The First Battle of Equestria

by Spyderslicer

Chapter 2. Mobilizing for war

Without further ado, I present chapter two.

Celestia just listened to the horrific reports coming in. Several months ago something had been noticed falling from the sky. It had been shrugged off as comets or asteroids. Not an uncommon thing to see. But after the tragedy of Mareville it was obvious there was something at work. There hadn’t been a senseless slaughter of pony life in over two hundred years since the war with Nightmare Moon.

There had been no warning, no mercy, just death. Celestia didn’t want to rush into something without proper reports. Her country hadn’t been in a true war for over two-hundred years. Of course they still had weapons of war, but did she really want to mobilize her entire land for war? She had thought the Nightmare wars would be the last time Equestria would see war, obviously she was wrong. Her advisers stood at the base of her throne.

“Your majesty what can we do to counter this threat?”

“What even is this threat? Is it the griffins?”

“No the griffins have kept a non-aggression pact with us for over fifty years. That and that whole ordeal was too precise and destructive for griffins. Not to mention the fire.”

“Dragons?” one of them suggested.

Several shuddered at the thought of one or more of the giant beasts terrifying the land.

“No whatever it was is a foul creature, when a group of Pegasi investigated Mareville, no survivors. Something kept ponies from fleeing. If it was a dragon it would have wanted all the treasure of the town. All of the town’s bits and treasures were found among the wreckage by a team of Pegasi. That and a dragon wouldn’t have tried to keep everyone in town while it destroyed it. It wouldn’t even have a way to do so.”

“Well it wasn’t ghosts,” one of them said angrily “something had to have done this.”

There was definite agreement between the four advisers.

Celestia could just shake her head. This was a disgusting show of force. Not even the foul Nightmare Moon had attacked a town for the sole purpose of killing everypony. It was hard to get reliable reports on whatever was responsible for this tragedy.

Most Pegasi that got to close didn’t come back. The few that survived talked about the red lights and the sting as they fell, they were barely able to fly back to report dark cloaked creatures that stood on two legs. There were some creatures native to Equestria that stood on two legs. None of them had the numbers or equipment described. The enemy was described as a sea of life and metal. They had metal behemoths that coughed up smoke to the heavens. This sounded like nothing Celestia had ever heard of. With a wave of her hoof she sent away her advisers.

Stepping out onto a balcony and looking out countless miles away she knew they were out there. She could feel they were coming, when they would arrive she wasn’t sure. Looking out at the massive city of Canterlot, hundreds of massive structures and thousands of smaller structures rose up from the ground to form the massive city. It was the largest city in Equestria, dwarfing even Stalliongrad.

Suddenly a pit formed in her stomach. Stalliongrad stood between the incoming enemy and Canterlot. She hated the thought of what needed to be done. Walking through the throne room and traveling through the winding corridors of her palace. She came upon the familiar site of a massive hallway of columns and beautiful stained glass windows.

She came upon a massive doorway, the image of a sun with a single hole for one royal horn. Carefully sticking her horn in hole at the center of the image of the sun and pouring in a little bit of magic. Pulling away as the blue light spread out and the doors opened, revealing a massive stairway underground. Carefully stepping down deep into the darkness, using magic to light that barely lit a small portion of the massive room, what was revealed were weapons of war, countless numbers of projectile based weapons that are mounted on the back of a pony. The weapons she thought would never see the light of her sky again. She gathered her advisers back into her throne room.

“My little ponies, war is upon us,” was all Celestia needed to say.

“War? There hasn’t been a true war in centuries your majesty.”

“We are not here to discuss when the last war was, I have called you four back here because messages need to be sent out. Scribe!” Celestia called out.

A unicorn with parchment, quills and ink rushed into the throne room.

“Yes your majesty? He asked eagerly.

“Take note,” she began, “every town in Equestria needs to give a tithe of ponies to the upcoming conflicts. Each town shall give forth seventy-five percent of their stallions and five percent of their mares towards the upcoming fight for Equestria. The ponies are to head to Canterlot immediately,” Celestia said, “New note. All doctors and medical ponynel, along with half the royal guard are to head to the palace courtyard.

