#train 388

After the train rescue, we were dogged by guards for quite a while.  One pony hiding is easier, a pony and a griffon is more difficult.  A pony and five griffons is something else entirely.  The food requirements alone make us high-profile.  We hunkered down in patches of woods, caves, abandoned houses, houses we mistook for abandoned... at one point we stayed in a vacation house owned by my brother, Velvet Rope, figuring it would be empty in the off-season.  Embarrassingly, on the third day, he showed up with a younger stallion in tow.

Imagine, for a moment, two regular unicorns walking into the house one of them owns and being assaulted with the smell of roasting meat (I had a side of mutton in the oven).  About two seconds later, a hardened murderer of a griffon is on top of them.  My brother very nearly voided his bowels all over his foyer.  Luckily, I made it into the room before it was too late to defuse the situation.  I explained who these stallions were, and why we should neither kill nor eat them, and then I suggested Velvet Rope dismiss his stallionfriend and take a walk with me along the lake.

“I’m glad you’re well, V.R.,” I told him as we strolled along the foggy shores.  I meant it, too; he looked healthy.  His blond mane and tail had clearly been touched up with dye, and there were sunglass tan lines around his eyes, but he had overall aged gracefully.

“I’m...” he hesitated.  It was awkward for him.  I understood.  After a moment, he tried again.  “I’m... glad you’re not dead, Red.  Even with everything you did.”

I chuckled.  “We all had our secrets, brother.  I’m glad you’re out of the closet, by the way.”

“I’m -” he started a coughing fit.  “I’m not, actually.”  Things grew awkward and silent between us for a few more minutes..  “How... how long exactly will you and your friends be staying?”  My brother shared my talent to leave some things unsaid.

“A day or two longer,” I said, “Your discretion on the matter will be appreciated.”

He made a sound of resignation.  “Clean up when you leave.  With air fresheners, please.”  He looked away, and then back to me.  “You’re causing Mother no end of stress, you know.”

“Mother thrives on stress,” I said, “she’ll be fine.  What about Father?”

“Father’s not very aware of current events anymore,” he said.  “Mother’s looking into full-time care.  She’s getting too old to handle all his needs.”

I heaved a sigh.  “That’s a terrible shame.”

His eyes were on me.  “Do you really feel that way, or is it just another bit of politeness?”

I shrugged.  “The former... sort of.  It’s complicated.  Certainly I get no joy from hearing it.”  I shook my head.  “I don’t think there’s much I can do for them from my current position, certainly.”

“You should leave the country,” Rope said.  I gave him a look, but he returned it.  “Seriously.  If the Guard know you to be out of their territory, they’ll stop bothering your known associates, and if they stop knocking on Mother’s door without delivering her news of your death, it’d be a weight off her horn.”  He snorted.  “Look, it’s a suggestion, but I’m sure there’s benefit to you getting the buck out of Dodge, you know?”

I considered for a moment.  “You may have something there, brother.”  I began to trot back towards the cabin.  “Sorry about taking up your cabin.  Let me get you some bits so you and, er...”

“Crystal Key.”

“So you and Crystal Key can find a nice hotel room.”  I led him back to the cabin, and then I killed and ate him.

No, of course not really.  I gave him a sack of hush money and I haven’t seen nor heard from him since, like a good brother.  But it was a good idea.  We were still drawing heat, and Hauer and Stormare needed time apart to move on from Olin’s death.  Next time we had to leave town, we headed into Manehattan.  I seized on a connection with the Fettucine family and put them in touch with the remaining Duskraptors.  Stormare offered them his services as mercenary muscle, shock troops of a sort.  Hauer and I headed instead to the border and fled west, then south, letting ourselves get spotted once more on the way out.

Those final moments of our raid on the train were one of my greatest failures as a fighter and a tactician. Bloodied and exhausted, nursing a fractured jaw and a concussion, I was completely nullified in the fight.  Serene Grace had me pinned, blood dripping from her face down onto mine, and she had just unveiled the true extent of her magical power, striking down Olin with a single spell. “Mom...” Hauer croaked.  There would be no response.

