Blindsided [Closed] (Dated)

Forte groaned lightly as she woke up to the sounds of fighting once again. Pulling a pillow over her head, she laid in bed while trying to block out the sounds of violence and pain waging outside in the streets of the city. The warriors at least had the common decency to not suddenly attack civilians who weren't bothering them at all...most of the time. Her horn flickered with magic as the stress on her mind caused her strange magic to activate, forcing the image of fighting outlines of many different colors outside into her mind. She used to like having this strange ability, but now she absolutely hated it. It kept her from escaping the violence, causing tears to begin rolling down her cheeks as she witnessed the colors of some auras fading to white as the owner of it fell to the other before being left alone.

A few hours passed and she found herself still on her bed. The sounds of fighting were gone; the griffons either having taken the portion of the city or had been chased off for the day. Either way, the peace wouldn't last for long, it never did.

Going against her parents' advice, she found herself climbing out of her window. She usually did this every time the fighting died down to see who had won the block until the next day. Peeking out from behind a trash can, she silently waited for any answer to her curiosity.

Sergeant Zanhorn stepped over yet another mangled corpse. These Equestrians, they certainly did make for quite an enjoyable afternoon. To think they tried to fight back against the Kingdom's army. Either they were incredibly brave, or just down right stupid. The veteran banked on the latter. Despite that, they certainly were making his soldiers pay for each and every block of this damned city. At first it had been thrilling. Now it had just become annoying. When would they just quit, resign to their fate as prey for the greater nation? Better question, when was he going to get the reinforcements he had been promised.

"Sir!" A fellow griffon approached, snapping to a salute as he stopped in front of the NCO.

"What is it soldier?" Zanhorn replied, whatever this was, it certainly had to be important. Moments of rest didn't come often before yet another attack began, and most of those under his command, as well as himself, relished the most amount they would get.

"Sir, look," the griffon said gesturing toward the nearby alleyway, "Its that little pony again Sergeant. This is the third time we've seen her eyeing us."

"Really? Again? Keep an eye on her don't let her see anything that could be important. For all we know she could be a scavenger. I would expect as such from the filth of her species."

"Yes sir!" the soldier gave yet another quick salute before retreating back towards his squad. The air was beginning to clear from the last skirmish, which usually meant that the next attack was about to begin.

Heading back to those under his command, the Sergeant began shouting orders to squad leaders ordering for preparations to begin. Grabbing a longsword of his own, the griffon readied himself as the sound of hooves could be heard before them.

Forte hadn't noticed that she was seen just, simply staying in her place as she observed what was happening. She usually went back inside when the fighting began, but something made her stay: curiosity. The sound of pounding hooves began to get louder as the warriors made their way closer to the area in an attempt to win back the block of city yet again. Shrinking down slightly, she watched a small squad of armored ponies rush down the alleyway she was hiding in.

The tip of her horn began to spark like that of a filly much younger than her as her spell activated against her will yet again, forced to watch the battle with her mind's eye. Deciding she wouldn't be able to avoid watching the violence, she nervously peeked up over the trash bins again to at least observe with her real eyes. Why can't they do this outside the city...? She thought to herself.

Zanhorn swore openly as he saw the group of ponies charge in from the alleyway, almost in time with those in the main street, "Damn it! They're trying to outflank us! Gather up men, Show them the might of the kingdoms!" Moving back, the Sergeant raised his sword, catching the blade from a nearby assailant. Grabbing the attacking pony by the throat, Zenhorn briefly lifted the equine into the air, before hurling him to the ground. Followed shortly after by a precise, thrust of his longsword, driving into the pony's cranium. Pulling the blade out with a sickening suction sound, the griffon met yet another attacker's strike, as he and his squads formed a protective circle around them. Taking on those that dared to approach.

The fighting continued for what felt like hours. Ponies throwing themselves at the griffons. Most were quickly struck down by the larger and stronger defenders, however, on more than one account, one of his soldiers was felled by the equines, a bolt from a crossbow, piercing a vital artery, dropping the soldier in a pool of his own vital fluids, or they were simply outmatched by one with more experience, trampling the griffon with hooves incased in iron, or blades running through the fighter. Eventually however, the ponies numbers began to dwindle, as once again they fell back to their camp, a few blocks away to lick their wounds and prepare for the next day.

