Gina gestured urgently for her guests, backing away from the melee. Far from looking doe-eyed and stupid, the ponies had all raised their weapons in the same moment that the fight began, with the two marines holding their rifles at the ready and aiming out into the crowd.
Now that she looked at them, she was surprised by just how strange they seemed. They didn’t even have a proper magazine, but instead a shard of crystal gripped in something metal, which lit up bright white and began to hum quietly.
The emperor himself lept from the towering throne, landing on the ground ahead of them with his back to the ponies. “It is my responsibility to see you protected in my own house!” he said, and in the same moment swatted away a Vengeance bird with a massive blow from his warhammer. The creature went spinning away through the air and out of sight. “Follow my wife! She will… see you out of here.”
“What kind of negotiation is this, Emperor?” Caliginous asked, sword gripped firmly in her hoof. Like her marines she was only backing away from the battle, not actually engaging. But plenty of birds were, and the room was already thick with the smoke. “Do you think Equestria will give you better terms if—”
“My husband is keeping you alive,” Guinevere said, landing beside Gina with an ivory dagger in one claw. She held it facing backward, like an experienced thrower might. But she wouldn’t know how to fight. Maybe she’s trying to frighten away any bird cowardly enough to attack females and ponies. “Come with me, all of you. This won’t take long.”
A griffon in thick steel armor lunged at them from the side, dodging around where Gaius and Gerrard were holding the throne room. He swung a flail larger than a pony’s head, and seemed to be aiming for Caliginous.
The bat made a slight squeaking sound, high enough that Gina almost couldn’t hear it. The first marine fired. A little line of light briefly connected the end of the rifle, and the crystal shook violently in its metal bracket. The bird in steel armor began to smoke, and bits of his coat actually caught fire. He ran away screaming, trying in vain to extinguish the flames.
Gina wasn’t the only one who’d noticed that. As they kept backing away, Gina could make out the voice of a bird on the other end of the room. “Did you see that? These ponies are here to end the empire! A traitor let them in to kill all of us!”
“We can’t let them escape with what they know!”
Gina tried to follow the brawl, though it was impossible to see for sure. Way more Vengeance birds had rifles, and they seemed to be shooting through the lesser guards to get to them.
Guinevere kicked the high table over, gesturing urgently for them to get behind it.
“I don’t know how any of you are still alive.” Caliginous kept her sword raised at every moment, watching their other side as the marines occasionally fired at birds emerging from the brawl towards them.
One of the crystals cracked suddenly down the middle, and the light went out. The marine smacked the butt of the weapon into the ground, and the whole assembly shot out, opening the way for a second crystal from his belt. He was not carrying a third. “We don’t have the ammo to fight a war in here, Captain!” said the marine, raising his rifle again.
“You won’t need to.” Guinevere kept her own weapon drawn. “The outcome is certain.”
“You’re insane,” Caliginous shouted, as a vase full of spiced wine went smashing into the stone wall just over their head. “There’s a civil war in your throne room!”
“They don’t have Voidsteel here,” Guinevere said. Gina dared a glance around the table, and she saw that the empress was right. She recognized all four sets of the towering armor, and none of them were Vengeance or Victory. It looked like Valor was fighting on their side, or at least Gerrard was. Beyond that, she could hardly tell how the ones fighting could tell each other apart. Bullets zoomed over their heads, a few sparking as they struck stone, or making the table shake when they hit.”
“I might be able to teleport us out,” Isabelle suggested, the first thing she’d said since they entered the throne room. She’d never spoken to birds of such high station, and during Gina’s whole presentation she’d remained humble and silent. But now she was speaking to the captain.
“Teleport? Stars above, no. There are six of us. Unless you’re about to tell me that Twilight Sparkle herself trained you, that’s a terrible idea.”
“I don’t know who that is,” Isabelle said. “But I’ve done two before. Gina and me. I can do shields too.”
Another wave of griffon attackers surged forward, and this time the emperor was elsewhere contending with half a dozen armored knights. Bullets began raining down on the stone behind them, showering them with chips of white hot metal. “Do that!” Gina shouted. “A shield would be great!”
And just like that, they had one. Both marines stopped firing back, eyes widening at the barrier around them. However it worked, it must interfere with the magic of their guns.
Birds were pouring into the room from all sides, and more of them looked like they were wearing friendly uniforms. There were dozens of bodies on the floor, and almost everywhere Gina looked the stone floor had been stained red. The moans of the dying mingled freely with more rifle shots, and the occasional crash as someone wearing Voidsteel swung a terrible weapon.
“Not much longer now,” Guinevere said. “The results of this were already know. They chose to attack in the seat of our power. I suspect that is why any bird of consequence was already gone. Honestly, I feared invasion. Not this.”
