For the Caribou forces, what started out as a routine mission to eradicate a rebel officer and his rebellious troops, turned into the bloodiest slug-fest that many of them had ever seen. None of them could figure out how Gregor and his forces were so strong.

"This doesn't make any sense! By our estimates, Gregor should only have maybe 300 men with him! Now they've already torched the town of Marrow, and have moved way out from there!"

Rodin was also completely baffled. Gregor's forces were picking off his troops with EASE! All reports never mentioned the Black Leviathan, so he assumed that it was not present. Plus, most of the battles were taking place far away from the railroad tracks anyway.

"We have to hold them here people! They CANNOT be allowed to get any farther!"

"Um, should we contact King Danin?"

"NO!!!!! He does NOT need to know about this! We WILL NOT be contacting ANYONE in Donneth until AFTER we can safely say that there will be no more coups! He told us to put Gregor down once and for all, so that's what we'll do!"

His troops nodded, and then they got back to work.

It was all downhill from there though. They thought that they had Gregor's forces cornered in Marrow, but then they seemed to have escaped. Then came the battle in the woods where they were totally trashed.

"Fall back, fall back!" Rodin yelled. Rodin then contacted General Stuggs, and requested reinforcements. "It's getting bad out here Stuggs. Whatever Gregor's doing, he seems to be out-foxing us at every turn!"

"That's not good Rodin. I'm sending reinforcements your way, so just hold on until they can get there!"

"Roger that!"

Unfortunately, this is where things got REALLY messy. As previously stated, what happened next was one of the oddest incidents of the entire war. From Marrow, it was a 3-way battle all the way out to Rendale, which was located 10 miles outside of Dock Town. Rodin's forces shot at Gregor's, Gregor's forces shot back, and forces under Shining and I shot at both of them. Gregor thought that we were his troops, and so did Rodin. We killed any Caribou who realized the truth before they could sound any alarms, so the battle continued.

All that was left in our wake was death and destruction. The battle raged for miles in all directions. First we went North, then West, then East, then North again, then South, then Southeast, and so on, until all of us were getting extremely dizzy. In our wake we left burning fields, destroyed villages, a few towns completely wrecked, and many Caribou killed. For hour after hour, this went on. We lost track of time, as well as our bearings. By the time that Stuggs arrived with reinforcements, it was then that we realized that we were completely lost. We radioed Don for help, and when we did, that was when we realized that we were close to Rendale, nearly 250 miles away from where we were supposed to be! Don told us that he was sending us reinforcements, and to hold on for the few minutes that it would take for them to arrive. Now, it was just us, and our plan.

I relayed it to the troops. "Ok, so here's the deal. We're going to split off, and head towards Rendale. Shining's forces will then split off, and do likewise. Then, we'll both hit Rendale from different angles, and hopefully convince those inside that we're with Gregor. Then, when Rodin and his troops chase us, they'll think that they're with Gregor too! And even if they don't, I know that it will be absolute chaos! If all goes according to plan, the entire city of Rendale burns in the confusion, and then we move on to Dock town, where the Battleship Express will meet us, and then we see what kind of trouble that we can cause there."

"Sounds like a plan to me, let's do it!"

We then split our forces, and began to move in different directions.

"Um, Sir, the enemy is splitting up!"

"What?" Rodin looked through his binoculars. Sure enough, our forces were splitting up. "Hmm, I wonder what they could be up to."

"Does it really matter Rodin?" Stuggs then pointed to Rendale. "That's where they seem to be heading! We need to cut them off before they get inside! They seem to be taking two different ways to get there!"

Rodin nodded. "Yes, it does appear that you are right General. You and your men take the forces on the left, and I and my forces will take the group on the right. We have to stop this right now!"

"Yes Sir!"

They then got into position.

On our end of things, we were really happy.

"They're taking the bait Shining! They're following us!"

"Good! Now then, let's see what kind of mayhem we can cause!"

The battle then got underway. Just like we planned, we were spotted by those who were defending Rendale, who also spotted the Caribou Army as well.

"Here they come! General Stuggs said to keep them away from the city! All defenders open fire now!"

"Yes Sir!"

The guns of the city's defenders then opened up on the forces below. We took cover behind rocks, and fallen trees, but the Caribou chasing us got gunned down by their own forces! They also only noticed my forces; Shining's group was about to hit them from the other side.

