I was flying over the swamp, the rank fetid water impeding my perception even further than the stupid fog did. Though the fog was just about the only thing separating me from the blades of the pegasi behind me. At least, I hoped they were behind me. That's where I think I'm hearing the clanking from. Maybe they split up? I wish. Maybe they quit? Don't even get my hopes up. Every wing beat puts you one wing beat ahead of them. Every wing beat brought a massive tearing pain through them. The satchel and the spear on my back beat a staccato bea against each other as I tried to keep my wings as silen as possible.
Will I even get out of this alive? Probably not, that blood stone is probably about out of magic. When that goes, I'm dead. Said bloodstone was the only thing preventing me from dying of thirst or keeling over from the exhaustion I felt. That's the kind of magic that I approve of! Not those stupid magic mortars they wiped out camp with.
I, Valder of the Silent, was a scout. A scout that had been cut off by what could only be the enemies ENTIRE offensive line coming out of nowhere. My camp disintegrated in a mass of blood and burning, the other two who were with me dying in their beds. I, who had been returning from a hunting drip, fresh kill drug behind me, narrowly avoided getting the soul blown out of me by the enemy. So I ran. Five broke off to follow me, I managed to take out two of them with what little prepared magic the zebra had provided me with. Not that it mattered, I think at least one of them is magic augmented, probably with a direct link back to their main general. If I stopped for more than the brief hours that they took to rest, or if they even suspected that I was more than the average soldier, I could have Hunter squads after me.
And I was an average soldier. Standard childhood, standard childhood friends that joined he army at the same time... Just like every other griffon I knew, I had been born in the army camps to one of the army followers. You know, the "Paid companions"? Yeah, one of those was my mother before she kicked me out when I was five. I wandered around and attended school and eventually joined the army. Oh right, I almost forgot about my title. The army camp that I was born in was called The Silent. Yeah, cool name. But really, I'm just glad I wasn't named Kelder. I swear, there were at least three Kelders in the barracks at any given time, and only one of them was my friend. Though, if that army line kept moving ahead after it cut me off, there was a good chance that he would be dead.
I narrowly avoided hitting a tree and my wing tips brushed the stinky swamp below. The fog made seeing any object more than ten feet in front of me nigh impossible. Which really made me think that the mage augment behind me had a tracking spell on me. Which was also the reason why I hadn't escaped yet. I had one last trick in the satchel that I could use to my advantage. A teleport geared to the nearest ley line would certainly make my getaway easy, but if I was being tracked it wouldn't matter. Another issue with me activating that teleport was the fact that I was in enemy territory. It would just be bad luck if I managed to ditch the tracking spell and ended up teleporting into an enemy fortress. I didn't have much of a choice beside that.
My wings were growing numb, and my feathers were doted with dried salt. Thankfully, the pegasi behind me had managed to miss with their eye powder, otherwise my flight eyelid would be out of commission and my eyes would be burning with salt. It's a small thing to be thankful about, but really, I should be counting what few blessings I have. Like not being born a wimp. I was average as far as griffons go, and had witnessed many times how the little griffon always got the worst meat from the kills that the adults brought out from their hunting. I had the golden back half that my father supposedly was blessed with, and my face was a medium grey, something that while uncommon back at the camp was not entirely unheard of. It attracted the girls though. Heh...
A bolt of red magic zoomed by as the augment used up one of the charges of magic embedded in his suit of armor to blow a hole in the fog. They were still behind me. And I was running out of energy and ideas. Joining the scouts had been the logical thing to do for me. I had a scout's build; high endurance and silent wings. I could use a spear, and best of all, the scouts were very rarely sent out into direct combat! All you had to do was fight twenty or so years in the war and you could live well for the rest of your life! And even better, when I had passed basic training I had been sent to the middle of nowhere in Goric swamp! The enemy never attacked here! The entire swamp was a no magic zone, so their annoying magic mortars weren't half as effective in here. Five hundred miles of swamp marked this border between my home country and Equestria.
