The screaming followed us as we beat a hasty retreat over the mountains. It echoed from the peaks, trailing after us, fading only when we reached the Everfree forest. The change in atmosphere was palpable. Ponies moved closer together, eyes wide, nostrils flared. They looked ready to bolt at any second.
The only way this could feel more like home for me is if Twilight was here. Even the air smelled different than the rest of Equestria, different even than Valgryph. It smelled cleaner, even though there was very little pollution in either country. I turned on my troops.
“Night Wind, send out scouts. Find somewhere to set camp that isn’t far from here. Ironshod, you’re going foraging. Zecora, give him a list of things to look out for, good and bad.” I’d kill to have Fluttershy here right now. “She knows this forest, though maybe not this side of it.” They jumped to it, happy to have something to do. “Who’s in charge of the wounded?” Bloody Bandages hobbled forward.
“It was Sergeant-Major Clean Cut, but a griffon got him a week or so back,” he explained, his voice the flat, bored tone of those tired to feel. “I’m the highest ranking medic we have left. Apart from Zecora, I mean.”
“Check over the wounded, have someone check supplies. We might be able to get some more now that we aren’t too far from Canterlot.” We would, if Celestia hadn’t gone bonkers since I last saw her. “Have someone look at your leg. By someone I mean not you.” He limped off, giving his own orders. “I want a supply count as soon as possible,” I said, not to anyone in particular. The ponies whose job that was would know.
Next I found Quick Cut, with the griffon Princess. He looked up when I cleared my throat and walked over to me. “Sir,” he said, saluting. “How long do you think we bought today?”
I glanced up to the mountains, were the skies were empty. “I don’t know. Maybe a week or two? They’ll be cautious as well, scared we’ll do it again.”
“Can we, sir? And, if you don’t mind my asking, what the hay was that?”
“Chlorine gas, Lieutenant. It burns the eyes and the lungs within seconds. With the wind blowing it towards them, and the concentration of it, some of the front lines probably went blind. If they aren’t dead of lung failure, at least.” He was looking at me like I told him I eat foals. “I was originally going to try and get mustard gas, but that takes too long to start work and is denser than air. So is chlorine, but it works fast enough that I was likely to get some use from it before they flew away.”
He took a deep breath before speaking, with obvious distaste. “How many do you think it killed?”
I shrugged. “Not many. There’ll be a lot of injured though. Breathing problems, damaged eyes. I don’t think it would get to skin through feathers, but if it did thats more injuries. They probably don’t know how to treat it, so they’ll be injured for a while, and then they’ll get better. Or die, one of the two.”
Quick Cut didn’t reply for a while, instead watching the sky slowly turn dark. “Storm coming soon,” he noted. There was, a huge build up of angry grey clouds farther up the Everfree and heading this way. “Going to be a bad one.”
“We’ll get wet, but we’ll survive. How long do you think until it gets here? The winds could be useful.”
Quick Cut shrugged. “Better off asking Night Wind, sir. She knows more about weather than I do.”
We both watched the clouds for a time. It was nice, having a moment of peace after today. But it didn’t last. It was only a few minutes later that I started receiving reports, about supplies and wounded and the area and a dozen other things I had to know.
I read through the reports and gave a few orders, then handed most of the reports to Quick Cut, who read them and gave more orders. While he was doing that, I took a visit to the griffon Princess.
Her feathers were dark brown and pale silver, and her fur was rust red. When I walked in, she looked up at me with big yellow eyes, too tired to be properly scared. She was shackled to a tree, to stop her from flying away, but apart from that she was unbound. When I came near she started to inch away, only stopping when she backed into a tree. I stopped about five foot away, well out of reach, and sat on the ground.
She looked at me for a while, slowly inching closer.
“Hello,” I said. She sprang back in fright, taking to the air for a few moments. When she didn’t do anything else, I said, “Can you tell me your name?”
She chirped something at me, in Avian, though she might as well as not bothered for all I understood.
“We’re aren’t going to hurt you. We just needed the other griffons to follow us and you were the best way to do that.” I don’t think she understood a word I was saying, but talking seemed to calm her down.
I sat and talked at her for a few more minutes before I had to leave. I’d need to have Night Wind or someone talk to her, make sure she isn’t hurt or starving or something. I did plan on giving her back eventually.
I helped out with the wounded for a while, using what Zecora taught me, but stopped when Night Wind dropped from the sky next to me.
