Equestrian Paradox: "Worlds at war"

by An Sturmmann

Chapter 11: We love the smell of burning town

Author's Note:

Hmmm i don't know if this can be called edgy or it is simply shitty, however, I tried to give a "realistic" approach of what would happen in this kind of situation, criticism is welcome because truth to be told in my opinion this situation would be as one sided as it turned out to be.

Warning: Violence, and implied dark stuff, let's just say that this era wasn't a good one to be defenseless.

"Come on, come on, we have to get the tartarus out of here!" The voice of a mare resounded all around what could only be described as a pile of rubble, as the sunlight shone in the skies above, making the golden plates shine under it "Come on, come on fillies, we need to counter engage!"

Things were rather hectic all over the place, several ponies were running from one place to the other, it was something scary to the sight, as the fresh sound of explosions drowned the voices of the many ponies that were all around the town, several pegasi were flying away from the shore, a curtain of smoke covering the horizon, as the shapes of several things could be barely seen at the other side of the smoke trail.

They were many, and probably as big as an dragon, or even more, even the fiercest cragadile would have looked like an small baby lizard in comparison to the wooden beasts all over the horizon, they lacked any order, or elegance, being all over the water, either alone, or in smaller groups, at totally different distances, whatever they were, they lacked any of the beauty of the Equestrian ships, being mere husks of wood and what could have been described as iron muzzles coming out from the wooden shell thanks to the many windows on their sides.

Black flags waving in the air, slowly coming to be far more visible as the smoke slowly dissipated, revealing more and more of the ships, battleships...

While most of them were old looking, with several parts wich revealed former wounds on their helms, there was one wich stood over all of the others, one ship, wich was taller and most likely bigger than all the others, unlike the other members of the raider's navy, this one was facing forward, as if it was ready to charge any moment and split the town in two like an arrow tip, while the others were mainly facing to the sides, giving a perfect view of the iron muzzles that came out from the windows.

The iron curtain that came from the ships, fell like a deathly rain, turning the weaker buildings in the town into nothing but rubble, mostly the small guard outposts all over the port, soon, five of these were nothing but piles of stone and wood, with a few mares buried alive under them, a good portion of their equipment scaterred or outright broken, the ammount of guardsmares at the port was at the very least a good twenty five, most of them pegasi, with around fiveteen helping out their trapped allies, while a clearly worried unicorn stood in the wooden bridge in the port, looking with a frown at the incoming raiders.

The unicorn was fully armored, while her horn shone with a green light, the energy forming some sort of barrier that managed to stop a projectile wich was aimed straight at her, soon she backed up, almost falling down as the projectile hit the magical barrier, not due to the strenght of the wave after the impact, but rather because of the scare she got upong witnessing that.

Not too far, in the water, nearby one of the smaller but closer ships, there were three reddened bits of the water, like a trio of red stains, a trio of spears floating with one of them seemengly tangled with a series of hair-like colorful strings, before one of the few front facing ships moved over it, slowly making way towards the bridge in the port.

The black flags and the now smaller ammount of smoke, allowed the mare to see as some oddly pony-looking shapes began flying, however, they were certainly bigger... and with larger wings, strange long spear-like things hanging on their waists, or at least, that was what the shape suggested at the distance.

In mere seconds, the green mare dissapeared in a flash, avoiding just barely the last shot from the enemy forces, just in time to not get demolished like the wooden bridge farthest point, reappearing in the shore, not too far from a group of guardsmares.

"Guardsmares, Report!" She commanded, as the roar of the enemies seemed to die down leaving an stiff uncormfortable silence, wich coupled with the smell of fire and ashes, only caused an uneasy feeling to travel down the spines of the defensive forces as just as sudden as the firing began, it ended, giving them an small respite... apparently "Most of the shore fortifications were damaged, around ten were destroyed, thankfully only five mares got buried, this first wave of attacks seemed focused on hurting our defensive capabilites!"

"Is the ballista damaged?" Was the answer to that report, and the earth pony shook her head "So far it is ready to shoot, we just need the order to do so"

"The messenger I sent to the princess is yet to come back, we cannot currently counter engage without permission Lieutenant!" Another mare shouted, she was a silver maned pegasus, helping out another guard to leave the pile of rubble she was buried under, however, the second the green unicorn heard her, she gave an small snort and shook her head "Listen up seargent, sending my sister to speak with the Princess won't stop the attackers, get that ballista ready and start delivering tartarus to those dykes!"

"..." The pegasus backed up a little before the Unicorn reared and landed with a loud thud "DO IT NOW!"

