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// Invasion of the Equine Empire 
// Story: Terror in Equestria 6:  The Great War 
// by StormLuna 
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Two weeks had passed since Lyra headed home and Lemon Hearts had put her troops through intensive exercises.  It was a calm morning in mid-July in Ridead as Lemon Hearts addressed her troops.  She said, "Alright troops, the time has come.  Luna had her forces killed Crescent Moon and now she must pay.  Black Feet, Green Cloud, you guys are to sail north and attack Maredrid.  Once you get there, cover everypony in ooze, destroy it and leave none alive.  Then you sail northward up the coast, do the same to every other city and once you hit Braylin, leave the ships in their shipyard and fly to the northeast."



Black Feet asked, "Why would we do that?"

Lemon Hearts growled, "Because that will take you to Marescow.  I am certain that is where Luna will take her beloved citizens, well the ones that get out alive anyway.  Once you get to Marescow, kill everypony, destroy the city and bring me Luna's head on a platter."

One of the changelings laughed, "But your Majesty, what if we can't find a platter?  Would it be ok if we brought it in a bowl instead?"

Lemon Hearts' eyes began to shine a bright white, she fired a powerful bolt of energy at the soldier and incinerated him.  She stood up on her balcony and shouted to her troops.  "THIS IS SERIOUS BUSINESS.  THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS TO IDIOTS WHO TREAT THIS LIKE IT IS A GAME."

General Eternal Darkness asked, "What about us dark unicorns?  What do you want us to do?"

Lemon Hearts replied, "I want you guys to march to Stalliongrad.  It is a heavily fortified city and while it is mostly earth ponies, they do have a few dark unicorns of their own.  Marching in there full force may result in many losses so what I want you to do is surround the city.  This will cut off their supply lines and eventually they will run out of food and starve.  THEN move in there and raise our flag."

One of the dark unicorns asked, "Your Majesty, please don't get mad at me for asking this but what will we do for food."

Lemon Hearts' eyes began to shine white and with her voice dripping with sarcasm, she replied, "Oh your majesty, please don't get mad at me for asking this, but what will we do for food?"  She then glared at him and continued, "What the hay do you think you will eat.  You will eat the same crap you will be eating on the way up there, you will graze on the available vegetation.  GOOD GRIEF, DO I HAVE A MILITARY FULL OF IDIOTS?"

Her forces looked stunned because she had never been this ill-tempered.  She then shouted at them, "TO WAR, TO VICTORY!"  She then motioned for them to go on their missions, all except for a thousand soldiers she was keeping in Ridead in the event they were to be invaded.

Up in Maredrid Luna stood on her balcony in front of a concerned city's residents.  She started, "Ok everypony, I think the time has come that we must, for now, retreat further north.  I love it here as much as all of you do but we are very close to the border with Saddle Arabia.  Our city will be their first target."

A citizen in the crowd asked, "Queen Luna, where will be relocating to?"

Luna replied, "We will be relocating to the city of Marescow, way up north.  It is a well fortified city plus there are three mountain ranges between here and there.  Saddle Arabian forces are not used to the cold and flying through such frigid regions should kill a decent portion of them."

Another citizen asked, "When will we be leaving?"

Luna replied, "Today.  I want you to grab only your most prized possessions, one item per pony and get to the passenger train.  The whole evacuation will take four to five days so it will be a matter of who gets to the train first.  We have to get going, now."

The citizens dispersed, headed home and grabbed their one prized possession.  Very soon a line of ponies was waiting at the train station waiting for the train to leave.  Luna saw this and had a sense of nervousness about her and her officers could tell it.  General Black Night stood next to her and asked, "Your Majesty, you seem awfully nervous.  Why is that?"

Luna looked down at him and replied, "Well General, I am nervous because I'm not sure if we will be able to get everypony out of here before Lemon Hearts' forces get here.  Many of them are earth ponies and can't just fly out of here or use magic to defend themselves."

Black Night asked, "I am assuming that both dark Alicorns and changelings will be invading?"

Luna replied, "Yes, they will be.  It isn't so much the dark Alicorns I'm worried about, it is changelings.  The changelings of the world are much tougher and more resistant to energy than they used to be thanks to Pinkie's spell that made them so."

Black Night scratched his head and replied, "I don't get it.  What do you mean?"

Luna replied, "Well a little over 4,000 years ago when Colgate was educating those who were Twilight's friends to defend Equestria against the then dark goddess,  Pinkie Pie, one of Twilight's old friends discovered a spell to strengthen changelings.  Well she cast it on their changelings and since every changeling alive today descends from those, they are much more durable than the ones that Chrysalis had."

Black Night nodded and they watched over the events going on to make sure that there was no fighting among the ponies as to who would get on the first train out of town.

Two days had passed when roughly half of the city's residents had left.  However, half of the city's residents remained as the enemy forces' target was within sight.  Out at sea General Black Feet addressed his troops.  He said, "Alright troops, you see that city on the skyline?  That is Maredrid, our first target.  We need to go in there, kill everypony and level it."

