(WARNING: minor nudity, and implied sex towards the middle of the chapter!)

After we were back on the train, Joe and Frank once again took the controls to get the train moving. While we were on our way to meet Iron Glory at a crossroads known as Shadowwood Junction, Don, Shining, and I got onto the computer for a video call with Celestia.

When the call picked up, to our surprise, it was Luna who answered. "Ah, hello Boys. Do you have a new report for us?"

"Um, we were expecting to see Celestia. Where is she?"

"Oh, she's getting what sleep she can before it's time to raise the sun again."

I nodded. "Oh, well, that makes sense. Anyway, yes, we do have a new report."

"Oh? Well, I'm all ears."

I then went on to explain all about our conquests of Randeth and Mardia, as well as what that meant for the future. "So in conclusion, we've managed to trash a major rail hub, as well as the utility-city that supplies Zebrica with most, if not ALL of it's power, water, sewage removal, as well as other utilities. We're now less than 30 miles away from Zebrica itself, however, we're now expecting heavy resistance. They know that we're here, and they're most likely NOT going to be taking that lightly!"

Luna nodded gravely. "Which is why you must be EXTREMELY careful Captain. One wrong move could get ALL of the hostages killed!"

I nodded, putting one hand over my Kitsune mask. "Yeah, please don't remind me! These are some of the highest stakes that we've ever played. Zebrica is most likely going to be their last stand. Once we have the hostages secured, we'll level the rest of the Zebra cities, towns, and villages with a nuclear strike. That should take care of the rest of the problem."

"And....then what do you plan on doing?"

Here Don took up the story. "Well, then we plan on sitting tight, and waiting for the Caribou to make the next move. The ball will be in their court, so they can either surrender, or watch as what was done to the Zebras gets repeated on them."

Luna nodded. "Just.....get there, and bring all of the hostages home. Do whatever you want with the Zebras, but just bring Twilight and her friends back!"

I looked at her, and saluted. "Which is EXACTLY what we plan on doing! Also, we're going to be broadcasting the battle live on the air, so that you all can see it in real time, as well as any Ponies, (or even Caribou!) can watch it."

"And how will you do that?"

"We’ll all have several cameras with us, recording the entire battle from all angles. We have equipment on the Battleship Express that can broadcast everything not only to you Princesses in Canterlot, but also to ordinary television sets as well. The entire thing will be rated 'Mature' of course, but it will be able to be viewed by all."

"Well, I can maybe understand you sending the live battle feed to us, but why would you want to broadcast it to the rest of Equestria? Do the rest of the Ponies REALLY need to see this kind of violence up close on their television screens?"

We all had to think about that. Luna did raise a good point, plus, what if some of our "methods" of doing things were seen as horrid by Ponies? That could prove to be catastrophic in the long run.

Finally, Don said, "Yeah, I can see your point there, Princess Luna. We'll send the live feed to you in Canterlot, but I will leave it up to you and Celestia on whether or not you'll broadcast it to the rest of Equestria."

"Ok, we'll take that into consideration. In the meantime, when do you guys plan on hitting Zebrica?"

"In about a day and a half or so. Our plan is to fully resupply from our supply train, then swoop down on the city at dawn, and take care of it once and for all, before sweeping down into the final sections of the southern end of the empire, and wiping them out as well. If all goes according to plan, then the Zebra Empire has MAYBE another 4 days of existing at the most."

Luna nodded, and after making notes to give to Celestia, she wished us all the best of luck, and we said that we would contact her again just before the attack began.

Meanwhile, less than 30 miles away from us, Zakia was beginning to prepare for the upcoming battle.

"Lt. Faul?"

"Oh, um, yes Overlord Zakia?"

"I'm promoting you to general to replace Tarrath. You will be in charge of the battle from our end. I will place other officers under you, so that we maybe stand a chance of fending off the Humans."

Faul was extremely surprised. In less than a week, he went from a sargent, to a lieutenant, to a commander, back to lieutenant, and now he was a general! This was just one more reason that proved that the Zebras were extremely desperate to fend us off. If they were having to resort to promoting noncoms, and most of their other officers either died or committed suicide after fighting with us, then maybe that should have served as a red flag. Just maybe.

