Fire Base Zebra

Day 8

At the border of Changeling Kingdom

Sixty ponies from 2nd and 3rd platoon were hiking in the flat plain towards the border of their kingdom. They all were fully armed and ready for battle. Nopony said a word, they all were too tensed to talk.

They had been divided into three smaller groups, according to their specialization.

Attack group was assembled from regular soldiers, couple of medics and machine gunners. they were the spearhead of the attack. Their job was to ram trough the enemy defences, making a path for the rest of the soldiers.

Second group was cleaning group. They were mostly regulars and engineers. They followed attack group, cleaning buildings, destroying any enemy fortifications and killing changelings that the attack group left behind.

Then there were the support group.

They are last ones to enter the camp when the fighting begins. It was assembled from mortars, medics ,sharpshooters and heavy machine gunners. They gave suppressing fire to the advancing soldiers, provided ammunation to the soldiers and medics took care of the wounded if needed.

Crack Shot and Healing Horn were assigned into the support group, Riff was in the cleaning group and Rough Gunner was in the attack group.

They were now closing the border, soon they would be on the changelings side of the border.

Rough was in the lead. He walked briskly, making other ponies almost trot to stay up with him. Rough had his rifle strapped onto his back and he had his pistol in it's holster that was strapped into his left foreleg.

Like always, he had his aviator glasses covering his green eyes.

Rough stopped after a while of walking, and ponies behind him stumbled over each other due the sudden stop.

Rough Gunner turned around and announced: "Gentlecolts! We are now in the Changeling Kingdom!"

They all started to look around themselves. Most of them thought that the Changeling Kingdom would look different from Equestria, but it looked exactly the same.

"We don't know about the changeling movement around these parts, so keep your eyes open!" Rough shouted and started to walk again.

"I hope the flyboys will leave us something to fight at. It would be shame if we just needed to walk in there without any resistance," Payload said to Riff, who was walking next to him.

"I don't know, one time was enough for me," Riff said to Payload, while trying to readjust his heavy bag on his back.

Payload just shrugged.

"Think about it! Were about to go into our first battle!" pony behind Riff said to his friend.

"Yeah, It's going to be awesome," his friend answered.

Riff turned his head to them. Other one was a pale yellow unicorn and the other one was a brown earthpony. They both were young, much younger than him. He listened their conversation for a while, then he looked at Payload, who also was listening the ponies, who were now bragging about how many changelings they were going to kill.

"They don't know what they're talking about," Payload said. He had a sad look on his face.

"Yeah. They're too young," Riff said and looked at the two young ponies behind him.

Healing Horn and Crack Shot were walking with rest of the support group. Heavy was also with them.

"Is anypony else feeling a bit unease?" Heavy asked, he had a concerned look on his face.

"A bit," Healing answered.

"We have nothing to worry about, we will stay on the background until the fighting is over," Crack said smiling.

Heavy and Healing stopped walking and turned to look at him. They looked annoyed.

"What about Riff and Rough? And the rest of our friend out there," Healing asked and pointed his hoof towards the attack and cleaning groups.

Crack seemed to shrink under their glare. He had forgotten them completely.

"Uhm.. I forgot about them.." he said and smiled a sad sheepish smile.

Healing rolled his eyes and continued walking.

"But I'm sure they will be alright, Rough knows what he's doing!" Crack said when he trotted back to their side.

                                                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were now about four kilometers inside the Changeling Kingdom. Rough knew that they should meet the royal guards any minute now. He kept looking around the flat terrain for any sign of them, but didn't see anything.

They walked for a couple of minutes more before Rough stopped and shouted: "Let's stop here for a quick break!"

Rough heard sighs of reliefs from the group of ponies, who sat down and started to open their flasks to get something to drink. Rough too opened his flask and took a long sip from it. After that he took his binoculars and lifted his aviator glasses to his forehead. He started to scan the horizon with his binoculars.

There were mountains in the distance, and Rough knew that their objective was there, in the base of those mountains.

He then started to look around the plains.

All he saw was some small shriveled bushes and dust.

Just as he was about to turn his head away, Rough saw something shining in the corner of his eyes.

He turned his binoculars towards he shinning object and zoomed in.

Rough saw a white earth pony standing and looking at him with his binoculars that reflected sun's light making them shine.

He was wearing a army green uniform and a green helmet with a blue crest on it.. Pony soon gestured somepony else to come.

