Little Bug Journal

by mmaestro

Rating: mature
Tags: Original Character, Adventure, Crossover, Gore, Violence, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe
Length: 4304

A little bug's journal during a time of war

This is an AAR story (After Action Report) based on the events of Equestria at War (EaW or EAW), a Hearts of Iron 4 (HOI4) mod, written from the point of view of a low-mid level officer in the Changeling military. This story was written for the EAW contest which ended 5 days ago (so, no, this is not a shameless attempt to swing the vote).

What is an AAR? Shameless taken from the contest page:

AAR stands for After Action Report, and it refers to any story written using the events of your game as a base. It's different from a fanfiction, in that you can write an Equestria at War fanfiction even without playing the game just by knowing some of characters and the setting, whereas an AAR requires someone to have played an actual game of EaW to base their story off.

Before getting to the story, there are two caveats non-EAW fans should be aware of:

1. This is VERY much an AU. Here is a map of EAW's starting situation (the part you should focus on is the left continent): EAW map

2. The game is told/played from a "god"/"national leader" point of view so huge chunks of the story presume the reader has a rough idea of what is going in the background while the protagonist does not.

Published 2021-01-15 07:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2021-01-15 07:10:01 UTC

Little Bug Journal

January 1, 1007

Dear little bug journal,

Today I graduate from the Antax Academy and thanks to my slightly higher than average aptitude test, I have been assigned to guard duty in the Panzer-Division under General Pharynx. Even in the academy General Pharynx has a reputation of a Hercules beetle for his use of tanks and of a dung beetle for his broodmate and traitor Thorax.

I am not sure whether that reputation will get me killed on the front line or killed by the disdain coming from the other troops.

I am also not sure which would be better.

April 1, 1007

It has been weeks since the civil war with the Thoraxian Harmonists started and my horn has not yet fully recovered still. I still do not recall what exactly happened but the medical staff are jealous of my luck.

Apparently, I was the very first casualty, a bomb blew a hole in the armory wall I was standing next to and the fragments knocked me out. Whereas the rest of the staff was killed in the fighting, I was found buried in the same wall debris that knocked me unconscious.

The doctors say I should make a full recovery but that I should use hoof or mouthwriting until I receive a full medical release.

April 10, 1007

No rest for bloody bugs. Some ponylover looked at my record and saw that I was from the Antax Hive, so they kicked me out of the hospital and shipped back to my unit and straight to the front lines. The lieutenant has been scowling at me all week because my horn strength hasn't fully recovered.

April 22, 1007

Spot, clear, clean, load, aim, set, fire, repeat.

I try not to think about the changelings we are shelling.

May 15, 1007

Vraks has fallen. The papers say the fighting was violent and bloody but it was anything but. We had the hive surrounded 3 days ago but the order to enter never came down until today. When we went in, we found only abandoned military equipment, civilians and very physically fit civilians.

The Ost-Kommando wants us to garrison in Vraks while they search for any Thoraxian documentation left behind and root out sympathizers. Those orders were delivered alongside General Pharynx's orders for the strictest weapons discipline. The captain has ordered double guards on the munitions. A private who hatched from the Vraks hive asked me if he could sleep locked inside the armory tonight.

I looked away.

May 16, 1007

General Pharynx is pulling us out of Vraks at daybreak. After just one day in the hive, the political officers of the Ost-Kommando has gotten every unit down to the platoon into some kind of riot. So far there are a lot of broken and bloody carapaces but no reported deaths.

General Pharynx is furious. We lost 3 tanks to ditches, craters and poor driving on rushed orders around the city and nothing to show for it. We march for Volistad.

May 17. 1007

The roads out of Vraks are worse than pony horseapples. Apparently Queen Chrysalis gave the order to drive the liberated equipment from Vraks up the road to troops fighting in the north. The same road we are using to reach the front line.

General Pharynx has every officer on traffic duty and our unit organization is suffering tremendously for it.

May 28, 1007

The Mirelands are terrible. Mud seeps into our clothing and gets into in every hole, We spend more time cleaning ourselves more than we spend time cleaning the guns.

June 3, 1007

Our push into Volistad was either a stroke of brilliance or a suicidal grab. The Thoraxians did not expect us to push through the Mirelands so quickly and left the hive largely undefended.

