Equestria 2150

Razgriz was standing in a barren field, nothing but dirt and scrubby vegetation around him. He felt the cold winds hit his coat, sending chills all over his body.

The baffled pony looked to the sky to see snow starting to fall. He held out his hoof in wonder, as it was the first time he'd seen it in a millennium. The snow hit his hoof, but it was not cold. This snow was warm, and it didn’t melt once it touched something.

Razgriz tilted his head to one side, held in wonder at this feat of magic. More snow landed on him, and when he brushed it off, it crumbled to dust. Were these... ashes? He could see a pony in the cloud of ashes falling around him. The pony was moving slowly, almost limping in his direction. Razgriz wanted to help, but he suddenly realized that couldn't move.

He was paralyzed, as if his hooves were held down by creatures. The form got closer and closer until it was visible, and it made Razgriz want to look away.

The thing in front of him was barely a pony. Its skin was peeling off, all its coat, mane and tail had fallen out, and its eyes were holes devoid of life. Covered with glass, it was as if somepony had replaced its eyes with fake ones. The monster pony reached out its left hoof, covered with bleeding skin, and groaned out through cracked jaws, “Help me.”

Razgriz awoke screaming, covered in sweat. Once he could catch his breath again, he sat up straighter, unsure of what this dream had meant. He hoped it wasn't a sign of what was to come.
There was barely enough light out to be able to see the ground, but all the while the Lunar Army trotted around mutely. Nopony dared to speak a word, for fear a scout might hear them.

The clunking was all that could be heard from the movement of the ponies as they loaded rounds into their tanks, ammo boxes into aircraft, and bombs into bomb bays. A few troop transports were being loaded with some ground troops. The whole point of this attack was to send a message to Luna’s sister- "We are here, and armed for a war".

All the troops got into their respective positions, manning the armor of war they were assigned to. The sun broke over the horizon and the ponies became restless. The ground troops sat in silence, all of them looking at the bottom of the armored pony carrier they were sitting in. Pilots went over one last check before starting their turbines, and tank crews loaded a magic burst into the breach. The radios of the hundreds of vehicles were filled with static, and then, Luna’s voice could be heard like a voice from heaven.

“All units, advance to your first designated waypoint. You have fire-at-will authority. I repeat, fire at will authority has been given to all units. Your objective is to obliterate any resistance you find on your path to the other side of the enemy base.”

At this, everypony at the controls of a vehicle surged forward at top speed through the woods toward the enemy camp. Everyone was eager to be the first one to fire a shot at the Solar Empire. All the aircraft on the airfield took off in VTOL (Vertical Take-Off Launch) form, and cruised over to the target area. Razgriz was in a command tank variant at the head of the pack, giving orders to all the tanks and APCs on the front.

“Razgriz to all commanders, please advise me when your unit has engaged the enemy. Also, be warned, don’t get an itchy trigger finger. Make every shot count. Is this all understood?” the general asked, to which he got a "Yes, sir" response from every team commander.

“All bombers, open bomb bay doors and pick a target. Let’s carpet these bastards!” the bomber flight commander, Jelly Bean, called out. He and his flight flew at low speed toward the camp. Enemy fighters were spotted in the distance, and were starting an approach vector toward Jelly Bean’s flight of bombers. The escort group broke off to take them head on. Jelly Bean flicked a switch, and the payload doors for his Draconequus bomber opened, showing the twenty-four magic bombs ready for deployment.

“General Razgriz, this is Commander Jelly Bean. My bombers are ready for our primary attack run. We have the Solar Empire frontline camp in range. Please advise on our next move.”

“Jelly Bean, this is Razgriz. Please start your run. Just watch for our allies on the advance. We are about two miles from the frontline. Are you going to attack the units as well as the buildings?”

“That could be possible. Is this an order or a request?”

“A secondary objective. Just be careful of our troops. It would be best to send yourself and a few of your best pilots to do this task at low altitude… No, scratch that. Luna wants you to hit the units first with everything you've got and wipe the base off the map before we move in. Keep the following targets as untouched as possible- the refineries, the research labs, the production plants and the power plants. I will send the locations of everything to your squadron’s HUD.”

“Uh, sir? Interrogative. That leaves us with the AA guns, anti-tank guns, barracks and hangars. All of those are tiny targets and will cause us problems. I recommend that we take out the barracks and power plants after your units knock out the AA for us.”

“I will recommend that, Jelly Bean.” Razgriz said. Jelly Bean had to wait less than a minute for the reply.

“That would be a negative on your request, Jelly Bean. Sorry, Luna wants what I asked of you done. The info is showing up on your HUD now. Please relay the information to your pilots.”

Jelly Bean felt a hint of anger. He and his pilots stated to attack the Solar Empire’s troops, with Jelly Bean dropping the first wave of bombs at five hundred feet. The magic pulse bombs crashed into the earth like fists of pure magic pounding down from Luna herself. Jelly Bean howled in delight as his bombs struck home on unsuspecting Solar Empire tanks and AA trucks. The air raid siren blared throughout the production camp, and the troops were awoken to the chaos.

Razgriz’s tank and the rest of his battalion were the first to break into the opening. There was fifty yards of open ground before the first buildings were available for cover, so it was a slight turkey shoot for the Lunar Army. The Solar Empire had already stated relocating their tanks to meet up with the LA attack.

Razgriz spotted the first tanks that his battalion was to engage, and they looked nasty. They were bipedal tanks with rocket launchers on their sides like arms, and the legs had backwards-pointing knee joints. The bodies of these massive, two-story-tall monsters looked like they housed the pilots.

