Equestria Divided Rp (Check OCC for Signups)

[Shadowbolt0]

Lightning knew it was a bad plan, but she hadn't had time to think up a good one, and having a smoking hot mare tease you doesn't make it any easier to think. It makes it a lot harder. She felt a familiar shiver race around her body as Skyfire started nibbling on her ears, getting a load moan from the pegasus commander. She had no way to protect herself, nothing to stop Skyfire from getting to her.

Even though Skyfire's plan sounded good, anything the mare would have said sounded good to her, all she cared about was Skyfire, and getting a good scream from her.

[Shadowbolt0]

The sun had started rising, and everypony knew what that meant. War.

However, something interesting had occurred, House Earthborn had not fired first with their cannon's, their silence in the early hours of the morning confusing the M&S forces. Rumor started, had the Earthborn retreated?

In Ponyville, chaos was surely common, but thousands of panicked ponies was a first. They'd discovered sabotage in some of their cannons, and out of fear alone they didn't want to fire their big cannon's. Sabotage was obvious, but who? Earthborn had no idea, and that this happened now was the definition of bad timing. M&S acted first.

Their armies charged fowards, as their artilary fired at the town. It looked like it might be one sided, looked. Earthborn forces fired their cannons, along with a range of other long ranged weapons, their fire smashing the ground where M&S were charging. Out from the gates, several hundred Earthborn army members took to the field, charging headfirst as a team of Pegasi launch from Ponyville.

War had started! Battle has been commenced, neither side wants to give an inch, and blood has already split onto the ground. The battle for New Ponyville has now officially begun.

[Dabom444]

The mare's ear twitched at the sudden ambient sound of Cannonfire. She smiled slightly but continued to rest just like she was ordered to do. Her horn glew and around her spiraled a Arcane circle. Her scrolls she had brought along began to circle around herself in a swirling cone. She had opened them and read them to make sure the script was correct so the spells they contained wouldnt have any bad effects. When she saw they were all in working order she placed them all away and dropped the magical field. she blinked quietly and thought a tune to herself.

(Pompeii bastile)

[UnitP0N13]

The rush of adrenaline. The surge blood. The smell of Death as he reaped with reach each explosion, and every cannonball whistling by his head, sending limbs flying with each peppering of the battlefield.

All of it it made him feel alive.

Leaving behind a squad of assassins to hide within the shadow's of the commander's men and protect them from most immediate threats, provided they make it to the fortress and breach it, Soul charge towards with only twelve of his assassins following him, it seemed, rushing past the booming of the cannon shots and the singing metal spheres as they flew over head and pounded the earth behind them. Luckily, they've managed to forge their way most of the artillery fire aimed for the back...only now they had gained the unwanted attention of firespitters, who stood their ground firmly at the river that marked the halfway point to the gates, staring down the invading force from a distance with a gnarled glare, their jaws itching to clamp down on the bitetrigger and burn every single one of them alive.

But Soul had other plans.

"Alchemists! Liquid nitrogen! Ready!" Soul yelled as he and his squad neared the wall of firespitters who looked more than ready to do their job.

Out from the unnatural darkness of each assassins' shadows flew a potion with a snowflake painted, all of which they caught with their own magic, keeping them levitated in the air as they pulled them back in preparation. After a few moments, they were coming close within killing range of the firespitters, and it was time to let the loose the volley of hyper-pressurized, frosty chemicals.

"Throw!!" The leader assassin sent the rupert-drop bottle full of incredibly cold liquid rocketing towards the firespitters, followed by a volley from his own men.

The first of the firespitters tried to shoot it down with his flamethrower, chewing hard on the bitetrigger as he sought to slow down or destroy the chemical weapon. But as the jet of flame disturbed the little tail of the bottle, the whole thing exploded just as it was zooming for his face, the millions of shards of glass and the gas from the now evaporated liquid covering a surprisingly large radius. Some of the spitfires tried to make a run for it, but were slowed down by the flow of the river as they tried to wade through it. Others could only watch in horror as their commander stumbled out of the falling vapor, screaming as most of his body was frozen and fractured by his own weight, his eyes had been riddled with micro-glass shards before being frozen over. Nonetheless, they joined their commander in a similar death: cold, muscle and skin full of glass.

The path had been cleared for the Commander.

[Travelaway]

Obsidian had been resting a bit when the first pounding of hooves sounded from above, ah the telltale sounds of war. The nighthooves had been careful about their activities the previous nights, they'd been ordered not to attack any earthborn officers or sabotage their equipment, he was sure the other forces had already done quite enough sabotaging for all of them. Asking the nighthooves: the greatest spies, saboteurs, and assassins in Equestria not to act when they had the chance was a befuddling thing, nonetheless they did as ordered and only utilized their spying capabilities for this operation. By the time they were ready to ambush the city most of the heavier hitting opponents would be dead or worn down, a strategy that some referred to as 'cherry picking'.

He began inspecting the forces under his command, only about 50 were actual Whitegold forces, the rest were mercenaries, said mercenaries had different specializations, from swordsponies, to rifle ponies, to mages and so on. He inspected each one carefully, his eyes falling on Elusis, Cherisse chittered in his ear, she always went on about how he needed to be more friendly and sociable, even while acting as a leader. He rolled his eyes but conceded, "Fine I'll talk to her, but my job isn't to make friends Cherisse, keep that in mind." The stallion trotted over towards Elusis, he straightened himself up a bit, had to look respectable to the troops, he cleared his throat before saying, "You ready for a fight? We've sure got one coming." Well that wasn't very assuring, he thought to himself.

