Making choices

The sounds of hooves clopping echoed in the empty corridor. The only thing, that separated the walking pony from the cold gray stone the entire castle was made from was a thin red carpet with golden ornaments.

The pony in question was a stallion. A stallion with the figure of Shining Armour, a figure he had forged in his training as a soldier. The stallion was a unicorn, with a blonde mane and a coat, whose colour was dirty white. Nevertheless, most of it was hidden under a steel armour, that guarded the main part of his body. Beside it, the unicorn also wore a red robe with golden lining, which reached the knees of his hindhooves, and, of course, the crown.

Bladewaltz had never liked all of this royal traditions. If it was up to him only, the robe and the crown would since long be rotting in the treasury, replaced by the practical armour and a helmet with a golden lining. However, the nobles insisted on him keeping those regal symbols, since they claimed the folk would be happier. Well, at least they had allowed him to wear his armour.

He looked around himself with neglect. Even though he had managed to remove most of the decorations, that previously made him gag when he passed through Castle Razorcliff's long corridors, his castelan would never let him get rid of those horrible tapestries. If the castelan had no say, the tapestries would immeadiately be removed, leaving the gray wall entirely to torches and occasional runcinian flags - red banners with swords, crossed behind a crown.

The blonde unicorn wasn't in a hurry, so he stopped for a minute to enjoy the view. This corridor was an outer one, and there was a big window (without a glass, of course) each 15 feet. The ruler of Runcinia took his time to observe the world outside through one of those. Being on the third floor he could see beyond the castlewalls of Razorcliff island, which allowed him to see not only the castle's yard, but also the distant Mouthguard, two hours way with a boat.

The first time Bladewaltz had seen the castle was from one of the boats, whose courses linked the capital and the island. At first he was approving of it, since the stone structure, 4 storeys high in its main part, the highest tower reaching 7, perfectly suited his taste. The insides, nonetheless, had underwent a major change. Raised by his father,a soldier, and having spent most of his life as one himself, the dirty white stallion had developed an attitude of negligence and disliking towards ellaborate things. This was the reason most of the paintings, sculptures and fancy objects like mirrors were moved to the castles of nobles, replaced by maps,banners and shields with the symbol of Bladewaltz. Most of the clothing closets were turned into weapon storages.

The peasants could say what they wanted, but truth be told, Bladewaltz had significantly simplified the law system by changing its main reason from guarding the peasants to guarding the institution itself. Having followed the law of the jungle for the most of his life, the king found nothing wrong in leaving it to be the only law, that regarded ponies, with a position lower than an esquire.  The system was effective, that was true, but not very just.

That was the reason for the Rebellion and, indirectly, the reason why Bladewaltz walked a few dozen feet more to the end of the corridor and entered a hall.

There were 5 ponies more in this hall. Upon the king's entrance, all got up from their chairs and knelt.

" You may rise. " the king said after a second.

The hall used to be a small summer dine hall, where the king and the queen could have a dinner in the summer, while observing the lights of Mouthguard a few leagues away. The different dinehalls, each one ment for different season, occasion or time of the day, all but one, the main dinehall, that could be used on any occasion, served a more useful purpose now. This one in particular was used as a tactics room, where the king and his circle of most trusted ponies could discuss importrant matters.

One unicorn hadn't knelt before the king, and she wasn't supposed to. No queen was ever obliged to kneel to her king, and even if they were, Javelin would be the last one of them do so. Born in one of the wealthiest noble famillies as Velvet, she had shocked her parents ever since she was a small filly. Her tomboyish nature turned the activities her sisters could go on with for hours, enjoying every second of it, into a painfully slow annoying procedure for the adventorous and rebellious filly. She much preferred to instead go out on the castleyard and spend time with her favourite member of the court ponies - Honed Edge, the weapon expert. Over the years, the hours spent in training in the yard grew proportionally, while the growing filly found more and more excuses to avoid the boring weaving and etiquette classes. Seeing their efforts yielded no result, her parents eventually let her do what she wanted. The tomboy filly was no longer obliged to spend any time with the boring table etiquette teacher.

