>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.