//------------------------------// // Conflict Is the Price We Pay For a Deeper Understanding of Ourselves and Others // Story: If You Want Peace, Prepare For War // by tranhdxrbntd //------------------------------// The griffon counterattack stood no chance. The REA now held a strong hold on a significant portion of the Imperial Griffon Armed Forces' (IGAF) primary defensive trench line. After the takeover, more REA forces were moved forward to make it a stronger holding. With more REA forces present, the ammo depot the griffons had previously taken over was quickly abandoned by the griffon forces as they knew it would cost more lives to hold it if any attempt was made to take it back. However, it hadn't meant that the griffons had merely rolled over and given the ammo depot back. When they abandoned that holding, they had destroyed any ammo that could be used, leaving behind an even bigger issue for the Equestrians to deal with. Once everything was finished up, humans and crew returned to the rear REA trench lines where the command structures and primary resources were held to plan for the next steps ahead. None of the humans realized the other problem that was floating in the area that one had realized. -X-X-X- Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, and a number of the Crystal Empire's auxiliary guards were nervous right now. The diplomatic entourage with the humans were supposed to have arrived by now. Even if they were running late, they would have sent a messenger ahead of time to let them know. It didn't help the situation that the crystal ponies and rulers were accompanied by an entourage of Yaks and their diplomat. "Yak diplomat tired of waiting! Yak want to word stomp with new not-minotaur minotaur-warriors!" yelled the yak diplomat with a stomp of his front right foreleg. Just as that complaint had been lodged, a tiny trail of green fire rushed through the air and went straight to Princess Cadance's horn. Once it connected with the princess's horn, it turned into a rolled up scroll. That couldn't have been good news. Only the four alicorn princesses of Equestria could send messages like that (and one small purple dragon of course) and judging from the lack of a wax stamp, that meant it came from the Princess of Friendship. Once Cadance had read the message, her face blanched. Handing the scroll off to her husband, she turned to face the Yak diplomat and his entourage of eight yak guards. "I'm sorry to break the news, Sir Grovious, but we'll have to reschedule our meeting. The train that was delivering the 'not-minotaur minotaur-warriors' was ambushed and they were rerouted to Fillydelphia," explained Cadance. "No, yak diplomat want to meet new not-pony pony warrior diplomats now!" demanded yak diplomat Grovious while taking a few aggressive steps towards the pink alicorn. Shining Armor stepped in between his wife and the diplomat. "Sir Grovious, I'm afraid that will no longer be possible. The trip takes a minimum of two days and the diplomatic entourage is stuck in a major warzone." "Yak want to see new not-minotaur minotaur-warriors now or Yak no give coal and iron!" threatened Grovious. Princess Cadance frowned. "They're on the frontlines of the battlefield. Unless you want to join them, its not possible." The yak diplomat turned to his protection detail. "Gather other yaks and gear. Yaks will join battle!" The royal couple was astounded. "Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Shining Armor. The yak diplomat snorted. "Yak did not stutter! Pony and griffon war easy and pathetic!" Well that was a challenge if Shining Armor had ever heard of. -X-X-X- Incidentally, the yaks were serious. They had gathered every available yak (roughly two dozen) and got ready to go to the battlefield, the yak way. They covered themselves in enough steel plating to make a bunker jealous and had gone to the center of the Crystal Empire's castle. Shining Armor arranged REA ponies to accompany them (also two dozen), while Princess Cadance readied a very powerful teleportation lodestone. There was a major magical teleportation network between the Royal Castle in Canterlot, the old palace of the two sisters in the Everfree forest, Twilight's castle in Ponyville, and naturally the Crystal Empire's Castle. It could only be powered by Alicorns, in person, and the caster had to go with the teleporters. When the diplomatic envoy with the humans was planned, this teleportation network was originally the intended method of transportation but unfortunately, the humans were completely immune to most of Equestria's various types of magics leading to the idea of