The Second Griffon War (Main Thread)

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Avedon didnt need to look for chinks now. It was foolish t o think himself the victor already, wounded as his foe may be. An ijured beast was always the most dangerous and unpredictable of its kind. But with a weapon like a flail, the less vigor you had to your movements the less dangerous. These offset that somewhat with their enchanted nature, but Avedon knew the more he swung them, the more blood filled that deep gash behind his ribs. The man would have to try something desperate sooner than later and that is what Avedon truly worried about...He decided to shift slowly to the offensive, try to keep the griffon from getting that chance. He couldnt actually HURT the griffon, not yet, but his blade found itself striking the full-plate along the mans wrists in rare openings to keep the concussive force hurting him under it. Not injuring, but hurting.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Station 1
Mini-Boss Battle - Griffon Commander
Avedon
With each passing second, the Griffon Commander grew weaker. The blood loss from the wound in his side was quite severe, and he was quickly losing the strength necessary to wield these massive flails. Each time he swung the flails, he winced and felt more blood gush from his wound. It wasn't long before one of his flails was dropped during its swing, and clattered to the ground beside him.

He didn't even bother to pick it up. He was just too... Tired. He could feel the blood soaking the leather inside of his armor, and no longer really had control of his left arm; the one which held the flail.

Instead he put gripped his one remaining flail with both hands and put in as much strength as he could muster in one final blow against the pony.

Dumbledoof
Unfortunately for Expellix, telepathy wasn't exactly something known by many unicorns. On the plus side, his question got sent out and a few mages who knew telepathy picked it up, before immediately running for the stairway up to the city. That would give the Pegasi some much needed Unicorn support, if they ended up in a fight.

To actually know what was going on up there, Expellix would have to go to Canterlot himself. It would take quite a lot of energy to teleport that distance, but it was doable. Assuming he could spare the time, since griffons were still assaulting him. Real hard to teleport when people are trying to stab you!

Speaking of which, four griffons were charging for him right now after narrowly avoiding Gunnolf's jaws. They each had halberds, the reach of which made it much harder for Expellix to simply dodge...

Gunnolf in the mean time was being beset by the exact same type of weaponry, although by ten griffons instead. The halberds wooden shafts were reinforced with metal, making them much harder to simply crush. Plus the spear on the end easily found gaps in Gunnolf's armor, and the axes on the side were perfect for slicing at the exposed flesh of his paws when he raised them.

Station 2
Cyan Hide
Both Trixie and Starlight would feel the shield going down. As attuned to magic as they were, such a massive spell being dropped was noticeable. They were one of the few unicorns out here who really felt it, and likely one of the first to know at all besides Arcus and her crew up top. Trixie wasted no time in teleporting to the back-lines, next to Starlight.

"Can you get us up there?" She asked, being too magically weak to teleport so far. This was a dangerous thing to ask, as they could wind up stuck inside the mountain if the teleport went wrong. But the ponies up there might need some magical support....

Station 3
Assailant
Wylfen Shepard
The explosion of magic certainly frightened the griffons, who saw a good portion of their forces simply... Disappear. No bodies left behind, not even ashes. The explosion of magic simply made it seem like they had never existed in the first place. As if seeing their friends disappear wasn't bad enough, seeing their Champion die only broke their morale further. They had no idea that his sword had done it; for all the Griffons knew, Arc, Silver and Cassian had caused that explosion.

The entire Griffon horde retreated from the cave entrance. They would not return for several minutes at least, until they formulated a new plan and bolstered their ranks. This gave the Equestrian's precious time to rest, regather their mana, and seek out healing magic.

Those who weren't resting or seeking help, gathered around Cassian, Arc and Silver, Equestria's champions, and simply cheered. It was the first time since before the Fall of Ponyville that the soldiers were truly happy. This was a staggering victory for Station 3!

Royal Palace
Cyan Hide
Shining Armor would be proud, if he wasn't so busy trying to end this ambush. As the Changelings came towards him, he raised his gleaming silver sword and brought it down on one of their heads. The powerfully enchanted blade, a gift from when he was promoted to Captain, tore through the Changeling's chitin armor and split its head down the middle. A Changeling off to the left leaped at him, but was blasted back as he slammed his purple shield into its chest, shattering the chitin and stopping its heart dead.

Three more Changelings charged him, and he readied himself to meet their attacks. The foremost one lunged in with a spear, which he sidestepped and swung his shield down on, shattering the head off the spear. With a light telekinetic grasp, he caught the broken spear head and flung it into that Changelings eye and out the back of its head.

The next two attacked as a team. With one leading in with their longsword, the other came in with a pair of daggers. Shining's shield caught the longsword, barely, but as he raised his own longsword to deflect the daggers he was too late. His blade cut the hoof off one of the Changeling's, causing that dagger to drop to the floor, but the second sank firmly into his shoulder.

Enraged by the pain, he deflected the next longsword strike and slammed the side of his shield into the Changelings mouth, breaking apart its teeth and dislocating its jaw. He then telekinetically pulled the dagger out of his shoulder and stabbed at the dagger-wielding Changeling furiously, stopping after about the twelfth time.

The other guards had finished off most of the Changelings; an easy feat now that they had their wits about them. That left 2 for Cadence.

 

[Dumbledoof]

Station 1 Avedon Latios
Expellix didn't have time for this nonsense! He needed to figure out what was going on. The clock was ticking until the full army of the griffons had flown up to Canterlot and was besieging them from the skies. There would be no way for them to defend against that without one of the princesses simply nuking the entire place. He was fairly sure nobody would want that to happen. How was it possible they the griffons had such massive numbers...? Did they conscript literally everybody?

His axes came to his hands and he prepared to defend himself. The first one he deftly deflected a stab, swiftly throwing the axe and having it lodge deep into that griffon's chest. The next two came in a pair. He managed to parry one of the halberds, but the next one he wasn't entirely able to dodge. The point at the end managed to catch him, sinking into his side, but only briefly. He quickly backed off, hissing and holding his side. While it would have been a shallow wound for a pony, he wasn't exactly a pony...

