Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Equestrian Side of Things

"What I worry about is the way this war seems to be drawing out with no end in sight."

"Which it is why it is crucial that our invasion of Geonosis meets with success."

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ki-Adi-Mundi on the invasion of Geonosis.

Counterattack! With the clone army

stretched in desperate attempt to engage

General Grievous' Starfleet, Separatists

planets that were once thought secure are

now rising up against the Republic. On

Geonosis, Separatist leader Poggle the

Lesser, safe in his newly ray-shielded

factories, creates thousands of terrible new

weapons which march off the assembly

line against the outnumbered clone army.

The Jedi, resolute in the effort to restore

order to the Republic, mount a massive

invasion to retake Geonosis and shut down

Poggle's factories once and for all.... (Source: Opening Narration for Landing at Point Rain: Star Wars the Clone Wars)

Geonosis? What is the first thought that comes into your mind when you think of the planet? For some, it was the beginning of the Great Clone Wars, where a legion of Jedi and Clone Troopers freed Anakin Skywalker, Padme Amidala and Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Genosian Execution Arena. For others, it was where the seemingly never endless legions of battle droids were born amongst loads of other weapons of war for the Confederacy of Independent Systems. For one particular set of Jedi, their thoughts of it was a gigantic dustbowl. There they were, trapped in a sandstorm, wind blowing hard and granules of sand cutting into their robes and fur with only their lightsabers, the ancient weapons of both the Jedi and their age old archenemies the Sith, to light their way, and that was only just, Trixie Lulamoon, and her fellow Jedi Knight Twilight Sparkle were in Tartarus. A windy, sandy, dustbowl of a Tartarus. As they trudged through the nightmarish conditions, complaints from their Clone Squadron began to rise up, as they inevitably would.

"Damn it! Can't see a thing!" A clone shouted from somewhere nearby, his voice just barely audible through the howling winds.

"Equipped for everything, this armor was supposed to bloody be! But I think not!" Another snapped in frustration. That one was an Odd Clone as they were called amongst the bunch. You see, being clones, the troopers were all supposed to have the same voice, if not the same personality. But every now and then, you got an odd one amongst the bunch, that spoke differently with an accent. A mutation in the DNA that even the Kaminoians themselves had yet to figure out. Nobody really minded, as it made things more interesting and a tad less strange for the non clone combatants of the Clone Wars. After all, troopers who spoke with the same voice time and time again could creep one out at times.

"Oh, quit your complaining, we're Clone Troopers! We sure as Hell don't give a damn about the weather conditions. We do our job, and that's that!" The Clone Commander in charge of this particular squadron, Commander Silas barked out from somewhere in the storm. "And what's our job again, you nerfherders?"

"TO BLAST THOSE CLANKERS INTO PILES OF SPARKING SCRAP, THAT'S WHAT!" Every clone in the squadron yelled back on instinct.

"Good, that's what I like to hear from my men!" Silas laughed before to raise their spirits, (In his own, morbid offball way) he began to sing a traditional Clone Trooper Cadence.

"Everywhere we go,

Sleemos want to know

Who we are

Where we come from

So we tell them

We are the 211th!"

And soon the others began to sing along as Twilight and Trixie collectively sighed in unison and thought "Here we go again..."

"Everywhere we go,

Sleemos want to know

Who we are

Where we come from

So we tell them

We are the 211th!"

Trixie turned to Twilight as the squadron trundled on through the sands.

"Just when you think you can't find something worse to hear then the windstorm... You get that." Trixie grumbled in Twilight's ear, who could only laugh nervously.

"W-Well, it... it at least keeps the troops spirit's up... So... so, that's good, I-I suppose?" She commented as the song continued, the second chorus even louder than the first, the beat keeping time to the rhythmic marching of the troops' boots against the sand.

"Everywhere we go,

Sleemos want to know

Who we are

Where we come from

So we tell them

We are the 211th!"

Mighty, mighty, 211th!

Rough n' tough 211th!

We're not the blasted Sithspitting 501st!

And so the song continued on, getting wilder and ruder with each verse. Now, this thing about the 501st, the 211th Squadron had a long standing rivalry with them, nopony knew where it came from or when it came about, but it had been going for as long as anybody in the two squadrons could remember. Now Twilight chalked it up to Commander Cody and his squadron having a higher kill count and success rate (Not that the 211th's wasn't bad, it was pretty impressive in its own right) than Commander Silas's own.

Personally, neither Anakin nor Twilight could give a damn about why their squadrons hated each other so much, and to be honest, Captain Rex, and Captain Solaris, (Silas's superior) didn't mind the other. They respected each other equally. But for the rest of the troops, well... Not so much. Whenever the two squads met up, there was bound to be trouble. Prank wars, Clones challenging each other to stupid dares. Usually, they were harmless like seeing who was better at arm wrestling or things like that. Bit every so often, things could escalate into jokes that ended up downright nasty, like when one Clone challenged another to spend a week with C-3PO and after that, rumor had it the Clone went mad, or chewing the luna-weed as it was called and launched the Clone who had dared him in the first place out of the Resolute in an escape pod just before it went into Hyper-Space. It had taken a week to find the escape pod and the clone afterwards, who had shot himself just to end his loneliness. Now as for the clone who had made the dare... Well, he'd fed the Sarlacc, or vanished completely in the common tongue. He still hadn't been found to this very day. ...At least that's how the rumor went. Nobody ever knew if it was entirely true or not, or something someone with a dark and morbid sense of humor had made up out of boredom. Whenever this possibility was brought up, everyone always thought of Silas. He'd been known for making up things like this before.

