Hello, yet another new person here who's been a longtime fan of the series and visitor of the Compendium who decided to start posting because of Chrono Trigger DS. Hopefully you're not tired of us yet.
Anyway, this conversation seems like a good one to jump into so I'm going to add some of my own thoughts on the matter and start by saying that we might be tackling this question from the wrong angle. Perhaps instead of asking how
Dalton could have used
Porre to defeat Guardia, maybe we should be asking how Dalton
could have helped Porre defeat Guardia?
Unless I'm mistaken about the facts, by 1,000 AD Porre had already become a military power through the colonization of the El Nido Archipelago and the victory over the Dragonians. They likely have guns, crystal elements (which, while not as powerful as magic, still pack a punch), and who knows what else. Now, maybe the Porre military wants to expand, maybe they don't. Maybe Porre has disputes with Guardia, maybe they don't. Either way, Porre probably already has the capability to defeat Guardia in a war. Their crystal elements aren't as strong as Crono, Marle, and Lucca's magic and their guns likely aren't as advanced as what Lucca can produce, but it seems likely that they have more people outfitted with crystal elements and guns than Guardia has magicians and marksmen.
And now Dalton enters the scene. Whether he shares his magic and working knowledge of Zeal technology with Porre is a moot question, as is whether he rises through the ranks to become a prominent general or even stages a coup to become the ruler of Porre because as stated above Porre likely already
has the potential to defeat Guardia in a war. All Dalton needs to do to get his revenge is ingratiate himself with the military and convince Porre to invade Guardia, which could be accomplished through any number of means such as creating an inciting incident or appealing to expansionism. Either way, no matter what his rank and position might be the Porrre military would probably assign Dalton to the Guardia campaign because of his magical abilities, and voila: the Fall of Guardia.
Even if you think Crono could take the entire Porre army on singlehandedly with Luminaire and win or if you think Crono could take Dalton one-on-one and win (much more likely, in my opinion), if you back Dalton with his spells up with squads of riflemen and trained crystal element users and maybe even heavy artillery...I don't believe the odds would be in Crono's favor and the odds become even worse if Dalton did strengthen the Porre military with Zeal science. Now, it wouldn't be impossible for Guardia to win under these circumstances especially if they embarked upon their own militarization program, but Porre would still have significant advantages and virtually all evidence states that Porre defeats Guardia in 1005 AD.
So, maybe Dalton reformed the Porre military, gave them new technology, became the ruler of Porre, and personally led the campaign against Guardia, or maybe he didn't and took more of a behind the scenes approach. Either way, for those who are struggling to conceive how Dalton of all people could conquer Guardia let's remember that Porre still could have probably defeated Guardia with or without him. His role in the Fall of Guardia and relation to Porre is, for the time being, a mystery and all we can firmly say is that he probably was involved with both in some way.
