Excursion
The flight to the border was punishing. Sharp, stinging snow whipped through the air, crusting the edges of Rainbow Dash’s flight goggles, buffeting her wings. Speed was not a problem for her, even in these harsh conditions, but keeping a steady pace was essential. Without it, Fluttershy would drop out of her slipstream, slowing them down considerably.
They arrived at a mountain pass forty miles west of Griffhala. Though the snow had stopped here, the ground was frozen, and the few patches of grass were hard and woody. No ponies lived around here, thanks to the harsh conditions and predators. Griffons lived in Griffhala, but those that lived there rarely ventured out, and those that left for Equestria returned home rarer still.
A rocky outcropping became their hiding place. They wore burlap cloaks coated in rocks and clumps of grass. In the dull afternoon light, they could only be seen while moving. By nightfall, they would be invisible. Fluttershy called an eagle to her, praising and petting it, while Rainbow Dash scrawled distances on a piece of cardboard and prepared her equipment. The two ponies did not eat or talk as the hours dragged on.
Darkness fell. The eagle left, and returned some time later. He chittered into Fluttershy’s ear.
Fluttershy turned to her friend. “They’re coming.”
Both ponies activated the charms on their goggles. They could see the mountain pass once more in the pitch-black night, the ultravision charms turning the view into a washed-out approximation of daylight.
They had practiced this part many times. Fluttershy put her eye to a tripod-mounted spotting scope. Rainbow Dash lifted her weapon, a Wand of Disjunction, mounted on a frame with a butt-stock and a scope. She took the trigger-bit into her mouth, and nodded.
“West by northwest, eight-hundred yards long, two-hundred yards up,” whispered Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash twitched her wing once for ‘understood.’ After lining up her scope, she twitched her wing differently for ‘target acquired.’
A patrol of ten, six pegasi and four griffons, all guarding a lone sky-wagon. Rainbow Dash waited until they were five-hundred yards away, lined up the wagon, and bit down on the trigger. A black bolt fizzed from the wand, and silently hit its target a second later.
In the sky, the wagon shuddered and twisted. Its skyworthiness spell had disintegrated, and now it plunged towards the ground. The patrol members shouted in shock, diving to grab the wagon, slow its descent, and activate the emergency floatation runes. They managed to slow its descent, bringing it to a shuddering stop a hundred yards away from their hidden assailants.
Rainbow Dash kept the wand trained on the patrol. If one of the pegasi or griffons were a mage, the attack would be obvious. They would cast countermeasures and begin to search for the caster. At the first sign of magic from the patrol, Rainbow Dash would fire a second bolt of disjunction, temporarily disabling the enemy caster before switching to conventional weapons.
There were no spells cast, no contingencies or sequencers, no yells of alarm beyond cursing and grumbling at the fickleness of magecraft and the uselessness of artificers. Rainbow Dash watched as the patrol set to work, establishing a perimeter, repairing the wagon, and sending out sentries.
Two teams left the wagon to scout the area, each consisting of one griffon and one pony. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy hid their equipment and stalked after the first patrol.
A bird squawked. The first signal. Rainbow Dash began to count down. “Five. Four. Three. Two...”
Fluttershy struck first, looping a garotte around the neck of the griffon. As his comrade turned to look, Rainbow Dash lunged and slammed her hoofblade into the pony’s throat. The pony fell, dead, and Rainbow Dash set upon the griffon, stabbing him in the belly as Fluttershy strangled him.
The second patrol would find their dead friends in six seconds. After four seconds, an eagle screeched from the opposite direction. When seven seconds had passed, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash had killed this pair too.
As the two ponies approached the wagon, their allies slunk from the undergrowth. Black-furred wolves, friends of Fluttershy, who moved in perfect silence.
Six targets remained. Four ponies, two griffons. Both griffons worked on the wagon. Two ponies stood in the shelter of a rock, fumbling to light their cigarettes. Two more ponies stood watch. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash crept onto the rock, close enough to smell the cheap tobacco, and signalled to the wolves.
Two wolves lunged at the sentries, pushing them down through sheer velocity and bodyweight, before another half-dozen wolves followed, tearing them apart in a mess of snapping jaws. The smokers didn’t have a chance to react, one stabbed to death by Rainbow Dash, the other’s neck snapping between Fluttershy’s hooves. The griffons by the wagon had a chance to draw their weapons. As they weighed up their chances at fight or flight, an eagle swooped, tearing a gash in the back of one. The distraction proved lethal: the wolfpack attacked, and made short work of the final guards.
Rainbow Dash cleaned off her knife and surveyed the scene. The fading thrill of combat raced through her veins. She felt nothing at killing griffons, and even less at killing Cloudsdale pegasi. The only members of that shrike-nest worth grieving left it by choice. Fluttershy made a sport of killing Cloudsdalers, actively delighting in letting her little friends eat ‘long chicken.’ Rainbow didn’t blame her. As much as she herself had suffered at the hooves of that ‘society,’ Fluttershy had got it far worse.
They opened the wagon. A bag of rations, a bag of smuggled tobacco, and a strongbox. This was Fluttershy’s expertise. Rainbow Dash never had the patience or stomach to learn magic from the Apple family, and while Fluttershy was no mage, she had proved an apt pupil at applied enchantments. In another life, she would have made an excellent vet or doctor, mused Rainbow. In this life, she brought out her cracking tools.
