I took a break after my team of engineers had finished installing anti-air gun sites throughout downtown Canterlot. I brought a newspaper from a newsstand. Canterlot Courier had been my prime source of information about this war besides the radio. The headline was rather interesting, it was about the person who dragged me into this war.
Prince Blueblood or should I say Field Marshal Blueblood in this matter had been relieved of command. His strategic blunders had caused us Equestrians a series of costly defeats. The Coltfoalnian Campaign and the Breakthrough at Mariposa were his last faults before he was replaced by Princess Luna and the newly promoted Field Marshal Thunderbolt Sentinel. Apart from the princess, I have no information about this newly promoted Field Marshal save his valiant effort in the Battle of Acornage, where he held for a week against a foe triple his strength. He was also one of the commanding armies on the front who somehow managed to bring his army in one piece after the twin disasters at Mariposa and Coltfoalnia. A decorated officer indeed.
As I continued to skim the newspaper, Sergeant Hard Hooves had ordered us to head to the train station to unload some more material for the fortifications. The only thing that I had been building since I got drafted into the 3rd Canterlot Garrison. As we trotted our way to the Canterlot Central Station, we trotted past the homes of the nobles. They were the last batch of cowardly nobles of Canterlot fleeing from combat. I could not help but watch them as they pack up their precious belongings on their trucks and fancy cars. These nobles had spent their bits, not on the war effort but their flight to various places to flee, Manehattan and New Mareland being the most picked choice. My squad reached the Central Station five minutes later.
*******
The station was filled with soldiers, with the sergeants and lieutenants barking orders to green recruits, engineers waiting for the supply train to reach the station and the arrival of more soldiers from wherever they came. Then we joined the other engineers on the platform and waited for the supply train to arrive. After a few minutes of waiting, the supply train was in sight. It was the Friendship Express. It has been a week since the Friendship Express services in Central Equestria had been relegated for military purposes only. The supply trains were one of them. If you happen to fight the changelings on the front, you may spot an armoured train or two. If you go further back, supply trains and rail artillery were the ordinary locomotives there. If you were heading to the frontlines, you will be taking the Friendship Express there. The trains were the lifeline of the ERAF supply line as the entirety of Equestria is still riddled with narrow dirt roads and small bridges that could barely hold two Muletildas.
After we finished unloading the material from the train to a convoy of trucks, we followed the trucks to the outskirts of Canterlot where most of the outer defence fortifications were built. We then proceed with our work of digging trenches, planting landmines, building pillboxes, installing anti-tank sites and anti-tank barriers. It was a tiring job, no doubt. But, while listening to Octavia's mesmerizing cello performance in the Grand Canterlot Opera through the radio gave me a pleasant and calm sensation to continue working. Of course, the performance did not last forever. So my comrades and I tuned in to other channels to look for more tracks to listen to. Then, we continued to work until it was 6:00 pm and went back to the barracks to rest.
After eating dinner, I was walking to my barracks to retire for the night. Suddenly, I came across a large convoy of trucks heading out of Canterlot via the main road. Funnily enough, all of them were pegasi soldiers. I watched the scene with great confusion along with the rest of the garrison. "Did any of you realise that they were only pegasi soldiers there?" said somepony in the crowd of soldiers. It was followed by a lot of chatter and murmurs, some were doubtful and some agreed. But I was too exhausted to think about the whole situation and decided to return to the barracks to get some sleep.
*******
When I woke up, I took a shower and prepared myself for the day. When I arrived at the canteen, last night's subject was the topic of the day. Many were worried because a quarter of the Canterlot Garrison were pegasi and all of them left Canterlot last night. I took no care and left the canteen after I finished my breakfast. Although, I did wonder why the high command sent the pegasi soldiers only out of Canterlot. Then the answer came to me.
News had finally arrived and everypony was shocked with it, myself included. It turns out, Cloudsdale, home of the pegasi and the important weather factory operating for the weathers in Central Equestria was under attack by more than 130,000 Changelings supported by more than 800 planes. All pegasi divisions in Canterlot, Whinnyapolis, Ponyville and Bales were sent to protect it including all the elite Wonderbolt fighter pilots from the already stretched thin Royal Air Force. The Royal Air Force was so stretched to its limit that it needed to pull all air support from the Crystal Front to support the Whinnyapolis Army Group and the Las Pegasus Army Group. But that wasn't the most shocking news.
There was another news that truly took everypony aback. Cloudsdale as known to everypony in Equestria is a mobile city. Previous news had informed that Cloudsdale had started moving southward weeks ago en route to Appleloosa with its current location about 40km southwest from Ponyville. Somehow, the changeling forces managed to catch up to the floating city. This had certainly struck fear to everypony due to the sheer speed and strength of the changelings. None can comprehend the firepower and the so-called 'super soldiers' the changelings had. Recent news had told us that the Cloudsdale Garrison were horribly outnumbered with their numbers consisting of merely around 30,000. Hence, the High Command's decision to protect the important city that provided rain and snow to Central Equestria and the spot of the second largest airport. the first being the Canterlot Military Airport.
This had significantly weakened the Canterlot Garrison with a quarter of them gone. High Command had absolutely made a gigantic gamble to protect Cloudsdale at all costs while leaving the other cities weakened. All I hope then was the gamble to work and to finally stop the changeling advance then and there. But, I was proven wrong.
*******
Two weeks after the news, we were horrified with the arrival of the pegasi soldiers retreating from Cloudsdale with almost half of them were wounded. Some had lost a hoof or two, some of them lost an eye or pair, some became deaf and some had burn marks on them the rest suffered minor injuries. It was a gruesome sight to all of us. They had retreated to Canterlot to merge with the Canterlot Garrison. They claimed that they had lost half of their numbers with a lot of them had surrendered or killed after the brutal close-quarters combat in downtown Cloudsdale and the weather factory.
It turned out that the Ponyville General did not have enough medical supplies for the retreating pegasi. So, they headed to Canterlot to seek treatment from the Canterlot Garrison which certainly had all the provisions. As I was happy that some of them made it out alive I was also demoralized at the scene and it turns out I was not the only one. Everypony's face in the garrison turned sour and they frowned.
*******
Three days after the pegasi retreated I heard a noise that I didn't want to hear. I heard faint sounds of explosions so do the other soldiers. Everypony was wondering where it had come from until a distressed unicorn ran to the canteen and shouted "Ponyville! It's under attack!". That sent almost the whole garrison into a frenzy and all of the garrison headed out of the canteen with some binoculars and headed to the South Gate which was facing Ponyville and was only 15km from Ponyville.
I fetched my binoculars to see what in Tartarus the Ponyville Garrison was facing. As I looked through the binoculars I tried to assess the situation. I saw several platoons of the garrison in action with a changeling platoon and two changeling tanks in which both of them seemed like Panzer IVs. As I spectated the battle from afar, I observed their Panzer IVs and Panthers and saw on the side of their turrets bore insignias that I'd hope I didn't see. I didn't believe it at first, then I hurriedly tried to find another changeling panzer and saw the same insignias. I watched it in disbelief and tried to spot another panzer. Panzer after panzer I looked had the same insignias. They were the insignias of the 13th and 14th Panzer Division and they were only 15km from Canterlot.