Equestrian Battlefront

Sunlight glinted off a sea of metal clad bodies as the Children of the Night slowly advanced on the castle across green fields. Their advance was supported by siege engines belching sky darkening black smoke from the fires inside their armored boilers, a machine of war capable of firing multiple salvos of giant flaming crossbow bolts in rapid succession. Each unit of heavily armored earth ponies was supported by a unicorn capable of calling the very stars themselves down onto the battlefield and lead by a grizzled, and cranky, old veteran of countless conflicts. Their will so unshakable as to never back down from a fight or challenge.

Atop a flying carpet, and leading the whole army from the back, was a winged unicorn as dark as night in ornately decorated plate armor painted a dark blue trimmed in silver, runes were drawn across the metal to protect her against even the toughest of arrows, and small seals with words of wisdom attached lead her to victory across countless battles. Her horned helmet was cradled in her foreleg while a massive pike floated near her in case she had to charge something, and her left pauldron had a field of stars painted on while the right marked her as a Follower of Discord. A flowing crimson cape blew in the wind as she surveyed her target across the vast fields of green.

Her target? Why Canterlot Castle and the Celestial Guard defending it of course. The defenders had obstinately refused the Children of the Night’s offer for a simple surrender and it seemed inevitable that these two forces would collide in a titanic clash of flesh and steel. The dice of fate were cast. One by one the Celestial Guard, clad in their glimmering white armor trimmed in gold, galloped to positions. The few Guard already outside the gates braced themselves as they hunkered down into pre-built trench lines and fortifications that seemed to surround the castle. Yet… it seemed that all was not lost for our stalwart defenders.

A lone white alicorn in polished golden armor stood on a balcony atop the tallest spire, overlooking the battlefield to come. Her mere presence inspired a fierce zeal in her troops, giving them no fear of the oncoming horde while inspiring the citizens to take up arms and fight alongside the regular troops. Her weapons of choice was a simple, and massive, golden metal shield painted with the Celestial Guard’s insignia on it and a large serrated sword made from unobtanium and enchanted to slice cleanly through anything, even stone.

But, it was not just the alicorn white alicorn that caused the faint glimmer of hope for the citizens of Canterlot. The Children of the Night had deployed only along one side of Canterlot Castle and Cloudsdale’s elite flyers, the Wonderbolts, were inbound to provide aerial support. The nine multi-colored contrails could be seen in the distance as they streaked towards the battlefield. However, before even the fastest flyers in Equestria could aid the castle. The Children of the Night surged forward, galloping headlong at the defenders in the trenches.

Captain Pie Plate, an earth pony, sat quaking in his chain mail armor, despite his monarch’s presence, as the moon began to rise above the battlefield as stars began raining down. His small unit, being out front, took the full brunt of the Star Barrage. Captain Pie Plate dove down, shouting, “Hit the deck!” as stars the size of a hoof rained down on the area. Most of the ponies in his unit dropped low in time, but two were not so lucky. Before they could react, Stars from the barrage slammed clean through their chain mail armor, but one Private Strawberry lemonade, was lucky and the star bounced off his hard head that was hiding under the plate helmet. The force of the blow knocked him flat on his flank and caused him to see stars float around as his eyes rolled around in confusion.

Near Pie Plate’s unit, stars slammed into Captain Arrowhead’s earth pony unit before they could drop low to the ground. Stars bored their way through three of the ponies before they could react, causing Arrowhead to scramble back further into the trench to avoid the onslaught. The unit to the left of Pie Plate, belonging to Captain Train Wreck, took heavy casualties; five of the chain mail plated ponies dropped like flies under the Star Barrage, causing Captain Train Wreck to call a retreat and fall back towards the castle.

As Train Wreck’s unit was falling back towards the safety of the stone gates, a shrill howl echoed overhead as massive crossbow bolts slammed into stone and exploded, throwing wood splinters and boulders in every direction as the gate was blown off its hinges. For Captain Train Wreck, he could swear he saw the dice of fate roll across the field as ponies fell from the ramparts to the defenders below, a few of them looked up just in time to see the cruel, cold, stone crush them into oblivion.

