We came marching down the hill toward the cross roads, right about two hours after we left. We lost a lot of daylight on our two hour delay, but we still had time to reach the pass before night fall, and, if necessary, take it back, again.
The whole column came to a stop as the Colonel stopped and saluted the General. Fire Ball and I came up on her left and saluted as well. The General gave a quick nod of his head, and then spoke to the Colonel.
"Well, Colonel, what took you so long?"he asked.
"My apologizes, Sir. We were ambushed about six miles out."she replied.
"Casualties?"he asked.
"One hundred and thirteen dead, and forty six sent back to Manehatten, Sir."she answered, and the General began rubbing his forehead with his left hoof.
"Damn."he mumbled as he looked back at the long line of solders behind us."Reports say the Temple has over three thousand defenders. That force is twice our size."
"When did he have time to get a report?"I asked myself.
"My solders can take em',"the Colonel said confidently."there's nothing they can't do."
"Did you bring the artillery I asked for?"the General asked.
"We have two cannons."she responded.
While the general looked contemplative, I took a second to study the Colonel's face. She didn't look like she wanted to tell him. I looked back toward the rear of the column. I had seen the 'cannons' they brought, I knew what the general expected, and felt the General should be aware of what I had seen. I turned back to look at the General and prepared to speak.
"General."I said, which instantly got his attention."I believe you should be aware that the cannons the colonel is speaking about are old fifteen pounders, and they do not look to be in functional order."
"They fire fine."the Colonel defended, glaring at me."I've had them tested, and they are fully functional."
The General looked between me and the Colonel before starting to walk down the column toward the rear, followed by the Colonel. I soon followed myself, Fire Ball coming right after me. The Sarge came up behind us as well."I believe I shell have a look at these cannons myself."the General declared.
"You better not be blowing hot air."Sarge hist in my ear.
I grew worried as we approached the out of shape cannons. Had I missed something. Maybe the rust I saw didn't mean anything? My fears where soon put out when I saw the Generals reaction to the small cannons at the rear of the column.
"Colonel,"the General started, he was clearly not amused."I order the cities twenty five powders I know you have. Where are the weapons I ordered!"
The Colonel hung her head in shame."We lost them, Sir. Earth ponies attacked the city and got away with them."
"You lost four twenty five pound cannons, to Earth Ponies!"the General roared."Are you incompetent!"
"Sir, I..."she started, but was cut off by the General.
"Get the column moving!"he shouted as he marched his way back up to the front of the line, were he stopped and turned around as he noted the column was still siting still."I said MOVE!"he bellowed in anger, and the long lines of solders began marching forward immediately. The Colonel took her place leading them, following right behind the General.
Me, Fire Ball, and the rest of my squad took up the rear, right behind the pitiful excuse of cannons that would normally be at the back.
I shuttered when I momentarily thought about how mad the General would have been had he fount out about the cannons in the middle of a battle instead. He had a history about rather harsh punishment for those under his command. And those not under his command, which wasn't technically legal.
"Oh well."I thought to myself."At least I'm not in trouble."
Several hours past, and the light of the sun began to fade, as the celestial body attempted to hide behind the mountains. With the setting sun came the cool of night though, and that was a very welcome relief. This brought up something I hadn't thought about in a long time. I had heard that, once the sun sets, in mountains very near where we were, strange pegesi of the night, with horrible bat wings, and fangs came out, and preyed upon ponies. I, however, knew these were just stories, so I didn't let mind linger.
As my thoughts wondered to other things, I suddenly felt a stiff breeze blow up agents my right side. I thought nothing of it as we marched on, simply staring ahead, like everypony else, and none of them seemed to care ether.
However, the second time it happened I turned my gaze right, and saw were it was coming from. A few miles out hung thick, black, ominous clouds, which were moving toward use at a rather fast pace.
"The pagusi mean to use the weather against us."I thought."That's not good."
I marched on though, not mentioning the weather, as I could tell everypony else had already seen it. And the General ether didn't care, or, more likely, was already thinking up a strategy to fight it off.
Unicorns could control weather to a certain extent, but could never match a Pegasi, much less a whole trained army of them.
I looked forward once again, and stopped just in time to miss bumping into the Sargent. I stood to my full height and stretched my neck as far as I could. Foal Mountain loomed over us, and only a mile or two out was the massive pass cutting through its heart.
The Northern side of the mountain was far less steep then the southern side. It's back slowly ascended at first, gradually getting steeper until it became almost vertical about half way to the top.
