There are those that claim to have lived life without regret and if that is their true belief I ask them to keep that point of view. However I have to ask myself just how much thought the majority of those who makes such claims have put into such a statement. Regrets are not something to be feared and look deeply enough everyone single one of us has something that they regret. No regrets are part of what makes us human, no it’s part of what makes us individuals.

Six! I counted as my latest foe fell into twitching heap of limbs, occasional sparks of electricity accompanying the twitches. So far I had been able to dictate rules of engagement to my liking, taking my opponents on one at a time. However I was relying heavily on the shock stick that I had acquired earlier to allow me to push past the discomfort of my dislocated wing and fight at full efficiency. My way of fighting right now was nothing short of reckless, just like that time in Canterlot. And although I knew the limitations of my own body well, and I knew that I was stronger than I had been before. The moment I added my inherent powers of a storm paragon to the mix all that I knew might as well be thrown into the trash. I had never really fought under the influence of electricity for an extended period of time, all I knew was that it caused an incredible strain on my body. Although that analysis had been by Swiftmend when my body was that of a pegasus, so even that fact was bound to have been altered in some kind of way.

“Over here! That freaky bastard is over here!” A scream rang out.

Oh well now’s not the time to think. I thought before a humorless smile split my features. Right now I didn’t need to think, I didn’t need to feel, all I needed to do was fight. Without hesitation I launched myself towards the newest idiot that had appeared before me. My body moved purely on instinct as I slipped past his guard to deliver a whip like blow to the side of his head. My opponent let out a pained screech as the electricity kept within me leapt over to him in a flash of light, but he didn’t go down. It was sign that the latest shot I had taken from the shock stick was waning again. Still with his body’s muscles being effected by the relatively high voltage a, straight, follow up kick between his eyes caused him to collapse with a low groan. Seven! Without looking back I moved ahead, my steps echoing throughout the corridor. And as I was about to round the corner to the next corridor my hand was already reaching for the stolen shock stick.

I rounded the corner and was forced to jump backwards almost instantly as a pair of talons came slashing through the air. The female griffin that I had almost gotten me snarled in anger as she pressed her attack and behind her I could see another griffin approaching quickly. Quick steps allowed me to flow backwards at the same pace as my attacker advanced in. A chuckle escaped my lips as I placed the shock stick against my thigh mid step and triggered another surge of electricity to flow through me. The moment my feet touched the ground from my latest step my left arm shot forward in a palm strike towards my assailant, but by dodging backwards at the last second she managed to avoid it by a fraction of an inch. The griffin female hastily retreated to safe distance her eyes locked with mine, displaying nothing but determination. This one would likely be a bit more of a problem than the others I had fought so far. The first give away was that she was the first one to actually pay attention to my eyes rather than my limbs, not to mention that she had realized the danger and pulled back in an instant. However I was already committed and couldn’t have any drawn out fights without running the risk of getting overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

With my situation reaffirmed I chased after her, trying to finish her off with a quick strike towards the head. However as I had feared she expertly kept out of range silently evaluating my speed and reach, a quiet snarl plastered over her features. Then came the moment where the second griffin I had spied approaching earlier actually reached us, and my situation instantly went from challenging to bad. So instead of continuing my assault I fell backwards into a more defensive stance. But instead of attacking me together that I had anticipated it was only the new arrival that took the initiative, pushing past his comrade. Again acting on instinct I danced backwards from the wild strikes coming from the new griffin. However my situation hadn’t really changed all too much yet, meaning I still had to deal with both of my opponents before it got even worse. As such I deliberately let the guard on my left side down, attempting to lure them into reach. With my current charge all I really needed to do was land one decisive strike and my target would go down. And as the newer griffin dove in, thrusting one of his claws forward my smile turned into an almost predatory grin. In the periphery of my vision I could barely make out a look of dawning realization start to spread on the female griffin’s features.

“Wait you idiot he’s just baiting you!” She cried out.

“Eh?” He responded, but it was too late for him to stop his attack

My left hand shot forward, knocking away, and grappling the talon in one swift motion while my right hand found itself grasping his face. The air crackled loudly as sparks flew everywhere before the griffin in my grasp slumped lifelessly in my grip. Eight! Without sparing another thought I threw the lifeless griffin to the side, again revealing the female that had been momentarily blocked from my view. Her eyes displayed a mix of fear, rage and if the tears was any sign, sadness.

“You… You bastard!” She screamed as she charged at me.

