The quiet rattle of unworn armor shifting about broke the calm just before sunrise. The ground briefly quaked every five or so seconds with the distant pops of explosions and eventually woke a sleeping grey pegasus. With a yawn, he cracked open one eye and turned over, facing the metal opposite of his, he moved his open eye the small nightstand where he looked at a small alarm clock that read just past six in the morning.

With a silent yawn, Thunder sat up slowly. It was a great surprise to him when his forehead met the cold steel of the bed base above his own and left him with a throbbing headache. He groaned and lifted a hoof to his head and rubbed at it gently, the hit leaving a small stinging bruise just above his right eye.

He moved out from underneath the bunk and stood on all fours, letting his muscles ease as he did. Thunder opened both eyes and yawned, lifting a hoof to rub one and then to move his bed-head mane out of his face. Yawning once more, he turned his head towards Sharpblade's bed, his eyes opened wide when he realized the unicorn wasn't there.

Just a few moments later, another faint pop shook the airship and caught his attention away from Sharp's bed. Thunder walked to the window and peeked out, he turned towards the east which was the direction the ship was facing and saw distant orange flashes, and with each flash, thick, black smoke rose from those directions.

Shortly after, he could hear quick-moving thumps of hooves upstairs and down the hallway, followed by shouting by two soldiers rushing to wake everypony up, others rushing by. The door swung open and in peeked a silver earth pony in polished golden battle armor, he looked at Thunderblast with shocked eyes, but a stoic expression overall. Both Stormfire and Spear shot up when the door opened, wondering what was going on.

"All of you, get up! The griffons are pushing through to Gryffsvale, we're all being called out to the bloodfields! Be outside in two minutes!" The guard then ran out of the door jam, a small squad of soldiers following him quickly with their weapons.

"What's going on?" Stormfire asked tiredly as he floated down to the floor.

"Gear up, we're going into battle," Thunder immediately rushed to put his armor on and grab his weapons.

***

Just a few minutes after gearing up, Thunderblast, Spear, Stormfire, and most of the camp's occupants were on the dirt-cobble path heading east towards Gryffsvale. The distant pops and bright orange flashes of explosions lit the sky much like lightning during a severe thunderstorm, but without the cloud cover and rain.

The large crowd of soldiers stepped over the hill that overlooked the city, to the north, west, and south of it were active battlefields as the Griffons were struggling to push back into the town to take it back completely.

"Oh, fun," Spear mumbled just loud enough for his friends to hear.

"You can say that again," Thunder replied, his deep blue eyes gazing over the horizon.

The group stopped, their squad leader stepping out in front of the line. "That there soldiers," he removed the golden helmet from his head and held it outwards in a hoof. "That is where we will be today," he turned to the group behind him. "There will be no going back, until every griffon is either dead, dying, or captured. We cannot let them retake something that is technically already theirs."

The squad leader paused and looked down a bit. "And there will be bloodshed. Both from the Griffons and from us. There will be men lost. But if we work together, and look out for each other, we will all go home and have a story to tell. We fight as one!" He raised his helmet into the air.

The group raised their left forehooves into the air, and in unison they shouted. "Hooah!"

The squad leader slipped his helmet back over his blue mane and turned to face the city once more, looking over the amount of destruction happening in front of them before resuming a calm march.

Looking around them, Spear spoke up. "Where's Sharp?"

***

Elsewhere, Sharpblade quietly sneaked through near the center of Gryffsvale, the nearby pops of gunfire and grenades going off being the one thing that he wasn't focusing on. Tucked away in a small saddlebag on his armor was an Equestrian flag, and he had the intention of delivering it to the tower in the center of the city with hope that it would force the Griffons to draw back. It was unlikely, but it was worth a shot.

He froze when the approaching thumps of griffon paws and armor shifting about made his ears perk, and out of reflex Sharp moved into a boarded up apartment building to wait for the enemy to pass. The dark grey unicorn stayed in the darkness of the powerless building, peeking around the corner of a wall and watching the shadows of four griffon troops sneaking by the light of a small flame burning in the street.

When the coast was clear, Sharp stuck his head out of the front of the building and looked his surroundings over before determining it was safe to go out again without being jumped by an enemy soldier. Or, at least, he hoped.

Besides the distant pops of explosions and gunfire, where Sharp was was extremely calm and it almost made him believe he would reach his destination before long. But, the approaching footsteps of more griffon soldiers forced him back into the building and eventually upstairs where they began searching the second floor. Prior to the griffons coming across his hiding spot, he used his magic to quietly barricade the stairwell with heavy debris that couldn't be moved by talon—or hoof.

