Here We Conquer Or Here We Die
Beneath a membranous canopy in the foothills of the Appleloosan Mountains, a Changeling in the blue armour and helmet of a lord paced furiously. A cloud of anxious pheromones followed Lord Cocoon as he strode around his tent. He tried to think of what the ponies in Equestria called it. Queen Chrysalis had told him once... Ah, yes, Career. That was what they called it. Well, if he failed here, it wouldn’t be his career that would be destroyed; it would be his very life.
From the moment his egg had hatched he had striven to climb the ranks of the Hive. He had fought well, brought in thousands of captives for the Hive to feat on, until finally he had reached the highest position a male Changeling could: one of the six Lords that would mate with the Hive Queen and produce the thousand eggs that would from the next Hive. They had received the highest honour of all: they had been granted names for their service.
And if he failed here, all he was and all that he had built would be stripped from him. If Shining Armor and his army were permitted to cross the Appleloosan Mountains and enter the Lynx Territories, he would be cast from the Hive. It would be worse than execution – no Changeling had ever killed another. Instead, he would die terrified, starving and alone in the wilderness, without even a name.
The flap of the tent opened and a Changeling officer pushed through.
“Any response from the Queen?” demanded Cocoon before he could speak.
Taken aback by his General’s tone, and by the cloud of worry and anticipation that cloaked him, the officer hesitated a moment. “No... no, My Lord. We...”
Cocoon hissed and resumed pacing. Consternation buzzed from him. “We were ordered to keep the ponies out of the Lynx Territories! We can’t do that from this position!”
“With respect, My Lord, we have a strong defensive position here, but if I could...”
“Exactly! The Diamond Dog Pass is a transparently-obvious point for a defence! Shining Armor would never lead his army through here! They’d be massacred!”
Cocoon failed to notice the cloud of worry and annoyance building around his officer. “Yes, My Lord, but on that note...”
“Shining Armor is no fool,” buzzed Cocoon angrily. “Queen Chrysalis told me about his early life; she learnt about it when she was disguised as Cadance. He was planning battles when colts his age were chasing fillies and polo balls! His reconnaissance flights are all feints. He would never march on this pass.”
“Yes, My Lord, but if I could just have a moment...”
“We should be held back as a mobile reserve! If Shining Armor finds another way over the mountains, we’ll never be able to...”
“MY LORD!”
Cocoon spun round, his consternation replaced by anger and surprise at the officer’s tone. “You...”
“On the subject of Shining Armor, My Lord,” the officer chittered quickly. “A messenger has arrived from the Fifth Legion. You will want to hear this yourself.”
The cloud of angry pheromones around Cocoon faded slightly. Some curiosity crept into it. “Send him in.”
The tent flap opened and another officer led a drone in.
“Now, what do you have to say?” asked Cocoon.
“It’s the Equestrian Army, My Lord. My commander thought you should know at once. I was the only one left in the Legion who could still fly...”
He told them. As he spoke, the pheromones of Cocoon and his officers changed from curiosity, to surprise, to finally outright horror.
“How could they have crossed?!” demanded the first officer. “There are no other usable routes through the mountains!”
“I told you Shining Armor is no fool,” hissed Cocoon. “He can’t be more than a few days march from here. He clearly means to cut our supply line down the Great Trunk Road and force us to do battle on his terms. If we hadn’t had that legion there to warn us, he’d have succeeded.”
“What are you orders, My Lord?”
Cocoon’s wings flickered as he thought. He resumed pacing. He had fifty-four thousand Changelings here, nearly eleven legions, but that was barely more than Shining Armor’s army. And the ponies had artillery. Not much more than him, granted, but if the messenger’s report from Valneigh was true, theirs was much superior. His own supply of shot was limited, so his gunners had had little time to practice. He tried to tell himself that the Changelings had beaten ponies before, but at Canterlot they’d had surprise on their side, as well as greater reserves of love than they could even dream of now.
“We can’t stay here,” he said decisively. “I will send a messenger to the Queen giving her my reason for abandoning this position. We need to fight Shining Armor on our own terms. I doubt we can stop him before he leaves the Canter Valley, but anywhere is better than here. What did you notice about their infantry tactics? Anything?”
“Not much, My Lord, but some of their battalions trying to take us in the flank had formed into line formations before we escaped. About three ponies deep, I think.”
“Three?!” scoffed the second officer. “They’d never resist even one charge!”
“I told you, Shining Armor is not an idiot,” said Cocoon. “I saw what the spears their Royal Guard use can do at Canterlot. It must be some sort of formation to maximise their firepower.”
