• Published 16th Sep 2012
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The War of 1002 - Fireheart 1945



A young man with a love of military history and MLP;FIM finds himself dragged into Equestria.

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Chapter 48; Return engagement

James watched as several wagons of lumber were brought up; the engineers immediately went to work, taking planks and putting them into place.

"How long will this take?" he inquired of one of them.

"It will take some time, sir," a tan-coated stallion answered. "Maybe a couple days."

"Is there any way to get the process to go faster?"

"Not if you want them to be good."

Quality over quantity, James thought, Or in this case, quality over time. "I expect them to be done three days from now at the latest. I'd prefer two, but if you can't meet that particular deadline, then I'll be willing to wait another day."

The engineer nodded. "We'll be ready by then, sir, I can promise you that."

"Good."

"Of course," the pony continued, "all this depends on just where we're supposed to be crossing, and on the particular landscape there, as well as the distance between shores. The longer a bridge we have to make, the more stress on the center, and the more time and wood we'll have to spend shoring it up."

James grunted; he'd played a bridge construction game on the computer, and knew, to some small extent, what construction required, especially after having dropped fifteen trucks in a row into the river. "I'm counting on you and your team to get this job done," he said aloud. "You'll get the information you need."

"Thank you, General, that will help immensely."

James nodded, waved, and walked back toward the camp. So far, the advance had not been opposed as much as it might have been. All indications were that the enemy wanted to fight a battle on the river. It a good plan. The problem for the enemy was that the Equestrian army could afford to stretch itself farther than they could. In addition, the Griffons were suffering a blockade of their ports that was being strengthened over time; more Saddle Arabian ships arrived every day to completely block them. The Griffons had resorted to blockade running, but that was a risky endeavor at best and foolhardy at worst. Their reputation was now in the trash after Celestia had revealed what had gone on in lands under their occupation. As a result, there were few who were willing to trade with them anyway.

Can't really say that I'm put off with the way the war's going, he thought to himself. However, before the enemy could be defeated, he needed to cross the river. After that, forests would be the main obstacle. He grimaced. Forest fighting wasn't clean, and all sorts of things made it unpleasant. The fact that the forest could burst into flames from the combined fire of both armies was a rather inconvenient problem.

Other than that future issue and the current effort to cross the river, the only place Equestria was having trouble was against the Changelings. The insectile force was avoiding battle wherever possible. An ominous report said that they appeared to be growing in strength, based on the number of them present during the last few skirmishes.

Just what we need; for the buggers to get their strength back, he thought dismally. "As if we didn't have enough problems," he whispered under his breath.

Arriving at the camp, he went to his tent, went inside, and started studying the maps he had. One was of the local region, the other a much smaller world map keeping an eye on military events all the Griffon Kingdom and the lands around it. He nodded in satisfaction after inspecting the latter; the Griffons weren't doing well. A rather large fleet from Saddle Arabia was approaching their southern coast. If that wasn't an invasion fleet, it had to be a raiding force, or else more ships for the blockade, enough to make blockade running almost if not entirely extinct.

The current battlefield wasn't going to be easy to deal with. The enemy were giving no signs of giving up the war in spite of their defeats and the increasing odds against them. Indeed, they seemed to be all the more defiant, or at least their leaders did. A river was a decent place to make a stand; history was full of bloody attempts to cross one, only for withering fire to throw them back, or make their losses high in spite of success. While he had the numbers to make such a crossing under fire, he preferred not to take unnecessary casualties.

The natural recourse to using boats and bridges was to fly... which was what the enemy would be looking for, being winged people themselves. Pegasi would have difficulty if he tried to use them in a major landing attempt, of that he was certain.

"If only I could build a giant cannon and throw my army across the river," he said, trying to get himself to laugh. That wasn't likely to happen, but merely wishing he could do that couldn't, by itself, hurt.

"Could burrow under it," he considered. He tossed that out after about a minute's thinking. It would take too much time, and the likelihood of the tunnel collapsing and flooding out it's diggers was too high for him to seriously give it any weight.

