Codex Ponera - Cliffside Eyrie

by Pepperbrony

Chapter Twenty

“I still think it’s weird,” said Apple Bloom.

“It’s perfectly normal,” replied Gabby. “Everygriff can do it. I thought every pony could do it too.”

“Windcrafters might have tried,” Apple Bloom said. “But their windstreams would probably be too strong.”

“But we have old books and records and stuff,” said Gabby. “They clearly show -”

“Quiet,” snapped Gilda. “We don’t want to be seen. Or heard!”

“Sorry,” chorused Apple Bloom and Gabby.

Apple Bloom was on Gabby’s back, while Gabby and Gilda stood with a group of griffon military leaders. After their meeting with Gilda that morning, the nest leader had ordered the military forces of Eyrieport to gather and prepare for battle. Once the army had assembled shortly after lunchtime, Apple Bloom had been surprised to watch a few dozen griffons fly up to the clouds, then take hold of them and bring them down to rooftop level.

They’d had a false start, in which Gabby promised Apple Bloom that the clouds were perfectly safe to board, only to watch as the filly fell through the cloud onto the ground just below. Gabby had then sheepishly offered to carry Apple Bloom on her back. With Apple Bloom so carried, the griffon army had jumped onto the clouds and settled in. Several teams of griffons took turns pushing the cloud westwards, carrying the army toward Cliffside Eyrie.

Gilda, Gabby and Apple Bloom were part of a small group at the head of the cloud, so that they could help the leadership to judge the situation at Cliffside Eyrie and determine where best to send in the Effoh forces. After several hours of travel, they had finally reached the city. Now Apple Bloom looked down and lifted a pair of binoculars, some kind of griffon invention that did the same job as a windcrafter’s farseeing crafting, trying to find anypony she knew.

“Looks like the Effai clan got there first,” she said. “There’s a bunch of griffons on the bridge, and it looks like they set up some kinda walls or somethin’ along it. I think there’s a more griffons in the streets of the city. And that airship from yesterday mornin’s down there too.”

“How’d all those Effai griffons get there?” wondered Gabby. “They didn’t go past Eyrieport, did they?”

“That doesn’t matter now,” said Gilda. “General Gertrude, what do you think?”

“I think that flying ship would be a wonderful addition to our army,” said one of the griffons in their little group. “But for now, we need to take it out of the battle.”

“Agreed. Send two companies, and attack the balloon,” ordered Gilda. “The rest of us will go for the Effai on the bridge. Gabby, you and Apple Bloom here will need to get down there fast. We don’t want to be fighting the Ponerans at the same time as the Effai.”

“Got it,” Gabby said.

“Ah, there’s AJ and Big Mac. And Duchess Coloratura,” said Apple Bloom, still looking through the binoculars. She gave them to Gilda, catching up to the conversation. “Just make sure you all keep your ribbons on.” Apple Bloom pointed at the fuchsia ribbons wrapped around Gilda’s wrists and tail. The entire army was similarly decorated, the idea being that it would make it clearly obvious to the defenders of the city which griffons were friendly.

“Alright then,” Gilda said. “Everygriff, check your colours.” She double checked her ribbons were secure, while General Gertrude waved her wings about in signal, instructing the army behind them to do the same.

After a few moments, the various company leaders signaled back. “All troops coloured, Nest Leader,” Gertrude reported.

“Good,” said Gilda. She raised her wings, along with her voice. “Effoh!”

“Effoh!” cried back the army.

Gilda spread her wings out sideways, and cried out again. “Effoh for victory!”

Gertrude wing-signaled at a couple of company leaders, before calling out loud. “Dive to victory!”

With a fearsome shriek, the entire army of griffons leaped up from their cloud perches and dove down at the battle over Cliffside Bridge.

---

Octavia drew on her earthcraft and punched a soldier as he came over the barricade, sending him flying back into his fellows just cresting the top. Effai griffons backed her up, holding the bridge and preventing the soldiers from reaching the battle taking place in the city. But their combined efforts were nothing compared to the metalcraft of the twin unicorns, Flim and Flam.

They stood side by side, holding the entire left side of the bridge on their own. Poneran soldiers would crest the barricade, only to be met with twirling and thrusting spears. The twin’s metalcraft strengthened the steel of their weapons, such that the armor worn by the soldiers was torn like paper with even the lightest of strikes. A few woodcrafters still in Fort Eyrie loosed arrows at them with what should have been deadly accuracy, but the twins, guided by their metalcrafting talents, simply twirled their spears to block the steel-headed arrows. Together, Flim and Flam stopped the Poneran soldiers cold.

A slight tremor was the only warning they got. “Down!” cried Octavia, ducking for cover. The barricade exploded outwards, pieces of stony shrapnel striking a few griffons too slow to heed Octavia’s warning. Soldier ponies poured through the broken barricade, led by a brown unicorn mare. They charged the combined forces of the griffons and mercenaries, overwhelming even the metalcrafting twins, pushing them all back towards the next barricade.

Octavia stomped on the ground, willing Kazumi to throw a group of soldiers off the bridge. However, the unicorn mare leading the troops spun to glare at Octavia and stomped her own hoof. The mare’s fury countered Kazumi’s efforts and tried to reflect them back on the griffon forces.

