//------------------------------// // The Grand Council Riots // Story: Turning Back the Winter // by Dinkledash //------------------------------// How do people react to an official government announcement that the world is coming to an end? It depends on the individuals, one would suppose. So when rioting broke out, it wasn't that the entire unicorn race lost control of themselves; perhaps fewer than one unicorn in twenty joined in when the arsons, break-ins, robberies and the occasional murder broke out throughout Unicornia. The Grand Council was quickly gathered, but many of the strongest mages in the Academy were deputized in a riot control capacity. Celestia was shocked, saddened and horrified when her mother came by the Academy with Luna and told her about the slowing convection in the sun's core, but it confirmed her and Starswirl's worst suspicions about the worsening winters. Luna was just of an age when she was able to come to grips with such things as the inevitability of death, but this was simply too much for her to take in, and she broke down in hysterics. Celestia physicked and sedated her to prevent her from hurting herself, and the Grand Archmage granted her permission to stay with her sister at the Academy for the time being. When the riots broke out, Celestia was ordered to report to the Royal Guards and put herself under the command of Captain Thunderhoof. Grand Archmage Dream Charmer and Starswirl were required at the Grand Council along with the rest of the stronger theorists. Celestia was less of a precision instrument and more of a sledgehammer, and no good idea could save them if Unicornia was a burning ruin. Celestia stopped a guardsman outside the castle. "I have to find Captain Thunderhoof! I've been deputized!" she yelled over the roar of carts moving, gates being raised and lowered and the general hubub of large numbers of ponies preparing for combat. "He's over where the wagons are, miss! Just look for the biggest unicorn you... I mean, the second biggest unicorn you ever saw." He smiled sheepishly at her and ran off to report to his own officer. She trotted to where there were a dozen wagons parked. They were flatbeds and right now they were being loaded with barrels and sandbags, as well as some food, medical supplies, ropes and other assorted militaria. There was indeed a very tall, handsome dappled gray unicorn with a pure white mane under his silver helmet directing the efforts of the loaders, ensuring that the right mix of gear would be available in each wagon. "Captain Thunderhoof?" The officer looked up. "I'm Apprentice Celestia, from the Academy! I was told to report to you!" "Healer or Battlemage?" He had no time for small talk. "Both! I'm the Grand Archmage's apprentice!" His eyebrows rose at that. "Then you stay with me and do as I tell you! I'll brief you with the rest of the unit in five minutes, but right now we need to finish loading! I need three barrels of caltrops, three hundred sandbags, a physick kit, and two hundred feet of rope loaded onto each wagon!" Caltrops? Ew. "Yes sir!" The barrels were quite heavy and the guardsponies were having some difficulty lifting them with the proper balance of forces. They were trying three-pony lifts and it was difficult to coordinate properly, so work was going slow. If one of them broke or spilled, there would be four-pointed spikes spread out all over the courtyard and somepony would get hurt. Focus... The two hundred kilogram mass was no more than she had practiced with at the Academy. Well, not much more. Actually it was pretty darned heavy. But she retained her focus and accepted a bit of bleed off to ensure that she wouldn't internalize the work being done on the barrel. She pressed down and up and spread the force out on a broad base to maximize stability. She added power gradually because she didn't want to throw the barrel up in the air, just lift it, and she found she was easily able to manage. Up it came above the lip off the wagon bed, then she added a small vector to push the barrel over the wagon, and then slowly released. The wagon springs creaked. One down, thirty five to go. The guards, including Captain Thunderhoof, stared at her in amazement. Then the officer nodded. "I think you may prove to be useful, Apprentice Celestia. Please carry on. You guardsponies, get to work loading the other gear and leave the heavy lifting to them whats can do it! Briefing in five minutes so hop to it!" He trotted off to deal with some other inefficiencies while Celestia methodically loaded barrels of caltrops and the other ponies loaded bundles of sandbags, rope, medical supplies, water buckets, whatever else they may need to respond to the emergency. It wound up taking her six minutes, but the briefing hadn't started yet so she just stood at the back of the crowd. Thunderhoof walked up to the front of the group and created a map display using light illusion. Very detailed, Celestia thought with appreciation. "Guardsponies, we have roughly four hundred rioters in three major groups and small groups and individuals scattered around town engaging in petty crime. The largest group is here by the marketplace. There's looting going on there." An area lit up red. "The second group is here in front of the castle." A