Private Lexwing stared in shock at the metal giant that emerged from the building-sized egg. He had been advancing with his platoon towards the pony capitol when the egg had fallen from the sky, along with nine others that had slammed down amongst the joint Griffon and Minotaur forces. The young Griffon gripped his spear nervously as the other griffons in his squad all stood with disbelief, watching the large tan creature finish moving out of its container.

The giant was the colour of burnt gold; much like his own feathers. Three deep blue stripes on its shoulders the only other colour adorning it that really stood out, perhaps unit markings of some sort? A white icon of a fist crushing a sphere that looked like a planet was on its right breast, an un-decipherable group of what Lexwing assumed was words next to the number ’05’ both in white below the icon. The beast looked vaguely human-shaped from what he could gather; the officers had passed around drawings and descriptions.

It had two boxy, bipedal legs that were as tall as four griffons stacked on top of each-other, a bulky torso, no head and what looked like two arms mounted in large shoulders covered with armour. One of the arms had what looked like a large black barrel with a boxy shape attached to the bottom of it, the other, more concerning limb had an object with three ‘barrels’ all connected together in the vague shape of a triangle. The reason why that arm provoked such anxiety in Lexwing was that the tri-barrelled object was glowing a crimson red at the tip and was starting to spin. Oh, and it was also pointed directly at his platoon as well.

Lexwing dived to the ground as a barrage of red beams shot-out of the spinning object at a terrifying rate, landing behind him as screams filled his ears. He started to hyper-ventilate as his Sergeant fell to the ground beside him, the large griffon’s left-talon side completely sheared off with the remainder of the corpse slowly being consumed by fire. Lexwing could feel the heat of the giant’s weapon wash over his armoured back as it strafed the shrieking forces behind him.

The Private began to crawl forward towards the giant, the biped monster seemingly focused on the bulk of the army as Lexwing made hast leaving his doomed comrades behind. He briefly had time to note the other identical giants that had emerged from their own eggs scattered down the line, all nine mimicking the one Lexwing was approaching before the other tube that the closest one had mounted in its left arm boomed, a massive explosion behind him flinging Lexwing into the air.

The private collided with the grassy ground heavily; the air knocked from his lungs as his back stung like it was fire. He franticly felt behind him with a talon expecting to find ravaged flesh and gaping wounds however all he could feel was a few small pieces of shrapnel. He pulled them out, three jagged bits of blood-stained metal that seemed to be from an armour piece. His injuries proving to not be as life-threatening as he feared he observed his surroundings, his ears still ringing from the explosion that had propelled him to his current spot.

With alarm he noted that he was almost next to the giant, the creature still pouring death into soldiers far away. Lexwing found that he still had his spear in his grip, the memories of his slain squad members re-kindling his courage. He managed to stand, his spear outstretched as he valiantly willed his tired wings to flap, the griffon soldier taking fight. He sped towards the giant, the creature still not having noticed him as the private rocketed onwards with spear ready to strike. Lexwing knew that he may die, but he swore that his sacrifice would not be worthless as he closed in on the unsuspecting beast.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Tenichi glanced down at the status readout at the bottom of his display, the AI controlled under mounted flame-turret enveloping a solitary approaching target in fiery death. The corporal hadn’t even noticed the lone enemy, the walker-operator re-focusing on his current targets as the flames died down leaving only ashes behind.

He fired off another burst of lasers as he moved his foxhound forward, the beams eliminating another group of hostiles. His fellow walker pilots did the same, the chatter over his communications system informing him that no friendly losses had been suffered; the mythological creatures had been caught un-aware and ill-equipped to fight mechanical vehicles of war. Already the attack on the native city was faltering, Tenichi glancing up as more drop pods thundered down into the city to disgorged standard infantry.

