The Battle
The Battle
"So how are we supposed to help with that?" Dash asked, gesturing to the burning city. Jason shrugged.
"I guess we better get suited up, because whatever we do, it isn't going to be easy." He turned and took off, heading back towards the treehouse, with Dash just behind him. They made the trip quickly, finding that Scoots had awoken while they were away. Jason landed and started to pack up everything that he perceived they would ever need in the coming battle, while Dash made her way over to Scoots.
"Hey there Squirt, I'm guessing you noticed the smoke?" She nodded. "Okay, well that's Canterlot burning. The griffins attacked, just like Jason thought they would. So far it looks like their invasion is going a lot better than the other one did with the changelings." She paused. "So here's the deal, Scoots, stay here and don't make noise until one of us comes back to get you. You should be safe here, there's enough food and water to last a few weeks. We're going to go into the city and see what we can do." Jason walked back over and started putting the armor on Dash.
"She's right Scoots, these griffins aren't going to be nice if they take you prisoner. There's going to be a few knives left, so use those if you're discovered, or fly off towards Ponyville. You should be fine though." He was surprised at the ease that Scoots listened to and understood them without her confidence or resolve seeming to waver. He made a mental note to ask her what she had had to go through all those days alone, if she was taking this in stride. Scootaloo made a sniffling noise.
"Just come back, okay?" she said through tears.
"Wouldn't have it any other way, kiddo." Jason said back.
He tied off the last part of Dash's armor, and stood back to admire his work. Deciding he had wasted enough time, he fitted the explosives belt to Dash while she did the same to him, and tied the knives to her hooves. As an afterthought, he threw a particularly grimy saddlebag over his back and threw in a few rations. "You ready?" he asked Dash.
"Ready as I'll ever be I guess."
"Okay then, here's our M.O."
"Our what?"
"Basically our operational procedure, our strategy." He paused. "We only have close-quarters weapons, so we're going to stick to buildings that are still standing. Stay in the shadows and around corners until they get close. With the black armor, that shouldn't be too hard, although we should see if we can find something to cover your head." He looked around for a makeshift head covering, and grabbed one of the blankets on impulse, quickly tearing a large strip from it, and wrapping it around Dash's head. "That'll do for now. I'm really glad it's cold out today, considering all you're wearing."
"I feel pretty badass right now, I have to say. Probably about twenty percent cooler." She chuckled.
"If we replace that head-covering with an actual helmet, you'd be right." He sighed. "Now here's the deal. When we're out there, I can't say for sure that you won't have to kill a griffin. In fact, you probably will have to. There's no easy way to take a life, so think of it as a necessary evil; you're killing them to save ponies. They're the enemy, it's you or them." he paused." You can't think about whether or not you should kill them. Hesitation will get you killed. Last thing, remember that these are soldiers that are paid to kill things, you can't reason with them, you can't give them mercy. God knows they won't show you any."
"Well that was a nice, feel-good speech." Dash said dryly. "Let's just get in and out of this, and get back to how things used to be."
"They may never go back after today. Don't forget that." And with those words of wisdom, Jason took off, quickly heading for the cliffs. No words were shared; there was nothing left to be said. Jason landed and peered over the cliff. Not much had changed about the previous scene. He turned to Dash. "Stay close to the mountain as we drop, and land behind cover." He turned away and threw up. "Sorry, adrenaline. Let's go."
They jumped over the cliff and dropped like a pair of stones, unnoticed by the battle raging far below. It was a long drop, giving the both of them a fair amount of time to think in this specific calm before the storm. Jason's mind was swirling with repressed emotions. It was easy to imagine how he would act under the pressure of war, but impossible to easily put those thoughts into action. Sure, he had killed three men. That didn't make it any easier to kill, even if they weren't human anymore. What really disturbed him was how Dash was dealing with this. She had no experience with war or killing besides the changeling attack, and she was never in much danger there, as far as he knew. It helped that changelings were seen as monsters, animals, almost. But now, these were griffins, they had free will, they were intelligent life. He didn't think she would choke, but he worried about how she would hold up later, if she were to develop post traumatic stress disorder.
The ground arrived before he had finished thinking, and they landed behind a pile of rubble, taking a moment to catch their breath. Jason stepped over the body of a Royal Guard and stopped, putting a hoof to his neck. He was alive! He got Dash's attention and pointed to the guard, nodding his head. He dragged the guard through a nearby doorway, propping him up against a wall. Jason looked around, not catching sight of anyone new.
