Twilight Sparkle was not having a good day.
It definitely was in the bottom five, contending with fighting the changelings or the battle with a giant Tirek. She had a check list somewhere and was going to have to redo it, to be sure.
She had teleported out of Sea Del Mare, forced out by a surprise attack by the Stone Heart Cult. It was real bad, having been caught flat hoofed and had to power past a number of shield spells while trying to drag as much of her party with her as possible.
But she wasn't able to bring all of them with her, her power failed and ponies got left behind. She had stretched her power dangerously in the attack. Resulting in the teleport failing in several ways. Both she and the guards had arrived sick to their stomachs and slightly burnt from the spell discharge. And for Twilight, more uncomfortably, she had left behind pieces of herself. Luckily nothing that bleed or wouldn't’ grown back, but on both wings her longer primary feathers were gone, clipped because she had flared her wings before the teleport and miscalculated the size of spatial sphere around herself.
She flapped her wings a few times, but without the primaries, all she could manage was a short hop. She was grounded for now. Twilight knew Zecora had a potion that could grow back teeth and feathers quickly, but she didn’t know the recipe and anyways even if she did, she had no time to brew it.
“Of course it had to be Parker and Red Wood that got left behind, Celestia is going to be mad I lost the alien.” She grumbled to herself, out loud she added, “We have to get back there and help the others.”
The two guards that had accompanied Twilight in her teleport, both reacted to her statement.
The smaller of the two guard unicorns, a youngish guard with two toned red purple mane and a yellow coat, named Spring Kicker, nodded in agreement and stood up tall, despite multiple bleeding cuts and bruises. “Your highness, I concur, we must rescue our fellow guards from those villains.”
Twilight nodded in agreement with the smaller soldier, “We first need to make a plan, and …”
“No!” the larger, guard, a much older looking unicorn, with mostly red coat and gray green mane, he stood back several paces and had a stony expression on his face. He had done most of the hard fighting in the previous battle, but seemed to have sustained fewer wounds. Twilight remembered his name was Solid Star and he was one of the senior non officer guards in the castle.
“No?” She asked confused and a bit put off by the declaration.
“My apologies Princess,” He amended, “but that attack was clearly an attempt to assassinate or kidnap you, just the three of us are not prepared to take on such a large force. We would be dishonoring the memories of Sky Arrow and Lighting Smoke, not to mention any of the others who just laid down their lives for you. We must first secure your safety.”
Spring Kicker, turned to Solid Star, “Lives? Dead? but they were still moving! I saw Lighting Smoke flap his wings just moments ago.”
Solid Star didn't turn to look at the younger soldier. “I saw that earth pony stamp on his neck, twice. His windpipe was crushed, he may have been awake and still moving for another minute or two, but he was already dead.” He said this coldly, his eyes unfocused with the memory and in the voice of someone who had seen mortally wounded ponies before.
Twilight Sparkle grew pale, she had hoped the other guards and Red Wood were just captured, but there was no lie in Solid Star’s eyes. Still she wasn't about to give in so quickly, “You are aware of some of the enemies I’ve fought for Equestria. I’m no lightweight in battle. I may have been caught by surprise, but none of those ponies that we fled from, could really match me in power, and my magic was able to shatter a shield spell cast by a dozen of their unicorns. “
“Your previous battles were with the aid of your famous friends,who could match you in their own ways and magic. While I’m sure Private Spring and myself would do our best, we are not elements of harmony and you’re not currently embodying the power of three additional Alicorns as you had when you fought Tirek.” Solid Star replied.
Before Twilight could formulate a response. “Also Princess, simple tactics say we have to deny the enemy a powerful asset, one they clearly want. Drawing you here was the most likely reason for this elaborate trap, and the only way I can think of, that the cult would get wind of you leading this raid would be if they had a spy in Canterlot. Getting you back to safety, with that intelligence has to be the number one priority. “
Twilight stood in silence in contemplation for a long time. First she turned to stare defiantly towards the village. She raised her head proudly and her horn glowed with power, though she didn’t cast any specific spell, the two guards were certain she was going to order them to charge towards the village. Even reluctant Solid Star, would have done so, if she gave the order.
But she didn’t.
Twilight let the glow from her horn fade, and lowered her head in defeat. “OK lets go, the nearest town with a garrison is New Bridleswich. But that is still a long way off. I can teleport a few short hops to get us a little closer, but that’s not going to help much. We’ll have to walk most of the way and we’ll be lucky if we get there by tomorrow morning.”
