>>176533"Debride is your supervisor. She has say concerning any 'leave'." Is all he has to say
>>176546"Oh, the Changelings do. But the Changelings have the power to do more or less what they want. They've given Army Command a million reasons - well, between six hundred thousand to one and a half million reasons - why we should not give their agents much trouble.
There are a lot of ways that Garv's statement could have been taken, depending mostly on tone and the way it is said. This particular response is assuming that Garv's statement being antagonistic is at least plausible"And presumptions?
Presumptions? You know, you don't strike me as a Weter Griffin. No, you're from the Frontiers, aren't you? And you're not new to conflict either. So let me ask you this. Say a griffin - you can make him a pony if you want - say a griffin comes to your front door and asks if he can come in and have a glass of water. Tartarus, you can make him your long-estranged brother for all it matters. Say your long-estranged brother comes to your front door, asks to come inside, sit down and have a glass of water, maybe a cup of tea. He asks to come in, and you know -
you know - that as soon as you go into the kitchen turn your back to him, and start pouring that glass of water, there is some not insignificant chance that he is going to pull out a gun, and shoot you in the back of the head. Shoot you dead right there. Tell me, do you let him in? Hmmm? What's the level of acceptable risk at which you'd tell him 'No, sorry, you're going to have to go down the road'? What's the level of risk? One in two? One in Three? One out of ten? One out of twenty? Well I can tell you this. I know damn sure it's less than one in one before you'd let him in. So yes, we do make decisions of national security on presumptions.
"The ELF and all of its imitators have committed many horrendous crimes in less than a year. They have bombed crowded subway trains. They have bombed our transport planes. They have blown up our offices, the restaurants we visit, and our factories. They have derailed our trains. They have invited us over for drinks after bars and then shot us in the back of a head. They snipe at us from down the street. They shoot us as we sit in the bars. They murder our informants and our local helpers in every conceivable manner possible. And they do all this while consorting with the worst of criminal scum, and foreign spies. They have murdered I assume thousands of our soldiers, thousands of our griffin allies, and twice that number of Equestrians. I don't know the actual numbers because High Command thinks it could only be bad for morale, but I hear enough. This is a war. And this is a war against an enemy that refuses to fight fairly. They refuse to identify themselves as soldiers. They refuse to wear uniforms. They refuse even to target only combatants. Well I am telling you, the ponies of New Mareland are ready to wage war in kind, and with an equal amount of respect for the rules.
This stallion's Princess decided to declare war on us after we asserted our right to exist as a free herd. His Princess lost. And when we took administration over her lands, he decided to flee with all of the movie stars out of the country. Then when the weather got cold and he wanted to come back, tail between his legs. I'm sorry, but I don't have much sympathy for him. I'd much rather he be turned back to face the snow in Weter, than a bullet through the back of my own head. Or be the stallion who let in the next Penny Station bomber.
I don't know what evidence there is. Some other stallion is handling his case. I would assume they are calling his family members and generally putting his admission into Baltimare on pause until they can figure out what in Tartarus is going on."
>>176550Does she wish to speak to the land owner, or simply walk in? If she just walks in, then nothing.
>>176548The two ponies pass more huts, a few trees (some of them knocked down), and shacks.
"Uh... well... Yes, I've been there. To Everfrost. I went there two years ago. But no, there's... there's no forest. There's snow on the streets. It's buildings mostly."
>>176551"Sure you didn't. What now? Oh. He was looking at me. I think he was flirting, or trying to. It was kind of nice, actually."
>>176552Mouth hanging open,
"Why."