Aboard the Deception within her guest cabin, Rasua was kneeling at the foot of her bed. It was close to nightfall and she was wearing a simple white nightgown, praying with her hands clasped and head bowed to the north (courtesy of the compass she brought with her). The simplistic circular device was a gift from a priest in her childhood as a tool that would guide her in the physical world just as the Maiden of the Great Cycle guided her morality.
The blacksmith was eternally grateful for the strictly electric, if harsh, lighting the ship possessed. Rasua made it a point to introduce the changelings to the concept of lampshades. With the overabundance of fire-based technology, Rasua feared the changelings resorted to candle and torchlight alone.
After clearing her mind, Rasua took the compass into her hands and prayed. There was no set principles of communion with the sphinx patron deity, as dogma was extremely sparse. Not even the compass had any real connection, save for what Rasua set for herself.
The deity’s only purpose was twofold: to watch over and protect the Eternal Cycle of the universe, and to guide the morality of all. Everything else from the workings of nature to the afterlife was left to mortals to figure out entirely on their own. In accordance to her family’s tradition, Rasua had two pungent sticks of incense burning at either side of her. The lack of a visible flame was enough to placate the species-wide pyrophobia that the sphinxes suffered from. Whether that fear was part of their racial psyche, or a product of their culture would leave Twilight in scholarly delight for years, if she had the time.
Rasua would have preferred her old phonograph to fill the air with chanting monks, but she had to settle for the rhythmic (and admittedly calming) churning of gears and steam. It was reminiscent of her blacksmithing apprenticeship.
Blessed and eternal Cyrkle. This daughter of the skies beseeches you for the strength to endure and flow with the waxing of this new cycle upon which I am bound to, the courage to face its inevitable waning, and the wisdom to never stray from the Great Cycle.
Rasua would have continued for several minutes were it not for heavy urgent knocking on her door. The fire conscious sphinx extinguished her incense with a finger and thumb before speaking out, the sound of scuffing metal instantly told her who was at the door. “Yes, Princess Aegis?”
The royal all but burst through the door with the look of a soldier with troubling news, and looking unsteady on two legs. “Pack your things, you need to move to the Crystal Blue for the rest of the voyage into Alliance territory.” She would have had others assist, but the cabin was so small that having more people would have made things clumsy.
The hasty worried look upon Aegis’ face got the sphinx to bolt up onto all fours to face her fully. “Why, did I incur some form of insult?”
Aegis waved her off. “No, but we just received word from an ally of ours to the south that her hive is under siege,” Aegis blurted out with just enough self-control to keep the words from running into each other. Her tone grew even heavier. “We’re heading to war.” Rasua’s face grew dark. “The Deception’ll be moving off at full steam as soon as you're relocated. The Crystal Blue will take you to Canterlot and Princess Luna will arrange transit from there to Phoenix’s Roost for you.”
A number of things ran through Rasua’s mind, with personal pride chief among them. War? That must be why they only brought a single warship to Stratholme. The rest must be on deployment. This will be the perfect chance to see these changelings in real combat and get a measure of their strengths and weaknesses. Her mind made up, Rasua affixed Aegis with a determined gaze. “I may be a smith, but I am a daughter of the Federation, and a decent warrior in my own right. I made an oath to serve you, and I won’t-”
Aegis cut her off with a quick swipe of a hoof and an impatient buzz of her wings. “You don’t understand. This isn’t just some skirmish, this is going to be a full on war with armies in the hundreds of thousands, and this ship is going right into the middle of it.”
Rasua was just barely too young to have participated in the war that ended up forging the Federation ten years prior, and it chafed her badly to have missed such a chance to win honor and prestige for her family and nation. “In the off chance you forgot our earlier conversation, my people are no strangers to war.” That put a damper on Aegis’ argument, causing her to give a scrunched frown.
Sensing she had taken the initiative, Rasua pressed on. “If I may be so bold, you act to protect me out of ignorance about my people’s customs and history. For the moment, I am a servant to your house, and it would a grievous dishonor to my name and my family’s honor to simply sit out of a conflict when I am fit and able to serve.”
