World War I generals tend to be misunderstood; the massive frontal attacks of the war were not how the war was planned out by any of the participants beforehand. All nations - save perhaps tiny Serbia - planned for a war of movement. France in particular had stocked up on massive numbers of 75mm field guns; not so useful in trench warfare, but incredibly useful in an environment of shifting combat. Once the trenches were made on the western front, it must be noted that both sides attempted to outflank the other, resulting in the so-called "Race to the Sea." Once frontal attacks were the only way forward, decisions to send men into combat were hardly taken so lightly as is thought.
Luke frowned, not feeling satisfied. Again, he thought about what to write, and how to fix what he had written. He was just about to get started when a crash from downstairs startled him.
Concerned, he closed the laptop he was working on and almost flew down the stairs.
In the kitchen, he found the source of the noise. Aurora had attempted to take a bowl out of the cupboard, and had apparently dropped it; scattered on the floor were a bunch of now badly-dented apples and some broken eggs. Shadow was already peeking out of the bedroom, and Bright was trying to get past him in order to see.
Suppressing the thoughts of how much the bowl had cost, Luke sighed as quietly as possible and walked toward her.
"I'm so sorry," Aurora said, looking sorry. "I was trying to make breakfast, and the bowl slipped out of my hooves."
"It's okay," Luke sighed, heading for the closet to get the broom and dustpan.
"No, please, it's my fault," the bat pony mother said, somehow gripping the broom with her shod hoof.
"It's fine," he insisted, trying to pull the broom back, and finding that task surprisingly difficult.
"No; it's my mistake, so I fix it," she said, giving it a hard pull and nearly yanking it from his hands.
"Well, okay, if you're so sure," Luke said, letting go.
Aurora bowed her head, then stood on her hind legs and began to sweep up the mess.
"What...?"
"I was trying to make breakfast," the mother explained, still sweeping. "I wanted it to be a surprise, but when I tried to get the apple bowl, I dropped it on accident, and the bowl knocked the egg container off the counter as it fell."
Luke opened his mouth to correct her, given that it was now afternoon, but then he reminded himself of the thestrals' nocturnal preferences, and instead asked, "Anything I can do...?"
"No, thank you," the thestral mare said, continuing her efforts to clean up the mess. "I'll be fine. As a guest in your house, it's on me to pick this up."
By now, Shadow, grumbling, had gone back inside, as had Bright, though Luke thought he could hear the foal walking around for a minute before quiet came again.
"He'll come around," Aurora said, now on three legs, the fourth holding the dustpan. "Um...," she said, looking at the broom, which she had laid down, and at the dustpan. Clearly, she was worried about falling on her face.
"I can hold one of them," Luke offered.
"...the dustpan then, I suppose."
Luke held the pan as Aurora pushed the more solid bits of the mess in. After a couple such sessions, all there was left to do was mop up the eggs. Again, Aurora did the work, refusing help, until the mess was cleaned up.
"I apologize," she said as she finished. "I suppose I'll need to start over."
"If you need help with the stove and anything-"
"No, we've handled modern conveniences before," Aurora told him. "We aren't as behind in technology as the show depicted, and we're rather more advanced than we were after contact with Earth was established, so I know how to use these things. Mind if I try again?"
"Be my guest." Luke then thought of something. "Equestria's the only country with portals, right?"
"Yes," Aurora said, looking in the refrigerator.
"What happens when other countries want Earth technology? What do zebras and Yaks and griffons and hippogriffs and everyone else have to do?"
Aurora frowned. "I'm afraid I don't know everything to do with it," she said, before her face softened. As she pulled out another container of eggs - balancing it on an outstretched wing - she continued, "I'm more at home with military things, like weapons, armor, and thestrals in general. I do know that the yaks, in particular, want to gain access to explosives... mainly to destroy things better and make a big boom." She set the eggs on the counter. "The griffons want anything that make more money. Hippogriffs are interested in better fishing and naval tech, including ships and naval doctrines, and they have an interest in submarine warfare as well."
"Sounds less peaceful than the Equestrian world we thought we knew."
"Partly true, and also every faction wants to keep up in the arms race, in case something happens." She turned to look at him. "Got any bacon?"
"No, sorry; I'm not a fan of pig meat, and I didn't know I'd have three additional mouths to feed until a couple days ago, leaving me with no time before then to go to the store."
