(Thursday, Week 96)
Rainbow Dash awoke, early, as always. She always got up earlier than her troops. But not as early Celestia. The mess hall was right next to her living quarters, and sometimes she woke up in time to eat with the princess. As she walked through the fluffy cloud doors, she saw that today was one of those days.
"Good morning Rainbow Dash." the princess said.
"Good morning Princess." she replied, "What are you having today?"
"Oatmeal." Celestia said as she took a bite.
Rainbow Dash scrunched her nose up in disgust. She didn't have a taste for oatmeal. She flew over to the counter, and asked for hay pancakes. The cooks put them on a tray for you.
"Here you go Commander Dash." the cafeteria pony said.
"Thank you Nutmeg." Dash said to the pony. She knew everypony in the base by name.
She carried her tray over to the table Celestia was sitting at, and sat down across from her. It wouldn't be long before her troops came swarming in for breakfast. Rainbow wolfed her pancakes down, and Celestia chuckled at her poor terrible manners.
"My apologies, your Majesty." Dash said humorously.
Celestia actually laughed at that one, and Rainbow Dash joined her. Just as they calmed down, General Sunset Rose opened the doors and started the line, and the other generals and privates followed soon after.
"Commander." Sunset Rose acknowledged.
"General." Dash returned.
"Come on Rainbow Dash, we have a meeting with the War Council in ten minutes." Celestia said as she swallowed the last of her oatmeal.
"Oh alright." Dash hated Council Meetings.
The pegasus and the alicorn flew side by side, to the War Council Hall next door. The doors to the hall were even bigger than the mess hall doors. And the outside of the building was surrounded by tall columns, but the columns were nothing more than stacked clouds. The columns existed, only to hold up the second level of the hall. Rainbow dash reached the door before the princess, and held it open for her.
"Thank you." Celestia nodded.
The ponies went inside. Celestia, in a slow walk, to maintain grace in front of the council. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof, had no such reputation to uphold, and dashed to her seat in in the back of the room.
The hall had two layers, all set up with bleacher seating. Down the middle of the room was a walkway, with two two layers of bleacher seating on each side. On the far wall of the building were a raised platform with a throne, and two seats next to it. Obviously the throne was for the princess, and the seat to the right was for the seat on the left was for a unicorn named Meadow Belle. Meadow wrote down everything that happened in every War Council meeting. When Rainbow Dash took her seat Celestia was three fourths of the way to her seat. The princess elegantly made her way to her throne, and daintily sat beside Rainbow Dash.
"Welcome, everypony, to the War Council meeting of week 96. We are here today to discuss strategy for the Mountain12 land base. Now I know this ba-" Celestia was cut off.
"We need to send more troops in!" shouted a pegasus as she jumped into the air.
"Ponies die everyday in that base! Sending more in would be a despicable act of an unfeeling dictator!" Rainbow Dash argued in return.
"Yes, I agree with Commander Dash. I don't believe we should send more troops into Mountain12. But we do need to do something because if this war is lost, then Equestria will fall."
"Okay then Princess, what do you want us to do?" asked an Earth pony in the second level. Ponies in every row began to chatter in agreement. The hall soon filled with the noisy voices of the council ponies.
"Everypony... be quiet!" Rainbow Dash shouted over the council.
"I have made a decision." the princess began, "Let it be on record," she directed to Meadow Belle, "the Mountain12 land base will be eradicated, in the 96th week of war, and the troops of said base will be relocated to different bases throughout the Equestrian war front." she finished with a tone of diplomacy.
"Commander Dash, is there anymore business that the council needs to attend to?"
"I don't think so your Majesty." Dash replied.
"Wonderful. I call this meeting of the War Council to an end." Celestia said as she slowly rose from her seat and left the hall with poise. The commander followed close behind, and the ponies of the war council followed, allowing the princess and commander to go before them.
"Rainbow Dash, please train Squad 19 until lunch. After lunch, please meet me in the hall for strategizing."
"Yes, Princess." Dash said and flew off to the residential are to find Squad 19. She flew through the alleys between the living quarters and to the five homes of Squad 19. Each squad was composed of ten ponies. Dash commanded 250 ponies, so there were 25 squads. Because each each house in the base housed two ponies, only five were needed for each squad. She quickly found Squad 19 and told them all to meet by the mess hall for training.
When all the ponies were told where to go, Rainbow went to the 19th generals house, and told him that his squad was being trained near the hall. The general, named Moonstone, a pegasus, was the general. He and Dash flew to the square, the location of the mess hall, council hall, and royal living quarters. The ten ponies of Squad 19 were waiting in the square.
Squad 19 was a pegasus unit, so the first thing Rainbow Dash ordered was wing-ups.
"Come on Privates! I want to see you sweat. Now get down and give me fifty!" she commanded.
The pegasi got down and began their wing-ups in unison, counting together as they pushed themselves up and down. Soon the ponies had completed their warm up exercise, and were standing in front of Dash waiting for another command.
"Alright troops. Time for some laps. I want you all to give me one hundred laps around the base." Dash commanded, "NOW!"
