Shining Armor looked around the winter wasteland with immense confusion and pain as he barely dragged his bandaged left rear leg over a hill and away from the lost battlefield. His mind was muddled from a loud ringing noise in his ears and from the pain of being thrown around by explosions. As he looked over the hill with fear in his eyes, all he could do was to remember when it had all gone wrong.
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FLASHBACK~~~
Shining Armor and Celestia looked over the gathered 500 guards that looked over the Crystal Empire's capitol under a protective spell that warmed the air and hid their presence from eye-sight. Behind them were dozens of large six meter tall pony-looking stone golems with various colors of magic driving them. Armed with 'powerful' muskets designed for pony use and spears built into them as bayonets, Celestia was rather confident in their victory as they had only seen several dozen Griffons that mounted the half-built metal walls.
"Why metal? Wouldn't it be faster to build with stone and wood?" Shining Armor looked at the construction that had both ponies and griffons working on them. "And they're forcing ponies to work for them. If they touched a single hair on Cadence..."
"Do not worry, Prince-captain. We shall prove that we are not entirely defenseless." Celestia looked behind her and at the crew that manned the large metal cannons which possessed glowing crystals near the barrel glowing with magical power. With a nod, the dozen cannons roared out, throwing large bolts of magical fire at the Griffon watchtowers.
Caught off guard, the guards on the top of the tower fell along with their wooden towers as the winds prevented the griffons from flying away. Instantly, a shrill alarm sounded from within the crystalline city as the Equestrian troops began a steady march under their Princess' protective spell alongside Shining Armor's shield spell. Griffon-made bullets rapidly hit the barrier with worrying harsh impacts, but were swiftly suppressed by volley fire from the ponies’ own muzzle-loading weapons developed by several nobles.
"Ready!" A full hundred loaded muskets were aimed at the griffons holding large tower shields hurriedly evacuating crystal ponies back behind portions of completed walls. Their shield-toting soldiers were only armed with large caliber pistols and were not ready to combat volley fire effectively. "FIRE!" With a click-snap, the muskets shot out their semi-deadly payload at the defending griffons. Due to the sheer number of musket fire being fired at once, several shields were directly penetrated and thus killing its wielder by both shrapnel and fire. Then the stone golems struck the defenders.
They collapsed the remaining watchtowers that had survived the initial bombardment and had begun to charge the half-complete metal walls. Far behind them, unicorns had their horns ablaze with magic as they guided their creations right at the wall. As one, the six meter tall stone golems turned on their forelegs and shot out their rear legs with all the power they could muster.
Just as their stone hooves were about to strike the wall, an entire section of the metal wall blew outwards revealing an eight meter tall giant that was far larger than the golems wielding cannons and large chainsaw for arms. With their metallic bulk, they easily pushed aside the golems and rammed their roaring chainsaw for arms through the barrel of the golems with utter ease. Ripping out the snarling weapon sideways, it opened up a gaping hole in the golem large enough for the metal giant to fire two explosive rounds into the body of the golem.
The large giant appearing had thrown off everything. The guard ponies that were supposed to be advancing froze at the sight of their ‘powerful’ golems blown apart by six metal giants all wielding different heraldry on their armors..
Before it could turn its ferocious weaponry at the guards, Celestia had sent a powerful beam of bright yellow energy that impacted the lead giant’s right shoulder, throwing its aim off and forced its cannon to shoot into the air. With a bright flash, Celestia appeared over the giant and scythed her horn downwards aimed at its visible head, but was blocked by the massive chainsaw, which surprisingly held. Forming her magic into a giant magical blade, she was ready to bring it down against her foe; but realized far too late that she was distracted.
Far too focused on the giant in front of her, she missed a massive metal fist that slammed into her from her left. With a rather wet sounding smack, Celestia was thrown from the sky and straight down into the ground and into the cold snow. Before any of the shocked guards could do anything to their fallen Princess, the giant that had punched Celestia out of the air aimed its own cannon at the guards. Time seemed to slow as one could hear a shell being chambered within the cannon and followed by distinct click that sent the explosive shell right into the grouped up formation of Equestrian Royal Guards.
FLASHBACK END
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"Why would she act so aggressively?" Cadence asked no one in particular as she looked over several dozen documents that her griffon aide handed her. The female griffon was scrawny for her kind, but her movements hinted of immense training and experience. Having a golden brown plumage along with most of her body colored a dark brown with her golden beak giving her golden eyes ever more brighter, the female griffon shook her head.
"I cannot think why, but it is strange seeing as your messenger did report Celestia receiving the report." The Griffon, wearing a pale brown uniform over her body, looked over the action report of the most recent attack. "Two ponies are in critical condition, four Griffon soldiers are dead, twenty are wounded, and the rest merely suffered light wounds. I guess we could thank the knights for acting quickly."
"Mmm." Cadence nodded as she looked out of the city she was now governing under Griffon rule. In fact, the supplies the griffons gave her ponies were of high quality and had even brought capable doctors to treat any sick and injured ponies. Not to mention that the Griffon Emperor had let her keep her rule as long as she did not take actions against the Griffons. But really...
