Guardians of Equestria : The Emperor's March

Applejack was looking forward to this day. She was going to teach her younger sister Applebloom the art of apple bucking. “Come on now Applebloom! You don’t wanna be late to your first lesson in apple bucking! You’ve gotta learn how to collect the apples from the apple trees!” said Applejack enthusiastically to her little sister.

“Aw, but my friends said today we would be meeting at our clubhouse at noon. If this takes too long, I won’t be able to join them.” Replied Applebloom in a disappointed tone, looking down at her sister with puppy eyes to get her sister to reconsider, but she stayed firm, nonetheless.

“No need to worry about that sugar cube, I won’t keep you hostage for the whole day after all. It should only take a couple of hours at most.”

“I sure hope so...” sighed the little filly.

The two sisters got out of their farmhouse to head on to the nearby hills. On the way there, they grabbed a couple of baskets that will be used to store the apples they will collect. During the travel, Applebloom simply walked in complete silence, still grumpy from having to assist her older sister in apple bucking. The older pony was feeling a bit guilty about potentially ruining her little sister’s day, but reassured herself that no matter what, she would always be reluctant to come. After a short walk, they have finally arrived at the hill containing the apple trees. Applejack finally decided to break the silence.

“Looks like we’re here. I hope you’ve slept well last night because this is going to take a lot of effort to get this part of the clearing done. Here, we’ll start with this here tree first. I’ll show you how it’s done and then you’ll try your luck.” And with that, she placed a basket down at the root of the nearest tree and turned around to place herself in a good bucking position. She kicks the tree with impressive power causing all the apples to fall off from the tree, landing in the basket down below. “See that? That’s how you buck an apple tree! It’s very easy once you get used to it.” exclaimed Applejack. “Here, try bucking this tree over there” She pointed at a nearby tree.

“Are you sure I'm strong enough to do it?” Asked the little filly.

“Don’t worry about it ‘sis, I started apple bucking at around your age. You just need to keep on trying. Eventually, your legs will get strong enough to do it with ease! After all, you’re an earth pony, you’ve got strength in them hooves!” Reassured Applejack, showing off her hooves.

“Hey! Do you think my special talent might be apple bucking? If that’s the case, I may be able to finally get my cutie mark!” said the filly as she was bouncing around in excitement at the idea of potentially.

“Hoho! Now that’s the spirit ‘sis! Go on, try bucking it now.” chuckled the older mare as she stood back to watch her sister try her first ever attempt at apple bucking.

Placing the basket down at the tree, Applebloom turned around and got into the same position her sister had demonstrated earlier. She prepared herself to strike this tree with all her might. After a few seconds of preparation, the little filly threw the strongest kick she could muster. The apple tree vibrated in response to the impact, but no apple fell off.

Discouraged by the failed attempt, Applebloom kicked the tree even harder, trying to one up her previous kick. Her attempts were getting faster and faster, until she accidentally sprained her hoof on impact causing her to fall to the ground in pain. Her older sister quickly rushed to her side to make sure she wasn’t hurt too badly. “Are you ok Applebloom? Is your hoof alright?”

“Yes, I think so, I only sprained my hoof, I should be fine in a couple of minutes.” groaned the filly, clutching her injured hoof.

“Well, if that’s the case, let’s take a short break and then we’ll resume. I don’t want you to break a leg, quite literally.” said a slightly worried Applejack.

A few hours later, the two siblings were done with their exercise. As they were getting ready to return to the farm, they heard screaming coming from Ponyville mixed with animalistic sounds she had never heard before. “What is going on in town” worried Applebloom. “I don’t know, let’s head back to the farm first. Big will take care of you there while I'll go check what’s causing all this ruckus.” answered the older sister, trying to mask her worries to the filly.

The Tanker was looking at the chaos they were causing in amusement. Up on his tank, he could see ponies being dragged and locked in their own homes by the Scalers while others were taking turn breaking down buildings and other infrastructures with their bare hands, taking immense pleasure in doing so. He kept on looking around for something to do until Kryser, his superior, approached him.