A large group of Minotaurs appeared to be retreating, Tenichi swivelling his walker’s torso to allow his grenade launcher a clear angle. With a thump a high-explosive grenade left the weapon, detonating amidst the group of armoured bulls turning them into flying bits of flesh and gore. A few of the enemies had made it to the city walls, Tenichi able to see a few griffons fly up to attack the defenders while the minotaurs utilised grappling hooks to haul themselves up. An order came over his communication relay to not fire on any targets close to the city walls to prevent damaging the native infrastructure.

Tenichi acknowledged, turning his weapons upon the next soon-to-be-dead creatures as his foxhound strode ever-onward, pulping bodies and crude weapons beneath its artificial feet. The defenders on the city walls were in for a desperate fight, the Minotaurs and Griffons either had to break through to the inner city or return to combat the walkers sowing death and confusion with no chance of victory. The corporal had confidence in his fellow soldiers within the city, ready to turn his weapons on any retreating foes when the invaders where inevitably repulsed.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

“Three on the left, twenty metres down.”

Private Alexandra Rosenster peeked around the corner of the stone house, highlighting the three griffon soldiers standing amongst the wooden store carts to the rest of her squad behind her. The ten soldiers were all stacked up against the side of the white-walled building, the light of fire dancing across their light-tan coloured armour from the many buildings burning in the city. All ten were able to ignore the smoke filling the air due to their enclosed suits and full-face helmets, re-breathers filtering out the harmful fog while their helmet optics enabled them to see through the haze.

“Free to engage,” Sergeant Harper ordered, two other privates crouching down next to Alex as all three lined up their own targets. The sights of their laser pulse rifles were linked to their helmet systems, each soldier able to see which enemy the others were targeting. Alex had her crosshair dead on the form of a griffon wearing an iron breastplate, the hybrid covering its mouth with a red cloth held in its claw to ward off the smoke much like its two companions.

With a light squeeze of the trigger Alex shot a three-round burst of laser projectiles into the side of the griffon, it along with the other two enemies shot by her comrades falling to the ground with gurgled cries as the un-seen blue pulses tore through their bodies.

“Targets neutralized,” Alex radioed, the three privates who had fired keeping their sights trained on the fallen bodies.

“Move up,” the Sergeant ordered, the rest of the squad moving out of the cover as they dashed into the street with weapons raised on their shoulders. Alex and her two fellow shooters waited until the rest of the team had left the wall before bringing up the rear, every trooper scanning alleyways and doorways with their weapons primed. Even if their enemies seemed technologically inferior it couldn’t hurt to be on guard.

Alex moved towards the centre of the street where the griffon bodies lay, the market carts surrounding them presumably hastily abandoned when the local inhabitants fled the invading forces. A furniture store to the left down the street crackled with flames, burning heat warming the air as Alex approached the griffon she had shot.

She trained her rifle on the fallen soldier as the griffon twitched, its chest still moving up and down as the three holes in the side of its torso let out wisps of smoke. The rest of her squad began to investigate the surrounding buildings in pairs three at a time, checking them for hostiles as the remaining four stayed in the middle of the street.

Alexandra poked the griffon in the forehead with the tip of her rifle barrel, the weapon coloured the same as her armour. The griffon opened its eyes and hacked up a smoke-filled lungful of air, it’s green eyes staring into the dull grey visor of Alex’s helmet as it glared at her hatefully.

“This one’s still alive,” Alex radioed, the Sergeant glancing over to the griffon as Alex pinned its chest with an armoured boot.

“Command ordered no prisoners and it’s not worth wasting medical supplies on it. Kill it.”

The griffon’s eyes widened as Alex placed her rifle barrel against its head in response to the Sergeant’s order. The hybrid tried to speak but before it could form any words Alex switched her rifle to single-fire and pulled the trigger, the creature’s skull exploding in a burst of light as the pulse laser penetrated the griffon’s skull and frying its brain.

