This Beautiful Darkness Shall Protect Me...

by Timemaster


19-Hooray, War!

A young, yet strong, zebra salutes me. I look her in the eyes, seeing her crisp, green eyes shine like a fire. We are standing on the cave-wall on the opposite side of the mountain (From my home).

"'Emissary' Zena, an honorable ex-member of the council, we called you here for your expertise."

"What so you need?" she says in a clear voice, enthusiasm coming from her. Thank goodness I can't eat that, for I would have choked by now.

"We need you to train a few trusted zebras to become 'emissaries' like you."

"Why zebras?" she asks, running her hoof through her frizzed mane.

I exhale, looking off to the side, sadly, "The zebra kingdom's queen was the one who sent the dragon personally."

She looks at me, her eyes wide, "How are you sure?"

"Lets just say, " I pop my neck, "I am a great interrogator."

She nervously smiles, "So, what do you plan to do?"

"Oh, don't worry about that for now. Just train your students to get something great."

She smiles, "What?"

"Princess Celestia will let you wish for one thing." She smiles wider.

"One reasonable thing."

Her smile tones down, nodding.

"Are you up to the task?" I ask her, biting into a crumpet.

"Yes, sir!" She smiles again, bigger than before. I feel her happiness, so I quickly back away from her. Wouldn't want her to be a husk.

"The 'emissaries' are in my room right now, they, too, want to destroy the zebra queen for the atrocity she has done."

She nods, grabbing my keys that were dangling on the wall next to her.

I wave farewell, and go into the council room. But, today was a different kind of day than normal. Today was a day of planning.

...

"All rise!" I say, entering the council room, everypony stopping their conversations.

I get to my podium, "All may rest!"

They sit in their chairs.

"War planners Trixie, Shining Armor, Gerald Shield, and myself are going to come up with war strategies while Financial Adviser Immensely Rich, Peacemaker Gecko Kain, Cultural Adviser Charles Wheatly, and the Princesses discuss how many troops, rations, spending-money, and armaments will be available." I breath in from that long sentence, "Anyone disagree say I."

"I." says Council member Reginald Powers, who monitors the power-consumption of the country and its energy sources.

"Why do you say so?"

"I wish to also be with the group discussing foodstuffs and money for the army."

I rub my chin, trying to think of a reason not to let him in.

"That sounds reasonable," I look to the Princesses, "You agree?"

They nod their heads, eating their lunch. It makes me feel weird, for I still have not eaten much since I've come here.

"You may join the group." He looks happy, "Any other disagreements?"

Nopony raises their hooves nor blurts 'I'.

"Alright, then, would everypony regulate their normal duties. If you find something hard, for this is wartime, ask for assistance from someone who needs no help."

They nod their heads, each having a stack of paper on their desks... well, except the emissaries. They only had a sheet or two. The emissaries all seem to be looked at differently now, but I guess that's natural after a friend stabs you in the back, for you'll expect your other friends to do the same.

i get my stack of papers and walk over to Trixie and Shining, who put their tables together so we can work. I pull a pillow from a small cabinet in the floor and sit on it. Trixie, across from me, is helping Shining Armor clean up some papers he spilled under the table.

I wait a bit, and Gerald sits beside me. He smiles softly at me, but keeps his head slightly low. There is not enough sadness to eat, but I hope it doesn't grow.

"Are we all ready?" I ask my team.

They nod their heads, moving their individual stacks of paper to the middle of the double desk.

"Alrighty. First order of business, mapping out possible stratigic points of entry." I say, smiling at Trixie, who had the map.

She happily lays down the map, which takes up the double-desk, and gives of chess pieces to represent war-parties.

"I will explain what the war-parties are so far, for the Princesses should determine a few more." Trixie said, getting everyone's attention.

"Okay, the white knight is the Royal Army, of course, and they are the best at magic, but they are spread across the world currently." Trixie said, putting the white horse into a little silver box. She sets the box on top of the name of the map.

"The dark knight is Princess Luna's elite stealth unit. Their skill is unmatched by even ghosts." She sets the dark knight on the map, "They are presumably in the Griffon Kingdom, which is named 'Griffon's Gate' in their native language."

"That's interesting." I say, looking at Trixie. She smiles a bit more.

She pulls out a white King, "The white king is The Mane Six, but the Elements of Harmony are currently missing, so they are out of the game." She puts the white king back in her satchel.

"The dark King is Discord, but nopony knows where he went."

I was going to ask who Discord was, but it seemed unimportant right now.

"The white pawn and dark pawn are your militia, for they are highly trained for amateurs."

"Why, thank you for the flattery."

"Your welcome," she says, placing the pawns in the silver box., now the Rooks are just the guards for Luna and Celestia." she puts them in the silver box.

"The bishops are the Wonderbolts, who have been trained with 'Liquid Magic'."

"I have no clue what that is." I say.

"Liquid magic is just globs of magic that can e shaped into things like swords, or fired like an arrow."

"I should buy some." I say, rubbing my chin.

"Well, we do not have any in the mountain, so wait until you are out."

"Fine."

She places the bishops in the silver box.

"Now," she says," it is time for shining armor to tell us where some good entry points are."

We all look at him.

he pulls out a sheet of paper from his small stack and shows us a zoomed-in view of the north part of the Zebra Kingdom.

"In the northern part of the kingdom," he says, placing the zoom-in on the original area," It is primarily water. We have a great navy system, but they do not." he points to a beach in the picture, "Omare Beach is a piece of land that we sold to the them some time ago, and is probably the best way to enter by land." he pulls out another sheet, "But, the best way to enter by the sky is from the Eastern side of the Griffon kingdom, where some allied dragons live."

"Will they fight with us?" I say.

"No, for is is mating season and the dragons must stay in their nests. They will let us pass, though, but they despise griffons."

"Why?"

"They are both carnivorous, so they compete for food every now and then."

"Oh... go on, then."

"Well, after we pass through dragon-territory, we should be in Eastern Grove, a forest the is akin to the Everfree but much bigger, which will take a few days to pass through. Though there is not any monsters that attack anymore, for they are being picked off by the dragons."

"Interesting."

"It is."

"Now, after the Grove, there will be a large, treeless, grassland that will be a huge fighting ground before we can truly enter their frontier and their cities."

"How many cities do they have?"

"Hundreds of small villages, dozens of cities, and two capitals."

"Two?"

"Well," he sighs, "They built one capital for their soldiers and the other for their leaders."

"I guess that means that have to take out the entire army first."

"yeah."

I look up, my hooves holding me up, "This is going to be a long war."

"Yes, it is."

"Should we stop this until the Princesses finish up rounding up the army in the first place?"

Every nods, trixie standing up.

"I am going to go to bed, goodnight everyone."

Gerald follows Trixie out, waving slowly.

"So, your married to a princess?" I ask Shining.

"Yeah."

"And your the brother of a princess."

"Yep."

"Does that mean you'll be a princess soon," I laugh, standing up, "Princess Armor?"

He gets up laughing, "maybe, Mare Scribe."

We start walking out the door, "I see what you did there, my princess."

He slightly punches me on the soldier, but he moves a bit slower. I move a bit further from him, so his eyes faded from being green quickly. He looks at me for a second, a blank stare, but then smiles after I am a meter away from him.

I wave goodbye, watching him wave back, and trot to my home, feeling sick.