The Equestrian Army

by DE4DLIESTP0NY

The Sweet Apple Army

For many of the soldiers, returning to Cheval City was the longest journey they've ever taken. Many of them were W.I.A at their recent battle, making it difficult and painful to march back. Some ponies could no longer stand, but most of there wounds were temporary 3rd degree burns that didn't do any permanent damage. The special squads like the Black Ops or the Air Force didn't have many casualties. The majority of wounded and dead came from the main army infantry, who almost had no primary defense against the Infernites' ever-burning flames. The three generals of the Equestrian Army were travelling in front of the rest of the army. Beside them were the three survivors of the battle at Gallop Town, and surrounding them were the most elite of each of their squads. They were comforting the survivors, trying to gain their trust and more importantly, see if they remembered anything about when the Infernites first arrived. The mare finally stopped crying and began to talk.

"It all happened so fast. The entire town was destroyed literally in a few seconds. It was a massive wave of blue fire. It covered the entire town, including our house."

"But if your house was caught in the wave, how is it still standing?" Camoflash asked, with an astonished look on his face.

"I can't explain it either, but whenever the house or one of us were in danger we were surrounded by a purple aura that seemed to deflect anything that could do us harm. Though my daughter and I are both unicorns, we didn't cast the spell. Our magical auras are a light blue color, completely different from the ones that saved us."

When Nova heard this information, there was only one unicorn that she could think of that would explain the phenomena. They arrived back at Cheval city early the next morning. The survivors and the generals headed for the palace while the rest of the army was instructed to go back to base so they could rest.(except for the wounded went to hospital) Nova left Soarin from OP 115 in charge of basic commands until they returned. The six ponies walked up the courtyard stairs and into Celestia's palace. The princess was standing in the middle of the main room, frantically pacing herself. She was relieved to see Nova and the others alive again, in fact she was waiting for their return.

"I can't explian it, Twilight has been having magical surges all day yesterday, But nothing in the palace or even the city has been affected by them. It's so mysterious. Unicorn foals don't have magical surges without them causing an effect on something," Said the princess, still walking all over the room. She was practically panicking, but not quite. Nova had never seen the princess not know something about magic before, but it wasn't surprising to her, because she knew that the princess (other than discord) had never dealt with combat, especially unicorn foals in combat.

"I think I know what's going on princess, where's Twilight?" asked Nova.

"She's in the library. My servants have been watching her closely there," Celestia responded, reassuring herself that everything was under control. The princess then turned her head to the survivors and wondered who they had brought with them. Recon Groove noticed the look on her face and began to explain.

"These three are survivors from Gallop Town. It's been chaotic for them these past few days. When we found them they couldn't even fully trust us. We knew that there would be no sight as reassuring as the princess herself, and Nova believes that there is something else going on with them."

"I'm honored to meet the three of you." Celestia said with her usual encouraging voice."But I thought that Twilight was the only survivor?"

"We all did, but for whatever reason all three of them remained completely untouched by the chaos," Camoflash added.

"And i believe I think I know why!" exclaimed Nova "Everypony follow me to the library." Nova led them down a hallway to the palace's massive library. She had been here a few times before when she was just a recruit, studying in the very small combat section. There was a main area in the middle of the library that branched off into the many sections. It was where one would typically read. Celestia's servants were looking at almost every magic-based book in the entire library and closely watching Twilight, who was lying in the very center of the area. She looked exhausted, as if she had been casting frequently for days. The group of ponies made their way over to Twilight, still keeping a safe distance away from her. One of Celestia's servants also came over, and told them what they had found out.

"We have analyzed her technique and confirmed that she is using protection magic, thought we do not know that she is casting on. Recently we also found out that Twilight's magic isn't affecting anything in or around the city, but of course we still don't know what she's casting on or why. But whatever she's doing she has enough power to match Starswirl the Bearded!" Everypony except for the servants were puzzled by that statement.

