Ice Fall

by Bluespectre

Chapter Thirty Five - Council of War

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

COUNCIL OF WAR

The morning air was crisp and fresh, the sky just starting to lighten over the tops of the trees on the hillside while around the camp songbirds called to one another. Their song was the only sound to be heard in the forest, and other than the occasional snore or grunt from one of the sleeping ponies, it was really quite beautiful. The forest smelled of home, even at this time of year, and was quite different from the bamboo forest that had surrounded Rush’s hut. Celestia closed her eyes a moment, praying he was safe, and that if there were some way, some possibility no matter how remote that she could bring him home to Equestria, that she would have the power to do it.

The Princess gently touched the key around her neck - the key to the elements of harmony that could possibly be their last chance for victory over the forces of her sister, or rather, what she had become. Those vile creatures, those…those things! If only that foolish filly hadn’t dabbled in… Celestia shook her head sorrowfully. Perhaps in some way she could understand better now how one could fall in love with somepony unexpectedly, she certainly hadn’t intended to with that human, that humble reed worker, but…he wasn’t though was he? Not really. He was an Equestrian, a pony like the rest of her people, and she’d left him there…trapped…all alone.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.”

It was Dray. The dour grey stallion who looked like he had seen hell, and been there too. Celestia closed her eyes a moment and willed away the image in her mind of his family, their bodies burning away and blending into the ashes of their once lovely home. She wished she hadn’t asked him about them, pushing him as she had to divulge everything. Good Gods, she’d even used magic on him to help her visualise what he’d seen. It had been…difficult, both for him and for her. She knew the depths to which living creatures could sink in war, that monster Rend had taught her that lesson all too well, but for her own people to sink so low? This had to end, and soon, before there were more Honeysuckle’s, Polo’s and Dawn Dew’s, and only the grief of those left behind. She smiled up at him,

“Good morning Colonel.”

He bowed, “May I join you?”

“Of course” Celestia motioned to a spot beside her by the camp fire. It had burned low but there was still enough life left in the coals to warm them.

Dray settled himself down, his breath curling up into the cold air,

“Did you not sleep well, Your Majesty? The medic said you should be resting those injcuries.”

Celestia shook her head, “I’m fine thank you Colonel.” She said pleasantly, “My body heals quite quickly beneath the Equestrian sun.” Celestia turned her purple eyed gaze upon the Colonel, “But what about you? You need sleep as well, you know.”

Dray nodded, “I don’t sleep that well I’m afraid, Your Majesty; too much running through my mind all the time. I suppose I find it hard to just switch off sometimes.”

The Princess gave a half smile, gazing into the glowing coals, “I fear that may have been my fault. I shouldn’t have made you recall...’that’ time for you, Colonel. I hope you can forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive, Your Majesty.” Dray said, giving his mane a quick shake, “I’ve already said goodbye to them, and i’ll see them again soon enough.”

Celestia felt her heart tighten in her chest. ‘See them again soon enough’. Drays words made her recall her time in the forest, the flames of the burning village, the screams of the villagers fleeing in panic, running from…she gave a light nicker,

“One day, Dray. But not yet.”

“Your Majesty…” Dray said quietly, “I’m not a religious pony, I admit, but…are they…?”

Celestia smiled, “Oh, they’ll be there.” She covered her mouth with her hoof as she yawned, “They’ll all be there; your friends and your loved ones.” The Princess gave him a meaningful look, “That doesn’t mean they won’t be angry with you if you do something reckless so you can see them sooner than you should. Fate can be a…’difficult’ mare at times.”

Dray raised an eyebrow, “It sounds as if you’ve met her.”

“Fate?” Celestia asked, “Oh yes, I’ve met her. Mother introduced me to her when I was a foal.”

“What was she like?” he asked curiously.

Celestia sniffed, “What was your mother in law like, Colonel?”

“Horrible!” Dray chuckled, “She hated me. I was never good enough for Honey in her eyes.”

