Evoli Victorious

by Starscribe

Chapter 8

New Delaware was not one of the dozens of villages and tiny towns Evoli had faced in her campaign across the country. It was, rather, a fortress of surpassing strength, built by the finest griffon stonemasons. As night fell, Evoli could see their torches moving back and forth along the walls, and see the outlines of their patrols in the air.

She couldn’t see a single changeling anywhere—though by their nature, it was hard to be certain about their presence. But Evoli would’ve been able to sense it if every bird there were really just a changeling in disguise. But that didn’t mean there were no changelings in the fortress—perhaps they would have prepared their own samples of the pheromone. Evoli could not command from the back anymore for that reason—by the time she returned to the front, these birds could’ve shattered her troops.

There was no surprise in this attack—her numbers were so great she had to marshal them in ranks and keep them carefully arranged.

Her army was nearly five hundred thousand strong, with a fifth of those being “harvested” controllers.

Queen Decimus followed her down the ranks. Were it not for Evoli, she would represent the wealthiest queen ever created, with more controllers than one queen would ever have in her lifetime. There was just one problem: they had to keep harvesting ponies in order to generate the absolute fortune of glamour she required.

Evoli had a plan for that. “I want your troops at the front,” Evoli said, gesturing towards the walls with one wing. “When I signal, Strand’s weapon will come at the walls. I want you screening its approach from the skies. Once the walls are breached, you can pull back and let my swarm dismantle the city.”

Decimus shifted uneasily on her hooves. She was small—too small to control a hive mind. She spoke in a tiny squeaking voice, and wore armor that made her look taller than she really was. A child playing pretend, who hadn’t had the chance to grow up. Somehow, Evoli doubted this queen saw her elevation as much of an honor.

“Great Queen…” she began, voice timid. “Your… your request will subject us to the greatest attack by the enemy. That’s a griffon army in there. They can all fly. If I bring numbers like mine against the walls, surely they’ll all rise out to meet us.”

Evoli glared at her. “So? Your army is larger than the garrison. Even if every one of them rises out to meet you, you have ten soldiers to every one of them.”

“I have two… changelings.” Decimus looked away. “Queen Evoli, most of them were farmers until recently. I have five hundred with previous military experience. They aren’t drones… and I can’t yet command them even if they were. I hear that New Delaware is garrisoned only with the strongest griffons. Bloodthirsty warriors with a century or more of battle experience. That seems like a threat better suited to your drones.”

In any conventional changeling war, she would be right. Drones were replaceable, and even Evoli’s bleeding-heart mother hadn’t cared about losing the ones who weren’t intelligent. They were cells of the great organism, nothing more.

But my army won’t starve if they all survive. The more griffons wasted their time killing useless controllers, the fewer warriors Evoli would lose.

“Decimus…” She draped a wing over her shoulder, walking her along the ranks. “Do you know what comes after tonight?”

The nymph stiffened at Evoli’s touch. There was something strange about the way she looked, something Evoli could just make out in the moonlight. Her wings were wrong… like they were calcifying. Doesn’t matter. I won’t need her for much longer. Once we take the other queens, I won’t need to fear a rebellion.

“I don’t,” she said, looking down. “What comes after tonight?”

“New Delaware is not our target, it’s only the opening engagement of this war. The Great Queens have fortified in a pony city on the coast. I hear ponies are flowing to it every day. Stories of… our means of sustaining the army… have travelled here. They’ve served to unify the enemy.”

Evoli glared at Decimus, as though daring her to blame or question her. She didn’t, tail tucking between her legs. “I understand there are a million soldiers waiting for us there. Most of them conscripts, like yours. Neither side can wait out the other in a siege, since both of us are constantly running out of food. We must meet in battle, and meet soon. I need my army to be as strong as possible when that happens. Your controllers… have an opportunity. To serve the swarm, to prove themselves. You tell them that honor and glory is waiting for them in New Delaware.”

Decimus looked up at her a long time, strange wings shifting uneasily. Then she nodded. “I… I understand. I will tell them.”

“Good,” Evoli said. “I expect you to award high accolades to those who fight well tonight. And those who die—at least they died serving a wise purpose. Once I rule all the world, there will be no more suffering. They help to bring a golden age.”

Decimus did not look. She took off, buzzing back towards her army. Evoli stared at her wings for a few more seconds. She’d seen their like before…

But it didn’t matter. There was a battle coming, and everyone knew it. She could see the lights going up on the wall now, huge bonfire spots shining out at her. The birds needed the flames to see—their eagle vision did not do well in darkness. Idiots are blinding themselves. And giving us perfect targets.

Strand might consider it a weakness in her Wurm… but Evoli realized it was probably an advantage now. Only bats had better night vision than changelings. It would’ve been foolish to deprive themselves of this.

“Hear me, swarm!” Evoli shouted, her voice bellowing over the assembled troops and the waiting fortress. She heard no response from the griffons, not even the beat of a war-drum. They were listening. “Tonight is the beginning of the end for pretenders and fools! Tonight we show them the fate of their resistance! We will take no bird captive tonight, keep no prisoners of war! Let them fight as hard as they wish, knowing that when the conflict is over we will leave them nothing but a mountain of the dead and a feast for crows!”

Her swarm roared approval—at least 4/5ths of it did. Decimus and her controllers could muster only a little halfhearted stomping. Typical.

