When Captain Bright Steel awoke, he was sat, upright, in a steel chair. This immediately jumped out to him as odd. Why he would be propped up instead of lain down was something he couldn't explain, and this was concerning. As a soldier, it was part of his job to notice the subtle, to be able to interpret on a second's basis. But his head swam, and his eyes felt heavy. There was something here he knew he wasn't getting, but it eluded him all the same.
The room he was in was relatively comfortable, but still sparse enough that one wouldn’t want to be left in it too long. Aside from a couple of chairs, there was a table upon which sat a jug of water and two glasses. There was also a mirror on the wall. That was pretty much it. The walls were very light and the lights above him buzzed incessantly which made his headache worse. He didn't care how much more efficient magical lighting was, he hated it.
After several minutes of this suspension in this dull limbo, the door finally creaked open. A brightly smiling unicorn mare poked her head around the door, and Steel wondered faintly why she didn't just come in all the way.
“Bright Steel?” she asked. Her voice was too saccharine for him to really feel at ease, but he responded in the affirmative regardless.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“I… I suppose?” he said. It wasn't the truth, but he didn't really know what else he could say.
“Oh that’s good! General Armour will be in shortly," she replied sweetly, as if she hadn't just said something very consequential.
“Wait, General Armour? Why does he need to speak to me?”
"We believe you may have pertinent information about the recent attack," she all but sang, and in a second it came back to him. The Changelings had invaded the city. He’d been leading a squad near the river. They'd gotten word that Princess Celestia and the General had been taken hostage by the invading forces and then...
Nothing. The last thing he remembered was seeing them, like a tsunami of pitch, hurtling towards their position. Then it all just faded away.
“Oh here he is now!” she cried out, and it wasn't nearly enough time. Someone of his rank didn't have one on one meetings with the General. Bright Steel had ever only exchanged a few words with the stallion in his life. Now he came through that door, breezily flipping through some notes as if he had no cares in the world.
“Captain Steel,” Shining Armour greeted, gently moving past the smiling mare and sending her on her way, “I trust you’re feeling okay?”
Bright Steel immediately rose from his chair and snapped to a salute. Though he didn't show it, he could have cried from relief when the general said 'at ease'. Standing like that had been hard, his head still swam. He still felt weakened.
“General, the invasion?! We heard you and the princess had been captured? Is everything okay?” While it might not have exactly been protocol to bombard a superior with questions when they had apparently quite a few for you, Bright Steel couldn't wait to find out.
“Well we’d hardly be sat here if something had gone wrong would we?” the General chuckled, not at all like a pony in his position of power, “Not to worry about all that. Changelings have been cleared out, the princess and I are fine. My wedding is even back on! What a time to be alive, eh?"
"But how did they-"
"It turns out their leader had been posing as my fiance for several months. She'd been casting some spell that scrambled my brains and stopped me from noticing. I would try to explain but my sister was always the scholar in our family!" he laughed again, and Bright Steel thought it sounded off, "But enough of that, I want to talk about you.”
“Erm...yes. Sir." Bright Steel replied unevenly, finding Shining Armour's easy demeanour to be less relieving than he would have imagined.
"Can you tell me where you were stationed during the battle?"
“Yes sir. I was in charge of the standard bearing division by the east flank of the castle, on the banks of the river. We were there for show mostly, but then I suppose we all were until the invasion started."
"You can say that again," Shining muttered, and for a moment Bright Steel felt like he'd gotten a glimpse behind a veneer. Of what, though, he couldn't be sure.
“I remember they attacked us fairly late after the battle had started.” Bright Steel continued.
“You didn’t think to come aid us?” Shining asked, and it was an easy test to pass.
“No sir, our orders were to remain bearing Princess Celestia’s standard.”
“Very good Captain,” he replied with a smile, “Why?”
"Sir?"
"Why were you ordered to remain bearing the princess' standard?" the general asked. It seemed strange, everyone in the army would be able to answer this question. So why ask it?
"To bear the princess' standard is a great honour, general. It inspires our men and marks our defiance in the face of the enemy. If the princess' standard doesn't fall, then she doesn't fall. If she doesn't fall, then we don't fall."
"Sounds reasonable," Shining Armour replied, "So what happened after that?"
“What happened… well they attacked us and then…”
“Struggling to remember?” Shining asked, pouring them each a glass of water from the jug on the table.
“I remember the attack very clearly. They came like a tidal wave, they were all perfectly in sync,” Steel said with an involuntary shudder.
“Yes, they’re pretty good at that. Hivemind controlled, you see? We’re finding out a lot from the ones we managed to capture."
“Oh! Well that’s good… what are you doing to them?” Steel asked, but Shining just waved a hoof.
