Escape From the Griffin Fortress
With the four unconscious ponies straddled across my back, I galloped as fast as I could, trying to use my wings to keep them from falling off. I had managed to buck one masked Griffin in the courtyard, but didn’t have time to hide his knocked-out form.
I’ll have company real soon, I thought to myself.
I was finally at the sky-cart bay. It was an asphalt parking lot with probably a thousand wooden carts. Creeping low and staying out of sight from the searching spotlights, I made my way to the other end of the sky-cart lot, where it was darker and less guarded. Hoisting the four ponies into the cart and strapping them in tight (who knows how interesting this ride might get), I quickly hooked myself up to the harness at the front.
I ran and flapped my wings as hard as I could. Soon enough, we were airborne. I silently thanked myself for flying the sky cart in my courier days and letting Derpy ride in the back with the heavy packages. The sirens let loose back at the fortress.
They knew exactly what was going on.
A spotlight shined onto the cart and my back. I could see the light extending in front of me, but luckily it couldn’t mess up my night vision since it wasn’t hitting my eyes directly.
I pulled the gun off of my flank and looked back. There was a very large Griffin holding the q-beam in my face.
I aimed Princess Celestia’s “magic caster” at the Griffin and fired. The blue beam missed. Great. Even though it was just a blue stream of light, I just let the element of surprise go.
I felt a sudden, immensely sharp pain in my stomach, which caused me to lose my balance for a second. If I hadn’t been so used to flying for so many hours at a time I would have crashed into the ground. I looked towards my mid-section and saw a magic arrow sticking straight through. I was shocked, but kept my attitude level. I wasn’t about to let these feather-covered bastards shoot me down.
The Griffin who had just shot me was setting up another arrow in her bow. Deciding I wasn’t going to be this Griffin’s next kill, I took aim with the magic-caster again. I aimed in front of her this time and fired.
The Griffin turned into a ragdoll, falling towards the ground with a sharp vocalization. I watched her crash into the snow and get back up. She was shot in the wing, so I wasn’t worried about that particular Griffin giving me trouble again.
There was another Griffin ascending to my altitude of one thousand feet now. It was obviously a male, with his much more prevalent characteristics and facial hair. This one tried to shine a q-beam in my eyes, but I was quick enough to shoot a sleeping-spell into his talon holding the thing. The light fell from his talons, and he cursed something at me in his native tongue. I noticed him looking around, however. He wasn’t able to clearly see me, so he pulled out his bow and started to fire wildly into the air.
For a split second, I relaxed. I thought he wouldn’t be able to hit me like that, firing wildly into the air, but no. I soon found myself yelping in pain as a two new 1-inch holes bored themselves into my left wing and right hoof, respectively. Immediately I felt warm liquid start to rush out. Griffins were predators, and were very good at hunting down prey. Their arrows were equipped with venom that prevented the clotting of blood.
The world around me started to spin, and darkness was hovering at the edges of my vision. I passed out.
A few seconds later, when I came back to consciousness, I was heading straight for the ground in a spiral. I pumped my wings as hard as I could, despite the immense pain, doing the 90-degree turn that Rainbow Dash had taught me. The now familiar, coppery taste of blood was in my mouth. My vision was a little blurry, and the night sky became harder to navigate.
I could understand them coming after me. These Griffins had a job to do, and that was to keep my unruly ass from escaping…
…but to take me out and these badly injured ponies, especially a mare and filly? No. Not gonna happen. They would die.
There was nothing but mountains and snow under me, dimly lit by Princess Luna’s moon. I thought about descending into the mountains and trying to find a cave or something to hide in. That would take time I couldn’t afford with these ponies’ injuries, and the Griffins would find us before I could even try to patch us up enough to make it back to base. No, the only way these four ponies would live was if I made it to the Crystal Kingdom, about twenty minutes from my current position.
Another spotlight turned on behind me, a single one. I sighed. They were still onto me. I thought I had managed to shoot them all down or evade!
