The yaks were confident of their strength, despite the enemy numbers. While their arms were ancient, they were capable of doing incredible damage; each yak was equal to a dozen or more changelings in melee combat, and their hooves, just as hard, unfeeling, and unbending as those of ponies and other species, could be used as though they were spear-tips to skewer foes. The axes they also wielded, along with their horns, were also incredibly dangerous.
The changeling warriors in the Retaliation Brigades sent to stop them numbered around fifteen thousand, the enemy between four and five thousand. While not overwhelming compared to the millions of changelings and Allied soldiers gathering to the north, the yaks were numerous enough to cause some considerable problems if they were left to their own devices. If they linked up to rebel forces, they could prove to be a very dangerous threat.
Chrysalis sent one of her best, now promoted to general, to stop the enemy's advance. Commander, now General, Aphid had survived the slaughter in the Badlands, as had the best of the Mandible Guard, and was commanded to stop the enemy by whatever means he had at his disposal.
Aphid worried about the size of the forces involved. He asked for forty thousand reinforcements before he left Canterlot, but was told bluntly not to expect them by the Queen herself, who reiterated her orders to stop the yaks.
Aphid was not impressed by the warriors he was sent to lead. They had had no experience with the blood-letting down south, and while the few other Mandible Guards who had survived accompanied him, they were reduced to a few hundred, and, while none of them let on, he rightly concluded that they were deeply shaken by their defeat in the Badlands, and by the loss of the rest of their comrades.
Aphid wasn't as much of an arrogant and aggressive warrior as most of his colleagues were. Various battles against wildlife, in particular one fight against a bugbear, had toughened him at the same time that it made him more cautious and wary, and he was not going to just charge in without proper knowledge of his enemy.
----------------------------------
"How much do you know about their force?" Aphid demanded. "You have sent scouts to keep track of them, haven't you?"
"Of course we have, Command- I mean, General. Do you think we're idiots?" the drone in front of him asked.
"By the way you're thinking that this is just going to be a stomp, I'd have to say yes," Aphid replied. Ignoring the hurt look on his subordinate, he demanded, "And? What did you find out? Spill it!"
"Y-yes, sir. Just about the entire adult population of Yakyakistan is on the march, or so it looks like. They're out of their mountains and on the plains at the moment. They're heading straight for Galloping Gorge."
"From there, they could head right for Canterlot," Aphid thought out loud. "Continue."
"We've tried to infiltrate them, like with the ponies. Only..."
"Let me guess... it didn't work?"
"No, sir. They can speak our language, but only in broken fragments, and they use a different language among themselves."
"Same problem as with those humans. Well, did any of those infiltrators survive, and did they learn anything?"
"Not a lot of them got out alive, and most of those who did weren't able to understand what they said. One though... One got out before they discovered him. One yak, apparently their prince, was talking about battle tactics."
"Their leadership is with them?" Aphid asked, intrigued.
"Apparently. What they were drawing was too clear, even with our differences in language, to misunderstand."
"Well, what is it? What are their plans?"
"They seem to expect us. It looks like they intend to meet us head on, breakthrough, and then just crush our line from north and south."
"Hmm, not the worst plan under the circumstances." Aphid looked seriously at the drone. "You didn't try stopping them before now, did you?" he asked, expecting the answer to be a negative one.
The drone looked most unhappy.
"You're telling me you fought them, when I distinctly sent orders not to!?!"
"I... well... I wasn't the one who... Commander Formicidae told us to..."
Aphid facehoofed. "Tell me what happened," he said in a very cranky voice.
"Commander Formicidae had us try to fight them when half our our force was assembled. He wanted to fight them at the base of the mountains. We tried to halt them."
"You failed, obviously."
"Y-yes." The drone's eyes seemed to focus on something beyond Aphid, who recognized the look as the same one that survivors of the Mandible Guards bore at times. "They... They just... ran over us like runaway boulders, sir. I saw them... once or twice they had one of us stuck on each horn, like ponies do with those gooey treats of theirs on sticks. I saw them slice our drones in two with axes, stomp us into the mud and crush us like twigs, even stab us with those pointy hooves of theirs, just stab them and keep their hooves in the wound for a few seconds, then shake the drone off like they were nothing... O-one of them got hold of one of us and r-r-ripped him in half..."
"...How many did we lose?"
The changeling general realized that the drone had wandered a few feet away, and was currently vomiting into a bush. When he was done, he looked quite sick. "S-sorry, sir," he said. "It was just that terrible."
