Gina gestured urgently for her guests, backing away from the melee. Far from looking doe-eyed and stupid, the ponies had all raised their weapons in the same moment that the fight began, with the two marines holding their rifles at the ready and aiming out into the crowd.
Now that she looked at them, she was surprised by just how strange they seemed. They didn’t even have a proper magazine, but instead a shard of crystal gripped in something metal, which lit up bright white and began to hum quietly.
The emperor himself lept from the towering throne, landing on the ground ahead of them with his back to the ponies. “It is my responsibility to see you protected in my own house!” he said, and in the same moment swatted away a Vengeance bird with a massive blow from his warhammer. The creature went spinning away through the air and out of sight. “Follow my wife! She will… see you out of here.”
“What kind of negotiation is this, Emperor?” Caliginous asked, sword gripped firmly in her hoof. Like her marines she was only backing away from the battle, not actually engaging. But plenty of birds were, and the room was already thick with the smoke. “Do you think Equestria will give you better terms if—”
“My husband is keeping you alive,” Guinevere said, landing beside Gina with an ivory dagger in one claw. She held it facing backward, like an experienced thrower might. But she wouldn’t know how to fight. Maybe she’s trying to frighten away any bird cowardly enough to attack females and ponies. “Come with me, all of you. This won’t take long.”
A griffon in thick steel armor lunged at them from the side, dodging around where Gaius and Gerrard were holding the throne room. He swung a flail larger than a pony’s head, and seemed to be aiming for Caliginous.
The bat made a slight squeaking sound, high enough that Gina almost couldn’t hear it. The first marine fired. A little line of light briefly connected the end of the rifle, and the crystal shook violently in its metal bracket. The bird in steel armor began to smoke, and bits of his coat actually caught fire. He ran away screaming, trying in vain to extinguish the flames.
Gina wasn’t the only one who’d noticed that. As they kept backing away, Gina could make out the voice of a bird on the other end of the room. “Did you see that? These ponies are here to end the empire! A traitor let them in to kill all of us!”
“We can’t let them escape with what they know!”
Gina tried to follow the brawl, though it was impossible to see for sure. Way more Vengeance birds had rifles, and they seemed to be shooting through the lesser guards to get to them.
Guinevere kicked the high table over, gesturing urgently for them to get behind it.
“I don’t know how any of you are still alive.” Caliginous kept her sword raised at every moment, watching their other side as the marines occasionally fired at birds emerging from the brawl towards them.
One of the crystals cracked suddenly down the middle, and the light went out. The marine smacked the butt of the weapon into the ground, and the whole assembly shot out, opening the way for a second crystal from his belt. He was not carrying a third. “We don’t have the ammo to fight a war in here, Captain!” said the marine, raising his rifle again.
“You won’t need to.” Guinevere kept her own weapon drawn. “The outcome is certain.”
“You’re insane,” Caliginous shouted, as a vase full of spiced wine went smashing into the stone wall just over their head. “There’s a civil war in your throne room!”
“They don’t have Voidsteel here,” Guinevere said. Gina dared a glance around the table, and she saw that the empress was right. She recognized all four sets of the towering armor, and none of them were Vengeance or Victory. It looked like Valor was fighting on their side, or at least Gerrard was. Beyond that, she could hardly tell how the ones fighting could tell each other apart. Bullets zoomed over their heads, a few sparking as they struck stone, or making the table shake when they hit.”
“I might be able to teleport us out,” Isabelle suggested, the first thing she’d said since they entered the throne room. She’d never spoken to birds of such high station, and during Gina’s whole presentation she’d remained humble and silent. But now she was speaking to the captain.
“Teleport? Stars above, no. There are six of us. Unless you’re about to tell me that Twilight Sparkle herself trained you, that’s a terrible idea.”
“I don’t know who that is,” Isabelle said. “But I’ve done two before. Gina and me. I can do shields too.”
Another wave of griffon attackers surged forward, and this time the emperor was elsewhere contending with half a dozen armored knights. Bullets began raining down on the stone behind them, showering them with chips of white hot metal. “Do that!” Gina shouted. “A shield would be great!”
And just like that, they had one. Both marines stopped firing back, eyes widening at the barrier around them. However it worked, it must interfere with the magic of their guns.
Birds were pouring into the room from all sides, and more of them looked like they were wearing friendly uniforms. There were dozens of bodies on the floor, and almost everywhere Gina looked the stone floor had been stained red. The moans of the dying mingled freely with more rifle shots, and the occasional crash as someone wearing Voidsteel swung a terrible weapon.
“Not much longer now,” Guinevere said. “The results of this were already know. They chose to attack in the seat of our power. I suspect that is why any bird of consequence was already gone. Honestly, I feared invasion. Not this.”
“This is not how a nation should be run.” Caliginous settled onto her hind legs, resting the sword over her shoulder as she watched the carnage through the shield. “I don’t know how you birds kept this disaster intact so long. How many civil wars have you had?”
“Sixteen,” Guinevere answered, as another barrage of gunfire descended on the shield. Gina reached to one side, resting a firm claw on Isabelle’s shoulder. The pony visibly strained with every successive blow. She wouldn’t be able to keep this up for very long.
