The Major was furious to say the least. He'd been yelling at the three ponies in front of him for a good thirty minutes now for failing to obey direct orders, endangering themselves and others, and a massive disregard for in-flight safety on the part of a certain mechanic. He’d had to stop and take a breath. They were damn lucky they'd pulled off saving the day instead of fucking up in the slightest in either situation.
"I ought to court martial you both for ignoring direct orders from your commanding officer. Don't think you’re getting off lightly, Doo. You deserve one too for that stunt on the transport. Thank Luna the pilot was able to compensate for the sudden depressurization."
The Major stopped again, took another breath, and tried to calm himself a down.
"But the fact remains, you three came out of this heroes. Without your actions, we would have almost certainly lost both transports and everyone aboard. So, by way of reward and punishment, I'm just gonna hammer medals straight in to your thick skulls. I have a briefing to be at. Get out of my sight...and good work."
The quick barks of affirmatives and the sight of the three ponies turning tail and practically fleeing his office was a good sign. They were heroes and their stunts had worked this time, but Windsheer knew, from long years of experience that nine times out of ten, heroics just got ponies killed. Hopefully that ear blistering would rein them in a little bit. The Major picked up a notepad with pen attached. He had another briefing from the Equestian Military Special Intelligence division. Hopefully, the spooks actually had something useful to tell them about the situation, like whether or not this was a declaration of war by the Northern Griffin Kingdom.
Classified Briefing of Senior Personnel
Marimar ADFB
1745 Local time
The Major shifted uncomfortably in his seat around the large table of the conference room. He hated briefings with a passion and formal briefings like this one were even worse. He was seated to the right of Princess Luna who capped one end of the table. Then, the various squadron commanders and senior officers of the base lined the table to the other head, where Colonel Steelhoof sat, a badly chomped stub of his cigar resting on his lip. He looked as impatient with the briefing process as Major Windsheer felt. The EMSI analyst finally finished his long-winded opening that sounded like it came directly from a manual on how to present things in the most painful manner possible and finally launched in to the meat of the matter.
"Your Highness, Mares and Stallions, thanks to successful negotiations with the Northern Griffin Kingdom by Princess Celestia, as well as intelligence operations along the border by EMSI, we have positively confirmed the aggressor during the present border difficulties. The fighters and bombers attacking us belong to units of the NGK Airforce belonging to their Southern Command Group. The Southern Command Group is lead by a griffin who goes by Lord Claw. His rank in their military is Second Talon, which is equivalent to a four star General by our rankings. EMSI's information and information provided by NGK sources have revealed that Lord Claw's attacks in to Equestria are actually part of a larger plot to overthrow the current griffin royal family. Claw is a war hero and extremely popular with the people. The Southern Command gives him control of massive amounts of troops and aircraft. There's even rumors he's managed to build a mountain command post that no one outside of his forces knows about or can locate."
Colonel Steelhoof smashed his cigar stub into the ashtray sitting near him.
"How exactly has EMSI confirmed this and what benefit does Claw gain from attacking Equestria?"
The door of the conference room opened and a scratchy rasping voice answered the Colonel.
"He makes himself appear strong, to have the best interests of the people at heart, and to be willing to take actions instead of tal. These things are prized in our society, Colonel."
The room was stunned as a large and very regal looking black griffin entered the room, the jeweled collar around his neck marking him as someone very important. The intelligence analyst appeared flustered for a moment and then stammered out an introduction.
"This is First Talon Lord Subotai, the overall commander of their military and the Right Claw of the King of the North; a position of great importance in their culture. The NGK made an offer to Princess Celestia on how to deal with the situation. The King cannot directly move against Lord Claw because he's too popular with the people; but if outsiders defeat him, not only will his standing be lost, but the King can then crush him with out worry of any backlash. Lord Subotai is here at the King's request, as well as the wishes of Her Highness, to prove that this offer for us to eliminate Claw is honest.”
Subotai ruffled his feathers a bit and stepped more to the center of the room.
"When I speak, I speak with His Majesty's voice. I am his Right Claw, most trusted of all his warriors and advisers. The first guardian of His eyrie We have no desire to war with your nation again, especially not over something so trivial as the work of miners. We also have a desire to be rid of Claw, who has betrayed the trust of the throne and committed the highest treason by working against His Majesty and attacking your country. Honor demands that your nation be given redress by taking Claw and those who follow him, draining their blood, smashing their eyries, and burning their lands."
"Don't hurt that it's politically expedient to you all too." Colonel Steelhoof growled out from behind a fresh unlit cigar.
The griffon's eyes narrowed slightly into what would approximate a smirk for an animal with a beak.
"A wise hunter can catch twice the prey with a single talon, Colonel. That does not make our offer any less genuine, which is why your Princess Celestia has accepted it."
The Major's heart sank as the Colonel and the griffin continued their light, verbal sparring. This was gonna be a long briefing.
The next day
Secure Hangar 2
2036 local time
Background Music
It'd been a long day of work. Flare and Zephyr's strikers had each gained some bullet holes here and there and Flare's electrical system had been partially fried from a minor fault in the Storm Cannon system. The day had been spent in companionable silence mostly; the trio mentally rehashing what happened to them the previous day. Questions about certain systems and repairs or requests to pass a certain part or tool were the only conversation as the three ponies focused on their work. Flare let out a long sigh and dropped to the ground by his striker, settling back on his haunches.
