Twilight dragged herself up onto the shore after her friends. Her coat and down feathers did nothing to keep the icy water from reducing her to a shivering mess. She didn’t know how far they drifted down the river, or how they were able to evade griffons for so long. Their scent would’ve been hidden by the water, and with how quick the river ran and how dark the night sky was—
They had been so close to death. By some miracle, they made it into the water before they were grabbed by the griffons. Her heart was still heavy, miserable knowing that one of their rescuers had been…
Dammit! Twilight had to remind herself that there was still a chance that Grisha had survived, and that the young griffon was… Yet, how was that a better fate? He would probably be executed anyways.
Twilight didn’t even know where they were. The faint glimmer of the sun out in the horizon behind her was the only indication that they were on the western side of the river. The “plan B” they were given was to just head west until they met the Interims, but she didn’t know how far out they were from the line of contact. It could still be a few thousand kilometres away from safety. Now that the Politburo knew they were within a certain vicinity, it’d be much harder to evade the piercing gaze of griffon murders.
Murders. Twilight shuddered at the very thought. The term was Equestrian—a label used for the squadrons of griffons to define their effectiveness in the field. The Royal Army during the War of Beginnings wasn’t much of a match against the Imperial Griffish Army. If not for the unicorns’ magic, they would have long been under the claws of the griffons.
Twilight didn’t want to remind herself of her own inability at this point. They were living on borrowed time unless they could find the Interim.
Rainbow shook herself dry, her wings still bound by the strong cord. Pinkie sat near the entrance to the forest, her usually curly and frizzy hair flat and tamed. Twilight shook her legs dry first, before shaking her head and mane clear. She was still frozen, but knew they didn’t have time to stop.
‘Come on, Pinkie,’ Twilight muttered. ‘We need to get going. Who knows where the griffons are—’
‘Twilight, that wasn’t a party cannon.’ Pinkie replied bitterly. ‘Don’t tell me they—’
‘They did!’ Rainbow growled. ‘And they’re after us! They’re going to…’ Rainbow’s voice drifted off as she turned away from her two friends.
Twilight looked down at the dirt underhoof. She drew in one deep breath to calm her nerves. She couldn’t be weak. She couldn’t break down. Not now! They needed to go west! They were afforded this opportunity through somegriffon’s blood. They couldn’t waste it by sitting around.
‘Come on, girls.’ Twilight’s own voice was weak. ‘We need to go west.’
‘And if they find us?’ Rainbow asked.
‘They aren’t. Not if we keep low and move fast—’
‘Twi, you know we aren’t going to last a minute out there! Especially if there are griffons overhead! They’ll— they’ll catch us and send us back. Or worse.’
‘We could end up like—’
No. Twilight wasn’t going to let her finish that thought. ‘Pinkie! Knock it off! We’re going west and that’s final!’
‘I wasn’t going to say we shouldn’t—’
‘Don’t say it! I don’t want to hear it!’
‘Twi, this is worse! So much worse!’ Rainbow cried out.
‘How is this any different from Nightmare Moon? Chrysalis? Any of the other villains we’ve fought?’ Twilight wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure her friends or herself at this point. ‘We overcame them. We’ll beat the Politburo too!’
‘Beat?’ Pinkie croaked. ‘Twilight, we don’t have anything helping us right now! We at least had the Elements of Harmony before, or the help of the other Princesses! We’re here without as much as a bag of confetti!’
‘We’ll figure something out! We just need to get to the Interims—’
‘We don’t know how far that is!’ Rainbow shot back. ‘We could starve before then! A-at least with the others, we had a way to fight back! Even if we get out, the only way we’re gonna fix this is if we use the Equestrian Army! It’ll be another war!’
Twilight hadn’t considered that. The only way to fight an army seeking to conquer and control was an army to oppose it. Clearly the Interim was struggling if the Politburo had infiltrators as deep as Griffonstone. But Equestria owed it to Greta, to Grisha… They had put themselves at great risk to make sure Twilight and her friends could escape.
