Three years earlier.

Comet Tail was jerked out of a sound sleep by a hoof on his shoulder, bolting into a sitting position, wings twitching away from his sides. It took a couple moments of silence for him to register that nothing was wrong and relax again, blinking up at Star Hooves in front of him and squinting a little as the off-white stallion gave him an amused smile.

“Scared the hell outta me,” Comet grumbled after a brief pause, slipping off the low cot he had been sleeping on to stand on all four hooves beside the other batpony, stretching his legs. The room they stood in was full of other, similar cots, packed tightly into nearly every inch of floor space possible in the small room. About half of them were full at any given time.

Snorting softly, Star Hooves jerked his head toward the doorway, and Comet obediently trotted after his commanding officer as they stepped out into the narrow hall before heading down a staircase to the lower floor.

The building was one of the older ones in Ponyville, backed right up against the edge of the Everfree, and had been some hapless resident’s house before they had run off to live somewhere else. Comet couldn’t really blame them, whoever they were.

The kitchen had been left largely as it was when they moved soldiers in, now used for storing food and medical supplies, while the larger living room had been converted into an armory of sorts.

The latter was where Star led Comet, a number of other batponies already there, suiting themselves up in armor. “What’re we doin’?” Comet asked as he stepped over to pull open one of the lockers set up against the wall, his name scribbled onto a piece of tape slapped to the front of it.

“Recon,” Star replied, orange gaze skimming across the room, and Comet was quick to start suiting up as he spoke. “Dash thinks there’s a harpy camp set up just out near the castle, so Rose Spice is having me pick a team to head out and get a look.”

That wasn’t promising. As much as recon sounded simple and easy, it rarely proved to actually be that way, especially if they were heading a good half mile into the forest itself. Harpies were notoriously observant and few scouting teams made it out without an unpleasant encounter.

Still, it was better than heading out with the intention of direct conflict, at least.

Within minutes, all six of the soldiers that Star had gathered were fully decked out in black leather accented by deep purple, steel plates adding extra protection to vulnerable spots like their chests and haunches. Only their heads remained exposed, and once their helmets were settled into place it was down to their eyes, ears, and chins.

They filed out of the rickety old house close behind their commanding officer, and Comet couldn’t help an anxious twitching of his ears as they stepped into the chilly late fall evening, fog swirling around their hooves. The armor didn’t help against the biting cold that came with the darkness.

Celestia had just lowered the sun beneath the horizon, only faint rays of light still cast over the silhouette of Ponyville behind them and the Everfree ahead, and the surroundings grew increasingly clear for the small group of batponies as it grew darker.

More than just the six of them were out that evening, however. Heavily armored figures could be seen patrolling the streets of Ponyville as Comet glanced over his shoulder, and even more kept up constant routes along the line that had been drawn between them and the forest, a shoddily-made wall serving as meager protection. It kept out more mundane creatures like timberwolves driven into frenzies by the conflict, but it had little purpose against the harpies. A wall didn’t do much when their enemy could fly.

If civilians were out, they were smart enough to keep well within the town, not daring to venture into the outskirts that had been turned into makeshift barracks and medical facilities.

The only part of the town itself that the military had taken over, at least for now, was Princess Twilight’s castle — Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor, the current generals of the air force and army respectively, had claimed it as the command post in lieu of the Princess’s presence. Comet supposed that made sense, since it was giant and hard to miss, and both of them were presumably already familiar with it.

It also made them a fantastic and obvious target, though, which struck him as a bit odd.

Darkness descended quickly as the small team of batponies hopped over the wall, wings near-silent in the still air, and crossed into the Everfree. If it was a normal night of average darkness outside the forest, it was pitch black within it, only the faintest hints of light making it through the tree cover above. Even as November crept toward December, many of the trees kept thick coverings of foliage, the Everfree’s bizarre nature pronounced. Normal ponies would be nearly incapable of navigating in such conditions.

The underbrush rustled softly to either side of them as they started the trek into the trees, following a faintly-visible path that might have once been a road hundreds of years ago, Comet tailing along as the second to last in the line.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the sisters had built their castle within the Everfree’s limits deliberately or if the forest had crept up around it over time. Surely it hadn’t always covered such a large swath of Equestria.

