Farachan

by QTXAdsy

The First Battle

For the next two days that followed for Blue Arrow staying in Coltfast, the only thing that he and the other Red Hooves could do was to prepare and brush up on some fighting skills that, before arriving on Farachan, couldn't quite prefect them. Though the large open green fields beyond the wall of the city looked perfect enough to train on, there was still the nagging worry from many of the locals of spies from Alaccan keeping an eye on them and trying to see what type of fighting they might've been working on.

Though it all sounded quite paranoid for the newly arrived Red Hooves, nevertheless they knew that they could never be too careful for anything. So where were they suppose to train about then? The commanding officers decided to train within the secret base in its main training section. Much like when Blue Arrow and the others were amazed of the idea of the base being covered up as a row of houses, the training hall was yet another sight that made many of the new Hooves' jaws to drop.

On the ground level where it was based about, this giant hall seem to take up a quarter of the size of the base, and with it, house a variety collection of training facilities. One half of this great hall was a complex training course that a Red Hoof troop had to navigate through, with it's swinging axes and various other dangerous traps it had, it clearly wasn't for the faint hearted pony. The other half of the hall was for the training of fighting skills that two Red Hoof troops would duel with one another. Infamously, with the Red Hooves being such amazing fighters, a simple duel between two of them would drag on for nearly ten minutes before one of them gave in.

By just simply looking at them fighting like that, it gave many great hope for a good chance of winning this war. Alas, war isn't simply about throwing a group of strong able-bodied stallions into a battle; it also required the Red Hooves to be highly intelligent to come up with tactics to easily win a battle. For Blue Arrow, he did find this part to be quite difficult. It wasn't that was stupid or anything like that, he just didn't see himself as a leader, and preferred to be among the pack of red amour during a battle.

With this in mind, Blue Arrow kept this confession to himself as if any other Red Hooves found out about this, they would of likely called him a coward or even one that shouldn't been in the Red Hooves in the first place. His fellow comrades all tried to impress the commanders by presenting with various different battle strategies, though the commanders were impressed by their dedication, they already could see flaws in their plans, much to the disappointment of any Red Hoof who presented one of those tactics.

On the third day after Blue Arrow arrived, a new batch of Red Hooves would take their place to train up, this would give the first batch of trained up Red Hooves from the day before to catch their breath. And it was in the room that Blue Arrow shared with his fellow comrades that they could relax.

Blue Arrow lay back on his bed thinking of the time before and how hard the training was. True, being a Red Hoof is a tough aspect, but it was far different from the way Celestia trained them. The day itself though had been a peaceful at most with Blue Arrow's bunkmates minding their own business. Dynamo was acting quite personal around the letters he received and also the ones that he would write to whoever it was. Blue Arrow had asked Dynamo what was going on, but the brown stallion didn't want to talk about and even got quite personal about it. The Albian stallion could've sworn that Dynamo looked upset over something whenever he looked over those letters. Whatever it was though, Blue Arrow decided not to ask anything else about it.

Nearby, Macca was reading yet another magazine of seductive looking mares. Though Blue Arrow and the other bunkmates didn't say it, they were getting quite annoyed more and more with Macca cutting pictures out of a magazine like that and sticking the pictures around his bedside. Dynamo had secretly told Blue Arrow that Macca had only started doing this about two months ago as the young grey stallion was desperate for female companionship.

Then again in Red Hoof terms, there is no such thing as love in war.

The eldest in the room, Flying Sunstar, had down to the dinner hall to meet up with other 'specials' like him. It had three hours since he had gone downstairs and the young ones were enjoying what would be soon as one of the rare peaceful moments that Red Hooves would have in this war.

It was only then that all three stallions could hear a muttering of voices down the corridor increasing and a clatter of running hoof trots up and down that corridor.

"Huh?" Grunted Macca, pressing himself up on his elbows upon hearing the sound. "Something going on?"

Blue Arrow tilted his head to the left. "What is—"

Suddenly, the door burst opened and in ran Sunstar, breathing heavy.

"Celestia above!" Dynamo gasped and jumped down from his top bunk to meet up with Sunstar. Blue Arrow and Macca doing the same as well.

"What's happened?" Blue Arrow questioned hurriedly.

"Give him some damn space!" Macca ordered as he pushed the other two stallions out of the way.

The yellow stallion's breathing slowed down as he prepared to speak. "I'm alright guys," he paused to get some of his breath back. "Just to tell you…the news has just come in. Alaccan wants to start the war now!"