For a second, I started to descend. This was it; I was going to be shot down.
The spotlight came up to my right side, the Griffin holding it shining it directly into my eyes, making me close them instinctively and killing my night vision.
Then, it shut off.
I slowly opened my eyes, and they adjusted to the night. I swiveled my head to the right, and there was the Griffin, flying about fifty feet to my right wing and slightly higher. It started to yell at me frantically, pointing down at the ground. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but it was clearly a male voice, and he didn’t sound very nice. He had a bow and arrow on his back. He wanted me to land and be captured or he would shoot me.
At this point, I had no way to shoot him down. My vision was blurry as it was. I was bleeding, and there were three arrows stuck in me, one in my left wing, one in my midsection, and one in my front right hoof that I would use the magic-caster with. I certainly couldn’t out fly him, either.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. Maybe this was a bad dream or my injuries were causing me to hallucinate, and the Griffin would be gone when I looked there again.
I looked again. He was still there. Damn.
Maybe it was because of my injuries and the hopelessness of the situation, or maybe it was because I could feel adrenaline pumping through my body, but something was keeping me from accepting to land. I wasn’t about to land in enemy territory and be captured again. The two injured stallions in my cart were still in very critical condition though they took whatever trauma they’d received well enough, but the mare and filly would undoubtedly die from the lack of medical care they needed, and I would probably be executed once back at the fortress and in the hands of Vakayev.
I shook my head and mouthed “no.”
The Griffin face palmed, and started pointing to his right. Now I had no idea what the hell he was doing, and I kept going along my course.
Not liking me ignoring him, he pulled the bow and arrow off his back and leveled it at me.
Fine. He was going to shoot me. This was it, then.
He was still yelling at me frantically, and I still couldn’t understand him, what with the relative wind blowing in my ears and my increasingly poor physical state.
We were both looking each other right in the eye.
He looked behind him for a few seconds, and then took down his bow and arrow, placing it in its previous location on his back.
What the hell?
He looked resolved, like he had decided on something. I could tell it in his facial expression.
We continued flying towards the Crystal Kingdom for at least twenty-five minutes. I could start to see city lights on the horizon, and finally the tip of the Crystal Castle came into view. The Griffin finally took another course of action. If he had been trying to confuse or flabbergast me, he had more than succeeded, because why he hadn’t shot me by now made my head spin… or was it the lack of blood?
He stared at me, silently, and a smile slowly crept upon his face.
Then, he saluted and flew away.
He was gone. I was alone, with my heavily injured cargo.
For a few minutes, I continued flying towards the Crystal Kingdom, trying to figure out what the hell just happened and what I was going to do. I looked behind me, and couldn’t see any more Griffins. I then looked at my four injured friends.
“Okay kids,” I said, “whoever wants to bail, say so now. Otherwise, I’m taking us home.”
Of course, being unconscious, nopony objected.
I finally made it back to the Crystal Kingdom, making an almost crash landing in the Crystal Castle gardens. It took forty-five minutes; as opposed to the twenty minutes it should have taken, due to my injured wing and the fact that I couldn’t generate enough wing power to fly above two hundred feet. Considering that I normally cruise at seven thousand feet, and eight thousand with heavy cargo, we were dangerously low.
It didn’t matter, though. We made it. Royal Medics came and collected the four injured ponies almost as soon as we landed. They saw us from a mile off.
As they took the unconscious forms away, I silently hoped to Celestia that they would live. I doubt I would have had the will to continue if it weren’t for four other souls depending on me.
My already debilitated body compelled me to lie down, and finally my legs gave out. I was on my back, and let my legs curl against my body. The adrenaline was wearing off, and the trauma was taking its toll. The pain came rolling back to me, and the bleeding grew much worse. Three medic ponies galloped to me. I could see them standing over me, but I couldn’t do or say anything.
I was lying in a puddle of my own blood, but it didn’t matter to me, because I knew four other ponies would continue living because of what I did. Content in knowing that, I waited for death to take me.