We were not prepared for the counterattack though. They cut off our supply lines near the Mirelands Airfield and the fighting there is fierce. At night time, we could see flashes from the artillery guns from the hive borders. Rumor on the grapevine is that Queen Chrysalis has General Pharynx on a tight bridle and that General Pharynx would not withdraw from Volistad on her orders.

Relief came when General Thysbe's army broke through and reconnected our supply lines 2 days ago. His troops keep joking about how they saved us. We did not need saving. The drones of Volistad were quite generous with their love reserves when we patrol outside the city.

June 4, 1007

During a patrol we found an escape hole used by Thoraxians fleeing the city. We noted its position and carried on our patrol.

June 5, 1007

We passed by the same escape hole we saw yesterday but the engineers have not gotten around to sealing the hole. Our Ost-Kommando attachment ordered us to fill the hole in with dirt ourselves. I fought that order, let the engineers do their job and do their job well.

The eyes of everybug stop threatening us when I forced our overzealous Ost-Kommando along.

June 6, 1007

We stood guard as Ost-Kommando engineers were blown to chitin by booby traps around the same escape hole. Stupid Ost-Kommando have their heads so full of Chrysalis they have forgotten we are changelings. Of course it was going to be booby trapped.

June 7, 1007

We are leaving Volistad and marching for Soryth, the last stronghold of the Thoraxian Resistance. We are understaffed since we are leaving troops behind to garrison the city. For the civilians of Soryth, better us than the Ost-Kommando.

June 14, 1007

It is getting colder the closer we get to Soryth. Beyond Soryth, let the Polar Bears have it I say.

June 20, 1007

We can see the Soryth with the naked eye now. The Ost-Kommando keep warning us that the fighting will be the worst here. The Thoraxians have had months to fortify, mine and booby trap everything in the hive.

I hope they are wrong.

The bug would fight to hold a city in such a terrible place would be a horrific bug.

June 21, 1007

We marched into Soryth with the utmost caution but the streets are empty other than white flags of surrender on every building and every corner. The Ost-Kommando keep trying to round up civilians and go through nests for evidence of Thoraxian sympathizers but General Pharynx's orders stand. We are not to expose ourselves and that means keeping the Ost-Kommando away from the citizens.

June 24, 1007

What a shitshow. An Ost-Kommando unit got ambushed two nights ago and General Pharynx is going to write the whole thing off. The general staff was never informed of any Ost-Kommando operations in the city so the guards were never given any countersigns. When the Ost-Kommandos were attacked, they retreated into the sentries who thought the Ost-Kommandos were attacking Thoraxians and opened fire.

June 25, 1007

The war is allegedly over. The Queen is claiming that the Harmonists have been expunged from the Changeling Lands but we are changelings. We can sense emotions and no one is happy. Thorax and his sympathizers may have been defeated but thousands are dead with little to show for it.

August 1, 1007

Its been weeks since my last journal entry but we have been busy. Our orders came from the Queen herself. After the war ended, we were never recalled, we had orders to station and train in Soryth. Based on our training the drones are starting to guess where we are being deployed next. The captain thinks we will be striking Olenia, but I have my bits on the Polar Bears. If our troops train this poorly in the snow, fighting in the Olenian mountains will make the Thoraxian war look like a grub fight.

September 1, 1007

Still training. Still watching the Queen politic.

October 2, 1007

We received a new batch of trucks with tires produced using some kind of synthetic rubber the bookbugs have cooked up. We have been ordered to perform field tests with it in the snow but I am waiting for them to improve the formula before using them for critical supplies. Three of the tires froze overnight and cracked like clay.

November 1, 1007

The doctor is pulling me off the line and ordering me into an extended medical stay. During my regular check up the company doctor noticed that my horn strength was underperforming and never fully recovered from my injuries 6 months ago. My captain is being chewed out for not noticing it, but with the war and our constant stream of fresh new lieutenants its hard to pin anything on him. A couple more months and the damage would have been permanent. Chalk another one up to my good luck. If all goes well I'll wake up in a few weeks and be back at full horn strength.

In the meantime, this journal and my personal effects will be sent home. Apparently General Pharynx and Field Marshall Trimmel have come up with a grand army sized maneuver next week. It is a shame that I will miss it.

Not.

March 2, 1008

The horn damage was far worse than the doctor initially determined so what was supposed to be weeks was extended to months. It turns out a combination of frass in a pod military love rations and a fractured horn results in a love starved, weak, mentally unstable bug. Just another veteran of the war in my book.

Hopefully it will mean better love rations.

April 6, 1008

What the Tartarus did you maggots do to my guns?