Alex quickly swung her rifle towards a cart two metres away as a gasp followed by hacking coughs sounded out, the other soldiers in the street also training their weapons on the sound. The wooden cart was shaded by a red-and-white covering, the watermelons lying within un-touched amongst the chaos of the city at war. Alex noticed Sergeant Harper point his plasma rifle at the un-remarkable cart as he signalled for her to peek underneath. The private knelt down, making sure to keep her rifle at eye-level as she stared under the cart as her squad mates surrounded it.

Staring back at her were three sets of eyes, two hazelnut brown with the other a solid pink. The eyes belonged to a group of three ponies, the native inhabitants huddled together under the cart as they stared in fear at the human soldier. Alex counted two adults and one pink-eyed child, a foal she believed was the correct term for the young creature. All three sets of eyes alternated from staring at her to glancing at the smoking remains of the griffon that they had just witness Alex execute.

“Come out from under the cart slowly,” Sergeant Harper ordered out loud, having witnessed what dwelt beneath the object through the Private’s Helmet camera, “make no sudden movements and you will not be harmed.” The soldiers had been told that due to previous engagements against the ponies by the ISA agents some of the ponies may act with hostility to any human, the Sergeant deciding to play safe and make sure the three ponies posed no threat.

All of the soldiers kept their weapons ready as the ponies complied with the command, the three nervously crawling out from under the cart under the watchful gazes of the alien warriors. As they emerged Alexandra observed that the trio were all normal ponies as opposed to Pegasi or Unicorns, the private seeing that there was a mare, a stallion and a foal if the brief descriptions about the equine race they had received prior to dropping were accurate. One thing that was confirmed as truth was that ponies came in a multitude of colours, the stallion grey with a light-blue mane, the mare chocolate-brown with a tan mane and the foal was a light lime with a two-tone yellow mane.

The stallion and mare appeared to have burns on their upper bodies, the wounds scattered along their backs while the foal, a filly from the looks of its muzzle and build was un-scathed. All three had lowered themselves to the ground in front of the human troopers, legs tucked under them as they glanced around fearfully.

“What are you doing out here civilians?” Sergeant Harper questioned firmly, the soldiers having lowered their weapons but ensuring that they could be raised in a mere moment. The ponies looked at the sergeant with visible terror, the foal shaking with horror as it tried to avoid looking at the dead glassy eyes of a griffon soldier lying right next to it.

“W-e we-were at the ma-market and we were t-told by the guards to head back home but some gr-griffons landed in the street so we hid under the cart,” the stallion answered as he shuffled closer to the mare and foal, the soldiers letting the pony proceed. One of the other privates grabbed the body of the dead griffon that was lying next to the foal and dragged it away, the ponies relaxing slightly as it became evident that they were not going to meet the same fate as the griffons. “They threw something into the furniture store but it must have not worked like they wanted because it didn’t do anything. They threw more in when it suddenly caught fire and began to burn; some embers or bits of wood got under here and burnt me and Cinnamon a little.”

The stallion looked at the brown mare’s back as he said this, the smell of burnt hair still strong as he grabbed one of her hooves with his. He looked up at the human who had addressed him, an expression of concern on his face.

“What’s going to happen to us?” the pony questioned, still unsure of the strange creatures motives.

“My orders do not involve staying and looking after a few civilians,” the soldier replied sternly, “you either stay here, go home or come with us and do exactly what I tell you.” The ponies all paled at the human’s limited options.

“But what if more griffons come?” The stallion asked fearfully, the Sergeant waving over a trooper with a red cross on a white circle painted onto his shoulder armour.

“Not my problem, I’d prefer you to make your own way back but unfortunately I’ve been ordered to attempt to preserve civilian life so I’d recommend you stick with us in case any more griffons ambush you on the way back.” The stallion mulled over his options before nodding at the soldier’s suggestion, after all these creatures seemed capable of dealing with any threatening griffons. The ponies watched as the biped pointed towards the human that had found them under the cart, the sight of the soldier refreshing the equines’ memories of the prior field execution of the downed griffon. “Rosenster, you’re on babysitter duty. Try to keep them in line.” The allocated soldier turned its faceless head towards the ponies, the three equines shuddering as the reflective face of the killer gazed at them.

