The Powder Keg
Cadence sighed as she looked over her own country, the Crystal Empire. Ever since the empire had returned from its magical stasis, she had expected Sombra to return, but the evil king did not appear in any shape or form. In fact, her own guards had found Sombra's ruined body splattered against the snow and a long blade impaled through his head. Now it seemed so calm despite the harsh blizzard around the empire made seeing out difficult and the trains had long stopped due to frozen rails.
But the most difficult part was the issue with obtaining food and other vital supplies.
Due to the thousand years it had been in unexpected stasis, the empire in the past had not fully stocked its storehouses and now they were having an issue with feeding the population. Rationing had to be introduced, but that had lowered the effectiveness of the Crystal Heart (found after a quick search after King Sombra’s unexpected death) enough to let the cold set in. And seeing as how her husband, Shining Armor, was stuck in Canterlot trying to get more supplies shipped to the Crystal Empire despite the fearsome weather. But that had been a month ago and still no news from Canterlot and it was frustrating for her to watch her own little ponies suffer like this.
And right now, she wished she was more attentive during all those political lessons Celestia had given her. Next to her was a letter from the Griffon Empire demanding her immediate surrender to their ‘Emperor’. They had written that her surrender would allow them to induct the crystal ponies under the Griffon Imperium's ‘protection’, allowing the influx of necessary supplies. They had promised fair treatment to all those who surrendered, but if there was anything her aunt had drilled into her head, it was to stand tall and mighty above all else and not to show any ‘visible’ weakness whatsoever. She had yet to reply, but even with her pathetically small knowledge in military issues and whatnot, she knew for sure that the Crystal Empire would fall in hours if not a single day of fighting.
Looking back at the letter, she sighed deeply and looked out of her balcony once more out at the empire she ruled under the guidance of Celestia.
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Unknown by the ponies that lived in crystalline city, the harsh blizzards only existed due to Sombra's magic still running its course despite his death. But even against this horrid weather, six large bipedal giants moved slowly, but surely towards the city flanked by a full dozen smaller walkers. The weather stopped airships entirely and all supplies would freeze in matter of hours, but for the giants, it merely looked like they were walking without trouble. And seeing as they were covered in white fabric that covered their massive forms, they were practically invisible in this weather.
If the pony princess did not surrender, they were to storm the city and subjugate it by any means necessary. But if they did surrender... Well, let it be said that the Griffons had honor enough to ferry supplies into the lone city by using whatever means necessary.
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Celestia blinked blankly at the crystal pony that was now sitting before her, out of breath and looking uncomfortable in the warm temperature of Equestria.
"Can you reply to what you just said?" Celestia asked once again to confirm what she was hearing was a lie. At least she had hoped it was a lie.
"P-Princess Cadence had sent me to inform you that the Crystal Empire surrendered to the Griffon Imperium." The pony looked meek and afraid of the unicorn guards around her, but it seemed as if Celestia was ignoring that fact for now. "No pony was harmed and to tell you that she is fine. S-she also suggested that your majesty do nothing for now seeing as the Griffons did not harm anypony."
"Very well, guards-" The crystal pony meekly raised her foreleg before Celestia nodded at the mare.
"I-I have to return as soon as possible, so I would like it if I could leave now..." Celestia smiled as sweetly as possible and allowed her guards to escort her to the station where the train would take her as close as possible to the Crystal Empire. But as soon as the mare and the two guards had left, her mood darkened and immediately canceled the rest of her Solar Court. She had no time to deal with those arrogant nobles now.
Why would Cadence surrender so quickly? That child should know better than to bow to the Griffons! And instead of consulting her, the filly had made her own uninformed choice. What she didn't understand was how Sombra had been murdered, why the snowstorm had gotten worse and how the Griffons actually got troops into the winter wasteland despite the harsh conditions presented. Swiftly teleporting to her own quarters, she needed to plan on how to take the Empire back from those foul birds. She doubted those bloodthirsty birds had not harmed her little ponies and she knew that the Griffons had threatened the pony to come and tell her that all was okay. Taking a paper and quill, she began to draft a letter to Shining Armor. Perhaps she should throw in those new golems to combat those griffons. With the weather, the Griffons most likely only had a few dozen soldiers that controlled the empire with Cadence under lock and key, so it would be up to her guards to free the newly enslaved nation.
