Chapters The New Lunar Republic: Breaking Point
Chapter 1: Welcome to hell
... Chapter 1
... ... Perspective: Silver Eyes
... ... ... Date: May 4th, 2021 1134 hrs/ 11:34am
"SIR! M4 SHERBERTS ROUNDING THE HILL!" came the shrill cry over the mounted headset. "UNDERSTOOD, GROUP A WITH ME, C AND D MOVE TO FLANKING POSITIONS BETA AND ZULU!" i yelled back. the sound within the Trotsky 34 was inhumane. it caused all ears that were in a three meter radius need some form of spell to dull the sound. resounding 'affermative's' came from the headset. the Trotsky 34 or T-34 for short, was a tank you didn't want being pointed at you. with a decent medium V.s. Medium tank battle, the T-34 would normally come out on top. but thanks to Celestia's cone-heads up in canterlot, their M4 Sherberts were a might to be triffled with.
My T-34 was the standard olive green with the symbol of her grace, Princess Luna's, cutie mark. the symbol of rebellion. OUR rebellion. If you havnt guessed it, me and my tanks are part of the New Lunar Republic, led by Princess Luna herself. While many familys were split in half by the descicion, many were justified in agreeing to the terms of the NLR. that Celestia's Solar Empire, or CSR for short, was unkempt and corrupt, that nopony could be trusted. I happened to be one of three Leaders for the NLR's armed forces. I am in comand of the armored forces. The other two twits are nowhere near the battle field. i wish Princess Luna would throw them to the wolfs. but saddly, their knowledge is needed.
"RIGHT FLANK! RIGHT FLA-*static*" "HOT DAMN! Sir They are picking us off like flies!" came the screech over the headset. there were now over eighty voices comeing through the speaker. the most audible of them being the mares and stallions that sat outside the tanks, fireing down on the tank line that had just recently arrived at cresent moon ridge. Due to the fact that these tracks go from ponyville's train hub out to the westward expansion, we needed to hold off the CSR's advances, just so we would have the advandage when it came to reinforcements moving to the western parts of equestria. what would take weeks by vehicle or months by foot, takes only days by train.
we had to keep this pass through the center of the ridge clear of any CSR scum so that the recent resuply of foodstuff's and munitions could make its way to the west. "SIR! DEFENSE POINT ZULU IS LOST! I REPEAT, ZULU IS LOST!" came the yell from sergent Black Powder, his T-26 Making its way back up the hill, firing its amunitions down upon the advancing M4's. most of Black Powder's forces looked to be destroyed in the initial move. but he still had what appered to be twelve T-26's left. "Shit. GET THOSE SU-85's DOWN THERE AND HELP THOSE POOR BASTARDS!" i yelled from my perch. The comander's pod held me snugly even as the tank coninued it's barage of hell-fire, i still helped reload the gun, even as the tank took on the effects of small arms fire. suddenly a loud *PTRONG* echoed throught the turret as a new buldge began to rub up against my shoulder. we had just survived a richchet, one of the few things that ever happened when facing the M4 Sherbert.
"BETA IS LOST SIR! REPEAT, BETA IS LO-*fwoom*" there goes left-tennant Baked Bads. poor S.O.B. never even knew what hit him. incendiary rounds could puncture through the thickest hides. suddenly, the screams of hundreds of mortars began to sound off. "AET, FALL BACK TWENTY YARDS! GET OUT THE KILL ZONE!" i yelled, tapping the shoulder of the pony in front of me. he was strangly cold. upon looking away from the view port and saw that the driver was splayed out, blood still sliding from his mouth. Damnit! this is not my day. i poked the gunners face before i pointed to myself and the now dead driver. he nodded grimly, before i slid down into the seat, moing the now-dead pony into the MG seat.
"ALRIGHT MOTHER BUCKERS! LETS ROLL OUT!" i yelled, my voice craking on the buckers part. I slammed my foot on the clutch before moving us into gear and easing us into full speed. i felt the entire tank rumble underneath me as we began to move. the gunner, throwing stick's aim never missing a single beat. the claking odf the tanks treads and engine reminded me why i love my job. "GROUP A - D, FOLLOW MY ASS AND KEEP FIRING!" i yelled through the microphone. Another rally of 'affirmatives' and 'copy that' were thrown about.
My T-34, having been the first to move out, made the first impact into the ground. we were half-way over the steep ledge that seperated My tanks, from those CSR bastards. A haevy *THUD* echoed through-out the tank as the half that was off the ground, finnaly agreed with gravity and slamed onto the hard surface of durt and ash. what was once beutiful oaks and pines were now ash and soot. the only parts that war had yet to touch was the tree's that surrounded the top of Cresent Moon Ridge. All in all, it made for a beutifull sight with the burning husks of M4 sherberts.
A cocophany of 'thuds' and 'clangs' followed after my tank. Soon enough, my gunner had poped the hatch to the turret open and continued to use his magic to fire and reload the tank, while he stood and fired the machiene gun that stood on top of the tank. twin barreled, .50 cal., lead slingers, deisigned for any Anti-Air Defense, yet could be better used against the M4's, since thair armor was esspecially weak to a constant barrage of .50 cal. full metal jackets. i head him shout a line that our crazy-est of crazy ponies have always said when doinng a magnificent forward rush.
"what a lovely day, OH WHAT A LOVELY DAY!" his screem echoed on the wind before a cocophany of 'hooah's' where heard. upon striking the ground and moving on with our constant speed of 67km/h we barreled into the first M4 Sherbert. a Tactic constantly used by many a dieing tanker as a last rush onslaught. We had just rammed the most expensive tank in the entire solar empire. A tank that constantly was being abuised by our T-34's and our T-26's.
the tank screeched with anguish as it was tipped and fell onto its side. The front end of our tank was quite bruised, but it would live with a few minor fixes. i pulled the gear into reverse, getting us away fron the underbelly, giving a tank that was behind mine a clear and impressive shot at the unprotected bottom of an M4. My tank just rolled around to find a Solar Empire soldier glaring at us from the turret of the overturned M4, just glareing at us as he pointed a Changling Empire Panzerfaust. "FUCKN' A!" came the cry of my turret stallion. The signature 'whomp!' Of the Panzerfaust Launching its rocket was heard, and the dull 'clang' graced my ears. the fucker missed his shot and had it ricochet off of one of the many rounded edges. the fear in his eyes as my gunner mowed him down was good and priceless.
What? being the third spawn of Nightmare Moon makes for a pretty interesting life. especially when that life is filled with your own mother not loving you like you want because you were born an earthpony.
. . . did i tell you that? sorry, rush of the moment. but yeah, i am the third child of Nightmare Moon. Her unwanted child, you could say. my brothers, Golden Quill and Astuit Learner were the more loved ones. golden quill, because he's a pegasus and Astuit learner because he is a Unicorn. ugh, unicorn my ass. just because of one simple bone pertusion means that he is your 'destined child' dosent mean that you should forget the other two as much. *sigh* but im getting ahead of myself here. family issues.
Anyway, the blood from that pony had spattered all over the top of the now destroyed tank. having already been dead, the Tank round smashing into his body and carrying him for a few extra meters really didnt help on the overkill factor. Urging my tank to move forward, it complied, but with a sound of protest. the grinding of gears is bad for any tank, even one built to stand through many harsh winters in Stalliongrad has its limits. So upon recieving that bad news from the tank itself, you open the clutch and put it back into gear one again, building up your speed and fixing the grinding gears.
It took only moments but the scream of pain that followed a tank being destroyed is frightening for a lifetime. even one born a thousand and twenty-six years ago, it still brings shivers to my spine. Then another tank radioed in: "SIR, M1 HEAVY, CRESTING THE HORIZON!"
that brought fear into any stallions heart. The M1 Heavy was a tank that was not ment to be fucked with. its called heavy for a reason. The substantial Armor plating on the damn thing was enough to barrel trhough a heavily fortified castle, with all the soldiers holding Changleing empire Panzerfausts. and it would still roll out, barely damaged by any form of panzerfaust or tank fire. the damn thing was near invinceble. but it was still in its prototype stages. or so came the reports from our spys in canterlot.
"ALL UNITS, FIRE ON THAT DAMN THING AT ONCE!" i shouted into the mic. No affirmatives greeted my ears. most of the M4's had been destroyed or heavily damaged from the forward rush that we had all done. only those M4's foolish enough to continue fighting here were about to be covered in a substantial way. "SOUND OFF! WHO'S LEFT OUT HERE?!" i shouted again.
the crisp reply of several ponys came in. "C company holding out!" "D comapany, fighting daisy's over here!" "B company is nearly wiped out sir!" shit. "ALRIGHT I WANT E COMPANY THROUGH H COMPANY DOWN HERE ON THE DOUBLE!" my reply being forced out, as the hatch to the drivers seat had been broken and i could not release the fumes that were builing up. my turret gunner had once again closed his hatch when the M1 Heavy came into view. Then came the fun and equally terrafying part. Most of the grups i had asked for had just reached the bottom of the hill and were now prepairing to engae the enemy with the remnants of A-D company. "Alright everypony! Listen up! Push back with everything you have! let no one, not even Celestia Herself stop your mighty guns! Remember, Don't get cornered and don't try and flank him. his Flanks are Open to the world of the enemy, so if you flank him, than prepare to die! AM I CLEAR?!" the yells of 'URAAH!' were enough of a tell-tale sign that everypony understood what i was saying. it was basic tanking after all. flank only if you're flanks are covered. pretty simple, yeah?
before long, the last of the tank line had arrived and we began to move forward at top speed. The M1 Heavy began to fire his shots, but three of the six that he had just fired in the minute he had to prepare had just ricocheted and the last three nailed its needed spots. "I'M HIT OH SOLARIS WHY! OH SWEET FUCK IT HURTS SO-" *BOOM*
*sigh* by the end of this war, all we shall have left are the young. and i care that no one from their youngest age has to see this kind of shit, or hear it either. it is traumatic, even for a grown stallion. As soon as his tank had blown up, and it had blocked three more in its wake, we had all slamed into some part of the M1, Our Powerfull guns aiming dead at his ammunition rack and enigne. All as one we bagan to fire, fire Fire! The M1 simply deflected most of the rounds like they were just stuffed animals, but the truth was that after a certain ammount of deflections, his armor wont save him any more.
After a continuous barrage of bullets, rounds and other fine weaponry, one stallion jumped from his tank and ran up to the hatch on the M1's turret. Upon ripping it open, he tossed a small M87 'Pineapple' Grenade inside it, before hopping off it and slipping into his tank once more. all the tanks began to back away as the hatch opened again, but before the grenade could be tossed out, it blew up. The poor fucks inside it had died instantaniously, the grenade blowing up had caused a chain reaction with the ammo rack that hung inside the turret and caused a massive explosion, which ignited the fuel line, which then caused a massive explosion of epic proportions. To say the least, it was a beutifull sight. But the Screams of Mortars soon intrrupted our happyness.
"Form Up, ON ME! lets find us a Rabbit!" i shouted, all the tanks formed up in a V formation, mimicking the Pegasai flight squadrons in the process. We rounded the ridge and began rushing The quickly advancing M4's. They Began to fire as our tanks both deflected and rammed the tanks that were fireing. and tanks that got lucky, managed to slide an M4 up onto the sloped armor of itself. Several tanks got lucky with that, and had clear shots at the underbelly of the Engine block. those that had yet to be smashed into had instead continued following me in attacking the Mobile Atillary. What shocked us was that they were useing some of the Older Artillary. The MGAS-7 was the oldest mobile artillary in equestian history. and it was pretty damn easy to kill. the MGAS stood for Mobile Gun Artillary System 7. it was the seventh model after the changlings perfected their mobile artillary system's.
It was a Cake walk when we spoted the MGAS-7's. their armor was ment for the tanks of their time. not to deflect the armor peircing rounds we had today. besides, the 37mm rounds were worthless and futile when it came to the armor of the T-34. The T-26 was another story. It could handle it, but it still took large ammounts of dammage. The dents in the armor of the T-26 would prove deadly if aimed correctly. but even then, the MGAS-7's werent ment for head to head attacks. they were ment for long range bastard shots with a heavier caliber. But i digress.
