After the fight at the river crossing, the enemy didn't press forward, not right away. They kept trying to move their scouts up, certainly, but it was an easy matter to drive them off if they got too ambitious.
Unfortunately, they had not been distracted from the idea of imitating the appearance of Equestrian soldiers and trying to inflitrate the camp; four Changelings had been captured when unicorns managed to reveal them for what they were. They proved just as stubborn as previous prisoners had been, refusing to give their captors anything other than threats.
For a few days, though, the Equestrian army was able to relax, although, as Einstein would have said, all things were relative. While the soldiers still had to go on reconaissance and guard the camp, they weren't in a danger of an immediate attack, and would know right off the bat if anything changed.
James enjoyed a few mashed potatoes; he was currently seated facing a campfire, with Bright Star, Silver Lining (who had healed quickly and well enough to resume simple duties), White Knight, Silver Shield, and Jack Tar, whose attitude had not changed in the least, despite two major battles and a skirmish or two. The night sky made up for Jack Tar's poor attitude, though; the moon shone brightly and the stars were simply beautiful.
"...im? Jim!"
The human jumped. "Hmm?"
"Sorry, it's just that I've been trying to talk to you for about ten seconds and you didn't even notice", Bright Star said.
"That's fine. What's up?"
"Do you think we can hold this line? Until the reinforcements arrive, I mean?"
"...No, I don't think so. We can hurt them, I know that. But if we try to hold this ground no matter the cost, we lose."
"But we done gave them a smackin'", White Knight put in.
"Yes, but lets face the facts; we got in a couple of sucker punches. Next time, they'll be prepared. It won't be easy, not anymore. They're learning too; if they had thrown more air at us, we would have lost at the river crossing. And they have the numbers to outflank us and launch a frontal attack, all at once. If they do that, we're dead, and everything we've done up to this point won't mean diddly."
Silver Lining frowned. "Aye, I hate ta sae et, but they woulda had us if they'd thrown more in. I agree, et's not gonna be simple enna more."
Bright Star looked surprised and dismayed. "How do we fight them if all we do from this point on is fall back? Appleloosa is gonna be gone in no time."
"Who said we're not fighting? I didn't. I said we have to be careful. They can afford their losses much, much better than we can. We have to be ready to fall back at anytime, but we'll fight as had as we can and slow them down as much as possible. If we can do that, we'll have our reinforcements eventually, and then we can really let them have it."
Bright still looked down. "How will we be able to explain our retreats to the good ponies of Equestria? They won't like it if we lose the town."
"Ah. On that front, I have some good news, gentlemen." James pulled a newspaper clipping out of his back pocket. "I was intending to tell this to the whole army, but you all look like you need it first." He cleared his throat, then read, "The brave army of Equestria has proven it's value to the Princesses and to the world at large. It has thrown back the evil hordes that seek to eviscerate our lands, and has the complete support of the people. Doubtless, they will give us more reason to be proud of the efforts they have shown, and to appreciate the turmoil they are suffering in order to defeat this menace." He lowered the paper. "That's you they're talking about, boys."
Everyone's hearts (except for the orange pegasus) seemed to lift upon hearing this news.
Shield looked thoughtful though. "It doesn't mention our losses though."
"I know," Bright said quietly. "It's like they think this is a baseball game, or something."
"They weren't here. They would have gotten the details second hand. And the media doesn't like giving out bad news, especially in wartime," James responded. "In any case, the problem isn't clear cut, and the news on the political front..." He pulled out another clipping. "Ahem." He continued; "Lord Spokesbane, the Griffon ambassador to Equestria, has expressed disdain attaining to the Equestrian army, stating that it has 'won minor victories against a barbaric, uncivilized, and therefore unsophisicated foe' and that it is 'no more a competant army than an angry mob'. Princess Celestia has yet to respond to this uncivil criticism." He lowered the paper again.
Whereas the previous paper had raised everyone's spirits, this one had produced anger; Bright Star smacked his forehooves together, and Shield and Silver growled like angry wolves.
"He said what!?!" White Knight's horn glowed, and he let loose a beam that incinerate the branch of a nearby tree. "I oughta knock his block off. In fact, I'm gonna, if I evah see his smug face."
"I'd do more 'n tha. I'd put a crossbow up his arse and hit tha trigger", Silver put in.
"I understand your anger, but remember, we're serving a bigger cause than ourselves." James felt he had to stop them from doing anything foolish. "Remember, too, that your own people love you and are proud of you. Who gives a damn what anyone else says?"
"I do." Shield's voice rang in the night air. "He has no right to tell such lies, after all we've been doing up here."
"Try to look at this diplomatically," James said. "He's probably trying to cover up that we scared the Griffons with our success."
