Dragonbite Castle, Birdsongs study, a few days before the battle of the Hooves-Hills
A white earth pony mare, in a suit of armor, who had a cutie-mark of a small silver bird with some notes above it, pointed with her hoof on a map at the table. “The loyalist will come from this spot,” she declared. “With our main camp over here,” she moved her hoof to another spot, over a river and some plains, “it may be the best if I lead my troops through the Fallen Coin path to rush into their flank when the battle has started.”
“I doubt that you would stay covered till that point, Lady Snowflake. The loyalist troops have more pegasus soldiers than we have and for that they got air dominance.” Lord Clockwork, who had far more experience in leading bigger amount of troops because of his service in the Royal-guard, explained. “We can stop them from coming into range of our main army for a while but we can't entirely stop their scouts from freely flying around.”
“What would you suggest instead?” Birdsong asked.
Before Lord Clockwork could answer, there was some noise coming from the hall doors and a few seconds later one of the guards from the other side of that door opened it and stepped in. He looked very pale and his voice was not steady while he spoke, “Excuse me, milady, but there is somepony who wants to speak with you.”
“Didn't I gave orders to not interrupt us?” said Birdsong angrily.
“Yes, milady, but I guess this would be an exception.”
“Why should it? Who is it who wants an audience?”
“Your ancestor, milady.”
“My ancestor?” Birdsong gave him a questioning look. “What the hay are you talking about?”
“He is talking about me,” said a strong voice from the door where a orange mare with green mane had entered. “Took me quite a while to get here after I heard what you are willing to do, Birdsong.”
The reactions of those present were very different, while the visitors either looked interested or annoyed about this entrance, the Snowflakes reacted more or less shocked. A few went pale like the guard had, some were stunned, while others seemed overly excited about this. There were even a few who were suspicious and gave the mare a closer look.
The orange mare trotted nearer and spoke again, “I was surprised that you would do something so foolish like supporting the democrat nonsense, even with your differences with Celestia. It is clear that the house of my son supports the monarchy.”
Lord Clockwork was the first who regained self control and was willing to respond to that. “Who do you believe you are that you dare, not only interrupt this meeting, but to tell Lady Snowflake what she has to do!”
A word of support for his statement was to hear here and there from the crowd.
Unimpressed by this accusation the mare continued to step closer and came to a halt in front of Birdsong. “Really, I am surprised and displeased by this all,” she said, “gathering the whole family to aid you in this stupid attempt against the crown.”
“Snowflake, I…” started Birdsong but changed her mind. “That is not your business,” she said instead of what she originally had thought. “Who knows if you are Burning Snowflake at all? Maybe this is a trick!”
The other mare simply grabbed Birdsong’s head with her left front hoof and pressed it down to the ground.
“Hey!” Birdsong complained, “keep your hooves away from me.” She pushed the other mare’s leg aside and raised her head up again. “If you really are Burning Snowflake then prove it!” she demanded.
“Filly, I am sure your parents taught you better manners than what you display,” the orange mare spoke while she reached out for Birdsong’s head again. But this time Birdsong took a step back and pushed away the other mare's hoof.
“Stop that!”
“Then be a good filly and do what I told you.”
“And stop calling me filly, I am a mare!”
“You are a few hundred years too young to claim that for you in my presence and with the things you did about the whole rebellion you acted like a little filly too.”
“Enough of that! I won’t be insulted by an impostor at my own home, guards!”
Unsure the guards moved closer.
“Take this mare to the prison!”
“Yes, milady,” the guards said contemporaneously.
But they didn’t even make a few steps when already the mare in question spit a small cloud of fire in their direction. “I would think about that again if I were you,” she said. “And you,” she pointed at Birdsong, “do as I told you.”
Suddenly, Lord Clockwork, overcoming the surprise that was affecting the present really quickly, and reached out for his spear said for all to hear, “What kind of monster are you?”
But Birdsong raised a hoof and shouted, “No! Stay away from her. If that is really Burning Snowflake you won’t get far with your spear and she may kill you!”
“I don’t fear any monstrous creature,” he responded while he took an offensive position.
“Don’t be silly Clockwork, you are no match for her!” said Birdsong.
Burning Snowflake simply gave his attempt to look dangerous a little growl before she turned her attention to her son’s progeny again. “You will stop this nonsense here and now Birdsong and kick out all these democrats from the castle at once. House Snowflake supports Celestia and your troops will aid the loyalist army instead of the democrat traitors.”
With the word ‘traitor’ the patience of Lord Clockwork was overextended, he was a noble after all and to be insulted by a common mare, which was some sort of monster too, was not something he was going to tolerate. With a battlecry he pushed forward and attacked the mare with his spear. Of course he wasn’t aiming for some lethal part of her body, but still he made the attack.
It was the next moment he found himself laying on the ground, his weapon gone and his head hurting a lot. Everything had happened so fast he wasn’t sure what actually happend at all.
“First and only warning,” the mare declared, “next time you get hurt.”
