//------------------------------// // Chapter 34: Of Logistics And Militias // Story: Sun & Moon Act II: A Crown Divided // by cursedchords //------------------------------// “There’s a reason Earth Pony steel was prized in the old days. We had perfected it, while the other tribes had no reason to care. That attitude often changed when we met in combat.” - Seraph, Master of the Order of Fire Once she’d signed Pensive’s Act into law, Luna had retired to her bed, and when she awoke the next day, it took her a moment to realize what was different. In the distance, the constant din of the crowd outside in the plaza had morphed instead into an empty silence, broken only by the occasional songbird from the depths of the palace gardens. Parting the curtains of her window, Luna strode out onto the balcony, and indeed it was true. The city square, formerly packed with citizens from end-to-end, was now empty, save for the castle guards who were dutifully cleaning it up. To some extent, it was a good thing, all that tension and hysteria removed from public view. But indeed she only had to listen again to understand what had happened. For the usual morning in Canterlot had at least some sound to it: the clop of hooves resonating through the various smaller market squares, the whoops and shouts of ponies going about their business. Today, Canterlot sounded as dead as a graveyard. The city wasn’t properly peaceful. Instead, it was waiting, like a coiled spring, standing by for the action that was now set to begin. Signing Pensive’s law hadn’t really solved anything, it had just moved the conflict further down the line. Leaving her room, Luna found Ink and Swift waiting for her in the antechamber, the pegasus with his helmet packed away on his back. Both of them sprang to her side as soon as she came out of her tower. “Good morning, Your Majesty,” said Swift, giving her a quick bow. With a free hoof, he indicated a hallway for them to start walking down. Luna almost corrected him, then decided against it. Maybe Equestria really did need a Queen right now. “Thank you, Swift. I assume that the two of you have come to deliver me a report?” Ever the organizer, Ink had her satchel of documents ready to go. She handed one over as they started walking. “Bills have been posted around the city, announcing the imminent seizure of the harvest,” she said, trying to hide her unease. “The crowd in the square dispersed soon after hearing that, though a few remained to continue demanding Pensive’s release.” “Still?” Luna almost couldn’t believe it, but then why not? Nothing she had done as Queen had been easy, why would even that? “I don’t see them out there now.” “We chased them out earlier today,” Swift answered from her other side, sounding proud. Someone from the infirmary had found a bandage for the gash over his eye, and Swift had arranged his mane to almost cover it. “They were far less confident when they only had a few other ponies standing behind them. Still, I doubt they’ve gone very far, and they’ll be back with a vengeance if we let too much time go by.” Luna sighed. “No, we’ll give them what they want. I wouldn’t have signed that horrendous law if I didn’t mean to see it through. Speaking of which, we will need to consider how we intend to implement the strategy.” “Precisely,” Ink agreed. “We have arranged a meeting for all of the Guard’s top brass, in addition to the harvesting accountants who will be accompanying us to take stock of the fields and the grains that have already been brought in. They gave their preliminary reports just as the Sun was coming up.” The rapidity startled her. “Just like that? I always thought that Canterlot moved a bit slower. I was expecting it would take days to get things fully in motion.” The senator shook her head with a smile. “The measure Pensive passed to cede the Senate’s power to you brought with it an automatic declaration of emergency. Monarchy does have some upsides.” “The full mobilization of the Guard will take a few days, though,” Swift acknowledged from the other side. “Depending on what strategy we ultimately decide to follow. But I imagine that we’ll need several more regiments formed up than we currently have here in the capital.” “We’ll come to that momentarily,” Luna answered, surprised at how good it felt to be moving forward on this file for once. The situation was still every bit as dire as it had been yesterday, but at least with these two on the case Luna felt as though they were making some measure of progress, and that could only happen if they were back in control. Swift came up on the committee chamber door on the hall’s right side, and grasped it with a hoof, waiting for her nod. But first she stepped to the side just to have a look at them both together. “I should thank you both by the way,” she said, offering them each a dipped horn. “For staying with me through all of this. I trust that you each have an assignment to get to right now?” “To the walls to get the arms organized,” Swift said with a bow. Ink however shook her head. “With respect, Luna, I’d like to stay with you. I think that you might appreciate having another ally with you in this meeting.” After giving Swift a nod, Luna thought for a moment. It was true that the ponies at this meeting were in general not her kind of ponies, with the possible exception of some of the generals. These were all bureaucrats, individuals who had enjoyed power under the Senate, and were all too often willing to let inefficiencies slip by if it meant that they got to keep their own little fiefs. Celestia had been the one of them willing to navigate the maze of politics; it was one reason why Luna so enjoyed being out of Canterlot. All of that was to say that Ink was probably right. “Much appreciated,” she stated. “After you.” The unicorn shook her head though. “Queens first, always.” Luna didn’t think that it was worth the effort pointing out that she didn’t care about the decorum. Instead, she walked