Through the omnipresent cloud of gunsmoke, Celestia watched in concern and horror as a semi-ordered mob erupted from the ruins of Talos. The griffons, on both hoof and wing, crashed against the Equestrian lines. The great wave of flesh and steel battered the fortified earthworks, pushed back only momentarily by the sharp bark of field guns loaded with double canister.

Faster than seemed possible, the griffons were among the ponies. Even from the deck of the Polaris, Celestia could see the glint of swords and spears under her sun as combatants hurled themselves against one another.

A magnification spell brought the engagement into grim focus. Griffon soldiers clad in rough-hewn leather and iron pushed the outnumbered defenders back quickly. As the line of Equestrians was thrown away from their own positions, they left the earth carpeted with the dead. The griffons were both skilled and brave, but the ponies rose to match them blow-for-blow.

Earth pony lancers rammed their long weapons into the attackers, impaling two or even three griffons in a single thrust before being felled themselves. A squadron of Pegasi dived sharply from above just behind the griffon’s front lines, slaying dozens before the tide rolled over them. Magic of every shade and hue cut through flesh as scythes through grain. An enormous rolling dogfight in the skies above the battlefield rained down limp and lifeless bodies like rain.

For every pony killed, a griffon fell beside him, but the griffons held the advantages of numbers and initiative. It seemed to Celestia, her eye for battle honed from countless wars in ages she had thought long past, that the siege would soon be broken.

Then the barrage shifted.

As the griffons had raged against the investment surrounding their city, messengers had rushed to relay orders to the hundreds of artillery pieces both on land and floating offshore. Gun crews who had been split to working eight hour shifts found themselves roused to duty. Arcane fragmentation rounds were rammed home, their sights shifted towards the thick crowd flooding outwards.

They couldn’t have presented a more vulnerable target had they been labeled with neon signage. The air trembled from the combined concussion the Equestrian batteries. Explosions blossomed throughout the attacking force, tossing bodies like ragdolls through the air. White-hot shards of iron and crystal felled hundreds in seconds.

Those who survived the initial volley were stunned into inaction as their scrambled brains struggled to find the friend who had been beside them mere moments before. The next salvo reaped nearly as many as the first, and threw the remainder into a panic. In seconds, the near-victory was reduced to a frenzied rout as those left ambulatory fled for the relative safety of the city.

The ponies, the pressure against them relieved and flushed by reinforcements streaming in from other sections of the line, charged forward. They recaptured their own positions and advanced past them, stopping only when they reached the heaps of rubble that marked the boundary of Talos. Nopony relished the idea of a fight in tight quarters of the city.

As they retreated back to their own lines, the ponies retrieved their dead and dispatched the griffon wounded. No quarter had been offered to them, and they extended none themselves.

Celestia’s knees were shaky as she allowed the magnification spell to dissipate. Her stomach threatened to rebel from the carnage she had witnessed, and her mind reeled. Never in all her many, many days had she seen such slaughter. Cannons were new additions to the battlefield, and she had never personally witnessed their horrifying results.

Her face green, she looked to where Luna was still standing her vengeful vigil beside her. She hoped, prayed her sister would be shocked from her hollow state by the atrocity that had taken place before them.

Instead, Luna stood where she had stood for more than a month, her eyes dispassionate and empty.

Princess Celestia leaned over the ship’s railing and vomited into the sea.