Faul saluted. "Your word is my command Sir! What are your orders?"

Zakia thought about that. "Well, first, we need to prepare a good defense. Any ideas for that?"

"Well, I know that we're going to need soldiers stationed on the city walls at all times, we need to ready our weapons, arm our militia forces, reservists, cadets, and even civilians. This will be a city-wide defense. I mean, this is a 12 million Zebra city; HALF the population of our entire empire!"

Before Faul could really continue with his explanation though, the lights suddenly flickered, and then most of them went out.

"Huh? Hey, what happened to the lights?!"

Suddenly, reports began to come in from all over the city. Power was failing, the water lines had no pressure, the sewers were backing up, and other utility services were seemingly cut off.

"Is, is it the enemy?"

Faul shrugged, and then tried to contact Mardia, to see what was up. To his surprise, the line was dead. "Um, Sir, I can't get through to Mardia. The line is dead!"

"WHAT?!?!?!" Then it hit Zakia. "If what I think is true just happened, they CANNOT answer your call, because they are ALL DEAD!!!!" He then grabbed his communicator. "Ok, I need all backup generators online NOW!!! We need our power! Also, crank up the power at our dam. Get those turbines running, or whatever you have to do, but get us our power back NOW!!!'

"Yes Sir!"

"We also need our water supply back, our sewers working again, and our other utilities! Get our public works departments on that!"

"Sir, yes Sir!"

Moments later, the power did come back on.

Zakia nodded. "Impressive! I'm really beginning to think that...." He never got the chance to finish that thought. Just before he could, there came a sudden bright flash of light, and when it had dissipated, on the floor of the throne room lay a Zebra! He was all tied up, and he appeared to have been burned. His armband indicated that he was a power plant technician at Mardia.

"Quickly General, untie him!"

"Yes Sir!"

Faul then quickly untied the Zebra.

"......Oh gosh, OH GODS!!!!"

"What happened to you?! What happened in Mardia?!"

The technician looked petrified. "It's gone, ALL GONE!!! The Humans wiped Mardia out! They only left me alive so that I could bring you this message!" The Zebra then turned around, revealing his cut up back with the words, "YOU'RE NEXT ZAKIA!!!" carved into it.

Faul was horrified. "Who....who has done this to you?!"

"Fox-Face! Commander Fox-Face! HE DID THIS TO ME!!!"

Zakia was about to scream for Rainbow Dash to be executed, but then he remembered one tiny detail. "Oh f@#k. I would say, 'KILL HER, SHOW HER NO MERCY!!!!!' but I cannot."

"Um, why can you not, Overlord Zakia?"

Zakia glared at Faul. "I cannot, BECAUSE I HANDED HER OVER TO THAT BASTARD DANIN!!!!!"

"So, if you do not mind my asking, Overlord Zakia, what shall we do?"

Zakia then looked at the hapless technician. "We prepare. Do you have any military experience?"

He shook his head. "No, my family came from a long line of farmers, smiths, and craftsmen. I don't know how to fight."

"What is your name?"

He looked up at Zakia. "My name, is Candeth."

Zakia looked at Candeth. "I may yet have a use for you, Candeth. Tell me, how good are you at keeping the power online?"

Later on that same night, the time had come for us to rendezvous with Iron Glory for supplies. On a disused siding outside of the rendezvous point, Iron Glory came alongside us, and we quickly began to unload her.

We moved ammunition, spare parts, oil, fuel, more weapons, foodstuffs, water, and other such vital supplies over to the Battleship Express.

"Thank you Daryl. Once again, Iron Glory has provided us with the life-blood to keep our war machine running!"

Daryl nodded. "It was my pleasure Major Don. It's ALWAYS been an honor serving with you. Good luck out there in Zebrica."

Don sighed. "Thanks, I know that we'll need it!"

Once all of the supplies were loaded, Iron Glory pulled off into the night back towards Equestria. We decided to stay put for a little while longer until we'd fully scouted the area, and came up with a plan of attack.

Once I was done with my duties for the time being, I returned to my cabin. After removing my shirt, tunic, helmet, boots, and Kitsune mask, I then lay down on my bed.

