Chapter 6: The Challenge
Nails approached the castle gates. He was about to enter when he got stopped by Rainbow Dash.
"Hold on Nails." she said, "Princess Celestia told me to do this ok? Follow me." and with that Nails followed Rainbow Dash to the castle garden where a few ponies were talking. She took him out of eyesight where she immediately spoke.
"Take them off."
"Excuse me?"
"Your gun, knives, any weapons take them off."
"What makes you think I have weapons?" asked Nails, almost like magic a bullet fell out of his sleeve. "Fine."
Nails began taking his gun off, he then removed knives from various locations of his clothing. When he finally looked finished Rainbow asked him. "Is that all?"
"Yes, that's all." was Nails's reply.
"Ok then, we can go in. Nice suit by the way."
"Thanks" he said as the two walked into the castle.
Twilight and the others made their way into the main ballroom. Celestia told them that this is where the griffon ambassador was to remain for the entire night. This was so that Celestia could find him easily if needed. Their job was to keep the ambassador busy and Rainbow Dash was keeping Nails busy. They hoped that a confrontation between the two parties would be averted for the entire night however they had come up with a backup plan in case they saw each other. They quickly found the griffon as he was sitting at a table with royal guards on the four corners. They made their way over to him.
"I thought those faces were familiar." came a voice from the crowd. Twilight and the others turned around trying to find the source until Applejack found it.
"Over there! It's Whiskey!" the other four ponies looked around to see Whiskey standing by a group of armored ponies. Most likely the Forshan royal guard.
"How are you five?" asked Whiskey walking over to them.
"We're doing great! How about you?" all five answered.
"Well I'm not necessarily enjoying this party but I must ask where are Rainbow Dash and Talon?"
"Rainbow Dash is busy keeping him busy, and his name isn't Talon anymore, it's Nails." responded Rarity.
"Ah, so he did find his real name after all. Why is Rainbow Dash keeping him busy?"
"So that he doesn't see that griffon over there." responded Twilight.
"Oh, the griffon ambassador. A very good idea to keep them separated. They see each other and all hell could break loose."
"Have you talked to him yet?" asked Applejack.
"As a matter of fact I have, his name is Delta, and he is an old aerial fighter in the griffon army until he got grounded."
"That must be very bad. How did it happen?" asked Fluttershy.
"It seems that all of our conversation seems to come back to one pony."
"You mean Nails did that!" said Twilight.
"Yes, Nails shot him in the wing. I don't know how the griffon survived an encounter with Nails if he couldn't fly after the first shot but it must be a great story."
"Didn't you ask him?" said Rarity
"I would love to but I'm afraid that if I do he could get offended. You see, griffons are very touchy about combat encounters that go bad. If I were to say the wrong thing it could spell bad news for Forshan."
"Well, I guess that we could just talk to you. You seem to know a lot about griffons." said Fluttershy
"Come on Nails!" Rainbow Dash yelled as Nails lagged behind.
"I can't help it I need to talk to her majesty Celestia about a very important matter."
"Well, she's probably at the grand steps greeting guests. That's where she was last time."
"Ok then could you take me there?"
"Sure, it's not like I have anywhere else to go."
"You told me that the last time you were here you were around the wonderbolts all night. How are you coping with their untimely end?" Nails asked catching up to Rainbow Dash.
"I just can't believe that they're gone. I spent my whole life trying to get into them and now they're dead." Rainbow Dash responded solemnly.
"Did you know that they were candidates for the aerial division of Special Forces?"
"You're kidding."
"No, I'm not. They were eventually rejected due to the fact that if a group famed by the entire country were to suddenly disappear questions would have been asked. The same goes for you and Twilight."
"Now I know you're joking. Twilight and I never knew about special forces until we met you."
"That's the whole point. We have secret recruiters everywhere. They used to feed information to the military about possible military ponies. Some names such as yours and Twilight were lucky enough to slip by the militia's officers, straight into the hands of Special Forces."
"Who was the Ponyville recruiter?"
"I'm not allowed to say. Just because the Black Stallions have been disavowed doesn't mean that we can just throw names out into the open."
"Disavowed?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"It means that the princess will no longer support or take responsibility for our actions. If I was to go into another country and cause trouble, I would be forced to take full responsibility for my actions, unless of course I am hired by another group."
"So you could still be hired?"
"If the price was right, yes, I could. But that would take a lot of money to serve another country; I am loyal to only Equestria."
"Heh, loyalty, I know that all too well." said Rainbow Dash.
"I know you do."
Rainbow Dash decided to take the conversation back a little. "So I was considered for special forces?"
"Don't let it go to your head. Even if you got accepted you could be released if you didn't make it through training."
"Wow." said Rainbow Dash, "anyway, here we are and there's the princess."
"Ok, mind coming with me to talk to her?"
"Not at all!" responded Rainbow Dash.
The two walked up to the princess ahead of the entire line of ponies. One of them spoke up.
"Hey, what makes you more important than the rest of us!" asked a pony with a heavy Canterlot accent.
"Simple, she knows his name." responded Rainbow Dash. The other pony was silent after that.
"Oh Nails, how are you?"
"I'm fine your majesty Celestia, I'm came to ask you how the diplomatic mission of Luna is going."
"Oh, it hit a few snags she won't be back for another month or two."
"Well shoot. I was hoping we could kill Iron Foot soon."
"I know you do, but I have to wait until Luna returns to make this decision or else I could get bad vibes going around Equestria."
"I understand your majesty, thank you for your time."
"Not at all Nails."
Nails and Rainbow Dash walked away from Celestia.
"Hey Nails?"
"Yes, Rainbow Dash?"
