Per Mare, Per Equestria

It took the camp roughly half an hour to pack up all the necessary equipment and move out, instantly followed by a two hour quick march. The first hour was quite easy, all on roads and the monotony being broken up by various songs, many of which seemed to have parallels to ones we sang back on earth while training. I made a mental note to tell Jenkins of the various new songs we would have to learn and make dirtier.

The second half of the march however was much more similar to how we marched on earth, everybody keeping quiet as we moved off the roads, advancing across rough terrain as we moved closer to our objective. In a way, the military here seemed to be a mixture between modern and 14th century armies back on earth, with proper ranking structures being supported by antiquated battle tactics, and only time would tell which one they were more similar to in actual battle. I hoped it was the former, but I had a sinking feeling that they were going to prove to be the latter.

Eventually we came to a halt, the Highlanders being the last to enter the clearing where the ponies from the other regiments were already preparing, some sharpening their weapons while others helped to set up the few catapults that the strike force had brought with them. I resisted the urge to slip back into wishing we had some real weapons with us, squatting down with the rest of my newly acquired squad to go through final battle prep.

“You never did tell me what that thing was,” Nara pointed to my rifle as I checked the feed. “You said that the pistol thingy was like a more advanced crossbow, is that the same?”

“Pretty much yes,” I nodded, checking the safety was on before holding it out for Nara and the others to see. “Crossbows work on tension to propel a bolt at high speeds at a target. This uses a substance called gunpowder to propel a small piece of metal called a bullet at much higher speeds. Like I said earlier, same principle, much more advanced.”

“Maybe,” Nara shrugged, checking her own arrows. “I’ll reserve judgement until after I’ve seen it in use. Until then, I’ll use my bow.”

“You know you’ve got to be one of the only soldiers in the Equestrian army who can actually use a typical bow and arrow,” I pointed out.

“Only one,” Nara corrected with a slight smirk, her beak somehow allowing her to make such a face.

“That we know of,” Firefly corrected her.

“Do you want to try and use the bow again?” Nara smirked. “Because I’ll let you, Sarge, right after you grow fingers.”

“Maybe our new Major will show you how to do it properly?” Castelian chuckled, before grabbing his sword in his mouth and giving it a few practice swings. “Whff ooo ay aayor?”

“I say that holding a sword in your mouth is a really inefficient way to fight,” I shrugged. “I have no idea how to shoot a bow, beyond basic archery skills I learnt as a kid, and that was more for fun than anything else.”

“Ooh, look who’s better than the new Major,” Nara laughed, slinging her bow across her back, before pulling out a pair of small crossbows that had been holstered on her forelegs, checking their strings before securing them again. “Maybe I’ll teach you one day.”

“Maybe,” I nodded, before standing up and looking around the camp. “I should go and check in with Brigadier Drake, Highlanders are leading the vanguard.”

“You don’t need to check in with me, I’m already here,” Drake spoke as he approached us, his large axe sheathed on his back. “Preparations are made, we’re moving out.”

“Yes sir,” Firefly nodded, slipping his helmet over his head and drawing his own sword and clamping his mouth around it tightly. Taking the signal, the others all drew their own weapons as I cocked my rifle.

***

“Get Down!” I yelled as another rock smashed into the ground next to me. “Get back to the tree line!”

“Major!” Drake bellowed. “What are you doing?”

“Making a judgement call sir!” I called back. “We can’t get through that!”

“We don’t retreat, ever,” Drake snarled.

“It’s not retreating,” I snapped back. “A frontal assault isn’t working against artillery and arrows!”

“I know,” Drake snarled softly. “But Highlanders never surrender. Not since Stalliongrad.”

“You’ll have to tell me about that sometime, but not now,” I grunted, looking up from my prone position. “Right now though we have bigger things to worry about, and if you’re so adverse to retreating, then it’s a good job not all of your squad leaders are Highlanders.”

“Fine, do what Luna thinks you’re here for,” Drake nodded, before drawing his axe.

