1744222 Thanks, much appreciated. :)

Thank you for liking Celestia's Morning After

1201771 Okay, I read it and in general it is technically good. It's short and pretty well written. You got a lot across in a very limited space. It reminds me of an incident that occurred during WW II when a German soldier refused to execute some civilians and as a results was put up against the wall and shot by his own comrades.
I have a little quibble with stories of this sort that has nothing to do with your story in particular and that is this: Would Celestia condone this sort of thing let alone order it? If she doesn't know it's going on then she's incredibly incompetent and if she does know then she's a monster. Same with Luna for that matter, though I think she could be a bit more ruthless than her sister.
Warfare in Equestria while the rulers of Sun and Moon are around would be an extremely bad idea. The power of an alicorn is like having a nuke while your opponent has a pointed stick. Even a sizable number of unicorns would be tough and pegasi attacking with impunity from above would be difficult to deal with to say the least.(Griffons might be able to hold their own if there are enough of them but in Griffon the Brushoff Rarity calls them 'rare')
The whole problem that you addressed in your story is one that haunts all soldiers, I hope. First of all, you are trained to kill and follow orders. Second, if you listen to any accounts from sources from the Civil War until today, one thing a lot of veterans say is that they aren't fighting for their country or democracy or some abstract idea like 'freedom'. They're fighting to stay alive and for the man next to them. That combination, combined with seeing what the enemy has done to your side, often overcomes the better parts of our humanity. Though I was a soldier, I never had to be tested in such a way as my country wasn't fighting anyone when I was in. I like to think I would have served bravely but I know myself too. If I were approaching a village and someone shot at us, I would have returned fire with a cannon and leveled the place. Machine gunning those fleeing would have been going through my mind too. I'm aware of how horrible that is so why would I do it? Because my concern would be for my fellow soldiers and myself over anyone else.
That's a lot of heavy stuff to cover in such a short story but you handled it well.

1201771 Sure but it might not be until late tomorrow or Sunday. I'm going riding tomorrow and then a little Belmont Stakes party after.

Would you mind checking out a short one shot I wrote called "The Line". I would really appreciate it, and constructive criticism is always highly valued! ^-^ Sorry for posting it on your userpage, but my PM's don't seem to be working as of right now. feel free to delete this message after youve read it.