There was little else for the Royal Sisters to do after they surrendered Canterlot to the Gryphonian 2nd Army under General Rodes. Despite being relatively free to move about the castle as they wished, they were under armed guard. In Celestia's room where the two played chess, at least five guards occupied the room as well guarding the door and window, five more were outside the door, ten more were guarding the window from the outside, and another fifteen were patrolling between the two exits. At one point, at least one of those soldiers attempted to follow Celestia into the bathroom, and what ensued caused enough of a ruckus that the amount of guards were trimmed down.

In order to stave off the feeling of enslavement from the guards, Celestia and Luna retreated into anything they could find. They had considered going into Starswirl the Bearded's archives to read up on some old magic tricks, before learning that the archives were completely looted. Then they decided to learn to cook, before also finding out everything in the kitchen was looted, including the kitchen sink. They also considered remapping the star charts, until they discovered that the telescopes and the old star charts were also looted. The griffon soldiers did not leave a single stone unturned for anything valuable. Even the Royal Sister's bedrooms were stripped of their velvets and their jewelry. The only thing the sisters had left to do was play chess, and even then they had to defend their thousand year old Crystal Empire chess set from looters as well.

And that was how they spent their evenings, playing chess hour after hour while under extreme armed guard. They maintained their usual stoic demeanor however, worse stuff has happened to the nation of Equestria than an invasion of griffons. Celestia always kept her ear to the ground, and what she picked up cheered her and her sister immensely. Twilight Sparkle was continuing to lead the Army of Equestria against the griffons, and has even stopped one of the three griffon armies at Canterlot River near Las Pegasus. She couldn't help but smile as she overheard conversations about, "that feckin' pasty who won't give up".

A knock came from the door. Tamsin, one of the five guards and as Luna learned was a baker, walked over with rifle in hand and opened the door. In came a griffon, wearing a silver-trimmed blue cloak and a cap bearing a golden eagle on it. On the breast of his leather armor was a silver chevron, indicating his status as Lieutenant. Celestia and Luna knew who this particular Lieutenant was, and they could recognize him from miles away because he was probably the only griffon this side of the ocean who smiled without prompt. It wasn't a contagious smile by any means, but it was a smile nonetheless. His name was Lieutenant Eckhardt of Tribe Ironwing.

"Princesses!" He tipped his cap and beamed brightly at the two not as impressed Princesses. "I see you're still playing chess, who's winning?"

Lieutenant Eckhardt snapped his talons. "Ah, just as well! But I have come to inform you two that General Rodes has excellent news, however he wishes to speak to you two personally." The guards immediately turned their heads towards Eckhardt, suspicious. "Ah, don't worry, you all can come too!"

"What is this news, Lieutenant Eckhardt?" Celestia felt a bit of hope rising up in her. "Perhaps it is from the Crystal Empire?"

Eckhardt shrugged, still smiling. "General Rodes would not tell me, you know how the old Shrike is. But, if you all would follow me, I can lead you to him."

After a brief minute of consideration, the Royal Sisters packed up the game of chess and locked it away underneath the bed, then followed Lieutenant Eckhardt out.

Canterlot was an interesting scenario for the Gryphonian invasion force. General Rodes, who was observing the citadel from Ponyville, was confident that he could have had the citadel of Canterlot within a week with a full frontal assault. Marshal Argus, who is all the way over in Gryphus across the ocean, ordered a siege of the city. Argus was confident that Canterlot would fall with minimal loss of life. It did, it took three months to do so however, and in that time the winter had set in. Because Argus and everyone else in Parliament expected a short war that would end in three months, the logistics line of supplies stretched like a person between two bulls. Nowadays, the three armies are perpetually starving.

It was understandable thus that anything that wasn't bolted down in Canterlot got looted and pillaged by starving griffons. General Rodes himself encouraged his soldiers and officers to squeeze the city dry of anything edible, down to the last seed if necessary. What resulted was an incredible looting that saw the city ransacked and with enough chaos roaming about that decimation was almost implemented. Because sieges weren't exactly ways to increase food income, what scraps of food were left were reserved for the soldiers.

Not to say that food was the only thing that was on the list for looting. Anything valuable was taken as souvenirs. Jewelry, Royal Guard armor, spellbooks, fine china, dresses, instruments, and artworks were all targets for as the griffons called it, "requisition". Canterlot, once a city for the rich, the artist, and the intelligent, became nothing more than a spoil of war.

It hurt Celestia. Every night she'd flashback to signing the surrender. Luna would always be there as well, whether because Luna was there or because Luna really was there. It was difficult just getting out of bed in the morning for Celestia. Walking with Eckhardt through the once brilliant gardens of the citadel pained her immensely. Tents and soldiers now sat where flowers and animals lived, now crushed underfoot and requisitioned as rations. Still, Lieutenant Eckhardt smiled, even humming to himself a little tune, one that all griffons remember as they sing it out during the night.

Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile!
While you've a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, boys, that's the style!
What's the use of worrying?
It never was worth while, so
Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile!

The throne room was especially chilly today for late winter weather. This wasn't helped by the fact that the stained glass windows had been removed, with only metal bars and open sky to indicate that something had been there. The usual emptiness of the throne room was now replaced by tables and desks of staff officers organizing maps, communiques, reports, dispatches, logistics, casualty listings, and the occasional citation. Instead of ambient silence or the occasional songbird that the Royal Sisters were used to in the throne room, it was now the automatic clacking of typewriters and the chatter of staff officers. Somewhere in this mess of organization however, was General Rodes.

"Eckhardt!" Eckhardt, the sisters, and the armed guard following them all turned to the griffon who called. She was a Lieutenant just like Eckhardt. Eckhardt broke out into a broad grin, happy to see his fellow staff officer with whom he served with underneath General Rodes.

"Eckhardt. Two things." Swift held up two talons on a hand, with an expression on her face that did not say she was amused at all. "One, don't call me Sandy, my name is Swift. Two, something very urgent came up." Swift, or Sandy as she hated being called was a Staff Officer to General Rodes as Eckhardt was. What brought Luna and Celestia's attention immediately was her height, she was far shorter than nearly anyone else in the room. This was attributed to her rather stubbier shorter than normal legs, which would have disqualified anyone out of formal infantry command.

However, the Royal Sisters have heard extensively of Swift of the Tribe Spectrum. Eckhardt was Rodes' eyes and ears on the affairs of the Princesses since the surrender, and this meant that Eckhardt conversed extensively with the two alicorns. When the topic of other staff officers to General Rodes came up, Eckhardt quickly brushed over people like aide-de-camp Colonel Dorsey or Equestrian Literary Standard translator Captain Quincy, but spent extensive and particularly romantic detail on Lieutenant Swift. From what Eckhardt had told them, Swift was one of the fastest flyers in Gryphonia, making her one of the best communications runners in the Army. She also studied entomology extensively, enjoyed the taste of chocolates, has a pet cat at home named Belle, and has as Eckhardt so lovingly described it, hypnotizing green eyes which could launch a thousand ships in her name.

Luna found herself amused by Eckhardt's obvious infatuation over Swift, Celestia didn't have no higher opinion of it however. These people do serve the same people who order hundreds of thousands of griffons to invade country.

Eckhardt nodded and turned to the Princesses, his smile having become just a smidge wider. "Well, Princesses, would you kindly wait for a second then, as I attend to this?"

The Princesses glanced to each other briefly, then nodded in unison. Eckhardt bowed to them respectfully and happily went off with Swift. Luna giggled quietly seeing Eckhardt pick up his feet at walking with Swift. Celestia glanced disapprovingly at Luna, then back to Eckhardt and Swift. What business would take priority over the Royal Sisters, she wondered.

General Rodes sat back in his chair, a very comfortable wooden chair built by ponies. General Rodes of Tribe Goldenbeak was the very controversial leader of 2nd Army. Unlike other Generals who presented themselves as professional, businesslike, and affable towards all with no malice towards none, General Rodes was very different. He drank constantly, openly, his breath smelled of alcohol right now in fact even though it was nine in the morning. His leathers did not have any medals or commendations, or even anything showing off his rank, and overall his uniform and even his physical appearance was in such a sorry shape that one would mistake him for an infantry officer rather than a commander of over 120,000 griffons.

What made Rodes even more controversial was his conduct on Canterbury Junction and Ponyville, in which 30,000 griffons under his command were killed, with little to no wounded. That's not even mentioning his record at Canis or Zebrica. Griffons at home either demonized him or loved him. In some circles, people called him the Shrike for treating his men like food for the guns. In other circles, people called him the Shrike for tearing into his enemy with great ferocity. Many of the soldiers under his command just called him the Old Shrike for the fact that his age was north over every soldier and officer in Equestria. It showed, as Rodes' brown eyes sank deeply into his face and his feathers drooped downwards rather than fray or spur outwards in a younger griffon.

His expression now though was a deep frown. He sighed and said, "And you've confirmed this?"

Swift and Eckhardt nervously stood across his desk inside the Royal Guard locker room. Also present were Captain Quincy and Colonel Dorsey, the two male griffons who sat on benches nearby listening to the conversation attentively. The staff officers were quite confused over Rodes' choice of office, as his desk quite literally was in between two rows of lockers as if someone had moved it there in some form of prank. However, they began understanding when they could no longer receive any messages from Marshall Argus, apparently his messengers couldn't find Rodes anywhere.

