The War for Summer

Dairy Entry 0014...

I have been embroiled in mortal combat with my sister for over a week.

Our holy crusade to relieve our ponies of the heat of summer has stalled. Our servants and civil service members have been spared from choosing a side, but we have heard stories of families being torn apart. Brothers fighting brothers! Sisters fighting sisters! Lemonade versus limeade! Ice cream against frozen yogurt! Chocolate against vanilla!

The world we know is slowly being torn apart, but we will press on.

As per the agreed upon rules, the deadly stock arsenal of our guards and volunteers have been replaced less dangerous substitutes. Foes and allies are eliminated from combat when marked clearly by the opposing force's colors.

It is simplistic enough to work, but intricate enough to demonstrate our knowledge in the art of war.

Alas; we thought our prowess would eventually force our sister to sue for peace, but our complacency has allowed disaster to strike. Two days ago Tia's red forces occupied the royal kitchen, and we fear she will try to starve my loyal blue forces out. We have captured the royal beach room (much to the joy of my forces), but we have not made much progress elsewhere. The citizens of Canterlot have been more than generous in providing my troops with supplies and refreshments, but we fear such generosity will not last forever. Many ponies have no stance on the issue, and they see our fight for them as nothing but a nuisance.

We have considered many alternatives to ending the fighting, but we are unsure. We do not wish to add more kindling to the fire, as the saying goes. (We have considered using the remainder of our allowance to hire nine of the world's deadliest mercenaries, but we talked out of it by our trusted vizier. For now. The giant ice launcher and fly swatter will be considered later.)

If things continue, a mediator will have to be called in. Perhaps two, even.

We remain,

Princess Luna, Diarch of the Equestrian Empire.

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Luna closed her diary with her magic, placing her writing quill aside as well. She looked outside the tent flaps of her makeshift command post, which had been erected in her older sister's desert. Outside she could hear her faithful guards enjoying themselves in her ocean, and it relaxed her mind to know that she was giving them a brief respite.

A week had passed since her humiliation at her older sister's hooves coinciding a declaration of war, and although the first few skirmishes had yielded results for both sides, the fighting had calmed down into a stalemate. Everything from beach-chair guard posts to flour-bag bunkers had been assembled in rooms and halls in the castle, sometimes with both sides sharing hallway intersections on opposite ends. Too far away to take shots at each other, but close enough for each side to make rude gestures.

But for all her progress, things were not looking good.

The simple fact was that Celestia rightfully owned the summer, and Equestrians had become used to centuries of intense heat. Just as her winters were filled with long cold nights, having long hot days in the summer had become customary. And there were complaints being filed from citizens in Canterlot protesting both sides, but Luna knew she would end up shouldering most of the blame for wanting to change the norm. In hindsight she should have known, since some ponies would and could complain about anything.

"Your Majesty?"

Turning her head toward her command tent's entrance, one of her many Night Guards saluted before walking inside.

"Yes, Rosette? What is it?" Luna asked, before turning her attention back to a map of the royal castle spread out over a table. The map had several red and blue flags dotting each room, so many that almost every room in the castle was occupied. "You have something to report, no doubt?"

"The patrol headed out to scout the defenses around the royal kitchen hasn't returned." There was a clear hesitancy in her voice, as Rosette walked over beside her and pointed to several blue flags on the map. "We've received no contact from them either, and our outposts around the kitchen aren't responding. I'm afraid that they may have been captured by the enemy."

"Impossible," Luna breathed. Her eyes washed over the map of the castle as Rosette went about replacing her blue flags with her Tia's red ones. It was clear that the symmetrically divided castle was slowly changing against her. "What's happened?" She demanded, and put her hoof down on the map with a thump. "We personally oversaw the fortification of the cupcake line yesterday. How were they taken so quickly by the enemy!?"

"I-I don't know, your majesty." Rosette stammered, taken back by Luna's sudden burst of anger. "The enemy... That is, the Day Guard's tactics have changed. They were acting reserved until this morning, but they're attacking in groups too large for our outposts to defend against!"

Luna muttered to herself, and bit her lower lip in frustration. Both the Day and Night Guard had been reduced in size compared to the conscripted legions in Equestria's early centuries, but it hadn't hit her just how dwarfed her Night Guard was in numbers compared to the Day Guard ranks. Operations at night had been reserved for her to command since her return, and it had been decided that a several hundred well-trained stallions and mares would be more suited for Equestria's needs. In the tight confines of the royal castle, the training and discipline of her Night Guard could be overwhelmed by the raw volume of Day Guard recruits brought into service after the royal wedding incident.

"Also... Your Majesty?"

"Yes?"

