Everfree Liberation Army

From Freedom To Servitude

Juliana stood in the grand hall of the king, her eyes feasting upon the exotic sights before her, the large walls towered over the pirate captain and her crew mates. All around her she saw busy servants and guards going from place to place, fulfilling their duties to the king and their race, and now, after so many years of exile, Juliana was about to do just that. Rejoin her people.

The journey had been long and perilous, no losses were sustained but many monsters had to be defeated to finally arrive at the great capital of humanity. Frethnkurt castle stood tall and proud among the trees of the forest, and Juliana basked in the joy of it all as her steps led her down the main street and towards the keep of the city. And now she had an appointment with the king himself.

Two large doors opened at the other end of the large room, and a retinue of several guards marched in, followed by King Frethnk the merciful. His attire was shining in the sunlight that entered the room through the large windows to the sides. It seemed as if the king's body was a sun in itself, servants stole awestruck glances as they continued on their duties. He wore a golden cuirass and shoulder guards, steel plate greaves and a silver cape, his gem encrusted sword in its scabbard hanged by his waist.

Juliana's jaw hung open at the sight.

"How much would they pay in Zebrica for a set like that?!" Her thoughts were interrupted by a tug on her sleeve.

Looking around revealed that Zareck was the one who snapped her away from her thoughts. With a nod, Zareck diverted her gaze towards an impatient king.

"So, what is it that you wish to discuss, woman?" Frethnk stood before his guest, not amused by the fact she was wasting his time by making him wait. "In case you are not aware, we are at war."

Juliana thought carefully about her words, if she implied that the humans were losing and needed help her head would roll, but if she didn't convince him to accept her offer she would loose her chance to join the war on her species side.

After long consideration she opted for her course of action.

"And in war trade routes are raided." She said as she stared at the king before her and awaited for his response.

Frethnk deemed himself a patient man, but this was getting on his nerves, first a commoner requests an audience with him and now she states a basic principle of war to the king as if he were an idiot!

"Listen closely you scum, you have ten seconds to explain your mockery or I'll have your head on a spike!" Frethnk glared darkly at Juliana, time began to run.

"Land trade routes are easily raided by soldiers, but few things of value run through those paths," Juliana took a step forward and raised her voice a fraction. "The real treasure flows in the seas..." She finished with a smile, the king lost his anger as curiosity overtook him, the zebras behind her were on the brink of fainting, the king's threat seemed all too grizzly for them.

"And you can give me those treasures? How? Do you own a fleet?" Frethnk raised an eyebrow and released his grip on the hilt of his sword, he had been looking forward to cutting out Juliana's tongue a few seconds earlier.

Juliana smiled. "I can build you a fleet, as well as train your men to be sailors." She raised a finger and stopped the king from speaking. "But... If you want control over the seas, you will give me control over your men."

Zareck and the entire crew turned around in amazement, none of them thought their captain could be so ambitious, or direct for that matter.

Frethnk glared at her, he did not like the idea of a commoner, much less a woman, as his admiral, that would grant her the social status of a noble and a member of the government.

But he needed a fleet, since the horrible defeat in the south he had lost one of his best captains and his entire southern army as well as control in the southern province of Equestria, he desperately needed an advantage over the equines, and Juliana was his best hope so far, Fraithen hadn't succeeded in capturing the high ranking members of the rebellion and no major victories had occurred in a while.

Besides, some new blood in his chain of command could be useful, up until now he had been stuck with the same idiots, Unflack was still mourning the death of that useless whore Garith, Fraithen was completely insane and annoying, but at least he could get things done, as for the rest of his captains and generals? Useless mongrels the lot of them!

In the end he complied.

"Build me my fleet," Frethnk approached Juliana with an iron gaze. "Make it the strongest one in the world, and do not disappoint me, or else I'll have your corpse thrown over the walls of the city." Frethnk then stormed off the room, his guards following close behind.

