Canterlot
Broad Sword stood atop one of the walls surrounding the royal castle, looking out over the city spanning lower down the mountain. With everything that had been happening to Equestria as of late, the more morbid side of his brain would have been forgiven for imagining an unstoppable changeling swarm tearing away the surface beneath the city and watching the capital of Equestria tumble down into the land below.
That was definitely low down on his list of ways to go out. Falling down a mountain among countless debris and fellow corpses, with next to no chance of ever being found and identified for burial. What would be the point? He’d already be buried, and he doubted that the Empress gave a shit.
The Captain of the Solar Guard gave a huff, using a hoof to rub some of the weariness from his eyes. He scolded that morbid part of his brain, deciding that he would be of better use imagining the brighter scenarios that could occur.
He liked to think those scenarios were the more likely ones, but once again the morbid side of his brain spoke out in protest, this time with some half-hearted assistance from the logical side too.
Broad Sword sighed. He was alone on that particular part of the battlements, just having dismissed a couple of young guardsponies to their duties. Had he ever been that young?
He supposed he had. Too bad he gave up that part of himself so soon to take on a no-nonsense type, at least until a trip to a secret terrorist lair taught him to enjoy what fleeting life he had.
In line with that, he had to wonder how things might have been different if he hadn’t made himself such an easy impersonation for Serpens. What if he had stopped the infiltrator before he left his mark on Queen Twilight Sparkle? In truth he didn’t think about it all that much, being that it was ancient history by that point. But times like the one in which he found himself were perfect condition for prodding old wounds, however unpleasant.
What if he had stopped Serpens before things got underway? Would Crudelis have murdered Queen Vespula? And how would that have affected things going forwards? Longshot. Draco. Chrysalis. All those ponies and changelings who had fallen victim to the congoing conflict resultant from that one event setting all things into motion. Would they have died?
But then again, would he have changed anything at all? It wasn’t like he could spy on alternate timelines at will, and such questions were things he would never have the answer to.
“So there’s no point thinking about it,” he muttered to himself, preparing to depart to battlements and move onto his many other outstanding duties.
“There you are,” Scarlet Snow stated as she finished her climb up the steps, their eight year old colt trotting alongside her. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“I’m on duty, there’s only so many places I’m going to be,” he replied. “What’s the matter?”
“We’ve barely spoken to each other since the night before last, I’ve heard about Manehatten and everywhere else. Hay, who hasn’t by now? And as the Captain of the Solar Guard I can scarcely imagine how much pressure you’re under.”
“I’m handling it. It’s part of the job,” he stated. “And I’m sorry we haven’t spoken lately, but with everything that’s going on…”
Scarlet held up a hoof. “I never said I blamed you or anything. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
“Yeah, but Mum’s been kinda sad since yesterday…” Valiant sheepishly spoke up.
“I see…” Broad Sword gave another sigh, he already knew why that would specifically be. “You still had friends stationed at Fort Hurricane, right? I suppose they didn’t make it.”
“One or two did,” she responded. “But… yeah, the rest didn’t make it. Ponies I knew since basic training, gone in a moment…”
Broad Sword gave his wife a comforting nuzzle. “Are you going to be ok?”
“I will be,” she assured her husband. “I was EUP, remember? Handling loss isn’t just something the guard are trained for.”
“You’re not in the EUP anymore,” he pointed out.
She sighed, looking out over the battlements just as Broad Sword had been a few minutes prior. “Some things never leave you. For better or worse.”
“Are you alright?” Valiant asked both of his parents. “I don’t like it when you’re sad.”
Both his parents shot him a smile, Broad Sword patting his son on the head. “Eh, we’ll be fine. Your mother and I are a tough bunch, which just makes you all the stronger.”
Valiant protested at the head patting, but puffed up with pride at the comment. “Yeah! I’ll be the toughest guard ever!”
Scarlet chuckled. “Just don’t forget some finesse to go along with that toughness.”
“Fin… what?” Valiant asked.
“It means that being a guard isn’t always about pure muscle,” she explained, shooting her husband a wry smile. “Which, many years ago, is why I was the once rescuing your father and not the other way around.”
“You and countless others, including Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis,” he deadpanned in response. “And I remember you came away with a broken leg, AND on top of that I saved Vladimir.”
