Soldiers in Equestria
By Cabal
Editor: Sir Leadhead
Chapter 2: The Invasion
Not far from a known Diamond Dog point of entry lay a small town called Ponyville. It was a relatively modern agricultural/suburban population center that was primarily Canterlot’s preferred source for food. It also was home to the friendliest ponies in all of Equestria, with only six guards that usually just stood at the town hall, the Mayor’s residence and the town square when the local marketplace opened for business.
It was also the first town to come under attack.
The first two guards that were walking along on their way to the usual early morning opening of the market were suddenly blinded by a small explosion of cobblestone and dirt. A hole had appeared before them, and before they could shake off the dirt and the shock of surprise, they were both suddenly dragged into the hole by something sinister. And as quickly as the hole had opened, they were gone. The only evidence that they were there was their fading screams on the way down.
At the same time, other holes had appeared in different spots throughout the town, and almost as quickly, hundreds of Diamond Dogs burst through them. Wielding clubs, spears and slingshots, they ran towards the center of the town towards the Mayor’s residence. Barking loudly, some of them broke off from the initial scout party to randomly smash through the doors and windows of now terrorized pony families just waking up to have breakfast.
***
Mayor Mare, the town’s elected leader, woke with a fright as a pegasus guard pony banged open her bedroom door. He was clearly distressed as his eyes were wide with shock. His wings were flapping widely out of sync, making hovering difficult as he sputtered, “Mayor! The town is under attack by Diamond Dogs!”
Shaking off the initial shock of being so quickly awoken, the tan colored Mayor Mare quickly rolled out of bed and onto her hooves. Still quite groggy, she pushed her head quickly over the bedside desk to put on her glasses. She then turned towards the guard and asked in an annoyed tone of voice “And why captain, am I so rudely awakened when you and the others could have simply just repelled them like all the other times?”
“Mayor,” the guard began, before turning his head to look out the room window when the barking came close. “This isn’t the occasional three or five-dog raiding party! It’s a non-stop flood of them coming up from under the town! It’s a full on invasion, and with only six of us and a handful of civilian unicorns, we cannot hope to stop them! We need to evacuate!”
The mayor scoffed, “What nonsense! I’m certain that the princess’ student, Twilight Sparkle, can handle it.” She said the last bit proudly, being that Twilight was a very gifted unicorn and had helped protect the town more times then the mayor could remember.
“But Mayor! Ms. Sparkle and her dragon left yesterda-”
Before he could finish, the bedroom window was smashed, and a Diamond dog attempted to climb through. The mayor screamed, and the Pegasus guard rushed the intruder, and knocked it forcefully back outside. More windows in the house then began to break, and loud snarling was heard.
“Captain, GET ME OUT OF HERE!” Screamed the mayor.
The Guard took the cue, and scooped up the mayor onto his back, they made like bat out of hell towards the shattered window and then flew towards the town hall.
***
The town was in chaos. The first ponies that came into contact with the first wave of dog invaders were either knocked out or captured. Earth ponies that evaded both fates galloped away, screaming for help as they ran out of town. In the more central parts of town, the minority unicorn and pegasi population formed groups of spontaneous militia and with mixed success were able to halt the advance of the invaders using magical shields and missiles, while those having the gifted ability to fly dive bombed them with rocks.
One such Pegasus by the name of Rainbow Dash (named for her multicolored mane that looked like a rainbow), cheered as the rock she dropped on one of the Diamond Dogs made successful contact, knocking it out. A unicorn picked up the dog with it’s magic and tossed it towards the rest of the group, causing them to stumble in confusion.
Rainbow Dash laughed at the sight, and taunted “AH HA! You guys are so funny, you should be in a circus!”
“Rainbow Dash!” a unicorn on the ground shouted, momentarily distracted while blocking a slingshot round, “Quit fooling around and get another rock!”
Rainbow Dash saluted, and flew away to get another rock. While flying, she heard a familiar scream from a shop nearby.
“Rarity!”
Rarity was a white unicorn pony who ran the Carousel boutique clothing shop. From what Rainbow Dash could tell, Diamond Dogs were breaking in to her two story fru-fru of a shop. Rainbow abandoned her rock search and flew into the shop’s balcony window.
Rarity was terrorized. She was captured once before by Diamond Dogs years ago, and they had made her into a workhorse. She couldn’t stand being in underground in the dirt, nor endure the embarrassment of being tied up to a cart again. She wasted no time in barricading the door and the windows with mannequins chairs, tables, and even her little stage which she used to show off her designs to other fashionistas. It can be rebuilt, but not if she was captured.
She squeaked as Rainbow Dash suddenly surprised her when she landed next to her on the ground floor. “Rainbow Dash!” Rarity said with some relief, “I’m glad you here! The ruffians are destroying my shop!”
“Umm... duh! If you havn't noticed, They are destroying the whole town!” Rainbow Dash retorted. “We need to get out of here!”
“And leave my shop unprotected, and leave all my beautiful clothes?! Absolutely not!”
The barricaded door at that point, began to crack.
Rarity gasped, “On second thou-”, but was unable to complete her sentence as Rainbow Dash ran underneath Rarity, picked her up, and flew out just as the door gave way.
***
Mayor Mare was in her office composing an emergency letter to her sovereign, Princess Celestia. Although it was becoming difficult to write neatly as ponies had completely filled the building from side-to-side, either to hide or petition her for the obvious. The remaining Guards were busily throwing ponies back into the lobby, but as quickly as they threw them out, more came in.
“Mayor! What are we going to do?!”
“Mayor Mare! My foal has kidnapped!”
“My house is on fire!”
“The horror!”