She looked at me and said, “You look like crap, sir.”
“Who doesn’t. What’d you see?”
“We’ve got clearings and caves aplenty around here. Where would you rather set up?”
“Personally, a cave. Easier to defend, can’t get hit by flying griffons. How would ponies deal with being in a cave?”
She shrugged. “Ask Ironshod. He used to be a miner, few years back.”
“Noted. What can you tell me about the storm?”
She looked up at it. “It’ll be fierce. I’ll probably have to ground all my scouts when it hits. No way I’m letting anyone fly in that. It’ll hit us in a little over three days. Probably take just as long to pass over us. Can’t do anything about it, I’m afraid. Too big, too much momentum. It’d be like trying to stop the sun. Want me to go find Ironshod for you?”
I shook my head. “Go get some sleep. We can’t move the wounded for a while anyway, and I doubt the griffons will do anything before that storm hits.”
“I’ll get some sleep if you do, sir. When was the last time you slept, anyway?”
It took me a while to remember. “Before we hit that town with all the brothels, I think. Why?”
“Sir, that was almost a month ago.”
“That can’t be right.” I tried to do some quick math, but the numbers were slippery things, hard to grasp.
“It is right, sir.” She paused for a moment, then grinned. “You’re useless to us tired,” she said, throwing my own words back at me. Her grin changed slightly. “I could keep you company, if you like.”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” I told her. She hung her head. “But I will take your advice. I do need some sleep.”
She went back to the first grin. “You know, you’re the first stallion who hasn’t gotten all flustered when I said that? See you in the morning.”
“Night, lieutenant.” She giggled and shook her head as she walked away. “Oh, in the morning, go talk to the Princess, the griffon one.” She said she would and kept walking and I went looking for a place to sleep.
Of course, there were some things I had to do before I could sleep. There always was. I think the Night Guard has just gotten so used to me not sleeping they get worried when I do. I took care of them as quickly as I could, found a place I could lie down, and closed my eyes.
The dream started right away. Luna appeared before me, standing on nothing. Relief flooded her face when she saw me, and she started floating towards me. When she stopped moving, she paused a moment, before opening her mouth, but before she could say anything she cracked, shattering into a thousand thousand pieces, all of which were blown away by a sudden, fierce wind, swirling every which way around me.
I stood, too stunned to to anything, when I felt a presence. It knew something had arrived, they same way I know someone is behind me even if they say nothing. A pressure on my skin, hair standing upright, a sudden urge to move, quickly, before they did something to me.
The nothingness chuckled, deep and dark.
“YOU ARE HARD TO FIND, LITTLE ONES,” the presence declared. “YOU DO NOT COME INBETWEEN AS OFTEN AS YOU SHOULD.”
I’ll admit, I was not doing my best here. Partly due to the shock of seeing Luna turn to dust, partly due to the force of the presences ‘voice’. It was like standing atop a mountain amid gale force winds. I managed to croak out a stunned, “what?” which was so quiet after the thunder and fury of the presence that I wasn’t sure I actually said it.
The presence shifted, perhaps noticing the discomfort it caused me, though I doubted that. I felt it change slightly. It was liking going from a huge crowd to a quiet library.
“SO TELL ME, LITTLE ONES, DID YOU LIKE MY STORM?”
“Your storm?” another voice asked.
“AND SO THE OTHER MAKES ITSELF KNOWN AT LAST!” The presence cackled madly. “FINALLY! HOW FARES THE HEARTLAND?”
I turned to my left to see only more nothingness. Was I the only one with an actual body here? As if in response, something slowly formed from the darkness. Standing slightly shorter than me, with pale skin and dark hair, floating in nothingness, was Cameron. That explained the plural, but left me with so many questions. Actually, I only had one question. What the fuck?
The presence was still laughing uproariously. I got the feeling it was at my expense.
Eventually, not that I had any idea how much time had passed here, it calmed down, stopped laughing, and I felt the weight of its attention fall on me.
“I ask again, your storm?” Cameron’s voice came from my other side this time, but even as he spoke the presence kept his attention on me. I could feel it, a force as implacable as gravity.
“WHO ELSE COULD CREATE ONE SO PERFECT, HMM? WHO ELSE HAS MY FLAIR?”
“The storm’s not reached us yet.”
