• Published 20th Nov 2017
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The Last Migration - Starscribe



When disaster forces the fierce griffins to seek shelter in Equestrian land, can two very different societies coexist? Or will the ancient enemies tear each other apart?

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Chapter 28: Survivor

Gina stumbled back from the flash, expecting to be consumed in a moment of terrible agony—and she found she was still alive. She blinked, still feeling the heat, before she realized what had happened. Isabel had conjured a wall of gray magic, separating the two of them from the flames. She grinned at the unicorn, nodding her appreciation—but there wasn’t exactly a chance to relax. The air was filling with heat, and smoke rose all around them. It wouldn’t take long before they couldn’t breathe.

“I don’t know how long I can manage this, mistress!” Isabel called, her voice high and panicked. She had her back to the wall of the Lapwing, and seemed to be trembling. Gina couldn’t exactly blame her for that.

“We need a way out!” Gina called back. They couldn’t climb up to the deck, even if they somehow could make it through the flames. If Gideon was willing to destroy one of Gaius’s ships and murder one of his imperators, then surely he would make sure he finished the job.

If they couldn’t go up, that left them only one direction. “I need you to tear open a hole!” she shouted, pointing at the deck beside them. “You can get on my back, and… I’ll glide us down!” It would be a desperately difficult task with the two of them… and she would have to leave Hogarth behind. Hopefully they would consider a powerful minotaur who hadn’t seen their murder worth the price of keeping alive.

“I’ll… try…” Isabel muttered, shaking all over. “I won’t be able to do both spells at once. The fire might get closer to us. You should look away so you don’t burn your eyes.”

Smoke had filled the air already, though it didn’t seem to be intruding past Isabel’s barrier. At least, it hadn’t yet. Gina turned away from the flames, and braced herself for the heat.

She was unprepared for the violence of its assault. Her feathers and fur seemed to wilt at the wave that struck her, so hot that she started to sway on her claws. It burned, but she had nowhere to flee. She wanted to break something, to tear something apart, to take Gideon by the throat and use his blood to put out the fire.

But she could do none of that.

A few moments later, the wood splintered from in front of her. Isabel had made an opening, fraying at the edges of the planks. It was barely large enough for her, certainly not big enough for both of them to go at the same time.

What was worse, the Lapwing had started to fall. Slowly at first, though if they stayed aboard much longer they’d be slammed into the ceiling.

I survived the end of house Purity. I’m going to survive this. Gina shoved her way through the opening, ignoring the shards of wood as they stuck her in limbs and chest. The pain was irrelevant compared to what would be coming for her if she failed.

She spread her wings on the other side, waiting as close as she could. “On my back!” she called, glancing back desperately. The Lapwing was drifting away, further and further by the moment, and she was in far too much pain to fly over.

A second later, Isabel tumbled past her into the void, missing her by feet.

Gina wasn’t a warrior—females were not trained in combat. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t fly. Gina ignored her pain, ignored her shock, and dove after her plummeting slave.

She could hear Isabel’s terrified voice, screams and pleading as she fell rapidly through the air. She’d started tumbling, as many a non-flier did in their last moments before impact.

Gina reached her about half a mile above the ground. She matched her speed as best she could, wrapping her claws around her. She took a hoof to the side of the head, another to the ribs, but finally the pony stopped spinning. Gina pulled into the tightest arc she could—but it wasn’t going to be enough. They were going to hit.

Gina had open ground, trees, and a pond to choose from. She chose the latter, angling them just slightly. A few seconds later, they struck with an explosion of water.

The danger of a hard landing into water was drowning. The impact was nearly enough to knock her unconscious instantly—though she hadn’t been going nearly as quickly as a freefall from altitude. A few seconds after impact and they’d sunk all the way to the bottom, landing with a thunk in the murk.

Next came the disorientation—it was so dark, and there was so much soil in the water. Gina followed her bubbles to the surface, dragging Isabel the whole way. They surfaced together, gasping and spluttering.

Somewhere not that far away, the Lapwing finally crashed into the ground. There was an explosion—loud enough that her ears rang from it. A mushroom-cloud of fire and fuel rose into the air in front of them, stretching up and up into the sky.

One of the pony ships smashed down a few seconds later, without any more sound than the crunching of wood.

Beside her, Isabel clung to the bank, hacking and coughing into the water. Gina didn’t let her stand—didn’t let her do anything that might make them visible from the air. “Stay… low. Just… head out. We can’t let them see us…”

They waited, bruised and bloody in the water. Gina felt her strength slowly ebb away, as the chill liquid sapped it from her body. If Gideon and his monks flew down for them, they would certainly be killed. Gina couldn’t have won a fight with him even if she’d been uninjured. Poor captain Hookbeak. Maybe he and his crew had been lucky, and would’ve been taken prisoner by the monks. Somehow, she doubted it. He would know too much about Gideon’s treason.

Maybe some of his crew. They don’t deserve to die for this.

