Anno Equestria: A Brief History of the Pony Nation

by Insert Pen Name

The Second Griffon War*

Anno Equestria
A Brief History of the Pony Nation
A FiM fic by (Insert Pen Name)

The Second Griffon War
AE1682-1685

In Equestria, the First Griffon War is celebrated as a desperate fight for our nation's survival. In the Griffon Isles across the Eastern Sea, however, the war did not produce any significant reaction among the griffons, who were far more concerned with their own feudal conflicts than the failed adventures of a rabble of unsuccessful lesser warlords against a nation of refugees.

Starting in AE1674, however, a new power was rising in the Griffon Isles. An ambitious and shrewd young warlord named Garth, the bastard son and sole heir of one of the more powerful Griffon warlords, set out to bring the whole of the Griffon Isles under his rule, taking through conquest what he could not take through bribery or threat. One by one, the disparate Griffon fiefdoms submitted to Garth, until by AE1679, most of the Griffon Isles was under his control. Only a few of the more powerful fiefdoms resisted his ambitions. Regardless, in AE1680, Garth had himself crowned King of the newly formed Griffon Kingdom.

Under King Garth's rule, trade flourished, and the common griffons knew peace and stability for the first time in centuries. Despite his successes, however, King Garth remained deeply suspicious of the remaining independent warlords and the armies they commanded. Seeking to expand his empire and exhaust his military rivals, Garth proposed a grand military campaign against Equestria, with promises of land and plunder for any warlord who joined his ranks. In mid-summer, AE1682, King Garth and his allies departed the Griffon Isles with a combined force over 200,000 strong, with thousands more waiting in reserve.

Of course, Equestria was scarcely unaware of the impending invasion. For months, a motley network of spies, many of whom were griffons of the Equestrian diaspora, had been keeping Princess Celestia and her highest-ranking officers informed of Garth's intent. In the months preceding the invasion, a number of units had been quietly garrisoned at the three coastal cities of Manehatten, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare. Equestria's top military commander, General Windrider, was also deployed outside of Hollow Shades with a large reserve force, ready to respond wherever the Griffons landed.

King Garth was a cunning strategist, however, and had devised a simple, but effective plan for the initial attack. The first wave of the Griffon invasion launched a simultaneous three-pronged assault on Manehatten, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare. The second wave advanced the next day, reinforcing the besiegers and spreading out into the surrounding countryside. General Windrider immediately levied local militias and marched on the besieged cities with over 80,000 troops. It was then that the third and final wave attacked, bypassing the cities entirely and meeting Windrider's armies in the field. Many ponies fought gallantly, but could not resist the Griffon onslaught. After five days of intense fighting, the coastal cities had fallen, and Windrider's forces were in varying stages of retreat all across the East Coast.

King Garth now entered his newly-conquered territories in triumph. Fillydelphia was soon established as the capital of his conquered territories, while Manehatten and Baltimare were granted as independent duchies to two of his warlord allies*. The next few weeks were spent consolidating his strategic position before continuing the push inland. By this time, however, General Windrider had managed to recover some of his forces, and resisted the Griffon advance in a series of desperate skirmishes. His efforts almost certainly prevented the Heartland from being overrun, but he ultimately lacked the strength to fight on indefinitely. In mid-autumn, Windrider's army was surrounded and overwhelmed at the Battle of Hollow Shades. Windrider was captured**, and his forces were almost completely annihilated.

By this point, the threat of winter prevented Garth from continuing his advance towards Canterlot. This hardly spelled an end to the fighting, however. Though Windrider's main army had been crushed, the wily general had deployed a number of earth-pony ranger cells in the forests behind the Griffon lines. Throughout the winter, these rangers raided supply depots, assassinated officers, and generally made life difficult for the Griffon occupiers. Attempts to root out the rangers were never successful; accustomed as they were to fighting in the skies above the Griffon Isles, the griffon warriors were at a complete disadvantage in the confined quarters of the Equestrian forests.

While the rangers kept up the fight in the wilds, civilian resistance movements began sprouting in the occupied coastal cities. Fillydelphia was relatively peaceful in this regard; King Garth had no intention of provoking further hostility amongst his new subjects, and maintained a civil, if somewhat strict, relationship with the local populace. In Manehatten and Baltimare, however, where the warlords ruled, conditions were far worse, and the ponies there were subject to frequent depredations. Ironically, it was the diaspora griffons who fared the worst, regarded as "race-traitors" by their former brethren. As a result, the Equestrian Resistance (as it was collectively known) was far stronger in these cities than elsewhere. Though the risk of reprisals limited the scale of their efforts, the Equestrian Resistance was nevertheless a consistent thorn in the Griffons' side.

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, tremendous wartime upheavals were underway. Princess Celestia had reluctantly assumed the position of Commander-in-Chief of Equestria's military, and despite her distaste for war, she would prove to be an able strategist. Throughout the winter, militia units gathered daily at the base of the Canterhorn, and the city's forges and foundries worked day and night producing spears, armour, and (much to everypony's cynical comfort) cannons. Most impressive of all, Celestia's mages had been hard at work perfecting a massive energy shield to protect the city (drawing their inspiration from tales of the Crystal Empire). Such a device would surely keep the the invaders at bay in the event of a siege, but Princess Celestia had a far bolder plan in mind.

