Princess Luna clearly enjoys power, and she means to do well with it. My greatest fear is that she will inevitably do something for the betterment of our nation that riles up the populace so vigorously, say a new tax levied, that they rise up against her. Princess Luna is not to be taken lightly, and she is quite probable to take such anger as a personal slight. What could follow is a spiraling descent into chaos as she and her fanatic "Night Guard" try to "contain the disturbance".
Princess Celestia, when and if this time comes- do what is necessary. Do not hold back, for I know one thing for certain above all else.
She won't.
Star Swirl the Bearded, 400 After Harmony. (Three weeks before 'The Lunar Treason')
Princess of the Night. This was more than Princess Luna's title, this was her very identity. She wore the dark, used it, controlled it. The dark was not her friend, it was her servant. She and the bat ponies shared these ideals, and ever since freeing them so many thousands of years ago they had followed her with a fanatic devotion. Prior to her exile they had unquestionably followed her even when the loyalty of the average Equestrian subject began to waver under her attempt to take the reigns of power from her sister, using her nominally equal status to pass laws to strengthen the nation. The bats had even fought for her, and were it not for the elements of harmony, Equestria would not have a Princess- it would have a Queen. Even during her lengthy exile they had kept watch over the night, and patiently awaited her return. When she did their leader for an entire generation immediately and unquestionably ceded power, something no other race could understand.
Princess Luna and the Night Guard had long since protected Equestria from the things the average citizen, and her own sister, would rather not admit existed. Dragons found themselves at the end of a hundred pikes, other terrifying monsters at the ends of more powerful weapons, and even the occasional raid by the independent states was quickly routed. They kept a watch on everything, and more often than not struck long before a problem was obvious. All the people would hear was rumors of a dragon migration, or a group of bandits, and that was that. The bats paid a heavy price for their constant vigilance, but they knew their task was a righteous one, and would keep it to the last.
When the war started they protested loudly about the 'loss' of the H.M.S Magnificent to the Wonderbolts. In their eyes, they were the rightful owners of it, and it was they who should be running the war. It took some time, but they begrudging accepted Luna's wisdom that the Equestrians needed to learn to fight for themselves, for the Night Guard was nowhere near large enough to fight an entire war on their own. The Wonderbolts would make mistakes, grave mistakes, mistakes that the Night Guard could possibly have averted- but it was part of the process. They would teach, but they could not lead.
The Night Guard was not without it's own weaponry though, and Princess Luna was in the great armory inside the mountain behind Canterlot on this night, inspecting the wares. Beside her was the largest bat pony she had ever seen, his armour seemed like a second skin when on anypony else it would weigh them down. His name was Blackpowder, and he had been working on new weaponry designs for quite some time, although most had been kept in secret until the war. Now were they able to be mass produced, but first the designs needed to be perfected. The war was still less then a week in, and transitioning a nation that had known peace for millennia into an industrialized military power was going to be painful.
He gestured to a weapon lying on a workbench, surrounded by tools. It was a large barrel elevated by a metal scaffold on an armoured saddle, with holes in the sides assumedly for feeding ammunition.
"Twenty millimeter calibre, paired with a box of ammunition on either side. Three hundred rounds, with spent rounds ejecting through the back. It can feed high explosive, or armour piercing. Not even the armour of the griffons will stand a chance against this beauty," He said, clearly proud of his work. Luna levitated one before her and inspected it.
"Three hundred rounds, how fast does it fire?" She asked.
"I've been able to get a hundred twenty shots per minute, the problem is the material in the barrel overheats and melts if I push past that," He replied.
"The average time of engagement so far as been around five minutes, and only a tiny percentage of that does anypony get a shot off. Increase the calibre to thirty millimetres, and add a second barrel. Rapid, controlled, bursts will allow for maximum effectiveness," She said. Blackpowder nodded.
Luna put the machine on her back, and ducked her horn forward to allow it to go over her head.
"If anypony fires this as is, they will be deafened. I understand the accuracy of having the barrel over the head, but for practical reasons you will have to move the barrels to either side of the body. Put the ammunition on the back," Luna said, he nodded again.
"Wise as always, Highness," He said, and as Luna lay it back on the table he started to dismantle it.
