Today, the first day of the war game, had quite entertaining to watch and she, along with many other high ranking Equestrian military officials, had been incredibly busy supervising all of the action. Seeing such tactics used by the Lost Battalion had also taught/given the supervising officials some good ideas for how to better wage modern combat with how successful the Lost Battalion performed against the Flying Circus instead of using their old outdated tactics. Since it was getting late, no one expected that there would be any more major combat actions so everyone was getting ready to retire for the night.

In her own personal tent, Princess Twilight Sparkle was getting ready to go to bed, having already peeled off her uniform and gear. Just as she was about to get into her bed, all of her fur stood on end and she went ramrod rigid as everything felt wrong in the universe. She lit her horn, trying to get any inkling what was going on, and was mystified from what she found. Chaos magic was saturating the entire area and was so thick that she could almost taste it. Being an Equestrian and one of the Elements of Harmony, it worried her as to what could possibly be causing it. Her first thoughts were that one of the humans(and griffon) could be the cause of it but the last time she checked, they had nowhere near the levels of chaos magic she was currently detecting.

Sighing, she donned her uniform and gear as she went to terms with the fact that her aspirations of rest were long gone. It was probably important that she find the cause of this abnormality so she already started running scenarios through her mind. No matter wat scenario she mentally went through, she flew in the direction of where the Lost Battalion was located.

-X-X-X-

The first pony Twilight sought out for was Princess Luna, her fellow royal and magically powerful peer. Much to Twilight's shock and horror, the princess of the night had no notion towards the origin of the newfound conundrum. It wasn't as if Princess Luna hadn't noticed the problem herself, the sudden and fresh fountain of chaos magic had alarmed the lunar princess just as it had the princess of magic. To regular ponies, being near such a tremendous well of chaos magic only gave them a slight sense of alien discomfort and minor anxiety but to the two magically attuned and sensitive alicorns, it inflamed their spiritual existences in such a grating manor for them to be bathed in such a visceral amount of the unfamiliar primordial power that was chaos magic.

Before the two princesses could further deliberate, it all stopped as suddenly as it had started with seemingly no cause. To the two alicorns, they were filled with relief as it no longer burned their existences but it still didn't stop them from feeling trepidation as they still had no idea of its cause. Away from any vying eyes, the two princesses tried to investigate the matter but neither of them could figure out its origin. Obviously, the first things they dug their noses in were the two humans and griffon but found nothing.

Although the three of their alien benefactors were sources of chaos magic, none of the three had the same taste of chaos magic that they had felt earlier. The only thing that the two princess found that was was slightly anomalous, or more anomalous than usual considering who they were dealing with, was that one of the three had a stronger well of chaos magic than the other two, that being Logan. The two princesses chalked it up to being due to the fact that he was a griffon making so that his chaos magical signature feeling different or that he was a recently resurrected member of the strange posse. Either way, it was a dead end.

Of course, there were four members to their group but the fourth member was indisposed of for the moment. Princess Twilight eyed Princess Luna with a knowing look. "It has to be him, if its not of the other three," Twilight commented. Having gone through the possible list of suspects and eliminating all of the options, the simplest explanation was usually the best one.

Princess Luna sighed and looked off into the night sky with a look of resignation. "At this point, after having dealt with their lot for this long, I would be surprised if he hadn't caused it. That or Discord has returned, the only other time we felt anything along this sort was when Discord broke from his imprisonment and decided to turn our beloved country into his plaything," the lunar princess replied.

Princess Twilight paused, thinking which option was worse. Discord was Discord but she knew a certain pink-maned meek-mannered friend of hers would be happy to be able to re-meet a long-gone friend but she knew that scenario was impossible as the lord of chaos was long dead. If it was Tran, she hoped the bulk of his reputation was no where near as bad as the rumors made him out to be. Unfortunately for both princesses, neither of them could investigate the matter any further as the location of Tran's whereabouts were up in the air and it would be impossible to tell when he'd return with his envoy. All they could do now was wait until he returned and hope that nothing serious had happened.

