Per Mare, Per Equestria

My rifle spat death as I dropped to one knee, taking care to stay well away from friendlies and only taking shots that I knew were going to be kill shots. Ammunition was a premium and that made it a luxury that I could not afford to simply adopt a spray and pray attitude. For the foreseeable future, my rifle was locked onto single shot mode.

My luck had held for the first few moments of the renewed assault, the Griffons either being too shocked or too occupied to focus their attention on me, but finally the sound and amount of death my rifle was causing turned heads, and a squad of Griffons turned to charge towards me, barrelling around my already engaged squad.

I barely managed to dive to the side as the first sword arced through the air, sticking into the ground as I rolled back to my feet, bringing the butt of my rifle into the face of a second Griffon. For the first time in a long time, I wished I had a bayonet, but quashed the thought in favour of spinning my rifle around, grabbing hold of the still hot barrel with one hand and raising it above my head.

A jolt went through my arms as a sword slammed into the rifle, before the Griffon wielding it twisted his weapon, pulling my own from my grasp and leaving it to fall onto its sling. In a practiced movement I reached to my pistol holster, drawing the weapon in one hand while grabbing my knife in the other, driving the blade into the chin of the offending Griffon.

Before I could make another move, I grunted and staggered back as a crossbow bolt slammed into my chest, my armour taking the brunt of the blow, but still allowing the point to dig very slightly into my chest. A split second later a balled up fist hit me in the stomach, sending me sprawling to the floor as a Griffon bore down upon me.

The next thing I knew, the Griffons head rolled off its neck, Nara’s wing blade slicing through it with ease as the rest of my squad clashed with the Griffons. The small fight was short, but it was bloody, and I saw Castelian roar in pain as he gained a new scar, before the last Griffon dropped, earning us a moments respite.

“Thanks,” I winced, taking Nara’s proffered claw I stood up, before snapping the shaft off of the bolt in my chest, the head staying stuck in my armour for now. “Not used to things being this closed to me during a fight.”

“You don’t say,” Nara said as she drew a crossbow with one talon and placing the other around my shoulder, scanning the area as she helped me away from the fiercest fighting, the others keeping guard, lashing out at any Griffon that got too close. “Just, try and stay out of trouble Major. I’d hate to have to explain to Brigadier Drake how we lost you on your first outing.”

“Would hardly impress High General Luna either,” Firefly agreed, his reply muffled from the sword in his mouth.

“I’m fine,” I grunted, shrugging Nara’s talon off of my shoulder and checking my rifle quickly, scowling at the deep cut in the plastic. I would need to look at it a lot closer when all of this was over just to be sure, but to do that I would need to survive. “I still have a pistol, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Nodding, Nara and the others ran forward again, their blades soon slick with blood of Griffons, while I dropped to one knee, holding my pistol tightly in both hands as I scanned for targets that were either getting too close, threatening me or threatening the assault more than normal.

Almost immediately I caught sight of a squad of Griffons high up on the forts wall, each one of them wielding large bows and firing with abandon down at the ponies, who were struggling to get shots of their own off with their large, unwieldy weapons strapped to their sides.

Steadying my aim, I took my first shot, not waiting to see if I had hit before I moved on to my next target, firing round after round, until the whole squad had dropped. As the last round fired, the slide locked back and I instinctively hit the magazine release, catching it as it fell and sliding it into a pouch.

I felt, rather than saw, the Griffon land behind me, and I whirled around, holstering my pistol and swapping my knife into my dominant hand, ready for a fight. Behind me with its wing outstretched was the largest Griffon I had seen so far, two wicked looking blades strapped to its front talons. I instinctively dived to the floor, almost avoiding the swipe from the razor sharp blades completely.

Almost.

The sword shot past me as I rolled across the floor, missing my neck by millimetres, but slashing across my back instead.

“Mother Fucker!” I screamed, attempting to roll across the floor and get back up to my feet. The moment I tried to put pressure on my back however, a flash of pain shot through the cut, sending me sprawling across the floor once more, my knife skittering out of my reach.

The Griffons beak somehow curved into a smile as it bore down on me, placing a neck as it leered down at me. His eyes were wide and crazy, helping to match up with its blood stained feathers as it began to chuckle darkly.

Letting out a strained cough as more pressure was put on my throat, I began to scrabble around with my hands, trying to find anything I could to help me out of this situation, finally managing to grab hold of a piece of fallen debris from the wall, shaken lose by the grenades explosion.

With a roar, and all of the strength that I could muster, I brought the makeshift weapon round, slamming it into the Griffons right hind leg, the blow being followed by a sickening crunch as the knee inverted, popping to turn and face the wrong way.

The Griffon screamed at the top of its voice, falling to the floor and removing the pressure from my neck. Gasping for air, I struggled to my feet, grabbing my knife once before looking down at the Griffon with a mixture of loathing and pity. The crazed look was still in his eyes, but now there was another emotion, this one I knew all too well as fear.

“Make, it, quick,” the Griffon grunted, his eyes falling to my knife.

Nodding I took a deep breath, before driving the knife into the Griffons eye, the bird-lion hybrid going stiff for a split second, before going limp, the life fading from its body. Pulling it out, I wiped the worst of the blood off on the feathers visible through the armour, before searching around for a weapon I could use. My rifle was damaged and had limited ammunition left, as did my pistol, and my knife was far too short to be used against swords. I didn’t have much experience in sword play, and none of it real, but it would be better than nothing.