“Thank you sir,” I nodded, before looking at the rest of my squad. “Firefly, back to the treeline, now!”

Firefly looked like he wanted to disobey me for a second, before he nodded, turning on his hooves and galloping back to the trees, the rest of the squad and myself following closely behind, diving back into cover and staring out at the fort.

If this was what a surprise attack looked like here, then I had grossly over-estimated a lot of things about this world, namely the competence of the pony military, and now I was looking at the results. As soon as the Highlanders had broken the cover of the trees to charge the final bit of open ground before the fort itself, the air had come alive with projectiles, massive rocks hammering into the ground and forcing squads to split up, before arrows began picking ponies off left right and centre. The ponies own artillery had opened up a few moments later, but firing as blindly as they were, they did little more than cause an annoyance for the Griffons.

“Ok listen up,” I spoke up, looking around at the others. “We can’t get through the front, not if we all want to live, but this attack will be drawing the enemy’s attention. With luck, they won’t have seen us, and we can flank around behind them and try and infiltrate the fort from there.”

“That’s a bloody big ‘with luck’,” Firefly pointed out.

“And those are pretty big rocks falling from the sky,” I retorted. “If you really want to try a frontal assault be my guest, but considering the fact that you followed me back here, I’d say that you want to try a different approach.”

"We don't retreat," Firefly retorted firmly.

"We're not retreating, we're just advancing towards future victories," I smirked. "Now, any objections, or are you coming with me?"

When none of them spoke up, I gave a curt nod. “Right then, with me.” With that I got to my feet, staying in a hunched position as I began to work my way around the clearing, the others following silently behind me.

***

It didn’t take us long to reach the rear of the fort, although in the scheme of things it felt like it had taken an eternity. True to my prediction however, there were hardly any Griffons manning the walls back here, which could just make this plan actually work.

“Alright, this is how we play it,” I breathed softly. “Simple plan. Stage one, kill the griffons and get in. Two, stop the catapults and draw the attention of at least some of the archers away from the Highlanders and the rest of the force, and three, try and open a gate.”

“Right, yeah, simple,” Nara chuckled. “Let’s do this. Are you going to show us your weapon now?”

“I’ll take the one currently on the left,” I nodded, sinking to one knee and pulling my rifle into shoulder. “Can you take the one on the right from this range?”

“Major, it will be my pleasure,” Nara nodded, drawing her bow as she rose up onto her hind legs.

“On my mark,” I muttered, my finger tightening around the trigger. “Fire.”

The instant Nara released her arrow, I squeezed the trigger of my rifle. The crack echoed around the trees as the bullet hit home, pitching the Griffon I’d be aiming at from its talons. The sound was much louder than it should have been, and for a horrible moment I thought that it hadn’t survived the trip to Equestria as well as I had thought. By the time I had done a quick examination of the weapon, ascertaining that it was indeed fine, Nara’s arrow had hit her target, and the wall was now bare.

“Right, move it,” I called as I rose to my feet, before sprinting out of cover, darting from side to side in case there were any archers we missed while reaching down to my belt, grabbing a coil of rope and tossing it to Nara. “Secure it to the top.”

“Yes sir,” she nodded quickly, spreading her wings mid-stride and taking to the air, deftly catching the rope in a talon.

In a few short wing flaps she had reached the top, plunging the metal spike on one end of the rope in between the wooden slates of the fort with one talon, while drawing a crossbow with the other, scanning the area.

“Line’s good, sir,” she called down, giving it an experimental tug. “Area looks secure for now, not sure for how long though.”

“Great,” I nodded, before looking back at the others as they reached the wall with me. “Right, get up there. I’ll bring up the rear.”

In short order the squad had managed to climb the rope, and while I didn’t exactly see how they had managed to do it with hooves, I wasn’t about to question the results as I pulled myself over the lip, standing beside the others. It was almost unnervingly quiet here, the distant sounds of battle seemingly muted, even though they weren’t actually that far away, but as long as we weren’t going to be set upon by the whole fortress, it worked well for us.

