//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Negotiations // Story: Frontlines // by MlpHero //------------------------------// January 12th Lieutenant Spearhead 13th Equestrian Battalion Griffonstone Today, we’re going to try to negotiate our way outta this war. I have been chosen to represent the 13th, as I’m currently the highest ranking officer, as most of the others are either dead, or injured. Shining is also going, but only because he’s the price of the Crystal Empire, and he has to go for political reasons. I really hope that we can stop this war dead in its tracks. If we can, we could save millions of lives. If we don’t… well, Celestia be damned. Spearhead woke up to the sound of marching. He got out of bed and grabbed his weapons. Instead of his normal rifle, the M1, he was now issued the M1928 Thompson. He hated automatic weapons as he was used to only firing bolt action and semi automatic weapons. They thankfully let him keep his rifle, but he took the SMG as a backup weapon. He now had an arsenal of four weapons: his rifle, revolver, griffon pistol, and his SMG. He stepped out of the tent and found the princesses and the politicians. He walked over to the many political figures. Celestia looked over. “Lieutenant Spearhead,” she said smiling. “Your majesties.” He walked over to the table with the politicians. He saw the many creatures that were fighting in the war. The zebras and horses stood out as they weren’t on the fields that he fought on. The zebras fought in the savanna regions of Equestria, and the horses fought in Saddle Arabia and other desert regions. They both were usually seen with weapons like the Lee-Enfield and other weapons given to them by allies. “Is this everyone?” Celestia nodded. “Okay.” Spearhead looked at the map of Griffonstone. He looked back up to the politicians. “I’ll go get my soldiers ready.” He walked over to a nearby bell that was used to wake everyone up. He pulled down on the string, and the bell rang, sounding like a gunshot of its own. The tired soldiers walked out of their tents, slugging in a zombie-like matter. “Pull it together!” Spearhead said to his soldiers, who all wasted no time and snapped into attention quickly and effectively. Spearhead heard the politicians “ooh’s” and “ah’s” as they watched the newly promoted Lieutenant work his magic. “Alright fellas. We got a march ahead of us. We’re here to protect our higher ups in case things go loud.” The soldiers looked at each other. “How are we gonna do that?” someone yelled out. “Yeah, the griffons won’t let us anywhere near the King with weapons,” another soldier said. Spearhead nodded. “I know. That’s why we’re only carrying concealable weapons. Pistols, knives, sawed-off shotguns, hell, even SMGs if you can hide’em good.” The soldiers looked at each other. “Well, get moving!” The soldiers nodded and went to work, grabbing any weapon they could use. Spearhead walked over to his tent and grabbed his revolver and the pistol Zeus gave him during the Hearths Moon Truce. He looked over to his SMG. He could turn it to semi-auto, but it would lose its power. He reached for the gun. He placed it back and reached for his hatchet, another gift from Hearth’s Warming, courtesy of his dad. He walked out of his tent, and was met with Luna. “Oh. Your majesty.” She looked at the officer. “Where’s your weapon?” Spearhead reaches for his revolver and pistol. “Here they are.” She frowned. “That’s it?” He put his two sidearms back in their holsters and pulled out his hatchet. She frowned again. “An axe?” He nodded. “A hatchet, actually.” She looked at him. “Does it matter?” He shook his head. “No ma’am.” She looked at his tent. “Don’t you have any stronger weapons?” He looked back. “I have a rifle. But that’s not very concealable.” She looked over to his weapon. He was right. There was no way he could hide the three foot long rifle under his armor, let alone get it out if he needed it. Then she got an idea. “Get your weapon, Lieutenant.” He nodded and went to retrieve his weapon. He grabbed his weapon and walked back to the Princess. “Here it is.” She nodded and reached for something. Spearhead was confused. What was she gonna give him? She pulled out a small pendant of some sort. “I usually only give these to the Lunar Guard, but I think you should have this one, Lieutenant..?” “Spearhead. Lieutenant Spearhead.” “Yes. Lieutenant Spearhead. Here, take it.” Spearhead reached for the pendents, which were Lunar Guards insignias. A dagger dawning Luna’s wings with the Lunar Guard motto, “Loyalty To The Moon!” engraved onto them. He looked at the princess. “Thank you, your majesty. But I don’t understand how this will help me hide my gun.” She looked at his rifle. “Put one onto your weapon.” He put the pendent on the side of his rifle. He watched in amazement as his rifle seemed to vanish out of existence. The only problem was that he could see his weapon. “Now, put the other onto your armor.” He abided and