Siege of Equitol

The classroom filled up with students suddenly as the bell rang. They sat in their seats and waited for Pumpkin to notice them. He was napping. One of the braver young bucks poked him.
"Wha?" Pumpkin asked.
"Erm... The class has started." The young buck replied.
Pumpkin shot up, wide awake.
"Okay. Back to your seat. Now, where were we? Ahh, yeah. The Cloud Fortress was shot down." He said and stood up.

"Now it's time to introduce another character into this tale. Everypony, meet Harpeia." He said as he chalked an outline onto the blackboard. It was an outline of a young pegasus mare with a harp as her cutie mark.
"Now Harpeia is an ordinary gal. She's been born into a well-off family, and after the food supplies began growing scarce for the Equitolians, she and some other ponies that weren't in the fighting took off to bring back some food-"
"Excuse me, Mr. Pumpkin, but what happened to the Pegasta invaders after the Cloud fortress fell?" a young blue unicorn mare interrupted him. He frowned.

"Well, they retreated the remaining Cloud Fortresses to a safer distance, but they kept firing the Hail Cannons. Now I don't want any more interruptions, okay?" The mare nodded, seemingly content with the answer.

"Okay, where was I? Oh, yes, Harpeia. She was just another spoiled foal that seemed to blossom in Equitol, for it was a place of plenty. And when she joined in to help bring in food, it wasn't due to a sense of pride, or helpfulness, but rather because her father, a well established and respected stallion had told her to do so.

''So, the ponies who were sent were tasked with bringing in as much food as possible, and they- What now?'' He was interrupted by the blue unicorn once more. ''But, Mr. Pumpkin, how could they leave? I mean, the city was under siege, the gates were locked and there was a force field all around them! It's not possible!'' she said, her voice elevating into a shout towards the end.

Pumpkin facehoofed and sighed. ''Look, I was getting to that. Now, please, please, just let me tell my story, and I might let you out 5 minutes early, okay?'' The mare nodded.

“So, the ponies left Equitol via a secret passage that went out for miles under the city, and came out in some mountains. They took off to scout the surrounding countryside for anything that bore fruit. They found a wild orchard of apples, and they immediately began to gather the red apples that grew there.

“Little did they know that the Pegasta commander loved apples, and had sent a special contingent to get some. And they found the same orchard the Equitolians did.

“It was a stroke of pure luck the two groups didn't meet right away. It was Harpeia who discovered the Pegastans, and she was completely taken over by the beauty of their
bracelets.

“So she approached them. They saw that she is from Equitol (don’t ask me how, I don’t know, it’s just how the story goes) and their immediate first thought was to kill her. Then, their leader, who had a bit more brains than the rest of the group wanted to know how she got here. And she told him: “I’ll show you the way into the city. If you give me your bracelets.”

“Their leader thought about it. Then he reached out with his forehoof and said: “Should you lead us in, we shall give you everything that’s on our forelegs. Deal?” and they shook on that.

“So Harpeia led the pegastans to the rest of the ponies who were gathering food, and the pegastans slaughtered them. Then they took their clothes and saddlebags, and hid their short swords into the saddlebags and covered them with apples, so they wouldn’t show. They left the armor behind and charged one of them to fly back to HQ and tell the commander about what they were going to do.

“So they entered the tunnel and set off to Equitol. When the guards at the tunnel entrance in Equitol asked why only Pegasi returned, they said that they were the fastest, so the group sent them forward.

“Once in city, they laid low until it became dark. Then Harpeia led them to the palace of the Council of Six, more specifically, the chambers of the unicorn couple.

“The unicorns were asleep, and they never saw it coming. After they were killed, the pegastans lay low again and waited for the hail cannons to break the force field open.

“The mighty hail cannons roared at about 5 AM, and it only took about half an hour for them to fall. And then, events unfurled rather quickly.

“First, the pegasta warriors engaged the Equitol air defense, while the mighty hail cannons of the Cloud Fortresses fired upon the gates of Equitol. The gates were blown away as if they were paper. Then they released the Dirt Crawlers upon the now destroyed gates.

“Once again, the ponies of Equitol set up a formidable defense, once again led by captain Tower Shield. It seemed like they would be able to hold back the Dirt Crawlers until the small contingent of Pegastans that infiltrated Equitol attacked them from their back. The battle was short and fierce, and Captain Tower Shield fought even after she lost a limb, and fought until the very end, when one of the Dirt Crawlers bashed her head in. Then, being the depraved wretch that he was, he proceeded to rape her corpse.”

There was a sound of somepony vomiting somewhere in the back of the class. The rest of the class was content with a shudder and possibly a hoof in front of their mouth.

“What did you expect? We’re talking serious sickos here. Anyway, the defense failed, and Dirt Crawlers spread everywhere, murdering and raping everypony they came across. They didn’t assist the Pegasi fighting in the skies, but why would they? They had the city to loot and pillage, and they were more than happy to do so. One of them started a fire that would later consume what was left of Equitol.