“Alright then.” I muttered to myself, bending down and grabbing a sword in my right hand, giving it an experimental twirl. “Let’s see if I remember any of this.”

Gripping the sword tightly in both hands, I began to run towards the Griffons, angling towards where I could see the rest of my squad were already engaged, closing the gap between us in a matter of seconds and swinging the sword.

My first attack missed, and I had to duck to avoid the reprisal strike, before dragging my sword through the Griffons stomach, metal screeching on metal before it finally drew blood.

Turning from the still falling corpse, I raised the sword just in time to block a strike aimed at my chest, feeling the shocks travel down my arm, before thrusting with my own blade. Narrowly avoiding the armour the Griffon wore, I slammed it into its chest, impaling it and causing it to drop its own weapon. Not pausing to pull the weapon free, I twisted, dropping to my knee as a sword sailed over my head and imbedded itself in the neck of the still impaled Griffon.

“Since when did you know how to use a sword, sir?” Nara grunted as she lashed out with her own weapon.

“I don’t,” I grunted back, locking my sword up with a Griffons sword, allowing Butch to ram a sword into its chest. “Just lucky.”

“It’s all you need,” Firefly’s voice was sharp and to the point, his mind occupied on the task ahead. “Keep going! We have the upper hoof!”

At his words, I looked around me, taking in the smell of blood and death that was now littering the inside of the fort. The Everfree Hussars, or whatever was left of them, had managed to gain a strong foothold within the fort, and were holding position at the entrance, treating the wounded as best as they could, while most of the Highlanders were still pushing forward, deeper and deeper into the fort.

I was brought back to the fight as an avian screech rolled across the battlefield, heralding the arrival of three Griffons, landing just in front of me and the others. I instantly knew these ones were different, their weapons looking like they were far better quality, while their armour was pitch black. The fighting seemed to die down at their arrival, Griffons and ponies alike watching as the lead Griffon took a step forward.

“I am Turg, a member of the Onyx Guard and commander of this fortress,” the Griffon boomed. “By that authority, I demand to see those you call commander.”

“I am Major Matthew Wood,” I took a step forward, wincing slightly as the crossbow bolt in my chest. “Royal Marine, liaison for High General, Princess Luna. Now that introductions are out of the way…”

“Lay down your weapons,” Turg took a step towards me. “You can’t hope to win, I’m offering you a way out that doesn’t mean your death.”

“As a POW?” I scoffed, tightening my grip on my sword, bringing it into a guard position. “Tried that once, you can fuck your own ass if you think I’m trying it again.”

“I love it when they fight.” He snarled, crouching down and preparing to charge.

Not letting him get the advantage, I sprang forward, causing the rest of my squad to do the same. In an instant, my weapons collided with the Griffons, as the rest of my squad powered into the Griffons two guards, slashing at them and trying to find any sort of weakness in their armour. Just like that the peaceful spell that had fallen over the battlefield broke, and ponies clashed with Griffons once more.

“I will not die here,” Turg spat, pushing harder with his blade, causing me to give ground slightly. “I will not fall in dishonourable failure, and certainly not to some bastard Diamond Dog Mutant.”

“Good thing I’m not a Diamond Dog,” I grunted, falling to my knees under the assault. “So…shut up…and die!”

With a roar, I whipped my knife out sending it whistling through the air, before I embedded it in Turg’s eye.

With a scream of pain that rivalled any I had heard before, Turg dropped his weapon, rearing back as he tried to grasp at my knife, struggling with pain and shock, and giving me opportunity to slide my pistol back out of its holster, slipping a new magazine into the breach and racking the slide back, just as Turg managed to tear the knife from his eye, staring at me with his one remaining eye.

“I assume you saw what this does?” I asked calmly, Turg nodding slowly. “Good. Then tell your men to stand down, I’ve had enough of killing for today.”

“A Griffon…never surrenders.” He growled back, staring down the barrel of the pistol.

“One last time,” I growled softly. “Give the surrender order, or I’ll leave you with nowhere to place that pretty little helmet of yours.”

The Griffon looked at me for a second, before spitting a wad of blood into my face.

“Wrong. Answer.” I sighed, pulling the trigger.

The Griffon leader dropped to the floor, his head resembling a smashed melon. Turning to the remaining members of the leaders’ squad, I took in their fearful expressions, before one by one, they began to drop their weapons.

“Good boys,” I breathed softly, holstering my pistol before raising my voice. “That’s enough! No more killing, ponies or Griffons!”

I watched passively as a stream of ponies rushed past me, making sure that no one killed anyone else as ponies forced the remaining Griffons to the floor and restraining their wrists and ankles. Turning from the aftermath of the battle, I walked over to the gateway and looked out of the field in front of the fort.

The entire field was covered in bodies, most of them were still screaming as they dragged themselves around, while others simply were cowering anywhere they could find. It was a lot to take in, hundreds of dead littered the field, while hundreds more cried out for help. A few ponies were darting around, giving what help they could, must it didn’t take a genius to work out that there weren’t enough medics to save all of them.

I let out a breath that I didn’t even know I had been holding in, before making my way to try and find someone in charge.