//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: The betrayal 
// by Firegriffin12 
//------------------------------//

Grrdar was a griffin with a yellow fur and dull red feathers from the Empire that was sitting on a naval landing ship heading for Equestria looking out onto the ocean, or what had been the Equestria now known as the Solar Empire.

"Equestria..." Grrdar thought. The place where he spent his several years of his youth and adolescence, the place where he had made many of his friends and the place that up until a few years ago, at the start of the The Channeling war, had been his home.

Now here he was, on his way to the shore line of what is now the Solar Empire. To fight the people he had once called friends. 

Grrdar grabbed a cloth he had in a pocket and pulled off his helmet and wiped his head, the cloth getting soaked with sweet. As he pulled the cloth away he looked up to the sun. Dawnbreaker, previously known as Princesses Celesta, was had used her power to make it the sun hotter over the Solar Empire enemies.

Grrdar's thoughts where then interrupted as a griffin named Cozbi, she was almost pitch black with a couple of brown feathers and patches of brown fur, jumped up on Grrdar's back gripping him, almost knocking him over the edge of the ship.

Grrdar lended back and fell on top of her causing her to let go of him and he rolled back go his feet and stood over her, pinning her down and she began to laugh.

"I almost got you this time Grrdar." Cozbi said staring up at him with a smile. Cozbi was one of Grrdar's best friends. They had met while he was in Equestria and, being one of the few griffins in equestria, had grown to be good friends, or, as there others might put it, inseparable.

"Cozbi, why do you insisted on jumping onto me?"

"Because i love seeing your shocked excursion you make when i do." She answered still smiling and Grrdar, finding her happiness infectious couldn't help but smile a bit himself.

"Still you shouldn't. Not here at least." Grdar said. "What would the others say if-"

"If one of they saw us being reckless?" Cozbi interrupted. "Oh what would they do? They need us because we know the land."

Over the years they had lived in Equestria they had traveled all over. They had seen almost the entirety of the land, which is why when the empire was about to go to war with the newly formed Solar Empire the Griffin Empire had gone out to find griffins that knew the land to serve as guides to the commanding officers. Grdar and Cozbi being among those they found.

"Come on we have about a day or two before we reach the shoreline." Cozbi said. "Lets go for a flight." And she spread her wings and took off into the air.

Grdar watched her fly for a second thinking how beautiful she looked and joined her in the air. They flew over the ships in the fleet Cozbi flew above Grdar and stole his helmet.

"Hay what was that for?"

Cozbi laughed again and said. "If you wanted it back come get it!" And with that she took off.

So Grdar chased her as she dived down into the fleets formation flying amongst the ships and, at one point almost running into one but manged to almost stop and shot straight up and few into the clouds. Grdar fallowed her up into the clouds but once he was up there he didn't see her. Grdar landed on the cloud and looked around for a moment. Then he heard a giggling from behind him.

He quickly turned to look behind him but only turned quick enough to see Cozbi jumping out of a cloud and on top of him.They both laughed feeling like a kid again back above Equestria.

They both started to get back up and Cozbi set Grdar's helmet back on his head and said. "That was fun."

They both walked over and sat on the edge of the clouds and looked down at the fleet as it continued on its way to the Solar Empire.

"You know." Glace said. "After this, i think we should go home and married. Maybe even start a family together."

Grdar look at her with a bit of in his eyes shock. He had, on several occasions thought about asking her the same thing but never worked up the nerve to ask her before and was slightly embarrassed that he didn't ask first. "Of course I will." He answered. "I only wish i asked before you did."

She laughed again but then suddenly stopped with a concerned look on her face and asked. "Do you hear that?"

At first Grdar didn't hear anything and was about to say no when there it was, a distant humming sound of several plane's engines coming from behind them and getting louder.

