The Reiter Pony War

by ASDeckard

2: The Flight To Canterlot, Luna's Plan

Twilight Sparkle had a rather sheltered life, living first with her parents in their large house in Canterlot and then living in the Castle proper itself as Princess Celestia's personal student. Now, she was a princess herself, and one of the land's most powerful spell casters, and as an Alicorn she commanded the flight of a Pegasus, and the strength of an Earth pony for good measure.

This was part of why she was leaving. It was only yesterday they had received the news; that the Crystal Empire was attacked, and most of the Royal Guard was dead. Twilight simply couldn't stand by as thousands of ponies joined the Royal Army to fight back, especially not considering just how powerful she was. Yes, she would need a lot of training, and yes she would need a lot of practice before she could truly face an enemy in battle, and it would be hard to overcome her fear, but she needed to, and there was no pony that could stop her.

She had already told her friends goodbye; all except Rainbow Dash. She had gone to Rainbow's cloud home twice, but both times Rainbow had slept through her knocking and Twilight couldn't wait any longer; she needed to go now, or she might lose her nerve. The last of her friends she had spoken too was Spike, and he had not taken to her leaving very well.

He didn't understand why she had to go, and worse he didn't understand why she couldn't take him with her. They had argued for nearly an hour, and the best lie Twilight could come up for was I want you to look after the town, and all our friends, while I'm gone. She simply couldn't tell Spike the truth; that he needed to get used to what it was like without her, in case she didn't come back.

So Twilight had left, then and there. Her original plan was to wait for the train and leave at noon, but she couldn't take it anymore and needed to be out of Ponyville now, so she was flying to Canterlot. It's not so bad, she thought to herself. I've made this flight before... Everything is going to be ok. I just wish I didn't have to go alone. Applejack need's to look after her family, especially if Big Macintosh leaves to join. Rarity and Fluttershy simply are not cut out for army life. Pinkie Pie... is Pinkie. Rainbow—

"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash's nasal voice echoed up behind her, cutting off her thought, "you left without me!"

"Oh, Rainbow I'm sorry," Twilight shouted back, without turning to look. She couldn't bring herself to look towards Ponyville. "It's—"

"Hard to say goodbye," Rainbow finished, popping into view just below Twilight, flying upside down. "I understand, I... skipped out on Rarity and Fluttershy... and Scoots."

"Skipped out on what?" Rainbow was easily keeping up with Twilight, even though Twilight hadn't slow from what she believed was a vary rapid pace. Rainbow was even flying upside down!

"I didn't tell Fluttershy or Rarity goodbye. Common Twi, listen."

"What?"

"I'm coming with you Twi; I'm too great a flyer to waste checking up on the weather, and I'll never let a friend go it alone!" She emphasized the point with a jab to Twilight's ribs. "You need a friendly face to help you through this, and I'm as friendly as it gets!"

Twilight rubbed her side with a skeptical smirk spreading across her muzzle. This actually isn't a bad idea; I can use the company, and it really would be a shame to prevent Rainbow from using her potential, but... "I don't want to lose you Rainbow, and I'm not prepared to risk your life for mine."

"Good; I don't want you risking my life either, but Twilight," Rainbow said, moving closer and putting a hoof on Twilight's chest, "I don't want you risking your life, but that's not my decision, just like I'm not yours. The best thing we can do is keep each other safe!"

"How are you the one thinking logically about this? You know what, forget it," Twilight said brushing Rainbows hoof away. "Fine. Do whatever you feel you have to... I'm happy to have you around."

"I knew you'd come around! Now!" Rainbow shouted, still flying upside down with no apparent effort, "let's have a race to Canterlot to get warmed up, you know, before they put us through hell. I know you're not as experienced a flyer as me, so I'll make the flight upside down! Ready!?"

"Rainbow, that wouldn't be fair." She's fast, but Canterlot is a far ways off making it an endurance race, not a sprint, and not even Rainbow can fly upside down for long...