The Princess sighed, “Fate is worse, a lot worse. She’s a mare who see’s everypony as no more than a ‘thing’ and no matter what you do or how hard you try, none of it means anything to her. You are never, ever, good enough.”

“It sounds as if she has unrealistic expectations of ponies.” Dray replied.

“No, not really” Celestia said levelly, “Truthfully, she just doesn’t have any expectations at all.” she gave a lilting laugh, “If I had one word to describe her, it would be bloody miserable.”

Dray grinned, “That’s two words.”

“Really?” Celestia chuckled, “I could think of many, many more.” She stretched a foreleg out, “Do think our ‘friend’ will come?”

“I hope so,” Dray replied, poking the fire, “Her young coltfriend seems to think she’s quite taken with him. And of course, there’s the additional carrot of the promise of payment.”

“Do you have access to funds, Colonel?” Celestia asked.

“If all goes according to plan, we shall, Your Majesty.” The Colonel scratched his mane absently, “If not, I have a backup plan.”

The Princess pulled herself to her hooves and ruffled her wings, “That may be necessary, Colonel.” She said with a faint smile.

The Colonel looked up, intrigued, “Oh?”

“We have a guest.” Celestia nodded towards a speck on the horizon that was approaching rapidly. Whoever it was, was fast…very fast.

“One of ours?” Dray asked.

The Princess nodded, “I believe so.” She noted the ponies around camp stirring, the guards nearby readying weapons, “Shall we meet them?”

Dray adjusted his sword, waiting for the pegasus to arrive. It never failed to impress him just how quickly those ponies could fly, and he was extremely grateful that he had a number with him. He’d secretly hoped that it would have been the sky galleon. Both he and Celestia had banked on the Captain’s feelings for the white unicorn being strong enough to lure her here, but it seemed he’d overestimated her loyalty to him and maybe even the promise of bits.

The approaching pegasus came in to land and grinned expansively,

“Good morning all!”

Dray cringed. The way Harrier addressed the Princess was something that he wished she really wouldn’t do, but Celestia didn’t seem to mind. If anything it actually raised a smile.

“Good morning Flight Captain,” Dray said greeting the lively mare, “any news?”

“See for yourself.” The pegasus tossed a small scroll towards him which, fortunately, was caught in the glow of purple magic from the Princess,

“May I?”

Opening the scroll, Celestia quickly read it and then passed it to Dray. He looked up at the white alicorn and saw the smile beginning to spread across her face. There wasn’t much written down, only:

D

I shall be with you within two days.

G

“I presume ‘G’ is Captain Gretel?” Dray said quietly, hoofing the message back to Harrier.

“Dunno, guess so.” The purple mare smiled, ruffling her wings, “We intercepted a messenger pegasus from Spurs Anvil. She wasn’t too happy about giving us the message, but…” she shrugged, “y’know.”

“It seems we were correct.” Celestia said happily, “Now then, Colonel Dray, I would like to assemble our officer cadre. I believe we have matters to discuss.”

Celestia saw with relief how Dray’s eyes suddenly glistened with an inner fire, the light of hope returning to him.

“Aye, Your Majesty,” he said, flicking his tail, “We do.”

**********************

“I am royally fed up,” Chalky complained, “I’m cold, bored and I’m damned sure my ears are getting frostbite.”

“Your ears are fine,” Bracken replied, “you’ve got ear warmers, put the bloody thing on if you’re cold.”

The two friends stood waiting at the cook’s tent for their morning breakfast. The daily offerings here were surprisingly good considering they were in the middle of nowhere, however that was probably down to the steady stream of pegasi and ground scouts who had been ferrying supplies in and, by the looks of it, messages. What exactly was going on though was anyponies guess, and considering how cold it was, keeping yourself warm was a damned sight more important than speculating about things you couldn’t do anything about.