"Dash, he looks fine, just knocked out." Jason took off the guard's helmet, tossing it to Dash. "Take that, then help me hide this guy. We don't have time to wait for him to wake up. They overturned a table and pushed it up against the corner where the guard was still slumped.
"Why can't we do more?" She asked, attempting to rouse the guard.
"The more time we wait, the fewer ponies we can save. We've done all we can, and this part of the city looks pretty quiet." He sighed. "Welcome to war." Without another word, he exited the building and started carefully moving down the street, sticking to the shadows on one side of the street. The white noise that they had previously heard distinguished itself into screams and yells, clashes of metal, crumbling bricks and crackling wood. Jason ducked into a doorway. They were getting close to the city center.
A board in the ceiling creaked, and they both stopped dead. The board creaked again, and Jason pointed towards the stairs, and started to move towards them. He flew over the stairs instead of manually climbing them, creating a low buzzing noise with his wings. Dash followed him and landed silently as they continued to search the house. Jason pushed a door open slightly and ducked backwards. He mouthed the word 'one' to Dash, and they readied themselves behind the door, planning to change in and eliminate the threat before there was any hope of raising an alarm.
Jason counted to three under his breath, and then shoved the door open, revealing a rather surprised griffin. Dash beat Jason to the attack and tipped the Griffin over backwards, pinning him to the ground with a hoof to the face and left arm. Jason held the other one down, and ran one of his blades across the Griffin's throat.
The griffin continued to briefly struggle before going limp, choking on his own blood. Dash pulled herself away, trying to wipe some of the gore off her hooves, to no avail. There was another creak, causing them both to turn to another door. They employed the same tactic as before, and burst into the next room, which was empty.
"Where is the griffin?" Dash whispered.
"I don't know, this is the only other upstairs room." There was a sneeze, and they both turned to look at a large wardrobe.
"A griffin couldn't fit in there."
"You're right, it must be some ponies." He carefully walked over to the wardrobe. "We mean you no harm, we killed the griffin, you're safe for now." He swung open one of the doors to find a couple of scared and disheveled ponies. Too late he remembered how he must look to ponies, knives and blood on his hooves, besides the fact that he was a changeling. The mare of the two opened her mouth to scream, which Jason quickly covered with a hoof. "Are you trying to alert more griffins? We're trying to help, if you'll let us." He paused. "Can I take my hoof away now?" She nodded, and he took it away, still expecting her to scream. The other pony, a stallion, gave her a look and a reassuring hoof on the shoulder, and she seemed to calm down a little. The stallion narrowed his eyes.
"Why are you here? You're those ponies on those flyers that are all over town. Apparently you've definitely made a name for yourselves."
"Yeah, but we didn't do any of the stuff on the flyer, and if you want to get out of this, I suggest you believe me." He turned around. "Dash, what are we going to do with these guys?"
She looked to them. "How is evacuation proceeding?"
"The last message we had on the subject was that the final takeoff zone was captured by the griffins a little over an hour ago, which leaves the only evacuation zone as the caves under Canterlot."
"And how, may I ask, do you get there?"
"The old sewers. They haven't been in use for ages, so they were converted to escape routes a long time ago. Everypony thought that was stupid at the time."
"So where's the closest one?"
"Across the street there's a small maintenance shed, that's where the old entrance is."
"Alright, stay behind us. We'll get you there." The two ponies got up, and they quietly exited the house, making their way onto the street. The battle noise had gotten more distant, although Jason was unsure whether that was a good thing. They trotted across the street, prying open the old, rusty door and pushing the ponies inside.
"Aren't you coming with us?" the mare asked.
"No. We still have a job to do." And with that, Jason closed the door on the ponies and ran off with Dash.
________________________________________________________
It had been almost an hour since they had left the two ponies at the escape hatch. Almost an hour of sneaking through the streets attempting to get closer to the castle and the remaining guard and leadership. It was probably a stupid idea, but Jason wanted to at least try to halt the continual advance of the griffins, who had by now occupied most of the city, besides the area around the castle. They had just made their way across some roofs, and crossed some of the lines. Things didn't look good, especially with the number of royal guard bodies they had passed over.
At least they had managed to save another five ponies in situations that were much like their first encounter. Not all of them were in inevitable danger, but they had taken the time nonetheless. Their griffin kill count had risen to eleven, all of them taken in house to house, close-quarters combat.
