Dregs of Humanity Ch1 v1.1

Chapter 1

The Big Apple Bites

or

I Want Your Seed, No Not Like That

 

In the distance, the crumbing towers of the once-great city stood.

Surrounding them were low shapes, covered in vegetation, the smaller buildings of the city, equally ruined.

 

Bad Example poked her head out of the concealing brush of the shoreline. She brushed her black-and-white striped mane out of her face with a hoof and took a long look at the jagged wedge of the highest tower.

The words of her dam came back to her.

‘Don’t go into the ruins, or the Man-Ponies will get you!’

Every little foal would be warned about the Man-Ponies.

‘Don’t wander out alone at night, or the Man-Ponies will get you!’

Bad Example had never actually seen a Man-Pony.

‘Finish all your beets, or the Man-Ponies will get you!’

She was pretty sure her dam had never seen them, either.

 

Internally cursing her pale gray coat, she pushed her raft (well, it was more like a mass of sticks tied in a big bundle, her cutie mark wasn’t in raft-building) into the water. The light color of her coat made her stand out against the browns and greens, and she was an obvious dot in the water as she paddled across the water to the island of “The Big Apple”. The Mark on her flank, a yellow circle with a pair of white circles with black dots in them above a red half-circle, all-in-all kind of looking like a face looking up and away at something really exciting, didn’t help conceal her, either.

 

She made it to the far shore. She hadn’t been seen. Hopefully. No faces peered from the empty holes of the buildings, Pony, or otherwise. All she had to do now is find apples. The ruin was supposed to be named for them, the city taking its name from them. None of the fruit were growing on the shoreline. She slowly walked deeper into the ruins.

 

If she could find the fruit, or even the seeds, she could be a hero. The land would spring forth with food once more. A simple kick would rain down more food than a Pony could stuff her belly with, just like in the old stories. No more wandering the plains, fearing the cold seasons, scrounging for enough grass under the snow. She shook a hind hoof, kicking off a few more drops of water. She set her hoof back down, the crunching leaves echoing off the-

 

She froze.

 

That wasn’t leaves. It sounded more like stone-on-stone.

 

Something took off from the taller of the nearby buildings. Something big.

 

She ran.

 

She wished she was a Pegasus, like her sister Bad Weather. Thundering hooves kicked up the leaf litter into a cloud behind her. Or even a Unicorn, like her brother Bad Idea, who could shoot shadowy shapes with a blast of light. She charged up some stone stairs. Thankful for once of her Earth Pony strength, she barreled unhindered through the door. She hid behind a lump of some kind of moldering fabric, daring to peek out the wrecked doorframe.

 

A large shadow swept across the ground, perpendicular to the path she took, like a bird circling around.

 

But it must have been bigger than any bird she had ever seen. A roc? She had to escape. She had to tell everypony there was a huge pony-eating bird stalking the land!

 

Trying not to breathe, she froze, watching the shadow circle around a few more times.

 

It landed somewhere out of view. It sounded like it walked on four legs, but it didn’t sound like hooves. How many legs did rocs have? Didn’t they have two legs, like the Man-Ponies? Maybe it was two rocs? Or two Man-Ponies in a roc costume? It suddenly flapped away, startling the hidden Pony.

 

“Aaaw, come back pretty-birdy! Why did you run away?”, it sounded like a Pony. But different. But wrong.

 

That sounded like hooves. Two hooves.

 

She went into the ruins! She went off alone! She didn’t eat her beets! It was going to get her! She stopped her shuffling hooves and stilled her panting breath.

 

Maybe it would go away?

 

“Where is she going off to?”, it sounded like a stallion. The sound of shuffling leaves came closer, “Hello? Anybody in there?”

 

It wasn’t going away.

 

A pony-but-very-not-pony silhouette blocked the light from the doorway. It was here. It had her trapped.

 

Bad Example was no warrior, not by a long shot, but she knew she had to fight. She called on her instincts, falling back on that tried-and-true Earth Pony technique that brought her people through many a crisis.

 

It was time to panic.