traveling with the Dauntless. Airships were also suggested but airships were significantly more "fragile" than trains being much harder to defend in attacks and once it reached the northern winds and temperatures, it'd render them impossible to fly. Princess Twilight had been notified about the human's detour to Fillydelphia and was nonplussed about the change. The diplomatic mission was quite important. The yaks, despite being a small country with a small population, was a very good possible source of resources that were useful to the war effort. Cadance, Shining Armor, and the yaks, after teleporting to Ponyville, linked up with the princess of magic, and commandeered an airship to take them to Fillydelphia with their royal authority. In addition to the airship, they commandeered two additional airships to escort them there with several teams of pegasi to also provide protection. At the rate they were going, it'd only be a day before they'd reach their destination. -X-X-X- The remaining crewmembers of the Dauntless were given their own area of respite at the rear lines where everyone was. They stuck together and didn't have assignments to attend to for the war effort giving them what was essentially leave. Most of them were asleep at the moment, after getting medical care for whatever injuries they had, or were eating their body weight in food. The whole incident left them drained. The other ponies that accompanied the humans ordeal with the Dauntless had their own tasks of leisure. The humans all had their own desires. Wilson, after taking a short power nap and three meals worth of food, went to help out with caring for wounded or dying soldiers. Eric, also after a short nap and a lot of food, was making sure his soldiers (the former crewmembers of the Dauntless) were taken care of and getting whatever they wanted. Tran, after getting a short once over from Wilson, was milling about, not tired or hungry at all. He walked around the rear lines, getting stares from other ponies. The other ponies that accompanied the humans' ordeal with the Dauntless had their own tasks of leisure. Rarity and Blueblood were familiarizing each other about them, wanting to forget about any prior negative experiences and trying to get a fresh start with each other. Pinkie Pie was entertaining Scootaloo with Applejack at the current moment, wanting to take care of the stray at the moment, so Tran could have some time to himself that didn't involve the responsibility of having her as his charge. Hopefully, Pinkie Pie wouldn't cause trouble while taking care of Scootaloo... Much trouble. Then, there were the others... -X-X-X- Gilda, couldn't be alone by herself, less she be the incident of unintentional friendly fire from some REA soldiers who didn't know about her state of defection. Luckily, she had a loyal friend that would stick by her side, one that would kill to protect her. Rainbow Dash, being a wing commander of the REAF (Royal Equestrian Air Force) which was the REAF equivalent of a colonel of the REA (Royal Equestrian Army), was allowed her own private tent. This private tent was too big for a single pony to use and was situated with the other tents that made up the tent city where the former crewmembers of the Dauntless lived. This tent city wasn't too far from the other tent cities in the Equestrian Rear Line. Rainbow Dash, after having her wing treated and splinted, was haphazardly shoveling food into her mouth, wanting to recover all of the calories that she had made a deficit of in these last few days. Gilda, who was also a dogfighter who had done the same physical exertions, was also eating at the same disgusting rate. The two of them were sitting on their own cots but eating at the same desk, facing each other. "-Ing against me," Dash said in between chews. Gilda swallowed whatever food was in her mouth. "I don't remember losing a few days back," Gilda said before immediately taking in a mouthful of food. