Nothing convinces a soldier more than success.
That fact applied to everypony in the Herd, as well as every creature allied with the ‘pieces of horse manure’ currently sitting in Canterlot Palace watching as their soldiers went through Equestria like a plow, upending more than a couple ponies.
Trixie had to admit, the mere thought of the most powerful ponies in Equestria being upended by their very own subjects made her angry. Especially when those subjects were willing to engineer magic with the sole purpose of levelling buildings.
Like the large arcane projectiles being launched at Trixie and her fellow ponies.
Trixie was with six other ponies. Ponies she’d been told the names of but hadn’t taken the time to remember. They were all unicorns, except for the earth pony and pegasus. The earth pony was lugging around the heavy weaponry while the pegasus acted as a sort of scout.
Roles likely considered stereotypical, but they were good at what was asked of them and that was all Trixie really cared about.
At the current moment, the pegasus was tucked away behind a narrow barricade of sandbags on top of an old two-story bakery. An armored griffon was sprawled out over the edge of the roof, one of it’s wings hanging limply with a gash in it and some blood dribbling down through it’s head feathers.
Trixie wished she had been capable of observing the fight, but she had been distracted with the griffon firing arcane projectiles from the fortified bank at the end of the cracked and bloodied street.
The earth pony had ran off a while ago after bringing Trixie and two of the unicorns to the safety of an overturned Griffon weapon transport. Trixie internally chuckled at the thought that overturned transportation had become a common form of cover for her now.
A loud blast echoed from a nearby structure, a three story apartment building, which attracted Trixie’s attention. The building was close, across the road behind Trixie’s current hiding place, so she just had to turn her head to the side to look.
One of the projectiles, the size of Trixie’s head, crashed into the center of the building’s front. It tore through the thin layer of paneling and brick and metal frame that was in the area, leaving a hole the width of two ponies in the (fortunately) abandoned building.
“Damn.. If he hits that thing again he might just cave it in.” One unicorn’s voice crackled in Trixie’s ears. He sat right next to Trixie behind the transport, head ducked with his back against the tipped transport and an assault rifle levitating in his magic, loaded with well-enchanted ammo.
The entire group wore ear pieces. It was meant to keep in contact with the two non-unicorn members, as they couldn’t perform an ACL (Arcane Communication Line) spell with their lack of a horn.
“What does it matter?” Trixie asked, peeking around the transport before ducking back, looking over to the other unicorn who was firing off a couple shots at their main focus.
The other two unicorns of the group were busy somewhere else, fiercely defending the rest of the gathered group with heavy arcane weaponry. Trixie could assume so by the bright magic blasts, which were just as loud as the ones in Manehattan, that crackled in the blue sky like rainbow lightning in the area nearby. There weren’t meant to be any other ponies in this area, they were meant to be attempting to push out the Griffon invaders.
Fortunately, this city wasn’t being drenched by pegasi-induced storms like Manehattan. It took away the veil of semi-darkness sure, but Trixie was just glad she wouldn’t need a warm bath and a good rubbing down once they got back.
One of the unicorns suddenly cursed after a loud blast came from the base of the apartment building. This griffon wasn’t a very good shot. That, or they were extremely confused on where Trixie and her two unicorn partners were hiding.
Trixie turned her head and her eyes widened as she saw the building shake, a large hole torn through it’s side. It’s remaining structure groaned with the wild shift of weight and Trixie flinched as a second blast shot through the front. This projectile seemed to be more explosive than the others, as was evidenced by the large flaming burst that had knocked out the bottom floor corner and half of the wall, shattering windows and ripping one of the front doors off it’s hinges.
The building groaned again and Trixie quickly realized the instability of the building. “Move!” She shouted to the other two (it probably made their ears ache with it transmitting into the ear pieces at a higher volume), shoving one and grabbing the other with her magic, throwing them for the nearest building, which was an old music store.
Once inside, Trixie slammed the door shut and ducked down. The building collapsed forward, smashing to pieces against the street. It crushed the overturned griffon transport and sent splintering debris flying, some breaking nearby windows.
A cloud of dust drifted out over the street, momentarily blocking Trixie’s view out of the windows.
After this, there was silence. Even the arcane battle in the distance had taken pause. For a moment, Trixie worried that maybe the two unicorns she assumed were involved may have been killed, but the battle sounds quickly resumed with loud crackling sounds.
Trixie stood up and peered out of the music store, careful not to step on the vinyl records that were strewn about the floor with some of their cases broken.
Trixie didn’t see or hear any griffons or weaponry, so she stepped out. She flinched away in surprise as a loud succession of popping-like sounds filled the air, followed by a loud clank of metal.
“Exterior structure cleared of hostiles.” Trixie heard the familiar voice of the pegasus come over the line.
“Affirmative?”
“Unless griffons somehow have the ability of growing back their heads, we should be fine.” The pegasus shot back, earning a small chuckle from Trixie.
“Any word from Diamond?”
“No. Permission to go after him, Ma'am?”
“Permission denied.”
“But-”
“We will look for Diamond later. He can handle himself .”
The pegasus took several long moments to respond.
“Alright.”
Trixie led the two other unicorns out into the street, which was littered with scattered weapons and the corpses of their previous wielders who laid in puddles of their own blood.
Trixie kept her gun hovering close to her, pointing it towards the vacant-looking buildings that lined the street. She glanced back over to the debris of the apartment building. It blocked off the two other streets that met and turned to this one street. A T shaped avenue.
The other two unicorns looked just as tensed as Trixie, probably expecting some griffons to leap out and open fire. None came, so they kept walking.
The bank was surrounded in sandbag barricades. Some being reinforced with a table which Trixie guessed was from inside the neighboring buildings.
“Alright, everypony, keep your eyes peeled. We don’t know how many are left in the building.”
A chorus of “Yes ma’am”’s greeted Trixie’s ears as they walked towards the hopefully empty bank.