To Guard Equestria

by BleepBloop2

Chapter 14

The next morning was a noisy one. The thundering of the rain mixed with actual thunder and the screaming wind, all on top of ponies shouting to be heard. A little bit after noon the day after Luna’s visit is when we got to work, the storm dying down enough to not end everyone flying. The storm would keep the griffons grounded, and they were probably hating the decision to camp in an open field at the foot of a mountain. If they weren’t, they would be soon.

I had had a busy night before, after pegasi reported the storm was about to get a lot worse. Moving supplies, moving wounded, moving some things the smiths made over to the other side of the mountain. Really, just generally moving anything that would get ruined by the water flowing down the caves. Thankfully, we got most of the important things, bandages and the like, out of the way in time. Other stuff had to deal with a little water.

I started off the first day small. With the griffons grounded, we had the upperhand by far when it came to speed, even over the short distances unicorns could teleport. So, I set some unicorns to annoying the griffons. I wanted them angry. Stealing supplies, teleporting griffons around camp so they got lost, anything was game. I told them to mess with the griffons until it stopped being funny or they were found, and neither looked likely to happen soon. They managed to keep it up until around midnight, using Spike as a scout when it got too dark to see even with magic, using an old scale of his an anchor, one of them called it. It let them know where he was or something. I filed that away, and wondered why noone had thought to mention that little bit of incredibly useful information before. When I asked Quick Cut about it, he seemed surprised someone in camp did.

“It’s an incredibly efficient way of moving energy over long distances, but only through the anchor,” he explained. “Which limits its uses to healing and killing. And since you need to be able to see what your doing to heal somepony, its damn near useless for it. It was never exactly made illegal, as far as I know. Just hidden.”

“Does it work in reverse? Can you send energy from a big part of something to the little part?”

“I guess. Why?”

I told him my idea, and he nodded, his grin far too predatory for a herbivore. “I’ll take care of that, sir. In fact, I know just the place.”

The next day the storm got worse. Fierce and cold winds grounded any pegasi without a death wish. Over the howl of the wind and the drumming of the rain, thunder boomed and lightning flashed, shaking the air and setting it buzzing with energy.

Around what was hopefully a couple hours before sunset - no one was exactly sure what time it was, with the clouds hiding the sky - we went over the mountain, all hundred and twenty of us that were fit for combat. The griffons would be grounded while the storm lasted, which gave us a huge advantage. How? Unicorns. If griffons have any magic, I haven’t seen it.

The wind howled behind us, urging us down the mountain. We crept slowly close to the griffon camp. I gave the signal, and series of explosions rocked the air, a burst of light and sound to rival the storm. The griffons spotted us not long after, but on foot they weren’t very fast runners. When the two sides met, we were on the defensive almost instantly. We did our best to keep ranks together, but it was tricky, in the mud and the rain. Pretty soon, the griffons were amassed in front of us, the combined weight of them pushing us up the mountain. It was damn near perfect.

I turned to Quick Cut next to me and nodded at him. Saying anything would be pointless; I doubt he could hear me over the wind. His horn flashed, twice short and once long, and he and the half dozen other unicorns teleported a dozen waterproof packages the size of my two fists together into the main body of the griffon troops.

The teleportation ignited the gunpowder, scorching the ones nearest and sending hundreds of tiny, hot ball bearings flying. I couldn’t hear the sound over the wind and thunder, but I could see the flashes, too low to be lightning, the flames they caused, quickly put out by the rain.

We kept pulling back up the mountain, the griffons that had seen the packages arrive a little less keen to chase us. I had them send the next wave, closer to the front. I saw a pegasus go down a split second after the flash, as well as dozens of griffons.

We pulled back more. The griffons followed us into the pass. A sudden explosion, louder than thunder and brighter than lightning tore apart the upper reaches of the mountain. A steady rumble sounded, louder and deeper with every passing second. A cloud of dust and stone roared down the mountain, straight for the griffons. Some tried to take to the air, and were shot down by unicorns when the storm didn’t get them fast enough. The mud and rocks slammed into the side of the griffon army, burying dozens if not hundreds of the bastards. Cameron grumbled in the back of my head.

It was your idea, I reminded him.

