Fire Base Zebra

by FinnPony

Rating: teen
Tags: Dark, Adventure
Length: 67319

Story about four soldiers from 2nd Platoon of Bravo Company. they are assigned to a near the border, in a fire support base Zebra , during the first days of the 'Changeling Wars'

(WARNING: PONIES WITH GUNS!)

It has been three years since the changelings attacked Canterlot. In past couple of weeks there has been lots of movement near Equestria's borders. Tension starts to build up, and military has started to build defensive installations in case the changeling decide to attack.

Captain Rough Gunner, 'doc' Healing Horn, Engineer Riff and Sniper Crack Shot from the 2nd Platoon of Bravo Company are on a assignment near the border of Equestria. They arrive in the fire support base Zebra, in the Equus valley, where they witness the beginning of the Changeling War.

I watched the movie 'Restrepo' which inspired me to start writing this story.
(and I needed a break from making shippings)

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-08 18:49:26 UTC

FB Zebra, Days 1-4

Day 1

Everypony was asleep, and the barrack C was almost completely silent. Only sound was the quiet breathing of twenty-three ponies, and somepony shuffling around his bed. Three days of hiking had drained all of their energy, and after the dinner almost every one of them had passed out right after they hit the bed.

Silence was broken violently by someone kicking the door open, letting the bright desert  sun beaming in the barrack. This startled the sleeping ponies, making some of them drop from their beds. The intruder didn't wait for them to get up before he shouted: "Ten-hut!"

This command was beaten to their heads during the training time, and like automatically each of them quickly rose up from the bed and stood on the right side of the bed. They were standing straight, looking forward, and not moving.

Rough looked at them, feeling a bit proud. They were the best ponies he had ever trained, accurate and obedient. Usually there was always at least one troublemaker in the group, but not in this one. Even though he was pleased with the quick actions of his soldiers, he didn't praise them. He did pretty much the opposite.

"That was absolutely terrible! I've seen snails moving faster than you!" he shouted.

Everyone of them knew he didn't mean it. They had already gotten used to it, and they knew Rough was pleased with them, even he acted like he wasn't. They thought that it was his way of preventing them from becoming too arrogant. It had worked pretty good.

Rough looked at them and started to walk slowly, between the two lines of ponies. He examined each one of them while passing them. He reached the end of the line, where he turned around and started walking back towards the door.

While walking, he started to talk: "Today you are going to receive you tasks here at fire base Zebra. If somepony thought that this assignment was just making easy money, then you were wrong!"

He stopped in front of a pony called Spade.

"Name, rank, place of birth and specialization?" Rough asked.

"Spade, private, born in Ponyville, specialized in entrenching," Spade answered firmly.

Rough leaned closer to him and asked: "What do you think you will be doing around here?"

Spade leaned his head backwards slightly, when Rough's face was just inches away from his. He tried to keep on his poker face, but small drops of sweat were forming on his forehead.

"Entrenching?" Spade asked.

Rough moved away from him and shouted: "Exactly! And you will be doing it almost nonstop for the next six months!"

He turned around and was now facing Crack Shot, one of his favorites.

"Name, rank, place of birth and specialization?" He asked, even thought he already knew.

"Crack Shot, private first class, born in Manehattan, specialized in marksmanship!" Crack answered quickly. Rough squinted his eyes, even Crack couldn't see it trough Rough's black sunglasses.

"Marksman, eh? You will get the best job, guarding the premiere from the watchtower, for six months!" Rough shouted the last part right to Crack's face.

Rough noticed something behind Crack Shot. He walked past him and looked at the poster showing that yellow pegasus mare with pink mane pinned to the wall. He almost smiled. Rough remembered  how Crack had new girlfriend almost every night during the training.

"A mighty fine girl you got here!" Rough stated. He then walked back to the middle of the two lines.

He continued talking: "I think you got the point now! You have ten minutes to make your bed and get something to eat. Then you will go and report for duty near the canteen! Am I clear!?"

"YES SIR!"

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

"Name, rank, birthplace?" Sergeant sitting behind table asked.

"Healing Horn, Private, Ponyville," Healing answered. He noticed that the pony behind the table was the same sergeant that they had seen guarding the passage, when they had arrived. Sergeant went trough his notebook for a while, then he found the right page.

"You're a medic?" Sergeant asked and glanced at Healing.

"I also have MMT (Magic Messenger Training)" Healing said.

Sergeant wrote something to his notebook. After finishing he said: "You will be serving at the aid station, go report to the doctor Sawbones."

Healing nodded and trotted off.

"Next!" Sergeant said and gestured Riff to come closer. He walked to the table.

"Name, rank, birthplace?" Sergeant asked again.

"Riff Frost, Private first class, Crystal Mountains," Riff said. Sergeant stared at him. He started to look for Riff's name in the notebook. When he found it he asked: "Crystal Mountains? Really?"

"Yeah, really," Riff said. Sergeant smiled and looked at his notebook.

"You're far away from the home boy," He said while writing something into his notebook. Riff didn't say anything. Sergeant stopped writing and said: "Combat engineer.. You have a explosives training?"

Riff nodded. Sergeant again wrote something to his notebook. He then turned back to Riff and said: "I assigned you to the Sergeant Payload's team. He's at the ammo storage."

Riff nodded and started to walk towards the way sergeant had pointed his hoof at.

Day 2

Crack Shot had already climbed to the watchtower. He had been assigned to the guard duty, just like Rough Gunner had said. He looked at the landscape opening in front of him. Dry, rocky desert with a orange morning sky over it. He was kinda glad that he got guard duty, because now he had a small cover from the burning sun.

Crack took his binoculars and looked around the camp. He saw engineers digging up new foxholes and filling bastions. He didn't see Riff though. Crack turned his binoculars towards the landing pad, where he saw major Valor. He was speaking to two royal guards.

They weren't wearing their flashy armor now. They had their army green uniforms, which had a lot more decorations than the normal army uniforms.

Crack knew that even they might seem a bit 'overdressed' for the battle, they still were the elite of the Equestria's army. Rough had told them how one royal guard could easily take down twenty changelings with his bare hands, before falling himself.

Now Crack turned his head towards the aid station, where he saw Healing Horn helping other medics to erect a smaller tent next to the actual aid station itself. He saw doctor Sawbone giving them orders how to do it faster. Healing looked really annoyed when Sawbone was shouting at him. This made Crack chuckle to himself.

"Where the hell is Riff?" Crack asked from himself. He started looking for his friend with his binoculars.

"How in the hell I can't see him? He's completely white after all!" Crack complained to himself. He tried to find him, but didn't see him anywhere. Just as he was about to stop trying, he heard a small siren sound from the east side of the wall. He turned around to see where it came from.

The siren sounded three times, then it stopped

Suddenly a explosion shook the ground. Crack had to take a firm grip from the railing of the watchtower. Crack fell flat on the floor. He jumped back up and saw how big cloud of smoke came from the east side of the wall, where siren had sounded. He quickly took his binoculars and looked towards the smoke.

He saw Riff and Sergeant Payload emerging from the smoke. Their faces were black, and they were covered in dust. Riff carried a bag that had 'explosives' written on it. They casually walked towards the base, entering it and walking towards the ammo storage.

"What the hell man?!" Crack shouted from the watchtower. Riff looked up and saw Crack Shot

"We were just demolishing some old fortifications down there," Riff shouted and pointed his hoof towards the big cloud of smoke.

Crack looked at him with a confused look on his face. He then pointed at Riff and shouted: "You got something on your face!"

Riff swept his face with his hoof and noticed that it was covered in black dust.

He gave Crack a sheepish smile and shouted: "I think we used a bit more than we should have!"

Sergeant Payload laughed behind him.

Crack Shot facehoofed and returned back to his duty, heart still trying to burst trough his chest, because of the sudden rush of adrenaline going trough his veins.

Day 3

Clock was almost seven in the afternoon, and everypony was working, like usual. Soldiers of 2nd platoon had already gotten used to the early wake ups and their daily routines.

Healing was arranging the medical supplies in the aid station. He actually liked the job. it wasn't too physically demanding and you even might get a evening off, if there were nothing to do.

"Private Healing Horn! Come here and help me with these boxes!" Grey coated stallion in a white doctor jacket with a red cross on the sleeve shouted. It was fire base Zebra's Chief Medical Officer, doctor Sawbone

Healing quickly ran to help the old man.

Sawbone was at least over sixty years old, maybe even more.

He didn't have a mane anymore, only small grey tufts were left. He had to use a walking stick, because his right foreleg's knee had become stiff due the oldness.

Some of the younger colts had thought that he was just a harmless old stallion, but Sawbone knew how to use his walking stick, and they learned it the hard way.

Healing lifted the wooden boxes with his magic.

"Where do you want these sir?" he asked from the Doctor Sawbone, who pointed towards the corner of the tent, which served as a aid station. Healing nodded and walked towards the spot doctor Sawbone had pointed him.

Healing laid the boxes in the corner, neatly side by side. He then trotted back to arranging the supplies.

After a while of working Healing felt small vibrating in his horn. He knew what that meant. Soon a small ball of magic flashed in front of him. It was a letter folded in half and sealed with seal that had fire base Zebra's logo on it.

In the corner of  the paper was writing

'To CMO Sawbone'

Healing took the paper in his teeth and made his way towards doctor  Sawbone.

Healing was only unicorn with the Magic Messenger Training in the aid station, so all the messages send to aid station were send to him. He then had to deliver it to the right pony. In this case it was doctor SawBone.

Healing Horn reached doctor and took the letter into his hoof. He then stated: "A message for Chief Medical Officer Sawbone."

Sawbone nodded and took the letter into his hooves. He opened the letter and read it. After finishing it, he folded it from the center and gave it back to Healing, who used his magic to ignite the letter on fire.

It was the protocol. Every letter had to be disposed after reading.

Healing Horn tried to leave, but felt something on his shoulder. It was Sawbone's walking stick.

"Private Healing Horn, you must meet Your platoons commanding officer at his personal tent tomorrow at six o'clock in the morning," Sawbone said to him.

Healing looked at the doctor with a questioning look on his face. Sawbone noticed that and said: "Letter didn't say anything else, but I think it's important. -" Sawbone looked around for a minute "- Listen, why don't you finish what you were doing and go rest for the rest of the day. I bet you're going to have a rough day tomorrow"

Healing's face lit up, he smiled and said: "Thank you doctor Sawbone.. err.. I mean yes sir!"

Doctor laughed, making Healing feel a bit embarrassed. Sawbone stopped his laughing and started coughing.

"I have to say, I like being called doctor more than a sir," He said to Healing, who chuckled.

"Now go finish your chores so you can go," Sawbone said.

"Yes doctor!" Healing said and went back to work.