Then she looked up, a spark of defiance still in her eyes, “I’m not flying back to Canterlot though, once we raise the alarm and pick up some reinforcements, I’m coming back.”
Both Guards saluted then without an additional word, they started down the road towards New Bridleswich. Solid Star took point, and Spring Kicker followed behind, every now and then glancing back, and not just because he was monitoring the area. After an hour or so, Twilight felt her magic reserves had recovered enough to try another teleport, the blink helped a bit, but only saved them a few miles, and she was exhausted again. It was going to be a long night of walking.
They walked throughout the night, by the time Celestia had raised the Sun, the two guards were barely able to lift their hooves, heads bent so low that that bangs of their manes were dragging in the dirt. Twilight had tapped into her Alicorn strength and was still comparatively fresh, but a different type of weariness weighed down her head. She had spent every step of their journey going over the failure in her mind, trying to find out where her plan failed. Solid Star’s theory of a spy seemed all too likely now and consequences of considering that the cult had grown so sophisticated to have a such spy network was terrifying to the young Princess.
A few hours later they managed to flag down a passing farmer and rode the last few miles of their journey in the back of a hay wagon.
So unhearled and defeated, the Princess of Friendship arrived in the bustling city of New Bridleswich situated on the Rearington River. The small city was mostly known for its apothecaries and had a historic importance during a now nearly forgotten war that predated the founding of Equestria. Remnant traditions left by that ancient war was why there was a fort on the rivers edge, ponied by a royal guard garrison.
With eyes half open, and barely able to stand, Spring Kicker and Sold Star, stood on either side of Twilight as she argued with the garrison commander.
“I’m sorry Princess Twilight,” the commander, a gray and yellow mare, repeated for the third time in less than five minutes. “But as commander and chief of the armies, Princess Celestia has to be the one to authorize and engagement. “
“But I’m a Princess too!” Twilight yelled.
“And if Princess Celestia and Luna were unavailable, you would have the authority, but unless I receive official word from them or the their representatives, I can’t just let any Princess take command of the army!”
“There are only four princesses!” Twilight fumed, “I’m NOT staging a coup!”
“I’m sor…” the command started to stammer again.
Twilight just interrupted her. “And face it, the last few years, if any Princess was going to do any fighting, you know I've been in the thick of it! Celestia hasn't even tried to fight since Cryst…” Twilight stopped, reached out to empty air with one hoof and took a deep breath, calming herself down. No, she wasn't going to allow herself to get so angry that she started bad mouthing her mentor. There were good reasons why she, rather than Celestia, had been the one putting their horn out in battle.
Twilight, turned away from the commander, with a defeated sigh she asked, “How long until we hear from Princess Celestia.”
The commander sat back in her chair, sweating bullets, grateful that Twilight seemed to be calming down. “I already sent a courier flyer to Canterlot with your initial report. It’s a long flight, but Princess Celestia should have your report by sunset. If she responds quickly we may have an answer on the midnight mail train. “
Spring Kicker asked, “Train? Wouldn’t a Pegasus courier be faster.” He had a number Pegasus guards in his extended Kicker family, though his own branch had been mostly unicorns for the last few generations.
The commander shook her mane, “Not if the train and the Pegasus are leaving around the same time, and there is a marathon racer on hoof, most Pegasuses can’t make the trip without rest breaks. Only reason I sent your message with Corporal Feather Tail by wing, is because there no outbound trains scheduled until this afternoon.”
With more grumbling and pouting, Twilight agreed to wait until they heard back from Canterlot. The commander did agree to send a flight of Pegasus scouts to check out Sea Del Mare but wouldn't allow them to get closer than a high cloud level flyover.
Lastly the commander gave his own quarters to Twilight to rest in and ordered the two royal guards to rest in the garrison’s Barracks. Twilight didn't know if the two guards got any sleep, but despite having been up all night, she herself could only pace nervously from room to room.
She spent the entire day watching the sun move across the sky, fretting and worrying. In the late afternoon she saw the Pegasus scouts returning from their mission and teleported directly into the commander’s office even before they could report in.
The report they gave was not very helpful, from their altitude, all that could be made out was that much of the town was on fire and groups of ponies seemed to be dancing in circles around a number of the smaller barn fires.”
Twilight asked the scouts, “Was there any signs of large ships in the harbor?”
“Ships?” The scout replied, “Sea Del Mare’s a fishing village so they have many small boats. We didn't fly out over the water, so there could have been some larger vessels beyond the harbor.”
