Chapter 60: Interrogation of a Captain

“Good work, Sergeant Rasahus,” Auraria said with a slight smile as the changeling who had lead the mission to capture Captain Skydart finished his report on the mission. “I think a promotion to Master Sergeant might be in order for this.”

“Thank you, Ma’am,” Rasahus responded. It was obvious to Auraria that it was an effort for him to maintain his military composure and not show his excitement. The Changeling Army didn’t hand out promotions easily, especially not to higher levels of non-commissioned officer. When a promotion was given, it meant that the changeling receiving it had truly performed above and beyond the call of duty.

“Go get Skydart,” she ordered. “Let’s find out just what his game is.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Rasahus responded, giving a salute, which she returned before he turned around and left the tent. Once he was gone and the flap had been closed, she smiled to herself, rubbing her forehooves together lightly against the cold. Finally, she’d get the answers she needed. She got up and walked over to her brazier, adding a couple more coals to the fire, which sizzled and popped as the new coals began to smolder before catching flame, the glowing embers continuing their seemingly never ending battle to push more of the cold back outside of her tent. She warmed her forehooves for a minute or so before returning to her map table, standing on the side of it opposite to the tent flap. She wanted the table between her and Captain Skydart, as it would add to the sense that she was in control here.

“Permission to enter Ma’am? We have Captain Skydart,” Sergeant Rasahus called from outside.

“Enter,” she responded, taking up a stiff composure, looking directly at the tent flap as the ties were undone and the flap pulled aside by one of the changeling guards. Sergeant Rasahus entered first, followed by two changeling guards behind him on either side. Between them, Captain Skydart reluctantly marched in. He stopped once, refusing to move, but a prod from another changeling soldier behind him got him moving again. Once they were inside the tent, Sergeant Rasahus turned to his right, marching to the tent wall before turning around and taking up position, standing at attention, and Auraria got her first unobstructed view of Captain Skydart.

The pegasus looked a little frazzled, his mane and tail roughed up, and a slight amount of blood running down his shoulder. It was clear he hadn’t been captured without a struggle. Other than that, he appeared no worse for wear. He moved a little slowly, but that was due to the manacles locked around all four of his hooves, which were in turn connected to each other with short lengths of chain that didn’t allow for taking very large steps. In addition to the hoof restraints, nylon straps were wrapped around his midsection, securing both of his wings firmly to his sides. He stared directly at her, his eyes fixed on hers and blazing with fury and indignation, but he said nothing. She caught him glancing slightly to the left and right a couple of times, as if he were looking for some avenue of escape. But with the manacles and chains binding his hooves, and the nylon cord securing his wings, it was clear he wouldn’t be going anywhere. Auraria paced behind her desk now, in a manner that suggested she wasn’t intimidated by his fiery glare, and that he didn’t even warrant her full attention. Then, she broke the silence, speaking in an emotionless tone.

“I thought you might show a little more gratitude, Skydart, given my soldiers risked their lives to rescue you “

“It’s Captain Skydart, not just Skydart,” he shot back. “As an officer in the Royal Guard, I believe I’ve earned the right to be addressed by my rank.”

She stopped pacing and turned to look directly at him now, returning his fiery glare with an icy one of her own. “In my view, you lost that right when you betrayed us by leading us into an ambush!” she stated coldly, allowing just a hint of anger to enter her voice.

“Betrayed? Ambush? You dare make those accusations against me? Perhaps you’ve forgotten who is in charge of this army? Who is the Supreme Commander of all of Equestria’s military forces in the absence of Captain Swordstorm? Your insubordination will not be tolerated, cockroach! That ambush caught me completely by surprise just as it did you!”

Cockroach. There was that word again. The worst racial insult that anyone could use on a changeling. But she didn’t let it rattle her. Not at all. After all, if she gave any hint she was rattled, it would let him know he’d gotten under her chitin. And that would erode her control of the situation. Instead, she responded calmly, completely ignoring the insult.

