“Phasma left me in charge, right?”
Coxa and Lace stared at Thorax.
“Us,” Coxa said. “Phasma left us in charge.”
Thorax nodded, “Well, who’s to say that our first orders aren’t to turn around?”
“What?” Lace asked.
“I mean, why don’t we just go back? We’re in charge now, why can’t we just give new orders?”
“Thorax,” Coxa began to say, “we can’t just countermand Phasma’s last orders.”
“Why not?”
“Because! That’s… you can’t! His right to rule is more absolute than ours, for starters. Countermanding his last order is insulting him to the highest degree, second, and–”
Thorax snorted, “Well I am. I’m going back. Phasma will not be fighting Chrysalis, not without me. I wasn’t there last time, but I will be here this time. Friends stick together, no matter what the odds are. We’re more than friends, aren’t we? Isn’t the First Fang supposed to be more than that?”
Coxa shared a look with Lace.
Thorax continued, “It may… I might die if I go back. But I’d rather die than live with abandoning my best friend. I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
“Thorax,” Lace sighed, “you’re a suicidal fool. But I wouldn’t miss this fight for the world. You’re not going without us. The First Fang sticks together. Until the end.”
“Until the end,” Coxa nodded. “But it’s not going to be the end for us. I followed Phasma’s last evacuation order, but maybe if I was there, Oest would still be alive. Probably not, but maybe.”
Thorax smiled, and sniffled, “Until the end. Should we, uh, tell anyone else on the train?”
‘Double Diamond will want to know. He deserves to know. But if I tell him, would he try to stop us?’
“No,” Coxa shook his head. “I’ll leave a message for my second in command, but we should leave before anyone tries to stop us.”
‘Oh. I guess I’ll have to see Diamond after the war ends… I hope he can forgive me.’
Thorax swallowed, “Okay. Then let’s go now, before we change our minds.”
Princess Luna forced back a squad of changelings, her purple-colored bladestorm spell scattering them as they ducked for cover.
'This Palace has too many damn entrances and egresses!' Luna cursed to herself.
The luxurious castle had not been designed with defense in mind. The fact that the outer defenses had held on for so long was due to three main things.
First, the clearing around the castle. While it served as the main hub for local commerce, it doubled as a clearing around the castle which besiegers could not advance through without exposing themselves.
It's a shame that many changelings had infiltrated into the castle already, and were reinforcing through unknown methods.
Second, the defenses present were the best that bits could buy. Though the overall defenses were lacking, the ones present had mastercrafted enchantments, architecture, placement, and so on. In fact, the Sun Princess had, in all likelihood, added to the defenses herself, or had at least trained the skilled enchanters to a far greater level than they would have achieved on their own. The defenses' effectiveness was not to be doubted.
Third, the castle was renovated by Daybreaker herself. The Nightmare had poured mind-boggling amounts of money into fixing up the castle following the invasion, and it had put emphasis on exterior defenses. Sadly, nothing was done for the interior.
All these points in the Palace's favor were heavily outweighed by the negatives. The defenses, while of the highest quality, were far too few in number. There weren't enough firing positions to cover all angles from the walls, there were far too many entrances, many of the entrances were too large to be structurally impregnable, there weren't enough launch points for pegasi squads, there weren't enough sky-facing defensive emplacements, and the interior was… the interior. It lacked any sort of defensive design.
There were massive, undetectable corridors that ran through the castle like arteries. There were secondary, sometimes even tertiary, hallways that would have to be sealed or defended in addition to the main halls. There were no layers of defenses, none at all. There were no choke points or firing positions. The entire thing was designed with bureaucracy and stewardship in mind, not fulfilling a castle's main purpose.
There were even Faust-damn elevators connecting many of the floors! Personnel elevators, cargo elevators, and more! Changelings could simply fly up the elevator shafts, giving themselves access to so many interior compartments of the Palace.
Daybreaker had not touched the interior, aside from the décor. Luna suspected that the Nightmare had believed that should the castle be reached, the Nightmare would deal with the attackers itself.
Not that there was any way to really fix the castle. All the efforts made to improve its defensive capabilities were like cork plugs on a very leaky, sinking ship. That left the defenders– which now counted Luna amongst their number– frantically scrambling about, plugging up the remaining holes with their own hooves. It wasn't enough. It would never be enough.
