Chapter 9: The War Begins
Throughout the course of the week Gilda and her army trained as hard as they could for every single minute of every day. There was a lot on the line for this war. None of them could afford to lose this battle. After a week of very intense training and planning, the day arrived and Gilda was feeling extremely nervous. Grayback had been able to get a lot of information about Grifforia's war strategy before his cover was blown. From what he said they would be attacking at noon today. Gilda had three hours before war would come and she would have to lead her army to victory. Her friends and all of Equestria were depending on her. Their fate would lie in her claws. Gilda was beyond scared. She was flat out terrified. This was possibly the most important day of her life.
"This is it." she said to herself. "No turning back."
She walked out of her bedroom and entered the kitchen. In this room she saw Rainbow Dash. Both of the fliers had struggled to even get two words out of their mouths. The situation they were in had a firm grip on their minds. Gilda and Rainbow Dash didn't say a word to each other as they prepared a light breakfast for themselves and sat down at the table. Neither of them had ever truly realized how beautiful Rainbow Dash's cloud castle was. This war was a very big moment for them.
How did it get so bad? Gilda thought to herself.
Gilda still couldn't believe that war had truly come to such a peaceful town. How had it gotten to this point. Gilda was sure that something like this couldn't be happening. Any minute now she'd wake up and realize that this was all just some crazy nightmare. Gilda closed her eyes and when she opened them she hadn't moved. It had been a foolish thing for her to think but still the griffon couldn't help but hope that she had been imagining this war.
Gilda and Rainbow Dash ate their breakfast in silence. What could they even say to each other? War was coming and they would have to be ready to fight. The two fliers were best friends and now they would have to rely on each other in order to stay alive. The duo left the cloud castle and arrived at the training area. They saw the army running through their various exercises like usual. They called an early end to the training to allow their soldiers to conserve as much of their energy as they could. Gilda, Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust, and Twilight Sparkle met up to discuss their plans for the war.
The foursome was going to have the toughest and most important task of all. They were going to have to bring down Grifforia's weapon. Their plan was that when it appeared they would fly up to it and get inside. Once they were inside of the giant war machine they would split up and find the four weak spots. One of Grayback's griffons had given them objects that would explode when a switch was pressed. He said that if all four of them exploded on the weak points then the war machine would be destroyed. Gilda, Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust, and Twilight Sparkle knew that this was an extremely dangerous operation but it was necessary. Bringing down that weapon would certainly end the war between Equestria and Grifforia.
It was now thirty minutes to noon. The entire Equestrian army marched their way through Ponyville. The ponies who weren't participating in the war had already been escorted to safety so at the very least no innocent lives would be lost during the battle. Gilda waited at the back of her army with her lieutenants. Grayback and his team stayed with her to provide support for when Gilda, Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust, and Twilight Sparkle started their attack on Grifforia's weapon. Applejack stood behind the army of one hundred and fifty earth ponies that would fight against Grifforia's infantry. Suddenly a huge cloud appeared in the sky. Pinkie Pie used her binoculars and saw that they were in fact griffons. The Grifforian Army landed down and faced against Equestria's army. Two hundred griffons made up the infantry. An armored griffon cupped his claws around his beak and spoke to the ponies before him.
"Give up." he said. "You guys don't even have a chance at winning. Why don't ya save yourselves the humiliation of getting demolished and just let us takeover your pathetic country?"
Applejack gave Gilda a glance as if awaiting instruction and Gilda shook her head.
"Don't listen to him." Gilda said. "We're gonna fight and we're gonna win."
The cowgirl nodded and then her army let out a thunderous shout in response. There was no way that they were going to give up. They were going to fight against Grifforia and they were going to win. They knew that it would be better for them to fight and lose than to surrender and be taken as slaves by Grifforia. They could not give up because the safety and lives of the entire country of Equestria was relying on them. If they couldn't defeat the Grifforian army here then they would steamroller their homes and take over Equestria. The griffon leader glared at his enemies and shook his head with an arrogant smirk on his face.
"I tried to give ya a chance to give up." the griffon said. Then he sprang to his hind legs and roared to his army of two hundred soldiers. "CHARGE!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs as his griffons roared with him.
The two hundred griffons ran forwards and they were met by the one hundred and fifty earth ponies. The two forces charged towards each other and then they met in the middle of town. The battle between Equestria and Grifforia had finally begun. This would decide the fate of the every single pony in Equestria. The earth ponies used their strength to quickly defeat the griffons. However the griffons themselves were also fairly powerful. Thankfully these griffons were the infantry which didn't get much training compared to others. The slight number advantage didn't mean much since their fighting prowess wasn't very good. Applejack commanded her army expertly despite having very little training. She might have been a peaceful sort of pony but she was able to take charge when it counted.
"Come on y'all." she said. "Let's give 'em a tail whuppin' Ponyville style."
The earth ponies battled against the griffons. Big Macintosh had used his muscular build to defeat a rather impressive number of enemy griffons. The griffons fought back and managed to punch out a few ponies. However for every single pony that collapsed, four or five griffons were taken down. The griffons that made up the infantry had been given some very poor training since they didn't even think to use their claws which would have been much more threatening. The griffon leader was completely stunned by how his army was being picked apart by the ponies. This was not what he had been imagining would happen.
"This isn't right." he shouted. "Those wimpy ponies shouldn't be this good. They can't beat us like this."
Applejack fought her way towards the leader of the infantry and fought against him. He may have been armored but the orange cowgirl pony's hind legs had been strengthened from years of physical labor. Applejack dodged his many punches and kicks as she retaliated with her own attacks. Finally with an almighty kick, she cracked his armor and it split apart into pieces and fell to the ground. Applejack was then able to quickly take him down. Soon afterwards the remaining griffons fell and the infantry had been beaten.
"How's that for a bunch of wimpy ponies?" she asked as she smirked at the griffon leader who had gotten back up off of the ground. He glared at Applejack but he realized that he had had no chance of defeating the earth ponies.
"Fall back!" the leader shouted. "Let them see what else we've got. They got lucky this time."
The two hundred griffons escaped and for a while there was peace. Applejack and her soldiers relaxed. Fluttershy, Nurse Redheart, as well as a number of volunteers healed the ponies who had been injured during the battle. The injuries were relatively minor since the griffons didn't even use their claws during the fight. Anypony who had been injured was quickly treated and they felt good as new. Gilda waited anxiously for the second wave of Grifforia's army. Her friends looked satisfied but Gilda gave them a look.
"Don't get excited." she said. "We're just getting started."
Gilda was absolutely right about this statement. The battle had only just begun. There were still three more waves of griffons as well as that secret weapon to deal with before there was a chance of the war ending. This was going to be a very dangerous situation. Every pony knew that there would be no easy way to end the conflict.
