“Is the widdle puppy hungry? Who’s a cutesy wutesy? You are, yes you are!”

Gilda rolled her eyes as she clung to a tree branch, timber wolves all around them. “Bat pony” She said, faceclawing “Stop baby talking the wolves for ancestor’s sake!”

Night looked over to her from her branch, chuckling at Cloud who was holding desperately to his branch. Unfortunately for the three, the wooden wolves were not deterred when Night growled threateningly at them, and they chased the group no less than ten miles before Cloud had the genius idea to climb a tree.

Trying to fly in the dense jungle was impossible and the attempts were hilarious and painful to behold but that is a different story for a different time.

“But they’re so cute!” The batmare said as she cooed at the wolves, each taking turns trying to jump high enough to knock her out of the tree. “I could just eat them up!”

Cloud would have rolled his eyes if he wasn’t a three inch jumping distance of getting bit in the ass. “G-gilda, try s-scaring t-tt-them away.” He yelped as a wolf got particularly close.

Nodding the griffin sucked in as much air as she could, and then released one of the loudest eagle cries that either pony had ever heard; in fact if he wasn’t using both hooves to hold on for dear life, Cloud would have jammed them into his ears.

As impressive as the display was, all that Gilda got was a bemused glance from the timber wolves, most of which had given up trying to get at Night and Gilda and instead were trying to jump up at the white Pegasus, who if he was of sound mind would have just lifted himself a little more onto the next branch and to safety.

If either of Cloud’s team members were concerned about his well-being they hid it very well, ignoring him as they threw ideas back and forth on how to get out of this mess.

“We could try to make a fire, Timber wolves hate fire right? We could just wack a couple of the suckers with a flaming stick.”

“We don’t have anything to start a fire with.”

“Good point, maybe we could-”

“SWEET CELESTIA IT”S GOING TO BUCKING EAT ME!!!!!!”

“Cloud would you please be quiet, we’re trying to think out a way to get the wooden mutts to leave us alone. Jeeze, talk about no manners.”

Before they could continue, the two ladies saw a bright light coming toward them. Gilda squinted at the ball of light. “What is that?”

Night almost fell out of her tree trying to get a better look. “I don’t know, one of those willow thingies?”

“You mean will-o-wisp?”

“Gesundheit.”

Gilda rolled her eyes as the light got brighter. Some of the wolves were now smelling the air, some of them whimpering in fear, and some in anger. Gilda’s straining ears picked up the faint clinking of hooves hitting the ground.

“Is that a pony?” She asked as the light almost got within range of being able to see what the ball of light was. The traces of a unicorn could be seen as his or her’s shadow danced as the flame was near it flickered.

It must be another one of the soldiers Gilda thought as the unicorn got closer I wonder why they’re all alone? The closer they got the more they could see of what was now clearly a male, his broad shoulders and bigger height a clear sign of his gender.

“Over here mystery pony, over here! WOOOO HOOO! ” Night yelled, waving her hooves around in the unnecessary attempt to get the pony to assist them.

“Begone foul demons!” The mystery pony yelled, his voice deep and filled with power. Stamping a hoof into the ground his horn glowed, his fire by his side becoming far bigger and floating over to the now panicked timber wolves, who yelped in terror and pain when the fire hit them, the burning wolves rapidly fleeing the scene.

The fire died down and the three got a good look at the stallion, who was none other than Shining Armor.

Finally free to get go of the tree branch Cloud fell into a rather painful thorn bush, but he didn’t care, he was alive! Crawling over to Shining Cloud started to kiss his hooves in gratitude.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” Cloud said between kisses as Gilda and Night rolled their eyes and flew down toward the ex-captain.

“How’s it going Cappy? Say, Could you get a fire started? I’m freezing my flank off here.” Shining looked at her and chuckled, using his magic to grab firewood; with a simple fire spell the group was warm and toasty.

As the now group of four got ready for the night Cloud looked over at his captain. “Sir” He said “Weren’t you in a group like we were when you woke up?”

Shining’s chest puffed out in pride. “No I was alone; Forge must think I’m strong enough to survive the forest alone.” What the Captain didn’t know was that he was solely in a group of one because there was no one else to put with him and Forge didn’t want a group of 4.