After the battle had ended, all tanks that hadnt been badly damaged and could still fight were kept at the ridge. all in all we took thirty nine casualtys with the tanks and for each tank four stallions or mares were inside. so let's see thats... 156 stallions and mares that were killed in the entire fight. we also managed to capture a few M4's but they were heavily damaged, their crews having been shot with .50 cal.
The stallions and mares that used the Machiene guns and fired down on the enemy, those who were outside the tanks, had done a magnificent job as well, having only taken forty three K.I.A. and nine having been accounted as M.I.A.
My tank having taken substantial damage, having rammed and deflected a demons worth of ammo, was schedualed for a two week repair in Her Graces City. New Equestiria Subspace was well hidden in the danse forests of the everyfree. The Princess had the old castle there Refurbished and set up as a new home. The large field of tallgrass that once stood behind it, now is a large super city. Better than even canterlot! its districts were evenly seperated, but with a few with special permission, thay had shops and other fine convieniances strewn throughout the residential district. It was Gloriously beutifull. The castle In and of itself was a miracle of beuty. Princess luna had secretly Rebuilt The castle to her ramafacations. So when the moon or the sun rose, it rose behind the castle, its shadow sheltering the townspony's from the harsh rays of the sun.
Our tanks strolled through the town of ponyville first, as it was the only way to enter the forest on any troden path. the path we went through the town in was full of ponys. many just out for a walk, many returning from the battle field, camara's in hand and a vast majority of them held flags of the Solar Empire. They were indiferent to The whole war between our causes, but it made no difference, since ponyville was known as the town of second chances. And they were tolerant of the NLR having taken their town as the first part of its campaign. The only thing they advised us not to do was to Harm or Threaten any of their ponys livelyhood. the only one who we had disrupted was an elitest mother and her well hated daughter, Diamond Tiara. althogh, when we planted out flag in town hall, she was just begining to open up to being nice to everypony.
our ride through the town was greeted by the Grand Pegasus Flight Squadron. also known as GPFS. sometime our tankers quipped and dubed them as Gimp-fest, since the Flight squadron only ever wore its skin tight suits. leaving less to the imagination. However, due to the flight patterns, they were off to, more than likely, bombard a recent advancement in the front lines.
It had been on and off fighting on the road between Canterlot and the raod that met ponyville. The road had been turned to mud and compleatly destroyed by nine years of constant barrage attacke's. The artillary from canterlot mountain had been fireing off a constant barrage of explosive rounds, which fired every four hours on the hour.
For the past thirty-eight minutes, the tank collumn had slowly moved through the dense forest that kissed the edge of ponyville. we had another thirty minutes to reach Castle town, and even then we had to ford the river. its was shallow enough that the water just managed to wash away any dirt from the treads, but anything above the tread skirt was untouched by the water.
Thnkfully we had Re-located the water dragon that once resided in this river to a more serene line. we just had him move to the ocean, where he was free of any form of hell. but recent events have changed that. the naval blackaid that the NLR has set up has effectivly turned his new home into a home of destroyed metal ships. The NLR has had reports of angry sea creatures that can sink ships having appeared in the midst of battle and sinking several ships rather violently.
...
Upon arriving in the gates of castle town, the citizens took to raising a cheer of gladness and good tidings. We were currently entering fall and winter, so the streets were lined with pine.
The stallions and mares that stood around in the street treated this tank collumn treated this like it was just an everyday parade. The filly's and colts ran alongside the tanks, handing those solediers who were still consious and still stayed awake during the trip, gratefully accepted the bread's and the sweets and other small things. a few of the mares who's husbands or wives hadn't come back were looking eagerly for their husbands or their wives or their children. of course, there were those broken few that saw their parents or their wives or husbands and decided to jump down and see them or to hug them or the usual happy stuff.
Our tanks were intercepted by a Line of jeeps that were speeding twards our collumn, untill they swerved and continued driving, taking with them a large number trucks, filled with soldiers and other items that no one could care less about.
when we finnaly made it to the castle courtyard where all tanks that need repairs are kept, we came upon the princess. and she was staring at one tank in particular.
. . . Mine . . .
It seemed like a subtle look, but in truth, it was a look of . . . i dont even know. All i knew was that when my tank came to a stop in one of the repair bays, the Princess began to walk over to my tank. it took only a minute for her strid to bring her to the hatch of my tank, but she waited as me and my gunner hopped out and pulled the dead driver out of the MG seat. but then rigor mortis had set in and he was a bitch to get out. not because he reeked, but because all body's after violently being killed and extinguished always wnet into rigor mortis first.
upon getting him on the ground and covering his cold dead corpse with a white sheet, bowing our heads in the process, me and snippit heartstrings looked at the princess.
"you and your crew are to meet me in my chambers at once, Mr. Eyes. Am i clear?" she asked. her voice still sounded like angels from afar. "Yes ma'am." me and Snippit said in unison. upon hearing us agree, she walked away and went into her castle. after back was turned, me and snippit dropped our salute and looked to one another.
"shit, did she hear about the incedent with the whipped cream?" asked snipped, worridely. The event he's talking about is when we fucked up in a grocery and somehow made a whole row of whipped cream cannesters to suddenly exploade. All we did was drop a single can of the whipped cream when snippets butter fingers slipped on the grip and dropped the can.
Eventually, after replacing our tank cloths for more repectible cloths, namely our dress blues with our signature silver tread medals. Soon as we made our quick dash up to Princess Luna's Personal chambers. Whenever someone was asked to go to her chambers, her chambers were actually her office. Not many ponys ever got to be asked to go into her office. I've been here in the same room time and time again. infact, i've lost count of how many times i've been in here.
For eight minutes straight she staired at me. before her eyes switched to snippit. finnaly her eyes fell on me and she slipped a manilla foulder with the name of. . . no, my name.
it was embossed and my name was written in silver and red letters.
'SILVER EYE'
"let's talk, Silver eyes." came the words cooly from lunas lips.
The New Lunar Republic: Breaking Point
Chapter 2: Honerable Raise
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The room dissolved into utter silence. it fell into somthing like you'd see one of the colt or filly's saturday morning cartoons where there was akward silence with a cricket in the background. yeah, it was that minus the cricket.
It soon dawned on me that the manila folder was not very thick. infact, i bet it had at best, my nine years of expireance in in the NLR and the past Twenty years i had been in the Solar Empire's service.
"Mr. Silver, i take it that you are quite stunned that i have you're entire lifes work all added up into one single folder." came luna's sharp, serious voice. "Truth be told, i had yet to belive it myself, but there are many, many, MANY reports that were filed under your name. all those files pertained to each and ev'ry single victory that your group has succesfully compleated. The Victory's your Group Has procured has been a great boost in many a troops moral. Infact, we have many colts and fillys begging to be let into the tank corps. Just to fight with you and learn from you." luna continued.
Wait, im a hero in the eyes of filly's and colt's alike? when in the sun's great tits did THAT happen? also, yes, Celestia DOES have a nice Rack. but its sad that she keeps them hidden in more protective ways than what most colts see in the video games they have now a day's. Seriously, how is an armored bikini a +10 in protection when it give's less protection than being nude! I'm honestly questioning the pervertedness of todays young gamers.
"And the same can be said for your friend here." luna continued, slapping another manila folder with snipits name in bold black and blue print. It was frightening how much our spys and intelegence could get from the royal canterlot archives. then again, the nerds up in the archives rarely get out and would do and give anything for a good one night stand. or a repeated process of nightly stands for as much info as possible.
"So, in retrospect, i have recieved a large group push to get you and two more ponys of your group a new tank as well as the service of being knighted as Royal Dark Knights. Thankfully, i agree with my congress in its decission on making a new sentenial tank corps. just to get the whole thing up in the papers of canterlot, just to strike fear. But, it is up to you two. on this decission. So Do consider the options on both sides." luna said, a firmness in her voice mad me think about the situation.
This whole War was brought upon us at a hard point in time. the world was just recovering from the imense war across the Great Sea. Prance Had started a revolution and has officially removed itself from its corrupt king and queen, claiming that 'the king was ignoring the needs of the common pony' and that the queen was 'spending the tax ponys money on frivelous things'. saddly, this was compleatly true, but we had sent over troops, myself and my second brother, Golden Quill, over to beat down the rebble-rousers. in all truth, we had lost more troops than we could recover. and the ferocity of the ponys over there finnaly made the general, General Shining Armor, to pull every single soldier of the Solar Empire out of the country.
But i digress. Upon a single minute since the offer was made, i huddled Snippit over to a secluded corner and made the decision with him. He ,for one, was all in favor of it. he and i had been struggleing in our tank recently and it wasnt getting better with age. even then, leading a new tank out into the field of battle would cost us time and recourses that we probably wouldnt have again. But the decision was made when she offered us the Knighting ceramony. meaning that if the rat in our system brought this news to celestia, then all hell would break loose.
A knighting ceramony is ment for those who have shown great strives in a particular field of inquary and was kept to a small minimum. and even then, it was resereved for scientists. not warriors. And Celestia has ALWAYS kept it that way, no matter the Age or Time period. So this is BOUND to ruffle SOMTHING. . . Right?
We both turned around to see Princess Luna standing not four feet away from us. "princess. Me and My second in command have decided that we are going to agree to the offers." i said, stepping forward. she smiled warmly and raised a hand. I then placed my hand in hers and shook firmly. By the small Blisters and caleces that i felt on her hands, it was clear that she was a working mare. but then again, its been seen by all ponys alike that she tends to a garden of night-time flowers and works in the field with the farmers, just to get an understanding of whats happening on a farm on any given day. and sometimes she'll walk about with the ponys in castle town and mingle with them. talk, or sometimes even joke around.
"Good. I shall inform our congress to prepair a banquet and a ceremony for such an occasion." she said, moving from my hand to Snippits, firmly shaking it in the process.
As soon as we left we went down to our garage and got into our work uniform. still grease stained and pretty good in color department. however, the grease heavily stained the uniform.
Within eight minutes, we had hammered out any dents in the hull and turret of our tank. but that time had to be a good and bad moment, as Princess Luna, Her assistant, and a Line of recruits, decided to sneak up on us. of course, i heard them all, but it never dawned on me that they were coming up to our garage. I just thought it was a new group of soldiers getting a tour of the castle grounds.
"General! where art thou?" luna called out. I poped my head out of the turret and shouted back. "Right here ma'am!" i imeadiatly reeled back when i heard my own voice echo. it hurt a few of the recruits, though, so that means that they just came out of basic. I honestly was a little worried for them. If they needed headpeices, we'd get them headpeices, but if they needed Ear protection, than that might prove to be a problem.
"greetings, again, General. I have brought to thee the new recruits for your tank. choose them at your content lesuire." she replied back, almost as if my yelling hadn't bothered her in the slightest.
Nodding in return, i hopped out of the tank as snippit slid over the side and walked up to the line of recruits. me and him reached the line at roughly the same time. upon looking at eachother, we began to scour the line for any irregularity's. It had been our way of precaution. And it usually worked well.
The first Recruits name badge stood out. Pvt. Dim Grin. it seemed like the name suited him pretty well. Full gray coat, black mane and tail, dull lifeless eyes. not to mention, but he had no scent. it was almost like he didnt exist. He wore the standard issue Brigadier cap with accompanying navy blue flack coats and the regular issue stripped J's. his being a privet, made him a Navy blue and black. My colors for being a general are two stripes of Dark red and four stripes of light navy blue's with all blue pants. so he has a ways to go.
next Recruit was a Mare. name was 'Pvt. Third class Brighter Days' and it matched her as well. blond mane and tail with a soft sand colored stripe. Her coats color was a soft spoken teal like color. her eyes showed a large ammount of passion. not much, but it was strong in her. her eyes were a golden amber-ish color. smelled faintly of lavender.
the next recruit was simply put, heavy, he looked like he couldnt fit in the cockpit of the P-26 Thunderlane. let alone the drivers seat of a tank. name was 'Pvt. Snips'. well, well, well, the cat finally dragged in snips, now did it? the cowered hid shyly behind his long shaggy rust colored hair. time has not been kind to him. or his frined for that matter.
