Chapter 59: Equestria Catches a Break

Even Commander Auraria herself was starting to get tired after marching her troops through knee-deep snow for eleven hours. She was also cold, but she had more important things to worry about than that. She had been putting those worries off, although she couldn’t put them off for much longer. The first, was that her changelings would need to replenish their magic reserves soon. Although they could survive indefinitely on regular food, they required emotions to maintain their magic reserves. Her soldiers had used a significant amount of magic when the griffons and aislings had attacked earlier. If worse came to worse, she could designate some of her changelings as magic users, and the rest of them as sources. Then, the magic users could draw off the emotions of the sources. But that was far from ideal, as it would leave the source changelings unable to cast any spells at all. Feeding off the emotions of the pegasus and earth pony guards was another option. They didn’t do magic anyway and would be able to replenish the lost energy while they slept. But how she would ever convince the ponies to go along with that, she had no idea. She’d have to think about it a big longer, but she knew she couldn’t keep putting it off.

The second problem was that Captain Skydart’s detour had left them short on supplies. Surely. he must have known a supply shortage was inevitable? In the spring, summer, and fall, his pony soldiers could have survived indefinitely by foraging on grass, although that was not ideal. Foraging took a great deal of time, and living on grass was not particularly good for troop morale. Still, the ability to survive by foraging when they had to was an advantage the Royal Guard had over the Changeling Army. But that ability was only a factor when the ground wasn’t covered in knee-deep snow. There’s no way Captain Skydart could have overlooked that. The unavoidable fact was that despite Skydart’s desire to avoid getting near cities, they were going to have to make a supply stop. Her two options were Canterlot and Manehattan. Of those two, Manehattan was significantly closer. She would have prefered Canterlot, since that would allow her to talk with Twilight Sparkle about what had happened, as well as coordinate her own efforts with the rest of Equestria’s military forces. But detouring that far west would take way too much time, so Manehattan it would be. On the positive side, she’d be able to get news in Manehattan about how the rest of the war effort was going.

Actually, she had a third concern as well, and this was the biggest one of all. How had the aislings been able to take physical form and launch an attack so far into the Equestrian mainland? A deep-seated fear stabbed at her gut as she considered the most likely possibility: The Northern Fortress had already fallen, and they were using it as a base of operations. The thought sent a shiver through her that wasn’t from the cold. Despite her battle-hardened nature, and despite all her military prowess, the thought of having to retake the fortress in the middle of winter was enough to make her sick. It would be hard enough to retake in the summer or fall. In the middle of winter, it might be impossible. One thing was certain. Even if she could pull it off, it was going to be an extremely bloody battle, and it was going to cost a lot of lives. Concern about the cost in lives was her only flaw, really. Changeling military commanders weren’t supposed to worry about things like that. The glory of the Empire was always supposed to be paramount, and any changeling soldier would gladly rush into impossible odds for the glory of Queen and Empire if she ordered them to. But Auraria simply didn’t have it in her to be that cold-hearted. Unlike most changeling commanders, she cared about the lives and well-being of the soldiers under her command — even the ponies and griffons. Yes, it was a flaw according to traditional changeling thought. But she considered the flaw to be one of the major reasons she was the youngest regional commander in changeling military history. Unlike most commanders, the soldiers under her command respected her for reasons other than being afraid of her. Auraria believed that soldiers who were motivated by fear lacked morale and delivered inferior performance compared to soldiers who genuinely respected their commander because she or he had actually earned their respect rather than breaking them by frightening them into a feigned respect. Respect was a two-way street. A commander had to give respect if she wanted to have respect. Most of the higher ups in the changeling military considered her ideas and command style to be radically soft. Pony soft, they sometimes mockingly called it while snickering. But the fact that she’d risen so rapidly in the ranks seemed to suggest that despite their mocking and snickering, her ideas had merit, and were slowly catching on. At least, she hoped they were. Anyway, part of respecting her soldiers meant being honest with them about her concerns, and not leading them into battles without telling them what they faced.