“New note. All foals from every city from Stalliongrad and its surrounding area are to be evacuated to Manehattan. New note. Every shovel and piece of digging equipment from Stalliongrad is to be gathered outside of Stalliongrad by noon the day after next, I want every able bodied stallion out there with the equipment, I will instruct them in pony. That is all for now scribe, send those messages through proper channels and await further instructions.”

“Yes your majesty,” he said as he scurried off.

Her advisers looked at her in shock. They had never heard of conscription. Celestia had been forced to do the same thing over two centuries previous. She knew she would probably regret such a decision by the time this conflict was over.

“Your majesty?” one of them asked.

“Yes?”

“Did you need to do that? Can’t we just send a diplomat?” he asked exasperated.

“I apologize my little pony. Whatever we are facing is not something we can talk with. Look what happened to Mareville. We weren’t given warning or even a reason. These creatures will need to be removed, with force as is necessary.”

“But what will force get us?”

“It will give us peace my little pony, it will not be pretty, but it is the only way,” she said with a sigh.

The war was no longer one sided. Both sides were preparing for the conflicts ahead. Already the royal guards were moving towards the palace courtyard. Celestia sent her advisers to oversee some of the tasks.

Celestia met with the royal guards to inform them of their new duties. Each unicorn, earth pony and Pegasus was only wearing a suit of golden armor. That would not do.

“You ponies have been assembled because you know how to fight to protect your princess. I am here to inform you that you are to be training the masses of stallions that are coming from all across Equestria.”

A few of the guards snickered at what they assumed was a bad joke.

“You are the best we have to offer, you are to follow me to get yourselves suited up. You need to learn how to use the tools you will be using in the upcoming battle for Equestria.”

The knowledge that it wasn’t a joke sobered the ponies up. Standing at attention they followed Celestia through the corridors until they came to the hallway of columns. They had all seen the hallway but had no idea what was down the staircase. Their eyes widened as the room lit up. The only weapon that had ever seen was the decorative spears they had when either on parade or standing guard at the door to the throne room.

“What are these contraptions princess?” one asked obviously shocked.

The devices appeared reminiscent of a saddle bag. But instead of small saddle bags on the sides, it had large metal boxes with odd pieces sticking out.

“These are a design that is several centuries old. The piece on the left is called an ‘autogun’ the piece on the right is a ‘rocket projector’ both are deadly weapons from an age of strife.”

“How do they work?” an earth pony asked.

“It’s worn on your back exactly like a saddlebag. You earth ponies will feel a bit of a pin prick. It’s perfectly normal; it’s just linking to you. For you earth ponies you aim and fire it by thinking about the weapon moving and firing. For unicorns your weapons are controlled through a trigger activated through magic. For the Pegasi we have a different weapon for you,” Celestia continued walking them through how to use the weapons.

The Pegasi were given a different device that looked like a saddlebag but with a piece on the underbelly that resembled a leg iron wrapped around a cylinder. It was known as a bomb holder. They were told to understand how each weapon worked as they were going to be explaining it to a countless amount of ponies over the coming weeks. Along with how to fight, the days ahead would be horrific for Celestia, having to relive an age she thought long gone.

She then headed off to meet up with the medical ponynel to tell them about their duties to Equestria. Little did they know that their enemy was already mobilized and heading towards another area for cleansing; Tramplevania. Celestia had no idea why these creatures were doing this to her subjects. But she was determined to stop it.

And that is another chapter taken care of. Now we get back to the action. The next chapter will be rather graphic people. So if you don’t like the thought of having death described in detail (worse than the first chapter that is a guarantee to you) then you should probably leave. To those of you with strong hearts and mind, I will have more for you soon enough.

