May 7th, 1422 E.F
Is this thing working? Yup, I’m seeing my words appear as I think on the page. So the spell is working again. Well, this is it. The day we’ve been both dreading and anticipating. I’m currently flying to my post right now and getting into position. Everypony is armed and ready. It’s time. The invasion is coming soon. One of the Wonderbolts scouted out in the ocean and spotted something big heading this way yesterday.
Once the call went out, we all got up fully armed and ready. For the past few weeks we’ve done nothing but practice, drill, and pray that we were ready for whatever it was that was going to come our way. I’m now practically able to hit a shot at 130 yards with my rifle so I feel ready to take a few human heads when they land. Thundershot gets his machine gun ready while I aim down the beach. We’re about just at the border of the beach and the city, a new location for us that the General decided to change. Hay, there have been a lot of changes. We’re to be there to cover our fellow troops should we need to retreat further into the city to fall back for our next defense point. There are so many of them that I forget how many, but I’m thinking of just running to cover the first sign of the signal hits.
It's amazing how different the beach is now compared to what it was months ago. It’s going to take a lot of ships and firepower for those humans to land. Not only do we have proper machine gun nests and artillery ready to fire, but we finally managed to get the ships in. Our new proud navy stands ready to charge forth against the invaders with its new ships made similar in the design of the US Navy’s famous ships. Granted, it's a few decades behind version but what matters is the spirit of the crew not the vessel. Or at least that’s what one of the sailors told me at the bar we were at last week.
The entire beach and city is deadly quiet to the point where I can hear my sweat dripping down my neck and onto the ground. A thick fog has most of the ocean covered so we can’t see that well, but the Wonderbolts are already planning to fix that with some weather maneuvers. A few ponies near me are praying to the princesses. I kinda want to join in, but I’m holding my tongue. Still getting used to my new beliefs and all. Seeing the Princesses as not goddesses is kinda weird, but I still believe in them. They represent everything about Equestria that’s great. Their kind hearts. Wisdom. And courage even in the face of overwhelming odds.
Ewww. Some of the others are throwing up. I guess the intensity is getting to them. I know it’s bothering me. Alright, close your eyes, Halberd. Think about what you are fighting for. Think about your family. The princesses. And all the soldiers you knew since this war started. I open my eyes and gaze over to Thundershot who's giving me a smirk and a wink. Just like that I feel my courage return thanks to that cute smile. Gritting my teeth, I huff with my heart ready for action.
It’s time to show these humans who really know how to fight.
Out of the top of my eye, I spot the Wonderbolts flying above, preparing to clear the fog. I can spot the rainbow colors of Rainbow Dash flying by as some soldiers cheer for them. With a whirlwind like maneuver the Wonderbolts start clearing the fog and I can see...see.
...
...Oh my Equestria...oh my Equestria!
WHAT THE ACTUAL BUCK?!
I feel my gun slip out of my hooves and I’m sure I’m not the only one. The silence of the beach is no longer one of tension but of utter fear. I’m shaking my head from left to right just to make sure I am really seeing this, but I cannot deny it.
The ships...there are so many ships! So big and so long that they could fit a stadium! Legions of them are lined up in rows upon rows that seem endless. Stretching out so far they have to be beyond the gaze of the city. Each of them dark and black like knights of the old days coming to raid upon a village.
And they’re floating.
Floating above the water! Heading right at us with incredible speeds!
Where did the humans-GAH! My ears! What were those booms! I swear my ears are pounding against my skull!
What caused the-Holy Celesita?! Explosions are everywhere! The beach is being torn up from all directions! Those booms must have been the ships cannons but they’re so far away1 How is that possible?! I feel my mouth drop as my ears pick up the sounds of panic screams and dying cries of my fellow soldiers. Each explosion only brings more cries to the growing number of yells and howls. Sand is shooting into the air by forty feet I think, but that’s not the only thing I’m seeing. Are those limbs?! Oh goddess, they are! Heads and arms and tails and entire torso! Oh heaven, I’m going to be sick! The entire beach is...it’s covered in blood...so much blood you can drown in it. I think some are!
Our hills, bunkers, and defense lines are getting smashed into pieces! It’s like a dragon burning down a wooden home! We tested those things against our very own guns! How is this possible?! Soldiers are running or flying around in panic for cover as they are obliterated in mass and I don’t know what to do. I’m seeing our Navy sally forth, but I don’t know if they can reach the ships in time and-WHAT?!