It wasn’t the whole truth, but there was enough of it there to make it sound convincing. Even then, Aegis was dubious. “Look, this fight’s just been us changelings. We don’t even want to get Equestria involved in this if we can help it. Besides, what do you think your father and country would say if you died in our war?”
Rasua gave a harmless yet determined scowl. “He would hope I died with distinction and that I proved to this new world that a sphinx’s word is honorable. My service to your house was not given lightly, nor do I wish it to be taken lightly either. To do otherwise would be insulting to us both.”
As much as Aegis wished she could pass the buck to either queen-mother, Twilight had given her full discretion on how to handle Rasua for the foreseeable future. While it was not stated directly, Aegis knew it was just one more test her mother presented her on her road to becoming queen.
Aegis gave her a hard look, but eventually gave an approving snort and slight grin. “Alright, have it your way. I suggest writing your father to let him know. We’re not too far from Stratholme, so mother can get it delivered.”
“Thank you. You’ll have my letter within the hour.”
Giving a curt nod, Aegis left Rasua to her thoughts. Most of those centered on her family and the stories of war that were still fresh in the minds of the entire Federation.
As those thoughts turned to the prospect of battle, Rasua moved to her chest of drawers. She pulled it open to reveal a long gold inlaid box that took up the entire length of the drawer. Sphinx calligraphy covered its surface in a way that it looked like a painting instead of inscription. She popped the simple latch to reveal a collection of spherical cut gems that would have left Spike salivating. To even someone as magically talented as Twilight Sparkle, anyone would have seen only that. Yet to a sphinx, they were so much more.
I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use these while I remained in service to these bugs. But it looks like I have little option. Father would kill me for not taking every precaution against an unknown enemy.
Luna was taking advantage of a rare thing aboard luxury yachts, especially those of Equestrian make, a workout room. The dark mare loved chocolate as much as her sister loved cake, and as a result, she had to hit the weights to keep her slim figure. At the moment however, Luna was enjoying one of the overlooked inventions to come out of Phoenix’s Roost: the treadmill; or more accurately, a powered treadmill designed solely for personal exercise.
At present, Luna was running at a comfortable gallop while several guards joined in on their daily workout routine. The Lunar Guard captain was not about to let a milk run back to Canterlot be an excuse for slouching. As such, a full squad of both Equestrian and former imperial thestrals were working out alongside their princess.
Luna had been greatly honored by how many imperials who wished to join her personal guard. Unfortunately, the number of requests was so great she had to turn most of them away.
Slippery Shadow stood beside Luna’s treadmill bearing a water bottle on his back and two towels hanging on his outstretched wings. “While I’m honored that both you and the queens came all this way to rescue me, isn’t there somepony else who could do this?”
Luna gave him a humored toothy smile. The timer on the treadmill started ringing, signaling her to slow down to cool off. “Perhaps, *huff* but the servants are quite busy, *puff* Plus you're a scout and spy. *huff* There’s not much you can do with *puff* your skill set until you can be properly *huff* debriefed at the castle.”
His ears wilted while trying carefully to stay on Luna’s amused side. He offered her the bottle which was gladly taken. “I’m a world renowned storyteller… This is what I get for filling the sphinxes’ heads with my homeland’s epic tales. Isn’t it?”
A couple of the guards within earshot gave Slippery the stink eye, while Luna made an effort to be less than miffed. “I probably learned more about the Moonlit Empire's folklore in Stratholme than even exists on paper. I had to spend twelve hours with Thaddeus correcting all the misinformation between the Empire and Equestria that might have caused issues later on.”
Slippery shrugged and gave an innocent lopsided grin. “Well, I thought it was a good idea.”
“Don’t misunderstand,” Luna reassured after guzzling half the water and trading the bottle for the towel. She took a few moments to get her breathing under control. “It was smart of you, and most likely saved your life, but it still gave me a migraine. So you get to be my workout assistant.” She let him sulk a little before continuing with a sly grin, “and then get a pay-grade increase once we get back to the castle.”
