Chapter 9
Wrenn sat alone in the Council chamber. He had commandeered the seat behind Korvan’s while the Council was in recess.
111 to 111, and one abstainer. Deadlock.
The Chairman had asked the abstainer, a Councilor from the Agricultural Sciences party named Andrea Miyagi, to cast a deciding vote. She had in turn invoked the right of arbitration, meaning that over the course of the next hour she would be allowed to interview Wrenn’s sponsors, and Councilors Vastris and Korvan, with a neutral party, in this case Celestia, as arbitration.
She would then cast the deciding vote.
This left Wrenn alone with his thoughts. As much as he had deluded himself into believing that he liked to be alone, he was keenly feeling the absence of his friends, especially in this particular place.
He decided that he hated that circular colorless chamber.
After the first twenty minutes, there was a rustle and the side door opened.
To Wrenn’s surprise, Sildinar stepped into the room.
“I thought they were going to be a full hour?”
Sildinar nodded, “They are, but Councilor Miyagi dismissed myself and Councilor Vastris.
She said she had heard enough from us in our speeches and was more interested in interviewing everyone else.”
Wrenn shrugged and sighed. Sildinar made his way up to Wrenn’s row and took up a sitting position on the floor. The disparity between the floor and Wrenn’s seat almost put him at eye level with the Gryphon, but Sildinar still had a few inches on him.
Wrenn turned and offered a wry smile, “What you said... It meant a lot to me. Its been a long time since I had a friend who would stick his neck out for me that way.”
Sildinar looked down at Councilor Korvan’s seat, “So this is where it happened? The attack?”
Wrenn nodded, Sildinar stared down at the seat then back at Wrenn, “You mentioned you shot the attacker. You called him your best friend. What did you mean?”
Wrenn gazed down at the place where he’d lost his eyes. He didn’t want to discuss it. Or did he? He had never worked out all the emotions the incident had created, he’d just wrestled them away into a dark corner of his mind and barricaded them there so he wouldn’t have to look at them, or analyze them, or care about them.
He took a deep breath, “A lot of stuff was kept out of the media report. My name, for example.
I was interviewed anonymously. I got a lot of ‘attention,’ but nobody knew who the nameless faceless soldier was, even thought I ‘spoke’ by teleconference in several interviews.
That was Korvan’s way of keeping the spotlight on himself, good publicity and such.
In retrospect I’m actually glad he was a selfish cuss. Its kept me out of the picture...”
Sildinar nodded and waited for Wrenn to continue.
“...Something else that didn’t make it into any of the reports, military or otherwise, was my relationship to the attacker. I told the higher-ups that I had no connection to him. In truth? That man was my closest friend. He was like family, until the day he decided to take politics into his own hands. He came into the chamber on pretense of raising a motion, pulled out a bioplasmic grenade, and lobbed it like a world series baseball champion.”
Judging by Sildinar’s expression, he didn’t understand the reference completely, but he understood the intended meaning.
Wrenn laughed, a harsh barking sound that echoed off the steel stanchions of the dome.
“Do you know that back then, my callsign was 'Trigger?' Because I had, and continue to have a track record of being quick to the draw and shooting to kill. No hesitation, no pause, no remorse. Just like a good soldier is supposed to right?”
Now Wrenn’s voice was cracking. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why, he thought he’d been over this with himself enough times to be rid of his regrets. He tried to keep his face blank, but Sildinar’s expression betrayed his sympathy. Wrenn figured it must be hard to hide tells from someone with such good eyes.
“So I see the grenade coming. I do what any good protection detail is supposed to do. I shoved Korvan down to the floor, and pulled my pistol. I managed to catch the tail end of the grenade with the butt, sending it up. That sucker blew in mid air, right above me. Any closer and it would have melted my head into Proterozoic goop.”
Wrenn sighed and stared out the dome, watching as a maglev slid into the secure terminal and some big wig or another disembarked with the usual fanfare.
