Author's Notes:

Once again, it's been almost a month, and I'm terribly sorry for this. I want everything to make sense, to be logical, and to make everything work is something I strive towards.

I was also working at finishing my other story and developing my newest one. Once again, I apologize for not updating the current one. However, I would advise to check my other stories. Maybe you'll find some of them good.

I will try to make the updates more regular. As I once said, the only thing that would stop me from writing would be my death. Probably going blind too, but I hope I will be able to find a way around if it happens.

With that being said, I hope you will like this new chapter!

Luna prepared to stop the griffons before they could go too far into Equestrian lands. She was ready for battle, dressed in the full steel plate armor reminiscent of what she wore as Nightmare Moon but having actual protection.

Instead of two battalions Celestia gave her to command, the lunar princess chose her own undead troops. They were far more expendable than any life could be, and Luna expected the battle to be bloody. Ponies weren't prepared for the war in the slightest, meaning that even the trained soldiers were at a huge disadvantage before the griffons. After all, griffins were warriors and predators, it was their nature to fight and be good at it. Luna understood it clearly and wanted to make sure her subjects would be safe from the griffins.

One of her generals, a lunar pegasus mare by the name of Midnight Hour would accompany Luna to the battle and command the troops. A telepathic link allowed Luna to give commands to Midnight, and the general would then distribute said commands among the army's units. Of course, Luna could control the troops directly, but she wanted to raise a general of her own that would learn and become better with time and experience.

"Now, here is our plan." Luna said as she and the general looked at the detailed map of Equestria. The country consisted of a large continent and a few isles. "Coastal cities on the east are under imminent danger, especially Trottingham. According to our intelligence, the griffons are routing by the main railroad that connects our kingdom and their empire." she pointed at the small island between Equestria and the Griffin Empire. Two bridges were build to connect to both mainlands. "Trottingham is in their way, and the city barely has any defenses at all since it was built not so long ago. Their police forces wouldn't be enough to hold off the griffons for any meaningful amount of time.

"As far as we know, the griffons have crossed the Guto river right there." she pointed at a river that separated the coastal area of the Griffin Empire by two. From the third side, the land was divided by high mountains that even the griffons found hard to cross. They had to cross the river in one particular spot because there was the only large enough bridge to transport provision and weapons. "They will take approximately five hours to reach the city and launch an attack. We must intercept them at the bridge between the Grittish Isles and the Griffin Empire mainland. If we are lucky, we will be fighting on their territory before they arrive at the isles. We need to destroy the bridge — we can't allow them to bring in siege equipment and artillery. It will be easier for us if they have to use flight — we would have more chances to bring them down before the damage is done.

"We are deep in the Frozen North, no danger is imminent to us, and thus we can use a portion of our army while the rest of it is evenly distributed across the cities we need to protect. The Sun Armies will presumably arrive shortly after our actions, allowing us to unite our own army and march into the Griffin Empire, luckily taking back the outpost by the river in a few months at most. Understood, general?"

"Crystal clear, sir." Midnight Hour saluted. "We may begin to deploy our troops."

"Excellent. I will teleport them the closest to Trottingham." Luna nodded.

The nightly princess stepped onto the tower's balcony that overlooked the troops. She deemed three battalions enough for that mission, and thus prepared her spell.

Celestia made the public announcement. It was rather short since she had to do great many a thing that was more important than speeches. Her subjects were left in the state of shock and disbelief — there had been peace for almost a thousand years, but now it was gone? It was a shattering revelation which, however, managed to bring many volunteers into the army. Ponies were ready to fight for their country, their families, friends, and loved ones. Celestia was against conscription, but even without it enforced a lot of ponies expressed their desire to join the army during Equestria's hardest and darkest time.

"So, it began." Andromalius said quietly as he and his aunt observed the last rays of sun disappearing behind the horizon. "Celestia, I will make everything possible to help. My own kingdom is far away from any possible attacks. Is there anything I can do?"