Juliana was sweating slightly, the whole ordeal was terrifyingly nerve wrecking, her life had been in terrible danger and she barely escaped. The zebras said little as Juliana walked out of the castle in complete silence, they were all shocked by the experience.

They barely got out of the castle walls when a courier ran at them with a letter.

To the new Admiral of the Wolf Clan

By order of his majesty King Frethnk the second, the new Admiral and commander of the, soon-to-be-formed, Wolf Fleet is to report to the barracks, where the officers in command shall assign as many soldiers as the Admiral sees fit to conform the crew of no less than thirty war vessels, which are to report for duty by the end of the month.

Long live the king! Long live the Wolf Clan!

The courier left and Juliana and her crew stood there reading silently, seconds passed before the silence was finally broken.

"Juliana, this seems like the beginning of a new life." Zareck commented as he read the note.

"And I intend to make the best out of this opportunity." Juliana turned around to face her crew. "Alright foals! Lets teach these new bloods what a sailor is!"

The zebras cheered and then followed their captain towards the city's barracks, guided by a small map they had bought earlier that day.

Skirmishers at White Tail Woods

The young soldier crawled through the bushes and plants that dotted the forest floor, the large oak trees of the woods around him provided plenty of fallen foliage to conceal him.

His eyes darted from side to side, scanning the countryside, he was expecting a patrol of earth ponies sometime around midday. The fallen leaves beneath and on top of him made low crunching noises as his head moved, he was in the shade of a large tree, perfectly hidden, a wooden bow beside him and his quiver full of arrows at his back.

Several hours passed and the sun started to fall, he had remained unmoved and silent. But the overall dullness of his task was overwhelming him, if nothing happened soon he was bound to fall asleep.

He shifted uncomfortably and his gaze turned from the field over to his left leg, a couple of ants were trying to crawl up his leg armor.

"Blasted bugs!" He wouldn't dare speak his mind aloud, the enemy was supposed to be close by.

He shook his leg around, trying to scare off the ants, but a sudden rustling of the leaves above him made his blood freeze and his hairs stand.

He jumped to his feet and drew out his sword, sweating lightly, head turning around wildly trying to find the enemy. Several seconds passed and silence became absolute around him, not even the birds sang anymore. It was eerie.

The former excitement and fear that rushed through his veins slowly dissipated and he settled down, leaning on a tree he decided enough had been enough, he was going back to camp and report that the scouts had been wrong, there were no ponies out here, no patrols.

He slowly started back to camp, no longer caring about making noise as he went along the mental path he had created.

Slowly, stealthily, and unnoticed, a slim and agile earth-pony crept up behind him, the stallion wore a hooded cloak, camouflaged to fit the pattern of the forest.

The soldier still had his sword ready, which made him quite dangerous to attack, but the stallion had the advantage of surprise.

In complete silence the equine moved behind the soldier, who was still walking, and in a swift movement brought his hoof down on his unprotected head with tremendous force.

The soldier let out a shriek of pain before the whole world turned dark for him.

The stallion quickly searched him, he found some gold, a dagger, food, and a few personal letters, good reading material!

Smiling and satisfied from a good haul, the Equestrian royal skirmisher trotted back towards the rest of his unit.

About a mile from where the soldier fell, lay the encampment of the Equestrian royal skirmishers, ponies who would rather knock you out, tie you up, and steal your goods rather than face you in honorable combat.

These were the ponies that kept the surrounding woods safe from incursions, Ponyville's, usually safe, White Tail Woods had become overrun with skirmishing Wolf Clan soldiers, large portions of the forest were controlled by the human guerrilla troops.

The fighting had been largely unorganized, Princess Celestia wasn't even sure that the humans in the White Tail Forest were Wolf Clan soldiers or not! For all they knew they could be simple bandits from the Everfree Forest that decided to prey upon Ponyville instead of the human settlements inside the darker and more evil neighboring forest.

Swift Hooves trotted inside the camp, proudly showing off his haul from earlier.

"Hey'all! Look what I got!" The proud stallion lowered his hood and dumped his treasure in front of a fireplace.