If it was slowly expanding over time, though, that probably meant it would one day encompass the whole country, since nothing anypony did seemed to hold back its slow approach. Comet was relatively certain that it had grown closer to Ponyville since the small town’s founding, even, and that hadn’t been very long ago. He was just glad he wouldn’t be alive to see it, because the Everfree terrified him.

A sharp crack from the darkness off to their left made everyone stop abruptly, and for a minute that seemed to stretch too long, the only sound was the faint rise and fall of breath from each of them. Finally Star gave a slight jerk of his head from the front of the group to keep moving, and they resumed their pace. “By Luna, I fuckin’ hate this place,” one of the ponies ahead of Comet grumbled, and he snorted softly as quiet murmurs of agreement followed from everypony else.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and the group’s even trot slowed to a walk and then a crawl as they approached a break in the trees. Beyond it, the forest opened up into a clearing, in the center of which rested the ruins of the castle of the sisters — and the faint glimmer of firelight that indicated the presence of harpies.

Star Hooves gave the group quick, silent signals, splitting them apart, and Comet slipped away from the others to creep around the edge of the tree line, peering through the underbrush.

The ravine that split the castle off from their side of the forest made getting close without being seen difficult, since they would be forced to either take to the air or endanger themselves by crossing the old wooden bridge, but a good look from a distance was better than nothing.

The harpies appeared to have set up a camp just outside the castle itself, a large fire clearly visible from Comet’s angle, and around it were a number of what looked like makeshift beds piled with grasses and leaves from the trees. A large figure moved between him and the fire, clearly silhouetted against the light, making his wings twitch with the urge to back away.

It was easily a head and a half taller than most ponies, standing on massive taloned feet like those of a griffon, and a pair of large feathered wings were folded against its sides, just visible as it adjusted them. Its head resembled that of a pony, and Comet vaguely knew that somewhere around the chest area fur transitioned to feathers.

Despite their pony-like heads and necks, however, harpies were exclusively carnivores to the best of anyone’s knowledge, feasting on the wild animals of the Everfree and the ponies they killed in equal measure.

After the first of their major conflicts with the creatures and Twilight Sparkle’s incident, soldiers had returned to the battlefield the next day to collect their dead and found many of them half-eaten, a couple of harpies still loitering about to fill their stomachs. Anypony that died in battle was taken away before the area was cleared of survivors since then, if they could be reached.

Suppressing a shudder, Comet shifted to turn back toward where Star Hooves was waiting, skin crawling beneath his fur, when he spotted movement on their side of the ravine. He froze, peering through the darkness illuminated only by the first hint of the moon creeping into the sky, and realized with a jolt that it was a pony crossing the open space.

Even though he couldn’t see the rest of his companions, Comet knew they must all be feeling the same dread he was as the armored batpony mare edged closer and closer to the edge of the ravine.

Her wings stretched out, flapping hard enough for Comet to just barely pick up the sound as she rose into the air over the opening in the earth. Between the noise and the way the flickering firelight glinted just slightly off her chest plate, Comet already knew what was about to happen.

A horrible, high-pitched screech came from the harpy camp, and he could only watch in dismay as one of the monsters rose into the air, curved talons clearly visible. The mare swiftly turned to dart back the way she had come, but there was little chance of her making it into the trees before the harpy got to her, and even if she did it wouldn’t deter the creature long.

Another figure leapt from the trees into the air, whipping past the mare and straight toward the harpy, and there was a loud rustling as she slipped into the forest and out of sight. The harpy’s attention was successfully caught, and firelight shone on an off-white coat as massive talons tore through the leather armor with discomforting ease, Star Hooves’ helmet knocked off and disappearing into the abyss of the ravine below the grappling couple.

Comet didn’t stay to watch as the sound of flesh shredding reached his ears, taking advantage instead of the creature’s distraction to return to the other scouts, his wings spreading to signal to them and leading them back the way the group had come at a dangerously fast pace. General Rose Spice wasn’t going to be pleased.

Two weeks later, morning dawned on a grisly scene.

Conflict had broken out overnight around a hundred feet beyond the edge of the Everfree when a group of harpies prowling near the outside of the forest ran into a batpony scout group.

