Four score and seven years ago...

In God we trust

Chapter 1: Death Awaits in the Dark

Private William McCormick waited in silent vigil as the hot, humid wind blew into his face. His eyes locked onto the enemy position, waiting for them to make their last feeble attempt to attack. He knew this would end badly for the South, because the North had an obvious advantage over them. He looked to either side of him, seeing his fellow soldiers and officers wait anxiously as well.

"Sir, what are they planning on doing?" asked William.

"They're going to lead a charge, or so I suspect," his commanding officer replied, "look at the way they're lining up, it makes sense in a way."

He once again looked back into the field, seeing the gray uniformed solders slowly start to line up in an orderly fashion. William had the word "troubled" written all over his face, he could be seen sweating buckets full, and his uniform was much, much darker than the others. After all this was his first battle, he was fresh out of training camp, and he was directly sent in with the 107th New York Division right after.

"Is something the matter, Private?" his commanding officer asked, causing William to stiffen up.

"No sir, everything is fine, sir," he replied. The burden of this being his first battle weighed down his shoulders heavily, seeing his close friends dying in his own hands.

For the last three days, he's seen nothing but blood, death, and grime, and he reeked of it. He wiped some of the grime off that covered his face, and he tried to scrape the dried blood off of his uniform, managing only to get it in between his nails. He straightened his hat that rested upon his head, and he placed the rifle's butt on the ground right beside his feet.

William continued to look into the distance, seeing a mass of gray against the lush green field. Though he knew it wouldn't stay green for long, because soon it would turn blood red, like the rest of the once peaceful town of Gettysberg. He knew for certain that it would be littered with corpses of dead soldiers only in a matter of time.

His ears twitched, his body shuddered, and his legs clattered as he heard the cries of Confederate soldiers running towards him. He couldn't move.

"FIRE ARTILLERY!" He heard an officer announce, commencing the cannons to fire on the mass crowd of Confederates.

He couldn't hear anything; no orders being shouted, and no agonizing screaming of the Confederates being blown to pieces by cannon fire. The only thing loud enough to hear was the sound of rifles and cannons being shot right past him and into the field. Other than that the blood pumping through his ears blocked out most of the noise, preventing him from going deaf.

Any remnants of the huge gray mass finally made it to the front line of the Union Army, and it was as if a speeding train hit a brick wall. The blue mass collided with the gray mass on a full scale assault, neither side pushed each other anywhere, that fine line of where soldier meets soldier did not move.

"Sir? What do I do?" William asked, only to have someone tackle him from behind.

"Your life is gonna be mine boy!" The Confederate threatened, and pressed a knife to William's throat.

William struggled for his life, trying to get himself unpinned from the Confederate that was on top of him. He pulled out his sidearm and popped one directly into his heart, causing the Confederate soldier to cough up blood onto his uniform. William struggles to free himself from the dead soldier's grasp, managing to push him off of himself.

William slowly stood himself up, and grabbed his rifle that lay beside him, causing it to rattle and shake as he slung it over his shoulder. He placed a hand on his head, pressing down with enough firm pressure to keep his hat in place. The week's worth of training had all been for nothing, and by now the adrenaline was doing all the work.

Ht thought he was home free, because only a few yards away were his team mates, until he heard a distinct piercing noise. His legs started to automatically move back towards his friendly forces, until he stopped.

William looked down at his chest, and he put a hand to his side. It was warm and wet, and when he pulled his hand into view, it was a thick dark red color. He tried to keep moving his legs, but he could not go any further. His vision became very blurry, but he was still determined to make it back to safe grounds. William managed to take a few more steps before collapsing on the ground, dead.

Sergeant Major Timothy Douglas licked the sweat off of his lips. He slowly brought a looking glass to his left eye, extending it outwards so he could get better magnification with it. He looked through the scope for a brief moment before collapsing it, putting it back into his utility pack. He then grabbed his rifle and held it firmly in his hands, as if they were bolted to the very frame itself.

