In the scars of war

by l3ladeRunner

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad, Princess Luna, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Main 6
Length: 7228

The Solar Empire and The New Lunar Republic are at war, due to democracy going horribly wrong.

Democracy has been introduced to Equestria. But the alien concept didn't work for the ponies and now Equestria is at an all out civil war between The Solar Empire and The New Lunar Republic.
After three years of endless fighting, everypony is tired and just wants it to end. And now the end might actually be close...
When news of a third party reaches the two princesses, they send their most trusted officers to figure out who they are and if they can help win the war... Twilight, Applejack and Flyttershy from The Solar Empire and Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity from The New Lunar Republic.
Now the six (former) friends go on their quest to find the strange third party and hopefully bring the war to an end...

Published 2012-05-25 19:54:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-05-25 19:54:02 UTC

Prologue: Politics and consqunces

In the scars of war

Prologue: Politics and consequences

Cantorlot official parliament hall

“We will not stand for this anymore!” Ambassador Richthoofen, Princess Luna’s top adviser and official representative, exclaimed as he banged his hoof onto the table.

Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes coldly. “My dear ambassador, if you ever want any sort of power, please control your temper.” The ambassador turned completely red, but controlled himself and took his hoof of the table. Celestia looked coldly at her sister sitting at the table. “What do I owe the “pleasure” of your company Princess Luna? Has the high snobs something they want to take up, but are too afraid to ask?”

Luna glared back with even colder eyes than her sister and said: “This has gone on for too long. As my adviser said we can’t stand this anymore.”

“Can’t stand what my dear sister?” Celestia asked. “What’s so important that you have to pull me away from my royal duties?” Ambassador Richthofen snorted silently, but the Princess didn’t care. “Surely this could‘ve waited?”

Princess Luna eyed her sister even more. “We have tried to get an “audience” for almost two full days.” Her voice started to rise. “We can’t tolerate your tyranny anymore! You are keeping the populace down, while holding back important information.” She stood up and banged her hoofs on the table. “We demand that you publish the latest election results!”

“The results are still being processed.” Ambassador Cobbletroot, Princess Celestias official representative, said smoothly. “We are not ready to publish the results yet.”

“Not even after two full weeks?” Ambassador Richthoofen asked sarcastically. “In the last four elections the results were published only four days afterwards. You are obviously holding them back to hide the fact that you lost the election!”

“Protest!” Ambassador Cobbletroot exclaimed. “That’s a direct insult to her majesty! We will not…” And so they kept on bickering.

In 1003 of the Equestrian summer sun calendar the concept of “Democracy”, was introduced to the pony world.

It was the colt, Silver Speech, who proposed the idea: “What if everypony could have an influence on how Equestria was governed? Wouldn’t it be fairer if everypony could have an impact on what happened in Equestria?” He called this new concept democracy, taken from the star tongue word “demokratica” which meant “rule of the ponies” and his many speeches were heard far and wide. He wandered Equestria trying to gain followers, but no pony listened to him at first. Everything should happen as it always did, with the princesses taking the decisions. After all, they knew what was best for every pony and they would always rule the land with mercy and fairness. But as time passed, Silver Speech got more and more followers. Some shared his vision of a united ruling form, some wanted power, some were cranked on how some decisions made by the princesses had affected them in a bad way and others were just interested in seeing how democracy would work on Equestria.

In the summer of the same year, the concept of Democracy was first introduced to Princess Celestia herself by Silver Speech personally.

He told her: “By democracy, it simply means that the individual has the greatest influence on their own life and that institutions exist, which make it possible for all interests to be freely discussed and presented on equal footing in order to establish a solution. A democratic society is ruled by a government chosen by the people itself, after the interests of the people.”

She was both intrigued and frightened by the idea. The idea sounded really good in context, but from all her long years of existence she knew that it could go horribly wrong. She asked for some time to consult her sister about the idea, and they would make a decision together. For three entire days they discussed back and forth, with the entire equestrian population waiting eagerly. On the dawn of the fourth day, the princesses emerged from their chambers to address their decision on the royal balcony. All of the Cantorlot populace were gathered beneath it and everypony from the neighbouring towns had also come to see this historic event. When the two princesses finally emerged on the balcony they were met with tremendous applause and cheer.