"Did you kill him?" A unicorn by the name of Light Hoof asked as he eyed the objects one by one.

"What? Oh, you mean the human? No I didn't, I don't think he saw me though, so he'll probably just wake up confused and robbed." Swift Hooves beamed proudly at his cleverness.

"Meh, whatever, but if we end up ambushed because he saw you heading this way, you'll owe me forty bits ok?"

"What? Not fair! The last time you got us caught only costed you like, twenty bits!"

"But I also got us out of the fight without problems! That's why!"

"Oh yeah..." Swift Hooves scratched the back of his head with his hoof as the thought came back to him.

"Anyway, what's there for lunch?" A third stallion, a pegasus, by the name of Quick Grab asked as the conversation started to die out.

"The same as always, there's not much room for variety in the middle of this forest!" Light Hoof shrugged, he was the cook of the small group, he did some foraging in the mornings and usually managed to come up with some food by the end of the day.

The group then sat down to eat, they needed their strength for later, a large operation of some sort was going to happen later that day and they had to report back to the main camp for battle duty.

***

The skirmisher leader stood facing the darkening forest, his scout was due back over an hour ago.

"Gods damn that lad! If he fell asleep on duty I'll have his balls chopped off!" The leader of the skirmishers in that region of the woods was a rather short and overweight fellow, his chubby cheeks and forehead gleamed with sweat as he paced around the encampment, his short beard and mustache filled with grey hairs did little to reduce the heat of the midday air.

"Sir, I believe he could have been attacked." A soldier stood outside a tent, holding a lance in his hand and a shield on the other.

"Of course you would think that! All of you pathetic brutes would think the same!" The chubby little fella stopped pacing and glared at his soldier. "You would need an intelligent officer like myself to know that all of you brutes are lazy and incompetent! Which is what that bastard is! An incompetent soldier that fell asleep on duty!"

"Sir, I must insist." The soldier stood firm, knowing that those words could very well be his last.

The officer glared at him some more before groaning and waving an irritated hand in the air. "Agh! Fine! Have it your way! But if I find out that he's been sleeping on duty, it will be both your heads that roll!"

The fat high ranking man then walked away, leaving the soldier to wonder on how such a strange individual could ever make it into officership.

The hours passed by, the sun began to lower, ever closer to the horizon, signaling the approaching night.

And the worried soldier still had found no trace of his missing comrade.

Herith was his name and if he failed to find out who attacked the missing skirmisher it would also be the name written on his tombstone. The fat officer by the name of Geirthus was not one to forgive easily, nor accept apologies.

Herith moved through the woods, searching, trying to find any trace of the lost soldier, eventually he arrived at a large oak tree surrounded by bushes and other plants.

There, laying on the floor, was the disappeared man, unconscious. However, Herith didn't know that.

"Looks like Geirthus was right... The bastard is asleep..." Herith had rarely seen that man before, he knew he was one of the youngest in his unit and that he was also one of the weakest fighters.

He wouldn't be missed.

Crouching before the 'sleeping' soldier, Herith pulled out a dagger and, grimacing, he stabbed the man on his back, piercing the heart.

"I'm sorry lad, but your nap is not worth my life..." He thought grimly as the soldier choked on his own blood, momentarily waking up before falling into eternal sleep.

Herith stood up, and decided to investigate the place further, he walked over to the oak tree and looked it over, carefully scanning the bark searching for anything, he wasn't trying to find anything in particular, but something told him that leaving without first investigating was wrong.

Looking around the tree he found little, it was your average tree.

He simply shrugged and turned to walk away, but something caught his eye.

Under a small bush, covered by a single yellow leaf, was a small hoof print.

Herith frowned and walked over to the print, lifting the foliage to get a better look and kicking the leaf away.

It was a hoof print.

"So the lad wasn't asleep then? Oh well, no point in crying over spilled milk aye?"

Herith then took a last look around before returning to camp, dragging the body of his murdered comrade.

