Shades of Violet

     "Luna, what are we to do now? The rebels have broken into the prison and released the ponies who denied our will." Celestia said while pacing around the war room. "This will surely bring our down fall. We must act fast!"

     "Easy sister, we do not know what they are planning, if we attack now that would leave us weak. We don't know what they have in the means of weaponry. They could have missiles! Sister please wait, once we know what they have, then we will plan." Luna explained to her Sister.

     The two sisters sat on opposite ends of the table in the middle of the room. The war room was an addition to the palace built after the military split, the army took over a few small bases and a large armory. The Air Force uses cloudsdale and other small pegasi cities.

     In the war room, maps of Equestria were pinned to the walls, thumbtacks were placed in accordance with know rebel locations. In the middle of the room, a single wooden table, 6 seats were placed around the table, two for the princesses, one for the head of the Air Force, one for the head of the army (which is now empty), one for the head of the magical warfare development team, and the last one is for a Crystal Empire diplomat.

     When the civil war broke out the MWDT (Magical Warfare Development Team) split into two, one side joining the rebels and the other staying loyal to the princesses.

     The rebel half of the MWDT sabotaged most research stations near Canterlot, setting off bombs or burning the buildings after taking as much of the research as they could. Bomb designs, new spells for healing or destruction, and all sorts of advanced weaponry.

     The head of the princess loyal MWDT was in one of the buildings when it was burned to the ground. Scars and burn marks now cover most of his body, leaving almost no trace of his once light blue coat and test tubes cutie mark. He barely escaped before the building collapsed, taking the most advanced weapon designs and schematics with it.

     The most powerful was called EAL (End of All Life) capable of destroying entire countries with the press of a button.Without it, the civil war will rage on till one side loses. Either way Equestria will suffer massive loss of life, but the EAL would be able to reach the conclusion of the war much quicker.

     Now the princesses needed to come up with a plan to get rid of the rebels without the EAL. The war room was dead silent, nopony coming up with ideas.

     "Does any pony have an idea?" Said Celestia, breaking the silence.

     "Princess, the EAL was our only hope for getting rid of the rebels, without it we have to engage them through normal combat." Said the head of the Air Force, Rainbow Dash. "We also can't use the elements because Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight have joined the rebels."

     "So what's our next line of defense?" Said Celestia.

     "We can send in spies, find out what they have, and what they're capable of."

     "Astral, how long till you have the EAL research done and ready to go?" Celestia said to the MWDT leader.

     "At most a year, the earliest is 3 months." Astral replied

     "That should be a sufficient amount of time. Rainbow Dash, send in the spies. Astral, continue research. I want this war over as soon as possible, now go." Celestia said while pointing her hoof to the door. The others stood up, saluted and walked out the door. Celestia and Luna were now alone in the war room.

     "I hope this works sister or else we will be paying a heavy price." Luna said, then walked out.

     "I hope this works, those rebels want my head, and they're not going to get it without a fight." Celestia whispered to herself as she walked to the door.