Chapter 28: Blitzkrieg
Zecora walked up to the fence near the guard tower. At this point, the guards all knew her, and didn’t even raise their rifles when she approached. By now, they knew that she wouldn't try to dig or climb her way out, only try to talk her way out.
“Hey, it’s Little Miss call-the-princess-I’m-innocent,” said one of the guards. “Back to talk us to death again, huh, zeeb?”
The guards all laughed.
“My name is Zecora,” said Zecora. “And you all are right. It’s time to bring my farce to an end.”
The guards muttered and scratched their heads.
“That’s right!” Zecora shouted, loud enough for the entire camp to hear. “I am a traitor to Equestria, a spy for the Zebra Empire! I’ve killed ponies! I’ve blown up bridges and sabotaged rail lines, and I’d do it all again!”
The guards blinked. Then, one of them shouted.
“You traitor! My buddy was on that bridge!”
He raised his assault rifle and pointed it at Zecora, but his superior officer put up his hoof.
“Easy, private. Let’s not start executing POW's on the spot, yes?”
After a few moments, the hot-headed guard lowered his weapon. The officer turned towards Zecora.
“It’s about time that you fess up to your crimes. Glad that you’ve quit trying to smooth talk us, spy,” said the officer. “You realize that you could be tried in court and sentenced to death, yes?”
Zecora nodded. “Yes, because I’m a spy.”
“And I’m this spy’s lawyer!” shouted Zarek, who had dashed out of the sleeping quarters and ran over to Zecora.
The officer chuckled. “Well, then. Somepony call the prosecutor. We’re going to try the spy and then send her to fry!”
Zarek grinned. “That’s exactly what I’m counting on.”
The officer motioned for one of his stallions. “Tie them both up and take them into containment.”
Tall Tale Superior Court: April 2025
The old, marble-columned courtroom in Tall Tale stood proudly near the center of downtown. Part of its facade had been damaged in a mortar attack a few weeks ago, but ponies wearing suits and ties still busily walked about. The legal system in Equestria still had to work, despite the city being under siege.
Inside one of the wood-paneled courtrooms, a small group of ponies entered and sat down at various tables. The courtroom was still mostly empty other than this group. Were it a trial, the old room would be packed so full that ponies would have to stand in the back behind the rows of seats.
As soon as everypony was seated, the bailiff, a muscular stallion in a uniform, spoke, “All rise for the honorable Judge Gavel.”
They all stood up as Judge Gavel, an older, grey-maned mare, entered.
“You may be seated,” she said, taking a seat in the judge’s bench. “The Superior Court of Tall Tale is convening today to indict Zecora, daughter of Zyreko, for treason against Equestria.”
Unlike ponies, zebras normally did not take last names unless their stature in the Zebra Empire warranted it. In a formal setting, a zebra would just add the name of her father to her first name.
Judge Gavel glanced at the tall, thin bronze stallion sitting at the prosecutor’s bar.
“You may proceed, Prosecutor Karadin. Please present the charges to be levied, to which the defendant will enter a plea.”
The stallion stood up. “Thank you, your honor. However, before I do, I wish to make a motion for a change of jurisdiction.”
The judge raised an eyebrow. “Why do you believe that the Tall Tale Superior Court should not hear this case, mister Karadin?”
The stallion said, “This is to be a treason case, Judge Gavel. As such, it should be heard in front of a military tribunal, which has original jurisdiction for crimes of treason.”
Zecora blinked, shirking back in her seat. Spitfire’s military tribunals were notorious for being kangaroo courts, little more than rubber stamps for the prosecution. The judge turned to the defense table, where Zecora and Zarek sat.
“Counsel?” the judge asked.
Zarek stood up and shook his head. “I object to this motion, your honor. Zecora, my client, is an Equestrian civilian, and not a member of the military. As such, she has the right by Royal Decree Number Seven to a trial by a jury of her peers, not military judges. The Tall Tale Superior Court is the proper venue for this trial, and has original jurisdiction over all crimes that were alleged to have been committed in Tall Tale by Equestrian citizens.”
Judge gavel nodded. “Motion is denied, Prosecutor. The Tall Tale Superior Court has wide original jurisdiction, and I see no reason that we can’t hear this case.”
The prosecutor shook his head. “Thank you, your honor, but I would like to further object to the nature of miss Zecora’s counsel that she has chosen.”
Karadin turned to Zarek and pointed his hoof at him, continuing, “Mister Zarek, until recently, was being indefinitely detained in the Tall Tale regional internment camp on suspicion of aiding and abetting zebra terrorists. They weaseled their way out of rightful convictions thanks to Mister Zarek and his legal services. He has no standing to serve as counsel. In fact, just this morning, he was being detained in a holding cell next to the defendant herself.”
Judge Gavel blinked several times. “Counselor, this is a serious accusation.”
