The Red Sun Rises: Siege of Manehattan

by The Atlantean

Bloodmoon

It was the second midnight after Crystal Snow’s capture. Crimson dreamt of an impending assault through the Hubson River Tunnel, but waved it off, believing it to be a trick. Although it was a distinct possibility, he didn’t think it would happen.

He woke to a large explosion to the north. Crimson raced out of the building to look down the street. What he saw wasn’t a pretty sight. One of the skyscrapers on 4th Street was ablaze. Something had hit it, and the building teetered on the brink of falling onto its neighbors. Firefighters were doing their best to put the flames, but to no avail. It collapsed onto the building to the east on top of half the fireponies.

His shock was interrupted by Major Dazzleflash’s spell. “Sir, we have a problem! The Crystal army is all over 3rd Street! I don’t know where the hay they’re comin’ from!”

“What?! I’m sending reinforcements now!” Crimson called up everyone on a communications spell. “We have a full-scale attack on our hooves! Captain Shadow, pull your forces back to 3rd Street ASAP! Lieutenant Comet, retreat to our side of Bricklyn Bridge before you’re overrun! Both of you are authorized to blow the bridges down.”

“Sir, do you realize what the hell is going on? I’ve got my hooves full with half the Crystal army! Knocking out the bridge is impossible! They’ve already taken the western side!”

Silver Comet reported that he had been surrounded on all sides by the enemy, and he was rigging some chopped-down trees for transport hulls. If Crimson wanted the Bricksburg Bridge down, he had to do it himself.

“Captain Shadow, you will bring that bridge down if it’s the last thing you do. Lieutenant Comet, either you get your troops back over this river or you push them back. Understood?”

“Yes, sir. I’ll do what I can.”

“Loud and clear, Colonel.”

Crimson raced towards 3rd Street, repeater tucked under his right wing. He reached the chaos-filled road and called for his soldiers to charge into the fold. As they clashed with their foes, Crimson took to the sky, aiming down the sights of his gun. When he feather-pulled the trigger with practiced ease, a sound similar to thunder roared down the streets and alleyways. A Crystal officer fell with a bleeding hole in his neck, choking on his own blood. Crimson recocked, aimed, and fired again. A soldier hit the asphalt, headshot to the muzzle.

A Unicorn archer took aim at the colonel, but was hit by his target’s thunder without lightning. It sucked the life out of him, his abdomen ripped open by the grazing near miss. His intestines spilled onto the street, causing him to cry out in great pain before seeing the light without ever getting the chance to close his eyes.

Seeing their comrades and officers fall with a sudden boom caused the Crystal ponies at street level to want to run, to hide, anything to keep from being the next victim. But the ones behind them prevented any retreat. It was now or never. Plus, the Equestrians were attempting to regroup.

With the indecision seen as an opportunity, the Equestrians staged a counterattack. All four hundred fifty-two remaining ponies under Crimson’s command on 3rd street crashed head-on into the disorganized Crystal army. Varying success filled the air, with some smashing all the way to the subway stations, while others hit large pockets of bloody resistance. Spears stabbed, swords slashed, and bows shot as less than five hundred took on a force several times their size with renewed effort.

Up north by the west end of Tartarus Bridge, Midnight Shadow held back his opponents - barely. Half his ponies had been slaughtered, he lost control of the bridge, and shit hit the fan, - all before he knew what hit him.

His soldiers had stopped retreating at Eight Acre Park. Midnight had determined that was the point where they held to the last, no matter what. He himself stood on the front lines, cutting open Crystal ponies with his iron sword. After about half an hour of this, they pulled back to lick their wounds, and Midnight used this to go over a radical plan with his officers.

“Lieutenant Galaxy Mist, you’re coming with me. We’re gonna blow the bridge. Lieutenant Strawberry Sunrise, I’m leaving you in charge until we return. Remember, we hold to the last, whatever that may come to be. Everypony else, you follow the battle plan we’ve been practicing. Let’s start Operation Endeavour.” he said.

The ponies saluted him.

“Good luck, sir.” came Sunrise’s farewell.

“We will meet again, sister.”

She nodded her consent. He gave her one last embrace, hoping that it would not be the last time he would ever see her again.

Fifteen minutes of nerve-wracking stealth later, Midnight and Galaxy found themselves at the base of Tartarus Bridge. The detonator had been hidden well; it took several minutes to locate it and the cords to attach. He configured the detonator, and, closing his eyes, pressed the button.