This couldn't go on, the griffon's numbers were beginning to thin out much quickly. They needed to break these ponies spirits, and they needed to do it soon, or get some form of relief.

"Sir." Once again it was the soldier from before. Beaten and battered from this second attack, but all in all still up. "the filly sir, she's still there. She didn't leave."

"And?"

"Thats where they attacked from sir, permission to speak freely sir, but I think she might be a spy for the Equestrians. How else would they have known to attack via that specific alleyway?"

"you have a point. Fine grab two others that are relatively unharmed. Make sure she doesn't escape, and bring her to me. I'll make sure this doesn't ever happen again."

"Right away Sergeant." the soldier saluted, rushing back to his group.

The sergeant grinned as he saw the three take flight. Heading to a nearby ransacked house, the Sergeant grinned, he had to prepare for his....guest of honor.

Forte had somehow managed to watch the battle from beginning to end, her upset stomach somehow not enough to make her turn away from the traumatizing sight of the many deaths from both sides. Sinking back down behind the cans in an attempt to escape the smell of freshly-spilled blood, she tried to gather her thoughts and recover from what she had just witnessed, yet again unaware of the fact that she had been seen and even less so that she was a criminal suspect due to some bad luck.

The stress placed on her caused her horn to spark up again and give her another aura vision of a random direction. Seeing a few hazy griffon auras through the wall of the home nearby, she simply thought they were resting after the battle she had just watched and didn't do anything about them. She slowly stood back up onto her hooves after a moment, slowly trotting towards the window that led to her room and peeking inside with her forelegs on the sill to make sure her parents hadn't discovered that she was gone.

Spotting the filly spy moving out of the hiding place she had been in during the battle, now trying to slip away into a nearby window sill. The three griffons tasked by Zanhorn landed near Forte. "Now where do you think you're going little pony?" one of the soldiers asked, picking up the unicorn by her hindlegs, lifting up the filly so the two were face to face. "You know its not nice to spy on others, little one, especially those that are, much bigger and stronger than anyone in your scum of a country."

Forte jumped in her place as the griffons landed behind her, turning around just in time to see the claw coming towards her. Dangling from the air, she nervously stared into the eyes of the officer, her forelegs simply dangling towards the ground. "I-I wasn't spying on anypony..." She replied quietly, her fear clear in her voice while she made no effort to struggle against the much stronger griffon. "I just looked to see what was going on..."

"Oh yes, of course you weren't spying, you were just sightseeing that entirely explains why the Equestrians somehow knew where to attack us, and catch us off guard." The griffon lowered his face closer to Forte's "I lost friends in that fight, watched them get brutally crushed by your kind, and I won't simply stand here and listen to the cowardly pleas of a rat as she tries to scurry away the instant she's discovered. You are coming with me."

Spreading his wings, the trio shot into the air, each with a powerful flap of their wings, directing their path, back towards the abandoned building their sergeant had went into. Zanhorn wanted this one, he wanted her alive, and none of them wanted to even begin to imagine what he would do to her.

Forte blinked her eyes a few times as she let the comments from the griffon sink into her mind. Her eyes grew wide, pupils shrinking down once the realization of how serious the moment was hit her. She closed her eyes once the griffon holding onto her took to the air, not having the courage to watch the ground pass by below her. "I-I really was... I d-don't know anything about what happened...!" She replied in a loud whine while dangling in the air. "P-please don't hurt me...!"

Landing outside the abandoned house, the three gryphons could only laugh at the filly's comment. "Oh don't worry we're not going to hurt you little one. No, as much as we want to, we were ordered to just bring you here." Opening the door, the griffon holding Forte carried her to a door way. The room beyond was stripped bare, leaving only the wooden floorboards, splotches of discoloration dotting the floor, and four walls, similarly streaks ran down the walls. "Zanhorn, however," the griffon began to chuckle, "I can't guarantee." With a swing of his arm, the griffon hurled Forte into the room. Laughing as they slammed the door shut. Locking it from the outside.

Watching the trio throw the filly inside, Sergeant Zanhorn gave a crooked grin. Of all the things he enjoyed most in the military, this had to be it. Locked in a room with his target, all he needed to do was get information or punish those that had gone against him. No stipulations, no rules or red tape in his way. All he needed to do was get results. "Well, look who we have here, its our little filly friend from the alley. Tell me filly whats your name, and why were you watching my men and myself?"