It was princess Celestia who took the word and she said what almost everypony had wanted to hear: “My loyal subjects. After three days of discussing this vital issue, we have come to an agreement.” Everypony held their breath. “We have decided to try this new form of ruling called democracy. From now on everypony has something to say about how Equestria will be governed.” Cantorlot itself almost shook from the applauding, cheering and hurrahing.

“But only for two months.” Princess Luna picked up. “After the two months we will turn back to monarchy and see how successful the democracy has been.” This was met by a bit of hesitation, but then also a huge applause. “We need to prepare for this historic occasion, so we will have to wait for at least a month, for democracy to officially take effect.” The princesses went back into the castle followed by the sounds of thousands of ponies, all chanting the princess’s names.

They called in Silver Speech to present more of his thoughts on how democracy could work in Equestria. He was very pleased with how events had turned out and he immediately consulted the princesses. He said that democracy only worked if the two split up in two parties, opposite of each other. They had to have two different opinions and goals with Equestrias future. The two parties would then have a lot of representatives and they would then present laws and ideas to the people. The entire Equestrian populace then had to vote on who ruled the country more than the other party and which laws would take effect. The princesses were hesitant at first, but agreed in the end.

And thus the two political parties, The Solar Empire and The New Lunar Republic, were born.

The Solar Empire was led by princess Celestia. It followed the political philosophy called “socialism”.

The New Luna Republic was led by Princess Luna. It followed the political philosophy called “Liberalism”.

The two of them were opposites, where socialism wanted the government to have more power over the people and liberalism wanted the government to have less power over the people. Where Socialism wanted more attention to the individual worker, liberalism wanted more attention to the employer.

Silver Speech also made a party. He called it The Silver Speakers. He made it so that there would be more diversity in the parliament room, and that the ponies who weren’t either social or liberal had something to vote on. The Silver Speakers had an in-between-socialism-and-liberalism philosophy as Silver Speech called it, and both the princesses agreed that it was a good idea to have a party in between.

Each political party then had to have a size. This process took a long time, since Silver Speech hadn’t thought this far before. He proposed this: The government should have an odd number of seats in the parliament. He then followed up with the idea that the number of members should differ with how many votes each political party would get. The only members that would never change in a political party were the leaders; Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and him, and they would then choose their representatives among the populace. They all agreed on the idea, and Celestia proposed that there would be 123 parliament members. 120 would be chosen from the Equestrian population and the last three were permanent seats for the leaders.

They now had everything ready and the planning for the voting night could begin. All over Equestria big banners and posters were hung up. They all advertised for the event and the different political parties and their philosophies. Soon everypony started to talk about who they were going to vote for and why.

But quickly a silent taboo was made, that you don’t say your political opinion out loud, or at least not in public. Certain ponies found that offensive.

On the big day of the first equestrian election, everypony were filled with excitement and anticipation. A bigger event hadn’t been seen since Discords reappearance and that was years ago. Everywhere in Equestria the town and city halls had been turned into voting houses for the event and they were arranged with a lot of booths and a big glass container that the ponies could drop their votes in.

Nopony were able to do anything productive on that day, since everypony had looked so much forward to it. It had been decided that the voting were going to commence all day, since nopony would be working on the day. When the time had finally come to vote, everypony were making their way to their town or city hall.

Outside Ponyville town hall, the day of the first equestrian election

Twilight Sparkle and Spike were approaching the town hall with much excitement and anticipation. Neither of them had ever seen an event this big, and they were both anxious to see how everything went. They had both decided to vote on The Solar Empire. It was mostly because Twilight was Celestias student, but it was also because Twilight thought what Celestia said was the best for her and Spike.

“Hi Twilight!” A pink pony jumped down in front of her, startling her for a second, but then she recognised Pinkie. Pinkie started to speak indcredibly fast: “Are you excited? Cause I’m excited. I’ve never been so excited, well beside the time with…”

Twilight smiled and shook her head a little and looked over her shoulder. Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity were walking towards her.

“Hi Twilight.” They all said.

“Are you looking forward to the voting?” Rarity asked her.

“Sure I am.” Twilight answered. “I can’t remember when such an important historic event took place. What about you?”
“Off course we are.” They all said and laughed.

Twilight looked behind them. “But wait, where is Rainbow Dash?” She asked.