“I was heading to Canterlot and saw you three were in trouble so I thought I’d lend a hand. By the way Cloud, you don’t have to call me sir; I’m not a Captain anymore.” Shining said, hanging his head in shame.

NightWing looked at him and chuckled. “You’re still a Captain, silly.” She said. The others looked at her strangely.

“What are you talking about Night?” Gilda said. “I heard that that big human fired him.”

Night just chuckled again. “Forge is the same rank as you silly, I’m pretty sure the only one that can fire you is one of the princesses… or a general, do we even have general’s?”

Her question was ignored by the three, Gilda tried not to laugh at Shining’s stupidity while the captain tried to wrap his head around what he had heard, Cloud was thinking about the humans, ignoring his Captains mistake.

“Speaking of Captain Forge” Cloud said “What do you think he’s going to make us do after we we get to Canterlot?”

Night snorted this time. “He’s not even going to be in Canterlot.” Again all of the attention was on her.

Gilda faceclawed (I don’t fucking know...) “And you know this how?...”

Night looked sheepishly at her. “You remember when we were on patrol duty and I said I was going to the bathroom?”

Gilda gave her a sour look. “Ya, you didn’t come back for two hours.”

Night nodded vigorously “Ya! Anyway when I got out of the bathroom I heard Longstrider and Reaper talking so I kinda….. overheard their conversation.”

“You were spying on them?”

“No, I overheard the conversation.”

“Without them knowing?”

“Yep”

“That’s spying!”

Cloud shook his head at the arguing ladies and looked over to his captain, who looked like he was broken, his eye twitching and his mane wild. Cautiously he leaned over and poked Shining.

“Captain?” He said, his voice uncertain. “Are you alright?”

His eye twitching dangerously, Shining said, “Yep, never better! I’ve just found out that I’m Captain after I told my whole family that I was demoted. I’m just dandy Hahahaha! I’m going to sleep now!” With that Shining laid down and left Cloud mildly scared for his safety.

Turning back to the girls he saw that they still hadn’t finished their argument. Rubbing his temples Cloud decided to stop the argument. “Night, since you overheard what they said did they we get to Canterlot?”

Night stopped yelling at Gilda and pondered the question. “Hmmm. They really didn’t get into specifics, but there was something about chasing the Sergeant for some reason.” Shrugging the mare yawned. “Well I’m pooped, good night everypony!” Just like Shining as soon as her head hit the ground she was quietly snoring, leaving Cloud and Gilda awake.

Gilda sighed. “I’ll take the first watch; I’ll wake you up in a few hours.”

Nodding, Cloud tried to find a comfortable position as he quietly drifted off to dreamland. After she heard his quiet snore, Gilda looked up at the star-filled night sky, wishing on every one that some of her fellow griffin soldiers would find her so she could leave the crazy three behind.

I’m not that lucky Gilda thought as she watched Night roll over in her sleep, getting close enough to Cloud so that she could wrap her hooves around him. Gilda quietly chuckled as they both let out sighs of content at finding something to keep them warm.

If Gilda was honest with herself she was growing rather fond of Night and Cloud, they were the craziness that she needed in her life… Not that she would ever tell them that. Looking back up at the sky she sighed for the thousandth time that night.

“I wonder how Tomorrow is going to go down. It really couldn’t get worse, right?”

Easily, if the author has anything to say about it….

As Celestia’s sun crept over the horizon, its rays broke through Everfree’s thick canopy, CloudSkipper began to wake up. To his surprise he didn’t wake up cold and sore, he was nice and warm, like someone had thrown a heavy blanket over him.

As he finally opened his eyes it took his sleepy brain a few seconds to comprehend the multitude of things that he was seeing.

One: He actually was in the Everfree forest; he hadn’t dreamed it all up.

Two: That heavy warm blanket was actually a sleeping Manticore.

Needless to say if he wasn’t so scared the moment that his brain recognized that he was trapped under a four ton monster he would have shit his pants.

…if he wore pants.

Frantically looking around he saw that the others were perfectly alright, each of them curled up fast asleep. If Cloud wasn’t in the position that he was at the moment then he would have made a joke about ruining someone’s morning.