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

Healing Horn was trotting towards the barrack C. He tried to see if Crack Shot was in a watchtower, but didn't see if the pony in the tower was Crack or not. He walked past the Landing pads, where he saw big carriage, flown by four pegasus, landing on the main pad.

Engineers started to unpack the carriage, while the pegasus ponies unhitched themselves from the carriage. Healing saw that the boxes engineers were carrying had 'ammo' written on them.

Healing passed the landing pads and continued towards the barracks. He went past the canteen, where he saw couple of cooks handing out food from a mobile field kitchen to hungry ponies.

Healing too was feeling a bit hungry, but he decided to go have a little nap before dinner.

After passing canteen, he was right next to the barrack C. Healing went to the door and was just about to open the door, when he heard familiar voices from the inside. He also heard couple of other voices.

Healing Horn opened the door and saw Crack Shot sitting on his bed, playing solitaire. Riff was also there. He was lying down on his bed and smoking cigarette. There were also Spade and Heavy, their machinegunner, who was readjusting the sights of his threatening-looking weapon.

Everypony turned their heads towards Healing, who looked back at them.

"Why are you guys here?" Healing asked.

"probably for the same reason you are here," Crack said and continued playing.

"You need to go see Rough tomorrow morning?" Spade asked from Healing, who was still standing in the doorway.

Healing nodded.

"What do you think it is about" Spade asked.

Riff yawed. He rose to sitting position. He stretched his forelegs and scratched his chin. He looked at them for a minute and said: "Well, we have a sniper -"  He pointed at Crack "- a machinegunner -" He turned his hoof towards Heavy "- and a messenger," he said turning and looked at Healing Horn.

"We're going out tomorrow," He stated. Spade and Heavy looked at each other, then at Riff.

"You mean out out? Out from the base?" Spade asked. Riff fell back to his bed and said: "Yeah, where else? Probably just some routine patrol or something."

"Why are we here then? You and me?" Spade asked from Riff. He thought for a minute, and then said: "I dunno, maybe they picked us at random?"

They all were silent for a while. Healing noticed that he still was standing in the doorway, and closet the door behind him. Crack was still playing solitaire and Riff looked like he was about to fall asleep. Spade was looking rather nervous and Heavy seemed to be completely focused on getting the sights right.

Healing sat down on the edge of his bed. He was still hungry, but it didn't bother him much now. He was nervous about tomorrow. He laid his head onto his pillow, and in less than a minute he was asleep.

Day 4

Rough Gunner was sitting behind his table in his private tent. He looked at his wristwatch and saw that the clock was almost six in the morning. There were five chairs on the opposite site of the table. His tent was illuminated by a single lantern on the table.

He could hear distant speaking, which got closer and closer. Then it stopped right behind his tent's door.

"Come in," He said in a loud voice.

Door flaps opened and five ponies came inside the tent. Crack Shot, Healing Horn, Riff, Spade and Heavy stood in order in front of him. Rough gestured them to sit down, which they did.

Rough looked at them for a moment, then he started talking: "I hope you had good sleep last night, because we're not probably going to sleep in the next forty-eight hours."

This caused Crack to frown, but Rough didn't pay any attention to it.

"We have received a message from Observation Alpha. They reported a changeling carriage crash landing about twelve klicks from fire base Zebra yesterday," Rough continued.

Stallions on the other side of the table changed couple of nervous looks with each other.

"We have received a command to go investigate the LZ to find out if any of them survived, and if there is any changeling intel there," Rough told them.

Crack and Healing looked at each other. Riff was looking pretty concerned too.

"This shouldn't be anything serious, but we're still going to be ready for a fight, if it goes to that," Rough said to them.

There were long silence between them. Nopony had expected for this. Silence lasted for moment longer. It seemed like eerypony had gone mute, but then Crack Shot spoke: "Sir?"

Rough looked at him, then he asked: "yes?"

"When are we leaving?" Crack asked.

Rough looked at him from behind his aviator glasses. Then he said: "We're leaving in thirty,"

"Hooah," Crack said.

"Hooah,"  others replied, including Rough himself.

First time out (Baptism by Fire)

Fifth day of assignment,

00:27

Somewhere near the border of Equestria

Luna's moon was shining over the hilly desert landscape. There were couple of snow topped mountains in the horizon. They seemed to reflect the moon's light, making them look like they were gigantic lighthouses.

Temperature was just under the zero, and the trees and plants were covered with frost

There were thin smoke rising from behind one small hill.

Six ponies were making their way towards the downed carriage in dense canopy. They were in a valley called Ursa valley. The legend says that it was made by rampaging ursa major many years ago.

Soldiers from observation post Alpha had said that the changeling carriage had crash landed somewhere in that valley. They had walked for seven hours to even get to the Ursa valley, then they had started to search the almost seven kilometers long valley for the changeling wagon.

Rough Gunner was on the lead, making a path for rest of them. Crack Shot followed him about five meters aback, Healing Horn was five meters behind him, then Heavy, Spade and Riff, who was guarding their rear. They moved slowly due the thick canopy in the bottom of the valley, but they couldn't move up to the hills, because there they would be too exposed and easy to spot by the possible changelings nearby.

Suddenly Rough stopped and lifted his hoof in the air, then he stepped aside from the path and entered the bushes. Crack stopped too, mimicking Rough's moves.

Soon everypony had stopped moving, hiding in the bushes. They all had guns drawn.

Riff was sitting on his haunches, pointing his assault rifle towards the hills. Spade sneaked to him. Spade crouched next to Riff, who and looked at him, still pointing his gun towards the hilltops.

"What?" Riff asked, with a quiet, annoyed voice.

"What do you think it is?" Spade asked from Riff

"I don't know, maybe he heard something?" Riff answered.

"Do you think it is the changelings?" nervous looking Spade asked.

Riff didn't answer.

After a while of nervous silence, Riff and Spade saw Rough emerge from the bushes, walking towards Crack. Riff and Spade put their weapons back to their holsters and started to move towards their team leader.

Heavy was behind fallen tree. He had his machine gun leaning against the tree trunk. Spade tapped on His shoulder when they passed him.

Heavy turned his head and saw Spade pointing towards Rough.

He understood what he meant and followed Riff and Spade.

Healing Horn and Crack Shot were already talking to Rough, when Riff reached them. Rough turned his head towards Riff and asked: "Do you smell that?"

They all sniffed the air. There were small hint smokey smell in the air.

"We're close now," Crack said.

They all started to look around them. They continued for a while before Healing pointed his hoof towards one small hill.

"There," he whispered.

They all turned towards the direction Healing's hoof was pointing. They saw thin smoke rising from behind the hill. Rough looked there, he took flask from his combat vest and took a long sip from it. Then he sat down and took his assault rifle from its holster on his back. He looked at the others and said: "Drink something and check your weapons, just in case"

Everypony sat down to check their equipment.

Riff was about to light a cigarette, but Rough took it from his mouth and threw it away. Riff had a confused look on his face.

"You can see a light cigarette miles away at night, use your head for fuck's sake," Rough Gunner scolded Riff, who noticed his mistake and went silent.

They were soon ready to move, and put their weapons back to heir backs. while strapping his rifle onto his back, Crack Shot cursed the fact that he was a pony. Every time a pony wanted to shoot, they would need to sit down or rose up to their. hind legs, making moving while shooting impossible. It was a real disadvantage in a battle.

Rough started to climb up the hill, behind which the smoke came. They reached the top in less than five minutes. They crawled behind one larger rock and saw what they were looking for.

The carriage had probably flown too low and had hit the hill they were lying on. It had flipped couple of times and crashed into a rock. Then it had catched on fire by unknown reason.

It was lying upside down and there were two black corpses lying near the wagon, or what was left of it.  Rough noticed that the carriage was made for four changelings, and there were only two bodies.

That meant two others had escaped, or were still somewhere near.

"Heavy, Crack Shot, stay here behind this rock, and cover our flanks while we're down there," Rough said to Crack and Heavy, who nodded.

They took their weapons from their holsters and adjusted the sights.

Heavy set up his machine gun on the bipod to increase the accuracy. He opened the cover of the feed tray, and inserted the ammunition belt into the feed tray. He then closed the cover and pulled the cocking handle, which made a cold metallic sound.

The gun was now loaded.

Rough then turned his head towards Riff and Spade.

"Riff, I don't think we can salvage anything out from that. -" He pointed towards the carriage "- Take Spade with you and rig it up." Rough said while looking at Riff.

"Understood," Riff answered.

Rough then turned to see Healing and said: "Healing Horn, first you'll send a letter to the FB Zebra, then you will come with me and check those bodies."

Rough looked at the scene in front of him, while Healing took a piece of paper and a pen.

"I'm ready sir, What do I write?" Healing said, holding the pen with his magic.

Rough started: "To fire base Zebra from Captain Rough Gunner. We found the crash-landed changeling carriage at coordinates -" Rough looked at his map for a second "- Golf 12, Charlie 9. Wreckage is burnt and worth nothing. At least two KIA changeling soldiers, two others have disappeared. Requesting orders. Over."

Healing quickly wrote the message on the paper, then he folded it in half. He took small seal from his pocket and licked it. Then he sealed the letter with it. Healing placed the letter on the ground in front of him and concentrated his magic into the small piece of paper.

There was a small white flash and the letter was gone.

After about thirty seconds, a small flash appeared in front of Healing Horn. It was a letter from fire base Zebra. Healing passed it to Rough, who broke the seal and read the letter. It was short and straight foward.

Major Valor, fire base Zebra to Captain Rough Gunner

Roger that Captain. Proceed to destroy the wreckage, search the dead for any useful intel. Leave the bodies. Contact us if the situation changes.

Rough read the letter and then ripped in half and gave it to healing, who put it in his pocket, to be destroyed later. Then Rough turned to his soldiers. He pumped his hoof up and down, as a sign to move out.

Riff and Spade started to crawl on the side of the hill, towards the carriage while Rough and Healing sneaked closer towards the two fallen changelings.

Riff and Spade were closing to wagon. They stopped behind one thick bush. Spade took his assault rifle from his back and pulled the charging handle back.

Riff looked at the wreckage for a second, then he turned to Spade and said: "You stay here and cover me if something happens."

Spade nodded. Just as Riff was going to move, Spade patted him on the shoulder.

Riff turned around and saw Spade holding a pistol in his  hoof.

"Take this," he said.

Riff understood what Spade meant. Pistol was better in close quarters and he could use it while moving with three hooves, unlike with his clumsy AR.

Riff nodded and took the pistol to himself. He removed the magazine to saw if it had any bullets. It had seven 9mm bullets in two rows, so it had fourteen bullets in total. Riff placed the mag back and pulled the slide back.

He saw one bronze colored bullet in the chamber. He released the slide, letting it snap back to it's place.

Riff started to advance towards the carriage.

