The city of Appaloosa. Once a simple town close to the Iskalian border, but now, a shell of its former self, simply used as a trading post for Caribou slaves. The city, had indeed, seen better days. But not this day, for it was on that day, that Iskalia would strike, and their first steps into Equestrian territory would be ones of fire, steel, and blood.

"So," Twilight asked Josta, "What's your plan?"

The plan that Josta had cooked up was simple, by Iskalian standards. First, take out the rail line and any communications, preventing the word from getting out about the attack. Then, infiltrators from the Snake Clan would sneak in, taking out key members of the defenses, raiding the slave pens, and linking up with resistance if there was any in the town. Soon after that, the cannons would shell the city, aiming to take out important points like the food stores, armories, and command posts, while also using mages to smoke out the caribou when the army moved in. Soon afterward, the enemy army, demoralized by the shelling, lack of commanders, and the destruction of their buildings, would be tricked into going to the canyons nearby and facing against the Iskalian main force, while a small force took the town.

"A pretty solid plan, wouldn't you agree, Twilight?" Josta questioned.

"I think it's pretty good," Twilight responded, "forcing them to surrender with superior numbers, feinting attacks, removing the communication by taking out the commanders, it might work."

"Thank you for your insight, princess."

As a train went along the tracks, a caribou engineer, Erik, was managing the valves and gauges that kept the metal beast. He was assigned to making sure that the citizens got from Appaloosa to Dodge City on time. He was loved by the people of the town, known for his quick wit, and even quicker train rides. Although he never indulged in the carnal desires of the caribou, he still held a love for those of the fairer sex, occasionally joining into gangbangs and orgies held by the people of Appaloosa, although he would leave early. He would rather spend time making people happy than to do what the others did.

"Hey, Erik!" One of the train passengers spoke up, "Are we there yet?"

"We get there when we get there!" Erik fired back. Not knowing of the ambush laying ahead.

Meanwhile, further down the tracks, Raksha and her men were planting explosives given to them by the Kingdom of Frost.

"Raksha," one of her men chirped, "are you certain this will work?"

"Of course it will!" Raksha exclaimed, "Our empress has led us to victory time and again, who's to say this plan won't work?!"

Soon, she decided to feel the tracks, only to feel a rumble. She looked up and began to bark orders.

"Finish with those explosives, the train is on its way!" She yelled. Quickly, the men doubled their efforts, tying the explosives to the rails and running. The train began to approach the explosives.

"BLOW IT!!!" Raksha yelled. Another Snake Clan member depressed the plunger, the train line exploding in a great gout of flame, derailing the train, and causing it to go flying onto its side and skidding into the sand.

"Quick! Check for survivors and capture any who surrender! Those who don't, KILL THEM!!!"

"FOR THE EMPRESS!!!" A roar of cries went out, and the Snake Clan was upon the train in moments.

The attack was ruthless. Any caribou or stallion who attempted to fight back was slain where they stood, and any slaves found were immediately freed. Those who valued their lives kept them. All in all, about 30% of the train's male passengers survived, and 100% of the female members, only at the cost of one minor injury to a Snake Clan rookie who tried to get close to a slave. She bit him on the finger so hard that it nearly took it off. They were threatening to kill her, but Raksha put a stop to that.

"Shikalia!" A Clan member called to Raksha, Shikalia being a name of a leader in the Snake Clan. Raksha ran to their position, finding a knocked out caribou on the floor of the cab, wearing overalls.

"Who is he?" Raksha asked.

"He is the train engineer. According to his hat, his name is Erik."

"Well then, send this, 'Erik', to the empress's camp. See to it that he's interrogated so we know what we're up against."

And with that, Erik was dragged off to the empress's camp. His fate unknown, for now.

Inside of the city, a snake clan assassin, Akilah, was sent to assassinate the commander. He was a greedy caribou, with several scars and broken horns, who only cared about the slaves in his dungeons.

"Livestock, livestock, livestock," she heard him drone on as he stared at his slave pens, "I swear, the screams of tormented slaves make my wine taste even better."

"Speaking of wine," Akilah spoke, "May I get you some more, master?" As Akilah went to get some more wine for the despicable man she called 'master', she felt him grab her ass.

"I would rather taste you, my dear slave," He spoke with lust in his voice, "I bet your screams would make me feel even better than the wine you serve does~."

Akilah, having enough of this man's BS, stabbed him in the chest with a poison dagger, before slitting his throat, watching him as he bled out on the ground, cursing her name.

"Sorry," Akilah quipped while stripping the illusion off of her, "But I don't swing that way." She quickly made her escape with little trouble and returned to the empress's camp.

Inside of the empress's camp, Josta was drawing up strategies for future battles, when Raksha entered and knelt before her.

"The assassinations are completed," Raksha reported, "They are now leaderless and won't be getting reinforcements."

