Crusader Ponies (Romance of the Six Counties)

by swirlstar

Chapter 14: Let It Be Perpetual

Let It Be Perpetual

Urban the Griffon was one of those few non-pony beings who had stayed behind in the Outer Lands. Purely for business reasons: with the Changeling threat to Equestria neutralized in the wake of victory, cities no longer needed fortifications; cities no longer needed him. Better to stay here, tend the land that was his reward, and employ his skills whenever they were needed.

And his skills were, indeed, being employed. Just not in the way that he expected.

"You there! Get those pikes set up at the right angle - show him how, Captain!" the gray griffon barked, stalking the ramparts of Twilight Sparkle's city.

The pony captain grunted and walked over to the new recruit, shoving out several other civilians in the way.

Every pony that was fit for service had been called to service on these walls: hauling large boulders, heaving iron cauldrons, fitting wooden spikes, repairing the smallest chinks, whatever their talents could be used for. And this meant that the battlements were a virtual cornucopia of sound - timbers creaking, iron striking, stone chipping, the 'clop' 'clop' of pony hooves. Every sound imaginable existed up there - except pony voices. Instead, the citizens worked in silence. Fatalistic, solemn silence.

Every now and then clouds of dust, kicked up by entering refugees, would engulf the walls in orange dust. Darned country ponies. Urban knew that these ex-farmers were carrying their family, their property, their all into the city. He also knew that they would be the death of them. No city could possibly hold out against an enemy with this many mouths to feed. The previous war had taught him that an iron heart was the key to deliverance.

"My Duchess," the griffon pleaded, mustering all the civility he could manage against this political wreck. "We must turn away the refugees. We won't be able to hold out against a siege; not with them."

Twilight Sparkle sighed in dejection. She was no longer in any mood to decide anything. "Rarity," the lavender mare motioned mirthlessly to her remaining friend. "What do you think."

"We can't let them die outside," the white unicorn muttered half-heartedly.

"With all due respect, Countess Rarity, letting them in will likely generate the same result: only longer, slower, and with more ponies involved."

The former fashionista lowered her gaze in response, unable or unwilling to wrestle with the moral dilemma. "Applejack will come. She has to come. This is about her as much as it is about us."

"Yes," the griffon answered half-heartedly. "But Countess Applejack might still be far away when- "

"Pega-sus!" a soldier was pointing horrorstruck at the far beyond. "Pegasus! PEGASUS!"

Urban squinted. And there it was - a black moving dot, just on the horizon.

The sounds of the distant sands was deafening. It was as if the whole world had stopped on a dime. Ponies paused, frozen in place. Each looked at his neighbor, daring him to look upwards first.

Few took up the initial challenge. But slowly, but surely, every head began tilting towards the sky, scanning the horizon, gazing intently at the growing speck speeding towards the city walls...

"Friendly!" the griffon abruptly tore apart the silence, his eyesight discerning the county symbols embossed upon the uniform. "All of you! Back to work!"

Nopony obeyed his orders. Not even the boss, Urban himself. The desert winds howled once again.

Slowly, the speck turned into a dot... turned into a blob... turned into a pegasus... turned into a county pegasus, the stars of Twilight's cutie mark emblazoned onto her flank armor...

The pegasus flew above the timber pikes on the ramparts and then dived down, her sore, tired body crash-landing to a halt in front of the gray griffon. But First Sight couldn't care less if she had landed in front of the Princess Celestia herself. She turned to a nearby soldier, her body heaving up and down from the exertion. "You, there... now... they've crossed the river... bell... the bell... now... "

"B-bell," a weedy, teenaged pony stammered in response. "Bell. B-bell. Uh, BELL!"

"BELL!" the dread order was echoed mournfully down the city walls. "BELL! RING THE BELL!"

Everypony knew what this meant. "The bell! All soldiers, down to the barracks, quick! Rest of you, you know what this means! Double-time! Now!" Urban bellowed, rushing in to pick up a wooden spike of his own.

As if the common folk needed the ordering. The ramparts returned to vivacious life. New pikes took up positions within crenels. Cauldrons moved with double the urgency. Surface scratches were quickly glossed over, the stonemasons hastily patching up whatever defects remained.

Dong. Dong. Dong. The monotonous sounds of the city bell left nopony in the dark. The sound of hooves filled the city center. The bustling bazaar began to empty out into the winding alleys. Within every house, doors were closing, candles were blown out, curtains drawn. Occasionally, the occasional prayer could be heard. As if the Princess was going to save them.

The dust clouds in the distance grew hazier as the tardy refugees now realized, too late, that their time was up. The closer ones were jolted into frantic action, whipping, running, crashing, shunting. Any unkindness, any wrong, any injustice: none of that mattered. Only life mattered.

Because Rainbow Dash had come.

*

Silence was the order of the day in front of Twilight's walls.

