When the invasion of Equestria began, the Wonderbolts were the first to be among a long list of casualties, something that Rainbow Dash wished she was a part of.
In the tense days before the human invasion, Equestria had become a shadow of its former self.
Once a land of clear skies, verdant landscapes and clean waters, Equestria was now home to machine gun nests, mile long trenches and fortified bunkers.
With the country backed into a corner, Princess Celestia was forced to recant her stance on technology and begrudgingly approve Twilight’s recommendation to modernize their military, and by extension accelerate the technological development of Equestria as a whole, in the hopes that it will be enough to level the playing field against humanity when they ultimately arrive.
With her acquired knowledge of human technological advances Twilight spearheaded an ambitious, if remarkably late, renaissance in science, engineering and weapons development, bringing about an industrial revolution on an unprecedented scale that was maintained at a desperate pace.
However, despite the efforts of Equestria’s best and brightest, there was only so much that they could do with what little resources and time they had when their starting point was the human equivalent of the mid to late nineteenth century.
Sure, they had things like firearms and automotive vehicles in wide circulation now, but a lot of that prodigious technological growth meant very little in a war when your enemies were already way ahead of the curb, and had been for some time now.
Worse yet, this growth came at a price: the ravaging of their lands.
In the span of a few short months zealous logging had turned entire valleys into barren seas of stumps, leaving hundreds if not thousands of furry woodland critters without a home and clearing the way for mudslides. Unregulated mining for metal ores have had disastrous ecological repercussions, with harsh chemicals and metallic elements seeping into the ground, contaminating the topsoil and groundwater and plaguing the surrounding lands with heavy metal pollution that would be felt for years to come.
All this was further compounded by countless factories working around the clock processing the materials into usable goods.
Thick towers of black smoke billowed from the factories' smoke stacks and into the air, choking the skies and land in asphyxiating miasma of smog. Toxic runoff and other nasty pollutants from these buildings were irresponsibly dumped into lakes and rivers or buried in massive landfills with little regards to the damage it caused to the environment. There just wasn't enough time to properly dispose of them. Fortunately acid rain had yet to become an issue, but with how quickly the pollution was spreading it was only a matter of time before it did.
These were but a few of the problems to have arise during these desperate times. But the princesses, Twilight in particular, had assured everypony that the temporary ecological damage caused by their rampant industrialization was a small price to pay when it came to winning the war.
Everypony was still expected to do their part when demanded of them and if a material carried even the smallest bit of value that was beneficial to the cause it was going to be collected, be it by the business end of an axe, scythe, hammer... or rifle.
Dark clouds of unnatural origins swirled above the forest by Equestria's northern shoreline as soldiers and laborers alike fell trees at an alarming pace, breaking their backs gathering building material to further the country's fortifications.
It was tragic seeing the beautiful woodland being torn down in such an efficient manner, and by pony hooves no less. Though, better by them to be harvested for a noble cause than to be blown apart in a salvo of terrible human ordinance, they reasoned.
Among those felling trees was Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, Daring Do superfan and senior officer of the Wonderbolts.
She and the team of fantastic flyers were a part of the logging crew serving out their hours of mandatory service. They'd been tasked with clipping the branches off the pine trees and prepping them for delivery to the coast. They performed their duty admirably and without complaints, striving to set an example to their fellow ponies in times of hardship.
"Hey, Rainbow Dash. Did you hear about the protesters that were here the other day?" Soarin started out of the blue, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
"Dissenters?" replied Rainbow Dash, resting her axe against her shoulder. "I thought the ESS dealt with them already."
"No, not dissidents. I'm talking about the hippies from the Equestrian Nature Conservation Society," Soarin chuckled. "Apparently they don't like it that we're cutting down Thimblepaw woods. Luckily we managed to chase them out before one of them could chain themselves to a tree."
"Tch, those hippies should be glad I don't report them to the secret service for obstruction of duty," Rainbow Dash spat. "Princess Twilight made it absolutely clear that we need every little bit of raw material we can gather before the humans invade, and we're going to deliver with or without their help."
"Don't you think we're going a little overboard, though?" said Lightning Streak, pausing his work to catch his breath. "Trees are one thing, they'll grow back. But a week ago I had the guard ransacking my home looking for whatever metal they could get their hooves on. Pots, pans, silverware, my grandpa's filling, you name it, they confiscated it. Word is we don't have nearly enough metal on the continent to manufacture as many of those fancy new toys they're rolling out for us as they'd like to and had to resort to mass recycling."
"Well, we can't get it anywhere else," replied Rainbow Dash. "We lost all our territory since the barrier fell, Equestria is all we have left. If eating without silverware is what it's gonna take to repel the human invasion then I can live without demonstrating proper table manners for a while."
"Not like you had them to begin with," Spitfire quipped as she flew onto the scene, causing the all the Wonderbolts to immediately stop what they were doing and snap to attention as they'd practiced countless times before. "Afternoon, lieutenant."
"Ma'am!" Rainbow Dash addressed respectfully.
"At ease, everypony," Spitfire ordered and everyone visibly relaxed. "I've come bearing good news and even better news. The good news is that our mandatory hours of service are finally up. The better news is that we're finally moving out." The Wonderbolts cheered boisterously upon hearing the news.