"GAAAHHH!!! SIR, THEY'RE KILLING US!!!!"

Rodin looked up, and to his horror, his own troops within Rendale were indeed killing them.

"SHIT!!!" He grabbed his communicator. "RENDALE COMMAND, THIS IS GENERAL RODIN!!!! DO YOU READ ME?!?!?!?!"

"This is Rendale Command. We read you loud and clear General! Don't worry, we're slaughtering Captain Gregor's forces!"

"NO!!!! CEASE FIRE!!!! CEASE FIRE NOW!!!!! YOU'RE KILLING MY TROOPS!!!! WE WERE CHASING THE ENEMY HERE!!!!"

"OH GODS!!!" The Caribou in charge of Rendale, Commander Drake, quickly radioed his men. "ALL DEFENDERS, CEASE FIRE!!!!! CEASE FIRE NOW!!!!! YOU'RE KILLING GENERAL RODIN'S MEN!!!! THEY ARE NOT THE ENEMY!!!! STOP SHOOTING NOW!!!!"

Suddenly, all fire ceased. The results were horrible. At least 175 of Rodin's troops were dead, on top of all of the many dozens that had already been killed.

"General.....I don't.....even know what to say right now. We honestly had no idea that it was you."

"I don't blame you, Commander Drake, I blame Gregor! He and his forces are still around here somewhere, as we were chasing them just moments ago!"

Before Drake could respond though, something else happened. In those few quick moments of silence, Shining's troops were able to plant the explosives that the first wave had stolen from Hell's Gate earlier that evening, and plant them against the base of one of the city's walls close to them. They then detonated the explosives.

"BIG DIVERSION LEOPARD!!!!!" Shining yelled to me. He and his forces then began to run into the city. "AND THE REINFORCEMENTS ARE HERE!!!!!"

I looked up, and sure enough, troops started falling from the sky. They landed in various places, and began to link up.

"Ok, all units form up! WE HAVE TO STORM REDNALE NOW!!!!! THE CITY WILL BE OVERRUN BY STORM, AND THEN, WE MOVE ON TO DOCK TOWN!!!!!" I then gave the orders for which unit needed to go where. Some were sent directly into the city to reinforce Shining, while others stayed outside, and held the ground there. It was chaos so pure that it would have made Discord cry!

Just keeping everyone straight was the hardest part. Ponies and Humans were running this way and that, trying to kill anything that moved, Rodin and Stuggs were trying to maintain order, as were Drake and his forces. Where did Gregor and his forces go? Well, that's the kicker; they bypassed Rendale, and went to meet up with Lt. Thomas and his troops in Dock Town, where they planned on stealing ammunition and supplies. The Caribou were fighting us, fully believing that we were a result of Gregor's god-like powers.

The Caribou never even stood a chance. Evidence later showed that they killed more of their own forces than we did. Friendly fire was also an issue for us. Eventually, the chaos was just too much.

"ALL FORCES, FALL BACK TO POINT 37! WE NEED TO REGROUP, AND FIGURE THIS OUT!!! THIS WHOLE AREA IS LOST, AND WE'RE ALL KILLING EACH OTHER!!!!! FALL BACK NOW!!!!"

My forces and I then quickly retreated into what was left of the woods off to the left of Rendale, where we covered the advances of the rest of our troops. It did take a bit, but by close to 4am, we were all together again. After a quick headcount, I came to the conclusion that in the biggest melee battle that I had ever seen in my ENTIRE MILITARY CAREER, (Which spanned the Forgotten War, 4 world wars, and now the Imperial War, mind you!) we'd lost maybe 300+ soldiers, with 1,100 wounded, and an uncertain number of missing.

To our credit though, hundreds of Caribou were now dead, with many more wounded, a God-only-knows number of missing, 3 cities lost, 4 towns destroyed, 5 settlements burned to the ground, and an estimated $4 billion in collateral damage was done. And to really take the cake, the REAL battle was about to begin!

All throughout the course of the battles, Don continued to receive updates. He logged them, but was still unable to believe them.

"These....just seem too FANTASTICAL to be true Jim! How can only 2,000 guys have caused this kind of mass destruction?! It's simply UNREAL!!!!"

