//------------------------------// // Final: Battle // Story: Dan Vs. The Magic of Friendship(Season 1) // by Barrobroadcaster //------------------------------// Plains of Hope The tanks rode down the green slope, their wheels drawing huge marks in the grass. They raced at the enemy. A few ponies were riding the tanks, ready to use their weapons to add to the firepower of the formidable battle wagons. Phoenix rode the lead tank, gripping its turret with his left hand and the hilt of his sword with his right. Far on the other side of the battle, somewhere in the jagged cliffs of Prosperity Mountain, the Director and the Dark Exile watched the opening moves. "They're eager, aren't they? Almost uncharacteristically aggressive," Arteem said, peering through his macrobinoculars with a smile. "They're in for quite a surprise. Would you say they're acting differently because of Dan, or-" "Do you have to talk? We're getting to the good part," Cleo said. her eyes, from what he could tell, were firmly fixed on the battle. Of course, she hovered several feet above him to get the best view of the fighting, she he couldn't see her very well. "Good part? What-" "If you want to be useful, shut up. Or get some popcorn. Make it both." He lowered his binoculars, almost in disgust. "Is all this really just a game to you? What the hell are you exploiting me, my men, and-" "Ooooh, hold that thought." The ground near his feet shook. He stepped back. Exploding from the earth was a bucket of popcorn, piping hot and buttery. It levitated right up to Cleo, who know sat in midair, cross-legged and ate from the bucket. Seeing this, somewhat appalled, Arteem realized then just what he'd gotten himself into. With it came the realization he could not get himself out and so, with these revelations together, he decided to ask just one thing. "Can I have some?" Cleo shrugged. "You brought an army, but you didn't bring popcorn. Not my problem. Arteem frowned and raised his binoculars again, the smell of buttery corn filling his nostrils, momentarily overwhelming the smell of gunpowder and carbon. "They're sending in their armor first. Very eager." He keyed his commlink. "HK, deploy the Shadowbolts against the tanks. Tell them to attack from the sides and-" "No," the Director said. Eyes rolling, he glanced up at her. "I thought you were just going to watch." And indeed, she kept watching. "Deploy our tanks against their tanks. Armor against armor. Hold our infantry and air forces back until their infantry are closer." "What?" Now, he was getting pissed. "That's absurd. Stupid, really. Our air forces can take out that armor faster than our tanks can." "No, they can't," the Director said sternly. "We have more than twice their numbers and twice their firepower. The advantage is ours, make them come to us." He stood, defiant. "You don't know how to fight wars, I do." She finally turned to him, eyes cold and yet somehow raging. "I know how to fight EQUESTRIAN wars, "general." Hold the Shadowbolts back to engage the Wonderbolts. That is an order. Understood?" He ignited his saber. "What I understand is that I shouldn't have come here in the first place." She face-palmed. "You've tried that before, idiot. I should've gotten Dr. Wily. Good maybe dumb, but evil is definitely dumber. He raised the red blade at her. "Then maybe you should try chaotic neutral." "I DID!" she roared at him. A shockwave blasted him backward, knocking him into the dirt. "You don't know the things I tried, the plans I made, the multitude of scenarios I went through, the countless iterations of this world erased and forgotten before you even knew its name." To his credit, the dark exile pulled himself up again. "You're... you're doing this for them. Don't pretend you're their enemy, because I know for a fact you care about them." She sighed, looking back to the battle. "More than you could possibly imagine. But they didn't care for me. I was desperate to change things, like you. Too much like you. It's taken a lot, but finally, destiny has been defied. You and your pathetic shadows, the rest of your interlopers will be consumed here. Brought to light." "What?!" She spread her arms wide. "Behold, the defiance of fate itself! This empire shall not fall, shall not be consumed by the next but shall endure. We are witnessing the birth of a new Equestria, one forged in fire." "You're insane. Thousands of them are going to die before this day is over!" "Martyrs! Heroes! Better to have plenty of ashes from which the new nation will rise! All the spies, the traitors and dark faces, every crevice and dark secret, fully expunged. New alliances and new friendships made, existing bonds strengthened. They are ready. And this is their final test." She looked over her shoulder. "A new nation needs a leader, however..." And she looked back the other way. Arteem was gone. Rather than try to fight her, he'd ran. She smiled. "Took him long enough." It was perhaps, the smartest decision he'd made thus far. The tanks charged in. The unicorns' and magicians projected a shield bubble that extended outward, growing and flattening to cover their advance. But with so many magic-users working in tandem, and the bubble being made from their combined spells, the tanks couldn't fire out of it. It took a lot of concentration just to form a shield that size. Or one pony with a whole lot of love, but Twilight was preoccupied. "Do we want the gumdrops or the candy canes first??!!" Pinkie yelled. "Just load it all into the cannons!" "I was gonna fire the yogurt first!" "Don't matter what order it's in, just cram it all in there and shoot it off!" AJ said. "Uggggggghhh!" Pinkie groaned. Behind the army, stationed in the treeline was the artillery. Catapults, cannons, trebuchets, and several really big slingshots slung between trees were all set up and loaded by the Apple Family, Pinkie Pie and other farm ponies. Pies, cakes and various treats were loaded into them. "What's more effective to kill robots? Donuts or danisheses?