At first when hearing this type of news, any normal pony would've acted being shocked by this; however, Red Hooves aren't exactly normal ponies…

Instead, the other three stallions in the room looked at each other with large smiles on their faces, and starting whooping like idiots. The scene was almost like seeing a group of fans watching a sports team winning a major game.

"Finally!" Macca chuckled happily while performing a small loop in the room flying. "We're gonna kick some Alaccan ass!"

"And about time too," added in a much relived Dynamo. "I was beginning to wonder if we would battle them."

Sunstar couldn't help but smile as he saw the stallions celebrate. Blue Arrow as well was caught up in the excitement in the room and began ridding on Macca's back and waved his fore hoof in the air. "We're going to battle!" he repeated happily like an idiot.

Everywhere else in that building, similar scenes happened with all Red Hoof troops celebrating that war was finally here and that they would at last prove themselves at what Celestia had created for this very point after so many years.

Now, there was no turning back.

Though it was looming since the first Red Hooves landed on Farachan's shores, the news of war being announced like that send shivers down the back of the average Equestrian pony, all except for those Red Hooves.

They were all fired up and ready for the battles that lay ahead. For the first battle, the two forces would meet up on an open stretch of land near the Farachan/Alaccan border called Foghlamaiche, which ironically meant in the old Alaccan language meant 'beginning'… and this battle would be the beginning for the Red Hooves first test…win a battle.

In secret, both sides agreed for a date for the battle to take place within the early part of next week. For Blue Arrow and all his fellow comrades, that period before hand all went passed in a blur, the mad training that the stallions were put through seemed insane and even life threatening to any ordinary pony, but these are Red Hooves, stallions that would do anything to protect Celestia and Equestria if their lives depended on it.

The night before the battle, the Red Hooves left the city of Coltfast silently in the early hours of the day, with their amour and weapons (spears, shields and swords), and without much fanfare from the city folk to wish them well. Though it was a change from being something like a celebrity in the eyes of the public, deep down in all of them, they really did hope that everything would go in their favor.

As they flew away from the city and headed to Foghlamaiche under the cover of the now lowering moonlight, a sense of wariness seem to spread it's way through the ranks. Blue Arrow felt his stomach twisting itself in knots. So much it seem was at stake here, the first battle the Red Hooves would fight on a battlefield, also the opposing armed forces first battle. Neither Red Hoof had a clue about what their tactics and fighting styles would be like. Even those Red Hooves who had to face them on a daily basis during the unofficial skirmishes in Coltfast had doubts over the enemy, thinking that their style would be different this time round.

But most of all, it would be his first battle as a Red Hoof. Even though all around him, everypony there would be out there for their first time, Blue Arrow felt like everyone was casting their eyes on him.

It was also during this after flying for nearly half an hour, the blue stallion remembered being sent away to become a Red Hoof. "Well then," he said to himself in a tone that no one else around him could hear. "Mum, Dad, I don't think this was how you'd think I'd turn up, but I'm doing this for our homeland…and for you…"

Blue Arrow felt his red eyes feeling moist from just thinking about it. From being separated from his parents and friends from such a young age seemed like a sad story, but this was the sacrifice for becoming a Red Hoof. And right now, he couldn't reflect on the pass and cloud his emotions, he had a job to do.

Just then, a loud voice could be heard from the front from one of the commanders. Though Blue Arrow found it hard to hear at exactly what the commander was saying and who it even was (it still being pitch black), he knew that the call was basically saying that they were here at last.

Like a perfected move practiced on a daily basis, the flying Red Hooves starting flying to the ground in a banked curved manner. When they landed, they all had a look around where they were. Despite being in Farachan for a period, the Red Hooves hadn't done much research of the land; all they knew was that they were on an open stretch of land somewhere near the border.

As the battle would take place at dawn, this gave the Red Hooves the chance to have a rest and have a last chat with various Red Hoof troops. With this in mind, Blue Arrow starting walking through the Red Hoof ranks trying to find certain friends of his. The blue Pegasus shivered slightly in the damp night air, whenever it was a boiling hot day on Farachan, during the evening, everything changed as it went to freezing point.

For the Red Hooves that had been in this land for a year, Blue Arrow had heard that they were slightly paranoid thinking that this land seemed to have section of moods, like it was a person. As he wondered through the ranks looking around him, he heard of voice behind him.

"Hey! Albian!"

The red and white mane stallion stopped. Though he didn't know who that voice was, but it did seem familiar…

Turning round behind him, there before him, dressed in his red armor and armed with his spear and shield, was Shadow! Blue Arrow's eyes widened and his face broke into a big grin. "Bloody hell, it's you!" He greeted happily and walked up to the Manehatten stallion and shook his fore hoof.

