//------------------------------// // Chapter 21 - Crushing // Story: Whistling Rain // by Schwabauer //------------------------------// The battle was disastrous. The insurrection had gained three thousand soldiers, just barely doubling their number, short of their tripling they had needed for their plans. They proceeded to modify them to be smaller and continue to set up their ambush on the expected Prussian retaliation. They built defenses outside one of the villages they were recruiting from, laying out dense arrays of spikes, stakes, caltrops and gabions. They placed guardponies along the main road to the east, with secondary lines laying in wait in thick fields of crops.  The initial ambush went well, the forward companies being pulled away from the main path and collapsing in on them. They quickly lost any advantage though as the cavalry and artillery began to unrelentlessly  pound the equestrians back into the village behind them. The defenses they had prepared before hoof slowed the Prussians, but didn’t hinder the shells they lobbed into the town, shattering into shrapnel and raking through the houses and gabions and shredding the ponies scattered throughout the  village. Captain Kake had then ordered a withdrawal towards the south, towards a small forest to lose the Prussian cavalry. Things went from bad to worse when the Bavarian troops appeared on their flank, marching across the fields towards the village. They were fired upon, killing most of the troops leading the way out, massacring many junior officers. The now crumbling insurgency force retreated back into the village, Twilight throwing up magic crystals to cover their retreat. Right back into the path of the Prussian artillery shells.  Under the threat of shelling once again Twilight prepared a large teleport, targeting a series of mountains she remembered to the south of the capital of the Crystal Empire. WIth panicked shouts she gathered as many she could around her and flashed them away into the mountain ranges of the Empire.  Only 527 ponies had made it to the teleport, several of whom were not even members of the insurrection but were citizens trying to flee the battle. Twilight was the only officer who made it out of the village. Now Twilight had to make a decision. Take the surviving ponies and flee to Equestria? Attempt to rebuild the insurgency? Create a small hermit village in the mountains? Suicide? The possibilities were vast, and all equally deadly. And there was little time to contemplate. Already civilian and guard ponies alike were clamoring for answers. Without pausing to think for a second more, she made her decision and swore she'd never double back on it. General Karlson had been over confident. He'd expected the ponies to attempt their usual full frontal assault tactics, and had marched towards their last known position without screening. It had cost the lives of four of his companies needlessly. It had been a shock initially, and it took a full minute and a half to adjust his plans accordingly. He had forced them into the village, and soon began to push them back and out of it when the Bavarians arrived, slamming their forces with a full volley at far too close to be healthy or conducive for their morale. Or soldiers. And then one thing led to another and a section of them disappeared in a flash of light. Very bizarre.  Now General Karlson had his soldiers searching through the village, capturing prisoners and accounting for the dead. One thousand and two hundred dead. Over a thousand captured. An unknown number unaccounted for in the flash. Not too bad for a hastily thrown together suppression force. Some of the dead insurgents wore better equipment. Several of them wore former Crystal Guard uniforms, and others wore higher quality vegan leather and light metal armors that allowed steady movement. All of the arms used were of high quality, hoof made and masterpieces of smithing. Wasted on a failure of a campaign. One soldier, though, was an officer. He was dead, a stray musket ball having shattered his skull, but was still a trained officer. He had a little rank badge and everything. General Karlson personally took the badge and all the papers off of the corpse and placed them in his pocket, intending to give them to somebody who could actually understand the blasted language of the natives. A lieutenant of his marched up, and saluted crisply, “Sir, all insurgents still in town have been captured. The dead are being placed in graves now. We will conduct a service for them tomorrow morning and cover them.” “Hold off on that. We need public gallows to show what awaits those rats who dare to stand before us. Fifty insurgents in every village within a days ride. We will hang the rest on the route back to the fort, one every day. Survivors will be dealt with at the garrison.” “Yes sir.” “Citizens of this fine Diarchy! I, your Princess of the Day, Bringer of Light and Warmth, Princess Celestia call upon you all in this dire time. The Prussian Empire is pillaging the lands of the Crystal Empire. They march and wave their petty banners wherever the please, forcing their ideals down the gullet of the ponies they oppress. Equestria will not permit them to do the same to us. “As such, as a means of deterrence and to aid in our building of relations with our fellow natives to our world I urge my little ponies to remember the friendship the Crystal Empire offered us, and honor it by enlisting in the new Equestrian Expeditionary Forces. My sister and I have drafted plans to rapidly and effectively bring our forces to the standards of our peers in this world, and above that of our enemies of another. “The new EEF will be split into two branches, Air and Ground. The goal of the ground forces is to have over three hundred thousand soldiers ready to meet our enemies within the decade, equipped with our most modern magic and spears. Earth Ponies and Unicorns are welcome within this branch, and I hope to see these ranks filled within half of the time allotted. “The Equestrian Air branch is admittedly small and underfunded, but Luna and I have a plan to modernize it. We’ll be building new wooden airships, expand our air dragoons and lancers, and produce these new cloud ship designs. We will need at least a hundred thousand soldiers to drag this branch forward into the light it deserves. “So once again, my little ponies, enlist in one of the branches of the EEF as soon as possible, so that we may defend our homes and our allies, and one day liberate our fellows to the north.”  