“You know how the civil war chapter sort of implied that by the time it was over, the Lunar Empire had total control of Equestria? Well...”
Moonatik takes a folder labelled “Puerto Caballo 1000-1010” out of his desk. The first thing he takes out is a map. He shows it to you. It is labelled “Lunar Equestria and Puerto Caballo diplomatic situation, Jan 1004”.
“I know this is a lot to take in but bear with me. I may as well just explain what happened over in Puerto Caballo. My source is 'dude trust me'.”
“Puerto Caballo had long been a self-governing territory of Equestria, but this was upended by the Lunar Revolution,” he explains. “After the surrender of Princess Cadance, a junta consisting of Loyalist exiles and local Loyalists led by the Captain of the Puerto Caballan Royal Guard Buckio Buckista seized control of Puerto Caballo and the Summer Islands. Buckista then proclaimed the formation of the Equestrian Provisional Government, which claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Equestria. After that, countries around the world had to pick between which government they recognised as the 'legitimate' government of Equestria, hence the map above. Several nations that Equestria held cordial diplomatic relations with such as the United Kingdom of Hippogriffia and Seaquestria - Aris for short -, the Kingdom of Vedina, the Kingdom of Saddle Arabia, and the River Republic refused to recognise the Lunarist government and recognised the Puerto Caballo Loyalists as the legitimate government of Equestria. However, most of the world recognised the authority of the Lunarist government or simply didn’t comment on the matter, either because they didn’t want to invoke the ire of the new regime or because Equestria was simply too far away from them to be of any concern.”
“Nightmare Moon immediately ordered an invasion of the islands. After hastily assembling a landing force, the first attack commenced on the 19th of October 1000, only for it to result in a dramatic Lunar defeat. The most well-known battle of the invasion was the Battle of Marfilita, occurring in a small undefended coastal village of no more than 1000 ponies. A force of 200 Lunar Marines was landed aiming to establish a beachhead, only to be literally pushed back into the sea by two Loyalist exiles wielding powerful magical artefacts, Fenris Ebonyglow and Kara Waypoint, who led a small citizens' militia in defence of the village. After the battle, Ebonyglow and Waypoint were photographed in the centre of Marfilita posing with the newly designed EPG flag, and the photo instantly became a famous piece of Loyalist iconography owing to the exceptional story.” Moonatik takes a photo out of the folder and passes it to you. “Here.”
“A second invasion was launched on January 6th of the next year. The second invasion saw more success with Lunar Marines successfully establishing a beachhead, but due to a poorly prepared supply network and the tenacity of Loyalist forces, Lunar forces were forced to withdraw. All Lunar forces had left Puerto Caballo by 26 March.”
“Following the failed invasions, the conflict entered a frozen state as the Kingdom of Aquileia guaranteed the sovereignty of the EPG. The Lunar Empire quietly backed off, not seeking to get involved in an intercontinental war it was ill-prepared for. Then, Aquileian and Arisian forces provided training and supplies to the EPG, and transported their operatives around the world to strike at Lunar power. However, given the instability of Aquileia and the isolationism of Aris, it was uncertain whether this guarantee would last. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know it didn’t.”
“Quietly, the Lunar Empire had a sophisticated plan to reclaim the islands. Through extensive reconnaissance and planning, an invasion force capable of seizing the islands within months was constructed and put into place. The threat of Aquileian intervention was thwarted as the Empire supported the growing revolutionary republican movement in Aquileia itself by providing funds and intelligence to its organisers and giving them shelter in New Mareland. This culminated in the 2nd of January overthrow of the Kingdom of Aquileia in an uprising by the local republicans, and a new democratic pro-Lunar government was established. At last, the way was clear.”
“Operation Hurricane was launched on the 11th of January, the initial landings involving 120,000 soldiers and the overall operation involving nearly 400,000 troops with support from dozens of ships, thousands of aircraft and tanks, and the Empire's most elite combat mages. The defenders, even with all their weapons and training, didn't stand a chance. Just three nights into the invasion, the symbolic village of Marfiltia was taken by Lunar marines.”
Moonatik takes another photo out of the folder, and passes it to you.
“To celebrate their victory, several of the marines involved in the attack had a picture taken of them posing with the Imperial flag over a Loyalist flag, mocking the photo of Ebonyglow and Waypoint. See the pegasus on the right? His name’s Flame, he’s my best mate. Proud of him.”
“Victory was declared on the 26th of March with the total collapse of the EPG. Thousands of Loyalists were killed, many more were captured, and those who avoided capture had been scattered to the wind.” Moonatik crossed his forelegs and leaned back into his seat. Then his expression dropped and he moved to a shrug. “Well, not entirely.”
“This wasn’t the end of the conflict, this was the start of a new phase. A brutal, years-long insurgency raged across the island, involving numerous factions, warlords, parties, and networks working to overthrow the Lunar government in Puerto Caballo. Allegedly they had a detailed plan to quell insurgencies, but the only copies were lost in the Fort Polaris fire. Boy, I hope somepony got fired for that blunder,” he chuckled. “Anyway they got bogged down, and to explain that conflict…”
Moonatik takes a sheet of paper out of the folder. The letters look hoofwritten, but it has clearly been photocopied.
“Here’s an extract from Lucent Eclipse’s journal about the insurgency in 1010. At the time, Lucent Eclipse was brought over to Equestria to advise on how to deal with the insurgency. He’s Chiropterran and had a great deal of experience in repressing insurgencies in the many military and political positions he held after Chiropterra’s eastward expansion. Did Lucent submit his journal to the archives of his own volition and with his full knowledge and consent? Ehhh, sure! Totally! Anyway.”
