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// Nothing Else Matters 
// Story: Strange Bedfellows 
// by BRBrony9 
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Sergeant Argan found himself recuperating in a field hospital, set up in the shadow of the pony capital of Canterlot, which sat high above on the mountainside. It was a picturesque setting, perfect for convalescing if not for the war that remained to be won. The city itself gleamed in the sunlight, sparkling gold and marble, a vision of perfection.

It was the day after the disastrous attack on Ponyville. The Guard had fallen back to their initial line, thoroughly thwarted by the flood in their attempts to take the town. Once the waters receded, they would return. Men and tanks kept guard at the perimeter of the flooded area, to make sure the enemy was not able to regain a foothold. Not that there was anything left in the town worth taking. If it had been an empty shell before, it was almost totally barren now. It would be occupied more as a formality than anything else, a piece of ground that had to be moved through on the way to attack the city of Baltimare, which would be their next major target. The men and tanks who had assaulted the dam had been removed from their predicament, trapped above the washed-out road, thanks to airlift, dropships and Valkyries lifting up the airlanding troops, and bulk lander embarking the vehicles, bringing them back down safely to the valley floor. They had accomplished their mission; the dam complex and the surrounding hills had been swept and cleared of the enemy. Unfortunately they had arrived too late to prevent the sabotage of the structure itself. There was really nothing they could have done. Powerful explosive charges had evidently been laid throughout the dam at key structural points, designed to sever structural members, weaken or remove the outer surface at points where the water pressure was greatest, and destroy the pumping gear and sluice gates so that, even if the Imperials gained control, they could not reverse the damage and save the dam, or their men below. The pre-emptive raid was meant to have taken the dam and secured its controls before the main thrust drove down the valley into the danger zone, but although much of the complex had indeed been wrested from the hands of the enemy, they still held the interior of the dam itself, and some die-hard fanatics must have pressed the detonators manually, triggering the collapse.

In the grand scheme of things, the failure to take the town on the first attempt was of no real importance to the Imperium. Nor was the loss of the dam, although its loss would no doubt anger the princess. Commissar Birbeck travelled up the winding path from his Headquarters, at the behest of Lord-Admiral Marcos, to apologise in person for the destruction of the dam, much to his own chagrin. The operation had been planned by the command staff aboard the flagship, not by him directly. He resented having to apologise to a Xenos in any context, especially when it was not his doing in the first place.

He and his entourage, travelling in Salamander scout cars with a Valkyrie escort, were received rather frostily by the ponies at the city gates. They demanded to know his business and to see his credentials before they would even speak with him. A sensible precaution given the Changeling menace, but it rankled him even more. When he then stated his desire to speak with the princess, he was left fuming by the information that she wasn't even there. He had travelled all that way to speak with her, all for nothing? He spoke angrily to the guards at the gate, having evidently wasted his time.

'If the Princess is not here,' Birbeck demanded, 'then where the hell is she?'




The EAS Starswirl hung in the sky like a giant, silvery cigar, floating above the rallying point. The airship was not alone; they were accompanied by the Luna, the Las Pegasus, the Fillydelphia, and three cargo airships. The warship's holds were all filled to capacity with Assault Infantry, their cannons loaded and ready, their observers keenly scanning the skies. They had been flying all morning at top speed, but now they were playing the waiting game. 

The airships were located some fifty miles south of the western fringes of the Hyperborean Mountains, north of Las Pegasus where the deserts turned to pine forests. They were also about fifty miles east of the city of Vanhoover, the coastal headquarters of the military's Western Command. Contact had initially been lost with the city after the invasion, but some two weeks ago a messenger Pegasus had finally made it through to Las Pegasus, and his message had been relayed on to the capital. Vanhoover had not fallen; rather, they had seen no human enemy contacts, but dragons had been reported in the air to the east and southeast of the city, which had limited their ability to send out messengers or airships. The reason for the sudden appearance of the dragons was unknown, but potential human activity was suspected by the garrison as the cause.

