With the Appleloosa business completed, the Lost Battalion had returned to Ponyville. For the next two months, nothing else exciting happened. All they did was train more but just because it wasn't exciting, compared to battle, did it mean it was time wasted. With the truth of changelings being members of the Lost Battalion coming to light, the troops had to rebuild their relationships with each other. The humans had deliberately waited until the unit had fought together in at least one real battle before they revealed the truth, so that the non-changeling members knew that the changelings would fight with them in battle. Although it was a rocky restart, they became fast friends once again, just refreshing a bond that had already been forged in fire. They were all in this venture together and they rebuilt their Esprit De Corps, stronger than it ever was before.

With relationships rebuilt, they could function together more efficiently, making the Lost Battalion more effective. The extra training also made the Lost Battalion's troops more skilled and now that the secret of being a changeling was out, the changeling soldiers could use their changeling abilities to its max potential in whatever roles they took up in the unit. With the extra time and training, the Lost Battalion slowly grew additionally ready for more and different situations. Also, the battalion got more equipment to help each section become more effective in their roles.

Joining the Lost Battalion was Logan, as one of it's major members, its leaders, and instructors/trainers. Of course, he first had to acclimate to his new body first before he could start performing his new position's responsibilities. It took him a good amount of time before he could even achieve any basic task by himself, such as consciously fly or run around fully equipped in combat gear without assistance or guidance. Then, he also had to relearn how to shoot and fight with his new body, to even be a soldier. After weeks of self practice and his body slowly regenerating enough that he was no longer a walking corpse, he started helping train Tran's scout section of the Lost Battalion. From Logan, the scouts learned further skills in how to function and fight, once they were behind enemy lines such as sabotage and or enemy harassment.

Of course, Logan had to get entirely new gear and weaponry to suit his new body. With Gilda's help, custom griffon gear was made for Logan and weaponry was specifically bought and made for him. He received a griffon version of the REA standard gear and uniform so he fit in with the unit more. As for weaponry, he was given his pistol back from from Eric who had been using it since he had "died". However, he was fleeced in terms of primary arms. His shotgun had been given away to the yak diplomat, which he understood and didn't try to take back, and his Mosin Sniper rifle was probably in an unusable condition due to rust and decay because it had been buried with the corpse of his original body. However, he did have the new weapon he received during the Dauntless incident, a scoped rifle that he hadn't been able to use yet, a scoped Dragunov marksman's rifle. Since he had died shortly after receiving it, it had gone into storage and was collecting dust as it fit no one's role. To further supplement his arsenal, he had received a copy of the submachine gun that Gilda, Rainbow Dash, and Tran were using made by and given by the latter.

Logan wasn't the only one to get new equipment. While the Lost Battalion was already well equipped enough for war, they were further supplemented by new gear. One member of each of the scout teams was given a scoped version of the standard REA service rifle. Whoever was in charge of this rifle had to carry it and its ammunition in addition to their standard primary arm (a Winnychester 1892 in .44-40). To clarify, while they were equipped with a scoped rifle, they weren't a sniper, but more of a designated marksman to engage targets at a further range than normal and so they could more easily identify things of interest.

As for Eric, he functioned as he did normally. He was a serious member of the Lost Battalion, who acted with the utmost regard for his roll as a military instructor. The soldiers of the unit loved him and how much Eric cared for them. He had even gone to the extent that he would use some of his personal funds to occasionally buy things for the Lost Battalion's soldiers. Not equipment but things for personal fun like pool tables, liquor, or extra snacks. However, just because the Lost Battalion's soldiers loved Eric, did the rest of the REA(Royal Equestrian Army) normal members share the same sentiment. Eric's actions in personally enacting his "judgement" upon the ponies that caused friendly fire deaths on his soldiers was not seen as something good amongst the higher echelons of the REA. Combined with Tran's reputation, the humans did not have a good image to the rest of Equestria. They saw it as vigilant justice and it gave all the more bad press for the human leaders of the Lost Battalion. Combined with the fact that the unit employed two former Jaegers of the IGAF(Imperial Griffon Air Force), Equestria's support for the Lost Battalion was lower than it ever was.

Understandably, Eric didn't care about what the elite of Equestria thought about what he and his soldiers did. All he cared about was that he had a job to do, that wasn't done yet and the wellbeing of his soldiers, this being war and all. With the extra time and training, Eric used some of it to figure out how his "magical cartoon pony bullshit" worked. He had the uncanny ability to encourage and embolden his soldiers to "fight better". It wasn't a mere mental or superficial thing. Whenever Eric used his magic "mojo/aura", his soldiers shot more accurately, were stronger and faster, could resist pain and injury better, and have more energy to fight.

Speaking of which, Eric's section of the Lost Battalion, the machine gunners, also received new and different equipment that made them more effective in their role. The core of Eric's machine gun teams was, the machine gun, obviously. Each machine gun team had access to two machine guns, one carried by a yak and another carried by a large earth pony. The goal these teams had to achieve was to bring up machine guns, advancing the squads firepower. The yak could easily carry a full sized machine gun into the front but the second machine gun in each team was also a full sized machine gun, only this time, carried by a large earth pony. The earth pony was supposed to be the first machine gun to be setup, being faster than a yak, but since they were carrying a full sized machine gun, it took them quite a while before it would be up and running.

-X-X-X-

A large frame, heavily built, muscle packed earth pony REA soldier armed with a machine gun sprinted forward with all of his might. While he wasn't the fastest pony alive, he was definitely faster than his fellow soldiers, who were slowed down by the heavy loadouts that they carried while he was completely unaffected by the weight he had to carry. As he sprinted, other REA soldiers that were behind cover dozens of meters behind him, were providing covering fire with the rifles they were armed with and one yak that was armed with his massive machine gun, the Model 14 HotchKiss. Finally, this massive building of an earth pony found a spot he was content with, one that would provide safe cover for him. Getting behind cover, he brought his weapon up to bear.

He used to carry a Model 14 HotchKiss like the yak, a massive beast of a weapon but now, he was currently armed with a much smaller and lighter machine gun, the Model 15 ShowSaw light machine gun that was also in standard REA 8x50mm. The Model 15 ShowSaw light machine gun was a rushed-design crudely-made machine gun that was fed with 20 round magazines, instead of belts or strips like the Model 14 HotchKiss, meaning it couldn't provide as much firepower as the heavy machine gun.