“Now I know what you’re thinking, Tanker. Don’t leave the town under any circumstances. Stay right here and assist the others if need be with your tank. Am I clear?” Just as he finished his sentence, he heard a crashing noise behind him. He looked back to see a Scaler breaking down a bunch of barrels with glee. “Oh ok, well Tanker, don’t you go running off to... how did he leave so soon?” The Tanker, and by extension his tank, had already left. He was already driving in direction of a farm he saw just on the outskirts of Ponyville. He already knew what he was seeking was going to be located in that farm.

“Nyeh he he! Time to run over some dumb ponies! Come on boys, let us see some blood.”

Fluttershy was tending to her animals in her cottage. She had gotten out of bed earlier because her pet Angel was very hungry wouldn’t stop pestering her. She tried to offer her pet carrots, but the bunny was reluctant to eat any carrots, kicking them away whenever she tried to offer them. “Now now Angel, you must at least try a bite out of these carrots.

Carrots are very healthy, and bunnies usually love them.” She gently pushed a carrot near him and gave a forced smile to encourage the bunny to take a bite out of it. Angel responded by kicking the carrot away and hopped away towards the front door. “Angel! Come back here, I swear I'll give you something else to eat.” The bunny stopped when he got close to the front door, reconsidering if he should come back to the Pegasus. He then turned to face the front door but didn’t move from his position. Fluttershy hurried herself to him, fearing that he’ll try to leave the cottage but was surprised when she noticed that Angel looked anxious.

She looked at the window near the door but saw nothing unusual about Ponyville. The city looked as it had always been, save for the mist present in this morning. “What’s wrong Angel?” asked the worried Pegasus. Angel hopped away and went upstairs, probably into her room.

Hesitant, she opened the upper part of her front door to hear if something was going on outside. Everything was normal and she was about to close the door until she started to hear screams coming from Ponyville. They were screams of terror mixed with malicious sounding screams echoing in the misty morning. Fluttershy stood there, frozen in anxiety as multiple different scenarios were playing out in her heads as to what was happening in town. She snapped out of it once she heard large footsteps approaching her cottage.

Eventually, something big came to view but she couldn’t quite make out what it was thanks to the mist obstructing any defining features of the thing. All that she could see was the thing’s imposing size, rivaling that of the alicorn sisters, maybe slightly bigger. She yelped and immediately slammed the door shut and locked it. She backed off from the entrance and jumped when the thing outside knocked loudly at her door.

“Let me in! There are monsters out there! You gotta let me in or else they’ll get me!” Fluttershy remained silent, the thing didn’t know that she already saw it coming. “Too bad, I'll just invite myself in if you don’t mind.” She heard the thing outside jump onto her roof and walking on it. In her panic, she fell on her rear. The thing was moving above her, making the ceiling creak with every step it took.

The Pegasus looked behind her and saw the chimney and, connecting the dots, discovered what the thing was trying to do. She backed away from the chimney as the beast’s steps stopped abruptly. Then there were strange noises coming from the chimney as the sounds of something forcing its way in were heard mixed with sounds of metal scraping against the chimney. The Pegasus remembered that the interior of her chimney was filled with broken nails and was also very narrow yet this thing was somehow able to fit through. This horrifying cacophony kept on going for a while until it went silent.

Fluttershy kept on staring at the chimney, waiting for something to happen. She waited for what felt like hours until she finally stood up and thought about going upstairs to check on Angel. As she took a hesitant step, a reptilian creature fell down the chimney’s door. It started punching at the metal grate after it had spotted the Pegasus, slowly breaking through it. Fluttershy jumped back, squealing in horror at this horrible sight.

The Pegasus wasted no time running up the stairs as the beast broke through the grate and crawled out of the chimney. Its entire armour was bruised and cut, exposing the lizard's skin underneath its metal shell. It started limping towards her as one of its legs got badly injured during its descent. Despite the painful state the lizard was in, its face did not express much pain, rather a malicious pleasure in chasing her down.