“In the half-second before my eyes melted, I had the perfect firing position. So I took the shot. They tell me the bullet went right through his occipital lobe. He probably didn’t even get a chance to hear the grenade go off. Dead before he hit the floor.”
Sildinar cocked his head, “And you’ve never told this to anyone?”
Wrenn shook his head. For once, the Gryphon seemed truly shocked.
“How have you dealt with it for so long?”
“By refusing to deal with it. I just pretend the issue doesn’t exist.”
Sildinar raised an eyebrow, “I take it your kind has the ability to ignore emotions of that magnitude. We do not.”
The Gryphon stared out at the same fixed point he was eyeing. He wondered how much detail Sildinar could pick out at that range.
Wrenn turned to the Gryphon, “How would you deal with something like this?”
Sildinar faced him, “The way you are now. Discuss it with a friend, perhaps not all at once, take out my emotions on a few practice dummies. Perhaps even some live prey if it's close to claw.”
Wrenn decided to take his chances. He hadn’t had any intention of making new friends, but somehow it had happened anyways. Perhaps that was for the best.
“Well when this mess is over for better or worse, maybe you, and me, and Kephic, and Varan can take out our emotions on some practice dummies then talk things out over beef strips and something ice cold.”
Sildinar smiled, “I would like nothing more.”
The two passed the rest of the half hour in friendly silence, eventually moving back to the public seating area so as not to get caught doing something which was technically frowned upon.
Almost precisely on the hour, the Council began to file back in. Sildinar moved to rejoin the other Gryphons and Celestia, Hutch and Aston came to sit beside Wrenn.
He leaned over to Hutch and whispered, “How do you think it went?”
Hutch shrugged, “Heck if I know. Talking to that Miyagi woman is like talking to a block of granite. If she’s intimated that she’s picked a side, then I’ve missed it. I tell you what, she grilled us all though. And Korvan? he is not happy.”
Chairwoman Sakai stood and cleared her throat, “The abstainer has agreed to cast a deciding vote.”
A woman who Wrenn assumed was Councilor Miyagi stood, she was unusually young for a politician. Wrenn guessed she was no older than thirty nine.
Sakai glanced over to her, “The Chair recognizes Councilor Miyagi.”
“I have agreed to cast the deciding vote. After interviewing proponents on both sides of the argument, I have concluded that only one major issue stands between Lieutenant Wrenn and the position.”
The woman looked down, staring directly at Wrenn, “The lieutenant’s implants are a major cause for concern given the public sentiment towards cybernetic augmentation. I asked my aide to make a call during the interviews. He determined that Lieutenant Wrenn’s name has never appeared in the media, and certainly never in conjunction with his implants. Therefore I wish to propose a compromise.”
Miyagi took a deep breath before continuing, “If the lieutenant will agree to have his implants surgically removed immediately, before the program is made public, and if all record of his having possessed them, and his military actions while he possessed them, are sealed, then I will agree to cast my vote in his favor.”
Wrenn didn’t even need time to consider the proposal. He stood and made his way to the podium, his mind blanketed by a haze, as if someone had switched on a fog machine inside his skull. It seemed to him as if some other person reached down and opened his mouth, “I will agree to those terms.”
Councilor Miyagi nodded, “Then I will formally cast my vote in the lieutenant’s favor.”
The Chairwoman tapped at her holoscreen, “The Council has voted. With a simple majority of 112 to 111, and no abstainers to approve King Siidran’s motion. Let the record reflect this decision, to be carried out immediately as previously described. We are all in accord.”
The council again echoed her, “We are all in accord.”
The words snapped Wrenn back to reality. He nearly tripped over his own feet, walking back to the public seating. The shock had only now begun to hit him.
The Chairwoman closed her holoscreen, dismissing it with a flick of her hand, “Thus concludes this session of the United Earth Government Council.”
With that it was over.