I...I don’t know what I just saw! What am I seeing?! The ships are already on fire and exploding?! Did the humans ship hit them all ready?! What the hay happened?!
Someone is crying out that they see something in the water. I don’t see anything...wait! There I see it and...is it a sea monster?! No...No it’s another ship! It’s a bunch of ships coming out of the water! Submarines! The humans call them submarines!
Just as black as their floating companions, only much shorter and bulkier. Yet, just as deadly as I see them opening their hulls as smoke rises from them. Rockets. They’re firing rockets that come down upon the rest of our ships.
I can’t help but look and I wish I didn’t. Our beautiful navy...it's all ruined. Not a single ship has managed to fire back and already they’re crippled beyond repair. We haven’t even fired a single shot and already they’ve destroyed a good portion of our defenses. Was everything for nothing?!.
I can see machine gun fire being shot from the sides of the submarines into the air as the various Pegasi divisions and Wonderbolts come under fire. It’s not just mists of red I see on the ground I see them in the air as well.
I’m looking at this mare pegasus above me. White as snow with a yellow mane holding a rocket launcher. The bullets go right through her body like paper and she falls down. She falls. Falls. I can see her blood trailing above her corpse. Like a dead bird she falls flat on her face five feet from my cover position. Her body is smoking as the flesh burns from wounds I’ve only ever seen in flame like rounds. This is hotter though. I’ve heard rumors, but to see it first hand. Plasma rounds. Real live plasma rounds. I see dozens of other pegasi who fall dead like flying fish piling up around us.
It’s only been at most twenty minutes and already our starting defenses are done for.
Celestia.
What evil has been unleashed on us?
I only now realize that Thundershot is shouting at me to move. I can hear the retreat whistle and it sounds like the horn of Elysium to me. Never before have I ever felt happier to hear a retreat call. Wait, no, that’s not the whistle. That’s something else...it’s...oh no. I know that sound. I feel fear crawl over me as I hear that sound. The numerous times I had to look up and take for cover while trying to survive the jungles of Sri Lanka.
I look up and I feel my heart sink into my chest. Bombers. Planes. So many they cover the entire sky.
I shout air raid and to take cover AND GAAAAAH! PAIN! PAIN!!!!!! MY BACK! OH GODDESSES MY BACK IS ON FIRE! BUCK!
BUCK! STOP IT! STOP THIS! MOMMY! MOMMY! STOP! STOP! PLEASE STOP IT! THE PAIN! THE PAIN! THUNDERSHOT HELP ME!
Am I dying?! Oh, Princess I am dying aren’t I?! I don’t want to die! I REALLY DON’T! I JUST WANT TO GO HOME! OH GODDESS!
I’m crying, I’m crying and I am just shaking without end! It hurts so much! I’m...I’m being picked up...who...can’t tell! Can’t stop screaming! IT HURTS IT FUCKING HURTS!
More sounds of aircraft! More death! Death is here! Death has come! The humans are here to kill us all! Oh, Equestria we’re all going to die! We’re going to die!
Bombs are falling everywhere! Everything is torn to pieces! Fire and death! Death everywhere! Even the sky's on fire! Is this the end of the world?! Or am I in Tartarus already?!
I hear my name. I hear my name! Who is calling for me?! Princess Luna?! Princess Cadence?! Th...Thundeshot...Thundershot! He has me!
He tells me to hold on. He tells me it will be okay. How can it be okay?! We’re all going to die!
I...I can’t...I...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Pain...
Where...
...I don’t...
...
...
...
...voices...Thundershot...
...what is going...
...
...
...I’m...I’m alive? Wait...no I’m dead...all I see is darkness...no wait, I am alive. I can feel my back still hurting, but not as bad as before...oh goddess the pain. But I’m alive. By the grace of whatever powers there are I am alive. I feel like I’m half dead though. My eyes are so heavy. My back is killing me as well as my flank.Water...I need water!
Somepony must have heard me because I feel a cooling drink go down my lips. Finally, my eyes are opening...a nurse...unicorn...white with pink mane...she tells me to sleep...sleep...sounds good...
***
May 7th, 1422 E.F
I’m writing normally again. The spell went off when I went unconscious a second time. It’s been...two days since the invasion started. Two days...and everything has gone to the crapper. The humans have taken over half the city already, but we’re fighting to keep every territory we have with what forces we have remaining.
