The screaming of another cannonball reached Luna’s ears as she galloped up the stairs and into the more well-used section of Canterlot Castle. The projectile smashed through a window, flying across the hallway and into the wall, sending a cloud of white dust shooting out from the point of impact. Guards, servants, and socialites ran every which way, the servants and socialites screaming and scurrying for cover while the guards either attempted to help escort them out or scrambled to help defend the capital. Luna looked around frantically as the chaos threatened to overwhelm her senses.
Several other windows were smashed, other walls missing chunks of themselves from other cannon shots. The bodies of several ponies, guards and civilians alike lay on the floor, unfortunate victims of the cannonballs. Looking out a window into the gardens she could see a number of unicorn guards firing magical projectiles at an unseen target. Another cannonball streaked in and hit the ground between two of them, knocking them off their feet as a second shot blasted right through a tree, causing it to splinter and fall in a shower of broken bark and leaves even as the cannonball itself smashed into the wall of the castle, throwing up a puff of white dust.
“Princess!” a voice cried from nearby, making Luna turn around. Full Moon came galloping down the hallway towards her, a cadre of other guards in tow. A cannonball smashed through a nearby window, which hit the floor near one pegasus and threw him to the ground with a scream.
“Full Moon, what’s going on?!” Luna yelled over the noise.
“The city is under attack!” Full replied. The ponies around them in the hallway ducked and screamed as a nearby window smashed. A griffin flew through the hole and into the hallway, a sword in his claws. One unicorn guard fired a magical arrow from his horn, and the projectile hit the griffin in the chest. The griffin fell towards the ground, screaming before a collision with a pillar cut him off. “We have to get you out of here!”
“No!” Luna replied sharply. “Evacuate the city as much as you can. Safeguard the ponies in here and keep the griffins out for as long as possible.”
“Princess, there are thousands of them outside! The main city itself is under heavy bombardment from cannons and the griffins have infantry moving into the outskirts! We can’t evacuate!”
“Then keep them out of the castle!” Luna shot back. “Do what you have to do in order to delay them; I have duties that I must attend to!”
She spread her wings, about to take off when Full Moon stopped her. “Princess!”
Luna looked down at him. Full Moon was looking up at her, a concerned expression on his face. “Be careful.”
Luna smiled and nodded. “I will, Full.”
With that she took off and flew away, flying as fast as she could up the steps that led to the eastern wing of the castle. Full Moon turned to the other guards, yelling orders.
“Protect the castle! Get any unicorn that knows a shield spell together in the throne room and have them put something up to defend against those cannons! The rest of you, gather what guards you can and get outside! I’ll meet you there!”
The other guards nodded and broke up to go to their assigned areas. Full Moon looked toward the staircase that Luna had flown up, mentally wishing Luna good luck before he spread his batlike wings and took off as well, flying out of the hole in the window that the griffin soldier had made and going up to the highest ledge he could find. Landing there and turning, he looked out over the city and felt his heart fill his mouth.
Canterlot burned. Fires raged in many parts of the city, sending up pillars of black smoke that were silhouetted by the moon. Squadrons of griffins circled the city below and the screams and frightened cries both from battle and from the Canterlot citizenry filled the air. There were flickers of light in the streets; not the flashes of cannonball detonations, but of magic. Of course any unicorn that knew how to teleport would do so. Get away from the battle, find safety. Griffin airships moved in over the city, more griffins swarming from them and joining the attack below. Pegasi from the Royal Guard were slowing them up however they could, but they were quickly being overwhelmed through sheer weight of numbers.
Full Moon attempted to swallow and found his mouth dry. Even as he watched the attack a cannonball streaked through the air, smashing against a castle tower. The tower’s stone cracked and split, sending the structure falling to the ground and landing with a deafening crash, a massive cloud of dust and smoke rising into the sky as the shrieks of garden animals and unfortunate ponies that had attempted to take shelter in the area reaching his ears. Full Moon swallowed, his ears lying flat against his head to try and block out the sounds. He spread his wings again and flew towards the gates.
