The Border of Equestria, Mere Hours Later
The vast empty landscape was highly picturesque beneath the continuing gentle rays of the day’s sun, life continued on as normal within nature. Only a short distance from the sprawling fields and hilltops stood tall cliffs that dropped directly down into the sea separating Equestria from the Griffon Empire; if one would listen closely they could hear the waves clashing with the bare rocks in the distance, seagulls chirping and screeching the day away.
And it was here, with a mix of internal and external reinforced airbags and magical propulsion engines, a zeppelin under the jurisdiction of the EUP cruised high above the landscape casting a magnificent shadow below. Beneath the primary reinforced balloon was the main hull, a metallic structure where the crew and most of the weapon emplacements were located. The zeppelin also had a few small ones located atop the balloon itself, with a long walkway stretching from one end to another. Those weapons included large crossbow turrets along with a few basic flak guns akin to those equipped aboard Equestria’s naval forces, a few broadside cannons and two forwards facing weapons that would emit devastating lances of magic at its target.
It was truly a sight to behold, and far more imposing than the small wooden leisure ones you may have seen high above Canterlot during times of peace. This was a machine of war, a fact that everypony crewing it was all too aware. So along with an escort of four helicopters, which were equipped just as those that had transported Queen Twilight to Draco’s hive had been, the zeppelin continued its patrol close of the coastline as it had been ordered.
The patrol had been ultimately uneventful, and while most of the crew were at their stations other off duty personnel were resting in their cramped bunks or grabbing a bite to eat in the mess. It would just be another hour or two, after which the current escort would be replaced by another fully fuelled one that would then the patrol would continue. This would continue on until the all-clear was provided to them to say the threat to Equestria had passed.
Within the vessel, a pony traversed a tightly compacted corridor and opened up a heavy metal door into a space that was easily recognisable as the bridge. The bridge comprised of a few controls for the arcane based engines and the balloons, and a single wooden wheel stood central in the bridge with an aged pegasus stallion leaning almost protectively against it.
“Captain,” the pony stated as he approached the pegasus at the wheel. “Reporting in.”
“Take your station,” the Captain responded.
“Sir, all due respect but has there ever been any sighting of changeling activity since we’ve been out here?”
“Just because there haven’t been, does not mean there won’t be,” the Captain scolded. “Now we have our orders, take your station.”
“Aye, sir.”
The pony did as he was told, and things returned to normal instantly within the bridge. Another half hour passed them by in what seemed only minutes, and nothing new or interesting occurred.
It was the same thing, patrol the same route in search of a threat that may or may not even turn up. Most of the crew were convinced nothing would come of their little excursion, though the Captain was never so sure.
Unfortunately for them all, the Captain was the one eventually proven right.
The first bolt of putrid green magic was never seen before one of the four escorts spiralled to the ground in flames. Then, as the alarm was raised and the ponies began to spring into action, a black cloud emerged from behind one of the larger hilltops. All the bridge crew could see out the front window was a vast black mass spreading out for all to see, too many changelings for them to even count.
Even with the orders to attempt incapacitation rather than lethal strikes, they all were fairly certain this counted as a desperate situation the moment they saw it.
“Open fire!” the Captain ordered.
The magical weaponry of the three remaining escorts came to life and began to fire blue bolts of magic into the swarm, the zeppelin itself quickly following their example. All crossbow and flak turrets were quickly manned and turned to face their targets. With the cannon not yet useful, the two forward guns fired two blinding blue beams of magical energy into the incoming swarm. The swarm, however, simply bent itself around the magic and completely bypassed the attack.
In perfect unison, the changelings began to curve around the ship, though taking some casualties from the incoming arrows and flak, as well as the magic bolts from the three helicopters. As they came into range of the broadside cannon they wasted no time in firing at the hostile drone, but the metal cannonballs were easy to avoid and only caught the odd changeling who didn’t see them coming. Soon, the overwhelming numbers managed to easily strike down the three remaining escort copters in volleys of spellfire before converging onto the main vessel.
The entire bridge shook as impacts struck somewhere along the hull, many spells focusing and tearing gouges into the armour plating.
“Send a message to Fort Hurricane, tell them that we’ve engaged the swarm!” the Captain ordered, one stray bolt narrowly missing him as it shot through the front glass window. He then passed the wheel over to another pony. “And get us out of here!”
The large floating vessel began to turn amidst the swarm, before attempting to fly its way to safety. The swarm weren’t so easily shaken or dissuaded, however, and they continued to pelt the hull and whittle it down piece by piece. The entire structure gave a violent shudder as one piece of armour buckled entirely and one of the internal airbags ruptured. Creaking and groaning could be heard from the rivets as they struggled to keep the ship in one piece, the stressed metal voicing its complaint.
And then four green beams of magic, these far stronger than the ones emitted by the drones, suddenly fired out of the swarm. They tore into the main balloon, quickly digging into it and destroying more of the airbags. There was another violent shudder as the airbags ruptured, and the entire ship began to lean at an awkward angle as the remaining balloons tried desperately to keep the vessel in the air.
The bridge crew could be no help, however, as the entire front window caved in as Queen Cocoon and two flanking drones smashed their way in and began to slaughter them all one by one. Some attempted to fight back, some tried to flee, none succeeded. Several were slaughtered at their stations before they realised what had happened. The pony at the central wheel was annihilated along with the wheel itself, and the Captain had his head removed from his shoulders, decapitated by a green blade of magic that Cocoon had ignited personally.
Outside, the guns began to go quiet as they were torn from the ship. Only a couple could still be heard by the attacking changelings, fighting until the very end. And then there were none.
