The Second Griffon War (Casual Thread - All welcome!)

[Cyan Hide]

Sinensis Panzer

Zaphyrus was on her regular patrol of the Streets of Canterlot, in a melancholy mood. Most of her friends and superiors in the Solar Guard had been sent to Ponyville to fight, leaving the Guard left behind to patrol the Capital spread very thin. Shifts were now longer, and to compensate but still keep combat training, she no longer had any free time, and was now on six hours sleep a day, which was not enough for the muscular mare.

It was on this patrol that Zephyrus noticed smoke in a part of the city not on her route. If she recalled correctly, that was Tech's route. Even so, that might be Griffins. Zephyrus could not afford to leave anything to chance, so she flapped her wings free of her mostly ceremonial armour, and flew over to the fire.

When she landed, she saw that Tech was approaching. She also saw a pony....dragging a bloody pony away, and falsely assumed that he was a civilian dragging an injured friend free of the fire. The Guard approached quickly. "are you okay?" she asked quickly. "I can help take you and your friend to the infirmary. Can you tell me what happened here?"

By the time she'd finished talking, she'd almost reached him.

 

[Panzer]

Things were looking grim for 109, who now had to make a difficult decision. He knew he could not outrun the first combatant , and the body was weighing him down. He dropped the leg next to him and stopped for a brief second while he thought of a plan.


His thoughts were soon interrupted by a quickly approaching mare- who luckily mistook him as another civilian. Chills ran down 109's spine, freezing him in place. He didn't have much of a choice, knowing he could not outrun the flying pony.

It was all over for the abomination. He would most likely have to face these things by himself.


The augmented stallion unsheathed the fangs from his jaw and bit into the upper part of the corpse's leg, severing it from the rest of the body. 109 Then held the severed leg in his jaw with a tight grip . He gave one last glance at the corpse , almost as a silent "goodbye" to the dead- before he began running towards the tree line.


(alright, I have lost 10 brain cells this morning. Please excuse the current posting quality.)


Sinensis
Cyan Hide

 

[Dreamweaver]

Dumbledoof
It was at that point that the door to the cafe swung open, and in walked Princess Luna; probably the last pony you wanted to come looking for you. The owners of the cafe weren't sure whether to scream or bow, so they decided to bow while pretending like they had other business to attend too. Suddenly those clean plates needed more cleaning.

"Neither of you will be getting anything." Luna said while grabbing hold of both Aurelia and Starstreak in a magical grasp, and hoisting them onto their feet. "Unfortunately we must be cutting your breakfast short right now. I've been looking all over for you two, and I'm not willing to wait much longer. I'm sure you understand, right Aurelia?"

Aurelia simply nodded. She wasn't about to argue with the Princess who also happened to be her commanding officer.

"Perfect! Come with me." Luna exits the store and steps onto the streets of Canterlot. Soon enough they are inside the scientific building which Starstreak is working at. "Take us to your office, Starstreak. I have words I wish to share with you both, privately."

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Starstreak jumped when the cafe doors were suddenly opened sharply, prompting her to turn around and see who it was. Her eyes went as wide as dinner plates when she saw who it was. What the heck was Princess Luna doing here? And also, why now of all times? Damn. Just going to have to learn more about Aurelia later... play it cool, Star.

So she calmly got out of her seat to greet Luna... to be hoisted into the air by magic. She opened her mouth to yell about her legs -or wings - working perfectly fine, but decided better and shut her trap. Instead, it was probably better for her to just figure out what Luna wanted by meeting her demands for now. Better use of her time, less likely to piss off a lunar goddess, and probably will save Aurelia a few strokes and heart attacks in the meantime.

EVERYBODY WINS!

She led them up to her office, using the elevator this time. She glanced down both hallways to make sure nobody had followed them, and looked over pretty much every inch of her office. After being sure, she just sighed and offered a seat to Luna and Aurelia while taking a seat at her own desk. "Hello, Princess Luna," she finally greeted, doing a little half-bow. Apparently they were in a hurry and she wanted formalities out of the way. "What can we do for you?"

 

[Dreamweaver]

Dumbledoof
"Stand outside." Luna ordered Aurelia, who simply saluted and did as she was told.

