Twilight of Harmony

The trio of alicorns entered the main chambers for where the Day and Night Courts were held. Upon entering, Twilight was able to see four ponies, one Earther, two Pegasi and one Unicorn, who appeared to be a little pale, in the uniforms of the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and what appeared to be the British Royal Navy if she recalled correctly.

“Princess, could you explain what the hell that blast was?” The US Admiral inquired tensely.

“We’re not sure exactly ourselves Admiral. But we will be sending teams to see what happened. My question is are all of your strategic weapons secure and accounted for?” Twilight replied.

“Yes they are. Though I would like to know how you know about them.” She replied.

“Well, considering up until last night I was on Earth and two years before that I was a member of 5th Special Operations Group as a Scout-Sniper, I know quite a bit about America’s nuclear arsenal. Tell me did any Minutemen get brought here or do you just have Ohios?” Twilight replied.

The four flag officers blinked in surprise at Twilight’s admission.

“You say you were a sniper in 5th SOG, what was your callsign?” The Army general asked.

“Warlock.”

“Well, that is something else. Last I heard though you lost your arm to shrapnel from a mortar round.” He replied.

“Well, I was able to whip up a very nice series of prosthesis to replace it.” The alicorn replied as she pushed up her left sleeve, revealing the metal limb. “So I assume that you are the local Combatant Commanders then?”

“That would be correct. We came here at the urging of Queen Chrysanthemum to establish a favorable alliance for not only ourselves, but her people as well.” The Air Force general replied.

“I have never heard of a ruler with that name before…” Celestia began.

“That is probably because she is the Queen of a Changeling hive, correct?” Twilight said, cutting off the older alicorn.

“That’s correct. She also said that the actions of Chrysalis were the actions of a single desperate ruler who is currently being hunted by the other Hives. There had been plans in the works to send emissaries to your nation, but those plans went down in flames when the ‘Wedding Incident’ occurred.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, I can imagine that her head on a pike would go a long way to smoothing things over with us. However since there are other hives out there, I am not going to tar them with the same brush as her. Kind of like how a lot of people lump all Muslims in with the extremists. Most of them are decent people, scared and wanting to protect their homes and families, but decent.”

“Well said Your Highness.” The Royal Navy admiral spoke up. “The changelings that we have been sharing space with have been a decent sort. Hard workers and not afraid to do the dirty jobs that need to be done.”

Twilight smiled. “I can imagine that a well run Hive is like that. Chrysalis must have mismanaged things to get that desperate. Especially with three alicorns running around in the same city. So what are your assets, gentlemen?”

The four flag officers looked at each other for a moment before nodding.

“We have pretty much the entirety of the US Navy with the exception of the Constitution. As far as Army, Air Force and Marine assets, we have six armored divisions, ten infantry divisions, the entirety of Air Combat Command, most of Space Command, parts of Strategic Command and all of Special Operations Command on the US side of the house. As far as the British forces go, I believe we have the entirety of their forces.” The US Admiral said before turning to his British counterpart, who nodded in confirmation.

“So in other words, we have nearly two million troops and a few thousand vehicles, ships, and aircraft.” Twilight said as she paced back and forth. “What is the current situation on the ability to use those assets? Other than the subs and carriers that is.”

“We are surprisingly able to use all of our resources. When we awoke and began taking stock of things, all of the aircraft and vehicles had been modified to draw on the ambient magic in the air. Our arrival has been one hell of a learning curve. But it has been a boon as we no longer need to use our tankers to fly long duration missions. We have spent most of the last few months launching GPS and communication satellites into their appropriate orbits. The GPS constellation is complete with backups, and the last communication bird was lofted a few weeks ago. We are currently working on preparing a surveillance satellite for launch. It should be ready by the end of the week.” The Air Force general replied.

Twilight nodded. “So we have positioning and comms, soon to have eyes in the sky as well. I assume that there have been U-2 flyovers to get some intel of key areas?”

“Yes. An area of concern, and the primary reason that we have arrived here far earlier than we had planned was located on the Eastern Continent.” The general replied.

“What is the area of concern and the reason for the concern?” Luna asked, speaking up for the first time.

“These are the images from one of our surveillance flights.” The general said as he pulled out a set of photographs from a brief case.

The images seemed to show a camp with a series of barracks with railways leading up to it. There were dozens of guard towers around the encampment with at least three layers of fences surrounding it.

Celestia and Luna looked at the images with some curiosity, but once Twilight looked them over she swore.

“Is this what I am thinking it is General?” She asked.

“If you are thinking of those camps from back in the Forties? That is our best assumption. We have found at least five other similar sites and there are a large amount of coastal defences reminiscent of the Atlantic Wall the Germans tried to build. Right now, there are only a few areas that are fully constructed. But given how quickly they are being constructed, it will be a tough nut to crack.” Came the reply.

“Has the GPS network been updated with new maps and grids?” Twilight inquired.

“Yes ma’am. Updates have been pushed out to all units including our subs. Targeting software for all of our JDAMS and cruise missiles has been updated as well. Tridents have also had the upgrades.” The Army general replied.