Your magic is even more impressive than I thought. Until this most recent assignment, Isabelle’s shields had never done more than intimidate. But they’d kept her alive through an explosion, and now a gunfight.
“The empire survives, pony,” Guinevere said. “It survives the end of the world—it survives the destruction of all we had conquered, it survives ourselves.” Virtue soldiers swept across the chamber, pouring in from above. They didn’t have rifles, and as a result they were taking terrible casualties. But there were so many of them, and so few of these others.
Moments later, and the battle was over. Emperor Gaius stood tall atop the broken stone table, his black armor stained with red. There were deep cracks along one shoulder, probably where someone had managed to score a few lucky shots with a rifle. Nothing short of a cannon could break Voidsteel in one shot, but enough infantry could bring one down.
They hadn’t today. At a glance, it looked like almost all the Vengeance birds were dead, joined by a large number in Victory blue. Even so, they were outnumbered two-to-one by Vengeance birds. At least a hundred of the house guard were bleeding on the ground, or else sitting up with wounds and desperation.
“I require no further evidence of who has betrayed Accipio,” the emperor announced, his voice booming over the field of battle. “Vengeance and Victory were the ones who found a way to arm themselves without informing us. They were the ones who were eager to retaliate against Equestria. And when their treason was discovered, they were the ones to attack.” Gaius removed his helmet, tossing it to the ground and turning back towards the table.
“That’s enough shield,” Gina whispered, and the bubble around their table vanished. “Great work.”
The pony only made a satisfied sound, collapsing to the stone into near-instant unconsciousness.
“But what do we do about it?” Guinevere asked, rising from behind the table. She brushed a little of the blood off her dress, staring down at the ruin their throne-room had become. “Equestria is already under attack. The strike ships must have reached Canterlot by now.”
“Many enemies,” Gerrard said, lowering the visor on his massive arched helm. Huge plumes of feathers trailed out from behind his head, almost as though he had a mane of his own. “Our enemies have cannons, and we do not. Your fleet was always the largest… but what good is a fleet of unarmed ships?”
“Zoya! I want every doctor in the city here for our wounded. They’re probably already in the palace, preparing for this fool’s invasion. And these dishonorable dead taken to the courtyard to be burned.” Gaius reached towards them, but he only gripped the edge of the table. With one massive stroke, he stood it upright again in front of them. “I have known many ponies who would flee at this moment. Perhaps you wish to do so as well. To leave us to our fate.”
Captain Caliginous stared at him for a long time. She still didn’t bow, but at least she wasn’t raising her sword in his face. “If it were only Accipio in danger, I would,” she said. “You birds are so…” She shook her head, silencing whatever she’d been thinking. “Two of your clans are attacking my home. You were preparing for an invasion. If that happens, ponies will suffer as well. Ponies who aren’t responsible for the disaster you’ve made of your country.”
“This is true.” Gaius was still breathing heavily, though there was no anger on his face. Behind him, surgeons and laborers rushed into the assembly hall. They gathered the injured first, starting with those birds whose wounds were most serious. Slaves dragged out the corpses in Victory blue or Vengeance green, leaving the Valor and Virtue dead respectfully where they had fallen. “But this is nothing new for war. It is the old and powerful who order the young to their deaths.”
Maybe for the ponies it is, Gina thought. You were fighting right along with your men. Your son would’ve been too if he were still alive.
“Celestia wants peace,” Caliginous said. “But given all this… an invasion, cannons on griffon ships, guns in your claws… it’s obvious to us that the treaty will not be enough.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Gerrard said, his voice low and dangerous. He rested one hand on the hilt of the massive Voidsteel sword he had chosen as his weapon, though he didn’t draw it. One of the pony marines made the mistake of pointing their rifle at him as he moved, but Gerrard only laughed. “Make my day, kid.”
“As you were, marine.” Caliginous glared at him, and looked like she might be seconds from snatching the gun away.
Had he done that before the battle, it probably would’ve got him killed. But there was plenty of blood already, and not even Gerrard looked interested in shedding more.
“Aye,” he said, lowering the rifle. His hooves were still twitching.
“You want to make us into Griffonstone?” Gerrard asked, sounding more weary than angry. “I like our odds against the traitors better than that, Gaius.”
“I don’t want to make you into anything,” Caliginous said. “But Accipio staying independent was supposed to mean we could all keep living our own way. The culture you wanted to remain distinct wouldn’t get dissolved in Equestria. But what happened was Equestria was threatened. There’s an invasion fleet over Canterlot. I don’t know how that battle went… but even if we won without a single pony death, that’s too far. You made weapons, you kept slaves… no more. If you want peace now, it will be on our terms. Equestria will not spend the next thousand years at constant war with itself, as Accipio has.”
The eyes of Virtue’s surviving lords were on him. Gaius remained silent for a long time. He stared out at the assembly hall, filled as it was with their dead. A pair of white-robed slaves dragged away Archibald’s bloody corpse, trailing red on the tiled floor. “I wish to speak with Celestia. We will not become slaves. But there is much I would sacrifice to protect what few of us remain.”