"Bout time," said Lightning Streak. "I learned that I'm not cut out to a lumberjack."
"Well, then it's a good thing you're a Wonderbolt," Spitfire smirked. "Grab your things, everypony. Once we're down by the beach we're gonna be doing drills until sundown. Am I undestood?"
"Yes, Captain Spitfire!" everyone bellowed in unison.
"S'what I like to hear."
For the next few weeks down at the shoreline the Wonderbolts rigorously practiced aerial drills and weapons training from sunup to sundown. They flew in formation, practiced aerial maneuvers and bombing raids with aid from the newly refurbished Equestrian Navy. Their execution was tight and their speed were unparalleled. Everyday was like a show to the soldiers stationed there and the best part was they didn't even need to pay.
When they weren't flying they were learning how to use the new weapons that Twilight had developed for them.
Their armaments were limited but they were meant to capitalize on the Wonderbolts quickness in the air. Among such weapons were an eclectic collection of satchel charges, mortar rounds and grenades. The idea was that they would fly towards the human's fleet and bomb their ships with explosives before retreating to replenish their supplies. Rocket launchers had been considered but the added weight weighing them down would make them easy targets.
Should the humans make it to shore and begin their push up the beach their grease guns should be able to make short work of them. It was a low cost weapons that was remarkably easy to mass produce. The gun itself was lightweight, compact, easy to handle and able to spew out a reasonable amount of lead all at the pull of a trigger. It was the perfect weapon for pegasi.
And last but not least there was the humble combat knife. It doesn't need an introduction or even an explanation, just stick the pointy end towards the enemy and pray to the Alicorns you kill what you're stabbing at.
It wasn't a whole lot but beggars can't be choosers.
Currently the Wonderbolts were on the ground, practicing shots with their grease guns against burlap sack dummies. The results were mixed, with some demonstrating an impressive aptitude for firearms, taking to them like a fish takes to water despite never having held one before in their life, while others were living proof that giving an creature without fingers a gun based on old human design was a disaster just waiting to happen.
"Come on!" Spitfire shouted from the sidelines. "Aim down your sights, they're there for a reason!"
"Grr... It's harder than it looks!" Flitter grunted, correcting her aim and letting loose another concentrated burst. Her grouping was terrible, being inches apart, but at least she hit her target.
"Lightning Streak! For the love of all that is holy, reload on a sensible time scale!" Spitfire groaned. "The human's are gonna punch ya full of holes by the time you put in a fresh magazine!"
"I'm trying, captain!" hollered Lightning Streak, clumsily fumbling with the grease gun's magazines like a clown juggling bowling pins. "Grr... How do the humans do this?!"
"By Princess Celestia's rainbow mane, Corporal Scootaloo is out shooting you!" Spitfire pointed out, gesturing to the orange mare.
Scootaloo was beside Rainbow Dash on the range and was one of the few Wonderbolts who could not only hit her target and reload reliably, she demonstrated mindfulness for trigger and muzzle discipline as well. She was no Annie Oakley but when compared to the rest of her team she might as well be a savant.
"Alright, that's enough! Guns down, everyone back away," Spitfire ordered. Her team complied and ceased firing, but an additional shot rang out in the air followed by a scream. All eyes snapped to Soarin who was on the ground clutching at the bleeding wound on his hind leg and the smoking gun beside him. "Soarin!" she fumed. "What did I tell you about keeping your hoof on the trigger!"
"Daaaah!" was Soarin's only response.
Bringing a hoof to her face Spitfire let out a aggravated groan. "Of all the boneheaded... High Winds, Rapid Fire!" she called.
"Yes, ma'am!" They replied in unison.
"Get happy hooves over here to the infirmary. Maybe some time in bed will remind him not to keep his hoof on the very thing that could send hot lead flying everywhere!" Spitfire snarled.
"Yes, ma'am! Right away, ma'am!" High Winds and Rapid Fire saluted before hauling Soarin away.
"As for the rest of you," Spitfire turned to the rest. "Drills are over for the day. Let's clean up and hit the showers. The rest of the day is free time, lights out at nine as per usual. We'll start flying maneuvers again at sunup. Dismissed."
With one final salute, Spitfire and the Wonderbolts dispersed. They began stowing away their equipment, collecting loose shell casings for reuse and resetting the dummies to their original positions.
One quick shower afterwards, everypony was enjoying their free time. Some were training their fighting skills using wooden spoons as a substitute for their knives, others were writing letters to their families back home inland. Scootaloo was resting on her bunk at the barracks, her attention firmly directed at a small faded golden locket that she was dangling inches above her muzzle when Rainbow Dash trotted over and greeted her.
"Heya, Scoots," Rainbow Dash smiled, leaning against the side of the bunk. "S'that the locket Applebloom gave you?"
"Yeah," Scootaloo smiled back. "It was her engagement gift to me. Told me it was an old family heirloom that's been passed down from one Apple to the next. Apparently they would use it as a way to declare their everlasting love to somepony."
"That's real sweet of her."
"Yeah. She also told me Granny Smith gave it to her way back when just for a moment like this. Bless that old mare and her heart."
