Imperial Forclousure

by The Sound of Loneliness

One More For the History Books

Blackhoof juggled grenades like he was a seasoned circus actor. Who knew the party trick he learned while in the police force would still be entertaining; but the ponies gathered around were cheering and whistling like at a sports match. Suddenly, an idea sparked in his mind. If he had missed his calling, he might as well make some money on the side.

“Hey, lads, tell you all what! I'll make you a bet! If I can juggle ten more at a time, you all owe me fifty bits!” he shouted. He might have been a bit too confident, but where’s the fun in being safe? Whitenose tossed him ten more grenades one by one until he was juggling thirteen. It didn’t really matter how many he had to juggle as long as he could throw them high enough.

“Hah!,” Whitenose laughed. "You make a better juggler than a guard."

Blackhoof pierced him with a deathglare, barely managing to remember about juggling. Whitenose immediately stopped laughing.

Blackhoof turned away, focusing back on his juggling.

“Well! He’s doing it! So, everypony, pay up!” Whitenose declared. A murmur of dissatisfaction rolled over the crowd, but they all started reaching into their pockets.

---

“V probably shouldn’t do dis again,” Blackhoof said, biting into a donut.

“Come on, you; we are resting, aren’t we? With all the money you won us, we can afford some extra food besides the rations.”

“If the Captain ever finds out we left the base, we will never get to rest again,” Blackhoof complained. “How the hay did I let you talk me into this? We are in hostile territory surrounded by enemies for Moon’s sake!”

“All the better that we scouted the premises! Don’t worry, nobody will miss us; we just need to sneak back in without anyone seeing.”

Both of them suddenly stopped as they realized that there was a sentry watching them from the gatehouse.

“Welp, there goes that,” Blackhoof sighed. “You got a good excuse or a way to get him to not snitch?”

“Well, we can pay him. Or give him some food. I'm sure we can talk about it.”

It turned out that no, they couldn’t. The sentry turned out to be a changeling, and no matter what they offered, she didn’t budge. So they both ended up sitting in the guard room, waiting for an officer to come and deal with them.

“Why do I keep listening to you,” Blackhoof asked rhetorically. Their food was already eaten, so at least they wouldn’t be losing it.

Whitenose didn’t respond: he was looking out the window, watching another changeling entering the base,
“Why does she let her in and not us? I swear, these changeling pricks must think they are special.”

“She’s a scout, you moron. Why do you think none of us gets to go out, not even to scout? Because changelings can change into whoever they want and get around easily, while we're easily recognized.”

“But we're better; we know the city, and we’ve been doing this for way longer!”

“Look… if you got issues, you can voice them to the Captain. I’m sure he’ll relay them to the Lady.”

“Fat chance of that. He’d sooner give us extra watch duty on top of what we’ll get for going out. I don’t think she’s even here to listen to him. Haven’t seen or heard about her in a few days.”

“I haven’t either… she must be away doing some important ruler stuff. It’s just Daybreaker, Celestia, Twilight, and this new one...”

“Flurry Heart.”

“Yes, her. I swear, alicorns just keep multiplying so fast that figuring out who’s in charge is going to get hard real soon. How many is that now?”

“Seven… I think.”

“Oh, sweet. Remember when there were just two, and they had family issues? Imagine if all of them decide to duke it out. This is starting to get out of hoof.”

“They seem to get along fine,” Whitenose shrugged. “Lady and Celestia even patched it all up.”

“Yeah, for now... while they all have a shared goal, whatever that is.”

“What are we even doing here? Nobody told me what our objective is. Just some vague speech. For standing around and doing nothing, there sure are alot of these changeling plotholes. Nobody can even tell that they don’t fit in or wasn’t there before.”

Soon, the old Captain came to pick them up. After a lengthy lecture and learning a few new insults, the two of them were deposited in a dumping ground. Not for bodies, those were already buried. They were literally assigned to guard a bleeding garbage dump.

Their smelly assignment continued on with no interruptions until the night. The one good part of the punishment was that they got to watch the sunset without anyone bothering them. They’d still have to stay up all night, but it could’ve been worse. Stormbreaker could’ve made them carry crates from one side of the airfield and back.