“That’s not what my soldiers tell me,” she said as she nonchalantly walked to the other side of her desk again, still keeping it between him and her. “They observed you for several minutes before mounting the rescue. They tell me they saw you sitting at a campfire talking and drinking coffee with your griffon captors. They tell me they even heard you and them cracking jokes with each other.”

He scoffed slightly at that. “I did no such thing. You think Her Majesty is going to believe the word of some changeling soldiers? You think an Equestrian court is going to believe it?”

“Is the word of a few changeling soldiers going to be enough to convict you in Equestrian court? Probably not,” she said, then stopped in the center of her desk, turning to glare directly at him again. “But you won’t be standing trial in an Equestrian court. You’ll be standing trial in front of a Changeling military tribunal.”

That seemed to rattle his composure a bit. He blinked, and for a brief moment, the fiery glare in his eyes was replaced by a look of fear. But he recovered quick enough.

“On what grounds?” he demanded.

“On the grounds that your traitorous actions directly resulted in the deaths of four changeling soldiers.”

He sneered at that, still keeping most of his composure. He was proving to be a bit tough to crack. But Auraria knew she’d get him sooner or later.

“You really think Princess Celestia would stand for that? The Supreme Commander of her Royal Guard standing trial in front of a Changeling military tribunal?”

“Oh, she might lodge a formal complaint,“ Auraria responded, walking to the other side of her desk again and looking at one of her maps. “But there’s nothing she can do about it under international law. Given four changelings are dead as a direct result of your actions, the Changeling Empire is an affected party, and we are well within our international rights to hold you accountable and bring you to justice.” She looked up from the map, returning her attention to him. “Besides, given you are guilty of high treason that resulted in the deaths of five royal guards, how inclined do you think she’ll actually be to violate international law to get you back?”

“This all presumes you actually had any proof, other than the word of a few of your lying cockroach underlings.”

Auraria had to admit, a large part of her wanted to jump over the desk and slap this insolent pony right across the muzzle. But despite the fact that he’d used that insult again, she managed to maintain her composure when she responded.

“Actually, I do. I’ve already spoken with the unicorn guards who accompanied my changeling soldiers on the rescue mission. They corroborated the report given by my own soldiers. Now I ask you … do you actually think Princess Celestia is going to believe that four of her own guards conspired with changelings to concoct this story about their own high commander? Does that even make any sense?”

That got him. This time his eyes darted from left to right. The emotion coming off of him changed from one of smugness and arrogance to one of uncertainty, mixed with some fear. She waited several seconds, and when he still hadn’t answered her question, she pressed him a bit more.

“I can have those unicorns brought in if you want to hear it from their own mouths. If you don’t believe me that they corroborated the story told by the changelings.”

Again, she waited several seconds, and he still didn’t answer her, but that arrogance and smugness that had been wafting off of him just a minute earlier was now completely gone. In its place, was only fear and uncertainty. Again his eyes, darted to the left, then the right, as if he were once again looking for some avenue of escape. She knew she had him now. She moved back to the center of her desk so she was directly in front of him again, then she propped her forehooves on it, leaning over it slightly to get just a bit closer to him.

“Here’s the deal I’m offering you, Skydart. Cooperate with this interrogation, tell me what you know, and I’ll send you back to Equestria to face treason charges under your own law. Don’t cooperate, and you’ll be at the Hive by this time tomorrow, sitting in a changeling dungeon cell while you await trial on murder charges under our law. If you choose that option, I can say with virtual certainty that you’ll never see Equestria again, and after your trial, you’ll never see anything outside of a changeling military prison again.” She took her forehooves off the table now, going back to all fours on the ground. “The choice is yours, Skydart.”

Again, he didn’t respond, but now he wouldn’t even make eye contact with her, and the fear emotions flowed off of him like water flowing down a fountain. She gave him several more seconds to respond, then turned to Sergeant Rasahus.

“Prepare a prisoner transport to leave for the Hive, Sergeant. And send a forward messenger to inform dungeon unit four to prepare a cell for a pegasus guard prisoner. Tell them to make sure it’s in the maximum security section, given the status of the prisoner.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Rasahus responded, giving a salute before turning and making his way towards the tent opening.