[Dabom444]

Elusis's ear twitched at the sound of somepony adressing her. Turning her gaze she found it to be Obsidian, the Stallion who she was assigned to follow. Standing she nodded slowly before smiling slightly. "Oh yes......i am..." she said in a Adept tone. She shifted her hooves underneath herself as the sound of the cannons thundering overhead. She loved the thought of Earthborn being crushed under anything big enough to step upon it. The whole, Dehorning thing had quite honestly scared her. She had developed a scroll to to say....self destruct should she be close to capture.

Blinking she cleared her mind. She looked up and exhaled through her nostrels. "Although it will be fun hunting down whomever is left on the battlefield. New Ponyville is quite bountifull for us i imagine." She said acknowledging their task that was said at hoof.

She grunted a bit, she was rambling it seemed. "My appologies...where are my manners...." she said before placing her waving hoof down. "The name is Elusis.....I already know of you Commander Obsidian...If you will have me adress you as such. The contract had explained you in Very accurate detail." she said looking him up and down a bit.

"Im tasked as support for this mission....to give the Hoofsoldiers a Helping gesture....As i am under your command i will follow them to the letter....as long as i get paid by the house...." she said adding the last part underneath her breath.

With this being said and formalities given she heard the ground shake again. "Sounds like a Fun time......" She added.

[Shadowbolt0]

In the Earthborn camp, mechanics were still trying to make sure their larger, more dangerious weapons would still actually work, and not explode in their faces instead. A team of 3 mechanics sprinted into Brigade's tent, his team was meant to have been deployed, and yet he himself had never actually shown up. The 3 engineers ran into the room, armed only with spanners, to see something that made their open with fear.

Brigade, with blood on him, and the mare he'd been talking to the previous day wearing a terrifying mask.

One of them took a brave step towards her "G-gear? What happened?" he asked. All 3 of the stallions had previously hit on, and failed with 'Gear' in her time at the Earthborn forces.

[SunlightHeart]

Eclipse marched front and center with the shield legionnaires as he always did. Every couple of seconds a cannonball or explosive shell would slam against the magic barrier, causing ripples to propagate across its surface. With so many soldiers all maintaining the shield spell, the feedback from the attacks felt like little more than a pinch in to the back of the neck. The smell of blackpowder explosives and machine oil surrounded Eclipse. The theater of war was no longer strange to the unicorn, the familiarity of it all disturbed him to no end. Nopony should be comfortable in his situation, nopony should feel as "at home" as he did on a battlefield. A storm of rounds from the Earthborn's repeaters hammered away at the shield. Eclipse cursed under his breath, but was glad the shield was holding up. Luckily they had the Arcane Manipulator with them.

"You five!" Eclipse pointed at three legionnaires, an inquisitor, and the Idol's operator. "And you five as well," he yelled, pointing at the another group of similarly diverse troops. "Form up- prepare to take the Idols out- We'll breech the the middle line of field artillery! Hagane's already made a hole, lets capitalize on it!" He looked back at his remaining soldiers. He had 31 legionnaires left, 15 knights of Luna, 17 slave troopers, 13 seraphs, 7 Nightmares, and 23 marksmages. He'd lost a few ponies on the advance-- some barely old enough to be considered mares or stallions-- and he knew that latter tonight he' be writing letters of condolences to several families. But he couldn't let those thoughts weigh him down. Right now he had a job to do, and that was break through this artillery and get the ponies under his command home.

A massive blast rocked the group, tossing dusty and dirt high into the air. Smoke and wooden splintered obscured Eclipses vision of the battlefiled, but he could see their shield flickering. "Alright! It's time! Idols out! Knight's of Luna, on me! Seraphs, get out there and draw their fire until their pegasi show up! Nightmares, keep their heavies occupied! Marksmages, keep the Earborn off of the Idols and the Manipulator! Legionnaires, hang back, then move up as we thin their lines!" Eclipse barked out orders in rapid fire, ensuring everypony knew their places.

"GRACE AND VIGOR!" Eclipse chanted with all of his soul.

"SPELLS AND BLADES!" Roared the soldiers.

Eclipse telekinetically unsheathed his curved sword and his tower shield. He'd hoped that Hagane heard the call to arms. "YAAAAHHH!!!" Eclipse and his men charged through the smoke, bursting through like the cannonballs the Earthborn loved so much.

He could see that their Earthborn were already moving to fill in the hole that Hagane had made for them. Ponies at arms, juggernauts, and rangers , were present to meet their charge. Easy. Eclipse thought.

The commander spear headed the assault, crashing into a line of ponies- at- arms at full gallop. Eclipse released a fifteen foot surge of telekinetic force in front of him, forcing almost everypony save the juggernauts, to their stomachs, allowing his forces to get into the fray. Once everypony was engaged, Eclipse let himself go and embraced the moment. The purple eyed unicorn became a hurricane of steel and magic, swatting down any any foe who crossed his path.

One of earthborn's hoof soldiers dived at Eclipse head first in an attempt to impale the unicorn with the blade potruding from his helmet. The bladed horn met with the glossy painting of Luna's cutie mark on Eclipse's shield. Unamused by the attempt on attempt on his life, the unicorn deflected the blow, forcing his attacker's head down into the dirt. Seeing one of their fellow earth ponies in danger, another soldier rushed Eclipse to try and flank him, but Eclipse was ready. As soon as the earth pony tried to leap on him, Eclipse lashed out with both of his back hooves and landed a powerful buck square on the Earthborn's chest, knocking the wind from the pony. Eclipse called upon his special talent, shadow magic, to create a tendril of solid darkness and wrap it around the winded earthborn. The stallion writhed in the constructs grip as he panicked and bagged on the thing. Eclipse guided his creation to hurl the struggling earth pony into the one he had subdue not even a second ago.

A body sailed through the air, crashing into another with a loud clang. Both earthborn tried to untangle themselves from each others limbs, but it was fruitless. Before they made any progress, Eclipse descended on them, plunging his curved blade straight through body of their bodies. Bone and flesh gave way easily to the master-crafted weapon. Both stallions got to watch as their battle brother bled out, and breathed their last breath. The unicorn commander viciously ripped the blade from their torso and left the stallions to die in each others embrace.

