Dusk Warfare
It was a normal day in Canterlot Castle, with the noon sun casting its warm light over Equestria. Princess Celestia was in her throne room going over paper work.
“Princess Celestia!!” A guard called and ran into the throne room, Celestia looked up from the documents she’d been looking through and removed her reading spectacles, to see the new comer, she examined him quickly; he was a white unicorn stallion, with bright blue eyes, her attention soon went to noticing his light grey uniform and the patch on the foreleg’s sleeve representing the Equestrian Military, she was a little puzzled why an officer of the Equestrian Military was there to see her.
She had recently had a meeting with the High Command only a few days prior.
Normally she didn’t have many meetings with the High Command, but due to increasing tensions between Equestrian and the Gryphon Kingdom she had been talking to them more than usual, so it was nothing new, however there was something about this courier that worried her, as if what he was there for was extremely important and troubling.
“Yes, what is it?” she asked in a curious yet concerned tone.
“Your majesty, I am here to deliver a report, it is most urgent” the stallion said as he bowed his head as if ashamed
Celestia looked at the stallion and wondered what it could be. “Very well, let me see!” replied the Sun princess. The stallion took out a scroll from his saddle bag, and handed it to the princess.
“This was discovered by the MISS, after they had intercepted several communications on the north-eastern Gryphon boarder”
The scroll illuminated in the bright golden glow of Celestia’s magic, and Celestia brought it to her. She unrolled the scroll, whilst the soldier stood there with a very grim expression on his face.
Celestia began to slowly read the report, after a just a few mere seconds she gasped and brought a hoof to her muzzle. She stared with wide eyes at the scroll she was reading, with an expression that could only be described as horror.
Flashback.
“Go, move, move move!!!” Captain Dark Storm shouted as he charged along with his company towards a local village on the boarders of Equestria and the Gryphon Kingdom. It was night, and the cool breeze blew softly over the valley. They soon arrived at the village and Dark Storm ordered his troops to spread out and clear every building. Dark Storm placed himself in the middle of a street and observed his troops executing his orders.
Several troops kicked in doors and simply sprayed bullets in, not leaving a single being alive.
Across the street from where Dark Storm stood, two stallions entered a house, and searched it, they eventually found a group of female gryphons and children in a room on the upper floor huddled into a corner. The stallions looked at them, then opened fire riddling them with bullets, one young gryphon tried to escape, but the stallions saw this and one used their magic to drag the child back and then proceeded to shoot him in the head point-blank.
Dark Storm looked around, everywhere screams from dying gryphons could be heard.
BOOOM!! A massive explosion was heard and a building collapsed in on itself.
Another group of ponies stood by another entrance to a building and chucked in several grenades through the open door, the grenades detonated, and the team entered the building, then a few minutes later more screams and gunfire could be heard.
Dark Storm smirked as he saw this spectacle, then all of a sudden, a young gryphon, no older than maybe 4 years of age, ran from a house, he was too fast for the soldiers to catch. He started heading for the end of the street trying to get away, but Dark Storm noticed and pulled up his rifle and then shot at the child, the bullet whizzed through air and pierced the young gryphon straight through the neck. Blood splattered as the bullet burst out of the front of the child’s throat. The boy fell to the ground and tried to scream clutching his throat, covered in blood, until the light faded from his terror and tear-filled eyes.
Dark just scoffed and turned back to his troops who were busy carrying out his orders of cleansing the town of all its inhabitants.
Stallions were still entering buildings and searching room to room for survivors, some had even started blowing up buildings whilst others were setting them on fire, regardless if they were empty or not.
Dark Storm let a dark smile appear on his muzzle.
This wasn't war, this was slaughter and insanity, and he loved every bit of it.
More houses were set alight or blown up, and more and more screams and cries could be heard filling the night sky.
Soon only after just one hour the entire town was either destroyed or burning.
Dark Storm took a deep breath and looked to the dark skies, he could smell the smoke and the flames and turned his attention back to the scene in front of him.