He began pacing the room again. “We will need to find a countermeasure. I have something in mind, but it will need refining before we can use it in battle. I will perfect it tomorrow and transmit it to the army tomorrow evening. Until then, give these orders to the Legates: we march at dawn.”
***
A blue caterpillar, upon which all eyes were at once fixed, began to crawl steadfastly day by day across the map of Southern Equestria, dragging the whole war with it.
“I dunno, looks more like a slug to me,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Don’t interrupt Princess Twilight, Sweetie Belle!” scolded Cheerilee. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, please continue.”
Her dramatic introduction ruined, Twilight Sparkle sighed and reshuffled her notes. “Thank you, Cheerilee, and please, no more ‘Your Highnesses’!”
A huge map of Southern Equestria coated one wall of Golden Oaks Library. In the Canter Valley, blue boxes marked with the single- and double-Xs of brigades and divisions thrust defiantly towards the Lynx Territories. Lynx lairs were marked in green. Changeling-occupied territory was an arrow-shaped hash of red thrusting defiantly towards the Appleloosan Mountains.
“As I was saying,” said Twilight said calmly. “The Royal Equestrian Army is making good progress down the Canter Valley. The victory at Valneigh shows that our ponies are more than capable of taking on the Changeling army, and at this rate they should be entering Changeling-occupied territory within five days.”
As Twilight spoke, Cheerilee’s school party stared with rapt attention. Cheerilee had asked if she could give her class a current affairs lecture, since so many of her students had been asking about the war. Twilight had agreed at once, but that had been before the official, top secret report on the Battle of Valneigh had come through...
She hated herself for having to tell these lies to foals, but the government’s official line was the Valneigh had been a great victory, and even princesses had to keep to it. They at least seemed to enjoy the lecture.
“And that concludes this discussion, my little ponies!” she finished. “I think we have some time for some questions before you return to the Schoolhouse.”
Twilight didn’t anticipate any, and she wanted these foals out of the library quickly: she had forbidden Summer Set to make an exhaustive search of the classes’ saddlebags as they came in, and he was now standing sullenly behind the crowd, looking more and more likely to launch a pre-emptive attack against some supposed assassin with every passing moment.
To her dismay, a yellow hoof was waving in the air. “Yes, Apple Bloom?”
“Are Applejack an’ Rainbow Dash gonna be okay, Twilight?”
Cheerilee and Twilight exchanged glances. “Well... Rainbow and Applejack are both strong ponies. I don’t think there’s much to worry about.”
“What about my bro Thunderlane?” squeaked Rumble from the back. “And Blossomforth?”
Twilight could sense that the floodgates were about to open. “I’m sure Thunderlane and Blossomforth can take care of themselves,” she said quickly. “After all, they’ve got Rainbow Dash with them!”
Diamond Tiara looked unimpressed. “Well, you are a princess,” she said haughtily. “Surely you can just order them to be kept safe?”
Twilight’s eyes widened in horror as a murmur of assent rose from the crowd. What sort of impact would it have if it became known that she’d even considered using her powers to remove her friends from battle? “NO!” she said loudly.
“Huh, why not Twilight?” asked Apple Bloom, looking confused.
“Yes. Don’t you care about your subjects?” asked Diamond Tiara.
“That is enough, Diamond Tiara!” snapped Cheerilee. “See me when we get back to the Schoolhouse!”
“But Twilight!” said Scootaloo suddenly. “If you’re a princess, you can use your power to stop the prophecy!”
“Wha... I’m sorry, Scootaloo, but what prophecy?”
“In The Origin!” squeaked Sweetie Belle. “You can stop the strife and hate! And there’ll be no blood and pitch and squealing fire!”
“Screaming fire,” muttered Scootaloo.
“That’s enough, all three of you!” snapped Cheerilee. “There’s no need to bother Princess Twilight with a silly book like that! Now back to the Schoolhouse, all of you!”
The dejected class filed out the library door. Summer Set oversaw the departure.
“Remain in between the two lines of tape! If anypony strays out, I will have no choice but to obliterate them!”
Twilight and Cheerilee followed the class out.
“I’m sorry, Twilight,” said Cheerilee. “I don’t know what got the girls into reading nonsense books like that.”
“You could always have a word with Scootaloo about it.”
“I’m her teacher. I have to support her reading something.”
Twilight looked unimpressed. “She’s your sister, Cheerilee.”
“Scootaloo and I are estranged. She goes to school on her own and she comes home on her own. She won’t even eat meals with me.”