But at the same time, she didn’t want to frighten them unnecessarily. She really needed more information. And for that, she really needed to interrogate Captain Skydart. Hopefully, he’d be able to confirm whether or not the Northern Fortress had, in fact, fallen. And if it had, she hoped he’d be able to tell her the strength of the occupying force, and what it was made up of. Of course, that all depended on whether the team she’d left behind to capture him was successful or not.

It was almost one hour later on the dot when they arrived at the spot she’d told Sergeant Rasahus that they’d stop and make camp for the night. She called a halt to her troops, listening to her command being echoed back through the ranks. She used her mouth to remove the watch from her saddle bag — avoiding using a telekinesis spell to conserve her magic — and noted with pride that she’d marched them for exactly twelve hours and five minutes, only five minutes longer than the twelve hours she’d estimated it would take them to reach the camp area she’d chosen. Even the soft ponies hadn’t held them up. They hadn’t complained either. They were earning her respect quickly, and she hoped she was earning theirs.

All of the soldiers worked quickly and efficiently. Her green and black striped tent flying the flag of the Changeling Empire was set up quickly at the center of the clearing, and a small city of tents quickly grew up around it. The changelings, ponies, and griffons, were all following her order to integrate, she noted with satisfaction as the clearing became a kaleidoscope of mixed colors and flags, reflecting the mixed nature of her army in the light of the lanterns. Satisfied that her orders were being followed, and that her troops could get camp set up without her supervision, she retreated into her tent, then unpacked her maps and spread them out on the large table that had been set up near the center, using two lighted oil lamps to hold the edges down. The smell of the evening meal being cooked wafted into her tent, bringing the mouth-watering scent of boar meat roasting over an open flame. But it didn’t make her hungry. On the contrary, all it did was remind her of the looming supply shortage she faced. Instead of eating, she spent the next couple of hours planning tomorrow’s march and trying not to worry about the status of the fortress. There was no sense worrying about it until she knew for sure whether it had fallen or not. If her capture team had been successful in apprehending Skydart, she’d know soon enough.

She took a quill and inkwell out of her saddlebag and upon realizing the ink was completely frozen, removed a piece of charcoal instead. Then, she used the charcoal and a ruler to draw a line from their current location to Manehattan. If her soldiers performed as well tomorrow as they had today, if the ponies continued to keep up, and the weather held out, they could be in Manehattan with six hours of marching. She’d keep most of her forces outside of the city, of course, sending in a small team of earth ponies with carts to get supplies. She’d send a few changeling officers as well. She didn’t completely trust the ponies to bring back uncensored versions of the news. The changeling officers would have to be in disguise since she didn’t completely trust the ponies in Manehattan to delivered uncensored versions of the news either if they knew there were changelings listening. Unfortunately, that meant the chosen officers were going to have to deplete their magic reserves even further with the transformation spell. But there was nothing to be done about that.

“Permission to enter, Ma’am?” the voice of one of her changeling soldiers called from outside, interrupting her thoughts.

“Enter,” she responded.

The soldier pulled the tent flap open, a cold gust of air blowing in as he entered. He quickly pulled the flap shut again before turning around and saluting, raising his right hoof to his chest. She returned the salute, then he continued.

“Sergeant Rasahus has returned. They captured Captain Skydart. He’s currently being held in the staging tent.”

“Good news, private. Send Sergeant Rasahus in to brief me. I’ll interrogate Skydart afterwards.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” the private responded with another salute which she returned. Then, he turned around and left the tent, another blast of frigid air barging its way in as he opened the flap.

Auraria smiled to herself once the flap was closed, feeling at least some of her concerns begin to melt away like ice in front of the fire on her brazier. At least now, she’d have information.

o.O.o

The smell of salt began to fade from Gilda’s nostrils, a sure sign that she’d crossed the western coast of the Sea of Tears and was now in Equestrian airspace. She allowed herself a sigh of relief. At least she’d be safe from griffon patrols now. She couldn’t let her guard down too much, though. She still had Pegasus Guard patrols to worry about. Hopefully, if she encountered any, they’d simply escort her to Canterlot. On the other talon, they might be in attack first, ask questions later mode, if they were still angry about the attack on Ponyville. She also couldn’t be certain that all of the pegasus guards had gotten the memo that she was working for Twilight Sparkle, or that they would recognize her even if they had. More than likely, they’d suspect that a lone griffon was a spy.