Scarlet snorted. “Like a broken leg was going to stop me. They had to force me to get medical care.”
“So much for your brains over muscle argument,” he remarked with amusement.
Scarlet puffed up her cheeks. “I was full of adrenaline! I didn’t even realise it was broken!”
“Uhh, is this a bad time?” Façade asked, an amused Carduus limping alongside him.
“No, not at all,” Broad Sword denied. “Just a friendly debate, nothing much.”
“I heard the part about broken legs and adrenalin,” Carduus commented. “But I can trump that. I have a crippled body and I wager I’d still beat you in a fight, Broad Sword.”
Broad Sword responded with a deadpan look. “Right. I’m sure you could…”
“Anyway…” Façade interrupted, apparently eager to move the conversation onwards. “You’re Princess sent us to get you. We’re all wanted in the war room.”
“All of us?” Broad Sword questioned with a frown, and with no small amount of dread. “What’s happened now?”
“Your Princess is a mare of a mission, that’s what,” Façade responded. “She seems to have the idea that she can take out the Empress pretty soon.”
“…Huh?”
“Yeah. Your Element Bearers came back to the city with Queen Twilight’s dragon assistant, Spike. Now the Princess wants to talk tactics, and Carduus here is going to tell them exactly where to find the hive.”
“Rendering their perception filter useless,” Carduus added in. “And with the majority of the swarm here, there may not be so many held back, I’d hope.”
“You’d ‘hope’?”
“Yeah, well… we’ll need a lot of that,” Carduus responded. “We still need to collect Vladimir. Come on.”
Broad Sword nodded, and then turned to his family. “Sorry, Princess’ orders. But we’ll talk more tonight.”
“Ever the busy stallion,” she commented in return, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Go on, don’t let me keep you.”
After finishing up his farewells, Broad Sword fell into step beside the two changelings who had come to collect him. Vladimir also fell into step not so long after that, Broad Sword having known where to quickly find him, and so they all then headed up to the war room as requested.
“Do you really think that you could make it up to the hive?” Shining Armor asked worriedly.
“That is not in question, and we know many spells to keep us concealed against the land on which we travel,” Celestia answered. “Both in the day…”
“…And during the night,” Luna finished up. “And with the swarm occupied, it should make things all the easier. Worry not, Prince Armor, our journey to the hive will be swift and precise.”
When the meeting had begun, the Princess had adjusted the projected map to the region of the world where she knew the hive was roughly located. It had been a simple matter for Carduus to then point out the exact location, and the Princess had even allowed him to create a small little representation of the hive on said map.
“I still feel like I and some guards should accompany you,” Shining complained.
“It’s best to keep the group as small as possible,” Celestia rebutted. “And no offence, but the Empress would kill any such guards with the utmost ease.”
Shining grumbled at that, but didn’t argue further.
“So shall that leave Shining in charge in the meantime? Surely not Prince Blueblood…” Cadance enquired.
“Neither,” Celestia responded. “I trust it won’t be any trouble, niece?”
Cadance’s eyes narrowed. “I’m an alicorn too. I may not be a thousand years old, but I’m not unfamiliar with my magic.”
“And Equestria needs a princess should we fall,” Celestia argued back. “No, you’re more so needed here. And you can help spread the word that we’re simply going to another city to help boost morale there. I’ll leave the details to you.”
“What about taking a changeling as a guide at least?” Broad Sword suggested.
“It would help you prevent getting lost,” Vladimir agreed.
“Our sense of direction is not so impaired,” Celestia rebuked. “Carduus is not in a condition to make such a dangerous journey. Young Façade hasn’t got the same experience, and on top of that any and all changelings are highly susceptible to the Empress’ hive mind assimilation.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Carduus summed up.
“So what are the rest of us meant to do in the meantime?” Façade enquired.
“Much the same, I would imagine,” Luna replied. “You do not need us to direct your lives. That responsibility is in your own hooves, and always has been.”
“You’ve never directed my life, I’m not your subject,” Façade pointed out. “I just want to help if I can. Carduus is the same way.”
“Agreed. But if I got into a fight, Panacea will never let me hear the end of it,” Carduus stated. “Nor the Queen for that matter. They both hate it when I ‘overexert’ my battered body.”
