As soon as Icefalls was in sight, they abandoned all pretense of letting the griffon scouts keep pace with them, accelerating as fast as the engines could go without overheating. Hayden watched the city approach below them, with its high walls and cannon emplacements exactly as she left them.
There was no need to signal to the city below—there was only one Excellus, and no way the enemy could operate it without Hayden. Even so, she could see an escort of wary pegasi following them through the city, all the way up to the secret dock concealed in the ice.
“Is this really your only airship?” Luna asked, as they moved vertically down into the opening. A regular pilot probably couldn’t have done anything like that, not without scraping sections of the ship off, or collapsing the ice meant to hide them. But the Excellus had its own guidance system, and didn’t need their specific intervention to get inside.
“It is,” Hayden answered. “And I don’t intend to use it for combat. We have… a limited number of cannons, based on what we could build in time. But we’ve got plenty of powder and way more ponies trained to use them than we could fit aboard. I planned on distributing our guns back to the walls.”
There was a heavy thump as they finally settled into the dock—simple wood, barely strong enough to hold the ship. But at least the engines wouldn’t have to stay running for it to park here. “Then what will you do with this vessel?”
Hayden looked around—she could feel the eyes of the crew suddenly on her. But this information wasn’t for them. “Come with me, and I’ll show you.”
There was very little time for this. The Grand Fleet’s scouts would probably reach the city in two hours. The rest of the fleet couldn’t be more than another hour behind them. The birds could attack by nightfall. Though they probably won’t. Griffons don’t like the dark any more than ponies do.
Hayden gave the order for the cannons to be unloaded, thanked her crew again for their service, then hurried off the ship with the princess.
There were dozens of ponies waiting there, including the new city lord. Even Nightbreeze seemed to go stiff when Princess Luna stepped down the ramp behind Hayden. Lodestone had come, along with the captain of her Blackwings, Slipstream. They all started to stomp their hooves, a cheer rising through the secret hangar so loud that the ice began to shake.
Hayden had to call a stop to it, before chunks of their concealing shield started raining down on their heads.
Joy and relief radiated from the faces of all these ponies. Perhaps vindication as well—Evening Star had promised to go out and assist Equestria. She hadn’t promised she would return with the pony everyone here wanted most.
It was as though Hayden had suddenly stepped out of focus. She lingered behind the princess, but the only questions she had to answer now came from Luna. All her plans, all her preparation—it was all gone now, evaporated into the breeze.
Almost. Slipstream seemed almost entirely unmoved by Luna’s arrival. He stepped into line beside her, keeping pace with her as she walked behind Luna. “What are your orders, Evening Star? Were you followed?”
“By the entire fleet,” she whispered, keeping her voice low. “Don’t reveal that to the city yet, I can’t go over Luna’s head. But alert the army. Rouse every reserve and have them man their posts. The attack will come from the south.”
“The south,” Slipstream repeated. “And it’s just the griffons we’re fighting?”
The undertone was obvious to her. “So far as I know, Equestria will not be fighting for the enemy.”
“Oh good.” He saluted, hoof to his chest. “It will be done, General.”
She returned the salute, covertly. “Have your reserve ready to prepare my evacuation candidates. I want them moved here as soon as Luna makes the announcement.”
Slipstream vanished into the crowd like he’d never even been there.
Princess Luna seemed to forget all about the tour Hayden had promised to give her, or the explanation for what the Excellus would be used for. She didn’t follow Luna’s emotions closely, but she could feel the princess preening in all the attention. She’d never had this kind of respect from her own ponies before, not even from the members of her own household. But Hayden had demanded that respect. Now the princess inherited it, as naturally as stepping into an old pair of shoes.
At least she seemed to know some of what she was doing. She didn’t sit on the news of their impending attack, but ordered an immediate assembly at the castle gates. Everypony in Icefalls who wasn’t serving a military duty came at once, to hear her speak.
“Do you plan on replacing my strategies to defend the city?” Hayden asked in a whisper, as they made their way up the castle stairs to the upper balcony. She could already hear the sound of an eager crowd outside, as they whispered back and forth to each other about what Princess Luna might have come to say. The princess had somehow found the time to don an old uniform coat that had been stored away somewhere in the castle, and retaken Achelois for herself.
That was one mercy. At least Hayden didn’t have to listen to its whispers anymore.
“No,” Princess Luna said. “Not initially, anyway. I’ll command from the tower with your generals. I may make small adjustments, but nothing serious. The fact that Icefalls still stands proves you have at least some gift for command.”
“Most of that stuff was Lodestone’s idea,” Hayden whispered. It felt wrong to take credit for that. “But I trust him, and the other generals too. They’ve fought Stonebeaks before.”
They walked through the empty bedroom, trailed by Nightbreeze and several other functionaries. But Lodestone and the other generals were gone now, vanished to the wall. They had preparations to make.
“Wait here,” Princess Luna advised, stepping out onto the balcony and leaving the group behind in the bedroom. There were thunderous cheers. Hayden hardly listened to the words, aside from waiting to hear anything that might be a call for her to step out.