"Good," Josta replied, putting a smile on Raksha's face, "Now, what did our 'friend' say?"

"He says that Appaloosa has a garrison of 10,000."

"We outnumber them by a significant margin," the empress pondered, remembering the Caribou's tactics when they first invaded Equestria. She smiled darkly, before turning to Raksha, letting her magic flow. "Let's see how they react when they face an army that outnumbers them. Rouse the cannons to fury, and shell them to oblivion."

"Understood. I'll inform the artillery divisions immediately." And with that, Raksha left to go inform the cannon divisions.

Inside of Appaloosa, Braeburn, having been informed of the Iskalians about to shell the city, spurred the resistance to evacuate, as they did so, being asked by the garrison where they were going.

"We're leaving," Braeburn snipped, "Call it a hunch."

"And why is that?" A soldier in the garrison asked.

"You have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve."

As if on cue, distant booms were heard, then the whistle of an incoming shell, followed by the sound of it tearing through the wood of a food storage building and a loud explosion. Followed by many others. Both caribou and stallions sprinted through the streets as shells rained around them, screaming over their heads, and thudding onto the ground. The Iskalian Siege of Appaloosa had just begun.

Back at the artillery camp, the cannons roared with an unseen ferocity, shells hurdling out of the barrels of the guns with incredible speeds.

"REMEMBER, WE'RE TO DESTROY ANYTHING IMPORTANT!!!" An artillery officer yelled over the roar of the canons, "AIM YOUR SHOTS, WE'RE NOT SLAUGHTERING CIVILIANS!!!"

"SIR, YES, SIR!!!" A chorus of soldiers responded before another barrage of shells was fired.

The caribou garrison was in disarray. First, their commanders were dead, and now they had to deal with a bombardment of artillery that they'd never seen before.

"Draegal!" A garrison soldier yelled to the newly promoted commander. The said caribou was a rookie, pressed into service by his father so he could bring back slaves for his glorious empire. Also, he was Dainn's son.

"Yes, what is it?!" He yelled over the Iskalian artillery.

"Unkown smoke is coming in!"

Soon, noxious gas made by Iskalian mages came flooding into the town, providing the remaining Snake Clan members and Resistance soldiers to pour in and free any slaves they found. Part 2 of Empress Josta's plan was soon put into fruition. As they left, Draegal spotted them.

"THERE!" He yelled. "They must be a part of the scouting division that these barbarians sent! Gather any females you find! Kill all who oppose you!"

And so, 80% of the caribou soldiers at Appaloosa, over 8,000 men, left the garrison, unaware of the monstrous force that was waiting for them.

As the shelling continued, Josta entered the tent of the lead Forgemaster of the Kingdom of Frost, Astrid. As Astrid looked over the blueprints of something, the empress walked in.

"Is it done yet?" She asked, scaring Astrid. Astrid nearly swung her hammer at the empress, before stopping midway through her swing.

"First ay aw, dornt scaur me loch 'at!" Astrid yelled, her heavy Frostian accent showing, "An' second ay aw, yeah, it's finished, but we huvnae dain onie combat tests yit."

"It'll have to do," Josta told Astrid, "Get it powered up, we don't have that much time."

"Understuid, mah empress," Astrid said, hooking the pipes to the container in which it was held, powering it up, "HAR WE GANG!!!" Soon, the massive pipes began to rattle and shake, before busting off and breaking the container. Smoke soon filled the tent, before an odd silhouette emerged from the smoke. The empress looked at Astrid's creation, then to Astrid, then back at the creation.

"By the Gods, you did it," the empress told Astrid, making the lead Forgemaster beam with excitement, "But what to name it?"

"Hoo abit 'Fury'?" The Forgemaster asked.

"Fury..." the empress pondered, "That sounds like a good name." She turned to the newly named Fury. "By the order of the Eternal Empress, and the Gods of Man, I hereby, as of this day, christen thy name to be Fury."

The horse let out a robotic neigh at the Empress's formality.

"My empress!" An Iskalian rifleman tore the tent open, only to be shocked to see the empress atop Fury, with its name being engraved into the side of the ancient saddle she was on. But, having seen crazier things that involved the empress, he quickly regained his composure.

"What is it, soldier?" Josta questioned.

"Pardon my intrusion, but a caribou force of 8,000 was spotted running through the canyons! They're heading right into your trap!"

If Josta's grin was any wider, you could've sworn she was a crocodile. "Good, good," she told the soldier darkly, "Surround them and kill any who stand in your way."

The soldier nodded and left the tent.

Back inside the canyons near Appaloosa, the Caribou Garrison was persuing the "Scouting Party", unaware of the trap that Josta had layed for them. Running through the twisting paths, they eventually made it to where the empress predicted, revealing the entire Iskalian force, banners flowing in the wind.

