The Second Griffon War (Casual Thread - All welcome!)

Dreamweaver Dreamweaver

It did hurt Starlight more than a rejection would have, for the whole 1.3 seconds before Trixie corrected herself. It felt like a lot longer, but on hearing the add-on, Starlight was suddenly filled with hope, and happiness. More that she'd ever had, or knew what to do with, which is probably why the next thing to happen happened.

In the grand annals of history, there as entire page dedicated to this moment, with one sentence about what happened, and the rest of the page taken up by a large drawing of a pony facehoofing.

"You love me too? Trixie....I...." Starlight got down on one knee. "....Will you marry me?"
 
Avedon Avedon
Silvanus was not quite a year old yet and have never actually experienced Nightmare Night. This would be her first Nightmare Night! "Uh what's a Nightmare Night? Mommy, the moon one I mean, has been talking about it a lot lately. Something about candy??"

Cyan Hide Cyan Hide
"What the ha-.." Trixie began when Starlight got down on her one knee, and was completely cut off by the question. Trixie had to double check that she heard that right. Did Starlight actually just burst into her home, declare her love, and then half a second later propose??

Yes, yes she did.

Trixie stared at Starlight as if she was completely insane, which she was, and then facehooved hard enough to leave a hoof mark on her forehead. "UHM, WHAT?!" was Trixie's first remark, followed by, "Have you gone absolutely mad?!"
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver

Starlight looked absolutely petrified, as if even she was taken by shock at what she'd just done. "...Yes. I do think I've actually gone mad. But will you marry me?"

She was in too deep to try and leave. There was no 'situation' to salvage. The only way was forward.
 
Cyan Hide Cyan Hide
Starlight had her chance to back out and she absolutely just did the opposite. She dug the hole even deeper! Trixie continued staring at her like an absolutely insane pony and sloooowwwly shook her head. "... No. No, I will not marry you. We haven't even dated before!"
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver

Starlight didn't reply to that with words. She just nodded, and headed to the door. Not that she'd given up. Far from it. Before she left the cabin, she turned back.

"So....date?"
 
Cyan Hide Cyan Hide
"... Lemme grab my stuff!" Trixie replied with a grin, rushing over to grab her purple wizards hat. She forwent the cape today because wearing a cape to a date might be weird. Wearing a hat, however, was totally normal! She quickly threw on her purple hat, grabbed a bit-purse off the counter and ran over to Starlight with a grin!

Avedon Avedon
Silvanus arched an eyebrow at Avedon and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. A holiday made by her mother? That sounded... Dark! "It's probably a super depressing holiday, isn't it? She's always super edgy..."
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver

Upon Luna gesturing him to touch the tree, Cassian couldn't help but agree. Even though he couldn't understand why he was hearing these strange rythmatic sounds, but for some reason he seems to understand what they are telling him.

Welcome

Come forth

Those were the words that were chiming in the back of his mind in the form rings, tingles, and ripples in the winds and waters. Almost as if there was some sort of force trying to communicate with him.

Cassian could only hesitantly stare down at his birthmark then towards the tree. Here he was now. After a long perilous two month journey from the place he once called home, he finally found everything he follow from Terra's last words. So now what? Just then, the silent young dragon spotted a stone time next to the tree. There are pictures carved of unicorns and dragon's surrounding the tree. Judging from the size comparisons between the two races, the dragon's seemed no older than he is. In each segment of the tome showed another picture in some order. The next showed the dragon's lining up toward the tree to touch it. While the unicorns who stood by thier side were watching from the sidelines with distraught expressions on thier muzzled. Then came the last picture, which had a long list of names carved below it. A few of the dragons were paired with thier unicorn partners in a harmonious circle making proud roars. And while the others were slumbering on the ground with the remaining unicorns bowing thier heads in silence for thier dragon's eternal slumber.

This wasn't just a tome....it was a memorial. On the top written in old equestrian, it said, "The Imbuing Ceremony"

Whatever the 'Imbuing Ceremony' was, it was some sort of test or some kind of ritual meant for Dragons reaching thier beginning of adolescence. While those who are deemed worthy were 'Awakened' others were sent into what they called 'Eternal slumber'. This is what was written on the stone carvings.

