Trials of the Republic

by TheDarkNight775

The Encampment

Chapter 2- The Encampment
Time skip- I didn't think the details of Luna's uneventful trip back to the front lines on an airship really needed to be given.
Once again, I own nothing but the concept.

Luna collapsed in her chair, groaning as her protesting mucles made their complaints known.
Twilight sparkle, the only other person in the command pavillion, glanced up from the scroll she was studying.
"How did the talks go?"
"Just splendidly." Luna felt herself entitled to the slightest bit of sarcasm. "Thy teacher is the kindest, most understanding woman we have ever met."
"She's your sister!"
"Our sister is long dead, Twilight Sparkle. The monstrosity that walks the earth in her body is not our flesh and blood." Luna said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
Twilight gave her an inqusitive look.
"We wish things could be different- But this is the way things are now. There is no going back, even for us."
The purple-haired girl nodded comfortingly.
Luna cleared her throat. "Thy brother is well. We saw him guarding the North gate of the palace."
Twilight clapped her hands together in excitement. "That's wonderful! How's Cadence? Are they still planning on having a baby? Oooooh, is it a boy or a girl? did..."
"We did not talk. "
"Oh." Twilight looked slightly dissapointed. "I understand."
Luna stood, armor creaking. She hissed in displeasure as her nerves lit up with pain.
"Could thou helpest us remove our armor, Twilight Sparkle?" Luna said, teeth gritted against the hurt.
Twilight stood as well and motined for her to turn.
"Of course, Princess. You look exausted."
Luna complied. "Truly we are." she said, twisting her head over her sholder so she could watch Twilight.
She needn't have worried. Twilight's fingers were deft from years of spellcasting, She quickly had Luna's sholder pads unlaced and removed, then her chest plates, her gautlets, forearm and upper arm pieces. Then she began to unlace her chainmail upper. She stopped with a gasp when she noticed a bloody gash in the fine rings, right where Luna's pauldrons jointed with the back of her main plate.
"What is this, Princess?" Twilight exclaimed as she carefully peeled the chain mail away from the wound.
"Ahh, yes. We'd forgotton about that. Your brother did that as we were leaving."
"What? He- Shining Armor stabbed you in the back?"
"No, he gave us a strange look and a hole in our back spontaniously formed." she replied dryly.
"This is a serious wound, Princess!" Twilight said concernedly and she peeled off Luna's shirt. "It's already getting infected..."
"Thou worry about thy own troubles." Luna said sharply, snatching back her shirt and pulling it back on. "'Tis merely a scratch. We shall have the camp medic look at it later."
"Princess, I could see bone..."
"Twilight Sparkle, tend to your own affairs, and leave us to tend to our own hurts." Luna snapped, moving to the cot (Which was little better than a bedroll on a board propped on four sticks) and sitting down to remove the rest of her armor.
"But princess..."
"Tis trivial, Twilight Sparkle."
"It is not!"
"We art fine, Twilight Sparkle."
The edge in her voice warned Twilight it was time to back off.
Luna slid off her pelvis guard, the last piece of her armor, and witha groan, lay down, careful to avoid laying on her wound.
Twilight was back at her dask, now alternating between her scrolls and a large map of the continent she had unrolled across the table. She glanced over at Luna.
"Feeling better, Princess?" she asked quietly.
"Much." Luna replied . "I think we.."
She never finished her statement, as her eyes closed and she drifted off.