“SHUT UP, EVERYPONY!” screamed the Mayor, throwing inkblots from her quill everywhere as she raised and waved them in rage them to get their attention. She relaxed and attempted to explain. “I am very aware that Diamond Dogs are in the town and causing trouble. That is why I am writing a letter to the princess. So, as your elected official, it is imperative that you allow me to get things under control, allow me to do my job, and finally-- GET OUT OF MY OFFICE! GUARDS!”
Instead of waiting to be tossed out, everyone in the office fled back into the crowded lobby. The four remaining guards quickly flew in and shut the door behind them, holding it shut. The captain of the group approached the mayor's desk and said, ”Two of my guardsponies are missing, the town unicorns and pegasi are holding the line, and... this is a guess, but anypony who isn't here, run out of town, or defending the town has probably been captured... orders?”.
The Mayor was finishing up her letter and about to speak before a window was smashed by what appeared to be a unicorn surfing on a rainbow. But that interesting concept was immediately debunked when the rainbow crashed onto the floor, breaking a few of the wood planks that it consisted of, and the unicorn flipped off, screaming and soon found herself lodged in the wall.
The Mayor, completely out of adrenaline, and sanity, simply twitched. “RAINBOW DASH!” she said in a feigned voice of delight, “I am so glad you're here!”
Rainbow Dash, with the help of the captain, dislodged herself from the floor, and immediately hovered in front of the desk, and looked at the mayor confused “Oww.... you are?”
“Yes, of course! I have a letter for you to deliver,” The mayor twitched again, and continued whilst rolling up the scroll, “deliver this letter to Princess Celestia, and please, for the love of Luna, DO NOT BREAK ANYMORE WINDOWS!”
Rainbow Dash saluted, “Yes ma'am!” grabbed the scroll with her teeth, and immediately took off out through the shattered window and headed towards Equestria's capital of Canterlot.
Both the Mayor and Captain went to the window to watch her fly away.
“I do hope Celestia will send more guards before its too late...”
Then a small voice spoke, “Umm... excuse me. I know that we are all busy, but could somepony please get me out of THIS WALL?!”
Meanwhile, the unicorns and pegasi were chanting and cheering as they were starting to gain the upper hand. The Diamond Dogs were now taking a defensive stance to hold the ground that they gained and to protect the groups that were carrying or escorting their captured prisoners. It was now impossible to use slingshot rounds, as they would either bounce off of the unicorns magical shields, or be caught by magic and thrown back. The Dogs had to take refuge in the houses, as the pegasi were being ceaseless in their aerial bombardment.
Just as it appeared that the ponies were winning, the clock tower chimed. And that was the signal to the Diamond Dog shock troops that the surprise attack was over, and the support troops were on the way. On cue, the horror truly began.
Out of the holes, came the Diamond Dogs transformed by The Black Gem. They forced themselves out of the burrows and into the frey, charging the unicorn group closest to them. The unicorns and pegasi were dumbstruck for a few seconds at their new enemy before redirecting all their fire at them.
Stones fell on them, and they shrugged them off...
Magic hit them, they kept going...
“Run away! Stampede!!!” screamed the pegasi at their unicorn friends on the ground who were trying to defy the inevitable.
The gigantic dogs made contact, and the shields shattered. They then began to beat down the remaining resistance with their front legs, knocking out ponies left and right. One of them grabbed a unicorn with their teeth, and threw her back towards the scouts, who were more than happy to grab her in a net.
The pegasi looked on in horror, swooping down to pick up the remaining ponies that were about to get bowled over, flying them towards the town hall. Some of them were unlucky, as the Diamond Dog scouts resumed shooting at them with slingshot rounds, and well placed shots to the head or wings guaranteed that there would be flying ponies to be used as slave labor, whether they liked working underground or not.
At the town hall, ponies had completely overfilled the building to the point that they were practically huddling against the outside walls, spilling out of the doorway and windows, and were essentially between a rock and a hard place as hundreds of diamond dogs now surrounded the building. Prior to being surrounded, the mayor ordered the pegasi who arrived carrying unicorns to fly away with them to Canterlot, and the guards took a defensive stance outside the entrance.
The enemy did not advance. Instead they parted way for a very old dog with a crown of gems on his head and something that glinted in his hands. Flanking him on either side of was two of the monstrosities that brought fresh screams from the building, and shivers to the guards.
All three of them, King Skyle, Jowler, and Morhowl stopped a few paces away from the guards. Then, Skyle hissed, “Surrender!”
The Captain of the Guard shouted “Charge!”, and the last four pegasus guards ran full speed towards the three Dogs in a last ditch effort. King Skyle barked, and Jowler and Mohowl defended the king by using the momentum of the guards and throwing them away from the king and into the awaiting crowd of scouts, who promptly subdued them with clubs and chains.
“Just a minute, Mister!”
King Skyle, who was momentarily distracted by the beating of the guards suddenly came face to face with a yellow and pink maned pegasus, and it looked angry.
“Do you know how much trouble you are in? How dare you hurt every pony in town! You should be asham- eep!”
“Fluttershy! Get away from ‘em!”
An orange pony with a hat called AppleJack had just grabbed the tail of Fluttershy and was dragging her back towards the town hall. King Skyle was briefly amused by the courage of both ponies, but it was something that could not stand. King Skyle raised The Black Gem one more and a bright purple light flashed.
Both ponies were transformed into transparent crystal statues. Both sporting a terrorized look on their faces.
This elicited oohs and aahs from the crowd of Diamond Dogs, and screams from the town hall.
Skyle raised the Diamond threateningly towards the building and shouted “Surrender, nowwww!”
Everpony that was inside the town hall nearest the mayor looked at her. The mayor, flabbergasted at everything that happened, slowly made her way to her desk, and pulled out a white handkerchief, and slowly walked outside.
Ponyville had fallen.