She winced as the wound in her side burned and pulsed, the muscle beginning to cramp again. The burning and cramping was traveling up her wing muscle now, making it difficult for her to maintain a straight course. If she wasn’t careful, she’d miss Canterlot. That was the best case scenario. The worse was that a severe enough cramp would cause her to spin out of control, sending her crashing to the ground. The only good news was that it couldn’t be bleeding anymore. If it had still been bleeding, she would have bled out a long time ago.

She flew on for hours, cold, tired, hungry, and the pain in her side growing in intensity. It was the only part of her that didn’t feel frozen. Instead, it felt like a hot coal was being pressed onto it, the burn growing ever outward and larger.

The darkness she flew in was complete and total, as if she were swimming through an ocean of black ink. She couldn’t even tell whether she was in clouds or in clear air. And yet, she flew on, the minutes and hours droaning by. The never changing darkness made it feel as though time had stopped, as well as made it very difficult to keep track of how much time had passed. The nagging thought that she had flown too far north or south and overshot Canterlot completely began to gnaw at her like a diamond dog gnawing on a bone. She was beginning to think she should turn around, but how could she know whether she’d already flown passed Canterlot or not? A growing fear that she was hopelessly lost began to stab at her.

Twinkling lights began to appear in the distant sky as the light of the stars broke through the clouds. She said a quick prayer of thanks to the First Lioness and the First Eagle for the break in the overcast sky. Once she were out from underneath the clouds, the light of the stars should be just bright enough for her excellent night vision to make out the ground. Of all the races in Equestria, the griffons had the best vision by far, benefitting from both the superb night vision of their leonine ancestors, as well as the excellent day vision of their eagle ancestors.

Suddenly, she realized something was wrong. The starlit area was approaching way too quickly given how far away it had been on the horizon. At the same time, the stars seemed to be moving rapidly closer to the horizon. Panic flooded over her, adrenaline shooting through her veins as she realized those weren’t stars at all. They were the lights of a city! She was flying upside down! That meant the control feathers on her wings were reversed. Every time she thought she was making an adjustment to fly higher, she’d actually been bringing herself closer to the ground!

The lights rushed to meet the horizon as she slammed the angle of her wings in the other direction — a direction that would normally pitch her sharpy towards the ground, but since she was upside down, would pitch her sharply upward instead. Vertigo crashed into her as all of her senses screamed at her that she was diving towards the ground instead of climbing, the inverted horizon illusion making the feeling almost overpowering. It took all of her willpower to convince herself that her senses were lying to her and she was doing the exact opposite of what they told her she was. Sharp, stinging pain flooded the upper surfaces of her wings as the tops of trees slapped and whipped her, branches like living, grasping, fingers trying to grab her and slam her into the ground. She pumped her wings frantically in a desperate quest for altitude. And still, the trees slapped and whipped at her. Eternity seemed to pass, and then, she was clear of the trees, the lights becoming visible on the horizon once again.

Her heart pounded as she tried to catch her breath, still flying upside down as she continued to climb. Once she was sure she’d reached a safe altitude, she banked her wings, rolling herself right side up. Again, her senses lied to her, doing their best to convince her that she had actually rolled inverted. And again, it took all of her willpower not to obey what her senses were trying to tell her. For several seconds, her will fought a desperate battle for survival against her lying senses. Finally, her senses yielded to her, the vertigo disappeared, and she was able to focus again.