Bracken blew of his forelegs and rubbed them to try and get some warmth into them. They’d been there for what felt like ages, but in all actuality, was probably no more just than a few days. The ‘interrogation’ as Chalk had referred to it had turned out to be no more than a relatively pleasant chat with Colonel Dray. Bracken wasn’t completely convinced they weren’t up to something, but as it was out of his and Chalk’s hooves anyway, he tried to put it out of his mind. Thank the Godesses blabbermouth hadn’t told them everything though. The last thing he wanted was them being asked about…about…what the hell was it anyway? Chalk had said that he’d ‘spoken funny in the village’? What in Equestria was that’s supposed to mean? Everything about that time in the village with the thestrals and the school had been so horribly confusing, he still wasn’t completely certain they’d needed to run off the way they had in the first place. Now, thanks to all that panic, they were freezing their nuts off in the arse end of nowhere and back with the bloody army! Bracken sighed. Maybe someday he’d be able to find out why his head felt like a big chunk of it was missing and why Chalk hedged around mentioning it everytime he enquired about it. Come to think of it, everytime he tried to ask him, that bloody headache loomed like a sword hanging over him waiting to drop. He’d just decided to drop the subject in the end. What would be would be, he was just an everyday kind of stallion after all; one that other ponies had a tendency to overlook…or avoid. Bracken had struggled with a low self image for years, a situation not helped by the fact that Chalk tended to be a smash hit with every mare he met. Worse still was that when he was younger, it had been Chalk that everypony avoided. Bracken snorted. How things change!

“You know, I think it must be a real skill you have there Cookie.”

“Huh?” The large earth stallion serving the rations looked up at Chalk quizzically.

“Yeah,” the white unicorn said peering into his tin, “I’ve never quite worked out how something that looks like carrots and smells like carrots, can actually taste of something that bares absolutely no resemblance to carrots.”

“You want it or not?” Cookie growled.

Chalk took a mouthful, “Nah,” he said shrugging, “I’ll survive.” “Hopefully…” he added walking away.

Bracken looked behind him at the glare from the cook, “You really push it sometimes, Chalky.” He said, catching up with his friend, “I mean, for the Goddess’ sake, Cookie’s doing his best.”

“Hmph, yeah.” Chalk took another mouthful of the stew, “You think I don’t know who told Dray everything we’d said the night they found us? You think they let us stay by the fire out of kindness?” Chalk sniffed, “Bollocks, Brack. Your mate Cookie is a damned spy for the brass.”

“I’m not stupid, Chalky,” Bracken replied, “but you can’t really blame him, they’ll have given him orders to do it.”

“Yeah, and they’ll have some dirty trick up their proverbial no doubt too.” Chalk poked at the mess tins contents savagely, “Those rats won’t let us go, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a feeling we’re going to be up to our naffs in trouble before you know it.”

“When haven’t we been!” Bracken snapped, “Anyway, you’re the one who blabbed everything about the sky galleons to Dray and his pals.”

“And you don’t think they wouldn’t have found out about it anyway if I hadn’t have told them?” Chalky said calmly, “No. Old Dray’s a crafty sod. I heard all about him from some of the guys back in the barracks, but at least we’re on the same team. Kind of.”

“Huh! ‘Kind of’ is right.” Bracken groused, “Getting ourselves killed over some bloody nonsense is more than likely what this is going to be about. I know Celestia’s re-appeared, but those damned thestral’s kicked the crap out of us back at River Valley and now they control the whole bloody country. What we need is a miracle to turn that around.”

Chalk raised an eyebrow, “What, you don’t think Celestia will be able to defeat Nightmare Moon?”

Bracken checked to make sure nopony was listening before replying, “That’s exactly what I’m saying!” he whispered, “She got her arse handed to her by the Legion and us along with her. If she couldn’t beat them back then when we had the whole army with us, what makes you think we could win with a hoofful of bloody rejects?” he shook his mane, “It’s nothing short of suicide Chalky, and you know it!”