“Right here, Twilight!” An enthusiastic voice said from above. Rainbow Dash landed next to them in a swoop. “I just had some clouds I had to put in place, before I could take the vote.” She smiled in her strange way and said: “I definitely know who I’m gonna vote for, and that is…”

Applejack put her hoof on Rainbow Dashes mouth, silencing her. “Don’t tell us. Who you vote for is a private matter, remember?”

“Sorry girls I am just so excited!” Dash apologised.

“That’s okay Dash, we all are.” Twilight said.

They all started to walk over to the town hall, talking and laughing. They stopped at the stairs to the town hall, to step in line of ponies that were going in to vote.

Twilight looked at her friends. “No matter what happens we will still be friends, right?” Twilight extended her hoof into the middle of them.

“Always.” They all said putting their hoofs on top of Twilights.

One week after the voting the results were published:

The silver speakers: 17 % of the votes and 20 seats in the parliament, making it the smallest party, just like planned.

The New Luna Republic: 35 % of the votes and 42 seats, which actually came as a bit of a surprise to Luna, since she wasn’t as loved among the populace as her sister.

And finally The Solar Empire scored 48 % of the votes and 58 seats, making it the biggest and most influential political party in Equestria.

The next day, a big speech was held at Cantorlot by the three party leaders, about what would happen now. They stated that they would spend a week to find god representatives, which Silver Speech called politicians, and they were open if ponies wanted to be chosen as politicians. They were looking for well talking, smart headed and good ponies, who could represent the thoughts of the Equestrian populace.

The next day swarms of ponies had come to Cantorlot to apply for a job as a politician. The three party leaders had already chosen a good amount of politicians in the first week, so they didn’t need that many representatives. Actually Silver Speech had chosen 20 politicians already in the first week, so he didn’t need anypony at all. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna hadn’t chosen that many in the first week, despite Silver Speeches advise to do so, and now a week long session of pony interviews started. Each pony came into a room with Celestia, Luna and Silver Speech sitting at a table and then the pony had to present why they wanted to be a politician and how they wanted to help rule the country.

Sadly most of the ponies that had come to apply for politician ship didn’t even make it past the first question. They simply didn’t have the political spark that the leaders were looking for and only 1 out of 4 made the first cut. The entire first hearing lasted almost four days.

After the first hearing there was another one were everything was gone over in more details. This hearing lasted longer and more and more ponies didn’t know what they were going to do when they finally became politicians, and the number of ponies dwindled more and more. The second cut lasted for two full days and only two hundred ponies had made it.

On the last day of the week before the new equestrian government took effect, one last hearing was held. This time the three leaders went all out with their questions in the search of the best of the best. Only half of the remaining ponies made it and the best of them were chosen as politicians.

On the dawn of the week were democracy was officially scheduled to take effect, the three party leaders held a speech. They promised to lead the country with righteousness and the will of the ponies. Almost all of the equestrian populace had come to Canterlot to witness the government start and practically all of Equestria cheered, when Princess Celestia ended the speech with: “And now let’s rule this country together!” With those words, the first equestrian government immediately took effect.

Everything went well for the first two months. Actually so well that at the end of the two months, the government didn’t disband, but instead an election was being announced. The election proceeded as the first one, with everything going as it did before. This time the election results were different:

The Silver Speakers went down with one seat, The New Lunar Republic went up with three seats and The Solar Empire went down with two seats. Both the other party leaders congratulated Luna with the new results and Luna herself was very surprised and happy with them. The three party leaders decided that a new election would take place every year, on the day after the summer sun celebration. The parliament agreed to this, and the first real law from the new government was passed.

In the middle of the first year Silver Speech got the idea of writing down all the laws from the government. He called it the basic law. In the basic law, every law ever passed would be written down in it and every law that was terminated after it had originally been passed was erased from it.

After an entire year it was time for election again. Nothing changed from the previous two elections and after only four days the results were published. The only change was that The Silver Speakers had lost a seat to The New Luna Republic.

Now the second year of the new government began. This year was referred to as the golden age of democracy, because of the decisions made by the parliament. It was mostly The Solar Empire who got their law proposals passed since they were the biggest party, but The New Lunar Republic and the Silver Speakers also had a lot of things to say. The laws passed were beneficial for everypony and the equestrian democracy functioned perfectly.