The other paused. “IT HASN’T REACHED YOU? REALLY?” I nodded. “OH. MY TIMING APPEARS TO BE A LITTLE OFF. AH WELL. I’VE NEVER GOTTEN ON WELL WITH TIME. SHE WAS ALWAYS MUCH TO ORDERLY FOR ME. EVERY SECOND HAS TO FOLLOW THE LAST JUST SO. BLEH.”
I glanced at Cameron, who seemed unsurprised by what was going on. He was sitting, cross legged, looking roughly were I assumed the other presence had condensed itself.
“STILL, I’M SURE IT WILL BE OF GREAT HELP TO YOU, LITTLE HUMAN,” the presence continued. “I HOPE YOU DO NOT PLAN ON SQUANDERING IT IN SOME DREARY CAVE.”
That had been my plan exactly, more or less. Ride out the storm in the cave and try to work out a way to not get slaughtered by a couple thousand pissed off griffons.
But think of the possibilities.
I’d pushed the griffons back. Right now, they were on the defensive. Having some unicorns pop in to unleash some hell did sound appealing. And I don’t think griffons had the same resistance to electric shock pegasi have, so sending some over with storm clouds could be a good idea. If I hit them hard and fast, I could buy more than a few days.
“I’m sure he appreciates any help you can give him,” Cameron replied. “I certainly would.”
“AH, BUT WHAT HELP WOULD ONE SUCH AS YOU NEED?”
“Oh, this and that. Nothing too difficult. I’m sure you could manage.”
He can make storms, I’m pretty sure he can help you with any problems you have.
It took me a few seconds to realise I hadn’t said that, and a few more to realise my fucking mouth was gone. My confusion was starting to get replaced with anger, but a smaller, smarter part of me was telling to me to be afraid, be very afraid, that something important was happening here that I should not be witness to.
The presence was radiating thoughtfulness. “I’LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO. BUT FOR NOW, I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE.”
And just like that, I was waking up
I woke to a gentle rain, the pitter-patter of the drops on leaves filling the forest with soft sound. I slapped my hand to my mouth and almost shouted with joy when I felt my lips. I may have giggled slightly. Once I was sure my mouth was actually there, I pushed myself to my feet, stretched and twisted. I felt my back crack more than I heard it, the pops starting at the base of my spine and moving up. I let out a content sigh when they reached the top. Grabbing my spear, I gave myself a sniff and figured I’d be good for another day or two. That done, I went looking for Spike. I walked out from between two trees near the centre of our camp and he ran into me. When he picked himself up from the ground, he handed me a half-dozen or so letters. “From Princess Luna,” he explained, before walking off, rubbing his throat. Convenient.
“Spike, stay there. Might need to send something back.” He sighed, but did as ordered. I read through the letters quickly. The first two were reports on the southern front. It was going better than it had been, our forces slowly but surely pushing the Diamond Dogs back. They just needed an extra week or two. Maybe a month. That pushed the total time to what, three and a half months? We’d been here for a little over a month already, and we’d already lost a third of our troops. We wouldn’t last that long. One was signed ‘Luna’, not ‘Princess Luna’, and I had Spike burn it before I was halfway through. One was from actually from Shining Armour, asking for advice about something. I’d show Quick Cut later, he’d be able to answer it better than I would. The last was from Twilight. It was six pages long, filled with her small, tight writing. Folding it over, I slipped it under my belt. I didn’t have time to read it properly right now.
I used the letters Luna sent to give my reply, which basically said extra time wasn’t happening. She wouldn’t be happy with that, but I’d could deal with that. I mean, she can’t really be mad at me if I’m dead, so if shes pissed then I’m alive. I had Spike send that off then went looking for Quick Cut. “How long was I asleep?” I asked Spike as we walked.
He shrugged. “Few hours, maybe? It’s not like I was keeping track. Been a few hours since I last saw you though. You must have been exhausted to sleep that long.” My answer was a jawbreaker of a yawn.
We found Quick Cut fairly quickly, though at some point during my wandering I lost Spike. I gave Quick Cut Shining Armour’s letter and told him to look over it and reply soon via Spike. I took care of some paperwork - even here, I can’t escape it - and sat down to read Twilight’s letter. It took me an hour and a half to read it properly. I had to use the back of her letters to reply, because we were short on parchment due to the rain. I had Spike send it off, then got to work.
