Whistling Rain

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12- Battle of Spear's Folly
Chapter 13- Ambush of Border Forest
Chapter 14- The End of an Era
Chapter 15- The Train Wreck of a War
Chapter 16- Projected Rain
Chapter 17- The Beginning of the Fall
Chapter 18- Crystal Protectorate
Chapter 20 - Rebellion Brewing
Chapter 21 - Crushing
Chapter 22 - Build Up
Chapter 23 - Thinking with Portals
Chapter 24 - Battle of Moro Station
Chapter 25 - Consolidation
Chapter 4 (modified)
Chapter 19 - 18 months on

Chapter 1

The Main Six step from a train fresh to Canterlot, its boiler still pumping steam into the air. Celestia had called them there urgently, a situation in need of a resolution. While the six friends plus dragon assistant wound their way through the peaceful and serene streets of Canterlot. Ponies bustled about, happily going about their business, contributing to a strong economy that flowed throughout the Twin Monarchies of Equestria. Few patrols of police or royal guard could be spotted among the throbbing crowds, peace strong and long lasting in the region.

Several ponies stopped and waved at the many times saviors of Equestria, absolutely beaming. The various citizens nearly passed out when one of the heroes waved back. The neatly paved streets led them to the towering, gleaming palace of the two princesses, regal as their occupants.

They entered the palace gates easily without hindrance, the guards smiling and stepping aside, their spears gleaming in Celestia’s glorious sunlight. The seven Equestrian heroes made their way through the expansive gardens and paths to a small private lawn. Two Lunar and two Solar guards stood, little more than ceremonial in this time of peace.

After being let through both Luna and Celestia greeted them, gesturing kindly for them to sit. Once everybody was seated, Celestia directed her attention to Twilight, speaking to her, “Hello, my faithful student. You and your friends must be wondering why I called you here today.”

Celestia paused, politely waiting for a response, to make it a proper conversation. Applejack bit first, as to the point as ever, “Yes Princess. Ah was wonderin’ why it was.... what did th’ letta say Twilight?”

“It said ‘My beloved student, it is impertinent that you and the elements come to Canterlot right away. I fear some new evil may be rising to the Northwest.’” Twilight recited from memory.

“Thank you, my student,” Celestia began, a small smile plastering her face, “And yes, I do believe a new evil may be rising on the outskirts of Equestria. Strange bipedal beasts have been arriving by large boats, of which we have never seen the likes of before. They are building a fort on the outskirts of my sister and I's territory. At first, we thought they were simple travelers, and we prepared to meet them. Then the bound and enslaved ponies arrived.”

Every pony at the table gasped, and Spike fainted soundlessly. Fluttershy look terrified and worried. Rarity was horrified. Twilight looked both curious, in a scholarly way, and disgusted. Applejack and Rainbow were both starting to boil. Pinkie’s normally brimming smile and vibrating posture has calmed, smile now forced and body still.

After a short pause to allow reactions, Celestia continued. Her smiling façade was gone now, replaced by a dark and foreboding look. “We need you to investigate, free the enslaved peoples there, and destroy this rising threat. You will depart this evening, on a train to the Crystal Empire. From there a company will escort you to the fort.”

“We won’t let you down, Princess!” chorused the Elements of Harmony, all eager to stop the new evil they faced. They all kept up after this, and shot out of the garden, leaving the princesses alone once again.

Once the heroes of Equestria were out of earshot, Luna spoke, a since of doubt and urgency in her voice. “Celestia, are you sure that the elements will be enough to destroy this threat? This is a threat of the likes they have never faced before.”

“Sister, that is what you say every time. And every time they defeat them.”

“And every time the villains they face are more skilled and come closer to victory.”

“Luna, trust them, they will manage to defeat this. We have no reason to worry.”

“I will sister, I will trust them. But it won’t stop me from worrying.”

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“Alright girls! To the train station!”

With that, the elements of Harmony began retracing their steps through Canterlot with urgency. Rather than winding through the beautiful scenery they took direct avenues, cutting an almost straight line to the train station down the station.
Arriving at the station, the train was preparing for departure. The rear three cars were now box cars, currently being loaded by several guardponies. In other areas of the platform more guardponies milled about and polished their gold armor. Spare spears were carefully laid into cases and placed into boxcars. Warm clothes were packed and roughly tossed into the storage cars.

A guard stallion with far more ornate armor approached Twilight, a clipboard in hoof. He speaks with a powerful, stern voice, seemingly treating Twilight as the superior officer in the group, “I am Captain Grapefruit You seven are the Elements of Harmony, plus.... this says their super extra important assistant?”

“Yep, that’s me!” exclaimed Spike, excited to be mentioned in a manifest with the Elements of Harmony. He hopped up a little at this, giving a mock salute. With a momentary, microscopic smile, the officer snaps a perfect salute back before returning to Twilight.

“And, just for official documents, confirmation on who each of you are? Name, what element you are, and current occupation.”

“I am Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic. I am Celestia's personal student and Ponyville librarian!”

“Ah’m Applejack, Element of Honesty. Ah run a farm with mah family.”

“I, darling, am Rarity, Element of Generosity. I run a magnificent boutique.”

“Oh- uh.... I am fluttershy, Element of Kindness. I run an animal care home.” Fluttershy trailed off and her speech devolved into squeaks.

“I’m Sorry ma’am, what was that?” Captain Grapefruit looked up from his clipboard, looking around, mildly confused.

“My name is fluttershy. Element of Kindness, animal care home.” Fluttershy’s voice was once again little more than squeaks, but somehow the Captain understood. More or less.

“Ah, you must be Fluttershy.” After this acknowledgment Grapefruit jotted down notes on his clipboard. He continued to look down at it, waiting for the next introduction.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! Element of Laughter, but you probably already knew that! I work for the Cakes at Sugar Cube Corner! You should come, that way I can throw a ‘First Time at Sugar Cube Corner’ party! It would be so much fun! We could pla-” Pinkie’s long, and sugar fueled explanation was cut off, by Captain Grapefruit impatiently clicking his pen and turning Rainbow Dash.

“Me? Well, I’m only Rainbow Dash fastest flier in Equestria! Element of Honest, member of the Wonderbolts, all that jazz!” Rainbow Dash's egotistical statements came to an end much faster than to be expected. With a sigh the captain finished noting something down on his clipboard, before looking up and addressing the group.

“Alright you seven, you’re going to be sharing the front car with myself and a few other guardponies. Once we reach the Crystal Empire we will depart as soon as possible to the west and get your elements where they need to be.” The stallion finished, and abruptly about faced and began directing the loading efforts of the remaining supplies.

Amongst one of the remaining things to be loaded was the ornately carved Elements of Harmony chest. Applejack and Rainbow insisted on loading it themselves, carefully stacking it up with boxes of food and weapons. With that finished they trailed to their assigned car, while two guardponies slid the door shut behind the orange and cyan mares.

With everything and everypony loaded the train boiler started to burn, heating its water. Following a minute of waiting, the train lurched forward, gently pulling its load out of the station and down the cliffside. It rapidly accelerated down the mountain side, soon going well over ten hooves per second.

As the train chugged towards the Crystal Empire, a farmer along its boarders was having a strange, and mildly terrifying encounter with this new enemy.
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Gerald Spark was a simple pony, grew his beats and tended his firs. Completed his daily chores, was never rude to anypony, and prayed to the princesses as frequently as possible. So why is it that these shadowy demons were haunting the edges of his farm?

For the past week an increasing number of bipedal things have been watching him from the tree line during the day. At night if he were quick to look out the windows with a lantern by his side, he could see them darting behind fences and into his barn. If he tried to spot them without his lights, he could see them studying various common equipment, conversing in harsh, deep, and rapid language, that he could not make heads or tails of.

On day eight of the hauntings he finally left, brining an ax for protection. His not to hasty departure was covered by him taking a wagon of beets to town, hoping to make the monsters of the forest believe he wasn’t on to them.

He wasn’t able to spot any tracking him through the snowy fields and forest, but maybe they were hiding better than normal. Spark began to panic, his mind picking up more and more ways they could be tracking him, and was picking up speed to rival his heart rate.

Spark was soon running as hard as he could, every shadow being a looming figure reaching for his hooves. His adrenaline was rapidly being pumped into his bloodstream, lending him strength and speed. His hooves were dashing through the snow, with a one horse cart pulled behind him.

When he finally rounded the last bend into town, his muscles were screaming with exhaustion. But he kept sprinting, the adrenaline making his movements even wilder and faster. He darted past ponies going about their days, drawing concerned looks. He finally managed to calm and come to a stop, but his eyes were still wild and panicked.

A couple of Crystal Guards strode over, carefully keeping out of bucking reach. When Spark finally noticed them he began babbling about the shadows that haunted him constantly for the last week. As he babbled he began to calm down, prancing a lot less. The Crystal guard carefully approached them, like one would a wounded, wild animal.

Gerald Spark was just one of many who were giving similar panicked reports all over the western boarders of the Empire. His reports were filed and sent to join dozens of others waiting for the Elements of Harmony to look at.

Chapter 2

The train being ridden by the Elements of Harmony and their escorts chugged into the station, steam spewing from its top. Its brakes squealed as it came to a stop, stopping squarely in front of the platform. Once at a full stop, it bled off remaining boiler pressure with a hiss, filling the platform. Before it had fully dissipated, Twilight and Spike led the way off the train, closely followed by Applejack, then Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Pinkie Pie bounced out with a couple of laughing guardponies, With Fluttershy emerging last, the captain alongside her.

Twilight was greeted by her eagerly awaiting brother’s yells for her. She emerged from the light steam cloud, waving her hoof at him before trotting over. They greet each other with smiles and a hug, withdrawing after a moment.

While the siblings greeted each other the escort began to unload the train. They quickly removed the elements and handed them to Spike, who was nearby and excited to help. Next, they pulled out the warm coats, followed by spears and swords. The rest of the Elements hovered nearby, chatting, and laughing while waiting to depart for the fort to the west.

“Twilight, it’s great to see you again, although I wish it were under better conditions. It seems like every time I get to see you you’re saving the world from one thing or another.” Shining’s voice was filled with melancholy as he said this.

“I wish the same, Shining. But before we go for the forts, what do you know about this issue? What have these invaders been doing?” inquired Twilight, giving Shining a concerned look.

“So far? So far, they are just causing psychological damage and scouting our western borders. No intentional killing. Breaking into unattended farms and looting things. Trivial things that do not really make sense. Books. Single meals. Tools. No money, not substantial amounts of food. Barely anything.”

Twilight thought on that for a minute, before responding with a tentative question underlining her voice, “But... why aren’t they attacking? Nothing else we ever face has been so... slow to act.”
Shining Armor smiled gently, and set a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder, looking like an instructor imparting important information.

“Twilight, this enemy is not like most of others you have faced. It’s more like the Changlings. This enemy is an army. An army that is learning about us, in order to defeat us. It may not make sense to us as of now, but it must make sense to them.”

“I see, Shining. Do you think we have the time to meet Cadence?”
Shining sighed deeply, responding slowly, “Unfortunately no. She’s busy taking care of official royal duties, and I could barely get away. You need to leave immediately. Twilight.”

Twilight nodded, and sadly responded with, “Well, the sooner we finish this the sooner I can see you two again!”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true Twilight. See you soon.” Shining laughed lightly and waved at her. Over the course of her conversation several nearby carts had been loaded up with two weeks worth of supplies. Already larger earth ponies amongst the guard were hooking themselves up.

Twilight trotted over, antsy and wanting to get moving. She approached Captain Grapefruit as he finished placing a bundle of fire wood onto the top of the third cart. He turned and his armor made noticeably less noise, a thick parka underneath.

“Ah, Ms. Sparkle, I’m glad you finished up with your brother. Put on one of the parkas and we can get going. If ms. Rarity allows it, that is. She has been insisting on modifying the parka. Something we don’t have time for, as I’m sure you know. Could you please convince her to…” he trailed off, looking for a polite way to put his frustration into words, “convince her to not immediately tailor the parka to her wants?”

“Of course, Captain, I’ll do it right away.” Twilight then spent the next several minutes managing to convince Rarity to not design and put together a new parka, and to take the bland ones offered by the guard. Barely managing to that is.

Once Rarity was in the parka the elements were finally ready to begin their path towards their latest enemy. They quickly made their way out of the shielded capitol, and into the frozen forests and tundras of the Empire.

The wind howled through the air, whipping and pulling at their parkas. Twilight staggered when the wind first hit them, unprepared for such harsh weather. Despite Twilight’s thick, well made parka, she felt as if her bones were freezing up.

Due to the severe cold and other conditions immediately surrounding the capital the group’s progress was slow initially, having to forge through freshly fallen snow to find and follow the roads. In several points the snow covered company found themselves trotting on frozen grass and dirt, rather than cobbled road.

When these events happened they were forced to backtrack, and find the place where they deviated from the designated path. Forging off the trails wouldn’t be an option here, with the snow covering many landmarks and creating new or false ones.

When the snow died down, their speed increased, and, Twilight at least, could see much farther than she could before. Distant snow capped trees could be sent, the snow pilling up to their branches and making them appear as cones jutting straight from the ground.
Captain Grapefruit lead them further on, occasionally checking the map and brushing snow off posts along the road. Twilight continued to trudge along behind him, the rest of the elements trailing not far behind her. Spike was huddled against her neck, the snow stacked higher than he was tall. The rest of the company were surrounding the carts, pushing snow out of their way as best as possible, while also providing protection from any attempted assault.

The unrelenting progress forward, led by Grapefruit and spearheaded by the elements, eventually led them too a small village, the majority of it’s carefully constructed huts and walls shielding large portions of it from snow drifts.

AS the column drew closer, a few tired, cold citizens of the empire exited their dwellings, curiosity bring them out of their warm havens. Many of them were surprised to see so many guards marching into the cold village.

Captain Grapefruit ignored them, continue to lead the Elements of Harmony and his company out and away from the village. Twilight on the other hand, she paused for a moment. Her scholarly side and gotten the better of her for a moment. She looked at the small, diminutive villagers, and observed that they wore even thicker clothes than herself.

Twilight halting led to a slight confusion amongst the guardponies, their instincts on which herd leader to follow fighting each other. One a biological need to follow the lead of the herd leaders, the other a drilled in need to follow the commanding officer.
The confusion brought about the mixed instincts soon was wrestled under control, the guards continued on, ignoring the immobile scholar. Twilight continued her silence observation for a moment, before noticing that the rest of the column was on it’s way out of town. She hurried to catch up, rejoining her friends near the front.

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Along the frozen shore of the Empire a sad, decrepit pony shambled. Her gaunt body showed weeks of starvation, skin hanging off the bone. She looked hungrily for some sort of vegetation in this barren hell scape.

Her wandering, long and unfruitful as it was, slowed. Her pale green body gave out, failing her. She lay face down in the snow, her consciousness drifting away. As she felt it was her end, a uniformed crunching of snow sounded in front of her.

When the green earth pony awoke next, she was not in the afterlife, much to her suprise and relief. She was in a long, narrow bed, bundled in linens and blankets.

Looking to the side a row of more beds lay, same on the other wall of the room. The majority were empty, but a few had strange bipedal things in them. One was nursing a bandaged appendage, while another sat beside him chatting merely in some harsh tongue she couldn’t comprehend.

Once these bipeds noticed she was awake a four more entered, dressed in fancy suits. They spoke at her, to no avail. After a moment the began slowly hitting their chest and slowly saying something.

“Ckirederf” Said one, using finger to poke his chest.

“Lrak” Said the second.

“Snah” Said the third.

THe fourth elected to remain silent, instead gesturing at her, indicating something. After a moment of this, a light went off. “Crystal Fir”

All four nodded with slight smiles.

Chapter 3

After a week of cold and hard travel Twilight and her friends finally were nearing the fort. The captain had set up a small camp in the trees nearby, a small fire crackling brightly. The thirty or so soldiers went about their tasks, cooking, cleaning, or just trying to stay warm.

The beret wearing humans were not the only ones in the area, with others wearing navy blue uniform shirts, white pants, and a red trim on it all. On their heads say black bicorns also scouting the forest and trailing them. Both groups seemed to avoid each other, only every showing up when the others were gone. They botched seemed to do the same thing, carefully watching while trying to remain hidden.

Observable from afar, the bipedal beings inside the fort dressed differently as well. They wore dark blue or grey uniforms with tall hats adorning their heads. They too carried the metal and wooden objects, although theirs had a clearly defined blade attached to the end. These bipedal soldiers stood guard around the wooden walls, or in a few cases led weary patrols through the forest or quietly checked on Twilight’s camp from afar.

That is not all the ones inside the wall did. They would also march in formation with picks down to a quarry, mining out stone and forcing their enslaved horses, and even some mules she saw, pulling the heavy stones back into the fort. She and the captain both agreed that they must be preparing more permanent defenses in the area.

Both groups observing her without cooperation made her believe they were all something of rivals, not wishing to interact with each other. Perhaps the silent, stealthy ones were far more skilled and tactful than the ones inside the fort. She didn’t really know. But she was prepared to infiltrate the base and free the enslaved horses now.

The horses in question were often ridden by the navy-blue clad bipeds, leather straps and strips binding them and forcing the horses to fall to their rider’s will. They marched along with little more than whinnies and snorts, making every pony fear what the treatment inside the walls was like. They must be punished brutally for such dumb obedience.

The observation from their days watching the fort led her to believe that they had more than mere forts planned. One eve, a group of the invaders arrived carrying food and other supplies, and not wearing the uniforms of the fort dwellers. They talked with one of the soldiers for the fort, who was an officer judging from his embellished uniform, before making their way to a point some distance from the fort. Direct line of sight was lost, but smoke soon started to rise, indicating some sort of camp or settlement. It seemed as if a permanent settlement was being built.

Twilight and Captain Grapefruit decided to launch the raid to free the prisoners that night, then turn the fort dwellers into stone, as well as any of the other bipeds they encountered along the way. The guards pony all sharpened spears and lances, while the mane six prepared their elements. Rope was gathered and equipped with hooks. Spells for sleeping and stunning were practiced.

The night fell and what little warmth could be gathered in the day slipped away. The company made their way to the edge of the clearing around the fort, watching its wall stand stalwart against the unwelcoming forest. Fires burned along the sentry posts, casting light into the clearing. In some sports unattended fires blazed by the trees. It ultimately left little cover to hide in.

The sentries themselves were bundled against the cold, grey coats resting over their normal blue, scarves pulled tightly against their faces. They stood and watched the dreary snow with tired eyes, sniffling and rubbing their hands to keep warm. Between the main posts pairs of two would patrol between, checking on each other as the night progressed.

When the shift change came, the party dashed to the wall, taking the moments of distraction with relish. The invaders didn’t notice, or so Twilight thought, until the harsh cry of alarm issued from the wall above them. A cry that was cut short by a unicorn hitting them with a sleeping spell. The alarmed soldier fell over the wall, landing on the frozen ground with a thud and crack, his neck bent at an odd angle.

The spell came just in time, his cry not reaching more than the man right beside him, who was quickly silenced. The rapid actions of Captain Grapefruit and one of his unicorns managed to preserve the stealth of the mission for a minute longer. Every pegasus in the group began flying ponies up as quickly as they could, dropping them onto the walls then flying back down to grab another passenger.

Dash singlehandedly got the entire main six, and two other soldiers onto the wall it took all the pegasi to take up two people. Once the entire company was up on the wall the rapidly dashed for the ramps into the court yard. Twilight and her friends led the charge, hammering down the ramp, the company in tow.

The thunder of their hooves were mildly muted by the dirt for a moment, before echoing off of the hardened wood making up the walls. The sounds drifted to the half dozen or more sentries dotted about the walls, drawing their collective attention towards the stampede.

For a minute they were stunned, giving Twilight and company time to reach the base of the walls and begin splitting into predetermined groups. One, led by Applejack, broke towards the gate. Another, headed by Fluttershy and Pinkie, sprinted towards one building. Rainbow Dash led several towards a large, towering three story building. Twilight, with spike on her back, led Rarity towards what looked like a large storage building or barn.

By now the sentries were shouting and screaming, “Marla! Egnilgnirdnie! Neckew!”

These shouts were repeated many times, the sentries raising their weapons and pointing them at the heroic ponies. Twilight and her group burst through the doors of the barn, speeding inside then slamming the door shut. Two guards braced the door with their bodies, pressing against it hard.

Twilight and the other ponies then skidded to a halt, horrified by what they saw. Horses, at least forty five of them, stood tied to stalls, no beds or baths in sight. Treated like common farm animals, not intelligent creatures. Along either wall a trough of water ran. The saddles and bridles hung from posts just next to the horses, a cruel reminder of their burdens they were forced to carry.

“We are here to rescue you!” Exclaimed Twilight, looking around at the enslaved creatures. And the creatures ignored her, continuing to eat, drink, or sleep in their stalls.

Rarity chimed in, her voice swooning excitedly, “Come ON darlings, you need to make a dramatic escape!”

And still the horses remained silent. Many turned away from the over exuberant ponies, trying to sleep. Worry crept it’s tendrils into Twilight’s mind. The horses remained silent. She kept over, Rarity behind her and Spike on her. The weary guards continued to barricade the double doors, tossing hay bales and pitch forks and anything else they could get their hooves around.

After a moment of study the rest of the stables, a thought struck Twilight. They must be too afraid to rebel and run. With this conclusion satisfying her confusion, she shouted sharply, “Come on! We need to go! These people can’t hurt you anymore once we free you. You have nothing to fear.”

The horses still ignored her. All but one. This one stared at her dumbly. Almost like an animal. Twilight looked doggedly into it’s eyes, almost glaring at it’s stubborn refusal to speak or show some discontent. It simply whinnied, blowing hot air into Twilight’s face.

Twilight’s failure at convincing animals to speak was brought to an abrupt end when an ear splitting crack reverberated through the stables. It bounced off the walls hurting Twilight’s ears. She whirled to the source of the noise, and saw a golf ball sized hole in the door.

And a stallion bleeding on the ground, a gaping, jagged circular punch through his gold armor covered in a thick coating of red.

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A cold, brisk wind cut through the twinkling fires of camp. It’s harsh, reaching tendrils worming their way into the shivering guardponies’ thick coats. Two ponies, situated at the entrance to the high fenced outpost, stood watch over the snowy forest.

This newly constructed outpost had poor, oh so poor, wind protection. The guard post lacked snow or wind protection, while the watch tower had so many crack it may as well not have had a roof or walls. Th only warm building was a squat barracks, capable of housing ten guardponies.

The two ponies in the tower sat huddled together, not watching the surrounding towers or landscape. Their position was just high enough on the hill to not give any wind protection, but not high enough to see over the tops of the trees. The one to their east sat on the other side of the hill, the one to the west in the valley between hills.

The outpost on top of hill was so distracted by the freezing snow and cold that they failed to notice a warm glow begin to waft from the east. A glow that broiled hotter. And hotter. Soon it was too bright to ignore, even through the wintery cold.

And as quickly as the blaze grew, it shrank. Two small explosions echoed over the hill, the two guards in the tower having woken up the other ponies lead the way to the crest of the hill.

The smell of ash and soot met their noses, eyes widening. The ruins of the newly build outpost still smoldering lay before them. The eight ponies dashed down the hill in the hopes of finding a survivor, as a dozen, maybe more bipedal soldiers drifted away into the snow.

Chapter 5

Soon the company of guardponies emerged from the wooden fort. Many had dried blood covering their armor, and all of them had mud painting their gold armor brown. They all respectfully adverted their eyes as they marched past the main six. Captain Grapefruit left last, his horn igniting as he left.

A streak of fire burned towards the fort’s wall, bursting against it with a fiery aggression. It hungrily licked at the dried wood stacked high as walls and spread rapidly across the battlements. Burning high, burning fast. Burning all. Flames licked the sky, igniting the early morning dawn orange. The now compromised walls caved under the weight of stone soldiers. Crashed and crumpled. The shattering of stone echoing through the clearing.

By this time the company was gone though, marching in the direction of the village. Twilight headed the march, with Grapefruit just behind her. Behind him Rarity, then Pinkie, Applejack and Dash were quietly arguing beside each other, and Fluttershy was last in line.

Their march was slowed by a lack of any clear road, the group forging their way through brush and branch. Twilight and Grapefruit pushed and pulled as much out of their way as possible, the rest simply being pressed into the ground by their steady hoofbeat.

Their march brought them nearer and nearer the frail trails of smoke rising from the village. The forest seemed largely peaceful, snow and ice coating everything. The occasional white colored bunny, or white fox, would dart around them and scurry off into the woods. A gentle breeze wound through the trees, chilling the ponies to the bone.

As they marched another crunching step sounded a short distance from Twilight. She stopped, her head snapping to whatever made the noise. Grapefruit followed suit. And then the rest of the company. Everypony stood silently on their hooves, waiting for the captain to continue the march.

“Twilight, you and I are going to check that noise.” The captain began, looking directly at Twilight before turning to address his company, “All of you stay here. Be careful and silent. Twilight and I are going to check out the source of the footstep.”

Twilight nodded. She carefully began to walk towards the source of the sound, Grapefruit just in front of her. Even with them trying to make as little noise as possible, their hooves softly crushed snow and pine needles beneath them. Slowly they walked, looking around and silently moving leaves and branches out of their way with magic.

In the silence they could hear a ragged, wheezing breath emanating from somewhere behind a tree or two. Grapefruit nodded his head in one direction around the tree. Twilight silently, or at least as silently as she could, crept around one side while Grapefruit the other.

As Twilight slowly rounded the tree a hand, splayed against the bark and inside a fur glove. She continued around the tree, more and more of this bipedal thing becoming visible as she did. Its arm was covered in a linen coat, along with its legs. It wore some kind of boots over its feet, insulating against the snow. The eyes of the biped were squeezed shut, and its lips pressed against each other, trying to mask noise.

Captain Grapefruit was just on the other side his horn glowing softly. He nodded at Twilight again. Her horn glowed softly in response. As one they launched sleep spells at the cowering biped, sending a light purple and dark purple hue of magic vibrating across his body.

The young man immediately dropped face first into the snow. With little effort, the Captain lifted the bipedal thing up and draped it over his back. The two unicorns trotted back to the column and deposited their new prisoner into a cart. And then the company was back on the move.

The march continued towards the pillars of smoke drifting lazily into the sky in this early morning. As the drew nearer too the source Twilight could hear the sounds of wood being chopped, and construction. Hammers banging against wood, axes splitting logs. The crack of a tree being felled echoed across the forest.

The march entered a large clearing unimpeded. Twilight looked around and could see a large variety of these bipeds going about their day, not noticing the ponies at first. She could see children throwing snow balls, shouting—in a language she couldn’t comprehend— and running around. Several adult bipeds were working on building houses and chopping wood, thick beards and mustaches coating much of their faces.

Other adults trotted about cleaning clothes, taking care of young children, and cleaning. These ones all distinctly lacked beards, but a had much longer mane on top of their head. These ones wore dresses, while the bearded ones wore pants and shirts.

Twilight looked at this idyllic scene, and then turned to Captain Grapefruit. He looked back, his face set in stone. He nodded at her, silently reminding her of what she must do. She nodded and turned to her friends. They too were gazing at the peaceful scene ahead of them. Fluttershy looked back at Twilight with tears in her eyes, before every pony silently stepped up into another semi-circle.

At this point a couple of the adult bipeds noticed the armored company of ponies, and were curiously walking over. They all carried the different tools of their trade with them. Once in front of the company of ponies they stood in a loose line.

In response Grapefruit brought his soldiers into a solid wall of flesh and gold in front of the elements. One of the bipeds turned and shouted at the rest of the little village, “nienih tim rednik eid eis nemhen”

In response all of the bipeds wearing dresses gathered up all of the children and began taking them into their homes. The doors were shut and barred. The shutters were drawn closed. The once lively little settlement rapidly became the field for a standoff between an under equipped militia and well trained pony guard company.

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Crystal Fir was having a wonderful time in strange land she awoke and found herself in a month ago. The Prussians, which is what she learned the bipedal things called themselves in their native tongue, were helping her learn of their language and culture. The language was oh so confusing to her, not only did they use completely different words and spelling systems, but it seemed to her as if she heard the words in reverse of what they said. Even more confusing was the different grammar structure, vexing her to no end.

Her condolence was that they were having the same troubles learning her language as she was learning theirs. There were daily sessions of Crystal and ‘Karl’ trying their best to learn of each other’s language. While there were often successful sessions there were also frequent failures to translate things between the two languages.

When Crystal Fir wasn’t in the vexing language exchange classes she was permitted to trot around and look at the small port town she resided in at the time. As long as an escort of one Prussian learning her language and one ‘Musketier’, which is what they called their normal foot soldiers. These soldiers dressed and behaved very differently than the ones she would see in the Crystal Empire. They never wore any metal armor, instead wearing a dark blue waist coat and white trousers. Instead of a gold helmet a fabric ‘shako’ was resting on their head.

Another difference was the lack of a full spear. Instead they carried a ‘Muskete’ which apparently used a small explosion to propel a metal ball and strike something. It could be turned into a short spear with the attachment of a bayonet, which was a long knife that could be attached to the barrel.

The city itself had roads made of stone brick lining every street, and stretching off into the distance. Snow swept trees dotted park grounds that were scattered about and between the houses. Large government buildings could be seen everywhere, many operating as administrative center for the region. A barracks was used to train new soldiers nearby, and a foundry built cannons and ‘howbitzen’, which was like a cannon, but fired indirect shells that could explode or disperse ‘quicklime’. Crystal didn’t ask what ‘quick lime’ was.

There was also an opera house, which was lovely looking and had frequent foot traffic too and from it. It was surrounded by many businesses that were also frequented by the people of the city. A constant flow of raw and produced goods moved through this city’s port, wood and gold going out while things like iron and stone came in, along with a number of contraptions Crystal couldn’t understand.

All in all, she was liking this place, and hoped she could continue to translate the language. These ‘Prussians’ seemed to be very eager to learn her language. Crystal thought it was so they could trade and befriend more of her peoples.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

Chapter 6

Twilight looked into the eyes of the lead biped. In those eyes she saw determination. Resolve. Resignation. And above all else, fear. Fear weighed heavy in those eyes, his unblinking gaze holding Twilight’s. Despite the freezing temperatures the biped’s forehead had sweat beads on it. They pooled in the crease lines on his face.

This is what broke Twilight’s resolve. She took a step back and looked away from the man’s gaze. Her shattering resolve caused Fluttershy’s reluctant compliance to fail. She too began too slowly back away. Rarity followed suit, then Pinkie Pie. Applejack and Rainbow both looked at them, confusion in their eyes.

“Gals, where are ya goin’?”

‘Yeah! We gotta give these invading scumbags a beating!”

