Author's Note

Recommended music for this chapter: Sympathy for the devil

The burning of Ponyville.

In the dash from the forest, there were some civilian casualties. Fluttershy herself survived, but her hut, and many animals with it, were crushed by the tanks. Those who didn't move fast enough while the tanks raced by were crushed, a few more were trampled, but those who didn't die made it into the forest, got lost, and most of them died.

Seeing the "valiant" charge of the 15th armored and the 1st Engineers, The men in the trenches charged out and made it to the second line before anyone had a chance to start firing. the Mechanized infantry and the Armored rolled over the trenches, and before long, everyone had made it to Ponyville, and the fighting became hand to hand, as the 1st engineers blew up any buildings deemed tall enough to house snipers. And so, while most of the Ponyville Garrison decided to stay and die rather than give up, by that point, most of the Equestrians had been evacuated via truck or mass teleport, and the Ponyville garrison, the 15th Guards rifle, and the 28th Dragoons were all who were left for the final day of fighting.

End of seven days, Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville, Equestria.

Potter scanned the bare landscape with her rifle in her hooves, a bandoleer of grenades, and orders to not be taken alive. Behind her sat Buzzy, John, and Hookshot. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Everyone sat PERFECTLY

STILL.

Slowly, Hookshot, picked up his rifle, and opened the door. A Dark brown earth pony with knife for a cutie mark and a green earth pony with a Sergeant Insignia for a cutie mark fell in. Everyone scrambled to get them inside.

"So," Said Hookshot. "Where the hell've you guys been, eh?"

Kaiser Brushed himself off. "Last I checked, we had lost the battle."

"Man, don't let that get you down." Said Buzzy. "A loss here ain't the end."

Potter nodded in agreement, while John stayed silent.

Knifewound started going through the weapons that Hookshot had cached. "Got any AT rifles?" Hookshot said no.

Suddenly, the house across the way exploded and everybody briefly became aware of the constant screaming of the Griffish Rocket Trucks. "You sonuvabitch!" Said Knifewound. "You DID have an AT rifle in here!"

End of seven days, Princess Twilight's castle, Ponyville, Equestria.

Coriolanus was a Grey Pegasus in the 28th Dragoons. What remained of the 28th was used as the Guard around the castle. He had dug a foxhole and used to share it with another, but his friend bought it after the shooting of Rainbow Dash. It was Coriolanus' personal opinion that the battle was lost as soon as Dash was shot. It wasn't so much the loss of air support, they managed to hold before they arrived, but losing Dash, and the subsequent rumors that she was dead, she was in a coma, she was a vegetable, she was never actually shot and is living the high life in Canterlot, away from the battle, that sapped most of the morale and fighting spirit that they had had coming into the battle.

Coriolanus sharpened his spear. The Dragoons are useless now. He thought. Still using arrows in an age of rifles, using swords in an age of artillery, using Cavalry in an age of tanks. Coriolanus poked his helmet out of the foxhole using his spear. Immediately it was hit by a bullet. "God damn it all to hell."

Coriolanus was never very fast. He knew that attempting to run to the entrance, even though he was close to it, would get him killed. Suddenly, there was gunshots. He poked his head up. A small group of ponies had cleared out the house with the sniper in it. A brown mare threw in a bandoleer of grenades and the house exploded in a fireball. Then, they started making towards the Castle. Coriolanus jumped up. "Ay! AY! OI! OVER HERE!" The group saw Coriolanus and made towards him. Finally, man. An excuse to go inside.

End of seven days, Town hall, Ponyville, Equestria.

Private Rodney Halon was a Demolitions expert in the 1st Engineers. If the Equestrians wanted their Town back, he was going to make sure that all they got was a pile of dust. As he wired the town hall to explode, a tank crew armed themselves with pistols to make sure that anyone inside was either out or on the way to kingdom come. After a few seconds, they came out with around 20 civilians, whom they escorted to a Celestia's cross tent, and five members of the Ponyville volunteer garrison, who were "technically" spies, and were to be treated as such. And so, they were taken behind the town hall and shot in the back of the head. Rodney got a fellow engineer and moved inside the Town hall to place munitions there. When everything was set, they climbed into a foxhole and Pushed down on a plunger box. The whole place went Kaput.

As Rodney made his way through the cratered streets to his next objective, he got a bit lost and ended up right in front of Twilight's castle.

"Hello? Anyone? Surrender now, if you value your life." No answer.

Rodney peeked into a foxhole. There was no one there. "And right next to the door!" Said Rodney.