“Yes sir,” the soldier spoke, evidently a female judging from its voice. The stallion tore his vision away from the intimidating trooper as the human summoned by the apparent leader set down a case and began to pull out strange equipment that to the ponies looked like medical supplies. The creature, evidently a medic as marked by the red cross picked up a bottle-like object with a foreign head.

Cinnamon hissed as the human sprayed some of the solution on the burns that dotted her back. The medic followed this up by placing dressings over the wounds; by this time the anaesthetic incorporated into the anti-septic spray had kicked in numbing the pain.

With the mare taken care of the medic moved onto the stallion, repeating the procedure as the filly watched on while being hugged by her mother. As the medic worked the six troopers who had been investigating the surrounding buildings reported that nothing had been found, the Sergeant quickly explaining the situation.

Alex watched the ponies as they stood up together, he rifle held across her chest. They looked at her with fear, obviously not used to the violence of warfare. She snorted under her helmet as she disengaged her rifle’s energy cell and replaced it with a fresh one. The old cell was placed in a slot on her armour near her waist, the batteries within her armour charging it back up to full. Since she had only fired three shots it would be done in a few minutes but it never hurt to have a full clip of ammo.

The squad began to move out, their target the next street in the area. Fifty ten-man squads had dropped like theirs and each had an area of the city to clear, their orders to slowly go from one street to the next clearing out any enemy remnants. The last soldier bringing up the rear, Alex turned to the family of equines observing warily as the soldiers moved down the street with their weapons armed.

“Let’s go,” Alex ordered, the three ponies flinching at her voice, “do exactly what I tell you to and try to stay behind me.” The soldier moved to follow her comrades, glancing behind to see that the equines were following her as ordered, abet hesitantly. She focused back in front of her, scanning windows and rooftops with her rifle’s sights. They still had five streets they had to clear; with the addition of the civilians it would now push them behind schedule. Well, they might be able to finish in time as long as nothing else went wrong, judging by the limited resistance that the griffons were putting up Alex doubted that any more problems would arise.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

“Keep fucking stabbing them you pathetic excuses for soldiers!”

Stevens yelled abuse at the ponies fighting with him on the wall, the section that had received the brunt of the enemy attack swarming with griffons and minotaurs preferring to face pony defenders over laser-toting mechs. The pony guards had been awestruck at the sight of the falling drop-pods that had revealed the UIP Army Foxhounds within once landed, the equines gob-smacked at the sheer devastation that the walkers had unleashed. Stevens had neglected to inform them that Foxhounds were considered light walkers primarily used for riot suppression and scouting.

The awe had soon changed to desperation however when the enemy had started to scale the walls, a tide of hybrids hurrying to escape the mechs fighting the ponies tooth and nail as the walls teemed with melees and battle cries. Griffons and Pegasi duelled in the air, Minotaurs engaged entire groups of guards and Stevens just tried to kill everything he could see.

His rifle had been lost when a minotaur had bashed the drained weapon out of the Corporal’s hands with a metal mace, the bull receiving two bullets into the skull courtesy of Steven’s sidearm shortly after. He had switched to using his hand-gun and left-arm-mounted energy blade, deciding against using his infernus pistol was a bad idea. Granted using a one-handed flamethrower to burn things would be satisfying but it would also immolate ponies as well, Steven having been told to not kill any more of the equines. He still didn’t care much for the Equestrians; he thought that the changelings were much better puppet-allies anyway.

Stevens side-stepped a downward axe stroke from a rage-filled bull, the ISA soldier dashing forward and impaling the creature through the chest with his blade before the hybrid could attack again. The minotaur bellowed as a splash of blood propelled out of its mouth to land on Steven’s armoured body. With a grunt Stevens pushed the bull’s torso with a boot and pulled his sword free, the minotaur tumbling over the side of the wall to crash down with a sickening crack. Stevens turned to his next target, a group of three lightly armoured minotaurs trading blows with six pony guards.