"Yes, indeed you can." Celestia nodded. "We are evacuating the majority of coastal cities' populations, and they need a place to live and even work. From my experience, providing them with means of continuing their peaceful lives would work best."

"I could indeed use some help in my own lands." the hell stallion nodded. "However, I don't think that we have enough empty houses to host all the refugees. We need to build more. Other than that, we can also build temporary tents."

"I hope the war won't last too long." the solar alicorn sighed. "We need to increase the pace of portal's constructions as well, I suppose. There will be thousands of ponies in need of a new home, and I am certain they would want to stay away from the frontier as far as possible."

"I will see to it." Andromalius nodded. "I will also command my armies to join Equestrian forces. We will stand our ground, aunt."

Celestia nodded, and then let out a long, drawn-out sigh. Her peaceful ponies were going to fight and even die, which saddened her greatly. She did all she could to ensure the long-lasting peace, but all failed. She was so focused on suppressing the advancement of technologies that she forgot the real problem. It wasn't what ponies made, it wasn't technology. It was the minds. She failed to notice the growing tension outside her kingdom, she failed to prevent the worst from happening.

And now, everything came to bite her back.

It was close to midnight as princess Luna, general Midnight Hour and their undead army marched through the railroad bridge that connected the mainland of Equestria with Grittish Isles. Train transportation went one way only — out of Trottingham. As the city was being evacuated, the trains were almost overfilled with passengers, and many of them stared at the incoming army. Since the armor hid its units completely, the ponies didn't know it consisted of only the undead. The ponies quietly talked to each other, trying to guess where such an army came from. The design of the armor was unlike that of the famous Royal Guard, which left a question — where did such a large army come from? It couldn't have appeared out of thin air, after all. Were they even ponies? Were they robots or animated suits of armor?

No one knew the truth besides the selected few. The nightly princess intended for the mystery to last as long as possible.

Soon, the army came through the main train station, scaring and unnerving the rest of the population that was gathered nearby.

"War..." someone whispered, but even that quiet word carried across the crowd. There was a sense of imminent danger. Fear was high in the air, getting under the skin, chilling to the bone. Had their peaceful lives ended? Would those ponies ever find a way back home? If so, would it be the home they remembered?

Those were the questions no one could answer.

Suddenly, the princess of the night saw many dots in the sky, flying from the distant Griffin Empire mainland. Luna feared as much, and soon ponies started to notice it. The panic grew as more ponies tried to fit into the trains. They didn't want to die at the claws of the invaders.

The alicorn of the night cast a spell that enclosed the whole city with a powerful shield. Lives couldn't be lost.

"Princess Luna!" a slightly overweight stallion came hurriedly to the nightly ruler. "Are they here?" he asked with fear.

"Not yet, but they will soon be." Luna frowned. "How is the evacuation going?"

"There are still ponies left. We would require at least an hour to transport everypony safely. Do we have this much time?"

"We will try to stall them." the alicorn replied. "I would recommend that additional shield be conjured above the train station in case mine fails or griffons find a way in through any other means. Understood?"

"Yes, your majesty!" the stallion bowed, and then hurried to the police.

Luna ordered the army to quicken their pace. They should be near the second bridge soon enough, and the alicorn planned to engage the griffons there. The bridge needed to be destroyed, and any attacking force repelled.

In about fifteen minutes at most, the army came to the second bridge. Luna immediately blew up the bridge in an explosion of magic. The debris flew around, but most of the bridge safely collapsed and landed into the water below. It would require a lot of time to build such a long bridge anew since the current one was ensured to not be repairable.

The army readied their weapons and magic, waiting for griffons to arrive. They were close, but there would be at least five more minutes before they arrived.

Luna nervously shifted in place. It would be the first time in centuries since she last commanded an army. It was not all — she couldn't afford to lose. There were many innocent ponies yet to be rescued and safely transported deeper into Equestria.