“Oh never mind about that now soldier. The fact is that we're already better prepared should they want to attack again. The drones remain autonomous until the Hivequeen needs them to act in sync. Perfect obedience and coordination at their beck and call. Honestly, with that and the ability to change their appearance I'm amazed we managed to resist them at all.”
Bright Steel was shocked, though he did a very good job of not showing it. For the general to so brazenly admit the high chance of a loss was disconcerting. In fact, Bright Steel hadn't felt relaxed throughout their entire conversation. A stallion of the general's rank didn't tend to speak so frankly with soldiers of Steel's level. He should have been reassuring his troops. Wasn't that what leaders did?
"How did we manage to resist them, sir?" he said, and watched the General carefully. He didn't respond at first. He took his time and stared into Steel's eyes with an inscrutable expression. Half baiting, half like he was hiding something.
"The bravery of our troops," he replied quietly after several moments of this uncomfortable staring contest, "Now back to the matter at hoof. I want to know about the battle. So they attacked you, yes? See if you can remember?”
“General, where am I?” It slipped out, and it was insubordinate. He had been asked a direct question and had instead decided to ignore it and ask one of his own. He blamed it on the headache that was still pounding in his skull.
“The battle, Steel,” Armour insisted. His tone was not exactly unkind, but it was also not one that brooked argument, “We need to get a complete picture so we can defend more effectively should this ever happen again.”
"Is that why I'm here then?"
"Answer my question solider." Shining insisted with a glare, and Steel knew he had no more wiggle room.
“Well they came over the barricades we’d set up unexpectedly quickly. Against pony combatants we'd estimate they'd last at least half an hour of sustained attack but they... they rushed over it like water. One of my men they… I always though Changelings drained ponies of love. But they tore him apart.”
“Yes, they’re rather fond of that. Sadly the fangs are at loss less aesthetic than we'd first hoped.” Shining muttered, “So what happened then?”
“Well we had the standard raised, as ordered, and I was trying to mitigate the damage but they kept coming…” Something felt very wrong. He didn't know how much more information he could give the general at this point. He had clearly been hurt. Probably taken a knock to the head and had been laid out cold, but his company had managed to repel the attack and got him to safety. Only this wasn't a hospital. Where was it? It felt like he should know.
“General Armour, if I may, where are my soldiers?”
“You may, but after the story soldier. What happened?” There was something nearly wild in the general's eyes.
“Well… they were coming so quickly and we couldn't repel them. I lost three more soldiers in as many seconds. I couldn't afford to lose them and we were already outnumbered.”
"Did you keep the standard raised?" the general asked, taking Bright Steel off guard.
"Well... yes as far as I can remember sir."
"You seem to remember everything else quite well, even down to the manner in which you were overrun," Shining countered, and it was impossible to interpret as anything other than chastisement.
"Yes of course but... they were my soldiers, General, I had a duty to make sure they lived."
"I thought your duty was to keep our princess' standard raised?"
"But general surely-"
And he didn't finish. Instead, he was cut off by a hissing, insectoid shriek from down the hallway. The door hadn't been fully shut, and Bright Steel hadn't noticed until now. But why would he? Why did it matter if the door was closed? The far-off, keening wail continued unabated, until someone on the other side abruptly grabbed the door and pulled it shut. Then Shining turned to him, and Steel knew the look. He’d never been on the receiving end but he’d given it a lot.
And then he remembered what happened at the battle.
And then he knew where he was.
"We were overrun," he repeated dumbly, somewhere between disbelief and wet, hot fear.
"You were overrun," Shining echoed expectantly.
"We would have no hope to survive sir. I had to make a decision," Steel began, tone becoming pleading.
"And what decision did you make, captain?" Shining Armour sighed, like he already knew what was coming.
"I ordered a retreat. I ordered my soldiers to scatter. The changelings seemed... preoccupied with those who had already fallen. I couldn't save them. So I ordered them all to leap into the river and make for the opposite shore."
"And the standard?" Shining asked, a lot calmer than Steel had expected him to be.
"It would slow us down, I ordered the bearer to leave it behind."
"Hmm," the general replied simply, and neither spoke for a little while.
"Why the river?" he eventually asked Bright Steel.
"Their wings," Steel explained, "They were like insect wings. I didn't think insects did very well with water so I hoped they wouldn't either."
“Indeed, an interesting idea. You got lucky though, it turns out they can swim quite well,” the general rambled, lazily flipping through a file, “So, you ordered them to scatter. Despite your direct orders being to remain with the standard?”
“We would have died.” Steel said, wondering why he hadn't understood from the get-go. The mirror on the wall should have been the first tip-off. He wondered who was sat behind it.
“You would have, and you would have done your duty.” Shining replied, humour fully gone from his tone now.