A quick inspection showed that this was the only entrance, but there was an empty balcony higher up. When he flew up to see, he saw a gap in the blinds that was big enough to see through.

And what he saw?

He saw hundreds of soldiers wait for evacuation, and every living-unaccounted for civilian, crowded inside. And best of all, he saw Princess Twilight, evacuating groups of soldiers and civilians in twenties. She looked tired, and she was, as she had had NO SLEEP for the past week, and the teleportation was taking a lot out of her. Next to her stood a Purple Dragon, who held a tray of what looked to be stimulants, amphetamines, and coffee. [Of course there was coffee. It's god's gift to humanity. That's right, Timmy. Your mother lied when she said that you were god's gift to her. Why would god give your poor, poor mother a screaming, crying little sack of shit and pink flesh, AS A GIFT? Not even the devil is that cruel. No, coffee was god's gift to your mother so that she could deal with you, you sad-sac of piss and shit. {Okay, I'm sorry Timmy. That was uncalled for.}] And every-so-often, when Twilight seemed on the verge of collapse, she would levitate a needle, a bottle of pills, and a cup of coffee, and ingest all of them at once, which was impressive, as you don't really ingest a needle of morphine so mush as inJECT it.

Oh my god. Thought Rodney. I need to report this. The Princess weak, no guards, and only weary soldiers and civilians. We'll all get medals!

And with that, Rodney sped off to go get someone in charge.

Banquet hall, Twilight's castle, Ponyville, Equestria.

Buzzy had a headache. After a week of shelling from the Griffons, his brains were jelly. He rubbed his head and breifly felt jealous of the princess for having access to coffee, then remembered that she was in charge of getting them out of there, and she actually NEEDED the coffee more then he "Needed" coffee. Finally, his headache settled down.

Then all hell broke loose.

First it was the sound of one rack of rockets. Then two. Then the whole Guards artillery let fly. Every single rocket hit around or on the castle. Of course, the castle was shielded, but that didn't stop it from shaking like Celestia two weeks into a diet without cake. Then, after that settled down, the open balcony doors crashed open, and two griffons with rather dangerous looking experimental SMGs entered. They shouted something in Griffonese, which was "helpfully" translated by Coriolanus, who had been standing next to Buzzy, to mean "Fucking quiet down and you'll live." Before Coriolanus could translate more, one raised his SMG and pointed it at the Purple alicorn and said something in rather broken Equestrian. "YOU do and surrender and PEOPLE HERE NOT DYING." Before he or his friend could make good on that, they were shoved outside by a shield wall. As they hovered just off the balcony, one fired his SMG into the shield. All the bullets melyted as they passed through.

"THAT'S WHAT YOU GET, MUCHACHO!" Shouted someone in the crowd, and as people started taunting the two griffons outside, about a platoon's worth also rose up and stared silently with killer's eyes at the shield. Then, one shouted something, and they all descended to the door. A large explosion below confirmed their worst fears, and weapons were passed out to the soldiers in the crowd, and a few minutes later, gunfire filled the halls of the castle. While hiding behind a doorway, Buzzy found a distraught Coriolanus with a bandolier of grenades rigged up so that he could pull a string and all the pins would come out. "Hey, man, you're gonna be careful with that, right?"

"It's all my damn fault. If I had just stayed outside, then they would've at least THOUGHT that there was at least a skeleton guard. So let me make it up to you."

Buzzy caught Coriolanus before he could run towards the enemy outside. "Come on, man, the worst sin is to take another's life with one's own."

Coriolanus would not be convinced. "Please, let me make this up. For the Princesses."

Buzzy would not be convinced. "I'm sure that you have a family that would love to hear from you again."

Coriolanus shook his head. "It's better they learn that I died valiantly rather than after deserting my post."

Before Buzzy could form another reply, Coriolanus ran towards the exit. Buzzy followed close enough behind to see when Coriolanus ran out the doors, ran through thousands of bullets, jumped onto a tank, pulled out all the pins, and with his last breath scream:

"REDEMPTION

EQUALS

DEAAAAAAAAAAAATH!
And then explode in a fireball mixture of Incendiary grenades, Frag grenades, Mortar shells, and Smoke bombs. This provided enough of a distraction to the Griffons that, as panic rumors spread that the Equestrians were sending suicide bombers, they started retreating. Buzzy didn't see that, though. He was too fixated on the fact that, out of a sense of duty, grief, guilt, and suicidal rage, a fellow living being just jumped onto a tank and made sure that his family would never get more than a charred piece of fur in his casket. "What a fucked up world." Buzzy lamented, as he pulled himself inside so that he could be evacuated.