"I know, I know; but even if I fly zig-zags through the sky, it still won't be fair for you Twi. I'm the fastest pony in—"

"Ok Rainbow, if we must."

"Great!" Rainbow's upside-down flapping became erratic as she S'd back and forth in excitement. "I'll go easy on you, but you have to push yourself! We're going to need to be ready for whatever they throw at us, and you've spent far too much time reading to be in any shape for what's to come. Now lets fly!"

Rainbow would have looked rather silly, flying along upside-down with her head leaned back to watch where she was going, if she wasn't outrunning Twilight by such a large margin. Twilight knew she wasn't ready, but thats is the point of joining an army, right? To be trained and pushed to be your best? This was going to be difficult.

Twilight pushed herself, trying to catch up to Rainbow, who was still flying inverted.

***

She couldn't manage it; no matter how hard she pushed herself Rainbow effortlessly maintained her lead. By the time Canterlot poked over the horizon Twilight wasn't quite sure she could make it. Everything hurt, but her wings and the muscle group across her chest burned, horribly, and her breathing had decayed to ragged gasps. I've made the flight from Canterlot to Ponyville before, but trying to keep up with Rainbow apparently hasn't done any favors for my range.

"Common Twi, we're almost there!" Rainbow shouted, looking up at her, still flying inverted. She didn't sound at all out of breath.

Twilight pressed on, her wings feeling heavier with every flap. Slowly Canterlot approached, tucked away under the Areion Peak; the tallest mountain in the Unicorn Range. 1,000 years ago the Unicorn Range marked the northern boarder of Equestria, until the Crystal Empire was annexed and it suddenly became the center of the Empire. Twilight loved books, a lot, but there was one thing she loved more; maps.

If I survive this flight I'll have to show Rainbow the Canterlot libraries map collection; I'm sure she'll love it. Is it my imagination, or is the ground getting closer? It was; despite Twilight's best efforts to propel herself forward she was barely doing more than gliding at this point.

"Hey Twilight! Look!" Rainbow was pointing to the east, into the small mountain valley just outside of Canterlot. There was a good sized collection of Pegasi and even a few Griffons standing in an open field a ways off the main road. "It looks like the first wave of requites are already beginning their training!"

"You should... join them Rainbow," Twilight managed to force out between gasps.

"Just focus on flying. I promised you a race to Canterlot and I'd rather not let you fall to your death when you pass out." Rainbow had moved closer to Twilight, so the gasping pony wouldn't have to shout her reply, and so Twilight could see her smirk more clearly.

"What do you... mean when?" They were approaching the town now, coming in a little low thanks to Twilight's exhaustion.

Canterlot had a very long history, far longer than the Equestrian Empire, and it had spent much of that history as a fortress and a boarder town. Even though it had been more of a cultural capital these last thousand years, it's military heritage could clearly be seen in it's high walls; while they were beautiful white marble trimmed in gold, they were still imposingly tall, with spires reaching high into the mountain air.

Twilight had to strain to climb, regaining enough of her lost altitude to clear the walls; it was all she had left. After clearing the walls she attempted to hold her wings spread, to glide to the central courtyard, but her muscles failed her and her wings collapsed, trailing in the wind behind her. She didn't even have enough air in her lungs to scream as she fell, although she tried to.

"I gotcha," Rainbow said, expertly matching her speed to Twilight's fall, before gently spreading her wings to slow them both, and she was still flying upside-down! How long do I have to practice until I can do that? Twilight thought as Rainbow brought them in, flaring her wings and finally, for the first time since leaving Ponyville, righting herself to land on her hind-legs, still holding Twilight up with her forelegs. "Are you good?"

"Yea... Thanks, I... ok... Ugh." Twilight hadn't realized her legs had cramped during the flight until she put weight on them. "I just need a minute."

"Ok, no rush Twi," Rainbow said letting her friend go and stepping back, flexing her wings as she looked around.

Twilight was swaying a bit, but had mostly managed to catch her breath by the time one of Celestia's Royal Guards made his way from the Canterlot Castles gates, to where Twilight and Rainbow were standing in the middle of the main plaza. "Miss Sparkle?"