"What could a filly want to protect so badly?" Celestia said to herself as she started pacing again.

"Don't worry princess, some of that information actually confirms my theory, but there's only one way to know for sure," Nova reassured her while turning to the survivor stallion."If you don't mind sir, my friend here is going to kick you, and I want you not to defend yourself at all."

"Well I don't see why not. If it's for matters of national security I'd be happy to help." Responded the white earth pony.

"Camoflash would you like to do the honors?" Nova asked already sure of his reply.

"I'd never turn down the chance to hit somepony," replied Camoflash as he approached the the stallion. He attacked him without hesitation. He didn't do much, just a simple forehoof kick, and the survivor didn't even flinch. Just as his wife had described earlier, the stallion was protected by a lavender aura. It didn't just protect the stallion, but the mare and filly as well. This also forced the release of the filly from the grasp of Camoflash's soldier. Everypony turned around and saw Twilight levitating high in the air. Her horn was glowing so bright that the entire library seemed darker by comparison. Only Celestia had seen magic on this level before. The sight of Twilight casting the protection spell on the civilian family answered everypony's questions, but several more mysteries quickly replaced them. There was a moment of silence as everypony stared in awe at both Twilight and the shield that she had cast. The spell lasted for minutes, and was as effective as it looked. Nopony could even begin to put the slightest dent in it. It was probably powerful enough to withstand one of the final attacks that the three generals used in the battle at the ruins of Gallop Town. The shield slowly disappeared after a few minutes and Twilight fell hard to the ground.

The three generals and Princess Celestia rushed over to the lavender unicorn. She put a hoof to her neck and looked for a pulse. She found a faint heartbeat and the slight movement of her breathing within a few seconds. Once she confirmed that Twilight Sparkle was still alive, she moved out of the way and allowed for Celestia to cast healing magic. The spell had drained Twilight's energy down to nothing. She could barely summon the strength to blink. Twilight probably wanted the spell to continue, but simply ran out of power.

"That's incredible! How could a mere filly harness such energy!?!" Recon Groove said as astonished as the others.

"I don't know," said Camoflash "But for whatever reason she REALLY wants to keep those three alive." Celestia had finished restoring Twilight's energy. Surprisingly she didn't recast her spell, instead she ran off playfully into one of the larger sections of the library. The princess turned back towards the group and spoke.

"I still don't know what is going on with that filly." She looked at the survivors."Perhaps we'll find out later, but for now I would like you three to stay in the palace. I need you all close by in case we discover something important. I'm sure that you wouldn't mind."

"Not at all princess," replied the pink mare. "We couldn't possibly stay in our home, being the only ones there. It's safer for my family this way."

"Very well then, one of my servants will escort you to your room."

"Right this way." said a pegasus guard who was motioning towards a nearby hallway. The family followed him and were soon out of sight as they turned a corner in the corridor. Nova, Recon, and Camoflash each saluted the princess and left the palace. They had just exited the courtyard when they nearly ran into Spitfire, who was in a hurry to find them.

"My generals! We have discovered the location of a small Infernite force southwest of Gallop Town."

"Why are you telling us this soldier? Send a group to take them out!" Recon Groove responded with a slight anger towards her and Soarin, who was in charge of commands at the time.

"We're informing you of this because of other mysterious sightings around the area."

"What exactly Spitfire." said Nova.

"We saw what appeared to be electric trees in a defensive perimeter to keep the Infernites at bay. Reports also confirm other ponies in the area."

"Tell all the troops in my command to report to me in ten minutes," ordered Camoflash.

"Yes sir!" saluted Spitfire. The reconnaissance pegasus proceeded back to the army headquarters to carry out her orders. The generals waited at the city gates until Camoflash's forces arrived, taking a brief rest there. They arrived 10 minutes later as ordered. and were ready as ever to battle once more. At 07:58 hours they all boarded motorized carriages proceeded towards their location. Spitfire flew ahead of them, leading the way to their objective. Recon and Camoflash briefed the strike force while Nova closely examined surveillance photos. She was sure that the ponies in hiding were unicorns casting multiple lightning spells on surrounding trees. She was also puzzled at why lightning would provide a great defense from creatures that were made of fire.

