Rainbow's short mid day nap had come to an end; the trailing edge of her short dream was already fading from her memory. Rather than her soft cloud bed, she was surrounded in a nest of soft pillows on a normal bed. I'm in Canterlot, and I'm likely not going to see my friends again for several months. This is why I'm here, Twi, so you're not alone. You can't do this without me. Rainbow would never admit it, not even to herself, but the reason she knew Twilight couldn't do this without her, was because she couldn't do this without Twilight either.
Rainbow allowed herself to sink even deeper into the pillows that surrounded her. As her mind wandered out of her conscious control she became aware of a mild irony; she was an extremely active pony, even by Pegasi standards, but for whatever reason mornings were always hard for her.
She tried to gather her willpower to force her head up, but the lack of urgency, and lazy logic that she had nothing better to do, completely sapped her efforts leaving her completely unable to move. It was a strange feeling; she could feel every inch of herself, from her hind-legs cast lazily to her side, up her lithe body to her forelegs curled together supporting her head. She could even feel the warm fur of her foreleg pressed against her cheek, and the warmth of her soft breath blowing against her chest.
After awhile she began to realize the problem wasn't that she couldn't convince her muscles to move, but instead that she couldn't convince her own mind that she wanted to move. Just to prove to herself that she was in fact the master of her own body, she rolled onto her back and stretched her legs above her. There, I can get up if I want to; I just don't want to. Feeling happy with her new-found logic—and feeling a vague sense of Déjà vu—she relaxed her legs, once again slipping into the edge of concussions, and began the lazy mental drifting once again.
Some time later Rainbow's pleasant thoughts were interrupted by movement from the other side of the bed. "Rainbow? Are you awake?"
"Yea, Twi. I'm just napping now." Rainbow put out some effort to open at least one eye, but the effort failed and her eyes remained stubbornly shut. "What time is it?"
"Umm... Around nine I guess? Maybe ten; it looks like the sun recently set." Twilight had hopped out of the bed and was walking out onto the balcony. "Yea, Luna's just bringing to moon up. We don't have long to wait now. Common, lets get ready!"
"I am ready Twi," Rainbow told her pillow. "Wake me when they send for us."
Three firm knocks echoed through the door.
"Why?" Rainbow rolled deeper into the bed, feeling a desperate need for more sleep.
"It's ok Rainbow, you'll live." Twilight cantered to the door, and answered with warm enthusiasm.
Rainbow's mind drowned out their short conversion trying to come up with excuses not to go.
All too soon the door was closed and Twilight came around the bed to shake Rainbow Dash awake. "Common, we should get down there soon. We don't want to be late!"
Rainbow's pride began to win out over her laziness; there was nothing she couldn't do, and besides this was likely to be fun. Rainbow rolled over to edge of the bed and threw herself off; with a quick flap of her wings to orient herself she landed on all four hooves, already feeling the heavy weight of sleep lifting from her mind.
"Ok, where are we heading?" she mumbled, shaking her head violently trying to speed the process.
Twilight had already moved onto the balcony, stretching her wings as she looked at the stars above. "The field in front of Canterlot; same place the Pegasi were practicing last night."
"Awesome." Rainbow exploded forward into flight, pulling up and away from Twilight at the last moment. "Try and keep up!"
"Rainbow!" Twilight shouted, struggling to climb into the sky behind her.
Rainbow ignored the cries coming up behind her, and pressed into a steep climb. With the icy mountain wind pressing hard into her face and howling down her flanks, it didn't take long for the last wisps of sleep to be driven from her mind.
Rainbow leaned forward into a gentle glide, high above Canterlot, and took a moment to appreciate the stars. Canterlot wasn't that far up the Areion Peak—the posh unicorn's that built Canterlot would never take themselves too far into the uncomfortably thin air—but it was still far above Ponyville, and the starts truly looked closer up here. Rainbow knew the stars were so far away the paltry few thousand feet elevation change wouldn't actually bring them noticeably closer; instead she simply had less air between herself and the stars, making them look brighter as less light was blocked by the air. Twilight's explained it to me enough times. I bet if I mention the stars she'll explain it again.
Rainbow looked down, spotting her companion flying just over Canterlot's wall's. After taking one last look at the night sky, taking a quick mental picture of all the dim stars she couldn't normally see from down in Ponyville, Rainbow eased into a shallow dive, deciding for the first time today not to push herself. She still caught up and pulled alongside Twilight before the larger mare made it to the field.