The prospect of more money causes his ears to perk straight up and smoothed away much of Slippery’s irritation, giving way to a self-satisfied grin. His dreams of what he could do with more bits fell away when a bright lavender-orange flash heralded Twilight Sparkle’s arrival via teleport.
The queen was beset with a badly worried expression with a curious distracted look. “Princess Luna, Stripped Gear’s under siege by the other queens. The fighting will start in less than half an hour.”
The room’s atmosphere heated up in an instant with Luna forgetting her workout. “Do you know who it is, is it Chrysalis’ doing?”
“It’s possible, but mother’s not jumping to conclusions just yet,” Twilight replied with a head shake.
Luna turned to the Guard captain who was standing at attention between her and the queen. “Sure Aim, gather everypony except squad three and prepare to be teleported over to the Deception. Don’t bother equipping everything, just pile it up to be teleported all at once. You’ve got five minutes.”
Snapping a curt salute, Aim barked a reply. “Yes, ma’am!” He did not need to order the rest of the guards to move as they repeated his salute before everyone stormed out to the passenger quarters.
Slippery Shadow put the bottle down with shaky nerves. His lackluster brave front failed to hide the stress he still felt at being surrounded by prideful predators for a week, where one wrong move could have ended his life over a cooking fire. “What do you require of me, your majesty?”
“Stay here and guard our feline guest with the rest of the Lunar Guard. The Crystal Blue will still be headed back to Canterlot, but I’m sure there are some rival changelings who might attack the yacht. No doubt they expect the Deception to break off shortly.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Twilight piped in. “I’ve already sent word to Celestia via my ambassadors, and sent a letter to Spike in case Chrysalis tries another assassination to stir up more trouble.”
“Good thinking,” Luna replied with an approving nod. “I had hoped this would not have happened while I was away from Canterlot, but I brought my arms and armor to be safe. Allow me to retrieve them before your warship breaks off.”
“Of course,” Twilight said with thinly veiled worry, “I’ll get RD to teleport the guards over.” I’m pretty sure she can manage that if she aims for the wide open space of the cargo bay. Being reminded of the cargo bay also brought the talbuks to the forefront of her mind. The prospect of bringing animals into a warzone didn’t sit well with her in the slightest. <Thunderfury,> she barked, just barely waiting long enough for him to respond. <Pack up the animals and their supplies. I’m teleporting them and all of it to the Crystal Blue before we head off.>
Reluctant understanding and painful woe at the loss of his pet project tinted the bodyguard’s tone. <At once, my queen.>
Returning to the here and now, Twilight gave Luna a gracious smile. “Thank you for helping. I don’t know how much my ship will be able to accomplish though. Even at full steam we’re more than two days away from my mother’s hive.”
Luna’s form dispersed into an inky starry mist the moved rapidly through the ship to her quarters. She arrived in time to witness Twilight teleport into the adjacent hallway and walk inside. “We’ll only know that when we get there, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna removed a large chest from her closet and started peeling off the wards so it could be safely teleported. “I’m sure you will do what you can over the hive mind. I only hope that will give us a chance to arrive in time to lend military aid.”
It was a prospect that Twilight quietly fumed over, but could do little about save to order the warship to proceed with all due haste. However, she was filled with hope that Luna jumped to her aid without a second thought. “I know we’re allies on paper, and that most ponies are still iffy about us changelings,” Twilight began yet was interrupted by Luna raising a hoof for silence.
“I know where you’re going with this Twilight Sparkle, and the holier-than-thou games the nobility and media play are of no concern to me when a good friend is involved.” She would have paused to give Twilight a reassuring look, but time was of the essence. “You saved me from the Nightmare and granted a priceless boon to my theserals. I don’t need a treaty to come to your aid.”
Twilight’s heart swelled with hope and pride for the ironclad friendship between them. For longer than she wanted to admit, there had always been a thin thread of fear that Celestia and Luna might share the hesitation of the aristocracy if only to placate them. As Luna gathered her equipment, Twilight filled her in on the dire situation unfolding over Cadista’s ancient home.