Eclipse danced through the battlefield with the grace of the lunar princess herself, ducking, dodging, and blocking attacks while cleanly killing anypony who engaged him.

He slid his blood soaked sword out of another warm corpse and surveyed the battlefield. The Earthborn's mid-range artillery line was crumbling around him. He prepared to project his voice to give orders. "Everypony mop up We ha--" The commanders words were cut short when by a lasso that had found it's way around his hind leg and pulled him to the ground.

Eclipse tasted dirty for the first time that day. He shook his head and tried to clear the fuzz up, but it did little to help. The moment he had his bearing again, he was forced to act on pure instinct. A repeater was aimed right for him. The pony behind the gun smirked evilly before cranking the machine. Everything seemed to move a little slower to Eclipse as adrenaline flooded his system. Grabbing his blade in his magical grasp, he severed the rope on his hind legs then threw himself into a roll. He grabbed his tower shield off the ground with his forehooves and slammed it into the ground with all of his might. He tucked himself into a ball behind his shield for as much protection as possible.

The repeater let a hail of explosive rounds fly, each slamming into Eclipse's shield with almost as much force as a juggernaut. The force of the blasts tossed the unicorn's body flew out of the onslaught of deadly projectiles. Eclipse rolled head over hooves and eventually stopped. The stallion's smoking body lay in a heap. His armor was chars on the left side and his hood was burned. Cautiously, several rangers approached his body to confirm his death. A ranger mare put of hoof to his neck to check his pulse, the moment her hoof touched him his eyes shot open. Eclipse swung for her legs with his left. The sound the mare's snapping leg bone was drowned out by her shout of pain. "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME! NEVER AGAIN!" Eclipse yelled furiously.

The mare faceplanted in front of Eclipse, prompting him to rise up on his hind legs and brutally stomp in her head. The ranger's skull popped like a melon, sending bits of grey matter all over the place. "BUCK! Take him down!" One of the remaining two rangers said.

Eclipse snatched up his arms and got back into his stance. One of the ponies threw a smoke bomb and Eclipse, blinding him, but he remembered where they were and hadn't heard any hoofsteps from them. Before he lost his chance he leveled his horn and fired a concentrated telekinetic blast. Eclipse's ears received the crunch of bones as a report.

Another small burst of telekinesis cleared the smoke and revealed the last Ranger to him, another mare. She had her rope all ready to go. For a moment Eclipse and the mare just stared at each other. She made the first move, tossing he lasso with honed precision. Eclipse side stepped the roped and fired another short range telekinetic blast at the ranger. The mare dropped to her stomach and combat rolled away from the bone crushing attack whilst pulling in her rope. The length of hemp caught on Eclipse's armor, giving the ranger leverage that she gladly took advantage of by pulling hard, bringing the knight to his knees. Swift as lightning, the ranger was on him, trying to shove a dagger through the exposed parts on the neck of his armor. Eclipse snapped his head up, headbutting the mare. He took the small ground he had gained and struck with a right hook. At the same time the ranger threw a cracker-blinder to the ground, robbing them both of sight and hearing. Eclipse felt his hoof connect though, so he knew she'd be the more disorientated of the two after this.

"GAAAHHH!!!" Eclipse held his hooves over his eyes as the hyper stimulated organs normalized. From the sounds of things his opponent wasn't doing any better. His vision started to clear up and he could see the ranger mare still stumbling around in front of him. Unsteadily, he got back to his hooves and started to gallop at her. She stopped swaying and got her senses back, just in time to see a Unicorn shoulder tackled her at full speed. The two ponies slammed into an unused cannon, destroying the weapons wooden frame. Eclipse called his weapons back to him and raised both his shield and his sword over the mare's head. She was bloodied and bruised, just like him. Only difference was that he was conscious and she was not. He scanned the area. Marksmages and seraphs were taking down a juggernaut while knights and legionnaires were beating back resistance. He lowered his weapons, she was out of this fight and Moon and Star's forces had overtaken this position and pushed past the river. He'd hate to see her become a slave, but he didn't want to kill her when she wasn't a threat at all. He sighed and sheathed his sword and placed his shield on his back again.

Hagane was in the middle standing near the river waiting for Eclipse. The stallion trotted up to the assassin and greeted him. "Excellent work Hagane, I don't think this would've worked without you and your ponies." A small amount of blood dribbled down Eclipse's forehead and her wiped it away. "Now we push to New Ponyville and wipe out their gate defense."

[Shadowbolt0]

Lightning looked at the Pegasi behind her, waiting in Ponyville. There were 100 of them, all awaiting orders to enter the battle. She'd send a few scouts, and their group was to wait until M&S got close. Lightning looked fierce, nothing less. Her armor made her look almost like a lightning bolt, pure white, shining and very impressive. Suddently, a pegasi, injured, landed her to her. The stallion saluted her "M...ma'am, we've got problems! Several teams have broken past the main barrage, we need to take them out before they get in range of the cannons"

Lightning nodded her head "Thank you..Now, listen up!" she said loudly, adressing all the pegasi before her, including a pony she knew too well "We need to split up, take out several teams of M&S before they get too close. Segment Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, you've got a team on the south, near the moutain. Go!" in the instant, 40 Pegasi nodded their heads. They didn't dare deplot before the order, after all their commanders speach wasn't

"Echo, Helo, you are to head to the north, to the lake. I hear that the team of firespitters i asked to be put their have been slaughtered, and that the Earthborn reinforcements are being torn apart." she looked at Skyfire. The whole reason she was only sending 10 pegasi was because one of those 10 was Skyfire, and Skyfire was accountable for around 30 Pegasi on her own "The rest of you, we're heading straight into the fire, keep your heads low, blades tights and wings close. And if any of you die, i will personally come into the after life after this battle, drag you back into this world, and beat you till you die again....Now, let's show them fear! Take off, and let's give it too 'em" Lightning screamed, she knew her pegasi needed a good speech, she feared this year M&S would win, and the deciding factor would be her Pegasi. They couldn't fail, everything was on the line, and it was time for them to go to war!