However, the Model 15 ShowSaw light machine gun had one major benefit that the Model 14 HotchKiss couldn't do, it could be immediately used and fired without any additional setup. The Model 14 HotchKiss required to be setup, emplaced, and then loaded before it could be fired, if it was carried by anything other than a yak, who could carry the entire gigantic heavy gun mounted and loaded on their backs. This earth pony machine gunner was big but he wasn't yak big, therefore, he couldn't be armed with the massive Model 14 HotchKiss armed and ready to fire. This earth pony machine gunner immediately started firing his Model 15 ShowSaw at his intended targets. With this Model 15 ShowSaw, this titan of an earth pony machine gunner was able to provide covering fire much faster than he usually would, when previously armed with the Model 14 HotchKiss. The ShowSaw was reliable enough to get the job done and had the benefit of being easily operated by 1 user instead of 2-3 like the HotchKiss. As he provided covering fire, his fellow squad mates advanced forward and found spots to take cover behind alongside the earth pony machine gunner, before their final slowest squad mate advanced forward, the previously mentioned yak.

Once the yak was in position and firing his machine gun, a loud siren started blaring and everyone stopped firing before standing up out of cover. Watching their whole performance was Eric with a set of binoculars and he walked up to the machine gun team. As he made his way to them, Eric started clapping. "Bravo!" Eric applauded. Every member of the machine gun team, even the yak, was smiling and proud of themselves but they were humble enough to not start boasting. "How do you like your new light machine gun?" Eric asked, directed at the massive earth pony machine gunner.

Said stallion held up his Model 15 ShowSaw and looked down at it. "She might be ugly but she works," he said.

One of the machine gun squad's members, a changeling patted the stallion on the back. "And it suits your role much better than its bigger sister," the changeling said.

The yak snorted. "No, big machine gun better!" he exclaimed with a quick stomp. "But little machine gun good enough for big pony!"

Everyone chuckled at the yak, while another machine gun team trotted up to them. Eric pointed at the big stallion and the yak. "Alright, clear your weapons and take a break. You guys did good," Eric complimented.

-X-X-X-

Just like Eric, Wilson did not care about what Equestria thought about what he or his medics did. All he and his medics cared about was if anyone needed medical help. The experience in Appleloosa gave his medics something drastically important, experience. Wilson's medics were given an idea of what combat was like while having to play their role and having to deal with wounded soldiers. They treated wounded equally. If you were wounded, you were no longer a combatant, regardless of what side you previously were. With what went down in Appleloosa and the Badlands, it gave Wilson a look into how his troops acted in combat. He trained his soldiers in their weaknesses, in terms of how they acted under duress. While it would be impossible to perfectly simulate true combat, Wilson would provide as much simulated stress as possible in training.

Wilson's medics' jobs were also made easier from having the truth of the changeling's role in the Lost Battalion being revealed. The grand majority of Wilson's medics were changelings, in terms of the actual medics of the medical teams. Now that the changeling medics didn't have to hide their true selves, they could use as much changeling magic as they could, in terms of treating their patients. Most of the changeling medics were well versed in pony biology, from having to know how to be able to properly pose as a pony without getting caught and how to keep a pony captive in good health for the best love harvesting. This meant they had more proper medical experience in dealing with ponies' health's than recently trained pony medics. They were able to use this knowledge to be better medics for the ponies than actual normal pony medics in the REA.

The changelings, unlike other teams of the other sections of the Lost Battalion, didn't receive new equipment/gear from the REA. Instead, they used changeling-manufactured medical equipment/gear sourced from their hives. It was much more effective and significantly higher quality medical equipment/gear than what was standard in the REA, as the REA had to make as much gear as cheaply as possible to equip every medic team in the REA, where the changelings had a surplus from not being a direct participant in the war. This lessened the REA's logistical strain on medical equipment/gear, by a decent margin.

-X-X-X-

Wilson walked down the halls of a military hospital, pushing a metal cart filled with various medical supplies as he passed by patient room after patient room. He finally reached his destination, no surprise, a patient's room. Pushing open the door, he did something he rarely did, he smiled with genuine happiness. "Thunderlane, how's my favorite pegasus doing?" Wilson greeted.

Inside the room, sat a heavily bandaged grey maned, charcoal black coated pegasus in a hospital bed. He breathed heavily, having difficulty performing such a basic autonomous bodily function and had many monitors and IVs connected to him, ones that were gifted to them by the changelings. He smiled at Wilson's entrance. "Hi, Doc! Been doin' great," he replied back between a few pained wheezes, each word making his lungs burn with the fire of a thousand suns.

Wilson wasn't a doctor, only a medic but a lot of troops would just refer to him as "Doc". Whether he was referred to as "Doc" or "Wilson", he didn't mind. Wilson pushed the cart to be beside Thunderlane's hospital bed and he pulled out a syringe and a vial. "I'm here to change out your bandages and give you your morphine," Wilson said.

Thunderlane grunted. "Bout time, hurts to breathe," Thunderlane complained with a gravel-ly voice.

Wilson snorted and filled up the syringe with the life giving pain killer while Thunderlane weakly held out an foreleg that had a IV in it. Thunderlane gave out a sigh of relief as Wilson filled his body with a considerable amount of morphine, the pain slowly ebbing away. The pain was still there in the background but it was now, much more tolerable. Setting the syringe aside, Wilson went through the slow process of replacing Thunderlane's old bandages with fresh ones. "I told you, you were gonna live. How's it been?" Wilson asked while he worked.

Thunderlane giggled in a opiate induced high. "Family visitin', 'specially younger brother. They're more worried than I am!" Thunderlane exclaimed, each word coming out much easier, now that he had morphine coursing through his veins.

Wilson chuckled and whilst he was replacing the bandages, he made sure to check the status of his wounds, specifically the status of his stitches and scarring. Even though he was in magic pony land, Wilson would say he was healing much faster than expected. He had gained some considerable experience in dealing with the ponies so he now had a decent frame of reference for the ponies' health and recovering rate. "Looks like you're doing okay," Wilson commented. "Ready to join the Wonderbolts when you're 100%?"

Thunderlane scoffed before his lungs wrought some revenge, forcing him to cough. "Yea', when the war ends, fer sure," Thunderlane replied but his face suddenly went straight and serious as if he was no longer addled by opiates or pain. "I know I've said it a thousand times so far, but thanks for saving me." Thunderlane sighed and he grabbed one of Wilson's hands that were working on him. "I know this war ain't ending soon and I've been offered a full medical discharge... I refused."

Wilson was aghast and he pulled his hand away from Thunderlane's hooves. "You've done your service, you can rest now," Wilson said.

Thunderlane nodded and he folded his forelegs. "I want to fight with you and your friends. I owe you my life," Thunderlane said. "Can you get me transferred to your unit?"