The griffon army was within sight as it quickly closed in. Luna could tell it was but a portion of it, but they were trained well and probably were worth a few ponies each. The princess was glad no one would have to give their life in the fight that would ensue any moment.

Midnight Hour ordered to release the strings as the archers and crossbow-wielding ponies let their projectiles loose, as well as unicorns firing off their spells. The wall of arrows, steel, and magic pierced the air with whistles mixed with an electric buzz, successfully taking out quite a lot of griffon troops. They didn't stop, however, and proceeded to fly towards the undead army, ready to strike from above.

Without panic or fear, the shooters reloaded their weapons and loosened another wall of projectiles that left a row of griffons dead. Magical spells soon followed, destroying a portion as well.

Griffons were close. While their tactics were clunky, Luna suspected they didn't expect such precision from ponies. Her general readied the ground close-combat troops. They extended their spears, halberds, and glaives upward, meeting the griffins as an unfortunate few came crashing down.

Luna used her own weapon — a recurved bow of her own design, the string being her own hair. She shot quickly and precisely, ending quite a few lives. Griffins wore some armor, but it wasn't sufficient enough. Luna stood in far back, safe behind the rows of undead. The general was nearby, sending orders to the troops.

Griffons were scared of it. The troops they were fighting against were fearless and silent, not expressing any emotions as opposed to what the griffons expected to see: fear and panic.

It was only a matter of few minutes before most griffons were ended while a few managed to escape. Some, however, were captured, much to Luna's relief. She still needed information, and dead griffons would give her none.

"It is certainly not their main force..." Luna mused. "More like scouts. They would overrun the current city's defenses but not an army. They didn't expect us to react so quickly."

The alicorn looked around the field of battle. It was littered with griffon corpses, some of them in the process of dying. The more living examples of the griffon kind were successfully captured and restrained.

As for the undead army, there were no losses at all. Surely, armor was torn and dent, but no single soldier had fallen. They were truly more durable than any living being could ever be.

Overall, Luna was satisfied with the outcome of the battle. She was sure she would gain useful information from the griffons she captured as well.

She couldn't wait to see if any of them knew the cause of the war.

Andromalius was observing the construction of the portal. Decorations that were planned for the archway had to be ditched in favor of speed. All in all, the portal would be ready by the arrival of first refugees.

The hell stallion already ensured that there would be tents ready for them in his own kingdom. There was plenty of space he had no plans to use, and thus he decided to use it for the refugees. It might even prove beneficial for the union of his nation with ponies.

While demons were more violent than ponies, they were still friendly, especially to the peaceful race that inhabited the land of Equestria. It was fortunate, truly. Andromalius expected less from his subjects, truth be told. However, he found out something very important.

Demons were familiar with honor. Once the war ended, they understood that it wouldn't be honorable to start it again, especially after a powerful being united them all in search for peace. It would also be disrespectful towards the new monarch, as he was almost a deity to the population.

The cult of honor was indeed widespread. The prisoners of war were treated with respect and care. They were returned as soon as their families paid for their freedom. Not to mention that war crimes had severe consequences.

Andromalius discovered that the most of the population followed 'female body cult'. A female body was sacred to many, and trying to desecrate it by rape or abuse was unheard of. In a rare case that happened, the rapist was punished very hard. Since there were succubi and incubi, those that couldn't find pleasure with a willing lust-drinker were considered unworthy. And thus, rape was prohibited as well — if one needed to rape to have pleasure, they were considered unworthy to live and were executed. Andromalius completely agreed with it for quite an obvious reason.

In conclusion, the hell stallion expected something much worse, but his fears were proven untrue. It allowed him to focus on other aspects of demons' life without fear of violence rising throughout the Union.

Even when the war came, there were still ways to improve and build his country. Andromalius sent help to Equestria, but he had a kingdom of his own to rule, and it required his immediate attention.

War... He had never been so close to it before. He had heard of it from TV, read about it in history books, but he had never seen one with his own eyes. It was a bizarre experience.

He was still very young. Will he be able to do what is right for both his nation and the world?