Wrenn, Hutch, and Aston got up to join Celestia and the Gryphons.
Martins descended from the Council seating area and approached the group.
“It seems you managed a great victory today. Two really.”
Aston shook her hand, “None of it would have been possible without you.”
Wrenn reached out to shake her hand as well, “You didn’t have to stand for me. That wasn’t part of the agreement.”
“I know, Lieutenant. But unlike some of my fellow Councilors, I respect my friends. You needed the support, I could give it.”
“Well thank you, it was more appreciated than I can ever properly put into words.”
Martins smiled, “Well you can repay me by coming by the construction site sometime. I want to know what you think of our ships from a military standpoint. And the media will be following you with a lot of interest, you could always point them in my direction.”
“I’d be happy to.”
With that Martins turned to leave, Celestia went with her, the two deep in discussions of logistics and potential future media moments.
Then Councilor Korvan stepped up.
“Isaac. I want a word. Now.”
Wrenn braced himself inwardly. He didn’t want to have to deal with Korvan, and he wasn’t sure he could keep a civil tongue in his head if the man pushed him, “Whatever you want to say, say it to all of us. I’m not choosy about how deeply my friends are involved in my affairs.”
Korvan leaned in, Wrenn could feel the heat of his breath, “Why? You know me, you know the positions I hold, the strings I can pull, what possessed you?”
“You tried to walk in there and take control of The Bureaus. You tried to stonewall my friends, you asked me to *spy* on them for you... what in the hell gave you the idea that we were just going to lay down and take all that flack quietly?”
“For this, Wrenn, I’m going to burn you. You’ll wish you had *died* when that grenade went off.”
Wrenn chuckled, “I play rough Councilor. I took a grenade to the face, then I went thirty two for thirty two on Special Ops suicide missions putting people like you into unmarked body bags. I’m still here. You push this? There won’t be a hole deep enough for you to hide in.”
Wrenn turned to leave, tossing back over his shoulder, “And as for your offer? since I’ll be out of my job soon, allow me to officially go on record with my response. Take your offer, stick it in your shiny hat, and shove it as far up your ass as your overblown head will fit.”
Wrenn stepped out into the corridor and took up a quick military stride towards the landing pads.
The Gryphons joined him sedately, Hutch and Aston had to jog to catch up.
Aston glanced at Wrenn, her face still stamped with shock, “Did you really have to antagonize him like that?”
“Yes.”
Hutch snorted, “Listen, Lieutenant, I understand the impulse, but what did it accomplish?”
“It made me feel better sir. Besides, its not fair unless I warn him what he’s in for.”
Siidran chuckled, “Brave words. Regrettably I can not stay here long enough to properly greet you as a member of our kind, but when you journey to our lands know that my halls are as open to you as they are to my own blood.”
Wrenn smiled, “Thank you sir.”
“Don’t call me sir, not yet at least.”
With that, the King of the Gryphons took to the sky.
Wrenn rubbed his temple, “Getting these puppies out is gonna hurt like the dickens. I hate surgery.”
Varan clapped him on the back, the force nearly sent him sprawling, “It will be worth it.”
“Oh yeah. A million times over.”
“You guys are not gonna *believe* this!” Skye’s tone conveyed enough excitement to add to Wrenn’s own sense of growing anticipation, which was, in his mind, quite a feat.
After the group had returned to the Bureau, Kephic and Skye had accosted them and dragged them up to Sildinar’s office, they refused to say what they had to show. They wanted everyone to see it for themselves.
On the way, Sildinar had filled Kephic in on the results of the Council session.
The Gryphon had been the happiest Wrenn had ever seen him. Wrenn could still feel the needlepoints of his talons from where he had given him a very strong, slightly terrifying, shoulder hug.
Kephic tapped a control panel, bringing the room’s wall screen to life, “I have to admit, she’s not as good as you said Wrenn. She’s better. And what she found is a nasty surprise.”