As I was trying to rest, Aurora jumped up onto me, and lay down on me.

"Mmm, hey Aurora." I began to pet her gently.

"Hey Master." She began to nuzzle me a bit.

I looked up at my faithful wolf companion of nearly 3 years. She was now 5 years old, and was still very beautiful.

She noticed me staring at her. "What are you looking at Master?"

"Hmm, oh, I was just looking up at you, my sweet Aurora."

Aurora seemed to be blushing a bit. "Aw, come on. I'm not sweet, I'm a killing machine too!"

I smirked. "Maybe on the battlefield, but in bed, you're my sweet pet!" It was at that exact moment that I realized what I had just said, and how bad it sounded. "Oh, shit! I really should have rephrased that!" I was about to apologize, but before I could Aurora put her paw over my mouth.

"Shh, you don't have to apologize Master, I know what you mean. We've been together for a good long while now. I know that you like me as more than a pet!" Aurora then began to lick, and kiss my neck gently.

"Ough, um, A-Aurora, we REALLY shouldn't be doing this right now! The mission....."

Aurora replaced her paw with her mouth. "Mmmm", She moaned after breaking the kiss. "I don't care, I need this!"

"B-but, Dash! If she knew that I came all this way only to have sex with you, what would she think?!?!"

"I dunno. Most likely though, she would understand. Few people can truly understand the love between Man and Dog. I think that I finally see the truth. We were meant to be."

I then gently rolled us over until Aurora was on her back. I then removed my pants from the equation, and my dick was all ready to go.

"Ngh....just, be gentle with me Master. I am smaller than you!"

I began to kiss her neck gently. "Don't worry Sweetheart, I'll take good care of you." I whispered, before the two of us settled in for a night of sweet, passionate love-making.

The next morning, the full gravity of last night's events hit me squarely in the face. I had just had sex with my pet wolf!

"And now I've cheated on Dash, I f@#ked a wolf, and I actually liked it! What is WRONG with me?!"

"Nothing Master, nothing is wrong with you. We all get our 'urges' and we need others to help us 'scratch our itches'. You were sexually frustrated, and so was I. We helped each other out. Plus, your goo can't make any babies inside of me, so we're good there. I'm also STD free, as are you, so aside from enjoying some forbidden sex, nobody got hurt."

I looked at Aurora. "Except for Dash. If she knew about this, she would absolutely gut me alive."

Aurora had to think about that one. "Yeah", she said at last, "That really could be a problem. However, she has a pet of her own, so maybe she would understand?"

I put a hand over my face. "Aurora, that's the stupidest idea that I've ever heard. However, in the heat of the upcoming battle, I'm pretty sure that we'll both forget that this ever happened anyway, so we'll fight the battle first, and then worry about this."

Aurora nodded, and then we all began to prepare for the battle that would occur in Zebrica in less than 24 hours.

After sending in the scouts, we all came to the realization of just how hard the battle ahead was really going to be. Zebrica was absolutely ENORMOUS!

"This place is like a non-moving Death Star! It has all of the weapons that you can imagine, plus 12 million Zebras to man them! The entire city is nothing but a massive fortress, and our marefriends are located right here, at ground zero!" I pointed to the spot on the map where the imperial palace was located. "And here's another problem, we know that they're in there, but we have absolutely no clue as to WHERE they are!"

Don knew that this was going to be a problem. "Yeah, I know Leopard, you don't need to remind me! I know the astronomical challenge that we're facing. This is going to be just like what taking Denver was going to be like. Do you remember that?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but if you remember correctly, at Denver, we had multiple Army and Marine units, plus the Air Force, and more men in reserve. This time around, we have the Battleship Express again, with her 216 man crew, but we only have two battalions. We have MAYBE 3,500. We're up against 12 MILLION!!!!!"

"Yeah, I know that the odds are against us Leopard! However, as has been demonstrated in the past, their armor, and even their fortress walls, CANNOT stand up against our weapons! Also for this battle, we will be using drones, our gunship, and we'll even be bringing back the tractor-tanks!"

I sighed. "Yeah, but Don, will it be enough? I mean, as I'm sure you know, we're only going to get one shot at this, ONE! If we fail, we lose everything! We would NEVER be getting another chance at this EVER again!"