She arrived at her bedroom and saw Angel cowering underneath her bed. Shutting the door behind, she placed a chair on the lock to buy her some time. “Angel! Come to me, we are leaving now!” The doorknob turned and the beast started pushing heavily at the door, trying to force it open. When it realised it couldn’t open it, it punched straight through it and grabbed at the chair to toss it out of the way.

Fluttershy yelped and grabbed Angel in her mouth, running to the nearest window to open it. The door swung open so violently that it hit and damaged the wall in her bedroom. The beast saw her attempt at escape and growled angerly. It lunged at her, but she flew out of her window in time. Having just arrived outside, she heard the commotion in Ponyville much clearer now and was now faced with a difficult choice, either she could hide in the forest and wait for all of this to blow over or she could fly over to Ponyville and try to help her friends out of this predicament. The sound of the reptile falling just behind her prompted her to fly straight into Ponyville, having chosen the second option.

As they were running back to their home, they could now hear additional sounds coming from Ponyville. It was that of roaring and explosions. Applejack grew increasingly concerned when she remembered that all her friends, safe from Twilight and the Guardians, were in Ponyville. But it wasn’t the time to be thinking about them, she needed to get her younger sister to Big first and foremost. Applebloom tripped on a loose root on the floor. Applejack quickly took notice and ran back to her sister to get her back on her hooves.

“Are you sure you can keep up? I’ll slow down if you can’t, wouldn’t wanna leave you behind in a time like this.”

“No, I'm fine. I can keep... up.” Applejack could see through her sister’s lie. The filly was trying to hide her panting to give the impression she could still run a marathon. After a few seconds, Applejack told her little sister to start running in direction of the farm once more. They kept on running for just a little longer until they finally left the field of apple trees.

“There’s the farm!” happily exclaimed Applebloom. Applejack could clearly see the farmhouse now. Big Macintosh was standing outside the farmhouse, having barricaded the road leading to the Sweet Apple Acre. He took notice of the sibling’s arrival: “There you are! I was worried something had happened to you two.”

“We... gotta get... Applebloom and Granny... to safety first!” Said Applejack while trying to catch her breath.

“Let's hide them in the farmhouse. We’ll deal with the problem ourselves. The road's barricaded here just in case.” Responded Big Macintosh.

“You heard him ‘sis, go on now. “Responded Applejack, putting on a reassuring smile. Applebloom however, looked behind her two siblings with wide eyes.

“Wait, w-what is that over there?” questioned the youngster in a panicked tone.

Both Applejack and Big Macintosh turned to face the road only to see a creature riding a vehicle they had never ever seen before. An extremely large bipedal reptile wearing a black helmet obstructing its eyes was slowly walking along the road, its face was constantly contorted in a large grin as it was singing to itself. It was slightly taller even than princess Celestia herself from the looks of it. Eventually, the giant tank stopped once its drivers noticed the barricade and the two ponies standing behind it. The poor barricade looked pitiful in comparison to the sheer size of the vehicle confronting it.

The Tanker opened his visor to get a better view of them revealing two piercing yellow eyes that slightly disturbed the two ponies. “Oh please tell me we are doing this because if so, then it's on little ponies! Just try to stop us from running over this farm!” enthusiastically exclaimed the lizard.

“We ain’t gonna let some tyrants destroy the Apple family's namesake! No matter what you throw at us, we ain't budgin.” Objected Applejack.

“Is that so? Well then, if that's what you want...” Tanker retreated inside his tank. "Alright squad; it's time to smash through this dooky farm!"

“Uh oh, brace yourself Big Mac!” replied Applejack, intimidated by the sheer size of the tank moving towards them.

“Stay right here and let us do our thing, will you?” said the Tanker, slowly making his way to them at a not so slow pace.

The tank immediately sped up at the barricade without warning. “Out of the way!” shouted Applejack.

“Yup” answered Big.

As the creature got closer to the barricade, Applejack pulled out a stink bomb and threw it at the large tank.

