//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: Civil War of Harmony 
// by SC_Orion 
//------------------------------//


General Maneuver



Stalliongrad... An ancient city located on the northern boundary of Equestria, a city older than Canterlot, dating back before Nightmare Moon's rise. I looked out across the city from a nearby hill. The city wall's had recently been built, they were a crude wood and stone construct, lacking advanced fortifications, save for a handful of towers. The walls would easily fall under unicorn bombardment, and then my troops would flood in from multiple directions, and the battle would be won. I casually nodded to myself.


"Colonel," I turned around and faced my second in command, Colonel Blitz Kreig, "give me your report."


The colonel, a grey unicorn stallion with a dark mane, saluted, and spoke in a heavy germane accent, "The enemy is aware of our presence, their troops are being rallied as we speak. Your forces have been divided into three groups, as per your orders, General. All three forces are in position and await your command to begin the attack." The colonel walked over to the map, "The unicorn combat groups are set up here, here, and here." his hoof pointed out red dots on the map, marking the location where I had prepared to attack. "The enemy forces are concentrated heavily here, and here, at the facing what they believe to be the main attack force."


"Enemy force intel?" I asked.


"Reports indicate the primary composition of the enemy's forces are earth ponies, backed up with several pegasi squadrons, and four to six unicorn battle groups. There is also a small enemy force here," he tapped his hoof on a black circled area within the nearby forest, "Intelligence from captured scouts suggests it is a small force of one unicorn battle group, five pegasi wings, and a few hundred earth ponies heading in to provide reinforcements."


I smiled, "So while they may know I'm coming, they don't realize that they've already lost..." I lifted my hoof from the ground, and flexed my leg, my retractable hoof blade launched out menacingly, I smiled at the sharp, silvery edge of the enchanted steel blade. The enchantment allowed the blade to extend or retract based on how I moved my legs and hooves, it also made the blade much harder to break. "I believe we are ready. Colonel," I nodded, "signal the attack."


"Yes, General!" He lit his horn, and closed his eyes in concentration. His horn emitted a subtle red glow, it grew in intensity over a few seconds and I had to look away from the brightness. I heard a popping sound, and there was a flash of light. I turned my head towards the sky, watching the red magic flare arc towards the sky, providing the signal to start. I watched the flare until it fizzled out.


I turned my gaze down upon the assembled army of forces below me. The line of unicorns in the back was easily distinguished from the earth ponies up front by the not so subtle glow of their horns being charged with magic for spells. Princess Celestia wanted minimal casualties, the unicorns would bombard the wall until it collapsed, it shouldn't take more than a volley or two to collapse the weak wall. After that, they would switch to providing defense for the earth ponies. I held my pegasi in reserve, I would lead them into battle personally.


I watched the unicorns as they released their spells in unison, the result of many hours of grueling training. Unicorn battle groups were trained to function as a group, rather than individuals, they played off of each other's strengths, and reinforced one another's weakness. Despite the inherent differences in skill, magic, and talents, the spells arced forwards with hardly any visible differences from one another, another result of hours of training.


Another barrage of magic arced towards the city's walls, this time coming from the left, it was followed shortly by a barrage from the opposite side of the city. I could see flashes of light coming from the walls, the result of spells the unicorn defenders' spells. Soon, spells began hitting spells, detonating against one another. Where two spells collided, brilliant flashes of light could be seen for an instant, before a wave of smoke flourished into existence, followed shortly by a sharp cracking noise.


The first barrage against the walls was followed shortly thereafter by another volley. The volley pushed through the smoke field created by spells exploding against spells, temporarily hiding them from sight, reducing the time the defenders had to react to intercept them. The smoke cleared as the third volley was released.


