Eris's Riddle

by hahatimeforponies

Trottingham Bridge

Clang.

In an impressively synchronised pair of swings, the metal points of two spears bounced off each other, and the two combatants kicked away. Rainbow Dash could tell this guy knew what he was doing much better than Gilda did - his may have been bigger and heavier, but he was certainly more adept with his weapon, and more in control of his movements. For the ever-hasty Rainbow Dash, this was a trait that worked to her disadvantage, and on more than one occasion she'd taken a scratch to the arm, or left a wing out for a split second longer than she'd meant to. She could easily flee and outrun him, but with Scootaloo and Kalza watching from the rooftop below, she dared not, for fear of losing them both.

Clack. Her thrust was parried, and but for a rapid reverse, she would have found herself with a neckful of razor sharp beak. He wasn't even trying - he'd barely moved from his original spot over the broken chimney pot, and he was making her do all the work. She grumbled and kept going, holding on until help arrived. That said, she wasn't particularly hopeful - she figured Fluttershy would be more helpful in this fight than one of the guards.

Perched on the tip of the gable, the two kids watched the fight closely, oblivious to Dash's peril.

"Which one are we rooting for again?" Kalza tilted her head, following the duel like a cat might follow a spot of light on the wall. Scootaloo didn't think too hard about it - any questions about the fact that she had to ask were ignored for what was, to her, the obvious answer.

"Duh, Rainbow Dash."

"Okay."

The whistle of an arrow sailing overhead caught Rainbow Dash's attention. It wasn't aimed at her - or if it was, it was some horrible aim - but it came startlingly close to her opponent, before clattering uselessly on the shingles below. Both of them followed the motion vectors back to the source - hovering in the air, framed by the towers of the bridge in the background, was Soarin, readying another arrow, and followed by two more Wonderbolts. Dash had never been so pleased to see his goofy, pie-munching face. She took advantage of her sparring partner's distraction to swing a hoof, roundhouse, in his general direction. He was too sharp to fall for that, but he had no choice but to abscond to the next rooftop, safely away from the children. With the added distance, Soarin felt he could safely fire again, forcing the gryphon into full retreat.

"You haven't seen the last of me, Rainbow Dash!" He growled, shooting the pegasi one last baleful look before withdrawing to the advancing gryphon front line. Relieved just to have made it through the encounter in one piece, Dash sighed and perched on the edge of the roof for a breather. Soarin, however, had no such liberty with time. He stowed his bow and swooped down to hover over the opposite roof.

"We have orders to cover the evacuation and funnel the horde to the bridge, and try and keep them on the ground. Sparkle has something planned, but she's pretty tight-lipped about it. Captain Spitfire's been incapacitated and left acting command of the squad to me."

"Roger. Request permission to get my daughter and her friend to safety first?" Dash chuckled nervously, and motioned to Scootaloo and Kalza, sitting obliviously on the far roof. Soarin quirked a brow suspiciously at the gryphlet, and hesitated before continuing.

"The gryphon kid's with you?"

"It's a long and really confusing story, but yes. Yes she is." Dash's confident, serious tone went some way to allay Soarin's fears, but his nod was still a touch reluctant.

"I trust you know what you're doing, but if anything bad happens, it's your ass on the line." Yes, mother.

"Acknowledged, sir." She saluted attentively, and in a single, deft sweep, she kicked off the edge of the roof, scooped the filly and gryphlet in her arms, and set off for the south wall.

---

Crossing the bridge under the cover of a cloaking spell felt too easy. Arrows and spears flew around like a blizzard overhead, but when she stuck to sheltered parts, Rarity felt fairly safe. She didn't even have to be quiet - the din of battle was ample audio cover. Liberating this leader-fellow of his treasures should be a trivial task. He was romping about atop his litter near the far end of the bridge, waving his dirty great hammer this way and that, making all kinds of covering noise. As she got closer, she could clearly pick out the steaming red gemstone on his crown. As far as gems go, it was positively horrid - no gemcutter with an eye in their head would fashion something like that and consider their job done. Unless, of course, gryphons were more alien than they initially thought. Which, judging by the ferocity of the assault around her, they just might be.

