The Equestrian Takeover
Part 4:
Downfall
Written by
Fariz 'The WaVe' Amir
Chapter 12:
Terror among the happiness
Large metal aerial tanks flew around the skies, most heading towards the bustling city of Manehattan to the West. Several others were heading For Amareica and Trottingham south of Ponyville. The ships did not seem to notice Ponyville, though. The main, massive Battle ship slowly dragged over to the skies over the Canterlot castle. Dozens of beams made the force shield collapse in a matter of seconds. About eight dropships zoomed into Canterlot’s streets and lights began flashing. The stunned crowd in Ponyville’s main square could only stand where they were, awestruck and shocked at what they could see. Even the sunrise directly next to Canterlot didn’t seem to lighten everypony’s heart at all. The terror just didn’t seem to end.
Princess Celestia began walking away slowly, drooping her head down. Luna snapped out of her mystified trance at the destruction and ran towards Princess Celestia.
“Tia! Tia! Where are you going?” Luna cried, trotting towards her sister.
“Luna... Um… listen here, Canterlot needs me, but I can’t leave the ponies here alone, though… So…” Celestia increased her volume so the rest of Ponyville could hear her. “I hereby decree that the citizens of Ponyville shall be known as the combatants of The Lunar Republic Army. And Princess Luna shall be your leader. Guards, take formation. Canterlot’s going to need some help.”
Fluttershy soon raised her voice to ask, “Princess, what is going on?” everypony soon began making noise and agreeing to Fluttershy’s question.
“Well… If you all must know-“From behind them once again, three bright red flares fired into the sky, while four more zoomed across it. A large light on the top of the mountain Canterlot was resting began to light up the clouds above. A siren was also lightly heard from Trottingham. “Those signals… the flares, the lights… everypony, it is my sad and unfortunate duty now to inform all of you that Equestria is under attack. We are under siege by marauding invaders. I do not know who these invaders are or what their motive is, but we all must defend our dear Equestria.” Celestia said, with a heavy feeling in her gut. “Twilight and company, please follow me.”
Twilight nodded and signaled everypony to come and follow. They followed Celestia towards the workshop, where the Guards were waiting. The mysterious colt from the previous night already woke up, confused at where he was. Twilight and the rest continued to follow Celestia, but CloudWork called Hank over to the iron cage where they held the colt imprisoned. It was the first time they got to see him, without massive motion blur. His head was still resting on the concrete flooring, on his side. His torso boasted a big purple bruise that contrasted against his light bronze coat. His yellow and bright red mane drooped to the floor. His half-open eyes glared down to the ground, maybe he didn’t even notice CloudWork or Hank in front of him, looking silently at him, wondering if they could let him go, or whether Princess Celestia was going to leave him here to his doom, because they both of them knew that those invaders would eventually raid Ponyville… sooner or later.
Chapter 13:
The Grand 3 Begins
Meanwhile, outside the workshop, Princess Celestia wondered what was taking CloudWork and Hank so long. All of them decided to come inside the workshop to cut the waiting short; it wasn’t like the world was going to end or anything, now was it?
They were silently surprised to see CloudWork and Hank talking casually to the colt in the cage. Celestia had a mix of two feelings; Surprise, because they were talking to the colt as if he didn’t do anything to Ponyville last night. And also a slight anger, because it was like they completely forgot Equestria was being destroyed as they stood there.
Princess Celestia broke the silence with a stern sentence; “What are you two doing?”
Her voice instantly brought back the silence, but CloudWork spoke up, “Relax, Princess Celestia. Zip is fine!”
“Zip?”
“Yeah, that’s his name,” CloudWork said, stepping forward.
“Right. So what exactly makes you think that he is going to be off the hook after what he has done to these innocent ponies?” Celestia began marching past CloudWork; whose smile quickly faded into a concerned look; to come right in front of the terrified Zip. Hank was frozen in fear where he was, next to the iron cage.
Fluttershy began trembling at the stern Princess. Everybody else stood silent at where they stood, staring at Celestia and Zip, waiting for something to happen. Luna soon came in to see what was going on. “Hey, Celestia, what’s going on?” She then saw Zip in the cage. “Oh… I get it…” She then walked next to Twilight and Rainbow Dash.