 

Her screams were loud enough to echo off of the buildings outside. Her hooves barely touched the worn and rotted wood of the floor. She raced around the room, she was a one-mare stampede! At one point, she even ran partway up the wall, taking the corner without hitting the floor, but sadly there was nopony in the room in a state to appreciate how cool it looked.

 

“Woah. Are you okay?”

 

At the ‘woah’, the Pony froze in place in front of the doorway and the green figure standing in it. The question snapped her to her senses and she bolted directly away from it. Straight into a wall.

 

‘Pony power, don’t fail me now!’

 

She lowered her head, smashing into the wall like a battering ram. Timber, plaster, mold, and vines exploded out. Barely slowed, she sped through the wall, then another, then another internal wall.

Her eyes were still closed when she hit the external brick wall. A shock went through her body, her ears were assaulted by a deafening boom, her hooves stumbled to a halt, her momentum spent. Bad Example blinked away the dust. She stood in a roughly-circular hole she had just smashed into the brick wall. She shook her head, banishing most of the dizziness, then surveyed her surroundings.

 

She had bashed her way through solid stone, securing her freedom from the horrible Man-Pony. The way ahead was clear of all but a few shrubs and grass.

 

“Woo-hoo! Earth Ponies are awesome!”, she steadied her stance and readied herself to bolt away.

 

Then the rest of the wall fell on her.

 

-

 

Through the darkness swam a school of white sparks. It dove into a school of green sparks that were swirling like a swarm of gnats, knocking into reach other and going in circles. The combined white-green swarm chased after a swarm of blue that raced and dodged before being overtaken. The white-green-blue mass looped and snaked about before a red mass lunged up to it.

 

The multicolored swirl whipped faster and faster in a tightening spiral then spread out into the shape of a Pony with great wings and a towering horn.

 

There was a hunched figure before a low fire. Bad Example stared at the wiggly spider-things where the figure’s front hooves should have been as the strange dream faded from her mind. It was a Man-Pony, that much was obvious. By the light of the fire, along with the shine from the half-moon, she could tell it had a green coat and a dark mane and tail.

 

It fished something out of the fire with a stick. It looked like a big egg, blackened on the outside from the flames. Celestia Help Us, it was eating Pony eggs! Wait, Ponies don’t lay eggs. The thing peeled off some of the outer layer and took a bite of the white stuff inside. It was a potato. Seriously? Pony eggs? What is wrong with you?

 

Then she remembered the literal ton of bricks that came down on her. Then darkness.

 

That would do it.

 

She shifted, trying to stand up, but her legs were bound up in a mess of fabric, like somepony had tried to tie her up, but forgotten what knots were.

 

“Hi.”

 

“Hi.”, she answered automatically.

 

“What’s your name?”, it was smiling at her.

 

“Bad Example.”, WHY DID YOU GIVE IT YOUR NAME? Doesn’t that give a Man-Pony power over you? Or was that fairies? I can’t believe you can be that stupid, “What’s your name?”

 

It shied away slightly and its smile disappeared, “Well...”

 

Crap. You made it angry.

 

“I kinda don’t have one.”

 

“How do you not have a name?”, keep it talking, I guess, it’s not like you can make things worse.

 

“All my friends took away my name, because I’m kind of a screwup. And because I ask a bunch of stupid questions.”, he pointed at his flank, “But they can’t stop me from doing that, because it’s my Cutie Mark!”, his smile was back.

 

“How do you take someone’s name?”

 

He shrugged, “Magic?”

 

The bound mare was slowly shifting her legs to disentangle herself, “Can’t you get a new name?”

 

He was frowning again. Bad sign. You made it worse! Ask something else!

 

“I can’t.”, the Man-Pony answered before the Earth Pony could think of anything else to say, “If I take a new name, the spell will rip my guts out and put them back in backwards so I always spew shit out of my mouth.”

 

“Ew.”

 

“Yeah, ew. So I’m stuck as a no-name.”

 

“Your name is no-name?”

 

It laughed, good sign?

 

He smiled and stared into the fire, “My name is No-Name.”

 

Everything was silent for a tense moment. The only sound was a pop from the fire.