She wasn't quite sure how the raiders had found the wherewithal to even put this thing together, let alone haul it this far into the city. It was gaudy, sloppily made, lined and studded with whatever valuable metals and gemstones they seemed to be able to find... she was almost nauseous looking at this crime against style. Still, that would just make grabbing the Apple all the more satisfying. Taking a wide approach, she slipped around the edge of the clearing the raiders had formed around their leader, and approached from behind. His oversized throne, made of wood with some clumsy gold plating hammered on made for ample cover - she guessed she might even be able to sneak up on him in her Gala dress, it looked that easy. She hit the back of the litter running, propelling her into the air to perch on the top of the throne. She wobbled a bit - she was still getting the hang of this acrobatics business, hypercompetency or no - but once steady, she drew her dagger. She might even be able to off him now, and save everypony a lot of trouble later on - if he'd just stand still for a moment! He was having entirely too much fun swinging that hammer around, hurling lightning bolts around like frisbe-

Smash.

A wayward swing went too far back, and he clumsily cleared out his own throne. The pile of wood and metal flew cleanly off the platform and crashed in a pile of scrap at the side of the road, pulling Rarity's hooves from under her. When she landed with a thump on her side, the distraction broke her spell, and the panting gryphon stared.

"Who dares test the unstoppable might of King Eisen?" he roared, brimming with machismo. He didn't look like he was going to wait for an answer either, and he was already pulling back to squash the unicorn like an ant. She snatched her dropped knife and rolled back to get out of the way. The slow swing was easy to dodge, but the force behind it more than made up for it. The impact site was positively obliterated, sending shockwaves of force and electricity out around it. The former threw and the latter stunned Rarity, and she landed on her back on the road. The crack of the back of her head against the cobblestones nearly knocked her out cold there and then, and the landing winded her. Between concussion and breathlessness, she was all but immobilised, creeping back from the litter as Eisen prepared to swing again.

"You there, ugly! Lend me your eyes!" Thok. A broken plank span through the air, and the blunt side skulled Eisen in the temple, knocking his crown askew. His infuriated turn finished the job, and it fell away behind him. He was angry enough that he didn't even notice. "Pick on somebody your own size!" When Rarity followed the source, she saw a familiar zebra perched on a nearby lamppost, balancing with a staff. Zecora? Spotting her chance, she pushed through her pain to take advantage of Eisen's distraction to scramble on to the litter and make a grab for the crown. The thud of a spear into the boards next to the crown made her flinch and retreat. Not a moment later, another gryphon slammed down to reclaim its weapon, and make off with the crown.

Oh, shoot.

---

A basement window swung open, and three fillies ducked inside. They were almost at the bridge, and the anarchic melee up ahead looked a bit impenetrable, so they decided on a less obvious path. Upon landing, Applebloom tumbled down a stack of tubes against the wall, rolling along them to a dizzy halt by the opposite wall. Obliviously, Sweetie Belle and Dinky Hooves followed her and made the same mistake, creating a small pile of foal in the corner.

"Hey girls! What are you doing in here?" A mountain of pink fluff emerged from behind a busy table of black powder and stacks of the same tubes the (reduced) Cutie Mark Crusaders had fallen foul of. A few of them were stacked and taped together with some wires and clocks, and Pinkie Pie's face had some black smears on it.

"We came to kick some gryphon butt!" Applebloom bounced up, and performed some of the old karate moves Rainbow Dash had taught her last year. She promptly flipped herself over onto her face. Pinkie giggled, but couldn't hide a concerned head tilt.

"I dunno, fighting gryphons is mostly for big ponies. Gryphons are big and mean and scary and go raaar!" Pinkie leapt clean over her table and pounced on the floor, picking Sweetie Belle up by a hoof and hoisting her into the air.

"Hey, lemme go!" Applebloom gave Pinkie a timely dig in the shin, causing her to lose grip of the unicorn filly. Dinky was already in place to catch her and return her to terra firma.

"Ah think we can handle ourselves." Pinkie frowned and rubbed her shin.

"Maybe there's another way you can help, like, uh..." She looked around the room trying to come up with ideas from some of the junk scattered around. "Uh..." Applebloom picked up something sitting by her hooves. She wasn't sure what this was initially made to do - some circular rack, spinning on ball-bearings. But as she beat it to spin, gears started turning in her head.

"Ah think ah know a way..."

---

"Packages are in place!" The mailmare gave a goofy, half-right salute, hovering by Twilight's perch atop the south tower.

"Good work, Derpy. As soon as Applejack's home safe, let 'er rip."

