Flintlock, Quick Strike, and the others returned to Dusk’s ad hoc command post just as the sun was beginning to rise. While they had, of course, maintained their usual discipline over the course of their journey back, the group had nonetheless been in high spirits. Their first probing test of the enemy had fallen well into their favour. Only three of their own had been lost in the fight, compared to the better part of forty of the enemy. It had been a simple case of superior supressing fire, though the apparent lack of skill of the Bright Light had helped.
That issue had surprised Flintlock greatly. He had anticipated a far tougher fight. After all, the Royal Guard was a force to be reckoned with any day of the week. He had anticipated the quick response, of course. However, the tactics and strategy of the enemy seemed…well, infantile. The large band sent after them, presumably a QRF of some sort, had simply charged straight at them. Had they not considered the possibility of an ambush?
Flintlock reminded himself that he did possess foreknowledge of what had been planned. But why had it been so easy? They struck at an hour the enemy would expect, they had clearly baited them. So why had they just charged to their fate? Why didn’t they try to encircle them, or engage them at range? Why did they all just charge in one after the other?
Of course, Flintlock knew that this reconstituted Royal Guard was relatively new, it was to be expected that the average squaddie wouldn’t be that smart. But the commanders in charge had to be old hooves. It had taken him a moment, but he had recognised the officer they had captured. It had been old Steel Pike. The last time Flintlock had seen him, the two had been lieutenants, now he was apparently a major in the new Royal Guard. He knew for certain that Pike was no fool.
So why had things gone their way so spectacularly? More to the point, how would the enemy react to this? Their plan assumed they were dealing with ponies with a tactical ability similar to their own. Nopony had planned for stupidity. And sometimes, even foolish moves can result in victory.
Leaving his merry band to resupply, get fixed up, and otherwise again made battle ready, Flintlock headed to deliver his report to Dusk. The thestral was sitting looking at the map of the area, concern clear on his features. He looked up as Flintlock entered.
“Well, that went well, didn’t it?” he said, concern clear in his voice. Flintlock nodded.
“We gave them a bloody nose. But I don’t like this, Star,” he replied. “There was no way it should have gone that well.” All their plans estimated that no more than a dozen ponies would be killed before the Lunar forces had to withdraw. “It could be that they aren’t as smart as we thought.”
On paper, that might sound a good thing. However, inexperience also made a pony unpredictable. Their current plan relied on the training they knew and mimicked their own reactions, were their circumstances reversed. If this new Royal Guard really was led by ponies that were from the same class as them, then who knew how little training the lower ranks had? For all they knew it was little more than a mob.
“So what then?” Dusk asked. “Do we change our plans?” Flintlock shook his head.
“No, they should still respond in the same way, just not initially. We might be looking at a kneejerk reaction soon. Instead of trying to work out what happened, they may just start advancing; try to steamroller us.” While such a tactic would most likely succeed, it was not the sort of thing most commanders would elect to do. In a straight fight, the Royal Guard could easily overwhelm the rag-tag force of the Moonflower. But they had no idea where they were.
“Alright,” Dusk said at length. “We’ll hit them again tonight. Sentry’s squad should be in position by now. This time we’ll hit them from behind. That should make them think twice about advancing in one direction.
Many miles to the north, Sentry and his own small band were touching down at that very moment. Unlike Flintlock’s little endeavour, Sentry’s raid would rely solely on thestrals. Flintlock had probed the enemy’s defences, testing them for weaknesses, checking their response times. It was clear that they had some room to work with. The next step in the grand plan was to confuse the Bright Lights of where they were coming from.
Dusk and the others had known for some time now where the enemy camp was; it was a fixed position. While, in contrast, Dusk had a small command post, the ponies of the Moonflower had no real base of operations within the orchards. As such, they could use their mobility to attack from several angles; thus confusing their opponents as to where they were.
Having done a fair bit of damage the first time; Flintlock had not only succeeded in killing the better part of thirty enemy troops, but he had also obtained a great deal of intelligence. Now was the time to put the fear of Luna into them. Taking inspiration from the buffalo tribes, Sentry and his small team would conduct what was known as a coup.
This was the act of touching an enemy, and escaping unharmed and undetected. It was frightening enough for a soldier to see his comrades killed in battle. But it was much worse to find them unconscious at their posts, with no alarm, and no sign of the enemy. It would unsettle the average soldier, affecting his morale by removing the supposed aura of safety of a friendly base camp. The idea that any of them could be attacked at any time, from any direction would certainly give them reason to pause.
