“All right!” Fizzlepop Berrytwist barked. Her shout rippled through the crowd of gathered creatures and quieted the individual conversations. The unicorn’s deep orchid coat clashed with her plain gray uniform.
“We’re taking over the encirclement in two days!” Fizzlepop proclaimed. She pointed up to the floating map on the auditorium’s wall with her hoof, stretching out her armband with the Elements of Harmony. “The birds drove them up the mountain, but they need us to finish the job!”
Sunset Shimmer, wearing a matching uniform, powered the projector crystal on the stage with a glowing amber horn. She stood next to Fizzlepop proudly, sharing an occasional smirk as the other duumvir paced and riled up the crowd.
“This is it! We have the ponypower and the equipment!” Fizzlepop shouted. “We’re taking Canterlot back from the bugs!” She stomped her hoof into the wooden stage as her horn crackled with a brief flash of electricity.
Only half the crowd was receptive. The other half of the School of Friendship’s auditorium was filled with soldiers from the Crystal Empire. They clapped along politely, but without enthusiasm.
Flurry Heart sat in the front row of the auditorium; her long horn and tall stature doubtlessly blocked the view from the next several seats behind her. Luckily, those seats were occupied by her griffons.
Unluckily, Jacques was seated directly behind her. The Aquileian griffon leaned forward and whispered up into her ear. “Do you think dear Tempest gave similar briefings to the yetis?”
“More swearing,” Flurry countered in a whisper.
“Most likely,” Jacques agreed.
“Quiet,” Thorax hissed lowly. He sat next to Flurry in a non-descript gray uniform. It wasn’t quite the ELF’s standard fatigues; his undershirt was purple and he still wore the Imperial Snowflake on his sleeve.
“Canterlot is our city!” Sunset shouted in agreement with her partner. The projection of Mount Canterhorn flickered, changing into a top-down view of the mountain city. “There’s only one major road,” Sunset’s magic highlighted the city gates connected to Lower Canterlot, “and it’s clogged with thousands of encircled ‘ling soldiers. They’ve dug in deep.”
“Counting the garrison, there’s 100,000 bugs up on that mountain,” Fizzlepop interrupted. “They are entirely cut off.”
There was a bit of scattered applause.
Sunset winked down at Thorax. “Now it’s time for our resident changeling to rain on our parade.”
Thorax sighed and stood. He motioned with a gossamer wing to another changeling in the row behind him. She pulled her hat down and floated over the front row with buzzing wings. Flurry didn’t recognize her; the mare was in full purple uniform and hid her muzzle.
Thorax and the mare hopped onto the stage. Fizzlepop and Sunset stepped to the side, and the sole spotlight slowly maneuvered over to Thorax. The changeling licked his fangs and dipped his head to Sunset and Fizzlepop. “Thank you,” he said loudly.
There was a neigh of disapproval in one of the back rows.
Flurry’s ear twitched, placing it on the ELF side of the auditorium. Her horn blazed with a candle of golden fire as she turned her head to glare. The alicorn’s height worked to her advantage; the fiery candlewick could be seen in the back row.
Everypony she made unflinching eye contact with looked away. Flurry’s horn guttered out after a long, silent pause.
“The Canterlot Commissariat was in charge of the Love Harvests throughout the heartlands of Equestria,” Thorax summarized. He didn’t look at the crowd, focused more on the projection. “They have a massive stockpile of condensed love stored; rationing won’t be an issue. We can’t starve the city out regardless. Canterlot is still home to a million ponies. If it comes to it, they’ll be drained as well.”
Jacques raised a claw. Thorax wasn’t looking at the crowd, so he snapped his talons to get the changeling's attention. Flurry reached back with a wing and slapped him, but the griffon stood in his seat and waved more aggressively.
“I have a question, professor!” Jacques announced far too earnestly.
Thorax sighed. “I would have preferred that you stayed in the Crystal City.”