A good number of them were killed in the early strikes. The humans didn’t even start landing and putting their troops out until the second day. From what I hear they’re wearing armor that is heavy, durable, and can somehow use shields. Magic shields. Fucking traitors must have helped them create it. Create the tools that kill their own people. Damn them. Damn Lyra Heartstrings and her rebels. That’s not all. The humans are wielding guns that are firing lasers like that of a unicorn horn. Some are so powerful they vaporize your entire body until your ashes.
I haven’t seen any of this since I’ve been stuck recovering from my...injuries...
...I’m wingless.
My wings are...gone...they had to take them off to save my life..I’m crippled. A pegasi without wings...
I remember crying for hours when they told me. For a pegasus to lose their wings...
I...I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
I think I’m done writing...
-Corporal Halberd Wings, 139th Arial Spear Regiment, 2nd Platoon
***
May 8th, 1422 E.F
More wounded are being brought in, but thankfully Thundershot isn’t among them. Not that I know if he is alive or not. I asked about him, but the nurse said he had to be sent back out to defend the city. I don’t know if my special somebody is alive or not, but deep down I know he is. I just wish he was with me right now or at least I was there fighting by his side.
Still, I worry more and more with each hour. It seems pointless to hold this city, especially when the humans keep showing up with more ways to kill us. They got flying machines, drones I think, flying around with mini-machine guns and shooting at us from above before retreating. We’ve lost numerous high ranking officers to the point that ponies are being promoted like baby rabbits being born.
They got grenades that can stick to the surface of whatever they hit. Even ponies. One pony swore he saw his commander get one in the crotch before it exploded and took five other guys with him. What a way to go am I right?
The worst has to be the tanks. The tanks fire lasers even bigger than the human’s normal guns while also shooting flaming plasma. Entire streets are melting from the heat to the point where you can smell it from here.
Word is spreading that we’re going to retreat soon, but we need something to cover us as we retreat. I don’t know what but...
One sec. One of the nurses wants to tell me something.
-Corporal Halberd Wings, 139th Arial Spear Regiment, 2nd Platoon
***
Thundershot’s dead.
-Corporal Halberd Wings, 139th Arial Spear Regiment, 2nd Platoon
***
Buck the date. Buck this war. buck humanity. BUCKYOUBUCKYOUBUCKYOUBUCKYOU!
***
Thundershot’s dead. I...I can’t...
***
We’re leaving the city. Rainbow Dash had survived. The only Wonderbolt to do so. Did a Sonic Rainboom and gave us enough time to leave via Emergency Teleportation. Everypony is hailing her as a hero, but there are no heroes in war except for the dead. Like Thundershot.
Why?
Why couldn't we have died together?
***
I’m in Ponyville with hundreds of thousands of others. All from other cities.
Every one of them has fallen.
Some surrendered without a fight.
Some fought to the end.
Some were wiped out completely.
They’re coming. Humanity is coming and surrounding us at all sides.
I’ve lost my wings. I’ve lost Thundershot.
I won’t lose my home.
I refuse. I’d rather die.
I’ll kill them.
I’ll bucking kill them all.
Even if I die I’ll take them all with me.
Their cities will burn. Their woman will suffer. Their children butchered. I will see them enslaved, mutilated, and suffer every sin their race deserves since they first learned to crawl. I will tear down their gods and statues. Every bit of their history, culture, and civilization I will see wiped from the face of the earth. I will send them to the fires of whatever hell exists before I piss on their ashes. I will never surrender to them.
They took him away from me. My Thundershot. My love.
They took my wings away. The very essence of being a pegasus.
I will not let them take my home. I will not let them take Equestria because its all I have left.
I’ll kill them all.
We will kill them all.
Or we all die as one.
We will never surrender.
-Halberd Wings
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
The ponies fucked around and found out
And private useless got his wings clipped but is still under the delusion that the ponies are gonna do anything but die in burning piles ?oh well you can lead a horse to the gallows but you can't make him learn great chapter
Wow. Definitely getting intense. They just didn't realize how good humanity is at coming up with really effective ways to kill everything.
10398110
I hope he survive, and see Celestia being executed in TV.
-Russians took an army of tanks and rushed Objective 🅱️
-The trees aren’t safe, they started speaking Vietnamese
-New diseases and wildlife plagued the Equestrians. Indonesians and Australians had the idea to ferry invasive species from their homes into Equestria.