“This is not how a nation should be run.” Caliginous settled onto her hind legs, resting the sword over her shoulder as she watched the carnage through the shield. “I don’t know how you birds kept this disaster intact so long. How many civil wars have you had?”
“Sixteen,” Guinevere answered, as another barrage of gunfire descended on the shield. Gina reached to one side, resting a firm claw on Isabelle’s shoulder. The pony visibly strained with every successive blow. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up for very long.
Your magic is even more impressive than I thought. Until this most recent assignment, Isabelle’s shields had never done more than intimidate. But they’d kept her alive through an explosion, and now a gunfight.
“The empire survives, pony,” Guinevere said. “It survives the end of the world—it survives the destruction of all we had conquered, it survives ourselves.” Virtue soldiers swept across the chamber, pouring in from above. They didn’t have rifles, and as a result they were taking terrible casualties. But there were so many of them, and so few of these others.
Moments later, and the battle was over. Emperor Gaius stood tall atop the broken stone table, his black armor stained with red. There were deep cracks along one shoulder, probably where someone had managed to score a few lucky shots with a rifle. Nothing short of a cannon could break Voidsteel in one shot, but enough infantry could bring one down.
They hadn’t today. At a glance, it looked like almost all the Vengeance birds were dead, joined by a large number in Victory blue. Even so, they were outnumbered two-to-one by Vengeance birds. At least a hundred of the house guard were bleeding on the ground, or else sitting up with wounds and desperation.
“I require no further evidence of who has betrayed Accipio,” the emperor announced, his voice booming over the field of battle. “Vengeance and Victory were the ones who found a way to arm themselves without informing us. They were the ones who were eager to retaliate against Equestria. And when their treason was discovered, they were the ones to attack.” Gaius removed his helmet, tossing it to the ground and turning back towards the table.
“That’s enough shield,” Gina whispered, and the bubble around their table vanished. “Great work.”
The pony only made a satisfied sound, collapsing to the stone into near-instant unconsciousness.
“But what do we do about it?” Guinevere asked, rising from behind the table. She brushed a little of the blood off her dress, staring down at the ruin their throne-room had become. “Equestria is already under attack. The strike ships must have reached Canterlot by now.”
“Many enemies,” Gerrard said, lowering the visor on his massive arched helm. Huge plumes of feathers trailed out from behind his head, almost as though he had a mane of his own. “Our enemies have cannons, and we do not. Your fleet was always the largest… but what good is a fleet of unarmed ships?”
“Zoya! I want every doctor in the city here for our wounded. They’re probably already in the palace, preparing for this fool’s invasion. And these dishonorable dead taken to the courtyard to be burned.” Gaius reached towards them, but he only gripped the edge of the table. With one massive stroke, he stood it upright again in front of them. “I have known many ponies who would flee at this moment. Perhaps you wish to do so as well. To leave us to our fate.”
Captain Caliginous stared at him for a long time. She still didn’t bow, but at least she wasn’t raising her sword in his face. “If it were only Accipio in danger, I would,” she said. “You birds are so…” She shook her head, silencing whatever she’d been thinking. “Two of your clans are attacking my home. You were preparing for an invasion. If that happens, ponies will suffer as well. Ponies who aren’t responsible for the disaster you’ve made of your country.”
“This is true.” Gaius was still breathing heavily, though there was no anger on his face. Behind him, surgeons and laborers rushed into the assembly hall. They gathered the injured first, starting with those birds whose wounds were most serious. Slaves dragged out the corpses in Victory blue or Vengeance green, leaving the Valor and Virtue dead respectfully where they had fallen. “But this is nothing new for war. It is the old and powerful who order the young to their deaths.”
Maybe for the ponies it is, Gina thought. You were fighting right along with your men. Your son would’ve been too if he were still alive.
“Celestia wants peace,” Caliginous said. “But given all this… an invasion, cannons on griffon ships, guns in your claws… it’s obvious to us that the treaty will not be enough.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Gerrard said, his voice low and dangerous. He rested one hand on the hilt of the massive Voidsteel sword he had chosen as his weapon, though he didn’t draw it. One of the pony marines made the mistake of pointing their rifle at him as he moved, but Gerrard only laughed. “Make my day, kid.”
“As you were, marine.” Caliginous glared at him, and looked like she might be seconds from snatching the gun away.
Had he done that before the battle, it probably would’ve got him killed. But there was plenty of blood already, and not even Gerrard looked interested in shedding more.
“Aye,” he said, lowering the rifle. His hooves were still twitching.
“You want to make us into Griffonstone?” Gerrard asked, sounding more weary than angry. “I like our odds against the traitors better than that, Gaius.”
