In other circumstances, Starlight Glimmer probably would’ve greatly enjoyed this day. After all her time traveling with Velar, after listening to all his petty superiority and unwarranted confidence, there was some cosmic justice in seeing his face when they wandered into Canterlot Drydock C. If only she’d managed to get a camera in there, she could’ve hung that up on her wall.
But there wasn’t really time to enjoy the moment. If the world ended, she wouldn’t have a wall left to hang it on.
Princess Luna took them into the elevator, then straight down to the bridge. Ponies in naval uniforms were already at their stations, calling out pre-flight checks that must be meaningful to them but might as well be Prench to Starlight.
Princess Luna took them near the back, where a blue table of crystal rose up from the ship itself. Starlight had seen its like many times before—it was like the Cutie Map, reverse engineered from the one that had appeared in the same magic as Twilight’s castle. True, this one couldn’t detect esoteric interpersonal problems a nation away—or indeed anything past ten miles or so. But considering the scale of most naval conflicts, that was more than enough.
The city appeared in the magical projection, along with the solid bubble of its shield. There would be no keeping that magic away from Velar’s knowledge, then. But the princess obviously knew what she was doing. More than me. This conflict is partially my fault. Maybe Velar was right, and her ignorance had preserved the peace a little longer. Or maybe that was just more bluster. She didn’t really know anymore.
“You see the odds arrayed against us,” Princess Luna said. She gestured at the projection, and the three warships hovering in the air just outside. From the look of the rubble at the bottom of the mountain, there had been at least four to start with. I wonder how many tried to ram the shield.
Even cannon fire appeared on the projection, little flashes of orange and red that briefly brightened the shield where they struck, forming little cracks that healed almost as soon as they appeared. But Canterlot knew better than most cities that no shield was invulnerable. Cannons would get through it sooner than changelings physically ramming it would.
“I do,” Velar said, walking around the table and staring at the three ships. “These two are Falchions, they’re our largest class of ship. Mostly bombers and troop carriers. This one is a destroyer, I’m guessing she’s the escort.” He squinted at the little projection, eyes still wide. “What kind of magic is this? I knew ponies could produce illusions, but this. Is this showing us the real world, or just a guess? Unity, how easy are these to make? If we had these on every ship, we’d never lose a battle…”
A pony approached them—a unicorn with gold knots on her shoulders. The captain then. “Princess, preflight checks are complete and we are ready to deploy.” She narrowed her eyes, glaring at Velar. “Are you sure this prisoner doesn’t belong in the brig? He’s already seen much more than we wanted the griffons to know.”
“When this day is over, Captain Blason, the griffons will have seen most of our secrets. Unless we want to keep them in drydock and use the merchant marine through this war, we have to accept that reality.” She smiled then, though there was no humor in it. “Besides, Prince Velar is our hostage. If the situation escalates, nothing will force us to return him.”
The unicorn saluted, expression souring. “Very good, ma’am.”
“Take us out. Order the rest of the fleet to hold position above the palace. We won’t breach the shield until my word.”
“Aye!” She turned away, and began giving instructions to the ponies throughout the room. Glowing crystal controls practically lit themselves on fire with magic, while the low hum of a powerful engine somewhere far away shook Starlight through her hooves.
I don’t belong on a warship.
“Prince Velar,” the princess said again, a little more respectfully. “Why are these warships attacking our capital? I don’t know the patrol-routes from memory, but I’m guessing that they may’ve had to do some damage to get here. Pony blood has already been spilled, and they’re here to spill more of it.” Her smile transformed into a leer, mane becoming blacker until only a few faint specks of stars remained. “Do those ships really have the gall to think they could force a surrender by bombing Canterlot?”
Velar paced around the model again. He stared at the ships, looking at the smallest aspects like the guns and little flags. Starlight Glimmer couldn’t really make sense of what they were seeing at this level—she didn’t have the knowledge to fight a war. But Velar obviously did. As he inspected, the Stalwart Stratus slowly rose up through the caverns, following the path of glowing lights along the walls. Starlight was especially grateful she wasn’t the pony at the helm.
“These ships are Vengeance and Victory,” Velar eventually said. “Those are just empire flags, but I recognize the wood. Only Victory uses ash for their ships. They were the only house without a navy, so they didn’t have to worry about…” He trailed off. “Right, you don’t care about that.”