red zone was illuminated in front of the main castle gates. "They aren't looting, but they are in an angry, dangerous mood. Somepony apparently spread the rumor that the royals have known about this for years and are now just letting the general public know. These foals believe that to be true and they're engaging in sedition as well as rioting. This third area," a larger zone lit up, "has bands of ponies going around burning stuff. These ones have either lost their minds or have drunk to the bottom of their hard cider barrels after hearing the bad news." "Guardsponies of Unicornia, I am going to order you to do some hard deeds today. Without public order, the Academy eggheads won't be able to come up with a solution to this problem and you will die, your friends will die and your family will die. You are fighting against anarchy for the survival of the world. May the stars, moon and sun grant us victory today!' There was a ragged cheer. 'When we encounter rioters, we will issue one warning. If the rioters do not disperse after the warning, you will attack them with everything you have. We are heavily outnumbered, so we stay together to try to gain local superiority. We use caltrops to close avenues of approach and funnel the mobs. Use the sandbags to build strongpoints. Stay close. The kingdom is under martial law and we will summarily execute any rioter we take on the spot. I don't care if it is your MOTHER out there! If she is rioting, show her no mercy." There was a growl from the assembled soldiers, and Celestia swallowed hard. What have I gotten myself into? "There may be innocent ponies caught up in the mobs. Do your best to discriminate between ponies trying to get away and rioters trying to escape justice. We are all going to have blood on our hooves today. Let's try to make sure it isn't innocent blood. And the big girl here is on our side! DO NOT ATTACK HER! Because she'll knock your flank out if you try! Now! Form up by squads and go to your assigned wagon! Drivers, get hitched up! Lieutenant Star Spear! Make ready to raise the gate! Apprentice, come here and stand by me, I'll assign you targets of opportunity. You're going to be my heavy artillery. I hope it won't come to that, but... I think it's going to come to that." He looked up at the Lieutenant. "RAISE THE GATES!" The Lieutenant sounded a horn and the winch started raising the gate. The first squad marched out and one could hear the crowd outside, yelling. Celestia accompanied the captain in front of the second squad. As she came through the gate, she saw a crowd of more than one hundred unicorns angrily protesting, holding up signs that read "TELL THE TRUTH!" "WHEN DID YOU KNOW?" and the seditious and metallurgically inaccurate, "TARNISHED PLATINUM!" They looked frightened, confused and angry. "Apprentice Celestia, this is the group I need to handle with the most care. These ponies are not criminals, they are just frightened and upset, but they are potentially the most dangerous precisely because of this reason. I know a lot of those ponies. Mr. Apricot and Mrs. Hayshawl run the grocery store next door to my mother. They aren't dangerous by themselves, but any mob is dangerous. I'd like you to try to disperse them before we get involved." Additional squads were filing out and lining up, the soldiers looking worried and uncomfortable. They knew a lot of these ponies as well. And they were outnumbered two to one. "Thank you for giving me this chance, Captain. I think I can take care of this." A mob is a group of faceless individuals. If you want to break up a mob, give the members faces. She reached out and knew the names of a dozen ponies in the front row with a basic identification spell. She prepared the Voice. "I AM CELESTIA, APPRENTICE OF THE GRAND ARCHMAGE, WHO EVEN NOW IS WORKING ON A SOLUTION FOR THE PROBLEM! RETURN TO YOUR HOMES AND STAY INSIDE UNTIL YOU RECEIVE WORD THAT THE STREETS ARE SAFE!" A few dozen of the ones in the back started looking around, questioning the wisdom of even being here, probably not for the first time. The Voice commands attention and obedience from the weak willed and three unicorns detached themselves from the main group, heading back to town. "MANY OF YOU KNOW ME! BUTTER SCOTCH! I SHOP AT YOUR CANDY STORE EVERY WEEK! WHY ARE YOU OUT HERE? AUTUMN DAY! WHO IS WATCHING YOUR FOALS? SILVERBRUSH, GO BACK TO YOUR PAINTING!" As she named each pony, she cast an illusion of light above their heads, singling them out in the crowd. The illuminated ponies looked around, startled and suddenly ashamed, almost naked in a crowd where they had previously been anonymous. The fight started to go out of the mob as ponies started moving away from the spotlights. Some of the others in the back who had been faltering turned and ran. Celestia looked at the crowd and shook her head. She dropped the Voice and walked slowly up to the center of the group. They were no longer angry, just frightened. "My friends, why did you come out here? Did somepony tell you that the princess withheld information? I give you my word that she only found out yesterday. I know because my mother, the astronomer Star Gazer is the one who told her." There was an angry muttering in the crowd at that. "And I only found out last night, perhaps an