Comet Tail had been on patrol when it happened, and he and most of the others guarding the edge of the town alongside him had been swift to react to the unmistakable sound of a harpy’s scream, delving into the trees to provide aid. Numbers had been firmly on their side, for once.

Yet they had still lost four batponies, the bodies hauled out and over the wall on the backs of ponies with stronger stomachs than Comet had. Six more of them were injured, and the final three had escaped with only minor scrapes and scratches that didn’t require medical attention.

Comet was not, by any stretch of the imagination, the worst off of the survivors with a massive gash down his side and a heavily-bleeding but largely painless scratch over the bridge of his muzzle. He was well-off enough to sit with a wing curled down over his side to press a towel tightly against his wound and wait patiently, at least, while most of the others were tended to.

The worst injury had been sustained by a pale grey mare named Moonstone, who Comet couldn’t think of having exchanged more than three or four words with since they arrived in Ponyville two months ago.

A harpy’s talons posed immense risk no matter how heavily armored they were, and the deep wounds arcing over her chest attested to that. The monster had ripped straight through both steel plating and thick leather beneath it, and Comet had to wonder how they expected to ever win this war if their only hope of getting out unscathed from battles was to not get touched at all.

Then again, he mused, rumors were swirling through the make-shift military camp of new weapons that would be arriving before spring which would allow them to keep a much greater distance from their enemies during combat. It was, as far as Comet was concerned, their best and maybe only hope. Spears and swords clearly weren’t doing much for them, after all.

Sighing quietly and twitching ears even more tufted than usual thanks to the cold weather, Comet lifted his gaze from where he had been staring blankly at his cot to glance over the room he sat in again. The six of them had been moved into a small one-story house being used as a medical building, sitting on cots scattered across what had probably been a living room before all the furniture was hauled out. It was the largest room in the house, connected by a short hallway to a kitchen full of supplies, a bathroom, and a single bedroom.

He and his companions in battle weren’t the only wounded ones there, either. Three others, two unicorns and an earth pony, rested on their own cots with varying levels of heavy bandaging. One of the unicorns looked to be missing part of one of his hind legs, a massive swath of bandages bulking up the stump remaining, and an IV sat beside his bed that Comet could only assume was full of painkillers.

The other two weren’t as bad off, sleeping peacefully on their own.

A batpony wearing light leather armor with a large red cross on each shoulder had been working at Moonstone for most of the hour and a half since the group of them had come in, and she was starting to look exhausted. Loose strands of pale green mane hung down into her face, heavy bags clear beneath darker green eyes, as she yanked bandages tight around Moonstone’s chest with her teeth.

Moonstone herself had been unconscious since they got there, sedated to make the work easier.

Faint sunlight was peeking through the windows now, making Comet squint and look away, and he saw most of the other bats in the room reacting similarly. While they served as fantastic soldiers at night, none of them had especially high visibility in sunlight. Plus it usually made their eyes hurt.

Heads turned as the front door of the house swung open, closing again with a firm click a moment later, and Comet couldn’t help but be a little surprised when the newcomer proved to be a griffon.

Off-white eyes set on vibrant red sclera swept their gaze over the room as the newcomer paused in the living room doorway, talons clicking quietly on the wooden floor. Their feathers were a slightly muted shade of red, which just-visible white bases in some spots hinted at being artificial, blending into light, earthy brown fur on their back half.

They wore armor much like the batpony medic’s whose name Comet couldn’t remember, much lighter leather than most of them typically had with visible red crosses on each shoulder.

The medic who had been working on Moonstone was quick to disappear as the griffon moved into the room, heading down the hallway presumably to get some sleep. Comet didn’t really blame her.

By the time the griffon made their way around to Comet, the sun was firmly above the horizon outside and his head had drooped down to rest on the bed, eyes squinted most of the way shut. He lifted it a little reluctantly when he spotted the griffon approaching, slightly unsettling gaze sweeping over him and lingering on first his face, then his side. As they stepped up next to the bed, they dropped the saddlebags they had been wearing when they first entered at their feet, having carried them over gripped in their beak.