Panicked soldiers were slower and less effective in the long term, and more likely to cause trouble, or possibly even desert. This was the goal of Sentry’s raid, his coup.
The small band of thestrals had flown as high as they could over the orchard, avoiding the enemy patrols, and had landed roughly half a mile to the north, that is behind, the enemy camp. It would be here that they would start. Infiltrating the enemy camp, they would either kill or subdue a small number of guards, preferably those in more secure sections. They would then conceal their victims and depart the way they had come. If all went well, there would be no knowledge of their deeds until sunrise.
This would form the basis of their campaign. They had shown their fighting strength with Flintlock and Quick’s attack. Now they would demonstrate their ability to come and go as they pleased. It would be this that would, hopefully, paralyse the enemy force, which would give them a window to fall back to the Moonflower, and then follow the civilians to the Badlands.
Keeping as low as they could in the tall grass, Sentry and the others looked out toward the camp. It was clear that defences had been stepped up since the previous night. The place was now much more well-guarded, and looking much more busy. Infiltration would be the hardest task. Once they were inside the enemy perimeter, they would most likely encounter far less resistance. But for now, they would have to tread carefully.
It took quite a bit of effort on the thestrals’ part to actually get through the initial perimeter. There was now a good mix of fixed guard positions, and continuous patrols. As a result, they couldn’t simply take down one of the guards and slip by; such a thing would quickly be noticed. In the end, after watching the pattern that was in play; patrols seemed to run on a fixed schedule, with no changes, the small band managed to slip in one by one through a small gap in one of the wire fences. Due to the patrols, this took the better part of half an hour, with each thestral sprinting from their cover, forcing themselves down under the wire, and then taking refuge behind some crates inside the camp. Eventually though, all of them were inside, and consequently past the most difficult obstacle.
Thanks to Flintlock, the group had a rough idea of the camp’s layout. The officers and senior staff tents, as well as other important areas, were deep inside the camp, while the enlisted were camped around them, forming a fairly thick ring around the more important ponies of the Royal Guard. Ideally though, tonight Sentry and his lot would be reminding them that just because there were nearly a thousand ponies in their way, it wouldn’t stop them from reaching them.
“Alright, keep low and stay out of the light,” Sentry instructed. “We’re looking for anypony with officer markings on them. No matter what though, we mustn’t be detected. Understand?” The other three thestrals nodded silently.
As they steadily pressed on further into the camp’s interior, they continued to encounter the odd patrol or guard post. But the nearer they got to the centre, the fewer there were. Of course, it would be the reverse getting out, and the prospect of getting past those guards a second time was already making Sentry nervous.
Eventually, they came upon their first target; an earth pony stallion, wearing the uniform of a captain. There didn’t seem to be anypony with him and there were no guard patrols as far as the thestrals could tell. Gesturing with a hoof, Sentry ordered them to grab him.
Sentry was strongly opposed to killing any of these ponies. Not because he saw them as former comrades, but because, to his mind, it would be far better to leave them alive. After all, who could fight with the knowledge that your opponent’s had literally had your life in their hooves? It would serve their overall purpose far better, and feed into the thestrals’ mystique that they knew to exist within the enemy’s ranks.
Comet, the second stallion in the four pony team, steadily crept around to get behind the captain. Just as Flintlock had done with Steel Pike, Comet would kick his opponent’s legs out from under him. This time however, instead of restraining him, Comet would follow up with a good sharp strike behind the head, knocking him out. Due to the thestral’s comparatively smaller size compared to his comrades, Comet had no trouble going unnoticed.
Just as Sentry hoped, Comet suddenly leapt from the shadows and promptly subdued his opponent, with barely a sound to be heard. Sentry and the other two quickly followed up, helping him conceal the body a little way off the beaten track.
“Nicely done, Comet,” Sentry said. “Right, take his helmet.” In keeping with the traditions of a counting coup, the thestrals would also be taking something from their foe. In this case, their helmets. Sentry then planned to leave these near a guard post as they left, again as a way of inspiring fear amongst the enemy.
“Well, one down, sir,” comet said. “Four to go?” Sentry nodded, five ponies from all over the camp seemed like a good practical strategy, given time constraints and the ever present risk of discovery.
Three hours later, and the small band of thestrals had completed their mission, nearly. Scattered all around the enemy camp, were the unconscious bodies of five ponies of the Royal Guard; an earth pony captain, three pegasi lieutenants and a unicorn major. Each one was now missing their helmets, which were now in the possession of the thestrals.