"Twilight's fine, thank you." Twilight's legs still ached, but they were nothing compared to the sharp pain in her wings; it felt like she had turned her delicate wing bones to dust, and melted most of her flying muscles. I'm going to be sore for weeks after that flight.

"Celestia instructed us to bring you to her right away." The guard was looking at Rainbow, his face unreadable behind his helmets visor. I don't think I've ever seen a Royal Guard in anything but their open faced helmets, but I guess I've never seen them in wartime either... "She only told us of you miss Sparkle," the Guard interrupted Twilight's thoughts.

"It's ok, if you have Twilight under control I'll be checking out what those Pegasi are doing now. You good, Twi?" Rainbow already had her wings spread and hind-legs tensed for takeoff.

"Yea, Rainbow, I'll be ok. Thank you. Be careful."

"Of course," Rainbow said with a smirk, launching herself into a near vertical climb. Twilight still wasn't sure how Rainbow could do that, climbing straight into the sky against the pull of gravity, while Twilight could barely gain altitude in a hover.

"Right this way," the Guard said, turning away and beginning the short trek into the castle grounds. Twilight followed, still stretching her wings to stop them from cramping.

***

The walk to the castles throne room wasn't actually all that long, but it was still uncomfortably painful given how tired Twilight was. The guard accompanying her kept looking over his shoulder at her, a concerned look in his eyes just visible through his visors slit.

It took Twilight awhile to realize what it was; she was still flexing her wings, flaring them out from her sides. In Pegasi (and Alicorns) the wings could often show a lot of emotion, from excitement to anxiety to attraction. Twilight must have looked rather ridiculous, constantly stretching her wings up and down.

"I'm still tired from the flight in. I'll be ok, but my wings are going to be sore for days after that, he-he," Twilight said, blushing slightly.

"Of course," the guard said in a perfectly neutral tone. Twilight wasn't sure if he truly understood; he was a Unicorn and Twilight knew first hand that you needed wings to truly understand what it was like, but at least he stopped glancing back at her as she shuffled her wings around.

They reached the throne room, but the guard continued beyond the thrones, into the base of the spire that lead to Celestia's and the royal guest rooms. Twilight had stayed there a few times over the years as Celestia's star pupil. She tried hard to not grunt while climbing the spiral stairs, but as the guard renewed his worried glances she assumed she had failed.

Finally they reached the top floor, and after exchanging nodes with the two Guards standing on either side of Celestia's door, the Unicorn Guard firmly knocked and said in a booming voice, "Princess Twilight Sparkle here to see you Princess Celestia."

"You may enter," Celestia's voice resonated through the door.

As it always did Twilight's heart soared upon hearing her beloved mentors voice. The moment the Unicorn Guard had opened the door and moved aside Twilight broke into a trot, wincing only slightly as her tired, achy body protested.

"Good morning, Celestia!" It wasn't actually morning anymore; it was actually a bit passed noon.

"Morning?" Celestia asked, looking up from where she lay on the bed matting in the middle of her room. A book (History of the Crystal Kingdom; it was written centuries ago, well before the Crystal Kingdom would become an Empire, and well before it's unification with the Equestrian Empire. Twilight had read it twice, although not recently) lay open in front of the Princess.

"Oh," Twilight began, "it originated as a joke at Rainbows expense. You see whenever anypony would first see her, she was usually just waking up, despite sometimes being rather late in the day. I'm not sure but I think Pinkie Pie was the one who originally started it. I've gotten so used to saying it despite the time of day I guess I forgot."

"I like it," Celestia muttered, slowly rising to her full, and quite impressive height. "Now, I know what you plan to do Twilight, but I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do it."

"What?" Twilight spouted, stepping forward.

"The front line of battle is no place for a Princess Twilight, even myself and Luna must take caution. Even when we chose to lead personally in the field, we do so as the center of the formation, not as a foot soldier taking orders. You are no military leader Twilight, you have no experience in battle and we don't have enough time to train you to the point I'm willing to risk hundreds of our soldiers lives on your call."