"Well, then, going through is all that's left." He prayed it would be enough.

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Star Blaze watched as the engineers slowly and carefully brought up the bridges they had made. Their hooves had been wrapped in cloth as to avoid making noise, as were those of every soldier who would make the attack.

He looked up briefly at the moon. It was shining tonight, but a group of pegasi high up were going to take care of that by blocking it out with clouds.

Still not the best time to make an attack, he thought. I guess it had to happen soon, though. The longer we leave the enemy alone, the sooner they can get back up on their feet again, and we don't want that. He wondered whether Princess Luna would have withheld the moon tonight for the sake of the attack. He had his doubts; the moon, as well as the sun, was here for the entire world; using it for the sake of a single nation, or for military purposes, would be an abuse of power, or at least most non-ponies would think so, and he didn't see how he could have blamed them.

He felt a kinship with his Princess; a sense of duty, mingled with the feeling of being left out by other ponies, if not tragically misunderstood. Most in the Lunar Guard had feelings like that. Perhaps it magnified their loyalty to her. Regardless, he felt more alive, more ready for action, at night.

"That's our cue to go," he heard a nearby sergeant say, as the pegasi began blocking the moon.

"Remember, stay as close as you can to the surface of the water when you start flying," another added.

Star Blaze didn't feel like he needed the reminder, but he was careful to crawl forward slowly to the riverside through the tall grass. Once there, he quickly spread his wings and allowed himself to drop until he was just above the water before leveling out and flapping his wings. He could see other Night Guards around him, all determined to do their jobs as best as could be.

They reached the other side without any calls of alarm, so that was good. He was careful to advance quietly, with as little noise as possible. He'd heard that two Guards in another Lunar unit had stepped on twigs while trying to sneak up on the enemy in a prior mission; their commander had forced them to carry the sticks around with them until the mission was over. He didn't want that to happen to him, or to any of his buddies.

"You hear that?" he heard someone up ahead say.

He stopped immediately; he felt rather than heard the other Lunar Guards do the same.

"Oh, it's just the wind," came a second voice, crustier than the first.

"Right, I'll raise you ten gold pieces," a third one said.

Oh, you can't be serious... He crawled forward. Around a small fire, three Griffons sat, each with several cards in their claws.

"I'll raise two more gold pieces," the first one, a youthful Griffon, said, pushing forward two gold coins.

Star resisted the urge to laugh. You can't make this stuff up - really, you can't. He turned to another Guard, who nodded. He edged forward as the crusty sounding Griffon said, "It's over boys; two kings!" and laid his cards down next to the fire.

"Aw, come on!" the young one said, throwing down his set of cards. "You win too much."

"I'm just good, son."

"Well, who's up for another round?" the third one said, undaunted.

"Wait, what's that?" the young Griffon said, his eyes suddenly looking to a spot on the other side of the fire.

"It's just yer nerves, kid. Now, gimme the cards, so's I can shuffle 'em again."

"Sorry, game over." Star reached up and bashed the crusty Griffon in the side of the head with a hoof, knocking him out. The other two didn't have time to do or say anything; a second later, both of them were on the ground, stunned by other Guards.

"Good work," his sergeant said. "I can't believe these idiots were playing cards when they had us to worry about."

"Nopony expects the Night Guard," Star said.

"True, but I was talking about the army as a whole." The sergeant turned to the crusty Griffon, who was stirring. "Why weren't you morons keeping watch?"

"Just be glad our job was easy this time, Sergeant," another Lunar Guard said.

"I wasn't speaking to you. Come on, why were you just sitting around, playing poker while our army was on the other side of the river?"

"How were we supposed to know you miscreants were going to make a move at night?" the Griffon answered. "Can't move a bleeding army when it's dark as death outside."

"So you got bored and decided you'd gamble instead of looking out for us."

"Like the other bastard said, why are you complainin'? Ya got what ya wanted, didn't ya?"

