The humid air whipped across Scootaloo’s wings as her regiments followed behind her. The southern end of Apple Loosa still seemed calm. Masher was being carried directly on her left, and Flittergear was secured to Scootaloo’s own harness as they flew fast and low. The sounds of the battle into which they were flying grew louder as they approached. There was no delay between explosions of magic and the thunderclaps. It was a constant roar, loud enough to compel them to shout to hear each other, even at a distance.
“As planned!” Scootaloo called out, “Masher take a regiment left; Colonel Abattoir, go right. I’ll go up the middle, and we’ll converge on the edge of town. All three sides hit at once!”
“Copy that!” Masher replied.
“Yes ma’am!” Colonel Abattoir shouted.
“Here we go,” Flittergear’s voice was barely audible above the wind and noise from the battle.
The other two split off, peeling their regiments away from Scootaloo’s force. If all went well, they would go unnoticed until they were on top of the town and arrive in sufficient force to catch the opposition unprepared. She knew it was a long-shot to expect an easy landing.
As the distance rapidly closed, Scootaloo could taste a burned electricity on the air. As she locked her crossbow in the loaded position, green magical light came from directly ahead as the changeling scouts on the ground saw the incoming force. Lethal energy zipped by Scootaloo’s head and into her ranks. She dropped her altitude slightly in anticipation of the next volley.
The amount of magical fire that they took was far less than a proper defense would have mounted. Scootaloo felt a sort of thrill as adrenaline surged through her. She took aim and fired, as did many others in the front of her formation. It seemed only moments later that she came in for a hard landing, dropping Flittergear and plowing her own body into a changeling that was on a flat rooftop. It grunted as she made contact, falling backward as she landed a head-butt with the prow of her helmet.
She spun, narrowly missing a blow intended to light her on fire as another changeling came from behind. Flittergear’s arrow ripped through his temples, and the body fell with a thud. Scootaloo quickly engaged another changeling as the rooftop became covered in attacking ponies. There were perhaps a few dozen scattered enemies on the few flat rooftops, but they were quickly overwhelmed.
The flanking forces arrived at the same time, and within moments the high ground was secured. Timberwolves began surging through the streets in large numbers, and the clash erupted on the ground as unicorns lit up the night. More changelings began pouring out into the battle, putting up a stiff resistance as Scootaloo’s forces pushed toward the east side of town.
Scootaloo reloaded her crossbow and began shouting orders. They formed up a strong defensive perimeter and continued the offensive. The west side of town seemed to be folding, but the east was another matter. A frenzied exchange of magical energy was blasting both ways, burning buildings, earth, and flesh alike. Scootaloo’s line redoubled their efforts in an attempt to contain the east side of town, but the greater concentration of changelings had effectively stopped them. It was total mayhem on the ground. On the north side of town, Scootaloo was certain she saw the pony forces charging into the city hotly pursued by timberwolves as the sun rose.
Against the fresh crimson of the morning sky, a green flare streaked east. Scootaloo’s heart nearly stopped. Another followed, and then another. She began working to get her force disengaged to make pursuit. Someone had spotted their objective, Omega. Somepony had found Queen Chrysalis.
...
The dawn sky was red like blood. Duster thought it was a funny thing to notice in the middle of his present situation. He was part of General Brax's main force, in Lieutenant Clyde's platoon, and they were trying to push through to rescue the feint, but a horde of timberwolves had come out of the swamp and wedged between them. Duster didn’t know if the right flank had any success getting around to reinforce, but the left flank was bottled up and fighting for their lives.
Savage snarling and biting was met by battle cries of enraged ponies that refused to be slaughtered as lambs. Magic ripped through the stick-dogs, and arrows cut them down as they charged headlong into the rearguard’s battle-hardened soldiers.
Locknload’s squad was holding their own toward the rear of the formation. Locknload and Jewel unleashed false-mass magic, thinning out the timberwolves like cannonballs wiping holds in the line. Gunnysack and Moonsliver crushed the ones that passed them; Duster, Quickbeam, and Rolling Thunder loosed arrows in rapid succession. The squads on either side of them put up an equally fierce a struggle.
In support of their efforts, the cloud had arrived overhead. Things had begun looking bad just before they finally opened up a barrage of lightning. The electrical energy exploded through the dawn, blasting the beasts to flaming splinters and scorching the earth a little closer to the left flank than might have been advisable. It proved a sound tactic, as they may have been routed but for that. The roar of constant thunder overwhelmed Duster’s hearing.
He barely heard Moonsliver cry out when a timberwolf blow caught Gunnysack in the face, dazing him. Two more jumped on the crystal stallion before Duster could stop them. A flurry of kicking and biting followed. Gunnysack made it back to his hooves, apparently uninjured. Rolling Thunder took a hard blow squarely on his helmet, driving him down to his knees. His squad was able to pull him back. That was when they began hearing the order to retreat, a difficult task as the thunder still blasted directly ahead.
"All squads fall back! We are pulling out!" officers began shouting.
Duster quickly hooked his harness to Jewel and lifted off of the ground. She and Locknload were still firing into the enemy as their squad made it into the relative safety of the air. From this point, Duster could see the moving mass of timberwolves, still trying to get out of the swamp and at the ponies as the constant roar of thunder pounded them to sawdust.
He held position with the rest of his squad, Jewel providing magical cover-fire for the rest of their force to get into the air.
“That’s it!” Locknload shouted above the roar, “Increase altitude, and keep up with our platoon!”
Duster silently complied, following behind the rest of the soldiers as they pulled back toward the cloud. There was no explanation of why the attack had been stopped, but Duster saw dozens of green flares arcing across the sky toward black clouds that threatened to obscure the sunrise to the east. He could only wonder as to what the signal meant, but he knew enough to surmise that it was both important and the reason they had stopped the attack.