//------------------------------// // 41- Panathenaia // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// The town of New Horseleans was the life of the party, and that party had been going on for at least a decade. With a population much, much larger than Dodge Junction, and a full guard garrison of Royal Guards, this was quite the step up from a tiny dust pile in the middle of nowhere. Granted, it was much smaller than the human parallel, but I imagine that would be the case when it came to all these horse-pun cities. Equestria was far more sparsely populated compared to Earth. Or maybe most of the population was on the East coast? There would be time to find out those answers later, for now it was time to crash the party. New Horseleans was situated at the junction of the rolling hills and forest of the North, the drier grasslands of the South, and the wet, humid swamps to the South-East. A small mountain ridge separated the two Southern distinct climates, one that split the South-East from the rest of South Equestria. The town itself was far closer to the swampy areas than any other, however. The ponies residing within the town, as well as all the outlying farms and homesteads cared little for the specifics of the climate though, save for complaining about the excessive mugginess and heat. After all, why wonder about the percentage distribution of rainfall, watershed, and forest coverage when over half of your town’s industry is based solely on tourism and partying? New Years, Hearths Warming, Nightmare Night, Pancake Tuesday, it didn’t matter. Any excuse was good enough for the residents, as well as the packed hotels filled with tourists and other visitors. However, Pancake Tuesday was what made the town famous. Ponies loved any excuse to gorge themselves on baked goods, it seems. I can respect that. But I still had to burn the place to the ground, metaphorically speaking. Approaching the massive town from the South risked being spotted before arriving. Invading from the South-East meant flying over swamps, above the treeline, which brought similar issues. We could invade from the North and avoid all the bad weather, approaching from the treeline of the nearby forest. But that would be forgetting our greatest strength. We are changelings; infiltration is not limited to gathering love. So the invasion plan for New Horseleans was to walk in through the front doors. Hey, if it worked for the Greeks, it will work for the changelings. More specifically, the plan was to disguise the entire force that would be attacking and filter them in slowly through the Southern entrances to the town. The extra ponies present were passed off as newcomers here for the start of a new party. ‘What were they celebrating?’ A local might ask. ‘Who cares!’ Literally any other pony could, and would, respond. Ultimately, ponies were at heart party animals. The downside of this was that I had to make sure there was an increased presence of changelings from the Chosen Conquerors, with a few Praetorians to provide backup, to enforce strict oversight on the invading force. With all the revelry and good emotions, keeping self-control was paramount for the changelings. Revealing our presence before the town was properly encircled and infiltrated would be… bad. Still, despite the risks of unprofessional behavior within the Swarm, this was our best chance to take the massive town as quickly as possible. A large portion of the Swarm would infiltrate into the town, and the rest would wait in different locations outside, spread to cover the all the roads, open fields, and any other possible exit the ponies could take. There was a flight risk, pun intended, for pegasi to escape, so having teams stationed and ready to intercept fliers, often using comparatively dangerous acceleration spells casted on the changelings, made this good practice for aerial fighting. Everything slowly fell into place as over the course of four hours, thousands of Legionnaires took to partying in the streets, the taverns, bars, shops, and inns, slowly spreading themselves equally throughout New Horseleans, using bits we had secured prior and during the invasion to act as if they were indeed well paying tourists. Then, they partied, partaking in the spontaneous festivities while waiting for my signal. I overlooked the town from behind an outcropping on the ridgeline south of New Horseleans. “Is everyone in position?” “Several squads are yet to get to their positions around the guard barracks at the center of town, My Prince,” Chamberlain Eucharis said from behind me. “I’d rather not risk discovery, and the longer we wait, the bigger a chance of something going wrong. The guards will fall, and even if they escape into the town proper, they will be in the middle of the most confusing and hectic battlefield they have ever seen. I’m giving the order now.” I stood up from the boulder I was peeking over, and hopped up on top of it. New Horseleans was beautiful. The afternoon sun glinting off the many windows that filled the town as well as the rivers that ran around the downtown district. I could see the distant figures of ponies strolling around the riverfront district, sitting at cafes and restaurants, or dancing in the streets as small bands played music here and there. In the occasional park, even more dancing and games were had between the trees, stones, and small creeks that composed the green spaces. The notes of the music occasionally made their way all the way south to where we were, as well as an occasional taste of emotion from downtown. In addition, smells of normal pony food such as funnel cake, steamed vegetables, and other horribly vegetarian foods carried themselves on the occasional breeze. New Horseleans was indeed