Big Mac walked through Stalliongrad's Mercy Hospital. There was some unexplained attack last night. The attacked said that ponies attacked them, but everyone of the victims remember that the ponies looked dead in some sorts, and that their eyes were purple. Another weird thing was that nopony was killed in the ordeal. Injuries spanned from simple broken bones to half of one pony's face being burned. Morale dropped even further down. Talk of deserting suddenly became a rather popular topic.

The only orders given from the princess were to fortify defences, nothing more. Big Mac didn't like the orders. If they stay in one place they will surely be surrounded by the attacking force. He wanted to see what the princess was planning. He walked up to the town hall where Celestia was staying. "May I have a word with the princess?" He asked the guard.

"Nopony's allowed to see the princess at this time." The guard returned.

"Well, I just want to know what are next orders are going to be, that's all."

"You will get your orders when the princess sends them." Big Mac didn't like the look of this. What was the princess hiding?

Suddenly a pegasus flew overhead, "Incoming wave of gryphons! Northern Gates!" Big Mac ran to reinforce the barricade. The group of ponies at the gates were extremely unorganised. Big Mac didn't see any officers present so he decided to take action.

"EVERYPONY LISTEN UP!" He boomed to the crowd. The mob snapped to attention immediately. "I need ten ponies holdin' the barricade! Fifteen ponies fixing pikes on the barricades! Everypony else arm yourselves with javelins and wait for my mark to shoot!" The crowd seemed to listen perfectly to Big Mac's orders. They had a decent defencive line up before the gryphons were over the hill. Everybody braced for the eminent impact of the gryphons and buffalo. The battering ram of buffalo hit first but the barricade seemed to hold, some of the bodies of buffalo seemed to add to the barricade as well. The gryphons then began to swarm from the skies.

"MARK!" Big Mac yelled. A giant volley of spears then hit the swarm of gryphons head on, chopping down most of the strike force in the first few seconds. The attackers noticed all the losses they were stacking up and began a retreat. Some ponies began to leave their posts to follow them. "Wait!" Big Mac yelled. "Hold your positions! More will come!" And just as Big Mac had predicted a fresh wave of gryphons and buffalo came over the hill.

Then another pegasus flew over to the gate. "A BUFFALO WAVE! WEST GATE!"

Big Mac yelled up at the messenger. "HOW MANY TROOPS WE GOT AT THE WEST GATE?!"

"ABOUT HALF AS MANY AS HERE!"

"STAY IN LINE! KEEP FORMATION!" Big Mac yelled at the group. He then ran to the west gate. The messenger seemed to read Big Mac's mind for most of the ponies were already in a similar formation of that the North Gate. He organised the rest of the wandering ponies into an efficient wall of wood and pony. The buffalo hit this gate more ferociously than before. Something seemed to catch Big Mac's eye this time around though. The buffalo eyes, they were different. They seemed to be purple, similar to the reported ponies that attacked last night. He didn't pay much mind to the ordeal for long, some ponies got injured in this volley. He ordered a few ponies to bring them to the hospital and to bring back any able ponies to strengthen the barricades.

"What's the update on their forces?" Big Mac yelled to the messenger.

"Hold on." He said before flying above the clouds. He flew down with a terrified look on his face. "They seem to be flying above us! I think they're gonna drop down and attack us from behind!"

Big Mac thought for a moment. "Rally all the ponies heading for the gates. Tell them that they're now gonna be our reinforcements. I want you to fly around and look for where the gryphons land and tell our boys where to find them and to kill 'em."

"Yes Sir!" The messenger said with a salute. That was odd for Big Mac, nopony ever saluted him before. He felt good giving out those orders. A hoof was then placed on Big Mac's shoulder.

"What do you think you are doing soldier?" An officer said.

"I was just helping! No one else was around so I decided to organise these troops."

The officer pointed to two ponies in the barricade. "You two! Escort this insubordinate to the town hall!"

"What!?" Big Mac yelled at the officer.

"You stepped out of line and took authority into your own hands! For that you must pay!"

"But we're a battle! You can't just pull people off and send them to jail!"

"Get this runt out of my sights, soldiers!"

The two ponies that the officer ordered looked at each other and said, "No!"

"What!? You have one more chance to take him to the town hall or you all will be all be hung for insubordination!" One of the ponies then hit the officer over the head and knocked him out of conciseness.

"What was that for!" Big Mac yelled, surprised.

"Sorry. I had to shut him up, he was going to throw you in a cell!"

Big Mac hesitated, "Uh, thanks. Anyways, back to the battle. It looks like they're retreating." The enemy forces were pulling back by this time. The ponies held their positions for an entire hour before relaxing. They weren't sure what to expect.