Captain Blason joined them at the table a moment later. She stood on Luna’s other side, though she remained attentive to her crew. But so long as they were just navigating through the tunnels, there wasn’t much for her to do.
Princess Luna’s expression remained neutral, though there was disdain in her voice, obvious to the crew close enough to overhear. “Let’s just say you can save trying to persuade us that your father hasn’t invaded us after the invasion is over. We can investigate these ships, we can interrogate the survivors. But don’t waste our time trying to convince me of that while pony lives are still at risk.”
Velar nodded curtly. He managed not to wet himself in the process, which seemed impressive enough. Starlight had seen ponies run in terror from Luna when she spoke like that. “Very well. Skipping all that, Vengeance believed the weakest possible estimates about pony strength. Before my injury, we had just discovered disturbing information that the agriculture infrastructure in Kios was still almost nonexistent. That suggests to me they were using their gold on something else. We know what, now.”
“This is obviously a trap,” Princess Luna said, a little louder. “Four ships cut their way to Canterlot. But in the process the merchant marine has been recalled and the navy is being deployed. They are hundreds of miles into Equestrian territory and cut off from escape. What insanity is this? Even if they thought our ships were unarmed, they must’ve known this was doomed. A trained weather-team could blow them out of the sky with a storm, or unicorns could burn their ships, or…”
“They could be that stupid,” Captain Blason said. “Birds always think they’re stronger than everyone else. And maybe they are, until they meet an earth pony, or a bison. But claws don’t help you much in a stampede.”
For a griffon, Prince Velar was doing a remarkable job not rising to remarks that Starlight would expect to enrage the birds of Accipio. Where was this discipline when the Wayfarer got taken down? If only the others were more like him.
“When we spoke,” Starlight began. “On the way here. You said they were probably targeting our princesses.”
Luna’s eyes fixed on him, but she didn’t interrupt.
Velar nodded. “I still think that’s likely. A serious attack on Canterlot is a bad strategic move, and there isn’t enough ordinance or soldiers on two bombers to take the city. And if I wanted to win a prolonged war with Equestria, I’d leave your seat of power alone. You bomb the houses of your citizen class, and they’ll be clamoring for war, voting for more military spending… you leave the city alone, and you have an indolent ruling class and a huge resource drain from its population as refugees flee here. So either Vengeance is even more ignorant of strategy than I thought, or they aren’t really aiming for the city.” His eyes finally settled on Luna. Or… almost. He didn’t seem able to meet her eyes for very long.
You and me both, Velar.
Sunlight suddenly poured in through the bridge windows. The whole thing was stained purple from the shield, like twilight but far brighter. Starlight could make out the outlines of three other ships gathered near the palace. The Stalwart Stratus would be the last to arrive.
“Whatever they’re planning, I think it would begin and end with assassinating you, Princess. And your sister. If you aren’t fighting for Equestria, our odds would be better than they have been in the past, cannons or no cannons. I don’t know what they’re planning on this time that we haven’t already tried.”
Captain Blason stared at Velar, her mouth hanging open. “Princess, you’re going to let a monster talk like that? After everything they’ve done to Equestria…”
Princess Luna shrugged one wing. “Velar is giving us the truth. Would you prefer he lie so his words are more palatable?”
“Of course not, Princess. Forgive me.” She stepped away, wandering back to her command chair.
“Many weapons have been used against us,” Princess Luna continued. “I am skeptical that anything they have would be different.”
They were headed straight for the griffon ships. Velar winced a little as cannon fire hit the shield between him and the enemy vessels, seeming to follow their ship specifically. Told you telling them about me wouldn’t work. But now seemed like a bad time to gloat about it.
The cannons firing at them weren’t of the old sort, either. That destroyer was firing another broadside every twenty seconds or so. Three times as fast as the muzzle-loaders he was used to. You didn’t just smuggle in old guns. You brought the designs for new ones and started there. The Impervious Triumph had guns like that, but not many simple destroyers. At least not when he’d been in command. I guess Vengeance figured out how to mass produce all those little gears.
Worse, the shield was cracking. The little damage he’d seen on the projection was now longer than a building, and getting wider. Cracks spread along the outside like a massive glacier thawing in spring. The enemy seemed to see it too, because the carriers had turned to broadside the shield as well. Each one only had four guns to a side, and they didn’t fire as often, but that was still more damage than the shield could take.
“What should we do, Princess?” asked the captain. “I don’t think we should stay here. They’re sighting us through the shield.”