Upon reaching marehood, Velvet took two importrant decisions. First, she switched her name, which she found unfitting to her personality, with a name, that suited her perfectly and also had a connection to her cutie mark - a knight's pike. From then on she was known as Javelin. The second decision, that would determine the rest of her life, was her decision to cut her mane as stallions did and join the army. Luckily, the gurds weren't too suspicious about the helmet she always wore to conceal her curved muzzle. Javelin was recruited as private Rusty Spear.

She never had any trouble hiding her gender. The bodies of ponies from different genders weren't much different in the first place. She had no problem speaking with a hoarse voice all the time. The only problem was the muzzle form.  She took care of that by simply never taking her helmet off and never lifting its visor. Baths weren't a common experience for soldiers, and when the time eventually came, Javelin wore a special wooden mask she had carved, which was covering her muzzle. The explanation she gave was that she used this mask to breathe under water, and since a wooden pipe, one whole with the rest of the mask, stood in its front part, which actually allowed her to do so, it was an explanation everypony had accepted.

Durin the first months of her training, she was put in the same squad as Bladewaltz. Being a third generation soldier, the stallion was a lieutenant, and therefore, the squad's leader. A deep friendship developed between the two, because of their simillar interesses and Javelin's eagerness to excel in combat. Over the years Bladewaltz was proven to be a good mentor, since before their squad was mobilized, Rusty Spear, his best friend, had catched up to him in rank. In the years of battles, the two were commended and promoted multiple times.

Before the invasion of the minotaurs, Bladewaltz was already a general and Rusty Spear was his right- hoof lieutenant general. The two brothers in arms' bond deepened even more during the battles with the minotaurs. The lieutenant general was also by his side in the 15 years of fights against the Rebellion. About 5 years after the beggining of the civil war, Javelin decided, that their bond was now too strong and her rank was too high for her to be simply expelled from the army, so she revealed who she actually was. The military society was shocked, but taking the rank and the multiple acts of bravery on the battlefield, the army couldn't simply let go of one of its best members, no matter of the gender.

The bond between her and Bladewaltz never turned into the kind of love one thinks about on Hearts and Hooves day, since neither of them had ever had any time to develop their sensuous sides. It was a weird mixture of the brothership between soldiers and love itself, but it was strong enough for it to result in a heir to the throne - Metal Chord. The colt basically grew up in military camps. The two army commanders thought, that their son would inherit their enthusiasm. They were in for some major dissappointment. Metal Chord had inherited his mother's rebllious behaviour. Even though the colt excelled at fencing, he belived there was justice on the world and tried to follow its code. He never understood the world belongs to the strong, something his mother and father knew since many years. After the fiasco in the final battle, Bladewaltz had no choice but to disown him, only leaving him with a monthly allowance.

In some wild way, Javelin was beautiful. Her coat was light grey, her mane and tail- auburn. She never let them grow too long, the result being her having shorter mane and tail than her husband, since she considered it unpractical. Just like him, she wore an armour and a mantle and she also shared his vision about the unnecessary regal items.

" My queen. " Bladewaltz said, upon taking his place by the table - a normal wooden chair with only a few golden ornaments, just like his wife's.

" My king. " Javelin replied.

The rest of the ponies also took their seats, on the other side of the table from the royalties. The king threw a glimpse at all of them.

The leftmost was General Spaulder. His king title granting him the rank marshal, Bladewaltz had vacated one general spot, almost immeadietely taken by the young and ambitious Spaulder. A prised asset, he was famous not for the battles, but for the brilliant strategies he came up with. One of the royal couple's most close friends (the best stallion at their wedding), he had been commended multiple times on his brilliant tactics. The strategies he had come up with back during the War with the Rebellion had helped the king conquer importrant cities like Smith's Keep and Streamcross with two times fewer casualties than expected.

