11: Requiem for the Dead
I returned her smile and clapped a hand on her withers.
“Thanks Luna. And congratulations on taking the city so quickly. The ministers were near in conniptions when I left.”
Her smile grew more malicious as I mentioned the ministers.
”They couldn't handle being left in the dark, hm?”
I just nodded and stepped inside the room.
The meeting table was covered with a large map of the city that's been littered with all sorts of markings.
The rest of the room is crowded with all sorts of electronic and assorted materiel.
I instantly recognized a telegraph station and some bulky radio machinery crowding up half the room.
Magic really has carried these ponies advancements for too long.
Most of the remaining space is occupied by various crates, which several of the officers have taken as their seats.
I joined them at the table, meeting each of their eyes in turn.
“Gentlecolts. First of all, let me extend my congratulations to you as well. Your professionalism, dedication, and courage has ensured a swift end to the griffon occupation of Trottingham.”
Nods occurred all around and some happy muttering was heard.
I allowed them to quiet down before continuing.
“But don't rest easy. We have merely taken back what was ours. The Griffon Empire will not stop until they have taken it from us once more. We must continue to push them back, and make it so they do not threaten our country and its citizens again.”
The response this time is louder and far more firm.
The officers at the table, and even the technicians manning the machinery shout their approval.
I grinned at the response and raised my hands for quiet.
“I am confident that the general staff have developed a strategy that is sure to bring our nation to victory. And I am confident that your bravery and skill shall bring it to fruition.”
A resounding 'yes sir' echoes in the chamber.
I gestured to Luna who comes over to my side.
“Well then, princess, if you wouldn't terribly mind I'd like to see the site of the battle.”
Luna smiles at me and gave the officers an apologetic look.
”Of course Anonymous. I'd be more than happy to show you around.”
I returned my gaze to the officers seated around the map table.
“I'm sorry to cut my time short troops, but there's quite a bit of business to attend to. And I'm sure you have your own duties to attend. Good day.”
I turned and walked from the room as they salute, followed by Quill and Luna.
The three of us do our best to avoid the well populated halls, neither of us wanting to be held up by anything.
Eventually, we reached the foyer and leave without pause.
As we walk through the streets towards the exit of the city, I caught up with Luna.
“So it only took you a day to recapture the city. How in the world did you accomplish that? Surely the griffons were dug in.”
Luna chuckles as we passed by a building with a large hole in the wall.
”Indeed they were, like a tick. But just as with ticks, we simply applied a liberal amount of heat. The plan to lure them out worked incredibly well. We drew near half their forces into the ambush and further damaged their morale and support base with a full night of artillery fire. Those new guns easily outranged the griffon cannons and made it a breeze to harass them all through the evening. Come the morn, it was a simple thing to encircle them, even with their defense built so in depth. They simply did not have enough troops to cover their defenses thoroughly.”
My eyes widened at her descriptions of the situation.
“Surely you're exaggerating. Was the expectation not that they would only commit a light force to the pursuit?”
Luna nods eagerly, grinning like a wolf.
”That was indeed what we'd though. According to the general in charge of their force 'the blasted fools thought they could have an easy victory were blinded to the very idea they could be beaten.' He's quite the clever strategist, actually. We would do well to learn from the techniques he's employed here.”
I’m not sure whether I was more surprised at the plan working so flawlessly, or that Luna was praising a griffon.
Before this battle, she had long advocated an invasion and total takeover of their country. The only way to ensure a permanent peace' she had argued.
And though I didn't disagree, I knew that it would just create more enemies for the future, so I’d taken her idea with a grain of salt.
“What sort of strategies do you mean?”
As we reached the edge of the city, she gestured to the field in front of me.
Though churned up with shell craters, it's immediately apparent what she means. Perhaps half a mile ahead, though clearly visible, a large series of dugouts has been worked into the landscape.
Some are still filled in with the wreckage of a cannon, and connecting them all is a long, snaking trench line.
The trench worms its way around the city until it vanishes from my sight at both ends.
Dear lord.
They made trench warfare.
Immediately ahead of me is a tall observation tower, pockmarked with shrapnel scars but otherwise untouched.
A series of flags hang from it, but the centerpiece is a large, white cloth draped from the roof.
“That was an officer's tower?”
Her grin grows as she stares up at it.
”The general's in fact. He stayed up there to the bitter end of the fighting when I suppose he'd had enough of his troops dying. In some ways, it takes a braver stallion to surrender than to fight to extermination.”
Her grin falters and her eyes seem to be seeing something a thousand miles away
I gently tapped her shoulder, and she shook herself out of it.
”Anyway, his initial defense would have been much harder to defeat, and probably would have taken weeks and cost many more lives. The deployment of his guns is such that each one can fire grapeshot and essentially cover the entire line. And of course, between each gun is an astonishing number of infantry. What's more, there was a further garrison inside the city itself, ready to reinforce the line when necessary.”
