Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides

Commander Courageous Call was sitting in his chariot, as he traveled back to camp Hoovetown satisfied with the result of the evening. The plan had gone perfect. He had convinced the local nobles to support him and with them on his side, there was no one standing in between him, the dogs and whatever abomination had decided to assist them.

His evening was just perfect! He would go to sleep in his comfortable bed and tomorrow he would start planning his attack and hopefully the day after tomorrow he could start with the attack. It would be an easy victory, of that Courageous Call was certain the dogs were not very bright and heavily outnumbered as well.

He was interrupted from his thoughts as he heard a lot of noise from the normally quite military camp. Needless to say he was curious as to what was happening so he peeked out of the window of the carriage and saw a lot of his man standing at the unicorn barracks. “This better not be another disagreement about who gets the better barracks!”

Unicorns were most of the time given more comfortable chambers as most of the unicorns in the military were family of a noble somewhere. This of course brought irritation to the other races, not that he cared, as a proud unicorn he himself agreed that unicorns should be given the most comfortable living quarters possible.

He would resolve this situation immediately. Courageous stepped out of his carriage and walked over to the mob. “What is going on here?” He demanded.

“We got attacked sir. by the Diamond dogs and they managed to kill all the unicorns of the camp sir.” An earth pony soldier quickly explained the situation making the commander pale slightly.

“All of them?” He stuttered. “How did this happen? How did they enter the camp?” the commander almost yelled in rage.

“They dug a tunnel underneath the barrack and made it collapse, after that they killed them off down in the tunnels.” The soldier explained whilst stuttering getting unnerved from how angry his commander was.

“Motherbuckers!!! They will pay for this! Are there any wounded?”

“No! sir. There isn’t a single wounded or death besides the unicorn squad.” Courageous Call stormed off angrily before anymore words could be said. He would make those dogs pay for this!

The next day the commander had called together his lower officers. “Like you all by now probably already know, we are officially at war with the local Diamond dog pack. Their low hearted murder of the unicorn squad was the first strike of them to no doubt cripple our force. We will show them that even without magic the Equestrian military shall be victorious over those with ill intentions to our citizens!” This earned him some cheers from the other officers.

“The Diamond dogs have allied themselves with some kind of abomination, a heinous beast of which our sources believe comes out of the deepest and darkest depths of the Everfree! Some mumbles and whispers broke lose under the officers not liking the thought of fighting something from the Everfree, something intelligent.

“This beast has been codenamed the Outsider, not much is known about this beast and he doesn’t matter either for all we know he is simply some kind of mutated Diamond dog from the Everfree who came his brethren to assistance in their well I am just going to say it, in their revolt against the monarchy of Equestria!” After he had said this his officers broke out in a full scale argument with each other.

“How dare they! We allow them on our land and now they simply want to take it away from!”

“We will learn those muts to not mess with Equestria!”

“I want to see how big that beast balls are when facing our troops!”

“Yeah, throw them into the dungeons, that will teach them!”

Courageous Call grinned inwardly as he saw his lies about a full scale revolt did exactly what he wanted them to do. With his officers now completely on his side, there was no way someone could block an attack from him on the dogs anymore.

****
The Diamond dogs were working hard to bring everything in place for the upcoming battle. Karl had shown them how to make some long range slingshots, well long range for a slingshot in any case. The dogs had also finished the bunkers, the fortifications and the traps already so now they were busy with shooting practice and combat training.

The slingshots had not really as meaning really accurately hitting the enemy, although that would be a plus. The only thing the big slingshots needed to do was attract the enemy’s attention and lure them to the open plain. His plan was simple the slingshots would attract them and in the event that the ponies refused to advance out of fear the dogs would fake being out of ammo or something along those lines.

Unfortunately Karl had not really found a way to get rid of the pegasi, but he guessed if he defeated the earth ponies than most of the force the ponies had in the area would be gone anyway and he would find a way to deal with those pegasi on another occasion, should they escape which they probably would.

“Is everything ready?” He heard Fido ask from behind him.

“Yes, I have planned everything as well as I could, now it is waiting for the enemy to come.”

“Good, you know we appreciate what you are doing for us right?”

Karl smiled a bit. “Yes, I know. Do you guys know I appreciate what you are doing for me as well?”

Fido raised a brow. “What exactly did we do for you?”

“Giving me a temporarily home.”

“It’s the least we can do for someone who helped us out so much.”