Bright rubbed his head with a hoof. "I don't follow."
"Right. Simply put, if he said anything positive, he would be giving us credit. And to ignore the issue would indicate that they're afraid. By insulting us, he reasures his own people and tries to discredit us."
"Monster." Shield spat the word; indeed, he spat for real, into the fire. "It's disgusting."
"I didn't say I disagreed with you." James threw the offending piece of paper into the fire. "And I don't think they'll be able to claim that we can't defend ourselves."
"No, they certainly cannae say tha," Silver said, defiance written all over his face.
A train whistle could be heard in the distance; James hoped it was carrying necessary supplies and food for the army, they needed all they could get.
"Colonel! Colonel!" Someone was calling for the human commander.
James stood up. "Yes, I'm here. What is it?" he called to the pegasus who was calling for him.
The soldier pulled out something from his saddlebags. "Here you are, sir."
James frowned. "These are instructions for cheating at dice."
"What!?" The pony took it back, and read it. "Er, uh, must have been a mistake," he said, not very convincingly. He looked in his bags again. "Here is the correct piece of mail. Colonel." He gave James an envelope.
"Uh huh." He jerked his head; the pony, recognizing that as a dismissal (and one with implications), immediately flew away after giving a quick salute.
James ripped the envelope open and read the contents of the letter. His eyes grew wider in pleasant surprise.
"What is it, Jim?" asked Shield, whose eyes betrayed his curiosity more than his words.
"Very good news. Very, very good news." He lowered the paper. "General Shining Armor is sending us 350 troops to reinforce us, with two more artillery batteries included. They'll be arriving in Appleloosa tomorrow at about noon, and we can expect them to be here within a few hours after that."
The loud cheers that greeted this proved that those around the campfire weren't the only listeners. The word would get out pretty quickly... not that that was all good. Changeling drones had tried to infiltrate the camp; it was possible that the unicorns assigned to detect them had missed a few. If they had succeeded in becoming clones of real soldiers, they would know what was going on, and fast.
His concern must have been evident on his face, because Silver Shiled lifted and eyebrow and said, "Not all good news, sir?"
"Mmmmmph. I just don't like the idea that disguised Changelings might learn about this."
"Ah, a concern that affects us all." He looked over a Jack Tar, but the friendly wink he gave James before doing so gave away his intentions. "I wonder if we got them all, or if we have some hidden away in our midst."
White Knight laughed. "Ya don't hafta worry about 'im. I checked him myself before we all started eatin'."
The orange pegasus looked up from his meal, looking a little confused. "What're ya all lookin' at me for?"
Everyone else laughed hard. Jack Tar went back to eating, with the word "annoyed" written all over him.
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The new units arrived as promised, with unstained uniforms and eager faces marking them as inexperienced. Some of the more experienced troops would shout jokes in their direction as they passed, although they didn't deliberately insult anyone; fighting amongst themselves only gave the enemy the advantage. The Royal Guards didn't join in; most of them remained impassive and stone faced. Only off-duty did they usually show any real personality.
After subtracting casualties from the recent battles, James could count on a force of around 700 effectives, with 23 wounded stil in the hospital. Having 20 cannons in 5 batteries to play with would greatly increase their effectiveness on the field.
He did have some problems with the un-blooded troops; first and foremost was that they hadn't realized that war wasn't all fun and games, even in camp. Defenses had to be made, and chores done. Some tried to balk; none had joy of it afterwards, not after being given even harder work to do.
Even worse than the newbies was the fact that the Changelings began to stir about three days after the reinforcements had arrived. And...
"What do you mean, we can't expect anymore reinforcements!?"
"I mean't what I said, and I've said what my superiors have told me to say." The gray pegasus had a neutral look on his face. "From what I personally can make out, we don't have enough weapons manufactured yet. Mass production has ony just started."
Thanks for nothing. James didn't say it out loud, but he had to struggle not to. It was even harder to try to calm himself. After all this time, he had hoped more would be forthcoming; he had been wrong.
"Colonel!" A green earth pony ran up to the human. "Our scouts have reported the entire enemy army is moving our way."
What the Colonel said then would never be fit for polite conversation. It was vile enough to make the two ponies step back in shock.
He regained control of himself after several seconds. "Sorry," he said in apology. He tried to think of something to hold off the enemy; unfortunately there weren't that any clouds in the sky today, so lightning strikes were out.
He ran up to the front trenches and took a look through his binoculars; a black mass rushed toward the army's current position. some were in the air, but most were on the ground; clearly the Changelings were hoping to win through numbers alone, and he had the sinking feeling that they weren't going to pull back or falter, not today.
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The veteran troops reacted quickly, getting into their foxholes and trenches; the amateurs reacted much more slowly, often asking pointed questions. James sighed. He hoped this battle would erase their inexperience. He also hoped it wouldn't erase the army.
