A Hero's 'Tail'

We had parked the APC in a clearing of a strange, dark forest. Grit had made a fire, and we sat around it, warming our hooves against the night chill.
The tree’s seemed to curl in around us, like monsters. A dank, bittersweet smell hung in the air, but I didn’t mind. I was with friends. These friends were pony troopers that’d helped us escape the lab. I had later found out from Grit that they were his bandit buddies.
Oddly enough, tonight they weren’t laughing, singing, or cracking up like our jolly band had been in the week since our escape, the happiest week of my life. I finally had a family after so long.
But I digress. These courageous stallions were sitting in a circle looking serious and distressed. I wondered what had them in an upheaval as I clopped my hooves together for warmth. Grit gave his trademark heave, launching straight into his speech.

“Brutus. There’s something really bad going on. It’s been going on for 5 days now. I haven’t wanted to tell you about it. Celestia knows you’ve gone through Hay and back. But this,” He paused for dramatic effect, taking a breath, “This is REALLY bad, and it’s REALLY important that we do something about it.”

He withdrew a map from one of his saddlebags, unfurling it across the loamy earth. He pointed to a green splotch on the map. “We’re here. The Everfree Forest.”

He took out a stick of chalk and circled six red dots on the map.

Grit continued, “Here are Cloudsdale, Trottingham, Hoofington, Phillydelphia, my fair Appleloosa, and Ponyville, respectively. All of them are towns or cities. Each of them is also being attacked by masked soldiers and demented mutant ponies. Ms. Bryant has gone Betty bonkers and released her test subjects, most of them driven insane from prolonged torture. She’s staging a hostile takeover from her compound in West Abtenauer, using the anarchy caused by the failed experiments as a smoke screen, or cover.”

I nodded, indicating that I understood, and then inquired, “But what does this have to do with us?”

Grit smiled like a father, nodding. “Firstly, if Ms. Bryant swipes Equestria out from under us, I guarantee you she won’t be merciful when she decides to look for ‘those escaped ponies’. Secondly, Trottingham alone has a population of roughly 120 thousand equine. Bryant’s a brutal mistress, and will likely test on or slaughter a good number of them, keeping a few as slaves. 120 thousand ponies, Brutus! That’s just counting Trottingham!”

I dipped my head, starting to realize the scope of what was going on.

Grit continued, “Thirdly, my family, Scootaloo and Cheerilee both live in Ponyville. They are my younger sisters and are in direct danger. The only thing keeping the mutants and soldiers at bay in that area is a small troop of my old school friends, christened The Valiant Braves.”

He paused for a moment, catching a lungful of air, sniffing the smells of the forest. He looked directly into my pupils, lacking the fear of my draconic irises that I’d often seen in the griffon’s faces at the lab.

After a long while of this, he asked me two straightforward words, the same he’d asked me when we had made our escape plan three weeks ago. “You in?”

After a moment, I smiled hesitantly. Grit clapped his hooves excitedly, registering my expression as a yes.

“I knew it wasn’t a mistake, freeing you!” Grit hollered eagerly, beginning to detail his plan of action. “Our first tiny problem is…”