 

“Call me No-Name!”, No-Name pointed a leg of one of his hoof-spiders at Bad Example, “That was good. You’re a smart one! Hey – don’t mess with those bandages. You were hit pretty bad and you need to keep those on.”

 

“You call these bandages?”

 

“Hey, it’s not like my Cutie Mark is in bandaging!”

 

“I thought you had tied me up so you could...”, she froze for a moment.

 

“Do you eat ponies?”

 

The Man-Pony grinned, “Totally.”, he leaned back with a dreamy look in his eyes, “I’ll eat ya till ya can’t walk!”

 

Time to panic again! This thing was a pony-eater! It was going to chop off her legs and roast them right in front of her on that very fire! Panicking didn’t seem to be working, it actually bound the ‘bandages’ even tighter. She was suddenly stuck, lying on her back. In one side of her vision was the Man-Pony, mashing his baked potato into his face in imitation of the horrors he would inflict on Bad Example. In the other side as a pair of triangular blue ears.

 

The ears rose to reveal a pair of golden eyes, then a darker-yellow beak. A talon of the same color as the beak rose to the end of the beak, covering it for a moment, then reached out for the bound mare.

 

Over she went, suddenly falling, the building rushing up beside her, then leveling out, gliding down the ruined street in the talons of a Gryphon. Cobbles and tufts of grass sped by. Bad Example was pretty sure she heard the Man-Pony ask, “Where did you go?”, high above them.

 

-

 

Okay, XXXXXXXXX*, where does a bandage-

 

Oooh, that wasn’t smart. Even thinking about his old name was gut-wrenching, literally.

 

Okay, No-Name, where does a bandaged mare go when she’s suddenly vanished while on the edge of a roof?

 

Down, obviously.

 

He put his hands on the edge of the crumbling railing, screwed his eyes up tight, leaned forward, and prepared for the worst. He opened his eyes.

 

A shocking scene met his gaze. There was not a mangled body down on the street. Blood soaked no cobbles. Viscera was not strewn across the shrubbery in front of the building, lifeblood slowly soaking into none of the roots.

 

“Here did she go? It’s not like mares just vanish, do they?”, he turned to his right, “I mean, if they’re not Unicorns.”, he turned to his left, “And they don’t fly away, unless they’re Pegasi.”

 

He slumped. Right, he was alone again.

 

It was nice having someone to talk to, even if it was just a little while. He hung his head.

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone wave. He squinted at whoever was trying to get his attention, another one of his former friends here to throw stuff at him again?

 

No! It was that damn Gryphon that had been snooping around! She was getting away! With his mare!

 

He grabbed his satchel and thundered down the rickety stairs, “Don’t worry, Bad Example! I’ll save you!”

 

(* pronounced like a loud burst of static)

 

-

 

“What’s going on?”, Bad Example’s view swung as the Gryphon turned a corner, “What are you? Are you going to eat me?”

 

The blue Gryphon squinted down at the white Pony for an instant, then focused her attention on flying again, “Great. Another one.”

 

“Another one? Another what?”

 

“Another stupid horse that doesn’t do anything except ask stupid questions.”

 

“I’m not-”, she hung her head back, the ground beneath them sped past, “I’m just a little confused.”, the Gryphon gained a little altitude and approached the top of what used to be a bank, “And scared.”, Example added in a quieter tone.

 

The solid construction let the Celestial Savings and Loan stand up better than the buildings around it, but it still had some serious holes in the roof.

 

“I’d be scared, too, if one of those things caught me.”, the Gryphon started prying apart the ‘bandages’, “Be glad I got you before he started doing things to you.”

 

“Yeah, he was going to eat me.”

 

“Yep.”

 

“Roast me on that fire.”

 

“No he-”, the Gryphon’s ears flattened back and she flailed her talons in frustration, “What in ever-loving Tartarus crawled forth to tie a knot like this?”

 

“He said he was trying to bandage me.”

 

The Gryphon tilted her head, “I could vomit a bandage better than this.”

 

They both laughed. Then fell silent. Only the ripping of fabric under talons could be heard.