Wilson went as rigid as a ramrod as he looked at Thunderlane with a serious face. "You know how specialized my unit is. You'd have to pass a full military physical before you can even rejoin the military and then you'd have to pass our rigorous tests. You really think you can do that?" Wilson explained.

Thunderlane nodded and sat up in his hospital bed with no trouble. Turning to the edge of the bed, he hopped off, standing on all four of his legs. He wobbled quite a bit but he managed to keep himself from falling. Immediately, Wilson ran over to help him but Thunderlane refused the help. "I'll get better and I'll fight with you," Thunderlane demanded.

Wilson let out a pained sigh. "Alright, if you get better, I'll get you transferred to my unit," Wilson finally relented. He pointed back up to the bed. "For now, just worry about getting better."

Thunderlane nodded and climbed back up to his bed, with some difficulty. " 'Preciate it doc," Thunderlane replied. Getting back to a comfortable position in bed, be put his blanket back on his body and got comfortable. "Yah know, everytime you visit me, I feel better more and more. Those hands of yours magic?"

Wilson scoffed. "Sure, just like how I'm a pretty pastel magic little pony like you guys," Wilson joked. Right then, a pair of doctors entered the room. One of them was secretly a changeling doctor while the other was a REA doctor, both of them unicorns. Wilson did a mock salute to Thunderlane. "See yah next time, Thunderlane." Thunderlane returned the mock salute and Wilson walked out of the room.

The two doctors walked over to Thunderlane's bedside. "Hello, private Thunderlane," greeted the changeling doctor. "We're here to drain some of the fluid buildup from your lung damage and just perform some overall checkups."

Thunderlane groaned, he always hated this procedure. He had been shot through one lung so it was an agonizing treatment. The changeling doctor pulled out an extremely large needle/syringe and started to prep it while the other doctor lit up her horn to scan Thunderlane's chest to find where to insert the needle. "Where to?" the changeling doctor asked. Meanwhile, Thunderlane took a deep breath and braced for the imminent pain.

The other doctor had a perplexed look on her face. "I don't know," the doctor said flabbergasted.

The changeling doctor lowered the massive syringe. "What do you mean? It's usually in the same general area. Where's the fluid build up? " he asked.

The other doctor threw up her hooves. "I can't find it!" she exclaimed. Thunderlane let out his held breath and looked between the doctors, wondering what was going on.

The changeling doctor sighed and gave her the giant needle/syringe. "Fine, swap," he said before lighting up his horn to scan Thunderlane. Once again, Thunderlane took a deep breath and braced but once again, nothing came. This time, it was the changeling doctor to be flabbergasted. "What the?" the changeling doctor said before he started magically scanning Thunderlane's chest again. All the while, Thunderlane once again let out the deep breath he had been holding in. That was when he realized something. He took a few more deep breaths and notices that the pain was gone, breathing was no longer a chore and his lungs no longer ached.

The changeling doctor looked at Thunderlane in this face. "I can't seem to find your lung damage," he said, confused. Thunderlane paused before looking at the room's only door, thinking about Wilson once again.

-X-X-X-

Then there was Tran. Like his three human(technically two human and one griffon) friends, he trained his section of the Lost Battalion in their usual battle tactics so they could be more effective at their jobs. The flying teams didn't receive any new equipment as what they were currently using was seen as effective as they could be. Being the most technically and mechanically gifted of the four humans, he, in his free time, spent a good majority of it maintaining and replacing their used current equipment. The pseudo-minigun was further refined so that it was less complex to use and so that it could finally be fed with standard disintegrating ammunition belts. He was also able to make a clone of it but only one clone as two months wasn't enough time to make further copies. He also couldn't just release it for the REA to adopt as it was way too complex and expensive for Equestria to manufacture. For now, the two pseudo-miniguns would only be for the human's use in only the most dire of situations. Like with the rest of his designs, it was a closely guarded secret that was encoded/encrypted in the languages that only he knew.

With two months passing, the rest of the REA found it rather irksome that nearly two thousand soldiers were sitting behind frontlines, who were, in their minds, doing nothing. The higher ups of the Equestrian government and REA command wanted results and the Lost Battalion was not accomplishing anything since Appleloosa. It further strained the idea of having essentially four aliens hold so much power in being able to command a fully strengthened combat battalion, one that had a higher equipment demand and cost than other conventional units. In additional to that, the higher up members of the REA's chain of command and elites most certainly did not like the idea of fielding changelings in the ranks of the REA. They barely tolerated the idea of having zebras and yaks fight with them, being traditionalist(IE racist assholes, ~Wilson) in the makeup of the Equestrian military.

Soon enough, the Lost Battalion and the people who commanded it would be facing their worse enemy yet, bureaucracy.

-X-X-X-

Rarity was relaxing in Ponyville's day spa, after a good morning physical training session with Prince Blueblood. She was lying down on a table and getting her sweat foam covered body massaged by a blue maned/tail, pink coated spa pony while she drank from a cocktail that had a little umbrella. Beside her on a different massage table was Prince Blueblood, who was also getting his sweat foam covered body massaged by a pink maned/tail, blue coated spa pony, and while enjoying a little cocktail drink. He had long since recovered from having his love, magic, and life essence sapped away by a changeling and rejoined the Lost Battalion's command team.

While the two relaxed, a pony trotted into the day spa. This pony wore a magically enchanted armored coat that decorated heavily and befitted somepony in a high position/role of the REA and Equestrian government. She strode in without notice from anypony else despite the importance and great power that she held. Rarity noticed their new guest and arose from her massage table, acknowledging her guest. "Why Twilight! It's always a pleasure to see you!" she greeted. Blueblood, realizing who he was in the presence of, turned to look at her while still lying down and performed a mock salute.

Twilight, eyes filled with irritation, eyed the massage tables with longing. She sighed and redirected her attention to her friend. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Ponyville's going to be real busy soon," Twilight explained. "You have some officials coming to inspect your unit, soon arriving."

Rarity groaned upon hearing Twilight's news. She sat up on her massage table and set her drink down. "Give it to me straight, darling, how bad is it?" she asked back.

Twilight had the same veil of obvious irritation on her face. "Stars and her entourage. A very big entourage," Twilight answered.

It was then Blueblood's turn to sit up on his massage table, his masseuse standing aside. He rubbed his chin as certain thoughts came to mind. "Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer?" he asked.

Twilight looked at the prince, impressed. He had surprisingly guess their guest's name correctly. "Yes, how did you deduce her identity?" she asked.

