*BLAM!!!*
Upon hearing the gunshot coming from Janus' handgun, the wave of Sectanium Hover Tanks are moving towards the Castle Gates of Canterlot as several Warriors are hiding amongst the battalion of soldiers marching from behind the advancing ranks. Just like the soldiers, the Warriors are all armed with blaster rifles and plasma blades hidden underneath their business suits. Of course, they still possess their mind-controlling abilities just in case they become cornered by the enemy.
As Twilight see the invaders advancing forward, she makes her first order to the guards inside the castle garrisons.
"READY THE CANNONS!!!" Twilight shouted in a Royal Canterlot voice. "READY THE CATAPULTS!!!"
As the gun captains heed Princess Twilight's orders, they relayed that to their respective gun crews as they opened up the hatches on the walls before shoving their bombard cannons into position, with the gun barrels sticking out of the castle walls.
"Remember, every pony. Make every shot from our cannons count!! Concentrate all cannon fire at their hover tanks!!!"
Behind the walls inside the city, the earth ponies loaded their catapults with bombs and huge boulders onto the buckets before one of them grabs the restraining ropes as they prepare to sent the payload flying into the enemy.
"All catapult teams, we'll hurl as much payload as we can on the enemy infantry."
Just as soon as the wave of enemy hover tanks and Sectanium soldiers reached 200 meters in front of the trenches, Twilight shouts out her second order.
"FIRE!!!!!"
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
*FLING!! FLING!!! FLING!! FLING!! FLING!!*
At the bombard cannons started firing their cannon shells as make several blasts in front of the hover tanks, stunning them for a moment before they get crippled in the next cannon blast. All at once, the earth ponies fired their catapults, unleashing the payload of bombs and boulders to lay waste to the Sectanium soldiers. Upon impact, the Sectanium Army felt the explosions erupting in front of them from both cannon fire and from the payload coming from the catapults, sending several of their soldiers flying in the air before they fell down totally mangled as bloodied corpses.
*POW!! POW!! POW!! POW!! POW!! POW!! POW!!*
*BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!*
The Sectanium soldiers have returned fire as they shot back with their Blaster Rifles and Rail guns, hitting the castle walls and making huge dents as the concrete crumbles away in piles of rubble. At the same time, several Rail slugs have hit the bombard cannons, creating small explosions that sent the pony gun crews flying backwards into submission as they hit their backs inside the walls before they collapsed in a bloody mess. No matter, the surviving gun crews were trying to hold back their fears as they made rapid responses in reloading the cannons before firing more shots at the encroaching enemy hover tanks.
At the trenches, Zeck initiates his orders to the UFF Marines stationed alongside him, Xul, and Pam.
"Volley!!! FIRE!!!!"
Upon hearing Zeck's command, the UFF marines, Xul, and Pam started to open fire with their rifles at the advancing Sectanium soldiers while enduring the loud cannon fire coming from the battlements behind them. As several Sectanium Soldiers fell to their knees when getting shot at in the open, they returned fire as with their blaster rifles. Above them, the Equestrian Royal Guards open fire with a barrage of crossbow fire from the defending walls.
In just two to four shots, the crossbow bolts struck the Sectanium Soldiers in their necks or in their chest as they fell the sharp pain puncturing their body armor.
It wasn't before some of the Sectanium soldiers aimed their guns at walls, blasting small chunks of it as they shot some of the Royal Guards in the head before they fell either backwards or forwards off the battlements.
*BLAM!!*
*BLAM!!*
While Twilight was standing her ground up on the walls of Canterlot, the massive shield dome behind her still remains intact. She can hope that her guards at the outer walls will give the UFF covering fire if they are being ordered to retreat back into the city.
In a sudden explosion, one of the guard towers to Twilight's left was blasted by 5 rail slugs coming from a group of tanks that are closing in about 20 yards away from the city walls of Canterlot. After taking in so much damage from the enemy rail slugs, the guard tower fell backwards as it crashed into a nearby abandoned house. Just like that, both the tower and the house came down in a mass pile of rubble. Most of the guard ponies behind the collapsing guard tower are forced to make a run for it as the falling wood and stone are raining down upon them, crushing some of the latter to death. For those inside the guard tower, they all fell off their collapsing posts down to their deaths as the falling defensive structure hit the ground.