Arrows silently flew into the sky from behind the wall, propelled by the simple force of wood, as the defending Celestial Guard returned fire with their Long Bow Squads. The simple wooden weapons bored their way into the front ranks of the attackers, dropping them like flies as a second volley launched skyward. Down in the first rank, Magister Mountain Leaf looked up at the arrows as his horn glowed brightly. But, alas, it was not to be. Before he could fully engulf his troops in the protective shield, arrows rained down on the area and finished off the rest of the unit.

The last thing that ran through Magister Mountain Leaf’s brain was the arrow as it slammed into his eye socket. He slumped over and collapsed, instantly killed by the simple weapon.

“Fear not even death!” boomed the black alicorn as she rode over her forces on the flying carpet, her horn alight as she cast a spell. “Today is not the day you will rest. That day is a long ways off. Today is the enemies day to die! Their skulls and corpses will decorate our halls!” The full moon cast half the battlefield in night while the other half, where the castle was, was still bathed in the warm glow of daylight. As the black winged unicorn swooped over the fallen troops, a sickly green glow surrounded them.

Slowly, and with tremendous effort, the previously slain Children of the Night rose from the dead and began to shamble forward towards the castle much to the horror of the militia still in the trenches. But! All was not lost for the stalwart defenders.

Cloudsdale’s elite flying team, the Wonderbolts, arrived on the field, causing everypony to stop what they were doing and look up at them. Six of the fliers broke off from the pack. These elite of the elite ponies all wore matching jeweled necklaces with the lead mare having glowing white eyes and a purple horn.

Huh?

All six ponies were not just pegasi, but alicorns!

Wait, wut?

These six mares made up the Elements of Harmony; Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and Magic. Together, with the spark of friendship that brought them together, these six alicorns cast a spell. All their eyes began to glow white as a rainbow formed around them, slowly swirling up before washing across the battlefield and cleansing the fires of hate, malice, and death from the land. When the-

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” shouted a dark blue alicorn from one side of the table with a glare. Her star filled mane silently flowed on non-existent wind. Princess Luna’s whole face had turned a dark purple in anger over Princess Twilight Sparkle’s actions. Twilight’s horn was glowing and so was every single model on the table as they floated off the ground. “You cannot pick up our armies and say ‘the power of harmony has defeated everything’!” Luna stomped her hoof down.

“But…” Twilight looked at the two finely painted model armies in her magic, then back down to a recreation of Canterlot Castle on a table covered in green cloth. “But I thought the book said that the Great Pony Empire were followers of harmony?”

Celestia smiled a little bit from her side of the table where the Children of the Night had started and nodded some. “Yes, but the Elements of Harmony do not exist in this fictional universe. Their conflict against the Forces of Discord is without end. Because the game series were to end should they come to a favorable agreement.” A group of pony sized multi-colored wolves waiting to be placed on the board was floating in Celestia’s magic.

Twilight tilted her head some in confusion. “Then how come Luna has the Wonderbolts painted to look like Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and I?”

“They count as the Wonderbolts,” Celestia said. “While they may resemble you and your friends. They are in the game’s universe and have to abide by the game’s rules.”

“Is that why your Nightmare Moon flies around on a magic carpet instead of using her wings?” Luna asked with a roll of her eyes, scoffing at the idea that Celestia had made such a character. “I never flew around on a magic carpet. It’s absurd!”

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike asked. A piece of parchment and quill were in his hands since Twilight had asked him to write down everything he had seen. “Can I stop writing now? I’m getting a claw cramp.”

Twilight gently set every model back onto the table where she had picked them up from and looked over at Spike. “Yeah.” She then looked at the other two princesses and bowed her head a little. “Sorry, please continue.”

A frothy mug of Sweet Apple Acres’ Apple Cider floated over to Celestia. She looked down at the board, taking the faintest of sips as Luna shook a large metal cup full of dice with her own magic. Luna quickly turned the cup over, spilling the contents out on an open part of the board. She smiled at the results; five sixes, two fours, eight fives, two twos and three ones, then picked off everything below four. “Alright now that the arrows wounded your zombies, let’s see if they put them down for good…”

The dice cup spilled its contents again, coming out with four sixes, three ones, and the rest fours and fives. Before Luna could celebrate her victory, Twilight said, “wait. That’s almost the same as last time.”