Birdsong rushed over to the other earth pony and helped him to get on his hooves again. “Are you alright Clockwork?”
He simply shook himself free. “I am fine. But why the hay do you allow this mare to act towards us this way? That is offensive, I demand that you arrest her immediately!”
“I doubt I would be able to do that,” Birdsong answered.
“That is true,” the mare added to their conversation, “and now I order that all of you democrat traitors leave my family's castle at once.”
“How dare you!” Lord Clockwork raised his voice indignant. But Birdsong laid a hoof on his chest to calm him down.
“That is not for you to decide,” Birdsong told the older mare, “the head of house Snowflake is me, not you!”
“Filly you are starting to get on my nerves. Do as I told you, now,” Burning Snowflake said, this time with a hint of annoyance hearable in her voice as well. “I won’t tell you twice.”
“And I won’t tell you twice that I am the head of this house not you!”
Slowly Snowy walked nearer to Birdsong and started growling again. “Either you show them the door or I will show them the door. The choice is yours.”
Birdsong raised to her full height and stared into Snowy’s eyes. “This is my house and I say they stay!”
“If that is what you want, then I’ll kick them out myself,” said Burning Snowflake.
Snowy was going to do so as Birdsong suddenly rushed forward and gave her a push with both front hooves. “Don’t touch my guest! As the head of this house I order that they can stay and that’s it! You can’t simply show up and take over control of the family!”
“Of course I can when you act so foolish!” Now Snowy had raised her voice as well. But when she made the attempt to move closer this time, Birdsong raised her own spear and pointed in her direction with it.
“I don’t want to fight with you Burning Snowflake but I can’t allow you to take over my position either,” the white mare spoke with a solid calm voice yet.
“Filly…”
“That’s Lady Snowflake to you,” Birdsong corrected,” and if you want my position you have to fight me for it.”
“I don’t want your position, just…”
“You want my right to give orders here and that I can’t and wouldn’t allow. So try to beat me or leave my house!” said Birdsong.
Snowy hesitated with a loud growl, giving the other mare a long look. A few times she shifted her weight like she was going to attack but every time fell back again.
“She is afraid,” one of the knights from Clockwork’s staff was saying. But immediately got hushed by Birdsong.
“Don’t be so foolish! She is thinking if she wants this battle or not,” Birdsong explained. “So what shall it be,” she then spoke to the orange mare, “you fight with me or leave?”
“I don’t fight with my son’s grandchildren.”
With a sigh of relief, the head of house Snowflake lowered her spear.
“But I wouldn’t allow these traitors to stay here either,” and with these words Burning Snowflake moved forward and just barely evaded the defensive attack Birdsong made with her weapon, and wrest the spear from her, throwing it to the far edge of the room. With a snort at Birdsong she turned to Clockwork and was willing to force him to leave when the impact of the white mare's body pushed her slightly away.
“You are not taking over so easily!” Birdsong yelled at her while she started to try to punch and bite her opponent.
Burning Snowflake, while surprised for a second by this unexpected attack, still managed to avoid Birdsong’s punches by either blocking them or evading them. It was far harder however to not get bitten in this close range. The surrounding ponies watched the melee combat, unsure what to do. The Snowflakes and their guards simply weren’t sure which side they want to support and the other nobles would have supported Birdsong but didn’t dare to act at all. Be it that their reason was that they feared the might of this fire breathing creature or the respect the Snowflakes around them showed to it.
It took Birdsong a while to notice that Snowy indeed blocked and evaded her attacks but did not attempt to strike back. It seemed her ancestor was serious when she declared she wouldn’t fight with her.
“Well, her bad,” Birdsong thought and without a care for counterattacks any longer she concentrated on attacking in an under normal circumstances suicidal way.
Even Snowy couldn’t manage to avoid getting hit by such art of attacks in this close range without strike back or harm her opponent at all.
So finally Birdsong pressed herself against Snowy and strongly bite her in the shoulder.
This caused two things, first a loud hiss from Snowy, and second, Birdsong felt a grip of magic, probably Burning Snowflake’s, around her snout which forced her to open it wide and also pulled her head back more and more till some distance was between these two opponents. Birdsong looked at Snowy’s face and went a bit pale because of it.
Burning Snowflake’s face had lost all the patience and leniency which was there before and... “Did she have fangs before!” Birdsong thought worried.
A loud metallic “crack” noise was heard and Birdsong turned her attention to the source of it, her flank. Shocked she watched her own armour was tearing apart from her and falling on the ground with much clatter.
“Wait! Wait,” Birdsong started, “we maybe should speak about this all again.” She raised her hooves in a defending and also supposed to calm down her opposite gesture, but Snowy simply growled and her fangs were looking even more dangerous while she did so.
The sweat was breaking out on Birdsong’s head and she thought about a way to calm Snowy down, but before she was able to try something her head was pressed to the ground by magic and her tail was pulled up by the same.