Princess Luna didn’t hesitate, striding right past Velar to stand beside the captain. “Radio my command to the fleet. When that shield goes, their targets are those larger ships. I want them destroyed before Canterlot can be bombed. The destroyer is far more dangerous to us than Canterlot. Us and the Lavender Spirit will target the one on the left. The Hurricane and Lilac Sky, on the right.”
As she spoke, a pony near one of the many controls held something dark up to his mouth, muttering almost word for word what the princess was saying. Velar had never seen anything like it, but from the way he kept reacting, it seemed to him like he was hearing someone in response.
Great purply chunks of the shield began crumbling away from the point of impact, fading away to sparkles as they got further and further down.
She relaxed. “Captain Blason, this is your vessel. Accomplish my orders however you see fit.”
Blason saluted, then turned her back on them. It looked to Starlight as though she’d completely forgotten they were there. Even Velar, the one she hadn’t even wanted on her ship. “Helmspony, sound the altitude alarm and climb forty-five degrees. Pinpoint, forget about broadsides, we’ll use the sunbeam. Open the collectors. Let’s singe their wings.”
Another barrage of cannon fire rumbled in front of them, and the shield finally collapsed. Huge segments went tumbling down towards the city, and a few cannonballs soared around them, smacking into the stone far below.
That's one doozy of a cliffhanger. Still, excellent chapter.
And the shield is down, and most likely bloodshed will follow...
I blame both sides a little bit... Mostly the bad apples on the griffin side thou, but ponies aren't really saint's either. Just saying.
And the midden has hit the windmill -- let's see what both sides have up their sleeves.
These past few chapters have done a good job of correcting the perception earlier ones gave of there being a huge power imbalance in the griffons' favor -- that said, I think that some more focus on the pony side of things early on would have a gone a long way to prevent that issue from arising in the first place.
9021135
Yeah, but the payoff of the turnabout might be worth it. I'm certainly enjoying it.
9021120
While ponies certainly aren't saints by nature of their birth, I'm not sure where in this scenario even just part of the blame falls on them.
9021120
What should they have done, in your opinion, to prevent this? I'm really curious. What should Equestria have done that would have resulted in these birds not attacking them?
Holy shit. This is a hell of a chapter. My guess is the gryphons are simply using this as a distraction for something much worse. Fucking beautiful chapter though.
CLIFFHANGEEEEEEEEEEEER! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
9021170
Has to be. Vengeance may be vile, but they're not stupid. They know they can't afford a long-term war with Equestria, they don't have the food or material for that in their still young nation. They've got to be planning something that they believe gives them a swift and decisive victory.
Definitely a larger problem if this is more than just Vengeance. Two Houses so far, maybe more to be revealed later.
The sunbeam? Collectors? Singeing their wings? Archimedes would be proud.
9021313
It does lend credit to the theory mentioned in the comments of previous chapters that Vengeance has already claimed power in Accipio.
And so it begins. Luna has a point, though; we've seen Celestia get blasted with a laser that can crater stone, with not a mark on her. Vengeance will need some weapon.
9021120 How. How, in the world, are the ponies AT ALL to blame? They invited the griffons into their nation when the latter were at risk of being blown to hell. They gave them manpower to help them eat enough. They saved the life of their prince. The ONLY condition they had was to not be awful people to ponies - free the slaves - and not bring in weapons to use on ponies - get rid of their gunpowder.
Their condition was "Hey, don't punch us while we're working to save your lives" and even that was too much for the griffons and especially too much for Vengeance.
Harness the power of The Sun baby!
9021170
If they planned to do something much worse I think they need to pull off some WW2 level German coordination of training and hiding 50-ish infantry division of 7500 men before Polish invasion. And German does it in the middle of economic bubble.
For to Accipio to do so in the middle of natural disaster will be The greatest twist even more surprising than German swift victory against French.
If they planned to kill Alicorn they probably tried to make voidstone gun or bullet.
9021156
It'd probably help if Equestria wasn't hiding its capabilities. The advanced warships should be out in full display. Even a military-centric culture like the griffons would think twice to attack a power that obviously outmatches them. Deterrence would work.
9021339
If that's the case there's only one thing left to do to secure their complete control over the empire and start the war. All they have to do is shoot the hostage.