"Well... I've dealt with worse situations than no bacon. Though some thestrals would argue handsomely with that," Aurora added, a smile on her face as she turned back to the eggs and began looking in one of the cabinets for a frying pan. "One of our friends in Bat City, Star Hunter, can't get enough of the stuff. He'd be all over the place asking how you didn't have bacon. Anyway, the zebras are very tribal; they're not as interested in commercial or industrial stuff, but a lot of their chiefs want weapons; they live in a much more dangerous place than we do, and tribal warfare does occasionally break out, usually when outstanding tensions over a long-simmering issue finally snap."
"How does Equestria... process these requests? I doubt the Princesses want yaks armed with RPGs, in case they decide to come out of their mountains and attack you."
"They may seem stupid on the outside - they don't speak our language very well, they normally use their own - but they're smart enough to know that ponies outnumber them by something like a ten to one margin, probably more. A yak may be a lot bigger than a pony, but AK-47s and M-16s - modified so we can use them with hooves - don't care about the size of their targets. And most of these other nations - if you could call Griffonstone a nation - don't have an interest in attacking us, given pony magic and technology. The hippogriffs are our allies, and numerous zebra tribes are on good terms with us."
"What about Diamond dogs?"
"Well, yeah. They're a thorn in our side, though not a very big one. After Rarity's capture and rescue, Princess Celestia sent them a message, basically telling them that they could expect to be booted out of their tunnels and forced to leave Equestria altogether if they ever tried to enslave her subjects again. The Princess might be motherly, but she can be fierce in defense of her ponies when we're attacked."
"Are there any non-converted changelings left?"
Aurora's ears went back slightly, but she answered, "A few. Chrysalis loyalists to the last. King Thorax may have thought he converted all changelings, but Equestria's confirmed that a few are still renegades, looking for their Queen."
"Sorry-"
"No, don't be. It's a major priority for the Lunar Guard to send patrols to hunt them. We haven't captured more than a few that I know of, but we suspect that the renegade changelings are mostly outside Equestria by this time even so. We also bring unicorns on our patrols, ones who can use their magic to scan an area and reveal any concealed changelings, so they have a much harder time hiding from us than they might. Recently, we've discovered that goggles that use heat vision can reveal changelings, even hidden changelings, as their body temperature remains the same, whether disguised or undisguised." By now, Aurora was cracking eggs one by one on the edge of the frying pan, and carefully making sure that the eggshells didn't make it in.
"Are they the same ones who were impersonating Twilight and company?"
"Yep. Or at least some of them are. We suspect that a few less well-known drones also left the hive." Several eggs were in the pan. Aurora checked the temperature, then turned and carefully put the eggs back in the refrigerator. "Anything else you want to know?"
Luke put a hand to his chin for a moment. "Hmm. Well, since Equestria is a monarchy, that means there must be an aristocracy in place."
"Ah, yes, the nobility. What do you want to know?"
"Well, what kind of power do they have?"
"A lot less than they used to. Princess Celestia heavily centralized power during the Exile, and by the time the blessed Princess Luna returned, they're not so much of a much."
"But that sounds like they still have power of some sort. And aren't there divisions?"
"They do still have some power left, but it's mainly in the forms of leftover privileges. They can't raise private armies anymore, that's for sure. Some of them can advise the Princesses, but the Diarchs can ignore their advice entirely if they feel its necessary or if the advice would be harmful to Equestria. As for divisions, I'm not sure what you mean."
"Is there any remaining tribalism? Surely, some few pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns, however few, would still think that their... tribe, for the lack of a better word, is better than the others?"
"Yeah, that's a thing. There's not a whole lot of it, though naturally, we all like being the specific tribe we're born into. I'd say that unicorn supremacy is the strongest, and it's stronghold is the city of Canterlot. Even there, its mostly upheld by some of the unicorn elite, and not by the majority of them. Harmony tends to be upheld by the vast majority of ponies."
"Do thestrals have, or had, a nobility?"
"Yep. All of them were warriors, though. In fact you had to be either a renowned warrior or the descendant of one to be part of the thestral aristocracy. During the Exile, that system fell into a bit of chaos. Most thestrals were too busy trying to survive to really care about social status, and the elites mixed freely with the commoners... such as either social class could exist, as we dwelt in caves and caverns and generally dark places where we hoped nopony would come after us." She paused. "You have quite an interest in this."