Twilight shrank away from the two of them, her head pressing down into her neck. She was disturbed by their... eagerness to harm what looked like clearly harmless creatures. “Applejack, Rainbow, we can’t hurt them. They clearly aren’t like those soldiers at the fort. They are innocent!”

Applejack looked down; shame painted on their features. Applejack responded with a hoof on the back of her neck, and a downtrodden statement of, “Well, golly Twilight I guess we didn’t think about that.”

Rainbow Dash on the other hoof, was not impressed. Nor was Grapefruit, who had trod closer over to the group after seeing the entropy. Dash responded with a rebuttal, stating that, “Twilight! They are invading the Crystal Empire. Celestia herself told us to get rid of them.”

Grapefruit, and several of his ponies, nodded along with Dash as he stepped up and opened his mouth. “Yes, Twilight, we were ordered to remove the invaders. If you don’t use the elements, my company will remove them manually.”

Twilight went bug eyed. Her hoof trembled as she pointed at the two accusatorially as she responded with, “You... you wouldn’t be following orders then! We were just told to deal with the fort. This village didn’t even exist yet. You just want blood. The blood of innocents.”

Dash snorted. She began to hover off the ground as she grew agitated. Her eyes returned Twilight’s accusatory point with a withering gaze. Her voice shrill, she accused Twilight of going soft and getting attached to these weird monsters.

Rapidly the discussion degraded to three ponies arguing, often rebutting and out shouting at one another. The ponies among the guard let their attention be drawn away from the raggedy militia towards the ongoing entertainment. Their ready stances shifted from spears pointing at the bipeds to being leaning posts to watch the spectacle.

One of the bipeds took notice and tapped another on the shoulder. He whispered into his year, a hand cuffed around it, before taking off sprinting in the direction of the pillaged fort. The guards were far too enamored with the now screaming match between Twilight, Dash, and Grapefruit. The rest of the main six sat watching the argument with fear and apprehension, glancing and whispering to each other with baited breaths.

Eventually even the bipedal villagers began to uneasily settle into relaxed paces, backing towards their unfinished homes. Soon the uneasy, slow and reluctant backing away was replaced with a steady, careful backwards pace. And none of the ponies noticed that their queries were leaving, so enamored they were with the screaming match in front of each other.

The bipeds then began disappearing into the tents and cabins, ducking out of view of any attentive pony. Of which there were none. Not one guardspony kept their eye on what should have been their center of attention. Not long after many of the bipeds began leaving their homes, the entire family present with bags filled with personal possessions and food. They began to disappear into the woods. All the bipeds did. All but two who, much to the chagrin of their families, stayed behind and hid in the trees, watching the ponies and the narrow footpath towards the fort.

One guard got it in her head to glance at the line of enemies that were watching the angry discussion between her leaders. And then she noticed the narrow line wasn’t there anymore. She wheeled towards the simple village, her head snapping around as if they may have just shifted to the left or right. Her hopes were dashed when she couldn’t see any of them. She notified her sergeant, who in turn began to inch towards his direct superior. Captain Grapefruit.

“Captain Grapefruit, sir.” He began, before standing respectfully at attention. Grapefruit paused his screaming match for long enough to glance at his subordinate.

“Yes, Sargeant Desk?” he said, trying to keep his agitation out of his voice. And failing miserably.

“Sir, the bipedal invaders seem to have fled”.

“WHAT”.

“They seem to have fled sir”.

Grapefruit glared at the sergeant for a moment before turning towards the village and could in fact confirm that the bipedal invaders were absent. He turned back to Twilight and spat at her, “Well, I suppose you got your way whether I agree or not.”

With that, he angrily turned about and began marching away. Before he remembered he was still tasked with escorting the Elements of Harmony around. He returned, still supporting his angry mood, and glared at Twilight and the rest of the elements. He decided to get in one last jab before telling them to get ready to go home saying that “Unlike you, I will do as Celestia tells me”.

And with that he began to walk back towards the wagons. After a moment, his company of now seventy guardsponies followed along, many copying his distasteful look, others glancing sympathetically at Twilight and the others. Rainbow Dash cast a glance at Twilight before flapping her wings and hurrying after Grapefruit silently.

Twilight herself turned towards the rest of the elements, her closest friends, and saw similar looks of unease and dismay reflected at her. Pinkie’s normally inflated hair and joyous smile has been replaced with smooth, finely combed hair and a dead sad frown. Rarity’s over dramatic style had once again won out, thick lines of mascara dragging down her face. Fluttershy too was crying at the prospect of hurting these innocent beings, leaning against Applejack who had her hat over her face in an ashamed fashion.

After surveying her friends, Twilight pulled them together, and had a slightly smaller group hug than normal. And she soon had tears of her own flowing down her face.

General Ernst Schellinger sat in his office, reviewing the force placements in the region. His office in question was in the region, and theater, capital. It held both the governor for the theater and the office of the minister for the region.

As of now he has remained out of the field, no active campaigns requiring him to move his headquarters with the main force of the army. In the capital city of the theater had an army built of eight twelve pounder howitzer batteries, seven line infantry companies, two light infantry companies, two Frie-crops companies, three dragoon squadrons, and three hussar squadrons. They resided in the ring of artillery forts around the city, supplying ample protection from any attacking force.

In the rest of this region sat a stone fort, five line infantry companies and a horse squad. They were situated near the southern border of the province and maintained a watchful eye on any colonists going out along their road. Further out in a semi-circle ring around the region, in the untamed wilderness that colonists were settling and beginning to farm, sat five wooden forts each holding three companies of line infantry, and a squad of light dragoons.

As of now, everything was going well. There had been no desertion, for the Prussians got their pay weekly. Food stocks were still going strong in the outer forts, but General Ernst still made note to set aside additional funds to ship smoked fish and grain to the forts. The Jäger companies that were scouting the primitive locals had been reporting back their findings, helping him learn of their diets and language. Add to this a native being captured by them and now being held to learn their language and he was confident that diplomats would make contact soon.

The Jägers, Ernst’s jägers, were to begin a small campaign of disruption of supply lines and observation of enemy military units. Small squads were given special duty and were expected to begin infiltration any day now. He hoped to have reports on their effectiveness in a short number of months.

Ernst’s musings on the current standings of his soldiers were interrupted when one of his guards knocked lightly on the door. Ernst looked up expectantly at the door, and said, “Come in.”

The soldier walked in, a letter in his hand. He gave a crisp salute and handed it to his general. “Sir, it’s from Karl Schellinger, Minister of the Army of Bavaria.”

Ernst nodded and reciprocated the salute. He then took the letter and dismissed the soldier. Opening the letter, Ernst muttered to himself, “What has you writing to me, dear cousin?”

Inside the envelope was a lengthy letter, detailing the situation in Bavaria and the rest of Prussia. Things Ernst already knew. Further down he inquired of the Bold New World Ernst was stationed in, and how the colonizing went. A short paragraph beneath detailed the birth of Karl’s third son, much to the surprise of Ernst.

And in the letter was closed with a joke that made Ernst chortle. It read “With love, a man who knows you Prussians march till they die, we Bavarians until they drop, the Saxon’s till they’ll tired, and the Westphalians if they feel like it.” The joke was humorous enough that Ernst still had a smile on his face when he retired to the family home that night.

Chapter 7

The walk back was peacefully uneventful. Nothing leapt out at Twilight or her friends, threatening to destroy friendship in the name of evil. The prisoner they took did not stir and dozed the entire trip. Rainbow maintained her distance from the rest of the Elements, instead sticking close to Captain Grapefruit. The guardsponies kept a neat column the entire march, perfect hoof after hoof marching three abreast. Behind this well-formed march the carts trundled along, wheels turning relentlessly through the churned snow. Yet further beyond the carts all the horses were being pulled along behind by ropes. Twilight often stopped and looked back, watching the trot and behavior of the animals they had fought to free.

Twilight and Grapefruit’, plus company, arrival was met with cheers of victory emanating from all sides. Crowds of ponies held back by Crystal Guard led the company on a winding parade towards the towering spire of crystal that Twilight’s brother and sister-in-law rule from. The two- and three-story tall crystal buildings lined all the streets, their shine bragging of the beauty of this city.

At the palace waited Shining Armor, Cadance, Celestia, and Luna all sat upon a balcony far above the crowd, waving elegantly while waiting for Twilight and her friends to finish their impromptu victory parade and begin personal congratulations. After being regaled with the story of the Elements of Harmony’s success, that is. The guard company would receive their standard congratulations and then sent along their way.

Once Twilight rounded the corner, they hurriedly made their way down to display for the Crystal Heart to welcome the six heroes of Equestria. Standing beneath the cavernous arches the four royals watched the approach of the heroes. The six all looked tired, worn, and mentally tired. Behind them the company guard looked equally worn and tired. And further behind them horses trotted along almost cheerfully, their animal eyes looking around at the new scenery.

Twilight herself perked up when she saw the straight shot towards the castle ahead, the combined royalty of Equestria and the Crystal Empire both waiting for her and her friends. She turned towards the rest of the main six, Spike still on her back, and gave them encouragement. Rainbow Dash continued her attempt at aloofness and general air of annoyedness, but the façade was beginning to crumble beneath the friendship she shared with Twilight and the others.

After giving the moment of encouragement Twilight hurried towards the royals at a dead sprint, eager to get to be reunited with her family and mentor again. And Luna. Luna was there too. Behind her Twilight could hear the rest of her friends breaking out into sprints. Or speeding along in the air, wings flapping furiously to get to the foundations of the castle.

Twilight reached the castle, throwing herself into the hooves of her older brother, hugging her tightly. Her friends stopped awkwardly behind them, looking between Celestia and the rest of them. Cadance also joined in the hug, wrapping around Twilight and nuzzling her lightly. Celestia looked as if she wished to join in the hug, but decided to remain separate, instead looking at the other five elements she smiled. Luna too smiled and looked at the other five, giving them congratulations politely while waiting for the group hug between the family beside the small group to end.

Eventually Twilight ended her hug, pulling back and looking at the two. The various heroes of Equestria decided to trot quietly up into the upper reaches of the castle. They found an underused parlor and everypony grabbed seats and made themselves comfortable, and Celestia conjured tea for all the ponies who wished for it. Cadence, Luna, Rarity and Twilight all had steaming cups in front of them in an instant. They drank in silence for a minute.

“Celestia...” began Twilight trailing off as she tried to summon up what she wanted to say. Her hoof hovered in small circles as she tried to pull the words out on a spool. The silence pulled on, before Rarity continued for her.

“We managed to destroy the invader’s fort, darling. Turned them to stone and freed the horses enslaved there. While we were observing the fort, we saw settlers travel further to the northwest. We followed the path these settlers took to a new village. Once there we had a standoff that... fell into an argument between Twilight, Rainbow, and Captain Grapefruit over how to deal with the settlers. The villagers ran during the argument, and we then returned here.”

Celestia politely held up a hoof and waited for silence. “What do you mean by dealing with the settlers?”

“Well... the three did not quiet see eye to eye on what we were supposed to do with the villagers. Twilight thought we should leave them alone, while Captain Grapefruit and Rainbow Dash wanted to remove them with the elements.”

Celestia was silent for a moment. She then turned to Rainbow. Her gaze was neutral, not displaying any emotion whatsoever. “What is it that made you believe that the Elements should be used to harm innocent people?”

“I- I thought...” Rainbow Dash lost her voice looking into the eyes of Celestia, somewhat nervous and fearful. “I thought that because they moved here with the invaders that they fell into the group that needed elimination.”

“Rainbow Dash... when have we ever purposely sought to harm civilians?” Celestia said, disapproval creeping into her voice. “I understand that in your efforts to be loyal to the crown you wanted to... dispose of any threats to the crown, but you forgot about your loyalty to the protection of the innocent.”

Rainbow Dash looked down, shame on her face. “I’m sorry Princess. I won’t let it happen again. I’ll be sure to remember to protect the innocent.”

Celestia smiled lightly. “I trust you will, rainbow. We must be thankful that these settlers decided to run when they could, otherwise things likely would have turned out far less nicely.”

“Now who wants to eat cake!” Cadence burst out suddenly, and uncomfortable silence began to build after Celestia's discussion with Rainbow. A butler brought in more cake for the royalty to eat and enjoy.

Ernst Schellinger was sitting in his office looking over inventory reports when an aide respectfully entered, a stack of paper in hand. He was dressed in a white undershirt with a deep navy-blue overcoat. His vest sitting as a buffer between the two was grey, and each button was neatly shined to perfection. The aide waited silently in front of the desk for General Ernst to recognize his presence. The general finished skimming the report before acknowledging the aide with a small smile. “Yes, Mr. Bauer?”

“I have a report about Fort Southern Tip, sir.”

“What is the report, Mr. Bauer?”

“It was destroyed by the locals. They then threatened a village before disorder in their ranks ended the assault.”

Ernst was silent for a minute, hands folded in front of his face with his elbows resting on his desk. In the early morning light flowing through the windows his glasses gleamed, obscuring his eyes. “What is the status of the remaining soldiers from the fort.”

“There were no survivors, sir.”

General Ernst leaned back in incredulity, his hands coming to his stomach. “What do you mean, no survivors? There’s always some wounded or deserter who managed to escape.”

“Most soldiers had casts of stone made around them. A few were killed by spears or some sort of scorching weapon. Even fewer by bucking from a pony.”

“Is there any doubt that this was a local force? Perhaps well-armed bandits or...?” Ernst replied with trepidation in his voice.

Mr. Bauer shook his head, looking at his general directly. “No. The villagers reported the majority wearing uniform armor that was well maintained. This was a military force sent to destroy the fort and the village.”

“I see Mr. Bauer. Thank you for the report. I’ll see you in an hour to report this to the governor. I trust you can have copies made in that time?”

“Yes, General.” Mr. Bauer turned to leave, before pausing and turning back to Ernst. “I almost forgot sir, all the horses from the fort were taken by the ponies, why they need draft animals is beyond me.”

“Thank you, Mr. Bauer. I’ll be prepared to give a presentation of the current situation to Governor Heine Lange with your assistance. You are dismissed.” A moderate amount of impatience began to seep into the General’s voice.

With a sense of minor urgency, Mr. Bauer exited the office without additional comment. Ernst’s polite smile faded into his standard frown as he set aside his paperwork and began composing a statement for the Governor. If the governor was sensible enough to listen to Ernst’s plans, he would approve the raising of militia companies. Should this war escalate further Ernst would have to fight defensively until reinforcements could arrive from the Old World.

Alongside a general overview of his plans, Ernst began to pen a letter to his cousin in Bavaria. Perhaps the Bavarian army could have a chance to flex their muscles.

Chapter 8

Once the butlers arrived with cake, and it was devoured, Twilight asked Celestia to step aside for a moment to talk. The pair quietly moved into a separate study, each finding a seat before Twilight addressed her.

“IdontthinkthehorsesarelikeSaddleArrabianhorses.” She spat out rapidly, words blurring together. Celestia's smile faltered for a moment. Twilight continued spitting words out, “Theydontspeaktheydontreallybehavelikeintillegentcreaturesandtheyresistedleavingthestablestheywerein.”

A silence fell for a minute, while Celestia discerned and processed what Twilight had said. Her face furrowed with thought as she did so, a concerned look also trickling into her expression. The silence dragged on a little longer, before Celestia sighed deeply and spoke.

“I fear I made a mistake and acted hastily, dear student. I acted hastily on too little information, assuming Sombra had somehow made a return.” Celestia paused for a moment, before continuing. “We must send diplomats to set things right again. Twilight, you, and the elements shall depart tomorrow to use the Elements to fix soldiers frozen in stone in the fort.”

Twilight nodded, and began to take note, before she paused, “We... don’t speak the same language, Princess.” Twilight said, looking at Celestia, “But we did capture one of the villagers.” As Twilight said this realization dawned on her face that they had essentially taken a civilian hostage. She face hooved herself and looked sheepishly up at Celestia.

“And tell me, my student, why this was only mentioned now?” Celestia questioned, her eyebrow raised. She sighed and brought out her own parchment, scribbling something down rapidly. “I will talk to a captain in the guard to have a secure room arranged for our guest. Twilight, I hope you can translate this language quickly, so we can fix this problem and put it behind us.”

“I will Princess, I promise.” Twilight said, determination setting into her face. She quickly turned to leave, her body clearly pointing towards the palace library. Celestia noticed this and held a hoof up, instantly stopping her.

“Twilight, it can wait for morning. You cannot do this sleep deprived.” Celestia kindly. She gestured behind Twilight, causing her to turn and catch sight of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash shutting the parlor door behind them as they trotted off to their rooms. Twilight looked back to Celestia, who gestured with her muzzle towards the bedrooms.

Reluctantly, Twilight turned and trotted towards her room. Once inside she crept silently past Spike, who lay sleeping in his own bed just at the foot of her’s. She then crawled beneath the covers and the toll of the previous week had her asleep in minutes. That night she slept warmly in bed dreaming of the library.

The next morning Twilight awoke late midmorning, the sun illuminating her entire room once she threw back the curtains, the soft shcifff of fabric on metal filling the morning silence. Her exuberant act of opening the curtains stirred Spike from his own slumber, bringing with him soft grumblings as he tried to ignore the bright light drifting softly through the windows of the castle.

Twilight picked Spike up with her magic and carefully set him on her back, before she herself made her way towards the dining room for breakfast. Pancakes were sitting out for everpony to come and eat as they pleased. When Twilight and Spike, who was awake at this point, were also joined by the three princesses and prince, who were already halfway through a simple breakfast. Twilight joined them to eat, and everybody exchanged polite pleasantries before Twilight inhaled her breakfast and trotted off to the library.

Spike, who had just been settling in to enjoy the well-made breakfast, jumped up and waddled hurriedly after Twilight, casting a forlorn glance at the breakfast laid out on the table. “Twilight! Slow down! Can’t we enjoy a nice breakfast before work?”

“Spike, we can’t waste time on that. The Princesses are counting on me to find a way to set things right.” Twilight didn’t so much as glance over her shoulder when she shot back her retort. Spike merely shook his head and followed her, having learned not to argue with Twilight by this point. The Crystal Castle’s library was humongous, a sprawling labyrinth of shelves brimming with books.

“Spike, I need you to find me any books on language translation. Magical or otherwise.” Twilight instructed. The two then set to work, carefully combing the library methodically for books that could aid them. They started by thumbing through section .400 in the library and picking out anything from the rather sparse selection, on language translation.

Once a hefty collection of books was collected the pair skimmed the table of contents and glossary for any sections that may be more helpful. After two hours the selection dawdled to two books. One was titled Language Translation for Magicians and the other was titled A Comprehensive Guide to the Efficient Translation of Language and Spells. The books both suggested two separate ways to learn a foreign language rapidly. Translation for Magicians described a spell that could easily teach somepony a language, but it required a written book and a native speaker to work. The other book had a more tried and true method of using books and a native speaker to learn it slowly and steadily with word and structure translations.

Twilight selected the former. Discarding A Comprehensive Guide to the Efficient Translation of Language and Spells and had Spike return it to its shelf. Twilight began thoroughly learning about how to use the spell. How to set up the room. The materials needed. Spells and sub spells must be layered over each other. Twilight sent Spike out to collect additional materials needed for the spell.

As soon as Twilight was confident, she had all the spell’s facets memorized and noted down, she closed the book, and set to reviewing her notes until Spike returned with the supplies she needed. He returned with everything except for a native speaker and a book in the language. The components he did have were empty notebooks, ink, and quills. Lots of quills and notebooks. Languages were expansive after all.

All the materials ready, Twilight set out to find the prisoner and try out this new spell. Until she remembered that she lacked half of the requirements of the spell. She stopped her stride out of the library. “Spike, I forgot something. I may not have a book with the language in it.”

“Maybe he has a book on him?”

“Where would he have put it? We went through his pack and found nothing of the sort.”

“Maybe it was in a pocket?”

“I hope so, otherwise this was a waste of time.”

Twilight got up, gathered her notes and materials to talk to their prisoner. Out in the hall Twilight set out to find Shining Armor. After searching for a short bit, she found him in the throne room, waiting for petitioners and discussing resolutions with his wife. Twilight waited for a break to be called, before approaching Shining for the location of the bipedal prisoner.

After a brief discussion, Twilight was escorted to the guest room that the prisoner was housed in. The two guards that escorted her stood at attention outside the door while Twilight and Spike entered carefully, locking the door behind them. Looking into the room, they saw their prisoner.

It sat at the foot of the bed; head bowed, and eyes closed with its hands together in front of it. It spoke in its native tongue while in this position. The words it spoke seemed reverent and subservient at the same time.

It’s speaking stopped when it noticed the two of them standing in the doorway watching him. It shot up, looking around the room for an escape for a minute and going rigid. Then it drooped, shoulders slouching and head dropping, seemingly resigned to its fate.

“Hello... whatever you are!” Twilight cheerfully chirped. Twilight pulled out a notebook and waved at him, “Now I need you to give me a book.”

The biped looked at Twilight with confusion on its face, and it took a step back. A hand hovered protectively in front of its chest, palm facing outwards. Its eyes flicked between Twilight’s book held in her magic, and her glowing horn. Its eyes grew, fear saturating them, and it said something in its native tongue that Twilight couldn’t understand.

Twilight at once dropped the notebook into her hoof. Using another hoof, she pointed at the book, looking it in the eyes. The bipedal creature glanced at its breast pocket defensively, if only for a fraction of a second, before shifting into a slightly more defensive stance.

Twilight spotted this and smiled slightly. She nodded at the pocket, and tried to keep a calm, relaxed tone to her voice as she said, “Please, I know it's there. Give me it. I just want to use it for a bit and return it.”

The creature, anxiously and agonizingly slowly, began to inch a hand towards its pocket. It never took its eyes off Twilight. Twilight smiled slightly wider with an encouraging nod at him. “You can do it, just fifteen minutes and you’ll have it back.”

“Eut sad hci muram, thcin ßiew hcI” it said, almost murmuring to itself rather than talking to Twilight. It finally reeled out the small pocketbook, which had an ornate golden cross embossed on it. The creature carefully set it on the bedside dresser before fleeing to a chair set at the desk. A desk with paper coated in writings.

Twilight picked up the book with her magic, a twinkle in her eyes. Now that she had all her components, she could begin the spell that would help undue this horrible mess.

A squadron of dragoons raced out from the inner folds of the Prussian colony towards the Crystal Empire. Three separate standards waved in the wind as they galloped through the frozen wastes. One was a standard Prussian standard. Another was a regimental standard, and the final was a solid white flag of truce. In the center of the formation a sharply dressed man and a group of aides. The squadrons rode hard and light, covering three, four days by foot in one. That night the squadron and their charge camped out. They set up leather tents lined with wool and lit small fires all around.

The next day they took a far more relaxed pace, moving at a steady trot. They wound through the snowy wastes watching for a pony outpost or town. The further south and west they got, the more vegetation the group found. Soon they entered forested areas, signaling they were near the frontier of the colony and the edge of the Crystal Empire. Not long after entering the trees they found the abandoned village.

The squadron captain decided to stay the night in the half-built settlement, carefully leaving furniture where it was and cramming everybody into the finished and unfinished buildings alike. The dragoons helpfully put the left-out equipment in sheds haphazardly. Extra firewood was stacked nearly in the corner of every building.

The next morning, joints stiff from an unusual breeze snuffing out their fires frequently, the squadron set out again. They once again moved at a steady trot. They passed by the burned-out husk of a fort, everybody removing their hats and helmets respectfully. The squadron’s heads all bowed when they trotted past the statues and shattered stone of hundreds of infantry and dismounted dragoons.

Once past the outermost edge of the fort, and by extension the Prussian colony, the squadron replaced their hats and helmets on their heads and sped up slightly. The trees grew dense, and they had to ride single file, no established roads connecting the colony to anything else. They camped in tents around fires for the next several nights, ambling towards the Crystal Empire.

Eventually the squadron emerged from the tree line to a large open plain, fields frozen over. Dotted about the fields were dozens of small farmhouses. Along the outer edges of the fields a simple wood tower surrounded by a palisade stood. The top of the tower was topped with the Crystal Empire’s standard, waving proudly in the gentle breeze drifting across the farmland. On the outer most corners of their vision were more of these buildings, all about a hundred meters from the edges of the forest.

The captain commanding the squadron, his squadron sergeant, and a lieutenant escorted the well-dressed man and his aides towards the simple outpost. The captain turned to the sharply dressed man and said, in German, “Diplomat Hermann, wait here. I’ll bring out this post’s commander to talk.”

With that, the captain dismounted and followed by his sergeant and lieutenant, approached the gate in the palisade. There were two ponies already standing, spears angled towards the captain and his command. The guards were both slightly nervous looking, shifting in their shiny armored boots.

“Hallo.” Began the captain, in thickly accented, broken, ponish, “We… speak… to… King… you”

The two ponies looked back and forth, glanced at the flag of truce, before one of them turned his head over his shoulder and shouted something in ponish very rapidly. All the captain could hear were “Message” and “capital”.

After a moment, the pony swiveled its head back towards the captain. He spoke very slowly and enunciated his every word when he said “We will have a squad escort you to the capital. They will be here in a day. Set camp along the forest.”

The captain slowly translated the statement in his head, his eyes moving along the top of his brow as he did, before nodding and marching back to the diplomat to inform him of the development.

Merchant fleets, the life blood any good empire. Carrying goods from far flung trading ports into the inner holdings of the empire. These goods, so hard to grow or make in the empire, are highly sought after and are awfully expensive. Making it very profitable for the merchants, native traders, and empire’s tax service.

Captain Fredrick was leading a merchantman trading ship, the SMS Bitteshon, into the port of a recently discovered port. The residents of this port were the mythical Minotaurs, a whole new market with unknown goods and preferences. The fleet he was a part of held dozens of different goods, in the hope of being able to barter their way into possession of something valuable.

With any luck, this market would bring humongous profit to the fleet.

Author's Note

Sorry about not posting for a season. Hope an extra long chapter makes up for it. :)

Chapter 9

A purple hue of magic surrounded Twilight, the book, her notebooks, and the bipedal… guest. Twilight was carefully constructing the different layers of the spell one on top of the other, while the, hazy, far away eyed biped sat silently in its chair.

The biped’s eyes suddenly focused when it realized what was happening. Its head snapped towards Twilight, fear building rapidly. It shot to its feet, backing into a wall in abject terror. Twilight ignored it, concentrating deeply on her efforts to build the spell.

The magic enveloping the biped and its book began to pulse and throb, swirling turbulently around the two objects. For two minutes the magic pulsed and absorbed information out of the two. From the magic aura floated out purple, translucent letters, forming into words and then sentences as they began to drift towards Twilight and her notebooks. About a hoof away from them the words duplicated, one set beelining for Twilight’s horn, the other for her notebooks.

The ones bound for her horn were vacuumed onto the tip before swirling down the spiral grooves, tickling Twilight as they did. Once the purple letter spaghetti reached the base of her horn, they duplicated themselves again. One of these new lines just sank down through her skull and into her optical nerves, and ear canals, teaching her how to read and understand the language. Into her mouth flowed the other set of words, training her tongue and vocal cords muscle memory on how sounds and letters were pronounced.

The words that tracked towards the notebooks began to rapidly and unstoppably multiply and divide like cancer. They dove all over the pages of the notebook, their text size changing and adapting as needed. In several spots rough sketches regarding the subjects of the words would pop into being, ink from the nearby inkwells draining rapidly. All the notebooks were full within minutes, and then began compressing the text and downsizing the font.

Within five minutes of the spell beginning the magic aura coating the biped, Twilight, and the books faded. Once it was gone Twilight suddenly felt exhausted, breathing heavily and her legs trembling. A beam of giddiness broke Twilight’s face when she weekly flipped open the notebooks, delighted to see that she could read and understand the now less foreign language filling page after page.

After spending a moment to revel in all her glory Twilight set the notebook down gently, and looked at the biped. Who was laying on the ground clasping its head and gasping. Twilight shot up, scrambling over to the out of breath creature. When it noticed her coming close it scrambled, hands desperately righting itself and pawing backwards, into a corner, curling tight into a ball. Its eyes were wide with fear as it cast its gaze onto Twilight.

“W-w-what d did you do to me? To my Bible?” It barely managed to sputter out, as if some solid ball was stuck in his through, making it difficult to speak.

Twilight was mollified by his reaction to her magic, and stepped backwards. Twilight slowly replied in his own language, “I performed magic in order to learn your language quickly. I’m sorry for any stress I caused. Please, how can I help you?”

“G-g-give me my Bible. Please. And and leave me be.” There was even more stress in his voice now, and it seemed even harder for him to talk. His face was red, and tears were welling up in his eyes.

Twilight looked at him with concern, before returning his book and turning to trot out of the room. “I’ll leave for now. But I’ll check in regularly if you need anything.” With that, she left the room, Spike trailing just behind her with all her notebooks.

Stepping out of the room, Twilight quickly found her way to a wall and braced herself against it. Both of the guards standing by his door looked at her with concern, one cautiously marching over to her, the other reading a spear and moving to open the door. Twilight looked around, and waved off both the guards. She and Spike than began to trot back towards the library.

Twilight then straightened slightly, a confused look written across her face. How had she come to know the biped was a he?

Twilight was back in the library, reading more into possible spells to transfer her language knowledge to others. Quickly, that is. While she would have loved to teach classes, there simply wasn’t the time. The book she initially was reading through contained some helpful information, even directing her towards another thick tome with much more information on the subject.

Spike had waddled off to the kitchens, presumably to grab food for himself and Twilight. Her friends stopped in periodically to check on her. She told each in turn about her friends about the breakthrough, and then wished them a good day. The Princesses briefly dropped on by as well, and were also informed of developments. They were excited that she was able translate the language in such a short amount of time, and hoped she could teach it to them as well soon.

Spike dropped off food for Twilight, before running to do some other errands for the other elements. Primarily Rarity, Twilight assumed. She stopped her note taking and rigorous studying schedule during and for a slim period after lunch, taking the time to stretch a little and relieve herself.

Twilight began to settle back into her studying spot, barely managing to get her book open before Shining and Spike returned, a dragon fire scroll in hoof. They both had an air of urgency about them, quickly scanning the room and both heads locking on Twilight. They hurriedly made their way over to her.

“Twilight, we have a message from an outpost along the border. The biped’s have sent a diplomat and his guard to negotiate with us.”

“That’s great!” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes lighting up with joy. “We can finally work on putting this disaster behind us and cooperating in the future.”

Shining nodded for a moment, and then added, “The guard could speak very broken ponish. They asked for an audience with our rulers specifically.”

Twilight went silent, eyes widening. “H-how can they speak ponish?”