Enough games. Dark energy built up in his paws and he thrust his paw forward. Shadowy tendrils burst forth, wrapping themselves around the griffon's throats, squeezing until audible snaps from their necks came. Seeking to simply end this as quickly as possibly, he made his way up and over Gunnolf's head, coming down onto his knees below, his fist pounding into the earth.

More shadows came, and soon enough, those ten griffons met their ends to familiar dark spikes erupting from the ground. Expellix wavered slightly, not from that particularly taking much magic from him, but due to the injury he just sustained. Seeing as the threat was gone momentarily, Gunnolf leaned down and sniffed his companion.

"You are injured." He observed. "You need healing, little one."

Expellix nodded. "Yeah... but I don't have time for it. You're going to have to hold the fort here until I get back, I need to check up at the castle." He slowly staggered to his feet, looking back at Gunnolf. "Don't die on me here, Gunnolf."

Expellix closed his eyes and focused his magic, envisioning the castle before teleporting away to the castle. He was going to tear through his magic reserves if he kept up this pace, he knew this, but they were currently on a time limit. Hopefully he wasn't too late.

 

[Cyan Hide]

Dreamweaver

STATION 2/CANTERLOT:

Starlight definitely felt that. In fact, most of the mage line felt that, and many were looking up, worried. Starlight was relieved to have Trixie shortly by her side. She nodded at her question, and looked up.

"I sure can! Grab hold tight!"

Because of the risk of teleporting blind into a city, Starlight first teleported them several hundred feet in midair, and then while in freefall for a few terrifying seconds, teleported to the ground that she could now see. Back on terra firma, she looked up at the daunting Griffin army, and gulped It was only a matter of time until they realised...

ROYAL PALACE:

The last two Changeling's morale was gone, now worrying that the tides had turned and they weren't going to escape alive. They decided to, in a Last-ditch attempt to take out at least one shield-caster, charge Cadence at the same time. She swept her shield, parrying both of their strikes at once, before following up with her own confident thrusts. Both Changelings fell quickly.

Cadence then dropped the weapons and ran straight to Shining's side. "Are you okay, dear?" She asked, frightened. He'd been wounded!

 

[Wylfen Shepard]

Dreamweaver
Assailant

Cassian releases his spell as the wall gently crumbles to reveal the Griffon champion had been defeated by his own claw. There wasn't much left of him. And to the young dragon's relief, Arc was still in one piece. And thankfully to Silver's efforts in strengthening the mahic stone wall, a good deal of Equestrain soldiers of different squads have made it though. "Thanks", Cass thanked Silver With a pat on the back and a friendly smirks. With the remaining flock of Griffons retreating, Cassian took this as an opportunity to use his remaining magic reserves to do some healing with his nature magic. Even though there was cheering for victory, Cass can't help but feel that they're not out of the woods yet. There's a good chance the enemy will return any time. And they need a plan now that Station 3 had taken too many casualties.

"You okay?", asked the young dragon as he kneels down to Arc and takes out his pack where he keeps his medical herbs.

"Look guys! They may be gone now, but i doubt itll be long before they come back with reinforcements! ", while taking out his pack to prepare to help healing others, he makes a quick announcement to bring down the cheering and keep everyone's head in the game. "We're gonna need a plan! I might have a few. Any takers!?", he calls out looking around the crowd

 

[Assailant]

Station 3

Arc grunted as he stood up on shaky hooves. He had bruises and small scrapes from the explosion, but, with all things considered, he looked remarkably okay. He shook his head, clearing it of the fog from his impact. "I should be okay... for now." He was sure he'd need a strong rest to heal his mind after that blast, but he needed to focus for a little while longer.

While Arc was regaining his bearings, Silver stepped forward. "I might have a plan." He observed the tunnel they were protecting. "How structurally sound is this mountain? It's been a few thousand years since I reviewed this." He turned to Cass. "My thought is that we could retreat a bit of the way back into the mountain and use runes to blow the tunnel and collapse it. However, we could also plant Earth runes to rebuild the tunnel. If the mountain could survive a minute or so of the tunnel collapsing, we could simply rebuild it as if nothing ever happened in a few moments." He then gestured out to the outside of the cave.

"Alternatively, we could plant water runes up on the edge of the mountain around the mouth of the cave and in front of the cave, causing the griffons to get stuck in the mud and crushed under a landslide. It would be less effective than burying them outright, but it would have minimal effect on the structural integrity of the mountain if that is a concern." Arc wobbled a bit and spoke up.

"Are there any methane vents?" Silver looked over at him. "If we can find methane vents that are currently covered, by rock or metal, we could uncover them and use fire runes and some remote magic runes to remotely detonate the methane and blow them all to Tartarus. Probably only effective if it happened inside the tunnel though. The gas would be too spread out in the open air to be very effective."

Wylfen Shepard
Dreamweaver

 

[Anonmare]

Dreamweaver
Celestia's confusion was palpable as the scene laid out bare before her. The sound of, what she had presumed to be, an earth elemental stomping around had ceased and the Princess of the Sun know realised it to have been manufactured, likely an illusion or through some other means. Her first thought was on her children and, initially, she had thought them dead but, much to her relief, she saw their chests move with the shallow signs of breathing.

Of course, how they had managed to even subdue them was a mystery to Celestia as she knew they would never go with them willingly.

The next thing across her mind was the Griffons and Changelings (Changelings? Here?) and the cavalcade of dead guards across the floor. “Ge-” She had begun to call out what was intended to be a warning, believing the ball to be a bomb or sorts, before the black sphere exploded into a vile obsidian gas before she could finish speaking. The smoke was noxious and overpowering and Celestia felt as though she had spent several days powerlifting the Sun itself with how weak her muscles suddenly felt in comparison to how they normally did.
The guard with her was struck down just as efficiently as the other guards had and the snow white alicorn reflexively tried to bring up a barrier to defend herself.

But to her surprise, nothing came from her horn, not even the spurt of a failed spell.

