The Siege Of Canterlot

She had wrestled with the dilemma all night when the message had come in. Advance, return? Stay or go? East or west?

There was no simple answer. The lure was to keep pressing on. Saltsburg needed relief, but so did Canterlot, if the latest messages were accurate. A force from Baltimare would, even now, be on the way to Saltsburg, and if Starswirl and Hawkeye had done what was expected of them, messengers would have been sent to Stalliongrad to summon aid for the capital from that northern bastion. But that had to be tempered- what if that was exactly what the enemy wanted them to do? What if there was a third party involved in this alliance of foes, say, the Griffons or Yaks? It seemed unlikely, but there had been no evidence of an alliance between the Changelings and the Shadowlands until this second attack had been launched from the south. If the forces from Stalliongrad were lured south to relieve Canterlot, it would leave the northern frontier vulnerable to a surprise strike.

Celestia had plenty of time to ponder as The Nameless carried her westward, back to the Hornburg fortress. They had won a battle, yes, but they could easily lose the war if they were not careful. The impetuous part of her, the part that Starswirl had tried his best to temper over the centuries, wanted to advance to Saltsburg, relieve it, and then march hell for leather back to Canterlot to relieve the capital as well, just to prove it could be done. Such a feat would make heroes of every member of the Holy Army, for sure, but it could also spell disaster, and she knew that the capital could not simply be left to fend for itself, even for the week or fortnight it might take to relieve Saltsburg. That task would have to be left to the force from Baltimare. The Holy Army was needed to face the mighty enemy horde that was apparently pushing up from the south; over a hundred thousand of them, perhaps more, nearly double the strength of Celestia's force. Combined with the Canterlot garrison and a relief force from Stalliongrad, they might exceed the enemy in numbers, but they had to make it back to the city first.

That was why the news she had received at the Hornburg disquieted her so. Messengers from Canterlot, in search of the Holy Army, had rested at the fortress just as they returned, and informed the Princess that the city was already besieged. The enemy were at the gates in vast numbers. It did, at least, tell Celestia that she had made the right decision by abandoning Saltsburg and turning the army around immediately. She could not leave the capital, her home, to the predations of the enemy for even a minute longer than necessary. Other troops might be able to relieve Saltsburg, but they were the only ones that could rush to the aid of the capital quickly enough. The city, she knew, had not exactly been in the best shape to resist a siege. Canterlot had been unprepared when she left it, with no thought given to a possible joint invasion from the south from two nations with no known alliance. There was still a fairly strong garrison, yes, but Celestia had taken many of the best units away, to form part of the Holy Army. There were guns, yes, but she had taken some of their gunners for her own artillery train. There were walls, yes, but walls could be breached, and if the city did not have the forces to plug the holes, then the walls would be useless. They had to get back as soon as possible.

They had rested at the Hornburg, but only for a night. In the morning they prepared to leave the hospitality of General Spectre and his garrison, when another messenger arrived. This time, however, it was not a Pegasus from Canterlot, but rather a fortuitously timed alert from the southernmost of the forts of the Hornburg Line. Urgent news was conveyed to the Princess- a large Changeling force had been spotted moving with haste toward the fortress. While Celestia conferred with General Spectre, another Pegasus arrived with an update. The Changeling force, numbering at least an estimated forty thousand, was moving between the southern fort and the mountain spur that lay just southward of it, jutting out into the plains beyond. The garrison commander reported no attempt to invest the fort, and was asking for orders from Spectre. He, in turn, sought them from Celestia.

"It seems that the enemy wishes to beat us to the mountain pass, General," Celestia pondered as she stood in the main hall of the Hornburg's central keep. "It is as I feared. The initial force that we defeated in battle was essentially a ruse to lure my army out of position. Whether their retreat was part of a plan to pull us into an ambush, or merely to move us farther from the mountains, I do not know, but fortunately we did not take the bait."

"Yes, Your Highness." Spectre nodded sagely. "However, we now face a new danger."

"Indeed we do, General." Celestia, poised over the large map of the eastern province that Spectre kept unfolded at all times, traced a route with her finger from the southern fort of the Hornburg Line to Saint Swiftmane's Pass. It was not far, less than forty miles, and the enemy were, according to the latest report, on the move already. It was not easy country, which could give the Holy Army time to catch up, but that same caveat applied to them as well. An infantry force might be able to cross the terrain fairly easily, but the artillery and supply wagons could not. A cavalry force could race ahead to the pass along the prepared, metaled road, but they might well be overwhelmed when the enemy did arrive. Besides, cavalry were not made for mountain fighting. It limited their manoeuvrability, which was their one big advantage over footsoldiers.

