Crystal POV

The next day we had left the old battlefield and since that day, three had passed. We were now heading for a bigger Village named Haykjavik, up in the Frozen North region. Zitrus was planning to sell the ammo he found.

The relationship between Zitrus and Savage still was kind of distance. Which started to worry me. Sure, the two had a rough beginning but just then, when it started to get somewhere, they avoided each other again.

I gave a sigh on the inside. We already had a good distance done. One more week and we should reach our destination. Right now, we were somewhere between the North Luna Ocean and the Galloping Gorge.

What can I say about the surroundings? Well, nothing special. Lot of pine trees and a good mix of flat and hilly. All in all, nothing special. But one question popped into my mind.

“Zitrus, the pre-war battlefield was three days away. And as far I know, the ponies were fighting against zebras. What were the zebras doing up here so far away from the dessert and their home?”, I asked Zitrus.

“Good question. I do not know to be honest. If I would give a guess, then I would say that we have seen some heavy artillery on the field. And to my knowledge, the old city of Cloudsdale was not to far away from such a location. Maybe that was a vanguard who bombed Cloudsdale”, Zitrus guessed. “But again, I cannot tell for sure. In war a lot of things happen we do not can or want to explain.”

Yes, war… Alicorns were created after the war so I could not tell how it must had been. but like every pony, I didn't expect anything good. And only half of the suffering happened on the battlefield. Outside of the gunfire…

Wait, were these gunshots? The others seemed to hear it too, because everypony was at attention now. Again, the gunshots came, distant but audible.

“Come on, let's check out what is going on!”, Zitrus said.

“Wait! Is that smart? We could run into the middle of heavy fighting”, Savage warned. I gave a nod.

“So far, we have only heard one kind of weapon. Might also be some pony calling for help. We first scout and then decide what to do, alright?”, Zitrus said.

He started to in the direction the shots came from without checking to see if any of us were following. But of course, we had to. We couldn't let him go into danger alone. Me, Savage and Blueberry were right behind him.

When there was just one hill between us and where the gunshots had come from, Blueberry turned us all invisible.

I reached out with my telepathy and could sense one… alicorn? Yes, it defiantly was a sister.

“I can feel one alicorn on the other side of the hill”, I informed the rest of the group.

“An alicorn? What weak alicorn would use a weapon?”, Savage said.

A short moment of silence between us.

“OW! Hey!”

I didn't need to see to know that Blueberry had poked Savage hard with her long bow.

“Mares, focus! We still have a dangerous situation here”, Zitrus ordered, and we started to move over the hill.

On the other side were two Griffons. On of them was laying on the ground. He was only able to press a bloody cloth to his chest to keep from bleeding out.. He was a black griffon with some red touches on the wing, head and chest. The other, a silver and brown one, flew in front of his companion protectively. He held an assault rifle in his talons, and was clearly scanning for something. Or some pony. Because there was no alicorn in sight.

Green alicorns were only able to read the minds of ponies and other alicorns. That must had been the reason why I didn’t sense the two griffons before. But I noticed an alicorn was here. She was flying up high with a perfect view of the two griffons. She must have been a blue alicorn, because she was invisible too.

“Show yourself!”, the silver brown griffon said and shot wildly around him. But none of the shots came anywhere near the invisible alicorn. In return, she fired a magic blast at the griffon, burning his tail.

The griffon screamed in pain, and fired in the direction the spell came from. But of course, the alicorn was already moving to another position

She is playing with them. She could have ended this long ago but she likes to see them struggle, Savage thought, who was able to figure out that there was another alicorn around.

Indeed, the two griffons had no chance. Especially since one of them was so badly injured, he couldn't fight. This blue alicorn just played cat and mouse with them. (Yes, I know that griffons are half cats. No pun intended.)

Crystal, talk to her! You can reach her the easiest, Zitrus recommended.

I did so. Sister, what is going on?

The blue alicorn was taken by surprise to suddenly sense another of her kind here.

Sister? One of you here? Are you with a blue alicorn? Because I cannot see you, she asked in mind back.

I nodded then realized she couldn't see me.

Indeed. What is going on here?

Isn’t that obvious? The blue alicorn thought. We are teaching these dodos a lesson. Come, sister. Together, they will learn to fear us.

I was unsure about this situation. Less, reveal us, I told blueberry in thought speech.

When our group became visible for our blue Sister, we also became to the two griffons. They were, of course, shocked to have three more alicorns appear suddenly, nevermind there was an earth pony with the alicorns.

Just in case I had my shield ready and that not without reasons as it showed. The less injured griffon fired some rounds that just bounced off our shield. A click announced that he had emptied the magazine. With a swift motion, he ejected the spent magazine, and loaded a fresh one. Even now, he refused to abandon his injured comrade.

“We see, you also got a prisoner”, the blue alicorn said and landed behind my protective barrier as she also made herself visible.