Blueblood sighed as he raised his drink to take a sip from it. "She's the flag officer that travels the heaviest," Blueblood replied. His mind was already filling up with memories of how much he despised the vice-marshal. The mare was a real stick in the mud, pain in the flank, killer of all joy, fuddy duddy, and much more.

Twilight frowned, joining in on Blueblood in the disapproval. "And she's a real pain in the flank," Twilight added in. Being in as high of a position that she was, she had been forced to associate with much of the government and the military's elite. Most of the experiences were negative, as came with the territory of having to deal with the aristocracy and nobles that ran Equestria and her military.

Blueblood nodded, agreeing with her statement. He had met her a few times due to his position as a prince and none of them were positive interactions. "She'll be impossible to mistake, she'll be the one with the log up her plot," Blueblood remarked. He turned to look at Rarity and almost blushed. "Pardon my Prench." Before any of them could continue their conversation, they were interrupted by noise, a lot of it. There was the slowly growing sound of magically powered engines, specifically the types that were utilized by airships. When the three of them checked outside, a fleet of airships were landing in Ponyville, coming in from the direction of Canterlot.

Twilight eyed the airships with disgust. It looked like she had arrived too late to warn them. "And I thought we'd have more time before her entourage arrived," Twilight commented.

-X-X-X-

Today was a Saturday so it was a day off for the members of the Lost Battalion. Being mid-day everyone had already separated and gone off to go have their own fun. Of note, Tran was walking through town. He was headed towards the sectioned off area of Ponyville that was only meant for the REA. There was an REA base attached to Ponyville that only REA and affiliated members were only allowed. He had gotten a missive from a Night Sentinel to meet Princess Luna in one of the base's training centers.

As he arrived, he found the princess standing outside of the training center. He had expected to meet her inside of the training center, but instead was standing outside at the building's entrance, in her usual set of knight's armor and accompanied by her usual pair of escorts. He managed to get pretty close to the princess before he was spotted, getting within sword fighting range. Upon seeing Tran, the princess threw a hoof up into the air. "Huzzah, a true soldier instead of the farces we will soon face!" the princess greeted.

Tran reached out with a fist and bumped the princess's outstretched hoof. She was confused from the courtesy for a moment but realized what he had done, not very familiar with the modern gesture. "Soon face?" Tran inquired.

Princess Luna's rather positive expression drooped. "Oh, you shall soon see and comprehend the circumstances," she announced. She turned to face one of her Night Sentinels and motioned him over with a wing. Said bat pony night guard was carrying a long equipment case on his back. "But before our confrontation, I bring gifts!" she declared, her face readopting a positive expression. Upon the utterance of the last word of her previous sentence, the bat pony guard opened up the case. Inside the case was a lightly curved saber with a gold plated oval handguard, one that was heavily engraved and inscribed with countless numbers of thaumatological runes that implied powerful magical power.

Tran picked up the saber and drew it while looking at the princess. The princess grinned while she drew her own sword. "While I would love to, this is no invitation to duel. Since you gifted me one of your treasured weapons, I thought to return the favor," the princess explained, while drawing her 1911 with her magic from its holster worn on her chest. Since she had been gifted the pistol, it had been modified for her use. It now had a much larger trigger guard and trigger meant for usage with hooves, was fitted with a suppressor, and she had it engraved. She had practiced using the pistol with her magic while wielding a sword in her hooves. With much practice, she was scarily effective with it in close quarters and while she refused to admit it, she enjoyed firing it, finding it a rather satisfyingly experience to punch big holes in her targets, finding it rather fun. "I commissioned an artisan to finally ensure that you can trot around armed as a true warrior should be!" Looking at the blade, Tran plucked a hair from his head and touched it to the sword's edge. With no surprise, the hair was cut without it even bending in resistance. "And it shall stay deathly sharp as long as ye will live."

Tran returned the blade to its scabbard and looked back to the princess. "So what's the actual reason you wanted me to meet you here?" Tran asked. Before the princess could properly answer him, the front doors to the training center's building was kicked open outwards. Standing in the doorway was a large grouping of ponies. Most of the ponies were REA and REAF officers of varying ranks and races, but notably, they were all mares and they were all congregated around one specific pony in general. That pony was a red maned/tailed, white coated middle-aged pegasus mare who wore an immaculate REAF dress uniform that was decorated with many ribbons and medals, bearing the rank insignia of three stars on each shoulder, and she wore a holstered revolver on her right hoof side. Due to her uniform, it wasn't possible to discern what her cutie mark was and she had what seemed to be a perpetual frown on her face.

Being in the presence of Princess Luna, most of them directed their attention to her but not the high ranking REAF general. Her eyes were immediately drawn in to Tran and her frown became a scowl. "So you must be one of the monkeys Celestia hired," the vice-air marshal assumed. She went over Tran's various features, who was wearing his casual off-time clothes instead of his combat gear due to today being a weekend.

Tran had noticed that she had referenced Celestia without the princess moniker. This either meant that she was comfortable around and friends with the solar diarch, enough that she no longer had the subconscious thought to state Celestia's title all the time, like Tran was with Princess Luna, or that she did not have much respect and care that other ponies did when citing the princesses. Considering the marshal's unfriendly demeanor, Tran highly doubted that it was the former.

Tran fixed a slightly disapproving stare at the marshal who scoffed. "If you think I'm scared of you like so many ponies are, you'll be highly mistaken," the marshal taunted. "I'm already not impressed." Behind Tran, Princess Luna had a similar disapproving glare directed at the marshal. The marshal directed her attention away from Tran and to the princess. "Good afternoon, princess," the marshal greeted while lightly bowing. Once she stood back up, she turned her attention back to Tran and smirked. "You have the pleasure of speaking with Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer, commander of all Royal Equestrian Air Force aerial assets in the eastern front, fucking me."

Tran could feel all of the arrogance radiating off of the marshal and he hated it, being reminded of Rainbow Dash's and Gilda's attitudes only much worse and more aggressive. It very much reminded him of how USMC(United States Marine Corps) marines behaved, acting like they were constantly trying to defend their masculinity and reputation but significantly worse. It was a further death knell in how he perceived the mare negatively. "Tran," he stated, introducing himself to the mare.

The mare readopted her frown and eyed the man up and down. "And here I thought you were supposed to be the Lost Battalion's super tough, unkillable, super dangerous element of death, not some scrawny little minotaur with his horns clipped like a neutered dog. Is that why you and your little club are twiddling your hooves, relaxing on Equestria's dime in the rear lines while the real mares are out fighting?" she taunted.

