Time: 8:39 A.M., 06/26/4 PHA
Location: Fort Faust, Griffinland*
It had been a few months since L. Franz went on his retrieval mission. The egg hatched shortly after he landed at the griffin fort, though very few knew about it. As soon as he stopped his ship, he flew directly to the infirmary and gave it to them, where it was quickly placed under heavy guard. He was debriefed as soon as he left the medical ward, and had been placed on standby since.
During this time, relations with Equestria became strained. The Princesses accused the Alliance of sending raiding parties across the border into Equestria. The Alliance responded to this by accusing the Princesses of the same thing. Trade between the two factions ground to a standstill, and the Alliance barred any citizens of Equestria from entering their lands. Talks between the nations invariably led to petty insults and threats of violent retaliation.
Today, a dispute along the border had turned into a small battle between the two groups. The Alliance won, but at a price; over half of the forces sent into the fray never left the field of battle. A small scouting party was sent to patrol along the border while the wounded were brought back to the fort. Franz was ordered to remain at the fort for the time being, while Command figured out what to do about the events of the day.
It happened that Franz found himself in the office of Brigadegeneral Amsel, listening to the chatter around him and awaiting orders. He stood in a corner of the bland office, being careful not to knock over a ficus while staying out of the way of the officers constantly entering and exiting the room.
After a few minutes of this, a letter materialized itself beside Amsel before slowly falling to his desk. Amsel picked it up and unfurled it, his eyes slowly going over the words written on the parchment. Finally, he rolled it back up and set it in the topmost drawer of his desk. He leaned forward in his chair, and issued a single command to the only other figure in the room.
“Leutnant Franz, gather all of the officers currently onsite and bring them here.”
Franz put up a quick salute and marched out the door. As it happened, there were only four other officers at the base at the moment, the rest were out in the field or gathering reports from the other bases and nearby towns. Franz found Oberleutnants Hahn and Loewe, Hauptmann Vogler, and Stabshauptmann Nussbaum and brought them into the Amsel’s office.
Once everyone was inside, Franz retook his place by the ficus and waited for Amsel to speak. He didn’t have long to wait.
“Ehrenmänner, what I am about to say is more important than anything else I have said in my life. Listen closely; I’d rather not repeat myself.
“At around 4:29 this morning, an Alliance patrol on our side of the border passed an Equestrian patrol on their side of the border. Insults were passed, tempers were high, and someone on one side attacked the other side. Neither patrol survived to say who attacked whom, but that doesn’t matter anymore. What does matter is that reinforcements for both sides arrived shortly after and joined the fight. The battle lasted until about 6:42 when a ceasefire was called. This much you know already.
“I received a letter from Alliance command a short time ago. This battle, no matter who started it, was the last straw in their minds. At 8:00, a decision was made.” Brigadegeneral Amsel took a breath, as if to steady himself for what he had to say next.
“The Draco-Griffin Alliance has declared war on Equestria. Effective immediately, any Equestrian soldier you see is to be considered a combatant, and dealt with accordingly.”
The officers stood in a stunned silence, Franz included. He knew that war was inevitable, but for it to finally arrive was still a shock to him. He was thinking, wondering how this would play out when Amsel spoke again. “SH. Nussbaum, H. Vogler, O. Hahn and O. Loewe, you are dismissed. L. Franz, stay. I have orders for you.”
As the other officers filtered out through the door, Franz approached the table. The dark crimson griffon on the opposite side of the desk stood up and, reaching into his top pocket, pulled out a small black diamond made of cloth.
“Leutnant Franz, you have been promoted to Oberst in the Alliance Armed Forces. I wish we could have a ceremony as is normal for these kinds of things, but under the circumstances that is impossible.”
Oberst Franz stood still while Amsel pinned the diamond on his uniform, signifying his new rank. When he was done, Amsel sat back down in his chair and signaled for Franz to sit as well. As Franz lowered himself into a chair across and to the left of the Brigadegeneral, he spoke.
“It is an honor, Sir, but why am I being promoted now when I have been on standby for the past few months?” Amsel waited a moment before responding.
“This is to make your job easier. You are the best at what you do, Infiltrator, and now that we’re at war for the first time in Freyja-knows-how-long, you’re going to have a lot of work to do. Best to cut out as much red tape as possible, ja?” He reached into the topmost drawer of his desk and pulled out the scroll from earlier. “I have your first set of orders from Command, Oberst. You are to head to Alliance Armed Forces Command Headquarters, where you receive your second set of orders. You leave tomorrow. Dismissed.”
Franz left the office of Brigadegeneral Amsel, and left the fort’s Administrative building. He stood still for a moment, trying to absorb what had just happened.
“One moment I’m a Leutnant, the next, an Oberst. I don’t know if that has happened before.” He thought, leaning against the wall of the building he had just exited. “I wonder what they want me to do that they couldn’t just say it in the letter. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. Speaking of, I should go pack.” He left his spot on the wall and walked over to the barracks where he had lived the past year. You aren’t allowed to keep a lot of personal items in the AAF, so he didn’t have much to pack. Once that was finished, he decided to groom and clean up his appearance. He went to the showers and began to disrobe.
First, he took off his jacket. It wasn’t much to look at, a dull grey that matched the color of the fort walls. It had his name written above the right breast pocket, and the flag of Griffinland on his right sleeve. On his left pocket were his ribbons, only a few at the moment, but he was confident that that more would be added in time. Beneath that was a plan black shirt. He placed it and the jacket on a hanger and hung it on the peg beside him.