“No, wait!” Skydart called out loudly.

“Put that order on hold. At least temporarily, Sergeant,” Auraria said.

“Yes Ma’am,” Rasahus responded, returning to his post at the side of the tent, standing at attention once again. Auraria returned her attention to Captain Skydart now, once again, looking directly at him, although he still avoided eye contact with her.

“I don’t know why you did it. I don’t want to know why you did it. That’s for the court, whichever court that ends up being, to figure out. What I want to know, is how much danger you put my soldiers in. All of my soldiers, including the ponies that used to be yours.” She put her forehooves back up on the table again, leaning over it towards him for emphasis. “And if it later turns out that you lied to me, or you weren’t completely forthcoming with information, this deal is off, and you’ll be on that transport to the Hive. Understood?”

“Un … understood,” he responded, all of the arrogance gone from his voice now.

“Good,” she responded, taking her forehooves off the table and returning to all fours again. “Has the Northern Fortress fallen?”

“Yes … It fell about five days ago,” he responded in a defeated tone, looking at the ground now.

Auraria felt her heart sink as her worst fears were confirmed. But she pushed it to the back of her mind for now and didn’t let any of her emotions show. For now, she just had to focus on the interrogation.

“Does Canterlot know?”

“Probably not. None of the messengers who tried to leave got away alive.”

“Did they slaughter everypony?”

“No. Most of them were placed in the fortress dungeon. Only the ones that tried to leave with messages were killed.”

She felt a bit of relief over that. Other than the obvious relief over the fact that there hadn’t been a wholesale slaughter at the fortress, it also meant that once she’d retaken the fortress, assuming she could do so, she’d be able to add the original defenders to her ranks to prevent it from falling again.

“What kind of forces they got there?” she prodded.

“Mostly griffons. Some aislings. Some pegasi, and a few unicorns.”

“Numbers, Skydart.”

“I don’t have exact numbers. But it’s somewhere around forty thousand griffons, three thousand aislings, probably around a hundred pegasi, and twenty-five to fifty unicorns.”

“And the unicorns will presumably be using light spells to light up the entire approach to the fortress?” That meant she’d have to deploy smoke spells to obscure their approach. Smoke spells were a mixed bag. Yes, they prevented the enemy from seeing her advancing troops. But they also prevented her troops from seeing the enemy.

“Light spells?” he said with a snort. “That’s the least of your worries. They’ve got unicorns who know life detect spells. Even if you smoke the entire area, your forces are gonna light up like fireworks, especially in the darkness. Smoke isn’t gonna protect you.”

She frowned at that. “Is there a counterspell for the life detect spell?”

“That’s classified information,” he responded bluntly.

“Given the circumstances, the rules on what information our two sides can keep classified from each other have changed somewhat, Skydart. And besides, our expedition to the fortress was also supposed to be classified. That didn’t seem to deter you from telling our enemies about it.”

“Yes, there’s a counterspell,” he sighed. “But again, it’s classified. Not many unicorns guards know it. And given the highest ranking unicorn in this camp is a PFC, I sincerely doubt there are any here who know it.”

Well, that definitely complicated things. Somehow, she’d have to pick up at least a few unicorns who could counter the life detect spells. She added it to her list of things to do when they reached Manehattan tomorrow.

“What about other raids?” she prompted. “I’ve already figured out they’re using the fortress to stage attacks deep into Equestria. When are the next ones planned for? And what is their target?”

“There’s a large attack scheduled four days from now. The target is Hoofington. They’ve been ordered to occupy the town and kill one hundred residents every day.”