The ten ponies of Squad 19 whizzed off, with a faint breeze washing over Rainbow Dash and Moonstone.
"Moonstone, go watch them, and report to me when they are done." Rainbow directed.
"Yes Ma'am." he returned.
Rainbow flew off to see Meadow Belle. Belle had an office in the hall, and that was where she spent most of her time. She trotted down the middle of the hall, and before she hit the throne and chairs at the end, took a left. To the left of the bleacher seating was Meadow's office. To the right was Celestia's. As expected, Meadow Belle was seated behind her desk with a quill levitated beside her.
"Hi, Meadow." Rainbow greeted.
"Hello Commander. What can I do for you?"
"I just came to see if you sent that letter to Luna."
"Oh yes, just sent it!"
"Wonderful, that's all. Thank you." Dash said as she walked back out the doors of the office. She flew to the doors and flew to where she left General Moonstone. He was no where to be seen, so she assumed he had gone to supervise his troops. Rainbow Dash flew over the boundary cloud walls of the base, to see that the ponies were still racing around the base, and General Moonstone was perched on a cloud, watching carefully to make sure his squad wasn't slacking off.
"How many laps are they up to now?" Dash said as she approached him.
"Their up to 83 now." he responded.
"Okay, I'll be back soon. I need to talk to the princess."
He nodded in acknowledgement, and Dash flew off once more to take care of her responsibilities.
Celestia was in their room, looking at some paperwork.
"Princess, if we are going to dissolve Mountain12, maybe we could house a new squad here? I could have Squad 19 build it in the empty lot in between Squad 1 and 25. That area is only used for training, and we can easily use the square for training anyway." Dash said.
"I like that idea, Commander. Go ahead and have the squad build the new living quarters. After Luna and I have confirmed the elimination of Mountain12, I want you to go with me to decide which ponies will go where."
"Yes your Majesty." Dash bowed and left the room. She returned to Moonstone to find that Squad 19 had finished with their laps. She told the General what they needed to do, and told them to start gathering clouds for construction. She told them that they also needed to make beds, tables, and chests out of the clouds, just like the ones they had in their own homes. Even the general was getting to work to help build the new houses.
Rainbow Dash however, was supervising, "Remember troops! This is still training. I want to see speed and strength!"
After hearing her command the ponies sped up, and a fair sized pile of clouds began to accumulate. After the pile was a size that satisfied Rainbow, she ordered the troops to carry the clouds to the build site. Soon after they began shaping the clouds, it was time for lunch.
"All right troops, lunch time! After lunch, your General will supervise you. I have a meeting the Princess Celestia, and when I'm done I want at least two of the houses built. Have you got that?"
"Yes Ma'am!" they shouted in unison.
After lunch Rainbow Dash had a brief meeting with Celestia. In the end they decided to withdraw unicorn troops from the north, and place them to the far west. Those troops were going to use their magic to fling rocks into a nearby Crystal Empire base. They were trying to advance on Sombra's territory. The more land they got, the more materials they could harvest.
Hopefully their plan would work, but until then Rainbow had to schedule the arrival of Princess Luna. She sent a letter accepting the invitation and would be here tomorrow. Luna would be there for only half a day, so all that needed to be set up was a meeting between Meadow Belle, the two princesses, and herself. She went to Meadow and told her she was needed tomorrow, and then went to see scedule for the hall. Nothing was scheduled for tomorrow, the hall was open for anyone to meet.
Everything was set up for the arrival of Princess Luna.
(Friday, Week 96)
Princess Luna's navy blue chariot was pulled by her two most trusted bat pony guards. It landed softly in the square. Luna stepped carefully out of it and was greeted by all 25 Generals, Commander Dash, and Princess Celestia.
"Welcome to Cloud235, sister." Celestia greeted warmly.
"Hello sister. We have much to discuss." Luna replied. "I hear word you plan to neutralize Mountain12."
"Yes." Celestia said as she began her walk to the hall, and directed her sister the same way. They regally walked side by side as two unicorns opened the hall doors in front of them. The doors were closed as the generals filed in behind them. A table was set up in the center of the room with four chairs. The princesses, the general, and Meadow Belle. The generals all sat in the bleacher seats.
The four ponies sat at the table to begin the discussion.
"Now sister, I understand you want to eliminate the Mountain12 land base." Luna began, Meadow Belle was scribbling every word down. This meeting would be quoted word-for-word for the nationwide newspaper. The princess's rarely met, and everypony in the country would want to know exactly what happened.
"Yes. That is correct Luna." Celestia replied.
"And where would the 1500 troops living there go?" Luna retorted.
"I'll let Commander Rainbow Dash explain this." Celestia said giving the floor to Dash.
"The ponies of Mountain12 would be scattered across the other bases. Decided by us of course, we would go to the base and evaluate each pony. based on their ratings they would be sent all over Equestria. Already, the squads of Cloud235 have tarted to build more housing units. We can take one squad here." Rainbow Dash explained.
"All right then. I'm convinced. I am in favor of eliminating Cloud235." Luna said, finalizing the order.