Now other white earth pony rose up and took the binoculars from him. He had same kind of a uniform than the last one, but different kind of helmet. It had red crest on top of it.

Pony gave the binoculars back to the other one and waved his hoof at Rough.

"Pack your things quickly! I see the royal guards!" Roughs shouted to his soldiers, who groaned and started to lift their bags to their backs.

Soon they were making their way towards the royal guards. as they got closer, Rough saw at least twenty royal guards.

The pony who had the red crest on his helmet gestured Rough to come closer.

The white pony was huge. He had a typical royal guard fighting gear. A green uniform with a metallic dark green chest plate on it. His helmet was just like the royal guards had in Canterlot, but it was dark green just like his chest plate, and it had a red crest instead of blue.

When Rough reached him, Rough saluted and said: "Captain Rough Gunner, 2nd and 3rd platoon reporting in,"

Brown pony also saluted and said: "Captain Brawny, Leader of the assault unit of royal guard,"

After the formalities were done, they shook hooves and captain Brawny said: "Nice to meet you Rough,"

"Nice to meet you too, Brawny," Rough said and almost smiled.

Brawny peeked behind Rough and looked at his soldiers.

"How many did you bring?" he asked. Rough turned to look at his men too, then he said: "fifty-nine plus me."

Brawny nodded and then said: "I have thirty,"

"So we have ninety in total, that should be enough," Rough said while looking at his soldiers, who were now gathering around them.

Brawny gestured Rough to follow him, and so he did.

They walked to couple of royal guards and Brawny introduced them.

"These are my scouts, they said that the changeling camp is bigger than we thought, and that a straight forward attack won't work," Brawny explained to Rough.

"That's right sir, the are around the camp is too exposed," one of the scouts said.

Rough thought for a minute, then he asked: "So how are we going to attack?"

Brawny perked up and had a small smile on his lips. He probably hoped Rough to ask that question.

"Luckily our scouts found a dried-up river, that goes right next to the camp," he said.

"How close?" Rough asked and scratched his chin.

"About half a click," the same scouts answered. Rough was starting to see the big picture.

"So are you telling me that we could sneak by the river bench, unnoticed?"  Rough asked.

"That's right!" Brawny said and seemed proud when saying it.

"That sounds perfect! Who found it?" Rough asked.

"It was corporal Gold Arrow," Brawny said and pointed his hoof at one of the scouts.

Rough walked to him and shook his hoof.

"Thank you corporal, you just made my work helluva easier," Rough said while shaking his hoof with Gold Arrow.

"Just doing my job," Gold Arrow said smiling.

Crack Shot, Healing Horn and Riff were sitting with some royal guards. They were talking about how they joined the army or the royal guard.

"I joined the guard because my dad made me to," one of the royal guards said.

"Really? So you didn't want to become royal guard?" Crack Shot asked. The guard looked him and said: "Well at first I didn't like it, but now I've gotten used to it."

"I would have paid to get in the training, but I got rejected four times," Crack Shot said sadly.

"Sorry to hear that," the guard said.

Guard next to Riff offered him a cigarette, which he took and thanked the guard.

"So how did you join the army?" The guard asked from Riff.

Riff took couple of long drags from his cigarette, then he said: "I guess I wanted to see the world, but now I wish I was back home."

The guard chuckled, then he asked: "And why is that?"

Riff took another drag from his cigarette and said: "First of all, I hate this heat. Second, I don't like being shot at."

"You got used to that too," guard said laughing.

Healing was talking with one of the medics of the royal guards.

"So you were the ones who fought the changelings at the ursa valley," the medic said to Healing.

"Yeah, we're the ones," Healing said.

"I've been in many fights, but never with the changelings. What was it like?" the medic asked.

Healing was silent for a while. His mind went back to that night.

"They were like... I don't know, like they had no names and their only purpose was to fight. Like robots or something," Healing said, trying to find right words.

"That's pretty creepy," the medic said.

"Yeah, they even shot their own, who tried to surrender," Healing added.

They both were silent.

"Did you lose any of your own?" the medic asked suddenly. Healing drooped his ears and said: "One... I did all I could but he got hit near the heart so I couldn't do anything."

Medic laid his hoof on Healing's shoulder. Healing looked at him, he seemed to understand how Healing felt.

"That has happened to me many times. It's hard to lose somepony you knew, especially if it is a close friend," he said.

"Yeah," Healing said sadly.

"We're moving in five!" Healing heard Rough shouting.

