//------------------------------// // Chapter 28: Midwinter // Story: Evening Star Also Rises // by Starscribe //------------------------------// “There’s probably somewhere more important for you to be,” Honed Edge said behind her, a little reproving. “Big important generals should be doing big important things.” Hayden wore a stiff uniform coat against the chill, which always seemed to find a way to leak into Icefalls these days. Their weather team just didn’t have enough pegasi to keep the farms and the city warm, and so they focused on the farms. “And what should I be doing, Edge?” The carriage rolled swiftly out of the city, its ponies trotting along as fast as was safe. He hesitated for a long moment, seeming to struggle to answer. “Sometimes the most important thing for me to do is to be the one to welcome a new group of refugees,” Hayden said, not waiting for him to finish. “We don’t know how hard it was for them to find their way here. We don’t know what they endured.” They did know what many of the other northern ponies had faced reaching Icefalls. Villages burned, retreats harried by enemy griffons. Many of their friends and family captured and enslaved. The north was on fire, and they just didn’t have the soldiers to protect it. Celestia had left her twenty thousand men to do the work of a million. The carriage stopped rolling. Hayden knew they would have reached the quarantine on the outside of the city—where they always left new batches of refugees to make sure that they wouldn’t be introducing terrible disease into Icefalls. Disease she had no way of treating. “If you say so, General.” Edge saluted her with one hoof. “But don’t let them weigh you down. The weight of all the people you couldn’t help.” His voice was low, respectful. Edge no longer joked with her the way he used to. “This city hasn’t starved because of you.” Hayden pushed the door open, then stepped out of the cart into the sun. She waited a few seconds for the transition lenses in her glasses to change, then made her way up to the refugee building, nodding to the pair of stallions who had brought her here as she passed. The building was new, built hastily according to some of the human construction patterns Hayden had taught them. A simple wooden-frame building, built just warm enough to keep off the cold. It wasn’t made to be defensible, and indeed would not be housing anyone once the enemy arrived, even though it was on the Equestrian side of the city. That made sense, given the mountains on the northern side—nothing could be built on that side, no matter how determined the engineer. Hayden could smell the ponies inside before she saw them—unwashed bodies and untreated wounds. She passed a pair of guards, which both saluted. “Prepare to move,” she said. “I’ll be taking this group to the city in the next few minutes.” She stepped inside. Through the empty lobby—where ponies would often be to take records of newcomers as they arrived, marking down their skills and experience for use in the war effort. There were no new ponies to check in today, though, so no one behind any of the desks. Past them was a large common room, breaking into military-style bunks and living areas for five hundred. It looked mostly empty today, though. Smaller and smaller groups are making it in from the north. A pair of guards waited by the doorway, dressed in her newly-designed uniforms. Plain dark fabric, with a single crescent moon as its only insignia. Avalon had made these—while the fabric was scratchy against fur, it was also incredibly warm. More importantly, Celestia’s mark was nowhere to be seen. Only Hayden’s mark on one shoulder, and Luna’s on the other. This army knew who it fought for. “Soldier,” she said. “Final report. Any sign of disease from these ponies?” “No, ma’am. None of the symptoms you told us to ask for, anyway. Many smaller injuries. I think a mare here has a sick foal—some kind of breathing malady. But nothing you described.” “Good enough. Gather them together—they’ll be joining us in Icefalls today.” The soldier saluted, and Hayden stepped back to wait. Edge approached behind her a moment later, wearing not just the new uniform, but one of the new weapons as well. Honed Edge knew how to use it, too. As she watched, refugees gathered before her—families, mostly, with parents carrying bundles of possessions, or sometimes letting children ride on their backs. Hayden watched, and wondered how she had ever thought ponies looked like animals. In the end they clogged the entryway, maybe fifty in all. Word had spread they were going into the city. All eyes eventually settled on her. Hayden couldn’t help being the tallest pony in the room—though not by much. It came from being part of an Alicorn. At least I’m not that too. As nice as the magic would be. “Ponies of the north,” she said, her voice loud enough to be heard over their muttering. “My name is Evening Star—I am sorry for the suffering you have endured coming here. I am sorry for those you lost. I am glad you made it here.” “You,” said a stallion near the front of the crowd. Old enough that he had a white beard, though pony age was impossible to narrow down precisely. “You’re in charge of the princess’s armies, aren’t you?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Why didn’t you use those armies to protect us?” Because you already ignored my evacuation order, she thought, but didn’t say out loud. Because the clan is trying to stretch our resources thin and kill our soldiers in pointless skirmishes where we don’t have advantage. Instead of saying any of that, Hayden stepped slightly to one side, gesturing out the open door to the refugee center at the city. “You can’t see it from here, pony, but Princess Celestia has taken most of the army away. I have ten thousand guards-ponies… that’s it. We are training more, but my recruits aren’t ready to fight yet. Those ponies will have to be ready to protect you here, in Icefalls.” She didn’t give him another chance to argue, stepping closer and raising her voice a little. “Life here will not be easy, ponies. Everypony in Icefalls works hard. There is an invasion coming, one we plan on breaking here. If you come under our protection, you will be expected to contribute. If you wanted somewhere to hide without responsibilities, then I suggest continuing on for Equestria. You won’t find that place here.” Of course, Hayden knew perfectly well these ponies had already made that decision. They had their reasons for staying away from Equestria proper. There were no bats among the refugees—completely typical of these groups. Only Equestria’s large population centers had their own arms of the Midnight Cult. Though she knew from experience that plenty of the pegasi who stayed in Icefalls would join it eventually—either out of social pressure, or genuine interest. “Take us in, then,” said the