Chapter Six: Bad Moon Rising

3/24/2058

South Palomino Desert…

2:21am…

Confusion. It surrounded us, ponies shouting and crying could be heard over the fire, shots were flying past me and borrowing their way into other, less fortunate ponies, and the buildings that were burning had begun to fall apart and collapse to the ground. My once quiet town, the one I had grown up in, was no longer here. What had been born was just buildings now, broken husks of our once simple town. All the ponies I had come to see on a daily basses were gone, the battle had turned them into hollow shells, shadows of their former selves. Everything had changed so quickly no pony had time to prepare mentally so there they stood confused and petrified to the deepest parts of their soul. And here I stand in the center of it all, just another set of hooves following orders.

“Everyone, keep your heads close to the ground, and do exactly as I say!” A soldier yelled. He held his musket to his eye and fired a shot off into the distance. But as his one shot flew out, four more came back, exploding the walls of the alleyway we hid in, the same alleyway I had come to know over the years.

No emotion I knew could describe how I felt. It was as if reality was slowly unraveling around me, Tall and proud soldiers then, had now become children, crying out for their mothers, begging and hoping they could live for just a few more seconds. But every few minutes that passed, it seemed there was less and less of us, and more corpses lying motionless on the ground.

And all’s I did was just stare. My body was frozen as time had slowed, and my brain seemed to shut off all controls as I watched. Unblinking and unmoving as bodies fell around me, blood splattering onto the ground and onto the walls, ponies screamed holding their loved ones in their hoofs with tears cascading down their cheeks and soldiers, trying their hardest not to die or fall apart. It was as if, the whole world had exploded, and all I could do was wait. Wait to die, with no way out.

I felt a hoof press against my face, not roughly like I was expecting, but surprisingly softly. My head craned upwards to see the eyes of Corporal Morion, our new leader. His eyes filled with rage and anger, his face weathered and strained, but behind all of that I saw fear, the fear of death. Fresh red blood has stained his face as he shouted, not to me, but to the ponies around him. But all I heard was ringing.

Suddenly the Corporal turned his head and motioned, calling for his troopers. They quickly began to trot past. I looked at each one that passed, each one carrying his own mental baggage, but yet they all seemed to portray the same message.

Another hoof came and touched my face as the ponies followed the guards example and ran away from the killzone in front of us.

“Wake up, we're moving!” All my senses seemed to come back at once as the voice of the Corporal came to me,

“You need to move, now!” He yelled as he began to redirect me, pushing me backwards and turning me around, while he watched behind both of us toward the fire in the streets. Then as if timed seemed to speed by me, I found myeslf running as fast as I could south of Faith. The fires raging behind us burning my home as smoke filled the skies above, blocking the stars. As we passed the Scrapyard, I continued to looked back towards my burning village, watching it wither away. But just then I began to see movement in the smoke above.

The Griffon Army. Through the darkness came soldiers with blue flashy uniforms with white trimmings, and they wore tall box shaped hats with black rims on their heads. Their razor sharp claws hidden by long blue gloves that shined off the white reflection of the moon. They wore long black boots, with their blue pants tucked into them. And every single one of them carried a musket. But what made it all worse was that, it wasn't just a hoof full of them. I watched as dozens and dozens of soldiers flew from the sky, following us with their muskets all pointed towards me and the survivors. The ground around me exploded and threw up sand, their shots whizzing by my head with impossible speeds. The air snapped and broke with each shot that came. I turned back to front impossibly picking up more speed as more shots came from behind.

Death was on my heels I could feel him, my heart raced as adrenaline coursed through me, my brain screamed at me to keep running, and my ears heard every shot that came, every scream that went silent, every body that fell, and every shot we sent back. I watched as the unicorn guards that ran with us turned their heads around with their weapons raised, and fired away all at once, the thunder like boom echoed through the sand, smoke and ash whizzed past me in a almost blinding smoke screen, but I didn’t stop.

“We need to split up!” I heard a voice came, it was Morion again, his head turned to another guard, “take the group behind you and head east as fast as you can, hurry!” Morion yelled. The guard turned around and nodded firmly,

“Yes sir! My group break off!” He hollered back backwards to the ponies following him. Suddenly a small group of ponies parted ways with us, dust and sand trailing behind them as they headed to the left. Morion’s voice spoke up.

“Griffons like fighting bigger groups of ponies, they will be spared, they like the challenge!” As we continued to run, I watched the rogue group of ponies head off towards the Red Rock Mountains in the distance. I wish I could have gone with them, I wanted out. But I knew if I left now, I would be picked off for sure. I turned around to see the Griffons coming even closer, hot on our tails, none of them batted an eye at the escaping ponies. They were fast, even with all their equipment. Flashes came from their muskets and shots rained around me once again as another volley came from behind.