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Question of my life," said Granny Smith. "Eee... wut?" Meanwhile, Twilight remained high above the battlefield, absorbing enemy fire with her magic. Lightning strikes from the clouds above, molten rocks and mortars from the ground below, all were lobbed mostly at her rather than the shield and that was good. With her power, she could withstand a lot more fire than the army could. She raised her hoof. A bolt of lighting struck the side of her shield, diminishing to nothing but a static friction zap when it reached her hoof. "Ow." Still stung just a tad. Another bolt ricocheted off her shield and struck the bubble below, but wasn't enough to penetrate. A slew of fiery rocks were launched at her in a wave. Twilight waved her hoof over them. Her magic extinguished the fires and caused the rocks to crumble into pebbles. All of her spells had to be carefully chosen. She could've teleported the rocks or absorbed the lightning with a portal, redirected it back at her attackers or just opened up the ground to swallow the enemy army whole. But she had to conserve her magic and energy, and that meant keeping her focus and her cool. Breath in, breath out, zen. Cleo was still out there and to fight her, she would need everything and everyone she had. "OPEN FIRE!" Phoenix shouted. The tanks fired even before he finished telling them. "Hi there!" "Hi there! "Hi there!" "Would you be interested in-" The tank shells cut off the robots mid-sales pitch. The shells punched holes in the enemy lines and exploded on the ground, showering colorful, metal bodies everywhere. "Keep firing, keep firing!" Phoenix ordered. The tanks had advanced to the very end of the shield. Their cannons and front ends stuck out of the bubble while their backs remained under it, allowing them some protection while not impeding their ability to fire. They stopped, and now fired at the enemy troops in front of them. "One-day only spe-*boom*" "You can't possibly miss thi-*bam*" "This offer won't las-*bang, boom, boom*" The robots began advancing towards the shield, legion-like in their numbers. They were crude, rigid and mechanical, not unlike the animatronics from Five Nights at Freddy's, only far more sinister, vile and deadly. Because they were trying to sell time-shares. And, they were upright ponies, with tiny metal bowties and diabolical Lego-like claws for hands. Truly, diabolical they were indeed. The tanks continued their barrage. "Just keep firing!" (Gawd, these things are creepy-looking!) The tank cannons exploded in the formations of the robots, blasting the ones hit directly by the blast to pieces, incinerating the ones nearby, burning the ones closer to that and sending shrapnel flying into others all around it. Some of the half-burnt bodies of the salesman, their sterile smiles marred by the charring, clawed and shambled their way towards the tanks to be gunned down by machine gun fire. Phoenix ducked back under the shield. A hail of robot bits rained down upon his tank, including the eye and upper jaw of one with a top hat. He swiped it off the tank with his sword. "That constitutes using the sword, right?" "There's no end to these things!" the tank driver said. Appropriately enough, her name was Shelly, a mare that worked at a pet store in Canterlot. She was one of the volunteers because she knew how to drive a train. How driving a train translated to knowing how to operate an armored fighting vehicle was not known. "Stay focused! Destroy as many as we can!" Phoenix keyed his commlink. "AJ, we could use some artillery support right about now!" "The cupcakes are still in the ove- MAH PIIIIIESS!! PINKIEEEEEEEEE!!" Phoenix swallowed. "That doesn't sound good." "What doesn't sound-" *BLAMF* Phoenix felt a sensation of weightlessness before something struck him hard in the back, the shoulder, and then rolled across his face. It was the ground, he quickly realized as he tumbled; something had blasted him off the tank. He looked up. The shield bubble protecting them was taking a lot of fire. Red bursts of fire exploded just outside of it. Several of the tanks reversed back under the bubble. Looking right, Phoenix saw half his tank was now under the shield... and it was on fire. The enemy had sent in its own tanks. They were closer to the ground and more precise than artillery- they had targeted his tank directly. A shard of something fell to the ground near him and shattered. Looking up, Phoenix saw what he already realized: the shield was breaking under the fire. Instinctively, he stood up. He braced his knee, but didn't feel any pain beyond the bump on his back. He hoped nothing was broken, but he knew he couldn't afford to think about that. "Shelly! Axle!" He ran to the tank. "Shelly!" Part of it was still on fire, but not the hatch underneath it. He ducked under the tank, quickly saw that the hatch was jammed. "Hang on!" He took out his sword and pried open the hatch, grabbed the nearest two things that felt like ponies and dragged them out. "Oh, dammit." Then, he went back in when he realized he'd pulled out a pair of golf bags. The battle wagons did not see much combat and were sometimes used on the golf course, which was also a target range for them. Phoenix dragged Shelly and Twin Axle, the tank crew, from the wreckage. Today was going to be a long day.