***
Luna ran through the East Wing of the castle, the case that held the Elements of Harmony floating behind her as she levitated it with her magic. Normally only Celestia would have been able to break the spell that was on the door that held the precious artifacts, but Luna knew Celestia’s spellwork and had been able to open it. The Elements couldn’t fall into the griffins’ hands. If they weren’t taken from the castle the griffin army would eventually break the door down, most likely via cannonball.
Luna kept running, heading back to her study. Equestria’s most sensitive data was there; it couldn’t fall into enemy hands either.
***
Rosten stood on top of a rocky outcropping, watching the attack on the city commence. The mountain pathways were being choked with smoke and ash from the cannons, and the smell of gunpowder was heavy in the air. He could hear the chaos in the city even from here, as far away from Canterlot as the pathways were. He could hear screams, roars of battle, the thundering of more cannons, and the howling of dogs as they rampaged through the streets. Equestria had been caught completely off guard by the attack, and were paying the price for their lack of vigilance.
If we had issued a declaration, they might have even evacuated the civilians, Rosten thought to himself even as he lifted a clawed hand and swiped it downward again, signaling the batteries of cannons around him to fire another volley at the city. They had already brought down one tower on the castle; Rosten had watched it fall into the castle’s gardens, smashing them flat with its massive bulk. Birds had flown into the air as the thing came down, and the roars and cries of the various animals that made the gardens their home had been able to reach his ears. Faintly, like all of the other noise in the city, but they had still reached him.
The city was relatively quiet now. Apparently the dogs had overrun the streets and driven the remaining civilian ponies back into their homes.
He turned and looked at another griffin officer that was overseeing the cannons with him. “Lieutenant, order the batteries to shift their aim to the castle exclusively. After that, you have the guns. I’m going down into the city.”
“Yessir!” the lieutenant replied, saluting.
Rosten spread his wings and jumped from the cliff, gliding down towards Canterlot. All the fires burning in the city were causing huge drafts of hot air to come up into the sky, allowing him to glide from one thermal to the other without ever having to flap his wings. He circled the city as a flight of griffins flew by, looking around for Marshal Blackwing.
***
Standing on top of one of the army’s airships, Blackwing let loose with an amused chuckle as he watched the assault. Their surprise had been total; though the Royal Guard was resisting for now, soon they would be overwhelmed by the griffin’s superior numbers. He had left Rosten in charge of the artillery batteries on the cliffs, while he had gone to direct the assault personally.
“Lord Marshal!” a griffin officer called as he flew over to the airship, landing next to Blackwing. “The attack is proceeding according to plan.”
“Good. Particulars please, Colonel.”
“The dogs have overrun the civilian sectors of the city and are heading towards the castle. The Royal Guard is pulling back ahead of them, heading in the same direction. They’ll probably make a stand inside and try to hold us back from it, draw the siege out.”
“Don’t allow them to turn it into a siege at all, Colonel.” Blackwing ordered. “If they close the gates, blast them down. With as few ponies as they have they can’t hold out against us indefinitely.”
A flash from above the castle drew the attention of both griffins. Blackwing narrowed his eyes as a shield lowered itself over the castle, leaving the army’s cannonballs to smash futilely against it. He turned to the colonel again. “Order the airships to broadside that barrier. Some of them have to be keeping that thing up. If we put as much stress on it as possible they won’t be able to maintain it.”
“Yes Lord Marshal,” the colonel said, saluting before flying off. The black griffin turned back to the battle, breathing in the smell of gunpowder. “I love this job,” he whispered, a grin splitting his beak.
***
“Fall back! FALL BACK!” Full Moon bellowed as a number of other cannonballs smashed against the shield. It was already starting to waver; the sextet of unicorn guards that had raised it in the first place were being put under too much strain. Full Moon had gathered the remaining guards in front of the castle’s main gate. He had then sent a fellow Lunar Guard member to open the gate in order for the other guards to retreat inside.