A battered unicorn in golden armour was lying limp to the side, Stevens unable to see whether it was still breathing or not. Its life however was of no concern to the Corporal; his time was better spent ensuring that the invasion was repelled as soon as possible. Stepping over a discarded war-hammer he snuck around the rear of the three bulls while they were preoccupied by the spear-wielding Equestrians. The ponies had scored multiple small wounds, however rall of the hybrids’ vital areas were shield by iron armour.

As one of the bulls over-swung his club, forcing two ponies to dive out of the way onto the floor his fellows moved to finish the displaced guards, one bull hefting a greatsword while the other raised a well-worn axe. Stevens made his move, darting towards the middle bull that was armed with the club as the human’s hand reached out. The Corporal grasped the bull by the neck gap in its iron breastplate, the surprised bull letting out a choke as Stevens yanked back while his energy-blade sliced through the creature’s neck aided by the momentum of the charge.

The head came off, a shower of arterial gore pumping into the air like a morbid water fountain, the heat of the energy-blade not quite strong enough to completely cauterize the wound. The two surviving bulls turned in shock as their comrade’s lifeblood rained down; the sprawled equestrians granted a second chance at life as the human entered the equation.

The axe armed bull recovered quicker than his seemingly younger companion, a brutal horizontal swing aimed at Steven’s neck. The Wraith dropped down on the stone top of the wall as he lost his grip on his empty pistol, the grey handgun clattering on the stone surface. In order to attempt to prevent the bull from slicing him in half Stevens felt around and grabbed the nearest thing he could and flung it at the axe-toting hybrid, the minotaur about to strike again as two of the ponies tried to stab it with their weapons only enraging it further.

The noggin of the recently be-headed bull flew straight and true, the gore-drenched severed neck impacting against the attacking Minotaur’s face with a squelch. The bull bellowed, not helping his situation as in addition to his eyes become blinded with the blood of his friend the coppery liquid also got in his mouth causing him to hack and wheeze. Stevens kindly rectified this for the spluttering bull, darting up and sliding his blade through the creature’s neck to emerge out the other side accompanied by a wash of vital fluid.

A solid thump sounded and a sharp pain flair of pain burnt down Steven’s back as the last bull brought its greatsword down upon the human’s armoured back. Thankfully the inexperienced minotaur had aimed for the back of the human instead of the neck, the Corporal’s armour holding and stopping the sword from penetrating, however it only blunted some of the force of the blow as Steven was driven to the ground. The Wraith rolled onto his back and raised his blade in time to halt a second blow, the minotaur’s eyes filled with rage and pain, Stevens noticing that three of the ponies had their spears stuck in various areas of the hybrid’s body.

A forth guard was sprawled on its back, the earth pony still clutching the broken shaft with a spear tip attached in his hooves, the other half of the weapon still attached to the stallion’s armour. As the minotaur began to drive the sword downwards towards Steven’s, the creatures raw strength causing the motors in the Corporal’s armour to squeal in protest the human’s right hand brushed the butt of his holstered hand-held flamer attached to his side. Seeing that the Equestrians were making no headway with stopping the bull and he himself was unable to force its weapon away he pulled it out.

‘Fuck it’ he thought as he pointed the grey-barrel of the weapon towards the bull, the threat going unnoticed due to the minotaur’s focus on beheading him.

“Hey, grass-munching lard-ass,” Stevens insulted, the hybrid’s eyes fixating on his helmeted-face while the ponies also glanced at the human. “Guess how I like my steak?” The bull appeared both puzzled and even more pissed off, a snort of air rushing out of his nostrils. The ponies glanced at each other confused at the human’s words, however the stallion on the ground noticed the readied weapon the human held, a small flame at the end igniting causing the guard’s eyes to widen.