-Japanese are wearing futuristic Samurai-like armor
-Koreans are playing K-Pop non-stop on speakers to annoy Equestrians
-Hairy Bare-chested Armenians with only their fists have captured the remnants of the Equestrian Navy and took a division’s worth of tanks
-Canadians sent Get Well letters to wounded Equestrians followed by bags of gummy dicks.
-Army of French men in suits. HON HON HONs filled the air.
-Germans have made a land battleship as well as a submarine that can swim on land.
-Saudis sent all their fancy toys first and lost them all in one day.
-WAVE AFTER WAVE OF CHINESE SOLDIERS
-Celestia gets scammed on the phone by Indians
-“The fly now?” “They fly now.” Polish soldiers in armor have wings.
-The typical American invasion. A McDonald’s has opened up in occupied territory.
No dear private useless... It is ponies who are getting some serious KARMA here...
I wonder how crazy he goes when the oh-so-holy Canterlot falls and Sun-tyrant is given over to human custody by Twilight in Negotiations?
Unless he is moved quickly, being in Ponyville will be a fiery death.
Top 10 things said moments before disaster.
Guess he joins rainbow and applejack after negotiations are over
Thanks for watching this episode of The Great Equestrian Turkey Shoot! Tune in next time where we'll be watching more ponies burn to death in the Ponyville Firebombing!
God we're gonna be seeing Halberd commit war crimes now aren't we?
I’m starting to wonder if this is going to be a situation like Japan, where it took the threat of their entire country being wiped out by nuclear weapons for them to surrender. Because it showed that suicidal vigor meant nothing against such power. If we had done it any other way the war would have been much longer and far more bloody. For this story it doesn’t necessarily even have to be a nuclear weapon, considering the advancements humanity has made. MOAB 2.0 anyone?
10398316
Never thought I'd see the day when b52s and
Tu-95s might be on the same side those poor doomed ponies
Going to be one helluva turn when he ends up in a pow camp, expecting to get the bullet and starts seeing pony soldiers on teh human side.
"Now, at the end do you understand!"
It's really sobering to see just how complete the Equestrian forces have misunderstood both humanity and themselves. Going into the conflict believing such a narrow definition of good and evil, that the outcome is inevitable without any introspection even as they switch to outdated human equipment and tactics, to falling so easily into the behavior they decried in ourselves.
After all, when you gaze into the abyss, sometimes the abyss gazes back. It seems the Equestrians blinked first.
You know, just so everyone can fully understand just how fully f***ed the ponies are, allow me to explain beyond obvious reasons why:
Simply put, it boils down to society and history. The ponies are peaceful bordering on pacifistic, most of the time, with magic available to each pony type, in their own way. To paraphrase Mordin Solus from ME2:
To put it bluntly, the ponies actively avoid conflict, preventing advancement in just about every technological field (weapons, defenses, etc.) with exception to medicine. Even transportation is limited because they still have pony drawn vehicles, and that's limited in advancement precisely because of the fact it's ponies doing it, and not being automated. I.E.: There are enough to actively fight any kind of automation outside of mass transit. That all of them seem to be Earth ponies, simply reduces the need for it, as they're shown to be extremely strong and have high endurance, physically speaking, so why would they need automated transit, and lack of conflict also removes any need to give them any kind of protection beyond the basics.
Humanity, on the other hand? There's been notable conflicts throughout out our history, once a century I believe. Each one leading to, if not new technologies, new weapons and defenses using existing tech. Said advancement in these fields lead to a need to improve medicine. Wars made for conquest lead to more land being taken, leading to the need for better logistics - ways to move material and protect it, in land, sea, and air. All of this just ends up being self-fulfilling prophecies
Improved weapons lead to improved defenses to protect and improved medicine to heal; improved defenses and medicine lead to more effective conquest, leading to the need for improved logistics. For the defenders to have a chance, they need to improve weapons. Repeat and switch sides as needed.
I'm heavily simplifying here, admittedly, but the point of it is that the ponies being peace lovers with magic that are capable of who knows what, leading to near no challenge, don't stand a chance against literally any kind of civilization that has a history of warfare as extensive - or near as extensive - as ours. The damned second ponies joined with humans in TCB, it was an inevitability that humanity would find a way to wield, if not replicate magic, nullifying the one thing ponies had as an advantage.