Comments

[LunarLover]

alright dude. its a pretty good story. Filled with information but not enough on character. I suggest you rewrite it with more emotions added. However I prefered to see one where a commander comes and teaches the ponies how to defend against tyrranids or sumthing rather than this un even battle

[Spyderslicer]

865513 Everything will come together as this progresses. It won't be completely one-sided, if you know much about the Death Korps of Krieg you may already have a few guesses as to why.Only one God is going to be able to help their children survive this conflict, you can take your guesses as to who's.

On a side note I didn't want to start them off on too much at once. Things would seem rushed if in a single day they were completely prepared for the coming storm.

Hunter C. Creed

[redraven313]

I much admit I like it. It's a nice break from the usual stories I read.
but as NLRsoldier 123 says more focus on charecters. Though it might be hard if you focus on the death korps.

Also I have not read up on Krieg so much, but is strapping ponies with explosive and throwing them into enemy ranks out of charecter. I mean is't their doctrine terror.

[Spyderslicer]

865613 The doctrine for the Death Korps of Krieg is siege warfare. Devastating an area with artillery for weeks, months sometimes even years of constant barrages before sending in wave after wave of men until the objective is taken. If you read some of the Imperial Armor (my information comes from the books V, VI and VII) to take a single trench line during the siege of Vraks they constantly barraged it with artillery for months. They took a two day break whereupon they assaulted the position. Over half a million guardsmen died in 48 hours. (on a side note the assault was a failure) For the planet of Krieg men are worth less than the lasgun in their hands and the air filters in their gas masks. Of course you'll hear more on that later.

Hunter C. Creed

[balom]

What about the starship that got them here, is it still in orbit and can it give fire support?

[Spyderslicer]

865732 Everything will come into play in the massive amount of fighting to come. Don't think I could forget a several kilometer long starship.

Hunter C. Creed

[ObssesedNuker]

Interesting... kind of. I don't know entirely if I like where this story is going but I'll be keeping track of it...

Just a quick note: the Krieg certainly strike me as the kind of army to use a 1918-style of phased advance and entrenchment. First a meticuliously planned infantry/armor assault backed by copious amounts of artillery seize a piece of ground (usually a few kilometers deep), then they fortify the secured territory, reinforce, resupply, and do it all over again. Rinse and repeat until the enemy breaks. Its slow, grinding, and exactly the kind of warfare that fits the Krieg. The best counter to such tactics is a mobile defense with a thin screen of troops on the front to serve as a trip-wire force and aggressive, immediate counterattacks by reserves to drive the enemy back before they can entrench themselves.

I think it would be interesting to see a Pony interrogation of a captured Krieg trooper*. They'll be downright horrified at the amount of irrational hate 40K humanity have towards non-human races. There might be attempts to change the troopers mind, to show him kindness and generosity... but the Krieg are the fanatics of fanatics and they will only see such attitudes as weakness and decadence, things to be used against their enemy. Mmmm, the delicious, delicious culture clash...

*It can happen. It happened alot during the Pacific War: an otherwise die-before-surrender enemy gets knocked out in the heat of battle by an explosion or disabled by a non-lethal wound and is captured as a result.

[Spyderslicer]

870266 I advise you read the Imperial armor (books five, six and seven) the siege of Vraks. What happened was they landed. Set up thousands of siege guns. All at once across a massive line spanning kilometers, they all opened fire. They fired continuously for months. The plan was to cease fire for two days and send forth over a half million men. They would storm the position and hold it for a couple of days to open a gap in the line, then their masses of armor would pour through said gap. (Although that first assault was completely ineffective and close to every soldier from that half million was killed)

In other words, they dig in and fight for months even years if they need to. But when it comes time they are ready to push through a gap and consolidate quickly. After years (I don't have my copy on me but it was several before they broke through the first line) they did open up a gap in the line and poured through with armor and quickly moved to encircle enemies further down the line. They do like to move slow and steady, but they need to be able to move like lightning to avoid letting hundreds of thousands of enemies slip away and reinforce their allies further back.