Don sighed. "Yeah, I know that you're right Leopard. HOWEVER, if we do not act soon, our marefriends could be lost anyway. Zakia is a glorified warlord. Who knows what he's really capable of if he knows that he’s cornered. Tomorrow morning at dawn, after our final check-in with the Princesses to make sure that our video feed is working, we'll be commencing the attack."

I nodded, and went to go prepare. I knew off the top of my head that myself, Don, and Alex would all either be leading, or be a part of the teams sent inside of the city, as we had to rescue our marefriends. I was still worried though; what if the worst happened, and we really did fail? What would happen then? I didn't even want to dwell on that possibility, so I went to go prepare my weapons instead.

"General Faul?"

"Yes Overlord Zakia?"

"Please bring me the 2 'Element Bearers', as well as the Human. I would like to keep them close at hand from now on!"

Faul nodded. "As you wish, Overlord Zakia."

On his word, the 3 hostages/prisoners were dragged into the throne room, and were made to kneel in front of Zakia. All of them wore black collars, and both Twilight and Applejack were chained to Zakia's throne. Dan was lying on the ground close by, too weak to really move. He was not tied up, but a close eye was still kept on him.

"Ok, now that I have my pretty slaves, General Faul, do we know where the Black Leviathan even is?"

Faul shook his head. "Unfortunately Sir, we do not. Our estimates put it somewhere between Mardia and here, but for now, it's anybody's guess as to where they are."

Zakia scowled. "'ESTIMATES' aren't good enough General, I need EXACT LOCATIONS!!!! How hard can it be to track ONE TRAIN?!?! ESPECIALLY ONE AS LARGE AS THAT?!?!?!"

"We're always looking for it Sir, but one of the problems is that after Randeth, our empire is crisscrossed with old and abandoned rail lines. Hardly any of them are even on maps, so that makes it really difficult to watch them, as we have no idea where they go. However, it is our best guess that the Black Leviathan is out there on one of these abandoned tracks."

"Which is why WE have to find IT, before IT finds US!"

As Zakia and Faul continued to talk about this, Twilight turned to Appleajck. "Wow", she murmured softly. "If they're THIS worked up about it, The war train must be getting pretty close!"

"Yeah, no kiddin' Sugarcube! I heard them say 'Mardia'. That's a city about 30 miles away from here. That means that they're already right on top of us, and could be here practically any minute now!"

"Yeah, so that's why we have to be prepared!" Dan muttered. "We have to be ready to fight when they get here, as these Zebras may try to kill us when they do!"

Now Twilight and Applejack were scared. However, what Applejack said next really made them all go quiet. "Yeah, but what'll we say when we see Captain Leopard? 'Sorry, but Rainbow Dash ain't here, she got taken by the Caribou'?"

Twilight and Dan could only stare at AJ. They knew that what she said was the truth, however, they had no idea what to say.

All throughout that night, all 3 of them continued to watch, and wait, waiting for any signs of the Battleship Express. They slept in shifts, so that somepony, or Dan, would always be awake.

On our end, we pulled into a grove of trees less than 2 miles away from Zebrica. We then diverted the switch so that no trains could charge us from the front, but we could still deliver a full broadside of whatever weapons we chose. All weapons were being readied. All 12 of our 16in guns in each of their 4 turrets were ready, our 4 big railguns were ready, Lt. Hughes said that all systems were go with the gunship, our drones and drone pilots were ready, the "tractor-tanks" were all ready, Big Boy 4009 was ready, and all of our other weapons were ready. However, some things were just not ready, namely Battalion 4009, and Shining Armor’s troops. All of us were incredibly scared. We were about to challenge the full might of the 2nd strongest military in all of Equus, (The Caribou were 1st, Equestria held 3rd, but only just) with only 1 flagship war train, and 3,516 guys. We were up against 12 MILLION Zebras, in their CAPITAL CITY, on their HOME TURF!!! They also held our marefriends, as well as 2 of our soldiers hostage, (or so we believed).

Just before we made our call to Canterlot in the final predawn hours, Don called all of us together for a meeting.