With the combination of her guards and their magical golems, that would no doubt break their bloodthirsty ways for a century or two.
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Patina looked at her custom painted Deva Heavy Omni-mech with excitement. Colored dark orange covering the white and with a rust red coloring over the black, the heavy battlemech wielded her favorite configuration of Heavy PPC, two Extended Range (ER) medium lasers, four medium pulse lasers, and a single ER medium with an ER small mounted to the rear of the machine. It also could ‘jump’ 120 meters using its jump-jets and fielded enough armor to take a direct shot from nearly anything. She was admiring the machine with a smile when she noticed Myxine trot over to her.
"Patina, we have problems." Myxine said in a serious voice holding a data pad in her magic. "One of our spies in the Griffon Empire told us that they just took over the Crystal Empire."
With a groan, Patina took the data pad with her magic and began to read.
"It seemed that they took advantage of Princess Cadence's problems with her 'Empire' and had easily taken them over." Myxine pulled out several photos from within her uniform and sighed. "I don't know how, but they have their own form of mechs. Can’t write those off as they are at least 30 tons in weight."
"They seem to be armed with a single large chainsaw and a cannon on its arms..." Patina immediately dropped the data pad in favor of the pictures. "Oh, looks like a machine gun next to its head and their ‘house’ on the other side. Not to mention those smaller ‘Warglaives’ fielding smaller cannons and chainsaws… And they took over the Empire with only a total of eighteen machines..."
"The Crystal Empire is known for their Crystal Heart and from what I heard, it's powered by the... crystal ponies' positive feelings. I don't particularly know how, but it does." Patina seemed to be not bothered by the information. "Patina?"
"Can't you see it?" Patina handed the photos over back to Myxine and shook her head. "If the Griffons did capture the Crystal Empire, Equestria won't sit still; or rather Celestia won't." Going over to a console, she brought up a map of Equestria. "If you can see here, the Crystal Empire lies in the Frozen North where its harsh weather blocks any 'normal' airships from entering the Empire as of now. But what is so important about the Crystal Empire? Hmm?"
"Important about the Crystal Empire?" Myxine looked confused at the thought. What could be so important about some thousand year old empire that came back?
"The Crystals!" Patina whispered out loud as she brought up several data sheets. "Equestria has always been in a steady decline of effective magic-storing crystals and from what Magica had told me, it was rumored that there was crystalline city that possessed an incredible amount of such crystals that was considered the highest qualities of at the time and was ruled by a Equestrian-Appointed leader that went mad later on."
"And if the Griffons manage to control that supply..." Myxine shot up suddenly remembering something. "And they also have that puppet ruler whose husband is the Captain of the Royal Guard."
"...Oh for the love of..." Both Patina and Myxine looked at each other and sighed in a tired manner. Dozens of thoughts passed their minds, but they were still wondering what they should do in the long run, despite knowing how the confrontation between the Imperium and Celestia would go.
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luna should react as this is the perfect time to test patina's gift, shining will probably get to be a MS squad leader, and ofcourse will think that the gryphons did something to CND.
as for the gryphons there should be a clasic hunter killer squad, and something to spice things up, lets say that not all gryphons are content with the empire and wish to create a coup, so now we could have a militia in there.
now as for characters, since ghrypons here feels like romans, we could use character build base on famous figures.
should the changeling react?, absolutely they don't, under any sircunstances want the gryphons getting too much advantage on the ponies.
especially if some ponies feels indebt with the changelings.
If you need inspiration for Gryphons, I would recommend looking at "Baron Munchausen" and his Merry men:
http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/bmfact.htm
With some skills in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9JONJG6KSU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFa8AwWAx1I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLU_GvlaTtI
While you may want to ground them a bit....
ooooor mayhaps base them on the fantastic four and their family dynamic?
You should have Luna react with what she has learned from the changelings while at the same time have celestia and shinning race to the empire.
Celestial and shinning will see what they are now fighting against while watching Luna react.
The changelings should very much attack the griffins. They should show up just as lunas forces are beginning to lose the battle. Everyone will see the emense power the changelings have in their technology. The griffins will be defeated again.
Luna and the changelings will then confront celestia, shinning, and cadence, and we shall have to see how they react.