“Shining! Captain!” He hissed as the Manticore shifted around to find a better position, almost engulfing the poor private. Thankfully for him his Captain was beginning to stir, eventually giving a great yawn and sitting up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Alright everypony” The Captain said, a bit too loud for Cloud’s taste “Time to get up and move out!” The other two started up stir as Shining looked over to where Cloud was.

“Private, I need you to-” He stopped when he saw a terror-stricken underneath a monster. Both of the stallions looked at each other for a good minute, neither blinking.

It was Cloud who broke the silence.

“H-help m-me.” He whispered as the Manticore growled in its sleep, wrapping its paws around the Pegasus.

10 minutes later…

“It’s a she and she’s in heat.” Gilda whispered as she looked over the animal. “She must want a good rut from you Cloud.” NightWing was over to the side with Shining, trying, and failing, to suppress her giggles.

“See Cloud!” The bat mare said “I knew that you’d find a special somepony.” If Cloud wasn’t so scared at the moment he would have thought of a clever retort..

“Captain can’t you just lift this thing off me?” cloud begged, almost crying when Shining shook his head.

“Can’t, it weighs too much, we just need to get it to move on its own without waking it up.”

“And just how are we going to do that?” Gilda asked as the Manticore nuzzled cloud and gave him a lick, coating him in saliva.

The three free ponies/griffin pondered what they could do to free their fellow soldier. Surprisingly Night was the one to come up with an idea.

“I got it!” She quietly yelled as she trotted over to Gilda “Gilda I need one of your feathers.” Without waiting for an answer, she ripped out a feather and trotted over to Cloud as Gilda hissed in pain and surprise. Getting face-to-face with the Manticore she looked over it, a thoughtful expression on her face.

A look of realization on Gilda’s face as the bat mare took the feather in her mouth and started to tickle the beast’s nose. At first nothing happened, but after a minute the Manticore’s nose started to twitch. Not long after that one of its paws lashed out, trying to bat away its tickling tormentor. Luckily for Night it swung high or she would have lost her head.

Now cautious, Night kept it up, dodging the monsters random swipes as it started to rock back and forth. Finally, to everyone’s relief, the Manticore rolled off Cloud to get away from the tickling, freeing him.

“Thank Celestia that that’s over.” Cloud happily said, ruffling his feathers as he cracked his neck.

Shining gave a sigh of relief and smiled. “Good work NightWing, now come on everypony, let’s get to Canterlot.” Nodding, the other started walking in the capital’s general direction when tragedy struck. As he took a careless step Cloud snapped a twig, that twig making probably the loudest sounds that the party had ever heard.

SNAP!

The Manticore shifted in its sleep, everyone froze as it sat up and yawned, providing a good look at its enormous teeth. Looking around the Manticore (whose name is actually Saquifa) saw that her soon-to-be fuck buddy was no longer in her grasp.

She also saw that there were some tasty critters around, so looks like she’s getting a dinner and a ‘show’. All she had to do was catch them.

The ponies watched as the manticore got into a crouching position, a deep growl leaving its throat. Looking at each other Gilda gulped and shakily said, “Aw buck…”

45 minutes later…

Luckily for the group, Canterlot was almost within reach. Now all they had to do was get rid of the giant Manticore.

“Just buck her already Cloud! Sacrifice yourself for the good of the squad!”

“Buck you NightWing!”

“No not me! Her!”

As they reached a clearing Shining stopped and spun around, his horn glowing. “Enough running! We make our stand here!”

“Ya!” Gilda said, flaring her wings and letting out a cry, the Manticore stopping and watched the new situation unfold. The pegasi looked at each other and nodded, heartened by their fellows bravery as they flared their wings too at the amused lioness.

Saquifa almost yawned as she watched her prey and fuck buddy practically giving up. She knew that she was a lot bigger and stronger than those ones with wings but she had to watch the one with the horn, those ponies were dangerous.

As the lioness thought over her strategy the squad attacked, Shining sent a blast at her as Gilda charged toward the behemoth and Cloud and Night tried to flank her. If she could Saquifa would have rolled her eyes. With a simple sidestep the spell missed and the griffin smacked into her; for Gilda it was like hitting a brick wall as she staggered to move her far heavier opponent at all.