“Are we done here?” he asked one of his men.
“Yes sir, they’re all dead” replied the stallion.
“Good” Dark storm said and looked at his watch “Alright, remove all traces of evidence and then prepare to move out!” he called out, and walked out of the burning village, whilst his troops removed all evidence connecting them to the massacre.
End flash back
Celestia looked up from the report she had just read and even with her snow white coat one could see that she had gone pale. She looked at the young stallion that had brought her the message “Has the High Command see this?” Celestia wondered with fear clear in her voice.
“Not yet your majesty, I brought it straight to you first” the stallion replied whilst keep his gaze directed down.
“Very well” she replied.
She then turned to another of her guards “Find Princess Luna, immediately, she must hear about this!” she said “Yes, your highness” the guard replied and left the throne room.
Celestia sighed and put the report down and turned back towards the soldier, “When was this discovered?” she asked him
“The MISS intercepted several communications about a rumoured attack for several days now, most of which were just whispers but it was not until now, after the MISS sent a task force to investigate, that the rumours were confirmed” the messenger replied with a solemn tone.
Celestia wore a sad, scared expression, and looked back at the report and read through the part that had made her heart cringe at what it said.
The report detailed a massacre of a small village on the gryphon-Equestrian boarder up to the north-east, there were no survivors and the whole village was destroyed, nothing but ruins and ashes left. The report stated that it had happened at least a week ago. Celestia looked back from the report and back to the young soldier in front of her, he still kept his gaze down with a grim expression on his face.
Just then the guard Celestia had sent out returned, with Princess Luna.
“Your majesty, Princess Luna!” The guard quickly announced, whilst Luna quickly sprinted over to her sisters throne.
“Yes sister, what is it? Why have you called me here? From what the guard told me, it appears to be important” Luna said as she stood before her sister, she noticed the stallion already standing before her, and began to wonder why he was there.
“You are right sister, it is important and it is also extremely grave!” Celestia answered, and handed her sister the report. Luna took the scroll in her magic grip and brought it to her face, she unrolled it and began to read, and just like Celestia, after just a few seconds of reading the report, her face turned into a look of shock and horror.
Once she finished reading the report she looked back up to her sister as if to confirm what she had just read, Celestia just nodded with a solemn look on her face, Luna looked back down at the report, distraught and shocked.
“Who could have done this?!” Luna asked, “Who could have destroyed this village?”
“I don’t know sister I don’t know. The village belonged to the Gryphons and they would never attack one of their own, so there are only a few possibilities” Celestia replied with a dark thoughtful look on her face.
“Sergeant I want you to inform the High Command immediately! I want a meeting set up between the entire High Command and the Royal court now!!!” Celestia ordered the stallion.
“Yes your highness” came his quick reply, he gave her a quick salute and did the same to Luna, Luna gave the sergeant back the report and he quickly put it back into his saddle bag and ran out of the throne room.
Luna turned to look at her sister, Celestia sighed and grabbed a quill and parchment and began to write down something. Once she had finished, she teleported the scroll away.
“Luna I want you to assemble your night court and inform them to come join us in the meeting with the High Command!”
“Of course sister!” Luna replied and teleported out, Celestia stood up and went over to the window and looked out over Canterlot, for once in a long time she feared for the future, she looked down upon her kingdom and feared for her subjects, the last thing she wanted was for her ponies to get caught in a war.
After a few moments of contemplating the information she had just received that day, she turned away from the window and went back to her throne, and began to write several more letters.
About 2 hours later, Celestia had summoned the entire royal court, the sun was beginning to set and most of Canterlot was getting ready for the night. However the royal castle was a buzz, many officials had arrived for the meeting Celestia had ordered, among others, Princess Cadance and Shining Armour, the Equestrian Military High Command, the head of the PIIA, and certain commanders of the royal guard were present.