The swarm turned from the stricken vessel, flames beginning to consume much of it with black billowing smoke filling the air. The drones no longer struck the slowly drifting vessel, they instead elected to resume their original route towards Fort Hurricane.
However, the four royal changelings regrouped just above the listing vessel. Queen Cocoon and Vulgaris, with the Princesses Insecta and Imperious. Their sinister red glowing eyes examined the vessel, before each then fired a beamed of magic that coalesced and trailed along the top of the ship, striking inside and tearing apart most of the remaining airbags. What remained wasn’t enough to maintain their altitude, and the ship began to fall through the air towards the ground below.
The Queens watched until impact, the metal bending and flying in all sorts of directions from the collision. A fireball arose into the sky from a large explosion, and then what remaining of the still burning wreckage settled on the landscape as a monument to the first kill of the war.
There were no signs of movement, of any life, coming from within the remains. With their job complete to their satisfaction, the four royal changelings all turned to follow the swarm, and would quickly catch up to continue to lead the way to their main target.
And across Equestria, other such incursions were occurring.
Canterlot
Canterlot was business as usual; all as yet unaware of what was transpiring at that very moment on the borders of their country. Word hadn’t even reached the princesses, but that would soon change.
Princess Celestia had put all the paperwork on hold after her encounter with Immortalis’ envoy, instead meeting with Captains Broad Sword and Captain Vladimir along with her sister to ensure that Canterlot’s defences were properly in place and that there were no infiltrations within the city they had to worry about. Fortunately, everypony was who they appeared to be and there was no sign of any changeling infiltrators within the city.
The same couldn’t be said for every city, but they had to trust the forces in those locations to root out any such saboteurs.
While all of that was going on, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor were seeing what emergency procedures were in place and what could be implemented to protect the general populace should the city come under siege. Several areas had been designated for use as emergency shelters for citizens to go to should danger come to their doorstep, and they made damn well sure everypony knew about them.
Even if Canterlot was business as usual for most, not one single pony could deny a change in the atmosphere. There had been the attack during the wedding, they all heard of the skirmish with Crudelis, and several threats had arisen and been defeated over the past decade. And yet not one of them had lived through a true war before. This was new to Celestia’s little ponies, and trepidation and fear was expected.
And none of them truly knew what was to come.
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had just finished a quick visit to the guard barracks, where they had offered words of encouragement to the guards in order to boost morale. They knew all too well such a thing was needed in a time like this.
During the morale boost, however, both of the captains had been called away by one of their guards for one reason or another. The princesses chose not to question the reason until after they exited the barracks and stepped out into the training grounds, but they didn’t have to wait long as Broad Sword and Vladimir both flew back to them with urgency in their speed.
“Your Highnesses!” Broad Sword addressed urgently, both he and his companion coming to a quick halt before the two alicorns. “We just got word in, there are reported incursions from large changeling swarms making their way further into Equestria!”
Luna glanced towards her sister, who closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath. Then she spoke. “Then it has begun. Make sure the word is out, we must expect attacks anywhere at any time.”
“What was the results of these incursions?” Princess Luna enquired. “Who reported them?”
“It began with a patrol consisting of one zeppelin, the Gleaming Shield, and four helicopter escorts. They reported a combat engagement against one such swarm,” Vladimir explained. “All contact was lost after that. It's believed that the Gleaming Shield and all its escorts were destroyed, lost with all hooves.”
“Search and rescue operations?”
“Fort Hurricane is preparing one, but we shouldn’t get our hopes up,” Broad Sword replied grimly. “Several other incursions were reported by small scouting parties, but they all managed to hide themselves until those swarms passed them by.”
“Do you know where they are heading?” Celestia inquired sternly.
“We don’t yet know. They were sighted coming in from over the sea, it’s too early to tell where each swarm will hit, or what their objectives are.”
“It won’t be good for us, whichever it is,” Luna noted. “But most, if not all, of our measures are in place and we are ready to defend Equestria.”
“Actually, I believe there has been a slight delay in deployments to smaller towns,” Vladimir sheepishly interjected.
“What?” Celestia stated, glaring at the thestral. “Why weren’t we informed of this before?”
“We only just got word of that too,” Broad Sword interrupted, standing up for Vladimir. “The ponies overseeing those deployments sent their deepest apologies.”
“I don’t want apologies, Broad Sword, those towns are vulnerable at this moment,” Celestia scolded as if to a child. “Have those deployments completed immediately, tell them the Princess of the Sun is watching them.”
“I will,” Broad Sword confirmed. “I’ll get those ponies to complete them without any further delays, I know time is no longer something we have on our side.”
“No, we don’t,” the Princess responded. “The swarm is within our borders, they won’t wait for us.”
“Perhaps we should send a detachment to hunt them down?” Luna suggested. “But then again, do we know the exact sizes of each swarm?”
Vladimir shook his head. “No. They couldn’t get more than a rough estimate.”
“Not good enough,” Celestia stated. “Instead of an attack force, we should try to scout them out first. We need to know their strength.”
“We’ll get in contact with the generals and arrange it. Anything else?”
“Actually,” Broad Sword interrupted. “Permission to move my family into the castle for the time being. I’d rather have them close, I don’t think I’m going home anytime soon.”
Celestia sighed, but then offered Broad Sword a small smile. “Very well, I have no objections to such a thing. Give them my best.”
The relief of Broad Sword’s face was obvious. “Thank you, Princess. That’s a weight off my shoulders.”
“If that is all, then carry out your duties,” Luna commanded. “Go.”
“Yes, your Highnesses!” Broad Sword and Vladimir stated in unison, doing just that.
They all had a lot to do.