He looked at the medic in front of him, who also looked back at Healing.

"I need to go back to my own group now," the medic said.

"So do I," Healing said. They lifted their bags on their back. Then the medic said: "Stay safe, I don't want to see you in a coffin tomorrow!"

"Neither do I," Healing said, and started to walk towards his group.

                                                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The 2nd and 3rd platoon with the group of royal guards were now waiting for a attack in the dried-up river, that prevented the changelings from seeing them.

Crack Shot peeked over the river bench. He saw that the camp indeed was a lot bigger than they had expected. It was located on a small hill, and it had concrete bunkers and fighting positions around it. There were also barbed wire barriers.

The camp itself had big concrete building in the middle, and trenches inside the fences.

It was full of activity.

Small black dots were running around the camp, they didn't seem to have noticed the ponies hiding behind the river bench. Everything went like planned.

Crack crawled back to the bottom of the river. There was Healing Horn and Riff waiting.

"How bad is it?" Healing asked, with a small hint of concern in his voice.

"A lot bigger than we thought. It even has bunkers," Crack Shot answered.

"Great! I bet it's my job to destroy them!" Riff said angrily.

Heavy appeared with two other ponies besides him. Heavy was carrying a big 50.cal machine gun on his back, while the other one carried a tripod. Third one had two big boxes of ammunation with him.

"Sup guys," Heavy greeted them and laid the weapon on the ground carefully.

"What's that?" Crack asked from him.

"This is my baby, it fires 50.cal tracer bullets at speed of two thousand and five hundred rounds per minute." Heavy said smiling proudly. He then sat next to them and watched the two other ponies laying their equipements  on the ground.

"When the attack begins, we will give covering fire from here to the attack group with three more babies like this," Heavy said and patted on the machine gun next to him.

"I hope you are a good shot. I don't want to get hit in the back by my own soldiers bullets," they heard somepony say next to them.

They turned their heads towards the sound and saw Rough Gunner standing there.

"You don't need to worry about that sir," Heavy said to Rough.

"I know," Rough said and turned to Riff.

"You should go back to your own group, we will start soon," Rough said.

Riff gulped and said: "Yes sir."

Riff rose up and turned to his friends. Healing looked a bit sad about him going away, and Crack seemed to feel the same.

"Stay low out there," Crack said.

"We'll see you when this is over," Healing said to Riff, who was now leaving.

"I hope so too!" Riff said to them, and then he had disappeared into the mass of ponies waiting in the dried river.

Rough watched as Riff left, then he turned to Healing and Crack shot. Rough sat down next to them and took his rifle from his back. He pulled the charging handle back and let it slide back to it's place, letting out a metallic click.

He then turned his head towards Crack and Healing.

"The attack is starting, royal guards have already send a message to the airbase and fire bases," he said.

"When exactly will it start?" Crack asked.

"Bombardment will start in five minutes, then air forces will come, then it's our turn," Rough answered.

They were silent.

"So how are you two holding up?" Rough suddenly asked from Healing and Crack, who were surprised by the question. Rough wasn't usually asking questions like that.

"Fine, I guess," Crack Shot said.

"Mhm. How about you Healing Horn?" Rough asked and looked at Healing over his aviator glasses.

"I'm.. A bit nervous actually," Healing confessed.

Rough laid his rifle sideways on his lap. He looked at Healing Horn.

"It's normal. It would be bad if you weren't," Rough said.

Healing nodded.

Suddenly Rough perked up, and he slipped his rifle back to it's holster.

"What is it?" Crack asked.

"It's starting," Rough said and started to trot towards his group.

"What?" Healing asked looking at Crack confusedly, but just then they heard a whistling sound over their heads.

They rose up and looked over the river bench.

The first projectile hit right into one of the bunkers, exploding it into a big cloud of dust, fire and pieces of concrete.

The sound came a second after, it was sharp and quick, like couple of bricks were hit together.

Then came the second explosion, and third and fourth. Soon the whole camp was covered in a big cloud of dust and black smoke. The firing continued and Healing saw how the main building lost it's whole left side in a big explosion.

It seemed impossible for anything to survive from that.

Explosions ended as quickly as it had started, then there were silence.

"That was it?" I was expecting for more," Heavy said while mounting his machine gun on the tripods, that was placed on the edge of the river bench. They looked at the camp and saw small black dots running towards the bunkers and fighting positions.