Celestia walked down the long hall which led to the meeting chamber, she was concerned and worried for what was to come, and she was uncertain on how to proceed, she was pulled out of her thoughts when she saw her sister standing in the hallway talking to one of her guards, Luna looked up and noticed her sister.
“Hello Celestia” Luna greeted “Hello Luna” Celestia greeted back
“It’s time sister, we should go” Celestia said and motion toward the end of the hallway.
“Of course my sister” Luna replied, she nodded to the guard to dismiss him, he gave a short bow in reply and left. Luna joined her sister and the two walked off to the end to the end of the hallway.
Celestia and Luna arrived at the grand doors to the meeting room and entered the grand chamber, present was the entire Equestrian High Command and the whole royal court; among others, Princess Cadance and Shining Armour were there, along several advisers to the royal sisters, and of course certain commanders of the royal guard. Out of the High Command, Generals; Firebrand, Miche, Sky Cruncher, even Field Marshal Jake was there along with Supreme Sky Marshal SilverMane, Vice Sky Marshal Spangle, and even General Night Shadow, General Phyco and General Iron Flare were present among others.
Once the Royal sisters had entered the chamber, everypony stopped what they were doing, turned to face the two rulers of Equestria, and gave them either a respectful bow or a salute, Celestia and Luna gave them a short bow in return. Once everypony was greeting the two Princess’s, they all stood to attention.
Celestia nodded and said “Thank you everypony for convening on such short notice, you may all be seated” and with that everypony took a seat at the large oval table.
“By now most of you will have read the report; a few weeks ago the MISS intercepted several communications around the Equestrian-Gryphon border, all concerning a small gryphon village on the eastern border, when the MISS sent a unit to investigate they had found that the whole village had be razed to the ground” Celestia said in a solemn tone, everypony’s gaze fell down with disturbed looks
“Along with all of its inhabitants” Celestia continued. Everypony kept a hard look, but all were deeply distraught and uneased by this.
“Do the MISS have any suspects” the Sun Princess asked General Black Hawk, the Head of the Military Intelligence Support Service.
“Yes, your majesty. Our first guess was perhaps a terrorist attack, but that was out ruled when our investigations showed that this was done by professionals rather than insurgence, then we suspected a group of radical Gryphons destroyed the village, to discredit Equestria, but intelligence scans of the area showed there to be no Gryphon activity, at all. And Terrorist groups have claimed responsibility for this.” the General finished.
“Do you have any other leads?”
Black Hawk looked around nervously
“Just one” He sighed heavily
“Whoever attacked the village had enough men to destroy it in a few hours, and all had extensive military training” He continued
“After the investigation to the village, we found very little, whoever they were they were very good at covering their tracks. But we did find some empty shell casings left behind, the Headstamps were scrapped off, but there was enough to identify them.”
He paused for a moment, before continuing, the tension in the room was climbing with every second and reaching a zenith. Everypony feared what was about to be said next.
“They came from Equestria” Black Hawk replied with an ashamed tone.
Everypony stop breathing once the word 'Equestria' had left Black Hawk’s mouth, this was exactly what everypony feared. Everypony either looked down or looked away, not wanting to believe what they had just heard, the tension has reached its absolute zenith.
“You are sure?” Celestia asked after an eternity of deafening silence.
“Yes. They were 6.8x43mm rounds only used by Equestrian Special Forces” reluctantly Black Hawk confirmed.
“I don’t believe it! I won’t believe it!!” Luna shouted “What stallion in OUR army would be heartless and insane enough to slaughter a village full of innocent Gryphons whilst there are high tensions between our kingdoms?!!” Luna screamed in anger.
“Sister calm down, I know you are upset, but we must get all information first” Celestia said in a calm but authoritative voice whilst putting a hoof on her sister’s shoulder. Luna began to calm down, she took a deep breath and sat down again. Celestia then turned to the High Command.
“I want to know was this sanctioned by anypony in the High Command?” Celestia asked
“Certainly not your majesty, the High Command did not give any orders to destroy that village!” Firebrand replied firmly.