Clad in heavy armor, the cyan pegasus walked up, alone, towards the city gates. She looked at the daunting walls in front of her, spikes sticking out in every angles, ponies standing behind every merlon. Tough, I guess, but not tough enough for the Rainbow to beat.

"I am Rainbow Dash!" the prismatic mare roared, voice magically enhanced by her unicorns. "I am the rightful ruler of the Outer Lands! I demand that this city be opened to me RIGHT NOW!"

No response. Rainbow Dash tersely pawed her hooves on the ground, the rage inside of her - all the insults, all the bad feelings - slowly coming onto a boil. Still no response.

"If you do not surrender this city now, there will be no escape for any of you!" the pegasus stormed. "There will be no mercy for any of you!"

Still no response. The distant winds continued to howl.

"So this is it, huh? Does nopony even dare talk to me now? Is this what the great Twilight Sparkle has become?"

Taunts had the same effect as threats. The sound of a buzzard's cry resonated, alone, throughout the land.

"You wanted this," Rainbow Dash murmured under her breath. "Army, into your positions!"

*

The day agonizingly turned into night. Rarity opened up the hatch to the lookout tower and emerged onto the highest point of Twilight Sparkle's castle. The lavender mare soon followed her, peering beyond the masonry into the nightscape beyond.

"We're surrounded... " the purple unicorn surveyed the land. The fires created by Rainbow Dash's army ringed the city walls like an ominous river of lava. Amid the flickering lights, the studious pony could distinguish the shadows of frenetic woodwork - the creation of siege engines, no doubt. The sound of heavy metal being dragged along the roads - that had to be cannons. "It's over... "

Rarity exhaled sharply. "Twilight, darling, don't say such things now!" she chided, caressing the purple mare's mane gently. "There's hope. There's always hope. Rainbow Dash hasn't been at all successful against Applejack. Perhaps she'll make the same mistakes with us."

"I'm not Applejack," the lavender mare's voice cracked. "I'm just a useless, incompetent pony- "

"Twilight!" the white unicorn admonished. "You need to remember who you are at this moment! You simply must stop acting like this!"

The lavender mare wilted further under such scolding. "But how can I not be like this?" she bawled. "Everything I do has just been... " she began to weep bitter tears. "I've failed everyone... Princess Celestia... my family... and all of you... "

Rarity swiftly moved to comfort her fast-declining friend. "Twilight, darling," she comforted gently. "Even if you've failed, you can't fail forever. There are always second chances. There always are. Now don't you give up now, Twilight, don't you dare give up on us... "

Twilight sniffed, knowing full well that Rarity's words were just so much hot air: she had already given up.

"... don't give up, not now, not when Applejack is coming... "

The lavender unicorn smirked in dejection. "You really think Applejack will help us."

"You don't know, dear," Rarity lied, softly wiping the tears from her friend's eyes. "You just never know."

The purple unicorn's eyes remained fixated on the ground. "Fine. So you think Applejack is helping us this time. And what then? Even if Rainbow Dash goes away, so what? It'll just be the same thing, but now, with Applejack," she moaned. "It'll just the same thing, over and over and over again... "

This is going nowhere. "Twilight, dear, we'll think about that when all this is over. But for now, I need you - we need you - to stand up. To be strong. To defend your city," she gestured to the city below, now pitch-dark and cowering in fear of death. "These are your people, Twilight. Each one of them. They need you... "

The lavender mare could only close her eyes in sorrow. Rarity doesn't understand - how could she? How could she feel all this - the hate, the passion, the rage, the sadness... what does she know about trying to pull yourself up, again and again, only to fall back down, further and further... what does know about the insanity that comes when duty and friendship collide... what does she - no, she doesn't get it. She'll never get it.

"Please, Twilight," the white unicorn seemed to realize what Twilight was thinking. "You owe me this much. I left Ponyville - I left everything - because I followed you. You owe me this much. Please, Twilight."

"I'm still alive." A non-sequitur was all that the purple unicorn could utter.

*

Celestia's Sun shot its first bloody rays onto the land. Before it, the night retreated west, giving up, as an offering, the revelations of last night's works: rams, catapults, mangonels, ballistae, trebuchets, onagers... Rainbow Dash had come prepared. The glint of menacing cannons spelt further doom for Twilight Sparkle.

"Rise and shine, all of you!" Rainbow Dash, giddy with excitement, paraded along every tent, the bells attached on her armor rousing soldiers from their final night's sleep. "Today we'll end this war once and for all! Giddy up, everypony; the sooner we do this, the faster we go home!"

"Rise and shine, everypony! Today, we're going to scale the walls!" the cyan pegasus repeated once again, turning to point at her army's objective.

