• Published 7th Feb 2012
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The Griffin War - QuarterNote



Princess Luna leads Equestria in a guerilla movement.

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Chapter 17

The night in Everfree had passed uneventfully. Spike had tossed and turned in his sleep, his thoughts filled with what might be happening to Twilight and the others, held prisoner in the Griffin Kingdoms. Several times during the night his nightmares had woken him sending him catapulting up into a sitting position, his cheeks slicked with tears and his body shiny with a cold sweat. While he was awake he would look around, watching the royal guards patrol the shelters, tents, and palettes that had become the new homes of the Ponyville ponies. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were on the baby dragon’s other side, the four smaller forms all nestled into the bulk and comforting strength of the larger.

That morning, Spike yawned as he stood beside Big Macintosh in Castle Everfree’s courtyard. Since Full Moon and Aileron had returned from their missions, a large number of pegasi stallions had joined the group of recruits. Full Moon and Aileron had also joined Stout Heart and Rite in front of the recruits, though Stout Heart still maintained seniority at the moment. The other three captains stood behind and to the right of the earth pony, who was standing in front of the rock. This particular rock was different from the first, as it was half the size of the castle, in order for Big Macintosh to not be able to move it.

“Right, all of you!” Stout Heart called to the ponies, who were all assembled in a large block in front of him, in six lines of twenty each. “Welcome to day two of basic training! I hope you all had a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, because we still have a lot of work to do! First on the agenda…” he turned to the side and pointed at the rock. “You all have yet to move this rock!”

“We tried that yesterday!” called Thunderlane, who now wore a white bandage wrapped around his forehead. “None of us could move that stupid thing!”

“One of you could,” Stout Heart corrected, looking at Big Macintosh. “But he missed the point of the exercise.”

Big Macintosh narrowed his eyes, Spike looking up at him, then back at Stout Heart as he continued speaking.

“Hopefully some of our new arrivals can shed some light on the situation,” the captain called, “because otherwise, you’re all going to be seeing this rock in front of you for a very long time indeed.”

He looked around the front row of ponies, pacing the length of the line until he came to one pegasus in particular, a pale blue stallion with baggy green eyes and a wind-swept, dark blue mane with a cutie mark of a winged lightning bolt proudly emblazoned on his flanks. He wore a pair of goggles on his forehead, just up against his mane. “Let’s see what one of the newcomers can do…get up there, son.”

There was a great deal of cheers among the crowd as many recognized Soarin’ of the Wonderbolts as he trotted forward to stand in front of the boulder. Contrary to the other ponies of the previous day, Soarin’ did not immediately charge at the thing and attempt to move it. Instead he stood before it, wings out; his baggy green eyes narrowing as he carefully examined the rock. Finally he spread his wings and flapped into the air, turning around and whistling for the other male Wonderbolts. Ten pegasi flew from the crowd, forming up around him as Soarin’ brought them all into a group huddle. The other ponies watched in anticipation, whispering to each other as the pegasi muttered amongst themselves.

“What do you think they’re gonna do?”

“Maybe they’ll try the Buccaneer Blaze on it?”

“Nah, that’s not nearly strong enough to move that thing…”

“Well maybe if you’d all shut up, they could think!” Stout Heart shouted from where he stood below Soarin’ and the other Wonderbolts. The other recruits fell silent, returning their gaze to the group of pegasi above them.

Finally the pegasi broke up, all taking different spots on the face of the rock. Soarin’ looked around at them all, making sure they were all in position.

“Ready?” he called. At the other pegasi’s affirmatives he turned his own face back to the rock. “One…two…three!”

With a simultaneous grunt of effort the group of pegasi flapped their wings as hard as they could, pushing against the rock with all their might.

“That’s it…” Spike whispered, looking up at them all. “That’s it!” He ran forward, running towards the rock himself. As the baby dragon ran forward, other ponies picked up on the idea.

“Yeah…Everypony follow the Wonderbolts!” Big Macintosh called, running forward after Spike. The rest of the recruits gave yells of assent, and soon every pony in the group was shoving at the rock. Slowly but steadily, the boulder began to move and plowing a great, dark furrow in the soft Everfree earth. Sweating and straining, the ponies began cheering as the rock moved more and more, until finally they could more it no longer. Pegasi fell to the ground and earth ponies and unicorns collapsed face-flat in the massive furrow of churned-up dirt that the rock had left in its path.

Stout Heart walked over to the beginning of the furrow, a wide grin splitting his lips. “Very good!” he called to them all. “Very good indeed. You all managed to find the point of the lesson: Teamwork. A pony in the Royal Guard isn’t an army of one; he’s one in an army. Loyal comrades willing to help in times of danger is the greatest asset that a soldier can have. Now that you’ve all learned the first lesson of teamwork…let’s see if you can learn the second lesson.”

He backed away a few steps. “I wager that you’re all too tired to do anything else today, and now that you’ve overcome the first obstacle we’ll be kicking it into high gear from now on. All of you will need to be refreshed for when the real training begins tomorrow. Go inside and get cleaned up, the lot of you. We’ll see you all in the morning.”

With that, the captains retired, trotting into the castle. The recruits got to their hooves and began walking inside, many of them groaning from tired muscles and aching bones. Pegasi wings dragged on the ground alongside earth pony hooves and unicorn horns. Everypony had dirt on their bodies, staining their faces as sweat streaked through them, a surprising amount from such a short exertion.