Twilight was the first to start walking the direction they were instructed to go. She didn’t know what to tell her friends, what comfort she should give… So she kept on walking, praying that they would follow.
Soon enough, she heard their hoofsteps behind her, headed to a destination she prayed would be home.
Twilight looked at what she hoped was a village.
But it wasn’t a village. It was the remains of one, a corpse left to rot in the open. The jagged wooden beams stuck out like exposed ribs. Mortar and stone were scattered around the scene, shattered into pieces that baked near a series of fires that still burned.
It was clear to Twilight what had happened. That meant they were still far behind enemy lines. It also meant that the Politburo was committing crimes far beyond the scale of illegal apprehension and abduction.
Twilight couldn’t look at the scene for much longer. Neither could Pinkie. While the earth pony turned away immediately, Rainbow stared at the carnage. Twilight glanced over to see the pegasus’s face contort with confusion and pain before she trotted forward.
‘Rainbow, we need to go around—’
‘There could still be somegriffon alive!’ Rainbow shot back. ‘We need to see if we can help—’
‘We need to help ourselves!’
Rainbow didn’t respond. Twilight didn’t want to stop her friend, but she couldn’t just let her walk into the village. Her mind ran wild with the possibility that there were Politburo soldiers still on the scene, that they were going around and executing innocent griffons as they had done Grisha—
‘Rainbow! You come back this instant!’
When she saw that Rainbow wasn’t going to listen to her, Twilight turned back to Pinkie. Pinkie still looked away from the dead remains of the village. If Rainbow wasn’t going to come back, then she couldn’t let Pinkie sit on her own.
‘Pinkie,’ Twilight said, ‘come on.’
‘But you just said—’
‘We can’t let Rainbow go in alone!’
Pinkie remained still for a moment before following after Twilight. It was then Twilight realized how bad Pinkie trembled. How had her friend’s bubbly attitude been “popped?” She wanted to reach out with a wing to comfort her, but her bonds restricted her. Even directly outside the grasp of those twisted griffons, her movement was still restricted. A simple gesture was now impossible.
‘You’re shaking,’ Twilight said. ‘I know it’s hard, but is there anything—’
‘Can you do anything?’ Pinkie asked, her words unintentionally piercing. Upon realizing what she had just said, Pinkie stuttered, ‘S-s-sorry, I wasn’t—’
‘It’s fine,’ Twilight dismissed. ‘I just want to make sure you’re okay.’
‘How far do you think we are? I know Gryphoniya is really, really big, but we can’t be too far away. Right?’
‘I hope we aren’t, but we don’t know where we are, or how far out we are from anycreature who can help us,’ Twilight replied. ‘I-I think at least the Interims are working with Equestria. If our friends know we’re stuck out here, I’m certain they wouldn’t hesitate to come and help us.’
‘But could they find us?’ Pinkie asked.
‘I think they could. Like Applejack! She’s got to know how to find us.’
‘She’s really good at that. Then we can have a party for Grisha.’ Pinkie nodded.
Twilight tried to not cry any more than she had. Pinkie had the right idea. They’d get back home, honour the memory of that young griffon, and then they’d work out a solution to make sure this would never happen again.
So that no more villages had to suffer this fate.
If what she was looking at would happen even one more time, she didn’t know if she could handle it. Her hooves crossed the border of the village. As she attempted to navigate around the broken glass and thorns that littered the ground, she found that the earth was still hot. Why—
Twilight looked at something—something terrible. She looked away immediately, suppressed her cries, and bit her lips as her skin pricked with that awful, unexplainable sensation. Awful! Terrible!
Why...? Why?
Pinkie stared at her, then glanced over her shoulder at what Twilight had seen. Pinkie froze in her tracks.
‘Twi, is that—what if this happens again?’ Pinkie cried.
‘N-no.’ Twilight tried to assure herself and her friend they’d never need to see something that horrible again. ‘No! It won’t, Pinkie. We’ll talk things over! We’ll—we’ll figure something out.’
‘I…’ Pinkie’s voice quivered. ‘And I thought Chrysalis was a monster…’
‘Twilight!’ Rainbow called out.
