Civil War of Harmony

by SC_Orion

Chapter 5

Princess Celestia

I looked out across the vast legion of troops assembled before me. The sea of white ponies glad in gold plated armor composed all that remained of the Royal Guard loyal to me. I strode along the street, looking over and analyzing the vast army before me. General Hoof, General Breaker, and General Maneuver followed me slightly behind me.

It was a sight to behold. I felt a smile pulling at my lower lip, but I held it in check. War is not a happy matter. I stopped, the others followed suit. I turned to face General Hoof, the large earth pony was wearing his battle armor, as were the others. "General Hoof," I spoke, "Give me the troop status report."

"Yes, Princess." he saluted, and cleared his throat. "We have a force of approximately sixty-thousand combat ready guards. The reserve contains another forty-thousand, bringing us to a total of approximately one hundred thousand available forces. We have successfully reorganized the Royal Guard into five armies, each consisting of twelve thousand guards, and eight thousand reservists." he paused, "The bulk of our forces are unicorns, well trained and versed in battle magic."

Director Tap stepped forwards to begin his report, "Princess Luna took most of our earth pony guards, and pegasi. We believe her forces to total somewhere around eighty-two thousand, however, her forces notable include many of the more seasoned veterans. Princess Twilight Sparkle's forces number in only a handful of guards currently, and she does not currently possess a means of obtaining a force capable of matching us."

"What of her infrastructure?" I inquired.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle currently seems to be gathering information she will need to raise an army, along with supporting and training it." the director answered.

"She's not attempting to raise an army or construct anything yet?"

"No, Princess. She seems to be preparing to prepare for battle."

'That sounds like Twilight.' I noted. "Status on Equestria's transport system, and allegiance of the cities?"

"We've not imposed a curfew, or stopped the trains, as per your command, Princess. Canterlot, Baltimare, Manehatton, and Fillydelphia have pledged allegiance to you, while the rest have yet to declare allegiance, with the exception of Ponyville, Vanhoover, and Stalliongrad." he stepped forwards slightly, "Trottingham refuses to meet Princess Luna's ultimatum, and has requested military support from us. What shall we do about this?"

I thought for a moment, "What is the status of Princess Luna's army?"

"They have a sizable force ready at the moment, Princess. They have yet to move out from Vanhoover, however."

I mulled over his words before answering, "Ready my armor, I shall go to Trottingham's defense. General Hoof, General Maneuver, you will prepare your forces to aid in the defense of Trottingham. General Breaker, you will maintain a standing army in Canterlot to repel any invasion. Director Tap, deploy your forces throughout Baltimare, Manehatton, and Fillydelphia. The ponies need to know we will protect them." They each saluted after they had been given their orders, "Dismissed."

I lit my horn and teleported back into my chambers to steel myself for the coming conflict. I found myself hoping this would end without bloodshed, but I knew it would not.

---

Princess Luna

I looked over the hastily written letter once again, making sure I hadn't missed anything. I scowled at it's contents, Trottingham had sent a request for aid to Canterlot. My spies had just informed me that my sister was mobilizing her army to hold Trottingham. I crumpled the letter up in my magic and burnt it until not even ashes remained. I stood up and threw my hoof down with great force, cracking the stone floor. I grimaced at the display of anger, and quickly repaired the damage I had done with magic. "Captain." I spoke coldly.

The captain immediately jumped to my command, awaiting my orders. "Yes, my Princess?"

"Take a team of unicorns and sabotage the train tracks in multiple places between Trottingham and Canterlot. I don't want it to be able to be repaired anytime soon."

"Y-yes, my Princess."

He turned to walk off, "And while you're at it, have the Third Division deployed to Trottingham. They refused to surrender and my sister is going there.

He bowed, "Yes, my Princess. Would you like anything else while I'm at it?"

"No, that is all." I dismissed him with a nod. He uneasily trotted off to perform what I asked of him. He would not fail in his task. I snorted in frustration and teleported to my chambers.

I looked around my new location, and walked over to the armor stand bearing my new suit of armor. I felt a smile pull of my lips. I levitated my regalia and crown off and set them gently down upon the desk beside my bed, then I levitated the helmet off the stand. I held it in front of my face for a moment, then put it on my head. The weight wasn't noticeable. I smiled as I felt the coolness of the helmet against my fur. I soon found myself wearing the full set of armor, the indigo painted steel would protect most of my body, however I had chosen to leave my legs unprotected.

I walked over in front of the mirror standing beside the armor stand. If I didn't look formidable before, I did now. My mind soon wandered onto thoughts about my friend Princess Twilight Sparkle. I grimaced slightly, 'At least she didn't side with Celestia.' I growled at my sister's name.