The guards retreated into the castle, the gates slamming shut behind them. Full Moon did a quick headcount. Only fifty of the castle’s nearly five hundred guards were there. He sighed. He had known from the start that they wouldn’t be able to hold the city against such a large force, let alone one not only with superior firepower but also the element of surprise. He looked at them all. “Guardsponies! It has been an honor serving alongside all of you! If we are to die tonight, then I ask that you take as many of these winged bastards with you as you can!”
The other guards let loose with a number of battle cries as a crackle reached their ears, which Full Moon took as the shield breaking. He could hear the barking and howling of the dogs getting closer by the second. The guards turned towards the gate, waiting to receive them. Those that had been able to get to the castle armory readied their weapons, though both they and the guards that hadn’t been able to arm themselves shuffled nervously, several letting out tentative nickers.
Full Moon heard the scream of a cannonball and saw the door splinter. More impacts burst against it, the door cracking and splitting more and more as the ancient wood was hammered by more shots. The few unicorns that were among the guards raised a shield to protect them when the gate went down.
Whoooooosh-CRASH!
The gate finally broke, sending massive chunks of wood flying through the air. They bounced off of the shield, dogs following the debris into the castle. The unicorns lowered the shield, the guardsponies roaring as loud as they could as the two sides clashed with one another.
***
It was quiet on the streets of Canterlot as Blackwing walked through them. The odd squadron of griffins flew overhead, keeping the air secured in the rather unlikely event of an Equestrian counterattack.
The city was a mess. Many buildings were burning and chunks of masonry littered the ground, craters from cannon shots pockmarking the streets. Bodies of ponies and dogs alike lay everywhere, most of the ponies being civilians that had run out into the streets in a panic and had been cut down in the confusion of battle. Guardsponies lay among them, unable to hold the streets against their far more numerous opponents despite their best efforts. Some were lying in the streets, others leaning up against walls splattered with blood and blackened by ash. Some had their eyes open still, misted over in death. Many of the civilians were in their nightclothes, having not had time to dress when the attack had commenced.
Blackwing chuckled. It had been a while since he had had a good battle. The last action that he had directed had been an assault on a rebel stronghold that had opposed King Aeris’s ascension to the throne, five years ago. The rebels had been holed up in a system of caves in a mountain near the city of Pinion, and had been raiding merchant caravans. Aeris had entrusted a company of the Darkfeathers, his personal guard, to Blackwing. The assault had been quick and bloody, the Darkfeathers going in with Blackwing at their head after a short cannon bombardment. None of the Darkfeathers had died in the fighting, slaughtering the poorly-armed rebels with impunity.
Blackwing grinned as he began drawing parallels. Like then, this had been far too easy now that he thought about it. Not that he was complaining.
A flapping of wings drew his attention to the sky as Rosten landed on a rooftop above him. “How goes it, Lord Marshal?”
“Very well, actually,” Blackwing replied, beckoning Rosten down to street level. The younger griffin fell in step beside him as they began walking towards the castle, looking around at the devastation. Blackwing looked at him. “So, how is your first taste of war so far?”
“It’s…different than I thought,” Rosten replied.
“Oh?”
“The tapestries at the Tower always paint war as something glorious. Honorable.” Rosten stepped around a destroyed carriage with the body of a grey-colored stallion with two golden laurels as a cutie mark and a monocle in one eye draped limply over the wreckage as he kept talking. “This…this is so much different…”
“Glory isn’t just limited to an artist’s stylized depictions,” Blackwing replied, pausing in his walk to toe a dead stallion. The stallion was deep blue, with an orange mane that looked as if it were normally impeccably combed. An hourglass graced his flank and his green eyes were half-open. Shrugging, the black-feathered griffin continued down the street. “In war you can find glory in many things.”