“I can’t believe it,” Nightbreeze muttered. “As hard as Princess Celestia worked to get us wiped out, and now she’s sending the fleet to fight for us? I guess family still counts for something.”
Hayden kept her voice very low, barely a whisper. She spoke so quietly that only Nightbreeze’s sensitive bat ears would be enough for her to hear over the sound of Luna’s magically-enhanced voice from outside. “I think she’s lying. I think Luna doesn’t want to believe her sister would do that to her. I think her love is blinding her.”
Nightbreeze met her eyes. She nodded slowly, obvious pain reflected there. “That sounds… like it could be true.” She lowered her voice too, matching Hayden’s whisper. “What do we do? The fleet is already coming.”
“Same thing we would’ve done otherwise,” Hayden said. “We survive. We destroy the Grand Fleet. Maybe we have to fight ponies after that. I’m not sure how well that will go for either side. But there is some good news: Avalon has a cure for us. He’ll be here in two more days. Maybe once we can prove to Celestia that bats aren’t a danger to Equestria anymore, she’ll finally let us live.”
“Your general, Savior of the North, Evening Star!”
Hayden stepped through the curtain, leaving Nightbreeze behind. There were more cheers, and plenty of hoof stomping.
When it finally died down, Luna continued. “Evening Star is going to tell you all what happened in Seaddle, and what is about to happen to Icefalls. I expect everypony in the sound of my voice to continue to obey her instructions as though they were my own.”
Making me the bad guy, even though you’re taking the city back. But she couldn’t resent the princess, not really. At least not for this. She could see the entire courtyard was full of ponies, ponies that swept down the hill. These people should be getting into the shelters. They should be gathering supplies. She would have to be quick.
“We managed to destroy almost all of the Fleet’s carriers,” she said. “Their ground-troops have been decimated. Your hard work over these last few months saved the ponies of Seaddle. They all owe you a great debt.” More cheering, more stomping hooves. It had been a long time since any mention of Equestria proper got a positive response from these ponies. “We have begun a plan to destroy the Stonebeaks for good.” More cheering, rising up in a great wave across the city. For the second time today, she could almost feel the huge frozen waterfall above the city creaking under the force. But it quickly died when she went on.
“For that plan to succeed, we are about to be attacked. The Grand Fleet is behind us, its birds fresh from a defeat. Everypony in my reserve should report to their duty stations at once. Everypony else, grab no more than you can carry and retreat to the caverns. It will be exactly like the drills—you will not be permitted more than your saddlebags worth of possessions. Don’t worry about food, or anything like that—it’s all down there. When the attack begins, the entrance will be sealed to protect all inside from the invading army.”
She wanted to blame Celestia, wanted to warn the ponies of Icefalls about what might really happen. But there could be spies in her ranks. If the Stonebeaks got wind of what they were planning before the Equestrians arrived, they might abandon the plan completely and just retreat to Vanhoover. They couldn’t waste this chance.
A low, frightened murmur now echoed from all sides. Hayden could see the transformation in those faces, from pride and relief, to growing fear.
“We are the ponies of the north!” Princess Luna went on, her voice booming off the ice from far away. “We have ice in our veins, and still our blood runs hot. We have fought off terrible things before, and triumphed. Today will be no different! I believe in all of you, ponies of Icefalls! Equestria is depending on us. Fight well today, and together we’ll send these invaders to Tartarus!”
There was applause, but mostly from the soldiers waiting on the periphery of the crowd. The ordinary ponies were now too frightened to be moved by a speech.
A shout that came seconds later nearly roused the crowd to panic. “There’s a ship coming!” An instant later she heard the drums—a quick, subtle beat meant to signal that a single ship had been sighted. It wasn’t meant to be frightening to the ponies of the city, though the ponies assembled here did not seem to be taking it well.
Princess Luna gestured with her horn, and the air in front of them shimmered. An image of the distant vessel appeared before them, enlarged as though by a powerful scope.
It was a griffon ship alright, a sloop of modest size, carrying birds in golden armor with bones worked in as decoration. Pony bones.
But it had only one flag waving from its mast, a bright white diamond. Even Hayden recognized it, though she’d had only a cursory introduction to naval signals. “They want to talk,” Luna muttered. Then she straightened again. “Everypony in the sound of my voice! Obey Evening Star’s command! Return to your homes, gather what you need, and go where she told you. You have plenty of time—this vessel comes to negotiate.”
That was enough of a signal for the guards on the lower level, who immediately rushed to disperse the ponies there. Hayden didn’t listen to their voices—she trusted them to deal with the crowd without anypony getting trampled. Her citizens hadn’t panicked at the first sign of trouble.
We’ve survived one attack, we can survive this.
Luna was still shouting, to one of the other generals. “Have our highest tower raise a white flag, and send an expedition of winged ponies to the field with a pavilion. We will meet them there.” She finally lowered her voice, looking back at Hayden. “I’ve never seen the Stonebeaks try to negotiate before, not ever. Maybe… maybe they’re going to surrender.”
Hayden sighed. “I… certainly hope so, Princess.”