“Well done,” Stevens remarked as he depressed the trigger of his flame pistol.

A scorching inferno expelled from the end of the pistol and enveloped the top half of the bull, the creature dropping its sword as it wailed in agony as his brown fur caught alight. Stevens noticed the downed Royal Guard drive his broken spear into the right leg of the bull, unbalancing the creature as it flailed about in an attempt to extinguish the flames ravaging it’s body. Stevens unleased a brutal kick that connected with the hybrid’s groin plate, denting the armour and toppling the dying minotaur onto its back.

The creature still thrashed, one Royal Guard mare sloppily ending the hybrid’s suffering with her spear. The pony dropped her weapon sickened as she alternated glances at the burnt body still crackling with flames and at the blood coating her own spearhead. The other guards were all attempting to stop the smell of charred meat from entering their noses. Stevens got up and retrieved his handgun, holstering his flamer at his side as he stood back up. The dim of battle had died down in the surrounding area, all combatants extremely startled by the large burst of flame that had bellowed into the sky. Even Pegasi and Griffons had halted their aerial duels to stare at the source of the blistering heat.

Stevens walked towards the next group of enemies, the two minotaurs and three ponies starting at the biped in shock with their weapons locked with each other. The human reached the mare that had finished off the minotaur, the guard currently staring at the corpse as she sat on her rump frozen. He nudged her flank with a gore-coated boot, smearing a small amount of blood onto the mare’s mark of a broken sword. The armoured equine looked up at him wordlessly, her large blue eyes glistening with tears as she silently cried for the dead creature she had killed.

“You’ll get used to it,” Stevens said without his normal sarcastic tone, his voice flat and lifeless. The mare watched on as the human raised his glowing blade towards one of the on-looking minotaur, calling out the creature in a challenge.

“Your turn bull-bitch!" He yelled with vigour, leaping forward into brutal combat once more as the fighting for the wall returned to its prior intensity.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

“Lots of red fluid all spurting from slices,
Killing you creatures is one of my vices,
Cutting you up just to hear your death screams,
These are a few of my favourite things”

As he finished singing his song Chalmers pulled his knife from the griffon’s corpse, the long-dead bird-lion dropping limply to land in the pool of its own blood that had grown cold over the ten minutes that the Commander had spent with the body. A well-timed sword stab that the griffon had executed during an ambush had broken one of Chalmers’s helmet optics, a large scratch obscuring most of his vision in his right eye. This inconvenience had been the reason for the overzealous reaction, Chalmers displaying his hatred for the griffon in song and violence.

Leaving the mutilated body where it lay on the roof of the large hotel that the humans had stayed in before Chalmers stood up and observed his surroundings. Over at the wall section where the main enemy force was located he spotted a five-second burst of flame extend into the sky, Chalmers re-calling that Stevens had been assigned to that section. He shook his head and looked over to the left within the city’s market district, the sounds of sustained pulse rifle fire accompanied by battle-shrieks making themselves known over the general dim of a city locked in war.

Most of the flames and battles had seemed to die down, large scale battles in the city limits soon over thanks to the overwhelming firepower of the human drop troops. Smatterings of Pegasi, bat-ponies and griffons still fought in the skies, Nigel able to see a pair facing off below him above a double-story townhouse.

The bat-pony stallion seemed to be holding his own, parrying his griffon opponent’s sword with his own hoof-mounted blade. Occasionally the griffon would try to claw the guard, the bat-pony already bearing some bleeding gashes where talons had found their mark. Chalmers watched the combat with interest, the bat-pony proving to be surprisingly skilled as he countered every blow received from his physically superior opponent. Eventually however the blood loss seemed to get to the winged night pony, the guard’s attacks becoming more sluggish. The Griffon capitalised on his foe’s weakness, lunging forward with a stab that the guard only barely managed to ward off. Nigel walked over to the edge of the building and stuck a pose with his fists placed against his hips. It was time to man up and be a hero.