Meanwhile Rough and Healing were hiding behind a small bulge. Healing held his assault rifle tightly against his chest. Rough was sitting next to him, examining the situation.

He saw how Riff was walking towards the wreck, while Spade was watching over him.

Rough looked at the corpses, both bodies were lying on the open. Anypony who would go search them would be really exposed.

He turned to Healing and asked: "How would you do this?"

Healing was surprised by sudden question. He still managed to answer: "I.. I think Spade and Riff have a good idea."

Rough turned to see what Healing meant. He saw Spade guarding Riff's back, while Riff was examining the wreckage. He came to the conclusion that it was best way to go.

"You or me?" Rough asked. Healing looked nervous.

"I don't think you need a medic. They are clearly dead and I wouldn't know what to look for," Healing explained with shaky voice.

"Okay, I'll go. You keep an eye on those trees over there," Rough said, pointing towards small set of thin trees. They were a perfect place to hide.

"Yes sir," Healing said. He gulped and loaded his gun. With that Rough Gunner was walking towards the bodies.

Crack Shot was leaning against the rock upper on the hill. Heavy was lying next to him, pointing his machine gun towards the opening.

Crack was placing a night vision scope to his assault rifles upper accessory rail. He quickly screwed it to place and adjusted it. Then he started to scan the area trough the scope. He saw Riff setting up explosives to the carriage.

He turned the rifle to the left, where he saw Captain Rough turning one of the dead changelings onto it's back. Crack saw Healing sitting behind bulge, looking around him nervously.

Crack turned his riffle back to Rough, who was now investigating the other body.

Just as Crack was going to turn his rifle, he saw something move behind a rock near Rough. He turned his rifle towards the rock. He saw something move again. Crack's heart started to beat faster as he saw something reflecting moon's light, something metallic.

Crack gasped. He then shouted: "Captain! To your left!"

It all happened really fast. Rough turned to his left and saw Changeling rising behind one rock. He had a big, mean looking eastern styled assault rifle in his hooves. Rough's weapon was strapped to his back, and his pistol was still in it's holster. He was completely helpless against the heavily armed changeling.

They were silent for a moment, just looking at each other.

Suddenly the changeling smirked and pointed his gun towards Rough.

Rough's eyes went wide and he let out a loud gasp.

"Die pony scum!" the changeling shouted, with it's high pitched, almost insect like voice

Changeling's weapon roared. Rough's only option was to jump aside. The ground where he had stood just a second ago exploded. Changeling laughed, as he turned his gun's barrel towards Rough, who stumbled towards the Wagon.

Changeling fired his assault rifle from the hip, sending another burst of lead towards running Rough, but the bullets missed almost by meter or so.

Rough Gunner was sure that he was going to die.

Rough heard gunshots. He closed his eyes and prepared for the impact, but it never came. Then he realized that the shots weren't from changeling's gun. They were from a small caliber handgun. He opened his eyes and looked around himself and saw muzzle flashes under the carriage.

It was Riff. He was lying under the wagon, shooting towards the changeling, suppressing him just enough for Rough Gunner to reach the safety of the downed carriage.

The changeling tried to rise from behind the rock to fire again, but five different guns were now spraying bullets towards him, making it impossible for him to move.

7,62 mm bullets from Heavy's machine gun were tearing the rock into little bits.

The air was full of tracer rounds, illuminating the small opening and making it look like some kind of a deadly laser show.

Rough took couple of deep breaths to calm down and let the adrenaline run out of his body. He then rose up, waving his hoof and shouting: "CEASE FIRE!"

Firing stopped. Couple of shots were fired from the hill. Probably Crack Shot, judging by the sound of the weapon.

Rough leaned against the wagon. Riff crawled from under the wagon. He sat next to Rough and held the now empty pistol in his hooves.

Rough turned to peek from behind the wagon. He saw that the rock was only about half the size it used to be. He saw Healing Horn pointing his rifle towards the rock. He was looking terrified. Rough was feeling a bit mean for leaving him all alone.

Rough looked at the rock again, then he shouted: "You don't need to do this! We have a medic, if you're injured!"

There were long silence. Rough was sure that the changeling behind the rock had been killed by the storm of lead.

The changeling slowly rose up from behind the rock. Everypony aimed their weapons towards him. Rough noticed that he was bleeding from his left front hoof.

"Lay down and put your front hooves behind your head!" Rough shouted.

Changeling was silent. He looked at them for a short time, then he shouted: "Long live the hive!"

He lifted his assault rifles muzzle into his mouth.

"Nonono!" Rough shouted, as the changeling pressed the trigger. There was a gunshot, and a big spray of blue blood exploded from the occipital of the changeling. He collapsed onto the ground, limp and lifeless.

Everypony were silent. Healing was sitting behind that same bulge where Rough had left him. He saw changelings body twitch couple of times before it ceased to move.

He felt sick. He was still pointing his gun at the lifeless body, but then he lowered it.

He suddenly felt his dinner coming up, but Healing managed to hold it in. He watched as Spade walked to Rough Gunner and Riff. They were reloading their guns.

Healing decided to do the same. He dropped his empty clip on the ground and took another, full one from his combat vest. Healing's hooves were shaking, which made it difficult to put the clip into the magazine well. After a while he managed to get it right and he pulled the charging handle.

Just as he had loaded his gun, he heard something rustling in the nearby bushes. Healing yelled and turned into that direction, he quickly fired couple of shots in the general direction of the sound.

He waited for a moment, then somepony or something shouted from the bushes: "Please... Don't... Shoot.."

it was a changeling voice, high pitched, but it didn't sound as cruel and evil as the previous had sounded.

Healing heard Rough shout: "Come closer! No weapons!"

Healing heard more rustling, and soon limping changeling emerged from the bushes. He had bandages around his body, and they were covered in blue blood.

The changeling had a pleading look on his face when he said: "Please... Help me.."

Healing saw Rough looking at the wounded changeling from behind the carriage. He said something to Riff, then Rough shouted: "Just take it easy. Lay down on the ground!"

The changeling whimpered, he seemed to be in some kind of shock. He kept wobbling on his hooves and didn't seem to understand what Rough had said. He just kept repeating: "Please... Help..."

Healing was still hiding behind the bulge, he was just couple of meters from the wounded changeling. He saw how it kept looking around himself nervously.

"Please... Help..." he pleaded again.

"Calm down! What's your name?" Rough tried.

The changeling froze. It didn't move, just stared at Rough Gunner. He opened and closed his mouth couple of time, then he drooped his head and said: "Name... I don't have a name... I'm drone 301829, made for transporting purposes..."

There were short silence. Even Rough had hard time trying to find words. After couple of minutes of silence Rough managed to speak again: "Okay... Umm... Drone. Just lay down and well get you fixed in no time!"

Changeling looked at him and sat down, he then started to plead again: "Please...the others will be here soon."

Everypony went silent.

"What do you mean by others?" Rough asked. His voice was full of concern. The changeling started crying.

"Please... I don't want to di.." he was cut off by a sharp sound of firing machine gun, and tracer sawed the poor changeling in half.. literally.

The changeling yelped and collapsed on the ground in two pieces.

Healing got sprays of blue blood on him.

"God dammit Heavy! Why did you do that!?" Rough shouted towards the hill.

"It.. It wasn't me!" Heavy shouted with shaky voice.

Rough's eyes widened. He quickly shouted: "EVERYPONY BACK TO THE HILL!"

Just then at least half a dozen muzzle flashes started to flutter on a nearby hill. Rough Gunner, Riff and Spade had to press themselves tightly against the upside down carriage, because the air around them was filled with bullets.

They couldn't move, but then Heavy opened fire towards the enemy MG, silencing it.

Crack Shot was spotting changelings with his night vision scope for Heavy, who fired short bursts towards the direction Crack was giving him.

"Behind that tree!" Crack shouted and pointed his hoof towards barely visible tree. Heavy fired three second burst and the tree exploded into small splinters.

Crack saw three changelings approaching the carriage from left, behind some bushes. Riff, Rough and Spade seemed to have their attention concerned towards the hill, and they were unaware of the enemies approaching them.

"Left from the wagon!" Crack shouted to Heavy.

"I can't see them!" Heavy shouted back.

"Just shoot where I shoot!" Crack shouted and lifted his rifle to firing position. He saw that the three changelings were almost at the carriage. He shot five quick shots towards the first changeling, who fell down on his back, squirming for a second before he stopped moving.

The other two tried to hide behind the bushes, but they were gunned down by a long burst of Heavy's machine gun.

Riff leaned against the wagon. He shot couple of times towards the muzzle flashes on the hill. Spade was reloading his gun and Rough was firing towards the hill too. Riff was about to shoot again, but bullet ricocheted from right next to his head, making him fall back behind cover.

"Were you hit?" Spade asked and looked at Riff, who shook his head.

"How are we going to get out from here!?" Riff asked from Rough, who was firing towards small group of enemies. He shot couple times more and returned behind the wagon. He changed a new mag to his rifle. Then he looked at Riff and Spade.

"Did you plant the explosives already?" he asked from Riff.

"Yes," Riff answered while shooting towards the hill.

Rough did the same. After that he said: "I have a plan. We are going to run behind that fallen tree. -" Rough pointed his hoof towards fallen tree about fifteen meters from the wagon "- When we're there, we will let the changelings advance near the carriage. Then you will detonate the charges. While they try to recover from the blast, we will run up to Crack Shot and Heavy."

Riff wasn't sure if that would work, but it was best plan this far. He nodded as agreement.

"I will cover you two while you run, and then you two will cover me. Got it?" Rough asked.

"Right, ready Spade?" Riff asked from Spade, who nodded nervously.

They strapped their weapons to their backs. Rough waited for a good moment, then he opened fire towards the nearby enemies.

"Go now!" He shouted.

Riff and Spade ran while Rough Gunner kept enemy suppressed. Heavy seemed to have same idea. He shot long bursts that forced changelings to keep their heads low.

Spade and Riff quickly reached the tree trunk and jumped over it. They took their weapons from their backs and now it was their turn to cover Rough.

They shot at everything that moved behind the carriage, making the moving of changelings hard.

Riff saw how Rough started running. He saw one changeling appearing from behind the carriage, aiming towards Rough. Riff acted fast and shot at the changeling three times.

All the bullets hit the changelings right into his chest, making him fell backwards on the ground. Two more appeared after him, but they had to retreat behind the carriage because of Riff and Spade were firing towards them.

Rough Gunner reached the fallen tree. He leaned against it, breathing heavily. Riff took the detonator in his hooves. He waited for Roughs order. Spade shot towards the wagon, keeping the changelings behind it. Rough tapped onto his shoulder. Spade strapped his rifle behind his back and they were ready to go.

"Hit it Riff" Rough said.