The overcast night skies just west of Stripped Gear rumbled and buzzed as an aging gunship chugged through the air, blasting its way towards the hive. Its side mounted flak cannons were firing behind it at the wall of drones scarcely twenty meters behind it. A sickly green shield powered by the horde deflected nearly everything the gunship threw at them.
Individual stormtroopers pushed out from behind the moving shield wall, only to get cut down from flak shrapnel. The shipmaster grimaced at the sheer mass of the enemy trying to envelop his gunship in the shield so the hostile drones could tear the ship apart with impunity. The gunship’s very limited supply of void stone laced rounds had been depleted all too rapidly, leaving the shield free to protect its casters.
Cadista’s hive meditation pounded in the back of the crews’ heads, honing their reflexes and surging their courage to face the countless mass. More often than not, it caused a mad touch of mania.
“Come on you mindless bunch of savages!” The two gunners on either side of the cabin cackled manically as their guns chugged away. The throng of shield drones couldn’t keep a perfect shield-front with the mad twists and jinks the gunship forced them to follow. The airship banked left as hard as its engines could muster, causing a break in formation. With their mother’s efforts surging their response time, both gunners barely took a moment to adjust to the thinned shield as the formation attempted to adapt.
Knowing this moment was coming, the gunners switched modes and fired all four barrels of their flak canons at once, busting through the shield and mauling dozens of drones each. “Die, die, die!!” the gunners howled with hive meditation induced bloodlust.
The swarm reformed with all the speed that a unified mind allowed, sealing the breaches as fast as they formed, repelling the gunship’s firepower once more.
Rainbow Dash’s voice resounded in his mind. <Hoof Grease, you’re headed too far out from your assigned area. Change course to 77 mark two three eight, I’ll have GB-194 move in behind that shield and give you some breathing room.>
<Aye aye, Admiral,> the shipmaster replied with a savage grin. “You heard the queen, turbines to full!”
The helmsman put the gunship into a steep dive. The forward view of the bridge was lit up by the burning farmlands below as more drones continued to skirmish on the ground. All to buy Twilight as much time as possible to repair the hive’s defenses. Rifle fire and streaming flamethrowers were met by the organic living war machine of the enemy.
Manic induced bloodlust faced up against savage fang and spell blow, causing the battlefield to be awash with fire, blood, and mana so thick it evaporated as a glowing blue mist in the full moon night. There were no clean front lines here. Tunnels between the fields and Stripped Gear allowed commandos to appear deep behind enemies lines to bury them in burning oil and musket fire.
Yet the enemy cared nothing for psychological warfare that would have turned the other races. Even as they were being perforated by rifle fire and burned alive as oil seeped in through the cracks of their chitin, the hostile drones carved a bloody swath across the countryside.
For every ten savage blood soaked drones the hostile queens threw at the military might of Stripped Gear, higher magi drones, wielded directly by the queens themselves, churned the earth and sky. Tunnel networks were destroyed as the very soil itself burst forth, exposing the tunnelers to their would be victims.
Small tornados made fortified positions all but impossible to hold. Only the combined efforts of Cadista’s own magi or the passage of an airship’s artificial pegasi magic calmed the skies.
“We’re not making a dent in that shield so long as we’re going straight.” The shipmaster grumbled as they passed through one such tornado before it could properly form. <Gunners, turn the weapons forward. Let’s give our brothers and sisters on the ground some close air support.>
Both flak cannons turned and started raking the ground with lead, tearing away at even the toughest shock troopers embattled below. However, as the gunship started to level off, the drones giving chase behind them stopped casting the shield and switched to firing hundreds of kinetic bolts.
A virtual hailstorm of acidic green bolts of mana tore at the gunship, shattering glass, and denting armor to the breaking point. Before the gunners could return fire, one of the engines was torn from its mounting, sending the gunship down in flames. It crashed into a grain silo, prompting most of the chasing drones to face the second gunship that had arrived too late. Some of those drones fired off a few small fireballs, just enough to ignite the powdered grain. The resulting explosion killed the remaining crew, and flattened most of the nearby combatants.