“I don’t want to make you into anything,” Caliginous said. “But Accipio staying independent was supposed to mean we could all keep living our own way. The culture you wanted to remain distinct wouldn’t get dissolved in Equestria. But what happened was Equestria was threatened. There’s an invasion fleet over Canterlot. I don’t know how that battle went… but even if we won without a single pony death, that’s too far. You made weapons, you kept slaves… no more. If you want peace now, it will be on our terms. Equestria will not spend the next thousand years at constant war with itself, as Accipio has.”
The eyes of Virtue’s surviving lords were on him. Gaius remained silent for a long time. He stared out at the assembly hall, filled as it was with their dead. A pair of white-robed slaves dragged away Archibald’s bloody corpse, trailing red on the tiled floor. “I wish to speak with Celestia. We will not become slaves. But there is much I would sacrifice to protect what few of us remain.”
A single pony slave is too many IMO. Let none remain, even those that supposedly want to. If they want to return as free Accipion citizens after some amount of time, 1-5 years, let them. Excellent chapter tho either way.
This is starting to drag on a bit and not to a point where it seems every chapter is meant to be placed out here quickly then given full dialogue. I get where this is headed and somewhat see the vague ending but after awhile, the reasons and the faults of the characters or rather aggression to stir the war becomes repeated. Along that note I like how the two sides of one species becomes defiantly clear which shows progression. Even the slaves are speaking up more so then before which shows promise on how maybe they too will inherit their freedom or least, treated better.
I can safely say it's going somewhere good but it faults stretched after each chapter.
Eat dirt, Vengeance and victory
Is there? Cause you kinda said the same thing when you signed the treaty, then spent every second since finding new ways to shit on it.
And there in lies the problem. Accipio has proven they won't respect anything so long as it's with the ponies
Well, looks like one half is settled fairly favorably. Now to wait another goddamn week for the epic battle, DAMN THESE WEEKLY UPDATEDS!
9064563
It's also rather telling that Gaius immediately believes Equestria will demand they become slaves after all this. He is still viewing Equestria and its actions through the window of what a bird would do.
9064563
True. Accipio has repeatedly proved it's untrustworthiness during this fic. Celestia and the others should be hard pressed to believe Accipio would keep to even modest terms during any negotiations. The path forward, away from further conflict, seems rather hard to navigate.
9064613 9064602
I mentioned this in a comment a few chapters ago, that the birds view themselves as inherently the righteous ones, and that they had to arm themselves behind Equestria's back because they ponies were going to try and attack them. I'd critique them for their self-serving mental gymnastics... if I didn't see it done by basically every organization in the real world as well.
9064613
And this is assuming the attack on Canterlot fails. If one or both of the Princesses are injured, noticeably weak, or gods forbid killed, Gaius will almost certainly try to take advantage of the situation and take over Equestria
9064634
I think he'll be a bit more busy trying to calm his people down because the day and/or night suddenly stopped functioning.
Oh shit, magic guns.
And the griffons don't know what they are. What the hell passes for military intelligence in griffon-stan?!
Only sixteen? Seems low.
You don't have to become slaves, just give up your own and live a little less decadently.
It’s hard to see Vengance or Victory keeping any pony slaves after this. Other houses, or other species, are more negotiable. Even this smaller emancipation will stress both cultures, and demonstrate the difficulties of a larger movement.
I look forward to this every week, and have no problem with the pace. Patience.
9064563
Gaius is one of those fellows who prefers to sacrifice somebody else's stuff. As are basically all Accipian Griffons.
Too bad Starlight isn't there, cause she could say to his face: "First off, Equestria doesn't take slaves. Secondly, according to your son, even if we did it would be totally okay, so there."
9064631
You can still call them out of it. Especially since it wasn't warranted against Equestria at all. Newcippio screwed this one up from start to finish,
9064755
Right?! It's really cool to see the ponies use pony-ish weapons instead of just guns, as I had feared.
And next week we get to see Lord Chucklefuck experiencing the magical equivalent of getting butt fucked by two angry alicorn sisters.
9064914
I sure hope so.
9064895
I'm pretty sure that applies to most everyone to varying degrees, in almost every setting, fiction and nonfiction.
9064655
Wonder who was on day/night duty before the unicorns?
9064764
It would make for a good sequel. Even morally-correct moves often have unforeseen consequences.
9064631
Every person is their own hero. Every city is the "City on the Hill". It'd be hilarious, if not for the killing.
9064914
It'd be nice, but I think the writing on the wall suggests those voidsteel armor sets to be an equalizer against powerful magic. How much so, who can really say. One would assume that Equestria would've already fallen with Celestia dead long ago, given that the griffins seemingly have one per great house, if they were truly that powerful though.
9065076
Maybe, but I remember this particular passage from way back in chapter 3:
To me, that doesn't sound like void steel is without limits. "Stand a chance" suggests leveling the playing field to some extent, but not guaranteeing a win.
