The Champion Of Longsword

Commandant Night Storm was thoroughly pissed off. Not only did he just have to bear witness to a massacre, but to top that off he also saw and heard two of the would be murderers speak of what they just did to those poor ponies. With the male now dead, courtesy of a bullet straight to his brain that just left his female compatriot. Who was currently fleeing for her life.

"Heading northeast eh, she's probably trying to make it to Zeltstadt then" he thought. Zeltstadt was a small logging town, and that would honestly be giving it mercy as it was more like a campground if anything, located near Longsword's northwest border close to the Griffking River. While it was located within a forest, it was not the magical, monster infested Sheiswald forest to Longswords west, which meant that the few partisan units active in the area did do battle with the Reformisten.

The griffon was flying quite fast. Night guesstimated that he had around 20 minutes to kill her before she could alert the settlement of his presence, and that certainly wouldn't do. Especially as that would mark the area where the meeting was being held as a hot zone, which would probably lead to it being cancelled last minute.

However once they were a decent distance away from his comrades the griffon did something he did not expect but probably should have, it turned around and engaged him. He just barely managed to roll to the left before getting his right wing sliced off by the griffon's sword. He decided to dive in order to get his speed back since he knew that the griffon would likely give chase, and give chase she did. That was a blessing and a curse, a blessing being as she wasn't going towards Zeltstadt anymore, and a curse as he now had a pursuer.

However Night had his own tricks. Doing half a barrel roll he ignited his horn and brought his rifle from his side to his face and aimed it at the griffon. Who gasped and quickly tried to dive away but not before Night could nick her right flank with a round. Seeing as though he had essentially missed he quickly cocked the rifle once more before firing off another round, which hit the griffon's right wing sending her plummeting from the skies of Longsword. However he knew better to think that the fall would kill her and quickly dove after her to finish the job.

The griffon went down into a clearing hitting the ground hard before rolling several times until she came to a stop. Night landed a few feet behind her. From what he could tell her right wing was kaput, her left wing looked broken, and two of her legs looked to have broken upon impact with the ground. She was heavily wounded but not dead yet, and he would have to fix that.

Upon hearing him land she turned her head and froze when she saw him. It hardly surprised him to be honest, his opponents we're always we're so cocky in the beginning of the fight, and terrified of him by the end.

"Yo... You!" she sputtered with not much confidence evident in her voice now. "I... I thought you were... just a... a legend, a story made up by the partisans to sc... scare us". Night just continued to walk up to her. Even though she was actually bigger than him the fact that she was wounded and terrified seemed to mitigate that, with him now taller than her since she was lying on the ground. "Give me one good reason why I should spare your life" he spoke as he ignited his horn for a dramatic effect.

Now as to why he had both wings and a horn he had no idea, and nor did the rest of the partisans. He had gotten them shortly after he had gotten his mark. But no pony nor griffon had ever been able to explain it. He had been born a pegasus, and although he was proud to be one he was always envious of the fact that unicorns could use magic and he couldn't. Although that changed when well... whatever happened to him happened.

The griffon meanwhile looked absolutely terrified, which was understandable considering the stories surrounding him as well as her current position. Plus she now had tears coming from her eyes...
"Oh no that is not going to work! You don't just murder over 20 ponies and then just act like you're a sad, little, defenseless creature hoping to get pity".

"Are you actually fucking crying" he finally responded. The griffon flinched but didn't try to run away, not like she could. "I can not believe what I am seeing, a Black Cloak, a fucking Black Cloak crying to a pony! Now I've seen everything". The griffon just looked towards the ground in shame, and he decided he was done wasting his time with her.

"Fine then, just remember you made this choice in life Black Cloak" he added before delivering a shot into her head, thus ending her life. Following protocol he looted the body for anything useful, mainly ammunition since they used the same weapons that the Reformisten did, not like they could get their hooves on anything else anyway. On the body he found several rifle rounds, what looked to be a diary, a small little pistol(which he took as he had been looking for a sidearm for a while). Lastly he found a small piece of paper with what looked like instructions on it. Upon closer inspection however he found that these had actually come from general Rosa Heidenreich, the count's second in command.

"What in Tartarus was she doing with a document issued by Rosa Heidenreich?" he asked himself. The paper didn't look like anything too out of the ordinary, mainly just listing patrol routes for them to follow. It was when he flipped that paper over was when it got interesting.

"Corporal Gloria Ironwing, in order for our righteous work to continue (righteous my flank) we must ramp up our efforts in finding and eliminating these so called "partisans" hiding out in Longsword's countryside. Only once we complete this task can Longsword be truly purified and our work complete. I am sending you and your squad on a very important mission to the town of Varena to train for this task which will truly begin in a few weeks time. Do not ask questions why just do, and you will be rewarded handsomely in a promotion. If you let anygriffon know about this outside of your squad then you will be regarded as and shot as a traitor. Also remember to purge any ponies or partisans that you encounter on the way there as well, General Rosa Heidenreich".

"Well that is certainly interesting, what do they want with Varena though".Varena was the first ever proper town established in Longsword, and although founded by Grand Duke Zemaitukas over 200 years ago it was still little more than a village today. At least compared to the capital, Swordsson.

Night put the piece of paper containing the valuable information into his coat pocket and took to the skies, he would definitely be reporting this to Starry. If the Reformisten we're planning something then they needed to be prepared to stop them, no matter what it was nor how great the cost. With that said and done he took off back towards the river to met up with the rest of the squad. After about 3 minutes of flying and being careful for any Griffon patrols he managed to locate them. It seemed that they had taken the liberty of burying the bodies of the ponies who we're killed by those Griffons while he was gone. He soon landed beside his second in command, Swift Wing.

"Did you get her?" she asked. "Of course Swift, since when have I failed to complete an objective before" he responded.

"Oh I don't know, maybe that time in Harrsingen while assassinating that officer" she teased. Night's expression almost immediately darkened. "Oh come on, that was bad luck and you know it" Swift just laughed. "Ha, says the pony who walked in on that officer while he was flirting with that younger griffin" she laughed.

"Foals, while I do enjoy listening to you two bicker now is not the time" Quick Shot spoke up. "Agreed" said Red Dusk. "We should get moving while we still can, before they send troops out to investigate why those soldiers never reported back" he added.

"I don't think we need to worry about that, it was only two soldiers" Swift Wing replied.

"We still need to be careful, who's to say there aren't more Black Cloaks out in the forests near here. Who simply took more ponies to a different position before killing them" he replied, Night then decided to finally add his two cents to the conversation. "Red is right, I'm honestly kind of surprised we only encountered two Griffons but that's not to say there aren't more around here. So let's shut up and keep moving" he finished.

The rest of the squad reluctantly agreed and with that they silently ducked back into the treeline while being on lookout for more lone enemy soldiers. Soon enough they we're heading along the river again. He guessed they still had an hour of walking ahead of them before they arrived at the grove we're Starry would be giving her meeting. Although he soon found himself drifting back to that piece of paper as well as it's contents. Like what would Heidenreich want with Varena, they'd already decimated it countless times. As well as blown the whole town back to the stone age, as it was not only very symbolic to the ponies of Longsword, but it was also a center for religion but that was another story in itself. Oh well he supposed that he would just have to wait and see what the future had in store for him.