“As would I,” Jacques quipped, “but Arctic Lily grew tired of me.” He lowered his claw. “Am I correct in understanding that a diet of pure love will eventually erode a changeling’s higher cognitive functions? Perhaps that would be beneficial?”
Thorax blinked. “Yes, changelings do need to eat solid food. Pure love is more of a drug, especially taken in large amounts.”
“So, it is possible to starve the city out,” Jacques concluded.
“Only if you want to kill the entire civilian population of Canterlot,” Sunset deadpanned. “They’ll starve first.”
“Canterlot is under the control of Generalmajor Actia Pagala,” Thorax continued. “She’s an opportunist and a hard-liner for Chrysalis. She won’t surrender, especially not with the Queen’s Guard in the city. They've taken over most of the administration.”
“The garrison in Canterlot is partially under the control of the former Generalmajor, Unterfeldwebel Jachs,” the other changeling said quietly. Flurry’s ears flicked as she tried to place the voice.
“Speak up, bug!” a mare crowed in the middle of the auditorium.
The changeling pulled her cap tighter around her muzzle with a hoof, but raised her voice and repeated herself, adding, “There’s also the local Kommandant of the Canterlot Guard. His name is Second Wind. His forces number around three thousand ponies, but they’ve been disarmed after the uprising.”
“The Reich reports that the fragments that retreated up Canterhorn are disorganized and leaderless,” Thorax stated. “They’ll fold into Pagala’s garrison and entrench themselves.”
“So how do we get to them?” Limestone shouted in the second row.
“We don’t,” Flurry interrupted. She stood up and flared her wings. She bounded onto the stage with a single flap. The alicorn wore her sleek black jumpsuit for lack of a better option, and the crystal band rested under her nearly-bald mane. “The objective is to hold the encirclement. We are not storming Canterlot.”
The ELF side muttered.
“You afraid to fight?” Limestone challenged.
“The Reich is goading the Hegemony into attempting to relieve the siege,” Flurry explained. “They’ll strike at the Celestial Plain.”
Sunset switched the image to a top-down view of the plains west of Canterlot.
Unlike the valleys and hills around Ponyville, the Celestial Plain was utterly flat farmland. The Duskwood forest, so named because the sun set behind the trees from Canterlot’s viewpoint, extended further west. With the Everfree and Whitetail woods to the south and Canterhorn to the northeast, the plains were bracketed.
The spotlight didn’t move from Thorax, so Flurry sparked her horn again. The fire cast her muzzle and harsh blue eyes in a shadowed glare. “Our only goal is to keep the Changelings from staging a breakout during the battle.”
“And they will attempt a breakout,” Thorax picked up. “They did so during the first battle after withstanding the siege.”
“I don’t recall you being there,” Limestone added with a raised hoof, “unless it was for the other team.”
“I was there too, Lime,” Sunset rebuked the gray earth pony in a clear tone. “We exhausted ourselves trying a combined assault up the mountain. We weren’t prepared for the panzers crashing down on us from the plains.”
“How do we know all this about Canterlot’s garrison?” Fast Clip, another ELF leader, asked from the third row from the back.
“We’ve been questioning captives,” Thorax answered.
“What captives?” Limestone snorted. “You makin’ stuff up?”
Thorax hissed down at her with a fanged sneer. “Trixie thought you were a bitch, you know, and that was coming from her.”
Limestone flushed red and scowled.
“We have complete trust in Thorax and his agents,” Sunset said quickly. "He was essential to our operations with S.M.I.L.E and the organization of the initial rebellion. He has earned our trust a thousand-fold." She scanned over the gathered crowd, daring someone to speak up. Flurry stared at her side of the auditorium. Most of the veterans from the Crystal Empire would hold their tongues about her association with her adopted uncle if they disagreed.
Or I’ll headbutt them. Flurry ground her teeth. I’m out of patience about this.