He turned to glance at Hutch, “Don’t worry Commander, I made sure she didn’t access anything classified. Just routine data and lots of technical readouts and activity logs.
Skye gestured with a hoof, “Ok so this? This is a histogram of your up/down traffic over the last week. Notice anything out of the ordinary?”
There was a chorus of murmurs, a few heads shook.
“*Exactly* it's all perfectly normal! There’s nothing in it to suggest that a mole is sending out your super secret important stuff, even by encrypted microburst.”
Aston raised an eyebrow, “Soooo... what then? The mole is planting dead drops?”
“Not exactly. Sorta. You’ll see, it's really clever actually. After we determined that data wasn’t being sent and received on the network, I checked for major uploads and downloads to physical media. It turns out that every day, at 6:31 in the morning, a huge amount of... stuff, gets dumped to a flash drive that's always on a specific port in a lobby computer.”
Wrenn stared at the screen, “So the mole has command level access, and is shunting the data there for pickup by a courier?”
Skye shook her head, “No, see, that’s the odd part. No one with command level access copied a correlating number of matching classified files on the days in question. So I kept digging and found another doozie; your processors are running something they shouldn’t be.
Exactly 1.2 teraflops of something.
Your mole isn’t a person. Its an it.
A virus, but not really a virus.
You have an unauthorized AI tagging along in your system.”
Hutch closed his eyes as if trying to make sense of what Skye had said, “We have a... WHAT?”
She nodded, “Mhmmm. Enemy AI. You guys have a lot, and I mean *a lot* of safeties to prevent this kind of thing, but that's why its so clever. They, whoever they are, figured out a way to bypass all that.”
Aston stared down at Skye, “How?”
“All AI are patterned off of brains right? They take you in, put you under a tomographic electron imaging---” noticing the looks she was getting Skye sighed and rolled her eyes, “--a big spinny thingamabob that looks at your brain and makes a positronic copy of it. Then they strip out the stuff they don’t need, add in the stuff they do need, and boot it up.”
Varan nodded, “Yes. So the point being?”
“The point being they always do it with human brains. Except this time they did it with a Pony brain. Your safeguards are designed to see the ‘thought’ patterns of a human AI, the Pony AI is different enough to slip past. It also doesn’t hurt that it's very non-confrontational, as AIs go, probably picked that up from the Pony side of things.”
Hutch stood agape, “Son of a gun. Those clever...”
Skye snorted, “Clever yes, but not as clever as little ol’ me. I’ve bottlenecked the AI. Its stuck in a repeating endless diagnostic cycle. You can pull it out and dissect it as you like. I’m totally looking for a job, by the way, incase you happen to need someone qualified.”
Hutch rubbed his brow with the back of his hand, “I’m not sure we’re necessarily looking for...”
He paused as he noticed the looks Wrenn and Kephic were giving him.
“....then again, you did just pull off something our best security analysts couldn’t do, in a tenth the time it would have taken them if they could. Tell you what, come to my office later, I’ll get you setup for a background check, then we can give you a psych test and issue security clearance.”
Skye pumped her hoof up and down in a reasonable imitation of a fist pump, “Yesss!”
Hutch looked at the screen, “As for this AI? shut it down, pack it up, and stick it somewhere safe so we can tear it down to the... well whatever makes up an AI. I want to know just exactly how it got into our system, as I’m sure most of my superiors will.”
Aston glanced at Hutch, “How *are* you going to explain to them why you allowed in a civilian consultant to do a job that you were expressly ordered not to do?”
Hutch shrugged, “I’ll BS something. It’s a necessary skill in our job. Right now, I think we should focus on catching the courier before they figure out we’ve snagged their AI.”
Kephic cocked his head, “You have a plan?”
Hutch smirked, “Of a sort...”
“I got nothin.” Wrenn mumbled the words quietly, his hidden throat mic picking them up and relaying them to the rest of the team.