Twilight nodded as she rubbed her chin. “Okay, so how will command and control work?”

“Well, we were considering allying ourselves with Equestria, if not working to be folded into the existing military structure if an agreement could be worked out, but that would be up to you three I would assume.” The US admiral replied.

“Understood Admiral. If you could give us a few moments to discuss this, we can give you an answer.” Twilight replied before motioning for her fellow alicorns to follow her.

Reaching a corner of the room, she threw up a privacy spell around the three.

“So, the basic situation is that we have a force that is apparently willing to commit genocide that has blitzed across a continent and is slowly turning it into a fortress. I highly doubt that the Equestrian military as it stands would be able to put up much of a resistance, much less actively being deployed to push them back and force a surrender. These gentlemen are offering the ability to end this war quickly and decisively, in our favor, with much less loss of life than we would otherwise have.” Twilight explained.

“But who would command them? From what I can tell, they are organized completely different from the current military. Not to mention their technology is decades to a century ahead of our own. Most of what you were discussing, I have no frame of reference for Twilight.” Celestia replied.

“Then who should command them is clear.” Luna said smirking at the younger alicorn.

Twilight looked the darker alicorn in the eye and sighed. “Goddammit. I guess I should have seen that coming when I walked over here. So make them my guard unit since I never had one stood up?”

Luna and Celestia looked at each other for a moment before nodding. Celestia addressed her former student.

“Very well then. Princess Twilight Sparkle, you are hereby placed in command of these new military forces. Do not abuse this role.” She said.

“Trust me Celestia, I have no intention of doing so.” Twilight said as she dropped the privacy spell. She then walked over to the waiting officers.

“Sorry for the delay gentlemen, it would seem that I have been appointed your new Commander in Chief.” She said to the four.

The four officers saluted and Twilight returned it with a crisp salute of her own.

“Got the short straw ma’am?” The US Admiral asked with a small smile.

“Basically, I am the newest Princess to be crowned, I don’t have my own personal guard unit, and I am the only one of the four current Princesses that has the correct frame of reference to be able to properly deploy even half of the resources available.” She replied with resigned tone.

“So what are your orders, Your Highness?” The British admiral asked.

“For the time being, I need a Command Post set up in my castle in Ponyville, and yes I realize the puns will be a bit much. I want at the moment at least one MP company to be deployed there, as well as a Red Horse unit to start setting up a base. I will need all the usual setups, sat comm links, video links, Blue Force Tracker, and anything else that I might not be thinking of at the moment.” Twilight replied. After a moment’s thought she added. “Also get the fleets on patrols if they aren’t already. Have the Virginas and the Astutes trailing and gathering sonar information. For the time being, don’t make any aggressive moves, but do not hesitate to defend themselves or other ships that may be targeted. I want as much intel as we can get so we can hit them hard and fast when we make our move. Also start sending out engineers to find sites that will work for bases so we can disperse our resources as much as we can. We also need to get NBC response teams sent to Baltimare to get the placed cordoned off and an assessment of what needs to be done to work on decontaminating the area.”

A chorus of “Yes ma’ams.” met her ears.

“Alright gentlemen, dismissed. I will be in touch once we get comms established. Oh, and one more bit of business. I want two companies each to reinforce and augment the guard for Canterlot, the Crystal Empire and Ponyville. Those are the seats of power for our country, so they need to be protected. If we can manage it, I would like to have a routine CAP presence as well over the three areas, plus our coastal cities. So that should assist in determining the opportune areas for base construction.”

With nods from the five flag officers, they parted ways.

Twilight sighed as she watched them leave the throne room, running a hand over her face.

“Are you going to be able to handle this task Twilight Sparkle?” Luna inquired of the younger alicorn.

“I will, it’s more of the fact that I was an NCO when I was in the Army, and now I have been thrust up to the rank of a five star general. Going to take a lot of getting used to this situation. I have a lot of people to take care of now. It’s a lot of pressure to suddenly have. I really never had much in the way of this kind of responsibility before everything went down.” Twilight replied as she walked to the window. “This is going to be a hard fight, but we will do everything we can do to make it as quick as possible.” She said after a moment.

“And of the lives that will be lost?” Celestia asked quietly.

“What of the lives that have already been lost?” Twilight said gesturing in the general direction of the now ruined city of Baltimare. “Should the loss of so many innocent lives not be responded to harshly? We will do everything we can to limit civilian casualties, but this is war Celestia. The times of soft touches and gentle nudges are done. They blind sided us and a large number of our people are so much ash on the wind. That cannot go without a swift response. To not do so is to weaken our position, and that is something we need to avoid at all costs.” Twilight responded firmly, her tone neutral.

“I agree with her sister. If you had been firmer in dealing with the Ligers, things may not have gotten to this point.” Luna said before sighing. “Sadly, as they say, hindsight is a blessing and a curse.”

“I’m going to check on my family and friends. Once they are cleared, we will be catching the next train to Ponyville. I have work to do.” Twilight said before nodding to her fellow Princesses and made her way out of the throne room.