I whistled quietly, impressed by the thought of just how many griffons had been defending the city.
“It's a good thing everything worked as planned then. What were the final tallies for casualties?”
Luna, stood for a moment.
She looked up, clearly trying to recall the exact number
”I believe it was four hundred ponies lost, and a further eight hundred forty-three wounded. The griffons took far more casualties due to their charges, with 1352 dead and 4980 wounded or missing. Their aerial forces alone took perhaps eighty percent of their strength in casualties. It was a good thing I was approved to bring the Wonderbolts, they did more than their share of damage.”
Ah, good.
“But there was also another slight problem.”
I turned to Luna, giving her a quizzical look.
“The Royal Guardsmen that had been attached to our forces didn’t listen to orders from anyone who wasn’t a noble. We could’ve have a much lower casualty count if they had listened.
That wasn’t very good, I’d need to deal with that later.
But I had to push that thought aside.
As I approached the trench, I noticed numerous pillars of black smoke rising in the distance.
I recalled what I had meant to find out as I was coming into the port.
I gestured towards off towards the pillars of smoke while speaking.
“What's going on over there.”
Luna turns her head to follow my gesture, and I could see her jaw tighten.
”The griffons requested they be allowed to tend to their dead as tradition dictated. We allowed it, of course. Do not worry, we have a great number of soldiers keeping watch over it, but it seems they have no intention of trying to escape.”
I nodded in understanding, it would have been unlike the ponies to deny such a thing. At the very least, they were taking precautions
Luna turned her gaze up to me, nervously tracing circles in the earth with a hoof.
”Anonymous...what do you plan to do with these enemy soldiers? We have them in work parties, but after that we don't have any idea where to house so many. There are nearly eight thousand left, and the ponies of Trottingham certainly won't allow them to quarter in their city.”
I scratched my chin, pondering the question as the smoke in the distance thickens.
It was something that not even I had considered until now.
“Perhaps we can set up some sort of camp outside the city? We could put them to work tilling the soil and planting short harvest crops. That would keep them busy and prevent any food shortages should this war drag into the winter. And I'm certain we could bring a detachment of guards from the mainland so as to not tie up the bulk of our forces. We'll need soldiers to garrison in the city anyway.”
She nods and returns her gaze to the horizon.
“Perhaps so, I'll bring it up with the officers and I'm certain we'll figure it out before leaving the city. Of course, you'll have the final say in it if you wish.”
I held up my hands to her.
“No no, I trust you and the officers to make a good decision. I was never in charge of holding prisoners. I don't know anything about keeping prisoners, so better to leave that to people with some understanding of it.”
She nods and smiles approvingly.
Most of the military had been quite happy about my approach to their craft.
For the most part, I had let them run everything as they saw fit, so long as they submitted major proposals for review first.
It seemed they were used to a tight leash. Celestia simply had to control everything.
“Say Luna, what was the military like before Nightmare Moon?”
Her body goes rigid, and I immediately cursed at myself for my wording.
“Excuse me, Anonymous?”
I held up my hands to forestall any snap she may have.
“I mean what was it like say, two thousand years ago? How was it run and stuff like that?”
She relaxed a touch, her face softening a bit.
”Ah, well, my sister left that mostly to me. I was quite happy with the arrangement if I'm entirely honest. We enjoyed many years of security and overall peace, outside small incursions from the likes of diamond dogs and the occasional dragon raid.”
She blushed and scuffed her hoof on the grass.
“I will admit, I tended to...micromanage a bit. And according to Stalwart Shield, my sister did as well, even after the reformation. He quite enjoys the breathing room, by the way.”
I smiled at her, then sat down on the grass.
“I'm more than happy to let him and the officer corps run the war. I'm merely here to set a firm objective and take the blame if anything terrible happens.”
Luna chuckles and joins me on the grass, her eyes glossing as she stares towards the forest
I plucked at the strands of grass, and Quill laid her head on one of my legs, heedless of Luna's presence.
For her part, Luna doesn't question the closeness of the two of us.
It's refreshing to not have to hide my affection, for once.
Together, we watched the smoke begin to fade in the dimming sky
The day hadn't been very eventful, but it certainly had passed quickly.
I looked over at Luna, and I noticed a shining tear fall from one of her eyes.
And more quickly started to follow.
Gently, I had place da hand on her withers, and her head snapped around to face me.
Her eyes are glistening with tears and red rimmed. But just the same, she's not looking at me, her gaze is far away from where I was now.
Her voice is quiet and shaky, when she speaks up
”I didn't meant to do it, I swear. It was just too much, you understand right? It was all too much for me to do alone.”
She may as well have been talking Hebrew for all I understood.
But even without understanding why she was crying, I simply kept stroking her back, from the base of her neck to her tail, gentle and repetitive.