April 20, 1008

It is good to be out of the hospital but so much has changed since my leave.

News in the hospital was all heavily censored and controlled so I had no idea relations between the Queen and that incompetent in Olenia had gotten so bad. Looks like I owe the captain some bits.

But these new recruits are terrible. We have a lot of new equipment since the civil war, but these recruits barely know how to maintain, let alone use it. Apparently the captain has been busy whipping the lieutenants into shape since most of them are rigid by the book grubs and most of the sergeants were poached after General Pharynx and Field Marshall Trimmel's grand training exercise.

Incidentally, I have not heard much about General Pharynx and Field Marshall Trimmel's grand training exercise. It must have made an impression because we have brand new manuals.

May 1, 1008

We are being deployed to the Olenia's border.

May 20, 1008

General Pharynx came down and promoted me to captain. It brought us no joy since it came with battle plans. My artillery regiment is to be part of the tip of the spear aimed at Hjortland.

June 1, 1008

The supply officer keeps commandeering my ink and pens.

June 5, 1008

We have sent home more drones due to the frostbite than we have from bullet wounds. When I suggested we combine the drone living quarters with the nymph living quarters to share body heat, the emotions of disgust knocked me unconscious.

I have reassigned my non-combat personnel to assist the supply officer whenever possible.

June 10, 1008

A replacement drone from Vesalipolis complaining about the mountain cold suggested skinning a dead Olenian for its pelt and using it as a blanket.

I told him never to mention it again or I would execute him personally.

June 18, 1008

I am again resubmitting recommendation to General Pharynx that all troops cease flying in the snow until we come up with a solution to frostbite.

June 20, 1008

Hjortland is a beautiful city. From up in the mountains, we can see its massive ports and ocean behind it. I have ordered everybug in my unit to sketch out the city, for targeting purposes.

It will take months or even years to repair the damage to the city.

June 21, 1008

Under General Pharynx's orders we have begun a continuous bombardment of the city. From our position, we can see the panzer and infantry units fighting street by street by the flashes. The deer can fight, but this war is already decided.

June 26, 1008

That useless buck has finally surrendered. We're still tallying the numbers, but it is official. We have lost more drones to the mountains than fighting the Olenians. Tomorrow we will enter and garrison in Hjortland during the transition.

We have won a great victory for the Queen but these replacements are terrible.

May 2, 1008

We caught a doe putting up a poster of the Olenian queen in exile. Her floof is quite impressive. We let the doe go after a light love draining.

June 1, 1008

Troops are being moved to the Polar Bear Community border.

July 20, 1008

General Pharynx has announced that we will be conducting another grand training exercise in conjunction with General Cimex with Field Marshall Trimmel directing. The troops have their suspicions. They think we're going into Equestria.

December 15, 1008

Well that was anti-climatic. While we were in the training exercise, General Thysbe invaded and forced the Polar Bear Communities to capitulate. In addition, the Queen in all her wisdom felt it best to let the Polar Bears govern themselves as a protectorate.

What a waste of time.

January 1, 1009

A new year for new opportunities and new things to frass up. We are still reviewing and revising the manuals to address mistakes made during the grand training exercise but General Pharynx is already making plans for another one. This time all 3 armies under General Cimex, General Pharynx and General Thysbe will be participating under Field Marshall Trimmel.

January 22, 1009

The Queen has signed a lend-lease deal with the Jaki-clan. We are sending them our old rifles and ammunition.

A nymph who infiltrated the Crystal Empire in her youth has requested leave.

I signed the papers.

March 15, 1009

Word is the Yak civil war is in a stalemate, even with our assistance. But none of the troops care about that.

We have orders to practice disguising ourselves as ponies.

April 1, 1009

See you later little bug journal.

I cannot tell you where I am going but I will be away from you.

December 1, 1010

Like all good changelings, I once spent time in an Equestrian prison in Equestria.

That was a prison in Equestria.

January 1, 1011

I am out of the hospital, back under General Pharynx and another promotion to boot. A Major. Even though I've been out of touch for over a year now, General Pharynx wants me as an example of changeling tenacity and to shake up the ranks. The officer corps under me are expected to bring me up to speed and I am supposed to ask stupid questions for stupid procedures.

January 2, 1011

We are refining plans to invade Equestria.

February 10, 1011

The Queen gave another speech about how the Changelings must conquer Equestria to establish love security.