“The last of the Equitolian Pegasi had fallen (literally), and the Pegastans immediately proceeded to attack the palace, with its own walls and defenders. The defenders were mostly palace guards and ponies who were lucky enough to get to the palace before the Dirt Crawlers got ‘em.
Despite their brave efforts, the defenders were outnumbered, and the pegastans captured the palace wall in no time. Then they put up some guards to deter the Dirt Crawlers from entering and followed their supreme Commander, Cloudwing into the palace to loot.

“They stumbled upon a wine cellar, and as a result, most of them were drunk, smashing doors and beautiful statues that littered the palace.

“As they stumbled upon the chambers of the Earth pony councilors, they were up for a final surprise.

“The remaining four of the Council of Six, two Earth ponies and two Pegasi, clad in their full armor, and armed with some of the finest weapons ever crafted. They charged the surprised Pegasi, killing a number of them (mostly those who were drunk). But the surprise wore off quickly, and the pegastans counter-attacked, killing one of them, and capturing the other three.

“The surviving three were tied up, and Cloudwing examined each and every one of them. When he came to the pegasus mare, she spat in his eye. He wiped the spit and said: “Still have some fighting spirit in you, eh? I like that.” And he hit her with his forehoof, knocking her unconscious. He said to two of his warriors to take her to his chambers back in his cloud fortress. “And keep an eye on her, I don’t want her to do something funny.” When the two Pegasi carried away the unconscious mare, he turned to the two remaining councilors and told his men: “Kill them.”

“After that, he and the rest of the Pegasi looted the palace.

“Meanwhile, Harpeia demanded her payment from the Pegasi she brought into the city. Their commander smiled, and nodded at his troops. They stepped towards Harpeia, and lifted their forelegs.

“Then they bashed her skull in with their bare hooves.”

One of the mares lifted her foreleg. “Just w-why would they do that?” she asked in a trembling voice.

Pumpkin grinned. “You see, the promise was they would give her everything they had on their forelegs. And what do you have on the end of your foreleg? Your hoof.” he said with a grin.

“And that, my dear colts and fillies, is how Equitol fell.” he said.

One of the bucks raised his foreleg. “But, Mr. Pumpkin, what happened to the pegasus mare supreme commander Cloudwing took?” he asked.

“Well, if you must know, she became I-don’t-know-how-great grandmother of commander Hurricane. Yes, the commander in the Hearth’s Warming Eve play.” Pumpkin said. “Any more questions?” he asked.

There was no reply from the class.

“Okay, I figure I’ve given you enough nightmare fuel for today, so you’re free to go-” he looked at the clock on the wall “a full ten minutes before the bell rings.” he said and started packing the books he brought to the class back into his saddlebags.

The bucks and mares shuffled out of the class in silence. Just one young unicorn mare remained. Her coat was purple. “Mr. Pumpkin?” she asked. “Yes?” he turned his gaze towards her.

“Just how do you know this story? I mean, it felt like you were really there.” she asked.

He smiled. “You want to know a secret?” he asked. The mare nodded. “I was there. As a colt. Well, not exactly there, it was more of a.... vivid dream thing.” he strapped his saddlebags onto his back, and reached for his top hat that he left on his desk. He then turned towards where the mare was “Now, why....” he stopped. The mare wasn’t there anymore. He rolled his eyes, put his hat onto his head and trotted out.

*** ** ***
He flew through the air, out of the bustling city of Fillydelphia and towards the countryside where he lived. He didn’t live in a cloud house like most Pegasi do, but rather in a peaceful countryside house with a garden. Although, this was had more to do with the fact that he was married to an earth pony than anything else.

He wasn’t a good flier, it was one of the reasons he barely passed the flight school, and he didn’t like flying much. Sure, it was useful if you wanted to quickly get from one location to another, but he didn’t like it all that much.

Ahh, there, his house. Right next to the woods. He tried landing onto the path, but he missed, and hit the carrot patch in his wife’s garden. He muttered a swear, and wiped the mud of his hooves before entering the house.

Once there, he immediately set for the bathroom. He washed the remaining mud stains off his legs, and looked at himself at the mirror. His once brilliant black mane was becoming grayer with every passing day. He wasn’t young anymore, and his body sure did nothing to counter that statement.

After he was finished in the bathroom, he went into the kitchen where he read the notes on the fridge. Notes on the fridge. The way every happily married couple that wants to stay happily married communicates. It wasn’t anything important, just his wife letting him know that she will be late, due to the bring-your-foal to work day.

Pumpkin opened the fridge and took out a muffin. He was just going to eat it when he heard somepony knock on the door. He sighed, and went to open it, the muffin still in his mouth.

“Yesh?” he asked with his mouth full. The pony knocking was a grey pegasus mare, roughly the same age as he was, with a blond mane and strange eyes. It was like they were repelling each other away, kind of like magnets.

“Mr. Pumpkin?” the mare asked. Pumpkin nodded and took a bite out of the muffin. The mare eyed the muffin “Erm, are you going to eat that?” she asked. Once again, Pumpkin nodded. “Okay.” the mare said. Then she straightened up. “Mr. Pumpkin, The Doctor wishes to see you.”