'The castle will fall. It's not a question of if, but when. Damn you Tia, and your fat ass! Did you really need an elevator connection straight to the kitchen?!'
Luna tore straight through a squad of Praetorians, sending them flying. She let the Royal Guards following her deal with the disoriented changelings. Right now, Luna was focused on one thing: finding her sister.
Celestia was somewhere in the Castle. Questioning the Royal Guards revealed that Celestia was not sticking in one place, instead staying on the move and issuing new orders to troops as she came across them, with only a few messages having a way of locating her. With her command staff at her heels, Luna admitted that it was perhaps the best way for Celestia to remain safe.
If only Luna could get her hooves on one of these messengers, then she wouldn't have to wander around, fending off the attackers, hoping to accidentally run into Celestia.
Currently, Luna was heading to one of the exterior courtyards that overlooked the city. Her attached squads and herself would be exposed, but she needed at least a glimpse of how the defense of the city was progressing. After all, the ponies out in the city would be the most vulnerable.
When she arrived at the surprisingly empty green space, Luna found that the battle had progressed from the Lower district, all the way through Middle Canterlot, and was now fully enwrapping the castle in the Upper Canterlot. Every block, every street, and every single pony was now part of the war.
There was a mass of changelings heading towards the castle through the main Southeast road, Luna noted.
Only, this swarm had ponies in it…. And armored changelings, too.
“Phasma!”
Defenders rallied to me like a tidal wave picking up momentum.
I split off many squads to defend the ponies of Lower and Middle Canterlot, but the bulk of my nascent army stuck to me as we made progress toward the Palace. Ahead, our objective loomed, slowly growing in size as it towered over the unicorn city.
The chaos from the first battle repeated itself over and over again. Many drones defected when ordered to, joining forces with us. Some dug their hooves in and sided with the Praetorians. Very quickly, we gained the advantage of numbers. That alone was a huge convincing factor. When facing down an entire army promising an end to the worst of the issues motivating you, you tend to listen.
The resistance to our effort became stiffer and stiffer. The more Fourth Hive squads we ran into, the more battles we had to take, and the closer we got to the Palace, the more of these squads we ran into. A few were breaking into homes and businesses, hunting the ponies inside. The majority were leaving that for after defeating the city’s defenders.
The captured ponies we freed were grateful, and quickly made themselves scarce, fleeing into our wake, where it was far safer.
“So, uh, Phasma?” Bray Call asked, trotting by my side. “What’s the game plan?”
“Break the siege on the Palace,” I said, scanning the empty streets around us. “Then flush out the castle. Then…. We can figure out a counterattack. Digging Chrysalis out of the Crystal Caverns is going to be next to impossible, so we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.”
“What about the ponies in trouble out here, in the city?” Warm Dew asked, trailing behind Bray.
“I’m sending who I can afford to, but if we take out Chrysalis, we can end the war immediately.”
“I don’t like leaving them to fend for themselves…” He said.
“Neither do I,” I agreed, “but the alternative is worse. If we get bogged down defending everyone, then we’ll fail to repel the invasion. We have to take down Chrysalis, and that means taking down the Praetorian meatshield she’ll have around her.”
“King Phasma!” A Red Right Hoof soldier called from above me. “There’s airships coming in!”
I looked around, “Where?”
“The city’s edge!”
I scanned the horizon behind us, but saw nothing. The sun, still hours away from sunset, was holding its position above the city’s edge.
“Where?!”
Then, as if summoned, they rose. The three snow-white blimps of the Canterlot Reactionaries crested above the skyline, like gargantuan whales. Their propellers spun fast in purple shielding, no doubt the cause of their silent approach.
'They flew below the horizon to get as much of a surprise as they could, with the sun at their backs, too!’
Spells began splashing against their white hulls. Thick, partially opaque shields flashed into being moments before each spell got its chance to rip through the airships’ casings.
Just as they started taking fire, the airships opened up hatches and dropped ramps all across the lower half of their hulls. Pegasi flowed forth, jumping and gliding out. They spread themselves out, picked out their fights, and dived towards the ground. A few unicorns took positions on exterior catwalks that jutted out at the four corners, throwing down spells of their own. The airships themselves continued on their heading straight towards the Palace, barely above the rooftops of Canterlot.
