Equestrian Front: Third War

The Crystal Empire was busy, the zombie outbreak that occurred had been hard to get rid of. Princess Cadance looked over the balcony of her castle and saw what seemed to be a large snowstorm blowing its way towards the Crystal Empire. She quickly went to the throne room where Shining Armor was.

"Warn the Empire that there is a snowstorm coming!" Cadance said.

Shining Armor just ran outside and gave his soldiers an order. Soon, word spread that a snowstorm was coming, they were wrong. Hours after waiting, snow didn't come.

"False alarm!" Shining Armor shouted.

Then, thundering sounds were heard in the east. Then, whistles were heard followed by a large explosion. About one kilometer from the Crystal Empire, 75mm Haubitze light cannons were firing volley after volley of shells. Panzers were lining up for a charge. On all sides, Haubitz light cannons were firing onto the beautiful city. Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers strafed and dropped their deadly payload. After the final volley of the Haubitze, the Panzers charged at the city blazing away quickly collapsing buildings. A bubble soon surrounded it blocking out the shells, the Panzers just simply charged through with Panzergrenadiers closely behind.

The Crystal Army quickly formed at the edge of the city with weapons in hoof, they saw lines of Panzers stopped and in front were infantry who quickly lay down a hail of bullets that tore them apart. Soon, Panzer IV's rumbled through the city going through anything in its way. The Panzers ran over anything in their path shrugging off physical attacks. A unicorn threw a magical bolt at a Panzer I and destroyed the turret, but not the hull. With that, the remaining crew members got out and joined the infantry charge. Panzer III's swept through the city clearing out buildings of soldiers or civilians. Buildings toppled down, the bubble shield was up, but with no use, aircraft went inside and strafed the palace whilst dropping their deadly payload.

An hour after the battle started, shots were heard. For the Wehrmacht, they only suffered from a few wounded soldiers and 10 destroyed Panzer I's and 156 more were damaged. The Wehrmacht quickly surrounded the palace, blazed their guns and the bubble shield shattered. Artillery became concentrated on it, making it collapse and buried anything inside it.

Army Group A quickly took positions east of the city hiding around in the rubble and buildings. Army Group B took positions in the southeast and Army Group C took the eastern outskirts where trenches were dug in. MG nests were set up, hundreds of rifle men and assault men were lined up with the artillery regiments behind them. Soon, the landscape was torn apart from the trenches and fortifications.

2nd Royal Guards Division

5 miles southeast of the Crystal Empire

Col. Sieger was promoted and reassigned to the 2nd Royal Guards Division whose commanding officer was killed in the battle against the griffons and Sieger would be his successor. Sieger's scouts had spotted an unknown enemy army that quickly captured the Crystal Empire. He sent a few letters to commanders and their divisions to have them for reinforcements because his scouts saw about three separate armies working together to take down the mighty Crystal Army.

"Move out!" Sieger ordered.

Battle of the Crystal Empire

The 2nd Royal Guards Division quickly packed up and started marching 5 miles towards the Crystal Empire. One mile away, they saw that the Crystal Empire was in flames and miles of fortifications were in their path. They marched forward and forward. Soon, an echo of machine guns were heard in the night and the soldiers fell. Mortars rained down on them wearing down the Royal Guards. The battle carried on and on and it was dawn soon. The once green fields were scarred by the mortars and light artillery. From a rough 28,000 strong were down to 14,000. Their forces had been worn down to a half. More Royal Guards were on the way with a total of 2.8 million soldiers coming to help. What have I done? Sieger thought to himself.

Reinforcements came with 2 million Royal Guards on the way. They marched towards the trenches where thousands of machine guns rained down on them. Mortars rained down and the Haubitze 75mm artillery opened fire unleashing a deadly volley. Thousands of soldiers died in the mud where they would be buried. The Wehrmacht opened fire on the army in despair. The first line of defense had crumbled and fell back to the second line taking their machine guns with them. The Royal Guards were stuck in the mud of the trenches with no way out. Then, they looked up and saw the Wehrmacht assault troops upon them in the trenches. The Assault squads began reestablishing the machine guns on the first line. The Royal Guards fell back to their original positions.

Thousands of the Royal Guards marched towards the trenches again. They were a long way from home and many of the ponies who assaulted the lines paid the price in blood. The Royal Guards assaulted the trench again to be under fire from machine guns. One pony got torn to bits in an instant . The first line of machine guns were overwhelmed and the Germans retreated to the second line. The Royal Guards became under fire from mortars and light artillery. The Royal Army were pushing them back slightly. The battle raged on as the sun set. Thousands of machine guns were firing nonstop all night with the ponies being under fire. They assaulted the second line and more casualties staggered as the machine guns were accompanied by rifles and shotguns. A pony had a few buckshots embedded in his face shattering his skull. The Royal Guards continued on, being under fire. Some made it to the trenches and inflicted some serious casualties before dying from reinforcements.

The Royal Guards brought their own artillery being a ballista with explosive arrows. A few regiments had been created with this weapon. The Royal Artillery Division saw the Crystal Empire in flames and miles of fortifications and trenches that scarred the one beautiful landscape. They rolled up in position and fired. At the trenches, artillery was raining down on both the Royal Guards and the Germans. One impaled a pony before obliterating a Wehrmacht soldier. With this, the Germans retreated to have the ponies under fire from their own artillery. They soon came under fire from German biplanes and their dual machine guns. These were the improved versions inspired from the British Fairey Swordfish. The German HE11M2's rained a hail of bullets on the ballistae tearing them to shreds. On the ground, the Germans were taking heavy casualties taking down the Royal Army with them.