Unlike the two of them, Spaulder originated from the common folk, so he had first become friends with Rusty Spear back in the days of his training - as everypony but the unicorn mare were lloking up to Bladewaltz, the third generation soldier, with a mix of fear and respect. Javelin had acted as a bridge between the two and soon a deep bond developed between the two stallions as well. Although their friend was on the battlefield, he usually took responsibility of the troops, that were going to be the essential part of his own strategy - the troops, disguised as coal miners during Smith's Keep's siege and the canalization squad during the one- day battle for Streamcross. Therefore, he usually didn't take part in battles - not in the main part, at least. Not that he couldn't fight, he simply always took the weird part of his plan for himself and his squad (even though back than he was a commandant, which put him in charge of a lot more soldiers than a single squad, his plans seldomly required more than one to be completed. He simply gave the captains bellow him preset orders, making the captains (now the colonels) under his commandment the most independent captains in the whole army.).

Spaulder was a pegasus with chestnut coat and light brown mane. Just like his king and queen, he wore an armour, but being an active part of the military, he also wore a mail, which was guarding his limbs, which were left unprotected by the armour. As he saw Bladewaltz was looking at him, he smiled and nodded. The king nodded back. One of the things he and Javelin liked most about Spaulder was that his attitude towards them never changed, even after they were his rightful king and queen. Beside the obligatory kneel, the chestnut pegasus behaved as if they were all still buddies back in the military academy.

The central pony was professor Cauldron Hex, the most famous unicorn after the king himself. There wasn't a unicorn even mildly interested in furtherly developing their magic, who hadn't heard of the professor. Pretty much a mysterious figure, not much was known about him. He was found as an infant foal with his name written on a small piece of paper beside him, on the steps of the entrance of the Academy. From pity, one of the cleaner mares decided to take him in. Since the Academy had sleeping quarters attributed to both students and personnel, the mare had no problem raising the colt. Surrounded by magic all the time, the foal was naturally interested in it and joined the classes three years prematurely. The Academy being his only world, he developed rapidly, going through the ranks twice as fast as any normal student. Upon entering stallionhood, he had already achieved the highest rank, something normal ponies usually achieved in their middle years. That wasn't the end though. Cauldron continued with private sessions with each of the master, excelling at the subjects they were specialists in, until eventually it turned out he knew all there was to know. He was appointed the headmaster of the academy.

During his years as a director, the quality of studying improved drastically. A devoted experimentator, Hex made many discoveries in many different parts of magic, filling in most of the student books. He also redacted the books a bit, moving some of the material to higher ranks and some to lower. The new system was a great success and the speed with which students reached the next rank increased with 20%.  Meanwhile the professor continued with his studies, becoming the best wizard Runcinia had ever known. He also held private sessions for a few selected students of all ranks, those with a great potential.

Now in his middle years, Hex was easily the most famous pony in Runcinia after the king himself. Even though one could see Hex's great wisdom and his vast knowledge only by looking at his face, the gray hairs were refusing to appear in his mane and tail, making some ponies spread rumours, that he could cheat death. He really looked that way. His muzzle expression was dry, and his eyes looked as if they were made to pierce through one's soul and find out their biggest secret. A pair of round glasses lay on the muzzle of the wizard, a pair which he only used for reading. His black mane was tied in a horsetail, and his tail, along with the most of his muddy green coat, was hidden under a red robe, that certified he was the director of the Academy. Bladewaltz didn't like resorting to his help too much, but the current situation required it.

The last pony was an earth pony stallion with a dark orange coat and cobalt blue mane and tail. This pony was wearing a jacket with at least a dozen pockets and also two big saddlebags, overflowing with wrenches, crowbars and other tools. This was Mouthguard's brightest engineer - Fulcrum. He had designed the trebuchets, that stopped the siege of Mouthguard before it ever happenned, his machines raining stones on the Rebellion troops from half a mile away. While the earth pony was seemingly of no use during a council, Bladewaltz usually requested his presence because of his abillity to think out of the box - a skill, that none of the others had.

A map was opened on the big table. A big map of Runcinia, with each major city with the size of a bottom of a mug. Villages were each as big as a coin.

" I don't like what I hear at all, Waltz. " Spaulder was the first to speak.

" We should have stopped that menace back in Smith's Keep. Now the town is in unrest, and we believe they have reached the mountain district. That's somewhere we don't want them to be. " the pegasus put his hoof bellow the passage through the Belt.

