Chapter 19
The battle of Las Pegasus part 3
The night seemed like a blessing for Davis as he rested his head on a pillow. He was laying on top of a small mat, resting after a really hard day. His gaze wandered off into the clear night sky, surveying the bright stars. The moon was up as well, but it´s light wasn't so strong, giving enough light for the stars to give their own shine up to the night sky. Small, random clouds drifted around as well, but they were very few and very light to bother the sight Davis had.
He had to admit, Equestria had better sky than Earth. He guessed it was because of magic, and princess Luna of course. She was the controller of the night after all. She rose and lowered the moon at her will…
That still was pretty shocking to Davis. One mare managing to control the huge celestial bodies with their magic… The sun and the moon, two sisters. That was pretty surprising. He liked to look to the northeast all morning and imagine the two princesses working on their daily job of rising the sun and lowering the moon. Same thing occurred at dawn; Davis looked there and imagine the two princesses looking at him as they did their god-like job.... He brushed that thought quickly.
No, they were just mares, not gods. He knew some ponies thought of them as gods, but it was clear they were not. They were flesh and blood, just like him. He was christian, either way. His beliefs were firm enough to not allow him from ever thinking something he knew was wrong.
He tried to forget those thoughts. As much as he liked to think of them sometimes, it was pretty confusing and sometimes even distracting. He needed to focus, or else he could lose the battle. He could worry about religion later…
He opened his eyes, remembering not to fall asleep since he had closed them without thinking as he wandered into his thoughts. As much as he wanted to to sleep, he needed to be awake and survey the preparations. The scouts had informed him that the changelings were moving very slowly. He guessed it was because they thought there could be traps. He would have done the same if the enemy had suddenly retreated back halfway to the city.
Still, it gave the equestrians enough time to get ready. The enemy wasn't expected to reach them in at least a day, and that was enough time to get the hill heavily fortified.
Really fortified, almost unbreachable.
Davis sighed and he sat down on the mat. He wanted to sleep, but he wasn't supposed to. Still, he didn´t trust his body to obey his orders and so decided to sit instead of lay down. He looked around and smiled as he saw the preparations.
On the sides that were covered by the gorge, he had ordered a couple of large ballistas to be built. They were slow monsters and needed six ponies to operate, but it served their purpose. It launched up to ten large bolts to the air and took a time of five minutes to load. It could turn slowly and they were not going to break like the one he had on the other position. This were a little more rudimentary though, but they served their purpose well enough. There were a total of ten of those, and they were positioned on protected positions so that enemy magic blasts wouldn´t reach them easily; In contrast, their own bolts would reach the enemy easily.
He had also called trenches to be dug so that archers could get stationed there and shoot. With all that it was almost impossible for the enemy to get them by flying. What worried him wasn't that side, though. He was more worried by the side that he needed to protect with actual walls and pikes.
Getting wood hadn´t been that difficult, since there was a forest beside the city and the inhabitants had happily given them a lot so that they could be protected. The transport had been a little more complicated and that had taken most of the time. In the meantime, he had ordered more trenches and three more ballistas to be built, protecting that side. The back and the right were the place the enemy was more likely going to attack, since it was were his troops could use their shields against his archers.
To stop that armored formations, he had ordered pikes to be positioned around the hill. They were pointing away from the hill, making it look a little like a porcupine. From the air the hill looked more fearsome by each passing minute, or so Golden Flame had told him. Davis hoped it was so, for that way the enemy was going to be less likely to attack and more likely to fall back.
He stood up with a groan and stretched. He needed to see that all the preparations were going according to plan.
He first headed to the small part of the front that was not protected by the gorge. It was covered in rocks though, giving it a lot of natural protection even though the gorge was not protecting it. The rocks would slow the enemy down and disband their armored formations, making them vulnerable against his arrow attacks. His archers would have them put in a silver plate for them to shoot, almost.
He was satisfied with how the preparations were going there. The ponies in charge of it we're doing pretty well, making trenches and small walls. Pikes were dug into the earth as well a little farther below the hill, where the rocks didn´t reach. That way, the changeling armored formations would have to separate even before reaching the rocks.
Once the American was happy with the progress they were making, he advanced to the next place: the right side.
He saw the pikes below the hill were already placed, and smiled after seeing a couple of flags fluttering on some of them. He could see small drawings of changelings with big X´s on them in the flags. He chuckled and looked to the actual protection.
