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*BLAM*

The sound echoed around the room, Leaving everyone frozen in fear. Several people looked towards the hostages fearing the worst. To their utter surprise, Everypony was in no worse-a-condition than when they first entered. The Metallic *Thud* of a heavy weighted pistol hitting the wood floor sounded off. Dimitri recoiled into the wall behind him clutching his right hand with his left. The grimace of extreme pain smeared all over his face.

The door was pushed open wide. And the 7'6 (With a lack of a better description) 'Build like a brick shit-house' form of Robert Mcdonnel, The leader of the American team 'Texan Ronson's '.

Entering the room, his glare would make fluttershy's animals relocate to another country. And his glare was laser focused on Dimitri's cringing face.

"If i' evah see ya'll try somthin' like that again. I'll tell mah' tank gunners to use yer' big mouth as a ranging target. Kapiche!"
Dimitri only nods returning the Americans glare. Johnna holsters his sidearm, and the other three leaders soon follow. Robert just stands there holding one of his .357's, which was a recreation of General Patton's pistols.

Johnna leans on the table with his hands, shaking his hanging head, he lets out a relived sigh. He mumbles "Guards, please take them to room two, make sure that they are given anything they desire, so long as they cant escape with it."

"Sir!" The guards turn to usher the ponies out of the room before Johnna looks up and raises his voice.

"Sergeant!" The guard turns back to face Johnna from the door. "Make sure their comfortable! And for the love of everything sacred man! Build the poor sods the shower i asked for them two days ago! Raid Chase's supply Depot if you have to, but just make sure their treated like our own troops would be!" The guard smiles warmly before happily replying with.

"Siryessir!" And beginning his jog down the hall to catch up with the convoy shuffling down the hallway.

After a few moments Johnna looks to Dimitri, then a light bulb evidently lit up and Johnna turns to Mcdonnel. "Ey, mate, Wheres your lot? Don't you guys generally like the dramatic entrances?" The tanned scraggly leader asks in confusion.

Locking his weapons safety, Mcdonnel spins his pistol on his finger a few times before holstering it and replying with "Yeah, they should be here an-" Before he could finish his sentence he stopped, as somewhat familiar music began to enter the soundproofed room. And the voices of several hundred people accompanied the music, singing the lyrics in near perfect time. They sounded absolutely bloody awful, like an orchestra of moaning cats.

"So Then, A, Byyyyeee, Byyyyeeee, Miss, Ameri-can Pie! Drove Mah' Shevvy to th' Levy. But the Levy was Dryy."

Johns lets out a single "HAH" Before plopping back down in his seat holding his forehead. " I guess that answers my question then!"

Char clears his throat from across the table before asking. "Can we please get this meeting back on the road so that i can return to the previously Aforementioned list of things that i need to attend to." With that everyone returned to their seats, including Dimitri, who'd removed his black leather glove to reveal half of his hand was now bruised purple.

After a few seconds Johnna kept on staring into the table on an alternate train of thought. Mcdonnel responds with. "Well, Sweetheart? You gonna say somthing dearie~?"

"Faaarrck Off." Johnna groans in his thick (but deeper than normal) Australian accent. "Were was i?"

Ling shifted uncomfortably before saying "Slaughtered in their beds?"

Johnna's tone returned to its previous sad, sorry self. "Ah...Right... Well, one of the guards had noticed shadows in the temporary hangar tents and checked his roster, after several minutes of confusion, the guard 'pulled an Aussie' and went, 'Fuck it' and sounded the alarm. The mechanics rushed into their stations around the aircraft in the hangar tents, and found that pegasai had begun to sabotage the fighters. They'd cut oil and fuel lines as well as any visible pipes, hoses or cables."

Johnna looked up from his blank stare at the table to see if everyone was still following along, and was greeted by many inquisitive stares and several people bobbing their heads, agreeing with the pegasai's action of sabotaging the aircraft as a good tactical decision.

