Author's Note

alrighty everyone here it is the first offical chapter that makes the begining of the second Pony Caribou war. I hope you enjoy it and please don't forget to comment leave a like and any feed back that you have, and i see you later :D

500

Two weeks later

Word that war now existed had spread like a wildfire across Equestria. In that time there had been several skirmishes across the nations northwestern border. Though these attacks were light each one was slightly stronger than the last, for it would seem the Caribou and crimson hive were actively probing Equestrias defenses many if not all of the higher ranking military officers were calling for an immediate preemptive offensive out and across the marecific towards the Caribou empire and the Crimson hive. Yet there was a wrench that had been thrown into the gears of this plan. Namely that for large troop movements to be allowed it required a fifty percent or more votes from the nobility to allow even a single battalion to move. Suffice to say Ulfric was not pleased by this.

“YOU CAN NOT BE FUCKING SERIOUS YOU WOULD RATHER STANDBY WHILE OUR KINGDOM IS ATTACKED AND INVADED ALL SO YOU FAT FUCKING COWARDS CAN LINE YOUR ASSES WITH COIN!” Ulfric shouted in anger, oh how he was so close to letting the nobles have a very personal beating, and he had every right to be mad as sixty percent had voted to not deploy the bulk of Equestria’s forces to battle. "AND TO THINK SO MANY OF YOUR ANCESTORS WOULD BEING RUSHING TO AID THE KINGDOM AND YET THIS IS WHAT THEIR LEGACIES HAVE BECOME?!!!!!!!
Most of the nobles who had voted in favor of a mass deployment of troops flinched and recoiled at the outburst from the angry human, yet they understood his anger their nation, their way of life and culture were under attack and action had to be taken, or else all would fall to darkness.

"Sir StormWolf we understand you frustration, yet the vote is final there will be no major deployment of Equestria's armies, I am truly sorry." Celestia said while she had to keep up a professional appearance she too was not pleased about this decision either in fact she was rather livid yet she did not show it. Yet in the back of her mind she knew Ulfric would not sit idly by while Equestria was burned and its citizens slaughtered, she knew he would defy the vote and march to war, as he had done so many times in the distant past to protect what he called home and all that he loved. Her train of thought was interrupted by Ulfric storming out of the throne room.

"SPINELESS FUCKING COWARDS!" his voice echoed down the hall as he made his way to the war room. Celestia stole a glance to Luna who also shook her head in disappointment. with the meeting more or less over both monarchs rose from their thrones to follow the angered human and to see what he had planned.

WAR ROOM

With an angry huff Ulfric threw open the doors to the war room not caring for the looks of shock and surprise this earned him before he stopped at the table had a massive detailed map of Equestria on it.

"Sir? Did the meeting go well, will we be mobilizing more of the military?" A junior strategist asked.

"No, we will not, the nobility has failed Equestria, they would rather cower behind their wealth while our people are slaughtered or taken to be sold in the caribou slave markets or taken to the crimson hive to be used as a living source of food." He growled slamming his fist on the map table.

"And what pray tell will you do about it Sir StormWolf ?" A new voice said from behind him, This new voice Ulfric easily identified as that of Celestia who entered with Luna a few paces behind. "I know you too well despite the current status of our....’friendship’ both Luna and I know you will not be content to sit and do nothing."

"You are correct princess, I intend to fight, yet it must be at a place where our defiance will be best remembered and lift the curtains of foolishness from the eyes of the nobility, and I know exactly where that will be." Ulfric said, with a very slight smirk, as he points to a single name on the map near the northwestern border. The pass of Platea.

"You would fight there?" Luna asked with concern as she studied the location on the map. It was a narrow pathway only wide enough that at most only ten ponies would be able to stand shoulder to shoulder in it.

"I intend to without the approval of the nobility, and with a small force, since they seem set on not letting the greater bulk of our forces march to war." Ulfric said

"How many?" Luna asked with a hint of fear

"Five hundred."

"FIVE HUNDRED?!!!!" Both princesses shouted with the royal voice in shock and fear.

"Ulfric please my beloved reconsider this they'll overwhelm you." Luna said as a few tears started to fill her eyes.

"I know they will but I can not stand by and do nothing." Ulfric said stepping around the map table and standing before Luna, The lunar mare raising her muzzle and eyes to look into Ulfric's, who bless his soul simply pulled his love into a caring and gentle hug to reassure her that he would not fail.