Zecora walked onstage from the first row, taking the stairs to the side. The spotlight moved to the zebra. Unlike the other commanders, she remained naked except for a tarnished golden bangle around her neck.
“Jachs led an expedition to the Everfree some years ago,” the zebra said in a lilting contralto. “I allowed him to find what he sought and he took it to-go.”
Jacques groaned at the rhyme. “That one was painful.”
Flurry abruptly fired a low-power lightning bolt into the griffon from the stage. Several members of the crowd jumped at the bright flash, or cringed away from the static in the air. Jacques involuntarily kicked the chairs in front of him with his paws from the shock.
“I’ll shut up now,” he said weakly.
“I know who you are,” Zecora said flippantly to the griffon. “I’ve dealt with folk like you my entire life. You hide behind biting words, just like all the others.”
Flurry scrunched her muzzle in mild surprise that Jacques did not offer a retort to Zecora breaking her rhyme. He stayed quite quiet and broke eye contact with the zebra.
“The point is that they’re taking orders from Vesailpolis via code,” Thorax resumed. “It’s a code we know. The city must not fall. Pagala will be executed if it does.”
“If she even survives,” Duskcrest laughed from the third row. “What’s the point of that threat?”
“With the army from the Crystal Empire, we have 80,000,” Fizzlepop revealed. “It’s enough to hold the mountain. We’ll set our base camp on the slope near the road.”
On stage, Flurry Heart did not react. A besieging force needs to outnumber the defenders. Her father taught her that lesson very early. There were more ponies under the shield, but her little army was already straining the devastated countryside; the roads were clogged with Reich trucks and shipments from Griffonia.
Flurry took a deep breath. “For this battle, Field Marshal Fizzlepop Berrytwist is in command,” the alicorn stated. It was a small concession to the ELF, but needed. At the very least, she’s the best commander present.
The former Tempest Shadow nodded gratefully. Probably because I got her name right.
Flurry Heart waved a wing for Dusty Mark and Duskcrest to take the stage. The unicorn moved towards the stairs, but the griffon wrapped his claws around her abruptly and hauled her up with him. She kicked her legs and sighed.
Duskcrest landed onstage with a wheeze. “You’re getting fat, Dusty.”
The archaeologist rammed her horn at the smug griffon and he dodged, then smoothed out her purple uniform with a flash of magic. The spotlight wavered between the two of them as the pegasus in the rafters struggled to decide who needed it.
“The bulk of our forces are still in Fillydelphia. They’ll be here in two days with the rest of the artillery and anti-air guns.” Dusty jerked her head at Sunset, and the image faded to the top-down view of Mount Canterhorn again. Lines rapidly scrawled around the mountain. "If the 'lings try an aerial assault, we can shred them to pieces. Same with their planes. Canterlot never had room for a proper airbase beyond the dockyards for our airships."
“Listen up!” Duskcrest squawked. “Two trench lines, one around the mountain and built up on the eastern road. Field command will be there. The slope is good for artillery and we’re too close for any ‘ling to get a good shot at us with their own guns from Canterlot.”
“The other trench line is to the west. It’s a fallback against the Celestial Plain,” Dusty continued. “Anti-tank rifles dug in as a last resort.”
“Mage Companies are stationed with the artillery,” Sunset stated. The section of the mountain just under the road flashed. “We’re in reserve until somepony needs fireballs.”
“Rainbow!” Flurry shouted. The pegasus landed on stage from the rafters, wearing her old blue Wonderbolt flight suit under a leather jacket. She was already wearing her aviators, despite the dim lighting of the auditorium.
Rainbow didn’t wait for the spotlight to land on her. She strutted to the front of the stage and flicked out her metal wing. “Weatherponies, your work has been exemplary!”
“Big word for you!” Barrel Roller shouted.
“Surprised you could hear that with that little stub!” Rainbow laughed back. “We’ve turned a mess of clouds...into a mess of clouds that’s also a functional airstrip.” The pegasus grinned back at Sunset, and the image changed to a large flat cloud. “Cloudsdale is now Airstrip One, named by yours truly.”