They came into visual range at about 8:27 hours. Most of the ponies watching were surprised to see the the electrified trees were an effective defense against the Infernites. This led them to theorize that whatever was within the Infernites' metal shells was somewhat organic in nature, and was prone to normal forms of damage. The enemy outside the perimeter didn't seem to have any specific strategy to breach the electric barriers. In between the bolts of lightning that reflected rapidly between the trees they could see the ponies inside, and they walked slowly towards them no matter how lethal the hazards in front of them were. The electrical circle of trees stood out against the flat plains around them. The ground behind them seemed to be burned, no doubt from Infernite footsteps.

The carriages stopped thirty meters from the nearest enemy. Every pony checked their equipment and weapons before deploying into their second conflict. The Infernites quickly changed their attention to the small task force, choosing to battle an enemy that they had a chance to defeat. The ponies were greatly outnumbered. and had no cover but the vehicles that they came in. The Equestrian Black Ops fired first, concentrating most of their fire on the three yellow Infernites that soon responded with their own rays of fire. The heavily resistant leaders were feet away from the ponies position when they fell. With the main threat out of the way all that remained were about 80 reds who were also danger-close to the 35 ponies. Still, the Black Ops tactics proved too much for the generally weak red infantry. Despite being outnumbered, the small strike force broke cover and quickly eliminated all targets in the immediate area. Within two minutes the ground was littered by the cold shells of the dead Infernites.

The ponies proceeded to investigate the electric barriers before reinforcements came. When they got within a few feet of the perimeter they could also see several ponies inside. They couldn't confirm anything about them specifically except that they were ponies." Recon Groove and Camoflash both tried to remove the barrier but couldn't control the lightning. Their magic wasn't strong enough. They instead signaled for one of the ponies inside remove the barrier.

"Hey! Over here! Were ponies!! Let us in!!!!" Camoflash yelled towards the center of the enclosed area. One of them must have heard him because a light pink mare with a green mane ran over to them. She jumped up and held onto a small grey apple growing on the strange tree with her mouth. It took half a minute of in-air tugging and pulling, but the grey fruit finally fell out of the tree. For whatever reason this shut off the electrical current between it and the two trees next to it, allowing the army ponies to safely enter the area. After they all were past the trees the mare kicked the tree with her hind legs, almost as if she were trying to shake the other apples off of it. This reactivated the electrical current between the deactivated trees. This shocked the young mare as well, but it was more of a jolt rather than a lethal electrocution.

"Thank Celestia help has finally arrived! I don't know how much longer we could've survived here by ourselves." The pink mare said, leading the task force to the center of the defended area.

"It seem's like you have the situation under control here. In the long run this electric defense will probably keep them at bay until you run out of basic supplies." Nova added. She noticed that Infernite reinforcements had arrived and were walking into the current as usual.

"But we can't keep this up forever and we already are running low on food. Damn creatures burned our orchards to the ground, but we're pretty fortunate that you came when you did. Judging by how fast you took out those things, you must be part of some sort of specially trained military force."

"Yes we are ma'am, blessed by the princess herself." They reached the center of the closed off area. About 30 ponies had gathered there, and were watching the electric walls closely. Nova looked though the crowd and tried to find the unicorn that was casting the electrical magic, But she was surprised when she soon realized that other than Recon Groove, Camoflash, and a few others in the strike force, there were no unicorns, only earth ponies. One of them was standing on a barrel of cider giving orders. She was older than the rest judging by her mostly whitened mane. The generals approached her as she was obviously in charge of the regiment of earth ponies. The cactus-green earth pony hopped down from her position and addressed the mare that had let them inside.

"I'll handle this from here. Get back to you're position Red Gala."