Rainbow Dash chuckled at the mention of Granny, she missed that old firecracker. "Boy, you can say that again. By the way, that was some mighty fine shooting out there today. You're probably the best one out of all of us, period. I gotta ask, how'd you get so good at it? Most ponies have never held anything like a gun before in their lives and here you are nailing shots like it's going out of style. What's your secret?"
"Oh, it's no big secret or anything, but..." Scootaloo's smile faded slightly. "...Do you remember the days before the war, back when we were able to explore human lands and try out their crazy gizmos?"
"...Yeah?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "What's this got to do with anything?"
"Well, back when we could still access the internet, I used to be really into these gun channels on the web," Scootaloo blushed like a mare that just revealed she still played with dolls. "I don't know why I was drawn to them the way I was. Maybe it had something to do with how the humans in them always seem to be having a blast whenever they were firing their guns. Hooping and hollering, making trick shots and screaming things like 'Murica!' at the top of their lungs. It was pretty cool. Then the war started and, well, Equestria came first."
"So, yeah. I watched a ton of these videos. Like, a lot, a lot. Including the ones on the importance of gun safety and proper handling. I guess I'm just remembering all the stuff I learned before the war started and it's only now that I'm actually applying it," Scootaloo shrugged. "I never would've imagined I'd be using that knowledge to try and hold off a human invasion. It's almost like a bad joke if you ask me."
"Hmm... You wanna know what I think?" Rainbow Dash began. "I think it's fate."
"Fate?" Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Rainbow smirked. "Clearly this was all meant to pass. All the knowledge you picked up is supposed to aid you in fighting against humanity!"
"But why?" Scootaloo scratched her head.
"Uh, duh. It's the universe's way of getting you back to Applebloom safe and sound. You just haven't realized it yet," Rainbow replied a matter o' factly. "Here we are backed up against the wall, forced to fight tooth and tail against the hordes of humans threatening to take over our fair lands. And here you are, a young Wonderbolt on the front lines with somepony waiting for you to come home to them. It's like something out of a sappy romance novel. The invisible hoof of fate has made it so that you will be able to fight and win and come home so you can marry Applebloom. You see what I mean?"
"Yeah..." A small smile began to form on Scootaloo's lips as it began to click in her head. "Yeah, yeah! I think I get it now!"
"I knew you would," Rainbow smiled warmly. "Have some faith, kiddo. Equestria isn't done yet. We're going to repel humanity and you're gonna go home and you're gonna love Applebloom with all your heart."
Without saying another word Rainbow Dash left Scootaloo to her own devices, hopefully having lifted her spirit with their little chat. She was going to need it for when they engage the humans. As for Scootaloo, she opened up the locket and smiled at the picture of Applebloom that was in it. She kissed it for good luck before turning in early for the night.
She was going to make it home, she thought to herself as she drifted off to the land of sleep.
The time for battle grew near.
After months of back breaking labor, fortifying their defenses and training the day they've all been waiting for had finally arrived.
The armies of humanity were rapidly approaching Equestria with the intention of invading the country and bringing about an end to the war once and for all, be it through unconditional surrender or extermination.
Princess Celestia had made their position clear: Equestria Stands Now and Forever More. They were going to stand their ground and fight to the bitter end. Humanity will have to work for their victory. Come hell or high water, everypony had taken up arms and assumed their defensive positions down by the foggy beachhead, determined to hold every inch of ground with their very lives.
Many of the ponies were stoic in the face of overwhelming odds, their personal beliefs and convictions girding them to what may come. Others were nervous, they were visibly shaking with their guns in hoof or vomiting out of anxiety. The rest were eager to fight, prepared to dish out everything they can give and kill as many humans as they could in the name of princess, country and ponykind.
The Wonderbolts fell somewhere between the first and third category. The entirety of their organization, both recruits and veterans alike, stood shoulder to shoulder in formation, expressions of stony pride etched upon their faces. As ponies, they represented the best of the best of the best. As pegasi, they were the pride of their kind. As soldiers, they were the spearhead, the very first and last thing that their enemies will ever see. This battle will be their finest hour, a defiant cry into the night that will echo for all to hear.
"Wonderbolts!" Spitfire shouted as everypony snapped to attention. "Today's the day we've all been waiting for!" She turned and gestured to the beach.
"Beyond that horizon lies the enemy: a circus troupe of monkeys and their mechanisms of death and destruction! They come seeking to conquer us and destroy all we've built in the centuries that have passed. I ask you, are we going to just let them take Equestria?"
"No!" the Wonderbolts cried fervently.
"S'what I thought," Spitfire smirked. "Six years ago, Princess Celestia graciously gave the humanity a gift out of the goodness of her heart; the ponyfication potion. It would've solved all their problems. Let them live lives of peace and happiness in the light of harmony as ponies. But, no. The humans, in their infinite wisdom, rejected that gift, preferring to remain as hateful knuckle dragging apes."
The Wonderbolts jeered and booed at the mention. Shouting disdainfully in offense to humans.
"This war had begun in order to rectify that mistake, converting humanity has always been a righteous crusade. Our intention are pure, and it is because of that purity that we will triumph in the end, no matter how bleak things look. We will triumph for the fallen!"
"For the fallen!!" The Wonderbolts parroted.
"We will triumph for the princesses and Equestria!"
"For the princesses and Equestria!"
"But most of all, we will triumph for friendship and harmony!"