Hank then broke the silence, “Well, If I could say something here… Zip, even though he did maybe break, or injure-“
Rainbow Dash interrupted, “Umm, try ‘destroy’, Hank.”
“Right. Maybe he Destroyed Ponyville, but he could make it up for us.” Hank said, trying to make both sides happy.
“How do you propose he do that?” Celestia asked.
“Easy. He teams up with us. We try and stop this Invasion.” CloudWork said, courage was filling his voice again. “We could use speed like that. Zip with his speed, Hank with his mechanical genius and me with Flight-Ning! Besides, think of it this way: For all three of us, it’s like our… ‘Payment’ for still being here!”
“Very well. For all three of you…” Celestia unfolded her wings and her horn began to shine. The Iron cage containing Zip disintegrated and CloudWork, Hank and Zip began to levitate into the air, their eyes were brightening up. They formed a triangle, with CloudWork at the front of them. Celestia fired a beam of light up and shined it on them. Celestia boomed, “The three of you will be know as the Elements Of knighthood, and you shall aid the Elements of Harmony in stopping this Invasion; with aid from The Equestrian Guards of Canterlot. CloudWork: the representative of the Element Valiance. Hank: The Element Ingenuity. Zip: The Element of Teamwork.” A final shine of gold on them threw them back.
Celestia landed back down on the ground and began walking out, as she stood at the doors of the workshop, she said on last thing to them, “To CloudWork and Hank; I chose your elements from what you have shown me previously. To you… Zip; I forgive you for what you have done, but I trust you can do more than stay sorry. Prove that you are worthy for that element. Show me what you are capable of, something that can measure up to your friends’ potential.” She then flew off, the Guard Formation speeding behind her.
The three of them soon recovered while the other six helped them up. CloudWork, supported by Pinkie Pie and Twilight immediately noticed a large, silver metal vest that was planted on his chest and went down to his barrel. It boasted his Cutie Mark on the front. Hank had a pair of golden gauntlets that had an engraving of his cutie mark. Zip had his own pair of sleek black Goggles atop his head.
Quickly, CloudWork asked, “I’m pretty sure Elements of Knighthood is a bit of a mouthful… How’s ‘The Grand 3’?”
Hank agreed with a very awkwardly loud “YEEAAAAHHH!”
Zip said, “I like It, It’s a lot easier to say, anyways…”
“Epic! So let’s go! Equestria need-“
A loud Explosion followed by a long barrage of bullets interrupted CloudWork. Rarity screamed when she looked out of the window. 2 Dropships were directly next to them.
Chapter 14:
The Powers of Friendship; Is Magic (And Weaponry)
Panic filled the workshop as all 9 of them rushed outside to a mass crowd of ponies scattering around, trying to avoid whatever danger was about to come. The dropships were huge, about the same size of a house, but stood still. It was noon, but the sky was gloomy. Not from clouds, but from smoke and ash from the multiple attacks that could have already been won by these invaders. CloudWork took off; trying to get a higher vantage point to see what was going on. AppleJack and Rainbow Dash tried to get everypony to settle down. Hank seemed to want to rush back to the Workshop.
CloudWork saw some activity behind the ships and snuck behind a chimney on a nearby house. He saw shiny metal cases being dropped out and weird beings that stood on only two legs. The other two had these weird prongs on them; seemed pretty good for holding things, though. They wore tight black masks, complete with big, shiny goggles. A thick jacket and vest covered their torsos; some of them had a belt that ran from their shoulders to their waists. They seemed to have large hooves. Silver gauntlets with attached gloves too. They had sand-colored baggy pants that went with a pair of huge, black boots.