Western Command controlled every Equestrian military asset located west of the Foal Valley, where Canterlot was located, the seat of the military High Command and the chiefs of staff. The valley itself came under the overall command of the Royal Guard. Everything east of the valley was under the control of Eastern Command, headquartered in Manehattan. There was always a scramble for authority between the forces as to who should be in overall control of each Command. In general, the Air Corps had, historically, been assigned a majority in the Western Command, and the army received the largest share in the Eastern Command. The western terrain of desert in the south and rocky mountain wilderness in the north lent itself perfectly to the use of airships for patrol, while the generally more level and smooth plains and rolling hills of the east was good terrain for marching and ground-based logistical supply with wagons, towed artillery and plentiful rail lines.

The system had worked well against the Griffons in several wars and skirmishes in the past, as well as against the Zebricans, though the Air Corps was called to perform most of the operations across the sea, as the Navy had only limited capability, possessing but a few warships due to the long-time supremacy of the Air Corps as the senior of the military services. Against the threat of invasion from space, however, the very essence of the system broke down completely. An invasion from orbit could not be planned for, could not be protected against save for with the use of the sun as a weapon, though even that could bring debris raining down across the land, as had happened after the human's first battle in the heavens. 

Their usual lines of communication were rendered useless when the enemy could strike from anywhere, at any time, with no warning. Unlike the Changelings, who could operate in a similar fashion, the human enemy could, if they desired, attack in a manner that was completely impossible to defend against. Their orbital weapons could hit almost instantaneously, and nothing short of a citywide shield could protect against them, and even that would only withstand it for a few seconds. The mares and stallions of the Western Command, however, had seen no evidence of the human's power themselves, which led them to continue the concentration of forces that would be practised normally, unaware that spreading out to present a smaller target might be a better idea against them. Luckily, they had not needed to put such measures into practice so far, as the human enemy had ignored them, at least up to this point, instead making their landing in the central and eastern areas. 

While the Equestrian military, and the Air Corps in particular, had long been regarded as the finest practitioners of power projection, with their airships striking terror into the hearts of their enemies, there was a new leader on the block now. The airships could strike anywhere on the continent within a matter of hours, anywhere on the planet within a day; these human starships could destroy a town in seconds, and their landing craft could drop hundreds of soldiers at any point within minutes. There was simply no way to compete with that, and the Equestrian military was not used to being the underdog. They were used, however, to operations against the Changelings.

The fight against the insidious insurgency of Queen Chrysalis and her drones had been ongoing ever since the disruption to the royal wedding of Shining Armour and Princess Cadence. Minor raids and disappearances had preceded the event, but nothing had ever been seen on the scale of the force that attacked Canterlot. With Princess Celestia incapacitated by Chrysalis, Princess Cadence greatly weakened by her imprisonment, and Princess Luna absent on important but unspecified royal business, the defence of the city had fallen on the shoulders of the Guard, the Army, and the Air Corps. It had been a long struggle against superior numbers, but the firepower, discipline and training of the Equestrians had told eventually, and the Changelings forced back. Shining Armour and Cadence's huge energy wave had been enough to see off the remainder. It had been hoped it might be the end of the threat, but scouts quickly reported activity at the Changeling Hive of the day, located out in the badlands. Since then, the attacks had never ceased, popping up here and there across the country, killing or stealing or ponyknapping, but no major assaults on the scale of Canterlot had occurred. Nevertheless, airships, Guard detachments and army posts were always on alert, and had conducted a lot of combat operations against Changeling swarms when called in by the alert sirens, the three rapid, repeated blasts of steam from a train's whistle, or word of mouth from scouts, messengers or concerned citizens.

All of that training would be called into effect tomorrow. The scout airship had reported what appeared to be a confirmed, occupied, Changeling Hive at the location provided by the human observation equipment, in the foothills of the volcano, possibly extending somewhere into the fiery cone itself. Comings and goings had been observed- not of Changelings, but of mountain goats, deer, the occasional bear- all native to the region, but not known for going into a volcanic tunnel, and not exactly known to coexist with each other peacefully. Suspicions were immediately aroused and a messenger sent to Canterlot. Princess Celestia herself had received it, and together with her sister, had agreed that decisive action was needed. Messengers had been sent out, while the airships and troops at Canterlot prepared to depart. Now, here they were, floating seemingly in the middle of nowhere, waiting.