Forte let a whine escape her as she was hurled through the air, wincing from the impact to the floor that caused her a slight scrape on one of her legs. Shakily standing up, she nervously looked at the large griffon before her, shrinking down slightly out of fear. "I-I'm Forte...Sun and...I was just curious about...what was going on..." She said quietly, struggling to keep her sentence from falling apart as she let the words pass her lips. "I always hear the...fighting going on...so sometimes I just want to see...what's happening..."

"So this isn't the first time you've come to watch me and my soldiers then Forte Sun?" Zanhorn moved closer to the filly, his words laced with venom. "Now why do you want to watch the fighting, if you were smart you'd have run away fled this place like all the others, and let the ponies and my griffons fight to a bloody bitter end, but you didn't you stayed. Stayed and watched, and look at what that watching has gotten you know. Locked in a room with a very mad griffon." Grabbing the filly Zanhorn lifted her up so he could see her face to face. "Was watching really worth all this?"

Forte didn't struggle against the grip she knew she wouldn't be able to free herself from, staring into the griffon's angry eyes with a fearful expression. "M-my family stayed...in our home... They never let me leave my room...so I g-get curious..." She replied quietly as she slightly shook in her fear. "P-please... I never told anypony about anything I saw... I just always climbed back into my room and stayed quiet..."

Zanhorn's grin widened as he slammed the filly in his grasp against the nearest wall. "You see at this point, it doesn't matter if you told anyone, if you didn't, and just silently slipped back into your house. Do you know why that is?" the griffon asked rhetorically, putting a single claw to Forte's face, making a small incision, as he moved it downward, "because you are now in my claws, and if I let you leave here, unscathed? Well that would not only kill moral for my men, but word might spread that I might have a soft spot. I can't let that happen now can I. even that is not the biggest factor. How can I possibly believe you? For all I know you've said this story time and time again, that even you believe it."

Placing yet another claw along the first cut, Zanhorn dug deeper this time dragging it, opening the wound further, "No no, I'm just going to cut my loses, and make sure you never do your little watching one....last ....time."

Forte winced as the claw slowly cut along her cheek, blood starting to stain her teal coat red as tears quickly filled her eyes from the pain. "I-I promise I won't let...a-anypony know that you l-let me...go..." She replied in a weak voice, eyes widening as she let a quiet scream of pain escape from the slowly growing wound on her face, her teeth eventually becoming visible through the small hole in the thin flesh of her cheek.

The pleading, it was like music, the moment when his prey knew that they had no real means of escape, and for some would give up nearly everything just to get away. It was this moment that Zanhorn truly saw who a person was, he had seen some that were brave, the very notion of pleading for their own safety probably never even crossed their mind. Those weren't ever any fun. Then others, others he had seen breakdown and beg. Those individuals were what really made this part of the job worth it.

"Oh shh shh shh don't cry little Forte, don't cry. I'm going to let you go. I won't even care if anypony knows that I did." Slackening his grip, the griffon lowered the filly to the ground, putting on a sincere smile. "All I need from you, is a little compensation!" Just as quickly as his smile appeared it faded as the Sergeant gripped around the filly's eye forcing it open as reached with his other claw, digging into the pony's eye socket, getting a firm grasp around Forte's left eye, Zanhorn gave a quick tug, severing the optical nerve, parting the eye from its host, leaving a bloody mess in the now empty socket.

Forte fell to the ground with a slight thump as the grip holding her to the wall was lifted. For one short moment, she began to feel relief after the words, only to have her muscles tense back up and lock her in place as the claw took its spot on her face around her eye. Her gaze locked onto the claw as it slowly approached her left eye.

She tried to plead for the griffon to stop, but it was too late. The claw made its way into her eye socket and behind the organ of sight, forcing a horrid shriek of pain to leave her lips. Her screams of pain and horror only grew in intensity as her eye was violently torn from her body, forcing half of her field of vision to go black. Collapsing onto her side, the filly was unable to make as she fell into a state of shock and pain, blood slowly running down from her empty socket and staining her coat red.

"Oh, don't you go blacking out on me already. That was only half the fun!" Zanhorn smiled as he moved his claws over to Forte's right eye. Forcing the lids open, the griffon dug his claws around the eye ball. Removing it from the socket, much more carefully this time, pulling till the optical nerve went taught.

