Corporal Ernest Jones of the 31st Royal Infantry Division was having a rather bad day.

Whilst they were on there way to provide reinforcements to the 20th and 51st who were assaulting The Fortress city Sweetwater Trees. They were continuously by angry tribes and small armies of warrior monks both of which had ambushed and killed a good chunk of our force in the surprise but after they lost the element of surprise they were easy pickings for our automatics and tanks.

Ernest spotted a straggler cutting one of his comrades in half with their katana and whilst they had their back turned, Ernest charged towards them and ran them through with his bayonet and pulled it out and shot them in the head for good measure.

Pulling the bolt back on his rifle and quickly caught the casing before it hit the ground and shoved it in his pocket.

"Cheeky bastard." He gave the body a kick before walking over to his slice comrade and dragged both halves to a truck and threw them in, ignoring the stench emitting from the pile of mangled bodies caused by mines and blade wielding savages.

Afterwards I walked towards a group of 6 fresh faced soldiers that are part of the section he was assigned to command. Originally he had command of twice that amount but were wounded or killed

He looked at one of the soldiers in sadness as they were currently quivering on the ground whilst clutching his leg which was torn apart by a mine and the only thing keeping it together was his standard issue Clockwork exoskeleton.

He crouched down and placed his hand on the boys shoulder. "Don't worry mate, your going to be alright." I reassured him before towards the rest of the group and pointed at two of them. "Samuel, Richard. Get him to a medic. Now!" I ordered the two and they nodded and quickly carried him to Van full of wounded who were being tended to by medics and med bots.

Ernest looked at the horizon and sighed. He could see smoke in the distance which could be the city of Sweetwater Trees.

He went and helped gather up the dead and wounded then climbed onto a transport and after his section he closed the doors and the transport resumed its drive towards Sweetwater Trees.

"Hey didn't Sweetwater Trees used to be some ancient ruined city?" One of his men, Joseph said to us

"Nah your confusing it with the ruins to the north of it. its said that anyone who wonders through that area would either eaten by the sand or killed by hollow men. Can't remember its name though." Another man, Arthur answered

"The Place From Which No Living Things Returns is what the locals called it. My granddad told me all about the place. He was with the royal army during the time when the King attempted to destroy the darkness that was in control of Samarkand. The army was forced to cross that area when a section of the Great Trade Road was blocked off and they were immediately beset upon by endless hordes of hollow men and the sand itself trying to swallow. If it wasn't for the King conjuring a massive force push to knock down the structure of the city and dragging the hollow men into ground then the army would have been massacred." I said whilst taking the magazine out of my rifle and inserting in another bullet to replace the I used earlier then pulling back the bolt to let the bullet in the chamber then pushing it back.

"Well good riddance, if that place wasn't sorted out then it would have made this invasion a lot harder. Heck, I think we are currently passing through that region to get to Sweetwater Trees." Samuel said as he scrubbed the barrel of his automatic

"Hey Robert." Arthur nudged a man next to him. "Why did you join the army, if you don't mind me asking."

Robert sighed." Same reason as Thomas, I wanted to support my family, as a soldiers family will apparently gain extra rations and free medical care. Don't know if it wasn't just some tactic to get people to join the army."

"Oh its true. My dad joined the army whilst my mum was sick and straight away a group of med bots took her to a hospital and took care of her free of charge and for the first time in years I couldn't see my ribs because of all the extra food they gave us." Richard said with a smile. "Despite all the bad things you hear about the King, he does genially care for his people as long as they aren't worthless wanks."

"I think people know not to be worthless as only once have I seen what they do to you if you don't pay the tax or pull your weight and let me tell you, the whole town had nightmares for months." Ernest said with a shiver.

They all sat there for a few more hours in silence before Thomas spoke up.

"Do you think we will win this war sir?" Thomas asked Ernest.

Ernest looked at Thomas and sighed. "Honestly I'm not sure. We are currently in a stalemate with us and the enemy deeply entrenched in their positions and either sides not showing any signs of weakness. The only reason we manage to get to Sweetwater Trees is because of those fancy rockets that were recently made."

"Well I'm pretty sure we're going to kick the UNE arseholes. Especially with all the new toys we are making." Joseph said with confidence."

The sound of gunfire could be heard outside and Richard looked out a small window.

"Looks like we're he- OH SHI-" The loud boom of an explosion could be heard and the transport was sent tumbling along with its occupants.

Ernest would have been thrown around but he remembered to put his seatbelt on because he is a responsible human being whilst the rest of his section was sent flying into the walls and ceiling.

"AH SHIT WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" Samuel shouted before he collided with Joseph, their helmets just barely stopping them from knocking each other out.

After they had stopped tumbling, Ernest was left upside down on his seat whilst everyone else was sprawled out on the floor.

