Slices of My Life

“Fillies and gentlecolts.” I began, my voice echoing out into the ballroom in which the conference had been staged. “As promised, I have prepared a statement about the events that have transpired during Operation Adam; the operation I had hoped would have ended this war before it even began.

“I have good news and I have bad news. Good news first: Griffonstone has been leveled and most of the griffon military was killed in action. It did not go off as I had expected; I was planning to subtly destroy the military assets of Griffonstone with an explosive device. I instead found a dragon imprisoned under the enemy HQ and opted to use the explosive to free the dragon with the condition that she join our cause and destroy the base from below.

“This leads me to bad news number one. It is very likely that other dragons have been taken capture or are fighting on the side of the Griffon nation. The dragon I rescued who turned out to be Queen Schatten herself, has assured me that when she returns home that she’ll speak to the clans to try and relieve us of our future problems with enemy dragons. That being said, I cannot make any promises about whether or not that worked.” I took a second to get a drink of water to sooth my already aching throat as I gazed out at the congregation before the Princesses and myself.

“Next bad news. A handful of griffons have escaped the destruction of Griffonstone and are likely to mount a counter-offensive against Equestria.” A number of shocked faces lit up and gasps echoed in the room. “But, among one of those survivors was a griffon who has defected from Griffonia and has enlisted in the New Luna Armed Forces. I will be speaking with them later tonight about potential intelligence she may have obtained and can provide to aid in our defense.”

“This defector, if I may ask, who is it?” A newspony demanded from the front lines of the congregation.

“She will remain anonymous in order to protect her in these times of war. I also extend an invitation to other griffons already living in Equestria to enlist in the NLAF and aid in our defense. By no means is the NLAF a pony-only army.”

“So you’ll take any creature indiscriminately? Wouldn’t that potentially cause problems for the troops if they knew they were fighting alongside the enemy?” another pony asked. I shook my head casually.

“I don’t see why there would be. All creatures living in Equestria with Equestrian citizenship are welcome in the NLAF. Griffons enlisted are not the enemy.” I replied before continuing. “Regardless, I’d like to continue my report; if I may.” The crowd nodded my go ahead.

“Upon arrival to Griffonstone I had learned that the Griffons have developed a primitive form of firearm themselves; based loosely off my own weaponry. Therefor I have begun developing, alongside Princess Twilight Sparkle, a form of magical firearm that would only work for creatures of magic, ie Equestrians. I have tested the weapon with our griffon recruit and we are assured that they are unable to utilize the new technology while all three sub-species of pony will have no problems.” I announced with a quick grin before it vanished.

“It’s interesting how viral humanity actually is. You appear in a peaceful country like Equestria and two months later, you’re leading a war against another race while providing technology to kill and maim. Well done, Soren. Well done.”

“I have to apologize.” I announced after a moment of uneasy silence. “I appeared in Equestria approximately two months ago under suspicious circumstances, none of which I can explain or understand. I had the intention of quietly living out my life as a Carpenter in the Canterlot Dungeons so that I would not infect this world with human mistakes.

“It seems that human history has caught up with me regardless in that i’m now equipping Equestria, a country of peace and friendship and a comfortable but confusing level of technology, with technology to kill and slaughter; teaching ponies how to kill and slaughter their enemies indiscriminately.” I stepped back from the podium for a minute to catch my breath and take another drink.

“Do you ever consider leaving Equestria? Leave us to our peaceful ways of life and prevent further human pollution?” a male pegasus inquired from under a trilbee.

“No. The transition from ‘Live in peaceful silence and ignore the outside world’ quickly turned into ‘I must protect my friends and family.’ I went from having no reason to leave to having a reason to stay. I fear what would happen to Equestria now if I were to up and disappear from Equestria.” I replied solemnly as Luna gave me an appreciative smile from nearby.

“This was was caused from the Griffons trying to claim you for themselves, right? What if you were to peacefully surrender to them? Would that not accomplish the same goal of ending the war?”