But late in the second year, things started to go wrong. Politicians from The New Luna Republic started to complain to Luna, about to many of the laws being passed not being beneficial enough to the liberals. Luna didn’t agree with them at first, but started to think they were right. The last five laws passed had only been beneficial to the socialists and it started to anger Luna. She spoke to Silver Speech, about stopping the support to the newest laws. But Silver Speech said his party had both social and liberal people in his party and he couldn’t control what each of them supported. Luna was a little angered, but looked forward to the new election, in hopes of gaining more seats.

During the last months of the second year, The New Lunar Republic was so angered, that they said no to everything The Solar Empire said. This was noticed by Celestia and she asked her sister what was wrong. Luna said what was bothering her and Celestia promised to take it into consideration. She tried to change the politics of her party, but that instead angered her own party, and she couldn’t do anything with the politics.

When the second year was over and the election began, everypony was even more filled with excitement than normal. The voting proceeded as per usual, but this time everypony was a bit grumpier than the other elections. The social and liberal people had been divided in society, and many didn’t get along very well anymore.

The results of the voting were as follows: The Silver Speakers had been reduced to a little under half size and most of the seats had gone to The New Lunar Republic. Now The Solar Empire and The New Lunar Republic were more evenly matched and they both looked forward to the new political year.

The third year was very good in the first quarter, and the laws passed benefited both socialist and liberals. But as time passed, The New Lunar Republic grew more and more angry again. Hate slowly grew towards all of the socialists and in the last few months of the year, the two parties were almost at verbal war. The equestrian populace were also uneasy, with the two party supports sometimes going into a full brawl. In the last few weeks before the election, hate was all that was in the parliament room and that meant that no laws were being passed.

At the election things got ugly. Many started to fight, others talked bad about the other party supporters and some even tried to destroy the vote box. With the results came the biggest surprise so far: The Silver Speakers had almost lost all votes completely. They didn’t have enough votes to get any seat, and so the only pony left was Silver Speech. The Solar Empire was still the biggest party, but The New Lunar Republic was catching up quickly.

The fourth year was the darkest time Equestria had ever experienced. Not even the reappearance of Discord could match it. The entire parliament was on the edge of war, and the only thing that hindered it was the wise words of Silver Speech, who had been chosen as parliament overseer. This basically meant that he had full authority in the parliament room and if anypony didn’t listened to his word, they were banished from the parliament permanently.

The worst part was that the princesses were very affected by this new turn of events. They were corrupted even by their own political parties that were supposed to represent them. They started to hate each other’s parties and even worse, their own sister. Through the year everything worsened, even coming to a point where a liberal pony was beaten to death by two social ponies. Two months before the election, Silver Speech ran away from Canterlot, trying to escape the horrors and guilt his idea had unleashed. It finally culminated two weeks after the fourth election, when Luna wanted the election results published…

“If those are the last words you have to say dear sister,” Luna stood up and so did Ambassador Richthoofen. “Then I will have to take the equestrian government by force. In the name of the equestrian people and The New Lunar Republic!”

Celestia jumped to her hoofs and galloped over to Luna and looked her in the eyes. “Luna, please stop this now. This is madness. If we unleash a full on war, everything we have ever done will be meaningless.” She tried to beg all she could, through her eyes and voice. But Lunas eyes were cold and could only change if she got the election results.

“Madness? It’s madness that you aren’t releasing the election results to prevent all this.” And with that she turned around and walked out of the room followed by her ambassador.

“Fine, go! I don’t need you anyway. I hope you wake up some time!” The door closed.

Celestia realised what she had just said to her sister. She sat down and started to cry silently, her head buried in her hoofs.

On the other side of the wall a single tear fell down Lunas cheek, it’s dripping sound echoing in the hall. She looked at it for a minute before she headed down the hall, heading for her own conference room, where her politicians were waiting for the result of the debate.

The equestrian civil war had begun…

Chapter 1: The Solar Empire

In the scars of war

Chapter one: The Solar Empire

It was a cold autumn evening in the end of the year 1010 of the royal summer sun calendar. The bright night told nothing about the ongoing strife in the lands below. The quiet winds blew over the burnt plains and fields, scars of the Princess war and its ongoing destruction of Equestria. Two princesses, both thinking they were doing the best for their people, but sadly destroying the land as a result.