Twilight’s hackles raised as she started to charge toward her friend. No, no, she wasn’t—she couldn’t let that happen to Rainbow. She’d stop it! She’d stop it from ever happening again!
She ran into what seemed to be the old village square. A bronze statue of five young griffons dancing around a crocodile decorated the centre, miraculously still standing. She couldn’t see any griffon soldiers. All she could see was her friend. She pushed the hideous shapes that littered the square out of her mind as she trotted up to Rainbow.
‘Rainbow!’ Twilight exclaimed. ‘Rainbow! Are you alright—’
Twilight fell silent as she found what the pegasus was looking at. It was a small eaglet, who, clutching a shard of glass in his claws, pressed up against the statue. He stared up at them with widened eyes, breathing rapidly. He was a child—and the sole living griffon she’d seen since they entered the village.
Twilight’s mind ran with concern. Her heart beat faster as she sputtered something before she could properly think it through: ‘It’s alright. We aren’t going to hurt you. Are you okay—’
‘S-stay back!’ The eaglet trembled. ‘I-I know what you’re going to do!’
‘We aren’t going to hurt you!’ Twilight reiterated.
‘Liar!’
‘Even if we wanted, we couldn’t.’ Rainbow showed her bound wings and gestured to the ring around Twilight’s horn. ‘We need to move west—’
‘West?’ The eaglet balked. ‘N-no—’
‘Come on,’ Twilight replied. ‘I don’t see the Politburo here. We still have time to get out. You can come with—’
‘I’m not!’ His voice cracked as his little chest rose and fell rapidly, his eyes filling with tears. ‘Th-they’re evil! They’re monsters! They—they—they killed…’
‘And if we don’t move, then they might hurt us, too.’ Rainbow urged, ‘Come on, let’s—’
‘N-no, you don’t understand!’ the eaglet replied. ‘The Politburo are the heroes! They brought us food! They protected us! The—the traitors, they—they did this.’
Twilight stood quietly. The eaglet was confused! Everything she had seen the Politburo do was awful. The reason they were in this situation in the first place was because of evil griffons! There was no denying what the Politburo did to this poor village that had trusted them. Then again, he was young, barely ten or so years old. How could she expect him to understand?
Then, words that had been spoken only hours before echoed in the back of her mind.
Youth isn’t foolishness, just as age isn’t wisdom. Experience—this is the only way to know.
‘What do you mean?’ Twilight asked.
‘Twi, you can’t be serious!’ Rainbow objected.
‘Let’s listen!’ Twilight snapped, before turning back to the eaglet. ‘What’s your name?’
‘G-Gav…’ he whispered. ‘Th-the griffons had been under the claw of the King. We didn’t have books, we didn’t have schools—’ Gav spoke with the fury of a mind convinced of what it had been told— ‘Gedeon changed that! The Politburo wanted to make all griffons equal! B-but then the Interim shot innocent griffons! They killed us because we wanted change! And they’re still killing us!’
‘That doesn’t make sense!’ Twilight replied.
‘What would you know, pony?’ Gav demanded. ‘The Interim have killed us since the day the Politburo protested. They didn’t give us food! They didn’t protect us! Only Gedeon did!’
‘Gedeon abducted us!’ Rainbow snarled. ‘He wanted to exploit our nation! He made us toys in his little game! And you’re telling us he is a good griffon?!’
‘Gedeon has always cared about the griffons! He wanted a better future! The Interim responded with…’ Gav paused, his grasp on the shard of glass weakening. It shattered on the ground. . ‘Mama… papa! Th-they— they took it all from me! The Interim will not stop! Not until all griffons are orphans!’
Gav’s words pierced Twilight’s heart. A queasy feeling rushed through her as she looked toward Rainbow, who frowned with anger. Twilight shook her head at her, then looked back to Gav. ‘I—I don’t understand. The Interim did this?’
Gav nodded.