Now that I think of it he said the made ships based of an old famous US ship where they making iowas? Or hell maybe they tried fighting us with copies of Olympia
That's a bit unconventional way for submarines to fight surface ships.
Why hasn't it went the way of Dresden by that time?
10398642
Dude...
Write a book, or a fic...
Instead of wasting such talent on commenting.
I wonder how many nations still have their legendary weapons. And now all of them are working together. Kinda scary, like Eurofighters, F-15s and SU-35s and J-10's flying together. B-1s, B-52s and TU-160s setting equestria on fire. The Abrams rolling with T-14s. Kinda makes me feel good.
I wonder what would be the best fate for him... I feel like if he just took Applejack/Rainbow's path, his actions would probably just be like theirs...
Much more fun fates for him I could think of.
Yes! Bravo! Excellent work!
This chapter was definitely worth the wait! I’m really anxious to see what happens next!
Oh, just for kicks, I read the invasion segment while listening to “Klendathu Drop” from the Starship Troopers soundtrack and was surprised by how great the two go together.
UPDATE:
10398122 I'm torn, honestly. On the one hand, I would love to see this fic end with him experiencing that. On the other, given the last line of this chapter, I think this fic is going with him killing himself after hearing Twilight gave Celestia over to humanity, effectively spelling Equestria's surrender.
Once he calms down from his anger, I wonder if him, a pegasus, losing his wings will lead to a revelation that that's what the ponies were doing to the humans with the conversion centres.
10398665
That's... how subs have worked. For decades. They usually have both torpedoes and missiles, and the torpedoes would most likely go through the enemy ship's hulls before exploding. As such launching missiles is the best option, hell there are also missiles that launch torpedoes from them!
If I'm reading this correctly, Corporal Wings (Irony) was in an overwatch position to cover his friend ponies that were down on the beach...
On the beach...
oN tHE bEAch...
No fucking wonder that general betrayed Celestia, whoever decided to put any forces on the beach was an idiot with stupidity of unmitigated magnitude. Beaches are slaughter pits. (We learned that from WW2 on both the European/D-day front and in the Pacific).
Good story, I want more.
Prediction: Given the whole mentioning of a heat in the last chapter, I think Wings is going to find out she is pregnant and is going to be discharged. I was really hoping she would die in the fighting, she really seemed like she wanted to - why deny her the honorable death in combat she so desires?Apparently Wings is a dude, oops. At least I'm not the only one that came away with that impression.And the long-awaited chapter arrives. And... well, that happened. Pretty much what was expected when a mid-20th century army of rookies plays OPFOR to mid-21st century veterans. Unlike what Halberd says, several decades do make a notable difference in human warfare. Turns out, the UN has been keeping up with the Joneses, and pretty much realized what was happening, which is why it decided to just go full force on the Equestrian army.
The ships are interesting; there seems to be GEV (Ground Effect Vehicle) technology in place. We have GEV in the form of hovercraft and other vehicles, but none so cost-effective for capital ships. I'm guessing that another 20 years of tech - and the help of magic - makes all the difference.
The use of magitech in human weaponry is also terrifying. While Lyra and Moondancer may have helped with the basics, I'm guessing a lot of it is human ingenuity. Whereas the ponies, who've had magic for milennia, have little more than magic armor and weapons. Makes me wonder how bad it would have been had humans gotten magic before the war.
My main gripe is the weird naval tactics, and/or that Halberd Wings has some amazing vision; modern ships can fire from miles away, compared to WW2 ships whose range was limited to thousands of yards. If he could see those ships, he really could have used some professional sniper/spotter training. I'm guessing the poor tactics was just the local UN commander deciding to show off his muscle as a "shock and awe" strike. If he were to try that against a competent, well-equipped OPFOR, he'd have had some embarrassing losses.
I can also imagine a bit of vengeance involved if it was an American admiral in charge; imagine growing up on tales of the Yorktown and the Iowa and worshiping men like Nimitz, only to see some goddamned human-enslaving ponies creating mockeries of those beloved ships (and then not even using them right)! It would hurt to destroy replicas of the ships they love so much, but it would be justified. The ponies are using USN ships when the USN excelled at fire control (hitting accurately) and damage control (fixing your own ship quickly), while the ponies have had zero skill with either (and not much chance to study them beforehand).