The door swung shut behind Luna, leaving her and Star to speak privately. The princesses horn glowed a soft blue and she sent a wave of magic up which hit the ceiling, and then traveled around the walls and floor until the entire room was encased in a blue light. And then it vanished. "Perfect. Now nobody can hear what we will be speaking about." Luna said with a slight smile, before taking a seat at the offered chair.

She tapped her hooves together for a few seconds, before finally getting her thoughts in order and speaking up. "So this company you're working for, Equestrian Future Industries, or EFI for short, has done some groundbreaking work. I've been studying up on this recent trend of scientific knowledge that you mortals have been focusing on, and it's fascinating. Unfortunately, EFI doesn't report directly to me. Under the law, they are supposed too... But I have no doubt they have prototypes that I don't even know about. Or rather, they did."

"I might have bought the company."

Princess Luna scratched her head and simply smiled. "So now I guess now you report to me under Equestria's law and inside the company. So..."

Princess Luna summoned up some papers, and hummed. "How much are they paying you, Star?"

 

[Sinensis]

Tech felt relieved as another pony noticed the fire and came to help. Maybe they could get some sense into the pony who seemed to be ignoring him... And looked on in horror as they proceeded to rip the pony's leg. Last he checked ponies weren't carnivores... Or cannibals, for that matter. After a small pause of confusion and shock, he realized they were running for it with the leg. He shot a look at the Pegasus, at the body missing a leg and shot off running after the strange pony. Was it even a pony? He couldn't tell anymore. Maybe he had a chance of catching them, they could be dangerous... With a last hope they could reasoned with he called out, running about the same pace as the strange pony, not too far back, he called out.
"Stop!"
Suddenly, he realized he didn't exactly know what to say. Hell, he hadn't thought something this serious would happen. He continued running at the same pace behind them, giving them the chance to give up before he just started attempting to tackle them.
Panzer Cyan Hide

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Starstreak glanced between Aurelia and the Princess, watching her marefriend leave the room. While she was hoping it was something that they'd both be able to hear, she guessed there were some things that Aurelia wasn't supposed to hear...? She at least assumed Aurelia had some position higher than her. She wasn't exactly sure where Aurelia stood in the Lunar Guard.

Regardless, she turned her attention back to Luna, shivering slightly as the magical wave went by her. Her body, in turn, began to glow a little brighter, now actually visible in the lit up room. The more magic there was in the air in general, her body reacted by making her... glow. She had no idea why this occurred, she doubted any magician or doctor in the world would be able to tell her why it happened. So she chose not to question it for her own sanity.

She didn't have any issues reporting to Luna. She wasn't afraid of the alicorn like most others. She didn't believe that Luna would intentionally go out of her way to hurt her for whatever reason, not unless she was performing some kind of treason.

Listening intently, she tilted her head to the side at Luna. She had been spearheading much of the more recent research that EFI had been doing regarding many things, as she was sure that Luna was now aware of. "I... well, my general pay has been somewhere around 160,000 bits usually..." she trailed off. "Its more or less around there depending on my workload. It's at, from my understanding, 145,000 currently."

Where was this going?

 

[Dreamweaver]

Dumbledoof
"Interesting..." Luna summoned a quill and ink jar, and began to make some markings on the paper that she was holding. When all was said and done, she laid the paper down in front of Starstreak. "It's a job offer. Since I am taking over the company, I will be reviewing everyone's salary as well as getting rid of ponies who have a bad streak and hiring new ones."

Luna laid a hoof on the table beside the paperwork and smiled slightly at Starstreak. "This is my offer to you. 250,000 bits per year, no taxes. I will also buy you a house on the rich side of town, and have it paid for the next 10 years. In return, I ask that you stay in Canterlot and head up this buildings research department. The only one above you, will be me. Fire and hire as you see fit, although do try to consult me first."

Luna motions towards the door. "I will also assign Aurelia as your personal bodyguard."

"... What do you say?"

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Starstreak looked at the paper Luna was writing on, confused as to what it was. That was, until she said something about a job offer. She blinked her eyes in surprise, though was still confuzzled; she was already pretty much working for Luna... right? That's the impression she was under, and she thought she read something about that on her previous contract.