“I don’t know Brack,” Chalk said quietly, glancing over to where Celestia sat talking with their senior officers, “she looked like she knew what she was doing to me. Now that she’s back, she looks, I don’t know, ‘different’ somehow. Not like when I first saw her, if you know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t know what you mean!” Bracken snorted, “Look Chalky, being ‘pissed off’ doesn’t make you a better leader or somehow able to make bloody miracles happen. ‘I am angry, now feel my wrath!’ and all that bollocks.”

Chalk leaned in, his eyes narrowed, “Well what do you suggest we do? We can’t just walk out of here - they’d chop us up and stuff into Cookie’s leftovers if we tried.”

Bracken looked over his shoulder, “I tell you what we do, we take the first opportunity to get the buck out of Dodge before we end up as some sodding dragons dinner, that’s what!”

“And go where?” Chalk whispered, “We can’t go home, that’s the first place they’d look.”

“Spurs Anvil” Bracken nodded.

“Why?”

The black stallion rolled his eyes in exasperation,

“So I…that is you can meet up with that pirate piece of yours. That is what you want isn’t it?”

Chalk’s tail swished angrily, “There you go with that ‘pirate piece’ thing again! And how stupid do you think I am anyway? I know damned well why you really want to go there! Do I need to say it?”

“You’d better bloody not!” Bracken hissed, “If I hear you call her an ‘old tart’ again I’ll knock your bloody head off!”

“Then don’t call Gretel names either!” Chalk snapped, “Fairs fair, Brack.”

Bracken glared at Chalk and sighed, rubbing his face with his foreleg, “You’re right…I’m sorry. I just…I don’t know. I’ve got a bad feeling is all.”

“About what?” Chalk asked, scraping the last of his meal out of his tin.

Bracken shook his head, “I don’t know…it’s hard to say, it’s just a feeling.”

Chalk shrugged, “The way I look at it, we’ve got a damned sight better chance of getting out of this mess alive with a Goddess on our side than not. And if we play our cards right, we may still get a chance to get out of this in one piece before it all hits the fan.”

“And how do you propose to do that?” Bracken asked.

“Simple, by…”

“Hey, you two!” A large salmon coloured stallion wearing a set of burnished armour strode up to them with an air of authority, “Get off your arses and get your gear together we’re moving out.”

Chalk slammed his hoof down angrily, “Oh sod off! We’ve just sat down!”

The officer leaned down, his lime green eyes blazing, “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”

Chalk met him glare for glare, “I said s…”

“-He said, yes sir!” Bracken cut in, shoving a hoof over his friend’s mouth, “We’ll get on with it immediately!”

The officer sneered, “That’s what I thought he said.” Turning to walk away, he looked back over his shoulder, “I’m watching you two.”

Watching the retreating form of the salmon coated stallion, Chalk made an obscene gesture with his hooves and muttered something under his breath.

“You’ll get us flogged one of these days,” Bracken muttered wiping out his mess tin, “seriously, Chalky, you make me bloody wonder.”

The white unicorn began ramming his gear back into his packs, “I don’t like him, that turd’s had it in for me ever since we got here. Bloody officers.”

“Can you blame him?” Bracken hissed, “You keep winding him up every time you can!”

Chalk sniffed. Bracken was probably right. Okay, he was right, but that snooty, stuck up arsehole Shallow Fry deserved it, and more. Once the young officer had found out that he and Bracken had been at River Valley, he’d made a point of singling them out for some reason. Chalk had even overheard him referring to them as ‘deserters’, the lousy rat. Considering Cookie had told them that Shallow Fry hadn’t even been at River Valley, he didn’t think the polished prat had any right to accuse them of shirking their duty. Maybe, as Chalk suspected, he was nothing more than a complete cock…

“I’ll get him one of these days, you mark my words.” Chalk slung his gear over his back and cinched up the straps with a glow from his horn, “That guys got it coming.”

“I don’t like the way this is heading, Chalky.” Bracken said while he fixed his scarf around his neck, “Shallow Fry may not like you, but if you bait him enough he could make your life hell.” He thought for a moment, “And mine!”