‘Rocks fall, everyone dies,’ was a joke, not a suggestion.

I looked at the dying griffons. Yeah, a joke. Hilarious.

You’re the one that was smiling.

Was I? I was. Huh. A job well done is worth smiling about.

You’re an asshole, you know that.

So you’ve said. And yet here you are, talking to me. I’m sure you have better things to do than entertain me.

Don’t give me that bullshit. What am I supposed to do, pretend magic doesn’t exist? Pretend that there isn’t a planet of magical talking ponies out there somewhere? Aren’t you even the tiniest bit curious about what else there might be?

Not in the slightest. I’ve had my fill of travelling.

Well I haven’t, and for now you’re the best I can do. Which isn’t saying much.

I stood and watched as the griffons that had avoided the mud where mopped up by the earth ponies. There had to be a good two hundred or so dead griffons down there, and we’d only been chased by a small part of the army. It wasn’t enough. They wouldn’t stay here forever, and when it came down to numbers, we lost, simple as that.

It was a weary but happy group that made its way back to camp. We’d only lost a dozen or so ponies today. I heard a lot of reasons why that was. The Element of Surprise. The storm. The new explosives. Luck. The last was the most common, and probably the most accurate. We couldn’t keep this up for long, but if Celestia needed time, then time is what she’d get.

Of course, with Luna’s willing to help, we had other options than trying to wait them out. Just had to soften them up a bit first.

After the mudslide trap we backed off again, leaving a handful of unicorns and some earth ponies behind to keep the griffons entertained. On top of some food, they had a couple small telescopes and barrel full of smaller packages. Those ones were a little smaller than the palm of my hand, just big enough to let off a flash and a bang. Should be enough to keep the griffons busy for most of the night.

I was the medic on night shift that night, watching over the fourteen wounded we still had with a pegasus named Pitterpatter. Nothing happened other than us changing bandages and giving painkillers. We talked a bit, once he stopped saluting every time I turned around, but nothing important or overly interesting, just a way to pass time.

I was relieved around dawn, and for a brief time I could see the sun, in that small space between tree and cloud. The storm had died down during the night, it’s anger spent, but it picked up as the sun climbed over the horizon, winds growing stronger, their whistling turning to howls.The rain picked up, thunder rumbled, lightning flashed, and the storm raged again.

One of the unicorns I’d left on the other side came over, letting me know they were almost out of explosives and the rest would be back before noon. He looked exhausted, so I sent him off to sleep and went to find Spike. I had him send a scrap of parchment to Luna, telling her to come tomorrow at midnight and to bring supplies.
It was a scrap because thats all that I could find. We were seriously low on parchment. Plenty of ink, but no parchment. It was like someone was eating it or something.

I found Ironshod and Night Wind eating breakfast and working out the smaller details of today’s plan. I sat down across from them, listening as they hashed out details, occasionally chiming in when I had relevant information they didn’t. Quick Cut joined us around noon, just as we were finishing up.

The griffons wouldn’t be falling for any false retreats again any time soon, and would be unwilling to let a small part of the force break off and chase us, which meant we needed bait. Which we just so happened to have, in the form of Princess Alvor.

The griffons had the day off today, but they would spend a fair bit of it jumping at shadows, if I knew anything about the birds. They would start to calm down tomorrow, and then things would get interesting.

The griffons getting a day off meant we also got the day off, which had some ponies nearly worshipping the ground I walked on. I hadn’t realised how tired they were getting. I would need to keep a better eye on that. Which means I was going to have Ironshod remind me to keep an eye on that.

Some work still had to be done, of course. Medics still treated the wounded, smiths and Zecora made more explosives, my newest lieutenant adding her own twist to some of them. But even those jobs only take so long, and it wasn’t long before everyone started singing.

Now, I have nothing against singing. I do it myself. But when they start singing a catchy little jig during the worst storm I’ve ever seen, it gets a little hard to concentrate, and you need to concentrate when handling the stuff I was using. More than some were poisonous to the touch.

So, when Luna suddenly teleported in front of me, I was more than a little annoyed. She tried to say something, but I couldn’t hear her over the music and the storm. Only able to do anything about one of those, I motioned for Luna to stay put and left the cavern I was working in. The ponies were singing and dancing in the largest cave we used, and when I walked in the music died down and the ponies quickly stopped singing.

