In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

-Winston Churchill

This isn't how it was supposed to go. My sister is now to distraught for Twilight and the others. She can't lead the war effort properly in this state so she left it up to me and this is harder than it looks. I alone control the entire Equestrian Military, Princess Cadence is in the Crystal Empire taking in any refugee that comes from the war ridden city of Manehattan. It was the first attack that my sister made to rebel the invaders. Shining Armor has made it clear that the fighting will go on for a few years if we don't do something now. No pony is ready for this not even Celestia, but it must be said for it will keep the ponies in the rest of the cities safe and secure. But I do hate to lie especially in front of the loyal citizens of Equestria. I guess it is to make sure no panicking ensues. I take to the podium and prepare the speech.

"Good ponies of Equestria and any pony that has made it to the safe zones away from Manehattan, I have word from the front lines and it is not pleasant. As of this morning the eastern town of Manehattan was lost to us. It is now under Griffin Control. Of the 10,000 soldiers that were sent to the city only 148 of them got out, and the rest of them were killed in action or went missing. Also out of the 8.4 million ponies that live in the city as of right now only 8,565 have escaped the evil forces of the Griffin Kingdom."

The ponies were not very happy about losing a major city in the first battle of the war but things happen that aren't planned. They just yelled and argued for a few minutes until Shining Armor cut into the fray. He stood in front of me and the way he stood showed that he was mad. The crowd died down and were now in an utter silence, I'm sure they were scared of him since his promotion to a general.

"Now if that is enough of the complaining, I think that this is the end of the press conference." he said

"Thank you Shining Armor. Yes that is all for now, until we get more information we can't really say more on the war." I said as they filed out of the room.

"I'm sorry Princess Luna for this event."

"Do not fret Shining Armor it had to be done, even if it was hard for many to accept it. We may have lost this battle but the war rages on. And for now we must think of another plan to attack to--" I was interrupted again, not surprising, but this time it was a pony from the war room.

She was a small pony, not really much to look at, but she looked like she was worried about something. As soon as I looked away from her to think of something, I saw it she had some paper work from the night of the invasion and it had been highlighted in many places. They looked as if they were highlighting the same word over and over again and was last transmitted for inside of the city of Manehattan, she was clenching the papers really tight. She started to shake in her hooves, sweating and shivering all over.

"What seems to be the problem Miss?" asked Shinning Armor.

"Nothing really, it's just that these papers show some sort of word repeated over in different places in the transmission and I want to see what it is that has caught Corporal Iron's attention. So I was wondering if I can take this to the the computer and check what the words mean."

"Why yes of course, but please hurry we have to plan the next defensive if we want to evacuate the next city." I said.

With her acceptance she trotted away. We walked into the massive War Room that had ponies every where trying to find the Griffon Army massing in the city of Manehattan. I watch as the ponies try to make sense of the recently lost city and locate a scout in the area. He was a secret asset to the attack and no pony knows of his whereabouts. All of the ponies in this room have worked so hard to keep the ones out in the field alive. Looking over these ponies triangulating his last recorded location makes me wonder why I have to do this, look over the war effort. Celestia can easily take care of this but she went and had an accident where she was labeled unfit to rule and now I, little Luna, has to take control. I can also see that many of the subjects resent me as their ruler, and I do know that Celestia and I both might be in trouble. While thinking of all that has transpired in the past five days, Cadence comes in and lightens up the room.

"Luna are you alright, you don't look to well. I think you might need to take a rest from this whole ordeal." Cadence asked as she checked up on us.

"Cadence how are the refugees? Are they alright?" asked Shinning Armor.

"Yes I have Captain Shard overlooking the arrival of the refugees coming from Manehattan as we speak." stated Cadence.

"Princesses, Shinning Armor, we've finally received word from our spy inside the city, shall I put her communication through?" asked a pony from across the room.

"Why yes of course put her through." said Cadence.

I was hesitant to answer because the city is now under the control of the Griffin Army. I wasn't sure that she would make it in and report on the situation of the ponies that were left behind. To honest this all seem to easy for a spy to go in and not be detected right after the battle was fought. I have a bad feeling about this, it seemed to quick to send in a report on the status of the city. And like most of my gut feelings I was right about this report being too soon. Just as the transmission started we saw a horrific sight. The spy was being mauled by two huge Griffin soldiers while another one that looked like the captain of the squad.

"So this is the little pony who thought they could get away with espionage. Well if I am captain of the 301st infantry regiment then you were sent by either Celestia or Luna but you will never see the light of day where you are going. Take here away. Oh and I do hope you saw that Equestria."

The transmission cuts out there and I can see that many of the ponies in the room became very furious at that mysterious Captain and I could see that tensions were rising. That's were I cut in.

"Please, this bastard will get what's coming to him. In the mean time we must morn over the loss of the spy at a later date, but right now we need to send in troops to defend Fillydelphia, it is the nearest city to Manehattan. Who knows if they are already mobilizing to attack the city." I said with an assertive voice.

Even though what that asshole did to our spy was unnecessary, we need to protect the remaining cities on the East Coast in order to have a fighting chance in this war.

Author's Note

Sorry for this chapter being so late just moved and now we're moving again but I will finish another chapter for this one and The Fastest Race in the Universe soon.