 

“You’re not going to…eat me, right?”

 

“Nah. My mother always told me:”, she raised a claw, one talon pointing skyward, “food that talks is probably not food.”

 

‘probably’?!

 

“That’s good.”, Bad Example forced a smile.

 

“My name’s Bad Example. What’s your name?”

 

“You. Really?”, she finished up re-tying the bandages into something resembling actual bandages, “You ponies have the strangest names. You can call me Al.”

 

“Thanks, Owl.”, the mare got to her feet, “What are you? I’ve never seen a...whatever you are.”

 

Al stepped back, “You’ve never seen a Gryphon before, ever?”

 

She shook her head, “And I’ve never seen a Man-Pony before today, either.”

 

“We don’t get out of Gryphonstone too much, I guess – Wait.”, Al pointed at a pale blue glow in the sky to the southwest, “Sunrise.”

 

They both turned and looked at the moon. The pale disk was wobbling in its place overhead. It started swinging in circles, picking up speed before silently slamming into the western horizon. It sat for a moment, then slipped down in jerks, like a tent stake being driven into the earth.

 

The pair turned east. And waited. They exchanged worried glances after staring at the dark sky for nearly a minute. Just then, the world brightened, the sun popping up like a stubborn root pulled. The Pony and Gryphon watched the bright yellow disk roll along the horizon, making it from due east to nearly due north, before popping into the sky. It slid from its proper place several times, drifting like a leaf on the water, before pinning itself in place.

 

“That one was a doozy.”, Example said, letting out her held breath.

 

“Do you think it will ever crash into Eqqus?”, the Gryphon allowed herself to breathe, too.

 

“If it does some day, I hope I don’t live to see it.”

 

The Gryphon smiled, “If it does, I don’t think any of us will live to see it, not for long, anyway.”

 

Owl looked off to the southwest, contemplating. Bad Example took her first clear look at her rescuer. She was big, taller than Example, as tall as the taller Unicorns that she knew. Her front half was covered in medium-blue feathers, from the top of her ears to just above her claws. A pair of wings in the same color swept back from her withers, looking like a long cloak. Her back half was covered in fur of a darker grayish-blue. Her beak and claws were a dark yellow. Her eyes were golden, with round pupils. Overall, she looked like someone had taken a hawk, cut off the tail, and glued the body of a cat to it, adding the cat’s ears to the hawk’s head as a final flourish. The Earth Pony speculated that there was a wizard somewhere sticking together animals, as some kind of prank, and wondered what else he might have done.

 

“Alpanu!”

 

The Gryphon looked over to the Pony, “What?”

 

“I didn’t say anything.”

 

“Alpanu!”

 

Al’s ears flattened.

 

“Alpanu, I know you’re up there!”

 

A blue head and a gray head poked over the parapet to look at the green figure below.

 

“Ha! I knew I could flush you out!”, No-Name ran a hoof-spider through his messy black mop of a mane, “I’m just that good!”

 

“Oh, fish-fur.”, Alpanu stepped back from the edge, “Look, Bad Example – Can I call you ‘Exy’? - This tom is bad news. These monkey-things have some kind of thing. They – just don’t let him touch you.”

 

“Don’t let him touch me? Why?”, Example was starting to get nervous again.

 

“It affects your mind! One moment he’s patting your head, then the next thing you know you’re on your back and – Gah! I don’t want to talk about it! I’m going to go find something heavy to drop on him. Stay right here.”, and she took off with a flap of her great wings.

 

Bad Example swallowed hard, imagining what would happen to her after No-Name got her ‘on her back’. She looked down at No-Name. The building was so high. There’s no way he could jump up here.

 

He can climb! He can climb like, well, she wasn’t sure. A squirrel? Not really. She wasn’t familiar with the animal he was moving like. He stretched and heaved himself onto mostly-intact windowsills and gripped thick-growing vines.

 

“Don’t worry, Bad Example! I’m here to rescue you!”

 

She tossed her head, “I don’t need to be rescued! I already got rescued, by Owl!”

 

“Alpanu swept you off to her home?”, he paused his climb, “That’s kind of hot!”