“Luna’s here,” I announced. They starting forming up. “There’ll be time for that later. Quick Cut, Night Wind, Ironshod and Zecora,” I said, pointing to each one in turn. “You four, with me. Rest of you, go back to whatever you were doing, but be quieter. The four lieutenants quickly made their way over to me and I led them back to the small side cavern I had been using. They were giving me slightly awed looks for some reason, but they didn’t say anything, and I had other worries.

Luna was looking over the items I had been working on, poking at one of them with a hoof. Her ears twitched as the five of us came closer, but she didn’t look around. Quick Cut’s horn flashed, and the sound of the storm and singing died down. I called her name. Her hoof jerked back like she’d been shocked and she turned around, her face full of wide eyed innocence. She just looked at us for a few seconds. It was weird as hell. Eventually, she flicked a wing at the various items on the low stone shelf and said, “What are these for, if I may ask.”

“Some things I’m putting together with Zecora’s help,” I replied, walking over to my workstation. “If I can get them to work, they’ll all release a gas of some sort.” I tapped one, a thin metal shell with a few piles of leaves and powders next to it. “Tear gas.” Another, with just powders next to it. “Chlorine.” A third. “No gas for this one, actually. It lets off a bright flash and a loud noise. Can’t get it to work, don’t have the things I need here.”

“And the rest?” she asked, looking at the half a dozen other things in various stages of assembly.

“This and that. Side projects, for the most part.” I started packing them away. “You do realise you’re early, right?”

“Of course,” she said, sounding more than a little insulted. “I would need time to learn my part in this plan of yours.”

“We know. We had planned for that. Night Wind, how early is the Princess?” As a pegasus, she went outside the caves more often than the other three, and had the best sense of time on top.

“An hour or so after sunset, sir.”

I nodded. “Five hours ahead. Any reason we can’t move everything else up?”

“The troops will need some sleep, sir,” Ironshod said. “The first part really only needs you and Spike, maybe a unicorn or two to speed it up, so if they get bunked down soon they’ll get maybe seven hours total if we move everything up three hours.”

“Okay. Go give the order. Quick Cut, Night Wind, Zecora, we’re going to bring the Princess up to speed.”

Quick Cut did most of the talking, as he knew the plan better than the rest of us. We chimed in occasionally, with a comment or small change. It took roughly half an hour for her to be brought up to date. When we had finished, she nodded thoughtfully for a moment. “‘Tis a good plan, I find. But, what is my part in this?”

My lieutenants looked to me. “That depends on a few things. First, Luna, did you bring the supplies I asked for?”

“Indeed I did. My sister’s student was most reluctant to tell me what they you asked her to provide, but they are present also. I left them with at the mouth of the cave before I teleported to you.” She tilted her head to the side and said, as if reading from a list, “There are four large barrels of the blasting powder, five magically chilled canisters, the contents of which I was not informed of, some various medical supplies, along with some miscellaneous herbs, some rare and some not. It is, all told, a strange assortment of supplies. But how does that change my part in the plan?”

“It doesn’t, not really. I just wanted to check. Now, I’m working on the assumption that you can’t just teleport the griffons into two pieces, right?”

She made a face I’m pretty sure was disgust. “That is correct. The magic simply won’t allow it. I can touch the outside of a creature with magic, but not the inside. Something in the skin seems to prevent it.” She frowned, looking at Quick Cut. “Did your lieutenant not tell you as much?”

“He did, but I was wondering if alicorns were different.” I leaned back against the wall. “Okay, that was plan four. How big of a shield can you make, and keep it airtight?”

“Physical magic is my sister’s specialty. I could perhaps cover two thirds of Canterlot in such a shield, and keep it there for a month if I my sister could take over raising the moon for me and nothing was exerting any force on the shield.”

I started to reply, but stopped. “Night Wind,” I said, turning to her. She was already holding a map out for me, a faint smile on her face. I took the map with a quiet ‘thanks’, and unrolled it, placing it on my workbench. Placing a finger on a field on the other side of the mountains, one marked with a few circles within circles, I said to Luna, “This is where the griffons are. The circles are roughly how much space their camps take up. How much of this could you cover with an airtight shield that won’t shatter when someone touches it?”