Big Mac had just started to eat when he was approached by three ponies in Royal Guard armor and the officer that was knocked out in his name. "That's the pony." The officer said, "Take him to the town hall." Big Mac didn't resist, he knew that there were more than just those four ponies watching him and he didn't want to hurt anypony, without reason at least. The guards put hoof-cuffs on Big Mac and headed off to the town hall for Big Mac's trial.

When they reached the town hall the officer turned to Big Mac, pulled out a scroll, and began to state the reason he was there. "Macintosh Apple, you are hereby charged with insubordination, attempt of mutiny, and assault of an officer. How do you plea?"

Big Mac looked at the ponies around him and then at the ground. "Guilty." He knew there was no way out of this situation, so he decided to get this over with.

"Smart pony." The officer said, he then looked at the guards again. "Throw him in a cell. By this time tomorrow he and his goons will be at the end of a rope." He was thrown in a cell with the two other ponies that helped him earlier. One looked over at him with a guilty look.

"Sorry for all this." He said at the ground. "It's just, you didn't deserve that. You lead us great, and he was gonna arrest you for that. It just somethin' I thought was right at the moment..."

"I don't blame ya." Big Mac said, even though he did in a sense. "Ya did what ya thought was right, an' I can't blame ya fer that."

"Thanks." The pony forced a weak smile.

The morning finally came as the officer walked over to the cell, an extremely annoyed expression on his face. He opened the cell door. "You're free." He said in an subtlely enraged voice. Big Mac was going to mock him but decided not to on the fact that he seemed angry enough.

"All of us?" One of the other ponies asked.

"Yes." The officer said, gritting his teeth.

"What for?"

The officer bit his lip, then went on to say, "A pardon from Celestia. It seems that Mr Apple's actions redeemed him. Now, if you could come with me, Mr Apple." He barely managed to say under the pressure of containing himself. He and Big Mac then headed to where Celestia was staying. They both saluted to her when she looked in their direction.

"At ease, gentlemen." She said. "You are most likely wondering why you are here, are you not?" Big Mac nodded. "Your actions on the field, they were rather impressive for a simple farmer."

"Well, I, just...uh, thanks."

"You have showed  great controll even when my best have coward in fear." She looked at the officer with disapointment. "Why, if you weren't to make the order to deal with the gryphon drops we surely would have been overrun. For that I would like to promote you, giving you complete control of an entire squadrant of troops." Big Mac looked very surprised. An entire squad of troops, all looking up to him.

The officer jumped up, "This is CRAZY! He has no experience what-so-ever in comanding others!"

"Silence, Comander! I make the decisions around here and I say he deserves the control he is recieving."

The officer sat back down, "Sorry. Excuse my words, but I found reason to object that."

"Excused. Now Macintosh Apple, do you accept this promotion?"

Big Mac thought for a moment. "I surely will!"

"Great! Report to the armory, you need some more suiting atire for your new role." Big Mac happily trotted to the armory, victorious in more ones than one.

The officer looked at Celestia again. "How could you let a farm-colt gain control of an enitre squadrant of troops? He could get them all killed!"

"I am aware of that possible outcome."

"Then may I ask why you did such?"

"It's simple. The only command we have was made so before anypony even met their commanders. They do not know their leaders personally, they do not know who they are. To them you are all faceless ponies sending them to their graves. But this pony, he was fighting with them. They know his story, they know he is just a simple farm-colt. So if he can make it to the rank of Commander, what's saying they can't? In the end morale will increase, and who knows? Maybe we will get more acts of bravery. This could only aid us in our quest, so why object to it?"

"You are correct, this was a good idea. Sorry for any objections I made earlier." He saluted and left the town hall. Celestia then began to look over the plans again. If she read the information correctly then Silver Claw's forces should return in the next few days. Untill then, they shall wait.

===================

In Silver Claw's tent, he and Discord were "auguring" over their battle plan.

"I just don't understand why we can't simply head for Canterlot! Once we secure their only fortess the rest of Equestria will surely fall." Sliver Claw explained.

"This is more than just capturing key objectives and calling it a day! To win this war we must CRUSH their towns, their armies, their bodies, AND their spirits. They must believe that they have no way of winning. What better way to prove that than to destroy Celestia herself?"

"I just don't see why we must spend so many resources on capturing this one town."

