//------------------------------// // 6. Disharmony // Story: Trials of a Royal Guard // by Anzel //------------------------------// I struggled to stand and looked around as my vision cleared. There were ponies down everywhere. Most were getting up, but on the foredeck of the Happiness it was an entirely different scene. That deck was blackened, splintered, and on fire in several places. It was also littered with the dead and dying. My ears still rang but I could hear their cries and moans of pain. The crackling of flames filled the smoke-laden air that rolled across the ship. I took a step and staggered when my legs seemed confused about what they were trying to do. It took several flaps of my wings to keep me upright. Behind me, magical energy and crossbow bolts leapt into the sky to ensure our attackers did not get a second chance at us. It was not chaotic or rushed. Most of the ponies at middeck were focused on doing their job and protecting their comrades. The remaining gryphons near the Happiness swooped and twirled, trying to stay out of the cloud of missiles, but there just weren’t enough of them left to not be set upon en masse. One by one they fell, each seemingly trying to work some apparatus held in their claws. As the last one dropped, it exploded off the side of the ship. That left us free to struggle with what was going on. I gathered my wits, took a few careful steps to make sure I could walk, and hurried into the black smoke pouring from the front of the ship to tend to the ponies there. There were plenty, but the first one I sought out was Colonel Hammer. He was still alive… mostly. I looped my forehoof under his forelegs and dragged him back as damage control ponies hurried past us to do their job. The colonel groaned and looked up at me with confused, cloudy eyes. “What was that?” “I don’t know.” I kept pulling him back. “Medic! I need a medic for the colonel right now. Priority here!” Colonel Hammer lightly struggled against me and found he didn’t have much success doing so. “I’m fine, Captain…” Don’t tell him yet. Not now. He wasn’t fine. It was shock that made him think so. “Sir, you’re bleeding.” That was an understatement. There was zero chance he’d have his right hindleg after this. If he was lucky, he’d keep the left, but that depended on if I could get him to the medics immediately. Thankfully, a medic hurried over, took one look at the downed officer, and carefully started to take him from me. “I’m on this. Get as many away from that smoke as you can, sir.” “On it. Do your best,” I whispered before letting go. After leaving the colonel in the medic’s hooves, I hurried forwards again to help with the wounded. That was when I saw that the fire was trailing up some of the ropes that attached the hull to the left bow balloon. There was nothing I could do about it. We had reserve balloons. We’d have to rely on them. A hoof reached out for me, so I took it and started to pull the pony attached to it away from the burning section. He was heavy and I hated to drag him, but the sooner we got out and back to the middeck the better. “Hold fast, everypony!” a voice shouted from the gloom. Without any other warning, there was a snap followed by a loud boom as a balloon gave way. The Happiness pitched but, to our relief, did not roll. Other ponies had taken to the task of rescuing their comrades. There was a stream of wounded being pulled from the foredeck to the mid and aft decks, clearing them as best we could from the smoke and flame. “Medic,” I said matter-of-factly. There was no use yelling for one anymore. They were all already working on somepony else. The stallion I had in my hooves now was badly hurt. A unicorn with a coat that was probably yellow under all the blood. I knew from one look that he wasn’t going to make it and I wasn’t even a medic. His eyes met mine and I tried to hide that fact from him. I took his hoof and held it tightly. “The medics are tending others. Just hang in there as long as you can, soldier. You’ve done well and I’m right here. I won’t let you go. I promise.” He nodded and his mouth moved a bit, but no sound came out. It was only a second or so before his grip loosened and he went limp. I closed his eyes, softly patted him on the helmet, and paused for a moment. I had no time to mourn him, and that hurt more than the loss. But this wasn’t the same as before. I had to stay focused. There were others I could still save. There had to be others to save! I rushed back through the smoke and found a huge grey pegasus laying on his side. He was still breathing, so I grabbed his hooves and started tugging him backwards. When I did, his eyes blinked open and he coughed a few times before pulling away. “I’m fine, sir… tend to others,” he groaned. Then he stood up, wobbled, and looked around, clearly disoriented. For the most part he looked fine, just some superficial wounds. He wasn’t moving with purpose yet, though. He’d been closer to the blast than me and I was concerned about where he might be mentally. There was only one thing to do. “Help me with the others, Sergeant,” I ordered. Give him a task and a purpose. Let instinct and training kick in. An order would do that for almost any soldier. I was counting on the fact it would work for him. His eyes shifted from distant to focused as he looked at me. Then he nodded and together we grabbed an injured earth pony and carried him back to the middeck where the medics could get to him… when they