"Stabbed by a unicorn, makes sense to me." He smiled smugly as he prepared his explanation.

***

Light Hoof trotted along the Equestrian skirmishers camp, it was quiet like usual, but the many ponies rushing in and out of the cover of the trees and bushes gave away the fact that something was going on.

"Hey Swift! Get over here!" A red earth pony called out from under a tree.

"What's going on Big Mac?" Swift ran towards the large red stallion, Swift was still surprised how Big Macintosh made it into a stealth specialized unit, but there he was.

"An operation o' sorts, don't really know much, but word has it it's going to be big." Big Mac chewed on a small piece of hay, switching it from one side of his mouth to the other, Swift had gotten used to Big Mac's strange hay chewing habits after a while, but it still seemed a bit odd for him.

"Ok then... So, where do we fit in into this whole operation thing?" Swift asked curiously while scanning his surroundings in search for Light Hooves and Quick Grab.

"Dunno, mah' guess would be the third squad, or maybe we'll be formin entire companies, who knows? I just wanna fight." Big Mac's eyes narrowed as a frown changed his usually serene expression, it had been over a month since he got the news of his sister's comma, and ever since he changed, the calm farmer went from a life of apples and hard work to a life of ambushes and war.

He was not about to abandon his hometown though, so instead of joining the royal army he signed up for the local town militia and ended up with the skirmishers.

The Equestrian skirmishers camp soon became alive with activity, ponies ran from place to place, trying to form into their respective squads, each of six ponies, the royal skirmishers led a guerrilla war against the multiple Wolf Clan encampments around White Tail Woods, and they were experts in it.

Soon enough, twenty squads were formed, a hundred and twenty ponies were ready for battle, and, as Big Mac had guessed, Swift Hoof, Light Hooves, Quick Grab and Big Mac himself were assigned to the third squad, along with other two earth ponies.

In complete silence, the officers ordered the squads to advance forward.

The third squad was positioned beside the second squad, all the way to the left of the battle line. They moved swiftly but in complete silence, not making the slightest noise to warn their enemy.

***

Herith had just finished explaining what he found to his officer, Geirthus didn't take it well, he was furious for several minutes, shouting and cursing in equal amounts, but he eventually settled down, and decided to prepare the troops for a little scouting.

The soldiers were assembled, a column of three men wide and thirty soldiers of length stood among the trees, ready to march.

Herith was in the front line, positioned in between the two other soldiers at the front he had a clear view of what was about to happen.

***

Light Hooves aimed his horn at the nearest soldier, the third squad had sneaked behind the Wolf Clan soldiers easily enough, their hooves making little noise against the soft dirt that covered the ground, their cloaked bodies merging perfectly with the foliage.

Slowly, quietly, they began to draw closer to the enemy, only waiting for the signal to attack.

Swift Hoof, Big Mac and the two other earth ponies of the squad got ready to charge as soon as Light Hooves had shot his blinding spell on the enemy, Quick Grab on his part had to dart in and out of the fight, picking off the officers among the enemy.

The other squads had fallen into position perfectly, the enemy was surrounded and outnumbered.

***

Herith shifted around uncomfortably in his place, he had the feeling they were being watched.

Geirthus stood beside the column of soldiers, wiping his sweaty forehead he ordered the advance.

"Column! Advance!"

Almost mechanically the soldiers began marching, slowly increasing their pace as they made their way across the foliage.

They didn't get far though.

In a white flash of light several beams of magic were shot from the nearby trees, several soldiers from the back lines screamed out in shock, Geirthus stopped walking and looked back, only to receive a strong blow to the face.

Aside from the continuous beams of magic being shot from the trees, several pegasi darted in and out of the column of confused soldiers, striking at the officers, rendering them unconscious.

Utter confusion fell upon the soldiers of the Wolf Clan, their officers down, they could do little more than raise their shields in self defense against the ferocious assaults of magic, screams filled the air as the unicorns switched to less merciful spells.

Herith pushed the soldier to his left as the man was hit with a firebolt, iceshards were being shot from the nearby trees and the warrior was not too eager about the idea of being pierced by one.