Zarek shook his head. “While it is true that I was being detained, your honor, there was no arraignment or any formal charges levied against me at all. As all other detainees in that camp, I was being unlawfully held. I was never officially disbarred from practicing law in Tall Tale or anywhere else, and still hold a valid law license. The camp guards ever so graciously removed Zecora and myself from the camp, placing us into a dark cell for a month until today, when we were put in front of you. Evidently, they believed that they could argue for your honor to dismiss me as Miss Zecora’s counsel, leaving my client without an attorney to speak on her behalf during this important hearing.”
Prosecutor Karadin winced ever so slightly.
Judge Gavel frowned. “Is this true, Prosecutor Karadin? Have you engaged in a conspiracy to deprive the accused of her right to counsel?”
“W-well,” Karadin stammered, “the guards at the internment camp took both Mister Zarek and his client into a special detention cell after she admitted to being a terrorist. Obviously the guards weren’t legal experts, but I would assume that a lawyer who is currently being detained himself wouldn’t be able to legally serve as counsel for a—”
“My courtroom will not be turned into a circus for shady legal maneuvers, mister Karadin!” Judge Gavel snapped. “The absolute right to counsel is established in a fundamental Royal Decree. Mister Zarek was never disbarred, and evidently, there is no legal basis upon which you are holding him in the first place. Just because a jury doesn’t vote your way, doesn’t mean that the defense counsel is a terrorist. Your motion to have him dismissed as counsel is categorically denied! Any further shenanigans from you, Mister Karadin, and I’ll hold you in contempt!”
The prosecutor’s face turned beet red. He shrunk back into his seat. “Yes, your honor.”
“Additionally, I am ordering that Mister Zarek be released immediately, pending any sort of formal indictment.”
The prosecutor smiled and shook his head. “Under General Spitfire’s Wartime Command Number Fifty-Four, all zebras who are detained on suspicion of treason are to be detained for the war’s duration, unless they are formally charged as we are doing today with Miss Zecora, and then they are exonerated. Though there will be no indictment for Mister Zarek, we are still able to hold him indefinitely, without indictment, for national security reasons, pursuant to the Wartime Command.”
“This is highly irregular, prosecutor,” said Judge Gavel.
Karadin shrugged. “We live in irregular times. The law is the law, as I am sure that you can respect.”
“Very well,” Judge Gavel sighed. “Mister Zarek will remain in detention. However, whether he is able to serve as counsel is still under my discretion, not the executive’s. I am allowing him to represent Miss Zecora regardless of your objection, presuming that she sees no need to appoint a different attorney who isn’t himself behind bars. Counsel?”
Zecora turned to Zarek, and they both whispered back and forth to each other for a few seconds. Zarek stood.
“Zecora and I have decided that I will remain her attorney,” said Zarek.
The judge nodded. “Are there any other pre-trial matters which either side wishes to discuss?”
“Yes, your honor,” said Prosecutor Karadin. “Under Wartime Command Number Seventy-Three, any zebras under indefinite detention are prohibited from communicating to the outside world, to prevent any secret messages being sent to the enemy. Under this command, Mister Zarek and Miss Zecora should be denied access to stationery, envelopes, radios, or any other object that they could potentially use to communicate to the Zebra Empire.”
Judge Gavel shook her head. “I suppose that I am obliged to comply. Sustained. However, Mister Zarek will still be allowed to subpoena potential witnesses to speak on his client’s behalf through the prescribed court process. Additionally, he will be allowed to participate in the pre-trial discovery process. As either of these types of communication would be under the court’s scrutiny, neither of these should conflict with the Wartime Command’s objective, yes?”
Karadin groaned. “Yes, I suppose. And we have no further motions to raise at this time.”
The judge turned to Zarek. “Counsel?”
Zarek shook his head. “The defense has no motions at this time, your honor.”
The judge nodded. “Very well, then. Prosecutor, if you will read the charges and the evidence levied by the state against Miss Zecora.”
“Thank you, your honor,” said Karadin, standing up out of his seat. “The Kingdom of Equestria has found that Zecora, daughter of Zyreko, has engaged in terrorism and treason against Equestria. This will be proven from multiple witness accounts. Several witnesses observed Miss Zecora sneaking around past the Equestrian front lines on or during October of 2024, when she was apprehended. Before that, several acts of sabotage were committed in and around the Tall Tale area, including the destruction of the Lofty Crossing bridge on the outskirts of Tall Tale. The state will present several witnesses to this attack, as well as several camp guards who were present when Miss Zecora confessed to this attack.”
“Objection, your honor,” said Zarek. The judge turned towards him.
“Yes, Mister Zarek?”
“My client has never admitted to destroying the Lofty Crossing bridge. The prosecution has never presented any such evidence to me for any sort of review. Considering that I can produce evidence to place my client in Manehattan until very recently, I highly suspect that any such evidence will be entirely circumstantial.”
The judge turned to Karadin. “Prosecutor?”