 

“Why would that be hot? She was just getting me away from you.”, the Pony took a step back. The Man-Pony had made it to the roof. How did he climb so fast?

 

He was tall, but not too tall, only about as big as a Pony rearing up to stand on their hind legs, like when Bad Idea would rear up and stagger after her and Bad Weather saying ‘Oooh! I’m a Man-Pony and I’m going to get you!’. His coat was a light green, like the color of spring grass, his tail was black and in close to the same color was – stop staring at his sheath. His eyes were the same green as his coat, his mane the same color as his tail. He had a beard and mustache of something white and crumbly.

 

“You have something on your face.”

 

He stood up a little straighter, chin raised, “I’m not falling for that old one. I’ve fallen for it too many times, already.”

 

“I mean it, you’ve got white stuff all over your mouth.”

 

“No, you suck too many dicks!”, he glared down at the Pony.

 

“I think it’s that potato you, uh, ate.”

 

No-Name licked his nose, “Hey, you’re right.”, and started flailing his tongue around to collect the remains of his meal.

 

That’s it. Just keep him distracted and Owl will be back any moment with a boulder. Bad Example took a half-pace backward.

 

No-Name smiled at her, “Want a taste? There’s still some left.”, he moved a hoof forward.

 

Example took a quick step backward, “No! No, I’m fine.”

 

He took a full step forward, “Hey, wait.”

 

She took a trio of full paces backward, “Don’t touch me!”

 

He pointed behind her, “Your hole!”

 

Example turned her head sideways to look at both him and behind herself, “My hole?!”

 

‘Her’ hole was a jagged black shape behind her. One hoof sat at the very edge of the hole in the roof.

 

“You’re about to fall in.”

 

Something shifted under her, and for the second time in as many days, Bad Example was betrayed by masonry.

 

-

 

Alpanu folded her wings, slipping into the grass around the base of a cluster of trees. The Man-Pegasus had probably seen her, but the mare was intent on something else. The orange Pegasus pointed off toward the bank.

 

“I saw him go this way.”

 

The mare darted back the way she came. Soon a red Man-Earth-Pony mare came around the corner. Other Man-Ponies followed. A light pink Earth mare with a pale green mane and a pale green Earth mare with a light pink mane, sisters, Alpanu had gathered. They scanned the shadows and foliage.

 

“Aha!”, the green one threw a rock into the tall grass near where Alpanu was hiding, flushing out a pair of pigeons who darted behind a building.

 

“Quit wasting time.”, the pink one pushed the green one.

 

“I thought I saw that Gryphon!”

 

Other ponies followed in twos and threes.

 

The Man-Pegasus stallion drifted overhead with his two mares. Alpanu locked eyes with him as he happened to glance at her hiding place, but he quickly looked away. She had threatened him with various creative injuries when he had confronted her in the past, and he seemed to still be trying to delay their next encounter, where she promised to remove and consume a collection of his favorite organs.

 

Then, surrounded by the bulk of the crowd of the dozen earth-bound Man-Ponies was the man himself: Tall and lithe, blue-gray coat, the color of a hazy sky, stubby horn sticking out underneath the pompadour he styled his white mane into, mark on his flank of an tailed oval with a quartet of black symbols inside. He was the leader of this pride of – herd? - herd of Man-Ponies.

 

He walked up to the bank just as No-Name stumbled out of the front doors.

 

Alpanu focused her ears.

 

“Grawlix Typeset, hi!”, No-Name smiled at his former leader.

 

“Come out, mare, we know you’re here.”, the Unicorn looked right past No-Name.

 

“Good to see you, too?”, No-Name walked toward Grawlix, adjusting the strap of his satchel.

 

A blue Man-Earth-Pony mare intercepted No-Name, shoving him aside as he tried to step toward her stallion.

 

Grawlix shouted toward the open door, “We found the faggot that helped you get here.”

 

“I didn’t help her get here.”

 

Bad Example stepped hesitantly out the door, holding her right forehoof off the ground, “Is it really that bad of a raft?”, she muttered.

 

The Unicorn smiled, “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you.”

