Preparations
In a dimly lit room in the royal castle Princess Luna puts the finishing touches on her plan to overthrow her sister Celestia and seize the power in Equestria. Alongside her four smaller ponies stand around a round table covered with maps of Canterlot and the surrounding area.
“Status report.” Luna demanded of the four ponies.
“Yes my princess.” answered one of them.
He was a grey earth pony with a short yellow mane and tail, most of his mane was covered by a black and blue helmet, matching his armor. In the middle of his chest sat a jewel made to look like a blue lizard eye. Ironically since he had lost one of his eyes long ago, he had covered it up with a eye patch with a crescent moon engraved on it but part of his scar still remained visible. Every part of him screamed soldier, from his muscular physique to his cutie mark of a chipped old sword with green goo dripping from it. He was the supreme commander of Luna's ground forces and one his most trusted advisers. His name long since forgotten by the men under his command, who just simply knew him as The Queen Slayer.
Not sooner had he finished his sentence before realizing the severity of his mistake. The foolish stallion dare to address Luna with the title of princess. On any other occasion those would have been the last words he ever spoke, fearing for his life he made a hastily correction.
“Apologies my Queen, it was not my intention to address you by your former title”
“Take heed Slayer, one more utterance like that and you may find yourself without a tongue to utter from.” She was clearly annoyed by the soldiers slip up, and if it was not for the matter at hand she would have cut of more that his tongue. Such disrespect would not be tolerated even from her highest ranking officer.
“Our Queen is too kind” he said taking a deep breath, thanking the lady creator for her generosity on that day and continued with the briefing. He knew the real reason behind the princesses decision to spare him. While he made a name for himself long ago by his acts of bravery during the last war, everypony could be replaced, even him. But not now, not so close to this crucial moment. It would cause too much confusion and loss of morale among the troops.
“Stop wasting our time. Present the status our ground forces at once.”
“Yes, we have the 1st, 3rd and 24th platoon stationed inside the capital itself in full combat gear under the pretence of a delayed training exercise a total of 82 fully armed earth ponies regulars, 8 unicorns combatants and 12 mixed ground support personnel”
A much smaller earth pony came out of the darkness whispered something into his ear and retreated back out of sight. It was like he was never there.
“And I was just informed that on the day of the assault, some of the Day Guard, had fallen ill, and will be replaced with guards from the Night Guard, another 12 regulars. Colonel Bronze Hammer if you please.”
Back in his day Bronze Hammer was a great soldier and a military genius, his exploits were the stuff of legends, but his time had long since passed, he had retired from active duty over ten years ago, but could not say no when the princess personally came to him and asked for him to join her cause. The older earth ponies body was not what it used to be, in his youth it was said the he could take down a pack Timberwolves unarmed, but the years have not been kind to him, Struggling to even standing under the weight of his own armor, which he insisted to wear, he could barely raise his sword to properly salute the princess let alone kill anything with it. While his body seemed to had failed him, he was far from useless. His greater strength had always been his brilliant mind. It was his special talent after all as shown by his cutie mark of a quill resting atop a broken hammer. He took a step forward, and continued the briefing.
“My queen I am proud to inform you that the preparations for the Veteran and Reservist Day are advancing as planned. Over 100 combat ready loyal soldiers will attend, as well as twice of many veterans that will do all they can to run interference. Their bodies may be weak but their will are strong. Glory to the Queen.”
“Also within the populace there are 113 lightly armed soldiers dressed as civilians,” continued Slayer. “Raising our total to 200 fully armed, 113 only carrying light weapons, 8 unicorns combatants and 12 mixed ground support personnel. Oh and around 200 veterans running interference.” The last part was said with humor in mind, but the Queen was not amused. In fact she was angry at him for making fun of soldier whom she served with and knew would die for her. It was not unnoticed by the rest of the ponies.