"There were others?", Cassian mutters to himself before looking back at the night Princess. "Princess Luna....what exactly is this thing?", he asked gesturing toward the tree.
 
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Wylfen Shepard Wylfen Shepard
"I do not know, Cassian." Princess Luna replied rather bluntly with a shrug of her shoulders. "If I had to guess, these two trees are the fables Trees of Life. All I know for sure is that my daughters are bound to these trees, just as Celestia and I are bound to the Tree of Harmony. And for that reason, these trees are now under my personal protection."

Luna looked at the Tree and back to Cassian with a slight smile. "Perhaps you should touch the Tree? I feel as if that is the next step. Just, uh... Be careful."

Dumbledoof Dumbledoof
(A few days in the future)
Late one night, Expellix would be woken up by a guard pony who had come to speak with him. It had taken hours to find the small rabbit, just like Luna knew it would, which is exactly why she set this guard on the task hours before she needed the message delivered! Luna could have found Expellix herself, but... Eh. Getting ponies to do things for her was amusing.

"Master Expellix." The guard said with a bow of his head when Expellix had finally awoken, after shaking him gently just once. "Princess Luna wishes to see you at the top of Canterlot tower in her sleeping quarter as soon as possible. She said this will grant you entry."

The guard handed him a glowing black gemstone without another word, and walked away.

Canterlot tower was rather hard to miss. It was the largest structure in the city, stretching up near the mountain top, and it was where the Princesses famously slept. That's all anypony knew about it.
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
Expellix was sound asleep. Being a rabbit, he didn't exactly sleep in places like a normal pony; instead, he just found a spot out of the way, where most wouldn't look for him and generally slept there for the night. This time, though, he had done exactly the opposite; he was sleeping on a random chair in the castle. It was plush and soft, the primary reasons why he decided to go for it.

Being woken up by a guard was a little bit annoying, but he had at least gotten a decent amount of sleep. He blearily opened his eyes, staring straight at the guard with a raised eyebrow, still curled up on the chair's cushion. He'd never been referred to as 'Master Expellix,' that was a strange turn of events, and got his attention more than anything else. His left ear raised to listen, and afterward, he yawned and sat up, stretching his arms out in front of him.

"Alright, thank you." He said sleepily. There wasn't much point in asking what Luna would would in the middle of the night, considering she operated during the night. He might as well turn nocturnal since he was her apprentice.

So he journeyed up to her sleeping quarters. Once he was at the door, he glanced between the gemstone and the door. What was he supposed to do with this here? The gem glowed subtly and the door seemed to respond in kind to it, some kind of magical lock releasing and then the door clicking audibly. Shrugging, he pushed it open slowly and stepped inside.

"Luna?" He called. "You wanted to see me?"
 
Dumbledoof Dumbledoof
The door which Expellix opened was a large Lunar Steel door more fitting for a castle gate than a bedroom. Seeing as how the whole royal family slept in these quarters, it was no surprise that Luna and Celestia had outfitted the room to be extremely well protected. Who knows what kind of spells would have went off if Expellix didn't have that key with him. The door itself was engraved with a half-moon half-sun symbol so there was really no mistaking the room for who it belonged too.

Upon entering the room, Expellix would see Celestia, Silvanus and Salacia all asleep in the room. Celestia was curled up on the main bed, and the kids were in their own smaller bed in another attached room.

Luna was standing on the balcony in full gear. Her dark grey armor and scimitars hanging at her sides. Her armor included metal claws. She turned to glance at him once he entered, and motioned for him to join her on the balcony while holding a hoof over her lips to signal silence.

The door swung closed silently once he was through.
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
Expellix looked over the other alicorns in the room. He really should have heard them sleeping, honestly, but then there was probably a soundproofing spell on the room. It wouldn't be a surprise to him, that's one of many precautions anybody would need to take if they were as important of a figure as Luna and Princess Celestia. He'd want to really keep it a secret that he was an apprentice to Luna at all now that he thought about it.

Not that he figured anybody outside them already knew anyway...