"Aye-aye!" As the pegasus darted off to continue running communications, Twilight took another wary glance at the battle below. She'd already seen Rarity and Zecora retreating across the bridge, empty-handed, solving one problem but leaving another, and Pinkie's "surprise" was all ready to go. The day hadn't been without its losses - a few bodies were scattered across the bridge and floating in the river below, mostly of ponies - but her damage control had been fairly effective so far. The south side of the city had been evacuated fairly cleanly, messengers had been sent to Cloudsdale for assistance, and the worst casualties had been sent to Canterlot with the last trains. She wasn't hopeful for the north side though, and Applejack would have one heck of a time getting past the gryphons camping the plaza.

"Twilight!" The unicorn looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering by her shield, urgency in her eyes. "Applejack's pinned down around the corner from the bridge. We don't have enough pegasi to do an airlift and keep up suppressing fire, what do we do?"

"I... gah, let me think..."

On the ground below, Pinkie Pie lumbered on to the bridge, struggling to lift the weighty contraption in her hands. A mess of tubes, wires and mechanical junk, and the piece at the end spinning like a top, she had no idea what this was supposed to do, but it seemed like a better use of her time than sitting around and waiting to get evacuated. Still, she had her doubts.

"Applebloom! Are you sure this will work?" Behind her, the machine was connected by an articulated axle and a flexible tube to another such machine, mounted on wheels and trundling along behind her, upon which the three fillies were riding - two of them were turning cranks, while Applebloom just sat on top, looking over Pinkie's shoulder. When asked, she just chuckled, and shot back a dark grin.

"Ah have no idea!" She gave the machine a kick, and it hummed into life. It started feeding small rockets into the tube, which slotted into the bottom of the spinning component at the end. A flint lit their shortened fuse, such that by the time they reached the top, they fired. The first firework took Pinkie by surprise, and she almost dropped the machine altogether, but the idea behind it soon clicked - the rockets careened towards the concentration of gryphons at the other end, almost two per second, to devastating effect. The front line didn't even know what hit them, and the line behind them scattered like pigeons, throwing themselves into the open - only to be cut down by arrow fire from above. Eisen swung his hammer to retaliate, but only succeeded in detonating one round in mid air, while three of its fellows blew out the wall behind him. Spotting imminent defeat, he retreated down a back street and out of sight. It worked beautifully, and Pinkie couldn't help but laugh. Not just a mere giggle - she was soon roaring with maniacal cackling at the sheer destructive power in her hands. Cry some more.

Around the corner from the carnage, Applejack was huddled in cover with a small group of survivors, clutching a sledgehammer. The scene was fairly grim on this side of the city - for a lot of ponies, she simply got there too late, and casualties had been high on the way back. She'd taken a few scratches on the way, but she'd live. The roaring cascade of explosions nearby took her off guard initially, when she risked a peek around the corner, she was pleasantly surprised.

"Alright, that's our cue, let's move! Head down and don't stop for nothin', go!" Her charges didn't need to be told twice. They numbered only two dozen, and most of them were pretty distraught. She put herself between the fleeing ponies and the mayhem. Not like she'd be much of a shield if an errant rocket did find its way to her - it was merely for morale. When the last ponies were on their way - an injured earth pony being helped along by his wife - she breathed a sigh of relief, and tacked long behind them.

Click. The deafening hail of rocket-fire subsided, and Pinkie's laughter dried up. The fillies on the cart stopped turning cranks, and looked ahead. The gryphons that hadn't been caught in the onslaught or fled in terror started to peer out of their hiding places. Applebloom opened a hatch and checked inside.

"Uh... she's empty."

"What do we do now?" Sweetie Belle blinked, not liking the hungry looks on the raiders in the distance one bit.

"Run!" Pinkie threw down the machine, scooped up the three foals and hoofed it to safety.

Crack. Applejack wheeled around and cleared out a gryphon approaching from behind her, shattering its skull with the head of her hammer. She nearly lost the grip of it, and it left her wide open for the one behind it. With another wet crunch, it hit the ground when Rainbow Dash came down on it from out of the blue, with the twin assault of her hoof and spear. They didn't exchange words - there was no time. With Dash's wings on the down-beat, Applejack vaulted over her back, adding momentum to her next hammer swing, ventilating the frontal lobe of the next gryphon and buying the pegasus time to pull her spear out and rejoin the battle. They knew they wouldn't last here for very long - this was a distraction operation.

Pamf. A ball of mauve light appeared next to them, dropping Twilight on the ground. Without even blinking, she shot off a few bolts of pure force, pushing back some of the closest attackers, before throwing up a shield wall.

