As issued on the second day of the Gryphon Empire’s invasion of Equestria:

To the officers and soldiers of the Equestrian Armed Forces:

Methinks I need not tell you that we have been invaded by the Gryphon Empire and are now at war. This much is known. What is not known is that we face perchance the most dire threat in our nation’s long history, exceeding even that of The Nightmare or King Sombra himself.

Gryphon numbers are vast and, taken by surprise, we have little hope of stopping them in the short term. Accordingly, we must adopt a strategy of denial and delay, trading space for time as we attempt to overextend them and slowly bleed them dry.

Fully realized, our nation’s military capacity can equal or even exceed the gryphons. But ‘twill take considerable time to reach such a state, and thus, we must hold them off long enough to fully mobilize. Accordingly, the following war policies are now in effect:

• All Weather Control is suspended over greater Equestria except for particularly severe storms. All female weather team members will report to Corps recruitment offices for military service to await conscription and assignment to Corps storm teams.
• All existing civilian cloud stores are now reserved for military use. We will have to rely on the slow reestablishment of natural continental weather patterns to provide our farms the rainfall they need.
• We will practice a policy of scorched earth to deny the gryphons supplies. All crops, factories and bases that cannot be evacuated before the gryphon advance reaches them are to be destroyed to deny their use to the enemy. All roads and possible avenues of advance are to be rendered impassable. They may fly, but their supply trains and siege engines still require ground transport.
• Universal conscription is declared for all able-bodied mares ages seventeen to forty. Only nursing or infirm mothers are excused, as well as herds with non-adult foals having only one mare left. Titles of nobility will not be accepted for deferral! And given the threat we face, I must reluctantly order that desertion be punished by death.
• All ponies who have served in the Equestrian Army or Aerial Corps in the past twenty years are to be returned to active duty immediately, excepting the circumstances above.
• Stallion volunteers for combat duty will be accepted, but for now, they are excused from active duty and requested to report to farms and factories further back from the front to support the war effort.
• We require allies in our fight. Accordingly, I will be dispatching representatives to old friends and enemies alike in hopes of enlisting their aid. This includes diplomatic missions to Thestralslovakia and other, more distant realms.

The following instructions are issued to individual service branches and adjuncts, which are in keeping with the guidance of the Winter Contingency plan for all-out war with the Empire:

• The Equestrian Army is the key to our strategy of denial and delay. Lacking sufficient strength, they are not to challenge gryphon legions directly for now, but instead, pounce on overextended or isolated units and avoid encirclement; ensure that the gryphons cannot advance swiftly.
• Tis certain that a fighting withdrawal is the most difficult of military endeavors, but it must now be performed by the Equestrian Army with the goal of preserving as much military strength as possible whilst slowly bleeding the gryphons and forcing them to overextend themselves.
• Corps tactics will likewise be one of harassment and ambush, utilizing hit-and-fly tactics that avoid general engagement until such point as our numbers can challenge theirs.
• The arms factories of Stalliongrad are to shift into full wartime production as per existing contingency plans, with an emphasis on heavy weapons and naval rearmament.
• Royal Navy Expansion is to begin immediately. Keels for six new airships of the Harmony and Unity classes are to be laid at the Stalliongrad shipyards, and become the core of new naval battle groups. Accordingly, the as-yet untouched Capricorn Base at Stalliongrad is to become the main naval training and construction complex whilst lesser shipyards will design and build escorts of the proposed Duty II and Sentry classes.
• The Equestrian Aerial Corps is to establish two additional training bases and begin mass training of pegasi, with the intention of doubling the size of the Corps from fifteen thousand soldiers to thirty within six months. If Cloudsdale has indeed been attacked, methinks there will be no shortage of volunteers.
• The EIS [Equestrian Intelligence Service], Black Lances and PSD [Plainclothes Security Division] are to come up with plans to organize resistance operations in occupied territory, as well as secure our own against Knight and Raven raids.
• The Office of Magical Research is directed to speed research into new weapons, with an emphasis on anti-dragon arms and elemental magicks. If we can lift the siege of Canterlot, I can directly intervene in this conflict, but until the dragons are driven off, I cannot assist our forces or Canterlot falls and all within perish.
• The Royal Guard will relocate its training base from Fort Spur to western Equestria and begin training stallions and mares alike. Existing Guardsponies will be used sparingly until the time is right.
• All earth pony militia are folded into the Equestrian Army. Once contact is reestablished, the Cloudsdale militia is to be folded into the Aerial Corps.