As they approached, in a low, slow glide, Princess Luna's unmistakable form slid into view. She was tall and slender, with a surprisingly delicate appearance for Equestria's second most powerful being, but the calm determination in her eyes as she watched Rainbow and Twilight approach betrayed her immense inter strength.
The other ponies, and two griffons, were already there, sitting in a lose line in front of Luna, with their backs to the lights of Canterlot. Rainbow's quick internal count came to just 10. She wasn't sure what she was really expecting, but this somehow didn't seem like enough.
Rainbow landed on the far right side of the line with practiced ease, while Twilight stumbled a bit, coming to a stop on Rainbows right. Twilight was still having problems with her landings, even after all this time. Be fair, Rainbow, she's only been at this for a year... but are the Reiter Ponies going to be fair to her? I think I need to do something about...
"I'm pleased you could all make it on such short notice," Luna's calm voice cut off Rainbow's thoughts.
The two griffons and most of the ponies present snapped to attention as the Princess began, but a few ponies didn't. Good; me and Twilight aren't the only ponies here without experience. I hope Luna doesn't insist on that discipline stuff.
"I've asked you here, because I think the very nature of war is about to change. For centuries ponies, zebras, and even the griffons have fought to win, not to kill. We have fought for many reasons. For territory. For power. For honor. In these wars, we have always recognized two key truths about warfare; it is easier to rule a conquered population, if you return as many sons and daughters to them unharmed as possible, and it is easier to break an army's moral than it is push their back against a wall and exterminate them. If our enemies are shown that when they surrender they will be treated honorably, and fairly, they will be much more likely to surrender to us when defeated, rather than fight on and inflict far greater losses.
"But the Reiter Ponies can not hope to stand against our armies. If they fight us in the open they will be cut down, and their moral will be broken. Even though they out number us nearly two-to-one, when our backs are covered by our brothers and sister at arms, and we can bring the full might of our formations to bear, they will have no hope of standing against us. We could likely win a desisive victory against an army of them four times our size if necessary; that's how big the gap is. This worries me.
"My sister insists this war will be quick, and we can capture the majority of their soldiers in only a few months. She does admit we do not have the numbers necessary to do so now, which is why the call to arms has gone out and we're taking a few months to train the new recruits up to standard before committing to the war. I hope, against all of the evidence to the contrary that she is right, and the war will end quickly, but I do not believe it will.
"I have spent a lot of time these last few days, not thinking about what we should do to win this war, but instead thinking about what our enemies must do to have any hope of victory. Our enemies must see how futile a conventional war will be for them, every bit as easily as we do, so I suspect they will try something... different." Luna's voice trailed off as her eyes shifted from the gathered troops to the lights of Canterlot behind them.
Luna just sat there, bright cyan eyes shimmering in the moonlight. Her eyes are nearly the same color as my coat! How have I never noticed that before? I wonder how close my eyes are to her coat...? No, my eyes are more much more purple, sort of a mulberry, more like Twilight's coat than Luna's sapphire blue. Thinking of the mare, Rainbow looked to her right: Twilight was also lost in though, eyes unfocused still pointing in Luna's direction.
Ok, so... Rainbow couldn't stop herself from fidgeting, and her left fore-hoof kept pawing at the ground without her consent.
Only a moment before Rainbow herself did, a young fiery voice far to her left spoke up. "What do you think is going to happen, Princess?"
Most of the ponies and both griffons snapped their heads around to glare at the pony who had spoken up. Everypony who snapped to attention earlier, Rainbow realized. The offending Pegasus mare looked slightly taller than Rainbow—although not quite as tall as Twilight—and her coat was a bright gold, very reminiscent of Spitfire, but her mane was much longer and was a solid, dull red, rather than Spitfires vibrant two tone orange. She would have looked too young to be here if she wasn't so tall.
"Please," Luna began, resting a hoof on her chest, "simply call me Luna. I get enough 'princess' talk as it is, and I will not be your field commander, so I see no reason to command your respect as most commanders do. No, you will instead be lead by one of your own. Our ultimate goal here it to create a fully automatons elite squad, who's only mission is to out maneuver and crush the enemies skirmishers, which brings me to the answer of your question..." Luna trailed off, looking directly at the gold mare.
"...? Oh, Rapidfire!" the gold mare shouted, rearing back and giving the air in front of her two good foreleg kicks.
"Yes, miss Rapidfire, what do I think is going to happen in this war. Our enemies have enlisted the aid of one of our most powerful enemies, the exiled King Sombra, who was always a brutal commander; pushing his forces to the very brink. In our passed conflicts with him this left his troops exhausted before the battle even began, and their moral wavred and collapsed after suffering only minor losses, but the Reiter Ponies are different.