"Yes ma'am," replied the lime-green mare. She rushed back to the northern side of the crowd taking a watch position.

"Now who are y'all military ponies comin' here in yer fancy automatic carriages"

"Simply put, we are The Equestrian Army. We were deployed here to eliminate the Infernite threat in the area, but it seems as though you have that under control here," Camoflash replied.

"What's an Infernite? Are y'all referring to them ponies made of fire over yonder?"

"Yes ma'am, and if we may speak with the unicorn in charge of your....."

"Unicorn? Why y'all is the only unicorns i've seen in days. This defense is 100% earth pony maintained."

"But that's impossible! Earth ponies can't channel magic, there's no way!"

"This ain't regular old magic that you cast through yer fancy horn. It's all in them trees over there."

They looked back at the oddly shaped and colored trees. There was still doubt in their minds that these earth ponies had harnesses the powers of magic, but this was a strange time, and almost anything could happen.

The skies turned from the cloudless blue usually seen in the equestrian summer into a dark cloudy sky in seconds. It began to pour an intense rain that angered the Infernites on the other side of the barrier. Additional lightning struck the trees and arc'd off of them in random directions. Recon Groove looked in the distance and saw that the storm only had a mile-wide radius, and beyond that point was normal sunny weather.

"It's a comin'! EVERYPONY GET DOWN!!!"

"What's coming?" yelled Recon. The older mare didn't answer, and ran behind a hay bail. All of the earth ponies hid behind whatever was closest to them. The strike force stood there puzzled at what they were fearing. A little thunderstorm was almost nothing at all compared to the living hell that they faced yesterday.

The storm continued for a few minutes before slowly fading away. Before it ended completely lightning struck each one of the trees simultaneously and then shot back up into the sky. An ear-shattering thunderclap followed seconds afterwards. A single bolt of white lightning came down in an almost straight line from the center of the storm. About midway towards its descent, the arc refracted off of a single drop of rain, splitting it into 7 bright colors. The bolt of lightning had become a falling rainbow that spread in size as it descended. When it touched the ground it was massive enough to cover the circumference of the magical trees. The rainbow ended the storm like all rainbows do and the sky became its usual blue color, but in a way it also began another storm.

As the rainbow poured out of the sky and on to the electric trees, it changed their fruit from tiny grey apples and they became infused with the rainbow itself. They became bigger, 7-colored apples, matching the colors of the rainbow that had changed them.

"I don't know what they're hiding from, this is so... awesome." Camoflash said, totally awestruck.

"What's there to be scared of, its a miracle how a dangerous bolt of lightning became the biggest rainbow that I've ever seen." Recon Groove added.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Nova said, gazing at the vivid sky. Everypony in the army stared at the rainbow, forgetting about the situation that they were in and why they were there. They were soon reminded of it when the rainbow suddenly disappeared, vanishing into the once again cloudless sky. The rainbow had changed the properties of the fruit on the mysterious trees. Lightning no longer flowed through them or the trees, and the barrier disappeared. The only thing left was a horde of ticked off Infernites, still in rage from getting wet.

The strike force quickly returned their attention to their mission, rushing to intercept the attacking enemy. The ponies were in a major disadvantage. While there were randomly discarded objects in the area to hide behind most of them were either barrels or hay bails which were flammable and ineffective against the enemy's' endless flames. It was vital that they hold this position until they had killed them all. They managed to take position behind the trees, and took them out as they tried to rush them in small groups.

Eventually the enemy got smarter and attacked a single position with larger numbers. Everypony rushed to keep the Infernites at bay, but in turn left their trees unguarded. They eliminated the hostile crowd and returned to their positions, only to find half of them practically overrun again. The cycle continued for several minutes until the basic Infernite infantry broke through pony lines. Fortunately the red grunts didn't use their fire breathing capabilities. They charged at the defending force still enraged from being rained on. It was fairly easy for the ponies to defend them selves given that they had ballistic weapons and attacked from a distance while the berserking enemy simply ran at them, practically awaiting to be shot in the process. The strike force stayed in a large group in the center of the area, picking off Infernites from every angle.

