It had been nearly nine months since Celestia and Shining Armor had attempted to retake the Crystal 'Empire', now renamed Crystal City by the Griffon ‘Emperor’. The Griffons had cheered openly at finally having something to hold over the ponies and their princesses. And the following days were rather disastrous for Equestria. Or rather, when a newspaper interviewed one of the surviving guardspony.
He had spoken of metal giants with powerful guns and massive swords on their sides, their weapons firing explosive death, and that one of these metal giants had 'killed' Celestia by merely punching her. Other guards were interviewed with a bit of incentives and had all spoken of similar things. And the rumor machine spread rapidly. The interviewed survivors all told of immense might and it was impossible to censor any information as it was spread at the rate of an uncontrolled wildfire. This would eventually lead to the questioning the ambassador of the Griffon Imperium in Canterlot.
The answer they had received was short and simple.
"Princess Celestia had attacked a protectorate of ours for no reason. The city had surrendered to us without resistance and we have proof that coexistence between the griffons and the ponies within Crystal City has resulted in nothing but peace. But instead of asking us, why don't you ponies ask Princess Cadence herself?"
And major newspaper agencies had even received a ride to the now famous Crystal City and had met personally with the Princess Cadence, or rather, Governess Cadence alone in a room with an Griffon aide by her side. What they heard was something rather strange and conflicting with what they had heard before.
"Well, I and the Crystal 'Empire', as it was formerly called, had no choice. We didn't have sufficient defensive capabilities and we barely had three dozen guards. Not to mention that we were undergoing a food shortage, lacked the proper materials to build homes, and not enough medicine to treat those that would suffer from trauma from being under Sombra's reign so long ago. Trust me when I say that I thought we would be enslaved, or even worse was on my mind; but all we got was nothing but help. Food, medicine, materials, raw resources, and even doctors who actually healed wounds and all without magic. And whatever Princess Celestia says about sending us all the necessary supplies before we had ever surrendered, trust me when I say that rationing is in our records. Would you like to see them?"
With the interview, evidence of all of the 'benefits' that came with the griffon occupation, and seeing the metal giants themselves in all their glory; the aftermath of the published report were less than favorable for the Equestrian Nobility. It was only due to Princess Luna who had begun an investigation on why the supplies had not gone out did the public finally realize that Celestia had yet to say a word on the issue.
And that was enough. No matter how long one has been the ruler, no matter how powerful, no matter how cleverly you disguise your words, when the seeds of doubt are sown... They will bear fruit eventually.
And four months into Luna's investigation; it once again caused a stir amongst the public. The unicorn nobility of Canterlot had diverted said resources that were supposed to go to the Crystal Empire right back into their own pockets. There were documents, witnesses, and even hard proof to crush the nobility in their entirety; but the hammer fall came from a recovered Princess Celestia.
Even against all the evidence, Celestia had firmly denied all accusations and had instead said that Cadence must have gotten her records wrongs.
As this bickering increased, two clashing factions formed within Equestria that went with the princesses. Celestia, with most of the pony population still following her out of her position and power, had the most support despite all of the evidence stacked against her and the nobility. Luna, held the support of industrialist ponies who sought to revolutionize Equestria with their magic-based technology, and all of the thestral clans.
But from within Celestia's faction, a new organization had appeared with a whisper.
It was led by Shining Armor and most of the unicorn nobility who were known to be 'dirty'. While Shining Armor was placed as the 'head' of the faction, all those within knew who was actually in charge. While this particular faction did follow Celestia and particularly in the shadows; they seemed content to lining their pockets with any method possible without letting their ‘leader’ know. He might be in charge of Equestria’s military, but the nobility really had the final say in how said military performed.
While Equestria still was united under two princesses, it was clear who was supporting whom and that an internal powder keg had been filled to the brim.
The question was... Who was going to light it?
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With the surrender of the Crystal City and its surrounding frozen wasteland, the Griffon Imperium decided to stay their claw as even their country had begun to divide as the heiress of the throne had wanted revenge of her younger brother's death by the hands of the Changelings while their Emperor wanted to expand his empire further. The arguments were both verbal, physical, and at times right in court of the Emperor.