hour before you did. My mother wanted to be positive of her findings before she went to Princess Platinum." She walked around, addressing as many ponies as she could. "WHEN MY MOTHER TOLD THE PRINCESS ABOUT THE SUN RUNNING OUT OF FUEL, THE FIRST THING, THE FIRST THING THAT PRINCESS PLATINUM DID WAS ISSUE AN ORDER TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE PROBLEM WITH THE SUN AND ASK FOR YOUR HELP!" She stopped pacing as the crowd had gone silent. "Why are you angry with her? She trusts you. She didn't keep anything from you. She needs... we all need your help. We all need to help each other. Please, go home. Protect your food and your property from looters. That's who the guards are going out to deal with, the ponies who are wrecking the city. But you are the princess' loyal subjects." The pony with the TARNISHED PLATINUM sign glanced down at it and dropped it in the street. Then all the other signs were discarded one after another and the crowd started to disperse. Butter Scotch walked up to Celestia. "I'm sorry, 'Tia. I just didn't know what else to do." She smiled warmly at him. "Then go make a batch of caramels, Butter Scotch. I love caramels. We'll get through this." He returned her smile and bowed to her, before turning and trotting home. Celestia returned to the Captain who was beaming at her. "Thank you! That was very well done indeed! I wish I could 'prentice you myself, you'd make a hay of a cop!" She grinned at him, but then her smile faltered as did his when they smelled smoke blowing in from town. "Right. Company! MOVE OUT!" The wagonwheels started to squeal and the guards marched to the second objective, the marketplace. When they got there, it was a madhouse. There were dozens of ponies breaking into stores, stealing food, clothing, bits, bicycles, Celestia even saw two unicorns levitating a couch through a broken store front window. The shopkeeper followed them out, yelling and trying to use his magic to get the couch back. One of the thugs turned and shot him in the foreleg with a blast of power and the shopkeeper fell with a cry. "First squad! Intercept!" Six big guardsponies charged after the couch thieves, who dropped their booty and ran for it. The sergeant stopped the squad and ordered them to open fire. One of the looters got around the corner out of line of sight but the other took a shot in the hindquarters and fell, stunned. The guards returned with him presently and dropped him in front of the captain. Similar scenes were taking place throughout the district. There was no organized effort on the part of the looters to fight the guards, only to escape with whatever loot they could. In about fifteen minutes, the district was quiet. Celestia and some of the combat medics were treating the shopkeepers and other innocents who had been hurt. Several civilians had been killed before the guards got there. The looters were mainly young stallions, though there were a few mares. One of the mares had been caught with saddlebags full of foal formula and was begging for mercy, saying that she had only taken what she needed for her foal. "Celestia, can you Delve?" She nodded and scanned the looter, then looked in her face. "Captain, this mare has never foaled." The mare spat at her. The spittle landed on her hooves. Celestia turned and walked away. "Foal formula sells for twenty bits a can. It's one of the best things you can steal," Captain Thunderhooves said quietly as he walked up to Celestia. "Thanks for telling me the truth. You know why we have to do this. I'm not killing them, I'm keeping the rest of us alive." "Yes sir." She swallowed, hard, her throat dry as sandpaper. "Ropes!" The prisoners, their horns coffled, started screaming, begging, pleading, swearing as the guardsponies tied nooses and put them around their necks. The eleven prisoners were dragged to lampposts, storefronts with overhangs, trees, whatever was available, and they were hauled up to strangle horribly over the course of several minutes, kicking, pissing and voiding themselves. Signs that read "LOOTER" where hung upon their twitching bodies. Celestia looked at the mare who had stolen the foal formula. She had a blue coat, green mane and tail, and her cutie mark was a candy cane. Her body twisted in the light breeze. Celestia bent over and vomited in the street. "Time to be sick later, Apprentice. We still have work to do." The Captain's voice was husky. "THIRD AND FOURTH SQUADS, STAY HERE AND SANDBAG THIS AREA. SPREAD CALTROPS SO THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY IN AND ONE WAY OUT OF THE MARKETPLACE. THEN STAND GUARD UNTIL RELIEVED! THE REST OF YOU, MOVE OUT!" They marched towards the smoke, into the gates of hell. The smoke was thick and there was the sickly-sweet smell of burning flesh. Screams could be heard through the pall, as well as laughter. They passed several bodies, twisted and mutilated. "Form echelon left!" cried the captain and the order was passed down. The first squad stopped and squads deployed to the left to cover a broad frontage. "Raise your shields and expect heavy resistance! Skirmish order!" The squads dispersed to reduce the chance of the same blast killing more than one guard. "Celestia, stay with me. Stay close! TROOPS, ADVANCE AT A SLOW MARCH!" The