With a soft yawn, Sharp scanned over one of the two second-story apartments and settled down on a blanket he pulled off of a damaged bed to lay on. He took off his helmet and the main piece of his armor, then laid belly down, looking down with tired eyes at his hooves which still had the hoof guards on them. With no sleep in almost twenty-four hours, Sharp dozed off where he was—still hoping and praying to Celestia that the enemy doesn't find him.

***

Further outside of town, Thunderblast, Stormfire and Spear marched towards the line of fire between other guards and the defending griffons. Bright bolts of blue and green flew between the sides following the loud pops of the gunpowder igniting and propelling the weapon's ammunition towards targets, most missing while some got lucky hits. As they marched into battle, the group noticed arrows raining down from above, having being shot from a distance and were just now coming down to earth.

"Take cover!" Shouted Thunder, who grabbed Storm and dove against a large rock that stuck out of the ground and shielded them from the arrow rain.

A yard away, Spear tucked into a small ball, the arrows just barely and miraculously bouncing off of his armor with loud clanks. Shortly after it stopped, Spear ran to the two and sat against the rock as gunfire came their way, zipping past their cover.

"Lock and load, wait for them to reload and take 'em out!" Thunderblast said above the loud explosions of gunfire, coming from both sides of the field.

The three loaded their rifles and waited patiently for the oncoming gunfire to cease momentarily. Unfortunately, that calm never came, but it did slow down just enough for them to come out of hiding. When they did, Stormfire and Spear scattered to different spots for cover to get better aim, while Thunder remained where he was. He stood on his hinds and leaned onto the rock, taking careful aim of a closer enemy griffon soldier that wasn't previously seen by another squad of guards there with them.

"Hey, on your two!" He shouted to one of the nearby soldiers, then pulled the trigger twice.

The enemy soldier dropped to the ground, lifeless and bloody from the hits. The guard he shouted to noticed this and quickly turned to Thunder, nodding once to him in thanks. Thunder crouched back down to reload his weapon, taking two more medium sized steel balls out of his ammunition pack and loaded them into the barrel of his rifle.

A few yards over from him, Stormfire had crouched against a smaller rock that did not provide much cover and left the top of his helmet out in the open. To his luck, it was just the mane piece and wouldn't have caused him any injury. He waited for gunfire to move away from his direction, where he stood up and shot towards two advancing griffons.

The first bullet missed one, the second hitting the other in the chest but not in the heart. It still brought the enemy soldier down and left her bleeding on the ground, the other griffon beside her dropping to bring her into cover. Luckily, that didn't happen as the two were subdued by Spear's gunfire from another few yards away.

The fire exchanged for a long hour and a half before finally calming down to the point where the remaining enemy griffons pulled back towards the city. It was much to the guard's surprise, they all cheered in victory with thankfully no lives being lost, but two were left injured and were quickly taken back to the camp a few miles away.

"How are we looking?" Thunder gathered up with Spear and Stormfire.

"Well, a couple of close calls," Storm pointed to his helmet, Thunder let out a small chuckle when he saw the mane piece was shredded. "Other than that, I'm good."

"Spear?"

"I'm good. A little low on ammo, but I'll survive."

"Go get some from the munitions officer, there's plenty to go around. We're not done here yet—may I remind you two that we still need to find Sharp."

Spear nodded, then trotted off to find the ammunitions officer nearby. Meanwhile, Thunder climbed atop the rock he used for cover and scanned over the area. Few griffon bodies were scattered around with pools of blood in the grass beside or under them. In the distance, heavier gunfire could be seen and heard and it seemed as if that was the heavier fight at the moment.

Thunder turned back to the others. "Listen up, there's a heavy gunfight to the north. From what I could see, it looks like they need our help," he glided down from the rock, then folded up his wings. "Everypony check your weapons and ammunition, round two is coming."

Stormfire let out a soft sigh, reloading his rifle with two sphere bullets, then clicking the barrel back into place. Thunder walked up and put a hoof on his shoulder.

"It'll be alright. We'll all go home."

Storm simply nodded, standing on all fours. "Lead the way."

Thunder nodded once, then began cantering in the direction of the firefight north of where they were. The others followed close behind, each keeping themselves straight and ready for more oncoming fire. As they approached, one bullet found it's way towards them and just barely missed one of the unicorns in the group.