Her shock and failed attempt let the crossbow user line up another shot and the Princess of the Suncould only think of putting up her forelegs to deflect the shot, but to her surprise it went straight though, her armour failing to cover her legs in their entirety. “AHH! Stars damn you!” She screamed, hissing in pain from the unexpected injury and Luna would instantly know something was wrong from the sharp burst of pain through their bond.

Celestia hadn't called out for help yet however, she was in too much shock to even think to. Without her magic, this would be a fight she couldn't so easil;y win but she would be thrice-damned to Tartarus before she let anyone kill her guards, kidnap her children and shoot her and let them get away with it. Forcing herself through the pain, she ran at the crossbow user, making sure he wouldn't get a second chance to shoot and damn near tried to trample him underhoof.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Assailant
Wylfen Shepard
Station 3
"I'm a geomancer... So am I... Me too!" Came the calls from some places in the masses of soldiers behind them. Around 3 unicorns shoved their way through the Equestrian forces, coming up to collaborate with the trio who had cleared the griffons out. After a brief amount of discussion, the agreement was reached that none of the geomancers were overly powerful, but they could help feed the runes magic if Arc and Silver created them. That, combined with Cassian's considerably stronger nature magic, could absolutely lend their plan some help.

As for methane vents... The trio got a collective shrug. Nobody really knew, and right now there wasn't really time to search around. Retreating further back into the tunnel and collapsing it on the griffons would be the best tactic right now; especially because it would cause the griffons to be hesitant when pushing in further. They wouldn't know how exhausting that type of magic was, for all they knew the unicorns could do it anytime they wanted...

Cyan Hide
Royal Palace
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" He said, waving her away almost to the point of shoving her. They had way bigger things to think about than his damaged shoulder. It hurt like hell and he was dripping blood onto the floor, but at the moment he was the only one in the room who could actually raise the shield around Canterlot and stop the griffons from swarming in.

Cadance's magic was returning really slowly. At this rate, it'd be hours before she would be of use. Which was fine, Shining Armor could hold the shield up by himself for a long time. Assuming there were no Changelings here hiding among the living guards.

Her took his place, and began to erect the shield once again...

Cyan Hide
Dumbledoof
Canterlot
Expellix, Trixie and Starlight Glimmer all appeared in Canterlot at the same time. What they saw was rather terrifying.

The shield around Canterlot began to once again take form, but not before the griffon horde partially got in. Although the majority of the horde was trapped outside the city, a portion of the griffons made it inside.

A portion of that horde numbered in the low thousands. Against about 300 Equestrians.

Before the griffons could engage, Arcus had time to issue commands as the senior officer among the Equestrians. This was her battle. Trixie and Starlight were there as well, having teleported in at possibly the best time. Trixie sheathed her katana and immediately began drawing upon her magical reserves.
...
Expellix was there as well, but his eyes would be drawn to a different sight. Behind the griffon horde, there were three shapes approaching. Three very large shapes. They looked like this:

What was even more surprising than a mob of undead dragons was the fact that they immediately began attacking the enemy. The cheering of griffons, who originally had thought the dragons were alive and not undead, quickly turned into screams as the Dracoliches turned their breaths on the enemy forces. A cold blew flame radiated even through the shield around Canterlot. The horde of griffons left outside the shield were almost immediately spit apart and sent screaming, pursued by the dragons.

A streak of blue light then became visible in the sky, leaving stars and darkness in its trail as it went. It was pretty obviously Luna going very fast. Fast enough that she punched a small hole through the shield, which was quickly repaired. She quickly disappeared through the wall of one of the towers.

Anonmare
Royal Quarters
To say that Luna knew Celestia was in trouble was an understatement. It was very rare that Celestia ever radiated that much pain through their bond. Usually whatever wounds they did suffer were immediately lessened by their healing factor. Needless to say, Luna came as fast as she could; and for her, that meant she got from Ponyville to Canterlot in about half a second.

Before Luna even got there, Celestia managed to take out one of the Changelings simply by trampling him. No amount of chitin could save him from her sheer size, and her hoof crushed his head as easily as a regular pony would crush an apple. Magically enhanced strength or not, Celestia was still a massive mare. Bigger than any other pony, with only Luna being close in size. Even Luna was smaller.

With one Changeling dead, that left 4 alive.

One of the Changelings got off another shot with his crossbow, but the quarrel shattered harmlessly against Celestia's heavily enchanted full-plate. The other 3 pulled out a sword each and advanced on her.

It was then that Luna made her appearance, by smashing through the wall of the room at sonic speeds. The rubble from the wall collapsing crushed one of the Changelings, and nearly crushed Celestia as well. After a quick glance around, Luna noticed that Celestia was the only other alicorn in the room. There should be 3.

A blast from her horn literally disintegrated two other Changelings, leaving only one alive.

 

[Dumbledoof]

Canterlot Dreamweaver Cyan Hide
Expellix was really starting to feel that injury to his side now. He wasn't going to be much further use to anybody if he didn't get this fixed soon. He certainly wasn't going to be engaging in anymore physical combat until that point, dodging around would be a bit of a bitch as well. He paused when Trixie and Starlight appeared nearby with him. He waved at the two.

"Nice to see you both!" He yelled. But not before seeing the griffons actually get in.

This battle should've been a piece of cake for them here. Canterlot was the strongest city in the world, some paltry griffons shouldn't have stood a chance. And yet, somehow, they had broken the barrier long enough for a few thousand to manage to sneak their way inside. Did they come from the tunnels or was there something else afoot? He wasn't sure what to think.

He did know what to think when he saw dragons. Undead dragons. Well, his question of where Luna had run off to had finally been answered when they began attacking the enemy forces. He held his side and whooped, raising his tiny fist to the sky, and watching as Luna smashed through the walls of one of the towers. Well, that couldn't possibly be good for its structural integrity. He doubted Luna even felt that.

Seeing how he had time, he slumped down and called upon the little remains of his magic. His paw began to glow a soft golden hue as he went to healing his wound, which had bled a considerably amount all down his right side at this point, and especially staining the fur there and on his paws. He frowned, looking down at it and focusing his thoughts for the time being. He could rejoin the fray afterward ... maybe. He wasn't sure he had much left in the tank.