Aphid sighed. "Great. Now, how many did we lose?"
"About three thousand, sir. The rest of us got out of these real fast after Commander Formicidae was hoof stabbed and then trampled by those... things..."
"So my command has been reduced to twelve thousand. Wonderful. And the odds weren't good to begin with; now I have to deal with an army that's been beaten into the mud."
"I'm truly sorry, sir."
"No help for it now. When did you get that intelligence on their battle plan?"
"A day after the battle. We weren't able to take advantage of it."
"We will now. Any weaknesses you noticed in the enemy?"
"Well..." the drone looked distracted again for a moment, but then vigorously shook his head. "They seemed to catch fire a lot when some of us shot them, due to all their hair, but with all the snow around, it came to nothing; all they had to do was roll and the fire would be gone."
"Hmm." Aphid tapped his chin with a hoof. "You're relieved of command, uh..."
"Apis, sir."
"Right. Well, as of Her Majesty's orders, I'm taking command here."
"Good. I'll be glad to be rid of it. It's been bedlam, trying to get everyone back into shape while avoiding those fiends."
"At least you haven't gone plain nuts yet. You're going to remain by me for the moment, seeing as you seem to know the most out of any changeling here about our enemy."
---------------------------------------------------
The yaks, their morale soaring after their victory at the base of the mountains, thundered onto the plains of northwestern Equestria. Their army was moving fast, and it seemed that the north of Chrysalis' empire was in danger.
It made little difference to the enslaved population, though; the changelings completely covered up their defeats in the war, telling outright lies, and making it appear as though they were invincible. While some rebels still persisted and knew the truth, they had the worst of uphill propaganda battles to wage, fought on the most uneven of terms. Even the Allies didn't know precisely what happened until much later.
Regardless, the changelings knew, and the Queen was not happy to hear about Formicidae's defeat. Most changelings thought that the Commander had been fortunate to die on the battlefield, because he would have had to face Chrysalis' wrath himself.
Frustrated, the Queen considered taking another forty thousand changelings away from the front line in the south and sending them north. However, the Allies continued to build up in the south, and that front took priority over all others. She chose to send the next batch of fully grown changelings north. However, they wouldn't be ready for about a month. Aphid would have to stand or fall with his current army.
The changeling general, however, was far from helpless. He was forming a plan of his own. By now, his army of twelve thousand, two-thirds of which had not been engaged in Formidicae's battle, was recovering, and its morale growing. Those who had experienced the battle were strengthened by their fellows, and they were largely ready for another fight.
Aphid noted that the yaks were covered in thick coats of hair. That was an advantage in their homeland, which was constantly covered in snow, along with either armor or covering on their backs, the latter of which gave them even more warmth on bodies over bodies that were designed to keep heat.
Aphid set up a battle plan intended to take advantage of those weaknesses in the enemy forces.
------------------------------------------------
"They're coming down toward our current location. My guess is, they'll be on us the next day."
"What do we do, sir?"
"I'm getting to that. We haven't been able to infiltrate them directly, but we've seen some pegasi and a few unicorns and earth ponies with them; we suspect that they escaped from our initial conquests, and have been integrated into their army."
"Rebels. Slaves that rebelled against their natural masters. They'll pay for that," another drone said, in a hungry sort of voice."
"Well, we'll deal with them when we've won. Anyway, we have managed to impersonate some of these ponies, and according to our infiltrators, the yaks are intending to bull through our forces and keep going to Canterlot."
"As if nothing else important could be captured of importance," another changeling noted with contempt.
"Makes sense, though. Take back the capital, and the ponies under our rule will have hope that they can stand up to us. We have to prevent it. We know from our infiltrators that they intend to fight this battle the same way that they fought against Formicidae and his force. They're expecting a battle on the ground, and to eradicate our army here. They're pretty confident."
"They have reason to be," Apis, now a Commander, said. "They're brutally strong, and if they get into close quarters-"
'We'll be avoiding that. Formicidae seemed to have forgotten the fact that we can fly."
"He actually had a reason for that, sir. Our wings are thin, and, without feathers, like those of the pegasi, couldn't stand very long against the cold."
"We're not in the freezing mountains now, and we'll be able to fly quite well. We're not going to be fighting in close quarters if we can avoid it. We'll be shooting them instead." He poked his own horn, which, for emphasis, he forced to glow green for a few seconds.
"Furthermore, we know they like breaking things. We'll build trenches in front of them, and fill them with dummy changelings. Meanwhile, we'll be hiding in the forest just north of the gorge and south of that fake trench line. When they reach it and begin wrecking it, half of us will come out, flying, and start shooting en masse."