He crept through the room to Luna without making a sound, pausing on the balcony with her. He glanced back over his shoulder at the bed just to be sure. Nothing. "You called, Luna?" He asked once more, but much more quietly this time than before.
 
Dumbledoof Dumbledoof
Celestia stirred... But didn't wake!

... Which wasn't a surprise because he was a bunny. They were well known for being rather silent.

Princess Luna waited for Expellix to join her on the balcony, and then quietly closed the balcony door behind her. Upon closing the door, a dim blue sheen overtook the doorway and spread throughout the entire room, although it was so dim that it didn't wake any of the royals. When the dim magical light finally faded, Luna nodded and spoke up in a regular tone. "Soundproofing spell from the outside. They won't be able to hear us."

With that being explained, she leaned onto the balcony rail and looked out over Equestria. Right now they were about 4,000 feet up and could survey the land below rather easily. The entire land below was littered with Griffon camps. Their massive army had surrounded Canterlot and formed several dozen camps where soldiers were sleeping.

Luna pointed to one camp in particular, a rather large one, and turned to Expellix. "We are going there tonight. Five of the Griffon armies commanders are stationed there. We are going to slip in, murder them, and slip out again undetected. Well, we will murder a few more griffons too. Personally I enjoy entering tents and killing every third sleeper; it really freaks out the armies in the morning knowing that they are only alive because they happened to not be sleeping in a certain area."
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
He nodded solemnly at the explanation. He needed to learn how to make wards like that, it would come rather handy. It would be rather cool if there was something like a moving soundproof spell... cast it on an object and anything within a relatively small radius is warded. Nothing outside of it would be able to hear. He wasn't clever enough to come up with such a thing, but if it didn't already exist, he hoped somepony would figure it out for him!

He jumped up to crouch on the railing, looking over the land as well. He could see the tiny lights in the distance of any torches or campfires the griffons had lit. He imagined that while the majority of them were asleep, having nightmares courtesy of Luna, many were still patrolling in shifts during the night.

"Are you sure I'm ready for something like this?" He asked, a small amount of surprise in his voice. "I'm not exactly trained for stealth, unlike a number of others..." He wasn't trained, but he did have around 1,500 years worth of experience of sneaking around. He may not be trained but he was absolutely a master of stealth still. He just wanted to make sure with her that would account for much.
 
Dumbledoof Dumbledoof
"I have absolutely no idea if you're ready for this." Luna replied bluntly, with an arched eyebrow as she looked over Expellix. "In the place I came from, it was customary to train through experience. Real fighting and real killing, theft and murder, things like that. Once a year in my town we had to sneak out and execute a slave without being caught in the process, otherwise we'd be whipped. I am still a firm believer that experience is the best teacher, and you have the experience."

She motions out towards their target camp with a hoof. "You've been surviving on your own for hundreds of years. You may not be trained, but that amount of time will teach you lessons. You may not have my... Natural gifts..." She used that term loosely. "But you're still better at stealth than most of my elite guards; even the bat ponies. Your size is of great advantage here. And if you die, well... I guess you weren't fit to be my apprentice, were you?"
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
"I suppose we'll find out." He murmured, nodding his head slightly. He didn't have much experience in outright fighting and killing, theft and murder like she put it, but he was learning how quickly. It was one hell of a way to train somebody by throwing them into a war and then letting them figure it out. He made a mistake in the first fight, letting his guard down for a moment. He won't be doing that attack.

He laughed hollowly. "Whether I'm fit or not, I have my doubts. Rules of nature say that I'll be eaten by predators like a griffon or something. But I don't recall any point where rules have been anything but guidelines." He glanced at her, a small amount of nervousness, but then excitement in his eyes. "Are we going soon?"
 
Dumbledoof Dumbledoof
Luna knew all about his injury in the Battle for Ponyville. She had been at his bedside once and a while and had watched over him in his sleep to make it as comfortable as possible. He might have been in physical pain, but she could at least ease that pain through pleasant dreams. She had also ordered the best doctors available to look after him; not clerics mind you, because those were busy near the front lines, but the doctors caring for him were the best of the best.

And eventually he'd been well enough to use holy magic on himself!