They did not wait in vain. Others came too. Vanhoover, being headquarters to Western Command, had a strong garrison, and they were on the move also. The drone of engines came from the west as more airships hove into view. There was the Cadence. the third of the huge Royalty-Class capital craft to enter service. There was the San Franciscolt, one of the newer City-Class air defence ships. There were the stalwart V-Class fast-attack airships, the Vengeance, the Vulture, the Vigilant and the Veteran. There came the I-Class patrol ships, the Indefatigable, the Invincible, the Indomitable and the Illustrious. There were a dozen troop transports also, not deemed worthy of the glory of having a name, but merely assigned a number- the R100, R101, R102 and so on. As the day wore on, not only airships arrived, but ground forces as well, great columns of ponies, towing artillery and supply wagons. Army stallions and mares, a few from the Royal Guard as well, all with the same purpose in mind, all with the same orders from the princess who now watched over their arrival.

Celestia stood on the deck of the Starswirl. her flagship of choice, keeping a sharp eye on proceedings. The human spotter team had been left behind in Canterlot; this was an Equestrian operation. No doubt the humans would discover what was going on eventually, and may even be tracking them from orbit with their fancy equipment, but the secret of the Elements had to be kept from them. They knew a weapon existed, but they knew nothing of its nature, location, or means of operation. Celestia intended to keep it that way.

Everything seemed to be going according to the plan and the timetable so far, but she knew that things could go awry at any moment when it came to such things as preparing a large scale military operation. Organising the movement of so many ponies and so much equipment was tricky even at the best of times, such as during a peacetime exercise. Doing the same thing under combat conditions, where the chance of running into the enemy at any moment was not insignificant, was challenging in the extreme. To do so in such a short space of time was even harder, but the mares and stallions of all the military branches had come together and performed wonders. As well as power projection and firepower, both mechanical and magical, logistics was probably the greatest strength of the Equestrian military. Rail lines criss-crossed the country, mile upon mile of track that provided access for heavy military cargo trains pulling entire Battalions of heavy howitzers and their ammunition, or long strings of passenger cars carrying several thousand ponies. Most, though by no means all, of the lines were double track, improving capacity and enhancing survivability of the connections between cities. Trains could be run in both directions at once, such as for bringing in supplies and shipping out the wounded from the frontline. Alternatively both lines could be used to surge ponies and equipment forward in case of a sudden large-scale attack. 

The train network did not provide total coverage of the country, however, and where track could not be laid or where trains could scarcely be expected to make the climb, roads were used instead. They were generally constructed well, of gravel, sometimes paved or topped with concrete. Designed to be wide enough to accommodate a company of ponies marching in standard formation, the roads formed a network of capillaries to contrast with the railway's arteries; they could not move as much equipment as fast as a railroad, but they could serve a much larger area than the rails, which were relatively restricted by terrain. A road, even something as simple as a dirt track roughly delineated, could be followed by marching soldiers or by supply carts with ease.

When truly rapid transport was needed, however, the call went out for the cargo airships. There were two main kinds; the lighter, faster courier craft, mostly used for delivering mail, time-sensitive cargo such as fresh produce, and put to use as medical transports when necessary, to rush battle casualties to the nearest hospital. The larger transport craft were used as troop transports, carrying large numbers of ponies or relatively large amounts of equipment. If something had to be moved somewhere in a hurry, the Air Corps was on hand to provide the means. In addition to the dedicated cargo airships, the ships of the battle line possessed fairly spacious holds and could transport anywhere from a company to a battalion's worth of infantry, allowing an airship responding alone to an incident out on the fringes of Equestria to deal with the problem both from above and on the ground at the same time. 