Having done what they set out to do, the thestrals had carefully made their way back to the stretch of wire that didn’t quite connect with the ground, allowing them to crawl under it. It would be a case of repeating their method of entry, only in reverse. Before that though, Sentry and Comet had paused to drop off their stolen prizes. They settled on placing them just behind a guard post near where they planned to leave.
The act struck Swift Sentry as the sort of thing some twisted serial killer might do. The message however, was quite clear; ‘We had your number. Are you sure you want to cross us?’. It would certainly bring home to the Bright Lights the fact that numbers weren’t everything.
With that, all that remained was to creep back out the same way they came in. While difficult, they got through without too much trouble. In four hours, under cover of darkness, four thestrals, without support, had infiltrated the main enemy base, successfully subdued five high ranking guards, and then left their calling card, before escaping completely undetected. The Royal Guard certainly could not boast of accomplishing such feats.
As the sun rose on the second day, Steel Pike’s fury returned. His demands to the senior officers had been all but ignored. They wanted to wait around and ‘gather intelligence’ as they put it, which was a polite way of saying that they would sit on their flanks and do nothing. The fact that they’d been attacked had to mean that they were getting close to wherever the Lunar bandits were holed up. All they had to do was keep pressing forward!
But no, all that had been done in response to the attack was to increase patrols around the camp. No stepping up the search, no hint of a reprisal. Those Lunar dogs were probably laughing at him now! The Royal Guard, pride of Equestria, and it sits on its flank whenever it’s asked to do something half way important. It was the same during the war! When Goldwing was captured, instead of charging in after him, they negotiated their way out, even giving away a prisoner of their own in ‘exchange’.
All on its own, it was bad enough. But this morning, by Celestia, this morning. No less than five officers had been found unconscious all over the camp. All of them had been well inside the perimeter when they were surprised by their assailants. And then, just behind a guard post on the perimeter, they had found all five of the guards missing helmets. These rebels were playing practical jokes on them!
The effects had been two fold. On the one hoof, all the senior officers were now deeply troubled and had fallen to discussing the situation on endless meetings. But also, the rank and file of the Royal Guard were now starting to break. News had quickly gone around the camp regarding the night’s events. What everypony had thought of as a quiet night had actually been another raid. They were all rattled, Pike himself had even caught some would be deserters. Talk was going round of how the thestrals were invisible and silent, undetectable, and that next time they came by, they wouldn’t stay their hoof. Morale was at an all-time low.
Pike snorted and tossed his head in irritation, making his armour jangle slightly. When were they going to do something?! They’d been attacked twice now. This whole thing was supposed to be easy clean up; reports said that there were no more than two hundred enemy troops. How was it that they had the upper hoof?
To his mind, there was no need for debate or discussion of tactics. All they needed to do was push forward. Why wouldn’t anypony listen?
“Major?” a voice called, startling Pike out of his rant. Turning, he saw a pegasus guard.
“What is it now?” Pike demanded angrily. Undaunted by the major’s disposition, the guard continued.
“Sir, the senior staff wishes to speak with you.” Pike smiled; at last he was being taken seriously! Dismissing the guard with a curt order, Pike set off towards the senior staff tent.
Twenty minutes later, the major emerged, smiling. His suggestion had finally been taken up. Given that the enemy was taking advantage of their current weaknesses so brilliantly, it was decided to reverse the situation. The camp, which had proved easy to attack, was to break up as soon as possible, and marching would resume. They would head to San Maretonio, a day’s march south of where they were. As the only settlement in the region, the enemy would have to have stopped there.
Pike shook his head, laughing to himself. Of course they had stopped there, a week or so ago. They had the supplies they needed. Now the rebels were fighting to slow them down. They knew they couldn’t win in a straight fight, so they were doing all they could to slow and unsettle the Royal Guard.
Well, that would no longer help them, he thought darkly. Now they would have to face the might of an advancing army. No little pin prick attacks would stop them now. They would push through this orchard, driving the rebels before them, then pull them down once they were in the open. Summoning his aide, Pike gave orders to begin mobilising his own units.
“We need to move. Now!” the young scout said as he addressed Dusk. The sudden nature of his arrival, as well as his unusually commanding tone threw Dusk for a moment. He had been engaged in pondering over their next move after Sentry’s little stunt last night. By tomorrow night they would be moving out. They would briefly return to the Moonflower, gathering up all they could and spiking the guns, before taking off to catch up with the civilians and head for the Badlands.