"For friendship and harmony!"
"Now, follow me to glory!" Spitfire concluded boisterously and turned to face the shore, preparing herself for take off. The Wonderbolts mimicked their leader's action, crouching to the ground and flaring out their wings.
"This is it, Rainbow Dash," said Scootaloo, slipping her goggles over her eyes. "The humans won't know what hit em."
"That's the attitude I wanna see, Scoots," Rainbow Dash smirked, slipping her own goggles on. "Try and keep up."
"You're on," Scootaloo smirked back.
"Everypony, on my mark!" Spitfire began. "Ready? Mark!"
At her signal, the Wonderbolts took off in unison, kicking up a plume of dust as they ascended into the air. An awe inspiring trail of smoke, fire, rainbows and lightning was left in their wake as they zoomed across the sky in formation and into the foreboding mist where their enemies were hidden behind.
At that, the battle had begun.
"Everypony!" Spitfire shouted across the winds. "We're almost to the human fleet! Try to target their ship's weapons! If we can disable them we'll be able to prevent the beachhead from being pounded by enemy fire! Do I make myself clear!"
"Crystal, cap'n!" replied Rainbow Dash.
"Good, then we're all in agreement!" Spitfire saluted her fellow Wonderbolts. "When this is all over you can bet your flanks I'm buying everypony the first round of drinks!"
The next five minutes of her life would forever haunt Rainbow Dash for the rest of her days.
Something had hit Spitfire the moment she stopped speaking. A cacophonous explosion ruptured across the winds and she was no more. Consumed by smoke and super heated air the strike rendered her into a thin pink mist that quickly dissipated into the clouds as bits of her more solid fleshy remains began a slow descent into the cold waters below.
The kill was sudden and palpable. By the time they registered Spitfire's death whatever bravado and gravitas the team displayed earlier shattered when their brave captain was wiped off the face of the planet in a single shot.
High Winds was next, dying mere seconds after Spitfire's own sudden demise. She died the same way. No pain, no suffering. Only a single shot of hot plasma from down below that effectively erased her from existence. At the loss of a second comrade the Wonderbolts descended into disarray and broke out of formation. They began flying wildly throughout the air with no sense of leadership or direction, scrambling to save their hides from another deadly shot. Confusion and panic had taken over completely, morale sank like a lead balloon.
"W-what the hell's going on?! Aaaah-!" Lightning Streak cried before evaporating into nothingness.
"On your left! Your lef-!" Sun Chaser warned, failing to notice the line of plasma coming up from behind her and vanishing the moment it made contact.
"Stay in formation, everypony! J-just keep calm and stay in forma-!?" Soarin called out futilely, swerving and swooping across the air before disappearing into a pink mist as well.
Throughout all this Rainbow Dash floated dumbly in place, discombobulated and stricken with tinnitus. Wordlessly she gawked with her jaw slack and vision blurry as the horrible scene unfolded before her that she was powerless to stop.
One by one or two by two the once proud and seemingly indomitable Wonderbolts were being picked out of the sky by a barrage of super heated death. She watched as the ponies she trained and fought alongside with for more than a decade now were eradicated in rapid succession, flying about in a frenzy to avoid anti-air fire before vanishing right in front of her eyes.
Vapor Trail, she didn't make it.
Wind Waker, he didn't make it.
High Winds, Fire Streak, Misty Fly, they didn't make it.
It was a waking nightmare. Nothing but silent screams and wide eyed terror right before they were put onto the express train to Elysium. Rainbow Dash had never been more afraid in her life than she was now when everything she'd ever care about was going up in smoke. As the carnage stretched out and their ranks dwindled, her fight or flight instincts screamed at her to fly for the hills, vying for attention from another voice that was also screaming at her through the shrill ringing in her ears.
"-ash!"
"..."
"-bow Dash!"
"..."
"Rainbow Dash!"
"Bwuah?!" Rainbow yelped in surprise. Scootaloo's voice finally broke through the tinnitus, followed by a life saving tackle that prevented Rainbow Dash from meeting the same fate as the others. A stream of hot plasma narrowly missed the polychromatic pegasus, singing her fur and leaving a dull black mark on part of her uniform. Shakily she turned to face Scootaloo, who was staring at her with an expression of utter fear on her face.
"Rainbow Dash, we're all that's left!" She shouted over the barrage. "W-what do we do?!"
"U-uh... I-I..." Rainbow struggled to speak, her mouth agape like a fish on land. She was frozen in fear. Her eyes darted around, desperately searching for something that wasn't there all the while Scootaloo waited impatiently for an order. It was then that Rainbow Dash finally saw what it was that had been killing them.
Sailing, or rather floating, across the ocean was the newly upgraded human navy. A fleet of black colored mobile armor so numerous they could've been mistaken as a floating island fortress rather than an invading force. Every gun that they had mounted on those infernal things were firing upon the beachhead from miles away, absolutely devastating Equestria's defenses and immediately forcing the guard into a full retreat just as their planes started bombing the coast. The forces on the beach never stood a chance.
The sheer sight of the human navy effortlessly destroying Equestria's outer defenses, coupled with the trauma of seeing her team being mercilessly cut down only minutes before was all Rainbow Dash could handle before instinct won out in the end. She had finally accepted the hopelessness of the situation and acted without thinking.
