The Red Sun Rises: Homefront

by The Atlantean

30. Ambush

Rose Thorn, once a fearless field medic, now acted more like a scared child than anything, hiding behind Crimson and putting her husband between her and practically everyone else. She was clearly afraid of Jackson, and the many hundreds of thousands of ponies her husband commanded were the veteran warriors from four separate nations. That alone was enough for her to worry.

Special Operations Captain Hummingbird Sweetnectar bounded up to the long-lost mare with a special bounce in her step. Closely behind her was old their old friend Haybale, now a commander himself and commanding officer of the old veteran 2nd Coastal Regiment, where he, Crimson, Hummingbird, and Platinum came from. Now that they were reformed as a cohesive unit again, Crimson had general control, but Haybale could still take over officially.

“Red, you pullin’ rabbits outta hats now? Because I see a Rose!” the captain exclaimed.

“No, not this time. She came to me. Rose, you remember Hummingbird and Haybale?”

“Yes. They were at the wedding, along with Platinum. Where is he?” she asked.

“Platinum went rogue. He's Navy now.” Haybale still clearly disagreed with his friend’s life choices.

“Well, he'll always have a home with the 2nd.” Crimson said. “And apparently, so will I.”

“Old, friends, new times,” the four chorused.

The friendly group was interrupted by Jackson. “I see you are all well. But, Colonel Dawn, I’d prefer you didn’t keep secrets from me. Such a stunt as you pulled this morning will not work in the future.”

“What do I have to hide?”

“Other ponies coming out of the blue.”

“If I expect them, I’ll let you know. When do we move on? Oh eight hundred sharp?”

“Yes. We won’t wait for you.”

The drive on was better, since Crimson hitched a ride in the open back of an armored truck rather than flying. Just over five hundred miles was left before they entered what was once the original northern border of Equestria, and a much shorter distance separated it from the Crystal Empire’s frontier. Between the two countries was a vast, empty tundra that never quite hit zero Marenheit, even at high noon. With continual subzero temperatures, the combined armies would need to slow their pace in order to make it across alive.

The American M1A2s, however, could go as fast and far as they wanted. They formed a diamond, with two precious fuel trucks in the center. It wasn’t any good against an air raid if it came, but the armored vehicles deterred almost everything on the ground away. Nobody expected the Russians to spend fuel and what air power they had left on a scouting mission that would lose whatever was sent.

Crimson took in the dead land around him. It was hard to believe this tundra had been where Celestia’s first army had once been. The column had gone from here all the way to Sombra’s doorstep ten kilometers from the Empire. Then it spread out and laid siege. Sombra fired his Gem for the first time halfway through the siege, and the four regiments farthest from the blast constituted the ragtag elements he led to victory in Manehattan. But the magic had seeped into the earth itself and infested it for hundreds of miles around, creating this tundra that acted much like the Everfree Forest had - or rather, does. A couple of months was all it took for the devastated fearsome clump of trees to spring back and reclaim its land. In much the same way, this place - Crimson heard Atlanta call it the “Snowy Badlands” - asserted itself in less than two years as the dominant biome here.

The Snowy Badlands were desolate. Not even a Timberwolf could live in this place for long; the ambient magic would rip it to shreds within minutes, and Timberwolves were made from magic. Luckily for ponies, the weird stuff only affected purely magical creatures. As long as a Unicorn didn’t use his or her magic, they’d be fine. A thick layer of permafrost was actually in the making right then, visible just below the thin topsoil the tanks kicked up with their tracks. Low-lying mosses populated the area in clumps so small and far apart it wasn’t worth the food they would normally provide ponies. Tall pine skeletons, sandblasted by constant, swirling wind, served as a reminder of the events so long ago that escalated into Sombra’s near conquest of Equestria. There was no doubt that Celestia would’ve used Starfall Fortress, situated opposite of Canterlot on the mountain, as her final holdout had Manehattan fallen, followed by the rest of the East, the West, and everything but the heart of her country. So far, it seemed that that ship had long sailed.

Rose Thorn adamantly stuck to Crimson like a bodyguard. She had no trouble directing the tank convoy in the best routes, as she’d crossed the Snowy Badlands just to get to them. It was the returning to one of the many places she ran from that spooked her. Over the loud engines that must echo their shouts for miles around, she talked to him for comfort - and to know what happened after her capture. He filled her in on everything, from the museum dedicated to the 2nd Coastal to the Manehattan Siege and the Battle of Canned Apple-lis Forest against Queen Chrysalis. Crystal Snow, who’d only met Crimson as a Crystal Imperial commander trying to take Manehattan, helped with some of it. Rose began to respect the Crystal pony when the two revealed to her their relation as cousins.

“So, is is our hope to get across this dreadful cold of a desert in a single day?” Rose yelled over the noise.

“No, because it’d be impossible unless we’re okay with getting our flanks sent back to Celestia in body bags,” came Crystal’s reply. She too was yelling. “Dragonspire Citadel sits right where the old Equestrian HQ was, and that means it’s directly between us and the Empire. Chances are the Russians and Chinese are, too. Given their obvious technological advantage, we’ll have to consolidate our forces before actually going in.”

“They might just shred as as we consolidate,” Crimson reminded. "The general plan accounts for that. It’s why we are to go around the Empire to the Quartzstone River. I believe Sombra has been building his navy there, and with the help of the Russians and Chinese, he’s been able to build all those combat-ready ships the USS Ronald Reagan Task Force ran into on their last legs here in the time that he’s had. If we can cut him off there, it will be quite the resounding victory and we can truly besiege the Crystal Empire.”