I had heard of her secession, however I had not heard anything from her regarding if she would help me or not, so I assumed she would not. I shook my head, 'She will side with me one way or another.'

I strode over to the door. I opened it with my magic and walked out, clad in my armor. The guards all saluted as I walked by towards my destination. A few minutes later I found myself back in the throne room, contemplating where to begin...

---

Applejack

I felt the train beginning to slow down, and the Appleoosa train station soon filled the window. The wooden platform and office, while plain, did their job. I stood up from my seat and slowly made my way to the exit. As I stepped off the train the sun beat down on my fur, I reminisced momentarily on my first visit to Appleoosa, with my friends. While I had been to Appleoosa many times before, the times when I was here with friends or my sister stood out the most. I smiled.

I walked around for a moment, scanning the platform for anypony I would recognize, I was looking for two in particular. The sheriff, and my cousin, Braeburn. The sheriff more or less ran the town, while Braeburn held a great deal of sway in it's affairs. I just needed to find and convince those two to follow Twilight and the rest of the town likely would also.

After searching for a few minutes I shrugged and walked off towards the sheriff's office. A few minutes later I could see a growing crowd in front of the sheriff's office, I hastened my approach and quickly joined the crowd to see what was happening. Braeburn and the sheriff were standing on an elevated platform, the sheriff was standing at the head of the platform, his eyes glanced around the crowd, he was obviously not intimidated by it.

I made my way to the front of the crowd and then stepped forwards, "What's going on here?"

"Applejack? Hey cousin! It's been a while, welcome back to Appleoosa!" Braeburn ran down to greet me.

"Hmm. Applejack what brings you out to these parts from The Kingdom of Twilight?" the sheriff inquired.

"I actually came to see if I could convince you all to join it." I spoke, the crowd was filled with hushed murmurs briefly, but the sheriff raised his hoof, eliciting silence.

"Nopony in Canterlot really seems to care about these parts. I can't say that I've ever seen any of them nobles taking interest in our affairs, or helping us. While Princess Twilight and the rest of your friends have. You have my support." the sheriff spoke firmly.

"And mine. Family sticks together, cousin." Braeburn answered with a smile.

"But it may take some convincing for the rest of the town to decide to secede from Equestria. I reckon you shouldn't have a problem with that, however. In fact, I imagine not a pony here would vote no if Princess Twilight showed up in pony." the sheriff added.

"Well, she's awful busy now, but I'm sure she'd be willing to make the trip out here to get your support..." I rubbed the back of my head and laughed awkwardly, "But uh... The train ride takes a while... Is there a way I can just send her a message or something?"

"We can have it delivered by pegasus in a matter of hours." a light grey, yellow maned pegasus spoke up with a soft voice.

I nodded, "Do you have a letter and pencil?" I gladly accepted the letter and pencil offered to me and begin writing a letter, then handed it to the pegasus. I squinted my eyes at her, she looked familiar, but I just couldn't place it. I shook it off, 'Probably just the fact she's wearing a stetson.'

The pegasus took wing and quickly flew off towards Ponyville. "It could be tonight or tomorrow before we hear back from her, an it could be a day or two before Princess Twilight shows up. You can stay at my place if you need, cousin." Braeburn offered.

I nodded my thanks, accepting the generous offer. "While I'm here, is there anything you need help with?" I offered in return, since he would let me stay at his place, it would only be fair if I helped him with something in return.

"Yeah, I could use some help putting in a new fence..."

---

Twilight Sparkle

"So what are your recommendations then, Mayor Mare?" I asked while I surveyed the plain before me. The gently sloping plain was currently unoccupied, being owned by the town, and thus me. The plain would be a perfect area for quickly constructing various buildings necessary to provide for an army.

It seemed I would need to move my plans forwards more quickly. A couple hours ago Rarity had stopped by to tell me that she had heard from one of her friends in Canterlot that Princess Celestia had begun mobilizing the Equestrian Royal Guard. I was surprised when she had told me, I hadn't expected this to happen for another week minimum.

"If Princess Celestia is mobilizing now, I would recommend immediate construction of the structures necessary." Mayor Mare answered.

I nodded my head, "Very well, I will defer to your judgement on this. Have construction begin as soon as possible, I will leave the logistics of it to you."

"Of course, Princess." she replied with a courteous bow.

"I will talk with the captain when I get back to the castle about recruitment and training... Estimation on the time required to complete the barracks and supporting structures?"

"It should progress rather quickly, but we will need to acquire more material resources for construction. Mainly timber." Sparkler paused before adding, "I can get you a more exact estimate by tomorrow."

"I see... Thank you. Sparkler can you take care of that for me?"

"I should be able to, Princess." Sparkler nodded.