But the Emperor was not that old, despite having a daughter old enough to gain her own followers. In fact, he was young compared to some of his generals and advisors. But what he lacked in age, he made it up with knowledge, experience, and combat prowess. It was he who began the industrial revolution for the griffons and was crowned as the most achieved king in known Griffon history. He was cautious, cunning, and planned so well that his plans nearly accounted for nearly everything.
His young daughter on the other claw was hotheaded. While having far less support than the king, she had her own group of followers that simply wanted to kill every Changeling in existence in retribution for their 'defeat' in the South and now the incident in Crystal City. She had even attempted to steal a battleship to 'avenge' their fallen comrades, but would always result in failure as the king was usually a few steps ahead of her. She was by no means a genius in combat, but her ferocity made her a dangerous opponent and a daring ace pilot for their Knight Titans. In fact, she had gained loyalty from field officers because she rarely commanded from the rear and instead fought in the front lines.
But soon after the capture of the Crystal City, it became terribly clear that there were two sides to the country. One side, with their king, who had gained control of the Crystal City without bloodshed and had begun a shaky, yet stable coexistence with the ponies that lived in the city. The other side, with their princess, had wished nothing but the enslavement of the ponies and to use them as meat shields against the Changelings.
As a result, she had been 'excused' from her post and had her military unit disbanded and melted into many of the loyalists' forces. And within four months of disbandment, over fifteen hundred griffons 'seceded' with the princess and had created a mercenary outfit that surprisingly had support of many griffons in high places. While still undergoing their official formation, the princess soon declared her and her 'army' to be the true successors of the Griffon Imperium and had begun to attack many griffon outposts.
As a civil war broke out in the Imperium, only the Emperor and his closest advisors seemed calm, if not gleeful at the situation. Something was about to happen to the Griffon Imperium and it would happen soon.
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With both major powers beginning to split at the seams, the Changelings immediately went to work swiftly and quietly. As much as the Changelings themselves wished to remain unshaken, even within the shape-shifting race there was conflict of opinion. Calliphora, Gemini, and several of the other queens had expressed their opinion that they should bunker down and quietly build up strength while the others literally ripped themselves and each other apart. Myxine, Patina, and Magica had wanted to go past what they had and build their first major structure not on the surface or within Jaburo. They had wanted to go into the vast sea of stars and build a home in space where nothing held them back. And surprisingly, Ambrosia and the rest of the queens wanted to do something rather risky, and yet, if succeeded; they could rip apart both nations by giving them an excuse to shred each other to bits and pieces.
Even though their goals were for the betterment of the Changeling race, they all had different opinions how fast they should 'develop'.
Each of the 'factions' within Umbra Commonwealth had decided to simply have a representative for each 'faction' now called Divisions. Division One was Calliphora and her supporters had decided to take control of the Terrestrial military arm of the Commonwealth; Division Two, headed by Patina alongside Myxine and supported by the more science oriented queens, had laid their claim to manufacturing and the vast array of orbit capable forces; while Division Three, being lead by Ambrosia, had deemed themselves to become the 'Shadow of the Commonwealth' by building up a force of spies and black ops. And after nearly a month of discussions and filled with angry moments, they had all decided to compromise. Ambrosia would infiltrate both nations and would spy, steal, and do whatever was necessary to divert attention away from them; the Archon would have her build up of strength utilizing standard battlemechs, tanks, and AeroSpace fighters; and Section Two would be given their chance to build within orbit as long as they returned every two weeks for their meetings and supply any new technology as they had while supporting the ground based military with their far more advanced, if not more absurdly expensive combat force that spent most of their time in space. They cooperated with each other as they agreed that they were the Umbra Commonwealth, but the fact remained that all three possessed an equal amount of power backed by their respective combat forces.
Space, the final frontier. These are the voices of the voyager USS Enterpirse. Our mission is to travel to new worlds, seek out new life forms and go where no one has gone before.
Uhm...That is just some random urge.
Hmm, everyone's splitting apart it would seem. Wonder if Patina will get fed up with the politics, do her own thing again, then wait for the others to catch up. Quite liked the chapter itself, seemed like it was a nice recap and "breather", giving us a break from the continual onslaught of info, battles, political machinations.