Reaching up his seatbelt, he took it out of its clip and fell to the ground and quickly got up.

"And that's what seatbelts are for lads NOW GET UP!" Ernest shouted and dragged Richard off the ground. but to his horror he saw that some thing had shot him through the head.

"EVERYONE OUT NOW!" Ernest shouted and kicked the door upon and dived to the side of the truck.

And when he got the side, several beams of light struck the ground near him and clipped the armour on his foot.

Acting on instinct Ernest leaned out from the side and shot a flying Pegasus soldier in the chest and was knocked out of the sky.

He went back into cover and pulled the bolt back on his rifle and tried to lean out of cover again but was forced back due to more beams of light striking near him.

He rolled to the front of the truck and counted a total of 4 Pegasus soldiers and 5 Earth pony soldiers then he aimed at another Pegasus soldier and shot them in the head and quickly pulled the bolt back and shot another soldier in the chest before they had time to react.

The Earth ponies charged towards him whilst firing their strange rifles and he went to throw a grenade over but they were taken out by Samuels automatic.

Ernest smiled before pulling the pin on his frag grenade and threw it at the Pegasus soldiers who were conveniently grouped together. "THROWING FRAG"

Everyone else dived to the ground and covered their heads whilst the enemy soldiers were gawking at the grenade before being blown up.

Ernest got of the ground and ran towards the rest of the 31st who were fighting of the UNE forces.

Noticing a Minotaur trying to choke a man to death so Ernest charged towards it and stabbed it in the sides and knocked it to the floor, then pulled out his pistol and shot it in the face.

Ernest helped the soldier up who thanked him before picking up his rifle and ran off to help fight off the UNE

"THOSE FUCKING CUNTS KILLED RICHARD!" Thomas screamed whilst gunning down a Unicorn.

Ernest ignored him and charged a Yak and attached it to a truck with his bayonet before pulling it out and shooting it in the head.

Hearing the sound of screaming. Ernest swung around and shot a Gryphon repeatedly with his pistol then finished it off with a shot to the head.

Ernest dived into cover and reloaded his pistol then holstered it and reloaded his rifle.

He stood back up and saw a UNE soldier in plate armour and holding a large shotgun.

Ernest aimed down the sights of his rifle and his helmet then fired several more times for good measure but the armour managed to withstand the bullets and the soldier charged towards him.

Ernest was knocked to the ground and had a shotgun aiming at his face. "ALBION WILL BU-" A roar could be heard and the UNE soldier was knocked to the ground.

Getting up, Ernest was shocked to see Richard tearing apart the UNe soldier and eating his insides.

Ernest took a step back as Richard began to howl loudly before his body started to grow larger and gain fur until he became a red furred Balverine.

Richard turned towards the enemy and jumped so high up that it hurt my neck to keep him in sight. Then he descended back down and tore a group of Pegasus soldiers apart with his razor sharp claws.

Hearing more howls, Ernest shot around and saw several Balverines charging past him and several other shocked soldiers.

"BY MY MOUSE OF A BELLEND, WE'VE BEEN GIVEN BALVERINES!" A random soldier shouted.

Castle Fairfax

"AAARRRRGH!" The King slammed his fist into the war table, causing all the figures on it to fall over.

"WHY ARE THOSE BLOODY HORSES IN THE SAMARKAND THEATRE!" The King said, eyes glowing slightly red.

"Our spies in the ANE told us that they have formed a temporary alliance called the UNE so they can help each other fight us." The royal spymaster Margaret Jay answered the kings demand.

"If we haven't had sent that battalion of Balvorn soldiers with the 31st then we could have seen heavy loses and our troops at Sweetwater Trees would have a much harder time taking it over and an even harder time keeping it under control." The Captain of the Royal Guard Jack Timmins commented whilst putting the figures back in place

"Well this is infuriating." The King said with gritted teeth.

"Well I have some good news for you my lord." Margaret smiled.

"And what could that be?" The King placed his hands behind his back and the red glow in his eyes dimmed.

"Remember when you have funded for that expedition awhile back." The king nodded." Well whilst they were getting ready to leave port I placed some of my spies on some of the ships and they have just recently managed to come back here on a ARE warship which was surrendered to the fleet, much to the confusion the ARE sailors on board who have been promptly shipped to the spire." Margaret handed a letter over to the King.

The King took an ornate letter opener out of his pocket and opened the letter and pulled out a small stone covered in blue runes.

The king placed his thumb on the stone and his eyes glowed a bright blue along with the runes.

After awhile the glowing stopped and the King had a large grin plastered on his face. "Margaret I don't know whether to kiss you for this or drag you to my bed chambers."