Jim frowned. "Well, there was that coup going on, which probably accounted for some of the casualties, but what I believed happened here was probably the greatest case of death-by-friendly-fire that I've ever seen. More Caribou died by the hands of their fellow Caribou than by our soldiers. They burned down their own cities trying to find an invisible enemy. That's why fear is such a powerful weapon Don; it can turn just 2,000 troops into a seemingly endless army. I don't know who this 'Captain Gregor' fellow is, but whoever he is, he's really causing the Caribou more panic than we ever could!"

"Pride comes before a fall". A voice muttered. "We must be careful with how much pride in ourselves we have. We are not invincible, and can fall just as easily as our enemies."

Don and Jim looked up, and standing in the doorway of the PCC, was Father Charles.

Jim nodded. "You are indeed correct Father. Our own pride can destroy us just as easily as weapons can. The Caribou are now learning this the hard way, just as our other enemies did before them. Nobody is invincible. As the old saying goes, 'A tree falls the way it's leaning. Be careful which way you lean'."

"That is indeed correct Jim. I've sensed a dark presence ever since we've arrived here. This dark presence seems to be fueling the rage, and lust for blood. It seems to be especially prevalent in Captain Leopard."

Don sighed. "That's because he's ground zero Father." Don then explained everything that the princesses had told him about Sombra.

Father Charles was really taken aback by what he heard. "My word! So this 'Sombra', has been working behind the scenes for years, and now he's taken one of our own?"

"Well, in a sense. Sombra is not a demon, as he was once just an ordinary Pony, though he became corrupted by power. He was defeated twice, but not killed. His spirit roamed until he found Captain Leopard, and now is a part of him."

"But he is still a manifestation of evil. And now he's the driving force behind our barbaric actions."

Something then clicked in Don's head. "It's his revenge! He's using us as pawns to defeat his former enemies, and possibly further weaken Equestria so that he can attack!"

"Maybe Don, but my take on it? God is using Sombra, as well as the rest of us, as tools to do His bidding. Perhaps He decided that it was time for the Zebras and Caribou Empires to end, and we are simply the means for that to happen. Nevertheless though, some of us really need to get a handle on this. What's going on with Captain Leopard is NOT healthy, and God knows what Sombra is telling him to do."

Don put his hands over his face. "Yeah, but unfortunately, it's hard to deal with a problem until you can fully figure out what the problem even is. What we still do not know is the exact nature of Leopard's relationship with Sombra, or how powerful Sombra really is. From what it appears to be, Sombra is still extremely weak, and may hopefully stay that way."

"And if he doesn't? What if he manages to take full control of Leopard? What then?"

"Why are you asking me this? You're the priest here, aren't you?"

Father Charles narrowed his eyes. "'The Exorcist' was just a movie Major. Real-life problems like this are MUCH more serious! If what you have said is true, and Sombra isn't a demon, then that just complicates this even further. We'll need to finish discussing this with both Captain Leopard, and the Princesses, but for now, we need to pray. Pray for ourselves, and the others; pray that they do not become consumed by the darkness that they are trying to snuff out."

Don and Jim agreed to this, and then the 3 of them all began to pray as the Battleship Express neared the marker that indicated only 50 miles to go.

Back on our end, once we had all regrouped again, we discussed what to do. We had no idea where the enemy was, only that we had 10 miles to go until we reached Dock Town.

"What do we do now Captain Leopard?"

For the first time in a long while, I actually didn't know. I was still pretty shell-shocked from what had just happened. "I'd take any ideas at this point", I thought. "Even ones from Shadow!"

Then, even though he didn't say anything, I knew that Shadow was trying to tell me something. I looked around, trying to figure out what it was. Then I saw our answer. Sitting just outside of the city was a freight depot. It had been practically destroyed, but sitting on the tracks in front of it was a small freight train. There was an engine, and 5 cars, including a caboose. All around the train were the bodies of its crew.

"Guys, I think that I know what to do! We can now travel those last 10 miles in style, and be in Dock Town in good time!"

Shining and the others looked at me like I was crazy. "Oh, and how are we supposed to do that?"

I pointed over to the train. "With that train right there! We 'borrow' it, and then take it to Dock Town. It's so small, and it is Caribou, so maybe the enemy would overlook it."

"Yeah, but assuming that it wasn't damaged, the fire in the firebox has probably gone out. It would take a long time to build up the fires again. Meanwhile, we don't know where the enemy is. They could still be anywhere, and we don't know where the insurgents are either!"