"What the-" a caribou soldier could barely make out before an Isklaian rifle tore through his flesh.

"FOR THE EMPRESS, AND FOR THE GLORY OF ISKALIA, CHARGE!!!" Soon, tens of millions of Iskalian soldiers tore across the ground, as the main battle force took the front of the caribou, piling waves of bullets into their ranks. The berserkers slammed into the caribou's flanks, followed by the casters hurling spells into the center of them. And finally, the Sondrans tore to their backs, completely encircling them with a hail of axes, swords, bayonets, arrows, and bullets. About six minutes after the first round was fired, the front of the encirclement opened up.

'They were leading us into a trap this whole time?!' Draegal thought as the front opened up. The sound of a galloping horse soon rang into everyone's ears. They all stopped, as the empress, now riding on Fury, came charging into the fray. She deployed her sword, watching as the magic blade extended out of the hilt, soon turning red and the blade covering itself in spikes, creating a chainsaw-like pattern.

"PEOPLE OF THE CARIBOU!!!" her voice echoed across the canyons, "WE, THE SOLDIERS OF THE ISKALIAN EMPIRE, ARE GIVING YOU THIS ONE CHANCE TO LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND SURRENDER!!! IF NOT, THE FURY OF OUR SOLDIERS WILL BE DOUBLED, AND YOU WILL ALL BE SLAUGHTERED!!!"

The caribou soldiers, demoralized beyond repair, soon dropped their weapons and placed their hands up. All but one.

"ARE YOU ALL COWARDS?!" A random Caribou yelled, "Do you not care about the glory-"

He barely got the chance to get out those words before the empress's blade came slamming into his head, taking it off of his shoulders, and having it roll in front of the soldiers.

"Any more who want to take up their arms?" The empress's voice continued to echo, magically boosted. The caribou who still held their weapons dropped them as fast as they could.

Of the 8,000 soldiers that came to defeat the Iskalians, only 80 survived, at the loss of zero Iskalian soldiers. Among the survivors being the prince, Draegal.

As the soldiers of Iskalia counted the remaining caribou soldiers, one caught Josta's eye.

"Who is he?" She pointed to a random soldier who was being treated by a snake clan member.

"Oh, him?" the soldier replied. "He says his name is Draegal, and that he was the son of King Dainn."

"HIS SON?!" Josta's voice rang out.

"Yep."

"Well then, see to it that he is taken care of well."

The empress continued to march through the camp, getting the occasional fearful stare from the slaves and prisoners, until her eyes fixated on a certain doe. She was lean and athletic, covered in scars but none near her face, had a rather voluptuous, hourglass shape, and had rather large breasts, wide hips, and a large butt.

"And who might you be?" She asked the former slave.

"O-oh, I'm... Freya..."

"What?"

"I said my name was Freya... I'm Draegal's sister..."

Josta's face went pale upon hearing Freya's confession.

"So wait, let me get this straight," Josta put her hands together and inhaled, before pointing them at Freya, "YOU'RE the sibling of Draegal, a caribou soldier that we had captured today and the self-proclaimed Prince of the Caribou Empire?!"

"Um..." Freya stalled, "Yes...?"

"..." Both sides of the conversation went quiet as winds howled over the plateaus.

"...We'll see to it that you and your sibling are both treated well, upon your recovery." Josta told Freya with clear shock in her voice before walking off to blow off some steam.

Freya could only say two words to Josta as she walked away, "Thank you."

Back at Appaloosa, the caribou garrison was slaughtered with no survivors at the loss of zero Iskalian soldiers, and the City of Appaloosa had been taken.

TOTAL CASUALTIES OF THE BATTLE:

CARIBOU FORCES SIZE: 10,000
ISKALIAN FORCES SIZE: OVER 50 MILLION

CARIBOU SURVIVORS: 80
CARIBOU DEAD: 9,920

ISKALIAN SURVIVORS: OVER 50 MILLION
ISKALIAN DEAD: 0

OBJECTIVES TAKEN: THE CITY OF APPALOOSA

Author's Note

So, the first battle has begun and ended, and Iskalia is on the march again, with both of Dainn's children in tow.

Any suggestions on strategies for future battles? Feel free to PM me your ideas, I kinda mustered up a lot of my brainpower for it.

Also, Translations of Astrid's text are as follows, "First of all, don't scare me like that! And second of all, yeah, it's finished, but we haven't done any combat tests yet." and "Understood, my empress." "HERE WE GO!!!" "How about 'Fury'?" If you can't tell, she's Scottish.

And as always, feel free to give constructive criticism and any fanart drawn (if you did so) you can PM to me if you want to! I'll accept, regardless of quality! Sorry if this seemed a bit rushed, it was hard to focus on the work due to COVID-19 and doing some yard work, but I was able to get it out! Also, any underlined text, you can click on to see some images or watch some videos!

-Silver Ghost