Lucretia sits to my far right, her helmets off and her long golden hair flows wildly around her face. She has her gauntlets off, and chews on her pinkie nail as she thinks. Emeris sits across from her with his hands folded, looking around attentively.

Spitfire, Cadence, Shining Armor, a small handful of royal guards and I sit around a massive table near the back of the castle. Shining was your typical perfect prince type of character. A blue mane with a streak of teal is the only real color next to his white fur. We had never spoken before, but Celestia assured me he was both brave and honorable. War has a way of pushing you to your limits and discovering just who you really are. Had Shining been through this test?

Celestia is still in the back room, watching over Luna, after Cadence’s magic can’t seem to heal her. The table shows some form of a map made of crystal of the entire nation, including the Crystal Empire. Celestia had teleported it here, claiming she was borrowing it from one of her students. The idea that such information was so freely available was unsettling to me.

I was still getting used to the title of general. Even when guards would come running down the hall calling out my rank, I seldom turned, and usually had to be nudged by nearby units as a reminder.

I take a deep breath, about to start giving my first commands as a general. The first order of business is better intel.
“We need a more reliable scouting regiment. I want the remaining Wonderbolts to enlist as many pegasi as they can. Each member needs to train their own small squad of scouts. We need eyes everywhere. You can have one pegasi from each team report every hour to keep our information up to date. Other than that Spitfire, I’ll let you make the calls from here. If there’s anything crucial, like a large group of Og Nag coming towards a settlement, I want a hand delivered scroll to myself personally.” Spitfire still gazes at me with those hollow eyes of hers. They’re red from endless crying. She gives me an empty salute and casually walks out of the room.

I turn to Emeris and Lucretia as I still lean over the table, bracing myself with both hands.

"The second order of business is locking down the palace as a military fort. We need to set up choke points and smaller bases, so the Og Nag can’t just strike anywhere at anytime. Lucretia and Emeris, we’re going to break the area around Canterlot into North and South, with each region having around three choke points. I want Emeris holding the North and Lucretia to the south seeing as how you’re already familiar with the traps in the forest and Base Ponyville.” Lucretia nods but raises a hand slightly to speak.
”With our current forces, that would be 75 soldiers to each region, with that 75 being split up to have 25 at each choke point. How can we expect to hold a choke point with a handful of soldiers?”

I nod casually, having already planned ahead.
“That’s where the guards come in. I want both of you to find a way of training the royal guards to use weapons in some manner. You can even just attach lancers to their armor somehow. I’ll assign about three pegasi to each chokepoint with a small company of bombs to handle Garge’s. Make sure one of our lieutenants is responsible for training them or just teaching them how to fight in general. Even our basic infantry can lend a hand with training.”

Emeris drums his fingers a few times before speaking up.
“Where are we setting up choke points?” I study the map briefly.
“I want one set up at the entrance to the mountain. Set your men up to rain arrows inside the valley. We’ll make it one large kill box. Worse case scenario, I can pull back the other two choke points and have them help defend the valley. That place will get clogged easily so don’t fall back to it unless we have no choice. Once we defend the valley, there will be no other places to fall back to. I don’t want to get cornered.” Emeris slowly nods. I can see him beginning to form up defensive ideas.
“Lucretia, I want you to start using Base Ponyville to house refugees. It won’t be pleasant, but we can’t cram anyone else into the palace.” She nods, looks around the room, then sits upright with a hint of embarrassment.
“Shining Armor, I need you to set up a thorough chain of command with the guards. I think they still need time to accept my new position, so it seems more fitting that the orders come directly from you. Do we have a headcount?” I stand up straight and put my hands behind my back.

Shining armor pulls out a small notepad.
“We have about three hundred guards, but another five hundred civilians who volunteered. Unfortunately, we have well over a few thousand refugees. Supplies are a huge issue, as spreading food and water to everypony is a nightmare.” Supplying refugees in a palace not meant for so many had turned ugly faster than we had thought. I had heard stories of food and water being forcibly taken from the guards when they showed up to spread it all out evenly. There was even a small market made by two brothers. They’re currently spending the rest of the war in the dungeon, courtesy of Celestia.
“Shining is there any way to set up supply stations? Perhaps have designated areas where we can teleport in food and water spread out through the palace? We may need one supply station for every one hundred feet to make sure everyone can get what they need.” Cadence’s eyes light up.
“Well yes actually that would be decently easy!”
“Cadence if you’re okay with it, do you mind being responsible for managing the refugees here? I think the sight of a princess running around will be good for moral, especially with your ability to control love.” She gives me a large smile.
“Of course! I think even passing out colored cards to make sure everyone knows what station to go to will help keep order.” Shining Armor looks over at his wife and smiles.
“That’s actually a great idea!”

