The Twilight War

by Brian Dagame

Prologue

The inhabitants of Mistshore were asleep, unaware of the sheer number of eyes and spears aimed at their town.

A cold wind was howling through the trees as a thick mist crept over the entire forest. One could be forgiven for thinking it was winter already, but the locals were used to the weather turning bad this early in the year. The Mistshore weather team liked to stay ahead of schedule.

For the forty thestrals, or bat ponies as most Equestrians called them, this weather was perfect. They had spent the last hour stalking their targets without ever even coming close to being seen or heard.

Their commander, Maulden, could barely contain his excitement. He had seen plenty of violence in all his days fighting in foreign lands, but ever since he started serving as commander of Princess Luna's Night Guard, things had been rather boring.

The last few weeks had finally been more eventful. Griffon raiding groups had once again begun terrorizing the Eastern shores, causing massive damage and loss of life before quickly bugging out to avoid Equestrian armed forces. The griffon’s government denied any involvement, stating that they condemned the activities and were dedicated to putting a stop them. Naturally, nopony believed this. But before anything could be done, these accusations had to be proven.

Maulden and his platoon of elite Night Guards had been put in charge of silently patrolling the forests along the Eastern shores to prevent these nighttime raids and protect the settlements. So far, they had not succeeded in preventing any raids, but had managed to scare away several raiding parties already in the middle of an attack.

This time would be different. They had snuck up on a raiding group while they were still in the process of preparing for their raid. Maulden watched from his hiding spot as they got in position to attack Mistshore.

‘Exactly where the princess said we would find you…’ Maulden thought. ‘And right on time too.’

Behind him was his platoon. All of them thestrals like himself. All of them were armed to the teeth and, from the looks of them, itching for a fight just like he was.

“Prepare yourselves,” Maulden finally said without taking his eyes off the griffons. “We are going to dispatch all of them before Mistshore even realizes what is going on.”

“But Commander,” his second in command, Haynes, protested. “Even if we are protecting Equestrian citizens, slaying these griffons would be an act of war. The law is very clear.”

Maulden finally turned to face his platoon. “Guess what lads? During our last meeting Princess Luna sanctioned the first act of war in over two decades. And since all the pretty ponies are asleep right now, we get to be the ones to carry it out.”

A murmur of approval came from the thestrals. Maulden was glad he had personally picked out these guards. They were all rearing to go, and no further concerns were raised.

“Very well. So, what is the plan Commander?” Haynes asked.

“We are to deal with them as swiftly as possible. I need our archers to sneak around the griffons and open fire on my signal. After the griffons turn their backs, the rest of us will simply swoop through them and take them out them with our wing blades. Right now, they outnumber us at least two to one. But if we do this by the books, it will just be a matter of finishing off the stragglers after that.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the designated archers of the squad disappeared between trees and bushes, making a wide arc to get around the griffons. Maulden lined the rest of his platoon up in a V formation and gave them a few more instructions.

As they waited for a signal from the archers, Maulden focused his attention back on the clearing the griffons had gathered in. He tried to get a read on their situation to estimate how far away they were from starting their attack. A griffon in shiny armor that looked to be their leader was arguing with two others. The rest of them were forming up in a rather sloppy formation.

The argument went on for a while and Maulden began to wonder what they were so busy talking about. Despite his impressive hearing, the wind made it impossible to hear anything. But Maulden was sure that as soon as the conversation was over the attack on Mistshore would begin.

Just then he heard an ultrasonic shriek coming from the other side of the clearing. The archers were in place.

Maulden addressed his platoon one last time. “I could give the archers the signal any second now. Get ready to take off when I do, stay closely together and do not break formation before I say so, no matter what happens.” The thestrals nodded collectively. He turned back towards the griffons and watched intensely as their leader continued his argument.

About two minutes passed before the griffon leader apparently had enough of arguing. He simply drew his sword and started yelling commands at the raiders, who immediately snapped to attention and drew their own weapons. The other two griffons awkwardly lingered for a second before quickly scurrying away from their leader and joining the ranks.

“Blades out,” Maulden commanded without breaking his concentrated stare. He quickly spread out his own wings, causing the mechanism on his harness to lock his blades into place. The blades ran along the frontside of his bat-like wings, essentially turning his entire wingspan into one deadly weapon.

The griffon leader finished up with his commands and turned around to face Mistshore. Maulden immediately signaled the archers to start the attack with an ultrasonic shriek.

A split second later twenty crossbow bolts came seemingly out of nowhere, all of them successfully hitting a griffon. The shots were spread out like a fan, to cause as much terror and confusion among the griffon ranks as possible.

As soon as the griffons collectively turned their heads to see what had happened, Maulden took off. It only took two flaps of his powerful wings to reach a dazzling speed. Before any of the griffons could see what was happening, he was already gliding through their ranks, taking out griffon soldiers with his blades left and right.

The confusion, the thestral's speed and the griffon's long necks proved to be a deadly combination. By the time he had passed through the raiding group and reached the other side of the clearing, he had already lost count of how many griffons he had beheaded. He had not looked behind him once, but judging by the sounds the rest of his platoon was having similar success.

After breaking away from the griffon ranks, Maulden ascended quickly and looked behind him for the first time. The others were finishing their attacks as well, leaving behind a surprisingly small number of surviving griffons. Most of the survivors had already dropped their weapons and were fleeing toward the darker parts of the forest.

“SCATTER! MAKE SURE NONE OF THEM GET AWAY!” Maulden commanded as he started descending towards the closest griffon he could find, which happened to be the leader of the griffons. Unlike his comrades, he was not retreating. Instead he was charging towards Maulden, his sword firmly in his talons. Maulden flapped his wings and started his own charge. A split second before the two would collide, Maulden dove down.

Before the griffon could realize his target was now under him, Maulden had already planted a dagger in his heart. He fell from the sky and hit the ground with a dull thud.

Maulden did not bother with rejoining the fight, opting instead to fly down and retrieve his dagger.

With help from the archers still hiding in the trees, what was left of the raiding group was quickly picked off.

As the rest of his platoon combed out the area to look for potential survivors, Maulden looked at the carnage that they had caused with a mixture of surprise and pride. It had taken under two minutes to completely wipe out the entire griffon raiding group.

He took a second to savor the feeling of victory. It had been far too long since he felt it.

‘News of our triumph here will be sure to shake things up...’ Maulden gleefully reflected. 'It might not be long before we get to do this again.' He wasn't sure what Princess Luna would do next, but he knew she had been waiting for this this to happen as much as he had.

Maulden heard Mistshore’s town bells begin to sound in the distance and snapped out of his thoughts. He quickly found his second in command and called him over. “Send word to the princess immediately. And please go tell the citizens of Mistshore that their alarm bells are no longer needed.”

Comments

[Amethyst_Spark]

Hmm I like it so far it seems interesting. I’ll keep reading to collect more data on my feelings. So far I’m enjoying it