A bat hero.

“Nananananananana Bat-Chalmers!”

With the heroic announcement Nigel leapt off of the hotel roof with his arms spread wide, heading straight towards the duelling pair. Both had paused their attacks to glance up at the source of the strange shout, a large black human descending rapidly. The Lunar guard was too slow to even have a chance of avoiding the falling monster; however the human wasn’t aiming for the night guard. The griffon let out a strangled squawk as Chalmers tackled it mid-air, the hybrid caught off guard by the surprise aerial ambush.

The pair left the shocked night guard behind as they plummeted towards the rapidly approaching wooden roof of the house below, the Griffon screaming as it tried to break free to no avail while Chalmers stared at the hard surface they were heading to.

‘Did not think this one through’ Nigel thought as he braced for impact.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Octavia attempted to keep the griffon approaching her at bay with her Cello bow, the warrior laughing as he chopped the bow in half with his sword.

She had been so caught up in practicing her newest compilation that she hadn’t even noticed that the city was under attack. With her normally disruptive roommate away in Baltimare the musician had seized the opportunity to cram in as much practice as possible while the house remained a ‘wubs’ free zone. To say that the sudden storming of her practice room by an armed and armoured griffon came as a surprise was an understatement.

The griffon making his intensions to harm her clear with expletive-laced threats of violence Octavia had responded to the best of her ability, hoping that the local guard would arrive in time before she met her end at the talons of the griffon warrior. The griffon, upon seeing the pony’s last line of defence shatter let out a peal of laughter.

“Nice try pony,” he taunted as he stepped forward, Octavia finding herself backed into the wooden wall of the room, “but nothing can beat a griffon warrior!”

Octavia glared at the griffon as it rose up on its hind legs, wings flapping to maintain balance as it moved to strike her with the sword. The famous cello player did not flinch as certain death loomed, the ash-grey mare standing her ground defiantly as she awaited the end. The griffon started to bring his weapon down but halted as a loud crash sounded from above, both he and Octavia glancing towards the roof.

“What was th-“

The griffon was cut off as the ceiling above him collapsed, a loud crack ringing out as shards of wood rained down upon him followed by a bundle of feathers and black limbs.

Octavia dived out of the way against the wall to avoid the debris, the mare raising a hoof to her muzzle as she was racked by cough caused by the aftermath of the collapse. As the dust cleared she looked towards the massive pile of mess in the middle of her practice room, thankfully her cello was safe on the other side and she was unharmed.

“That… that could have gone better,” a male voice spoke from the centre of the ruined room, Octavia’s heartbeat increasing as a large black shape rose from the rubble. The figure, a biped that Octavia recognised as a ‘human’ from descriptions of the beings that had attacked Equestria seemed to crack his neck as he rolled it around, placing his claws on his back as he pushed forward with a pop. He turned and looked at the mare, his face scarred with a large sash across his right red eye but the wound didn’t appear to bother the creature. The human seemed to pause as he looked at her, slowly looking back towards the pile to spot the two griffon bodies.

“Well,” he began as he looked back at her, “looks like Bat-Chalmers arrived just in time.”

Octavia was quite shocked that this ‘Bat-Chalmers’ had just crashed through the roof of her house and shrugged it off like nothing, Octavia able to see the night sky through the holes in her ceilings so he must have fallen from a great height. She glanced at the bodies of the two griffons and felt vomit threaten to expel itself, the mare raising a hoof and forcing it back down.

“Thank you, whoever you are,” she acknowledged. The being may have been an enemy of the state but he had just saved her life so Octavia figured that it was the least she could do.