Spells from the second barrage sporadically impacted the wall, annihilating wood, stone, and shredding anypony unfortunate enough to be within the blast radius.  I watched on as the violent, energetic flashes of light shattered the walls as if they were nothing more than glass. One of the spells almost missed a tower, but caught it in it's side. The spell reacted immediately and detonated, removing a large chunk of the tower's supporting structure. The structure soon became top heavy, and began to tilt over. Soon the tower collapsed upon the wall, breaking it down even further into large chunks.


The unicorns released a forth barrage, but the walls had already been opened. "Order them to move in to take the city." I commanded.


"Yes, General."


A few seconds later there was a popping sound from behind me, and another magical flare arced up towards the sky. I momentarily glanced at the new flare, it looked like the previous one, yet it didn't. It felt different somehow. I shook my head slightly, 'I will never understand unicorns and their magic.'


The soldiers reacted immediately to the flare, and soon began rushing towards the city. The main attack group would hit from the front, they would move in quickly and force the defenders to pull back or get slaughtered. Once the main attack penetrated the city walls, they would begin forcing as wide an area of confrontation as they could, providing a diversion to draw attention away from the attacks from the left and right side of the city.


As the main attack force neared the breach, the enemy dedicated their pegasi to the fight. I frowned. "Colonel, you have command." I flared my wings in preparation to take the the skies, it would signal the pegasi to rally on me, I would lead them personally into battle.


He sharply saluted,"Yes, General."


I beat my wings hard as I took to the sky, I felt the wind against my wings as I climbed higher, after a few seconds, I watched other pegasi launch themselves into the air. A minute latter and all the pegasi except the ones being held in reserve had rallied behind me. The pegasi held their positions, awaiting my command. Their gold armor glinted against the sun as it caught sharp angles created from the wing beats of the pegasi.


"Soldiers!" I called out, "Provide cover for the ground forces, intercept pegasi and strafe enemy positions!" I flapped my wings hard and pulled a one-eighty, quickly turning around to face the city. "To battle!" I yelled.


I Flapped my wings hard and I accelerated towards the city, while I was leading the pegasi into battle, a few wings were fast enough to outpace me, and soon flew passed me. They would enter the battle sooner than the bulk of my pegasi, and hopefully cause enough of a distraction to reduce casualities my forces incur.


As I grew close enough to make out individual soldiers fighting it out, I could see the flashes of light indicating unicorn spells being thrown against one another. Barriers flashed to life, intercepting some, others cracked under the force, and others simple shattered. It soon became clear that our forces were evenly matched, despite intelligence indicating we had a numerical advantage.


The pegasi that had been escorting me broke off to begin attacking, banking to the right to engage a enemy pegasi wing that had just took to the air. I banked left and scanned the both the sky and the ground for enemies, I soon found a unicorn, one of my own, pinned down behind a collapsed building. Three unicorns were sending small spells, probably ones designed for use in close quarters, towards his position. I flapped my wings and dove towards the first unicorn.


I flarred my wings out, catching more air and slowing my descent just feet before impact, I pulled my front legs back, and then thrust them forwards, allowing my speed to add momentum to my attack. My sharp enchanted blades bounced off his neck armor, but the force of the blow pushed him downwards, a second later my full weight collided with his body, pinning him to the ground. I pulled my right hoof back while I held his head down with my left, and threw it against the side of his head. The blade penetrated the thin armor, and tore through bone and into his brain. I jerked my hoof away while retracting my blade, while dodging a spell one of the other unicorns had sent at me.


I jumped towards the unicorn, stiffening my wings as I flew across the ground, almost touching it. I threw my blades forwards and caught him in his unarmored neck. He threw his hooves up, and landed a solid hit on my shoulder. Unicorns were deadly in combat, just not once you were close enough to engage them in hoof to hoof combat. I shrugged off the blow and tore my blades through his neck, severing his arteries, and pulled each blade out the opposite side, nearly decapitating him. Blood splattered against my shining golden armor as I kicked the corpse away with one of my back hooves.


