Chapter 6: The Battle for Ponyville.
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The opening battle of the war started as the Friendship Guard had trained for. Under Captain Shadow, the guard lined outside the School and the Castle, the Unicorns making up the first line, their horns aglow. The Pegasi and the few flying creatures from the school hovered above the line, ready to take off and strike from the air. Finally, a motley assortment of Earth Ponies, Yaks and even some of the Changelings made up the vanguard and the reserve.
Tempest warned in the briefing that the best course would be to draw a line in the sand and hold out until reinforcements could arrive. To that end, the plan she came up with was similar to the one they had used against Mirror-Sombra’s forces, sixteen years earlier, but unlike before, hit and run attacks were abandoned in favor of static defense and overwhelming firepower. The fact they knew so little about their enemy meant they could not just rush in blindly.
With that in mind, it was all a matter of preventing the enemy from encircling the town and forcing them into combat on a narrow front. Using their magic, the Unicorns formed a number of barriers that would funnel the rush of cadavers into a bottleneck, straight into the Guard’s lines, between them and the town.
When all the preparations were complete, the guard watched and waited.
The first of the creatures that began to appear were a ragged mob. The corpses of ponies of every shape and size and states of decay: Earth ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi, all horrifically lurching forward. Some were little more than skeletons with bits of flesh and ragged lumps of fur. Others looked recently deceased with their coats and manes largely intact, but already showing early signs of corruption. What all of them shared was sickening odor and glowing green eyes.
“Open fire!” Tempest barked, aiming her own beam and unleashing it. The beam struck straight and true and disintegrated the first corpse it hit. Only a fading screech remained of the cadaver as its form disappeared into black ash. At her command, dozens of Unicorns did the same and soon the sky was filled with beams, falling like rain. Nearly every shot hit its mark, causing gaping wounds or dropping the enemy forces by the dozen. Her plan seemed to be working: Lure the bulk of the enemy forces into the teeth of the Pony’s firepower.
Even so, the creatures lumbered singlemindedly forward, completely ignoring whatever losses they took or whatever injuries they sustained. It seemed that total destruction was the one way to stop their advance, at least until a stray shot blew the head off one of them, causing the body to fall limp. The corpse went down and did not rise again. More quickly followed it and soon the ground outside the town was covered in motionless corpses and body parts. Word quickly spread through the pony’s ranks: Aim for the head and the body would fall. Soon they started adjusting their aim and the piles of the slain grew larger.
Yet, the dead kept coming. Hundreds of them had been slain, but there seemed to be no end to them. Finally they got in close enough to where the Earth Ponies took up their weapons and started their advance.
With a huge shout of “For Equestria!” and under the Unicorn’s cover, they raised their long spears and locked their shields outward. All along the line, the dead were impaled or slammed against a wall of steel. Anytime one or two of them got through, the ponies drew swords and hacked them to pieces. Individual combats raged here or there, with the pony officers brawling with the dead and for the most part winning, but the dead were relentless. Kicks and bites began to take their toll and soon a few ponies along the line were injured. Those that took the worst were soon moved through the gaps in the ranks and allowed to retreat back into the school to have their wounds healed.
So far, there had been no fatalities, but if the press of the dead continued, that would change. To that end, Tempest gave the order for the Pegasi to begin their attack from the sky. Led by Soarin and his daughters, they began by hoisting huge rocks into the air and dropping them on clusters of the undead like improvised bombs. Because the creatures had no counter and no air cover of their own for the moment, it proved effective. The falling rocks crushed dozens more at a time and scattered the remainders: Bits of pulverized limbs and pools of thick blood splattered over the landscape as the bombardment continued.
When the last of the rocks had been thrown, more than half the enemy force had been wiped out, but those that remained remained indifferent to their losses no matter what the ponies threw at them.
Before long however, they stopped abruptly. The entire horde just up and completely halted. Even those in the front rank simply ceased their attack and stood motionless, even after a few ponies took this chance to slice off several of their heads.
Confused, Tempest held up a hoof, ordering her own troops to stand and wait.
Suddenly a booming voice echoed across the plain, loud as a thunderclap and as cold and sharp as an icicle.
”Hear me, little ponies. You have fought well, but know that your efforts are in vain. You only stand before a fraction of my total forces.”
“Who are you?” Tempest barked at the sky. Her eyes scanned the horizon for the source of the voice. From the glow of her broken horn, it was clear she fully intended to blast it into oblivion the first chance she got. “Show yourself you coward!”
A column of smoke rose from the border with the Everfree forest, blotting out the sun and obscuring everything it touched in a pitch black shroud. To Sombra, Hope and the element bearers, the smoke seemed oddly familiar. Before they could fathom what was happening, the pinnacle of the cloud began to twist and form into the shape of long, curled horns. Two glowing red orbs appeared in the middle, much like eyes. Unlike regular light however, the glow from these did nothing to diminish or illuminate the shape. Quite the contrary, the longer anypony looked, the more they seemed to obscure its features.
”I am known by many names, but in time, all of you will call me Master. For now, you may call me Grogar.”
Whispers and startled murmurs came from the pony’s ranks. The entity before them was one spoken of in legend. It had taken a team of the strongest unicorns in history merely to drive him back the first time. Now that he was here in full power, it seeemed to sap the strength and will of all present. The ponies in the front ranks began to tremble and lowered their weapons in fear. For one dreadful moment, it seemed they might break ranks and flee, but to the surprise of all, Harmony herself appeared on the front, galloping bareheaded before them.
“Hold your ground! HOLD!!” She shouted. “We have the elements on our side.”