I stared at the mountain before us, still wondering why the mountains, and everything else in this land, was so vastly different from Unicornia, or even the Pegasi lands. The mountains in Unicornia would go up gracefully, and would break at some point into a ravine and such. Sure, some had sharp peaks, but seemingly every single one in Equestria had a spear point at the top. And the one in the center was the worst, I didn't even want to know how it stood so perfectly straight.
I was shaken from my musings when I heard a long blow from a horn. It vibrated through the valley, and echoed from the far wall for about four or five seconds. I recognized the sound, it was a frequency and length produced by magic to be a single. the message was to form firing lines around the source, which was the commanding officers.
Quickly my squad and the other squads around us rushed forward and made a wall in front of the General. My squad was directly in front of him and the Colonel, and they were attended by six musketeers who looked well trained.
I looked forward as the wall finished forming and saw why we where in this position. Out of the woods, less then a quarter mile away, I saw a large army of earth ponies, with a dozen or more pegasi leading them, come pouring out.
Thinking of the pegasi I looked up, and sure enough, there was another large group setting the finishing touches to their storm.
"Get those damn cannons up here and start firing on those earth ponies. Everypony in the front lines, be ready to aim for flying targets."the General yelled as he pulled his sword from it sheath and held it up high."For the Empire!" he bellowed just as the two cannons fired, and the first earth ponies hit the ground.
"In coming."somepony yell and I raised my musket into the air.
Just as it started to rain I saw at least a hundred pegasi descending from the clouds, but before we could fire, they fired. Bullets pelted down on us from the sky, like rain drops of death. After the lead stopped falling, everypony in the firing line raised their muskets and returned the favor, only the pegasi where far out numbered. They tried to move back, to get out of range, or reposition, but lead is a lot faster, and almost every one of them fell from the air. The few that did survive flew off back to their allies, just as they got hit by the second round of cannon shot.
"Reload!"I heard the order repeated a couple hundred times as I grabbed my powder horn, and quickly pored a small amount down the end of my musket. I capped it, then reached into my shot pouch and grabbed one of the small, round balls that I frantically stuffed into the end of my weapon.
"BANG"
A chorus of gun blast sounded from in front of me, and I heard the distinct sound of a bullet fly past me. I ignored it, and primed the firing hammer, than lifted it back into a firing position.
I paused for a second, the enemy had advanced to just thirty hooves away, and they were still coming. Having abandoned their muskets and had drawn swords, they now charged our line, hoping to get to us before we had reloaded, but they failed.
"FIRE!"
At point blank range the firing line unleashed a deadly volley of lead into the charging enemy, sending almost all of them to the ground. Maybe a hundred or so slammed into a wall of bayonets a second later, killing what was left of them, and ending the battle.
I was breathing heavily and shaking a little bit, that was one of the shortest engagements I had ever been in. It had not been a well thought out plan, or whom ever planned it was incompetent. The tactic was clear though, and if they had been faster, it could have worked, but timing was every thing, and they got it wrong. I breathed out a deep breath, and looked up from the carnage to see a few pegasi retreating for Foal Pass.
"Cowards, at least the earth ponies attacked us."I thought with venom.
"Alright, get to work, as soon as the dead are buried we're getting out of here."I heard the General say, and I immediately moved to follow his order.
We camped that night just on the far side of the pass. We set up dozens of tents, and set out small spiked barricades to surround the encampment.
I stood first watched on the west side of the camp, keeping vigil over the sleeping ponies for sixty hooves in two directions. I took my post just before the sun dipped completely below the horizon, casting long shadows, and lighting the sky up with orange and red. I turned my eyes toward the distant mountain, and looked long and hard, trying to see where the temple of the false gods was located.
I stared for a few minutes before I saw something. A light, small and dim at first, but it soon grew to a large golden glow. It got bright enough that I had to squint, and then it flared and the sun fell the rest of the way from the sky, then the light died, and was replaced by another. I stared in awe as the same thing happened, only the second light was light blue, and did not get as bright. Then, after it flared, the moon shot into the sky, casting deep shadows and light gray rays shined forth.
I stared in wonder at what just happened, my heart began to pound in my chest, and sweat formed on my brow.
"Heresy."I said, just under my breath.
I looked to my right and saw the other two look outs staring in the same direction I had been. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and turned my focus back to watching for enemies.
"We have to stop this heresy soon."I thought to myself."Or more will flock to it."
I stood there the rest of my watch, anticipating the battle to come, praying multiple times to the console and to different gods individually, that they would keep us safe, all of us.
I was relieved around twenty two thirty hours, and I went back to my tent. I lay there all night, thinking, waiting, and dreading about what was to come. I don't know when I fell asleep.