Equus: World at War

East of Mount Canterhorn and towards the coast, war was waged between the New Equestrian forces and The Manehatten Commonwealth in the North and the Independency of Baltimare and Fillydelphia to the South. The two rebel powers had brokered an uneasy truce between one another, to not fight whilst the looming threat of the New Equestrian army still pressed down on them. The Independent cities and the Commonwealth were aware that the Royal Equestrian Armed Forces, dubbed by them as REAF for short, were the obvious threat they had to deal with. Despite vastly outnumbering their foes, New Equestria held the advantage with its technological superiority and something that few would have realised to be so powerful, the unity of their soldiers.

Indeed, the general mistreatment of non-ponies which had grown in the Commonwealth, Independency and many other cities lead to a tense air amongst their soldiers, a general unease which for the most part effected their moral, but slowly, was beginning to lead to infighting that was swiftly covered up to hide the disharmony that occasionally seeped through the cracks. Despite these internal issues and the common enemy lead by the two immortal Queens that sat side by side in the capital, it did not mean there were no discreet attempts to undermine one another or secret hopes for the others failure. Once the Queens were disposed, they would still have each other to contend with, along with the other city states that had developed across the country. The Manehatten Commonwealth, sitting as the second most advanced region in Equestria and governed by a host of wealthy business-ponies, often sold their weapons of wars to their ‘competitors’, supplying them with armaments so that they may combat the REAF forces that held their lines despite the innumerable odds they faced.

New Equestria would have picked up on the spread of more advanced weapons in the hand of those other than Manehatten in time. Not wishing to see a spread of such damaging technology to all regions, had begun the careful monitoring, and if possible, intercepting of these armament deals that occurred, carefully keeping tabs on the growing strength on their enemies.

********

Within the Trotting Mountains that marked the borders between New Equestria’s domain and that of the Eastern regions, a stallion grumbled, looking up at the tall mountain ranges about him. Eventually, he moved forwards to look over the edge of the cliff, down to the valley far below, before shifting back fully into the brush he was using as cover.

The birds chirped loudly in the trees next to him and soon enough he would look back at the sound of branches being pushed aside, a human lying down next to him, his partner in this reconnaissance mission.

"Anything?" the man asked, adjusting his belt pouches till they sat comfortably on his waist, soon going still and waiting once more.

"Nope, nothing... by the way I hope that's not the first in a line of extremely long pisses?" the stallion would say, biting his cheek as he breathed out through his nose.

"Ugh!" the human looked about, rolling his eyes, "Well sorry... I didn't know you were the piss police. What's next I'm gonna get fines on how 'much' I pissed."

"Shut up dude," the earth pony would say with a hint of a smile as he pulled his rifle up from beneath the brush, moving it closer to hand, soon going silent once more as the birds continued singing.

"So can you fill me in on something Zestar?" the human would eventually ask, propping his upper body up on his arms, but not too high that he would be noticeable in their cover, "What's with the guys who are around the military base doing jack shit?"

"What uniform were they wearing?" the stallion asked, glancing over.

"The dark blue top half, grey trousers with the orange or yellow-y lanyard, on the left arm," the man would reply, taking the time to stretch out his aching neck.

"Oh, the navy guys... yeah they aren't doing much because.... they can't," the stallion would say, believing it answer enough.

The human raised a brow, "okaaayy... so your Equestrian navy is like a traditional division that’s just for show?"

Zestar turned sharply, "What, no! They're not doing anything because they can't do anything, all of our coasts are taken over so how 'could' they do anything?"

"Yeah, but like... why don't they learn something useful or start bloody picking up a rifle at this rate... I mean two years of you guys not having boats out there, right?" The human countered, "Also, I don't bloody know do I. I only just got here."

"I… yeah well... we're about to make a breakthrough soon though so... we might be getting them out in the water eventually," the stallion cleared his throat, pulling out his binoculars to look down into the valley, "... but I know what you mean... they ‘are’ just sitting around doing absolutely nothing for the most part... besides the odd base maintenance, which we all know they should be doing more of. Especially with their numbers." Zestar conceded after a moment.