"Those whom sabotaged the aircraft were chased out of the hangar tents by the over-zealous and quite frankly pissed off mechanics, and the pegasai tasked with killing those sleeping suddenly found themselves in a brawl for their lives as the alarm awoke the barrack they'd just entered. The guard tower routed a squad of grenadiers to the building when he'd noticed no-one was leaving for action stations, as well as the several that had already been visited by the winged bastards. From there a C.O Found the dead, and alerted Errik, and then the Germans... Lost their SHIT!"

Everyone around the table cringed at that, Knowing that when the Germans became very angry, they often reached the 'Not a level in hell below me' state of rage. Very scary to deal with... "The rule book went out the window and within a minute and three-ish seconds the poor winged bastards trying to flee for their lives were being shot at by every AAA weapon on the base, a total of six were downed by Wirblewinds and Ostwinds. Three from Fixed 20mm fire, and one sorry bitch got his by an 88'."

The cringes were real, and several in attendance grimaced and hissed at that. Emily practically leaped from her seat. "What happened to their bodies?" she asked in concern, knowing that the Germans were Liable to skin them in their raged state.

"I sent troops to render aid for the Mist Cougars, but they evidently weren't needed, so they retrieved the bodies instead. Two more were hit by Wirblewind fire and fell with their wings broken, but were saved by falling into trees. Their due for their fourth surgery in an hour. Its doubtful they'll ever fly again..."

Everyone stared blankly into the tables wood grain. The feeling in the room was somber at best.

"I Dunnoh' bout' you lot'. But ah' don't like taking about all this death. Whats the real reason why you called us here besides this.... Incident..." Mcdonnel said quietly in his drawl.

Johnna leaped at the chance to change the dark subject. "Wheres your teams reports? We want everything, Logistics logs, current supply and attrition!"

Mcdonnel waved his hand and several of his assistants walked in carrying large boxes. They removed the lids and quickly flipped the boxes over on the table. Leaving lazy neat piles next to the mountain of paper. Alarmingly, almost half of it was red.

"Food aint' lookin' too good for us chief. Ya' know we usually travel light n' live off th' land. But there ain't many deer or large enough game to support all of us round' here... we're, with a lack of a better term, Fucked."

"Don't worry. This meeting was not just a logistics recall. As char said before you arrived Robert, the primary reason I've called you all here this afternoon. Was to propose a ceasefire agreement, and to have all of our teams ally. Its the safest course of action to ensure humanity's survival, since as i'm sure you've all guessed, were not on earth anymore, or from earth of our time at least..."

Dozens of heads were nodding in agreement at what Johnna had just suggested. Char spoke up, to hammer the idea home for the rest who were evidently confused at the prospect. "And, how would this help humanity to survive?" His mannered rich low tone inquired.

"Well, for starters. Five Thousand Humans is alot more dangerous and terrifying to face the prospect of battle against instead of a few hundred. Thus lowering the chances of future skirmishes or heaven forbid, battles breaking out. With a single unified entity, Diplomatic strains are also greatly reduced. And finally we gain the benefits of having combined and huge amounts of manpower, and as such vast amounts of work and resources are able to be utilized. It makes life substantially safer, and easier, if we all agree here to join into one conglomerate."

"And who will command or lead such a conglomerate?" Ling questions. Everyone appears to look concerned at the prospect of loosing their command, and thus their assured protection over their teammates.

"Us of course, Having only one leader is foolish. It can lead to all sorts of problems down the road, such as corruption, or becoming emotionally compromised. But as it stands theres ten leaders sitting before me. We have a proverbial 'round table' going on here mates."

Johnna could see that many were liking this proposal but several of the leaders looked very confused or indecisive as to where or how to proceed.

"You have given a great many points to think over, but i humbly ask that you allow us to think over such points before continuing." Ling said in a cautious tone.

"As do we, We have much to consult with our team in its entirety before reaching a definitive conclusion." Emily stated before rising from her seat.

Dimitri just stood up, before leaving the room with the rest of his personnel, still clutching his hand. Ling and Emily also turned to leave but stopped once they heard Chars calm voice reply with.

"The principality accepts your terms in their entirety. We're all with you on this." This caught them all off guard, as Char's faction was the 'Avoid all unnecessary contact or relations' type. This shift in Chars opinion was the driving force for the next several advisers to begin openly talking with their leaders about the prospects of such an arrangement. From what could be heard, most of these prospects were positive.