"But!"

"And," Celestia continued, raising a hoof, "I'm not about to let you rip yourself apart trying to compete with the other ponies flocking to our banner. You are a scholar Twilight; that is nothing to be ashamed of."

"How can you say that? I'm nearly as powerful as you, Celestia!" Twilight's wings had flared up with her rising temper. "How can you expect me to sit around while ponies are risking their lives to protect us? I could save thousands with my talents! Or maybe not, but even one would be worth it."

"Twilight, I can not stop you from doing what you feel you have to, but I can offer you an alternative." Celestia, as (almost) always, spoke in a calm but firm voice, echoing with well over a thousand years of wisdom. "Even you can only do so much with your strength against an entire army of battle hardened soldiers. The largest contributions myself and Luna have is not our strength, but our leadership. While you have no combat leadership to give, I feel you are in a unique position to help with one of Luna's recent ideas."

Celestia's voice was firm as ever, but it was beginning to take on a deeply sad note. "Luna believes that Sombra plans not for a traditional war, were ponies fight for supremacy over one another, but instead for a war of attrition, were ponies fight to the death. The Reiter ponies that Sombra has unified are no strangers to war, but they are poorly trained for large scale combat. His only hope is to break up our battle lines, and focusing not on defeating our army and driving us to retreat, but instead maximizing our causalities. The Reiter ponies my not be the best trained, but they out number us greatly.

"It is not yet widely known, but despite Sombra's early push being massively out numbered we suffered terrible losses, and they retreated on their own before our main force was able to join the battle. I believe Sombra is attempting to draw us into the Reiter ponies lands, to extend our supply lines and cut our army off. Not to defeat and send our army running, but to trap and slaughter them. We can not let this affront go unpunished, but I am not prepared to enter their lands until we have built up our forces, and I doubt Sombra will strike into our lands again with our army camped just outside the Crystal Castle."

As Celestia paused Twilight dove deep into though, "Ok, but what does Luna plan to do?"

"My sister," Celestia was looking at the ground between herself and Twilight, and her ears had flattened back against her head, "plans to fight back as Sombra would fight us, with small mobile squadrons attacking, inflicting as much damage as possible, then retreating before a decisive battle can begin. Sombra is trying to defeat the individual superiority of our soldiers by dividing our forces where the Reiter ponies can gain local superiority. Luna plans to use our soldiers individual superiority to over-match their local numerical advantage. It's a sound tactic...

"But I feel that changing the strategic objective from gaining ground and securing a strategic victory, to simply killing Reiter ponies..." a single tear rolled down Celestia's snout. "I don't like it, and I do not approve, but we will do what we must to defend the Empire. If Luna's right, and Sombra intends to fight to the last, then I will be glad to have taken her seriously now and allowed her to train her strike teams, even though I desperately hope she is wrong and we can secure a strategic victory without senseless killing."

Twilight wasn't quite sure what to make of this; she pictured war like those she had read about, with ponies fighting violent battles, but always accepting their opponents surrender when given, with deaths a rare but necessary possibility. The objective was to gain enough of an advantage to force your opponent to give it, not to outright kill them although it sometimes happened (running around swinging swords at each other, someone was bound to end up without a head eventually). "...you said I was in a unique position earlier. What did you mean?"

"Most of Luna's envisioned strike teams are Pegasi only, but since Pegasi are extremely vulnerable to magic, they would need to take at least one Unicorn with them. This would slow them drastically as they would need to carry the Unicorn while flying in and out. An Alicorn can fly herself to and from the battle, making the group far more self sufficient, and faster."

Celestia had perked up a bit, but the situation still weighed heavily on her. Twilight hadn't though how Celestia would feel about her prized student throwing herself into a war head first. Joining one of Luna's strike groups would be safer in the short term; they may not even be needed at all.

This must be what Celestia was hoping for; that Twilight wouldn't be needed, but if her group was used for it's intended purpose she'd be thrown into battle with just a few Pegasi, against a much larger force to... kill as many ponies as she could before retreating, trying to out run and hide from the Reiter Pegasi that would be hunting them.