One of the changelings asked, "General, do we really have to kill all of them?  What about the foals?  Couldn't we just capture them, send them down to Ridead and have Lemon Hearts brainwash them?"

This enraged Black Feet.  He shouted, "WHAT?  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"  He lowered his voice and continued, "Look, we are to act with no mercy and what the hell is a changeling doing having these kinds of thoughts anyway?  You are a weak link.  We can't have weak links around here!"

Before the changeling could react Black Feet fired a powerful beam of energy and incinerated him.  He glared at the rest of his troops and said, "Is anypony else here a softy?  Anypony else have these stupid, foalish feelings?"

Black Feet finished, "Alright, half of us, including half of the officers, myself included, will remain here in the ships in the event we are wiped out.  After all, we need forces to continue on northward."

They shook their heads and readied themselves for the battle.  Finally they docked and flew into the unaware city.  Luna and her officers were walking out in the streets as another trainload of ponies pulled out of the station and headed north.  Green Waters, Luna's changeling general, looked off to the west and saw dark Alicorns and changelings invading the city and firing energy to destroy buildings.  Luna shouted, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!  EVERYPONY GET SOMEWHERE SAFE!"

Colonel Iron Hooves led the forces into the city and shouted, "Cover them in ooze and kill them troops!  Leave none alive!"

Luna ordered her troops to take to the sky to fight the invading forces.  While the changelings and dark Alicorns on both sides were beginning to fall, Luna began wiping Lemon Hearts' invading forces out.  While she and her forces continued to fire, enemy forces had begun to kill the residents of the city and level buildings.  Finally Luna was having trouble flying and using her magic as she was covered in ooze.  She shouted, "Somepony help me, I'm caught in ooze!"

General Black Night shouted, "I'm coming your Majesty!"

Black Night fired a calm beam of energy to melt away the ooze.  Luna shouted, "The city is lost, we need to get to Marescow, NOW!"

Black Night asked, "What about the residents of the city your Majesty?  We can't just leave them to perish."

Luna looked down and saw many, many corpses and saw buildings continue to be leveled.  She began to cry and shouted, "IT'S TOO LATE!  THEY'RE ALL DEAD.  UNLESS WE WANT TO JOIN THEM, WE MUST GO, NOW!"

Luna and all of her officers took off towards the north.  They knew it would be a long journey to what would become the new capitol so once they were out of eyesight of what remained of Maredrid, they slowed down so that they would not use all their energy at once.

In Maredrid almost every building was leveled while the palace, given that it was built quite well, sustained only minimal damage.  Black Feet flew to the top of the castle, lowered the Equine Empire flag, burned it and raised the Saddle Arabian flag.  He shouted, "VICTORY!  IN THE NAME OF SADDLE ARABIA, IN THE NAME OF LEMON HEARTS, MAREDRID IS OURS!"

While victory was being celebrated in Maredrid, several hundred miles to the east an army of dark unicorns crossed into the Equine Empire.  General Eternal Darkness looked back at his troops and said, "Ok troops, we are in enemy territory now.  Stay extra alert, we could get attacked at any time."

His troops shouted, "YES SIR!"

The general nodded and they continued their northward march.  In Ponyville Colgate was watching all of this and realized that she must send forces to the Equine Empire to stop Lemon Hearts' advancing forces.  She looked over at Scootaloo and said, "Commander, we must get to the base.  We need to put our forces through high intensity exercises.  They must be duplicated and we need to send forces to the Equine Empire."

Scootaloo asked, "Why?  Is Saddle Arabia invading them?"

Colgate replied, "Yes Scootaloo, they are.  Let's get to the base, now!"

They flew down to the base with great haste.  Once they got there the army stood at attention.  General Dark Night, who has served Equestria for over 4,000 years asked, "Colgate, you have a serious look on your face.  What is going on?"

Colgate said, "At ease soldiers."  She cleared her throat and continued, "Alright troops, I have some very bad news.  I have been watching through the eye and Saddle Arabia has invaded the Equine Empire.  They have already taken over Maredrid."

Dark Night asked, "Colgate, what happened to Queen Luna?  I know that is their capitol."

Colgate continued, "Well luckily Luna and all of her officers were able to escape.  Also, she had already got half of the city's residents out of town but the other half was mercilessly killed in the invasion.  Now they will continue to sail north and attack coastal cities while an army of dark unicorns is marching northwards towards Stalliongrad."

Dark Night asked, "When do you want me to have them ready?  Would two days be enough time to get them adequately ready?"

Colgate replied, "You must have been reading my mind.  I will duplicate them in two days time and they will head to the coast and set sail eastward to stop the Saddle Arabian forces and hopefully run them back down into their own country."

Dark Night and Scootaloo immediately started having their forces engage in the proper exercises while a nervous Colgate flew back up to her bedroom.  Luna was a dear friend of hers and she did not want her nation to fall.  She laid on her bed contemplating not only the plan of action to save the Equine Empire but what to do in the event that Equestria were to fall victim to an attack or invasion.