Mcdonnel removed his green helmet. He then slams its into the table causing everyone to go silent, he runs his hand through his dirt brown hair before sighing and responding with.

"Not much fer' speeches... Th'ts why i like you Australians. To the point and always willing to joke about it" He then looks Johnna in the eye "But i suspect this ain't a joke, an' yer serious bout' all this. So you can count us all in. Texan Ronsons are at your tables service Johnna" With that he reclines in his chair, before drawing his .357 and without aiming, shoots out a tinted window.

Glass rains down on the cooks attempting to prepare the various implements of their trade for dinner that night. Everyone in the room was stunned at what the American had just done. And just stared at him slack jawed.

"What? Don' look at me like that! It was too fuckin hot in this shithole. Smells like a dead camels ass too." He said bluntly with more drawl then usual. After several seconds Johnna and his personnel began a guffaw, causing those remaining in the room to roll their eyes at the stereotype of the Australian's and the Americans getting along so well.

The room soon went into an uproar of laughter when a very aggravated chef pitched a fresh hard tomato through the broken window, sending shards into the room. But the thing that caused the laughter, was the fruit hit its intended target with perfect accuracy, Knocking his unsecured helmet off of his head, and sending it rolling across the floor with the red bruised ball still sitting in it. Giving the helmets nickname of 'Salad bowl' A whole new meaning.

"Karey. Send messages to those who left that we continue this tomorrow and await their decisions."

"Sure thing mate." Karey said still chuckling, then closes the door as she as the last of the leaders left leaving Robert, who's still in his recline and Johnna alone in the room.

...

...

...

"So," Robert begins. "Whats your point of view on these 'Locals' That i just saved. Are they a severe danger to our safety? or are they willin' to make peace with th' fact that we're stuck here for th' long run?"

Johnna Practically collapses into his plush wheelie chair before sinking into it and groaning. "I Dunno mate... From the recon reports Jay shoved down me throat... Their queens appeared to be mighty pissed at their captains troops. She even publicly stripped the ranks and sacked the survivors who escaped the massacre against us. Word has it she then paraded their sorry arses out of town down the only cobbled road, presumably to their capital... So, theres a chance that they've wanted to initiate peace since day one..."

"Or" Robert begins ominously whilst glaring at the ceiling. "She punished them to not being able to exterminate such a comparatively weak enemy... I've seen the reports you've made on the way up here. Heard rather... but Morse code gives them just as much justice. They not only outnumber us, but can fly and use Fuckin 'Magic'... Its shit out of a fairy tail from satan's ass crack."

Johnna looks up out of the window before sighing. "I Know, Either way... We're fucked. If they attack were Fucked, If they don't we're still Fucked, Cause if starvation or disease doesn't kill us. The freaking winter will... That's if we stay sane that long and don't break down into civil war or just start murdering each other..."

"Yeah. We are looking pretty Screwed arn't we... Well, Either way, Us Muricans N' Aussie's have to stick together Ey?"

"I Wouldn't trust anyone else to watch me back whilst i have me trousers down" Johnna said through a smile at his childhood skype friend.

Little did the two know, but in the shadows a particular oddity was watching them through a busted roof grate. The same pair of jade green Eyes whom helped save them that one stormy night. The vampire Thestral commando crawled her way silently through the Ventilation ducts of the two story building until she found the vertical exhaust vent out the roof from which she entered that morning.

With one mighty flap of her wings she launched herself off the roof and immediately hurtled through the forest out of sight...

'The princesses will be happy to hear of the humans wanting to be peaceful! They even protected our own ponies, much more, the same ones that caused them harm!' She thought to herself with a gleeful smile. 'But what they said about themselves wasn't encouraging... are they really so fragile? And even then we still have much ground to cover in earning their trust... Damn that Stryder! He's caused such a mess!... Waiiiit a minute... If they've spared Stryders troops, then that means the fool could still be alive! Heh. He'll still get his trial...' She mentally spoke to herself whilst she flew through the shadows of The Everfree at great speed. Her goal, The Castle of Friendship. 'The Princesses will want to hear of this report!'