These were general orders for the individual services. What follows is my own personal guidance for the conduct of the campaign:

• We will NOT throw raw recruits or untrained civilians into combat! If we do, they will be slaughtered by well-trained gryphon soldiers at great cost to our numbers and morale alike.
• Our initial losses will be replenished by stripping the northern, southern, and western frontiers of Equestrian Army and Aerial Corps troops as much as possible. If this means that we must temporarily concede territory to the Maregolians or the Harpies, then so be it.
• Our first wave of mobilization will be from returning retired veterans to active duty. Our second will be from training up Earth Pony and Pegasi militia. Our third will be from conscripts once they have completed basic training at Aerial Corps and Army bases. ‘Tis my hope that the first two combined with redeployment of existing forces will buy enough for the third.
• Outpost Gamma is to hold out and tie up as many gryphon troops for as long as they can. I take no pleasure in this order, and am only too aware I am sentencing them to death. I will honor and mourn them. But to buy precious time, I must order their sacrifice.

These are my orders. For the sake of our survival as a nation, I expect them to be carried out faithfully and promptly. ‘Tis clear to me now that we cannot win a short war, only a long one. Therefore, we must ready ourselves to do so whilst steeling both our spines and our spirit for the long road ahead.

We will stand. We will fight. We will prevail.

Signed,

—Princess Celestia Daybringer

Orders excerpted from Part 20 of Into the Storm: The Flight of Firefly:

TInto the Storm: The Flight of Firefly

• MLP: FiM
• Dark
• Adventure
• Thriller

Before the Wonderbolts, there were the Bolt Knights. And before Rainbow Dash, there was Firefly. The story of Rainbow Dash's ancestor, the founding of the Wonderbolts, and the outbreak of the Great Pony/Gryphon War.

• Gore
• Violence
• Alt. Universe
• Celestia
• OC
• Other

Firesight · 421k words  ·  211  8 · 3.4k views

Thank you for posting this. It is good to know that it is not something I want to read after all.

7054062 I can't tell if you're being sarcastic. or sincere in your response to this.

As Gen. William T. Sherman once said, "War is Hell", dude, and the mantle of a national leader is a heavy one.
They have to do what is necessary on war.
Even if they hate what that is.

Celestia, here, is more along the lines of FDR than Donald Trump.

7054143
That's not even why though.

7054156 Then why?
If I might ask?

Was an awesome chapter, and I love the way all of this is worked out in the story. It gives a sense of how massive the Equestrian government actually is.

7054062

I would like to know why as well. You don't owe me anything, of course, but I'm genuinely curious to know what turned you off and why.

7054143

As Gen. William T. Sherman once said, "War is Hell", dude, and the mantle of a national leader is a heavy one.

I've made a habit of closing individual chapters of the story with actual quotes from major military figures. Sherman's "War is Hell" quote was indeed one of them.

They have to do what is necessary on war. Even if they hate what that is.

Couldn't have said it better, thanks.

Celestia, here, is more along the lines of FDR than Donald Trump.

I nearly decided to have her pull out the "Date that will live in infamy" quote of FDR's describing the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th, but decided that was too blatant.

7054237

Was an awesome chapter, and I love the way all of this is worked out in the story. It gives a sense of how massive the Equestrian government actually is.

Thank you! Even if Celly's an absolute monarch, she still requires a large bureaucracy and military to govern and defend Equestria, especially at this point in time (700 years past).

7054776

I've made a habit of closing individual chapters of the story with actual quotes from major military figures. Sherman's "War is Hell" quote was indeed one of them.

Yeah, I've noticed that, and indeed it was.

Couldn't have said it better, thanks.

You're quite welcome.

I nearly decided to have her pull out the "Date that will live in infamy" quote of FDR's describing the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th, but decided that was too blatant.

As wonderful (if sad) a quote that it it, you're probably right.

Anyway, excellent work as always, and I can't wait for the next installment of this story, and beyond!

"El puesto de avanzada Gamma debe resistir y atar tantas tropas de grifos durante el tiempo que puedan. No me complace esta orden y soy muy consciente de que los estoy condenando a muerte. Los honraré y los lloraré." well thank you for nothing princess