environments in their travels after crashing. Scootaloo had slowly flanked the group of griffins and pulled a grenade out. “Is she crazy?! I’m sure they have some sort of shield! I mean look at that sage!” But the grenade was not thrown at the griffins; it was thrown straight up into the air. When it hit the ground, the explosion set fire to most of the forest behind and on the flank of the group, blinding them with the flash for a few moments. Frigid watched with shock as the sage lashed out with impossible speed towards the flames, slicing through them with deep purple energy. It was meant to kill Scootaloo, but the sage narrowed his eyes, indicating he felt the presence of something in the trees. He watched for an attack from the flames. But the next explosion erupted from the center of the group, sending flames licking out towards the griffins. But there was a protection spell on them, so it did nothing but disorient them. But that was enough, as an orange flash streaked from the sky out of nowhere, slamming into the purple force field that the sage had put up just in time. But it did not keep the pegasus at bay, as the shield shattered under the force, sending out a blast of air and light. Frigid and the rest of the ponies hid behind the trees and covered their eyes, the light almost searing. When Frigid turned to look at what had happened, she stared with both awe and fear. “What just happened?” another pony asked. “I have no damn idea,” replied the pegasus next to her. Before them lay 8 bloody griffins and 1 sage with a knife sticking out of his head, its entire blade buried inside the enormous griffin’s head. But off to the side was a small lump of orange and magenta. Frigid yelped and ran out, not thinking of the protocols of the battlefield to make sure the coast was clear. “Damnit Scoot! Why did you do it!” the white mare yelled, fear edging every word. Scootaloo’s breathing was weak and her body looked like it had been beaten up by a hurricane. Where there weren’t scratches and bruises, there were clumps of her coat and mane missing. She looked broken. She struggled to speak. “Remember when you said you had to prove your dignity and honor? Looks like I beat you too it. Hey when did you get the third wing?” And with that her head hit the ground with a thud. Frigid was faster to react than she thought she could. In one swooping motion she lifted Scootaloo into her arms and launched into the air towards the camp, leaving the soldiers to take care of retaking the land lost. Tears formed in her eyes from both fear of losing another friend and the sheer speed she was travelling. “I’m not gonna let you die. Not this time. Not again! Faster!” She rocketed towards the camp, which was in sight now. She caught sight of the medical tents, characterized by the universal red color used in all camps and dived towards them. She landed with a magnificent and loud thud on the ground, startling many of the ponies around. She ran into the tents and laid the broken mare on the first bed she could find and went to find a doctor. “Hey! I need your help! My friend was hurt and she’s close to dying!” “Sure thing right after I finish with everyone else who is dying. This is war! People die! You can’t expect me to just put down-” he stopped when he saw Scootaloo, “Dear lord what happened here. Multiple magic burns, more bruises than I can count, and several broken bones. Redheart! Get on this one right away!” A pink haired earth pony trotted up with an extensive medical kit. “Umm…not to be rude but wouldn’t a unicorn be better for-” Frigid was cut off by the sound of the nurse moving a surgical thread and needle closing wounds at a lightning fast speed and dabbing anesthetic and antibiotic ointments on the rest of Scootaloo’s wounds at the same time. “Never mind I guess I’ll just-” “Wait outside and I’ll tell you when I’m done. Now if you’re not gonna help, get out!” Frigid trotted sadly outside and wondered the camp. She passed ponies bleeding out and ponies who were without a scratch and ponies who looked tired of the front and new reinforcements that looked fresh and enthusiastic. She found herself outside of the strategist tent she had come to before where she could hear the Staff Sergeant’s voice. When the voice started to talk about the Griffin Sages, it suddenly hit Frigid that there were only five stars on the cape for the Sage that Scootaloo had killed. The king’s insignia was widely known as six stars. That wasn’t the king; that was only one of his many generals. And although the generals were also huge, The King was known for his uniquely large and intimidating form. He was still out there, waiting. Before she knew what she was doing she barged into the tent. “What the hell do you think you’re doing back?” “The rest of them are taking care of it.” “Very well then what do you want?” “I want to help!” “Well we don’t need any help.” “I’m not going anywhere.” “Look I know that you wanna help but we’re in trouble and I don’t think you can. That Sage you fought, and yes I heard already, was only one of many that are being deployed now. We can’t fight them efficiently enough to be able to keep the front. And we don’t have enough ponies to do it anyway. It all goes downhill from here.” “Isn’t there anything that we can do?” Frigid looked at everypony’s face, “Isn’t there a damn thing?!” “There is one thing…” said a younger unicorn in the corner, “We could use that.” “No. That isn’t an option. We would have to evacuate every pose on the front for that to work.” “What is she talking about?” “We made a plan B in case we were overrun. It’s a bomb that the weapons researchers cooked up. It has the power to level the entire battlefield from east to west. If we ever were overrun, dropping it would end the battle. But we don’t have a launcher or a way to evacuate everyone and keep the griffins at bay.” Frigid thought to herself, her eyes glued to the floor. “What if I told you there was a way,” she said after a few long moments. “Enlighten me.” “I noticed that the griffins’ eyes are very light sensitive. If you could create a flash powerful enough it could blind them for long enough for an evacuation. We could use all the flash grenades stocked up in the armory. I saw hundreds maybe even thousands.” “Well even if that worked we have no launcher