At the base of Cantorlot Mountain, Queen Celestias ground forces were stationed, their tents stretching as far as the earth pony’s eye could see. Normally the camp was based a little northeast of Ponyville, but recently The New Lunar Republics forces were attacking more from the north, than from the original south, which had let to the recent moving of the camp. Normally the camp was a relatively bright and happy place, the last safe home before the battles. But the long shadow of the dark half-destroyed Canterlot fell heavily on the minds of the soldiers.

After Princess Luna had left the parliament, Princess Celestia had changed drastically, being hit by some sort of greatness madness. She had become more resentful to the common people and enjoying the luxuries of the palace more than she should. She even proclaimed herself queen. It wasn’t enough for the socialist people to turn away from The Solar Empire though and everypony just hoped she would recover with time.

It was past midnight and everypony was asleep, all hoping that they weren’t going to battle the next day. The camp was completely quiet, all except for one huge tent in the middle of the camp. Loud noises were heard from the inside, but anypony outside couldn’t hear what was said. Not that anypony wanted to try. Anypony getting caught listening to this tent, would quickly find themselves court marshalled.

The tent belonged to Twilight Sparkle, field marshal of the Solar Empire army, and head strategist of the forces. She had been “awarded” this great title and honour, not only through her unquestionable loyalty to Celestia, but also her sometimes incredible strategies that often got everypony out of the battles alive. The noises from the tent were made from a battle planning meeting, and the officers weren’t in agreement with what was being planned.
Field marshal Twilight was joined by four of her top officers: General Ironhoof, Commodore Cloudwater, colonel Applejack and medical officer Fluttershy.

They were all gathered around a gigantic table, showing Equestria from a strategic perspective. Every single detail was displayed and the officers used it to coordinate their armies and depicture its movements and deployment. Spread across it was hundreds of small tin soldiers, depicting the ponies in the two armies. White pieces indicated Solar Empire forces and black pieces indicated New Lunar Republic forces.

They were all discussing the newest intelligence and what strategy would be best to take. Their sight was on the Silk Basin. A large area north of Ponyville and one of the largest and most divided battlefields in the entirety of Equestria.

“If air squadron two could drop the carthridges on the enemy’s front line, the army would be in disarray before we reach them.” General Ironhoof explained. General Ironhoof was one of Equestrias most hardened veterans and a brilliant tactical mind. He had forgotten more battles than most of the normal troops would ever experience. “If they are in disarray it would be easy to flank them and then strike directly at the main force.” He was pointing out what exactly he was meaning, using the map and little figurines on the table between them.

“But then we would have no cover from their crossbow teams or unicorns.” Commodore Cloudwater replied. Commodore Cloudwater was the fastest pony in The Solar Empires army. He was also air marshal Fireflies official representative, while she was at an audience with the queen or otherwise occupied. It was said that in all of Equestria, the only pony able to fly faster was The New Lunar Republics Air marshal Rainbow Dash. He was also the leader of air squadron two. They were rumoured to be the best fliers in The Solar Empires army, so everypony listened to him when he spoke. “If we have no cover from the ground, then we wouldn’t be able to get close enough to them.” He leant in over the table and tilted a figure that resembled a Pegasus over. “And we would most likely be shot down and lost.”

“And even if we recover you, the medical centres are full.” Medical Officer Fluttershy supported. She was the leader of The Solar Empires medical division, which meant she had full authority over the medical core, only outranked by Twilight herself. Otherwise she didn’t have any power, which was probably good because the medical core took all her time. She had lost much of her shyness and innocence from her being the medical officer and having experienced the frontlines. “And we are expecting company five any time now. The medical tents can’t hold anymore ponies!”

“But then what do we do?” General Ironhoof had a very small temper. This made him an excellent soldier and tactician, but just not that good of a strategist. “This is often were you have an excellent idea, field marshal.” He said, looking at Twilight.

Twilight was studying the map intensively and looking at all the figures spread out on it, overlooking every single detail. Suddenly her face lit up as she discovered something.

“It’s a trap!” She proclaimed loudly, making all the ponies frown.

