Chapter 36: The Final Battle
An hour earlier in the swiftly excavated trenches near the city of Seaddle. Shadow Hunter and Night Hawk prepared Firebolt's soldiers while Thunderwing prepared the equestrian and his own troops.
Ten minutes later Thunderwing gave the command to attack and two ponies stepped out of the trenches. Both of them wore heavy full-body armor and a strange looking machine was attached to each of their flanks; the machines were rectangular and had an opening in each end. The changelings opened fire with their bows while the two ponies stepped towards the enemy lines. In a distance of about thirty meters to the Equestrian line they stopped, rammed their hind legs into the ground and leaned a bit forward as if they prepared the arrival of the enemy ground forces.
"In position." Both of them said calmly in the knowledge that those primitive weapons wouldn't pierce their armor. The other fifteen of Firebolt's soldiers prepared for their deployment and were ready to charge at the enemy lines.
"Fire!" Shadow answered and went with Night Hawk towards the rest of her comrades.
"Roger that." The two confirmed and the machines began to hum; only a second later they opened fire. The missiles, which were the size of a normal pony's leg, left the machines with such a force that almost caused the two ponies to go down. The missiles flew towards the enemy lines, but as they hit the soft ground, they simply got stuck and nothing happened. The two ponies fired missile by missile, but it didn't seem as if they cause any damage which made the changelings laugh at them.
Suddenly the machines stopped humming and made a clicking noise instead. "Out of ammo." They reported and detached the machines from their bodies.
"Is the charge on its place?" Shadow asked.
"Confirmed."
"Prepare for the detonation!" she yelled and the two ponies hit the dirt. "5 – 4 –" The mare yelled those numbers as loud as she could so that every pony could hear them; even the changelings heard her, but they thought that she counted down in order to tell her troops when to attack.
"3 - 2 – 1 – TAKE COVER!" Shadow yelled and the missiles exploded which covered the enemy trenches in a deadly firestorm; the loud noise forced the ponies to cover their ears. Dirt and body parts were launched into the air; some of them flew to the Equestrian line and landed between the warriors. A few younger warriors from Nordheim got scared as a shredded body landed in front of their hooves.
"Get ready! - " the mare yelled as she saw that the flames began to perish. " – CHAAARGE!"
The nineteen heavy armored ponies jumped up and charged at the enemy's line; the resistance was almost gone, only a few arrows flew towards them, but most of the enemies were dead or retreated. Soon they arrived at the enemy trench and jumped in; five changelings awaited them, but as they saw their enemies they retreated as well.
"Stop and we'll spare you!" Shadow yelled and raised her right front hoof. She gave the changelings a few seconds to stop, but as they didn't she aimed and shot. The bullet left the small firearm which was attached to her hoof and flew towards the changeling in the back of the small group; it hit his head and the projectile pierced it. The bullet left the changeling's head through his right eye and sprayed his brain at the others before it hit one of the other's back; the changeling crashed into the ground and remained there while the others continued retreating. The mare stepped towards the wounded creature, "I told you to stop." She put her hoof at his throat. "You had your chance." The blade shot out of her boot and pierced the changeling's neck.
"Catch up!" she ordered after one of the soldiers had reported that the trench was secured. Immediately the army of Equestria and Nordheim began to move.
"Protect the flanks and speed up a bit – We can't wait every few minutes until you decide to catch up!" the mare yelled while Thunderwing stepped towards her. "Remember that we're only the distraction, so slow down a bit." He reminded her.
"The plans have changed!" Shadow shot back. "We'll finish them off! – Here and now!"
"But –"
"Just follow my orders!" she cut him off and turned towards her comrades. "Next attack in three minutes, it doesn't matter whether they're ready or not."
"You heard her!" Thunderwing yelled after turning towards his army. "So hurry up!"
A few minutes later the nineteen heavy armored ponies were ready for their next fight and waited at Shadow's command. Their armors were covered with a thin layer of dust and a few of them had splashes of green blood on it. "Get ready!" The mare yelled and the ponies stood up. She stepped out of the trench and straight to the enemy line. In a distance of fifty meters she stopped and the changelings opened fire at her. The armored alicorn raised its hoof and aimed at one of them. "Surrender and we'll spare your lives!" she said, but the changelings still shot arrow after arrow.
She activated the micro which was integrated into her helmet; she didn't say anything but the others could hear the noise the arrows made as they were reflected by her helmet. Minutes passed and nothing happened, but suddenly she lowered her hoof and approached the changelings. The mare entered the enemy trench and was immediately attacked by them, but their attacks didn't cause any harm to her. Unimpressed she walked along the trench until she found what she searched for, the changeling who seemed to be an officer.
"Surrender and we'll spare your lives." She repeated in a calm tone while raising her hoof again.
"No way!" the changeling answered.
Shadow shook her head slightly and shot. The bullet pierced his body lengthwise and left it close to his butthole and sprayed blood upon the changelings who stood behind him. His heart was still intact which allowed him to realize that his decision was wrong; he believed that his queen would save him and his troops, but now he knew that she wouldn't come and help. Panting he lay on the ground losing a lot of blood and the mare stepped closer to him. "You had your chance, but -" She said while kneeling down; by this time the changelings had stopped attacking her. "Get ready." She ordered her troops without letting the changeling officer know it.