"Take cover!" Thunder shouted above the pops of gunpowder igniting.

The group scrambled into cover behind rocks and other objects that provided protection. Even with the group of ten guards already at the site, they were far outnumbered, and the griffons were pushing closer and closer. As Thunder waited for the chance to shoot, he noticed one of the guards from the other group falling onto his back, a large wound in his chest. His eyes widened immediately once he saw the pony was instantly lifeless after taking the hit.

Angered, he stood up over his cover and began returning fire, two bullets at a time. One managed to hit the shoulder of a griffon soldier but didn't take him down. Instead, it made the griffon turn to him. Thunder dove back into cover where he very quickly reloaded and stood back up to return fire.

A few yards away, Spear was crouched against a small rock that barely provided cover and bullets were getting dangerously close to his head. He panted heavily, heart beating fast in his chest from the adrenaline rush of the battle. He waited, then whipped around and shot his two bullets right into the chest and head of a griffon, killing it.

"One down!" He shouted above the gunfire, he hid again to reload his rifle.

Just one griffon down wasn't any good against their advancing squadron. At least twenty or so griffons were closing in on the Equestrian guards at an alarming rate. Stormfire stayed in hiding, turning and looking in both directions around him. One guard fell, wounded and dying. Then another. And soon another. It quickly became too much, and he stood up. Without taking much time to aim, he shot one bullet into an approaching griffon's head, knocking his helmet off of his head with the bullet exploding out through the back of the griffon's head, sending blood and bits of brain everywhere.

Storm shuddered at the sight, quickly aiming towards another griffon and firing. This time, the bullet hit the griffon's wing and stopped her from flying away. The griffon yelped and hissed as Storm went back into cover where he reloaded once more right as gunfire began whipping by his own head.

"Die, you pricks!" Spear shouted, leaned over a wooden barrier and shooting multiple bullets towards oncoming griffon troops who were already struggling to find places to take cover from not only his but other soldiers' bullets.

When his ammunition ran out, he crouched down to reload and reached for one of the ammo packs attached to his armor, only to drop it and bullets to spill out onto the ground. "Shoot!" He muttered to himself and scrambled to load them into the barrel of his rifle.

Unknowingly, Spear was half out in the open and was still scrambling to pick up the ammunition he had dropped. For one griffon soldier armed with a crossbow across the field, the white pegasus was in his line of view, and he took careful aim while leaned on a rock. The griffon loaded a plain arrow onto the crossbow and adjusted his aim just a hair, before shooting it right towards Spear.

Across the field, Spear reached for the final two bullets laying on the ground, when a large pain struck his chest and turned his world upside down. His pupils shrunk to pinpricks when he glanced down slowly and saw the arrow sticking straight out of the side of his chest with a blood crawling down his ice-white coat and pooling onto the grass below him.

Thunderblast, who was right across the barrier, still behind a rock for cover, noticed Spear's wound with wide-eyes and watched as he collapsed. "No...Spear!" He shouted, quickly looking over his cover and spotting the griffon preparing to shoot Spear again. He raised his rifle quickly and emptied his barrel upon the griffon, wounding him severely.

Instead of stopping to reload, Thunder immediately dove across the open to pull Spear back into cover. He leaned back against the barrier with Spear now laying on his back on his lap. "No...no no no!" His ears pinned to his head while he looked over the wound.

Spear was bleeding moderately, but the arrow itself had done enough damage. Thunder took hold of Spear's helmet and slid it off of his head, the golden headpiece fell onto the dirt beside them with a light clank. Spear slowly turned his head to look up at Thunder and squinted lightly before coughing.

"Th...Thunder..." he spoke in a raspy voice, coughing two more times.

"Y-you're going to be okay, Spear. You're fine," Thunder's heart raced as he tried to calm not only Spear, but himself. "It's not that bad..."

"Thunder..." Spear squinted more, his vision beginning to blur. He then cracked a small smile. "I-it's...okay..."

"Y-yes, it is okay, you're going to be okay..."

Spear slowly shook his head after a pause. "Y-you're not...a very good liar..." he coughed some more, spitting up some blood.

Tears slowly built up in Thunder's glassy eyes as he stared down at his wounded friend, ears still very much pinned to his head. "S-Spear...I-I..."

"Sssshhh..." Spear raised a shaky and weak hoof to Thunder's lips to silence him, which he did. A few moments later, his hoof dropped to the ground. "S-shoot...it got dark fast...h-heh..."

