Evening Star Also Rises

by Starscribe

Chapter 46: New Moon

Morning dawned in flames.

Hayden could see them from her tower—a dozen little fires, slowly spreading across Icefalls from every direction. She’d made many changes to the way the city was built—they wouldn’t burn down in a day, even without the fire-crews to put out the flames. But most pony structures were wood. It was only a matter of time before the entire city was ash.

Hayden watched from behind her generals—listening as casualty reports continued to pour in. They estimated at least a hundred enemy ships had been destroyed so far. But the guns they still had were running low on powder, or ammunition. Several crews had been wiped out by the enemy.

She always knew when that happened because of the explosion. Her elites would not permit the guns to fall into enemy hands, and potentially be turned against the city. When they were about to fall, somepony within would ignite the powder magazine, and the tower would disintegrate in a spectacular fireball. There were eight such craters surrounding her city now.

The light of dawn was stained a deep red with smoke, a smoke that brought with it the acrid smell of burning flesh. One of the simplest boards in front of her displayed an updating estimate of effective troops and casualties—just over ten percent of her troops had been moved to “casualties.”

But even so, it was morning now, and the city was still in pony control. Hayden scanned the horizon with a quick glance from slitted eyes, and found that there wasn’t a single enemy ship within range of Icefalls’s cannons. Only shattered ruins on the fields surrounding the city. There were so many corpses out there that she almost couldn’t see the ground. This city really is going to smell like death, even if we win.

“I’m going to try and get some rest,” Hayden announced. “I expect most of you should as well. Presumably they will be preparing their next attack. Get those damn fires out and wake me if anything changes.”

She got her salutes, and she vanished down the stairs. Past ranks and ranks of her elites, locking eyes with bats with stern faces and black armor. They straightened as she approached, saluting. “I need somewhere to sleep,” she said. “Find me a bunk, and make sure the city doesn’t burn down while I’m out.”

A few hours later, Hayden woke to the shouts of Sideswipe from outside the door, rousing her from her stupor. From the fog of exhaustion lingering on her mind, she could tell that she hadn’t had anything close to eight hours. “The princess appears to be in danger,” Sideswipe said, his voice nervous and shifting from the other side of the door.

Hayden was already pulling on the armor as quickly as she could. “She’s still out there? Doing what? The griffons pulled back, didn’t they?”

“I don’t know,” Sideswipe said, right as Hayden burst through the door. “But she’s alone and surrounded by enemy troops. General Lodestone deployed some troops to reach her, but they haven’t been able to cut through.”

“Is the unit mobilized?”

He smiled. “Aye, Ma’am. Or they should be by the time we reach the roof. We don’t actually need you to go, High Marshal. Just your orders to deploy.”

“Maybe so,” she agreed, turning to hurry towards the stairs. There were no balconies here, no windows wide enough to fly out and take an aerial shortcut. This tower was meant to be a fortress.

There was only a single high-ranking pony on duty in the command center, supervising the mop-up teams and shuffling supplies around. He looked like he might be on the verge of a heart-attack when Hayden entered, though his expression changed swiftly to relief. “You heard,” he said, sighing. “I’m not sure what to do, Marshal. If we pull ponies from the wall...”

“Don’t pull anypony yet,” she said. “Where is she?”

He pointed out the window, towards a group of figures she could barely make out on the far side of town. It looked like a large crowd, maybe two hundred griffons, all heavily armed. How did we not stop them already? More importantly, what were they trying to do while their fleet kept far away? Worry about that later. Princess first.

“Princess Luna can teleport across the continent if she wants,” Hayden muttered. “If she was overwhelmed, why wouldn’t she just return to the Tower?”

The officer wasn’t one Hayden recognized—probably someone’s second in command, or maybe an assistant. He only looked confused. “I don’t know, Marshal. Should I wake the others?”

Hayden shook her head. “If I don’t return in twenty minutes, yes. Otherwise, let them rest until signs the griffons might be advancing again. I’ll need them at their best.”

“If you don’t return?”