"The Reiter Ponies have lived hard lives in these last hundred years, and are no strangers to conflicts, and unlike us they have no qualms with killing. They are not savages, or beasts that lash out blindly, but they do not share our deep love of all living things. I fear this will lead to a drastic shift in their tactics against us.
"Usually a war is fought with a clear goal in mind, and this one is no different. Their goal, is no less than the conquest of the Crystal Empire. To do so, in the passed, their army would have to advance through our lands, and siege our cities, to take them from us by force, but they do not have the strength or the equipment for such an operation, and I doubt they would be able to mobilize enough supplies to feed such an army so far from their homes. As long as the Equestrian Royal Army stands, they will be unable to complete their goals.
"All they have done so far is attack a single city, and while the Crystal Castle is the center of our northern government, taking a single city will not win them half of our great Empire, but that was not their goal in this attack. During the attack, they focused all of their strength on a narrow part of our defenses, and managed to force their way into the city. The Crystal Guard was badly outnumbered and could do little to stop them, but rather than taking the Guard, and Princess Cadance hostage, they slaughtered them. They moved through the city, killing every guards-pony they came across, and when the last of the guard moved to surrender, they cut them down too."
As Luna spoke, her voice began to strain and Rainbow could have sworn the night was getting darker.
"But... what happened to Cadance, and...?" Twilight blurted out. Her eyes had grown wide, and her wings were half open at her sides, feathers gently brushing against Rainbow's own wing.
"Cadance and your brother are safe, Twilight. After breaching into the castles throne room, and killing most of the remaining guards, the Reiter Ponies made no attempt to press deeper into the castle, were Cadance and her few remaining guards were hiding. They may be starting what will become a terrible war, but they are not stupid."
"What do you mean?" Rainbow asked. "Wouldn't they want to... at least capture Cadance?"
"No," Luna stated bluntly. "What would they gain by killing Princess Cadance? Would we lay down our arms, and accept their rule of our norther lands? Of course not, and they know this. If they killed Cadance then thousands of Crystal Ponies, as well as many of our Southern Ponies would be lining up to join our armies. Even our looser allies would be eager to help us avenge our great loss. Killing Cadance would do nothing to further their goals, and would grant us great strength in opposing them.
"I'm afraid they intended to destroy our armies, and leave us with no defenses. I believe their intent is to draw us into their lands, cut us off from our supplies, and do their best to kill every last fighting member of our army, but they can not do that in a decisive battle, so I believe they will instead use hit-and-run tactics to keep us on the defensive, and wear us down. By staying fast and mobile, with a low troop density they can live off the land, at least to some extent, which will free them from supply lines. This will make it extremely difficult for us, and it will cost us thousands of lives just to move our armies, let alone attempting any counteroffensives.
"This is why we're here; I believe the best counter to their strategy is to have our own skirmishers ready, to move even faster than they can, and to keep the pressure on them and let it off our own conventional troops. If we can kill off their scouts, they will be blind. If we continue to stab at them in the night, they will be forced to spend resources on patrols. If we attack those patrols with overwhelming force, they will have to post larger patrols, warping up even more of their ponies, leaving fewer to attack our own forces. If we can get them to clump up enough, then maybe Celestia's decisive battle will happen, and we can win this war without too many losses. If not this will be a fight to the last."
"What exactly is Celestia's current plan?" Rapidfire asked, her excitement lost in the gravity of Luna's speech.
"Celestia plans on a conventional offensive war. She thinks if we can siege and hold the majority of the Reiter Ponies towns we can force them to surrender. She also hopes at some point the Reiter Ponies will be forced to stand and defend one of their major cities, and we can defeat them in a deceive battle, leaving them with little in the way of an army."
"That sounds reasonable, and that's how most wars have been won in the passed," Twilight said. "What was it...? When the enemy is too strong to be attacked directly, then attack something he holds dear?"
"Very good Twilight. The original meaning of that phrase is 'when an enemy is too strong to attack directly, you can often gain an advantage by forcing them to react and move from their position of strength,' but it has another meaning. Celestia hopes that by attacking their cities, and threatening a total conquest of their lands, they will surrender or at least be forced to fight in the open rather than continue their hit-and-run tactic's. By forcing them to defend a fixed objective, we will take away their greatest strength, their mobility.
"I fear that is a lost cause, however, as most of the Reiter Ponies live in the country side, with very little of their strength in their cities. I find it more likely they will let us have their cites, only to surround us and cut off our supplies, leaving us to starve in their streets.