Flurry held her tongue.
“We’re in reserve once the birds flock it up and let the bugs through their flyswatter,” Rainbow said brazenly to the nickers of pegasi in the audience. Thorax and the changeling mare scuffed their hooves on the floor.
“We’re all flying repainted ‘ling garbage anyway,” Rainbow admitted, “and I don’t trust colorblind griffons not to shoot us down. Stay off the front lines when the order comes down. We’re on intercept and destroy. Nova pilots are flying up their planes from Fillydelphia tomorrow.”
“Your confidence in our abilities fills me with hope, Professor Dash,” Gallus called out in Herzlander. The Reich delegation, Gallus and two armored knights, sat in the very back of the auditorium. Yona and Sandbar sat next to the knights; the yak out-massed them, even in full plate armor.
“Dunno what you said in turkey language," Rainbow shrugged. "You gonna fly a plane or drive a tank, bluebird?”
“No, the Kaiser put me on idiot duty,” Gallus quipped back.
“Is that an insult to the Princess?” Rainbow asked with mock anger.
Half the crowd laughed, but the few crystal ponies glittered in the crowd with scowling muzzles. They were all wearing full uniforms; the jackets didn’t hide the flare around their necks and heads when they clenched their teeth.
“It’s an apt title,” Flurry said loudly to Rainbow and defused the situation. “Considering how many times I’ve saved your worthless flank, I must be an idiot.”
Rainbow swayed theatrically in the spotlight. It earned a few more genuine laughs.
“On topic!” Fizzlepop snapped with a bolt from her jagged horn. The spotlight moved to her with practiced speed. “Liberation Front, we will hold the encirclement around Canterlot. The Imperial forces will hold the fallback line against the Celestial Plain. Be ready to shift priorities on the artillery and mage support.”
“If the Reich ends up getting pushed back, you’re going to end up on the front lines,” Flurry warned. “Aquileians will hold the north, Herzlanders hold the middle, and Nova Griffonia holds the south.” The western trench line flashed on the map above her.
Sophie Altiert and Eagleheart sat together in the third row. The gold unicorn and gray griffon nodded up to Flurry. The Aquileians were given the smallest amount of trenchwork to guard; Josette was still running supplies down from the coast and keeping her eye on the remaining militias. There were only a thousand present.
Edvald, as far from the Reich delegation as possible, sat in a cluster with the other Herzlanders in purple uniforms. He clasped a claw to his chest in salute. The Herzlanders had moved out from Stalliongrad’s defensive line with their full number.
Duskcrest bowed fully on stage. “At your command, Princess.” The Nova Griffonians were the largest contingent of griffons in the auditorium, nearly the entire leadership from the frontier. The rowdy militia commanders screeched a war cry that made the ponies in the room flinch with pinned-back ears.
“At Field Marshal Fizzlepop’s,” Flurry corrected once the shouts ceased. “Captain Duty Price and his task force will scout the mountain, assisted by the Tzinacatl and Thorax’s changelings. The road is a good bottleneck.”
Amoxtli and three other tattooed bat ponies softly screeched from the rafters. A few ponies in the crowd looked up in surprise. Only the Thestrals’ eyes were easily visible.
A voice piped up from the crowd. “Are we supposed to trust that those bugs-”
“Enough.” Flurry smashed a hoof through the wooden stage. Her voice staggered the ponies in the front row.
After a moment of dead silence, Thorax spoke up. “Some of us have experience with the caves and old mines around Canterlot,” he chittered unabashedly. “It’s a good bet that the Changeling Heer has ‘lings familiar as well. It’s been under their control for years.”
“Looking forward to being a tunnel rat!” Duty Price nickered from the second row. The blue earth pony was puffing a cigar with one hoof and combing his mustache in the other. "We'll bury them."
“Crystal ponies and yaks,” Flurry said with a subdued smile. “You’ve come a long way.”