"Watch your mouth," the sergeant said coldly. "You and you," he said, pointing to two Guards. "Take these bozos back to camp. And I'd advise you three not to make any noise to alert whatever other Griffons are out here, or you'll get it in the neck... literally."

The two older Griffons stared at him, but said nothing. The young one just seemed surprised that he'd been caught so quickly and easily.

"Get going," one of the selected Guards said, thrusting a spear forward for emphasis. Sullenly, the Griffons got going.

"This was too easy," Star said, taking up position.

"Sometimes that's how it really works. But keep on your guard. Spread out, and keep searching; there have to be more around here somewhere, and not all of them will be as dumb as these guys."

Star knew what the sergeant said was true, but that didn't keep him from wishing that it wasn't.

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"So far, so good," Silver Shield whispered to himself. "Let's keep it that way, shall we?"

He got no answer. He didn't expect one. But he could see that the whole plan was indeed going well; the bridge in front of him had been placed at it's designated point without any trouble from the enemy.

One of the regiments began moving forward, it's orders given in whispers as well; with a calm night like this, voices could, and probably would, carry. It wasn't at top strength; the war had dwindled it' s numbers. Still, it's banners were well taken care of, and the soldiers marched as though they'd never had to suffer the shock of battle. And there were still hundreds of them to make the crossing.

Not much a fan of having my hooves covered, though. It wasn't as though the keratin could actually feel the cloth around his hoof; it couldn't. But it made his leg heavy, and as the material was wont to do, it would slip and slide from step to step, making it hard to know whether his next step would fall on something flat or whether he'd have to take cautions against tripping. But it would serve it's purpose; it would make the crossing stealthy, after which he could freely ditch the cloth.

The unit passed over the bridge and started to deploy from column to loose skirmish order. The best way by far to enter the woods just beyond; it was damn hard to maintain a line when trees and underbrush would make it stagger and dodge all over the place. He was getting the idea that James was going to make it a permanent doctrine. Shield wasn't so sure; under fire, yes, a line of battle would suffer losses, but until sufficient numbers of new rifles and ammunition reached the front line, it was the best way to maximize firepower. It wasn't exactly efficient, but then a smoothbore weapon wasn't made for accuracy - it was intended to shock the enemy. And some lead shot at the same location was bound to hit something. Against melee troops, a skirmish order wasn't a good idea either; the distance between your own troops would make the unit easy to shatter if the enemy actually got that close.

"Move forward," came the word of the colonel in charge of his regiment.

The unit did so. The sounds of the unit's hooves was muffled by the cloth they wore. Company by company, the regiment came over the bridge. The artillery was brought over as well, the wheels also being covered by cloth to muffle them.

Shield untied the cloth and threw it away. It would be collected later by somepony, but truth be told, he didn't really care what happened to it.

For a while, he didn't hear anything coming from the woods. Silence, here, meant success. He felt his worries start to slide.

Then, some distance away, a gun went off. There was a loud scream of pain and more gunfire. The scream died off, but the damage was clearly done.

"Come on!" he ordered his company.

The company surged into the woods; it was true that they wouldn't be able to take on a whole army, but the brigade wasn't supposed to take on the enemy on their own; it just had to hold until morning. The best way to do that was hit the enemy a good, hard blow first, shocking him, before bracing for counterattack.

Trees, trees, why do we always have to fight in the middle of a stinking bunch of trees? For a pony who, before the war, had been used to protecting cities, fighting in the woods wasn't as easy to get used to as it would be for one who had lived near or in one most of their lives. At least it's not the Everfree Forest; some rulers even before Celestia's time tried taming it, and they all failed.

He had barely gotten through that thought when he collided with something. There was a surprised shout, and then a string of angry words in a language he didn't understand. The figure went for something on his belt.

That made up Shield's mind; he shoved his gun against the figure's belly and depressed the trigger. The Griffon - for it had to be one of them, considering the Italian or Spanish he was hearing - stopped shouting and screamed, before crumpling to the ground.