The third unicorn, having been distracted by my swift elimination of his two comrades had forgot about his original target. That mistake cost him his life when a spell bolt impacted him in his side, instantly tearing through his armor, and lashing out at his flesh. He immediately collapsed to the ground as the magic tore through his mind, shutting his body down. Such spells were uncommon on the battlefield, only highly trained unicorns could cast such spells, and it required a target to be distracted, and several seconds to charge up. I nodded at the unicorn before taking to the skies once more.


I flew around the city's airspace felling stray enemy pegasi by cutting off one of their wings, causing them to plummet to their deaths. I eventually found a group of earth ponies engaging another group, two against three. My soldiers were outnumbered. I sighted a group of hostile unicorns, four of them, approaching from another street. I didn't need to attack them, soon three pegasi swooped down and began fighting them. Since they were occupied, I turned my attention back to the fight below.


I pulled my wings into my body and angled myself on a trajectory to impact an earth pony preparing a kick with his back legs. Such a kick could easily break bones. I did not flare my wings to bleed speed this time, and instead impacted the pony with enough force to throw him to the ground. My blades made contact first, their small surface area combined with the momentum from my fall easily broke through the armor. The blow wasn't fatal, but it would slow him down.


I retracted my blades and backflipped off of him, landing on all four hooves against the ground. The pony cried out in pain from the injury inflicted by my twin blades, the earth pony I had landed beside turned to see the source of the shout. I slashed at his neck with my blade, steel made contact with flesh, easily cutting through his unarmored neck. The cut wasn't deep enough to kill him, I frowned.


The earth pony swiveled on his front hooves, powering through the pain of his injury, and pulled back his hind legs for a powerful kick. I jumped back, using my wings to push myself into the air, narrowly avoiding the full force of an earth pony's kick at close range. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a unicorn send a spell at me, I tucked my wings against my body armor and let myself fall back to the ground. The spell still hit, but it missed my wings. I felt my armor heat up from magic released by the impact.


The wall across the street exploded outwards, and three unicorns clad in gold-plated armor rushed out, launching a volley of spells towards the hostile unicorn and earth ponies. The unicorn turned his head and cast a hastily made barrier, it caught all the spells the unicorns had sent at it and held, the pink field rippled with each impact. The unicorn's horn glowed brighter, and there was a flash of pink light. The unicorn had teleported. In a battle.


I immediately turned around and scanned my immediate area for any signs of the unicorn. Nothing.


A few seconds later, I heard an explosion. I turned around to see a crater where the three unicorns had been moments before. Two of the unicorns had escaped the blast radius, but their armor had been dented and was now covered in dust. The third unicorn had been violently thrown into the air, I watched as he landed on his side. He didn't get up. The two remaining unicorns engaged the hostile unicorn, I followed their spells with my eye and saw him on the roof of a nearby building. He skillfully dodged spell after spell, while returning spells without missing a beat.


His spells impacted barriers thrown up by the two remaining unicorns, the looked to be in distress from the magical assault. I saw several pegasi fly by, chasing hostile pegasi who were carrying unicorns beneath them. An Idea came to my mind. I turned to the two earth ponies, "I'm going to put you on the roof," I motioned to the one who looked to be in better shape, "and you, find a way to the roof. Engage and eliminate that unicorn!"


I flapped my wings and flew over to the earth pony who remained where he was, I put my hooves beneath him. Once I was sure I had a good grip on him, I started lifting him. A few seconds of rapid acceleration later and I was a few feet higher in the air than the roof. I shot forwards horizontally, I calculated his drop trajectory, and released him. He landed and took it in stride, immediately distracting the unicorn and charging at him.


The sudden panic of seeing the earth pony nearly upon him prevented him from concentrating on his spell to teleport. He resorted to attacking the pony with magic. The earth pony shrugged off a couple hits before one landed squarely on his head, he tripped over his body and was propelled to the floor inches away from the unicorn.