"Hello everyone and everypony. The sun will be up soon, so I will have to keep this brief! However, today, is the LAST DAY of Zebrica, and one of the last days of the Zebra Empire! Today, Zakia, and all of his filthy race, will PAY THROUGH THEIR ASSES for kidnapping our soldiers, as well as Twilight and her friends!"

The crowd began to cheer a bit.

"HOWEVER!" Don continued. "I WILL NOT sugarcoat this. This battle WILL NOT be easy! We're up against 12 MILLION Zebras, located in the most fortified city since Denver, Colorado, while they are still holding the hostages! I'm afraid that many of us will not live to see this battle's end, however, NONE of you will be forgotten! Even if you die, you WILL be remembered as a hero! Today, we show these bastards ONCE AND FOR ALL that messing with Humanity on the warpath IS A DEATH SENTENCE!!!! They will NEVER live to RUE THE DAY THAT THEY CHOSE TO FIGHT US!!!! NOW WHO'S READY TO FIGHT?!?!?!?!"

There was some cheering, but most of us stuck with, "We're with you Don! This is our fight, and today we plan on finishing it!"

We all then went to our stations, while some of us got the cameras ready. I attached one to a mount on my helmet just above my eyes, so that it would be a POV shot. Once we were all ready, we contacted Canterlot.

Celestia picked up. "Oh, is it time now Major Don?"

"Yes Princess Celestia, the time has come! Are you ready to receive the live feed?"

"Affirmative Major! We're all hooked up on our end."

"Ok then", Don signaled to someone in the PCC to begin the transmissions. "Transmitting in 5.....4.....3....2....1....Ok, we're live. Do you see everything?"

"Affirmative Major! Luna, Cadence and I, as well as our advisers, and a few others who wanted to, including the other two Element Bearers, even though they may not begin to watch until you guys get close to Twilight and the others, are all watching, and can see everything."

"Ok then, well, DISCLAIMER: The following contains material that is not suitable for young audiences, rated M for Mature! The following contains scenes of graphic violence, strong language, some nudity, and possibly sexual content, we don't know yet. There's also most likely a lot of other horrors waiting for us in there."

Celestia nodded gravely. "We, understand Major. However, we need to see this, so we will be brave."

"Roger that Princess. And our plan is to first strategically hit the city with artillery strikes, before sending in our drones and gunship. These two factors will cause a lot of chaos, and then we will send in the ground forces. These troops, flanked by bulldozers, tractors, and loaders, all armored and armed with machine guns and light artillery, will move in, and do what has to be done. Our primary goal is to get to the Imperial Palace located in the center of the city, get inside, and rescue the hostages."

"Yes, and after that, and once you've gotten to a safe distance, LEVEL THAT F@#KER WITH A NUCLEAR WEAPON!!!!" Luna screamed.

I saluted. "We will do that, Princess Luna, and then we will turn our attention to the rest of the Zebra Empire, and wipe it out. This whole process should take maybe 2 days at the most."

"Just, do whatever you have to do, but get the job done!"

"Roger that Princesses, but in the meantime, sit back, grab your popcorn, (if you can stomach food while watching us anyway!) and witness the TRUE POWERS of Human Warfare!"

We all then got to our ready positions, and waited for the first light of dawn to appear, which was going to be in less than 10 minutes.

Don checked his watch. The time was 5:58am. Originally, we had planned on using Tarrath's preserved body to scare the Zebras in a video call, but then we feared that this could cause somebody to snap, and kill the hostages, so we decided against that. We would use it later, but not until the hostages were safe.

"Are you ready Leopard?"

I was sitting inside of one of the bulldozers. "As ready as I'll ever be Don. I'll just be so glad when Dash is safe in my arms again."

He nodded. "As will I when I see Twilight again." He then grabbed his radio. "Jim? Do you read me?"

"Yeah, I'm here Don, is it time?"

"Affirmative! Are all of the guns ready?"

"Affirmative Don! Targets?"

"Any and all remaining utility places, including power and water for the railguns, and any and all military shit for the 16in guns, and our other artillery! Then, once the power is failing, and the water is running low, turn the railguns onto the Imperial Palace, but ONLY ON THE WEAPONS EMPLACEMENTS! We still do not know where the hostages are!"