"Please forgive me; it's the call of the historian."
"Nothing to forgive. If that's the case, it's only natural to ask questions, and I don't mind giving answers; they're not hurting Equestria, or us personally." She looked back at the eggs in the pan, took a spatula, and gave them a stir. "It'll be a few minutes before these are ready. Feel free to keep asking questions."
"Alright." Luke thought again, then asked, "How do the nobility - the general nobility in Equestria, that is - see the... portals? The connection between worlds?"
"Many of them support it; since quite a few of them will gain profit by it, they're in favor of it."
"'Many' isn't 'all.'"
"You're right. There's a sizable and vocal minority that oppose the connection between our worlds. Some see it as a threat to their wealth, or our security, others see it as a threat to our way of life. And some just don't trust anyone who isn't a pony."
"What about the common pony?"
"Many again support it. Some, I'd say maybe a quarter, are ambivalent about it. A bit under a quarter oppose it, for some of the same reasons I gave, mainly the latter three."
"Is it modernization they're afraid of, or...?"
"Partly. Another big part is that humanity has had more wars within a century than in all recorded history of Equestria combined. Knowledge of 'The Bomb' doesn't exactly help, either. And, of course, some are afraid of pony culture being..." Aurora paused, a hoof to her mouth. "...tainted, for lack of a better word. They don't want change in their lives, for the most part. Of course, some jump at new technology, at new restaurants, at new knowledge - rumor in the Guard has it that Princess Twilight literally fainted upon being introduced to the internet."
"Any clue why the Princesses waited until now, or didn't wait any longer, to introduce our worlds?"
"Only some guesses, and they're probably not accurate. You'd have to talk to them if you want to know for sure."
"What, you haven't?"
Aurora looked at him as though he'd just said the most stupid thing ever. "You realize that most Guards don't get to talk to the Princesses, right? They're there to protect them, and the nation. They're not there to gossip and be buddy-buddy to the divine rulers of our country."
"...I see."
Aurora waved it away. "Please go on."
"Hmm. I suppose there was a time prior to unification. The Hearth's Warming play only gives details for earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns. Where do thestrals fit in that regard?"
"Good question. If it's the kingdom of Equestria you're referring to, we came in later, after the alicorn monarchy was set up. Most ponies feared us, and for good reason. Being night owls, having fangs, and having a reputation for being vicious fighters was enough for most early pony rulers - a collection of pegasus warlords, earth pony burghers, and unicorn aristocrats - to refuse us entry. That changed when Princesses Celestia and Luna came and took their thrones. Princess Luna welcomed us as her personal Guards, and life got much better."
"What about before the unification?"
Aurora turned one side of her head back toward the eggs, with the other eye still on him. "That part of history is a bit more cloudy. From what our historians can make out, we existed as various tribes, hunting and sometimes warring with one another. The pegasi were warriors, too, in case you didn't get the memo. There were several pre-Unification wars between pegasi warlords and thestral tribes. These wars, as far as we can tell, didn't really accomplish a whole lot; the pegasi bragged of several major victories, but the results, from what we can tell, were actually stalemates in the biggest clashes."
"That certainly never made the show."
"You'd be shocked at what didn't make it in. While Equestria has known and wanted peace, there have been several wars that happened after the Unification, costing thousands of lives on each side. That's what happens when you shave off stuff to make a kids' show."
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It's easy to think that ponies would be put off by the conflicts in our world."
"Many are, in fact. Most of those would be the ponies opposed to the interdimensional contact. We haven't had any conflicts anywhere near as deadly as your world wars. Of course, we haven't had the same circumstances, and that doesn't mean that there aren't those out there in our own world who would be willing to spill the blood of millions in order to achieve their goals. The show and even many ponies make Equestria out to be a near-perfect place, a paradise on earth, but it's not true. Crime and war do exist, and anypony who says otherwise either doesn't know history or is lying."