Rosette reached into her saddle bags, and pulled out a loose collection of dirty papers. "I have a report her from the southern halls. Apparently they've been attacked by Day Guard cadets, who are acting as diversions for the regulars."

"What?" Luna's eye widened in shock at the information. "Are you sure?"

"Yes ma'am." Rosette nodded. "The attacks were...particularly fierce, I recall the report saying."

"Why would--... Would you go this far?" Luna whispered to herself, still in shock. To think that Tia was sending mere colt and filly cadets to be living shields in waves for those behind them. The thought of such desperate tactics, even if it was just a game, horrified her. She let out a shutter, leaned her foreleg down on the map table and resting her head on it.

Rosette looked at the table at her work and grimaced, but recomposed herself quickly in fear of Luna noticing. A clear bulge of red flags had begun to enter into blue territory, with some replacing blue ones like a hemorrhaging wound spurting blood. Judging by the path of attack, it was clear that the red flags could split the blue flags in half if their push continued in such a stabbing thrust. Outside they could both hear the sounds of the guard playing on the beach and in the artificial sea, oblivious to what was happening elsewhere in the castle. She looked to her princess, who had closed her eyes in thought and was still mumbling to herself in broken thoughts.

Rosette cleared her throat, and Luna cracked an eye open to see her standing at attention.

"Your majesty, I request that we be given orders to launch and immediate counter-attack."

"Neigh." Luna said flatly, before closing her eye again. "We must working on creating another fortified line before Tia's forces organize for another attack. We must be better prepared this time for when she comes."

"Your majesty, please," Rosette tried again. "We must be strong in times such as these. Please give us the order to organize a counterattack to retake the castle's kitchen so we may prove ourselves on the field of battle!"

From the start both sides had upheld some kind of unspoken agreement that some locations in the castle would remain neutral. But without warning Tia had moved her forces to occupy the royal kitchen, and cut off supplies for her younger sister's side. After receiving the news, Luna had personally gone to see the construction and fortification of the cupcake line that surrounded the outer walls of the royal kitchen, possibly for a future operation to retake the royal kitchen for their own use. The purpose of the tour had been to assure her of the capability of her Night Guard, but in reality all it had done was bring out her fears about the superior material and stallion power of the Day Guard. After the royal kitchen had been occupied, engineers working for her older sister had gone to work creating a fortress around the royal kitchen. By comparison, the fortified outpost of her Night Guard that was supposed to lay siege to the kitchens was dwarfed shortly in every single way imaginable.

After a minute of silence, Luna finally spoke. "What do you think attacking the kitchen fortress would gain us?"

"I...ah," Rosette felt herself at a loss of words. Was her majesty being rhetorical, or did she want her answer? Sometimes she couldn't remember when her guard shift started, or when the barracks sleeping assignments had been changed, never mind strategizing for war.

"Your majesty," she bowed her head down to the ground, and held it there as she tried to gather her own thoughts on the matter. "It is the wish of any true soldier to be able to fight while honoring the beliefs he or she holds. With respect, your sister has stooped to tactics unfitting for a princess by occupying the royal kitchen and cutting off supplies to us. Please give us the order to launch a counterattack!"

"Don't be absurd," Luna said harshly, giving her a contemptuous glare that sent a chill to her spine. "We do not remember ever schooling you in such idealistic nonsense. Pointing out the wrongs of our older sister's underhoofed tactics will not win a fight!"

"Maybe I am a fool then," Rosette kept her head bowed. "But I must learn how not to remain as one by going out and fighting. You can't expect us to accept defeat without fighting, your majesty!"

Her own words had surprised herself more than Luna could have guessed, and in the seconds of silence that followed Rosette remained shocked at her own sudden burst of stubborn courage. Because of her military-related training, and the fact that she had been born into a family dedicated to serving Princess Luna, she has risen to the rank of corporal long before some of her seniors. Having always tried to avoid anything directly connected to the more violent aspects of her career, her promotion had hardly made her happy.

Although her companions were unaware of it, generations back her grandfathers had sided with Nightmare Moon and fought beside their princess weighing their loyalty over everything else. But as fate would have it, their own prejudices had blinded them from fulfilling their obligations to what was good for their princess, as opposed to simply following orders. Her father had always told her, "Your ancestors were real knights. They were great stallions and mares, who were willing to stand for how all races in Equestria deserve to be acknowledged for who they are. Their methods were far from perfect, but there is nopony in the universe who is perfect. Even Alicorns."

At that point, Rosette recalled how she would usually grow tired of the old story, and cut off her father saying, "We're living in a modern Equestria, father. We're just ordinary guards now..."