"Simply put: If we leave to head for Canterlot, they will see it as though they have sucessfully deflected our forces and WON a battle! For this to end quickly we must make sure that they never recieve a SINGLE victory. We MUST crush every aspect of they morale." Discord was tired of explaining the simple to an "all-powerful" ruler. He then teleported back to his refuge in the Everfree Forest. He sat down on his throne and began to think.

He thoughts were mainly about what had set him free? He pondered for hours. He was clearly frozen in stone, augmented none the less, there was no way he could have set himself free, even if he really tried. Someone had helped him, and they didn't care for the thanks he would have surely given them. Who were they and what were their motives. He couldn't think of anybody gaining anything through this but himself. This question would take more than just his mind to fully understand. Countless senerios passed through his head on what was meant for his release, but none of them made sense. The only thing he could conclude was that he was set free entirely by mistake. And he was fine with that.

===================

Day's passed waiting for the return of Silver Claw's return. There was suspicion lingering in the air. There was plenty of time to move out, yet the army still sat in Stalliongrad. Most soldiers were conviced that Silver Claw moved out to attack other parts of Equestria and many deserted. The once strong defences were now whittled down to almost nothing. Big Mac repeatedly request that they move out to get more troops, but the princess was firm on the idea of staying. She kept saying that this was all part of a plan too intricate for him to understand. Big Mac was very frustrated. He knew that he didn't know much about warfare but he knew that the more time they spent behind these walls the more weaker they get. A fever was already spreading, any longer and they would see more troops dying from disease than fighting.

Then the day finally came. Silver Claw's forces were atop the hill once again. Something was very different about them, but nopony could tell what from all the way at the bottom of the hill. The entire town was quite. Nobody moved on either side. Celestia's forces, bracing for the inevitable charge; Silver Claw's forces, surveying the field.

There was no signal of any kind, yet all of Silver Claw's forces seemed to charge at once. Then everypony saw it, the purple smoke. Not a single body in the attacking force was truely alive. They were all reanimated corpses from earlier battles. Ponies and gryphons alike ran towards the town. What was left of the defencive wall ran. Just ran. They didn't know where they were going to go but they ran. The awesome sight of hundreds, maybe thousands of animals charging them was too much for even a hardened veteran. In mere minutes the town walls were breached, there was nopony to man the defences. Soon the streets were flooded with brutal slaughtering much like the very first battle, only this time the attackers wanted to kill.

Big Mac moved what was left of his squadrant into the south-west corner of the town where the hospital was. He thought that at least he would have access to medical suplies if he needed it. Also the fact that there were only two entrances to the plaza provided a much needed bottleneck to Silver Claw, or whoever's forces. He had only twenty-five men left that were able to fight. He put ten at each barricade and used the remaining five to reinforce which ever barricade would fall first. After roughly an hour of carnge in the streets, the main chunk of the attackers began to smash the defences. It was safe to say that they would have been over-run had it not been for the tight quarters.

Big Mac knew that it would only be a matter of time before the barricades fell. He knew the enitre city was lost. The only idea he could come up with other than fighting to the death was to hop the wall. It was surely a stupid idea, but it definately beat sucumbing to whatever it was that was attacking us. He sent the five "reinforcers" to make something that would aid them in their escape. The five ran into the hospital for whatever suplies they could find. In the end they decided to make some make-shift stairs. When the "stairs" were complete Big Mac decided that they would need a distraction to slow the enemy forces. He set fire to the barricades and the surounding buildings and finally made the retreat.

Unfortunatly the stairs collapsed while the last few ponies were climbing out. It was only him and 20 other ponies that made it out of the hospital district. He was hoped that more than just what he and his troops had gotten out, but by the looks of the situation it didn't seem likely.

He was approached by a scrawny, blue pony. "Here's the names of the soldiers who died back there, ya'know, for remeberin' them an' all."

"Thanks." Big Mac barely managed to say, being clouded by some emotion. He couldn't tell if it was anger, sorrow, or something else. It all seemed to make him sick no matter what. He looked back at the burning town. Fire engulphed the whole thing. He knew that fire couldn't spread THAT quickly. Maybe others had gotten out. He felt a tiny drop of hope as he walked away from the burning battle field.

================

Discord watched with ferocious anger. His ENTIRE corrupted army was in there! Months of collecting the dead and planning was wasted. How could he have been so foolish. Of course it was a trap! No one in their right mind would sit in a walled in town for days on end, waiting to be attacked. But he saw light of the situation in two ways. He now knew that Celestia wasn't rusty after all this time, AND she was out of an enitre army. At least he still had his gryphons. He then ordered Sliver Claw to move out his troops. Next stop: Canterlot. Next Chapter: The New Equestrian Republic Estimated time remaining: 10 Minutes