through the door and up to the chair’s seat. The rest of the room, six grizzled generals and six bespectacled accountants, all rose from their seats on her entrance, only to sit down again as soon as she did. Ink took up a position behind her right shoulder. “Alright, ponies,” Luna said abruptly, gruff since she knew no other way, “I want to get through this meeting as quickly as possible. The faster we can get this operation together, the more lives we can potentially save, and the more violence we can potentially stop. General Steel,” she said to the top general seated to her left, “what’s the status of the Guard?” Steel was a grey pegasus with a white mane clipped about as close to the scalp as you could get. “The Canterlot regiment is all ready to go, Your Majesty,” he answered. “We have dispatched flyers to gather in the others stationed around the country. One each will be left to keep the peace in the major population centres: Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Baltimare. The remaining two will come here with all available speed. We estimate three days until these deployments are finalized.” Luna nodded. That sounded almost exactly like what she had been about to ask for. “Who gave you that order?” The officer didn’t blink, professional as to be expected. “Your stallion Swift suggested it to us, and none of us could think of anything better to do. Since, as we all know, time is of the essence, we made a judgment call. If Your Majesty wishes differently we can send a second communiqué to remand the order?” “No, no, that’s fine,” she said, marking Swift for another good point in her head. Ever since the thunderstorm and his injury, the guardspony had been doing very well. And in this case, he had probably saved their whole effort considerable time. “And Miss Line?” she asked, turning to the right side of the room. “What of the logistical plans for the operation?” Bottom Line was a late middle-aged unicorn, with a set of square reading glasses perched low on her nose and affixed behind her ears with silver chains. “We need to plot out our route through the country, Your Majesty,” she replied. “There are dozens of small farming communities that we will need to visit, and we will likely want to send convoys back to Manehattan periodically to drop off grain as we collect it. Since time is, as we know, of the essence, we’ll want to spend as little time as possible retracing our steps as we travel through the countryside.” “Can we not have multiple groups working simultaneously? Like say one for the north, south and west?” Line glanced down at the parchments she had arranged in front of her. “Depending on how thinly you are comfortable stretching our escort troops. And that depends on how much resistance you expect us to encounter.” That question forced Luna to sit back for a moment, furrowing her brow. How much resistance would there actually be? If every town turned into a fight, it could take months to get everything collected. But they didn’t have enough troops to present an overwhelming force everywhere, and she didn’t dare pull any of the Guard out of the cities. Otherwise the crisis she had just managed to avert in Canterlot would repeat itself everywhere. The answer ultimately came from Ink, stepping into the expectant silence of the room as Luna thought. “Let us see some maps,” she said, with only a slight nervous tremor in her tone. “I assume your ponies have already worked up some options for us?” Line tapped a hoof on the table twice, the sound signaling one of her junior staffers to spread several maps of the country out in the middle of the table. Each one had been criss-crossed with snaking lines, dividing up the farming areas into zones and traversing them before cycling back to Manehattan and its warehouses. “Detachments can take the major thoroughfares west,” Steel pointed out, leaning over and drawing a line from Canterlot all of the way to Manehattan. “We could get a wagon train formed up before our regiments even got there, and thus save some time.” “While another group moves north,” Luna said, nodding along as she thought, “and a third takes the south branch. Las Pegasus, Southoofton and the like.” “Take the road south and start in Southoofton,” Line agreed. “Then split up there so that one group can handle cider country and the other can keep marching down the river.” “That’s old farming country though,” Steel said. “If you meet any resistance, it’ll be from those old homesteads. The Everfree River was still running a little this year, so they had at least some water to work with. Enough to give them a sufficient enough harvest that they’d be willing to fight for it.” “Maybe we could send a few wagons out ahead?” Ink spoke up once again. The rest of the room turned to her questioningly, and the senator wilted for a moment under their stares. But Luna gave her a quick nod to proceed. “Our biggest issue is not knowing where the resistance will be,” she said, circling the farming areas of the map with a hoof. “Moving a big army through that country on small roads would be slow and laborious. But small groups can move quickly, and take any grain that isn’t going to be fought over. If any resistance is encountered, they can report it to us quickly and the Guard can respond.” This time the silence of the room was filled with a few wondering hmm sounds from everypony present, before nods of understanding followed. “Not a bad idea at all,” Steel said. “Your Majesty?” “I agree,” Luna replied, giving Ink a nod of approval and another good point herself. It seemed that she had found herself with two good advisors for facing this situation. There came a knock at the door, subtle and yet unexpected enough to break up the conference. Luna got up out of her seat to get it, not noticing that everypony else also had to rise with her. Opening the door, she found a young pegasus guard, hovering gently in the hallway. “Is there something wrong?” she said, the nerves