Twilight stood there, a single tear escaped her eye. It had been so long since she had spoken to more than one of her old friends. She had only regularly seen Rarity, and that was because come the rift, she took the side of the Princess. Going over to her dresser, she took out a lock box from her top drawer and pulled out an old picture of all of her friends posing with her.
She went from mare to mare, remembering happy times they had. She let the memories flow, from Pinkie, to Fluttershy, and to Rarity.
She glared a scowl of pure hate when her sight fell upon Rainbow Dash and Applejack. There they were, happy and smiling along with everypony else.
Look at her with her hoof on my head; get your hoof off my head! She thought, scowl not wavering.
She put the picture back in the lock box and tossed it carelessly back into her drawer before making her way to the throne room. Upon entering, she saw the throne and became very happy all of a sudden.
"I love you SO much! This is the best thing I've ever taken from a dead princess!", she rubbed the throne with a hoof while pressing a cheek against it.
"You show so much affection for something replaceable, yet you ignore your closest friend...", Rarity emerges from the shadows.
"Rarity! You shouldn't sneak up on somepony!", Twilight's expression changes from happy to almost scared. "That's how a pony gets themselves killed!"
"Are you saying you would kill me?"
"Of course not! But we are in the middle of war. What if i mistook you for one of Rainbow's spies? You did choose to wait in the shadows."
"This is true. I apologies my Liege. What does High Queen RedDawn have on her schedule today?" Rarity inquired as she conjured a quill and notepad.
"I was thinking we should raise the taxes. One week is too long to have the same taxes; we wouldn't want our subjects getting comfortable now would we?, Twilight raised a brow along with a twisted smirk.
"I suppose not. And we wouldn't want them to think we're giving them a break." -Rarity displayed a similar look. - "Our high queen has requested, and it shall be done! How mu-", she was interrupted by a soldier running in the throne room.
"Your highness! It is ready!", he saluted.
"First Lt. Rarity! Put our current plans aside! Brief the guard and report back to me!", Queen RedDawn commanded
Rarity turned saluted, "At once your highness!"
She bolted off, heading to the conference room to brief all of the officers of the army. She had only been IN a battle twice.
Rounding the corner of some hallway - there were hundreds of them - she found herself in the presence of the entirety of the head command. She quickly donned a very serious look on her face and began to brief them on what was going to happen. Once she had finished briefing them, she made her way to the queen's chambers.
"Knock knock.", Rarity was outside RedDawn's door.
"Enter, Rarity," Twilight said calmly from her room.
"The battle plan is ready, the officers have been briefed, and the troops are armed and awaiting your command.", Rarity stated once she entered.
"Good. Don your armor first Lt. This campaign will be your victory," she gave Rarity a smile. "Now go! Make me proud Lt!"
Rarity almost died with excitement. "Trust me your Highness! They won't know what hit them!"
One hour later.
Rainbow Dash was currently standing over a table in a dark room, looking at a map of the landscape of Equestria. It had pins of all sorts of colors sticking in it, as well as a lot of sweat stains, indicating she had been there for a while. She had been looking at these pins for so long she had begun to daydream about them attacking one another. She was considering which city to attack next. They didn't have as many cities under their control as the Empire, but they had a few. They currently controlled Los Pegasus, part of Manehattan, and the Everfree Forest - which is where their HQ was.
"So if we take the road from Ponyville tah Canterlot, then Ponyville's ours?" Applejack was standing across from Commander Dash.
"That's the plan anyway."-Rainbow Dash currently had a promising look in her eyes.- "As long as we put the train out of commission, they won't have a way to get earth or unicorn troops out to Ponyville as quickly. This should give us a size advantage...or at least make it less uneven. We also need to make sure we decommission the train while it's not in use...we don't want to endanger any innocent bystanders. "
"Yes, but what if the Pegasus troops are able to carry earth or unicorn troops? Ah mean, what if we fail to take out enough to really matter?"
"According to our chief adviser, their armor is too heavy to have two sets being held up by one pair of wings for elongated periods of time."
"Then that's the plan. Now what of our predicament in our portion of Manehattan? Is it not to risky tah have half the city belong to us, and half belong tah the Empire?" - Applejack took one of the Empire's heavy infantry pins and placed it on Manehattan, followed by pulling out the one that signified the Resistance's pin and throwing it into the wall next to her. - "What if they just ignore our cease fire and bring in a massive army? We'd have no use but tah surrender."
"Well, that would be a problem, if-", she was interrupted by a soldier suddenly bursting into the room.
"Excuse me Commander, but there's been an attack on one of our cities!"
Applejack simply gave Rainbow a bemused look that said, What'd Ah tell ya?
"Which city was it?", the commander was putting on her armor.
"Los Pegasus."