Weisz made a rush at Serene Grace next.  The mare made a strangled sound - a desperate, inhaling snarl - and again the dark ‘s crystals began to erupt from the victim of her focus.  Weisz didn’t even get as far as Olin had.  “End this accursed bloodline...” Serene growled.  “No more Duskraptors...”  That was when Stormare slammed into her from her blind side.  She hit the deck, him on top of her, but when he attempted to slash at her again, she teleported out of his grasp.

I struggled to get up on my hooves, the flashing disappearance of Serene’s body revealing Stormare’s wild, furious eyes.  With a laugh, Serene targeted Avelon next.  Avelon wasn’t even going for her - she was making for the car’s entrance, to flee.  But now she was the last female Duskraptor, and that was why she was Serene’s target - the dark crystals erupting from her abdomen first confirmed it.

I made a stumbling charge for Serene, a stupid, clumsy attack that managed nothing but making myself a target again - but the Mask, bless that whispering abomination, inhibited her ability to target my internals.  The lack of immediate success wasn’t enough time for me to get to her, but it was enough for Stormare to plow in again.  She attempted some sort of defensive ward, but Stormare’s blade tore through the half-formed enchantment and laid her out.

For an instant, it looked like Stormare would finally be the end of the mare.  But as his blade’s tip began to stab toward Serene, a blast of magic totally unlike Serene’s tore through the train car.  Time seems to crawl already when I wear the Mask and imbibe the Draft, but this was something different entirely - temporal distortion magic.  Standing protectively in front of her was a white unicorn stallion, his mane and beard streaks of gold and silver, purple eyes blazing.  I recognized the heavyset unicorn stallion as Warden Time-Out... my prison warden in Canterlot.  I’d only ever seen him once before, and only heard him speak over an intercom.  His voice carried here a conviction I hadn’t heard those previous times, and he said: “It is not yet her time.”  Then both unicorns were gone, and Stormare was skewering empty air.

Have you ever heard a griffon roar in despair?  It was not a noise I’ll soon forget.  He threw down his blade and embraced Olin’s prone form, the crystals digging into his hide.  Waltz, Borg, and Lang joined in the cry of mourning.  I was muted by my jaw, unable to offer a word of comfort.  It was Hauer who brought his father crashing back to reality.  “Dad,” he said, his own voice thick with tears, “we have to get out of here.  It’s not safe.”

Thank you all for your patience.

---

Olin was smiling as she wiped the blood from her talon.  She used Serene Grace’s mane as a towel.  “I’ve missed doing that,” she said.  “Was this scrawny thing the one giving you and your fancy mask so much trouble, Red?  Honestly.  I thought we taught you better.”

“She’s more dangerous when she sees you coming,” I countered, a bit weakly.

“We need to get clear,” Stormare warned.  “This train is still enemy territory.”  He turned, watching the doorway.  “Also,” he muttered, his voice nearly lost amid the clattering of the train cars, “it’s good to have you back.  All of you.”

“Yes, very well,” she said, a bit irritable.  “Let the others finish drinking the Draft.  It’s been rough in here.”  Her eyes brightened.  “Let me introduce you to Hauer!  Hauer, this is Red Velvet.  Red, this is my scrawny-ass son.”

“Mom,” Hauer hissed, his feathers bristling a bit.

I smirked.  “I know the feeling, Hauer.  Your parents teased me mercilessly for being small.”

“He takes after you,” Olin said, helping Avelon get ready to fly again.  “Sometimes I think he’s yours.”

I snorted, not much appreciating Olin’s sense of humor.  “I’d know a hippogriff if I saw one, thank you.”  My eyes drifted over to Serene, her wounded head centered in a growing puddle of her blood.  I needed to ensure her death.  I took my knife in my mouth and stalked over to her.

She moved faster than thought.  In the space of a heartbeat my jaw was broken, my dagger had yet to hit the ground after it was knocked away from me, I was on the ground, and Serene Grace’s hoof was on my neck.  Viscera slid down the side of her face and dripped off the ragged flesh hanging from her cheek in strips.  Her coat had taken an ashen tinge.  “Ruin you...“ she snarled.  “The way you ruined me.”

