“Launch!” The bellowed command was responded with the groan of bending wood, as one of the Royal Artillery Corps’ catapults launched a boulder at a target four hundred feet away, demolishing the wooden bulls eye.
“Impressive accuracy.” Said Strife, the first real compliment he’d made since arriving in Equestria, as he eyed the work of the catapult crew.
“Thank you sir.” Said one of the crew. “Our trebuchets have a greater range and accuracy. However, they are complex to make, not as manoeuvrable, and are more complex to operate.”
“Not to mention bloody lethal if you’re standing behind one.” Said another operator. “The way the mechanism works means you can’t have as dense batteries of artillery pieces.”
“Which either means less pieces overall or less room for the troops to manoeuvre.” Finished Strife. The operator nodded.
“Yes sir. It seems a curse of artillery pieces that the better the piece, the less you can field. Nothing beats a cannon in sheer power, but you can’t arrange them in batteries of more than one cannon deep.” The earth pony said, leading Strife to one of the cannons. The cannon was an iron monster, more than four metres long and a barrel that Strife was reasonably confident he could crawl inside.
“This is the Mons Meg.” One of the unicorns declared proudly. “This beauty can fire twenty inch cannonballs at an airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.”
“Do you mean an Equestrian or Zebrican swallow?” Asked the earth pony, smirking. The unicorn frowned, gaining a deeply thoughtful expression, causing the earth pony to break down into hysterics. Strife simply rolled his eyes.
“How many of these pieces do you have?” He asked the earth pony once he had prevented his sides from splitting.
“Six, including this one. We have two posted to cover each of the three gates into Canterlot.” He said. “Loading is fairly lengthy, so we stagger the firing of the cannon, one firing when the other is half-way through re-loading to keep a steady rate of fire.”
“And how long does it take to reload each cannon?” Asked Strife.
“Depends on the crew. The best in the Corps could probably reload one in twenty seconds, though anyone capable of doing that is usually left to handle the larger guns.”
“You have guns larger than this thing?” Asked Strife, with a touch of incredulity. The earth pony nodded, grinning.
“Not many, mind you. The largest cannon we have are, for all intents and purposes, static emplacements. We have four, one for each gate, and one extra for the main gate to the south, watching over the valley on the approach to Canterlot.” Said the unicorn.
“Abandoned your swallow conundrum?” Asked Strife.
“No actually. The Mons Meg fires cannonballs at the airspeed velocity of an unladen Equestrian swallow, or of a Zebrican swallow carrying a coconut.”
“Why would- Never mind.” Said Strife, feeling a migraine coming on. The unicorn simply smirked
“What am I supposed to be looking for again?” Death asked, a little bored.
“You’re about to see one of the most common siege tactics used by the Royal Siege Breakers. We tunnel under the enemy defences, and can then use explosives to either bring the walls down or to sow mayhem behind the walls, creating a tunnel for friendly forces in the process.” Said Moon Shard, chuckling. Death nodded wearily.
“I assume that in reality the enemy would be too preoccupied by the on-going battle to worry about tunneling ponies?” He asked.
“Actually, we do a lot of our work at night. Less risk of a stray cannonball or magical explosive causing a cave-in, and in the rare occasion we do bollock it up and come up too soon, there’s a much lower chance of us being spotted when it happens.” Death nodded again.
“Makes sense I suppose.” He said, planning on going back to dozing when the ground around the pair suddenly erupted, dropping a rough circle of earth they were sitting on by a few feet, ten Lunar Guard appearing out of the dirt around them, weapons drawn and pointing menacingly at the pair. When Death got his heart working again, he chuckled. “Very impressive. But remember, some of your enemies will be capable of burrowing as well.”
“That’s why the pony in front is always a unicorn who specialises in manipulating the earth.” Said Moon Shard. “The more powerful ones can compact the earth around the enemy into spears which they can then use to incapacitate or kill the enemy. Even our middle-powered earth shapers can form a sphere of rock around an enemy.” She continued, smiling. “In that case, we then attach an explosive to the rock, which the earth shaper then moves inside the sphere. It usually leads to a very satisfying pop.” She finished with a grin. Death blinked, mildly concerned.
‘Ok, add mild sadism to the list of reasons to avoid this mare.’ He thought, shaking his head. “I’m assuming tunneling isn’t your unit’s only specialty.”
“Nope. We use some specialised siege engines, like petards, battering rams, that kind of thing.” Moon Shard replied. “The Siege Breakers handle the offensive part of a siege normally. The Celestial Siege Engineers are the ones that construct the other things needed to mount a siege. Barricades, trenches, those kinds of things. They also build siege towers.” She continued, grinning. “We only have three permanent towers, most are built as and when we need them. The permanent ones are made of steel and can mount a siege weapon each. Usually a cannon or a ballista.” Death nodded.
“And how often are they actually used?” He asked, causing Moon Shard to break her train of thought.
“Umm… Very rarely.” She admitted, grinning sheepishly. “But we train with them regularly, just in case.” She said, causing Death to nod again.
“Good. It does not do to neglect your training, even in peace time.” He said approvingly. “Is there anything else you wished to show me?”
“Yep. Come with me, and we’ll show you some of our explosives.” Said Moon Shard, rushing off.