The first reconnaissance pegasi started returning in quarter of an hour due to the closeness of the hive, but others had taken longer, a lot longer as they had to keep their distance from the entrances they had gone to see due either to guard activity or lack of cover.
While they waited, Granny Smith had allowed the assembled army access to the orchards for a supply of food, and the barn bustled with activity as guards were briefed, Twilight busying herself with every aspect of logistics to ensure that everything went smoothly.
She was also acutely aware that the influx of platoons of guards in smart uniforms was going to be a big attraction to the inquisitive young minds at the school and did not want the exercise marred by some foals going missing, so ventured to Chocolate that they might go to the schoolhouse to alert Miss Cheerilee.
When they arrived, the teacher had the foals in a semicircle and was reading a book to them. Whilst the arrival of a librarian would not ordinarily have caused her to stop in her duties, this librarian had taken on Nightmare Moon and if she felt it necessary to call during school hours, it would be worth stopping to listen to.
As Twilight began telling the teacher about the forthcoming event, Chocolate caught Miss Cheerilee’s eye and motioned to the open book. Absent mindedly, she nodded ascent and Chocolate picked it up in her magic, resuming from where they had left off. Her reading style was very animated, enhancing the story by giving each of the characters strikingly comic accents and quickly had the class enthralled. By the time she neared the end of the book, she looked up and noticed that her audience had increased by two more.
Twilight immediately picked up on her empathy with the foals.
“You know” she probed “Miss Cheerilee is going to have her hooves full this afternoon. I don’t know if you would care to stay and help her out?”
The foals who had all been listening intently stared imploringly at their teacher, their expectant faces each silently willing her to say “yes”.
“Miss Chocolate” enquired the teacher “Would you be prepared to stay with us this afternoon? I can’t promise these little monkeys will stay this good for long though.”
“It would be my pleasure. I come from a large family and am used to babysitting. If Miss Cheerilee will allow, perhaps I can teach you some new games you haven’t played before?”
The teacher beamed her approval and watched as Chocolate set up the classroom for a game of bean bag toss. Twilight shared a parting smile with the two mares and then set off back to oversee and organise the pegasi and Bat Ponies who had become the unexpected guests of the Apple family.
As the afternoon had worn on, the train carrying the earth ponies and unicorns arrived, and it had been difficult to mask the numbers alighting at Ponyville Station as the rumour mill geared up. Only personal intervention by Celestia to the Mayor had managed to seal off the routes to Sweet Apple Acres before the actual scale of the troop movement could be discovered and reported.
It was almost dark when the last of the reconnaissance flyers returned to the kitchen which was serving as the field headquarters. Finally, the last few pieces of the puzzle could be put together and Celestia summoned her key military staff and unicorns once more. Within a few short minutes, the four military officers from the earlier briefing returned along with the highest ranking earth pony and unicorn Royal Guards who had arrived on the train and the most senior unicorns from the school to hear the news and consider the way forward.
As they filed in, they saw Celestia and Luna sat at the table, waiting for them, a unicorn just behind them putting some feverish finishing touches to a large drawing that nopony could quite see from where they were. One of the first in was Twilight, an honour bestowed by the others due to her size, and Celestia recognised her faithful student immediately, summoning her to the head of the table with her sister.
With space at a premium in the kitchen, the sisters waited as they jostled into any spare space they could find. Once everypony was in and had a view of the Princesses, they began by inviting a unicorn to raise a large map of the hive that drew tighter the two changeling accounts along with the intelligence gathered by the pegasi that afternoon. It was a comprehensive and accurate drawing only just finished with the return of the last pegasi, and gave the first proper understanding of what they were up against.
As it was now dark, Luna took the lead and rose to narrate the features on the map, providing a clear picture of which exits and entrances led to what, why they were there, what defences could be expected at each, and where the changelings could be expected to be and in what numbers.
It was clear that most entrances were too small to process the troop movements fast enough to support the large scale assault that the operation demanded, except for two; one of which being the main entrance.
Luna handed back to Celestia who now rose, commanding even greater respect within the confines of the kitchen:
“I asked you to think about the ethics of our forthcoming operation. May have your opinions please?”