The previously calm and collected fighter that had been the griffin female now attacked me with a ferocity that I hadn’t encountered in this world before. Why are you making that face? What right do you have to make such a face? And similar thoughts floated just outside the edge of my consciousness as I threw up my guard to protect myself against the unrelenting assault. Predicting her attacks was not hard per say but it would be impossible to block them all without sustaining any damage. Such is the truth when fighting an opponent without care for his or her own wellbeing. So instead of attempting something I knew I couldn’t pull off I attacked, deciding to put faith in my speed to allow me to land a decisive strike before I took too much damage.

Claws flashed in the torchlight as the gap between us vanished in an instant. And for a second or two we just stood there, like statues of some kind of titanic struggle of past warriors. Then the light in the griffin’s eyes slowly dimmed and she fell backwards, revealing the fist that had found itself landing a clean blow to her abdomen. Nine… I took a step past the lifeless body of my latest opponent only to stop as I felt a sudden wetness start to spread my left arm. Turning my head to get a better look revealed a long gash along my arm just beneath my shoulder. So that’s where was aiming huh? I thought as resumed walking down the corridor. Had it not been for the difference in height and reach her claws would’ve found their home across my throat. But I couldn’t stop now, I had to keep going until I had bought enough time for the others to escape. So I reached for the shock stick to replenish the charge I had just used, ignoring my bleeding arm.

She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t noticed that Cloud had disappeared until they had reached the roof and it was time to send her signal. Currently she was in the middle of arguing with the others that had managed to get the airship under their control.

“What do you mean we can’t turn back!” Lyra cried out angrily.

“Look I don’t like it either but if it’s Cloud it will be all right, probably.” Rainbow said trying to placate her.

“How can you be so calm? Cloud’s in more danger than any of us has been during this entire visit to Gryphus!” Lyra continued to rant not losing any anger.

“In danger? Yeah most likely, although Cloud is most likely the one that can survive the longest against impossible odds.” Twilight said, joining the conversation.

“Like hay he can! Bonbon and I saw that sparring match when he fought Rainbow, and he was barely holding his own against her!” Lyra shouted.

“Oh, that sparring match? That wasn’t Cloud at one hundred percent, he was perhaps at around fifty to sixty percent back then. Or that would’ve been fifty or sixty percent back when he was a pony. Knowing him he’s probably much stronger now, and the last time I fought him at a hundred percent he destroyed me.” Rainbow interjected.

“When he what?” Bonbon spoke up.

“He destroyed me. Complete defeat on my part.” Rainbow explained patiently.

“No not that, the part about him being a pony.” Bonbon specified.

“He hasn’t told you two that yet? Darn he’s still keeping stuff to himself. Well when we first encountered Cloud about three years ago he was actually in the form of a Pegasus. He had been unwillingly transported here and wanted to find a way home. So after a bunch of incidents were he actually went home for a while but somehow brought Celestia with him he returned.” Rainbow quickly summarized.

“Wait! Brought Celestia with him? Is this related to that time she went missing and the incident with those star things?” Lyra asked, now sounding confused.

“Yeah, but as I was saying the next time we met him he was arrested for kidnapping Celestia.” Rainbow tried to continue but was interrupted once more.

“So he kidnapped Celestia?!” Bonbon cried out in surprise.

“Nono he hadn’t done anything like that at all. Now stop interrupting me and allow me to tell the story. Anyway we thought he had kidnapped her so he got thrown into prison due to that. But somehow he got out of his cell when that star dragon attacked, and from there he started to fight those shadow minions that it created. And he was also the cause of that big lightning bolt that struck the dragon towards the end, destroying its anti-element protection.” Rainbow explained, feeling that her previous patience was running out.

“He what? How? What exactly is he?” Lyra questioned, her own confusion growing by the second.

“Well we didn’t know the full story until recently either, but from what he has told me the others he’s the descendant of a Storm paragon. You know those pegasi that were the first to tame storm clouds way back before Equestria was a thing.” Rainbow elaborated.

“So is that why he managed to catch that crossbow bolt in there?” Lyra asked curiously.

The moment the last words left her lips Lyra knew that she had something she should’ve said earlier as Twilight’s expression turned into a worried one.

“He did what? Lyra please tell me what happened with as much detail as possible.” Twilight requested urgently.

“Well before he disappeared in there, he caught a crossbow bolt meant for Gilda in midair. He suddenly just appeared next to it.” Lyra began.

“Yes, yes you’ve said that but what about Cloud did he look any different?” Twilight interrupted.

“No, not really. It felt like the air was almost static for a second and I think that his scarf was behaving oddly.” Lyra said, starting to get worried again.

“Hey Twilight you don’t think that he’s doing that again do you?” Rainbow asked her alicorn friend.