They both looked back to see a spot in the clouds that was being pushed up and heading straight for them. Both griffins jumped Skyward as the planes sounded like it was next to them and as soon as Grdar was in the air he looked down to see several planes with the Solar empire markings on the wings, each with a torpedo, heading for the fleet.

Both of the griffins took off drawing there pistol sidearms and trying to catch up to the planes. The planes where flying slow and they had dropped down to only a few feet above the the ocean now that they had left the clouds.

Grdar mange to catch up to one of the planes in the back and grabbed the wing. His wings acked so much from trying to catch the plane that he doubt that he could get vary far if he tried to fly again.

Grdar then lifted his sidearm at the pilot, a brown furred unicorn with yellow mane with pink eyes and stopped. He knew this pilot from his time he lived in Equestria. Her name was Isotope, she was the daughter of a successful doctor and she was always friendly, if not a bit spoiled at times.

But now here they where, with him holding a pistol at her. She looked at him as he hung on to her plane's wing. Then Grdar aimed towards the engine pulled the trigger sending the bullets flying into the engine.

A cloud of smoke shot out of the engine and blinded Grdar and causing him to let go of the wing and his sidearm and he went flying backwards. He spread out his wings in a attempt to try and recover his fall but there wasn't enough time and he was to tired to catch himself and crashed into the ocean.

The water smashed into his side and there was a snapping sound that sent him gasping for breath, only getting a mouthful of water, and his left wing hurt like hell. He started swimming up to get a breathe of air and when he reached the surface he gasped. His eyes stung but he looked around him for help but then herd a gunfire and flak rounds booming over him. Then a flash coming from where the gun fire was and a wave lifted him up high enough to see one of the ships in the fleet being consumed by a fireball. 

He also managed to see a plane's tail starting to sink under the wives not to far from him.

"That was probably Isotope's plane. And i just killed her..." Grdar thought struggling to stay afloat as he bobbed in the ocean. He could feel his strength weaning and his wing felt like somecreature had taken a hammer and smashed his wing.

"This is where i die, isn't it?" He said out loud to no one and looked up to the sky. He hadn't ever been vary religious but right now, he hoped that something was watching over him. And with that last thought he sunk below the waves, watching the surface get farther and farther away as he descended into the dark depths below.

Before he past out a blue glow surrounded him and felt himself being pulled to the surface and out of the water. When he was pulled out of the sea he started hacking and trying to breath and was set down on a small raft.

"Thank you." He manage to say between coughing fits then looked who had rescued him, it was Isotope.

A bit of blood ran down her face from her nose but no worse for ware.

"Well i wasn't going to let you drown. Despite you shooting my plane down." Isotope said. "After all we are still friends, right? Considering you didn't shoot me."

Grdar nodded and sat on the raft. He knew he was to weak at the moment to evan try to get back to the fleet and when he looked around for it he only saw smoke in tbe distance.

"Your wing." Isotope said suddenly and as if on cue it reminded him it was still injured. "I can try and set it in places if you to trust me to."

Grdar looked back at his wing and immediately wish he didn't. His wing was bent in a unnatural way and hung limp to his side, useless. He looked back to Isotope as she waited for a response and said. "I believe... That it would be the best choice to let you do so you can try to set it."

She nodded and walked over to his side as her horn lit up with a blue glow and a small bag lifted up and came over to her. The gentle hum of magic was pleasant to hear, it brought back several memories from his youth.

But before ge could really think of anything a sharp pain shot through his back as his wing was pushed back to it's normal spot.

"There. As good as new." She said. "Well as good as it will get without getting you to a hospital."

Grdar looked at Isotope. "That will probably be awhile before that." He said as he looked back at the fleet, the smoke in the distance getting smaller.

"Actually not as long as you may think." She answered. "There's a ship near by that is supposed to serve as a pick up location for drowned pilots. They will pick us and take us to the mainland for medical and..." She paused.

"And take me to be interrogated?" Grdar finished for her. Oh boy this will be fun...