It took a while, but I talked Quick Cut into thinking about hitting back. With his help, we brought Night Wind around Quickly, and Ironshod agreed before we even got two words out. We spent the rest of the day planning. We were going to attack the before the storm hit, to give us time to move before when they can’t follow. It was a good plan. Good, but not perfect. It involved some really delicate timing, and the idea that teleportation doesn’t break conservation of momentum, but that a skilled enough unicorn can redirect that momentum. Plus a few surprises me and Spike were going to deliver from Zecora.
Oh, and some really big rocks.
Me and Spike went over the mountains with only the moon and a splatter of stars visible above us, the rest being hidden by the storm that had boiled up after that weird-as-fuck dream. Shit, I forgot to mention that in my letter to Luna. It would have to wait.
We slowly made our way to the griffon camp by sound, the high pitched noises they made bouncing through the still night air working like beacons, pointing our way. There were only a few still awake, barely any sentries. They’d gotten lax, not expecting us to hit back. Just inside the camp, we went our separate ways. Spike went after supplies, taking Zecora’s little gift with him, I went after griffons.
Sneaking up on sleeping griffons is surprisingly easy. I guess when your eyes are as good as theirs, hearing and smell suffer. Oh well. Made my job easier. I spent a half hour or so slitting throats and dodging patrols that came too close. Man they had a really shitty sense of smell if they couldn’t smell the blood on me. Slitting throats is messy. Had a couple close calls, one griffon actually getting a few hits in before he realised he should be dead. Nothing serious. By the time I was to meet back up with Spike, I’d killed around fifteen of them, most of them officers. Spike had spiked the supplies - medical, food and water - with a little something special. A blood thinner for bandages, laxative in the food, little things like that, though those were by far the most benign.
We met up in what was roughly the centre of the camp, and after I put something on the little cut the griffon had given me, Spike sent up the last surprise Zecora had given him; a flare. Even looking away, eyes closed, I still saw the flash as the flare lifted off. A couple minutes later, a unicorn was planted next to us and we teleported to where a bit of rock jutted up out of the mountains, making an almost level platform. From here, we watched as unicorns rained rocks the size of my head on the griffons. Just a drizzle, enough to make them need those supplies and need them now.
Now, I was expecting the rocks to hit fairly hard. That was sort of the point, after all. What I was not expecting was them to hit with a sound like thunder, throwing up chunks of dirt and grass and chips of stone like a bomb had gone off. The flashes of teleportation lit the sky like lightening, making it look like the storm had decided to use rocks instead of rain.
We took our time getting back to camp. It had moved while I was out, into a couple caves. Much better than being out in the open. The storm was a short distance away, and it looked overripe, swollen and full to bursting. It rumbled away and above, like the grumblings of an angry giant.
I found Quick Cut in the larger of the two caves we occupied, and he filled me in on the little that had happened while I was away. His nose twitched when I came near, and he turned to face me. “How did it go, sir?”
“Fine, no problems. Little rain though,” I said. A medic came over and started stitching me up. “Lance Corporal Clean Cut, right?” He nodded without saying anything, focussing on the stitches. I looked from him to Quick Cut. “You two related?”
“Brothers, sir,” Quick Cut replied, handing over a few reports. It was mostly good news. Griffons were confused, had tossed a lot more supplies than Spike had time or materials to get to, and were generally overreacting. The bad news was, they were really pissed now. That storm couldn’t come soon enough. They were pretty short reports; seems the griffons had started being really aggressive when it comes to scouts. We’d lost a couple in the past hour or so.
A unicorn I didn’t recognise, one of the new Day Guard recruits, came trotting over and handed something to Quick Cut, who glanced at it and handed it to me, his face taking on a perfectly neutral mask. It was a letter, marked with both Celestia and Luna’s seals. Opening it, it turned out to be two letters. The one from Celestia was a repeat of the one from Luna saying they needed more time, though I don’t think she knew Luna had sent her own. I gave her the same reply. The one from Luna was very short.
Find space and reply. I shall come.
“Sir?” one of the three unicorns said. I looked up, and all three were staring at me, though Quick Cut quickly looked away. I glanced a Clean Cut, who patted the stitches. “All done here, sir. Just try not to break them any time soon. We’re getting lower on thread than we’d like.” I dismissed him, and he left, taking the messenger unicorn with him.
“Anything I should know, sir?” Quick Cut asked.
“Luna’s coming for a visit. Pass me the supply report, I’ll send get her to bring some with her.” He floated it over to me. I gave it a quick look. “Anything not on here you’d like some of?”