But Hayden was already vanishing up the steps, past the metal grates and slabs of stone to where her troops had assembled.

Forty ponies did not seem that impressive compared to the incredible numbers massed outside. And it wasn’t—they weren’t wrapped in invulnerable powered-armor, or wielding magical cannons that could shoot ships from the sky. But they stood in perfect order, forty bats separated into squads without even a hint of intimidation visible behind their helmets as they watched the Grand Fleet in the distance.

Sideswipe fell into line behind her, betraying a sense of eagerness in his steps. This was the moment these ponies had been waiting for. They hadn’t had a chance to really fight since the first probes against their city. “Luna’s there,” Hayden said, lowering her own helmet securely into place. “Whatever those birds are here to do, it’s cancelled. We will not be leaving survivors. Are we clear?”

“Yes, sir!” shouted her troops, lacking anything like the doubt she’d heard from Captain Skylark.

“First priority, cut through to the princess, make sure she’s okay. Then sweep and clear. Don’t take chances to save ammo—I don’t want to hear one of you bastards got yourselves dead because you didn’t shoot enough.”

More shouts, and a few subdued laughs. Then Hayden gestured, and they surged up into the air in a wave of armored bodies and rifles.

They flew in tight formation, eight squads acting as a single unit. But they were ready to explode at a second’s command, each following their own orders. Hayden and Sideswipe slipped into the ranks as ordinary soldiers, indistinguishable from the others. What Hayden’s elites lacked in the technology to coordinate, they made up for in organization.

Soon enough she could see what had happened—the griffons wore the metal armor of their heavies, their largest and most experienced soldiers. Not the disorderly bands of semi-independent barbarians that represented the typical griffon soldier. So no warm-up round for the elites. Here goes nothing.

The birds seemed desperate to get into a building—a sturdy stone structure by the look of it. A bank. Charred griffon bodies were outside, and an occasional flash of magic blasted out the open door. Is she fighting inside there?

How long could the princess keep doing that? This is exactly why we don’t have heroic leaders out there fighting the whole war on their own. What would happen if she got herself killed?

Then another thought. What are you doing, stupid?

“Two and three, I want you to start strafing. Drop any who take the bait and return to command. Four and five, you’re with me and one. Sideswipe, you take six through eight and flank. Make sure none of these birds escape.”

They swept in for a dive. Hayden could hear her squad leaders giving instructions. She tuned it all out, focusing on her own five ponies. These were the same ones who’d spent more time with her than any others—her bodyguards. The bravest and most experienced of all the Blackwings.

“Strafe straight down the middle,” Hayden instructed. “Give it fifty feet until we’re close to the door. Don’t get in the doorway, let me do that. Princess Luna won’t hurt me by accident. But I don’t think your armor will do anything to stop her magic from killing you.”

Hayden tucked her legs as close as she could, taking aim at her designated targets. The enemy griffons had seen them, and a few were already taking to the air to try and stop them.

Sideswipe and his three squads cut them down in the first pass. Their stolen metal helmets did nothing to protect them from the weapons her Blackwings carried. Hayden didn’t see how accurate her soldiers were being—that didn’t matter. Her way was clear, and she opened fire on the birds near the entrance.

The rifle mechanism tracked her eyes almost perfectly. Look at a head, twitch her leg just right, and a glowing hole appeared in a metal helmet. She could see only a faint flash from along the edge of the weapon—there was no deafening explosion of gunpowder as her own arquebus’s made. None of her Blackwings had gone deaf.

The griffons retreated from their approach, but their movements were scattered. A few joined together, lifting up sturdy shields of metal and wood. They wouldn’t have even stopped the primitive arquebuses.

“Princess, are you in there!” Hayden called, skidding to a stop just outside the door. “It’s me! We’re here to get you out!”

“What are you doing here?” the princess asked from inside, sounding on the edge of exhaustion.

“I’m coming in, don’t blast me!” She raised one hoof into the air, signaling to Sideswipe to cover the door as she slipped inside. “Nopony comes in,” Hayden said to the rest of her squad, before darting into the bank.

