The Universal Union: Invasion of Equestria

Applejack jumped down into a trench as she continued forward with her fellow conscripts. She felt tired, and alone. She feared what could become of her.

She found another dead conscript in the trench. She went over, and began looking through his kit bag, pulling out a pair of tweezers.

She eyed the shrapnel, then twisted around, and then used her mouth to tear out the shrapnel with the tweezers.

She screamed from the pain, but breathed out heavily, before feeling a lot less pain. She lightly smiled, in a less happy fashion, but more of a smile you'd have after drinking water after a few days of dehydration.

Her smile quickly faded - as she remembered her current situation.

She began climbing out of the trench, quickly trotting in the direction of the artillery cannons.

The closer she got, the more artillery struck, and the more accurate it was getting...

Conscripts were falling left and right, screams came from all around.

The artillery wasn't the last of it though...

The ponies had no idea what to expect when they heard the slight rumble of something in the distance.

The cause of the sounds being emitted had just eclipsed the hill, with fellow conscripts in the tanks - yet clearly not ponies.

The tanks drove right in the direction of the ponies, machine guns on the front of the tanks began firing, pelting any pony who was standing.

Applejack quickly dove for the trenches, hiding as more and more bodies collapsed around her.

In the moments the tanks were there she felt true fear. She felt like she was being hunted by the tanks.

The tanks had passed by her trench. She sighed in exhaust - she hadn't even realized she was holding her breath from the fear.

She ran straight from the trench, making a dash for the finish, which she then jumped, and crossed the line.

The conscripts who survived, were loaded into an APC. She was exhausted. She had no idea what to expect next from the Universal Unions trials.

One week later...

Applejack was put through hell the previous week. Non-stop training, and non-stop physical work. She was only allowed to stop for sleep, and eating.

The food they received was no better than before she was a conscript, but she still ate it. "Could be worse", she thought.

Applejack was called up to the main hall for briefing. "Their first mission, maybe?"

Once she arrived, she viewed the room.

She counted at least thirty other conscripts in the room. The room was dark, with metallic panels every where. Some spots weren't metallic, but made of marble. The building was clearly converted from a civilian building to a militarized building.

The unit that ordered the briefing had stated "The nation known as Saddle Arabia has declared war on us. They fear us. We're the first in the invasion. Expect heavy amounts of enemies. They've got artillery, even anti-air, they're equipped with rifles. You must destroy their first line of defenses."

The conscripts saluted, then left for their assigned vehicles.

Applejack was placed in a C-47, with a large bag that had a clip on it.

Applejack had a look of fear in her eyes, as did every pony else in the C-47.

An hour later, the sounds of anti-air cannons were heard in the distance.

A plane flying next to them was struck, and torn in half by the flak, and the view of the plane quickly gaining a dive was made.

Ponies watched in hellish fear, wondering if anypony even escaped the wreckage. But nothing was seen coming out but bodies from the inner chunk, which then continued to plummet from the sky, without any parachute holding them upright, or slowing them down.

Ponies were looking left to right, unsure about the chances of survival at this rate.

A red light appeared, and the ponies all stood up, white light flashing all around from the flak cannons.

The C-47 next to theirs had been struck by flak, their left-wings propeller had fire coating it, which then caused it to explode, their fuel lit on fire in seconds. The windows displayed fire, the screams were loud yet unheard.

The plane had a quick turn, and then steered straight for the ground.

Applejack stared at the vision in horror, trembling in fear.

The ponies were all afraid, Applejack could tell.

The plane decreased in height quickly, at speeds unknown.

"If we get any lower, we're not gonna need any frigging parachutes!", yelled a pony from the plane.

The Cockpit

"We gotta get some altitude! They can't jump at this speed!"

Flak then struck the plane, killing the pilot instantly.

"Oh shit! Oh no!", exclaimed the co-pilot, who quickly made the red light green.

Back to the Mid-section

"Lets go, jump, jump!"

The ponies all jumped one by one, as the flak struck all around.

Applejack was next, and she quickly jumped out without any second thoughts. The planes seemed like a big coffin at this point.

Applejack landed in a tall brush field, with a few other ponies landing next to her.

She quickly trotted over to one, finding him dead on the ground, missing half his head, and without a large chunk of his legs.

Applejack stared in disgust - feeling as though she was going to vomit, but she looked away, with a tear in her eye.

She looked to the forest, noticing a large cannon, firing up towards the planes. She decided that attacking the cannon would be suicide to try capturing.

She regrouped with a few others, who then made their way to the thick brush.

They continued walking through the thick brush for what seemed like days.

The Day

Day arrived, and the ponies awoke,

One named Light Hoof asked her "You separated from your group too?"

"Yep.", she replied.

"Damn, I figured it was just me..", continued Light Hoof.

"I don't exactly think any of us are in the same group.."

"Yeah.. Seems that way, doesn't it?", Light Hoof said.

An Hour Later

The group found a small farm house, that was on fire. They recognized the burning wreck inside of it. They also noticed a body hanging from a tree by their parachute..

