Chapter 29: Polestar
Hayden stared down at Fort Polestar from the bridge of her army’s only airship, frowning slightly to herself at the distinct lack of battle damage. The Sirius had once been Lord Snow Storm’s pleasure yacht, before they got their hooves on it. Needless to say, the ship had changed a little in the last few months.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked down, searching for what should have been obvious signs of battle. Burned buildings, chunks of the wall torn away, something.
But she couldn’t see anything like that. This fort was the largest north of Defiance, it had a complement of just under five thousand ponies, and it had gone silent without a word. What terrible disaster had happened here to make thousands of ponies vanish?
“I don’t like this,” said Skylark, her hoof-picked captain. The pony was one of the oldest in the guard, one of those who had been most vocal with their refusal to obey Celestia’s order to move south. He was a unicorn, though ponies who couldn’t fly on airship crews were quite common.
“Where’s the damage?” Hayden muttered. “Shouldn’t there have been a huge battle here?”
“Violence rarely breaks a fortification like this,” Skylark said, pacing slowly along the edge of the lower deck, towards the stairs. They passed two large cannons—the ship had six in all, though it could’ve easily carried twice that. It was more about the speed they were manufacturing them, and less about what could be carried at any one time. “The Stonebreaks are a mobile enemy. It would be easier to avoid the fortress and be vigilant against its raids than try to take it.”
“You think the soldiers could’ve gone somewhere, maybe?” Hayden kept her voice down—she was conscious of the eyes of the other elites she had brought watching them. The Sirius could hold fifty soldiers, and she had brought about that number.
“No,” Skylark replied. “If they had, somepony would’ve flown far enough to deliver a message. We didn’t hear anything. Either the whole fortress deserted, or…”
Hayden might’ve said how likely she thought that was, though in some ways Icefalls had done the same thing. Not that Celestia knew it. “You think it’s possible they could have gone to the enemy?”
Skylark shrugged one shoulder. “There are fires burning in the fortress. Look at the smoke. Somepony is living down there. We can hope that something went wrong and they couldn’t send a messenger for some reason, but… I’m not sure about sending you down there, General.”
Hayden glanced briefly back at Sirius’s new canons. “Is there anywhere a large force could be hiding?” She pointed over the edge with one wing. “I thought that was the point of building out here in the first place. There’s no shelter from the snow and the cold except for the fort for a dozen miles in any direction.”
“Nowhere for a large force to be hiding except the fort itself, General,” Skylark said. “It can house four times its complement. It wasn’t built to keep off barbarians—there was a time when Equestria had real enemies.”
“I’m glad we don’t,” Hayden muttered. “The Stonebeaks are evil enough.”
Captain Skylark shrugged. “I can take us down if you want, General. But remember—ponies and birds can both fly faster than sails. Once we drop down there, we’ll be vulnerable. You will be vulnerable.”
“I understand.” Hayden took a step back. “Get the drop team mobilized.”
It only took them a few minutes. Some shouting through the ship, hooves pounding, and there were two lines of ten ponies assembled before her. Most were bats, though there were some pegasi sprinkled in.
They all wore the new armor—the same blade-resistant fabric as the uniforms, with polymer plates over the chest and matching helmets. It was lighter than steel, though far stronger. Despite its age, the only weapons that could crack the armor were weapons Hayden had provided.
Not that it would do these ponies any good if the griffons attacked them somewhere else. Too bad there was only enough of this for fifty men.
“Drop team is assembled, ma’am!” Skylark shouted, saluting. As he did, twenty ponies imitated his gesture.
These were her elites—the most experienced, ruthless soldiers they could find. Every one of them had seen combat against the Stonebeaks. Every one of them had killed.
“Ponies of Icefalls,” she said, spinning around on her hooves to face them. “Three thousand of our brothers and sisters were living here. We would like them safely returned—but if they have been killed or captured, that is information we need too. Do not hold yourselves responsible for what you find down there.
“Get down to Polestar, determine what happened, and do not subject yourselves to unnecessary risk. The instant it looks like you might be in danger, or you learn what we need to know, get back here. If our brothers and sisters are down there captive, don’t try to rescue them. You will have all our help to do that when you get back here.”
They met her commands with salutes, then vanished over the side of Sirius’s railing.
It wasn’t like the airship Avalon had given them. There was no wake to worry about, no air intake to get caught in. Pony airships worked on simpler principles.
Hayden watched the ponies vanish into the dark, wishing she could go with them. But Skylark was right, obviously. It was dangerous enough for her to be here at all. Icefalls had not yet reached the point where it could continue her plan without her.
There was a little she needed to be doing while the mission below went on. Hayden made her way down the length of the ship, past the four cannon crews. Humans could do their jobs with as few as three men, not counting the soldiers protecting them. Her crews had nine ponies—four to operate the gun, one to direct it, and three soldiers to protect it. Granted, her crews on the Sirius didn’t have their own soldiers.