at the back of her skull already telling her that something definitely was. “We have, er, a situation at the walls, Your Majesty,” the guard said, his voice fluttering along with his wings. “Has Swift gotten there yet?” The guard gulped nervously. “He, er… actually he was the one who said we should get you.” Luna nodded before turning back to the committee room. As important as this discussion was, it was still hard to keep herself from falling asleep as they hammered out details. In a way she was a bit thankful that this crisis, whatever it was, had arisen to take her away from the meeting. “I have to go deal with this,” she said to them, “but keep working while I’m gone. By noon, I expect to have a full schedule worked out and brought to my desk. If possible, I want the whole harvest collected in two weeks, and manage the Guard deployments as necessary to get there. If we have to take a risk somewhere, then so be it. Ink, you take the chair.” Steel and the rest of the generals gave her a salute, while Line and the rest of her accountants offered only a solemn nod. As she turned to go, she caught sight of several new maps being laid out over the table. The guard led her to an open window, and from there straight out into the morning sunlight. One look from this bird’s eye perch confirmed to Luna that her early morning suspicions had been correct. While the palace square was finally empty, that description could also be used for the whole of the city’s streets. She could only spy one or two ponies out and about in the various neighbourhoods, and that alone was enough to spark a wave of suspicion. They had to have gone somewhere. “Do you have any further details on this situation, Guardspony?” He shook his head. “No reason for me to say much, Your Majesty. You’re going to see it soon enough anyway.” He pointed down to where the edge of the city was now coming into view. Indeed, already Luna saw exactly what he was referring to, and it brought her earlier suspicions cleanly into focus. Canterlot’s position on the side of its mountain lent it some natural defenses that were by and large very solid. There was only one winding mountain path to get up to the city’s proper gates, and though that would protect the city well in the event of an attack, it also made the capital vulnerable to a siege. In order to mitigate that, one of the first projects that Luna had undertaken as a Princess was to build a larger perimeter wall around that entrance, effectively widening that choke point to make it harder for an invading force to close it. The extra inner space on the interior of the wall also gave the Guard somewhere to camp when it was properly assembled such as it was now. So when Luna looked down and saw the neat rows of tents on the interior of the wall’s perimeter, with four hundred or so guards milling about within it, it didn’t faze her. The tent city on the outside of the walls though, was another matter entirely. Coming down with the messenger to land near the city’s main gate, Luna quickly spied Swift down amongst the tents out there, holding a heated discussion with — who else? — the two-toned pony that she had encountered in the square the previous day. Two-Tone had hung a ragged black coat around his shoulders, and even had what looked like a pair of gardening shears braced across his back. Even above the clamor of the military camp behind and the significantly less organized civilian camp in front, it still didn’t take long for her to pick out their voices and what they were saying. “But this is a military operation!” Swift was shouting. “Under the authority of Her Majesty the Queen. You and your ‘militia’ have no authority to interfere!” “But it is our food that you are marching off to get, sir, and thus we demand a say in that operation!” Two-Tone replied, sounding imperious. “The Guard is short-staffed, and we are ready to assist! We are armed and eager. That earth pony rabble will surely stand aside once faced with our superior number.” “This is not an army marching off to war! This is an escort operation, to assist our collection agents in enacting the laws that you ponies so eagerly asked for. If you are an expert, then you can tell me if the law authorized a military campaign!” “The use of force is authorized if necessary,” the unicorn said, sounding so much like Pensive himself that Luna involuntarily clenched her jaw. “And we, the ponies of Canterlot and of Equestria, are here to tell you that should it become necessary, we are ready to assist at the immediate opportunity! We will of course submit to the Guard’s authority,” he added, almost as an afterthought. “But we will march on. Simply send us where the action is, sir!” Swift spared a look up at the wall, and when he saw Luna waiting there he took off, leaving Two-Tone only to salute him awkwardly before wandering back into the maze of civilian tents. “A curse on stubborn unicorns,” Swift muttered under his breath as he landed on the wall. “Sorry that you had to get involved in this, Your Majesty, but I think that you can see what our problem is.” Luna took another look out over the whole of the impromptu civilian camp. Doing some rough numbers in her head, it looked to be nearly half of all the ponies who had gathered in the square yesterday. If they were all assembled together, it was maybe five or six hundred ponies. “I’m afraid I don’t see that at all. What under the stars is that fool doing now?” “He says that he’s gathered up a ‘militia’ of concerned unicorns from the city, and they’re going to help us ‘liberate’ the stored food from those ‘thrice-accursed’ earth ponies,” Swift said, making no bones about which words he was appropriating. “They intend to follow us wherever we march, and probably start a fight with any earth pony that they see. I’ve told them to disperse and leave this job to us, but, well, you know how they deal with commands like that.” Finally Luna managed to find Two-Tone again in the crowd of