"The rules of nature don't apply to magic wielding, thousand year old half-dead rabbits." Luna said bluntly with a slight smile, before nodding at his question. "We are going right now. Do I have permission to use magic on you?"
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver

"So she never knew...", thought Cass, gazing his sight back on the tree. To think that the very rulers of this land had such a thing hidden away right under their noses. They were just about as clueless as he was. In that moment, the young dragon could only make a pregnant chuckle at the situation before him. He slaps his palm onto his forehead and slide in down with a deep sigh. There was no amusement in that gesture. More like distraught and disappointment hidden with laughter. "I should have known...", he muttered under his breath. Once again fate seems to laugh in his face. Hoping for more answers only to be lead to more confusion and discouragement.

Looking back at the Princess, his expressionless face could not hide his eyes lighting up when she told him to 'be careful' when touching the tree. Even though she might have meant any concern, it was nice to hear such kind words that showed his life value. "Well, when this is done, I'm pretty sure we have a lot to explain", he said nonchalantly and begins talking up to the tree. But before he placed his foot on the first stepping stone across the pool, he looks back at the night princess one more time. 'Oh, and...in case I do fall into 'eternal slumber' ", he said suggesting full well what it meant. "Just want to say I'm sorry about Ponyville. And thank you for your time.", sincere words passed through his lip before he makes a faint warm smile. "And...I'm glad I got to meet you, Princess Luna"

In that moment, he made his way to the base of the tree. Up close, it was a lot larger than and thicker than any oak tree hes ever seen. It was radiating an intense, yet soothing energy. Almost as if he could just let his body melt into it. It was wonderful. Hesitantly at first, he places his entire palm into a glowing grove. Just about the right size of his claw as if meant to fit perfectly. Then..he waited.

A minute had passed at nothing happened. "Okay...what now?", Cass said looking up at the tree. Still nothing. "Well, you've been calling me here. Arent you gonna do or say something?", his tone was beginning to become impatient. Again, nothing. "Look, I traveled for two long months to get here. And I trained and studied for a whole entire year for this! This cant be another dead end!", he growled in a raised tone. He was starting to show signs of anguish. "I HAVE NO WHERE ELSE TO TURN TO!!! I DONT HAVE A HOME TO BACK TO ANYMORE!!! YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME!!! PLEASE!", he shouted with plea. Suddenly he face-palms and starts chuckling. "Look at me...I'm yelling at a tree. I really must be losing my mind.", he shakes his head, seeing how pathetic he's acting. And in front of a princess no less. "So this is it, huh Terra? Is this why you sent me here? Is this my punishment? Well...you got me good. I guess I do deserve it",, he thought silently and sighed.

In that moment, he was about to give up. But when he tried to take his hand off the three....it wouldnt budge. "What the...Hey!", he started grunting loudly trying pry his claw off. "Hey let go! What kind of sap did I put my hand in. I'm glued!" Suddenly, his mark lit up and Cass was met with an overwhelming sensation going into his hand. And through out his entire body.

"GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!", he screamed. His mind and body started to feel like lava coursing through his cien as strange imges started pouring directly into his mind. "STOP STOP ITS TOO MUCH!", he cried.
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
Expellix nodded his head at her. "Of course, Luna. You hardly need my permission, though it is nice of you to ask, just make sure to give me a warning beforehoof."

He had eidetic memory. While much of the time he feigned having bad memory, it was quite the opposite. He could recall just about anything he wanted if he had seen it enough times or deemed it worthy of committing to memory. One of the few things he generally kept tabs on was his dreams. He was a lucid dreamer as well, and he noticed the subtle difference in his dreams compared to normal. Whenever he was injured he'd have fitful nightmares usually - he didn't have that this time. Either it would have just been the one time thing, or somebody else meddled... there was only a single mare able to do that.

He was thankful to Luna. Without her, his recovery probably would have taken much longer due to not getting the rest he needed. Tossing and turning in bed a lot wasn't ideal when you had a broken jaw and some other bones. It hadn't been long before he was able to simply heal himself, thanks to the magnificent doctors and Luna. He hadn't ever properly thanked her for it.

