Facing Northern Lightning

by The Prancing Red Pony

Chapter 1

General Ulysses S. Grant puffed away at his cigar as he looked down at his war map. He seldom slept, and drank heavily, so he was always in a somewhat drunk and sleep deprived state. He spent most of his days and nights at the Capitol, with his generals of the Union Armies and the admiral's of the Union Navy. He could barely understand the situation at hand. With surprise attacks on Granite City and Altop in Illinois, Evansville and New Albany in Indiana, Hopkinsville and Middlesboro in Kentucky, Sioux City and Council Bluffs in Iowa he could barely understand the reports and information that came into him from those states. The so called Princess Celestia and her nation of Equestria, performed surprise attacks and raids and the weirdest factor; THEY WERE PONIES!! To Grant the war seemed to be formed out of pure fear and hate. It seemed for the so called Princess Celestia, that humans were a dangerous race that needed to be eliminated or her own ponies would suffer. But, Grant being the fiery hearted General that he was, would not have it. The main reason that Princess Celestia and her armies of Equestria attacked the Union was out of old tales and folklore, being that humans were a ruthless race running their own people into the ground and politicians driving corrupt governments. But, Celestia did not realize that the Union was a very strong and powerful nation.

Celestia whenever she did attack would always capture some humans to kill, enslave, experiment, or torture. Men, Women, Children, the Elderly no one was safe from the ruthlessness of Princess Celestia. Those who were taken prisoner, were immediately taken to camps or to laboratories. Those that were taken to the camps and talked negatively at all about the Princess, were stabbed, shot, or beaten. Those who continued to try and win the rights for their fellow prisoners and talked negatively of Celestia, were sent to laboratories to be experimented on. The Princess wanted to understand how the human anatomy would work by injecting them with lethal chemicals, severing limbs, decapitation, or even worse. Some were even given to Pegasus's who would throw them on the ground from high altitudes to watch their limbs break in sudden and painful agony.

"Those terrible and ungodly atrocities how could anyone for that matter have any peace, love, or kindness with in them" Grant yelled at his fellow generals demanding an answer as he pounded his fist on the table. He poured himself another glass of whiskey and swallowed it in one gulp as he flicked the ash off his cigar. Since the attacks he barely ate, slept, or bathed, keeping his eyes glued to his war map, smoking cigars, and drinking large amounts of alcohol. But, his eyes were not locked on Washington D.C. or the area's attacked by the ponies, it was to the east of the map beyond the paper. Ponies that could talk, reason, love, fight, or much anything else sounded like a fairy tale and then large attacks and raids appear from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Iowa. The eastern half of the continent was but uncharted territory to the Union and frankly seemed extremely frightening and troublesome. The land was apparently made up of great mountains, deserts, forests, and swamps.

"I agree with you General Grant. But, for now we must live with such evil atrocities and ungodly acts. And fight for what is right in this great open world of ours. It is rather selfish of us not to think their is more than one species in this great world" a voice said from behind.

Grant turned around in and was shocked slightly for it was the President; Abraham Lincoln. "Welcome Mr.President I did not except your visit" the General said with a salute. The President walked over to the planning table. "I absolutely agree with you Mr. President" Grant said rather flustered.

"I trust all is prepared?" said the President.

"Yes Mr.President. My soldiers, supplies, heavy weaponry, subordinate commanders, and myself are ready and on the trains to depart for Chicago which then we will march down to the Southern Half of Indiana and confront this so called Princess Celestia" Grant said with assurance.

"Very good General. But, is there any new information on these Ponies, Equestria, or Celestia?" Lincoln asked.

"Sadly No Mr. President all we have are the documented attacks and the profiles of the kind of ponies. They are devious and very skilled in deception" Grant answered with a sigh before puffing on his cigar.

Lincoln was not the kind of man to have a temper but he felt he was gonna burst with anger and frustration but calmed himself at the last moment, "We must repel these damn things or we will all be enslaved. General you must deal with them swiftly and with as little bloodshed."

General Grant stared down at his feet and sighed before tears started to form in his eyes. "Mr.President.. you know that I have been trying to deal with my drinking. I don't want to be a sloppy commander in the field, I am frightened from the hairs on my head to my toes in my boot. I will protect my family and the people of the Union until the last bullet! Even if that mean's going right into their capital and burning it to the ground."

Lincoln looked from the war map to General Grant who was now full fighting spirit and smiled. "General I trust you do well out there on the front. I hope none of your soldiers suffer a terrible fate."