So far they had part of the small wall built, and trenches were still being dug. He saw the ballista he had paced there was being risen a little over a platform to give it a better angle for its shots, which was something Davis hadn´t ordered, but was pretty ingenious.
There was a big boulder of round rocks placed in a big pyramid. Davis smiled. He had ordered a couple of unicorns that had not been on the shield the last time to make him perfectly round rocks to throw like bowling balls at the incoming troops. The rocks were almost the size of a pony, which was clearly enough to crush a changeling, even with its natural armor which the changelings seemed to have. He saw the boulders go on around the hill on the places not protected by the gorge, and in the distance he saw the unicorns still working on more.
The position seemed to be making steady progress. He knew it was the fastest they could work, but he was unsure if it was going to be enough to finish before the changelings arrived. He saw the captain in charge of the section.
Of course, Hightip.
“Captain!” he called. The dark blue unicorn looked in his direction.
“General!” he saluted and walked up to him. Davis saluted as well.
“How are your ponies faring, captain? I can see that good progress is being made here.” Hightip nodded, smiling.
“Yes, sir. I´m making sure my colts work as fast as they can without tiring themselves to the limit,” he looked slightly unsure at Davis. “I know you want this done, but tired troops will do no good at the battle, sir. I hope you understand.” Davis nodded and smiled.
“I do understand, I find that pretty reasonable.” He looked around. “Thought hopefully our troops won't need to actually fight… Pray so that our defenses work well enough so as to not let the enemy reach the top.” Hightip nodded, smiling slightly.
“Will do, sir.”
Davis nodded. “Good. I gotta go and see the rest of the preparations. You keep doing as you are, see that no mistakes done here.” He walked away. Hightip returned to his ponies.
To Davis, the backside was the weakest point.
It was just a bare side, going all over to the tops of the hill. It had no actual natural defenses, no covers… All had to be done by the ponies.
He was glad to see the rock boulders already positioned, but the trenches were far from finished and the other two ballista were barely enough to cover the side completely. He began to wonder if taking one from the front side could help… No, that would weaken that part. As much as he knew the back side needed defenses, weakening the front, even if it meant taking one of the ten ballistas, would make the enemy more sure to attack that side, and he couldn't allow that to happen. He wanted to meet the enemy where he wanted, and that was were his boulders, trenches and troops would be concentrated.
He was glad to see that almost all the pikes at the bottom had been placed and there were even more up in the middle of the hill. Hopefully the armored formations wouldn't make it that far.
He sighed and sat down. He felt the soft grass and closed his eyes. That relaxed him and released some of his pressure. The cold night air seemed like an elixir that took away his pressure on the upcoming battle and cleared up his mind. He began to play on his mind how he expected the battle to go.
First, the enemy would launch an attack in front of the ballistas and archers. Mostly just to test the terrain than to get an actual win. The moment the enemy realized that they would suffer heavy losses by attacking the front and left, they would begin their advance towards the other two sides. That would give the Equestrians a little time as the enemy moved to prepare. His archers would prepare to shoot as soon as their armored formations broke, and his ground and air troops would be in formation to attack as soon as he gave the order.
When the changelings reached their attack positions and press forward, the pikes were going to break their formations, letting them completely at the will of his archers, who would shoot as soon as they saw the chance. That would immediately cause or panic or confusion on the enemy lines, though Davis wasn't going to rely on that, at least on this battle. He knew the commander behind this was more clever than he thought and would not let something like his arrows cause disorder on his troops.
Assuming the enemy managed to pass the pikes, they´d be by now shield-less. He would wait a little for his archers to finish up the first lines and his Ballistas to strike fear and casualties on the enemy before giving the order of charge in phalanx formation. He had already explained that to his officers, and they knew that the moment he shouted the phalanx formation they were to make their troops take cover behind a wall of shields and have pikes forward, sticking out like thorns. He would make his troops advance like that, backed up by the archers. The enemy would not endure an attack like that and would surely fall back or fight until there are none left alive. Hopefully, he would have the latter.
He opened his eyes and stood up. He began to walk around again, helping wherever he felt that his troops needed it. He helped to put some spikes on the foot if the hill, and then moved to help preparing the small wood walls. The walls weren't like actual barrier walls that surrounded a fort. They were not like covers for his troops against enemy magic blasts. The wood was thick enough to resist a strong one, Davis had made sure of that by testing one with a unicorn. Hopefully they would also work to stop the enemy more easily when (if) they reached the top. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, though.
