The Seasons of Equestria

by Lucaro

Chapter 5: The Occupation

The town’s name was Nora’s Landing, and it was under occupation by Darrowshire forces. Doing a quick recon flight, it was clear that the enemy base of operations was in a quadrangle in the heart of the city. That was also where the highest concentration of soldiers were, and that was also where he saw the hulking, crimson figure of Commander Fireclaw strutting about. Other than the dragon, he estimated about two hundred soldiers formed the garrison occupying the city.

Regarding the gryphon civilians, it appeared that they were under a strict curfew. For the time being, they were alive and locked inside their homes. Though if it were Starlight planning this attack, he would kill all the civilians, plunder the town, and then burn it all down as fast as he could. There was no point in holding the town, so why waste manpower holding it? It was already so difficult to defend, lacking any form of fortifications or natural barriers….

They also had the element of surprise. No one could have seen this coming. An alliance between Darrowshire and the Fire Dragons was unheard of, and even more so was that the attack probably took place the morning following the Winter Festival. Everyone got dead drunk and passed out sometime after midnight, so overwhelming the town’s defenses should have been an easy feat. This town was the easternmost gryphon settlement, so the enemy hadn’t penetrated that deep into gryphon territory. If it were Starlight planning this invasion, he would have executed a blitz attack, taking town after town in quick succession to exploit the gryphons’ vulnerability as much as possible.

They were dirty tactics, but brutally effective. All is fair in war. While the Gryphon Kingdom’s forces were concentrated up north to defend against the threat of dragon attacks, Darrowshire had cut them down from the east.

The question burning at him now was what should they do? Starlight looked at Amberleaf, wondering which approach was best. “Amberleaf, we could go back to Iceheart Citadel and come back with reinforcements, go to Avendale and hope to get reinforcements from there, or liberate this town ourselves. What shall we do?”

Amberleaf hissed. “I had friends in this town, friends who had family. They killed Lightfeather! You and I both know all the civilians will be dead by the time we return with reinforcements.”

She was right. It would take at least a day or two to get reinforcements, and they didn’t have that time. The soldiers could probably even invade another town while they ran back to Iceheart or to Avendale. This had to stop right here and now, and preferably when it was still dark.

Starlight had a plan, but that dragon would pose a serious problem. “Amberleaf, I have an idea.” She was listening now. “I spotted an armory in the western side of the city, and if we can get a hold of those weapons….”

Amberleaf smiled. “We can get those weapons to the gryphons, and with your military expertise we can liberate this town!”

“Exactly, now we have to get to that armory without getting noticed and distribute the weapons to the gryphons.” It was the best plan they had, but Starlight wasn’t confident in it. These gryphons they were arming probably had no fighting experience, how would they fare against trained soldiers?

Starlight kept his doubts to himself. He led Amberleaf out of the foliage and they dashed across the street and into an alley. They crept around the corner of the building, and they hid behind a trash can. He could feel the heat of Amberleaf’s skin on his back, her minty breath against his ear. In the street ahead, he spotted a whole brigade of guards marching down the street, enforcing curfew. There were so many of them….

If his memory served him correctly, the armory was about four blocks away. They would have to evade every patrol, and avoid that large cluster of soldiers roving about. Shadows passed overhead and he could make out the figure of two pegasi before they disappeared. Damn, he had not seen any air patrols during his recon mission.

“Amberleaf,” he whispered. He looked behind him and saw that she was gone. Panic gripped him. Where had she gone? He frantically searched the alleyway, and he was just about to give up when he heard a groan of pain. Two strangled pegasi dropped right in front of him, their armor hitting the ground with a heavy thump. Amberleaf flew down and smiled at Starlight’s awestruck expression. “Well, what do we have here?”

She immediately began to take the armor, undoing the straps from the corpses of the two guards. A moment later they were both wearing the green and gold armor, and Amberleaf had dumped the corpses in a trash can. Starlight looked himself over, but he realized some problems with the disguise. “Amberleaf, your horn. They can’t know that you’re an alicorn.”