“Canterlot.”

“Tall Tree.”

“...Ah, you got me. I don’t know any that start with E.”

“That’s why I chose it. Figured you wouldn’t. So, what did I win?”

“Win?”

“Well, yes. Are you going to wash my hoof wraps from now on, or…?”

“Oh screw you! I ain’t playing with you anymore! It always ends with… wait… did you hear that?”

The stallions stood silent for a few moments.

“...It was like a distant bang. Like an explosion.”

“I don’t think so. Maybe it’s just somebody throwing out some metal trash.”

They stood silent for a while. Another loud explosion was heard, but it was closer.

“Okay, I hear it now. What the hay is that? Can’t be just some foal with firecrackers, right?”

“Those are… I think those are ranging shots. We're about to get shelled!”

“Wait, isn’t that a little drastic? Who knows what kind of loud sound there’s going to be next to a city?”

“Would you rather raise a false alarm or be responsible for not raising a real one?”

With their debate settled, the two stallions rushed back across the airfield, yelling for everyone they met to get in cover. They made it over to the barracks, but just barely. As they saw the first ponies of their company, the ground started shaking as explosions rained shards of stone and heaps of earth onto the stallions. Diving towards the closest wall, they covered their heads and hoped for their lives that a shell wouldn’t land atop them. The explosions rocked the ground and rained earth atop them. The fire was still pretty inaccurate, but it will be on target in the next barrage. The barrage only lasted minutes, but felt like hours, all the time they waited, lying down on the ground cowering in fear of the true master of the battlefield. Blackhoof got his wish, after all: they’d get to fight one more war in service of their Lady.

---

The barrage stopped after some time, leaving the ponies and changeling alike to scramble for their weapons. A sudden barrage was usually a sign of an impending assault. Blackhoof and Whitenose rushed towards the armory; it was chaos, almost two hundred creatures crowded there at once, waiting for their weapons to be given to them. They were not ready, too complacent.

Blackhoof managed to grab a rifle that someone passed out; he barely had enough time to fill the magazine and stick it underneath the weapon when he saw them…

Flying in, in bright moonlight, there were ponies. Blackhoof cried out, and changelings and ponies alike began scattering in chaos. Some began frantically firing despite the enemy still being too far out of range.

Somehow, Blackhoof ended up next to a few ponies he knew. Silver Shine looked at him for guidance with panicking eyes.

“Stay with me, kid!” Blackhoof tried to sound confident. “We’ll get through this, happens every other day.” Silver did not look impressed.

“Everyone! Get inside and deny them a hoofhold!” Blackhoof yelled, half-dragging both Silver and Whitenose to the mechanic’s shop. He figured it would be easy enough to defend. He told Silver to watch the side door while taking the second story with Whitenose.

“The… the hay is this?!” Whitenose asked. “How did they know?!”

“Not now! Stay focused! Don’t let them land close to the infrastructure, or we’ll not dig them out of there till morning! Stars, I wish we had an MG!”

“Right… Right… Wait for them to touch the ground, then drop them; just like the ‘lings.”

The stallions then quieted down and began intently peering at the runway, waiting for the first of their invaders. The attackers soon approached close enough to be clearly visible, making Blackhoof arched his brows in bewilderment. Thestrals?! He almost missed the moment as bat-winged ponies began swooping down. A few tried to land at their garage: Blackhoof and Whitenose opened up from the second-story window, and the first two dropped to the ground, scaring the others off. Blackhoof fired a few more shots at them, hoping for a lucky hit, but got none. Taking a moment to look at the downed enemies, he noticed that they both only seemed wounded. He deliberated for a moment on whether to make sure they weren’t a threat but resisted the temptation. If they tried something, Silver would get them.

“Hey, you got any grenades?” he asked Whitenose, anyway.

“N-no! They weren’t giving them out! Barely had enough time to give us the tools.”

“Well, that blows. If they assault the building, we're screwed. Better not let any close in.”