tents. After having retreated several yards into the camp, he was now strutting along a main avenue, awkward but no less proud. The unicorns that followed him may not all be such egregious examples, but surely they all thought the same way. “These fools are bound and determined to start a war,” she said under her breath. “No matter how much we try to stop them.” “We can perhaps keep a group of the Guard back to watch over them,” Swift surmised. “We know that they’ll only answer to force, and somepony will need to be here to make sure that they don’t run off to a fight while we’re gone.” “We don’t have the troops to spare for that,” Luna said, already feeling a headache coming on. “But it’s true that we have to do something about them.” Swift was right. A thousand curses on stubborn unicorns! Nothing that Steel or Line had worked out of their projections could possibly have accounted for this many ponies being eager enough to start a fight that they’d do whatever they could to get one. And now once again she was facing an impossible choice on how to deal with them: either take a chance that they wouldn’t set Canterlot aflame while she was gone, or else divide her forces even more so that a detachment could foal-sit this lot while there was more important work to do. Again she found herself thinking of her sister. What would Celestia do? She’d no doubt find a creative solution of some sort, but Luna was coming up blank. Down in the tents, Two-Tone had found his destination, disappearing presently into a large tent where several other unicorns could be seen waiting for him. From the banner hanging from a stake outside, Luna guessed that Two-Tone and his friends were now holding their war council. Swift had been following her gaze. “For what it’s worth,” he said, “I wouldn’t be comfortable leaving even a whole regiment here to oversee these ones anymore. Their weaponry may be crude, improvised for the most part, but they’re desperate and angry, and a pair of shears used well is just as capable of impaling a pony as a sharpened spear. They may not look like much now, but they’d likely be pretty intimidating if they were properly arrayed on the field.” That was it! Or was it? It was an idea, if nothing else, and it would offer a better way out than any of her current options. “Swift,” she said with her usual authority, “I want you to organize this militia, and incorporate it into our forces as an irregular regiment.” From the lack of a speedy reply, Luna guessed that he was finding it a difficult order to swallow, and she didn’t blame him. It was a risky course of action to take, but ultimately some risk was going to be required in any successful strategy. Eventually Swift found his voice. “Your Majesty, I’m afraid that I must object to that order. With all due respect, you said yourself that these ponies are hellbent on starting a war, which is precisely what we are trying to prevent. What do we gain by enabling them further and bringing them along with us, to meet some earth ponies who are undoubtedly going to object to our plans?” “We can’t leave them here,” she countered, still watching over the camp. “And it is precisely these ponies who will occupy our guardian forces within Canterlot. If they were gone, I would be confident in leaving only a skeleton crew to watch the city. That would bolster our escort forces significantly.” “That won’t matter if those extra soldiers have to spend all of their time minding after this rabble,” Swift continued, still eyeing the aforementioned “rabble”. “Lest we allow them to leave a trail of destruction in our wake. We won’t be able to take our eyes off of them for a second.” “Yes, well, look behind us,” she countered. “How many soldiers do you count? Three, four hundred maybe? Even with our reinforcements we might barely reach a thousand, and that force will be spread thin. That idiot you were arguing with is right about one thing: we are short-staffed. If we can use his ‘militia’ to pad out our numbers somewhat, it could help to avert some violence. Maybe a large enough force will cow a few towns that would have fought us otherwise.” There was another break in the responses, followed by Swift’s audible, defeated sigh. He saw the logic, but he didn’t like it, and neither did Luna. “That all does make sense, Your Majesty,” he said, “but I still believe that it is a risk not worth taking. If all of Equestria is dry tinder, we are taking our torches with us into it, and trusting ourselves to be careful that we don’t let any stray sparks drop. Because if any of them do, suddenly we’ll find the whole countryside alight around us.” Luna brought her eyes up to look at him. “I never took you for a poet, Swift.” He reached behind his neck to pull out his helmet, its burnished silver surface reflecting a glowing halo onto the battlements behind him. “I had to do something while I was held up in the infirmary,” he said with a very small hint of levity in his voice, even if his face didn’t show it. Donning the helmet, he kicked himself up into a hover. “I’ll let the Captain know of your wishes.” “No, Lieutenant,” she answered firmly. “You’ll let him know of your wishes. This is your operation to handle.” He accepted the field promotion with not a blink. “Understood.” Offering a formal salute, he flew back down into the military camp behind them. Luna, meanwhile, went back to studying the horizon. The promotion had been a spur-of-the-moment idea, but she knew that Swift deserved it. Once this whole ordeal had been dealt with, she would arrange a ceremony for him so that the stars could be properly affixed to his uniform. Until then, though, he was going to have his work cut out for him managing the mess that had unfolded in front of Canterlot’s walls, and somehow keeping it organized enough to serve a useful purpose without allowing the unicorns to start any fights. It was a treacherous path that they were all going to have to walk, but it was the path forward now.