The Griffin War

by QuarterNote

Chapter 10

A deafening crack of thunder accompanied the bright white flash of a unicorn’s teleportation spell, the shockwave from the magical fallout flattening every blade of grass for nearly twenty feet around. As the light faded and the quiet of night returned, a company of unicorns were made visible. Gathered in a large circle around one particular unicorn, they immediately about-faced and set about securing the area, horns lighting up with illumination spells as they checked the area for any griffin activity. The unicorn that had been the center of the group shook himself, his deep purple armor rustling softly as he sat down, then took off his helmet. Checking to see that every member of the Archive Guard was performing their duties, whether they were securing the area or making sure that every scroll and book from the Canterlot Archives had survived the trip, Shining Armor took a deep breath of the cool night air. He could still taste smoke from the Fall of Canterlot, and smacked his lips briefly as he got up and turned around to face the mountains that rose to his left, the moon high above silhouetting the snow-capped peaks of Equestria’s northern mountains.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Shining Armor turned to find one of the Archive Guard approaching him, the yellow hooded robe beneath his armor and the shining sun emblem on his chest plate marking him as the Guard’s Mage-Captain, their commander.

“Are you alright, sir?” the unicorn asked Shining as he approached.

“I’m fine, Arcane,” Shining Armor replied. He looked around. “Any sign of any griffins?”

“No sir,” replied Arcane. “Nopony’s reported any yet.”

“I’m not surprised,” Shining Armor said. “They’re most likely still at Canterlot.”

“Indeed,” Arcane replied. He turned his golden eyes up to the mountains that loomed above them, specifically on the castle situated at the foot of the slope. “Are you sure that Castle Grey is the best spot to make a base?”

“Pretty sure,” Shining Armor replied as he walked up beside the unicorn captain, following his gaze up to the castle. “It’s defensible, in a strong position, well-supplied, has its own well, and has more than enough room for all of us plus the documents from the Archives. And it’s far enough away from Canterlot that the griffins may not find it or think of it as a hiding place for us.”

Captain Arcane nodded. “Good points all. Hopefully you’ll be right about the last part.”

“I hope so too…” Shining Armor replied. As the Archive Guard began returning from their patrols, Shining Armor swept his eyes across them. Many of them seemed distracted, talking to one another in low tones. Many of them were wearing worried expressions. Shining Armor looked at them all, then pointed up to the castle. “Alright, all of you. Form up, double-wide column formation. We’re going to the castle. Quick march!”

The unicorns fell in with the well-drilled discipline that was shared by all of Equestria’s guard regiments, creating a long column two ponies wide and fifty long.

“Company, by your left!” Arcane barked. “March!”

The Archive Guard stepped off, their hooves hitting the ground in perfect unison as they marched up the path that led to Castle Grey. Their hoofbeats echoed off the sides of the mountain, loud in the still night. As they marched, Shining Armor looked up at the castle. It was a medium-sized structure, the main tower of its keep outlined by the moon as it stuck up above the walls. The tower was speckled with small dots of light, illumination coming from windows scattered around the tower’s face. There were more motes of light moving around the walls, torches or orbs of light carried by the castle’s garrison.

As the column finally reached the end of the trail leading up to the castle, a low creaking found their ears as the castle’s gates opened. Ten ponies trotted out, the group made up of a mixed bag of every species. The leading officer was a pegasus, colored with the customary white coat and blue eyes of every pegasus guard in Equestria but with a blonde tail and mane, the latter of which poked out from under his helmet as he glared at the group. Leveling his spear at the unicorns, the other guards followed his lead as he spoke. “Hold there, all of you! State your name and your business!”

Shining conjured a light at the end of his horn, the shimmering orb illuminating the front few ranks of the column and throwing the two unicorn officers into visibility. The pegasus blanched and backed away, raising his spear back into the attention position before snapping a salute at the two officers. “Captain Armor, sir! My apologies. We didn’t recognize you at first.”

“It’s okay,” Shining replied. “Where’s your castellan?”

“He’s up in the keep, Captain,” the pegasus replied. “If you don’t mind me asking, sir…”

“Go ahead,” Shining replied, making a beckoning gesture with his hoof.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in Canterlot?”

Shining Armor and Arcane looked at one another. Shining Armor pressed his lips together, then
let out a sigh. “We’ll brief the garrison on that once we’ve informed the castellan of the situation,” he said. “Until then, just go about your duties as you would normally.”

The pegasus still looked skeptical and the rest of the guards looked at one another and muttered amongst themselves, but he nodded and gestured for the rest of the guards to step aside.

