//------------------------------//
// Chapter One | Into the Darkness 
// Story: Of Trenches and Tank Traps 
// by Not too Shabby 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot Invasion! A Hidden Empire Declares WAR!
-Canterlot Gazette

Changeling Menace Repelled from Canterlot! New Enemy at our Doorstep?
-Equestria Times

Canterlot in ruins! How will the princesses respond to this attack?
-The Canterhorn



Discarded newspapers flew across the streets of Canterlot. Ashes and scattered splinters of wood from collapsed and burnt houses covered the ground. Ponies dug at the cindering piles that were once their homes, hoping that they could find something in the ruins.

After the Canterlot invasion, the Diarchy was attempting to keep their country from going to all-out war. The changelings however didn't seem to care for peace and the nobility was putting the princesses under pressure to finally respond to the attacks along the northern border of Equestria

"Aunty, you must listen! Cadence and Shining Armor are in the hospital, changelings are encroaching on our territory, and worst of all they destroyed my statue of me! We have to teach those abominations that their actions of consequences!"

"Firstly, you never liked that statue in the first place, you kept saying it wasn't grandiose enough. Secondly, I've kept Equestria at peace for centuries, I will not have it be broken by this,"  Celestia spoke, attempting to keep her annoyance from showing through, "I will not have my ponies die in war."

"I-" Blueblood started before quickly being interrupted

"Sister! As much as we loathe to admit it blueblood has a point. As we speak ponies hath already bled protecting their homes while we sit here and discuss whether peace is still an option! Tia, for mother's sake your niece nearly died due to Chrysalis!" Luna yelled before calming herself, "Chrysalis hath showed no attempt to reconcile and she hath gone down the path of war. We must respond as such."

After hearing of the attempted invasion, Luna had made her way back as soon as possible from her meeting with the Griffonian king. To say she was pissed was an understatement. She knew her sister was much more pacifistic in recent years than she was centuries ago, but she didn't expect so much objection to declaring war after being so blatantly attacked.

Her sister sighed, taking some time to think before speaking once more, "Is this truly the only way to put an end to this? I've seen enough bloodshed for hundreds of lifetimes, I don't wish to see more."

Luna watched her sullen sister for a minute, feeling a pang of empathy in her chest before responding, "As much as we wish to avoid bloodshed too, you've hath forgotten in thy many years of peace that sometimes... sometimes bloodshed is unavoidable."

Celestia looked at her sister before nodding, "I guess it is..." she let out a sad sigh "Very well, we have given her chances to resolve this peacefully, now its time to act. Shall we go tell the others?" she spoke, getting up from the ground before turning to her sister

"Verily, let us go to them and tell them to prep-"

BANG

Something loud echoed through the palace

"What in- What was that?!" Blueblood said in surprise

A few seconds later hoofsteps could be heard outside frantically rushing to the door and swinging it open. A guard was on the other side with a panicked expression on his muzzle,

"Your majesties, there's been an incident in the throne room!"




It was a simple night raid

We get in, cause chaos, then get out

I never expected what it would become

- SGT Devins



We were getting desperate, or at least that's what I thought as our group of five crossed a field of mud in the pitch blackness of the night.

There were five of us: Me, O'Collan, MacMillan, Spiers, and Kavanagh.

I was the second in command at the rank of sergeant, I had a few raids under my belt but none with these few amount of men. Thankfully for us, though, intel reported that the Colonials were suffering a manpower shortage in this region, along with a supply issue which I could only attribute to our partisan brothers behind enemy lines.

That didn't make me any more sure of this though. Sure it was a quick demo job, blow a bunker wide open and get the hell out of there sort of deal, but even then we usually had at least ten to twelve men for that. We were assured though that they probably won't even see us get in their trench line. Hopefully, they're right.

We stopped at the edge of a crater as we spotted a pair of collies in the trench ahead of us, our helmets and faces covered in mud to help us blend in with the heavily cratered strip of land that separated our two trenches. Thankfully for us, the men in the trench seemed too preoccupied with having their own conversation to pay attention to what's outside the trench.