He helped to place some risen planks for his archers to stand on the and get better shooting positions.
Doing all this things, the day moved on. He was tired as soon as the sun began to set down. The sky turned darker, and soon night had fallen again.
Reports came and announce that the changelings would reach them within the next hour. That immediately made his troops tense. Davis began to order them and prepare for the upcoming battle. He knew the changelings had more troops than he did, but hopefully all that he had prepared was going to stop them and grant them victory.
"Sir! Front and right positions are ready!" Golden Flame shouted. Davis nodded.
"Thank You golden Flame." He turned and saw the Pegasus wearing the light armor of pegasi troops. He had also on his wings a couple of wing blades. Davis was surprised by those, since he had thought that the equestrians didn't have any special weaponry. The moment he had brought that up to Golden Flame, the pegasus had laughed.
"They were mostly for ceremonial things. I know the wonderbolts use them sometimes on their shows and fight with each other on the air show. Of course it's all acted."
That had been before going out for war, and even then Davis was pretty amazed by both the beauty and the deathly properties of the weapon. He had also asked why the pegasi troops weren't equipped with that. The answer had been that they were hard to make and required special treatment, both physical and magical. It took up to a year to get one prepared properly, though the ones with the most simple design and the least spells took little more than a month. They were also really expensive and the royal treasury couldn't afford to equip all of the troops with them. Golden Flame had gotten his by winning a bet with a wonderbolt. He hadn't given the specifics, but Davis was going to push that more and learn about that later, after (if) the battle ever finished.
He remembered that the Pegasus had just returned from his guerrilla attacks. He had not received a report since he had ordered the pegasi troops to rest and get back their strength.
"I never received a report on how your attacks waged, captain." Golden Flame looked at him, slightly confused.
"You didn't? I thought the messenger I sent you was going to tell you."
Davis remembered that messenger. He had ordered him to go and rest as well. That probably had given him no time to give Davis the report.
"I'm afraid I didn't have time with him."
Golden Flame nodded. "We lost two good soldiers, sir. Still, seems pretty low compared to how many they lost." Davis nodded.
"Estimates in enemy losses?"
Golden Flame scratched his head. "I think between fifty and one hundred. We didn't really stayed to see how many of them died, sir." Davis nodded.
"And their shields? Did you managed to destroy some of them?" Golden Flame nodded, but seemed worried.
"Yes, we did. Problem is that they seem to have made bigger ones as well as some smaller ones. The big ones won't manage to cross our pikes, and the original ones neither, I think. The smaller ones are more maneuverable and seem to be made to copy you own phalanx formations." Davis cursed.
"Well have to manage with that."
"Indeed..." Golden Flame said.
Davis looked curious at Golden. "How many times did you attacked them?" Golden flame smiled.
"Four, but the last one was the one that impacted them the most..."
*** *** ***
A couple of hours before...
The sound of marching hooves filled the air as the changeling troops moved. Golden Flame and his second looked at them, hidden within some bushes. He was waiting for the precise moment with which to give the order of attack.
He had been attacking the enemies constantly, but there had been a total of three major attacks; with them he had managed to cripple many of their oversized shields, but he was a little worried since they were making new shields, and this ones were more maneuverable than the first ones. He knew the main defense tactic was using rough terrain so that the shields would have problems with moving along. Sadly, the new ones were smaller in design and seemed even thicker. Hopefully that wouldn't change how the attack was to be developed.
By now the changelings were close to position four. Sadly, Golden Flame expected that this was going to be their last large scale attack in an attempt to slow the changelings. Three large and continuous raiding didn't seemed enough. If they had luck, Golden's ponies would have managed to give Davis enough time to get the position ready for the attack.
The changelings were marching in lines of ten, and Golden had chosen a special part where the changelings were going to need to go slower. The part they were on was covered in tall grass, but the rain the other day had caused the dirt to soften up. Hooves tended to get stuck on it easily. Other way to cross it was flying, but Golden knew now by experience that moving an army as large as the changeling's was hard while having all of the troops in the air; it also made them easy targets for archers and unicorns. While the changelings moved faster that way, he knew that them walking gave him and his troops advantage, especially after considering that all of his ponies were Pegasus. Air was in their favor.