She had been trying to force the helmet on, but this set of armor had been made for a pegasi pony, not for a unicorn, let along an alicorn. She looked up from her struggle, “Starlight, your eyes. They can’t know you’re a Nightborn.” Amberleaf tossed the helmet, and put her hoof up to her mouth, thinking. “Hmmm. Ah!” Her eyes lit up, and her horn started to glow. “Hold still, Starlight.” There was a tinkling sound and his vision grew blurry, as if there was a film over them. “There, your eyes look normal now.” Amberleaf sighed, and strained herself. Her horn began to fade, disappearing. “The illusion will last for two hours. We have until then to get things going.”

They trotted out from the alley, careful not to be seen yet. He held up his lance, and led Amberleaf to the armory. As they progressed, they trotted past two guards who gave them strange looks. Starlight’s gut clenched. “You two!” His breath caught in his throat. They slowly turned around, trying to mask their fear. The two large unicorn stallions approached, anger in their eyes. “You guys are pegasi, right?”

Starlight didn’t answer. This was obviously a senior officer, and it had been a rhetorical question; though Amberleaf didn’t pick up on that. “Yes, we are.”

The stallion flared. “I should have you flogged right now, but you two are ten minutes late for Commander Fireclaw’s strategy meeting which all pegasi are required to attend. This town is going to burn tonight, and it’s the pegasi’s job to make sure the blaze is controlled and that all the neighboring towns will be able to see the smoke.” The two stallions snorted with laughter. “When their friends come running to help, we’ll be waiting for them.” The two stallions shoved them forward and sent Amberleaf away with a firm smack on her flank. “Get going,” they barked.

He and Amberleaf rushed forward until they were out of sight of the two officers. Time was of the essence now, for this town would be nothing more than a burnt husk when the sun rose. They arrived at the armory, and saw that all the lights were turned off inside. Starlight tried turning the doorknob, but it was locked. He forced the door and it gave in. They walked inside and gasped. The armor, the weapons, where were they?

The shelves had been emptied, the crates of weapons ransacked, the Darrowshire ponies had gotten here first. Amberleaf was frantically searching, but it was useless. How were they going to lead a rebellion without weapons? Amberleaf sighed, resting her head against the wall. Starlight looked around, and something caught his eye. From the window, he could see a line of storefronts with various goods set on display. His eyes drifted across, reading the names of the stores. He gasped. “There. Follow me, Amberleaf. Hope is not lost.”

Excitement bubbled up within him. He had never done this before, but the novelty of the plan was encouraging. Starlight led the intrigued Amberleaf to the store he wanted to show her. The sign hanging above the entrance read, “Mary’s Cleaning Supplies”.

Amberleaf was confused. “What? I don’t understand.”

Starlight forced the door and rushed inside. Yes, yes, here it was. He grabbed all the bleach, lye, and ammonia based cleaners as he could. Amberleaf stared at him, confused. He decided it was time to explain. A mischievous smile lit his face, “We don’t have any conventional weapons to use, so why not employ chemical warfare?”

Amberleaf was impressed. “I’ve never heard of this style of combat, but we don’t have any choice.” She smiled and shrugged. “Just tell me what to do.”

Starlight pushed about a dozen bottles of lye at her. “Take these, and you see those water sprayers over there?” he pointed at these large tanks he assumed were used for pressure washing, and fortunately they were made out of corrosion resistant metal and had large nozzles. “Pour all the lye into those tanks. Those will make some fine acid sprayers. Whoever messes with will get a face full of lye.”

She set to her task and Starlight began uncorking the bleach bottles. He poured the bleach into thin plastic bags, and did the same with the ammonia cleaners. He tied the bags together, so when they were thrown and hit something, the bags would rupture, causing the bleach and ammonia to mix, creating large amounts of toxic gases that would choke the enemy ponies very quickly. While he was at it, he also fashioned some Molotov cocktails out of some flasks of pure alcohol and a few rags.