"Please don't go. " She said as she buried her muzzle and face into his shoulder, shedding a few tears. "I don't want to lose you again." She stopped when Ulfric step back half a step, lifting her muzzle up with a finger to look her in the eyes. those present were gifted the pleasant display of the human softly kissing Luna on the lips.

"You won’t my dear, that's a promise, and I never make a promise I can't keep." Ulfric said wrapping his arms around the blue mares waist , hugging her. Luna felt some comfort in this wrapping her arms around Ulfric's neck and returning the hug.
"Promise me you'll come back." Luna asked

"I will, we all will." Ulfric said before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small wrapped package. "Here so that you will know I am safe. With a quizzical look Luna took the package and unwrapped it gasping at what was inside. it was the necklace Ulfric had made for each of them so long ago, now it was no longer a burnt black but a bright silver humming with magic.

"You fixed it?" Luna said with surprise.

"I did because I know you Luna, so I figured a little something to let you know that I am safe while away would be a comfort to you." Ulfric said with a smile. Luna knew this was true she trusted her lover, so she had no need to question him, for now they would spend some time together before Ulfric left for war.

Three days later, The Pass of Platea

They had arrived, all five hundred ponies, earth ponies, pegasi, Unicorns and Thestrals. somewhere werewolves and vamponies among the just ordinary ponies. They had seen little conflict so far, having only encountered a few enemy scouts and they had fallen quickly to the five hundred. For they had waited a whole day as they prepared for the enemies inevitable arrival. Holding the pass from where they were gave them two tactical advantages, it was narrow forming a natural bottle neck and one side was nothing but a steep cliff dropping some even hundred feet down to razor sharp rock and the sea. Ulfric intended to utilize both of these when the time came.

"How much longer do you think we'll have to wait Sir." Asked a Pegasus corporal, the waiting and anticipation was starting to bore some of them and they wanted to fight yet the waiting was starting to get to them.

"With luck hopefully not too much longer." Ulfric said holding his helmet under his arm. "For now we must wa-" He didn't have the chance to finish as the ground began to shake and lose stones and rocks shifted and fell around them.

"Earthquake?" Star Blossom asked with a hint of concern.

"No lieutenant," Ulfric said with a devilish grin "Battle formations!" Many of the five hundred who heard this scrambled for their helmets and other equipment as they made ready to face the approaching enemy. The first thing they heard was the sound of thousands of boots thundering on the stone floor of the path growing louder by the second as the advancing caribou force rounded the corner heading straight for them. facing them was the equestrian force, all arranged in rows of ten guards wide and fifty rows deep blocking the pass, all armed with spears and large round shields that Ulfric called an aspis a three foot wide convex shield that was easy to wield and formed into a row formed a solid wall of wood and metal. Ulfric stood at the front with a spear in his right hand and a shield hanging from his left.

"THIS IS WHERE WE HOLD THEM, THIS IS WHERE WE FIGHT!" He yelled with a snarl turning to face his comrades in arms "THIS IS WHERE THEY DIE!" gesturing to the advancing caribou.

"EARN THESE SHIELDS PONIES!" Star blossom yelled raising her shield high.

"Remember this day my friends for it will yours for all of time!" Ulfric said as they waited. The caribou stopped a hundred yards from the Equestrians. Before they part and what appeared to be a Colonel stepped forward to address them.

"PONIES, LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!" He shouted, waiting for a response. For a few agonizing moments there was silence, it was quickly broken as a spear was hurled from the ponies, and hit the caribou directly in his heart. He was dead before he hit the ground.

"CARIBOU!" Ulfric yelled as he and his warriors formed a phalanx, spears ready to strike. "COME AND TAKE THEM!"
Upon saying these words various caribou war horns rang out as they charged the ponies, Ulfric knew from experience they would try to use their mind control spells on the stallions that accompanied him, but he had expected this as such every single soldier in the guard had their helmets enchanted with multiple spells to protect against this, this was one advantage that would be denied to the caribou from now till whenever the war ended.

“Steady!” Ulfric shouted over the stampede of charging caribou, what he heard next can not from the caribou but from one of his own warriors.

“GIVE THEM NOTHING BUT TAKE FROM THEM EVERYTHING! “ An orange Pegasus mare yelled, Mango julep he recalled a befitting thing for her to say. They braced themselves as the caribou closed, coming closer by the second each pony readied themselves for the incoming wall of bodies and armor.
With a force like that of stampeding cattle the caribou smashed into the shields of the ponies slowly pushing them back into the pass, but as each row was pushed back it would be braced and strengthened by the one behind it making the ponies formation more and more into an immovable object.

