Eris's Riddle

by hahatimeforponies

Hammer

Seeing the gates of the city unmanned did little to reassure Applejack and Rarity as they hurried through. The camp was mostly empty, save for a couple of stragglers gathering their belongings, and Fluttershy doing her best to insist that they should go, with Spike snoozing happily on the back of her head. Derpy was circling over head, keeping an anxious eye on the horizon and the groups of ponies heading over the hill to relative safety.

"Fluttershy!" Applejack's call startled her, enough to send Spike to a rude awakening on the ground. "Fluttershy, where are the crusaders?"

"Oh! They're right... over..." The pegasus started to trail off and look increasingly terrified when there was nobody on the road down the hill. The only sign of movement was a tortoise carefully navigating the branches of a tree. It didn't look like it had found its way up there on its own. "... there..."

Rarity sank her head into a hand. "Oh, not again..."

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, oh, please don't be mad at me..." Fluttershy was trembling visibly.

Applejack sighed with frustration. "Don't... don't worry, t'ain't your fault they run off an' get 'emselves into trouble if you take your eyes off 'em for a second..."

Derpy fluttered down to join the conversation. "What's going on?"

"The foals are missin'."

"What?"

"Yep."

"What are we waiting for, let's go!" The mailmare started back into the city in a hurry; one-by-one, the others followed, doing their best to keep up.

Spike trailed the group, still half-asleep. "Hey, wait up!"

Rarity spotted him out of the corner of her eye, and levitated him up to sit on her shoulders. "Come on!"

---

It would yet be a minute before the first wave of the gryphon assault hit, but Canterlot already looked like a warzone. Rainbow Dash could spot Pinkie's antics a mile away, but something else was tearing up the city looking for something.

"What the hell is that?" Spitfire roared over the wind rushing past them, and the cacophony below.

"I don't know, but I think Twilight is handling it. Somehow..." Dash gulped. "Recommend we concentrate on the horde for now."

"Roger that." The yellow pegasus gave a nod, and rose ahead of her formation. "Follow my lead!" Without waiting for a response, she dove over the city towards what was left of the ramparts, completely reversing direction. The vanguard that were tailing them were hair-raisingly close, though they struggled to match the turning circle of the smaller, more nimble ponies. A couple of raiders just couldn't keep up, and met with rough landings on the rooftops. The rest followed through, narrowly clearing the walls and falling far below the flight path of the pegasi, who were now flying straight up to cross paths with their other squad, in one of their more practised manoeuvres. The wall of contrails blinded the second wave, leaving both waves vulnerable to volleys of archer fire; the first from the crossbow archers in the city walls, and the second from the Wonderbolts themselves, drawing their bows quickly to capitalise on their confusion. The casualties from these two waves were high, and the survivors quickly scattered.

The ponies didn't have much time to celebrate though - further, denser waves were already on their way, and nobody liked the look of the sparking, crackling hammer Eisen was reaching for.

"What now?" One of the others asked.

Spitfire thought for a moment, before stashing her bow. "Get low, stay in cover. Look for bottlenecks, link up with local defenders, stay alive and whittle them down. We're not holding out for a miracle here guys and girls, we have to be the miracle." She gave another aside glance at the approaching front. "Free fall in three..." The group fluttered about uneasily, stowing their weapons. Dash didn't have a place for her appropriated crossbow, so she held on to it. "Two..." Nods were exchanged, silent agreements made. "One..." With a deep, shuddering breath, she steeled herself. "Drop!" On command, the entire troop dropped like stones, confounding their assailants and launching into a steep dive towards the city. At the very last sane moment, they flared their wings out together, and scattered across the city.

---

For two-thirds of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, this was a depressingly familiar scene. Hungry gryphon raiders stalking the streets, chasing terrified ponies around, and clueless guards making paltry efforts to keep things under control. Kalza kept her hood up, and Pipsqueak had to be dragged away from danger on more than one occasion.

Applebloom poked her head out from cover to get a look at the plaza. All of one side had been laid to waste, and a small group of guards were trying to hold out in a building on another with the assistance of what might have been a Wonderbolt, but she couldn't be sure. "What are we lookin' for again?"

"I don't know!" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

Thud. The sound of Rainbow Dash hitting the floor and skidding to a halt grabbed their attention. She looked like she'd taken a couple of knocks, and had hit the cobblestones on her flank, but scrambled to a crouch by the time she stopped. One arm of her crossbow had snapped, and she'd lost her quiver somewhere. A thump heralded another landing; the hulking, quadrupedal form of a gryphon.

"I can keep this up all day, Rainbow Dash..."