"look up!" somepony shouted, and Crack Shot, Healing Horn and Heavy lifted their heads up.

They saw at least forty pegasies flying in wedge formations. First wedge had only wonderbolts in it, they could tell that by their uniforms, rest of them were wearing normal air force uniforms.

They were carrying something in their forelegs, but Crack Shot couldn't see what they were.

The wonderbolts were now breaking from formation, Gliding to the left. Rest of the pegasies soon followed. They circled the camp couple of times, before the first wedge started to dive downwards. They folded their wings and gained speed.

Healing could have sworn that he saw a small rainbow behind the leading pony.

Pegasies released the objects they had in their hooves and swooped back up, where they returned to the wedge formation.

Crack Shot watched the objects falling down. When they hit the ground, series of explosions occurred, ripping the main buildings even more.

Second wedge dived and dropped their bombs. This time the bombs fell to the area near the gate, exploding it into bits.

Ponies in the river bench started to cheer when the third and fourth wedge dived and released their bombs, that landed over a big group of running changelings, who disappeared into a series of big explosions.

The last wedge of pegasies seemed to approach the camp from lower altitude. They dropped their bombs over the fighting positions.

The bombs they had weren't same kind that the others had. They didn't explode, they seemed to burst into flames when they hit the ground. Flames quickly swallowed the fighting positions and the changelings inside them.

"That's our mark!" Brawny said to Rough next to him, who nodded.

Rough turned around to see his soldiers. He stood up and shouted: "ATTACK!"

The ponies started to climb from the river bench and started to run towards the smoking ruins of the camp. They were all shouting their war cry.

Rough and Brawny followed their soldiers. They were almost halfway to the camp entrance, and Rough noticed that the changelings hadn't opened fire yet.

As if on cue, machine gun started firing from a bunker to their left, sawing trough the mass of advancing ponies. Righ after that, the second machine gun started firing from the bunker on the right.

The closest ponies to the bunkers got hit by the crossfire they were in, and they fell lifeless on the ground.

"Get down!" Rough shouted and dived on the ground just before a burst of tracers flew over him. A pony next to him wasn't quick enough. He got hit in the chest and fell straight onto his face. He squirmed on the ground and started screaming.

Rough grabbed from his uniform with his teeth and pulled him behind a rock while bullets flew past them. Rough leaned against the rock and slipped his rifle into his hooves.

He peeked over the rock and saw six of his soldiers lying in front of the bunker, in a big pool of blood. Others were hiding behind any cover they could find, while the changeling machine guns fired towards them.

The pony who Rough had dragged behind the rock was now lying on the ground, silent and limp.

Changelings in the foxholes started firing towards them too, they couldn't move anywhere. They were in a trap.

Then the machine guns over at the river bench started to fire at the bunker on the right. 50.cal bullets ripped the concrete and forced the changeling machine gun to stop firing. Then mortars started to fire at the enemy positions, covering them in a black smoke and fire. Rough heard them scream and knew that this was their change.

"Forward! Don't stay lying in the fire!" he shouted and shot towards the left bunkers firing gap. The machine gun stopped firing, and his soldiers started advancing under the covering fire from their machine guns.

Rough decided that he should move too, so he strapped his rifle back to his back and dashed from the cover. He ran towards the bunker with couple of other ponies.

He reached the bunker just before the machine gun started to fire again, hitting the three ponies running behind Rough.

Rough shot a short burst inside the bunker with his assault rifle, silencing the machine gun again, but only for a second.

"Hey!" somepony shouted from behind Rough. He turned around and saw one of the royal guards on the roof of the bunker, offering him a hoof. Rough grabbed onto it and the pony pulled him up.

Rough now saw the entrance to the bunker. He turned to the pony who helped him up.

"Throw a grenade in there! I'll nail them to the entrance!" Rough shouted to him.

Royal guard nodded and took grenade from his combat vest. He leaned over the edge of the bunker and pulled the pin. After three seconds, he threw the grenade inside the bunker from the firing gap.

Machine gun stopped firing and then they heard a loud explosion, and smoke burst out from the firing gap.

Rough turned his weapon towards the bunker door, that started to open. Smoke filled the entrance, and soon coughing and blood covered changelings started to emerge from the bunker. Rough opened fire and dropped them right after they got out. They fell over each other, and there was a pile of corpses on the floor after Rough finished.

"Clear!" he announced, and the royal guard rose up and waved his hoof to other advancing ponies, but he had to fall back to his stomach, because changeling from the nearby foxhole started to fire towards him.