"Copy that Don. We'll take those guns out like a whip takes a fly off the horn of a bull!"

All of the weapons were then pointed to their targets. Then, just as the sun began to peek over the tops of the forest surrounding Zebrica, Don gave the word. "UNLEASH HELL UPON THESE HEATHENS!!!!" He screamed.

And with that one order, the gates of Hell were opened, and Zebrica was already a missing city.

Even though the city was on high-alert, they were still expecting a frontal assault. Never did they ever suspect that the first shots would be from heavy artillery located almost 2 miles away in the thick forest! Once again, we fired our guns, and death was the result.

Our first targets were the remaining power stations, waterworks, and sewage treatment plants. We already knew that the Zebras were hurting in those departments, so why not squeeze them even harder? The first hits from our railguns were aimed at Power Stations #2, and #3, 2 of 3 in Zebrica. Direct hits to both caused the main generators to explode, which left a number of sections of the city without power. The guns were then trained on Power Station #1, and the results were the same. The backup generators did kick in, but they were failing.

Meanwhile, the 16in guns, as well as our heavy artillery, were hurling everything that they had at the military installations around Zebrica. They targeted garrisons, smaller fortresses, 2 military academies, multiple military police precincts, weapons and ammunition factories, as well as any and all weapons emplacements that they could find.

"Yeah, keep these guns firing!" Jim yelled. "We have to cut down the odds so that our boys in the air, as well as those on the ground stand a fighting chance!"

And indeed, it was also around this time that the drones were launched as well. We had 6 of them operational for the battle, and Lt Hughes was waiting for the go ahead from Jim to take flight after most, if not all AA defenses had been neutralized.

In Canterlot, all of those watching stared in absolute shock at the destruction that we were dishing out upon Zebrica. They had read all of the reports from our previous battles, as well as heard eyewitness testimonies, but to actually see it for themselves?

"So, is this what 'WW6' against the Futas was like for them? Is this why they are so good at taking fortified cities?" Cadence wondered.

"I would have to assume so Cadence, but my word! Their artillery is NOTHING like ANYTHING in our arsenal! I was shown the schematics for their guns, and although they're this powerful, they're actually shockingly simplistic."

Luna looked at her sister. Then she picked up her radio. "Major Don? Can you hear me?"

"Affirmative Princess Luna. Are you enjoying the show?"

"It's certainly......interesting, to say the least. When are you going to send in the ground troops?"

"Eh, we won't be able to do that for a little while longer. We still have a lot of weapons to take out on the ground, in addition to still having to gain air superiority over the city. The entire city is bristling with weapons that we still have to take out before we can advance!"

"Ok, copy that Major, just keep up the good work!"

"Roger that, I'll let you know when we're about to send in the ground troops."

He then hung up for the time being. "Jim, do you read me?"

"I'm here Don. What is it?"

"How are we looking on knocked out AA weapons? Can I tell Lt. Hughes that he can get the gunship in the air yet?"

"We're trying Don. It's getting harder and harder to see with all of the smoke, and the weapons are everywhere. According to our thermal scans though, most of the weapons do seemed to be neutralized, so I think that we can send up the gunship. The red dots to indicate enemy targets are so thick that they seem to just be one solid mass!"

"Ok copy that." Don then switched frequencies. "Lt. Hughes, do you read me?"

"Affirmative Major, are we a go?"

"Yes. You are good to go! Most of the AA weapons seemed to be neutralized, but we still need you up there to start cutting down the odds. The enemy is still swarming all over the city!"

"Roger that, we'll be over the city in 2 minutes to deliver some serious firepower."

"Copy that, just go."

Don looked at his watch. The time was now 6:43am. "Why do I get the feeling that this is going to be a REALLY long day?"

In the throne room, all was quiet. Dan and Twilight were sleeping, and Applejack was on watch. Zakia was not currently present, and aside from them, the only other persons in the room were a few guards, and Candeth.

"Hey, um, excuse me?" She asked one of the guards.

"What do you want Bitch? Are ya hungry?" He smirked, pointing to the bulge in his loincloth.

Applejack narrowed her eyes. "No, I just wanna to know the time. What time is it?"

"It's time for you to suck my dick!"