"Good to see you too," Shadow replied in his Brooklyn like accent, with a smile on his lips. "Ready to kick some Alaccan ass?"

The blue stallion chuckled. "Now, now, don't get too cocky now," he reminded. "You can never be too careful."

Shadow rolled his eyes sarcastically, "Oh come on, man! You sound like my Dad, and old enough to be him like that!"

Blue Arrow spluttered a cough in a shock reaction from that put down from the black colored stallion. "What? Now listen here daft works! I'm only eighteen, same as you. I'm just followin' rules from our commanders."

Shadow raised his fore hooves in defense and a grin on his face. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm just having fun here. Nothing bad in that."

His fellow Red Hoof comrade sighed and looked out towards the darkened horizon, the place where the enemy would be waiting for them. "Nah, nothing bad in that," he remarked faintly. "Last thing I'm wantin' to do is turn on you on the eve of the battle."

Shadow nodded and replied with a grunt. The two remained silent for not long as they stared out before them, by this point, the sun was starting to rise, and an orange glow started to illuminate the land. Though it was still dark, they could all start to see better where they were. Around them, the ground was a large flat plane that went edged down towards where the Alaccan forces would be standing.

Also in that direction, rugged mountains surrounded that area, no doubt that the border was behind the mountains. It only dawned on several Red Hooves that the opposing forces would've been camped somewhere in those mountains.

After admiring the scenery around him, he turned back to Shadow, gave him a small farewell before walking his way once again through the ranks trying to look for Dynamo, Sunstar and Macca. Blue Arrow couldn't help but smile at the sea of stallions dressed in red all doing various things such as talking to one another, some using stones on the ground and using them to sharpen blades and others eating some snacks that they had brought along with them as a quick breakfast. Speaking of which, Blue Arrow didn't have much of a good breakfast as half way though his meal, he was dragged off for battle. Still, he didn't feel like complaining, not on the eve of battle.

It also seemed rather strange that their red plate armor didn't blend in with the surrounding green and brown colours of grass, they seemed like perfect moving targets to enemy forces from around. Strangely, that was not even in the back of anypony's minds then, they all looked keen to see how the Alaccan forces would try to kill them by using their infamous magic attacks that they were well known for in Equestria.

With this in mind, Blue Arrow snorted in disapproval, he like his fellow comrades all believed that using magic or any long-range weapon in battle (notably bows and arrows) were for cowards and the only way to fight was with sword or spear.

It was when he passed by a dark grey Red Hoof troop, who was sharpening his spear with a rock; that he saw in front of him for what he was looking for. Quickly he trotted over to the small group of three chatting to one another.

"Alright, lads?" Blue Arrow greeted gruffly as he sat down with Dynamo, Sunstar and Macca.

"Ah, good day dear chap," Dynamo replied warmly with a smile.

"Take it your ready?" Macca added. "'Cause let me tell you, some poor idiots don't look prepared for this—"

"Oh shut it," Sunstar groaned facehoofing.

Blue Arrow looked at Dynamo and Sunstar, both of which looked rather annoyed at Macca. "Huh? What's the matter?

The polite brown stallion sighed while glancing over at Macca giving him a glare before talking to his old friend once again. "It's nothing really, just never thought he would be this…you understand, suspicious?

"Hey!" Macca interrupted in defense. "I'm worried, ya know? I mean it's our first battle and all, surely something might go wrong!"

Blue Arrow though chuckled at the grey stallion's worries and placed a friendly hoof on Macca's shoulder. "Ah stop bein' a bloody worry wart! We're the best fighters in Equestria, besides, with us being trained by Celestia, you can't just think we'd throw it all away like that! If anythin' that Ares and his bunch of misfits throw at us, we'll give 'em hell…Celestia's blade, and ye cannae get much more stronger than that."

Though he was only having some banter with his fellow troop and wasn't being serious with his little speech, he was surprised that some nearby Red Hooves had stopped whatever they were doing and instead started to listen to him. Even the older Flying Sunstar looked impressed by the young stallion's words.

The blue stallion uttered a small laugh and rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed that he was being listened to, though shook his head and give the other Red Hooves a scolding glare. "What you lot listenin' at?" he snapped, causing the others to quickly turn away and went back to whatever they were doing.

The Albian stallion then looked over at the sight around him. By the this point, the sun was now over the horizon and at last every Red Hoof there could get a better look around them.