I checked my satchel for anything that I had missed, maybe there was something in it that would patch the fog up enough that they wouldn't have a clear sight on me? Hey, a griffon can hope! And maybe there will be a bath or something to get this salt off of me? My feathers are matted and I think I'm about to lose them! I need those to fly! All that I found in the satchel was a jar of poison, the bloodstone which I tucked back in before I lost and was really dead, and a single magic disrupter. I won't claim to know how it works, but apparently it can disrupt magic that is being cast on something. I wanted to use it on the augment, but I only had one and the blasted thing wouldn't say still.
It was ok though, the fog thickened again. And the air felt thicker to my poor wings. I was a scout! A scout sent to scout in the middle of nowhere with out armor, which told me that nothing was supposed to happen while I was scouting! I wish this stupid war would end!
Yeah, like that's gonna happen in my life time. The war has been going on for at least two centuries before you were born, eggbrain, and it's till going to be going on after you are long dead! Cacophony himself couldn't stop this war and you know he's been trying to! Self reflection aside, I began to wonder what life would be like without war. If no one had to die.
A tree limb getting blown up by another charge of the augment's armor snapped me out of my pacifistic and probably treasonous thoughts. The fog was thinning again. I felt something hat had been bothering me, like some weird itch decided to leave me.
"Shells! Egg breaker!" I swore. That was the blood stone shattering. My one life line had given out before I could get to safety. I was probably going to have to resort to drastic measures. Or teleport.
A squirrel stared at me and my claws lazily impaled it's stupid body. Why was there a squirrel out in the middle of a swamp anyway? Three blurs whizzed through the fog. My pursuers had flown by me. I was alive. But for how long?
My blood stone was shattered. I had about six hours before I crashed from sleep deprivation and over exertion. Things were bad even while they were good. I was knee deep in swamp water and after being chased for three days, I was hopelessly lost. Without my bloodstone, I had no chance of getting back through the swamp. I had three days between me and where I hoped my camp was. My chances were looking bad. Add to that the sunning certainty that the three pegasi, including that annoying augment, were probably going to figure out that I ditched them soon. I knew i shouldn't have gotten those magic sensing implants! My ears were still buzzing from the amount of energy that the augment had been throwing around. Did I forget that for however long you used the bloodstone you would feel weak for that long after? Should've remembered that...
Long story short, I was going to have to use my one and only teleport if I wanted to get out of this alive. My best shot at this would be using the teleport and making sure that where ever I landed would be good enough for me to live in until I got my strength back. It was a horrible plan, but seeing as how it was midnight and no sane species would stay out this late during a war, it was my best shot at living. I could only hope that if I got teleported into a populated area that most of the inhabitants would be asleep.
If I just stood there debating whether or not I should teleport I was going to lose my window of opportunity! that thought snapped me back to what was really important. I snatched my satchel up and pulled out the small hexagonal blue gem from it's depths.
"Now what were those magic words again?" I didn't remember the code word that well. Well more like code phrase. Or song line. I hummed a few bars of the griffon training song before he words came to me.
"Once a scout and always a scout our wings will fly us far. Our speed will be unmatched, for that is who we are." I hoped that was the right line. The horror stories our resident haiku speaking zebra fed us gave me pause and I watched with the certainty that an ad lib in the song I had accidentally made, whether or not I had, was going to doom me to a horrible death via magic. I hated magic.
I stared at the hexagonal gem until I realized that I was unable to wrench my gaze away. From the corner of my eyes, which my flight eyelid came down over, I saw he area around me turn to white as the world folded. It unfolded and left me there, the gem in my talons spinning and vanishing back to the main war office. My ears buzzed like a thousand angry bees. I knew I shouldn't have gotten those stupid magic sensing implants! I shook my head in an attempt to clear it of my discomfort.