“Something wrong, General?” asked Skylark from behind her. He’d done a pretty good job sneaking up on her—an obvious sign she was too on edge to be doing this.
Hayden’s ears moved, searching out any sound beyond the wind in the sails. Her breath puffed out in front of her. “I’m… not sure. Ready all guns, Captain.”
“With what, ma’am?”
“Scattershot.”
He saluted, then surged past her. He blew on the whistle around his neck, blowing a few quick signals. All four of the crews rushed up from below-decks, already dressed and armed with swords and other pony weapons. They took their positions as though they’d been drilling this for years and not a month.
Hayden felt a little better as she watched them rush through the ritual—cleaning each gun, moistening it, loading the charge, preparing the fuse, packing in the payload… watching ponies moving was better than just sitting there doing nothing while the drop crew investigated Polestar.
Hayden’s books suggested a human crew could fire cannons like these every ninety seconds.
Something thumped onto the deck behind Hayden. She spun around, whole body tensing for a fight. A sailor’s body, blood spreading from his throat onto the deck. One of her scouts.
Something large landed atop his body a second later, sharpened claw digging into the dead flesh. Shouts rang up from all around her, as ponies readied weapons. They all seemed to fade into the background as Hayden saw her first griffon.
It was massive—larger even than her biggest stallion. Maybe even taller than Celestia. The bird wore armored barding across much of its body, leather scale-male with glittering bronze plates inside. His beak looked sharp enough to tear out eyes, his claws dripped with blood. So far as she could tell, it carried no other weapons.
“We take Equestria’s advance position in the north, and you are all they send? Pathetic.”
“General!” came Skylark’s shout from behind her. Ponies surrounded them, though none got within several paces. These weren’t new recruits, to be frightened away by death. They only looked hardened at the body of the sailor, eager. Weapons were drawn, rifles aimed. They were also disciplined enough that they didn’t attack.
Hayden raised a hoof in a simple gesture—a command to hold. “If anything else moves in the sky, shoot it,” Hayden ordered. Her own rifle followed her eyes, which were fixed on the griffon. If it charged, she would finally try Avalon’s fancy technology against something that wasn’t wood or straw.
“We are taking your ship,” said the griffon, its voice deep and strange. Outside the normal vocal range for most ponies, and thickly accented language. “You will surrender and join our slaves, or you will die.”
Hayden could hear something from below. Shouting struggle, wings in the air. The strange accelerator rifles of the Steel Tower made little noise, but she could hear grunts of pain. They didn’t sound like ponies.
“Captain, flare,” Hayden ordered, turning back to the bird with contempt on her face. “Interesting suggestion. What have you done with the ponies of Polestar?”
The griffon laughed, baring a stained beak in her direction. “Same thing we do with you, strange pony. Some eat, some work, some… other things. Most do them all before the end.” He raised his voice. “If any of you wish to live, you will obey! This strange ship will be ours, but at least some of you will survive the winter. That is better than what will happen if you resist.”
There was activity over the edge of the ship. Shouting, at first. “They’re coming! Griffons! From the fort!” She recognized the voice from the drop team. A few seconds later, they came clambering over the edge. Harried, a few of them wounded—but she counted all dozen of them. They’d escaped, somehow.
“Captain, full retreat!” Hayden ordered. “Cannons, prepare to fire! Staggered by crew, on captain’s whistle!”
Her elites didn’t hesitate—they scrambled to their positions. Ponies dropped sail, crews waited poised with cannons ready to fire. Soldiers rushed around the deck, preparing to fend off boarders.
“You’ve chosen to die, then!” The griffon hopped off the corpse, advancing on Hayden. “I will enjoy starting with you.”
“Sorry, no time.” Hayden twitched her head slightly, firing two shots in quick succession. He wore no helmet, so there was nothing to stop the accelerator rounds. The griffon dropped limply to the ground, trailing blood from a few small openings in his head. He didn’t even twitch.
Hayden turned away in time to see the cloud of birds rising from Polestar below. It was hard to judge at a glance just how many they were. Stonebeaks did not fly with squads, or formations, or any conventional strategy other than attacking at the same time and with terrible barbarity. It was likely that the one she had just killed was some kind of leader, though she wouldn’t have the time to search his body and find out.
“Down angle six degrees!” she heard one of the gun-commanders on the starboard side call, even as the Sirius began to turn. Baring two of its four guns directly into the densest clouds of birds. Skylark whistled once, then again.
Enormous explosions shook the ship, and plumes of smoke rose from both guns. Hayden was caught completely unprepared for the awful volume of the cannons, even though she had been there for their design and testing. They set her ears to ringing, and for a few seconds, her senses were overwhelmed. Her vision came back first, and she could see bits of the advancing birds dropping in meaty chunks onto the lower ranks. The gun-crews were wearing ear protection, and they’d been drilled for this. They went back through the ritual, each pony in their place as they worked.