Princess Luna, who was standing beside Tran, scowled at the mare. She looked over to Tran to gauge his feelings but was flabbergasted to see the usual emotionless expression affixed to his face. She half expected him to have tried to kill the audaciously bold marshal by now but as a show of exemplary self control, he showed no anger or malice towards the mare other than a slightly disapproving stare. If it had been Wilson, there would most certainly be a physical altercation going on right now. "I believe we're the only ones achieving victories while your forces have done nothing but fail everywhere they try?" Tran finally responded back.

Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer, face immediately started burning crimson with anger, her white coated face almost matching her red mane. She shot forward a few steps closer to Tran, as if she was physically squaring up with him. "You think stomping a few bugs is a victory? Hah!" the mare shot back. The mare grew a cruel smirk on her face as her rage filled face slowly cooled down, enough that her face was finally white enough to match the rest of her coat. "I read the report when you and your little friends tried a hoof in real war, at Fillydelphia. What was it again? Oh yeah, one of you died and you almost died yourself! You couldn't even succeed at riding a train to the Crystal Empire, with one of Equestria's best rolling fortresses!" Once again, Tran's face only held an emotionless expression which only seemed to frustrate the mare. The entire time so far, it was as if the mare had been intentionally taunting him to try to get a rise out of him but she had chosen the worse possible person for the endeavor.

Princess Luna interrupted the marshal before more verbal jabs could be thrown. "Other than ridiculing my compatriot, what is your purpose in Ponyville?" the princess asked.

Thunder Hammer stared at the princess for a few seconds, trying to think of how to phrase herself, without offending the royalty. When she was ready, she turned her attention back to Tran. "You took hundreds of my wings and some of my airships," the mare stated. She pursed her lips and opened her mouth again. "Oh and some of those worthless ground pounders. I'm sure even as useless as they are, we can use them to soak up some bullets somewhere. You're doing nothing with them when we need as many hooves on the frontline as possible. I'm here to take them back. Your little club is just sitting on your hooves, doing nothing. Hell, you mixed them with those damn bugs, letting them use our soldiers as food." That last bit was quite the disconcerting or puzzling statement for the various officers that accompanied Thunder Hammer. The knowledge of changelings being a part of the Lost Battalion was supposed to be secret on a need to know basis, meaning that this mare was spewing out secret information to ponies that weren't supposed to know.

As usual, Tran displayed no emotions on his face but Princess Luna was emoting enough for the two of them. "You don't have enough authority to disband the Lost Battalion," the princess retorted.

Thunder Hammer smirked. While she held a powerful position, she was still only one mare. However, one mare could still do a lot. "You are correct, princess. But, if I prove that the Lost Battalion is a pointless venture, that'd be enough precedence to show the rest of the Equestrian military to disband the unit," the mare explained. When she had arrived in Ponyville, she had brought along five airships, all filled with pegasi. Not to mention, all of the pegasi that flew along the airships when they were traveling, as protective escorts. "I brought soldiers and one of the units I used to command, the legendary Flying Circus, here to war game, against the Lost Battalion. With Princess Twilight and all of the inspecting officers I brought watching, they can write enough field reports and documentation to make it irrefutable that the Lost Battalion should disband."

Tran raised an eyebrow at the bold mare. "A war game, the Lost Battalion, against you and your soldiers?" Tran said, inquisitively.

The mare smugly looked at Tran and nodded. She had no doubt in her mind that her and her fliers wouldn't lose. She had brought a significant number of her aerial forces to contend against the Lost Battalion. It included dogfighters, flying infantry, flying scouts, bombardiers, and a myriad of other types of pegasi soldiers to stomp the Lost Battalion into dust. "Yeah, scared?" the mare asked, satisfied with herself.

Princess Luna threw the mare a glare of disapproval and shot a hoof into the air. "Tis not a fair fight, your forces far outnumber the Lost Battalion!" the princes protested.

Thunder Hammer, being ever the so bothersome mare, gave the princess a rather audacious look. "Its a battalion against a battalion, fair as what the rules for war games dictate" the mare remarked. It was simultaneously the truth and a lie. Thunder Hammer had brought only a battalion for the intended war game but her battalion was a combat unit that was at max strength/filled beforehand and then had also been temporarily bolstered with additional soldiers in expectation of high combat losses for future battles. In addition to that dishonest characteristic of the unit's manpower(ponypower?), the battalion had a few extra companies of pegasi attached to it, that were only intended to act as security while escorting Thunder Hammer and the Flying Circus while they traveled via airship. Naturally, in a show of bad sportsmanship, she would also be using the flying security escorts as additional manpower(ponypower?) in the battle against the Lost Battalion in the future war game. Numbers wise, Thunder Hammer and her battalion, the Flying Circus easily doubled, possibly even tripled the Lost Battalion's numbers/forces. All of this cheating wasn't known to either Tran or the princess, only finding out until after everything had gone down.

Tran had an inkling in his mind that Thunder Hammer was going to be cheating in the war games, not trusting her words. Even if she did, he would still fight this battle and win it. If he chose the option of not fighting this war game, he was pretty sure it would show him as a coward and lead to the disbanding of the Lost Battalion or someone else taking over it, in terms of leadership, from his and his friend's hands. Tran pointed the sheathed sword at Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer. "You're on," Tran accepted.

-X-X-X-

As it was Saturday, a weekend day, the war game would start on Monday. This gave enough time for Tran and his friends and Thunder Hammer and her forces to prepare for the mock battle. They obviously wouldn't be shooting at each other with live ammunition but fake magical ammunition that would allowed them to more accurately fight a simulated war. This magic ammunition would allow them to safely shoot at each other and even use larger ordnance, such as cannons/bombs.

The magical simulation system was two parts, the ammo and a pair of magic bracelets. The bracelets would detect "wounds" when the user was shot with the magic ammunition. While being shot with magic ammunition, if a killing blow/shot was done, the victim would be completely paralyzed, mimicking death and be rendered no longer able to continue "fighting". If a nonlethal blow/shot was done, it would paralyze the limb, that would allow a medic to "treat" it to enable the soldier to continue fighting. Anyone that was airborne when they were hit with the magic bullets would be teleported straight to the ground before being paralyzed. The magic ammunition wasn't perfect, as it wouldn't be able to simulate a bullet's piercing power, so concealment meant cover.

The war game would contain multiple invisible "referees" watching the entire spectacle, either pegasi flying in the air or unicorns riding in hot air balloons. They would ensure that no one was "cheating". They were immune to the magic ammunition's affects as they didn't wear the bracelets that ensured wound/hit detection. The humans, even if they wore the magic bracelets, were immune to the effects of this war simulation magic so each human would be closely followed by their own "referees" who would be intently scrutinizing, to make sure the humans weren't acting as unkillable soldiers. The humans' guns could still use the magic ammo for them to get "kills" against the enemies, however.