She didn't really see what Celestia saw in the Griffons. She had always said that the Griffons were warlike, bloodthirsty, and violent; but from what she had observed for nearly two weeks was the complete opposite. The griffons were honorable, loyal, and hid their eating habits behind doors to save the ponies the sight of their consumption of meat. If anything, they were gentle to the ponies and her. So even when she had gone out of her way to ask whether they should take actions against the griffons, the crystal ponies refused to fight the race that had essentially saved them and the empire. Not to mention that they seemed to trust the griffons more now than the unicorns that were there to guard her until the griffons came. In fact, the crystal ponies seemed to mistrust all the Equestrian ponies to a degree but trusted her seeing as she had the cutie mark of the Crystal Heart.
So she really had no problems with the Griffon occupation. That and they were willing to fortify her city with those metal walls instead of the easy-to-destroy stone walls as long as she supplied them with the high quality crystal that her empire was known for. While the Griffons did not use it for magical use, it was being used for their newest weapons and for expensive jewelry for their own nobles.
Another thing about the Griffons. They were brutally honest at times and rather horrible liars.
But if it protected her ponies in the end... She would do anything.
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Shining Armor led what remained of the guards with a damaged cart containing Celestia's regenerating body. While she was clinically dead, her regenerating body made sure that she was still alive. With barely three hundred left alive from the failed attack, they barely made it back to the station at the border and with their morale at the very bottom.
"The attack failed did it?" Shining Armor's eyes widened at the sight of Princess Luna with half a hundred of her own Lunar Guards all sitting at the station with a certain look in her eyes. "You do realize that the Griffons immediately demanded the reason for the attack on one of their protectorates."
"They seized-" Shining Armor stopped his arguments as soon as a dozen spears were leveled in his direction and Luna gazed at him coolly.
"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza surrendered peacefully in return for supplies her ponies needed and their ruler saw fit to see that she remained in power. And then you and my sister decided to attack them not knowing what was really going on." Luna shook her head and looked at the tired, injured, and mostly half-dead guards ponies. "Now we are going to have to inform hundreds of ponies that their colts and fillies died fighting for a pointless conflict. I've sent a letter of apology to the Griffon King, so hope that they do not want your head on a spike, Prince-Captain Shining Armor. Because I will let them have it."
Shining Armor could barely react to what Princess Luna just said and sat there shocked. Cadence, his Cadence had surrendered peacefully? Why? The Empire had the best of his unicorns and could have fought back! He even knew that supplies were shipped towards the Crystal Empire! Why did she surrender? Why?
He said nothing as he was forcibly hauled on to the train and followed by an irate Luna glaring at her sister's half-mangled body. Couldn't Celestia tell that magic was now falling behind? And from what she had gleaned from the reports on Griffon Technology passed to her by spies, they were leagues ahead of them in terms of improving both the military and their civilians . But she couldn't act yet. Her own prototypes showed little results and required more time to produce proper designs. If only her sister waited for a few months, they would have been able to negotiate with the Griffons on even ground.
But as of now...
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Alarms rang through the Crystal Empire as the dozen Griffon-made Warglaives and Knight Titans had their weapons armed and ready to fire at the skies. A pony had reported seeing a large flying object in the distance and was supposedly headed towards the city. But it was sure as something flew through the city at speeds that most airships wished they could fly in.
"Behind!" A Knight yelled as he swiftly turned his machine around after something landed behind his machine, but only to come face to face with a slowly rising machine that stood nearly ten meters in height and seemed to be bristling with numerous weaponry mounted all around its body. As the knight brought his chainsaw to swing, the clawed hand of the larger machine only caught the blade easily and began to apply pressure. When another Knight sought to charge the attacker, the larger mech aimed its own cannon arm to let loose a harsh bark of cannon fire that let loose four simultaneous shells that utterly blew off the mechanical arm wielding the chainsaw and then fired four more to to Knight’s groin to entirely destroy it and forcing it to the ground. All the while, the clawed hand easily crushed the Knight’s close combat weapon and pulled backwards, pulling the weapon off at the elbow and then extended a blade from said clawed arm. Without missing a beat, it drove the blade into a warglaive that had been shooting at the larger mech with its dual ‘autocannons’, easily penetrating the armor and killing the pilot within. As another Knight attempted to close the distance to swing its mechanical fist, the larger machine jumped backwards towards the unfinished wall while releasing a withering stream of green lasers that severed the cannon arm of the Knight wielding a fist. It then began to walk backwards while suppressing the Griffon mechs with its laser and cannon fire. Just as the Griffons were about to give chase, thirty objects fell from the skies, impeding their advance long enough for the imposing war machine to disappear into the blizzard.
As the recovery crew, a mix of ponies and griffons, got to salvaging the remains of the downed Knights, they noticed the immense damage caused and thought absently that this show of force was showing who was on the top of the food chain. They may have defeated the ponies, but they were almost far too easily defeated by a single unit that were armed with much more powerful weapons. While their Emperor would be angry at the news, the aide that sat next to a shell shocked Cadence merely grinned.
It was clear that the Changelings had far more advanced tech than them. Perhaps it would be wise not to stir the bee's hive, but rather offer it a larger field of flowers in return for its honey.