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Noctrina had a huge smile on her face, watching Earthborn cannon's fire and tear M&S troops apart. This was battle, glorious, bloody battle! This is what she lived for, killed for, and would never die doing. She stood with only 24 ponies behind her, a very advanced team, they were good, some of the best even, and their army was on the way. She spotted a team, 40 Pegasi, flying towards a small team of M&S troops. One of the pegasi looked at her, but she just shook her head.

'Not yet! We need the M&S troops dead first, then we move in. This'll remove the chance of Unicorn intervention, promising a victory'

If you say so...just tell me when we can go' Noctrina said back to Midnight. The pair exsisted in a single body, so naturally, talking to your semingly alter ego wasn't crazy. Even if one of them was a complete pacafist, and the other was a full-blown psychopath.

'Now!' Midnight said to her, as the last M&S unicorn went down. Earthborn pegasi hadn't lost a single one, but they turned to see 25 Stormwing Pegasi rushing at them. Instantly, one of the Pegasi fled. The rest went at them.

Noctrina found herself in the sky with 4 of them. The first, a mare, tried to stab her simply with a blade. Noctrina raised her shield, easily blocking it, but what the pegasi didn't expect was the shield to break in half, the 2 'claws' going around the mare's neck, before clamping down with a sickening crunch as her neck was shattered.

Noctrina opened the shield, and used it's 2 claws to batter away another attack by 2 stallions, then something they didn't see coming happened. A Thunderer had fired a blot straight onto her claws, lightning them up and almost cooking the stallions who had their blades still connected to her own. She gave the Thunderer a nod of approval, before moving on. Another Pegasi tried to spear her, and again, her shield claws reformed into a whole shield, blocking it before she slided next to her. That's when the shield split again, and the claws went straight into the mare's forearms, forcing her to drop her weapon as she cried out in pain. Noctrina looked around, there weren't honestly that many left, about 10 of her Pegasi had been killed, but the Earthborn forces had only 10 of their original 39.

Noctrina flapped her wings, crashing the mare at the end of the weapon into the ground, crushing her wings. Her scream of pain was music to Noctrina's ears, as the most sickening smile came onto her face. "Tell me, is this worth it..your death?" she asked, before the mare spat at her. It missed, but it was clear what Noctrina was going to do. Her Claws stuck in the mare's shoulders, the middle of the shield over her neck. Slowly, a sword emerged from inside the shield, slowly descending towards her neck. The mare tried to move, begging to mercy as it slowly moved towards her neck.

"Tell me, how does it feel, to have your life slowly taken from you by overwhelming force, with no chance of getting out alive? You can probably feel your life leaving your body now!.....Tell me, who are you thinking off? Your mother, or your lover? YOU'RE PROBABLY SEEING CHILDHOOD MEMORIES FLASH BEFORE YOUR EYES, NOW DIE!" She screamed, the blade plunging into the mares neck, straight through the windpipe, as the blade came out, the mare couldn't breath. She looked at Noctrina with horror, she wasn't going to die like a warrior, she'd die because she couldn't breath.

Noctrina left the mare, taking back to the sky, quickly dispatching another Pegasi that came at her by shoving her shield's claws into his stomach, percing it and going into his heart. Eventually, the area was clear, just 16 pegasi, all of whom landed. Noctrina turned to them.

"This is a good start. Now we need to get into Ponyville, find any commanders and elimate them. But first, loot these bodies. We might as well take what we want" she said, sighing. It had been too fast, nothing fun, just pointless death. Shame they weren't any fun, she looked over at the battlefield, hoping there was a pony that actually would be fun to fight. Earthborn probably would think they were their Pegasi, so they wouldn't check, and M&S were having enough trouble getting past Earthborn cannon fire and their troops, at least, on this side.

[SunlightHeart]

In the Earthborn camp, mechanics were still trying to make sure their larger, more dangerious weapons would still actually work, and not explode in their faces instead. A team of 3 mechanics sprinted into Brigade's tent, his team was meant to have been deployed, and yet he himself had never actually shown up. The 3 engineers ran into the room, armed only with spanners, to see something that made their open with fear.

Brigade, with blood on him, and the mare he'd been talking to the previous day wearing a terrifying mask.

One of them took a brave step towards her "G-gear? What happened?" he asked. All 3 of the stallions had previously hit on, and failed with 'Gear' in her time at the Earthborn forces.

Phantasma's chuckle started out low and throaty, then slowly rose to the level that most of the ponies around her had heard, but this time she didn't even bother to stop herself and let it continue to raise until she was in full blown hysterics. The salmon mare turned to face them in a deliberately menacing fashion, making sure that they saw every detail of her body. "What happened?" she repeated, her voice much more antagonizing through the metal mask. Phantasma shrugged her shoulders and answered, "When he came, he went. A shank to the neck aid the process quite beautifully."

One of the other stallions managed to find his voice. "Gear, what are you saying? Did you... Did you, kill Brigade?"

The mare snapped at the repeated use of her name. Quicker than any of the stallions could register, she sent a thin poisonous needle sailing through the air. The deadly barb implanted itself into the skull of the pony who had just spoken. The stallion's body locked up instantly, then he started to shiver. His eyes became bloodshot from the bursting blood vessels. Less than a second after the needle hit his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell over dead.