He looked from me off into the middle distance. “We don’t need food or water, yet,” he said, speaking mostly to himself. “Armour is good, though only because we’ve been looting the dead. Spike is taking care of mail. Some of that gas we used would be good. Or something with a kick to it. Ironshod mentioned something they used to mine through bedrock…”
“Remember what it was called?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Just that he said it was a black power.”
“I’ll ask him about it later. I’ll ask Luna to speak to Twilight; she can probably make some of it.”
It’s gunpowder.
“What?” After so long silent I was surprised to hear from him again. I waved away Quick Cut’s confused look and thought, what?
The black powder, it’s called gunpowder here. My here, I mean. Or blasting powder, when it’s used to mine, I guess. I can tell you how to make it. You need sulphur, charcoal and potassium nitrate. The last might be called saltpeter. You get it from bat shit. Used in guns and explosives.
And why the sudden urge to help?
You might be a dick, but that doesn’t mean I want you to die, and lets face it, you need all the help you can get here. Maybe I was growing on him. Plus, I don’t want to find out what happens to me when you die. Knowing my luck, it’d be nothing good.
I think I’ll pass on making it myself, though I don’t mind the lesson. I’ll just put blasting powder down. Anything else you can think of that would help would be good, though. I sort of remember about guns, though I don’t see the value of them if I’m the only one on my side that can sue them.
I’ll explain if you answer questions about Equestria.
I thought about it for the five or so seconds it took me to find Spike.
Deal.
He gave me instructions on how to make it. It was ridiculously easy. I checked my list again, and added a ball bearings at Cameron’s suggestion. I added a few other miscellaneous items to the list before I had Spike send it off. I was standing in a clearing in the forest when he did, and he sprinted away as soon as the letter went up in smoke.
I don’t know why. It took an hour or so for Luna to get here. With a sound like a punch to the face and no light whatsoever, Luna appeared before me. A few bags and boxes dropped to the ground at her sides, but I didn’t get a chance to pay much attention to them. Luna stomped towards me, eyes glowing in the predawn light. Stopping inches from my face, she growled, “How did you do that?”
I took two steps back before answering. “Do what?”
“I don’t know!” Something off to the side flashed, and I saw a rock rise the size of both my fists, held in a dark blue aura, and watched as it was crushed, the shards floating, whirling in an unseen wind. “One moment, I was in your dream, to deliver a message, and then I shattered, my mind ejected from the dreamscape, tumbling through the aether. Something did that to me. Me!” Another rock rose and crumbled, this one the size of my head. She took a step towards me. “I am Princess of the Night and all that happens under my stars is mine!” Two more, larger than the first. Another step. “So tell me, how did you, with your lack of magic, remove me from your dream?” She was leaning towards me now, her eyes open wide and large enough to drown in.
I took another two steps back, paused, looked at the rock dust held up by her will, and took a third. I tried to take a fourth, but I was back up against a tree, and I doubt Luna would be happy with me walking away from her right now. “It’s simple. I didn’t. I have no idea what happened. You just shattered.”
She frowned at me. Her horn flashed. “Repeat that.”
“I have no idea what happened.” There was a pause in which nothing happened. Finally, Luna let out a sigh. Her frown relaxed a touch, her expression moving from angry to confused.
“Perhaps you did not mean to… no, intent is important. Subconsciously, perhaps? No.” She blinked, twice. “You once mentioned being visited by a being while unconscious. Has that happened since?”
“Just last night,” I said.
Back to angry. “And why did you not mention this?”
I shrugged. “You never gave me a chance.”
“You will tell me of this visit now,” she ordered.
I glanced up at the clouds overhead. They were a pale grey, darkening as the centre of the storm moved neared. She followed my gaze and saw the clouds. I realised she - and the supplies - were bone dry, even as the rain plastered by hair to my head and soaked me to the bone. Her horn flashed and I felt a split second of searing heat pass over my skin, drying me in a flash. I lifted a hand to my eyes and watched as rain bounced off something a hair’s thickness above it.
“Not much to tell,” I answered without looking away from my hand. I wonder how it worked? “Something, I’m pretty sure the same thing as last time, talked to me while I slept.” I waved a hand vaguely skywords. “It took credit for the storm.”
She looked at the storm that stretched as far as the eye could see in all directions, thunder rumbling off towards the centre of the mass of clouds. “Not many entities could create a storm as large as that. The volume of water alone is enormous.” She looked away from the storm and back at me, her face blank. “Did it say anything else?”
“Not to waste the storm.”