"Oh don't thank me." Margaret waved the king off with a blush. "Thank the brave men and women who had to bare with those monstrosities for under 50 years. Oh and before you ask, there at the Spire."

Just a quick note.
This is the point were I realised the consequences of saying the KA have a fixed Tattered Spire and if you know the story of Fable 2 then you have probably realised the monstrosity of an advantage this could give them. Anyways, back to the story.

"Good. Very good." The King looked at one of the his guards." You. Go fetch Reaver, I want him to see this right away."

The guard nodded and went towards the door but it shot open and took him out. "Way ahead of you, your majesty." Reaver swaggered into room with his usual smug smile.

"Lady Margaret has already informed me and I am bursting with joy over the thought of learning all the ARE's dirty little secrets." He walked up to me and snatched the stone out of the Kings out and placed his thumb on it and his eyed started glowing as he took in the information contained within the stone before it stopped and he tapped the floor with his cane and a projector extended down from the ceiling and he placed the stone into a slot and then tapped the tap of the projector with his cane.

The Film on the projector was engulfed in a bright blue light and then it projected an image of a map

"Now this land here is Equestria and while not accurate in terms of the size and distance between locations. The locations themselves are." Margaret said

"It looks like something the orphans would have thought of before I evicted them from of the orphanage." Reaver grinned whilst he looked over the map, his eyes seeming to linger on the Crystal Empire and the Everfree Forrest.

"It does seem very childish, and for some reason most of the locations are horse puns. Some of them are surprisingly good." Margaret smiled whilst staring at Canterlot.

"I can see three ways we can invade Equestria from." Jack said before pointing at the eastern landmass with a swagger stick. "We can land troops on this landmass and invade the Gryphon lands and take over their capital, which we can then use as a staging point for the main invasion." Jack then moved the stick below the image of a dragon. "We can send some fleets through here and land troops on Equestria's eastern coast or we can straight up attack the city called Baltimare and establish a foothold there." He then moved the swagger stick to the river next to Bug Bear Territory. "And we can invade Equestria from the north and attack the city of Trottingham on the Gryphon isles and at the same time we can end up taking out the railway leading from Equestria to the Gryphon lands and as a result we can end up delaying Gryphon and Equestrian reinforcements from helping each other fight us off and we could also use the Gryphon isles as another staging point." Jack smacked the end of the swagger stick into to his other hand and faced the King.

Reaver look at Jack and feigned a pain expression. "You wound me Timmins. Our ships can never be sunk, They were made by Reaver Industries which is owned by me." Reaver said arrogantly

"Of course you would think that way Reaver. If its to do with you in any way then you will think its the greatest thing to grace the world" Jack said in a mocking way.

Reaver chuckled. "I wont think its the greatest, I know its the greatest."

"Unfortunately we can only spare the 4th fleet." The King was then given a list by Margaret. "Which is composed of 87 Knothole Class Corvettes, 42 Hook Coast Class Destroyers, 2 Bloodstone Class Battleships, 3 Kraken Class Submarines and 1 Ravenscar Class Aircraft Carrier." The King was then given another list. "The Aircraft Carrier contains over 80 types of aircraft: 50 Mercenary Class Fighter Planes, 10 Banshee Class Bomber Planes and 20 Bowerstone Class Aerial Transports. The fleet will also be bringing 2 field armies, each containing 100,000 marines." The King passed the lists back to Margaret. "Because we can currently only send the 4th fleet along with 200,000 men, I want us to invade from the north and establish a stronghold on the Gryphon isles so they are in a defendable position." The King ordered Jack

"Yes your Majesty." Jack went to walk out of the room.

The King then turned to Reaver. "Once we establish control of Trottingham, I want the men to round up the civilians and execute the young, the elderly and anyone who is in bad physical or condition, then separate the men and women and send them back so you can put them to work. Treat them like their below your lowest of workers and try to keep them working as long as possible but kill them if they stop working and kill anyone who tries to help them." The King said which caused Reaver snicker.

"My, my, when did you get so... evil your majesty. "Reaver then turned around and began walking out of the door. "You think you couldn't get anymore evil then replacing an orphanage with a brothel just for the money, you are just like your father. Tatty bye!"

Margaret looked at the King with a dumbfounded expression. "You replaced an orphanage with a brothel?"

The King gave her a blank look. "It put a lot of gold in the treasury, I would tell you why I needed the gold but for some reason people it only made people angrier and I'm too tired so goodnight!"

Outside Sweetwater Trees

With a grunt of effort, Ernest pulled his bayonet out of a small dragon.

After pulling his bayonet out Ernest looked up just in time to see a large group of the UNE get blown to pieces by an explosion.

Looking to the right, Ernest saw the massive Twig Class Walker who is tearing the UNE apart with Explosive arrows.