February 20, 1011

The Changeling Lands have declared war on Equestria and the Crystal Empire. The troops are ecstatic.

February 22, 1011

We can't win against Equestria. Most of the officers either can't see it or are holding their cards too close for me to tell.

February 23, 1011

One year. General Pharynx confided to me.

Officially, we are to fight to the last bug.

February 25, 1011

Our objective is to capture the ports of Vanhoover. I will be coordinating with the navy tomorrow about blockading the ports.

The Ost-Kommando have been asking questions about me, but we have a war to fight.

March 1, 1011

Yesterday the air force told us that they would have air superiority the next day. The day before that they also told us that they would have air superiority the next day.

I have ordered a round the clock crew manning the anti-aircraft guns.

April 18, 1011

General Pharynx has new orders from the Queen: take the wretched city.

We are well supplied but the ponies are better supplied.

April 20, 1011

We have entered Vanhoover and are trying to set up a perimeter around the docks to bring supplies in.

I am tired.

May 1, 1011

We have traded control of the ports 4 times but the ponies keep coming. I do not know who the Equestrian general is, but they clearly understand the importance of this port for the supply lines of both our forces.

May 20, 1011

General Pharynx has led a panzer division around and encircled Vanhoover. We are hammering the holdouts with artillery but our submarine blockade is getting punched through by the Equestrian navy.

May 25, 1011

An alleged Ost-Kommando communique recommended that we deploy chemical weapons to root out the Equestrian holdouts.

I was unable to verify the validity of the orders so I discarded the orders.

Communications on the front lines are terribly unreliable.

June 1, 1011

General Pharynx has declared Vanhoover captured and secured. I've ordered the troops not to feed off the civilians. I told them the love they have right now would not taste good.

I wish I was lying. The mare that traded me her love for a bag of oats tasted like burnt tobacco.

June 10, 1011

Troops on our eastern flank has been facing stiff resistance and General Pharynx has redirected our panzer forces to repel the Equestrians there. Our march south will only have impromptu panzer support as they loop between us and our eastern forces.

July 1, 1011

We are fighting out way down the coast towards Las Pegasus. Tall Tale fell quickly thanks to our supplies coming in from Vanhoover and we should be in Mead Resort by the end of the month. But things are getting harder.

The Equestrians are improving their supply lines and we just can't get south enough to cut them off. General Pharynx's panzers have encircled and forced multiple Equestrian divisions to surrender. But the bulk of the Equestrian army is entrenched throughout the forests and mountains where it is harder for the panzers to move.

We will be regrouping our forces before taking Raspberry Grove. The ports there are quite small but it will be better than driving supply trucks all the way down the coast.

July 4, 1011

Our march south is being put on hold. The supplies we need to push south are being redirected to the eastern front.

If we cannot capture Las Pegasus, we will never be able to push into Equestria again.

July 13, 1011

Stallionrad has come to the aid of Equestria. Tartarus has come to the eastern front.

September 1, 1011

General Pharynx has finally called off the offensive and ordered a general withdrawal back to Vanhoover. Field Marshall Trimmel cannot guarantee the safety of our eastern flank and the failed amphibious assault into Equestria's Mild West has freed more Equestrian troops to be reassigned to the front.

October 5, 1011

General Pharynx is splitting our forces into two. General Pharynx will be commanding group A to attack and break the enemy offensive. I am being given command of group B to defend and hold Vanhoover. Right now, our greatest advantage is the overstretched supply lines of the Equestrians. Losing Vanhoover could lose us the war.

For this honor I have been promoted to Colonel.

Hurray.

December 2, 1011

Every couple days we are cut off from the Changeling Front line and every couple days a few more of my drones are absorbed into other units. We have kept the ports open but I fear the home front is doing worse than we are led to believe.

January 1, 1012

We have not seen the Changeling front line for over a week now. General Pharynx continues to punch through to Vanhoover with his panzers to meet us personally before returning to the Changeling Lands to assist on other fronts.

We will follow orders and hold the city.

February 1, 1012

The Equestrians demand the ports at Vanhoover. They hammer us everyday and stop at night to sneak civilians out of the city.

I have now ordered the guards to let the civilians escape as they see fit. General Pharynx still punches through with his panzers to deliver supplies and discuss strategy but we are no longer receiving drone replacements and I cannot afford to lose nymphs to snipers.

February 7, 1012

We are running out of anti-air equipment despite General Pharynx's supply runs and my requests for them specifically. At this rate the Equestrian air power will destroy all our heavy weapons.