Without so much as another word, Rainbow Dash turned around and quickly flew back inland, leaving behind Scootaloo as she called out to her hero in vain, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash shut the world out. She needed to get back to safety as fast as possible. It was her number one priority, nothing else mattered.
"Rainbow Dash?!"
Nothing else mattered.
"RAINBOW DASH!?"
Nothing.
An epic retelling of the scene, laced with details both realistic and dark. Excellent post!
Through the gates of hell,
As we make our way to heaven,
Through the nazi lines!
Primo victoria!
We've been training for years,
Now we're ready to strike.
As the great operation begins,
We're the first wave on the shore,
We're the first ones to fall,
Yet soldiers have fallen before!
-Sabaton, Primo Victoria
Welp, it begins. And... it was pretty damn brutal. For a moment during the whole posturing with the Wonderbolts, I felt like gloating but then... well, that actually made me sorry for them. They came in expecting to fight for their nation and only found death and devastation. I hope we get to see more of Dash's perspective, mostly to see how and why she continued her stubborn defiance even though the fight was clearly long lost.
As for the rest of it (i.e. the bit with the environment), it really is ironic. They came to supposedly "civilize" the humans, and yet now they've committed every single "sin" they see in Humanity, all in the name of winning a losing war. Secret police, oppression, enslavement (of the Newfoals, since they effectively can't say no and are too eager to please), attacking civilians and cultural targets, and now polluting the environment and engaging in ecological devastation. It wasn't humanity's sinful nature that made them what they are, it's the centuries of struggle and war that did, and the ponies are getting a crash course - and it still won't be enough to save them, but it's enough to show that underneath all the posturing, the arrogance, and the snobbery, humans and ponies really aren't that different after all.
I wonder how Celestia feels about the pollution and rapid industrialization? She strike me as a gardener, someone who has a small patch of garden and develops it according to her desires and tastes, shaping her garden to suit herself through planting, pruning, and landscaping. She found Humanity, and tried to do the same to them. Turns out, humans are a dangerous jungle, and it's a dog eat dog world; her gentrified little garden never had a chance without the Barrier doing all the heavy lifting; she had culturally engineered them so well they lost what it meant to truly be at war or fight to the death, and then pit them against a predator who never knew more than a cumulative century or two of peace.
And then the ponies end up abandoning the culture and society she had built up for centuries and leave her to die. I think that has to be the biggest blow; aside from saving her ponies, all her ideas and values were tossed aside as her own ponies had to grow beyond her.
Also, I've been meaning to ask; you're pounding out this fic at a pretty fast rate. Do you write them that fast, or do you have them on a buffer? Either way, keep up the great work.
I'm a bit surprised Twilight didn't call out Celestia on this during Truth. The fact that everything Celestia thinks of humanity is evil is something she just about made everyone in her country do as well.
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The slavery, lies, and forcible conquest is something Twilight rightfully called her out on. The use of the Crystal Cannon against non-military targets as well.
The industrialization and mass exploitation of the environment, however, was Twilight's idea, a desperate attempt to match the humans in technology and armaments once magic was rendered utterly useless. Ironically, it gave the other cities some sort of modern weaponry cache, while Canterlot remained pristine at Celestia's insistence (as well as many Canterlot elites NIMBY sorts who didn't want their beautiful city and property values ruined by machinery and smog) - which ended up biting Canterlot in the ass during the Siege of Canterlot because it meant their modern weaponry quickly ran out of parts and ammo when cut off from the rest of the country.
Really, only the oppression and secret police is something Twilight doesn't call her out on, since Twilight is guilty of supporting that as well, especially since Fluttershy's defection became a sore subject for her.
I know Ashley Burke's are pretty fragile compared to your Samuel Roberts of WW2, but would this have even scratched the paint on a modern fleet, much less a mid 21st century one?
Not being nitpicky but this always happens because rarely does Evil Equestria have any means of air superiority besides throw basically naked pegasi at fighter jets. Maybe they'd do better against WW2 planes?
Didn't Rated just put up in a blog saying Thunderlane and his brother defected?
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yes actually, with the advent of guided missile technology ships actually have less armor now than they did back in WW2, and deck armor has traditionally been the thinnest on ships due to a need to conserve weight. The wikipedia page (so grain of salt these numbers, though the citation is encyclopedia brittanica) for naval armor notes that modern armor is between half an inch at minimum, to only /two/ inches maximum of armor. As such provided with the massive qualifier that the pegasai could actually, you know, /make/ it to the fleet, the charges could actually do what they were hoping to do. Now granted this navy is running on magitech so who knows what changes or adaptations they've made, but modern ships could actually be in danger from this type of attack, especially the satchel charges as they tend to have the highest explosive yield of the three types of explosives mentioned by a decent margin.
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I think it has something to do with arrogance on the ponies part. I mean, were they even aware that we have anti-air weapons and even with their speed, they'll still get picked off. I still like the chapter as well but I was just scratching my head as to why they cane into it not thinking that.
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3 Million
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I have the same problem.
In the Warfare fic the private simply couldn't believe the size and amount of ships coming to their shores, or the disparity between their own WW1-2 weaponry vs the modern human army.