None of this made sense. She’d been told by Greta that the Interim would rescue them, that they would save them from the Politburo! The Politburo had shot a griffon in front of them, had sought to imprison them on false charges— abducted them to do so! They were definitely evil. But the Interim? They had gone out of their way to get them out of the Politburo’s claws—
But their passports. But the bribes. They had only seen the surface of what life was like in the land of the Interim. Gat’ had said that the Interim complicated the life of their people. Then again, Gat’ was a liar who did this to them!
Still, she couldn’t tell Gav he was wrong. He might have been brainwashed by a degenerate regime. On the other hoof, if the Interim really did this, then they had committed an atrocity unlike anything she had ever seen before.
‘Twi!’ Pinkie cried.
‘What—’
She looked up at a group of griffons that approached. She froze completely as they stepped forward—but shouted nothing. Each one held a slug-thrower in their claws, wool hats and metal helmets resting atop their heads. They chirped among themselves as they approached the ponies.
Twilight’s legs shook noticeably as they closed in on the group. Every nerve commanded her to run, but no matter how much she tried, she stayed frozen in place.
The griffons stopped a few metres from the group. Then, the one who led the approach stepped forward. His eye was scratched, discoloured, the feathers that decorated his head brushed into lines. He stood there, as if he was considering what to do with the three ponies. Or, at least, that’s Twilight thought, before she noticed he wasn’t looking at her at all.
‘Pl-please—’ Twilight whined. ‘D-don’t—’
‘Save your breath, Princess,’ the griffon said with a grunt. ‘Capitan Gabriel of the 45th Guards. You’re in safe claws now.’
Twilight blinked.
‘We’re the Interim,’ Gabriel clarified. ‘We were warned that there was a mishap and that you might be travelling on your own.’
‘Th-they killed—’
‘We will be escorting you back to Griffonstone. From there, the Equestrian Royal Army will take you back to Equestria. Understood?’ Gabriel commanded.
Commanded.
Twilight nodded before she looked back toward Gav. The small eaglet trembled, clearly afraid for his life as he turned away from the band of Interim soldiers. Seeing the poor griffon reduced to such a state invoked a deep uncertainty. Here she was: rescued and able to return home. They had found the Interim. Now they wouldn’t need to worry about the Politburo capturing them and doing something worse than sending them to “Freedom.”
But Gav swore the Interim would kill him. That they razed this village.
‘Okay.’ Twilight muttered, ‘Come on, Gav—’
‘The eaglet is going somewhere else.’ Gabriel replied. ‘Lieutenant, help the Princess and her servants—’
‘We aren’t—’ Rainbow growled.
‘Yessir.’ A female griffon stepped forward, followed by three other griffons. She peered down at Twilight, her gaze telling the alicorn all she needed to know about what the consequences of disobedience would be.
It didn’t seem like this was a rescue at all.
‘Where are you taking Gav?’ Twilight demanded of Gabriel. The Captain didn’t respond. A few other griffons pushed past her towards the eaglet.
His sobs became louder and more terrified with each cry. Twilight tried to look back.
‘Eyes forward!’ the female Lieutenant commanded. ‘We’re headed back to Griffonstone.’
‘What are you—’ Twilight tried to ask.
‘We’re saving you.’
‘And the eaglet—’
‘None of your business, pony,’ the Lieutenant replied callously.
Twilight planted her hooves in the ground, but they continued to pull forward. Her vision was obscured by the mass of griffons that flanked her and her friends, their slug-throwers shining with the glint of the noon sun. Her eyes lingered on the weapons. With each step, she grew more and more convinced that the Interim didn’t care if they were to use the weapons on the ponies they were tasked to save.
Greta’s words rang hollow with the promise that the Interim was going to rescue them from the Politburo.
This wasn’t a rescue operation. At least, it wasn’t one that the Interim was doing of its own volition. This was something different.
‘What—’
Thunder cracked again in the cloudless sky.
The griffons didn’t stop their march forward. When she tried to turn back around, she was pushed forward by a griffon behind her. He didn’t utter a command, but instead swung his slug-thrower from over his shoulder.
She didn’t need to be told twice.
Or ask.