"Quit screwing around guys, let's go!"

Kerr-ack. An impact shattered Twilight's shield, sending an electric shock through the arcane fields propagating it, and throwing her to the ground, stunned. A second later, the origin of that impact thumped to the ground. King Eisen, crownless and propped up on three legs, just gave them a malicious smirk, before winding up the crackling warhammer again. Dash darted to the side, grabbing Twilight by the shoulders to pull her out of harm's way and shake her back to consciousness. Applejack leapt into the air a split second before the impact, dodging the shockwave and preparing a counter-attack. The gryphon king just let go of his weapon swept back, and the farmer's hammer found only cobblestone. He was also quick to retaliate, sending her flying with a haymaker.

"Ugh, this is hopeless!" Dash threw up her arms in frustration, and snatched the hat before it hit the ground to return it to its owner. Twilight disappeared in another puff of purple light, and Dash knew what she had to do. As she was pulling away with the dazed Applejack hanging underneath, a minor impact knocked her out of her hands. When she turned to see what happened, Eisen was still pulling his hammer up - it wasn't him. Instead, by Applejack's hooves was a... tortoise? What was that doing here? Didn't matter. She picked up the burbling earth pony again, and scooped up the tortoise to sit on her head. After all, it wasn't his fault Applejack fell. Spotting nothing else that needed rescuing, she made a beeline for base.

As soon as she was clear of the south tower, a muffled boom grabbed her attention. The Wonderbolts were still keeping the horde ground-bound, forcing them to charge across the bridge on foot. They hesitated at the first noise, and were starting to rout at the second. The bridge started rumbling, and by the third, a billow of flame split the cobblestones. Every second or so, another explosion ripped apart another stretch of the deck, hastening the retreat of those fortunate enough not to be caught in the blast. Seriously Twilight? That's the 'surprise'? Is blowing stuff up our only tactic now? It seemed to be working - the raiders were in full retreat, and even Eisen looked startled as he fled the explosions.

"You are one lucky turtle."

---

The rest of the day comprised hiding and retreat. Blowing the bridge succeeded at scaring the horde away, but only temporarily - once they felt safe that the city wasn't going to blow out from under their claws, they quickly took the now-empty Trottingham. Defence efforts were centred on keeping attention away from the forest camp, while carriages arrived constantly to ferry ponies to safety in Canterlot. However, the horde seemed mostly content to pillage the city, and as long as they kept quiet, the pony camp was safe.

By mid-evening, Twilight and her friends were among the last ponies left on-site. The Wonderbolts were still on duty, bar Spitfire, who was still recovering from her lightning strike. Most of the problem seemed to be psychological shock - her armour had conducted most of the current, leaving a few burns, but sparing more internal injuries. She was proving a difficult patient, and eventually ponies had to take shifts to ensure she didn't try to rejoin the fight.

Things were starting to calm down as the gryphons settled in for the night, when a messenger arrived at the camp. A pegasus in Cloudsdale guard armour, he went straight for the first Wonderbolt uniform he recognised - the very bored looking Spitfire, sat up on the improvised bed. She skimmed the message and frowned, but fully understood.

"Rainbow Dash!" she called. Dash was at her side in a snap. "We have orders to return to Cloudsdale post-haste. Office of Jetstream himself. Spread the word around, we're leaving as soon as."

"Eh..." Dash hesitated. She could see Applejack applying bandages to her own head with Fluttershy's help on the bed just beyond, and to her side, Twilight was dictating notes to Spike. She knew what she had to do. "With all due respect, captain, I have to decline." Spitfire paused, and cocked her head a little. She didn't look angry - just pensive.

"I understand. You have your priorities." Whew. "Sparkle briefed me on Discord. You'd probably do more good working on that for now. But..." Uh-oh. "I'm gonna have to relieve you from duty." Dash kept a brave face, but her flat ears belied her disappointment. "At least until this whole thing blows over. Protocol is protocol." Spitfire held out her hand. "The goggles." Dash hesitated, before gingerly removing the baby-blue goggles and tossing them on the bed. They exchanged a silent salute, and Dash departed.

Comments

[Knicknack]

Cry some more!
lol

[kryxel]

poor dash...

[Tribal Typhlosion]

Did they get the Apple?

[hahatimeforponies]

693923 Noep.

[Northwest Brony]

I love your username, I just realized.