stuck it onto his dog tags. He looked over to his weapon, which was covered by a green outline. “Amazing…” “Thank you. Now only you can see your weapon.” She gave a smile. “Thank you, your majesty.” “It was my pleasure. Now, I believe that you have a group of politicians to escort.” He smiled. “Yes ma’am.” He gave a bow. “Thank you Lieutenant.” With that, the night princess trotted back to the other politicians. Spearhead walked over to Boltaction, who was cleaning his pistol. He looked over to his commanding officer. “Hey Lieutenant.” Spearhead laughed. “Come on Bolt, we’ve been friends for years, you don’t gotta address me by rank.” Boltaction laughed. “Copy that.” The two friends laughed. The pegasus looked over to the politicians. “I ain’t sure I’m ready for this.” “I’m calling BS. Shining trusted you to this. If you don’t do it, then who the hell can?” “I guess you’re right.” Bolt laughed. “I always am.” “Like hell you are.” Spearhead looked over to the unicorn. The two friends laughed like they were sharing a drink. Spearhead got up. “Come on Bolt, we got some V.I.Ps to escort.” “Copy that Lieutenant.” The two friends got up and walked towards the gathering soldiers and politicians. If they could negotiate their way out of this, then millions of lives would be saved. If they couldn’t. Celestia be damned. <•>•<•>•<•> Spearhead and the many, many soldiers, and the politicians were walking, or in the soldiers' case, marching, towards the capital city of Griffonstone. He found the situation alien. He’d always been used to Shining or Halberd leading; not him. He was proud of his promotion, but he wasn’t sure of his leadership. He’d always thought he’d fight for the 13th, and not lead them. Primo Victoria. Right? He’d always liked that motto. After a bit of reading, he’d found out it meant “at first victory” which he always liked as he felt it encouraged the 13th to push on, even if all hope seemed lost. The Lieutenant snapped out of his daze when he felt his hooves touch a more tough ground. He looked up to the Griffonstone gates. He took a breath. “Alright. Here we go,” he whispered to himself. The group marched through the gates whilst being watched like mice. Spearhead shuddered as if a cold gust of wind touched his spine. “Fuckin’ creepy huh?” Boltaction asked. “Yeah,” Spearhead replied. He looked over to the griffons. “I bet they wouldn’t have a problem killing us right here.” “You bet,” Boltaction replied, trying not to make eye contact with the guards. He looked at some of the buildings. “How much you wanna bet that there’s a sniper in one of these buildings?” “My frickin’ life.” Boltaction chuckled. “Fair enough.” “Just stay on your guard.” He looked around the concrete city. He stared at some of the civilians, some of whom looked happy to see them. Others not so much. “I don’t think we’re getting out of here that easily.” “Yes sir.” The group continued marching towards the capitol building. Spearhead looked over to Gallus, who looked pretty terrified. “You alright Gal?” The young griffon looked over. “Yes sir. I’m just worried about meeting Hades head on.” The pegasus smiled. “Don’t worry. He shoots at you, I’ll put him down personally.” He smiled. “Thanks, sir.” “No problem, kid.” The Lieutenant looked over to Ocellus, who was marching next to Pharynx. “How do y’all feel about this?” Ocellus smiled sheepishly. “A bit nervous.” Pharynx on the other hand was frowning. “I can’t believe the War’s ending so soon.” Spearhead was confused. “What do you mean?” Pharynx looked over to him. “I haven’t seen any action since the Pony-Changeling War, and we couldn’t even kill each other in that war. Now we can, and it’s being stripped away like that? It’s- what?” The soldiers stared at him like he was a sadistic psychopath. He smiled sheepishly. “Okay. I might’ve phrased that wrong. But the point is, I may not see any other action besides this, and to have the adventure end so soon is… y’know.” Spearhead could almost agree with him. He could never come to terms with the horrors of war, but he would miss the adventures he had with his comrades. He looked over to the changeling prince. “I guess I understand that.” Pharynx nodded. “I guess it was great while it lasted.” “Don’t be so sure,” Gallus said. “It’s Hades. Only way we could end this war is to put a bullet through his skull.” Pharynx smirked. “Well, that probably won’t be the easiest.” Flash looked over. “The hell do you know that?” “I’m the brother of a king. His security’s gonna be through the roof.” Flash rolled his eyes. He took out another container and scoped up a patch of dirt, then wrote Griffonstone on the lid. “Still collecting dirt, Sentry?” Flash looked over to Bolt. “Screw off.” Spearhead laughed. “Why do you wanna to remember this stuff?” Flash laughed. “Might be worth something in the future.” “Maybe it will be,” Spearhead said, chuckling. “Somepony is gonna want that for a museum or something else stupid.” The group continued walking