Equestrians Veterans Society

I glanced at the clock hanging from the wall on the far side of the room. The other members of the group milled about near the food table, they picked from the assorted fruits, vegetables, drinks, and assorted meats that had been provided for the group.

I clapped my hands together. “Alright people, let’s get this meeting started.’ I pointed to the griffon that was currently stuffing his beak with the ham and sliced roast beef that was piled high on his plate, causing him to squawk in surprise. “You, you’re up.”

The griffon glared back at me, “I’ve got a name, you bipedal fuck! It’s Eagle Eyes.”

“Oh you want to be a fucking dickhead? Okay! You’re still up, jackass.” I shot him a dirty look and walked back to my seat..

Everyone shuffled over to the ring of chairs and found their seats. The griffon was last to take his seat after grabbing one last quick hand-full of meat. “It’s sorta of a two parter.”

He wilted in his chair and brought his talons chair and began to tap his chair, “I was working in a Disaster Relief Unit on the outskirts of the Griffon Kingdom a few years back. There was a dragon attack that was real bad. I thought I was finally over it after I moved the Equestria. I started working in the shipping yards of Manehatten. About a month or so back I was unlucky enough to discovery a smugglers crate with six griffon bodies in it.” After mentioning it his feathers drooped further.

He heaved a heavy sigh “The bodies had been there for some time, they had died of starvation but not before they tried to cannibalize each other. The bodies were riddled with beak and talon wounds. Blood was caked on the interior of the container.”

The Sergeant’s dark sapphire eyes fell into the familiar thousand yard stare. With a slight shudder he continued, “The smell of the bodies reminded me of the aftermath of the dragon attack, everything that I had thought I had gotten over had come back in force, I was having nightmares, I was seeing the bodies every time I closed my eyes. I could hear the voices and screams....”

***

“So Captain, what’s the situation we are looking forward to?” I yelled to the leader of the group over the roaring winds as we flew towards the pillars of smoke and orange glow rising from the village in the distance.

Upon hearing my question, Captain Windshear motioned for the unit to land just outside the village in a clearing. “Alright boys,” he started “according to the reports a dragon launched an attack on this town not too long ago, so we need to move quickly, but stay on guard, it may still be lurking around.”

He pulled a broken feather off his head and let it drop down onto the dark crag below our feet. “I want a full search done on the village, no stone unturned!!” he continued “You all know what to do! We are to evacuate all that are left, those that can’t walk will be flown to the designated area for medical treatment. Move out!” He dug his talons into the rock under us and lifted himself back into the air.

With that our group moved on to the village, half of us took to the air while the others stayed on the ground and fanned out to search the outskirts. I was surprised that any of the buildings were left standing after what I can only imagine was and attack from a full grown dragon.

As my team approached the village. A black haze rose from varying parts of the village as bits of buildings crumbled, no longer able to support their own weight. The half built brick road under my feet grew warmer and warmer as the cropped down village popped up over a small rise, I could feel the soles of my boots trying to melt to the ground as I walked slowly onward. Charcoal black buildings soon came into focus as we neared the town.

The place was coated in ash. It clung to everything from the dirt to the rock to the stone ruins of what once were homes and shops. The smell of murky ash hung about with such a heat behind it that one could only stare for so long before your eyes started to water.. As I walked deeper into the village, dark outlines of griffons were etched into the walls, grim silhouettes left after being cooked alive.. Some buildings were still ablaze with bright red fires that sent yet more dark black smoke into the air..

I started my search with what use to be an inn, the sign still swinging briskly away from the center of the village. I walked through the charred door and saw nothing but the charred remains of once good citizens. I could almost make out what they were doing in their final moments, some with empty half melted metal steins set in front of them while others were embracing those that they cared for what would inevitably be one last time. Only charred remains and ash were my company throughout that particular search. The bodies were slowly falling to piles of ash and charcoal. Beaks retained the expressions of the dying as they crumbled to dust.. I left the building as soon as I was sure everyone was dead. I had to keep going, my stomach wouldn’t let me stay much longer.

Next on the list of places to search the town forge. I hurried through the broiled streets and towards the stone workshop. The forge was no better off than the Inn, the charred remains of my fellows as they attempted to hide from the flames were tossed against the iron plates they’d been working on. Some who’d hid were flash fried by the sheets turn fry pans and left burned but not charred.. I turned away from the quiet dead as they roasted where they’d fallen. My heart sank deeper into my chest as I felt my talons start to ache from the constant heat.

As I walked around, looking among the bodies of the griffons for survivors, the smell began to hit me harder. The smell of burnt feathers and flesh was heavy as I made my way to the last place on my list to search in the town, the orphanage. The building looked mostly intact, appearing to be made of mostly stone, several of the windows were blown out and the front pillars were radiating a sweat inducing amount of heat. I walked up to the door and pushed it open. A large plume of smoke and steam blew past me, burning my eyes as it went. I covered my face as the room opened up to a large flat space with yet more dead strewn about. The wooden timbers that made up the floor were dashed and left to smolder, but the smell of dampened wood ash was a welcome change from the usual stink of cooked feathers. Bodies looked like they had been steamed and boiled. Feathers were falling off the bright red bodies as a rattling pipe overhead explained the humidity..