Thunder nodded slowly, a tear falling down his cheek. "I-it did...it did..."

Spear turned his head, staring straight up at the sky and coughing again. "Pr-promise me, Thunder...promise me...i-it'll be okay..." He started to tear up as well.

Thunder's heart shattered at the sight of Spear tearing up. The sound around him seemed to have drowned itself out. "I...it'll be...o-okay..." he sniffled and did his best to smile down at his dying comrade.

Spear gave a faint, weak smile back and nodded once. "Y-you were...a great friend...Thunder.."

Just moments later, Spear's eyes slowly closed, and his blood-covered body went limp in Thunder's hooves.

Thunder shook his head in disbelief, more tears streaming down his cheeks. "S-Spear...please...don't go..." He whimpered, and very quickly began to sob, holding Spear's now limp and lifeless body against his chest.

"SPEAR!!" He sobbed out loud, gaining the attention of the others.

Stormfire noticed Thunder holding Spear's body and his eyes widened. He turned to the other guards and shouted, "Cover the first sergeant!"

The other guards nodded, and began advancing further towards the few remaining griffons with bullets and arrows flying in two directions.

Soon after, the remaining griffons started running the other way in retreat. Once the area was clear, Stormfire opened his wings and flew over to Thunderblast, who was still grasping Spear's bloody and lifeless body tightly in his hooves and to his chest. His ear's fell and he stepped closer slowly.

"He's gone..." He spoke quietly as other guards walked over and circled around them, looking over their fallen comrade's body and removing their helmets in respect. Storm followed suit and closed his eyes, looking down as a gentle rain started to pat down on the earth.

Following a moment of silence in honor of Spear, Stormfire walked closer to Thunder and rested a hoof on his shoulder. The grey pegasus sniffled and was still shedding tears when he glanced up to Storm, who stared back into his eyes and saw just how distraught Thunder was before he pulled him into a tight hug.

"He was a great soldier...and a better friend, Thunder," Storm muttered.

"I-I know..." he stuttered and choked up. "I-I should have had his back...the griffon was right in front of me."

"Hey now..." Storm turned Thunder around and sat down before him, both hooves on his shoulders. "You couldn't have stopped what happened."

"I could have...I could have jumped in front of him and taken the damn arrow..." Thunder's ears fell down once more.

"Don't say that, Thunder. You have a family at home waiting for you. Even if Spear doesn't, he won't be forgotten."

Thunder slowly looked down towards the ground, a final tear shedding.

"Come on...we have to move on. We have to leave him behind. We have to find Sharp."

***

The group worked their way into Gryffsvale cautiously, weapons reloaded and hearts heavy after the loss of Spear. Since leaving his body, Thunder hadn't said one word and his head was held down the entire time, a shadow from his rain-soaked helmet casting over his eyes to where they couldn't be seen in the growing light of dawn.

The town, still, seemingly was abandoned and was left in ruin. Each building had a different story to tell in the terms of damage. Windows were broken, walls were heavily cracked or had massive holes in them from mine explosions, and some were just completely burnt down or blown to smithereens. It was enough to send a chill up even the toughest soldier's spine.

Stormfire, who kept a watchful eye out in front of them with his rifle slung over his shoulder, also scanned buildings for any signs of life, anywhere Sharp could have been hiding, or worse.

"Corporal, private, check these shops for anything. Make it quick, and be on the lookout for mines."

The two guards nodded and trotted into shops, flicking on flashlights and searching for whatever they could find that would help to their advantage, or to find Sharp. Once finished, they moved on to the next shops, and the next ones after those. Meanwhile, Stormfire, Thunderblast and one other guard worked their way down the debris-strewn cobble street before reaching an intersection. He glanced both ways. "Which way?" He turned to Thunder.

The grey pegasus slowly raised his head, just enough to look around and making his eyes just barely visible. "Left. Then right."

Stormfire stared at Thunder for a moment and blinked, then looked around the left corner and saw another intersection just a few buildings down, where nothing seemed to be destroyed—yet. Storm, afterwards, put a hoof to his mouth and whistled for the other two guards to return to them, which they did.

"Find anything?"

"Nothing of use, and no sign of Sharp still."

Storm sighed. "Very well then. Thunder says to go left and then right. Let us trust his directions," he said as he led the group to the left, and soon to the right where some taller buildings were at. On the side, one street light flickered before going completely out with sparks of electricity falling down before fading out into nothing. The group cautiously walked down the intersection and stopped about halfway down.