Large explosion illuminated the night and the sound was ear shattering. The carriage had disappeared into a big ball of fire. Healing Horn saw five changelings exploding into bits with the wagon.

He noticed that Rough, Riff and Spade were galloping up towards the hill. Should he do the same?

Just as he was going to run for it, Healing heard shouting behind him. He turned around and saw group of changelings moving towards him. They hadn't noticed Healing, who had been hiding behind the bulge.

Healing checked his weapon. It was loaded and he had four full clips in his combat vest's pockets.

Healing was terrified, changelings were now less than ten meters away from him.

He had only one option.

Healing lifted his rifle and put the buttstock tightly against his shoulder. He lined the sights to nearest changeling's chest and squeezed the trigger.

Shot send the bullet flying towards it's target.

Time slowed around Healing as he saw bullet hit the changeling. Blue blood sprayed from his chest. changeling's expression went from angry to surprised and then shocked. He fell down on the ground.

It was Healing's first kill. He looked at the body, waiting it to rise up again, but it didn't. He felt the adrenaline run trough his veins.

Healing was quickly brought back to reality, by bullets ripping the ground in front of him. Healing turned his rifle towards next target and fired. This time he didn't hit. He shot again and heard a yelp. He had hit one changeling in the leg.

He tried to drag himself behind one rock, but bullets from Healing's weapon reached him before that.

Three changelings now opened fire towards Healing.

He tried to return fire, but his gun didn't work. He tried to pull the trigger again, with same results.

"Oh fuck, Jam!" he shouted to no-one.

Crack Shot was shooting towards the approaching changelings, when Riff, Spade and Rough jumped besides him, breathing heavily after running up the hill.

He aimed trough his scope and saw one changeling setting up a heavy machine gun. Crack aimed and pulled the trigger. Round hit the changeling right in the head. Other one tried to continue setting up the gun, but Crack took him down too.

"We need to pull back!" Spade shouted.

"I must first send a letter to the fire base! Healing Horn get over he.." Rough started, but stopped when he noticed that Healing was nowhere to be seen.

"Where the hell is he?" Riff shouted.

Crack Shot scanned the battlefield with his scope. He found Healing crouching over his gun, trying to unload a jammed bullet from the chamber, while three changelings were approaching his positions.

"Oh fuck! His gun is jammed!" Crack shouted and started to strap his weapon onto his back.

"Riff, give me couple of those grenades you have," Crack said to Riff, who quickly took couple of grenades from his combat vest, and gave them to Crack.

Crack Shot ran towards Healing, behind the hilltop so changelings couldn't see him.

When he was just over Healing, he pulled the pin from one grenade and threw it towards the enemy. The grenade landed next to one changeling with a small thud. He turned to see what it was, and a terror filled his eyes. He tried to jump behind a small rock, but it was to late.

A sharp explosion ripped the changeling's leg off.

He rolled on the ground, screaming loudly until one of his comrades came and shot him.

Crack threw another grenade. That one landed between Healing Horn and two changelings. Healing ducked, but he two changelings weren't fast enough and were killed by the blast.

"Run Healing run!" Crack Shot shouted, and Healing did just that. He ran as fast as he could, and finally reached the top of the hill.

"Holy.. fuck, that.. was... a close one," Healing panted. Crack Shot smirked and patted him on the shoulder.

Rough was leaning against a rock with Riff. Spade and Heavy were shooting towards the enemy. Crack Shot and Healing trotted to them.

"Healing Horn, send a letter to fire base Zebra," Rough said to Healing.

"Yes sir," Healing answered and took a paper and a pen.

Rough started: "Crash landed carriage is destroyed. We are under heavy enemy fire, multiple enemy KIA's. No friendly casualties. Requesting a pickup. We can't hold the enemy for much more longer."

Healing sent the message, and soon a letter came to him. He gave it to Rough, who read it.

Major Valor, fire base Zebra to Captain Rough Gunner

Roger that captain. We have sent a armed carriage to pick you up at coordinates Golf 13, Charlie 9 ETA twenty minutes. Move to the extraction point as soon as possible. Mark your location with green smoke. Try to hold on captain, help is on the way.

Rough planned for a short time, then he decided that they must get moving right now.

"Heavy, Riff. You stay here and cover our retreat. After five minutes, follow us to extraction point, which is behind that hill," Rough said to Heavy and Riff, while pointing towards the extraction point.

Heavy and Riff nodded. Rough put his hoof on Riff's shoulder and said: "Good luck."

Then they were off.

"Give me new belt from my bag," Heavy said to Riff, who did as he was told. He opened Heavy's bag and took a new 250 round belt of 7.62mm bullets. He gave it to Heavy who attached it to the old belt, so he could continue shooting without reloading.

Riff took his rifle and reloaded it. He was down on his last two clips. He had to make his shots count.

Heavy shot short burst towards three changelings that were climbing up the hill they were on. They all got hit and their bodies rolled down the hill.

Riff aimed his every shot. He saw one changeling running from cover to cover. Riff waited until he started to run again and shot. Riff hit the changeling right in the side. Another one tried to pull his downed comrade to cover, but Riff shot him in the stomach, leaving him severely wounded.

There were small group of changelings under the hill. They started to climb up the hill, but Heavy took them out with a long burst of lead.

No matter how much they shot, changelings seemed to keep coming. Riff was running low on ammo and Heavy had only three quarters of belt left.

"I think we should bail," Riff suggested. Heavy shot one more burst, before he lifted his machine gun to his back.

"Let's go," He said. Riff nodded and they started running after rest of their team.

Meanwhile Rough Gunner, Crack Shot, Healing Horn and Spade had reached the extraction point. They had found a good, open space in the rocky terrain for the wagon to land.

Sun was already rising over the horizon, making it easier to see, but it meant that the changelings would see them better too.

Rough noticed that the distant gunfire had stopped, so Riff and Heavy were on their way towards them.

He looked at his wrist watch. Their ride should be there in about ten minutes.

"Listen up! If we're lucky, the wagon will be here before the changelings can reach us. But if they do, we need to be ready!" Rough explained to Healing, Crack and Spade.

"Spade and Crack, go behind that rock. There you will have a good visibility towards those trees," Rough said to them.

"Healing, you will take positions here. When you see Heavy and Riff, point them over here," He said while digging green smoke grenade from his combat vest's pocket.

Everypony took positions. Now they just had to wait.

Soon Healing saw Heavy running with his big weapon on his back. Riff was right behind him. Healing stood up and waved his hooves. They saw it and changed their direction towards him.

Riff laid next to Healing, breathing heavily. Heavy didn't even seem winded, while he set up his machine gun on a nearby tree stub.

They were ready to hold off the changelings until their ride arrives.

"You have any clips I can borrow? Im running on my last one," Riff asked from Healing.

"Yeah sure," Healing answered, giving Riff one full magazine.

"Thanks," Riff said and jerked his old clip from his rifle. He then inserted his new full clip into the magazine well. After finishing that, Riff looked at Healing, who noticed Riff staring.

"What?" he asked annoyed.

"Umm.. You got something on you," Riff said, pointing his hoof towards Healing's face. Healing remembered how he got sprayed with the changeling's blood, when he got shot in half.

Healing started to gag and tried to swipe the blood from his face. All he managed to do was to smear it all over his face. He calmed down after a minute, and tried not to think about it.

"Get ready! Here they come!" Rough shouted suddenly.

They saw couple of changelings approaching them in the dense canopy. Heavy was first to shoot, making the changelings run for cover. More of them appeared from the bushes.

Muzzle flashes fluttered from behind rocks and trees and the bullets were flying past the ponies.

Spade and Crack started shooting at enemies advancing from the left, while Healing and Riff kept enemy from flanking their right side. Heavy and Rough were shooting at the changelings in front of them.

Healing shot towards couple of enemies in front of him, hitting at least one of them. Others ducked under the bushes and rocks. A burst from enemy's weapon forced Healing to duck down.

Riff was shooting at enemies, who tried to flank them behind a small bulge.

He noticed that bullets didn't reach the changelings behind the bulge, so he grabbed his last grenade from his combat vest, pulled the pin and counted to two, before throwing it towards the flanking enemies.

The grenade landed right behind them, so they didn't notice it before it was too late.

The bulge muffled the explosion, but Riff and Healing could see a burst of earth and something that looked like a hoof, flying form behind it.

"I'm out of ammo!" Heavy shouted to Rough, who was busy keeping the changelings as far as possible from them. Between couple of shots, Rough tossed his pistol to Heavy, who picked it up and started firing towards the enemies.

Rough saw that changelings were getting closer and closer. One was dashing towards Rough, but he gunned it down before it got too close.

Another one appeared behind the bushes, wielding only a combat knife. Rough turned his assault rifle towards him, but when he squeezed the trigger, all the gun did was just klick.

"Oh fuck!" he shouted, while the changeling jumped at him, making them both fall on the ground. Rough and changeling rolled on the ground for a second, but then Rough got it pinned under him. The changeling tried to stab Rough in the face, but he caught the knife before it hit him, turning it's blade at the changeling.

The changeling tried to resist with all it's powers, but Rough leaned against the knife with his whole body, making it sink into changelings throat.

It groaned and blue blood flooded from its mouth and throat. He tried to gasp fo air, but it was useless. Changeling twitched couple of times and then died.

Rough go up to his hooves and grabbed his rifle. He reloaded it and continued shooting.

Crack Shot saw the struggle between Rough and changeling, but he didn't have time to think about it, because changelings were getting close to them too. They were advancing from cover to cover, while the others cave them suppressing fire. Crack stood up and shot the advancing changelings as they left from cover, killing at least three of them before he had to retreat back behind the rock for cover from the enemy fire.

Spade leaned from behind the rock to shoot, but fell down on his back. He tried to rose up, but his left front hoof was limp.

Spade tried to stood up again, with same results.

"What the hay.." confused Spade said.

Crack saw red blood running from under Spade's combat west.

Now Spade's expression turned into fear. He held his chest with his right hoof and started sceraming.

Healing could hear Spade screaming. Crack waved at him and shouted: "Spade's been hit!"

He was only medic in the team, so he had to leave his position to help Spade.

He gave Riff his last clip and ran towards the sound of Spade crying out in pain. He saw Crack Shooting towards the enemy, while spade was leaning on the rock, screaming out loud.

"Let me see the wound!" Healing shouted to Spade, who was still holding his right hoof over his bloody chest. Healing removed Spade's hoof from the way, then he took closer look at the wound.

It looked bad. The hole left by bullet was bleeding dark red blood,

Spade's face was turning white and he was now silent.. Healing dug bandages from his pockets and tried to apply them around Spade's chest, while bullets were flying past his head.

After that he kept pressing area near the wound, so Spade wouldn't be bleeding so badly, but he still was starting to fall unconscious. Healing knew that if Spade would pass out, he wouldn't wake up anymore.