“Your honor, we have not yet presented this evidence, because the case has yet to proceed to trial. When it does, defense counsel will have access to this evidence through the normal discovery procedures. We can place Miss Zecora at the Lofty Crossing bridge during the evening in which it was destroyed, and have several witnesses who will testify to Miss Zecora engaging in this act of sabotage. For this reason, the state wishes to proceed with charges of treason against Miss Zecora.”
Both sides remained quiet for several seconds as Judge Gavel took notes with a feather pen, scribbling down on a sheet of parchment on her desk.
“I see,” said Judge Gavel. “Given this evidence, I am persuaded that the case of The Kingdom of Equestria v. Zecora should proceed to trial. Miss Zecora, how do you plead?”
All eyes in the courtroom turned to Zecora. She sat up straight in her chair, confidently looking ahead.
“Not guilty,” she said.
“Very well,” said Judge Gavel. “Are there any further matters that the attorneys wish to raise at this time?”
No one spoke.
“Then this indictment hearing is adjourned. The trial date will be set for October 2nd, 2025.” Judge Gavel slammed her gavel down on the desk.
Zecora and Zarek sat in the detention cell.
Zecora shook her head. “That doesn’t seem like it went very well.”
Zarek waved his hoof in the air. “Are you kidding? The judge is completely on our side! You didn’t see her roll her eyes when Karadin was rattling off Spitfire’s edicts? I’ve known her for years, and she’s very suspicious of all these executive actions. During every trial I’ve had with her, she almost always rules in my favor.”
“Yes, but I was hoping that the charges would be dropped and it wouldn’t proceed to trial,” said Zecora, her head held low.
“That doesn’t really matter if it goes to trial, because they can’t win anyway,” said Zarek. “You have a solid alibi, and I’ll place you in Manehattan at that research lab when that bridge was blown up. Whatever ‘witnesses’ that they have who will say that you were at that bridge probably can’t even tell one zebra apart from the next. I’d bet you any amount of money that they think we all look the same. It’s pretty easy to discredit a witness like that.”
Zecora nodded.
Zarek continued, “Also, I’m going to subpoena so many character witnesses that it won’t even be funny. Flutterby, Apple Snack, Charity, Rainbow Brite, and whatever else you told me their names were.”
Zecora chuckled. “Not quite, but close enough.”
“Unfortunately, we can’t really subpoena the princess herself, since that’s illegal. And we can’t write her a letter thanks to that stupid Wartime Command. But once I subpoena your friends as character witnesses and they get wind of this trial, it’s only a matter of time before they go to Twilight Sparkle, she finds out you’re in here, and she comes and gives you a pardon. So don’t worry, Zecora, it probably won’t go to trial, but even if it does, we’re almost guaranteed to win.”
She smiled. “That makes me feel better.”
“Good, because we have a winning case,” said Zarek. Then, he narrowed his eyebrows. “But whatever you do, DO NOT talk to any reporters or media between now and whenever this whole thing is over. The media around here tends to try, convict, and assassinate the character of any zebra on trial for any crime. Or any pony on trial, for that matter. The media is the prosecutor’s best friend, because they taint the minds of any potential jury member before the trial even begins. It took a court order just to make them start using the word ‘alleged’ when referring to the defendant. So it’s best not to go down that rabbit hole.”
“I won’t talk to the media,” said Zecora, nodding.
Appleloosa, May 2025
The stars twinkled in the evening sky one Tuesday night at Sweet Apple Acres. Pound and Pumpkin Cake sat at the kitchen table, working on their homework.
“Pumpkin Cake.”
She glanced up from her paper, pencil floating in her magic, to glance at her brother.
“Have you gotten the answer to number five on the grammar homework yet? I’m having trouble with the sentence diagram stuff.”
Pumpkin chuckled. “You know that we aren’t supposed to share answers, Pound.”
“Aw, come on, sis,” he said, hovering over her. She swatted at him with a hoof. “It’s not my fault that you’re better at grammar stuff than I am.”
Pumpkin shrugged. “Sorry. And besides, you got athletics, so there’s that. Tell you what, I’ll help you out with grammar homework if you help me out in gym class.”
“But that’s not possible. I can’t exactly do a sit-up for you, Pumpkin,” he said.
“Well, they don’t seem to think that magic counts as ‘physical education’ over there. It’s really stupid. I’m not allowed to use magic to lift weights, and I have to use my hooves just like everypony else. What sort of sense does that make? As long as the weight is lifted, who cares how I do it?"
“Yeah, I know what you mean. They don’t let me fly when we’re running the mile. Otherwise, I’d get like, a thirty second mile without breaking a sweat!”
“Speaking of flying,” said Pumpkin, “weren’t you supposed to do your afternoon flyover of the west for the militia?”
“Are you trying to get rid of me?” Pound Cake laughed. “But yeah, it’ll be fine if I skip it for one afternoon. I’m sure the Second Kingdom won’t sneak in if I miss a day.”
Pumpkin Cake glanced out the screen glass door. “Day? It’s more like nighttime now.”
Pound shrugged. “Well, I think that we whooped Trixie and her goons badly enough last time that they aren’t coming back anytime soon.”