“Well pardon moi!” Chalk chuckled, “Anyway, come on grumpy lets shift flank, I don’t want to get my bestest buddy in any more hot water do I?”

***********************

Dray sat with the Princess, drinking what turned out to be surprisingly good tea. He didn’t normally hold with the stuff, but this was quite refreshing. The Princess seemed to think so too and sighed, closing her eyes as the steam from the cup curled up around her muzzle. Several officers were there with them, discussing various plans, movements and strategies, most of which, Dray felt, were little more than pipe dreams. They didn’t have anywhere near the troops or resources needed to take on Nightmare Moon’s forces in a pitched battle, and any attempt to do so would end in swift and complete annihilation. The lastest suggestion would have ended with the same result…

Celestia nodded to him, “Colonel?”

“Your Majesty?”

“You don’t seem to agree?” the Princess said politely.

Dray rubbed his muzzle, “May I be frank?”

Celestia nodded, “I wish you would be.” She looked around at the assembled officers, “The same goes for all of you. We don’t have the luxury of time for niceties, mares and gentlecolts. Our enemy is vicious, cunning and completely without mercy for any who cross them. Openness and honesty about our situation is crucial. If you do not feel you can be open with me or your fellow officers, the door is, metaphorically, open. Nopony will think worse of you if this is something that you feel you cannot do.” Her gaze hardened, “I want leaders, not followers.”

There was a tense moment of hoof shuffling and staring at the ground. Dray could understand why. After all, their Princess, the one who had the power to raise the sun in the sky and whom they had worshipped as the Goddess of the daylight, was asking them, essentially, to talk to her as an equal. Well, in for a bit… He stood up tall and addressed her, tapping his hoof on the map,

“Your Majesty, if we take on the Legion in open battle we will lose. We have neither the ponypower, nor supplies to defeat Nightmare Moon’s forces.”

“Nonsense!” Captain Fry stepped forward, his eyes flashing, “You want honesty, I’ll give it to you.” He stared at Dray, “All we need to do is consolidate our position, send flyers out to every corner of Equestria and gather every able bodied stallion and mare to our banner. Then, Dray, we will see who cannot defeat this armed mob of thugs.”

Dray looked at the salmon coated stallion, his gaze neutral. Nopony spoke until, with a gentle nod, Dray spoke,

“I suppose I can’t blame you, Captain Fry. You weren’t at River Valley were you?” He cast his stern gaze across the rest, “Some of you, the ones who were there, will understand all too well why I say to you now, that should we make any attempt to attack Nightmare Moons forces without at least a vast numerical superiority and support from dragons, we will be defeated and the last hope for Equestria will be snuffed out as easily as a candle in the wind.” His brown eyes hardened, “I understand and commend your enthusiasm, Captain Fry, but I can assure you that Equestrians are no match for an enemy such as this, should we go hoof to hoof with them.”

Captain Fry lifted his hoof, his face darkening, “You…you mean to say that our soldiers, the very best Equestria has to offer, would be defeated by these…things? Good Goddesses Dray, they’re using minotaurs! Mercenaries!”

Wild spoke up, “Have you ever seen a minotaur in battle, Fry? Have you ever seen a pony split in two with a war axe? Let me tell you, I have, and I sure as hell never want to see it again.”

The Princess raised her hoof, silencing the officers, “I have fought these creatures, these ‘thestrals’, and what Colonel Dray says it all too true. I hate to admit it, but it would appear that years of peace and lack of experience have…’softened’ our army and made them less capable of resisting such an enemy as we ‘d hoped.” She turned to Dray, “Colonel, what do you propose?”

“I say if we cannot defeat our enemy in a more conventional war, then we must fight unconventionally.” He swept his hoof across the map, “I propose we do as Captain Fry suggested: We contact our scattered forces, to recruit, yes, to train them on the march, yes, but not to bring them to one central point.” He shook his head, “No…we do what I had begun with our dragon allies, we hit them where it hurts,” he slammed his hoof on the map, “their supplies.”