The second earth pony had evidently found his was to the roof by now, and slammed into the unicorn, knocking him off the roof. He saluted, I raised my hoof to return the salute but an explosion rocketed the building. I jumped off the building and flapped my wings to get airborne as I felt the structure begin to crumble beneath me. I grit my teeth, nopony was supposed to be using explosive spells within the city.




Princess Luna



A guard came rushing into the tent, I looked up from the map I had been analyzing, "Princess Luna!" he shouted urgently.


"Yes, guardspony?"


"General Maneuver has begun his attack on Stalliongrad! The field commander is awaiting confirmation that he is in the field before springing the trap."


"Very well, it seems the battle has begun." I turned to my general, "General, begin the assault, but Celestia is mine." I commanded.


He immediately saluted and bowed before running off. I lit my horn and teleported to the forefront of my Lunar Vanguard. The small assembled group of twenty-four batponies immediately stood at attention when I flashed into existence. Each of them was a capable commander, and an elite, skilled soldier. While the bulk of my batpony forces were still in Vanhoover, I had taken the best of them here with me. Each one of them had an assigned objective, and forces under their command. They would act as field commanders, and they would fiercely fight to the death, until they had completed their objective, or I commanded them to stop.


Both my sister and I had equal forces for this battle, however I had three distinct advantages for the coming fight. One, the element of surprise. Two, superior soldiers. And three, I would be taking to the field, my presence on the field alone should be enough to make her think twice before committing herself to the battle.




General Maneuver


I sliced through the neck of another unicorn, and swung around and kicked his corpse into another unicorn, knocking him down. A second later and he was impacted by a spell from on of my unicorns. The unicorn immediately fell limp as her heart stopped from the magic of the overcharged stun spell. I felt the earth shake from explosions in the distance, I took to the sky to get a better view of the battle below me.


The city was a mess, debris everywhere, collapsed buildings blocked some roads, and sporadic fighting could be seen in some sections as spells flared against barriers or metal. I took the destruction below me in, "It's a good thing they evacuated the civilians..."


"General Maneuver! Sir!"


I turned towards the source of the shouting, a pegasus was approaching me quickly, his armor was covered in blood, and his feathers were a mess. It was clear he had an encounter with both unicorn and pegasus soldiers. "What is it?"


"The enemy, they have reinforcements! A full division is closing on our camp from behind us!"


I felt my heart stutter, I missed a beat with my wings and fell a few inches, "What? No, you have to be mistaken. Our scouts-"


"Sir, I just came from the base! Colonel Kreig ordered me to find you. He's currently preoccupied with fighting off enemy unicorns, and can't signal the retreat!"


I quickly processed the information, "Go find everypony you can, have them regroup at the center of town and await further instructions. Hold that position as long as you can or until I return. If it comes down to it, signal a withdraw, rendezvous at rally point beta."


"Yes sir!" He flew off.


I clenched my jaw, I needed to regroup my forces and either stay and fight or pull back. 'The scouts should have seen that force coming...' I took off towards the camp in frustration, but finding out where it went wrong would have to wait.




Princess Luna



I hovered low in the sky, beating my wings just hard enough to keep myself aloft. How my sister could have missed our approach, I would never know. I felt a smile pulling on my lips as my forces slowly crept through the trees below, soon they would hit the treeline, and the charge would begin. I saw two pegasi flying towards me from Celestia'a camp. The two pegasi were woefully unprepared for fighting an alicorn. Even at the distance they were, I could tell they were just scouts. Two pegasi scouts were no match for the magic of an alicorn.


They continued to close in, and then suddenly slowed to a stop. A few seconds later they turned around and flew back to the camp, it was obvious to me from how they flapped their wings that they realized what was happening, and who I was. Sadly, it wouldn't do to have them alert the camp, and Celestia. I would have to intercept them.


I flapped my wings and accelerated towards them, they had only a few seconds of flight time ahead of me if I was flying as fast as I could. I didn't need that however, the poor colts weren't paying any attention at all to me, they weren't even looking behind them. They were too focused on getting back to their camp, whether it be for saving their lives, or warning the others about the imminent attack.