“You’ll have to strip out of your armor, unless you want it cut away,” the griffon informed him, and Comet sighed heavily as he adjusted to sit up, finally uncurling his wing and letting the towel drop. His wing joints were uncomfortably cramped up and the towel was stained a deep red almost all of the way through, but at least he didn’t appear to be bleeding profusely anymore.

Until, of course, he twisted to start undoing his armor, and the wound immediately opened back up to drip blood down over the leather. Rolling his eyes, he pushed through and ignored the pain as much as possible to strip down, conscious of his apparent new doctor’s gaze on him as he shimmied out of the armor and kicked it onto the floor.

Finally free, Comet settled down onto his stomach again, grimacing a little as he realized the sheets under him were being spotted with red. He had a feeling it wouldn’t be the first or last time that set of sheets would be coated in blood, at least. Good thing for unicorns with cleaning spells.

The griffon was quick to get to work, brown taloned hands reaching to readjust Comet more onto his uninjured side, and he draped his wing back behind himself to keep it out of the way as they doused a washcloth pulled from their bags in alcohol. “Got a name, batpony?” they asked, a split second before the cloth touched Comet’s side, making him inhale sharply through his teeth.

“Comet Tail,” he ground out, ears flattening back against his head, and he huffed quietly at the faint hint of a smirk he spotted on the griffon’s hooked beak, almost hidden by the black tufted feathers curving from their eyes down their face. He wasn’t exactly well-versed in birds and didn’t have the faintest idea what species this griffon was, but there was something rather intimidating—and, if Comet was being honest with himself, hot—about them.

“You got a name, griffon?” he asked after a brief pause to collect himself, doing his best to steadfastly ignore the sharp sting of cool liquid touching his open wound. At this point, he wasn’t entirely sure whether or not acquiring the injury in the first place had been more painful than having it cleaned out was.

Snorting softly, the griffon leaned down to peer more closely at Comet’s side, giving one more quick swipe with the washcloth before pulling their hand away. “Kelly Silvertalon. Doctor, to you,” they replied, looking faintly amused when Comet flicked a glance down toward them. Rolling his eyes, he dropped his head onto the cot, wrinkling his nose slightly and staring across the room.

Despite Kelly’s initial abrasiveness, they were surprisingly quick at getting bandages wrapped firmly around Comet’s midsection without much further discomfort. Aside from the discomfort inherent to having a swath of bandages wrapped all the way around his chest and stomach, anyway.

Talons, he was quickly discovering, were immensely more efficient for careful tasks like that than hooves were. It had taken the batpony medic twice the time to do much the same task.

Once that was done, the griffon stepped around to peer at Comet’s muzzle, getting disconcertingly close to his face, and he had to resist the urge to lean away. Judging by Kelly’s quiet snort when they leaned back, that had probably been their intention.

Another quick, agonizing cleaning and a large bandage were all the treatment his face got, though he couldn’t say he was upset about not having his muzzle mummified.

“Stick around and get some sleep for today, you can go back to your barracks tonight if nothing goes wrong,” Kelly informed him as they stepped away, leaning down to pick up their saddlebags again and collect the bloody towels that had been tossed to the floor. That was perfectly fine with Comet; he couldn’t say he had any inclination to stumble his way back to his actual bed in the daylight.

As Kelly turned to leave and Comet settled down more comfortably, head dropping onto his pillow, he had an abrupt realization and pushed himself a little more upright. “Hey, can you like, pull some curtains over the windows or somethin’? Sunlight’s not good on bat eyes,” Comet asked, ears twitching slightly as Kelly paused to glance over their shoulder. They eyed him for only a moment before giving him a quick nod and continuing on their way.

Settling comfortably down again, Comet sighed heavily and stretched his legs out, gradually relaxing. A couple of minutes later, the room grew significantly darker, and he heard a couple quiet murmurs of relief from the cots near him. He was kind of surprised nopony else had asked, admittedly. Draping one foreleg across his face, he gradually drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Author's Note

i'm still not entirely sold on doing flashbacks like this and largely just playing around with devices, so no promises they'll continue in any great amount later on.

also, thank you to those of you who have read/commented/upvoted so far. i'm writing this more to have fun than to try to achieve best-selling novel status, but it's nice to see other people enjoying it anyway.