I turned back to the lone group as they seemed even further off now, but something was wrong, I could feel it. As if the world was dictated by my thoughts, the group that had left us was immediately gunned down by a storm of shots that came from the ridge that surrounded half our town. They came fast, and loud, the bullets rained like hail, turning the group to corpses as blood spewed high into the sky. It was a horrific, impossible, no griffon or pony could shoot that fast, there had to have been a hundred soldiers on that ridge. But when I followed the shots trail, they didn’t come from hundreds of Griffons, it came from a single source.

“Oh my god!” Came a pony next to me, for he had seen the massacre too, he then turned his head forward and screamed at the Corporal, “I thought you said they were going to be spared!” He was more than angry, he was livid, maybe he knew some pony. The Corporal turned and watched the last of the bodies fall as the intense gunfire stopped.

“I had no idea they had a weapon like that before now! I have no Idea what that is!” He yelled back just before another volley of shots rang out from the unicorns. I looked onto the ridge, and their I saw it, the mystery machine that killed all those ponies in a matter of seconds. It was gold, it had multiple barrels and and two big wheels underneath it, a crank on the back held by a single Griffon.

“It’s some kind of auto-musket!” I heard one of the guards yell. Auto, musket. Sounded horrifyingly accurate to what I had just witnessed.

“Everypony make for the dried river bed!” I heard the sound of Morion in front of me, I looked past the group, and there beyond us a little ways was a dip in the ground, a long wide trench that snaked along the desert. It was our only hope, I assumed he thought if we grabbed cover, we could make our stand. This was our only option, the Griffons were assumed to be using different tactics than before, killing with extreme prejudice, and they only way out, was to kill them before they killed us. No surrender.

A solution that was stacked against us, one million to one. This was it.

I jumped as hard as I could forward, tumbling into the dried river, the world spinning around me, as the guards held our retreat firing off as many shots as they could. They created a firing line above me and the others, they aimed to the night sky, shooting as many griffons as they could and there I lay on my back dazed, scared, useless. I watched the guards reload like clockwork, shooting, reloading, aiming, repeating for what seemed like forever. The Griffons were pushing us to the limit trying to break our spirits. But, I felt something different.

Something inside me was changing, I had before watched in horror as ponies and griffons fell, terrified that I would be next. I felt weak, I felt as if I was paper thin. But as time went on, my anger swelled. My mind began to shift, I got up and peeked over the ridge, my body was telling me to stay down, but I didn’t. I convinced myself that I wanted to watch.

Each shot that went towards the advancing forces felt like it carried our lives, our hopes and dreams.The more times they fired back, the more fumed I became. The more times we returned fire, the more invested I became. And only after a few minutes looking over the top, I found myself spotting for the guards. I spoke out, telling the guards where griffons were. First I only spoke in simple phrases like, “over there,” and “above you!” But soon, I began giving locations in greater detail after picked up certain phrases and codes from listening to the guards.

And at that moment, something inside of me snapped, like the universe had just exploded around me. My mind became clear, I had no more fear, no more doubt. My mind spoke one sentence, loud and clear, as if it was an echo stuck on repeat,

“It’s kill, or be killed,” The words were drilled into me, harder than any bullet fired, harder than any knife lunged. I thought for longest time that I could never take the life of another, but now, after I had lost everything, my home, my family, my life. I was going to make them pay. I wasn’t angry anymore, I wanted revenge. Not just for Faith, and that ponies who lived in it, and the ponies that protected it, but for mom, and dad.

A lone griffon soldier had gotten a bit close, I saw him out of the top of my eye rise higher than the others, aiming down to a guard that was next to me. I shouted as loud as I could before both of them shot.

“Griffon! Twelve o'clock high!” The guard quickly looked up and fired off his shot, the smoke and flash hurled the round over us as the griffons neck ripped and exploded. A sharp cry escaped his mouth as his wings stopped fluttering. His body fell from the sky limp and slammed into the ground next to me. His eyes, bloodshot, his beak agape, his neck was exposed and slowly leaked fresh thick red blood, and feathers fell from the sky and landed around him. He was definitely dead, he wasn’t getting up from that, the guard next to me reloaded and sent another round.