But it didn’t.
________
I woke up in a large room carved from crystal. It was either morning or sunset based on the bright light coming from the window. I shuddered a little under my sheets, it reminding me of the Griffin’s spotlights. Then all the memories came back to me.
Surely all of that wasn’t a dream? I tried to sit up a little to examine myself, but the immense pain that came with trying to move stopped me. There was pain in my left wing, stomach, and right hoof, so what had happened wasn’t a dream. I don’t know why I guessed that it might have been a dream. The feeling of desperation and concern for those four ponies was too real.
Those ponies!
Did they pull through? Were they taken care of? How was the filly? Anxiety came over me, and I just noticed that a heart beat monitor that was hooked up to me started to beep faster. A nurse pony immediately cantered to the side of my bed. She was a Crystal Pony.
“Good morning sir, you’re awake! Please, calm down! Everything’s all right!” She pleaded.
Maybe I’ve been reading too much, (the now Princess Twilight would buck me in the face for even considering that) but from what I’ve read in pony psych books, telling somepony to “calm down” usually had the opposite effect.
Fortunately, I realized that a raised heart beat level was probably a bad thing, and forced myself to calm down with deep breathing and relaxing.
I cleared my throat. “Are they okay?” I whispered, not sure if it would hurt to use my voice.
She gave me a soft smile and looked at me for a few seconds. I thought that meant she was going to answer that they were fine. Instead, she answered, “You’re not making any sense, sugar cube, it’s an after effect of your medicine and adrenaline. Let me get you a glass of water.”
Either she wasn’t told the circumstances of my arrival, or the Crystal Kingdom really needed to raise their standards for nurse ponies.
________
Bendl, Griffin Flyer of the Third Degree, sat in a cave in the Frozen North’s mountains. The sun was rising now; but he hadn’t slept. He was still contemplating the events from the night before. Approximately six hours ago, he had seen a single pony fly over Bendl’s airfield with a sky-carriage attached to it. He turned the events over in his mind one more time…
Knowing the less-than-friendly understanding between General Vakayev, the Griffin Kingdom, and Equestria, Bendl reported the sighting of a lone pony carrying a sky-carriage to his Captain. His Captain told him that this was an escaped Equestrian pony that was attempting to start a war between the Griffins and Ponies.
Wisely concerned, Bendl had taken off for the Pegasus, quickly catching up. He followed the Pegasus as it continued along its course, but it suddenly dived down, heading straight for the ground, with the sky-cart behind it shuddering wildly in the air.
Bendl strained his eyes, trying to make out what exactly was going on. The pony’s eyes were closed, it appearing to be unconscious. Even more bizarre, the attached sky-carriage appeared to have ponies in the back of it. They appeared to be unconscious as well.
Bendl followed the ponies down to five hundred feet above the ground, but he wasn’t going to risk going that far down into the mountains. Granted, the Frozen Mountains were rather low compared to altitudes in the Griffin Kingdom, but diving headfirst into them was not what he was trained for.
He watched as the dark grey-coated pony with a blue-silver mane and tail opened his eyes finally and performed a 90-degree turn at about fifty feet above ground, leveling off and regaining control of his altitude.
The Griffin blinked twice in amazement.
Bendl followed behind it for a minute, assessing the situation. Not able to see the pony and cart very well, he pulled up along its right side and flashed it with the q-beam. The grey one’s eyes shut, but for a second Bendl thought he saw tears of desperation streaming down the pony’s face.
It was a male Pegasus. Badly injured with three arrows stuck in it, along with countless bruises and cuts. The sky-cart itself was riddled with arrows and holes, and Bendl could clearly see two heavily injured (or dead?) stallions, a filly, and a mare slumped together in the back, unconscious.
Bendl shut off the light. He considered his options for a moment. He was ordered to shoot the pony down, but he obviously posed no threat, and was barely able to keep himself in the air. His weapon was strapped to his side. The pony’s dilapidated appearance, along with the injured-or-dead ponies in the cart gave him pause.
