"INCOMING! Enemy forces attacking from the ground!" An Earth Pony soldier yelled, pointing at the groups of Changelings flying low to avoid the defending Pegasi.
"Crossbows! Prepare to fire!"
Groups of guards that were armed with the weapons lined up in formation to deal with the rapidly approaching enemy. With keen eye and mind they focused and fired at the enemy Changelings. Most of the magically-enhanced bolts managed to hit several drones and the soldiers watched as they tumbled to the ground. The other drones that survived however knew what threat they had to deal with now, dodging and ducking bolts with frightening speed while continuing their flight toward the Aurorians.
"Spears! At the ready!" Silver Shriek shouted the orders and more guards soon took position with the long wooden pikes ready to impale the enemy. Applejack and Pinkie Pie joined in on the front lines with sheer courage, Applejack grabbed a spear with her teeth while Pinkie loaded her Party Cannon with more confetti. The Changelings saw the line of spears and charged up their horns to add more power to break through the pony lines, a few drones even used their magic to try and blast the guards forming the spear line. Neither side looked like they were going to back down from the engagement.
"Would ya look at that! Looks like these bugs are determined! Let's give em a nice sharp present folks!" Applejack braced herself along with a few guards with her to repel the enemy from getting to the cave. She furrowed her brow and planted the butt of her spear into the snow with an audible crunch to the surface as she waited. Her breath was deep and her concentration was completely towards defeating the oncoming attackers.
"Hold your ground! Keep hold until my mark! Steady... Steady..." Silver Shriek was now waiting for the perfect time to call out the order.
The Changelings were now in close proximity with the front lines as they accelerated their flying and braced themselves for impact. The Earth Pony forces were now almost face to face with the enemy, they all waited in anticipation for the order to counterattack. Pinkie Pie had completely overloaded her party cannon as it was filled to the brim with extra explosive party supplies. Applejack grit her teeth and ground her hooves against the snow. The buzzing of the Changeling forces could now be heard at full volume and force.
"NOW!" Silver screamed as the entire front line of guards thrust their weapons forward, dealing fatal damage to multiple drones that were foolish enough to end up in the path of their spears. Pinkie fired her cannon and an entire squad of attacking drones were annihilated by her questionably lethal ammunition. Applejack managed to skewer a few drones with her spear and hacked several more with her axe in a robust fashion. More drones were now attacking though, and some had managed to break through the front lines as the two factions engaged in deadly close combat.
The battle was now in full swing, the Ponies and the Changelings have brought the battle to both the sky and the ground. The fight in the air was intense with Changelings and Pegasi alike speeding towards each other and attacking with sheer animosity. The Changelings had a small advantage unfortunately as some were using they're magic to stun a few Equestrian Pegasi and go in for the kill. The Aurorian soldiers however were protected by them thanks to the magic resistant armor they were equipped with, but showed signs of worry each time they saw one of their Equestrian allies fall from the air as they had weaker magic protection. The battle on the ground was also bloody. There were now multiple incursions on the front-lines and even more Changeling soldiers were swarming to join in on the battle.
"Dear Faust! There's way too many of them! If we don't get any magical support soon then I think we're all screwed here!" Another Earth Pony soldier cried.
"Keep your ground soldier! If we lose hope then we lose the battle! Never lose faith my comrades!" Silver Shriek blasted an attacking drone from the air with his magic and used his sword to swiftly dispatch a Changeling behind him in a smooth movement. "Magical Support or not! We are going to hold these damn bugs back even if I have to use a Changeling's corpse as a club!"
"He's right though! With the amount of Changelings coming at us, we'll have a very bad situation on our hooves in no time! We'll need ta fall back before we're completely swarmed!" Applejack was fighting ruthlessly with the soldiers, but she knew that they won't be able to hold back the Changelings indefinitely. Silver nodded in understanding of the situation and lit his helmet.
"All Ground Forces, fall back to the secondary defense trenches immediately! I Repeat. All Ground Forces fall back!" Every soldier took the order and started moving back towards the second long trench that was dug further behind the Primary. Several pony soldiers we being struck down mercilessly by attacking drones, each falling to the swift blades and precise magic of the enemy. Silver looked worriedly at the cloud of battle that hung over the battlefield, he prayed to Faust that Meteor Shatter was okay in the swarm of fighting.