Scattered gunshots rang out around him as his company blazed away into the darkness. All it had taken was one shot nearby to ignite excited the troopers. Shouts erupted from Equestrian throats, various battle cries and cheers; "Hurrah for Equestria!" ""Forward for the Princesses!" "Freedom for ponies!"

Other shouts met them, far more hostile; "For King Raneiro!" "Down with pony domination!" "Celestia the tyrant!"

More gunfire came, from Equestrian units as well as Griffon warriors. Screams of pain mingled with angry jeers and catcalling. A cannon boomed from somewhere up ahead. A second or two later, a tree fell, it's deafening crash resounding throughout the woods.

Good thing it's hard to aim artillery in a forest, unless you're firing over open sights. That could have done something terrible if it had been better aimed.

Griffon officers began calling for a withdrawal. The Equestrians followed them.

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"Damn it," James muttered furiously as the sounds of fighting broke out. "The element of surprise is gone now."

"I suppose it couldn't have lasted forever," Crystal said sympathetically.

James continued to listen, trying to gauge just what was going on. The noise didn't get any closer to the river, so he supposed that was good.

Gradually, though, the noise intensified. That likely signified an enemy counterattack. "Get some support up there," he ordered. "I don't care whether or not the units you send were scheduled to take part in the attack or not, just get them up there."

"I will, sir." Crystal began barking orders to other officers standing by.

James could only wait. he didn't have to wait long before a pegasus assigned to the attack came back. "We're holding them for now," the soldier said, barely pausing to salute. "But there's a lot of them coming. they're reinforcing quickly."

"How long can you hold?"

"The cap thought you'd ask that. He doesn't know. Maybe two or three hours."

"Cap? What happened to Colonel Swift Wing?"

"He's down, sir. Bolt to right hind leg. Medics say he'll live, but he's in no state to command right now."

"I see. Well, you can tell them I'm sending reinforcements."

"How many?"

"The whole army, if I can rouse them from their sleep."

"Right. I'll tell the cap."

"Good. Now go."

After the pegasus had gone, Crystal said, "It might take a while for the entire army to be assembled."

"I have my doubts as well. They're have to get up, groggy and tired, find their units, and go run as fast as they can to the battle site. That could take at best thirty minutes, which is probably wildly optimistic; an hour to two hours is more like it. And that soldier just told us about one of the three assault forces; I have no idea how the other two are doing."

"We'll have reports soon enough, sir."

James shivered a little as a cold gust of wind swept over him. "I hope they come soon. I thought that personal radios might be dispersed among our military by now."

"Our society has seen no major war in many generations; getting set up for one takes time and experience. And, if there's one thing I've learned, its that throwing in something new too fast can hurt you."

"Well, it can, if you fail to utilize it properly. God, it's cold tonight," James answered as more cold air swept around him. "I hope there's been no report of windigos, because at this rate we'll end up freezing before dawn."

"It wouldn't surprise me," Crystal said. Getting a look at his superior's shocked face, he hastily added, "I doubt it. There have been no reported windigo attacks for hundreds of years. The Princess whipped them the last time they tried something, and they haven't been back."

"Well that's something, though you'd think a damned war would be a feeding frenzy for them."

"No doubt. but there's been no sign of them whatsoever."

"Alright then." James continued to shiver as the wind persistently swept over the land. "You'd think, though, that in early June it would be warmer, even at night."

"Sometimes the weather is beyond even a pegasus' control. We can't control the wind, for example, even though we can control the clouds and make them do just about anything, within reason, of course."

"Let us hope we can maintain the advantage," James replied, and Crystal didn't argue with him.

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Star Blaze shot his crossbow; the Griffon he aimed at fell.

That's one more out of the fight. Now for the nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine of them left. Although the initial attack had had considerable success, the Griffons had finally realized what was going on, and they were throwing units into the battle with almost reckless abandon. From a general's viewpoint, that made sense; they needed to crush the bridgeheads before the Equestrian army could fully take advantage of them. Naturally, from a soldier's viewpoint, any reinforcement for the enemy, for whatever reason, was always a bad thing.

