3 months later
3/01/20
Dakota POV

It has been almost a full year now since I first landed in Equestria and a lot has happened in the past year. I found that my friends were sent here as well, I had 2 girlfriends, started a war, started an arms race, and joined the military. I had told my family about everything that had happened and they still found it somewhat hard to believe. When I told my dad that I joined the military, He was extremely proud and somewhat jealous as well. He was proud because I was following in his footsteps to serve my country and jealous because I had already achieved a higher rank than him. He was a Staff Seargent while I had already worked my way up to the rank of 1st lieutenant. We had been beefing up defenses on the home front ever since December and we had been working around the clock as there were rumors going around that Sombra's forces were gearing up for a massive attack. His forces would most likely attack from the air as a ground attack was not possible due to how strong our defenses were on the front line. We could actually give the French Maginot line and German Siegfried line a run for their money. Barbed wire, anti-air guns, anti-tank guns, Machine guns, bunkers, trenches, heavy artillery guns, land mines, radio posts, and sniper nest's littered our front line defenses, His forces wouldn't be able to get through at all. I had also commissioned tanks that Equestria had built from our own tanks and sent them to the front.

The past 3 month's had been spent Installing Phalanx guns in around every city and town all around Equestria to further increase our defense from the air. Sombra had been massing his forces for months. reports from the front were coming in that spies were sent into the empire and estimated that Sombra's forces were somewhere around 1.7 million strong while our own troops were around 2 million strong. It was a stalemate of trench warfare on the frontlines at our borders. It looked exactly like no man's land during ww1 and felt like it. We had finally finished installing all of the phalanx guns around major residential area's and they were equipped with sensors that could detect changeling magic that we produced from taking samples from captured changeling POW's. The time to test them in combat would eventually come, but I didn't expect it to be so soon. I was in the castle's newly built war room which looked very well done (Props to the royal construction team) and looked like the war room in the Pentagon back on earth. I was watching a radar feed when suddenly, the whole screen was flooded with red triangles that were approaching the border at high speed. Soldier's on the front line just said over the radio that they were not reinforcing their own troops but are heading past the border. After quickly discussing the situation with Luna and Shining Armor, We agreed to raise the alarm and warn the public.

15 Minutes later

We had given the order to shelter in place and the military was on full alert, waiting for the enemy forces to arrive. We took the time to make sure that each phalanx gun was up and running. This was no doubt retaliation for the attack we launched at him 9 days ago and he wanted payback, little did he know that his forces were heading into right into a trap that they wouldn't escape from. The minute the enemy force crossed the border, they split up into smaller groups and proceeded towards major metropolitan area's and had begun their attack. The closest city was canterlot so we had little time to get into position. Warning sirens were going off and the phalanx guns came to life as the enemy troops came over the mountains and descended towards canterlot and some landed in the streets while the others stayed in the air until they realized their fatal mistake. At that moment, every Phalanx gun in canterlot roared to life as they ripped the changelings and shadow ponies to shreds that remained in the skies. The guns may have looked like oversized pills but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't fuck your day up. Their ammo boxes were infused with the infinity magic that we were putting on everything now, so they could pretty much fire forever just as long as the barrels don't overheat and melt.

The changelings and shadow ponies that were in the area were forced to land and continue on the ground towards their objective. They were regrouping and were advancing on the castle. The phalanx guns were capable of firing downwards at a 25-degree angle giving them a deadly edge over our enemy. The guards were sent into the city to locate and either capture or kill any enemy soldiers that they came across. I could still hear the loud buzzing of 20MM M61 Vulcan Gatling guns in the distance, indicating that they were still tearing enemy soldiers apart. I went inside and grabbed my friends and some guns as we prepared to head out and take part in the action and see what we could find out from any survivors. We got in a couple of armored vehicles and departed to the action. We came across a small group of shadow ponies that were wounded from the AA fire and were in no state to fight. We had a couple of medics come with us in case there any survivors and they decided to cooperate with us. One of the shadow ponies told us what their mission was and in return, we provided him and his squad with medical support and got them sent back to the castle for further questioning.