Neither Dash nor Jason were looking particularly well, covered in a mixture of dirt and blood. Some of Jason's chitin was cracked in various places, luckily nothing serious. Dash had a close call with a spear, but that had been deflected by her quick thinking and some of his chitin armor.
"How much further to the castle?" Dash whispered, panting.
"It can't possibly be... that much further." He took a breath. "We've been moving straight towards it for twenty minutes now, it's got to be close." They both jumped to another roof.
"What are we going to do when we get there?"
"I don't know, really, but it's better than not having a goal." They both jumped off the roof and glided to the ground, crossing through a small house and onto another street. Jason's Jaw dropped as he looked at the castle that rose out of the ground in front of them. It was huge to say the least, built without a single flaw, it seemed. He was quickly jolted from his reverie by the crash of glass from another part of the castle. One of the rooms had just lost part of it's window, in this case a large stained glass work. Jason nudged Dash, and they both took off, careful not to attract much attention. They navigated into a good viewing position, attempting to see through the now broken window. There were several royal guards, facing down several more griffins.
"We have to help them." Jason stated matter-of-factly.
"That's more griffins then we've ever faced before!"
"But if we get there quickly, we can save some of those guards, and they can help us fight off the rest of the griffins."
"It's a good thing I like you enough to go along with this stupid plan."
"Just take one out on landing and we'll be fine." She nodded, sighing, as they both took off and aimed for one of the griffins inside.
Jason started first, having immediately picked his target, followed by Dash. He flew towards one of the unbroken windows, speeding up as much as he could in the short span of space. He swirled the green fire around himself, hoping that somehow it would allow him to negate some of the damage.
CRASH!!
The window blew into a million shards as Jason barreled into two of the griffins, slamming them into the opposite wall. Another griffin was taken out only a second later by Dash, who had logically navigated through the already broken window. She stabbed the griffin she had slammed into as Jason turned back to the the two he had hit, one of which was knocked out, the other trying to get to it's feet. Jason sprang forward and stabbed it in the upper chest, in a gap in it's armor, before it had time to react and turned back to the main skirmish. A royal guard fell, followed shortly by a griffin. A griffin tried to impale a downed royal guard, only to be pushed off by Jason and killed by another royal guard. The last two griffins were killed by the remaining royal guards in short order.
The remaining guards turned around, bloodied and bruised, to the changeling and convict that had helped them, most with confused looks on their faces. Jason turned to see Celestia walk into the room, a little more armored then just her normal hoof armor, and cringe at the smell and blood before she saw Jason and Dash. Jason walked towards her.
"Well Celestia! Isn't this a nice twist of fate?"
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Booya-.....wait....possibly no chapter tommorrow.....Do I say Damn? Or do I be glad that you're taking longer, as it may mean that it's a longer chapter?
Jason: Sup Celestia?
Celestia: Oh nothing, just defending against some gri- WHAT IN TARTARUS DO THINK IS GOING ON?!
Nice cliffhanger kinda ending there.........awww we may have to wait multiple days for the next installment? Well it's worth it!
cliff hanger oh well keeps the less devoted readers here
well, at this point I have to ask, did Jason respect Celestia? He is a brony, and the first time all he said was to protect Dash and take all the blame, but now he has his chance to actually meet her and prove her that he is not dangerous, and only want to help, exhibit A: He pretty much save some guards, Exhibit B: Dash is with with him in body armor that probe that he thought about her well being, exhibit C: He tried to warn them, and future exhibit D: He save at least 5 families before reach the castle.
Celestia, if you don't get the message by this point you are blind beyond salvation
Well Celestia
troll.me/images/disaster-girl/see-i-told-you-so.jpg
Celestia youre blind if you didn't think the warning was real.
The badassery in this chapter is over 9000!
At least 20% more badass than anything I have ever seen before.
DAMN YOU CLIFFHANGER MAN! I'll GET YOUUUUUU!
Nice spot for a cliffhanger, if i must wait for the next chapter... then.... I want a stasis tube, bubblegum flavored.
1867985 going on ? oh nothing much just exactly what i tried to warn you about is all
1868045
Yeah, but he's also kind of a jackass.