The first step that Tran had to do after getting all of this information was to make a game plan, which meant he had to gather up the Lost Battalion's leadership. He had the help of Princess Luna who could cast a magic spell to discover/track the location of their fellow compatriots. Because Equestrian magic didn't work on them, Princess Luna had sent her Night Sentinel escorts to go hunt down Tran's fellow human friends. Afterwards, the duo easily found the first of their targets, Rarity and Blueblood, being the closest and were located at the spa. The princess and Tran were quite surprised to find the two of them accompanied by Princess Twilight Sparkle. The three of them were told to meet up at their next destination, Sweet Apple Acres, before they'd make any future plans.

The two of them made a quick path to the farm after a quick pitstop somewhere else and as they arrived, they found themselves walking/trotting up to the Apple Family household, seeing Granny Smith knitting and relaxing on a rocking chair on her porch. She looked up from her work and squinted her ailing eyes. "Well, howdy Tran. Ah didn't expect tah meet yah here today but its still a welcome sight," Granny greeted. She glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby before leaning in closer towards Tran and lowered her voice. "Did yah bring any..."

Tran walked up to the elderly mare and gave her a hug. "Howdy, Granny" Tran greeted.

The princess followed behind Tran, stopping a little bit before the porch. "Greetings too, Apple matriarch," Princess Luna said. "We are here on official business. We desire the company of the younger Apple and the ostentatious fliers." According to Princess Luna's tracking spell, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Soarin, and Spitfire were at Sweet Apple Acres. This made gathering up everyone a bit easier with so much of them gathered up in one location.

Granny pointed towards the giant field of apple trees. "Jackie's out in the fields, bucking some trees with Mac and her pink friend. As fer the others, ah believe the flying folk are holed up in the root cellar out by the chicken coup and pig pens," she directed.

Tran dug through his coat and pulled out a small bottle of whisky, discretely handing her the bottle. "Much obliged, Granny," Tran replied. Granny took the bottle while grinning, quickly hiding it away in her pile of yarn supplies. Princess Luna rolled her eyes before trotting off early. Granny chuckled and Tran gave her a farewell hug before following along with Princess Luna.

As the princess and human got closer towards their destination, something felt off. The first thing that gave it away was the slowly growing stench of alcohol. It all came to a head when the two of them were standing in front of the door to the root cellar, where the stench of alcohol was the strongest. From the outside, they could all hear shuffling and movement. They could also hear ponies speaking but couldn't decipher any of the words being said, but the two of them could recognize the speakers' voices being very familiar.

Of course, the door to the cellar was locked. Tran thought about kicking down the door but that would have been rude to damage the Apple family's property. Luckily, Princess Luna was able to solve the problem by opening the door with a spell. In an instant, the smell of alcohol was so great that they snorting rubbing alcohol would have yielded a similar result. Inside the dim cellar, they could see shelves, large indistinct objects, and four figures in the near-darkness. When Luna lit up the room with a light spell, they could see shelves stocked up with canned/jarred foods, a few copper alcohol stills/distilleries, and the people they were looking for.

Much to Princess Luna and Tran's surprise, Spitfire, Soarin, Rainbow Dash, and Gilda were all engaged in quite the intimate physical activity. It was quite clear that all of them were sloshed out of their minds, judging from all of the many, many stereotypical brown stoneware moonshine jugs spread around on the ground and the pervasive smell of alcohol. The fact that none of them were sent scrambling upon the interruption was another indication of how hard their livers were working. Luna, face burning red from seeing the four of them in such a state, looked away from them while shielding her eyes.

Still, Princess Luna still had the mental fortitude to cast a spell and in an instant, the smell of alcohol in the room was gone. There was a silent pause in the room, before the four fliers started scrambling around while yelling, having regained their mental faculties as the princess had removed all of the alcohol in the vicinity which included what coursed through the fliers' veins.

"What the buck, Tran?! Again?!" Rainbow Dash demanded, currently trying to cover her body with a coat(not hers) in a poor attempt to preserve any ounce of her dignity.

The others were equally as nonplussed. Soarin, looked at their guests with some exasperation. "Can't a bro have a moment?" he begged.

Princess Luna was too stunned to speak, not wanting to look at the four of them in their current state of intimacy. Tran, displaying no emotion as usual, was completely unbothered, more focused on their problems. "Emergency meeting," Tran calmly stated.

Rainbow Dash rushed out from her "entanglement" and shoved the princess and Tran towards the door. "Got it! We'll be there," Rainbow Dash yelled, shoving the door closed.

The princess was still madly embarrassed enough that she was in no state to be offended from being marehandled out. However, Tran was still unperturbed. "30 minutes, the house!" Tran yelled loudly enough for the fliers on the other side of the door to hear.

"We get it!" all four of the fliers yelled from their side.

Tran looked at the crimson-faced princess and motioned off at the field of apple trees. "Let's go find the others while they're busy," Tran suggested. The princess was still too flustered to speak so she just nodded vigorously.

By the time the princess recovered from the mental flashbang, she used her tracking spell again to find Applejack and Pinkie Pie. They were a good distance out with how big Sweet Apple Acres was so they started trotting/walking. As they traveled further in the Apple family's farm, they spotted the CMC(Cutie Mark Crusader's) tree house. Princess Luna eyed the club house with much fascination. "What a lovely little structure!" the princess complimented.

To be fair, it was quite impressive that Apple Bloom was able to maintain such a large tree-borne property. Despite being a good distance away, the two of them could see that the treehouse was occupied, seeing a few figures through the various open windows and door of the clubhouse. Tran took a mental pause. Focusing more on the clubhouse, he could make out that there were three people inside of the clubhouse and two of them bore the distinct outline/figure of underage ponies, but there was a third figure that had the body shape of a griffon. He thought it could have been Logan except the figure of that griffon was far too short and slim to be him.

Princess Luna was quite alarmed to see Tran draw his revolver. "What disturbs you my friend?" the princess asked, while drawing her own sword in caution.

Tran didn't answer the princess and instead charged towards the clubhouse, stopping at the stairs leading up the tree. When he got closer while making sounds of very obvious movement, the people inside of the clubhouse could he heard running around hastily. A few seconds later, Apple Bloom popped out of the club house, standing at the door. She looked at Tran with a fake nervous smile, sweat dripping off of her brow. "Well howdy Tran! Ah didn't expect yer visit to the farm!" she greeted, her eyes darting around. Tran narrowed his eyes and started marching up the stairs, Apple Bloom immediately flinching. "Sorry, uh, we're busy doing, uh, crusader stuff! You shouldn't come inside!"

