I trotted up to Luna in the dream realm and promptly put my forehead against her barrel, “Save me.”
“Are you being serious or just dramatic?” She asked, sounding somewhat amused as she gave my ear a nosing.
“I have been dealing with Griffons and Yeti posturing at each other all day,” I grumbled, “Just when I think they are going to start moving forward, they backslide into posturing. That has to count as serious.”
“Dramatic it is,” Luna said with a smile and shifted to put a hoof beneath my chin, guiding me into a soft kiss.
I kissed back and shifted my wings before I sighed and looked up into her eyes, “But seriously, can we… annex them or something?”
“No.”
Damn it.
Luna looked amused and moved around to put her side against mine, pulling me close with her wing before she lay down, pulling me down with her.
I sighed and leaned against her, resting my head against her shoulder, “...I’m not made for this sort of job,” I admitted, “I don’t have the patience for it.”
“You seem to be doing quite well,” Luna said, “Talks are still ongoing, are they not?”
“They are,” I agreed and flicked an ear, “Not going anywhere fast, but they are at least still talking.”
“Then it’s a good thing.”
“...I know,” I admitted, “I’m just venting a bit,” before I shifted to look up at her with a small smile, “How was your day?”
“Asleep,” Luna teased and bumped her nose gently against mine, “And I need to wake up again soon for Night Court.”
I shook my head and smiled up at her, “Nope. Mine. Can’t have you tonight.”
Luna smiled and hugged my closer with her wing, kissing me softly before she sighed softly, “Page…”
“...I know,” I sighed and shifted my wings beneath hers, leaning against her warmth, “It’s just… miss you.”
“When you get back,” Luna said and rubbed her cheek against my mane, “I’m taking the days until you leave off my duties. Or nights.”
“Really looking forward to that,” I said softly and smiled at her.
She smiled and gave me a soft kiss, “Me as well.”
I sighed and leaned against her, “How much longer?”
“...A few minutes,” Luna said before she smiled softly, “Meeting Celestia later?”
“Lesson tonight,” I agreed and flicked my tail with a nod.
“Anything interesting?” she asked, her wing shifting to brush along mine.
I earflicked before I answered, “Actually, battlefield tactics. Not something you and I ever really covered, we mostly did practical fighting.”
She nodded, “At the time, that was the most important thing,” and then started to get up, stretching her wings before smiling down at me, “Have fun.”
“Will try,” I said, looking up at her with a smile of her own, “You too, have a nice night.”
Leaning down, Luna brushed her lips against mine before she dissolved in a sea of sparkles that quickly faded away.
I sighed softly and got up, stretching my wings with a small groan before I headed to find Celestia's dreams.
It didn’t take long and I soon stepped through, out onto a Canterlot courtyard. The courtyard at the west of the castle actually.
I found myself in a group of hundreds of ponies and I looked up, seeing Celestia giving a speech. Seems like she doesn't escape work in her sleep either.
Tapping my hoof against the cobblestone beneath me, I solidified the dream and dismissed the dream images of ponies around me and I was alone, looking up at the balcony.
“Page,” Celestis said and spread her wings, taking to the air before gliding down to me, “How are things in Griffona?”
“Not coming to blows yet,” I said and smiled at her, “But otherwise, nothing overly good so far. How are things in Canterlot?”
“Not coming to blows yet,” Celestia repeated to me with a smile as she landed before me, folding her wings, “But otherwise, nothing overly good so far.”
I snorted, “Oh ha ha. Very funny, Sunshine.”
She smiled and stuck her tongue out at me, “Canterlot is Canterlot.”
“I have a feeling that you had a good day though,” I said and looked up at her.
Celestia nodded, “A fairly good day,” she agreed and fluffed her wings, “I visited my school for gifted unicorns. That always brightens my day up.”
I nodded, “Looking to find a new student?” I asked, looking up at her.
She looked thoughtful, “...Maybe,” she admitted quietly, “There are a few that have potential, but there is much left to see before we are there,” before she smiled at me, “Besides, I already have a student.”
I grinned and nodded, giving her a small bow, wings spreading, “So, what is on the schedule today, Miss Celestia?” I asked.
“Battlefield tactics,” she answered and flicked one ear before closing her eyes and focusing hard. The dream didn’t answer to her. It never did, dream magic was simply too far from her Domain. So I gave it the command to change according to her thoughts.