“I know what it’s like to lose a sibling. I didn’t see my brother for months after I came to Ponyville, and now he’s away south fighting a war.”
“Scootaloo has Rainbow Dash.”
“Except right now she doesn’t. I don’t like to think about it, but the possibility is always there: what if Rainbow doesn’t come back?”
“You think she won’t?”
“There are things I’ve read in reports from the War Office that I’m not allowed to repeat here. Let’s just say that the possibility exists.”
***
Twilight’s map gave lie to the true situation of the Royal Equestrian Army. It’s rate of advance was impressive, but no pony in Equestria seemed to grasp the true implications of that.
Huffing furiously, leaning heavily on her Long Luce, Applejack put one hoof in front of the other and took another agonising step forwards. Her throat was as dry as the San Palomino Desert, but she had no time to reach for her water bottle. Her saddlebags weighed her down and the straps cut into her. Sweat soaked her uniform and her busby chafed her head, uncomfortably hot. Next to her, Hayseed panted as well.
The entire army was marching at a blistering pace. They all knew why it needed to be done: they needed to catch the Changelings before they could form a good defensive position or link up with the rest of their army. But the knowledge of why they were doing it did not stop it from having terrible effects on the soldiers. Dozens of ponies were collapsing exhausted out of the marching columns every day. There was no time to stop to help them. The orders were to pull them to the side of the formation, make them comfortable if possible, and then leave them for the medical carts following at the rear of the army. Casualties could be left for hours under the late June sun. Applejack had heard that some had been trampled by their comrades when they fell, or that they had suffocated on the dust kicked up by thousands of hooves as they lay there.
It would be so nice to fall out, she thought, just to lie at the side for a few hours to take the weight off her aching legs, and then get shipped back to Fort Hurricane on the medical carts...
Then she heard a thundering of hooves behind her. She stole a glance and saw a brilliant white Unicorn cantering past, lathered, and his red uniform several shades darker from sweat. Behind him were two aides that looked as exhausted as she felt. All heads turned as Shining Armor trotted past.
Applejack crushed any thoughts she had about falling out. She had made a commitment to be here. She was here to beat the Changelings, and she had no desire to be beaten herself. She would not let her friends down, and she would not let her General down. Certainly, she wanted to go home, but to do that she had to first win the war.
She cursed and took another step forward.
***
At the army’s rear, a black-maned Earth Pony stallion lay in a medical cart. The Pegasus next to him whimpered every so often as the badly-sprung cart made its bumpy way back to Fort Hurricane. He didn’t pay much attention to him.
Despite the canvas awning over the cart, it was still uncomfortably hot. He told himself that despite the inconvenience, it would be worth it.
When he signed the recruiting forms, he had said that the only other option to joining the army was to remain a down-and-out. That was true, but it hadn’t been the real reason that he’d joined. The real reason was the fifteen thousand bit advance payment provided by his brother sitting in his bank account, with the promise of another fifteen thousand at the end of the war.
Ignoring the moaning Pegasus, the stallion rolled over and pulled a pencil and a few sheets of notepaper from his uniform pocket. Cordwainer would want to know everything.
***
In the staff tent that evening, Shining Armor stared grimly across the map table. “Cocoon beat us to it.”
“Yes, sir,” whispered Crystal Thought.
Shining straightened up. “After Valneigh it was almost inevitable.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Major General Neigh shift on his hooves. “Show me.”
Thought pointed at the map with a stick. “The Changeling right flank is anchored against the Canter Creek. Their left is secured by this woodblock here. There centre is protected by this Lynx lair, Maneden. The best place for operations would strike me as this fairly open plain here, between their left and centre, but I’m sure Cocoon will have taken precautions.”
“What are his forces like?”
“Around fifty-five thousand, though what proportions are infantry and cavalry I can’t say. They also seem to have around a hundred and eighty cannon.”
Shining continued to frown at the Changeling deployment. He’d left a brigade behind at the mouth of the Canter Valley five days ago to establish Fort Hurricane. That, coupled with the losses from the march, meant that he was down to 42,500 ponies. His army was also exhausted. It did not bode well.
“We should fall back on Fort Hurricane,” said Brigadier General Sir Storm Shadow, who led the 11th Light Brigade.
“And give the Changelings time to march another army up from the south?!” demanded Neigh. “Use your head!”
“We stand a better chance in a defensive position than we do in an attack here,” said Brigadier General White Cuirass, who led the 7th Brigade.
“Fort Hurricane is a bunch of gabions on a hillock,” said Lieutenant General Sir Dagger von Steel, who now led the 2nd Division. “It can’t hold the whole army and it wouldn’t last an hour against a determined assault.”