I apologize for the delay, my little ponies.  This next passage has been difficult for me to write.  It’s important, though, that I conclude this story; not for me, but for Stormare and Hauer.  They need to move through their grief.

---

As I entered the car, I whistled - my cue to Stormare that we had found them - and slammed the door shut behind me.  Even buying a half second from Serene Grace was valuable.

The captured Duskraptors numbered seven - three toms, three queens, and one chick.  Aside from Olin, Waltz, and Hauer, to whom I have already introduced you, were Borg, Lang, Weisz, and Avelon, all of whom were among the clan’s younger warriors during my time among them.  They had a sickly, malnourished look about them - not because of actual starvation, Equestrians are not the sort to starve prisoners, but because of what I had learned from myself to be symptomatic of mid-stage Draft withdrawal.  I felt sympathetic pains in my chest, remembering what they must be going through.

Still, they hadn’t spent the attack entirely helpless - one guard struggled with his neck and wings pinned to the bars that separated one of the two cells from the rest of the car, griffon talons digging in.  The other guard had a slashed throat - he’d made it away from the bars, only to lie now a step from the door, bleeding and semiconscious, staring up at me with glazed eyes.  Snorting, I put him out of his misery with a well-placed stomp.  “Keys?”  I asked simply.  Olin’s eyes darted left, and I found them quickly.  “Let’s get you out of here.  Not all the guards are neutralized.”  Weisz snapped the neck of the guard pony she and Lang had grappled.  “Not what I meant.”

“Good to see you too, Red,” Olin replied.  She’d almost instantly composed herself and settled back into the cool, detached persona she’d worn since she and I had... well, since back then.  “Hauer, this is your uncle Red.”  I nodded in acknowledgment of Hauer, seeing him for the first time, and he nodded back.  Stormare had told me all about him.  The boy knew questions could wait until we were safe, though.  I respected that straightaway.

“I brought Draft,” I said, gently dropping a clay pot and passing it into Olin’s now-open cell.  “Griffon recipe.”  I turned to open the other cell and pass its inmates the same generosity.  “Drink deeply.  You’ll need the strength to get out of here.”  I was beginning to worry if we could even with the Draft.  War had taken its toll on the Duskraptor survivors.  Avelon’s left talon was an ugly stump.  Lang’s right eye was smashed in and clearly nonfunctional.  Even Ulin’s wings... one looked like it had broken and not healed properly.  It didn’t fold quite right.  “Stormare’s right behind me.  Let’s extract.“

“No, I am right behind you.”  I was wondering where Serene had gone off to.  I threw myself to the side, but not fast enough to entirely avoid her rapiers.  One dug deep into my flank, marring the uppermost heart on my right-hoof Cutie Mark.  I landed roughly.  This looked, for a second, like it for me.  Serene Grace would get what she had been ranting over.

Then the train car doors exploded inward in a flurry of splintered wood. Stormare’s sword punching through like a sawfish’s nose.  Serene teleported across the room to avoid it, right in front of Olin’s cell.  “You’ll have to do better than that,” she hissed - she was hissing now.  That much use of blood magic in such a short amount of time couldn’t be good for her.

Serene had one eye on me, and one eye on Stormare - but she had none to spare for Olin.  The griffon had just drank from the Draft pot, and she was ready to wade back into the thick of a fight.  She lashed out with her bare, untrimmed talons - and tore a horrifying gash right across Serene’s face.  Her concentration shattered, the unicorn’s swords dropped like puppets with their strings cut - and a second later, so did she.

Olin smiled and..

---

“Four oaths I swear, Red Velvet!”  Serene Grace’s voice, echoing with magical power, cut through the whistling wind atop the train.  “I shall rain despair and destruction upon thee, and thou shalt die a failure by thine own measure!”  A small summoning circle appeared in the air in front of her horn, moving with her.  “The first oath!  Upon my horn and my magic, the Willing Well!”

What could I do?  I turned and ran.  I was out of my element in ranged combat, and while Serene Grace was a swordspony at heart, she was in no way bound to melee range the way I was.  As I wheeled, I saw metallic gleams erupt from the summoning circle; as I galloped, I heard and felt the knives digging into the roof of the train car in a neat line behind me.  “The second oath!  Upon my sight, through the eyes of Fear and Madness!”