“Perhaps two thirds, depending on how much reinforcement the shield needs,” she replied. “Assuming you meant the smallest circle.” I nodded.

“Could other unicorns help strengthen the shield?” She shook her head. “Okay, say half the camp, to be safe. Put the officers and what not in there, that leaves the lower ranks, which make up the bulk. Say just over half their forces, which is how many, Quick Cut?”

“Half of their forces would be around one thousand eight hundred troops, sir.”

“Make it two thousand, to be safe. Use the gas, hit the rest, mop up survivors. Just need to keep two thousand griffons busy for, what, five minutes? No, make it ten. Gas needs time to expand and work.” I said, mostly to myself. “They don’t need to die, just be close enough they can’t fight. Shouldn’t take too long. Griffons last time started screaming after five minutes, and that was with wind and a lower concentration, so we should be good.”

“Michael,” Luna said, her voice quiet. “What did I bring you?”

“Chlorine gas.” I glanced up at her, and could tell from the look on her face she had no idea what that was. Well, if she didn’t ask I was going to offer.

Thankfully, she didn’t. Instead, she just looked to my lieutenants. “You three may go. I require a few words with your Captain.” They nodded, bowed, and left. When Quick Cut took down his shield that blocked sound, Luna put up one of her own. “I have read over your reports,” she said.

I kept quiet, waiting for her to get to the point.

She let out a long sigh, her head hanging. “I was a patron of the arts, before. I sponsored playwrights and musicians by the score, commission hundreds of works of art, many of which are still loved today, and here I am, soon to do battle once more. The last conflict I took part in was six hundred and twenty four years before…” She paused, searching for the right word. After a few seconds, she simply repeated, “Before,” and left it at that. “It lasted three days and was concluded with no dead and three injured. The guard is mostly ceremonial these days, a fact which I feel Celestia forgot when she worked out her plan for the Gem Hounds. My sister and I, however, have experienced a great deal of combat, a fair portion of which is large scale warfare. But what we learned of it, we paid for in blood and sweat and tears. So how, Michael, have you learned to wage war?”

“Isn’t it just common sense? Don’t be where they think you are, doing what they think you’re doing, or after what they think you’re after.” I could tell from the look on her face that that answer wasn’t good enough for her.

“Common sense? Perhaps. Tho- You are a predatory species, if I am not mistaken. However, that would, at best, put you on a level playing field against the griffons, many of whom have been trained in warfare. Yet you seem to be, what is the phrase? Coming out ahead. What reason do you give for this?”

I shrugged. “We have magic on our side.”

She looked at me as if asking if I thought she was stupid. “Even so, you were outnumbered twenty two to one at one point. As powerful and versatile as magic is, even it cannot overcome such a great disparity in numbers.”

“Valgryph has a lot of forests, which made hiding from patrols easy.”

She took a step towards me. “Is that all? And all these new devices you are suddenly creating? What prompted them? Has there been a voice, whispering in your ear, giving you instructions, helping you succeed?”

Don’t do it, man. I don’t want to know what she could do to me.

I thought about what to do. For around two seconds. “There has been a voice,” I confirmed. Luna’s eyes widened at first, before narrowing sharply. “But it doesn’t tell me what to do.”

Man, you suck. Who knows what she’s going to do to me now?

“You will explain.” I almost flinched at her voice. She spoke in the same tone of absolute authority that you think would be reserved for phrases like ‘Let There Be Light.’ I was surprised to hear it from Luna. Her height, I realised, had made me think of her the same way I thought of Twilight. Well, not Twilight. But fairly close. Someone who needed protecting, but could be counted on to give a helping hand on occasion. It was easy to forget she had ruled alongside Celestia for centuries before she was sent to the moon.

I decided to take my time before answering, and actually think before I opened my mouth. “You remember that thing with the dragon, a while back? My voice went weird.”

“I do,” she said, nodding. “It was truly unsettling. Like somepony trying to talk over you, a second too late and full of a horrible buzzing. But how is this related?”