Wrenn was seated in the Bureau lobby, wearing a casual suit and ostensibly reading a DaTab.
Hutch had figured that putting a five foot eleven Special Forces soldier in ConSec armor in the lobby would be a major turn-away to the courier.
All Wrenn had for armament was his laser pistol, and his KA-Bar, which was locked away in a secret compartment in his right boot.
Some tricks never went out of style.
The objective was to take the courier alive. They might be able to provide some kind of information on how the PER had managed to sneak a malicious AI into the Bureau's systems at root access level.
For the last hour and a half, Wrenn had seen no one so much as approach the terminal where the rouge flash drive was plugged in. His implants offered him the unique ability to ‘see’ the terminal while also appearing to be fully engrossed in the DaTab. A capability he wasn’t going to particularly miss if it meant being able to see in color again.
Just as Wrenn was beginning to think the courier wouldn’t show, a woman in a white uniform stepped into the lobby pushing a silver cart full of boxes. The containers were stamped “Gavin/Schummel” The medical firm that supplied the Bureaus with most of their chemicals, medical supplies, and even the nano-particles that were such an integral component of potion.
Wrenn ‘watched’ as the woman pushed the cart straight to the desk where the terminal holding the flash drive was stored. Anyone else would have had to lean forward to see the woman pocket the drive, Wrenn just adjusted the wavelength of his implants.
“We have a winner.” he muttered quietly as he powered off the DaTab and stood, as casually as possible. Nobody wanted a violent scene in the lobby of a Conversion Bureau, especially not after the recent PER attack.
Wrenn allowed the woman to make her way to the lift. She stopped in several places to deliver packages, never noticing she was being trailed. When she finally stepped into an empty lift, Wrenn dashed after her.
“Hold the door!”
He slid in quickly, squeezing past the cart.
“Thanks.”
She nodded, but didn’t speak.
Wrenn opted not to start a fight in the elevator.
The space was too confined for his fighting style, and if the woman was PER she might have a potion dispensation device.
That would be a bad way to end the week.
The lift emitted a soft chirp and the doors hissed open. Fourth floor. That made sense, a lot of the conversion rooms and medical labs were on the fourth floor. If the woman was a Gavin/Schummel delivery agent, then most of her stock would be destined for that floor.
Wrenn quietly exited the lift behind her.
The corridor ahead was empty.
The woman must have pegged him as a tail, because the instant she had verified there was no one else to be seen, she tried to cross-draw a hidden knife with her right hand.
Wrenn leapt forward and placed his elbow between her hand and the hidden holster, allowing her to fracture her own wrist with her momentum.
He took a step back and drew his pistol, “Hands on your head, down on your knees. This little pea-shooter will do a heck of a number on an unprotected head.”
The woman shook her head, “You’re so deluded. Why do you fight the inevitable?”
Wrenn had, somehow, missed the little silver cylinder the woman had palmed into her left hand.
She turned her palm outward and triggered the device before Wrenn could bring himself to react.
As the purple mist began to issue forth, a black and white blur cut the space between Wrenn and the woman. Both humans were knocked back as Kephic darted into the hallway, absorbing most of the cloud of potion in his wing feathers. The rest was quickly siphoned off by the new vacuum evacuation system.
Wrenn pulled himself off the floor and re-trained his pistol on the woman, “What took you so long?”
Kephic snorted, “Your lifts are slow. It would have been easier to fly up and break a window.”
He yanked the woman to her feet, her struggles were in vain. His claws gripped her arms like a pneumatic vise.
She spat, “Now you shall shed the form of a monster and be reborn in light!”
Her face bore a triumphant smirk.
For over twenty seconds no one moved or spoke. Wrenn tapped his foot, trying not to grin.
“Would you like to tell her? or shall I?”
The woman’s face changed from triumph to panic and rage, “Wha... why isn’t it *working?!*”
Kephic laughed, “Didn’t you know? We’re immune to potion.”