“I don’t know how this battle will end Fido, but know that this was one hell of a trip for me.” Fido merely nodded. He did not know what had happened to the human before he walked out of the Everfree, but he knew it had not been good and truth be told that was all he wanted to know.

“I know we have already asked a lot of you, but would you want to fight together with us? It would help inspire the men seeing you with them. It has been a long time ago since the Diamond dogs have had someone in their ranks who managed to pull things off against the ponies like you.”

“I haven’t done that much. I have merely stolen some gems and kidnapped some guards.” Karl said dismissingly not finding it huge accomplishments. Don’t mistake him he did not think it where easy ones, but he did not believe it were achievements that really gave that much of a moral boost.

“Don’t underestimate them my friend! For those who have been drilled as deep as us in society, those small achievements do mean something.” Those words stirred something inside Karl; an understanding, a respect or something else he did not know, but those words made it clear to him and perhaps they were the foundation of a bigger idea, one that he had yet to think of.

“I will remember those words Fido. Thank you for making things a little more clear.” Karl said truly grateful. Fido gave him a small smile and said.

“See you tomorrow then.”

“Yes, expect me on the battlefield tomorrow.” Karl said as he gave one last glace at the field before returning to his chambers.

****
The morning had finally arrived for Courageous Call. The day had come on which he would claim the absolute victory over the dogs. He would drive them out of the area and become the local hero and perhaps his achievement would even earn him a promotion.

He looked around and saw that his officers had already brought the troops in position to start the march to the hills, where the dogs resided. Before the march would begin, he would give a final speech to inspire the men. Courageous walked on a small stage where he began his speech.

“Soldiers of Equestria today we are going to battle against the local Diamond dog pack, not only to free our fellow ponies, but also to drive the brutes out of the area once and for all, so our citizens will never have to fear for them again!!!” This was met by loud cheering from the pony soldiers.

“You have probably already heard that the dogs in their desperation called upon a fiend from the Everfree!” This made the ponies fall back into silence not liking the thought of going up against something from the Everfree.

“This beast has stolen and destroyed private property, blackmailed a guard into thinking he had his family captive, assisted in the enslavement of a dozen city guards and has assisted in the murder of your colleagues a few night ago! This cannot go unpunished! We will hunt this beast down and bring it to justice for all of the heinous crimes it has committed! Are you with me?!”

“Yes, sir!” All the soldiers yelled.

“Then let us not make our enemies wait. March!” Courageous Call exclaimed and immediately the ponies started moving towards the gates in formation marching straight at the dogs.

****
In the nearby hills the Diamond dogs were treated on a speech of their own as well and somehow they had managed to talk Karl into giving it. The Diamond dogs were rallied on the hill that served as command post for the battle.

Karl stood slightly higher than the rest so everyone was able to get a good look at him. “My friends! The moment we all loath has finally arrived the ponies are on their ways to dispossess you from your newly gained land and most likely to arrest me as well.” The dogs began to shout curses and imprecations towards the ponies.

“They come here with the expectations to find a weak horde of stupid mongrels which they can easily drive out!" The dogs stayed quiet.

“But that’s not what they are going to find is it? You know what I see in front of me?! I see a proud people willing to defend their new land with everything they have! I see a people that have been wronged in the past and that rightfully refuse to be wronged again!” The dogs broke out in a loud applause.

Karl waited a bit until the applause died down a bit. “We have all been wronged you and I. Look around you, go ahead look around.” The dogs did as ordered and after a few seconds Karl started speaking again. “No matter at who you look everyone you see has been wronged by the ponies, so when you face them when they arrive do not even think about retreating! Don’t even think about giving up and surrendering! Believe me when I say it is ten times better to die with pride, than to live with shame! The dogs howled and cheered in agreement.

“I cannot promise you victory, I cannot promise you a happy ending. Even with victory I doubt there will be a happy ending. I however can promise you that we will not go down without bringing hell to our enemies!” The dogs now went completely wild cheering Karl’s name, howling, using their weapons to make a melody of clings and clangs.

“For the pack, for freedom and for equality! Take your positions and prepare yourself for the fight of your lives!” The dogs let out a massive final wave of cheers and accolades for Karl, before the dogs scurried off to take their respective positions. The only ones who stayed behind were the three Diamond dog leaders.

“And you said you sucked at giving speeches.” Rover said amused. Karl rolled his eyes at the comment.