February 12, 1012

General Pharynx has failed to rendezvous with us yesterday as planned.

February 13, 1012

An Ost-Kommando officer traveled around the city to remind everybug that we are to fight to the last bug for the Queen.

An Equestrian sniper shot him as he moved between sentries.

February 14, 1012

An Equestrian bombing run destroyed our chemical weapons supply. The important thing is that no one was injured and no other supplies were destroyed.

February 15, 1012

An Equestrian soldier came to us carrying a flag of truce and a message. 3 days of cease-fire in exchange for all the civilians they could transport out.

I accepted the offer.

February 18, 1012

The truce has ended and the bombing has resumed.

February 20, 1012

The Equestrian navy is blockading the port and our navy is not responding to our calls. General Pharynx has authorized me to act as fitting of a changeling officer. What am I supposed to do? Order my men to fight with bows and spears?

February 25, 1012

Our munitions are starting to run out. We do not have enough ammunition for all our artillery so I have ordered the empty guns to be used as decoys against Equestrian bombers.

If we do not receive resupply soon, our anti-aircraft will soon be silent.

March 1, 1012

The last of our anti-aircraft guns have been destroyed. I have rescinded my request for anti-aircraft ammunition.

March 22, 1012

The ponies have pushed into Vanhoover and we have expended the last of our artillery shells. We are a rifles division now.

April 1, 1012

I have ordered everybug to escape the city and return to the Changeling Lands the best they can. The city is lost. We are defeated.

April 2, 1012

Everycreature going north is either an All Ponies Front military personnel or a disguised changeling. Everycreature going south is either an All Ponies Front wounded personnel or fleeing refugee so I am heading south.

April 7, 1012

I had hoped to see Las Pegasus without a disguise but it cannot be helped. I did not enter the city proper, the anti-changeling checkpoints I had to sneak by to get this far were difficult enough. There is talk of Olenian refugees returning to Hjortland, hopefully I can join them.

April 22, 1012

The Princess should train better censors. It took me a couple weeks but I have a general picture. The front lines is somewhere near the Changeling-Equestria borders and the Equestrian advance has slowed despite taking Vanhoover. I guess that is why my requests for heavy weapons went nowhere.

July 1, 1012

The love refugees have when they return home tastes bittersweet. Here I am in Hjortland again. Chrysalis still rules here, but the local garrison can't stop every boat. Word is making its way up the grapevine. The All Ponies Front is pushing into the Changeling Lands.

July 3, 1012

After I walked into the local garrison I expected to be shipped back to General Pharynx's division on the front line but High Command has no idea where he is. Command thinks he went to ground in the Wild Lands province and is resorting to sabotage to slow the advance. I am to be reassigned to the Hjortland garrison and prepare to defend the sea ports.

July 5, 1012

The task is impossible. The local garrison is equipped with equipment I haven't seen since the Thoraxian Civil War and no heavy weapons at all. While the hotheaded bucks are well-disciplined and more than willing to fight, discipline and vigor is no match for artillery and tanks.

July 9, 1012

I have organized the changelings under my command to begin digging escape holes out of the city while the Olenians patrol. This is not dereliction of duty, this is bugpower preservation.

August 1, 1012

Our escape plans are in place and the Olenian NCOs have their orders in sealed envelopes. They will fight as long as they see fit while we disrupt the enemy rear.

August 10, 1012

We can see naval invasion transports in the distance.

August 22, 1012

Damn these mountains. It is supposed to be summer time.

September 25, 1012

The war is over. The decision to surrender was signed by Queen Chrysalis and delivered by the hives.

The situation had been worse than High Command had informed us. While I was in Hjortland, the All Ponies Front was already fighting in the outskirts of Vesalipolis. My time in the mountains was the straw that broke the Saddle Arabian's back.

September 28, 1012

Thorax has been declared the new King of the Changeling Lands due to Queen Chrysalis's disappearance.

I don't believe it.

General Pharynx is too good of an officer, an even better soldier and a sucker for Thorax. If Thorax is alive, General Pharynx is alive. And if General Pharynx is alive, General Pharynx will be behind Thorax bullying him and making sure he doesn't do anything too stupid.

October 1, 1012

Hive sweet hive. That is what pony conductor said.

Antax Hive sweet Antax Hive, I say.

I do not know what the future holds for the Changeling Lands, but for this bug, the future holds family and reconstruction.