Go now, Decimus. Serve your queen. The sound of beating wings was suddenly so loud it drowned out all else. Dust rose from Evoli’s right as they took off, buzzing in a disorderly block towards the city. They carried makeshift weapons—shields, spears, mostly made of wood. Evoli would not be wasting armor on troops she only kept out of the mercy of her heart.

Strand watched beside her from the observation tower, smiling his approval. “I was wondering if you had some productive use in mind for the deadweight. I never should’ve doubted you.”

Evoli shrugged. “I don’t expect it will be a concern for long. Their supply is finite… we will need to stop harvesting them soon.”

“Oh, I’m not so sure about that.” Strand had a way of being completely infuriating without ever annoying Evoli quite enough for her to retaliate. He could argue without arguing, and always sounded like he knew more than anypony else. “There were seven billion humans caught in the preservation spell when Equestria cast it. The vast majority of those have not yet returned. If we stopped trying to sustain them after they were harvested, it’s possible we could continue the practice indefinitely. We won’t need so large a drone army once there are no enemies yet to conquer. It’s also possible additional resources would eventually allow me to perfect a method for harvesting non-ponies eventually. Though I… can’t commit to that.”

Stars above I’m employing a lunatic. Evoli didn’t show her feelings—and there was no chance this male would be able to sense them. She only nodded. “That would be… an interesting direction,” she said. “But now, I think we’ve given Decimus enough of a lead. Release the Wurm.”

“The battle will be over before morning,” Strand promised, taking to his own (normal-looking) wings and vanishing over the edge of the tower.

A terrible roar shook the ground moments later, one frightening enough that even Evoli’s drones seemed to shift uncomfortably. She gritted her teeth, having to focus for a moment to bring such a large hive-mind under control. There were so many drones now that Evoli sometimes caught resistance from them, whenever she ordered the group to do things it didn’t like. It’s a good thing we don’t have to keep this up for much longer. We’ll lose most of these drones when we siege the Pillar of Equilibrium, and we just won’t make new ones. We only have to last a little longer.

The sky over New Delaware had gone completely dark—Evoli could no longer see the bonfires. She could hear the shouts, though—a carefully displayed military cutting down Decimus and her controllers. She could hear them dying, yet they fought on. But they aren’t drones. They’ll break eventually. We have to take advantage of this opening while we have it.

She could feel the massive shape of the Wurm, moving through the huge opening in her army. It didn’t move with precision, grinding and chewing through huge sections of ground in addition to anything else that got in the way. A few small structures left outside the walls of New Delaware were completely consumed in those terrible jaws.

A few moments later, it met the walls. She couldn’t feel the Wurm in the swarm, but she didn’t need to in order to feel the terrible crack, sending bits of stone tumbling around like chipped ice after the first days of spring thaw.

“Forward,” she whispered, both mentally and physically. Her drones and loyal males did not take flight, but lifted their shields, their weapons—and charged into the breach.

It was over by dawn. Many of the veteran defenders had fled, once it was clear that their defenses were broken. Many more had stood their ground in the city’s tunnels, bleeding Evoli for every drop they could before drones found and consumed them. There were less than a thousand ponies in the fortress—she spared their lives, committing them to be harvested.

When the sun finally broke through the clouds, it was on a scene of flame and death. There was a mountain of corpses in the center of the courtyard, and many of the city’s structures had been collapsed to ruin. It hadn’t just been Evoli’s own soldiers who attacked the city—once Strand released it, the Wurm had rampaged for hours.

Evoli stood atop the keep, one of the few buildings sturdy enough to still be standing after the siege. She was joined by Strand, Decimus, and a half dozen other important changelings. Generals, tacticians, supply officers. All her most important advisors and servants.

“The attack was devastating,” Decimus whispered, her voice sounding on the edge of tears. “We lost one pony in three. The garrison harried our retreat… thirty-three thousand. Another ten thousand are injured, some critically.”

“Care for them as best you can,” Evoli said, shrugging with disinterest. “Your army did well.”

“Not well enough,” Strand grunted. “They put out the Wurm’s eyes. If they’d been better about covering the attack, it might still—”

“I’m not going to listen to that.” Decimus glared at the male, baring her little nymph teeth. She vanished in a flash of magic.

“Well.” Strand looked unmoved. “As I said. The Wurm is intact otherwise. The only weakness they could find were its eyes. All the damage to its hide is otherwise superficial. I had to devise a new method of communication, since our light method will no longer work. That was why I couldn’t retreat when you commanded.”

“It lives still,” Evoli muttered. “So long as you can have it ready to attack the Pillar of Equilibrium in another month or so. I don’t expect we will need it again.”

“I will,” Strand said, confident. “I would need years to breed more, but… our one has more blood in her yet.”

“Good.” Evoli turned, facing north. “This war is almost over. I hope you’re ready, Queens. Because I’m ready for you.”

Comments

[KMCA]

Huh, I wonder what has Decimus on the verge of 'evolving.'

[FanOfMostEverything]

Dissension in the ranks, a trump card revealed, general unsustainable practices...

I see potential seeds of Evoli's downfall. It's just a question of which, when, and how.

[Yami Vizzini]

Honestly, there’s little to the story at this point beyond “Queen Eevee crosses one moral event horizon after another.”