39 - Devotion, Part 3 of 16
Scootaloo was having a difficult time containing her own excitement over the newly earned cutie mark. More than anything, she wanted to tell Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle and show them that they all matched. In a simpler time, she’d have immediately dropped whatever she was doing and made the journey for that purpose. However, given her current responsibilities, she had to put such things out of her mind.
In the darkness of night, it was impossible to tell what the timberwolves and changelings might be up to. At Rainbow Dash’s order, they had begun making small mounds in the dirt to look like sleeping soldiers. They were now nearly finished with this task all along the line. Scootaloo didn’t like abandoning the position, but enough of a stall had happened that it made her wary. The enemy was planning something, and by letting them strike this position, she just might be able to find out what while minimizing her own casualties.
The task completed, the Assault Corps silently crept away from their earthen defenses under cover of darkness. Scootaloo was next to Rainbow Dash, bringing up the head of their force, opposite the zebras. The ponies were somewhat rejuvenated by the food and water they had received, but the lack of sleep and battle fatigue was affecting all of them. The next position was the halfway point of their defenses. It was also the strongest. The river that cut the field in two would be the perfect position. They built the breastworks behind it, so the timberwolves would have to cross the river first. Fire would be out, but they’d be able to hold them there a while, especially now that more arrows had been brought to feed their crossbows.
Scootaloo still felt raw inside and wished Sparklefly were here to see how well they were holding up. The young mare looked forward to the commander. Her longtime friend and mentor silently walked forward, eyes ever-searching for threats. If anypony else had arrived and relieved her of command, she probably would have been upset. As it was, she was glad that Rainbow Dash had come. She had always had time for her, more so than her actual family had. The commander wore bandages again on her chest, and a heavy boot immobilized her left hind leg from hoof to flank, making her gate awkward. It wasn’t broken, but some torn tendons needed to mend before she would have full use again.
Scootaloo hadn’t been there when she’d fallen, but Sparklefly had told her that Rainbow Dash had been struck by lightning. It was a wonder she hadn’t been killed in the fall. The younger mare could only imagine the pain that the other was enduring. In spite of whatever miracle that the two of them had survived this long, the near future was looking rather grim.
Scootaloo’s hooves touched water, breaking the stealthiness with which they’d been marching. It was swiftly followed by a soldier calling out.
"Halt!"
"It’s just us!" Scootaloo answered. "Scan or whatever you need to and let us cross."
"Right away, ma’am!"
The Assault Corps was together again. They numbered twenty-two thousand, plus the two zebra regiments that Rainbow Dash had brought in. As they finished the wet and sloshy climb up the other side of their defenses, the corps began the process of reintegrating themselves to spread out along the defensive line. There was still no sign of Pacer and the seven-thousand with which he had retreated into the Everfree Crater.
“I don’t guess there’s a medic tent here?” Rainbow Dash ventured.
“Sorry,” the younger pegasus answered.
“Eh, no biggie. Help me change my bandages.”
They walked a little behind the line to accomplish the task. Once armor was removed, Scootaloo helped cut Rainbow Dash free of her wrappings, exposing the burns that she had suffered. She took care in applying the antiseptic ointment that the commander had brought with her. The recipient of the medicine bore the stinging of the application through gritted teeth even as Scootaloo wrapped her up again to cover the injuries.
“Take it from me, kid. Don’t get struck by lightning or set on fire. It’s the worst.”
“You said it,” she heartily agreed.
It didn’t take long after they had completed the undertaking for Flittergear to find the pair and silently beckon them to follow. They had a small command post set up in the center, but they went to a smaller position east of there. Colonel Skyflame and Commander Rain Chaser were already at that location.
"Welcome back," Rain Chaser said flatly.
Skyflame added, "You had taken so long, we were becoming concerned."
"They’re definitely up to something, but they never hit our line again," Rainbow Dash replied. "Any sign of movement?"
"Not to the south," Skyflame replied. "There are reports of some activity west of here in White Tail Woods."
"Due west of here...”
"Do you think they’re trying to press our flank?" Scootaloo asked.
"They might be. I would if I were them. A frontal assault against this position would be crazy. The terrain is far more favorable for them on the flank.”
Rain Chaser admitted, "You did well slowing them down. It is no surprise that they would alter their tactics."
"I’d bet they were trying to get between us and Ponyville," Skyflame suggested.