"Welp, take whatcha can.", said a greenish pony.

Applejack didn't go near the body - thinking that looting it would be wrong. She instead moved her attention towards the farm house.

Applejack inspected the inside of the plane, finding no bodies - because the bodies were all spread around the area.

She stared out at the graveyard of bodies...

Whistles flew overhead...

"Incoming artillery! Taaake cooover!", yelled the green pony, as artillery struck them, killing them instantly.

"Find a fucking fox hole!", yelled a red pony

"Light Hoof! Where are ya?!", yelled Applejack

"Over here, in the trench!", responded Light Hoof, which Applejack then dived into the trench with him.

Applejack could only stare out in fear, at the scrambling ponies, who's numbers were reduced from twenty, to ten, just from the barrage.

Light Hoof noticed a blue pony ahead of them, his eyes widened, he then yelled out "Sherbet!"

The blue pony was crawling, with a blood trail behind him. The pony had no legs at all. The pony mumbled... "I gotta get up...", with a pained expression on his face.

"I gotta get up..", he repeated

"I need my helmet...", he said as he reached for his helmet.

He couldn't grab it, but continued crawling behind it.

Light Hoof dashed up, saying "Stay here!", to Applejack.

"I gotta get up.."

"Shit... C'mon Sherbet, c'mon pal."

"I gotta get my helmet..."

"Forget it Sherbet, c'mon.", said Light Hoof

"I gotta get up...", he kept repeating.

"I gotta get to a foxhole..", began Sherbet.

"INCOMIIING!", was yelled from far off.

Artillery began striking left and right at random.

Light Hoof continued to drag Sherbet to the foxhole with Applejack in it.

Artillery then struck behind, then on top of Light Hoof and Sherbet.

Tree's collapsed, left and right, exploding all over the forest.

Applejack stood up, looking over at the two, slowly walking over, one step at a time.

She began mumbling "M.."

"M-M..."

"Meeediiic!", she yelled.

...

Night

Ponies left their fox holes, but that was the next mistake.

Artillery began striking again, and Applejack had been outside of hers.

"C'mon!" was yelled, as she crawled towards a fox hole, with two ponies in it.

"C'mon, stay down, hurry!", Applejack nearly stood up, but she remained down, crawling towards the fox hole.

Artillery then hit their foxhole, killing them both and ceasing the yells for her to hurry.

She watched in horror, but then turned her crawl leftwards, making a crawl for another foxhole.

A pony dragged her into the fox hole, and then a shell landed in the fox hole with them.. But the shell didn't detonate. It wasn't set to detonate.

The two stared in fear, eyeing the shell, worried that any second now - it'll all be over.

The ponies relaxed as everything got quiet - and this time? Ponies ceased to leave their fox holes...

The Next Night

The conscripts remained where they were, taking out any forces that recaptured the area...

Dropship's flew over head, carrying striders, and Overwatch soldiers.

The anti-air cannons did nothing to the dropship's, and the moment the dropship's landed, soldiers flooded the land, eliminating any of the opposing forces.

Hours later...

A dropship landed, and regathered the conscripts. They were brought back, thinking this was the last battle they had to ever be in...

But the moment they returned to base, they were rearmed, fed, and given another parachute. Conscripts were ordered back into the C-47s, and then they found themselves, back in the skies of Saddle Arabia.

They had found that the area they were previously dropped off in was cleared out.

Applejack stared down at the floor of the C-47,

it seemed as though the first drop was repeated - except this time, their anti-air had been much stronger in the city.

In the first three minutes, five of the planes were struck by flak, and begun a dive towards the capital.

The plane Applejack had been hit by one of the plummeting planes - half the wing came clean off, and the tail of the other plane smashed their second propeller.

The propeller lit on fire, and the pilots quickly turned the lights on, the red light wasn't even on - but then the light turned green.

Applejack and only about half of the others made it out, before the fire overtook the plane.

This time... She could hear the screams. The last one out had his parachute on fire, and the fire spread to him from down the cords.

Applejack had watched as the rest of the ponies she had been with were struck and killed by gunfire, or anti-air.

Their bodies limply dropping to the ground, with or without their parachute.

Applejack landed on a rooftop, another pony did as well, but artillery struck the roof, as the ponies looked at each other, the artillery blew the floor from under the pony, leaving Applejack to watch as he fell to his death, far below on the streets.

She found a doorway, quickly running down, and entering a room.

She closed her eyes, slowing her breathing pattern. She felt fear like never before.

She was scarred, she would never forget the hell she'd been through - the horrors she's seen.

The death.

The screams.

They were all stuck in her mind - unable to be removed, cleansed...

Applejack remained in the building for the remainder of the battle.

Hours later, she heard dropship's flying over head, landing with strider's and soldiers...

The Overwatch soldiers had an easy time picking off the last few remaining.

One hundred conscripts entered.

Only seven left.

Most of the ponies died before they even touched the ground.

Most didn't even get a shot off.

But Applejack was relieved of her duty.