"I wont fail you Mr. President" said the General who saluted Lincoln and then shook his hand. Grant went over to a large tube on the far side of the room and grabbed the rolls of parchment sticking out of it which were battle maps. He then walked out of the room followed by other generals who were his subordinates.

Lincoln was all alone in the room. He looked at the war map and spoke softly, "God Speed Grant. Return with Victory in your grasp."

---------

D.C.'s train station was all hustle and bustle with soldiers, wives, children, workers, and others walking to and fro. Great Union Flags waved almost everywhere. The weather was very clear and it was very hot. The General wiped his brow as he headed towards his train car. Many ranks of soldiers not having boarded the train saluted the General. The General saluted back and then spoke.

"Now Men we must fight hard and well. We must drive these so called ponies and Celestia from our homes and farms and restore peace and order in our NATION!!!" Grant yelled.

"Sir Yes Sir" said his soldiers in unison before boarding their train cars. Grant got aboard his car while his subordinates got on a train car right next to his. Grant sat down and rubbed his forehead. The train whistled and then its gears began to lurch and turn and soon the train was heading off down the tracks. Grant puffed at his cigar and drank a glass of water while he looked outside at the rich green landscape after being stuck in the Capitol War Room for days on end without fresh air, clean water, and being in the dark.

"I won't fail you Mr. President. I will bring this Princess Celestia to her knees" Grant whispered.

Author's Note:

Well guys this is my latest story. I've been having trouble writing and then I thought why not write about one of my favorite subjects: History but put a special MLP flare to it. It is a little short but I want to expand this story to its fullest potential and you never know their could be an opposite to this story. I really like the concept and I hope you do too.

If you find any grammar mistakes please P.M. me or comment below since it really helps with my writing. Thanks a bunch!

The Map has changed so that no southern half of the US exist's but it's just the Northern Half of the US (Civil War Era).

Comments

[Crusder12]

A bit short but interesting.

[voyager 1]

[Dinokid11]

Why did clester attack us we might not be all good but she doesn't have to kill all of us

[Bronzer]

Human is a species, Caucasian and Latino are races. Races is basically a subset of species.

old tales and folklore, being that humans were a ruthless race running their own people into the ground and politicians driving corrupt governments.

Really? That's not fully in-line with what the description on the cover page said:

They were know to be frightening, strong, and ruthless only fighting for what they believed in being true.

Plus, if she cared about us running ourselves into the ground, then she'd have sat back and done nothing, since she wants us dead. Plus, their folklore apparently says we only fight when we believe it is necessary/right. So, basically, as long as you don't provoke us and we don't suffer some shortage of some critical resource and have nothing that can be traded in sufficient quantities to make up for it, you'll be fine.

Plus, attacking us is realllllly stupid. I can't wait for the political fallout:

Non-ponies: "You attacked a hyper-lethal species because they're dangerous? WTF!?"
Celestia: "They were a threat to my ponies, so I had to try to destroy them!"
NP: "How were they a threat? They had ignored your species existence for centuries! Hell, they didn't even know you existed!"
C: "So? They are strong, deadly fighters and ruthless when provoked!"
NP: "...so, you're saying they're basically living weapons and ruthless killing machines when someone attacks them?"
C: "That's right! You see now why I had to attack?"
NP: "...yeah...just...please don't be contagious... we feel sorry for your species' gene-pool."
C: "What does human clothing have to do with anything?"
NP: "...arrrrrrrggghhh!!!!"

*Celestia's head was happily accepted by the human President later that day and everyone lived happily ever after. Well, except the ponies, who committed mass-suicide in the belief that, without Celestia, the sun would burn in the sky forever and that they would all suffer an agonizing, slow death from it's heat. On a happier note, the non-pony ambassadors to Equestria made full recoveries from their aneurisms.*

5767488

Because she's an idiot. The ponies already know that humans only fight when we believe it is necessary or right (those, sadly rarely go hand-in-hand). She's probably just afraid of how dangerous we are when we chose to be. Of course, attacking a species that for centuries has had no interest in fighting you and you believe to be some sort of super warriors is an incredibly bad idea. Especially when it turns out that we are super warriors when compared to their world's species.

[CuriousCurse]

This story... All the posturing and monocharacterized speech mannerisms. The single-minded stupidity and lack of any sort of finesse to the political landscapes. The rushing pace with terribly undescriptive actions that fail to give anything other than the most rudimentary description of what's going on...

Now I know why I let this get buried in my read later bin. It's absolutely terrible.

[Nightspawn]

Interesting
I'm Glad I can Read This without Conflicting interests, (if I Read Facing Southern Thunder, I'd Feel Conflicted who to Root For, being a Dixie boy myself)