“A trap? How’s that?” Colonel Applejack asked. Applejack was Twilights top adviser and chief-executive-of-the-forces. Applejack could almost always be found just behind the frontlines of greater battles, helping the troops and giving orders. The New Lunar Republic knew her as “the unbreakable” because of no matter how hard they tried; they simply couldn’t take her down.

“Look here.” She pointed at the figures representing The New Lunar Republic brigade. “According to the intelligence we received, the brigade is supposed to walk over the hill here.” She pointed at the map. “But that would lead them at both a height and spatial disadvantage, as opposed to here:” She pointed at a slightly lover area. “Field marshal Darklight would never make a mistake like that. And that can only mean they will ambush us from here:” She pointed again, this time at a mountain site, east of the original area. “So if we actually faced them head on.” She directed a group of figures representing The Solar Empire army. “We would get crushed.” She tilted all the figures.

Everypony knew of field marshal Twilights stunning tactical and strategic mind, so nopony was surprised of her deducing this.

General Ironhoof simply said: “Then what do we do? If we don’t stop them there they will move farther into our lands. And we certainly don’t want that.” They all shivered when they remembered what had happened to late General Wishthinker, when he made a wrong move that enabled the New Lunar Republic to take the north-western part of Silk basin.

“Well the first thing to do is to not listen to any more information from that source. It has either been ceased or converted to our enemies.” Field marshal Twilight said directed at colonel Applejack. Applejack was also one of the officers in charge of strategy and espionage information. She nodded.

Field marshal Twilight started to lay plans: “The problem is that we can’t face them in open combat on the middle of the fields. They have every advantage over us from their position.” She thought for a minute. "The best thing to do would be to lure them out with a single air squadron. They would bait on the false information. If the New Lunar Republic comes out then we will fall back behind this hill” She pointed at the map again. “Then it will be a stalemate and the New Lunar Republic will have no other choice than to fall back as well.”

“Unless they actually start attacking us.” Commodore Cloudwater argued.

“Brigadier Pinkie Pie might be crazy, but she’d definitely know better than that.” Colonel Applejack said.

“The colonel is right.” Field marshal Twilight said. “The brigadier earned her title for a reason and making ponies walk straight into defeat is definitely not one.”

“Don’t forget about the reports on the new armour we’ve gotten.” Medical officer Fluttershy argued. “Or are they also just misinformation? If it isn’t, the Brigadier might have one of her “episodes” and think the armour is strong enough to resist us.”

“The armour designed by chief outfitter Rarity is strong yes, but not strong enough to resist a full on regiment.” Colonel Applejack was the one who had received the reports on the new armour. She also knew the previous armour from her many clashes with The New Lunar Republics armies. “And it definitely wasn’t misinformation; it came from the most reliable source we have. But I really think we shouldn’t read too much into it either way. We still have the strongest weapons an’ their masterful armour hasn’t been able to resist it yet.”

Fluttershy nodded. She was just scared of the thought of even more injured ponies that needed to be healed.

“So is that our strategy then? Hope for a stalemate?” General Ironhoof asked.

“I think that’s closest we are going to get” Field marshal Twilight replied. “Anypony have any more objections?”

They all shook their heads. “Then you are dismissed. I will see you tomorrow for organizing the troops and specify who will be leading them into battle. All praise Celestia!” They all repeated and General Ironfist and Commodore Cloudwater both walked out of the tent.

The three friends breathed heavily in relief of the two officers having finally left. When the three of them were alone they could finally talk freely, without being afraid of anypony overhearing them and reporting them to the advisers.

“That took a long time.” Twilight complained. “I thought it was going to last forever.” She was about to unbuckle her uniform but Fluttershy stopped her.

“Remember fifth company hasn’t come back yet. If you are caught out of uniform, it will just have serious repercussions for all of us.”

Twilight groaned, but nodded. If she was caught out of uniform while important orders were about to delivered, then she could easily get demoted or even punished. After all she was the field marshal. “The uniform is just killing me today. I think it was put on wrong.”

“Do I have to discipline the outfitter?” Applejack asked. One of Applejacks other functions were to spread morale or discipline between the ranks of the soldiers. It wasn’t an easy job, but she did it with stout heart and she was excellent.

“No need.” Fluttershy said. “He broke his leg in a hoof wrestling competition a few hours ago, so I think he learned his lesson.” They all nodded.

