The next day was a usual morning for the Mane 6, expect they were in a small cave in the middle of a mountain, they began to pack up their supplies and resumed their journey up the mountain to the Griffon Empire Capital. The mountain itself wasn’t all that hard to climb, in fact there was a path leading up the Capital. Being as straightforward as possible with it all it seemed too easy for just a way up the mountain.

Piercing and Golden held up their guard at all times while the girls kept trying to loosen them up. Their efforts to do so were a complete failure.

Golden however saw three figures up ahead, Pony-like from what he can summarize, the clear sky soon became a dense gray fog that surrounded them. This is where Piercing spoke softly but firmly.

“Everypony behind us, Golden on me.” Golden nodded following him, bow drawn ready for a lethal attack.

The fog cleared some so they can see the figures ahead, it was indeed a few ponies however they were mangled up. Their guts and blood everywhere, swords stabbed through them, limbs detached and several feet away from them.

‘Poor bastards were murdered but by what?’ Piercing thought looking around trying to find the source of this horrific scene. He spotted a shadow moving quickly in the dense fog. It was coming for him, with little time to react Piercing shot out several darts at the shadow and saw that they indeed hit their target. The black figure fell from where he was hovering into the surface below the mountain.

Piercing looked back to Golden. “Make sure the girls are okay, ask Rainbow Dash if it’s possible to clear this fog ASAP, I don’t think I can predict when another being like that will come for us, nor I want to find out what it was.”

Golden didn’t argue with him he ran back to the girls who were sitting around waiting for the all clear signal to continue. He stopped by Rainbow Dash and explained the situation. She agreed to help out and flew up in the sky, flapping furiously against the fog she blew away most of it, it was enough to see at least a good 50 feet ahead.

She flew down and stuck the landing perfectly in front of Golden who was quite impressed. “Done!” is all Rainbow exclaimed out loud acting sly and cocky.

“Well then, good work Rainbow Dash… Let’s keep moving.” Golden said motioning them to follow him.

Piercing was waiting for them to catch up to him. When they did he continued with them up the mountain. Twilight estimated that they were almost to the top, which was a good thing because Piercing, like Sunset, had enough of this ‘mission’. Twilight was right they all can see the top of the mountain and the city walls came into view; they finally made it to the Capital.

Upon entering through the walls they were met with some resistance, not the rebels but the Royal Guards of the city. They drew their swords and bows aimed only at the gang as the girls hid behind both Golden and Piercing. Sunset came out of the small useless hiding spot and confronted one of the Guards.

“We are here to see the king in regards of peace between Equestria and the Griffon Empire.” Sunset stated boldly as the Royal Guards lowered their weapons. From what they can assume is the Captain of this squad came into view greeting them.

“Forgive our harsh actions we are on lockdown due to… Well you know already you’ve might have encountered a few rebels already.” Piercing nodded to him.

“Anyways, welcome to the Capital of the Griffon Empire we’ll take you to see the king now. Follow us and stick together as a group, for future reference my name is Colonel Snapshot.” The colonel motioned them to follow him, a few guards were in front and some were in the back forming a box around them while they walked.

The Capital was a lively place it wasn’t destroyed in any way. Griffons in all sizes, large to small, enjoyed themselves to food and entertainment. Similar to Canterlot’s architecture they had a large community that was all friendly. The castle of the king wasn’t like Celestia’s castle at all it was all stone with marble flooring upon entry. There was red carpet pathways everywhere but that is assumed to be in most castles. The king however was in his throne room which was guarded with some major security. 35 guards in the throne room lined up from wall to wall swords at rest.

The king looked at the gang with an expression that read: “I’m watching you…”

But he showed a friendly gesture, “Greetings ponies of Equestria how may I help you today?”

Twilight and Sunset stepped forward with Golden and Piercing right behind them. “Good afternoon your highness, my name is Twilight Sparkle and this is Sunset Shimmer we are both Princesses of Equestria and would like to discuss peace with your Empire due to an incident that recently happened. The two guards behind us are our Special Forces, Major Golden Arrow and Major Piercing Dart.” Twilight, Sunset, Piercing, and Golden bowed before the king who was more delighted to resolve this issue with Equestria.

