> The Overflowing River > by Lamasioux > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Flooding River > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “---the dogs at Diamond Mountain pose no current threat to us griffons. They have removed themselves from the troubles of the Riverlands and are to just be an afterthought. Let them keep to themselves for as long as they continue to keep their ties away from their pony neighbors.”     Alfred Rosenbeak finally backed away from the microphone after giving his comments regarding Diamond Mountain.    Across the table from him sat the head of the propaganda department, Wolfhard Seyfried.    The two had been tasked by Wingfried von Katerinburg to give comments about the current situation regarding the Riverlands and their allies at a radio station after telling the public a few days prior that an open beak policy was important to keeping the citizens safe.     Well, as long as his propaganda master and own personal press chief were present.    Wolfhard was busy writing a few notes down on some pieces of paper and then sliding them over to Alfred so he could read them off without worry of having Wolfhard be heard on the microphone.    Wolfhard then wrote a few words down and slid the piece of paper down over to the other griffon that sat at the table.    The griffon looked at the piece of paper and then looked between the other two that sat before looking back down at it and asking, “And so, the next question that we move onto is in regards to the entirety of the Riverlands. What are the current thoughts on them overall?”    Alfred moved back up to the microphone and looked down at the notes Wolfhard had written for him and began to speak.    “Well Miss Halina, following the failure of New Mareland and the invasion of Wingbardy, we can now only look upon the Riverlands as a failure as well.    Without the support of the princesses, ponies are without their false gods and ultimately, without them, they have no path.     Combined, they will be led astray, down directions that will only bring about their own doom.    You— No we. We, not as a country, not as a government, not as… leaders. We as griffons, together, across all borders, languages, and cultures, can see that the Riverlands is as close to the false gods as New Mareland was.    The fall of New Mareland was due to the neglect and ignorance of the sisters, and that alone is all we need to know about the ponies. They are nothing without their ‘princesses’.    But those outside of Equestria are nothing. They are nothing to fear, they are nothing to worry about, nor are they anything to think about. And that is why we must look upon the ponies as the true threat to our lives and our freedom of flight.    They isolate themselves from the world and care not about us other creatures.    But what makes us think they will treat us any differently than the changeling hive they pushed away and forced onto their island, to stay isolated and alone from the world. We have no reason to fear these changelings. The Griffon Empire had close ties to the creatures, and they had no problems themselves, but then look at Equestria who is now trying to eradicate the same ones.     Now look at the Riverlands and their response to the island hive.    All they chose was the easiest option, neglect. They walled them off from the world, keeping them from trading and preventing the spread of their culture.     Even the Olenian Queen fought the hives in fear of them meddling with their old and outdated ways of naval fighting. And who backed this queen? Equestria themselves!    I dare not say that these countries were great anymore, if ever, as we have seen in recent times their true nature and empathy towards these outside beings come out. They have proven that they were only ever hiding behind this false greatness. They only strive in a direction that would only bring the modern world into a decline.    The false gods chose war! Fitting how they avoided such measures for as long as anycreature ever knew, and the Riverlands have chosen discrimination and isolation, which is all they seem to be good at.    For Equestria and the Riverlands to be on two different paths, both across the world and separated by creatures they only ever see as problems, they sure are choosing two paths that can only be seen as leading in the same direction.    But will you wait for the Riverlands to make the same moves as the false gods? Wall us off? Keep us out of their lands and mistreat us griffons that dare visit their blasted lands? No? Because I won’t. Not any longer. They have shown their true selves already.    We will make sure the ponies of those false rivers are unable to make the same move Equestria did.    Equestria thought it was ok to step hoof into the home of another, another that only ever tried their best to cooperate with the world, proven by the fact that the Changelings would go so far as to Grover to seek an ally.    How many lies must ponies have if even their ‘Princess of Love’ isn’t a viable option for an ally.    But we will look no further into the lives of ponies for nothing other than ways of failure.    Not only did the fall of the ponies in New Mareland prove this, but it also proved that society is always on the brink of anarchy and on the downward spiral towards communism. New Manehattan will always be the example that the future points at and says, ‘They tried and they failed.’     I dare not think about the colossal failure of the Liberation Army, they proved that the ideology they follow from Stalliongrad is nothing but an isolated incident.    Stalliongrad should be no further proof that these ponies are nothing but problems, for they themselves have chosen isolation, but not in the same sense as those in the Riverlands, for they chose isolation from Equestria themselves. How bad must the rule of Equestria be that ponies once under them would leave their side and go on their own, just to succeed and live?    Even though they, in Stalliongrad, keep away from the princesses rule, they went after the griffons in the North, where they fought and killed the only colony we griffons as a race have on that hellbent continent.    These creatures know nothing but war at the end.    We must prepare for the future that awaits us from the Riverlands. They know sooner or later, some griffon will come for them, as Wingbardy did to New Mareland, though we must only hope that by such a time is needed, the rivers are dried, just as New Mareland was.    Though that is not the case as of now.    The Riverlands grow closer to each other by the day. Eventually, their fake borders will cease to exist, and they will become one. When that time comes, they will be united and strong, and pose the ultimate status quo threat to all of griffon kind.    They are but surrounded by us, and based on the track record of the ponies on Equis, we must assume the rivers will all but flood, wash away the surrounding hills and erode all that which we have built.    No dam will hold them.    No dam can.     Water will always win in the end. All it takes is one rainstorm after another for them to eventually overflow, and the longer we sit here waiting, the closer they get to that point.    So don’t come flying to us when you failed to take action though, for it’ll be too late then.    But, and I regret to say this now, we can take action before then, even though we should have long ago.    We can build more dams, even if they aren’t enough.     We can build levees and floodwalls to prevent the flooding that is to come from their rivers.    We must make sure all griffons are aware of the dangers that their rivers pose to us.    It is not too late to teach ourselves how to swim, because when- and I say when! Because it is not a if! It is a WHEN! When the Riverlands flood and wash us away, it will then be too late to learn how to swim as you drown in their water.    We will prepare.    We will be ready.    We will make sure our floodwalls trap the water in their lands and so their own overflow drowns themselves instead.    We must only do what we must to survive.”    After speaking, Alfred once again moved away from the microphone and looked at Wolfhard, who simply gave him a nod.    Wolfhard then handed Alfred and Halina more notes and as Halina was looking over the notes, she began to speak, “Thank you for the inspiring speech Mr. Rosenbeak, I’m sure the Fuhrer would be proud to hear such words.”    Halina quickly organized the new notes she had and then asked, “With all questions answered about the east, we would like to now know how well our army is doing. What do you have to say about that?”    Alfred smiled and moved back to the microphone and looked at his new notes, “Ms. Halina, as the current situation stands, th–”    The most memorable thing that day was the speech that was given as the radio aired. The next day, in mass, the speech had been plastered across the front page of the newspapers for all griffons to read.    Wingfried had also personally rewarded Alfred for his moving words the next day upon hearing about it.