I sighed. "Well, then if we don't take the train, then I say that we destroy it, so that nobody else will. However, I for one do not want to walk 10 miles, and it's too risky for us to fly or use magic, because if we were spotted, that would give us away as well. You all took a big risk by doing that to get here to help us. I know that we needed reinforcements, and that that was the only way to get to us, but still, that was a big risk that we probably should not take again!"

We all continued to contemplate what to do.

Meanwhile, on the Caribou end of things, the situation was even grimmer. Rodin and Stuggs had lost so much of their forces, and from what Intel they had, Gregor and his forces were still on the loose. Stuggs also felt that something was wrong.

"There's something wrong with this whole ordeal Rodin. I just feel that there's......something else out here with us. That there's more to this than just Gregor and his troops."

Rodin sighed. "Normally, I would just call you crazy Stuggs, however, this time, I can sense it too. There is something out there, but what it is I do not know. I fear for all of us Stuggs. The end for us may be close at hand."

Stuggs sighed, and then asked what they were going to do.

"Well, we need to link up with any forces in this area. I've heard that Gregor also has a confederate in Dock Town who supplies him with weapons and ammunition."

Now Stuggs looked scared. "Wait, did you say Dock Town?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because, this is the time of the year for the naval exercises. Almost half of our entire navy is there, including our flagship, the Dauntless. Sitting in the harbor close by are numerous ships all filled with ammunition! The whole dock-front is also filled with fuel, ammunition, powder, and other highly explosive materials! If another coup starts there......" Stuggs couldn't even finish that thought.

Rodin said it for him. "Which we CANNOT allow to happen! We've tried to radio them, but either they're out of contact range, or someone's tampered with the radios. Luckily, the entire city is less than 10 miles away, so we have to move right now!"

"Right!"

Rodin and Stuggs then gathered their forces, and after finding the main roads, were able to make fast tracks to the city.

Meanwhile, we had made our decision; we were going to use the train to get to Dock Town. After sneaking our way over to it, we searched it, and after finding no signs of life, we quickly began to set about making it usable. To our surprise, there was a fire burning in the firebox, albeit a weak, going out one. The engine itself only suffered minor damage, and we found the 5 cars to be empty as well.

"Strange", Shining muttered. "Maybe they were here to pick up cargo, and never got the chance to."

"Most likely. Now this train just has to get us to Dock Town."

I began to study the engine's controls. It resembled an engine from back on Earth, but much more rudimentary. There was a throttle, a brake, a whistle, and some valves and gauges. That was about it.

"Wow, this is really simple. It's even more simplified than Iron Glory, and she dates back to the 1860's!"

"But, can you figure out how to drive it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, so once we have the fire built up again, we should be able to go on our way."

Shining nodded. "Yeah, but how much longer will that be?"

"It shouldn't be too much longer now, as the fire was hot enough, and it's being built up again."

Eventually, by about 4:30am, the engine was ready. "Next stop Dock Town, ALL ABOARD!!!"

Everyone and everypony else piled onto and into the rest of the train, and then with a *whoosh* of steam, I moved the throttle forwards, and the train, which we dubbed "Battle Glory", was soon moving at a steady pace.

"Leopard, are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here Don, what's going on?"

"Just checking in. How are things going? Have you made it to Dock Town yet?"

"No, but we're well on our way. We've got maybe 7 miles to go, and we did manage to steal a train, so that's a plus."

Don stopped. "Wait, what?! You....stole a train?!"

"Um, yes, yes we did. It was sitting abandoned next to a destroyed freight depot outside of Rendale. The entire crew was already dead, so we kinda 'borrowed' the train, (which we're now calling 'Battle Glory') and are using it to get to Dock Town. What's your ETA looking like?"

"Um, wow, I can't believe that you stole a train. But anyway, our ETA is maybe another 30 minutes. Do you think that you guys can handle yourselves until then?"

"Um, yeah, I think that we can. Dock Town is now bout 6 miles away, and we're closing fast. We'll radio you again once we reach it."

"Roger that Leopard, and good luck!"

We didn't know it at the time, but we were going to need more than just luck to survive our next ordeal by fire, literally!

