Hammer and Harmony: Corruption

Spike awoke late that day. Celestia’s sun was already climbing high above the horizon as he stretched his body, removing sleep from his limbs. He enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

Walking inside the forge, Spike saw it abandoned . . . except for the pony he was looking for. Gizo sat calmly, staring at the forge, a distant look in his eyes.

Without turning, the stallion spoke as though he knew Spike was there, despite the dragon’s soundless entrance. “Are you ready Dragon Spike?”

Nodding, Spike replied, “Yes.”

The pair worked quickly to strap the dragon into his now-silver armor, with lines of green and purple encircling it.

“Go now, and defend your hoard.”

“Will you come with me?” Spike asked.

Shaking his head, Gizo replied, “I will not leave my forge. Should the griffons come to Canterlot, I will fight. Until then, this is goodbye, Dragon. Make your ancestors proud.” Gizo placed a hoof on Spike’s foot.

Dipping his head in goodbye, Spike left without another word.

Lifting his wings, Spike left the ground with a single powerful downstroke, dirt flying from the downdraft. Now high in the air, Spike observed Canterlot in all its glory, but no business was done today. Except for a few patrolling guards, the city was empty.

As Spike left the city, he began to turn east towards Fillydelphia, before spotting something unusual. A whole army of ponies was coming from the west towards Canterlot. Unsure of who these ponies were Spike swooped down towards them to get a closer look.

He was confused at first, for the ponies had no banner of loyalty. They walked slowly and dejectedly instead of marching. Then, he noticed one particular pony, an orange mare in a large Stetson and silver armor near the back of the army.

Swooping down, Spike landed next to the orange mare, frightening some of the other ponies. Applejack didn’t notice him. She simply stared at the ground, ignoring everything around here.

Spike spoke, “Applejack! What happened?”

Shaking her head to clear her stupor, “Hi Spike we-,” Applejack turned and saw the dragon for the first time, “Sp-Spike? Is that you? What happened to ya?” She poked one of his wings with a hoof.

Laughing slightly, Spike responded, “I got a little bigger, I guess. Dragon stuff. Now, what happened?”

Somber again, Applejack spoke, “We lost, Spike. We lost Appleloosa and Dodge City. We’re headed back ta the plains ta meet up with the rest o’ the army.”

Staring, Spike responded, “That can’t be all of it. I know you too well, AJ. What else happened?”

Without warning, she burst into tears and hugged Spike. “We-We lost him Spike… They-They killed Braeburn!” Sobs rocked through her, head to tail.

All Spike could do was hold the mare as she cried into his armored shoulder. The pair stayed there for several minutes as the army slowly faded into the distance over the hills.

Unsure of what to say, but still wanting to say something, Spike finally spoke, “They need you, AJ. Your brother needs you. Your friends need you. Equestria needs you. You have to be strong now,” Spike said as he stroked Applejack’s mane slightly.

“Ah-Ah know. It’s jus’ . . . It’s jus’ so hard now!” Applejack looked up for the first time in several minutes, and looked around. “Aw horse apples! Let’s git a move on, we don’t wanna be late.” She wiped her tears and hurried after the remnants of the army.

THAT’S the strong mare I know, Spike thought to himself as they both hurried to catch up to the army. Once there, Applejack quickly took command from her brother and made tracks for the plains. Spike followed from the air.

The sun was low in the horizon when Spike and the army of earth ponies arrived at the predetermined retreat point. He instantly saw that something was wrong . . . instead of a few thousand ponies helping with injuries and supplies, he saw the entire army of 10,000 setting up tents and battlements.

Spike tried to catch a glimpse of anypony he knew, but the crowd was massive.

Then, he saw them. Five mares in glimmering silver armor were entering a large tent. Noting its location, Spike turned around and searched the crowd for Applejack. Finding her, he swooped down, grabbed her, and lifted off. She protested loudly, but in no time, they were at the tent.

Applejack was quite shaken from her short flight, but the guards at the door allowed them to enter, revealing a war room like Applejack had seen at the Castle.

Shining Armor bore a scowl as he approached the newcomers, “I guess this means we lost Appleloosa too?”

“Eeyup,” Applejack sighed as she lowered her head.

For the first time, the other gathered ponies noticed Spike. It was kind of hard to ignore him, he was the largest one in the tent.

“Spike? Is that you?” Twilight asked as she trotted over, poking one of his wings with a hoof.

“Yeah. A lot happened in the last few days,” Spike responded, laughing slightly.

“That has to be the understatement of the century, Spike,” Shining Armor said as he sat back down. He looked at a large map before continuing, “We lost Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and now Appleloosa. It’s anypony’s guess what the griffons did to Manehattan. We have to try and hold them here . . . the only other option is to retreat to Canterlot. From scouting reports, they still have 42,000 griffons, and we’re down to only 10,000 ponies.”

Sighing as he looked at the map and list of things that needed to be done, Shining Armor continued, “The griffons won’t march at night, which means the battle will probably be the day after tomorrow. Until then, we all have our preparations to do. Dismissed.”

The mares nodded their heads slowly, and began to walk out of the tent. As it was Spike’s turn to leave, Shining Armor spoke once more, “Spike, we need to talk.”

Spike froze and turned, “Huh?”

“We had a problem in Fillydelphia. A dragon by the name of Titanus showed up, and made us retreat all by himself . We didn’t even dent the griffon invaders.”

Spike shivered at the name. Titanus was old and powerful enough to be in Gizo’s stories. What he remembered, he didn’t like.

Shining armor continued, “When the fight starts, I need you to distract him as long as you can.”

“Why me?” Spike asked. From the stories he’d heard from Gizo, this was going to be a tall order.