Damn! Auraria thought to herself. This really put a kink in her plans. Better if they’d been planning to attack Canterlot than Hoofington. The city defense at Canterlot would have been large enough, and well equipped enough to hold the city against an attack, especially after she’d sent a messenger to give them advance warning that the attack was coming. She could have had her forces lay low, quietly wait until the attack forces had left the fortress, and then launched her assault when it had been mostly emptied. But not now. Not with Hoofington as the target. Even with advance warning, there’d be no way that the defense garrisons at Hoofington could hold against a combined attacking force of griffons and aislings. The simple fact was, her forces were now the only thing standing between Hoofington, and an attacking force nearly forty thousand strong — a force that intended to kill all the residents of the town once it got there. There was no decision for her to make, really. She had to scrub her mission to take the fortress, and instead, divert west to ambush the raid on Hoofington before it ever got near the town.

And the part that irked her the most, was she knew damn well that she was doing exactly what they wanted her to do! She hadn’t been born yesterday, and it was obvious to her that the reason they were targeting small towns with no strategic military value was specifically to drive Equestria’s forces away from the Northern border by forcing them to stay in the more populated southern regions to protect the civilian towns. Or worse, to liberate towns that had already been taken. After all, with the edict that they were going to kill one hundred residents every day, it was unthinkable to anyone to consider allowing the towns to wait it out until a better opportunity for liberation came along. And because of that, she had no choice. It was unthinkable to her to allow a mostly undefended civilian population to be targeted like that. She forced her thoughts back to the interrogation for now.

“Are there any other traitors in our ranks?”

“No. At least none that I’m aware of,” Skydart responded.

It wasn’t lost on her that he’d left himself an out by including the that I’m aware of part on the end. Nevertheless, she decided he was probably telling the truth. Given the highest ranking pony soldier in her command was a private first class, it’s unlikely there were any ponies among her who would have been targeted for recruitment by the Beyond or its agents.

“Will the unicorns go on the raid?” she asked.

“Probably not. They’ll almost certainly stay behind and protect the fortress.”

At least that meant no life detect spells to light up her soldiers. But it didn’t mean no magic, as she’d already seen that the aislings were capable of using magical attacks.

“Is there anything else you want to add? Think very hard, Skydart, and remember what I said about not being completely forthcoming with information.”

“There’s nothing,” Skydart said with a sigh. Auraria looked at him for a bit longer before turning to Sergeant Rasahus again.

“Take Skydart back to the staging tent and keep him under guard. I’ll send for him when I need him again.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he responded, giving her a salute before turning and rejoining the rest of the guards. Then, the four of them marched their prisoner out of the tent.

Auraria watched them and waited until the tent flap was closed, then returned her attention to her maps, although her thoughts were really only half on them right now. This new development really threw a wrench into her plans. Resupplying in Manehattan tomorrow was no longer in the cards. Instead, she’d have to turn northwest to intercept the attack on Hoofington. That meant she would have to start rationing food, something she absolutely hated doing given she’d have to send her forces into battle in four days. She might even have to resort to sending some of her soldiers on a hunting expedition. That would supply extra food for the changelings, although she had no idea whether the ponies would eat meat or not. Not even in an emergency. However, she hoped their desire to protect one of their own towns from mass genocide would outweigh their taboo against meat eating. She dismissed the thought of resupplying in Hoofington without ever giving it any serious consideration. Despite the fact that her new mission was to protect the town, she had no intention of actually getting anywhere near it. Her plan was to halt the attempted attack at least two days march to the northeast of the town. If the attackers were able to drive her forces far enough southwest to make resupplying in Hoofington an option, that would mean she’d lost the battle. Besides that, Hoofington was a small town. There’d be no way they could resupply an army of nearly twenty five thousand soldiers without draining their town dry, leaving nothing for the town’s residents to survive on. For now, she’d stick to her original plan of resupplying in Manehattan. She’d just have to delay it for about a week.

Briefly, she turned her thoughts to what to do with Skydart. She didn’t really want to haul him all the way to the Northern Fortress, and she considered dropping him off in Manehattan and letting the Royal Guard there deal with him. She decided against that, though. She wanted to maintain control of his fate until after the battle for Northern Fortress. That would ensure her threat about sending him to the Hive to face trial would continue to hold weight, just in case there was any more information he was still withholding. And besides, he might prove useful to have around when she was making her battle plans for assaulting the fortress.