I lit my horn and launched an overcharged stun spell at one of them. The spell landed on his armor, the magic was immediately released as an electrical discharge, sending a wave of electricity coursing through his body. His armor, while it did reduce the effects of the heart stopping attack, spread the effect throughout his body. His wings locked up and spasmed as the electricity interrupted normal body control. He started plummeting towards the ground, he soon fell out of sight.


The other pegasus had been following him, and saw him get hit. The shock of watching his partner go down in one hit caused him to pause. His mistake would prove fatal for him, I closed the distance and grabbed him in my telekinetic hold. Once I had him firmly in my grasp, I sent kinetic spell at him. The spell impacted his armor with significant force, it broke through the steel, and bored through the poor colt and then flew out the other side with as much ease as it had when going in. He cried out in pain for half a second, before his life was extinguished.


I turned my attention downwards as my forces began breaking through the treeline. It would only be a few moments before the battle began in earnest.




General Maneuver



I circled around the colonel's position from high above, he was with a small group of unicorns and pegasi, he was fighting a much larger force of unicorns and earth ponies. Although they were badly outnumbered, they were fighting valiantly. The colonel was keeping the unicorns busy, while the pegasi strifed the earth ponies.


A spell impacted the ground just a few feet away from the colonel, the resulting explosion knocked him away from the blast crater. He slowly stood to his hooves. Too slowly, 'He must have been injured in the explosion.' I banked to the right and accelerated towards the ground. I kept my eyes constantly scanning the battlefield below and above me, two earth ponies were approaching him quickly. He slowly rose to his hooves and blasted one with magic. The earth pony's armor gave way, and he slowed down, but he didn't stop.


A few seconds later I flared my wings, rapidly bleeding my speed as I impacted the ground in front of the colonel. I pulled back my right hoof and thrust my blade forwards, catching the other earth pony off guard. My blade broke through his armor, but not deep enough to kill him. I retracted my blade and jumped on him. He rolled with my impact and threw me off. I flapped my wings to right myself as I was sent flying through the air.


I gracefully landed on all four hooves and immediately lashed out with a blade at the nearest enemy, a unicorn. The unicorn lowered his head, aiming his horn in time to save his neck from my blade. The force of my blade striking his helmet knocked his aim off, and his spell completely missed me. I lowered my body towards the ground and lashed upwards with my left hoof. I jumped and flapped my wings in unison, propelling myself upwards with even more force. My blade connected with his unprotected jaw, and my blade soon came out from the top of his muzzle. The wound wasn't fatal, I retracted my blade and swiftly bucked him in the chest. The impact dented his armor and he was thrown back.


A felt a solid impact behind my wing, the force of the impact pushed me off center, and I fell over before I could correct myself. A nearby unicorn took this opportunity to launch a spear towards me through his telekinesis. I felt a sharp pain and clenched my jaw as the spear penetrated my armor and tore into my body. I turned my head and bit down hard upon the spear, and pulled it back out with a sharp flick of my head.


I powered through the pain and found my way to my hooves, I quickly scanned our immediate area. The fight wasn't going well, I needed to regroup. I beat my wings and took to the sky. From my new vantage point I could see that the camp was being overrun, the reinforcements who were held in reserve proved no match for the superior numbers and training of the veteran guards. I looked down at the group of ponies below me, "Retreat! Rally on me!"


The pegasi below me immediately followed my order and broke off their engagements, taking to the skies, rallying on me. The unicorns below immediately began galloping after me as I started flying towards the city. The order also had the unwanted side effect of drawing more attention to myself. Soon spells were flying left and right towards us. I looked around at the group of pegasi flying with me, as a group we were in no condition to match the unicorns and pegasi chasing us.