“But now to the important stuff,” Twilight said, frowning. “I don’t like this new Intel one bit.” She looked closer on the figurines representing the armies. “If they really did deliver this on purpose, why didn’t they hide how they were really going to be more? I mean if they really wanted to blur it out, how come they positioned their troops there?” She pointed on the map.

“They should have put them here instead.” She pointed on a tiny valley.

“Maybe they…” But Applejack was cut off by the sound of running hoofs.

A brown pony, with a red cross, which had a heart inside it on his right front leg, walked in, bowed to the three officers and said in the direction of Fluttershy: “Medical officer Fluttershy, fifth company has just returned from the front. We need your assistance immediately.”

“Not good.” She simply replied and ran over to the pony. They both bowed at Field marshal Twilight and they stormed off to the medical core.

“That must mean we get our newest intelligence soon.” Colonel Applejack said. And only a few minutes after, a soldier clad in blood splattered plate armour, stepped in. He still had his helmet on and his sword was proudly presented on his side but his armour was torn at places.

“Lieutenant Stonehoof of fifth company, reporting directly from the battlefield of south eastern silk basin, field marshal.” He bowed down in front of Field marshal Twilight, who gave the sign for him to rise.

“Hail from battle, lieutenant.” Field marshal Twilight said formally. “Where is your captain, it should be him reporting to me.”

“Pardon General Sp…” The field marshal shot him a glance and he quickly corrected his mistake. “Field marshal Sparkle, but my captain is currently in the infirmary. They are trying to save his life from a terrible sword swing.”

Twilight walked over to her giant map and started studying it. “Full report.” Meanwhile colonel Applejack saluted to her Field marshal and walked out the tent to her quarters. Twilight wouldn’t need her right now.

“Nothing happened for three days.” The lieutenant started his report. “We thought we saw some lunar forces 6 pm on the second day, but besides that nothing happened.” He fished a scroll up from the folds of his under-armour and started residing it. “Earlier today, at around 10 am, we saw a company of lunar forces coming from the east. We of course quickly moved to intercept their forces. They didn’t fall back, so we clashed in the middle of the plains. We had the strength in numbers over their company, so we were driving them back.” He looked proud, but it suddenly got replaced with an expression of fear. “But then suddenly something… very strange happened.”

“What was it?” Field marshal Twilight asked a bit more eagerly than her rank allowed, but she was very passionate when anomalies happened on the frontlines.

“Someone… intervened.” He looked very scared. “A horde of green clad ponies waving big banners and swords clashed with the both of us. They came from the nearby mountain formation. It almost felt like they came out of nowhere. I didn’t get to judge their size that well, but the division must have been at least the size of a big company, maybe even a full battalion. They hacked away at everyone and everything, with such zeal that I gave the order to fall back after our captain had been mortally wounded by them. The Lunar forces did the same and we parted, with the green ponies picking up any dead or wounded ponies left behind.”

“Who were they?” Field marshal Twilight asked.

“They called themselves the Wordbeares, or at least that’s what they kept screaming. They kept on screaming that they brought the word of peace. But they slaughtered through a fourth of both companies in a matter of minutes. They were vicious, deadly and quick.”

“A new enemy.” The field marshal wondered as she put a new figurine down on the table. She used her magic to write Wordbeares on it and sat it in front of the figures that represented the two companies. “Were they well-armed?”

The lieutenant simply took a sword he had on his back and held it from his mouth to Field marshal Twilight. She used her magic to levitate the sword and took a good look at it. The sword was very well crafted and locked like the sword of a captain. “I took it from one of their foot soldiers.” The lieutenant said.

“Then they are very well armed.” She simply said. In truth she was shocked that a sword worthy of captain was in the hands of an ordinary foot soldier, but she wasn’t allowed to show that kind of emotion towards any of her soldiers. These new enemies were good, very good.

“As for armour, they only wore leather, but they were so agile that it didn’t matter. The worst part about them was their incredible zeal. They didn’t seem to register any type of attack. I even saw a foot soldier almost getting her right leg cut off, but she just kept on fighting like nothing happened.” He looked down into the ground, not wanting to admit it, but he had to:

“I’m scared of them.”