After the coast was clear we made our way down the crater's edge and to the trench, slipping in as quietly as we could before making a b-line for the bunker.

"Damn I never thought it'd be this easy" MacMillan, a specialist as well as one of our two sappers, said

"Keep yer voice down, we might be through no man's land but we haven't even gotten to the hardest part" O'Collan whispered. He was our SL at the rank of Staff Sergeant. Personally, I considered the man a legend due to how many successful night raids he's been apart of

Then Kavanagh, the Private of our group, spoke up "What's the hardest part?" he whispered worriedly

"Getting out after we blow the bunker, the entire trench line will be on alert and'll probably be searchin' fer our asses as soon as they hear that explosion" O'Collan responded. It was true, even if you get in silently a raid usually ended with us making a mad dash back to our own trench line before we're spotted.

After that short conversation, we made our way down the trench line towards the bunker. It seemed empty enough, though we did hear voices in some auxiliary trenches behind the front trench. That didn't matter though as they didn't seem to hear us sneak by. Soon enough, we could see the bunker that we were tasked with taking out.

"whew Aint she a beaut," MacMillan quietly whistled "Can't wait to see this one go up in a fiery explosion"

"Right, everyone inside. MacMillan and Spiers on me, Devins and Kavanagh you two hold the entrance if you see anyone approaching the bunker try to take them out silently. If you hear gunfire approach further inside slowly to see if we're ok. If we hear gunfire from over here we'll try to get to you to help but we will likely be focusing on planting the satchels first. Got it?" O'Collan briefed us, each one of us nodding after he finished, "Good, we'll be right back"

After they departed further into the bunker me and Kavanagh sat in silence peeking out the doorway every so often to see if anyone approached. Thankfully their manpower issue seemed more dire than we originally thought as no one seemed to come by. This seemed like it would be an easy mission after all

I quickly regretted thinking that

"Εχθρός, εχθρός!" I could hear yelling from further inside before gunfire began

"Shit! come on!" I yelled to Kavanagh before slowly making my way towards them, trying to be sure we didn't blindly run into a group of collies

"Χειροβομβίδα!"

My slow advance quickened though after I heard an explosion and then silence. I ran up to the room where I heard the commotion from taking cover behind the door frame readying myself for a possible fight. Just as I was about to charge in Kavanagh blindly charged in. I don't think he even saw the shooter before I heard the distinct sound of a pistol firing and a body dropping to the floor.

"Fuck, is it just me?" I thought to myself, "How the hell did this go so badly so quickly?!"

I managed to get a hold of myself for a little bit before hearing the sound of a magazine hitting the concrete floor, I had to take advantage of this. I quickly entered the room and caught the bastard mid-reload. I aimed as fast as I could before getting hit in the face with an empty pistol, causing my shot to go wide.

The next few moments were a blur. I got tackled to the ground but couldn't for the life of me figure out why we fell for so long. Eventually, I landed on my back and got the wind knocked out of me. Thankfully for me, the collie also seemed a bit dazed. so, in a grunt of pain, I toss him off me to the side. I took a second or two to gather myself as I tried to push aside the pain from falling.

Looking around I could see him get up from the ground and charge at me again, he was unarmed but still seemed to want to go down fighting. This time, even though I was in pain, I was also prepared. I felt his body hit against mine once more but quickly managed to wrangle the upper hand and pushed him away into a... window? I heard glass shatter to the ground but only questioned it for a moment before pulling my rifle up. Quickly placing my sights on his nose, I pulled the trigger

BANG

I felt my breath slow as he fell limp. Closing my eyes and letting out a sigh of relief I quickly reopened. Now that I wasn't fighting for my life I quickly noticed a few more things other than the glass, the grey concrete bunker that I previously found myself fighting in was now replaced by great pillars of marble inside what looked like a royal hall. I had also noticed, after looking down slightly... a bunch of horses in armor and wielding spears?

Currently, the spears were pointed at me and they didn't seem too happy with my display of 'combat prowess'. For a moment I thought I might have gone crazy. But this felt too real... way to real.

I swallowed a lump in my throat before speaking.

"What the fuck?!"