 

[Assailant]

Silver and Arc nodded after their discussion with the geomancers. If there were others who knew how to utilize earth magic, their mission would be considerably simpler. At one point in the discussion, Arc had tossed out the idea that maybe they should have a group outside the tunnel to cause a mudslide/rockslide from above and trap the griffons, making the retreat harder, the attack wider, and the effects more difficult to avoid. It was a good idea, but they soon decided not to since they didn't want to leave a group stranded against the griffons if the attack didn't prove to be as effective as they hoped it would. However...

"We could utilize ranged runes for that as well," Silver postulated. "The effects will be less precise, but it can get the job done too without ponies having to stay out when the attack is launched. The group above the tunnel could function as lookouts to let us know when the griffons are returning as well. I would be willing to lead such a group if any were willing." Arc nodded.

"So then. I'll get to work on crafting the runes within the tunnel. You all work that part out." Arc began making his way to the walls of the tunnel, pulling out a chisel. Anything that can make a design could work for runes, from a quill to chalk to clay and everything between. However, the more permanent the material, the less likely it is to break under the strain or be simply wiped away. While it took a good deal of time, a rune chiseled into stone or similar substances were some of the strongest runes there were. And for something like this, it needed to be guaranteed that the runes wouldn't break while the tunnel collapsed, or a number of bad things could happen. He paused and took out chalk and drew the earth rune on the floor of the tunnel. It was definitely intricate, but nothing that required a huge amount of mastery. It took more time than skill. "If anyone wants to help out, and they have something they can carve with, just make that design. Place it periodically around the cave's walls, floor, and ceiling. Probably about... 7 meters apart. Just be very careful that you copy that design exactly."

Dreamweaver
Wylfen Shepard

 

[Wylfen Shepard]

Assailant
Dreamweaver

"If it's crumbling you need done, then I'm your guy.", the young dragon said as stepped into Arc and Silver's discussion. "I happen to be an earth Dragon, so I'd be lying if I said I don't know anything about Geomancy. And my brain is naturally hotwired for geology. So If you need to know the right places to put those runes, I can help you track some vent and some brittle areas", he explained

 

[Cyan Hide]

Dreamweaver Dumbledoof

ROYAL PALACE:

Cadence stood by her husband as he re-erected the shields, sword at the ready. She would protect her husband with her life until her own magic was returned. She gave him a quick nuzzle and a kiss on the cheek while he could still appreciate it.

STATION 2:

Applejack felt recovered now, and found Lucian again She nodded to him, and shouted "Ready for Round 2?"

CANTERLOT:

Arcus saw the forces approaching. Forces that she had no hope of beating with her current numbers. But she could take out as many of them as she could, and hurt their morale as much as possible, by using the sole advantage the Equestrians had left over the invaders; the home ground.

First she commanded one of the Wonderbolts (that's right. They're frighting too) to fly back as fast as they can and get as much backup as can be spared from the lower levels. Then she gave the orders to her Guard; They were to try and draw the Griffins closer to the buildings, and then use the knowledge of Canterlot to spring traps and launch counterattacks, hopefully taking out as many as they could. Standing and fighting in a formation would just see them swarmed and attacked from all sides and angles, and that would be instant death.

It was as she was giving these orders when the undead dragons arrived, and caused Arcus no short amount of dread until she realised they were on their side. The scales were now tipping towards them a little more.

---

Starling managed a wave to Expellix before she saw the shadow of the undead dragons, but could also instantly tell that they were undead and was relieved to see Luna return to the castle. They had their Princesses back too! Feeling a little more confident, Starlight turned to Trixie, grinning but with fear telling in her eyes. "There's only a few thousand of them got through. No mach for us!"

 

[Anonmare]

Dreamweaver
Celestia wasn't about to simply stand by and let a bunch of Changelings and Griffons kidnap her daughters without a fight and the only way they were going to get away with them was over Celestia's cooling corpse. She charged the first Changeling, it's compound light blue eyes widening in fright as it questioned its life choices before being promptly flattened like the insect it was – its chitin buckling under the alicorn's mass and natural, non-enhanced strength.

Ichor covered her armoured hooves and she had only her armour to rely upon to protect her from any further attacks, as was demonstrated by another crossbow quarrel impacting her side, the bolt snapping in twain against the enchanted plate uselessly. The Princess of the Sun was grateful that at least her armour had retained its enchantments.

She had been so focused on defending herself that she hadn't noticed Luna was in Canterlot, or the fact that she was the only alicorn in the room - excluding Luna up until the point that she had smashed through the side wall like a drink's mascot and sending debris everywhere; crushing another one of the changelings, their chitin clearly not designed to withstand blunt trauma.

“Don't breathe any smoke they produce!” The sun-flanked mare shouted out, warning her sister about the danger she wouldn't know of whilst she used her magic to disintegrate the other two Changelings while she focused on the last remaining one, a red mist colouring her mind's perception of everything.

At another point in time, in a more rational state of mind, Celesita might have considered taking the Changeling alive. But, she was high on adrenaline and enraged that anypony had even considered trying to take their children and she would not show mercy to anyone who did that. Drawing her weapon would take too long and the smoke's residual effects had left her severely weakened, and, too magically-drained to use her magic for even simple telekinesis. So, she needed to use her head...

Or specifically, the thing on top of her head.

With a glare of aggression, she breathed hot air out of nostrils and ground her teeth together as she charged at the last kidnapper, head down and horn raised right at it, and charged headlong right at them. Even if she missed, Luna was there and there would be no escape for the chitinous changeling.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Station 2
Anonmare
Cyan Hide
The battle at Station 2 was beginning to pick back up once again. Bodies were constantly being levitated out of the way, lest they completely clog the tunnel with their disease and rot. Lucian had taken only a short breather in his time here; swinging a sword with magic wasn't the most physically exhausting thing, most of his exhaustion came from dodging and all the bruises he had underneath his plate-mail.

Adali was... Somewhere in the back, with the other unicorns. Lucian had long since lost track of her, due to being too busy fighting for his own life up here to pay attention to her.