After about an hour of drifting, though Grdar suspect a bit of magic was guiding it on it's journey, saw a ship on the horizon baring the markings of the Solar Empire.



When they reached the ship they where brought aboard a pair of solders escorted him to the medbay but had him wait as about 3 doctors inspected Isotope for other injures and only finding a few bruises. When they where done with her they came over to him with a splint and set his wing and left without doing much else and the solders escorted him to one of the bunks in the ship and locked the door from the outside.

The bunk looked like something that may have been on a passenger ship but only had a pair of beds and a view port, to small to even consider crawling out of, that looked out onto the ocean. Grdar figured that if they put him in this room then maybe the old ways of Equestria might still be around, but it was more likely that this ship didn't have a brig.

He looked out on the ocean when the ship started to moving, probably heading to the main land. At this notion Grdar wondered what was awaiting him.



The next day they arrived at a port and a pair of guards opened his door. "Time to go." Said a hard faced cream color stallion, and held his gun at the ready. His companion, a pink Pegasus with a small scar that traveled from her cheek down her jaw to her neck, stepped back to allow Grdar walk between them and they led him on through the ship.

The bunk hadn't had any food or water in it and Grdar hadn't gotten a chance to eat anything before everything went down. Not too mention that he hadn't gotten any sleep last night, partially do too wing and his brain trying to figure out what will happen to him after they left the ship.

When they emerged from the ships hull Grdar looked at around at the city and was surprised. The city was war torn. Buildings destroyed, the streets had creators from bombs and ships sunk in port. It looked like a war zone still. Of course he had heard Princess Luna had started a rebellion against her sister but if this was her doing then it was so much bigger then he had thought.

The solders marched him forwarded, takeing spots on his sides and walked him off the ship and into a car that looked like something an officer would be driven around in.

"Is this how you normally transport your prisoners?" Grdar asked.

"No." The stallion said. "You are a special case."

Hearing this Grdar felt his heart sink. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be a "special case".

The stallion opened up the door and the Pegasus shoved him in before he could see what was inside and slammed the door behind him.

"Hello Mr. Grdar." 

Grdar looked up and saw a young mare with a dirty white fur was sitting across from him in a slightly oversized trench coat on and a fedora laying by her side on a pile of vanilla folders.

Grdar sat up in the set a bit to hard and slammed his wing against the seat causing him to clamp his beak closed to keep from letting out a screech.

"W-who are you?" Grdar asked.

"That's not important right now. All you need to knew is i am from S.M.I.L.E."

Grdar wished he could disappear into his seat. S.M.I.L.E was, if be remember correctly, was the spy agency for Equestria and now for the Solar Empire. They had been rumored to be vary... persuasive.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Information." She answered leaning back in her seat. "Like your job in the invasion that is coming."

"No. Not willing to give you information about the attack." Grdar said. "You may know where it might hit but im not telling you anything about it or me."

The mare sighed. "Fine, if you won't talk then i will." She reach over for one of the envelope and pulled out a paper. "This is a copy of the battle plans for your naval attack." She said turning the paper around to show the basic battle map for the beach with how the battle was supposed to go. 

"We also know about the sniper teams that will be trying to hid on the clouds to see our solders." She listed a few other facts about there plan and with each fact his heart dropped more. How did they knew?

The ride lasted about an hour. They had passed several checkpoints but had been sent through after seeing there ID, which made Grdar wonder even more where he was being taken.

The S.M.I.L.E agent had gone silent and was looking out at the ocean, they have been following the shoreline since they left the city. Passing more and more defenses and emplace artillery cannons overlooking the ocean. "How can they spare this much stuff from the front?"  Grdar thought.

The Solar Empire had formed during the Equestrian-Changeling war, provided that the war had stalled out with no one makeing any progress for a year or two. The changelings had tried to make an offensive almost immediately after the change in government but had been meet by the fiery rage of Dawnbreaker and had lost much of there gains in the war after.