Celestia's gaze switched between the airships now arriving from the west, and the ponies below, trudging up the road, coming both from Vanhoover to the west, and the garrison at Las Pegasus to the south. While the forces there had been moved to aid in the recapture of Canterlot, once the city had been secured, most of them were returned to the desert town, just in case they might be needed- a prudent decision, as it turned out, since the march to the rendezvous point from Canterlot would have taken them at least three days by hoof. As it was, they were able to march overnight and arrive as planned in the early afternoon.

The plan was audacious, but it was necessary. Their forces were badly beaten, caught totally off guard by the invasion and outclassed by the human weaponry in a straight up fight, but they needed to muster up what strength they had left. There had still been no word from the Navy, not that it mattered in this case. They were not fighting a coastal battle. This would be a struggle for the airships, for the infantry, for the artillery. 

The Changeling Hive lay a good number of miles to the north. The mountains hid the buildup of Equestrian forces from even the keenest of eyesight, and they were sufficiently far away that it could be reasonably assumed that the Changeling scouts would not go out that far when patrolling around. Most Equestrian military assaults were carried out at or close to either dusk or dawn, at least traditionally. If everything went according to plan, this time their raid would begin shortly before dawn, a move calculated to hopefully catch the Changeling defenders at their lowest ebb. Their alertness would be limited, hampered also by the glare of the rising sun. many would hopefully be resting, with a limited guard posted, although it was expected that they would strengthen their defences as dawn approached due to it being a common time for attack. Nothing could be guaranteed, but it was hoped that attacking slightly earlier than usual would catch the Changelings by surprise and lend an edge to the assault.

Celestia watched the ponies marching north. They would not have much time to rest once they arrived at the staging area. It would probably be dark before they arrived. They had been marching through the night with only short halts, and while some had been riding on carts and wagons, the majority had been using their own hoof power to get from Las Pegasus to the rendezvous point. A few scant hours of fitful sleep was all they could hope for before they had to rise for the assault in the early hours. The airship crews were somewhat luckier, as they operated a watch system which meant off-duty members could get some sleep while the duty watch manned the railings. Nevertheless, for the battle to come, every pony would need to be alert and ready.

An assault like this on what was presumed to be a fully occupied Hive had never been conducted before. There was a good reason for that; such an attack had always been deemed highly likely to result in huge casualties. The Changelings would be dug in, they would know the ground, they would know their Hive inside and out while its construction and layout would be a complete maze to the attackers. While the Changelings, so far as was known, lacked the ability to put up a magical shield around a Hive the way ponies could around a city, they could certainly fill the air with magic fire, a barrage of potential flak for the airships and Assault Pegasi to penetrate. Swarms of Changeling drones could smother any ground attack before it could really gather momentum, especially when their numbers were boosted, which seemed likely to be the case now. Scientists had theorised that the more love the Changelings were able to receive, the more drones they could spawn. It was possible that they could be extracting latent love energy from the hundreds of thousands of humans that had arrived in orbit and on the planet, though the range of their ability to do so was unknown. It was also possible that Chrysalis was sucking the love from Twilight, in a similar way to when she had Cadence held hostage while impersonating her. If she could obtain a similar level of strength as a result, she would prove a formidable foe, to say nothing of her minions.

Assaulting a Hive directly might be surprisingly easy, or it might be disastrous. Whatever the result, it simply had to be attempted, because the Element of Magic must be returned to its fellows, or else Equestria's ultimate defensive weapon would remain useless and impotent in the face of deadly dangers as yet unknown. They had saved the country and the planet from extremely serious threats in the past that nothing else could stop, and they may well be needed again in the future, potentially at any time, given the nature of the threats posed by the humans, both Imperial and Chaos aligned.

Princess Luna approached her sister's side, traveling with her on board the Starswirl. At Griffonstone, Canterlot and Manehattan, they had been apart, separated by duty and necessity. Tomorrow, however, they would fight side by side to defeat their old foe, to crush the Changeling menace beneath their hooves, hopefully for good. To delay and to dither over the decision would have been to invite the humans to vaporise the Hive and its inhabitants from orbit, with Twilight and the Element going with them.