“Shock from the battlefield. Go to the infirmary immediately and I’ll see you first thing in the morning for a more detailed debriefing, captain. All praise Celestia.” She turned to her board and continued to move the figures around.

“Captain?” He looked confused for a moment, but then he figured out what she meant. “Uh, yes right away Field marshal. The report is right here.” He put it down on the ground and Twilight picked it up. “All praise Celestia!” He said and left the tent with both happiness and confusion, finally having attained enough tactical experience to advance to captain. He immediately headed to the infirmary, hoping that his soldiers and captain had survived.

Meanwhile Twilight was studying the sword captain Stonehoof had left behind. She had mistaken the first time she looked at it. This sword could even fit an expert colonel; Applejack would see it as great an honour to carry this into battle. Had this really been carried by a normal foot soldier? I need Applejacks opinion on this, Twilight thought.

Almost like called, Applejack walked into the tent. “How’d it go Field marshal?”

“Take a look.” Twilight pointed at the board, where the formation of fifth company’s battle was displayed. Applejack studied it carefully and Twilight joined her after a few minutes.

“They aren’t very well organized.” Applejack concluded. “How did they drive back fifth company with this disorganization?”

“Zeal.” Twilight simply said. “And this.” She showed Applejack the sword.

“That’s a mighty fine officer’s sword. Ah wouldn’t complain wearing it.”

“According to my report it was taken from a foot soldier.”

“What in tarnation?”

“Indeed.”

Applejack just looked shocked at Twilight. “How could this come from a foot soldier? How well armed were those new enemies?”

“They almost destroyed to full companies in a matter of minutes. I look forward to read the report more thoroughly tomorrow.”

Applejack didn’t comment any further. This report would better have to be very detailed and fulfilling, Applejack thought to herself. If the officer lied, she would have him court marshalled immediately.

“But that was all for tonight. We can worry about this new army tomorrow. I will retire.” She turned around to her private chambers. “Praise Celestia.” She saluted to Applejack

“Praise Celestia.” Applejack saluted and walked out of the tent.
Twilight sighed heavily. Finally she could go in and have her sleep. She was just about to enter her private chambers when she heard a loud trumpet noise. Three long and one short. That was the horn carried by Queen Celestias official representative’s guards, signalling their arrival. Judging from the continuing trumpet, it sounded like a high advisor.

Twilight quickly galloped out of her tent and followed the trumpet sounds. In her position as Field Marshal she was required to be the first at the arrival spot of important ponies and represent the entire army. She quickly realized that they came from the air, meaning the high advisor was in an air balloon. She made a mental note to tell the high advisor about the dangers in traveling in a balloon and galloped over to the landing spot.

Luckily she was the first there and could follow the path of the balloon down to the ground. As it slowly descended to the earth, more and more of her soldiers joined her and when the balloon finally landed everyone bowed in respect.
High adviser Cobbeltrot, the highest and wisest of Queen Celestia’s advisors with almost as much authority as her majesty, stepped down from the balloon. She was followed by four guards, all tasked with protecting her. She looked around and was pleased with the respect the troops showed her and she walked over to where the field marshal was bowing.

“Your troops show a remarkable resolve, field marshal Sparkle.” The high adviser gave Twilight the sign for her to rise. “They show that they are worthy of our queens trust.”

Field Marshal Twilight rose to her feet, but refused to look the high advisor in the eyes. It was thought as disrespectful to the advisors to look them in the eyes. “They are as loyal as any subject, your mareship. They do their very best to preserve the socialistic dream and save Equestria.”

“Very good. But I’m here for you field marshal. The queen wants to speak to you personally.” Twilight couldn’t help but look into the High advisors eyes when she said that. “Something very important has come up.”

“Something important?” Twilight hadn’t been talking personally with the princess in almost six months. Not since she had been appointed as field marshal. “What will her majesty speak to me about?”

“The information is top secret and thus I can’t give you any more details in public.” She turned around and started walking over to the balloon. “You will take the balloon with me to the castle. There you will have a personal audience with the princess.”

Field marshal Twilight nodded. She knew the drill and she followed the high advisor over to the balloon. On the way they passed colonel Applejack and the field marshal gave full authority to her, while she herself was gone. The balloon took off and they started gliding up towards the partially ruined and dark Cantorlot castle.