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Doesn't count, that wasn't a dogfight!" she shot back. Gilda smirked. "Yeah it does! That's how I do it, get in close and send em dropping out of the sky!" "Then you're not a dogfighter!" Gilda paused in her eating before fluffing up her chest fluff to seem bigger. "Still a Jaeger!" Before they could continue their conversation, there was knocking on the front flap of the tent. The Element of Harmony (Loyalty, the coolest element!) and the Jaeger paused in their eating with a quick swallow. Since the tent's owner was Rainbow Dash, she was the one to answer. "Help yourself, Enter!" she said, loud enough that the guest could hear. The front flap of her tent was zipped open and there stood Soarin, former Wonderbolt. He was still wearing only his dress coat, Spitfire's gear, and carrying Spitfire's rifle slung across his back. "Whatcha need, Soarin?" Soarin removed as much mud off of his hooves before entering Rainbow Dash's officer's tent, stepping onto the wood floorboards that made up the tent's ground. "Well, since I'm not officially part of the REA (pronounced ree), I don't have a company to join up with." That also meant he wasn't privy to use any of the resources that the REA had. Rainbow Dash held up a hoof to silence him. "Say no more, you can stay with me!" she offered. True, Rainbow Dash's officers tent easily took up the space that 12 enlisted soldiers would use up in a normal setup, so she easily had the space. Soarin smiled. "Thanks! I owe you one!" Soarin looked around the tent space and found a relatively clean looking area to use. He walked over to it, his wooden leg making a very obvious wood on wood clunk noise with each step he made. Rainbow Dash eyed the prosthetic as it made each step. "Where's your stuff, we can help you get it," Rainbow Dash offered. Soarin looked sheepish. "You're looking at it. When we got your distress message, we left in a hurry. Didn't think to grab anything. And I'm technically a civvie," Soarin started while using his hoof to ruffle his REA dress coat. "I can get in trouble if I get caught pretending to be somepony important so I can't go to a quartermaster and force them to give me anything." Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Well that's bullshit!" Rainbow Dash stood up from her cot and pulled the unrolled bedroll off of it. "Here, take my cot! I can sleep on the floor." Soarin held up his good hoof in protest. "No, it's your stuff! I can't!" he replied. Rainbow Dash placed the bedroll she picked up and placed it down beside her cot. "Too late! Already happening!" she said while sitting down on the bedroll on the ground. "Now get to your cot before I drag you onto it!" Soarin had a guilty look on his face as he trotted over and sat down onto the cot. The cot still had a pillow on it. As he looked around the tent, he could see Rainbow Dash's other possessions. More importantly, he could see Gilda. Nothing but a table with some food and water and a few lit lanterns separated the two of them where they sat. Swallowing, he opened his mouth. "Uhhh-" Rainbow Dash realized what situation she had forced Soarin into. Getting up she trotted back to her cot and sat down onto the cot beside him to his right. Dash brought up her left foreleg and patted him on the back. "Sorry, I forgot. The floors yours if you really need it." Gilda stayed silent, just looking across the table at the two ponies, trying to have as friendly a face as she could. Right now, She wasn't wearing any of her gear or clothes but she was still wearing that red scarf. Soarin turned to look at Rainbow Dash before looking at the bedroll on the ground before looking back at Gilda. "I'll be fine. I have to work on it eventually." Gilda gave an awkward smile. "Uhhh," the griffon droned, mirroring Soarin, unsure what to say. Soarin turned to look at Rainbow Dash, who was still sitting next to him. "So, fastest mare in Equestria, huh?" he said with a goading smirk. Rainbow Dash scrunched her nose while Gilda started laughing. "Shut up!" Dash said while giving Soarin a playful shove. When the joke died, Gilda wiped a tear from her eye while leveling her gaze at Soarin. "I understand you haven't had the best friendships with griffons, much more, Jaegers. I get it. If I do anything wrong, just tell me," Gilda offered. She held her hand across the table out to Soarin. Soarin took the hand in his hoof and shook it. "-Preciate it." Gilda eyed Soarin's dress coat. "So, Wonderbolts? Anything else?" Soarin shook his head. "Just the 'bolts. Had been in it for 4 years by the time the war started. Medically discharged after a bad run-in with one of you," Soarin said while pointing at Gilda. "bout a year in." Gilda smiled as he was warming up to her. "So, what's the Wonderbolts? Before the war, I mean?" Soarin shrugged. "I duuno. Just stunt flying, I guess?" Rainbow Dash's mouth dropped open. "Just stunt flying?!" She blurted out in shock. "You guys were the best stunt fliers I had ever seen!" Dash said with such passion in her voice that she flared out her wings, wing-smacking Soarin in the side in the process. "The most awesomest, coolest shows, ever!" Soarin, almost having been knocked over by Rainbow Dash's wing, recovered. He playfully smacked Rainbow Dash back with his own wing. He