For ten years, Equestria and the Hives have fought a deadly struggle of survival. The Hives hunger for love and a source to harvest it from. The Equestrians just want to go back home. And now, after ten years, Equestria has pushed to the doorstep of the Hives' nests: a winding, narrow canyon by the name of Alkatin.
Army Group Center, exhausted after a long campaign into the Badlands, has seized control of a critical pass through Alkatin. Reinforcements are on their way to sustain the drive into the heart of the Hives and put an end to the war once and for all. But before they can get there, the ponies holding the pass will have to weather one more onslaught, one more counterattack by the Hives to throw them back out of the Badlands.
And at the center of it all are a group of strangers, drawn together from all across Equestria.
One way or another, the war will end today.
This story was a commission for PuppetXMaster.
Art by viwrastupr
Huh. What a neat AU. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Well, this looks interesting.
Count me in for this story!
This is a pretty interesting AU so far. And I really like that cover art.
my dreams are turning into reality, the story lives! ;-;
Is the cover art per chance inspired by storm light archive?
9433367
better to ask the artist, he was commissioned by a person intending to make a story, the guy made 3 chapters then left forever. I initially fell in love with this picture and thought up a story idea, I later found the source of the pic and saw the story in its sad state, so I commissioned a story based around the picture and here we are...but to answer your question I have no idea
Hm
Well, we got its attention. What the hell was step two?
Freaking awesome. You are an inspiration.
The story look interesting but I really don't like Twilight personality here.
You draw a clear picture of battle and the multiple points of view are a nice touch. Lots of carnage.
The only pony missing from the story is Pikie thought.
And it's about that point that I expect Chrysalis to unleash something on her ennemy to change the course of the battle. Like a spell, something that block all magic like her throne in the show or even a new type of bug that she kept in reserve near the hives of that she just finished developing. Like giant spiders or scorpions that could climb the wall of the canyon or enormous worm that could emerge from the ground in the middle of the army.
It would be Chrysalis style to keep something nasty in reserve like that or that it was all part of her plan to draw the Equestrian army to the Twins and have some kind of trap ready.
Surprised that since there are no Griffons in the army we don't see any Diamond Dogs or Young Dragons mercenaries trying to make a fortune.
Little surprised to see Sunset die in such a pointless way, but I suppose that's war and messy battles for you. It would have been easy to avoid that situation, but as they say hindsight is 20/20.
It was almost there...until it wasn't.
Aw man, I was really hoping they'd actually hit it off now. Epilogue?
You're my new favorite author. You write these implausible scenarios and make it believable, and more importantly, you do it with talent. You're subtle, you're talented, and you can do it often. I am trying now to make my own adventure story, and I look to this for inspiration.
I'm actually very sad to see that you killed off Sunset Shimmer. 😔😔😔😭😭😭
A calm moment after the storm. Destiny trying to connect the broken parts. Failing.
9519171
I hope not. Somehow I could see Chrysalis making a nigh raid when all believe they are past the worst of it. Or maybe she could unleash a new type of bug that she was keeping in reserve/development.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Good work with the kicking, best background pony.
Man, what a battle.
While this story certainly came to a satisfying conclusion, I'd love to see more of this universe. It's pretty sweet.
Plus, Sunset needs to come crawling out of the ravine.
So, Dust survived and did her job perfectly. This was a great story, love the action involved as well as the character interactions.
Ah, war. War never changes. (Sue me, it's appropriate here.)
Yo! I have had this pic saved for the longest time! So glad to see a fanfic on it!
This is great! Exactly how I imagined this battle would play out when I first saw the pic!
Just finished. This was great!