9021135
Though if the power imbalance shifts too much on the equestrian side it would pretty much undermine the message of the story for the need for diplomacy, since war would be more preferable since it carries so little risk and would actually be a morally justified action considering the threat the equestrians face. I'd prefer a sort of cold war situation: Both sides are unfriendly but work towards coexistence since the alternative is well... death.
9021550
Assuming that's actually the case (griffons are terrible at intelligence, so I'd question how much of Equestria's military was a genuine secret and how much ignorance) that still places the blame for starting the invasion squarely on the griffons.
War never has little risk of death. Especially not when your opponent has his back against the wall and is known to pick fight over flight every single time.
9021641
I wasn't placing blame but the situation would have been much better if the equestrians communicated their capabilities more clearly. Deterrence works. Especially if the Emperor is still in power.
Not death of individual soldiers. Death of their civilizations. A war shouldn't be a curbstomp for either side. Like you said. Back against the wall fighting. It should be long and brutal enough for both sides to starve in the aftermath regardless of the winner. It would be the same result as the Cold War's threat of nuclear holocaust. War would be undesirable to say the least.
9021152
9021156
9021351
I dunno, I was sleepy and semi-cranky-like when writing the original comment (around midnight( who needs sleep anyway?)), and also getting kinda tired of ponies becoming slowly increasingly over OP-like and little bit condescending towards griffons, with the racial slurs, almost regularly revealed better stuff/gear in almost everything, magic, very VERY light "holier than thou"-like behavior, the hostage move, while seemingly getting "free-pass" because they're ponies, while griffons seem to get only bashing and calls for genocide here and there.
'i'm just hoping for a balanced ending, or something like that.
lmao, when the power showed to be in favor the Griffons everyone was yelling but now that it’s in favor of the Ponies everyone’s happy.
Specism, anyone?
9022168
Almost like we haven't actually seen them fight yet. Oh, and if it had been the ponies talking crap about the Griffons for thirty-plus chapters, saying they should be slaves and all that, I'm sure that also wouldn't colour anyone's response.
9022063
It's more that the ponies have been the victims for the entirety of the story so far. Now they show they can defend themselves. And they are defending themselves. You can directly compare Equestria's best warship hovering over Newcippio to the Griffons' over Canterlot: One side is bombarding the city, and it's not the ponies.
9021550
Or it could give the warhawks more fuel to convince the populace that Equestria is preparing to conquer them. They'd just argue Newcippio needs to strike first.
9022187
the ponies have been talking shit about the griffons, we just haven’t seen it
9022063
Well... they kinda are holier than the griffons by virtue of not being a society of slavers and not currently invading allies who saved their collective society and gave up their own lands to do so.
I mean, you need to be a special kind of asshole to start a war against the people who saved your life.
9022168
Culturalism, more like. Nobody here has problems with griffons as a species, but many of us have a very, very strong dislike of Accipio. Mostly because of the above.
9022313
9022196
Keroko is on point.
And regarding trash-talking... one side is rather open about their disdain for the other, thinking them inferior barbarians who should probably all be slaves. The other, so far, has nothing even close to that. To then claim readers are racist for feeling more with the, you know, not openly racist side is kind of twisted logic.
9022407
You mean, you forget the whole “pony newspapers think the griffons should have been dead” thing?
9022488
I'm looking through the text and can't find that. Where is it?
9022187
Warhawks would argue it in either scenario. The appearance of weakness is just a greater invitation to strike. The more moderate factions can better appreciate the image of strength. Anyone can better appreciate the image of strength. At the very least, it'll keep a longer peace as the warhawks will have to analyze and find equestria's weaknesses. They are a military-centric culture. They must have more tactics than simply "attack attack attack". Gives more time for the emperor or the more moderate factions to stop them.
9022510 I think he's talking about newspapers speculating about how Equestria should've left the griffons in the volcano. Which, seeing how much of an existential threat the griffons are determined to be, seems more and more appropriate by the chapter.
9022510
First couple of chapters
9022590
9022552
I did find something about how the nobles expect the Griffons to start raiding and pillaging right away. Is that what you meant?
9022540
That's where I'm not sure. Most of them don't seem to believe the ponies could be dangerous even when they see magic like Starlight teleporting with their own eyes. How can you convince someone that stubborn?
9022765
Yes. As far as we know, Vengeance is the only problematic house. Until Starscribe confirms, everyone else appears to fall into line with the leading house. The Emperor ultimately wants to conquer equestria, but not die for it. If that means he'll have to wait, he'll wait. It all depends on which house will win in the end.