His friend, what i mean, is snails. his teal hair and tail swishing about lazely. he didnt even have a pvt. to his name. in its place was the word 'Mechanic'. i wonder how that worked. Casually skipping over the two nincompoops, i swept over the rest of the group.
instead of just listing them off, i'll just give you a shortedned run-down on who exactly I had seen and chosen with snippit.
three ponys imeadiatly stood out. The cutie mark crusaders. all four of them. Yes their cousin is standing right next to them, all had joined. i wonder what happened in their family's to change sides suddenly. the next two stuck out like sore thumbs. "diamond tiara and silver spoon? what are you two doing here?" i asked aloud, forgetting formality. The two looked at me and gave a slight grin. i didnt like that grin, not one bit.
then came the next few ponys and a few more unexpected ones. Ones like Snowdrop, Button Mash, hopper popper, just to name a few.
Upon meeting back with Snippit, we silently conversed, then peered back at the recruits, just to make 'em worry a bit, then went back to silently whispering. after about thirty seconds of non-stop whispering, we had our pick. our tank could only hold four, but there was enough space for an 'in-flight' mechanic.
"Ok, we have our picks, Princess." she nodded before backing up few feet. Me and Snippit walked over to three pony's who were to be our's. Snippit walked up to a young recruit, male, by the name of 'Top Notch' and placed his hand on his shoulder. then i walked over to two pony's who i had spotted. it came out to be the only adult mare of that group, 'brighter days'. she grinned and followed me as i walked up to the next recruit. He looked a little confused and frieghtened. But he accepted his fate with dignity. His name was Gear Girdle, and due to his name, he kept gears in tip top shape and he made sure that they never want out of place.
One upside to having eyes that are ice cold and steel gray, is that even with the name 'silver eyes' I could basically be a god of eyesight. I can see what pony's cutie marks mean, i can see just what they are like from hearing them. i can tell what vehical im driving or what uniform a pony is wearing from eighty meters. I also was good at understanding exactly what was ment by anyone, Anytime, Anyplace. It usually got me good marks and its also what ended me in this general position.
"you hath chosen three? very well. All of thee who hath not been chosen, return to thine bed chambers, those who hath been chosen, move thine items and belongings into this garage. General Silver Eye will tell thou where thee shall be staying." luna spoke, dissmissing a good chunk of recruits to their barracks. Then luna walked up to me and whispered into my ear.
"don't forget about the procession tonight, Mr. Silver. It is the biggest event in the new kingdom so far." she whispered into my ears. I nodded. "Of course Princess. i wouldnt miss it for the world." i responded back. she gave a curt nod before turning and returning to her usual daily buisness.
It had taken a toll on her. She already had bags under her eyes and lately she's had to go see a chiropractor, massage expert and a psychiatrist to help with the whole thing. and the psych is a rather recent addition to it. She only wanted a peacfull protest, i've heard her wail, but celestia had to go and open fire on the protesters. This whole war was started over tyranny, but truley started for luna when celestia killed and injured and even imprisoned ninty-some guards, castle staff and civillians.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>(diamond's)<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
It was nearing the hour of twilight. . . . no not the pony, but the actual setting of the sun. that special hour when all you know is turning a beutifull shade of orenge. when its the last hour before the sun is no longer seen behind the western hills. The hour when the real of the dead and the realm of the living are intertwind with one-another.
Me and my tank buddy, Snippit Heartstings, Had been givin a set of dress blues. sleek dark storm-boot's were on both our feet, our hats, resting firmly in our hands, our medals were shined and givien a hard buffer wax, just to make them shiny. Our blue dress pants being compleatly free of any form of dirt or wear. The Midnight blue jacket was a little unessesary, but i didnt care. I was only doing this for the chance to rub it in Celestia's face.
The sound of Trumpets and buggles began to announce our pressence. The door's began to open to the long winded intake from something called a bagpipe. It was brought over from neighland. An island from across the Marelantic sea. They were givin a lot of crap from other pony's, since they sounded like banshee's. but i could hear the beuty in their majestic call, as they began to play the tune 'neighland the brave'. And it was beutifull. Soon, me and snippit were walking down the asle t'ward the princess, her second and third in command standing off to her left.
The princess was beaming a beutifull smile that I couldn't help but return. Before long me and snippit stood before the Princess, 'nighland the brave' coming to a close and a Pillow with some shiny new and immproved medals were brought out. what caught me off guard, was when she brought out three more pillows, Except two of the four were held in each of her comanders.
"Silver Eye and Snippit Heartstrings, You two are here to recieve an acheivement that very few have ever recieved. This Reward is being given to you for you're brave acts both on and off the battle field. For the Past Nine years, you have given You're Blood, you're sweat, and youre lives to the continued foundation of the New Lunar Republic.
"With all the Graces you two have Preformed, you couldnt have done it without the Many, many friends you once had. Sadly, you're last commrad in arms passed early this morn' when the Solar Empire had struck, once again at our fortified position of Cresent Moon Ridge. His Valor and Bravery are beyond those of the call of duty. He sacrificed all that he had to make sure you two could continue on with you're conquest against the Solar Empire.
"And Thus' with great joy, I Princess Luna of the New Lunar Republic, Present you two with an honerary Spot in the Royal Dark Night Corps. With You General Silver eye, you will have no Authority above you, besides the head of state, And you, Snippit heartstrings, Gain a bolster in you're rank. you no longer are a sergent, but now a Master Sergent. The Weight you two must carry is great, but you shall both be a beacon to the ponys of future equestria!" luna finnished spectacularly, her wings splaying out in a gracefull manner.
Upon the settling of the crowd that stood behind us, still taking pictures, The Princess took the two sets of bars off the pillow and pinned them to our coats, the dark Blue with red outlined wings on the top of the bars was a new addition. But it still felt like i shouldnt even be earning them.
Upon the pins being clasped and her magic dispelled from the pins, she swiched to the next pillow. On it, was a Pair of Gauntlets. The princess swiftly took them off the pillow and saying "Due to you both being knighted, you each recieve a Gauntlet. Each Hand of the gauntlets represents what you are in the eyes of our friends and family. The Left, a Shield of Grace, and mercy. a bringer of peace. While the Right hand symbolizes that hand as the offence, the one who has done the deed no sane stallion or mare would do." she said, slipping each corrosponding gauntlet onto our hands.
The next pillow floated over and upon it were what looked like blankets. but i was mistaken, like usual. "These are the honerary flaps, of which you bring. Under them is your Students, your Deciples and Your friends. With these, you shall move silently in the night, you shall be unseen by the eyes of anypony. I bless upon each of you, the Robes of darkness, and the Waist Robes. Each of these items shall be a status to your underlings." Luna said, clasping them on. the Robes Went on snugly. first came the cape-like Robe which she clasped to the loops on either of my shoulders. Then she proceded to wrap the Waist Robes onto my, well, our waist's. They just looked like normal blankets to me.
"And Finally, to Mark you as honerary members of the Royal Dark Night Corps. I present to You both, Swords. In today's world, swords are still a way of offence, but even thought long-range weaponry has come into play, you shall each wear these on and off the field of battle. putting you're enemy's at a disadvantage." Luna Proclaimed, her magic grasping the grip of the swords. The two didnt look Anything alike. The one that was floated before Snippit was a classic style of Rapier. A classic Pommel, with signature tassles. and although it was a rapier, it was double edged, but one edge was serrated while the other side was as straight as a ruler.
The Sword that floated before me was what only could be described as awe inspiring. Its hilt had wings as the hand guard, a flat-brested pommel covered the handle, which also had tassles, but instead of blue, they were blue, red and black. The Blade itself was what looked like the Pure essence of the moon. What with the fading hours of twilight that shimmered behind her, the blade was a bright white, almost certainly made of pure silver, maybe even pure tungsten. One side of the blade appeared sharper than sharp, while the other side was what looked like little gaps in several parts of the blade. It looked like those were for snapping an opponents sword.
"Snippit Heartstrings and Silver Eye. Do both of you swear to uphold the truth of the New Lunar Rpublic, until the day of your falling" me and snippit replide in time with eachother.
"we Shall Uphold these truths to be fact, and shall never lose sight of them." Luna nodded."Do you both agree to stand against all odds, for the protection of the NLR, both before or after its untimely colapse?" The same thing happened again. "We are willing to stand against the roaring waters of the enemy, if only but to slow their oppression." Luna nodded again, this time placeing the blades on each of our shoulders, tapping both the right and the left with the flats of the swords.
"Untill the end of time itself, you both are hereby sworn into the Royal Dark Guards Corps. May the Odd ever be in your favor." luna finnished, strapping the sheaths of the swords onto the belt that was then wrapped around us, before sliding the swords into our hands. "You may rise." She calmly stated.
Me and snippit stood up and slowly turnd around, before raising our swords skyward, The light of the setting sun glinting off the back of the swords and temporarily blinding me as the crowd roared in applause.
The rest of the night was filled with jubilance, and merryment. most of the entire NLR Army was inside the castle reveling in merryment. Most of the entire town was drinking their lives away as the first ever knights of the NLR.
The night ended with Me and Snippit getting into our garage and falling into Our beds before falling alseep.
The New Lunar Republic: Breaking Point
Chapter 3: Ponyville Attack Pt.1
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The next morning a large rumbling greeted our ears. Well . . . My ears, the rest of the guys and girl were asleep. Slowly I cantered out of the barracks that held all of us in the back of the garage, out into the large open space of the garage itself. The T-34 sat, cold and lifeless, waiting for the rest of the repairs.
The rumbling was slowly getting closer. I thought to myself 'who is doing this at (i look at my watch)5 in the fuck'n morning?' Soon i recieved my answer.
I was just working on refurbishing the drive shaft for the Gear switcher and the clutch. There was a few fragments of shrapnal in there so during the battle, when i switched gears, i initially save the enitre tank from being usless. Hm? oh, well its because if i continued letting the gears grind with all the shrapnal that was in there, then it would have broken both the gears and the drive shaft. not a good thought to have when in the middle of the battlefield.
Upon slinding out from under the tank, my entire upper body covered in grease, i caught a glips of a tank i didnt think would ever come to fruition. "is that the-""KV-1? Eeyup, it sure is" came the mechanic's curt reply. "Luna initially didnt want these used ever again, but she thought it might help you and the new Dark knights out in their future endevors." the mechanic replied, hopping out of the drivers seat.
I slowly walked around the KV-1. The Beast of metal was sitting right before me, and i just looked at it with glee. It was an early prototype, based around the T1 Heavy that the solar empire built. It's later brother, The KV-2, was still used today, but mainly as a defensive weapon. Due to its larger caliber and stronger hull, it was better than the KV-1, but the KV-1 still held everyone on hold. There were mainly eight of the KV-1's laying around the production facility's near the castle.
After a few minutes, the Mechanic softly 'ahem'd' and held out a clipboard with several peices of paper attached to it. I grabbed the clipboard but before i could write anything, he handed me a pen. "thanks." I said, shyly. he just silently nodded and waited as i signed the tank out of his hoove and into mine. There was space in the garage for it to fit with maybe three more tanks the size of the KV-2.
Slowly but surly, i climbed into the seat the mechanic had climbed out of, and checked all the instruments. Everything seemed fine, nothing cracked and nothing was out of mis-alignment. In fact, everything looked factory new! I put the tank into gear and eased her into the garage, turning her around and killing the engine. the noise wasn't as defening as it was in the T-34, but it still held.
The moment i had finnished climbing out of the seat, and into the open space of the garage, i came face to face with my crew. Snippit was looking astonished, while the new recruits were just staring in awe.
"Sir. . . Is that what i think it is?" snippit choked out. I nodded triumphantly, imeadiatly, he rushed over and hopped into the turret, giggling like a child with a new toy.
The three recruits walked up to the tank and all just continued staring untill the femal of the group asked "what is this?" and placing her hand on the tread cover. "This here, young padawan, known as the KV-1. due to me and snippit signing ourselves to the Princess's Dark Guard, we got a new tank." i said, walking up to the turret, peering in to see Snippit having a giddy-fest while simultaniously opening and closing the gun's chamber, and twirling around, checking everything.
one of the recruits, Gear girdle, if i remember, asked "A-are we going to name her sir? Like tradition?" I nodded slowly before looking at them all, snippit poped his head out of the turret hatch and said " I Vote that we name her Deez nuts." we all looked at him. this joke was getting old already. He heard this joke a few weeks ago, and now he was obsessed with it. soon, though, it died off and he was the only one who was still saying that damned phrase. "What?" he said, slowly descending back into the turret.