“Butch, slugger, you two take point,” I hissed, the two ponies nodding as they moved forward, the others falling in behind me as we moved deeper into the jaws of the enemy, keeping our eyes peeled for any Griffons that could give the game away.

Butch suddenly held up a hoof as his brother peered around a corner, before looking back at us with a grin.

“Five catapults, five Griffons ‘pulters each,” Slugger reported, trying, and failing, to hide the glee in his voice.

“We could work around?” Castelian suggested.

“Or we could take them out,” Heavy Weight countered with a smile of his own.

“Seven versus twenty five aren’t the best odds in the world,” Firefly mused. “But we’ve dealt with worse, and they’re only artillery crew, not quite as good as their infantry. Your call Major.”

“We came here to take them out,” I shrugged. “Quick and clean people.”

The squad nodded, before Butch and Slugger rounded the corner, their swords brandished in their mouths as they charged the nearest catapult. I quickly followed, dropping to one knee as I took aim, Nara doing the same in the sky above me. Once again we fired at the same time, two Griffons dropping an instant before Slugger, Butch and Heavy Weight crashed into the remaining crew.

Not wanting to risk firing at enemies in such close proximity to friendlies, I quickly switched targets, aiming at those on the next catapult as Firefly and Castelian crossed blades with the Griffons manning the third. By now the Griffons had noticed us and were scrambling to react to the sudden threats in their midst, but they hadn’t expected an attack to come so suddenly and from their rear.

I fired two more shots, both finding their mark, before my rifle clicked, the cocking handle jammed halfway open as a round stuck halfway out of the breach. After a quick tug yielded little results, I slung the rifle on my back, before drawing my pistol and knife, turning to face the two griffons bearing down on me, their own swords held in their talons.

The first fell as my pistol roared, but the second was on me before I could fire a second time, his sword falling to meet my knife. I struggled to fend off the blow, the sword being a far more effective weapon than my little knife, but I had managed to divert it from a killing thrust into a small cut which ripped through my shirt, barely missing the flesh beneath. Not wishing to prolong the combat, I tugged my knife away, shunting my shoulder forward, before driving the blade home into the Griffons eye, the bird dropping without a sound.

Pulling my knife free, I wiped the blood off on its feathers, before looking at the others, the few remaining Griffons fighting a losing battle against my squad. And then, just like that, it was over. With one last shot from Nara, the last of the Gryphons fell, leaving us alone again with five catapults.

“Bloody…hell.” Slugger panted, trotting back to where his sword was embedded in the chest of a Griffon and tearing it free.

“Not a bad body count,” Butch agreed.

“Mine was larger,” Heavy Weight pointed out, checking a few bodies to make sure no one was feigning death.

“Battle’s still young boys, and we still have a job to do,” Firefly reminded them, before turning to me. “Next step?”

“Secure these, make them inoperable for the enemy and leave before they send a squad to find out why they have stopped firing,” I replied as I cleared the jam, slipping the spare bullet into a pouch and picking up the used casings, figuring that they may be useful further down the line. “We still need to open the gate. Any suggestions?”

“Get close, cut the rope holding it closed?” Castelian suggested, turning to face outwards as he cast his eyes warily around, his body coiling like a spring, ready to leap into action if any Griffons checked out the catapults.

“And if there are forces, I don’t know, guarding it? There is a fight going on over there. I somehow doubt that they're just going to let five ponies, a griffon and a human trot up to the front gate,” Heavy Weight retorted sarcastically, being met by a drawn out sigh from Castelian, before he pointed at Nara.

“We have our own little Griffon, remember? Not to mention we have a few suits of dead bird armour.”

“Fuck, no,” Nara growled firmly, glaring at Castelian.

“It would make a good disguise,” I pointed out.

“And I’m telling you, forget it,” Nara hissed. “I am not one of them, no matter what my species is.”