“There is still snow!” Yona exclaimed. “Wherever there is snow, there is yaks!” She wrapped a heavy hoof around one of the armored knights and pulled him against her. The knight struggled in vain to free himself from her shaggy brown coat.
“You have the most essential task of all, my ponies,” Flurry said gravely. The crystal ponies leaned forward in anticipation. Flurry bit her lip and inhaled, pushing out her breath with a foreleg.
“You get to dig holes,” she announced with a flat expression.
“We need trenches,” Fizzlepop agreed.
“As the Princess commands!” Jadis yelled. “The finest snow forts in the world belong to the Empire!”
The few crystal ponies stomped their hooves three times against the floor.
Flurry smiled genuinely. It wasn’t the truth, of course, and everypony knew it. The crystal ponies and yaks were too few in number beyond the shield covering the north. They would be needed to run ammo and supplies behind the front lines. And they’ve already lost enough for now.
“Is Princess Twilight in Canterlot?” a stallion’s voice called out in a Trottingham accent.
The chatter slowly died.
Flurry tried to pick out the pony that asked. It wasn’t Price.
“Pip,” Sunset called from the stage in a tired voice.
“Is Princess Twilight in Canterlot?” a piebald earth pony asked from the fifth row. He was only a few years older than Flurry. He lowered his hoof; he was wearing an armband with the Elements of Harmony on it.
“The last plausible report of Twilight’s location was before the ELF rebelled,” Thorax answered. “We can’t confirm her location, nor has she been seen for years.”
“The Hegemony is full of rumors about Twilight Sparkle,” the changeling mare agreed. She lifted her head to look at Pip, and Flurry caught a glimpse of her muzzle.
She remembered her face from Ironbend. Ocellus. Her muzzle twitched into a sneer before the alicorn recovered.
The changeling clearly felt the burst of anger from the way her ears pinned back, but continued. “M-most rumors claim she is in Vesalipolis,” she stuttered, “but s-some ‘lings still believe she’s in Canterlot.”
“What if she is?” a strong voice rumbled from the auditorium exit. Spike stood in the very back of the large room. He would’ve blocked anyone’s view otherwise. “Do we have a plan?”
“We have no way of knowing where my aunt is,” Flurry said neutrally. She raised her wings and trotted to the very front of the stage. The spotlight still didn’t move towards her, so she grabbed it in her magic and wrenched it away from Sunset Shimmer's spot. “Let’s say she’s in Canterlot. How do we take the city?”
“You’re an alicorn, ain’t you?” Limestone snorted. "Heard you make craters."
“You think they won’t kill her the moment I breach the walls?” Flurry asked bluntly. “Or that they haven’t killed her already?”
“Chrysalis would keep her alive to gloat,” Sunset disagreed.
“Maybe,” Flurry allowed with a head toss. “But we don’t have any proof.”
“We won’t have any until we take Canterlot!” a mare on the ELF side shouted. She earned some whinnies of agreement.
“I believe we can take Canterlot,” Flurry stated. “And I believe that the Hegemony is coming. The Changeling Heer is going to crash down on the Celestial Plain with all its power. We can’t afford distractions.”
Flurry looked to her side of the auditorium. “Some of you have followed me from the Crystal City. That battle was necessary, but it nearly destroyed us. I’m not counting on another miracle. The first one was costly enough.”
“Chrysalis believes she built a new era, a Pax Chrysalia,” Dusty snarled.
“Changelings are raised to believe that she was the only Queen of the Changelings that ever was,” Thorax elaborated. “That she’s thousands of years old and immortal.”
“Everything it is was built on lies,” Zecora sang, “and therein lies the path of its demise.”
“We break the Hegemony,” Flurry declared. She dipped her head towards the back of the auditorium. “And we do it together, griffons and ponies. Yaks and dragons. Everyone.”
Gallus ruffled his feathers as the crowd turned to look at him.
