Night finally fell over Equestria, and Princess Luna stared into the dark sky. No stars dotted the vast black canvas that she was in charge of, and the moon was tinted a slight shade of red. She shook her head, walking back inside her room, unable to concentrate enough to complete her normally beautiful night sky.

She quickly glanced over the many letters and reports on her table, all of them detailing the current status of the war. What angered her the most was that almost every report she read was an event that could have been prevented had her sister Celestia listened to her. Luna took a deep breath to stop from shouting in frustration as she recalled the advice she tried to give her sister; Cloudsdale would be a prime target due to it being home to the Wonderbolts, Twilight and her friends should move to Canterlot to stay protected, and more guards should be posted in and around the major transportation hubs of Equestria. Instead, her sister insisted on trying to keep the populace calm by not deploying her soldiers all over, not to mention refusing to order an overwhelming assault on the griffons. No, her sister instead refused to budge from her method of diplomacy and peace, thinking talks could end this war…

Luna slammed her hoof on the table in frustration, dark thoughts beginning to cloud her mind. Why didn’t her sister trust her more to take control of the army? Couldn’t she see this war needed to end now? A knock at her door snapped her out of her thoughts, and she sighed with relief that she had something to distract her.

“Enter!” she commanded.

One of her guards entered the room, bowing to his mistress before speaking. “Your highness, I am sorry to bother you, but one of the scouts has reported a gathering of griffons to the north of Canterlot.”

The guard bowed once again before taking his leave, leaving Luna alone to think. She was supposed to immediately inform her sister of signs of griffon attacks, but Celestia was fast asleep, not to mention that this problem needed to be addressed now, and the night was Luna’s specialty.

Firm on her decision, Princess Luna summoned her messenger. “Quickly, inform my guards that we are to leave immediately.” she said. The messenger bowed and galloped off to inform the guardians of the night. Once she was alone again, her horn glowed and she was enveloped in a dark blue mist, reappearing in a form that she had hoped to leave behind for good, and her sister would not likely be pleased to see again. But this was war, and certain measures needed to be taken.

“You foals, you should have never betrayed Equestria, for we are coming for you.” she spoke softly yet menacingly. “Nightmare Moon is coming for you all.”

If anypony had been still awake in Canterlot and looked into the night sky, what they would have seen would be quite an impressive yet sinister sight. Nightmare Moon led hundreds of her bat-winged guards across the blackened sky, their silhouettes only visible as they crossed the now blood-red moon. But nopony was awake to see this impressive show of force, and Luna and her soldiers flew uninterrupted into the night, headed north to where they would meet their foes.

Spitfire paced back and forth in her office, ignoring the sound of somepony knocking at her door. With a sigh, Soarin opened the door on his own and entered the office of his commanding officer, knowing all too well that she would despise the news he was about to deliver.

“What is it, Soarin? Are the weather machines finally off?” Spitfire asked bluntly.

Soarin gulped before answering her. “No, they’re not off yet. The engineer pegasi said that it’s going to be a week or two before they can get all the machines off. There’s more damage than they expected, and without us able to bring in any unicorns to remove the magical power sources they have to disable the machines without completely destroying them.”

“Unacceptable!” Spitfire shouted, kicking a nearby chair into the wall, causing the chair to shatter. “It’s almost been a week since those scum snuck right under our noses and trapped all of us here! By the time we get the machines shut off, those griffons could have overrun all of Equestria! We are completely powerless and useless while we remain trapped here. We need to get out and get to Canterlot NOW!”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Soarin shouted back. “But what choice do we have? We’re all working as hard as we can. We’re lucky that Cloudsdale has enough food to last us until we can break free. But the pegasi are having enough trouble just getting from building to building with all the lightning out there. We don’t have any other choice than waiting.”

Spitfire looked out her window, watching dozens of lightning bolts streak through the sky each second. Soarin thought he had finally got Spitfire to listen to reason, but she shook her head in disagreement.