to the capitol building. Spearhead couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching them through a sniper scope. He looked around the giant city, looking at every high building, searching for any signs of a possible sniper. Light reflection, any possible movement, anything that points to a sniper. He looked back at Shining, who had his head hung low. He walked over to his former Captain. “Captain- I mean… Shining?” “Y-Yeah?” “Are… you alright?” Shining hung his head. “I don’t know.” Spearhead nodded. “You know I could promote you to Sergeant and—” “It’s not gonna work. Until I can prove that I can lead you guys, I can only be promoted to a First Class.” “It’s better than nothing, though.” Shining nodded, “I… I guess.” He sighed. He looked up. “Hey, we’re here.” Spearhead looked up. There sat the capital building, which looked very different from the Canterlot castle as it was a somewhat tall buildings, almost like some of the skyscrapers. The front gate was made of what Spearhead could only assume was iron, and was guarded by two griffons holding MP-40s. Nearby sat a checkpoint with more guards and an MG42. Some of the guards had weird looking weapons and armor and uniforms. It appeared to be a sort of camouflage as posed to the normal gray armor and uniform. Their weapons on the other hand looked like a mix between a rifle, but was magazine fed like an SMG, with the magazine clip protruding from the bottom. “Hey Winter, who are they?” The snow schemed griffon looked at the. “They’re the SS Eisenadler. They’re the griffon elites. Trained killing machines of the Eiserne Krone. They’re equipped with heavier equipment like ‘42s and those weapons right there.” Spearhead stared at them. “What are they?” Winter thought for a few seconds. “I think they’re called STG44’s. They’re kind of like a BAR and a MP-40 mixed together. The fire power of a BAR, but the speed and mobility of an MP-40.” Spearhead looked in amazement. “Wow. You guys have made some pretty great technological advancements.” “Yeah. You have to admit, our Generals have their heads up their rears, but our engineers reach for Elysium.” “You can say that again.” “Yep.” The guards opened the gates and they walked in. Spearhead took a breath and walked in. <•>•<•>•<•> Spearhead stared around the room. He didn’t feel safe, as many of the soldiers had to wait outside of the building. The many politicians waited for Hades to start. “Okay, as you all know, this War is taking a toll on all of our soldiers. It needs to end. Now.” The Princesses looked at each other. Celestia opened her mouth, but was cut off by a nearby zebra, “I agree. I will gladly pull my kingdom out of this War as soon as you can pull your soldiers out of our land.” Hades seemed to get mad. “Why should we? Your land is filled with rich materials that would keep our war-machine and kingdom going for years. I will not leave unless you agree to split your resources.” The zebras stared in disbelief. The leader spoke again. “But… our subjects need the resources to survive! We can’t afford to-” “Well, the Eiserne Krone isn’t pulling out unless we get half of your materials.” The zebras pulled back and waited in silence. Hades looked over to the hippogriffs. “What about you, Queen Novo? What would you like?” “Well, I want to stop losing soldiers in this war.” “Well, just pay up war reparations.” Queen Novo looked like the zebra leader. “But I must feed my subjects.” “Well, I need to fix my cities. Think about it.” He turned to Thorax and Pharynx. “What about you two?” “We just want peace,” Thorax said. “Well, I’ll take half of your land.” The two siblings looked at each other. “But, we don’t have a lot of land to spare,” Thorax said. “Yeah. And what’s in it for us?” Pharynx asked. “Well, A. your subjects stop dying, and B. I’ll fund the advancement of your hive in exchange for farmland and my subjects' security.” The siblings looked at each other. Their bolt rifles were getting faulty, especially with weapons like M1 and MG42 being used. And their farmers were starting to tire out. “We think about it.” Hades nodded. He stared at Celestia. “What do you want? If it’s war reparations, then forget it.” “We just want the War to end,” the celestial princess said. The other ponies nodded and murmured in agreement. Spearhead looked at Shining, who also nodded in agreement. He looked back at Spearhead, who nodded at him. He nodded back and looked back at Hades. Spearhead followed suit. Hades smiled. “Well, I want the war reparations for the suffering of my soldiers and destruction of my cities.” Boltaction leaned closer to Spearhead. “Coming from the f’er  who’s committing war crimes,” he whispered. Spearhead kicked him under the table. “Ow!” He whispered-shouted. “Can it!” Spearhead whispered back. Bolt rolled his eyes and stared at Hades. The griffon king looked at the many politicians and delegates. Spearhead looked at the king as he smiled. This was going to be a long negotiation.