"Maybe," Rainbow Dash agreed. "That makes sense. We’d be caught between two forces that outnumber us. That’d be a bad day for us."
Scootaloo took out her map and looked at it, which proved difficult in the darkness.
"It might be anyway," she said. "They’ve got us in front and on the left flank. I’m not sure we can hold that for any reasonable amount of time.”
“At the least, I doubt it’d be worth what it costs.”
Flittergear stood silently watching the others. She had found some oats to munch on.
"What do you think?" Rainbow Dash asked her.
Speaking in a barely audible voice, she replied, "We firebomb the forest."
Rainbow Dash grinned.
"That could buy us a little more time," Skyflame agreed.
"How far away is it?" Scootaloo asked.
Rain Chaser answered, "Not far; maybe a thousand yards off of our right flank."
Looking to Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo asked, "What do you think? Maybe we send five-hundred pegasi with unicorns? We can make one pass, light it up and get out of there."
"Not bad, but I’d say make it a thousand of each, just in case. We’ll need to concentrate fire along the edge." She looked up into the sky for a moment before adding, "The wind isn’t cooperating. It’s going to blow back this direction, so we won’t get a big forest fire."
"In that case, we should drive a little deeper into the forest," Rain Chaser said.
"I agree," Skyflame said.
"Alright, I’ll round up some fresh unicorns and we’ll get moving," Scootaloo said.
"No," Rainbow Dash replied. "Skyflame will lead this operation."
Scootaloo felt like she’d been stabbed in the back. She knew better than to argue, but she was not happy about it. It was an odd dichotomy that was within her: the need to perform her duties versus her desire to get away and lead a quieter life.
"Yes, ma’am," Skyflame said. "I’ll go now; perhaps the darkness will give us some cover."
"Fly fast," the commander replied.
Skyflame turned and trotted off.
"We’ve got other problems you need to be aware of," Rainbow Dash said. “You mentioned earlier that you had recommended evacuating Ponyville. Up to the point I left, no orders had come down.
"What?" Scootaloo was shocked by this news. "I sent word that we can’t stop the enemy a full day ago! What are they thinking?"
"There’s nowhere to go," Rainbow Dash said. "The last orders I had heard were to shelter in place and hold all positions. The thing is, they’ve been hitting us everywhere. I know you’ve had your hooves full down here, but just about every city and town has been under attack for the last two days. Most of them have held, more or less... From the last report I got, Baltimare is completely overrun, and we expect heavy civilian casualties. We aren’t getting reports out of there anymore. Van Hoover was on fire, but still holding on. They also broke our lines up north and chased our forces back to Manehattan. It’s bad.“
Scootaloo wasn’t sure how to respond to this. Falling back and trying to slow the enemy down had seemed a viable strategy until now. If there was only some other way to distract the enemy and lead them away...
"It’s a shame we can’t drag them all into that forest before we burn it," Commander Rain Chaser offered.
"Heh, right?" Rainbow Dash mused. "I guess we’ll have to take what we can get today."
They grew silent while they waited. Skyflame’s force was already moving, somewhere off of their right flank, but Scootaloo couldn’t see them. She felt herself growing sleepy. This came as no surprise, but it was unwelcome. There had simply too much to do to make time for rest. Her eyelids heavy, she was actually considering asking for permission to catch a nap when in the west, the darkness of night was split by magic, changeling magic.
It began with a flash of light that chased the darkness away. Blasts of green energy shot up from the forest and filled the sky. Within moments, the unicorns from Skyflame’s force returned fire. Scootaloo’s heart raced as she watched the situation unfold and considered the vulnerability of their position. The team that had gone to burn the forest broke apart their formation under the assault. They created shields, returned fire, and fell back in near chaos. Those that returned were far fewer than had gone out. Then it was dark again. The forest didn’t ignite.
"Give the order," Rainbow Dash said flatly. "We have to fall back, now."
Within moments, the Assault Corps was retreating again. They had assumed it was timberwolves in the forest, but by the look of it, there were actually changelings in there, thousands upon thousands of them.
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How are they striking everywhere at all once, aren't there front lines which the changelings need to break, or are there not enough ponies to cover everything?
8685146
The changelings spammed the mirror pool like it was going out of style... because it did early on. Considering the number of timberwolves, it would not be surprising if changelings also were part of the cloning.
