Griffons lined the streets by the thousands, packing every inch of the main thoroughfare and even back up into the alleyways. So dense was the crowd that Twilight was suspicious that they may not have all been residents of the Imperial city proper.
She supposed that their number may have been augmented by the outlying areas, or possibly even by other cities, but whatever their origin, now they only presented another concern for Twilight as she surveyed the parade route she was to take for her meeting with the Griffon Emperor.
It was quite suspicious that so many griffons would be gathered for such an occasion, at least it appeared so to her, but maybe she was wrong, maybe it was a 'normal' crowd, or maybe there was some cultural significance that drew them all to the streets, or maybe there was something unseen at work, and that idea scared her.
Anxiety built as she considered her chances of holding off so many of the avian-felines. If they were to all mob the procession at once, even the battalion of the royal elite guard may not be able to hold them off for long. She wasn't too worried about herself, she could just teleport if needed, rather she was worried about the just over the thousand other ponies, elite guard or not, that were about to parade with her through the overcrowded Griffin capitol's main thoroughfare.
Seventy one lines, seven abreast would march ahead of her, and seventy two lines, seven abreast, would follow. As her advisors had been quick to state, her position in the middle, rather than the front, would send a clear message to the gathered population: this was not a peaceful visit. She had no reason to believe that there was any doubt on that matter amongst the gathered, but this parade was crafted to carry the subtle clues to make clear that this was not a procession that followed behind the princess, but rather a show of force, clearly surrounding their princess as a sign of hostility.
The procession was to begin at their camp on the ridge outside the capital city, and would progress down the main street and up to the massive Griffonian royal estate, where the troops would diverge into a perimeter that would surround the complex while Twilight secured the Emperor's formal surrender.
"Princess," an armored Lieutenant called, breaking up her analysis as he landed next to her, "We're in formation to begin the march, we await your orders to begin."
She gave a moment's hesitation as her previous worries stopped her, but ultimately she decided and gave the soldier the order to commence the march.
As she made her way to her designated position halfway through the procession, she considered the fact that, as her fellow princesses had predicted, decisions like this were coming easier and easier to her now.
When she had first been asked to write a hypothetical response to what Celestia had called "The Griffon Emperor's Declaration of War", she had been mildly surprised, but no more so than to any of the other "princess tests" she'd been given as of late. With all the tact deserving of such an absurd notion, she scrawled out a response and promptly sent it off with her various other more important reports before getting some well deserved sleep.
The next day she was understandably surprised to find out that the hypothetical missive was not so hypothetical.
When she had written the response, she had for the most part written it straight from her sleep addled and generously caffeinated stream of consciousness, producing it as a thought exercise on how absurd a griffon attack on Equestria would be. Little did she know that Celestia would then take the unedited draft and ship it back to the Emperor as Equestria's official response.
As if that were not enough, she was then informed, that her "test" was not merely the letter, but rather dealing with the Griffon threat in its entirety, which as a minor footnote meant dealing with them if it came to war. Which it then promptly did.
The subsequent war more-or-less turned out exactly as she had predicted though. The orchestration of the transport of arctic winds southward had proven more difficult than anticipated, but with the flight path of the Breezies coinciding with the the push of tropical winds northward, the pegasi already helping with the Breezie Migration had been more than willing to help, freeing up enough soldiers to aid those in the north and keep schedule. A schedule that had the convergence of the fronts occurring at the time and location of the initial Griffon push into Equestria.
For Twilight, it had been just like a scaled-up winter wrap up in Ponyville, so she had managed it rather well if she did say so herself, and the subsequent hurricane grounded, and then ruined the supplies of the attacking army.
It was admittedly impressive that the invading troops carried on their march on by talon-and-paw but the result was as expected. As the starving, soaked feather-to-bone and freezing army finally came out of the mountains and into Equestria proper, they had surrendered and all but begged for food.
Three days later, ten days since the postmark of her unintended letter, here she was, in a military formation, about to officially accept the griffon full-surrender.
Her mental analysis of the past week and a half felt like a dream, or to be precise, it was one, for as she re-analyzed her current position, she realized she had been lost to the world as the march made its initial entrance into the city.
The first of her troops were beginning to make their way into the city proper, and with an imperceptible sigh of relief, she noted no objects being thrown or even hostile words being shouted. She even allowed a small flinch of a smile until it curved into a frown as she realized something else...
...No-griffon was speaking at all. She had not expected a welcome banner or cheering in the streets to be sure, in fact she had all but put the medical staff back at camp on standby to heal any bumps and bruises form anonymously thrown rocks and trash from the crowd, but this was something else entirely.
As the first lines of the armored ponies made their way into the streets, the crowd made no reaction at all. Not a sound could be heard over the armored hooves as they clacked in rhythm down the cobblestone street, and no motion came from the crowd a they stood, almost as if at attention.
Twilight's previous fears of an ambush from the suspiciously swelled numbers returned as she imagined the griffon generals orchestrating a plan to pack the streets with non-uniformed soldiers as a trap. This theory was dismissed as she drew closer and closer to the crowds, and another thought filled her mind.
"They're trembling..." she whispered to herself as she began to make out the faces of the decidedly female-and-child-predominant crowd.
She could see little cubs and their sister chicks huddling closer to their mothers as the stone-faced armored ponies walked past, their little eyes darting around as the thunder of the war-ponies hooves filled the air.
When it came closer to the time that Twilight herself would enter the streets, she could see the griffons tensing further.
When she finally crossed the threshold into the capitol the tension peaked as the crowds parallel to her fell into bows.
In the zone slightly before her she could see the fearful eyes of the assemblage on her, some meeting her gaze and dropping into bows early, prompting their young ones to do the same. As she drew forward, not one griffon remained standing, all cowering with closed eyes as she passed. She did not look back, but she could guess that they were remaining prostrate even after she had made her way significantly past.
Scanning the crowds, she continued only to find the gazes of females, quickly for those gazes to be broken as the recipients fell to the ground prostrate.
Seeing little before the gazes would be broken, she then began looking towards the young ones visible only at the forward edges of the crowd. A few of the wide-eyed youths seemed fascinated with her, keeping her gaze before their mothers pushed them down, but the slightly older ones seemed to tremble when they met her glance, falling into bows of their own accord.
This continued without deviation for the length of the journey to the palace. Upon arrival, the troops separated like a zipper, even groups of four-three/three-four separating left and right before filling into single lines that would span the perimeter of the estate.
The last of the crowd dropped as Twilight herself arrived at the immense front gate of the palace. It stood open to receive her, and she marched forward without breaking stride...