"Thank you," I smiled, "I leave it in your capable hooves. I looked towards the sky and checked the position of the sun, "I need to get back to the castle, Sergeant Bolt is going to be wondering where I am..." i trailed off. I looked at both of my guards in turn and nodded at them, both of them were pegasi clad in purple armor, with a pink, six pointed star adorned on the chestplate. I spread my wings and took flight, followed shortly by the two guards.

We leisurely flew towards the castle in silence. The soothing feeling of the rushing air helped calm my mind from the sudden actions of Princess Celestia. A few minutes later I caught sight of Rainbow Dash flying towards me. Both my guards saw this too, they would have moved between us had I not dismissed the action with a wave of my hoof. They simple nodded in return.

"Hey Twilight, what's up?" Rainbow asked as she took position flying beside me.

"Well, I had Mayor Mare and Sparkler show me the area that had been zoned for the barracks facility, we discussed that for a while. Went over the details, cost and required resources..." I trailed off realizing Rainbow wasn't all that interested in what i had been doing. Sadly, it left an awkward silence hang in the air. "So what have you been up to?" I broke the silence.

"I just finished helping Fluttershy find some kind of herbs from the Everfree, she said they were to help make some kind of medicine for one of her animals."

"Oh, well that was nice of you." I replied.

"Well, it's Fluttershy..." Rainbow shook her head slightly, "I wouldn't let her go into the Everfree alone. Something could'a happened to her."

"Anything else? Or did you just want to fly with me?" I absentmindedly asked.

"Oh, right. Uh, I ran into Sergeant Bolt, he asked me to find you. He said something about you being late to your training session with him. And something about the captain needed to speak with you about some diamond dogs or something."

"Huh? Diamond dogs?" 'What could they want?' I pondered.

"Yeah, that's all I know." Rainbow nonchalantly replied.

"Well, thanks for telling me. I was going to stop by the castle first anyway."

"Want to race?" I looked towards Rainbow to see her smirking, I shot her a death glare.

"For one, I don't think these two fine stallions would appreciate that." I motioned back towards the two guards with my hoof, "And, you're not the one wearing the heavy armor." I paused as an idea came into my mind. I let myself smirk, "You know, I could make a royal edict to force you to have to wear armor whenever you're flying, and then we could race." Rainbow's smirk faltered.

"Ha ha... Ha... Right..." Rainbow paused, "Wait, would that mean I would get to be in your army and could fight for you?"

I opened my mouth to reply but she cut me off, "Because that would be totally awesome!"

"I-"

"I can see it now, Captain Rainbow Dash, soaring across the battlefield, kicking flank and taking names!"

I simply shook my head as Rainbow lost herself in her fantasy, and had to dodge a few blows she was absentmindedly swinging about as she started acting it out. "Ow!" I exclaimed as she accidentally hit me.

"Uh... He he... Sorry about that, Twilight... I guess I got a little carried away." Rainbow apologized.

I rolled my eyes. A few minutes later we landed at the castle, Captain Light had already been informed of my arrival and was outside waiting. He bowed when we landed, "What's this about diamond dogs?" I inquired while I folded my wings to my side.

He rose from the bow, "Princess, there are some diamond dogs here who wish to establish a gem mining business within our borders. They are willing to negotiate about it, but only with you, your highness."

I quickly processed the information I had been given, "Thank you, I will see to that immediately..." 'I should be able to negotiate with diamond dogs on my own... They're not very intelligent creatures...' "Please have my training session with Sergeant Bolt rescheduled."

"I will see to it at once, Princess." he saluted.

I opened the door with my magic and stepped in, followed by my two guards, Rainbow, and the captain, "Oh, anything else happen while I was out?" I silently closed the door with my magic.

"No. Not that I am aware of, Princess." he replied.

"I see, thank you. I assume the diamond dogs are waiting in the throne room?" I started to worry about that, if they were in the throne room and not under guard, it could be a mess by now. I shook the thought out of my head.

"Yes." he nodded.

"Under guard?"

"The throne room is always guarded, Princess."

"Just making sure..." I trailed off and shook my head, "Thank you Captain," I turned to my two escorts, "Dismissed until further notice." They both bowed and flew off towards their temporary housing, leaving me alone with Rainbow, who I had forgot was even still here.

"Want some help?" she asked.

"You really want to listen to diamond dogs attempt to negotiate with me?" I deadpanned.

"Uh... Well, not really. But would you like some company?" she asked with a smile.

"Sure... Just... Try not to interrupt, please."

"I promise I won't!" she quickly replied.

I took off towards the throne room. I looked back to see that she wasn't following me, I rolled my eyes and motioned her to follow me with a hoof. She quickly flew to my side as we approached the throne room.