same stallion as before. “We’re ready to work. Unless you plan on forcing us into your army. To put us first in your battle lines to die.” Yes, these ponies had their reasons for hating Equestria. Ancient reasons. “No.” She turned away anyway, towards the open doorway. “City Lord Nightbreeze has voluntarily relinquished the ancient privilege of impressment. You will not be forced to take up arms, if you don’t wish to.” She started walking, briskly enough that the crowd had to hurry to keep up. “You may volunteer, but I have no use for conscripts. Growing food, mining ore, building fortifications? Sure. But not fighting.” She could hear the mutters all the way to their first stop. In fairness, the trip wasn’t very far. The Equestrian side of Icefalls had expanded dramatically in the last month or so. Even as ice and snow moved in around them, blanketing everything, the tireless labor of their pegasus ponies kept one little pocket of spring around the city. Earth ponies swarmed over the land, tending to the crops as diligently as anywhere. There were probably more bodies to acre than in other farms—but with human techniques and fertilizer involved, they were expecting the largest yields in Equestrian history too. And they will have to be, or my city will starve. Hayden stopped in front of one of the new fields—a flat area of ice and blasted snow, that a team of laborers was clearing with plows and magic even now. “Many of you will work one of these,” Hayden said, turning to face the crowd again. “I know you come from farming backgrounds, so we won’t waste your experience.” Nopony pointed out that it was the wrong season, or that it was too cold to grow anything. Given the thickness of their coats and robes and the panting she heard from the ponies, it was clear they could feel the effects of their weather magic. “Why?” Somepony asked from the crowd. “Spring isn’t far away. Why aren’t you letting the ground rest like everypony else does. You’re going to make the land infertile if you work it this hard.” A myth, one that had persisted in Hayden’s world as well. She wasn’t about to waste time by explaining it now. “We have new magic that counteracts those effects,” she said. “We have a great deal of new magic in Icefalls. You’ll love indoor plumbing.” Of course, none of them knew what that was, and this group seemed too shy to ask. They kept walking. Past acres more of farmland carefully tended, and orchards that had sprung up far quicker than any tree should be able, they reached the outer fortifications. They were being built on all sides of the city, even the one facing Equestria. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to deal with another invasion once we finish with the griffons. Evening Star’s army would be ready for that too, when the time came. Past the fortifications and their empty cannon embankments was the practice ground for her new army. Hayden had never been an officer, and had never been responsible for creating soldiers from raw recruits. She did have a collection of old US army field manuals among her reference books on her Kindle. That was the doctrine that had led to the construction of this practice ground, and her whole army as well. They passed trenches for crawling, firing ranges where soldiers shot clay pigeons dropped from above like attacking griffons, and classrooms where her soldiers learned. It was daytime right now, so the practice fields were mostly empty. A few squads were out and practicing, or running early drills before their workday started properly with the rising of the moon. “There are mares out there,” said a voice from her group of refugees, as they passed the firing range. You noticed that, but not the firearms they’re wearing? Hayden smiled slightly, searching out the refugee whose voice she had heard. A confident-looking unicorn, one she took to be an older teenager by her too-long legs and slim build. “There are,” Hayden agreed. “We don’t restrict female recruits to officers here. I need everypony willing to hold weapons. If that means any of you, you will have a chance to enlist when we arrive. We only have a few months before spring—but I can still use you. Watch carefully as they drop those clay disks…” She paused, and the crowd fell silent as the operator fired several into the air. They flew, and exploded as they approached her soldiers. All but one hit their target. “This army uses weapons you have not seen before. There are the little ones those trainees are wearing, and much larger ones meant to take down airships. If you join my army, it will be to work weapons like that, not as fodder to attract bow fire or break a griffon charge.” They finally reached the gates. Still the old wooden gates—there was no sense making them much stronger when the enemy could all fly. The city wall was much taller and thicker than it had been before, though that was largely just to make it wide enough to install the cannons. The eyes of many soldiers watched from the wall, all wearing the new uniforms and Avalon’s donated weapons. There was another booth here, and a dozen clerks and other such ponies. Ready to assign these refugees new quarters out of those parts of the city its previous citizens had vacated. It was fortunate for Icefalls so few of its richest ponies had elected to stay. One mansion could house many of these desperate folk, when partitioned in the right way. Hayden stepped back, watching with no small satisfaction as a number of the refugees lined up to volunteer for the guard. “You think it will be enough?” Honed Edge asked, as the city’s clerks took over. They went to work separating the refugees by their families and leading them out into the sleeping city. “It must be,” Hayden said, gritting her teeth. “But we’ll see for sure tomorrow.” They passed the temple of Midnight, and Hayden could hear the distant whisper of the sword from inside. There is much pain in this city. Come, we will take it away. She didn’t open the door. She’d returned the sword for good reason. “Those birds won’t see us coming,” Edge said, grinning at her. At a twitch of his head the sight unfolded in front of one eye, and the rifle started moving. Not pointing at anything in particular. “I feel a little bad for them, to be honest. Crossbows, against us? Polestar will be ours before morning.” “We don’t need the base,” Hayden admitted, as they walked back towards the palace. Most shops were closed, though she caught a few recent refugees wandering around, looking bewildered at the quiet marketplace. “But my elites need field training. No better way to boost morale than a jailbreak.” Edge shrugged. “If you say so, ma’am. That’s why Celestia pays you the big bits.” Hayden couldn’t help her laughter. “Celestia, pay me? What world do you think we’re living in?” Not yours for much longer, Princess. Not once Equestria sees what we can do.