“Okay perhaps I don’t completely suck at giving them, but that doesn’t mean I like giving them.” Karl said trying to put as much dignity he could muster in his voice.

“Whatever, let us get in position.” Rover stated clearly seeing that the human or former human (that was still confusing him) had enjoyed giving the speech at least a bit. And so the four went to their respective positions.

Battle for the Hoovetown hills (1002 A.NM.):

Belligerents:

-Monarchy of Equestria -Hoovetown Diamond dog pack

Commanders and leaders:

-Courageous Call -The outsider A.K.A. Karl Kempf
-Swift Flight -Rover Daltus

-Fido Bernardus

-Spot Dogus

Location:

-Hoovetown hills

Strenght:

-128 Earth ponies -120 armed workers
-64 Pegasi (including 10 archers and 2 slingshot crews)

The pegasi were the first to arrive on the field of battle almost ten minutes after Karl’s speech. The rest of the army arrived 20 minutes later and formed up a few yards before the hills. Courageous Call scanned the area for the Diamond dog force, but to his annoyance found not a single dog.

“ergh!!! I should have known those mutts would be too cowardly to face us head on!” He cursed out loud. He quickly cast a spell that made his voice audible for the entire battlefield. “Diamond dogs come out you cowards and face the repercussions of the Equestrian people!”

He paused for a few moments to hear if a response came, but when none was heard he continued. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you surrender yourself to us and leave these grounds forever or we make you move by force. What is your answer?!”
Karl was standing in the bunker containing the two long range slingshots. He did not know how that pony made himself so well audible from such a distance, but he knew one thing the pony wanted an answer and he would get one.

“Give him his answer boys!” Karl said to a slingshot crew who immediately started preparing the weapon. The dogs choice to fire an empty pot. A few moments later Karl could see the pot fly towards the enemy it was by far not close enough to the enemy for them to be alarmed, but that wasn’t the point. The point was making clear, they choice the hard way.

Courageous Call had expected something, but an empty pot he guessed it was landing a few yards in front of them was not the answer he had expected, but it gave him the answer he wanted to know. “Swift Flight!!!” he called his second in command and the platoon leader of the sole Pegasi platoon Courageous Call had under his command.

“You called sir.” A white pegasi said as he saluted before his commander.

“Take your platoon and seek out where that ranged weaponry is hidden and try to take it out and also search for dog troops whilst you are at it.”

“Yes, sir.” Swift Flight said before flying back to his men. “Men! Our mission is to search where their long ranged weaponry is stationed and scout for dog troops. For the princesses!” Swift said before flying to the hills.

“For the princesses!!!” The pegasi yelled before flying after him.

“Reload and hold!” Karl ordered. The dogs started reloading the slingshots keeping them in standby until the order came to release. He saw the pegasi advancing quite swiftly and he guessed they crossed about half of the plain by now.

Swift was scanning the entire area for hidden dog forces in the shadows of the stone formations. “Hold!” Karl repeated as the pegasi were now three quarters across the field.

Swift saw that on the hill across their main force stood a strange looking stone structure and when he looked close it almost looked like it had windows in it. He tried to get a better look at it. The dogs at the slingshots were looking at their commander expectantly as the pegasi were getting closer and closer. “Archers hold ready!”

The archers readied themselves to fire at command. The first pegasi were almost at the hill when Swift managed to see some kind of construction inside the rock formation and his eyes widened in realization at what it was, but it was already too late.

“FIRE!!!!!” A few sounds were heard, but by the time the pegasi registered them it was already too late to react. First came the rocks fired from the slingshots, one pegasi managed to dodge, however by pulling off the manoeuver he flew right in front of Swift’s face. The rock however did not miss as another pegasi was hit by it who fell in his crash on top of another pegasi bringing him down with him as well.

Swift’s eyes widened in horror as an arrow pierced through the pegasi who had suddenly flew in front of him. The force of the impact caused the pegasi to fly against his commander making both of them fall on the ground. Swift was now stuck under his death colleague and to his horror blood started dripping on his stomach. “Get off of me! Get off of me!” Swift desperately tried with all his might to get from underneath the death stallion.

Meanwhile the remaining of his airborne soldiers were still picked off by the arrows and projectiles shot by the slingshots. This was the first battle the ponies had ever seen that had death in it, most of the times the dogs had fled when the unicorns started using their magic.