As Applejack and himself returned to the front lines, he shot her a withering glare and cut down a pair of griffons with a cleaving swing of his mighty greatsword. "Round 2?! I don't consider this a ga-" He was cut short as a griffon bit into the neck of the guard beside him, and then tackled Lucian to the ground; its beak snapping for his throat, and missing. Instead it bit deeply into the flesh on his shoulder, right between two armored plates.

Station 3
Assailant
Wylfen Shepard
The griffons outside weren't going to give them much time. After the effects of the explosion wore off and the griffons calmed themselves down, they began to assemble once again for an assault. In total, Arc, Silver and Cassian bought Station 3 about 10 minutes of time. It wasn't much time to carve runes into the wall, although with magic it was somewhat possible, but it was enough time to get some of the soldiers healed and ready to fight once more. That's about the most you could ask for in a war.

With a battle cry, the griffons charged once again into the wall of Earth Ponies and Crystal Ponies set up to defend Station 3. The same deafening clash as before resounded around the area, screams of the dying and the clanging of metal immediately filling the ears of all ponies and griffons around.

The runes were half done. From now on, Arc, Silver, Cassian and all the other geomancers would have to carve the runes while the battle raged. But the plan remained possible, and if they did this right they could make it look to the griffons as if they were retreating further into the cave and collapse the entrance on them. Over the clamor of battle, nobody would notice a few runes being carved.

Canterlot
Cyan Hide
Dumbledoof
Although the undead dragons were currently devouring the griffons left outside the shield and wouldn't be able to help with this battle, that didn't mean they weren't an amazing distraction. Their appearance slowed the griffon horde who turned around at the cries of their comrades, giving the Equestrian's a few precious seconds of battle planning before they would clash.

Arcus made a good call. With her orders, the Equestrian's retreated into Canterlot, abandoning the air in order to fight the griffons on the ground; in and around buildings. That would make their numbers mean less, as fighting in doorways and alleys meant numbers wouldn't be such an advantage. The Equestrian's were much better armed, armored and trained. They just needed a bit of back-up.

That Wonderbolt was already gone off looking for help. A few griffons tried to follow, but... Well, good luck with that, griffons.

Arcus would immediately spot a few possible base locations nearby; The Royal Equestrian Museum, an old but large theater, and an old grocery store. Any of these large buildings would serve as a good base. Not many windows on any of them, plus large doors to defend at...
........
Starlight, Trixie and Expellix were pretty much the most powerful magical backbone of this military force. But they were also rather vulnerable to being stabbed, like any pony. They'd need a place to hunker down; casting spells in the middle of melee combat wasn't usually a good idea.

"YOU!" Trixie called up to Arcus. She knew the mare was in charge, due to how she commanded a Wonderbolt like that. Wonderbolts were all pretty high ranking, so she must be higher! "Where are we going??"

Royal Quarters
Anonmare
Luckily for Celestia, the other alicorn in this room was still somewhat in her right mind, and Celestia wouldn't do something that she would regret.

As Celestia was closing in on the terrified Changeling, a shadow formed in front of her and coalesced into Luna's form. Her horn glanced harmlessly off Luna's skin and Celestia herself bounced off her, as if she had run full speed into a metal wall. Luna didn't budge an inch, instead just looking down at Celestia with a disappointed expression. "Answers, Celestia. We need answers! He dies, and then what? We need to know where they were taking the kids!"

As Luna rounded on the Changeling, she just barely noticed him crunching down on something... And then he started convulsing, and fell over dead. A suicide pill. That was, admittedly, a way better fate than Luna's Inquisitors would have given him. Out of his mouth seeped more black smoke, the kind that Celestia had warned Luna about. The mare had certainly not expected if to come from there.

To Celestia, it did nothing. She was already affected previously.

To Luna, it felt like someone broke her horn. To find that she could no longer summon her magic was completely alarming and not something she had experienced in over 5,000 years. As the magic was drained from her body, she quickly turned back into her old light-blue self with her regular old mane (the same as Celestia would have done, turning into Daybreak again) and lost all her enhanced abilities.

Then a guard ran into the room. "Pri-....Princesses?" He stared at the two of them, and just shook his head. Despite looking a bit different, they were still discernible and alicorns. "Changelings, Princesses! In the throne room! The guards stationed there... Half of them turned! Their ambush was defeated, but Princess Cadence is powerless and Shining Armor is injured! We are sending another regiment of guards to them as we speak. The shield dropped for a few brief minutes and a couple thousand griffons poured into the city! At the moment they are in the entertainment district, clashing with around a thousand guards."

 

[Anonmare]

Dreamweaver
Cyan Hide
Adali had gotten separated from Lucian in the confusion, she scarcely understood what was going on beyond the whole 'throw fireballs at the probably-not-evil-but-still-currently-trying-to-kill-her-and-thus-it-was-okay-to-kill-them-first Griffons before they skewered her on their assortment of weapons' thing. Speaking of which... She threw another fireball at some Griffons diving at some Ponies, the enemy combatant combusted spectacularly before crashing into the ground. Adali hoped that they didn't land on anypony important.

She normally she was more summoner than Elementalist but right now she was whatever it took to get out of here alive.

She spotted the glint of a familiar greatsword in the heart of the melee, her sight-lines were limited by the mass of bodies but she swore that was Lucian's sword. If he died, she was going to take up Necromancy,commit foul magic and probably sign her own death warrant just to chastise the stubborn stallion for insisting on going into the front of the brawl.

She pushed and shoved and shivved her way through the horde of bodies to get to where she saw the familiar sword, armoured fur and feathers blending together and she hoped that she didn't confuse an enemy for a friend when she stabbed them with her knife. She eventually managed to push her way past and was delighted to see that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, less delighted was the Paladin himself who was busy fending off a Griffon atop of him.

She shanked the Grffon in the back of its neck before shoving them off of the stallion. “Are you cheating on me with another soldier?” She asked with a mock-glare, before offering him her hoof up, nodding at Applejack. “Oh hey Orange Pony whose name I've already forgotten, thank you for keeping Lucian out of trouble!” Adali yelled over the cacophony of combat.