The cold wind swept through the crags from the north, making the pair of shiver. They'd keep themselves huddled together for warmth as the wait continued, making idle conversation quietly with one another to pass the time but remaining ever vigilant as they did so.

********

Hours later

“So when… okay so what do you do if you want to get married then?” Zestar asked.

The human breathed in through his teeth as he’d recall his world’s traditions, “Well you go to the church of the birch tree, you ask one of the tree attendants if you can take one of the leaves. They then ask you to describe the person you love to them and kind of… judge you based on how you describe them?”

“They judge you on that… why do they do if you just said no,” the stallion asked with confusion.

“I don’t know… well I do but…” the human began

The stallion followed up with another question before the human could finish, “And why do they even need to know about them anyway?”

“Well hang on because I’ll get to that,” the human smiled, “Basically you describe them and they see how much you care about the person from the way you describe them. That kind of tells the tree attendant how much you actually care for the person. So, if you go into detail about them then she, all tree attendants are women by the way, can figure out if you really care about that person and love them, noticing all this detail and the like. You know if you just kind of describe their appearance but not their personality it’s like you are only seeing the outer beauty and not their personality, that sort of thing.”

“What if you just lie… anyway you haven’t told me what this has to do with the tree?” Zestar turned more towards the man with interest, resting his chin on his crossed arms.

“They can tell if you are lying… but you know, the more you notice about the person you love then the more you love them. Then they tell you how many leaves you can take from the tree. This is what you eventually present to the person you want to marry. It kind of shows the official-ness of it all. If you truly love them then you will have tons of leaves, but if you don’t then well… you’ll have one leaf to show them. And who wants to go to the person they love with one leaf right.”

Zestar nodded, “Huh that’s… different… I mean, well what happens if you were drawing a blank on that day or something. Just completely forgot about it all the little things of the person you liked?”

Andrew nodded, “Yeah, they can see if that is happening to you and give you a chance to either settle yourself within the church gardens for a time or just come back another day. These birch tree tenders are all sort of magical, so they know what’s real and what’s not.”

“It’s a pretty cool way of going about it but it just seems like you’ll get some problems in the end,” Zestar would go on to say, glancing up at the sound of a hawk calling out, spotting the bird off in the valley, swooping down towards some rodent or other creature it had spotted on the ground. It was enough to bring the stallion back to his duties, looking down into the valley once more.

********
Hours later

"What do you think of the 'Queens?" the human asked, making the stallion look to him sharply.

Taking a moment, the pony would eventually ask, "... what do you mean by that?"

"Well... you know how nobody sees them at all... wouldn't it be better for moral if they... like toured the camps or gave big speeches to the public every once in a while, you know what I'm saying, be more public,” the human responded, not noticing the hard look he received from the stallion for a brief moment.

"oh... right... yeah... yeah no I..." the stallion tilted his head from side to side as he decided on his reply, "You know they used to, I think… well my uncle said that the Queen of Night used to tour around the camps ages back when he was in the army, but they stopped doing that around the time Queen Chrysalis arrived... I guess they decided amongst themselves that..." he stopped, trying to think of a reason for it.

The man would soon guess, "It’s too dangerous for them? It’s... not safe for them in the war to talk to the public?"

The stallion eventually nodded, "Yeah something like that probably. I mean who knows where there could be traitors, they still find little pockets and groups of them in the capital even. But they deal with them before they can do damage, thank the Night Mother and Mistress of Change" The Earth Pony's last words making the man laugh briefly, garnering a questioning look from the stallion

The human looked to him, "Nothing, just the whole thanking thing. It’s like... I don't know, you thank your royalty for doing something, like they were in control of the world," the man waved his hand dismissively.

"We used to say thank... the ‘other one’, fifty years ago nearly. It’s just the thing we say" Zestar sniffed, feeling like he was beginning to develop a chill, quickly pulling his scarf over his face for warmth.