In front of them, the mountains loomed over the landscape that seemed to stretch it's way from both directions. Thanks to the sunlight, the mountains now looked more ominous, no doubt to wonder that the enemy forces would've been camped up there. The grass below them was quite thick and bushy, reminding Blue Arrow of thick heather back home in Alba, clearly the Alaccan forces had thought that the thick brown and green colored grass would cause the Red Hooves to struggle to fight.

Then over to Blue Arrow's left, he noticed Sixer and the other three other commanding officers, dressed in their royal golden armor, heading to the front of the armed forces. Several Red Hooves stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look at the four leaders.

"Red Hooves! Line up!" Barked out Sixer and without being asked twice, every single Hoof troop lined up in a long line of ten in a row. It was quite fast and exact how quickly the Red Hoof troops managed to line up, including even equipping on their red plated helmets. Blue Arrow had found himself in the fourth row towards the front, and even though he had practiced with these stallions from since he was only eight, it still amazed him how highly trained they were after all this time.

"I love these guys," Blue Arrow muttered to himself jokingly.

"Indeed," said a voice from beside him. Blue Arrow looked over to his right to see none other than Dynamo standing alongside him with his spear and shield.

The Albian stallion smiled when his dear friend all suited up for battle. "Just think about it," he said to Dynamo. "It'll be a right laugh this."

The brown stallions cocked an eyebrow at him. "Oh? Why is that?"

Blue Arrow cleared his throat. "Well you see—"

"Listen up boys!" Barked out another of the commanders, causing Blue Arrow to stop talking to Dynamo and focus his gaze to the front. "Today, we finally are let loose on the enemy! Remember our tactics, the front will hold their ground, the rest of you behind them will hold your ground and push forward to help act as a brick wall. If one of us fail, we all fail!"

A shudder went through Blue Arrow as he thought about those last words. The basic description of the tactic for battle (as planned by the commanding generals) was to hold their ground and push back the enemy forces. The Red Hooves had practiced this move constantly before and it required them all to work as a team. One slip up from any Red Hoof there, and the defense would fall like a pack of cards.

Blue Arrow didn't even dare think of himself as the one who would be to blame if they failed. As he looked to his left and right to get his mind off that thought, he could see that attached near to the top of some of the spears were either the Equestria flag or the Red Hoof flag, and some even had both attached.

In the meantime though, all the Red Hooves could do, was wait for Ares' army to arrive. Interestingly, while they had all heard about the tyrant leader of Alaccan, very rarely did anypony know what he looked liked in the flesh, such was an example of how much the borders would not let either information get out. All that the Red Hooves knew about Ares was that he was a green unicorn and quite a young leader being in his early thirties. Hopefully today, they would all see what he'd look like.

As the sun went further up into the sky, the Red Hooves stood there silently. None of them breathed a word; the only thing that was heard was the sound of either birds chirping away or the various clanks of spears occasionally touching one another.

During this period, Blue Arrow felt uneasy. There was a nagging fear in his mind that perhaps the Ares' army wasn't hiding in the mountains, but behind them so that they would strike an ambush on the unsuspecting Red Hooves. It didn't help that they had been standing there for almost ten minutes now and the Alaccan army hadn't turned up. Peering towards the very front, he could see the commanding officers standing beside one another starring towards the mountains.

Then came the sound of a horn.

At once, in the heart of every Red Hoof, pride and defiance sprang anew. As the horn (or other horns by the sound of things) continued, the sound of marching troops could be heard in the distance…all coming from the mountains as expected. Blue Arrow drew in some deep breaths to try and calm himself down, he felt of a mix of excitement and fear. It didn't help when he and his fellow comrades saw in the distance the first of the enemy solders appearing and making their way down the mountain face.

Like coming out of hiding holes, more and more of the Alaccan armed forces marched towards the battlefield. By hundreds and two hundreds, the army grew, and so did the amount of stunned looks on the faces of many Red Hoof faces.

"Hold your ground!" Cried Sixer hovering in the air to the red army before turning round to look at the opposing army. By this point, the last of the remaining troops emerged from the mountains to join the rest of the army who now had stopped and stood there ready for battle.

As with the other army now standing almost half a mile from the Red Hooves, the Equestrians could now get a better look at this army. The Alaccan army's armor colors were of a dark green and contained purple sections that looked strangely organic, that being said, the shape of their armor itself looked all sharp and seemed like it came from a different world all together. Finally, those who had just made it to the bottom of the mountain, the large Alaccan army stood there awaiting orders. It was quite a shock to the Red Hooves at first as the Ares' army outnumbered the Red Hooves three to one, but the shock the Red Hooves had at first was soon replaced with thoughts of cunningness. Every Red Hoof knew that just because an opposing army seemed bigger than their own, it didn't mean that they would wipe them out easily.

