The Fall of Morninglight

(( The following is written upon loose parchment in Aurora’s curious flowing script rather than the usual bound tome and precise lettering of the permanent journals. ))

Castle Astur, west of Port Ardennes

The Argent Factionnaire has relocated me to my summer home, the castle Astur.

As my movements were kept in the strictest of confidence, the staff here did not know of my arrival – and as such most of the furnishings are still under protective sheets and a layer of dust, and there is a slight musty smell of old wood and even older stone present.

There is considerable activity around the castle now that I have arrived though. It makes me somewhat uncomfortable that there are so many displaced by this event, and yet here are ponies begging for my forgiveness for not having my bed made yet.

I am unused to seeing the preparations that go into making ready for my arrival at a place… My attendants cleverly hide the fact that the staff work tirelessly, always in the background, to ensure my departures and arrivals occur with the minimum of fuss. My attention, it is said, is better spent on whatever it is that brings me to wherever I am, so I am not to be troubled with the thought that a small army has spent a week unpacking, sweeping, and polishing prior to my arrival.

It is humbling to see these events that are so often hidden from my view.

And this is not my only humbling experience of late, for similar happened during the three days that were spent with a caravan of ponies; both merchants and refugees from Morninglight, as we traveled overland to reach Ardennes…

We had left Morgan Castle as the sun reached its zenith, a time when the majority of the Changelings would be secure in some dark hole somewhere, probably under the castle, and we proceeded south along the Great Road, south, with much haste.

The Argent Guard was pulling the royal carriage with surety and speed, and with planned rotations the trip was to be made without pause to get me to the safety of Astur as quickly as possible.

Outriders came and went with reports of anything unusual in the path of our travel, and staccato hoofbeats eventually faded into background noise for me.

This is how the day progressed as we cleared the Nisean Bridge, and soon after passed beyond Trotsdale.

As evening began to settle in amidst the trees lining the road, one of the outriders galloped up with a report of a caravan about a candle mark ahead; refugees and merchants, with no sign of weapons or hostile intent…

It was after I mentioned that I would so love to stop and stretch my legs that the guard captain determined that we would meet up with this caravan, share the evening with them, and then be off again, with haste, at sunrise. His reasoning was that a random delay in a random location could be used throw off anyone expecting us to be somewhere on the route at a specific time…

Upon the arrival of my carriage the ponies that made up the caravan’s company stopped their camp preparations to pay deference to my presence. I bid them rise as I stepped down from the conveyance and strode over to speak with them, much to the consternation of the Argent Guard captain who insisted I remain near the carriage and the guards...

There, arrayed before me, were six families; mares, stallions, and foals all carrying their worldly possessions, and two merchants with heavily laden wagons – and all were bound for Ardennes.

I quickly discovered that whilst the merchants were happy to allow these families to share their fire this evening, the families were not part of the caravan. This was due to their possessions making their progress quite slow, and there was no room on the wagons for more weight to help them along faster.

So at sunrise these families would be making the long trek to Ardennes unaided.

After some pleasantries I returned to the carriage and pulled the Argent Guard captain aside to explain that he was having a change of plans… My carriage would be loaded with the cargo of these families, and if possible the foals would ride as well, and we would travel as a group to Ardennes.

His look was, well, priceless – right before his perpetually stern expression returned to his muzzle and he categorically refused to allow his Empress to sully her hooves on a several day march to Ardennes. I retorted with the fact my delicate hooves had traversed much of the known world in ages so long past that some cities I took shelter in no longer exist. And, drawing myself up to my full height and assuming my most regal visage, he was informed that he could either load those supplies onto my carriage or not, as he saw fit, but either way I was not leaving these families alone in the wilds between Trotsdale and Ardennes.

So that night the Imperial Carriage became a refugee wagon, and the following morning we all headed off to the south as a makeshift herd; the merchants, the families, a fancy ivory and gold carriage filled with a menagerie of boxes and bags, the Empress’ Factionnaire with their gleaming arms and armor, and the Alicorn Empress of Roanoak all moving southward at an easy trot along the Great Road.

It must have certainly been a sight to see…

As the royal carriage is really only intended to carry me and my personal effects, it was not quite large enough to hold everything and all of the foals at once, so I had the most fun carrying each of the little foals for a time... Their eyes would get so big when I picked them up in my magic and settled them upon my back. And once secure I would turn my head to look back at them, smile and wink, and with a great leap and thrust of my wings take them up above the trees for a few slow circles amidst the thermals – and allow their laughter displace my worry and buoy my spirit for a short time… As long as I ignored the scowl from the Agent Guard guard captain who was convinced I was disclosing our location to the enemy with every flight...

It was upon those few short days, where I eventually ceased being Empress and became just another pony to these few citizens of the Empire, that I vowed to spend more time amidst the citizenry, amidst my people… And not allow myself to be quite so walled off by position and title as I had been.

In the end we made the trip in three days versus one and all arrived safely, and now I stand amidst the carefully preserved furnishings of Astur Castle… And I take stock of my position and my strengths and weaknesses as an Empire.

The High Council is as fractured as the Imperial Guard currently, and I am exercising my emergency powers as defined by the constitution to try and recover the military, and following that the government. Ardennes has a maritime training facility on the north of the town, one that has fallen into disuse since the Imperial forces were centered in the north and had little truck with surface ships… But it can be made serviceable quickly, and that is what I require. I have opened the royal coffers to bring the facility up to a functional state, and workers have been tirelessly repairing and rebuilding for several days now.

I have also been in contact with Captain Imperious in distant Canterlot, and I have been offered a proposition for assistance that I cannot currently refuse... Imperious shall be sending a force here from Canterlot, specifically the 13th Legion, who will operate as a shared force under his command. His reasoning for the 13th Legion is that it is comprised of many ponies who followed him to Canterlot from Roanoak, and who are therefore familiar with the land and myself.

The Legion will be recruiting from the locals of Ardennes and looking for members of the Imperial Guard who are salvageable, and then setting up operations here at the maritime base.

It is imperative that merchant trade be revitalized as quickly as possible, and key to this is a strong military presence to counter the fears left standing when the Imperial Guard collapsed. The 13th Legion should be able to fulfill this requirement quickly and efficiently, and get trade running smoothly once more.

In that regard I will also be investing heavily in local shipping in order to give the crown a controlling interest, so that I may staff the ships with trained military to ensure security for imports and exports. I cannot have simple piracy impacting the recovery of the Empire…

Less governmental, I have noted on my way through town that I recognized quite a few familiar faces. Many ponies, and others, that I have come to know from the northlands are apparently finding their way here and will undoubtedly have the needed resolve to get lives and situations back in order.

The citizenry of Roanoak is not easily daunted, and they shall rise to the occasion as they always have. They are a gift to me that I cannot replace.

I worry some about the current political climate with regards to some I have come to trust, who may find the road forward more difficult now for certain well-justified fears. It is one thing to hear about the Changeling invasion in Canterlot, and quite another to have lived through one in your own city – and the citizenry may not be willing to give the benefit of doubt for quite some time.

Beyond this I shall be playing it a bit by ear. Eventually, I plan to re-take the Morninglight region, but that will be a future endeavor… Right now the citizens of Port Ardennes need to adjust to all of the new faces, and get used to the fact they are now home to the Empress, her retinue - and her army…