He began to reload. The Lunar Guard preferred crossbows over matchlocks because the former were better for stealth attacks. In a major engagement, they sometimes came out second best. not here, not so much; the darkness helped conceal the Lunar units, while the enemy kept exposing themselves every time they fired.

The battle had raged for some time; he wasn't sure just how long it had been. Long enough for the enemy to have reinforced a couple of times, that was for sure. The fighting grew more and more intense.

Star shot again, then began reloading without checking to see whether he'd scored a hit. A bullet struck the tree he was hiding behind; not all the enemies were idiots, and some of them would be able to guess he was in a certain area.

Artillery on both sides fired away at one another; except by luck, they generally didn't hit anything, save, of course, the trees. Enough of them fell that Star wondered whether or not it would be more cost efficient for lumberjacks to use cannons instead of axes. Griffons and ponies fired away at one another, ducking and weaving through the trees in order to find a good spot to shoot from.

"Damn it!" came the voice of someone to his right; a lucky Griffon had scored a hit. "Fuck me, it hurts!" the other Guard moaned, obviously in serious pain.

"Hold on, son, you'll be alright," somepony else said; no doubt a medic. The wounded soldier continued to swear horribly whether or not that would prove to be true.

Star fired once more, then ducked; three more shots scored the tree, causing it to bleed sap in copious amounts.

I never thought I'd say this, but I hope the morning comes quickly. This confusing melee is worse than any nightmare dreams can come up with. Another tree, severed from it's foundations by a shell, came tumbling down, as though in testament to that thought.

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James hummed quietly to himself, trying to put off his anxiety. So far, the southern and middle bridgeheads were holding, but the northern one was slowly giving ground.

His officers had tried to rally the camp, and slowly but surely, more units were on their way to the front line. However, he was a long way from feeling secure. General Grayfeather had obviously woken up, and was trying to crush the bridgeheads flat before they could become more than bridgeheads. Artillery was probably not as useful as it could have been, but given the terrible maelstrom of fire underway in the woods, both sides were probably lucky that the forest wasn't on fire.

God, was I wrong to make this attack? He'd known, of course, that such an operation had it's risk. But he hadn't truly known, not until now, just how risky it was. The units assigned to the attack were doing all that they could, but how long would it be before they ran out of ammunition?

"Victory disease." The term had originally come from the Japanese, but it summed things up enough. He'd become confident his army could win almost any battle, given the shining victories they'd won, in spite of their troubles. While the odds were still stacked against the Griffons, and were likely to stay that way, the enemy could still inflict losses. They could still make their foes pay dearly for crushing them.

How many have died for that mistake? How many have died for all my mistakes, total? It was something he would probably never know, but it deeply troubled him.

If the Changelings and Griffons hadn't invaded, Equestrians wouldn't have had to fight to repel them. That too was obvious, and he thanked his conscience for trying to cheer him up, but it didn't kill the feeling completely.

The rest of the night passed by, as did units heading up to fight. They looked tired, but they carried loaded weapons and their eyes were alert. James might have felt more proud if he weren't so tired - and nervous - himself.

Finally, as the sun began to peek over the eastern horizon, the sounds of battle began to die away, and an earth pony messenger arrived, having galloped straight from the battlefield. "Sir, the enemy has fallen back from out bridgeheads," he said.

"God be praised," James whispered. Out loud, he said, "That's very good. Is this from your unit, or from the whole front line?"

"Other messengers from the other bridgeheads got through; the southern and middle forces managed to link up, and the northern one appears to have held it's own."

James sighed with relief as his anxiety finally died away. "Very good," he repeated.

A grumbling noise came from the earth pony's stomach. "Sir, if I could be so bold, could you please send up some food? We're all hungry and tired after having fought all night."

"Of course. Crystal, see to it."

"Yes sir, I'll get on it right away."

"Good." James yawned. "I think we're all tired, after tonight. I'll probably be off to bed as soon as I'm sure our troops over there are secure."

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"I thought ya told us that they couldna get across tha bloody river," an angry Griffon colonel said.