"Our beams won't be that accurate if we're flying," Apis noted.
"But we'll have twelve thousand changelings shooting them, from the ground and the air. If we miss every single shot, then either we don't deserve to win this war, or the enemy has some kind of defense we haven't seen before and that we have no evidence for. We'll leave them in an undesirable and unwinnable situation, whereupon their only choice will be to either surrender or die."
"Or escape," Apis noted.
"Are you challenging the general?" another changeling demanded in an angry tone.
Aphid waved him away. "They might do that, but if they do that, their whole attack comes to nothing. We can win this, and we have to. With those yaks as prisoners, we could feed many thousands of changelings. We also have to stop them from messing up Her Majesty's plans, and from fermenting rebellion in our empire, and it is our empire. No prissy ponies or big, stupid yaks, are going to change that now."
--------------------------------------------------
The yaks, lead by their Prince, Rutherford, did as they had planned. The next day, their thundering herd charged directly at the fake changeling defenses, breaking into them without any trouble. It became quickly obvious that the dummy changelings were just that.
The Prince ordered his army to stop all that they were doing, which was the discriminate destruction of everything in sight. As the yaks and their pony comrades looked around, confused, they realized the deception for what it was.
Rutherford ordered his army to reform. Aphid, in the forest, gave the order to begin the attack.
The twelve thousand strong changeling army emerged, on the ground and in the air, and ran forward. As Aphid had ordered, they did not try to engage in melee combat, but ran or flew around the yaks, firing green energy at the enemy.
The yak army was in a bad position. They had only two choices; charge, or retreat.
They hadn't come this far just to be pushed back into the mountains. That was the rationale behind their decision to fight it out, as later yak historians would assert.
The Prince ordered his army to charge. in the meantime, the unicorns among the force attempted to shoot down as many changelings as they could, and pegasi flew up to try to hold off the enemy. However, there were maybe nine hundred ponies, in addition to about seven thousand yaks, and they were almost evenly split between the three pony tribes. That meant that no more than around six hundred in this invasion force were able to counter the flying foes, a major disadvantage.
Aphid had wanted to avoid melee combat, and he had given express orders to avoid it wherever possible. The changelings on the ground would dodge out of the way as the yaks charged, while the ones in the air would continue their onslaught of burning plasma. The pegasi were overwhelmed early on, and the unicorns were quickly targeted by the massed volleys of the changeling warriors.
Occasionally, the yaks would catch some changelings, which usually led to the immediate deaths of the drones involved. But overall, the ground force managed to avoid the yaks, if barely, and the fire of the aerial changelings had their intended effect. One yak after another fell to concentrated fire.
When the unicorns and pegasi were either dead, captured, or in retreat, Aphid gave the command for some of the aerial detachment to descend on individual yaks and try to overwhelm them individually. The yaks, being the enormous size they were, and with their limbs too short to brush aside every changeling that landed on them, were not in overly great danger of enemy fangs penetrating their fur, but the changelings weren't just biting their enemy; they were setting them on fire from point-blank range with their magic.
The yak army was in shambles; its preferred tactic of crushing the enemy in close quarters was nullified, and they now had no anti-air defense. One by one, they were succumbing.
The Prince realized this, and knew that, as things were, there was no chance of victory. Without sufficient defense against air attack, Rutherford commanded a retreat.
The battle had lasted all day, and despite the fact that the changelings had forced their enemy to retire, they were in no shape to immediately capitalize upon the yak defeat. They had exhausted their supplies of love during the battle, with the result that every changeling was starving and unable to give chase. They had lost about a thousand drones during the battle, but the Allied army had fared much worse; almost the entire contingent of ponies among them were lost, with the few who were captured being cocooned and sucked dry of their emotional energy. Around eight hundred yaks had fallen, with about three hundred others tired out and captured.
The battle had not been the decisive win that Chrysalis and Aphid had wanted, but it was a win, and the yaks, humiliated and dispirited by their failure, chose to retire to the foot of the mountains, where the cold would help to stop further air attacks by the changelings. They did, however, send a delegation to the Allies by sea, via the North Luna Ocean, requesting assistance, especially in the field of dealing with flying changelings.
With the immediate northern threat having receded, Aphid was free to send most of the Retaliation Brigades back down south to Equestria, to continue fighting rebellions. The changeling general was not fooled by the yak retreat, though; they were only regrouping, and would eventually return once they had, or thought they had, an adequate defense against changeling tactics. As such, he intended to keep an eye on them. He calculated that they would take at least three months, and more likely six or seven, to make a comeback. By then, he would have an army of fresh changeling warriors.
