The Horrors Of War

The army of shadow ponies stomped forward, growling as they approached Ponyville. The plume of shadows behind them were spawning more shadows endlessly.

The army of rage-fueled Soviets charged recklessly at the enemy, firing their rifles as they charged. The rifle fire took out some ponies, but for every disintegrating pony that fell, ten more stepped over.

The immobilized tanks fired their cannons, wiping out row after row of shadows. As the smoke cleared, more shadow ponies stepped out.

"They're crazy!", Rainbow Dash cried, as she flew up in the air. "They can't deal with that many enemies!"

"We have to help them! Celestia, I'm going to-", Twilight said, before Celestia held out a wing, stopping her.

"No, I won't risk any more of my ponies' lives.", Celestia said.

Twilight could only watch as the two thousand man army ran to their end.

"But...they'll die.", Twilight said.

"We can help!"

Ember and the other dragons stood up. "We can take on those shadows. We're not standing by while these things take over our lands! Come on, Spike!", she said.

Spike stood up, but Twilight quickly grabbed him with her magic. "Spike, don't!", she cried.

"Twilight, let me go!", Spike said, trying to get free.

"Spike, you're not going to fight!", Twilight said, as she pulled Spike back.

Spike watched as Ember and the other dragons flew away.

"Twilight, that was my moment!", Spike cried.

"No, you're not going to die!", Twilight said, keeping her magical hold on Spike.

"Twilight! Let me go!", Spike yelled, as he tried to run towards the battle.

"Spike!", Twilight growled.

"Twilight, please!", Spike cried.

"SPIKE!!", Twilight yelled. "YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE AND THAT'S FINAL!! NOW SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!!!"

Edward stared at Twilight, who was glaring down at the frightened baby dragon.

"Whoa.", a soldier said.

Twilight's glare turned into one of horror as she processed what she'd done. Her magic grip on Spike lessened, and he broke free, before running back to Ponyville.

Edward and another soldier got up and hurried after the drake, as Twilight slumped down.

"What...", she muttered. But she was interrupted by a yell.

"GRANATY!!"

Every single charging Russian pulled out F1 hand grenades, before chucking them at the enemy.

Giant explosions rippled the ground, and hundreds of shadow ponies flew into the air. Smoke and dust billowed all over the field.

As more shadow ponies stepped out of the shadows, the Russians had reached the army and were now stabbing and swinging their guns at the shadow ponies.

Everyone and everypony in the back watched in amazement as the Soviets took on the enemy clones, outnumbered. Screams and roars filled the air. Some grenades went off in the middle of the battle, taking out more enemies.

"We need to back them up!", an American soldier said.

"Let's move!!", another soldier said. The Americans and Germans got up and started running to the battle.

The Germans went to repairing their Tigers, as the Americans charged to help the Soviets.

Ember kicked a shadow pony, before jumping up. Another dragon fired a burst of flame at the shadow ponies, incinerating them.

Ember was tackled by a pony, before a burst of dark magic blasted her wing. She cried out in pain, before slashing the clone in the face. She quickly got up and examined her wing.

Her wing was shredded, smoking with black magic, and dripping with shadows and blood. She winced at the sight, and groaned in pain as she fell to her knees.

A shadow clone stepped forward, and was about to finish her off, when a 30. Cal round ripped through its head.

A soldier ran up with his M-1 Garand ran over and lifted the wounded Dragonlord on his shoulders.

"Cover fire!"

An American with a Grease Gun and a German driver with an STG-44 opened fire, taking out more shadows as the soldier carried Ember to safety.

Ember was carried behind a nearby BT-7 tank, the turret mounted DP-28 providing cover fire.

Ember looked up to see a red cross on the soldier's helmet. The medic pulled out a roll of gauze from his pack and a little needle from his pocket.

"Stay still, I got something to ease the pain.", he said, as he tried to inject the needle into Ember's scales. He found he couldn't gently pierce the reptilian skin, so he just stabbed it in hard.

Ember shrieked in brief pain, before she began to doze off. She looked around with blurred vision, to see her wing being wrapped quickly in gauze. She could see blood slowly staining the gauze, but she didn't feel any pain.

"What...what's happening...", Ember moaned, before the morphine took effect. She felt her temperature heat up, and she was soon knocked out.

Somewhere else

Edward followed Spike, who was no longer running, but tiredly trudging away.

"You know she means well, right?", Edward asked.

"Yeah...", Spike said. "But it's been like this for too long."

"Oh?", Edward asked. He caught up with Spike and stopped in front of him. "Go ahead. Explain."

"When there's a party, they forget to invite me, because I have lots of work to do back home, organizing and cleaning up and when I'm done, they're done.", Spike said.

"You're an assistant? I'd say Twilight should give you more credit.", Edward said.

"Can she blame me for wanting to help Ember? I mean, all of Equestria's at stake, and she tells me to stay?", Spike asked, his voice slowly rising.

The lieutenant didn't know much on dragons, but he knew they could breathe fire. "OK, calm down.", he said, before looking around.