The Tartarus Bridge rocked from the explosions of three hundred fifty carefully placed ninety-pound packs of TNT spread throughout the superstructure. All western supports were blown into shrapnel flying everywhere at forty kilometers an hour and large chunks of red-hot metal that fell onto the Crystal army. The roadbed snapped free of the steel cables, crashing into the Yokeville Bay with the force of four dozen kilometer-long trains hitting the station at 113 kph. Both cables slung upward, their load now gone, and looped over into the city, covering the streets in flexible steel tube weighing many metric tons.

The span to Whirlpool Island completely fell apart under the heat, stress, and sudden changes in load. There, the support towers were unaffected, and did not collapse. A wave from the fallen roadbed about five meters high washed over the west shore, covering it in debris. The eastern side had a dissipating three-meter wave hit, and suffered less damage.

A soaked Midnight looked at an equally wet Galaxy. The Unicorn breathed a sigh of relief that they weren’t dead, and smiled back at him. She was exhilarated, and it was a feeling of adrenaline that one couldn’t forget easily. She then proceeded to kiss him lovingly. He returned the kiss, and together they forgot their troubles for a minute.

She broke away, saying, “I shouldn’t have done that. My apologies, sir.”

“No, it’s fine. I kinda wanted to do that,” he replied.

A cry of loss brought them back to reality. As the two galloped back up to the street level, they saw the full extent of the damage done to the shore. Metal fragments were everywhere, along with shattered glass, cracked asphalt, and dead ponies covered in cuts and bruises.

A stallion was holding a Pegasus mare close to him, wailing into the night. Midnight assumed it was the stallion’s sister or loved one. Likewise, many others in the scattered Crystal Empire’s formidable army cried their mourns as they found siblings and comrades in the rubble, numerous deep cuts in their lifeless bodies.

It was at that time that the two hundred Equestrian ponies under Midnight’s command arrived to clean up the mess. They were quite merciful, mostly taking prisoners of the remaining Crystal ponies. Some just wouldn’t move from their fallen comrades, and the Captain decided to set up a temporary prisoner of war camp right on the spot to let his enemy grieve the losses just suffered. They would be moved to a more permanent one later.

“Captain, you did a good job,” Strawberry Sunrise said. Her voice was sweet, like her fruity namesake.

“No, Lieutenant, we did a good job.” He embraced his sister, glad to know they would both live to see another day. Tears of relief fell down his face, and down hers, too.

Crimson Dawn heard the din that was the destruction of Tartarus Bridge as it echoed through the city streets, followed by a wave that only reached to a few meters from the waterfront. As his mares and stallions cheered, the Crystal army felt dread from the sound. It meant that reinforcements were not going to come from the north, if at all.

Even though the Bricklyn Bridge had yet to be taken down, there was no getting past it without fear of being trapped on the Equestrian side if they decided to make it go boom, or worse, on the bridge itself. The thought of falling to one’s death as the sturdy ground he or she stood on was turned to rubble was overwhelmingly terrifying.

The most troubled Crystal ponies dropped their weapons and galloped back through the Hubson River Tunnel, soon followed by everyone else. What had started out as an orderly, well-executed surprise attack quickly transformed into a chaotic retreat as Crystal ponies hurried to get back in friendly territory before the rail line was filled with water by some TNT.

Crimson let them go. It was rather amusing to him, seeing an entire army be reduced to a disorganized mob of scared ponies. It reminded him of the Dominion of Apollo’s retreat after the Final Stand of Atlantis, when the whole assault force was obliterated and ran with its tail between its legs.

Lieutenant Silver Comet had no such luck. When the Crystal army stormed Garnet Island, he was forced to make a break in their lines to go around the advancing enemy. It cost him the lives of ninety-four ponies, fifty-seven casualties he had to leave behind, and forty ponies who volunteered to hold the Crystal Empire away from the rear of the retreating Equestrians.

He was lucky to get out of there alive, and when he did, along with half his original count, he made a break for Bricklyn Bridge. The path was mostly clear, and they came back to the western side of the bridge safely.

The Crystal Empire let him escape. They let Crimson claim victory that deadly night. They accepted the destruction of another major pathway. The Crystal Empire pulled back to lick their wounds. This time.

Author's Note:

This is probably the most action-packed chapter of the story so far. I know that there's description of someone's guts coming out, but that's the kind of thing that happens in a real battle. It isn't clean like the movies. This is why there's the "Gore" tag, though I think I'm pushing the limit here.

Feedback appreciated, like always.

Comments

[Fireheart 1945]

No surrender! Ura!