"By the way..." He started slowly. "Thank you. For everything, I mean." He glanced up at her. "I don't think I ever really did say that to you before."
 
Wylfen Shepard Wylfen Shepard
"It was a pleasure to meet you as well, Cassian." was all she said to that, albeit with a slight smile.

Princess Luna arched an eyebrow when he started yelling at the Tree, but remained steely calm and said nothing about it. He was young and full of emotion, so it wasn't a surprise that he might snap upon finding this was all just a waste of time. It was obvious to her that he expected something to happen here, he had said he had been called by the Tree after all, and finding nothing but defeat couldn't be easy. She sat calmly through his yelling.

"Maybe we should lea-" she was cut off by his sudden panicking that he couldn't pull his hand away, and a moment later was shocked by the fact that he was screaming that it was 'too much'.

Buuut this was his idea. She did nothing but watch and hope he didn't die.

Dumbledoof Dumbledoof
Luna lazily saluted him and nodded, a slight smile on her lips. "I'm not about to let my apprentice die in their first real battle. This one, though? Well if you get injured tonight, I am not helping you out of it." She said with pretty much the most serious tone of voice you can have. She was an ancient mare and had a pretty amazing poker face, in addition to just being cold in general. It was hard to tell what was serious out of her mouth and what was a joke.

"Try not to puke." She said with a tone of finality before Expellix would feel a cloud of magic enveloping him. This was something far from normal magic, even teleportation; he would feel his physical body simple disappear. He heard sounds, but they were muffled and seemed to be far away. He couldn't feel anything, besides a bitter coldness. Instead of seeing with his eyes, he'd be able to 'see' in a strange sort of magical way. The world around him was painted with grays and blacks, with living creatures being bright gray and other shapes falling under a range of colors.

And then he was whisked away. But a moment later, at least as far as he could tell, he was once again in his physical body and Luna was crouched beside him. Both of them were behind a massive bush, overlooking the griffon encampment.
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
"I'd like to think I learned my lesson from last time... never let your guard down. Especially in the middle of a battle..." That was notably a beginner's mistake. When thinking about it, what kind of idiot would do that anyway? This idiot! "It's funny that my first real battle was the day after I became your apprentice, though. Talk about moving quickly."

At the magic enveloping him, he paused and was surprised. This was not teleportation, he could tell that because he had been using that single spell for so long he might as well be a master of it. He felt like a cloud up in the sky, drifting aimlessly without his body. He couldn't describe the sensation. He didn't even know what this was. The bitter cold was not something he was unused to, the many long years of winter had made him resilient against it. He was mainly interested in the changes to his vision.

When his physical body seemed to return, he stumbled slightly and leaned over, nearly dry heaving. Close but no cigar, he managed to keep his dinner down and looked at Luna warily. "What was that?" He whispered.
 
Dumbledoof Dumbledoof
Luna's version of this was slightly different, but it was close enough that she understood his dry heaving. Scrambling the senses like that was always uncomfortable for mortals of any kind. "A type of unique magic." she said offhandedly, before skipping over that subject and looking out over the camp. It was a massive circular camp, with 12 guard posts scattered around it. They had built makeshift towers where bow-and-arrow wielding griffons kept a lookout for any potential Equestrian threats.

They also had 30 more guards patrolling the perimeter. Under the darkness of night, they couldn't really see anything outside of where their torches would illuminate. Luna had purposefully hidden the Moon away and overcast the sky to provide the darkest night possible. Griffons didn't have great night vision, so they were nearly blind away from their fires. Luna's eyes had a slight blue glow to them; just enough that you could somewhat spot them in the darkness if you really concentrated.

One guard made the mistake of getting a bit too close to the bush they were hiding in. Without a word, Luna burst into a cloud of shadows and flew into the guards mouth. He tried to cry out in pain, but found his throat not working as he froze from the inside out. Barely 3 seconds later, he hit the ground and was picked up by Luna, who might as well be invisible at night, and discarded behind the bushes out of sight of the main camp.