It would be extremely dangerous, but it also seemed like the best way for Twilight to focus her strength, to contribute the maximum possible effect with her limited energy. It was a good idea in theory, and if it failed (and she survived) they could always join a normal battle group down the line.

"Ok Celestia, I'll join with Luna's strike group. For what it's worth I hope you're right and we're not needed."

"So do I, Twilight. I'm just sorry I'm sending you into a group of unfamiliar ponies."

"Oh, actually I'm sure Rainbow Dash would love to join as well! Besides, the main reason she's even here is to keep me company, and I'd hate to leave her to go it alone with the standard troops."

"No one ever goes it alone in the military Twilight, but I see your point. I'm sure Rainbow Dash will be welcomed as well." Celestia looked out of her massive west facing window. "I'm afraid my time here is running out."

"Oh?"

"I'm needed in the Crystal Court; Cadance is having a hard time keeping everypony calm, and our army may need leadership soon. I hope you'll forgive the short visit?"

"Of course Celestia, I understand completely." Twilight gave a quick bow, her muscles only protesting slightly this time.

Celestia began walking towards her balcony door, and Twilight moved to follow. "Luna will send for you when it is time to begin, likely later this night. She insists on night training, as most of your battles will be at night when our enemies are unsuspecting, and that's the time she's usually up anyway. I'll inform her Rainbow will be joining as well before I leave. You two may have your choice of guest rooms while staying here."

Celestia spread her wings, sparkling slightly in the mid-day sunlight. "Stay safe my faithful student," and she gracefully floated into the air, heading towards Luna's Spire, situated on the opisite side of Canterlot Castle.

Twilight was left alone with her racing thoughts. I should probably go find Rainbow. Are my wings up for a short flight into the fields? She tensed her wings up and down a few times. Still sore and weak, but I should be able to make it if I pace myself. Hopefully Rainbow won't mind carrying me back, he-he.

Author's Note:

So that was a long one. I strongly considered splitting this chapter into two, but I wanted to get this conversation out of the way before Rainbow's... well, you'll see. The good news is we're about to have our first fight scene in the next chapter. Woot! Action is inbound.

Those that have stuck through my admittedly excessively technical writing style are in for a treat, an extremely detailed fight, with plenty of physics and strategy... and some blood, and a few broken bones. Yay.

So some interesting stuff about this chapter, I've begun to give you some interesting glimpses into my personal take on Equestira's back-story, and while a little heavy handed it could be far worse (I could be dumping it on you all at once).

The mountain Canterlot is build into doesn't actually have a name in the show (that I've been able to find) so I had to name it myself (I don't like important landmarks to go unnamed, like the mountain your capital city is built into the side of! Seriously, it's a pretty important mountain). I went with Areion, which... well, this guy; Greek mythology best mythology. Tallest mountain in Equestria (at least the tallest in it's primary range) = fastest heavenly horse (who can even talk). Fair trade.

I feel I should also explain a bit about the Reiter ponies. Reiter is literally German for 'horseman.' I'm sort of treating Equestria like the Roman Empire, with the Crystal Empire sort of being the France region, while Equestria is the Italian region (and the Griffon Kingdom is sort of Spain, the Zebra kingdom is sort of Tunis... You'll see when I get a map together and uploaded, as well as Twilight's geography discussion with Rainbow you'll get in a few chapters).

The Reiter ponies are basically the Germanic hoards, and Sombra had unified them to try and take back the Crystal Empire. More specifics will be included in the future chapters, for now that's all you need to know.

As always, feel free to point out any spelling or punctuation errors in the comments. Please include a copy and paste of were the error is so I can easily find it using the search function. If there is any grammatical device I consistently use that irritates you, feel free to bring it up. Having me explain to you why I do it may help you enjoy the story, and if it's something I don't have a good reason for doing then I should stop doing it and would love the opportunity for you to teach me. Happy readings.