//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Solar Empire // Story: In the scars of war // by l3ladeRunner //------------------------------// In the scars of war Chapter one: The Solar Empire It was a cold autumn evening in the end of the year 1010 of the royal summer sun calendar. The bright night told nothing about the ongoing strife in the lands below. The quiet winds blew over the burnt plains and fields, scars of the Princess war and its ongoing destruction of Equestria. Two princesses, both thinking they were doing the best for their people, but sadly destroying the land as a result. At the base of Cantorlot Mountain, Queen Celestias ground forces were stationed, their tents stretching as far as the earth pony’s eye could see. Normally the camp was based a little northeast of Ponyville, but recently The New Lunar Republics forces were attacking more from the north, than from the original south, which had let to the recent moving of the camp. Normally the camp was a relatively bright and happy place, the last safe home before the battles. But the long shadow of the dark half-destroyed Canterlot fell heavily on the minds of the soldiers. After Princess Luna had left the parliament, Princess Celestia had changed drastically, being hit by some sort of greatness madness. She had become more resentful to the common people and enjoying the luxuries of the palace more than she should. She even proclaimed herself queen. It wasn’t enough for the socialist people to turn away from The Solar Empire though and everypony just hoped she would recover with time. It was past midnight and everypony was asleep, all hoping that they weren’t going to battle the next day. The camp was completely quiet, all except for one huge tent in the middle of the camp. Loud noises were heard from the inside, but anypony outside couldn’t hear what was said. Not that anypony wanted to try. Anypony getting caught listening to this tent, would quickly find themselves court marshalled. The tent belonged to Twilight Sparkle, field marshal of the Solar Empire army, and head strategist of the forces. She had been “awarded” this great title and honour, not only through her unquestionable loyalty to Celestia, but also her sometimes incredible strategies that often got everypony out of the battles alive. The noises from the tent were made from a battle planning meeting, and the officers weren’t in agreement with what was being planned. Field marshal Twilight was joined by four of her top officers: General Ironhoof, Commodore Cloudwater, colonel Applejack and medical officer Fluttershy. They were all gathered around a gigantic table, showing Equestria from a strategic perspective. Every single detail was displayed and the officers used it to coordinate their armies and depicture its movements and deployment. Spread across it was hundreds of small tin soldiers, depicting the ponies in the two armies. White pieces indicated Solar Empire forces and black pieces indicated New Lunar Republic forces. They were all discussing the newest intelligence and what strategy would be best to take. Their sight was on the Silk Basin. A large area north of Ponyville and one of the largest and most divided battlefields in the entirety of Equestria. “If air squadron two could drop the carthridges on the enemy’s front line, the army would be in disarray before we reach them.” General Ironhoof explained. General Ironhoof was one of Equestrias most hardened veterans and a brilliant tactical mind. He had forgotten more battles than most of the normal troops would ever experience. “If they are in disarray it would be easy to flank them and then strike directly at the main force.” He was pointing out what exactly he was meaning, using the map and little figurines on the table between them. “But then we would have no cover from their crossbow teams or unicorns.” Commodore Cloudwater replied. Commodore Cloudwater was the fastest pony in The Solar Empires army. He was also air marshal Fireflies official representative, while she was at an audience with the queen or otherwise occupied. It was said that in all of Equestria, the only pony able to fly faster was The New Lunar Republics Air marshal Rainbow Dash. He was also the leader of air squadron two. They were rumoured to be the best fliers in The Solar Empires army, so everypony listened to him when he spoke. “If we have no cover from the ground, then we wouldn’t be able to get close enough to them.” He leant in over the table and tilted a figure that resembled a Pegasus over. “And we would most likely be shot down and lost.” “And even if we recover you, the medical centres are full.” Medical Officer Fluttershy supported. She was the leader of The Solar Empires medical division, which meant she had full authority over the medical core, only outranked by Twilight herself. Otherwise she didn’t have any power, which was probably good because the medical core took all her time. She had lost much of her shyness and innocence from her being the medical officer and having experienced the frontlines. “And we are expecting company five any time now. The medical tents can’t hold anymore ponies!” “But then what do we do?” General Ironhoof had a very small temper. This made him an excellent soldier and