Extract from Lucent Eclipse's journal.
Selenite soon took me to a war room deep within the Lunar Castle. This was the whole reason I was brought to Equestria, of course, to give insight on how best to combat insurgencies. Once in the war room, I was dazzled at what I saw. Looming above the room, a huge light screen with a detailed and interactive map of Puerto Caballo loaded with details regarding troop movements, insurgent factions, combat, ongoing operations, foreign presence, and more. I'd never seen anything like it, and for a few seconds, I was speechless. The intern who presented the display was rightly proud (pretty sure she's not actually an intern given the high-security environment, don't know what else to call her). The big flat screens could only display information from pre-set files, plus they were mostly limited to using shades of purple, but it was a level of sophistication well beyond anything I knew was currently in use. Definitely need to ask about getting one of those for the Legionary Council chamber.
“Just so you know what he’s referring to, here's a printout of that map.”
“The ponies who made this were very proud of it, so I’m told.”
Extract from Lucent Eclipse's journal.
After getting over that initial bout of amazement, the intern(?) ran us through what all the symbols on the map meant and Selenite explained the war situation. They'd been bogged down fighting persistent rebels in Puerto Caballo for nearly two years. After easily defeating the crooked Celestial remnant in a conventional war, they found themselves fighting a new sort of war against a much more troublesome foe. Given my reputation as Viceroy of Zarantia, Selenite must've known I knew a thing or two about combating insurgencies. Especially as the Bush War and the Puerto Caballo insurgency had a few similar elements: Insurgents supported by the Arisians, population with strong inclinations against Lunar rule, rebels divided into myriad factions.
Selenite ran me through several recent examples of how her forces had utilised Fireforce, a tactic I'd developed to great effect during the Bush War, and wanted to know if it was being applied correctly. By all tactical metrics, they were doing great. They were wiping out rebel positions and achieving extremely favourable casualty ratios, an average of thirty or more dead insurgents to each dead Lunar soldier. There were frequent issues, such as rebels equipped with surplus Arisian equipment or powerful magic artifacts, but most rebels had little more than a submachine gun. Arisian AA guns and ancient magical neckwear was far from standard issue. She went over Lunar naval and air operations too, all successfully identified and hit their targets to great effect. She wanted to know: What was wrong?
What caught my eye wasn't anything on the list of ongoing operations, but what wasn't on there. It was all combat operations, nothing about winning over the population. Insurgencies are inherently political struggles, and from the way Selenite talked about it she was treating it like a purely military struggle. Weird to me as she seemed to get that defeating Solarism in Equestria meant more than just defeating the Royal Guard but also showing the ponies of Equestria that they were a competent and effective government with the ponies' best interests at heart. When I brought that up she mentioned that they had to defeat them militarily before they could assert themselves as an effective government. Arguably true, but most settlements were under Lunar authority.
I mentioned that in Zarantia, my approach wasn't to just militarily crush the insurgents but to cut off support to the insurgents by winning over the population, or if that wasn't possible inducing apathy among the population. In territories we controlled we assured improvements in nightly life, economic development, and generally good governance. Other measures such as assuring land and passage rights for natives and providing legal channels to voice disagreement helped considerably, too. Something as basic as reliable water services convinced the locals that our rule was the better rule. We brought local ponies and zebras over to Lunarist teachings through tax incentives, framed in such a way where it was perceived as a reward for converting rather than a punishment for staying by false gods. Broader efforts were made in propaganda to paint the insurgent groups in an unfavourable light.
I described this all to Selenite, and told her that they should adopt a population-centric strategy rather than an enemy-centric strategy. Puerto Caballo isn't Zarantia of course, but the fundamentals of anti-insurgent warfare remain true. Image was everything, and the ponies of Puerto Caballo weren't going to become loyal Lunar subjects if their primary experience with the Lunar Empire was their home being bombed and burned down. On top of all that, the insurgents were divided into at least five distinct organisations. Incredible potential to turn them against one another, from what I heard it wouldn't take much to get the PSP and the SSV to turn their guns on one another. Selenite "agreed" (sic) with me and conceded that I had a point, but I'm not sure if she's really taking on my advice. She kept talking about combat operations.
Two familiar names came up in all the discussion, Kara Waypoint and Fenris Ebonyglow, who I remember from the revolt in Ain Trotgourait. Lost a lot of good ponies those nights, ponies who could've been throwing the Storm King out of North Zebrica. Turns out the pair had become leaders of one of the more prominent insurgent factions, led mostly by ponies from the former Celestial government and armed forces. Still heavily backed by the Arisians, too. Well in prepartion is an operation, codenamed Wolfhunt, to assassinate the two to be carried out by a Night Eye Agent, codenamed Cygnus. As great as it would be to get payback for Ain Trotgourait, I mentioned to Selenite that simply killing the two wont be enough to dismantle their network, or even significantly damage its combat capabilities, unless something is done afterwards to assure no other leader takes their place. The possibility of capturing them alive came up.
I've arranged to meet with Cygnus tomorrow, Wolfhunt is his assignment after all and he will likely be pulling the trigger. Looked over his file, seems like quite the character. Definitely sharing my thoughts on the operation with him.
“The night after, Lord Commander Eclipse and Night Eye Cygnus met. Can't speak to how they got along, but Lucent shared his thoughts on Operation Wolfhunt with him. What did Cygnus do with these suggestions?” Moonatik giggled. “Well now mate, that's a story for another time. Oh yeah and the chapter title's a reference, if you know you know.”