He raised his hoof the moment the first changelings crossed a mental line he had drawn on the ground. The moment a good amount of troops passed it, he breathed once and quickly pushed his hoof down, hard in the ground. He felt his beating slow down and he could swear everything around him began to move slower just as he uttered the words.
"Attack!"
He jumped off from his hiding spot within the talk grass and bushes, quickly flapping to gain some altitude. Behind him, pegasi abandoned their hiding spots and shouted as they charged. He saw the specialized archer pegasi fire arrows after gaining barely a couple of feet on the air. Shooting a bow from the air was hard, Golden Flame knew this more than anypony else. He himself had trouble with them, and watching his troops engage in professional combat… He had come to like this guerilla technique. It worked perfect for pegasi.
He unsheathed his sword and prepared to throw himself down.
They were not attacking the whole army, but rather the center of one of the exterior marching columns. He had taken Davis´ warning to heart and had tried his best not to engage with a main force. He could see clearly now how easily the could be defeated if that happened. Their advantage was surprise and confusion. The moment the enemy managed to have order was the moment Golden knew he needed to fall back.
He dived straight down, his sword up front. His sword made contact with multiple enemies, killing some and injuring more. He quickly went back up. He was glad to see that, if the changelings attempted to fly, his archers would shoot them from the skies.
Celestia bless the archers…
He was about to call off the attack after he saw the enemy getting into formation when he saw him… The general.
It was clear it was the general, especially judging by its size. He could be compared with Celestia even… He saw that his pegasi seemed to be managing pretty well… Maybe he didn't needed to fall back so soon this time?
“Archers, shoot at their front lines! I want those lines filled with more holes than what it already has!” Golden wasn't certain of he had said that joke understandably, but after hearing a couple of cheers and the whistle as arrows left their bows and began to impale the enemy.
They didn't have their shields.
Good…
“Swoop down and up fast! Don't let them strike you! Use your momentum of fall!” he ordered. His orders were quickly passed away as more and more pegasi shoot from the sky. Golden Flame saw his chance as the enemy began to get disordered again.
He flew up and then looked down. He was at least fifty feet into the air, and that gave him a pretty good overview of the battle, even though he wasn't that high at all. He could clearly spot his target, though.
So, with sword up front again, he dropped down just like before, just that this time with a changeling in mind. The general managed to see the incoming pegasus, but Golden Flame was coming far too fast to stop him. Then, the general did something unexpected.
He turned and faced him.
Golden Flame saw as his horn charged up and shot forward. The captain barely had time to block it, but the sheer force of the blast sent his sword flying off his hooves. He saw the changelings brace for impact, so he did the same.
It was so going to hurt…
The moment he felt the impact, he pushed even more. He knew that, him being a pegasi, he had more resistance than most ponies when dealing with crashes. He was sent tumbling a few steps away, the changeling general having absorbed the full force of the impact. Golden Flame expected the bug to be in agony, but instead he saw with slight fear as the changeling simply rose up and smile, seemingly unscathed.
“Good luck next time, pony,” he said with a deep and menacing voice. Golden Flame felt his hair stand up hearing that voice. “I´ll make sure you all die very slowly and pain…” He didn't finished as an explosion shook the ground. Golden Flame watched in awe as an explosion killed at least a dozen changelings. He wondered what had caused it, and smiled once he realized that probably one of the changelings had overcharged his horn in an attempt to throw a super powerful energy blast. Instead, he had been greeted by an arrow directly in the horn. Though that obviously bounced, the pain one could feel in that special part of his body could cause a distraction and destabilization of the magic it had.
Result: huge explosion.
Golden Flame used the moment of hesitation from the general to punch him right in the jaw. This time though, he did took the impact hard. Golden Flame chuckled and saluted mockingly.
“Good luck, general,” he said in a playful tone. “I´m sure I and my comrades will die slowly and painfully with such an… organized and disciplined army.” He flew and spotted a couple of shields being carried. He considered how much time his little skirmish had lasted, and when he saw the changelings still in disarray, he smiled.
He turned and spotted some archer pegasi. He whistled and they went towards him.
“I want you to set fire on those shields. So far we know they are weak to fire. Make sure you burn them all, but don't take unnecessary risks.” The pegasi saluted and flew off. Golden watched with a smile as one pulled out of his quiver a match, with which he lighted the shields with no major opposition, mostly thanks to the cover from his archer comrades.