squads carefully crept into the gloom. After a few minutes, the smoke thinned and more bodies were apparent. Some were mares who appeared to have been molested and then killed. Celestia was shocked beyond anger when she saw a young filly. Then there was movement in front of them. "HALT!" The Captain waved Star Spear forward. The Lieutenant yelled, "This is the Royal Guard! You are hereby ordered to disarm and surrender yourselves! If you do so, you will be given fair trials! If you res--" A fusillade of force beams blazed from the smoke, several of them bouncing off Star Spear's shield, knocking him to the ground. A sergeant helped him to his hooves and he returned to the commander, a little shaken up. "There's your answer, sir." "Kind of what I expected. Do me a favor and don't take any prisoners, alright?" "Yes sir!" The Lieutenant saluted his Captain, nodded to Celestia and turned around. "FIRE AND ADVANCE BY ECHELON! ADVANCE!" Bright bolts of power flew out from the guards and struck into the gloom, many of them reflecting off shields or hitting obstructions, but some of them finding a target as evidenced by the cursing and yelling that followed. As one squad advanced, the one next to it fired. They would take ten steps, then level their horns to fire a volley as their neighbors advanced. Fire started coming from one flank and a trooper went down, smoking from the impact. His squadmates turned in the direction of the new enemy, and the line started to extend instead of advance. They were not in a good position, with no real idea what they were facing, but it was obviously a larger group than theirs. "Celestia! We need to pull back before we get enveloped! Can you fire into that section to the right of the bank? That's where the crossfire was coming from!" She nodded and built up a large force attack, leveled her horn and thought about the little filly left dead on the street. A plume of pure white erupted from her horn that seemed thick as a telephone pole, the air screaming as it ripped its passage to her target. Whatever building the outlaws were firing from disintegrated into splinters. There were screams of agony and fear followed by a cheer from the guardsponies. "Shield, quickly!" The Captain concentrated all of his force forward and Celestia did as well. There was a massive onslaught of power from dozens of angry unicorns that peppered their position. "Damn, there must be over a hundred of them!" Celestia cast a very general area identification spell. "Closer to two hundred, sir. Mainly concentrated to our front and to our right but there are ponies moving out to our left and right further back. I think they're trying to surround us." "This wasn't just a mob! They lured us out! Somepony planned this! If we're taken out, a force like this can take the castle!" More bolts of power light up their shields. "Pull back and laager up!" The drivers got together and started tipping their wagons over, forming a defensive position at the end of the street. Six of the wagons went over, spilling caltrops and sandbags into the street. Celestia and Captain Thunderhooves pushed the clatrops into piles, giving the retreating guards ponies a path to fall back into the relative safety of the laager. Three guardsponies remained behind in the street. The captain looked grim. "I just wish I could see something!" "Sir, I can fix that but they'll be able to see us too!" "That's OK, they can wipe us out firing blind; we need to know where they are so we can kill them before they do that!" There was a river that flowed past the town and Celestia could see a bend of it from her position, so she scooped out a large ball of water weighing several hundred kilograms, moved it over the worst of the fire, and dropped it. Steam started issuing forth and there was a loud hissing. She did this several times from behind the cover of one of wagons and soon all the fires in this section of town were out. The air was still smokey and full of steam, so she pushed a mass of clear air from over the river through the town. The smoke started to thin out and then the could see the bulk of their opponents. A brown unicorn with a black mane and an eyepatch seemed to be the center of attention. A dozen shields were raised to defend him at that part of the line by ponies who were under the line of fire. Other ponies flanked, opening fire on the laager as he directed. As the smoke cleared, his eye caught sight of Celestia and he ordered a storm of fire at her. No less than fifty unicorns started pounding her position, none of them as powerful as a well trained novice, but sheer numbers made it very dangerous. She ducked behind a wagon. "He's good! I think he's got us!" Celestia's heart sank as the confident Captain essentially told her they were going to die in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice. Part of one of the wagons exploded and splinters rained down on several of the guardsponies. "We'll never make it back to the castle! There's no way to breach that defense, no even with your power, Celestia! He'll just wear us down with numbers. You did well, kid. Really well." He looked very sad. "I'm sorry I failed you." Celestia thought about the unicorns back at the castle. If the Princess knew about this, she could