We found ourselves on a grass plains stretching out in the distance. I looked around, glancing at the sun straight above before I looked behind her. A kilometer or so away I could see troops, thousands of ponies.
I glanced behind me. Equally many were waiting an equal distance away in that direction.
Celestia opened her eyes and looked at me, “Equal forces. Pegasi, Earth ponies and Unicorns. Rules are that we give orders and fight, but no alicorn level magic or dream manipulation. Objective is to capture the other.”
I nodded firmly, “One hour preparation.”
“Agreed.”
With that, I gave her a slight elegant bow, half spreading my wings before I turned and took to the air, flying towards my forces.
I’m never going to out maneuver her, that was simply not going to happen. She’s smarter than I am and has thousands of years of practical experience.
But maybe I can surprise her a bit.
Let’s see how she likes trenches with massed crossbows, archers, spellfire and ballista. Nothing in the rules about using dream magic during the prep time, after all.
If they're still talking then you're doing fine
The old German trench crossfire with entrenched heavy machine guns... Works like a charm.
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Celestia will adapt and page will introduce artillery to his city-kingdom guard just to prove a point..
Actually that might be an excellent way to take care of the big guys around nocturnis, have a spell detect their location and the guard at the city can use magically propelled concussion bombs to deter, or fragmentation bombs to kill, even a modified ballista would be excellent for that, would be expensive either way, but potentially cheaper than what they're doing now
Oh you poor poor twit. Weren't you human? Maybe even American?
Load your ponies up into M1 Abrams, Hinds, and introduce her to Puff the Magic Dragon! Blow Celestia's army out of the dreamscape with shit she's never seen before! Take your victory while you can!
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And that’s going to teach him anything about tactics that he can apply in the waking pony world later...how, exactly?
This isn’t a real battle with anything at stake and thus Celestia’s not really the enemy here, just the player on the other side of the table. So leveraging his undeniable edge in the dream realm just to score some cheap ego points by crushing her forces with tech that he won’t actually have until at least a few more centuries have gone by would be a poor use of valuable lesson time in the here and now.
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OH, sorry, I forgot they are currently engaged in FOREPLAY, my bad.
Yes. She will likely trounce him because she's lived in and grown up alongside medieval era warfare, while Page like grew up during or after the Cold War, so most of his military knowledge would be limited to tanks, aircraft, missile boats, and guns.
But why not? I think it'd be pretty fun for Page to introduce Celestia to our modern warfare. See what he know, and if and how she can counter it. Basically a test of prior knowledge before going into lecture mode with example.
Please note, it's not that I want to watch guns make pony go splat(Here anyway) but that Page is his own person who knows things and can do things Celly can't.
Let's go, Page! Summon tactical nuke to show Sunbutt, how you win wars! Or, if you don't want ABC, solid zeroing artillery barrage.
Invent Naponyanic tactics, spam cavalry and cannons
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tbf there's good lessons learned about countering such tactics, just page probably wouldn't know of them. equestria level warfare would be something around box formations of pike and shot used before field cannons really were a thing, I'd guess, and even civil war era combined cavalry, cannon, and line tactics would counter it though they don't have cannons. If he wanted to get even more creative he could invent combined naval and land assaults too
Generally I believe, that learning outdated tactical, because of PRESERVATION of status quo is senseless, when you know gamechangers, that made them utterly suicidal. Page should show to Celestia some concepts and warn her, that her not wanting them first would mean somebody else being first and because of them victorious.
Edit: Also I wonder, what Celly would think about concept of peace through MAD.
me
Celestia
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Tbf, she's basically a walking nuclear arsenal herself so a lot of equestria's enemies strategic problems boil down to "Hey we might get our army completely annihilated if we tried anything massive" which the counterproblem is they are wide open to raiding and small scale conflicts kinda like the brushfire wars in the later half of the 20th century. Mad itself wasn't actually a strategic position more of an explanation for the constant move-counter-move of the cold war escalation.
being the dream realm though, I'd not hesitate to setup some steampunkish fantasy mechanized infantry, even just tanks to literally roll right over any tactical formation, or maybe just a machinegun
Simpel, all look like Page! They all present there mighty spear eatch one of em to penetrate Celestias defense and take her from all sides.
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or go full soviet....
