Luna enjoyed the cooling effect from the bag of ice brought to her by a servant. It certainly staved off the brewing migraine from her meetings with Canterlot nobility to gain more support for her own research and development. It was strange that she had more support from the industrial leaders that lived in the east coast of Equestria than the nobility who should be worried far more about either a Griffon or Changeling incursion.
It was also thanks to said industrialists that she had managed to roll out the first official tank of Equestria. Well, it wasn’t anything like the Griffon’s own Malcador series of Heavy tanks that had given her a full-on migraine when a contact had sent her a brief booklet on their capabilities. So when her thestrals delivered a list of specifications, several companies eagerly took up prototyping a new vehicle for the Equestrian military.
In the end, it was a shipyard for wet vessels that came up with what her guards were testing so that it would be as troubleshooted now before it is presented to both Princesses and the Prince-Captain Shining Armor, who was ‘in charge’ of the Equestrian military. The tank, powered by a modified airship engine, was nearly nine meters in length and a width of five meters covered in high-grade reinforced steel. It’s frontal armor was nearly 100mm in thickness and the sides were armored with 90mm of solid rolled homogeneous armor (RHA). The rear was a slightly disappointing 60mm, but if someone was behind a tank, the developers argued that the battle might as well be over. And being only 1.5 meters high, it did give them far less of a silhouette, than the Griffon’s own 2.3. It also featured a large turret made with 80mm of RHA and mounting a newly developed line of magic artillery cannons and modified to be faster firing and lighter so as to not weigh the tank down further. In the front of the tank, it fitted a large large bore magic howitzer while the turret fitted a lighter newly designed armor-piercing magical cannon to provide 360 degrees of protection. All of this was reinforced by the rapid firing magical blasters that fired the simple ‘magical arrow’ spell continuously with only needing to worry about barrel overheating.
It was a compromise of magic and science to Luna. Magic was what they had in spades, so why not use it?
But the problems didn’t come from developing new weapons of war. Oh no, she really did like the newly titled Charioteer Mark One heavy tank, but what was giving her migraines were the arrogant stagnate ingrates of Canterlot Nobility. Considering that they were somehow in charge of finances, they blocked her at every turn to develop new weapons of war and pushed forth their own ‘sponsored’ ‘engines of war’. Which was nothing more than a stone golem covered in metal armor.
“Of all the problems I have to go past, why is it that my sister’s own ‘little’ ponies are denying me bettering Equestria?” Luna muttered quietly as she nursed her aching skull. “At least I got this through after bringing up the fact that the Griffons can shoot shells packed with enough explosives to easily break standard Equestrian Magical Shields that are widely distributed and rather cheap to produce as well.”
It was still stuff from nearly 100 years ago that had yet to be changed. Even when she suggested that they update their magical equipment, those arrogant idiots had argued that there was no need to change something that had not failed them yet. It was not the right mindset for the evolving world around them and it seriously hampered Luna’s ability to bring up the level of combat ability for the Equestrian military.
She sighed in a tired manner and got up from the table to go to sleep. Perhaps sleeping right now would be best.
“Nice armor, nice guns, and even nicer plans for future improvements.” A female voice spoke from her personal desk, all scattered with papers and journals that Luna had used to keep track of the progress her projects resulted in. Luna, upon hearing the voice, immediately turned on her heels to address the intruder with her horn charged with a piercing spell. “According to my calculations, you might be even able to compete with the wheeled Hunter Assault Tank.”
The Changeling that stood before her was wearing what appeared to be a skintight suit with what appeared to be dark ceramic plates of armor in key locations while a fully enclosed helmet with a blacked out visor by her hooves. She had levitated several documents while sitting over and appeared to have been reading them in earnest. Her orange mane and orange eyes simply made it easier for Luna to identify this Queen.
“Queen Patina Gear of the Ferrugo Hive.” Luna hissed as she kept her horn aimed at the ‘cause’ of her troubles. Her thestrals, or rather unicorn in the clans had managed to use her talents of ‘ghosting’ to sneak peeks into the absurd progress that the Changelings had.
“Indeed. The Hunter would be evenly matched if it was not moving and not shooting.” Patina chuckled as she turned her gaze to the Princess of the Night. “Greetings, Princess Luna. It seems my reputation precedes me. If you wish to know how I got past nearly every detection spell… Well, let’s just say that my exit is going to be even more spectacular.”
“What are you planning to do here, Changeling?” Luna narrowed her blue eyes at the Changeling. She could kill her, but who knows what plans that existed in case of her death.
“Already to the point? Mind you, I thought there was a slight chance you would offer me tea or something, but…” Patina shrugged before tossing the documents back onto Luna’s desk. “I’m here to offer you a deal, Princess.”