“I am the Night,” the human proclaimed, his claws balling up as he placed them on his hips and stuck out his chest. Upon seeing the confused look upon her face he abandoned the strange pose, crouched down and held out a black claw towards her. “Not really, we all can dream. My real name is Chalmers, Nigel M Chalmers,” Octavia stared at the offered claw, hesitantly extending her left hoof in reply. She shivered as a strange sensation tingled down her spine as the cool hard digits clasped her hoof in greeting, the human giving it a few shakes before releasing her hoof and standing back upright, his head almost touching the ceiling.

“Octavia Philharmonica,” she returned, staring at the strange creature as it seemed to freeze at the mention of her name. “Is there something wrong?” she questioned, the biped shaking his head.

“Octavia, as in the masterful classical musician Octavia?” The human responded causing a light smile to appear on Octavia’s face at the praise.

“Indeed, that is me,” she replied, the human pulling two objects from his belt. One appeared to be some kind of writing tool while other was too alien to identify, the large L shaped object quite intimidating to look at.

“Sorry to bother you, but could I trouble you for an autograph?” questioned the creature as he held out the writing implement out and exposing one side of the larger object to her. Octavia shrugged internally, one autograph couldn’t hurt.

She used her mouth to scrawl her signature upon the black item, the tool she used imparting a silver ink upon the black metal of the object. The human retrieved his writing device from her and placed it back into his belt, re-attaching the unknown object to his hip.

“Thank you Miss Philharmonica, I’m a big fan of your work and find your pieces to be quite moving.” He finished his statement with a flourish of his claw, Octavia slightly taken-aback at the display of gallantry from such a un-expected source.

“I should be thanking you,” she answered, “I wouldn’t have been able to continue with my work if it wasn’t for your… unusual entry.” She looked at the holes in the roof as she said this, the biped also looking towards the sky before angling his head back down towards her.

“People always tell me that I know how to make an entrance, pleasure to be of service m’lady.” Following up this was a bow, the biped returning to his original posture before speaking again. “I know this may be sudden, but we should get a coffee sometime. I’d love to discuss the finer points of the musical arts with such a talented aural sculptor such as yourself.”

Octavia was about to politely say reject the suggestion but stopped herself. While yes, the human was no doubt dangerous and a bit frightening in appearance he did seem very learned and quite the Gentlecolt as well. A coffee was not really a big ask and it had been ages since she talked to anyone apart from her fellow orchestral players and Vinyl so Octavia deciding to take the plunge.

“That sounds delightful,” she answered as she glanced at the griffon corpses on the floor again, the sight causing her to gag once more. Chalmers upon seeing this moved to the bodies and picked once up in each claw, dragging them by the leg towards the door. Octavia listened as the front door was un-latched and the sound of two thumps originated from outside the house. She winced, although she knew that the griffons probably deserved more respect however having them out of the house already was making her churning stomach settle down.

She jumped as a loud bang rang out from outside, the sound jarring her with its volume. Footfalls were heard and Nigel re-entered the room, the object she had signed held in one of his claws. Octavia noted that a small waft of smoke was drifting up from the end, the human turning his head to the main door as the sounds of talons on cobbled-stone became audible, the claw-steps passing the house before stopping near where the two thumps she had heard just before sounded from.

“Well, I’d love to stay and chat but there is a war going on,” Nigel commented as he turned to leave. “I bid you farewell and I look forward to that coffee, I’ll contact you after this whole ‘invasion of your country’ is over.”

“Goodbye,” Octavia farewelled as the human nodded and left, the sound of the front door closing behind him signalling his exit from the building. Octavia smiled despite the circumstances, she was sure that the arranged coffee meeting would no doubt be nice and rel-

“I am Nigel M Chalmers! The Magical Element of Death!”

The human’s shouted proclamation was accompanied by more of the loud bangs, these ones in rapid succession as griffon war cries met the human’s own. Octavia quickly shut the door to her practice room, barricading it with as much furniture and objects as the muffled sounds of battle occurred just outside of her home.

Well, at least the upcoming coffee meeting after the war would prove to be interesting at the very least.