In the next second, another blast erupted right in front of the wall close to where Twilight is standing on. As the rubble spewed out into a shower of small rocks, Twilight quickly used a small shield to block the rocks away from her face before she took flight a few feet above the wall. Several other guard towers have also broke down after getting blasted away by the Sectanium Hover tanks firing upon them leading to the same deathly results.
Other than just the guard towers, some of her guards manning the walls aren't so lucky to dodge the explosion as several of them fell off the wall. Just like that, the guards crashed into the pavement as they collapsed dead on the concrete or on the dirt ground behind the trenches. Not wanting the Sectaniums to gain the upper hand again, Twilight zeroed in towards one of the hover tanks that are getting closer to the walls while a squad of Pegasus guards rallied behind her all armed with wrist-mounted crossbows loaded with lighting bolts.
Upon seeing the Princess of Friendship heading straight for her, Janus points her finger at the purple alicorn.
"Hover Tanks, shoot her down!!!" Janus shouted, giving out orders to the tank crews.
As several tanks fired at the alicorn with their railguns, Twilight and the pegasus guards made in-flight evasive maneuvers before they fired back with their weapons. The pegasus opened fire with their crossbows, sending in barrages of electrical bolts at the hover tanks. The moment they got struck, several tanks have been disabled by the three or four electrical bolts, forcing them to stop in their tracks while sitting ducks under the mercy of the UFF Marines. It's as if they've been hit by EMP shells.
Before the Sectanium tank crews had a chance to get out of their disabled vehicles, a group of the 5 UFF Marines take out anti-tank rifles and fired a dozen shots at them before their main gun turrets exploded sky high. The impeding attack upon the hover tanks by the pegasus guards and UFF marines occur in repetitive measures during the first act of the siege.
As for Twilight, she fired several medium-sized magic bolts at one tank before it blew up, sending the vehicle flying backwards into a group of Sectanium soldiers. Only a small group of them got crushed by the collapsing weight of the hover tank as they made deathly screams before the sheer mass silenced them forever.
However, the Sectanium Army still pressed on as they continued to open fire on the alicorn princess and her pegasus guards from below. After making at least 20 shots, some of the pegasus guards got shot in the wings as they feel from the sky, crashing into the grassy battlefield before blacking out.
Feeling overwhelmed by small arms fire, Twilight and the surviving pegasus guards flew back to the castle walls as the other Royal Guards are still giving them covering fire from the wrecked outer walls.
For Janus, she attempted to use her missile launcher on Twilight once again. This time, she armed her heavy weapon with homing missiles. In her sights, she glared intensely as Janus could see the flying alicorn in its targeting crosshairs. However, before Janus had a chance to fire, a huge birthday cake splatted on the barrel and the scope of her missile launcher all at once.
*SPLAT!!!*
As her weapon got covered up in cake batter, Janus also sees herself in a total mess, cursing herself in total embarrassment before she was forced to drop her missile launcher in disgrace.
"WHAT THE HELL???" Janus shrieked as a stupidly grinning pink pony popped up right in front of her and the tank she was commanding.
"Na ah ah, lady! That ain't nice!!" Pinkie Pie shook her head, making the army colonel startled by such an unexpected appearance.
"WHY YOU LITTLE......." Janus screamed as she is wiped the cake batter off her face before attempting to strangle Pinkie Pie, while her soldiers and tanks continued to advance towards the Canterlot battlements leaving her behind.
Unfortunately, Pinkie Pie was able to slip away before Janus had a chance to grab the pink pony with her bare hands.
"HE! HE! HE! HE! HEEE!! Come and get me grumpy lady!!!" Pinkie Pie said, intimidating the annoyed Sectanium Officer while spanking her flank with her left hoof.
Enraged, Colonel Janus gets distracted as she drew out her gun and stated shooting at the Pink Pony only for Pinkie Pie to happily jump all over the open field, missing every single shot and exploding payload that came flinging from the catapults inside the city walls. At the same time, Pinkie did all sorts of tail-bouncing, cartwheels, dodges, and somersaults all around Janus, much to her frustration.
"What kind of pony is this??" Janus thought to herself in dismay.
Just as Pinkie made another stupid smile, the tank Janus was standing on somehow got sprung up in the air by a giant spring coming out from the ground.