“We must attack before they get any stronger, that much is clear” said a military officer “And kill them to remove the threat and send a strong message back to Queen Chrysalis.”
Luna nodded imperceptibly at the sentiment being expressed, but Celestia remained inscrutable.
“No, I must protest” chimed in a scholarly unicorn “We cannot simply kill every being with whom we disagree, otherwise we would have torched the Everfree years ago. No; just because we disagree with other races does not give us the right to simply kill them when we disagree over something, at least not until they start killing our kin, then, and only then, should we even begin to consider using lethal force.”
The argument batted to and fro, the army mostly favouring deadly force whilst the scholars generally favoured a more ethical standpoint. As Celestia had hoped, the two views were evenly split and once the different opinions had been aired, she called for calm:
“Thank you all for your contributions; it is not an easy issue to grapple with, but the solution is not necessarily binary.”
Everypony was quiet with respect for Celestia anyway, but the prospect of an alternative solution gripped their attention. She knew she couldn’t afford to have a split across her forces as this would only serve to weaken commitment and resolve, but she had something, and everypony waited expectantly.
“There is a way” she said, scanning her eyes over everypony, all of whom had their eyes fixed on her “Luna, with your permission?”
Luna nodded and Celestia spoke again:
“Chrysalis has made a mistake, and one that has the potential to thwart any more of her invasion plans if we play this right. If we can catch the changelings from this hive and round them up, we could send them to the moon.”
Gasps of surprise and snorts of approval were raised and Celestia continued:
“There is a strong psychic bond across the changelings and Chrysalis will not want the psychic shock of a whole hive dying being shared amongst them all, especially if it is at her hoof. Changelings live off love and there is none to be found on the moon, if you excuse my observation Luna.”
Her sister nodded her ascent.
“Since she does not have the power to bring them back herself, she will be forced to listen to the plaintive cries for help being radiated down to her and every other changeling in every other hive, wherever they all are; no leader, not even Chrysalis, can afford to tolerate that for long. Consequently, she must enter into a commitment that we find satisfactory before they are returned, or the cries of her changelings will continue. Further, time is totally on our side, for as long as they are away from Equestria, the immediate problem is removed, and we will only allow them back if we are convinced they will not present any risk to us.”
Murmurs of approval rang around everypony present; from those who had advocated leniency and those who had preferred extermination. Luna also gave her sister a nod of respect for her suggestion.
“Shall we work on this as the basis for a plan?” she asked.
“Yes, your Majesty” replied one voice “This approach has the support of the Royal Guard.”
“And the Night Guard” interjected another.
“I believe that I speak for those of us from the school when I say that it offers a good compromise solution” supported an academic voice.
“Very well” said Celestia “We will infiltrate the hive using non-lethal force except for when absolutely necessary to defend ourselves. If we could use insertion parties of guards to force their way into the hive protecting a unicorn at the centre of their party, then in short order before they can muster their defences, the unicorns could all link magic and blast them with a love spell like Cadence and Shining Armor did in Canterlot, but use the power to stun rather than banish them. Once we have done this, then we gather them up and simply send them to the moon. OK with everypony?”
Sounds of approval were evident from everypony and so Celestia continued:
“Luna, would you like to take charge of planning the assault whilst I gather the unicorns together to develop the spell?”
The blue mare agreed and led the senior guards to the barn leaving the unicorns in the kitchen.
“Twilight” she said, turning to face her protégé “I have counted the number of chambers in the hive and the number of gifted unicorns available and noticed that we are one short.Would you like to be part of this attack?”
Twilight’s eyes grew large with pride “You mean work alongside my former teachers as an equal?”
“Yes Twilight, you have already taken on Nightmare Moon single hoofed and Chrysalis too; I think you are more than ready to play your part.”
“Oh Princess!” she squeed, wrapping her forehooves around her mentor’s neck and giving her a big hug. Those unicorns who saw were touched at the sight, but all tactfully looked away. They all knew the young unicorn was up to the task and was glad that Celestia had given her a chance to prove herself.