“Prisoner?”, I asked.

She pointed with one wing at Zitrus.

“Zitrus is not our prisoner!”, Blueberry said and stood protective by Zitrus.

The other blue alicorn looked a bit taken for a moment before she asked: “What is he then?”

“He is our friend.” It was me who answered.

The newly met alicorn was quiet for a moment.

“Sisters, he is an earth pony. Our kind should not spend time with such lowly creatures. We are so much better than him”, she then said.

I was unsure how to respond. I gave a side glare at Savage. This blue alicorn was just like her when we first met. Savage didn't dare meet our eyes. This could end in a good or bad way.

“And what was this about now?”, I tried to change the subject to the important part and pointed at the two griffons.

The hurt one was busy drinking a healing potion now while the other one stood guard and watched us. But it would take time for the potion to work. And even then, they would have no chance to escape an alicorn.

“These two passed us without giving more than a stupid glare!", our new found sister spat in anger.

“That’s all?”, I asked confused. I was expecting more than that.

“That’s all?! Sister, our kind should be feared by others. We, the superior kind we are, should rule over this wasteland. The Goddess had greatness planned for us. And we cannot get such if others do not kneel down for us from fear.”

She spread her wings and held her head high up. It gave me even more of a déjà-vu from the time we first met Savage.

“That is what we plan with these two griffons. Making them fear us and then use them as example and spread such fear”, the blue alicorn said. Then she pointed at Zitrus. “We were thinking, you three had the same plan as we do. That is why this earth pony was here. As prisoner and example.”

Blueberry gave her a dark look at her words. But besides that, she kept her neutral expression.

“And what is the good side when every creature fears you?”, Zitrus blandly asked.

The blue alicorn gave an angry glare. Clearly unpleased that an normal earth pony dares to talk to her.

“When every creature fears us they will follow our orders. Unity will be respected, and we will rule over the wasteland”, she explained.

“And you think this works?”, Zitrus followed up.

“Of course it does! When we were with the Goddess, our kind was feared. And we came far thanks to that. They avoided us and we could do our work.

A tense moment of silence was between us. This mare had a stubborn mind like Savage once did. She would not listen to any arguments we might have made. She would not see the price of suffering our kind caused just because…

“Sister… We… I do like the way you think.” Savage suddenly said. All eyes were on her. “I too, want to bring greatness to the alicorn race. Showing the rest of the wasteland our superiority.. Just like our mother had planned.

But I had to learn that the Goddess had the right intention but the wrong ways. Since under her regime, she tried to make us be respected by all others. But we never got respect. They hate us. And this hate will only continue if we decide to stay on that path.

We can rule over Equestria. Fear is one option for that. But then, our kind will be alone just like we always have been. Other creatures did not dare to get ruled by us. Instead, how many sisters did we lose because of the hate and fear they had?

if we truly want to achieve anything, then our unity has to stand side by side with the residents of Equestria. That is the way we save the greatness of our kind. Not by ruling, like our mother wished, but through mutual respect.”

Saying I was surprised by savages speech was an understatement. She just literally said the opposite of what she once believed.

The blue alicorn looked at Savage.I entered her mind and saw that she was considering savages words. Then, with a strong flap of her wings, she took to the air.

“You are crazy!”, she said and flew away without looking back.

I gave a sigh, not realizing I was holding my breath.

“Well, that could have gone better”, Savage said.

“No, that was the best possible ending we could have gotten”, I said with a well knowing smile.

Zitrus went to the two griffons. Blueberry followed. I decided to listen from the background.

the healing potion had already taken effect. The injured griffon was able to stand, even if he was a little weak in the legs.

“Thanks for the help. You really saved our asses. But you should have just killed that crazy alicorn, instead of talking with her. She's a serious threat", said the silver brown one.

“Maybe we should, but I think we achieved more this way”, Zitrus said with a polite nod.

“That was naïve. That alicorn will just...”

“Relax, Ranold. We can be happy that we got out of that shitty situation alive”, the Black griffon said and spit out some blood.

“Speak for yourself, Kondor. You were the one nearly bleeding out. You owe me at least one magazine of ammo”, the silver brown griffon called Ranold said to his friend.

“Pf, not my fault your aim sucks”, Kondor said. They both shared a laughter.

Kondor turned his head to Zitrus and spoke: “Thank you again, stranger. It's been a long time since we encountered a hostile alicorn. Thought they changed since they lost their leader.”

“Many have, but some might be confused and lost during this sudden lost. They might still follow the old goals they had”, Zitrus explained.

I looked at Savage.

Thank you, I said to her in mind.

She did not respond.

Author's Note

A huge thanks to jgilley63 who made it able that i could post this chapter today. That was important for me because there won't be any updates for 2 weeks because i have holidays.
But do not worry, the story will continue. (Except i die or something like this. I mean a lot can happen in two weeks.)
Hope you enjoyed this chapter.