Meanwhile, In the Air
Meteor Shatter was fighting furiously against the airborne Changelings. Gracefully evading magical bolts and sword slashes while dispatching unsuspecting drones with her blade. Two Pegasi soldiers were accompanying her for protection against surprise attacks. She continued slash and bash into enemies until she felt something wrong in the air around her. She hovered for a second with her guards until a dark green blur shot past the guard on her left. After a second the guard started to falter in his flying and soon blood was dribbling out of his neck, he then went still and plummeted to the ground. The other guard was horrified by this act and put his sword up to block. Another blur went by and this time the second guard's wings were sliced clean off, the guard screamed in agony as he too fell to his death.
"What in Faust's name?!" Meteor put her guard up as she scanned around for the enemies responsible for the death's of her men. It wasn't long before she sensed something behind her and parried the oncoming blur in the nick of time. The blur was really a sleek looking Changeling with sharp bladed wings, it recovered from the sudden parry and flew away from the princess... only for a powerful voice to take its place.
"Well, Well, that was unexpected. My drone should have been able to knock you unconscious by now, but I guess... plans change." A stocky looking Changeling with bulky armor and large wings emerged out of a blaze of green fire. The armor It was wearing had green markings finely detailed into the chitin in order to distinguish his rank among his forces. He also had an arrogant smile on his face and drew out a long sword. "I am Colonel Web, it is an honor to meet you dear Princess, but I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me under orders from the Queen herself." The Changeling spoke in a deep tone.
"She is no Queen to me, and why in Tartarus would I ever want to go with an insect like you!" Meteor countered. The Changeling's smile vanished, and was soon replaced by a loathsome frown.
"I'm going to be a gentlebug just this once wench: Tell your forces to surrender, or I will subdue you and make you watch as we kill every single pony inside that cave. Be it mare, stallion, or foal, I will not show mercy again once you turn down my offer. You really should consider surrender, because I know in the end your empire will soon be nothing but rubble beneath our hooves." The Changeling now lit his horn dangerously with magic, ready to engage in combat should the princess refuse. After a moment of consideration, Meteor gazed at the Changeling straight in the eyes before giving her input.
"Here's my answer." She said before swiftly ramming into the surprised Changeling. It backed up a bit as it was knocked out of breath from the surprise strike from the royal but quickly regained his composure.
"Aaaaarrrgghh! Forget orders! I'm going to skin you ALIVE you whorse!" He bellowed as he thrust forward to swiftly slash at the princess, only to be parried by her own blade. The Colonel and Meteor were now dueling fiercely as blades clanged together in an almost harmonic melody to accompany the dance of death they performed in the cloud of fighting around them. Meteor was trying her hardest to avoid the powerful but reckless slashes of the Changeling Colonel while looking for opportunities to attack. "What's wrong little minx? Can't seem to face a beast like me!" Meteor was growing tired, her movements were becoming slower and slower as she tried to continue fighting the experienced Changeling.
"Your attacks are becoming sluggish, your strength is growing weaker, and your forces are being slaughtered. I'm going to enjoy making you watch your comrades die. I've also heard that your sibling is in there too, I wonder which limb am I going to cut first, which bone to break in his feeble little body, what kind of slow and painful death am I going to give him!" The Changeling laughed.
Meteor was getting more and more enraged by Web's words as while the two were dueling they didn't notice the small puffs of steam emitting from her wings and mane. She was now just angrily slashing without control or composure in her form, which gave the the Colonel a small advantage. While Web parried a blow from his left he managed to blast at Meteor's side with his magic while she was still recovering from her last attack attempt. While the green magical bolt didn't do much damage thanks to her armor, the sheer power knocked her down to the ground with a series of crashes and crunches that accompanied the brutal landing.
"Damned Pegasi, always the weak links when it comes to magic!"
"At least I don't need it to make myself look good you overgrown housefly!" She taunted.
The Colonel growled in anger and lit his horn to fire continuous bursts of magic at Meteor while she took cover behind a boulder from the avalanche. Web continued peppering the stone with green energy as the boulder continued to chip away from the constant magical weathering it was receiving. After a few seconds he charged up the energy in his horn and blasted away the shattered rock. With a grin he hoped to find a sizzling corpse in the crater he made, only to be met with a vacant space. He looked around in rage, scanning the battlefield for the Royal with clear malice in his eyes.
"There's no use hiding from me! We Changelings are the masters of stealth!" He proceeded to blast away every rock in the area in order to find the sneaky royal. "We pride ourselves in knowing we can easily trick your foolish minds into thinking you're safe! We see everything in this damned world, you can never hide anything from our sight!"