"Artillery, FIRE!" He shouted.
The guns roared. seconds later explosions dotted the black mass, still perhaps a mile away. Black dots went flying.
The loss of a relative few didn't stop the remainder from rushing forward. They came on, charging right through the explosions, trampling their dead and wounded as they ran.
A few unicorns started to fire magical beams from their horns, although the enemy flyers were still far off. At least one Changeling was hit, though; it fell from the sky, landing amidst it's fellows on the ground.
Artillery fire continued to smash insectile bodies and rip them apart; those who weren't hit kept coming. James wished it were different.
Some of the bugs started to return fire, although their inability to hit anything showed what poor marksmen they were. It did force the defenders to keep their heads down, which was probably what the enemy intended.
The Changelings kept running, right smack into crossbow fire; hundreds fell, dead or wounded. Most continued their charge.
The artillery crews did their best to make the enemy think twice; double-shotted cannister tore into their lines, obliterating hundreds of the enemy at once with massed volleys. The screams of dying Changelings could be heard in the lulls between the hammering of the guns. Still, the enemy kept moving forward.
James felt like cussing again; they couldn't hold, not against a force that size. And through his binoculars, he could see the enemy was also flanking them.
"Fall back! And protect the artillery while you're at it!" he cried over the the sounds of battle. He pulled out his revolver; the enemy was getting close enough for him to use it.
He proceeded to do so; two Changelings trying to overrun a cannon nearby were killed by aimed pistol shots. Another two died from crossbow shots to their chests when Equestrian soldiers moved to protect the artillery as it limbered up.
Yet another Changeling flew at his face; he shot it, and it flew past his right shoulder. He heard it crash somewhere behind him, but he was already shooting at it's comrades; he hit one in the leg and another in the horn. The Changeling, whose horn had been shot off, screamed and tried to gore him with the sharp, jagged stump that was left. He fired again, and it feel dead at his feet.
Having fired all six shots, he holstered the revolver and drew his sword. A black, porous body chraged him. He stabbed it in the neck, and it fell quickly. Two of it's comapnions, following right behind it, jumped at him; he slashed at their necks, and found their bodies, minus their heads, falling to either side of him.
A purple beam suddenly fell in front of James, and he turned to see a number of unicorns using their magic to create a barrier to hold the enemy back. He looked back at the battery and found that all guns had been limbered and were being towed away.
"Hurry, sir!" one of the unicorns cried out. "I don't think we can hold them for much longer.
"You have my thanks!" he replied as he ran back toward the former camp, about a half mile away. He hoped they could make at least a brief stand there.
The energy shield held out for a while, especially as more unicorns joined in to make the shield stronger. Fortnunately, the unicorns were all able to teleport away once they could hold out no longer.
Their actions had not been in vain; every soldier who wasn't killed (fortunately most of them were still alive) was able to withdraw to the camp, where guns set up for a few more minutes to fire at the enemy once more.
James could see at a glance that they couldn't stay long; the Changelings off to either side of the army were still moving forward. Luckily, the Changelings who had been committed to the frontal assault had been slowed down significantly, and most of the supplies had already been evacuated. They were able to leave the camp before the enemy overran it.
They barely made it; the enemy's flanking forces tried to crush them, but they got through before the movement was completed, and, surprisingly, the horde began to slow down. Maybe they did get tired after all. In any case, The artillery would unlimber whenever they got a decent distance from the enemy and would fire as fast as they could before falling back again. The Equestrian soldiers used every chance they got to shoot at the enemy and then retreat, stalling the Changelings and buying time for other soldiers to make similar stands.
Before he knew it, the army was back in the desert again. He tried to make the most of it; boulders and skinny trees made good enough cover for the fire-and-fall-back strategy they had been reduced to. The slower pace of the Changeling army helped; the desert heat seemed to effect them particularly badly, and he noticed that they looked like they were dehydrating. Of course, the hot sun also sapped the Equestrians' strength as well. They needed more and more water as the day wore on, and eventually, of course, most of them emptied their canteens. Soldiers begging for something, anything, to drink grew more and more common.
Finally, both sides were worn out; the Changelings fell back a short way, leaving the ponies free to withdraw some ways off to re-establish their camp; the sun was setting and the moon was rising by the time this had occured.
The first thing James noticed upon entering the camp for the night was how tired everyone was; the newer troops had suffered the worst, and made up most of the casualties. 96 soldiers had been killed, wounded, or missing, though fifty wounded ponies had managed to escape the enemy and were being transfered back to Appleloosa. He didn't have the exact total of Changeling casualties, but they had to number in the thousands; their reckless tactics exposed them too much, and their lack of technology hampered them badly... just not badly enough to keep them from throwing the Equestrian army back seven and a half miles in one day.