Meanwhile, 6 miles ahead of us, Dock Town's docks were massively abuzz. Even though it was almost 5am, there was still a lot to do. The next invasion was a planned sea-to-land operation on Van Hoover, and nearly half of the Caribou Navy was either tied up to the docks, or were close by in the harbor. Even the Caribou's flagship, the CIS Dauntless, was there. At 350 feet long, made of a mixture of steel and timber, sporting 200 cannons, a number of smaller guns, some of which were located in turrets, and powered by steam engines instead of having sails, she was the most modern ship that the Caribous had.

Also located along the docks was a large row of fully-loaded oil tanks for fuel, as well as numerous warehouses filled with ammunition, fuel, and other supplies. At this exact moment, Admiral Donnen was preparing his ships for the Van Hoover operation, completely unaware of what was happening right under his nose. Also at the docks were Gregor and his forces, as well as Gregor's confederate, Lt. Thomas, and his troops. They were hard at work stealing ammunition and fuel, and loading it onto a nearby train.

"At the rate that this is going, we'll have enough ammo to blast all of Donneth into the afterlife!"

"Yeah, no kidding Gregor! But we still need to be EXTREMELY careful with this stuff! This is live ammunition, powder, and fuel. This stuff ain't for show!"

Gregor laughed. "Heh, you worry too much Thomas, lighten up a little! Nothing's gonna go wrong!"

Unfortunately for them though, two things were about to go wrong. The first one was that we were less than 3 miles and closing, and the next was that one of the dock cranes, one that was moving a large amount of ammunition, had become stuck. The crane had jammed on its axis, and wouldn't move. Worse still, the crane's load of ammunition was positioned right above a naval freighter; the fully-loaded ammunition ship ironically named "Fireball".

"Oh great, NOW what do we do?!"

Gregor thought for a moment. "Well, first we see about lowering the cargo gently onto the ship. Then we see if we can get the crane unstuck. Simple as that."

Gregor then sent technicians onto the crane, to see about getting it to work again.

Eventually, we reached the end of our 10 mile run, and we reached the outskirts of Dock Town.

I was surprised when I saw it. "Wow, this whole city looks like a massive naval yard!"

And indeed, it appeared to be. There were ships under construction, as well as under repair, large dry-dock facilities, multiple warehouses, lots of transportation vehicles, and of course, a lot of ships, cranes, and other such things that one would find on a naval base. We could see the South Luna Ocean from where we were, as well as the first hints of dawn as well.

"What's the plan now Leopard?"

I thought for a moment. "Well", I said at last, "The plan now is to get onto those docks, and see about lighting some ammunition on fire. Just think about what kind of a panic that that would cause! Then, we maybe kill some Caribou, and then fall back and watch the fireworks until Don shows up. Does that sound like a plan?"

"Yeah, so let's GOOOO!!!!" Shining then blew the train's whistle to signal our charge, unaware of the chain reaction that he had just started.

Startled by the sudden blast of a train's whistle, one of the technicians on the crane suddenly jerked his wrench back too hard. This freed up the mechanism that controlled the crane's hoist, sending the crane's chain, (and the cargo that it was attached to!) into a free-fall! The crates full of ammunition then collided with the deck of the Fireball, and broke. Sparks from the force of the impact started a fire! There was now a fire burning on an ammunition ship, which was next to a bunch of other ammunition ships, alongside a dock that also contained MORE ammo, as well as fuel, and other buildings full of combustible material!

"OH GODS!!!!" One of the Fireball's crew yelled, "FIRE!!!!!"

"Oh shit, now look what you did you imbecile!!!" One of the other techs shouted at the one who had just caused the fire.

"It wasn't my fault!"

The fire then began to burn out of control, which ignited several more crates of ammunition, which then exploded.

"SHIIIIIIIT!!!!"

That was all it took. The fires on the Fireball quickly began to rage, and light off more and more ammunition. The more that exploded, the more burning debris were tossed about. In some cases, burning ammunition would be tossed into the air by another explosion, and explode upon landing; be where it landed the water, the dockside, a building, or even another ship full of ammunition! Alarms were blaring, and fire crews tried to rush to the scene, but the explosions from the Fireball, and other nearby areas held them at bay.

"F@#K!!! WE HAVE TO GET THESE FIRES OUT!!!! WE CANNOT LOSE THESE SUPPLIES!!!"

It was soon to be far worse than that though. Thanks to all of the burning debris that was getting tossed about, soon parts of the docks were on fire as well. The bigger the fire got, the hotter it became, and the more things around it began to become consumed.