“No, there’s one more option. One more thing we haven’t tried yet.” she said. She walked to her locker where she kept her flight suit and began putting it on.

“Spits, what in Tartarus do you think you’re doing?” Soarin asked. “You know too well that it’s impossible to fly around Cloudsdale with this lightning.”

“I’m not going to fly around this city. I’m flying out of here.” Spitfire said bluntly.

“That’s suicide!” Soarin cried out. “There’s absolutely no way any pegasus can get through those clouds without being killed! Even being in one of the clouds when the lightning goes off can kill them!”

Spitfire finished donning her outfit, ignoring Soarin’s pleas. “Then I guess I better be lucky.” she said, making some small adjustments before heading to the door. As she was about to leave, she turned her head to her loyal friend. “Look, I can’t order you or anypony else to come. But if anypony wants to volunteer to try something rather than sit around and wait for Equestria to burn, I’ll be in the flight hall for an hour before I leave.”

Soarin stood silently as Spitfire left, his mind an absolute torrent of thoughts, worries, and guilt. She was right, sitting here would get nothing done, but getting needlessly killed wouldn’t help win the fight either. Sighing tiredly, he walked to the Wonderbolt’s barracks to inform his pegasi of what Spitfire wanted.

Spitfire entered the flight hall five minutes before the hour time limit was up and was not surprised by what she saw. Only three Wonderbolts in full flight gear stood around chatting, going silent as they saw her enter the room. She walked up to each of them, giving them a sincere hug of appreciation for what they volunteered for. A very short briefing ensued, the plan being to take any means necessary to get out of the city and to rendezvous in Canterlot within 24 hours. She asked them if they knew just how deadly this attempt would be, and each of them nodded grimly, fully knowing that there was a better chance of Princess Luna officially changing her name to Princess Bright Butt than them surviving.

“Right, let’s do this.” Spitfire said, lowering her flight goggles as she headed to the door. As she was about to open the door it was pulled open by somepony else, a fully suited Wonderbolt blocking the door.

“Soarin?” Spitfire exclaimed. “I told you, I have to do this. You can’t stop me.”

“I know. I’m not here to stop you.” he replied, taking a deep breath before he continued. “I’m here to join you. You were right. We have to try something.”

Spitfire embraced him, then surprised him by drawing him in for a deep passionate kiss. The move catches Soarin completely off guard, but he is disappointed that it doesn’t last as long as he had hoped for. As Spitfire breaks the kiss, she smiles at her best friend, her eyes showing that she genuinely did appreciate his decision. “Let’s get out of here.” she says to her companion, leading the way outside.

As the five pegasi stepped outside, they stared in awe at the sky above them, lightning violently lighting up the darkness caused by the thick layer of clouds. As long as they stayed below the rooftops of the buildings they were protected from the lightning. But as soon as any pegasus rose above the roofs, they became a prime target for the deadly bolts of electricity. Spitfire nodded to her companions, and all at once they took off, flying as quick as they could towards the sky. They quickly fell into an inverted wedge formation, hoping to stick together as long as possible. Avoiding the lightning bolts proved challenging to all five of them, a few near misses rattling the nerves of even Spitfire. But they all managed to dodge the bolts and fell back into their formation, and after what seemed like an eternity they finally reached the layer of clouds.

As the group entered the cloud layer, Spitfire gasped as the density of the clouds brought her to almost a complete stop. Her wingponies also struggled with the clouds, and as they struggled upwards one pegasus began to fall behind. Spitfire stopped to wait for him, turning around and seeing that he was still in the cloud below hers. Her eyes widened as the cloud the pegasus was still struggling in began to glow, signaling the formation of a lightning bolt.

“Hurry, get out of there!” Spitfire yelled. The dark shadow of a pegasus began to become visible through the cloud, but just as he was about to break free the cloud exploded in a bright light, a scream of pain coming from the unfortunate pegasus. The cry of pain was cut short as the cloud went dark just as quickly as it had been lit, and Spitfire knew that the pegasus was lost for good. She struggled to continue flying up, cursing the griffons who had caused this whole mess and vowing to make every single one pay with their life.