The advancing cloud of birds began to slow. Hayden could practically make out their horrified faces—these might be hardened barbarians, but they had never seen gunpowder before.
“Fire the other two!” Hayden shouted, not sure if her voice would even carry over all the noise. “Now!”
The port guns were both pointing at nothing—but the captain obeyed anyway. A few more whistles, and this time Hayden flattened her ears, raising a hoof in the way to try and cover the sound. It helped, though maybe that was just her preparation. Two more earth-shattering booms shook the world… and on the hill below, snow began to rumble. The avalanche began small but quickly grew large enough to rip down trees. Snow blasted down the slope towards Polestar, the awful volume dislodging even more snow from other peaks. Most of it went nowhere useful, except into making a terrible noise. It sounded a little like the earth itself was ripping open.
Hayden watched as the distant fortress was buried, and the cloud of birds following them stopped.
They didn’t follow—not as they got their guns loaded again, not as the Sirius reached its cruising speed through the clouds.
Hayden relaxed, glancing back at the body of the dead griffon. She’d almost forgotten it was there. “Somepony shove this garbage overboard.”
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If this works, Celestia is going to have an actively hostile nation on her northern border.
My exact line of thought
I have a nitpick and a question:
Shouldn't this be cannons?
I don't understand why Avalon is suppying them with Steel Tower technology. Is there an in-story explanation I've forgotten?
8719614
Fixed that for you.
8719774
I think Avalon comes from a time both factions were cooperating. Not sure when, but the inter-dimensional travel wasn't consistent in respect to time.
It's moments like this where I'm reminded Hayden is a veteran of war. She doesn't even flinch. Attagirl!
I almost feel bad for the poor birdcat.
Almost.
Scattershot cannons. Thunder and fire and smoke, without lightning but with iron behind, with the power to bend mountains to their will and fell a score flyers in a singular stroke. Warriors in enchanted cloth harder than steel and weapons that kill with nary a sound. Hayden created quite a legend this night, one that will only grow greater one she defends hey city in the north.
And one that will make Celestia tremble in fear of their vengeance for having abandoned her little ponies to be prey to winter and claw.
I wonder who that griffon was. Hayden is probably correct that it was some sort of leader, but there's a potentially important question of how much of a leader it was relative to the entire invasion force.
I actually wonder, how would these Griffins react if they understood that they were being used as Celestias pawns to deal with a problem she has? It might cause a bit of inner discord and maybe some of their members would break out to strike Equestrian heartland instead of stopping to subdue the boarderlands.
Some rumors about "Griffons who are Celestias lap-dogs" could be quite valuable indeed. Those also would be a stike against Celestia herself. I mean, if you have two problems, you should work diligently to have them solving eachothers. Celestia would be in quite bad position to say ANYTHING against it since she ordered a full retreat and is enforcing no Nocturnals on Equestria policy.
"Did you hear? Celestia has been paying tribute to the Northern Griffins, and has struck a deal with them to destroy those Ponies her sister created?"
"Oh i heard that Celestia is keeping Luna as prisoner in her tower nowdays! You did not hear it from me but apparently she is IS the tribute to the Griffins!"
"I actually heard that the Northern Griffins are really pretty weak warriors, Celestia has just allowed them to win since they do her bidding, why else would they do as she degrees?"
"I am sure this is untrue, but Celestia has unnatural desires for her sisters and she is being held captive, her retainers fled to North to try to consolidate their powers before they were purged!"
Etc etc, and a lot of the stories would get more founding as ponies notice Starswirl is in the north with the ponies...
8720149
None will believe the first survivors.
They'll be seen as lies, cowards and weaklings even with the corpses with unknown weapon wounds.
It won't be until the second time until a raiding party comes back shredded that they'll be believed.
I think this song really suits this story well.
Also, wouldn't it be easy to make a blunderbuss? They might be slow to reload, but would cause quite a scare of the enemy gets close. Especially with their destructive power and sound.
Welp. If I'm reading that correctly, that's twenty suits of space-age armor Hayden's never going to see again. Granted, I may not be reading that correctly; otherwise, it's no match for griffon talons, and things just got a lot worse in that case.
Still, at least the cannons work, both as weapons and intimidation tactics. The latter won't last forever, but it's still a definite point in favor of the ponies.
There's espionage, diplomacy, and strategy, but shock-and-awe with superior firepower is the most satisfying.
Damn...that was sad. Those poor ponies in that Fort T_T
Shots fired!
8720923
Not twenty.
Eight, maybe seven.
8719774
Avalon gave her the small amount of equipment fit for ponies that was already lying around. He mentions that this isn't the first time humans armed the ponies during his chapter.
8720923
The recon team was 12, and all of them came back.
"but she counted all dozen of them. They'd escaped, somehow."
8719774
Avalon gave her the small amount of equipment fit for ponies that was already lying around. He mentions that this isn't the first time humans armed the ponies during his chapter.
Hell yeah!