Mirage watched the top of the gray lighthouse through her telescope. Suddenly, a beam filled her vision and she dropped the scope as she recoiled. “Shit, I can’t see!”
“Princess, you need to be qui- Oh, it’s started! Should we go?”
“Yes. I can take care of myself.”
The Changelings burst from the treeline and bulldozed the two nearby Doms, one of them the unlucky Caffeine. They then charged the beach from behind, wiping out every enemy there. By then, Mirage could see again, and she joined her kin.
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Treetop saw the Changelings attack, causing him to look at the Dom encampment. A pony fell from the lighthouse and he recentered on the top. He saw Crimson tossing Dom armor over the rail and sending up a lot of smoke. Warrant Dawn must’ve seen an opportunity. Treetop waved his rifle over his head. “FOR ATLANTIS!” he screamed into the growing turmoil, charging at the lumber mill followed by two platoons. They found fillies, mostly, ranging from five to fifteen years old. All of them were probably Dom kids, considering how they reacted to the sudden yell. They ran, hid, and did whatever they could to keep the soldiers from doing anything to them.
The first platoon took cover behind a pile of uncut trees. They fired at a forming line of Doms, trying to disrupt them before they could shoot back. A lot of the Doms were scattered around, shooting back for suppressing fire more than anything, but were slowly picked off by the second platoon.
Treetop just barely held his opponent at bay. This guy was bigger than the average pony and muscled beyond all comprehension. He held a spiked ball and chain with his grossly modified hoof - with several extensions that gripped the chain like a bird’s talons! He’d also trained himself to stand extremely well on only his hind legs, which made him terrifyingly tall and even more deadly.
Treetop ducked, the spiked ball skimming his mane. For a second he thought he was clear. Then his mane got pulled with the ball and he was airborne. The spikes have hooks! As the ball hit the apex of its swing, he was thrown high by the hooks suddenly not digging into his hair. His momentum carried him as high as the lighthouse’s cone-shaped roof and spun, now looking at the ground two hundred feet below him. He searched his equipment for his repeater, which he found still on its sling - Thank Harmony! - and aimed it back at the thing that had sent him unnaturally high for an Earth pony. Treetop fired his entire clip into it.
The pony with the modified hoof just… absorbed the ten bullets that slammed into him. Treetop felt lost as he began free-falling back down. He couldn’t beat that. Nopony in their right mind couldn’t.
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Crimson eyed a Dom through his sights. He pulled the trigger and his quarry fell dead. Then Treetop came through his vision and he followed the flying Earth pony, watching as the Colonel flew up, fired off a clip, and began to fall. Crimson spread his wings to go after Treetop.
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Treetop watched the ground rapidly approach, filling more and more of his vision. He knew that he couldn’t fly. He couldn’t slow himself down. He couldn’t even cast a teleportation spell to just appear on the ground. He closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable…
He was going sideways. He opened his eyes and saw that Crimson had caught him. The red Pegasus not used to carrying passengers, they slammed into the dirt at high speed and broke a few bones each. Treetop pulled himself up and limped to Crimson, who’d practically knocked himself out. The Pegasus shook off the tweeting birds after a few moments and stood up. He immediately fell down onto his twisted forelegs, flopped to the side, and reached for his repeater.
“Thanks for that, Warrant.”
“No problem, sir,” Crimson winced. “You can take it from here?”
“Yeah.” Treetop looked back at the battle, noting that the brute was lying on the ground, blood oozing from three dozen different holes. “I’ll send somepony to come get you. Just rest for now; you’ve earned it.”
Crimson nodded, pulling the repeater into a position where he could still shoot the enemy. “Thank you, sir.”
By the time Treetop was back at the front line, the remaining Dominion forces had raised the white flag. Between the two lines of soldiers, the commanders met to draft and finalize the terms of surrender. Treetop was tempted to send Mirage in his place while he bandaged his wounds, but decided it was best to go. He did make sure Crimson had been picked up before he went, however.
“I apologize for not coming to negotiations here immediately,” he said to the Dom commander as he sat down across the table set up there. “I was tending to my regiment’s needs.”
“Which I need to do as well,” he said. “What are your terms?”
“First, I want to know who you were using as labor.”
“I was ordered by my King to use them. They’re the children of all enlisted soldiers stationed in Summercrest and the surrounding area all the way up to Port Snowfall. In fact, the children of each individual ‘top dog’ is here as well, if you can believe it, except mine. Mine were deemed ‘not fit for hard labor’ and…” He trailed off.
“I can’t help you get them back unless I know where they are.”
Tears started streaming down his cheeks. “My son was killed at Emberforge Valley and my daughter is my general’s personal plaything,” he sobbed. “He threatens to kill her if don’t comply.”
Treetop put his hoof on the commander’s shoulder. “We can help. I just need to know what the situation is for everypony here.”
“It’s the same, sir,” the commander’s second-in-command said.
“Well, then, be glad I didn’t authorize lethal force. All your boys out there are just knocked out, maybe except for the guy who fell off the lighthouse.”
“Lieutenant Earbud was the exception. He enforce the rules if we didn’t.”
Mirage came from behind. “Sir, all personnel accounted for. We didn’t lose anypony.”
“Thank you, Mirage. Same thing for the train station?”
“Yes, sir.” Mirage gestured around. “This is a good place for a fort, sir. Easily defensible terrain if you actually look around. The beaches are protected by the reef, so an amphibious assault is nearly out of the question, but not impossible. The forest would make an excellent supply to build the fort out of, and there’s plenty of space. Not to mention that the train station is close enough, so we can get even more material if need be.”
Treetop nodded. “Well, Colonel, I believe I have something for you. We need a defensible fallback, and this spot is pretty damn good. Therefore, my terms are that you and your regiment will build one and defend it from the Dominion to the last. Can you do that? We’ll fold you in with Warrant Janelane’s boys and she’ll stay here with you to make sure it gets done.”
The commander nodded, dry tears matted across his face. “That’s it?”
“Yes. We’ll stay here for a while as well and see if we can regroup with AREA. the only thing left to do is find out where they are.”
“Last thing I heard, your army was bogged down in Haven Cove.”
Treetop perked up. “Haven Cove? That’s not far from Nautinia! Mirage, set up for a long march. I want everyone healed up, ready to rock. Clear?”
“Yes, sir!” Mirage raced back to the Atlantean troops to relay the order.