5207036
Why should the changelings attack the griffons. The skirmish is between the ponies and griffons. Why should they take part in a fight that is not theirs? They should just be watching and causing the incident to last for a while, causing both the ponies and griffons to exhaust their armies and resources. Basically do to Celestia what Celestia did to them.
5207250 I did think of a reason. The changelings are enemies of both factions, but by taking the ponies' side, they get some browny points with Equestria while stomping on their one competitor in the tech front. Since there was no invasion by chrysalis, most ponies will be getting their first impressions.
I feel that on point 3, the Changelings should interfere, if not only to deny the Griffons access to such a valuable resource point, then to put the empire in their debt.
shining should react like any husband and try getting cadence back as a priority, while celestia will want the crystals more while luna would wait in the back ground until she see's a chance to turn the tide for the ponys
while i think you should do with the gryphons with two factions or royals the king and the prince the king is honorable but is shortsighted and arrogant while the prince is also honorable but views things pragmatically so that way we do not overly cheer for either which royal also the king can start going mad and for the team make one naive but good leader have the second one be one who likes to fight but does not care for politics and the last one to be female and wants to prove herself because of her gender and is tomboyish
for the changelings i think they should join in order to protect the pony's inside of the empire in order for the political stage of the world not to see them as monsters but being's but to also use it as a testing ground and gain more manpower from the "grateful" ponys inside the empire
also how the griffons should react to the tech make some of them react like they used to some fear them and others wanting to know about them and wanting to join them because we should all know not everyone reacts the same and for general ponys bring some of the elements for their reactions and have some of the ponys do what i said about the griffons some hate them some are curious and others don't care
Shining and Celestia would rush as fast as possible to liberate the Crystal Empire and most likely get crushed. Luna should first and wait for the results. Should Celestia lose, Luna can swoop in with her MS Squad and liberate (or at least do much better than her sister) the Empire. That would gain Luna a lot of support and show the ponies that the era of magic is in decline. Also Celestia would loose credibility. She knew that the enemy were building new weapons and did nothing about it. If Luna plays her cards right, she could use that in the future to strenghten her position or maybe even usurp Celestia in the political arena, meaning that ponies would look ro Luna for leadership instead of Celestia.
I don't know much about the Griffons to give a definite answer but after they see the superior Chnageling tech, they will do one of two things. Either the Griffons will stay in the back and try to catch up technology wise, or they will launch an full scale assault. As for your Griffon team, seeing that chasing the Changelings is pretty much a suicide mission, I would propose something like the Fire-Prince from Avatar (I forgot his name). A disgruntled but honorable leader sent on a hopeless chase to restore his honor. On his side will be wise Veteran and a Griffon who will do things rashley.
For the Changelings, both intervening and staying out have their merits. By staying out they will have their cards hidden. Everyone who attacks them will have no Idea what the Changelings have. Also they could simply wait and let the Griffons and Equestrians bash their heads in and then swoop in and take everything over.
If they intervene they will show the world that they are the top-dogs now, also they will have to start to deal with other nations, diplomacy, trade etc. If they liberate the Crystal Empire, it will be a huge blow to Equestrian morale, especially if they wait for Celestia to fail her attack and then go in. However there is a big chance that Celestia will view them as invaders. Even if the help the Equestrians with the liberation, it will lower the ponies morale. Because it will show them that the Princesses are incapable to protect their subjects and that they have to rely on others in order to keep their nation safe. That the 'others' are Changelings will make matters only worse for the Equestrians and further hurt Celestias position and strenghten Lunas.
Point 1: Shining Armor would stand by his wife in the Empire, Celestia try to go all hulk without really looking into strategies, Luna would investigate and maybe try and assasinate/ sabatoge a few targets, noble ponies would be all, down with the bird tyrants!, while really just being mad they lost on out on the new market of gems, regular ponies would be scared out of their minds, they can't even handle a bunny stampede.
Point 2: No clue.
Point 3: The changelings would react however you have their long term strategy set up. If they're planning on ditching their planet the first chance they get and they're space capabilities aren't far away, they'd turtle up and not do a thing unless provoked. If they want to leave but aren't ready, they'd probably help knock the griffins down and earn some diplomatic consessions from the ponies. If they're interested in "helping" elevate the other races from where they are currently and going into the future together, they'd help and earn the diplomatic consessions from all parties. Nothing says shut up and listen to peace talks like a beam cannon in your face.