She had lost track of Soarin and the other remaining Wonderbolts, but she hoped that they had already made it out of the clouds and were safely flying to Canterlot. Just as she finished that thought, another cry from a pegasus sounded, it too abruptly ending. A rare thought entered Spitfire’s head; ‘maybe I was wrong. Maybe Soarin was right, maybe we should have stayed and waited for the engineers to finish disabling the cloud machines.’

Spitfire grimaced, mentally kicking herself for thinking such thoughts. She continued to push forwards with new vigor, swearing to avenge her fallen teammates. Her wings were exhausted from the sheer effort they had to put up and her mind screamed at her to stop, but she continued to fly up farther and farther, somehow miraculously avoiding clouds that were about to discharge their electricity.

Soon the pain started to become unbearable even for her, and she couldn’t help but cry lightly from the burning pain in her wings. But just as she was about to give up, she broke through the final layer of clouds, one last cry of determination escaping her lips as she felt the dense resistance disappear. Unable to stay aloft much longer, she spread her wings and glided down to the earth far below, collapsing in exhaustion once her hooves touched down on the ground.

Spitfire looked up, gazing at the dark gray clouds engulfing her home city. She didn’t see any other pony anywhere, and she could only hope that she wasn’t the only pegasus to make it out alive. She thought back to each of the Wonderbolts who had volunteered to go with her today, thinking back on the first time she met them. The last pegasus to enter her mind was none other than Soarin, and she brushed away a tear that started to form in one of her eyes.

“No.” she said to herself. “No, he can’t be dead. Soarin must have made it out. He’s probably already on his way to Canterlot like we planned. Yeah, that’s it…”

With renewed hope, Spitfire spread her wings and took off once again, the pain in her wings had subsided enough for her to manage the flight to the pony capital. All through the flight, only one thought occupied her mind; revenge.

Soarin did make it out of Cloudsdale, but just barely. As he was clearing the final layer of clouds he was grazed by a cloud that had just released a bolt of lightning. While not enough to kill him, he was knocked out from the bolt and fell out of the sky, miraculously landing in a nearby river and was swept downriver. The cold water woke him from his unconscious state and he was able to scramble back to the surface before he drowned, but there was barely enough energy left in him to stay afloat. Unable to swim for shore, Soarin was left at the mercy of the current, and it took close to an hour for him to finally be swept to a section of river shallow enough to stand up in.

Soarin staggered to dry land, collapsing once he reached the soft grass and gasped for air. Rolling over on his back he stared at the blackened sky, gazing at the blood red moon. He was too tired to wonder why Luna didn’t spread her stars tonight, instead his thoughts were occupied by how he was going to find his way back to Canterlot. His thoughts were interrupted by a glowing light coming towards him, and soon voices could be heard as well. Looking to his side, Soarin’s heart seemed to miss a few beats as two griffons came walking out of the bushes and approached him, one holding a torch while the other wore a satchel bag.

Soarin was in absolutely no condition to fight, and he closed his eyes as he accepted his fate. His eyes opened in surprise as he felt one of the griffons gently touch him, almost as if they were examining him. Looking at the two griffons now standing over him, one was indeed inspecting his body while the other was retrieving bandages from the bag.

“What the- what are you doing?” he asked, puzzled that he hadn’t had his throat slit yet.

“Be still. You had quite a fall and it looks like a leg and wing may be broken.” one griffon said calmly.

“Saw me fall? But how? Why are you treating my injuries?” Soarin asked, obeying the griffons command to not move.

“Yes, we were scouting the area for the rest of our group when we saw you fall in the distance. We tried getting to you sooner but the river took you away before we got to where you fell. We followed the river in hopes that you hadn’t drowned, and found you here. And we can’t let you die, you’re much more useful to us alive than dead.” the griffon bandaging his body said.

“Your group? Are you part of the griffon army?”