Thinking back now, she was slowly realizing that her fellow bat-ponies outside were the closest living things to being in the horseshoes of the soldiers that had fought in Equestria's only civil war a thousand years ago. To her silent horror, all of the unpleasant associations with her family and history were starting to shine through the uniform and armor she once donned as part of an event-less evening routine.

"Well? What would you have us command?" Luna asked, snapping Rosette out of her thoughts as she glanced past her and outside of the tent. Outside the Night Guard were still frolicking and playing about on the beach and sea like colts and fillies. "If you've a plan for us that is more than just words, do tell."

To her surprise, Rosette found the words to answer. "All plans start as thoughts and words, your majesty. It is the soldiers you command that will turn them into reality."

"...Hmph." Finding herself matched in a battle of wits, Luna frowned and walked to another table in her command tent. Reaching underneath it with her magic, she pulled out a set of scrolls and scanned the names written on them. "We do not remember Rosette, a mare who always tried to skip out on sword training, as a soldier who is eager for blood. What has changed in that head of yours since we last spoke?"

Rosette swallowed guiltily, with her long held suspicion answered about why she had never been punished for skipping out on the boring aspects of her basic training. Nothing short of royal intervention, apparently. Swords were for Griffons and other creatures with more dexterous manipulators on their arms. To her, it was stupid to try and stab an enemy with something clenched tightly in your jaws when you could just shoot them with a magic spell. Or use high-explosives. Or just plain old fire, in all of the amazing ways that had been developed to cast it.

"To be perfectly honest, your majesty," Rosette looked down at the ground, not caring any longer about putting up a brave facade in front of her princess. "I've always questioned what kind of a soldier I would turn out to be, since I felt the shadow of my ancestors casted over my family."

"You wish to prove yourself, and to put aside your doubts?" Luna unrolled another scroll and scanned its contents. She flipped it over and onto its blank backside, and magically reached for her writing quill that still laid near her diary. "Or is it something...more? Is this about your father?"

"If I may be so bold, I'd rather not talk about my family your majesty." Rosette shifted in place uneasily. "What I mean to say is... I think all of your guards wonder if there will be a time where we use our training in actual combat. Even if this is a giant game of some sort, I feel uneasy fighting other ponies like my life is on the line."

"Then... Are we to believe...that you are having a conflict of morals from raising your hoof in violence against your fellow guard? And you feel that going into combat will force you to resolve your fears?"

"I... Ah..." Hearing it said out loud and with no subtlety, Rosette feel ashamed. "Yes, I think so. That is correct, your majesty."

"Hmm, we believe we understand." Finishing her writing, Luna screwed the cap back over on her inkwell with her magic. She waved the parchment in her grasp lightly into the wind to try it, before rolling it up and tying a blue ribbon around its body. "We are sorry to disappoint you, but we will not send you into combat Rosette. If you believe that you will somehow overcome your fears from being forced to confront them, allow us to tell you personally that the world is not that simple."

"What!?" Rosette shouted. "B-but your majesty, you can't--! I NEED to--!"

"NO! NO BUTS!" Luna shouted back, with the sides of her tent reverberating the gale-force power of her voice. Sand under both of their hooves was kicked up into the air, covering important documents and maps in the tent. Outside every Night Guard playing or lazing about had heard the shout and had stopped whatever they had been doing (or in the case of the few sleeping, gone back to it). The beach room of the royal castle fell into a deathly silence, with the only sound in the room being the waves in the artificial sea lapping against the pool's side.

"An army is NOT about the needs of individual soldiers! We will not be responsible for sending ponies who have pledged their loyalty to us to their deaths twice! You WILL obey your princess, and have FAITH in her decisions like you ALWAYS have! Have we made ourselves clear!?"

"...Yes, your majesty." Rosette mumbled. Without saluting she turned herself around, and walked toward the command tent's exit with her tail tucked between her legs.

"Corporal Rosette!"

Jerked to a stop, Rosette saw the empty saddle bags mounted to her sides were wrapped in Luna's magic. After untying the straps that kept them closed, Luna slipped the large parchment scroll she had been writing on seconds ago into it.

"We want you to deliver this message to the outpost at the crayon line. And," Luna's voice held a clear edge in it, "do NOT fight if the Day Guard tries to confront you. You are a courier and a scout, Rosette. Do not forget this."

"Yes, your majesty." Rosette mumbled again, before closing her saddle bags securely on her own.

"...Rosette."

Stopping just short of the tent's exit, the young bat-mare turned and looked at her princess. To her shame, Luna's eyes reflected a sadness that pained her to look at them. A sadness she had taken countless oaths to never allow happen during her lifetime.

"Do not be in such a rush to grow up. Never go in haste to expose yourself to the problems of our world."

Unable to think of anything to say in return, for better or for worse, Rosette walked out of the tent and into her fellow guards.

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