Among that sea of red, Blue Arrow's lips curled up with a smirk, plenty of troops to take care off, even the sensible Dynamo standing alongside him had a smirk painted on his face. It seemed that a current surge of energy had surged its way through the ranks and filled them with all the confidence that was needed.

"Stay here boys!" Cried out one of the other commanders. "It's time for last minute negations with them." And with that, the commander officers and a flag barrier Red Hoof troop (all Pegasus) flew off to the centre of the battlefield.

Then out of the Alaccan army, a similar ground appeared out of that army and headed out to the centre of the battleground to join the Royal Guard ponies. Suddenly they saw Ares, green hid color as mentioned before, but had red hawk like eyes, an orange mane and tail with white streaks and a long and thin moustache. He was dressed in similar fashion to his own army, but without a helmet.

As the two leaders met in the centre of the grassy battlefield, Ares seemed to have the manner of a stallion who's spirit had never been broken and for a moment, turned his penetrating gaze to the Red Hooves in an arrogant manner.

"So that's him then?" Dynamo whispered to Blue Arrow.

"That's our culprit alright," Blue Arrow replied nodding. "There is somethin' familiar about him, though I can't put my hoof on it…"

The brown stallion looked over his friend deep in thought for a moment before looking back onto the combat zone to watch the last piece of debate taking place. Strangely, the once thought less-than-a-minute debate by many Red Hooves was dragged on for about five minutes. Though they couldn't hear anything from where they were, they could see that menacing grin on Ares' face never leaving, like he was enjoying the moment.

Finally, both sides headed back to their respective sides. There the Red Hooves could see the serious look on the faces of the commanding troops, all apparent seemed like something had gone on there.

Sixer hovered above them to give them a last minute talk. "Now then, there is no turning back. Out there, Ares and his army will want to wipe us out in less than an hour, little does he know that before me are Celestia's greatest warriors. All these stallions in red will do anything to protect her majesty from forces such as them!"

He paused for a moment to take a last look at Ares' vast army before looking back at the Red Hooves. "Today, we will show the world that whatever threatens our homeland, the Red Hooves will answer the call! Ride to battle! NO SURRENDER!"

"NO SURRENDER!"

The Red Hooves chanting those two words over and over in what might seem to a neutral in all of this as a threat to the other side. On the other side, Ares drew forward many Earth ponies to the front, intending to wait for the Red Hooves to strike first. But in the plain between them, their defiance burned like fire as they chanted, banged their weapons and mocked Ares to attack first. Strangely, the tyrant leader seemed undeterred by all this and decided to let the Red Hooves have their wish. With him giving a hoof signal to his troops, he ordered the Earth ponies to charge.

At last, the battle of the borders had begun.

Upon seeing the Earth ponies of the Alaccan side blindly charging across the field, the Red Hooves stopped all their chanting and prepared themselves for the impact that would follow. At the front, the front line of Red Hooves held up the shields to brace themselves from the incoming army. Behind them, the second row of Red Hooves also had their shields pressed up against the back of the forward stallions and positioned their spears behind the small gaps between Red Hoof troops to give a surprise attack.

The rest of the line of Red Hooves held their shields up too pressed up behind the stallion in front of them. Their job was to simply push forward. And it was among in this lot that Blue Arrow had this task to execute. The charging ponies thundered across that field towards them, and even the Earth pony section seemed to have more than all the other Red Hooves there.

The commanding ponies on their side flew to back of the crowd to watch the battle from the air, and every second passing by, the sea of green and purple edged ever forward to the waiting Red Hooves. Blue Arrow started to feel worried once again, what if this move didn't work? There was no way of telling and whenever it was going to work of not, they were going to try it first hoofed.

The forces were now just thirty feet away from them and Blue Arrow bit his bottom lip, closed his eyes and braced himself. The voices got louder and louder, then there were an almighty shudder that nearly pushed Blue Arrow back. At that moment came the sound of spears striking out and the painful cries of stallions. Opening his eyes, he saw in front of him Red Hoof troops pushing forwards as best as they could, but it was in the very front that Blue Arrow's eyes widened in amazement. The second line of Red Hooves struck out their spears through the gaps in the front like a viper's tongue. Blood went up in the air as many of the earth ponies on the Alaccan side fell to the relentless attacks from the Red Hooves.

That sight alone inspired him to carry on, and like with the rest, he pushed forward.