One of the officers lifted a hoof, “But Colonel, the Thestral army is spread out, they won’t be getting centralised supplies now.”

Dray nodded, “Mostly that’s true. They are spread out, but our scouts have found that the majority of their supplies are still coming from one place. As strange as it sounds, the thing we have in our favour, is that they are carnivores.”

Several of the officers balked, staring at one another in horror. Others, the ones who had met the thestral’s in battle, never batted an eyelid. Dray made mental notes of the officers’ reactions. That information may come in useful later on. He continued,

“The thestrals use food brought in from a place in the north, a portal which connects with what we believe is their home land. Other supplies come in from various carnivore meat suppliers in Equestria such as griffins, minotaurs and so on.” He tapped a hoof on the map, “We hit those, we hit where it will impact them the most - their stomachs.”

“Won’t they turn on the population?” One mare asked levelly, “Equestrians are herbivores, so to these creatures we may be seen as a prey animal.”

The Princess nodded, “I believe this may indeed happen, however it would be a worst case scenario. Thestrals are adept at adapting to their environment and capable hunters of smaller creatures. As repugnant as it may sound, they will eat various different food sources. I presume, Colonel, that the intention of this strategy would be to break up the Legion’s cohesiveness?”

“In part,” Dray said motioning to the map, “but to have a noticeable effect we can’t stop there. We have to hit them when they are hunting for food, we hit them when they are sleeping, we hit them on the march. We must hit them whenever and however we can.” He fixed them all with a hard look, “We must be flexible. We have to hit and run, breaking them up as they search for an enemy that has already moved on. With our smaller numbers, it will give us a better chance of having any appreciable impact on the Legion and give us the time we need to build our strength.”

“Hardly honourable!” One of the officers said, “This was not the way we were taught to fight.”

“Nor I,” Dray said above the murmuring, “but our enemy does not play by our rules, Lieutenant and so we must adapt, adapt or we will fall, I assure you.”

“They’ll come looking for us.” Wild said, “They’ll be after the Princess.”

“Oh, I know that,” Dray grinned, “I’m banking on it.”

There was uproar as several officers began loudly remonstrating. It was the Princess herself, who stopped the fuss by little more than spreading her wings,

“Colonel, please continue.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Dray smiled at the worried expressions, “We start by using our pegasi to spread disinformation: where will the Princess be? Is she in the north preparing her forces for a final battle? Perhaps to the south, recruiting and consolidating her position? Maybe in the east, trying to gain allies from our neighbours? Who can say?” He took out his pipe and began loading it with tobacco, “You cannot attack that which you cannot find.” He banged his hoof on the table, making several jump, “If we cannot out fight them, we can outthink them. We will make them hunt for the Princess high and low, we will make them hungry, we will make them unable to sleep for fear of the pony in the night. Oh yes, brothers and sisters, we will be the true nightmare that stalks the darkness.”

There was silence. Several of the officers began nodding as every eye focussed on their Colonel. Dray looked at them all, pleased that even Captain Fry, the one he thought he’d have the most trouble with, now bore an expression of anticipation and, more importantly, hope. He himself couldn’t help but grin, his tail lashing from side to side. At last! At long last, they were moving forward.

“Officers of the Celestian army,” Celestia suddenly announced in a loud voice, “as of today, I am making Colonel Dray, General of the Celestian armed forces. He is to take full command and will have complete control over our strategies, deployments and recruitment.” She turned to Dray, “General, you will be answerable to me, however I assure you I will not interfere in your role nor will I second guess your decisions.” She readdressed the whole assembly, “Today, I am declaring total war against the forces of Nightmare Moon. Whatever it takes, no matter what the cost, I shall see that creature and her minions driven from our lands and peace restored to Equestria. We shall have our home back, ponies, and I shall do it if I have to wade chest deep through the bodies of our enemy.”