"Don't. Ever. Call me. By. That. Name..." She drenched each word in as much venom as her poison needles. Phantasma pointed a hoof at Brigade's corpse. "Only he could call me that, HIM and HIM alone. He was a stallion among pigs... The Laughing Mare will send him to a happier place."

Realization dawned upon the two remaining stallions. "S***, Gear's with the freaking Cult we-" The stallion was shut up by two large daggers being thrust into his throat. Their blades pierced all the way through the flesh and were just starting to poke out from the back of his neck when she snatched them out. His body flopped to the floor, spilling blood all over the ground. Phantasma paid the mess no mind.

"Don't think I don't remember you..." She said as she stalked closer to the surviving stallion. "Sweet lips, tight rump..." she spat, mocking his voice. Phantasma walked past the stallion's face and ran her tail across his muzzle, the smells of sex still lingering on her body. "I see you everyday, with your wife and foal... playing the family stallion, but I also see you at night... acting like womanizing filth..." The mare moved her mask to the side just enough lick his face.

Using her tongue, she traced a path from his neck to the tip of his ear. Her prey shivered and gasped at the contact, but soon realized how big of a mistake opening his mouth had been. Three pills were shoved into his mouth and he quickly found a hoof massaging his neck, forcing him to swallow. Phantasma wrapped a foreleg around his neck and pulled him close while with down to his unmentionables with the other hoof. "Even now in your final moments, you find yourself being aroused... you pig. You're about to die and instead of thinking about your family, you're thinking about how good it'll feel inside of me." The stallion started to convulse violently in her grasp. "Shhh... don't fight it..." Phantasma whispered in his ear. Bloody foam poured from his mouth as the poison destroyed the his insides.

He went limp in her arms, but she felt nothing for him and let the body drop to the ground. "The Laughing Mare doesn't want trash in her blissful afterlife." Now it was time for the part that she liked the least-- mainly because it wasn't her style-- but still found some level of primal pleasure in. The fireworks outside had already started, might as well get them starting in the city as well. Phantasma ran out of the tent and jumped on top of it. She reached into her pouches and pulled out explosives, she cracked them against each other and everyone of them began ticking. "THE CIRCUS HAS FINALLY OPENED, LET THE MERRIMENT BEGIN, AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Phantasma cackled joyfully as she haphazardly hurled clusters of explosives around the tent barracks.

[Hundashter]

Skyfire was ready. She nodded at Lightning, giving her a small wink before gesturing to the other nine pegasi with her, then shot up into the air, her sword in her mouth. She could already begin to feel it vibrate as the sharpened horns inlaid around its edges began to adsorb the excess magical energy being released because of the battle. And with no focus being applied to it, the magic was was slowly building up inside the horns, causing them to vibrate at high speed. Soon enough, this blade could cut straight through just about any armor barring that of a Fortbuster war machine.

She banked hard to the left, coming close to the ground so as to gouge a line in the ground before doing a barrel roll and flying back into the front of her formation. They reached the river moments later, and Sky went into action. Tucking her wings into her body, she dove down at the oncoming troops like a speeding bullet, holding her blade at an angle and spinning, creating a drill effect as she suddenly plowed into a group of soldiers, tearing them to ribbons as she once again spread her wings and skidded to a stop, her blade halfway through a stallions chest.

Slashing her weapon from his dead corpse, she took to the sky once again, zigging and zagging over the Moon and Star forces, slashing and slicing away at them from above. Here, so close to the front, her blade met no resistance from their armor as her blade soaked up magic like a sponge. She did a barrel roll, cleaving a ponies head clean off before diving down to pounce upon a mare, severing her spine, then taking to the air once again. She didn't care how well the other pegasi were doing, she didn't care if the Earthborn forces were winning or loosing. She was having fun, and that was all that mattered.

[UnitP0N13]

Soul was about to shoot a witty remark back to his commander, his ear perked up: a blood curdling scream. He shot his head back around just in time to see both one of his own men being picked off by a pegasus, and to see another pegasus that was making beeline for both him and Eclipse.

Without saying another word, he shoved Eclipse out of harm's way and threw himself away from the commander, just in time to get nicked deeply in the shoulder. Rolling against the scarred ground, he rolled up onto his hooves, hoof already on the handle of his moon-katana, during which the offending pegasus had already looped around and dove in for another strike, are sword in her mouth humming with the blood of his fallen brothers and sisters. As she closed the distance between herself and Soul, the alchemist hiding literally within the realm of his shadow burst forth and narrowly dodging the vicious blade the tore his cloak and rendered it into useless cloth. This, however, caused her to be distracted, and in attempting to kill the alchemist along the way, had exposed he underbelly.

Wasting no time, and allowing none for her to remember who her real enemy was, he leaned away from her to avoid shattering his shoulder into her chestguard and drew the fully charged blade, cleaving the battle-lusting mare in two, splattering himself in her bisected viscera as he dashed passed, his blade already having been swept clean and sheathed within the blink of an eye.

"Go, Commander, hurry to the gate and breach it. My alchemists will be under your command, tell them to use the nitroglycerin to bombard that fragile gates! My assassins and I will stay the enemy here and now!"

He turned to the rest of the pegasi with crimson eyes full of hate. "Where they seek glory, they shall only find death."

[Shadowbolt0]

Down in the cave, Shadles looked at the Griffon mercs. He knew Obsidian didn't trust them, he'd overheard his conversation with Topaz and didn't blame him. The big brutes were all sitting together, chatting and occasionally bringing some Diamond Dogs to them too. It all seemed off to him, but then again, this was his first battle. Still, he went out searching for Obsidian. After 10 minutes of looking, he eventually found him chatting to another unicorn.