Apple bloom tried to stop Tran from going inside of the treehouse but he merely stepped over her while entering the clubhouse. Princess Luna, who was not sure what was going on, slowly followed after her friend. She stopped in front of Apple Bloom who was still standing in the clubhouse's doorway. A nasty glare from Luna was enough to make Apple Bloom step out of the way. Inside of the clubhouse was a mess with the remains of various food supplies and apple cores littering the floor. Sweetie Belle was standing inside the clubhouse who had been diligently cleaning but had frozen up as she looked at the Princess and Tran with horror.

Tran looked down at Sweetie Belle, who flinched with fear. She had never gotten used to Tran, having heard the rumors and believing in them. "Busy with crusader stuff?" Tran asked.

Sweetie Belle was too anxious to answer. Instead, she nodded vigorously in response. Tran noticed her eyes would dart around and she would occasionally look up. When Tran followed her eyes during one of those moments, he found that there was a trapdoor in the ceiling. When Sweetie Belle had noticed that Tran finally detected the trapdoor in the ceiling, she stood over to block the ladder for it. "Y-You can't go up there. It has, uh, confidential crusader stuff!" Sweetie Belle clearly lied.

Tran just ignored here and stepped up and over here, climbing up the latter. Sweetie Belle, despite her fear of Tran, clung onto his leg to try to stop him but he still climbed the rungs of the ladder as if he were unimpeded. Once he pushed up through the attic's door, he found himself face to face with a small female griffon who, despite all of the random junk that littered the attic that she tried to hide behind, looked scared out of her mind. Tran immediately had his signature sidearm out and aimed at her face. The griffon shrieked from fear and threw her talons up. "Don't kill me, I surrender!" she cried out.

-X-X-X-

There was a large gathering of people at the human's primary house and workplace, everyone having been gathered in an expeditious manner. Tran, Wilson, Eric, Logan, Princess Luna, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Soarin, Spitfire, Rarity, Blueblood, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Princess Twilight Sparkle, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, and the new griffon that was recently found were all jam packed inside the biggest room of the house, the basement. Many questions were floating in everyone's mind but Tran had forced everyone into silence. Of the three CMC members, two of them were sweating nervously and had faces filled with fear as they were standing aside their very mad, respective sisters.

The small griffon was obviously a female and had a very lithe, skeletal frame, as if she was on the verge of starving. She was dirty and looked ragged, as if she had been living a very rough and difficult life. She was shaking in her feathers, obviously from fear, and was nervously sweating. Despite being surrounded in all directions by everyone, she was squarely focused on Tran. The group had the griffon sitting on a chair in the middle of the room as everyone surrounded her for an interrogation. In the back of the gathering of people/ponies, Gilda was hovering in the air, looking at the small griffon with immense pity.

Tran was squarely staring into the griffon's eyes, who herself was staring back at Tran. Every now and then, her eyes darted away from staring into Tran's eyes to look at the hand cannon that he was holding in his left hand, at the low and ready. She was not having a good time, emotionally, with facing Tran, especially with his cold emotionless face. "You obviously think you recognize me," Tran commented. "What the griffons are calling me now?"

Despite being on the verge of tears, she slowly nodded. "E-Equestria's conqueror of death, the pale one of the four," she answered, her eyes glancing at Tran's revolver. Tran glanced to his friends who was slightly confused, having heard the griffon's answer.

The first bit of that nickname made sense but the second half was a little confusing. Did they refer to him being pale compared to his fellow friends? True, his skin was much paler than his fellow still-human friends, to the point where his visage seemed ghoulish in nature. Because he was in a ceaseless state of being injured, he was always low on his internal blood volume, making him much paler in contrast with his friends. He constantly bled it away to the point where he needed blood transfusions in a few occasions and him having to eat a iron heavy diet to help his body create more. "So you know who I am, but I don't know who you are," Tran replied. "Name?"

The small griffon felt tightness in her throat as she felt like the world was bearing down on her. She swallowed the lump in her throat and opened her mouth. "G-Gabby," she tentatively answered. "I-I'm a courier."

"Why are you in Equestria?" Tran then demanded.

By now, Gabby was starting to tear up, thinking she was only delaying her inevitable death. The humans were rumored to be very intolerant of griffons in general, supposedly wanting to extinguish their race. "There's nothing to eat, everygriffon fight for what scraps of food available, there's riots over what's left almost every day. If you work, you're allowed to buy food but its barely enough to live on. If you don't work, you get nothing. Everygriffon works, even chicks barely old enough to walk. I thought it'd be better in Equestria," Gabby explained. That explained her condition, how she looked like she was on the verge of starving to death. There was barely any meat on any of her limbs and her ribs showed through her torso.

After a few seconds, Tran turned to Logan. At that very moment, Logan had just landed beside Tran just having taken flight mere seconds ago. Tran waved his hand at Logan who reached out and raised a hand at the griffon. She flinched and closed her eyes, expected to get hit but it didn't come. When she opened her eyes back up, she found that Logan was holding something up in front of her. It was several long strips of something and only when she smelled it did she realize that it was some kind of jerky. She looked up at Logan who had a much friendlier expression unlike the frightening emotionless face of a deathly spectre. Even then, she was still tentative at accepting the gift. Logan, paused, took a bite from the jerky before offering it back to her. With caution, she finally reached up to grab the jerky, taking a small bite out of it.

Tran looked over at Gilda. "Is she telling the truth?" he asked.

Gilda sighed and slowly nodded. "Back when I was younger, I remember there was plenty of game to hunt and eat but as I grew older, it quickly disappeared. The years leading up to the war, food was getting scarce, to the point that there were fights over anything everytime anygriffon managed to successfully find and kill something during a hunt. I remembered, right before the war started, somegriffon was murdered over the baby rabbit he managed to snare," Gilda explained. Unnoticed in the background, Fluttershy winced.

"Sounds like you guys exhausted your country's supply of food, overhunting," Eric commented. "No effort in conservation of the environment." The Equestrians and the humans knew that the griffons were a carniverous species and could barely tolerate much else. Unlike the Equestrians, they didn't have the option of eating just anything. Eric took a glance at the two CMCs who were in trouble before looking back at Gabby. "Wait, what have you been eating since coming to this country?" he asked.

Ironically enough, Gabby's stomach rumbled from hearing the question. She had been quickly going through the beef jerky that Logan had gifted her, having burned through it in a short instant "Eggs. Just a few every meal for the last month. One week, I had a chicken," she replied.