Karl was surprised to say the least at how effective his strategy was working. The pegasi could easily dodge the arrows and projectiles if they moved further away, however instead of doing that they just kept flying through each other almost guaranteeing a hit each time a projectile was fired.

Then his eyes fell on a pegasi that was stuck underneath a death colleague of his and by the looks of it, he was the one in charge. “You guys on me!” He ordered a group of six Diamond dogs that had been kept as a defending force. Karl opened the bunker so they could exit and once outside he started walking over to the downed stallion, who was still trying to get from underneath his deceased colleague.

It was then that some airborne pegasi started trying to attack Karl and his little group when they noticed him advancing on their downed leader. “Circle formation!” Karl yelled as he and the dogs formed a circle, so that wherever the pegasi tried to attack from they were always met with a spear point.

The stallion had just managed to free himself and rearmed himself with his fallen spar right in time to block a spear point. Swift Flight looked at his attacker and wished he hadn’t, there in front of him stood a creature worthy of nightmares grinning down at him.

The commander hadn’t lied about it being an abomination. Whatever it was it was insanely muscled especially it’s right arm. The arm possessed muscles that made a minotaur’s ones look puny and the sight of the claw attached to it was enough to make Swift want to run away. The claw looked like the smaller version of one a dragon possessed, the left arm whilst less imposing gave off an aura of lethality that made him shiver from fear. The face however was what truly frightened him it’s mouth was filled with teeth that looked like big needles.

The left side of his face was badly burned and probably beyond repair even with help of most healing magic. The eyes however were the scariest with his left eye being more split like. Two green orbs looked Swift in the eyes inside of them Swift saw a fury that he did not even know was capable of existing.

Any further thoughts were quickly silenced as the creature his commander had codenamed “The outsider” used his huge right claw to swing at him. For Swift it was clear that retreat was the only option, however as he tried to take off he could feel the claw make an un deep cut in his left hind leg, to his horror his wings went limp like they were paralyzed.

Swift fell back on the soil underneath him and managed to roll away just in time to dodge a spear that now stuck where his body had laid a couple seconds ago. Swift looked around for help, but saw his men were engaged with the Diamond dog soldiers. Swift jumped on his hooves and tried to run away from whatever demon he was facing.

Karl saw the pegasi run and once again asked himself why they did not seem to be able to use their wings after he had touched them somehow. He could think about that later, but for now. Karl took his spear in his right claw, aimed and threw. The spear hit perfectly as the enemy commander fell down death with a spear through his neck.

Karl looked around and much to his pleasure he saw that his men had managed to kill almost all of the pegasi. The few that managed to escape fled away seemingly deserting as they flew the other way than where the rest of their force was stationed. “Good! On this way I don’t have to worry about dealing with the pegasi on a later occasion anymore!” Karl stated happy for this unexpected course that this battle had taken.

Granted the battle was far from won, but they had taken down the pegasi whilst his plan had not even included a real way of dealing with them. Karl looked back at the rest of pony army which was already almost on the ambush location. Courageous Call who had witnessed the massacre of the pegasi platoon together with the remainder of his men had ordered a full scale attack on what he suspected was the full Diamond dog force.

However in his rage about the death of so many of his men, he had forgotten to take in account that perhaps that wasn’t the full enemy force. Karl waited and waited until the ponies were exactly where he wanted them to be. “NOW!!!” on his command one of his men let out a loud howl that signaled the others to start the ambush.

As the ponies where in a full on charge, the first two lines of earth ponies could not possibly hope to stop in time as the ground suddenly collapsed in front of them. The third line watched in shock as they saw how their comrades from the first two lines fell to their death on the sharp pikes that adorned the bottom of the hidden pitfall.

Some of the soldiers from the third line emptied their stomach in the pit at the sight of the bloodied pikes, their perforated comrades and the guts mixed with blood that lay on the bottom of the pitfall. The last lines tried to retreat only to share the same fate as their comrades from the first two lines as another pitfall this time behind the army was revealed. This effectively trapped the now panicking army on three sides two by pitfalls and one by a style hill.

Courageous Call tried to keep his forces in check, but the sudden change of years that lacked any action into a full scale massacre had installed so much fear that any order was lost. What remained of his army now stampeded off towards the last way out. However the small ditch that had been dug in the hill and that possessed small rock formations that stood into contact with the ditch with some smaller ditches was more than it looked.