“There was no tactical advantage to holding that spot. It’s for the morale and show. Keep Celestia’s banner flying. They would have died, General. The standard was going down anyway. Most of those soldiers were twenty or less. Should I have let them all perish in agony rather than save their lives that they might have joined the fight anew?” he urged.
"You explained yourself why we must never surrender the standard, captain. For the enemy to take it after we fight to our last is a tragedy. But for my own soldiers to throw it to the ground and flee?" Shining spat with thinly veiled disgust, "I didn't want to believe when I'd heard the reports. When they found you washed up on that beach, your soldiers told my guards the story like you were some kind of hero."
"You knew? All this time?"
"I never misled you once, Bright Steel," Shining retorted, his tone like that of a chess player victorious contrasted sad, tired eyes, "I asked you to tell me the story of what happened at the battle. I told you this was to better make us prepared for a new invasion. The next time Canterlot should be attacked, Sun and Moon forbid it, I do not want standard bearers who flee. This will be useful, hopefully I can have soliders on the field that I can trust to do their duty, as we all must."
“They were all young, they didn’t expect fighting. They would have been torn apart. Several were. Are their lives really worth your standard?” Steel demanded, his voice getting louder and louder.
"I would advise you watch your tone Bright Steel, that standard that you sully with your words and actions is Princess Celestia's, not mine." Shining snapped, "As the General of her majesty’s army, right hoof of Celestia, I must ensure our sanctity of our force, beyond the wishes of any of its soldiers. This burden is mine to bear and I do it gladly. I wish you had done the same.”
“They would have died for nothing but a Queen’s flag.” Steel muttered, almost to himself, as he braced for the inevitable.
“I sentence you be shot for retreating in the face of the enemy.” Shining finished cooly. And though Steel had been expecting it, it still didn’t sink in fully. He didn't beg for his life, he knew it was moot. And regardless of the assertions being made, he knew he was no coward.
The general stood to leave the room, but Steel wasn't entirely done. Now duty and station felt a lot more irrelevant, and his head had cleared. Steel could finally realise what had been bothering him.
“General,” Steel called out, “You’re alive,”
Shining Armour stopped and turned around. The look he gave was one of confusion, but Steel knew full well he was smarter than that.
“Yes?” Shining asked head tilted.
“They told us you’d been captured when the fighting started, you and Celestia.” Steel pressed.
“Yes?” he repeated, already visibly weary of the line of conversation.
"All the easy smiles, slow walking, you questioned me like you didn't have anything else to do today. I wonder if you do? This isn't what a general would be doing if his princess was dead. I bet she's alive too, isn't she?"
"The princess was fortunate enough to survive her capture Bright Steel. Even given your sentence I would expect that you would be relieved to hear that."
"She survived her capture, as did you? Mi Amore Candenza as well? I couldn't help but notice you said your wedding was back on?"
And maybe it was because he was hurt and angry. Maybe it was because he had thought he'd done the right thing, only for his general to tell him he'd failed his duty. For whatever reason, Bright Steel continued, unabated, to dangerous territory.
"I wonder why you weren't all torn apart like so many of my soldiers? Too many of them."
“She’s the sovereign of our nation Steel," Shining Amour tried to appear calm, but Steel knew he'd rattled him. Why else would he have ignored the question of his and his fiance's survival outright? Why else would he slump as he did then?
"What sense would there have been for the Changelings to kill her outright. Better a hostage, don’t you agree?” Shining posited, and it seemed to be to himself as much as Steel.
"I guess we have different ideas of what constitutes leadership, general."
"I guess we do. Mine has been battle tested for millennia, captain. I take no pleasure in this, but I will not apologise for aspects of it you consider to be unsavoury. This is my duty, and I will not abandon it as you did yours. No matter the cost."
"I wouldn't expect you to apologise general," Bright Steel said, allowing his own disgust to come through, "I hope you wouldn't expect me to either. Ponies are alive that would otherwise be dead had I not acted. I would do it again."
“I could say the same for my own leadership captain. I'd wager it's saved more than yours has.” Shining replied, though he did have the decency to look at least a little ashamed behind his forced smile, “I'd say it’s all academic at this point though, wouldn't you?”
With that, he left Steel to his thoughts, and the captain found he had precious few of them. It wasn’t long before the unicorn mare came back in to take him to a cell. They walked by rows and rows of them, he saw several terrified looking changelings, apparently cut off from the hivemind that had made them so bold. He even passed some ponies like him, some looked frightened or angry, but most didn't have any expression at all.
His companion was still all smiles. He took a moment to look at her, and she didn't seem bothered by any of the prisoners. It was like they didn't even exist to her. On her uniform was the same insignia they all had. Shining Armour's shield cutie mark, directly beneath a much larger, burning sun. It watched them all. She chatted to him cheerily, right up until the point where she locked him in his cell to await execution.
And Steel thought that was fitting.