"But enough of this talk; you all know why you're here. Of all the traits I wish to instil in you, independence is foremost among them. Most squadrons fight together, under the direct command of a superior, and any hesitation in following their orders can result in tragedy. We are not like that; here you will be expected to operate on a very small scale, far away from the next highest commander. You will often be asked to split into very small groups, to hunt scouts and perform scouting yourself.
"Your greatest strength will be your speed and unpredictability. This means you can not slow down long enough to send for new orders so you must all learn to be quick and independent thinkers, and commanders in your own right. I ask you one thing; rather than learn to respect your commanders authority, learn to respect each others intelligence and your own ability to make fast decisions, because your lives will depend on it.
"Most of you already know how to fight, and those that don't will have time to learn later; for now I want you all to work on your endurance. I don't care if you can happily fly all night at cruise speed; no matter how strong, fast, or how far you can fly right now, you will need to be stronger, faster and fly much further.
"Two hours. I want you all to run out of energy in two hours. If you have to pace yourself to stay in the air for that long, do so. If you don't think you could possibly run out of energy by then, they I want you to push yourself as hard as you physically can until then. The only way you can fail, is to return to me in two hours and still be able to hover in front of me. Do you under stand?"
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" the military veterans shouted in chorus.
"Umm, yea I guess," Rainbow muttered, receiving a quizzical glance from Rapidfire.
"Yes, Luna," Luna said with some force. "I am not your commander, I am your teacher."
"Yes Luna!" Rainbow shouted with a little hop. "Is there anywhere specifically you'd want us to fly?"
"No, but I would ask you to stay away from the larger towns. I know how loud your yelling can be while flying, Rainbow Dash, and I'd rather you not wake anypony from their dreams."
"Oh, yea that makes sense," Rainbow muttered at the ground, feeling her face going flush.
Luna gave Rainbow a brief nod, a small smirk gracing her muzzle. "I will raise the moon directly above when it is time for you to return. Now go."
As the ponies and griffons all spread their wings and flew in various directions, Rapidfire skipped over to Rainbow. "Hey! No one told me a celebrity would be here!"
"Two," Rainbow said, motioning to Twilight. "Rapidfire? Are you a Wonderbolt?"
"No, and no relation to them either," the golden coated pony said, a cocky crooked smile growing even wider. "I can see why you'd think so though. I may not have it in my blood, but I'm confident I'd make a great addition. I'm no stunt flyer though," she added quickly, scrunching her nose in a quick grimace.
"No?" Rainbow asked, taking a quick glance around, just now noticing Twilight had already left. "Well, it looks like my friend wants to fly alone tonight, so do you think you can beat me to... the top of the Areion Peak?"
Rapidfire took a glance at the mountain over her shoulder, her long dull red mane flopping to the opisite shoulder. "No, I don't think I'm faster than 'Equestria's fastest flier,' but how about a different challenge? I bet I can fly at my top speed longer than you can fly at yours."
"What? How's that fair? You'd win just because you have less strength in your wings that I do!" Speaking of her wings, they were flared out at her sides again. I need to control myself.
"What's that?" Rapidfire took a few steps forward, with her head leaned back. "I'd win? Well then I guess that means..." She leaned forward, lowering her head to glare into Rainbows eyes. "You'd lose."
"What!" Rainbow lost all conscious control of her wings, as they rose above her head, ready to flap. "I never lose! You're on Rapidfire."
Rapidfire's cocky grin only widened as she turned towards the mountain and crouched, ready to take flight. That's when Rainbow noticed her legs. Unlike Rainbow Dash, who's well toned but small muscles gave the illusion on a normal sized, average strength mare—right up until I tare an Earth Ponies leg off in hoof-wrestling, as AJ found out, haha—Rapidfire was as well muscled as most farm ponies; even Applejack looked a little 'petite' by comparison.
"Go!" Rapidfire's shout drew Rainbow out of her thoughts, as the gold pony jumped into the air.
Rainbow gave a startled flap, but then steadied herself, allowing Rapidfire to gain some lead. A few seconds later, Rainbow Dash exploded into forward flight, her wings kicking up a furious wind—sorry Luna—as she threw everything she had into the flight. It was surprisingly difficult to catch Rapidfire, but Rainbow managed it in just a few moments, before steadily pulling ahead.
Sitting in the field, with calm once again setting in as the young headstrong Pegasi bolted from sight, Luna smiled. In only a moment the smile faded as Luna's mind was filled with dread. You don't deserve what's going to happen to you, the Princess of Night thought.
None of us do.