With a simple flick of her paw the griffin was thrown through the air into Shining, dazing both of them as they laid in the dirt. Before either Night or Cloud could even touch her Saquifa took to the air with a single flap of her mighty wings, inertia made the pegasi unable to get out of each other’s way and they collided.

Landing back into the ground the lioness looked over her handy work, all of her foes on the ground and ready to be dealt with. But as she lifted a paw to walk over to claim her prizes she and the fallen squad heard something wiz through the air. Not a second later the ponies and griffins heard the lioness roar in pain as an arrow pierced through her paw.

“Go back into the woods kitty if you know what’s good for you.” They heard a voice calmly say, the speaker none other than Longstrider, who was a good 30 feet away with another arrow already notched and pointed at the Manticore.

“Strider it’s good to see you!” Cloud happily said as he finally untangled himself from Night.

Longstrider smirked. “You’re the last group to show up, but you didn’t bring out the biggest surprise; Reaper’s still dealing with a hydra that another group pissed off. Now back to you puss and boots.” He said, turning toward the lion, “As much as I’d love to shoot you the ponies up in Canterlot wouldn’t let me cook you in their capital so I’d rather not, so just get moseying back into the forest.”

The Manticore used her mouth to take out the arrow whimpering at her bad luck. The lioness was not a stupid animal, she knew a suicide mission when she saw one. So it was with deep regret that she started back into the forest, giving one last passing glance a Cloud’s flank before disappearing in the brush.

The squad let out the breaths they did not know that they were holding as Longstrider put away his bow. Clasping his hands together and grinning at the group, Longstrider said, “Well, now that the fun’s over, let’s trot up to the ol’ capital city.”

Night stretched with a smile in her face, bones popping in her back. “I can’t wait to get back to the barracks to get some shuteye.” The others murmured in agreement as the human stopped and turned to then, an evil grin plastered on his face.

“Who says you’re getting any sleep? This is the last leg of your training, Forgey wouldn’t be happy if Reaper and I went easy on you.”

“What is the Captain doing anyway that he couldn’t be up here himself?” Gilda asked as they made it through Canterlot’s main gate.

****

Forge and Vinyl were in a heated staring contest, Forge trying to break the mare with his gaze. They and the other girls were locked in a heated battle of sorts that had lasted from morning long into the evening, until the only ones that had any chance of winning were the blacksmith and the DJ.

Forge had to admit that Vinyl was a worthy opponent in this preverbal war, she had tricked him more than once and it was only by a lot of skill and luck that he wasn’t overwhelmed. Looking deep into the pits of the white mares soul he said, “Vinyl, do you have any sixes?”

Vinyl looked at the cards assembled in her hooves, seeing that she had in fact 3 sixes. Almost breaking her poker face she said, in a voice so monotone that it would impress the Grim Reaper, “Go fish.”

****

“Longstrider looked down at the griffin, shrugging. “I couldn’t tell ya, probably some important Captain stuff….”

And so, over the course of a week the Thanes-in-training went without sleep as they were shown how to excel in urban warfare, how to clear and breach a room with the proficiency of a Navy SEAL, how to pick the criminal out of a crowd during rush hour, and how to properly patrol and protect a city and the citizens that inhabited it.

.

An then they fought a great many battles, earning fame and glo- Opps sorry….Too much Conan...

Now back to the story…

Today was an already odd day for the trainees. For one they were allowed to get about 4 hours of sleep, something that they all did gratefully. Now they were standing at attention in Canterlot castle’s courtyard waiting to be inspected by the princess, Longstrider, Reaper, and the two Captains.

“Atten-tion!” Someone yelled.

The trainees stiffening as the princesses came into view followed by the humans, the griffin, and bat pony. Celestia looked at all of them as they saluted as one, a small smile on her muzzle. Even after the merger time they had gotten to sleep and clean themselves they were still a mess.

The luckiest only had bags under their eyes and a smell similar to rotten garbage; others were cut up pretty badly with ugly bruises that didn’t look more than a few hours old. The most heartwarming thing about the mangy, tired, and beat up group was the fire that they all had in their eyes, it show that their hardships didn’t break them but made them stronger.