 

“She’s cute! Those blue eyes are really pretty.”, the blue mare was clinging to Grawlix’s arm.

 

Grawlix nodded to the blue mare, “I’m sure she’ll make lots of cute foals.”

 

A cold, heavy feeling in her gut anchored her to the spot. The idea of what they were going to do to her felt like it was driven into her head with a wedge.

 

“Woah, woah, woah!”, No-Name stepped between Example and Grawlix, his angrily-thrashing tail smacking the mare in the face, “Nobody is doing anything to my mare.”

 

A white eyebrow quirked, “Your mare?”, asked Grawlix.

 

“Your mare?”, echoed from behind No-Name.

 

The two stallions glared at each other for a moment, an ancient battle of wills reenacted once more.

 

“We don’t want you. We put that curse on you so we wouldn’t have to even remember you and all of your shit.”, The Unicorn was usually not so blunt, “Go fuck off and die.”, or so obviously angry.

 

No-Name cocked his head and furrowed his brow, “Yeah, I was wondering about that curse. Wouldn’t ripping my guts out just kill me? You can’t just survive everything getting ripped out, can you?”, Example had to side-step No-Name as he fell back with an angry red mark on his face. The space where his head recently occupied now held a boot bouncing back in a high arc that fell near No-Name’s hooves.

 

“No! More! Questions!”, screamed a red mare with a black mane and one boot, “No more questions.”, she broke down sobbing as another mare put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

 

The green man pushed himself up to sitting, his hands propping himself up, beside and behind him, “My questions aren’t that bad.”, he pouted.

 

The blue-gray Man-Unicorn pointed an accusing finger, “It’s not just your questions! You destroy everything!”

 

“You collapsed the well!”, accused a yellow mare.

 

“I was trying to fix the rope thingy, it was stuck.”

 

“You wrecked my windmill!”, the Pegasus stallion shouted from above, flanked by his mares, who nodded.

 

“There was a bird getting into it. I just banged on it to scare it off.”

 

“You fell on me!”, Example chimed in.

 

“That was an accident, I was trying to keep you from falling through that hole in the roof.”

 

“And you almost fell on me again!”, Example added.

 

“That wasn’t really my fault.”

 

“You broke that little train we all liked so much!”, shouted the light pink mare.

 

No-Name finally looked abashed, “Yeah, that was my bad. I never should have wound it so tight.”

 

Grawlix’s horn lit up, “Enough of this. I don’t want to waste all day listing your crimes.”, a good-sized rock in a flickering powder-blue aura floated up to the Unicorn’s hand, “I didn’t want to do this,”, the mares around him followed suit, hefting lose cobbles and bricks, “but you left me no choice. If you won’t end yourself, we’ll have to do it for you.”

 

“Woah! No! Stop! You really don’t have to do this for me, honest!”, No-Name looked around frantically at the crowd closing in, “Isn’t Forgiveness one of the virtues of Harmony?”

 

The blue mare counted on her fingers, “Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Loyalty-”

 

“Forgiveness.”

 

“-Friendship.”, raising one finger in her other hand, lifting her rock as she held up the finger.

 

“Are you sure that last one isn’t ‘Forgiveness’?”

 

She looked over to Grawlix, “Friendship.”, he said with a nod. His coolness restored, he smirked and glanced at No-Name out of the corner of his eye.

 

The blue mare grinned maliciously at the green stallion, “Typeset has spoken, and he’s the Lorekeeper.”

 

“Aww...”

 

It was time to act. Alpanu gripped the log she was crouched near and took off. After gaining altitude as fast as she could, she dove down, releasing the log. The rotted old log broke in half, but had enough impact to knock the Pegasus stallion out of the air. He fell with a shout of pain and his mares dove down out of instinct to come to his aid, leaving the Gryphon clear to snatch up Bad Example and No-Name.

 

The three were up and away. A Gryphon was faster than any stubby-winged Man-Pegasus, and the two mares were still making sure their stallion was okay, but Alpanu was burdened by a pair of Ponies, so she had to get as far as she could before the Man-Ponies regrouped. The gryphoness felt a sharp tug at her tail that slowed her to a halt. A swirling, multi-colored aura covered the tuft of her tail.