She looked the paper over, her eyes pricking at the offer Luna was giving her. That was almost double her current pay right now, not to mention it sounded to be constant. The prospect of no taxes was already something that she'd have accepted from the start, not to mention the house and having it paid for the next ten years? Luna didn't even need to make that part of the deal before she'd have accepted.

There wasn't much to say here. She looked Luna straight in the eyes, a grin forming on her face. This was probably one of the happiest she'd had... nothing could beat the ones Aurelia gave her.

"When do I start?"

 

[Dreamweaver]

Dumbledoof
"In a week. This building will be closed while I work on hiring more proficient ponies. The staff is quite good altogether, but there's a few bad apples that your old management never got rid of for some reason. I'll see them out the door." Luna said while standing and offering Starstreak her hoof.

After shaking hoof and foot, Luna turned to leave. Right as she reached the door she paused and turned her head to the side so that she could speak back to Starstreak. ".... And, Starstreak, I'm sure this doesn't need to be said but I will say it anyway. I want a report of everything that this company works on. Science is going to lead down dangerous paths and I need to keep an eye on it. If for any reason this company works on something and I don't hear about it, I will consider it treason."

And with that, she swung the door open and pulled Aurelia aside to tell her the news. Soon after, Luna disappeared to go about other business.

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Starstreak shook Luna's hoof nearly as soon as she had offered it. She already had plans on reporting everything to Luna - she'd been sending reports to EFI already whenever they requested, which she assumed was forwarded to Luna in turn, but it was probably a good reminder. "I can send you something soon if you'd like, Princess." Perhaps something weekly? That sounded reasonable enough, they did get quite a bit of work done in a work due to Star's own diligence and the work of many of her few great colleagues.

Star glanced around momentarily in the middle of her office, walking to the door and peeking out to make sure nopony was there again. After a moment, she let out an excited squeal and wrapped up Aurelia in the tight hug, picking up the larger pony altogether from her excitement. Apparently, Starstreak was strong for being a comparatively small hippogriff.

"Oh my gosh, Aurelia! I just got the best job ever!" She gushed, setting the bat pony down before she accidentally hurt her or something. Star was positively beaming, looking brighter figuratively than she ever had before. She clapped her talons together. "Oh I'm so excited!"

 

[Dreamweaver]

Dumbledoof
Aurelia squealed and hugged back just as tightly, squeaking in surprise as Starstreak lifted her right up. She cleared her throat once she was set back down, and gave Star a quick kiss on the lips before pulling away. "I know, I heard! Luna told me all about it, and she told me about my new position! Obviously I might still get called away on war duty, but most of the time I should be sticking around here rather than out at the barracks!"

Aurelia motioned for them to walk, seeing as how the building was currently being shut down for the week. "And she's paying me 150,000 bits a year just to guard you. It's very, very strange. Anyway, what should we do during our week off? Maybe go look at houses?"

 

[Panzer]

The creature had hoped to get away from the other ponies, but as he grew tired he felt desperation grab at his nerves. His lungs began burning from the fumes of smoke. The engine that held his very life began to choke and puff. His mind became silent and still.

109 began to slow down as he heard them calling for him. The stallion's pace became slower and slower until he came to a stop. The creature then leaned his neck down to gently set the severed limb down. For a moment, he couldnt bare to leave it, but his decision was turned by the sudden rise of a sick feeling from his stomache. He took a moment to prepare before he turned his head to hurl.

 

[Sinensis]

Tech would keep pace until they stopped, coming up beside them. Now he had a closer look at the strange pony, he noticed the strange metal parts, the slightly glowing, predator- like eyes. This was no mere pony. And was also throwing up, either because of eating meat, ripping the leg off, or possibly the smoke, somehow. Hell, they could've been in the building while the fire was happening for all he knew.
"Are you okay?" He asked with both caution and a less intimidating voice than he had before. He still didn't know if they spoke or even understood language, but he should probably at least try to stop them running and find out what was going on without getting into a fight.