He knelt down and tapped the little drake on the shoulder. "How about I take you to the battle, just you and me. Front row seat of the action, huh?", he asked. "No fighting, just watching."

Spike smiled. "Really?", he asked.

"You have my word, kid.", Edward said.

"Thanks!", Spike said, hugging the lieutenant tightly. Edward smirked as he walked to a nearby jeep.

"Come on, hop in.", Edward said.

In the battle, the soldiers were being pushed back. They'd taken several casualties, but the number of shadow ponies they'd killed were well in the thousands, as the clones were very easy to kill.

"Fall back to the tanks!!", Jones yelled. "Get back!!"

The Shermans, halftracks, Hellcats, Greyhounds, Tigers, T-34s, and BT-7s were in a big defensive lines. During the battle, engineers had fixed the tanks and set up barbed wire and sandbags, or in this case, dirtbags.

The soldiers all ran over the defense line and behind the tanks. Several soldiers with ROKS and M2 flamethrowers were lined up on the tanks, with the remaining soldiers behind the tanks. The increasing number of shadow ponies charged at the tanks.

"FIRE!!", Jones yelled. Over a hundred tanks fired at the ponies, blowing up the first wave all at once. The second wave galloped in, getting closer.

Once they got hit by the barbed wire and dirtbag line, a flamethrower wielding sergeant smirked.

"Torch 'em!", he roared.

Waves of fire shot out forty meters from the tank line, burning hundreds of shadow clones, and forcing their lines back.

The fires burrowed in the shadows, and spread from shadow pony to shadow pony, lighting the whole army on fire.

Eventually, the fire reached the plume of shadow, and it became a plume of fire. Everyone watched as the tower of exploding flame slowly shrank into a singed mark on the ground.

Soon, all that was left of the attacking army was at least a mile of smoking and burning ground.

Edward and Spike drove up, to see the battle was already over.

"Aww, we missed it.", Edward said.

Celestia trotted forward. "Oh dear.", she said.

Twilight looked up to Jones. "You beat them...you actually defeated his army.", she said.

"Yup. No match for humans.", Jones said.

"This isn't over."

Jones and Twilight looked to Celestia.

"I can sense his dark magic everywhere. They're minute, so he cannot regenerate in time, but he'll go somewhere with more corruption.", Celestia said.

She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Get to Cloudsdale. Get the Wonderbolts.", she said.

Rainbow Dash saluted. "Yes, ma'am.", she said, before taking off.

The sun princess trotted to Ember and the medic. She was asleep, still under the effects of painkillers.

"She'll be alright. It'll take her an hour to wake up, though.", the medic said.

"Yes, I hope so.", Celestia said.

The medic left, as Spike ran in. "Ember!", he cried.

He cradled her head in his arms, before looking up at Celestia.

"Will she be alright?", he asked.

Celestia gave a gentle motherly smile. "Of course. She'll wake up soon", she said.

Twilight hurried over. "Spike! Where'd you go?", she asked.

Spike couldn't tell Twilight that he wanted to go to the battle. She'd either get mad at him, or at Edward.

"I...I was with Edward.", he said.

"At least that wasn't a lie.", Spike thought.

He looked around. "Where's Rainbow Dash?", he asked.

"I sent her to get the Wonderbolts. We'll need their help.", Celestia said.

Later

Rainbow Dash flew past a cloud. She could tell she was near Cloudsdale.

"Come on, come on, Princess Celestia's counting on me!", Rainbow Dash muttered, as she picked up speed.

She shot past a cloud, but little did she know there was a shadow following her.

She landed on a cloud to catch her breath, when she heard a buzzing sound. She looked around, but she couldn't see anything. There were more clouds than usual.

"What the...", she muttered. Then a yellow and black blur shot by, scaring the living sense out of her.

"What the buck?!", she cried. She looked around. Nothing was there. But that buzzing sound was still there. She quickly took off and flew up.

She looked behind her, to see a winged shadow following her. She flew faster, until she was above the clouds. She turned around, to see a black propeller powered flying machine, with a windshield on the top and long immobile wings. Its nose was yellow, and a large cross was printed on the side.

The BF 109 shot towards Rainbow Dash, its nose mounted machine guns firing at the cyan Pegasus. Rainbow Dash felt a bullet graze her mane, and she flew away.

"Gotta reach Cloudsdale, gotta reach Cloudsdale! Need to get to safety!", Rainbow Dash cried. She was flying out of fear and adrenaline, dodging clouds and bullets. She turned back to see the Luftwaffe fighter plane shoot through a cloud, dispersing the fluffy object.

Rainbow Dash reached Cloudsdale, to see a horrible sight.

Wonderbolts and German fighters were dogfighting around Cloudsdale, some Pegasi getting shot down. Cloudsdale was getting bombarded by strafing runs from the BF 109 fighters, and several Stuka bombers, explosions and fire burning up the whole city.

"Oh...shit.", Rainbow Dash muttered.