“And wherever it goes, every living thing shall quake to the core of its soul.” - Supreme Admiral Karen Adavanti during the construction of the USS Vector.

“You want me to tell you about the liberation of Trottingham?”

“Yes.”

“What for?”

“For a project of mine.”

“Ah, I suppose that’s fine... kick back, this may be a long one.”

It was just another day in the occupied city of Trottingham. Today I was to leave my house and go to one of the many factories around the city, to carry bars of metal back and forth for them to be melted down and then made into weapons and armor.

I woke up, expecting to see the sun shining through the window. Oddly enough, that was not the case. I was used to being woken up like that, with the rays of light piercing through the window and into my eyes, instead of having my mother do so. She was in such a state of malnourishment that she couldn’t wake up at all, and so was my uncle. They both starved themselves so that I could eat enough to be as healthy as any colt of my age. Even after all these years I consider that to be the most selfless action anybody had ever done for me, and in return, I took care of them, keeping them warm and making sure that they ate enough to keep themselves alive, though that could be a problem. Sometimes, they insisted that I kept the food for myself...

I sat up on my bed, and took a look around my room. The scenery made me feel a stinging pinch of sorrow within my heart. What had once been one of the many warm homes of Trottingham had been turned into nothing but a shade of its former self. The gryphons had “confiscated” all of the furniture, decorations, and jewelry, excluding the bed and a broken mirror hanging from one of the walls.

I sighed and hopped out of the bed, carefully avoiding the many shards of glass that covered the floor, left by the gryphons when they ransacked the place and destroyed the frames of several family photos before burning them. At least I had the comfort of knowing that they were not all like that, especially ever since that one gryphon lady had begun to give me a little extra food.

Slowly, I made my way into the kitchen, which was in the same state as the room I slept in, and pretty much the rest of the house. With no oven, no fridge, and no nothing, we were pretty limited in terms of what could be cooked. Thankfully, our daily rations consisted of oats and bread, which don’t require much equipment to be consumed.

I took a small bag of oats out of one of the lower cupboards, along with a loaf of crusty, stale bread. I then dragged out a bottle of water that was as big as me, but more than half of the enormous jug was empty. I began to eat some of the bread, and I swear I could feel how my teeth creaked, almost to the point of snapping because of how hard it actually was. I had to complement it with water in order to actually swallow. During the whole process I made sure to leave enough water for both my mother and my uncle.

After eating, I went back to the same cupboard and took out a plastic tray, which I placed down on the floor next to me. After a bit of rummaging through some of the cupboards, I retrieved two small bowls and placed them on the tray before pouring the water into them, making sure they each had an equal amount. With the bottle now empty, I fetched the small bag of oats, and filled both of the bowls equally.

Gingerly, I took the tray with my teeth. I lifted it up slowly, for I could not allow any of the food to be wasted.

As I walked through the hallways of my ravaged home, I remember having several flashbacks... my first Nightmare Night, all the friends I made during that day... I cursed this trip to Trottingham with everything I had. Oh, how I wanted to be in Ponyville right then.

Sooner than I thought, I had already reached the living room. There, my mother and uncle (May they rest in peace) were lying quietly on our couch with their heads resting on a pair of pillows. Too peacefully, I might add.

I grew concerned. It was only when I was close enough to see the steady rise of their chests that I sighed in relief. Every day their ribs became more prominent, their faces got thinner, and it became harder to wake them up.

I walked up to them and set the tray down on the floor. I picked up one of the bowls and carefully climbed up next to my mother. I nudged her couple of times, but she didn’t respond.

I grimaced, and nudged a bit harder.

She slowly opened her eyelids, and looked at me with a pair of glassy eyes. My heart sank a little bit every time she did that. Her eyes used to be full of life, her body beautiful from hooves to mane. I remembered those days when she played with me at the local park, laughing... I closed my eyes and shoved those thoughts away.

With delicate care, I moved the bowl up to her muzzle. She weakly opened her mouth to allow me to gently dribble the mixture down her throat. After a few minutes, the bowl was emptied. She gave a soft cough and closed her eyes again, dozing off.

It was time for my uncle now. I took the other bowl with my teeth and climbed up next to him. He was in a worse state than my mother, as he insisted that she should be fed more. My mother often referred to him as a gentlestallion: “Ladies first”, he always said.

I nudged him once, and he didn’t move. I nudged him again, this time with more strength, yet he still didn’t move. Worried, I looked at his chest, hoping to see him breathing.

After painfully long amount of time, he did, but it was weak... very weak.

I placed my hoof against his neck, trying to find his pulse. I barely managed to feel anything. I kept nudging him, hoping that he would wake up. Alas, that never happened. I stopped after a while, and a single tear crawled down my cheek and onto the floor. I felt as if someone was looking at me, so I turned around to find that my mother had woken up and had her eyes locked on me, just barely welling up with tears. She slowly shook her head, and swiftly fell unconscious again.

I shed a few silent tears and scrunched up my face as I took some moments to compose myself. I wanted everything to be over, I wanted those feather-brains out of our city, I wanted the Equestrian army to come rescue us and bring us comfort again. Fat chance.

If what the gryhpons kept telling us was true (And they sounded very confident about it, and I mean VERY), then that meant our army was being pummeled by theirs. I don’t know whether they were just lying to keep our morale down, or if they were actually telling the truth. Nevertheless, the objective was always the same: to keep us demoralized.