Gear Girdle then piped up. "what if we name her cinnamon?" We all looked at him. It was indeed a good name, but there was one problem with it. "Gear, buddy, That is one of the other tank's Names. We Have Katyusha, our T-34, over there, but this is a brand new tank." i said, patting the hull, recieving a dull thud repeated three times.
Sunny Days then raised her hand. "What about 'Picking daisy's'?" she asked. I shook my head. "nope, thats another taken name." she then looked down, her face scrunched in thinking.
I hopped off the tank and slowly walked up to the side of it. "what about . . . Spear Head?" They all looked at one another and it seemed to click. "it seems like the right type of name for her, sir." said sunny days.
Nodding, i walked over the rack of paint. Olive drab, no it would blend into the already chosen paint scheme. Navy Blue? nah, to dark to see. white? origianal, but no. then a color spoke to him. A Crimson Red. It would work perfectly. So, grabbing the can and a paintbrush, I walked back to the Tank and Began to pull back the lid.
After thrity minutes, our tank finally had a name and had several decals. On the turret sat its name, Spear head, and on several other parts there were little decals from the crew. I had drawn my cutie mark on the side that i sat on, and The rest of the Crew Added their own cutie marks to where they worked and sat. Gear head had a bit of trouble deciding where he sat. so he just painted his cutie mark, Three sets of gears in the shape of a head, on top of the engine cover. Thankfully, it wasn't large and covered the entire back of the tank.
Upon us getting the last of the ammunition into the tank, The Alarm Gave its annoying klaxon. [if you need a reference, look up halo 2 and listen as the space stations klaxon (mission 1) begins to sound. its like that one.]
We all Rushed to the T-34, when it dawned on us. Use the tank we just got. Of course, that came from Luna's telepathic powers. We all hopped into the tank and began the neccesary routine of starting up the tank. The KV-1 is a good tank when you learn the round-abouts with it. So the start up was a bit catchy. It took Sunny Days four try's to get the tank up and running.
And when she did, boy did it sound like a kitten. It purred the sound of death. We all we jovial at the feeling of power under our hooves. I poped my head out of the comanders pod and Snippet opened his hatch, Sunny days pried open her veiw-port all the way. We Roll out of the garage and slowly pull into the tank-yard, which is now full of T-34's and T-26' and a few T-46's. They all stared at out tank as it passed by, The fresh paint of the NLR's Symbol glinting in the sunlight. Me and The crew that could be seen waved to them all at a leisurly pace. Before the time for worry had been lost, Sunny day's gunned it and we went Sailing into the Everfree woods, a large column of tanks behind us.
"*sigh* this sight never gets old." i say to snippit, both of us watching behings us every now and then, trying to avoind getting smacked with low hanging branches, and avoiding the low-hanging poison ivy. [Unlike earth, poison ivy grows from dead and decaying tree's. and by grow, i mean it grows from the top down.]
Soon we have reached the river banks again, our tanks, the T-34 and the KV-1, had naught a care for the water. But we had to wait for the T-26's and the T-46's to get across safely. After they had made it across, The KV-1 and a couple T-34's made a breakwater, We had rushed the rest of the way. We didnt recive a debriefing, nor did we get our orders.
i quickly grabbed my headset. "Does anyone know where we are going?" i ask, the sound of the wind rushing into the turret might have been a bad thing for the mic, but i needed to know. several 'Negatives' assuaged my fears. "*grunt* ok, then i want half our platoon to split up. Everyone below N group, Go to Cresent Moon Ridge, Keep it safe. Everyone else, Move to give covering fire to Ponyville." i ordered through the headset, garnishing a few 'affirmatives' over the headset.
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Before long, we reached Ponyville, and i could already see several Solar Empire Tanks Rushing around, a couple Sherberts rushed into view, but faltered only a little upon seeing the KV-1. It looked like your averege tank from the front, so seeing the symbols on it was enough to scare them a little. I hopped back down into my hatch, a fresh bullet wound in my shoulder giving some form of reality back to me. Most of my tanks had already started to fire in a continuous fire. It was like a conga line, all tanks fired in unison. It was almost beutifull. if i werent inside the tank.
Before long, quite a few houses had new holes and pock-marks on them from our repetative fire, and the M4 Sherberts were now dead. We all moved forward. "Groups A Through F goes through the east and north side. Groups F through M Move to cover the south side. We'll meet back up on the east side of town." i yelped into my mic. More 'affirmative's' graced my ears. Before Long Our groups were moving along the east to north side. A couple Solar Empire fucks tried to rush our tanks, but ended up dead. Only one came significantly close to killing us. He had jumped onto our tank and tried pulling openn the turret hatch, but snippet held on. I oppened out and popped a clip into his body. I emptied my whole magazine for the Standard Issue Sig-Paw III. The poor sun of a bitch fell off the tank and ended up clearing the treads. He didn't end up squished.
Before long, they came upon a large number of foot soldiers. All of them were holding tubes. And those tubes were Changling Empire Panzerfaust's. And inside those panzerfausts, was Death. Behind the soldiers was several Panzers. Pz. III's to be exact.
"New Lunar Forces! Give Up And walk out of your tanks, Or Be destroyed!" Came the big hat from the Lead .
"Sir, They've got Hell on wheels!" came gearheads short reply. The reason for him fretting is because the 's are a fast little bugger with a decent armament. I've seen two of our T-26's Be shot to hell and a T-34 De-tracked before the little bastard finally came to a halt and finally died. Not only that, but it ment that the truce between Celestia and Chrysalis was strong enough to trade tanks between their aliance. That ment we had more fighting to do.
"I know, i know." i replied "SIr! Awaiting Orders!" came the reply from the leftenent I looked back out the view ports and saw the foot soldiers being a little faltered. There! "Hey guys! They are using Quaker guns!" I shouted through the headset.
Quaker Guns: A trunk of tree made to look like either a cannon or something of tremendous power. Usually employed as a means of 'psyching' an enemy into submission. Can be employed in many positions, but usually fails when spotted to be Quaker guns.
Weapons Log #2436
The failure to notice that some were not quaker guns was a poor miscalculation. Several tanks from B core fired their guns. and in returne, Several tanks from the Solar empire fired back, wrecking the tanks they had chosen. Several A-20's had rolled up from the north sector of the town and fired both of their guns, the cannons and their MG's.
Swaths of Royal guards from the S.E. were cut down, splotches and waves of blood spraying forth from their body's. The tanks being shot at tried to swivel their guns 'round to return fire, but were to easy to kill. Their turrets were the best aim they had, and several of the S.E. tanks exploaded into flames as their ammo racks or their fuel stores were hit. But several of the un-shot tanks returned their good graces by ending four or five of the A-20's.
Several minutes passed by as the smoke from the gun fire cleared. by the time the smoke cleared, several more C.E. Panzerfaust's had fired and ricocheted off several tanks, and the A-20's were now rolling out into the town square.
"thanks for the help guy's." i called, popping the hatch to wave an arm at the A-20's. They just turned their turrets and drove off. However, on one of the tanks, i saw the one symbole that no one liked to see.
"guys, the A-20's are the peace core. Don't fire on them!" i yelled through the headset. I got several 'affirmatives' as a reply.
the peace core is a group that is headed by fluttershy, the element of kindness, and is a non-fight group. they usually do peacfull protests. I wonder what caused them to pilot tanks and fight. they hated killing, so this is compleat dissaray.
Our tanks moved through the town square to enter the market district. On all sides was shops full of wares and whatnot. and in the center of the road stood stalls of foodstuffs or fabric. slowly, we rolled over the stalls and crushed anything below our treads.
upon reaching the corner of 5th and knoll blvd. we turned the tanks to roll down a street that was wrecked by bombs and explosions. the only way you could tell that it had once been a street was the many cobble stones that were scattered about. that and the few civillian cars and trucks that littered the roadsides.
One of the T-26's rolled past my KV-1 and turned the corner in a quick and wide angle. Upon reaching the middle of the street, his tank hit a hole that was dug by a mortar shell, and rocketed out of the hole and into the air. However, a dull *kwang* and the large hole appearing in the bottome of the tank, told all of us that there was somthing in that road.
We all pulled away from the tank that was now rapidly leaking its oil and the blood of anypony who had been hit. Then we heard the dull rumble of an engine starting up. after a couple of minutes several tanks appeared in every veiwfinder. "T-25 AT!" i yelled, ducking as three of the four tank destroyers opened up on us. Upon dropping into the body of the tank, My Veiw ports were mangled by the rounds of the T-25.
"OPEN FIRE, OPEN FIRE!" i yelled through the headset. Several bangs accompanied my comands, and a lound and ear peircing screech assaulted our ears and minds. but thankfully, the screech was only one of the enemy rounds scraping against our turret.
out gun began to fire as well, having opened up and taking out the first of the four tank destroyers, we began to get into it. Another *pang!* accompanied by a scream of pain. I looked from my position to see the MG and assistant driver, Top Notch. He was clutching his left arm in pain. A large hole diagonal from his arm was wide open.
Nodding to Snippit, I hopped down from the turret and next to where Top notch was, Gear Girdle taking my place as reloader. I bashed open a box of sulfa powder and hydrogen peroxide and began working on his arm, breaking open a packege of gauze and bandages. After a tough three minutes of stopping the bleeding from his stump of a shoulder, i wrapped the gauze and bandages around his body. I whipped out my canteen of quadruple distilled whiskey and stuffed his mouth onto the muzzle and had him glug a bit of it. When dealing with stallions or mares who had this sort of pain, it usually did good to dull their mind with alchohol for a bit, just to take the edge off.
After Top Notch was all well and good. (about as good as you can get when you have three fourths of an arm missing!) and climbered up to my spot, Top notch being replaced by Gear Girdle who took his time shooting the tracks of the T-25's While i realoded some of the HE rounds. While i was working on Top notch, our forces had taken out the second T-25 AT and now all that remaind was the last two T-25's. One of which, had yet to fire on us. but from the slight movment i saw from the barrel, i could tell that it was aiming head-first at our tank.
"BRING SPEAR HEAD BACK 20 YARDS!" i yelled. Sunny days, the driver, stared at me, before the plan finally clicked. Snippit didnt understand though. Untill finally, a loud *bang* followed by a bulge near his head took his mind off of it. he lookd through and fired the HE round at the gun of the T-25. Upon firing it, the entire tank blew up, sending a massive fireball skyward. Our turret turned to aim at the last T-25, which was now backing away, still firing its gun, untill it blew up and the static filled call of "Gottem!" caught my attention. "Who got that kill?" i asked through the headset. Several negatives were directed my way untill i poped open the hatch.
Then a pegasis landed right on top of the turret, two 20mm cannons attached in bags on boths of her sides. "ahh... i was wondering when the shadow bolts would appear." i said glumly.
"Hm? oh, Hey Silver!" the shadow bolt replied.
"Nelly?" "yup!" the shadow bolt replied. shit. Nelly, if you're wondering, is short for vanilla sunshine. Me and nelly are friends for, well...for as long as i can remember. She is the only mare that i've met who has lived since the banishment of Nightmare Moon. if your wondering how, its because she's a vampony. yeah... she's the only mare that i kinda like. And due to her skin-tight flight suit, she's able to walk about in the daylight without being harmed.
"*sigh* nelly, why are you out here?" i asked, slapping my face in an epic facepalm. "Well, how else am i to keep my drinking bud alive?" i then gave a short jab at her ankle as i saw a small sparkle. She fell into my arms as the bang was heard, a peice of ugly, narrow metal flying over head. after the shot, nelly took to the sky and flew off, but didnt fly far, she only ,if i know her well enough, she's not gonna stop dropping bombs and whatnot to keep anypony safe.
I droped back into the turret as another shot rang out against the usual pock-pock and the bangs of war. The followinng *PING!* of metal on metal didnt surprise me. "nelly?" snippit asked, looking over at me as he aimed the turret at the source of the sniper fire. Before he fired i said "nelly." He 'hm'd' as he fired the gun, riping off the top part of the town local clock tower.
(thirteen minutes later)
We had moved past several easy fire-fights. eight tanks since the T-25 AT's and they were the standard M3's and M3 lights, so the fights were not a compleat challenge.