"S-sir, ummm, i don't mean to come in a bad time, but like, i overheard you talking about the griffons..T-they seems, well, suspicious. Li.." he stopped talking as he felt a hoof on the back of his mane

"Sorry captain, Shadle's has never been in battle before, it's probably just the pre-battle jitters, you know, nothing to be concerned with" Topaz said quickly, pulling Shadle's with her "I'll just take him for a little, talk, if that's ok"

[Travelaway]

Obsidian turned as he heard someone address him, he could tell it was Shadles before he even turned, poor kids voice was shaking. Shadles began to say something about the griffin mercs before Topaz moved over and apologized for having let the young stallion come over, then she tried to pull him away. "Now now Topaz, let the colt speak, I'd like to know what's on his mind, nothing unusual about having the jitters"

(Yeah I know I apologize for short posts too much, but I really am sorry for the shortness)

[Shadowbolt0]

"But sir, i..." Topaz let Shadles go, realizing this was one battle she couldn't win. Still, she shook her head, Shadles was new, scared. It would be dismissed as nothing.

Shadles himself took a step away from Topaz, something to him seemed wrong, but he was scared at his assumption.

"Well, sir, it's just, they seem to be planning something, and..well, it's just that, i don't know, i can't explain it, i just feel like something is wrong" he knew he wasn't making a good argument for his point, but he wasn't sure if it was just the pre-battle jitters, or something else.

[Travelaway]

Obsidian turned to glance back at the griffins conversing, then turned to look back at Shadles. "I know they are, unfortunately I've got a lot to prepare for and there's not much I can do at the moment except try to prepare for their betrayal, try to keep an eye on them for me if you can, but don't put yourself in danger, oh, and if you hear anything, report directly to me, and nopony else." He liked Shadles, he was a good kid, and seemed loyal.

[Shadowbolt0]

Shadles saluted him, a smile on his face, of all things. He felt, important, while he knew that it wasn't much. It was something, recognition. Recognition was as important in his house as money was, and if he became known in the army, he'd get somewhere.

"Yes sir, you can count on me, i promise" he said, walking off, trying to think how he'd be able to listen to them, without being caught by them. He opted to 'sleeping' not far from them, but his fear was that they'd find it suspicious. Still, it was a start for the recruit, he just needed to prove himself. But Shadles was being followed by a pair of eyes, glinting with ambition.

[Hundashter]

Twirling, spinning, diving, banking, twisting, slashing, cleaving, screaming, she loved it all. Skyfire attention was solely focused on the battle and bloodshed, her eyes flitting from one thing to another as they caught her attention, then chose the proper response to each thing and did that thing. usually, that thing was kill a pony, but sometimes it was avoid artillery fire, or dodge a magic attack, but generally those things lead into some form of killing a pony directly after the fact.

She had just had a glorious time bringing her sword through the side of a rather fancy adorned ponies face with a flourish, when she noticed a stallion with red eyes glaring at her with liquid hate. She smiled gleefully at him and giggled, waving a hoof at him before jetting off to slaughter more Moon and Star forces. She'd eventually have to deal with him, but she didn't care. He was probably important, but it didn't matter how important you were if your forces were in disarray, or if you didn't have any forces left to command.

[Cainiam]

Commandant Accipiter crested the mountain, flanked by a team of three eager and well equipped ponies on each side of him. He almost hadn't gotten wind of this attack on New Ponyville, but once he heard the name attached he set out right away. Noctrina. She was not getting New Ponyville under her belt. Such a trophy as the eternally contested town would see her name right up there next to Rainbow Dash's, and he was not going to let that happen for as long as he drew breath. He was around long before she was, doing Dash's dirty work, to show how loyal a follower he was, how great a soldier. He was her most loyal disciple. He deserved to be at her side, not this reject freak who didn't even turn out right. She didn't appreciate the true gift to Pegasi that was Rainbow Dash.

As they banked to reach the battlefield, a sight that made Accipter's already boiling blood hit the roof presented itself. Four Pegasi wearing Earthborn colours? Pegasi that shunned their saviour for what? Houses of mud and straw? The traitor's unit.They represented all that was wrong with Equestria today, and the Commandant would make them see their error. "Loose v-wing formation!" he called, signalling his guard to split up and ready themselves. "Ready arms!" The pegasi raised their spears, only just catching the attention of their targets who had been harassing Moon and Star. "Strike!" The formation went in, then came back out again the other side. The four traitorous pegasi plunging to the ground behind with bloody gouges, one crackling with electrical energy. Accipiter smiled, maybe it would be a good day.

Accipiter's group soared up to a group of pegasi plundering corpses, eyes searching for the tell-tale blink of Noctrina's shield, nasty Whitegold design. She didn't even wield Stormwing weaponry. It was a disgrace. Sure enough he spotted her quickly and directed his flight over, his guards mingling with the soldiers, but still standing out thanks to their ornate helmets. "Sergeant Major Noctrina!" he bellowed, eyes madly seeking her out and fixing on her. "I, Commandant Accipiter am officially taking control of this assault. You are not of the appropriate rank to command such an army, so I shall be orchestrating. You are to step down, and join the advance team immediately! All soldiers here are to report to me directly!" As he finished he smiled broadly, knowing that his rank entitled him to all soldiers present support and protection, but his guard reformed between the two ponies, just as a precaution.

[Shadowbolt0]

'Are you sure? I mean, i know teaching it would be dangerous, even..'

'Its what she created us for, surely you see it too. She created us to be one, but she messed up' Noctrina replied. To anyone looking at the batpony, she was sitting on the ground, eyes closed. What was actually happening in her mind was 2 ponies, who looked similar part from their eyes, chatting with eachother.

​'B-but, it's too dangerous, think about it, the stress on our mind' Midnight replied. She was the reason Noctrina was as good as a fighter, she planned everything, saw everything. Patterns, openings, weaknesses. She would tell Noctrina, who then used her knowledge of war to exploit that information.