“Nice try, but its not going to get us out of our tank bro.” said the Tanker inside the comfort of his war machine. It lowered its canon to aim it directly at the barricade and blew it to bits. Its remains were launched far in the sky. Shocked by this display of raw power, the two ponies were greatly intimidated by their seemingly indominable opponent.

"Now, it's your turn... If you would just hold still." The tank's canon then pointed at Applejack and fired, missing her but the explosion sent her flying away. Big Macintosh wasted no time to charge forward at the tank, hoping that he could somehow get the Tanker out of his war machine. The Scaler inside responded in kind as he jumped out of his tank to confront the stallion. Their heads collided with one another, turning this fight into a sumo wrestling competition.

"Let's see how you size up to me, big boy!"

Eventually, Big’s better posture allowed him to throw his opponent off his balance and throwed him off the vehicle and into the ground on his back, but the reptile regained his composure much quicker than the pony had anticipated. The Tanker kicked the horse square in the face, knocking him out for a moment. More Scalers left the tank to witness the fight happening, though their leader instructed them not to intervene.

As the Scaler got up, he turned his attention to Applejack who had just gotten back on her hooves. She quickly notices the monster approaching her in an odd battle stance. His arms were slightly bent and completely to his sides, exposing his torso and face. The mare reaches out for a big branch on the floor, big enough to cause some damage.

Once the Scaler was close enough, she struck with all her might only for her adversary to block the branch with enough strength to shatter it in multiples pieces. Bad idea though the pony before realizing the Tanker was readying a strong kick. She tried to back away but was hit full force with a blow powerful enough to once again send her flying into a nearby tree. The blow nearly broke her bones as the mare tried to get up to no avail. “Hyeh he he! Yo guys, it's as easy as stealing candy from a baby!” cackled the beast. Applejack coughed a bit of blood on the ground in her struggle to get up.

However, as the Tanker was moving closer to her, she noticed a shadow growing just above her assailant. He stopped dead in his track, having noticed this shadow below him. “Huh? What’s that?” he grumbled in confusion. Just as he looked up, he could see the silhouette of the barricade that was blown into the sky. “Wait, no!”

Smash

In less than a second, the reptile was crushed. “D-did we get him?” said Applejack in an unsure tone as she got up.

“E-yup” responded her brother who had just come back to his senses, his head still ringing from the Scaler’s kick earlier before falling back on the ground. Suddenly, a fist bursts out of the broken remains of the barricade.

“Urgh, this is really embarrassing on our part. Let's hope Lord Balgo didn't see any of this...” said the Tanker while pulling the rest of his body out of the debris. He looked irritated now. “That’s it! I am pulling out the big guns this time! Straight up to murder!”

He pulled a large metallic object that neither ponies could recognise. The grins on the face of the other Scalers indicated nothing but bad news regarding this device. “I’ll blow you and this farm to smithereens! Here goes!” The beast pulled the pin on the object but dropped it by accident. “Oops”, clumsily said the Tanker. The object’s sheer weight caused it to get slightly buried in the ground upon impact. “Oh non. Get down troops!”

BOOM

The explosion was big enough to catch the attention of a small group of Scalers still assaulting the town. “Uh oh, I didn’t know ponies had access to weapons of mass destruction...” said one of them in an unusually casual manner. They then all realized what was most likely the cause of this explosion, looking at each other in the process. “It’s the Tanker, again!”. They saw another one of them arriving in a hurry.

“Yo, did any one of you see where the Tanke- Oh never mind, I guess it’s pretty clear where he went.”

Fluttershy froze for a moment when she finally got to see the full scale of the invasion happening in Ponyville. There were lizards everywhere, dragging ponies by their hooves to throw them and lock them inside the nearest building. She couldn’t save everyone in Ponyville from these invaders, but she could at least escape with a friend if they’re quick enough. The only friend that she could flee with was Rarity, seeing as her boutique was located on the borders of the town.