The outer walls of Twilight's city loomed over the meager tents and lean-tos of Rainbow Dash's camp. Further back, half-obscured by morning fog, the grim walls of inner citadel - where Twilight Sparkle was - emerged. Being the capital of the Outer Lands, Twilight's city was of course the most well-fortified out of the counties. The walls sure demonstrated that fact - the pegasus swore they would rival Canterlot's, and with the extra preparation, they did seem impregnable...

And now, as the cyan pegasus faced these daunting heights, she could almost hear a small voice inside of her: You couldn't even defeat Applejack in her wooden fort... and now, you think you can handle this?

Instinctively, the pegasus' eyes dilated and she gasped in a pang of sudden terror. Oh, by Celestia, what have I gotten myself into? Those walls... they are indeed strong... Twilight and Rarity are also holed up in there with as much force as they can muster-

"Morning, Countess." The voice of Lightning Dust cut short the prismatic mare's niggling doubts. The golden-maned pegasus gazed at what her liege was looking at. "Oh. Those walls. We're going to take 'em today, Dash."

"Can we go over the plan again, Lightning?" Rainbow Dash inquired uneasily.

Lightning Dust immediately realized what the cyan pegasus' real question was. "Don't worry, Dash. This isn't going to be like last time. You clearly see that we're much more ready this time 'round."

"Yeah, I see that," Rainbow Dash let out a small smile as she looked at all the machinery in front of her. "But Applejack- "

"The scouts haven't seen any trace of Applejack anywhere near where we are now," the golden-maned mare interrupted. "We do this, fast and furious, then we turn and destroy her army. That's the plan."

"I don't know... " the cyan pegasus murmured, turning her gaze back onto the walls. "those are big. Plus, what if Applejack is around?"

Lightning Dust sighed. "Dash, one thing I definitely learnt in the War was never, ever second-guess yourself before the attack's happened. We have a great army. We have a great plan. We have done all the preparation. Let's just go, as soon as the ground dries out. Once it starts, the adrenalin will tell you what to do- "

"Countess! Countess!" the shouts of a panicking sentry came from the left of the duo. "Look; look!"

The two turned, just in time to see the leading elements of a pike column emerge from the forest. Further clouds of dust in the horizon and the slowly materializing squads of pegasi indicated that these columns were only a minute fraction of what was coming. This had to be her. It could only be-

"Applejack," Lightning Dust gritted her teeth, as a banner, bearing the sign of an apple, finally broke through the dense foliage of the forest. "I am going to kill that recon captain when I find her... "

"... seven ...eight... nine... ten columns... by Equestria, her army's at least our size!" The revelation had broken the cyan pegasus' will. "Lightning, we have to retreat! We have to retreat!"

"Dash, I might have to agree with you here." The size of this army was fast eroding the headstrong pegasus' nerve as well. "But now, we need to order the whole force to face them, before it's too late... "

Applejack's army was fast coming into full view. The low thunder of ten thousand hoofsteps, marching together in unison, was slowly besting the frantic bustle of Rainbow Dash's own camp as her own soldiers tried to meet the new threat as best as they could. Applejack, it seems, had arranged her forces for a classic pincer movement: lighter pegasi on both flanks, powerful squares of pikeponies in the center. No doubt, there were missile forces behind the front lines as well, both unicorn and mechanical.

Rainbow Dash's forces hastily deployed into squares on the other side of the camp, frantically stabbing the ground with makeshift logs and pikes to create obstacles - any obstacles - to stave off the inevitable. It wasn't going to be enough.

"We'll have to do a fighting retreat," Lightning Dust struck a nearby tent in disgust. "I can't believe this... Applejack did it again!"

The normally-headstrong pegasus glimpsed uneasily at the city walls. "If they decide to come out now... " she shook her head in a panic, not even daring to think such foul thoughts.

"So close... " Rainbow Dash was still staring dumbly at Applejack's gathering army. "I can't believe it. We were so close... "

The desert winds howled in the distance.

"Don't think about things like that now, Rain-bow?" Lightning Dust's ears suddenly pricked up, as if something was amiss. "Wait a minute!"

"What?" the cyan pegasus was nonplussed.

The golden-maned mare rubbed her ear several times just to make sure. "Wait... that noise... it's gone."

"Gone? What do you- oh." Rainbow Dash strained her ears as well, not believing her luck. All she could her were the sounds of her men running around, her officers giving orders, her weapons and armor clanging as their bearers rushed into their positions. Applejack's army, so large, so close in front of them, had turned strangely silent.

Lightning Dust regarded the opposing force again. The dust had now cleared: she could now see not only flags bearing the sign of apples, but also flags bearing the sign of diamonds. Evidently Applejack had conscripted Rarity's remaining force under her flag as well. "They don't seem to be moving. Not the front lines, at least."

"Yeah... " the prismatic mare concurred. "But we're still going to have to fall back..."

"No." A sly smile crossed the headstrong mare's face. "This could be our opportunity, Rainbow Dash."

Author's Note:

Let It Be Perpetual - Esto Perpetua - Motto of Idaho