//------------------------------// // the Raid of Ponyville // Story: Equestria Unchained // by Scout Charger //------------------------------// Royal celestial archives, department of military history Event: cardinal points war, surprise attack on Ponyville Provided by: Time Turner (also known as Dr. Whooves) Earth pony Male Ponyville timekeeper (rumored to be a Time Lord, unproven to date) We’d never thought we would do something like this. Equestria was at peace with every major force since the princesses claimed the throne. We never knew that everything would start to change after the changelings and their queen tried to invade Canterlot.   Even though Chrysalis managed to defeat Celestia in a direct confrontation, to us, there was no question that Celestia was practically a goddess. How could we not honor and worship a being that moved the sun according to her will and that was, as far as anypony could tell, immortal?   But, the gryphons took it as a sign that the power of our ageless protectors weakened. We didn’t knew at the time but at this point, the first of them thought about war. I have to admit, gryphons always think about war, they have incredible martial pride and a long lasting history of honorable combat. But this time was different. They prepared for war, a real war, not just some symbolic duels between individuals, they rose an army.   The straw to break the pony’s back however, wasn’t even something we could have controlled. The elements of harmony had been given back to the tree of harmony and where gone. The gryphons thought we were at our lowest point and set their army in motion, the last thing they needed was an excuse to attack. When the castle of friendship rose in Ponyville, all of Equestria was in awe. The whole town was proud that our awkward unicorn librarian not only became a princess, but rather made Ponyville practically the center of her ‘friendship kingdom’ as we called it. The gryphons however didn’t like the term very much and took it gladly as a pretense to start their war. The declaration of war arrived in Canterlot only mere minutes before the first blood was spilled. They had prepared this for years at this point and we had been incredibly oblivious.   It was in the middle of the day, ponies filled the market and everything seemed to indicate it was one of the more normal days in Ponyville. Without a warning, a high pitched scream tore the friendly chatter apart. Roseluck had tumbled to the ground, an arrow in her right gaskin. Lilly and Daisy screamed in pure panic while most of the other ponies stared blankly at the bright red pool which formed under Rose. Blood, especially from a fellow pony, was a rare sight for anypony but the doctors and nurses of the hospital, but now there was plenty of it right in front of all of us. A second scream rolled over the marketplace. It was high pitched and dragged out, but most importantly, it came from above us. A gryphon fell out of the sky and aimed for the wounded Roseluck with a blade on which the reflections of Celestias sun danced. Lilly was the first to snap out of our panic induced freeze and realized what the gryphon was trying to do. I swear I never saw anypony angry like this before. Her pupils shrank and she pinpointed her gaze at the gryphon. Her front hooves buried themselves in the ground, her flank swung around and before the half bird creature could adjust or retreat it learned the true extend of earth pony strength. Lillys hind legs connected with a sound like a thunderclap and the gryphon was shot against the side wall of Quills and Sofas. The armor almost exploded away from its body as he hit the massive wall, only to reveal two hoof sized dents at the side of its barrel.   Mere moments later, a sky blue pegasus with a brown mane darted out of the sky and pointed at the sun. “There are more of them. RUN!” Everypony on the marketplace stared up in the sky, at the sun and watched something no pony had seen since the time of the tribes. There was a gryphon war band. We all started to run, Lilly and Daisy carried Roseluck away, while the few pegasi which were around started to take flight in all directions. Some of them tried to lure the attackers away from their earthbound friends, while others darted to the palace and the town hall to inform princess Twilight and the mayor.   After our initial shock over Roses injury was overruled by the collective will to protect our loved ones and ourselves, the gryphons hadn’t such an easy time as they hoped or expected. Ponyville may not have known war, but we lived at the edge of the Everfree Forest, we were able to protect our homes and lives.   