“We should return to Equestria for reinforcements,” said General Sir Blackfire.
“And how many do you think are going to join up when they see we retreated with our tails between our legs after one battle?!” demanded Warding Ember.
“Enough!” snapped Shining Armor. The Commander-in-Chief of the Forces calmly walked around the table. “If we retreat, we yield the initiative to the Changelings. Support for the war and the army will vanish, and support for the Princesses along with it. We have no choice, we must fight.
“Give the orders to your troops. In two days we will meet the Changelings in battle at Maneden, and we must be victorious. Here we conquer or here we die.”
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Shining learned the lesson that McClellan never learned.
War does have political consequences and unfortunately they must be considered in dictating plans. Whether you like it or not.
3534608 Indeed, though try as he might to balance the political and military, they will both come back to haunt him.
3536380
Well it's better than not paying attention to the politics at all, otherwise Armor might be out of the Army and an incompetent could take his place...
Of course if that incompetent happens to Blueblood, well it is war and people do die in war, and there are plenty of disgruntled soldiers that may be willing to "frag" a bad commander...
3536395
Oh, Magthere! Do you really think so small? Blueblood's ambition extends far beyond command of a mere army!
3536406
Oh he obviously wants it all but an army is a good tool to acquire that, and being a war hero tends to make the job easier, particularly considering the spear points you now how have to support your power. The army is one piece in the whole game yes, but an important one.
As that line in Dominik Omega's remix of the Game of Thrones theme goes, "you may have the bigger claim but me: I have the bigger army!"
3536469
Blueblood doesn't need to be a war hero himself. Can you imagine him to ever go so far as to sully himself with the privations of soldiering? No, but what does help is to have a war hero on your side...
3536490
But can Blueblood KEEP a war hero on his side as his plan goes on? He has a knack for alienating himself from people and his closest ally at this point is a pony he's black mailing. He can keep some less close allies clueless as to his machinations but I doubt it would stay too secret for long from your military arm.
3536535
Rest assured, Blueblood will eventually get his Thermidor. Until then...
Shouldn't Applejack be the Element of Honestly, or are the elements different in your story?
3536623
Thanks for noticing that. Really don't know what I was thinking.
3583149 But let us spare a thought for poor Radical Road...
3583425 Neigh presently does not know of Blueblood's scheming. His flanking attack, which tipped off the Changelings and encouraged them to withdraw, was the unfortunate result of a combination of his own aggressiveness (hardly a bad thing in an officer, but one that must be measured) and the army's doctrine, which encourages individual initiative when it appears that the best laid plans have gone wrong: Ironically, things could have stayed according to plan had Neigh just stuck to his original orders, but he was trained not to do that.
You may notice from the "Structures of war" chapter and others that Neigh is something of an enthusiastic innovator while Shining Armor really just wants to stick with what he knows. Understandable, in a way: this is the first time in a thousand years that Equestria has deployed a mass army, and Shining is not about to squander it by jumping into bold new tactical directions that look good on paper but might not work in the field. The danger will come when Shining just keeps ignoring Neigh...
3583271 I'm sparing a thought.
And now it's spared!
OTCPony--Wonderful story, but there's something that's been bothering me for some time. The Changelings are Shapeshifters. One of their biggest advantages over other Equestrian races is their ability to create near-perfect disguises at a moment's notice. Why haven't they used this advantage yet? I realize that you're going for the whole Napoleonic-era ground war vibe, but if you're using the Changelings at all as an enemy, it seems like too important an aspect to leave out.
--Storyteller27
3599286 I point that out in "The Hive Queen" chapter, though admittedly perhaps not as well as I could have: the Changelings are so low on love that they just don't have the energy to take on another creature's form. They have a few drones who can still do it acting as spies, infiltrators and facilitators, but that's it. Additionally, only a few of them are still able to fly. On reflection, perhaps it's a bit of an asspull.
3601075 It struck me as a logical outgrowth of his depiction in The Best Night Ever: Narcissistic prick completely convinced of his own superiority with a belief that Power = Respect rather than the other way round. I like to believe that his experience his Rarity forced him to re-evaluate slightly. But only slightly.
3601853 Oh, OK. Thanks for the clarification. Yes, it should be restated from time to time, or made more explicit as a problem--perhaps by having one of the underlings try to do so, failing, and getting very publicly punished/killed before the Hive by Chrysalis for the unauthorized draw on their limited stores of love--just to make the state of affairs among them stick in readers' minds.
Again, Wonderful story. Kudos!
--Storyteller27