“Let’s hope so,” said Pumpkin Cake.
“Aw, come on, Pumpkin; think about it,” said Pound. “We kicked their flanks last time. Why would they try invading again?”
“I don’t know,” said Pumpkin. “They still need our town’s apples. And they’ll probably try a different way than moving by train. That was the only reason we were able to stop them.”
“True, but even if they did come here, they’d have to pass Little Strongheart’s tribe first,” said Pound Cake. “The buffalo could just run here and alert us if they see movement.”
Pumpkin shrugged. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid.”
“You totally are,” said Pound, smirking.
About an hour later, just as the clock struck nine, Pumpkin Cake finished up her homework. She sat reading a book on the couch with Applejack and Big Macintosh by the time that Pound finished with his homework about ten minutes later.
“Man, I’m so glad I finished that junk,” he said, standing up from the table and stretching his wings. “Who even invented sentence diagrams? Is there, like, a secret factory where they come up with useless things just to give to students to do to keep ‘em busy?”
“Eeyup,” said Big Macintosh, glancing up from the couch where he had dozed off for a second.
“Yeah, and it’s the same place that they invented cursive and fractions,” said Pumpkin Cake. “What time wasters.”
Pound Cake laughed. Then, he said, “Well, I’m going for a little fly around outside. Stretch my wings, look at the stars, all that jazz. I’ll see you guys in a bit.”
“Alrighty,” said Applejack. “If we’re asleep when you get back, try not to wake us.”
Pound Cake flew out the screen door, in the moonlight. He ascended through the cool night air, admiring the stars. There were thousands of them scattered like grains of sand on the beach, and he could see all of them since Appleloosa was far away from the big city. Nighttime was always the best time to go flying, he thought.
He heard a booming noise off in the west. His head turned as he saw bright flashes of lightning off in the distance and heard the rumbling thunder.
“Huh, I guess that the pegasi teams actually delivered on that scheduled evening thundershower,” he said aloud to no one in particular. “About time.”
Ever since the Cloud Confederacy had seceded and taken much of Equestria’s pegasi with it, the remaining Equestrian weather teams had been stretched thin. Scheduled storms were often several days late, or weeks late in many cases. In a few areas of Equestria, nature had taken over once more just as it had in the Everfree Forest.
There was another lightning strike. Then another. Then another. Lightning struck about once every three seconds.
“Uh oh…” Pound said. “I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.”
He made a dash towards the commotion, arriving about thirty minutes later just as the thunder had begun to die down. From his height, he could see that there were no thunderclouds in the sky above. Rather, the lightning was coming from the ground, off the backs of mechanically-augmented buffalo.
There were also a few muzzle flashes from guns, and a few bursts of purple and green light from unicorn magical energy beams.
The Second Kingdom was attacking.
Little Strongheart awoke to the sound of gunfire and lightning strikes. The ground below her shook, and the smell of ozone and gunpowder filled the air as buffalo yelled and shouted in their teepees. She climbed out of her cot and poked her head out of her tent.
Half of the teepees were ablaze. A unicorn was walking around, his horn wreathed in flame, as fire shot from his horn and set the highly flammable cloth teepees ablaze one by one. Little Strongheart emerged from her tent just as he fired his burst at it.
Several buffalo were running around screaming, their fur on fire.
“Stop, drop, and roll!” Little Strongheart commanded. The unicorn arsonist turned to see her and let loose a fireball, just as she dodged out of the way.
“Retreat! Fall back to Appleloosa!” she cried, running through the camp. “Retreat!”
The buffalo who could do so got out of their tents to follow her order. But they were met by attackers who charged through their tents, casting lightning bolts towards the buffalo who tried to flee. Little Strongheart’s fur stood on end from the static as she tried to dodge the blasts.
Prairiewind jumped out of his tent, turned his horns towards a unicorn who stood in his way, and let loose a lightning blast of his own, knocking the unicorn to the ground. His path clear, he ran after Little Strongheart and the rest of the fleeing buffalo.
But they found themselves blocked off by a wall of lightning as more buffalo and unicorns descended on the camp, surrounding them. The unicorns fired their machine guns at the encircled camp.
“Little Strongheart!” Prairiewind cried over the sound of machine gun fire. “Get behind me!”
Little Strongheart jumped behind Prariewind’s larger body as bullets whizzed by her. An electrical arc raced off of Prairiewind and hit one of the attackers square in the chest. It arced off of him and hit three of the unicorns to his side, knocking them all out.
“Let’s go!” he cried, and he and Little Strongheart raced through the gap and out of the encirclement. They were now in the darkness once again, out of the firelight from the conflagration.
Little Strongheart turned back to face the smoldering camp, but Prairiewind grabbed her with his hoof.
“No time to turn back! We’ll meet the others in Appleloosa like you said,” he urged, shouting above the din behind them. “Come on!”
He tried to push her with his hoof, but she stood firm.