Wrenn desperately wished he had a camera.
“So, let me get this straight... Command was about to send down new orders? Orders to find and eliminate the mole?” Aston and Hutch were walking across the lobby when Wrenn arrived, so he only caught the tail end of their conversation.
“Command suddenly decided to take us seriously?”
Hutch turned to him and nodded, “Like I told Laura, right out of the blue. We hadn’t even made a big deal of the issue, just an attachment to a memo, figured it was easier to deal with it internally.
Ask forgiveness instead of permission.
Lo and behold they practically want to pin a medal on me for this, despite the fact that I basically burned the rule book to do it.”
Wrenn shrugged, “Well sir, most people just call that a good day and hang up the coat.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like relying on ‘luck’ to explain my successes.”
“Me either.”
Hutch sighed, “Anyhow, that's tomorrow's problem. Laura, I hope you have a good trip back”
She gave Hutch a quick hug, “I’m sure I will. Korvan was so busy trying to do damage control after that Council session that he didn’t pay me one whit’s worth of attention. So my job is safe for now.”
Aston turned to Wrenn, “Sorry I can’t stay to see you grow feathers, but I have a Bureau to protect and I’ve been away longer than I usually like.”
Wrenn nodded and extended his hand, “Thanks so much for your help ma'am. Bringing Martins into the fray probably saved all our hides.”
She bypassed Wrenn’s hand and gave him a hug as well, “Hey, unless you’re on my turf, it’s Laura, or if you really have to, commander. Ok?”
Wrenn nodded, “Sure thing Commander. Safe journey.”
Hutch glanced at him, “Where you headed?”
“To see if Kephic finally managed to clean the goo out of his feathers.”
Kephic had indeed managed to clean out his feathers, Wrenn found him draining a huge mug of coffee in the dining area.
“I wonder if the scientists who created that stuff intentionally made it as sticky as possible.”
Wrenn laughed, “Had to use extra soap?”
“Industrial grade solvent.”
“Ah.”
Wrenn poured himself a mug, then gestured to Kephic, “Want to see me off?”
“Are you going somewhere?”
“Fourth floor. They scheduled my surgical appointment for today. Getting my implants removed.”
Kephic got up and followed Wrenn into the hall.
The two walked in silence to the lift.
They had to wait several minutes for a completely empty car. Squeezing just one human in with a Gryphon was tight, any more would be downright awkward.
Kephic broke the silence first, “Will it be painful?”
Wrenn teetered his hand back and forth, “Sorta. Not so much the surgery, but my brain has been trained for years to expect these signals. When they’re gone it’s going to go nuts trying to cope. Also I’ll barely be able to see anything outside two meters.”
“Well, that won’t last long.”
Wrenn grinned, “I know. But sometimes I’m not the most patient guy, so even a day and a half is going to be hard for me.”
“You’ve survived worse.”
“True.”
The lift reached the fourth floor.
Wrenn and Kephic exited and walked, slowly, towards one of the Bureau's many surgical bays. All Conversion Bureaus had an extensive set of medical facilities, it was a good precaution considering the complications inherent to the process of changing someone’s species.
Kephic glanced over at Wrenn, “How long will it take?”
“Thirty minutes, tops.”
“I’ll wait then. You’ll likely need the extra set of eyes.”
“Thanks.”
Wrenn paused at the door, “Is this what it’s always like? Back home, I mean.”
Kephic shrugged, “Sometimes we don’t get along. That’s a problem every species has.
But when we make friends, they usually end up more like family, especially among warriors. Ties forged in battle do not break.”
Wrenn nodded, “Well, its been a long time since I had family.”
Kephic smiled, “You won’t have to wait long for that either. You keep hanging around with us you’ll end up part of our dysfunctional little clan.”
Wrenn laughed, “Your Earth humor is getting better.”
“Thanks. But I was at least partly serious.”