Shoving away my sorrows, I took the bowl that was meant for my uncle and ate its contents. There was no reason to waste it, and I knew that he would have wanted me to have it.

With my stomach now somewhat full, I stood up and made my way to the front door. I gave one last glance at the living room before opening the door and going out into the streets of Trottingham.

The whole city was a grim sight. Shards of glass littered the dusty sidewalks, making it hard for one to walk without cutting oneself. Random pieces of broken furniture and garbage were also strewn about, accentuating the cruel truth of the gryphon occupation. To make things worse, it was still night, and all that stood out were gryphons sitting near camp fires under the twinkling stars of Luna.

I sat down on the stairs leading to my house and looked down at my hooves. I began sobbing, desperately wishing for everything to go back to normal. While I was at it, I looked up just in time to see a shooting star. I made a wish, a wish for something to happen, so I could go back home.

Another shooting star appeared, followed by another, and another. I stopped crying and raised an eyebrow, watching as the shooting stars grew bigger and tripled in numbers. The nearby gryphons looked up in awe, and so did the few ponies that stood nearby. Once we realized the stars were heading towards us, we stepped away from the streets.

The first pod crashed into the ground, digging itself through a nearby cart, blasting splinters in every direction. Shortly, the other pods began to land, while both ponies and gryphons watched in awe. We all ran back into our houses and hid behind any cover that we could find. I locked the door behind me and peered through the window. After landing, the hatches on the pods blasted open with orange gouts of flame, and gigantic bipeds leapt out of the downed stars, moving fluidly through the darkness towards a cowering mass of gryphons. I was shocked by their size, and the ability to survive such a drop. The spectacle had left me speechless, incapable of rational thought. I was silent as the heavies just dropped out of the sky without pods, followed by the raiders, who gracefully landed on the streets and set upon searching the houses.

A single gryphon kicked my door open, most likely searching for a hiding spot. He blocked the door with a broken table that happened to still remain inside my house after the occupation, and then told me to stand back.

Something else landed, the force of the impact breaking the remaining windows of my house and lifting a cloud of dust. If I recall correctly, it was one of their combat walkers.

The machine let out a loud, metallic roar as it blasted its judgement horn before bellowing, “ANY AND ALL GRYPHON TROOPS, SURRENDER NOW OR FACE IMMEDIATE ERADICATION! BY COMMAND OF THE EQUESTRIAN PRINCESSES, TROTTINGHAM WILL BE LIBERATED!”

I could not believe what I was hearing. It may have been a mere coincidence, but my wish was going to be fulfilled. Not only had I just seen the humans for the first time, but they were also going to get me out of this hole.

I shot a glance over to the gryphon, watching as he stumbled back in fear. My mother was still unconscious on her couch, snoozing peacefully despite the noise.

The door to my house was forced open, and in came two raiders. They yelled at the gryphon to stand down, but he reached over to my mother’s couch and grabbed her, holding his talon against her neck. The two raiders continued to shout orders at him, and eventually, one of them fired, hitting the gryphon right in the neck with an electro-dart. His body went stiff and he fell, along with my mother. The women rushed over to them, one binding the gryphon’s limbs together and the other making sure my mother was alright. I saw her examining my mother, checking her pulse and making sure she was lying comfortably on the couch, while the other hefted the gryphon over her shoulders and carried him outside.

The remaining human spoke into her radio after placing my mother back on her couch, “Building clear! Two live equines and one hostile. We also found the corpse of another pony, most likely due to malnourishment, over.” She walked up to me, looking down from behind the eyeless, orange dome that was her helmet. “Come on, let’s go outside.”

I looked over to my mother, seeing that she was awake and back on her couch. She nodded at me, the weakest of smiles on her face. I returned the gesture, following the woman back into the streets.

The humans were rounding up the gryphons in the streets, all of them tied up. I saw a few trying to fly out of the city, only to be caught by the raiders. Ponies were leaving their houses, heading towards an unknown location, all of them grinning widely. The raider that had helped me took flight, heading towards an unknown location and leaving me all by myself.

I trotted along the streets, following the cracks left by the heavies and the combat walker, watching in awe as the humans kept rounding up the gryphons. Some of which were trying to do their best to escape the grip of the bipeds, but ending up in failure.

“Come on! To the plaza,” yelled another pony as he galloped past me. I took his advice and followed him as fast as my legs could carry me. I turned around a corner and was shocked to see almost every pony in the city standing the city’s center, all of them jostling to see what was happening.

With a hop, a skip, and a jump, I clambered to the top of a dumpster, taking in whatever it was that the other citizens were straining to see, using my high vantage point.

Standing in the center of the plaza was my favourite Princess, Luna, flanked by Admiral Adam Becker and Commander Kira Feros. Behind them was the combat walker, pointing its cannons at the sky.

“Citizens of Trottingham,” Luna shouted, making her voice louder than normal with the aid of her magic. “As of this morning, you are liberated!” She took flight, with every single pony in the city began cheering and clapping their hooves against the ground. Just a moment later, the moon dove back into the horizon, making way for the sun to rise. It was the first real dawn I had seen in seven months.

“And that... was the liberation of Trottingham, where the first domino fell. Less than ten minutes and almost no casualties.”

“Thank you.”