"A...as you wish Leutenant" Soon she flew up, just in time as the unicorn looked up at the recently saved pegasi "Now, start the evacuation protocol, we already failed once against Tirek, this time we won't!"

"Roger that!" The pegasi, most of them lacking armor, soared to the skies, as fast as they could, but keeping a certain order, but, it was clear that the town wasn't exactly void... "W...what is that..."

"Everypony, listen up!" One of the pegasi said as she flew towards the townsfolk who were either leaving their houses to see what was happening, or freezed in shock in the case of those who witnessed first hand what happened "R...RUN!"

"NO, DON'T...!" The mare tried to stop them but the second the first ponies began running in the other direction... a loud and piercing bird cry was heard from the air over the water "O'i lasses, this town will be a piece o' cake, the town is drowning in gold I can smell it!"

"Yo ho horoho ho!" As if it was some sort of song, a new set of voices answered up after the first one spoke in a badly done, almost broken sounding equish, with a hint of a melodical albeit dissonant musical tone, but, it was unnerving, clearly feminine, but with a certain sharpness on it alongside a playful tone "GRIFFONS!"

The second one Stallion shouted, most of the civilians began running, ignoring the attempts of the guard to stop and lead them, it was a chaotic display that would make a certain chimera proud, Stallions screaming in fear as they ran with their colts and fillies on their backs, the mares weren't exactly any better, shouting while carrying whatever they could, most of the time nothing, but there were quite a lot carrying young, or, elders.

The youth, on the other hand, a lot of them while still somewhat scared, there was a good percentage wich, instead of running away, they took whatever they had nearby, be it sticks, stones, or even a torch or a steel bar, as for "armour" most merely took whatever was close enought to function as an shield, it was an strange display of bravery and stupidity.

The guardsmares couldn't exactly control the crowd, being clear that even if they were many, compared to those in other towns, they still were woefully underprepared to properly protect the civilians, however, soon reinforcements seemed to arrived from the other parts of the town, those wich were more inland, mostly earth ponies and unicorns, however, the first to arrive were only five earth ponies, two unicorns and one pegasus, the earth ponies being the clearly heavy hitters with their goldens armors, big round shields on their backs, and some sort of harness with held their spears allowing them to gallop easier.

That aside, all the apparent aid coming from the youth... dissapeared the second the next wave of bombardment began... one thing was just hearing the loud noises while you were inside in your house, or being far enought to not see exactly what was happening... another one, was experiencing it in person...

The curtain of steel poured into the town like some sort of deathly rain, as several projectiles came from the ships, as if this was but another wave and the first one merely was an small warning shot of sorts.

This deathly strike went aimed towards the remaining fortifications, stone and wood alike breaking easily under the bombardment, the booming noises of the explosions, alongside some sort of whistle coming from the round, big projectiles, was enought to put the brave but certainly stupid spirit of the youth into a frenzied escape, with only an scant few remaining, not due to bravery, but due to being freezed in place, a trio of them being saved by one of the earth pony guards, who tackled them down, just in time to avoid being hit by one of the projectiles, this shot destroyed a watch tower, almost burying the four ponies alive under wood, thankfully, a nearby unicorn diverted the rubble with her magic.

"Attention Griffons!" The Lieutenant roared as the guards prepared, the pegasi were mostly armed with short swords, or bows, the earth ponies on the other hand were fully armoured and had both spears and shields, the unicorns were mostly armored but lacked any heavy weapon mostly using a shorter type of bow "This is Equestrian Soil, stop and turn this instant or we shall counter engange and consider this an act of unwarranted agression!"

"Suck a clit!" Was the answer she got from the apparent griffin leader, unlike the guards the griffins mostly wore clothes, old, tattered and foul smelling clothes, but they didn't seem to have any armour. "Open fire lassess!"

The next second, an onslaught happened, as the leader gave the order, the undisciplined mass of griffin flyers lifted up those strange spear-like weapons, they looked mostly harmless, like some sort of overcomplicated staff, but, with a knife attached either under or over the tip.

They also seemed to wear one or two bags on their clothes, hanging and full.

"So be it then, Guardsmares, Op...!" The Lieutenant was about to give the order to shot the arrows, but in just an split of a second, a series of loud booming noises were heard, and in just a few instants the former leader of this guardsmare force, laid down on the floor, with several holes all around her armour "Fi...fire..."

Even still, she managed to finish the sentence, but, with such a display, no one would have been wrong to guess what would happen, the pegasi fled in mere moments dissapearing as they soared the skies... at least those pegasi who didn't had golf ball-sized holes on their bodies, the unicorns weren't as lucky because the few ones that were there, died too, having being shot on their chests.