I had three different regiments on the starship for a couple reasons. A. its always a possibility for starships to be lost to the warp. They wouldn't take the possibility that only infantry or armor or artillery would make it to a war zone. That and its no secret that regiments will get combined to increase their effectiveness, IE infantry works best when fighting with tanks and supported by artillery. B. by the end of this the casualties are going to be catastrophic, they wouldn't be able to do enough damage as quickly without artillery and armor.

Man do you have mind powers? Just sit back and let me write lol. I've already started on the third chapter. Already at the 3k mark, I'm planning on reaching a larger number than that.

Hunter C. Creed

[ObssesedNuker]

872044 I'm aware of the Imperial Armour books and I am also aware that they are somewhat controversial amongst the 40K community, who sometimes tend to regard them as "too much World War 2 in the 41st millenium!" I'm just throwing out the most probable style of contemporary tactics the Krieg would be used too based (almost) solely on their description in the 5th Edition Imperial Guard Codex. "Seige warfare" is a very broad category, after all...

And that I envision the Krieg relying mostly on phased advance and entrenchment doesn't mean I envision that they rely on it to the exclusion of all else. After all, the point of such a tactic is to grind the enemy down to the breaking point, slowly pushing back and seizing his defenses, until you are in a position too smash through them with a massive armoured blow.

Also: while Imperial regiments are largely homogenous in their composition, they are usually not entirely so. An infantry regiment may have some artillery and tanks while an armor regiment may also include some infantry (usually mounted in Chimerae troop transports), its just they don't have enough to conduct a proper combined-arms campaign. The "seige regiments", like the one you described as coming along, are usually a mix of infantry and heavy/super-heavy calibre artillery since they are built, tautologically, for seige warfare.

In any case, I await your next chapter with interest.

[Spyderslicer]

873415 I'm just saying that there has always been a lot of WWI and WWII in 40k (at least within the Imperium) IE the Land Raider and Leman Russ Chassis are basically exact replicas of the tanks used in WWI (maybe with more lasers and effective weapons) Commissars resemble well, Commissars from France and Russia. Then you have Tallarn that resemble the British Desert Rats. The Vostroyan First Born strongly resemble Russia styled uniforms. The Death Korps of Krieg resemble WWI Germany. The Valhallan resemble the Russians during WWII. The Steel Legion of Armageddon resemble the Fallscrimjager deployed by Germany during WWII.

Everything causes controversy in the 40k universe. Whether it be whether the Emperor and the Machine God are one person or not. Then in Titanicus it was revealed they discovered the answer for that, (I think it was kinda sorta implied they were two different entities) Commissars are all supposed to be steel willed individuals ready to die for their Emperor, then you have Ciaphas Cain
Forgeworld works pretty close with Games-Workshop. If anything I would trust their massive supplements rather than something in the Black Library.

It's also impossible to say anything about the Imperium, they have nothing that is always universal. It varies from planet to planet and regiment to regiment. They don't have universal terms for officers, weapons or vehicles. Nor do they have universal rules on how regiments are put together. It varies depending on what can requisitioned and whoever is in charge of the operation.

None of that really matters though. Always glad to hear I have someone waiting for my work

Hunter C. Creed

[DavidPony]

im relatively new to warhammer but ive always loved the death korps of krieg and its nice to finally see a crossover where there is apsolutely NO CHANCE of the bad guys turning good because when it comes to zeleots the death korps are always in a class of their own

[Spyderslicer]

874073 Always nice to see another follower of the one true God Emperor of mankind. I would say that the Death Korps of Krieg are my favorite. If it wasn't so bucking expensive I would love to get an army. But when its like fifty - sixty bucks for a squad of ten That and I love to play my guard in hoards I guess that is a dream that won't be coming true

Either way, glad to see you're enjoying it. Chapter 3 should be up within a day or two.

Hunter C. Creed

[Spyderslicer]

As long as I can drag my lifeless body out of bed on time tomorrow, plans are to have chapter 3 posted at 12PM sharp.