Princess Celestia



The ground shook beneath my hooves and I heard a loud explosion, I immediately looked up from the intelligence report I had been reading over. Another explosion, something was wrong. I dropped the document from my magic hold and dashed to the front of the tent. I looked outside right as another spell detonated, causing a magical explosion. My soldier were darting about left and right in chaos, General Hoof was running towards the tent at a pace that would have put General Maneuver to shame on hoof.


I stepped out of the tent and ran to meet him halfway, "Princess! We're under attack! Princess Luna's forces are charging from the treeline, they're being lead by batponies!"


I clenched my jaw, if my sister was committing batponies... "How many batponies?" I lit my horn and teleported my armor onto my body in preparation for aiding my soldiers. It was likely my sister had planned this... 'General Maneuver...' I grimaced, Luna would have taken advantage of my dividing my forces... 'I should have brought General Breaker and his forces with me.'


"Each one seems to be spearheading a group of Princess Luna's forces, there are no more than thirty of them, however."


"We need to fall back, I will keep Luna occupied while you withdraw our forces to a more defendable position. If Luna is deploying batponies she intends to win this fight. She will have at least as many soldiers as we do, and her forces are more experienced with combat than ours."


He saluted, "Yes Princess!'


I looked to the skies, searching for my sister. It wasn't hard to miss her, she was killing my pegasi left and right, providing a distraction so her pegasi were left free to cause problems for the rest of my forces. I flared my wings out and took to the air, the pegasi attacking Luna were fools, they couldn't hope to beat her, only provide a distraction for her. They would be more useful engaging her pegasi, even if they would be outnumbered.


Luna must have seen me taking to the sky, as I approached her she turned her attention from the pegasi to casting spells towards me. I rolled around her spells with ease, and retaliated with my own spells. One of my own pegasi was hit by one of my spells that missed, I felt sorrow for him, but pushed it to the back of my mind. This fight would take focus. I needed to get these pegasi away, once I did that, I would have more room to maneuver. I used magic to amplify my voice, "Pegasi, go provide support for the ground forces, I shall fight Princess Luna!"


The pegasi immediately complied and turned their attention away from my sister. We both hovered in the air, we glared at each other. Her gaze seemed as if it were starring at my soul, it was discomforting. I spoke softly, "Luna, we don't have to do this."


"There will be justice, Celestia." she spat.


I frowned, "Justice? You and your army will be responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of deaths. Stallions and mares that did nothing wrong. Parents that will never see their foals again, taken from them by war."


"They made their choices, as we have made ours." Luna lit her horn and shot a spell towards me, I raised a barrier, blocking the spell. The spell detonated upon impact with my barrier, the force of the blast pushed me backwards.


I pushed against gravity with my wings, propelling myself higher. I flared my wings and held myself suspended in air by my magic as I began channeling magic into my horn. Luna responded in kind.


I lowered my head, pointing my horn towards her, a magnificent yellow beam of magic shot from my horn. Luna met my beam with a equally powerful beam of pale blue magic. Reality began to warp where the spells met, twisting space and time upon itself. After a few seconds I broke off my attack and dodged the remainder of the magic Luna had sent towards me. I banked left and quickly fired off three stun spells in rapid succession. Killing my sister was not something I wanted.


The stun spells impacted a barrier projected by Luna. She made a sweeping motion with her horn, and a wave of kinetic force shot out towards me. I raised a barrier in time to block out the turbulent force ripping through the air. Luna closely followed in the wake of the spell, she collided with me, pinning my wings to my body with her hooves and magic. I kicked out at her with my hind legs to no avail, we began accelerating towards the ground. I sent a telekinetic wave from my horn into Luna's face, her head jerked back slightly.


While she recovered from my sudden assault, I kicked out at her with both pair of my legs. All four hooves made contact with her armor, I felt the steel give way slightly, and Luna lost her grip on my wings. I immediately flared them out and bled my speed, then accelerated back towards the sky.


