Ponyfront

Chapter One: Why We Fight (Part One)

It had been fifteen years since Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had broken the spacial barrier that seperated humans and ponies from each other. Humanity was free to roam and settle in the lands near the Kingdom of Equestria and its population of senient ponies. At first the two civilizations were happy and trusted each other. The Kingdom of Equestria allowed Humanity to expand and explore their world and kingdom while Humanity allowed the ponies to let them come and go in their territory as much as they wanted. The two empires were the greatest of allies and the best of friends. The public got along well with one another and the leaders got along too like they were old friends.

One day, the human leader died and his son took over in his footsteps. Not everyone liked this as he was very xenophobic towards the ponies but no-one knew why. He did everything he could to ignore the ponies and Equestria.

Eventually, the trust and friendship that was built up between the nations was soon abused by Humanity and broke most of the rules set in by the 'Canterlot-New Earth' agreement most notably the increase of money being spent on the military and the failure to demilitarise fifty miles behind shared borders. Trust between the two nations shattered and fell apart. Friendship turned to espionage and sabotage; each nation trying to out-do the other. The humans compared it to the Cold War and arms races that had once raged before the Unification of the countries of Earth. These tensions rose until both sides could take no more. The build up of distrust and hatred lead to an inevitable war between the two factions. The Kingdom of Equestria against the Earth Empire.

When war was declared the two nations were passive, each on the defensive, neither side willing to make the first attack. This 'phoney war' did not last long though as operations and plans of invasion were being drafted up on both sides. It was simply a matter of who strikes first; who dares wins. The Kingdom of Equestria had plans made first but were not able to attack with their present army. Humanity on the other hand was.

Humanity launched their invasion from all directions. First to fall was Manehatten, followed by Fillydelphia, Ponyville and then Canterlot itself. The Royal Equestrian Army was pushed further away from their capital and morale had abandoned them since Canterlot's fall. Humanity was in for an easy victory. Or so they thought.

The ponies living in the conquered territories were treated badly due to the lies and propaganda the humans had been told by their own government. They were treated how the humans saw them; as animals. Animals that could talk but were still sub-human. The ponies hated the humans and their civil unrest continued. They caused riots and held marches but they all lead to nothing but more abuse and violence against them. The ponies decided to fight fire with fire. They set up the Equestrian Resistance.

The Equestrian Resistance was based in Canterlot but had branches in every city and town in the captured territories. They were violent and militant. They would fight for their own freedom and assist the REA at every opportunity and fight the human army with guerrilla warfare.

Slowly but surely, the resistance took back Canterlot but some fights still happened in the city. Soon after, the Manehatten and Fillydelphia resistance movements freed their cities too. Although they were now free, they were isolated from the rest of the Kingdom of Equestria. To save them, Ponyville needed to be liberated as it was the most direct route to Canterlot from the two cities but the humans set up blockades around the town so no outside resistance fighters could get in. The only way to save Ponyville was by its own resistance. From the inside-out.

***

"Rainbow, Rainbow Dash. Wake up, sleepy head. Wake up now." A soft voice echoed through Rainbow Dash's head. She slowly opened her eyes to find herself awake in Twilight's underground meeting room. She was at a Ponyville Resistance meeting and she figured she must have fallen asleep in the middle of it. She looked up to see the pony who was speaking at her. The pony was orange with a blonde mane and sap green eyes. She wore a brown, teared hat on her head and was covered in dirt and sweat. Rainbow didn't have to think long before she knew she was looking at her friend, Applejack.

"I know it was a late an' long raid last night, Rainbow, but ya gotta stay awake for this briefing an' pay attention. This operation could gain Ponyville her freedom."

Rainbow, with eyes now fully open at the sound of the word 'freedom', straightened up in her chair and fully focused on where she was and what she was doing.

"Sorry Applejack. I was just... resting my eyes but now that I have, I'm ready to listen." Rainbow spoke in a soft tone. Twilight's bunker under her library was a few metres under solid ground but they still had to speak quietly to avoid detection. If the human army found them now, it would be all over. Ponyville would never be free and the liberated cities of Manehatten, Fillydelphia and Canterlot would all crumble. Too much was at stake just to raise your voice.

The meeting room itself was big, about twenty metres by fifteen with a two and a half metre head height but it was still slightly cramped with a table, a projector and screen and about half of Ponyville's residence in the same room.

"Okay, Ah really need you guys to pay attention to this," Applejack began, "Like Ah just said to Rainbow, this whole operation could guarantee Ponyville's freedom if it succeeds or destroy everything that the Resistance Movement has worked for. As you can probably already tell, to much is at stake for us to fail."

Applejack turned to Spike who then turned on the projector. It displayed a map of Ponyville and the surrounding area. Applejack pointed to multiple marks which indicated human checkpoints.

"Now, as we all now, Ponyville's a big town and it's just got even bigger now that the humans have put up these here checkpoints." The farmer tapped on a neglected looking house in a row of terraced houses. She spoke again, "This is the house where our target is hiding in. Now, if we know that then ya'll can be sure that the humans do too. Their intelligence is better than ours."

Twilght stuck up her hoof and waved it about so Applejack could see. The orange pony nodded to Twilight to indicate that she could go ahead. She pulled up some bits of paper.