"What is General Lee up to?" He asked, everyone looked around, clueless.

"He's orderin' a full charge on the Yanks over yonder on Cemetary Hill." One responded, causing Tim's eyes to jump open.

"What in the sam hill? That's just mass suicide! Ain't no way we can cover three quarters of a mile without mass casualties!" Tim exclaimed.

"What's the plan Sarge?" One of his subordinates asked, not making the situation any better for himself.

"I guess th' only thing we can do, orders are orders."

"When is he going to signal the attack?" Another asked.

"Do you remember anything from camp, Private? When there's a signal, you'll know when it's a signal!" He was getting more infuriated by the minute. Having to deal with an obviously avoidable mass homicide and rookies that have no idea what they're doing, he didn't even know which was worse.

Tim took a water canteen from out of his backpack and quickly popped the cork lid, he then chugged down about half of his once full canteen. He then closed the lid and put it back into his utility belt.

Under the Army of Northern Virginia Timothy was here since the beginning of the war, coming straight from the military academy up north to come and fight for his home, which is down in the deep south in Mississippi. Though he was one not too fond of slavery, or states' rights, he could not, and would not raise a gun against his own family and friends.

As the adrenal glands started to pump adrenaline into his system, a roaring crowd of battle cries filled the air. Assuming it was the signal, Tim also started to run, along with his own scream to go with. He had his rifle in one hand, and his other hand held a hat sitting on his head in place, so it wouldn't blow away into th wind.

Tim had made it about half the way through the three quarter mile of field until he stopped to take cover behind a lone tree. He couldn't help but take a little break to regain his stamina,

Tim then heard a loud boom, that very disctinct sound that could never be forgotten. The one sound that has taken the lives of many, and wounded countless others. The giant lead ball hit the ground with an earth shaking force, and it sent Tim flying through the air, causing him to yell in surprise. When he hit the ground, it made a loud thud, he spurted up blood from his mouth before choking on his own blood.

Tim was dead.

Applejack was up early again to get started on her farm work, bucking apples to sell at the market. This time she went into her outermost orchard, because the farm was so big she couldn't harvest all of them in one go, so she had to divide it into sections. One day she would be working here, and the other day she would be working elsewhere.

She had already made a good start into it, about a quarter of the way done. She though she could have set a new record, but she wasn't in any rush. The sun just rose, and she had finally noticed how early she had woken up, unusually earlier than normal.

She trotted into the middle of the orchard, and bucked a tree. As expected the apples fell down into the baskets that were placed at the foot of the tree moments prior. Thugh something kept distracting her, she wasn't alone.

Her right ear twitched a little bit as she heard a tree rustle in the distance, and she aimed her curiosity into that general direction. She began to get suspicious as she heard more and more movement of the leaves, praying to Celestia it wasn't some sort of apple thief.

She had finally found the source of the disturbance, trying to get air back into her lungs as she took a small moment to breathe. She then looked up into the tree, and met face to face with Rainbow Dash, crashing down into her side. She braced for impact, making it not hurt as much as it could have, and luckily she was one of the toughest mares in town, almost nothing could bring her down. Except when Rainbow Dash surprise attacks her, always hating it when she did.

"Rainbow Dash! What are you doing here in mah farm this early in th' mornin'?" she said angrily, "I almost though you were a thief!"

"Aw chill out AJ! It was only a joke!" Rainbow laughed, "You have to admit I got you good!"

Applejack started to chuckle, "Yeah, I guess ya did."

She started to walk further into the orchard, continuing with her work and trying to forget her previous encounter with Rainbow Dash trying to jump scare her, only to meet with a faint moaning sound. As the curiosity got the better of her, she investigated, calling RD to her side as backup.

As she laid eyes on some sort of creature, she knew it had to have been hurt pretty badly, blood could be seen pooling from its abdomen. As the smell of iron filled the air, Applejack covered her nose, and looked to Rainbow Dash, who was just as confused and freakd out as she was.

"RD, go on and get Fluttershy for me please."