“Hey! You saved my flank, I owe you one now, thanks kid!” I heard him say. It felt good, I felt good knowing that I had just saved that guards life, I faced the fact that by the end of the night, he may not be here, but glancing at the dead griffons musket, made me believe I could change that. I pulled the dead body into the river with my magic, and rummaged through his armor, and clothing. I pulled off a box shaped carry bag, a little flask that held the black powder I saw the ponies filling the little pans with to reload the musket with, and the weapon he was using. It was a standard looking musket, but instead of one barrel, it had three, and look as if they rotated.

Not like the auto musket, but just like it at the same time. A little switch was located below where the barrels connected to the trigger part. I curiously pushed it in and moved the barrels around a bit. Suddenly the barrels turned, and the tube next to the one that was lined up before, snapped into place where the first one once was. Now I understood, I could load three shots, and only need to load the pan for a short period of time. So that's exactly what I did.I threw the bag over my shoulders and hung the flash from my neck as I came back up to the ridge, holding the musket to my eye, just like the guards. I held the Musket level with my right eye and looked down the sights. I guessed that the little peg at the end was supposed to match the ones at the rear, so I picked a griffon and waited for him to come close. I waited and waited, and watched as others fell from the sky, I heard the bullets ripping past me, causing me to flinch, but not move from my position. I knew the risks, but they meant nothing know. Suddenly a Griffon dove from the sky and landed on the ground.

“Him,” I said out loud to myself. I adjusted the weapon as he raised his to me. As soon as my sights were level I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. Everything went silent and my head felt like it was just pushed into a vice. I defended myself. I opened my eyes, and dropped the rifle. I shook my head, and tried to get the ringing to stop, I felt the battle around me even though I couldn’t hear it right. I looked up to see where my shot hit, and to my surprise it hit.

For where that griffon stood was now a body on the ground, with a rather large chunk missing from his head. Though it could had been somepony else who killed him, it still felt like I did it. Soon the silence of the battle didn’t matter to me, I picked up the musket again, twisted the second barrel into place, topped off the powder, and found another target, a griffon soldier that was flying a little too close to me.

This time I didn't close my eyes, I watched him come in and close as my sights shifted to his head, and when I thought was a good time, I pulled the trigger a second time. I watched with satisfaction as the shot went up and connected with the rear of his skull, fracturing his head. That time I knew it was my kill. It wasn't long before I was reloading and shooting just like the guards, bullet after bullet went down range, each one hitting their target, some hitting in places that I didn’t like, and others hitting right where I wanted them to.

I felt like someone was watching me, I turned and looked at the guard next to me, he was watching me as I fired off another round hitting a soldier in the right shoulder, he screamed out in pain just before a second shot hit him square in the middle of his eyes.

“Hey kid! What’s your name?” The guard said taking another shot towards the advancing griffons. Did he really just ask my name? Right now?

“Azalea!” I shouted back while ramming a ball home with the rod.

“You’re one hell of a shot Azalea! I’d be proud to have you in my squad!” He shouted back after he took another shot, “Did you ever consider joining the guard before now?”

I couldn’t see myself being a guardsman, mostly because my mom wouldn't allow, but maybe if things were different, I may have joined.

“Yeah maybe, if things were different!” I shouted back, twisting a barrel into place.

3:12am…

It’s been almost an hour since the first shots were fired. I’ve made good friends with the soldier next to me. He damn near makes me laugh, though were shot at, he holds his ground and cracks jokes. It’s as if, this whole thing is a game to him, he’s laughs at the griffons, he laughs at himself, and even me sometimes. But it’s fine, cause I sometimes find myself laughing too. It was whole different world in this trench, and he brought it to me. In the short time we were here, he taught me military lingo, and how to shoot like a real soldier. And most importantly, he taught me how to laugh at death. Because in the past hour, we’ve lost, many. To many. I watched them each one of them fall guard, and civilian. It was horrifying one second they’re there, the next there not. I didn’t know them that well, but, after being in this trench I came to know them, in a, professional relationship.

I shoot griffons, I save them, they shoot griffons, they save me. It was as simple was that. And when one fell, another battle capable pony would take their place, no time to mourn, not time to bury the dead. It was a shame, but, we needed to live. I just needed to except that.

The griffons have changed their tactics, they’re no longer charging at us. Instead they’ve dug their own trench on the other side of the river across from us. It took them a little while but now their dug in, and we had to retreat into the river.

So here we sit, taking shots at small groups of advancing griffons that walk, instead of fly. The come out of their trench a few at a time, each time trying to catch us off guard. But, we catch them each time. We’ve made a, killzone, a dead land I guess. If somepony peaks their head up, a round comes and snaps near it, or connects with it, killing them almost instantly. So again, here I sit, among tired soldiers, dwindling supplies, a smoke screened atmosphere from the muskets, and dead bodies. I look to the left and I see my trench-mate who is loading his musket, beyond him are civilians, and guards, some of which peak over the trench, or sit together in little bundles. The battlefield was quiet for some time now, it was strange, my ears had time to relax, and my heart rate had time to slow down.

