A night in Weter
With a sigh, Erwin Highhill closed the curtains of his office. Night had fallen, but it was not yet time for Erwin to retire to his bed. He was too busy for that.
Finally, after seven years, things looked to be calming down for him. His nation spanned all of northern Equus, from the Key Lake to Weter and from Dachaigh to the southern Hauklands, and most of that land had been gained in the wars of conquest that had consumed the past few years.
The first piece of land Erwin conquered for his nation (though at the time he was ‘merely’ a field marshal, not the ruler) was the Equestrian exclave called Village Up North, Nova Griffonia had long held a claim on that small strip of land, and the outbreak of the Second Equestrian Civil War had provided the excellent opportunity and excuse to finally act on that claim.
Erwin had marched in at the head of his division and occupied the village the exclave was named after without meeting any resistance. The mayor had invited him (well, not him specifically; the leader of the Nova Griffonian forces had been asked) for negotiations over tea; Erwin had left thoroughly befuddled, but victorious for Nova Griffonia.
I should really write to Melon Pie again.
After that, there had been a few pacification campaigns in the former Griffon Frontier, and then everything had gone to Tartarus with a pop tart after Teafeather was assassinated. Erwin had wanted to wait it out, but as days turned to weeks and the Provisional Council did not manage to pick a new leader, he got fed up.
One march on Weter later, the country was rapidly falling apart. What had followed were several long months of campaigning through the country against communists, republicans and whatever idiotic gangs had sprung up from the chaos. Erwin had not been a fan of the warfare; it was similar to the battles in the former Frontier, but with far too many cities and towns. Far too many were lost to boobytraps and snipers.
When his country was finally secured, they were halfway through 1009. Equestria and the Changelings were staring at each other, both itching for an excuse to go to war. On Griffonia, wars had been popping up like wildfires; the historians were sure to have a fun time with that.
Erwin then made a conscious decision: to secure the bordering nations in the north. He was not willing to move south into Stalliongrad; they were too prepared for such a thing. But Yakyakistan, Pingland and the Polar Bear Communities were all backwards nations whose sole advantage had been terrain.
He’d gone into Pingland first; while they were moderately more modernised than the Bears or Yaks, they were also smaller and less populous. It took three months before he stood in the Ice Palace of Dachaigh, accepting the unconditional surrender of the Penguins.
The Bears were next; with a daring push Erwin’s troops had cut their army and nation in two, and while a secondary force destroyed the enemies trapped in Polarland, the main army went west to Mathair Fearainn. Not much later, the independence of the Bears finally ended.
Yakyakistan, thus, was the final obstacle to Erwin’s unification of northern Equus. And they were, by now, prepared as best they could be. Unfortunately for them, it had not mattered. Mountain forts stood no chance against modern bombers, and the Greater Yakistan Valley had been a perfect place to field-test the new mechanised corps of the Nova Griffonian Army.
When the guns fell silent, it was March 1011.
Less than two months later, war broke out between Equestria and the Changeling Queendom. The situation was reversed: the rest of Equus was on fire, while the north was finally peaceful.
But not for long. Erwin saw an opportunity in the continued existence of Hermann Meyer’s Haukland, and mobilised the Nova Griffonian Navy, which he had shamelessly neglected in favour of the other parts of the military in the past years. Even then, it was more than enough to take over those islands.
And with that done, Erwin finally allowed himself to be crowned Imperator of the Nova Griffonian Empire.
There had been debates over everything even tangentially related to the coronation, ranging from minute details like the colour of the gemstones in the crown Erwin would be crowned with to the name of the nation. There had been a number of proposals for the name: Northern Equus Empire, Greater Nova Griffonia, even Western Griffonian Empire. In the end, Erwin had vetoed them all and simply gone with Nova Griffonian Empire, which, in his mind, perfectly fit the nation.
The coronation had been two months ago.
Erwin had invited a great many people to his coronation; most of them had even had the courtesy of showing up. He was quite aware Nova Griffonia was a bit of a pariah after its recent conquests, so any good press would be appreciated. A few national leaders had even shown up, like King Stridande of Vedina, the hastily-elected monarch of that kingdom after its princess died in quite possibly the most dramatic wedding day yet.
Erwin had been very interested in Stridande, and vice versa; Vedina was not in an ideal position at all, and Stridande had already hinted at an alliance during the coronation afterparty. Negotiations had been rushed and finalised just three weeks after the coronation, leading to the creation of the Northern Pact.
Not the most inventive name, but that didn’t particularly matter. What mattered were the consequences of this alliance.
The Griffonian Republic had already announced their intention to secure the Griffonian north, a blatant threat to Vedina. The first thing Erwin had done was authorise the deployment of several divisions, including part of the mechanised corps, to the Vedinian-Republican border. In case of war, they’d be ready.
Of course, in the event of war more troops would need to be deployed. But Erwin didn’t feel that would be an issue of size; unexpectedly, the regions of his empire, while still not particularly happy about his rule, were not as unstable as he’d have predicted. Some of the Yaks and Bears were of the opinion that since they’d been beaten in a ‘fair’ fight by Erwin, that meant they owed their loyalty to him. Erwin wasn’t going to complain about that.
Erwin sighed, and sat down at his desk. He had things to write.