“I don’t know, we’ll have to figure that out during the negotiations, won’t we?”

Steel Tip stood in the tower above her outpost, gazing out at the forest edge. The usually unimpeded view was blocked by a moderately sized camp, tents pitched and guards in a blue-grey uniform milling around. They wore elaborate steel helms, and carried metal and wood clubs, as well as a curved sword. There were also the finely dressed diplomats that resided with them.

Horses stood tied to posts in a simple, and hurriedly built, corral. According to Captain Shining they were not horses like the Saddle Arabians to the south, but were rather like chickens. Simple livestock to be trained and used as deemed fit, supposedly.

Steel still eyed them with suspicion from up in her tower, looking past the heavy crossbows built onto each wall. She feared they may… forget that she and her fellows were not wild animals. Granted, should they try that she would stab and spear them, or buck them into next week. Their clubs and swords would be now match for a fully trained Crystal Guard! Especially with their odd lack of armor over anything but the back of their head.

Shifting her stance, she turned her head in a quick sweep of the ground around the outpost. She noticed that most of the farmers that resided in the homes behind her outpost were elsewhere. Usually they’d be repairing fences, checking cold weather crops, chopping firewood, and who knows how many other tasks. Instead, almost everypony was inside, fires crackling weakly as they peeked out the window to stare at the bipeds camping just inside the border.

Steel’s frown deepened when she noticed, before turning back towards the bipeds. She scowled at them from her tower, casting her gaze from guard to guard standing along the edge of their camp. Steel Tip continued to do it, until one of the guards noticed it, returning the look and turning away, returning to it’s patrol.

An hour later Steel tip was relieved from her post by another guard pony. She trotted down the stairs and began to remove her armor. Once it was off she made her way to the simple housing quarters they had. A bit ramshackle, it had beds for everypony as well as a wood fire stove for cooking and heating. Warming herself on her bed, she opened a book about adventure and glory in strange new lands to read. Her reading was interrupted when one of the gate ponies, Iron Rod, called her outside.

“Steel, one of the… Srenogard? Yeah, I think that’s what they call themselves… Well on of them asked to see the pony in the tower last. Be careful, please? Nothing rash.”

“Did the Renogard say why it wanted to meet with me or..?” A hint of nervousness kept into Steel’s voice. Her mind was racing, what if she did something to offend it, or had inadvertently challenged it to a duel.

Iron’s eyes narrowed slightly, and his voice sounded a lot sterner than before, “No, it didn’t. You didn’t do anything to it, right?”

“I glared at it.” Steel quickly said, eyes darting down.

Iron sighed deeply, before stepping aside, gesturing to the gate. “Go on, your guest is waiting for you.”

With the gait of a condemned mare, she trudged over to the gate. Looming above it, and the palisade, was the bipedal giant, taller than even it’s fellow. It had a small grimace on its face, but a twinkle in its eye. The helmet and parts of the uniform of before were gone now, as was the club and sword. But there was a bottle held loosely in its hand.

The gain reeked of alcohol. It’s face was red and ruddy. It angrily yelled at her in its language, waving its bottle and pointing at her. After a moment it noticed her confused face and began speaking in broken, slurred ponish. “Yuuooou… pony” he spat, as though it were the best insult ever conceived, “whwhy yooouo glluur mmmich”.

Steel backed up, her head craning to look him in the eyes. Iron Rod and the other gate pony trotted forward, metal horns pointed at the drunken biped. The shouting had drawn the eyes of guards from the bipedal camp, and two guards were coming over, gloved hands ready to draw their swords. There was anger in their eyes as they approached.

“You need to back away from the pony, sir.” Iron said, threateningly nudging his head forward.

The giant ignored him, stepping towards Steel. He raised the bottle threateningly. The other pony nudged Steel behind him. The two bipedal guards now were disregarding their swords and running towards the outpost at a flat sprint.

The giant brute wildly swung its bottle at Iron. Iron dodged easily, and swung the metal horn to the belligerent’s stomach. With a forceful tone Iron spoke to him, “Stop now or I’ll skewer you.”

The brute tried to say something, but only slurred mutterings stumbled over themselves and off his tongue. It tried to raise its bottle again, only to be interrupted with the two Srenograd guards seizing an arm each, dragging it backwards and away from the Crystal Empire’s outpost.

It yelled something into the sky, and was struck on the forehead by one of the Srenograd guards. A third Srenograd, the one that had demanded a meeting with the Crystal Empire’s rulers, jogged over, a look of shame and embarrassment on his face. He reached the outpost and bowed slightly to the three Crystal Guards there. He spoke in his thick accent as last time, although the sentence structure had already improved. “My apologies… he stole… alcohol. We… execute him.”

Steel was taken aback at such a rapid verdict from his officer. She looked up at him, and saw that the shame she thought she saw in him moments ago was actually rage. Without waiting for the input of Steel, or any of the Crystal guard, he wheeled about and marched back towards his camp.

That night a fresh grave lay beneath a tall, strong, and ancient pine tree. An empty noose dangled threateningly, a warning to all. A reminder of the consequences of violating Prussian law.

Chapter 10

Shining Armor, the elements of harmony, and a detachment of the Royal Crystal Guard arrived at the outpost early the next morning. The Captain Armor was at the front, in shining dress armor and marching with perfect form. The Elements of Harmony made a rank directly behind him, walking and trotting with mediocre form. Behind them marched the guard, six files abreast and six ranks deep, their armor glistening in the morning sun. The tips of spear horns and the machinery of hoof bows shined, polished to perfection. The feathers of bolts were beautifully maintained, not one strand out of place.

The bipeds’ Srenograd were all mounted in a triangle formation, the diplomat and his aides sitting at the front. The diplomat wore the full outfit of a gentleman, from white linen breaches to the thick blue overcoat and wig. His aides were also immaculately dressed, if of a slightly lower station than he. The Srenograd themselves wore their cleanest uniforms and shiniest helmets. The black leather boots they wore shined in the dull winter light. Mustaches were trimmed and straightened, haircut and combed. Every effort had been put forth into this impression, for both sides.

Shining halted, bringing the column to a standstill. He gazed up at the front of the bipedal formation for a moment, before gesturing to Twilight. “Go ahead, introduce us, Twilight.”

Twilight stepped forward and gave a polite bow to the diplomat. In German she said, “Hello, Sir Diplomat. I am Twilight Sparkle. I am fluent in German and will act as the translator for the negotiations. The stallion beside me is Prince Consort Shining Armor, husband to the ruler of the Crystal Empire, Empress Mi Amora Cadenza. We will escort you and your retinue to the capital today.”

The diplomat nodded. After a moment he replied in almost perfect Ponish, “I am Ambassador of Prussia Fitzgerald Eikhoff. I do not require a translator, as it would be insulting to force your Empress to use a translator in her own halls. Please lead the way…” the Ambassador trailed off, before looking at Twilight, perhaps a bit sharply. “How do I say his title in Ponish?” He asked.

Twilight was taken aback at his apparent near fluency. She stuttered out, in Ponish, “Prince Consort, Sir Eikhoff.”

“Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. I may still need a translator after all. Please lead the way, Prince Consort Shining Armor.” With that he took the reins of his horse in his hands, and shouted in German, “Prepare to ride, steady trot!”

The convoy of Prussians and Crystalians trotted into the view of the capital late that evening. The warm shield that surrounded the capital sparkled with a faint blue hue, warming the region inside. Thick, rich fields grew all along the edges, before giving way to a city, maybe 25,000 residing in it. A massive crystal spire rose above it all, casting out tendrils of magic up into the dome. All the Prussians stopped in awe, looking at the magical sight. Shining smirked and said, “This dome keeps the interior temperate all year round. Powered by the magic of love. We are currently working on expanding it using pylons, so the entire Empire is habitable year-round. A few years from now, and the entire Crystal Empire will look like this.”

Fitzgerald’s mouth twitched slightly. Into something that could be seen as a smile. Or, if you didn’t know him well, a slightly smaller frown. “Impressive, Prince Consort. Most impressive.”

Dense fields full of cereal crops like corn and alfalfa pressed right up to the barrier. Small crystal houses and wooden barns dotted the landscape. A pasture sat some distance away with chickens flapping about. Farm ponies working in the fields stopped to wave, before seeing the mounted Prussians. Then they’d quickly look away, or retreat into their homes. Prussian eyes would turn away from the farmers, looks of mild distaste on many of their faces. Buildings made from Crystal replaced fields of corn and alfalfa, a dense urban area growing between the stone paths. All the time, the Crystal Palace was visible, towering above it all.

Leaning over his horse, one of the aides whispered, in Ponish, to Twilight “How long did it take for these buildings to be built? They look to be made of solid crystal.”

Twilight leaned back towards him, a look of thought coming across her face. “I don’t suppose we really know.” She said, “The Empire was banished for over one thousand years, and before that the buildings were already made. I’m sure records exist in the library somewhere. After we sort this all out, I can find more information on it.”

A slightly deeper than normal frown flashed across the aide’s face before it returned to normal. “I see, thank you. Though that shouldn’t be required, I can do that myself. After this is sorted out, that is.”

With that, he slid himself back into his saddle, riding properly again. A bit of hay had gotten onto his overcoat, which he brushed off with a flick. And so, the party trotted on. Following a few minutes of travel through the city they emerged onto a massive plaza, with the Crystal palace sitting above it. In the center of the plaza a stalagmite of crustal rose, with a massive crystal heart sitting just above it. A stalactite sank from the cavernous top of the palace, stopping just above the heart.

“This is both the Crystal Heart,” Twilight announced in German, sounding like a tour guide, “Both the literal and metaphorical center of the Crystal Empire. It is what absorbs and focuses the love, before refining it into magic. The magic is then stored and cast through the palace.”

“Very interesting, Twilight Sparkle.” Muttered Fitzgerald, before turning to Shining, “Where should my aides and escort keep their horses? And what of lodging?”

“We have a green prepared to keep the horses, and some of my stallions can take them there. My wife and I have organized lodging, which I will show you and your aides to personally. The escort have an inn prepared near the horses.”

“Thank you, Prince Consort. And what is the…” He glanced at Twilight, and asked her what itinerary was in Ponish, “itinerary.”

“Sir Eikhoff, today you and your escort are to get acquainted with the Palace and the hall we will negotiate in.”

“I see. Thank you, Prince Consort.” Fitzgerald said, as he dismounted his horse, before reaching into his saddle pack and pulling out a glass bottle, and two fine wooden boxes. The bottle had ornate German writing on it and was filled with a drink of some sort. The cork was a stylized infantry man, wearing a tricorn and holding a musket in the crook of his arm. The two wooden boxes had a brass trim, which was polished to a gleam. The wood on one box was a beautifully carved mahogany brown wood, glossy furnishes adorning it. The other was a well-made light wood, a sandy pink color. It had an amazing sheen on it, looking almost like a rainbow when the light hit it right. A soft copper sat as a trim around its edge. A sapphire was set into the center of the lid. “I bring the Empress and yourself gifts, taken from my personal collection. The wine was made in an Italian wine yard, fifty years ago. These jewelry pieces were made by Saxon silver smiths. I do hope you and your wife enjoy them, Prince Consort.”

“Thank you, Sir Eikhoff. I do believe we shall enjoy them.” Shining Armor said, a small smile on his face, perhaps a little forced. He took the gifts and balanced them on his back, before trotting towards one of the doors set into the base of the palace. Before entering it he turned back to the Diplomat, and said, “I must take leave now, Sir Eikhoff. My men will see to your horses and escort’s lodging, and Twilight can show you to your rooms.”

Twilight at once smiled and turned to her friends, “You gals go get rest and eat. I’ll tend to the Diplomat of Prussia and his aides, then join you.”

General Ernst watched as the column of his men marched forth from the city. Thousands of line infantry marching in time with one another. Their barrels gleamed in soft winter moonlight, swaying slightly with every step. Hundreds of horses trotted along after them, dragging large guns behind them. His Calvary were scouting picketing lines for that night’s camp.

“What is the status of the new militia companies?” Ernst asked, turning to one of his aides.

“Two are currently in training while we gather recruits for the additional ones.”

Ernst turned to the other. “And what of a general for the offensive?”

“We have three candidates ready, sir. I’ve got a folder of each here.” The aide reached across his horse to give General Ernst three simple paper folders. Ernst took them and began reading through the files. After several minutes reading the entirety of each file, he selected the one marked General Harvig Karlson.

“Send for General Karlson. His logistical skills and confidence with light infantry will greatly help with the upcoming battles. When you inform him of his new command give him his orders.” He handed an envelope closed with a wax seal, bearing the seal of Prussia. Ernst returned to watching Prussian soldiers marching off to war until the last one disappeared off into the snowy wasteland.

“Admiral Kristofferson. The blockade fleet is almost fully prepared to set sail. The Sixth rate Half Cocked is currently short fifteen sailors, but we should have that solved in a week or two.”

“Thank you, captain.” The admiral turned towards his assistant. “Visit the Customs office and see if they’ve impounded any other smuggling vessels. If there are none, petition the admiralty to commission a new supply ship. Dismissed.”

“Yes Admiral.” Replied the assistant, jotting down notes before leaving the office. Kristofferson looked out his office window and out at the naval dockyard it overlooked. Three sixth rates, two sloops and two supply ships. That was the entirety of the fleet he had been given to blockade enemy ports.

He sighed before turning his attention to his captain, “Captain Almquist, has there been any luck on commissioning cannonades from the foundry?”

The captain shook his head. “None sir, they’ve stated that they lack any skilled workers to make them, and it would take weeks to make quality cannonades. We’ll have to use standard ships.”

Admiral Kristofferson sat back in his chair, rubbing his chin with thought. “Captain, do you have any ideas on how to increase our firepower without building new ships?”

“No, sir. Without carronades I can’t of a way. I’m sorry sir.”

“It’s quite all right. We’ve done all we can to help this squadron’s firepower. It falls upon us to be competent commanders now. If we fail, Lord have mercy on our souls.”

Chapter 11

“Just to make sure we have the same story,” began Sir Eikhoff, his hands brought together in a point, directed at Empress Cadence, “My people built a fort on what we thought was unclaimed land, which is our fault, we should have verified it with you before settling, you rightly felt threatened by this act, and our use of horses as dumb labor terrified you, again understandable. Your reaction was not to send a declaration of war and attack us, but instead notify your allies for them to deal with the issue. Your allies then assault our fort without a declaration of war, destroying it utterly and wiping it out to the man, stole its horses, and continued to attack a new settlement. Is this all?”

“Yes, that is right, Sir Eikhoff.” cadence responded, nodding and looking serious. The meeting between the two sides had been arranged to start that morning and was now taking place in a large meeting room. Eikhoff had his aides in the room, all taking notes or sifting through papers to supply documents for Eikhoff. Cadence had her husband, sister-in-law, and aunts sitting with her, all of them supplying clarification where needed. Four Srenograds stood at attention at the door behind Eikhoff, while four Crystal Guard Stallions stood at attention opposite them.

“Now that we have cleared that up, I would like to issue the letter that our Governor sent with me to hand to you. I have not read it, but I do believe that I know what the contents of the letter are, Empress.” Sir Eikhoff pulled the letter out of an inside pocket in his overcoat and held it off to the side. An aide took the letter and began to walk it over to Empress Cadence before he was stopped by her magic gently pulling it from his hands.

Cadence gave Sir Eikhoff one more glance to see if his face revealed anything, finding it to be a stoic wall. She delicately floated a letter opener from the table up to it and began slicing under the seal, trying to keep it intact. With a small rustle, the envelope flap popped open, and Empress Cadence removed and unfolded the sheet of paper inside. She began reading aloud, “The Royal Governor of the Colony of the Kartiv’s Point would like to formally thank Empress Mi Amora Cadenza for permitting our diplomats to...” The long opening was filled with all sorts of diplomatic niceties that Cadence did not care for. The third paragraph of the letter finally broached the subject of diplomacy, starting with, “On the Stance of the Kartiv’s Point Colony’s future diplomatic relations with the Crystal Empire and her allies, the Governor has felt the upmost necessity of issuing a Declaration of War for the following reasons...”

Everybody on the Crystal Empire’s side of the table’s eyes widened and jaws hung loose, as they stared at Sir Eikhoff, who smiled idly back at them. After a moment he repositioned and set his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Now, from what I can gather the Crystal Empire is a protectorate of Equestia,” he began, gesturing quickly at the two Equestrian Princesses seated at the table, “So that Declaration of War also extends to the Equestrian Diarchy. I would prefer to be informed now of any other nations that would be obligated to engage in this conflict,”

“Y-you can’t be serious.” Stuttered out Twilight, looking at him incredulously, “You spent all this time insisting that we follow some rules of diplomacy proper just to declare war? W-we had hoped for a peaceful resolution, and you let us continue to hope? We don’t want more conflict!”

Sir Eikhoff stood and said, “But we want war with you, Miss Sparkle. Now if you excuse me, I have a pigeon to send, and then my escort and I will be seeing ourselves out.”

Luna stood, her Royal Voice booming through the room, shouted, “You will not be going anywhere, not until we negotiate a peaceful settlement!”

Eikhoff squinted at her, his face twisting into a sneer. “That sounded like a threat, Princess Luna. You wouldn’t dare take a diplomat hostage in a hall that isn’t even yours, would you? You wouldn’t want to tarnish your nation’s reputation?”

Celestia forcefully put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder, forcing her to sit. “My apologies for my sister’s behavior, Sir Eikhoff. You and your escort are free to leave and go unharried. I do wish you a safe journey home.”

“Thank you, Princess Celestia.,” Eikhoff began, before turning to Empress Cadence, “I thank you for your hospitality, Empress. The food was exquisite, and the lodgings perfect. I do sincerely hope that I can visit this city in different circumstances in the future. Good day, and may God be with you.”

With that, Eikhoff left the room, followed by his aides rapidly shoving all their papers into bags and folders. The Srenograds left last, pulling the doors shut behind them with a click. The sounds of the diplomat and his contingent's boots could be heard for several minutes afterwards, gradually fading deep into the castle. Twilight turned to her mentor, family, and Luna, her face agape with horror.

Her mouth flapped wordlessly for several minutes before she said, “I never thought that somebody would engage in diplomacy just to declare war...”

Luna shook her head, glaring angrily at the doors they left through. “Those despicable Prussians will regret ever setting foot on our continent. We will personally tear them limb from limb with our battle ax.”

Celestia shook her head, and said, “No, you will not, dear sister. You will prepare our soldiers to wage war, activate our reserves and train new troops. We must be prepared to make a show of force to make them surrender.”

“Celestia, the Crystal Guard are more than equipped to do a show of force. I doubt they have many more soldiers than what we saw in that fort, that ‘diplomatic escort’ seemed thrown together, there wasn’t an honor guard, nor band, or much of anything. Their foothold in the far north seems too wobbly, and their declaration of war was more a situation of honor, if I were to hazard a guess. Perhaps the Crystal Guard were to march through their stollen lands they would be more willing to negotiate.”

Cadence’s gaze snapped to Shining, narrowing slightly, “Are you suggesting that we invade the Shining?”

Shining Armor shifted in his seat, suddenly feeling a little nervous, “Well when you put it that way... Yes, I am. Not to occupy them or anything, just to force them to make peace. We wouldn’t loot any towns or harm any civilians...”

“Shining, you are still proposing an invasion! How could you-”

“Shining is right, Cadence,” Celestia interjected, “These ‘Prussians’ are very caught up in affairs of honor and tradition, looking at the way they handled diplomacy. They brought gifts for the rulers, felt it would be insulting to use a translator, and earlier apologized for their lack of fanfare or warning. They looked down on us for not sending them a neatly worded letter to say that we were declaring war on them. If we were to show them to have been verily defeated or outmatched, they would have to surrender. And should their ‘Govenor continue to refuse, we can remove him so that somebody more reasonable would negotiate peace.”

Cadence looked at Celestia with a hint of doubt, before saying, “Alright, if you think this is best, the Crystal Guard will prepare to march towards their colony.”

“Thank you, dear niece. Now, we need to go over the units that the Crystal Guard have, and there are any that Luna or I could teleport here on short notice...”

Twilight looked over at Shining, who was dressed in his purple armor, polished to match his name. He was looking over the list of different units the Empire had at its immediate disposal, deciding the order of their marching column. Twilight recalled that they received a unit of elite Day Guard pegasi and a unit of Night Guard unicorns to supplement the current forces of the Empire. There were five units of medium infantry, two units of light infantry, a unit of heavy infantry-- which acted as Shining’s Vanguard and personal guard--a unit of heavy mounted bows, and three units of light hoof bows. The Crystal Empire lack of Unicorn, and Pegasi ponies limited their scope of units readily available.

Twilight herself was wearing a dark purple piece of armor, emblazoned with her cutie mark. At some point Luna had eagerly commissioned armor to be made for each of the elements of harmony, color coding them and giving them each their own unique flare. Twilight held multiple secret compartments for scroll and spell components, which she found ridiculous. Spell casting was far past the point of needing components and scrolls to work. She sighed, before leaving to gather her friends to prepare to set off on their march.

General Harvig Karlson's army sat camping in the thin band of forest that bordered the Crystal Empire and the Prussian colonies. His light companies had been ordered to prepare Fougasse, a kind of trip wire activated land mine, for a hopeful ambush he was planning. His Frei-korps were instructed to do the same, but were... significantly less effective at it. His line infantry were building a long Schanze along the edge of the woods, the earthworks providing just enough cover the chest and allow for easy firing positions. Some units were working on sharpening stakes and making rope to make Chevaux de frise. The howitzer batteries were building gabions further back behind the trenches, set back into the ground. His dragoons and hussars were ordered to lower themselves from their mounts and dirty their hands helping the infantry dig their trenches and build their Chevaux de frise.

Inside the General’s tent he was pouring over rough maps sketched of the surrounding territory, moving wooden unit markers about, each colored and carved slightly differently. The dark blue ones were humanoid, each mimicking the uniform of one of his units of soldiers. The red ones were far more crude, with just red blocks with swords or bows carved into them, and there were significantly more, often being exchanged for another counterpart, or added and removed at the whim of General Karlson. Other markers were shaped like clouds, or flames, or some other environmental effect. These too were shifted about the maps and board at his whims, being moved and shaped to whatever scenario he could think of. His aides marched around, shifting maps and pulling reports for him as he demanded, placing them into his gloved hands which would be presented demandingly in the air.

Outside, a lone pigeon fluttered into a mail master’s cage, a scroll tied onto its legs. One of his assistants noticed it and brought it to his attention. He quickly brought the letter to one of the guards outside the General’s tent, who in turn presented it to an aide, who read it to General Karlson. Karlson responded by quickly writing up orders for his Dragoons, and sending them away with a spare aide. They were excited to be able to cast aside their shovels and knives, putting back on their gloves and loading their carbines. Their sabres were sharpened and clasped onto their waists. The dragoons mounted their horses and set off into the forest, ducking around and beneath branches as they rode into the Crystal Empire.

Chapter 12- Battle of Spear's Folly

“Prince Consort, the Prussian soldiers that have been tracking us for the last three days are back. They have yet to notice my ponies flying above them.”

Shining Armor nodded, turning to the captain of the day guard pegasi he had been gifted by Celestia. She stood inside of his command tent, erected at that night’s camp. For the last three days, the army had been marching steadily towards the Prussian colony. Thousands of pony guards were in the camp around him, polishing armor and sharpening weapons. Breathing in deeply he said, “This confirms that they are here to spy on our lines and numbers. Follow their pickets back to wherever they are making camp and force them away, try and parade them back into the colony. We cannot have them pass any more information on to their generals. I want you to depart as soon as you can, Captain Flashing Spear”

“I understand, sir. I will leave at once.” With that curt reply, she wheeled about on her hooves and marched out into snowy camp. Fires crackled all around, keeping soldiers warm in the frozen wasteland. Tents were arranged around all the fires, about five per cluster, soldiers making themselves at home, or more likely, warm. Ponies were cooking sizzling stews over the fire, chatting amicably with each other, the war seeming more like a massive camping trip than anything else. Most ponies were completely unarmored, shedding the heavy crystal armor and leaving just their thick clothes over their coats. Out along the edges of camp sentries stood beside fires, their weapons leaning against each other as they kept their hooves warm and kept watch.

Flashing Spear quickly found her unit, directing them up into the air with a quick, “We’ve got orders to hunt down and scare off the Prussian troops following us. We got to go now.”

Without nary a second thought they began to flap their powerful wings, lifting their bodies off the ground. All of Flashing Spear’s guards were equipped with long eight hoof long lances, attaching along the side of their armor, sharp wing blades fastened over their feathers. As soon as they were airborne, they began to clamp jagged gold shoes over their hooves. The unit numbered about sixty ponies total, all pegasi. All the guards were white with blue manes, due to their enchanted armor.

The sound of their wings beating barely carried, despite the cold winter air, as they flapped out over the horizon, their eyes set on three Prussians sitting on horseback watching the army rest.

Gotter sat drawing the layout of the enemy camp in his book, sketching every detail he could make out at the distance, about a quarter mile away. He noted down the positioning of the sentries and the formation of the camp, counting the tents in the clusters. He eyed the clusters of ponies around the frankly inordinate amount of fires that scattered around the vast camp. His concentration was broken when he noticed a large contingent of flying ponies, pegasi he believed old legends called them, taking to the air in what looked like full plate with long lances attached.

Gotter turned to his sergeant, who nodded to him and said, “Looks like we finally overstayed our welcome. Let’s go. We’ll try and lead them away from camp and lose them.”

The trio quickly set off to the south, galloping in the direction of a small collection of buildings that lay along the midpoint of a distant hill. They rode through the heavy snow, their steads quickly tiring in their attempts to push through the foot of snow. Gotter, with much difficulty, stowed his book and pencil in a saddlebag as they rode, pulling his carbine from its holster once he did. Gotter used one hand to steer while he pointed the carbine slightly up towards the sky, bouncing with every step they took. The trio of dragoons slowly came to a stop, their eyes glancing at the sky. There was no sign of the gleaming pony air cavalry, no light glistening off of their finely polished armor.

After waiting atop their horses for five minutes and seeing no sign of their suspected pursuers, the small team of Dragoons began to head Northeast towards their camp location.

Captain Spear decided to hazard a glance down beneath the thick cloud cover the cold winter day provided. She poked head through the clouds to spy on the trio of Prussians. They were stopped just outside of the small farming village the army had marched by earlier that day. They were sitting on their horses, casting suspicious glances around the clearing. Their eyes began to rake the skies, and Spear quickly pulled her head back up into the cloud.

She turned to address her pegasi, lances at the ready. She quickly told them that the Prussian spies were resting, and that so should they. At her urging they settled down from a ready stance to standing on the clouds, some of her ponies even laying down. Captain Spear rolled her shoulders, and readjusted her lance, clicking it into a more comfortable position.

After several minutes Flashing Spear slowly, cautiously poked her head back through the clouds. The Prussians were still there, but were moving towards the Northeast, giving the Crystallian camp a wide berth. She gave them a few minutes to continue on, before pulling her head out of the clouds. With a short shout she directed the company to follow her, and they began to slowly follow the trotting enemy scouts.

The trio had reached camp without further worry, their guards thoroughly dropped. They dismounted and tethered their horses with the rest of their company, before making their way to a camp fire. Gotter gave the notebook to their captain, who deftly read and transcribed copies of the information and attaching them to bird carriers, which were swiftly released to head towards the main army’s camp.

With his duties completed, Gotter took to feeding and grooming his horse, brushing its mane and coat. His auburn brown horse had been raised in the Austrian Alps, making it particularly resistant to cold weather, and effective at navigating rough terrain. Upon receiving it, Gotter found it appropriate to name it Augen, given the color of the coat matching the eyes of his wife. Gotter’s wife, Louse had arrived in the newest world, just in time to help Gotter commission a small wooden house with three rooms, one for them and two for any hopeful children. Fate would be kind on the married couple, with Louse becoming pregnant just weeks after their first arrival.

It had been a year since then, and Louse had given birth to a beautiful baby girl, her hair matching the dirty blond of her father, and her eyes of that of her mother. As if in celebration of this wonderful event, Louse was swiftly heavy with another child, about two months pregnant when Gotter was called to war. He left their now well furbished home, which was had a constant warm glow. He remembered promising her ‘It would be just a short year’ before he would be home again, promising her he’d help raise their daughter and her younger sibling as soon as he could. Turning away from his horse Gotter smiled softly at the thought of returning to a warm, brimming home with toddling daughter, loving wife and newborn infant greeting him at the door.

Gotter began to approach the central fire of the camp, his eyes watching out past it, through the trees to his home. A sudden shifting from the men around the fire brought him out of his revelry, his eyes narrowed as he saw them leaping up, finger pointing to the sky as they reached for their weapons.

Flashing Spear could see the enemy camp rapidly getting closer. She made sure her lance was level as she began to level her dive out, ever so gradually shifting from an almost vertical fall to sweeping slope. Fifty yards above the camp she roared to her ponies behind her, “FOR EQUESTRIA! FOR THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE!”

Forty yards. As she ground raced even closer she shot open her wings in such a manner that she gained control of her flight without loosing the kinetic energy built from the dive. She spied a lone Prussian walking from the tethered horses towards the rest of the camp and zeroed in on him, pumping her wings to build even more power behind her lance.

Five yards. The Prussians in the camp had scrambled to their weapons, a couple managing to create huge puffs of smoke and orange puffs of fire, but no magic bolts raced out to meet her. Instead she heard the shattering and breaking of metal and the sounds of a ponies smashing full speed into the earth. Hearing her guards drop brought anger to her, causing a great, surge of power through her wings, Flashing Spear aligned it center mass, preparing to carry him high into the sky.

Gotter heard the first carbine shots ring out ahead of him, and he froze for a moment. Then the sight of more of his comrades raising their carbines brought sense to his legs, and he dove down for the ground, bringing his hands to cover his face.

And then a lance punched through his steel helm, ripping the straps from his neck with a painful crack and was carried away. He felt the air rush as a pony raced over him, quickly pulling up into the sky it’s lance catching sunlight and temporarily blinding him with a flash,. The pony’s wings flared out wide, slowing it’s ascent and it fell back, almost like one could imagine an angel would, racing back to the ground.

Gotter scrambled to his feet and drew his sword, wheeling about and seeing the enemy sky lancers rushing through the camp. Two Prussians lay motionless in the snow, hot read blood melting puddles about them. Some feet away splatters of blood stained the snow. Along the outskirts of camp three broken, shattered ponies lay in balls of snow, their lances bent and snapped, pointing to the sky like twisted church steeples.

From behind Gerald could hear the whistle of air and feathers, and he lunged to the side, turning and slashing as he did. He brought his sword down across his body, cutting through the ends of a golden armored pegasi, sending it careening into the ground, where it bounced before landing squarely on its neck and issuing a sick, wet snirk,not dissimilar to the sounds of a horseman thrown at full speed.