Rough quickly turned his AR towards the changeling and fired a short burst, hitting it right into chest.

Changeling tried to grab from the edge of his foxhole, but all he managed to do was to fell over it and roll down the hill. Rough turned to the royal guard and asked: "Are you okay?"

Royal guard lifted his head and said: "Yeah, thanks to you."

Then another burst ripped the bunker around them, and they had to roll down from the roof.

Rough fired couple of shots towards the attacker, but wasn't sure if he hit him.

Rough and the royal guard heard a explosion, and turned their heads towards the second bunker. There was smoke rising from the firing gaps, and they saw Brawny and couple of others aiming towards the bunker door.

Soon as the changelings emerged from the door, they all opened fire.

One of them threw another grenade inside the bunker. Flames blazed from the doorway, and one changeling flew trough  the bunker door.

Brawny then waved his hooves at them, to gesture that the bunker was now clear.

Soon there were big group of ponies behind the bunker with Rough. They all were shooting towards the enemies, who were holding the gates.

Rough was planning their next move. He turned to face his soldiers and he saw couple of wounded with them.

"Take the wounded back to the river bench, and order the cleaning group to start moving," Rough said to one of the medics, who nodded and started to lift wounded ponies on the stretchers with other medics. Rough turned to see rest of his men.

They looked tired and frightened, but Rough knew that they didn't have time to rest.

"Rest of you follow me! Next we're going to take over the trenches!" Rough shouted to his soldiers and started to move forward.

Riff was still at the river bench with sergeant Payload, they were waiting for command to move forward. They saw how their soldiers were advancing towards the inner premiere of the changeling camp. They heard the distant gunfire and saw muzzle flashes flutter at the gates. The changelings were holding the gate at all cost.

"Do you think they can get trough?" Riff asked from Payload.

Just then they heard how mortars behind them send another wave of grenades flying trough the air. Couple of seconds after they saw how series of explosions ripped the changeling defensive positions, and how the pony soldiers overran them.

"I guess there's your answer," Payload said laughing.

Riff saw medics running down the hill, towards the river bench. They were carrying wounded on the stretchers and after that they started to run back towards the hill.

One of the medic's ran to sergeant Payload, panting heavily.

"Captain.. told... that.. the cleaning group... should start moving," the medic finally finished.

Payload nodded and the medic started to run back towards the hill.

"Move up!" Payload shouted and the cleaning group climbed over the river bench.

They trotted towards the first bunkers. Then Payload stopped. He turned to face his soldiers.

"You five, clear that bunker on the left. Riff and you three come with me. Rest of you start cleaning those foxholes!" Payload commanded and, everypony quickly started to fulfill the orders.

Riff was trotting behind sergeant Payload with three ponies he didn't know. They were probably from the 3rd platoon.

Riff counted seven ponies lying near the bunker they were approaching. Medics were running around them with trenches, they were trying to find anypony who would be alive.

They stopped at the bunker on the right. Riff and Payload jumped down to the entrance of the bunker.

Payload examined the pile of bodies near the doorway, while Riff was guarding his back with the three other ponies.

He was facing away from Payload, towards the upper hill, where rest of their team was cleaning the foxholes. He saw somepony emptying his pistol towards something on the bottom of one foxhole.

Suddenly he heard a gunshot from behind him. Riff turned and pointed his assault rifle towards the sound.

He saw Payload holding a pistol. There was a witching changeling at his feet.

Payload turned to Riff and said: "One was alive, the bastard tried to pull a pin from his grenade."

Riff lowered his weapon and nodded.

"Who got the explosives?" Payload asked.

"I have them!" One of the unfamiliar ponies shouted and threw his bag to Payload, who caught it easily. He took a brick of something that looked like a play-dough, but it had a timer attached to it's side.

"Riff, you got the primers?" Payload asked.

"Yeah, I got them," Riff said and dug them from his bag. He gave them to sergeant Payload, who stick them into the plastic-charges.

"Fire in the hole!" Payload shouted and threw the explosives inside the bunker.

Riff and Payload quickly jumped up from the entrance and started to run. The unfamiliar ponies from 3rd platoon followed them. When they were in a safe distance away, Riff dived inside a empty foxhole with sergeant Payload.

First hey heard a quiet puff, but then the walls of the bunker exploded into a small pieces, making the roof look like it was floating for a second, but it then collapsed.