She frowned, tilting her head to one side. “Waste?”
“The griffons are on the defensive just now. We hit them with something when they thought they had us, and we hit them again a while ago, so they’re caught between pissing themselves and just being pissed,” I explained.
“Why do they not simply fly over you?” she asked.
“Kidnapped their Princess.” At her shocked look, I added, “Do you not read my reports?”
“I have not, no. With Celestia away, I have been overseeing all of Equestria.” She preened slightly at that, as if expecting praise. When none came, she continued. “I did not think you would do something as foalish as kidnap their Princess.”
“Well, if I had my way, I would’ve just assassinated the king, but Celestia shot that down, so I needed something else to buy you the time you need. I needed to make them focus on us instead of flying over, so I took something they wanted.”
“Celestia has mentioned the time she spent over twelve years getting a decent King on the Valgryphan throne,” Luna mused. “But that is not the point. Where is Princess Alvor?”
“First thing first; whats medical supplies?” She pointed to a couple boxes that were far too small for my liking. They were big, don’t get me wrong. They weren’t skimping on things. I’d just rather have more than I needed. She lifted the rest with magic. I still forgot about that sometimes. I started walking towards the camp. “How are the ponies we’ve managed to send back doing?”
“Fine, I assume. I have not heard about them since their arrival, so I presume they are still alive.”
“Find out for me, and let me know.”
“Very well. And Twilight is also fine, though the few times I have seen her she has been dispirited, due to both my sisters and your absence, I believe.”
“Well, tell her I’ll be back before Hearths Warming. That should cheer her up.” For some reason, Cameron started laughing at that. Luna nodded, and we walked in silence. I dropped half of the medical supplies in the medic’s tent, and gave the rest, along with all the other supplies, to the quartermaster to deal with I told him to send some of them to wherever the couple smiths we had had set up shop.
“Tell me, why did you want blasting powder, of all things? And ball bearings?”
“Can’t say, trade secret.” I don’t know why Cameron didn’t want me telling the Princesses, as it would mean waiting on Twilight or, after this thing was over, making them myself, but I wasn’t going to complain. And with ‘trade secret’ being an actual thing I couldn’t be ordered to divulge, it was the best way to keep it secret.
“Very well. Princess Alvor?”
“This way.” I led her to where the griffon Princess was staying. She wasn’t enjoying being in a cave, but it meant we could take the shackle off, as long as a unicorn and pegasus were sticking around to guard her. Probably didn’t need both, but better safe than sorry.
We three guards waited outside while Luna spoke to Alvor. I asked them what she’d been like, and they answered like I thought they would. She was quiet, more than a little scared, and no trouble at all.
Luna came out after a few minutes, looking troubled. I fell in beside her as she walked away.
As we walked, she quietly said, “Princess Alvor is physically fine. The prolonged imprisonment is not good for her, however.”
“Anything I need to worry about?”
She shook her head. “No, but there will be repercussions for this. Valgryph will not idly let their Princess be taken captive.”
I waved the thought away. “I’ll burn those bridges when I get to them.”
She didn’t look happy about that, but didn’t say anything about it. “I believe my business is concluded here.” She looked at me expectantly. “Is there anything else you think I should be made aware of?”
“Considering you’ve not read my reports, yeah, probably.” I may have been a little annoyed about that. Those things were bloody long. Though that may be why she didn’t read them. “I doubt we can give Shining Armour the time he needs with the Diamond Dogs, so he needs to pick up the pace. We’ll need another supply drop in a couple weeks, if we survive that long.”
She seemed shocked at the last part. “Is the situation truly so dire?”
“Theres about four thousand pissed off carnivores on the other side of this here mountain. I can get you a couple weeks, maybe a month at most, but after that, no promises.”
“I may be able to assist, if you can think of a way,” Luna offered.
Hell yes, I could think of a way. I could think of a lot of ways. And only two- no, three, only three had her just raining death on a ludicrous number of griffons. “We just hit the griffons, so nothing will be happening soon. Already have things planned for the next few days. You can join the big push at the end. I’ll talk to my lieutenants, and get back to you in a few days, but we’ll probably need you within a week. Ten days, tops.”
“I would need advance notice, to schedule around,” Luna pointed out.
“I’ll see what I can do. No promises on how much though. I’ll need to see what comes up.”
She nodded, and disappeared without another word, with the faintest of flashes and noticeably less noise.
I strangled a sigh and went back to work. The next week was going to be busy.