However, the second gunship had longer range than the swarm anticipated and it rained flak down on them from afar, decimating the attackers before they could reform their shield. Each time the drones attempted to get close enough to reform the collective shield, the gunship would fire on them, dropping broken bodies and chunks to the dirt. With the situation untenable, the controlling queen dispersed the survivors to flee into the foothills to reform later.
Damn it! Rainbow cursed from within the Deception at the gunship’s loss. <GB-194, you’re isolated out there. Fall back to the inner defensive cordon. Sis finally got a few of the long range AA guns up and running.>
With the lowlands around Stripped Gear’s south and western lands lost, the defenders performed an organized retreat under Rainbow’s direction. As small groups pulled back, the assaulting ground troops attempted to push the advantage, only to run into the waiting guns, flamethrowers, and clockwerks hiding in ambush. Once the first group set up a new ambush, the second group fell back. It took the assaulting queen three ambushes before finally pulling most of her forces back to switch to long range spell casting.
Ultimately though, the ground forces and the swarming clouds of drones giving her gunships a run for their money was not the biggest of Rainbow’s worries. Thrashing about just inside the battlespace were three gigantic burrowing behemoth drones that nearly reached a fourth the size of Stripped Gear alone. The lava chambers and heated rock kept them from burrowing any closer to Stripped Gear. Even so, thousands of enemy drones blanketed the chittering and crawling town sized drones as more constantly poured out from within the leviathans.
From the dozens of aerial scouts serving as Rainbow’s eyes, she saw that for every inch of ground Cadista’s drones gave up to the enemy, hundreds of worker drones were crawling over the dead. Each worker picked up the broken bodies of the dead and flew back to the closest leviathan. I don’t get it, why are they taking the bodies back? They can’t rebirth the dead, right?
There was a lull in the battle thanks to the invaders holding back their forces. As Rainbow took stock of the battlefield, she discovered there were four points where the enemy was within a kilometer of the caldera. The swarms of shield drones were gathering in those areas. <GB-109, bombard section 2 oh 8.>
<Aye aye, admiral.>
Rainbow Dash watched closely as the gunboat moved in and started shelling the region. As she expected, the thousand drones cast their massed shields before the gunboat reached optimal firing position. The shelling rippled across the combined magical might of the drones, forming cracks every time the high explosive shells hit their mark. Yet with so many drones powering the barrier, the cracks were repaired before the cannons could be reloaded.
A new swarm poured out of the nearest leviathan, and charged straight at the gunship. <Back off for now. You’re not going to punch through that.>
Unlike her sister, who was able to sit still while communing with so many drones at once, Rainbow Dash was pacing around the bridge of the Deception. While Captain Rourke was able to keep the bridge crew focused on their duties, she couldn’t help but to share in their uneasiness at the battle to come. I don’t get it. Everything Granny Caddy said about typical Ling tactics is that they swarm en masse to quickly overwhelm the opponent. So why are they using different strategies?
Rainbow briefly thought to ask Cadista for advice. That won’t work, she’s still doing Hive Med. Her next instinct was to ask her sister. <Hey, Twi, what do you make of this?> Rainbow sent Twilight a brief recap of the situation.
The former unicorn was brainstorming ways to speed up the activation of the coal power plant and any way to get the heavy guns out of their enclosures. As such, she couldn’t give Rainbow any more than a few moments. <I don’t know. Most queens want fast, bloody wars so they can safely replenish their numbers later.>
Twilight reluctantly left Rainbow to her own council. She came to a halt and started hovering in place. Fast and bloody. Well it’s already bloody, but since they’re bunkering down into a siege, they’re expecting this to be a long fight. If things go like it did at the Battle for Razor Gorge, the besiegers lost almost no pony while the defenders were completely wiped out. Wait…
That’s gotta be it! They don’t think this is going to be a short war. Granny has allies, and I bet the guys attacking us have even more enemies. They must be saving their drones for future battles…or…
Luna barged into the bridge with a series of rolled up maps she had taken from Rainbow’s chambers. “I thought you might need these if we plan on flying straight into the jungle.”