I darted around a corner and tried to take a shortcut through an alley, when I saw Scootaloo being chased by a gryphon thrice her size. Her little red scooter was only a blur, but the gryphon had the advantage of flying over every obstacle she needed to go around. I was giving chase to the gryphon but they had quite the head start and before I was even at full speed, something hit the gryphon in the chest. A slight squeak was everything to be heard, before the armored attacker fell to the ground like a stuffed doll. The sudden stop was obviously something the gryphon couldn’t take very well, but the projectile that hit him had none such problems. Rainbow Dash stared angrily at her downed foe and huffed at him. “Nobody touches my little Squirt.” Scootaloo jumped at Dash and hugged her like a drowning pony a lifebelt. “Thank you Rainbow, thank you, thank you, thank you. I thought I was done for.” The blue mare smiled a smile that was so full of love and gentleness that even Fluttershy would have seemed brash in comparison. “You know, I never leave my friends hangin.” When I reached them Rainbow looked at me sternly. “Need help?” She shook her head and pointed down the road to the ruins of the Golden Oaks Library. “The Gryphons try to round up as many ponies as they can around Twilights old tree. Can you do something about it till I got Squirt somewhere safe?” I gave a chuckle and nodded. "Its all about the timing, you know?" I tried to keep a low profile to surprise the Gryphons as good as I could at Golden Oaks. It wasn't easy to hide behind crates or bales of hay from flying opponents, but I somehow, don’t know really how, managed to get to Lyras and Bon Bons house without getting spotted. I had a good view on the burned husk of the former library.  Gryphons, almost twenty of them, circled the area. In the center seven Unicorns had set up a shield bubble over a few dozen ponies and managed to keep arrows and gryphons out. I saw Rarity inside the bubble with a suit of armor unlike everything I had ever seen before. Her whole body was encased in hundreds upon hundreds of scales made from gemstones of every color I could imagine. It was stunningly beautiful how it refracted the light that fell upon her. But at this point, I whispered to myself a far more dire question. “How tha buck did she made that thing? … And when?”   My ears shot up when one of the Gryphon raiders flew into one window of Lyras and Bon Bons house. First I thought he was after me, then I thought he was shot down by some pegasus, but then I realized no other gryphon came to his rescue. Somepony was in that house and he tried to do get them out of there. I started to sneak for a window to enter the house and help whoever was stuck in there, but then a terrible shriek hit my eardrums. The gryphon was hurled through the door like a speeding bullet and smashed against the unicorn shield in the center of the square. His companions looked at each other, they had no idea what happened and from within the house came no sound. There was no scream of anger or fear, just silence. Maybe this was terrifying, even for a bunch like them.   Without a warning at least fifty more gryphons landed around the unicorn shield. They looked bruised and beaten, like they definitely bit off more than they could chew. One of them panted. “We need to retreat. The mission has failed. This purple monster is damn invulnerable.” A larger gryphon with a much more elaborately decorated armor stepped forward and stared down at the one who had dared to speak. “They are all weak. How could you fail with superior numbers and the moment of surprise on your side?” The smaller one seemed to shrink in his armor. “Sir, we did everything we could, our weapons were useless. Even the muskets bounced off of her shield like they were mere raindrops. She grabbed over half of us in her magic and hurled us around like puppets. She could have killed all of us if she wanted. I highly recommend to retreat, as long as…”   Suddenly, the earth began to tremble and the gryphons looked puzzled at each other. I never heard something like that before and every instinct told me, this was going to get bad, really, really bad. The lawn in front of Sugarcube Corners parted and the building itself was lifted up by shining metal rods that seemed to grow out of the ground. The rattling grew louder and louder when finally a bright pink tube emerged from the ground. Everypony in sight was frozen in place and had their jaw hung open. Pinkie Pie sat inside a huge metal vehicle that was as pink as she was. The tube pointed at the supposed gryphon commander. Pinkie Pie had a wide grin plastered on her face patted her vehicle. “How do you like my Party Tank 2.0?”   A loud bang shot from the castle, a purple stream soared into the sky and the roar of the Royal Canterlot voice rolled over Ponyville. “HOW DARE YOU?”   Inside the still uphold unicorn shield Rarity stepped forward and a small hole opened up to allow her to leave the safe zone. “You made me use all my precious gems for this monstrosity.”   Half a dozen gryphons stumbled backwards out of a dark alleyway and wore faces that were very likely the definition of fear itself. Seconds later emerged the reason of this primal fear out of that same alley. Fluttershy was at least a full head smaller than even the smallest of her attackers but her eyes. Oh Celestia, those eyes. I’ve seen terrible things in that war, but never anything even close to her full powered stare. Since then I knew why even dragons flinched when she got serious.   Rainbow Dash announced her presence it a much less subtle way, she just pulled off a Sonic Rainboom above the gryphons. The explosion effectively grounded all flying creatures except herself and managed to drain the color from nearly every gryphons face. They clearly started to grasp what freaked out ponies lived in Ponyville.   