Ash floated through the air like a dense blanket, blotting out the sun and leaving nothing but the fires of burning wreckage and destroyed forestry to reveal the surroundings of the bleak battlefield.
"Twilight! We need to fall back, now!" Applejack looked up from her rifle and yelled.
Twilight simply stared out into no-pony's land ahead of them, a dark smile crawling across her scarred face.
"No, Sargent. We hold out ground."
Applejack gasped at the order. "What!? Sir, our loses are already too high! If we stay, we'll lose the rest of the battalion!"
Twilight snapped to look at Applejack with a sharp glare. "Are you questioning my orders, recruit?!"
Applejack tensed at the sudden scolding, and settled back into her prone position. "N-No, sir."
"Good. Stand your ground, ponies! Tonight, we will be victorious!"
She raised a hoof into the air with confidence, but the pony soldiers around her didn't share the sentiment. They were only kids after all, drafted to fight before they even had a chance to grow up much. They looked between her and the dark battlefield in worry, fearing for their lives. Twilight smirked at the danger; unbeknownst to them, she had a secret weapon.
Silence loomed on the great expanse of mud and burning machines of war ahead of them. They all knew what this meant: They were close.
Tensions were thick in the recruits. Twilight could see some of them begin to break down; constant attacks and gunfire wore at their sanity, but she knew this would be the deciding factor.
Then it began. The changeling swarm quickly zoomed out of the thick ash and towards them at unstoppable speeds, quickly closing the gap between them.
Twilight forced a hoof into the air and yelled with all her might. "Fire!"
A cacophony of rifle fire, artillery, and the constant cracks of the machine guns filled the air. Hundreds of changelings fell to the dirt instantly, left as bloody piles of even more perforated dead-weight.
The stream of explosions and gunshots did not let up as some soldiers stopped to reload. The volley dropped hundreds of the hoard ahead of them, almost creating a line of injured enemies.
Despite the Equestrian's superior firepower, the changelings had numbers, and it was becoming evident that they would not be able to stop the onslaught with how few ponies they had.
The changelings quickly gained more and more ground. Despite dropping like flies, there were always two more to take the place of every one that fell.
Applejack yelled out over the thunderous cracks around her. "We don't have much time, sir! We need to fall back!"
Twilight didn't even look away from the scene unfolding in front of her. "Stand your ground!"
Applejack grunted in frustration, a few more minutes, and they would all be sucked dry of emotions, and their organs.
The changelings continued onward, now only a few hundred meters away from the front line. Some of the ponies began to turn tail and run, knowing what would happen to them if they stayed to face the enemy.
The few that stayed silently accepted their doomed fate. Twilight's smile never left her face.
Just as it seemed all hope of fighting back the hoard was lost, the sound of plane engines overhead overwhelmed the otherwise deafening noises of the battle. Twilight laughed maniacally as they started dropping through the cover of ash.
The Parabears. Eight-hundred pound grizzly bears with gatling guns strapped to each shoulder descended from the dark sky in enraged frenzies, swiping their razor sharp claws at the air and snarling their steak-knife teeth waiting to attack.
The changeling slowed as the beasts came nearer to them, unsure of what they were facing. After a moment's hesitation, they continued onward at full force, which would be their worst mistake.
The gatling guns on all of the bears whirred to life, and with a menacing six-thousand rounds per minute, began cutting down the changeling hoard with the ease of sliding a razor through water. Thousands fell before the Parabears, leaving a macabre wake as they continued to descend to the muddy battlefield.
The wide reach of the Parabears deadly claws swatted and cut down any changeling unlucky enough to find themselves close enough to feel their sharp sting. Some particularly strong swipes would cut some clean in half. The Parabears grabbed the changelings that flew too close to them and wrestled them with deadly strength to the ground, slamming them hard enough to leave a crater in the loose mud.
Once the Parabears landed, they opened fire into the air, stopping any still airborne dead on the spot. The air lit up with the bright orange traces of the constant stream of bullets from their gatling guns, streaking lines of white hot death into the sky, leaving none to pass through.
In the face of the most terrifying enemy that they had ever seen, the changelings quickly turned back and retreated into the dense ash, fleeing as fast as their wings could take them.
Applejack and the other soldiers slowly stood up, astonished at the scene that had just played out before them. Upon seeing that their enemy had turned tail, and that they had won, they all began to cheer happily, leaving their joyous cries and the vicious roars of the Parabears echoing across the battlefield.
Twilight smirked at their victory and looked onto her new bear comrades with pride. "That'll do, bears. That'll do."