Even though she didn’t have as much practice with high level multitasking, Rainbow gave Luna all the attention she could spare. “Thanks. I’ll need your help figuring out the enemy’s battle strategy.”
Three of Luna’s thestral aides came in behind the princess and set up a fold out table, allowing Luna to unfurl the most relevant map detailing the terrain around Stripped Gear. Rainbow sent orders to her infantry to fall back to the walls with some staying behind to wait in ambush or to set up teleport beacons. Numerous small field artillery was being set up along the ramparts and were already firing on the unshielded targets, hoping to intercept anyone before reaching the shields.
Rainbow moved over to the map and took several offered green and red flags from an aide. “The enemy has taken up positions along the west and southern farmlands. Granny’s been stockpiling ammo ever since my first Summit pow-wow, so I’m not worried about running out.”
Rainbow marked the the road between the hive proper and the rail outpost to the north. “The new ship Cadista just built is being escorted out by two gunships and should be clear of the battlefield shortly. It looks like the attackers don’t care about it enough to pursue.”
Luna tried to wrap her head around the alien form of warfare. She was used to Equestrian, minotaur, and Griffin technology and tactics, but the stark differences between the technophilic changelings, and the living weapons of the other queens left her with little useful advice to give.
With a menacing frown, Rainbow planted three flags around the skirmish with Polybia’s force earlier, which was uncomfortably close to that same northerly road. “That nut Polybia used the blood of her own kids to act as a portal. I had to station granny’s only corvette-destroyer, the Dagger to plug the hole.”
While she had poor abilities with teleportation, portal magic was something of a hobby for Luna. “Blood magic or not, using rock salt and ground mandrake root will destabilize any portal.”
“Really?” Rainbow replied with confusion that was mirrored by Rourke. “Granny should have some at hive. I’ll get a team to deliver it.”
“It takes time however, and would have been more effective if the materials were already present, but it’ll work.”
“I’ll take what I can get,” Rainbow snorted with approval. “Hopefully they can get it done with one of the corvettes Cadista still has.”
Luna’s eyes followed the red flags and long wooden blocks showing trooper positions as Rainbow took the time to finish placing the rest. The situation looked grim, but unfortunately, the flags and wooden colored blocks only painted half the picture. “What about troop strength? How big of a force are we facing?”
“Granny’s advisors are telling me we’re looking at three maybe four hives worth of drones. Though I’m going to assume five just to be safe.” The ordinarily boisterous mare was beset by heavy worry lines and more than a little nervous sweat. “There’s no telling who or how many might be waiting in reserve.”
“That could be well over half a million drones,” Luna gasped with true fear. The armies of old and even modern times rarely numbered over one hundred thousand at any one battlefield. The prospect of half a million bearing down on Stripped Gear was all too telling.
“Yeah,” Rainbow commented irritability. “So I’m trying to wear them down to a more manageable level.” She momentarily closed her eyes to focus more intently on directing Stripped Gear’s defenses. “At least it’s pretty obvious who's fighting us. Since Granny ID’d Polybia as the one who created the blood portal, its gotta be Chrysalis and her cronies.”
Luna was lost in thought while Captain Rourke fly over to hover above the map. The shipmaster used a baton to point at the northeastern portion of the map with just enough noise to rouse both royals. “What about around here? Are they intentionally leaving an escape route?”
Rainbow took several seconds to respond as she tried to bring herself to the present. “No idea. The few scouts I have in the area haven’t reported anything so far, but we’re stretched thin. I’ve have the majority of Granny’s assets facing the enemy.” Rainbow took a small airship figurine and slid it across the map in a curved line through the empty section. “That’s where I’m going to have the Deception move in to slide up to those big bloated drones under cloak and take them down. I bet if we trash them, the other queens will bug out.”