had time. He’d been unconscious but the wounds didn’t look mortal. “Everypony, remain calm and continue with your duty,” I heard General Ironhoof order through the smoke and haze. Thank Celestia he was still alive and sounded uninjured. His loss would have been devastating. The colonel being injured was bad enough. The chain of command was still largely intact, though. “Signal full retreat, we need to get further north as soon as we can.” The Happiness had come about fully but we weren’t going anywhere fast. In fact, we were just lazily drifting north. But that wasn’t something I could focus on. I could do nothing about it. There were still injured ponies at the front of the ship and I needed to help them… if I could. “Come on, Sergeant,” I said to the big stallion before hurrying back to the wounded. When we got there, it was clear there wasn’t really anypony left to save. The living had already been pulled back by us or somepony else. The rest were gone. The two of us just carefully moved their bodies away from the fires, into respectable positions, and closed their eyes. They should have a little dignity and honor in their deaths. It was eerily silent. Just the crackle of the flames and the damage control ponies doing what they could to put them out. Smoke was starting to get to me and I started coughing, as did my companion. “By Celestia…” I heard somepony gasp. Through the billowing plumes, I tried to figure out who was speaking. Finally, I made out one of the damage control ponies in the haze and approached to see what he was looking at. He and his peers had stopped working and were looking out from the ruined foredeck of ship, staring in horror. My eyes followed theirs to the Harmony. She hadn’t made her turn yet. She was just too big and slow compared to our warships. The Sudramoar gryphons had taken advantage of that, too. Even from where we were, we could see them swoop in and then swoop out. After each pass, an explosion followed with devastating effect. Runic’s immolation potions were nothing compared to this when it came to the destructive power. This wasn’t just flames. No, there was a full on burst of some kind that sent shrapnel and a concussion along with the fire. The Harmony was burning worse than our ship and the flames were trailing up to the large, single balloon that kept the majority of her weight aloft. She wasn’t a ship of war… She should have never been used as one. “Get back to the fires. You have a job to do. Focus!” I said sternly. It was advice I needed to take myself. “Yes, sir!” the nearest one stammered before they went back to battling the damage that had been done to our ship. “Captain… Captain Six? Blast it all! Somepony get this ship moving towards the Harmony now! Archers at the ready, bolt crews prepare. Engage as soon as you’re within range. Get those hostiles out of the sky,” General Ironhoof ordered loudly. “Aye, sir!” came a reply from a multitude of united voices before the Happiness turned towards its endangered sister. All across the ship, the surviving ponies went to their stations, many coming to the foredeck despite the fact that all the fires weren’t out. There was no question, no hesitation, and no complaint. They were preparing. This is what soldiers did. This is why we were necessary. Gray Maelstrom limped up to my side, her armor torn and her head bleeding above the right eye. She levitated a crystal up in front of her and narrowed her eyes towards the buzzing gryphons far in front of us. “Hold me up,” she grunted. I blinked at her. “Pardon?” “Hold me up, sir!” she snarled through gritted teeth. I saw… or at least felt energy starting to build at the tip of her horn. It was almost as if she was drawing the sunlight in from around us. I planted my side firmly to hers and looped a wing and foreleg tightly over her back. Whatever she was doing, it felt big, so I braced my hindlegs to make sure she wouldn’t tumble. All around us, the air filled with the sounds of deep rumbling. It was a grating, maddening sound the likes of which I’d never heard and it all seemed to be coming from the unicorn mare’s spell. The light that gathered in front of her horn built quickly and violently. It got so bright that I could barely stand to look forwards, even through squinted eyes. She held whatever she was doing a second longer before pure white light burst from her horn, hit the crystal, and separated into a hundred smaller beams. They crossed the huge distance between the Happiness and the Harmony almost instantaneously and burst into globes, filling the sky around the ship where the gryphons were attacking from. Where they hit, the gryphons disappeared. There were no bodies, just clouds of ash that blew away in the wind. It was as if they’d never been. Simultaneous to the final bursts, Gray Maelstrom cried out in what I could only assume was extreme, unbearable pain. It was like she’d been struck by an arrow or worse and she even bucked back against me from the unseen impact. It was all accompanied by the horrible sound of bones snapping before she slumped in my hooves, mercifully unconscious. The ponies around us stared in confusion, their mouths agape. I didn’t know what to make of it, either. I hadn’t even seen Princess Luna do something like that. Of course, it appeared that the cost of the spell was quite high. “Medic! I need a medic here, now!” A single pony hurried up to the front just as I laid the unicorn mare down. “What happened to