Panzer Cyan Hide

 

[Cyan Hide]

Sinensis Panzer

The pony in front of her tore off the other pony's leg and ran off. Zephyrus froze in place until she started to piece things together. Firstly, the thing in front of her, now she could see it, was not a pony. Or at least not one that she'd ever seen before. Secondly, it must have done this to the other pony itself, and may have possibly set the house on fire too.

The Pegasus quickly checked the body before giving pursuit. Dead. Undoubtedly so. she beat her wings and flew down the street at a breakneck pace, which would have been dangerous of it wasn't so early in the morning. Even with her heavy armour, she had caught up with Tech and the strange pony when it stopped. Taking a moment to check that the catch on her sword-hilt was open, Zephyrus shot a glance at Tech as if to say 'any idea? Because I sure don't', before very slowly starting to advance.'

"sir," the Guard started, "...Or madam. You are under arrest for assault and murder. Please do not resist."

 

[Panzer]

The air was deathly still with silence. The moments seemed like days to 109, his mind racing to grasp a way out of this mess. All he wanted was a simple meal- he was starving! He still did not feel too well with his hunger situation. This worried him, as he was sure he was going to meet death at the hands of these two.

He turned his body to match horizontally with the Guards, lifting his head to meet them face-to-face. The thought of this new adventure coming to an abrupt end so quickly seemed to strangle the curious cannible. It made his eyes water and his body shake in fear. He had the same look of a frightened young foal.

109 Caught himself in the act, rethinking the situation at hoove. He needed to fight his way out of it but... he was too weak to do so. It only made the urge to cry stronger.
All he wanted to do is to cuddle with his friends called "Training dummies" and run around his small room. He didnt mean to kill- but he had bribed himself with the promise of food. No doubt he felt Lost, Hungry, and scared.
Sinensis
Cyan Hide

 

[Cyan Hide]

Sinensis Panzer

Zephyrus continued to advance cautiously, but she could now see that this...metal pony...thing, was scared, and confused, and sad, and at that moment she felt a well of pity for it. Whatever it was, it wasn't malicious, but neither was it safe to not be detained. This creature could not be permitted freedom under any circumstances. That much was clear. If it wasn't malicious or violent, then it must have killed or food, and at once the means of both arresting and helping the creature in one fell swoop became clear.

"Hey, it's ok," she spoke in a soft, almost motherly voice. "We're not going to hurt you....are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?"

Zephyrus cast a quick glace at Tech that conveyed many things; her own fear and confusion, a daring look to Tech to say 'don't you dare think I'm crazy', and lastly a plea to help, and play along.

 

[Panzer]

The creature responded quite positively, as his fears have been slightly nulled. His body had stopped shaking, and his eyes stopped watering. 109's main fear of their hostility eased slightly. Although he did not want to trust them, he had no other choice.

109 smiled shyly when he heard their offer - it was something about food.-, as he was still starving from his walk. The engine was still choking and puffing from the lack of fuel, causing 109 some pain to an extent. A blackish- redish liquid began to drip and drool from his mouth and he could feel himself getting more tired by the minute. He was so relieved to finally receive food.

109 turned around for a brief moment, picking up the carcass' severed limb from the grass. He held it in his jaw and gestured it towards them as if to ask "Would you like some?"

Sinensis Cyan Hide

 

[Sinensis]

Tech would look to the other pony with a slight amount of confusion. Talk about a full 180, from attempting to arrest them to comforting them. He didn't want to really hang about, it could be dangerous... Then again, he'd never seen anything like it. He glanced sideways at the strange pony. Was that... blood coming from it's mouth? He sent a concerned look towards Zephyrus, before turning back to the strange pony and kindly refusing the leg. He thought that his lack of good body language would be a problem eventually. Hell, he didn't even know what to do, try to communicate or some other aubsurd thing. Hell, he could barely comprehend what this thing was, let alone what to do. With this, Tech just stood there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do.

Panzer Cyan Hide

 

[Cyan Hide]

Panzer Sinensis

Zephyrus shook her head at the offer of the leg, trying to hide her disgust. "No," she replied. "I'm a herbivore. Do you have a vegetarian menu?" She nervously chuckled at her lame joke and then cleared her throat. "If you let me carry you, I can take you to a building where they bring lots of food to you. Does that sound good? I can fly there pretty fast!"