"The time is exactly 5:59am." Candeth answered, glancing at the clock on his small, improvised work-table, where he was currently working to keep the palace supplied with power from his improvised switchboard.

Applejack sighed. "5:59. Well, at any rate, it's almost 6. Almost time fer the sun to rise." She sat back against the base of the throne.

Suddenly though, the palace was shaken a bit by a minor rumble.

"Whoa, what was that?!"

Suddenly, after the rumble, there came an explosion from outside the palace!

"Whoa! WHAT'S GOING ON?!?!" One of the guards asked.

Then, from over the intercom systems, alarms began to blare. "EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY!!!!! ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS NOW!!!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL, I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!! ALL HANDS, PREPARE TO DEFEND ZEBRICA FROM THE BLACK LEVIATHAN!!!!"

Applejack was wide awake after that. "DAN, TWILIGHT, WAKE UP!!!!" She began to shake them awake.

"Huh? What is it Applejack? It's too early for this." Dan muttered.

"THEY'RE HERE!!! OUR COLTFRIENDS ARE HERE!!!!"

"WHAT?!?!?!" They both sat up in an instant. Sure enough, they heard the explosions, as well as the loud alarms, and felt the rumbles.

"Heh, so the Battleship Express has arrived to save us, has it? Now let's just hope to survive this battle!"

And indeed, they all knew that this was going to be hard. Applejack and Twilight were literally chained to Zakia's throne, and even though Dan wasn't chained, he was just barely strong enough to stand, never mind fight back. He had drug himself up into a sitting position, and Applejack held him steady.

Suddenly, Zakia burst into the throne room, followed by General Faul. He went over to his throne, literally kicked Dan and the Element Bearers aside, and began to shout orders. "GENERAL, I WANT ALL AVAILABLE FORCES TO DEFEND THIS CITY NOW!!! CALL UP EVERYONE!!!! RESERVISTS, MILITARY ACADEMY STUDENTS, POLICE FORCES, CIVILIANS, EVERYONE!!!"

"Yes Sir!"

"This is as far as those Humans get! They will not take Zebrica! Zebrica is MY city!!!"

"And what about England?" Dan muttered. "Is that your city too?"

Zakia turned to Dan, and gave him a death-glare. "Chain that one up too! I know that he's too weak, but I CANNOT take any further chances!"

Dan was then chained up to the throne as well. Now they were all trapped. They prayed that the ceiling didn't fall down, as they might not be able to dodge any falling debris.

"Where is the train General?"

"Well Sir, we've managed to pinpoint its location as being about 2 miles outside of town on an abandoned track in the woods. Unfortunately, it's out of range for our cannons, and we can't really send in forces to attack the train, as we cannot protect them!"

Zakia knew that this was real trouble. However, this was soon to be the least of his concerns. More reports began to come in.

"SIR, THE POWER STATIONS ARE GOING UP IN FLAMES!!!! WE'RE LOSING POWER!!!!"

"SIR, THE PIPES AT THE WATERWORKS HAVE BURST!!! WE CANNOT GET WATER TO THE FIRES THAT ARE SPREADING!!!"

"Candeth?!"

"Um, yes Sir?"

"Does my palace still have it's own separate power supply?"

"Um, yes Sir! The furnaces and generators are all underground, so it should stay that way! The power to the palace will stay on, barring of course any attempts to destroy the palace."

Zakia nodded. "Excellent! Also, if they destroy the palace, they risk killing our hostages!"

The trio of hostages knew what that meant. They just hoped that we would be able to get to them, before anything bad happened.

Meanwhile, outside of the palace, it was like a scene straight out of Dante's Inferno. Fires were raging, buildings were getting hit, power lines were falling down, and the entire city was trying to find something to shoot at. Unfortunately for them though, their problems were about to get a whole lot worse.

Right around this time, Lt. Hughes and his crew showed up with the gunship, and began to wreak havoc. They could see that machine guns weren't going to be enough this time, so they decided to supplement that with an even deadlier weapon; the unholy offspring of an GAU-8 Avenger auto-cannon, and an M242 Bushmaster chain gun! The "Avenging-Cannon" as it came to be known was originally developed for use on the train, however, it was decided that our gunship could use one, so two smaller versions were installed, capable of firing 4,500 rounds of depleted uranium a minute! These were deemed unnecessary to use until now, as the gunship's machine guns had sufficed from Ponyville, to Appaloosa, to Zandia. Now that the heat had been turned up though, it was time to show them just how deadly "Hell from Above" could really be!