"I don't know about you two, but I think it's time we took a break."
Clanky, smudged with grease and a couple unidentifiable chemicals, wiped her hooves off and sat down next to Flare, Zeph following after securing a cowling shut.
"I think that's it for my striker. Thanks for the help, Clanky."
"Heh, what can I say? It is my job to keep these things in the air."
Clanky let out a soft sigh and relaxed back against the support strut of Flare's striker.
"This break was a good idea. I honestly don't remember the last time we stopped."
Zeph laughed softly.
"I seem to recall eating at some point, but I'll be damned if I can remember when we did."
Zephyr breathed in deeply, enjoying the small island of peace with her friends. So much had already changed in the past two days they'd all managed to save each other's lives in combat. All of them had killed. Zephyr wasn't really paying attention to Clanky and Flare now. He was telling the mechanic some story from their foalhood. Zephyr and Flare had grown up together, practically siblings. They'd met early one spring morning, when Flare had landed on top of her after jumping off a roof. Celestia only knew how he'd managed to get up there, but he did, and he took a running jump off it, already struggling to fly and failing in a spectacular manner. He'd actually managed to knock them both through the clouds, he’d hit her so hard, but his dad, who had been watching, dove and grabbed them. Flare had come over the next day to apologize and ask if she wanted to play. They'd been like siblings ever since. The mare shook her head a little; Flare and Clanky were both trying to get her attention.
"Sorry, guys, I zoned out a little."
Flare laughed at his friend.
"Your striker's all closed up, Zeph. You might as well go make an early night of it while Clanky and I finish up here."
Despite Zephyr’s protests that she was fine, her friends quickly chased her from the hangar. She really did need the rest, so she’d let them push her out the door. She took one last look over her shoulder and noticed they’d both sat back down by Flare’s striker, though Clanky was sitting a lot closer to Flare.
‘Flare and Clanky? They have been spending a lot of time together recently… but the Major’s exemption on the fraternization order doesn’t go that far. Flare wouldn’t risk his career like that, would he?’
Zeph shrugged it off. Her friends knew what they were doing, if they were even doing anything at all. She walked back to the barracks. Her room was on the first floor and close to the mare’s locker rooms and showers. This late at night no one was usually in them, but as she passed by, she could have sworn she heard sobbing and… was that pounding? Zephyr rushed in and was greeted by the sight of Captain Cloud Dancer. Her coat streaked with tears and blood, her wild mane contrasting to her normal orderly appearance. She was pounding her locker door with both hooves, the metal buckling under the force. Zephyr swallowed nervously.
"Ca-captain, are you okay?"
Cloud Dancer whirled on Zephyr. Her usually molten eyes were a flame, all the emotion inside was burning her up, tearing her apart, and she had no idea how to deal with the intruder before her. She was a torrent inside, wanting to lash out at the young mare for intruding, wanting to reach to her for help, needing someone when there was truly no one else; not after her brother had been murdered, after he had died just a few months ago, after what was left of her world was shattered.
"Nothing’s wrong. Return to your quarters."
Zephyr gave her a look, almost as if to argue. It was clear she wasn't okay. Even she knew she was lying and badly at that. As she turned to leave, Cloud Dancer heard a voice call out, like a cool breeze across her pained, burning heart and soul. Her brother's voice – Cloud Burster's voice, whispering,
"Sometimes you just need to trust someone."
The path before her cleared and, with a shaky voice, Cloud Dancer lifted her head and called out.
"Flight Officer... Zephyr, please wait. I could really use someone to talk to."
She didn't have to say another word, and the other mare was across the room, pulling her in to a hug.
"It's alright. Whatever it is just let it out."
So she did. She dropped all pretense, all illusions of rank and bearing, and she sobbed into Zephyr's mane, letting all the tears and pain flow out, letting all the loss, the sense of abandonment, the last family she had on the planet had died in the crash. Her brother, who she'd practically raised after their parents had passed in their foalhood. She was alone, cold and frozen; but in the caring hooves of Zephyr, she let it all met away.
After a while, the sobbing subsided, and the talking began. It was all one sided, but she knew Zephyr was paying attention to every word as she told her about her parents dying when she and her brother were foals and her brother's death with the 370th. Eventually, she started to pass out, utterly exhausted and Zephyr helped her back to her quarters on the second deck. As Zephyr slipped out the door, she whispered back in to the room.
"You can always count on me as your friend."
As Cloud Dancer fell in to a deep sleep, the last conscious thought that flashed around her mind was,
‘I... have a friend? It's been so long since I've had one of those... it's nice.’
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Author's note: I just want to make the point that the image in the video for the song "Memories" Vietnam Reflections by Lee Tater is a coincidence, while they all (this part of the fic, the song and the image) have pained emotional tones, and the image certainly goes with the song, I am not implying any connection between that image and my story, any real loss of life, or any real war at all. As a United States Marine such actions are beyond me and dishonorable. This is a work of fiction meant for the amusement and enjoyment of all, there is no connection to any real historical events except for scattered references that I leave around for other history nerds like me