Riff lifted his head from the cover, and saw only a big smoking hole in the ground, where the bunker used to be.

"Woohoo!" Payload cheered and started laughing.

They heard another explosion and saw that the left bunker had also disappeared into a big ball of fire.

They stared into the flames for couple of seconds.

"Should we move up now?" Riff asked from Payload, who nodded.

The three other ponies appeared next to them.

"Were moving up," Payload said to them.

"Yes si.." one of the ponies started, but was interrupted by a sudden gunshot. Red blood splattered from his head and he fell down on the ground.

"Holy fuck!" Riff shouted. The two other ponies looked at their dead friend lying at their feet. They had shocked expressions on their faces. One of them crouched to his fallen friend and shouted: "Star Shine! Oh fuck! Star Shine wak.."

Second gunshot was heard. Bullet hit him in the throat. He fell on his side, gagging blood.

"Get down!" Payload and Riff shouted in unison, and the third pony dived into the foxhole, just before a bullet hit the the ground behind him.

Riff rose up and tried to grab the pony who had been hit in the throat. Just as Riff was about to reach him, another bullet hit the curled up pony in the head, splattering blood all over Riff's face. He froze still, looking at the body in front of him.

He felt how somepony pulled him back down and how a bullet whizzed next to his head.

"What the hay were you thinking!?" Payload shouted to him angrily, but Riff didn't answer.

Crack Shot observed the battlefield trough his rifle's scope. This time it was a real sniper rifle, and not only a AR with a scope on it. He didn't see the attack group anymore, they were already too deep in the camp.

"Can you see the cleaning group?" Healing, who was sitting next to him asked.

"No I can't" Spade answered.

"What? They should be there," surprised Healing said and lifted his head over the river bench.

"I know, but I can't see them!" Crack said and tried to find the missing group again. At first he didn't see anything, but then he got a glimpse of something moving behind a barbed wire barrier. He focused on it and saw that it was a pony.

Crack Shot saw him shouting something to somepony near him.

Now Crack started to see more ponies, lying behind cover and inside foxholes and craters left by bombs.

"What the.." he mumbled and turned his rifle more to the right, where he saw somepony trying to move from cover to cover, but as soon as he emerged from cover, he got hit by a bullet and he stumbled onto his face.

"They're under fire!" Crack shouted.

"Where's the enemy?" Heavy asked. He was behind the 50.cal.

"I can't see, it's a sniper," Crack said and scanned the battlefield for more info. He stopped his cross hair over one foxhole. It had two bodies lying around it, and there were three ponies lying inside it. Two of them looked familiar.

"I see Riff and Payload!" Crack Shouted.

"Where?" Healing asked and lifted his hoof over his eyes to block the sun.

"They're in a foxhole near the destroyed bunker," Crack said while looking at his friends trough the scope. He saw Payload trying to lift his head over the edge of the foxhole, but bullet hit the ground right next to his head, forcing him to duck again.

Crack saw that the bullets were coming from the top left. He lifted his rifle slowly, trying to spot the hidden shooter.

His cross hair went over a small wall of sandbags. Just as he was about to lift his rifle more, he saw muzzle flash coming from behind the sandbags.

"I found it!" he said. Healing lifted his head over the bench again.

"Where?" he asked. Crack gave him his binoculars and said: "Look a bit left from the big crater over that fallen tree."

Healing lifted the binoculars onto his eyes and looked at the direction Crack was pointing.

"I see it too!" he said.

"What distance?" Crack asked.

"Umm.. about seven hundred?" Healing said. Crack adjusted his scope, then he lifted the rifle to a firing position and pulled the bolt handle back. He laid on the ground and set up the stock firmly against his shoulder.

He could only see the barrel of the changeling's weapon. Crack moved the cross hair over the sandbags, where he thought that the head of the changeling would be.

Crack took couple of deep breaths and then he held his breath. The cross hair didn't move at all now. He started to squeeze the trigger slowly, so the gun wouldn't jump.

Healing Horn jumped a little when Crack Shot fired, but he quickly lifted the binoculars back to his eyes. He saw how there was a nice little hole one of the sandbags, and how the ground in the other side of the sandbags was covered in blue blood.

"You got him!" he exclaimed.

"Good," Crack said and pulled the bolt handle back again, making a empty shell fly from the chamber.

Riff, Payload and the unfamiliar pony were still hiding in a foxhole. They were too scared to move. After a while they heard somepony shout: "Clear!"