"Ok boys, get ready, get the Avenging Cannons online now! We really need to take down some Zebras!"

"Yes Sir!" A few minutes later, the cannons were ready. "Sir, cannons online, and ready to go! What should we target?"

Hughes looked at his scanners. "You see those red dots down there?"

"Um, no Sir, all I see are HUGE clusters of dark red!"

"Exactly! There are too many of them for our systems to even target! Aim straight for the center of the clusters, and let's show these striped freaks some Frontier Justice!"

"Yes Sir!"

Then, they opened fire. Many have said over the years that the sounds coming from an Avenging Cannon were the most terrifying things to hear on a battlefield.

"It sounds like God Himself just farted!" As one soldier stated.

And indeed, it was a 'deadly fart', sending out depleted uranium bullets at 4,500 round per minute! The Zebras down in the city below never even stood a chance. One minute they were there, and the next, all that was left was bloody hamburger! The shots tore their bodies to pieces! The gunship circled all around the city, shooting at anything that moved, and had stripes. In addition to the Avenging Cannons, the gunship's gunners also fired the machine guns, and even rockets at the enemy.

However, just like before in Appaloosa, the enemy was able to fire some AA weapons in their direction.

"MORE AA WEAPONS!!! FLARES NOW!!!! USE THEM SPARINGLY!!!!"

"Yes Sir!" The technician then flipped the switch, held it for 5 seconds, and then flipped it off again. The AA rockets hit the flares, and then exploded. The smoke trails from the rockets gave the enemy's positions away though, so once the pilot brought the gunship back around, they sent them a friendly "F@#K OFF!!!" with the Avenging Cannons.

When the princesses saw the gunship in action, they well and truly had no words. Never before had they seen death delivered on such a massive scale in such a short period of time.

"Oh......my....." was all Fluttershy could say. Nobody else could say anything.

Suddenly though, from the radio, they heard a call between the gunship and the train.

"Jim, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear Lt. Hughes."

"Well Sir, we seem to have run out of ammunition. We fired so much that we've run out!"

"Copy that Lt. Hughes. Return to the train and reload. It's getting to be almost time to send in the ground troops. The whole military industry of the city is going the way of its infrastructure; up in smoke!"

"Copy that Jim, we'll deliver one final salvo of rockets to cover our retreat, and then return for reloading."

"Roger that."

"Did.....that pilot, seem SAD that he was out of ammunition?!" Rarity was horrified. "How can he be SAD to not be able to kill anymore?! That's.....that's ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING!!!"

"That's how the Humans operate I'm afraid Rarity." Celestia told her gently. "They seem to exist only to fight; kill or be killed."

"Yes, but this is war. Maybe when it's all over, the Humans will change!"

Luna shook her head. "A nice thought Cadence, but I've seen into their minds. All they know how to do is fight wars like what we're seeing right now. However, there is still hope for them. They WANT to move on, but they just don't know how to do it."

Cadence put her hand over her chin in thought. "Well, maybe after the war is over, as the Princess of Love, I could help fix that!"

Luna shrugged. "Maybe so Cadence. However, they did say that they were about to send in the ground troops, so maybe now we'll get to see how their wars work from the ground."

They all looked back at the screen, absolutely dreading how that was going to go down.

Author's Note

I see now that I'm going to have to add a Part 3 to this battle, as it's going to be very long. Don't worry though, Part 3 will be the end of the Battle of Zebrica. The final fate of the Zebras will be decided in Chapter 15.

I'm writing both Part 3, and Chapter 15 as we speak, so Part 3 should be out by late tonight, and Chapter 15 by sometime tomorrow probably.

Hang onto your seats though, cuz when the ground battle begins, shit, gets about as real as it's ever going to get!

As always, Comments, feedback, questions, as well as spreading the word about this story, are always appreciated, and I'll see you in Part 3!

ScarFox out for now!