I was in the middle of a town square. Thick cobblestone beneath my feet, looking new but unevenly set, made my talons click as I walked on it. The buildings looked like they had all been assembled from the same stone that were beneath my feet. The moon cast an awkward shadow from a weather vane high up on the tallest building in town. It was a pegasus weaher vane and told me all I needed to know about the town. There were no candles lit from behind shuttered windows. I think I teleported to a natural ley line intersection.
There was one other detail in the town square. The town well stood unattended. I poisoned the well and just for good measure, threw the bottle down with it. With the splash I heard a small gasp behind me. I turned and froze.
A young earth pony, maybe eight or nine of years, had a look of complete surprise on his face. I think he was out looking for a late night drink or something. As much as my morals disagreed with killing children, I could have no witnesses.
"I'm sorry kid." I pounced upon his shocked form and muffled his face with my wing. I slit his throat with my left talons, then drug his body into an alley. I winced at the amount of blood the kid had managed to spill on my feathers.
Is that going to stain? Stained feathers was not a laughing matter, let me assure you. Especially with blood. Imagine having every feather forceful plucked from the stained region and then being force grown through the skin! It hurt like nothing else.
I had maybe five hours until I passed out for a while. Conveniently enough, the alley way that I had drug the kid into had a door that opened into a house.
"Bless my luck. Something going right with the world." I said out loud. My voice echoed across the sparsely decorated room, the many pictures that hung on the walls doing little to affect the vibrations. My voice did awaken the sole occupants in the room, and drawing the bladed spear, I sank it into the stallion's throat. He gurgled out and died. I wiped he spear off on the stallions impeccably white coat. His wings were red with his own blood, and I gave a wince when I realized I had killed what was probably the only weather controller in the town. Without him, the feeble ponies crops would fail and the town would die off in a year.
Considering that I had poisoned the well and already killed twice, I think there were worse things to worry about. Like what I would do to pass the time it took for the blood stone to wear off completely. Or worry about whether or not I had actually ditched my pursuers. Or wonder if anybody from my camp had made it back to the main base to tell them that the massive attack force was coming. Maybe Discord would send dragons? Or maybe the newborn general himself would arrive. Cacophony had been trying to get his son bloodied in the war.
I locked the door and dragged the child in with me, eating about half of the child until I wasn't hungry anymore. With the door locked, I fell asleep after another few hours.
I woke when the screams started. The pounding on the door didn't help either. Nor did the smell of meat that was going to spoil.
"FleetFoot! Have you seen my son?" A mare's voice came through the door frame. I looked down at the half eaten remains of her child. He still looked tasty. I hen looked at the white pegasus beside me. Could I fake his voice well enought to make her go away?
"No I haven't, I've been stuck in here all day with a cold." I added a layer of congestion to my voice, the natural raspiness of a griffon's voice furthering my ploy.
"You don't sound so good FleetFoot. Are you contagious?" I was hungry, and I think the mare might have gotten suspicious if I started eating on her son again while she was there. You know, I never realized how good pony meat tastes before... Sort of sweet and savory... Wonder how good it would be with a little salt and butter?
"Ye-Yes.." I added a cough for dramatic effect. I wonder how good pony fur is for spear upkeep? I knew that I was going to have to wipe the blade on something before it decided to rust on me. While so far it had been surprisingly easy for me to live behind enemy lines, it would only take a single slip for the soldiers or even the local militia to come after me. Which would be bad.
"All right... I'll look else where..." I heard the mare's hooves clop against the ground as she walked off. It occurred o me that I needed to get out of their pretty quick. When they realized the well was poisoned and when the bodies started to smell, they might call down the militia. There was some more shuffling from outside the door and I paused from pondering the future.
"What do you mean my son's in here?"
"That's what the spell says, madam." An ice cold pang of fear ran down my spine. Wow, looks like that weakening spell on my spear is starting to go out. I've got to watch that, if it goes out completely I might end up with a terrific case of PTSD. I considered the magic that had lead them here. One of the two ponies at least was a unicorn, and if I didn't get out of there shortly I would most assuredly have something bad to worry about.