Celestia nodded a little and took another sip of her cider. “Luna has a favorable dice roll. I sometimes have those nights where the dice gods swing in my favor.”

Twilight shook her head almost as fast as she could before asking, “Spike, what were the results from Luna’s last turn?”

Luna tilted her head as Spike flipped through the pages. “There’s nothing wrong,” she said quietly. “It’s just lucky dice.”

Eventually, Spike stopped on the page and said out loud, “seven sixes, and four fours with a one, a two, and two threes.”

“Aha!” Twilight smiled and pointed at Spike. “I knew it! Exactly the same amount of wounds last turn by the archers.”

“What are you getting at?” Celestia asked with a tilt of her head as she set the wolves back onto the reserve table along with her mug.

Luna glanced at Celestia, the table, Spike, and finally Twilight. She opened and closed her mouth for a couple of seconds and cut Twilight off before she could say anything. “I simply have a favorable night tonight.” Luna said. “Nothing at all wrong with that.”

Slowly, Celestia picked one of the dice up in her magic and looked it over, frowning slightly when she noticed the coloring. “These aren’t your usual dice.” she said as her brows knitted together. “Your usual dice are blue and silver. These are red and green.” Twilight pulled out a scale and took all the dice off the table including the ones that had been moved to the side.

“Can I h-have my dice back?” Luna asked, smiling sheepishly as she quickly trotted over to Twilight.

“Aha!” Twilight stomped her hoof down after a second. “I knew something was funny. Luna’s red dice are heavier than your gold dice, Princess Celestia.”

“Heavier?”

“Yep!”

“How s-”

“Nothing is wrong with the dice!” Luna snatched all but one away from Twilight and quickly put them in her bag. “They’re just bigger is all, so of course they’re heavier.”

“Then you won’t mind if I do this.” Celestia put the dice on the floor and smashed her hoof against it, causing it to crack along a hairline fracture running around the object. Celestia slowly lifted the two re-painted halves up and frowned deeply when she saw a small piece of lead inside one half of the dice. “Weighted?”

Luna half-laughed, slowly scratching the back of her head. “But Tia, you always win on Canterlot Assault. I… I bought the dice from her!” Luna quickly pointed at Twilight. “She said they were super special Hearth’s Warming Eve dice!”

“Huh?” Twilight tilted her head to the side while trying to think of why Luna was talking to her. She noticed Spike was trying to hide behind the chair he had been sitting on. “Spike. Are you alright?” Twilight asked.

“Uh… just fine!” He replied.

“Come to think of it…” Twilight tapped her chin in thought. “You were the one that gave me the rulebook. And you’re the one that told me about Princess Luna and Princess Celestia playing the game.”

“I didn’t sell Princess Luna my dice!” he shook his head.

“Spike…”

Spike shook his head. “I didn’t!”

“Spike!” Twilight shouted, stomping her hoof down as her wings flared out. “Did you or did you not sell Princess Luna your dice?”

Spike bit his lower lip as he looked at each alicorn in the room and tapped his claws together. After a few seconds, he started sweating profusely. “Yes…? I wanted Luna to win more often because she said Princess Celestia won Canterlot Assault all the time.”

Celestia looked over at Princess Luna and Spike, an eye twitching.

*** ***

Luna sighed deeply. A vast rocky field stretched out in front of her and a beautiful star filled night sky blanketed everything in a silent hug. Equestria shone brightly off in the distance, acting like a moon for the moon.

Spike’s purple dragon feet beat down on the moon’s surface as he ran across the field. “Air! Air! I need aiiiiiiir!” he shouted as he ran in front of Luna’s view. She took a deep breath before sighing deeply again. She picked up one of the moon rocks with her magic, tossed it in the air, and watched it sail for almost a half a mile.

Spike skidded to a stop before running back across the field, panting heavily. Luna took the time to watch the small dragon run around. He ran around, clawing at the craters and did not realize that he was not dead, but standing on the moon. “You’ll be back with Twilight in a week,” Luna shouted at Spike. “Calm down, take a deep breath, and allow me to show you some of my rock friends.”