Gotter cast his gaze about, before rushing to the horses and slicing the tethers as fast as he could.

The surprise assault was not going nearly as well as Flashing Spear had hoped. The decisive ambush that she had planned for had fallen apart when she led them out of the clouds far to early, giving their soldiers time enough to scramble to any readied weapons. But who even kept pre made magic wands fully prepared at all times anyways?! She didn’t even see an arcane glow from their usage, only smoke, fire, and a snapping whistle that seemed to pull at the very air, before huge holes punched through her ponies’ gold armor.

The initial charge had led to five ponies being shot down, or in one case slashed at by a Prussian she had narrowly missed, his helm still punctured on her lance. Her second pass nicked one in the throat, tearing flesh away and through the spine, sending blood everywhere. The sight was still slightly off putting to Flashing Spear, even after fighting through the Changeling invasion.

Now the Prussian troops were all mounting their horses, several sending out last desperate shots at her lancers. As she surveyed from above an invisible magic bolt ripped through the eyes of one of her ponies, pulling bone and flesh from the skull that fluttered to the ground behind his body. Blood sprayed from both the holes and speckled the snow. Springy Hop, that was his name. He had been in the unit longer than she had. Joined to feed his younger siblings after his parents passed away due to a freak bungee jumping incident.

She gave a rallying cry to her remaining force of thirty-eight lancers, drawing them away from the fleeing Prussians. They quickly pulled up and broke off from the engagement, flying into a triangular position behind her. She set off in pursuit, following behind them as they amassed a formation that was similar to her own, but was more diamond shaped. Counting from above, she saw that there were thirty-five Prussians riding beneath her, frequently casting glances up.

The lead of the company of Prussians suddenly veered off to the east, riding full speed with his coattails trailing behind him. Flashing Spear raised a hoof in encouragement, before wordlessly leading the second charge of the hour down upon the Prussian backs. Lances sparkled in the sunlight beside her as her ponies pulled along side her, gaining speed.

With the element of surprise long ago given up, she began to whistle through her teeth, hoping to incite terror and fear in the Prussian soldiers riding along before her. Soon her subordinates took up the act, a chorus of shrill whistles piercing the winter air. They rapidly gained on the Prussians, aiming for where they’d be in just five seconds.

And just as suddenly as Flashing Spear started the charge, the Prussians halted. Their speed dropping off in an instant, horses turning to the sides and kicking high. This caught her unit by surprise, overshooting the Prussian soldiers and forcing them to pull up in steep, power killing angles. And then a thunderous roar erupted from behind her, and a searing pains bit into— if only for a moment— her spine and left fetlock. She felt absolute agony for just a second, before she lost all feeling and her wings went limp, flailing into her vision. Her eyes widened as she saw the sun— which barely peeked through the clouds, as if to watch it’s finest pegasi officer fail her duty— traveling rapidly across her vision. A small gasp escaped her at the sickening sense of shame and failure she felt. Then all she could see was snow racing up to meet her, and then she saw and felt nothing at all.

Chapter 13- Ambush of Border Forest

Shining Armor first knew something was wrong when after twelve hours he had seen no sign of Captain Spear. He knew something was disastrously wrong when his scouts returned carrying a single maimed pegasus between two, with the other eight marching along behind. The pegasus had a shattered left foreleg, a splint supporting the destroyed limb. Both of soldier's wings were damaged beyond healing, the very nerves sliced away by slivers bone fragments from a gaping hole in his back, long since frozen shut from the cold. The pegasus sported a bruised and broken snout, teeth protruding through the lips. The eyes of the pegasus were unfocused and distant, gazing far into the sky.

His scouts reported that they found no other survivors out in the snow, the rest having either froze to death or succumbed to their wounds. That they followed the hooves of the enemy Srenoograds all the way to the forest edge, before turning back to search through the battlefield. The dead of both sides were left where they fell, not even the Prussian’s own being tended to, except their weapons, all of which were pried from their sheaths and hands before departure. Not even a sword was left behind.

Shining had Twilight explain the weapons the outpost possessed, at the fort she had raided, learning of their smokey crossbows that could go right through armor and their knives attached to the end. After several minutes of mulling, he called a meeting with the company of Unicorns and Twilight to discuss something.

“The weapons these Prussians have, I think they are a form of magic or enchantments of some kind. I need you all to begin working on finding a way to suppress it. If we can make the only advantage they have turn sour, we can make them surrender much sooner.”

A mage towards the back, who had a slightly disheveled mane raised her hoof before speaking, “And what makes these magic weapons so dangerous? We need to know what they do for us to prevent it from working.”

Twilight answered, “They create a plume of smoke and fire, before propelling a projectile that punctures almost anything in its path.”

“We’ll need the magic weapon to good way to counteract it, but we can try, sir.” The captain of the company told Shining Armor.

“I’ll have one of my infantry companies assist you with daily duties, so you have more time to work, captain.”

“Thank you, sir. I’ll assign my unicorns to begin immediately,” the captain said, before addressing Twilight, “Any assistance you can offer will be welcome, ma’am.”

Twilight nodded, looking slightly exited before vibrating out of the tent to start working. Shining shook his head with a slight smile at her eagerness, and lack of proper military decorum before dismissing the unicorn company. With shrug he began to plan the march for the next day, deciding to take the same path the Prussians did through the forest, as an old and disused road that had been abandoned for several decades ran through there, and was hopefully easier to march through.

General Harvig Karlson received the report from his dragoons detailing the enemy army's composition and was preparing the ambush. He hoped the crystal army’s commander would take the bait and follow his dragoon’s retreat path through the woods, which were significantly thinner there for one reason or another. If he had time later, he’d investigate it with some of his more scholarly friends. But for now, he just made sure the ambush was properly set.

The trenches and choux-de-frais were all built and prepared, sitting just in front of the trenches arranged north of the forest. His artillery had been wheeled into place, with plenty of ammunition packed behind them and prepped for use. The light infantry had finished setting up their fougasses prepared just in front of their fallback lines, and his dragoons were enjoying their last warm cups of coffee or tea before embarking out into the late night cold for their positions.

Once the preparations were double checked by the general, he moved into his command tent, going over contingency plans one last time before trying to catch a few hours of sleep before the engagement.

Shining’s army was in ready marching order, embarking through the woods just after dawn. The vanguard of the force was his personal guard, followed by his greenest troops. Admittedly that was almost all his companies, leaving the unicorns and a single company of heavy infantry that predated Shining Armor’s command. The elements of Harmony were marching along with him, their multicolored armor catching in the faint light filtering down through the trees. The air was heavy with unease as they departed, the ponies sensing the nearing potential of a battle. Shining had assured them that the battle would be little more than a skirmish, with himself and the princesses believing the scouting force they had seen earlier were almost all the soldiers the Prussians still possessed.

That had done a good enough job at settling his soldier’s uneasiness of their first battle, even boosting the morale slightly at the thought of being the superior force. Now Shining just needed to make it through this forest before establishing a slightly more permanent camp to scout where settlements had been built throughout the stolen lands and plan a route for the ‘tour’ to take. Then he heard a branch break with a crack, echoing through the woods. The sound of scrambling steps, dulled by snow, followed it, perhaps an animal that had misjudged a tree before eating the bark.

But the steps sounded more like a bipedal animal than any quadruped. Glancing at the elements, he quickly whispered to them to stay with the army and sent a lieutenant to investigate the noise. They marched off path into the deep snow drifts into the thick forest, searching for Prussians.

the light infantryman punched himself in the leg for being so careless. He shouldn’t have ventured so close to the road. He scrambled away from the branch he broke, dashing away from his unit’s position. He cursed himself quietly before slowing to a walk, and finally an almost dead crawl. If he was lucky, they’d not think anything more of the sound and keep marching it. If the enemy were smart, they’d send a patrol to look for him. He knew that he couldn’t return to his company, so instead he hastily began to pull dead branches into a pile before making a messy nest out of his scarf and spare foot wraps to dump his cartridges into.

The first gleam of armor peered through the foliage in the distance, about three hundred yards away from his position. Glancing to his left, the light infantryman could clearly see the main column standing still along the road, not but fifty yards away through the trees. Pursing his lips, he drew his lips together and pulled a match and spare flint out of his pocket, setting them inside the nest.

Bringing his rifle to bear, the light infantryman took aim, aligning the iron sights with the chest of the enemy soldier, now just two hundred fifty yards away. Breathing carefully, his finger began to squeeze the trigger gently, almost lovingly.

A shot tore through a crystal gaurdspony, echoing through the woods. The guards around her jolted at the sound and began pushing through the woods faster, zeroing in. The dense foliage hindered their efforts, slowing their gallop to a steady jog. To the right of the crystal platoon the main column was springing into action. The companies were wheeling about, beginning to march off path, before a messenger came through, ordering them to hold their position.

Quickly shifting his position, the light infantryman began to reload, quickly picking a cartridge from the pile and preparing it. Not wasting time, he began to ram it down into the muzzle. Within ten seconds he had prepared another round and took aim again. With a far worse shooting position he fired, this time it shattered the knee of his target, ricocheting off the thick wedge of bone and piercing the side of another pony slight in front of them, wounding them. The crystal guards were now only a hundred yards away.

He loaded again and fired, this time missing entirely. He quickly set to his match and got it burning, tossing it onto the pile of cartridges. The fire rapidly consumed the cloth, before spreading up into the cartridges. With a quivering lip and his eyes pressed shut, he tossed his rifle onto the pile before covering it with branches. The fire nipped at his fingers, burning them. Wincing he reached for the bayonet sword he carried, drawing it from its sheath and taking some semblance of a fighting stance as the crystal ponies closed in.

The ammunition he set afire began to explode, the gunpowder finally catching. The branches that had been hastily thrown over the weapon started to burn. The lead rounds shattered out through the pile, flying in all directions. the light infantryman barely managed to dodge behind an ancient, old spruce that absorbed several lead balls. The guards were just far enough away that the exploding ammo lost velocity before hitting them.

A guard sprinted towards the light infantryman, who readied his sword, only to be slammed to the ground by another guard from the other side of the tree. He smacked the ground and had the blade knocked, his head hitting a rock, and he lost consciousness.

The officer of a howitzer battery heard a distant volley faintly drifted into his ears. The young eyes snapped to the forest, expecting something more to follow. After a moment he turned to his crew, who were sitting beside their guns, chatting idling amongst themselves. He waited for some sort of reaction, but they didn’t spring to their weapons.

“I-I just heard the signal! I hea-heard a volley from the woods.” The officer squeaked out in an uneasy and small voice, unheard by the happily talking soldiers. After a deep breath, the young officer steadied his voice and more forcefully ordered, “Man your guns, the lights have engaged the enemy.”

Now his men heard, leaping up from their idle states, rushing to begin firing their weapons. The hammers were brought down on the primers, launching four shells arching high into the sky. The boom rattled the carriage, bouncing it back several inches.

The gunnery men along the other batteries jumped into action, the other officers glancing at the young officer with surprise or flexing faces, before turning to their own batteries and giving the order to fire. Soon twenty-eight further shells joined the first four, tracing similar paths high into the sky. Within moments of the shells leaving the barrels the crews set to cleaning and priming the barrels for their future shells.

Shining saw the platoon drag the unconscious spy back to the formation. He also felt his face fall, unable to stop the grief for a moment when Starlight Glass was brought back on the back of her fellows. When the broken knee of Crystal Bowl, hanging limply has he leaned on his fellows. The wounded Brass Horn groaning and clasping his side. All soldiers he had personally selected. Personally trained. Spent countless nights camping with them on patrol, leading parades with them.

And then he drew the mask back up, if only until they reached camp, and took command of the situation. He ordered his wounded friends taken to the rear to be attended, before having the prisoner brought before him. Another guard presented a tightly bundled package, extremely hot and warm, nearly scalding Shining's hooves.

Before he could inquire more about either of the prizes his unit had brought him, a distant series of booms began to rush through the forest, following one after another, coming almost constantly for thirty seconds. Looking around, Shining called Twilight over to him, “Twilight, did you detect any magic? Those booms don’t sound natural.”

Twilight shook her head quickly, “No, I could not sense any magic. There must be a Prussian Quarry nearby, Shining. Support may have given way. Or maybe they...”

Twilight trailed off as a strange whistling started to fill the air. It had a strange quality, like that of a wobbling ball flying fast through the air. Cocking her head, they looked up into the air and saw the strange balls bearing down from the sky. She opened her mouth to voice her confusion at the sound, before a pink shield sprung up around her and her friends, who had accompanied her conversation with Shining Armor. Shining’s horn was alight with the pink hue of his magic, tracing up to the dome. It covered a small area, due to the hurried nature of the shield, only just covering the elements and a few of his compatriots nearby.

The shells burst into pure white puffs ten to twelve meters in the air, which spread greatly over the road. The powder began to drift down in a gentle fashion, looking much like snow. Twilight looked up at it with mild confusion. The guards outside the shield shared the same confusion looking up at the strange sight.

Then the quicklime began to land on their faces and in their open mouths. The fine powder immediately began slaking in the damp eyes, saliva filled mouths, and snow melt thicketed fur. The eyes of hundreds of guards widened for a moment as the agonizing burning began to sear their eyes and mouths. As the skin peeling chemical burn began to melt through their pelts. Then the eye slammed shut, locking the chemical agent and pressing it deeper into eyes, which began to melt deeper into their sockets. They began coughing fervently, spittle flying everywhere. Their hooves began to clay at the straps of their armor, pulling off plates of armor and scratching long lines through their coats with sharpened horseshoes.

Twilight and her friends blanched at the guards writhing in agony. She stood frozen, eyes wide and mouth agape. She began to dry heave and sweat. She collapsed onto the ground, dry heaving harder, whole-body shuddering. She pressed her eyelids shut and pressed her armored hooves against her ears, trying to block out the screaming.

A rough pulling on her shoulder roused her from her despair, causing her head to jerk up. Shining Armor was shaking her, saying something that was drowned out by the screams and blocked out by her plated hooves. Shakily lowering her hooves, she heard Shining telling her too, “Teleport us to the rear! Now! We need the mages to help us!”

Twilight instinctively followed his order, and a flash of magenta magic removed them from the horrific scene.

The thunderous booms shouldn’t have happened yet. The artillery shouldn’t have begun their bombardment yet. The light infantry officer knew this to be true. But the howitzers fired anyway. Which meant the ambush had been botched. The soldier he foolishly sent to observe their column’s attempt to destroy his ammunition had sounded like a volley to an officer in the distance. Or maybe they just got twitchy and opened fire. Either way he heard a bombardment.

He sent a runner to inform the Frei Korp company along his side of the road of his plans, then ordered his company to creep up upon the enemy column. They began a slow steady advance, moving slowly and carefully to avoid detection. He dodged low underneath branches, and sidestepped brush laying on the snowy ground.

As the Crystal column entered his sight, he saw the ruined state of the forward units. Dozens, nay, hundreds of corpses and wounded lay upon each other in the road, with the few unaffected in a panic, trying to aid their wounded comrades. The units along the edges of the bombardment weren’t in quite the same disarray, but their morale still seemed to be wavering, bordering on broken. The units nearing the rear were shaken, but still had some semblance of organization remaining. The rearmost unit had the most cohesion, preparing to do something. With a bright magenta flash, a brightly colored contingent of armored ponies appeared out of nowhere.

Officers. Commanders. Somebody clearly important. Fleeing their position at the front towards safety. The Prussian officer silently gestured at the group, his hands giving the order to focus fire on them. His soldiers took aim, three soldiers selecting the same targets, quietly agreeing on their color-coded target. The rest selected random unicorns. The Prussian light infantry raised their rifles, ready to fire and fingers gently resting on the triggers. Waiting for the officer’s order.

A small, tight smile grew on his lips. His hand raised above his head and...

A volley from the damnable Frei Korps flew into the front of the unicorn company. Nearly a dozen fell dead instantly, with many more dropping and grasping at wounds. The company fell into disarray, diving for cover beneath shields that they threw up around themselves.

Then the officer’s hand dropped. His unit’s volley only caught less than a quarter of the potential victims it could have. The officers that had just teleported had their own shield thrown up, absorbing the volley meant to obliterate them. The Prussian officer called to his men to keep firing, and not let them move an inch without being peppered with shot.

He sighed at the idea of the lost massacre and joined his men in shooting at the glowing shields.

Things were bad. Shining couldn’t sugarcoat it to himself. His forward companies were all but eradicated. His friends lay burning thanks to that magic snow that wasn’t magic. The Prussian weapons were plinking into his shield, rapidly causing cracks that continued to grow larger and larger, despite his constant efforts to repair the crumbling magic barrier. The unicorn company in front of him were in a worse situation, their lack of experience and talent leading to shields shattering under the pressure of continues assault. One by one the shields covering small teams were blinking out, and the ponies they protected followed suit.

With one final terse look he summoned up a spell, carefully diverting some power from the shield to magically enhance his voice. And he gave the thunderous order to retreat. The little coherency and morale still standing collapsed. The surviving ponies started to gallop. Many galloped back the way the army had come, streaming past Shining Armor’s shield. He stood strong with the elements and a few surviving ponies from his company, waiting for the last of the ponies to leave the accursed forest before he turned tail and ran.

Author's Note

Well, happy New Year! Finished this at 12:23 my time. I hope y'all have a good time with your families and enjoy the rest of the winter holidays!

Chapter 14- The End of an Era

“Send the cavalry to harass the retreating forces. Kill anybody that is too far from the… unicorns, for protection. Skirt any ranged units they have unless they’re shattered.” Ordered General Karlson, sending a messenger off on a horse before turning to a second one and saying, “Send the regulars to butcher any of the survivors and have the lights begin deconstructing the fougasses.”

Sighing slightly, the general set himself to the task of cleaning up after the battle, ordering some support to begin breaking down camp, while others he had on standby just in case. Perhaps this was bait he was taking for granted. Perhaps these were all green troops drawing out his cavalry to an ambush. But that was a risk he’d take, for if it wasn’t he could obliterate the enemy force; if it was, he could bring forth his line under cover by barrage and inflict further losses on their reserves. Regardless of the situation, he would bring a decisive victory to the press and his commander. He wheeled his horse around and drove it to trot into the forest. His bodyguard followed him, forming a protective diamond around him. General Karlson began writing out a dispatch to send to General Ernst.

With confidence in his writing, his horse trotted over the corpses of the dead and dying equestrians.

Admiral Kristofferson’s fleet had been out at sea for two weeks now and had spied smoke rising from the horizon along the coast. After being notified he brought his spy glass about to gain a clear picture of the settlement. It was a well-established city, with hundreds, nay thousands of houses crested between the docks and the rolling hills coated with fields carrots and wheat.

Squinting, Admiral Kristofferson focused on the ships in the port, counting sails, rigging, masts, and portholes. A couple of wooden steamships were in port, but were the flat-bottomed barges used for river trade. He had had the pleasure of riding one to reach the port he set out of for his post at Kartiv’s Point. They were much faster than sail ships and could carry more weight. It was rather pleasant to see that this civilization already had low level industrialization. Hopefully, the peace deal would incorporate a favorable trade deal.

Turning his attention from the river, he looked out to the deep-water harbor. There he could see cranes moving crates and sacks from several large, low sunk boats. It was clear that some form of trade was conducted here, albeit the scale was not yet known. There were about a dozen of these trade ships, and they all looked to be of high quality. But it was not the trade ships that mattered to the admiral. Rather, it was the small contingent of other ships docked near a large warehouse and nondescript buildings, two of which looked remarkably similar to barracks that could be found in any Prussian port. The ships docked nearby were larger than the trade and passenger ships and had ballista on the decks. There were portholes running all along the sides, albeit considerably larger than any on his warships. The admiral feared that they were concealing large cannonades, for the portholes were large enough for howitzer bore cannon. Yet they had ballista on the decks, for reasons Admiral Kristofferson could not posses.

Turning to his communications officer, he gave the order to move in and blockade the port.

Twilight was running. Everypony was. The elements were galloping as fast as they could over the snowy tundra, fleeing the massacre in the woods. Nearly five hundred ponies were streaming out of the woods, the wounded and burned stumbling and falling behind the complete and utter route. Twilight and her friends were being escorted by what was left of her brother’s personal guard. That is, all five or six of them. The captured Prussian was still with them, getting slung along on Shining’s back.

She was now starting to feel the armor on her. What had before been only a slight weight that didn’t hinder movement now made her sluggish, every step making it feel incrementally heavier. Her helmet and visor had been discarded, falling off in a mad scramble out of a snow drift and sinking into the snow. Her mane was wet and cold, freezing to her neck. Sweat ran down her back and stuck to her legs, held in by the almost form fitting armor.

Rarity wasn’t doing much better. Twilight would even argue that she was doing much worse. She was rapidly slowing down and falling behind, whimpering and crying all the while. Fluttershy slowed beside her, crying just as hard, and whispered in her ear something Twilight couldn’t hear. But whatever it was, it got Rarity back to running and keeping up with the rest of the elements. Rainbow Dash flew in circles overhead, making sure her friends stayed together. Applejack was silently galloping along beside Shining Armor, glaring at the unconscious Prussian soldier. Pinky Pie was bouncing through the snow, a forced laughter reaching Twilight over the air rushing past her ears.

The galloping of horses through snow thundered closer, the heavy dull hoof steps shaking the ground as they pressed closer. Twilight sprinted harder, desperate to get away from the ever nearing death. Her breaths deteriorated from ragged to shuddering, shaking, tattered breaths graying to keep the oxygen flowing into her body. A sudden burst of adrenaline pumped through her system, sending her flying forward, feet barely touching the snow as she careened away from the ever nearing Prussian dragoons. And then a cry of victory echoed up from the Prussians, while a scream of agonized terror was cut short behind Twilight. Her head snapped around, just in time to see a dragoon pulling his sword up and out of the body of Rarity, while two more fought for control of their mounts, shying away from Fluttershy’s tearful Stare.

Twilight felt a punch in her gut, sent reeling from the sight. The Prussian who had just stabbed Rarity was suddenly flung up into the sky, his mount being ripped from under him as he screamed, flailing his limbs. A magenta hue of magic swept through the ranks of charging dragooners, flinging them through the snow and launching them into the air. Fluttershy turned and ran, breaking eye contact with the two dragoons attempting to approach her, giving them an opportunity to charge, only to be punctured by jagged magic spikes, shoving them from their horses, their swords dropping from their hands.

A shout from her brother brought Twilight back from the rage, shattering her concentration. She watched in horror as the final of the Prussians smashed back into the snow covered ground, wet snapping carrying across the fields towards her. She heaved, and tears broke through her eyelids, flowing long and hard down her face. She felt somebody pick her up and carry her on their back, and she went limp, sobbing uncontrollably.

The snow melt was freezing in Gotter’s back. He was upside down in the snow, feet dangling up into the sky. He could feel one of his arms was broken. When that witch had begun flinging his company about he was lucky enough to have been pinged directly into a deep snowdrift, and not thrown high into the sky like his lieutenant had been moments before.

He could hear muffled German somewhere above him, discussing what to do with the bodies. With sudden strength, the freezing Prussian flailed his legs in all directions, praying to the Lord above for somebody to notice his legs. With his legs slowing to a stop he sagged down as the conversation continued on without notice.

And then he felt two sets of hands grasp his legs, and roughly pull him up out of the collapsed snow. He felt the broken bones in his arms shift and squeal about, sending hundreds of hot iron jolts of pain through his body, and he vomited everywhere beneath him, coating the snow with steaming puke. He was layed out on the snow, and two line infantrymen stood over him, looking at him curiously.

“That arm looks bad, dragooner. Probably going to loose it.”

“Better than dying though,” commented the other infantryman, “Get him on a stretcher and take him to the rear. The doctors’ll take care of him.”

Moaning lightly, Gotter blacked out as his arm was crammed onto the stretcher beside him and he was dragged away by one of the soldiers. The field surgeon was thoroughly underwhelmed that day, with few casualties, and the ones that were received mainly being fatalities leaving him bored at the rear, performing a few amputations and setting a little more splints. Not even a single gash to be bandaged. With a calm coolness he shoved the bones back into place, and grabbed a spare board from the Chevaux de Frise to splint the bloody wound. Once it was set he wrapped it in many kilograms of bandages, making it impossible to bend. Once the bloody work was done he washed his hands and set to writing out care instructions for the unfortunate dragooner, who’d likely not be back to the front before the end of the war.

Chapter 15- The Train Wreck of a War

George hated the snow. No, that wasn’t quite right. George hated sitting still in the snow for hours on end. That’s what he hated. That’s why he left his family’s hunting lodge and joined the Jagers. And here he was, sitting in the snow for weeks on end waiting for a train to come by. Other than the occasional raid on a farm stead they had just been sitting in their camp. Only lighting a fire to cook breakfast and dinner. Wonderful. The rest of his days were occupied by standing guard in winter kit, spending a few minutes chopping at the train bridge supports or huddling in tents and igloos. The platoon of Jagers had been living in the embankments beside a frozen river that was the only train track in this Empire. They had slowly been whittling away at the bridge supports, cutting just enough that it would stand until the train ran over it.

After two weeks of spending time cutting away the heavy timbers used to shore up the bridge there was nothing left for George to cut. It was all just on the brink of collapse. He was worried about a particularly strong gust of wind bringing it careening down around the platoon. It had been weeks since they last ate meat, only having grain and dried fruits taken from the local farmers.

The farmers themselves were such pushovers, having now resigned themselves to fate and begun leaving out some of their food in baskets with notes in their illegible writing. George swore it looked like they had written it with their smooth hooves somehow. Yet that seemed like an impossible task for the pony peoples that resided inside the farms. He was also impressed at their ability to grow anything in such harsh conditions. It was truly unlike anything in his homeland of Sweden. There everybody hunted or fished.

The rattle of train tracks pulled him from his stupor. He quickly hopped up and crawled out of the tent, grabbing his rifle and dashing through the thick snow towards the rest of his company. They were situated about, watching the tracks. The bridge shook violently, wood chips splintering off and falling to the icy river. George swallowed nervously and prayed to the Lord above that the bridge would hold till the fated moment.

Within a minute the lights of the train glowed over the horizon, racing closer and closer to its doom. It blew a whistle with a shrill high pitch and raced just up to edge of the bridge. The moment before it passed onto it seemed to last forever to George.

Study Plank sat in the train car bound for the Crystal Empire. With him were thousands of other fresh recruits, quickly thrown together following the declaration of war. While his group of poorly trained of volunteers were being shunted to the front to act as a stop gap for their allies Princess Luna continued to train the other half of the horde of eager fodder, shaping them into efficient spear and halberd wielding machines.

The train he was on was dozens of cars long, transporting not the fifteen companies of spear ponies but also all their equipment and weeks of food and supplies. The train had been stopped for the entirety of their training period to facilitate the additions made to strengthen the engine’s power so it could haul more cars at the same speed as before. Now it could ship an entire army in just one trip. Truly an amazing feat. Granted, it was a bit crowded with absolutely no room to move, but the gloriousness was not lost on Plank.

Glancing out the window he saw the train coming up on a bridge, the oil lamps illuminating the void on either side of it. As he craned his neck to try and look at the river below, he noticed that the bridge was shaking just from the train’s vibrations. His eyes went wide, nostrils flared, and he pulled back from the window, looking for a way out of the car. From his seat he couldn’t see the doors or a roof hatch. Instead, he turned to the window and smashed his hoof into it repeatedly, as hard as he could. The spear ponies around him started yelling at him, grabbing at his hooves and pulling him back before he started shouting about the bridge.

Just as the earsplitting noise heavy timber shattering under downforce came up to the car. And the companies’ stomachs all collectively flew up and sat in their chests as the longest short fall ever rushed to an end.

George watched the train barrel into the opposite bank, slamming through the snow and crumpling beneath the weight of the coal and passenger cars that followed it. Dozens of passenger cars slammed into the banks and broke through the river, twisting at the joints like an enormous snake. Cars crumpled, shattered, and were scattered in the frozen water, sending the contents of them into the frigid water and snow. Then the box cars joined them, flying off into the pile, adding yet more to the growing stack of lost goods and lives. Fire had broken out in the wooden cars and was spreading to all of them above the water line.

George watched the fires light up surviving ponies, crawling about the wreckage, almost all looking for other survivors. With a heavy sigh he unslung his rifle and began to pick off the surviving ponies, yet again reminding him of his family hunting business. George swore he’d become a farmer as soon as he could.

Twilight awoke in her room in the Crystal castle, her armor removed and her entire body aching. She looked around, confused as to where she was for a single moment before the events of the prior week came back to her. The horrible snow. Losing Rarity. Killing all those Prussians. Performing a fighting retreat to the capital, dragging as many civilians and supplies as they could with them. The Prussian raids continually forcing their ever-dwindling forces to withdraw time and time again, ever pushing closer to the capital. Heavy casualties with every raid, and extraordinarily little to show for it.

She had spent the week in a fugue state, reacting to the Prussian probes and raids with increasingly erratic waves of violent magic. By the second raid her shots hit more friendly bodies than foes, leading to her older brother stunning her anytime the Prussians were spotted nearby. She could remember once destroying a farm with a beam of magic because she thought she saw Dragoons behind it.

Twilight broke down in her bed, sobbing uncontrollably for a nearly endless time. Within minutes her family and friends arrived and attemtped to comfort her to no avail. Soon her tears dried up and there was nothing left to cry, leaving her to stare hollowly at nothing. After a while, her family withdrew, moving to attend to the day's situation. Not long after, her surviving circle of close friends also withdrew, giving her space to process a week of war and pain.

Shining stood on the balcony overlooking the capital of his wife’s empire. The shield had become a more tangible force, shimmering in an opaque fashion tinting all outside of it a deep bluish pink. The remains of his army sat in their barracks tending to their few wounded and recuperating from the heavy losses. Shining shook his head and corrected himself. Not heavy losses. Complete eradication. His entire army had been condensed to just four companies, two of which had been left behind as a law enforcement body for the short-lived campaign.

Looking past the limping army he looked out through the shield at the fields around the capital, now covered by a rapidly widening system of trenches. The Prussian army had arrived just hours after his own, and immediately set to preparing for a long-term siege. Thankfully, the favor was in Shining’s favor; the city had a sizable number of fields inside growing crops year-round. Combine this with the temperate setting making it the ideal location for copious amounts of grain to be stored by farmers, it meant he could last years, maybe even decades without leaving the city. Had this war begun just a few years earlier and he could have lasted indefinitely, but the city population had shot up enormously thanks to the refounding of the Empire and creative use of magic. Shining Armour’s other solace was that the Prussian trenches would not reach the tracks before his reinforcements were projected to arrive. A small army of recruits were being rushed by train. Initially it had been to act as a reserve, but now it would be all he had until he trained his own replacements.