“It is nice to meet you Princess Twilight and Princess Sunset. If you would follow me we will discuss this issue and hopefully have it resolved in a short amount of time. I don’t like keeping allied rulers waiting.” Twilight and Sunset followed the king to a meeting room where the rest of the gang including Piercing and Golden stood outside in the throne room surrounded by the Griffon Royal Guards. Piercing sat on the floor and began to meditate speaking some gibberish to himself that wasn’t comprehensive or audible to anypony. Golden looked to his right and saw that the Colonel was trying to get their attention, he walked towards him which he motioned to speak in private.

Golden and Snapshot were in a small room where they couldn’t be interrupted.

“Okay you have my attention speak.” Golden spat out.

The Colonel could tell that he wasn’t in a good mood. “Forgive me from separating you for your group but you do know about the rebel army correct?”

Golden nodded, “They wear a Yellow and Black armor color type and harm anything in their wake. We killed a few of them that derailed our train here.”

Snapshot didn’t speak for a while after that. “I must ask you why and how you acquired a Royal Guard Palm Dagger, you and your partner, Major Piercing Dart.” The Colonel leaned back awaiting Golden’s answer.

Golden showed the Palm Dagger to him, “We got these from some dead griffons below the mountain. It was a rebel Griffon that I got the gear from I didn’t know that they were Royal Guard Combat Gear.”

Snapshot nodded to him intrigued, “Well I can say that your survival skills are top notch.”

“That they are Colonel.”

They spent more time talking about certain topics, earning each other’s trust even inviting Piercing to the conversation, Piercing shed more insight on more general subjects that were related to the Princesses or Combat tactics overall.

As for our two star-struck lovers in the meeting room with the king the conversations were more ‘conflicting’.

“Your Ruler, Princess Celestia, shot a high beam of magic at our wall nearly destroying it almost letting the rebels penetrate through.” The king wasn’t at ease any more.

“Yes, we understand this your highness but we still want allied peace between our two nations. We don’t want to have a war with you if you’re currently in a war now. It will be overwhelming sir and we only recommend the best course of action is for peace and maybe we can send some of our troops here to help your Empire fight off the rebels.” Twilight was trying to get out of here with her head but the king wasn’t having it but he calmed down a few minutes into thought.

“I want you to deliver a message to me I’ll read it out loud while I write it so you know what I will propose and if your Ruler declines this offer I will see to it that we will have a war with Equestria.”

The king gathered a pen and quill and began to write:

Dear Princess Celestia,

I will show you peace and keep our existing treaty as how it should. However your actions will not be just passed by with an “I’m sorry” I request that you send some troops here to assist us in fighting off the rebels. If your troops and my own defeat them our peace will be as it was before. However failure to agree with this and we will be at a never ending war. I don’t need to recall The Great Equestrian War, you and I do not need another genocide of that caliber. So sign this saying that you’ll agree then send it to me so I know that we are at amends.

Singed,

King Boreas

Twilight grabbed the letter from the King once he was done writing. They were about to leave when the King stopped them.

“The journey back to Equestria will be very dangerous, too dangerous for your Special Forces to even handle I know because I’ve lost countless men coming her and back to their posts. I’ll get your all geared up with armor and some weapons so you can fend for yourselves if the situation seems overwhelming for your Majors.” They both nodded off to him accepting the offer. He told them to follow him once more and to tell the gang to follow him as well as Golden and Piercing.

Once in a small room that was too small to fit everypony, he pushed on several blocks in to the wall and opened a special door. They all stepped in and saw a variety of armor and weapons.

“Take what you can handle and hold onto. Major Piercing and Major Golden upgrade your scavenged weaponry so you can have a more of a fighting chance. Both nodded in understanding.

-An Hour Later-

The Mane 6 and Sunset were decked out in Golden armor and equipped each with bows and swords, each examining each other to make sure that they had enough to live and enough to survive.

Piercing and Golden were in front of them watching each pony carefully as they all exited the main gates of the city and on the path down the mountain. Before they could step ahead Gold and Piercing stopped them all and told each of them to line up so they can brief them on the current situation.

“Now ladies, this journey back will be extremely dangerous to where death is inevitable. Just now to use your weapons for in the most extreme of conditions I and Major Golden will protect you with our lives. Just know that if one of us doesn’t make it to keep going. DO NOT look back and try to help, keep running and don’t stop running, do you understand what I’m asking out of all of you?” They all nodded.

Both began walking as the rest following.

‘Our lives depend on our survivability’ Both Golden and Piercing thought in unison.

‘Time for that to be put to the test…’

Author's Note

This story will show more action packed scenes as they make it back to Equestria. I will not tell anymore details than that so stick around to see how things turn out.

Until next Update... Happy Reading!