The boys did a good job Celestia thought with a giggle as she stood before the guards, waiting for Longstrider to debrief them about their final test.

The human in question stood in front of them group and cleared his throat. “You all have survived everything that we have thrown at you, with every test you have risen to the challenge and became better for it; you all have just one test to complete before you join our brotherhood.” Longstrider snatched the crowns off both Luna’s and Celestia’s heads and tossed them to Reaper, who with a grin dashed out of sight.

Longstrider chuckled at the groups shocked and bewildered expressions. “In three days the Griffin Empress will be arriving here for an official visit with the princesses. This would be all well and good but unfortunately someone stole our royal highnesses crowns and if they aren’t found before the Empress gets here then a national incident might occur.

You all have until three o’clock three days from now to capture the perpetrator and return both of the crowns before all hell breaks loose. Your respective Captains will be leading you, do not fail.”

“SIR YES SIR!”

Longstrider looked up at the sun, trying to judge the time. “Your time starts…. now.”

As chaos erupted by way of troops scrambling around and orders being shouted and ponies running around Longstrider left the courtyard with Luna and Celestia, all three happy at how everything had turned out.

Longstrider turned toward Celestia. “Tia” he said, “Did you get anything from Forge? He has to be busy down there in Ponyville.”

*****

“You drive a hard bargain mister. How about this, if you buy one sofa I’ll throw in a second one for fifty percent off!”

Forges eye twitched. It wasn’t the fact that he was in a shop that only sold quills and sofas that was getting him upset, though he did wonder how the stallion the owned the place stayed in business, much less thrived.

Sure it did cross his mind that the owner, DavenPort, should have had a shop that sold quills and maybe art supplies or sofa and sofa accessories, that’s what any logical business owner would have done. But hey, the stallion was actually succeeding, so more power to the guy.

No, the reason he was ready to throw the stallion out the window was that he had just came to pick a few quills for Chrissy and DavenPort thought it was a good idea to try to sell him a sofa.

Apparently he had never met Forge.

“Look, pony” Forge said, leaning over the counter to get face-to-face with the stallion. “All I want are five goddamn quills; if you try talking me into buying a sofa one more minute I’m going to shove one up your ass. Savvy?”

DavenPort frowned; he was losing a customer, thinking fast he brought out the big guns. With blinding speed the stallion grabbed Forge and led him over to a sofa, a vein bulging on Forge’s forehead.

With as much flourish as he could muster, the stallion said, “You leave me no choice my friend, I can see that you’re a… person of fine taste! This is my finest sofa, made with Arabian silk and lined with Pegasus feathers; it even comes in Minotaur sizes! For you… five hundred bits and I’ll throw a coffee table for free!”

Forger looked down at the smiling stallion, eye twitching dangerously. Leaning down to get eye level he said with a sigh, “What colors does it come in?”

****

Reaper ducked through another alley as Pegasi and griffins flew overhead, trying to spot him and failing horribly. This was the last day for the guards to catch him, so their searches were becoming more frantic.

They weren’t doing a bad job though, for one thing they figured out early that using a sun stone messes up his shadow magic, something that Reaper also didn’t know, the learning experience almost knocked him through a window five stories up. It was also a pain in the ass when they started to ask citizens if they had seen a 6’6 black guy running around.

But thanks to the tight alleys and a labyrinth of back streets and places to hide Reaper had successfully evaded capture. For now anyways.

“There he is!”

The Thane smiled as he panted, tired from today’s chases “and there is the five O.”

Climbing the fire escape and sorta-kinda breaking into a ponies house Reaper watched as no less than thirty guards fly into the alley that he once occupied .

“Where did he go?”

“I just saw him a second ago.”

Reaper pressed himself against a wall as a griffin peered through his window. After a few tense seconds the griffin shrugged and flew away. “It looks like it was nothing.”

The human quietly chuckled to himself. “That was a lot easier-” He frowned; something or someone was poking him on the back. Fucccccck He thought as he turned around, seeing the room was filled with to the brim with bat ponies, with Shadow Walker leading the pack and looking smugly at him, curling a mustache with a hoof.

Reaper gulped. “There are griffins waiting outside for me aren’t there?”

The Captain grinned, showing his fangs. “Yep.”