her?” “I don’t know… but help her, please. Whatever she did, we might need it again. Be sure to get her something for the pain. I think she has broken bones.” She nodded and started to work. I turned my attention back to the Harmony. She was burning and it looked like the damage control teams weren’t keeping up. The sky was clear now, as whatever surviving gryphons there were had wisely decided to retreat and let us be. The Happiness was narrowing the gap between us but the ships of the fleet had been deployed far apart to allow the maximum amount of clearance for crossbow bolts. Plus, it looked like both ships had been knocked off course. We’d just have to get there and help with the— The Harmony’s main balloon ruptured. The sound washed over us and the hull started to roll over. Most of the emergency balloons on the port side had already been damaged or destroyed by the gryphons, and the remaining ones just weren’t enough to counter the ones on starboard. We watched in horror as ponies were dumped off the side, plummeting to their deaths in droves as wreckage fell around them. My wings flared and I leapt off the deck. “Pegasi, with me!” I called, diving down towards the falling forms. Others answered the call, including the big grey one who flew almost wingtip to wingtip with me. In the distance, pegasi that had been on board were catching their companions and flying them towards the other ships as best they could. It was a miracle they had their wits about them. My focus was on the nearest glare of gold armor and I put on as much speed as possible. The sooner I caught that pony, the sooner I could catch another and another. Keep moving forwards, Silent Knight! I stretched my forehooves out and braced myself as the pony hit them. The impact knocked the wind out of my lungs, but I locked my forelegs around him and pulled up. He was a heavy earth pony stallion in armor. I wouldn’t be saving anypony else. He grunted in pain and hissed, “Thanks.” “Don’t thank me yet,” I groaned before using whatever energy I had left in reserve to pump my wings and fight for altitude. It was a losing battle. I was fit but two ponies wearing heavy suits of armor was too much. It turned into a slow glide downwards as I held onto him. To my relief, it seemed whoever was captaining the Happiness understood the difficulty of one pony carrying another in armor. The ship had dropped her altitude so that we could glide down onto the deck, which was exactly what I intended to do. I landed heavily with the pony I’d rescued. As quickly as I could, I dropped him and pulled my helmet off to lighten the load even just a little. There was no time to remove the rest of my armor. When I turned to jump again, his hoof reached out and caught me by the breastplate. “Saved me again, Silent Knight,” he said in a raspy voice. It was more than enough to draw my attention back to him. I followed the hoof to his face. “Russet?” His armor was battered pretty badly and there was a wicked looking piece of wood wedged where his foreleg met his body. “Medic! Russet, you’re going to be fine. Just let me look at this.” I fumbled with my saddlebag to get my first aid kit. “Just be still. Medic!” I gently rolled him onto his side so I could see the wound. He’d been hit by a piece of the deck… or rail. Something off the Harmony. It had broken through the lighter plates of his armor. This was bad. How do I tend this? What had Nova shown me? Pull it out? No! Leave it in. Bandage? Frustration filled me. “Medic! For Luna’s sake, medic, get over here now!” Nopony moved to our side. They had too many others that were just as bad off. He was important to me, but all of them were important to the medics. I tried to understand that, but it just made me more upset. Our eyes met and Russet just shook his head and reached for my hoof. I grabbed it and held on, the mess of bandages falling to the deck. He coughed up blood and whispered, “It’s okay. It’s okay. A pony only gets to be saved twice. Three is probably asking too much. You did your best.” “No… three is just right,” I said before looking up. The deck was full of injured ponies. Ponies from the Happiness, ponies from the Harmony… ponies from everywhere. “Medic? Please?” Russet patted my hoof with his own and took a pained breath. “It’s okay, First Sergeant. You and I always knew this is how it ends for ponies like us. It’s okay…” His eyes slipped closed and he settled back onto the deck. My hoof jerked away from his, grief swelling inside me. I stood and found myself surrounded by death. It stared us all in the face, but I would not go so willingly towards it nor would I allow others to do the same. I turned back to the Harmony to go and try to save somepony else, but it was too late. Far too late. They’d all already been saved or had fallen. Fire raged on the deck of the once majestic airship. Slowly, the supports connecting it to the emergency balloons gave way and the hull fell free. It slammed into the rocky territory below and shattered into a million burning pieces. That was the end of the Harmony. Was Russet right? Was I destined to end like he had? Is this how it ends for ponies like us? No… not me. Not me. Not anymore. I was going to make it home. I’d see Crystal Wishes again. We’d be together and happy, away from death and destruction. I’m a different kind a pony now. No, Russet… not for a pony like me. These gryphons, though… they were going to wish they’d never seen a pony like me.