“Unless he has access to airplanes.”

“Nah. U.S. Admiral Robinson is kinda protective of his tech, and I can’t say I blame him. But it means Sombra’s friends might hold their stuff back so they don’t lose it.”

“So, is there even a place for-” Rose’s question was cut off when the truck stopped from its sixty miles an hour without any warning whatsoever. The alicorn flew into the forward wall, clunking her head and falling unconscious.

-----------------

Rose Thorn awoke to gunfire - a lot of it. She struggled to stand, and Jackson, seeing her come to, helped her up. A painful throbbing in her head increased dramatically. When she steadied, it lessened slightly. “What happened?”

“Ambush! The fuel truck ahead of you blew up as if it hit a mine, and your vehicle practically hit a brick wall. You weren’t wearing your seat belt.” Jackson accused.

“There wasn’t any there,” she retorted. “Where’s Crimson?”

“That’s the bad part. He’s out there, whirlin’ that wicked sword of his like nobody’s business, but he’s liable to tire and come back in. We just gotta hold out in our circle ‘till Queen Atlanta comes with the vanguard.”

The next few hours were harrowing: the defending Americans had hastily thrown earth around their tanks like a little fort as soon as the convoy stopped, and some kept whatever was attacking - everyone assumed it was Russians for a while - from getting close enough while the others dug in. Then the machine guns atop the tanks held the line as Crimson and the outer defenders came back in. Their position was not best, but the uncoordinated but surprising attack seemed to be held at arm’s length by the machine guns.

“Crimson! I want to help!” Rose called as her husband passed by.

“Not yet. You have a concussion. Stay put!” He ran to the south side and fired calmly into the horde of… something.

“Oh, Harmony!” Crystal Snow cried when she realized what the attackers were. “It’s the destroyed army!”

“What?! They were blown up!” Crimson yelled back. But Crystal was right. The things running mercilessly at them were ponies. Rotting-flesh, greenish, blood-oozing, magic-infested zombie ponies.

“Goddamn! Frickin’ ghouls from Fallout - only ponies!” The human elements at least knew how to deal with zombies. They blasted at the things, tearing them to pieces with bullets. “There must a hundred K out there!” “Yeah, but I don’t wanna be zombie food!” “Take this, motherfuckers!” “Holy SHIT! That was way to close!”

---------------------

Atlanta galloped along to the front of her line. The scouts reported seeing flashes of light in the darkness that was a night in the Snowy Badlands. It apparently looked like gunfire, the way it rapidly pulsed in a dome. There were also a few sounds as well, like the blasts of grenades and the lower booms of tank cannons.

Donning her bright-orange sunsteel helmet, she called for the mobile spotlights to shine directly in front of them. They revealed a virtual sea of zombies held together by the magic that had infested the earth. These things were nearly fallen apart, as if they were the ones to actually have been closest to the Gem’s impact point. With a shudder, Atlanta realized this was Celestia’s first army - blown to pieces by Sombra and forced to wander the magical tundra lest they wish to fall apart.

“Volley fire on my command!” She waited a few seconds for the columned regiment, already deploying, to string out three ranks deep. “FIRE!”

A thunderous roar broke out as a thousand repeaters fired their magazines empty before the front rank crouched down and the second rank took up the slack. As the first two reloaded, the third opened up. The result was a total massacre of zombie ponies. The crackle of gunfire continued when the remaining things turned and came at them instead of the tank circle they had been closing in on.

“Independent fire!” Atlanta called, her order repeated down the line by many officers. Behind this regiment, the rest of the vanguard deployed into a large square formation in preparation for an onslaught. The zombies came with a blood-curdling cry, and Atlanta hoped Jackson’s tank group still lived in this mess. If they were, she’d have a talk about getting some ‘ray-dee-oh’ for instantaneous communication.

--------------------

The line of tanks held, surprisingly, but with quite a cost. They were down seven precious men, and everyone was wounded in some way. Rose Thorn even had to pick up an American rifle at some point and shoot into the mob. They were just too strung out, but pressure to the south eased right after Crimson observed spotlight beams sweep the ground a few miles away. On this hill they’d been so fortunate to be stopped on - or not? - the beams were easy to see. Six of them swathed over an entire ocean of the damned zombies.

“Crystal, how big was the Princess’s first army?” Jackson called.

“Two hundred thousand strong,” she replied. “All but five thousand were-”

“I get it! Just wanted the numbers.” Jackson moved his nervous gaze to the Crystal pony. “Stick to the group and you’ll be fine.”

The continual zombie attack hit its peak just before dawn. It was as if the things didn’t want them to survive long enough to see the sun again. With an overcast sky, it seemed doubtful, but the warm rays of Celestia’s sun curled over the horizon and the zombies were immediately set ablaze. They burned up and fell to the ground, which absorbed them like an ooze.

Jackson stood on top of a tank. He looked around at the suddenly clean tundra terrain, then rested his eyes on a tired Crimson. “We’ll wait for Atlanta. Then we figure out what in fucking hell happened.”

“Agreed.”

Author's Note:

Surprise!

These guys are gonna need explaining, I know.

Feedback appreciated.

Comments

[Fireheart 1945]

Huh, unexpected twist.