Rainbow Dash slipped back to her command while Luna studied the map, with a changeling occasionally moving flags around so Rainbow could focus. However, the more Luna tried to read the battlefield, the darker her thoughts became. She waited for Rainbow Dash to be more aware of the present before speaking in a grim tone. “What if flying in to Cadista’s rescue is a mistake?”
Just about everybody within earshot did a double take. Were it not for their friendship, Rainbow might have slugged Luna for even saying that. “What do you mean a mistake?” she growled. “We can’t just abandon Granny!”
Luna gave her a critically contemplative look and fully turned to face the fretful queen. “Think about it, Rainbow Dash. The three of us are all in one ship, and Cadista is isolated in a siege. This situation rings too strongly with how Sombra attempted to eliminate both Celestia, myself, and half of our army at the last battle of Red Snow. His forces had General Star Field completely surrounded with the Equestrian army’s backs against a canyon. Celestia and I planned to run ahead of our reinforcing army to create a light bridge for Star Field to cross.
“The canyon looked completely empty until we created the bridge.” Rainbow wished she could cut the story short, but Twilight was able to get a few of the heavier guns into position, allowing Rainbow’s forces to open fire on the artillery positions outside. The concentration to coordinate that effort mean Rainbow could only continue to listen to Luna.
“As soon as the majority of Star Field’s troops were on the bridge, Sombra sprung his trap. He had three dozen gargoyles attack us, ripping our personal guards apart, and tearing my sister and I from the sky. The bridge collapsed without us to keep it intact, and every non-pegasus fell to their deaths. Between the fall and the gargoyles, my sister sustained wounds that would have killed a lesser pony, and I wasn’t much better.
“We would have died there were it not for the pegasi throwing themselves at the gargoyles and bodily intercepting Sombra’s spell to give their companions time to grab us and flee.”
Luna stepped around the table to be face to face with an irate Rainbow Dash, while giving a stern yet respectful expression of her own. “We go into that warzone, we could most assuredly cause massive damage, but we’d be walking straight into a trap.”
Rainbow Dash was silent for a full minute. Luna assumed she was warring between her steadfast loyalty, an attribute Luna respected greatly, and the military mind that Rainbow had been gifted with by the Wonderbolts and queenhood. Strategically, Luna saw little hope against such numbers arrayed against Stripped Gear, made even worse with the hive’s crippled defenses.
What Luna couldn’t know, is that that Rainbow’s internal conflict lasted all of two seconds. She spent that minute devising a plan so bold that few sound minded people would even contemplate. “…Yes. It is a trap.” She turned her gaze from the map up to Luna. “It’s a honeypot trap. If anything they’ll expect us to do one of two things: reveal ourselves early along here,” she pointed at the empty northwestern section. “Or that we’ll decloak right above those three big crawling drones.”
A predatory smirk marred Rainbow’s muzzle as she stamped the ship figurine right on top of the two closest land crawlers. “Let them spring their trap! We’ll strike them with such shock and awe that even those miserable queens will give pause. Even if we can’t save the hive, we can still save Granny along with my aunts and uncles.”
“With nothing but this ship and its crew?” Luna cautioned with a deep frown. “You don’t have enough ammunition!”
Rainbow Dash moved around to Luna’s side of the table and brought over a baton that had been sitting unused on the side of the table. A calculating mischievous sneer creased her muzzle. “We don’t need a victory to win.”
“And what may I ask, could give you that idea?” Luna replied with a grim tone. Her concern mounted when Rainbow’s gaze glanced at the horizon, but Luna thought Rainbow’s gaze was fixed on the bright full moon. “You know full well Tia and I have forbidden ourselves to use the sun or moon for any purpose outside of maintaining the day and night. Even if we hadn't, it is a slippery slope I dare not follow twice.”
Rainbow Dash only scoffed in reply, entirely missing Luna’s rapidly dropping mood at the bad memories. “The only thing I want the sun and moon to do-,” Rainbow paused as her plan took shape in her mind. Her personally redesigned wings buzzing with power and excitement enough to cause a heavy draft in the darkened bridge. “-is to watch.”