“Everypony in A Battalion, aim for the viewport on the front!” Razgriz yelled into the microphone, spotting the weak points. All of the battalion stopped their tanks, aimed, and fired. The sound of gunfire began, launching spell-based shells towards the metal beast. Most of them fell short or overshot the thing, and it returned fire with a volley of unguided missiles. All of those also missed, fortunately. Razgriz trained his gun sights onto the first tank, and fired.

BOOM! Went Razgriz’s gun, the magic shell went flying forward toward the lead SE tank. It hit just where Razgriz wanted, going through the metal and glass. The rocket storage was hit and the whole machine went up in a flurry of colors, fire and missiles. The tank’s legs gave out and it hit the ground with a thud.

“First tank down! Score one for the Lunar Army!” Razgriz said, to cheers from the rest of the attacking force.

“Alright, everypony, listen up. We need a squad to flank around the units and hit them from the side. Everypony else, escort the ground troops and knock out the AA guns as soon as possible for our bomber boys. All battalions divide your tanks up as need to take on these tasks. All Alpha battalion tanks, follow me, we’re driving right down the center to draw some fire from the other objectives.”

Soon, the base was swarmed with small skirmishes. One larger fight was going on in the center of the camp, around the Weapons Production Center.

“Razgriz, two tanks right side, two hundred meters out!” one of the tank commanders called out on the radio. They were down a lane of scrap metal and parts for smelting.

“I see them, engaging. Alpha five and six, engage as well. Seven through fifteen, keep the fight going. Everypony else, disband for now in pairs and assist all other parts of the fight.”

Razgriz and his two comrades turned their hulls to face the oncoming tanks, and started blasting the rushing foes.

“Their range has dropped to one hundred meters, they’re going for a ram!” Alpha five said. Alpha Six managed to knock out one of the two rushing tanks, causing it to trip over itself, hitting the ground hard and tumbling from its momentum. The other one hit Alpha Five with full force, knocking it over and causing both of the armored vehicles to go up in flames.

Razgriz hurried out of his tank to try and help the ponies in the Alpha Five tank, but a magic detonation tore the tank apart. The red pony was thrown back and struck his head off of his tank. With his ears ringing and his skin feeling seared like the outside of a steak, Razgriz hobbled back to his tank and entered carefully, only to have his friend's excited voice trying to grab his attention.

“Razgriz, this is Jelly Bean. The bombing's going great. We've managed to hit most of the stationary defenses, the barracks and most of the airfield. All that’s left is the ground forces, but there's so many of our guys thrown into the mix that we can’t drop the rest of our payload. Permission to RTB with my flight and debrief with the pilots?” Jelly Bean requested.

“Jelly Bean, this is Razgriz. Permission is granted to RTB. Just let Luna know that we are wrapping up soon. Hey! Knock that son of a bitch out now!” Razgriz had yelled that last part on the general communications channel, then went silent to Jelly. He smirked at this and ordered his flight back to base.

The battle had calmed once the timer hit fifty minutes. The base was taken with minimal losses, save a couple tanks from each battalion and a few of the special operations ponies were wounded.

“This is Princess Luna, commander of the New Lunar Army.” Luna started over the loud speakers of the command tanks of the battalions. “I am speaking to all Solar Empire troops still alive. The base is now ours. Come out and surrender. We will protect you, and accept you as one of our own. If you oppose us, you will be executed.”

The only thing that could be heard was the mumbling from the engineers, wounded troops, and scientists being rounded up for processing. Razgriz popped the hatch on his tank, hopped out and glided for a short distance, landing on the ground at a trot.

Razgriz went to the headquarters of the base, noticing the destroyed rubble as he walked in. Some chunks of metal girder and glass continued to fall as tanks rumbled by outside. From what he could tell, one bomb had been dropped on this place. It was probable that this caused a break in the chain of command, making the troops get closer than they should have been.

“I see everything went well here.” Luna’s voice came from behind Razgriz, startling him. He turned around and nodded to the royal mare.

“Yes, your highness, we took the base with only slight resistance.” Razgriz said, pawing the ground with his hoof. He was drawing a mushroom in the dust and Luna gave him an odd look.

“Is there anything you feel you need to tell me, General?”

“No… well, yes. There is.” Razgriz was biting his lower lip at this point. He ruffled his wings in unease as Luna stared down at him.

“I just…” he paused, unsure if he should speak his mind.

“Well, spit it out! We don’t have all day, you know.”

“I don’t think that we should be doing this.” Razgriz blurted out, shivering as if cold. The mere thought of this was high treason, and Razgriz was the last one that Luna would have expected to hear this from.

“What do you mean by this?”

“I just think that we could have talked it out with Celestia. You know, been more peaceful about it?”

Razgriz was shaking so much at this point he swore he was making the ground shake. Luna trotted past the frightened pony, making him shrink down. She stopped beside a window, saying nothing, but sighing deeply.

“Razgriz, you know we tried that back before we were banished. The only reason I am not going to have you executed for saying this to me is because you were there one thousand years ago. You, other than my sister, are the only other one who knows precisely what happened during my final days, making you the best political item I have.”

“A-alright.” Razgriz managed to say. His throat seemed to be closed tight, his mouth was dry, and his chest felt like it was going to explode outwards from the tension he was feeling at this point.

“Just remember, don’t ever say anything like this to any of the troops or I, ever again.” Luna said coldly. Razgriz only managed to nod.

With a flash of light and a gust of wind, Luna teleported away from the base. Razgriz let out a long sigh, then trotted back to his tank, and was about to radio for A Battalion to meet up until somepony tried to contact him. They had left a message on the voice recorder, so he played it.

His eyes got wider and wider with every word of it.