"It's a good design Blackpowder, and there's potential in this idea. I want you to create a smaller version for use on the ground against unarmoured targets. Use a 5 millimeter calibre or so, with a focus on extreme high rates of fire. I feel the south might require an intervention by the Legion, and I want them to have an edge right out of the gate,"
He nodded again, and with a heavy clank the barrel came loose from the rest of the machine.
"I could use a rotating series of smaller barrels, it would require power however, and I don't think we have the technology anything that small," He noted.
"Magic, a unicorn could power it. Get to work on this, and have at least a dozen made by the end of next week, along with a few thousand rounds. This takes priority- we've been doing well enough in the skies lately," She ordered.
"It will be done," Blackpowder replied, and Luna turned to leave.
She strode through the aisles of prototype weapons, most of which has a very obscure of niche use that required they keep one, or two, but not useful enough to produce en masse. Crossbows that fired a steel net, very useful if you wanted to capture something you didn't want to, or couldn't, touch. An enormous cannon lay across the entire room, separated into pieces. In it's day it had lobbed shells against pirates. A dozen long pikes, which had felled just as many dragons. There was even an enchanted sword, it's secret long since forgotten, that was used if the undead ever threatened Equestria. They tended to every October, more or less, for whatever reason. In this room you could find something to kill just about anything.
The Guard was in the process of slowly cleaning out and archiving most of the ancient weapons, and it would soon become the centre of a massive research and development program. Today she had ordered Night Guard reclaim a few of those missiles the griffons used to such effect, and they would work hard to reverse engineer them. Finding out that they worked by sensing heat was a breakthrough that had saved dozens of ships so far, simply by attaching fireworks to the rear that could be launched when a missile was spotted. Half the time the missile would go for the fireworks, and then either detonate or get flung so far off course it would run out of fuel.
Somehow the Griffons had gotten ahead of Equestria technologically, but the work that would be done here will hopefully close that gap. Perhaps they could even find a way to use that ore, the ore that powered the Magnificent, as a weapon. The math was simple enough: a mere kilogram of it produced enough energy to power the ship for a year, or destroy a city. As of yet however, they had no idea how to coax the pseudo-magical energy out all at once, it simply dissipated slowly as soon as it was activated. Alicornium it was called, and as near as anypony could tell the only place it could be mined was in the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Heart was made entirely of it.
The question of just what the griffons wanted to do with the heart was a perpetual quandary, and as of yet there was no answer. The war didn't seem to make sense in other ways too: there was nothing for the Griffons to gain. There was the idea of simple imperial conquest, but that didn't seem to make sense, the griffons had no claim on Equestrian land, and had never made threats before. There was no resource shortage, and there had never been any major disputes between the two nations, the griffons had just suddenly decided to attack. Their strategy was strange too, they occupied only one city, and never tried to secure any more ground. All of these questions worried Luna, the worst enemy was one with an unclear plan. Everybody had a plan, and if you didn't know what the plan was you were liable to end up being a few steps behind when you did.
If you did, if you were that far behind it was likely you would only figure the plan out after it was completed, or never at all.
There were other problems too, such as the mystery of unknown flying craft being spotted in the south desert, the abductions of griffon citizens (Which had been covered up by the Night Guard so as to not allow any sort of civil problems within the griffon population of Equestria, which was thus far remaining neutral.), and the naivete of Celestia that would drag the war out endlessly. Luna had learned long ago not to the seize the reigns of the state herself, even if successful a coup would only destroy the nation. No, she would just have to wait until the other leaders decided to vote for a Queen Regent, something Luna would be careful not to call for herself. Once that happened she could run this war properly. She would do what she had to and save not only Equestria from war, but her sister. The griffons would face not Princess Celestia, nor Princess Luna, but they would face the wrath of Nightmare Moon, and they would know woe.
With a wide grin on her face as she thought of bringing the power she had tempered for so long to the enemies of Equestria, she left the fortress-like armory into the vast cavern of the inner mountain. Thousands of years ago when Canterlot was being constructed the princesses were incredibly surprised to find the bat ponies down here, living under the harsh rule of a malevolent dictator. Luna overthrew him immediately, while Celestia wanted to consider 'negotiating'. What he did to the Crystal Empire aside, Luna never regretted freeing the bat ponies from his terrible reign, and ever since they had been ferociously loyal to her. Besides, he met his end eventually, at the hands of Princess Twilight Sparkle, then still a private citizen.