I could hear a faint moaning coming from the back of the building. I ran to the back pushing doors open in a desperate attempt to find what I hoped to be a survivor.

I made it to the back of the building, and into a small side room before I found the soul survivor. In the corner of the empty storeroom was a small griffon chick, buried underneath a pile of flash boiled bodies. I fell back on what they’d told me. Find survivors, and get them out.

“Imperial Relief. Can you speak?” I asked loudly as I approached the wailing mass of cooked griffon.

“Please,” the voice begged from underneath the pile. “I’m scared and don’t know where my parents are, you have to help me get to them!”

As I walked through the damp timbers I felt a needle rip from my lung to my stomach. Not only bodies, but children piled into a corner and under one of the staff, its jacket still steaming. The jacketed corpse had taken the brunt from the flash of boiling water, but beyond it I could see where the room had been flushed and the survivors on the outside of the huddle had been scorched until their backs were bare and their coat was so frail it could be dusted away with the lightest touch.

But beyond it all, a single griffon chick, bright red and stripped of fur and feathers, sat within the huddle. Shielded from the brunt, but still kissed by steam. The color of her feathers had been stolen from her, the skin laid bare was starting to tighten up under the heat, and her eyes were starting to forcibly draw together.

The child looked up to me as I move closer, talon outstretched. “Please, my parents dropped me off not long ago, can you please find them? I really want to go home.” She whimpered meagerly and tried to pull herself free of the huddle. “Please, I just wanna go home. I just wanna go home and have some water.”

I stared down at the boiled girl., I could only say one thing to the tiny creature. “It’s ok now sweetie. Just gotta get you fixed up first and then we’ll look for your parents and get you home.” I did it for me, I did it for my stomach, and I did it to ease away the nights ahead. Her talons were hot to the touch, and the soft cooked feeling of the dead surrounding her shot through the muscles in my talons, burying themselves deep forever. A permanent knot wedged into my shoulder as I plucked the half burned girl from the group. “We’ll get you home, I promise.”

***

The griffon clasped his talons together with a silent snap. “They’d started mining in that town.” The room shifted uneasily as I sat unphased. “They ripped into a cave a dragon was hoarding in and didn’t report it. They just took what they wanted.” He dug his claws into his feathers and forced them back. The haggard look in his eyes never faltered.

I nodded once. “The kid?”

The griffon played with his beak a bit. “Gone.” The room went silent. “Not...dead, gone home.” He rubbed his face. “I fucking hate it. They put her back in the system. Her feathers are never coming back, and she’s never going to go to a decent home! And they just threw her back, homeless and alone!”

I nodded. “And? That’s how life works sometimes--”

“It fucking shouldn’t be!” The griffon stood up and kicked his chair backwards. He reared up on two legs and bared his talons. “You think it’s funny? You think I could have said anything!?”

I spread my legs, subtly asserting myself to the hopped up griffon. “Well, you can do something about it if you want.” I ran my hand over my neck. “I was on a burn crew, and you don’t find reason or right in it.” I shook my head and reached under my chair. “I actually bothered to bring this, and a few from Celestia.” I flipped through the notebook I’d pulled from under my chair and looked through it. “Burning pony hair smells like… that’s from Celestia….” I flipped through the papers. “Move on, written about thirty times by me. That was a fun day.” I scratched my head.

The griffon scratched his throat. “So what, I don’t get what you’re doing. You trying to tell me to move on?! I did try, I’m trying--”

“No.” I closed the notes and set them down before the circle of Equestrians. “I’m saying that if you don’t, you never get past it. You can’t rationalize, you can’t make it right, you can’t say you did everything you could have, and especially not you--”

“Whoa hey--” The saddle Arabian stuck her hoof out.

I shook my head. “No, it’s pretty clear you didn’t do everything you wanted to do. And it seems pretty clear you still can.” I crossed my arms and let the clock tick on. “...You don’t get over it while thinking about it.”

The griffon’s feathers puffed out hard before he sat down and slowly returned to normal size. “It wasn’t just her.” He rubbed his face. “The smell...I keep looking back and that smell…. After so long you get-- Not used to it, you get hungry.” He looked over to the table full of food. “That smell shouldn’t make you hungry, but you start thinking back and your mouth starts to water--”

“You’re distracting yourself.” I crossed my legs and looked back to the clock. Time was almost up. “Put your mind somewhere positive, have something to work for or with, and you’ll stop eating.” I pointed to my head. “Celestia, this, staying fit.” I raised my fingers. “The men I’ve killed, the people I’ve lost, the times I’ve fucked up.” I stood up and folded my chair. “You find things to make it go away, it doesn’t just go away on its own, and it seems like you have the perfect start right in front of you.” I watched as everyone got up, save the griffon. “Same time next week.”

I walked across the small circle and looked dead on with the sour faced bird. “I don’t want to see you back here next week.” I kept my voice very calm. “Come back in two weeks, sorted or not, come back in two weeks.” I jostled his shoulder and walked past. “And its not that hard. Especially after they’re babies. You don’t have to worry about them killing themselves, it gets a lot simpler.”