Healing tried to remember what they had been taught about heavy blood loss, then he remembered the adrenaline syringe in his bag.

Healing quickly dug it out from his bag and removed the plastic cover from the needle.

Healing Horn ripped Spade's jacket open, so he could inject the content of the needle into his friend.

Spade wasn't moving anymore, and his eyes were half lidded. Healing knew that he had to do this fast.

He raised the syringe above his head, and then stabbed it right into Spade's blood covered chest.

Spade moaned when Healing injected the adrenaline into his chest, but it didn't seem to work, and Spade was still half-fainted.

Healing was feeling powerless. He could do nothing else to help his friend. Spade was dying in his arms.

He thought that all was lost, but the he heard Riff shouting: "I see the wagon!"

There were a small dot near the sun in the distance, and it was moving fast towards them. Rough pulled the pin from the smoke grenade and tossed it into the opening, which soon was filled with green thick smoke.

The carriage curved to them and was started to circle over the battlefield.

It was flown by four pegasus ponies. The wagon itself was big, green structure. It was meant for transporting ponies from one place to another, but now there was one earth pony readying a massive 50.cal machine gun that was attached to the side of the wagon. When he was ready, the gunner started to fire his weapon at changelings.

The machine gun roared and sent deadly bursts of tracers towards enemies, ripping them apart into a bloody mess.

Not even rocks could give protection to changelings. 50.cal bullets blasted right trough them.

"Retreat now!" Rough shouted and started to move towards the landing zone. Riff and Heavy too departed from their fighting positions, under the covering fire of the carriage. Crack packed his rifle and threw it on his back, he then crouched over Healing Horn and Spade, who was still bleeding trough his bandages.

"Will he make it?" he asked from Healing.

"I don't know," Healing said with a sad expression on his face.

The carriage started to land on the opening.

"Take spade there first!" Rough shouted.

Healing tried to lift Spade, but he was too heavy for him to carry alone. Riff and Crack Shot soon came and helped Healing to carry now unconscious Spade into the carriage, while Rough and Heavy covered them. Rough and Heavy were the last ones to get inside.

"All in! Lets get the fuck out of here!" Rough shouted to the pegasies, who quickly took off. Changeling's still tried to shoot at them, even they were flying full speed away from them. Couple of rounds even hit the carriage, but the gunner returned fire with the 50.cal. Changelings had to duck for cover, and soon they were out of range of the changelings weapons.

"You were in a quite a mess down there," the pony mounting the 50.cal said to them, but nopony answered and he realized that it was better if he would just shut up.

Riff laid exhausted on the floor of the carriage. Crack was siting in the corner, shaking from the tension of the battle.

"R..Riff, C.. Could you give me a c.. cigarette," he asked from Riff, who rose up to sitting position.

He started to get shaky too, and taking cigarette from the pack was a real challenge. He got frustrated and emptied the whole pack on the floor.

Rough Gunner, Healing Horn and Heavy were crouched over Spade. Heavy was right behind Healing, who tried to change the bandages around Spade's chest.

"Is he going to be okay doc? I.. I mean I've know him since we were just little colts. Tell me his going to be okay..." Heavy said to Healing. He didn't answer, and Rough was silent too.

Heavy watched his friend lying on the floor of the wagon. Healing opened the bandages, exposing the wound, which spurted blood on the floor. The sight was too much for Heavy, he leaned across the wagon and puked.

It wasn't the blood that made him sick, it was his best friend bleeding to death.

He wiped his mouth, and  turned away. He sat next to Riff and took one cigarette from the floor.

He was crying.

Rough looked at Heavy for a brief moment, then he turned to Healing Horn and asked: "Will he make it?"

Healing didn't answer at first, he was too busy trying to stem the constant flow of blood from Spade's chest.

"I don't know, he has lost a lot of blood. The bullet must have went trough near the heart," Healing said silently. Rough watched at Spade's  unconscious body. Healing finally changed the bandages. He looked at Spade, who was lying in a big pool of his own blood.

He turned to Rough, he had tears in his eyes.

"I can't stop the bleeding.." he whimpered.

"You did all you could have done," Rough said and held his hoof on Healing's shoulder.

"Sit down and have a cigarette, it will calm your nerves down," Rough said to him silently.

Healing nodded and settled himself next to Crack Shot.

Rough stood up and looked over the horizon. They were at least fifteen minutes from the fire base Zebra. He turned his head towards his soldiers, who looked at him with a asking look on their faces.

Rough sat in front of them and said: "You did good today, all of you."

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

Sun had now completely risen up from behind the horizon. Painting the sky with a orange glow. There was a big black dot approaching fire base Zebra from the west.

The carriage was now descending towards fire base Zebra. There were major Valor and two royal guards waiting for it on the edge of the landing pad.

The wagon made a long curve so it could drop some of the speed before landing neatly on the pad.

Five exhausted looking, dirty ponies jumped from the carriage and started to walk towards the barracks.

Heavy was crying, Riff and Healing were holding him from the shoulders while they walked.

One of the pegasies noticed that they had left their equipment on the wagon. He unhitched himself from the wagon and flew towards Crack Shot, landing in front of him.

"Hey buddy, you need to unpack you're things from my wagon," he said angrily.

"Fuck off," Crack said and shoved him aside. The pegasus tried to stop him, but he was already gone. He then turned to Rough Gunner.

"Did you just hear what your soldier said to me, a officer higher in rank than him?" he said with a shocked expression on his face. Rough pushed himself against the pegasus, who seemed to shrink under Rough's stare.

"Yeah, I heard. He told you to FUCK OFF!" Rough shouted with his deep voice and pushed the surprised pegasus on the ground.

The pegasus quickly backed up to his friends, still lying on the ground.

Rough Gunner continued walking to major Valor and two royal guards, who saluted to him.

Rough just looked at them, not saluting back, which made them frown.

Major Valor looked at Rough. He gave a quick look at the carriage, and then said: "Give me a situation report."

Rough took of his aviator glasses, revealing his green eyes.

He looked Valor right in the eyes when he said: "Mission accomplished"

"Anything else?" Valor asked.

Rough looked back at the wagon. He sighed and turned his head towards Valor again..

He looked at the older stallion in front of him for a moment, then he said: "one KIA."

FB Zebra, days 6-8

Day 6

2nd platoon was asleep, all except, Riff, Healing Horn and Crack Shot, who couldn't sleep. They all were going over the events of the night when they had been attacked.

Healing couldn't shake the image of dying spade from his head. He remembered how he did all he could, but still couldn't help Spade.

Healing had helped other medical staff to carry Spade to aid station. There they cleaned him up and placed him into a wooden coffin. Everyone was silent, then doctor Sawbone placed folded Equestria flag over the coffin.

"First victim of war," Sawbone said.

"What do you mean doctor? We're not in war with changelings," blue unicorn next to Healing said.

Sawbone looked at the blue unicorn with sadness in his eyes.

He pointed at Spade's coffin and asked: "What does that look like to you?"

Blue unicorn was silent. Then Sawbone turned to healing.

"What was it like out there? Hm?" Sawbone inquired from Healing Horn. Healing looked at the coffin in front of him.

He remembered how many times he got shot at and almost lost his life, how frightened he was when his gun jammed...

and his first kill.

Then he turned back to Sawbone and said: "it was like war."

Sawbone nodded.

"There you have it! Soon there will be more incidents like this and then we find ourselves in total war," Sawbone said to the rest of the ponies, who were all silent.

"Now get out of here, all of you. Get some sleep," Sawbone said and sat down behind his table and started to fill some papers.

Healing quavered in his bed. It was first time he realized that they were going to be in war.

Crack Shot was lying in half sitting position on his bed.

He saw small red glow of Riff's cigarette, so he was awake too.

Crack knew what Riff  was thinking. Riff had been talking about Spade for the last twenty-four hours.

Crack Shot turned his head towards the only window in their barrack. Night was almost over, and the horizon was starting to turn orange.

Crack wasn't thinking about Spade, they barely knew each other. He was thinking about what happens next.

If they were going to war, could they win the changelings, and what if they couldn't, what would happen next? Would changelings conquer whole Equestria?

These were the questions rampaging trough Crack's head.

He wasn't worried about himself. He was worried about the fate of Equestria.

Crack had always wanted to join the royal guard, to serve and protect the country he loved.

He went to the try-outs when he was seventeen, but when he went to the test, they said he wasn't fitting for the job. '

He got really upset and started train. He went to try-out for three more times, with the same results.

Crack enlisted to the army after that, he wanted to serve Equestria in one way or another.

Crack Shot rested his head on his pillow. He looked at Riff, who was still smoking.

Riff was lying in his bed, slowly smoking a cigarette.

He looked at the empty bed on his Right side. It was Spade's bed.

He then looked on the floor next to his bed. There were three empty packs on the floor. He then looked at his fourth pack. It had two cigarettes in it. He took one cigarette from it.

"I'm going to more likely die from a nicotine overdose than changeling bullets, but hay with that," he said to himself with a hushed voice and light the cigarette with the stub of the last one. Then he returned to his thoughts

"Ready Spade?"

Those were his last words to Spade. Riff was feeling guilty.

Even at the carriage he didn't say anything to his dying friend. Actually he didn't even know that Spade was dying, he thought that Spade's injury wasn't anything serious, just a flesh wound or something.

It had been on Riff's mind ever since. He wanted to make it up to Spade, somehow, that's why he couldn't sleep.

He light another cigarette and threw the empty pack on the floor to others.

Riff looked around himself. He noticed that Crack Shot had fallen asleep, so was Healing Horn.

Riff sighed, took last, long drag from his cigarette and stubbed it on the floor. He then turned to his side and pulled the blanket over his head.

Day 7

Rough Gunner and other team leaders were standing next to Major Valor outside of Valor's tent.There was also three royal guards with them. They were standing still, waiting for Valor's sing.

The old grey pony just watched at his wristwatch, standing next to a long wooden pole with a loudspeakers attached to it.

Exactly at six o'clock in the morning Valor pulled the switch used to activate the loudspeakers, that started howl.

Rough stood still. After a moment he saw sleepy ponies trotting towards them, arranging in rows in front of their team leaders.

Rough soon spotted Healing Horn, Crack Shot and Riff in the formation. The trio looked really tired, Rough knew that they hadn't slept last night.

It had happened to himself too, when he was in his first battle with the griffons many years aback.

"Good morning soldiers!" Major Valor greeted the ponies in front of him.

"Good morning Major!" they answered in unison. Valor looked at them. His expression was a mix of tiredness and sadness. Valor waited for a moment before continuing: "Even I said 'good morning', this morning has been everything but good."

Rough saw ponies looking at each other confusedly.

"Today, at zero five hundred we got a letter -" Valor pauses for a second "- From all three princesses," Valor said.