The Next Morning

By the time daylight hit, every member of the Lost Battalion's chain of command knew something had gone wrong and hell, most of the battalion's chaff knew that something had gone wrong. They noticed that Tran hadn't shown up anywhere: such as inspecting the troops with Eric and or Wilson when in a combat situation like this. However, they had no knowledge of the chaos magic event earlier, thinking it was war anxiety when it had happened; the two alicorn princesses withholding the knowledge of it happening from anyone, even their pony peers and the humans.

Some members of the command element of the unit had gathered up(Prince Blueblood, Rarity, Eric, Spitfire, and Soarin), looking like they were holding a meeting. "-Pare for the worse case scenario," Eric said.

Blueblood, who was smoking a cigarette, used his still broken and jagged horn to telekinetically pull out the cigarette while exhaling a stream of smoke. "If they managed to capture or eliminate Tran, then they are either really lucky or more skilled than we thought," the Prince commented.

Rarity pulled the cigarette out of the prince's telekinetic hold with her own magic, taking a short drag from it before simultaneously exhaling the smoke and sighing. "So their terrible with offense but proficient in defense," Rarity suggested.

Spitfire growled. "Celestia damned air marshal, at her age(early forties), she got her position through either success or bureaucratic corruption," Spitfire mentioned.

Soarin chuckled and patted Spitfire on the back. "Well, the best defense is a good offense," Soarin commented. He rubbed the bottom of his poorly maintained short bearded face with a hoof. "Though, I've heard ponies talk about how she ran. She wasn't known for her defense tactics. She was known for aggressive tactics."

Just as Soarin had finished his sentence, life had decided to prove Soarin correct as whistle alarms blared from some of the various aerial scouts that they had on watch. Everyone went to their defensive positions and prepared to fight as the Flying Circus showed up in two large waves. They had approached from the front and the rear of the Lost Battalion's position. Unfortunately for the Flying Circus, the Lost Battalion were completely prepared.

Since it was the second day, the Lost Battalion now had all of their defensive positions completely and properly setup, even with top cover comprised of logs scavenged from the surrounding area that were then concealed to blend into the area. Every machine gun was completely emplaced in hidden gun pits, setup with over-arcing fields of fire, even being able to aim at high elevations into the sky to takeout any flying threats. Very skillfully camouflaged foxholes that were swiftly filled with the defenders dotted the Lost Battalion's base, making it extremely difficult for the Flying Circus to perform their assault.

All of the Flying Circus' forces consisted of aerial troops and because they believed in their airborne supremacy, they were flying high up in the air. Upon arriving to the Lost Battalion's base, the Flying Circus's aerial forces had paused or had started to circle around the supposed location of the Lost Battalion's position being completely confused as they were unable to pinpoint any of the Lost Battalion's forces due to the skillful camouflaging, thanks to Rarity, of their opponent's defensive positions. At the elevation they were flying at, it would have been impossible for anypony to identify any of the Lost Battalion's concealed defensive positions.

Before any of the Flying Circus's pegasi could start investigating to make any leeway in their assault, the hidden soldiers of the Lost Battalion started firing. It was a complete massacre as the Flying Circus's troops were completely exposed in the air, not having any concealment, including not having any clouds for them to use as concealment as the Lost Battalion had erased them all from the sky in the entire vicinity. The Lost Battalion had allowed the Flying Circus to get in relatively close before they had started firing.

Some of the Flying Circus forces decided to take the intelligent route and retreat but the grand majority of them pressed their attack. Surprisingly, a small fraction of the attackers dropped bombs but in the chaotic skirmish, they were very poorly aimed, missing any of the Lost Battalion fortifications. Believing in the superiority of their aerial tactics, they tried to carry out their usual tactics, which was dive down to the ground to attack their opponents. Unfortunately for the attackers, all of the Lost Battalion's foxholes and fortifications were setup with fortifications that were placed further behind into the Lost Battalion's position that would cover the outer foxholes, with the center of it all being the pair of miniguns, currently manned by Eric and Logan, that would be able to fire in any direction to cover any outer foxhole.