“Having a wife of my own, I can somewhat sympathise,” Broad Sword jokingly remarked.
“Don’t you agree with them,” Cadance warned Shining Armor, spotting her own husbands smirk. “But back on topic, I’m still not sure I like staying behind.”
“Equestria need you, Cadance,” Celestia stressed. “This is important, please.”
Cadance didn’t respond for a moment, but then gave out a relenting sigh. “Fine. But you owe me, auntie.”
“I’ll bear that in mind,” Celestia said. “We shall depart the first thing in the morning, the moment I raise the sun into the sky. Once we reach the hive we shall incapacitate the hopefully small vanguard there, nonlethally given what our success would mean, and then confront the Empress.”
“My shadow form should help with incapacity the guards,” Luna added in. “It’s a good thing that Nightmare Night has allowed me to stay in practice with that spell.”
“The Empress should fear the coming Nightmare of the Moon,” Vladimir muttered under his breath.
“The Empress is powerful, but so are we,” Celestia stated. “I suppose we shall all be tested in the days to come. We shall make haste, and with any luck return with Twilight and the rest of her kind freed to make their own decision and carry out their own lives once more.”
“Once last thing,” Vladimir spoke up. “For Hurricane and Ponyville were both morale shattering losses. Victories at Las Pegasus and Vanhoover, and the ongoing work to hunt down the remnants of those attack forces, have helped. But with Manehatten’s brutality, things are at their lowest.”
“Your point?” Luna asked her Captain of the Guard.
“All of these attacks seemed geared towards destroying morale, don’t you think?”
“She’s trying to break the spirits of you ponies,” Façade said in agreement. “Even with that business with Queen Crudelis and some of these other threats you people have faced over the past however many years, war is still a largely foreign concept for the majority of the populace.”
“An astute observation,” Celestia complimented the changeling. “A populace without resistance would be far simpler to add into the Empress’ coming empire. Resistance would be most troubling for her.”
“If we were to surrender today, you can bet your tail ponies would resist nationwide,” Shining Armor protested. “We’re hardly beaten.”
“No, we’re not,” Luna agreed. “But that is the Empress’ intent.”
“Logically, the next step would be Canterlot,” Carduus pointed out. “Take out the capital, have it tumble off the mountain for all Equestria to see. And with it, take out all three princesses and leave Equestria without its leaders. The EUP would be in chaos, ponies would flee left right and centre. In a way, it’s no different to a changeling having their hive connection suddenly severed.”
Canterlot falling from the mountain. For Broad Sword, he couldn’t help but think back to his thoughts from earlier. “The Element Bearers are here too. If they were also killed here, the message would be that no matter where one runs, the swarm will always catch up to you in the end.”
“It wouldn’t necessarily be overnight, but it would mark Equestria’s end,” Vladimir finished.
“Another reason to end this as soon as possible,” Celestia stated. “But the city isn’t undefended. Shining Armor, the moment this meeting is concluded you are to raise your shield around the city until the crisis is done. Cadance can help you maintain it.”
Shining Armor nodded. “I can do that.”
“We’re already running extra drills, we can defend the city should it come to it,” Broad Sword said. “To the very end.”
Luna frowned darkly. “Then let us hope the end is in our favour.”
It was a sight they had seen before, but not for a very long time. The wedding of Princess Cadance and the then Captain Shining Armor was a long ago memory, but there nonetheless. That event had introduced the changelings to the world, and so things had come around full circle.
All eyes looked up at the castle as an impossibly bright bolt of magenta magic pierced up into the skies above Canterlot. From that bolt of magic a barrier began to form, a massive sphere of pure energy that soon encompassed the whole city. Already fearful ponies became even more so, the shield signifying the very real threat of attack.
And so Canterlot was completely covered in Shining Armor’s shield spell, ready for the worst. The Royal Sisters prepared to do what needed to be done for the sake of all their little ponies.
Soon we see how act 2 ends and the follows of it, either be good or bad. doubting its anything good
I have some idea about Empress plan.