The safe was swaddled in simple but destructive curses, enough to cause the consumptive deaths of an entire bandit party if they chose to waylay this particular cargo. It was simple to strip away, glowing faintly and stinking of soured hay. The lock proved more complex. Fluttershy spent twenty minutes drilling careful holes into the lock before she was satisfied. She checked it one last time for traps, then opened the door.
Rainbow Dash looked inside. A bottle of anise liqueur from the Camel Sultanates. A small pouch of uncut star-sapphires. Enough ritual reagents to make a demilich envious. A package containing two things: a set of notes, and a scabbard. Rainbow Dash did not need the notes to identify the leather scabbard.
She swallowed. “Jeez, ‘Shy, you know what this is? It’s Young Zephyr’s scabbard. He was like, the most powerful of the Heroes of the Four Winds. When he turned evil, he was practically a god.” She passed the scabbard to Fluttershy. “You can feel the murder pouring off this thing, it’s like making eye contact with a birthday clown!”
Rainbow Dash began to pace as Fluttershy examined the scabbard. “Looks like Applejack’s intel was right, the griffons had their own plan for the Grail War. I don’t even want to think what one of their mages could have done with him as a Servant. We just need to figure out what to do with it—”
There was a gentle fwoosh as Fluttershy set the scabbard on fire.
“Fluttershy what the hay!?” screamed Rainbow Dash.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened in panic. She dropped the scabbard and her heated cracking tool, and tried to stomp out the flames, but only succeeded in disintegrating it further. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”
“You burned the scabbard!”
“I know, I’m so sorry! It was evil, I thought I should just burn it!”
“Yeah it’s evil but that’s like, history you’re burning. You can’t burn history, Fluttershy!”
“I’m sorry!”
“Especially not awesome history like griffon history—okay, don’t worry.” Rainbow Dash let out a breath. “It’s not a problem. AJ’s never had any use for griffon stuff, it was totally evil, and the important thing is that nobird can use it now. But girl, you need to chill before doing something like that.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“It’s cool,” said Rainbow Dash. “Grab the sapphires and the ritual ingredients. I’ll torch the wagon, then we can go.”
Fluttershy nodded, and looked around at the carnage. “What should we do with the bodies?”
Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Leave ‘em. Your friends look hungry.”
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Hmm I wonder if Pinkie will ever show up in this story at all?
Suddenly I feel a lot better about Applejack's chances. With Fluttershy around, she has brains on her side.
Hmm, looks like Rainbow is going to be Young Zepher's master.
So the updated Master Servant chart looks like this so far:
Saber - Prince Platinum III, Polaris
Archer - Celestia, Twilight
Lancer - Luna, Trixie
Assassin - Changelings/Chrysalis, Applejack
Caster - Star Swirl the Bearded, Sunset Shimmer
Rider - Young Zepher, Rainbow
Berserker - Nightmare Moon (probably), (unknown)
Home again home again, jiggity-jig!
I must admit, despite the rest of the chapter, this made me laugh.
Flutters made the right move, I think; too bad it might still be intact/useable. If so, Team "Wormy Apple" may have two Servants, both not exactly on the Good side of the moral spectrum, and making them the only ponies to rival Team "Mirror Portal" numerically.
5625549 I'm confused about the last one. Do you mean the Nightmare spirit? Because it would depend on what rules the local Throne of Heroes have programed in. The one in the series this is based on only allowed humans in(excluding those allowed in who became divine instead of dying or who became human in their lifetimes), but this Grail can access still-living individuals, and so I'm unsure about limits. Only ponies? Only "mundane" sapients? Anything that can articulate "I am"?
5625808 For some reason I'm thinking that regular!Luna and Nightmare Moon!Luna could both be summoned at the same time. But now that I've read the chapter where Trixie summons her servant again, I'm thinking she got Nightmare Moon!Luna since armor is specifically brought up, something only NMM has worn. But I guess we'll have to wait and see. Also, 'still-living individuals'? All the servants so far have been dead, the only two that might be considered still alive are Celestia and Luna, and they vanished a thousand years ago.
5625855 Celly and LuLu are who I meant. Woona is, if I remember right, stuck in the moon, and I believe the Boss man mentioned that the Servant Sunbutt and Moonbutt couldn't mess with Sun and Moon because they were also still stuck in the afore-mentioned Celestial Bodies.
5625392
Two chapters hence.
5625488
Just set the evil artifact on fire already!
5625549
They can't summon Young Zephyr-not with the scabbard certainly. It was a pure sabotage mission.
5625808
Team Wormy Apple wouldn't use YZ, he's a) chaotic evil and b) only loyal to griffons.
5625855
Lancer will illuminate the luna/nightmare difference next we see her.
5626962 Thanks for the clarification.
Commence read.
Beastie Boys popped into my head.
Looks like Fluttershy is intense, possibly after snapping due to the Cloudsdale ritualistic sacrifices?
Yay, an excuse to re-read the Griffon History chapter of Banishment Decree!
In other news, why would Griffons prepare for a Grail War if nobird got Command Seals? Apparently there's only five Servants in this 'verse, so Griffons are out except as side characters or fodder.... or are they?
Oh man, Dash really understated Fluttershy's experience. We start with Flutters as we know, and put her in a childhood where she was constantly bullied and threatened with a fate worse than death in order to keep pegasi magic flowing... yeah I can't blame her for being a bit sadistic with Cloudsdale types.
Her dynamic with Dash is interesting, too. They've got well-defined roles and work well, but Flutter is the subordinate. Probably made the right call with the creepy sheath. Wouldn't want somebird to magically infuse it into his body and start cawing about how his body was made of swords or how his talons could never hold anything or somecrap about unlimited Leeroy works.