...

Canterlot, Castle, Royal Quarters

Dreamweaver
Celestia shook her head in a daze, Luna's normally empowered body and her currently weakened one was a clear contrast and the Lunar Mare's skin may as well be solid steel to her horn as it failed to penetrate even the outer epidermis with not even a scratch. “You're ri- LOOK OUT!” Celestia shouted, noticing the kidnapper Changeling about to swallow what she could only surmise to be a suicide pill of some kind.

She tried to push Luna out of the way but she was in no state to do so and, to her horror, more of that smoke seeped out of its mouth as it convulsed and took its knowledge with it to the grave. The smoke however, did to Luna what it had done to her and drained her Alicorn magic, rendering her in the same condition after being separated from Nightmare Moon.

She noticed her own pink-mane peeking out from the top of her head, having escaped notice up until now, and realised that she probably looked to be in the same state as she did. The combat must have had her concentrating on other things besides her appearance obviously. But that was unimportant right now and she listened intently to the guard, ready to explain if they didn't know they were. “Pull the remaining guards back to the castle and re-group. Make sure Shining Armour and Cadence are out of harm's way. We need to hold what we can until the regiment gets here!” Celestia ordered, doing her best to project her regalness despite her current weakness. There was no point in the guards dying for something that, from a strategic point of view, holds no value and the death of the Princess of Love or her consort could be the last nail in the coffin for the country's morale if they let it happen.

Other matters quickly took a hold of Celestia's mind however...

“Now, what about the Griffons who were here Guardspony!? Have you intercepted them!?” Celestia demanded to know, the Griffons who had their children had managed to slip away in the scuffle and without their magic they were powerless to stop them. It would be up to whoever they have who could fly to catch them and the Sun Princess noted grimly that their couldn't be many Pegasi left who were available, but she would be damned if she lied down and did nothing.

 

[Cyan Hide]

Dreamweaver Anonmare Dumbledoof

STATION 2:

Applejack was about to go to Lucian's rescue when she suddenly had to catch the swing of a halberd between her hooves, wrench it from the Griffin's grip, and then punch him in the face, breaking said face and killing the Griffin. She was immediately assailed by another one who got in close and scratched her chest with it's talons, shredding her armor. Applejack screamed out in pain, before fighting off this Griffin, killing it with a double hind-leg buck to the chest that stopped it's heart. When she turned back to Lucian, Adali had come to the rescue.

"Don't mention it, pardner! Now git 'im out of here! He's hurt!" Applejack shouted, ignoring the blood running down her own chest.

CANTERLOT:

Arcus was scouting the nearest usable buildings, and commanded her troops into the grocery store and the museum, before calling the Chosen Guard with her. They were going to take the theatre as a base. Before they left for that, though, Arcus heard Trixie's request, and after a little searching and thinking, pointed to a large, abandoned manor house which did have several windows, but that would only be an advantage to magic users. Besides, there were only three sides that actually had windows, and it had no chimney.

"You three take that manor house and try to kill as many as you can with ranged magic attacks!" Arcus commanded, before flying off with the Chosen Guard to hold up in the theatre. A few of the guard broke off to fly closer to the Griffins and try to bait them to follow, and discourage them from carrying on towards the capital. This strategy was relayed and repeated by the other two squads.

---

Starlight saw the reason in this order, so obeyed it, and, grabbing the cyan mare and the rabbit on either side of her, teleported all three inside the manor. "Okay, team. Everybody pick a window and cover each other's blind spots!" Starlight cried, glad to be back in the action. Try as she may to train in Friendship, there would always be a part of her that relished violence and conflict. Just as there would always be cravings for both power over others, and an Orwellian, communist society. Those were part of her.

 

[Dumbledoof]

Canterlot Dreamweaver Cyan Hide
Expellix didn't know how he felt about being ordered by some random stranger. On one paw they probably had more tactical and military experience than him. On the other paw, since when was he ever put under their command in the first place? He really needed to ask Luna on just who or what he should be listening to and following here.

For the time, he'll humor them. He didn't have any bright ideas at the moment and that seemed like a good place to be at the moment. He wasn't exactly in condition to go off and into the fray of the fight with his weapons anyway. Best to sit it out on the sidelines and shoot some magic instead. It'll put less strain on his sore side until he can completely heal it, not to mention give him a bit more time to properly recover.

He managed to at least reduce his wound to an angry red scar. That's the best he could hope for at the moment. He continued holding it, limping up to Trixie and Starlight ... only to be grabbed and teleported. He hissed. "Hey! Watch it!" He yelled, wriggling free to the ground and wincing. "Kinda hurt here, y'know."

He took a window and watched for griffons, ready to blast them with magic.

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
The griffon was sheathing the sword...a death-blow was always the hardest to dodge. Am attack with no regards to personal safety. The commander had known he couldn't truly win now. And he had nothing to hold back for. All he could do was hope to kill or at least hurt his enemy with the last of all his strength and will power. The griffons great body carrying through Avedon's dodge. Suicidal to perform but he was already a dead-man walked. The blow struck. Not as hard as it may have with the close distance but the enchanted lightning cracked through Avedons muscles and spine. Half his body freezing as the griffon crashed into it. The stallion still had the presence of mind to drop and shift his blade. The griffons own weight brought him impaling himself onto the sword. Avedon holding the armored foe up on his shoulder, not on purpose, but simply unable to move as his bones and nerves slowly were struggling to come back to life.

 

[Latios]

As long as Galagus fought, he could not fight forever. The battle was starting to take a toll on him as he began to grow weak. Never before had he had to use this much magic. It was becoming too much. And it was also becoming apparent in his spell casting as each attack grew smaller and weaker. In fact Galagus himself was starting to feel woozy and ready to pass out. But Galagus couldn't back down now. He had to keep fighting, or ele he would surely die. But it was starting to seem hopeless. Nevertheless, his flames still lashed out to burn the griffin foes.