Twilight looked pensive about that news. “We know they have access to some larger boats, because that’s how they fled with half the ponies of Coltsdale. Commander? Do we have any ships nearby?”
The commander frowned at the question, “I’m sorry Princess, unless there a secret fleet hidden somewhere, Equestria doesn't have many capital ships and what we do have are all near the big commercial harbors, like Manehatten. Maybe when we hear back from Princess Celestia we can ask for help from the Seap….”
The commander was at that moment cut off by a knock on his door.
“Who ever it is, it better be important, we’re having a meeting here!” The commander called out through the door in annoyance.
“Indeed it is important commander!” A firm and chiding voice replied, as Princess Celestia stepped into the room. And she did not look happy at all. She had left her crown and royal regalia behind and was dressed in full golden barding with helm and levitating a giant war spear at her side.
The commander’s reaction was to fall off his chair, landing splayed out on the floor, under his desk. “P.P.Princess!” his reaction to Celestia was completely different than his previous reaction to Twilight. The larger princesses presence was overwhelming.
Twilight in turn turned to long time mentor and beamed happily for the first time since before her mission. “Princess Celestia! You’re here!”
Normally Celestia would remind Twilight she too was a Princess and could forgo the titles. But this was not the time for frivolities. “Yes, and we have dark business to attend to. The cult has once again gone too far.“
Twilight was nearly dancing in place, “You got my letter? But I didn't think the Pegasus carrying it would get to Canterlot until later tonight!”
Celestia replied, “By good luck the Pegasus carrying your message stopped for a drink at one of irrigation ponds near Sweet Apple Acres, and your friend Big Macintosh was there. While I’m not sure how such a quiet stallion as Macintosh Apple convinced a trained officer to reveal anything about a royal message, that was apparently what happened. So once he sensed the urgency of the missive, Big Mac apparently dragged Corporal Feather Tail to the Ponyville Library. There Spike made sure I got the message with his dragon fire. Saving us many hours.”
Twilight was still confused, “But you’re here now. How?”
Celestia smiled, “Magic maybe your special talent Twilight, and by some measures your raw power may even exceed my own, but I do have a few more years of experience, long range teleportation is much easier if you have already been to your destination, and frankly there are few places in Equestria that I've not visited before. Once I read your letter, I realized that my presence would be more useful that a simple written response. Unfortunately even with my teleport skill, I could not bring any additional soldiers with me. We will have to rally the local troops and attempt to stop the Cult now.”
The commander at this point had gotten over the initial shock of Princess Celestia’s arrival and stood at attention, “Your Majesty, I will summon all our reserves immediately. “
Twilight gave the commander the stink eye, for his sudden turn around, but didn't say anything directly to him. “Princess, I've been looking over the garrison since I got here, and while there are a fair number of unicorn and earth pony guards here, there are not enough Pegasus to transport more than a third of them to Sea Del Mare, and that’s assuming we can find sufficient number of flight worthy chariots.”
“Chariots will not be a problem,” Princess Celestia said, “I can easily enhance any solidly built wane wagons that we requisition from the local farms and businesses. The crown will compensate the owners for their use. We’ll also have to invoke an emergency draft of some of the local civilian Pegasus, but we won’t let them come close to the battle zone. Just close enough to allow the ground troops to arrive in time.”
The commander stood and with a salute, “I will arrange this at once. We should be ready to depart within two hours.”
Celestia walked over to the window, “I have to lower the Sun soon, while I wish to execute this plan as soon as possible, it would be a mistake to fly, in the dark, a force of untrained civilians to a battle zone. We have to defer to first light.”
Twilight asked “Couldn't you delay setting the Sun? I’m sure Luna would agree.”
Celestia frowned, “No, Equestria has other enemies besides the Cult, if word gets out that I changed the Suns course to gain advantage in battle they will see it as a sign of weakness or worse a violation of peace treaties. It is something I will consider as a last resort but it would not be a wise thing to do now.”
Over the next few hours Celestia and Twilight talked to the troops, as well as several of the cities leaders. Smoothing over issues as they arose and in some cases plowing through roadblocks caused by confusion and the mayhem created by the quick deployment. But as the night grew darker, Twilight could not hide how tired she was. She had not gotten any real sleep since the night before the failed venture to Sea Del Mare.
Twilight insisted that her Alicorn strength would let her fight the next day, but Celestia saw through her and said, “If you do not get at least four hours sleep before we depart, I will personally bind your wings and legs with a spell and leave you here tomorrow.”