"You expect me to take the blame, when it was your unit that couldn't hold them back?" Grayfeather countered.

"How are we supposed to see in tha dark?" came the defiant reply. "We tried to hold the blighters. We really and truly did. But they've got more o' everything than we do, and they brought up more troops than we could deal with."

Grayfeather sighed. He knew that to be true. "And yet, unless I am mistaken, part of the reason the enemy were able to make the inroads they did was because so many of your soldiers, and those of other frontline commanders, were so sure the enemy could not do exactly what they ended up doing that they became complacent. That blame lies on them... as well as all officers who knew of such a temperament and failed to rectify it." He took a deep breath, trying to gain a hold on his anger. "You're dismissed. If I ever hear of this sort of thing happening again in your unit, I will remove you, and take you as far down as I can go."

The colonel saluted, made a sarcastic kind of bow, and left.

Grayfeather sighed again. The king wasn't pleased over the army's performance. He sure wasn't going to be happy about this. The officers were becoming more and more restive. And while it was true that the general himself had believed that the ponies could not currently attack, he wasn't going to let insubordination go. He had been sacking commanders more loyal to clan or self en masse, and replacing them with more capable officers loyal to the crown.

He knew, deep down, that the war wasn't going well, that it was probably going to be lost. But his obedience to the crown ran more deeply than any mere thought. He would obey. And if others failed to obey, or refused, they would be swept away.

He had tried to counterattack the moment he'd heard of the bridgeheads. Naturally, the enemy had been ready and waiting. For a while he'd been confident that he could destroy the northern bridgehead, but it had held, thanks to reinforcements. The Griffon army, outnumbered as a whole, could not bear to throw it's remaining strength into the meat grinder. As such, he had - once more - given orders for a retreat.

May it be the last time...

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"We did it," an exhausted but triumphant Royal Guard said, taking off his helmet and lying on his side.

"We did." After a few hours of sleep, James was still tired, but he wasn't about to fall over. And how many more such fights do we have to go through before this war's over?

While he was still mulling this over, Crystal Clear landed next to him, his heavy hooves making a loud pounding sound as they hit the ground. "Sir," he said, saluting. "Scouts have confirmed that the enemy are in retreat. What are your orders?"

"I want whatever units we have that are not thoroughly exhausted to pursue. Try to catch as many of their units as possible."

"I will draft orders to that effect, sir. However, I must point out that a lot of our troops didn't get a good night's sleep, and the foe are in retreat, taking whatever they can with them. We might not be able to catch them."

"I still want to try. The more ground we recover, the better for us. And I want the army to do whatever it can here."

"Alright sir. I'll follow your instructions." The aide paused. "Are you alright, sir? You don't look too good."

"...Just the usual worries of a general, I guess."

"I think it's more than that."

"Okay, well how about this; I thought the army I controlled could win any engagement. I thought they could overcome every obstacle, because they'd overcome them before. And yet last night, the forward units of the assault could have been cut off and destroyed; the northern force almost was. If not for the reinforcements we sent up, the whole thing could have become a disaster."

"It didn't go off as bad as that. The other two wings of the assault were able to hold their own, and the northern force fought hard."

"I know, but still, it's hard to shake that feeling." James stood up from the rock he'd been sitting on.

"On the bright side, we're over the river now, and we won't have to worry about that kind of obstacle for a while, if at all."

"Yes. Instead, we'll have to deal with forests and bushes and undergrowth and what-have-you for the next two hundred miles or so."

"It's not so bad as that, but yeah. I didn't take you for a pessimist."

"I try to be optimistic. I really, really do. But everything I've been through in that war challenges that."

"Can't say I blame you." Crystal yawned, and brought a hoof up to his mouth in a vain effort to stop it. "I'm tired," he said unnecessarily.

"We all are. I suggest you get a nap. You've earned it. Most of the army, if not all of them, have earned it."

"Thank you, sir."

As his aide walked away, James sat back down, looking eastward. Inside, he wondered how long it would be before he, or anyone else here, would see peace again.

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