Shooting down an injured pony? That wasn’t something Bendl could force himself to do. He’d capture him instead. The dark grey Pegasus opened his eyes again and looked up at Bendl. Bendl saw the pony’s eyes grow wide with horror. He closed his eyes and shook his head, and looked back up at Bendl. What, did he expect him to be an illusion?
“Land in this valley! Go on, descend! I will get you medical attention!” Bendl shouted, pointing towards the ground.
The grey one shook his head and mouthed “no.”
Bendl cursed and put his hand to his face. Then he remembered the northern pony settlements a few miles to their West. He started pointing in that direction.
“There are pony settlements this way! I will escort you there!” Bendl yelled again.
Now the grey pony just looked confused.
In frustration, Bendl drew his bow and arrow, leveling it at the pony. Maybe that would make him reconsider.
The Pegasus stared at Bendl blankly for a few seconds, and then his expression changed to one of sadness. Bendl could see the pony sigh. He wasn’t descending though, so he had obviously resigned himself to being shot down. Stubborn bastard.
This pony was either stupid or crazy. He was going to try to make it all the way back to the Crystal Kingdom! Bendl looked behind him, making sure no Griffins were going to witness what he was about to do. He could be court martialed or executed.
Reluctantly, Bendl strapped the bow and arrow on his back. He couldn’t believe he was about to escort an enemy back to its base.
For twenty-five minutes Bendl flew alongside the pony, trying to keep him on course and towards the Crystal Kingdom. The pony was slowly losing altitude, and was flying very slow. Considering one of his wings had a Griffin arrow lodged in it, it was amazing that he was flying at all.
Bendl could faintly see the tall Crystal Castle on the horizon. He’d depart here. He looked over at the Pegasus, who was struggling to stay aloft but appeared to have renewed determination once the Crystal Kingdom was in sight. Bendl couldn’t help but smile. This guy might actually make it.
The pony stared at him confused. Unsure of the proper way to say farewell, Bendl gave a sharp salute and turned off course, back towards the Griffin Fortress…
________
Bendl had already come up with a cover story. He would say that he spent the fast few hours trying to track down the infiltrator, but finally had to give up. He’d add that the pony probably crashed somewhere in the Frozen North shortly after escaping, but he couldn’t find the crash site.
For his own sake, Bendl hoped they’d believe him.
Why did I let him go, anyway?
Bendl thought back to when he was first stationed at Vakayev’s fortress. He was an official Flier, but was still in training…
________
Bendl stood in line with the other Fliers who just arrived at the fortress. Their new Captain had just greeted them, and was now walking along his line of new subordinates.
“We’re probably going to war with the ponies soon,” he said, “you will be in combat with them, and they will be trying to kill you. When this happens, you will shoot them down with impunity!”
The Griffin Captain stopped in front of Bendl, looking him square in the eye.
“There will be killing, understand?”
Bendl nodded.
The Captain took a few steps back, again addressing the group.
“However! This does not mean you are to fight without honor! You are still Griffins, and you will adhere to the rules of decency!” He paused for a few seconds, and lowered his voice slightly.
“If I hear about one of my fliers shooting down para-troop ponies, medics, or injured ponies, I will kill you myself…”
________
Bendl brought his mind back to the present. That captain of his retired a few weeks ago, but the old Griffin’s words stuck out in his mind. Bendl was fine with shooting down combatant ponies, but he resonated with the Captain’s conviction that killing injured or non-combatant ponies was wrong.
Bendl left the cave and began flying back to the fortress. He would never speak of what really happened here.
Author's Note
"Vakayev" is the Griffin General that runs the Frozen North Griffin Fortress.
The incident between Bendl and Thunderlane was based on an actual even in WWII where a German fighter pilot escorted an injured American bomber out of enemy territory.
Please let me know how I can improve in the comments!