“For a while I was getting little snippets of information from somewhere. Eventually, this connection, evolved into a mental link, of some sort. We can talk to each other, in a way. It was a little after you gave me that first dream that it happened for the first time. Thats also when my voice went back to normal.” I paused there, and waited for Luna to say something. She didn’t. We stood there for a few long minutes, looking at each other. And then I blinked, and when I opened my eyes Luna was right in front of me, tip of her horn touching me between the eyes. I felt something hit me, like I’d just been slapped with a giant pillow, but with less force, and something trickled into my mind. It felt wrong, like there were maggots under my skin, wriggling around, like I was drowning in a pool of rotten milk. I could feel her, moving around inside my mind, like a splinter, an ant, a thief.

And then it was gone, leaving me with the urge to throw up, the need to have a bath and knowing I would never feel completely clean again.

Never. Again. I nodded slightly. Never again.

“There is most definitely something connected to your consciousness, Michael. Why did you not bring this to our attention?”

I lowered my head onto my hands, rubbing the spot Luna’s horn had touched with the heel of my hand. “Needed to make sure I wasn’t just crazy.”

“We could have done that, Michael.” She took on a vaguely smug tone. “Indeed, we just did.”

“I don’t like things looking inside my head. Especially those who don’t ask permission.” I glanced at her as I spoke. At least she had the decency to look a little ashamed by that. “But I guess it’s good to know, even if I hate the method.” And there was her smile. “Find out anything else?”

“The presence in your mind is more like yours than a ponies, or even a griffons. Other than that, no. What has this presence asked you to do?”

“Explain some things, like how the seasons work and the relative value of bits to the currency it uses. Not to tell you about it.” I paused at Cameron grumbled. “Not to call him an ‘it’, and also use his name. Cameron says hi, by the way.”

She mouthed something for a few moments, then shook her head and sighed. “I am not even going to attempt to pronounce that. Your name is difficult enough.” Ponies have trouble with my name. Twilight, Celestia, Luna and, surprisingly, Applejack are the only ponies that seem able to pronounce it. Pinkie Pie butchers it completely. Most of the ponies in the Night Guard do their best when they use it at all. Griffons are fine with it, as is Spike.

If the ponies have trouble saying your name, why didn’t you pick a different one? Cameron thought at me.

What makes you think I didn’t?

Luna hadn’t stopped talking, only pausing for a moment. “So, this other, in your mind. He talks to you?” I nodded. “What does he say?”

“When he isn’t asking questions, he’s usually answering mine or busy with his own life.”

“His own life? Is he not a presence within your skull?”

“I thought so, at first, but he said otherwise. We think we’ve just got a connection, linking the two of us. Think bridge, not house.”

Luna balanced her head on her hoof. I looked at how her foreleg was bent, and had no idea how she found it comfortable. Just looking at it made me need to move. She was silent for a long while, and when she spoke her voice was slow, measured, like she was carefully considering each word. “Normally, I would rip any foreign presence from your mind and force you to take a leave of absence.” I did not like the sound of ‘rip’. “However, if the presence has been there as long as you claim, then that would be extremely dangerous. In addition, I trust my sister’s judgement, who in turn trusts your’s. If you have not deemed it threatening enough to bring to the attention of either myself or my sister by now, then it may be benign. Not that we can afford to take you from your post.”

I leaned back against a wall. “That’s the verdict? I have something in my head and all’s well?”

“Hardly. We will talk more on this matter in Canterlot. But we have business to be about. I have kept you from your lieutenants long enough.”

I made to leave, but she stopped me near the hole in the wall that served as a door. Luna looked me straight in the eyes and growled. “Never keep something like that from me again. That is an order. Understood?”

I nodded. “Yes, Luna.” She flicked her ears and tail, made a face I couldn’t read.

“Very well. Let us prepare for the morrow.”

I grabbed the bag with my experiments in it, the supplies Luna brought and we left my workshop, making our way to the main cave. The tunnel and caves were large enough for me to stand straight with some room to spare, and worn smooth by years of wind and rain. The floor, not completely even, made for some difficult footing in the dark, but thankfully there was just enough light to see. It took me a moment to realise it was coming from Luna’s mane, an ethereal silver light, ghostly and pale.It wasn’t a lot of light, but it was there.