Empress want to turn alicorns against self by broking mental dams of one of them using Twilight, turning Celestia into Daybreaker. She don't need to defeat alicorns, they will defeat each other, because Luna would never accept such state of her sister. Empress will simply escape to watch this all from far. If Daybreaker win, she will do everything to kill Empress, even destroy her own country, so still win for Empress, as she just wait for this. Ponies fighting their own leader. About Empress not knowing about Daybreaker, she has all Twilight's knowlegde about Nightmare Moon, so she know how it work with alicorns. Also she almost certainly know about Celestia feelings toward Twilight.
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Immortalis has no idea that Dayreaker exists.
A Royal Problem never happened. Only Luna knows what lays deep within Celestia.
The time for peace has come and gone.
Now all shall know the wraith and fury of the Sun.
For now The Daybreaker has come.
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True, my wrong. I sometimes forget about such AU details.
The trap is set, waiting for the bait. The flies are coming to the web.
The "if" should be "of".
The "to" should be "too".
#unleashdaybreaker
Discord were are you pleas help your closes friend
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The Empress is NOT a match for Celestia, let alone Celestia and Luna. Not even all the queens and the Empress together are. Because if they were, they wouldn't need to run around hiding. They would just walk up to canterlot and 1 shot Celestia easily.
But the worse is that Celestia is weak. She rarely fights, doesn't want to fight, and rusty with killing spells or ideas. But when she snaps. Not if, but WHEN she snaps, the entire planet is doomed. The Elements of Harmony are the only thing that will stop her. Not even All the Queens, Alicorns, and Empress working together will even dent Day Breaker. She would just literally send out solar flares and cook everything alive.
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The Empress doesn't hide, she tries to play it smart.
War ain't that simple.
You seem to be basing your comment form you own personal headcanon. It's not going to be quite as one sided as you appear to speculate. At least, not at first.
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War actually IS that simple. You walk in and take out the commanding leader, and country loses it's head. From there you massacre all the military and they suddenly can't fight. You might have some rebels here and there but they are small and futile.
The common people, or ponies in this case, ultimately don't care who is in charge, as long as they are left alone and 'normal'. If the changelings just changed into normal ponies to take over the leadership and guard roles, not a single pony would protest after a few weeks if everything goes back to normal. They live normal lives, the Changelings feed on them, everything is peaceful with Changelings in charge.
But the Empress is stupid and doesn't want that.
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Never mind that they wouldn't actually let you do that without a fight. And there are a great many variables in a war, otherwise every war in history would have been over in a day.
And rebels are futile? Someone has never watched Star Wars. Or thought back on the American War for Independence to give a real life example.
They care. And don't say they don't, I'm the author and they care.
The same result coming from what Twilight was trying to do diplomatically. The Empress doesn't want coexistence, she wants changeling domination. That's the whole point.
And that's my piece on the matter. The argument is done.
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War is complicated as HELL. If it wasn't, then why write these all books about tactic, strategy, logistics, forces cooperation, soldier's motivation, military doctrines etc.? Why teach officers and soldiers for years in academies? How it was possible for badly armed rebeliants to defeat bigger regular armies?
And people care who rule them. If they don't, they deserve nothing as they are oportunistic cowards.
My nation (Poles) fought for 123 years under participation by Prussia/Germany, Russia and Austria to regain indepandence, to withhold our identity, as they wanted to denationalize us, paying with blood and suffering from opressors for this fight. By your logic I and my countrymens should be content Germans and Russians at this point.
Americans have their Independence War, Indians their peaceful revolution under Ghandi, Italians Risorgimento etc.. So you know nothing about this matter, I'm afraid.
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I am not talking about war in real life. Because war in real life is different. The biggest being that A, we are all equal in power. And B, ponies are a very peaceful race that hasn't seen war in a long time. In this story it was 9 years ago? Then 1000 before that?
For us in real life, Tactics and Motivation is needed for war. But for Changelings vs Ponies? Both sides have powers and abilities that we humans don't have access to. Namely Magic. And the Changelings have access to 18 Queens that are more powerful than entire cities full of guards each. It's already been shown that 1 single Changeling Queen can take out an entire Military Base single handed by using Telekinesis to stop an entire squad and then using mind control on them that they can't break out of until someone stops them.
The Queens can literally sneak in and use that on every single soldier and guard in every city. That's 1 way.