Princess Luna had seen time after time proteges of her sister either fail, or be corrupted. Twilight Sparkle was the first to really succeed, and when she had saved the Crystal Empire, Luna knew that there would be another Princess. It was too bad that she was thrown into a war before she could even get her bearings on being a ruler, and only time would tell if she was up to the task. Luna saw only two ways her future could go; she would either succumb to pressure, or she would prove her right to rule by fire. Since she had actually defied her former mentor by voting for the war, Luna was confident she would succeed at this as she always has. Thus far her signature accomplishment was the creation of a 'Civil Defence Committee', and her efforts would go a long way to protecting civilians. It was something neither of the princesses had thought of- Celestia cringed at the very thought of continued warfare, and Luna admittedly always thought on the offensive. Princess Twilight was a sort of middle ground between the two, her name described it perfectly.
Luna felt something approach, the tiny vibrations in the wind heralded her second in command, silently flying towards her from some distance above and behind. For a little over a year she had been trying to get the drop on her superior. She never succeeded.
"Mezza Luna," Luna addressed, not looking back.
Luna heard a soft groan on the wind, and managed to suppress a grin.
"Yes, your Highness, I have some news to deliver," Mezza Luna said, landing behind. Her name literally meant half moon, it was a name passed down by generations of leaders that had occupied Luna's role for a thousand years.
"What is it?" Luna asked as she came to her side.
"We've managed to secure those missiles, a Legionnaire was injured in the process, but he'll be fine," She replied.
"Good, get to work on it right away, the Wonderbolts could use their own missiles. I imagine Air Martial Spitfire will be quite pleased," Luna said.
"We're just going to give them to the Wonderbolts? What about our own forces?" Mezza Luna asked.
Luna nodded. "Yes, we have no need of anti-ship weapons at the moment, the Wonderbolts will get first priority when we've reverse engineered this weapon. Our focus will be to continue to harass the griffons, and allow them no rest. You know as well as I we can't fight them in the open, we lack the numbers," she said.
"What we lack in numbers we make up with training, one of u-"
Luna stopped her with a hoof on her chest. "One of you is equal to one of them, it only takes one burst from those fire guns to kill, and we won't have our own firearms for some time yet. Don't make the mistake of underestimating our enemy, they spend their lives studying the martial arts just as you do," She said.
Mezza glanced at her, and then glanced away. "Wise as always, your Highness," She said. Luna sensed she wasn't entirely convinced- a foal could tell it was so obvious.
"You're dissatisfied with your role in the war, I understand that. It's natural to want to find glory in ones life, but let me warn you right now," Luna pulled her face to gaze into her eyes, "Do not make the mistake of seeking personal glory over the needs of the whole," She growled.
"I won't," Mezza Luna replied. Luna released her.
"I also have some news from the south, the griffons appear to be trying to ally with a city state called 'Snowy Cove'. I suggest we utilize Agent Orange," Mezza Luna suggested.
"Perhaps, has he continued his relationship with Princess Celestia's assistant?" Luna asked.
Mezza Luna snickered. "Oh, he has all right. He's gotten her pregnant," She replied.
"Good, we've got him then. He'll do anything to protect his love. Collect what material we need, and I'll talk to him as soon as we're ready," Luna ordered. Her second nodded and flew off, leaving Luna to herself.
Mezza Luna clearly still saw herself as the leader of the bat ponies, and if Luna didn't destroy that idea soon it could cause problems down the line. The Changeling Ambassador had made a career out of bending his orders to suit his own needs, and what he thought was right. If Mezza Luna were to take a similar approach to following the 'spirit' of her orders, and not the letter, then the stage was set for significant problems.
Luna was very careful to conceal any disagreements she had with her sister from anyone else for this reason, if Mezza Luna got the wrong impression; and used her authority to attempt something drastic, it would have consequences for not only them, but also Luna and Equestria as a whole. She had spent most of her time exiled dreamwalking, and wasn't eager to do it for another millennium. Granted the 'loss' of the elements meant that..
No.
With a yawn, Luna glanced up at the far ceiling of the cave. A faint ray of light meant that outside the sun was rising, and it was time for her to attend the daily security briefing before resting. Perhaps she could seed the idea of a regency vote somehow, maybe the nations misguided media could be useful for once in this regard...