“Those are my tribe, Prairiewind,” said Little Strongheart. “I can’t abandon them. They’re being slaughtered!”
The booming continued, until the thunder all blended together, becoming a continual roar.
He sighed. “There’s nothing you can do, Little Strongheart. They’re surrounded. Let’s just hope that the other buffalo in our tribe who were fitted with those lightning machines remember how to use them.”
Little Strongheart shook her head, and paused for another few seconds, but finally agreed, and she ran along with Prairiewind towards Appleloosa.
“GUYS!”
Pound Cake crashed through the screen door, dashing into the living room.
“The Second Kingdom has invaded! They’re taking out the buffalo, and they’re on their way here next! Grab your guns and head for the town square!”
Pumpkin Cake’s eyes widened. Her horn lit up as her gun appeared next to her in a flash, and a helmet appeared on her head.
“I told you so, Pound!”
Pound scoffed. “Lucky guess.”
“Land Sakes!” Applejack cried. Big Mac whinnied in shock.
“We gotta get to the town right away and meet up with the militia! Big Mac, get our guns! I’ll go wake Granny Smith and tell her to get in the cellar,” Applejack commanded.
“Eeyup!” he replied, dashing up from off the couch and in the other room to the gun closet.
“Alright, Pound, let’s get to the town square and tell the sheriff,” said Pumpkin. “Hold on.”
She ran over and grabbed Pound Cake. Her horn lit up, and they both disappeared in a flash, reappearing in front of Sheriff Silverstar’s office.
Pound raised an eyebrow. “The Sheriff’s office is three miles away from New Sweet Apple Acres. I didn’t know you could teleport that far.”
Pumpkin blinked. “Me neither.”
Pound slammed his hoof on the door to the sheriff’s office.
“SHERIFF!” he cried.
“I’m comin’, hold yer horses,” he called back before opening the door three seconds later. He had a frown on his face.
“What in tartarus is it, Pound and Pumpkin? It’s loud enough tonight with that there thunderstorm the pegasi teams scheduled—”
“That’s no thunderstorm. The Second Kingdom is invading!” Pumpkin exclaimed.
Right as she said this, Little Strongheart and three other buffalo arrived, panting and sweating.
“They massacred my tribe while we slept,” said Little Strongheart. “The four of us are all that’s left. But we will stand with you until the end.”
The Sheriff blinked. He turned around, ran back into his office, and shouted over the town PA system, “The Second Kingdom is invadin’! All militia report to your posts! Civilians, hide in the shelters!”
Over the next minute, ponies rushed out of their homes with guns. The militia members all got into place. Three ponies climbed up the clock tower atop city hall, hiding behind the clock face. Another two were hidden in the church steeple’s belfry. About a dozen stood on the upper balconies of shops that had them. Another dozen stood atop the roofs of shops without balconies. Five were positioned at the train station. Twenty or so hid in the apple orchards outside of town, the trees providing cover for sniper fire. But in the dark of night, it was hard to see anything at all.
Pound and Pumpkin both went to their position on the roof above mayor’s office, on the top floor of city hall. It was the tallest building in Appleloosa, from which they could see the whole town.
Pumpkin glanced through the window and saw that the lights were off.
“Looks like the Mayor has already taken shelter,” she said.
The twins gazed out across the horizon.
“I don’t see anything, but it’s really dark,” said Pumpkin Cake. She glanced up at the thin crescent moon which was obscured by the clouds. “They sure picked a good night to invade.”
“Well, they’ll probably just walk right through the city streets,” said Pound Cake. “Then, our snipers can pick ‘em off from the rooftops. We can lob some grenades down at them, and make it very costly for them to take this town. As soon—”
A tremendous explosion ripped through the barber shop on the west side of town. An orange fireball exploded outward as ponies and barber stools flew through the air.
“What the…” Pound Cake started.
Another explosion hit the schoolhouse, just outside the playground. Teeter totters and merry-go-rounds twisted into unrecognizable shapes.
“Those monsters! Shelling a playground! There could have been little kids playing there!” Pound shouted.
“Well, not at ten o’clock in the evening,” said Pumpkin. “Point taken, though. But what you said about them trying to take this town, that wasn’t right. They’re not trying to take this town at all…”
She paused as an explosion ripped through the saloon. A few moments later, a lightning bolt struck the top of the clock tower, knocking the ponies off and onto the ground three stories below.
Pound finished his sister’s thought. “They’re trying to destroy it!”
Automatic machine gunfire erupted from the clock tower and the tops of the buildings in Appleloosa as the ASDF fired back in the general direction of where the mortars had come from. It was too dark to see anything other than vague outlines of shapes off in the distance which could have been unicorns and buffalo, but could have also been apple trees, cacti, or boulders.
“Our guys will never hit anything like that!” Pound exclaimed. “They’re just firing blindly into the distance.”
“But what else are they supposed to do?” asked Pumpkin. “We can’t see a thing.”
“Sure we can,” said Pound. “Just follow the smoke trails.”