"You take this city over my dead body, Wolfram!" she hissed.

He shrugged casually. "Fine by me." Dash knew she was running out of options when she saw him rear up with his spear. She was on the brink of exhaustion, injured and unarmed.

"Hey!" The high-pitched shout pierced the din of battle, and made Wolfram hesitate a moment.

"Well, well..." He cocked a smirk, and slowly turned to face the source. "If it isn't the apple of my eye. Kalza! Fancy meeting you here." The gryphlet was standing proud on top of the cover the other crusaders were cowering behind, wings flared out, her face painted with the meanest expression she could muster. Being as young as she was, it ended up looking more adorable than fearsome. "Come to watch your old man at work?"

Kalza kicked off the stone block and fluttered over to the fight, coming to a stop between the pair. "If you want to kill Rainbow Dash, you'll have to go through me."

Wolfram chuckled heartily, but quickly went deadpan. "Seriously Kalza, get out of the way."

"No."

"Kalza, look at what you're doing. Look at what you're standing up for. This pathetic sack of meat..."

Dash scowled, still panting and struggling to stand on both legs. "Hey!" Not the meat spiel again...

"... what do you think you're trying to achieve? Why are you doing this?"

Kalza frowned and thought for a moment. "When I ran away it was 'cos I thought Rainbow Dash was strong. That was all I knew." Her tone was softer, but she was still shouting to be heard. "But I found something else when I got here. Something that you, and mom, and Gilda never gave me." She paused again, spotting Scootaloo and the other crusaders peeking out of cover. "Friends." Wolfram looked absolutely livid, but she remained defiant. "Family." Dash couldn't help but smile and wipe a tear from her eye. "Maybe if you stopped thinking of ponies as food, you could be friends too."

The larger gryphon was positively seething, his whole body pulsing with tension, ready to explode. "Why you littl-"

Thok. A sharp pain in the back of his head stunned him. He swung around on a dime to see Scootaloo standing atop the brick, flipping another pebble in her hand and smirking. Applebloom was dumping more ammunition on to the brick, and Sweetie Belle was pulling faces. Seizing her opportunity, Rainbow Dash scooped up Kalza in her arms, and in the same manoeuvre, launched a roundhouse kick at Wolfram with her dead leg. It hurt like hell, but she was out of options.

Crack. Hoof connected with neck, sending him to the floor. The crunch that followed didn't sound particularly pleasant either. He was still moving though - the kick had only stunned him. Dash let Kalza down hastily, and motioned for them to move on. "Go! Get outta here!" Before Wolfram recovered, she grabbed his spear and gave him another firm whack with the butt to keep him down. She could easily kill him there and then, but she didn't think it right. She wouldn't hold herself responsible for the death of her daughter's father.

---

Fatigue was starting to catch up with the adrenaline rush Twilight was getting from constantly falling, and using the momentum to throw herself through the air on her next teleport. She'd resorted to hiding every now and then to catch a breather, and maybe think out her plan. Did she even have a plan? She wasn't sure. She didn't get much time to form anything concrete before she came face-to-face with a gryphon, or Blueblood spotted her and tried to squash her with something. She was a little surprised he hadn't started picking up on some of Discord's more pertinent abilities, such as teleportation or omniscience - unless of course, he just didn't have them.

Pamf. She used a bale of hay in a back street to cushion her fall, rather than use four winks in quick succession to negate her all her momentum in the space of as many lengths. The hay, however, wasn't in a mood to co-operate. Her initial landing was soft, but she bounced forward onto the cobblestones, landing with an unceremonious splat. She gave a long groan. Well, this is just super! Lying face down in muddy back street, surrounded by things that want to kill me, trying to suppress the little voice saying this is all my fault. Ugh. Why don't I just let them do it already...

"Twilight! Twilight, get up off the floor!"

The unicorn picked her face off the ground and wiped her eyes. Zecora was standing over her, shaking her awake. "Huh?" Without waiting, she stuffed something in her hand.

"Take this, it should help even the score!"

"What..." By the time she'd struggled to her feet, the zebra was gone again. She shrugged, and inspected her gift. It was a silver amulet, in the stylised image of a wing, as crafted from a single narrow ingot. She felt some kind of magical essence in it when she held it aloft by telekinesis, and it was even familiar, but she couldn't quite pin it down. Seeing no harm, she draped it over her neck and tucked the amulet inside her top. Instantly, she felt a lightness to her step, like she was more... buoyant. She tested this with a standing jump, and gave a squeal of surprise to find that she went at least twice as high as normal, and fell at least half as fast.

