Spitfire waited for a response from the humans. Just how badly would they react? Tran shrugged. "It's not the worst possible news." Everyone, from the prisoners to the other humans, stared at Tran.
"Are you fucking insane?" Wilson asked. Tran nodded. "I meant more so than usual!"
Tran shrugged again. "What was the purple desk jockey's take on this?"
The what? "Who?" Spitfire asked.
"The one that thought charging straight towards the enemy was a good idea."
Spitfire thought about it for a second. "You mean Princess Twilight Sparkle?"
Wilson looked at Spitfire. "That's her name?! That is the worse name I've ever heard of.”
"Ahem."
Wilson looked dead into the purple pony princess's pupils. "You have the worst name I've ever heard of."
Spitfire stepped in front of Wilson. "The assault team was given rerouting orders."
Some of Twilight's mane hairs shot up, giving her a frazzled look. "What."
Spitfire cringed. "All able soldiers are being rounded for an immediate offensive against remaining retreating enemy forces."
Twilight ground her teeth together in a painfully calm fashion. "Who put out the orders? I personally put out the orders for this assault team! Nopony has authority over me!" She ran a hoof through her mane while sighing. "I hate bureaucracy."
Tran shrugged. "It comes with the military life. Can you radio in for an escort?"
Twilight rubbed the sides of her head to lessen the pain of her headaches. "If assuming that radio means contact, maybe but I don't think Rarity's trace will be able to get any responses. She technically has no command."
Tran raised an eyebrow. "Trace?"
Twilight looked at the human with an incredulous look. Everypony knew what trace was! Then, she realized that this thing wasn't a pony. "Everypony has a unique magical signature, a trace as we call it. It's impossible to replicate a pony's trace and identifying a trace is relatively fast and simple." And her trace commanded a lot of power. If she was able to get a message through, she could get anything she wanted. However, the pain from her magic's feedback reminded her that this would be a difficult endeavor and could risk an even longer recovery. Hell, she could even fall into a coma.
But screw it, this was an emergency. "You know what? I'll send the message myself, magical feedback or not." She dug through her pockets, pulling out a small roll of paper and a parchment.
Wilson stared at the massive feather. "A quill?"
Twilight nodded. "How else am I gonna write a message?" she asked while fishing out an inkwell from her pocket.
Wilson raised an eyebrow. "So you don't have pens or pencils?"
Twilight snorted. "Of course we do! I just prefer quills."
Wilson frowned. "Nope, I don't need to think about this," he said as he walked away. "My blood pressure is high enough as it is." And he was gone.
Twilight quickly wrote a short message down (Wilson's blood pressure skyrocketed upon seeing the pony write with the quill in her mouth) on the parchment before setting it on the ground. With as much caution as possible, she tapped into her pool of magic. Her horn lit up in its usual lavender glow and seconds later, the paper started to glow. She closed her eyes as sweat started to form on her head. Slowly, the written words vanished from the paper. After holding the spell for what she thought was long enough, the glow from Twilight's horn stopped abruptly.
"So how do we tell if it worked?" asked Eric.
Twilight opened her eyes and looked at the parchment. When she noticed that written words were no longer present on the parchment, she cracked a smile. "It most definitely worked. Otherwise, the parchment would have spontaneously combusted."
"Well, that's one way to notify a failure." Eric rolled up one of his sleeves, revealing a wrist watch. "So how long do you supposed it'll take?"
Twilight picked up the paper and rolled it back up before stowing it back in her pocket. "I honestly have no idea."
A Few Minutes Later
Thousands upon thousands of rifles, carbines, machine guns, and pistols were aimed at the four humans, the captured war chief, two captured minotaurs, and one dead Jaeger. Slowly turning to look at Twilight, Tran maintained the same dead look that he had been giving her since meeting her. "Exactly what did you tell them in that message?"
Twilight let out a sheepish smile. "Nothing too serious."
A Few Minutes Earlier In The 5th Ground Division's Main Communication Center
A simple comms pony received a magically sent message. This wasn't a rare occurrence; a counter-offensive was being prepared so this was expected. However, the comms pony definitely didn't recognize the magical trace of the message's sender. Doing the right thing, the comms pony simply asked a sergeant for help.
Unfortunately, that sergeant wasn't able to recognize the trace either so he asked a nearby officer to check the note. The nearby officer (a captain) recognized the magical trace as belonging to Field Marshal Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Engaged war party and Jaeger. Three injured including self. Captured war chief, two party members, and Jaeger killed. Send help. Coordinates 043.7 by 13.9
The captain instantly noticed that the note was written in the Field Marshal Princess's mouth writing instead of her horn writing. She also noticed that the message wasn't written in the way that the Field Marshal Princess's standard message writing format and deduced that the Field Marshal Princess (such a mouthful) was in such a bad state that she needed help this instant!
That nearby captain also happened to be the OIC (Officer In Charge) of the communication center and instantly brought the message to the attention of every single pony above the rank of major. Within a matter of seconds, the counteroffensive was canceled and every single able-bodied pony was sent to the Field Marshal Princess's location.
-X-X-X-
Tran looked at Twilight. "You're lying, aren't you?"