He sat down under the shade of a boulder, more tired than he could recall having been in his life. His breathing was heavy as he gathered his thoughts.
Several logs fell in front of him. He didn't even jump; he was too exhausted to be surprised. the sound of hoofbeats was comforting though.
"Hey Jim, glad to see you made it!" Bright walked over to him and stood. James could see he was tired too, but not anywhere near as much as Silver, Jack Tar, and White Knight. Then he reminded himself that Bright was an earth pony, and therefore probably had had more exercise than the pony types.
"My friends, I'm very glad to see you're all alive. This has been a most distressing and dark day." He shivered; as hot as the desert day had been, it was very chilly at night. He bowed his head. "Boys, I have failed you. I've failed us all."
"What else could be expected from a stinking, filthy ape?" Jack Tar said, with arrogance and an "I-told-you-so" note in his voice. "By next week, Canterlot'll be gone, and we'll all be dead. And for what? For the stupidity of the Princess in trusting this beast!" He spat at James' feet.
A white blur flew at the orange pegasus and knocked him to the ground. Shield stood with his forehooves on Jack Tar's belly, while the pegasus struggled to free himself.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Shield roared; by himself, he was much more frightening than the Changeling army had been. "You should be glad you're not either dead or in prison." He stood up straighter. "If it were up to me, you'd never see the light of day ever again, you ungrateful son of a nag!" The white stallion lowered his head until it was right next to Jack Tar's right ear. "Apologise, NOW!"
"I'll do no such thing!" The orange pegasus tried to roll over; Shield's hooves kept him from doing so. "I'll never say sorry for saying the truth!"
He paid for that; Shield grabbed his mane in his teeth and shook him, hard. Jack Tar fell limp in his jaws, stunned.
"Enough!" James fired a shot from his revolver into the air. The noise made everyone stop what they were doing and look at him. He holstered the pistol, then said, firmly, "The enemy does a good enough job of trying to kill us without us doing it for them." He stood up, although he had to summon much of his remaining energy to do so. "I don't want anymore fighting amongst ourselves, is that clear?"
A chorus of quiet, subdued "Yes sirs," came back to his ears.
"Good." He sat back down. The crowd of ponies that had begun to gather around the spectacle dispersed. Shield released Jack Tar, and the pegasus scrambled away from him, while the others began to sit down. Bright Star gathered up the firewood and ignited the fire by drawing a piece of flint against the flat bottom of his right hoof.
Soon, a roaring fire blazed brightly; Unfortunately, much of the army's food had been lost, as there hadn't been time to collect it all before the Changelings overran the camp, so everyone had to make do with smaller portions than they had had previously. Jack Tar was eating by himself some distance away, clearly afraid of what Silver Shield would do to him if he dare to show his face at the campfire, though he hid his fear behind a tough face.
"What's on your mind, Colonel?" came Bright Star's voice.
"Too bad."
"...What?"
"Too bad, too bad, oh, too bad!" James said, unconsciously echoing one far more successful at war than he was. He lifted his hands to his eyes and started to sob into them. "I've failed, dammit. I've fuckin' failed."
"Sir, ya can't give up now, not afta all we've been through!" SIlver said, flying over.
"Yeah, coz if you give up, what ta be made o' da rest o' us?" asked White Knight.
"Jim, we still have our lives. It's not over yet," added Bright, throwing his left foreleg around James' shoulders.
"The fight progressed just as you said it would. You should be proud we managed to hold them off for as long as we did," Shield put in, deep voice ringing in the night air.
After a few seconds, James got himself under control. "Thanks, guys." He straightened up. "But still, we got knocked back a lot farhter than I hoped we would be. And... we... lost more than I was ready to accept." He bowed his head.
"Most of the army is still alive, and I saw you help to save that battery." Shield walked up to James. "If we have to, we can do what we did today and still hold them away from Appleloosa, at least for a time."
"F... for a time, y-yes." The chilling air made the human's teeth chatter. "We can't stop them indefinitely, not with the resources and troops we already have. And we c-can't lose troops in numbers that we d-did today. They have t-too many w-warriors to replace their losses. We need either reinforcements, or a miracle, or we'll lose the t-town, no matter what we do."
"Here." Silver threw a blanket over James' shoulders.
"Thanks." He was able to stop chattering, at the very least. "I need your support, and that of the army, more than ever."
Bright smiled at him. "You've got it."
Shield nodded. "We all answered the call of duty, and we're here to protect the innocents back there who are depending on us. You'll have our full support, whatever your decision."
"Good. Once more, I extend my thanks." He looked up into the star filled sky. What do we do now?