The Battle of White Rose field? The pony responsible for naming it that was most likely the one who kicked around the nerd and called it his first shcoolyard fight. It was slaughter. The battle even made the gryphons question thier cause. Where were the great armies they were told they were up against? Did these ponies even try to fight? Was this fighting or mass murder? The news of Silver Claws "deal" also made way to the mouths of the troops. Could their great leader really be lying to them? Where they really fighting for the good of the gryphons? Or just Discord?

=================

Most of the line had began to fall apart. It was strange though, whenever it seemed that a group of ponies had established a good defence against buffalo charges, a swarm of gryphons would quickly decimate the troops. And if they were paying more attention to the skies, a herd of buffalo would plow through the group without any effort. It was as if they all had one mind controlling them, or at least giving them at-the-moment orders. The unity of the last minute army seemed to be too good. Though nobody, not even the gryphons and buffalo, seemed to notice at the time.

Carmel knew immediately that, since it was an large, open field, hiding wasn't an option. He ran just about the same time everbody else in his company had, that was the only sort of strategic unity seen on the battle field for the ponies. He looked to his right, Big Mac kicking a buffalo square in the face, something he sort of expected from him. To his left, Ace. He could of swore he saw that sack of crap trip another pony just before a gryphon swooped down to finish the job. He didn't see Shamrock anywhere, though he hoped he was just ahead of the pack. He did also see Promontory throw a spear at the gryphons. He just hoped that the sight of his spear missing a gryphon and hitting another pony was just hysteria playing trick with his eyes.

There was some patches of trees that could be used as cover behind them but for the most part, this was a full retreat. Nopony dared stop, not even to look back. Those who did ended up, usually, being taken down and distracting a few gryphons.

Had they not been starved just before the battle, the gryphons might have actually spared some of the ponies. But orders from Silver Claw himself said that the rations be cut into a fraction of regular, just the few nights before hand. Packs of the hungry gryphons at a time would reluctantly swoop down to eat the fresh meat. Silver Claw observed with disgust.

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"You sick bastard! You turned my subjects into a pack of feral DOGS! Making them hunt instead of fight!" The only thing he hated more than Discord at the moment was The Elder, and even then it was a close tie.

"How else would you get them to pull out their full killing potential?"

"Honor! Glory! Not something as simple as their next meal!"

"Remember your situation! You wish what is best for your people, right? Trust me, in the long run these desisions will have have a very positive impact on your army."

"You better have more reason than that!" Silver Claw pulled out his sword, again, thrusting it in Discords face.

"First," he said "don't try to frighten me. Especially with THAT." He then grabbed the bronze sword by the edge. It heated up so mush that it left a scar on Silver Claw's hand. "Second,  the only true way to win a war is to have your enemy completely slaughtered or surrender. And seeing as it would take a LONG time to slaughter the entire planet's population I prefer the later. Third, how do you expect people to surrender if all you do is take prisoners and kill maybe a FEW soldiers? My point being, these tactical decisions are requiered to win this war as quickly as possible. If you do not trust my plan then by all means, continue your 'victory march' towards The Elder. I'm sure everyone will immediately surrender to the horrifying sight of a mob of hungry rock farmers."

Silver Claw glared at him. The feeling of utter hopelessness swept through him as he relised he was no longer the head of his army. Just a mere messenger to the orders Discord had given him. He then pushed away that thought, focusing only on the true goal, the long awaited glory of his people. But the hopelessness still ate away at his thoughts. Ever so increasing over time.

=============

The entire "army" had to retreat towards Trottingham. They wouldn't allow themselves to be beaten back all the way to Canterlot. The one day walk was consistanly slowed due to the nearly scheduled attacks. Turning into mini-battles. This was worse than a disaster. The first line of resistance against Silver Claw's attacking force was cut through like a hot knife through butter. Hopefully the Royal Guard back at Canterlot would make good use of this distraction to rally more troops.

Thankfully, Trottingham had some advantage of actually having cover for the army. But the most it did was funel the small raiding forces into slightly more manageable groups. All the women and childeren had evactuated and a militia had been formed. They began to burn it down on the second day.

On the retreat to Stalliongrad Carmel looked back on the burning town through a spy glass he found on a dead body. He saw a pony limping out of the smoke. "Hey! Guys!" He yelled. Big Mac and Shamrock trotted over. "We should head back, that guy over there's gonna get left behind."

"Where'd you git that spy glass, Carmel?" Big Mac asked.

"Never mind that, let's just get that guy okay?"

"Alright..." Big Mac said hesistantly. "Sham, you comin'"

"Nope." Shamrock croaked back. "Too old ta be runin' 'round everywhere."

"Fine," Carmel said. They began towards the figure. As they approached the stallion it looked up and ran, or at least tried to, in the other direction. "Hold on! Hold on!" Carmel yelled. The grey pony tripped and fell on it's face. Carmel turned the pony over to see if it was all right. As he did it kicked right at Carmel's stomach, taking all the breath out of his lungs. Big Mac, out of surprise, punched his foreleg right at the pony's jaw. Hardly fazed, the pony then knocked Big Mac off balance by kicking right at his knees.

The pony walked over to Carmel. It gasped. "Your not gryphons! I'm so sorry!"

Carmel coughed. "What, are ya' blind!?" His vision was a little blury, but could make out the general shape of the pony. It seemed more slender than the usual stallion in the corps.

"Uh, sort of." The grey pony returned. Carmel got up to see his one-time attacker. He was shocked to see that it was a cross-eyed mare that had a stronger kick than most of his brothers.

"What are you doing out here by yourself? Did you miss the refugee train?" Carmel asked.

"No, I didn't miss any train." The grey pony said timidly.

"Are you from around here?"

"No, I'm not from around here."

"So what are you doing out here?"

"I was in The Tenth Flying Support Calvary, then we got hit hard by one of the last raids, just before they started the fire. And-"

"Wait, wait, wait." Carmel interupted her "How did you get into the Tenth Flying Support, I mean, you're a girl! They're not alound here."

"Well, I... lied about... my, gender." She started trailing off into a wisper.

"Why in Equestria would you want to lie to join THIS?"

"I just... I just needed to prove something!" She turned around to leave the two.

He wanted to know more but the distance between them and the rest of the group kept increasing. "Wait! Just come with us. Trust me, it's better for all of us if you come along."

She stared at him with her good eye for a minute. "Fine." They had to run to catch up with the rest of the group. There would be a good jog before they would be back.

"Ya know, I never got your name?"

"Oh, it's uh," She trailed off.

"Go on..."

"It's Derpy." She then cringed at the soon-to-be laughter, but it never came. She looked at Carmel.

"It's a nice name, my name's Carmel."

"That's a nice name, too."

They eventually caught up with the rest of the army. Stalliongrad wasn't much better suited than Trottingham but at least they had the illusion of more protection. And everybody was open to that much. Again, the town was mostly evacuated and they got a fresh supply of troops via militia. The troops flooded into the abandon houses that night.

One of the lookouts, Flash Bulb, started to dose off. He had almost completely went to sleep when he saw purple dots in the darkness. His heart picked up. "It's nothing, Flash." He wispered to himself, "It's absolutly nothing." He pulled his blanket over his head, "Go to sleep. It's absolutly nothing..." Next Chapter: The Battle of Stalliongrad. Estimated time remaining: 22 Minutes