"Then I'll just have to take that sight away don't I?" There was a small "THWACK" as the Colonel turned around only to scream in agony at the splitting pain that he suddenly felt in his right eye. He collapsed into the snow and put a hoof to the injured spot to feel a long crystalline object embedded in his head. He yelled again in pure rage as he swung his sword around recklessly. Meteor taking care not to get in range of his random attacks. Light blue fluid was now dripping from his wound as he tried to slice and dice everything around him. With his good eye he finally spotted Meteor, standing watching at his misery from afar.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS YOU SWINE! I WILL HAVE YOUR ENTRAILS SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR YOUR SCREAMS AS I CARVE YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE HEART OUT AND ROAST IT FOR MY QUEEN TO FEAST ON! NO ONE CAN AMOUNT TO ME AS I SERVE HER ENDLESSLY!!!"
"You can tell your Queen that she can kiss my plot, and I apparently don't give a buck about your half-baked threats you ugly moron. To me, you must be the saddest sack of bullcrap that I've ever bucking seen in my entire life."
"HOW DARE YOU!!!" Web was now beyond pissed as his good eye started to glow red with rage. He charged at Meteor recklessly only for her to dodge him easily. What she didn't expect though was that he instantly charged a magical attack again and unleashed a barrage of energy toward her. She attempted to dodge them again but instead was hit in the wing with one of the bolts. She collapsed in pain on the snow Web came upon her instantly as he held her down with his hoof, anger could be seen in his eye as he snorted each time he took a breath. "It's about time I end this charade!" He said as he raised his sword to deal a final blow to the downed Pegasus.
"Eat this Bug Eye!"
Web looked up to see a large cloud above him, he muttered to himself what kind of trick this was before Multiple shards of deformed ice started to ruthlessly pelt the officer. Each shard impaling itself into his body causing extreme pain to the officer. He continued to scream until a very large shard ironically stabbed him in his good eye. "AAAAAAHHHHH!!! MY EYES! I CAN'T SEE!!!" Web dropped his sword as he held his head with his fore-hooves and continued to scream in agony. Precious life fluid was flowing from the many new holes in his body. "DRONES! HELP ME! HELP ME!!!" A squad of drones came to his aid as a few carried the sightless and bleeding Colonel from the battlefield while the others stayed to provide cover for them to escape. Before he felt his soldiers take to the air with him the Colonel decided to relay one sickening order for his underlings to follow.
"KILL ALL WHO STAND IN YOUR WAY! DO NOT RETREAT, DO NOT SURRENDER! FIGHT UNTIL ALL ARE SLAUGHTERED!!!" Web's voice was gurgling with blood and death as he shouted, but put on one last arrogant grin as he laughed thunderously despite the excruciating pain he felt. All the Changeling soldiers in the area shouted a battle cry and assaulted the ponies with twice the ferocity than before. Meteor saw the trails of blood left behind by Web's departure and held back the bile that used to be lunch. More Changelings now confronted Meteor and drew their weapons, the princess winced as she noticed her wing was injured from the Colonel's last attack, but kept herself in a fighting stance. The Changelings around her smiled at this advantage and one of them decided to go in for the kill. Meteor put her guard up to try and block the oncoming attack only to witness a cyan colored Pegasus with multi-colored mane knock the drone's sword out of its grip and execute the Changeling with a single rapid slice to the neck. The Changeling's head fell to the ground and was joined by its decapitated corpse as the other drones backed away in shock at the sudden death of their comrade.
"Just try that again, I DARE you!" The Pegasus taunted as she flared her wings and got into a fighting stance to defend Meteor. The other Changelings regained their composure and moved to surround the two Pegasi. One of them seemed to have a spike of courage and flung itself into combat with the two ponies. It lasted mere seconds before it expired from a well aimed stab to its chest. Meteor and the Pegasus both were fighting side by side against the many Changelings that were now diverting their attention to the two.
"Who are you?!" Meteor asked.
"The name's Rainbow Dash your Highness! My name is pretty much all you need to know since we're in the middle of a war, so let's leave official introductions until we're finished kicking Bug Butt!"
"But there's too many of them! We can't keep fighting them like this!" Meteor shouted.
"We have to keep fighting! I'm not making the same mistake with my friends like last time! We'll keep on fighting till the end!" Rainbow replied.
"Alright then, I'll be sure to visit your grave first if this get's worse!"
The two Pegasi shared a laugh as they continued fighting off the swarm of drones trying to kill them. They continued smiling as they slashed, blocked, and parried each drone that attacked. Meteor and Rainbow were just about to be swarmed before a barrage of magical bolts disposed of most of the Changelings that were attacking them.
