A war in Equestria comes to a tipping point. With winter closing in, Celestia must make difficult decisions in order to see her kingdom safe and the war ended. The only strategy remaining is a final, concentrated push.
On the battlefield, Glorious Dawn does his best to keep his soldiers alive as orders come down from on high. It is all that he can do to keep his militia unit together as the fighting grows more brutal and their orders become more dangerous.
Part of a multi-day writing challenge.
Cover art by Equestria-Prevails on DeviantArt.
Chapters (16)
Oh ho ho ho...
Another thirty day from Props? Count me in.
So far, I like what I see. Looks like we're in a war this time around...
~Skeeter The Lurker
Mmm... Seems like Roam and Dawn had it rough...
Never seen superheating as a magic, though. I liked it.
~Skeeter The Lurker
How does superheating magic work? Is it just harder to cast on a living entity or does Dawn just have an aversion to doing such things? I'm not talking about heating the entire body, but if one were to target something such as the eyes, I would think it would be particularly effective.
I'm glad you've decided to do another one of these 30 day challenges. I am enjoying this one so far and look forwards to the rest of it.
Also, Glorious Dawn's name keeps making me think of this video even if it has no relation aside from the name:
Name drop Celestia and they'll talk right quick.
Also, Amber, huh? Love interest for Dawn, maybe?
~Skeeter The Lurker
Definitely showing the advantage of superior numbers and magic here. Only 8 dead and 5 seriously wounded after ~70 ponies took on 40 some-odd griffons. Glad to see that most made it out of the fight alive and well.
Heh, nice work on Amber's part.
Hopefully saving the gryphon won't bite them in the ass.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Decent sized group, ain't it?
Still, not too bad with casualties all things considered... Something tells me a bigger battle will happen soon...
~Skeeter The Lurker
Feels like Celestia has a plan in the works...
Nice to have a timeframe for this too. Was wondering if Luna was around or not.
~Skeeter The Lurker
Whoops. I'm not sure what happened with this chapter, but a good portion of it somehow didn't make it up when I uploaded from my Google Doc.
Error fixed, many apologies.
I couldn't help but add "Jackson" to every time Major Stonewall was mentioned.
You should have made him a general, just because...
Still... Assault undercover? That should be fun.
~Skeeter The Lurker
And so... They prepare for a grueling battle...
~Skeeter The Lurker
I don't envy them and their part in the coming battle. I only hope that they rest and find some small measure of peace in the remaining time until all hell breaks loose.
Please make sure to refresh this chapter if you jumped on reading it just as I posted it, I did a few quick edits.
Yeah well you have unrealistic expectations! If you didn't want anyone to die you should have done your job to maintain the peace, because it seems the military is doing it's job pretty well.
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Griffons launched an unprovoked invasion after a shift in the power structure of their country.
But, yeah, Celestia has unrealistic expectations.
Ooo, tense situation in the med tent!
~Skeeter The Lurker
I am really interested to see where this goes.
Such a simple depiction of a battle, no peripheral politics, or another story hinging on the battle, just... combat. A simple look into what these poor souls must go through to ensure they go home afterwards, with as many of their fellows as possible.
And shit just got real!
~Skeeter The Lurker
Nice work meeting them head on...
~Skeeter The Lurker
It's terrifying how much of an advantage being able to control the sun gives one. However, I would be surprised if the griffons didn't know what was happening due to oddly swift descent of the sun.
But I liked him
So the griffin commander didn't accept the offer of single combat. Was that really because they were already engaged and it was unfeasible, or was did he think his force had the upper hand? He could have just been a jerk who didn't care for his men's lives, of course. Wait, am I even right in assuming "single combat" would have meant the forces would allow just those two to fight and decide the victor? I'm not one hundred percent sure.
3975426 It can mean many things. It sometimes simply means that there are one on one duels fought before the main battle or that by champion warfare two champions fight to decide the outcome of the battle/war. From the Griffon leader's statements, it sounds like this universe appears to use the champion warfare approach as it would make sense that once the battle has begun that you would be unable to stop it and let two champions fight it out.
Is that 'Rainbow' as in, Rainbow Dash?
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Or an ancestor thereof. Could easily become a naming theme later down the line, seeing as how it's mentioned in the show that Equestria hasn't seen any form of war in nearly 1000 years, so this is likely pretty far in the past.
So, this chapter, Chapter 15, has more views than Chapter 1.
...
oh god
Wow this has last been updated in 2014, i see the author is active.
Any plans to finish the story eventually or is this maybe canceled or such?
7798118 Sorry, this was a 30 day challenge story that did not pan out. I have more recent work, though not much. I write for a sci-fi website now, which takes a lot of my writing focus.
7809099 Pity, oh well. Good luck with the sci-fi site.