At this point I'm wondering how AJ in Useless said they never imagined the humans would get that far. Then again, maybe she was talking about pre-invasion, so Ponyville was never really properly prepared. Minor nitpick, moving on.
...Sigh Oh Halberd. Poor, poor Halberd.
At this point he's clearly lost his mind with grief and loss, and is very much in denial. He should know by now that there's no real way for the Equestrians to win the war at this point. By losing their magic advantage, they lost initiative, and fighting the human way plays right into human hands. Ponies have always won by deus ex machina, and this time they're not getting one. Halberd either is going to end up in a POW camp and learn that everything he fought for and lost in the war was meaningless, or he'll join the EFF and become as monstrous as Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
Still, it heavily underlines the hypocrisy of the whole war. The ponies claimed the humans were monstrous, but when they were pushed to the line, the ponies proved just as monstrous deep down.
A few questions for the writer; will we see what happened to the nobility? Of the Royal family three (Luna, Cadence, and Flurry Heart) are dead, Prince Consort Shining Armor is also dead, Celestia will end in a coma and then wake up in time for a war crimes trial and subsequent execution, and Twilight effectively abdicates. What happens to Blueblood, Fancy Pants, and the other Canterlot elites?
Also, a disturbing nag I'm having, from going back to the original "Negotiations" (emphasis mine):
Does that mean Flurry Heart survived the initial blast only to die later of burns and radiation? Shit, that's depressing and horrifying as hell.
10398665
I'd say less Dresden and more Stalingrad. The city was burned down to rubble in months of fighting, and still there were survivors fighting among the ruins to the bitter end even as more reinforcements came in for both sides. Here, it's possibly a combination of a lucky/skilled Pony commander lucking out with a few surviving units in fortunate defensive terrain against Allied troops with "end of war" attitude - nobody wants to be the last guy killed in the conflict, especially with the war now turning into a one-sided stomping. Nobody wants to get a Purple Heart or a Ponification potion to the face if they have a good chance of surviving the war now, so they'll be more careful as they go in.
Even Dresden wasn't as total as you might think - far from it. The Nazis claimed the bombing killed 200,000 civilians - later 500,000! - but official postwar numbers put it at 22,700-25,000 deaths. Out of a prewar population of 642,000 people. 100,000 to 200,000 refugees were escaping the fires en masse even as the Allies were bombing the city.
10399032
Quite possibly. Having everything he fight for rendered pointless will pretty much break what's left of his mind and will.
10399109
That's my hope too. A realization that everything he and the ponies suffered in the latter stages of the war, the humans suffered more in the earlier stages. In a way, that's a crueler punishment; breaking one's ideals and hopes and leaving them alive is far more brutal than just killing them.
10399137
Again, we're talking about ponies who are fighting in a completely unfamiliar way with (for them) brand new technology. It's like WW1 all over again; the tech outpaces the tactics and strategy, making a mockery of all you knew before, and the soldiers in the field suffer immensely for it. For example, in 1914 it was acceptable to put artillery on top of or in front of a hill because otherwise it obscured your vision. Later on, they stuck to keeping the artillery behind hills to save it from counterbattery fire.
Celestia showed an immense aversion to using human technology until she was practically forced to because magic no longer works. How likely is she to pull out a basic human strategy book and read up on "evil human ways"?
By contrast, the UN picked up its history books, looked at the chapters for Gallipoli, Saipan, Dieppe, and Normandy and went "You know, we have much more accurate and deadly munitions this time around, and we have all these aircraft/drone carriers and cruise missile launchers. Why not reduce the beach and the city to rubble before we land the troops?"
10399137
If she is pregnant, and she doesn’t wind up being killed along with the rest of Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s rebels, I imagine the final chapters of the story will be about her having to cope with Living among humans and watching her foal interact with human children.
10399226
Wait, isn't Halberd Wings a stallion? When did he get a magical sex change?
10399242
I was always under the impression that Wings was a mare. And if there was a part from an earlier chapter involving her experiencing the effects of a minor heat, that would only confirm it.
10399248
Wings is male
10399248
He mentions his dislike for human religions outlawing homosexuality back in Chapter one:
He also mentions adoption in the second chapter, so he and Thundershot can't get pregnant:
He mentions the "in heat" bit when he was talking about how some of the troops took advantage of the newfoals, who couldn't say no:
Granted, as Anthony Doyle pointed out, the newfoals couldn't have foals of their own due to a flaw in the potion, so being in heat was ultimately a baseless concern - though it still is technically rape, since the newfoals are incapable of saying "no".