"PUSH!" "Ulfric shouted over the noise, shoving his shield into the mass of caribou the rest of the ponies doing the same as each row of the phalanx was pushed back to the next making it more difficult for them to be dislodged.

“NOW!” Star Blossom shouted as all five hundred braced and locked together, stopping the caribou’s advance . For a brief moment there was total silence, this silence however was broken as Ulfric and front most row of ponies smack the caribou away with their shields forming enough room that they could stab forward with their spears. Advance, shove out of the way, stab, repeat. Each time caused more caribou to die, each time drove them back as the ponies advanced. As they did those who lacked swords would dart out hacking and slashing with swords war axes and maces before retreating behind their shield bearing brethren.

“MOVE FORWARD “ Ulfric shouted as he smashed a caribou’s head in with his aspis. “DRIVE THEM BACK”
The ponies moved forward slowly forcing the caribou back the way they had come, falling more and more as they went, a good start to a new war.

Two days later

For three days the ponies had held the pass beating back each assault that came fighting beast and magic alike. Yet when the caribou king Danin heard of this defiance he chose a new tactic, he would send the best troops he had at his command troops who a thousand ago had served the Caribou for three hundred years and now they were reborn. The Eternals. It was the onset of night a crescent moon hung over head courtesy of Luna back in Canterlot. This was something Ulfric would not waste as there were a few werewolves and vamponies that had accompanied the five hundred. The eerie beat of drums play over the ever so slight breeze as the eternals advanced without a single spoken word. Then it was silent as the eternals had stopped before a wall of stone and corpses that blocked their path.

"PONIES PUSH!" Ulfric yelled as he and the five hundred pushed against the wall toppling it onto the first rank of caribou crushing them under stone and the bodies of their own dead.. for a brief moment the eternals were stunned at what had just happened before drawing their weapons as the ponies charged their ranks joined by those who were vamponie or those who werewolves had taken on their wolf forms. As the two forces met in combat, Ulfric joined them having quickly shifted into his Alpha wolf form charging the eternals. The savagery displayed by the Equestrians this night would forever be burned into the minds of the Caribou forever teaching them to fear Luna's duties as keeper of the night. What came was pure chaos, Caribou elites clashed with pony and the creatures of the night the vamponies and werewolves smashing into the Eternals like a battering ram driving a wedge between them, the cliff to their right and to their left a steep drop and the sea below. Yet as carnage raged on the pass twenty feet below a small group of ponies was fast at work hurrying to complete an assignment that was needed very soon.

"Aegis would you hurry up with that charge." An earth pony said as he connected a series of wires together binding them with tape.

"Hey its not that easy to drill a hole and shove dynamite in it when you hanging from a rope." Aegis said shoving the bundle of high explosives into the hole she had just finished drilling into the rock. "Got it that's the last one.
"
"You heard the mare LETS LEG IT PONIES!" the earth pony shouted as the demolition squad moved like they were on fire quickly returning to safety behind their brethren rejoining the battle that raged above their heads.
While his demolition teams worked furiously to finish their work Ulfric and his remaining guards had managed to push the eternals back up the pass some four hundred yards, for every inch of ground they claimed bought more time for the demo teams to finish so that the Pass would no longer be usable by the Caribou.
As Ulfric torn the arms from a caribou, the sounds of a war horn filled the air. It was the signal the the demolition ponies were finished with their task and was the sound to pull back via mass teleportation. Ulfric let loose a howl to alert those fighting around him as the horns of the unicorns charged with magic before it culminated it a bright flash. The ponies and their brethren of the night now four hundred yards down the pass.

“Sir, we are ready for you. “ Mango Julep said holding a detonator out for Ulfric to make sure the Pass of Platea would not be used again. With a simple nod Ulfric took the device in his large claws. And pressed the button as the Eternals charged at them. Suddenly they stop as a thunderous series of roars echoed around them, more and more the sounds grew closer until those at their rear began to panic as the path and cliff wall began to crack and give way into the sea below. When the dust had settled the ponies saw the fruits of their labors. A full mile and a half section of the pass was now absent leaving a gap and the sea between them and the remaining Caribou. Said aggressors only remained there for a few moments glaring at Ulfric and his guards with hate and disgust before turning and marching away slowly. This battle has been won. There are so many that still remain to be won if Equestria and its allies are to survive.