tactician, but just not that good of a strategist. “This is often were you have an excellent idea, field marshal.” He said, looking at Twilight. Twilight was studying the map intensively and looking at all the figures spread out on it, overlooking every single detail. Suddenly her face lit up as she discovered something. “It’s a trap!” She proclaimed loudly, making all the ponies frown. “A trap? How’s that?” Colonel Applejack asked. Applejack was Twilights top adviser and chief-executive-of-the-forces. Applejack could almost always be found just behind the frontlines of greater battles, helping the troops and giving orders. The New Lunar Republic knew her as “the unbreakable” because of no matter how hard they tried; they simply couldn’t take her down. “Look here.” She pointed at the figures representing The New Lunar Republic brigade. “According to the intelligence we received, the brigade is supposed to walk over the hill here.” She pointed at the map. “But that would lead them at both a height and spatial disadvantage, as opposed to here:” She pointed at a slightly lover area. “Field marshal Darklight would never make a mistake like that. And that can only mean they will ambush us from here:” She pointed again, this time at a mountain site, east of the original area. “So if we actually faced them head on.” She directed a group of figures representing The Solar Empire army. “We would get crushed.” She tilted all the figures. Everypony knew of field marshal Twilights stunning tactical and strategic mind, so nopony was surprised of her deducing this. General Ironhoof simply said: “Then what do we do? If we don’t stop them there they will move farther into our lands. And we certainly don’t want that.” They all shivered when they remembered what had happened to late General Wishthinker, when he made a wrong move that enabled the New Lunar Republic to take the north-western part of Silk basin. “Well the first thing to do is to not listen to any more information from that source. It has either been ceased or converted to our enemies.” Field marshal Twilight said directed at colonel Applejack. Applejack was also one of the officers in charge of strategy and espionage information. She nodded. Field marshal Twilight started to lay plans: “The problem is that we can’t face them in open combat on the middle of the fields. They have every advantage over us from their position.” She thought for a minute. "The best thing to do would be to lure them out with a single air squadron. They would bait on the false information. If the New Lunar Republic comes out then we will fall back behind this hill” She pointed at the map again. “Then it will be a stalemate and the New Lunar Republic will have no other choice than to fall back as well.” “Unless they actually start attacking us.” Commodore Cloudwater argued. “Brigadier Pinkie Pie might be crazy, but she’d definitely know better than that.” Colonel Applejack said. “The colonel is right.” Field marshal Twilight said. “The brigadier earned her title for a reason and making ponies walk straight into defeat is definitely not one.” “Don’t forget about the reports on the new armour we’ve gotten.” Medical officer Fluttershy argued. “Or are they also just misinformation? If it isn’t, the Brigadier might have one of her “episodes” and think the armour is strong enough to resist us.” “The armour designed by chief outfitter Rarity is strong yes, but not strong enough to resist a full on regiment.” Colonel Applejack was the one who had received the reports on the new armour. She also knew the previous armour from her many clashes with The New Lunar Republics armies. “And it definitely wasn’t misinformation; it came from the most reliable source we have. But I really think we shouldn’t read too much into it either way. We still have the strongest weapons an’ their masterful armour hasn’t been able to resist it yet.” Fluttershy nodded. She was just scared of the thought of even more injured ponies that needed to be healed. “So is that our strategy then? Hope for a stalemate?” General Ironhoof asked. “I think that’s closest we are going to get” Field marshal Twilight replied. “Anypony have any more objections?” They all shook their heads. “Then you are dismissed. I will see you tomorrow for organizing the troops and specify who will be leading them into battle. All praise Celestia!” They all repeated and General Ironfist and Commodore Cloudwater both walked out of the tent. The three friends breathed heavily in relief of the two officers having finally left. When the three of them were alone they could finally talk freely, without being afraid of anypony overhearing them and reporting them to the advisers. “That took a long time.” Twilight complained. “I thought it was going to last forever.” She was about to unbuckle her uniform but Fluttershy stopped her. “Remember fifth company hasn’t come back yet. If you are caught out of uniform, it will just have serious repercussions for all of us.” Twilight groaned, but nodded. If she was caught out of uniform while important orders were about to delivered, then she could easily get demoted or even punished. After all she was the field marshal. “The uniform is just killing me today. I think it was put on wrong.” “Do I