I paused before opening the door, "I should probably not walk in there wearing this." I motioned to my armor, "One moment." I lit my horn in concentration and teleported my armor off of me and onto an armor stand in my room. "Okay, let's go."

"So what's this about then?" I asked upon entering the room, Rainbow trailed behind me.

"Ah, the good Princess Twilight Sparkle, a pleasure to meet you." the lead diamond dog spoke up, I was caught off guard by his appearance. I had been expecting a poorly groomed dog that stunk, instead I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that he seemed to be an actual intelligent being. He wore a black tuxedo, had a red bow-tie, and wore a black top hat. I did a double take. "Are you alright, Princess Twilight?"

"S-sorry," I stuttered, "You're just... Not what I was expecting." I admitted sheepishly.

"Ah, so you have encountered my kind before, no doubt it was a... Less than pleasant experience..." he gave a knowing smile, "Sir Rover at your service."

"A pleasure to meet you," I strode forwards and lifted my hoof out, he grasped it gently in his paw and shook it. I pulled back after a moment, "So what's this proposal you have for me then?"

"Ah yes, straight to business then. Well," he looked to the dog to his right and nodded at him, "Fido, if you would."

Fido reached into the pouch he was carrying and pulled out a document and handed it to me. Again this dog was well groomed, and wearing a black tuxedo, however he was not wearing a bow tie or hat. I took the document in my magic, and read it over.

"That's actually a really fair deal. I'm surprised." I blinked as I read it again, "You're willing to split it seventy-thirty, you and me on gem distribution? And still willing to pay for mining the area and pay taxes?" I asked with disbelief.

"Yes, is something wrong?" Rover asked quizzically.

I shook my head, "No, I'm just surprised, while the agreement does seem to favor you, your initial offer is generous. And including that I can revoke mining rights at any time..." I trailed off.

"Well, this is your domain, you would be able to do that anyway. This is more... Formal..." he smiled.

"I'll look this over more and have some of my friends and advisers look it over, one pony in particular, Filthy Rich, I want to consult on this. I should have an answer for you within a week." I smiled and rolled the document up and teleported it into my room.

"Of course, Princess. If that's all, I'll get out of your mane." Rover replied.

"Yes, thank you." I opened the door with my magic for them and they walked out while somehow managing to look noble yet friendly. I shook my head and turned to Rainbow. She was flabbergasted, and her jaw was wide open. I stifled a laugh and nudged her out of it, "Rainbow? You alright?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. That... Just happened?" she rubbed her eyes with her hooves.

"Wasn't what you were expecting either?" I bumped her shoulder lightly with my hoof in a playful manor, eliciting a smile from her.

"Yeah... They were actually tolerable..." she shook her head, "What now?"

"Don't you have something else to do over than hover around me all the time?"

"Uh, actually no. The weather team can handle things without me, and I figured you could use my help more than they could." she nonchalantly replied.

"Oh. Well thanks, Rainbow. That means a lot to me." I smiled. "Since this came up and I had to reschedule my training session with Sergeant Bolt, I do have some spare time. We could just hang out or do something if you want?"

"Eh, sure. Any-" Rainbow was cut off by the door opening, Captain Light escorted a light grey pegasus in.

The pegasus approached me and handed me a letter, I took it in my magic and opened it. I read the letter quickly, "It's from Applejack." I stated.

"What's it say?" Rainbow asked, I wanted to facehoof.

"I was getting there... She wants me to come to Appleoosa as soon as I can."

"Is something wrong? Is Applejack in trouble?"

"No, she says the town would follow me if I showed up." I paused, "I guess I can reschedule some things and take a trip down there." I started thinking out loud, "It would be a long flight to get there, I'd arrive after dark... Train it is. I should let ponies know that I'll be away for a couple of days, in case they need me..." I felt a hoof tapping on my side. Rainbow deadpan glared at me, "Oh, sorry." I paused, "Captain Light, I will be visiting Appleoosa. Please inform Sparkler, Mayor Mare, and my friends. I would also like to speak with Filthy Rich and Rarity upon my return."

Captain Light nodded, "Yes, Princess." he bowed. "Will you be taking your guards?"

"No. I should be fine on my own-" I received an elbow from Rainbow, "Rainbow is coming with me, apparently. We'll be fine."

"Very well, Princess. Anything else?"

"Not that I can think of, we will take the train. It'll be an overnight trip, but I'd rather arrive tomorrow afternoon than later tonight when it's dark." I paused to think, "Well, you ready, Rainbow?"

"Yeah, sure am." she replied.

I lit my horn and teleported us to the train station.

Author's Note:

I feel I should apologize for taking so long to update, even if it was only five days.

Thoughts/opinions?

What did you think of the diamond dogs?

Comments

[tuntematon]

I'm enjoying it so far.