I woke up at 9, sun peeking through the blinds and landing on my feet. AN: Fuck the ‘sun in my eyes’ cliche
I leaned over and turned off my alarm. I grabbed a pillow and threw it at Michael.
“No.” He said, half muffled by the pillow.
“Yes. This is an important part of human-pony relations.”
"We haven't killed any of them. Isn't that good enough?" He asked. I stopped for a moment to ponder the question.
"No. Now I'm going to shower." I said disappearing into the bathroom. Michael and I shared a hotel room on the top floor of a hotel in Manehatten. David was the only one in a room by himself. Lucky fuck.
I exited the shower. "Next." I said
"Twilight came by. She dropped something off for you. I'm assuming it's your medals since that's what I got."
"How many do you have?"
"Just the one for NATO members in Afghanistan. There is a distinct lack of medals for missions completed. Although me and some friends did this four day hike in our uniforms and got a medal."
"A medal?" I asked, laughing slightly "A medal for a fucking hike."
"A forty click hike for four days. Each day. With ten kilos on stuff."
"Cute!" I shouted at his back as he walked into the bathroom. I knocked on the bathroom door.
"What?" Michael shouted over the shower
"When are we leaving?"
"Sometime around ten thirty."
A knock at the door caught my attention, I opened it to find a Griffon in a hotel uniform.
"A message from Princess Celestia, sir." He said reaching into his shirt. Alarms were going off in my head for why he put the note in his jacket. The Princess was only two doors down from me.
"DIE!" He shouted as he swung a knife at me. I leapt back several times as he attempted to slash my chest open. I threw an arm up to counter his swing. I grabbed his hand and attempted to remove the knife. I took my free arm to punch him the face, but he blocked it his own free hand. I pulled my head back and head butted him. He looked dazed and I ignored the slight flashes going across my eyes. His grip on the knife loosened and clattered to the ground. I kicked the knife somewhere else.
He threw a quick jab into my left eye. I stumbled backwards holding the side of my head. I blinked several times to see better. My eye was barely open and it would only get worse. He charged me and swung. I grabbed his arm and threw him over my shoulder and onto the coffee table, destroying it. I jumped on him and started hitting him with the nearest things; a leg from the table.
I started smashing his head in. After several hits, his face was a mere than bloody mess. I leaned back and stood up. I ran outside to the hall and see if everyone else was ok.
I ran into the room across from me just in time to watch the Griffon their take a magic ball to the head. Rainbow had some scrapes and Twilight was busy puking in the sink. Dash notices me and gives me a nod. Twilight continues her puking and crying scene.
"I-I know so many non-lethal spells. I could've held him in the air or f-froze him or teleported him even." She rants before heaving again. I walked over and rubbed her back.
"Because in a fight or flight scenario, you react immediately with fight. You only had a spilt second and it was him or you. You did good." I said, I looked at Dash and mouthed 'Watch her'. I walked back out to check on everyone else.
I looked inside the next room, only to see the griffon who went in tied up in the middle. Applejack and Rarity were standing over him.
"One less to deal with." I said to them as I walked out. I noticed the two guards on duty had the throats silts and were stabbed several times. I looked back up in time to see another griffon go flying out the door. I watched David come flying out and started punching the griffon and slamming his head into the wall.
I walked into the next room to see the griffon cowering in fear from Fluttershy and Pinkie. Pinkie looked ready tear his throat out and Fluttershy just stood there looking at him. I couldn't blame him for hiding.
"CLEAR!" I shouted on instinct.
"Jesus Christ!" I heard Michael yell "I'm gone for fifteen minutes and you kill everyone!"
"Hey!" I shouted back "I only killed one! Three are alive."
"He has no heartbeat." David said "Oh well."
"Two lived out of four." I said
"Make that two out of five." I heard Princess Luna say behind me. "She unfortunately underestimated my sister and I." Everyone else looked out their rooms.
"Now what?" Rarity asked
"I'll contact the local police and they'll collect statements from all of us." Luna said
***
"... then he drops it, we fight a little. I grabbed one of his heads and flipped over my head and onto the table. I started smashing his head in. First time I killed that close before." I said to the officer, talking about my experience.
"All right. Thank you for your time, sir." She said, closing her notepad and left the room. The body was removed along with the ruined table.
Michael walked out of the bathroom in his uniform. His was a gray jacket and dark gray pants, a blue undershirt a green beret, his few ribbons added.