Hopefully, she thought, Tech might now start to get the gist of what she was trying to do, and he'd stop looking at her like she was crazy.

 

[Panzer]

The stallion nodded in excitement to the offer of food. He was extatic with the possibility of dining grandly with his new freinds.Still, a slight urge came over him to dine ON his new pals-

109 closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to take away the awful...yet pleasuring thought. He refused to attack them, and told himself how the grand dining would outweigh the thought.Hunger still seemed to grasp at his mind, making it impossible to avoid the thought. After he stopped with his attempts to regain control of his mind, he continued to eat the rest of the leg. His jaw unsheathed three large fangs , capable of ripping through flesh and breaking bone. It was almost too easy for him to rip the rest of the meat off of the bone.

as soon as he was done, he threw the bone down into the ashy grass and began trotting happily towards the mare. He was ready to reembark on this adventure.
. He stopped once he had gotten close to the mare, tilting his head at the sudden chuckle. His curiousity struck again.

 

[Cyan Hide]

Sinensis Panzer

When the strange metal pony got closer to her, she kept smiling, though her face was pale and her fur was bristling. "all right! Just follow me and we'll take you to a place where you will be given all the food you want! You don't even have to look for it!" she cheerfully chimed, with a nervous edge, as she led him towards Canterlot prison.

Zephyrus chose a very bad time, though, becausebwhen they got there, the prisoners were out in the yard, doing thie morning exercise. And they were in chains, unhappy, surrounded by Solar Guards in the same garb as Zephyrus, who were shouting at them and generally being unpleasant bullies. The poor Pegasi guard stiffly turned to 109, hoping that if he'd noticed, that he wasn't angry.

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
After the first fight, Expellix was dreadfully tired, like he was even before it. Staying up for most of the previous night healing patients was not his definition of a good time. Then again, none of this was very good... the war in the first place was just... sudden. The griffons seemed as if they had been attacking out of nowhere, even if each side had made preparations long before it had actually started.

He was thinking about this far too much, in his opinion. He had joined Equestria willingly to fight but didn't realize before just how this was going to go. He didn't really mind killing griffons - or, for that matter, anypony either - but he was a bit afraid of how this was going to end for him. He wasn't afraid of death but that doesn't he mean he wanted to die yet, he didn't live for over 1,600 years for that to happen because of some stupid griffons. That was something not many would distinguish.

He'd really needed more sleep. If only he could get it. So Expellix took to simply watching the others go about their business from his corner. He would help but he couldn't imagine having a dead tired necromancer/cleric would really be helpful to anypony, especially if he botched healing somepony. Best gather what little of his magic and strength he had left for the next fight.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Dumbledoof
"You did rather well out there." Came a voice from behind Expellix. When he turned around he would spot, surprise-surprise... Luna. She was always just sort of popping up places. He should be used to this by now. "I see the necromancy and holy magic has found some sort of balance within you. You did some rather impressive things on the battlefield today."

She approached him and when she was close, knelt down closer to his level. "However..." She raised an eyebrow at him. "You get tired easily. Feebly, even. I don't know what that's like, but I can tell that you aren't well trained. Book learning, but no practical learning. Here..." She touched her horn to his forehead, and let some of her magic flow into him. That should recharge him.

"You need basic training."

 

[Dumbledoof]

Dreamweaver
Expellix lifted one of his ears subtly at the sound of Luna's voice, turning around to face her. He honestly was not surprised... though he wouldn't go as far as to say he was expecting her. He was expecting her to be far too busy for chatting with him. He just took the praise in stride and raised an eyebrow at her in question.

While noting his flaw wasn't his question, it did give him an idea on what this was about. He'd been doing his best with the resources he's got, and that was not a lot. His raw power had been what mostly carried him through the fight, he knew that very well. If a griffon had actually managed to encroach upon him... he didn't know what he would do. Magic did take time and concentration to cast.

He accepted the magic, but glanced her over. "As soon as I can actually land a job for bits or something, I'll gladly find somebody to train me." He croaked. "I'm a bit stuck with what I know of holy magic and dark magic right now, though."