Applejack growled and faced Apple Bloom. "Ah knew it! The hens weren't layin' less eggs every day! You've been giving them tah her!" the cowpony accused. Apple Bloom's face blanched as she knew she had been caught, to which Applejack noticed. "Missy, yer in even bigger trouble now!"

Twilight trotted forward a few steps. "Hold on, by the time you defected to the Royal Equestrian Air Force, you were in peak physical condition. The statistics of your body weight from your physical was in the upper range of bell curve for average female griffon body mass. Also, every griffon corpse we've studied showed no irregularities in terms of nutrients," she stated. "And it requires a significant amount of calories and protein to maintain a high muscle percentage of somepony of your stature and physical activity."

Gilda tapped her chest and gave an exaggerated tug on her red scarf to emphasize it. "I'm a Jaeger, baby. We get anything we ask for and more. Anygriffon who joins the military gets extra food rations compared to civilians, its one of the biggest selling points to join," she answered.

Twilight raised her eyebrows for a split second, accepting the answer. However, she then rubbed her chin while her face showed that she was in thought. "That raises another question. Raising an army of the grand size we faced at the beginning of the war, going off of what you've just explained, would require tremendous amounts of food resources. Where did that all come from? And, to support the war for as long as it has been going on would require increasingly rising amounts," the princess of friendship further asked.

Gilda opened her mouth to answer but then closed her mouth when she realized that she had no idea. Twilight had asked an important question, one that Gilda had no clue where to even answer. "I-I don't know, huh. That's a pretty good question," Gilda confirmed.

Tran redirected his attention back to Gabby. "What was it like right leading up to the war, when it started, and then as it raged?" Tran asked. She flinched from getting Tran's attention again, taking a glance at the revolver that Tran still had out. He noticed her tentativeness from the image he projected so he holstered his signature hand cannon and held out his hands in front of himself in surrender. "You're fine with us for now, we wanted to make sure you weren't a spy," he said in an attempt at a calming voice. He dug through his gear and pulled out a huge chocolate bar, holding it out for the griffon. "Sorry for the hard time."

She was somewhat flumaxed at his suddenly friendly demeanor, as was Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom but not Scootaloo, having expected only a raging demon of death. She had long devoured the jerky that she had been giving, so she cautiously accepted the chocolate bar. Once she took a bite, she let out a moan of pleasure, as if she hadn't tasted sweets in years, which was most likely considering the situation. "As the war was beginning to start, there was less and less food than what was normal, to the point that griffons were starving to death in the streets. But, a few weeks in, the government just suddenly had lots and lots of food, more than enough for everygriffon!" Gabby answered with happiness on her face and in her voice. "It was like that for the first year of the war and everygriffon was glad the war happened and everygriffon I knew were enlisting in droves! But-" she started off again, her voice growing depressed. "In the last half year or so, it seemed like there was less of it than usual. Not as bad as before the war started but enough for griffons to start getting mad again."

Eric pursed his lips and looked between Gilda and Gabby. "Hey, does the griffon army hunt everything anywhere where they hold Equestrian territory?" he asked.

Gilda paused for a second, as if to search through her memories. "I remember some hunting details but it was never a primary goal. It only ever happened if the territory was completely secure," Gilda answered.

Eric shrugged and folded his arms. "They're prolly doing the same thing here in Equestria that they did in the Griffon Empire, overhunting everything into extinction," Eric commented.

Fluttershy flew up to the front, out from behind everyone. "That can't be!" Fluttershy cried out.

Rarity sighed and trotted up to put a hoof on her friends back. "Fluttershy, darling, we know your disposition towards animals but you can't deny something what they're obviously doing," she said to comfort her friend.

Fluttershy pushed herself away from Rarity's embrace with an annoyed look on her face. "No, I'm not denying that they could be doing that. What I'm saying is that, that can't be whats happening!" Fluttershy said. "We'd see the environmental impact if they're hunting that much. There's animals still to be found where they hold ground and the ecosystem hasn't collapsed in territories they hold, in Equestria," she explained.

Twilight trotted up to her conservationist friend. "Well, its obvious they're using Equestria as a food source in some fashion to that scenario. If they're feeding their army and country, solely with Equestrian resources, they're bound to run out in due time, whether they lose all of their held territories or run out of prey to hunt," Twilight commented. Twilight paused, to run numbers through her head. "Hold on, to feed a population of that grand scale, they'd have to setup a tremendous, almost industrial-like farm dealing only in livestock. We've found no evidence of that, how are they gathering these foodstuffs?"

Eric pointed at Gilda. "You guys only eat meat, right?" Eric asked.

Gilda gave Eric a bland look. "No, the beak and talons are for show," Gilda commented.

Tran smacked Gilda upside the head as Eric directed his attention to Twilight. "Well, they're getting it from something and they got changelings to help. Can't be hard to find out how they're doing it and to cut the source," Eric suggested.

Gilda shoved her way over to Eric. "You're suggesting starving away my country!" she cried out.

Eric shoved Gilda away from himself. "The sooner this war ends, the faster we can go and help them out with their situation to stop the bloodshed and prevent future wars," Eric clarified.

Tran loudly grunted, getting everyone's attention. "Before we start counting our chicks before they hatch, we got bigger fish to fry," he announced. Tran then explained their unit's existence under threat from the Air marshal Thunder Hammer. The pitched battle's scenario would have both sides protecting a fortified area over the course of three days. The goal was to inflict as many casualties as possible or would end early if the opposing side's chain of command/HQ was completely wiped out. Everyone's reaction was different, from anger and annoyance all the way to fear and trepidation.

Eric, clearly one of the angered people there, was clenching his fists in anger. "And we got two days to prepare," Eric groaned out.

"Yep," Tran replied. He redirected his attention back to Gabby. "Okay, you will be staying with her," Tran said while pointing at Fluttershy. "We'll feed you and she'll house you. You're not a prisoner but you're not a citizen. We'll figure out your situation once we deal with more important matters." Gabby nervously nodded while Tran turned to face everyone else. "Let's go to war."

Author's Note

As usual, I haven't died yet(again, i mean) so I'm still alive. If none of y'all know anything bout me or my problems, here yah go, an explanation
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1045640/health-life-explanation-update

It's pretty obvious but if you haven't figured it out the Model 15 ShowSaw is a 1915 CSRG Chauchat. As for the story, I named Vice-Air Marshall's personal unit, the Flying Circus after the IRL unit of fame from the German Empire's Air force of ww1.

As usual, leave ur comments and criticism in the comments below. I enjoy reading them and engaging with my readers. Enjoy this chapter!