Twilight reluctantly agreed, and in the end allowed Celestia to cast a minor sleep spell on her, to ward off nightmares and let her get at least a little rest before the dawn.
In the very early hours of the morning, long before first light, Twilight was woken up by Sold Star and Spring Kicker. The two guards not being part of the local garrison, did not have other duties, and were therefore again assigned to be her personal attaches.
The three ponies walked out on the garrisons training grounds to see how it been transformed over the last half dozen hours. The large field was lit by thousands of domesticated fireflies and smokeless torches. Close to five hundred ponies were in formations, getting last instructions and assignments, and others were being sent through formation drills. Along the main pathways, almost fifty wagons and carts were being reinforced with barding and lose armor while groups of war unicorns were enchanting them with flight spells.
In the center of the mayhem was Celestia who seemed calm and cool as always. Highly skilled at multi-tasking, she had multiple documents floated around her, and Celestia seemed to be reading and discussing plans to her assembled offices at the same time as writing responses.
It was perhaps a mark of how busy she was that when Twilight approached, Celestia only gave the younger Princess a nod in greeting before returning her attention to the awaiting guard officers.
For more than half an hour Twilight waited for instructions, and when it came it was sudden. Celestia didn't waste any time with small talk, she just turned to Twilight and told her, “Us Princesses will take point and be in front. I want us to be visible to all the ranks, and don’t bother assigning us a honor core, we are more than capable of deflecting anything they may throw at us. But I want extra guards surrounding the civilian Pegasus pulling the carts. This Cult had a deep hatred of Pegasus and I do not wish to risk any more potential hostages.”
Celestia then turned to the younger princess, and spoke directly to her for the first time that morning. “Now Twilight you and your guards will ride in the carriage next to mine. Hurry we depart in two minutes.”
That last pronouncement was made with the full Canterlot Royal Voice, something Twilight hardly ever heard Celestia use, and it echoed over the wide field. For several heartbeats, there was no movement as everypony took in the full meaning of the cry. Then the pause ended and everypony was in full gallop to get to their assigned carts and equipment.
True to her word, Celestia took off exactly two minutes later. She was in one of the few battle chariots in the garrison’s stable, now officially the Royal Chariot with banners and royal seal hastily painted on its side. Twilight’s cart was smaller and was just a modified farm cart, the few other battle grade chariots needed for the specialist squads, still somepony had taken time to paint it her colors and tack on a banner featuring her cutie mark.
It was not the majestic royal army that flew out of New Bridleswich, but a rag tag expedition, but still it was more than impressive enough to wake the entire city, thousands of ponies watched their Princess lead their army in the first major engagement in more than a century.
They flew through the darkness, guided by Celestia lighting her horn as their brightest light. She had timed their departure so their arrival at Sea Del Mare would correspond with her raising of the Sun. She wanted full light to see what become of the little village and wanted to make sure the Sun was at her back just in case of an ambush.
They landed a few miles just outside of the town, and most of the ground bound ponies disembarked with instructions to march to the main gates of the town, inside the hour. A sizable number would stay back to guard the civilian Pegasus and the remaining trained guard Pegasus would pull the Princesses chariots and a small number of support wagons to provide air cover.
Celestia was being extra cautions because even before she rose the Sun, she was able to see the gray column of smoke that marked the location of the village. It was miles high and glowed ominously even in the dim moonlight.
As their two chariots flew side by side, Celestia leaned close and whispered to Twilight. “I fear that we gave the Cult too much time. It appears that like Coltsdale, they did their worse, then fled. We can just hope there are survivors to aid, but we should expect the worst.”
As flew slowly, not getting too far ahead of the ground troops. The sight in front of them was not encouraging. Not a single structure had been left standing, even the clock tower was torn down. Most of the buildings were a few little more than foundations covered with still smoldering and blackened beams. There was ash everywhere and everything was gray and muddy.
After making two quick pass over the ruins twice and not seeing any signs of a trap, the two princesses landed near the village docks. The wooden docks were some of the few structures not burnt. They alone had survived the conflagration.
Twilight stepped off her cart and stood at the junction of two blackened streets, her eyes straining to see something, anything but soot and ash.
Celestia had stood back and walked over to the docks. After a while she called Twilight to her.
“Look at the hoof prints.” the elder princess pointed with a hoof.
Twilight looked and with a quick spell made the hoof prints glow, making them easier to see against the ash covered wood.