Shining glanced at the clock and noted that the train was late, having been scheduled to arrive fifteen minutes ago. Scrunching his brow he teleported to the train station, quickly inquiring with the depot about the train. They reported a lack of any reports regarding them and told Shining he’d be the first to know once they had.

Two hours later the few survivors from the train staggered up to the shield, quickly ushered through by Shining’s guard. They told of a bridge over the river collapsing just as the train crossed it, and the Prussians lying in wait, picking off survivors. The officer among them confessed that the small contingent had to abandon any ponies in the burning cars for the fire to take. Shining nodded sadly, saying softly, “I understand. You’re not the only one to have to make tough decisions this week. I’ll send a message to Canterlot at once.”

Shining trotted back to his room that evening exhausted, sagging under the weight of commanding a disintegrating army while trying to direct the recruitment of new troops. He had heavy bags under his eyes as he slid under the covers and cuddled close to his equally exhausted wife.

General Karlson was ecstatic. The advance had gone perfectly. More than perfectly. For a mere hundred and twenty-eight lives he had nearly eradicated the enemy army and begun to encircle their massive capital. His army was not quite sufficient yet, but he would make do. Militia companies would be arriving soon to supplement his forces and he had heard on good word that two Bavarian divisions would be marching to reinforce in two weeks. All he had to do was hold the ground until then.

His artillery was in position, and he had placed urgent orders for additional guns of any kind to be trained and brought to the front for use in the siege. The strange magic shield that surrounded the Crystal Empire was enormous, encircling it better than any ring of forts and armies could ever hope too. An added challenge was the large quantity of fields within the shield, greatly extending the length of the siege to the point he knew it would come down to violence.

But he had an idea. A river ran through the city. And while it certainly looked like nothing got through, water still flowed out the other side. So that brought about the question of if the shield would filter out bad water, infected with the rotting flesh of horse, human, and pony carcasses floating in it. And perhaps he could force large numbers of cold, sick civilians and wounded, dying soldiers that had been captured into the city to spread furthermore disease. With any luck the Empire would be in no position to resist in a few short months.

With an eagerness unbefitting a man who controlled the lives of thousands of men directly, and potentially millions indirectly, General Karlson marched to his doctors and began describing his plan to them. Their eyes nodded in a steely understanding, relating this to tactics of the Mongols of old.

Admiral Kristofferson’s blockade was going flawlessly. The few number of cogs and frigates the Ponies had were greatly unprepared for a blockade by the Prussian fleet. His relatively lightly armed fleet outranged and outgunned the enemy fleet, quickly maneuvering it back into port and stopping all ships from leaving. Any incoming ships were stopped and turned around. Those that did not heed soon found alongside a broadside of carronades firing grapeshot through the ship and killing most the crew. Food was looted from these ships, and the derelicts were directed towards the shore or port.

When these ships reached port, they often lacked many bodies and members of crew, having been taken by sailors desperate for fresh meat after weeks at sea. Those that ran aground or were dashed on the rocks were left to rot, no pony willing to venture out and see what fresh horrors had been inflicted on the crews of the boats. The occasional bombardment from the fleet kept the port living in constant fear, houses and storage being set afire by cannon shells smashing through them.

After the second bombardment, the ponies rowed under a white flag to negotiate with the Admiral. After many hours of harsh debate, a deal was made. The Admiral would cease the bombardment of houses and eating of crews of the trade ships, and the pony fleet would be scuttled by way of fire. Admiral Kristofferson agreed eagerly, lacking the munitions to continue bombardments due to the lack of cannons on pony trade ships.

The river boats though, were still fair game. Any that tried to dock alongside the deep-water port was met with a barrage from a frigate on the opposite side the bay, often sinking these flat bottom boats with ease. Millions worth of damage were inflicted in just those few weeks, with millions more being turned away from the port. Soon the effects began to show in the wider countryside as well. Timber could not make it to repair homes, leaving houses to slowly degrade without repair. Food stockpiles grew along the docks as they waited for a river boat or cart to brave the fire and drag it somewhere else for sale.

Admiral Kristofferson now sat in his quarters, waiting for the next supply ships to arrive and bring more beans and hardtack. With luck they might just bring new warships to be sent further down the coast in search of more ports to blockade and harass.

Chapter 16- Projected Rain

The siege had been going on for three weeks now. Twilight had spent the time teaching every unicorn in the city basic medical spells and water purification. The water had been contaminated, leading to disease beginning to spread through the city. The supply of medicine was not enough to support the number of infected civilians and the lack of unicorn doctors led to a high spread and mortality rate. Shining Armor had ordered all unicorns to be conscripted into the Empire’s Medical Corps and Water Treatment faculties.

The water was being purified regularly as it flowed through the city and infected citizens have been moved into a somewhat isolated hospital and quarantined while the minimal number of unicorn doctors, perhaps five, alternated between training conscript doctors and slowly healing the diseased. The barrier along the river had to be cleaned regularly to prevent the pile of corpses and feces from flowing into the water supply freely. With the disease-causing agents floating through the barrier, they were forced to station unicorns along the entrance and have them continuously purify the water as it flowed.

The unicorns weren’t the only pony tribe being conscripted in the face of this new war. Just like the unicorns, the only pegasi inside of the Crystal Empire had moved there from Equestria proper, leaving them few and far between. Combine this with the shield providing a constant summer and a efficient weather system and very few pegasi had any weather training, rendering one of their primary magical abilities all but useless. The only exceptions to this rule were pegasi that lived in the small farming villages outside the shield, who worked to keep the worst of the snow off and away from the small farming communities.

The conscripted pegasi were all being trained in simple lance maneuvers and the absolute basics of weather mastery, where they learned how to break apart clouds and force them to rain with ease. More complex weather maneuvers like tornadoes and creating clouds were out of the question with the lack of a factory or any substantial training facility in the Crystal Empire. Twilight hoped that soon after this horrible chapter of history closes that the Empire would begin to establish it’s own pegasi academies to combat this weakness.

Another change to life was the steady growing of the Prussian entrenchments around the city. Several lines of trench work had been dug out, cut from the frozen earth by hundreds of picks and shovels piling it into embankments on either side. Soldiers took potshots at any ponies that ventured outside the walls, shots whisking over head and shattering on the barrier, flying low and blowing into the snow and earth, or if the ponies were exceptionally unlucky —or the Prussians were actually aiming— they’d find a ball of lead bursting inside their flesh.

Twilight had ventured out once with a couple of guards to retrieve a few refugees that had been pushed towards the city by the Prussian army. The shot flew out about them, breaking against the barrier as the party broke out to a sprint. Twilight fired off a blast of magical energy off at the Prussian soldiers and sending them tumbling into the trench to avoid the magical plasma. The wall her magical burst hit fell inwards, filling that section until it was just a shallow, snowy dent in the ground. The fire slowed, but increased in accuracy rapidly, soldiers popping up and taking quickly aimed shots at Twilight. One of the refugees beside her cried out in terror as his mind broke, the stress and panic of being forced from his home and loud explosions all around bringing him to his knees, gasping uncontrollably.

Using part of her aura to envelope the pony, Twilight hauled him into the air and pulled him along with her, as he sobbed dryly through shut eyes. The suppressive magic continued to be launched at the Prussians whenever they popped up, but they still managed to get the occasional shot off, each time getting dangerously close to Twilight, even wounding the guards blocking the refugees with their body.

And then the freezing chill of the tundra wind was gone, the barrier changing the climate to that of a warm temperate zone. Twilight set the refugee down gently, and began to comfort him before directing him to follow the guards, who were already marching down the street to take the refugees to processing. After a couple minutes, the stallions stood and ran to catch up. Twilight trotted towards a flat plaza in the city.

The plaza had become an impromptu artillery workshop, ballista being constructed from any spare wood and rope that the workers could scrounge up. With a little bit of help from Twilight they were able to turn low quality scraps into somewhat passable materials. Five mostly completely available ballista sat in the plaza, with three barely started ones being worked on. The only parts missing were wooden cogs that were being hoof carved by local wood workers.

Four ballista had been completed and were being built into rocky emplacements that had been constructed along the main roads into the city. Side streets and alleyways had their cobblestones pried out of the ground and hauled out to the roads, being stacked as bricks and castle stones. Cheaply made mortar was crammed between the cobble stones, quickly growing brittle, cementing the cobble stones in place. Beside the ballista stacks of bolts were covered by tarps. The bolts were poor quality, made almost entirely of wood, with just a small bit of iron making the tip. Each barricade was manned by four guard ponies at all times, who stood watching their Prussian counterparts in the trenches do the same.

Twilight set to work making more bolts for the ballista, behaving like a well oiled steam powered machine. Every bolt was near identical, with only a few imperfections here or there. Within the hour she had produced fifteen more bolts, with a hundred more well on the way. Twilight settled into the routine and worked away the entirety of the afternoon, certain that her friends were doing the same.

The Bavarians had finally arrived. Two full armies had landed in port two weeks earlier, escorted there by a small fleet of loaned Prussian ships. The ships were now being sent down the coast in search of another harbor to blockade. The Bavarians spent a single day in the colony’s capital, organizing their supplies and soldiers before setting off. Behind the long forests of steel marched a horde of horridly hurriedly trained militia marching in a shambling fashion, weapons slung casually at arms. They escorted the regiments of howitzers constructed for the siege, marching steadily.

Two weeks after first landing in port, the Bavarian blue of their uniforms formed a fine contrast to Prussian blue, as the armies began to fill in the trenches. Secondary and tertiary lines were dug, as now there were enough men to support the siege. The militia companies split, half of them filling reserve rolls with the three armies, the other half marching back into the colony as a last line of defense, should the siege fail.

General Karlson sat in a simple wooden house that had been constructed in the logistics center of the Prussian army. About a dozen or so wooden structures had been built, acting as barns, kitchens, and barracks for his men. The house Karlson resided in doubled as the command center, and he held frequent meetings with officers and civilian officials, discussing tactics to try and break the siege. He had received reports of the wealth and technological capabilities of this ‘Empire’s’ ally to the south, reportedly rivaling their own. If they managed to march up to the city with a sizable army the European armies would be doomed to fail. No amount of strategic superiority would save them if the enemy had local superiority and technological equivalence. And then the strange magic some of the enemies could manage. That was another problem in of itself. New strategies and tactics would have to be made to counteract this one-sided advantage. The sooner Karlson could force a surrender, the better.

The Bavarian armies had just arrived and were settling in, their infantry and artillery seamlessly replacing the Prussian troops. They were models of peak efficiency, the drills rivaling that of Prussia. Karlson knew the moment they arrived that they deserved some kind of reward, regardless of how the war ended. He immediately set to writing a letter to his commanding officer, urging him to plead the Bavarian case to both the administrator of the colony and the Prussian king.
With the newly arrived artillery, six batteries of howitzers with the Bavarians, four batteries of howitzers freshly minted, and four cannon batteries with the Bavarians, General Karlson’s plan was ready. He called the Bavarian generals to his office to disclose what would begin tomorrow.

The next day, at five fifteen in the morning General Karlson stood with his staff and the Bavarian generals, watching the trench line. The men in each of their armies were at full alert, their bayonets attached, ramrods ready. They could see musketmen’s heads gently swaying to and fro as they marched through the trenches.

At Five thirty all of the soldiers stood still, waiting in organized lines in the firing trench. Every gunner stood beside their howitzers and cannons, the officer standing with the firing hammer in hand. General Karlson checked his watch. Five thirty-one. He raised a whistle to his mouth and raised his hand with the watch. The Bavarian generals mimicked him. At five thirty-two he dropped the hand and blew the whistle. The whistle signaled his military band, who began playing with thunderous bravado. They fired dozens of shells up towards the shield, arcing down and smashing in from above. His cannon lobbed solid ball of iron straight ahead, bashing into the sides and sending shrapnel everywhere. At five thirty-three the Bavarians gave the same order, the one in command of the closer element beginning immediately, while the one that commanded the far element had is order relayed by the same whistle blast around the city, delayed by almost exactly a minute.

General Karlson nodded at the sky, looking up into the cloudless sky before quietly saying to his Bavarian counterparts, “What a beautiful day out today. Such a shame there’s rain. Thankfully it should have dissipated by the negotiations next week. We don't have the time to reschedule.”

And with that, he turned and walked back to his house, popping a smoking pipe out of his breast pocket and stuffing some tobacco into it, igniting it before he pushed his way into his office. Closing the door behind him, he returned to drawing up plans for future battles as a thin haze filled the room.

Chapter 17- The Beginning of the Fall

The shelling had been going on for seven days. For seven days the shield held. But with each successive shell the shield flickered and warped, each time flickering just a little less than before and warping just a little more. The hope and love feeding the Crystal heart slowly faded, and its reserves were drawn upon far more heavily with each day.

Twilight moved along a road to the siege workshop. She flinched and ducked as an iron ball struck the shield above her. She felt the inherent terror inside her bones, panic seizing control for a moment before she moved along again. She reached the temporary siege workshop and continued to make ballista bolts. Twilight’s ever-growing stack of bolts held hundreds of bolts that were waiting to be dragged to the outposts along the edge of the shield.

Once her duties were finished at the shop Twilight began a listless wander about the dome. Earlier in her life she may have talked with her friends or buried herself in the library. But now it all felt somewhat empty, a void hiding beneath every action, quickly swallowing up the emotions she felt. Only the most negative of emotions like rage seemed to overpower it, and Twilight noticed that she was feeling those emotions more and more often since Rarity died. She used it to fill that horrid void, so she’d be able to feel something. This rage had to be directed at something. Usually, it was the Prussians. But sometimes it was her fellows. Her friends, comrades and family. Ponies she should know not to lash out against. Yet she still did. It didn’t matter.

The listless wander and thoughts brought Twilight to the fields along the edge of the shield. Here the cold seeped into the dome. The chill made her shiver, and she watched the wind pick up grass and whisk it off into the city proper. Some fields directly on the edge of the shield were losing their color, slowly freezing as the cold seeped into the soil. Hay drooped. Tulips curled. Here the effects of the siege were visible, on display for anybody to see. Truly it was wonderous, Twilight thought, that the Heart hadn’t failed completely yet. One just needed to walk out to see the hopelessness of the situation.

Yet somehow some of Twilight’s friends managed to. Pinky never stopped trying to cheer up everybody in the city. She held parties to celebrate making it through the day. Little cards were distributed at her command for doing good works for their neighbors. Twilight was baffled by the effort Pinky put into this misplaced hope. Rainbow dash put everything into training the few pegasi the city had on weather control. She taught them how to break clouds in seconds. How to make it rain. How to heat up storms. Every manner of weather control somebody could need. As if that would stop the freezing chill of the artic from killing them all once the barrier fell. And Twilight was certain the barrier would fall. It was inevitable. It had to be.

Twilight was shaken from her defeatist musing as her eyes caught movement. Peering out into the storm she saw Prussian approaching the shield. Her eyes focused on them as she galloped to the shield to peer closer. She readied an offensive spell to drive them off, before seeing a white flag being waved by somebody behind the lead Prussian.

Seeing that they wished for truce, Twilight teleported to the castle, grabbing her brother and sister-in-law without warning and teleporting back to the barrier. The Prussians stood in the permafrost, waiting. Watching the barrier. Twilight dragged Shining Armor out towards them, Cadence following close behind the two.

Outside of safety the Prussians stood, one with the flag of truce, one the diplomat they had met before, one holding a watch, and one with a drum. A shell slammed into the shield just above and behind them, sending a wave of shrapnel down. The officer with the watch frowned and gestured to the one with the drum, who began playing a slow steady beat. The officer nodded to himself before poking the diplomate and telling him to continue in German.

“We come to negotiate.”

Shining Armor and Cadence both looked at each other confused for a moment, before Cadence said, “Negotiate what? A prisoner exchange? Peace?”

The diplomat simply laughed. He laughed for what felt unbearably long in the freezing temperatures before saying, “Exchange? Of course not. You hold no one of value to us. And we hold none of yours. We come to negotiate your surrender.”

Cadence looked taken aback and insulted puffing up momentarily before composing herself. She a took deep breath and said, “You have the audacity to ask for our surrender? When our barrier still holds? No. We shall not faulter. The shields will hold. You will die of old age before breaking into our capital.”

The diplomat sighed and said, “Empress Mi Amor Cadenza, we Prussians are a stubborn bunch. We will construct a city of our own around yours, existing purely to supply a siege forever more. You shall not win. But I doubt it would even come to that,” The diplomat looked towards the officer with the watch and nodded, “General Karlson will explain to you why.”

The General stepped forward, a cool passive look on his face as he said, “We can see that shield deteriorate. I have had our best mathematicians in camp estimate how many shells it would take if the rate of deterioration is steady. Six days. We just need to fire at this steady rate for six days. Personally, I would-”

“Thank you General Karlson,” the diplomat said, cutting him off with a wave of his hand before continuing, “If you surrender now the terms will be far more generous. Should you refuse, we will not accept future surrender. We will continue until we have seized this capital well and truly.”

Cadence shook her mane, thinking hard. Shining took her out of earshot of every creature and conversed quietly with her. Twilight stood and watched the Prussians. She considered how easy it would be to just capture them and break the siege. To decapitate their command structure with one slice. Just one slice. So simple and easy. Twilight nodded to herself as she ran through it in her head. The Prussians looked at her with concern but did not say anything.

Just as Twilight’s will to not remove them from power was reaching the end of the line, Cadence and Shining Armor returned. Cadence asked them, “May we call our allies to consider the surrender with them?”

And a single word reply came, “No.”

The shelling had resumed. Theodore Bundselt stood in his trench with his regiment, bayonet polished and bristling out of the top like a steel spout in a field with thousands. He stood beside his Colonel, Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, preparing himself mentally for the assault. The Colonel smiled, not unkindly, at Theodore and patted him on the arm before turning to face the shield. The shells kept falling.

It took a moment, but Theodore noticed that the guns had fallen silent. He gulped, preparing himself. Soon. It would be soon. He thumbed the stock of his gun and adjusted it needlessly. All at once the cannons and howitzers began firing again. Dozens of shells shattering against the shield at once. Constant. Overwhelming. The booming and echoing shatters knocked Theodore off balance. Calming himself he peered over the edge of the trench and saw... just a city.

The shield had broken. That was the signal. The entire Prussian and Bavarian armies rose out of their trenches and began to charge. Theodore’s foot slipped, quickly being caught by his Colonel and hauled out of the trench. Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin started off at a steady pace, raising his swords and yelling at his men, “All Brave Prussians follow me!”

And then there was a wet thump and a swish of wind, and Theodore felt warm liquid on his face and cheek. He squeaked and looked beside him, seeing his headless colonel fall to the ground. Behind the colonel two men had been impaled on a ballista bolt and lay motionless on the ground. Theodore took a step back, trying to separate himself from the sight. But the Regiment wouldn’t allow it. The wall of men marched forwards, all but unaffected by the death of their commander.

The shelling continued. Howitzers screamed overhead, exploding in and around the city. Cannon blazed away, shrapnel shells shredding the fields and wooden buildings, while solid shot shattered the crystal buildings like glass. Another ballista bold was fired off, plunging itself into the regiment, carving a shallow cut. The hole sealed itself within seconds and the regiment pushed onwards, Theodore marched with it, pushed on by those in front and around him. He felt the regiment’s mood begin to fill him and raise his spirits from fear to confidence. Filling the terror with a sense of duty. He was a part of the Prussian regiment that marched.

The ballista was on fire. Theodore marched past it. A shallow crater was beside it, and shrapnel made of pony flesh and bones filled it. A pony in gold armor was slumped over the ballista, his armor glowing red hot, and his flesh charred away from his skull. Several bodies were scattered behind crumbling, cobbled together fortifications. They had stood no chance against a volley of muskets. The Regiment marched deeper into the rapidly freezing fields, his eyes seeing but not really. He marched perfectly in line towards the city center, prepared to face all from within his regiment.

The shields cracked. Then it fell. The bombardment had destroyed the city’s main lines of defense. Twilight watched as thousands and thousands of Prussians clambered out of their trenches and began to march towards the city. She watched ballista fire uselessly into it, before being promptly set ablaze by counter fire from the Prussian’s monstrous artillery.

Twilight teleported to the ground, where her friends and family were preparing their weapons and barricades to fight the Prussians at the castle. As she donned her armor, she watched hundreds of militia ponies and poorly trained recruits rushing towards the square, their officers trying to get them in some semblance of a fighting stance. Civilians flooded the square, only to be ordered back to their homes by anybody they reached out to for help. As she finished tightening the last strap of her armor she watched a small trickle of the experienced guard ponies, the ones that had been manning the ballistae, stumble into the castle‘s shadow.

Twilight‘s remaining friends all formed a kind of semi-circle around her, each wearing their specially colored armor. Her brother and sister-in-law were both directing their troops, arranging the more veteran units along the avenues of approach and holding the mass of recruits in reserve. They quickly ordered Twilight and her friends into the final line of defense, having them take position within the castle's legs. Inside the youngest and oldest of the soldiers stood with inexperienced officers, quickly preparing barricades beside the doors to slide into place. Crossbows were moved to windows and boiling oil was dragged to the staircase. Servants could be seen flitting up and down the staircases with food and water, giving them to everypony inside the castle and preparing to send out carts for the ponies outside the castle.

Dash fluttered up and down as she idled, muttering under breath and glancing out the window regularly. Applejack was switching from practicing her bucks to double checking her saddle bags several times a minute. Pinkie Pie was trying to make jokes and bounce, but her armor’s clanking drowned her out. Twilight was certain Pinkie had it on wrong. Fluttershy just sat in a corner, whimpering and covering her face with her mane. Twilight switched between watching the city slowly be succumbing to the hues of blue uniforms that slithered uphill like a snake, metal glinting like scales and chanting echoing up into the window she sat at, watching her friends and their reactions to the coming battle. Saliva, thick and overwhelming, slowly filled her mouth, forcing her to swallow often. Twilight could feel sweat pooling in her armor as she continued to watch, eyes glued to the scene, committing it to memory so she could record it in the annals of history.

Just four hundred yards short of the castle’s defenders the attackers halted on a dime. Within a second the long snakes shuddered to a complete halt. The metal daggers atop their weapons lurched forwards before being brought back to rest against their owners’ arms. The armies stood and watched each other, neither seeming to make the first move. She watched as they continued to sit, still and unmoving in a kind of faux peace. Then the Prussian lines shifted and churned. Thousands of bodies moved at once as they shifted positions and formed ranks anew, slightly narrower than before, but much longer.

A slow, steady drumbeat floated hauntingly over the city. It continued for maybe thirty seconds before being followed by five rapid beats, then returning to the same beat as before. Only this time the snakes moved with it. Each beat brought the hordes of Prussians one step closer to the Crystallian lines. The men moved in almost perfect synchronization, seemingly emotionless and machine like. Twilight quickly brought a pair of binoculars towards her with magic and spied closely on the Prussians in the line. There she found a single young Prussian whose face seemed just a little softer than those around him and had a hint of fear showing through.

Theodore stepped forwards. The ponies were now just three hundred yards. Bumdum. Another step forwards, two hundred ninety-nine. Bumdum. Another step. Bumdum. An officer called out to them, seeking to aid their nerves, “Steady now boys. Keep it steady! On the beat now!”, Bumdum, “Just like that now, boys. Keep it up! For the Crown!” Bumdum. The cycle continued.

At one hundred yards the ponies let out a cry and loosed dozens of bolts into the ranks, bringing down two of Theodore’s fellows beside him. His eyes widened a little, shaken by the sudden loss. The holes were instantly filled by two others. Theodore recognized one as the older brother of a friend of his, who attended the same church before they enlisted. Another wave of bolts was loosed, and the friend clutched at his eye, screaming as he dropped to the ground and was trampled.

The order to halt was called, and the fire and retire. Theodore readied his musket, primed it and fired, watching a golden armored pony in front of him drop to the ground with a grim sense of revenge. He then made a quick right face and ran to the back of his platoon’s formations and began reloading his musket. Every second a volley’s crack broke across the city and the sound of bolts whistled through the air. He stepped forward with this rank, stepping over the bodies of fallen Prussians. He reached the front, fired, and retired again. Following the cycle as his platoon slowly diminished in numbers.

After his third volley, the regiment was cycled back to the company's rear, the entire platoon broke off and darted single file down the side of the company. The line was just fifty long, thirty of Theodore’s comrades left bleeding, suffocating, or cooling on the pavement as another platoon took their turn. As they ran to the back of their formation thunder sounded far behind the regiment and he watched howitzer shells trailing a thin, white vapor trail race overhead, rocking and whistling as they flew.

Theodore turned his head towards the crystal castle and watched them arc over his units, falling into the enemy lines, eyes moving over a small window with a purple unicorn.

Twilight watched the Prussian retreat, hearing a thunderous clap erupt from behind the Prussian lines. She kept her eyes trained on the soldier, up until he turned and looked right at her, momentarily causing her to lean back from her binoculars and look at the battle. She watched Prussian artillery balls, trailing the horrid white snow she saw once before, arcing down towards the hordes of veteran pony fighters by the dozen.

She cried aloud and her horn blasted out a shield, quickly covering her brother, sister-in-law and any soldiers nearby with a shield as the artillery fell. Her friends were shaken from their battle-induced fear as they quickly darted over to the window to see what had elicited a reaction from Twilight. They reached the window just in time to watch the horrors of the ambush be reenacted many times over, the deadly white snow exploding out over hundreds of ponies and drifting onto the ranks, breaking them instantly. The screams and clattering of armor against stone and metal could be heard from their window, splitting the room. Other guards ponies rushed to the window, watching with horror as the few surviving veterans melted and burned.

And then a roar of courage was launched from the Prussian lines. Thousands of soldiers rushed forwards into the off balance and stumbling ponies, bayonets lowered and hungry for blood. The horde pushed easily into the mess of ponies, before breaking through and surrounding the veterans. The rear troops quickly set to butchering them while the front lost no momentum and pushed into the trembling reserves.

Very soon the battle devolved into a mess of flailing hooves and slashing blades, ponies and Prussians falling alike. Twilight watched her sister-in-law slay a dozen Prussians with a single flash of her horn before beginning to pull the reserves into the castle. Twilight quickly abandoned her place at the window and rushed to the staircase nearest Cadence and greeted her as she came in with, “How can I help?”

Cadence looked her in the eyes with a shaken look and said, “By taking your friends to the safest place you can find while I get my husband out of that massacre.”

“No, I want to-” but Cadence was already gone, disappearing back into the crowd of guard ponies pushing up into the castle, eyes filled with terror as they sprinted higher and higher, pushing past everypony to get away from the Prussian menace. Twilight sat beside the stairwell, staring down it as the reserves continued to rush through, splitting almost evenly in rushing up and down. The guardsponies tasked with holding the door were shunted to the side, and in one case dragged up the stairs in the hurry to retreat. After a moment Cadence returned, her husband being carried by four stretcher bearers behind her.

Twilight watched as Shining Armor was carried past her, Cadence ignoring Twilight in her rush, and up into the reaches of the castle. He was bleeding from two separate wounds, one was a slit across his chest, having punctured his armor, and the other a slice across his horn, shattering the ivory and leaving a bloody gash along the base. Twilight sat down and covered her head, her vision darkening as her breaths came quick and fast. Fear, terror, anxiety and panic all swirled through her chest as she broke down right beside the stairwell, rocking back and forth a little as the last of the reserves fell back into the castle.

From below the sound of a melee echoed up the stairwell as the guards tried to close the barricades.

Theodore found himself at the front again, pushing into the rippling wave of retreating ponies, stabbing and slashing at them as he pressed towards the door in the castle leg just in front of him. Taking a moment of pause in his fight, if only a moment in his head and not his arms, he pondered the purpose of a castle held up by four small, easily destroyed legs before pressing through the door and into the chaos.

The nearest pony was caught unaware and was quickly greeted with steel through the neck, dropping it spraying blood all over Theodore’s uniform. He turned to another pony and tried the same action, only to be dodged. He quickly brought the butt of his gun to its chin, knocking it off balance. He quickly dove onto it and began repeatedly bashing it with musket’s butt, breaking its nose. Once it no longer moved, he got up and looked around, seeing a steady stream of Prussians pushing in and filling the space. The contingent quickly dispatched what paltry guard there was and set to divining tasks.

Theodore glanced up, looking up at the wide, open stairwell, again terrible design for a castle, and saw the cauldron of oil sitting just on the edge. With a shout he raised his gun, shooting one pony sitting beside it, a light-yellow crystal one, which fell over the edge and plopped into the crowd of Prussians. But it was too late. The pony’s body pulled the cauldron over the edge, flinging boiling oil down the well and sending the iron bouncing down the stairs.

Theodore narrowly dodged the oil, watching the others stagger about clawing at their skin and eyes, writing in agony. The cauldron crushed the legs of two soldiers, trapping them in a puddle of oil. The wounded men pressed against each other as they pulled themselves out of the door, trying to get away from the mess. Theodore looked around hesitantly and accessed who was left. Just a handful of soldiers, either unsplashed or unaffected. More troops rushed into the breach, pushing their way up and down the stairs bayonets held at the ready as they pushed into the crowd of panicking ponies.

Taking a moment to reload, Theodore steadied himself before joining the charge. An officer called out into the crowd, ordering them to leave those surrendering and unarmed, but to kill the rest. Similar orders echoed throughout the hundreds of men pressing into this leg of the castle, each officer ensuring the orders issued found their way to every ear.

The top of the stairs was devolving into an all-out brawl, with the landing being too cramped for ponies or Prussians to effectively wield their weapons. Theodore picked his way to the edge, ducking under and around flying hooves and fists, tripping over limp legs. A purple unicorn had caught his eye, laying on the ground with its forehooves wrapped around its head. The unicorn wore an ornate set of armor, unique from the rest Theodore saw. It carried no visible weapons. In short, an officer or noble of some kind. Casting his gaze about, Theodore looked for somebody to help him drag this valuable hostage away.

He quickly called out to a few Bavarians as he shifted his musket to one hand and pointed at the unicorn. The four Bavarian infantry understood immediately and jogged over, just outside of the melee that was rapidly pushing deepening into the castle and up a nearby flight of stairs. The Bavarians quickly took positions besides a limb each, before grasping it with one hand and hoisting the pony into the air. The pony was snapped from its panic attack and cried out in its native tongue before its horn began to glow. Theodore quickly punched the pony in the muzzle, knocking its head back. The glow faded and the pony went limp. The Bavarians began to drag the dead weight towards the stairs, a flow of line infantry still pushing up it and unslowing in their single-minded goal to press into the castle. Theodore and his small contingent began to push down into the flow, slowly making process down the stairs.