That seemed to galvanize the pony forces. As per Tempest’s plan, the element bearers had another task while the bulk of the enemy forces were engaged. With the reminder they had Equestria’s heroes with them, the guard rallied.
Grogar’s image, however seemed to twist with what appeared to be amusement. ”But for how long?”
Harmony looked straight up at him and glared. “What do you mean?” She demanded.
”Never you mind.” The ram replied, slowly beginning to fade away. ”Savor this small victory. It will be your only one.”
Minutes later, the ghostly figure disappeared in a wisp of smoke that blew away in the wind. Before the ponies could figure out what that meant, the dead resumed their attack. The momentary truce that his announcement had passed and now the wights pressed forward, even more forcefully than before.
Before they could reach the line in a renewed assault, several Pegasi flew over the line and dropped off or landed a group of fighters of distinction directly over their right flank. The group had volunteered the second part of Tempest’s plan. Their mission was to drive a wedge through the enemy’s line and defeat them in detail. Because they had waited for the bulk of the enemy had been destroyed or engaged, they were fresh and ready. Prior friendships and training had given them unity and made its easier to coordinate while the enemy was scattered. Their minds were filled with purpose and their order was clear: Drive the enemy back.
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~Shard~
“For Equestria!” Shard cried over the ringing of steel. With a quick spell, he conjured a green bladed sword and led the group’s charge across the plain. Flurry was right beside him, blasting gold beams and conjuring shields for the others as they galloped forward. Although he feared for her safety, he was glad to have her with him, though he also found himself thanking Celestia for the others too as they began to fight.
To his right, Bryar and Cosmic directed their magic into the enemy, the former turning them into harmless piles of bones or drowning them in chocolate rain. The latter generated so much fire it looked as if he were trotting through a volcano. Bryer’s chaos based abilities seemed especially effective, as he ripped right through the corpses with almost contemptuous ease.
To Shard’s left, Star Shield, Blitz and Jazz Bluster (Rainbow Dash’s daughter) swept through the enemy with their wings and unarmed combat: Bashing skulls with wild kicks before withdrawing into the air. Further along the line, Shard could make out Spike’s son, Sparkscale clearing a path for them with his fire breath. Like his father, Sparks’ flames were bright green, but his breath was far more concentrated, both in heat and intensity. Whenever a corpse was caught in the blast, it was consumed utterly by the flames. Anytime it drew close to one of his friends, he turned it aside with pinpoint control.
Now it was the son of Sombra’s turn. With a deep breath, Shard threw himself into the familiar pattern of alternating between fast jabs, long thrusts and wide, circular swings. Each strike from his blade removed head or limbs. Thanks to both his father and Tempest’s training, he knew well how fight with both sword and with magic. Yet this fight was much more chaotic than any sparring match and much longer and he quickly found himself out of breath. Several times, his healing spells refreshed him and allowed him to keep going.
At one point, he found himself standing flank to flank with Flurry, who had created a gold sword from her own aura. He and the princess covered each other well throughout the battle and corpses soon surrounded them in huge piles.
Shard raised his sword for another blow when he heard it. It started low at first, but began to grow. As if in answer to his hopes, there came the sound of war horns, magically amplified over the entire battlefield, along with the sight of the sun, breaking through the clouds.
The Crystal Empire had come at last.
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Ten minutes earlier.
~Shining Armor~
The Crystal forces had prepared for many different possible threats in the years since the Umbrum’s defeat, but the living dead were not one of them. Regardless, Shining Armor and his troops knew his sister was in danger and so it was up to him to bring the reinforcements. The fact they could not teleport directly to Ponyville meant they had to make due with the trains as makeshift troop transports. About halfway or so on the ride over and the train stopped because of a massive energy shield that surrounded the entire town.
Within the barrier, there were dark clouds that obscured everything. They reminded Armor very much of the Umbrum essence, but there was no time to think about that. Several of his troops tried to simply blast their way through the barrier, but it was strong enough to deflect any bombardment.
“Brute force isn’t getting the job done.” Sunburst said after a few minutes. From his tone and his expression, that statement was not sarcasm. To him it was simply pointing out a fact. “We’re either going to need to neutralize the source or find something powerful enough to break through.”
“Why is it every time disaster strikes, you never think to call little ol’ me?”
Both Armor and Sunburst turned at the familiar sound. Both stallions’ mouths were agape as Discord appeared in their midst in a flash, a goofy grin on his face. “It never fails: Some new crisis or baddie shows up and ruins all my fun. Yet, you think your elements are the only solution.”
“This isn’t just any regular crisis, Discord.” Armor said, inwardly aware of the irony of that statement. A thought occurred to him. “Your wife and children...-“
Discord cut him off with a dismissive wave of his claw. “Are safe and sound in our house in Chaosville.
Sunburst gestured with a hoof. “You sure about that?”
Both Armor and Discord turned to the direction he pointed. As if on cue, a group of assorted figures made their way through the smoke. Among them was the multi formed shape of the trickster’s son, Bryer, fighting what appeared to be rotting corpses.
The result was instantaneous.
With a flash of magic, Discord, (looking rather furious) transformed himself into a multicolored jackhammer and started to pound away at the barrier. For a minute, nothing happened, but a crack soon began to appear. Then another and another, until, like glass the whole thing began to chip and break apart. When finally a gap appeared in it, Discord reverted to his original form, but this time he wore a helmet and carried a spear, his eyes glowing red with anger. Whether it was at the creatures threatening his son or the fact that Bryer was not safe back at their house, Armor could not say.
Whatever the case, Discord gestured through the now open space with his spear and shouted.
“Come on, ponies, you want to live forever!?”
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