Both griffons let out a soft laugh. “Ha, we’d rather be sent straight to Tartarus than be part of that savage party. No, a small group of us do not support this demand for blood and violence our new ‘leader’ so desperately desires, so seeing as we would be banished anyway for opposing his wishes, some of us left the griffon homeland in search of a new home, or at least temporary protection in Canterlot.”

The other griffon nodded in agreement. “But we can’t just walk in to your capital and expect the guards there to welcome us as refugees. That’s why we’re happy to have you here, so you can vouch for us.”

Soarin smiled, glad that there were indeed some griffons who also opposed the senseless violence. His two saviors finished bandaging his broken limbs and helped him to his hooves, slowly guiding him through the brush to their camp. Soarin couldn’t help but gasp at what he saw. He was expecting a small handful of griffons to be present, maybe a dozen or so at the most. But in front of him close to a hundred tents stood erect in a clearing, the griffons in the temporary refugee camp easily numbering over two hundred. All the griffons there seemed to be happy to see him as he was escorted through the camp to the medical tent. Even the griffon children smiled and waved at the pegasus, giggling at the strange looking creature that many of them had never seen before. Once at the medical station, he was given a bed to rest in and he eagerly lay down to rest his body. A doctor came over to conduct a more thorough examination, and after a short while Soarin was told that he should be fine in the morning, and that the leader of the refugees wished to talk to him about possibly seeking help from the princesses. Not wanting to keep the tired pegasus up, the doctor left Soarin after a short while, telling him to sleep as much as he wanted, and that if he needed anything to just call. Soarin couldn’t help but smile once again, his heart now full of hope that peace could exist between the two species. Closing his eyes, Soarin fell asleep with ease, and he fell into a peaceful slumber.

A scream woke Soarin up, his eyes snapping open as his senses let him know that something was terribly, terribly wrong. Outside his tent a bright glowing could be seen, and dark shadows dashing in every direction danced on the canvas walls. More screams could be heard outside, as could the clash of metal on metal. Stumbling out of bed, Soarin limped over to the entrance and pulled back the tent flap, horrified by what he saw…

Fire consumed the entire camp, almost every tent in the clearing now on fire. Dark figures swooped down from the sky, some carrying torches and dropping them on the untouched tents. The griffons who had taken shelter inside ran out of the burning shelters, only to be assaulted by more of the mysterious dark figures. Some of the griffons were impaled by spears while others were simply beaten to death. Soarin dove out of the way as he saw a trio of the figures flying towards him, clearing his tent just before it too was engulfed in flames. As the assailants flew over him, he got a clear view of just who was attacking, and his heart dropped to his stomach.

“Oh dear Luna, no, please no.” he softly said, not wanting to believe what he was seeing. But the armor he saw was unmistakably Luna’s night guards.

“Luna! Stop! Call them off! Call them off!” Soarin yelled out at the top of his lungs, hoping the princess of the night would hear him. But his cries were drowned out by the screams from the griffons, none of which had any weapons to fight back with.

Soarin’s eyes dashed all over, trying to find some way… any way…. to stop the slaughter and save the innocent griffons. He saw a pair of small griffons huddling under a bush about fifty feet away, and Soarin tried to rush over to them as quickly as he could before any of the guards found them. Halfway to them, a group of four guards appeared out of nowhere, landing between him and the two adolescent griffons.

“No!” Soarin shouted out, but his words fell on deaf ears.

The four bat-winged ponies descended mercilessly on the cowering griffons, and their screams pierced Soarin’s heart as he ignored his own pains and rushed over.

“For Celestia’s sake, stop! They’re unarmed! They’re just young ones! Stop!” he pleaded, gasping for air as he got closer to them. He made one last leap and stretched his hoof out, but just as he was about to knock over one of the guards attacking the two innocent griffons, Soarin found himself being swept away by an unknown pony.