Crash. The roof of one of the buildings next to her was ripped away by what she could only guess was Blueblood, and a support beam was falling towards her. She leapt to the side to get out of the way, unintentionally launching herself into a high speed cartwheel along the alleyway. In her surprise, she couldn't stick the landing, but the slow falling gave her more than enough time to recover, and she when she came to a halt, she was upright. Where did Zecora get something like this? I get the feeling there's something she's not telling. Pushing doubts out of her mind for now, she resumed playing distraction for Blueblood. There has to be a way to get close to him...

---

Kerrack. A chimney exploded with the sheer voltage running through it, flash-frying an unfortunate guardspony in the process and sending a hail of shrapnel at another two. This was just too easy - the mêlées between raiders and guards were just a minor distraction while King Eisen went around obliterating things with his trusty enchanted hammer. The few ponies with bows were too busy trying to keep raiders from overpowering their fellows to try and take him out. It really was just a walk in the park.

Clang. The sound of something pinging against his hammer distracted him momentarily, giving the cowering pony before him a chance to get away. An arrow had been magnetically drawn to the head, and was stuck flat to the side of it. When he looked the other way, he saw two ponies sitting behind a fallen pillar - a yellow one and a blue one with rainbow hair, holding a bow. The gryphon roared aloud, and barrelled towards the pair, his weapon building a charge as he went. They exchanged looks, and dove to opposite sides of the street, getting well out of the way before the pillar exploded in a mess of static discharges and flying marble. How dare they! Where's the one with the bow?

Rainbow Dash immediately took to the wing as soon as he saw his menacing gaze fix on her. Her leg may have taken a knock, but she was still good to fly. Spitfire had already made herself scarce, leaving Eisen no choice but to chase the pony he could see. Two full spins in place worked up enough of a charge to hurl another bolt of lightning at the little gnat.

Crack. Dash squeaked and flinched with how close that came - she wasn't able to see the path it had taken, but the corner of the nearest building was blackened and smoking. She decided not to hang about and get more acquainted with him. The gryphon king, however, disagreed - he took off after her, in his own cumbersome way, his weapon gathering charge as it sailed through the air.

---

Applejack stumbled to a stop in the middle of a small courtyard, in one of the more finished parts of the city. She leaned over to catch her breath, and crack a couple of knuckles back into place. She'd taken a few scrapes, and her last encounter with a gryphon had been a bit messy, but she wasn't worried about that.

"Applejack!" a voice called; behind her, Rarity, looking similarly rough, staggered through the arch, Spike still clutching the back of her head. "Any sign of them?"

"Nope..." the farm pony sighed. Fluttershy and Derpy were close by too, dropping in from above. "No luck either?" They shook their heads forebodingly.

Slam.

She stood up and looked around. "Uh-oh..." The heavy wooden gates had been slammed shut. One by one, from behind each arches of the cloister, a gryphon crept out, all of them leering hungrily at their trapped prey.

Spike gulped. "I don't think these guys are from the 'missing ponies' desk..."

The group instinctively formed a back-to-back defensive formation - Applejack put up her fists, Rarity drew her dagger, Derpy pulled Spike off the unicorn's head and brandished him like a flamethrower, holding his tail cocked back and pointing his face at the attackers (much to his chagrin). Fluttershy just kept her head down.

---

The rooftops were by far the most dangerous way to cross town in these conditions; gryphons circling above, arrows and spears flying everywhere, explosions, chaos gods and magic weapons... One thing they did boast, however, was an excellent view of the whole thing. The expanded Cutie Mark Crusaders moved fast and kept their wits about them as they tried to get an idea of what was going on. Most of the ponies they encountered were about as apt to talk as the gryphons, so they could only go on what they saw. Running battle between two Wonderbolts and a few isolated pillagers, city guards escorting civilians into shelter, their older sisters and friends surrounded by ravenous raiders... wait a second.

Out of the corner of her eye, Dinky spotted the scene in the square below them. She yanked on Applebloom's elbow to stop the group's progress. "Guys, look!" Pretty soon, they were all peeking over the edge at the standoff. A fight hadn't broken out yet, but it wouldn't be long.

"What do we do?" Sweetie Belle squeaked.

Dinky looked around the square and the nearby rooftops, gears turning in her head. A couple of things caught her interest; there were two sets of heavy gates on the plaza (including the ones recently closed), and a trolley full of tools lying overturned a few lengths away. "I think I have an idea..." Cautiously crawling to the trolley, she pulled it over to her friends and dumped the contents out. A couple of firm kicks separated the bottom rack from the rest of it, making a flat board with wheels. "Scootaloo."

