“And furthermore I believe that despite the more than generous rations given to the common rabble we of the upper class need a finer level of cuisine to properly function in our given duties . . .”
Helmholtz of the Blessed sat back on the black throne of Canterlot overseeing his duties as governor with a stoic expression. It had been almost a week since he had been appointed to this exalted position and he couldn’t be more proud to rule over such a key city in the name of his Emperor. However the increasingly common contact with both the bureaucrats of the Empire and the ponies he had appointed to look after their own had begun to wear on him. This pony in particular drove him to near violence on an almost constant basis.
“Interim Council Leader Blueblood,” he interrupted. “While I understand you’re . . . discomfort, the amount of rations is finite and will not be changed to accommodate your status. Now if that is all, I have far more to do today.” A look of indignation flashed briefly across his face, before he turned away in a huff. After he had left one of the guards beside the throne turned towards Helmholtz with a look of distaste on his face.
“I understand the idea of having the ponies govern themselves lord, but did you really have to choose him as the council’s leader?” Helmholtz turned towards him with a firm, but pained look in his eyes.
“Admittedly, yes. He is stuck-up, arrogant, incompetent in so many different respects, and makes me feel physically ill. In other words: He’s perfect.” Both guards shared a look of confusion before turning back to Helmholtz.
“Perfect, lord? For what?” Helmholtz just smiled at them.
“Worry not my friends. All is going according to the Emperor’s plan. And for now, that is all that need be said on this matter. Now summon Milos, I want an update on the Emperor’s new project.”
----
Fires raged as the last of the tent settlement burned to the ground. Human soldiers swarmed over the area, clapping ponies in chains and taking extra care to either kill or doubly bind any unicorns they found. Arianna watched over what had now become a repetitive affair with both pride and exhaustion. While the coastal towns had been taken easily, the East had become a hotbed of makeshift pony settlements that had to be found and pacified quickly. While not a very difficult prospect once these settlements were found, searching for them and then transporting prisoners and/or wounded back to the conquered towns took far too much time for her liking.
A soldier ran up to her and snapped off a quick salute.
“Lord Admiral. This settlement has been completely neutralized. All prisoners accounted for and nothing left behind.”
“Any casualties?”
“None of ours sir. Four of the unicorns were killed during the initial push however.”
“Very well. Pick some out and begin the interrogation process. I want to know how many more of these blasted settlements are out there.” With another salute, the soldier ran off leaving Arianna to look over the dying flames on her own. She hated this mission. Not the actual fighting of these creatures, that part was just fine. However, she hated having to hunt these settlements down. It was too time consuming, kept her away from her fleet where she belonged, and worst of all she always felt like she was being watched. Turning away from the ruined settlement, she rejoined her men and began the long trek back to town with over two dozen prisoners in tow.
----
High above, pressing themselves close to the cloud they lay upon, two figures watched the retreating forms of the human forces.
“That’s another settlement wiped out,” said the first one.
“And another two dozen taken prisoner,” said the second. “I think it’s time for us to report back to command. The king will want to know about how far these things have gone.”
“Right, but what about the ponies?” The second one looked at the first one with a slight amount of contempt in his eyes.
“What about them?” And with that the two griffons leapt up and flew towards the eastern mountains and Griffonia.
----
The Emperor sat in his command tent overseeing the progress of the reoccupation. After deciding that Helmholtz had everything well in hand in Canterlot he had begun to lead forces to the south. The Crusade could not end until all the land belonged to man and Magnus. After consulting the maps they had located the cities of Trottingham and Stalliongrad, which lay to the South-east. First, however, was the reoccupation of Manehatten. With the daemon-queens gone, the city was open once more and it was quickly reclaimed. It was to be the primary manufacturing center and dockyards for the Crusade.
Smoke filled the air and the sounds of industry filled the air with a discordant harmony of hammers striking metal, factory machines whirring to life, and the hiss of metal cooling as the human war machine truly came to life in Equestria. Ships in the harbor came and went almost constantly as men and supplies were ferried between Manehatten and the Eastern Front. The walls dividing the different quarters of the city were reinforced and made greater than before even as ruined buildings were repaired to serve as barracks and administrative offices. A local church of Magnus was also built which was filled to bursting almost every hour of the day.