We had reached the LZ for the grand pegasus wing. wich was our rendevu point. Nelly ran up to my tank and sat herself down on the gun of the turret. She was always a little loopy. But the heat would probably not pass through her flight suit. Especially the Shadow bolt flight suit. these suits were meant for any kind of weather. So a little heat between the legs would feel like a warm breeze.
snippit, however, had a different idea. upon looking at him, he had a blush and it seemed like he was raising his own personal cannon. "Snippit, you got a panzerfaust in your pants, or are you just happy to see nelly?" i asked. It was supposed to be a genuine question. buuut... i guess you could make of it what you will. i dont mind. snippits blush only hightened and his erection was slowing down once he came to full hight.
"I-i, uh erm... uh, Nothing! nothing sir..." Ijust gave him a stare symbolizing 'what the fuck?' then he added: "uh.. . . no comment?" i finally just gave it up and continued looking through the periscope that's view was blocked thanks to Miss Nelly up on the cannon.
Now, im gonna say that Nelly had one of those kinds of bootys. you know, those kinds of botys. the kind that is perfectly rounded and has no fault in its circular shape. And thanks to the form-fitting flight suit, her booty was accented in the dark colors of the purple, gold and black flight suit. needless to say, so was her breasts. ...? oh, im not the kind of perv your thinking of, lusting after her for only a good lay, but im kinda . . . interested in her. like, romantically if you will. but i,uh, gotta get over my strong crush on Princess luna, first.
Anyway, she rode the cannon of the gun like she owned it, while simultaniously corrosponding wings and squadrons of peggasai into certain parts of Ponyville. I poped the hatch open (what was left of it.) and asked her a question that had been bugging me. well... two questions really.
"hey nelly?" i asked, loud enough to be heard over her incoherant rambling. She looked at me and smiled "yeah Sil?" oh right, we kinda had this nickname thing going on. forgot about my nickname for a bit... oops. Anyway, "You know whats going on at cresent moon ridge?" i asked. Her eyes looked skyward in a thoughtfull manner, before sliding down and her nodding her head. "yeah, our's are brushing aside the light infantry. eight platoons have gone from ours, while ninteen platoons from the S.E. have fallen. That report was brought to me a couple minutes ago." i nodded and asked my next question. "you know whats happened to the rest of my guys in ponyville?" then her smile turned into a frown. "yeah. they are currently being ripped to shreds by anti tank positions and a larger force of TD's than what your guys faced."
I slapped my face. why hadn't i sent more with them?! i then looked back to nelly. "anything your troops can do to help?" she looked thoughtfull for a moment, before nodding vigorously. "yeah. we've already established bombing runs on un-occupied homes and on the enemy positions. and in-" she looks at a watch thats installed into the suit. "-aboooouuutt... two minutes, we are green to be mean." i thanked her, before dropping back into the tank. i didnt bother to shut the hatch. when i opened it to talk to nelly, the only remaining part of it decided to say 'fuck this shit im out' and fall off the hinges.
"well?" asked everybody in the tank simultaniously. i looked at them all, before pulling out the map i had in my front pocket. looking it over, i saw that it had the routes we were supposed to take. now our path was crossed out, removing half of the city from our grasp and putting it into the hands of the foot soldiers. looking at the other side that hadnt been crossed out, i knew just were to go. "Sunny Days, take the road to B4 on your mini map and then move right down Sunrise blvd. and Ash st. and continue untill you see a mass of steel and solar empire soldiers. this will be the battle guys. lets keep our heads down untill we get to position Gama and start firing on the anti-tank battary's. Clear?"
all ponys in the tank replied with 'clear' and we lurched on to our next position.
The New Lunar Republic: Breaking Point
Chapter 4: Ponyville attack Pt. 2
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Our road to position Gama had been compromised, to shorten up a whole data chip, our run along Gama had drawn the eyes of the Solar Empire's 'bird's'. Basically, Birds are ponys who wear a special helmet that gives them an eagles eye. And this particular bird had radioed us in and now we had three or four TD's on our ass, firing like they had never fired. Usually, The solar empires tanks shot in tandem, and in a percise order. Left to Right. But now, Their Tanks were firing errantly, They shot in random order. Thankfully, Nelly had decided to fly back to HQ and grab a satchel of smoke-grenades and one 90 pound Bomb. So she'd be back in under nine minutes. Give or take a couple minutes and she'd be back in action.
Our KV-1 was slipping and slidding, left and right, trying to avoid being shot. Our turret was turned a full 180 and was lobbintg back shells just as fast as the enemy tanks. We got a lucky shot when we tracked a TD and it imediatly slipped out of its treads and began to slide to the far right, unable to alter its corse, before finally slamming into the wall of a house, smashing through the glass and into the home itself. Now, only four TD's were left tailing our KV-1. I looked down at the mini-map and saw that we were coming up on ponyvilled irrigation ditch. And thankfully, the ditch lead straight to the Apple family farm, and the walls were too steep to climb back out of.
I rotated the turret and yelled at snippit: "FIRE ON MY MARK!" He gave a firm nod and held his trigger finger over the trigger, waiting for the word. when we came out of the ally-way and onto the main street leading to the ditch, i yelld to Sunny Days to make a sharp right. She followed through and we looked as if we wouldnt make it. but i had a plan. " MARK!" i yelled at snippit. he didnt hesitate and Fired the gun. The concussive blast, matched with our turning, caused us to slide just those few extra degrees to the right, causing our tank to compleatly avoid the irrigation ditch.
while the enemy Tank destroyers werent so lucky. they had been in the middle of their turn, when all of a sudden, the ground wasnt there anymore. and all they had left was air, and the ground that lay directly below them. Their tanks plummeted like bricks attached to cinder blocks and resulted in a massive and beautifull explosion from one tank and the last three were thrown across the ditch by the explosion, smashing their guns and their treads. i doubt that they would be driving anywhere, anytime soon.
for the most part, we had sustained several new dents from ricocheting bullets and had taken three direct hits. one of which, had put Top Notch under the radar for the time being. Missing an arm does that to ponys. and then the last two shots had missed anything vital, but had still punched a hole in the turret and one round was firmly lodged in the captians hatch. lucky the bastards didn't take my head along with it. Or else i would be very pissed that someone had blown my cover.
While the tank is slowing down and moving into and alleyway to hide and do minor repairs, ill tell you why my covoer would be blown.
You see, being the child of nightmare moon has some perks. like immortality for one. But one of the best perks is that i can't die. I just need to rest in darkness for a bit of time. I've been shot, burned, stabbed, gutted, poisoned, Drowned, anything you can think of, i've probably had it done to me. and each time i recieve a wound that cannot be fixed, i have to 'die' and that persona goes out the metephorical window. The only con of being the way i am, is that i can still feel EVERYTHING that happens to my body. Get shot through the head? no worrys, It only hurts for the next eighteen days. Balls blasted off by some extreamly angry mare? they'll grow back in two months, but the pain'll only last nine months. (fucking saddle arabia psychopaths...*grumble grumble*) And the only way i can die, is to use a blade forged under a full red moon and must be re-forged under a blue moon. but the chances of that happeneing are at a low 1%.
Anyway, we're comming out of the alleyway and comming out on Ash st. and 7th. I look at the mini-map and see that we are directly behind the enemy firing positions. Shouldn't be too long before we have compleate domanance over Ponyville again. We took it once, and we'll take it again. no matter the cost. Most if not all of the civillians are gone, having moved out or left out-right. but there are those ally's who wont join either side, but will fight for the side of their choice. Ponyville can't seem to make up its mind.
For a couple minutes, im just pushing the large ball of metal and slag out of the hatch, waiting for our air support to arrive. when out of nowhere, i see a pegasus land in the middle of the street. I am extreamly cautious about this pony, as she is whering a wonderbolt flight suit. Its basically the original design for the shadow bolts flight suit. Same skin tightness and same designs, just different colors and different factions inside the suits.
I slowly clamber out of the tank and crawl over to the edge of the alleyway, making sure im not caught. When i finally reach the edge, the pegasus is standing right in front of me. literally. Im laying there, in a pile of rubble, partially covered, and this mare is tanding directly in front of me. i could reach out my hand and be able to touch her tonned thigh's. But i won't. She is a wonderbolt, and judging from the hair and the stance of said pegasus, it seems like i struck big.
"ugh, where is that feather brain? we were supposed to regroup on this location." came the voice of the wonderbolts. her voice is only slightly marred by what sounds like a cigarett a day. Slowly creeping up to my full hight, i grab my handgun and slowly pull back on the slide, seeing the ammo had been pristene. Pulling it up to its level position, i had the mare at point-blank range. The mare pulled up an arm and looked at somthing on her wrist. probably a watch.
I reach forward and quickly wrap my arm around her neck, grabbing at the opposite side of her skull, while putting the exposed portion of the barrel up against her temple. "make a sound or try to fight, and you'll have a new hole to talk through." i said slowly, her body trying to fight at first, before giving up and drooping slightly. "W-who are you? and what do you want with me?" she said, trying to relax her body, so as to make the task of standing up to the hight of an earth pony as easy for her, as it was me.
"what im going to do, is take you back to HQ. You'll be debreifed on whats going on, and your going to give as much info to the NLR as possible. Is that clear?" i said, pressing the barrel into her temple slightly harder. She nodded her head in response, trying not to scream. I reached into my back pocket, keeping the gun aimed at the back of her skull. She didnt move. and it looked like she wasnt breathing. I whipped out the handcuffs and quickly placed her hands inside of them
She was oddly complient. I dragged her, after grabbing her around the waist, and brought her to the turret of the tank. she was still oddly rigid as i lowered her into the turret. With her inside the tank, there would be 1 person over the standard capacity. So she was shmushed into the turret with me and snipit. I mean, not that either of us was complaining. Although, snipit was touching her C-cup with his usless wings. Not on porpuse, mind you, its just the smallness of the turret that caused this to happen. ... Again, not complaining.
Our tank lurched forward with its cargo still held firmly in the turret. We made it to position Lima-niner Three, Six. and turned our bulky buddy, Spear Head, around and angled our tank into a modest firing position. The A-T turrets and the howetzers were all angled at the tanks holding position. which sadly, was not holding out to well.
"well, Colts and Fillys, we stand here, ready to aid our comrades in the field. Anyone wana say a few prayers to Faust before we begin?" I recieved blank looks. Even The wonderbolt stared at me. i shrugged and just looked to the top of the turret and began a prayer. "oh great princess faustia, we pray that these insolent fools learn their lesson, that even in death, they may continue to learn the wrongs they have wrought. Help us to sow the seeds of truth in the minds of Everybody in equestria, so that they may rise up and stand against the tirrany of Princess Luna. Novus Lunar Respublica, Amen." i said, clasping my hands together at the end of the prayer. A millisecond later, Snippit fired the round at a howetzer that had foolishly tried to get a better fix on our buddys. The explosion punctiuated the prayer and alerted the other Anti-Tank guns that someone was doing somthing.
We began our gun game. a routine thing me and snippit did whenever we went into battle. I spoted and called out a random point number. he fired and if he hit directly where i was aiming the gun, he earned those points, which when we got to HQ signafied how Many shots of Everfree Whisky he had to drink. You'd think that after his second shot he'd stop right? nope. The thickness and intnsity of the liquor only drove him to continue. untill the bottle was empty, that is.
Soon, before several Anti-tank guns were pointed our way, Gear Girdle and i had gunned down several swaths of enemy combatatanants. and Snippit had destroyed eight Howetzers out of twenty.
Before we knew what was happening, several of the howitzers had fallen silent to the explosions they witheld. Their crews being ripped to shreds. I looked around erantly through the last remaining scope, looking for what had happened. I clambered out of the hatch and grabbed the .50 cal and moved the gun left and right, searching for who or what had done that. I spotted Nelly in the air, an empty belt of Grenades waiving around in the air, and the large 90 pound bomb strapped to her chest was ready to drop.
I smiled while watching her, reminded of the days when she and i played games outside in the courtyard of the castle. She was just a simple guard. First year on the job for the First Lunar Republic. She was young. not just young, but REALLY young. about my age back then. for ten whole years the war had raged between nightmare moon and celestia, me growing up during all ten years. Princess luna, at that time, was due for a child at the time when she became Nightmare moon.