“I know.”
With that Wrenn stepped into the surgery bay.
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Wwwwhhy is this so amazing?
It's not particularly enlightening but it's like literary speed for my brain.
I can't really say anything or I would be repeating myself.
Omg, im sorry bro but your just DRAGGING this damn thing out!
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Next chapter, I promise.
I had alot to get through, and the story wouldn't have told itself properly if the Conversion happened before now.
Everything up to this point? Previews. Next chapter? Opening Night.
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sweet, keep em coming.
You, Sir. You are a strange new flavor of amazing. I can only see good things happening from here on in for you.
Poor PER lady.
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Just some guidance here, "a lot" is always two words.
A griffin potion would be a major source of concern for anyone on the Equestrian side of the Barrier, I should think. The more soldierly types who before would have felt as though Equestria had no place for them suddenly have an analogue culture in the new world that they can readily adapt to. This means that, even as the pony population booms from conversion, the griffins are getting humanity's warrior caste, uncountable years of combat experience in an exceedingly hostile world and, perhaps more importantly, a shift in the balance of military power between the different races of Equestria. Those effects would be felt long after Earth had been completely swallowed up.
This is so full of awesome . Must be a strain keeping this much awesome going chapter after chapter :)
Good buildup takes a while, but it makes the moment you've been waiting for all the more worthwhile.
But yeah, the culture on the other side of the portal is going to wind up changing HUGELY, one way or another.
As the others have said, "a lot" is two words, not one.
Otherwise, it's going great.
Most conversion bureaus are a few thousand sloppily-written words, but this one is well above par.
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My personal thinking is that whenever the bubble reaches critical mass and people start converting by the thousands that it'll be impossible for gryphons and ponies to properly integrate into their society. Once you get millions of converts you're looking at the making of a revolution or civil war and possible creation of a new nation made up of human converts.
At least I hope. HUMANITY FUCK YEAH!
Finally buckingly! The meat of the story. Ohh yes I can see this is going to be sweet
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What do you mean, "catch on?" One of the reasons I've been loving this story is that it includes a number of ideas I had considered writing on in the past. Back when I first came across the first Conversion Bureau story I semi-seriously outlined a story with my OC Delilah, as a cyborg covert agent for a pro-space group going under cover volunteering at a Bureau so she could evaluate Ponies in terms of free will in the process, preservation of 'that human value', and possible future trade alliance with Equestria to support colonization of the Sol system, with a backdrop of HLF terrorist attacks. (This being before I came across the PER idea.) I wound up scrapping the idea because it felt more focused on my OC than on the Ponies.
You've touched on a number of those points.
The other reason I've been enjoying this so much is that you've given me ideas... Delilah could wind up choosing the griffon option, and for all she'd have an odd take on the ethos involved, her core values would probably be acceptable.
One of the best CB fics I have read so far. You, Sir, have an incredible talent. I have liked and faved accordingly, and eagerly await the continued adventures of Lieutenant Wrenn.
PER-Formers!
Workers in disguise!
I can't help but look at the gryphons realistically instead of the cartoonish appearance they are supposed to have in-show. They still look badass in my mind's eye.
This? Dragged out? No, no sir I do not agree. This is just the right speed and pace - if anything, the PER confrontation went by too fast for the revelations it spelled out. Speaking as somebody who pens far too much tripe, I can say that you need to make love to your keyboard, every word needs to be foreplay for the brain leading up the inevitable literary climax. Anything less than that just isn't as satisfying.
Keep going, or I will be forced to find you and tie you down to the chair until you do.
<< Strider Squadron! Back up Trigger! >>
[Ace Combat 7 theme intensifies.]
AI purgatory. Skye came to play.
Got a happy little chuckle out of me. Real happy for Wrenn here.
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Skye is not to be trifled with. Just you wait...
I can't even begin to describe the foreshadowing in the words 'our dysfunctional little clan.'