Just as Theodore made to follow them, he heard shouting as a blue, armor clad blur shot over the heads of the other soldiers and beelined for the purple unicorn. Theodore shifted to intercept, only for his musket to be knocked aside by the blur as it whisked past. It overshot the stairs and careened back up at a sharp angle, preparing for another pass.

Theodore shifted his stance, arms spreading out to try and catch the blur, He stepped forward onto the landing, and it slowed to a hover just in front of him. It snarled something to Theodore before leaning forwards to speed off again. Theodore yelled a wordless cry as he lunged forwards, each hand reaching for the pony as it shot forward.

The blur shifted to the left as it buzzed forth, nearly making it clear of Theodore. Nearly. As it buzzed past Theodore barely managed to grab at the base of a wing, getting whipped around to face the same direction. Its strength surprised Theodore as he was dragged forward by it, pressing towards the purple pony, now almost halfway down the staircase.

It turned its’ armored head towards Theodore, snarling something with such ferocity that its muzzle shrunk back from its breathing slit. It kicked wildly at Theodore, smashing his stomach and knocking the wind out of him. Without thinking, Theodore loosened his grip, his empty hand flying to his stomach. The blue pony flailed harder, kicking everywhere as it tried to break free totally.

Blinding, warm pain suddenly shot through his face when a blue hoof smashed into his nose. Theodore felt red hot rage boil through his body as his eyes bulged and his neck tightened. Without thinking, Theodore’s snapped to his knapsack and pulled out a small hatched, normally used for firewood and clearing brush, snapping it from the sheath and swinging it around his body.

In a single fluid motion, he brought his arm down just behind his grip on the wings. He heard a cry of agony from somewhere in front of him as he fell hard onto his butt, plopping down slightly disorientated. Shaking his head, he got up clutching his nose to stop the now steady flow of blood. The blue pony had flown right to and over the edge of the landing and sat hanging into the stairwell. Fear and pain filled its eyes as it said something, maybe to itself or Theodore, perhaps begging for help.

Theodore grasped his hatched and coolly stepped forward, the other hand still holding the broken nose. He reared back and punted the pony over the edge, sending it tumbling head over hooves down the well, where it cracked to a stop on its spine, just beside the Bavarians and the purple officer. Coughing for a moment Theodore sat on a crystal bench cut into the wall, slinging his bag onto the floor and grabbing his canteen.

He gulped down the hot, leathery water inside before leaning back against the cool crystal wall. After a minutes rest he rose to his feet, hatchet in hand and followed the squads of his fellows clearing out the castle.

Author's Note

During the writing of this I shifted the number of soldiers from game size to a more realistic army composition, so hopefully that wasn't too noticeable. The armies grew from just over six thousand humans and three thousand ponies to about a hundred thousand humans and fifty thousand ponies.

Chapter 18- Crystal Protectorate

The siege had ended in crushing defeat. Her husband was nearly fatally wounded. Another element dead. Applejack maimed permanently. Twilight had been captured. Cadence’s forces had been slaughtered, worse than decimated. Of the fifteen thousand, eight hundred and twelve guards ponies her husband had commanded seven thousand were dead, and six thousand wounded. The Prussians by comparison took two thousand casualties from their force of more than a hundred thousand.

The homes of her people had been damaged and shattered by Prussian shells. Without the barrier up to keep them safe the cold of winder rapidly killed crops and blew through the city, chilling the citizens to the bone. The Prussians had immediately set their soldiers to repairing homes and disposing of corpses, in an act of pity it seemed.

Empress Cadence sat in one of the many conference rooms in her castle, feeling like a guest in her own home. She had aides beside her with papers and folders, many looking unfamiliar while others she’d known for years. Across the round table from her the Prussian diplomat, Sir Hermann sat across from her with his fingers interlaced, a soft smile on his face, an attempt to disarm her. He had several documents sitting in stacks, and his aides sat nearby. Dotted around the room in five foot intervals Prussian “Line Infantry” stood at attention, rigid as a crystal home.

“Empress, let me lay out my nation’s demands and offers for you,” the Prussian began, smile not leaving his face as he stood and leaned over a map in the center of the table, “Your ‘empire’ will be demoted. Your nation will be known as the Crystal Protectorate. Your throne will be known as the Crystal Regent and will be guaranteed and protected by the Prussian empire. Am I understood so far?”

Regent Cadence nodded, her aides looking aghast while jotting down notes. She looked up at him and said, “How much autonomy will we be awarded.”

Sir Hermann looked at her for a moment, before asking, “What was the third word in that sentence?”

“I was asking how much self governance we’d have” Cadence said, quickly supplying a simpler term for the diplomat.

“That is an excellent question, Regent Cadenza. I have an answer for you, but I plan to give it to you in a few minutes. First, I’m going to lay out the new borders the Protectorate will receive. Please pay careful attention, as we plan to settle humans in the area and would like to have the ponies wholly within their own territory.”

Doing a double take, Cadence said, “What do you mean within their own territory, do you plan on removing our citizens from their homes for some kind of… of species state?”

“This area,” Sir Hermann drew a line from one coast to another in the north of the empire, completely ignoring her, “Will be broken off and given to Prussia’s colony. This land,” he gestured to a large area that bordered Equestrian in the Southwest of the empire that had a single pony settlement in it, “will be given to the Bavarians. The Prussian government is willing to foot the bill of resettling the town and compensate them for any lost crops. Prussian soldiers will also help them pack and move. We aren’t barbarians after all.”

Cadence opened her mouth then closed it, deciding not to bring it up. She spent a moment quietly talking with her aides to prepare messages for the village residents. Cadence then turned back to Sir Hermann, “And what of our self governance?”

Diplomat Sir Hermann nodded, sitting back in his seat as he said, “Your nation will be a protectorate, hence the name. A new flag that shows the bondage to Prussia will be designed at some point, but that is a low priority,” Hermann paused for a moment, searching through the stack before pulling out a documents and leafing through it, “The military limits are as follows; There is be a limit on the number of soldiers your nation can have, fifteen thousand. A small force of Prussians will be stationed in country, numbering just fifty thousand. They will be able to recruit your people as an auxiliary force, which may be sent throughout the empire. Military research for your nation will be permitted to continue as you wish, but there will be a Prussian observer present to aid and report to us. Is this all acceptable?” The diplomat leaned forward, a glint reflecting off his glasses as his grin grew slightly predatory, waiting for a nod before continuing, “Diplomatically is more difficult. You will be permitted to trade as you wish, although we will have preferential treatment in those deals. However, you may not, under any circumstance, form alliances without our permission. In fact, we simply won’t let you ally with anybody not on this list,” the Prussian plopped a sheaf of papers in front of Cadence, “and you are already allied with them. They are your fellow protectorates.”

Cadence took a moment to read the documents, each page listing a different nation, their geographical location, economy and more. It was impossibly thick, with over thirty pages in it. The increasingly strict regulations that she was learning scared her. Maybe this would be the extent of the restrictions.

“Now for the actual self governance. Initially there will be none. You will be under the command of Ludolf Krämer. And I think he can explain what will happen better than me.” With that, the doors were opened by two guards and an eccentrically dressed man strutted in, a can in one hand and a top hat in the other. He had glasses that gleamed in the magic lamp light of the room, obscuring his eyes.

With a flourish he flicked the cane down from his side, it tapping on the ground as he put on his top hat. He grinned and loomed forward, head rolling slightly as he did so, leering jovially at Cadence. Straitening up in a fluid manner, looking like a flag in the wind for a moment, he said, “Hello, Regent Cadenza. I am Ludolf Krämer. I will be modernizing your country over the course of three years. Would you like to learn more…”

As he trailed off Krämer shifted to the left, side stepping around the table to walk up to beside her. He leaned in close; one eyes growing larger and larger, almost comically large, and he asked, “Well, do you?”

“Yes. Please do.”

With a sense of excitement and joy, Krämer shot back up theatrically, throwing out a hand, pivoting with his cane, “Well good, because I have everything planned out down to the week! First, first we must repair and fix. We can’t modernize what does not work. The first three weeks will be fixing what we Prussian broke.”

Krämer threw his cane over his shoulder and trotted over to a bookshelf and pulled out a seemingly random book and peered at the title. Cadence craned her neck and saw that it was a book in German. The crazed man pulled it out with a flick, spinning before tossing it down right in front of Cadence. “Next, we must learn what level every factory, workshop, farm and trade hall in the nation operates at. Ten weeks. Then we will begin the real fun. First the farms. No industrial nation can exist without food. They will be first to be improved,” Krämer laughed at something, or perhaps nothing, before continuing, “The shield must be brought back. That pillar system? It will be done, and a year-round growing zone will be established.”

Krämer prattled on and on, prancing about the move, never sitting still and finding the entire event hilarious. His exuberance was unmatchable. It was startling to see a man so carefree and fun-loving emerging from such a dull, rigid society like the Prussians. As it became relevant the man would flick documents and books from around the room and place them in front of Cadence, pulling them from anywhere and everywhere. Once he even yanked one from beneath a Prussian soldier’s hat. It was astounding how much effort he put into just the presentation of his plan. Two hours after he started the crazed man finished explaining the schedule of the Crystal modernization.

With the thoroughness of Ludolf’s plan, it left only one question for Cadence, “What if you fall behind.”

The grin slid off the face of Ludolf Krämer and he said, “I will be fired, and a suitable replacement will be found to keep the schedule. In three years, modernized fully or not, I will have no further power over your nation. It will be in your hands.”

A diplomat, wrapped in thick fur, attached a letter to a grey pegasi’s saddle. Her yellow eyes, one of which was a lazy eye, were bright and ready as she fluttered up off the ground and flew off into the wintry sky. She flew past other pegasi who were working to keep the skies over the city clear, punching clouds and herding them into groups to be dealt with.

Below her thousands of ponies and humans were walking through the streets, carrying wood nails and buckets of paste. The pure Crystal houses that were cracked open were being torn down, while those with minimal damage had the wounds packed with cloth, pasted over, and then painted over. The newer stone and wooden buildings were repaired with conventional supplies as the cobble stones were returned to their slots. The empty spots were measured, and new cobbles were prepared to take their place.

In the farms Prussians were helping farms quickly harvest the ripe crops and prepare them for storage. Seeds for winter crops were brought in from outer villages by cavalry, dropping a measured amount in front of each field. The civilians the Prussians forced into the city for the siege were escorted out in columns by the Prussian army.

The wounded of both sides were laid out in tents marked with the cross of the Lord. Doctors and surgeons, having dealt with all the critical cases days ago, now tended to the less emergent wounds and issues, conducting surgeries or just simply providing care. Here, too, were soldiers, nursing the sick and dying in their final moments as they plummeted into the afterlife. Chaplains walked between the rows, giving the final rights to man and pony alike as they passed on.

In the parade ground beneath the castle thousands of bodies lay in neat rows. The bodies were organized by common characteristics, each fur color beside each other, eyes of those fur colors next. Rough sketches of the branding on the side of each body were in front of each body. The deceased ponies had been laid out for identification, sobbing families being escorted by NCOs and officers. Once the family found a body, it was quickly packed into a coffin and escorted to their home.

After a week, most of the bodies were claimed, leaving a few alone in the stinking, rotting square. Pine boxes had been set beside them, and Prussians had begun to lift the decomposing corpses into their final bed. The boxes were then carted off to a simple cemetery on the outside edge of the city, where they were buried. A wooden marker held their description and branding on it, so that a more permanent marker may be prepared once Crystallian documents could be found documenting their names and ages.

Outside of the city the trenches were being refilled and compacted, soldiers undoing weeks of work to return the landscape to a somewhat natural state. The officer’s quarters had permanent stone barracks under construction, and the outlines of walls were being marked out. A new star fort would soon grow from the ground on the city’s outskirts.

A team of ponies and Prussians rode on a pump powered train cart with track and timber in tow. Picks, axes and rivets sat in buckets. Shovels and pine coffins were stacked on a second train, gently pulling out of the station to follow behind.

AS the aftermath of the siege was repaired and dealt with, Equestrians were escorted out of the city. The mane six, surviving Equestrian officers and soldiers, and even some members of Crystallian staff were shown the edge of the city. Hundreds of ponies were bundled tight against the cold, food in carts on their backs and the wounded sitting with it. Mounted Prussians and a section of the supply train trailed behind them as the group departed for Equestria, weeks of travel away with the train destroyed and thick winter snow covering the land.

Four weeks after the siege of the Crystal Empire had drawn to an end the princesses of Equestria met with Prussian diplomats to negotiate a white peace. Princess Celestia refused to recognize the Crystal Protectorate as a legitimate nation, claiming that the Crystal Empire was all that Equestria would recognize. A week later she was in the capital, which the Prussians had named Crystal City — although Celestia referred to it as the Empire still — to meet with Regent Cadence.

Celestia was escorted into the room by ornately dressed Prussian guards, wearing steel plate armor engraved with the designs of snow and crystal. They had a sallet helm on, obscuring their faces. A single white and ice blue plume jutted from the top, and a Prussian blue pelerine matching the colors of the new flag that waved all over the city. They carried halberds, with swords sheathed on their belts. Soldiers like this were scattered throughout the castle, and Celestia had seen in the courtyard ponies being drilled in similar armor.

In broken Ponish the guard introduced her to Cadence before stepping out and closing the door. Cadence sat alone in the room, drinking tea. She looked exhausted, deep bags under her eyes and Celestia could sense she was emotionally exhausted as well. She smiled weakly as Celestia entered, saying a quiet thank you to the guard as he stepped out. Once the door clicked shut, she conjured more tea for Celestia to enjoy and gestured to the seat beside her.

“How is Equestria in these trying times, Auntie?”

“Worse than I wish. Despite the peace Luna and I both agree that we need to keep a larger standing army, and maybe some reserves,” Celestia paused, taking a sip from her drink before changing the topic, “But my dear niece, I didn’t come to tell you about the bores of ruling, you enough about that as it is. Instead, we need plan to throw the Prussians from the Empire.”

In a moment, the smile slipped off Cadence’s face, and she deflated before saying, “No. We can’t. I won’t.”

Celestia gave Cadence a pointed look, “These foes are just like Sombra, here to enslave you. You cannot really mean to-”

“No. We won’t fight them more. And I don’t think they are here to enslave us. They did the brunt of the repairs and fixing of our city. They’ve been incredibly helpful and willing,” Cadence said, uncertainty in her voice, sounding as if she was convincing herself just as much as Celestia.

“A velvet wrapped steel gauntlet is still a steel gauntlet, Cadence. No matter how nice they are, they are conquerors here to inflict their will. They do not know friendship or peace. They wish only to make you like them.”

“I DO NOT CARE,” shouted Cadence suddenly, shocking Celestia causing her to recoil. The doors to the study were pushed open as the two Prussians burst into the room, one drawing his sword while the other held his halberd at the ready. They looked around for a threat, before slowly backing back out of the room, heads still swiveling about the room. The doors clicked shut again, and this time a yellow spell flashed across them. A sound proofing spell.

Cadence started again, calmer this time, “I do not care. These Prussians are overwhelmingly powerful, Celestia. Their weapons made that armor obsolete; they wear it as ceremonial pieces. Those soldiers aren’t expected to actually defeat more than an angry peasant. They have more soldiers in their empire than we have citizens. That force larger than anything our world ever saw? It was a cobbled together army thrown together in a week. When they made us a puppet, they limited our forces to a ‘small’ fifteen thousand. That is larger than both our standing armies combined. They considered it small. The Prussians will be leaving a small garrison force of fifty thousand, Celestia.”

Celestia shook her head, “Cadence, you could have used your magic to desert the army or flip sides, or, if it came to it, eradicate them.”

Cadence sagged, “Celestia, outside of love magic and emotional magic my skills are more akin to an exceptionally talented unicorn. And I refuse to use love magic outside of little nudges in the right direction. I refuse to violate that moral, Celestia. I refuse to be like Sombra.”

“That’s why you lost. And that’s good. But now Luna and I will be here to help. We can push them out of the Empire. We must. For the memory of Rainbow Dash and Rarity. For all the guards that died.”

Cadence shook her head violently, tears in her eyes, “Celestia, I can’t. They almost killed Shining. They still could if they wanted. You’ve seen that our guards are almost all Prussians. Not only that, but they’re training all the ponies that will take their place in the future. They could easily kill Shining Armor when he was at full strength, and he’s still recovering. He may never cast a spell again. They effortlessly threw aside our forces. If they had wanted to, they could have killed all my people. I can’t and I won’t risk their lives.”

“S0 you’d rather them live under the boot of an oppressor? How could you be willing to trade the future of your empire for this?”

“Because I won’t be. The Prussians are designing a better future for us,” Cadence said, again sounding like she was not just debating Celestia but herself, “For the first three years they have a well-known industrialist running the nation. After that he’ll take an advisory position and write up long term plans. They have a plan.”

“I doubt that plan is little more than numbers, Cadence. That man is lying or is going to be brutally cold in the process. You need to get rid of them before the Prussians make your nation worse. There was nothing wrong with it before, and this modern technology they’ll introduce is just another way to make you dependent on them.”

“Celestia,” Cadence began, almost pleading, “Please. I won’t risk anymore of my people’s lives. I will champion them and defend them all I can. But I won’t sacrifice them. I can’t live with that. I can’t let them kill Shining Armor.”

Celestia scrunched her face, “I thought I taught you better. The lives of the many over your personal connections,” said Celestia, venom seeping into her voice for a moment, “You remember I banished my own sister for my little ponies? Why won’t you make the same sacrifice for your people? Do you not care for them at all?”

“Get out,” Cadence said, her face darkening, and her horn glowing, undoing the spell on the door, “You can claim I never learned. But you can NEVER say that I don’t love my ponies. Now. Get. Out.”

The doors opened and four guards marched in, halberds held high. Celestia stood and they took a position at each corner, marching in perfect unity with her as she was escorted out of the castle. A fifth Prussian appeared at her side, cane tapping at the floor, top hat pointing to the sky and glasses in his breast pocket. He had a simple, serene smile on his face as he walked beside her.

With a police little half bow as he walked, he said, “Good day, Princess Celestia. I am Ludolf Krämer, Chief of Industrialization for the Crystal Protectorate. It is nice to meet you. I am also the acting head of state for the coming years. I hope we do get along well.”

With that, he abruptly stopped, posting his cane and letting her walk past. After a moment he turned and began whistling softly, swinging his cane in lazy circles as he waltzed through the halls of the castle.

Chapter 20 - Rebellion Brewing

It was the darkest night of the year, and the Bavarian border was just ahead. An invisible line on the mountain side, dragging through the rocks and trees marked the difference between protection and open hostilities. Once Twilight and Captain Kake lead the force across the border, they would not receive any further support from the Equestrian army. The two thousand exiles, now elite Crystal soldiers, carried three times their normal weapons, prepared to equip sympathetic locals.

Twilight glanced down the ravine when passing a clearing in the trees and saw the softly glowing flames of nearby Bavarian fort, just two hundred hooves beneath them, nestled in the shadow of the mountains and guns pointed out into the valley beneath it. Dozens of miles away the dim glow seeping just over the horizon indicated another fort. Twilight estimated that they just barely had overlapping sight lines from the highest point in the forts to detect large bodies of troops.

Despite the Bavarian’s efficient placement of forts, they lacked any outposts atop the mountain to watch the little used trails snaking just below the tree line. The trails, just wide enough for a single pony and maybe a small cart, ran all the way to the distant mountain pass that connected the Protectorate to ‘New Bavaria’.

Moving on from the clearing, Twilight pressed on into the night, moving slowly and occasionally stopping to watch her troops trudge silently along the trail. Within two days they’ll be in the Protectorate and ready to recruit locals to resist the overwhelming force of the Prussian Empire.

Luna and Celestia were alone in a planning room. A single massive map of the Crystal Peninsula was carved into the table, the hills and mountains to scale. Markers for different units sat on the table, showing the exact movements of the Sister’s units and rough approximations of the Prussian, Bavarian and Protectorate units.

“Celestia, I stayed quiet on sending Twilight and Captain Jelly Filled Kake to lead an insurgency? It won’t effectively amount to anything. You’re wasting two capable leaders and all those soldiers. If you remember the conquest of Shetland...” Luna trailed off, looking to Celestia as she did.

Celestia nodded, cracking her neck before replying, “But we learned something important in Shetland, those thousands of years ago, that insurgencies rack of costs of occupation and turns their forces inwards instead, giving us longer to build and prepare before the invasion. As for my choice of officers... it’s simple. After decades of manipulation, guiding Twilight to a single goal... that is now struck useless by the loss of two elements. I spent countless years quietly guiding those families towards creating a weapon to free you Luna, and to defend us against the resurfacing evils. And one day to become another princess. Her friends were integral to that. They had begun to drag out more creativity and leadership skills. But she snapped back to her reclusive self when Rainbow and Rarity died. It’s all useless now. This is the best use for her. As for Captain Kake? He’s a mediocre officer in all fields. Easily replaced by any other officer from our academy.”

Luna nodded, keeping her dissent to herself before returning to the planning and training of troops.

Sergeant Gerhard stood at the customs point between New Bavaria and the Crystal Protectorate. His daily task was simple. Let civilians continue through unimpeded, while inspecting merchants for goods and following the tax spreadsheet. It was a simple job. Safe too. He no longer had to worry about the slinging of shot, whistling of artillery or the crashing of bombs seeking out his life.

Now he and his company just sat in the customs outpost in the slowly growing village, taking care of their families and safely watching the border. He enjoyed the dull drudgery of being a tax collector and family man, just watching his daughter and two sons grow and play.

Today was quiet. Gerhard had just finished taxing a Protectorate trade caravan, the first and only of the day so far. He sat in a chair in the booth, smoking a cigar as he watched through the glass, waiting for any other groups to cross. He scratched his mustache, chasing an itching shred of skin around his face.

After taking another pull from his cigar his door opened, and Corporal A. Stro walked in, musket in hand. Sergeant Gerhard shifted his stance and stood, facing Corporal A. Stro as he said, “Sergeant, we saw a large group of ponies come down the mountain on our side of the checkpoint and ignore it entirely, trotting towards the Protectorate.”

“Show me,” Sergeant Gerhard said, following Corporal A. Stro out into the sunlight. The fifteen soldiers on duty that shift stood at their various stations, waiting for patrons to come along. About three hundred feet away a column of ponies carrying or dragging large canvas sacks and bags, covered in cloaks, walked along, angling towards the road ahead of the checkpoint. Gerhard considered them for a moment, before saying, “Must be a trade caravan of some kind. Probably not from ‘round here. Don’t know about the customs. Avoiding the town for some reason is odd though. I’ll ask them about it once we get there.”

The pair of NCOs got all fifteen soldiers in an open order formation and had them begin to casually walk towards the party, quickly gaining on the slowly moving formation. Corporal A. Stro and Sergeant Gerhard led the way. The leaders of the group noticed the approaching Bavarians and brought the massive caravan to a stop.

Gerald raised a hand in greeting as he set his musket on the ground with his other. He puffed out his cigar and spoke around it rather than remove it. In mostly fluent ponish, cigar mudding it a bit, he said, “You just bypassed the customs point back there. I know that it’s new, so I’ll let you go this once, but you still gotta pay. Whatever yer hauling should fit one of these descriptions. If it doesn’t it’s probably tax free” Fiddling with a pocket, he pulled out the tax sheet and a notepad. The rest of the company did the same, pencils at the ready for goods counting

“I see, thank you. I’m terribly sorry for this bother. I didn’t realize there was customs point between the Empire and Equestria,” the purple unicorn at the front said, shrugging apologetically.

Gerhard sniffled, “Itsna problem. We'll just have to check yer bags extra carefully before sending you on yer way...” Gerhard looked up from his clipboard, “What do you mean between the Empire and Equestria? This is the New Bavarian Border,” Gerhard reached for his musket, as did Corporal A. Stro. The rest of the squad were close behind, “Listen, we’re gonna hafta inspect your luggage. Plese put all of your goods on the ground so that we ca-”

A magic bolt of plasma from the lead unicorn hit Gerhard in the chest, cutting his sentence short. He keeled over into the dirt, dead before he hit the ground. More magic flew out from the ranks and the purple unicorn, cutting down all of the infantry in less than three seconds. Corporal A. Stro was knocked to the ground and the body of another soldier fell atop him. He lay motionless but breathing gently.

The crystal ponies and earth ponies in the horde grabbed spears to put on sharpened horseshoes and set to work dealing with any survivors. A single brutal, efficient stomp crushed Corporal A. Stro’s skull, leaving his blood to mingle with the snow.

“Herr Krämer, the Bavarians reported a large group of armed ponies coming from the mountains and moving North towards a group of isolated villages. They wiped out the Bavarian Border guard. The Bavarians have sent two regiments after them but are requesting assistance. They estimate that the enemy forces number at least three thousand and may recruit more as they march.”

Cadence and Krämer both turned and looked at the aid who had interrupted their meeting. Cadence had a look of concern, while Krämer maintained a passive look. He stood and flipped his top hat back on, “Send a force of ten thousand to deal with them. Assign General Karlson to the unit and tell him to make an example out of any survivors. Let General Karlson handle the rest.”

The aide nodded and left, quickly hustling down the corridor to look for General Karlson. Herr Krämer spun on his heel and sat back down in front of Cadence, setting his cane and hat to the side, “Now, where were we?”

“What- How are you just going to not talk about the rebellion? Surely this will interfere with your plans?” Cadence said, mild shock peeking through for a moment before she hid it again.

Krämer laughed a little, “To be honest, I expected the rebellion sooner. But your people are so much more docile than the others we’ve conquered. I’m ahead of schedule right now. But thank you for reminding me, I do need to redirect some of the construction crew temporarily. I was planning on building some mills over there, and that’ll have to wait.”

Cadence sighed and shook her head, “Please ensure that General Karlson does not destroy any of my ponies in the process of killing the rebels. And let any surrendered leave. Please, Sir Krämer.”

Ludolf Krämer merely nodded, beckoning another aide over and whispering in his ear before sending him after the first.

Chapter 21 - Crushing

The battle was disastrous. The insurrection had gained three thousand soldiers, just barely doubling their number, short of their tripling they had needed for their plans. They proceeded to modify them to be smaller and continue to set up their ambush on the expected Prussian retaliation. They built defenses outside one of the villages they were recruiting from, laying out dense arrays of spikes, stakes, caltrops and gabions. They placed guardponies along the main road to the east, with secondary lines laying in wait in thick fields of crops.

The initial ambush went well, the forward companies being pulled away from the main path and collapsing in on them. They quickly lost any advantage though as the cavalry and artillery began to unrelentlessly pound the equestrians back into the village behind them. The defenses they had prepared before hoof slowed the Prussians, but didn’t hinder the shells they lobbed into the town, shattering into shrapnel and raking through the houses and gabions and shredding the ponies scattered throughout the village. Captain Kake had then ordered a withdrawal towards the south, towards a small forest to lose the Prussian cavalry.

Things went from bad to worse when the Bavarian troops appeared on their flank, marching across the fields towards the village. They were fired upon, killing most of the troops leading the way out, massacring many junior officers. The now crumbling insurgency force retreated back into the village, Twilight throwing up magic crystals to cover their retreat. Right back into the path of the Prussian artillery shells.

Under the threat of shelling once again Twilight prepared a large teleport, targeting a series of mountains she remembered to the south of the capital of the Crystal Empire. WIth panicked shouts she gathered as many she could around her and flashed them away into the mountain ranges of the Empire.

Only 527 ponies had made it to the teleport, several of whom were not even members of the insurrection but were citizens trying to flee the battle. Twilight was the only officer who made it out of the village.

Now Twilight had to make a decision. Take the surviving ponies and flee to Equestria? Attempt to rebuild the insurgency? Create a small hermit village in the mountains? Suicide? The possibilities were vast, and all equally deadly. And there was little time to contemplate. Already civilian and guard ponies alike were clamoring for answers.

Without pausing to think for a second more, she made her decision and swore she'd never double back on it.

General Karlson had been over confident. He'd expected the ponies to attempt their usual full frontal assault tactics, and had marched towards their last known position without screening. It had cost the lives of four of his companies needlessly. It had been a shock initially, and it took a full minute and a half to adjust his plans accordingly.

He had forced them into the village, and soon began to push them back and out of it when the Bavarians arrived, slamming their forces with a full volley at far too close to be healthy or conducive for their morale. Or soldiers. And then one thing led to another and a section of them disappeared in a flash of light. Very bizarre.

Now General Karlson had his soldiers searching through the village, capturing prisoners and accounting for the dead. One thousand and two hundred dead. Over a thousand captured. An unknown number unaccounted for in the flash. Not too bad for a hastily thrown together suppression force.

Some of the dead insurgents wore better equipment. Several of them wore former Crystal Guard uniforms, and others wore higher quality vegan leather and light metal armors that allowed steady movement. All of the arms used were of high quality, hoof made and masterpieces of smithing. Wasted on a failure of a campaign.

One soldier, though, was an officer. He was dead, a stray musket ball having shattered his skull, but was still a trained officer. He had a little rank badge and everything. General Karlson personally took the badge and all the papers off of the corpse and placed them in his pocket, intending to give them to somebody who could actually understand the blasted language of the natives.

A lieutenant of his marched up, and saluted crisply, “Sir, all insurgents still in town have been captured. The dead are being placed in graves now. We will conduct a service for them tomorrow morning and cover them.”

“Hold off on that. We need public gallows to show what awaits those rats who dare to stand before us. Fifty insurgents in every village within a days ride. We will hang the rest on the route back to the fort, one every day. Survivors will be dealt with at the garrison.”

“Yes sir.”

“Citizens of this fine Diarchy! I, your Princess of the Day, Bringer of Light and Warmth, Princess Celestia call upon you all in this dire time. The Prussian Empire is pillaging the lands of the Crystal Empire. They march and wave their petty banners wherever the please, forcing their ideals down the gullet of the ponies they oppress. Equestria will not permit them to do the same to us.

“As such, as a means of deterrence and to aid in our building of relations with our fellow natives to our world I urge my little ponies to remember the friendship the Crystal Empire offered us, and honor it by enlisting in the new Equestrian Expeditionary Forces. My sister and I have drafted plans to rapidly and effectively bring our forces to the standards of our peers in this world, and above that of our enemies of another.

“The new EEF will be split into two branches, Air and Ground. The goal of the ground forces is to have over three hundred thousand soldiers ready to meet our enemies within the decade, equipped with our most modern magic and spears. Earth Ponies and Unicorns are welcome within this branch, and I hope to see these ranks filled within half of the time allotted.