Hmm..I would suggest using the Banpresto Originals from SRW (Super Robot Wars).
It's a mainly japan-only series that crosses over a bunch of different Mecha anime, games, manga, and movies.
They have everything from all the Gundam series, to the old Mazinger Z, to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
But, they always have at least some units of their own design, many of which i am certain you could use.
Here is the best list I could find of their mecha. My apologies if you can't find anything you want to use.
Veritech fighters from Macross http://robotech.wikia.com/wiki/Veritech
These are small, agile and fairly realistic mecha. It's basic form is a fighter but can turn into a mecha (called battloid in the series) and a hybrid form between the two (Guardian). They use pretty basic ballistic and energy weapons and it's pretty versatile as a combat unit
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If it's SRW, I know it very well seeing as I played them a lot. But... Unless it's the magic Mecha that the cy buster is from, I can't see Anypony using them properly. Also, I would rather go DC if I could. That look cooler.
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Sadly, even these units were made from technology found on the crashed ship. I want to use tech that can be scratch-built from the ground up.
5226781 Ah, I see. Well in that case maybe you should check these other ones: VOTOMS (Vertical One-man Tank for Offense & ManeuverS).
mahq.net/mecha/votoms/atvotoms/atm-09-st.jpg grayphantom.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/g_p-votoms-remastered-12x26496bffe64mkv-00000.jpg
2.bp.blogspot.com/_ujBdM_ND8AU/TM54JN4F8FI/AAAAAAAABBc/9Iwpe39dSmc/s1600/44534_m.jpg
These mechas are pretty small and use standard ballistic and explosive weapons, mass produced with common materials and the design is simple enough to be built from scratch, I think.
They can be also heavily modded with multiple weapons like built-in rocket launchers over the shoulders and the like and custom parts for multiple styles of combat, like changing the shoulder plates for a spiked variant to tackle enemy units with it.
Game tech counts, eh?
...Russian Apocalypse Tank! It hits hard, it can heal itself off of the MS suits, and it's a tank. I mean, c'mon, tank!
5226832 I did not think of them! I liked them in SRW ZIII. Not a bad one...
who has more power are you talking about patina or humans in the last sentence?
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Maybe not against flying, beam-firing, Psychoframe equiped MS, but it doesn't sound too bad to bring soviet tech from red alert...
5226858 errr... Humans have yet to truly establish a presense, so Patina
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yea sorry got confused thought i missed something like patina making a space ship already
5226779 Hmm..
What about the Mechwarrior mechs?
5226861 Yeah, I guess it's weak against flying things in RA3, but not in any of the other ones. As for beam weapons, Empire Of The Rising Sun? The AT takes two shots from the Wave cannon to be destroyed, and about six from the King Oni.
5226879 not yet tested if it's space worthy. It might be, but tests have to be carried out if they don't want to die of lacking oxygen.
Nice Chapter, for you questions i send your a PM.
I Like the Idea of the three fraction thing, but only the changelings are truly united, after all, even if they split in 3 Groups, they don't fight each other, or try to overrule the other. And we all know that in the end the Space fraction is the most promising, devolving tech now and later they can build better equipment for the others.
The griffons are not so hard to read. the king can possibly act calm cause he keeps some better MS hidden. And the Princess of them is really dump. trowing away live of Soldiers and innocent people. And wasting important resource.
But for the Ponys, how can Celestia and the nobles have more money if Luna has the industry on her side? Or did i get some thing wrong back then?
Robotech and patlabor are my sujestions.
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This idea of Equestria splitting into different fractions remind me of the Advance Wars series where the Commanding Officers are replace with characters of this story.
and here a good battle music for the final battle.:
5229085 this is one hell of an idea! Just one problem... How de we make the factories work? Or even make sense of the super weapons? Ugh...