In mere minutes, the Flying Circus's had been routed with the grand majority of their numbers being casualties, eliminated from participating in this war game. Judging from the number of "casualties" that the Lost Battalion had "inflicted" in their defense, the Lost Battalion's chain of command assumed that the Flying Circus no longer had the numbers advantage. Compared to the Flying Circus, the Lost Battalion were well off in terms of manpower, having gained only a few "casualties" in the attack.

The Flying Circus's attacking forces weren't completely decimated. By the time they had realized their mistake, and after gaining a tremendous number of "casualties", they had started retreating and flying back to their own base. Unfortunately for them, the Lost Battalion had quickly send out a skirmishing force composed of their escort dogfighters and scouts, to harass them as they retreated. Following not that far behind the skirmishing force that was following the retreating Flying Circus's forces, were the rest of the flight capable troops of the Lost Battalion's forces. Because half of the Lost Battalion's forces were composed of changelings and with the non-changelings being fine with fighting with changelings, the Lost Battalion had a great number of flight capable troops. The changeling troops of the Lost Battalion had transformed into a flight capable form (pegasi form) and carried their fellow allies. While they weren't as fast as the "superior" pegasi, they could still fly decently fast and for a long time.

The changelings and non-changelings of the Lost Battalion trusted each other to the point that there was no trouble with the non-changeling soldiers allowing themselves to be carried by their changeling brethren, while following the skirmishing force that was currently harassing the remaining members of the retreating Flying Circus, with exception of the yaks. While the yaks trusted their changeling brethren, they simply couldn't be carried and elected to stay behind to defend their original position and defenses, as no pony or changeling would be able to carry the massive brutes.

The Lost Battalion's skirmishers finally followed the retreating Flying Circus's forces all the way back to their base and once there, they immediately dropped to a much lower elevation in their flying and started circling the Flying Circus's base while occasionally engaging them. This was a much needed distraction for the additional trailing forces to fully arrive and dismount before completing the final closing distance on foot/hoof.

With every good assault, unlike what the Flying Circus did, the Lost Battalion opened up with an artillery barrage, utilizing light mortars that they carried along with. The first bombardment was only intended for ground targets, which there were very sparse compared to the sheer number of aerial forces the Flying Circus used. The mortar firers' primary goal of this bombardment wasn't to hit the machine gun emplacements they were intended for, though that would have been a bonus if they did, but more to force the defenders to duck down into cover. This initial attack bombardment was useless against the emplaced aerial defenses their opponent utilized, so it was paired with long ranged covering fire with machine guns that were aimed at previously mentioned enemy aerial defenses. Just like the mortar fire, the machine gun fire wasn't intended to hit their intended target either, although also being a bonus if it did, but to force their targets out from their cloud concealment and scatter them away from their hidden aerial machine gun nests. In order to protect themselves from the incoming long ranged machine gun fire, the Flying Circus either dove to the ground for safety or take aerial maneuvers to dodge the machine gun fire, further scattering their forces over an ever expanding area.

The machine guns' covering fire and the mortars were intended as a distraction for the next phase of the assault, an aerial bombing run. The Lost Battalion's bombers went in for an escorted attack run and unlike the mortar barrage, It was much better aimed. Due to the Flying Circus's every growing incoherence, the bombers were able to safely land their bombs, further disabling more of the Flying Circus's dwindling supply of machine guns. Once the bombers returned to the safe company of comrades, Eric, Blueblood, and Spitfire ordered an a quick yet concentrated assault on the heavily dispersed forces of the Flying Circus before they could gather up to form a defensive strategy.

Long story short, it was less like a military assault and more like a genocidal slaughter. The incohesiveness of the Flying Circus's remaining scattered forces meant a quick end to the war games with victory easily in the hooves/hands of the Lost Battalion.

Author's Note

still alive, bitches! I hope you enjoy this relatively short chapter. The last several chapters have been long so here's a short one. I hope it still has the same level of quality I try to give to y'all. Anyways, leave a comment/question as usual, if you have one, or point out mistakes. I'll try to respond to them and stay safe y'all.

Oh, btw, I have a new toy that I made.

No, its not a prop, its made of steel. Yes, it runs, it has a 25cc 2hp gas engine. Blood for the god emperor, skulls for the golden throne!