“And you just wouldn’t let a guy go with a warning right?”

“Nope”

Reaper slumped against the wall, trying to figure out how to get the hell out of this. “Well fuck, I think you guys got me this time.”

Shadow and the other bat ponies brightened hearing that. “Really?”

Now it was time for Reaper to grin. “Nope, you ponies have been talking to a shadow the whole time.” The ponies groaned as the Reaper-lookalike dissipated, they all watched as the real Reaper exited the building and took off down the street.

“After HIM!” Shadow roared as he rubbed his temples from his beginnings of a migraine. At least its daylight, hopefully he can’t do that when the sun’s beating down on him Shadow looked up at a clock in the room and sighed, they only had an hour before the Empress came, he needed to catch that bucking human….

“What are you doing in my house?!” A voice demanded as Shadow turned around and saw a very upset looking mare, who had a frying pan in hoof.

“Wait, I can explain-“

CLANG!

****

Reaper jumped a cart as ponies panicked at the monster and the guards chased him. Gottagetawaygottagetaway he thought as he frantically looked for a way out. All he needed was to prolong this for another hour and then he’d be done.

Dodging a guard that flew at him he kept an eye out for traps. There’s the bat ponies, Pegasi, and griffins, where the fuck’s the earth ponies and unicorns? Reaper thought as he ran into the market square, the group hot on his heels. Unlike the other ponies that had seen him these ponies were looking calmly at him, almost as if they were-

“O shit!” Reaper exclaimed as the trap was sprung, the undercover guards charging him. He tried to escape but he was swarmed on all sides and taken down, lead cuffs placed on him so he couldn’t do anything funny. Steel Wing landed in from of him, throwing him to the ground and patting him down.

Reaper grinned. “At least buy me dinner first.”

Steel ignored him as she continued to look for the crowns. “Where the buck are they….” She squawked in joy as she found the crowns, ripping through his clothing with a flick of her claw as Reaper complained to get to them.

Steel threw Shadow the princess’s items. “Get these to the princesses; we’ve only got thirty minutes left!” Shadow nodded and took off as Reaper was hauled to his feet.

“Fuck the police!” Reaper yelled, replicating a COPS arrest. “You white, racists motherfuckers! I’ll sick the NAACP on you asses you saltine pale skinned- ummmf!”

“Thank you Private Sunshine”, Steel said as Reaper gagged, “I never thought he would shut up.”

****

“Why do I have to be here again Tia?” A grumpy Forge asked as him, Longstrider, and the princesses waited for the griffin empress to come.

Celestia rolled her eyes. “Empress Isbalia wanted to see the prince’s of Equestria.”

“You know that I fucking hate being showed off like some zoo animal.”

Longstrider wrapped an arm around his brother. “Cheer up Forgey” He said to the disgruntled blacksmith “This Isbalia might be a cutie; lord knows that you need to start dating.”

WHAM!

Luna giggled as Longstrider rubbed his arm as Forge looked at his watch; the guards only had about one minute left. Looks like they failed he thought disappointedly well I guess-

“We got it!” someone yelled.

The royal group looked around and saw Shadow barrel down toward them, the crowns in his mouth. He was just in time too; a fancy looking carriage was looming over the horizon. As he landed in front of them Shadow collapsed, clearly exhausted.

“Good job Shadow!” Forge said as he picked up the crowns from the group and wiped the pony spit off of them and putting them on his sister’s heads. “When you recover tell everyone to head back to The Fort.”

Shadow nodded tiredly as the carriage landed. Forge picked up the exhausted stallion and brought him to eye level, “Do you trust me Shadow?”

“What are you-“

As the carriage door opened Forge threw Shadow through an open window, where the bat pony miraculously landed in a bed. Both of the princesses rolled their eyes as Forge shared a look with Longstrider. “Bet you ten bits he landed on something soft.”

The two paused as they heard a feminine yell and then the sound of a pan hitting something hard.

Longstrider looked him over for a second and then nodded. “Deal”

When the carriage fully opened the two humans saw maybe one of the fattest griffins either had even seen walk out, along with a much slimmer and younger looking griffin. Both of the human’s mouths were agape with shock.

“Is that a fucking griffin?”