Next were the pants. Shorts, really, but they did their job. They here the same grey as the jacket, and were hung through a hole in the hanger.
Finally, with a quiet pop, he removed his wings.
When he was younger, an accident had cost him his natural wings. Not willing to spend the rest of his life on the ground, the young Franz had constructed a set of artificial ones. This first pair worked about as well as could be expected of something built by someone fresh from the roost, and he had almost given up on flying ever again when a machinist zebra came into town. She saw the young griffin struggling with his fake wings and felt pity for him. She offered to make a set that would not only allow him to fly again, but would allow him to fly better than before. He quickly agreed, and six months later the pair of wings were finished. She had made them to look as natural as possible, and only the most discerning eye could tell that something was off about them. She had also enchanted them to allow for smoother flights. However, the machinist was unable to make them as light as a real set of wings, so the young Franz had needed to build up the strength to be able to wear the wings before he could test them out. When Franz was finally able to take to the skies again, the machinist vanished. He was never able to thank her properly, but he was pretty sure that she knew he was grateful.
The weight of the wings was a boon when it came to fights. His opponents would assume that they could knock him over, only to be crushed by his weight when they tried.
They did cause him to suffer from a major fear of magnets, though.
After his shower, Franz straightened his feathers in a mirror. His dark brown body and light grey head were fluffed out from the shower, but a few passes with a soft brush and they were back to normal. He put his wings and clothes back on, and checked the time.
“2:53. I don’t have much else to do, so I guess I’ll tinker with my ship. Best get it ready for the trip tomorrow.”
While Franz was perfectly capable of flight, he much preferred to use his ship when possible. It was a strange combination of griffin, pony, and zebra technology and magic. It was shaped like a backwards horseshoe, and hovered slightly above the ground. Engines powered by magic were located at the back of the ship. They were dark at the moment, but would glow a bright purple when activated. Gems along the underside and inside of the arms of the ship acted as weapons. When the right button was pressed, an electrical charge would activate the spell matrixes inside the gems, causing them to fire out a ball of pure energy at near-hypersonic speeds.
The light grey of the ship helped it blend in with the snowy landscape and rocky mountains that dominated Franz’s homeland. That wasn’t necessary with the cloaking spells that were contained within gems located around the hull, but he felt like it was a nice touch.
He tuned up his ship for a while, making sure that everything was in working order. Once the sun set, he returned to the barracks, removed his uniform and wings again, and went to sleep.
• • • – – – • • •
The trip to the capital of the Alliance went by uneventful. What would have taken him nine hours to travel by himself took him only two hours by his ship. He landed on top of the building marked as the Alliance Armed Forces Command Headquarters and made his way inside. He made his way up to a young dragon at a desk that he assumed was a secretary of some sort and let them know why he was there.
“The Generals are busy at the moment, but will see you as soon as possible, sir.”
Franz assumed that he would be there for a while, and he wasn’t disappointed. After an hour of waiting, he was finally led into a large room. A massive oak table dominated the room, taking up about 1/3 of the total floor by itself. The large amount of chairs around the table told Franz that this room was mainly used for meetings between the various division heads and military leaders.
Seated at the far end of the table were three Generals that Franz did not recognize, two griffins and a dragon. He saluted each of them in turn, and took a seat at the table.
The dragon looked at him for only a second before speaking. “You must be Oberst Franz, ja?”
“Ja, General. Though I must admit, you have me at a disadvantage. I don’t know who any of you are.”
The griffin on the right, a large male with a black body and a grey head, spoke up at this. “If you did know who we were, we would have you burned were you sat.”
Franz got a little nervous at this. Who were these people?
“Don’t get upset, Oberst. General Barth is a little rough, but I doubt he would actually have you killed.” The griffin on the left said. She was a light grey, almost white griffin, one of the rare cases of the head and body being the same shade.
“We are the heads of the Alliance Special Forces. You do not need to know our names, Oberst.” The dragon said, then got the conversation back on track. “I assume that, since you are here, you are ready to find out why you were called here?”
Franz sat up a little straighter in his chair. “Ja, General. I am ready.”
“Gut. Now then,” The dragon pressed a button on the table, and a screen lowered down behind him. “You are aware that we are officially at war now, ja? Your remarkable ability to sneak into anyplace and get out alive is exactly what we need to finish this war quickly.”
A map of Equestria showed up on the screen. A red square appeared over the city of Canterlot, and then zoomed in on it.
“Your first task is to infiltrate the capital city of Equestria, and find the location of their most deadly weapon. Then, you are to find the weapon and bring it back to us. Without the weapon, Equestria will surely surrender. And while we hold the weapon, we’ll be free to make the conditions regarding their surrender. What do you say?”
Franz thought it over for a moment. “What am I after, exactly? The last time I went to Equestria with only a vague description of my target, I only barely arrived in time. I’d like to know what I’m after before leaving, thank you.” It took a second for Franz to realize how he had spoken to his superior officers. “Uh, if that’s fine, that is, Sir.”
The white griffin smiled at him. “Relax, Oberst. I wouldn’t agree to a mission like this without knowing what I was after, either.” The dragon nodded his head in agreement. “Indeed, had you not asked about it, I would have been worried. Now, your task is simple.”
The screen behind him changed into an image of the target that Franz was to attempt to steal. Franz looked over it for a moment and said “I’m supposed to steal their jewelry? Because I don’t think they’ll surrender over a bunch of necklaces.”
The generals chuckled at that. Well, two of them did. “No, no, no, Franz. You’re not stealing their jewelry.” The white griffin said.
“No, your task is to steal the Elements of Harmony.”