“Hang on, just who do you think you are?” Flintlock demanded of the young thestral. “Colonel Star Dusk is your commanding officer, and you will address him as such!” This served only to make the youngster even more anxious.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he said hurriedly. “But there’s no time. We really do need to leave right away!” Both senior thestrals realised what the colt meant at the same moment, their slate grey faces undoubtedly turned a shade or two paler.
“How many are there, and how far?” Dusk asked, now sounding equally worried.
“I’m pretty sure it’s the entire enemy force, sir. They’re pushing south right through the orchards. I’d say we have about ten minutes before their forward scouts find us.”
“Mother of Luna!” Dusk muttered. “Flint, let’s get everypony away. Right now, captain!”
“Sir, yes, sir,” Flintlock replied. Galloping over to one of the sentries, he grabbed the whistle that was hung around his neck and blew it as loudly as he could. Quite quickly, everypony stopped.
“Alright, everypony listen up! We are falling back now! All non-flyers into the wagons, everypony else, grab what you can and get airborne! Head back for the Moonflower and we’ll…” He didn’t get to finish that sentence as blast of magic struck the tree behind him.
“Contact!” cried one of the sentries.
Seconds later, the whole area was alive with magic criss crossing through the air. For once the Lunar Guard had been caught napping. The Royal Guard had managed to close so quickly that there had been barely any time to give warning. Thestrals and pegasi swarmed into the air, desperately fighting to stay there. With white pegasi shooting around, there was no way the lumbering wagons could risk taking off, unless they wanted to be cut down in seconds.
On the ground, more guards charged through the trees with spears, swords and horns. Again, with so few in terms of numbers, the Lunar Guard was quickly overwhelmed. Even with everypony, including Dusk and Flintlock fighting for their lives, the ponies of the Moonflower soon found themselves hemmed in and surrounded on all sides, whilst escape from the air seemed almost impossible.
“Dear sweet Luna!” Flintlock bellowed over the roar of the battle. He grabbed Dusk and pulled his head down so he could shout in his ear; the only way to be surely heard. “Star, we need to break out! If we try and hold then this is our curtain! If we all attack at one point, we may be able to buy enough time for the wagons to get away!”
“Get on with it then!” Dusk bellowed back. “I’ll stay here and try to hold the line!” The pair ducked at another near miss. “Take all the flyers you can find. Gather them by that termite mound! I’ll take all the unicorns and earth ponies and counter charge! I reckon we have about five minutes. After that we’ll be overrun! Get going!”
Flintlock broke into a headlong gallop. He didn’t dare risk flying in this; the magic criss crossing over the sky, combined with all the enemy pegasi made it a risky proposition.
“Okay! Listen up!” he called as he ran. “Thestrals and pegasi, follow me. We need to break out of here.” A few thestrals who weren’t still shocked by the sudden attack began to rally around him, raising the same cry. “Come on, let’s go! Follow me!”
With about a dozen thestrals and one pegasus following him, Flintlock leapt into the air, beating his wings as hard as he could. Flying in a column style formation, the thestrals would attack the enemy with the force of a bulldozer. One hostile flyer running into you was bad enough, but two or three more would be enough to knock somepony out of the sky. This time, there would be no slashing with wingtips, and nothing in the way of real strategy or tactics. They would now fall back on the practices of their forefathers; they would ram their way out.
“Charge!” Flintlock bellowed, somehow being heard over the din. Like a sliver of liquid, the line of thestrals charged at their target point. If they could create a hole, and hold it long enough for the wagons to get clear, then they might stand a fighting chance.
The pegasi flyers saw realised what was happening seconds too late. They expected their enemy to slash at them and then shoot away, as was the norm. But this time, there would be no such retreat. Flintlock knew that this would be the only charge. As they closed, the thestral captain could clearly see the look of fear in the eyes of the younger pegasi. He would use that.
Bearing their fangs, flaring their wings, and doing all they could to appear as big, and as threatening as possible, the thestrals connected with their foe. The air rang with the sour sound of armour hitting armour as both sides slammed into the other. Sentry’s engagement with the Royal Guard above their camp had been described as brutal. But compared to what was happening now, it might as well have been a tea party. There were no rules, no quarter given. The thestrals simply didn’t stop ramming, punching, kicking, and screaming their way through.
Meanwhile, far down below, Dusk was watching his command struggle to survive. The unicorns and earth ponies approached their situation with a similar lookout to their thestral friends. The fighting was growing in intensity. There weren’t even really any lines to speak of; the whole field was the scene of a dozen small battles culminating into one, as the unprepared Lunar guards tried to hold where they were.