In reality the small harmless ditch had been filled with oil when the pitfalls where revealed by dogs in bunkers inside the hill. When the ponies came close to the ditch the dogs lighted the oil effectively locking the ponies on a rectangular piece of ground in between the two hills and the two pitfalls.

To the horror of commander Courageous Call who had lost every command over his in disarray men, various holes from out of no way opened making ponies once again fall to their demise on the sharp pikes that adorned the bottom of each pit. Next to the pitfalls his men also trampled each other in their panic. It all became too much for the commander and he teleported to safety, to the place his army had originally taken up position.

There he broke down into a crying and whimpering mass of flesh as his men were merciless butchered in their rectangular death trap. Meanwhile on the main hill Karl was following everything. He watched the ponies until there were so little left that the dogs hidden in tunnels underneath the death trap came out of hiding and killed those who remained even from where Karl stood he saw the blood on the once green grass in the rectangular space that had become the mass grave of an entire pony garrison. Karl felt no pleasure in their deaths, but neither did he feel any shame for what he had done. He felt relief that everything was over.

Perhaps once he would have felt disgusted with himself, perhaps once had he allowed himself to vomit at the horror sight, but that time was no more. That side of him was death, his new side only cared about survival and revenge against those that wronged him the two winged unicorns would pay!

One side of him found it a shame that the ponies needed to die, but those thoughts were quickly crushed as he reminded himself that there was no way the Diamond dogs could keep so many workers in check. Their death had been a necessary act of defense and he would not allow himself to feel bad about defending himself and those that entrusted their defense on him.

Battle for the Hoovetown hills (1002 A.NM.) Results:

Result:

Decisive Diamond dog victory

Equestrian military superiority around Hoovetown is destroyed

Hoovetown Diamond dog pack managed to keep their independence and land

Territorial changes:

Local Diamond dog pack managed to keep control over their lands, whilst the Equestrian territories around Hoovetown lay open for attack.

Commanders and leaders:

-Courageous Call -The outsider A.K.A. Karl Kempf
-Swift Flight † -Rover Daltus

-Fido Bernardus

-Spot Dogus

Casualties and losses:

-128 Earth ponies killed -5 workers wounded
- 54 Pegasi killed
-10 Pegasi missing

When you would have told Karl that these would be the results of the battle of today in advance, he most likely would have called you crazy. Was it wrong that he felt proud of his accomplishments? Man, he didn’t know this was a strange situation. Feeling sad would be wrong and feeling good would be wrong following moral codes so what was he supposed to be feeling?

It did not matter what was done was done and he did not regret it. He did what was requested from him and he would do it again and again if that was required from him. Tonight would be a time of celebrating and tomorrow a time of more planning. Soon Hoovetown would know that there would be a little shift in power around here.

****
Mayor Document Paper was up late doing some paper work, when he suddenly heard some knocks on the door. “Enter!” He called as he looked up from his papers. He saw his secretary Star quill enter. “Star shouldn’t you home by now?”

“Sorry mayor, but I wanted to know the results of the battle today if possible, so I waited until they arrived.”

“So I take it they have arrived.” The mayor stated earning a nod from his secretary before she walked over to him and laid the scroll on his desk.

The mayor sighted most likely it was the letter that told about Courageous Call’s victory over the dogs and the outsider. The mayor felt bad for the dogs again driven from their homes. He opened the scroll and started reading it. Whilst he read his eyes became bigger and bigger, which caught the interest of Star.

“Is everything alright Document?”

“They won.” Document muttered his face paling a bit.

“Who won? The military well that was expected.” Star started wondering why this news hit the mayor so hard.

“No, the dogs won. They killed Courageous Call’s entire force including his second in command.” The mayor interrupted her. Star’s mouth fell open in shock.

“There is not a single Equestrian soldier standing between Hoovetown and the dogs anymore.” The mayor realized as he said it, which made Star’s facial expression turn from one of shock into one of fear. The mare scared of what the dogs would do now there was no one standing in between them and those who requested the attack upon them.

Author's Note

Well, I hope the first battle wasn't a huge disappointment. There will be more spectacular battles later on in the story, but for now I hope you guys enjoyed a small local Diamond dog uprising. Let me know if you found something bad about the battle like would the ponies have lasted longer, you know things like that.

I also have a question for you guys. What can a small author like me do, to help people find his stories on this site? If you know anything feel free to P.M. me.

Please leave some support for the story if you enjoyed reading it and until next time.