“We win the battle first, then we take Canterlot,” Flurry promised. “I swear it.”
“You planning on fighting, Princess?” somepony in the ELF side jeered. It earned a series of disapproving whinnies and squawks from the opposite side of the auditorium.
“Yes.”
The shouts turned positive.
Flurry released the spotlight and stalked towards the back of the stage. She lowered her wings after waving her feathers to Fizzlepop. The mare stepped forward. “Further questions?” the Field Marshal half-growled. “For every dumb question you ask in the field, you have to dig a latrine pit. Ask now.”
Flurry approached Ocellus. The thin changeling mare had backed up against the wall. Thorax stood next to her; he gave Flurry a half-lidded, subtle look. The pink alicorn checked her aggressive, stomping hooves, then stepped forward more gingerly. The jumpsuit-wearing alicorn slid herself between the two changelings.
“Have you been to Canterlot?” Flurry whispered.
Ocellus did not answer.
“You know I am speaking to you,” Flurry prompted her.
“I-I have not, Princess.”
“You weren’t part of the invasion force at my parent’s wedding? Like Thorax?”
“I was t-too young.”
Flurry pursed her lips in thought. “You know a lot about Canterlot and the 'lings there.”
“I dealt with Lilac’s correspondence,” Ocellus admitted quietly. “She wrote to Generalmajor Jachs and his adjutant, Alcippe. A few others while she was renegotiating the Love Tax to the Changeling Lands. An industrialist named Finicus. He’s in charge of Main Hive Industries. Doctor Marsilio…”
“They’re all in Canterlot?” Flurry hummed in thought.
“Y-yes.”
“What about Actia?”
“She’s a monster and you should kill her,” Thorax hissed quietly.
Flurry smirked. “Why?”
“She abuses her slaves.”
“Most changelings do that,” Flurry retorted.
“Not the w-way she does,” Ocellus added in a strained whisper.
Flurry's smirk fell and she exhaled through her nose. “Why did that officer pick you?”
Ocellus took several minutes to respond. Flurry listened to Fizzlepop and Sunset elaborate on positioning, with commentary from Duskcrest, Dusty, and Rainbow when needed. It was a ragged, disorganized group, but Flurry had accomplished more with less. The comforting thought didn’t do much to unfreeze the block of ice in her stomach.
“I was the youngest,” Ocellus finally said.
“There was another mare in the line,” Flurry whispered absently. “She gasped.”
“His sister.”
It was Flurry’s turn to be quiet for several minutes.
“I told Thorax,” the alicorn said quietly, “that I would accept your apology.”
Thorax buzzed his wings to Flurry’s right. She leaned over and nuzzled him, certain that some in the crowd probably scowled at her showing any affection for a changeling.
“I’m sorry,” Ocellus said softly. “I know why you hate us.”
“I don’t hate you nearly as much as most in that crowd,” Flurry sighed.
“That’s what Thorax said,” Ocellus agreed. “The Pax Chrysalia was never going to last. We need you to win.” The smaller changeling finally turned her head to look Flurry in the eye. "We need you to win," she repeated.
Flurry glanced at Thorax; the changeling trotted forward to insert himself into some answer. He didn’t look back at either of them.
“Why?” Flurry muttered.
“Because if anypony else wins they’re gonna kill us all,” Ocellus said honestly.
Flurry picked out Jadis leaning against some chairs and arguing with Jacques and Limestone about how to dig a trench. Yona laughed along at something with Sandbar and Gallus. Rainbow mimed preening her metal wing on stage with Fizzlepop; she lifted her glasses to compare their muzzle scars. Spike approached the stage through the aisle to speak with Sunset and Barrel Roller. Altiert and Eagleheart chattered in Aquileian with their sub-commanders. Edvald and the Herzlanders gathered with Duskcrest to sketch the trenchworks.
In one form or another, begrudging or not, everyone was working together.
Thorax stood at the edge of the stage, alone.