Battle for Equestria!
By: Za Raapini
These were dark times for Equestria indeed, for who could have predicted that the six Elements of Harmony would be engaged in a futile, bitter war with each other? Nopony could have predicted the bloodshed that came of it.
Things looked grim for Rarity. She couldn’t believe how quickly her former friends had descended upon her fledgling forces. Between sustained attacks from Pinkie’s troops and Rainbow Dash’s constant attempts at interference, she was left with a pitiful shell of what had been one of the most powerful armies vying for control. Grim indeed.
Looking at her map, she tried to predict where the enemy would come from next. The last she had heard, there was heavy fighting going on near Manehattan between two separatist factions, one led by Fluttershy, and one led by Applejack. Applejack’s forces appeared to have the upper hand, and outnumbered Fluttershy’s troops by at least two to one.
Sighing, she sat down, trying to figure out what her next move would be. It was going to be a long night.
000
This wouldn’t do; this wouldn’t do at all. Twilight peered at the locations that had been marked with the enemy’s last known position. The defense of Canterlot, while successful, had severely drained her resources, and she needed a chance to consolidate forces and regroup. There had been incursions all over her territory, and it was beginning to take its toll. She couldn’t hold up against attacks of this magnitude, not without reinforcements. But her alliance with Rainbow Dash was shaky at best; she was distrustful of the cyan pony’s true intentions.
She couldn’t be too careful; many alliances had been made and broken. It was still amazing that they were still willing to negotiate at this point. Of course, everyone was always trying to get that leg up on the other pony. She had to go forward with the utmost caution; one move that was just too aggressive would leave her vulnerable and exposed to a sweeping counterattack. As she issued her orders and began moving the troops, she wondered what the future of this conflict would be.
000
Pinkie Pie was getting bored. Sitting around and thinking was not what she liked to do not one bit and the more she sat here and thought the more bored she got and the more bored she got the more impulsive she got and the more impulsive she got well…let’s just say the battlefield results weren’t pretty.
As her troops limped back after a humiliating defeat at the hands of Fluttershy while trying to take over Las Pegasus, Pinkie sat atop her command chair and wondered what she was going to do. She still had a sizable force, but they were spread thin, and Dashie’s soldiers were swarming from all sides. Pinkie had thrown everything she could at Dashie’s troops, but they were like the monsters of old; nothing was slowing them down, and they were grinding her soldiers into paste.
She could attempt to talk Rarity into providing support for her next offensive, but the fashionista was still bitter about the numerous defeats she had suffered at the hooves of the party pony early on in the war. The wounds would probably not be closed by cake and punch.
Sighing, Pinkie looked at the map and tried to think up a way to pull something out of this. Maybe they would underestimate her…wait! There it was. There was a lightly defended hamlet just down the highway from her main force, and what’s more, they had enough supplies to last her army for a while! She ordered them to march and take the hamlet, and then bunker down. Pinkie smiled to herself; things were looking up!
000
Rainbow Dash was wondering when Twilight was going to be ready for the attack. She was getting impatient taking and retaking the same damn towns over and over again. It was a holding pattern, and Dash was all about, well, the dash. Lighting warfare! Streaking into your enemy’s territory and crushing them! None of this garbage like, consolidate here, and plan there!
Frustrated, she settled into the now familiar routine of taking a town, only to see a counterattack get launched almost immediately.
000
Fluttershy was still trying to figure out how all this happened. She couldn’t lead an army! There were too many decisions to make, too many things to keep track of, and there was so much arguing that went on. Trying to think of a way to end the conflict, she continued to try to surrender, but it was to no avail. No mercy and no quarter was given; these fights would be down to the last pony.
But Fluttershy couldn’t strategize! At all! She wondered how she was going to hold out against the continued assaults at her borders.
000
Applejack had to give it to her army. They were as stubborn as she was. They continued to repel assault after assault, and her borders were still more or less intact. Smiling to herself, she decided it was time to end this charade once and for all. She invaded! She was sick and tired of everypony else trying to claw their own territory out of the map. Nothing was going to get done that way! So she pressed every advantage she could, but eventually her assault ground down.
She had failed. Rarity and Fluttershy had finally been defeated, but now she was open to a counterattack from Twilight’s ally, the nefarious Rainbow Dash. She stared at her adversaries…
000
“Ugh, finally! This game was taking forever! Leave it to AJ to be the impulsive one,” Dash said, frowning at the board. AJ had driven deep into Twilight’s territory, but she was left almost completely undefended. Twilight’s forces had been badly mauled in the assault, but were hanging on, if only by a thread. And Twilight did have the reinforcement cards ready to turn in…
“Well Rainbow, mop up Applejack so that we can finally get rid of Pinkie Pie and go to sleep,” Twilight said. She was exhausted; the game had taken hours and was more mentally draining than she would have liked to admit.
“I’ll do some mop up, but it ain’t gonna be on AJ,” Dash said with a devious grin.
“Wha-” was all Twilight could spout out.
“YOU WILL DIE BY TRAITOR’S HANDS!” Dash shouted with glee as she moved her army pieces to invade all of Twilight’s territories.
This prompted an immediate argument from the three ponies left who still cared about the game. Rarity looked at Fluttershy and Pinkie.
“Bed?” she suggested.
“Bed,” they agreed.
“And you said that we would be in an alliance to wipe out everyone else, those were your exact words!”
“Y’all are just simply unbelievable, ‘specially you Rainbow. That was a low-blow!”
“All is fair in love and war! I could’ve wiped out both of you!”
Upstairs, far away from the argument, Rarity looked at her two friends who came up with her.
“Girls?”
They both looked at her, momentarily distracted from getting ready for bed.
“We’re never listening to Twilight again on what constitutes a ‘fun, friendly activity.’ Ever.”
A/N: Just something I had bouncing around in my head that refused to go away. Currently suffering from writer's block on my other fic. Comments, questions, concerns, bitches, gripes, moans, you know what to do. Stay classy.