"Not bad." I said "Not a fan of the green beret. Both because of the Green Berets we have and it looks shitty. Why couldn't they do blue? At least blue you can match with anything."
"They changed it a while back. We used to wear a dark blue uniform with a side cap and officers had peaked caps and we had little gold wings on the collars." AN: Photos show the uniform described while Wikipedia talks about the one Michael talked about.
***
"That's about as good as I can make it I'm afraid." Rarity said with a sigh. I looked in the mirror, my shiner was a lot less swollen looking and not as fresh. Rarity pulled some makeup magic on it.
"Don't worry. I wasn't planning on being in a fight today. At least not this early in the morning." I said with a laugh.
"Neither was I. Granted I wasn't expecting a fight at all."
***
"I'm still confused why the griffons, if they ordered this hit on us. Go after us." Michael said, pointing to me, him and David.
"It's simple," Princess Luna said, "we are friendly with each other. Your countries and ours. What they were aiming to do is unknown."
"If the Griffon Kingdom even is behind it. This could have been some crazy group of Griffon nationalists."
We were on our way to the docks for the ceremony. Michael, David and I were riding with Luna, Twilight, Rarity and Dash. The rest were behind us in another car.
"What would they earn from attacking us?" Luna asked
"No clue. The same question applies to if the griffon government was behind it. I think we're here."
"I suppose we'll have to wait and see what the reports says." Rarity said as the door was opened by the driver.
I smoothed my jacket as we stepped out. Behind the cars was the ship.
It was easily five hundred and fifty feet, probably longer. She had four turrets with two guns apiece. The superstructure was covered with dual guns like most battleships were. In front of the ship were tables for the ceremony.
"It's so different seeing it in real life and not on blueprints." Twilight pointed out
"Congrats on it all Twi. Not many folks can say they have a ship named after them." Applejack said, patting Twilight on the back and causing Rarity to rush over and fix her dress.
"Perhaps not after her directly." Princess Celestia said "And the rest of you as well. We didn't chose the class name to be Bearer because we pulled it from a hat. The original plan was by age, but with Twilight becoming a princess."
"I shot to the top of the list." Twilight said
"Indeed. Otherwise we would be here for the HMS Kindess." Princess Celestia said.
"When would the rest be done by?" I asked
"Hopefully the Kindness will be done by early spring of 1007 possibly even late winter of next year. The rest will be completed at the rate of one every two years."
"It's taken us nearly ten years to build and commission the Ford carrier. Although it's around eleven hundred feet long."
"Why would ya'll even need a ship that big?" Applejack
"Two words: world police. We spend more on defense than the next ten countries combined and have more aircraft carriers than the rest of the world combined. Granted most countries just have a lone LHA."
"A what now?" Princess Luna asked, as we took our seat. I didn't recognize anyone else at the table, but judging by their age, they were certainly high ranking.
"A ship with a flat top that hold planes and helicopters. Most have a well deck so Marines can go ashore."
"Incredible." The admiral said "I've never heard of planes or helichoppers but something like that would make attacks much more easier. I'm Admiral Rough Seas."
Michael and I saluted him.
"Corporal Kroger, Admiral. United States Marines Corp."
"Hauptgefreiter Fuchs, Herr Admiral. German Air Force."
***
"... I christen thee the HMS Magic!" Twilight yelled as she smashed the bottle of brandy across the bow. We all stood and applauded for her and the ship. I was surprised that most of those
at the event were civilians from the city, as opposed to the crew of the ship itself. Sitted with us was the admiral of the 4th Fleet, the one the Magic would be in. Fancy Pants and his wife were with us as well, given rank in the Navy.
"It's been awhile since I've been on deck." Fancy said the appulse died down.
"I hated the last time I was on a ship. Granted that was when a massive storm rolled in." I laughed as I remembered that the toilet pipes on the Essex were clogged by two thousand Marines puking. "Good times"
"How could you say it was bad experience, but say it was good?" Fluttershy
"The whole thing was awful, but when you have two thousand seasick people in a small area." I took a moment to laugh to myself "Well let's just say the pipes were jammed."
***
AN: I spent a week trying to end this chapter. I had about three different paths on the end and all were horrible. Big time jump in the next chapter. I'm taking a little time away from writing. So this is the 'chapter' for June (original release month) and July. I may do some writing on the next one.