 

[Dreamweaver]

Station 1
Mini-Boss Battle - Griffon Commander!
Avedon
It really had been an all-or-nothing maneuver. This griffon had fought a thousand battles, and had seen enough bloodshed to know that his wounds were mortal. He would die in combat, and the only thing he could do was throw himself at the enemy with everything he had. He grinned as his mace struck a glancing blow across the ponies shoulder, knowing that even without the fullest impact it would still bruise the muscle and probably crack some of the bone underneath. Not to mention the lightning.

The griffon didn't know Avedon. He didn't know what he was made of. The griffon died believing that he took his foe with him... And for an old warrior like himself, that was probably the best death Avedon could have given him.

As Avedon's sword slid between the Commander's plate mail and clanked against the plates on his back, the Commander went still and died with a smile on his beak. And then his body slumped further, and Avedon would be forced to step to the side or go down under the body.

And then he was alone, in the middle of the griffon forces. He had come out into the enemies territory to fight the Commander, and now had to deal with that fact. However, surprisingly... no griffons attack him. They did what their Commander had ordered, and parted ways so that Avedon could return to his troops.

Avedon
Latios
With the Griffon Commander defeated, the assaults of the griffons slowly grew less and less intense, until they weren't attacking at all. Most of these griffons were young, barely out of their teens, and were certainly not soldiers. Farmers, blacksmiths, things such as that. Without a commander to give them orders, these peasants had no idea what to do; but more importantly, they didn't want to do anything.

The griffon horde retreated, waiting for a new leader. For now, Equestria had won the hour and would have some time to recuperate and mend their wounds.

Station 2
Anonmare
Cyan Hide
"I'm not hurt! I'm fi-OW!" He cried out as he tried to stand and immediately buckled on his leg. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, because he could simply heal the wound closed, but he spent a lot of his magic on healing wounded soldiers during their short break and now was simply too magically exhausted to do much of anything. While the others had been resting, he had been working double time to provide his Paladin services to all who needed it. Now he was paying the price. Even holding his great-sword up telekinetically felt like he was holding a mountain...

"... Stay safe, Applejack! I'm coming back in a few minutes!" He said, implying when he'd have his magic back. With that, Adali had to lead Lucian away from the battle.
...................
Unfortunately, once Adali and Lucian were gone, a certain foe saw his opportunity to take down one of Equestria's Champions...

Through the wall of griffons in front of Applejack, she would see a massive form looming over them all. It cast a shadow over a good portion of the soldiers. Two clawed hands reached down and grabbed two griffons who were about to attack Applejack, crushing their skulls with just a slight squeeze of its enormous hands and then tossing the bodies far away.

In front of her stood a massive brutish griffon. He was nearly 10 feet tall, and apparently powerful enough to crush other griffons heads with his clawed hands alone.

He didn't look super bright, either.

Mini-Boss Battle - Griffon Brute!

Canterlot Theater
Cyan Hide
While in the theater, Arcus couldn't be sure how the others were holding up. It's not as if she could keep a magical eye on the grocery store, museum, and the guards harassing the griffons outside. It simply wasn't possible. And sending a runner out there would be a suicide mission; they'd die before they got anywhere useful.

The theater was a pretty good spot. The front of the theater was to open to be useful, with windows everywhere, but retreating further back would be advantageous. The rooms where the moving-pictures actually happened had no windows of any kind and only a pair of large double doors which would force the griffons to advance slowly.

But they did advance. They practically chased the Pegasi in there. Pegasi and Griffons were natural rivals, and any opportunity the griffons got to torment and maim a Pegasus was taken. Quite a few of their number were dead or dying before Arcus and her gang reached the room.

And then the fight was on, with the double doors being the only way in.

Royal Quarters
Anonmare
"W-What? What griffon's?! Up until just now, I didn't even know this room existed! I saw Princess Luna smash through the wall up here while looking through a window and knew I could find at least her here. I do-..."

Despite feeling sick, Luna could see where this was going. She was panicked and worried, but she had also been through this before and knew how to keep a calm mind. Celestia, however, was not doing that. "Celestia, calm down! Guard, leave." She commanded, to which he quickly bowed and practically ran from the room. He didn't like being questioned like that about a room that, three seconds ago, he didn't know existed.

"Celestia... Don't question the guards. Nopony outside of us and Sapphire Love even knew this room exi-wait." She looked around and scowled angrily. Sapphire Love wasn't even here. She should be here... As a corpse. So either the griffons had taken her, or she had went with them willingly...

They had no time to even think about that right now with the way things were going.

"Forget it. With changelings in the group, nopony on the ground will notice another pony carrying off a foal. We will... find them later. In our current forms there's nothing we can do." She blinked back tears and just nodded her head, thinking about this as logically as possible. "You need to go to the Throne Room and check on Cadence and Shining Armor. I will send a flyer down to grab reinforcements, as well as Arc and Silver. They have a rune that detects Changelings. I want to make sure no guard in the room with Cadence is a Shifter. I will go help out the Pegasi in the main city against the griffons who broke through there."

"... Go!"

And with that, Luna was gone, flying quickly away. If she had her powers, those griffons wouldn't have gotten far. But that wasn't the case, and chasing them now would be foolish.

Canterlot Mansion
Cyan Hide
Dumbledoof
Expellix's complaints of being hurt fell on deaf ears. Trixie was simply focused on other things and didn't pay it much mind right now. Without a word she ran over to the only available window and opened it. "Everypony open your windows! You don't want that glass hitting you in the face!" She commanded, knowing that it wouldn't really slow down the griffons if they broke it; only hurt the unicorns and rabbit. Luckily the windows were small enough that only one griffon would get through at a time, which should make this whole ordeal easier...

It was then that a smashing sound resonated from the floor above them in the mansion...

Station 3/Throne Room
Anonmare
Assailant
GeneralTyrus
Wylfen Shepard
Of the 200 guards grabbed to be Cadence and Shining Armor's personal guard, there were 20 Changelings, although at the moment nopony knew that; the Changelings were all disguised. Tyrus was one such disguised Changeling. Arc and Silver had been grabbed for a reason that only they knew, and Cassian had been grabbed because he was a powerful dragon who would be of use to the guards if a fight broke out. Despite Cadence and Shining Armor being attacked by Changelings, nopony had been told... Because that would hurt morale a lot. And make every Equestrian soldier paranoid that the soldier beside him was a Changeling.