Sir Krämer plopped a newspaper on Cadence’s desk, before sitting in her chair. He crossed his legs and leaned forward, his usual smile not on his face. He popped his hat off and tossed it into the other chair in the room. He tapped the paper’s front page, saying, “Equestria has airships, and are making more. How do they work?” Cadence recoiled, slightly confused by the sudden, serious demeanor she had never seen on Sir Krämer. She adjusted her seat and briefly read the printing of Celestia’s speech she had given the prior day, “There are three main types. Hot air, helium, and enchanted crystal. And I suppose clouds now.” Krämer nodded, quickly standing and grabbing his top hat and turning to leave. Before he did, he turned and asked, “Who is the foremost expert on each of these subjects?” Cadence quickly listed off a series of experts, and added at the end, “We don’t even have an airfleet. They won’t be any good. What do you want them for?” The signature smile returning, Krämer said, “Better a inaccurate expert to build on than no expert at all.” Before turning and leaving, his dress shoes clicked smartly on the crystal floor as left in search of these experts. Two weeks after the defeat of the insurgency, a small fleet of three Prussian sloops and two sixth rates were floating with their sails drawn along a common Equestrian shipping lane. The members of the fleet were not dressed in their usual uniforms, which were all stored beneath decks, but in a variety of light leisure wear. The Prussian standard was folded and stowed in the respective captains’ quarters, instead a solid black flag was raised. Admiral Kozlowski was calmly marking the navigation points of the fleet, and giving accurate accounts of the happenings of the last hour. A cigar was lighted in his mouth, he gently puffing in and out of brown rolled tobacco.  Once he finished writing his log he turned and swept the horizon with his field-glass, searching for anything flying the Equestrian standard. This was Admiral Kozlowski’s first command, and he was determined to succeed at any cost. His sweep was rewarded, the distant image of a small Equestrian convoy, just three merchantmen in total, tacking slowly towards the Prussian privateers. “There we go lads!” Admiral Kozlowski bellowed, pointing out towards the fleet, “Full sails and battle stations! We’ll have them in three hours.” The fleet swung into action, soldiers grabbing their last meals and relief for the next several hours before standing at their stations. Port holes were opened and guns slid and locked into place. Marines rushed to their stations, guns at the ready. Admiral Kozlowski wrote the time and position of the fleet, consulting all the instruments as the fleet prepared for war.  As the fleet neared the Equestrian merchantmen they attempted to signal the Prussians with flags. And were responded to with a volley from the two sixth rates, each aimed towards the masts of the ship. The sails on the ships were decimated, torn to shreds in the unexpected volley.  The ships raised what little of their flags and fired their ballistae, missing entirely. The sixth rates immediately began to turn and prepare for a second pass. The three sloops began to cross the Ts of the merchantmen, firing their guns down the keels of the ships. Wood and splinters shattered everywhere flung into ponies and the water alike. The ballistae were reloaded and began to fire at wild angles towards the Prussian privateers, disorderly and panicked in nature. The masts on one of the Equestrian merchantmen began to creak and snap. The popping noise from the stressed and dying wood could be heard for nearly a kilometer, the trimasts jumping high into the air before shattering down into the deck. The aft most and bow most fell overboard, slipping long ways into the water before dragging behind the ship, ropes still stressed taught in their duties to the mast. The centermost mast stuck straight up from the upper deck, and if one peaked in through the midst of the ship they could see it sank down two decks into the cargo area. Cracked boards near the waterline begin to slowly let water in, steadily seeping into the cargo decks.  The other two ships were soon crippled in far less fantastic measures, one enough grapeshots to vent it off all crew, its few ballista shattered in the process as it was left still in the water, the only sounds it made slowly creaking and the hull slowly filling with water. The third merchantman struck its colors, its ballista having been disabled by well placed cannon shots and a single mast was listing in its ropes, barely held in some semblance of standing. The surviving crew filed out onto the deck and threw the arms they had into a pile. Admiral Kozlowski brought his sixth rate up alongside it, the marines quickly tying the damaged ship as the sloops and other sixth rate did the same with the other merchantmen. Sailors began dragging crates of goods, mostly filled with apples and hay mixed with some silver work sprinkled in there and about. Storming the captains’ quarters found these ships were bound for the River Countries across the sea. The marines lined up at the Admiral’s order, and fired into the surviving Equestrians.