"- you still can save your troops lives." Shadow waited a few moments, but she didn't get any response. She looked at him and recognized that he had passed away. Slowly she stood up and asked for a second in command, but there was none. "What a pity for you!" She smirked behind her helmet.
"What's up? When should we attack?" one of the soldiers asked.
"Now." The mare answered coldly and began to attack the remaining changelings; one after another became a victim of her blade. Soon she met the others who had fought their way towards her and together they pushed back the changelings for about fifteen minutes. But suddenly their push was stopped as they spotted a huge firestorm at the horizon roughly where they suspected the Hive. Even as the troops of Equestria and Nordheim stopped fighting the changelings didn't gain the mastery.
"Stop fighting!" The dark blue alicorn yelled as it saw that the changelings fell back. "Capture them instead!"
One changeling after another was captured by the allied forces. The firestorm grew in size until it perished as fast as it had appeared. The warriors charged deeper into the enemy territory until they reached a formerly grassy landscape, but all the grass was burned, even the few trees were burned and burned-out changeling shells laid everywhere; sometimes they found a living enemy, but most of them were dead.
Soon the troops entered an area whose surface was covered by a thin layer of glass which made a cracking noise whenever the ponies took a step. Some of the Equestrian warriors got wounded as they stepped into the broken bits of glass because some of them had lost their horseshoes during the war.
"Send Shining Armor over here!" Thunderwing yelled as the eleventh pony stepped into a shard of glass. Shortly after the white unicorn stallion who was wearing the armor of the Captain of the Royal Canterlot guard which was in a purple color with golden borders teleported besides him.
"Good that you're here." The king said before Shining Armor got the chance to say anything. "I want you and your troops to go back to Seaddle and guard the prisoners."
"What?!" the stallion shouted out. "Why?"
"Your troops aren't well equipped and due to this we had a few casualties. – They were wounded because they haven't got any horseshoes. And I really don't want that your troops to get hurt when they aren't fighting." The alicorn explained in a calm tone, "Please don't misunderstand me, your troops fought well, but it won't help us if they get hurt because of such a small thing."
"Well…" the unicorn answered while breaking the glass beneath him with his hooves, "Maybe you're right. They fought long enough and they really need a break."
"Then we'll meet again after our return to Seaddle." Thunderwing said and stepped back to his troops. "Be careful when we're marching on!" he said a stern tone. "This terrain seems to be more dangerous than we thought and we lost our Equestrian allies."
The murmur began as he mentioned that their allies were gone. The warriors saw that the Equestrians were marching back to the city and they were afraid that their allies had betrayed them.
"Lacking of good enough equipment they can't continue with us and I sent them back to Seaddle!" The king explained and the murmur stopped.
While the Equestrians were on their way back the army of Nordheim moved on carefully and the closer they came to the center of the firestorm the thicker the layer of glass became. Soon the glass was thick enough to carry their weight and the chance of getting hurt was nearly eliminated. They carried on and the warriors got closer and closer to the center where they found the burned-out ruin of the Hive.
"Search for survivors!" The dark blue alicorn ordered and about twenty ponies entered the still smoking ruin. They searched for about ten minutes, but there was no sign of any living pony and so they returned to their leader. "We couldn't find any survivors." An earth pony whose coat was in an ocher color reported.
"Did you search for the mortal remains of Firestorm?" he asked.
"Not in this short period of time."
"Go for it."
"We're on our way!" The earth pony answered and the twenty warriors went back into the ruin and searched again. Thunderwing ordered a few more ponies into the ruin to help the others, but they found nothing else than a few burned-out shells of some changelings who had the luck to be inside the Hive during the firestorm. Finally after about half an hour the pony went again to his king, but this time it seemed as if it didn't want to deliver him the news that their search was unsuccessful. The pony stepped hesitantly towards the king; its ears hang down as well as its head. "I-I'm sorry, my lord." The pony began. "We couldn't find anything else than those shells." The pony pointed at the pile of changeling-shells the other ponies had made. "T-There's no sign of your brother."
"Nothing?" the stallion asked while raising an eyebrow and the pony shook its head. "That could be good."
The optimism of its king confused the pony, but it made the pony calm down a bit before it returned to its comrades.
"Did your warriors find anything?" Shadow asked after she had appeared behind Thunderwing.
"No." he answered calmly, "Did your scouts find anypony in the area around?"
"No, but where could they be?"
"I have no idea. –" The stallion said in a sincere tone. "But we should go back, maybe they're there."
"Why should they be in Seaddle?" the mare asked incredulously. "- They must be somewhere around here!"
"My warriors searched for them, but found no pony."
"They must be here! - Search again!" she yelled, but no pony listened to her.
"Calm down." Thunderwing tried unsuccessfully to sooth her. "I promise you that I will send a few ponies to continue the search, but now we have to go back, the upcoming night will make it impossible for us to go on."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." He said and turned towards his warriors. "We'll march back to Seaddle and continue the search tomorrow!"
The ponies spread out and called for their comrades. A few minutes later they were ready to march back; the warriors formed a marching column and Thunderwing took his place in front of the column. "Forward march!" he yelled and the army began to move.