did this gently, of course, by flaring out his right wing and smacking Rainbow Dash's left side and left wing. "I'm assuming you were a fan?" he asked. "Uh, yeah!" Rainbow Dash said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I won one of the Young Flyers Competition in Cloudsdale just to meet you guys! I was your biggest fan!" Gilda had a smug look on her face. She pointed at Rainbow Dash's flared wings. "Nice wing boner," Gilda taunted. Rainbow Dash flushed red with embarrassment as she tucked her wings back to her side as fast as possible. Soarin adopted the same smug look on his face that Gilda had. He closed his eyes and gave Rainbow Dash a quick nuzzle. "Its always nice to meet a fan!" Rainbow Dash flushed even redder as she covered her face with her hooves. "Ugh!" she groaned. Soarin unfurled his right wing and used it to pull Rainbow Dash closer. "It's all in good fun!" he said. Rainbow Dash uncovered her red face as she look at Soarin, still wrapped in his wing. She looked up at the larger stallion before leaning forward and up to give him a quick nuzzle back. "It's always good to meet a Wonderbolt!" Soarin chuckled before looking down at the bedroll that Rainbow Dash placed on the ground. "You don't have to sleep on the ground." Rainbow Dash looked at the bedroll on the ground before looking back at Soarin. "I said you could have the cot, I don't mind." Soarin looked at cot he was sitting on and then back at Dash. "I'll sleep in the cot." Rainbow Dash was confused for a second before she realized what he meant. This, combined with the fact that she was still wrapped in Soarin's wing, meant that she started blushing again, redder than ever. "Oh." Gilda also realized what was happening. "Look, it'd be weird to just sit here and watch, but I can't just leave by myself." Soarin knew that Gilda would be shot dead in an instant but she was a Jaeger and there were thoughts gnawing on his mind. However, there were other thoughts... Soarin looked at the griffon, who was wearing nothing at the moment with exception to her Jaeger's scarf. "You don't have to sit there and watch," Soarin suggested. Gilda was confused for a second before she realized what he meant. That was when she started blushing. "Oh." -X-X-X- Spitfire was in quite a bit of trouble. Not physical trouble but official trouble. She had technically, without permission, gone AWOL (Away Without Official Leave) when she went to rescue the humans. Since the humans were in their own personal brand of authority/command, there was some leeway to what was gonna happen to her. However, she still technically abandoned her post and it was now catching up to her. "Ugggh," Spitfire groaned, having recently left the verbal ass chewing that she had received from her chain of command. Now that things around here were simmering, her body was also catching up to her and exhaustion filled her. She also felt hungry but not enough to find where the chow tent was. She just wanted to lie down and die... Okay, maybe just sleep for now. She slowly trotted over to where her tent was, also an officer's tent, just like Rainbow Dash's officer's tent. Her tent, along with the tents that belonged to all of the other soldiers that had gone on the rescue mission, was attached to the tent city that housed the Dauntless Crewmembers. As she made her way, she bumped into her lifelong friend, Soarin. Seeing something positive for a change, she smiled. "Soarin!" she called out. The former Wonderbolt flinched in surprise before smiling. "Yeah?" he responded. He was wearing nothing except for that REA dress coat that he always wore and was carrying nothing else. "I finally got my ass reamed for going AWOL for those humans," Spitfire said. Soarin raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?" he said again. "How bad was it?" Spitfire frowned. "Bad." Soarin winced. "Sorry." In the distance, the sound of a machine gun flared up but stopped after a while. Just Soarin flinched but he returned to his usual demeanors after he realized what it was. Spitfire keyed in onto this. "Been a while since you've been to the line, huh?" Soarin frowned before looking down at the ground. "That obvious huh?" he asked. He was a civvie here, surrounded by possible death on all sides. He was a fish out of water, here. For him, the battlefield was a long, painful, distant memory to him. Spitfire went over to his left side and wrapped her right wing against him. "It's all right. I'm here for you," Spitfire said in a soft voice. Soarin looked up from the ground and turned to look at Spitfire, smiling. "I know being around that Jaeger hurts you. You