-----------------------------------------
Meanwhile, griffon warriors began to arrive on the front in early August. Although somewhat more numerous than the hippogriffs, they were still not available in numbers that would give the Allies an overwhelming advantage.
The battlefield itself had expanded; by this time, it had stretched from coast to coast. The war was now on a scale as of yet unseen in the world. From coast to coast, the continent was torn in two by the ragged lines of trenches, stretching out further than the eye could see. About seven hundred thousand Allied troops, with more on the way, were now facing around one million one hundred thousand changelings, who were receiving reinforcements as Chrysalis began something that would become a hallmark of the war; speeding up training of the changeling youth and throwing them into the battle line.
This practice started as a onetime effort to increase the numbers available to the invaders. The Queen needed numbers to fight the Allies, changeling biology, toughness, strength, and ability to switch form notwithstanding. However, by this juncture, the Allies had turned their makeshift measure of spreading unicorns among all their units into a permanent one. This basic measure was effective at once, and further inspections of the army and logistics troops rooted out thousands of changelings. The effect was to starve Chrysalis immediately of intelligence, and of opportunities to replace Allied commanders and common soldiers in order to weaken their resistance. The Allies didn't yet know that the changelings could disguise themselves as literally anything, but in general, as it was people of various species the invaders were impersonating, and as the Allies made regular sweeps of their army to find them, it made their task all the more difficult.
Meanwhile, a Saddle Arabian naval detachment had blown up the railroad bridge to Griffonstone, and remained in place to blockade the gap. At Manehattan, the situation, at first thought desperate, was now stabilizing. Although partly cut off from the free areas of the country, ships and pegasi - once inspected to ensure that no impostors were present - brought news and orders from Allied Command. With anti-infiltration units set up, and with a major military presence, made stronger once an Avalonian destroyer detachment and an armored dreadnought arrived, it was determined that the city, if kept supplied, could hold out indefinitely, as could Baltimare.
------------------------------------
On the small continent of Avalon itself, the war was a distant affair. While the human population was isolationist, it still partook in world commerce; given that it had a history as a merchant republic, it could hardly be otherwise. While most citizens remained in their country, which was a mix of plains and mountains, it was obvious, within the Senate it was obvious that the fall of Equestria would mean that the world would be thrown into instability.
Although humans weren't all that well known in Equestria, they were responsible for many inventions that took hold there; nail-on horseshoes, saddles, bridles, reins, carts, and other things. They kept up communications with Canterlot via their trade post in the Farthest Reaches, just northwest of the Caves of Conundrum, and in smaller posts within Vanhoover and Tall Tale, both of which had fallen to the invaders. The world economy would be in a major state of imbalance if Equestria fell, not to mention the loss of capital.
But it was not economics alone that drew Avalon into the war. The information the Allies had on the changelings made it obvious that their only interest was in serving their Queen. Their only relations with other species was that of conquest and enslavement, and to use the subdued peoples as food sources. The Avalonian people, independence, faith, and family-minded, were in sympathy with Equestria from the start. Their isolation was partly due to their origins rather than active hostility to the rest of the world, and the attitude and actions of the changelings, news that flowed during the days of early build-up, only confirmed the evil intentions of the invaders as a threat to all civilization. If left unchecked, the changelings would try to take over the world, including their Republic. Money was a consideration, but not the only one; heading off a future invasion played a bigger part, as did another reason.
Celestia had made visits to the Republic in the years before the war. She had, despite being an absolute ruler (something the Avalonians weren't fond of), charmed all that she had met there, and as a result the news of her near-capture had further inflamed the people, including the ruling consuls, the three most powerful men in the nation. The Senate had voted to unilaterally declare war on the changelings, and the papers began to churn out stories - more true than not - of changeling atrocities as they ravished the northern half of Equestria. This news, in turn, enflamed the citizens, who flocked to recruitment centers in droves.
One thing that was undeniable was how industrialized the nation was at the time; while Equestria was in the process of beginning industrialization, and the Saddle Arabians experimenting with it, the Avalonians were far ahead of other nations in terms of technology and warfare. Their weapons were far in advance of those of the other nations, something that became extremely obvious once the Allies began to mix on the front lines. The Republic was willing to help the other nations to catch up, but it was anxious about doing so; such weapons as it gave and helped to make could be used against them in the future, after all, and to give power to would-be dictators.