“They are going against the 127 Day Guard earth ponies and 84 pegasi. The earth ponies will not be a problem, but without air support we will have trouble dealing with the pegasi. Also if the reinforcement are late taking the main gate will take between 3 to 6 hours longer.”
“You should not concern yourself about the main gate, my operators are more than capable of opening it without your help.” The voice came from a hooded figure standing to the left of Bronze Hammer.
“There is no need to hide your face, we all know what you are.“ The Slayer said trying to provoke a reaction from the hooded pony.
She took her hood down, revealing her face. Even if he had told her they knew what she was, her appearance still caused some shock in the ponies around the room, except for Luna and Hammer who seemed mostly unphased.
And they had reasons to be surprised, no pony under the age of 30 had ever seen a resident of Zebrica their whole lives, not since the fiasco of the Midnight Sunrise all those years ago.
For the most part she looked like a pony, slightly bigger than the average mare, but nothing out of the ordinary. Her coat was mostly white with the occasional black stripe, large tanned leather bracelets tied with string were around her cannons, and she wore a sash made of the same material decorated with bone pieces went across her chest. Nothing unusual about that, but what caught both Luna and Hammers attention was her mane. Or almost lack of thereof. The zebras almost never cut their mane, except during rituals or as punishment. For them their mane is a status symbol, just as important as their marks. She had a history, and it is clear as the full moon that she would not talk about it. Even after revealing her face, her mark still remained hidden.
“Why so surprised?” Hammer taunted the gray earth pony. “You act like you never saw a zebra your whole life.” A smug smile appeared on his face.
“Enough of this.” Luna said using her Royal Canterlot voice. “Cease this foolishness, lady Pyre, have your agents finish the preparations?”
“Of course my Queen. At the specified time the castle inner walls will crumble, taking with them anypony patrolling on them or in the immediate vicinity. Judging by the reports your followers have provided we expect between 20 and 33 Day guards to die or be otherwise incapacitated for the duration of the conflict”
“Excellent. Now Queen slayer, what about the troops near the city itself?”
“We have two regular battalions, 1300 strong, that are 3 hours away under the pretext of a war game in honor of Veteran and Reservist Day, along with a platoon of unicorns combatants, 34 heads. Over 3 companies, 300 total soldiers that are task with capturing and securing the nearby villages, if needed they can arrive in less that 6 hours to reinforce the troops in the capital city. Not that it would be required my Queen.”
“As for enemy troops” Hammer interrupted his younger counterpart since he saw he had nothing of importance to say anymore. “We outnumber them 5 to 1, and almost 7 to 1 concerning unicorns, we expect the fighting to last between 2 to 3 hours, we estimate a loss rate under 17%”
“What about Cloudsdale and the other palace?”
“Cloudsdale will not be a problem” said the fourth of the ponies standing around the table. She was Nightingale, leader of the Shadowbolts, Equestrias Covert Operation. “We will take down the Wonderbolts and secure Cloudsdale before anyone figures out what happens. The Shadowbolts could reach the Canterlot within the hours to coordinate with the ground teams, however the rest of the aerial force will arrive roughly an hour after us. Until they arrive we will not be able to fully engage the pegasi guards until they arrive. We will harass them and provide whatever help we can to the ground units but they will be mostly on their own.”
“And the elements?”
“Except for a couple of squads that will be required to take over Cloudsdale, all remaining unicorns will capture and guard the elements until news of your victory arrives there.”
“My Queen” the Slayer intervened. “No one doubts your powers, but I beg you to reconsider taking at least a couple of unicorns when battling Celestia... It would make the battle go faster... saving many lives.”
"I understand your position general, but we need every unicorn guarding the elements. If she decided to run from our battle she would surely head towards them, hoping to use their power to defeat me”
“But my Queen.”
“You dare question my actions? MY DECISION IS FINAL.”
“Yes my Queen! The night will last forever!” all for said in unison.
They headed took a bow and headed back into the darkness leaving princess Luna alone.
“Soon... Soon my dear sister... Soon it will all be over.”