"Is that the best you can do?!" Yelled out of Red Hoof troop in front of him as they carried on with their offensive.

"My mother could fight better than you lot!" Mocked another Red Hoof from somewhere.

Painful screams filled the air as more and more Earth ponies came crashing to the ground in a bloody shambles, though he couldn't see that great from where he was, Blue Arrow could tell that the Red Hooves were the better side during the earlier parts of the battle.

The Red Hooves heaved and pushed forward with their hind hooves digging almost into the ground. This part of the battle itself seemed to go on for about five minutes. Five bloody minutes of failing Alaccan troops being killed second by second. It was quite amazing that despite the fierce loss of troops the Alaccans were facing, the Equestrian side had virtually lost none of their own. Suddenly for those in the back felt the front gave way and that they could almost walk forward.

The reason for this was that the surviving Earth ponies (now reduced to less than half) had turned back and started to retreat back to the Alaccan side. From this, many Red Hooves, including Blue Arrow, vocally expressed jokingly disappointment.

"Oh come on! Some of us haven't got a kill yet!" They would cry out, though the retreating earth ponies had no intention of heading back as they ran for their lives, though some Red Hooves weren't going to let them off that easy.

Instead, some starting to throw their spears forward at the defeated Earth ponies. Most of the spears missed them, though some stuck down a few of them.

"Hold it boys!" Snapped one of the commanders behind them. "Don't waste those damn spears of the shamed retreating type!" Despite his words, the Red Hooves seemed to be half mad with ecstasy, all of them wanting a kill.

"Head forward!" Came the sound of Sixer's voice, and as he ordered, the Red Hooves marched, while trampling over the bodies of the dead Earth ponies.

"Hell of a good start," Blue Arrow said to Dynamo while minding where he stood on.

"Indeed, but a long way to go still," Dynamo replied while concentration on what was happening in front of them.

Looking ahead, Blue Arrow could see the surviving Earth ponies heading back into the ranks, with some of the forces in the front beating them up as they tried to get through.

"Halt!" Cried Sixer's voice again, and every stallion dressed in red stopped. Once again, several Red Hooves began chanting abusive words towards the Alaccans and banged their shields and weapons together to rub it in.

Then they saw Ares giving another hoof signal to his army as this time, unicorn stallions went forward. Upon seeing this, the Red Hooves went silent and starred at the scene in front of them.

The Alaccans were getting ready for their second wave of attack.

Then along that front line, they could see the unicorns' horns glowing, charging up for an attack…a long distance one.

"DEFEND!" Sixer cried out and the Red Hooves quickly raised their shields to prepare themselves from the attack. They were wary that the Alaccans were infamous for perfecting the art of magic for not only spells, but also for battles like this. Now they seemed like they were going to prove a point.

Out of their horns, white bolts of magic surged forwards towards the red side of the battlefield. This time, even the bravest Red Hoof had to think about this one. Who knew if their spells would be powerful enough to push them back?

The white bolts raced forward at such a speed that it didn't take long until they reached the Red Hooves. All of which expected a blowback of some sort, they were surprised by what they felt from the attack.

The white bolts hitting their shields was just somepony chucking stones and rocks at them. It was pathetic.

"Alaccan cowards," growled a Red Hoof from behind Blue Arrow, but Blue Arrow starting chuckling at this.

"What the hell you laughing at?" Said a large beefy type Red Hoof standing beside Blue Arrow, and other Red Hooves looked back wondering why as well.

"Isn't it ironic?" Blue Arrow laughed. "They are said to be the greatest in magic when it comes to war, sayin' that their attacks could kill us…" Then he started laughing, then other Red Hooves, now getting the joke, starting laughing like idiots while the white bolts of magic were pelting them relentlessly.

During this, some Earth ponies from the previous failed attack that were wounded badly and struggling to get back, became the unfortunate victims to be killed in the crossfire. The fact that Ares didn't wait for all of them to get back into the ranks was probably acting as a punishment for their defeat.

After a minute of white bolts striking the Red Hooves and was in no way doing the Alaccans any good, Ares give a hoof signal to call off the attack. For a moment, the Red Hooves one by one lowered their scorched shields to make sure that the coast was clear, and when they saw what had happened, they began taunting their foes once again.

"C'mon ya wee Jessie boys!" Blue Arrow taunted towards the ever growing restless green and purpled armored solders who looked like they were on the verge of breaking out of their ranks and taking down their nemesis'.

Most peculiarly was that despite what the Red Hooves were doing, Ares seemed at ease with it and secretly smiled. They may have been his sworn enemy at this moment in time, but by the gods, they certainly weren't another run-of-the-mill army. They certainly made a good enemy.