That struck Luna as odd. “What is this deal you are proposing?”
“In return for sharing with you the basics of my mechanical engineering know-how and a stockpile of materials for you to reverse-engineer for your use, I want you to break away from this.” Patina motioned around Luna’s room.
“What?” Luna cancelled her magic away to look bewildered at that. What was this Changeling asking of her? “Break away from what?”
“Hmm… “ Patina tapped her chin several times before seemingly happy about something. “I was confident that your ponies would adapt quickly to the changing times, but this is ridiculous; don’t you think?” Luna narrowed her eyes at the information being put out by the Queen. It was as if she knew more than most ponies that sat in said conference room. “You have to admit, you have to wonder why they are refusing a change that can make them better.”
Luna didn’t say anything, but didn’t let her guard down.
“You really should check the flow of bits much closer and investigate some of their ‘activities’. I mean, the organization that produces your magic ‘shields’ sends a payment of bits bi-annually to key members of your council; so that they can keep producing absolute shit that would shatter against a couple of shots from Griffon Tanks.” Patina produced a photo from under one of her armor plates to show several of the council members eating alongside those Luna recognized as the ones that did produce various magic gear for the Equestrian military with bags of bits being passed. “So you get a guess as to why your projects get shot down so frequently. Not to mention, the cost of making their magic shield is cheaper than a full cart of apples.”
“Wait, what?” Luna’s wide eyes kept staring at the photo while she ‘digested’ the information given to her in stunned silence. “Don’t these fools realize that the Griffons are going to invade sooner or later?”
“They don’t care. They even have high-speed airships ready to escape in case something happens here.” Patina yawned as she produced several more photos. “But unlike you older sister, I wish to make the deal so that the ponies actually have a chance of resisting those featherbrained warhawks.”
“Why? What do you wish to gain from this?” Luna growled as she glared back at the Changeling. “What do you gain from having me leave Equestria?”
“Leave? No, no, no…” Patina shook her head at the question as if it was something foolish. “Not leave. You have the support of industrial leaders that aren’t afraid to change, you have the ear of many individual ponies that could have easily industrialized Equestria if not for meddling by some fools. You even have your Thestral clans who would do anything to protect you.”
“So?” Patina flashed a fang-filled grin at Luna.
“There is an entire chain of islands far off the western coast of Equestria that are unoccupied, and still possessing untold riches underground.” Patina spoke in a low voice with a smile. “I want you to take your supporters and go form a new nation. A nation that won’t fall to such things as relying wholly on magic, but a fusion of magic and technology.”
“And why should we? If you know much, you would realize that the Charioteer will win against the Armored Golem easily. We will soon be producing them to defend against yours and the Griffons’ own shenanigans with more to follow.” Luna said while motioning over to her desk.
“Well, in case you change your mind; the islands are there and when I see you moving there, I’ll make sure you get enough supplies to start anew.” Patina chuckled once again before putting on her helmet and sealing it. “Have fun trying to prevent sabotage, Princess. And never forget that the Word of Blake hears and sees all.”
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Luna couldn’t believe it. No, she simply refused to believe it.
Somepony had clearly done something to the Charioteer as it had blown itself up upon the engine starting. She even had guards around the prototype as soon as it had arrived onto the training field to do its tests and it had been taken away from her so violently. Already, the Magi Conglomerate had signed the contract for the production of the Reinforced Golems and she had her Research and Development funding taken away.
But she should have listened to that Changeling more carefully now that she thought about it. The look in the eyes of the council members who had been in the pictures were of smug satisfaction and even Celestia, her own sister, had taken her off the military council for reasons of providing a failed product. To say that she was furious was just an understatement.
No words needed to be said. Taking pen and paper, she began to furiously write dozens of letters to those that she could say were loyal to her and motioned over her Captain of the Night Guard to deliver said letters as discreetly as possible.
What does it say when Changelings, albeit just Patina from what she knew, were willing to help and ponies that she ‘ruled’ over; would rather throw her under the cart as soon as she tried to change the status quo. She looked at the blueprint of the Charioteer Heavy Tank and snarled as her own magic flared around her briefly.
She was done with being relegated to the sidelines. She snorted as she began to magically pack everything into a single saddle bag. She should have just gone and built her own nation a thousand years ago instead of fighting Celestia, like she was about to now. If this is how Equestria treated change, she would create her own nation where the nobility would never have such control over the nation.
Luna thought silently for a few minutes before grinning slightly.
“I’ll call my own country, Novus Lunar.” She chuckled at the thought and teleported away leaving a barren room with nothing more than a single piece of paper on her desk.
This was on their heads for her breaking away.