It was in the middle of this that we of Battalion 4009, and Shining's group found ourselves in moments later.

"OH SHIT!!!" We were quickly dodging flaming debris, and trying to find our bearings.

"WHAT IN THE HELL HAPPENED?!?!?!" Shining yelled.

"IF I HAD TO GUESS, I'D SAY THAT THE HOUSEWARMING PARTY GOT A LITTLE BIT TOO WARM!!!!" I yelled back.

"Oh very funny Leopard! Most likely, somebody mishandled something, and the resulting fire got out of control before they realized just how serious it was!"

"What do we do Captain?!" Someone else yelled.

I didn't know. Here we were, supposed to be fighting a battle, and now more Caribou were dying because of an accident, and we hadn't even fired a single shot!

"FALL BACK, WE HAVE TO FALL BACK NOW!!! THIS WHOLE CITY COULD GO UP IN FLAMES, AND I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE WHEN IT DOES!!!"

We all then began to get the hell out of Dodge, and once we'd found safety on a nearby hill, we continued to watch the fireworks.

It had been a long time since I'd seen anything like this. The whole city seemed to have become one big tinderbox because of what had happened on the docks. More and more buildings began to combust, and when they began to burn, whatever was inside of them began to burn as well. On the docks, all of the ammunition ships were now on fire, as was the entire dock-front. Fuel tanks were burning, and seemed to be seconds away from detonating. It was like this that Stuggs, Rodin, and their forces, found Dock Town when they arrived.

"HOLY.......WHAT IN DANIN'S NAME HAPPENED HERE?!?!?!?!"

"FIRE, FIRE!!!!!" Someone yelled, "THERE WAS A FIRE AT THE DOCKS!!!! ONE OF THE AMMUNITION SHIPS BLEW UP, AND TORCHED THE REST!!!!"

Unlike us though, while we scurried to safety as soon as we saw the extreme danger, most of the Caribou charged into the city to try and save it! They worked water hoses, and threw water onto anything that was on fire. Unfortunately though, their problems were about to get a whole lot worse. Due to the intense heat, a number of water pipes began to have the water inside of them boil into steam, and then the pipes burst! Without more water, the fires continued to burn out of control.

From the perspective of Admiral Donnen, as well as those on the other ships that were out in the harbor at the time, they watched in dumbfounded shock.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?!?!?!"

"WAS THE CITY JUST ATTACKED?!!?!?!"

Some of the ships tried to get closer to help with the fires, but they soon got hit by flaming ammunition, which sometimes caused explosions that tore them apart. The worst fate was that of the cruiser Forefront. She was too close to the fires, and ignoring calls from the Admiral himself to withdraw. Donnen ordered them to get back, but the ship's captain didn't listen.

"I HAVE to do this Admiral! They need our help! We HAVE to put out the fires!!!!"

Moments after he said this, the Fireball had all of the internal explosions that it could take, and with an explosion that was actually witnessed by those on the Battleship Express, the ship blew up, and sent huge chunks of flaming debris straight into the Forefront. The ship, which was still in motion at the time of it's getting hit, was in serious trouble.

"ADMIRAL, IT'S HIT THE MAGAZINE!!!! WE CAN'T......!!!!!!"

Then the Forefront, which was listing, and heading straight back towards the Dauntless, suddenly exploded. The entire crew was killed instantly, and the Dauntless suffered several hull fractures below the waterline. Water began to pour into the ship, and soon one of the boiler rooms was flooded. The ship then began to lose power, and after a boiler explosion, was soon dead in the water.

"DON, LOOK!!!!"

Don looked to where Jim was pointing. To his shock, he saw a series of massive explosions. "The hell....????" He then grabbed his radio. "Leopard, can you hear me, what's going on?!?!?!"

"DON?! The whole city's going up in flames!!!! The fire was too big, they can't contain it!!!"

"Ugh, DAMMIT LEOPARD!!! I CAN'T LEAVE YOU UNSUPERVISED FOR 5 MINUTES, CAN I?!?!?!"

"It wasn't us Don, it was the Caribou! Some fire started on one of their ships, and then that ship then began to explode! The following fires and explosions then spread to the rest of the docks and city! They've also lost a number of their ships as well! Stay away from the city! We've already evacuated to a safe distance, however, if you feel like sinking some ships, feel free to!"