There were quiet speaking within the ponies standing in front of Rough, but they silenced when Rough stomped his hoof in the ground.

"Thank you captain," Valor said. He then continued: "The letter was pointed to all the soldiers who are stationed here, in fire base zebra. It has very grim news in it."

Valor took a piece of paper from his pocket and opened it. It had a royal seal in it.

He looked at the paper and started reading:

To all Fire Base Zebra's brave soldiers.

We, your princesses have really sad and frighting news for you. After your incident with the changelings the day before yesterday, incidents similar to that have occurred all around the Equestria - Changeling Kingdom borders.

We are sorry to inform you that we have declared a war against the Changeling Kingdom.

You will soon receive your new commands.

Be safe our little ponies.

Princessess Celestia, Luna and Twilight Sparkle

When Valor finished reading, he folded the paper in half and put it back to his pocket. He looked at the now silent ponies in front of him. He waited for a minute to let the message sink in, before he continued talking.

"Observation post Alpha has reported activity around the changeling camp. We we suspect that they are planning a large-scale invasion, but we won't let that happen." Valor said.

"Hooah!" team leaders shouted, and so did the rest of the ponies.

Major Valor smiled a small sad smile.

"What will we do?" shouted somepony from the second group, and Valor turned towards him.

"What we will do is attack first!" Valor shouted to everypony, who stomped on the ground and started to cheer.

"We will strike them down before they even reach our borders!" Valor continued and the soldiers stomped the ground and cheered even louder.

"Tomorrow, with the help of royal guard, our base and our neighboring bases fire base Charlie and combat outpost Echos will be attacking changeling's near border camps!" Valor explained.

"We will also have air support from the military airbase Bravo, It will be helluva show!" Valor said to ponies, who were still cheering, but Valor gestured them to be silent.

When everypony was silent, Valor said: "Now I have some other things to say."

Rough perked up, this was it.

"Private Healing Horn, Private Riff, Private Heavy and Private Crack Shot," Valor said.

"Step forward!" Rough commanded in his deep voice, and soon they all were standing in front of him. They had puzzled looks on their faces when Valor took another piece of paper with a royal seal from his pocket.

Valor opened the message and started reading:

By the orders of princesses, all soldiers who fought the changelings at the Ursa valley, are to be promoted instantly due their heroic actions under harsh conditions and enemy presence. Private Spade is to be treated with hero's burial at his hometown.

Shining Armor, Captain of the royal guard.

"Ten-hut!" Rough shouted and the four ponies were now standing in perfect order. Valor walked to them and stopped in front of them.

"Private Heavy, Private Healing Horn, Private Crack Shot and Private Riff Frost," He said again.

"Yes sir!" they answered.

"You are promoted to corporals at this moment," Valor said and shook hooves with them all.

After that they said in unison: "Thank you, sir!"

Valor nodded and walked back to stand next to the royal guards.

"Back in line!" Rough commanded and Riff, Crack, Healing and Heavy quickly returned to their places.

Rough was proud of them. They had earned their promotions.

"Now your team leaders will inform you about tomorrow, Fight well and die brave!" Valor finished and walked inside his tent with the royal guards.

"HOOAH! Ponies shouted.

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

Rough Gunner was now inside the Barrack C with the rest of his soldiers. He was standing next to a big map that had some raw sketches drawn on it. His soldiers were sitting on the floor and beds.

"Okay listen up! We're almost done here," Rough said, and the ponies perked up.

"This here -" Rough points at big A on the map "- is our target. It's one of the three major changeling camps near our borders," Rough explained. He then drew a circle around it with a red pen.

"Other bases will attack camps B and C, but that's not our concern," Rough said, earning couple of chuckles from the ponies.

"We will have one group of royal guards attacking with us, and military airbase Bravo will give us air support, so this should be a in and out kind of a job, but I don't want to see anypony being a hero. Shoot only from cover and stay low," Rough said with a serious tone in his voice.

"Any questions?"

"Sir, When will the royal guards come?" somepony asked.

"They will be here tomorrow morning, anything else?" Rough asked and looked around the room.

Everypony was silent for a moment, but  then Crack asked: "What happens after this?"

Rough thought for a moment, but didn't come up with any good answer.

"I don't know. Hopefully changelings will be smart enough to stop the plans for attack," Rough said.

"And if they aren't?" Riff asked. Rough was silent again.

"Then we have to start advancing until they surrender, but hopefully we don't need to go that far," Rough answered.

Riff and Crack nodded.

"Okay. Now go get something to eat. Tomorrow we will leave at four o'clock," Rough said.

Day 8

Clock was quarter to two, and fire base Zebra was in total chaos. Everypony was running around, checking their equipment and loading their magazines. Pegasies were landing on the pads nonstop, dropping ammunition and other supplies, while officers were shouting at them to hurry up.

Crack Shot was loading his magazines just outside the barrack C. Riff was sitting next to him. They didn't seem to care about the ruckus around them. They just kept inserting a bullet after bullet into their clips, until they were full, when they laid the full clip inside their combat vests.

"Hey Riff," Crack said suddenly.

"What?" Riff asked while reloading his last clip.

"What's your home like?" Crack asked. Riff stopped reloading. He turned to look at Crack, who had also stopped realoding his clips.

"You really want to know right now?" Riff asked, looking confused.

"Yeah, I thought that small talking would lift the atmosphere," Crack said grinning.

Riff turned away and started to insert more bullets to the magazine. After a while he said: "Well, it has lots of snow."

"Yeah I reckon," Crack said.

"You asked, I answered," Riff said annoyed.

"Just messing with ya," Crack said and hit Riff in the shoulder playfully. Riff frowned, but continued.

"Like I said, there's lots of snow. Almost all the time, but you get used to it after living there your whole life. I can't stand this heat. It's driving me crazy," Riff said and looked up. Even the clock was only two in the morning, the temperature was at least over twenty degrees.

"What about you? What is your home like?" Riff asked from Crack, who was now cleaning his rifle's firing mechanism.

"In Manehattan you're always busy, and I don't like it. I'd move away if I had money," Crack said.

"After this you will have pretty good sum of bits in your pocket," Riff said and started to attach grenades into his combat vest.

"Yeah, If I ever get away from here alive," Crack said sadly.

They both went silent.

"Well there's pretty good looking mares around there," Crack said after a while and smiled.

"I bet," Riff said, taking his rifle into his hooves and opening the ejection port.

"You have a marefriend?" Crack asked from Riff.

"I've had couple, but they weren't my type. They were too... cold," Riff said while cleaning his rifle.

Crack chuckled.

"I is legal to do it with a body in Crystal mountains?" He asked with a big grin.

"What? No! You're sick!" Riff said and blushed. He then continued: "I mean they were always so cruel and they just used me. I wan't somepony who is.. How do I say this.. caring," Riff said.

"I hear ya" Crack said and assembled his rifle back together.

Suddenly Healing Horn walked to them. He sat next to Riff.

"What were you talking about?" Healing asked and started to roll bandages into neat rolls.

"About our homes." Riff said.

"Yeah. Hey you were from the Ponyville right? What is it like over there?" Crack asked.

Healing placed the bandages in his bag, he then said: "Pretty normal, one ursa minor attack, one rampaging dragon and one time discord changed it to a chaos capital."

Riff and Crack were silent. They looked at HEaling with wide eyes, and then they looked at each other.

"Yeah that's how I felt couple of years back, but you get used to it."

Everypony started laughing. After a long laugh Healing said: "I miss home."

"Yeah, Me too," Crack said.

Riff stood up and quickly went inside the Barrack . Crack and Healing looked at each other in confusion. Was it something they said?

Soon Riff returned with his guitar on his back. He sat down and took the guitar into his hooves. Riff started to play, he played couple of tests before he stopped. Then he started the actual song.

He strummed the guitar and played couple of seconds before he started to sing:

"Feels like longer than forever, yeah

My home is now a distant land

If I had one wish, I wish I could be

Back on that snowy rock in the middle of the snow

My Heart is calling me to the mountains

Blue skies, and cold breeze

I wanna go back home....

You can take the boy from the mountain,

But not the mountain from the boy

Because the mountain stays in your heart

And I'll never forget where I'm from

Oh no, I'll never forget

No I'll never forget

Where I'm from..."

Healing Horn and Crack Shot looked at Riff in amazement, while Riff light a cigarette and started to play another song, probably his own.

"That was amazing!" Healing said.

"Yeah, how can you play so well?" Crack asked.

Riff looked at him and said: "I dunno. I just started practicing and then I joined the band."

"Band? You have a band?" surprised Healing said.

Riff just nodded.

"So you play in a band, I never would  have guessed," Crack Shot said and looked at Riff, stunned.

"I think I have seen you play in Ponyville," a new voice said.

They all lifted their heads and saw black pegasus wearing thunderbolt uniform, standing in front of them. He had a blue mohawk and aviator classes resting on his forehead.

"Thunderlane!" Healing Horn said excited  and jumped up to hug the pegasus, while Riff and Crack looked at each others.

"What are you doing here?" Healing asked when he released his friend from the hug.

"I am stationed to the airbase Bravo. I came here to plan the attack with your officers," Thunderlane explained.

"So you will be helping us today?" Crack Shot asked.

"That's right." he answered smiling.

"You guys better bomb the place good, I don't want to get killed today," Riff said and placed clip into his assault rifle.

Thunderlane looked at the trio. He seemed to think about something.

"Weren't you the ones at ursa valley?" he finally asked.

"That's us," Healing said.

"Hay, they told that it was pretty intense there," Thunderlane said seriously.

They all were silent for a while. Then Healing said: "Yeah.. You know Spade from Ponyville?"

"I think I remember, how?" Thunderlane asked.

"Well, he got hit and it was pretty bad... He died," Healing said. Thunderlane went silent.

"That's.. that's bad," was all he could say.

They were silent for a minute longer, checking their equipments.

Silence was broken by Healing asking: "Well, how is it going back home?"

Thunderlane seemed to perk up when he said: "Really good, met a really nice mare just before I left here."

"Really, who is it?" Healing asked.

"Oh I bet you know her," Thunderlane said smirking.

"Come on tell me," Healing pleaded.

"Okay okay. It's R..." Thunderlane was interrupted by the loudspeakers howling. Riff and Crack stood up and took their weapons and equipments. Healing too packed his things, then he turned to see Thunderlane.

"We need to go now, It was nice talking to you," he said.

"Yeah, be safe out there," Thunderlane said to Healing, who nodded.

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

Rough Gunner was standing in his battle gear outside the gates. He was facing twenty-two soldiers. They were all ready for battle, at least physically. Rough examined his soldiers. All were young, almost colts, and still they were going to their first real battle.

Rough sighed and started to speak: "Soldiers! -" everypony perked up "- Today we are going to attack the changelings at their own ground, which they know better. We must be at high alert when we cross the border.