Such a display wasn't something that the guards were ready to witness, let alone this close, the loud screams of those hit, the smell of sulphur coming from those damned staffs, the loud war cries of the griffons, and the destruction brought by the bombardment, while not devastating to the town, it outright demolished any single fortification in the port, giving such an hopeless sight that the standing earth ponies felt breathless... and freezed.

"ohoho, that colt is PACKING!" One of the griffins roared before diving towards a former vegetable stall, a poor stallion trapped under the rubble barely visible until now "No, NO!"

The male tried to escape the pile of wood, but just as he managed to squirm enought to free his legs, the griffin lunged at him piercing his back with her claws, just enought to lift him mercilessly and start to fly back to the ships, the earth pony squirming and screaming, kicking as hard as he could, but being useless due to the way he was being dragged.

"L...LEAVE HIM ALONE!" luckly, one pegasus guard still stood in place, and in a quick motion she flew upwards tackling the griffin who lost her grasp on the stallion making the trio fall into the water, both females losing their breath as their bellies hit the surface, the stallion falling like a piece of steel with a loud thud after hitting the cold water with his wounded back "Guardsmares, attack!"

The sight managed to spark a response from one of the smallest earth ponies, who instantly called upon her comrades, while badly outnumbered and apparently outmatched, they still could try to engage the landing griffins who were heading straight for the houses and stores nearby.

In fact, being in close combat seemed to be a good answer to deal with these invaders, as one of the mares managed to tackle down one griffon, the raider tried to use the sharp dagger on the tip of her weapon, but it was deflected by her armour, giving her the perfect chance to crush the enemy beak with her hoof in a powerful stomp.

It was a brutal display, a normally calm and honest pony just stomping as hard as she could over one of the raiders, while such raider answered up clawing and kicking to her belly, trying to get rid of the protective armor, blood was spilled by both, as the pony crushed her beak until it simply broke into two, one half piercing her hoof, the other drawing blood as it was almost pulled off the griffin face, meanwhile the pony's belly was clawed at in every single weak spot not fully covered by her armor.

Sadly that apparent proof that the enemy could be defeated, instantly fell down, as one laughting griffin simply took an strange, long but slim metal bar and used it to put something inside a hole on her staff, before pointing towards the pony side, letting out another one of those deathly spells piercing the pony from one side to the other, killing her instantly.

"Oi, looks like someone is now beakless!" She mocked her hurt companion before the other griffins laughted too, ignoring the pain of their ally, who after standing up, mauled the pony face "Ooooh, shiny!"

Most griffons were at awe towards the ponies armor, taking them from the death withouth any sign of respect, a trio of them even took the challenge of taking it from the biggest pony alive, tackling her to the ground before lifting her up, two griffins tearing the armor belts and taking the plates and helmet off, after that, the poor pony was lifted far away into the skies before being left to fall towards her death.

"Yo ho horoho ho!" Roared the apparent griffon leader as she stuffed a big sack with the golden armors and whatever riches she could get from the stalls and houses, not even requiring to use her strange spells to open the doors, just breaking them with a single tackle or kick "Yo ho horoho ho!"

They were apparently singing, it was a fairly happy melody, wich greatly contrasted to the sounds of shots, and battle, the guardsmares being hunted down for their armours, and whatever civilian pony that couldn't run in time before the engage, was being captured and brought to the port, where a new group of griffins chained them together.

It was clear that these raiders were chaotic, lacked any type of order or honor... and yet, not a single guardsmare managed to properly fight back, while some managed to bring down a griffin or two, they never delivered the killing blow, they simply couldn't bring themselves to do so, unlike the trigger happy griffons, who didn't hesitate to shoot their spells towards even fillies, if that just meant getting more riches.

The youngests colts were chained, those who were old enought were captured alongside the stallions, and dragged kicking and screaming towards the hungry lust-filled griffons, however, that all changed once the leader managed to get a glimpse of something, as the civilians that ran first were heading towards the forest...

"A dragon!" She roared in happiness, as she held her claws up pointing at the running masses "A dragon lassess! The one who brings him here will get a fair share of the booty the Princess will pay for him!"

"Hooray matey!" Roared the closest griffins, taking to the skies with their leader, however, before they could shoot, one strange series of magical rays came from the ground hitting their weapons and turning them into oranges "What the devil!"

"ENOUGH!"

Comments

[FarObjective0]

I found a few typos:

A dragon lassess!,

Remove the ,

"ENOUGHT!"

Change the ENOUGHT to ENOUGH.

[An Sturmmann]

11766211

Thank you very much for the aid!

[NicieLunar]

Yay, an update

[An Sturmmann]

11766700

Yup, finally an update