Excerpts from the Luna War

by Sapare

Planing

A dead silence followed by mumbling and uncertain glances was all that greeted the grim news. It had barly been a month since Luna had called independence from her sisters regime and declared her own nation, leaving the citizens of Equestria confused and devided. But as it turns out, the princess of the sun would not support this claim.

"How many?"

The moon princess asked with a hint of worry in her voice. I place my hoofs on the large wooden table and overlook the map desplaying our current headquaters. The city of Hoofington. It was a proud city with longstanding ties and loyality to the night goddes, and was the first to join when she rose up to take what was hers.

"F—fourthousand m—my highness."

The young scouts voice rang with the same fear that had touched every heart in this room. Raising my head to look around my eyes meet those of many my elder. Some of them being heros of past conflicts and battles, and yet all of them with a cowards expression. It was obvious that they did not plan to meet their enemy in battle, much rather they wou--.

"My queen, it would be stratigicly wise to consider marching north across the border to the Gryphon empire. We could ask for their alligance and return to liberate Equestria with the force needed for the task."

Another round of silence, mumbling, indecisiveness. The dark frown and utter silence expressed by my queen told me all that I needed to know. She had the desire to stay, protect her people and fight for them if needed. But her advisors, her generalls, her army, they wanted to run, to tell her it was smart to run. With a growl I bring my hoof down on the table once more, with enough strengh to force a banging noise and draw the eyes of everypony in the room to me. Me, the youngest of the ponies present and expected to stay quiet and out of the way, having all the attention on me.

"I b---- My highness, how can anypony stand and support your claim if you are not willing to do so yourself? Hoofington is your city, your followers, if you abandon it for Celestia's army to ravage not a single pony in Equestria will have faith your claim."

Outward I shone with confidence, internally I felt at the brink of breaking as the eyes staring at me burned themself into my mind. There was another wave of muttering from the assembled military minds, this one louder and with more energy. A grey earthpony of older years, the same pony who had stated the original plan, sternly voiced his retaliation.

"And so you ask for our queen to stay here with not even twothousand battleready ponies and fight Celestia's royal army head on? Have you even witnessed a war before? Why are you in this room if you have no sense of reason?"

After that last statment it was obvious that sides had started to form around the room, even if nopony had voiced it. Equestria was not on the best of terms with their Gryphon neibors and many of the generals here had fought against them at least once. The idea to ask them for help and an army to liberate Equestria when another option had been drawn to attention was very unapealing to them. And that was the moment I had to push.

"My queen, there is no reason in running from the best defensible position and instead hiding behind those who will use you as a political bargaining tool. This is one of the biggest cities in Equestria, if threatened and assulted it will flock to our support. All we need to do is give them the equipment and we will have the forces to withstand this attack."

This time there was another moment of silence as the ponies present considered this statment. It was obvious that the ponies of Hoofington were as loyal to their queen as anypony here. If they were were attacked there would be few ponies that would not raise arms to defend their home and their goddes. One of the pegasuspony generals pitched in, his coat pure black and his expression certain.

"For having no sense this young boy speaks reason, with the proximity to the gryphon empire these ponies are not new to the idea of war, or defending their homeland. Their equipment might not be that of the royal guards but most of us here have experience with war then those pompous royal ponies all the way in Canterlot ever hope to learn."

There was more mumbling and it was obvious that the tone of the room was shifting from uncertainty to a more determined sound, much more befiting to a group of veteran generals. However, there were still those who held objections to such a daring stand.

"My queen, I beg you to consider reason, if we fail here---"

Suddenly the queens voice boomed loudly through the room, silencing anypony who was speaking at the time.

"If we fail here we have no right to call Equestria ours and ask the ponies who live here to fight for us. We will not run, we will not hide, and we will not let those who trust in us be our shield! As the queen of this nation we must be the shield for our people instead."

The queen of the night and moon punctuated her statment with flared wings and a stern look across all of her followers. Which ominousy showed their support with proud nods. With that single statment from her the whole debate had been settled, Hoofington would be out stand against Celestia's royal forces. The darkblue pony smiles warmly and relaxes her body, giving a greatful look across the room. As she spoke again her voice still rung with that level of control that worthy of a leader.

"I want the pegasi to scout the area surrounding the city indepth, update our maps and reasure that we know exactly what road they will be taking and how long it is till they arrive. The earthponies and unicorns have to work together to talk to the civilians of this city, tell them of the threat we are facing and take a tally of all the available equipment, then teach them. We will have another meeting after moonrise, you are all dismissed."

All the ponies stayed for a few more seconds, waitng for Luna to have withdrawn herself toward her private chamber before relaxing, a sign of respect toward their queen. Most of the ponies fell back to their own kin, the pegasi generals grouping together and the unicorn and earthponies slowly intermixing as they start to organize their plans. I was about to turn away from the table when to my surprise one of the earthponies calls me over. A bit worried to be reprimanded for my earlier outburst I trot over and stand infront of the older general with a respectfully attentive but still subbmisive stance. The yellow coated earthpony with a black mane and of medium age smiled surprisingly warmly at me, bringing a hoof to pat on my shoulder as he spoke.

"Now, no reason to worry, what you did back there was your right. As one of us, one of Luna's personally chosen advisors," he says with rather obvious pride "you have every right to speak up when you believe your thoughts are sound. In fact, I would say it is your duty." The earthpony gave a glance over to his older and grey kinspony.

The pony I had debated with grunted and turned toward us, looking me straight in the eyes as he speaks.

"You think that just because Luna supported your idea it was better? I have seen more battles then you have seasons, to risk everything like this is a fools idea. Ponies of your age should be fighting on my order, not giving me orders!"

After coming just a little to close to my face he suddenly turns away and trots out of the room, leaving me and eight other ponies looking rather dumbfounded. After a while the strange silence leaves the room and all he ponies return to their planing, the yellow pegasus smiling at me once more.

"Don't mind him, he is just really old... probably afraid he will faint at the sight of a battle."

I suddenly felt very out of place, never having heard of these ponies talk about their own in such a way before. Listening to every word, afraid that missing anything would be a sign of disrespect.

"Now, we will split into groups of one earthpony and and one unicorn and order our groups to cover the city in a grid based system." Looking toward me now "Considering that you are the only pony here without any designated forces of your own I will take you under my 'wing'" the yellow earthpony grumbled to himself "and teach you the ropes."

It seemed that the other generals had already agreed to this idea, and I was happy to finally be given some attention and be picked up in the ranks of these ponies. As the group disperses I follow the pony who had made himself my mentor, out of the war planning room into it the city of Hoofington.