The Pegasus flew towards her friend's home and as she did, she saw something fast flying in the sky above her. “Rainbow Dash! She must be heading to Canterlot to warn the princess about these strange lizards.” She finally arrived at Rarity’s home just in time to see her shop being invaded. She hid near a window and peeked through it, letting go of Angel as her mouth grew tired of dragging him around.

“Woe is me! I cannot live shut inside my boutique! How can I show my beautiful crafts to all of Equestria if I can’t even leave my own house?” complained the unicorn. The two reptiles inside looked very tired. They must have heard her complaining for quite some time now and it was clearly showing on their posture. They both looked at each other in sheer exasperation as Rarity kept on going on and on.

Eventually, they grabbed her hooves and dragged her upstairs. Fluttershy flew to another window overlooking the second floor and saw the two reptiles throw Rarity in her bedroom. One immediately shut the door as the other one started barricading the door with wooden boards. When he was done, the other one threw an entire wardrobe in front of the door to ensure no one would ever get out of the room. After they were done, they slowly left the boutique, with any sign of excitement gone from their body.

"Gee, why can't we just kill this one?"

Now that they were gone, the Pegasus flew to the window overlooking the unicorn’s bedroom, gesturing at Angel to stay hidden. She quietly knocked on the window to get her friends attention. Rarity immediately went to open the window to let her friend in. “Fluttershy! Thank Celestia I won’t be alone in my bedroom! I suppose you have a plan to get me out of here?”

“Not exactly, there are lizards everywhere in Ponyville. Our only chance at escape is to run away as soon as possible before the chaos outside settles down.” responded the Pegasus.

“Fair enough, but we can’t leave without Sweetie Belle! She’s somewhere in here but the door leading out of my room is blocked.” They then heard a voice coming from the other side.

“Rarity? Are you okay in there?” It was Sweetie Belle who was speaking from the other side of the barricaded door.

“We’re leaving now Sweetie! Try to sneak out of the house, I’ll catch you outside with Fluttershy!” shouted Rarity to make sure her sister heard her.

“Got it! I’m going now!” The unicorn and the Pegasus opened the window once more and they descended. Rarity was holding on to Fluttershy as the latter tried desperately to go down at a slower pace, but her friend's weight was too much for her wings and they both fell from a high distance.

After regaining their bearings, the moved towards the entrance and saw two reptiles guarding the front door, the same that locked her in earlier judging from their expression. Angel ran back to them and hopped on the Pegasus’s back. Fluttershy smiled lightly, happy to see her pet still there. Suddenly, the door behind the reotukes opened and they turned around to see Sweetie Belle standing just by the entrance. She smiled sheepishly and tried to defuse the situation.

“Oh... uh pardon me, I was just going to... uh, w-water our plants of course.”

The left one spoke up. “Go back inside little drama queen, we’ve had enough with you annoying lots!” Just as they approached the filly, they were struck by a large rock flung towards them.

One of them fell to the ground and was then crushed by the other who fell on top of him. “Hey! get off me lazy bone!” The two began to hit each other with ever increasing force, eventually leading into a full-on fight to the death as they began biting at each other, tearing their armour off.

“Let’s get out of here now...” said Rarity, disgusted by the brutal battle going on.

They were soon out of Ponyville as they were running through the borders of the town. While they were running, they noticed that the town was becoming quieter. There were more and more lizards roaming the town and it was only a matter of time before they would be spotted. Thankfully, they could see the bridge just in front of them leading out of Ponyville, and then they could escape through the fields and get to Canterlot. “We missed three of them! Don’t let them get away!” The reptile’s shout alerted all the others near the three ponies, and they soon gave chase.

The trio got on the bridge and began to make their final sprint out of Ponyville. They saw strange flashes of light fly right past them, one of them nearly hitting Rarity in the leg, slightly cutting it. She squealed in painful surprise and looked over her shoulder. The reptiles were not running after them, rather they were standing still pointing metallic objects at them.

“What are these things they’re carrying?” said Rarity, scared at her ignorance of these weapons. Over in the distance, one of the creatures yelled to the other.