"Is there anyone else in there Star Swirl?" Shells! That's a unicorn name if I ever heard of one!
"Your son is dead I'm afraid. The griffon in there has most likely killed him already. I'll return the favor in a second." I heard a thump as Star swirl sat down. "That well water gets nastier everyday..." A burst of hope, bright and almost tangible sprung up. The moron had drunk the water? It was a slower acting nerve poison, one which took a few minutes before it would start working. But how could I use that to my advantage?
"STARSWIRL!" Is he dead? More importantly, is there any way out of this situation?
"Zen smite him! He's poisoned the well." A third voice, this one with a tang of country in it joined the three. I felt mildly proud of myself, to get the enemy to invoke their god's name in vain.
"It-its o-o-o-k-k... I-I-I al-already -ca-called the augments." And I was back to being terrified. I dealt with my emotion as my training bade me to; lock it up until you can deal with it. I opened the door and pushed passed the civilians.
"Stop! Murderer!" And that was when I realized that there were no other flying creatures around. Nothing stopped me from flying as high as I could and avoiding pursuit. I flew as high as I could before my wings made me descend to about stories up. As I swore at myself for not trying to do some wing stretched while I was trapped with the two carcasses, I observed something which took my breath away.
The night had hid from me the actual city. All around me, as far as the eye could see were buildings. Grey in color and stone in construction, I had been teleported into the slums of it. The ground was crawling with more earth ponies than I could count. The fact that I had augments, as in more than one of them after me, told me that it was a big city. A BIG city. There was only one city as far as I knew that could be that big; the earth pony strong hold Gaiavale. The sight of all of the cold grey stone unnerved me and a shattering feeling overcame me. I looked to my spear and saw that the purple line on it that symbolized the weakening spell was gone. I was free from danger. Well, kind of.
As long as I was forced to fly over the city, I decided to try and convert as much of the city to memory. As long as I had a map of the place in my head, I could probably use it to advance my rank or something. I looked down on the city and wondered just how far the place went on. Here and there, Earth pony slaves, the large black magical tattoo on their back screaming to all the world just what they were, labored in amongst the fields that haphazardly littered the city. Slavery was very much against the entire griffon way of life. Take no prisoners, do not make others do what you yourself could do and achieve your purpose in life, not what others would have be your purpose. The griffons at camp Silent taught everybody what happened if you failed at your purpose. You went to hell. And then you were reincarnated as something other than the magnificent griffon.
"How big is this city?" I said to nothing in particular. The pleasing rasp of my own voice was a different change from the chatter that emerged from below me. I received the answer to my question shortly.
"Halt, griffon scum!" Was all the warning I got before the earth pony augments attacked. A few pegasi augments swooped in from the right of me, constricting the room I had to dodge the incoming fire balls. Deep inside me, my self preservation yelled at me. I pulled my wings to my side to plunge myself out of harms way. This had the unfortunate effect of straining my wings even further when I snapped them out to stop my fall. I counted four fire balls that went over my head and a single fire ball that happened to kill the transfixed slave controller next to me. The magical tattoos that used to wrap around his bodies were in exact accordance with the ones inked out on the slaves. When the controller died, the slaves were freed. They formed ranks in front of me, a leader at the front. Said letter was a stout Earth pony, cutie mark that of an axe crossing over a shovel. The lead one yelled out at me.
"We'll hol' off the ground troo'! Rebels don' go down dat easily! Just fly!" And just like that, twenty ponies sacrificed themselves to hold off the augments just that much longer. I gave a winged salute, then snapped back to getting away from there. I tossed the magic disrupter from my pocket back to the head of the self proclaimed rebels. It seemed like a good idea in the heat of the moment, and the small black sphere was caught almost immediately by said earth pony. He nodded back at me, and I in my confused state ignored it and tried to put as much distance between me and the pegasi augments as possible.
I was without any support other than that of the few slaves I had inadvertently freed. My wings were about to give out on me and even on a good day I couldn't out fly pegasi augments. In short, I was probably going to die.