“The Equestrian Air branch is admittedly small and underfunded, but Luna and I have a plan to modernize it. We’ll be building new wooden airships, expand our air dragoons and lancers, and produce these new cloud ship designs. We will need at least a hundred thousand soldiers to drag this branch forward into the light it deserves.

“So once again, my little ponies, enlist in one of the branches of the EEF as soon as possible, so that we may defend our homes and our allies, and one day liberate our fellows to the north.”

Sir Krämer plopped a newspaper on Cadence’s desk, before sitting in her chair. He crossed his legs and leaned forward, his usual smile not on his face. He popped his hat off and tossed it into the other chair in the room. He tapped the paper’s front page, saying, “Equestria has airships, and are making more. How do they work?”

Cadence recoiled, slightly confused by the sudden, serious demeanor she had never seen on Sir Krämer. She adjusted her seat and briefly read the printing of Celestia’s speech she had given the prior day, “There are three main types. Hot air, helium, and enchanted crystal. And I suppose clouds now.”

Krämer nodded, quickly standing and grabbing his top hat and turning to leave. Before he did, he turned and asked, “Who is the foremost expert on each of these subjects?”

Cadence quickly listed off a series of experts, and added at the end, “We don’t even have an airfleet. They won’t be any good. What do you want them for?”

The signature smile returning, Krämer said, “Better a inaccurate expert to build on than no expert at all.” Before turning and leaving, his dress shoes clicked smartly on the crystal floor as left in search of these experts.

Two weeks after the defeat of the insurgency, a small fleet of three Prussian sloops and two sixth rates were floating with their sails drawn along a common Equestrian shipping lane. The members of the fleet were not dressed in their usual uniforms, which were all stored beneath decks, but in a variety of light leisure wear.

The Prussian standard was folded and stowed in the respective captains’ quarters, instead a solid black flag was raised. Admiral Kozlowski was calmly marking the navigation points of the fleet, and giving accurate accounts of the happenings of the last hour. A cigar was lighted in his mouth, he gently puffing in and out of brown rolled tobacco.

Once he finished writing his log he turned and swept the horizon with his field-glass, searching for anything flying the Equestrian standard. This was Admiral Kozlowski’s first command, and he was determined to succeed at any cost. His sweep was rewarded, the distant image of a small Equestrian convoy, just three merchantmen in total, tacking slowly towards the Prussian privateers.

“There we go lads!” Admiral Kozlowski bellowed, pointing out towards the fleet, “Full sails and battle stations! We’ll have them in three hours.”

The fleet swung into action, soldiers grabbing their last meals and relief for the next several hours before standing at their stations. Port holes were opened and guns slid and locked into place. Marines rushed to their stations, guns at the ready. Admiral Kozlowski wrote the time and position of the fleet, consulting all the instruments as the fleet prepared for war.

As the fleet neared the Equestrian merchantmen they attempted to signal the Prussians with flags. And were responded to with a volley from the two sixth rates, each aimed towards the masts of the ship. The sails on the ships were decimated, torn to shreds in the unexpected volley.

The ships raised what little of their flags and fired their ballistae, missing entirely. The sixth rates immediately began to turn and prepare for a second pass. The three sloops began to cross the Ts of the merchantmen, firing their guns down the keels of the ships. Wood and splinters shattered everywhere flung into ponies and the water alike.

The ballistae were reloaded and began to fire at wild angles towards the Prussian privateers, disorderly and panicked in nature. The masts on one of the Equestrian merchantmen began to creak and snap. The popping noise from the stressed and dying wood could be heard for nearly a kilometer, the trimasts jumping high into the air before shattering down into the deck. The aft most and bow most fell overboard, slipping long ways into the water before dragging behind the ship, ropes still stressed taught in their duties to the mast.

The centermost mast stuck straight up from the upper deck, and if one peaked in through the midst of the ship they could see it sank down two decks into the cargo area. Cracked boards near the waterline begin to slowly let water in, steadily seeping into the cargo decks.

The other two ships were soon crippled in far less fantastic measures, one enough grapeshots to vent it off all crew, its few ballista shattered in the process as it was left still in the water, the only sounds it made slowly creaking and the hull slowly filling with water.

The third merchantman struck its colors, its ballista having been disabled by well placed cannon shots and a single mast was listing in its ropes, barely held in some semblance of standing. The surviving crew filed out onto the deck and threw the arms they had into a pile. Admiral Kozlowski brought his sixth rate up alongside it, the marines quickly tying the damaged ship as the sloops and other sixth rate did the same with the other merchantmen. Sailors began dragging crates of goods, mostly filled with apples and hay mixed with some silver work sprinkled in there and about. Storming the captains’ quarters found these ships were bound for the River Countries across the sea.

The marines lined up at the Admiral’s order, and fired into the surviving Equestrians.

Chapter 22 - Build Up

“Admiral Malik Von Morovia, please, have a seat. I would like to congratulate you on the success of the Prussian Airfleet program. It has been a long seven years, hasn’t it”

“Thank you, Herr. Krämer. It has been. I am happy to report that we have successfully industrialized the manufacture of airship crystals, growing them by powering other crystals with mechanical energy, and have already begun construction on the Crystal fleet.”

“Good to hear, Admiral, but that is not why I called you in. I have just received word from the Kaiser. He has decided that your merit in developing the program that has revolutionized our occupation of South America and the Indonesian Islands is worth assigning you to a combat role in the coming invasion.”

Von Morovia sputtered, leaning forward in his chair, “Sir, you are certain he meant I, and not my partner Malik Von Moravia? He has more experience on the front line, and has contributed just as much.”

Herr Krämer paused, pulling out the letter and rereading it. After a moment he said, “Ah, so it was. My apologies Von Morovia. As a consolation I will appoint you rear admiral of the fleet. Please don’t mention that Moravia got the promotion until I can tell him. And again, apologies for this.”

Von Morovia smiled gracefully, bowing slightly to Herr Krämer as he did, before standing and making his leave. Herr Krämer quickly turned back to his desk inside his office, the Department of Industrialization, and quickly began to fill out a summons for Von Moravia. Once filled out he jumped up and rushed out the door, searching for an aid to take the message. To the utmost of strangeness, there were none of the usually ever prevalent ponies dotting about his office, sending him looking all through the seat of governance.

As soon as Herr Krämer was a corridor away from the room a unicorn uncloaked herself, revealing her dull gray coat as she trotted into the room. She immediately began sifting through the papers on the desk using magic and a camera to capture what information there was and setting it onto a dragonfire scroll. She did the same through his cabinets and drawer. Granate Spotter was an experienced intelligence soldier, but not an experience spy, and her shifting of papers and drawers was clunky, inefficient, and made soft noises.

Her rustling did not go unnoticed, and two Crystal Royal Guards marched towards the room, the heavy footsteps of their boots following the rhythmic ticking of a clock. The Unicorn’s window of opportunity was closing. She began to frantically, desperately rip through the drawers, shredding some papers as she took messy photographs, flinging the documents every which way as she did. The ticking of her clock sped up, the soldiers marching slightly faster as her noise increased. And then, the alarm rang, jolting Granite Spotter to the present and away from her work. The Royal guards were shouting into the castle and advancing on her, halberds at the ready. Without a moment’s hesitation she began burning the dragon fire scroll and sending the pictures with them.

The sight of fire launched the guards into action, who leapt forward and stabbed her, piercing her chest and bringing her to the ground. Granite Spotter’s magic clicked the button as she fell, camera flashing one last time before the dragon fire scroll consumed it. The guards stepped abc, and their reinforcements arrived, thundering into and around the room, sealing off any possible exit.

But it was unnecessary, as the spy was well and truly dead.

The most prominently featured documents that were splayed about were fresh, some addressed from the Kaiser, others recently written by generals, and more written by Herr Krämer. All of them regarding a planned invasion.

The fire burned and the smoke magically whisked away, floating through the magical aether, twisting and twirling their contents along peacefully and playfully, uncaring of their ownder’s demise. When they burned back into the world of the corporeal, they hadn’t even left the building they’d departed it from.

Cadence and Shining sat in their private study, studying the copies of the documents they had received from their employee. Compiling reports and organizing the contents into something more readable. Had it been eleven years ago, and Shining been in his office, he’d have had a dozen aides to do it for him. Now they did it hunched in dim light, trusting none with the information.

As soon as the documents were prepared they were once again sent by dragon fire, and the rest was burned. The rest except for one, which captured the final moment of their spy, the image of two humans contorting their faces into monstrous facimilies of even the worst of rage Shining had seen on the battlefield killing her in cold blood. That photo was kept always and forever by Shining’s breast pocket, to remind him of the final duty of one of Granite Spotter.

Admiral Kozlwalski sat in port, his shaggy and unkempt hair dripping onto the torn rags he called a uniform. Seven years of piracy had not been kind on him, inflicting itself until he and the rest of his fleet was no longer acting the part, and were instead acting as Navy Men while in port.

Except now it was to no longer be acting. The Piracy was over. But the raiding was not. He was to get his men back into Naval order, clean shaven and well mannered when not engaged, in just a month. Then they would head back out towards the Equestrian sea to raid in the name of the Prussian Crown, along with the ‘anti-piracy’ fleets Prussia had sent out, caving to the request of Zebrican, Equestrian, Parrot, and Minotaur nations to have a large fleet waiting for the war.

With a deep sigh, Kozlwalski stood and made his way out into the streets of the New Prussian port, glaring at the bright light. The finely cobbled streets were white, reflecting the mid afternoon sun offensively at anybody who dared to look down. They were wide and expansive, with trees dotting either side. Perhaps the nicest city the Admiral had ever been in since graduating from the Academy in Amsterdam. It felt wrong after so long only visiting pirate islands to barter.

Eventually Admiral Kozlwalski found what he was looking for, a barbershop. More specifically, a barbershop with a good view of the port. He walked in, the room dark and soothing on his eyes. He sat in a chair, swiveling it to look out at the docks, identifying his ships and checking the time, already aware of it, to ensure he knew who was on shift at that very moment.

“What should I get you today, sir?” the barber asked with a very thick polish accent, his nose turned away from the Admiral in slight disgust that such a disheveled man would dare enter and take the prime seat for himself.

“Close cut, whichever is regulation for the Navy right now.” the Admiral replied, switching to fluent polish part way through. Once the barber heard his home tongue spoken he softened, setting to work with a well practiced hand.

The barber took nearly an hour, going beyond the quality the Admiral expected, ensuring that there was not a single hair out of place. Once he was finished, he asked the Admiral, “What is this haircut for? You’re much too old to join the navy now, and you look nothing like a sailor.”

The Admiral laughed, a big bellowing laugh, shaking his entire body as he rolled forward, “It has been many years since I was last in a proper port, barber. I’m an Admiral, if you'd believe it. I’m just preparing for life back home.”

Suddenly the barber’s arms went slack, his face paling. He stepped back, setting his tools on the counter and rushing to apologize, just to be waved off by the Admiral. He attempted to refuse payment, only to again be waved off by the Admiral, who offered him a bonus for the job well done. He then calmly walked back out into the sunny street, heading for the tailor he had his fresh uniform sent to.

Twilight Sparkle did not regret her decision in the slightest. Ever since the slaughter seven years ago she had been running a small village in the Protectorate, secluded in the mountains. She was the headmare, the village elder. Her ponies came to her for everything, and she did her best to guide them.

A completely isolated life was impossible, unfortunately, as they needed to go trade for seeds and clothes in the early days. So now they were regularly checked up on by Prussiand and Protectorate patrols, who collected taxes, built infrastructure, and various other governing duties.

Whenever they came she had to hide her cutie mark, disguising it so she would look like somebody else. The ponies from the Protectorate would always assume she was Twilight, only to immediately apologize when they saw the cutie mark. She thanked her luck stars that not one pony had considered that she may have altered the mark, and that she was not just a distant relative or coincidental pony.

A sudden shout from a small foal, five at the oldest and one of the foals born after the start of the village, jolted her from reflection and he waddled up to play with her, bringing a smile to Twilight’s face. The foal wasn’t Twilight’s own, although she was now heavily expecting her husband, a Crystal Guard in exile that had stood by her and been a pillar of strength and support in the early days. Now she could not imagine living without the stallion, Flash Sentry, and looked forward to raising a family with him.

Once the foal had gone back to play with the other foals Twilight began preparing lesson plans for the school, where she was teaching the foals the very basics of reading, writing, and village life. While she also dabbled in almost every subject, the only thing she absolutely avoided was history and war, elected to avoid it and hope they grew to not yearn for adventure like she and her friends had.

Once she had finished the lesson plans she trotted into the attached kitchen and bedrooms, where Flash was waiting with a smile and a hot bowl of oatmeal at the ready. He had put down the sword and picked up the plow shod, and was now spending long days sowing and reaping the fruits and grains of his labor. He always had a smile on his face, and nuzzled Twilight every change he had.

AS Twilight shut the door to the school and settled down for dinner Flash, she shut the door on her past, instead laughing and talking of the present. They talked of town gossip, issues with farming and what the students would be learning in school.

This was perhaps the happies Twilight had been in years, and she wouldn’t go back to change it for the world.

The war room of Equestria was bustling with dozens of generals and their staff as the chaos of planning a war unfolded. Every arm of the EEF was being mobilized and prepared for war. The largest armed force Equestria, perhaps their entire world, had ever seen was going to be assembled for the liberation of the Empire. Over three hundred thousand ponies spread across the army. Another hundred thousand spread across the Air Fleet.

The logistics and early stages of the plans were being laid, the most crucial stages as well. There was a single railway into and out of the Empire, and the region around it was only passable during late summer and early fall. A rapid two month period. That was what the entire campaign hinged on. Being able to secure a single rail station within two months. Simple in concept, and possibly hard in reality.

The swampy marsh was unclaimed and undeveloped outside of the railway. Neutral ground. Neither side could march into it without clearly signaling their intent to invade, and they both knew it. Celestia and Luna had been brainstorming and planning missions for weeks now, and were deciding ultimately that the only option would be an imperfect plan executed violently and rapidly at the start to allow them to go on campaign in the spring without starving in the harsh tundra wastes that were largely uninhabited for two hundred miles.

The airships of the EEF were another issue. Despite all of the best attempts of the R & D branch of the EEF they were unable to make an economical way to have cloud airships. When they enchanted all the clouds to allow earth ponies to walk on them they were so fragile that they would come apart in a gust of wind. If they enchanted just the weapons then the crew would have to be entirely pegasi, defeating the purpose of airships in the first place. Ultimately it was settled upon that they would act as a kind of landing boat for pegasi dragoons and lancers. Not as useful as Celestia had been hoping they’d be.

The Kaiser stood from his breakfast meeting with the generals he was sending for the upcoming invasion. Seven hundred and fifty thousand. It was going to be the single largest assembled armed force. He was sending a variety of veteran and purpose trained units for the campaign, with troops hailing from all corners of his empire. They would have everything from twenty thousand Hindi marksmen to harass enemy formations to a hundred fifty thousand Scandinavian reservists to bring up the rear, acting as logistical staff and border guard while the veterans in the Protectorate marched across Equestria.

The generals were all coming up with plans, or most of them were. The Scandinavian was frustratingly absent, despite being the third closest. He had been delayed by something innocuous and would be showing up late. This wasn’t the first time the Kaiser had seen this general be late, and he doubted it would be the last, but he trusted General Balthasar Buus’s ability to maintain law and order in a territory, as he had been in northern Europe for over three decades now.

General Halbach, on the other hand, was the best general Prussia had produced to date. He had single handedly led the offensives across North America and South America, crushing thousands of natives and integrating them nigh flawlessly into the Empire. He could coordinate dozens of generals at once without issue, and was a natural choice for the Chief Commander of the Equestrian Invasion Force, or the EIF as they were calling it in the papers and plans.

The sheer scale still amazed the Kaiser, despite him having a hand in creating it. The EIF was less of a single army and more like eight. Each army had their own Commander in Chief, and then corps and divisions and brigades. Each had their own names and history, and operated as the single largest unit in their area of operations. And now they would all be unified under a single command. The sheer Might of it was soul rending.

The Kaiser knew he would have to see the campaign camp before the invasion began in person, for this was truly a once in a lifetime experience. The Kaiser figured that while he was in the brave new world he should tour the new territories of his empire.

Author's Note

The next chapter will be out once the players in my kriegsspiel game determine how it will progress.

Chapter 23 - Thinking with Portals

General Halbach stood atop a hill overlooking the valley the majority of his force resided in, hundreds of thousands of troops having pitched tents, and various more permanent supply and support buildings under construction. General Balthasar Buus was running behind, again. His slow, meandering path across the Protectorate has led to him being far enough behind that work previously reserved for him had been delegated to other forces.

To the south lay the Equestrian border. The territory immediately there was frightening from any perspective, with it being a wet marshland the majority during the winter, spring and early summer. The only way across during those seasons is a single railroad and a small town right in the center of a small highlands area. Plans were laid and preparations made for a rapid strike into the station, with extra rail and extensive building materials ready for the rapid expansion of the rail lines to achieve an even higher throughput.

The Equestrian Expeditionary Force was marching towards the border, preparing to try and intercept the EIF, despite being outnumbered 3 to 1. The Halbach had to give the Equestrians credit where it was due, they did have a superior air fleet, numbering just over a hundred airships and several dozen pegasi squadrons, which dwarfed the Prussian fleet assigned to the invasion, a mere twenty ships with a dozen balloons for light support. The majority of the fleet was still on earth, conducting operations over the jungles of South America. With any luck the vastly superior Prussian artillery would keep them at bay.

Turning his gaze back north, Halbach searched for signs of the Scandinavian Reserve Army on the horizon, and much to his displeasure resorted to using a spyglass to find them pitching tents for the evening four full days march away. He grunted with displeasure and signaled for an aide.

“Send the air fleet to collect extra coal and shells from the town here,” he ordered, jabbing at the map, “We might as well make use of this extra time that the Scandinavians have unfortunately given us.”

The aide nodded before darting off to do the deed. Within the hour the Prussian airships lifted off, their boilers steaming and pistons firing, pushing them towards the town. Eventually Halbach retired for the night, but not until he had conducted yet more situations on his planning table.

Celestia and Luna sat huddled around a scrying bowl in their command tent, spying on the amassed Prussian forces along the border. They were horrified by their size and variety, which far outpaced any military force they had ever seen in their two thousand years of rulership. They were so utterly unprepared for such an uneven fight.

“We must destroy that rail station and the raised levees that the tracks sit on, sister. We cannot let them lead a foray into Equestria. There are no strong defensible land formations for hundreds of miles, and we cannot meet this force in battle,” Luna said, tapping her hoof on the map of equestria to indicate the nearest defensive line, “Not only that, but they have the upper hand on technology, their muskets and cannon still outrange all but the most talented of unicorns. I hate to admit it, but we have to incorporate at least some of their technology into our forces if we are to win.”

Celestia looked dejectedly at the scrying bowl, before saying, “I believe I do have a spell to nullify this invasion and buy us time. In that time, we can grow our forces and perhaps incorporate this musketry with some divisions. It will be difficult to adapt them for our use though, sister.”

“What is this spell that can ‘nullify’ the invasion?” Luna questioned, “I have combinations of spells that could slow or halt it, but not a single. How will you stop them in their tracks?”

“By destroying them in their entirety.”

The next morning General Buus had his army marching along the track bed, following the rails towards the bivouac. His distrust of trains was earning him no small favors with his men, but he insisted that they brave the barren tundra, oh so similar to that of their home, for their safety. Something felt off about the train, something had he couldn’t quite put his finger on. But all the same he followed that feeling. It had never led him astray before.

Tens of miles away Celestia climbed to the top of a snowcapped mountain, her personal guard, physician, and dearest sister beside her. Deep into the blue of distance she could see the Prussian army with her own eyes, a diseased, discolored blot upon the land. With a growing certainty she began channeling magic into her horn.

General Halbach had his men conducting drills in the center of the camp, marching and reloading. Firing and charging. Stabs and parries. Everything proper of infantry. The skirmishers were in the wilder area of the valley, conducting further more exercises. He let out a content hum while watching the train, which should have held the majority of Buus’s forces, and even the general himself, instead only unloading thousands of tons of supplies. He had a good feeling about today, something good would come of it, he was sure.

Celestia was now floating two feet off the ground, horn glowing brilliantly, much like magma would. Her wings and feathers were spread like that of an imperial eagle, commanding power from all who gazed upon her. Her pupils were gone, her eyes pure arcana, swirling yellow and orange vying for control. The heat that radiated from her skin was strong enough that the snow around her had melted, and then boiled off. Her entourage had evacuated to a fifteen-hoof perimeter, many of whom were alternating between watching her with faces off awe and fearfully looking at each other. Suddenly her horn’s energy released all at once, warping it as it erupted upwards, a pillar of brilliant light blinding all who looked upon it.

Celestia then went limp, her boiling fur scorching the rock as she hit it. Her doctor tried to rush close, only to be seized by her guard, keeping him back while she cooled. After a minute, the doctor rushed to her aid, already casting spells, and diagnosing her.

The pillar of light shot in an upwards arc, flying high into the atmosphere before splitting in two. The larger of the two sped off at an immense speed, shattering the sound barrier many times over before racing into space, beelining for the sun. The other began a lazy, slow parabolic arc down, down, down towards the Prussian forces, glowing brightly still as it did so.

General Halbach glanced up four minutes later, and noticed a strange beam of light that morphed into a tiny circle that began spinning fast a dozen feet above him. He paused to look at it confused. The circle then lit up with what looked like a boiling, churning plane that extended forever. And suddenly some of it was split off, getting pulled down through the portal. For less than a moment he felt fear, scrambling to run away, then agonizing heat broiled over him, and he felt nothing.

All of the line infantry were atomized immediately, not even having the time to process what happened to them. The train was slagged and blow out towards the hills, boiling metal scatting across the earth. The wood and stone hospitals and warehouses were obliterated, burning to nothing in a moment, or folding into themselves, shattering under the heat of the sun.

Troops at the edge of the valley faired just as bad, the fireball that didn’t immediately kill them gave them agonizing burns, often igniting their cloths and surroundings, before the shockwave shattered bones or flung them away from the blast. Then came the pressure wave, which pulverized their lungs as it battered its way across the landscape. The light infantry down in the weeds and mud that were most fortunate escaped with minimal third-degree burns, and only slightly ruptured lungs, getting flung up and out of cover as the mud beneath them baked to clay.

By the time help arrived fewer than two hundred soldiers would be alive.

General Buus watched with horror as a massive mushroom cloud erupted from the valley, shooting ash and soot hundreds of feet into the air with a fireball of death. Then came the shock wave. The hills rolled, cracking and shattering away from the explosion, rattling the ground beneath his feat. Hot, compressed air broiled out towards him, evaporating any snow in the tundra. Chunks of trees were flung so far out that they were landing just a couple of miles in front of his formation.

The following day he reached the edges of the shattered hills, leading his troops from the front up over the broken, craggy rocks and dirt. Atop it he looked down, in nearly the same spot Halbach had days earlier, and wept. Where once six hundred thousand troops camped was now a blackened wasteland.

Author's Note

Sorry for the short chapter, I've got the battle through the first half, and hope in the next month it will be resolved.

Chapter 24 - Battle of Moro Station

Author's Note

For this battle I let friends and readers command the Prussian forces and then embellished the after action report in what I hope is an enjoyable format. This is my first time attempting this, largely because the scale of the battle was to large to do in the manner I did last time. Please comment if you would like me to keep doing this, or if you want future battle of similar scale to be written in multiple chapters from other sides/character's POVs to include a full battlefield experience, or perhaps a third method I should try.

Please Enjoy the Carnage,
-Schwabauer

Chapter 24 - Battle of Moro Station

Operation Moro

Objective

Use the Scandinavian Reserve Army (SRA) to seize control of the Moro Rail station, situated forty miles within the border of the Equestrian Diarchy. They must hold the station and repel Equestrian Expeditionary Forces (EDF) in counterattack, so that future offensives may be conducted against the Equestrian Diarchy. If it is impossible to hold the Moro Rail Station, then the SRA is to defend the border from EDF probing assaults and prevent them from advancing.

Terrain

The region around Moro can be divided into two seasons, the flooded season and the dry season. During the flooded season the majority of the region is impassable due to the constant rains and snowmelt. This results in islands of dry land sticking out above the marshy, flooded swamp. The only path through the region is a single rail line, which has the Town of Moro situated in the middle of it, which acts as a depot and border guard post.

The geographic features of terrain can be divided into several clear zones; the lowest zone is the lowlands, which is constantly flooded during the flooded season and dries out to a spongy marsh during the dry season, the second zone is the grasslands, which form the basis of the islands that poke out through the marsh, which is followed by hills and foothills, which stick further above the mostly flat grasslands, and the final zone is the mountain itself, which towers above the rest. There are also two rivers that join into one large river that then drains into a lake. Dotted about are forest, thin and reedy in nature.

Chain of Command

Commander in Chief of the SRA: Balthasar Buus
Commander of Swedish Reserve Corps: Robertssen Ostman
Commander of Norwegian Reserve Corps: Herraldi
Commander of Combined Reserve Corps: Wellesley Baldmen
Commander of Danish Reserve Corps: Havn Bjork

Air Fleet Admiral: Malik Von Moravia Morovia

0400 Operation Begin

Commander in Chief

“All corps are in position sir, but the air fleet has had a last-minute change in command. Von Morovia has replaced Von Moravia after a suicide. Both were architects of the program, so it shouldn’t be too divergent of a command. Our scouts failed to find any of the enemy positions, but we are certain that they are here.”

Nodding, General Buus looked at his map and the positions of his commanders before issuing orders, “Have the Swedes move to defend the river and entrench if they can. The Combined Reserve should move up to the hill across the way and entrench there. Have both the Norwegians and Danes push into the station and then entrench their positions. Have Morovia send forces to help secure the town and hold a reserve the defend the center.”

“Yes sir, I’ll send the dispatch right away!” Said the aide right before darting off and sending the messengers every which way, galloping to every commander throughout the army. Soon the predawn would be lit not with the sun, but cannon fire.

Danish

Havn Bjork sat on his horse near the peak of a mountain, issuing orders to his brigades below. Three of his brigades were lower on the mountain, arranged in a shallow convex facing southeast south. His other two brigades stood ready on the railroads, prepared to march into town. Across the grassland in front of him there was no movement, and it was deadly still in the night.

Havn issued orders to his commanders in the convex facing south and west on the mountain to dig in, building trench works in depth to defend themselves. The other was ordered to descend onto the plains beneath them and then prepare defenses. One of the two brigades on the railroad was ordered to conduct a probing assault on the town, while the other was ordered to take up position in the grasslands beside the other brigade.

General Bjork sent a message to his Norwegian counterpart, and they informed each other of their locations and current plans. He then sat down on his small hand carved stool and ate a delicious little pastry, enjoying the warm mountain air that reminded him of summer in his homeland. At the same time, he joked and chatted with his aides around him, making the most of the peace before the battle.

Norwegian

General Herraldi’s hand rested on his (mostly) ceremonial war axe, carved with the sigils of his ancestor’s past victories and defeats. He wore the skin of a wolf on his head and cast an imposing shadow with his strapping frame more akin to a Nordic berserker than an infantry commander. His aides were all selected to cast a similar shadow down upon those around them, with his personal guard selected to be slightly shorter than average to emphasize the image.

His brigades were arranged overlooking the lowlands and muddy marshes beneath the grasslands, facing towards the island across from them. One unit was held behind the hill Herraldi stood strong on, waiting in reserve. He made a grim smile and raised his hand high above his head, and let it drop.

That sent his five brigades marching across the muddy lowlands towards the other island of firm ground under his well-rehearsed orders, stepping off at nearly the exact moment Herraldi made the motion. In the same moments he received correspondence form the Danish commander and sent his response before marching off with his brigades towards death and glory.

Combined

Wellesley Baldmen sat beside his cannon twisting the knuckle of his index finger nervously, debating his first command. His early positioning had been poor, placing him in the grasslands almost directly across from a tall hill that blocked most of his view of the lowlands beneath him. To his right flank was a wide drainage river and a small lake, which he was confident would protect his flank.

After much deliberation and discussion with his staff officers General Baldmen ordered his units to march across the lowlands to the hill across from their current position, and then to dig trenches. He marched along beside his cannon, admiring their shine and bore in the twinkling moonlight.

Swedish

Robertsson Ostman stood steadfast, ankle deep in the lazily moving river watching the tide flow past. His cigar’s tip glowed a dull orange in the night, a signature to his men over the many years of his command. He stood in the water puffing on his cigar, contemplating where on his map he should place his cannons to defend the second river.

At precisely four he made a gesture with two of his fingers, propelling his brigades into action as they began to ford the river. Two of them broke off and marched further down along the river to create a single cohesive line of defense on the western flank of the SRA.

Air Fleet

Admiral Von Moravia Morovia was issuing orders to his officers and dividing up the squadrons that his predecessors had made to be more suitable for his tastes. His dress uniform was unbuttoned and chaotic, with his admiral bicorn nowhere to be seen.

He sent on of his three newly organized squadrons to guard the skies over the combined corps, while sending a smaller one to help the assault on the town of Morro. The majority of the fleet, however, stayed with his flagship and moved to a space between the Norwegians and Combined Corps, waiting to react to a threat.

0500

Danish

Two full brigades of Equestrian infantry were marching double time across the grasslands towards Bjork’s defensive positions. His troops began to prepare for engagement, sending out their skirmishers who hid in the gently whispering tall grass, staging hundreds of cannon rounds beside their guns, ready to be thrown in one after another, and distributing water to those digging the trenches.

Swedish

Three of Ostman’s brigades had just barely crossed the second river when a scout General Ostman looked with impassive eyes at the corps of enemy infantry marching over the hill just before him. In the distance another formation was approaching, kicking up a significant amount of dust. And further to the south he had spotted yet another full corps, which was moving towards him. He calmly ordered his brigades to fall back east of the river and prepare the guns. Ostman will let the ponies come to them. The early morning air was thick with anticipation of the coming engagement.

0600

Danish

The ponies marched straight into the maw of the waiting Danish brigades. Lights harassed their formations as they approached, disrupting and confusing the inexperienced troops. The steady crackle of small arms fire and the smell of sulfur begin to fill the air, mingling with the cries of the occasional wounded pony.

Norwegian

Herraldi’s face split with a grin as the pegasi above him charge towards his lead brigade, shouting “Let them fly through a storm of Lead!”

With that order a hailstorm of bullets was let fly, tearing apart the charging pegasi with cannister, shrapnel, and musket shot alike. Legs and wings were shredded, jaws inverted, and bodies juiced. Within moments the first assault faltered, only to be replaced with a second assault. The second battalion unleashed its hate this time, once again pulping the pegasi as they charged.