He gave the man controlling the walker a thumbs up and the man operating the walker nodded at him before he turned around and deflected a rocket with one of the moving armour plates surrounding him before drawing back another arrow and letting it fly into another group.

Ernest smiled and ran to cover and began picking off the UNE troops.

He aimed down the sights and shot a gryphon, who was trying to take out the Walker, in the head.

"AAAAHHHHH!" Ernest shot around but he wasn't fast enough to stop a hoof hitting him in the face.

"AHHH YA BASTARD!" Ernest was knocked over by the assailant and he quickly rolled away from it and got up.

The assailant was a orange furred Pegasus with the gold coloured armour they normally wear.

The pony brought out a sword and charged him and Ernest reacted to this by quickly pulling the bolt back and aiming at the pony and pulled the trigger but he was met with just a click and with a yelp Ernest narrowly dodged the ponies blade and he quickly kicked him in the legs and went to stab him in the heart but the pony kicked his legs out then rolled away from Ernest.

"ISN'T GOING TO BE THAT EASY CHIMP!" The pony shouted

Ernest stood up and placed his rifle on his back then he pulled out his steel long sword from his back.

"OH SHUT UP!" Ernest shouted back and walked up to the pony with his sword pointing towards him.

The Pony ran up and tried to slash him but Ernest parried it then backhanded the pony which dazed the pony and Ernest went to thrust the sword in his armpits but the pony rolled away.

The pony stared at him and held his blade with both hand and slowly walked up to him and Ernest did the same thing.

Once in range Ernest threw his sword forward in a thrust but the pony deflected it and slashed him but the blade banged of an amour plated and Ernest responded by punching the pony in the face and dented his helmet in the process and Ernest went in to finish him off but the pony kicked his sword which snapped in two then he quickly got up and stabbed Ernest in the chest.

Ernest should be in pain right now but the will stone in his power pack sent a signal to his helmet which injected a health potion into his system.

Ernest grabbed the blade and kicked the pony of it then pulled the blade out and snapped it on his knee.

Ernest cracked his neck and stared at the pony. "What's your name freak?" Ernest spat some blood

The pony got off the ground and glared at him. "Private Flash Sentry. You?"

"Corporal Ernest Jones." Ernest said before getting into a stance. "Sorry Freak, you seem like a nice person but I'm going to have to kill you."

Ernest ran towards him and dropped to the ground and kicked Flashes legs out then he got up and took his helmet off and began punching his face.

Flash grabbed Ernest's arms and head-butted him and threw him off and got up and went to kick Ernest but Ernest got up and grabbed his leg and slammed his elbow into to his knee which bent it the wrong way and kicked out his other leg but Flash flew of the ground punched Ernest in the face and cracked one of his eye slots then Flash set his leg back in place.

Ernest recovered from the hit and grabbed Flashes leg just after he finished setting it back in place then he slammed him back in the ground.

"GET UP!" Ernest Dragged Flash up and punched him in the snout.

Flash grabbed his snout in pain but Ernest didn't give him the time of day and punched him in the eye then kicked him in the groin the he grabbed his arm and flung him into the ground.

"GET UP!" Ernest pulled Flash up and Flash tried to punch him but Ernest grabbed it and snapped his wrist causing Flash to let out a scream and fall over.

"GET UP!" Ernest grabbed Flashes neck and held him up and stood him on his legs.

He stood in one place and stared on as Flash let out a scream of rage and charged towards him and Ernest reacted by punching him whilst he was running towards him.

"I'm ending this." Ernest picked Flash up and held him up with both arms before throwing him into his knee and snapping his spine.

Flash let out another scream as he flailed his arms around in an attempt to crawl away from Ernest who took out a pistol and pointed it at his head.

Flash clutched at his necklace and his body began to glow.

"*BANG*" Ernest fired the pistol echoed across the whole area which has gotten strangely quiet.

"Damn sha-..." Ernest stared at the empty spot in the ground which had nothing but a small hole. "Oh for fucks sake."

Ernest looked around him and saw everyone else dumping the striped bodies of the UNE in a hole.

"Hahahaha that fight was fun to watch, not as fun when I saw the Alpha Commandant beat up that Kraken but still fun to watch" Ernest heard a deep voice behind him and he turned around to see a red balverine staring back at him.

Ernest stared at Richard then that stare became a glare and he slapped Richard around face.

"OWW" Richard clutched his face.

"Oh I'll show you how." Ernest slapped Richard again

"OWW" Ernest hit him again. "OWW" Ernest slapped him again.

"STOP IT!!!" Richard snapped his needle like teeth at Ernest.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE SHOUT AT A COMMANDING OFFICER!" Ernest grabbed his Rilfe and smacked Richerd with the rifle butt.

"SHIT!!"

Author's Note

Have a 4,000 word chapter