I suggest Miho Nishizumi from Girls Und Panzer to be the new Mare! And bonus points if you give her a tank to drive. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRsdxdY5L8A
5229085 it is just normal for a Race with ambitions and ideals to have differences in them, this is what starts every war. this not means the ideals or ambitions smart or worth it, but every war is just a fight of this tings. At least when the race is intelligent, Animals don't fight over so useless things, they only fight to live. Just look at earth, every land/country is a good example, they all have been from people wit ideals and or ambitions to do so. And thy don't work together, can't work together cause the ideals and ambitions of the people don't match. But all are similar, "we want the control".
what about Battle Tek? Mechcommander and such?
and while Section Three, being lead by Ambrosia
1. Led.
I say use the C&C tech, I love seeing those mechs from the GDI and Nod Brotherhood duke it out.
Honestly for the tech suggestion, I would say Zoids, but those are in no way simple and easy to scratch-build .-.
Have you ever heard of the game supreme camanders? The three types of factions in the game are the UEF(or united earth federation) cyiberons and the eluminate. In the short run if things UEF will use force to get there way (almost like the griphons) the eluminate think of the ones that gave them the tech as gods and the cyiberions want piece ( and a lab in the outer reaches of space)
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Erm... About that... I have played the game and yeah, its cool; but it's really not accomplishable unless the tech is found from somewhere. It would take centuries with what Equestria/Griffons/any other species have.
I considered it, but sorry, this one is out.
what about tech from the Lost Planet series?
This story is awesome . but what is happening with the mane six ?(I know this fic is not about them but still I like to know even if just a mention) , are they aware of what's happening or are living their lives ignorant of the war, are they corncerned and trying to do something ( maybe RD considering go to the battlefield, AJ while corncened only react until enemies appear on the front door?) or are the mainteining the idea that the Princess's with their millenal experience can handle the situation and they only do somethin if the princess told them? , will Celestia advance THAT event in order to have a powerfull ally now that doesn't question her ideas?
what about good ol' starcraft tech? fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/129/4/c/Terran_Marine_With_Gun_by_SgtHK.jpg
Just finished reading this. I really hope that you will continue it soon.
This has been intresting. I'm looking forward to what's next.
5246141 Grammar.
My recommendation is Big O, and feel free to abuse the hell out of found tech. After all, that is a major part of the show, hell, even the titular mech is found tech. Feel free to make a griffin into Schwartzball and have them actually be a cryptically terrifying being to make conflict with. For justification of Big O and every thing else being around, have the whole world be essentially the survivors of an event like the one that made the City of Amnesia what it is. A place that just forgot everything before such and such date. Any way, this story is good, and quite enjoyable.
Advanced weapons, fractions, and world conflict...this seems familiar
So who's with the Feddies and who's with Zeon?
I need more!
so I did bookshelf with all the stories where the queen is the mother of the hive and I wondered if I missed any or if I have all. what do you think? http://www.fimfiction.net/bookshelf/851658/queen-mother-of-the-hives
So far I would recommend a mixture of Ar Tonalico and Tenchi Muyo.
I've never played Ar Tonalico, and am only passingly competent in Tenchi Muyo, but they seem like they would go well together.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_Tonelico
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenchi_Muyo!
I hope to win, because this sounds awesome.
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http://imperatortitan5046.deviantart.com/art/Changelings-of-Songs-592740549
http://imperatortitan5046.deviantart.com/art/Linkage-Armor-for-Changeling-Queen-Musica-592741362
Trust me... I already have some designs done... Just need to get a plot working that will work with the tech and lore of the Ar Tonelico universe.... Which is confusing as f***. But I am making headway... Even found a site that has the lexicon for the Song Language, Hymmnos.
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Just thinking about it offhand, and with almost no knowledge of Ar Tonalico, I would recommend replacing the Machines with Jurian Trees, then have only special ponies, or other races be able to interact with them and their Song Magic. You could also throw in a bit of Kurohime with the trees being sent to prepare worlds and some such nonsense.
Honestly, the whole premise of the series is just so unique, I've been facinated since I found it, but unable to play it because of... reasons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurohime_(manga)
I'm looking forward to reading it when you get it worked out.
Yay, love it.
Don't know if you are still talking ideas or not but i had an idea where you could use Robotech(stupid American name for Macross) or Yojo Senki(based around ww1 yet still has advanced tech and magic worked into it)
I really hope this updates.
I like Patina.
Is this story dead?
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It's not exactly encouraging, what with the amount of time since the last update, AND that the author hasn't logged in since September.
Hope this story is still going eventually here