And considering how the story has gone so far, I imagine she's going to be stupid about this, too. All the ponies have been remarkably stupid so far to let Jason shine even brighter, so I don't imagine that's going to change. I expect there will likely be more wrangling, hostility, mistrust, etc.
1870860
Well so far I haven't see him as a jackass, maximum as a prankster, but other than the incident with the apple and Diamond Tiara, he has being acting very nice towards everybody, with a hint of bragging, but only when he do things right
P.S: Did we are going to see princess Luna and princess Candace in the future?
1871077
He's very quick to be rude to someone he considers wrong about anything, even when it hurts his position. The very first thing he says to Celestia, after a sarcastic quip, is "Fuck you." He could point out any of the many things that indicate that he's not a bad-guy (Things that seem to work strangely well on other ponies), but instead he decides to be sarcastic and antagonistic. He's very much got that bad-boy invincible protagonist mentality going on. "My plot protection means you're not going to be able to kill me, so rather than saying anything that could help my cause, I'm going to be rude and insulting while I have the chance, before inevitably making my escape so the plot can go on."
As for the bragging when he "does the right thing," he always seems to do things right for anything that matters, while the ponies seem to get whacked by the stupid-stick to make him look better and give him the opportunity to talk down to/about them; he looks like a good strategist because he takes a little snippet of history and guesses that one specific nation is going to attack (Despite no detailed knowledge of culture, other history, relative forces, geopolitical situation, any details of current griffon activities and situation, other nations, or a hundred other factors. No, it's straight to "You guys had a failed attack launched on your capitol? That means the griffons are going to attack!" All while no pony is able to work out their own history and the implications of it), he plays a guitar well enough to immediately impress every pony that hears him, and he makes a whole bunch of impact-fused improvised explosives that work so flawlessly that they are impact-fused when thrown, yet ignore that impact-fuse and instead detonate immediately when placed as a trap (Now that's skill!). And that's even despite them being described in a way that make them sound like they would either fail entirely, detonate immediately, or have an extremely variable and unreliable fuse length. He also lands Rainbow Dash by... um, I'm not sure how. By being rude and sarcastic, and making things explode? Didn't think Dash was that shallow.
So yeah, kind of a jackass. Maybe without the "kind of" part.
1872000
Point taken, and is a little understanding he, being a teenager, plus what happen with Daimond Tiara, show us that something happen to his family and is obviously a delicate subject, meaning that he is has some degree of emotional stress, and everyone deals with that in different ways, in his case being rude and sarcastic, so people don't get to close to him. Not to mention the stress of him have being force to kill 3 people before this whole thing happen, and the clue that he prefer sleep and pass as much time as Artemises
Dash being similar to him in what is about being a prankster, is the one that he allow to enter his heart, and pretty sure he was doing the same with the rest, if the whole accident wound't happen.
Not to meetion that Scootalo awake his father instinct, and he just decided that as soon everything is over, he want to adopt her and help her have a normal childhood, later on proven by him officially asking Dash to be her marefriend (a little strait forward but you get the idea), my point he is open is heart a little more each, and is not acting jackassish, since Scootalo arrive, he save that poor mare, was very nice when she introduce him to his husband, and he tried to calm her dowm and success when she was about to pass out for fear, not to mention he save 5 families before, reaching the castle, I think he and Celestia can clear the air once the attackis over, sure they will have to be carefully when they mention Scootalo living with them, but, don't you thing that he and Dash, have earn at least the benefit of the doubt at this point?
Ugh the Griffins attacking, Diamond Dogs taking the chance to loot and pillage, Discord eventual chance of being released because of all the Chaos, a hidden cult to the Night (Luna was separated finally from her other half so the Night will require a ritual to gain a new body [childish or as old Luna up to the author]), Dragons that were sleeping within Equestria's borders that are going to end up rampaging out of grumpiness, and various other races/things that could happen. Chaos and Madness is going to be quite high (Maybe he can find additional allies hidden in the most unlikely places or beings).
Physical Prowess of Griffin to Ponies (Slightly higher then Earth Ponies and Probably slightly faster then Pegasi). Because of that they lack majorly in magic capabilities (maybe there can be a few capable of magic but it greatly hampers their physical capabilities). Magic resistance could also be played as a small factor or just plain stubborn will in negating certain magical attacks.
Inspired me to start writing stories
even if they suck
WHERE IS LUNA, I hope you not FORGOT ABOUT HER ?
2049455 well i think pinkie was talking about these new cupcakes