“What about glory in not fighting at all?” Rosten asked. “Why are we even doing this?”
“Your father didn’t tell you?” Blackwing replied, looking down at Rosten as one eyebrow rose. “I thought he never stopped talking about this ‘grand ambition’ of his.”
“Well, yes, he did talk about it, but…” Rosten stuttered. “It’s just…I didn’t expect it to be like this…”
Blackwing chuckled. “Don’t worry, Captain. You’ll be able to see plenty more fighting while we’re here.”
Rosten blinked a few times, then nodded slowly. He hoped to himself that it would be more honorable than what had happened here tonight.
***
The remaining eighteen guards ran down a hallway towards the wing of the castle that housed the Royal Family. They had held the gate for as long as they could, but mounting losses and ever-increasing numbers of foes had driven them back and eventually forced them to retreat. One of the few unicorns left had managed to throw up a ward that was keeping the enemy back for now, but there was no guarantee as to how long it would hold.
“Princess Luna!” Full Moon gasped as the dark-furred princess appeared in the doorway, Prince Blueblood hyperventilating behind her. “We couldn’t hold the gate any longer, I’m sorry!”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Full Moon,” Luna replied. “I’ve gotten together every bit of information that would be of use to the griffins, and have taken the Elements of Harmony out of their safe room.” She sighed and looked around. “It pains me to say, but we must abandon Canterlot.”
“What?!” Full Moon yelled. “But Princess-“
“We can’t hold the city any longer,” Luna interrupted. “Our best hope now is to run and hide, live to fight another day.”
Full Moon was about to protest again, but sighed and nodded. “Very well. But how will we get out of the city?”
Princess Luna smiled. “You forget who you’re talking to, Full Moon. Gather around me, all of you! You too, Blueblood!”
As the remains of the Royal Guard gathered around her, Luna’s horn began to glow. A white aura began to flow from it, covering every guard. Luna took a deep breath and released the magic to let it flow.
There was a bright flash, and the small group of ponies was gone.
***
Blackwing and Rosten had set up their command center in the castle’s throne room. They had been visited by most of the griffin officers in charge of the attack, learning casualty reports, damage, status on logistics and on one occasion ordering a courier to be sent home with a message reporting the victory and requesting reinforcements.
They had lost around two hundred soldiers during the attack, most of them dogs. The element of surprise had worked extremely well, as most of the casualties had come during the fighting at the castle, when the guards had been ready for them. They had counted around three hundred and eighty-three dead ponies in the Royal Guard, and taken seventy-four prisoners. The Royal Guard had put up a tough fight, but had been overwhelmed by the superior might of the griffin army. Blackwing allowed himself a little smirk.
When all was said and done, Blackwing settled into the throne that Celestia normally occupied. He gave a contented sigh and leaned back, settling down onto his hindquarters as they sank into the plush, velvet cushion. “Aaaaaaaah…” he sighed. “The Princess must be very comfortable sitting in a throne like this.” He looked over at Rosten. “You did very well in your first command, Captain. I’m impressed.”
“Really?” Rosten asked, looking over at the Marshal.
“Yes. You followed orders to the letter, and only left your command once you were sure that your soldiers had nothing more to do. Your father will be impressed, I think.”
“Thank you, Lord Marshal,” Rosten replied, looking out on the massive throne room. “So…where do we go next?”
“The nearest town. According to our maps it should be a little village by the name of Ponyville.”
“The village that the Darkfeathers were sent to?”
“Yes, on that ponynapping mission. That would be the most likely place that they would run to. After we take that place, then we’ll get the airships together and send them out. Equestria should be ours by the end of the week, and we can begin pacification.”
Rosten nodded, then yawned. “I’m going back to my tent.”
Blackwing made a noncommittal noise as Rosten flew out through a shattered window. Calling for an aide, he pointed at the griffin. “Ready two airships and tell their crews and marines to get some sleep. They move on Ponyville at dawn.”
The griffin saluted and flew off.