With that in mind, the Military Consul of the Republic, Adamo Mariani, met with Celestia in August, in the large military base the Republic was in the process of building in the Farthest Reaches.
-------------------------------------------------------
Celestia gave a bow. "Consul Mariani," she said, a smile on her face. "It is wonderful to see you again."
"Sono contento di rivederti pure, principessa dei cavalli," the man replied in Italian, smiling.
Celestia giggled. "That mistranslation was funny the first time we met; I think the proper word is cavallino."
"Perhaps," the consul replied. "It was hard to tell the difference, though, between you and the Saddle Arabians."
The Solar Princess laughed. "Well, my subjects would disagree. Do you have any tea about?"
"We do. A home-grown brand that we've just began to ship to the poor marmittoni in the trenches. If you'll follow me..."
Both leaders, each accompanied by two guards of their own people, walked further into the camp. Three large dreadnoughts were just offshore, accompanied by dozens of steam-propelled trading ships with tall smokestacks. Men were unloading crates, mostly by hand, but also with the help of a few makeshift cranes. Stacks of rifles and crates of ammunition were everywhere. Artillery was kept free of blowing sand and dirt by the cloth stretched over it as shells were, with the utmost care, loaded onto railroad cars to be transferred to the front.
"You came prepared."
"We had a lot of material stored away. We had a civil war about twenty years ago, and people don't forget that, not in a hurry."
"I was sad to hear about it then, and I still am. Your weapons development between then and now is... surprising."
"Let's say that the war opened the possibility that others might attack us while we were considered weak."
"I believe that friendship is stronger than all the hatred in the world, including that which we face."
"Then you wouldn't be here to ask us for weapons."
"I think that the changeling leadership makes peaceful dialogue impossible at the moment. I cannot allow my subjects to be enslaved while we talk things out. War is the only recourse. I do, however, intend for the principles of harmony to continue to rule, including that of friendship, once the war is over and the Queen overthrown."
"Can they even live without a Queen? I was told that they are a mixture of insects and ponies."
"I... don't know. We can deal with that once we've managed to defeat them."
"And after that, what then? Are we supposed to act like all is the same as it was before?" The consul stopped in front of a big green tent. "You and yours first, old friend."
"Thank you," Celestia said, bowing again in gratitude. She walked inside and laid down upon a pile of cushions that had been laid out for her. Her Guards stood to either side of her.
"Don't mention it." Mariani sat down on the ground, his green cape whirling slightly as he did so. "Prendi del tè dal nostro illustre ospite, vero?" he said to one of his own guards.
The man nodded, and left the tent.
"Now, down to the purpose for our meeting. As great as it is to see you again, mio caro amico, we did not meet for old times' sake. You wish that we help you in engineering your own rifles, mitragliatrice..." He stopped. "I think 'machine gun' is the term I'm looking for. Anyway, you want those, and artillery worthy of the name. But how do we know that the other powers will not use these against us when the war is finished?"
"Equestria will not do so, that I assure you."
"I know that. I trust you. I do not, however, trust the Sultan of Saddle Arabia to not use our... gifts, responsibly after the war. Or the griffons, who live in poor conditions, and who would now have the opportunity, with advanced weapons, to expand to bully others, or, perhaps worse, to sell them to the highest bidder. As for Queen Novo, I do not have experience with her, but-"
"I must object; Queen Novo is not an aggressor."
Consul Mariani looked hard into her eyes. "I trust you, and I think we can trust her... so long as she lives. But she is not long-living, as you and your sister are. How do we know that her successor will share her traits?"
"I assure you, I trust Novo's heir."
The man shrugged. "Alright then. What about the others? How can we expect them to use the guns we give them and teach them to make responsibly after the war, assuming we win it?"
"I... don't know. And I think you have legitimate concerns. But the truth is, we will have an easier war if we have rifles and cannons as good as yours. Ours is the biggest of the forces in the field-"
"Perhaps for now. But we're still bringing up our men, We may we outnumber you."
"Nevertheless, ponies are the biggest Allied contingent in the field at the moment, and, sadly, with the worst armament. With Avalonian aid, we can turn that disadvantage around."
"That will probably persuade my fellow consuls. But my job is to deal with military concerns. Including potential future ones. I know that not all in this world are so trustworthy. I fought in a civil war lasting three years. I've seen terrible things. I know what its like to see my family's home destroyed before my eyes, their vineyards and those of our neighbors burned, and innocents dying. I've seen cities half destroyed, and fleets offshore sunk. I don't want some foreign country having the chance to revisit those terrible things upon us."