Our numbers and chances had skyrocketed once Cadence and Shining armor brought over a massive compliment of guards and supplies. They also brought their citizens with them. It seemed easier to have everyone at or near Canterlot due to our inability to defend both their empire and here. I couldn't help but notice their apprehension to have Cadence in any sort of combat role. It wasn't terribly important, but I was still curious. Did their leaders not fight along side their troops?

I go over the checklist in my head. We needed safety first, which meant locking down the area around Canterlot so we can be prepared for an attack instead of just winging it every time. This also includes the refugees. Knowing safety was taken care of for now, it was time to think of our strategy in the war.
“This is where we need everyone’s input. Whether you like it or not, the Og Nag need to be permanently removed. We can kill them, or find a way of teleporting them. Regardless, I don’t think they’ll respond to mercy or redemption, seeing as how they don’t have the brainpower for diplomacy. Does anyone disagree?” Heads turn to the left and right, but no one objects. I flatten my hands against the table and hunch over as I look everyone in the eyes.
“I will say this once: any Og Nag you spare, you will end up fighting later.” Multiple ponies paw the ground or swallow. Shining rubs the back of his neck. I get it, they think they’re above killing. In a way, I admired their tendencies to lean towards forgiveness, but these were Og Nag. They haven’t even seen the worst of it yet. On average, the ones we fought were small. Back on Nova, the average Og Nag was the size of a human, and twice as “excited” for combat. Even as they watched their kingdom dwindle, they still had no idea how lucky they were.

Stormchaser interrupts our meeting briefly, when she kicks open the doors and runs up to me with a scroll that had stripes of red paint going down the outsides of the paper. Red scrolls meant that they have important information that I’ve asked them to obtain. We had been tracking a rather large group of Og Nag that were going to be our first test subjects. I read over the scroll: lieutenant Cy had been doing guerrilla warfare, gradually leading the Og Nag closer and closer to Canterlot. They were now at our door step.
I hold up a hand.

“Meeting adjourned for now.” I take a knee to look Stormchaser in the eye. Her silver hair is a mess, and her purple fur is coated in sweat. When I first met her, she was a bit ditsy and didn’t care much about anything. I had noticed a massive change in her, once she had gradually become my go-to scout for information. She had previously spent most of her time analyzing various social statuses, hoping to become more popular among the other fliers. This gave her an uncanny ability to study and remember details.
She pants heavily. I place a hand on her shoulder.

“You’ve done well. I’m going to add a small change in how we do things from now on however. I’m going to ask you to trust me. I can no longer explain our plans to you. You will simply need to deliver the scroll to whoever it’s assigned to without reading them.” Her ears go back and her eyes narrow.
“It has nothing to do with you. We are dealing with magical forces, and I have to take certain precautions, which means telling as few people as possible about our plans. I promise you I will explain soon, but for now, I need you to trust me. You’re too important to lose.”

She inhales deeply, wipes the mad look off her face, and nods. It was odd, she used to be a chatter box, but since the war, she hardly says a word. Part of me assumed she had either lost someone special, or seen the horrors that come with battle. I write careful instructions on the scroll and hand it to Stormchaser.
“Deliver these to Spitfire and make sure she destroys them once read.” Storm takes the scroll and trots off, with a sprinkle of pout in her step.

The room is empty except for Lucretia and Emeris. They know what the red scroll means.
Lucretia stands up, crosses her arms and shifts her weight to her left leg.
“So what’s the plan?” I sit back down in my chair and glance at both of them.
“We’re going to do our first test. I can’t tell you what it is without blotching the results, but I’ll need you to take extremely careful notes while you’re out on the battlefield. I’ll have each of you direct an attack from the sides. With any luck, we’ll slowly start to learn what’s going on.” They both nod.
“Excuse me, I’m going to check on Luna before the attack begins.” With that, we exchange respectful bows.

I turn right out of the small room, and go through the doubledoors that lead to the throne room. I walk past the thrones, and into the side hallways behind it on the left, that leads straight back into a series of random rooms that used to house supplies for the palace. They’ve since been turned into trauma wards for both physical and psychological wounds. Having someone professionally trained to help you with your emotions; they still had no idea how lucky they were.

I stop outside of the library. The sounds of magic being tossed back and forth is barely audible. I knock a few times; no answer. A few seconds later, I reach up to knock again, but the door opens.