She continues to babble, and I continue to comfort her.
Quill had fallen asleep at some point, and Luna hadn't woken her up with her sobbing.
I’m quite glad for that.
Slowly, to not disturb the sleeping pony on my lap, I pulled Luna closer and shushed her, stroking her mane with a calm hand.
Eventually, she quiets down, her quiet sobs giving way to shaky breathing. As the sun drops below the horizon, she's calmed down to a steadier place
But neither of us move or speak.
I’m comfortable with that, if I’m being honest with myself.
I’ll wait with her as long as I must
After a long time, I felt Luna pull away from me.
The tone of her voice makes it clear she's fully recovered from...whatever that breakdown was.
”Thank you, Anonymous. It goes without saying that you don't mention this to anypony.”
I gave her a smile and ruffled her mane playfully.
“Of course not Luna.”
She returns the smile and nuzzles my hand.
After a moments pause, she looks to the rising moons
“We had best be getting back to the city now.”
I nod and gave Quill a gentle shake to rouse her.
She stirs and rises from my lap, stretching her limbs and back with a yawn.
“You go ahead with Quill, I want to enjoy the night air for a bit longer.”
Quill gives me a questioning gaze, but says nothing as Luna gestures her along.
They were so very understanding.
So they’d hopefully understand what I was going to do soon.
I took a moment and stared off towards the forest, noting the blaze of pyres had subsided to a faint glow.
It's hard to believe the day had passed so quickly. But here I was, alone under the moon, feeling the night breeze on my cheeks.
After a few minutes, I stood and began to walk along the trenches.
I had a strange desire to see firsthand what my approval had wrought on the land.
The stark glow of the full moon, accompanied by the faint lights of the city, cast the trenches in an eerie light.
The shadows of blown-up cannons stretched in twisted forms, unknown but obvious stains denote things best left unthought.
After a few moments of walking, my route had ground to a halt.
In front of me laid a crater, unlike any of the others that dot the landscape.
It's gargantuan in size to the others.
Even in the dark, I can see it's easily twenty meters across and at least half that deep.
As the sounds of clanking chains drift by on the breeze, I knelt down at the edge of the veritable sinkhole.
I ran my fingers through the dirt of the pit, rubbing a pinch between the tips.
It feels like… glass?
Yes, it felt like crushed glass, all hard edges and corners.
”Inspecting your handiwork?”
A quiet but commanding voice behind me gave me a start and I leapt to my feet, spinning to face the speaker.
I saw, just a few feet behind me, was an older looking griffon in chains and flanked by two bored looking soldiers.
The griffon is dressed in an ornate, if tattered, uniform decorated with all manner of gilded thread and medals lining its breast.
“General den Tann, I presume.”
I can see his teeth glinting in the moonlight, and he gave me a short bow.
“As you say, and judging by your non-pony appearance and the wild descriptions Alistair has waxed about many times at meetings, you must be Anonymous.”
I raised my hands in mock surrender.
“Guilty as charged, sir.”
He scratches the feathers under his beak, looking me up and down.
Sizing me up, it feels like.
”Indeed, though I must say any being who can vex that pompous mule of a griffon cannot be so bad as one may think.”
I shrugged my shoulders, perhaps not the most eloquent gesture but I had long run out of steam to act my part of a leader today.
“I certainly try. I will admit to a small amount of pleasure in frustrating him.”
The general's smile shrinks as he comes to stand beside me, staring into the depths of the crater.
“I must say though, you must see us as a grave threat to unleash such destruction on us.”
I followed his gaze and see the moonlight shimmering on the glassy earth of the pit
“I don't know what you mean, sir. My troops had guns and rifles, nothing more.”
His voice grows grim and filled with venom
“No, you had a goddess.”
It had finally clicked together for me.
The crying.
The apology.
She did this.
This was Luna's work.
“What happened here, general?”
He sighed and sat on the grass, motioning for me to join him.
I do, and he looks up at the moon, then begins his tale.
“It started when those damnable upstart commanders on the flank ordered a charge. I did my best to order them back, but they either did not see or ignored my flags. And then they got themselves outflanked and annihilated. My entire order of battle had to be shifted, ranks thinned, reinforcements forced to the front early. A bloody mess.”
He scratches at the glassy dirt, drawing an outline of the front.
“Then an entire night of being blasted by your artillery and ships. It didn't cause many casualties directly, but not one soldier could get a wink of sleep. And as if things couldn't possibly get worse, coming right on the heels of the dawn, a full assault. I deployed my cuirrasiers immediately, but, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, they were outflown and beaten inside four minutes. You have some fine lancers, sir.”
His tone becomes bitter once more as he carries on.