Celestia sighed. "I can't make promises for parties that aren't present. You know that. What do you want me to do?"
"I want a non-aggression pact between all participating powers, including the cambiando quelli, to go into effect when the war is over, all nations of the world agreeing to keep the peace for at least that time. Long enough for the new generation to get used to peace again."
"I'm willing, and I'm sure my sister would be willing, to agree to that, but I can't force the other nations to do so. In the meantime, please, help us. We need guns like yours for our troops, and we need them badly." Celestia looked down at the sand. "I have rarely been so afraid for my people as I am now. Half... half of my people are enslaved or... or worse," she said, her voice breaking. "I... I want them free. I want the rest of my ponies to remain free. And we need arms for that." She levitated a tear away from her eye. "Please, at least agree to arm them."
Consul Mariani sat still for several seconds, saying nothing and betraying none of his emotions.
"After our civil war," he said at last, "my people wanted security. We made bigger and greater weapons than we ever did in the past. Our traditional isolationism was seen as our only earthly means of keeping us safe from the next external threat. We built fortresses, and even more weapons, to counter any species that could think of fighting us. Given our... unusual origin, we have a fear of the outside, all the more increased by that terrible war."
Celestia said nothing.
"We were afraid to trust. Many still are. But I think most of us want to trust again. I believe the majority want to come out of their collective shell. I think that winning the war might help that." The consul raised a hand to his chin, scratching it in deep thought. "I will give our men the approval to begin giving your ponies the weapons you need, and the help to reconstruct them. Only your ponies, though."
The Princess let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding. "Thank you. I'm sure we can work from there."
"Yes, I'm sure we will. Along with the price the heads of the merchant families demanded we work out."
Celestia chuckled. "That, my sister and I can agree to. So long as its reasonable; our treasury is... mostly in Canterlot, an therefore not at our disposal, but we still have some gems we could mine and give to you instead of bits if you're amenable to that."
"I would be, but I must check with the other two consuls before doing anything, the consuls of Civics and Economics. I believe they'll agree to it, and the Merchant Council will probably have no objection, provided the shipments arrive on time."
At that moment, the soldier Mariani had sent to get tea came back, holding a plate with a steaming teapot and a couple of blue-patterned teacups.
"Grazie. Sul tavolo, per favore," the consul said, waving.
"Si, certo, signore." The man put the plate down and saluted. "Al tuo ordine."
"Alla tua stazione."
"Si, Consul." The soldier took up his position, opposite that of the second Guard.
Mariani filled Celestia's cup and his own. They clinked their cups together. "To your good health, amico."
Together, they drained their tea, Celestia sipping hers while Mariani just drained his.
Another green-clad human soldier rushed in.
"Che cose?"
"Consul, una nave sconosciuta è all'orizzonte."
"A ship?" Celestia said, knowing a little of the human language.
"Si," Mariani answered, frowning. "Sei sicuro che non sia uno dei nostri?"
"Si, signore."
"Hmmm. I think we should go and see this for ourselves." The consul lifted himself up off the ground and headed out.
"Wait for me," Celestia said, taking the chance to pour herself another cup full of tea before leaving.
---------------------------------
The yak delegation had arrived. After being thoroughly scanned, they were welcomed into the camp. Their news, however was hardly that which the Allies had desired to hear. The yak army had invaded changeling territory and had been repulsed after an initial success. While Celestia and Luna hadn't been counting on the yaks, their defeat was nevertheless depressing to hear of. They were also yet another party asking for Avalonian weapons.
Mariani was even less sure that the yaks could be trusted than the griffons, given their aggressive tendencies. However, a secondary front to distract the changelings was not to be scoffed at. Keeping the enemy from bringing their full strength to bear in the south would help the Allies there immensely.
General Vittorio sent a telegram, which arrived just after the yaks had landed. He said that offensive action to the immediate north of Appleloosa was out of the question for the time being without massive numbers of fresh troops, and informed the consul about the arriving changeling reinforcements. Vittorio and Mariani were both veterans of the Avalon Civil War, and had grown to trust one another as comrades during that conflict. If he said that the odds were against a successful attack on the front, then Mariani believed him.
The changeling tide, though pushed back slightly, had not been stopped, and the fighting in the north had merely distracted them for a short time. No permanent, decisive victory had been accomplished by the Allies; the enemy advance had merely been halted, the fall of the hive being an empty triumph. Now it was to be a slow, grinding contest, to see which side could hold out the longest.