Luna is a complete wreck. Her left eye is almost swollen shut, her mouth has multiple cuts across it, her right wing is broken, and one of her hind legs is in a cast. Her hair is a disaster, and she has innumerable cuts and bruises visible under her dark purple fur. She smiles sweetly at me, and hops a few times to the side to clear a path for me. I walk in silently.
“So...I take it Cadence still can’t figure out why she can’t heal you yet?” I try to say casually, attempting to hide my concern.
Luna chuckles weakly.
“It’s fine. I’m not as helpless as I look. Besides, we’re at war; a princess cannot lie in bed while this crisis continues.” She hops across the floor and sits in a chair in front of several books.
“Any luck finding out what Mobius might be?” Mobius was the name for any type of wild card we knew nothing about. In this case, Mobius was this odd psychic creature we were dealing with.
“I believe so, but unfortunately it raises more questions than it answers.”
I walk over to her notes.
“Well anything works at this point. What do you have?”
Luna uses her magic to turn the pages of a book. The writing is in a language I can’t recognize. She nods at the page.
“Have a look.”
I clear my throat.
“I’m afraid that language must be ancient, I can’t read it.”
She stares at me and raises an eyebrow.
“Is that so? Captain Raiden, unable to read. What are we going to do with you?" I chuckle. It was nice having a friend again, considering all my time was wrapped up with making critical decisions.
Her eyes slowly show admiration in them.
“How come I’ve never seen you with your helmet off?”
I smile a bit.
“Habit. It’s a comfort thing. So what did you find out?”
She nods and looks back at the book.
“I apologize, I’ve been stuck in this room since we returned...thank you by the way.” She laughs nervously and gazes at the ground.
“I really wish I could stop being such a burden...” I lay a comforting arm across her shoulders. She told us she had been blasted from behind with magic and didn't remember anything after that.
“You’re far from a burden. No one could have predicted this outcome. None of us knew what was coming. None of this was your fault.”
She looks up at me shyly, barely showing one eye.
“Are you sure you don’t hate me?”
I recoil briefly with bulging eyes and a quivering mouth.
“Of course not! Why would you think such a thing?!”
She turns her head to face mine. Her warm breath fills the inside of my helmet and smells like sugar. I tremble a bit. She gently reaches up with her left hoof, and starts tilting my helmet up. I place my hand on her hoof and stop her.
“I’m sorry princess, but after our meeting here, I’m due in the commander's quarters. We have a battle ahead of us.”
She widens her eyes and looks shocked.
“Really?! They’re coming here?! Why would they bother you in Canterlot? They stand no chance of getting in. Please let me join you! I would give anything to get out of this-” I cut her off as politely as possible.
“Luna I need you here doing research. We have to know what we’re up against. Now please, what have you found so far?”
She grits her teeth. Part of my heart breaks denying her, but her eagerness to help might get in the way. Also it would take too long to update her on our current dilemma.
She turns back to her book.
“Apparently, this creature is called Zaran. It feeds off magical energy. From what I’ve read, which is just witness accounts, he’s a very powerful and ancient creature, with massive psychic abilities. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could read our minds.”
I nod nervously.
“That would be bad, but I doubt he can. “ She cocks an eyebrow.
“And why is that?”
I think for a minute.
“Call it a gut feeling. Things could have easily played out differently by now.” She gives me a slightly skeptical look then nods.
“In any case, I started looking into ways to block his powers. I’m assuming he’s mainly based on dark magic, as there are rarely any creatures who exhibit such evil actions who are not fueled by it. So far, I’ve seen a few hints of amulets that could block the user from dark magic effects, but I don’t have the faintest idea where they would actually be.”
I hear writing behind me and slowly turn around. There is a quill writing madly on some parchment. It’s surrounded with the same purple glow Luna uses. I stare at it curiously. She looks at me, then behind at her writing. Her mouth opens a bit, but she says nothing for a moment.
“I apologize. After the battle I’ve found myself getting random surges of emotion. I’ve taken to writing them out, and occasionally I do it without thinking.”
I casually walk around the table out of curiosity. The paper flies to Luna.
“Please don’t...it’s…” she blushes and looks at the ground with a small smile. “It’s about you…”
I smile and glance down at the table. There’s something going on here, I better pretend to be buying it for now.
“I’ll pass your findings to Celestia. She may know a bit more.” Luna stares at me for a second.
“I’ve actually been giving that some thought. I think we may need to keep as much of this information to ourselves as we can. The less Zaran knows, the better. If he thinks we know nothing about his existence, that may buy us some time.”
I walk to the door and give her one last look over my shoulder.
“Make sure to get some rest princess.” She nods, and shakes a few times.
“I apologize, but I’m feeling rather ill and need to rest. Come visit me when you can?” I give her one last smile under my helmet and close the door behind me, but leave it just barely open. I peek back inside after a few seconds. Luna turns towards the lit fireplace and holds the note up. She grumbles and tosses it into the fire. It drives a chill up my spine.
It was three words: “Don’t trust me”