But all those lives would count for nothing compared to what would happen when word of this reached Equestria. They’d attacked Equestrian ships on the border—and destroyed at least one. Presumably, Gideon would have commandeered at least one of the others.

Gina rolled onto her back, trying to get a good look through the smoke. She could make out two outlines, now flying together for griffon space. Many small specks seemed to be flying away, the other direction. Even Gideon hadn’t killed everyone.

A dark thought surfaced in Gina’s mind then, unbidden. Maybe he wants them to survive. He wants a war.

It was hard for Gina to imagine even Santiago acting that rashly—but certainly he wouldn’t have sent Gideon here without orders. No simple monk would make political decisions that might shape the two last great nations of Equus.

She lay there in the water and the cold, on the edge of delirium, until night finally came and the two pony airships vanished into the distance. No one came to investigate the crash site and see if she were really dead—but then, the explosion had been spectacular. No one could’ve survived that.

I need to get back to Gaius with what happened. As the hours passed, Gina had plenty of time to imagine the worst possible scenario—where Gideon made it back to the emperor to present his case unmolested. He would lie about the encounter, tell the emperor that they’d been attacked under the flag of truce, and Gina herself brutally murdered. That would inspire Accipio to war, despite their disadvantages.

Vengeance would have firearms, and no one else would. By the time the dust had settled, young Santiago would be emperor, and both nations would be ashes at his claws.

“Gina… are you still with me?”

She blinked, looking up. She wasn’t in the water anymore. Isabel had dragged her under the cover of the trees. There was a campfire a few feet away, orange light feeble against the encroaching night. She glanced down, and realized many of her little wounds had been bandaged. While she had been on the edge of exhaustion, Isabel had worked. Unity to thank that I brought you with me, Isabel. I’d be dead in that explosion without you.

“Ye-yeah, I’m alive.” She sat up, stretching her wings one at a time. She didn’t feel the pain of any broken bones, whatever that was worth. Just battered from the impact. “Did you… see if anything survived the crash?”

“Not… not on the Lapwing,” Isabel muttered. “The explosion… it all burned.”

“The pony ship didn’t burn,” Gina replied, though she still didn’t try standing. Even slight twitches made her feel sore. “We should see if there’s anything in there.”

“Corpses,” Isabel answered. Gina could see her across the campfire now. She had a few bandages too, though not nearly as many as Gina. Her fur was scorched near her cutie mark, and the scorchmarks had swallowed the brand completely. “Don't know how many. Should've been more. Maybe the rest were inside.”

“And you didn’t want to go in,” Gina finished for her. “I can’t blame you. Tomorrow I can… I can go and look. We’ll need supplies for the journey back to New Scythia.”

Isabel nodded, apparently relieved. She wasn’t a warrior, any more than Gina was. Even ponies raised in civilization had weaker stomachs than proper birds. “You may want to consider another option,” she whispered. Deferential and submissive, despite all they had endured together.

If we get out of this alive, I’ll have to free you after all. Or free her in all but name—actually casting Isabel out of her house after the unicorn had saved her life from certain death would be a poor way to repay the debt.

“We need to report this to the emperor,” Gina replied, leaning against the trunk of a nearby tree. She hissed as she inhaled, but at least she wasn’t bleeding anymore. “I don’t know if there’s… any way to keep the peace after this. But we have to try. If Gideon gets a chance to lie to Gaius unopposed, there will be war for certain.”

Isabel nodded, gesturing vaguely out into the darkness. “If we… if we stick around here, there’s a good chance the ponies will investigate. They lost a warship, after all… maybe they’ll want to look for survivors. There aren’t any from their ship… but there’s us. We could let them take us to Accipio.”

Convince a pony warship to take them. After coming out to investigate the destruction of one of their own, then discovering a ship full of corpses. The odds didn’t seem good.

“Waiting… feels wrong. If we sit here long enough, both countries might destroy each other.”

“Maybe,” Isabel said, always deferential. “But it’s a long walk to New Scythia, and most of it through desert. Do you know how many miles it is?”

Gina thought back to the last time she’d glanced at Hookbeak’s maps. “Maybe… a hundred? Seventy-five? Between those numbers.”

“Do you feel well enough to fly?”

Gina spread one of her wings, gazing at the warped wax. At least a dozen feathers looked like they’d been destroyed by the flames. “Maybe… a short distance. I know I can glide because we’re both still alive.”

“You shouldn’t try now,” Isabel said. “I can tell from looking at you, you must’ve hit your head on the water coming down. I cast every healing spell I know… hopefully that’s enough. In the morning we can see. If you can fly… you should leave me here. I can find my way back to New Scythia through the ponies eventually. And if you can’t… we can make the trip together. However you think we should, mistress.”

But the undertone to that was obvious. And you know my suggestions are better than walking. They were better. The question was: would Gina even survive until morning to try them?

I have to. Gaius needs to know what happened here. He needs the truth. Even if we have to work with the ponies to bring it back to him.

“I’m going to… try and rest,” she muttered, flopping back down into the dirt. “Don’t let anything eat us in the meantime.”

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