The stallions continued defending, waiting for the enemy to make themselves vulnerable, but they seemed to have taken the hint, as none tried landing close again. Instead, the artillery barrage picked up again, forcing them to hide behind the walls. This time it was nearly an hour, or Blackhoof figured at least. Their ears were ringing, and their ammo was low, but they were determined. As soon as Blackhoof peeked out, sure enough, there were already Thestrals on the grass, rushing towards their wounded. He heard their weak warnings and thanked his foresight. He had them now.

He took time to carefully aim so as to not waste any more bullets than needed. He managed to down one more before the rest ducked and weaved towards the closest piece of uneven terrain for cover. He realized they wouldn’t be able to get all of them… not with just three of them and only three magazines between them all. This was a losing battle.

“Hey,” he called Whitenose. “This is looking bad. We gotta get outta here.”

“H-how? They are right outside!”

“Well, if we stay here, they’ll realize they got an advantage soon! They’ll either storm the building or keep throwing grenades ‘till we are dead! We have to get out and find the rest of our platoon!”

“Then what do we do?! We can’t just leg it; they're way too close for that!”

Blackhoof realized that he was right. They only had two exits, and both were in direct line of fire. They couldn’t fly either. But all three of them were going to die if they stayed there. Blackhoof cursed himself for rushing inside without thinking it through.

“I’ll hold them off,” Blackhoof said. “Give me your rifle and run; I’ll hold them off until I am out of ammo.”

Whitenose looked at him as if he was daft,
“Like hay, you will! We're going together, you fool! Heroics like this are what get you killed!”

“We don’t have time to argue!” Blackhoof chidded. “It’s either some of us get out or none at all! It was my idea; I am doing it! I am going to shoot until I am out, and then I am going to surrender. They won’t kill me; they’ll need prisoners to exchange at the end of this.”

The time for arguing was up; the Thestrals noticed the lack of fire coming out and began slowly peeking out of their cover. Before Blackhoof managed to suppress them again, one of the bat-winged bastards managed to hit him in the forehoof. The blood streamed out onto the floor.

“Agh! Screw you! Just go!” he yelled.

Despite the concern on his face, Whitenose obeyed. He galloped down the stairs and saw shadows just outside the door that Silver was guarding. The foal wasn’t stupid; he piled up some boxes, tool drawers, and whatever else he could hide behind and was keeping the doorway secured. He fired a few warning shots to keep the attackers from storming in immediately as Whitenose came clambering down the stairs.

“S-silver, w-we gotta go!” Whitenose managed to say. Silver looked at him just in time to miss a large grenade flying into the doorway. Whitenose dove behind Silver’s barricade, dragging him down behind it. The explosion left his ears ringing and his vision blurry. He reached for his rifle to fire a few shots to keep the Thestrals from charging in. Before he could get in position, he saw the tufted ears come into view over the barricade. Whitenose fired at those ears anyway. The Thestral dove down with a grunt.

“Come and get us, you orchard pests!” Whitenose taunted through gritted teeth, ignoring pulsing pain in his head; knowing that they were done for had paradoxically helped him find his bravery. “I got enough for everyone!”

The batponies responded with a barrage of automatic fire, forcing the stallions to duck behind the barricade again. Whitenose and Silver returned fire blindly, hoping to at least avoid hoof-to-hoof fighting they knew they didn’t have the numbers for.

Eventually, their attackers had enough; with a sharp warning and the tell-tale click of a grenade pin, he saw the grenade flying in over the top of the barricade. Whitenose and Silver both tried to catch it but only managed to kick it higher in the air so it would land behind them instead. Whitenose knew they wouldn’t be able to toss it back in time; they’d need to be as fast as Rainbow Dash for that. He closed his eyes and tried to think about his sister’s wedding. Sweet moon, he got hammered that day…

The explosion still startled him. Somehow, he wasn’t dead; he cautiously opened his eyes and looked himself and Silver over. Hoofsteps on the other side of the barricade warned him that this wasn’t over yet. He reached for his rifle and managed to lift it just in time as the attacker showed their black as midnight fur and slitted eyes. He fired his weapon to defend himself, but at the last moment, his weapon was pushed away from the target before being torn away from him completely, almost taking his hooves with it. The force dragged him off his back and onto the barricade towards the nauseating display of burned and still twitching Thestrals before him. And the smell… it definitely wasn’t pastry.