I hopped down between the next two cars, kicking off the edge towards the door so I could smash it open without breaking stride.  A refrigerated car - food storage for all the guards here, likely as not - and a pair of lean,griffons with sooty plumage and canine, rather than feline, features.  A pair of Valravn - I’d never seen them before.  I had no time for them, but they disagreed.  Faced with incoming talons, high on one side and low on the other, I dodged low and caught the talon on my mask.  He tried to grope for the eyeholes; I twisted and sank a horn into his wrist instead, and pulled away before they could entirely break my momentum.  “Perhaps another day!” I shouted, barging through the far door, dark wings on my tail.

A storm of daggers from the starboard side waited for me in the gap between the next two cars.  Even with two sources of dark magic enhancing my reflexes, I was grazed several times, drawing blood from my back and from my upper legs.  As I barreled through the next door, Serene crashed onto  the platform behind me, another dagger strategically placed to jam the door open.  “The third oath!” she bellowed, her eyes seas of luminous blood now.  More blood wound its way up the spiraling groove of her horn, dissolving into mist that leaked into the glow of her magic.  “My black heart, the Telling Truth, and the blood of my parents, Apollo and Whisper Heart!”

“Oh, get over yourself!” I snapped.  Only a single earth pony guard was stationed in this room - sleeping quarters.  He rushed towards me and reared, hooves up and spread wide to slam me to the ground.  I darted between them and buried my own knife in his exposed belly, but to my surprise he gritted his teeth against the pain and grabbed me in a crushing bear hug.  The look he gave Serene Grace told her to go for the kill.

“The fourth oath!”  Serene widened the summoning circle at her horn, and this time a trident came ripping out of it.  Grunting with effort, I spun on my rear hooves and used the guard as an equine shield against the weapon.  I was rewarded with the screech of tearing metal as the trident pierced his barding.  His grip slackened enough for me to force my way out to freedom. I immediately rolled away from an axe spinning through the air to embed on the far wall.  “Upon my own death, the Feeding End, the Final Cut!”  As I barged through the door, her voice followed me first.  The weapons would come next, and her body last.  “If you survive this day, Red Velvet, you will wish you hadn’t!”

Of all the possible developments of this ride, Serene Grace being on the train wasn't exactly the worst. possible. thing., but it was in my bottom ten or so.  Worse, open air was a better environment for her than me.  I would have to end this as quickly as possible.  With that in mind, I broke into a gallop without preamble and ran straight towards her.

She sneered, and two of her swords whipped towards me, coming high and low from the left and right.  Dodging both would be all but impossible, so I slid under the high blade and parried the low one.  Her forceful telekinesis gave her saber almost enough strength to roll me onto my side, but I recovered and regained my footing, rushing towards her and the prisoners that lay behind her.

She set her third blade spinning like a propeller in front of herself, while the first two reversed direction and thrust themselves back towards me, helixing themselves in the same direction.  I was left with nowhere but up to escape her blender trap, so I took to the sky in a long bound that would land me right on top of her, the swords passing beneath me.  "Gotcha!" she crowed, and rebounded the first two swords off the third one, sending them darting towards my throat and belly.

Desperate to dodge, I called upon every drop of magical reserve in my Mask.  It contained the feathers of a pegasus, and the pegasus magic was what I needed now.  As we were on a moving train, the wind was at my back, and I lightened my mass for just a second, allowing the wind to pull me forward and out of the way of the swords.  The magic slipped after a second, but it still carried me to a landing just a foot or two behind Serene.

When I made the second car, I became painfully aware of how many guards were on board.  This was a trap, no question; it was merely a trap whose bait we had no option but to take.  The Tigerhawk griffon in the second car, dedicated to coal storage, swung a huge, double-headed axe at me as soon as I was through the door.  If it weren't for the Draft and my Mask, I doubt I would have ducked in time to save my head.

