Before Harmony: The Canterlot Campaign

ThunderWhip looked behind him at source of the snarls.  It was a griffin, as expected, with its hideous claws stretched out before it trying to take a strike at ThunderWhip's bleached white tail.  It would of been an easy kill with his bow, except that he was out of arrows.  Although he had already downed three in this combat alone, they were becoming more elusive, making many of his shots either non fatal or miss completely.  He had no idea what was going on below him on the ground, as he had to have his entire focus on the air around him.  The longer the conflict lasted, the more separated everypony became.  Now it was an individual fight for survival.

ThunderWhip searched around him, trying to find somepony that was near him, but all he saw was another griffin diving down from behind, gaining speed.

The pegasus then rolled to the left causing the diving griffin to catch nothing but air, though it caused the chasing one to catch up.  He then dove a little and banked to the right.  With the griffin not being able to be as maneuverable to follow, he continued to fly in a straight line, making him to be directly overhead of ThunderWhip.  ThunderWhip then continued to fly to the right, then rose up.  Now he was directly behind his former chaser.  He then raised his bow and reached for an arrow.

His hoof felt an empty quiver.

"Of all the times I had to miss so many shots, why does it have to be today!"

Without any other option, he flew up to gain more altitude, cursing as loud as he could.  He wished that he had something or anything that he could fight with, but bare hooves are not as useful as the beaks, claws and talons of the griffins...

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"Steady you sons of dams!  We've got to bloody hold this line!"

A griffin then flew low over the formation, hoping to snag an unaware pony.  Yet one pony saw the threat and snapped his pike up, catching the attacker right into his belly.  However, the force of its weight and speed caused it to vault directly into the middle of pike formation.  The dying griffin still struck out with everything it had in its desperate bid to fight.

"You pathetic mules!  Kill the stupid ass!"

But the damage was done.  A huge gap broke into the center of the pike wall and the enemy infantry took immediate advantage of the flaw.

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"Sir!  The center is breaking!"

The officer pointed dead ahead, where several ponies were running away from; their weapons discarded into the dirt.

"Send the reserves in then!" shouted the general.

"They are on the flanks, like you ordered earlier."

"And?!"

"They won't get here on time."

"I didn't ask for your suggestions, get them moving at the gallop!  Now!"

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ThunderWhip did not have many more options left for him.  He could fly away and live another day, or fight and die.

He chose the best two -- fight and live.

Diving straight down, he looked for an open patch of ground between his routing allies and the enemy.  The griffins were a lesser threat now as they were eager after going the tails of the fleeing ponies.

Thunder pulled up horizontally, avoiding skimming his hooves on the earth by only three feet.

"Oh come on!  There has to be something!"

He grabbed a spear, but just to realize that it was a pike -- by far too long for what he wanted.  He broke it in two over his knee, but it was still too unbalanced.  He ended up just flinging it at the enemy, who were getting too close for comfort.  He noticed them as being the unicorns of the north with their glassy colored coats; their swords held in mid air before them with their magic with an eerie glow.

"Swords..."

That gave him an idea.  A suicidal one perhaps, but still an idea.

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From the peak of the mountain, she sighed.  The army was breached, the center was crushed, the left was routing westward and the right flank was beating retreat, trying its best to fall back to the half finished fortifications around the fledging settlement below.

"Canterlot.  What an ironic name now..." she commented to herself watching the streams of ponies galloping from the battlefield.

She looked away.

It was supposed to of been a new age, a new era of cooperation and peace, equality and safety.  It was a wish for no more fear of each other.

"Yet fear was what existed in our armies today.  Fear was what caused the North and West to ally with each other.  And fear is what I feel of my failure..."

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The unicorns laughed.

"You really think you can beat us?"

"Well, yeah.  Why not?  I could get lucky, like how you were when you broke the center."

They laughed again.  A crowd began to form from the units behind and flanking them.  Soon, there was a circle completely around ThunderWhip, perhaps close to a thousand jeering and jesting ponies.  However, they kept their distance from him, creating a small arena.

"So what are you going to do eh?  Fight all of us?"

"Oh don't be so ridiculous!  Give me a sword or something first."

Laughter erupted once again.

"How about this?" a voice shouted over the crowd from behind.

ThunderWhip looked out of the peripheral of his left eye.  It was a stone flying towards him.  He raised one of his rear hooves and gave it a sharp kick.

All that was heard next was a loud clang, a falling unicorn, a rush of air and a single loud jest:

"Thanks for the sword gents!"

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"What's this?  The enemy has halted!"

The remark of surprise drew her attention.  Sure enough, there was a cluster of enemies formed oddly in a circle, causing a gap in the middle of the enemy.  This was causing the other units to disengage from the pursuit noticing that their own center had stopped carrying the charge.

"This still does not mean victory," She paused, knowing that her words absorbed the little glimmer of joy that the others had, "...but it is certainly a miracle.  The center is gone, and the left flank is still going to flee, but the right flank might be able to make it back to Canterlot.  There they will join with the garrison."

She tried to make it sound like a victory for that fraction of an instant, but she knew it wasn't.  The day was a complete and utter failure -- two thirds of the soldiers are gone, the enemy army is still outside of Canterlot.  The attempted sortie failed miserably.  Of all the Canterlot Coalition forces, a half were lost today.

Suddenly, she interjected, "Is there still any word of ArgentHeart's Army of Everfree?"

"No, we have not heard from them since two weeks ago when they started pursuing a reinforcement army.  None of our messages nor messengers have returned that we have sent out."

She did not reply back.