EDIT:
Halberd also clearly mentions his attraction to Thundershot in a way that shows his gender:
10399114
If we're talking about submarine-launched cruise missiles vs torpedoes against ships then, well, it's not exactly how they worked: submarine surfaces, launches missiles from far away and then dives again before thankful recepient is able to give something back --- rockets tend to carry less boom, but their advantage is that they're fast, fly far and allow one to keep ones own ass further away from main action (idea behind that rocket-torpedo hybrid you've mentioned becomes quite obvious after taking that into account). Surfacing in enemy's direct view is crazy: submarine is hard to get when underwater, but makes a really bad surface ship.
Isn't that a good thing?
10399212
Well, 2 days is closer to Dresden.
I.e. more bombs? Although, look at that from officer's perspective: last chance to get promotion!
10399303
I meant in one side out the other, but you make a good point.
10399280
Ah, thanks for clearing that up!
No, seriously, thanks for making that clear to me. I can’t believe I missed that!
10399303
Well, it depends on when the sub surfaces. Turns out, facing a ship directly, a sub has a very slim profile, making it very hard to hit even with a full broadside. Of course, it's an incredibly risky maneuver, but in WW1 and WW2 ships had been trained to fire cannons at other surface ships, so a sub can just surface at very close range, blast the surface ship with a few shots, maybe even kill it if it's lucky, then pop back into the water and quietly slink away after it did the damage.
Today, of course, it's suicide. Smart navies train their crews in ASW, and have escort ships just for that. Though bear in mind, we're still talking about ponies with zero skill in WW2 style naval combat, let alone 21st century naval combat.
.........
You know, if you think about it. If all of humanities armies and navies joined togeather and attacked an island nation around the size of Great Britain with everything they had.....just imagining the sight alone is both Awe-inspiring and terrifying beyond magnitude.
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I stand corrected. Apologies but It was late and I read it fast.
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Could probably remove a fair bit of beach with all that firepower, even.
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I wouldnt be surprised if they did.
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That is the major flaw with the Equestrians. Most If not all are completely blinded by their ignorance, arrogance, and hubris. Before they met humanity, themselves unbeatable, after facing and defeating their called villains and so forth. So when they clashed with Humanity, it was a cold and harsh slap into reality.
Their defeat in the war was an utter wakeup call to them. That they weren't invincible and not everything is colored in black-and-white. Only it cost them so many lives and more to finally learn this lesson.
The Human-Pony War, Essentially, bust their protective bubble and now the ponies have no choice but to finally grow up as a race.
i don't like equestria in this Fic, not in the sense that it's terribly written, but in the sense that it's written good enough for me to hate it as a nation, i feel no sadness for them, they kind of got what they deserved ngl.
i feel bad for Halberd though, even though he technically represents what every other equestrian thinks, I can't help but feel bad for the guy while knowing he got what he deserved, he's likeable enough that i felt sad when he both lost his wings and Thundershot, I genuinely said "Aw damn man" when i read the sentence about Thundershot XD. i like this so far, its good, the Grammer may be terrible, but it's good.
I will read lucky number 7 when it is finished which I eagerly await!
At this point, Halberd is turning into Celestia. He knows that Equestria is done for but he can't accept it. For the past year he was always saying how they will be able to defeat humans, and yet time and time again they failed. This invasion was the last chance ponies had to stop humanity, and they got rekt. And he knows this. But after everything he went through, he can't believe it. So he is calming himself down by saying he will single-handedly destroy humans and that ponies will never surrender. This kind of thinking is gonna get him killed, and the only way I see him survive is if he gets severely injured and has to spent the rest of the war in a medical bed.
Halberd Wings is going to get the big slap when Twilight surrenders. I get the feeling He will join The Resistance.
Humans: "We've eradicated your military and crushed your leadership. It's time for your unconditional surrender."
We will never surrender.
-Halberd Wings
Humans: "So be it."
I almost forgot a nice piece to accompany this chapter:
Yeah, there's no surviving a rush of laser tanks. I've played enough Command & Conquer and Supreme Commander to know that. And I spy a future terrorist.
Well sonny boy, do I have interesting news for you.