Canterlot City, Celestia's Briefing Room
Day 15 of the Invasion of Equestria
The solid white of Celestia's coat was a stark contrast to the dirty rainbow assortment of colors before her. In truth, she couldn't have been more bored, as Rarity gave her newest report on the status of the supplies available.
"We have 15,000 spears available...in my opinion, we should give them to some of the civilian ponies here, so if the enemy makes it through, they can resist them in some way, which brings up article 3 of my proposals..."
Here she was, leading a nation at war, and she was bored. It seemed that those words shouldn't be in the same sentence together, but at the same time, it seemed that she shouldn't be fighting humans either.
Where had they come from? Why were they fighting?
Then it came back to her.
Freetown. The name that started this war.
Well, Celestia had tried to do the right thing by trying to assimilate them into society, but they had simply refused to. One had escaped, passed the word along to the others, and all-of-a-sudden, 600,000 angry soldiers on your front door in three weeks.
They claimed self-defense, but Equestria had done nothing wrong. Celestia briefly wondered if any of the soldiers out there were unwilling, and what lies and deception had brought them out of their houses, and into her land.
That didn't matter. The ponies were in the right here, and they were fighting to protect themselves as much as to protect their land. Already a third of Equestria had been taken, as General Scott, the name now synonymous with death and destruction, had sent his two-thirds of his men around Canterlot to attack deeper into their territory. They were now in position to take over all of Equestria, and they had only 100,000 ponies in their way, not counting those in Canterlot.
As bad as it may have seemed, Fluttershy, in charge of morale, had turned the Battle of Ponyville into the largest victory of the war.
There, she had said, an army of noble militiaponies, brave volunteers, and resolute guardsponies had made the enemy army of thieves, rapists, and killers pay dearly for every inch. The casualty figures for their side had fallen from a realistic 200 to 100, then 50, then 40...while the enemy's had jumped exponentially, from the accepted 4,000 to 10,000 then 50,000...there were some ponies who believed that as much as a third of the enemy had been slaughtered.
For an extra punch, Fluttershy even drafted a paragraph about the way that the heathen marching songs were drowned out by the Equestrian national anthem.
A round of applause caught her attention, as Celestia snapped out of her train of thought, and saw that General Shining Armor, who was rapidly becoming a legend, had arrived, along with Twilight, who had a bandage wrapped around half her face.
"Good afternoon ma'am." Shining Armor saluted, as Celestia nodded to both him and her student.
"Welcome back Twilight, may I ask what happened to your face?"
"Well, uh, of course. I, uh, ran into something!" She saw her five other friends were at the briefing table, and rushed over to sit next to them.
They shared a rather touching group hug, as they started excitedly trading stories. Celestia simply smiled, remembering the days when she was as young as them. As their laughter died down, they remembered that there was a war on, and turned their attention to Celestia.
"Thank you. I'm sure that you've all heard of Shining Armor's victory at Ponyville. And I'm sure that you've also heard that we're expecting an attack tomorrow."
They evidently had not, and a few had gasped, and even Shining Armor had apparently been unaware that the invaders were ready to attack this rapidly.
"Which brings us to the matter of just how to defeat them. I believe that Shining Armor had given us an example of how their drill and discipline can be used against them, which is what I intend to do. I want everypony out there digging trenches, digging spiderholes, even dig some booby traps. Then I want every section of it secured by our ponies. As for the battle tomorrow, we must follow a tight schedule of events." She looked out on their faces, knowing that what she was about to tell them could send some of them to their graves.
"The signal to begin the battle will be Shining Armor dropping the shield that he will raise 5 minutes after this briefing. This will allow our artillery to fire on the enemy's guns, which will have revealed themselves by that point, trying to take it down."
"Twilight, you will be in command of the artillery. Don't miss, the enemy's artillery, take them out as soon as possible. They can fire remarkably quickly, perhaps quicker than our own." Twilight nodded, and began taking notes.
"Pinkie Pie, you will be in command of the first line of defense. Wait for the enemy to come close, and-"
"And throw a party! With lots of streamers and balloons and cake!" She started giggling as the other ponies looked at her, dumbfounded.
"Um...right. Applejack, you will command the main body of our infantry. Don't let us down, and kill as much of the enemy as possible." Applejack smiled, already relishing the thought of getting right in the face of the enemy, a job that she found herself enjoying.
"Rainbow Dash, you're commanding the Pegasi. The key to this battle will be your Pegasi being out of view, until the most critical moment, just when the enemy thinks it can win. At that point, you will come over the clouds, and make sure they never dare to set foot in Canterlot."
"Sweet! Time to show these guys who's boss around here!" She closed her eyes and smiled, already imagining herself on the battlefield.
"Fluttershy, I want you to do anything in your power to help boost our morale. Play some songs, do something."
"And Rarity, you already know your job. Does anypony have any questions? No? Then may Equestria prevail tomorrow."
They stood at attention, did one last group hug, and went their separate ways.
It struck Celestia that this may be the last time they are ever all in one place, something that saddened her.
However, she had to endure. Equestria must endure.