They probably have scouts, so they will know when we start our attack, but we are one of Equestria's finest soldiers, so they don't have a change!"

Everypony were silent.

"We will meet the royal guards when we reach the changeling camp, then the pegasies will bomb the enemy, then is our time to move in the camp and capture it. Remember changelings can be dangerous, even if they are wounded so don't take any risks. Understood?" Rough asked.

"Yes sir!" ponies answered in unison.

"Good, lets get moving!" He shouted

Fighting begins

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!"

Fighting continues

Rough Gunner and his soldiers watched in terror, as the tank began to emerge from left side of the main building.

A big black vehicle made from metal rolled slowly from behind the building. It looked simple built, like a big block of metal with a barrel attached to it, but it made it look even more intimidating. I'ts tracks crushed everything on it's way and its barrel was aimed towards the sky. There was a big cloud of steam rising from behind it.

"How can it even move!?" a pony next to Rough asked with a scared voice.

"With steam," Rough answered, trying to keep calm.

Tank was rolling towards them.

Rough looked at his soldiers, who were now silent and looking at the tank approaching them. He knew that they had nothing to fight against the tank. They had only grenades, but they wouldn't do any damage to the armored death machine moving towards them. Rough pondered what to do next. He looked at his soldiers, and then at the black tank, that was now only about three hundred meters from them.

He didn't have any other choice.

"Pull back! Pull back now!" He shouted, and ponies around him started to strap their weapons onto their backs. Rough too put his gun back to it's holster, and was just about to start moving when he heard somepony shout: "Wait! Captain look!"

Rough turned away and saw the same pony who had spotted the tank, again pointing at something over the edge of the trench. Rough jumped next to him and peeked over the edge.

He saw that the tank had now stopped moving. They looked at the motionless tank in confusion. It didn't move, only a small amount of steam rising from it showed that it was still alive.

More ponies had gathered at the edge of the trenches, to see what was going on.

"Did it broke down or something?" Rough heard somepony ask.

Just then a big cloud of steam puffed from the tank, and it started to turn to right.

"What is it doing? Where is it going?" the pony next to Rough asked confusedly.

Rough was puzzled too. They would have been a easy prey for that tank, but then it changed it's course for no reason. Rough turned his head towards the direction where the tank was headed. His eyes widened when he realized what it was up to.

Rough Gunner saw that the royal guards were still engaging the main building, and that the changelings were heavily outnumbered. He saw how royal guards were almost at the building, hiding behind a bulge. They seemed to be unaware of the black tank approaching them.

"Oh no! It's going for the guards!" somepony shouted.

Rough Gunner thought that he needed to get the attention of royal guards somehow, otherwise they would soon be crushed by the tank. He dropped his rifle back to his hooves and lifted it over the edge.

"Open fire!" he shouted and began to fire single shots at the tank. Others soon followed his example.

Bullets didn't do anything. They just ricocheted from the turret of the tank, but they still kept firing.

"We can't penetrate it's armor sir!" somepony shouted.

"Just keep firing!" Rough shouted.

He then laid his rifle on the ground and took his binoculars. He lifted them to his eyes and looked at the royal guards. They still didn't seem to have noticed the tank. Rough grunted annoyed. He turned his binoculars towards the black tank. Bullets from his soldiers weapons rattled against it, but didn't even make a scratch on it.

Rough knew that they could shoot all they wanted, but it wouldn't do anything.

But that wasn't what Rough was planning.

He saw how the tank's turret started to turn in their direction.

"It worked," he said to himself.

"Excuse me sir?" Pony next to him asked and looked at Rough. He quickly dropped the binoculars and grabbed his rifle. Rough then shouted: "Get down!"

Everypony ducked in the trenches. They heard a small sharp bang, and then a green magic projectile flew over the trench and landed just a few meters from it. Explosion ripped a part of the trench, making sand and dust flew high up in the air.

They all laid on the floor of the trenches for a moment, while dust floated in the air. Rough jumped back up. He looked at his comrades, who were covered in dust.

"Anypony hurt?" he asked loudly. Ponies on the floor started to slowly rose up, shaking dust from their coats. Rough sighed from relied, when he saw that nopony was hurt. He then remembered the royal guards.

Rough Gunner grabbed his binoculars and swept the dust from the lenses. Rough took off his aviator glasses and lifted the binoculars back to his eyes.

He saw that the royal guards had heard the tank firing towards them, just like he had planned. They were falling back towards the trenches on their left, but they had to move from cover to cover, because the changelings in the main building were now recovered from their attack and had started to fire at them. Tank fired at them too, but the shot went a bit too low, exploding on the ground behind the running royal guards.

Royal guards were running as fast as they could. They were only couple meters away from the trenches, and most of them hopped in the trenches, but two of them were still in the open. The tank adjusted it's barrel and fired again. Green projectile flew towards the two ponies, exploding right under their feet.

They disappeared into a big cloud of dust and fire.

"Holy fuck.." pony next to Rough said sadly. Rough lowered his binoculars and watched the tank. It started to retreat back towards the main building.

"What is it doing now?" a machine gunner asked from him. Rough looked at the main building, where changelings started to move outside, into the defensive positions. Tank moved backwards, and stopped near the changeling soldiers.

"They are preparing for a counter attack," Rough realized.

Soldiers around him turned their heads towards him, looking scared.

"But they are heavily outnumbered! Why would they attack?" the machine gunner asked. Rough scratched his chin and said: "I don't know.. I don't know."

Riff was moving in the trenches with sergeant Payload. They were trying to find Rough Gunner, but they hadn't seen even glimpse of him. They passed couple of more ponies, who pressed themselves against the walls to let them pass. Riff saw pony he knew was from his platoon.

"Hey, Swift was it?" Riff asked from a light grey pony sitting in a junction of two trenches. The pony nodded.

"You know where Rough is?" Riff asked.

"He's over there, in the end of this trench" Swift said and pointed his hoof to the trench on his left.

"Okay, thanks," Riff said and started to make his way towards Rough with Payload. They passed more and more ponies, each of them looked dead-beat.

Riff finally saw Rough Gunner's head poking over the rest of the ponies. He was looking at something with his binoculars.

"Captain," Payload said when they reached Rough, who turned around when he heard a familiar voice.

"Sergeant, good to see that you're alive," Rough said. He then looked at Riff.

"How are you holding up?" He asked from Riff, who shrugged his shoulders. Rough frowned and returned to Payload.

"Is the gates secured?" he asked.

"Yes. My soldiers are guarding it," Payload answered. Rough nodded and then continued: "How about the support team?"

"They are at the gates too, waiting for new orders," Payload said. Rough seemed to ponder something.

"We need those heavy machine guns and the mortars at those bunkers," Rough said and pointed his hoof at two bunkers side to side on the right side of the trenches. Payload and Riff were confused, why did Rough want all the heavy weapons in the front?

Rough seemed to notice their confused expressions, because he said: "The changelings are going to launch a counter attack soon."

"Then why are we attacking now, before they're ready?" sergeant Payload asked.

Rough rubbed his forehead and said: "Because they have a tank."

"What!?" Payload and Riff said in unison. Rough just waved his hoof to the main buildings direction.

Riff and Payload lifted their heads over the edge and saw it. The tank was still stationed in front of the main building.

They then turned back to Rough, who was looking at them.

"Riff, I need you to.." he started to say, but was interrupted  by one of his soldiers shouting: "Look! There they come!"

Just then they heard the familiar sharp bang, and green ball of magic hit the trenches near them.

Explosion shredded the part of the trenches where it hit into a splinters, black smoke and dust made them cough and tears were running from their eyes. Riff heard yelling, and when the smoke faded, he saw somepony's leg laying in front of him. He quickly turned away from it and saw Rough and Payload taking their guns out from their holsters.

He started to take his rifle from his back too, but he felt somepony grabbing him from his shoulder. Riff lifted his head and saw Rough.

"Riff, I need you to go tell the support team to move up to those bunkers! Tell the medics to come here and help the wounded! Got that?" Rough shouted to Riff, who strapped his rifle back to his back and said: "Yes sir!"

Rough nodded. He stood up and began to fire towards the approaching changelings. Riff started to run towards the gates.

He came to the spot where the tank's projectile had hit the trenches. There he saw the pony who's leg he had seen earlier. He was lying in a big pool of blood with other fallen pony. Riff heard how the changeling tank fired again, but he saw that the shot went too high and landed behind the trenches.

Riff kept running, but there were too many ponies on his way. He knew that he couldn't get to the gates in time, if he wouldn't leave the trenches and run in the open, where he could get hit more easily. He stopped and thought for a minute.

"Argh! What choices do I have!?" he shouted angrily to himself, earning couple of looks from the ponies near him, but Riff didn't care.

"Here we go!" he encouraged himself and jumped up to the edge of the trench. Riff started to gallop towards the gates, which seemed to be light years away from him. Bullets rattled on the ground near him as he ran.

He dived behind a small rock to catch his breath. Tank fired towards the trenches, but again it flew over the trenches and landed near Riff. He flew couple of meters and landed onto his back. Terrified Riff stumbled back to his hooves and continued to run again. He heard the bullets whiz near his head.

He was about half way to the gate, and the changeling's bullets were still flying past him.

"Why me! I'm just running here for Celestia's sake!" Riff shouted angrily towards the Changeling's he couldn't even see.

Riff suddenly felt his legs hit something in front of him, and he faceplanted right on the ground.

Riff lifted himself, leaning onto his front hooves. He moaned as he rose up to sitting position. He felt something warm running down his snout. Riff touched his muzzle and squeaked from pain. He had hit his snout in the ground and now it was bleeding.

Riff turned around to see where he had tripped.

It was a changeling. Riff got scared and backed away, trying to get his gun from his back. He then noticed that the changeling was lying on the ground, with it's tongue out of the mouth and eyes wide open, it was a terrified expression.

Riff stared at the corpse in front of him.

Then he heard the familiar sharp bang, following by a  distant explosion. He had to get moving now.

He stood up and continued moving.

Healing Horn and Crack Shot were waiting at the gates. They heard distant gunfire getting more intense by the minute. Healing looked around himself. There were couple of soldiers from the cleaning group by the gates, aiming their rifles towards the sound of gunfire.

There were wounded lying on the left. They moaned and cried in pain. Some of them cried for their loved ones or parents. It was sad to listen. The dead were covered with white cloth. Healing counted twenty-two fallen, and there surely was more.

Healing sat next to Crack Shot, who was smoking. Healing gulped and asked: "Do you think that Riff is okay?"

Crack didn't say anything for a while. Healing turned to look at the wounded.

"I'm sure he's okay, but that sound -" They heard a sharp bang, followed by a explosion -" I don't like it," he said.

"Me either," Healing said and listened, as a new explosion was heard.