After a few waves of basic Infernite infantry were taken out they began sending in more specialized units. A few yellow Infernites came into battle, firing at the large group of ponies. They evaded the flames but got split up in the process. It took longer than usual to kill the leaders, only one pony could fire at it at a time while the rest held off the swarm. Some ponies began to fall in the process they were starting to get overwhelmed with the limitless Infernite numbers and such little cover.

"CHARGE!!" yelled the older earth pony in a western battlecry. The earth ponies emerged from their hiding positions , and charged into the wall of fire that was the Infernite assault. They ran fearlessly and rather recklessly into battle and aided the
their new found allies. They fought with skill similar if not better than that of the army's. They pushed back the enemy, quickly clearing the way with shotguns. The Infernites' numbers increased and they also made their own attempt to pin the ponies down once again, but the earth ponies never tired. Their stamina was near limitless, and their power was more than the average pony.

One of the earth ponies was unstoppable, and ran directly through the lesser Infernites with ease. The red stallion was a force to be reckoned with on his own.The armor that he wore was nearly indestructible. He ran directly through their lines, charging at the leaders. He got close, and then obliterated them with a shotgun. He didn't need to shoot though, he could simply crush them with pure power, bending their shells as if they were made from aluminum and not an unknown alien alloy. Nothing slowed him down not even a direct hit from a fireball, he just kept going like a juggernaut until his body began to become vulnerable after taking so much damage. The rest of the ponies took defensive positions that matched their skill set. The persistent Infernites continuously tried to take the ponies' position and ultimately kill them all, only to extinguished every time. Wave after wave after wave they attacked with more numbers each time, but they were simply outmatched by the army's training and experience combined with the power and stamina of the earth pony resistance.

The battle began to end a few hours later. Infernite numbers began to decrease slowly with each attempt. It seemed as though they were also suffering from loss of morale. Still they all fought to the death, never truly giving up even when only one remained. Eventually a single squad of Infernites remained. They were in a different formation than usual with the yellow leader at the front. They were all charging with the same speed as usual, and the leader was charging an attack. It was drawing power from its followers to make it even stronger at their expense. It released its energy just as the massive earth pony was about to strike.

The ball of fire went into the center of the ponies' position, then emitted a blinding flash as it slowly burned out like a miniature star. Almost nopony could see and the ones who still could couldn't see much. Nova, Recon, and Camoflash were right next to each other disoriented from the ongoing blindness. Nova and Camoflash couldn't see at all, but Recon Groove was more fortunate and could see blurs from the approaching Infernites. They went for the generals first, they must have acknowledged their importance and skill on the battlefield and wanted them out of the way first. The only thing Recon could see were a few faint blurs of red. Though his vision was impaired he picked up his rifle and fired blindly at them assuming them to be the approaching Infernites. He saw that they faded away as he shot at them they must have died. He didn't see the yellow one, it's color was difficult to see against the blinding white light. Vital seconds passed and his vision improved slightly he could now barely see a yellow figure that was getting larger in size. It was approaching him. By now Nova and Camoflash began to get their vision back, and searched for the target with no success. Recon was firing at the enemy but the yellow Infernite always was an enemy that couldn't be faced alone without explosives. His attack was effective but he couldn't shoot the creature fast enough to kill it before it reached him. He also saw a small orange motion behind the Infernite. It must have been another Infernite leftover from the battle. It approached Recon as the yellow Infernite knocked him to the ground with a blow that would have killed him if he wasn't wearing his armor.

Recon's vision was now back to normal and he could see his foe perfectly, charging an attack to kill all three of the Equestrian leaders. Recon Groove kept shooting trying to prevent it, but the heavy Infernite simply had too much ballistic resistance. The orange motion behind him also became clear, and Recon could see it perfectly too, but it wasn't a stray Infernite.