She cursed the wound in her side as she realized what had happened. One of the cramps in her wing muscles must have caused her to roll inverted without realizing it. She’d probably been too distracted with the cramp itself. She also cursed herself for that. Distraction was no excuse for her to have forgotten her basic flight training. Inverted horizon illusion at night was a serious danger to any aviator. And something that had been drilled into her during flight safety training. Inverted horizon illusion combined with vertigo was often deadly.

With near disaster averted, she took stock of her situation. Unless she’d flown ridiculously far off course, the lights in front of her must be Canterlot. If she were reasonably on course, no other city would be close enough, even if she’d overshot Canterlot, there was no city north or west of Canterlot that was large enough to produce such a large pattern of twinkling lights.

As she flew closer to the lights, the towers of Canterlot Castle began to fade into view, the banners of the Sun and Moon on top of the spires challenging the wind, daring it to try to rip them down. So far, it appeared the wind had failed to do so.

She smiled to herself, thinking of that warm fire, that warm mug of mulled wine … well, warm cider since the ponies didn’t serve alcohol, and the fact that she’d be sleeping in the finest guest room in the castle tonight. Don’t get too hasty, she told herself. First, she had to make it inside the castle walls without the Pegasus Guard patrols attacking her.

She pitched up, climbing higher until the lights began to be obscured by mist, looking like ghosts on the horizon. Then, very slowly, she descended again until they became clear. In this way, she kept the cloud layer just above her, skimming the bottom of it, able to dart back up into it anytime she wanted to avoid being seen. As she flew close to the castle, the silhouettes of armored pegasi circling the parameter became visible. She could see them in the bright lights of the castle, but she knew there was no way they could see her, yet. She slowed down, observing the patterns they were flying, timing how long it took them to make one complete circle over the castle, then smirked to herself as she formed a plan and darted up into the overcast clouds above her, the lights once again disappearing from view. Her plan was to come in over the castle wall obscured in the clouds, then wait until she was sure the patrolling guards were on the exact opposite side of the castle. Then, she’d dive down through the clouds. They’d see her when she broke through, of course, but her plan was to come in so fast and steep that she’d be on the ground in the courtyard before they could reach her. Then, she’d have only the unicorn and earth pony guards to deal with on the ground. But she’d be able to talk to them before they attacked her. In the air, with the wind noise rushing around them, it would be highly unlikely the pegasus guards would hear her if she tried talking to them.

She flew forward now, carefully noting her speed and timing, stopping when she was certain she must be just over the end of the wall. Then, she waited, counting by the seconds. When she was certain the pegasus guards were on the other side of the castle, she folded her wings and pitched herself towards the ground, diving straight down. The wind whipped past her, ruffling her feathers as she gained speed. Then, she broke out of the base of the clouds, the courtyard ground rushing up to meet her. At the last second, she pulled out of her dive, spreading her wings wide to slow herself quickly. She landed hard, but still on her feet. The shouting of guards greeted her ears as she folded her wings and quickly gathered in her surroundings. Earth pony and unicorn guards were rushing at her from all sides. They were shouting at her, but she payed no attention to what they were saying and she shouted over the top of them.

“You will take me to see Twilight Sparkle at once! No, you will take me to the infirmary and tend to my wound, and you will send Twilight Sparkle to me!”

The guards stopped rushing at her, having her surrounded now. None of them made any move to attack her, but the sergeant in charge began chewing her out as if she were one of his own soldiers.

“What in the name of Celestia was that! Do you have any idea how reckless that dive out of the clouds was! I don’t know who you think you are, but you can’t just come in here and —”

“I know where Princess Luna is,” she interrupted.

The sergeant shut up immediately, a stunned expression on his muzzle for a brief second before he turned to the guard next to him.

“Private, send for Miss Sparkle. Ask her to meet me in the infirmary immediately … And inform Captain Stardust of the Lunar Guard to meet us there as well.”

Author's note: Sorry for the very long delay between the last chapter and this one. I won't make any excuses other than to say I was dealing with some issues which have been resolved.  This chapter is a bit short, but I've already got some of chapter 60 written, so another chapter will probably be coming out next week. Thank you so much for your patience and your continued interest in this story.