 

Far below, the blue-gray Unicorn stallion led a trio of Unicorn mares in their telekinesis. Index fingers poking into their temples, eyes wide, all letting out a low humming noise to synchronize and harmonize their magic. Their power blended into a single will with a single mission.

 

Alpanu’s wings were a blue blur, but she was making little headway against the telekinetic pull. She almost didn’t notice No-Name squirming to leave her grip. She did notice him grabbing her back leg and swinging on it.

 

“Awwgh!”

 

Example gasped, “No-Name! What are you doing?!”

 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this!”, with one more swing back, he hooked his fingers in the glowing mass at the end of the pulled-taut tail. With a wrench to the aura with one hand (and Al’s leg with the other) he pried it loose. With a metallic twang, it snapped (the magic, not the leg), the ball of energy zipping backward even faster than the Gryphon shooting forward.

 

No-Name nearly slipped free before he brought his other hand to wrap around Alpanu’s leg.

 

She snapped her beak, “Can you not grip so tight?”

 

“No?”

 

“If my paw falls off, I’m going to choke you to death with it.”

 

The Gryphon landed near Bad Example’s ‘raft’.

 

“You two get on the raft.”, Alpanu was back in the air as soon as No-Name and Bad Example were on the ground.

 

No-Name and Example shoved off, “You can’t fly us over?”, whinged the stallion.

 

“I can’t carry you two and still fight off three Pegasai.”, the Gryphon gained altitude and looked back at the city.

 

Surely enough, the three were coming over the ruins, vengeance in the eyes of the mares.

 

The blue mare cruised forward, wings buzzing, as the orange mare kept pace with the yellow stallion.

 

The blue mare with a yellow mane and tail focused her fury on Alpanu. She crashed into the gryphoness and they became a swirl of blue with flashes of yellow. When the orange mare caught up, she hesitated a moment, trying to pick out who was who within the swirl, before sending a diving kick at the Gryphon.

 

“Aah! What are you doing?!”

 

That hit her herdmate.

 

Alpanu dipped down and away.

 

“Sorry, sorry, sorry! It’s just that you’re the same color as-”

 

“Girls, scatter!”, shouted the stallion.

 

The two mares whinnied and dove in opposite directions as the gryphoness sped between them.

 

Even three-to-one the fight was weighted in favor of the Gryphon. Man-Pegasai were nearly as maneuverable as hummingbirds, but were woefully outclassed in speed. Alpanu’s threatening swipes broke up their formation, barreling out of range before the Pegasai could counter. When the mares got too close to the pair on the raft, a more focused attack on the stallion sent them scurrying back to protect him.

 

But a weighted fight is not a fixed one, and, after a few scratches and bruises on both sides, one of the mares landed a lucky kick to Alpanu’s wing. She came in for a rough landing beside the raft, skimming the surface, soaked but not submerged.

 

“Owl!”, Bad Example peered over the raft.

 

Alpanu paddled over to the raft, climbing atop it between the two “engines”, “Keep going!”, then spread her wings, halfway in the case of her right one, and gave a defiant screech to the Pegasai.

 

She caught the eyes of the stallion, then raised one claw as if cupping something, then bunched her wickedly-curving talons into an angry fist.

 

The Man-Pegasus gulped, “Girls, her wing’s busted, there’s no way they can get away, now. Let’s go back and get the others.”

 

The mares reluctantly followed their stallion back to the city, but not before the blue one pointed at her eyes with two fingers then toward the gryphoness with the same two fingers, turning away with an angry huff.

 

The trio neared the shore. Alpanu let go of the bundle of sticks, “Abandon the raft. Let it drift off.”

 

Example shook her wet mane in disbelief, “What? Why?”

 

“If they see the raft, or drag marks from it, they’ll know where we came ashore. If it washes up somewhere else, it could throw them off.”

 

“Good idea.”, Bad Example swam after Alpanu.

 

They abandoned their makeshift craft, No-Name kicking off of it with a, “So long, faggot!”