Rushing out of the column he made his way to the nearest tree he could find and started to climb, all around him the sounds of death and the wounded filled the air.

Herith stared down at the swiftly ending battle with awe.

The unicorns had reduced the amount of fighting men to less than half, the pegasi had taken down down to the last officer and the remaining soldiers ran around in complete chaos and disorganization, and finally came the earth pony charge.

The ground trembled as a swarm of earth ponies rushed out of cover and ran over the remaining men with a fury and strength known only to the mighty war stallions of Equestria.

Out of the regular riff-raff, a group of stallions distinguished themselves from the rest.

Big Mac sent two soldiers flying backwards and into a tree with a single kick from his hind legs, a loud crunch was heard from the two soldier's skulls as they collided head first into the trees, Swift Hoof went about the battlefield swinging a boleadora with his mouth, breaking jaws and ribs as the stone at the end of his weapon collided with the enemy, and finally was Light Hooves, shooting magical bolts of lightning from his horn to anyone foolish enough to cross his path, many soldiers targeted the scrawny looking stallion, thinking he was easy prey.

They could not have been more wrong.

Light Hooves sent a lightning bolt hurling towards three soldiers, they raised their shields in response, but one of them was not fast enough, the magical projectile hit him square in the chest and then branched out to the sides, charring the two other soldiers.

The scent of burned flesh filled the air as the three men convulsed on the ground, twitching and twisting as the energy rushed through their dead bodies.

Equestria had learned a lot about war in the past months. Maybe more than what it was good for it's ponies.

The rage of battle quickly subsided into separate skirmishes as the humans found themselves outnumbered and defeated, only the most stubborn of them decided to fight until the end.

Cloudsdale

Rainbow Dash leaned on her window pane, staring at the ground below.

"How long has it been? It seems like forever since I last saw any of the others! And now Applejack is in a comma?! What the hay is wrong with this world!" Rainbow Dash brought both her hooves down in anger, and shattered the glass of her window.

In truth it had been only a few months since she last had any contact with her friends, Fluttershy had been the one she most frequently saw, and that was mainly for her travelling schedules. She had to pass through Cloudsdale every so often.

But Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, or Applejack? In her dreams!

Twilight was busy as ever, training battalion after battalion of unicorns in Canterlot, and now rumors were beginning to spread, rumors of the Princess turning evil.

Rumors of secret torture rooms beneath the castle, rumors of her, breaking her oath to never harm a living being.

Rainbow Dash scowled at the thought, she had had her hooves full of work trying to silence the stupid rumors of their leader becoming a monster. Nonsense! They needed the Princess now more than ever! Talk like that was treason and Rainbow, being the element of loyalty, did not tolerate treason.

All ponies who were caught talking against the Princess were fined a hundred bits and no less for their insolence!

These harsh tactics, for pony standards at least, had earned Rainbow quite a bad reputation among the pegasi of Cloudsdale.

She could hardly fly out of the military head quarters without getting death stares from the ponies around her.

It was really getting on her nerves, didn't they understand that she was there to help them? She wasn't the bad guy! She was fighting against the bad guys! She had sacrificed so much for fighting the bad guys it hurt terribly to see that nopony appreciated her efforts.

Rarity was still away in the griffon kingdom, trying to gain support and persuade the king not to open a trade agreement with the humans, all in all, it was going poorly.

The griffons were the main supporters of the rebellion and they had been trying to come to a trade agreement with what they called, The Wolf Kingdom.

Rainbow turned her gaze around her room, pictures of the wonderbolts had been replaced with military maps and letters, her soft cloud bed was littered in drafts and army orders.

"What has this come to?" She whispered softly, tears in her eyes, her dreams and hopes now meaningless in the face of such hatred, the man she had come to love was possibly lost forever after the destruction of his army.

If there was ever anything worth fighting for, did it still exist?

Or had the fires of war ravaged and destroyed the few things that remained in her life?