Then they turned off the road towards one of the defensive complex, this one having large concrete bunkers and lots of solders getting things ready for a fight, and came to a stop and two solders opened the door and pulled Grdar out and march him towards one of the bunkers and entered.

The bunker was full of supplies and ponies. Some looked at him with pity while the rest ignored him and keep working, only briefly looking up.

They kept going untill they came to a door with the label on it saying "war room" and one of the solders knock on the door and a deep voice from inside called enter and the solder opened the door.

The room was big bathed in fire light with a large table map in the middle of it with several officers and a general standing around it but where all looking Grdar.

Up untill this moment Grdar had tried to prepare himself for whatever try may do to him but when he look towards where the fire was he froze. Fore he was staring into the eyes of Dawnbreaker.

"Ahhh, the griffin has finally arrived." She said in a low voice and took a step closer to him. "I was beginning to wonder."

She walked around him like one might inspect a valuable cargo or perhaps a slave making a full circle around him before stopping on his side with his injured wing and whispered in his ear. "I have a preposition for you." Then walked over to the table.

"I would like you to represent me to your leaders. To tell them what you have seen and they should turn back." She said. "Undoubtedly though they will refuse and lunch there foolhardy attack and all parish. About seventy thousand griffins in total, right?"

One of her officers nodded and she finished with. "And you could save them all."

"How?" Grdar asked and before he could stop himself said. "By telling you how to break our code? By confirming what you think you know of our plans? Well i won't do it!"

Dawnbreaker just smiled at him and looked over to one of the officers and nodded and he walked over to the door and opened it letting in two solders and a Cozbi come in.

Grdar froze, this couldn't be. A bad dream maybe? No this felt to real, especially the pain in his wing. But this couldn't be real... Right?

Cozbi looked fine. She didn't have any obvious injures that he could see but she was only guarded by a pony, not a Pegasus, not a unicorn only a earth pony so if she had tried to fly away she could probably escape. With meant she hadn't tried to run but why? That didn't sound like her.

Final Cozbi broke the silence that felt like it had been going on forever. "Grdar! Are you ok? I thought i lost you when that plan crashed."

Then Dawnbreaker raised her hoof. "Now now, i think this little lie should come to an end now, don't you agree Cozbi?"

Cozbi looked at Dawnbreaker with pleading eyes and said. "What?"

"Do it." Dawnbreaker said seemingly growing brighter.

Cozbi looked like she was about to keep arguing but then Grdar interrupted. 

"Cozbi, what is she talking about?"

She looked at him a tear in her eye and lowered her head towards the ground and said "This." And green flames enveloped her.

Grdar took a step back in shock but before he could evan figure out what was going on the green flames died away and standing in place of Cozbi was a Changeling.

Grdar starred at the changeling as different thoughts went through his head. "How dare that thing impersonate Cozbi?" And "How had he not noticed this?" Being some of the thoughts going through his head.

Then he noticed something odd about the changeling. It was crying. Then it looked at him and said in Cozbi voice. "Im so sorry Grdar. I never wanted you to figure out like this. I really do love you, please forgive me."

Grdar didn't know how to feel about this, there was the world wind of emotions going through his head so the only thing he asked was. "How long? How long have you been lying to me?"

The changeling lowered it's head again and said. "Ever since you met me."

"Where's the real Cozbi?" Grdar demanded.

"You never met her. I picked up her form after passing by her a few days before i met you." She answered looking ashamed.

Grdar couldn't help but to want to believe her but to make sure he asked. "If that's ture, how did we first meet?"

The changeling looked up with a glint of hope in her almost crying blue eyes and a small smile touched her snout. "You where laying under a tree you had just fallen out of clamming you had been climbing it and hadn't smacked your head into one of the branches."

"Hay i was trying to climb that tree." Grdar suddenly said forgetting where he was thinking back to his friends on the approaching ship and talking with them with Cozbi.