“Because you’re the only one with fire resistant scales. Nopony can survive against that monster. We need you to either distract him the entire battle, or put him out of commission.”

Nodding, Spike replied, “Well, if that’s the job you have for me, that’s the job I’ll do.”

“Thanks. Now, go relax. We have bad couple of days coming up.”

The next day passed quickly as Spike helped out wherever he could. He spent most of the day with Pinkie Pie, helping build battlements for the artillery division on a nearby hill. He’d tried talking with her, asking what happened to her company, but she didn’t say a word unless it involved moving the cannons. She was direct, didn’t stray from her work, and very quiet. It was so . . . Un-Pinkie . . . that Spike knew something was wrong. He kept his concerns to himself, knowing Pinkie would talk when she needed too.

The camp was a constant flurry of activity, the newly-formed soldiers running around like ants. They were doing everything and anything they could to help ward off anxiety, while the trained guardsmen simply sat with their whetstones, sharpening their weapons to perfection. The tense atmosphere only grew as, late that afternoon, the griffons arrived and began making camp.

Spike stared up into luna’s night sky as stars began to light up. Tomorrow’s the day I guess.

Then, out of nowhere, a shrill scream echoed through the night, followed by a flash of fire lighting up the camp.

General Bloodbeak paced in front of a small company of griffons. All were armed to the teeth.

Licking his beak, the General spoke, “Colonel, you and your company are to raid the pony’s camp once night falls. Your goal is to set everything on fire, and eliminate all the supplies and medical personnel possible. Any questions?”

“No sir!” Twenty griffons responded simultaneously.

“Dismissed!” Pausing slightly, the General then called the average-looking Colonel over, “And Colonel . . . if you would be so kind as to bring me back some . . . Entertainment,” the General licked his beak once more, “I think there would be room for a promotion.”

The Colonel shivered before responding, “Of course, sir.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

Every griffon in the army had at least heard rumors of General Bloodbeak’s ‘tastes,’ which often involved the rape of whomever he was fighting. Thoughts of this fact filtered through the Colonel’s head as he followed his company. If all went well tonight, he would break the pony’s resolve and get promoted. A good night indeed.

They flew silently towards the pony camp. Turning to his team, the Colonel whispered, “Major, I need you to take ten griffons of your choice and find the medical area. The rest of us will raid the supplies.”

“Yes sir!” came the response as the Major gathered his team, and flew off in a slightly different direction.

Ten griffons landed silently outside of the major supply tent before entering unseen. The Colonel saw exactly what he was looking for: food, water, and a single white mare with a purple mane wearing silver battle armor facing away from his company. Perfect.

The Colonel signaled for silence as he crept up behind the mare, quickly knocking her unconscious with the pommel of his warhammer.

“Light it up!” The Colonel said as he slung the pony on his back.

The other griffons quickly lit everything on fire with the matches and oil they’d brought, followed by a swift exit. Well, that was easy, the Colonel thought as they flew back to the griffon camp, flapping hard under the unconscious pony’s weight.

Fluttershy was busy all day, and didn’t notice the sun had gone down. She was too busy tending to the hundreds of wounded from Fillydelphia to worry about much of anything. That changed when she heard something odd from the tent entrance.

Her eyes bulged when she saw ten fully-armed griffons enter the tent.

Doctor Horse was near the entrance, and tried to call the alarm. Before he even got a word out, a large spear stuck into his throat, reducing his scream to a gurgle. Fluttershy fled to the back of the tent. She watched in horror as the griffons massacred the unarmed doctors and injured patients, and destroyed all the supplies they could.

A griffon spoke, “Major! This yellow one is kinda nice. We should take her to the General, you know how he likes his ‘Entertainment’”

Another large griffon looked over to where his subordinate was pointing at Fluttershy. “Yeah. She even has armor . . . must be important. Bring her with us.”

Fluttershy panicked even more, and was stuck shaking in a corner as three griffons came close. Fear flooded her.

Then, out of nowhere, a white unicorn with large purple shades jumped between Fluttershy and the griffons. The unicorn slammed the griffons into a tent wall with her magic.

“You Bitch!” a griffon exclaimed as he threw a spear towards the unicorn, the spear slicing through her shoulder, impaling itself in her chest. She froze in shock, staring at the wood pole sticking out of her. Then she collapsed.

Many ponies knew that Fluttershy could get angry, and when she did, everypony better stay out of the way. Other ponies also know there are two types of anger: the red-hot anger that normally involves cursing and shouting, and the other, much more dangerous anger that was cold, calculating, and murderous.

That cold anger was what enveloped Fluttershy as she saw the unicorn drop. She recognized her as the Ponyville DJ.

Runes glowed over Fluttershy’s armor, flooding the inside of the tent with blue light as she knelt down and held the white unicorn who had tried to help her. The griffons took a step back, surprised at the sudden change. The runes were unreadable at first, constantly shifting, but then they seemed to settle on one word . . .

Authority.

Fluttershy stared at the griffons that surrounded her. Tilting her head, she somehow gave “The Stare” to all of them at the same time, and spoke in a monotone containing no emotion, “You can all die now.”

Their response was quick. “Yes, My Lady!” They pulled out their weapons and slit their own throats.

Dubiously seeing all of this happen, the Major, who was on the other side of the tent, hauled tail to get out of there, taking to the sky as quickly as he could.

As the night wore on, rumors of ‘The Harbinger’ spread throughout the griffon camp. Many were fearful, for they’d either heard stories or been there when the Blood Mare and the Banshee had done something similar in Baltimare and Appleloosa. All too many were getting discouraged by the stories. The Major’s report didn’t help.