have to discipline the outfitter?” Applejack asked. One of Applejacks other functions were to spread morale or discipline between the ranks of the soldiers. It wasn’t an easy job, but she did it with stout heart and she was excellent. “No need.” Fluttershy said. “He broke his leg in a hoof wrestling competition a few hours ago, so I think he learned his lesson.” They all nodded. “But now to the important stuff,” Twilight said, frowning. “I don’t like this new Intel one bit.” She looked closer on the figurines representing the armies. “If they really did deliver this on purpose, why didn’t they hide how they were really going to be more? I mean if they really wanted to blur it out, how come they positioned their troops there?” She pointed on the map. “They should have put them here instead.” She pointed on a tiny valley. “Maybe they…” But Applejack was cut off by the sound of running hoofs. A brown pony, with a red cross, which had a heart inside it on his right front leg, walked in, bowed to the three officers and said in the direction of Fluttershy: “Medical officer Fluttershy, fifth company has just returned from the front. We need your assistance immediately.” “Not good.” She simply replied and ran over to the pony. They both bowed at Field marshal Twilight and they stormed off to the medical core. “That must mean we get our newest intelligence soon.” Colonel Applejack said. And only a few minutes after, a soldier clad in blood splattered plate armour, stepped in. He still had his helmet on and his sword was proudly presented on his side but his armour was torn at places. “Lieutenant Stonehoof of fifth company, reporting directly from the battlefield of south eastern silk basin, field marshal.” He bowed down in front of Field marshal Twilight, who gave the sign for him to rise. “Hail from battle, lieutenant.” Field marshal Twilight said formally. “Where is your captain, it should be him reporting to me.” “Pardon General Sp…” The field marshal shot him a glance and he quickly corrected his mistake. “Field marshal Sparkle, but my captain is currently in the infirmary. They are trying to save his life from a terrible sword swing.” Twilight walked over to her giant map and started studying it. “Full report.” Meanwhile colonel Applejack saluted to her Field marshal and walked out the tent to her quarters. Twilight wouldn’t need her right now. “Nothing happened for three days.” The lieutenant started his report. “We thought we saw some lunar forces 6 pm on the second day, but besides that nothing happened.” He fished a scroll up from the folds of his under-armour and started residing it. “Earlier today, at around 10 am, we saw a company of lunar forces coming from the east. We of course quickly moved to intercept their forces. They didn’t fall back, so we clashed in the middle of the plains. We had the strength in numbers over their company, so we were driving them back.” He looked proud, but it suddenly got replaced with an expression of fear. “But then suddenly something… very strange happened.” “What was it?” Field marshal Twilight asked a bit more eagerly than her rank allowed, but she was very passionate when anomalies happened on the frontlines. “Someone… intervened.” He looked very scared. “A horde of green clad ponies waving big banners and swords clashed with the both of us. They came from the nearby mountain formation. It almost felt like they came out of nowhere. I didn’t get to judge their size that well, but the division must have been at least the size of a big company, maybe even a full battalion.  They hacked away at everyone and everything, with such zeal that I gave the order to fall back after our captain had been mortally wounded by them. The Lunar forces did the same and we parted, with the green ponies picking up any dead or wounded ponies left behind.” “Who were they?” Field marshal Twilight asked. “They called themselves the Wordbeares, or at least that’s what they kept screaming. They kept on screaming that they brought the word of peace. But they slaughtered through a fourth of both companies in a matter of minutes. They were vicious, deadly and quick.” “A new enemy.” The field marshal wondered as she put a new figurine down on the table. She used her magic to write Wordbeares on it and sat it in front of the figures that represented the two companies. “Were they well-armed?” The lieutenant simply took a sword he had on his back and held it from his mouth to Field marshal Twilight. She used her magic to levitate the sword and took a good look at it. The sword was very well crafted and locked like the sword of a captain. “I took it from one of their foot soldiers.” The lieutenant said. “Then they are very well armed.” She simply said. In truth she was shocked that a sword worthy of captain was in the hands of an ordinary foot soldier, but she wasn’t allowed to show that kind of emotion towards any of her soldiers. These new enemies were good, very good. “As for armour, they only wore leather, but they were so agile that it didn’t matter. The worst part about them was their incredible zeal. They didn’t seem to register any type of attack. I even saw a foot soldier almost getting her right leg cut off, but she just kept on fighting like nothing happened.” He looked