"How is this..."

Dinky picked up the board and shoved it to the pegasus before she could protest. "Take this and distract the gryphons." Scootaloo went wide-eyed for a moment, before nodding seriously. "Sweetie Belle, Kalza, when that gate opens, get m- them..." She pointed to the cornered, increasingly anxious ponies. "And herd them out. Applebloom..." She picked a slightly rusty claw hammer from the pile of spilled tools. "Hammer."

"Hammer?"

"Hammer." Dinky pointed at the gates opposite the ones their guardians had entered through.

Applebloom took the tool, smirked and nodded. "Hammer!"

"Pipsqueak... where's Pip?" A quick scan of the rooftop, and then of the square, revealed that he was nowhere to be found.

"Oh no!"

"Don't panic, we'll worry about him in a minute. Now let's go!" Dinky pulled on Applebloom to lead her to the far side of the gate; Sweetie Belle and Kalza followed. Without delay, Scootaloo kicked off the rooftop and braced herself for one hell of a ride.

She was clutching the board all the way down, for want of a handle; that was essentially what this improvised vehicle boiled down to - a scooter without handlebars. She was sure she could manage it, but then again...

Thud. That landing was a little harder than she'd have liked, and the sounds coming from the trolley weren't reassuring. Still, she had a job to do. Distraction, distraction... Her recovery consisted of launching herself into the air and riding up the back of the nearest gryphon, using her wings for propulsion. She was only mounted on this one for a moment, before using its head as a ramp to kick off and ride through the air to the next one; now she was in her element. Using the heads and backs of the invaders as perches and ramps, she rode around the square pulling off every trick she could squeeze in, taunting the gryphons with her agility. Once Applejack and Rarity were done reeling from sheer confusion, they found the time to disarm and stun a few nearby raiders, really riling them up.

Outside, Dinky and Applebloom had stopped at the edge of the roof, overlooking the street behind the gate. Sweetie Belle and Kalza sat atop the arch, keeping one eye on the chaos in the courtyard. A pair of gryphons were slouching around on the road, licking their claws; Applebloom gulped. "Any bright ideas now?"

"I..." Dinky stopped when she spotted none other than Pipsqueak emerge from around a corner on the other side of the street, ten or fifteen yards from the gate. Without a care in the world, he strolled proudly up to the two idle raiders. "What is he doing..."

"Orright, chaps!" he declared, clapping to grab their attention. The gryphons were just as confused as the two fillies on the roof were; they exchanged bewildered glances, before simultaneously coming to the same internal conclusion; get him. At the first sign of their movement, Pip launched into a sprint the other way, staying just ahead of them as they stumbled after him. What perplexed Dinky the most was the look on his face; it went beyond the knowing smirk of a pony springing a trap. It looked like he was actually getting a kick out of throwing himself into danger like this. He disappeared around the corner with the two hungry gryphons in tow.

Thud. A veritable mountain of hay slid from the side street, burying the pair. A moment later, Pipsqueak emerged, brushing the dust off his hands and smiling triumphantly. Dinky gawped.

"C'mon, now's our chance, let's go!" Applebloom tugged her shoulder and hopped off the side.

On the ground, it was clear they'd never break down the door by brute force. But they could attack its weak points - Applebloom went straight for the lock, jamming the claw in between the metal front and the wood underneath, and then sitting on the hammer. If it worked like she thought it would, the hammer would work like a lever and rip the lock right out of th-

Crack. She felt herself fall, and overhead, the guts of the lock shot out and spilled over the street. Dinky yanked her away before the hammer landed on her, and they made good their escape. Overhead, Kalza launched from the top of the arch, with Sweetie Belle on top.

"Hey!" the unicorn squealed as they made a pass at the embattled ponies. "This way!" she managed on the return, desperately clinging on to the gryphlet's shoulder feathers for dear life. To make clear which way 'this' was, Kalza continued under the arch, narrowly passing through the opening doors.

Applejack couldn't help but smile. "There's our chance!" She grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulder and started pulling her along, with Derpy and Rarity covering their exit. Spike still wasn't too pleased about being used as a weapon. Scootaloo followed them out, riding out the last structural integrity of the trolley on the way out. As soon as she was through the gate, the back wheel snapped off, and she leapt from the board to a staggering stop. At least, until she realised she had to keep running.

Comments

[Snowstreak]

Depy pulling a Pinkie-Twilight-Gatling-Gun with the Spike-Flamethrower?

[themanesix]

go Pipsqueak....also I like Kalsa standing up for RD, but I for her to make that speech, she should have spent a bit more time with RD