Celestia prevented anypony from stepping onto the docks. “Guards! Keep everyone off the docks until we can get a forensic team here. Also tell the weather ponies not to bring in rain clouds here, even for the fires, we don’t want any evidence washed away. I want to get a count on how many ponies left here by boat.”
Twilight meanwhile was looking closely at the hoofprints. “Celestia, there got to be more than a hundred of them, and they are all walking.”
“I can see they were walking Twilight, probably onto waiting ships that took them away.”
“No! No no no, that’s not the point.” Twilight added, “In Coltsdale they had to drag and pull the victims, loading them into boxes. We found scuff marks and trash from the boxing materials. None of these ponies here were shuffling or dragging their hoofs. There no sign of boxes. What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure Twilight, perhaps they, no..I don’t really know how they took their prisoners.” Celestia spoke haltingly.
Twilight was starting to get excited. “If they were all willing, then perhaps everypony we met was already cult members. They must have replaced the entire village population before we arrived. Perhaps the real villagers are hidden somewhere? It’s not like they could use their mind control magic so fast. You said it takes days, even weeks to be effective.”
“True, though I would not wish to raise too much hope we will find them alive.”
While the two princesses were pondering just how many cult members must have been involved with this trap, two earth pony guards came galloping down the street, calling for them.
“Princesses!” One of them bowed quickly, barely waiting for a nod before continuing. “We think we've found some of the guards.”
“Lead us there.” Celesta ordered.
The two guards led them down a side street and into a large courtyard. Even as they approached, the stink of burning meat, told them this was going to be a hard sight to take. While Celestia kept her cool demeanor, Twilight started shaking so hard she was dropping feathers from her wings. But she refused to turn aside.
From the air they had passed over this courtyard but assumed the large thing in the center of the yard was the burnt remains of a decorative tree. They were partly right, there was a tree in the yard, but its natural branches had been stripped. What adorned the solid pillar of blackened wood was nothing less than twenty five pairs of Pegasus wings. Blacked by the smoke, but still covered in recognizable feathers.
The same could not be said for the bodies laid out around the tree. They had been thrown into a bonfire and split and broken forms barely resembled ponies. None of them were whole and ripping off of the Pegasus wings was the least of the injuries they suffered.
Twilight looked over the bodies, beyond sick, she was now numb, she wasn't even sure what she was looking for, until she saw it. A blacked and ripped flank, but with a still recognizable cutie mark. It was one of the Pegasus guards that had come with her, and she didn't even know his name. That was too much, she turned away from the pile and with no thought of dignity or royal duties, found a clean spot of dirt a few steps away, and threw up.
Twilight kept retching and coughing, her eyes swimming with tears, until Celestia who looked nearly as sick as Twilight felt, put her wing over the younger princess and led her away from the awful monument. She whispered instructions to the attending guards to respectively recover the bodies and both Princesses returned to the relatively clean air by the waters edge.
“They got away again.” Twilight said, her voice cracking from suppressed tears.
“I’m afraid this generation of the Cult has grown far too bold and far more dangerous than any of its predecessors. There’s going to be widespread panic when news of this attack gets out. This is going to be war Twilight, a war of pony against pony.” Celestia spoke with a cold formal voice, but her mask was broken and tears flowed freely down the rulers face.
Twilight looked out towards the open water beyond the docks. “We need to send out a flight a Pegasi guards to fly search patterns, and hope we can spot their ships before they dock somewhere else.” Twilight's comment was an unnecessary, a polite nothing, the guards were already busy organizing that very thing, but she wanted to give her mentor time to pull herself together.
Celestia put a wing over Twilight's shoulder and the two Alicorns stood there, staring at the horizon for a long time.
Some time later, they were still contemplating the horizon when another earth pony guard ran up to them and bowed.
“Your Majesties!” he cried out in a urgent yell.
When they turned slowly towards him, both Twilight and Celestia having nearly identical questioning looks he added. “We found a group of survivors near the edge of the woods.”
“Survivors? Are they OK” Twilight asked.
“Sorry your highness, I don’t know how they are, they were injured, there was some blood and three of them were tied to a tree.”
“Three? Tied up? Who? Where?” Celestia took a step forward, starting to tense her muscles to take off.
“I didn't get names,” The guard answered, “but there was two earth ponies and a unicorn. No, wait, one of the earth ponies looked like she was also once a unicorn, she was dressed funny and there was the remains of a horn on her forehead.”