It was an earth pony filly, with a double-barreled shotgun in her hooves.

With one shot she gained the enemy's attention. It turned around angered, and directed it's attack at the filly instead. She evaded over it, flipping in mid-air. She landed behind the Infernite facing towards it. The enemy turned around and faced the filly once more, but as soon as it did she unloaded the second shot at point blank range. The Infernite was blown onto it's back,killed instantly (only because Recon shot it like 10 times before). It's bright yellow flames extinguished, revealing the gaping hole left in it's head.

The effects of the Infernite attack wore off and everypony could see again, but many of them couldn't believe what they saw. The earth ponies (not in the army) were more stunned than the rest. Recon got back on his hooves and helped his friends up. The three then looked at the filly who had saved them, all amazed at her incredible feat. They weren't ashamed that a foal had saved them. They were truly lucky to be alive, and didn't care as long as they made it out unharmed. The heavily armed earth pony ran over, throwing off his helmet. He was followed by the older, green pony who was using her weapon as a cane.

"Applejack!",shouted the red stallion as he embraced the filly."Howd y'all do that!?!"

"I sent y'all with your aunt and uncle were you were safe, How did ya get here so fast?" said the older earth pony, still shocked from previous events.

"I don't really know what happened. One minute i'm moping around Manehatten, and the next i'm shootin' fiery critters over here.", answered Applejack. The filly looked around and took in her surroundings. Her eyes bacame wide with concern and sadness, as she turned back to her family.

"W-What happened to the apple orchard?!? And the.. Barn??!?"

"It was all lost to them varmits. The only thing left are the Zap-Apples. Everything else is gone,"replied the aging green earth mare.

"That's n-not p-p-possible. It can't be!"

"It's true lil' sis. It's all gone," confirmed the red stallion." Tears began to well up in Applejack's eyes, but none fell. It was devastating to her that she had not only lost her home, but what she had loved the most other than family. She looked at her flank, her cutie mark of three red apples. She had just earned it before she was sent to be with her relatives, but now she didn't know what it meant if the orchards were destroyed.

"Big Macintosh, tell me everypony's alright,"Applejack asked, hoping that it was the only thing that didn't go wrong.

"Eeyup, we're all fine. Thinks to those ponies,"replied Big Macintosh, pointing a hoof at the Equestrian strike force.

"Thank y'all so much. I don't know what i'd do without my family"

"Actually you saved us all kid. If you didn't step in when you did we'd all be goners,"added Camoflash.

"Yeah, you came from nowhere, and you executed that Infernite so quickly!,"added Nova also.

"I guess that strange lavender aura got me here just in time to........"

"Lavender aura??!?" Interrupted the three generals

"Yeah, I was teleported here by a lavender field of magic." clarified Applejack.

"Are you sure?" Recon asked.

"I'd never lie." reassured Applejack "Why do y'all need to know so badly."

"We need to report to Celestia right away, everypony come with us.", said Nova pointing towards the carriages that they arrived in. The strike force followed her without question, but the earth ponies had second thoughts.

"Don't worry we're going to evac you to Cheval City were it's safe." assured Recon. The earth ponies shared glances at each other before deciding to follow them, figuring that they had nothing to lose. They all climbed in the carriages and started the short ride back into town.

(Just an FYI. I had to modify when Applejack got her cutie mark because it wouldn't have worked out if she got it the way the show described it, because the apple orchards were destroyed when she got back from Manehatten she can't have her cutie mark then or it would make no sense. So i know that's not how Applejack really got her cutie mark, but i kept it as show accurate as possible.)

Comments

[Walrus King]

Interesting.

[DE4DLIESTP0NY]

1672114 Thanks, can I ask what's interesting about it?

[Walrus King]

1672147 I like the amount of Mystery behind the foes. A few grammatical errors here and there but nothing's perfect.

[DE4DLIESTP0NY]

Yeah, that's probably one of my best elements I'll put into a story.
Thanks for your interest.