“I’m afraid that he might be. Actually I’m quite sure that he is, he has never been one to do things halfheartedly.” Twilight said in a resigned voice.

“Okay what’s wrong? I thought you said that he would be okay?” Bonbon chimed in again.

“Well to put it bluntly Cloud may be killing himself slowly right now. The last time he used his inherited powers repeatedly his heart stopped. So the situation may be much direr than we originally thought.” Twilight said in a grim tone.

Twilight’s words hit Lyra like a hammer blow. “We- We have to do something.” She started to say again.

“I agree with Lyra now Twi. If only to have a chance to give Cloud a piece of my mind we have to get him out of there.” Rainbow added.

“I agree too. I refuse to leave him there a second longer, he’s like my brother after all.” Gilda said, joining the conversation.

“Oh, did you get Stella to sleep?” Rainbow asked the griffin.

“Yeah, I managed to calm her down just a few minutes ago. So now I’m ready to help again.” Gilda replied.

“Yes but what can we do?” Bonbon voiced her concerns.

“You don’t have to do anything, I’ll go!” Rainbow and Gilda said at the same time.

“No! Neither of you will go.” Twilight cut in, holding up a hoof to quell the protests when they started to flood in from the pegasus and the griffin.

“I will go.” Twilight said, silencing any further complaints.

With a curse I dove back into cover as another crossbow bolt buzzed past like an angry hornet. The shock stick had long since run out of charges and it hadn’t taken long for the enemy to figure out that I had discarded it. Huh, when did I start to think of them as an enemy to be defeated? I wondered absently. The real problem had started way before then though if my recently acquired injuries was any type of indicator. In addition to my dislocated wing and the cuts along my arm I now sported multiple bruises. Including swelling around my left eye making it somewhat hard to see from that eye. Lastly a few minor lacerations spread unevenly across my body summed up the state I was in. Since I had been injured worse than this in the past I was able to ignore it to an extent, even without having the numbing benefit of electricity in my body. Despite being able to persevere it wasn’t exactly pleasant though. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t envisioned things turning out like this, but to be fair things had started to escalate before I had been forced to stop using my paragon powers. After that first wound to my arm I had slowly been losing my pace and the fact that the deserters started to come at me in groups hadn’t helped either. Well, fighting fifty armed and trained griffins while thinking that I could win had been a pipe dream to begin with. Even if they hadn’t had been soldiers previously I would’ve been hard pressed to win against fifty opponents.

I exhaled slowly, listening carefully for the steps of the crossbow wielding griffin. Guess he’s smarter than that. I thought as no steps could be heard. Well he has the definite advantage right now. I continued to ponder while looking around the room, that I had ended up diving into earlier, for a way to distract him. But as fate would have it the room was barren of things I could’ve used, having only broken furniture and dust in it. However staying in this room would mean certain death, for despite being in a pretty bad spot overall I hadn’t given up my chances of surviving. The only option left was leaving it to chance, perhaps I could avoid the second bolt while closing the distance. No matter what I needed to leave this room soon or I ran the risk of more griffins showing up. And as much as I hated to admit it there was no way I could win if I had to fight melee attackers while worrying about having to dodge crossbow bolts. Nor would I be able to escape this place if I had someone with a ranged weapon pursuing me. Ah, I’ve really fucked up this time haven’t I? I thought with a sigh before steeling myself for what I needed to do.

Pushing my discomfort away I came out of the room full sprint, the griffin giving a surprised squawk. It was clear that he hadn’t expected me to pull such a reckless stunt but to his credit, and my detriment, he recovered quickly. His eyes tracked me carefully as I approached. Then suddenly his eyes widened slightly, giving me split second warning that he was about to fire. So as the twang of the crossbow rang out I was already airborne after taking a leap to cross the remaining distance. A moment later I crashed into the griffin, managing to wrench the spent crossbow out of his grip. The ensuing struggle was a short one that ended with me grabbing the feathers on top of his head to slam it into the ground repeatedly. But not before he added few more slashes with his talons across my chest. Fifteen. I went to stand but stumbled and fell almost immediately as a sharp pain shot through my right leg. Looking down revealed the crossbow bolt firmly lodged in my thigh. My eyes started to tear up before the pain subsided to a dull throbbing.

“Shit!” I cursed loudly.

