“Maybe this won’t be so bad at all,” Sunset said and sipped her coffee, “Hiding out isn’t horrible.”

I looked across the table at the now pink unicorn before I nodded and turned back to look towards the castle. The guards standing at the checkpoint were at lower strength today. They were also looking more than a bit less energetic than yesterday.

“Sir.”

“Not here,” I said and turned to the earth pony that stopped by the table, “What do you have to report?”

“The scouts returned, and the guard hit the former camp two hours past sunrise,” she said softly, “Almost thirty guard ponies. Princess Celestia was there.”

“Which explain the lower numbers by the gates,” Sunset said, “We could have tried hitting them.”

I shook my head, “Not with Celestia there.”

“We have our own Alicorn.”

I looked at Sunset and raised an eyebrow, “Even if by some miracle I was better than her, which I’m not, she is strong enough to literally fold me in half. Or into ash, whatever would be easier at the moment.”

“Maybe in a real fight, this wouldn’t be.”

You were not the one calling her fat last night.

“Either way, it wouldn’t work,” I told her and sipped my tea before looking at Flower Seed, “Proceed with plan bee sting.”

She nodded and headed off with her pick-up cup of tea.

Sunset nibbled at her cookie, “This won’t work forever. They do outnumber us by quite a bit, we aren’t picking them off that much faster than they catch us. And sooner or later they will make an effective ambush.”

“We don’t need to keep it up forever,” I said and sipped my tea while watching a unicorn pop out of a nearby alley to send a couple of bolts of magic towards the guard post and then turn tail and run away.

Didn’t hit anypony, but it sure got them sitting up and paying attention a bit.

None of them tried to follow her though.

They looked tired for some reason.

“Not sure even a couple of days of this is workable.”

“We’ll see.”

I really hoped it wasn’t true. We needed into the castle to get me to the throne and for that we needed every advantage we could get.

In this case it involved getting the opponents as bone dead tired as possible.

To be frank, I had no idea how else we would have a chance.

“So, what now?”

“Now, I’ll go find a chocolate muffin,” I said and got up before I stretched my wings, “And regret disguising as a Pegasus. Magic is way too useful.”

XXXXXXX

“My Lord,” Bright Glow said as she walked up next to me, “We lost another one. Drifting Mist got tagged when strafing the western gate.”

“We’re down to twenty,” Swift Spear said and shook his head, putting his hoof on the war table set up in the living room of Bright Glow’s mother.

I nodded and frowned, “Can we keep it going for another day?”

Bright Glow nodded, “Should be able to, sir. But we need to conserve as many ponies as we can to complete the objective.”

Translation: Stop wasting ponies like an idiot. Sir.

“Right,” Swift agreed, “Long range strikes only. Crossbolts and long range spells. One and then relocate.”

Bright Glow nodded, “I’ll pass word that they have to be more careful. But we can’t keep this up.”

“Won’t need to,” I said, “We strike tomorrow afternoon. Send word that everyone but two unicorns are to gather at site beta tomorrow at noon. The two you chose will continue the bee stings, focusing on sector four and five.”

Around four or so seemed good. Mostly because what idiot ever start a military attack at four in the afternoon? There is no advantage there.

The Guard tactics books re commended attacks at sunset, noon, sunrise or around two in the morning as that’s when the enemy is likely to be the weakest.

“We’re finally moving then?” Swift asked as Bright Glow hurried off to get the messages sent out, “What’s the plan?”

I shifted my wings, “That’s something I want to go over with you and the rest. We’ll wait until Sunny and Commander Glow return, but I have an idea that might work.”

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