“Rather unfortunate timing for the Fourth Hive,” Pharynx said. “Just an hour later and this would have all turned out quite differently.”
He had stuck behind my command squad, silently observing each surrender and subsequent battle.
“If there was ever any doubt who would win,” Sergeant Quick Search beamed, “then that outta make things clear! Let’s go, colts and fillies!”
The ponies hooped and hollered. A number of changelings joined in the revelry, smiling and cheering with their comrades.
“Keep marching!” I bellowed. “We don’t want to let them beat us to the Palace, do we?!”
The soldiers cheered loudly, formed up in columns, and followed my command. The beat of four thousand hooves on stone echoed down the city as we marched. I also noted that the thin cloud of fear that permeated throughout the city was absent around us. Several ponies were foolishly watching us through the windows of the lavish buildings we passed, staring with big eyes.
The E.U.P. within our ranks began to sing a marching song, and the song was added to the orchestra of hoofsteps.
‘It’s not like they won’t hear or see us coming anyways,’ I thought as I decided to let them sing.
They sang of lush valleys, of ripe fruit on homely farms, of a warm hearth, and of family and friends. Thay sang of things worth fighting for, of things worth dying for. Eventually, the changelings joined in on the chorus.
The song ended when our reinforcements arrived.
A long shadow was cast over the army, stretching past us until it landed on the Palace itself. Above, the center airship was flying low. Long, thick ropes dropped down from the sides as the airship dragged itself even lower and started to slow down. Ponies slid down the rope, wrapping hooves around them and keeping their weapons in scabbards or in telekinetic grips.
“Look out below!” An armored unicorn bellowed as he slid down the rope closest to my command squad.
Captain Shining Armor landed with a heavy grunt and quickly made room for the next unicorn following him down.
“And I was beginning to worry that you were going to miss the party,” I said.
“Not that I’m going to make light of ponies suffering,” Shining said, “but not a chance in Tartarus.”
Princess Cadence glided down, circling around us before landing next to her squeeze. She was wearing her silver armor, and had a rapier with her, the scabbard attached to her barrel plate.
“Phasma! The cavalry has arrived!” She triumphantly cheered.
“Just in time, too,” I nodded towards the Palace. Several changelings were swarming around its parapets and tall walls. “The real battle is about to start. Where’s Luna?”
“She’s not with you?” Shining asked, looking around. “She teleported ahead to link up with you at the Palace.”
“Damn it, I was at the train station!”
Cadence frowned, “Why were you–”
“I was evacuating some civilians,” I hastily explained. “Celestia doesn’t have much protection, but maybe Luna linked up with her instead. We have to break the siege, then clear out the castle, then find the sisters, then we get Chrysalis. Got it?”
“Sounds like as good of a plan as any,” Shining nodded. Then, he looked up and signaled to two pegasi who were hovering close, “Order the two other ships to secure the city! Main force on the ground, with us! We’re taking back the castle!”
The ponies saluted and split off. The ship above us continued to slow to a stop as more ponies disembarked and assembled themselves into formation ahead of us.
“Give us one minute and we’ll be ready,” Shining said. He coughed, “The enemy will know we’re here and coming for them, though.”
“It’s not like they couldn’t just fly up and spot us,” I shrugged.
Cadence looked to the Palace, “Everypony’ll be fine. The alicorn sisters have been through many wars, this is just one more…”
“There you are,” I growled suddenly as my ears flicked toward the Palace, and my head swiveled around to join them. “Ponies! Changelings! Make ready for war! We’ve been having minor scuffs up till now! We will march on the Palace, and make no mistake, there will be a fight!”
The changelings all hardened their expressions and nodded. The ponies followed suit, but lacked understanding.
“What is it, Phasma? What do you hear?” Shining asked, trying to see what I was seeing at the Palace.
I bared my fangs, “Queen Chrysalis. Her Weave is finally present; she’s in the Palace. Must’ve gone up through some secret stairwell down to the Crystal Caves. The odds of the Legions surrendering is much lower now, especially if she comes out to meet us. We must be ready to fight her early, as well as the Legions.”