Not that they could find them anyway.
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
He recovered quickly enough from it at least. His stomach wasn't exactly fond of it still, but he assumed that he might have to get used to it. Doing it enough times would mean his body would adapt to it and therefore wouldn't be affected by it much. A type of unique magic, huh...

He watched what Luna did to that bastard. He didn't really know what happened to him, just the cry of pain trying to escape, but never quite reaching the outside world. He only assumed that his insides might have been rearranged or something... until he saw the guard's eye sockets shrink and turn blue. He'd been frozen. Eugh.

Note to self; never piss Luna off... He decided. Luna was invisible, and he was such a small target to look for in the darkness that you'd only have slightly better luck finding him than Luna. That's what gave him hope.

He drew his dagger from its sheath. Coldstabby hadn't been used to kill yet so this was going to be fun! "Alright, that's one griffon down. Will you be leading or should I find my own way?"
 
Dumbledoof Dumbledoof
"You follow me, but find your own way to do so. Meet me on the other side of that fence." She said while pointing at the fence straight across from them. "Do not kill any more perimeter guards. Actually..." with a dim flash of her horn, one obscured by the bushes, she sent the griffons body far away. "Killing him was a mistake. It sows far more seeds of fear to sneak into a camp past the guards and murder the sleepers. Don't hurt the guards. Make them useless." And with that, she burst into a cloud of shadows and rushed along the ground. She was gone past all the guards in a second and disappeared under the fence, where she would presumably wait for him.

He had several guards all patrolling the area as they made circles around the camp, and 12 more small towers in the air with those bow-and-arrow users on top of them.

How would he deal with this? This was his first test.
 
Dreamweaver Dreamweaver
Expellix pouted, scanning his eyes over the space between him and the fence. He was small enough that he'd be difficult to see by the guard towers... if he were standing still. Like most creatures, detecting movement seems to be far easier. The likelihood that they would see him while he was running or something was quite high.

He didn't know all the positions of the guards, or his current position in the camp. He closed his eyes and let the image of that strange sight he had with whatever Luna did to move them to the camp was... those gray things, they were moving. Living creatures. Where were they? He kept that image in his mind for a minute or so, studying it, until he finally concluded where he was.

He could simply teleport over there but they would probably find him by the flash it makes. Whose idea was that anyway? Couldn't somebody have made a version that doesn't make a bright light whenever you do it? Now he was determined to see if he could figure out how to make some adjustments to teleportation. He'd only need something short-ranged anyway.

He stepped out from the bush slowly to make as little noise as possible. They would probably assume that a small breeze was what rattled it. Staying in the shadows would be key here. They couldn't see well in it, he could see decently well in the darkness still. Not nearly as good as in broad daylight but nothing would be able to sneak up on him still. With that, he made his first move, darting across a clearing as soon as one of the guards turned their back to him, hiding behind one of the many tents. There was no light so they wouldn't be able to see his shadow silhouetted on it.

He paused to reinspect his position. There were four more patrollers in the area as he recalled. He could only see one immediately, who was holding a torch. He narrowed his eyes. No hurting the guards, huh...? He could do better.

His swiped his paw, it giving off a dim light only briefly as he smacked the torch out of the griffon's hand telekinetically. He hadn't even been looking in the first and didn't see the split second of blue magic affecting his torch. It fell to the ground, the fire landing right against a tent a couple feet away. It was only a second or two later that tent went up in flames. The guard who had 'dropped' his torch yelled, and then there was screaming coming from within the tent as the fire passed on to another.

He watched intently as many more griffons came out and began sprinting hurriedly throughout to camp to find water to put out the flames. The flame kept on going, spreading to other tents nearby, a blazing trail for everybody to witness. He could already tell that not every griffon was making it out of those tents immediately, as some came out on fire, screeching in agony, while others came out just fine. That's okay, it provided exactly the distraction he needed, because when he looked, the griffons in many of the guard towers were gone, having flown down to help fight the fire.

Luna probably would not approve but it did its job well enough.

With the distraction, he narrowly made his way through the darkness, now devoid of most griffons, to the fence. He hopped over, turning and watching the fire still blazing. "Not quite what I intended..." he muttered. "But it works, I suppose. They'll be busy with that for a while."
 
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