I was jolted out of my memory when the tank took a 105mm round to the tracks and the frontal glacis plate. I opened up on the howetzer in question, untill they fired a potshot at me, nailing my ribcage and sending me flying out of the hatch. i was thrown through a large brick wall by the bullet, sending me under a large pile of ruble and bricks and other random bits and pieces. I slowly clawed at the bricks that layed on top of me. I managed to claw them away and began to search for a quick escape route. luckily, the wall had fallen in just such a way, that a small and unstable tunnel appeared. I quickly craweld through, not wanting to be crushed anymore than i already had been. I had a broken ribcage and a large dented hole in my chest that showed the tip of the bullet. Sweet mother faustia, it hurt to breath! I could feel every individual rib rolling around in my stomach. i had one or two ribs sticking out of my chest and one lung felt colapsed.
After a self examination, i quckly ran for the tank, only to get the path in front of me shot and pockmarked by a submachien gun. Whipping out my pistole and turning around in a full 360 degree turn, i searched for the assailent. that is, until i remembered one thing. "pegasai..." i whispered under my breath, jumping back as i aimed skyward. There, in a bright Cyan and Golden flight suit, hovered a pegasus streamliner. From the bars on his shoulders, i deduced that he was a left-tennant. He held a grimace and kept his UMP.45 Trained on me, watching me for any sudden movements.
I thought on my feet as i began to run under the cover of a collapsed building. It looked like a warehouse from the outside. And upon reaching the inner sanctum, i was proved correct by what lay inside. Boxes and Boxes, some food and some weapons. A large stache of crates had been broken when the side i entered on had fallen onto the boxes. I ran over and picked up a couple clips of ammo for my SigPaw III. I quickly ran to hid behind a large row of crates when i heard the sound of glass shattering. This fucker doesn't give up easily, does he? not some random foot sodier, no sir. I crawled into a small little space just as the S.E. slipstream flew overhead, searching for me.
When he made his ninth pass, i got fed up and hopped out of my spot, spotting him and taking aim. His left wing went off in a spatter of blood, then his chest erupted in a flurry of red. He was trying so hard to angle himself at me while plummeting to the ground. He was sooo close to. But ultimately, he slammed into the box directly above me, giving off a sickening crack. He fell to the floor as blood began to pool under him. I looked at him closely, taking off his mask and flight goggles. His blue mane didn't ring any bells, but upon removing the face mask, i reeled back. It was soarin, the wonderbolts second in command. He lay there, unmoving.
I made a quick and stupid decision, deciding to try and save him. I lifted him up gently, slinging him over my shoulder and removing all of his ammo and guns. He had a hefty ammount of handguns on himself, i must admit. Upon removing all weapons, i began to run out of the building, the clips of SigPaw III ammo jingling about in my pockets.
Before long, i had reached the KV-1 and placed soarin on the turret, knocking on the hatch that snippit usually occupied. When he opened, his expression was pricless. "Sir?!? what the fuck happened to you?" he asked, Me handing him soarin. He gently placed him into the turret, handcuffing him and wrapping gauze around the stub of a wing and his chest wound. The good thing about the SigPaw III is the penetraiting power. it wasnt enough to kill, but enough to wind a strong opponant and when used correctly, can kill somepony in one shot.
I then clambered off the tank and pulled out my SigPaw III, cocking the hammer back and prepareing to do something i didnt want to do, or like.
I Ran. I ran and ran and ran. straight down the middle of the road-way. My target? The howetzer crews. I Zig-zag'd my way making and S manuver, avoiding two of the rounds that missed their target by inches or even millimeters. I swear i felt one or two whizz by extreamly close to my skin.
I made it to Target one, Howetzer Number 5 out of twenty. this one was stuck driectly in the middle of the road, being extreamly cocky. I Vaulted over the metal bullet shield and landed on a soldier, winding him whil shanking my trench knife deep into the neck of a soldier who tried to rush me. He gurggled a response, but i had shot the remaining three soldiers with an entire clip from my handgun. The went down screaming.
I repeated the process eight times while the KV-1 shot the remaining howetzers i had yet to get to. By the time something finally changed, a little voice began to get a little louder each time i killed somepony. by the time this . . . 'thing' happened, The voice was louder and clearer than i had heard before.
"Yes! Kill! Crush! Destroy! End ALL Who oppose us! Let them drown in the blood of their kinsmen! Let NO ONE escape this day! They have brought the fight to our home, So we will end their suffering! GO AND KILL THEM ALL!!!"
Leaping over the barrier, gun and trench knife at the ready, i managed to kill the fucker beneath me by landing on his chest with one hoof and on his neck with the other. He squeaked out a scared response before getting a helping hand in the form of a hoof to the side of my skull. i was drawing my gun up to aim at the three in front of me.
I was thrown off of him temporarely giving him enough time to get up and dash away to the next Howetzer. I, however, focused everything on the one who had hit me. This stallion was about the hight and size of BIg Macintosh. But the disadvantage was lost on me. i might have been smaller than him by a couple of inches, i didnt let that get to me.
I whipped out my knife and sunk it into his chest, directly where his heart is. I moved with such blinding speed that even I didn't see it. I didnt even do that, i had no idea how i did it. but it happened. Then my body began moving on its own. My right hand reached up and gripped his throat. after wrapping the fingers around it, my are violently jerked back, Ripping out a large chunk of his neck. His jugular was spurting blood out at lightning speed. The Stallion fell down, the knife slidding out of his chest. The stallion layed there, grasping at his neck untill he finally died from blood loss and blood pooling into his lungs.
I turned around and fired off six bullets, my gun jamming in the process. the first and second ponys fell, bleeding from three bullt wounds in the back. the third just kept running. untill my body used that speedy rush crap again, and caught up with him. He managed to gasp out a yelp of pain as my arm wrapped tight around his neck.
My body brought him close and began to speak of its own accord.
"Foolish mortal. did you think you could run
"Well then, Any last requests
"What a shame...
His Pain filled Yelling was only for a short second, before being replaced with A gurggling scream. His face was pulled taut as he tried to scream his lungs out. What happened so fast, wouldnt end so quickly for him. He was choking on his own blood, tears flowing forth from his eyes like a waterfall. I watched as he struggled to breath, to cry out in pain, to live. I watched painfully as the life in his eyes extinguished. My body watched on, amused almost.
I managed to fight my way to the surface, moving the forign entity to the very bottom of my soul. I managed to lose the red tint in my eyes, and managed to regain my body. I kept the demonic voice for what felt like hours, but was actually minutes. during those few minutes, i yelled to the other Howitzer group.
"IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE DIEING TODAY, FUCKING RUN YOUR PRISSY LITTLE ASS'S OFF AND TELL CELESTIA THAT THE NLR WONT ... FALTER!"
My yell echoed across the small circular space that occupied the dead, dieng and the husks of burned out 105mm howitzers.
They didnt wait longer than i hoped for. Except for the colt who i had initially stomped on. He just looked at me, then the body of his fallen comrade, before turning around and sprinting away.
I just huffed out a sigh of disbelife. I just ripped out somones neck, with my batpony fangs.
Ponys of equestria were not big into meat eaters. Like Griffons or Alphyns. They could eat fish, sure. but flesh of another living being? no. Especially when it was one so young, with so much potential. I just stared down at the corpse that i had recently made and saw a few things that caught the eye. Bending down, my knee's popping, i grabbed his wallet and his Dog Tags. His wallet for numerous reasons, but the number one reason, was that in it was usually that ponys loved one. And i was right.
A Minty Green Pegasus with wite-gold mane stood there, holding her arm with her left hand, giving a loving and beautifull smile. Her Brown eye's giving off a radiance of love and compassion for the colt who orrigianally held it in his wallet. Upon flipping the Picture over, he saw the name of the mysterious mare, as well as a little note, ment just for him. 'Think of me when your out there, and keep yourself safe. ~ Sea Breeze'
This made the realization harder when he found a note in the same pocket as the picture.
'Dear Wild Berry,
I have great news! after visiting the doctor about the morning sickness, he has officially confirmed the growth of a foal! we are going to be parents! This will be wonderfull, Berry. Just you, me, and out little foal, all nestled up on the deck, watching the sunset fall over the western horizon. Please hurry home soon.
You're loving mare, ~Sea Breeze'
My mind went blank. This colt was going to be a father. Upon checking the date of the departure for the letter and checking todays date on my watch, i determind that the letter was sent only nine weeks ago.
Good faustia in the highest, what have i done?
I pocketed the picture, letter and the dog tag's. I had an idea to do somthing unheard of. And it was highly illegal for even a civilian to do, even more so for a general of the NLR. I'd be lucky if i got away with it.
I walked back the the KV-1, its turret following my movments through the wreackage. I made it halfway to the Tank before feeling Extreamly Exhausted. I had just passed one of my first howetzer kills, when i slumped down onto the frontal plate of the Howetzer. I could feel all strength leave my body as i slid down the face of the Howetzers bullet plate. I had lost all of my strength to stand.
Before i knew it, i was blacking out, Snippit was the last thing i saw in my rapidly darkening vision. Before long, i had blacked out.
And the day was replaced by the night time filled with all the screams from my past sins. All the kills i had racked were all screaming at me.
I fucking hate it all.
The New Lunar Republic: Breaking Point
Chapter 5: Hell's-a commin'
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Having woken up, a cold sweat having formed all over my body, I was jolted awake by the clattering of a metal pan. Looking to my right, I noticed a surgical platter that had been laden with bags of blood and Plasma was now laying on the floor as several nurses were trying to hold down a patient, who had begun to flail about on the medical bay Floor. His hospital gown was torn and ripped in multiple places, and had some blood on it.
Looking up at the bed, I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion until I pieced together what’d happened. He began convulsing and the IV cord ripped out of his arm, blood began flowing freely and he began to get scared and tactical at the sight of his precious Sanguine fluids flowing freely from his arm.
Flashbacks to a time that was intensely stressful for him.
A Doctor rushed over, holding a syringe filled with a soft blue liquid. As the nurses held him down, the Doc stuck him with the syringe, injecting the fluids into his blood. Almost instantly, the stallion began to calm down, his shouting for ‘Scotch’ soon fading, replaced with his gentle breathing as he slept in a medically induced sleep. The nurses hefted him up onto the bed again, replacing the Needle in his arm and swapping out the IV bag with a fresh one.
I looked down at myself to see that I had healed greatly, the Nightmare Magic feeding off the residual energy of dreams and using it to heal any and all wounds on my body. I huffed a sigh of relief. I sat up more and wiped the sweat off my face, running that same hand through my mane. “*sighs* I hate when bloodlust takes over… that was some scary shit, even for me…” I muttered to myself. I leaned back and propped my back against the metal head bars of the bed.
Soon, that same doctor walked around the Dividing curtain and saw me sitting there. His smile almost made me sick. It was a forced smile, one that a doctor of his stature doesn’t need, as it didn’t suit his line of work. The Hollowness in his eyes betrayed his body language. He’d seen too much death for his liking.
Then again, 4 years into a bloody and devastating war will do that to anyone…
“Ah, Mr. Silver eyes, Awake I see. Sorry about the commotion, if that stirred your slumber.” He said, his soft southern equestrian accent making itself present. “regardless if Mr. Fallen has woken you, I would’ve had to anyway. It seems your earth pony magic has healed your body substantially, meaning that I can legally give you a clean bill of health. “He said, swapping his smile for a grin. I nodded and proceeded to get up. Holding up a clipboard, he tapped it and said. “however, I need to warn you, about something.” He said. I stopped my rise, looking at the clipboard, and saw a skull. My Skull. Or, a picture of my skull. What do these doctors call them? X-Rays? Yeah, I think it was one, as my skull was milky-ghostly white and a large deformed dot in the center of the skull was what he was pointing at. “I’m afraid you have a Bullet, a 10 millimeter I believe, stuck inside your brain. And I’m afraid we can’t get it out. So I have to warn you…” he explained, his face looking grim.
“Don’t do anything that can potentially shake it or cause the bullet to move. It happens to be right next to a major blood vessel inside your brain, and one wrong movement can send it moving into the direction of the blood vein.” He said, tapping his head with a finger. With a soft nod, I stood up. Unbeknownst to me, I had no gown on. So when I stood up, all that was hidden beneath the sheets was now exposed. The Doctor looked away, slightly embarrassed.