“What in the name of the dark lord? I thought we weren’t supposed to kill them.”

“They’re getting away you idiot. We’re not gonna let them escape us.”

“So why aren’t we running after them then?”

“... Uh.” A very loud sound got Rarity to look at where she was going. A large purple mist was hindering their view of the field in front. Suddenly, three tendrils shot out from the mist and grabbed every single pony by the hooves and flipped them on their backs. The tendrils then lifted the trio in the air just in time for them to see a terrifyingly large lizard walk out of the mist. Fluttershy covered her eyes in fear as Rarity inched closer to her little sister to give her some comfort. Angel on the other hand, bolted out of here, having not being caught by the tendrils.

“Sorry to come in at the last minute and ruin your entire escape but you should know we don't take kindly to stragglers. I hope you’re not going to take it to heart. Not that I care, I just want to see the disappointment in your faces.” said the large reptile. “Well, since we’re face to face, I might as well introduce myself. I am Lord Balgo, leader of the Scalers and you will be our prisoners now, for an undetermined amount of time at the very least.”

“W-what a-are you going to do t-to us?” said the terrified Pegasus.

“Nothing if you don’t try anything funny, though I wouldn’t mind if you do for your usefulness is rather limited. We’re just going to lock you up inside this town while we prepare for a more bombastic entry in that beautiful city over there by the mountain.” Lord Balgo pointed at Canterlot with a malicious smile resting on his face. However, his smile soon left his face as he looked to the left of the trio with a curious expression. Fluttershy, Rarity and Sweetie Belle looked behind them to see the remnants of a large explosion out in the distance. Lord Balgo slightly frowned. “Looks like the Tanker's causing some problem for the both of us again. I'll see that he is 'corrected' for his mistake.”

Dazed and confused, Applejack struggled to come back to her senses as her vision got slowly clearer. Once she was finally able to see clearly, she noticed the blast sent her far away from the farm. Big however, landed on the roof of the barn. She tried to stand back up but found it nearly impossible due to the pain in her legs. Some metallic debris launched by the explosion had stabbed her in the leg. Suddenly, she heard a group of people rushing down the road, getting closer, closer.

Sadly, it wasn’t a group of ponies that was coming like she had hoped. It was more lizards. “Soldiers look! That's where the explosion happened!” screamed one of them. One of them spotted his brethren amidst the smoke. “Hey look, it’s the Tanker over there! And there's his tank too!”

“Is he alright?” said the first one, poking at him with his gun.

“I don’t think so. Look, he’s in the stock Family Guy death pose. He’s probably dead.” says another one as he was poking the Tanker’s body.

“No no no, he’s still moving.” said another one in an almost disappointed tone.

“Hey! Is my tank alright at least? And what about the rest of my squadron?” Yelled the Soldier to his brethren. He did not really seem to struggle to get back up even though he was at the epicenter of the explosion.

“Forget it! Lord Balgo is gonna be angry at what you just did! Look what you did! You nearly destroyed everything in your vicinity, idiot!” Angerly yelled another Scaler, bouncing around in frustration. “He’s going to punish you for this terrible mistake!”

As Applejack was observing them panic, she noticed another one arriving on the scene, only he was much bigger than the other ones. So big in fact, he was nearly double the sizes of the other reptiles. Every step he took shook the very earth, as if he was causing earthquakes by his mere existence. Every lizard immediately took notice of his arrival and panicked even more. They all simultaneously pointed to the Tanker, telling the newcomer what he had done. The large beast responded by roaring at the Tanker, causing the latter to fall to the ground in shock. In a split second, he crushed the smaller reptile with its large foot.

Suddenly, the pain in Applejack’s leg vanished. Upon realizing this, the mare chose to flee the farm and run-in direction of the city of Canterlot where the princesses and the guardians were staying. Her heart was pounding, and all her bones were hurting but she needed to warn princess Celestia and the guardians of the invaders that had taken over Ponyville and her family’s estate. She ran away with a heavy heart, knowing she would her family behind with the reptilian invaders.