"I know you guys do but ’we’ say it for things or people we can't see or... have unbelievable power and control over the world. Like 'thank Hemestuin the crops turned out good this year' who’s the god of farming in our world, so it makes sense. You can't see him and he has power over all farming. I mean when you say it about your Queens, it’s like you're going 'thank my Auntie Mary that train didn't hit me on the..." the man would have his arm punched to stop, Earth pony motioning off to the entrance of the valley roughly 5 kilometres away.

Multiple tanks could be seen moving down the steep inclines, several battalions marching alongside them. Taking up the rear would be a regiment of griffins, flying in the air and providing cover for the heavy gun batteries being wheeled by artillery teams. Soon enough the sound of the diesel engines echoed off the mountain sides and reached them. It was a large force indeed, practically a small army, marching through the passes.

The two would be silent practically as they looked at the large force making its way towards their side of the valley. "Fuck... that’s alot of them," the human breathed out, pulling his notepad up from his side, "What’s the count Zestar?"

The stallion looked through his binoculars, mouthing his numbers as he calculated before eventually speaking up, "... 4 infantry battalions of 3000 roughly... wait those tanks look different... Oh shit, write this down, 25 Milbuck machine guns, 8 Model 1022 60mm cannons, 14 MK-2 Paladins and 2 griffin brigades.” He took a moment to look over the other tanks moving with them, appearing to be some new variant.

After a second, he described them, “Okay, the tank has 2 turrets at the front, about 8 metres long and half as wide nearly so 4 metres wide roughly... they have a snake painted on the side all coiled about itself but its got a rooster’s head. There’s about 8 of them," he would finish, looking to the human as they wrote everything down.

"Got it, let’s go," the human would say as he finished, crawling backwards into the brush as the stallion took his rifle, looking back at the tanks with concern, before receding from the cliff as well.

The pair rushed down the crags and into the denser forests that began to form midway down the mountain. The stallion would stop behind a tree suddenly, going low. His partner, running several metres behind, came to an immediate halt, shifting quickly to the cover of a nearby tree. The pony looked back to his companion, pointing off to their right.

Shifting out briefly, the human caught glimpse of a group of griffins walking through the forest. They weren't their own soldiers and they certainly didn't look like local hunters, as all wore plated armour, standard issue amongst the griffins even to this day and carried breech loading rifles. The two scouts would soon see the silver eagle of Prince Gladwin embellished on their breastplates, confirming them to be from the Manehatten army.

They waited silently for the group to move on, the griffins appearing to be enemy scouts searching the area in advance of the main force travelling through the valley. How they had passed the two Royal scouts and filtered into the mountains they did not know for they had been in wait for close to a day now. Though the griffins came close to their position, they would eventually move on, up the mountain, giving Zestar and Andrew the opportunity to escape. Moving through the forest with much more caution, they would soon come across the river which cut through the forest.

They rushed down to the banks of the 30m wide river, the stallion searching across the ground till he found the rope, tugging on it hard, pulling it taught and out of the river, connected to a tree on the other bank. The stallion tied off the rope at large birch on their side, nodding to the human who immediately began moving across, rushing into the water and attached a clip from his belt to the line, holding onto it as he began pulling himself across the river to the other side, one hand after the other. The force of the river hitting his back, pressing his stomach into the line as he moved.

The stallion looked back the way they'd come, tapping his hoof nervously. They could have soldiers come down and spot them easily on the edges of the river. In seconds they would be either dead or captured. The stallions mind imagined a scenario where they would be split up, caught on opposite sides of the river. He looked back to see Andrew pulling himself from the water, scrambling up the steep bank before waving before taking hold of the rope and keeping it taunt to help Zestar cross.

