The People's Republic of Twilightlicious

by GeodesicDragon

Friends Disunited - Part Two

March 11th 2016

"Raymond, report."

Raymond nodded. "Yes, Princess." he cleared his throat. "Our allies in Tarbellville report that they have severely crippled the enemy's digital currency system. This has weakened their economy somewhat, but we've intercepted chatter which suggests that the Apocalypse are already in the process of switching back to paper money. Fighting between soldiers has taken place along the borders of some participating nations, resulting in loss of life. However, the Apocalypse seems keen to let their air force do most of their fighting, and have carpet bombed cities in Tarbellville, Mistyoceans and the Equestrian Paradise — which that son of a bitch Geo has mockingly renamed 'The Apocalyptic Puppet State.'"

"I thought the Paradise was under their control?" Celestia asked.

"It is." Raymond nodded. "But your people are not exactly willing to roll over and let the Apocalypse tell them what to do. They are resisting as best they can; the bombings are acting as reprisals."

"How many have died?" Twilight asked hesitantly. "In total, that is."

"Estimates are sketchy at best," Raymond said. "But the unofficial count suggests that over twenty million people from all sides – most of them civilian – have been killed so far."

"Twenty million dead in just eight days?" Luna asked, aghast. "By Violet, that is... that is truly horrifying!"

Raymond sighed. "Yes, Luna, it is," he replied. "But many millions more have fled to neutral nations as refugees. They'll be safe there; not even the Apocalypse would want to incur the combined wrath of the World Assembly by attacking refugees."

"Well, at least they have some sense of compassion," Twilight growled. "What else is there to report, Raymond?"

Suddenly, the door opened and a soldier – whose uniform bore the name 'Private Brad Century' – rushed in. He ran up to the desk and saluted, whereupon everyone could see that he was out of breath.

"Princess Twilight!" he panted.

"Take it easy, soldier," Twilight replied. "Get your breath back first."

Brad took a few deep breaths and let them out before he replied, his voice shaky. "Princess, it is with regret that I must tell you... Twilightlicious has been invaded by the combined forces of the Azeertha Islands and Elyshia."

A collective gasp rose up from the occupants of the room.

"Wait, 'has been' invaded?" Raymond asked.

Brad nodded. "The invasion must have happened within the last day or so," he replied. "We only found out after many of our soldiers who were stationed in the west suddenly returned in a panic."

"How many enemy troops did they see?" Twilight asked.

"Two million each of Azeerthians and Elyshians," Brad replied. "I am sorry, Your Majesty, but our soldiers weren't prepared to fight back against such a sudden – and unprovoked – assault."

Twilight shook her head. "Do not apologise," she said. "I would not ask you to lay down your lives for what is clearly a lost cause."

"The enemy don't seem to see it that way." Brad scratched his head. "In fact, they haven't even pursued us at all. They have taken up a defensive position approximately three-hundred miles west of the capital, and seem perfectly happy to just... sit there."

"My guess is they are acting on the orders of the Apocalypse," Raymond said. "Geo isn't going to want his allies to have 'the honour and the glory' of defeating us, so he told them to halt." He looked at Brad. "Thank you for your report, Private, return to your barracks for some food and rest. You've earned it."

Brad saluted and left the room, while Twilight sighed. "Be that as it may, we still need to do something about it," she said. "Raymond, how many soldiers do we have?"

"The Twilightlicious Army has fourteen million enlisted personnel," Raymond replied. "However, the enemy could easily call in substantial reinforcements — given that they outnumber us nearly five to one on manpower alone. If we were to launch an attack, it would surely condemn our troops to certain death."

"Do the enemy know how many troops we have?" Twilight asked, to which Raymond shook his head. "Good, that means we have something that we can actually use to our advantage."

"Whatever do you mean, Twilight?" Luna asked.

"All it takes is a little bit of illusion magic, and a handful of soldiers becomes an entire division." Twilight smirked. "And it just so happens that I know somepony who is very good at illusions..."

She began laughing, and – to their surprise – the other three occupants of the room laughed with her.

March 16th 2016

Twilight and Raymond walked side-by-side down the row of soldiers, each of whom was standing at attention.

"Impressive..." Raymond said. "Looking at them, you wouldn't even begin to think that they were illusions."

Twilight nodded. "I know, right?" she looked at the other pony who was standing nearby with a small smile on her face. "I told you that I knew the right mare for the job." She walked over and gave the new arrival a hug. "Thanks for your help, Trixie."

"Happy to be of service, Twilight," Trixie replied. "I've been following events in the newspapers back home, and I have to say that I don't like the idea of this 'Apocalypse' coming to Equestria. So when you contacted me and asked for my assistance, I knew that it was the right thing to do — both as a service to my country, and as a way of making amends with you."

"And I really appreciate it," Twilight said. "We've been listening in on enemy communications, and they are panicking at the sudden increase in the size of our military power."

Raymond laughed. "A lot of them want to turn around and head back home, but the powers that be won't let them."

"Come, Trixie, and see for yourself." Twilight led the way over to a nearby tent. "We've managed to gain access to the surveillance systems at the enemy camp, so we can see for ourselves just how they are reacting to the presence of our phantom army."

Her horn flickered, and the table in the middle of the room glowed with a soft purple light. An image appeared, showing a heavily guarded military base decked out with the flags of the Azeertha Islands and Elyshia. The scene changed to show a trench outside of the base, which was filled with men looking anxiously at the soldiers less than a hundred metres away from them.

"I don't get it," one of the Azeerthian soldiers said. "Why aren't those bastards attacking us? They've got us beat on numbers."

"They're just trying to mess with our minds," an Elyshian soldier replied. "They may outnumber us, but our weapons are far superior to theirs. If they attack us, our machine guns will tear them to shreds before they can even get range to fire back."

"I heard that the top brass have a surprise for them," the Azeerthian said warily. "But it's just—" He stopped talking as the sky suddenly darkened, forcing the man to look up. "The truth."

The Elyshian looked up as well, and then laughed. "Well I'll be damned." he looked back across the lines. "This gon' be good."

Twilight, Raymond and Trixie looked at each other.

"What are they talking about?" Trixie asked.

"I don't know." Twilight scratched her head. "Something above them caught their attention... hold on a moment while I change the perspective of the spell, so we can see what it is."

Her horn glowed, and the scene shifted once again to reveal a sky swarming with hundreds of aircraft — each of which bore the unmistakable markings of the GDAF.

The spell faded from Twilight's horn as her jaw dropped, the last thing she saw being the first of thousands of bombs falling to earth.

Author's Note:

I'm sorry if this doesn't seem exciting enough; I'm trying to get the war out of the way as soon as possible.

Having said that, there is a twist coming that I hope will make up for this. Also:

Private Brad Century

Do you see what I did there?