Then with another wave of his fore hoof and the sounding of the horns, the entire army started moving forward. And for his own safety, he and his commanding officers walked through the ranks heading to the back.

From out of that vast army of Ares', Pegasus' of many types starting flying over the marching ground base troops, all of which heading to the Red Hoof forces.

At once upon seeing this, the Red Hooves were silenced.

"BACK TWO ROWS, FACE THE PEGASUS FORCES!" Sixer roared to the red army. And without being asked twice, the back two rows rose up and charged at the rival Pegasus group (also larger then them.)

Sixer then noticed the swarm of Alaccans heading towards the rest of the Red Hoof soldiers on the ground and awaited orders. "THE REST OF YOU, HOLD YOUR GROUND LIKE BEFORE AND FIGHT!" Like before, the ground based Hooves raised their shields up and prepared for a repeat attack like before.

During all this, Blue Arrow glanced up into the air and saw that the two flying forces had joined battle and various pieces of steel weaponry flashed in the morning sunshine. Though he couldn't be distracted for long as he turned his gaze back to the ever-closer charging army of Alaccans.

Just like before with the Earth ponies, they struck the front line with tremendous force, but the Hooves held their ground and, just like before also, the second row began thrusting their now bloody spears and the unsuspecting Alaccans. Blue Arrow did his part in that vast sea of red armor to push the forces back, but it was even more difficult as there was three times more than the first wave of attack and it did look like that the Red Hooves would fail.

While this was going on, bodies from the battle in the air came crashing down around them, all of which so far had been made up from Alaccan forces. Wherever or not this was helping the Red Hooves for motivation, the Red Hooves on the ground stopped being pushed back, and then with an almighty push (to the cries of many stallions) the Red Hooves surged forward and began pushing back the Alaccan forces. In this process, some Alaccans were trampled to death and the Red Hooves pushed forward with all their might.

Now with the Alaccans forward line broken, the Red Hooves all went in for the kill. Not wanting to waste a minute, Blue Arrow raced flying forward, roaring towards an unsuspecting Alaccan solider. With his spear he struck down an Earth pony killing him. He grabbed hold of his spear as he flew past the now dead solider and prepared to kill another. This time he flung it forward at a charging Pegasus troop, causing the enemy stallion to do a backwards flip as he crashed down. By now, the sound of battle was in full swing.

Suddenly Blue Arrow felt something knocking him out of the air and caused him to crash down. He landed with a heavy clang from his armor against the ground. He quickly turned round where he was lying and saw a unicorn solider with his horn glowing; the blue Pegasus had been brought down from a magic attack from this unicorn. The unicorn aimed his horn towards the Red Hoof to finish him off, but Blue Arrow give the enemy troop a kick to the jaw with his hind hooves and quickly found himself to his hooves. Then he grabbed hold of his spear and stabbed it through the unicorn's face.

Streams of blood gushed out from the unicorn as Blue Arrow pulled out his spear and looked around for another enemy. By now, anything that was green and purple was killable. He had gone into a blood lust almost without thinking about how his comrades were doing, forgetting his words that he had told Shadow earlier about not to be too cocky. Again and again he stuck down Alaccan stallions, killing one through his face, another through a gap in that stallion's armour and even throwing his spear upwards towards a Pegasus stallion having a battle in the air with a fellow Red Hoof.

The spear hit it's target through the stallion's under belly and brought the Alaccan solider crashing to the ground. However, as the corpse hit the ground and when Blue Arrow raced over to retrieve his spear, he was disappointed that his now bloody spear had broken in two. Though not to be put off by this, he brought out his saber like sword and raced off flying into the air to find another victim.

"Come on ya bastards!" He roared out as he went up into the air to strike down another Pegasus pony. This time, he thrust his gleaming steel sword into the throat of the stallion. Blood spat back into Blue Arrow's face as he struck the sword into the stallion. As the now dead solider fell to the ground, Blue Arrow took a very brief moment to observe the battle; there the Red Hooves were fighting like crazed Stallions in love with danger and death.

Looking forward he saw Ares standing with his commanders watching as the battle went on. Then Blue Arrow felt rather cocky and blindly charged forward to the Alaccan leader, then two Alaccan Pegasus stallions from out of nowhere barred his way forward and then, he was down spiraling towards the ground. He growled in pain as he impacted with the ground.

He had landed in the reserve area for the Alaccans.

