Twilights POV
To put things bluntly Twilight was scared that this “little war” has now caught the ire of Celestia also known as the butcher of Ponyville and the iron queen. Twilight took in a deep breath and walked up to the table and took a seat and lifted a cup of tea with her magic and took a sip. Celestia meanwhile just stared at her with a smile on her face. The air of tension was so damn thick it would take a whole artillery shell just to put a dent in it. Then Celestia laughed and took a sip of tea from her cup and placed it back down.

“You are probably wondering why I am here and not your army, I entrusted you to win this little war the news is calling it now.” Yeah no shit Twilight wanted to say but bit back her tongue. “Well since peace talks are going to be underway I sent your army home. Or rather my army, but that does not matter what does matter is your punishment for losing to a foe you should have crushed.”

Twilight interjected. “ My queen if you gave me more time I-“. Twilight did not get a chance to finish as the force of Twilight's head going through the wooden table and a loud crack sounded soon after. Twilight soon found herself on the hard ground vision blurred and blood running down her forehead. Tea was spilled everywhere around the tent they were in.

Celestia just simply got off her chair and lifted Twilight up and forced her to meet her gaze. “I gave you time and men to finish off what our scouts reported to be a small force. I hoped that this would be an easy job for you, but apparently I was wrong in this observation. Now the public wants somepony to blame. So, tell me Twilight why shouldn’t I pull out my pistol and shoot you for your failure?” Celestia released Twilight from her magical grasp to try and explain herself.

Twilight rose to all four hooves and held her head up. “My queen, the fault of this embarrassment falls to the fact we were not fast enough to cover the rear of the makeshift fort. Thus a small enemy unit got through our lines and proceeded with taking out our artillery and capturing a captain Rainbow Dash. I tried to get her back but I was unable to due to heavy enemy fire.”

Celestia stood there in front of Twilight for a moment before speaking again. “Who did you put in charge of securing the back of the fort?”

Twilight’s blood ran cold as the question hung over her head like a cloud of death. If she told the truth Applejack would be executed for her failure. She could not let that happen. “My queen I gave that duty to Captain Steelheart.” A sense of dread hung over Twilight as she just knowingly sent one of her command staff to their death. The sad truth was that this was commonplace in the military and Celestia made it that way.

All Celestia said was. “Where is he located?”

Twilight responded with. “His tent is on the dirt path leading up to my command tent.” Next thing Twilight knew Celestia teleported out of the tent and within a few minutes later she came back with a very startled stallion who looked terrified to the point of shaking. Before he could speak Celestia took out her pistol and shot him through the head without a second glance she passed now the dead Steelheart and up to Twilight.

“Thank you for your honesty Twilight. Be grateful that it was not you who was killed today but instead a traitor to the crown and a foolish Captain that is what the press will be spinning about for a couple of weeks.” Celestia then proceeded to walk out of her tent without even looking back. Before she left she stopped right at the exit/entrance of her tent. “Never fail me again like this or it will be you with a bullet through your brain.”

All the now shocked Twilight could say was. “Yes my queen I will make sure nothing like this happens again.” Celestia just nodded her head and walked out of the tent and in a quick flash she was gone. Twilight then crumpled to the ground her wounds starting to finally hit her and the shock of what she just did made her cry and hate herself like she never has done before. One of her personal guard's pony found her and helped her to a nearby medic. She stopped crying as soon as they were out of the tent. Her face was one of no emotion.

The medic said that thanks to her magical shield she was alive without it she would have very much died due to the force of impact and loss of blood but most of the major damage was healed. The medic then said that Twilight needs now to rest at least until the next day. All Twilight did was nod her head and lay down in the cot she was directed to. She then closed her eyes to the nightmares of war, death, dread, and loss. She awoke to a light tapping on her shoulder. She turned to her left to see a tall green purple dragon who has stayed with her all these long years.

Said dragon wore a large grin on his big face. “Well now who’s waking up who. I heard about the visit you had with Celestia and decided to fly over to check up on you. So how are you doing?”

Twilight just smiled back and said. “I am doing fine Spike, no need to worry about little old me.” She lied of course, because she could not show a tiny bit of weakness in the presence of military personnel who were working on other wounded around her.

Spike had a look of doubt for a moment before changing the subject. “The peace talks are going to be happening in no man's land right between the destroyed entrance of the fort and our trench lines. So do you want to walk there or fly because we got two hours to get there so we have plenty of time to walk.”

He then gestured to me for my answer which I gave very quickly. “I would not mind a walk with my most favorite assistant who has helped me so much after the war.”

He blushed for a moment and shrugged. “You give me too much credit, your friends also helped with your recovery back into civilian life those friends who did not join the military that is. Rarity and Fluttershy helped the most with your recovery.” He hesitated when he said the name of Fluttershy he seemed to dislike the name coming out of his mouth. Instead of replying all I did was get off the cot and walked out of the medical tent.

Spike soon followed suit but ran instead of walking. Twilight then gestured to the path they have to take to get to the frontlines. “Well don’t just stand there we have a long walk ahead of us and I don’t want to be late.” With that they started down a path that would lead to much good and bad.

Author's Note

Sorry for the long break I just have some bad writing block. Though I hoped you enjoy the chapter and see you all in the next chapter.