***

“You wanted to see me, Lord Marshal?” Captain Rosten asked as he walked into Canterlot Castle’s throne room, where Blackwing lounged in Celestia’s throne. A unicorn servant standing next to him had a grimace on her face, screwing her eyes shut to avoid looking at the roasted rabbit legs that Blackwing was lazily taking from the plate to pop into his mouth with a crunch of bone as she held the plate up with her magic.

“Ah, Rosten,” Blackwing began with a full mouth. He lifted a claw and swallowed, a large lump travelling down the black feathers of his throat before he began again. “Yes, I did send for you. We received a message yesterday from Gryphus.”

“A message from Gryphus?” Rosten parroted, flapping across the throne room to the foot of the stairs. “What does it say?”

“It’s an invitation, actually,” Blackwing said, picking the vellum scroll in question up from where it lay on the throne. He tossed it to the captain, who caught it in the air. Unrolling the scroll with his claws, Rosten’s eyes moved back and forth as they scanned the parchment, his eyes narrowing in curiosity, then widening in disbelief.

“A gala?!” he yelped.

“Apparently it’s a celebration for how quickly and bloodlessly we managed to subjugate Equestria,” Blackwing said calmly, daintily taking another rabbit leg from the floating platter and ripping half of it off the bone. Swallowing the mouthful, he shrugged. “I don’t get what you’re so upset about, Captain. Surely you’ve been to other balls before?”

“Well, yes, but…” Rosten said, his white-feathered cheeks flushing red. “I just don’t…”

“Relax,” Blackwing said, waving a hand nonchalantly. “It won’t be that bad. More likely than not they’ll just congratulate us, maybe Aeris will gloat a bit, give a speech, then food, dancing, merriment, possible drunken nookie afterwards.”

Rosten made a choking noise as his eyes widened again.

“Anyway, it’s tomorrow night. I suppose that you have a dress uniform ready back home?”

“Of course,” Rosten said. “Dad’s always made sure of it.”

“Good,” Blackwing replied, nodding in approval. “Then there’s nothing to worry about. As long as you keep calm and present yourself in a manner befitting your status, then you’ll get through it no problem.”

He waved a claw in dismissal at the servant. “Leave the plate.”

The mare quickly set the plate down next to the chair with an audible sigh of relief and galloped down the steps and out of the throne room. Blackwing sniffed derisively as she slammed the door shut.

“Ponies. No stomach for anything but apples and grass.”

“Well they are herbivores…” Rosten mused as he turned back to Blackwing from watching the mare leave. Blackwing shrugged.

“Speaking of ponies,” he began, “I’ve decided to give you operational command of the Everfree Theater. You’ll command the entire area from Ponyville, to the southern border of the Everfree Forest, to the western border of the White Tail Woods.”

“All of that?” Rosten asked, his eyes widening. “That’s a pretty big area…”

“And also the most likely area of resistance,” Blackwing replied. “You said that Ponyville was abandoned when you got there, and the Everfree Forest is the closest place that they could hide, in addition to the area that we’d be least likely to look through. It’s the only forest in Equestria that has a bad reputation. You’re getting two thousand troops to keep the area secure and try and root out any resistance. I expect you to do so with extreme prejudice, Captain. We’re also expecting the first shipment of small arms to arrive by the end of the week. They’ll come with a drill book for you as well as griffins that are trained in their use, so your own griffins will actually know how to use them.”

“Just the griffins?” Rosten asked. “Why not the dogs?”

Blackwing snorted a laugh. “Please, giving those savages guns? They’d probably shoot their faces off. Not smart enough to use them. Anyways, hopefully by the end of the month we’ll have received enough small arms for you to outfit your entire command. You’ll also receive cannon to fortify Ponyville with.” He turned one red eye to Rosten. “Any questions, Captain?”

“What will my duties be as theater commander?”

“Mostly just keeping the peace, making sure that everything passing through your territory gets where it’s supposed to be. You’ll guard supply lines, the roads, the forest boundaries, pretty much everywhere of importance to that.”

Rosten nodded his understanding. “Alright. Thank you, Lord Marshal.”

“You’re welcome,” Blackwing replied. He turned his entire head towards Rosten now, fixing him with both eyes. “Don’t disappoint me, Rosten. I expect you to fulfill this duty to the best of your abilities. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal, Lord Marshal,” Rosten replied, saluting. Blackwing nodded, satisfied.

“Good. You’re dismissed, Captain. I’ll see you back in Canterlot tomorrow afternoon. We’ll take an airship there.”

Rosten nodded, then turned and walked out of the room. Blackwing stretched and yawned in the throne, putting his hands back behind his head as he smiled up at the ceiling.

Too easy, he thought.

Comments ( 4 )

Woot! Leave it to Soarin to lead the recruits! (Dunno if you intended for this from the beginning or not but I'll just thank you for having my favorite non-mane 6 pony in here:rainbowwild:)

...And now they have guns...Seems like every chapter the Griffins get yet another advantage. I'm really feeling bad for the Ponies...They just don't have anything to compete.:ajsleepy:

You’ll also receive cannon to fortify Ponyville with.

I Love this story. I really do, I am curios as to why this story gets no love though. Its been around a long time and its still going strong. Keep up the good work man. I'm keeping an eye on this and you as well.

a bit itnersting this story............
though i do not see how their idea would work out with making them figure heads............ i mean they are alicorns. the grypohons have nothing with the aiblityt to fight an alicorn. theycould easily retake theri kingdom and kill even the king of the ghryphons if tyhey need to. simply charge through and destroy what threatesn theri kingdom.

Really nice story, I love it :twilightsmile:

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