One wonders how did he fight for so long without finding out the extend of human warfare.
Good, but I also would’ve liked to have seen Scootaloo’s last moments from her perspective. Other than that, another fine chapter.
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As was explained by Rated_Ponystar, the ponies initially fought from behind the barrier and used teleportation attacks to strike deep into cities. Both basically put huge obstacles against the humans simply deploying their best weaponry and tactics freely. It forced the UN to fight on its own cities, among its own citizens, and at a considerable disadvantage. It was only when pony command collapsed by a lucky shot, like what happened in NYC, or a combination of good intel and preparation, like what happened at Jerusalem, for humans to begin retaliating in a decisive manner. When the barrier came down, the ponies stopped doing teleportation raids because it would just risk another Jerusalem, and the ponies at the front wound up facing the full brunt of human firepower and tactics. Halberd Wings says in Warfare that fighting in Sri Lanka was hellish because the humans deployed both snipers and heavy firepower to wear the ponies down, and firebombed the island when the ponies' resistant proved too difficult to handle.
Halberd also mentions that some tanks were equipped with powerful lasers when comparing them to the stuff the ponies are forced to fight with, and that was before the invasion. Twilight must have been counting on using human technology to counter humans, but to everypony's chagrin they found out there was an insurmountable tech gap that no amount of rapid industrialization could hope to cross. That human technology advanced even more in the short time between Equestria's withdrawal from all human lands and the landings at the coast made things even more complicated.
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Also never forget that for several years of the war humanity had no answer to magic: deep strike in, create shields that /couldn't be penetrated by modern weaponry/ and kill/convert at will. The Thallman (spell check that but yeah) generators are a new development: they're what allowed the shot on Shining in NYC and the decimation of the ponies in Jerusalem. This is literally turning the world on its head for the ponies. For the first time in their entire history they're being forced to consider non-magical warfare and with a society as prone to stagnation /as/ the equestrians (bear in mind most all of the advances we see in the show are considered /magical/ in nature and therefore unusable in the face of the mage killer generators) and they're simply unable to shed enough preconceived notions on how things /should/ go if they perform any particular maneuver. The pony solution to everything is "use magic on it:" chaos entity? use ancient magic no one properly understands. Sister has a hissy fit? throw her to the moon via that same magic. Primitive bugs lacking weaponry invade? Use love to supercharge regular magic to expel invaders. I think you see where I'm going with this but this reliance would be like if suddenly all electrical signals, radio waves, etc stopped working for modern human militaries but /worse/ because of the whole "it's worked for thousands of years it'll work for thousands more" mentality the ponies have as mentioned earlier.
I still find it hard to believe ponies were able to reach ww2 level technology, it’s quite a gap between that and their sorta medieval stasis. Just producing suitable springs for automatic weapons requires both technological know how and experience to an extent. Anything less and it will wear out quickly or break when you try to shoot. I’m also wondering if they actually understood the technology they were copying... or if they just crudely approximated like the Viet Cong with odds and ends out of place. Sure it’s still deadly, but compare it to the real thing and the choice of obvious. There’s more to a tank or rifle then it’s outward appearance after all.
I also have to wonder it Twilight was kinda like a more educated Mao... wanting industrialization without fully understanding the bridge between cottage industry and true industrialization. It wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t understand the gap between theory (for example we’ve had an understanding of lasers for over 100 years) and application. Which requires a lot of teething pains not only to make something that works in a controlled environment, but is also suitable for the field. It wouldn’t surprise me if a large amount of the harvested materials were also wasted because of inefficiency in their hastily built factory’s and supply lines.
As for the Wonderbolts carelessness, I don’t find that too out of character. I feel that it’s implied they didn’t fight much on the front lines until the war reached their shores. So they likely didn’t have much experience with human weapons, only able to go off the propaganda they heard. Also keep in mind this is an organization held with great esteem... despite not doing much against the various enemies the country faced pre-convergence. Likely thanks to their stunt shows and merchandise adding quite a bit of hype around them. Reality finally came knocking and they learned they weren’t a hot as they made themselves out to be.
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Did they? Must’ve been some background info i missed. If they did i’m going to have to do some quick corrections
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I have prompts prepared that more or less act as a guide for the chapters im writing, gives me a clear idea of what the subject is going to be like. Thats what the small summaries or blurbs at the top of the story are for. They don’t just summarize the moment in time, they help me write quicker
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Twilight probably stole a few books from human libraries behind Celestia's back in an attempt to understand technology better, and it's not like the M4 Sherman or the USS Iowa is a military secret these days. Stalin managed to massively industrialize the USSR in a decade prior to WW2 - admittedly at a steep and brutal cost. This has allowed her to rush industrializing Equestria, but as has been mentioned in Warfare, some things cannot be circumvented or matched without appropriate tech or infrastructure, so precision-guided munitions, computers, and more advanced weapons and tech are firmly outside Equestria's reach. They may have had a chance if they had stolen or copied human technology when they first came to Earth, but trying it in the final year of the Conversion War is too little too late. Plus, Twilight would basically be making a devil's bargain; reap the benefits of industrialization now, and suffer the consequences later, as long as they can keep Equestria out of human hands. Needless to say, that failed, and now they need the UN's help to fix their own lands.