"Alright. Let's all split up and search these buildings. We're bound to find something, even if it's just food we can take back or have later," Storm said as he looked over the street and eventually walked towards an shop and apartment building on the left side of the street, while the others went and searched other buildings beside each other.

Storm examined the small, empty shop with a flashlight and found a door leading to a back room, likely to some stairs leading up. He tried to open it, only to find it was locked. He looked around, then onto the floor where he found a small key. He picked it up, hoping it would open the door so he wouldn't have to kick it down and likely attract unwanted attention to them. He inserted the key into the lock—jackpot! It clicked and swung open, leading to a small room that was nothing but a stairwell going up four more floors.

"Sharp?" He spoke quietly and floated up the stairs with gentle flaps of his wings. Once at the top, he landed with gentle, quiet clops of his hooves touching the wooden floor, and he walked up to where the door of an apartment was located, only to find it barricaded by wooden planks, and furniture on the inside.

He glanced up, seeing an opening where he could look inside, and floated up to the top, peeking into the apartment. As he did, a light scuffle could be heard from inside. Storm's eyes widened and he quickly landed, then took a few steps back. He thought over a quick plan of attack in his mind, and then proceeded to turn around and kick the barricaded door open, sending whatever small furniture was blocking the door and wooden planks flying inside with a loud crash that was sure to attract attention. Turning back around, he slowly entered the apartment, holding a knife in one hoof and a flashlight in the other.

As he walked inside, his flashlight flickered, then went out. He stopped and slapped it a few times with his hoof. "Bollocks..." he muttered, throwing it to the ground with a loud thump and continued into the small apartment. It was a single room, with the living room, kitchen, and even beds all in the same space. Poverty was a growing problem in the Griffon Kingdom, and from the looks of the apartment, whoever was living there before was in it. To Stormfire, it was...sad.

Another scuffle from behind the kitchen counter which caught his attention. He slowly walked towards the kitchen, knife drawn and heart beginning to beat faster than normal. Then, suddenly, he was thrown to the ground in the other direction, chest down and knife knocked out of his hoof. He struggled to push himself upright, only to find he was pinned by some sort of invisible force. Storm grunted and kicked his legs, then felt his forehooves be grabbed from off the floor and held behind his back where they were quickly bound together by rope.

He shrieked and struggled against his bindings. "Get off of me!" He shouted, then whatever was on top of him suddenly stopped.

"Storm?" Came a voice from above.

Storm's eyes opened and he slowly looked up. A light blue magical aura lit up the space, revealing an armorless Sharp to be standing above him. He blinked and tilted his head. "Sharp?"

Quickly, Sharp snapped the rope off of Storm's hooves and pulled him up on his hooves. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"No, what are you doing here? We thought you were captured or something!" Storm threw a hoof up in some annoyance.

"Almost earlier, actually," Sharp turned around and walked back behind the kitchen where his gear was sitting. "I tried sneaking back out here to complete the mission, to push us further into the town than the griffons expected. I haven't had the chance to go to the tower just yet. I stopped to rest."

"Are you stupid, Sharp? You could have gotten yourself captured, or worse."

"But I didn't, and you found me. Send me to trial for being a quote-unquote traitor for Celestia's sake. I was only trying to do the right thing."

Storm sighed, then rubbed his forehead. "You were, you were. And I'm glad you're safe." He looked back up. "Sharp...Spear is dead."

Sharp's head looked up quickly, eyes widened in shock. "He's...what?"

"Dead. Killed in action. Took an arrow to the chest...and...died in Thunder's arms."

Sharp froze completely, then his ears flattened out. "That's...I...I have no words.."

"We're just as shocked as you are, Sharp. Thunder, he...hasn't spoken to any of us since then. Other than to give us directions on where to go."

"Damn..." He looked down.

"So, get your gear. We're going."

"I'm not going with you guys."

"Why the hell not?" Storm raised an eyebrow.

"I need to get this flag to the tower and hang it up."

"Who said anything about us going back to base?"

"What?"

Stormfire walked up to Sharp. "If that's your mission, we'll make it ours. Our mission was to find you, but now that we have, we can set our minds on getting this flag to the tower."

Sharp slowly cracked a smile. "You sure you're up for it? It'll be hell trying to get there."

"Better die trying than to not try at all, right?"

"Yeah," he smiled more. "Let's go retake this city."

Author's Note

After a good few months of hiatus, chapter four is finally here! Enjoy!