"I'll show you ruffians what happens when you attack my friends! CHARGE!" Rarity had appeared on the battlefield with many reinvigorated Unicorn guards as they were now blasting every Changeling they could see. The Changelings were already weak from fighting with the Pegasi and Earth Ponies, and they had no chance against an enraged hoard of Unicorns. The Pony forces rallied and soon the Changeling forces were dwindling. While some drones managed to escape the battlefield, most of them decided to follow Colonel Web's suicide order as they fought until death. With the Changeling forces driven back, the soldiers were now cheering at their victory and threw their helmets in the air in celebration. Rarity was too busy to join in the celebration as she made her way toward Rainbow Dash.
"Well, well, finally decided to come out and play didn't you Rainbow. Are you alright Darling?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine Rarity. Look, I'm sorry about my outburst earlier in the hideout. I just couldn't handle the stress of this whole situation. I hope you girls can forgive me..."
"Oh Rainbow, always the Drama Queen here. Of course we'll forgive you Darling; we're your friends, and we'll always be friends until the end." Rarity gave a comforting look and Rainbow smiled in relief at her response.
Meteor looked upon the sight and gave a small smile of her own. "So that's what true friends are. If only I had a few myself" She trotted up to the chromatic Pegasus and extended her hoof in thanks. "I'd like to thank you for saving my flank out there today. I'm very grateful you came and fought with us in this battle, but I'd also like to apologize for intruding on your home." Meteor lowered her head in shame while Rainbow was confused on what was happening.
"Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure those bugs probably would have found us anyhow, so really it doesn't matter. It was an honor fighting alongside you though princess." Rarity was shocked as Rainbow bowed down to Meteor Shatter while she reciprocated in kindness.
While Meteor was bowing however she noticed the injury on her wing. "Oh dear, Fluttershy! We need some help over here!" Rarity shouted in the shy Pegasus's direction, looking at Meteor Shatter's bloodied wing.
Fluttershy made her way to Rarity and took out her medical supplies to help Meteor's wing. She took a small piece of cloud and squeezed it to release the moisture inside of it. "This is going to sting only for a few seconds." She then pressed it against Meteor's wing, getting a small whimper of pain from the Princess as she clenched her teeth and endured the pain. The small cloud grew and turned slightly red as it absorbed the blood that was oozing from Meteor's wound. Fluttershy then dabbed the wing with a rag and bandaged it up.
"There we go, I really, really, really, think you should stay off that wing for a day or two." Fluttershy spoke softly.
"Don't worry, I've endured a lot worse than this back at the training camps."
"Training Camps?" Rainbow said curiously.
"Don't worry I'll explain more about them some other time, but for now we should check on the status of your hideout shouldn't we?" Meteor asked, the trio nodded at her and made their way toward the cave entrance to check up on the condition of everypony. Nopony noticed however, a flash of green and a brief scream as a Pegasus guard emerged from behind a boulder and made its way undetected into the cave.
Meanwhile, on the mountains.
"Well Colonel, it seems you've failed I'm afraid."
"You... think..." He replied weakly as he coughed up blood and continued to wheeze.
"I'm not surprised, Lord Shiftwing already predicted your loss to the ponies. He considered you nothing more than a pawn in this game of power." The Changeling officer looked down upon Web with fabricated pity.
"N-No... he... didn't...."
"Yes he did, look at yourself! Oh, wait... never mind. I just can't believe you defied Lord Shiftwing's direct instructions just to preserve that false sense of honor of yours! It's pathetic really. I'm sorry dear Colonel, but you've outlived your usefulness." The Changeling officer grabbed ahold of Web's bleeding form and started to drag him toward the end of the ridge. Web sensed what was happening and quickly tried to free himself from the officer's grasp.
"N-No... Pleeeaaaase..." He begged.
"My lord specifically told me to dispose of you if you survived... to some extent. I'm only following orders, something a soldier like you should already know." They were getting closer to the cliff edge and the Colonel was panicking as he tried to use his tattered wings to get away, only to feel a blade against them and felt it slice through the delicate limbs. "I apologize for the pain but I can't risk any miracles happening with you. Any last words?"
The Colonel lay still as the officer now understood the sudden increase of silence. He bowed his head for a brief second before using his magic and ripping the Colonel's horn from his skull, and then without a care in the world, he kicked the Colonel's corpse off the ledge. He smiled as he heard a dull thud before trotting back from the ledge. He turned to one of the drones and gave him the bloodied and severed horn.
"Deliver this to Lord Shiftwing at once, this will notify him that the operation was a success."
The drone bowed and placed it inside his pack. He then galloped to the edge of the ridge and swiftly took off, intent on delivering the gruesome message as quickly as possible.