CloudWork knew that whatever they came here for, it was definitely not good. Out of the shiny cases, they took some things out. They seemed to keep calling them ‘blasters’, ‘launchers’ and a big one they called an ‘Annihilator’. Soon, all of those soldiers; about 30 of them from the first dropship armed them. Something bad was going down, CloudWork knew it. Zip seemed to know it too; he began to start moving around, finding a perfect spot to start a strike. The Dropship began to rumble and boosters on its side blew green fires and it took off. That triggered a massive barrage of bullets raided the square. The Ponyville residents got out of control and scattered again. Zip, not knowing the powers of the weapons, ran off to take cover. The second Dropship then let out its own huge squad of soldiers. Now there was a force of about a hundred attacking. CloudWork ducked to cover and covered his ears. He never heard anything like it. Even the boom of his Flight-Ning was not as bad as this noise. That’s when he saw on pony drop to the ground.
She had a large scar on the side of her neck. Her deep orange mane was shocked back as the bullet cut her flesh. She seemed to want to run behind a rock, but her head was turned to look at the soldiers, which meant CloudWork had a clear look on her face. Her pupils dilated and she let out the most painful shriek CloudWork ever heard. Her jaw dropped as blood gushed from the wound, the bullet in it glowed a hot yellow. She began to trip on her own hooves as she fell to the ground, but as soon as she hit the gravel; her green eyes seemed to glance at CloudWork. She dropped dead at that moment. An innocent pony’s life lost. A flame in CloudWork’s heart ignited as he quickly unfolded his wings and got into a battle stance. He vowed to avenge the Pony’s death. Whoever she was.
He jumped up and swan dived down onto one of the soldiers and broke his back without a care, he was just out for revenge. He shot over towards another and smashed his hoof on his face. He turned to see Zip charging towards another soldier, smashing him into a wall. Soldiers from around starting shooting at the two, most of the bullets missing them, Zip zoomed away while CloudWork flipped and dived behind a rock. Zip rocketed to a squad of the soldiers, knocking them down and CloudWork soared around, knocking soldiers to the ground. Soon, the other six joined in with Twilight and Rarity’s horns glowing and firing energy beams at the soldiers.
Rainbow Dash and AppleJack came in throwing several of the soldiers around, dodging gunfire. Twilight picked up rocks and broken wood from around to launch them at the soldiers, while Rarity continued to blast energy. Rainbow Dash zoomed into the air to knock them down. Fluttershy, afraid of all the action, decided to stick with first-aid. Quickly, they realized that their attacks were just not strong enough. The soldiers just kept waking up and continued firing. They were even slowly losing stamina and morale. All eight of them were cornered at the corner of the Main Square. That’s when a loud battle cry was heard from a nearby street.
It came from a unicorn stallion wearing a large hat. His magic, he held one of the invaders’ weapons. His eyes squinted with anger as he saw the soldier. He said just one thing; “Buck off.” Then he pulled the trigger. A spray of glowing bullets pelted a few soldiers nearby. “Everypony!” he shouted, with a rough voice. “Its time! Charge!!” He bellowed, his voice booming with courage and anger. From the wrecked alleyways, dozens of other stallions and ponies charged out, each with weapons in their magic or on their back. Bullets fired and the battle really began. The stallion with a hat ran to the Elements.
“Are you guys okay? I’m Vulcan. Princess Luna elected me as the General of the Lunar Republic Army. Yall might wanna get up soon; this whole town is going crazy!” Vulcan shouted amidst the battles.
“Don’t worry, we got this!” Zip said, thinking it was time to show off some heroism. “The Grand 3 will handle this!”
“Well, hope you’re right, kid… Here come reinforcements!” Vulcan cried, pointing to three Dropships speeding towards Ponyville. “Unicorns and Ponies; follow me, we’ll get you suited up. Pegasi, join those other pegasi that are taking off. Try to take down those dropships first. Take care now! Come on you six, let’s move!” Vulcan commanded.
Rainbow Dash and CloudWork took off, and sped towards the large group of pegasi. Mid-air, they greeted Rainbow Dash and CloudWork. Rainbow Dash stayed with the Pegasi as CloudWork rocketed for a Flight-Ning attack. The power should stop at least on of them, he thought. CloudWork began to be able to control Flight-Ning; the way it works, even the speed he can accelerate from it. With a short, fast barrel spin, he launched into a small version of the Flight-Ning maneuver to hopefully damage the boosters on the dropships. He missed his blow on the first try, and was rocketing behind the dropships, figuring out how he could ever do some REAL damage to this hunk of junk. That’s when he tried something crazy.