Shortly after the rainbow colored explosion two dead gryphons crashed onto the place. Everybody looked into the direction they came from and saw a third one still mid flight between Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville. After the last one had also crashed dead onto the ground, Rainbow snorted. “Really, you send only three guys to get Applejack and her family? Seriously?” I couldn’t believe it at first, but a close look showed that all three gryphons had hoof prints on their faceplates. They clearly got bucked by the two most powerful sets of hooves Ponyville had to offer. But honestly, who would have expected that Applejack and Big Mac could, literally, kick somepony from Sweet Apple Acres back to the town square?   Twilight Sparkle crashed down in the middle of the gryphons. The ground cracked open, her whole body radiated with pure magic and her mane and tail fluttered with a wind nopony else could feel. “YOU WILL PAY!”   This was our command. Our Princess had spoken and like extensions of her will, we all erupted into battle. Pinkie Pie was the first to react. Her Party Tank fired a massive shell into the gryphons, which exploded into more confetti, cake batter, streamers and balloons than I’ve ever seen in one place. Rainbow Dash kicked one gryphon that dared to flee in the head and sent him crashing into a nearby building, all while striking a pose which I knew from a Daring Do cover. Fluttershys stare intensified beyond every concept a mortal mind could grasp and many of the gryphons exploded into a speed even Rainbow couldn’t match, just to get away from those eyes. Rarity reshaped dozens of gryphon armors into solid shells of metal, which were unable to move and seemed to lack breathing holes. From the outskirts of Ponyville I could hear hooves and the voice of Applejack. “Yeeha, run ya buckers.” She clearly didn't need any help either. Twilight herself didn’t move. She had no need to do so, her magic was everywhere. She held gryphons in place with telekinesis, encased them in solid blocks of ice with beams of magic and projected shields wherever ponies could not defend themselves. She protected us and we all carried out her will.   The raiders had no chance, they had far underestimated Ponyville and our more or less crazy citizens. Of course we had losses, especially in the first minutes of the attack, before our fight-or-flight instinct switched to fight. But the most of us were mainly unharmed, our princess was alive and well and we sent the gryphons back with their tails between their legs. We had many breakdowns from the ones of us who had killed, when they realized what they had done. But ponies are pretty tough if they need to be, much tougher than most of us thought. I for myself hadn’t spilled any blood that day, neither my own nor that of a gryphon. But I could wait, after all, my cutie mark was an hourglass for a reason. After the last gryphon was out of sight, the princess fell to the ground and started to weep. Many of us were startled at this sight, but between unintelligible mumbles we could hear names. Some of the ponies that worked at the castle when the attack started must have been killed. In retrospect, I have to admit, that this would explain her rather violent outburst at the time. Fluttershy hugged the princess and started to hum a melody I didn’t recognize. Her voice was barely a whisper, but nopony dared to make even the slightest noise and so this gentle tune was clearly audible all over the place. Some of us cried in silence with the princess, while others hugged their loved ones. Only when Applejack and Big McIntosh arrived time seemed to resume its course. “Alrigh' everypony, ya round up the wounded here and carry em' over to the hospital!” Her voice grew softer and she deliberately lowered her volume. “And ya'll know the gravedigger could use some mighty fine help caring for the dead.” It was a good thing that Applejack gave us some instructions, we would have stood like this for hours otherwise. All of us who weren’t wounded, but had friends who were, started to take care of them. Everypony else started to collect the bodies of ponies and gryphons for a proper burial, or at least everypony who could handle this much death. All the while the mares of harmony took care of princess Twilight and brought her back to her castle. A few hours later the golden chariot of princess Celestia herself took down in front of the castle of friendship. Followed mere seconds by the dark purple Chariot of princess Luna. The princess of the night wore a stern expression, steel in her gaze and an aura of righteous fury all around her body. If she had been my enemy back then, I would have wet myself right on the spot. But what startled me more was princess Celestia, the omnipresent smile, which always beautified her muzzle, was gone.   The princess of the sun took flight and hovered high above Ponyville. It was the first time I heard Celestia use the royal Canterlot voice. “WE THANK YOU ALL DEARLY MY LITTLE PONIES. YOU REPELLED AN EVIL AND UNPROVOKED ATTACK AND DEFENDED PRINCESS TWILIGHT. BUT FOR NOW, I MUST COMMAND YOU TO NOT COME NEAR THIS CASTLE.”   When a flash of light blue magic revealed a pink alicorn in front of the castle, accompanied by a white unicorn stallion, I had the first foreboding of how grave this all really was. All four princesses gathered together in Ponyville, only shortly after one of them was attacked directly. I didn’t know at the time, but this was the beginning of the cardinal points war.