But the silence didn’t last long. A loud explosion cut the air as everypony's head picked up and looked through the air, for all we heard was whistling.

“INCOMING!” Yelled a guard as he stood up frantically from the ground. Suddenly the farthest part of our entrenchment was engulfed in flames as the whole world shook violently with a massive explosion. They were bombing us again, they stopped advancing because they didn’t want their troops caught in the crossfire. Then another bomb hit, this time it was a bit closer to me. I could feel the heat, the fire, I felt the shock wave, it pounded through me. This was it. No way out.

“Get behind me! Hurry up!” I heard the soldier next to me, my "squad mate." What was he doing, did really matter how we die?

“What are you doing, what do you mean?” I yelled. He turned back as another artillery round fired off in the distance. He shook his head.

“You’re not dying today, get behind me!” I heard the whistle, it was coming closer, there was no time left. I jumped behind him just as the fire bomb came and exploded in front of us.

Then it all went black. All went silent.

I couldn’t feel anything anymore, I couldn’t hear anything, and I definitely couldn’t see. It felt as if I had died, maybe I did die. I couldn’t move my legs, or my fore hoofs, was this it? My ears were ringing as if to deafen me, and my body didn’t respond to any commands.

But after a while my ears began to quiet, and my eyes began to flutter open. Then my senses came back slowly. My body hurt, all over, the pain was immense, I couldn’t bare it. It was concentrated in my legs, and my chest, they felt wet. But even though my body burned, everything felt cold at the same time, as if my life was being drained. I was bleeding, badly, I just knew it.

My eyes opened slowly, and what stood before destroyed all form of hope. For what stood in place of the soldier that tried to protect me, was a griffon soldier, his wings extended, and musket in claw. His once flashy uniform, was now looking dull and grey now after battle and after blood has stained it. His beak drawn up in a sickening smile as he looked around on his hind legs. I tried to move, I tried to run, but all I could do was shift around, and struggle against my dying body. I screamed at myself to get up, but I wouldn’t listen. But I must have been making a damn good effort to move, because the griffon looked down at me, still smiling his disgusting grin.

He raised his weapon to me. Then through the haze I heard him say something,

“Time to finish the King's work,” I heard his weapon cock, sealing my fate. This was it, I had failed. There was nothing more I could do, I didn’t save Faith, I didn’t kill all the griffons, and I let my mother down. I couldn't even repay that soldier for saving me.

But something stopped him from shooting, his body went limp and his rifle fell from his claws. His head jutted forward as a small hole exploded from his right eye. I didn’t even hear a shot being fired. But as he fell I saw what was behind him, dozens and dozens of now confused looking griffon soldiers. They all looked around with their weapons raised to kill. Then slowly, each one began to fall. The air began to snap as the bullets whizzed over me. But soon, a storm of lead came tearing down into the river, tearing each soldier to shreds, like nothing. Then I saw it, far off in the distance just bellow the Red Rock Mountains. White flashes each one coming from a different source, but all firing automatically. At that moment my vision began to fade again, turning back to darkness.

Time seemed to slip as I heard the firing stop as hoof steps were heard afterwards. Through the darkness I heard voices, they sounded metallic, and muffled.

"Area Secure sir, sweeping area for HVT now, over," A voice came.

“This one's dead,” They echoed around me. They got closer, a jumble of voices all communicating with each other until one stopped in front of me. A short silence came, then the figure spoke.

“Radio the Lt. We found the HVT, also get me a field medic, she’s got multiple lacerations to her chest and legs. She’ll bleed out soon, get him ASAP move, move!” It was a males voice, With my remaining strength, I tried my hardest to open my eyes again, and was rewarded me with a few seconds of fuzzy vision.

And when my eyes focused, there he was again, clad in green clothes, and woodland armor. His saddle rig held the same device I saw from the Scrapyard. I had now concluded that it was some kind of black metallic rifle. He wore a full mask, it was grey and looked like it was made out of some kind of plastic cloth. It had filters with tubes that were attached to a tank on his chest, and his eyes were hidden by plastic covers. But before my vision left me again, he looked down, his eyes glowing green and bright, staring into me. The words of the Regendi came back one more time before I lost all feeling, and slipped away.

“His green eyes the last thing they witness in this life,”

Author's Note

Leave a comment if ya'll want peace!

~ Calex Winteridge