Celestia sighed “It seems a unit went rouge” the Princess speculated.
“Were there any Special Forces units in that region at the time?” Celestia turned her attention back towards the rest of the High Command.
“Yes, there were at least 6 companies” Miche replied after taking a quick look at a monitor in front of him on the table.
“Were there any near that area before the incident?” the Princess turned her attention back to Black Hawk.
“There was one unit in the vicinity at the time” He replied, with a heavy voice, and a hint of reluctance.
“Who was it?” The Sun goddess finally asked after a brief moment of hesitation.
Black Hawk turned to look at Iron Flare, with a knowing expression. The head of the SSIIU just sighed.
“It was an ESFO Black ops unit. Under the command of Captain Dark Storm” He replied.
Celestia sighed and shook her head.
She knew Dark Storm had been unpredictable and a trouble shooter and had had a very trouble record within the military, and was known for his ruthlessness and brutality, but she would never have thought that he would have end up doing something like this.
Celestia gave a solemn look to her fellow princesses, who returned the look and a lowered head.
The Princess of the Sun took a deep breath and turned her head back to all the others at the table.
“General Firebrand!” Celestia called, Firebrand and the rest of the High Command immediately sat up right at attention.
“Yes, your highness?” Firebrand replied in a tough, authoritative voice
“I want the High Command to begin an inquiry investigating this massacre and everypony who’s suspected of being involved, including Dark Storm!” Celestia ordered
“Of course your majesty, we’ll put his name at the top of the list” Firebrand replied with a nod.
“General Black Hawk I want to you continue your investigations about the massacre and to keep a close eye on all units near the Gryphon boarders is that understood?!”
“Yes, your majesty” came the sharp replied from Hawk
“And me and Luna will contact the Gryphon King and inform him of what has happened and tell him that Equestria had no part in the massacre, and that we are currently striving to uncover who was responsible!” She turned to her sister
“Of course, sister” Luna nodded
“As for everypony else, I want you to retract all troops 3 miles from the Gryphon boarder, I want to schedule a meeting with all other Equestrian dignitaries to inform them of this, I want all troops in Equestrian on alert, same goes for the Royal Guard! Is that understood?!”
“Yes your majesty!” replied everypony in the chamber apart from the Princesses.
“Very well, you may all leave!” Celestia ordered.
And with that everypony began to leave, Celestia stood as well but pulled Cadance and Luna out of the way.
“What do we do now my sister?” Wondered Luna.
“First I need to inform Twilight and her friends, she has to know what has happened, after which will talk with the Gryphon King.” Celestia told her.
“Very well my dear sister” Luna said with a calm voice.
“And what of me, Celestia?” Cadance wondered.
“As for you Cadance I want you to return to the Crystal Empire immediately, you need to make sure the Crystal Ponies are safe. Shining Armour will have to stay in Canterlot for a little while to organize the guards, but he will join you as soon as he can” Celestia told her.
“Are you sure, I could help here in Canterlot!” Cadance offered
“It’s alright Cadance, me and Luna and the High Command can handle it, you just take care of your ponies. I will ask Shining Armour to personally pick out a small contingent of guards to provide extra support within the Empire”
“Very well, Celestia, if that is your decision”
“Take care my dear Cadance. And may Faust help us!” Celestia said as she hugged her young niece good bye, Celestia shed a few tears as did Cadance, even Luna ended up joining the hug.
“Farewell Cadance!” Luna wished, as she wiped away a few small tears
“Good bye Luna, goodbye Celestia” Cadance replied with a solemn voice and then left the two Royal sisters.
Celestia sighed and walked over to one of the windows, the sun was setting, and it would soon be night.
Luna walked up to her sister and put a hoof on her shoulder, with a concerned expression.
“Sigh. Come on Luna we have work to do” and with that the royal sisters left the now empty meeting room.
To be Continued
Author's Note
Just a few things to help you understand:
MISS: Military Intelligence Support Service
ESFO: Equestrian Special Forces Operations