Payload lifted his head from the cover, and so did Riff. He saw somepony standing behind couple of sandbags, waving a sniper rifle over his head.

"He was over here! Somepony shot him!" the pony shouted. First thing that came to Riff's mind was Crack Shot. He turned to look towards the river, but didn't recognize his friends from so far away.

Riff and Payload heard sobbing from behind them. They turned around and saw the pony who was in the foxhole with them, sitting next to his deceased friends.

"Star Shine, Jumper... ohh.." he cried.

Payload and Riff looked at each other for a brief moment, then Payload walked to the crying pony. He placed his hoof over his shoulder. Pony winced and turned to see sergeant Payload.

"Why don't you go back to river, say that the support group should start moving up the hill," he said.

"But.. but what about them?" the crying pony sobbed and pointed his hoof at his friends.

"Medics will get them, don't worry about them," Payload said, still holding his hoof over his shoulder. They all were silent for a while. Then the pony rose up and said: "Yeah. Maybe I should go back.."

"You do that," Payload said and patted him on the back.

Riff watched as the pony started to walk down the hill.

Suddenly they heard loud gunfire from the other side of the gate. The assault group had to be close to the main building now. Riff looked at Payload, who was looking at the gates. Now they heard a machine gun join into play. It kept firing long bursts.

"We need to hurry, it sounds like they're in trouble," Payload said. He then put a hoof over his mouth and whistled. All the ponies turned to him.

"We need to move up right now!" he shouted, and soon they were galloping towards the gates.

Rough Gunner and his soldiers had now advanced into the trenches with help of Captain Brawny and his royal guards. Rough was moving in the thin trenches with his pistol drawn. He had couple of soldiers with him. They reached a corner, that turned to the left.

"Grenade," Rough requested, and pony behind him threw one around the corner. Right after it exploded, Rough leaned over the corner. He saw two dead changelings, killed by the blast. Then he spotted movement in front of him and fired his pistol three times. Figure in front of him collapsed on the floor of the trench. Then he continued moving forward.

After a while of moving, Rough heard somepony shouting: "Watch out Captain!"

Rough saw a shadow over him, but wasn't fast enough to raise his gun towards it. Changeling landed right on him, making him fall down on the ground. The changeling was now on top of him, and due the narrow trenches, Rough couldn't roll him off. Changeling got a good grip around Roughs throat, strangling him.

Luckily other ponies were fast to react. Rough saw assault rifle's stock hit the changeling right in the face, making him loosen his hooves from around Rough's throat.

Changeling was now lying in the ground. The pony who had hit the him flipped his rifle and aimed it at the changeling. He fired couple of shots and the changeling yelped, before he fell limp.

"Captain! Are you alright?" He then asked from Rough Gunner, who coughed and nodded. The pony patted him on the shoulder and continued forward. Rough stood up too, taking his pistol from the ground. He peeked over the edge of the trench, while other ponies passed him.

Rough saw that the royal guards were already attacking the main building, but they were under heavy enemy fire. He saw how big muzzle flash fluttered from one of the windows of the building. Then he looked at opposite direction, and saw that the cleaning group was already at the gates. He saw them moving towards the trenches.

"Captain!" somepony said behind him. He turned around and saw light blue unicorn standing behind him. Without waiting, unicorn handed him a letter. Rough opened it and started to read.

Major Valor, Fire base Zebra to Captain Rough Gunner

Camp C has been captured by friendly troops. Camp B is almost done. What's the situation at the Camp A?

Rough gave the paper back to unicorn, who put it back to his pocket. Then Rough took paper and pencil. He quickly wrote a message.

Captain Rough Gunner to Major Valor, Fire base Zebra

Enemy is putting up a heavy resistance, but our troops have almost reached the main building. Fighting should soon be over.

Rough gave the message to unicorn, who send it with his magic. Rough didn't stay around for a reply. He was needed at the front lines. He passed ponies, who were standing in the trenches, waiting for the next attack.

He counted the soldiers while passing them. He counted that the attack group had lost about seventeen to twenty soldiers so far.

"Captain!" somepony shouted again. Rough turned to see what was it. He saw a brown pony peeking over the trenches. He was pointing towards the main building.

"What is it?" Rough asked and made his way next to the brown pony, who kept pointing his hoof at something.

He turned to Rough Gunner. His eyes were full of fright when he said: "It's a tank!"