So I'm seeing a lot of similar responses.
Fir point one: Celestia and Shining Armor charges in magic slinging. Gets their collective asses kicked and losing terribly. Luna comes in with non-magic tech and wards off pursuing griffons and proceed to stand her ground. A runaway guard tells various news what Luna has done and has Luna become more dependent.
Griffons are mixed. Suicide squad is one, a standard 'ace' team is another. Also, two Nafe and Ine female. I want to model them after some characters from any Gundam series, but still looking through some.
And the changelings. It's half and half, but I think they should intervene... Without being seen. Long range beam sniper shots anyone? Or rocket barrages? So yeah, a unseen intervention is what I think is best...
What do you guys think?
5208497 For point one... Magic slinging can be very effective with correct srategies but since the Solar ones are heavily outdated, they will certainly got their asses kicked after a few hours into the battle while Luna will wait for a while and swoop down to make a stand against the Griffin and making slow but still progress in getting back the empire...Earning her and her ponies more points...
Point two... A mixed bunch is all I can say...there will be the wise, ugly, bad, good, kickass yet don't care much for polotical, the out of their damn mind, and many more...
Point 3. The changeling either supporting from afar with only Luna noticing earning her some points from Luna's group, swoop in and earn some points from the crystal ponies and probably luna ponies if they're in a...what is the word for unable to win but unable to lose at the same time for two sides (I forgot so pls answer)... Keeping the valuable resources from falling into the griffin...they cannot let any of the races that are not on relatively good term with them [like the Luna's (well, kinda, still not quite sure about their relationship in general)] to have any advantage on them... If they plan to leave the planet first chance they get then there are no need to do it. But, I highly doubt that. Leaving the planet will increase the chance they got ropped into human war.
For Point one: Shiny should be worried, and want to got to see if his wife is really ok. Celestia? I think how i think of her says more then needed, she should act aggressive. For the Pony's, Celestia probably will use propaganda to let the Griffons look bad so they should be more or less out for blood. Luna? I don't know, how many time did we miss since the last chapter?
Point two: Demanding, they should want this tech for them self, it is a tread and their own former advanced tech was their only weapon against the other races that uses magic. so they would want it partly out of fear for their people, and partly just to have it and to take it away from the other races. Just don't let them be just out for the tech out of spit, some should be just curious. Again make different camps and sides of the people and land.
Point three: It is the same as with point one, with Luna. She got the gift of tech from the changelings, so how far is their connection to each other? Has Luna started a secret friendship with the changelings? This would sit good with her personality. she likes new things, just like Patina, so they would make great friends. this would just add to the mix of alliances and hate. So i think knowing the relationships of the main player is necessary to give you truthfully answers, i would just like to see Luna on Patinas side of the conflict, and as her friend. Sunbutt just is not open minded enough to play the roll there as the opposing part that is not stuck in the old ways of "every race on its own".
And for the griffon oc i PM you.
Can you reply what you just said
it was rumored that there was crystalline city
1. Repeat.
2. It was rumored that there was a crystaline city.
Yeah you posted it up several days ago, nearly a week but hey, I'll join in;
1. Celestia (if true to her current umm... trope) would send their Golem's to the Cyrstal Empire alongside some regular ponies to 'squash' the Griffon uprising. We know how well that will turn out. Shining... he's a tough choice... But I think he should just rush to see if Cadance is alright regardless of the consequences such as Celestia possibly stripping him of his rank and etc. Or even going in with a small honor guard. Luna... Sit quietly and plan how to get stronger without Celestia knowing. Because 'the elder sister always knows best.' Bleh. Ponies could potentially be the source of unrest as the news reaches them. If it ever reaches them. Perhaps maybe a slow splitting of factions like the Changelings but not pure earth ponies, pegasi or unicorns but rather have a mix.
2. I'd say the Griffons would be divided into two factions; One that just attacks the enemy head on despite the odds and another would be ones who take a tactical approach. I have no Griffon OC to contribute, sorry.
3. Have the Changelings prepare to move out to the North when the conflict arises and ignore Equestria. Have them liberate the Crystal Empire and reach diplomatic ties with Cadance. Because she's a little more level headed than Celestia. So far.
Well this is going to be a one-sided battle, Shining should at least live