The dirty white unicorn remembered this map. They had used it during the War with the Rebellion. He also remembered the symbols. The green wodden circle meant, that the town is in their control. The yellow circle meant, that the town is still not taken by either side, or that there's some major event there. The red circle was used for towns under the control of the Rebellion. The wooden crowns were their forces. The wooden "R"s were the forces of the Rebellion.

Most of the figures were now lying in the wooden box, which was put where the sea was on the map. All villages and towns but Smith's Keep were marked with green circles. Because of the unrest after the small group came by, the town was marked with a yellow circle. The only other figure on the map was a wooden "R" in the passage of the Belt mountains.

" What do you suggest we do, Spaulder? " Bladewaltz asked.

" Let me think. " he replied.

' We have sufficient squads both in Western and Eastern Runcinia. We'll attack from both sides... no, no. The mountain ponies were the first to follow Greywood's call. Even though we have squads in Eastend and Westend, they wouldn't suffice if the entire village rises. They'll hide in the mountains and our forces will be forced to participate in a guerilla war they can't win. The locals know the mountain. All we'll do is help our enemies... '

After a few minutes, Spaulder had a ready answer:

" The situation is tricky, but I think I have a sollution. We'll hire the bands at the east end of the passage. United, their numbers go over 100, that's for sure. This group doesn't consist of more than 20 ponies. They'll just be the newest victims. Nopony will suspect it's us. "

" An excellent idea, although I have something else in mind. Professor, what do you think? " the king turned to the wizard.

" I approve highly of General Spaulder's idea, your majesty, although I dare to believe I have a better plan. " the unicorn replied.

" According to sightings of this group, that I'll refrain from calling " Rebells", since I believe the unrest in Smith's Keep was caused by the police department and not the group itself, there is much useful information, that can be extracted from them. Eyewitnesses claim they have spotted members of a long extinct race, known as " an alicorn ", amongst them. "

" Alicorns? " Javelin was befuddled.

" Yes, my queen, alicorns. Our history claims several sailors have seen them in the far away eastern lands. Those alicorns were twice as tall as a normal pony, had both the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn and were famous for their incredible power. With your permission, of course, I'd like to preserve at least one member of this ancient race. Who knows, perhaps they hold the key to making your majesty's battlefield magicians corps truly invincible? If I may, I'd like to send a few Supressors in Streamcross to awaiten their arrival and transport one safely back to me. "

Bladewaltz had never liked the presence of magic on the battlefield, but it was neccessary. During the War with the Rebellion, the unicorn had put Cauldron in charge of the battlefield wizard corpse. As a result, their quality improved significantly, becoming a force to be reckoned with. With the creation of the Supressors, this corpse turned into a living nightmare for those, who opposed it.

" You have your permission. " the king said.

A grin appeared on the unicorn's muzzle. The dirty white unicorn failed to see it, as he was now looking at the engineer.

" Fulcrum, do you have anything to add? "

" No, your highness. " the stallion said, as he shrugged his shoulders.

" This group isn't of any interest to me. "

" And what about you, my dear? " the king turned to his queen. With a glow in her eyes, Javelin silently used her magic to open the wooden box. Held in her brown magical oreol, red circles flied through the air. Her magic let them down on every other circle on the map, befuddling all but her husband, who smiled, realising, that the mare was thinking exactly what he was thinking.

" We cut off the tree, but there are still roots. " Javelin spoke, as the final circle was laid on Mouthguard.

" The Rebellion is still alive. They're hiding, but it's only because they are waiting to rise again. In every town, in every village there's a snake, waiting to sneak out of its hole. This group, " she lifted the wooden "R" in the air.

", is their piper. Why get rid of something useful? We'll let them spark a new Rebellion, but this time we'll be ready. We'll let them follow their plans, until every snake has gotten out of its hole. Then all we have to do is cut off their heads. This group will only help us get rid of them faster. We should be thankful for this opportunity. "

The three ponies on the other side of the table all nodded.

" It's all a game, my friends. " Bladewaltz spoke. He was glad his queen was thinking the same as him.

" Let them play it for a few rounds. They'll become reckless and forget to defend themselves. Then, in the final rounds, we will strike back, taking out all of their figures. Before they realize it's happenning, the game will be over for them. "