Major Wild lifted a hoof, “Your Majesty, what of Lord Ochre? We have heard he has betrayed Equestria and dissolved the army for his own personal profit.”

Celestia’s gaze made Wild take a step back; her eyes, normally so beautiful and wise, were now hard and almost…brutal,

“I know what he did, Major.” the Princess said quietly, “There is no home for any creature such as he in Equestria.”

“What of our allies?” Fry asked, “I don’t hold much love for dragons, but I’ll admit, I’d rather have them than not.”

Dray nodded, “Emissaries will be sent out to the dragons, as well as the Griffin Kingdom, Yakistan and Llamalia.”

This caused yet more rumblings, but mostly nods and excited mutterings.

“I shall be issuing orders to you all by the end of today. I trust I can depend on each and every one of you in this venture and impress upon you the necessity for absolute commitment. From now on, the shoes are off, everypony. Now see to your troops, we have a lot of work to do.”

The Princess watched the ponies file out one by one until only only Dray and herself were left. She sat back in her chair and sighed, stretching her wings,

“I never thought it would come to this, Dray, never…”

“I know, Your Majesty” Dray took out a box of matches, “Do you mind…?”

Celestia shook her head, “No.” she lifted a hoof and looked down at it, the neat gold hoof cover with its filigree work was so beautifully made, it was hard to believe it had been intended for war countless centuries ago.

“I have to say,” Dray said around his pipe stem, “I never thought they would accept it. Many of them are quite set in the ‘old way of thinking’. I think it goes to show just how much we’ve all been through to get to this point.” Dray took a mouthful of the fragrant pipe smoke, “It’s a sad day, Your Majesty, although, I’d like to think, the first day towards our liberation.”

Celestia nodded sadly, looking out at the ponies moving around the campsite,

“If I didn’t believe that to be the case, I wouldn’t have said what I did…General.”

“General…” Dray mused letting out a thin plume of smoke, “I’m not sure if I really wanted a promotion.” He suddenly jumped, realising how he’d sounded, “That is, not that I’m not exceptionally grateful Your Majesty.”

Celestia chuckled, “That’s one of the reasons why I made you General.” She raised her goblet and took a mouthful of water, “I wish i’d done it before River Valley. If I had, then this may all have been unnecessary.”

Dray shrugged, “We can’t change the past, but we can look forward to a bright future. With you back, Your Majesty, ponies will gather to your banner, eager for the sun to return to their lives.”

“It will, General Dray,” The Princess replied, “I can assure you of that.”

Dray nodded. It felt strange talking to the Princess like this, but it was what she wanted. Being able to have free rein, to be able to take the war to the enemy without interference from ‘up top’ was what they needed, in fact, what they had needed right from the outset. But what if he was wrong? What if he didn’t know what he was doing? Dray took a draw on his pipe and scratched his mane. Good Goddesses, if he did get it wrong, it could be the end of Equestria…

On the guards poked his head round the door,

“General Dray?”

Dray stifled a laugh; word certainly did travel fast around here! “Yes?” he said looking up at the guard.

“There’s something coming.”

“’Something coming’?” Dray went to scratch his chin and then suddenly jumped to his hooves, “They’re here!”

Celestia laughed, “Are you a gambling stallion, Colonel?”

“I…no, Your Majesty,” he replied, “I’m not.”

“Well, shall we take a wager?” the Princess grinned, heading towards the tent door, “Love or money?”

“As a cynic I’d be tempted to say money” Dray smiled, “But I think I’d be a fool to bet on a losing pony.”

Celestia smiled, “You would indeed, General, you would indeed.”

The Princess was still laughing as she stepped outside to watch the distant outline of a sky galleon in full sail heading towards them.

Comments

[That One Brony Dude]

Let me guess, Chalk is going to do something stupid to Shallow Fry, something to really piss him off. Something like... oh, I don't know, pissing in his fruit juice.