He pointed with his hoof towards a rising wisp of smoke off in the distance. Pumpkin Cake squinted at where he was pointing, but couldn’t make out any Second Kingdom forces.
"It's still not very clear where they are," she said.
“Well, I know of one way to get a good look,” said Pound.
Pumpkin asked, “Does it involve you flying?”
Pound grinned. “Yep, and it involves you flying with me.”
Pound picked up Pumpkin as he rose into the air, getting high enough that he couldn’t be hit by mortar fire. Pumpkin turned on her intangibility spell as a precaution, but Pound shook his head. She turned off the spell.
“We have nothing to worry about at this height. Save your energy for when we’re right on top of them. I’ll tell you when,” he said.
She obliged and they flew over the town and to where they saw the smoke trail.
“Okay, now you can do it,” said Pound. He descended as they scanned the ground for hostiles.
Right below them, there were moving shapes which were dark but still unmistakably about a dozen buffalo and unicorns. A flash burst out momentarily as one of the unicorns launched another mortar towards the town.
“Pegasus!” one of them shouted. They turned their guns towards Pound and Pumpkin, firing bullets up in the air which simply phased harmlessly through them. A lightning bolt erupted from the sky above, missing them, but giving away the buffalo’s position to the rest of the ponies in the town.
Pound reached for his saddlebag and removed a grenade, pulling a pin and throwing it to the ground. As it left his hoof, it turned solid once more, and exploded when it hit the soldiers.
Pound turned back towards the town. As he was right over the town square, a lightning bolt from the east raced towards the Spur of the Moment. The twins landed safely inside of a
cafe. Pumpkin turned off the spell, her horn throbbing slightly, but the pain wasn’t too bad.
“They’re firing from the east, too! They’ve got us surrounded!” Pumpkin exclaimed.
“Okay,” said Pound. “But now we know exactly where they are. And hopefully, the others saw that lightning bolt and are aiming there, too.”
The twins rested for a few moment inside the cafe as the fight continued to rage around them. An explosion hit the roof of the mayor’s office on its south side, blowing a giant hole as glass and wooden fragments splintered everywhere.
“Wow, that was close. If we’d been up there like we were supposed to...” Pumpkin chuckled.
“I guess that we can’t go back up to the roof,” said Pound. “And I guess that they’re shelling us from the south, too. I’d bet they’re in the north and have our town encircled. What should we do?”
“Get a pegasus’ eye view of the town, and then find the best place to go,” said Pumpkin.
“Got it,” said Pound. “You stay here and recharge your magic. I’ll be back.”
Pound zipped off into the air, glancing around the town. Almost one in every five buildings was destroyed, and blazes were spreading to the ones still standing. Survivors moaned in pain and called out for their loved ones. The town’s one doctor was rushing around to as many ponies as he could treat. It was a bloodbath, and the unicorns and buffalo hadn’t even entered the town yet.
This is a massacre, Pound thought.
He returned to Pumpkin Cake. She glanced up at him, and he shook his head.
“They’re not going to stop until the the whole town is destroyed. We need to go get Sheriff Silverstar and come up with a plan.”
“Alright,” said Pumpkin. “He’s inside of the bank vault. It’s probably the only safe place left in the town by now.”
As if to accentuate her point, a lightning bolt hit outside of the building in which they sat, shattering the windows. Pumpkin tried to turn on her intangibility spell, but the explosion was too quick for her to react. Glass flew towards them, cutting them with its sharp edges.
“Aah!” Pound cried. He gazed at his front right leg. There were many shards of glass sticking out of it, just above his hoof.
“Ow!” Pumpkin had small glass shards in her belly.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she said, wincing from the pain. Her horn lit up as she removed the glass shards from her belly. “Didn’t hit anything important. Just surface scratches. But are you okay?”
Pound glanced at the cut area above his hoof, gritting his teeth. “It hurts like a mother,” he said. “I think I cut a tendon or something.”
Pumpkin looked at Pound’s injuries. She gasped. His leg had been cut so deep, that she could see the bone.
She shook her head. “I think it’s worse than that, Pound.”
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Good going, Pound. I get that he's a cocky teen, but isn't that just convenient that the one night that the town's only pegasus doesn't do a fly-by, TSK invades? Also, was he the only lookout? Between both the town and Strongheart's tribe? I find it hard to believe that a whole army could get in, even at night, and no one notices. No one had a single lookout?
It occurs to me that since Trixie is the master of misdirection, the latest events are probably not as large as they appear. Large enough to do the job, but probably only just and only thanks to illusions making it look bigger than it is.
Unless it wasn't Trixie behind the blitz, but I'm pretty sure she was.
Well, I see some rather interesting parallels between the Japanese internment of WWII and the anti-Muslim hate of the War on Terror as applied to the Zebra.
Also, I see Spitfire slowly sliding down the slippery slope.
I predict that WMDs might be used in the future by one or both sides.
And I forsee a draft coming up eventually...which will lead to more riots.