"Roger that Leopard!" After explaining the whole situation to Jim, and the rest of the crew, he then quickly gave the orders for the missile batteries to be fired up again. "We have to sink as many ships as possible! This fire's already going to cost them dearly, so let's multiply their pain, shall we?!"

He then gave the order to fire, and once they were ready, the primary missile batteries opened up. Each of them was heading towards a ship, and each ship targeted was doomed. (They didn't use the guns, both because the ships were out of range, and it's much easier to hit a moving target with a missile). First one ship was hit, and then another. Because most of them were made of wood, or had really weak armor, the missiles easily penetrated, and when they exploded, the damage was usually enough to severely cripple the ship, if not outright sink it. In the case of a hit magazine, that was usually a death sentence for the ship's entire crew.

Finally, with the whole city in flames, and most of the ships sunk, heavily damaged, or on fire, the naval base's spirit decided to end its suffering, and in one final, mighty explosion, (one that caused an earthquake that was actually felt as far away as Ponyville!) Dock Town blew up. Shattered debris was thrown everywhere, and the entire city, as well as the docks, and most of everything else, was entirely destroyed.

By the time that the sun finally did rise, it rose on a scene from the apocalypse. Dock Town was now little more than just twisted, flaming wreckage. All of the supply ships had been lost, as had most of the warships. 7 ships did manage to escape, but 5 others, including the Dauntless, weren't so lucky. They were either heavily damaged, crippled, or unable to be scuttled. The Dauntless was still floating, but she was dead in the water. Admiral Donnen shot himself to keep from feeling Danin's wrath, and the remainder of the crew beached the ship nearby, before either fleeing for their lives, or ending their lives.

For the rest of the Caribou, all of the Insurgents, including Gregor and Thomas, perished. For Rodin and Stuggs, most of their men perished in the inferno as well. The numbers for the battles were simply overwhelming. An estimated 4 million Caribou were dead, 1.5 million were wounded, and an estimated 3 million were missing. 3 cities, 4 towns, and 5 villages and settlements were destroyed, in addition to Rendale and Dock Town. The Caribous also lost their entire naval base, as well as all 10 of their ammunition ships, all 5 tanker ships, 27 warships sunk, 13 heavily damaged, (8 of these either later sank, or were scuttled), and the Dauntless was beached.

On our side, 359 were dead, 879 were wounded, and the number of missing was still unknown. We still could not believe what had just happened, or how much death and destruction had just been caused. We moved the Battleship Express to a nearby town that had been cleared out, Pennbrook, and decided to stay there for the time being. We all then turned our attention to tending to our wounded, as well as salvaging whatever we could from the enemy's supplies.

"How...could this have HAPPENED Stuggs?!?!?! In ONE NIGHT, we go from the most powerful empire in the world, to one that's just been CRIPPLED!!!! Most of our navy is GONE!!! Our only naval base left is the one at Lake Town! So many cities, towns, and villages have been DESTROYED!!!! Sure, we got rid of the Insurgents, BUT LOOK AT THE PRICE OF VICTORY!!!!!"

Stuggs looked like he was about to cry. So many of his men had perished needlessly, and he mourned all of them. "I....d-don't know Rodin! But they're all dead! So many of our finest are LOST!!!"

Rodin was equally upset. He also felt a cold chill run down his spine. He knew that they were going to have to inform Danin about what had just transpired. They already knew that Death most likely awaited them all for their failure, but they could only hope that Danin would make it quick for them.

Author's Note

Wow, um, yeah. When I said that, "Trial by fire", was to be taken literally, I bet you didn't think that I meant anything like this, did you? Well, that was Chapter 18. So now, the coup has been destroyed, as has almost everything else in the northern regions of the empire. We still have a ways to go, but we're definitely making progress. Now the Caribou have been severely crippled, and did more damage to themselves than we caused! What will happen now? How will Danin react when he hears the news? Do the Caribou actually know that we're in their midst? And how much longer until the next battle? Well, you know the drill! Stay tuned, and I'll tell you!

Meanwhile, as always, comments, feedback, questions, as well as spreading the word about this story, are always appreciated, and I'll see you in Chapter 19! (Or Chapter 18.5 if you're going to read that.)

ScarFox out for now, ALL ABOARD!!!!!