down into the ground, not wanting to admit it, but he had to: “I’m scared of them.” “Shock from the battlefield. Go to the infirmary immediately and I’ll see you first thing in the morning for a more detailed debriefing, captain. All praise Celestia.” She turned to her board and continued to move the figures around. “Captain?” He looked confused for a moment, but then he figured out what she meant. “Uh, yes right away Field marshal. The report is right here.” He put it down on the ground and Twilight picked it up. “All praise Celestia!” He said and left the tent with both happiness and confusion, finally having attained enough tactical experience to advance to captain. He immediately headed to the infirmary, hoping that his soldiers and captain had survived. Meanwhile Twilight was studying the sword captain Stonehoof had left behind. She had mistaken the first time she looked at it. This sword could even fit an expert colonel; Applejack would see it as great an honour to carry this into battle. Had this really been carried by a normal foot soldier? I need Applejacks opinion on this, Twilight thought. Almost like called, Applejack walked into the tent. “How’d it go Field marshal?” “Take a look.” Twilight pointed at the board, where the formation of fifth company’s battle was displayed. Applejack studied it carefully and Twilight joined her after a few minutes. “They aren’t very well organized.” Applejack concluded. “How did they drive back fifth company with this disorganization?” “Zeal.” Twilight simply said. “And this.” She showed Applejack the sword. “That’s a mighty fine officer’s sword. Ah wouldn’t complain wearing it.” “According to my report it was taken from a foot soldier.” “What in tarnation?” “Indeed.” Applejack just looked shocked at Twilight. “How could this come from a foot soldier? How well armed were those new enemies?” “They almost destroyed to full companies in a matter of minutes. I look forward to read the report more thoroughly tomorrow.” Applejack didn’t comment any further. This report would better have to be very detailed and fulfilling, Applejack thought to herself. If the officer lied, she would have him court marshalled immediately. “But that was all for tonight. We can worry about this new army tomorrow. I will retire.” She turned around to her private chambers. “Praise Celestia.” She saluted to Applejack “Praise Celestia.” Applejack saluted and walked out of the tent. Twilight sighed heavily. Finally she could go in and have her sleep. She was just about to enter her private chambers when she heard a loud trumpet noise. Three long and one short. That was the horn carried by Queen Celestias official representative’s guards, signalling their arrival. Judging from the continuing trumpet, it sounded like a high advisor. Twilight quickly galloped out of her tent and followed the trumpet sounds. In her position as Field Marshal she was required to be the first at the arrival spot of important ponies and represent the entire army. She quickly realized that they came from the air, meaning the high advisor was in an air balloon. She made a mental note to tell the high advisor about the dangers in traveling in a balloon and galloped over to the landing spot. Luckily she was the first there and could follow the path of the balloon down to the ground. As it slowly descended to the earth, more and more of her soldiers joined her and when the balloon finally landed everyone bowed in respect. High adviser Cobbeltrot, the highest and wisest of Queen Celestia’s advisors with almost as much authority as her majesty, stepped down from the balloon. She was followed by four guards, all tasked with protecting her. She looked around and was pleased with the respect the troops showed her and she walked over to where the field marshal was bowing. “Your troops show a remarkable resolve, field marshal Sparkle.” The high adviser gave Twilight the sign for her to rise. “They show that they are worthy of our queens trust.” Field Marshal Twilight rose to her feet, but refused to look the high advisor in the eyes. It was thought as disrespectful to the advisors to look them in the eyes. “They are as loyal as any subject, your mareship. They do their very best to preserve the socialistic dream and save Equestria.” “Very good. But I’m here for you field marshal. The queen wants to speak to you personally.” Twilight couldn’t help but look into the High advisors eyes when she said that. “Something very important has come up.” “Something important?” Twilight hadn’t been talking personally with the princess in almost six months. Not since she had been appointed as field marshal. “What will her majesty speak to me about?” “The information is top secret and thus I can’t give you any more details in public.” She turned around and started walking over to the balloon. “You will take the balloon with me to the castle. There you will have a personal audience with the princess.” Field marshal Twilight nodded. She knew the drill and she followed the high advisor over to the balloon. On the way they passed colonel Applejack and the field marshal gave full authority to her, while she herself was gone. The balloon took off and they started gliding up towards the partially ruined and dark Cantorlot castle.