9022552
Except that if there was no treaty, an invasion would have been inevitable. For survival. It was the most preferable option at the time.
9021550
The issue so far wasn't that the ponies weren't overwhelming the griffons -- it was that by what we had seen the griffons seemed able to trample over Equestria with ease. What I'm glad to see isn't that the story is saying that ponies outmatch the griffons and are much more likely to win the war -- it isn't -- but that the ponies are capable enough at defending themselves that the griffons aren't going to be able to easily tear Equestria to pieces.
You're absolutely right that a massive advantage to one side would undermine the premise of the story. The issue is that, for a significant part of the story so far, it looked like that was absolutely the case and that the griffons were the ones in a significant position of power and advantage -- that war would have carried little immediate risk for them. Now it's simply beginning to look like the two factions are much more evenly matched.
FRICKIN LASER BEAMS
9022921
Hmm, sort off? If there was no treaty, Equestria could have won by keeping the gryphons on their side of the border and waiting for the volcanoes to blow, taking away every single bit of warfare infrastructure they had (as well as any forces still stationed in their homeland) and not give them the time to rebuild they had in this case.
But that would have meant making Equestria so out of character one could argue we were simply reading a fantasy story with MLP poorly taped on it.
9025187
Would include Fallout: Equestria in that list?
That depends on whether Equestria's military was modernized before or during the griffon exodus and how well a full griffon invasion will fare against it. Most of the griffon weaponry was dumped into the ocean under the treaty.
In a no treaty scenario, every gun the griffons have will be pointed at equestria. And every shooter is completely desperate. The invasion is likely to fail like all the others but all the time wasted fighting the war and the losses the griffons will probably inflict are sure to shake equestria in the aftermath of the eruption.
Kindness wasn't the only reason the treaty was written.
9023642
I don't really understand. The Velar and Gina POV chapters clearly show the Equestrians' mastery of technology and magic and with Luna's help show they can easily adapt it to military applications. The whole story and Velar's shock implies that the griffons were never really at a level to compete with the equestrians in almost any front. The one battle that did occur was a surprise attack. Standard forces against elites. It's not representative of a war. I'm not going to say the Equestrians are OP. The coming battle should be more accurate gauge of how well an equestrian-accipian war would go.
9025709
Can't really say, I haven't read anything Fallout: Equestria since the core theme of the setting, "Fallout, but Equestria" doesn't really appeal to me. I've seen the artwork (hard not to) and there's clearly a very dedicated fanbase working on it, but post-apocalypse Equestria just isn't my thing.
Has to be before. Celestia rather specifically noted that it would allow resources to be drawn away from the military to reinforce control of the climate and ensure enough food. The treaty slowed Equestrian military development, if anything.
And the thing about war instead of the treaty, not every griffon believed the cataclysm would be a thing anyway. An entire house did not right up until the mountains blew. If the conclusion was "invade" then the griffons would still be invading from somewhere within their own borders, rather than from within Equestria's borders. This puts far less distance between them and the ticking bomb that is their mountains, which means that any delay in their warfare means more dead griffons. .
9025731
There's honestly too many unknowns as how a non-treaty invasion would turn out (other than equestria winning). We don't know how costly it (and previous invasions) are to them. The treaty was still created as a calculated move though. If not for the griffons' direct threat of war, than their indirect threat of disrupting manpower and the food supply.
These ships are on a suicide mission to accomplish something. What have they accomplished so far? Destroying Canterlot's shields. These ships are incapable of laying a sustained siege so I believe that isn't what they were sent to accomplish. I believe Canterlot is about to be hit with something much worse now that their shields are down.
9028168
Quite possible. Vengeance was ready to pour all their money into weaponry, so maybe they plan to firebomb the palace into oblivion.
9028348
I think we're looking at something far worse than firebombing. With Equestria defences down I expect the ships to be fodder for something absolutely devastating. A large bomb perhaps. I wanna guess some form of high explosive void steel shrapnel loaded rocket perhaps aimed right at the throne room or even Luna's ship itself.
So pony ships have portable solar death beams to them? Fucking awesome.
Also, I still say Ember and the dragon lands should be called in to help.
9021170
Dude, that's scary to think about.
Why has nobody thought that this was a distraction yet?
Wow. The murder turkeys seem to have broken the two biggest portions of the agreement. Big surprise. They have no honor and are liars.