I tried to dodge around him, but he stepped back and spread his wings; in the narrow confines of the coal car, there was no way around him.  In a way, this worked to my advantage: there were more guards behind him, earth ponies, but they couldn't get at me any more than I could get at them.  Still, the griffon was my prime concern.  I dodged a downward axe swing by hopping forward, closer to him; he drove the hilt of the monstrous tool into my face, and I caught it in my jaws, pushing against him.  His own beak lashed forward with eye-gouging intent.  I let go of the axe and dipped to the side, overbalancing him.  As he took a stumbling step forward, I drove my hoof into the knee of his rear leg.  It didn't quite shatter, but he grunted and half-fell, supporting himself on his axe.

Now was my chance.  I still had magic held in my mask, magic which I channeled into an old, forgotten Earth pony trick I'd once read about.  I focused on my hooves and ran up the wall, bypassing the griffon and the ponies behind him by running on the ceiling.  My hooves bore an eerie, pins-and-needles sensation as I did so, but it was worth it for the look of shock on the guards' face.  I fell and tagged the rearmost pony with an airborne Applebuck to the back of the head, the recoil of which propelled me to the door and sent him bowling into the others.

I tore the door open, and the next door into the car after them, hoping they would take too long to rejoin the fight to be a hindrance again.  Unfortunately, the next car was more open, unfurnished except for many small crates which unicorns were using as cover while they charged their spells.  Earth ponies with lances and tower shields occupied the open spaces in the aisles.  "Fuck this," I said and slid the door closed again, wincing as the door's window was blown out by a spell intended for me.  I tensed my legs, and with a single bound, hopped onto the roof of the third car.

Above me was a scene of savage beauty.  Stormare tore into and through pegasi with his blade, spiraling past his foes with every bit of the agility of the smallest pegasus and the speed of the largest.  The sword, though it looked blunt and sawlike, carved through flesh and even steel with the same ease he tore through cloud.  Anypony who met his blade, his beak, or the sweep of his free talon found grisly injury.  A hoof, canary yellow and still shod in golden plate, dropped to the roof of a traincar further down the line and bounced away with a meaty thud.

I apologize for my absence.  Part of it has been hiding from authorities, yes, but the truth of the matter is that the events of the last few days have been difficult for all of us.  Still, I think I should explain exactly what happened in our attempt to free the other survivors of the Duskraptor clan.

On Hearth's Warming Day, the train was winding through a Tigerhawk-controlled section of the Stonetalon Peaks.  Stormare's advance scouting had revealed it would have to stay on this stretch of track at least this far, and we had spotted the guards, or at least the obvious ones.  Tigerhawk griffons, nearly all of their warriors, and a small contingent of pegasus guards accompanying them.

Hidden in the nearby hills were not only myself and Stormare, but two pegasi, a mare named Sirocco and a stallion named Diamond Dust.  They were flight supremacists, no friends of mine, but Wing Power prefers to square his debts with me away as soon as the opportunity comes up.  Perhaps another day I'll tell you of the favor I did him.  At any rate, they had a relatively easy job - distract as many of the fliers as they could.

Diamond Dust and Sirocco took off a half mile before the train passed to its closest spot to our location.  They raced toward the train head-on and buzzed it, acting aggressively before breaking off and fleeing.  Stormare's distance vision is impeccable, and he informed me that most of the griffons guarding the train were following, but the pegasi stayed behind.  This was about what we had expected - all we had asked of Wing Power was a distraction for some of the flying guards for the train.  Sirocco and Diamond Dust had only to lead the griffons on a wild pegasus chase; engaging them was at their own discretion.

When the train was at its nearest point to the ambush location, Stormare grabbed me and flew us out of cover.  We made a beeline for the engine car, belching up coal smoke, and Stormare dropped me right into the forward cabin.  The engineer was not military. There was a unicorn guard in the cabin, but she must not have been briefed on me, because she fired a bolt of lightning magic right at my mask instead of dodging.  A well-placed, gravity-assisted hoof left her broken-nosed and open to a follow-up knock-out blow.  I had planned to just knock the engineer out as well, but he was struggling an awful lot and just generally being a loud, annoying pest.  So I threw him out of the train instead, leaving him tumbling into the ditch on the side of the track.  I didn't bother with the controls; I had no experience in train operation.  Incapacitating the engineer was just a matter of trying up more ponypower among the guards as they scrambled to replace him.