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// Meeting in Maredrid 
// Story: Terror in Equestria 6:  The Great War 
// by StormLuna 
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Scootaloo and her forces, after a dominating victory in Braylin, sail back to the south.  Everypony was in a very good mood.  General Dark Night asked, "Scootaloo, after what you did to their general what are your plans for Lemon Hearts if you capture her?"

Scootaloo got this sadistic grin on her face and replied, "Oh if we are the ones to capture her, the torture I have planned for her will be far worse and will last much longer than Black Feet's torture did."

General Lightning Storm asked, "Scootaloo, what if Luna was to decide to lead forces into Saddle Arabia and she is the one who captures her?  What do you think she will do to her?"

Scootaloo replied, "Well I do know that she would make sure she would never escape.  She might banish her to the void, she might banish her to the sun but what I do know is that she won't be brutal like I plan on being.  The thing that separates me from other ponies, I find brutal torture not only necessary, but quite entertaining!"

After four days out at sea Scootaloo's forces finally made it to the port of Maredrid.  When they flew into the devastated city they were not surprised by what they saw.  Upon landing in what was the city square Scootaloo looked around and shook her head.  She said, "I was expecting this but I did not expect there to be corpses of Maredrid citizens.  I thought Luna would have been able to get them all evacuated.  This is truly sad."

The dark Alicorn Scootaloo yelled at up in Braylin over his comments regarding corpses sneered, "Well Scootaloo, you are a commander so I wouldn't think this would bother you."

Scootaloo pointed her horn at the soldier and growled, "What did you say soldier?  You care to repeat yourself?"

The soldier knew that repeating what he said would not be in his best interests so he said that he thought that all the corpses were a sad sight to see.

Dark Night asked, "Well it looks like the only building here that didn't suffer much of any damage is the palace.  Commander, will we be sleeping in there until we are ready to launch our offensive?"

Scootaloo thought this was an incredibly stupid question.  She rolled her eyes and growled, "Yes General, it is where we will be staying until we are ready to go."  She paused and then with her voice dripping with sarcasm she continued, "What do you think we would do, just stare at the houses and expect them to rebuild themselves?"

Colonel Black Mist asked, "Scootaloo, do you think we should go in to the palace and see if there is enough food for all of us?"

Scootaloo replied, "Yes, I do think we should do that.  Also as bad as I hate to, I do think we should search through the rubble and collect any food we find in it as well."

Black Mist asked, "Why do you hate to search through the rubble?"

Scootaloo shed a few tears and replied, "I just feel like we will be violating the space of the ponies who were killed here but we have to do what it takes to survive."

Her forces had not seen her shed any tears before.  While at times they felt a bit uneasy around Scootaloo because of her short temper and thirst for blood, they realized that she does still have some feelings, well feelings for those on her side anyway.

Further inland Luna continued her flight south.  She realized that if she wants to meet the Equestrian forces that she must fly as fast as she can for as long as she can.  Finally two days after leaving Stalliongrad, she finally saw her old palace in the remains of Maredrid.  When she arrived Scootaloo was addressing her troops from the palace's balcony.  Luna flew in and landed next to the Equestrian commander.

Scootaloo looked over to her right and said, "Queen Luna!  It is so good to see that you are ok!" 

Luna replied, "It is good to see you guys are alright too, and thank you for liberating the west coast of my country!"

Scootaloo said, "Well Luna, I think the two of us along with my officers need to head into your throne room and discuss what our plans are now."

Luna replied, "I agree Scootaloo, let's go."

Luna, Scootaloo and her officers headed into the throne room.  For the first time in a couple of months Luna sat on her throne and addressed everypony else.  She said, "Alright, thanks to Scootaloo and her forces, the Equine Empire has been liberated.  Now it is what do we do next?  Do we simply secure our border or do we go on the offensive and invade Saddle Arabia?"

Scootaloo replied, "Well I am thinking that perhaps we should do both.  I do know that Lemon Hearts does have some forces still alive.  They are stationed in Ridead for protection."

Luna asked, "Oh, and how do you know this?"

Scootaloo replied, "Well their dark Alicorn general told me all this after I water boarded him for a while.  Also, I have found out things regarding Lyra.  But first, we discuss what to do regarding Lemon Hearts."

Luna was shocked when she heard Scootaloo talking about how she got the information out of the Saddle Arabian general.  She asked, "Wait a minute, you waterboarded their general just to get information out of him?"

Scootaloo laughed, "Of course.  Beating him and slamming him up against buildings didn't work.  Sometimes a commander has to do what a commander has to do to get enemies to talk.  And it worked, that is all that matters."

Luna, still stunned, replied, "You do know that waterboarding is against international law don't you.  You could get tried for war crimes for that."

Scootaloo glared at Luna and growled, "Well no one has to find out about it now do they?  After all, he was leading forces that attacked your nation and killed many of your citizens.  So whose side are you on, the side that liberated your nation or the side that massacred many of your subjects?"

Luna stood there silently for a minute.  While she did not approve of Scootaloo's torture methods, she realized that she was right.  She replied, "No Scootaloo, no one will find out about this.  It will remain between us."  She paused for a minute and continued, "Ok, back to the subject at hand.  If we are going to secure my border, how are we going to do it?  All we have is your army."

Scootaloo replied, "Well I do know the duplication spell and we should be able to shore up the border with duplicate forces.  After we do that, we can then invade Saddle Arabia, fly into Ridead and capture Lemon Hearts, which will result in the collapse of her nation."

Luna could see in Scootaloo's eyes that she had plans for Lemon Hearts once she was captured and she decided to find out what they were.  She asked, "So Scootaloo, what are your plans for Lemon Hearts if we capture her?"

Scootaloo glared at her and replied, "Don't you mean WHEN we capture her?"  She sighed and then continued, "My plans for her will make what I did to Black Feet look like nothing.  She is DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the deaths of many civilians, civilians who were citizens of the Equine Empire."

Luna asked, "Instead of torturing her, couldn't you just have her covered in ooze and then take her up to Alicorn City to be held until we can get a war crimes court started after this is all over?"

Scootaloo replied, "Hmmmm.....well I don't plan on killing her.  I do plan on punishing her though.  YOUR citizens were shown no mercy.  They suffered in their deaths so why should she not have to suffer any?  If you won't cause her to suffer through any pain, I will make sure she endures through pain, and lots of it."

Luna asked, "Scootaloo, can I ask you a question?  I remember back at the end of the last war how you and Colgate decided to use psychological warfare against Twilight.  Now you seem obsessed with torture.  What is it with the change in war tactics with you two?"

Scootaloo replied, "Luna, just as the world has moved on to a new era involving global trade, we have moved on to use different methods of warfare.  The methods Twilight always used were too soft.  What fun is there in simply banishing your enemies somewhere?  War involves the enemy leaders suffering."

Luna said, "Fine.  But if I capture Lemon Hearts she will be dealt with in a way that is legal under international law, a law that Colgate agreed to in a treaty signed by the five leaders a couple thousand years ago."

Scootaloo decided to drop that issue and simply say that they need to get a few good meals in them and leave in a couple of days.  Luna agreed to this and while they seemed to be not as warm towards each other as normal, they did decide to continue with the invasion as planned.