“My lord!” The Emperor turned towards the entrance to his command tent as a messenger ran through it.
“Take a breath lad, what is it?” The messenger took a deep breath and stood to attention.
“Lord Admiral Arianna has just returned from the Eastern Front Emperor.” The Emperor smiled broadly.
“Excellent. Send her to me immediately.”
“Lord,” he said swiftly before running from the tent. Some time passed, but soon the sounds of cheering reached the Emperor followed by Arianna stepping though the tent’s entrance.
“My Emperor,” she said, striking her fist to her chest.
“Welcome back Arianna. How did the pacification go?” Arianna grimaced slightly.
“It was very successful, but extremely tedious my lord. The ponies had numerous hill settlements that we had to locate and pacify. However, after interrogating the last few prisoners we have determined that we have finally completed our mission. The East is ours.”
“Excellent. I think you have earned yourself and your men some rest then.”
“Thank you lord.” And with that Arianna left the tent to the sound of soldiers cheering the new “Mistress of the East.” The Emperor allowed a small smile to grace his lips before turning back to the influx of reports on his desk. Reports of the ponies mobilizing in their western and southern cities were troubling. The entrance of the buffalo into the war had also thrown their plans back for a time. But it wouldn’t last forever. Once their armies began to march again, the Equestrians and their misguided allies would be thrown back and beaten once and for all.
----
“Again!” Silent Storm complied with the order, swinging his blade towards the practice dummy. The blade collided with the target, but glanced off its armored shoulder throwing off his balance.
“No!” roared out the drill sergeant. “You have to make sure your back legs are anchored on the ground so that you can keep your balance. If this was a real fight, you would be dead by now.” Storm just shook his head.
“Why am I even practicing ground fighting? I’m a pegasus. I should be running through aerial drills, not ground fighting.” The sergeant scowled at him.
“Don’t complain. It’s unbecoming of a solider in the guard. Those humans have shown to be able to strike out at pegasi just as easily as earth ponies and unicorns. So we’re running you through ground combat drills so that you can fight just as well if you’re forced out of the sky. Now: Again!” After another hour or so of drills the recruits were dismissed and the sergeant left after him. Only Storm remained behind, casting a surreptitious look of disgust at their retreating forms.
“I hate pretending to be as useless as the rest of these idiots,” he muttered before spearing the dummy through the heart, sliding the sword smoothly between the chinks in its armor. Leaving the training ground, he wandered through the city casually observing the guard’s progress in fortifying the city. All around him, alleys and streets were being blocked off with sandbags and barricades of stone and wood. Carts, carriages, benches, and more were stripped down for lumber to construct new barricades while hordes of ponies swept the city and surrounding areas for stone and debris with which to further strengthen their barricades.
The princesses rarely left their new command posts, constantly going over report after report from all over Equestria. The latest reports had come in from Appleoosa where the Buffalo had joined with the settlers and driven off a human attack force. There had been partying in the streets after that particular piece of news had been released. At any rate his mission hadn’t changed: keep under cover and report on any new developments. Other agents were doing the same thing all over the city in tandem with him and in other cities as well, though as a security measure he didn’t know the identity of any of them.
As he approached an empty alley, he performed his usual ritual of looking in every direction before entering. The shadows seemed to wrap themselves around him as he walked deeper into the alley until even the light of day seemed to fall away. When he felt that nopony would be able to see or hear him, he let some of his true form shine through. A flash of green light revealed his jagged, black horn. After a moment, his horn lit up with green light and soon an orb of green light formed in the alley ahead of him.
“What is your report drone 324?” The voice was no longer that of the queen, but of another drone assigned to this task.
“The guard is rushing its recruits through training. If they were to throw them into combat today, more than half would most likely be wiped out. The cities are being heavily fortified and all three of the princesses remain in Fillydelphia along with Shining Armor and the elements of harmony. Other than this, nothing has changed.”
“Excellent. Our agents in the west have reported that the humans are holding against the buffalo so far, though they have taken casualties. Also, you have new orders. The Swarm is on the move and will be near Appleoosa within a few days. We need you to delay the training and deployment of the Equestrian troops and keep them within the city for as long you can. Do you understand?”
“How far can I go to keep them here?
“. . . As far as it takes.”