Grunting with the effort, Octavia stabilised the ground beneath her hooves. “You’re good,” she said to the mare.

“You don’t become an earth knight without some skill at earthcraft,” replied the brown mare. “Shall we?”

Snarling, Octavia threw herself at her opponent and they fought. Octavia tried for an uppercut to the earth knight’s jaw, only to be blocked by a sweep that took her forelegs out from under her, dropping her to the ground. Throwing a wild kick, Octavia felt it connect with the knight’s leg, dropping her in turn.

Rolling to her hooves, Octavia charged the knight, intending to overpower her before she regained her footing. But the mare simply kicked upward and flipped to her hooves, ready to continue the fight with Octavia. The knight lowered her shoulder, catching Octavia and throwing her back, allowing the Ponerans to advance.

Octavia stumbled backwards, rejoining her griffon allies. “Her,” she said, pointing at the unicorn. “She’s the one we need to take out.” Two of the griffons leapt forward, spreading their wings and taking flight, driving straight at their target. Suddenly, the air filled with shrieking cries, and a pair of fuchsia-tinged blurs crashed into the griffons and carried them away from the bridge.

“What was that?” asked Octavia of nopony in particular. Her answer came in the form of a swarm of griffons swooping down from the skies and engaging her allies in battle.

---

Gabby dove down, still carrying Apple Bloom and following the filly’s directions toward Applejack. She flared her wings and gently set down on her three good legs just in front of Applejack and Big Macintosh, and let Apple Bloom down.

“Hey there AJ, Big Mac,” said the filly. She spotted an orange filly she knew well. “Oh, hey Scoots, you’re here too. I made a friend, can she stay with us for a few days?”

Applejack’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates. “Apple Bloom, you’re alive!” she cried, tackling Apple Bloom and embracing her in a bear hug.

“Uh, sure,” Apple Bloom said, confused. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Apple Bloom? Is that you?” asked a voice.

Apple Bloom tried to extricate herself from her adoptive mother’s embrace, without success. “Duchess Coloratura? Is that you? Lemme go, AJ, I gotta talk to the duchess about somethin’.” She finally managed to pull herself free, only to find a pegasus mare she didn’t know, with a blue coat and a multicoloured mane, standing alongside Duchess Coloratura, the two of them glaring at Gabby. “Hey, leave her alone!”

The mare and the duchess looked on in surprise when Apple Bloom moved to stand in front of Gabby. “Have they hurt you, Apple Bloom?” asked Coloratura.

“Of course we didn’t hurt her!” Gabby indignantly cried.

“She’s tellin’ the truth, they didn’t hurt me,” Apple Bloom said. “Actually, I kinda hurt her, but never mind that now. Duchess Coloratura, see those griffons with these pink ribbons on?” She pointed at her new mane ribbon, then at the ribbons Gabby was also wearing. “The same pink as these. These new griffons are on our side, so you need to tell everypony not to attack ‘em.”

“Is that so?” asked Coloratura. She turned to look at Cliffside Bridge, where an army of unarmoured griffons wearing fuchsia ribbons were swooping down at and attacking their armoured fellows. A group of pink-clad griffons were diving right at Soaring Scavenger, raking their talons down the side of the airship’s envelope. The wind furies contained within were already escaping, the envelope gradually deflating, sending the ship down below the level of the bridge.

“Looks like they’re on our side to me,” said Big Macintosh.

“Agreed,” said Coloratura. “Scootaloo, can you match that pink? Signal that pink as an ally.”

“No problem,” said Scootaloo, looking exhausted. She raised her wings and let loose a sequence of coloured flares, first a pair so close to each other they appeared to merge, green above blue, followed by one bright fuchsia precisely matching the shade of Apple Bloom’s mane ribbon. “Is that all? I hope that’s all. I’m almost done for.”

“It’ll do for now, Scoots,” said Coloratura. “Everypony, charge!”

Apple Bloom and her family stepped aside with Gabby and the blue pegasus mare while Coloratura led the ponies in an attack on the combined forces of Effai griffons and mercenary ponies. Emboldened by the presence of their new allies, they quickly pushed back the invaders, forcing them back into the first barricade. The ponies did not let up, pushing harder and harder. The griffons at the back of the pack scrambled to get over or around the first barricade, some falling off the side of the bridge.

“I’m gonna head over to our soldiers on the bridge, help them push from that side,” announced the pegasus before sweeping into the sky with a gust of furycrafted wind, the spectral form of a tortoise faintly visible around her as she flew. She quickly reached the Poneran soldiers on the bridge, and after a brief discussion with a brown unicorn mare helped them attack the griffons from that side.

With an army behind them, a militia ahead of them, another army above, and their furycrafting reinforcements struck from the skies, the invaders finally began to falter.

Comments

[CTVulpin]

Gabbydove down,

Missing a space

She pointed her new mane ribbon, then at the ribbons Gabby was also wearing.

There should be a "to" between "pointed" and "her"

I feel like you lost some of the impact of the Effoh's and Apple Bloom's entrance by showing them preparing to join the battle, but that scene did make me aware of how windcrafting would interfere with cloud manipulation. So... fair trade.

[Pepperbrony]

8682549
Goofs fixed. That'll teach me to not skimp on the pre-publishing proofreading process.