“Absolutely not!” Luna jumped forth, surprising the masses with her outburst. “Captain is much too important to Equestria to let him surrender to the cruel practices of Griffonia!”

“Too important to Equestria? Or too important to you? Is it not true that you have developed a close relationship to the human? Are you only protecting him because you refuse to let him go, even if it would offer to end the war without further bloodshed?” a mare accused of the Princess, now shocking Luna back into submission.

“Princess Luna is correct. The Captain is too important to Equestria. Should the Griffons get a claw on him, he’ll be tortured into giving up his advanced technology to the Griffons.” Gilda announced as she took to the stage to the uproar of the crowd. “Technology that would be used to invade and slaughter the Equestrian government!”

This certainly silenced the crowd.

“I was told by the Griffon military heads that there had been plans to invade Equestria for much longer than the Captain had even been here. When they heard about his advanced knowledge, the Griffon heads decided to use him as an excuse to declare their intention for war so that they could forcibly extract weaponry from him to turn against all of you feather-brains!” Gilda shouted angrily as the news crews furiously wrote their notes.

“Tell me to my face now that the Captain being with us in indeed worse than having him against us!” Luna joined in on the argument, addressing the crowds with her royal voice alongside me. “It does not have anything to do with my relationship with him, it has everything to do with keeping an important ally to Equestria in Equestria’s control!”

“So you would actively support this war? Then what would you suggest be done to end this war without further bloodshed?”

“We must go back to the original plan and cut off the head of the Griffon military. Put them in a position that they understand they have no hope of defeating us and leave us alone! We remove their armouries, we tear down their weapons manufacturing and we eliminate their high ranking officials!” Luna retorted, at least now with a slightly quieter tone of voice. “We must not only remove their ability to fight, but also their resolve to do so!”

The sudden eruptions of black powder from just outside the ballroom doors silenced the room for but a moment before they burst open and a squad of Griffon's sprinted inside.

“Good luck with that!” A male voice announced from the back of the flock. Everyone turned to take notice of what appeared to be a Griffon hit-squad quickly encircling the room with flintlock pistols drawn. “Nobody move! Nobody move and no magic!” they demanded as my mind went to my mental inventory of weaponry.

All I had on me was my new Gauntlet with a single shield spellstone installed and my P226s which would be mostly ineffective at these ranges. Oh, and my karambit hidden away on my belt.

“I’d demand that you explain yourself for this intrusion, but since these are times of war; I doubt we need further explanation.” Celestia stood from her seated position to address the leader of the pack. “What do you want?”

“What do you think we want? The traitor and the human! Turn them over to us and we will leave with minimal casualties.” The griffon sneered as he eyed Gilda and I over with a fire in his eyes.

“Forget it! We will never turn either of them over, they are Equestrian citizens and we Princesses are sworn to protect them!” Twilight now stood and joined her ex-mentor as she subtly swapped out my shield spellstone for a new spellstone that we’d developed with the help of the Dragons: Dragon Claw.

This spellstone also had a side-effect of binding the gauntlet to my hand for as long as the stone remained within its slot in order to ensure the best possible connection for my anti-magic.

“You honestly think we won’t open fire? How many of these civilians are you willing to sacrifice for a single human and a griffon traitor? What’s it going to be, Princesses? The good of the few or the good of the many?” The leader grinned as the other creatures in the room pulled the hammers of their weapons back, making a number of ponies shriek and/or faint.

The sound of my shoulder harness hitting the floor silenced the room and had all eyes on me as I removed all possibility for the Griffon’s getting a hold of even my P226s. Gilda looked at me with fury as she put her hands up in surrender as I did the same.

“Good, now come over here like an obedient dog.” the griffon smirked at his success while Luna and Celestia both watched Gilda and I step down off the stage in surrender. As soon as I was in range, the griffon leaned in next to my ear and whispered, “We found Jafar in the dungeons, by the way. He told us what you did to him even if his condition didn’t.”

“Oh good, something for you to look forwards to when I beat your feather asses.” I growled back as a griffon smashed the back of my head with the butt of his gun.