a wonderful, happy town. “Terror shall be the order of the day.” Was. Past tense. I had hopped down from the top of the boulder and was pacing back and forth next to it, out in the open. It wasn’t like being spotted now would make any difference at this point, considering the invasion of the town was underway. No one had told me how long it would take. It was a variable none of us could even estimate. Dodge Junction had taken minutes, but that was just a hooffull of ponies, with the majority being captured by forward scouts who explored the periphery of the town. This was taking longer. Much longer. The first signs that something was happening was the increased activity of the distant blurs that made up the pony population. Ponies were running. Then the music stopped. Then, the taste of fear finally made its way all the way over to my observance spot. I could hear an occasional yell and scream. So distant, so comparatively muted to when I was in Dodge. That was half an hour ago. The activity I had seen as the ponies started panicking had been replaced by the frenzied rush of the changelings going after their quarry. Unlike Canterlot, the capture of New Horseleans and Cincinneighti was for more chaotic and unplanned. An open buffet, if you will. More practice for the Chosen Conquerors and Praetorians in reigning in the Legionaries, I suppose. I didn’t blame my changelings for wanting to feed right away, but that’s not how we do things. It’s more efficient to feed from a pony that’s within a pod. You get far more, safer too, that way. As a way of rewarding the changelings, I was allowing some siphoned love off the first ponies podded to be distributed amongst the Legions. A mere taste, when accounting for how much had to be split up. The real feast would be after Canterlot falls, then even I will join in. After Chrysalis is dead, at least. “Progress?” Eucharis turned away from the messenger he was speaking with to answer my question. “The Old Quarter is completely within our control. The Riverside, Theatrical, and most others are wrapping up capture procedures, My Prince.” “And the Chosen’s reports?” “They have found excellent candidates for storage, My Prince. They have recommended several close amphitheaters in the Theatrical district promise open spaces at considerably defendable positions.” “Give them the go ahead.” “At once, My Prince. Flier teams have intercepted sev–” A messenger flew up to us, barely stopping his momentum before landing, then bowing before me. “My Prince! We have encountered a huge problem in the Central Business District!” “Speak.” “The Royal Guard garrison, My Prince! We have captured the patrols that were out in the city, but…” “But?” “The garrison has erected a shield, a very sturdy one! Nothing we throw at it even frays the matrices!” “Sounds like a job for me.” “My Prince!” Eucharis objected. “Panar’s Hammer can surely take care of this foolish resistance!” “I’m sure they can, but we are starting to fall behind on schedule. We are supposed to be wrapping up the initial phase fifteen minutes from now, and we’re nowhere near that. Oest, with me. It’s time God-Splitter is put to the test.” The streets were empty of ponies as Oest and I strode down them. Here and there, discarded hats, bags, food, and an occasional stagecoach littered the sidewalks and roads. Changelings were the only faces we saw, and they were all either in a hurry to get to someplace, or were carrying captured goods or ponies. Bits were bits, and we could definitely put them to use before Equestria fully capitulated. The town was even more beautiful up close, the brick and wood architecture, the balconies fenced in with iron railings, and the colorful paint jobs reminding so much of New Orleans, though I had only seen pictures of the town. The most colorful thing in sight was the purple bubble encasing a five story building in the middle of one of the blocks. There were changelings gathered around the edges, and one of them split off to meet up with me. “My Prince,” she greeted me with a salute. “My Prince! The Royal Guards have barricaded themselves in with some civilians, they have expertly layered their shields to counter our attempts at dispelling it!” I listened patiently as the changeling restated the obvious. “Very good. I shall take care of it, be ready to move in once the shields down. Remember, disorientation spells before entry.” “Yes, My Prince!” I nodded to the changelings and started making my way to the shielded building, Oest shadowing me every step. The changelings gathered around the shield, most smartly behind cover in case the ponies decided to drop the shield and sortie out, all watched as I slowly and leisurely sauntered up to the shield. Once I got right up to it, I could see the small swirls and eddies as the ambient thaumic currents flowed around the shield, pressing into it. I could also see so many shades of blues, blacks, and violets that blended into each other, like a stellar nebula flowing in a breeze. I could also see several unicorns inside the shield, pointing glowing horns at the shield itself, almost certainly the casters themselves. The colored shield hid most of the smaller details of what was behind the shield, but that didn’t block the smell of fear and anger coming from within. ‘Right. A group casting, with multiple layers stacked inside of each other. A shield like this will wear out the casters inside, and I doubt they have many replacement casters to fill in the gaps. Theoretically, all we have to do is wait the few hours it would take for the casters to burn out. Possibly shorter than that if they stop early to reserve some mana for fighting.’ I hafted God-Splitter into the air next to me using telekinesis. ‘Or, I could pop the magic bubble. Yeah, I’m going to pop the magic bubble.’ I pulled God-Splitter back, and propelled it forward, swinging it on the tethering enchantment that was imbued on the handle. Now, a normal hammer would bounce off the shield. A magic hammer would bounce off the shield. God-Splitter, being a combination of both, by all rights should not be able to do what it could do. Or maybe it definitely should be able to do what it can do, and changeling knowledge in the mechanics of higher thaumic interactions was rather lacking. Considering the brain drain that had been going on since the Second Hive, this seemed like a reasonable explanation. God-Splitter was made of Adamantium, one of the rarest elements in the world. However, it was not pure Adamantium. God-Splitter’s head was a thick Adamantium casing around a Mithril core. Mithril, an element even rarer than Adamantium, counteracts magic, acting like an anathema. Adamantium, on the other hoof, acts like a piece of paper for writing magical words. There is no medium more suited for housing enchantments and channeling magic energy. So what happens when you wrap enchanted metal around a hunk of metal that eats magic? Well, you should get two chunks of magicless metal. Or maybe a vacuum that slowly eats up the ambient magic as the Adamantium pulls it in and the Mithril eats it. Neither cases are true with God-Splitter. Somehow, it works as the most powerful dispelling tool ever created. That we changelings know of, at least. From my very, very limited understanding of how enchantments work, the best I could guess is that the Mithril works as part of a permanent dispelling enchantment imbued in the Adamantium casing, somehow not stripping the green metal of its precious magical engraved power, but instead complimenting it. ‘Stupid magic, not listening to any rules, not even it’s own!’ This was all information I scoured from the vault during what little freetime I had. There was mention of an existing Adamantium tool that God-Splitter was forged from, though the details were lost. All this magical nonsense meant that when I propelled it forward using telekinesis and it swung on the tethering enchantment bound to a thin Adamantium core in the wooden shaft, it made a mess of things wherever it hit. A shield made impossible to break through? Well I’ve got a hammer that doesn’t listen to thaumic laws. Look, if the ponies get a Royal Guard Captain whose specialty is a shield resistant to anti-magic spells, something that should by all rights be impossible. It’s only fair that we get to break thaumic rules too! I had a plan for dealing with Captain Shining Armor, however that’s a bridge I would burn when I got to it. The moment God-Splitter touched the Royal Guards’ shield, the magical matrices, power channels, and other magic doohickeys immediately vanished around its impact sight, causing a chain reaction that dissolves the entirety of the shield within the span of a nanosecond. From my point of view, the shield vanished and God-Splitter carried right through where it was, slamming into the ground in front of me, hissing steam rising from the front of the head where the Mithril core shunted off the excess energy it absorbed, heating up the thick Adamantium casing. “Knock knock!” The dazed unicorns that sustained the spell barely registered what was happening in their confused state. Namely, the fact that over one hundred changelings were now swarming all over the building, rushing in the moment the shield dropped. Windows, doors, balconies, any entrance the changelings could fit into, they did. The sudden shattering of glass and swarming must have scared the ponies inside shitless, as the stench of fear became practically palpable in the air. The unicorns who, I could now see, had been sticking out of the opened front door, went down like a sack of potatoes as shocking spells hit their already exhausted bodies. Changelings breached through the open doorway, casting flash spells as they entered. I was going to go inside and join the fun but Oest interposed himself between me and the building. I glared at him, “Move, I want to hit them with my hammer!” “You did your job, My Prince. Now, stay back.” “But, hammer!” “Phasma.” “Tch! You’re no fun, Oest.” “Back to Eucharis.” “Yeah yeah.” I kicked a Guard helmet that was lying in the streets, the sound of chaos behind us slowly fading as we went back to the boring ridge where there was no fun to be had, only conversations with Chamberlain Eucharis. At least I got to use my extremely cool paperweight. There were so many enchantments, I could feel their interactions with the ambient magic around the hammer, wedged into the head. Chrysalis deigned to only tell me about the three most important enchantments. The dispelling effect, which she only told me the barest essence of, the rest I merely guessed. The tethering enchantment, which would become immediately apparent the first time I swung it. The magic-link enchantment, which worked in tandem with the tethering enchantment to make sure that I was the only one who would properly pick up the hammer with my magic. That was standard issue on any weapon used in magic combat, as without it you could just stop your opponent’s weapon using telekinesis. The sun was setting on New Horseleans, the day’s excitement almost over. If there was no fun to be had in either New Horseleans or Cincinneighti, then at least Canterlot would hold some combat, as I was actually expected to fight in that battle. ‘I have no presumptions that everything will be as smooth when it comes to conquering that mountaintop city, and defeating the one of the most powerful spell mage in existence that rules from its height. Oh, and murdering my Queen-mother. Can’t forget that.’