Griffons and Magic and Nightmares, oh my!

by bahatumay

Chapter 4

To say that Celestia was shocked beyond comprehension at the devastation would be a bit of an understatement. She slowly walked through the desolation, her practiced eye catching tiny details that a casual observer might have missed. The blood splatters along the wall—that had been done from close range, and likely by a claw. Scorch marks covered the walls, the pattern indicative of lots of power but no finesse. Though they may have been magic users, the griffons had been more accustomed to physical warfare.

Celestia's hoof crushed something brittle, and she couldn't bring herself to look down. It had been small, almost the size of a tiny skull.

And the Princess of the Sun, the one who had led all of Equestria through numerous trials with poise and grace, felt the beginnings of hot tears in the corner of her eyes.

She quickly looked over at the sound of wingbeats, and she saw Luna there, landing and taking stock of the situation. She gently nudged at a griffon helmet, and the sound of metal on stone sounded abnormally loud in the stillness. Celestia suddenly noticed that the bodies of griffons were few and far between, as opposed to the near blanket of pony corpses.

“Still think we can settle this peacefully, Celestia?” Luna whispered.

Celestia didn’t answer.

* * *

Shining Armor looked at the map and shook his head. “I don’t know,” he finally answered. “I have no idea where they could strike next.”

“Not even an idea?” Luna demanded.

“I didn’t expect them to attack Riverton in the first place!” Shining defended himself. “This was completely unexpected!”

Celestia coughed lightly from her position near the window. “I can think of something else completely unexpected.”

“What’s that?”

She pointed out the window, and both Shining Armor and Luna leaned over to see. To their shock, griffons. Griffons everywhere, approaching in a military formation. They had painted their faces and armor red, and their claws glowed gray.

“Did they learn nothing of the Changelings?” Luna briefly wondered, before her horn glowed softly. Her sister's began to glow as well. Thick armor materialized on both princesses. Solidified moonlight gleamed in the sun as Luna's armor appeared. Luna's armor was tight-fitting, but designed for movement and flexibility; Celestia's large, golden armor was designed for intimidation and the ability to absorb all manner of impacts.

This was a difference that had been the source of playful debate for eons.

“Still employing the rhinoceros look, I see,” Luna grinned. “Do you wish to intimidate them with the threat of sitting upon them?”

“Did you forget your armor?” Celestia teased back. “Or will the single tin can you are wearing suffice?”

“This ‘single tin can’ has more magic enlaced through it than is in your toothbrush, your shininess!”

“Is that so? Well…”

Shining Armor coughed. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but…”

“Right,” Celestia said. “Let us fly!”

* * *

To say the average laypony was unprepared for combat would be an understatement. The arrival of the griffons was met by mostly screams of terror and fleeing.

Oh, and dying. That too.

A red earth pony tripped, and he shrieked as he looked up to see a griffon with her claw glowing.

Then all of her glowed as a jet of golden light impacted her in the chest, caving in her armor and sending her beak over tailfeathers, rolling a perfect strike into the griffons behind her.

He looked over to see Celestia, smiling. She winked at him before spreading her wings and flying again.

Being a large golden rhinoceros, Celestia became an instant target. Blasts of gray light flew through the air, and one griffon was even brave enough to try and grab onto her midair.

She didn't even flinch; she just kept flying, knocking her attacker back and making him spiraling out of control. She lit her horn, sending a beam of punishing golden light tearing through the ranks. Griffons took off and dove out of the way as the golden beam tore through rock and any griffon not fast enough.

Over in another section of the city, Luna was facing her own enemies, complete with her own cheerleading squad of citizens.

“Luna? I was hoping for Celestia…”

Luna charged the griffons... only to teleport quickly to one side right before contact. She lashed out with a back hoof, buckling in the armor the griffon wore. She unleashed a barrage of magic from her horn, wiping out another ten griffons, before jumping in the air to take on airborne enemies. One charged at her, but she teleported above him and kicked down so hard that he left a cracked impression in the cobblestone street when he landed. She gored the next with her horn, and flung his body into the next wave. Before they could recover, she landed, reared up, and blasted them back with an explosive magic fireball, filling the air with the smell of charred fur and feathers.

Luna could hear the pony who had spoken up at first. “...never mind. I am perfectly happy with Luna.”

A slow smile played at her lips before the Night Princess took off.

Elsewhere, the Royal guard was doing just as they had been trained. Surprisingly, the advantage was firmly on the side of the ponies.

Griffons are historically hunters, and usually hunt alone. In contrast, ponies are herd animals. This means that while the griffons split up and attacked one at a time, the ponies would defend themselves in groups. It also didn't hurt that the griffons were using their newfound magic. What they hadn't realized, though, was that Canterlot is a city mostly populated with unicorns. Unicorns who use magic. Unicorns whose first instinct when attacking is to use magic. Thus, the guards' riot training was specifically geared to suppressing unicorn magic. Their armor was designed to resist magic. Their techniques were modified from techniques used for quieting rogue unicorns. The ponies worked in teams of three, with pegasi-unicorn chariot teams providing covering fire from above. Two ponies would restrain their claws, the third would fire the killing blow with horn or blade. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns worked as one. Their armor may have been piecemeal and dull, but the ponies followed their training to the letter. While now and then a few ponies would fall victim to the griffons’ claws or magical blasts, the tide was definitely going towards the ponies.