”Besides the aerial combat, we were managing to hold down rather well. Somehow even the flanks stayed intact. But no good thing lasts forever. She came from the night side, like a black valkyrie. The first spell from her annihilated this flank, there was nothing to recover of the griffons who were stationed here. Four guns, their crews, and near fifty griffons in the trench, gone in a heartbeat. Once I saw that, I broke. I would not, could not, subject my troops to a massacre of that nature. The flag was struck, and we laid down our arms.”
He stared into the pit, a mix of shame and sorrow twisting his face.
”I wondered what sort of being could order such butchery, but it seems you had no idea what you had wrought. I hope you have some understanding of the power under you, Anonymous. Good night.”
Without another word, he turns away and walks back to the city with his two guards.
I’m left alone at the crater, the sounds of the night drifting gently on the breeze.
It's hard for me to digest the words of the griffon general.
Surely is was just some sort of mine that the ponies had laid the night before.
Even an alicorn couldn't bring this much magic to bear.
Whatever this was had turned the earth to glass, and there was simply no remains of anything inside the crater.
Not even bones…
But what else besides magic could it be?
Perhaps some team of unicorns had enchanted an artillery shell with fire magic?
I can't be sure, but it can't be Luna.
This is what I told myself as I slowly meander back to town.
Putting my hands in my pockets, I found a small scrap of paper
‘Albatross Inn', it must be where I’m staying the night
Incredible that Quill had managed to get this into my pocket without me noticing.
And that she knew where in town to stay.
Though, she had been Celestia's scheduler for a solid five years before she fulfilled the same role for me.
So I wandered through the streets in the harsh glow of lamps, looking for my quarters.
It doesn't take too long to find, it's quite near the city hall in fact.
I walked inside and found myself in a rather quiet bar, a tired looking barkeep wiping down the counter.
As I approached, he noticed me and puts on a wide, if false, smile.
“Good evening, sir! Princess Luna and your other companion have already checked in. You're in the Monarch Room, top floor, can't miss it sir!”
The monarch room? Kind of trying a little hard there pal.
He placed a key on the bar in front of him and goes straight back to cleaning.
As much as I’d like a stiff drink, I can’t fault him for trying to close up, it's late.
So I simply thanked him, took the key, and headed up the stairs at the back of the room.
At the end of the stairs is an out-of-place, ornate door with an emblem of the sun on it.
The barkeeper was right, I really couldn't miss it.
As quiet as I could, I opened the door and walked inside the room.
In the moonlight through the window, I saw my friends laying on the single, massive bed in the suite.
One bed.
For three people.
It’s too late to cause a fit, so I just sighed and walked in.
Tiptoeing, I grabbed my suitcase and went into the bathroom.
As quiet as I could, I changed from my grand uniform into my simple sleepwear.
Despite my mind still racing from what the general had said, I couldn’t deny how tired I was.
So putting aside my uneasy thoughts about Luna, I slipped into bed between the two mares.
Silently, Quill rolls over and nuzzles against my chest, and I felt one of Luna's wings lay on top of me.
It takes me nearly an hour to find the sleep I craved.
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Anon is lucky that Luna is willing to defer to him so much. If she had contested his leadership, things could have gotten ugly. I've got the distinct impression though, that Luna probably doesn't trust herself with rulership after everything that has happened. Her magic-obliteration-beam and subsequent mental breakdown only serves to reinforce her apparent volatility.
Anon has got a pretty level-head all things considered, she is probably very happy with him running the show while she goes off to play soldier. Her anger in the beginning was probably more, because she felt slighted by her sister rather than any actual desire to take the mantle of ruler.
i appreciate the main character's rational decision making and level headed leadership, it's rare in fics sometimes.
11477576
Thank you. The whole "Anon must be an idiot" trope is something I've always hated. Most authors use it to help explain what's going on in a story by having others explain to their Anon, but some indirect character thoughts, observations, and dialogue do that much better. And besides, it makes writing more fun.
You attacked first jackass. You sowed the wind, now reap the whirlwind.
11478921
Thats the nature of nations that wage wars of aggression - its always the fault of the nation they attacked. Even if its some minor slight that never really existed or a pure fantasy. Nope, they always refuse to accept fault and even when the government does accept responsibility the population doesn't due to decades or even centuries of propaganda that paints them as the victims.
Thats why the single most effective way to put an end to wars of aggression is to unleash hell on the attacking nation. Not just defeat its military, or topple the government but shatter its population by whatever means are available. To carve the price that they will pay for as much as even thinking about listening to the demagogue preaching "a return to greatness" so deeply into their minds that they reflexively turn on such people. After all, the threat of a crazy at the head of a nation can only be ended by war, but even a heavily armed crazy by himself can be stopped by just a few police.
11478921
Hey it could have been worse for them.
Probably should've thought of that, huh?
She's not exactly wrong. Just saying.
Well yeah. Everything is a balance.
I would have laughed at that Griffon Generals face. You started the fight. You dont get to complain that the ponies are fighting back.