When she finally awoke with a start, the light had faded. Twilight had hung a lantern over her work table, which cast it's warm yellow light around the tent.
Luna threw back the ratty blankets that Twilight had apparently scavenged for her while she had been sleeping, berating herself for sleeping so long. She'd only ment to lay down and rest for a fleeting moment. And now she'd slept for over two hours.
Taking a few steps around the table, she realized that the young Magii, too, had fallen asleep. She lay curled up beside her workspace, chest slowly rising and falling.
Luna felt her skin rise in goosebumps as she realized Twilight had removed her shirt and bandaged her wound. She grabbed a sleeveless shirt from the pile of (relatively)fresh clothes on the table and pulled it on. Once this was done, she gently lifted Twilight off the ground and carefully set her on the cot. She pulled up the blankets over the girl's sholders, cautious of waking her, and left the pavillion as quietly as she could.
Once out in the encampment, she glanced around. they were on the North side of the Neighhagra Lake, occupying an area of nearly a mile in diameter. The 5th, 20th, and 511th Divisions of the Lunar Republic Army, the 8th and 10th Battallions of the Lunar Republic Marine Corp, and the 15th Battalon of the Army Engineer corp were encamped here, and, along with the few scattered airship and warplane pilots, numbered nearly 40,000 strong. The entire area was a veritable city of tents.
There were many places that probably needed her supervision, but she picked her favorite- the airship decks. She turned north and began to walk towards the bright lights that shone up into the sky, beckoning friendly ships in, and, thanks to the work of Twilight and her fellow Magiius, invisible to those of hostile intent.
As usual, the deck was a bustle of frantic energy, with several airships being unloaded. The one with the most excitement surrounding it was a Pegasus class frigate, with the loading bay doors open and a large amount of horsing aroung going on in front of them.
Luna walked up next to three men standing at the edge of the frackas, two in Marine fatigues and one in the characteristic leather outfit of an airship pilot. They all turned and snapped to attention at the sight of her.
"At ease, gentlemen." she said, waving down their salutes. "What is the news?"
The pilot responded. "Solar Empire forces are gathering about ten miles down the shore. I flew in pretty close, saw what looked like a delivery of artillery pieces or maybe Ironclads by airship."
Luna winced at the mention of the agile, nearly invulnerable steam-powered contraptions. She'd only been in a few battles with Ironclads, and what she'd seen was not exactly comforting. A single Ironclad could easily decimate an entire division. Their few weaknesses were hardly comforting to the average infantry man, as to place a Model 24 grenade down the barrel or underneath the wheels meant coming within the range of the metal monster's lethal Bredas Machine-guns.
"Have you informed the 15th?" She asked. He nodded.
"They said they'd start placing AAM's around our perimeter immidiately." he said.
Luna nodded. There were three ways for her, as a leader, to consider dispatching an Ironclad if she was so unfortunate to encounter one. One, she could call for an airstrike. Two, she could send in a Magii squad to destoy it with magic. or Three, the coud have her engineers place Anti-Armor Mines and hope the Ironclad pilot was so unfortunate to encounter one.
Unfortunately, magic was only rarely effective against Ironclads. Solar Magii often equipped them with refractive or even reflective wards before they went into battle, thereby making magic a last ditch attempt...
Luna decided not to worry about possible Ironclads untill they showed up.
"Well done-" she glanced at the man's insignia- "Captain Lodestone. We need more men like you."
He blushed lightly. "Aww, shucks, Princess..." he said, scratching his head. "I'm just doin' my job."
"Well, what is being unloaded here?" she asked. she winced as her gesture towards the commotion around the airship upset her wound.
"Are you alright?" one of the marines asked concernedly.
"We art fine." Luna said dismissively. "A mere scratch."
The men nodded understandingly.
"Happens to the best of us." the other Marine said gruffly. Captain Lodestone nodded his agreement.
"Well, we got a shipment of Hickers 32 Machine-guns right off the assembly line, as well as about a hundred new Browns." he said, gesturing towards an assortment of crates at the edge of the pad. "But the real excitement's about what we got from the Changelings."
"What?" Luna asked.
Her question was answered by a flash of green and brown camoflage on steel plate as a truly massive machine rolled down the loading ramp. It stopped less than a meter from her, steam pistons hissing as it released excess pressure from its drive systems. Luna was awed by the sheer power the machine emmited.
The Mark 7 Land Ironclad sat on the stone, the Lunar Republic Insignia engraved on her front end.