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- >They sense your movement and turn their heads to you, ears perked up.
- >Dash lets out a grin, while AJ immediately starts writing something down on a notepad.
- >Dear lord, you will never understand how they write with their teeth. As she does that
- >Gerard comes out of the medical tent, notices that you’re awake and joins AJ and Dash
- >on the ground. He hands you another triage card this time with a number on it. A very high
- >number, you won’t receive treatment for a long time. Dash says something to Gerard, you
- >can hear the speech, but it’s almost as if your ears are full of water. AJ gives you the note
- >You take it, for handing things over with their mouths earth ponies can keep things
- >surprisingly dry.
- “We all made it through, Fluttershy and Rarity are trying to find some showers. The griffons
- here say that Pinky and Twilight are in their capital and have organized search efforts for
- us.”
- >You hand the note back with a smile, and make a smoking motion to Gerard. He produces
- >a soft pack lights one and hands it to you.
- >The next morning the five of you boarded a supply zeppelin. A rather impressive thing.
- >Since Gerard was no longer assigned to any a unit he was allowed to stick around with you
- >guys. Dash was speaking less, Flutters and Rarity no longer looked you in the eye, AJ was
- >still the only one who still talked to you regularly, and she was beginning to look at you
- >differently as well. You continue to huddle up against the cold, maybe standing on the
- >exterior scaffolds wasn’t such a good idea. Eh, the wind and the cold seem to be conducive
- >to your thoughts right now. Well, the whole gangs alive, the griffon made it back to her
- >lines, what were you living for now? Going back to Ponyville was almost a non-option at
- >this point. You know that no matter how hard you try to convince them otherwise, they
- >will always look at you with concern or hesitation. That’s not something you want to deal
- >with. So what were you still sticking around for? Right, you still have the job of reporting
- >your findings back to the Canterlot crown.
- >The Griffon Republics capital city reminded you of places like Cairo or Istanbul. There’s a
- >large clearing in the middle of the city, you can see the zeppelins landing and taking off.
- >The most striking feature is the wall of griffons, flying low and crowding around the gates.
- >The Zeppelin lands, and your group disembarks. Once you get off the loading ramp, griffon
- >soldiers begin loading munitions and medical supplies. You see a griffon open one of the
- >crates to inspect it, looks like there will be more chlorine gas on the front. Your group is
- >stopped by an officer, the grey feathered griffon holding out a talon to stop you.
- >”Greetings, we are here to escort you to parliament hall. The Griffon Republic would like
- >to extend its deepest apologies for the incident with our ocean minefields.”
- >He was starchy and well spoken, a griffon with orders and no personal investment.
- >”Oh, and you might want to keep this close. Those protestors aren’t happy about the
- >possible pony involvement.”
- >The officer hands you a top break revolver with a couple of speed loaders, you hide it in
- >the small of your back.
- >The officer was right, there’s a whole lot of protestors, and a whole lot of signs against the
- >the Canterlot crown being here. As much as you can tell they view this as none of their
- >business. Especially since they believe that the ponies will side with the minos. Or at least
- >this is what you can gather from the signs the griffons are holding.
- *Equestrians stay in Equestria!*
- *Minos+Ponies=Bad News*
- *The crown’s sticking its hooves where they shouldn’t be.*
- *Our water, our war*
- >You are inclined to agree. The walk is long, and draining, a constant stream of slogans and
- >chants intent on driving you and your group out. You can see Rarity has her head down,
- >trying to hide her face, AJ resolutely looks forward, focused on carrying Flutters and Dash is
- >actually shouting back. You almost make it to the parliament buildings gates, but that’s
- >when the rocks and molotovs come down. They aren’t accurate, but the intent is clear.
- >The Griffon troops at the gate house fire a couple of shots into the air. The mob keeps
- >throwing their projectiles. A griffon soldier in front of you takes a brick right on the head.
- >He drops clutching at his head, a couple of griffons from the mob break forward to take
- >advantage of the new opening. You draw the revolver and level it at them, backing into the
- >opening gates with the rest of the group. They throw their talons up and flap back into the
- >mob. A couple of griffon soldiers run up, rifles drawn, and help the fallen one up.
- >Once you get passed the gates, the mob seems to lose most of its fervor, seeing that their
- >opportunity has passed.
- >The parliament hall is incredibly bland on the outside, tan and rectangular, no thought
- >given to atheistic pleasure. The doors open, yup, there’s Twilight and Pinks. The ponies
- >all run to each other, hugs and enthusiastic exclamations abound. It warms your heart to
- >see them all back together. Gerard leans against your side, he’s considerable shorter than
- >you so he winds up leaning at about gut level.
- >”You do this for them?”
- >This question gives you pause, you don’t really have a clear answer. Yeah, you considered
- >them friends, but a large portion of yourself also just saw this as part of the job.
- “What do you mean?”
- >Gerard frowns.
- >”You helped me with a prison break, you carried the blue one-“
- “Rainbowdash”
- >”…the blue one a quarter way through the desert, and if that wasn’t enough you fought
- >your way through no man’s land on your own to give us an opening”
- >You think about this for a second and open your mouth to speak when a certain purple
- >pony gets your attention by standing herself up on her hind legs and resting the fore legs
- >on your gut.
- >”C’mon, the parliament should be having lunch soon. I want to hear what happened.”
- “What about Gerard?”
- >”When I got the news that they found you and, Gerard was it?”
- >Gerard nods slowly, unsure of how to react in a situation like this.
- >”I managed to get him listed as our ‘cultural advisor’, isn’t that great! It would be fantastic
- >to hear another angle on how you got over the border.”
- >Lunch is flat bread, that’s it, just flat bread.
- >The war effort had really become all encompassing, not that you were really complaining.
- >The ponies were so animated in their talking that you could just sit back, eat your bread
- >and bask in their happiness. It was nice. That was until Twilight asked that damn question.
- >”So, you guys still haven’t answered my question. How did you get over the border? I
- >mean, the griffons found the remains of the ship, but they said the coastal currents would
- >have carried most of you to the minotaur coalition.”
- >Every pony, person, and griffon went silent. Pinky seemed the most surprised by this.
- >”Well it couldn’t be that bad, I mean, you made a new friend after all!”
- >In the end it was AJ who started the story.
- >The conversation was long and drawn out. None of the revelry of old war stories
- >just the flat transcript of what happened. Twilight didn’t believe it, neither did Pinky, who
- >thought was all an elaborate joke. They simply couldn’t believe that things had reached
- >that point.
- “Look, Pinky this is no joke, you think I would cut my ear off for a simple joke.”
- >”M-maybe human ears grow back?”
- “No, no they don’t.”
- >Twilight takes over, seeing a more direct method to end this debate.
- >”Who would be willing to let me perform a memory spell? It’s not as refined as Celestia’s,
- >but it should get the job done.”
- “I’m not sure that would be good for you.”
- >”Nonsense it will be just like watching a film, and… actually. To get a full picture, I would
- >need to do the spell on you too Anon.”
- >Your blood runs cold and your expression freezes, if she had just chosen anypony then
- >maybe she would still see you with those ignorant eyes.
- >In the end AJ volunteered, and you decided to not object, information should never be hidden.
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