'Sister,' Luna spoke softly. 'Do you believe we will be ready on the morrow?' Celestia did not turn her gaze from the columns of marching ponies below as she replied.

'Yes. We will be ready to fight. We will be ready to succeed. If necessary we will be ready to die. I have no illusions that this might be a simple victory. The fight will be long, it will be hard, it will be bloody.' She looked over at her sister. 'But we must recover that Element. Nothing else matters.'




Another day, or another two, or three, had passed in the darkness of her cell. Twilight had not been in contact with Princess Luna again; she had barely been able to sleep, only dropping off for an occasional brief spell every so often before waking or being woken. It was hot, it was uncomfortable, and the infernal water dripping did not cease, though she had mostly learned to tune it out. The cell stank of her waste; the Changelings did not bother cleaning it, nor did they wash her, save for throwing buckets of chill water on her once or twice, though mostly as a form of mild torture rather than to get her clean. The guards came at seemingly random intervals to bring her food or to drag her for more interrogations. There was no rhyme or reason to their varying eagerness and delay, probably just another method of making her disoriented and worn down. 

As she sat, staring with tired eyes in the gloom at the hunk of bread her hoof was almost automatically raising to her mouth and lowering back down again, the cell door clanked open for the second time in a few minutes. The guards, the same familiar pair, unshackled her from the wall and dragged her out once more, the uneaten chunk of stale crust dropping away somewhere in the dark cell. Twilight made a mental note to find it and be sure to eat it later when she returned- not a morsel of the scant provisions she was granted could be wasted.

She was secured once again to the torture table, and the guards left. She waited in silence for the inevitable arrival of Chrysalis and the inevitable pain she would feel. Sure enough, the Queen arrived, sweeping into the room, looking almost rosy, and very pleased with herself.

'Good morning, my dear,' she greeted Twilight in her usual overly-familiar way. 'I'll come straight to the point. You've had plenty of time to think things over, haven't you? All alone in that pitiful cell. Such a sad sight to see. But you can be so much more than that, if you'll just tell me what I want to know. So, have you made your decision?' Her long tongue flicked as she eyed over the bound mare before her. 'Have you changed your mind, or will you still insist on being stubborn?'

'I told you my decision the last time you were here,' Twilight croaked in a hoarse voice. 'You won't change it, no matter what you do.'

'You really are going to be that stubborn? Tsk tsk, I thought you were smarter than that, my dear. Or at least, I thought Celestia would choose a smarter student to be her apprentice.' Chrysalis chuckled lightly. 'It is a very simple piece of information that I seek, although soon it may not even be needed. Imagine that, if I find that I no longer need what you know...well, there would be no point keeping you alive, would there?'

'Then why not just kill me now?' Twilight asked, her throat dry. Though they had given her bread this time, they had not given her water to go with it. 'Just get it over with.'

'Eager to meet your end? Once again I am disappointed. I thought you would be defiant to the last,' Chrysalis replied. 'Or perhaps you take after your brother, hm? He was so gullible, so easy to deceive. He had no inkling that the mare in bed beside him was not his fiancee at all. He is weak minded, Twilight. Are you weak minded as well?'  

Twilight said nothing. Chrysalis was simply trying to bait her by insulting her family, a simple ploy she had tried before. It had not worked, and it would not work this time either. The Queen swished her tail as she circled around the table. 'You will know the truth of it all, one day. If you live that long, of course, and that depends entirely on you. So, will you tell me what I want to know?'

Twilight remained silent, and again she was riddled with pain all over her body as the Queen's horn glowed. 'You still insist on feeling more pain, Twilight Sparkle. Just speak, and it can all come to an end. All the pain, the suffering, the deprivation. It is warping your mind. I know it is. It is only a matter of time before you succumb.' 

Chrysalis hit her again with the blinding agonies of her magic, repeating her question and getting no answer. She did it a third time. She asked the question once more, but abruptly and seemingly without cause, she took a step back. There was a momentary pause, and she turned, trotting rapidly out of the room, leaving Twilight alone. Something had distracted her, called her attention away. But what?