The House of Earthborn are largest of the six other houses, their territory expands from The Frontier to The Heartlands. The Earthborn contains forces between 20 000 to 30 000 ponies, excluding their buffalo allies. With such a large force, the House of Earthborn requires huge amount of supplies, one them being lumbers.
The faction's various war machines needs large amounts of wood to be made, and with the demand for more of these machines, they need a large source of trees. Luckily there's just happens to be a vast forest near them, that place is called the Everfree Forest.
Before Equestria was divided, the Everfree forest has been just a mysterious and scary place,that nopony enters. Now the very same forest has started to expand, slowly taking over the lands. This drew the attention of the Supreme Commander and made her goal to stop the expanding forest.
One of her plans to stop the forest's expansion came from at the suggestion of one of subordinate. He suggests that to solve their lumber problem, they could set numerous lumber mills surrounding the forest in their territory. The idea was accepted, soon lumber mills were being constructed and the trees were being cut down. Not only did this contain the expanding forest, it also supplied the house a steady source of lumber.
In the first month since this started, the ponies faced little opposition and only the occasional wildlife attack. Then as they went further in, they encountered more opposition from the forest. Manticores, Timber wolves, Parasprites, Wild Ponies, and some Zebras assaulted the lumber mills. This forced the Earthborn to send in more troops to defend the mills.
After the addition of more soldiers, the operation went on more smoothly. That was until the ponies working the mills stopped sending in their progress reports and remained silenced. Soon all the lumber mills did the same and became quiet.
Scouts were sent in to investigate,they returned back reporting the camps to be completely deserted. No bodies were found in the area, the only thing left were a couple of abandoned weapons and destroyed buildings.
In response to this new development, Supreme Commander Applejack ordered several companies to investigate the mills and to find out what happened. After they were sent, it was only a few days before they returned back, wounded and scared. When asked what happened, many of the soldiers made some very exaggerated claims, confusing the Supreme Commander and her brother, General Macintosh.
They demanded the presence of their company leader, Captain Rocky Road. Instead of him, it was his lieutenant that appeared. He explained that their Captain perished in the fight, he did however write a detailed description in his field reports. Revealing what happened. The lieutenant hoofed the report to his two superiors.
This is his report:
Day one
My company finally arrived at one of the mills, on the outskirt of the Everfree Forest. Like the scout said the place was completely abandoned, the buildings were wrecked, but no bodies were found. One of my trackers discovered from the footprints, that no ponies or wildlife attacked this place. Rather something larger, I speculated that it could be one of the many beasts living in this damn forest. We set up camp for the night and we'll start our operation tomorrow.
Day two
In the morning I'll take part of an expedition force to enter to forest, while my lieutenant stays behind and fortify the defenses at our base camp. On our expedition we encountered some opposition, we just happened to come across a group of zebras. They responded with hostility and attacked us, we of course easily defeated them with minimal casualties. We then came across one of the major settlements in the forest, I decided that we'll need the rest of the forces to attack.
At this point the captain's report became more frantic.
Shit shit shit Goddamn this night has gotten bad. At first it was all smooth but now everything went to shit. Alright let me explained it all started when the expedition forces tried to return. Then these things appeared. Giant trees giant freaking trees came and attacked us. My guys tried their best but those fucking destroyed them. Got hit myself barely made it. We finally reached our base camp but it was under attack. more of those fucking tree things were either smashing of crushing my forces spotted some them chucking rocks at us too. Luckily my lieutenant was smart enough to take care of those damn things. Set those fuckers on fire. We drovedthem back but loss alot of guys. I fear that we may be facing more of these things.
After reading the report, the lieutenant explained that by next morning more of the Everfree forces came and attack. Including those giant tree beasts. He explained that the exaggeration the survivors were saying are really truth, the forest is alive and they seek revenge.
After hearing him out, Applejack dismissed the lieutenant and talked to her brother.
"Big Mac this seems to be more serious then I thought."
"Eeyup," the big red stallion responded.
"Then you know what that means, right?"
"Eeyup," he said and trotted away.
The orange mare then ordered one of her subordinate to come over.
"Sergeant Breaker, inform our forces that General Macintosh will be leading an invasion in the Everfree Forest. Pick any available forces and have them joined my brother." The sergeant did as she commanded and left to spread the word.
A couple of days later, a large army of Earthborn forces trotted towards the Everfree Forest. In front of the large army is the big red stallion himself, General Big Macintosh, in his juggernaut armor.
Unbeknownst to the invading force, lurking in the vast forest are the guardians of the Everfree. These wooden giants watched the incoming invaders and prepare themselves. They will be first and last forces to try and invade their forest.