The changeling... No Cozbi, looked like she was about to make a remark but Dawnbreaker intervened.

"Well now that you two have finished catching up..." Dawnbreaker looked over to Grdar. "I would like you too-"

"No." Grdar interrupted her. "I will not help you. I will not betray my people, not even for my life."

Dawnbreaker stood there without saying a word but her flames seemed growing brighter and hotter.

Then her horn light up with a orange glow and the hum of magic filled the room as Cozbi also began to glow and float up into the air.

"Vary well." Dawnbreaker said as Cozbi floated in the air. "If you will not listen to what i was going to ask then i have no choice but to do something... Unfortunate."

Then Cozbi started to scream, saying it's too hot.

Grdar looks to Dawnbreaker, seeing a slight smile touching her lips, and demanded. "What are you doing to her!?"

"Nothing that could not have been avoided, if you had behaved all of what is about to happen would have ended much better for you."

Then Cozbi ignited. Fire, not a Changeling's green magic flame,  covered her body. Her screams grow louder, if she had been screaming before this was something else entirely, and she wildly flailed her limbs as the flames burned all over her body.

Then she stopped screaming and fell still and Dawnbreaker dropped her to the ground, a bit of ash spilled out from her remains.Her chiton outside didn't burn away from the flames but any softer tissues did, leaving only a empty husk of her for him to stare at.

"She could have been yours along with a few other things, only if you had behaved." Dawnbreaker said.

Grdar couldn't look away from the remains of Cozbi as Dawnbreaker continued.

"Now listen, i want you to go to your commanding officer and tell them to leave or make them."

"What makes you think they would listen to me?" Grdar said, his heart felt like it was in shambles. "They probably just think i was a deserter."

"No." Dawnbreaker said as her horn lit back up with orange magic and grdar was lifted up into the air without a fight. "I think they will listen to you."

Pain suddenly flared up in his gut and in his head, and he screeched in pain and grabbed his head. The pain felt like fire that was moving around inside him. It felt like the fire was exploring his body. Then something felt like it popped in his head and the flames in his body stopped hurting and started to feel... Good?

The magic glow around him stopped and he fell back onto the ground.

Grdar felt surprising good, he looked over to his broken wing to see that it looked like it was healed, as if the injury had never happened. But there was something else aa well, he felt more calm around Dawnbreaker despite what she had just did in front of him and he didn't feel as bad for Cozbi anymore.

"Now, will you lesson to what i have to say?" Dawnbreaker asked and Grdar sat down and nodded, feeling strangely at ease.

"You only have one task you have do Grdar. Go to the griffins' and convince them to... Leave."

Grdar nodded and turnd to leave, and the soldier stepped aside to let him pass.

As he walk through the bunker solders would see him and get up like they where going to try and stop him from leaving but would freeze in place when he looked at them. Some solders cowered away from him as he past others said prayers to whatever gods they believe in upon seeing him.

"Why are they acting like this?" Grdar wondered. "Im not that scary."

Then Grdar passed a white unicorn holding a small folding mirror up with her magic looking at herself. She didn't seem to notice him walk up behind her until she turned it to see him standing there and she grasped and jumped to the side dropping the mirror, makeing a cracking sound as it hit the ground.

"I-im sorry I-I didn't hear you comeing up." She said studding over her words looking at Grdar with fear in her eyes.

Grdar looked away from her and picked up the mirror loomed into it. The mirror had several cracks going through it making anything in it look broken, but what looked at him in the mirror wasn't him.

The thing in the mirror looked like him yes, but it's eyes seemed to have a fire burning in them and it's feathers seemed to shimmer like light from a fire was shining from within.

Grdar wanted to drop the mirror and crush it, the thing he saw couldn't be him, but something kept him from doing it. Instead he handed the mirror back to the white unicorn who took it back and said thank you before quickly walking away from him. Grdar watch her go and continued his out.