Pony hooves are keratin all the way through; as such, they can't bleed, feel, bend, or otherwise be damaged the that extent.
4976949 Murphy's law says that the one time you forget to do something, is when it matters the most. Pound is the designated scout, and normally does a good job, but he was pretty busy with all of his homework. There aren't too many ponies in the town militia, maybe like seventy or eighty.
Little Strongheart's tribe is supposed to serve as the lookout in addition to Pound, since they're the furthest out west, and can usually run pretty fast, but as shown, they were overrun under cover of a planned lightning storm that was supposed to occur that evening. Even given that, they still arrived in enough time to warn the town militia so that they could take their positions inside of the town where they're supposed to be.
4979293 You're right. I was kind of envisioning that he was hit just above his hoof, on his leg, but it wasn't very clear the way I wrote it since I just referred to the injured area as his "hoof" which might be a bit confusing. I'll go ahead and change that in the chapter to make it a bit clearer that it's his leg above his hoof that is injured, rather than his hoof itself.
4981480 Oh, alright. Sorry to be a pest.
4981468 Yes, but how did a force that large get close enough to pull that off in the first place? Big armies are pretty easy to spot. Pound should have noticed them the day before, especially on terrain as flat as the one surrounding Appleloosa. Even a force of as little as 500 or so would be noticed.
4982650 It's not all that big of a force. Assuming a 2:1 casualty ratio in favor of Appleloosa is predicted, and since there are only about 80 ASDF members at most, it would only take about 200 unicorn and buffalo troops to take the entire town of Appleloosa. It would be pretty easy to conceal them, for instance if they came in small groups that resembled border patrol or enemy scouts more than an invasion force. They would just stick around near the eastern-most areas that they control as not to arouse suspicion, and then make their move into Appleloosa at night.
Last time they tried invading secretly by train, but that didn't work out too well. So this time they tried a different strategy, which was using a planned thunderstorm as cover, trying to take out the Appleloosa-allied buffalo, and then rushing into Appleloosa before anypony in town would notice. You'll notice that they also made sure that they waited several months before trying again, so that hopefully Appleloosa would let its guard down and get complacent.
4981683 Hey don't worry about it; you're not a pest.
4982683 See, this is another huge problem with this story: numbers. We never get numbers, so I can never know if a tactic is sound or not. You telling me in the comments that it's 200 vs 80 is all well and good, but comments doesn't matter: it's the story that matters. If this was a published book were you couldn't reply, all of my criticisms would be completely inarguable. It's like if in the Battle of Helms Deep we were never told that it was 10,000 vs 300. It's just two blobs of forces fighting against each other. Well, we can't conceptualize the stakes at that point. for all I know based on this chapter, the ADF outnumbers the invaders 100-1.
Now, obviously in this context where the battle takes place at night and it's a surprise attack from all sides it gets a pass, because sometimes strategy and such negates numbers (see 300, as I just did last night incidentally
) but this is a reoccurring problem. How big is the Equestrian army? TSK army? The zebra invading force? Oh, we're never told, are we? It could be ten ships. I have no proof otherwise. Casualty lists, army size, equipment capabilities, it's never really explained in detail.
4982774 I've said many times that the ASDF is a small force of a few dozen ponies. Less than 100. Even if I hadn't, it's pretty easy to figure out the population of the town as seen in the show. In the show, Appleloosa is a pretty small town, even smaller than Ponyville. Maybe it's grown in fifteen years, but not by that much, and it's stated outright in the story that the town is has only a few hundred ponies, so probably under 500 or so. Since you know the population of the town, you can figure how many of those ponies joined the militia. Even if I never told you, and even if the story never says (which it does), you can probably guess that the number of militia ponies are less than 100 given that it's an entirely volunteer militia and there is only a minority of ponies fit for military service in the town once you subtract children, the elderly, disabled, ponies in important positions who would be unable to fight given their critical support roles in the town (the mayor, doctor, firefighters, etc).
I'm not going to just say how many soldiers are invading Appleloosa for obvious reasons, that the characters have no way of knowing, and it kind of ruins the suspense if I say, oh by the way, there's only 200 invaders. There could be 200 or 2,000, but the characters don't know that, so the reader won't know it either. I only told you because you asked how they got by undetected, and I don't feel that it's a major plot spoiler, just a suspense spoiler. Part of the fun of reading a story is figuring things out and using your imagination and "headcanon" to flesh out the details not given, rather than having the writer hand you everything through boring, lengthy exposition or comments on the story.
As for how many soldiers in the entire armies themselves, I'd love to give that number, but it would be nearly impossible, because it is very hard to figure out how many ponies live in Equestria in the show. The show NEVER gives us the population of Canterlot, Manehattan, or Ponyville. I've seen realistic and well-sourced estimates for Ponyville ranging from as low as 300 to as high as 1,000, and that's a town that is seen in nearly every episode of the show! So you can imagine how hard it would be to figure out towns that are only seen in a few episodes.