She checked on the eggs, and began to stir them with a spatula. She did this for about thirty seconds before stopping, and then turned to face Luke again. "Admittedly, we ponies have largely had peace for about a thousand years. Well, if you can rightly call thestrals living in caves out of fear of the other tribes peaceful. That has fostered a lot of... I guess complacency is the nearest word I can get. They mostly believe that Equestria is safe from most threats and that heroes will arise to save them in their hours of need. I can tell you firsthoof, or at least firsthoof from my husband, that's not true, at least the part about threats. And I'm not just talking about Tirek or King Sombra, either. There are even darker evils out there, evils that need a military handling."
"I thought you said that the other nations were friendly to Equestria?"
"The big ones, the ones on the map, yeah, though the yaks are rather... belligerent. However, some members of those countries, and of various tribes, are more opposed to the magic of friendship, shall we say, than we normally want to think about." She turned around, stirred the eggs with the spatula again, grunted in satisfaction, then turned back to face him. "Any more questions?"
Luke rubbed his head. "I hope I'm not bothering you."
"You're not; it's actually a relief to be talking to a human who wants to know history as opposed to whether you've met Rainbow Dash or what the 'Mane Six' are like in person, or similar jazz." She looked back at the eggs again. "Almost done anyway."
"I can see that that would be a problem."
"That's the understatement of the decade. All too many 'bronies' want to know about their favorite ponies, all the time, and too many of them think that, just because I'm a pony, I know something about Lyra whatshername or Cheerijee something."
"Might I ask what thestral military values are? The equivalent of chivalry or bushido, if you have something on that level?"
"Simple; it's called, Don't Lose."
Luke cocked his head.
"Okay, okay, it's more complicated than that. We desire to have honor in what we do, namely in helping our brothers in battle and maintaining the highest standards within the Lunar Guard, and in serving the kingdom, and our Princess, well. However, for us, nothing is off the table in a fight. Shine some light or throw dirt or sand in the enemy's eyes, smash him on the head with a piano, if you have the strength to do it, knife him in his sleep, that's all not considered to be dishonorable."
"Though I'd guess murdering a host would be the highest act of treachery."
"Yes, we have standards. It's only in battle that there's no-holds barred. In diplomacy, and treating with our fellow thestrals, we try to live in a way that upholds the military traditions, but that keeps the peace and doesn't escalate."
"I assume because of the fear of blood feuds."
"Yep. Some feuds became legendary, and given the blood spilled, its not so hard to see why we try to keep them from ever happening again."
"Are they illegal, as dueling is in the US?"
"Not exactly, though our leaders do their utmost to stop a quarrel before it ever gets there. Occasionally, they'll allow a duel between two protagonists, the only rule being not to kill or permanently cripple the opponent. It's hooves, wings, and heads, and whoever's still standing, or who hasn't yielded, is declared the winner and the quarrel is declared settled then and there, with any further action by either side against the other leading to their being disgraced and penalized." She turned again and stirred once more. "It's done. Can you help me with the plates?"
Luke doubled up a few paper plates and held them as Aurora put in the scrambled eggs in one plate at a time. Then, with that done and the plates on the table, Aurora called, "Breakfast is ready!"
The door to the guest bedroom opened a few seconds later, and Bright came trotting into the room. "Yum, eggs!" he said happily, lifting himself into his seat.
Shadow emerged a moment later, clearly stifling a yawn. He walked up to the table and sat down. He grunted upon seeing his eggs, and then picked up a fork (the ability to do this with a shod hoof looked strange) and began digging in. Bright simply plunged his muzzle into his eggs and began chewing.
"Bright!" the child's mother scolded. "How many times do I have to tell you, use the forks, not your face!"
"Sorry, Mom," Bright apologized. He immediately licked his face clean of the eggs on it and then also picked up his fork.
"Anypony would think that you were raised in a cave with those manners," Aurora scolded, turning back to Luke. "I'm sorry."
"It's forgiven."
"No, we're guests and should be acting like it. Sorry about the mess."
"It'll be fine. Now, I hope you all enjoy your meal. I have an essay to write."
"I hope you'll indulge me a question now," Aurora asked as Luke turned to leave.
"Oh?" Luke turned back, surprised.
"What kind of essays are you writing? What are they meant for?"
"Partly for work-related purposes," Luke answered. "But mainly material that I hope to write some military history books with."
"Ah. Interested in money?"
"Not so much as I am in getting an interesting but true account of history out there."
"Hence your interest."
"Yes."
"Thanks again for housing us. I hope it doesn't cost you too much."
"It'll be fine, God willing."