“Understood. I won’t fail.”
----
Triune lay back against the pillows and blankets that the medics had brought with them form the train before its departure, his ribs aching with every breath he took. His mind drifted back to their first assault on Appleoosa. After the train had left, he and his remaining troops had fortified a nearby hill overlooking the settlement. During the transferring of gunpowder and ammunition to the hill, the buffalo had sent small, roving groups to harass them. All in all, by the time they had been able to reach and fortify the hill another hundred men had fallen lifeless to the ground. They had later sent groups under cover of darkness to recover both the fallen and their equipment. It was only by the grace of Magnus that Triune had not been injured further. His ribs were not completely broken, but there were definitely severe stress done to them that needed to be looked at by more than a field medic.
The remainder of his men sat huddled in the hastily dug rifle pits, ever watchful for another buffalo charge. A week. A week they had been stuck on this Magnus-forsaken hill, fending off near constant attacks from the buffalo. They struck with almost no warning and could come from any direction. The high ground may help to see where the enemy came from, but it also effectively isolated Triune’s forces.
The thundering of hooves against the dry, desert earth signaled another attack by the buffalo. It was quickly followed by the crack of rifles and the dull thump of mortars. Triune scowled as he assessed their tactical situation. There had been more losses, though it had more to do with the lack of medical supplies than anything. The sheer amount of injured made it difficult to treat everyone and men had died because of it. The rapid depletion of their reserves of powder and ammunition for the rifles and their almost non-existent stock of mortar rounds only drove the hopelessness of their situation home. Within a few more days both their firearms and their artillery would become little more than glorified clubs. And without the advantage of range . . . well . . . it didn’t look good. Gazing up at the sky, Triune could only pray that the Emperor would send reinforcements soon. If he didn’t . . . these would be the last days of life that he and his men had.
----
They met in secret, the shadows of the under-city hiding them from sight. Admittedly they were small in number, though this was nothing new. Even during the height of their power and popularity the odds had been against them. Then they had lost to the superior tactics and forces of the Emperor, but now Magnus had given them another chance at freedom. The homeland could be given unto them as a paradise, far from the meddling of the false lord. The figure in the center of the group was the first to speak.
“Our influence has begun to spread once more. Admittedly, this “crusade” has set our plans back further, but we can work around it. In time the true homeland will belong to us once more, freed of the daemon-queens and of the false lord.” Murmurs of agreement greeted this pronouncement as each of the other figures inclined their heads in a show of respect to their leader.
“But what of the Blessed?” One of them asked. The lead figure just shook his head.
“I’m sure they can be convinced to see the light. If not, then we will crush them as we will crush any other opposition. The next Civil War shall be the last my brothers. The Collective shall rise again.”
----
Milos and Helmholtz stood at the train station, observing the Milos’ latest creation. It had taken a week of non-stop work to complete the project to the Emperor’s specifications, but now it was finally finished. Helmholtz looked it over with a critical eye.
“It’s certainly impressive Milos, truly. I would never have expected you to be able to complete something like this in just a week, but it could only hold so many men before this. Now it will hold even less.” Milos nodded in agreement.
“You’re right, Governor. In order to make the necessary changes, a lot of troop carrying capacity had to be removed. However we still have another train after this we can use for that purpose. This one is no longer designed with that purpose in mind however.” Helmholtz looked at the aging fabricator with confusion.
“Then what does the Emperor have planned for it?”
“It is to be used as part of a tactic the Emperor feels will be able to deal quite effectively with the buffalo threat in the west. He refers to it as “shock and awe.” A smile came over Helmholtz’s face at the name.
“Yes, I can see how this would work for that particular strategy. It is a shame that the Emperor will not be able to see the culmination of his designs during its maiden voyage.” Milos nodded, a grin overtaking his tired features.
“Indeed. However it is done and needed now. I don’t think that Lord Triune’s forces will last much longer with their limited resources. And I do so want to see how well my modifications hold up in the field.”
“Then I don’t think we should delay any more.” With that Helmholtz made a short, chopping gesture with his right hand. The conductor at the other end of the train nodded and soon it began to move, the new additions causing it to take longer to work itself up to higher speeds. After a few moments the train departed the station, its new name emblazoned on the side of the lead car: THE FIST OF MAGNUS.