Another is sneaking up under Canterlot and then literally destroying the supports for it while the swarm waits above to pick off any pegasi trying to fly out. It would be a slaughter, especially if no one knows what is happening. No shield would be able to hold under all that pressure, unicorns wouldn't be able to teleport out far enough to not be seen and caught/killed by the Swarm, and the Alicorns would be so disoriented and morally sad at losing so many ponies and their capital and home that picking them off would be easier. Especially of the EoH were there too and also died. That was even pointed out in the newest chapter.
Another is systematically going through and killing every single pony, in every single town at the same time. There are 18 Queens, and it's shown that normal ponies don't stand a chance against Queens. So 1 Queen attacking 1 village/town each would quickly overwhelm resources for the ponies as they don't have enough guards or soldiers to send to reinforce every single town/city.
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Finally tho, lets talk about your post specifically. It's funny you mention all those fights. Namely they all have something in common. 2 things really. First, is that It's all about CHANGE. Something my original post pointed out. Someone came in and tried to CHANGE something and the people freaked out about it. No one likes change. The American Independence War, Your war for 123 years, and most other wars in the world, get so bloody from the people because things change for the people themselves.
But take a look at wars that don't effect the people themselves. Wars that happen outside of the home country. Being an american, lets focus on the wars here. Vietnam War, World War 1 & 2, and even the newer war I think is still going on over in Afganistan. All these wars are bad. However, they aren't effecting the common people. Because of this, most common people here in america didn't care about the wars. the US government tried many things in World War 1 and 2 to promote that the Axis powers were bad and america were good with Cartoons and video games and advertisement and movies during those times.
Why? Why try to convince the people the people we were fighting are bad? Because to us normal people, since it didn't effect us, we didn't care or even notice that there was a war going on. Our daily lives never changed. We still did the same things, talked to the same people, ate the same food, went to the same jobs. And because of that, most of us didn't care. There were wars going on, but we just shrugged and went back to work and normal life.
Again, talking about Humans vs Changelings. We humans don't have the ability to turn into other people. Changelings literally can wipe out the government and Army, replace them, and then continued on as if nothing changed. People might freak out at first. But once everything calmed down after a few weeks or months, things WOULD mostly go back to normal. They might have some Rebels here and there from the smarter people or the idealist people, or even the racist that don't like Changelings. But after 1 or 2 generations all those people will be gone. And whats more all the common ponies living their normal lives day to day. Aka every pony that lives in Canterlot, Ponyville, and other towns? They would go back to their day to day live and continue to live the same lives again and again. Because to do otherwise means to CHANGE and they don't like doing that. Especially as a peaceful race.
It would take the changelings... what, 2-3 days to Systematically wipe out the entire pony Army? They don't sleep as was pointed out, don't have exhaustion, and out number and out power the army 10 fold and have access to magic, flight, and tactics from 18 Queens that have lived and fought for a long time. What IS stopping them from just wiping them out?
Anyways, all of this doesn't matter, because as I pointed out and the Author overlooked while also confirmed, none of this are things the Empress care about or would do. She doesn't want peace with ponies and ruling in the shadows. What she wants is to be in charge and effect change to all ponies. Which of course, CHANGE happening, will effect the common ponies and get them pissed and active.
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There is one matter you don't touch. It's why Empress want to conquer Equestria and world exept from pride. She want food source, love. She can't murder or terror everybody, because if she do her conqest is senseless, as dead ponies or ponies who know only suffering, fear and hate aren't good source of love. Also it's possible that during cooperation between Equestria and Queen Twilight, she maybe showed or builded some failsafes against changelings "just in case" for Equestria, which existence prevent Empress from frontal attack, as she could win pyrrycaly, losing too many drones.
Also queens under Empress yoke aren't 100% effective, as they lack most of free will and creativeness, so needed on battlefield.
An remember, Celestia and Luna move sky and are unreplaceable for now, so Empress can't simple kill them, even if she want.
She need to made them surrender.
And I really doubt, that any nation on this world would ever accept dominance of race using us as food. Or any other race, even generally good ones like ponies under Celestia.
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I'd request you stop here. Relegate any arguments to PMs, we don't want walls of text in the comments.
Don't just... talk about your battle plans in the open!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?!?!