Suddenly, they heard their name and Noctrina took over, looking at the newly arrived Pegasi with blood red eyes.

A frown came on her face instantly when she saw it was Accipiter. While offically higher ranked, the coward barely took to the field. At his orders, taking over HER assault force, she took several threatening step forward, but his guard got between her. Part of her wanted to butcher him, but she'd been ordered to avoid killing her own forces.

"Commandant Accipiter, i have orders from High Commander Rainbow Dash and Flight Officer Spitfire to lead My team anyway i wish, meaning you have no power with me or my troops. Besides, when i checked the mission record, you were ordered off this mission by Spitfire" A smirk on her face formed, she had no idea he'd been kicked out of the mission, but thankfully, Midnight in her head knew almost everything from the mission briefing. "Rally!" she ordered, where her remaining 16 Pegasi rallied behind her, looking rather intimidating. "See? Even with all your ranks spoon-feed to you, loyalty is earned through battle, spilling blood. My troops will remain with me, you can keep your toy warriors and play war" Noctrina would have been useless against him with her words, if she didn't have a secret weapon, Midnight. It wasn't hard to insult your enemy when you have a pony telling you what to say. To ensure he wouldn't try retort, she split her shield and her blade shot out of her shield.

[Cainiam]

Accipiter grinned broadly as he saw Noctrina's anger flare up. A typical bestial reaction from what barely rated as a pony. His guard's loyal interception probably preserved his life, but he had no care for that, that was their job. Noctrina wasn't a problem to deal with, he just had to take away her toys. When he stared into her eyes he saw a flash of another colour though... it seemed he might have a problem. When her response came it was fluid, well informed, and fully implicit. Accipiter's smile vanished to be replaced with a glare of annoyance. Noctrina had her imaginary friend helping her.

"I'll have you know that it was I who quit the mission!" he retorted "This location is unassailable, I told them that, and they went with it anyway. Worse, they gave you command. The only thing you know how to do is kill!" Accipiter stopped for a second to exhale heavily as he straightened up again. Unfortunately Noctrina took the chance to make a show of force. His own guard wavered a little as the other pegasi assembled opposite, but they held their ground, although more than one shot a pleading look at their Commandant.

"The only loyalty you know how to inspire is by killing all who question it," he spat acidly, but he held up a hoof to signal his guard to drop their weapons. "You may still have command on the field, but it is my right to attach myself as an advisor," he announced publicly before adding in a whisper, "You will not take this opportunity to steal Rainbow Dash from me." His guard backed up to behind him as he spread his wings. "As advisor I retain the right to issue orders in your absence, as long as they do not contradict orders from yourself. My guard and I will be reviewing your progress intently," he finished as he prepared to fly off.

[Shadowbolt0]

Noctrina's smirk was obvious, she'd, well, Midnight had, managed to completely defuse him. His glare replacing his smile gave her a sweet victory, one better then slaughtering dozens of ponies on a battlefield.

"Loyalty through threats? That's strange, if i recall, i managed to, one my first battle, lead a pegasi battlewing against a Everfree forest assault. I wasn't aware threatened or killed any of my own troops, not a single pegasi died in that attack if i recall" she loved using her 'first' battle as a weapon against ponies. It had been her first official deployment with her team, meaning that any pony who checked the records would think that they followed her in blindly. The truth, was too close to the truth. She'd been training with the team, scouting missions, raids. In over that, only 2 pegasi had died, both to M&S unicorn fire. However, over 2 dozen pegasi went missing during that time, all unofficial, and rumor's in their team circulated that she'd been the last to see them.

'He is right, and some of them were just silly!'

'It wasn't my fault, stupid idiot shouldn't have tried to hit on me'

'I was talking about the incident involving the taco'

'Oh, that wasn't my fault'

'You tore him in half for taking a bite of it!'

'Idiot should't have taken my food'

She turned her attention back to the pony in front of her, and victorious as how her 'commandant' had stood down. From her victories, this was in her top 10.

"So the only orders the troops will listen from you is if they don't contradict my own? You make this too easy for me" the mare turned to her troops "Then my newest order is simple: Follow the rest of my orders, and only my orders, for the remainder of this battle, even if i die" as she said her final words, she turned back to him, a huge grin on her face. He may be able to outsmart Noctrina, but outsmarting Midnight was a lot harder.

[SunlightHeart]

Those Earthborn pegasi were quickly becoming a pain in the ass. With every dive they took out scores of Eclipse's troops and with no dedicated anti air units, what momentum his forces had built up would be lost if he didn't act soon. Eclipse finished off a stray 'battle bucker', as the earthborn called them, before turning his attention back to the raging battlefield around him. He raised his hoof into the air and prepared to give orders, but before he could even get any words out another flight of pegasi swooped down from the skies. The commander was about to order his marksmages to take the squad down, but his gut told the experienced Knight to let the fliers accomplish whatever goal they had set out for.

The unicorn watched the new arrival plunge into the crowd, when each exited the fray, they had impaled an Earthborn pegasi. While Eclipse was thankful for the disturbance in the earth ponies' defensive, he saw that his saviors flew the colors of Stormwing. Meaning that this battle had just gotten much more complicated. If Rainbow Dash's forces were here, and they were not supporting Earthborn, then that meant the scarred mare was here to make her own claim at the town. This annual battle had just become a three way melee. Now, every bit of cloud cover was a potential artillery strike or ambush. The stallion whipped his silver mane out of his face and cursed to himself. He couldn't worry about Stormwing or else the assault would fall apart, but he couldn't just ignore this development.

"Sorry, Hagane, but we need to advance together. Stormwing is here, if we spread ourselves too thin we'll be picked off like worms," he shouted over the commotion. Eclipse smirked at the assassin. "Sorry, but no singular glory for you, at least not today."