*BOING!!!*
"EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!!" Janus screamed as she was sent flying 50 feet into the air, along with her tank while flailing her arms uncontrollably before she finds herself separated from the vehicle. Just when Janus is about to fall straight down, the pink pony makes another amazing, random ability.
Pinkie Pie giggled for a bit before she reaches her hoof towards the edge of the screen and pulls out a giant trampoline just as Janus makes a crash landing. Her tank smashes on the ground, completely crippled and unusable. For Janus, the moment she landed on top of the trampoline, she was sent flying straight into the air again. This time, she screamed in a total panic before she crashed into a black storm cloud, 75 feet above the ground.
*ZZZZZAAAAAPPPPPP!!!*
The moment Janus was inside the storm cloud, she gets electrocuted by the thunder brewing inside it. As a result, she felt her bones getting fried from underneath her flesh before her arms and legs stretched out in all four directions. At the same time, her bones started showing off before she fell from the storm cloud, as a smoking figure.
"CURSE YOU, PINK PONY!!!" Janus screamed as she fell into a nearby lake a few miles south of Canterlot.
*SPLASH!!!*
Defeated, Janus fell straight into the lake with her legs and her torn-up boots seen above the water.
In about 10 meters close to trench in front of Canterlot's walls, the remaining Sectanium Hover tanks opened fire with their rapid-fire pulse carbines mounted on their gun turrets. Just as the one of the tank crews opens fire with the pulse carbines, most of the defending UFF Marines in the trench started taking casualties as they are receiving fatal burns penetrating their combat armor, forcing them to take cover. As for Zeck, Xul, and Pam, they all hid behind the trench while keeping their heads down as they hear the rumbling of the hover tanks intensify.
The moment Twilight sees the first wave of the Sectanium Army getting closer to the dug up trench from up on the walls, she uses her magic to summon a wide shield wall right above their trench up front, giving Zeck and the remaining UFF Marines the chance to fall back into the city.
"Captain Zeck!! Have your men fall back behind the city walls!!!" Twilight shouted as her guards gave them covering fire with their crossbows, cannons, and catapult payloads.
"Everyone!! Fall back to the castle gates!! MOVE IT!!!" Zeck shouted as he pointed his hand towards the Canterlot walls behind him.
Xul and Pam were the first to respond to Zeck's orders as they scrambled out of the trench before heading into the main gate. After that, the UFF marines and Zeck followed them from behind while trying to get away from enemy fire.
More explosions erupted right above the trench as the Sectanium battalion is kept at bay by the continuous barrage of crossbow bolts, cannon balls, and catapult payloads as they attempted to fire back at the outer wall defenders. Thankfully, most of the UFF marines, their allies, and Zeck are able to make through the gate before it closes right in front of the Sectanium Army, allowing Twilight to disengage her shield barrier. However, as the soldiers got closer to the trenches, the Warriors finally emerged from the ranks as they fired their mind-controlling beams at the Royal Guards above them.
Thankfully, one hour before the siege began, Starswirl and a group of unicorn battle mages are able to place magic ward runes on the walls to keep their mind-controlling powers from hitting their targets. The runes reacted to the barrage of mind-controlling beams as they were blocked by a green diamond-like barrier coming out from the outer walls.
However, the wards would only last until the Hover Tanks can bring down most of the wall with their relentless railgun fire. As of now, a length of 25 feet in the outer walls is badly damaged by the enemy fire coming from their vehicles. Once a large part of the wall crumbled to the ground, the wards would disappear making the Royal Guard vulnerable to the Warrior's mind-control ability.
In hopes of keeping the guard distracted from shooting at their tanks, the Sectanium soldiers and warriors took out their grapple launchers and aimed it above the walls of Canterlot, shooting out hooks from launchers' barrels up high above the battlements. As soon as the hooks latched over the wall's battlements, they hoisted themselves up as they drew out their combat knives and plasma blades. Upon seeing this, Twilight ordered her guards on the walls to draw out their weapons.
"SWORDS!!! SWORDS!!!"