The two princesses continued swooping overhead, drawing their fire and attention and delivering death at every blast. It seemed a very easy battle.

Too easy.

“This seems somewhat easier than I had expected,” Celestia called.

“That is because it is not their full army!”

Celestia's magic misfired as she heard Luna's shout. “What?”

“The friendly griffon mentioned their army stood some 22,000 strong. This is at best seventeen!”

“Defense on the home front!” Celestia dismissed this and fired another blast of magic. “Surely he is not enough of a fool to leave his hometown unguarded.”

Luna shrugged this suggestion off as she shrugged off the dead body of a griffon she had impaled on her horn. “Six thousand is more than enough to guard an entire city! Canterlot is ten percent larger than their capital and a thousand is sufficient guard for us!” She ducked another blast. A griffon decided it would be a good idea to get closer before releasing his magic; Luna flared up a shield surrounding him and let his own magic reflect off and roast him alive before releasing it and turning back to her sister. “That leaves five thousand unaccounted for! I fear this does not bode well!”

“How do you know this?”

“I read the spy's report!”

Celestia was surprised, and not just at how many pieces that last griffon had shattered in to. “All fifty-four pages of it?” she asked, mid barrage of golden magic.

Luna paused, slightly embarrassed. “Night court was boring! Nopony came!” Again, she silently added.

“Oh, you. Always strategizing. Just relax and enjoy the fight!” Celestia was being fasticious, of course. Nopony enjoyed war.

But ponies do enjoy winning. It was hard, but they were winning.

And then a young, unarmored griffon neared Celestia. She nearly blew his head off, too, until she realized he was holding a white flag.

“Message from Inas’i,” he said. Though he tried to show bravery in the face of certain death, he was trembling the entire time.

Celestia raised an eyebrow and took the paper he held out.

Her eyes flicked over the paper. As she did, her eyes widened.

The young message-carrier weighed his options. Perhaps he could attack her right now, while distracted? Killing Celestia herself would surely give him untold honors. Feeling daring, he raised his claw, firing a blast of magic right at her.

Without even looking up, Celestia raised a hoof. The beam reflected off her armor, nailing him between his own eyes. He dropped to the ground like a sack of hammers, and did not get up again.

Celestia allowed herself a tiny smile as she actually began to read. Some things never changed, she mused.
That smile faded as she read the words on the paper.

* * *

Luna had taken out another group of griffons and was about to light up the last living member when Celestia landed on his back, crushing him.

“Aw, Celi!” Luna pouted. “That still counts as mine!”

“We have bigger things to worry about, Luna,” Celestia said. She held out the letter, and Luna took it.

Her eyes widened. “Hoofshale is surrounded?”

“And they'll destroy it if we don't permit a full retreat,” Celestia said grimly. “You were right, Luna; there was a reason the army held a reserve.”

Luna quickly ran through some mental calculations, which led to horrifying results. “That’s too far,” she whispered. “Even if we were fully rested, the city will be destroyed before we can arrive.”

“We have no choice but to accept this proposition,” Celestia said quietly.

“Ponies died for us today, Celestia,” Luna hissed. “I will not see their sacrifice be in vain!”

“So you will see an entire city destroyed instead?” Celestia returned. “I don’t like this any more than you do. But if we do not accept this, we will have the entire city of Hoofshale dead and five thousand griffons with nothing left to live for—and with no reason to fear death.”

Snarling, Luna reared up and smashed her hooves against the ground, sending wide spiderwebs of cracks all along the street.

“Very well,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “We will agree.” She looked around. “But how to get them to st-?”

“Enough!”

Celestia's Royal Canterlot Voice shocked the fighters into ceasing. Well, one griffon got in one more hit; but that was it.

“This battle is over. Griffons, you are to leave as an envoy of peace.”

Amidst the protests of the ponies, the griffons began to leave.

Celestia growled, her horn glowing brightly as she saw one griffon ready to take a swipe at a pony. “As an envoy of peace,” she emphasized, ”but if you wish to remain a warrior, by all means, go right ahead.”

He quickly dropped his sword.

Celestia let her horn fade. “Ponies, to defensive stations. Let them all pass.”

It was clear that while the griffons were leaving, they were not defeated. They taunted and threatened the entire way.
Celestia kept her expression neutral, but internally, she was legitimately afraid. This was most definitely far from over.

* * *

“We were defeated,” a council member said accusingly.

“I miscalculated,” Inas'i said dismissively. “That is why we always have a backup plan.”

“So what is your backup plan for the attack?”

The council flinched at their outspoken member, but Inas'i was completely unoffended.

“Now, we grow our numbers. Then, we attack smaller towns and wear them down. Hit and run attacks, smaller groups of griffon warriors. Spread their army so thin they cannot repel us.”

This seemed like a decent plan, and was met with nods.

“But then I realized something else. We attacked in the morning, when the sun was just rising.”

“And?”

“Our power wanes with the sun. We were not at our full potential.”

“So we attack at noon?”

“We make it noon,” Inas'i smiled. “We’re going to hold up the sun.”

Comments

[Uncr3at1ve]

Their techniques was modified from techniques

Only thing I noticed, great chapter.

[bahatumay]

4031599
There's always one that slips by... Thanks!