send the whole Academy out to deal with these bandits, but there was no way to get a message to her. Maybe if I teleported, surely Dream Charmer would understand... no. I swore, no matter what, not to teleport. Not even for Luna's sake. She thought of that filly, used by the bandits and left for dead... except this time it was Luna. NO. She felt a wash of cold run down her spine, and suddenly she wasn't frightened anymore. She wasn't angry, she wasn't worried. She was a machine. She looked at this as an Arena problem. The goal was to apply sufficient force to incapacitate your opponent by breaching his shield or avoiding his shield altogether while preventing him from breaching your shield. Direct fire and main force favor your opponent heavily, so subtlety, or something like it, was called for. Examine the resources available. Thirty seven guardsponies, ten wagons, six on their side and four upright, twenty-odd lengths of rope, a thousand empty sandbags, twelve barrels of caltrops which haven't been spilled yet... "We aren't dead yet, Captain." Celestia glanced over the laager and marked a reference spot with her horn. Then she popped her head over and shot a regular bolt which bounced off the large shield, ducking the return fire. She looked at the Captain. "A hundred yards, give or take?" "Just about. What are you going to do?" "Tell the guards to keep their heads down." She stared at a barrel of caltrops on one of the upright wagons for a few moments, then concentrated. A caltrop, approximately five hundred grams of iron... After about ten seconds, she levitated the barrel and it started to rise. She pushed more power into it and it moved faster up and out, until it was flying over the middle of the battlefield at a good clip. It sailed towards the brown stallion who said something and the shields in front of him were redoubled by his regegade mages. The barrel sailed over his head and the ponies in the mob started to laugh at Celestia's poor marksponyship. Then she nudged two heavily enchanted caltrops together, causing an arc flash in the center of the barrel. A magical arc flash is one of the worst things that can happen in a magical enchantment. You did not want two enchanted objects to come into physical contact unless both of them had completed closure. You especially did not want two enchanted metal objects to come into contact when one had a positive charge and the other a negative charge. "Ah won't 'ave to wrat a lettere 'ome to your parens, yes? Ah will jus' put whats left of you en ze envelope...' When the two caltrops touched, they vaporized, expanding to 67,000 times their solid volume in a few microseconds. Millions of watts of energy were released in an instant. Caltrops in the center of the barrel melted and the barrel burst with the force of a thunderbolt. The renegade's shields, pointed ahead instead of up, intensified and contained the force of the blast rather than defended against it. Molten metal and burning splinters moving at supersonic speeds shredded and incinerated dozens of the bandits closest to the leader, which included most of the officers. The intense light of flash blinded many of the bandits and also two guards who poked their heads out to see what was going to happen, but fortunately they were far enough away that their eyesight recovered after a few hours. Two of the tipped wagons were knocked over onto the guards huddling behind them, but there were no serious injuries caused. Eight buildings were destroyed and more than forty damaged. The shrapnel killed and wounded ponies up to fifty yards away from the blast. Caltrops and pieces of caltrops were found in streets a half mile away. Of the brown stallion himself, nothing was ever found. His body had been converted into a gas by the heat and pressure. Celestia could barely make out the shouting coming from the guards over the ringing in her ears, but the look on their faces was astonishment, vast relief, and something close to... worship? A moment ago, the guardsponies had been facing a well-led force with confidence, a plan and a five to one advantage. Suddenly, they faced a panicked mob with no leaders, a ruined plan and perhaps a three to one advantage. "Holy horseapples, Celestia! What did you do?!" The Captain rubbed his ear with a hoof. "Remind me not to get on your bad side! COMPANY! FORM LINE, FIRE AND ADVANCE!" The final butcher's bill of the day was seven guardsponies killed and a dozen seriously wounded. The eleven looters hanged in the square were joined by forty eight stunned and wounded bandits who tried to surrender. There were a hundred and two bandits who never got the chance to surrender. A few dozen escaped, but it was unlikely they would be able to cause any more trouble. The fires were doused and injured civilians and guards were cared for. The dead guardsponies were loaded into the wagons and brought back to the castle with honor. The dead bandits were burned in the crater that marked their leader's strongpoint. And on the march back to the castle, the guards sang dirty songs and cheered for Celestia and Thunderhooves. But one cheer, one of very ancient origin started to be repeated above the others eventually, with Thunderhooves joining in. "CELESTIA! IMPERATRIX! CELESTIA! IMPERATRIX!"