Heeding Twilight's command, the unicorn and earth pony guards drew out their swords and spears as they prepare to drive the invaders of the walls. As soon as the first Sectanium soldiers were standing on top of the wall's battlements, some of them were met with spear thrusts jabbing them in the lower abdomen making them fall backwards off the walls. The Sectanium Soldiers that didn't get stabbed yet jumped over the Royal Guards before hammering them down with their long combat knives trading blows and parries against each other. For the warriors, they fired their hand-held blasters in point-blank range against the Royal Guards while defending themselves against those that are attacking them with their plasma blades. Regardless, the Royal Guard were using every bit of strength to keep the Sectanium Soldiers and Warriors at bay. In some cases, the earth pony guard were throwing huge hoof punches at several enemy soldiers, knocking them off their feet before stabbing them while they're down.
For Twilight, she dodged one oncoming knife by a mere inch of her helmet before stabbing the enemy soldier with her horn, blasting him away from the walls into oblivion. Thankfully, Chmone and Anta were both there as they drew out their swords as well. Once they were up on the walls, the two UFF aliens charged at the Sectanium soldiers with all their might while fighting alongside Twilight's Royal Guards.
In Twilight's next attack, she blasted another Warrior with a huge ball of lighting that sent him packing into two enemy soldiers all at once.
For Chmone, he kicked one Sectanium soldier in the chest, knocking him off the battlements before cutting down the rope attached to one of the grappling hooks. At front, Chmone slashed one enemy soldier with both of his swords before throwing him over the walls.
While Twilight, Chmone, and Anta are holding their ground at the outer walls of Canterlot, another enemy force prepares itself for a rear attack at the tunnels leading to the palace.
At the tunnel entrance, Celestia, Luna, and Shinning Armor are all standing by as a large platoon of Unicorn Royal Guards are stationed for a defensive countermeasure. During the night preparation, Shinning has ordered the unicorns to setup large metal boxes to block the entrance before they stood by with their magic spells at the ready. For Celestia and Luna, they stood behind their ranks poising themselves to strike the attackers with their magic.
Even though they're not wearing any armor at the moment, due to the fact that they discard it all when they retired from the throne, Celestia and Luna remembered that they still have an array of battle spells to use at their disposal on the battlefield.
For Shinning Armour, who is now wearing a full set of purple Royal Guard Armor, he lights his horn up to fullest as he readies his magic when preparing to face off against Twilight's new enemies head on.
In just a few minutes of waiting for engagement, the unicorns and the two alicorns spot a large wave of green Mandor creatures heading their way as they are wielding short-hand blasters and cudgels. In the midst of their grunting and shouting, a Mandor chieftain is seen leading them as they approached the tunnels underneath Canterlot.
"This is for Twilight!!" Shinning snarled as he drew out his sword with his magic. "Get ready men!! Here they come!!!"
As the grunting and shouting gets louder, the Mandors are seen getting closer to Equestria's heroes and warriors in about 100 meters.
"LIGHT E'M UP!!!" Shinning shouted as he fired several magic beams at the Mandors.
All at the same time, Celestia, Luna, and the unicorn guards opened fire with an endless volley of magic beams at the Mandors.
The Mandor Chieftain made a bellowing roar before he fired back with his short-hand blaster. After taking several shots, some of the Mandors fell on their backs before shooting back at the Equines with their blasters.
At the same time, the Mandors pulled out their dark-green tower shields to use to block incoming enemy fire. When the magic blasts hit their shields, they grunted as they slowly pressed forward towards the tunnels. However, the Mandors are slowly collapsing after receiving an endless barrage of lighting spells and magic missiles from the relentless unicorn guards. As soon as the Mandors charged, they were met with a phalanx of spears aiming towards their guts. No matter, some of them were able to knock the unicorn's spears away before they bashed them on the head with their cudgels, with the latter striking back with their halberds and spears.
For Celestia and Luna, they both spread out their wings as they ascended into the sky before unleashing firebolts and lighting arcs at the charging Mandors.
Upon impact, Celestia's firebolts made small, multiple fiery blasts that sent some of the Mandors running and screaming as they burn up in agony. For Luna's lighting arc spell, it send a dozen Mandors flying 25 feet away from the tunnels. Despite all their efforts, the Mandors are shooting at the two Alicorns aimlessly as they are both too fast to get hit.
