Three Birds With One Swat

by Reviewfilly

Going In Dark

While Gerson stood guard next to the pony, who tried her best to blink out the stinging dust from her eyes, Ginerva sat on a nearby rock meticulously sharpening her talons on it.

“Right, I think that should be sharp enough,” she said after a few final touches. “You should be glad, little pony. Some of us wouldn’t bother to give your kind a clean cut. Now then —” she slowly walked next to the mare, ripping the rag from her mouth “— I guess even your kind deserves last words. So tell me, what’s on your mind before I send you to the Great White Bird?”

It took the pegasus a few moments to catch her breath and spit out the staleness from her mouth. However, even after regaining her composure, she did not say a thing. To Ginerva’s surprise, even though she was towering over her, the mare seemed far less intimidated than before.

“Little thing, I know we roughed you up, but is your brain so scrambled as well? Or do you ponies just not understand the concept? This is the end. You’re gonna die. Is there truly nothing you’d say before that?”

Defiant silence filled the field followed by a thin smile.

Ginerva scoffed and then flicked away a few feathers that fell in her face. She shrugged and stepped back.

“Hmph, whatever, I got better things to do than waste my time waiting for a dead pony. Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance though.” She turned towards Gerson. “Lift her up.”

He looked at the pony, but didn’t make any other move.

“Gin, you sure this is the right way to do this?” he asked, averting his gaze as he dug a crease into the porous ground with his claw. “Can’t we just drop her off somewhere in the forest and leave her to her fate? I mean, we’ve only ever killed in proper battle before. This doesn’t feel okay. Maybe Gerard was right about the rules and all.”

Ginerva ran her claws over her face and sighed.

“Stop whining already.” Her voice rang with sheer exasperation. “Need I remind you that you agreed to this and took my side? Are you really gonna hide behind Gerard’s words now? Maybe he was right about you.” She scoffed. “Now, shut your mouth and lift before I pluck your useless feathers.”

The young griffon frowned, but complied. He mechanically reached down, grabbed the mare by her mane, and began lifting her without too much enthusiasm.

Suddenly the mare flexed her wings and her apparently not-so-unbreakable bindings snapped in two. She used the momentum to buck backwards, kicking the air out of Gerson’s lungs. Without even realizing what had just happened, he instinctually let her go and grabbed his chest, letting out only a half-wheeze before collapsing. Before he even hit the ground the mare’s hooves had already touched down and, with a flap of her wings, she jumped to the side.

“Now!” she screamed.

Suddenly six black shades darted across the sky above the field, leaving black clouds in their wake, changing the mid-day brightness into an uneasy darkness.

Ginerva stood in stunned silence. She slowly lowered her upheld claw and looked around. The mare had used the momentary confusion to slip away and now was nowhere to be seen.

The griffoness's eyes suddenly caught motion. Though she lacked the ability to see clearly in the dark, her predatory instincts didn’t leave her completely helpless. As she surveyed the black shapes of trees around them, she felt like there were shapes moving between them. She could not guess how many, but her gut told her they were vastly outnumbered. The feathers on the back of her neck stood up.

“Gerson, get up. We have to go. Now.” Ginerva’s voice cracked slightly as she spoke. She hated it. One should never show fear in a confrontation, especially not against prey. But pride was not going to get her out of this situation, so when the wreck on the ground replied only with a groan, she simply took a deep breath and reached down, forcing her comrade to stand on his legs. “We must get back to the house.”

He gave her a curt nod between two shaky heaves, still unable to properly catch his breath. The duo began the short yet awfully long trip back towards the shack.

Considering they hadn’t been attacked yet, Ginerva banked on the fact that whoever made the sky dark also couldn’t see very well in the pitch blackness of the forest. For a moment she considered flying through the cloud cover and escaping, but the sounds of distant thunder and the muted blue flashes in the clouds made her reconsider. Nothing but the Four Winds had a chance against Father Thunder and Mother Lightning.

However, while she couldn’t escape, ditching Gerson seemed like an enticing idea. The griffon wheezed and groaned loudly with each slow step. If Ginerva had to guess, the kick most likely broke a few of his more delicate bones. Painful, but survivable with a week of rest. What wasn’t survivable, however, was getting ambushed due to his sounds making them stick out like a piece of coal on a snowfield.

Yet she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Whether it was due to the same instinct that provided them with their hunting skills and also instilled a sense of camaraderie towards each other, or due to the simple fact that they were surrounded in the dark without an obvious way out and he was the only one to keep her company, she did not know, but Ginerva abandoned this idea as well.

The two stumbled their way through the forest, ending up at the shack half by a miracle and half by their inherently good sense of direction. Gerson stumbled through the door, with Ginerva right behind him. The moment they were both inside she slammed the door shut.

“Gerard, where are you?” she shouted towards the other room.

Instead of an answer a small white ball rolled out into the hallway. Before Ginerva could say another word, it exploded into a world of light and ear-deafening noise.

Comments

[The Ancestor]

FLASHBANG!

They were played like a damn fiddle!