With the arrival of spring in AE1683, King Garth set out for Canterlot, leading a siege force of nearly 90,000, most of whom were fighting under the banners of his warlord allies. Their flight to Canterlot was largely unopposed, until they reached the shores of Saddle Lake. The Ponies had constructed a wood fort on the opposite shore, effectively herding Garth northward to the base of the Canterhorn. There, Princess Celestia had arrayed the bulk of her forces, including over 40,000 militias, supported by a hundred brazen cannons dug into the mountain slopes. Griffon airborne attacks were swiftly and brutally repelled; though Celestia lacked air-power of her own***, her cannons, loaded with grapeshot, proved a fair enough substitute. Over the next six days, Garth repeatedly probed the Equestrian lines for weaknesses, and on the seventh day, the Griffons finally managed to overwhelm the fort on Saddle Lake, allowing Garth to sweep around past Celestia's west flank. However, the Princess had one last trick to play.

King Garth swiftly sent a vanguard ahead to assault Canterlot. No sooner had these warriors entered the city, however, when the Royal Guard deployed the city's energy field, trapping the attackers inside. Unable to advance any further, Garth turned and faced Celestia's army in a vicious melee. Though outnumbered, Celestia managed to gain the upper hoof by breaking off forces to recapture the fort on Saddle Lake, while using her few battlemages to quickly teleport their cannons to the front lines. By nightfall, the griffons in the city had been defeated, and Garth was forced to retreat, leaving over 30,000 ponies, dead and wounded, in his wake.

Princess Celestia now gained the initiative, and slowly began pushing the Griffons back toward the East Coast, finally arriving outside Fillydelphia in late autumn. After considering her options, the Princess decided against putting the cities, and their pony inhabitants, to a winter siege, and instead withdrew for the winter to regroup and bolster her forces. By the spring thaw of AE1684, however, the griffons at Fillydelphia found themselves facing a massive army of 120,000 battle-hardened militias, supported by 10,000 of Equestria's finest battlemages. Desperate, Garth urgently appealed to his allies in Manehatten and Baltimare for aid. Thousands of griffon warriors answered the call, reducing the garrisons in those cities by nearly half.

What Garth did not know was that Princess Celestia had spent the winter drilling her battlemages in the hologram spell, to the point that each could reliably maintain the illusion of a dozen battle-ready ponies...

With the Griffon garrisons weakened, Celestia sprang her trap. On her command, 60,000 soldiers, under the command of General Shield Wall, assaulted Manehatten from their hidden camps in the hills. In the south, General Arctic Gale took Baltimare with ease by moving her force of 50,000 through the Hayseed Swamps and across the neck of Horseshoe Bay to attack the city from behind. Within ten days, both cities had been secured, and only Fillydelphia remained under Griffon control. Garth's remaining allies took the opportunity to retreat back across the East Sea, but Garth refused to discredit himself by fleeing, and chose to stay and fight.

Princess Celestia initially attempted to negotiate with Garth, but the Griffon King refused to be taken into custody, and so the Princess was forced to assault the city. After five days of fighting, Garth finally allowed himself to retreat, leaving Fillydelphia to its liberators. While the ponies celebrated in the streets, Princess Celestia withdrew back to Canterlot to discuss the next phase of the war.

Back in the Griffon Isles, King Garth now found himself in an increasingly dire situation. The threat of a Pony invasion now loomed, and many of his former subjects had begun to rebel. When Equestrian sails did appear on the horizon, however, they belonged not to an invading fleet, but to a lone ship bearing a letter from Princess Celestia. The Princess's terms of surrender were simple: an immediate end to hostilities, and heavy reparations from the Griffon Kingdom. In exchange, Equestria would recognise King Garth as the sole ruler of the Griffon Isles, and would fully support his right to rule. It was an offer the Griffon King could not refuse. On Hearth's Warming Eve, AE1685, Princess Celestia and King Garth signed the Treaty of Fillydelphia, and the Second Griffon War came to an end.

* Regrettably, the names of these warlords have been lost to history. In typical despotic fashion, King Garth appears to have ordered all record of his rivals destroyed after their deaths.

** General Windrider (b. AE1619) was brought to Fillydelphia, where he died in captivity during the late winter of AE1684, mere months before the city's liberation.

*** During the Battle of Canterlot, most of Equestria's air-power was stationed in and around Cloudsdale as a precautionary measure should Canterlot fall.

Comments

[Alondro]

*Helix, the mad scientist, maintains a secret hatred for the 'damned beakies' and their violent ways... they are yet another race, besides the disgusting bug-ponies that his science shall soon exterminate from the world... as Helix himself prepares his pony mutants in their battle machines...*

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[BenRG]

What a come-down though! From wannabe Emperor of the Griffins and Ponies to the status of a client king whose rulership is guaranteed and maintained by Pony steel and magic. I wonder how long Garth survived this humiliation? The Griffins don't strike me as the sort who would be forgiving of such failure and weakness.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

Before the development of good cannons, Earth cities were surrounded by walls. Between Griffons, Dragons, and Diamond Dogs walls are fairly useless for something as large as a city. Forts are still useful, but sieges are probably much less common in Equestria than on Earth.

The walls around Celestia's castle are more useful against civil unrest than military action. Very interesting, as Artie Johnson used to say.