Dusk’s own patch of land was on a small knoll, giving him some advantage. The unicorns had fallen back on a tried and true tactic and formed themselves into squares. In this formation, nopony had their back exposed and every angle was covered by multiple ponies, all firing as much as their magic would allow. Plus, the psychological effect of lots of arrayed pointy horns prevented ponies from charging in. The only real problem was attacks for the air. As a result the unicorns were having to split their time between defending themselves on the ground, and taking pot shots as passing pegasi, enough at least, to convince them to stay away.
The earth ponies, last of all, simply did what they did best; fight hoof to hoof. Out amid the madness of the battle, Dusk could see some of them, often on their own or in groups of no more than four or five, holding off dozens of enemy pegasi, grabbing them by their helmets and swinging them round, or banging them together to incapacitate them. Dusk almost laughed at the way they fought. It was as if they were rival hoofball fans that had gotten into a disagreement brought on by too much salt.
They were holding on, only just, but they were holding on.
Up in the skies, Flintlock and the other thestrals had almost managed to break through. They were all now quite bloodied and bruised. Flintlock himself had injured his shoulder and right wing quite badly, and had lost a back tooth or two. There were fewer thestrals in the air than when they had started, but there were also fewer enemy pegasi. It wasn’t exactly a perfect escape route free from danger, but it would have to do.
“Sentry!” Flintlock called out, searching for the other senior flyer. He spotted him holding his own against two pegasi that were trying to take him down. Ramming into one of them with all the speed he could muster, Flintlock helped Sentry away.
“Captain!” Sentry replied, spitting out the blood that had accumulated in his mouth, and holding a hoof over a serious looking gash on his foreleg. “How is it all going?”
“We’re doing a lot better than we deserve to,” Flintlock replied. “Listen, I need you to find Colonel Dusk, and tell him that it’s safe enough for the wagons to make a break for it. Tell him to send them westerly, straight past us. We’ll hold here and keep the exit open. Once they’re all away, we’ll do a fighting retreat back to the Moonflower and see about losing these bastards. Understand?”
“Yes, sir. If I can’t reach him, who should I tell, sir?” Flintlock quickly understood what Sentry was asking. Who was in charge if Dusk was already dead? Luna knew there were quite a few dead guardsmen littering the ground.
“Come back up here, and I’ll oversee the evacuation.” With that, Sentry flew off. Flintlock meanwhile quickly found himself under attack again, as a charging pegasus took a swing at him with a spear. It was the cornfield at Shy-colt all over again.
Dusk was just about to give a final order to circle the wagons when Sentry landed next to him. His sudden arrival almost resulted in his end, as Dusk at first thought him to be another pegasus. Fortunately, at the last moment, he stayed his hoof.
“Dammit, Sentry! Don’t creep up on ponies like that!” he bellowed over the continual sound of magic shooting back and forth.
“Sorry, sir. Captain Flintlock sends his respects, sir. It’s safe for the wagons to take off now; there’s a safe area to the west.” Dusk’s eyes went wide.
“Alright, do all you can to get the non-flyers on board. We’ll hold as long as we can. If you see a chance to get away, tell the wagons to depart.” He turned to talk to somepony else. “Quick Strike! Get your colts on board the wagons!”
Sentry then quickly took off and began skimming along the battlefield, calling out for all the unicorns and earth ponies to start falling back towards the wagons. As he continued his flight, his sensitive ears picked out the sound of the general retreat being blown. Quite quickly the battlefield began to shrink, and the noose tightened.
Before long, ponies were piling aboard the six wagons, whilst thestrals up above continued to do all they could to keep the area around them clear of the enemy. In view of their recent losses, almost all the wagons were taking off somewhat lighter than before. But still, they were quite vulnerable. The first wagon, despite the best efforts of the thestrals, barely made it a hundred yards before the two flyers pulling it were cut down. The wagon dropped some two hundred feet, smashing on impact.
Luckily, that attack drew a great many of the enemy away from the other wagons, and they were able to climb quickly, getting out and away. Hiding within the relative safety of the clouds, and out of range of the magic of hostile unicorns, the five wagons began to limp back toward the old mission and safety.
The thestrals meanwhile had a harder time. They were invested in the battle. It was not simply a matter of crying ‘break contact’ and vanishing. It was almost ten o’clock in the morning, and the sun gave them little opportunity to hide. So, all the way back, it was a fighting retreat.
By the time they reached San Maretonio and the mission, they were down Luna knew how many; there was little time for casualty reports. In actuality, including all the Lunar guards, volunteers, half trained ponies and walking wounded, there were no more than two hundred, against an army of five thousand.