"As the Chief of Intelligence, I have recieved word that our target will have a 'visit' tomorrow from the humans. They'll probably board him on a bus and take him to the 're-education' camp. If we are going to get him, we need to do it quickly otherwise it'll be too late." Twilight gave Applejack the paper with the report on it. Applejack's face turned to a puzzled frown.

"Well, if our outta-date systems say that this is true then strike teams are gonna have to go in as early as possible. We cannot let our pony fall into enemy hooves, or hands rather."

Rainbow butted in, "So who's in the strike teams and when do we strike?"

Applejack thought for a minute and then answered her commrade's question, "There'll be three strike teams. The first 'un will be at the house and grab the target if he's still there at the crack of dawn. If he's not there then the second strike team will attack the bus he's on once it's as far enough away from any human checkpoints or patrols on its route to the camp. If that team should fail then the third one will attempt a hi-jack just before the camp. Failure here is not an option which is why I'm sending our best operatives on this operation."

Rainbow knew she'd be on the first strike team. She was told by everypony that she was the best at fighting. She was also the luckiest. She had gotten wounded at least three times this week but still she was able to keep herself awake let alone shoot better than any pony or human on the battlefield.

The orange pony turned to her multicoloured friend. "Rainbow, you and Pinkie'll be on Strike Team One and assault the house. Ah know you're good an' all, Rainbow, but this is a lot of responsiblity an' an op that requires a lot of stealth so don't go shootin' everything that moves."

Rainbow looked back at Applejack with a frown. She spoke back with a frustrated tone but kept her voice low. "I know, AJ. You don't need to tell me how to do a sneaky snatch n' grab op. I've done it before."

Applejack replied softly, "Yeah, but it wasn't very stealthy after you blew up that fuel tanker and caused a raging inferno, was it?"

"Hey, I aimed for the tankers on purpose. We needed a distraction or we would've died and I'm no use to you dead, am I?"

Applejack had one long look at Rainbow before turning to speak to Rarity and Fluttershy. "You two'll be on Strike Team Two. You'll be stationed here." Applejack drew a red circle on a stretch of road. "Hide on the roof of a building and jump down onto the top of the bus if you see it."

Fluttershy raised her hoof which Applejack nodded to, allowing her to speak.

"Erm, how will we know if we need to strike or if Strike Team One has been successful?" Fluttershy asked.

"Well, if Rainbow an' Pinkie are successful then they will transmit over the radio, 'Package delievered' and if they fail they'll transmit, 'Rainbow Colours'. If they say the mission is a success then the other two stike teams will return here. If they fail then we'll take up positions to hi-jack. Strike Team Three is made up of me an' you Twilight plus a few others considerin' it'll be the last chance we'll ever get to free-"

A noise echoed throughout the room. The ceiling shook slightly and dirt fell away from it. Everypony present in the room looked up and held their breath. Some ponies even had to put their hooves over their mouths to stop them from making any sort of noise. They all knew what that noise was. It was a human patrol passing by the library. As much as Twilight detested the idea, the library had to fall into neglect and disrepair. The books were allowed to fall out of place and lay wherever they landed. Cobwebs and dust were allowed to appear and collect in corners and the paint could lose its bright shades of colours. The once happy and cheery library was the complete opposite of what it was years ago. This made it look like the place was ransacked and that the previous occupients where removed and sent to the re-education camp so the patrols would just have a quick look in, see the place trashed and move on with no questions asked.

Only after the resistance members were sure the patrol had passed did they dare whisper again. Applejack spoke first, "I'm going to show you the tape that was made when the Resistance was set up. This is why we fight if ya'll need reminding."

Applejack opened a drawer in the table in the middle of the room and pulled out a cassette. This was another object that the humans had given the ponies of Equestria before the war. A large countdown clock was visible on the screen and counted down the seconds before the video played. 3...2...1...

Princess Celestia was on screen. She read out a report given to her by naval investigators. She read, "The torpedo which sunk the Canterlot and took the lives of forty-six Equestrian sailors was fired by a human submarine."

The video then cut to a news report which said that Humanity had teleported over one thousand nuclear weapons to the colony in the 'New World'. It then said that Equestrian leaders now express concern over a recent nuclear test conducted by Humanity.

The tape cut again to a report on the death of the leader of the Earth Empire. His xenophobic son was now in power. It then showed the military conquests and territoral gains that Humanity had made within two years. Another news reporter said about how the humans had continued to annex more and more territory of unused land and neighbouring countries.

The video cut once more to a Humanitarian satellite the was positioned above Equestria which claimed to be a communications satellite. It let out a burst of bright, yellow light above the Kingdom. Suddenly all the lights and electronics went out. The humans had knocked out all forms of electricity in Equestria.

It then cut one final time and displayed the territoral gains that humans had made against the Kingdom of Equestria itself. 'Enemy troops control Manehatten and Fillydelphia... Paratroopers control Ponyville... Canterlot has fallen... Equestrian millitary isolated and scattered.' One final message was shown in bold, capitol letters, OCCUPATION BEGINS.

Applejack took out the tape and looked at the ponies who were present, their faces blank and lost in thought about what they had seen. Even Rainbow Dash, who had seen the video countless times, still could not get over it, no matter how hard she tried. Applejack was the one to break the silence first, "And that, my friends, is why we fight.