and the only way to drop it would be if a pegasus flew it in. And even if someone was crazy enough, they would have to fly above the clouds in the freezing conditions.” “I’ll do it.” “Well even-wait what? You? Are you serious?” “I can take more cold than anyone and I will not stand by while ponies are getting killed if I can stop it.” “Well damn, kid. You got guts. But the thing is pretty heavy and-” “Don’t worry. I’ll drop it. You just get those ponies the hell out of there.” “A-alright. Go to the armory and ask for Heat, he’ll show you where we’re hiding it.” Frigid trotted out and turned towards the armory, but then stopped and started towards the medical tents. She pushed open the flap and slowly approached Scootaloo, whose eyes were shut. She was hooked up to a machine that was helping her breath and her wings were bandaged completely and were held down by long splints. Her mane was a mess and her tail was no better. She really looked like hell. After a few moments of thinking, Frigid spoke. “Hey. I don’t know if you can hear me. But I don’t know if I’m going to see you again. And before I go I just wanna say something. Thank you. Thank you for the friendship you’ve given me in these last few months when I really needed it. Thank you for making me realize that life is more about just respect and dignity. It’s also about love and friendship and family. So I thank you and say goodbye for maybe the last time.” She trotted out of the tent determined. Frigid didn’t know, but Scootaloo said something weakly after the blue maned mare had thanked her and fell back into unconsciousness. “F-frigid…y-y-your…w-welcome.” The white mare found herself before the grey armory tents before she knew it. She sighed and entered. “Umm I’m looking for a Heat?” “So you’re the poor soul they found to drop it? I’ll show you where it is. Just follow me.” The burnt orange pony led Frigid to a large crate twice the size of a pony and tapped it three times with an assassin’s precision at certain points. The side of the crate hissed and gave way to a dimly lit stairway into the earth. “Leave any metal objects here, the magnetic field’s gonna lift you up like a rag doll if you bring anything.” She dropped her things at the entrance and descended with Heat. The first thing that hit her was the walls were made of some kind of dull metal that looked as though it glowed. Then she noticed the unnatural feel to the air, like there was a thin haze in the air. “What you’re feeling are the nano-magic bots. The unicorns up in research came up with ‘em. Each one is a little pocket of magic and not very powerful. But the entirety of the air here is saturated with it. And because it is pony magic, it isn’t harmful unless the nano’s deem you a threat. Then you’re bucked.” “So this really must be pretty high secrecy right?” “You have no idea.” He left the conversation to end with that, a decisive expression to convey that she didn’t need to know how much she didn’t know. She kept descending, the air getting cooler and cooler, until they arrived at an enormous cavern fitted with complicated machines and several sinister looking contraptions. The first that caught her sight was a small metal ball no bigger than a hoof-ball and emanating frighteningly bright bolts of energy. As if he knew what she had seen, Heat explained. “That’s a prototype for a generator for the troops. If it works we could connect all our weapons to an almost unlimited energy resource. It’s still in the works though. Something as powerful as this could easily kill an average pony with an energy overload.” Then there were a few others, like a blade that could cut through even the strongest of materials, the translucent edge glowing softly. Then there were a few biological tests to make “super soldiers” as Frigid’s guide had put it. And then, the ceiling curved up and the floor fell away towards a spherical cavern, and in the center stood one simple silver capsule. “There she is. Five years for the plan to come to fruition and much longer for it to be applied. But we are sure it works.” The walls of the spheres were covered in a black shiny material, reflecting the bomb’s sleek silver surface. It was a little too sleek, without a distinguishable feature on it other than its ellipsoid shape. “So how does this thing work? I mean I don’t see and button or timer.” “It works by the genius of acceleration detection technology. When the bomb reaches a certain velocity, a timer will start and the bomb will explode at just the right time. It is quite ingenious if I do say so myself.” “Well I don’t know about you, but the power of something like this, at least how it was described to me, could kill millions. That doesn’t seem very ingenious to me.” “Oh it could vaporize millions, and then many more than that from the actual radiation blast. This is why we must evacuate the area. That and also set up a quarantine of the area for the health of every pony.” “Alright I’m ready.” Heat pressed the side of the black wall and a light appeared where his hoof had brushed the smooth material. A thick catwalk with a conveyor belt shot out silently towards the capsule, the glass tube it was contained in lifting away. The bomb moved steadily towards them, its size growing by the second. When the belt stopped with a light click, Frigid saw the bomb in its full form and realized how truly large it was. It was at least a pony wide and two ponies thick. It was big. “Is there some kinda harness or…?” “Right here. This was originally designed for a robotic pony to use. WE even had a launcher set up, but it was made for the robot. I don’t know that it will work for a rea pony, so you’ll just have to get high up and use the wind currents above the clouds.” She was silent as he strapped the cold metal harness to her and then used a crane like claw, which had sneaked silently out of the black wall, to pick her up and place the bomb on her back. “When the time comes tug on the little handle in front of your mouth and the harness will spin and the bomb will be under you. Then just pull again and…” “Yeah.” He pointed to a tunnel to her left, indicating her exit route. He said nothing more and left her to her thoughts. But she had only one at this point. “I am ready to die. I am ready to let go. I am ready to prove myself for those I love!”