Luna flipped over mid air and sent a beam of magic at me, I rolled out of the way. I followed Luna's spell with my eyes, it struck a cloud, instantly the cloud dispersed. I looked back down, but didn't see Luna. I immediately tucked in my left wing and flapped my right wing hard, narrowly avoiding Luna colliding against me once again. 'She must have teleported above me when I wasn't looking... Distractions...'


I flew straight up and then did a back flip, arcing back down towards her. Using my wings and magic, I made myself accelerate faster than her. Soon I was traveling faster than she was, at this speed, impacting the ground would prove fatal without magic. I was caught off guard when Luna flared her wings and I quickly fell below her. I instinctually protected myself with a barrier, less than a second later I felt a spell strike it.


I cast a teleportation spell, and appeared high in the sky once more, atop a cloud. Looking below me, I could see that Luna's forces were on the edge of the camp, my soldiers would hold a position for a barrage of spells and then retreat while their enemies advanced. General Hoof had definitely given the order to retreat, my ponies were pulling back. Their retreat was orderly, no doubt my sister would rather rout my forces. If I didn't keep her occupied, she would rout them herself. The cloud burst beneath me as a spell struck it, 'Speaking of occupied...'


I flared my wings out and pushed down, forcing my body back and upwards into the sky, avoiding another spell. I rolled to the left, 'She is better at fighting than me...' I averted my gaze from her for a second to look back on the camp below, a spell struck me in the chest. I clenched my jaw and fought off the urge to scream as the violent magic surged through my body. My head jerked back and my wings spasmed. My mind was screaming through the spell's chaotic insanity. The spell would have killed anypony who was not an alicorn, or at the very least rendered them unable to fight for several minutes. They would bear the mental scars for a lifetime...


I realized I had started falling, the ground was fast approaching. I couldn't feel my wings, I looked back to see them being pushed upwards by the force of the air rushing passed me. Using my magic, I converted my momentum into energy as I approached the ground. I used the energy from the spell to create a blast wave spell when I was a few feet above the ground. The energy released by the spell knocked back anything standing near me, and dug a crater into the earth. I did a quick survey of my surroundings, nopony was near me, so the blast wave spell was unneeded. I cast a quick glance to the sky, Luna was nowhere to be seen. 'I need to regroup and fall back...'


I lit my horn and cast a teleportation spell, immediately I blinked into existence inside my command tent. A quick survey revealed it had already went through the battle. The table which formerly had maps laid upon it was now nothing more than splinters, having been destroyed by a unicorn spell. I looked over to what remained of my chair, I took the sight in with pity. A unicorn lay against the broken chair, her armor was covered in blood and he lay in a pool of his own blood. I shook my head and teleported again, I needed to find General Hoof.




Princess Celestia



"Generals." I nodded towards General Hoof, General Breaker, Director Tap, and General Maneuver in turn. "It's good you were able to get out of Stalliongrad successfully, General Maneuver."


"It wasn't easy... How did that happen anyway, the scouts should have detected their mobilization?"


"Perhaps Director Tap can answer that question for us?" I turned towards the stallion, giving him a accusatory glare. He remained unfazed, however.


"My operatives are still looking into that, Princess. I would highly advise against going on the offensive for the foreseeable future against Princess Luna, and I also advise using this time to strike Princess Twilight Sparkle. She's building her forces up, and already has a few hundred soldiers, they aren't battle ready and are not trained yet, Princess."


"Against another alicorn you would need my presence to win, even if it is Twilight... If we moved against her now, while we are in a weakened state, Luna will undoubtedly attack us further. She has already proven we can't afford to spread our forces thin." I sighed, "What kind of casualties did we suffer?"


"Seventeen percent to my forces during the battle for Stalliongrad and subsequent withdraw."


"Fifteen percent to our forces from the engagement with Luna and her army."


"Approximately one tenth of our forces were lost in those two battles. Princess Luna's casualties were higher than ours at Stalliongrad, but we still suffered more losses than she did."


"Thank you, Director..." I sighed. 'This is off to a bad start...'