Back in the present time, Twilight's sensitive ears had picked up something no-one else had. Clank, clank, clank, the sound went, in a rhythmic manner. Battle droids, a whole squadron of them at least. She could also hear the hum of AAT Armor Assault Tanks. Twilight's eyes narrowed and she looked at Trixie.

"You hear that too?" She asked, and Trixie nodded back in return before she let out a yell of "HALT! WEAPONS READY! GOT A WHOLE SQUAD OF CLANKERS COMING OUR WAY!"

Rifles cocked, and the gunners in the squad's selection of TX-130 Saber-class fighter tanks readied their cannons as the clanking began to get closer and closer. The wind finally died down, and it was revealed to the squad's horror, they were in a canyon, boxed in on all sides with the red canyon walls to the left and right of them, and the droid platoon in front of them, with the tanks dragging up the rear.

"Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide... And outnumbered too." Twilight muttered as she ignited her light green lightsaber blade, with Trixie igniting her own blades, which were azure and purple respectively. She held them in a reverse Shien style grip, and Twilight held her own in the Soresu style.

"Trixie likes those odds." Trixie remarked lightly as the laser fire began to fly and bodies and droids like began to drop while cannon fire was exchanged back and forth.

"You always do." Twilight retorted and as a shell from an AAT tank came towards her, she grabbed it with the Force, and sent it right back into a squad of droids who only had time to let out an "Uh-Oh." before being rendered into a pile of various limbs. A Super Battle Droid, a heavily armored grey design, and more intimidating than its skeletal like counterparts that made up the bulk of the backbone of the droid army, fired a missile towards them and Trixie leaped over it and forced it upwards into the sky where it then circled downwards into a droid tank, opening its cockpit up to the world. Trixie leaped forwards and was soon muzzle to faceplate with a droid pilot.

"Uh-Oh." The droid said and Trixie smirked.

"Uh-Oh, indeed, Trixie thinks." before she lopped the head off the droid and took control of the tank.

"Hey Twilight, you thought what you did was impressive did you? Well, Trixie says... Watch this!" She laughed before turning the cannon towards another tank and blasting it's top half clean off, before Trixie had to leap out to avoid the same fate from another tank and found herself in the middle of a squad of Super Battle Droids.

"Surrender, Jedi Scum." One droid's monotone voice said and Trixie chuckled before flicking her lightsaber blades off to lull the droids into submission and think that she was giving up. But when they closed in even further for the kill, they were all blasted off in various directions by a powerful Force Push with Trixie flinging her arms outwards.

"Idiots." Trixie remarked before she heard the cock of a laser rifle behind her. She turned, only to see a battle droid (Commander class, judging by its orange detailing) with it's laser rifle aimed right at her and snickering. Then, a green blade was sticking clean through its chest.

"But... I just got... promoted..." The droid said before collapsing in a heap with Twilight standing over her.

"Always have to show off don't you?" Twilight asked wryly with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, but Trixie knows you love it." Trixie remarked with what Twilight could swear was an almost flirtatious tone in her voice. Then again, Twilight thought to herself, maybe she was imagining things. After all, Jedi couldn't have loved ones... could they?

"You know, one of these days, this recklessness of yours that you so enjoy showing off to the world and everypony around you is going to get you killed." Twilight lectured, and Trixie just groaned to herself.

"Always with the discipline and the lectures, aren't you Twilight Twinkle?" Trixie asked sarcastically, messing up her fellow Knight's name on purpose just to show how annoyed she was. Twilight just rolled her eyes before both mares' ears registered the sound of laser and cannon fire.

"Right, warzone." Twilight said with a crimson blush coming to her face and Trixie reignited her lightsabers and together, the two mares stood back to back, blocking laser fire and cutting down any droids who got too close. The battle raged on, clone and droids falling like dominos.

"We're in a losing battle here, we need to regroup!" Silas yelled out, before he let out a yell of a different type. Pain, as he was then shot in the leg. Trixie spotted a nearby cave, and pointed to it.

"In there, might be an escape route!" Trixie ordered.

"Or we could just get boxed in even worse!" Silas yelled back, even as Twilight helped him up.

"Do we have a choice?" She asked, and Silas shook his head.

"No... Not a choice at all." He mused before making up his mind.

"Troops, into the cave! The droids will have no choice but to follow us in there, and those tanks of theirs won't fit!" He yelled, and with Twilight helping him along, he limped inside the cave as the remaining clones and Trixie rushed in after him into the darkness...

(To Be Continued...)