The stallion moved his rifle onto his backpack to help keep it out if the water somewhat as he began pulling himself across the river, rope creaking under his weight. He cast a look to the bank he'd arrived from, looking back down to the rope, ensuring his hands would not miss. Cold water rushed past his legs, soaking his clothing through as his arms were already beginning to cramp up. He would reach the end soon enough, pulling himself up to the human, splashing through the water, "Alright cut the line", the stallions teeth chattered as he spoke, watching as the man cut through the rope with the saw-back on his large survival blade. The frayed end would be pulled by the river’s current and disappearing whilst they'd continue on through the other side of the forest, rushing between the trees.

When they had enough distance, they changed out of their wet clothing for the dry pair in their backpacks, soaked and freezing clothing placed in a waterproof sack in their backpack before continuing on. Despite this the chill had already begun to seep into their bodies, the cold mountain air not helping them.

Hours passed of them jogging through the woodland, stopping for several minutes at a time to rest. They would have spotted several more groups of griffin scouts ahead of their position, having to wait till they eventually flew away to report back to the small army crossing the mountains. Every time they thought they had travelled far enough away to be safe, there was yet another group searching the forest. At this rate there must have been at least 3 brigades of griffins with this army. They would have to continue moving further through the forest than they had planned to, unable to rest. Fatigue soon set in as they had travelled miles on foot through rough terrain, but eventually it would be night, the moon just visible through the thick branches of the trees. Under the cover of darkness to hide them, they had to halt.

"We stopping here?" Andrew would ask, kneeling and stretching out, shoulders in pain from jogging for so long with his backpack.

"Yeah, let's try and find somewhere at least partially hidden for us to stay. We will still have to move pretty early in the morning though. There's no way they would travel in the dark, especially that large a force. They will have to keep their scouts closer for safety," the stallion searched through his pockets till he'd find his torch, a simple copper tube with a magically powered lens.

He shone the light down the slope of the ditch, guessing it was a metre or so deep. He flickered the torch about, keeping it pointing down so the beam wouldn't be travelling through the forest. He would soon find a collection of trees growing next to a large rock protruding from the soft earth "Let's camp here," he turned the light off, "you took your medicine, right?" he'd ask the human

"I've had them... I'm all good" Andrew would reply, casting his gaze out through the dark forest.

Unable to make a fire to cook, the pair would take out their emergency ration packs, small wax sealed cases of leather containing 'blocks' of dried salted beef, biscuits and cheese. All were compressed into a compact cylinder which fitted inside the case. It was not the most pleasant food to eat, having a leathery tang to it, but it would keep for a long time and was all pre-cooked.

He'd hear the human settle in against a nearby tree, the stallion making his way towards the sound of his partner, easing down near him, resting his head forwards as he rubbed the back of his neck. Eventually the Earth pony asked as he began finishing his rations, crushing the leather packet back into his bag, "See anything out there?"

"Not a thing... or they're good at hiding maybe, but I haven't seen anyone walking around yet,” the human responded, able to see fairly well in the darkness of night compared to most creatures, “... you get your sleep first and I'll take the first watch" he patted the stallion’s arm.

"Yeah sure. Don't tire yourself staying up too long," the pony yawned and shivered somewhat, pulling his jacket tighter about himself. He curled up on the ground, a nearby root as good a pillow as any, drifting off.

********

"Wake up Zestar... somethings looking at us" a voice whispered through the pony’s dreams. The stallion began sitting up sharply, feeling a hand stopping him before he'd even moved several inches off the ground.

"Not fast... its... studying us," Andrew would say, perhaps not realising how terrifying he made it sound.

"What... what is it... a wolf a... bear?" the pony looked about, only seeing darkness practically, eyes only just making out the human's hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know what is, but it’s looking at us. I think it’s... maybe 11 feet tall. Fur in places but mostly skin. Things got long arms and legs. It’s kind of hiding behind a tree at the moment just staring... pretty big claws on its hands. Creeping around and looking at you now that its seen you," The human went on

"Fuck can you please not say it like that, you're freaking me the fuck out!" Zestar whispered harshly, gulping soon enough, "How far away is it from us?"

"Maybe 20 feet away... just looking down at us" was the reply from Andrew.