The bodies of ponies and griffons both were scattered about, though far more of the latter. The bank had clearly been ransacked, with deep gouges dug into the walls of the safe door. But it wasn’t open. Princess Luna had ignored the safe completely, and had several ragged-looking scrolls spread on a table near the back. Crossbow bolts stuck into the stone and wood all around her, and blood was soaked into her uniform. But for all that she didn’t actually look injured, only tired.

“Have you come to gloat?” the princess asked, her voice sounding so empty that Hayden wanted to stick her head in a swamp.

Instead of doing something stupid, she stopped beside the table. “Princess, whatever this is should wait until you’re safe in the command tower. The city isn’t secure.”

Princess Luna looked like she might blast Hayden with magic after all. “I found a few officers,” she said. “Aboard some of the ships I destroyed.” She pointed down at the scrolls. “Interesting orders.”

Hayden glanced down at the scrolls briefly, and found they weren’t written in any language she’d seen before. Yet she could understand it, as easily as she made sense of whatever the ponies spoke. She followed one of Luna’s hooves to a few dense scrawls of uneven script.

“Expect light resistance from the northern territories, the Marshal there has recalled all troops to Icefalls. Tribute includes Seaddle, its shipyards, and all territories north from Vanhoover to Trottingham.”

“Tribute,” Hayden repeated, the word dribbling out like a curse. “Somepony is selling Equestria?”

Luna nodded, pointing to another scroll. Much smaller, though the writing was Equestrian this time, and the text was orderly.

“Saboteurs are in place. Expect two full days of fleet delay. Take Icefalls before then and I will ensure the fleet is forced to retreat instead of assaulting the city.”

“Well, that’s…” She could still hear shouting from outside. There were an awful lot of birds out there. They couldn’t just hide in this bank while Blackwings died.

Hayden looked around, selecting a satchel of crossbow bolts from a fallen griffon and settling it onto the table. She dumped the bolts out, and shoved the scrolls in, slinging them over one shoulder. The princess didn’t argue. Hayden had seen this expression before. This was the face of the pony who’d hidden in her tower for months while the world rotted around her.

I can’t let you become that mare again, Luna. We need you too badly.

“Look, Princess. I know how awful that feels. And maybe it is awful. Maybe Equestria’s army is half rotten and we’ll need to scrap the whole fucking thing. But we won’t get the chance if we’re dead. Icefalls didn’t do any of this, and Icefalls deserves to have its princess alive.”

Comments

[azereath]

Now the question is, was it Celestia that arranged this or is it an attempt of the nobility?

[drake565]

Why do i feel like celestia is the one who sold out the nation?

[Nixxus Shadowblade]

8970468
Pretty sure it's Celestia

[KMCA]

The victor writes the histories.

We know Luna lost against her sister and we know what her sister said happened. If I remember correctly Celestia apologizes to her sister when she first returns. She doesn't say what for.

But at the same time we know what happened to Luna and Avalon... From what we see Luna did need to be stopped, we'll have to see how this develops.

[EverfreeSparkle]

8970497
I doubt it's Celestia. She is a cunt, true, but not THAT much if a cunt. She'll sell out one city, Icefalls, as she is terrified of the void things in the bats, but the others? Something else is going on here...

[Nixxus Shadowblade]

8970560
Yeah your right. I don't know why, I love Celestia, but I really like to see her as a villain

[djthomp]

I'm heavily suspicious that it's some portion of the nobility turning traitor, but I guess we'll see. Assuming anyone survives for a two-day late Fleet to relieve.

[Lithl]

8970468
I get the impression the two scrolls were written by two different individuals.

[FanOfMostEverything]

The big question is whether Luna recognize's her sister's hornwriting... though I suppose Celestia has scribes for that sort of thing. Still, the best revenge is living well, or in this case, living at all. If they can root out the saboteurs, throwing those scrolls in Tia's face will be oh-so-satisfying.

Of course, that is one big if.