By slowly crawling over to the wall I managed to slowly stand up. At this point I realized that escaping might join that pipe dream of winning against the fifty griffins. Well fucking done. I thought to myself. This has been a plain retarded set of choices, I probably could’ve left a long time ago. Now I’m as good as dead, killed by the next griffin I encounter. If I don’t bleed to death first. I thought morbidly as I hobbled along the corridor. Up ahead I could see a hint of a room rather than a new corridor. Was this path leading me to a last chance or was this a path to my end? All I knew was that I’d rather die on my feet rather than bleeding to death, so in the end my choice was simple. I would continue down this hallway to see for myself what lay at the end. And so I shambled onwards until I eventually reached the end of the corridor, emerging into a large, well lit, room.

However, much as I had anticipated, I was not alone in this room. A griffin force of at least twenty was waiting for me, standing in a wide half circle around my point of entry. I could see griffins of both genders and I could see that all of them were armed this time around. Although the thing that stood out the most was that I could see fear in their eyes. I could feel a chuckle bubble up to the surface. For some reason the entire situation suddenly seemed so amusing to me. It could very well be due to the blood loss that I found it to be so, or it could just have been the absurdity of having twenty or so armed opponents show fear towards an unarmed and badly wounded one. Whatever reason it was though my chuckle soon evolved into full blown laughter, causing the griffins to look even more afraid. Which in turn caused me to laugh even harder. This may not be the worst way for it to end after all. I mean how many can say that they frightened a room full of previous soldiers in the state I’m in. I thought to myself as I let my eyes run across the griffins. I’m sorry Tia, I’m afraid this is my limit. I thought, turning my eyes down towards the ground as I felt them start to get blurred by tears. It was a strange conflict of emotions I felt at that point, a second ago I had been laughing completely ready to face my end. But now, just after thinking about her, my resolve had crumbled. I didn’t want to go through all this again, the wait for something inevitable.

Then suddenly a blindingly strong light lit up the room, accompanied by the surprised shouts and pained cries of the griffins. It was as if someone had taken the light of a sun and stuffed into the middle of the room I was in. The only reason I could still see anything was due to the fact that I had been looking down when the light appeared. That being said what I could see was limited to very vague shapes of the things in my immediate surroundings. Furthermore had my eyes not already been teary they would have been made to tear up by the light.
And due to these circumstances almost missed it, a flash in the middle of the light and the appearance of shape a shape that felt somewhat familiar. So despite not feeling entirely sure of what had just happened I opened my mouth to speak.

“Tia?” I said questioningly.

“Not quite.” A voice I knew very well answered.

“Twi.” I said, letting my relief into my voice but it may have just sounded exhausted.

“Come on let’s get you out of here.” She said.

The world around me warped and the next thing I knew was the cool outside air against my skin. I briefly felt my feet touch a wooden floor before I collapsed onto my side as my injured leg couldn’t support me. All around me I heard worried cries from those I had come to regard as my friends, so summoning the remaining strength I had I forced myself to turn my head towards the nearest voice. The blurry faces of Rainbow Dash and Lyra came into view, both which looked incredibly concerned. For a moment a memory flashed before my eyes, one of Rainbow standing above me, shouting something I couldn’t hear while I just smiled at her as the darkness closed in on the edge of my vision. I felt my lips forming a weak smile as I opened my mouth to speak.

“I’ll be fine. I just need to rest a little bit.” I said before I let the exhaustion that had been building consume me.

When Twilight returned in a flash and she saw that she had brought Cloud with her she wanted to cheer. But in the next instant her mind registered the state that he was in. How can anything survive that? Lyra’s mind screamed as she watched Cloud topple to the side the moment his feet hit the deck of the ship. One of his wings hung limply, possible broken, across his left arm were to long gashes that were still bleeding and in his right leg sat the bolt from a crossbow. Before she knew it she was already in motion towards her human friend, and as she got up close she saw that he was covered in even more smaller injuries. She held her breath when she saw him slowly move his head in her direction, soon revealing a swollen left eye. A weak smile formed on his lips and he opened his mouth.

“I- fine. Need rest a bit.” He murmured before collapsing. His breathing becoming weak but steady.

Twilight pushed past them to carefully roll Cloud over to his back before putting an ear to his chest. A few seconds later she looked up at the others again.

“It’s okay, he has just collapsed from exhaustion. Now come on let’s tend to his wounds we ask him about everything once he regains consciousness.” Twilight said in a calm yet commanding tone, snapping Lyra out of her worries.

You really are something else Cloud, do you know that? She wondered as she hurried over to help Bonbon with a first aid kit she had found.

Author's Notes:

And so comes chapter 19. I may have skimped a bit on pre-reading this chapter so if you find anything incredibly glaring please notify me so I can rectify it asap. Other than that I hope that you've enjoyed this arc (it's not completely over yet, there's a few chapters of aftermath to go over).

Next chapter is in the works with the title, A good omen.