Also, while these things might be favorably comparable to their original WW2 counterparts, Twilight is still reading off old books and information. Reading a text on tank warfare is hardly comparable to years of tank warfare experience; the Soviets had better tanks than the Germans in early Barbarossa, but the German tactics were by far superior, allowing them to outflank and outmaneuver Soviet forces in battles. Add to that the UN forces not only having 4th generation MBTs enhanced with magitech, but complete mastery over industrialized and mechanized warfare and... well, the Invasion of Equestria was more of a roflstomp than a war.
Also, to be fair to the Viet Cong, they understood the tech fairly well, they just didn't have enough to match the US. The ponies are just copying what they think works without any experience or understanding of what makes the tech work (aside from said tech killing them very brutally).
This is what happens when you arrogantly underestimate your opponent. You stomped into the ground, and get more then a wounded pride. Only in RD case, her whole team and biggest fan get butchered.
Though their fates were cruel it is to be expected. As Rainbow and her kind invade a foreign planet, try to force its people to become ponies, the process which basically mind rapes them into being happy slaves that hate their still human friends and family, and want to destroy all their culture and history, all while Celestia is telling them that humans are “evil”, and what their doing to them is the “right thing to do”. And like a narrow minded protagonist, she and, most, the Elements think they’ll come out on top because, “good always wins”. Refusing to see that what their doing is wrong.
Like Handsome Jack said: Everybody wants to believe they’re the hero in their own little story.
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So that would make 6 million gone in equestria's attack and 4 million in human's. All in all 10 million are dead. WMDs don't mess around.
You know what I think is the most fucked up thing in all of this, she just let Scootaloo die. She didn't tell Scoots to run or drag her with her like any soldier would be trained to do, she just ran. If this was that one TCB fic with the transformers this would be the part she loses her element
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Rainbow Dash admits as much in "Useless". By abandoning Scootaloo, her biggest fan and one of her closest friends, to die, she has lost the right to be the Bearer of the Element of Loyalty, and she says so almost verbatim.
However, here, I pity her more than hold her in contempt. It's clear she's suffering a massive case of "shell shock" when she abandoned Scoots. A modern human psychiatrist would recognize the symptoms, but Equestria never really had experience with the sort of raw violence that causes PTSD, and even humans had considered shell shock to be cowardice until after WW2 when it became more widespread and studied due to efforts by decorated veterans like Audie Murphy (who suffered from PTSD during and after the war, but still managed to maintain a stellar combat record so people couldn't just accuse him of cowardice).
In "Warfare", Halberd Wings curses the hospital staff who fled during the bombardment of Ponyville, but it's clear they were civilians who were simply overwhelmed and broke when confronted with the raw devastation inflicted by the bombing. Exposure to raw, undiluted violence is like that, you have no idea who'll stand his ground, who'll freeze up like a deer in the headlights, or who'll just panic and leg it. Military training tries to compensate for that by implementing rigorous discipline and muscle memory so that if your conscious mind freezes up, your reflexes keep you alive and fighting.
To be honest, the idea of post-war PTSD sufferers among the ponies would be an interesting topic; combined with war guilt and survivor guilt, the surviving ponies would have a lot of issues brought on by the Conversion War/First Contact War.
EDIT: My bad, PTSD can happen as a result of many things, but the idea of "shell shock" not equitable to simple cowardice wouldn't be widespread in Equestria, mostly due to a lack of awareness about the phenomenon.
I am surprised by the lack of military intel the ponies have. You would think they have enough speed, stealth and guile to deploy spies into the human military bases. They are in a similar situation the Changelings were in, and all they had going for them was their superiority in espionage.
The ponies just had no clue what they were up against. It's one thing for Twilight and Celesta to use propaganda on the civilians. It's another to keep your front line soldiers in the dark.
I agree with the point about air superiority. The Wonderbolts' uniforms are meant mainly for wind resistance. They provide no armor defense for any weapon - blade, bullet or plasma.
Since they were wiped out so quickly and easily, did the humans realize that those were the Wonderbolts? It would provide a huge morale boost to the humans if they learned that their enemy's proud and glorious vanguard were vaporized in seconds.
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Still in cases of mass industrialization they always had an outside source supplying them with industrial technology. Be it the West or East, it didn’t just come out of nowhere. In either case they destroyed human technology and burned every bridge that could have given them the technology. Besides, having blueprints isn’t the same as knowing “how” to make the individual parts. We haven’t seen much in the way of mass iron/steel production in the series, which makes it seem more likely they would attempt a “Mao Backyard Furnace” like scheme. Maybe with slightly better results with magic.
I do like how they mentioned that their outright copying had downsides, those weapons were not meant for hooves. Admittedly figuring out how to give ponies guns is difficult for writers. On another note I wonder what kind of powder mix they were using. Modern gunpowder requires fairly complex chemistry, along with base chemicals they likely don’t have access too. But black powder wouldn’t work in those firearms... maybe some kinda guncotton derivative? Beyond all that, I wonder about the quality of the individual weapons considering the rushed nature of the manufacture. Whenever factories switch over to war time production there’s always a learning curve.
I always figured ww1 level of weapons technology was more appropriate, not only because of their tactics, but also the limited industrial knowledge.