“Well, I might as well go give the troops the good news,” she said to herself, walking around the map table, pulling the tent flap open, and stepping out into the biting wind. She looked around, surveying the scene in the flickering light of the campfires and lanterns. They were almost done with cleanup from the evening meal. The rest of the cleanup could wait.

“All units, fall in!” she called out loudly.

The soldiers nearest her immediately stopped what they were doing and passed her order further out. She listened as her order rippled outward from the center of the camp, the dull chatter went silent, and all of her soldiers fell into formation in front of her.

For several moments, she said nothing, taking in the scene before her in silence. A scene she never thought she’d ever see in her lifetime. The scene of almost twenty five thousand ponies, changelings, and griffons, standing shoulder to shoulder. All fighting in the same army. All united for a common goal.

When they had all fallen into perfect formation, she addressed them as loudly as she could, ensuring everyone all the way to the last row in the formation could hear.

“The Northern Fortress has fallen. We’re going to have to retake it.”

A collective groan arose from the assembled soldiers. No individual soldier made their frustration known very loudly, but multiplied by almost twenty five thousand, their dismay at the news was clear.

“We’re taking a little detour first, though,” she continued. “As I suspected, Skydart lead us into that ambush earlier.”

At that, calls for a field trial and instant justice arose from some angered changelings. At the same time, calls of denial arose from some of the ponies. She raised a forehoof, quickly restoring order.

“In the process of interrogating him, I learned that an attack on Hoofington is being launched from the fortress in four days. We’re marching northwest to intercept that attack.”

She was about to continue when a griffon in the middle of the gathered soldiers shouted out loudly.

“Why should we risk our lives to save a village of ponies? Especially when we have a larger mission to attend to? Let the ponies protect their own town!”

“They’re going to kill one hundred of the town’s residents every day after they take it,” she stated before any other griffons could rally to support his sentiment. “Even if we were at war with the ponies themselves, it would be barbaric and immoral for us to allow such wanton aggression against civilians. Hoofington is a peaceful farming community. And the City Guard there isn’t nearly large enough to defend the town against an ambush of nearly forty thousand. The majority of these attacking forces are griffons, by the way,” she added, focusing her full attention on the griffon who had spoken. “I’d suggest you have a moral duty to stop your own comrades from engaging in such a moral atrocity.”

“But forty thousand of them? They outnumber us by nearly fifteen thousand!” the same griffon protested.

“Yes, they do. Would you rather face them while they are holed up behind those fortress walls? Better to face them in the open.” She also wanted to argue that they’d have the element of a surprise ambush on the invasion force. Unfortunately, she didn’t think they actually would. Their enemies knew they had rescued Skydart. They also probably knew that she had figured out Skydart had betrayed them. Given that, she had to assume they knew she’d be intercepting the attack. The best she could likely hope for is that they’d underestimate how much ground her troops could cover in a day’s march, so she’d at least be able to surprise them by intercepting them far sooner than they thought possible.

“Even better, I’d rather let the attack leave and then assault a nearly empty fortress,” the arguing griffon responded.

Auraria was well aware that would obviously be the safest plan. It would also be the plan their enemies would be least likely to suspect, given they’d consider it inconceivable that she’d allow them to launch such a genocidal attack on Hoofington unchallenged. She knew she was letting her enemy choose her battles for her; something that was a huge mistake in warfare. But in this instance, there was nothing she could do about it.

“We could do that,” she acknowledged. “If we wanted to abandon all sense of decency and morality. If we wanted to forsake our honor as soldiers and disgrace ourselves by doing nothing to protect a population of innocent civilians.”

“They’re still ponies,” the obstinate griffon shot back. “It’s not our responsibility to protect Equestrian towns.”

“They’re still innocent civilians! And there are no other battalions between there and Hoofington who can protect them!” she fired back, feeling her anger reach a boiling point at the insubordinate griffon. “We have a moral responsibility to stop this genocide!”

“Assuming we could stop it. We’re outnumbered by fifteen thousand. We’ll get slaughtered.”