I just looked at him awkwardly as I yanked the IV cords out of my arm. Years of pain and one regenerated limb in 550 AL caused me to not even wince as the Needle was ripped out of my veins and arm.
I walked over to the basket with my cloths in it and opened it. Instead of the battle dress and harness I was wearing when I blacked out, I instead found my Dress uniform, the Dark Blues matching perfectly with the Whites and Blacks, the bronze and silver medals sparkling softly on top of the Dress Overcoat. A small note was sitting atop the entire set. Reaching for it and opening it, I began to read the note, in full nudity in front of a doctor.
“Dear Silver Eyes,
It seems that due to your crew pushing for this, I am honored to say that your actions during the battle of Crescent Moon Ridge and the Assault on Ponyville, you are being awarded the Blood Knights Cross and will be promoted to Master General 2nd class. Effectively putting you in charge of a full Task force, both on hoof and Track missions. Please be to the ceremony by 2300 hours. (11:00)
Please be on time and meet me near the doors the Grand hall.
~ Princess Luna”
I simple folded the letter shut. The Blood Knights Cross? That was the highest honor that anybody could receive behind the High Lords Crown. A Medal that is made from solid moon Metals, the same hue as Nightmare Moon’s Battle armor. But still, the Blood knights cross, of all things, was an honor in itself.
I quickly put the letter back inside it’s envelope and set it on the bed, before beginning to dress myself in the dress uniform. The White button up and a pair of underwear, then the dress pants, the all black pants being accentuated by the single white Strip running from hip to just above the hoof. Slipping on some dress shoes after the pants, I smiled as I slipped on the over coat, the battle ribbons gleaming brightly as I pinned the medals to my chest. The dress coat was dark blue and had the chevrons on each arm, alternating in Blue, Black and white.
Smiling, I looked up to find a hat on the coatrack. It was a piece of military hardware that anyone of high rank cannot ever forget. Hats off indoors and hats on outside. Exiting the hospital, I walked across the town, scratching my chin softly as I entered the castle.
Already, there was a massive group of pony’s and a couple griffons who’ve all arrived, wearing their best cloths. A group of soldiers and tankers stood off to the side.
I simply just stood around near the back of the room. Regarding the fact that only me and a couple senior officers were off to the side were wearing dress uniforms, a bunch of soldiers came in wearing the normal uniform with their combat harnesses on and helmets sitting atop their heads normally. Highest rank there? A Gunnery sergeant was in the midst of the large group of soldiers. I felt so, so, SO out of place.
I Looked down to pull out a pocket watch from my suit’s inside breast pocket. Clicking it open, I looked at the watch face for a couple seconds. It was nighttime when I had made my way over, so I had assumed that it was around 9 at night. How wrong I was. It turned out to be 10:46 at night. I looked up and began to move over to the grand hall doors. Every pony and griffon in the room began to move inside the Grand hall.
soon, I was alone in the empty room, the black and white marble shining still, even after so many hoof-steps walked over it. I Looked down at the Pocket watch and fiddled with it, pressing a hidden mechanism, dropping the hidden door on the lid and revealing to me a picture. Inside the picture stood Three Smiling Stallions, each one wearing a piece of Clothing that matched their personality. The middle one wore a uniform befitting of an earthpony warrior. Red and Black, a small sword strapped to his hip and a small, tattered blue cape hung limply over his right shoulder as an arm was extended to rest on the left stallion’s shoulder. This Stallion was staring out of the photo with a sly grin and a cold, calculating gaze. His dark eyes being betrayed by the damage made to the photo, causing the colors to fade and making his half of the photo appear black and white.
His clothing was that of a tactician or a lawyer. Dressed in rich, extravagant clothing, frilly even, for a unicorn. The next Stallion was Wearing clothing that’d suggest he was built for glory, having a skin-tight fly-suit in the coloration of Rich and Vibrant Blues and Whites, a single white Lightning bolt traveling from the top of the suit to the bottom, White Chevrons on his shoulders suggested he was a Senior Wingman, a Semi-automatic Crossbow resting not only on his back, but a smaller version of the large one being on his hip, along with a Quiver of Blocky shapes, arrows sticking out of the blocks in odd angles.
All three were grinning out of the photo. Smiling. Living.
A Short cough sounded out from behind him, scarring him a little bit as he rushed to hide both the pocket watch and the photo. Upon looking behind him, he found that Princess Luna was standing there, looking at him in concern. “Silver Eyes, I must say, you do make quite the impression, if I do say so myself. But I must ask… Art thou ok? Thou seem to be Plagued by thoughts of sorrow.” She said, her eyes drifting up and down my body. Not in the “I’d like to see you tonight” way, but the more “he looks like he’s in pain and I’d like to know what hurt him” way. Of course, I showed no signs of the battle on my body. Anything visible would’ve roused suspicions, as I’d have a great number of scars covering my body by now.
Nodding softly, I looked to Luna. “O-Of course, my Princess. Just nervous about this ceremony. Two promotions in one week is a little odd…” I replied.
With a curt nod, she sighed, her figure slumping slightly in exhaustion. “those Pea brains in the council have decided to turn you into a Figurehead for the NLR, instead of just letting you be a normal pony. They took the combat reports from your crew and made some Unnoticeable ‘facts’ so that you’d receive the Blood knights Cross. Not to say it’s a bad thing.” She said, waving a hand dismissively at the last comment. “but I would’ve just given you the Knights cross, an honor in itself again, but not to the High pedestal they’ve lied about to get you into this mess. I’ve been working on changing the reports, but anything that’s truth gets changed back into a lie, or a higher lie.” She said, beginning to grin. “besides, I doubt you really waved your bare ass at the Commander as your tank wiped the town of nineteen Heavy tanks and Sixty Seven percent of the Occupying forces.” She said, chuckling softly.
I nodded “Yeah… that’s a total lie. I’d just accept the Knights Cross, instead of this honor I didn’t honestly receive.” I sighed, rubbing the back of my head in frustration. No wonder it was baffling at first, I was lied about and given an honor o should never have gotten in the first place. “regardless, I’ll still accept it, if only to boost the morale of our fighting forces… as much as I don’t want it, they need someone to look up to and follow into battle..” I sighed again, looking at Luna. “like the Spartans at Ponhopoly, all 299 looked up to their leader, Lionidas, to guide them through battle. Minus the falsified information. “ both Luna and I laughed at that, before her eyebrows furrowed. “how doth thou knowest of Lionidas? I had all but thought that history had forgotten about mine good friend.”
I Simply looked at Luna, giving an incredulous look as I held up a small pocket book I kept with me. ‘History’s greatest Tacticians and Fighters vol2’
“ah. So we see. Well, it is great to know that somepony hath remembered the Great and the Terrible.”
I simply nodded and placed the book back inside my left coat pocket. “now, your note said you wanted to discuss something?”
Luna looked at me blankly for a bit, before nodding and smiling. “right, of course! How could I have forgotten. The Ceremony is something quite special and requires a lot of talking, normally. However, I modified it a little so it’d be a lot quicker. All you need to do is stand there and do nothing except look Brave and stoic, or whatever, while I present the medal and get everything done quickly. Ok?”
I simply nodded, replying “yes.” to her. When I looked at my NLR issued watch and saw that it was 11:20. “you’d better get in there, Princess. Only Ten minutes left before ceremony time.” She looked a little scared, before nodding and calming her nerves and disappearing in a flash. From inside the hall, I hear her beginning to give her speech, albeit, a little quicker than I expected. Standing around for a couple minutes, I just idly fiddled with my hands. I played a game of Rock paper scissors by myself.
I won against myself. 6 to 4.
The great doors opened and I scrambled to the center, looking dead ahead. When the doors had opened a considerable amount, I walked inside.
It was silent. Very silent. All eyes were trained on me. I didn’t like it. Too many eyes. All of them matching hundreds… I could’ve sworn I saw a few ponies missing their eyes, and some with maggots crawling around in them.
Great… now of all times…
I continued to walk down the aisle, past Seventy-two rows of chairs, Nineteen of which, were occupied by the soldiers and tankers from outside. Thank Faust they’re eyes hadn’t changed.
By the time I had reached the very end of the line, I turned to face Luna, who stood up there with me, near the podium. Upon the podium, was a box. A Small. Black. Box… That was it? Not to sound like a whiney baby, but… shouldn’t it be, I Dunno… bigger? She lifted the box in her hands and walked over to me.
“ Silver eyes, for thine contribution to the war effort of the New Lunar Republic, We present thee a medal befitting thine honor, thine courage and Thine bravery. Of all the things that have been Done, It is with Great honor that I present to you, the Blood Knights Cross. Before I do, doth thou swear to uphold thine courage and tenacity in the face of thine adversary?” Luna said, holding the box slightly higher than her waist line, beginning to unlatch the box.
With a curt nod, I replied. “I Swear, you highness”
“With Bravery and Loyalty, do you swear to stand beside those whom thou has’t pledged thine allegiance to? To Bleed an even Die for your fellow and Common Ponies?” She said, finally done fiddling with the lock as she looked at me, the small box poised to open.
“I do, your Highness.” Was my reply.
Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Boom!
My ears splayed back, focusing on the distant echo of Thunder as Luna Replied. “Then with the honor Bestowed upon me, I officially name thee, the ‘Hero of the Night’!” Luna proclaimed, opening the box and semi-quickly slipped the Medal of a Moon eclipsing the sun, a sword on the front of it bearing my name as she clasped the medal around my neck.
scrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-EEEEE- BA-GOOM!
The castle rumbled as multiple explosions slammed into the heavily defended fortress/castle. The very foundation rocking in its place like a cradle for a newborn foal. Multiple support columns, original to the old castle, shook and began to fall. Luna, thank goodness, used her magic to hold the support columns above the civilian and military heads that littered the floor, having been knocked from their flimsy chairs.
“What in Equestria is Going on!?” shouted a military commander, before being knocked to the floor as a brick the size of his head smacked into his lower back, sending him sprawling to the floor. Immediately the Stained Glass windows that stood behind us were no more than rubble and litter as several shells impacted the windows and support beams, vaporizing the glass and some of the ruble from the combined heat of the explosions.
I didn’t have time to think as I saw the massive fires that’d broken out during the first bombardment of our home. Looking out to the massive field that sprawled out behind the castle, I noticed the concussive balls of fire as they fired their shells.
I knew exactly what’d happened. . .
“Damned Solar Empire….”
30 minutes before the shelling of Castle town and Silver’s Award ceremony
“Ugh. These half-tracks are practically worthless for what Celestia Paid for them!” Whined a butter yellow Unicorn, her mane half matted with mud and grass and bugs from the field behind their target. They were within range now, why’d princess Celestia request that their heavy artillery be up front while the lights get Protection from the tree line? Course correction never knew the answer to her Question as she was hushed by her company commander. who, with her hat so trim and perfect on her head, had to reply.
“Because even if ve used ze light Artillary, ze vould become a Carnival game to ze’s loony bastards.” She replied, moving her Blonde mane out of her eyes so she could aim and command properly. “even zen, ze NLR’s T-70 AAHDS’s would turn our LAV’s into swiss cheese, CC.” she grumbled, looking through the peep hole of the heavily armored anti-tank/Anti-air cannons.
In front of her, she saw the tops of the tall grass, and their target. The wall dividing the Loony’s from the outside world. Of course, their wall was heavily defended at the top, but the bottoms…
“But Aryanne, the HAV’s would’a protected them as they moved up behind us. Granted, their turrets are taller, all they’d need to do is duck down to where the shells can’t pen their hulls.” Night light said, her horn illuminating the inside of their half-tracks cab. Her Gun was primed and ready, while Butterscotch had kept her eyes open, keeping watch for anything that might be in front of their tracked vehicle that would impede their progress through the tall grass.
Aryanne groaned. ‘of all ponies, why did I get stuck with the whiners?’ she thought to herself, thunking her head against the breach of the gun, before looking through the peep hole again and picking up the radio that sat behind the Cab of her half-track. “Attention, attention, All Tracked vehicles are to stop vithin twenty yards and vill fire on my mark.” She said, deadpanning as a bunch of shouted answers came through the static-y radio.