Most of the ponies serving under me should have been asleep, leaving only those on watch awake. There would be four in or near the cave, two pegasi, an earth pony and a unicorn. I led Luna past them, getting a glance from one pegasus and twitchy ears from the rest. Having several hours to kill, Luna filled me in on the war with Diamond Dogs and I put away the supplies, noting anything that looked low. Not that I’d need to worry about it, if even half of the plan went as I’d hoped. I woke a few ponies and set them to work, creating more explosives and preparing somethings.

From what Luna told me, the war with the Diamond Dogs was not going well. Not badly, but not well either. The two sides seemed to have reached a stalemate, neither able to move against the other without opening themselves to attack. The way Luna spoke gave me the feeling I’d be heading south soon, one way or another.

A few hours after Luna’s arrival, I took Spike, Luna and Quick Cut out over the mountains. I tried to talk Luna out of coming, saying it was stupid to take so many people of high rank. She basically ignored me. Thankfully, the storm had started dying down. It wasn’t strong enough to knock me off my feet anymore. Still enough to make things miserable.

We hid some surprises around the griffon camp, burying them under a bit of mud. It took us around an hour to hide as many as I wanted, and we got back to our camp with enough time to clean our armour and get some sleep. I went back to helping the smiths mix up some explosives.

A couple hours after Luna raised the moon, we went over the mountains. When Luna found out I planned to use the griffon’s princess as bait she ordered me to leave her behind, meaning I had to leave behind a couple pegasi to guard her. I probably should have left unicorns, but I needed all the ones I had. It also meant changing the plan I had, but she hadn’t been a very important part. Her being here would make things easier, but we didn’t need her.

We stopped maybe twenty minutes walk from the griffon camp. We were slightly above it, making it easy to see on the open plain, the campfires standing out like stars in the night sky. I nodded to Quick Cut, who passed the order along. Light flashed in the centre of the griffon camp, waking some of the griffons. Squawks of surprise turned to fear as the dozen canisters that had just been teleported into the camp flashed again and lost the enchantments holding the gas inside. Luna’s horn glowed a deep blue and a shield grew over the centre, splitting the officers from the enlisted. And also trapping the gas in. The colour of the shield and the gas together made it almost impossible to see what was going on inside it, but the glow of the shield, along with the moon and the stars, made seeing the activity in the rest of the camp easy.

I doubted we had gotten every officer in the army. Some would have been outside their tents, on the enlisted side of the shield. Given how fast they got organised, I’d probably missed quite a few. Or they had standing orders for if we showed up.

I couldn’t stop myself from smiling as I gave another order to Quick Cut and a few seconds later the ground under the griffons erupted. Teleporting, while not as power-intensive as you might think, is incredibly complicated to do. It’s much easier to, say, send a small spark out to a bit of your hair thats sitting in the middle of a pile of gunpowder and ball bearings just under the opposing army. We only planted them under the part of the army that was nearest were we would be standing. It was a rather good place to fight a much larger force. We had a mountain to our left and behind us, and while in front and to the right where open fields, they were sloped slightly, and pitted with rocks and other surprises.

As the griffons in the centre of the camp died and the others charged, the unicorns rained rocks down on them. Earth ponies and pegasi did their best to keep them supplied with rocks, but as the griffons neared they took their places in front of the unicorns. As they charged up the hill, still outnumbering us around fifteen to one, the charges hidden there were detonated. Few griffons were killed outright by these ones. Most instead were left bleeding heavily or crippled from the ball bearings. When the griffons were a hundred or so feet away, the unicorns switched to precision attacks, aiming at individual griffons. It took maybe five minutes for the first wave of griffons to reach us, tired and wounded from running uphill and into a unicorn barrage. The earth ponies made quick work of them.

But they just kept coming. The second wave would be more tired, but less wounded. And there was more of them. As they neared the front line of earth ponies, I stepped down from the rock I had stood on and made my way over. It was time to get to work.

Author's Note:

New chapter, go!

Also, I'm in need of some new fics to read, so if you've found some good ones let me know.

Comments

[Amethyst Blade]

Yeah! No other species can fight in a war as well as human!