There was a guard force at the pass; they had orders from the Princess to demolish the pass with explosives if threatened by a large enemy force that they could not fight off. If that happened, it would block the enemy's route of advance, but it would also cut off their own route to Canterlot. If they could not reach the city, they could not relieve it. If Saint Swiftmane's Pass fell they would have to either journey south to the Coltstone Pass, presumably already in the hands of the enemy coming up from the southern border, or else detour north for hundreds of miles to loop around the top end of the Foal Mountain range before sweeping back down the valley toward Canterlot, a route that would take, perhaps, a month at best.

If Saint Swiftmane's Pass did not fall, then they would have a relatively short journey back to the capital, but clearly the enemy were banking on them making just such a move. Their strategy now made perfect sense; a sudden, surprise attack in the east, moving to capture a key fortress-city that would cry out for aid. That aid would be granted, firstly from the local provincial forces, and then, most likely, from Canterlot, which was the closest major seat of military power. Those reinforcements would travel through the pass and onto the plains, where they could be pulled into a battle by a relatively small force, then either lured into an ambush or pulled out of position, as Celestia had mused to herself. Meanwhile the bulk of the Changeling force, it seemed, was bypassing the Hornburg Line entirely and driving straight for the pass to cut them off from their route back to assist against the second, equally unexpected attack from the south in conjunction with the Shadow Army.

It was clever, but it relied on the element of surprise. Unfortunately, somehow, the enemy had achieved it in both the eastern and southern offensives, catching Equestria completely off guard by the one-two blow. The only option now was to drive hard for Saint Swiftmane's Pass to reach it before the enemy. That was what Celestia decided to do, because it was now the only sensible option available to her. Canterlot could hold out for a while. Weeks, probably, perhaps months, but not indefinitely. If they did not get the help they needed, the city would side inexorably into the grip of darkness.

"General, I want you to hod your position and keep your garrisons on high alert," Celestia ordered. "The Holy Army is to march for Saint Switfmane's Pass at once. With luck, we shall intercept the enemy and head them off before they arrive. If we fail, we will attempt to fight our way through them If we fail with that, or if the pass has already been blocked, then we shall return here to the Hornburg to consider our next moves."

"Yes, Your Highness." Spectre nodded. "We will hold the line. What if the fortress becomes besieged?" he asked.

"Then I am afraid you might be on your own for some time," Celestia replied. "If we make it through the pass, then the remnants of the Changeling force may well retreat past you. Give them hell with your cavalry if you can. If, on the other hand, we are forces to retreat, then I shall see you again in a few days."

"Very good, Your Highness," Spectre replied. "We shall be here if we are needed. May the fortunes of war favour you."

"May the fortunes of war favour us all, General," Celestia replied. "Especially Canterlot."

As the sun rose higher, the Holy Army marched again, westward, back to Saint Swiftmane's Pass. It was a two-day journey for the bulk of the force, but the Princess pushed out ahead with some of her cavalry, directing them to scout the way in front. The foothills were uneven, rising almost to small mountains themselves in some spots, while in other places they rolled pleasantly, carpeted with edelweiss, columbine and gentian, proud fir trees, and a variety of grasses and to make any botanist collapse in paroxysms of glee. It was a beautiful part of the world, with the towering snow-capped peaks of the Foal Mountains rising above them, where the terrain was quite different. Frozen glaciers, vast sheets of ice, pristine, all but undisturbed save for a few desperately hardy, or perhaps foolhardy, explorers and mountaineers. The crags and crevices were treacherous in the extreme, with vertical drops commonplace. At the top of the very highest peaks, the air was thin enough that even Pegasi, with their specially adapted lungs, could barely breathe well enough to keep themselves alive, let alone afloat.

It was slow going, even with the road available to them. Celestia dared not leave her artillery and supply trains behind, for fear they would be captured by the enemy while the faster units of the Holy Army moved on ahead. If they had to fight at the pass, then they would certainly need those guns anyway. Yet bringing them along meant the whole army had to travel at the speed of the slowest, hampering them. Celestia sent out more cavalry patrols to reinforce those ranging ahead, and soon they sent back the bad news she had been hoping not to hear.

Sightings of the enemy, ahead, between the Holy Army and the pass. The Changelings had a head start on them, and that was enough, though how many of their apparently thirty-thousand strong force had reached the pass was unknown. The scouts reported gunfire ahead as the defenders at the pass strove valiantly to stop the enemy from flooding through. Celestia took charge of the cavalry, leaving Ostmane to marshal the infantry and artillery as fast as they could move to aid them. With her hussars and lancers behind her, the Princess rode out. Reinforcements were on the way, but with the battle already joined at Saint Swiftmane's Pass, could they arrive in time?