Swift nodded slowly. Rodes cocked his head, sitting up in his chair and leaning forward on the desk. He could only sum it up as thus, "So General Ferik is dead, and 1st Army is routed."

Colonel Dorsey adjusted his glasses quickly and stood up. "Well sir," he began. "Not entirely routed, 16th, 13th, and 15th Corps made it out."

"With casualties, and from what Lieutenant Swift tells me, 14th Corps was halved in strength." Dorsey cleared his throat nervously at Rodes' response. Rodes opened up the left drawer on his desk and found maps and other useful information. Wrong one, he shut it, then opened the right one. He pulled out a bottle of poteen and uncorked it. He also put out three shot glasses then poured the spirit into all three. "So tell me, how did this happen?"

Colonel Dorsey looked at Swift, who responded with a gesture to get on with it. He reluctantly said, "They were flanked."

"Flanked?" Rodes quickly downed one shot of the spirit and violently shook his head.

Rodes nodded, rubbing the bottom of his beak. "Ah, that explains nothing to me. Would you be more specific, Colonel?"

Dorsey quickly cleared his throat, blushing underneath his feathers. "Well, Sir. From what General Ferik's aide-de-camp told us before passing out of exhaustion, apparently the ponies found a ford downstream. They exploited it under the cover of a thick fog and a full moon of a night. Created a very confusing situation, Sir."

Rodes nodded, visibly cringing at the word "eye". He offered the shots to any of his officers, who all respectfully refused. Rodes proceeded to down another shot quickly. He gestured to Quincy, who quickly hopped on over and pulled out a map of Equestria and laid it on the desk. The staff officers came round to observe. It was planning time. "Right, well I'll be blunt, this is bad. General Ferik is, or was, a competent general. Losing him will be a blow to the armies here, and to morale at home, people are gonna want answers. The only answer we can apparently give them now is that the immovable army of Gryphonia has been defeated on the field. Haven't seen anything like that since Gondwana in Zebrica."

Rodes took out a pair of reading glasses and began examining the map. Swift looked at Rodes, eager for orders. "What shall you have us do, Sir?"

"Swift, you're the fastest, go to Governor General Bernn and tell him to assemble 7th Corps and rally here at Canterlot. Quincy, you'll go to Lieutenant General Bleier and 3rd Corps at Canterbury Junction, they'll do the same. We'll be assembling 2nd Army, we'll go after the ponies in a methodical and calculated fashion."

There was another thing Rodes was quite famous for in his campaigns in the lands of the Zebras and the Diamond Dogs, and it was a reputation that he neither fully accepts nor denies. It was his eye for strategic detailing. His attention to the movements of armies, and how and why they moved, made him even more of a controversial figure in the Gryphonian military. He used to his own greater advantage, and to his opponent's great suffering.

The situation in the sixth month of the war had shifted from stalemate in the wake of the 1st Army's loss at the Battle of Canterlot and the death of General Ferik. Major General Twilight Sparkle, emboldened by her success, proceeded to move north for Tall Tale and Vanhoover, where fresh supplies and troops awaited her. Although Marshall Argus' standing order for armies in Equestria was to garrison captured territory until further notice, General Rodes would not receive any order from Argus nor any complaint from him. By the time any messenger from the Marshall arrived at Canterlot, they would have found that Rodes, and indeed nearly the entirety of 2nd Army, was gone.

Rodes' plan now was to stop Twilight Sparkle's Army of Equestria from reaching the northwest. 2nd Army would be divided among its Corps into five wings: 3rd Corps led by Lieutenant General Bleier, 7th Corps led by Governor General Bernn, 6th Corps led by Major General Stark, and 2nd Corps led by Major General Tanzer, with the fifth being a division of rangers led by Brigadier General Theron. These wings will be responsible for taking different paths to Tall Tale and Vanhoover from the north, whereupon during their travels they will follow Rodes' orders of "complete destruction of the Equestrian war effort" as they marched to the sea.

Farms will be burnt to the ground, railroads will be torn up, bridges will be burned, food will be pillaged and looted from villages and hamlets to feed the troops, essentially it was a strategy that would force Twilight Sparkle's hoof into an action which would never benefit her. If she attempted to defend any of these little villages from 2nd Army, she would most likely be forced into a bad tactical position from which she may not recover even with victory. If she left the villages and attempted consolidation of her army, she'd be forced to accept the fact that her army would literally starve to death and simply disintegrate as people either died of hunger or deserted. Either way, Rodes won. All that remains now is for Twilight Sparkle to react to it.

A Splendid Little War

by Eh

Gryphonian 2nd Army