Soarin and his unknown companion flew away from the massacre, and he got one last glimpse of the scene below, unable to look away from the carpet of dead griffon bodies covering the ground. The two remained airborne for a short time, and once Soarin found himself back on the ground he scrambled away from the monster that had taken him, turning to look at who or what had taken him away. He gasped as he clearly saw who had taken him away from the camp…

“Spitfire! What are you doing?”

“Dear Celestia, Soarin, what were you doing in the middle of all that? Did those griffons capture you?” Spitfire asked him, walking up to him and inspecting his bandaged wounds.

“Spits, we have to get back there! We have to stop them!” Soarin said desperately, but Spitfire held him back.

“Woah there, calm down. It’s okay, Princess Luna and her night guard will take care of those scum.” Spitfire said. “There’s nowhere for them to run, and we caught them so off guard they didn’t even have time to grab their weapons.”

“They don’t have any! Those aren’t part of the griffon army, they were refugees seeking shelter!” Soarin protested.

Spitfire let out a laugh. “You really think those were just innocent griffons, Soarin? There is no such thing as an innocent griffon. Their entire kind wants us all dead, so why should we offer any of them help?”

“But they helped me!” Soarin countered, showing his bandaged leg and wing to her. “They found me and helped me after I fell from Cloudsdale and into a river. Why would they do that if they just wanted to kill me?”

Spitfire was taken aback momentarily before turning her back on him. “I… I don’t know. But you still can’t trust them, I’m sure they had another motive for saving you. They probably wanted to use you as a prisoner or hostage.”

“Then why would they bring their females and children with them?” Soarin asked her, becoming more frantic. “It doesn’t add up! There’s no way they meant any harm, and I owe it to them to try to help them also!”

Avoiding Spitfire’s grasp, Soarin raced off back to the griffon’s camp, his broken leg burning with pain as he struggled through the brush. He gritted his teeth and ignored his body’s please for him to stop, his mind concentrating on getting back as quickly as possible. It didn’t take long for him to see the forest begin to light up as he neared the burning camp, and as he broke through to the clearing he choked back a sob as he gazed upon the worst carnage he had ever seen.

Countless bodies lay strewn all across the ground, the rows and rows of tents now burnt to mere piles of ash. All of the ponies had left the area, no doubt on their way back home to Canterlot. Soarin walked amidst the bodies, careful not to step on any of the corpses, as he searched for any survivors that may have been left. His hopes of finding a griffon still alive dwindled as he saw just how methodically the ponies had executed each one, many of the wounds looking postmortem, most likely to ensure that none were left alive. The entire scene made Soarin sick to his stomach, but what really struck him in the gut was seeing the numerous bodies of griffon children that had not been spared either, and if it weren’t for the fact that he had seen the attack with his own eyes, he would never believe that anypony could be responsible for such a tragedy.

Soarin stopped as he came across one griffon body, a familiar satchel bag still harnessed to his body. He felt a knot form in his stomach as he looked closer at the bag, noticing a red cross stitched into the fabric. Soarin wasn’t able to take any more and he quickly made his way back into the woods and cried. He knew now that he was right, that none of these griffons wished any harm on any pony. He didn’t see a single griffon in armor or in possession of any form of weapon, but plenty of spears used by the Canterlot guards littered the grounds.

“There you are!” Spitfire called out, landing next to Soarin. “What the hay do you think you’re doing? Come on, we should get you to the hospital. Those wounds don’t look so good.”

Spitfire led Soarin farther away from the burnt remains of the griffon camp, expressing her high hopes that she would be included in the next attack on the griffons. Soarin, however, remained silent the entire trip, unable to summon the courage to tell Spitfire to shut up and retain some decency.

They made it back to Canterlot just as the sun began to rise, and Spitfire led her companion to the hospital and checked him in before being led away by two guards to see Princess Luna herself. Soarin was more than happy to finally have some peace and quiet. He stared out the window in his room, looking out at the trees in the distance. Somewhere out there, the bodies of innocent griffons and their children lay forgotten in the woods, a tear falling down his face.

Author's Note

wtf??? a chapter with no clop???