He strapped on all the bleach bags, and Molotov cocktails onto his armor. Amberleaf gave him a gas mask. He helped Amberleaf wear the tanks full of lye on her back, and helped connect the pipe to the nozzle. She wore her own mask, and she giggled as they went outside. “Alright, what’s the plan?” she asked.

“Just spray anyone you see.”

She giggled and they made their way to the heart of the city. All the soldiers had gathered in the quadrangle, and Commander Fireclaw had emerged from his massive tent and was speaking to them. “Tonight, this town will burn!” All the soldiers roared, and Fireclaw loosed a massive jet of flame into the air. He spread his wings and was preparing for flight when Starlight and Amberleaf appeared. The Commander’s eyes caught them. “Who are these strange soldiers with strange armor?”

Starlight gave this as a response. He threw three Molotov cocktails in the air, and they all landed with a fiery explosion, immolating dozens of soldiers. The dragon roared, opened his mouth, and Starlight saw a great fire rising up in his throat. Amberleaf sent a jet of lye into his open mouth, and he choked. He spat out blood, and his soldiers rushed forward with lances pointed outward.

Starlight danced away from their weapons, and threw all his bleach bags in one go. They splattered on a soldier’s armor, and the stallion stared in confusion as the vapors spread throughout the quadrangle. There were cries of agony as the poison gas took its effect, killing whoever breathed it in. Amberleaf was sending jets of lye here and there, and Starlight saw one of her victims run out of the gas cloud with the skin dissolving from his face and bloody sores all over his exposed skin. Commander Fireclaw bellowed, and began flapping his wings. Massive buffets of air from his wings began to clear away the gas.

Starlight cursed, and threw another Molotov cocktail. The gas had been cleared away, but all the pony soldiers lay dead on the floor. Their corpses were covered with chemical burns, bloody sores, and were partially charred. Commander Fireclaw was outraged at the loss of his soldiers, and set his fiery gaze on him and Amberleaf. “I will paint these walls with your blood, and then I will set this whole town ablaze myself!” The dragon leapt forward, and Amberleaf screamed as the dragon spewed boiling blood all over the ground in front of her.

At least he couldn’t breathe fire anymore. They ran then, and the dragon gave pursuit. The ground trembled as the massive commander stomped after them, roaring in fury. Starlight wedged himself into an alley, and Amberleaf followed close behind. She screamed, and grabbed his tail. “Starlight, the tanks!”

He saw that the tanks had gotten stuck between the walls of the narrow alley. Starlight slid out his blade and cut the straps. The dragon roared and barreled into the alley. There was the crashing and splintering of wood, concrete, and steel overhead as Fireclaw ripped through the two apartment buildings. Starlight was buried underneath the downpour of debris, and he heard Amberleaf screaming as the dragon chased her down the street.

He clawed his way upward, emerging from underneath a large piece of roofing. Dozens of frightened gryphons appeared from all around as he dusted himself off. He immediately had an idea. “Follow me!” he commanded.

They obeyed without hesitation, and followed him to the quadrangle with all the dead soldiers. Starlight began picking the weapons from the corpses and distributed them among the gryphons. He had to hurry, Amberleaf was in danger. More gryphons were appearing as they realized that they had been liberated from the occupation. Liberated for the most part anyway, there was still a blood spewing fire dragon still running amok somewhere in the town….

He handed them all weapons and he instructed them to follow as he took off. “Thank you, stranger!” A gryphon cheered as they flew.

Starlight grinned. “It’s not over yet! We have to take down that dragon!” He pointed at Fireclaw, who now had Amberleaf cornered. “Fight now!” he commanded. “Fight for your town! Fight for your kingdom! FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM!”

Starlight whipped out both his blades with a flick of his hooves and they all roared as they dived down upon the dragon.