He cut off all the spare energy to let the dropships zoom ahead. He then threw himself into a quick Flight-Ning blast. Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi took down one of the dropships with a lot of breaking. Soldiers fell out of the dropship like ragdolls as explosions rocked it. CloudWork rocketed past them, starting to lose his focus and getting dizzy. The other two dropships were nearby, and he squeezed through them. Once he reached the point of being just in front of the two dropships, he quickly stopped flapping, his wings still showing, he spread out his legs and blasted all the energy from his body, obliterating the dropships in a strong, glowing radiance of yellow energy. CloudWork, elated from his new feat, began dropping unconsciously to the fields below, from ten thousand feet in the air.
Rainbow Dash, being the hero she was, zoomed in and caught CloudWork on her back, avoiding the electrifying ball of energy Cloud Work created. The other pegasi caught up and helped in supporting CloudWork. They landed back in Ponyville. It was a lot calmer than before, but war still raged in the town.
Chapter 15:
Equestria: Code Red
The battle raged on as Fluttershy and Twilight carried the unconscious CloudWork onto a bed. Hank recently busted out of the Workshop, boasting twin gattling guns and a mortar launcher, all supported by a suit of armor. His new invention really helped to recapture key places in Ponyville. The most important was Sweet Apple Acres; they needed those apple trees for nutrition and firewood. Dozens more ponies got injured but continued fighting, for the sake of freedom and justice. Also mainly because those invaders were really pissing them all off. Three very long hours later, Ponyville was recaptured and a stone wall was being built by Unicorns. CloudWork woke up to something he never thought Ponyville could become. All around, houses were filled with medics and injured ponies.
In a far corner, holes dug in the ground were filled with corpses of the deceased. CloudWork saw tears of ponies and stallions alike. It was painful seeing these innocent ponies were getting mixed up in all this mayhem. So far, twenty-five lives have been lost. Stallions were hauling carts with vegetables and fruits to everypony. Food was limited, but there seemed to be a surplus of weaponry, so that was the silver lining on this dark cloud. He walked over to the Workshop where he met Twilight and the rest. Vulcan and Hank were setting up a radio station. They quickly received messages from Canterlot, saying Equestria has entered code red in war. They were also expecting convoys from Trottingham; apparently only a quarter of the city could be recaptured. The rest was taken by the Manics, whom CloudWork learnt was the name of the invading armada.
Canterlot was still under a strong attack and the Elements of Harmony had to work with the Grand 3 to get there to help Celestia. Their mission: Takedown a factory that seemed to have been erected in a matter of hours in the rock plains near the Everfree Outskirts. Vulcan gave them supplies for their long trip. After an hour long lesson on the weapons they looted from the Manics, they received their proper equipment.
AppleJack received a shotgun that could fire in full automatic, and it was mounted on her right shoulder.
Rarity and Twilight Received Sniper Rifles, each powered by a mini nuclear reactor, to give the weapons that extra Kick.
Pinkie Pie and Spike, who tagged along, each got grenade launchers, and were specifically told to be careful by Celestia.
Zip got a rapid fire crossbow that fired just about anything you put in it. For Zip’s speed, accuracy was the only problem.
Rainbow Dash and CloudWork got magnum mounts on their backs, it was a powerful weapon, enough to kill and kick back an enemy in a single shot.
Fluttershy had a raygun that could heal wounds and jolt energy into a pony instantly. She even had a gun that fired health potions through syringe ammo.
Hank stuck with his ‘Armor of Mayhem’, he figured all he needed was enemy ammunition.
And with that, night fell. The fully armed heroes began their journey with caffeine injections. CloudWork Looked at his eight friends and said, “Guys, let’s do this for everypony out there.”
And with that, Twilight, Rarity and Hank’s horns collaborated and the teleported off in a shine of pink light and smoke, reappearing somewhere in the Everfree.
Vulcan, still standing and watching the heroes’ teleport, saluted them and saw the bright flash.
“May Celestia be with you, heroes. Good Luck.”