“Alright fine, we’ll find another way,” I sighed. “We’ll have to attack. Watch your back, they’ll be swarming over there. If we’re lucky then one of us can make it to…”

“I hate you,” Nara cut in, her voice completely monotonous as she glared at me, before grabbing hold of one of the corpses. “Come on, help me drag this thing somewhere less exposed before I change my mind about giving in to a guilt trip. I'd rather not be exposed when I'm putting on the armour.”

***

“I just want it to go on record that I hate this plan,” Nara scowled, pulling on the last piece of the dead griffons armour. “Seriously, I hate it.”

“You’ve said, many times,” Firefly sighed, hoofing her the helmet, before I pulled out one of the few grenades I had and passed it over to her.

“Remember how to use this thing?”

“Pull the pin, release the handle, get away from the blast,” she nodded.

“Good. Try and use your sword if possible, no sense in wasting a perfectly good grenade.”

“If I die doing this, I’m going to haunt every one of you,” Nara growled darkly.

“And when you don’t, I’ll make sure you get put up for promotion,” I countered. “Come on, times burning and I have no idea how many ponies have died in the time it’s taken us to get you all dressed up.”

“Fine,” Nara scowled, slipping the helmet on and sighing, before forcing herself to grin. “Let’s be bad guys.”

Turning on her paws, Nara began to walk towards the main entrance to the fort, adopting a subtle swagger that gave her an air of confidence as she moved. Sticking to the shadows, the rest of the squad followed her, me bringing up the rear, making sure that we didn’t attract any more attention. I didn’t know how long we would be able to stay hidden for, but the longer it was, the higher our chances of success would be.

Eventually Nara came into sight of the gate as I dropped to my belly, lying flat with most of my body under the canvas of a tent. The others were finishing off the solitary griffon who had been inside, silently laying his body on the floor as I aimed at the griffons now surrounding Nara.

None had stopped her so far, and she was already half way towards the rope holding the gate open. I allowed myself a brief smile as she got even closer, maybe for once a plan was going to work out exactly as intended.

Even as the thought escaped my mind, I mentally kicked myself for pushing fate so much, just as a burly griffon stepped in front of Nara.

“Halt,” he demanded. “What are you doing?”

“Err…I was sent here,” Nara mumbled, before puffing her chest out. “My CO told me to come check the gate was holding, you don’t want to get on his bad side, believe me.”

“Oh yeah,” the griffon scoffed. “Who is he then? What’s your unit name? For that matter, what’s your name?”

“My name?” Nara stammered, before growling and rolling her eyes. “Oh fuck this shit.”

In an instant she had drawn her sword, plunging it into the griffon’s chest and driving it through, before pulling it lose in a welt of blood. A second later I fired another shot, a nearby griffon dropping as her head jerked back, a bloody hole in the side of it.

“Nara! Run!” I bellowed, firing another shot into the shoulder of a sprinting soldier.

Nara didn’t need to be told twice as she sprinted the last few meters to the rope, bringing her sword crashing down on it. The rope frayed, but the thickness of it managed to resist the first hack, and the second. With a screech of indignation, Nara pulled the pin on the grenade, laying the now live explosive on the gate mechanism, before diving backwards, working a claw underneath the straps of the claimed armour as she went.

The explosion rocked the battlefield, and although it was small, it seemed to silence everything else around us. Nara was still moving through the air towards us, her beak open in a silent shout of victory as she beat her wings, the dead griffon’s armour falling from her body as the straps were cut one by one.

As quickly as sound had drained from the world, it returned, screams of panic, pain and confusion echoing around as the gate slowly pitched forward, crashing to the floor with a soft thud.

“One heck of a way to start a party,” Firefly grunted, before drawing his sword with his mouth and clamping down hard on it.

Taking his que, the rest of the squad drew their own weapons once more, charging out of the cover of the tent as the first ponies spewed through the gateway, a battle cry on their lips as they clashed with the quickly recovering griffons.