Eclipse rushed through the carnage, shield bashing any Earthborn foolish enough to get in his away. Panting, he finally reached the front lines. "Marksmages! Watch the skies! Idols, knights, seraphs, legionnaires! Press onward. YAAAH!!!"

"YAAAH!!!" His troops rallied, redoubling their efforts to outfight the Earthborn.

However, Eclipse knew that Hagane likely wouldn't let this go. That mare had taunted the assassin, the challenge had been issued, so he decided to give his friend a little support. Eclipse's horn began to glow a brilliant yellow, in stark contrast to its usual near black purple aura. The stallion launched a bright yellow flare across the battlefield. The miniature sun landed in the middle of the Earthborn's ranks back near the bridge. Eclipse laughed to himself. Hagane is going to be pissed.

--------

Far across the field, near Moon and Star's camp a stallion saw the bright yellow signal. The unicorn operator looked behind him, the sunrise sure was beautiful this morning. He nodded to a pony sitting up on a wheeled weapons platform. The cannon operator nodded back. A target had been acquired.

The sun sure was beautiful this morning, and the Earthborn would soon get to appreciate the fact.

[UnitP0N13]

Though Eclipse believed that the artillery assault would irk the assassin, this couldn't have been have been farther from the truth. Why? Hagane was about to do something excitedly stupid as he saw the mare who taunted him seemingly confront some of her own kin.

"Sorry, Commander. Gotta go off-duty for a few moments, just write up a report of insubordination or something while I'm gone! Cheers!" He gave a salute to Eclipse as an assassin, decked in enchanted, plated armor with a few bottles of mysterious liquids attached, flew from Hagane's shadow and landed on his hooves with his greatsword out.

"Ready when you are, sir."

Hagane quickly hopped up onto the blade of the greatsword as was held out and over the underling's shoulder, parallel to his back, holding the crimson eyed unicorn up as his horn glowed. The underling imbued himself temporarily with the strength of an earth pony, and since it wouldn't last long, he swung blade up and over his shoulder with a frightening amount of leverage, sending the unicorn hurtling towards the two opposing groups of pegasi.

*****

Accipiter's rebuttal, what ever it would have been at that moment, was cut short as red splattered both Noctrina's and his own armor and fur. Even the guards stood in shock as crimson covered their coat, unaware of what had truly just hit them. Those that were alive, anyway.

Hagane soared just over the group, within killing range, going down the line and lopping off whatever he could with his katana, whipping red, flesh, and bone marrow into the air with their associated limbs. Down Noctrina's lane, four guards had been it, skipping a few to swipe at Accipiter's. The first had her neck cleanly torn through and disconnected from her shoulders. The second, though not in any mortal danger, as his ear had been lopped off and an eye cut in two at the surface. The third, waving his hooves pitifully at the air, plummeted to ground level as his left wing, no longer apart of him any more, fluttered after him like a heavy leaf. The fourth could only describe her pain through screeching as her lower mouth ceased to be, falling from her face like an angel falling from the heavens. And whatever color her fur was, it was quickly being painted by a large amount of red. As for Accipiter's guard, only one had been hit, but was doomed all the same. His head displayed a expertly cut brain after the blade slid past the bridge of his nose and sliced through his skull.

Though they may not had noticed in the panic might've that ensued afterwards, the new manes both Accipiter and Noctrina sported were dread and choppy, ranging from a slanted cut to a near stubble, but it was clearly that who ever struck was toying with the both of them by missing intentionally.

And whoever it was, he was staring at them with those blood red eyes as he let himself fall towards the war-torn ground beneath him, his cloak hugging his body, hood hiding his hair, grinning as he sheathed his cleaned katana, the glow of magic that had been around him now fading. It would be safe to assume that he used a moderate amount of magic to speed up his cleaving, and that wiping out all of them in one go wasn't his plan...for now.

[Cainiam]

Accipiter was about to leave when Noctrina decided to retort with something Accipiter knew was complete hogwash. He'd seen the propoganda, sure, but he knew Noctrina. She didn't do no casualties. Before he could say so though, she continued on with something that had Accipiter completely flabbergasted. The sheer gall of such an order. It was completely incredulous. He felt his temper flare again. "You petty bit-" he began to retort when a strong gust of wind blew past and the rest of his curse was lost... along with part of his already short mane. The hairs fell in front of him, and a blood splattered all over him, the thick crimson liquid matting down his fur while shrill screams filled his ears. When he established he wasn't dead he turned to the side in time to see part of his neighbour's skull slide from his head, dropping like a dead weight, quickly followed by the rest of him.

His eyes locked for a moment on his would-be assassin, meeting his crazed smirk with an expression of awe... then of anger. He would regret not taking Accipiter's head. "Spectre! Razor!" he barked... yet nopony moved. All of his guard were in shocked silence, standing stock still.

He cursed them before turning back to Noctrina, noticing her own guard had suffered a few casualties themselves. "You! Moon and Star are retaliating! Now we're fighting them and the Earthborn! Why would you launch an attack so early into their own offensive? The only feasible tactic would have been to wait until the two armies bled each other before we swept in and mopped up!" he bellowed. Almost dying had not improved his mood. "Fix. This. Mess."

With that said he turned back to look for the assassin, but he had already vanished. He glared at his own guard as they returned to the world of the living. "Guards. On me," he barked again before speeding away from Noctrina, and beyond the range of any more insane flying unicorns wielding very large swords, with his remaining five guards in tow. Noctrina had already curtailed his power. The best he could do now is observe from the safety of the clouds, and only intercede if a way to twist the tide in their favour presented itself. If it continued the way it was going, Noctrina would see their forces devastated. His mood began to improve as he pictured Noctrina reporting her failure to Rainbow. Not quite as satisfying as reporting a victory himself, but for now it seemed the only outcome possible.