*1 hour later*
Celestia: "You cant be seriouse Page..."
Page: "Its exacly what it looks like ~♡"
Celestia: "How are suggestive clothed copys of you suppose to capture me?"
Page: " Simpel, you want to get catched by em. Than interigation will follow very detailed. Not leaving anything out~♡
Celestia: "Your impossible *giggles, but seriously i have a armed Dream army and you have a battlefield worth of sexy Studs. I win by default..."
Page: "If you surrender, i let your troops join in the fun. Icing all over your Cake ~♡
Celestia: "O.k..."
'Page won a mighty battle that Night'
'Celestia had suffered her most satisfaction filled defeat'
The End ~ ♡♡♡♡♡
Nice
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NONONONO.
Pillar of Autumn, in orbit, staffed by ponies. Page in the role of Cortana.
Weapons? The M.A.C.C. with complementary missile payloads.
Magickly Accelerated Cake Cannon. And more cake in the missiles.
1h of prep time? Should be enough to build some catapults, with a few of the pegasi acting as scouts.
Celestia: Ok then...the battle begins...NOW!
Page: Alright then. Lets g---WAIT! What happen to all my trenches and weapons?!
Celestia: When I said no alicorn magic or dream manipulation, I meant it. Did you think I would set this lesson up without asking Luna to teach me a nullification spell to re-set each new battle?
Page: Then how come YOUR army still has weapons?!
Celestia: As their leader, I ordered my ponies to make their own weapons. I didn't use my magic to make it for them. Now my forces are armed and yours is defenseless. Let this be a lesson on delegating~! ATTACK!
Page: Ah.....BUCK!
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Clever mare
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Good God, I can SO picture seeing Celestia's head suddenly breaking through the brush, and Bob Peck delivering that line with a straight face!
BTW, I really wish this site would allow us to upvote stories chapter by chapter!
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not even that far, the brits basically codified it into their navy's prize rules so every captain in the british navy was quite highly incentivised to capture prizes and at a time when the british were basically at war on and off with just about every other empire for a hundred years. the brits basically tripled their navy from prize alone in the napoleonic wars
Page I swear if you didn't play the Total War series....
Are you sure?
So human, England way?
Spam of projectiles?
I really want to see how this will play out
Agincourt was a very bad day to be in the cavalry, Page. You may do better than you expect.
Ah, the good old reliable WW1 doctrines, this won't work well when applied to a much more primitive period without access to the rapid suppression fire of machine guns. He'd be better off making the ground muddy in front of his forces and using ditches full of stakes Agincourt-style, but we'll (maybe) see how this plays out.
Spelling jackboot:
Celestia
Tense and spelling error, should be: I’m never going to outmanoeuvre her, that's simply not going to happen. She’s smarter than I am and has thousands of years of practical experience.
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Doubt he's a yank based on past instalments, at this point he's almost certainly British or Commonwealth, with an outside chance of Scandinavian. Furthermore, he's always evaded talking about advanced weaponry out of a matter of conscience, so pulling out the Challenger 2's and so on would rather defeat the point.
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As for this, keep in mind he was a strategy games enthusiast in his youth, he'd know more than average about pre-modern warfare unless he was limiting himself to games set in the modern era like... What would it have been? Company of Heroes 1 would have been a bit late for him unless he kept up the hobby into adulthood since he would have been a teen around the time Rome Total War 1 was out.
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As mentioned above, it's a matter of conscience not to do that. I believe his exact thoughts were 'Not here, never here.' Likely he'll move with the times as things develop, so any surprise would be a one shot thing before he pulled out a counter, at least up until the world reaches turn of the millennium tech.
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at the rate the twilights are developing balista's they'll get to cannons soon plus regardless of how tight lipped he is, sunset has spent enough time on an earth to get an understanding of guns and cannons too
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With Sunset, absolutely. Keep in mind that ballistae aren't a direct predecessor to cannon, however. Gunpowder is a thing, but nobody's truly weaponised it yet for some reason and with how Twilight seems to be bent on iterative improvements rather than revolutionary ones I'd expect it to come from another source.
Time to unfold the geneva sugestions handbook.
Yes, we can't miss Night Court, now, can we?
resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/p184004_b_v8_ab.jpg
I've been trying to avoid commenting on sequential chapters, but I can't miss a Night Court reference.