As for Canterlot? Who knows, we don't really see much of the city outside of Celestia's palace. Maybe her palace is most of the city, and there's only a few thousand, or maybe there's parts of the city that we never see, and there's a few million. Manehattan probably has several thousand at least, but do they have a million? Who knows. It's impossible to know. If I can't figure out the population of the cities, I can't figure out a reasonable number of ponies that would be in the army, either. That's the show's fault, not mine.
During the few battles seen in the show, numbers are never given. How many changelings are there, and how many royal guards were there to fight them during the Royal Wedding? Not given. How many crystal ponies faced off against Sombra, and how was a single unicorn able to take over a whole empire? Not given. But for the vast majority of watchers of the show, and presumably readers of the show's fanfiction, the lack of total overall population numbers don't really detract from their enjoyment of it. Because it's primarily about the ponies.
"Casualty lists, army size, equipment capabilities, it's never really explained in detail."
And that's the same in my story. I mean, I could turn this into an in depth analysis of every single battle that takes place, how many soldiers were on each side, etc, but this is a story, not a history book, and I hope that you can appreciate that. It's primarily about the interaction of characters with each other, not about the minutiae of war details. I could have there be a million ponies fighting a million ponies, or I could have there be a thousand ponies fighting a thousand ponies, but either way, how much of a difference does it ultimately make?
All that is given in the story is just what the reader needs to know at the time: that the Second Kingdom's forces are outnumbered, but they have magic, conscription, and have managed to secure several allies, as well as drive a wedge between Cloudsdale and Equestria, thinning the available soliders in Equestria. In terms of numbers, they have less, but in terms of fighting ability, the Second Kingdom and Equestria are pretty much evenly matched at this point. I mean, when was the last time that either side took a major city? Mareicopa, several years ago, and they've been at pretty much a stalemate since then.
There have been plenty of great, well-received fiction stories that have *never* given exact numbers, many of which ran for a lot longer than my story.
4983263 Like I said, I wasn't talking about Appleloosa in general. I admitted that the whole "night attack" think makes it perfectly acceptable to not give numbers. It's a night attack during a storm; of course there's going to be misinformation and chaos.
Now, I'm not saying "give exact numbers before and after each battle" but if you want to get a good idea of what I'm talking about, read Chengar Qordath's The Lunar Rebellion. Maybe that's why I take issue with some of the military stuff in the story: Chengar is a clear history buff and utilizes that to full effect in his story.
Nothing against you, but it's a good example. No, he doesn't give exact numbers before and after battles either, but we at least have some clarity of forces. I don't get any of that here. Not just because it's not stated, but because it looks like it fluctuates. Pound and Pumpkin took/destroyed 1/10th of the weapons of a major military base. Or at least, I assume it was major because it was in Canterlot itself. Two ponies with a small wagon took 1/10th of the weapons for an base, it's gotta be a small base, right? But unless I don't remember right, it's not presented like that.
Also, about the population thing: this is fanfiction. Who cares how many ponies are in the show? So far we've only seen about fifty or so ponies between all of the cities. You as the author can make that call and no one will question you on it for the same reason no one would question a backstory you made for Celestia: we don't know, so as a fanfic author, you pretty much have free reign on it as long as its plausible. You couldn't get away with saying that there are 10 trillion ponies in Ponyville, but if you wanted to say that there are about 20 million ponies in Equestria you could totally do that. This is not the show. You make the rules here. As long as you have logical reasons for them, go for it.
Also, I only ask as many questions as I do about this stuff because you bring it up in your story. What sounds more tense? "We're outnumbered!" or "We're outnumbered three to one!"
The second one, of course.
Same with the other stuff like the food. Blueblood says. "We're running low on food and I'm not sure how much longer we can hold out." is very vague, but him saying "we only have a month's worth of food left before we have to start doling out meager rations and I'm especially not sure how we're going to feed our army once that happens." Boom, now his actions make complete sense, we have more information, which means we are asking fewer questions (always a good thing) and our suspension of disbelief isn't broken.
Now, I'll stress that these are just examples, not necessarily from any specific scenes in your story, to keep in mind. It's very simple to give information like that, especially when you have whole scenes where both sides are meeting with advisers. It'd be very easy to have Twilight say "a fleet of ten Zebrican ships is bombing Tall Town" or "roughly four thousand SK troops are doing this and that." instead of "the SK is attacking here." Again, not so much the specific numbers themselves, but more the exposition they give and how it relates to character choices, especially in scenes like that.
4983597 Okay, I understand. I'll go back in the story and revise it to give more specifics.
Serves the racist Appleloosans right...
4989087 Colgate ended up alone and romantically frustrated once more.
As for Con Mane, I wouldn't count him entirely out just yet. After all, we never saw him die on screen, and he could always have pulled some sort of trick...
4991661
Blueblood watched him get eaten alive by sharks
8770503
Not me coming back 4 years later and realizing I said this to the author of this fic....... 🤦