The fighting was intense, but the phalanx guns kept firing down on the poor soldiers that were unfortunate enough to be caught in its line of fire. I could see just how deadly the guns were, there were changelings and shadow ponies all around that were either dead or dying. Blood painted almost every street in the city, limbs, guts, and bodies were all around from troops that were on the ground when the attack began and ones that were taken out of the sky and murdered. I just felt a cold sense of numbness wash over me as we continued driving. I knew that I should have been terrified and scarred by all of this but I wasn't, because of the fact that this is war. War, War never changes. Royal guards were running past us as they continued to locate and eliminate and capture hostile troops in the streets. We provided support wherever it was needed and so on. Terrified civilians were emerging from their homes in horror as bodies, limbs, blood, and guts were all over the streets as a result. I could still hear small skirmishes here and there all throughout the city as Sombra's forces were either being killed or captured. All gunfire within Canterlot finally ceased after about 20 minutes since we left the castle. Canterlot was safe for now, but other cities were still under attack. The Phalanx guns in the cities would cut them down to shreds but they would land in the streets as well to avoid their fire and terrorize the populace. Military forces were deployed to major cities as a contingency but I didn't know how effective it would be.

30 minutes later

We were back in the war room and reports were coming in from manehatten, dodge city, appleloosa, las pegasus, cloudsdale, ponyville, and other major civilian areas that were under attack. Sombra's forces were met with the same results in canterlot all around the country and everyone was in a panic. We would no doubt be launching an even bigger counter attack as payback and I had an idea on how. It would take time to prepare since we would have to summon stuff from earth again and I would have to teach my friends how to fly a plane. For now, all we could do was continue to fight him indirectly by shooting his soldiers out of the sky and taking prisoners. We dispatched emergency response teams to every city and town that was attacked and help those injured. Sombra's forces were now retreating but something was wrong. They were massing together and flying back towards canterlot, presumably for one final attack. They were over dodge city and flying fast. We had roughly about 30 minutes to prepare before they would arrive and we would be having to fight even more soldiers than last time. It was estimated that around 15000 soldiers were coming for us.

28 minutes later

I could see a large black mass off in the distance rapidly approaching canterlot and fast. All of the Phalanx guns were already pointing in the direction of the approaching army and the barrels were already spooled up and ready to fire. The royal guard had established fortifications and were all armed with M240B, M249 SAW, M60E4, and Negev MG4 machine guns to help take these fuckers out of the sky. The phalanx guns had once again erupted into a roar of terrifying life. Bright, white-hot lines of 20MM high explosive rounds filled the dark evening sky as they tore into the strike groups ranks and decimated them once more. The continuous sound of the Vulcan miniguns filled the night sky as we tore them apart. I was operating the M16 halftrack that I had pulled through some time ago and kept firing as they continued to get closer and closer. The four Browning M2 heavy machine guns kept firing as I held down the trigger and continued to take out changelings and shadow ponies. The enemy group had finally dispersed after we had cut their ranks down to about 50 percent of their original size and were now directly targeting the Phalanx guns themselves. We had to protect them at all costs no matter what. I shifted the quad 50 over towards a small group that was going for a set of Phalanx guns in the castle, where I already was. There was about 50 of them so I had to act fast before they could reach the guns. I made quick work of them and turned the 50BMG machine guns towards the south as more of them kept coming.

1 hour later

The original force of 15000 that had combined to attack us had finally given up hope and most of them surrendered while the rest flew back north towards the empire that they came from. This was a bad day indeed. Many equestrians lost their lives to Sombra's empire of evil, but their deaths would not go unavenged, nor would they be in vain. I already talked about my plan over with my friends, Celestia and aqua, luna, and shining armor. They gave me the go ahead and they would begin using their magic to summon some bombers from earth that we would use to retaliate against Sombra. Celestia told me that she would ask neighboring kingdoms for help in the war. She told me that her plan was to ask the griffons, dragons, and minotaurs for help in the war, in exchange, they would have full access to our ever-advancing arsenal of weapons and vehicles. For my plan to work, I told Celestia that we would need a piece of land that was 20000 feet long and 600 feet wide and would need to be completely flattened and paved for this to work. She agreed and had engineers and construction workers get to work on that right away. For now, emergency services were doing the best they could to help those affected by the attack and I had disaster relief squads deployed to every part of the country to help with clean up and rebuilding. We were now in a full state of war with the crystal empire and payback was coming very soon for Sombra. We would unleash greater destruction upon the north than he could ever imagine.

Author's Note

can someone count up and tell me how many time I said "Phalanx guns" please? I feel like I overused the word a lot with this chapter.

for those who don't know what a phalanx gun looks like, you do now.

even more phalanx gun