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I'm guessing there were three options for pony intelligence/espionage:
In the end, though, Equestria strikes me as similar to the Imperial Japanese in this aspect. They're harmonious ponies with a long-lasting civilization and they have the power of magic and friendship on their side. What can a
nation of weak shopkeepersa bunch of smelly monkeys with no magic do?And Halberd Wings lamented how bad their intel was back in Warfare during the Battle of Jerusalem. There were literally zero warnings about the Thalmann Generators, or the giant trap the IDF and allied forces set up to grind up Luna and her forces.
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Looking again at the show, the basics of engineering and mechanized production are there. They're just very limited and constrained compared to the massive industrial bases the human have. There's a wrecking crane in the Mare-Do-Well episode. Manehattan is a city of glass skyscrapers. There's a train network all across the country, and there's even some modern ships and cruisers seen here and there. They're not given much thought or room to shine, but they're there. It's just a matter of expanding and adapting production. Even if they have to resort to a fair bit of magic to substitute some processes, they'll manage.
Plus, as has been pointed out, Twilight is a genius. Moondancer played a big hoof in developing the Thalmann Generators, since she's a unicorn prodigy in magic and knowledge. Twilight is pretty much the same as an alicorn, so she can apply the same sort of logical thinking and scientific approach to industrializing. It's just she's forced to go from "half-industrialized" to "mid-20th century" whereas Moondancer is laughing at her from her lofty 21st century techbase.
But what you pointed out is correct; there's a learning curve, even though the ponies are following the blueprint the humans did for their weapons. Would these factories be OSHA compliant? Would there be inefficiencies through the assembly lines, and if so, how bad are they? How many Pony!Shermans are reliable (well, as reliable as a "one-shot Ronson" could be), and how many are even more dangerous to their crews than the historic M4?
Not to mention that to produce all this steel and equipment for the military, all other sectors of the economy are forced to reduce production, with some industries stopping altogether for lack of materials. If the UN invasion force hadn't come through like Godzilla on steroids, the postwar Equestrian economy would face severe depression and inflation, needing a long time to recover.
I wonder if the only reason Rainbow wasn’t punished for going AWOL was because she was an element. Thus, more valuable as a propaganda tool then as some pony to make an example of. If she was anypony else I doubt Celestia would have given her the red carpet treatment for fleeing. On another note I’m starting to feel like Rainbow joining the Freedom Fighters was more for herself then her comrades. In the heat of battle... she learned who she really was... and didn’t like what she saw. So now it’s more about her trying to “rewrite” history then actually bring Equestria back. Sure she hates humans, but in the end, she can’t stand to face who she really is under all that bravo.
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It's also because the attempted defense was a complete and utter fiasco. Half the defense forces annihilated before the humans made a landing. Had the Germans gotten those kind of casualties, the D-Day landings would have been less "opening scene from Saving Private Ryan" and more "walking gingerly among the smoking, bloody mangled remains of all these poor Krauts". The only ones who'd know what happened are Rainbow and Scoots - and well, the former's not talking out of shame, and the other's dead. The rest of the defense force is just too busy trying to stay alive under the relentless firepower. Whether command knew she went AWOL and they just decided to hush it up, or didn't know the specifics and were trying to wring out some moral victory amidst all the disastrous defeats, is irrelevant.
I can also argue that Dash is going for redemption; either victory or death to make for her cowardice - but I'm not feeling that charitable. ::laughs in monkey::
As for the other Elements, I'm wondering how they saw the war. Pinkie and Rarity showed having doubts about the war, but then decided to follow their Princesses - and look what it got them. Applejack lost so many people to the war she's becoming increasingly bitter; I'm betting the Apple Clan decided to seek refuge at the Sweet Apple Acres and promptly got butchered when the bombers came calling.
And then there's Twilight's Worst Day Ever: she has to see Ponyville, the place she called home for years, get razed to the ground, see many of her friends and acquaintances brutally annihilated, and then heads back to Canterlot only to find her parents perished to white phosphorus. It would literally be the cherry on top of this shit sundae if she lost the ability to have foals from shrapnel during the bombing.
Will we be seeing any of the other Element Bearers during the (short) remainder of the war?
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I thought all of Equestria was unaware of the fact that she fled in fear, instead thinking her a hero for being the only survivor. Considering she's the only witness and never bothered to correct anyone...
Nice chapter. Can’t wait to see more
The year 000 is referred to as the First Century, since you can't have a zero century. That means that every century is actually named one century ahead of itself. Seeing as you talk about trenches and bunkers, I presume you meant the Twentieth Century, where World Wars One and Two occurred. The Nineteenth Century would be the Eighteen Hundreds (1800's) which was Bonaparte and the Civil War Era.
Did lightning dust take part in this battle
Odd they chose the Grease Gun over something like the AK. They could easily make AKs with the materials they had.
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a Grease Gun is cheeper and uses less meatal to make than an ak. with the apparent shortages im assuming there going for numbers over quality.
She was not going to make it home.
/Morgan Freeman
Humph, so much for being the Element of Loyalty or never a friend hanging.... You're a coward Rainbow Dash... and you left spiritual little sister, Scootaloo behind. Leaving her to die. Enough said.
Jeez. At least let them throw a few grenades before they get destroyed lol.
YOUR TERRITORY!!!!