//------------------------------//
// Wave 2: From all Sides 
// Story: Last Stand at Sweet Apple Acres 
// by The Blue EM2 
//------------------------------//

In the burnished ruins of what had once been Canterlot, the Candymare stood in the centre of her conquest. She was a horrific creature, to describe her politely, a being seemingly made of multiple strains of skin awkwardly stitched together. She wore a dress seemingly made entirely of candy, and on her legs was dried blood. Her teeth were razor sharp. Mangled bodies lay all around the square, and the entire courtyard sounded to insane laughter and eating, as a slow, broken down version of the 'Candyman' song continued to play.

More troops were shuffled to the front lines as she saw the three commanders of the previous assault return, their expressions featureless as always. "Report," she said succinctly.

Jackpot was the first to speak. "The probing attack succeeded in briefly breaking their lines, and we did inflict casualties on their opposing forces. But we were unable to dislodge them from their defensive positions as had been hoped."

"That was not the purpose of the attack, Jackpot!" Blaze Strike informed him. "We were deployed to establish the enemy positions and figure out appropriate means of undermining that line. In that sense, our reconnaissance in force has succeeded, as we now know where to hit them where it hurts."

"Concurred," Iron Fist agreed. "We must now strike whilst we can and ensure we can catch them without having a chance to repair and rearm. Every second is vital, and the light has now faded completely."

"Carried," the Candymare replied. "Renew the attack as soon as you can."





Bright Mac could barely believe what he was seeing ahead of him. How, in all seriousness, had this happened to his home town? He had hoped for a fairly quiet life on a farm, which had been partly disrupted by all the strange magical occurences that had been happening over the last year or so, but nothing too crazy had happened (discounting She-demons, living forests, and other horrors to great to mention). But now it seemed madness had found them and was not prepared to let them go. He poked his head over a pile of rice bags to see that the sun had set and there was the loud ominous buzzing he had heard a few hours earlier. Holding his rifle closely, he prepared to aim when the dust cloud came in again.

"Searchlights!" called Sergeant Jones. These were swung into position from makeshift towers to illuminate the enemy positions, revealing a much smaller force approaching from the front than had been seen in the last attack. The one with the metal hand was there from the previous assault, but there were two more. One of them seemed to be made of fire, and the other was... oddly normal, they had to say. The only thing notable about him was his normalness, and that was all there was to say.

"Attack!" went the cry, and the enemy lines surged forwards. This time, there were more of the bubbly ones, and they had thick plating to the front as well, which threatened to be a great problem on the front lines to the troops.

"FIRE!" Swift Order called. "Switch to Armour Piercing!"

The resulting fury of fire was deafening. The armour piercing rounds thundered out of the massed assult rifles and machine guns, and smashed open the armour of the enemy at the front with impunity, leaving piles of dead and wounded all over the place. The mess was considerable.

"If they thought that they could break through with such a small force, they clearly weren't paying attention last time!" one of the policemen commented.

He soon wished he had eaten his words. Screams suddenly echoed from one of the mortar teams as the mortar tower toppled over, smashing into the ground and throwing the crew all over the place. More of those things, like the ones from earlier that could throw projectiles, started to throw projectiles all over the place, hitting the front lines from the rear. Swift Order waved and aimed his rifle. He fired at two of the creatures and blew them down. "Get this line turned around!" he bellowed. "They're hitting us from behind!"

Several of the police swung around and began to fire upon the enemy. Barrage after barrage and bullet after bullet pummelled the enemy lines, and they began to disintegrate and fall apart under the sustained fire. The enemy began to vanish into thin air, but not before another projectile flew through the air and hit Swift Order in the chest. He collapsed to the ground, but soon got back up to resume firing.

The Strykers began to move forward toward the enemy line to drive them back, and they began to falter, fleeing back beyond the back of the farm and gradually dissappearing off toward the fields behind Sweet Apple Acres.

Swift Order waved the medic forward to check the wounded, forgoing medical treatment to ensure the safety of his own men. "Report!" he called.

"The attack was repulsed sir," one of the Sergeants explained. "The enemy assault was relatively light but came from two directions which was somehow not spotted. Hence the demolished mortar tower."

"Get it rebuilt," Swift Order replied, waving some other troops over. "What of casualties? Wounded, any dead?"

"Ten wounded, including yourself," the medic replied, glancing back to the mortar crew. "One of our mortars is now out of action, but the men themselves are able to fight, just not as effectively."

"We'll put them onto the back lines and in heavy cover," Swift Order replied. "We also need to make sure we don't get hit from the rear again. Station half of our forces to the rear of our lines, and split the remainder on the side and front. It will lead to a thin frontal defence, but otherwise we have the strength to hold thanks to the civilians and the farmhouse. I just hope it will be enough." He glanced into the distance, as he heard the loud chanting and laughter of the enemy in the distance.