Now many enemy soldiers surrounded him, but Blue Arrow grabbed his sword, but forgetting his shield, and began striking blow to blow with his sword before flying up into the air to avoid them. For once in that battle, he felt like he had nearly cheated death there, but heading back to the ever-forward pushing Red Hooves laying everything in front of them to waste like a tsunami wave. Just then, he saw the hovering Red Hooves flying towards him with their swords and spears charging towards the reserve line.

"Where you going?" Shouted one of the Hooves there. "Get back there, we're weakening their lines and finishing them off!"

Not one for arguing, he fell in with them and turned round to attack the stunned Alaccan forces. Hurriedly, they quickly moved into their positions to fend of the charging Red Hooves. With the Red Hooves roaring as loud as they could, they seemed to fly faster and faster as they got nearer to the enemy line, all of them now looking quite fearful and some in the very back turning away and fleeing for their lives.

The red wave of death completely engulfed the Alaccan forces, leaving a mass pile of crushed corpses in their charging wake. Striking his sword to left to right, Blue Arrow blindly attacked at anything below them. They kept on flying onwards until they were at the either end of the line of troops.

Then in the distance, they could see many more troops retreating from the dangerous Red Hooves, but the Red Hooves took no prisoners.

Instead they kept on flying and began surrounding the retreating Alaccan forces like a swarm of wasps. By this point they landed and began killing them like helpless creatures.

"Where's this great army of yours then?" Blue Arrow taunted to a fallen Alaccan troop after having his throat slid opened by Blue Arrow. Then he looked over behind him to see now the other Alaccan forces were literally being bulldozed back by the Red Hooves. Then like acting like a second wall, Blue Arrow's group of Red Hooves headed back to trap the retreating Alaccan forces from escaping.

Their only way was to face off the Red Hooves, but the thousand somewhat Alaccan soldiers of any pony race were quickly overwhelmed by the two half's of Red Hooves as the closed the gap on them, picking them off one by one.

By now, Blue Arrow felt like he was on cloud nine, the battle was going to be a victory for the Red Hooves. In almost an hour, the vast Alaccan army had been reduced to half it's sized by the smaller number of Red Hoof forces, who in turned had seemly not lost one comrade during the course of the battle.

Surely Celestia had to be watching over them to have been aiding them?

Whatever might be the case for the Red Hooves' victory in this battle; the surviving Alaccans were utterly routed as many of them fled for the mountains to escape the onslaught that had enfolded before them. The lucky Pegasus types flew as fast as they could managed, but the ground based ponies were quickly killed off by the arrogant Red Hooves, who seemed by now not wanting any survivors from this battle.

As Blue Arrow finished off an Earth pony, he looked up to see Ares in the distance watching the battle. Oh, how he came close to killing him off (or so he thought!) He noticed Ares still with a small smile on his lips as his commanding generals could only watch in horror as their army was routed. Then with a flash, the group was teleported away by Ares from the site.

Why was Ares still smiling despite losing this battle? It did break his train of thought during the battle, which now, the Red Hooves started with their taunting and chanting again as the lucky Alaccan troops still on the run fled for the mountains.

"Cowards!"

"Scum!"

"Crap fighters!"

Those were only just a handful of insults the Red Hooves spat at the retreating forces. Then, the cries from the Red Hooves became less and less until they were silenced. Noticing this, Blue Arrow turned round to see their commanders walk through the ranks, covered in spits of blood from the battle.

Each of them looked serious from before the battle, had something gone wrong?

Then they walked up on top of a small mound and observed the battlefield around them. The ground was stained black with blood, bodies of Alaccan soldiers piled upon one another. Incredibly, not one Red Hoof solider among those bodies from what any there could see!

Then Sixer stepped forward and looked down at the victorious army, his expression never changing once. Blue Arrow looked over to another Red Hoof at wondering at what would happen next.

While the silence hung in the air like the stench of dead bodies, Sixer's lips turned into a small grin, and then, he raised his sword into the air triumphantly, the cheers and whooping of Red Hooves celebrating their victory.

The first ever Red Hoof battle and win for them.

Blue Arrow joined in with the cheers and hugged nearby Red Hooves with ecstatic happiness. Finally, he removed his helmet and shook the wet, sweaty mane away from his face before throwing it down on top of the corpse of a dead Alaccan solider. Then he began to think about it, it was a win and a major one for the Red Hooves, but there was a long way to go from here.

Whatever would happen in the following weeks and months in this war, one thing was for certain that the Red Hooves had gone out and proved that they were worthy fighters for Celestia and Equestria.

Now they had to keep on fighting to win the Farachan war.

Sixer (C) Thunderhawk7865