Just when the Mandors are getting hammered by the power of the two alicorns and the unicorn guards, two Warriors have made a sudden appearance from within the Mandor wave as they ran swiftly towards Shinning Armor. In an instant, they both shot out yellow beams at the unicorn captain.
Caught off guard, Shinning attempted to use a spell to help resist their mind-controlling aura. However, since it is two against one, he struggled as his brain is starting to pressurize in a painful sensation. Out of Shinning's head, he cast a mental fortitude barrier to push back the mind-controlling waves. However, he can feel their power pushing him back as Shinning is about to lose his consciousness.
Upon seeing this, several unicorn guards attempted to intervene.
"Captain Armor!!!"
As they charged towards the two Warriors, the unicorns fired several lighting bolts at them only to be parried by a series of fast hand movement when they knocked their attacks away from them. Just like that, were only redirected into the never-ending sky.
The moment one of the warriors see the unicorn guards in his sight, he drew out his plasma blade and smacked most of them in the face as his weapon lashed out at them like plasma whip. Upon impact, the unicorns got electrocuted as they were sent flying backwards.
Seeing the warriors overpower Shining Armour, the Mandors pressed on as they're about to beat the unicorn to death with their cudgels. However, Celestia crashed in-between the Mandors and the Warriors as she cast a blazing nova that spread out as a circular spell, burning both enemy creatures all at once.
The moment the first Warrior got caught on fire, they immediately lose their mind-control grip on Shinning. Just as Shinning finally broke free from their gripping power, he charged at one of them and brought the Warrior down with all his might.
*CHOMP!!*
*ARGH!!!*
The moment Shinning bit down on the Warrior's neck, the Sectanium screamed in pain as he struggled helplessly to pull the unicorn stallion off him. At his strongest attack, Shinning swung the Warrior around back and forth before hurling him into another group of Mandors.
As for the second Warrior, Mistress Luna crashed into him and cast a spell on the creature's face.
*FLASH!!!*
Luna showered the Warrior with a ray of blue, burning light, making the Sectanium blinded before she turns his back on him and kicks him away with both of her hind legs.
"Shinning, are you okay?!" Celestia asked, showing concern for the Crystal Prince.
"They must be the Warriors that Zeck is trying to warn us about." Shinning thought only to see another Warrior appear in front of Celestia.
Just as Celestia turned to face the 3rd Warrior, he shoots out a powerful yellow beam at the white alicorn in the forehead in hopes of trying to get the sun mistress under his control.
Dammit!! I knew I should've kept that bell with me!!! Celestia thought as she tried to repel the beam with her yellow magic.
Celestia could still feel the pressure of the mind-controlling beam getting closer to her face as she grunted and gritted her teeth while struggling to fight against their mental power. The white alicorn started to sweat as she is slowly trying to resist their so-called spells. Just when the mind-control beam is about to hit Celestia in the head, she flew up a few feet above the Warrior and kicked him in the lower abdomen with her left hind hoof.
"Those guys are really tough!!!" Celestia said as she felt a painful headache flowing through her brain.
The Mandors are slowly breaking through the unicorn ranks only to find themselves in the crosshairs of 50 UFF Marines whom they opened fire with their combat rifles and grenade launchers.
"Every pony, fall back to the second defense line!!" Shinning Armour shouted, seeing that the UFF are giving his unicorn guards suppressing fire.
Heeding Shinning's orders, the surviving unicorn guards withdrew from their engagement with the Mandors before running back behind the UFF's defense lines deep within the tunnel.
For Celestia and Luna, they both used their combined magic to unleash a black smoke screen to blind-sight the advancing Mandors and Warriors before they flew towards where Shinning headed.
Once the two alicorns and the unicorn captain are behind the UFF's defense line, Rockhoof and Flash Mangus appeared as they readied themselves for a second attack from the invaders.
"Up and at e'm lassies!!! Let's give those monsters ah good hoof smashing!!!" Rockhoof bellowed as he raised his huge shovel with both of his frontal hooves.
"Shinning, go back to the palace and keep that huge shield barrier intact!!" Mangus ordered.
"I'm on it!!" Shinning Armor said as he left the tunnels to recover from his mental fight with the Warriors.
Right after Shinning disappeared, Rockhoof and Flash Mangus see several Mandors emerged from the black smoke before they bashed them away with their shovel and shield. As for Celestia and Luna, they gave both of the Pillars of Equestria covering fire with their magic.