don't have to hurt alone. I'm always here for you. Just talk to me." Soarin looked into Spitfire's eyes and right now, despite it being night right now, this was like the sun parting the clouds to Spitfire. Soarin took a half step away, pulling himself away out of Spitfire's wing hug. Before Spitfire could react, Soarin leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. Spitfire was confused for a split second but she realized what he had done and closed her eyes, embroiling herself deeper into the kiss. The two embraced each other and after what seemed like an eternity, Spitfire broke from the kiss and gazed at Soarin with half lidded eyes. "Want to help me find my tent?" Spitfire offered in a husky voice. -X-X-X- Tran walked amidst the tent city where all of the Dauntless's remaining crewmembers slept. He didn't have his own personal tent to sleep in. It wasn't that he was given one, it was more that he preferred to be with the enlisted soldiers. His 'home away from home' was a cot with all of the other cots inside the giant tent where a large number of enlisted soldiers collectively slept together inside. Enlisted Soldiers slept in two rows of cots. In all directions, Tran's cot was surrounded by other occupied cots that belonged to REA soldiers. Unlike the other REA soldiers, the Dauntless crewmembers weren't afraid to be near Tran. However, the cot immediately to the right of Tran's cot was empty of any sleeping soldier. It seemed like it belonged to someone and was supposed to be occupied. All of the other cots in this tent was currently filled with a sleeping soldier except for Tran's and this other cot. The reason as to why it was empty was because it was supposed to be Logan's cot. Underneath that very cot were Logan's previous belongings and weapons. Sighing, Tran walked out of that sleeping tent. He made his way to find Gilda, just to make sure she didn't need anything. She was one of them, despite being a griffon and formerly a Jaeger of the Imperial Griffon Military (IGM). However, she wasn't officially a member of the REA yet so she wasn't privy to any of the REA's resources. He knew that she couldn't be left alone and was most likely with her lifelong friend, Rainbow Dash. Even in the dead of night, he could easily make his way and he did, as quietly as he could. as not to wake any of his fellow soldiers. When he was at Rainbow Dash's tent, he could hear the sounds of shuffling and quiet clattering. Undoing the front tent flap, he stepped inside the lantern-lit-up tent. Inside, were Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Soarin and they were doing quite the intimate "physical activity". Tran quickly left the three of them to their "physical activity". Obviously, Gilda was being taken care of. Excessively so, some would say. With that idea dashed, he decided to go plan for future activities involving the war effort. Eric was probably doing the same thing but multiple perspectives could never hurt. The best people to talk to were either Blueblood, Rarity, and Spitfire. Rarity had explicitly asked for some privacy for her and Blueblood so the two of them could get to know each other so he decided to go find Spitfire. Just like Rainbow Dash's, he knew where it was. From here, it was relatively close by. It wouldn't take that long to make it there and he quickly found himself at the tent. From outside the tent, Tran could hear quiet shuffling. Stepping in, he found himself standing in another lantern lit-up tent. Inside, he found himself looking at Spitfire engaged in a rather intimate "physical activity" with Soarin. Tran froze and stared at the two, despite many, many protests. He then charged towards the two, despite the many, many protests, and grabbed Soarin off of (and out of) Spitfire. Again, there were many, many angry protests and shouts from both party members but Tran ignored them. Carrying the angrily writhing stallion, he made his way back to Rainbow Dash's tent, while being angrily bombarded by Spitfire's attacks. Everything all ground to a halt when Tran, once again, barged into Rainbow Dash's tent and interrupted Gilda's, Rainbow Dash's, and Soarin's intimate "physical activity". However, that intimate "physical activity" took a major stutter when the three of them realized that Tran was carrying Soarin. When Spitfire barged into the tent, she too noticed the discrepancy. Soarin was locked in Tran's grasps where another Soarin was locked in a very, very different type of grasp from Rainbow Dash and Gilda. Tran threw the Soarin he was carrying to the ground and quickly drew a handgun in each hand, pointing it at both Soarin's.