Within a Minute, their drive forward was halted as they followed their orders, engaging the parking handle. “good. Good. Danke, my friends, Ve are on the cusp of Beginning the Rise to Celestia’s Grand Empire. Ve Vill show them vat it means to be a Sunny!” she exclaimed through the radio, grinning ear to ear as her 8.8 Flak 37M was loaded and aimed precisely at the castle, hoping that the shell would be the one to end Luna’s Life, and bring joy to the Sun Monarch’s face.
“Prepare to fire in 3…” she smirked, clenching her fist and holding up 3 fingers.
“2…” two fingers.
“1! Fire!!” she yelled, the resounding booms was deafening, but glorious as each tank fired their guns in harmony, the shells streaking across the sky. The Artillary shells smashing into various buildings behind the walls while the Tank Destroyers shot rounds at the wall, destroying the foundation and bringing a large portion of the wall down, revealing a hole for the soldiers who were inside Armored Trucks poured out and rushed the walls as more rounds were fired, the shells screaming across the night sky.
Aryanne looked at her watch, grinning as it read 12:00 at night. “midnight…” she mumbled as she waved her arm downward again to fire the gun. Her crew pulling the trigger and blasted the stained glass windows.
The Symphony of Cannons Firing was simply marvelous, and extremely erotic, in Aryannes Eyes. Her hat was knocked off as a bunch of Snipers who were sitting on separate parts of the wall they’d just fired at began taking pot-shots at any exposed body parts. Aryannes hat not spared from the onslaught of bullets. Quickly grabbing her cap and slapping it on her head, she ducked behind the Ballistics shield that was placed on the massive gun. Multiple Pings were heard as more bullets impacted the metallic shield separating the gun crew from certain death.
Looking through the peep hole again, aryanne saw more than half of the Solar empire soldiers stumbling out into the tall grass, running at the Broken wall. Within a few seconds, a Flare was sent rocketing from the wall, followed by several more, illuminating the fields that held more than eighty tank destroyers and Mobile Artillery. Looking to the left, she noticed the Plan B’s hiding inside the tree line to the West.
A Whole battalion of Panzers were there, the small cannons to the large cannons aimed at the Wall. Celestia had not been overly happy to know that the griffons were supplying both sides of the war, however, she hadn’t turned down their most recent tanks, at the cost of 15,000 bits per tank. The Royal coffers were less than pleased to learn of this cost, but understood, all the same. They, like Her, wanted to win this war and get it over with as fast as possible.
The tanks sat silently, only their frontal armor being exposed to the wall. Aryanne was pleased as her cannon fired at the castle again and again, knowing that the Plan B’s wouldn’t be needed, as this plan went well. So well, in fact, that she knew Celestia would be more than likely giving her a bonus and maybe a promotion. Aryanne liked that thought.
Ka-Tang- Boooom!!
“ Was war das?!” Aryanne shouted in her native tongue, looking around. There, a tank a few yards to her left was in flames, ponies jumping from the wrecked hull of their StuGIII as it was set alight. A few tried to douse the flames by rolling around while others came to their aid with fire extinguishers, only two others not going out quick enough pulled out their Unico-6 shooters and turned the barrels to their own heads and pulled the triggers as they screamed in pain, the fire not going out for several more minutes as their corpses continued to burn.
Aryanne harrumphed. She was angry that someone had managed to puncture the hull of their tanks, the armor having been reinforced enough to withstand most Armor piercing ammo. Looking to the wall, she noticed a soft red laser pointer aimed at another tank, before a flash of light appeared and another StuGIII went up in flames. This time, nopony survived. The top and sides of the crew compartment blew wide, un-shot ammo being sent this way and that as more than enough of the Armor Piercing rounds were fired off from the heat of the tank exploding. The combined fire from the rounds going off ripped a bloody swath through their own foot soldiers.
“Damn… Damn, Damn, DAMNIT!” aryanne screamed. She pointed at the wall. The crew of her Truck nodded and began turning the Artillery piece at the wall. A single red dot appeared in the scope of the gun, only to disappear as the 8.8 centimeter round was fired, the recoil knocking the tracked truck back a few hooves. A second later, the section of wall the sniper was on was destroyed.
Aryanne laughed happily, grinning as she watched the troops begin to pour into the city, more Half-tracks began driving closer and closer to the busted wall, releasing their passengers who in turn, ran at the wall with their guns cocked, locked and ready to slay any who stand against their sun Monarch.
Present Time - - - - > Cpt. Silver Eyes
“ARTILLERY!” somepony shouted behind me, the racking of handguns and sub machine guns was easily recognizable as more and more shells rained down. Princess Luna’s Flare illuminated the Field and showed a massive Battalion of Tanks. Destroyers and Mobile Artillery. All of them firing in unison. Already two of the Tank Destroyers, their low hulls and stout cannons, were turned into burning campfires. One had an engine fire that spilled into the main crew cabin while the second had its ammo rack hit. The Griffon that was sitting on the wall had jumped back off the tower, his wings catching the air as he was sent hurtling backwards, the explosion catching him off guard.
I whipped around as the massive doors were thrown open and revealed some Legionnaires, their armor glinting purple and blue in the fires of the hall as they began shouting for civilians to run to the Bomb shelters and for the Princess to Get to her panic room, Lest she be hit by a sniper. Already, they began making a walking shield around her, their armor sparking as they created a negative magnetic field to send the bullets away from them. Luna followed, a little nervous from all the gun fire around her. Before she left, she lit her horn again and shot out another Flare, this one brighter as it illuminated the destroyed and ruined city as well as the wall, where more than half of the NLR was engaging what seemed like the whole Solar Empire.
I Look at a soldier carrying Two SMG’s, the M463 Collapsible. I yelled to him and held up a hand, he noticed and tossed me the second SMG. I nabbed it from the air and racked the slide, checking the breach for any ammo. Fully loaded, all 32 shots were Armor piercing and were low caliber. You could pierce any form of armor, minus steel and the Kevlar that the Griffons had been experimenting with.
I began to run to the hallway, the only ones left here had left a few seconds ago as I gazed out upon the burning city. The second I Turned to run through the massive doors, a shell came through and slammed into the arch way above the doorway. Barreling through before blowing up in an empty reception hall.
Sighing, I walked back to the Open hole that stood in replacement of the Stained glass windows that had been there no more than a few minutes before. Looking out at the destruction, I groaned. “I’m getting too old for this shit…” I mumbled before jumping out of the window, knowing full well what would happen. I fell 20 Stories, down to the ground below. The stone Ground coming up to meet me faster and faster. Buckling my knees, before cracking them in preparation of what was about to happen.
The ground and my hooves met, the pulse and surge of magic on the bottom pooled into the Stone and turned it into a Spring-like net and sent me flying towards a large grouping of Solar Empire Soldiers. I clicked off the safety on my gun and peppered the ground and surrounding soldiers, aiming for their red broom-heads on their helmets, aiming to miss the Ponies who were running from danger or running into danger with intent to protect all they had. When my clip emptied, I chucked my gun as some random mare who was clotheslined by my gun smacking square into her muzzle and caused her to fall unconscious as I flew a little farther, charging my fist with magic.
my fist became a black vortex or nightmare magic as I slammed into the ground, slamming my fist into the stone and sending a pulse of Magic out, killing a large grouping of ponies who’d so foolishly stood up against me. Granted, the bullets they’d fired stung like hell, but was nothing compared to what moon metal would do to me.
I Stood up and continued to run towards the wall, within 30 meters of the hole, large, Half-armored vehicles stood up from the ash of several burnt down homes, their wheels coming down to sit on the ground as long thin legs folded up into the body of the trucks. On the back of the Trucks were several old-school Maxim guns on a swivel turret.
“Anti Air… son of a bitch.” I grumbled, still running at it as the pony on the back racked the slides and aimed at me, his look being one of fear as I grew closer and closer.
Eventually, I came within 2 meters of the vehicle and jumped on top of it, hoping on top of the cab, before flipping over the stallion as I dropped a small egg. He noticed it and jumped off, shouting ‘GRENADE!’
at the entrance to the small area where homes were burned and ruined, the hole in the wall was massive, the mound of Ruble that sat in between the structures was simply amazing.
Pak!-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak!!
I jumped behind the cover of a ruined Solar Empire Light Assault Vehicle, the door on the back was open and inside was the burned husk of a pony in Solar Empire armor and uniform. Several other ponies were at the wall with me, ducking behind cover and raising their guns up to shoot blindly over and around their cover. When I skidded to a stop next to the ponies, some of them gave a shout of Joy.
“Captain! Faust, took you long enough!” came Snippits Shout. Looking around, I saw him on the other side of the street, ducking behind a small single engine Tractor with an overturned cart behind it, apples littering the ground.
“well sorry, Snippit, but I had a bit of a problem with the FUCKING CASTLE BEING BLOW THE FUCK UP!” I shouted, pointing to the ruined castle, holes littering several areas of the once majestic structure. All I got was the simple “oh” before he looked back at me. “We got multiple sectors locked down tight, but this is still a big problem! I’ve been trying to get these useless fucks on the radio, but the shadowbolts are being shadow Dolts right now and scrambling to find every piece of their gear, rather than douse the fires and get their light support bombs!” he shouted over the din of battle, bullets whizzing by like mosquito’s.
I growled. Useless air support. I looked to my left and saw a pony carrying an Light Model 2 (or LM2 for short) radio on his back. He was frantically trying to get several hundred troops to the hole, but wasn’t succeeding because, either his clearance wasn’t high enough, or the pricks didn’t feel like giving fire support.
I held out my hand and he looked at it, before reluctantly giving me the radio. Lifting the receiver to my ear, I hear static and shouting. I grabbed his antenna and pushed some magic into it and immediately got a better signal.
“Whiskey-Oscar-227, This is Sierra-Echo-118, we need Immediate Air support at grid B-5-2. Repeat, Air support at Grid B-5-2. Over!” I shouted into the phone. A second later, a curt response cut through the din of explosions. “Roger Dodger Sierra Echo, this is your friendly neighborhood air support, India- Hotel 5-5-9, coming in for a strafe run. Hold onto yer asses, colts. S’gunna be loud.”
Nodding, I looked up at the wall. Still, more and more Solar empire soldiers were pouring in, the resistance of the NLR in homes and behind cover being over powered by the enemy. Then… the screams. Not pony in nature, but of a dive bombing plane with the Lunar Trumpets attached under the engines. Looking straight up, I noticed the one and only Iron Head dropping in, guns blazing in the Python-40 Fighter plane.
Of course, it still boggled my mind to see an earth pony flying, even if it was with the help of a metal machine such as that. Regardless, I saw him begin to pull up out of his dive and a small metallic object drop from under his planes wings. It was only then that I heard the whistles. Most ponys in the Air force attached small tin whistles to the guide fins on the backs of any bombs they had been outfitted with. Most just enjoyed the sound, while others thought of them as a fear tactic.
I just found it annoying and waited for the boom.
9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4.. never mind. My counting and timing was off as my thoughts were cut in half by the bomb hitting the hole in the wall, blasting more rubble away while also blasting more than half the solar empire away. I Stood up and grabbed an assault rifle from the air. The metal burning my skin slightly as I held it, before flipping it to hold the grip and put my finger on the trigger, both my guns firing in tandem.
multiple groups of SE soldiers began to re-enter the hole, trying to advance in on us. More than a few soldiers stood up to charge with me. When my second rifle ran empty, I dropped it and attached a bayonet to my recently “borrowed” NLR rifle, Charging with a wave of Soldiers falling in line behind me, the soldiers before us falling to fear and beginning to turn tail and run.
My blade entered the back of a Legate, his scream of pain silenced as my blade was ripped from his back and chased after more prey.
My gun fired as the blade entered the back of some mare Private 2nd class. As she fell, I stood there, atop the ruble of the broken wall. The flames behind me illuminating the field in front of me as the Soldiers of the Night pushed, and pushed hard, against the surging enemy. I drew my sword, the soft ‘sching!’ echoing softly in my mind. I looked at my blade, the mark of nightmare moon still imbed inside the guard, shining softly with an unmistakable glow.
I looked up and could feel my eyes burn softly as I whispered. “back into the war, eh moonlight?”
And everything began to fade to red as inky blackness swelled up in my vision. And soon enough….
I was in hell…