After all, a good zerg attack has not just a billionty zerglings, but is also backed up with lots of hydralisks.
8685265
What I'm saying is that why are there not front lines? During both world wars there were front lines meaning that they had to be broken/pushed back for you to advance. But cities like manehatten and baltimare are pretty far apart so unless the front lines for the ponies in that area is just a thin sliver along the coast they shouldn't be able to be attacked at the same time. And if it is a thin sliver then the changelings could easily cut off all of manehatten by attacking between the two cities.
Also the equestrians have more than enough troops to pull this off, definitely in the hundreds of thousands. That's enough to put troops everywhere to prevent large groups of changelings from passing undetected. Through obviously more concentrated in important areas.
8685329
Basically, the Equestrians hold the cities, and the timberwolves/changelings hold the countryside. Anywhere outside the cities then would potentially enemy territory. That developed as the original strategy involved hiding from timberwolves. Early in the story (chapter... 5?) a force retook the northeast from Manehattan down to a mountain range south and to Neighagra falls and the river that is west of it. That was the largest swath that the ponies had retaken, until this last offensive broke their lines. As you saw previously when Cloud Blazer landed in the middle of that near Manehattan, they are already pushing the timberwolves back again to reclaim that land and re-establish the front there. To the west and south, the cities are the only pockets of EUP control.
I may have misstated... I'll look at it. The timberwolves are swarming everywhere and hitting cities all over, but in some places changelings are simply controlling them, not coming out in the open. A large changeling force was just spotted for the first time, massing near the remains of the Assault Corps. They tend to stay hidden amongst the timberwolves, keeping their numbers and deployment impossible for the ponies to determine.
Does that make sense? Do I need to rework anything to make it more clear in the story? Great question!
8685265
Thanks for tackling that question. Also, I wholeheartedly approve your zerg reference!
My thought was that the changelings had not cloned themselves, as it would create the existential crisis that LD is now facing. Instead, they had spread themselves throughout the ranks, hoping to only use timberwolves initially to do the bulk of the fighting. The plan being that by the time the ponies realized what was going on, they'd all be dead anyway. I'm not sure how to really get that across unless I do an interrogation scene or something of that ilk... but then it would be intelligence taken from a prisoner, and not necessarily trustworthy.
Does it make sense that the changelings might not clones themselves? Am I overthinking it?
8686077
Of course. Hydras are expensive. However, given the timeframe in this fic compared to the canon, we can also assume that perhaps Chrysalis, being the bug queen, simply "got busy" all this time and this new generation of changelings are very very numerous.
8686090
Maybe!
I don't know... have they established whether Chrysalis is the only female/breeder in the colony? I know they are based on bugs, so that wouldn't be too far off (it's not something I address in this story anyway).
But also, they never did say how many minions he had originally to attack Canterlot, or whether that was all of them. I figured that had to number at least over a hundred thousand... total population, but I never really sat down and thought too hard on the logistics of that since there are so many unanswered questions.
I guess it could be that she's the only one laying eggs... that could be a time-saver on the reproductive cycle.
Is this the part were someone comes up with a brilliant plan to do just that.
Oh I guess not
8757273
1) Haha, nope!
2)
Everypony must be tired. Nopony even called out Scootaloo as being an impostor because the real Scootaloo doesn't have her Cutie Mark!
Still, it looks like the changelings have finally come out to play en masse with a force of thousands of them present in the forest. If Scoots has any energy left in her she can become the new Angel of Death. Rainbow Dash probably won't want to let her go out to the front lines though, now that she's around, and Dash definitely has the higher military command. Heck, she might have died just now if Scoots had gone to lead the firebombing.
I wonder if Chrysalis will want Ponyville razed (though she's still under capture). After all, it is home to most of the Elements of Harmony, and that would be a big last FU to Twilight Sparkle.
8802559
Well... when Scoot got her cutie mark... her back was to her force, but they saw it happen... and... it never occurred to me to make anypony think she was an imposter.
Yep, I have to make sure the bad guys are actually menacing instead of just being twerps that never accomplish anything. I don't think it is that unreasonable to Rainbow Dash to keep Scootaloo close.
Oddly enough... I sort of think of Ponyville as an innocent bystander to what's going on. It happened to be one of the closer towns, and when the Assault Corps retreated that direction, the timberwolves followed.