Eye in claw, the griffon calmly grinned at it. "Well my dear, it looks like your watching days...are over wouldn't you say? Actually there's one last thing you should see." pointing the pupil back towards Forte herself, the sergeant chuckled, "See that, little Forte, thats what happens to those that go against me and my griffons. Whether you were a spy or not. It doesn't matter anymore. So, I guess, he's looking at you. Bwahahahahahah" bursting out laughing at his own joke, the griffon gave one stiff tug. Severing the nerve.

Looking at the now useless eye, seeing the dying pupil stare back at him, Zanhorn shrugged, tossing the eye into his mouth. Savoring the taste. Swallowing his snack, the sergeant looked to the bleeding Forte, "There we go, now all is forgiven."

Forte was unable to move to fight the incoming claw in any way as pain and fear paralyzed her. The claw slowly made its way into her eye socket and around her eye, causing another horrible scream to leave her mouth. Her eye was pulled from her skull, but she was still able to see from it, the horror that was the griffon's face filling her view. She gained a faint taste of blood in her mouth as the dribbling fluids from her eye socked made their way down her face.

Her field of view was forcibly changed by the griffon holding onto her eye... she was now staring at herself. The mix of pain and horror of seeing her own condition made her stomach react, ejected the lunch she had eaten previously onto the floor in front of her. One last pain-filled scream filled the room as her eye was torn from its connection to her head. The filly fell to the floor, unable to see, but still filled with the pain in her now empty sockets as she instinctively closed her eyelids to hide the damage that had been done.

Seeing the filly in such immense pain and terror, the little girls blood and bile, dripping and making pool on the ground. Yet another stain to record his numerous works. It made Zanhorn grin with pride, her once teal face now stained red. He had certainly done a good job on this one. Watching the unicorn close her eyes, the sergeant scowled, trying to hide the fine work he had just done. "Oh no no no, Little Forte, you don't get to hide yourself that easily."

Reaching to the filly, once more, Zanhorn held Forte's eyelids shut. "No the ponies around you will see what you are, and all your...brilliance. Ponies will remember you forever. I'll make sure of that." Moving a claw from lid to lid, slicing the small pieces of flesh off one at a time, tossing them away before moving onto the next. "You should thank me, in a way I'm going to be making you famous." Slicing the last eye lid away, Zanhorn let go of Forte again. "There, we go, all done. That wasn't too bad now was it?" the griffon grinned. Truly this was one of his masterpieces.

Forte flinched as the unseen claw grabbed onto her once again, an expression of pure terror clear across her lips as she was unable to see what was going on. Whimpers and sounds of pain escaped her once more as the claw sliced away at the thin flesh of her eyelids. The filly collapsed down onto the floor once again, unable to speak back to the griffon in her state of shock, simply laying on the cold floor, breathing rough and erratic as her body struggled to cope with what it had just experienced.

A few small dribbles of drool escaped past her lips as she laid still, mixing with the blood that had pooled below her. Her legs twitched every so often as she was left alone, silence filling the room around her.

His work done, Sergeant Zanhorn looked to what was left of the pony at his feet. On ground, the pool of blood around her continuing to grow. "Well then, I think our little meeting is over don't you think Forte?" Picking up the filly by her throat, the griffon walked outside, a thin trail of blood following.

Once outside, the griffon opened his wings, springing into the air with power flaps. Reaching the appropriate altitude, the sergeant headed towards where the Equestrians had retreated to. Flying towards a thin line of smoke in the distance.

Coming to a stop in front of the pony encampment, Zanhorn grinned, the ponies were making some sort of meal, completely unaware of his presence up above them. Tossing the filly in his claws, the sergeant grinned if they needed some form of sign how dedicated he and those under his command were, this would definitely be it.

Turning away, the griffon could only imagine what their reaction would be once seeing the filly. The griffon burst out laughing just imagining if their was actually family in that camp oh how wonderful that would be.

Forte's horn sparked lightly as she was picked up, her mind's eye quietly showing her that they were leaving the building for some other location. Unable to do much, she simply hung from the claw while trying her best to breath from her squeezed throat. Her weakness forced her spell to end as a large group of pony-shaped auras appeared, taking too much energy to keep it up in her state.

Before she knew what was going on, she impacted the hard ground. A flurry of voices was the last thing she heard before she passed out and lost what was left of her senses.