“What the hay?” Birdsong’s first thought then saw that Snowy had also pulled Birdsong’s spear to herself and raised it in the air. When Birdsong realised what her ancestor was going to do she didn’t believe it at first but then shouted, “No! You can’t do this to me! I am the head of the Snowflake family, not a filly!” But it didn’t help her.
Forcefully, the spear landed on her flank and repeated several times over. Snowy gave her descendant the spanking she thought a bad behavioured filly deserved. She didn’t care for the audience or that Birdsong was a noble or any other social norms.
The audience which had stared at this, paralyzed at first, were now mostly ashamed to watch this, but Lord Clockwork was the first again to act. “How dare you!” he shouted at the orange mare. “We have to stop her and help Lady Snowflake,” he commanded to his own fellowship and to the other nobles too. He pointed at Snowy and yelled to his ponies, “Stop her!”
A few of his knights stormed forward at once, a second later the rest followed and also some Snowflakes joined the attack. Snowy might have held herself back concerning her son’s progeny, but against the others, the results were disastrous. The knights of Lord Clockwork faced not only her firebreath but also her fangs and claws that had now formed. Being a shapeshifter for several hundred years now gave her some useful abilities so far. To say they didn’t have a chance was an understatement.
The first who had the joy to know the sharpness of her claws was a young brown earth pony stallion. Burning Snowflake sidestepped his lunge just at the right moment so that he and his spear stormed by her. With a punch to his head and a painful scratch through his armor along his side she let him stumble causing him to drop the spear and fall on the ground.
Using him as a springboard, the orange mare flapped over another two of Clockworks knights and spat fire at them causing them to drop their weapons and panicky run around in an attempt to extinguish the flames. Using the confusion to her advantage Burning Snowflake landed in the middle of the rest of the attackers, distributing kicks and punches while she evaded the counter attacks. One of the knights tried to grab her and she was ready to spit fire at him when she noticed the unique Snowflake crest of a family member. She closed her mouth and instead, did a forward roll to shake him off. Several other ponies, wearing similar variations of the crest, also attacked her and like the first she also avoided them.
In the mess it was hard to see quick enough which house the single knights was members from, but with more and more of Clockworks followers laying on the ground or run away to extinguish flames, it was easier to prevent Birdsongs from getting hurt.
Finally the remaining knights set off the attack and stepped back, so the room was filled with wounded knights of Clockwork and unharmed but now hesitating Snowflakes. Only Lord Clockwork was still standing from the members of his house.
“What kind of monster are you?” he asked half angry, half afraid.
“I am not a monster, you peasant. Now take your traitor scum,” she made gesture including all his followers, “and leave my home!”
Lord Clockwork was quaking in anger both because of his ponies being described as scum and, more so, because Snowy called him a peasant. He barely was able to hold himself back, snorting several times in an attempt to get his self control again. Eventually he took a look around, his beaten knights, the passive or defensive Snowflakes and finally at Snowy again, her threatening fangs and claws and also at the barely noticeable smoke that came from her mouth. And then he made his decision.
With clenched teeth he said, “We will leave, but this is not over yet!”
Snowy just shrugged her shoulders and waved him superciliously away like a common pony before she turned around to Birdsong again who was still grabbed in her magic. While she picked up the spear again, she didn’t pay attention to the angry complaining of Birdsong about the whole mess she had caused in her opinion and the damage she did to the friendship between house Snowflake and Clockwork, instead she raised the spear to continue Birdsong’s punishment.
Because of such, Snowy was unprepared when Lord Clockwork, instead of taking his leave, took one of the spears which lay around and threw it at her. Attacking an unprepared enemy was very dishonorable in the circles of nobles and it was to blame his anger and Snowy’s arrogance for this. The noise from the crowd, shock and surprise, was Snowy’s only warning and so it was too late to evade or raise a shield. With her left wing she managed to affect it’s flight angle a bit but still it scratched over her back leaving a long painful scratch before it glided over the ground behind her into the bottom of the wall.
Snowy roared in anger and pain and turned around to Lord Clockwork, focusing her gaze on him. Again she roared, this time it was however not of pain, it was a blunt roar of provocation and challenge. Her fangs and claws ready to strike, she stormed forward straight in his direction. He was closely able to pick up another weapon just before she reached him.
With a swift strike he tried to slow her rush and her following attempts to dodge the spear and get him was parried by his quick back-trotting combined with pointing the top of the spear always in the direction she was heading for. It worked, till he reached the wall and wasn’t able to move further backward. Any second now the orange mare would break through his defense and force him to melee combat where he was practical helpless. And it happened quicker than he thought, he was prepared for her tries to dodge and evade his spear but not for her simple grab the spear point and crack it off. He changed his martial style from defencive to aggressive and striked with the wooden shaft at her but she simply used her claws to cut piece by piece of his weapon till it was only a short stick of wood.
Running out of alternatives he threw the useless stick in her face, she on the other side bit at it and broke it a last time. Totally aware of his situation he still was able to bring up his courage and spat at her with, “Come on you monster, I am ready for you!” And he raised his hooves standing on his hindlegs now.
She was so polite to not let him wait and bounced at him at once…