9065101
True. Perhaps Griffin Lord Redshirt is about to get roflstomped then. But it still begs the question of what his cohort has planned, if this dude was intended to be a sacrificial lamb from the onset.
9065113
Make it look like the attempted coup was the fault of the less desirable houses, so whoever survives the culling is in a better position to try their own coup later on down the line when Equestria's defenses aren't so high? Maybe to simply get themselves some more room in their allotted territory by having fewer houses full of birds and slaves to deal with, and thus better able to stretch out their supplies?
And there's the rub. The ponies asked three things of the griffons in exchange for saving their lives and giving them a chunk of their nation to live in -- "don't attack us, don't enslave us and don't make guns". The griffons duly settled the land they gave them... and then attacked them, kept pony slaves and started making guns. Yes, it was subfactions acting without imperial consent, but what does it say of a government if it can't keep its members from breaking its treaties? If the U.S. government agreed to do something and its member states refused and broke the agreement, other nations would be rightfully wary of making further treaties -- the federal government could have the best of intentions, but how good is that when it can't ensure that its subject units will keep them?
The griffons have not given any indication, to the ponies or to the audience, that they are anything like trustworthy. Hell, one of the first things they were shown doing after settling New Accipio was drafting plans for stabbing their benefactors in the back and enslaving them -- and that was Velar, one of the most sympathetic and open-minded of the lot, thinking about that.
If they weren't so proud of themselves, so vocal about how they are the civilized ones and all the others are ignorant barbarians, this wouldn't bother me nearly as much, but hearing that sort of rhetoric from the mouths of treacherous, backstabbing slavers always a disagreement away from killing each other for supremacy really irks me. It's bad enough that they're untrustworthy and ruthlessly self-interested, but that they're like that while at the same time going on and on about how upstanding and honorable they are... it makes me want to bang my head against the wall. By this point, I genuinely can't stand these puffed-up, arrogant slavers.
THANK YOU.
Shit any terms Equestria asks for peace couldn't be bad at all. The gryphons only are obliged until they return to their home at which point they can resume slavery and gun making all they want.
I have a great idea. How about Celestia and Luna invent bioweapons and kill every Griffon on the planet, thereby committing mass genocide and solving the problem of the damn backstabbing
jewsgriffons.9064755
Accipio might have a different standard of what qualifies as a civil war.
9065057
Theories on that go in every direction. The two most popular I've seen are the theory that Equestria was always managed by ponies when one or more gods (usualy Faust) created it. The other is that Equestria used to be a normal heliocentric system until Discord screwed it up, and the current system is their best attempt to fix it.
9065846
I'm a firm believer in the second theory about how Equestria got to be the way it is. When in doubt, blame Discord.
Thank goodness they won that little fight, but boy is there a lot still to go. Also THIS LINE absolutely maddens me:
"Maybe for the ponies it is?" AaaaAAAUGH she literally knows NOTHING about pony culture. Her emperor wasn't even TALKING about ponies, he was talking about houses Vengeance and Victory. I'm a little amazed at just how grating it is to read characters who so frequently use such casual blatant racism in their speech and thinking. It really does not help their case against the perspective that their culture is generally backwards and screwed up (of course the slavery and violence don't help, either).
9066561
Everybody and everything is racist towards others to some extent or another, it's just a fact of life.
9066734
This kids is what we in the real world like to call an opinion. An internet opinion at that. Not only is it wrong but the sad fact of the matter is some people actually believe this.
9072907
How is it wrong, though?
9073177
You generalized the cultures and views of every living thing on the planet but let me give you an example. Dogs. If given the opportunity to interact positively dogs will favourably interact with any other human or even creature regardless of their breed. Another example and this one may shock you. humans. How do I know this? I myself am a living breathing exemption of your rule. I've never thought less or acted differently because of another human being was of different heritage. If there is an exemption from your stipulation of "everyone" then your claim is entirely opinionated
9075985
Well you'll have to excuse my ignorance on the matter, but I survived 8 years of Obama's presidency, and watched at every little thing was declared to have racist connotations.
Being opposed to Obama's policies on principle? Racist.
Being opposed to unchecked illegal immigration? Racist.
Requiring proof of citizenship for voting? Racist.
Insisting people coming into the country speak the native language? Racist.
Talking about the crime in Chicago? Racist.
Black man being killed in self defense by the white man he randomly assaulted? Racist.
Not enough minorities in a historical documentary? Racist.
Paper being white? Racist.
Chalkboards being black? Racist.
Talking about peanut butter sandwiches? Racist.
The term was expanded and diluted to such an extent it was applied to absolutely anything and everything, meaning it ultimately meant absolutely nothing. So if people are so fanatically obsessed with seeing racism everywhere, infesting and influencing every facet of life, then fucking so be it.
9076206
You and the rest bringing real life problems, especially you who are Americans, into a fantasy setting... You all are hilarious.