Back on the outer walls, during the fight between the Royal Guards and the Sectanium soldiers on the battlements, Twilight is seen hovering in mid-air above them all as she is firing beams of magic at every Sectanium soldier that tried to scale the wall with their grappling hooks. For Chmone and Anta, they both fought harder with their swords as they hacked down every Sectanium in a brutal fashion.
From inside the walls, most of the cannon teams were forced to abandon their firing positions as they are suffering severe casualties due to the powerful barrage of rail slugs coming from the Sectanium hover tanks. Even though the cannon teams were able to stun and cripple the enemy tanks of their movement and durability, about two hover tanks rise up in their place. The enemy vehicles are slowly starting to overwhelm Canterlot's outer walls.
After shooting down 5 Sectanium soldiers scaling the walls, several more hover tanks appeared from within the advancing Sectanium Army to bear down more rail slugs and pulse shots at Twilight.
She nearly freaked out when one of the rail slugs nearly grazed her wings before she flew downwards behind the outer walls.
*YAAAAAHHHHH!!!*
As Twilight hit the ground, several of her Royal Guards came to her side in helping her try to recover from a grazing shot.
"Your majesty, are you okay?!" The Gate Commander asked, trying to pick Twilight up on her feet.
"We need to retreat behind the barrier!!" Twilight said, giving out another order to her men. "Their vehicles are too close!!!"
Before any of the guards could say anything, they and Twilight heard something firing from a distance away. In a frightening effect, they all hear something heading straight for them.
*BOOM!!* *BOOM!!* *BOOM!!*
All around their catapults, the earth pony guards see that their artillery is getting blasted away by incoming explosions, caused by projectiles that came down from the sky, as they turned into a pile of wooden wreckage. At the same time, the explosions were causing massive shrapnel flying in all directions, puncturing the earth ponies in their exposed flesh as they fell on the ground as they bleed out. Of course, most of the shrapnel also struck several of the guards backing up Princess Twilight.
For Twilight, the Gate Commander, and the guards defending the walls, they had to disengage immediately as they are getting hammered by an unknown enemy artillery strike. In a sudden reaction, the gate commander and the royal guards fled back inside the shield barrier protecting the rest of the city of Canterlot.
"Pull out men. Retreat behind the shield barrier!!!" Twilight shouted as she recalled the remaining guards from the outer walls.
In a struggling effort, the guards disengage their fight with the Sectaniums scaling the wall as they all jumped off or teleported to safety as they made a break for it towards the shield barrier. However, it wasn't long before the Sectaniums are pouring over the battlements like a tidal wave before they started shooting at the fleeing Royal Guards from behind, hitting several of them in the back as they collapsed face down on the pavement.
Thankfully, Twilight still has some energy left to raise a medium length shield barrier to protect her retreating guards before they all disappeared behind her, blocking as many shots and shrapnel as she can with her magic. When Chmone and Anta heard Twilight's orders to retreat, they hurled several objects at the Sectaniums outside of the outer walls before they fled into the huge shield barrier protecting the rest of Canterlot.
Unfortunately, blocking two types of projectiles is much more difficult and overwhelming as Twilight starts to feel more pain coming from her head while holding up her shield barrier just to protect her retreating comrades and friends. In an excruciating result, Twilight could feel a trickle of blood coming down from her head while still wearing her helmet. She knew she can't stay here any longer as she sees that Canterlot's main gates have finally been breached by several blasts coming from the Sectanium Hover Tanks. Also, Castle walls have finally came down, opening up a huge gap in which neutralized the magic runes all at once.
When the gates forcibly opened up and with the walls breached, the rest of the Sectanium soldiers charged through as they all opened fire upon Twilight, who is slowly losing her strength in blocking out the shots from them with her shield. No longer putting up with getting shot at from all three enemy sources, Twilight used her remaining magic to teleport herself away from the first part of the battle, disengaging her shield barrier in an instant.
As soon as Twilight disappeared from their sights, the Sectanium soldiers halt their advance while securing the outer walls. For the rest of the Equestrian Army and the UFF Marines hiding behind the shield dome, their fight during the siege of Canterlot is just getting started.