In the air, the Royal Equestrian Air Force had battle zeppelins similar to those of the German zeppelins. Both were meeting each other in the skies and opened fire. The German Zeppelins had Flak 41 88mm guns mounted that penetrated the 100mm armor of the Equestrian Zeppelins. The German also had some Katyusha rockets borrowed from the Soviets. The rockets set the Royal Zeppelins in flames by hitting the engines that went on fire easily. The Flak 41's penetrated the armor and exploded inside the Royal Zeppelins causing internal fires and explosions. 8 Royal Mark 1 Zeppelins and 3 German Mark 2 Z 1's. The Z 1 zeppelins were the same from World War 1 with improved armor and armament. The guns aimed for the gasbags on the top part of the Royal Airships. An 88mm shell penetrated the 100mm armor from 2,000 meters and exploded a gasbag setting the ship aflame yet it still flew. The Royal Mark 1's had magical Anti Gravity generators that were positioned in front of the engines and gave a faint glow. The German Z 1 Mark 2's were naval zeppelins. These were decommissioned during World War 1 and were improved just like the older units and equipment. The Z 1's dropped their 4,000 lbs. payload of firebombs and set the ground below aflame cutting off the Royal Guards. The three Z '1's aimed for the Anti Grav. generators and one by one, each Mark 1 Zeppelin, fell in flames. AA and machine gun fire filled the air, as well as the ground.

On the ground, artillery fired on the charging Royal Guards who were pushing back the Germans at a heavy cost. Machine guns sprayed endlessly and ponies were literally torn apart despite the armor. The Germans were pushed back 5 miles and the Crystal City was within reach. Panzer II J's and Panzer I's fired their machine guns killing more of the ponies. Snipers hidden in the burning buildings helped with the casualties as thousands of ponies were dying. A zeppelin and crushed a lot of them when it fell from the sky. The Mark 1 Zeppelin erupted in a large explosion engulfing many ponies burning them alive and spread the fire to their comrades. The Germans were soon pushed back even more and the battle escalated into the city. The Germans fought bitterly as the Royal Guards captured the city inflicting a few casualties on the Germans while taking heavy casualties from them.

In the air, a few more Mark 1's fell below into the Crystal Empire crushing buildings and rerouting the Royal Guards towards Army Group A in the east and Army Group B in the south. Army Group C had taken a heavy loss in trench warfare. 1 million soldiers reduced to 600,000. The Royal Guards suffered  900,000 casualties in total. The Germans and their improved Z 1's were shrugging off the 76mm cannons mounted on the Equestrian Mark 1's. Some shells penetrated but didn't do much damage. 3 Mark 1's were up against the 3 Z 1's. Katuyusha rockets were launched on the Equestrian Mark 1's chipping off large pieces of the armor leaving holes in the armor in which the crew of the Z'1 could see inside. The 20mm Flak aimed for it and sent their HE shells into the hole which hit the nearby ammunition of the cannons setting an explosion that swallowed the airship sending pieces of shrapnel and body parts in the air which rained down below.

On the city below, the shrapnel and body parts rained from the sky. The ponies were demoralized and were falling back. They had pushed back the Germans 10 miles already and were already giving it up. Most of the Royal Guards put up a fight before falling back causing more casualties before getting killed. In a few minutes the Royal Guards retreated back into the frozen ice caps outside the Crystal Empire and set up camp while freezing away. The remaining Mark 1 Zeppelins which three remained and one was damaged beyond repair while the other 2 had their gas containers for the engines on fire which over heated the engine. The three crashed on top of the camp resulting an extreme explosion that was heard, felt and seen from the Crystal Empire. The ammunition that didn't blow were sent flying and hit the survivors killing them. The Royal Guards were now at 200,000 strong including the nearly wiped out 3rd Artillery Regiment. They retreated back south towards Canterlot where they would resupply.

Canterlot

Princess Celestia saw the her Royal Army beaten and battered. They collapsed upon arrival and all were taken to infirmaries. Most had received shell shock from the 5 day battle. A lot could happen in the blink of an eye. Soon, generals were appointed to lead the two main armies. The Air Force and the Army itself. The ponies began mass producing weapons of their own but weren't matched with the weaponry humans had, the ponies only had enough resources for repeater rifles which had a 5.5mm round. The Zeppelins were being improved as well as the Allied/Axis armies were improving themselves. The repeaters sported a 15 round clip. The Mark II Zeppelins were put into production with 300mm armor and 80mm cannons accompanied by better engines and shielded Anti Grav. generators.

Allied/Axis

The Allied/Axis took their World War 1 equipment and improved it with modern features making it cheaper to produce. The 3 decommissioned Z 1's were brought into the factories to be redesigned, reequipped, and repaired. More were being made with jet engines to and jet planes were being produced itself. Better rifles with even better rounds, 25mm Anti Tank Rifles and Anti Materiel Rifles were being made into devastating sniper rifles, few were made into machine guns and was improved with new recoiling barrels so the rifle itself doesn't harm the user. The AMR machine guns sported a 30 round magazine, it wasn't as fast as a normal machine gun, but it fired about 90 rounds per minute. Super Tanks were also being produced in a decent amount. The resources in Equestria helped the Allied/Axis war effort since they were similar to the resources found on Earth. Since the new vehicles were expensive, the armies took their old equipment and made modern improvements. The British TOG 2 now has 4 turrets total, two being the main 17 pdr. or 76.2mm guns and the other two being 40 mm dual barrel Bofors. The hull also included one AMR machine gun and one flamethrower creating the new and improvised TOG III. The US M3 90mm guns were replaceing the Flak 41 88mm guns that would be used for lighter Zeppelins like the LZ I's. The 150mm howitzers were also mounted to do more damage to the hull. The Allied/Axis factories were producing more and more doomsday weapons that was hard to count. Many of them would succeed in the battle field against the Royal Army.