Then the skirmishers began to fire on an advancing equestrian corps, plinking away at them until the forward guns of Herraldi’s forward most battalions firing deep ruts through the marching columns of the unprepared corps. Within thirty minutes they began to fall back, their cohesion shattering under the merciless onslaught of Herraldi.

0700

Danish

The Danish artillery had so far been silent, letting the skirmishers draw them ever closer and closer, towards the light earth works concealing the line infantry. And then, General Bjork gave the order. It signaled the utter destruction of an entire corps, and the partial of another. As the last of the skirmishers broke off from the engagement hundreds of cannon and thousands of muskets fired at once, shredding tens of thousands of ponies in a single instant. And then kept firing. And firing. And firing. A shoal of Glasglow shells started an intense fire behind the corps, trapping them in their own, mass-produced hell. By the end of the hour, the stragglers forming a half battalion were streaming away, wounded and rattled.

Swedish

The steady thump of artillery shook the earth, flying out across the river into the oncoming formations of ponies. They ripped apart enemies as they tore through rows of advancing pikeponies. As Ostman looked back across the river he could no longer see the muddy marsh that had covered the lowlands before, instead only tens of thousands of ponies, their banners flapping in defiance to his artillery. Another volley erupted from somewhere further down the line, making the ponies across the river question their defiance.

A sudden crackle of musket fire erupted to his south. Casting his gaze towards the sound he watched as two brigades laid down a withering wave of lead, which washed over the approaching pony formations. Their units stuttered, and the organization was disrupted, slowing their advance and creaking cracks to be exploited.

As he watched yet more enemy troops began to march into view, coming around the bend of the islands of grassland. He puffed on his cigar, concerned as he turned his gaze up at the sky, watching an enemy airship send and receive fire. It’s enchanted ballista bolts carved holes into companies scattered about the riverbanks, and then had chunks knocked out of hit by the hate of a cannon. An enemy squadron was operating overhead, trying to inflict disruption onto Ostman’s corps, and succeeded. It was also supported by several units of pegasi, but those were turned away with short and simple volleys of musket fire.

Norwegian

Herraldi stood and watched his brigades sweep up the mountainside and force back the pony brigades that had tried to ambush his lead unit. The surprise flanking maneuver over the mountains had slammed them from the rear and sides, shattering their morale with a continued wall of lead followed by well-placed bayonet charges into the disrupted pike formations.

His center brigade had taken heavy loses, pushes by pike and bolt units breaking through the lines and cutting away the edges of every formation and slowly moving in. Magic was used to significant effect, ripping apart tightly knit units and shattering pulling away soldiers into the empty space between units to be ripped into bloody piles by waiting heavy infantry formations. From the air came squadrons of pegasi, barely dodging outside of the range of his air support and picking away at troops, but more often than nought was assassinated by a musket rather than drag a man away with his spear. Their fighting ability was reduced, and had he not been guiding them personally they would have broken under the weight of the onslaught.

His final brigade embroiled in combat was down in the marshes, firing into the flanks of the main assault from the town. Their fire had reduced effect due to the elevation difference, but with enough trigonometry even the oldest of guns could eradicate a soldier without a mere second of delay. Unfortunately for the musket men that took after Herraldi they could not fulfil their bloodlust to a sufficient degree.

Combined

One of Baldmen’s brigade began to dig in on the marsh between the islands, with reports received from the series of airships overhead indicating no small formation of infantry approaching from behind the hilltop. A thick layer trench and Chevaux de frise were splayed out in preparation, ready to resist any charge down the hillside. Their standards waved with pride and were all at the ready to stare down their enemies.

Along his main line the brigades were engaged in close, viscous combat with enemy brigades, lines less than a hundred feet apart in spots, with constant heavy exchanges of fire as they shredded the front ranks of the units. Musket and canister shot would swing out in a volley against the equestrians, only to be responded to with a wail of steel bolts lamenting the loss of their comrades.

Overhead an air battle raged on, broadsides erupting between ships at dangerously close distances, breaking apart boarding and breaching boilers. Debris rained down on Baldmen’s and the Equestrian troops, inflicting light wounds to crushing deaths wherever they fell.

Air Fleet

Von Morovia’s center fleet engaged enemy airships over the Norwegian forces blazing away as they engaged an enemy fleet. Pegasi attempted air infiltrations, only to be beaten back by a combination of cannister shot and air marine action. Inside his cabin he felt his ship shudder as it was battered by ballista, and sway as its heavy guns fired in either direction, deep and substantial rumbles constantly filling his ears and filling his chest with grandiose sublimity as he thought of the inflicted damage. The center fleet was operating with greatly reduced strength, all of its rapidly constructed hot air balloons had been taken out by errant pegasi, their pilots pulled from their baskets and dropped four hundred feet to their demise. His blimp faced a similar fate, a surprise ballista bolt destroying it before it could even fire its guns. He could, however, take solace in the fact that the wooden airships with him were undamaged and firing down into infantry formations.

The eastern fleet was operating under no stress whatsoever, simply covering the Norwegian units from the air and bombing the Equestrian formations on the ground. The only air units they had to face were ill equipped pegasi squadrons, lacking the equipment to even try to pry open the hatches on the airships, leading to swift small arms fire pushing them off their backs.

To the west was a less optimistic story. The fleet he had dispatched to move into cover the Swedish fleet was intercepted by a vastly superior Equestrian fleet and taken by surprise it lost a significant portion of its forces to a wood and blimp squadron. The entire hot air fleet was burned away, while one of the wooden airships was sent to its grave, plowing a rut into the ground when the boiler powering flight exploded. Yet more fleets could be seen in the distance, rapidly approaching their position.

0800

Norwegian

When Herraldi’s center broke, it was no mean feat of the Equestrian brigades assaulting them. They managed to force a hole straight through them, splitting the cohesion of the brigade and inflicting even greater losses, which soon forced them to flee the battlefield. This is made more impressive by the fact that the brigades breaking through were nearly entirely surrounded by other Norwegian brigades, firing directly into them, as bombs rained down from the air fleet above. What really made the difference was ten full pegasi squadrons throwing themselves into the assault, each of them being beaten off, yet adding just enough pressure to create openings for the spear heads to force their way in. Herraldi himself stood and fought, swinging his axe at those who dared to get near, beheading two pike ponies in the course.

The forces to his side fared much better, taking minimal losses while continuing to push inwards towards the town from all sides. But this success had a negative tinge to it. While the two Equestrian corps in the town were being beaten back, another full and fresh one could be seen hooking around Herraldi’s West hook in the marshes.

Swedish

The first corps of Equestrian forces began to cross the rivers, with the next in line pressing close behind. Ostman grinned with glee at their poor positioning as he ordered his units to focus on the units leading the pontoon and fording actions, disrupting their crossing with devastating effect. This glee was short lived, however when he spotted a fourth, or was it fifth? Corps of Equestrian troops coming, this time supported by a small air fleet. Taking another puff of his cigar, he prepared to repulse every assault on his position, least hell or high water join the overwhelming odds.

Combined

The overwhelming assault of two full equestrian corpse broke two of Baldmen’s brigades at once, making them flee the battlefield as they did. The two in the main line continued to inflict losses, but with the collapse to their west they no longer had effective fire on any brigades closing on the single entrenched brigade, which was beginning to fire upon the approaching equestrians.

Baldmen was hoisted up into Morovia’s flagship, and used this opportunity to better coordinate his forces and view the situation as it developed elsewhere on the battlefield. He prepared a messenger to order the isolated brigade to retreat, and it set on its way across the marsh.

Air Fleet

Just as before, Von Morovia’s detachment to the east continued to face contention, instead only bombarding yet more ground troops, to negligible effect. Their fuses were ill timed, either exploding too early or too late, both giving ample time for their enemies to flee. Had they not wasted all their percussion shells earlier they could have at least attempted precision strikes but lacked the ability to do so now.

In the center the rest of the Equestrian air presence there was silence by the heavy guns of Von Morovia’ s flagship. With well placed shots they sent enchanted munitions through the bowels of their own ship, reducing the ponies inside to horrid facsimiles of what they once were, be it through ripping gore or arcane warping.

In the west came a mix of positive and distressing news. The detachment was down to the final two wooden airships at the start of the hour and had been reduced to none since. In the beginning they fired fiercely and quickly keeping enemy airships at bay and even downing a few. They fought relentlessly to give the entrenched brigade some form of relief. But then the enemy flagship and its guard steamed in, broadsiding one wooden sloop and bringing it rest on the ground, where pegasi picked away any survivors. The final wooden sloop of the squadron then steamed dead ahead, firing its guns in every which direction before ramming the flagship, shattering it’s own bow. And then the ammunition stores, despite being depleted, detonated and set of a series of chain reactions that obliterated both the Prussian sloop and the Equestrian flagship, sending them both into twisted, charred, and in some cases, petrified resting places on the grasslands below.

0900

Norwegian

Herraldi was pulled away from the ground by Prussian marines and into an airship to save him from the shame of being captured. To do so they had to wrestle him away from the skirmishers he was storming his way through and cutting apart. Unfortunately for him the rest of his corps no longer shared the same enthusiasm. Two more brigades broke and ran due to the withering effects of Equestrian magic and crossbows. In return they forced two Equestrians to retreat, but when outnumbered three to one such rations hardly mattered.

His final unit in the marches could feel the noose tightening around its neck yet stood firm and fired devastating shots into the brigade before it. The full corps approaching from the flanks began to fire into it, albeit with little accuracy or effect, mostly landing harmlessly in the watery mud. His final unit in the mountains was taking losses but held strong. Yet its once withering return fire dwindled as the brigade level commanders tried to restore order.

Danish

Bjork’s forces repositioned themselves to aid in the assault on Moro Station, arriving just in time to rescue the rapidly collapsing lines of the Norwegians. As they plugged the gaps, they began to create hook to the East of the Equestrian forces, mirroring the now crumbling Norwegian assault. Bjork himself waited patiently along the tracks, seeing what the assault on the mountains and hills would result in before exposing his staff to the dangers of crossbow fire.

Swedish

The Hordes of Equestrians did not relent despite the merciless fire that Ostman was offering them, sending thousands of them to watery graves. Entire companies drowned as they attempted to turn back from the assault, only to be trapped by the next wave from a different corps making their way to the killing pontoons. One of his brigades broke under the combined fire of three Equestrian brigades, but not before shattering one of them with waves of steel cannon shot as a parting gift.

His first cigar was long burned out now, so he lit another as he viewed the carnage being exchanged. Many of his men were begging to do the same, the ineffective attempts by their opponents largely leaving them unaffected, especially as less than a third of their total forces were needed to hold the line at the river, giving many of them prolonged periods of rest before cycling back to manning the guns.

Combined

Baldmen had lost contact with his entrenched brigade, with no response coming from them, nor could he see any attempts on their part to abandon their positions and fall back. Resigning them to death he began to pull his other two brigades back behind the Norwegian-Danish lines to let them recover before joining the push for the town.

Isolated Combined

Inside the trenches of the entrenched brigade was chaos. They had received no such orders to fall back despite being utterly outnumbered, facing a corps and a half on their own, as well as an air fleet approaching overhead. The Brigadier general concluded they must hold this position to delay an enemy push towards the rail station and began preparing a final stand. The baggage trains were emptied of all their supplies and turned into fall back positions, and their cargo distributed amongst the enlistees.

As the first wave approached, they fired savagely into the leading assaults, shattering a brigade on their Chevaux de frise. Along the edges of the trenches enemy formations faced less withering fire and began to spill into the first lines of defense, and a bloody melee broke out, with Prussians and Equestrians stabbing kicking and strangling each other in desperate trench to trench fighting.

1000

Due to a clerical error, there is no 1000 report, however after the fact analysis shows that fighting bogged down, and nothing ultimately was achieved by either side.

1100

Danish

General Bjork’s forces suffered their first losses of the battle, which shocked many of the reservists who had been experiencing casualty less slaughters so far. One brigade was so shocked that it broke and ran, fleeing from the battlefield. The other brigades however fared much better, inflicting heavy losses on Equestrian brigades, and forcing enough to retreat that pressure was relieved on what remained of the Norwegian corps. The Eastern hook was now fighting on the outskirts of Moro, pushing the single brigade there further and further into the houses.

Swedish

After five hours of fighting along the first river Ostman was finally forced to concede ground. With a fighting retreat and repelling attacks at the river he inflicted thousands of more deaths and tens of thousands of casualties, many of whom drowned. Now his forces were in a fighting retreat, falling back while staying just outside the range of enemy fire.

Ostman himself maintained his calm and collected composure, still puffing on a cigar and watching the Equestrian throw themselves into his waiting brigades. He winces slightly as a second brigade of his broke, a single lucky strike managing to behead much of the command structure and sending them running.

Isolated Combined

The single entrenched brigade was taking losses but was dishing out significantly more. Of the seven brigades assaulting it only two remained, the rest having fled from their viscous claws. Air assets continued to pluck Prussians from the ground and drag them away to be set upon by waiting pikemen. Many of the officers of the unit were dead, with the chain of command relying on lower and less experienced officers to make decisions for formations many times larger than that of what they were trained to. The boiling sun added to the stress, with steam from the marshes making fighting harder for both sides.

1200

Fighting bogged down due to elevated temperatures, which ultimately resulted in superior Equestrian Forces retreating to regroup. Further assaults were anticipated in the following days, but none came. Prussian Victory achieved.

Casualty Reports

Estimated Prussian Losses;

30,000 Ground forces
8,000 dead
20,000 wounded
2,000 deserted or captured
16 Air ships
Three Wooden Sloops
Ten Hot Air Fighters
Two helium sloops
One Helium ship of the line

Estimated Equestrian Losses:

80,000 Ground Forces
6,000 Pegasi
18 Air ships

Chapter 25 - Consolidation

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4 (modified)

Twilight stepped back, her mind going blank at the visceral image before her. Her hooves took another step back. Rarity was wide eyed beside her, a green look on her face. The ponies around the door fell backwards, scrambling away from hole in the wood.

A green eye surrounded by pale flesh poked through the hole, bellowing his his strange tongue. He stepped back, before the end of one of those metal clubs forced it’s way through. And with an ear shattering bang a lead ball flew out, puncturing another guard.

Behind the ball came smoke and the smell of sulfur. Just as the smoke cleared a volley of musket balls cascaded through the door, shattering the wood and sending splinters everywhich way. The ponies who trapped themselves inside panicked, ducking into the dirt and digging down. The whinnies of horses split the air, two horses being felled by the fatal volley.

From outside a couple of shouts emanated, and the sounds of boots grinding against stone and dirt approached the barn. Twilight reared up at the sound, her eyes wild with fear. Turning she sprinted back towards the door, spike barely clinging on. Rarity followed just behind, and the remaining four guards behind her.

The sprint of terror brought her tumbling out the door, into a crowd of the bipeds. She rolled forwards, her horn goring one of their ankles and launching spike into the crowd. She regained her footing, neck swiveling in search of Spike. He was sitting on his butt, rubbing his head surrounded by five soldiers pointing their dangerous weapons at him.

Twilight fired four sleep spells in rapid succession, hitting three of her targets while the fourth careened into an unintended sixth soldier. She charged into the group and stopped Spike onto her back with magic. She then turned in a circle crazily, searching for the rest of the group. At the gates the rest of the ponies were madly sprinting out, their thoughts on saving themselves from the fate of their comrades.

Twilight galloped out after them, while the soldiers scrambled to organize themselves. A few stray balls sped past her, the air crackling and whipping at her mane. She darted out the gates, and used her magic to slam them shut behind her. Arrayed just outside the gates the company was cowering with fear.

“Girls!” Panted twilight, looking for them. “We need… to… do the thing” She crime din desperation.

Her cries fell onto the ears of her friends, reviatalizing them greatly. They are emerged from the crowd of ponies nervous smiles on their face.

“Of course Twi’” Said Applejack, as the group joined in a half circle around her. Their elements glowed lightly in the formation, seemingly sensing the need for saving.

Concentrating, Twilight reached deep inside, pulling at a now familiar sense of love and friendship. Rending it out of her, she turned to the gate of the fortress. A gate that began to crank open. Along the top of the wall the enemy soldiers began to line up. Shouts, filled with anger and a fierce sense of confidence, came barraging Twilight.

Through the gate a group of maybe sixty soldiers marched, their feet in perfect step. Their uniforms were all in different states, some wearing a full uniform, other missing breaches, still more their over coats. They all marched with full mustaches and high morale.

Twilight released the magic of friendship at that moment, a magic beam shooting high from all her companions elements, and then her own. The arced high into the sky, drawing the eye of even the most disciplined soldiers on all sides.

The arcing ray of friendship, as all things bound by dues ex machina tend to, hit it’s target. It started on the left side of the fort, and twisted over to the right. All soldiers it passed over turned to stone, the first few having mere looks of confusion, while the ones after started to have bugged eyes, then were breaking and running.

The soldiers just outside the gate turned and saw what was happening to their comrades above them. And promptly began to run every direction. Unfortunately the men on the left decided to go right, the front to back, and vice versa. Collisions led to the horde being swallowed by the merciless rainbow beam, freezing them in their final moments of terror.

But the rainbow wasn’t finished there. It traced it’s way into the fort, ringing it in the eye burning glow and leaving no man unstoned. Soldiers running half dressed to the battlement were frozen, weapons in hand, mid step.

At first silence saturated the fort. Then an uproarious cheering burst from the company of guardponies. They had just witnessed the use of the greatest weapon for the preservation of their beloved empire. Several of the ponies hugged each other, or hugged the elements. Tears of joy washed down several faces.

Twilight herself was elated at the ease with which they pulled forth the power of friendship to cleanse the fort of evil. Her legs wobbled when she walked. She plopped onto the ground and rested her unstable legs. Her friends noticed she wasn’t doing too well, and trotted over.

Warmth enveloped Twilight as five fluffy bodes, and one scaly body, pressed against against her in a group hug. They carefully and strategically provided comfort and platonic love, helping steady her heart. No words were spoken, just mutual hugs.

Few minutes after this touching action, Captain Grapefruit trotted over. A distasteful look was painted across his muzzle. He stood silently just on the edge of the hug for a minute, before cough slightly for attention.

The group carefully separated from each other and looked wearily at Grapefruit. Twilight spoke first, addressing the captain, “What is it, Grapefruit?”

For a movement Grapefruit was silent a look on concentration and deep thought contorting his face. He finally responded with “We need to bury the dead. Then there’s that invader’s village. We also should deal with that.”

Twilight nodded, and then looked at the others. Their weary faces had fallen, solemn looks of regret evident on them. They all nodded, and almost instinctually began gathering their specific groups of guards to help with the burials. The steady crunch of hooves followed everpony into the fort.

Renentering the fort, Twilight gazed about and saw how much devastation she had missed in her fleeing. Across the yard two ponies were resting in pools of their vital red juice, cuts from bayonets scattered all over. One pegasi lay broken on the roof of a building.

The bipeds had even more dead. One soldier lay across the sill of a shattered building. Still bleeding from a wound on it’s neck. Maybe a dozen, perhaps even two, were motionless on the ground around the walls they fled down. Several more dotted the courtyard where the desperate escape had happened.

Twilight, as well as the rest of the main six, turned green at the sight. Rarity committed while Fluttershy cried. Rainbow and Applejack turned away from the carnage. Pinkie’s mane deflated and her head drooped. Twilight herself backed up a step, before looking horrified at Grapefruit.

He looked with no small understanding and then nodded at the guardsponies. They began moving to the pony corpses and grabbing personal effects. Meanwhile Grapefruit turned to the mane six plus Spike. “I understand this must be.. unpleasant and shocking too you. So please step outside. We will handle this in a few minutes then we can move on the village.”

Wordlessly, thanklessly, the seven civilians walked out of the fort. Past the stoned soldiers. And into the clearing. There they rested and waited for the burials to be complete.

———————————————————————————————————————————

In a recently cleared clearing just two miles east of the fort sat the beginnings of a humble town. Already two houses were fully built, with eight more waiting for their finishing touches. A simple stables held all the farm animals for now, and the wooden town hall had just began construction.

Thomas Bauer was a young man, just turned sixteen, in search of a new, adventures life in a new world. His father had been a farmer in Bavaria before the migration, while his older brother was following in his footsteps. His older sister was engaged to a nice Protestant farmer from the Alsec-Lorraine region.

Thomas himself wanted to join the Jäger company at the fort just down the way. He thought it would just be a grand adventure as a Jäger in this brave new world. He hoped he could get sent to explore these strange new territories and lands seeing this new world for himself with his own eyes.

Or perhaps enlist in the shinny new artillery school at the port city and command one of the awesome howitzers, firing whistling rain down upon Prussia’s foes with glorious prejudice. Obliterate anything in the path of the infantry, reducing them to ash and splinters.

His father, a kindly Catholic man, would support his decisions regardless of what he did. And so when Thomas finally decided to attend the artillery school, his father insisted that he depart as soon as possible. With a couple of days of food packed in his bag, and the warmest clothes Thomas had on his back, and a bible in his pocket, he departed just before dawn one winter morning.

Chapter 19 - 18 months on

Twilight sat in her library, quietly reading. She sat beside a window, letting the warm summer breeze drift in. Outside the ponies of Ponyville trotted about their days, enjoying the beautiful summer afternoon. Most of the ponies were farmers and shop keepers, packing up their stalls and going home for the evening. But amongst them was the occasional pony with a rigid mane and self assured posture. A military camp had been set up nearby, and gave cadets leave to visit the town every once and a while.

In the year and a half since the founding of the Crystal Protectorate— although Celestia still refused to recognize the nation as legitimate— and in the time an unprecedented amount of growth was experienced in it. The farming output had more than quadrupled, and a year round growing zone had rapidly been grown around the capital city. Thousands of acres of crop land was held in a constant temperate zone, massive pillars of crystal jutting from the ground to focus the barrier through them. New farming techniques had been implemented, and were jealously guarded by both the Crystallians and Prussians.

The Protectorate had also begun many other projects, rapidly building factories with new and exciting technologies. For now they were just slowly moving forward, introducing the factories slowly and gradually ramping them up and not exporting the goods. New ports were under construction near the Equestrian border, with metalled roads winding out from them towards the capital. Prussian detachments aided in the construction, carrying bricks in their packs as they marched about the Protectorate on exercises and drills.

The Bavarian army had mostly withdrawn, leaving a small garrison force of thirty thousand in their new colony. A string of simple wooden forts was being constructed all along the valley that bordered Equestria. By contrast only a few small outposts had been built along the main roads that cross the Crystal Protectorate border, acting more as customs points than actual force projection. The population of the colony was growing rapidly has citizens arrived by the thousands from the Bavarian provinces in their home world.

Home world. What an odd thing to say. Even two years after the Prussians ripping a hole between their worlds it was odd to consider there being more than world in the universe, let alone one as different as the Prussian’s, which they called Earth. Celestia had immediately begun campaigns to teach her people of the evils of their new technology and what it brought. She preached to her ponies that the Prussians had begun to transform the Protectorate into a mechanical nightmare that must be stopped and reverted to its original state. Having seen firsthand what they could do Twilight was initially a fervent supporter of Celestia, giving a few short speeches at gatherings to galvanize the population into aiding in the military buildup.

Now thought, Twilight just wanted to read. The initial fury at the loss of her friends had subsided into heart aching grief. While she still believed in the cause, she wanted time to rest. She wanted nothing more than to move on from their deaths, to make new friends and put those nightmarish events behind her. She spent her days working in the library, reading books and occasionally going on an outing with the other townponies.

Today she was reading a book about how to make paint. It detailed the most important plants for pigments and how to mix them for better colors. Her reading was interrupted when a knock came at the door to the library. How strange, she had put up the sign saying it was closed. Trotting to the door, past a snoozing Spike, she quickly closed the book marking the page.

Behind the door stood three ponies, two in royal guard dress while the third wore a neat tie. She quietly presented a message to Twilight that bore the symbol Celestia and Luna. A summons to the castle for a special assignment.

Celestia sat in her throne room with her sister and a captain of the guard. The doors swung open, and Twilight entered, hidden in by the Equestrian Royal guard. She carried with her an already packed bag, prepared for the mission ahead.

“Twilight Sparkle,” began Luna, just as Twilight dropped to a bow, “We have summoned you here for a special assignment. You and Captain Kake will be leading the resistance movement in the Empire. The two of you will be sent with a small detachment of guards. Sixty to be exact. We want you to train Protectorate citizens and guards who fled, and lead an incursion to reinstate our nation.”

Twilight nodded, swallowing and looking around before asking, “And I must take this assignment?”

Celestia stood with a nod, trotting down beside Twilight. Once she was standing facing the opposite direction she leaned down and said, “No. But I implore you to take it. For Rainbow Dash. For Rarity. For Applejack. For all those under the oppression of the Prussians. Luna and I need you to be the face of the resistance. I need you to create plans for war. These invaders must be driven from our world, before they spread their violence and technology, infecting the entirety of our home. Do you understand, Twilight?”

Twilight felt tears well up in her eyes for a moment as she remembered what she had lost. With a chocked up throat, Twilight nodded, and Celestia straightened back up, a small, confident smile on her face. She trotted back up to her throne and sat, before adding one final sentence, “Captain Kake, Twilight, you understand that under no circumstance you can reveal that Equestria sent soldiers to overthrow the Prussian puppet government?”

“Yes, Princess Celestia,” Captain Kake said, while Twilight nodded vigorously, still fighting back her own tears. With that, the two were dismissed and sent to meet their guards.

The guard ponies that Twilight had been sent on the train with all had shaggy manes, grown out and unkempt for a military pony. They had replaced their normal heavy, ornate armor with light leather armor with small metal plates dotted about. It was less protective, but allowed better movement and speed, and could be easier to hide. They hauled hundreds of kilograms of armor and equipment from the station to the isolated training camp.

The camp itself was in the northeast, just a hundred miles from the border. The camp had hundreds of tents and was in a large mountain meadow surrounded by thick forests. The only access road was the one the trainers approached on, and it was narrow and poorly maintained.

One section of camp had neat, straight tents with well groomed stallions and mares trotting about, doing various tasks with efficiency. These eighty ponies were the only professional soldiers that had escaped the Protectorate, and it was clear. The other occupants of the camp were a ragtag horde. There was no other way to put it. Citizens of all shapes and sizes were in the camp, laying about or occupying themselves in some way. Few to none of them were doing the necessary tasks for living like collecting water without hounding from others, who in turn did nothing. The tents were all haphazard and stooping low. It was clear the Royal Guard would have difficulty snapping these sorry excuses for ponies into fighting shape.

Two weeks into the training Twilight was beginning to understand why her brother was wary of sweets. Captain Kake — whose full name was Jelly Filled Kake, Twilight later learned — had convinced her to join in the drills to get into shape. She fell in line and marched with the worst of the recruits, learning her faces and how to hold a halberd. She practiced her bucks and spells, quickly mastering the art of flinging deadly, boiling magical plasma at targets.

Twilight surpassed the skill of any other pony in the camp. so quickly eclipsed the skill of the any unicorns in camp that she took over instruction for the civilians, teaching them the basics of weapon manipulation and magic bolts. She instructed the soldiers how to send shards of sharp magic flying through the air, and even tried to teach them teleportation. Much to both her and Captain Kake’s disappointment, not a single other unicorn could grasp the concept.

The tents had been repitched and straightened, leading to a more professional looking camp. The duties of the camp were kept on a board and followed religiously. In the center of the camp was a slightly larger command tent, filled to the brim with maps of the Empire, scrawled with plans and new construction being marked all about it. Rolled up beside it were written plans with sections crossed out and edits made all over them. Every night Twilight and Captain Kake went over potential scenarios and plans, each taking turns being the Prussians.

After weeks of practice and drills the two agreed that the only possible victory came from achieving a few early victories and winning the support of the ponies in the Empire. They both also agreed that the only way to achieve early victories was with ambushes and hit and run tactics to exhaust the Prussian troops. Combine that with propaganda leaflets and capturing a stronghold to spread from and they could get the support they needed while whittling at the Prussian occupation forces.

Ludolf Krämer was waltzing through the corridors, his partner his cane. Humming and swaying to himself he approached the Regent’s office. Initially he had been forced to greet her in the throne room, but thanks to his ever increasingly powerful reforms he had instituted over the eighteen months she had moved her daily tasks to what had once been a parlor but was now an office. Most of the leisure rooms in the castle were converted into offices to support the growing bureaucracy of a modern nation state.

The guards opened the door as Krämer approached, having broken out into a jog. His dress shoes clicked and clacked on the crystal floor as he ran. Just before the door he shifted and slid on the toes of his feet into the office, cane acting as a counterbalance. He quickly swung it down and stopped himself in front of a chair, flipped off his top hat and plopped down.

“Regent Cadenza.”

“Sir Krämer.”

Cracking his back, Krämer straightened up before asking Cadence, “Do you read Equestrian newspapers, Regent?”

Cadence gave him a quizzical look, before nodding cautiously, “Yes, I read the Canterlot Harold evenings with my husband. Why?”

Krämer pulled a printed sheet from his back pocket, slapping it down on the table. In bold headlines it read “Royal Guards Shipping Out”. Krämer looked Cadence in the eyes and said, “A small town newspaper near the Bavarian border reported that a group of royal guard training twenty miles away were preparing to leave. They may have just been conducting exercises, but I’m afraid they are preparing a full invasion.”

“What are we going to do?”

“You will do nothing. Prussia will do nothing until Bavaria is assaulted. We have no actual proof, and we have no spies. I just figured you’d want to know about troop movements that may threaten our borders. I fear we may be at war with Equestria again sooner than we wished. Have a good night, Regent Cadenza,” Krämer stood as he said this, spinning on a heel and sauntering out, flipping his hat back on as the guards shut the door behind him.

As he excitedly walked down the hall, shifting his posture with every step, he pulled a pad and pencil from his suit jacket and began scribbling down notes for his future plans. They detailed the future of Crystallian ship manufacturing. If the troop movements actually troubled the man, it did not show in his walk or writings.

Once Ludolf reached his room he changed into his nightgown and slept soundly, preparing for the next day of work with peace of mind. His rest energized not only him but those around him, fueling them to follow along in a heightened state of efficiency.

In another section of the castle Cadence could not be said to feel the same. She nervously chewed on her hoof; her husband already asleep. He had all but retired, the wounds of the war leaving him lame and his magic weak. Shining Armor split his day in two. In the morning he preformed light administrative work for the guard, and in the afternoon, he learned how to enjoy his time off and not work. He was mildly content with the ever present fear all ponies of the capital held since the war and slept soundly.

After much tossing and turning Cadence eventually fell into a sleep that would not rest her or prepare her for the busy day tomorrow, but would drain her energy with worrying dreams.