Arc and Silver were there to weed out any Changelings.

Soon the group of guards arrived at the Throne Room, about the same time as a depowered Celestia would have.

 

[GeneralTyrus]

Dreamweaver

Station 3/Throne Room

Tyrus would be moving with the group, keeping his face straight as best he could, though, he was rightly terrified. He was in a room filled to the brim almost, with those who likely would attack him, and there were others like him. He'd shake his head, trying to clear his mind of the thought, though he couldn't avoid it, it kept creeping back into his mind. Stomping a hoof and gritting his teeth, he'd look around, trying to pin point the other changelings, hoping that maybe he could avoid the madness of what could become if he knew where to avoid.

 

[Assailant]

Throne Room

Silver and Arc looked over the group of assembled soldiers with a pointed stare. They were very carefully assessing everyone to see if one of them could be a Shifter. Their eyes drifted across the crowd. So their briefing was right, then. Most of these people did not seem to know that there were likely Shifters among them.

The complacency of the modern era bugged Silver to no end.

No matter, they had a job to do, and they were going to see it through. The two mumbled to one another as their final rune was completed. They'd drawn runes on multiple places throughout the room: certain spots on the floor, walls, doorways, and any furniture that was there.

The system of runes they'd used to power and receive these, put simply, is as follows: They created an arcane transposing rune near them, as well as multiple arcane receptor runes next to each detector rune. They'd connected them through the connector pathway (which, Arc would proudly boast on nights in the tavern, he himself had created), and created an ancillary arcane transposing rune around the primary detector rune which the connector pathway bypassed altogether. That way, when the primary detector went, it would trigger the transposer which would all connect back to a sequence of receptor runes in the corner Arc and Silver were in.

Really, pretty simple stuff.

That said, this took about forty-five minutes in total, but when it was finally done, the two sat down in their corner and observed. That was going to be their job for some time. Their cursory inspection of the room, in general, had, indeed, confirmed that there were Shifters in the room, though as of right now, their position and numbers were unknown. Now, however, they would be more certain. If a Shifter even walked past one of the runes, Arc and Silver would know.

As the two looked out over the crowd, Silver pointed out Tyrus. "There."

Arc looked over at him. "What do you mean?"

"He's definitely a Shifter." Arc followed his hoof and saw Tyrus too. "His behavior is unbecoming of a royal guard. He's nervous for no reason. Look at him stomping his hoofs and shaking his head. He's trying, and failing, to stay calm. Rookie Shifter mistakes, and honestly, it is somewhat disgraceful that someone so clearly green is being assigned to one of the princesses." Arc hummed in thought for a moment.

"Perhaps..." He then sighed. "But do keep in mind that the ponies of the modern era are not so accustomed to war as you and me. He may simply be afraid given the circumstances. These ponies fear death." Silver grumbled, but he did have to acknowledge that Arc was right. "We have a system, let's stick to it." He paused for a moment as he thought over the circumstances. "But, perhaps... let us keep an eye on that one."

 

[Wylfen Shepard]

Assailant
GeneralTyrus Dreamweaver

Throne room

One second he was helping with setting a trap to crush the Griffon enemy and block them from entering the mountain entery at Station, next thing he knew he was suddenly carried off by a team of fliers and taken to the throne room along with Silver and Arc. Now here the young dragon stands in line with the others trying to keep a straight face. "What's going on?", he thought to himself. Apparantly they were being assessed by the guard to see if there were shifters of not. "Shifters? Wait you don't mean chalnglings do you?", he asked when the subject came up.

 

[Avedon]

Dreamweaver
Avedon stood up slowly. His sword still wet with the griffon commanders blood. He did nothing further to the body. He didn't shove it over, he didn't place it to a more relaxed pose...he did nothing. He let the warrior stand as a testament to his own honor and his own death. Avedon walked calmy back to his lines, or at least that is how he tried to make it look. He felt one of those mace-blows had cracked something near one of his ribs. He didn't dare show any trace of weakness among the ravenous horde around him. Instead his eyes remained fixed and blazingly defiant on his own soldiers and the battle line he soon stepped back into.

 

[Cyan Hide]

STATION 2:

When Applejack saw the massive, hulking Griffin approaching, she looked around for Lucian and Adali. They were nowhere to be found.

Good.

Applejack then removed all of her armor. I wouldn't protect against that kind of strength and it would just slow her down. She kept the metal gauntlets though. She'd need as much striking power as possible. Cracking her neck, she then beckoned the foe with a 'come on' gesture, and grinned. She couldn't deny she was looking forward tho this.

Dreamweaver

CANTERLOT THEATRE:

The door wasn't wide enough for all the Pegasi to fight, so the Basic soldier plugged the gap with long reaching pikes. Chosen Guard were stationed behind them with shortwords, ready to slice at any Griffins who made it past the pikes. Arcus hovered above them, shortsword drawn and overseeing the battle, giving orders to plug holes or for the rear line to take up a pike and step forward as needed. They were holding for now.

Dreamweaver

CANTERLOT MANSION:

Starlight shied and her ears went down as she hurriedly apologised to Expellix, before going to her window and opening it. "Good call there, Trixie!" she called back at the mare she loved. Before she could fire off a single spell, however, she heard the smashing sound.

"Change of plan. Block the staircase and then cover the ground floor between you. I'll wink up there and see what that was. If it's too dangerous, I'll wink back down."

With that warning sent, Starlight teleported to the upstairs hallway and looked around for the source of the smash.

Dreamweaver Dumbledoof

THRONE ROOM:

While Shining Armor was casting the shield and Cadence was still recovering her magic, she was playing very close attention to the goings on around her. Especially if there were more Rogue Changelings. Hearing two poinies discussing said subject, she left her husband's side and approached them.

"What are you two discussing?" She asked Silver and Arc. "If it's about your task of warding for Changelings, I'd like to know if there's news."

Dreamweaver Anonmare Assailant GeneralTyrus Wylfen Shepard