"I've noticed that you always seem to refer to princess Celestia as her majesty. Why do you do it like that?"
"It's proper military etiquette to greet a superior ranking official with the respect they deserve. Her majesty Celestia is the ruler of Equestria and therefore she deserves greater respect so I call Princess Celestia her majesty. I've always been loyal to the princesses so I give them the respect I feel they deserve."
"I never thought of it that way Nails."
"You would be surprised how polite the military can be."
"Nails!" a voice called from behind.
Nails turned around to see Celestia coming towards him.
"Yes, your majesty." Nails responded.
"I was informed by your friends earlier that you planned to write down the names of your squadron in the tome of Stallions before coming here."
"Yes your majesty, this is true."
"Well as I recall I would have entered their information in had not been for your request to do so yourself. I know of the deaths of the other four but not about the death of Brigadier General Bladestorm, would you please enlighten me as to how he met his end."
Nails looked at Rainbow Dash nervously before starting. "I did it your majesty."
"Such an act could be called treason, what was your reasoning behind doing such a thing?"
"Well your majesty, it happened after Rainbow Dash had been captured. Me and him were located in the same enemy base acting as double agents. When we got word that the element of loyalty had been captured and brought into the base we knew we had to act. Now if both of us had tried to free her our cover would have been blown. Recently he had taken a wound which caused permanent damage. Had the Forshan army learned of this they would have executed him anyway. We agreed that he would free Rainbow Dash and I would pretend to execute him when really we had agreed on it."
"That seems a good enough excuse. I trust you recovered his tags?"
"Yes your majesty. I have them with me tonight."
"Very good, here is the key."
"But, your majesty. Nopony is ever allowed in there except for you or your sister."
"I realize this, but I also realize that he was a great friend to you. You know the blessing and the location, I suggest you take the tags there and leave them."
"Yes your majesty." with that Nails started to leave. Rainbow Dash moved to follow.
"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash; I have to do this alone." Nails said as he continued to walk.
"It's ok Rainbow Dash; I bought you some time to meet up with your friends."
"Are you sure I have enough time?"
"You should have about thirty minutes." with that Rainbow Dash ran off to try and get the most out of the time she could be with her friends.
Nails stood at the door to the soul cemetery. It was said that the souls of dead soldiers came to rest here, however a soul could not enter unless its tags were placed there along with the correct blessing being said. He unlocked the door and stepped inside. He saw rows and rows of tombstones with hooks. Each hook was occupied save for two, Bladestorm's and his own. He began searching for Bladestorm's stone. He finally found it and laughed a quiet chuckle, his was the one right next to it. He placed the tags on the hook and started the blessing.
"Bladestorm, soldier of Equestria, strongest of warriors. You came to an untimely end in service of your country, the Black Stallions were proud to have you. May your soul rest in peace knowing that your sacrifice was noble and your heart untainted. Farewell soldier."
With that Nails began walking out. He took out the last cigar he had. He had managed to sneak it in. He had business to attend to in the form of a griffon that his friends and the princess had been trying to hide from him all night. But first, he needed his gun.
"Hey girls!" Rainbow Dash panted as she ran up to her friends.
"Rainbow! You're supposed to be distracting Nails!" Twilight chastised.
"Celestia sent him on an errand; she said I have about thirty minutes."
"I hope you're right" Applejack said, "anyway, you will never guess who we found."
"The ambassador?" Rainbow Dash guessed.
"Right title, wrong country." said a voice from behind her friends. "Do you remember me Rainbow Dash?"
"Whiskey, what are you doing here?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Celestia and I are in peace talks right now; since this party occurred I decided that I would attend it." Whiskey responded before looking over at the griffon ambassador. "So that's where he got it from."
"Got what from Whiskey?" asked Twilight.
"That griffon just lit a cigar much like the ones that Nails smokes; I'm assuming that he got his habit from griffons."
"Strange considering how he acts about them."
"I agree." said Whiskey scanning the room. "Hey Rainbow Dash, didn't you say we had about thirty minutes?"
"Yeah I did, why do you ask?"
A gunshot rang throughout the room silencing everyone. Everyone looked at the source of the sound except for one griffon. Nails stood in the doorway unlit cigar in his mouth, revolver in his hand. Smoke was coming out of the barrel.
"Oh, horseapples." said Rainbow Dash she turned to look at the griffon who she assumed was now dead to see him still sitting in his chair. The only difference was that his cigar was no longer lit and a lot shorter.
"That doesn't make any sense." Rainbow thought, "I'm certain that Nails would have tried to kill him."
The four guards around the griffon leaped up to try and tackle Nails.
"Halt." came a voice. Everyone turned to see that the griffon had put up his hand to stop the guards.
"Should we interfere?" asked Fluttershy
"No, don't even try." said Whiskey.
"Why not!" asked Twilight in a hushed tone.
"Because I'm curious about what might happen next." Whiskey said as Celestia galloped into the room. Standing beside the governor of Forshan she got a quick explanation from Whiskey as to what happened.
Twilight turned her attention back to the griffon and Nails. The griffon had now brought out his own gun. He took aim and fired. The shot hit its mark on the cigar that Nails had in his mouth. Nails and the griffon each removed the cigars from their mouths and walked towards each other. Twilight started to panic expecting a fight to break out. The griffon put his cigar next to Nails's. It was much shorter.
"You always were a better shot Talon."
Nails chuckled, "Just had to see that I still got it Delta."
Eight jaws hit the ground.
Nails turned to his friends before speaking.
"I see that you have not been properly introduced. I would like you to meet the only griffon that never gave me a reason to hate him besides being a griffon. This is Delta, he's my cousin."