"20 feet!?" the stallion turned his head sharply, heart pumping in fear as, whatever it was, stood somewhere in the darkness, watching them. His mind could only imagine what the hell this monster could be and all he could do was rely on Andrew to tell him what was happening. His hand slipped down slowly to the holster on his side, fingers grasping the handle of his single action revolver in preparation. Soon enough he heard the sound of branches being snapped purposefully.

The stallions ears flicked to the side as the hand on his shoulder lifted away, human standing up "Wait Andrew... Andrew where the hell are you going... don't leave me here!"

"Shut up," his partner's voice whispered back immediately, as Zestar heard them walking off. Soon, he heard a clicking sound that grew steadily louder and louder till it finally stopped, silence filling the air. It continued for several unbearable minutes before a scream, almost like that of a young child in pain issued from just ahead of him, which trailed off at the end into a whimper.

Several seconds later he heard heavy footsteps thudding towards them as another high pitch scream came from the monster before the heavy footsteps suddenly turned and ran away, followed by a retching sound off in the distance.

"Andrew?" the pony dared to ask louder, "... Andrew... Andrew what’s going on..." he felt hands grab him by his collar, lifting him up sharply.

"We need to go, we need to go!" the human hauled the pony onto his hooves, "It's going to hunt us soon and it’s really fucking..." the man said no more, pulling the stallion by his arm, fear evident in his voice.

"What's it doing? Where is it!?" Zestar called out, holstering his half drawn revolver and running.

"I don't know it... it ran off a few hundred feet before hiding behind another tree, but it just fucking charged us before being spooked by something else in the forest," Andrew pulled his companion harder, looking over his shoulder as he did, "Fuck I can't see it anymore!"

"What is that thing?" Zestar wouldn't look over his shoulder, eyes on the ground before him as he tried to avoid the roots and rocks that constantly rose up to trip him.

"I don't have a fucking clue but it wasn't like an animal, it was smart. We need to get out of its part of the woods quickly. I don't even know if there are several of them, it kept looking off behind us when it was clicking and shaking its arms about." Andrew did his best to guide his friend through the near pitch-black forest, his eyes like a cat at times, reflecting the light of the moon.

The two kept running, stallion occasionally stumbling and human yanking him back up immediately when he did, pulling him forwards as he could feel a malicious gaze on them, almost as if the creature was enjoying watching them run away. Every so often he would hear heavy thudding, not knowing if it was the creature or his heartbeat in his ears.

The stallion would be gasping for breath, but the adrenaline kept his legs running. Suddenly pale light washed over them as they ran out of the forest into a field of long grass. But they couldn't have gone that far... they'd been... but they were ages from the forest edge. He felt Andrew tug him to a stop, the human panting loudly, visible in the cool light of the half moon.

The stallion looked nervously at the man, "Andr... andrew... the moon... you gonna be-"

"I'll be fine... just catch your breath," the man began reaching into a pocket, hands shaking as they scrambled to hold a small pill box. He pressed it against his chest to steady it as he opened the container, taking two tablets out and swallowing them, pulling his water canteen up from his side and drinking deeply. He eventually held it out to Zestar, "Drink it quickly," the man would say, gritting his teeth for a moment before sniffing deeply through his nose with a semi pained look.

The stallion would do so, drinking from the near empty canteen, turning sharply as there was another scream from somewhere within the forest, followed by two more off to the right, before 'someone' began screaming out for help. Their voice was so distinct as it echoed through the trees, so filled with terror. It was soon drowned out by the screams, as Andrew and Zestar already began backing further away from the forest's edge, "Is that one of our guys?"

"No, we were the only ones up this way..." Zestar replied as they heard a bang that cut sharply through the night, the pair of scouts seeing a flash of light hundreds of metres away, followed by another shout of pain, so gripped with absolute terror before silence, both left to only guess who they could have been. They wouldn't waste what time they'd been bought however, running through the fields, path illuminated by the moon high above. Both still prayed silently that the creatures would not pursue them.