He saw back at the main engagement and saw that this was going to turn soon into something bad against his ponies. He whistled five times, ordering retreat…
*** *** ***
Present time...
Davis had laid down after hearing Golden´s story. It had made him more confident to know that many of the shields had been burned, and he now knew with exact description the enemy general. Golden Flame had made sure that he had a correct image of that huge changeling. Now he only needed to know what was going to be his plan… which he was sorry to say he had no way of knowing until the enemy attacked. Hopefully his predictions would be correct and the enemy would do what he had in mind. If not, he was praying to have good luck, or at least some type of advantage apart from the fortress, since now the hill looked a lot like a wooden fortress.
Indeed it looked strong, especially from below. The changelings were going to meet with a nasty surprise when they attacked. Davis was confident that if the fortress and surrounding defenses themselves didn't finished the enemy, they would reduce their numbers drastically. Now one of his only worries was number of troops, which he was certain wasn't that important since he knew his troops were ready.
He was going to walk back to the front of the hill to asses the enemy approach when he heard a horn not far off. He remembered a horn that he had heard on his old house in the states. It was an old-sounding horn, like the ones used in old times. He had one his grandfather had passed on to him, just like a keepsake. Surprisingly, the horn he was hearing sounded just like that.
And he was certain changelings didn't used horns…
More curious than worried, he walked fast to the east side of the hill and saw torches approaching. The night sky wasn't enough to see well in the night, so he waited a little for the group of torches to approach. The moment he recognized the equestrian flag and banner he smiled and felt his spirits rise.
Reinforcements. A good 200 ponies at least.
He wasn't sure how they had managed to get spare troops from the training grounds before scheduled time, but he was glad it was this way. He had such thoughts until he saw the ponies approach.
Soon, the contingent of ponies reached the hill and went up. He saw as his troops smiled and began to talk happily at this new arrivals. Still, Davis saw something he didn't see on fresh troops… He saw their tired eyes, the moment he came in eye contact with some of them. It was obvious that they had already seen battles before. Probably from Louis' front? He wasn't sure.
“General, I´m captain Iroh reporting, sir,” said the highest ranked officer in the group. Davis looked at him surprised. Wasn´t Iroh one of the captains from the group that had gone with Louis...
Before he could ask more questions whatsoever, Iroh spoke. “Sir, I´m proud to announce that we won at Green Lake town, killing the enemy general.” Davis was speechless.
“B… but, how?” Iroh looked around and then back at him.
“General Louis killed their general with... “ he stopped. “I have no idea how, but he used some kind of lightning power. He blacked out after that, though. The battle ended a few minutes after that. He is still in bed and had not woken up, but healers say he'll be okay. I was sent by princess Celestia, who went in person to Green Lake town as soon as news of our victory reached Canterlot. She thanked us all for our victory and sent me along with a contingent of two hundred ponies to help you. A thousand more will be arriving within the next three days, since she doesn't want to leave that part of the frontier defenseless.”
Davis nodded.
“Well…” he managed to utter. “I´m glad you came. We really needed reinforcements.”
Iroh looked around.
“I see that you seem to be in some kind of hard, or dire, situation?”
“I would not call it dire,” Davis said, “but more like we're playing dices here. The enemy has just the same amount of possibilities of simply passing us by and attack the city as we stay here, clustered on out little fortress, or they can simply attack us.” Davis looked at the south. “I hope they attack us, that way we can win.” Iroh nodded.
“Well, I better get my troops to rest. It was a long march, after all.” Davis nodded and Iroh immediately disbanded his formations. By now, they had attracted the attention from all of Davis´ troops. Soon, the troops of Iroh´s contingent were mingling with Davis´, talking like if they had known each other for a lifetime. Davis couldn't help but smile at that. The way ponies seemed to care for each other, even if they were not familiars or long-known friends, warmed his heart. Ponies were perfect, If Davis could find a word. If not perfect they were the creatures that were nearer to that meaning than any other.
He was certain humans weren´t.
He finally turned to Iroh. “I'd normally ask for more information, but I'm afraid we don't have time for that now. You coming heavily balances this in our favor.” Captain Iroh nodded.
“Now I'm under your command. What do you want me to do?”
Davis looked to the south and saw torches of the enemy army marching. They were almost within ballista reach.
He turned back at Iroh.
“Help me kick their asses out of Equestria and, if need be, out of this life,” he said.
All Iroh did was grin and nod.
“My pleasure..."