“Company, forward march!” Arcane said loudly. The Archive Guard marched forward, moving through the gate and changing formation as they entered the castle’s assembly yard, switching from two parallel columns of fifty to five rows of twenty. The door to the castle’s keep opened, allowing a small cadre of ponies to exit and walk up to the block of unicorn soldiers. As they stopped in front of the Archive Guard a large, goateed earth pony stepped forward. Brown of beard, mane, and tail, the blue-eyed pony walked up to Shining Armor and Arcane, looking them over before bowing with a soft clink of armor.

“Captain-General Armor. Captain Arcane. Welcome to Castle Grey,” he said as he raised himself up from his bow. He had a Trottingham accent and a deep bass voice, and as he stood up and Shining got a better look at his face, he noticed that the earth pony had a thin scar running vertically down from his left eyebrow to his jaw.

“I am Captain Strong Swing,” the earth pony continued. “To what do we owe your visit?”

“Matters of war, Captain,” Arcane said, stepping forward. “We have all just come from Canterlot. It has fallen to an army of the Griffin Kingdoms in a surprise attack.”

There was a widespread gasp from the castle’s garrison at this news. Strong Swing himself took a step backward, his eyes wide in shock.

“What? But we’ve been at peace with the Griffin Kingdoms for centuries!”

“Yes,” Shining Armor broke in. “But apparently that peace is over now. The important thing to do now is discuss our situation and consolidate what forces we have.”

Strong Swing was quiet for a moment, then pressed his lips together and nodded. “Very well. If you two will follow me, we can discuss this in my office. You as well, Lieutenant,” he added to the pegasus that had accosted them at the gate, pronouncing the rank as “Leftenant.”

“Yessir,” the pegasus replied, saluting before falling into step with Strong Swing. Shining Armor and Arcane followed the pair into the castle’s keep, shutting the door behind them as the castle’s garrison began to go back to their duties.

Shining Armor took a look around the keep’s interior as they walked. Castle Grey’s keep was large and spacious, the entrance hall that they were walking through a combination of casual and practical. The windows were only narrow slits that let in thin slivers of moonlight, but the lack of natural light was made up for by an abundance of torches on the walls, as well as a large metal chandelier filled with lit candles. A long, thick red carpet yielded to the group’s hooves as they walked through the room and up a stone staircase, up to the next level.

“Oh, excuse me,” Strong Swing said suddenly after several minutes of walking. “I don’t believe I’ve introduced you. This is Lieutenant Cloud Skipper, my aide.”

“A pleasure, sir,” Cloud Skipper replied, nodding his head.

“So tell me, Captain Armor,” Strong Swing continued. “What is our situation currently?”

“As far as we can tell the Royal Guard stationed within Canterlot was devastated,” Arcane replied before Shining Armor could speak. He looked out of the corner of his eye at his commander, and continued at Shining’s nod. “We don’t know the number of survivors exactly; some could have escaped. In the meantime, we’ve come here to establish a base and hopefully be able to strike back at the griffins.”

“And what about the princesses?” Strong Swing asked. Shining Armor answered this time.

“Princess Celestia left on a diplomatic mission to the Griffin Kingdoms early this morning,” he said. “Princess Luna was left in charge. We don’t know what happened to either of them.”

Strong Swing nodded. “I see… So, what’s our plan now?”

“Right now we need to take stock of our situation,” Shining said. “Find out what all we have nearby, as well as all of the weapons that are here. After that, we need to strike back. There has to be something we can do. If we can’t drive out the griffins we can at least slow them down when they try to move on the rest of Equestria.”

“Good point,” Strong Swing said, nodding. He looked at Cloud Skipper. “Get to the armory. I want everything catalogued.”

“Yessir,” Cloud Skipper replied, bowing his head and putting a hoof to his chest before flying off down the hallway. As he did, Strong Swing turned back to the other two officers. “I have documents about troop strength in my office. Castle Grey is the strongest castle in the area; we can gather our forces here.”

Shining Armor nodded, then looked over at Arcane. “You should get back to your troops, Arcane. We need to get them settled in.”

“Yes sir,” Arcane replied, saluting before teleporting away.

Shining Armor turned back to Strong Swing. “Let’s get to your office, Captain. We have a lot of work to do.”

Comments

[QuarterNote]

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sorry about how long this took for such a little thing! I promise guys, the next update won't take nearly as long! And it'll be longer!

[Edragon]

Hooray your back!
So we have Luna on one side forming a resistance, and Shining Armor on the other doing the same. I'm thinking a two pronged attack to retake Canterlot is in order...ya know...eventually
I look forward to the next update.