“No we won’t,” one of her changeling soldiers interjected loudly. “We have something they don’t. We have Commander Auraria!”

A cheer of approval arose from the rest of the changelings soldiers. Even some of the ponies joined in cheering her. She felt emotions of pride and love for her flowing from both her own soldiers, and the ponies that had joined in. A nagging worry told her those emotions might be premature. Nevertheless, her mind was made up, She wasn’t about to allow genocide against an entire town.

“We will intercept the attacking force. This discussion is closed,” she said sternly, giving the protesting griffon a look that left no doubt that further argument would result in disciplinary action. The griffon opened his beak briefly, but then apparently thought better of it, closing it again. She turned her head first left, then right, surveying her assembled soldiers. Wisely, no one else raised any further objections.

“I’ll be in my tent planning the interception,” she continued. “In one hour, I want the two highest ranking griffons, pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns to join me. Also, Sergeant Rasahus will join me. I want to go over plans with all of you.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” they all responded in unison.

“Good. For now, you may all return to your normal duties. Dismissed!”

All of the assembled soldiers saluted her, each in the way that was standard protocol for their own army. Then, she watched them all fall out, the dull chatter resuming as she turned around and went back into her tent, pulling the flap shut and locking the chill wind outside.

She walked to her brazier, adding a couple more coals to the smoldering embers and bringing the fire back to life, once again, chasing the biting cold out of the tent. Then, she returned to her map table, raising the wicks on the lamps slightly, forcing the shadows to the corners of the tent.

She might not be able to choose her battle in this case, but at least she could choose when and how it would be fought. Looking at the map area between Hoofington and the Northern Fortress, she noted an area of open terrain bordered on two sides by dense forest, which would provide cover and make it difficult for the enemy to target her forces from the air. But best of all, were the high, rocky cliffs that provided a funnel, wider towards the fortress, and narrowing in the direction towards Hoofington. That would provide a natural squeeze point, forcing the attacking forces to close up their ranks. Furthermore, the high cliffs would prevent the enemy from using any flanking attacks against her forces. The position should be very defensible, and she estimated they could get there with seventeen hours of hard marching tomorrow. That was harder than she liked to push her troops on a march, but it would get them there a full three days before the attackers arrived. That would allow them plenty of time for rest and recovery, as well as allow time for her to finalize her plans and get all her forces in position once she’d physically surveyed the surrounding terrain.

“Permission to enter, Ma’am?” a voice asked from outside that sounded more like a pony than a changeling.

“Enter,” she responded.

The tent flap opened, revealing the pegasus guard she had fought with after they’d been ambushed. He secured the tent flap after entering, then turned around and gave her a salute, which she returned.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked in a neutral tone, making good on her promise to forget the whole incident from earlier as long as he didn’t cause any further trouble.

“Ma’am, I just wanted to … apologize for my behavior earlier … And to say that I’m … I’m honored and proud to be serving under you. If anyone can get us through this mess alive … well, I think you are probably the one … That’s all I wanted to say.”

For a moment, she was caught off guard by the unexpected praise, but she gathered herself quickly and responded.

“Thank you. And I’m greatly appreciative of your confidence.”

“Ma’am,” he said before saluting again. She returned the salute, and he turned, exiting the tent and pulling the flap shut again.

She looked at her maps again, although she wasn’t really looking at them. That had definitely been unexpected. At least coming that particular pegasus. If even he was beginning to respect her, hopefully that meant the rest of the ponies were as well. The coming week, and the coming battles, would determine whether she was worthy of that respect or not. They would be the defining moments of her military career. The battles that would either cement her place in history as one of the greatest changeling commanders that ever lived, or as a shining military star that burned brightly for a short time, only to explode in a supernova that took all of the forces under her command with her. She’d never shied away from responsibility before, nor had she ever doubted her own abilities. But for the first time, doubt plagued her, and she felt that she was too young to have this level of responsibility placed on her. Everyone would play their part and have their moment in this war. But in this particular moment, the fate of Hoofington, and possibly the fate of the entire world, rested squarely in the hooves of one young changeling commander.