“Na it can’t be, it must be the other ones pet hippo.”

Celestia’s tail hit both humans on the back of the head. “Shut it!” She hissed “And we’re having a talk about throwing ponies through windows Forge.”

“He couldn’t be seen or it would have looked weird.”

“He could have just flown away!”

“He did fly away! just not under his own power!”

Before the argument could escalate the giant griffin finally waddled over. “Celestia!” The griffin said, wrapping Tia into a crushing hug, lifting the princess off the ground.

Forge looked at Luna confusingly. “Is she getting attacked?”

Luna shook her head no. “No it’s how griffins great each other.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Nopony likes it.”

Dropping Celestia the empress grabbed Luna and did the same for her, the humans backing off from the giant griffin. To his horror Isbalia looked at him. “O you!” She said, her claws outstretched as Forge backed away.

“Nonono” Forge said, trying to get away, but before he could take a step he was grabbed and thrust into the griffin’s feathery bosom.

“Yesyesyes!” Isbalia answered with a slight giggle. “You must be one of those humans!”

“therfeve!” Forge said through the wall of feathers and flesh that was trying to choke him.

“Well nice to meet you sweetie, I’m empress Isbalia of the griffin kingdom.” She dropped a gasping Forge and pointed to the other griffin. “This is my daughter, Teledia.” The griffin looked him over and smiled, offering Forge a claw.

“Charmed Mr. Forger.”

Forge looked over at the now hugged Longstrider. “It’s nice to meet you princess; you’re ma’s really… huggy.”

Teledia giggled. “Mother can be quite a clawful.”

After releasing the now gasping for air Longstrider, the empress stood in front of Forge. “How have my soldier’s been honey?” She said, gently hip-checking Forge, almost knocking him over. “Did you make them super soldier’s like Tia said you would?”

Forge nodded. “Yes ma’am, they’re the best we can make them, in fact they just passed their final test.”

“Good, good!” She looked over at the frazzled Celestia. “Come on Celestia, you can show me and my honey to your rooms. It was nice meeting you boys!”

As she left Luna, Forge, and Longstrider watched as she left, the silence was imminent.

Forge was the one to break it. “Well she was terrifying.” Longstrider nodded as Luna chuckled.

“She really is a handful, we’ll bring her to inspect in a day or two, you guys can leave.” She hugged them both. “Goodbye brothers.”

As the humans left Luna steeled herself to deal with the griffin’s empress, who from this distance could be heard demanding some donuts…

****

The Fort

“You’ve all passed” Forge said to the soldiers, all whom were flush with success. “Tomorrow you’ll get equipped and assigned to whatever you’ll be doing. Just remember fillies and colts” Forge saluted them, a small smile on his face. “It’s been my honor beating the shit out of you lot.” The troops roared in approval as the other humans and Pinkie came in with barrels of alcohol.

“Let’s party!” NightWing shouted as the ponies charged the booze, all of them intent of having a very good time…

****

Carousel Boutique

Rarity tried to finish her latest order as fast as she could to get to that party for all of the soldiers. Maybe I can get Mr. Forge to ask me for a dance she thought with a giggle, adjusting her red rimmed glasses.

“Annnnnd done!” She happily exclaimed, using her magic to carefully put the dress away. “Now it’s time to-” Rarity heard her door being opened. “Hello?”

She was given no answer as she heard somepony, or now that she listened that it wasn’t hoofsteps but footsteps, someone was coming up the stairs. Rarity sighed in relief; it must have been one of the humans coming to escort her to the party. She giggled quietly to herself, trotting to the top of the stairs, her eyes closed as she hummed happily.

“O darling, you didn’-”

She stopped as someone wrapped a hand around her throat and slammed her against the wall. Her eyes shot open when she saw a human that she had never seen before, one with unnerving red eyes.

The human grinned as she struggled in vain to get away and get some sweet, sweet air. Before she blacked out from oxygen deprivation, the human leaned in and whispered in her ear.

“So you’re Generosity?” He cackled in an emotionless voice. “Not much to look at…. Tell me sweetie, do you fear death?”……

Author's Note

New Pre-reader, yay! DracoWrath

Good job with the editing and keep up the good work!

You make us stronger.......

Heh....

heh...