Suddenly the guards at the gate lifted their rifles and aimed at something. Healing and Crack tried to see what they were aiming at.

They saw a pony running towards them. He's face was bloody, and Healing couldn't tell who it was.

"Who goes there!" One of the guards shouted.

The pony didn't answer and the guard shot a warning shot couple of meters in front of  the running pony, who dived on the ground and stumbled behind a small piece of concrete. Everypony turned towards the gates, and took their weapons into their hooves.

"Swirl, you twat! It's me Riff!" the pony shouted from behind the piece of concrete. Healing's face lit up. He turned his head towards Crack, who looked back at him with a stupid smile on his face.

"Riff! Are you okay!?" Healing shouted. He saw Riff rising from behind the piece of concrete.

"Yeah! Just hit my snout on the ground while back," Riff shouted back to Healing.

"Come here!" Crack shouted, and Riff started to trot towards them.

Healing and Crack strapped their guns onto their backs and trotted to meet their friend. Riff's face was covered in blood, and his white coat was dirty from smoke and dust.

"You look like shit," Crack said to his friend and patted Riff on the shoulder.

"So do you," Riff said smirking.

"Hey!" Crack shouted offended.

Healing looked at Riff and asked: "What are you doing here?"

Riff swept blood from his mouth and said: "We need the MG's and mortars up there. ASAP."

Crack Shot and Healing Horn looked at each other, while Riff just stood there.

"I'ts getting pretty wild up there," Riff said and waved his hoof up towards the hill. He then continued: "Changelings are counter attacking."

They heard that same sharp bang again, and like always a explosion followed it. Healing saw Riff looking up the hill. Then Healing asked: "What's that?"

Riff turned to him and had a serious look on his face when he said: "Changelings have a tank."

Rough fired at the mass of enemies in front of him. He couldn't have believed that the main building would have so many changelings still inside it. The area between the trenches and the main building was swarming with changelings, and there were bullets flying past ponies heads.

Rough fired at couple of changelings, who were approaching from the left.

"Don't let them get close enough to throw grenades!" Payload shouted while shooting at one changeling, who was about to throw grenade into the trenches. It collapsed right onto his own grenade and soon it exploded, splitting the wounded changeling in half.

Rough looked around himself. His soldiers were doing actually pretty fine now, when the tank was engaging the royal guards. They hadn't had any big casualties yet, only two after the counter attack started. He saw couple of ponies on his right side, behind Payload. They had spread their soldiers across the trenches, because the changelings were attacking from many places at once.

"How's the royal guards holding it?" Payload asked from Rough, who was shooting accurate single shots towards the enemies. Rough quickly looked at the direction where royal guards were. They seemed to keep the enemy away from their trenches, even though the tank was now bothering them.

"They.. are.. fine!" Rough shouted, between the shots. He saw group of five enemies moving behind a ruins of a destroyed bunker in front of them.

"Hey!" he shouted to Payload and pointed his hoof towards the five enemies. Payload nodded and then turned around, where stood a light yellow pony, shooting with a machine gun. Payload tapped him on a shoulder, making him turn his head towards the sergeant.

"Keep an eye out for that bunker! There's changelings behind it!" Payload shouted over the loud gunfire, and the pony nodded. Right after Changelings emerged from behind the bunker, the light yellow pony cut them down with his machine gun.

"Good job!" Rough shouted to him, and the light yellow pony looked at him, smiling.

"Thank's, captain," he said.

Rough didn't have time to answer, changelings were approaching in big waves. He switched his assault rifle from single shots to fully automatic. He held the stock of his rifle tightly against his shoulder. He squeezed the trigger and let a long burst of lead flying towards the enemy, nailing three of them, while the others sprinted for cover.

Rough saw how the alive ones took their weapons into their hooves. Rough tried to shoot at them, but his clip was empty.

"You piece of shit!" Rough shouted and ducked when the changelings opened fire from only ten meters away from them.

Dirt flew over them, when the changeling's bullets ripped the ground over their heads.

Payload and the yellow pony had to duck too. Payload reloaded his rifle, and looked at Rough.

Rough reloaded his rifle too, and the he looked back at Payload.

"I'll throw a grenade, you cover m.." Payload got interrupted by something landing in front of him with a small thud.

"Oh shit! GET DOWN!" Payload shouted and grabbed the grenade. He stood up and threw the grenade over the edge of the trench, but it exploded only about a meter away from Payload, slamming him against the wall of the trench.

Rough was curled on the floor of the trench, and when he lifted his head, he saw the yellow pony with his machine gun on the floor too, with two other ponies. They seemed to be alright.

Then he saw Payload. He was leaning against the wall, motionless. Rough Gunner stood up and peeked over the edge of the trench. He saw that the changelings were still behind their cover, but now they were firing towards somepony on their left, exposing their side completely for Rough. He took quick aim and shot short bursts at the changelings, making them fall one by one. After he finished, he turned to the rest of the unhurt ponies, who were looking at Payload.

"Hey! You three cover me while I check him!" Rough shouted.

The ponies snapped from their shock and started to move to the edge of the trench again. The light yellow pony placed his weapon on the edge, and started to suppress the advancing enemy with his 7.62 mm machine gun.

Rough trotted to Payload.

Payload's face was burnt badly, and his right fore-leg was missing from under the knee. Also he had many cuts and burns all around his upper body. Payload slowly turned his head towards Rough, who crouched next to him.

Rough looked at his comrade. Payload's red coat was starting to get soaked in his own, even darker red blood. And his brown mane was half burned.

"*cough* How bad... *cough* is it?" Payload asked with a rowdy voice. Rough looked at his friend. He was bleeding badly from his arm. Rough knew what the outcome would be.

"It's not that bad, really," he said with a calm voice. Payload started laughing, but stopped when the pain kicked in. He grabbed Rough Gunner from the shoulder with his good hoof.

"You're a bad liar.. *cough cough* I know I'm dying," Payload said, with something resembling a smirk on his face.

Rough heard the yellow pony firing his machine gun in long bursts.

"It sucks... to die you know," Payload growled and drooped his head backwards. His hoof slid down from Rough's shoulder.

He was gone.

"Sir!?" the yellow pony shouted.

"What?" Rough asked, still crouching over Payload.

"The tank is approaching us now!" the pony shouted in terror. Rough jumped back up, and trotted next to him. He saw how the tank was moving towards them, slowly but steadily. Rough thought that it must have had enough from the resistance of the royal guards, and was now targeting less trained targets.

"What do we do?" the pony asked. Rough looked at his three soldiers, and then at the tank. He saw that there were at least ten changelings moving behind the tank, using it as a cover. They wouldn't have a chance against them.

He sighed and said: "Fall back."

Just then Rough Gunner heard a howling sound above his head, and soon there was a explosion near the tank, killing couple of the changelings behind it. Then Rough heard another howling sound, and this time the explosion was much closer to the tank.

Rough took his binoculars and turned to look at the two bunkers. He saw three mortars positioned near them, and four 50.cal machine guns being deployed.

"Goddammit Riff, you did it," he said smiling.

"FIRING!" blue pony shouted and dropped the grenade into the tube of the mortar. There was a small 'blob' sound and the grenade went flying towards it's target. Grenade missed the tank only with couple of meters.

Crack Shot saw the tank turning, with a big cloud of steam rising from behind it.

"It's trying to get away!" he shouted.

"It can try," a grey pony adjusting the mortar said.

The tank was moving close to the trenches, drawing fire from the ponies in them.

"Okay, ready!" white pony, who was behind the sightunit said.

"FIRING!" the blue pony shouted and dropped another grenade into the tube.

This time the grenade hit the tank in the right track, exploding them into bits.

"You got it! It can't move now!" Healing cheered.

Crack Shot lifted his sniper rifle to his shoulder. He examined the tank, which seemed to be alright. It was just immobilized. Crack saw how two ponies climbed up from the trenches, and galloped towards the tank. Tank tried to turn it's turret, but it wasn't fast enough, and soon the two ponies were jumping on the tank.

Other one had a pistol in his hoof, and other had a grenade. When the hatch of the tank opened and one changeling lifted his head from the hole, pony with the pistol shot the it three times in the head, while the other one dropped the grenade inside the tank.

A cloud of black smoke exploded from the hatch, and the two ponies gave high-hoof to each other.

They were brought back to reality by a burst from a changeling machine gun. Other one was hit in the legs, but the other one managed to jump from the tank in time.

Crack saw how the other pony dragged his wounded friend back to the trenches.

"They're bucking grazy!" Crack said to no-one in special.

"Look! They're still attacking!" Healing shouted and pointed his hoof towards the main building, where the last changelings were starting to attack. Crack saw that too. There was about twenty changelings moving from the main building.

"They're tough bastards.. Riff, Heavy!? How's the machine guns?" Crack Shot shouted to Riff and Heavy, who were readying one of the machine guns.

"Were ready!" Heavy shouted. He looked at the three other machine guns. Then he asked from the ponies using them: "Are ya ladies ready?"

"Yes!" they shouted in unison.

"Let's go then!" Heavy shouted and pulled the cocking handle back. Then he aimed the gun towards the attacking changelings. Riff helped Heavy by feeding the bullet belt into the bullet feed.

"Take this you motherf.." Riff didn't hear rest of Heavy's sentence, because Heavy opened fire. Riff kept the bullet belt going in the feed tray in a straight line, to prevent the gun from jamming.

Now the three other MG's opened fire too, reining death upon the attacking changelings.

Healing watched as the tracers flew over the battlefield, landing over the changelings.

"FIRING!" the blue pony shouted again, and now three mortars joined the play. Healing looked in awe, as the grenades landed over the changelings, exploding into small clouds of black smoke. The changelings were dropping like flies.

"Look! Our troops are attacking!" somepony shouted. Healing looked at the trenches, and saw how the ponies started to climb out from the them. They started to gallop towards the main building.

Soon he saw how the royal guard joined the attack.

"All medics! You are needed at the trenches!" some medical sergeant shouted suddenly. Healing turned around, and saw how ponies with medic bags were trotting to him. Healing looked at Crack Shot, who looked back at him.

"I think that means me," Healing said, sounding nervous. Crack nodded and said: "Yeah, take care of yourself."

Healing didn't say anything. He just started to trot towards the rest of the medics. When they all were gathered except for couple of medics, who were treating the wounded, they started to move towards the trenches.

"There's probably some of our ponies guarding the wounded, so remember to identify yourselves when moving in the trenches," the medical sergeant said while they were trotting towards the battlefield.

Healing looked at the advancing ponies in the distance.

They were storming inside the main building. In matter of minutes they should be seeing a Equestria flag wave on the roof of it.

Healing Horn and other medics were now getting near the trenches. They could smell gunpowder, smoke and death.

"We're here! Everypony start searching for wounded!" the medical sergeant shouted to them.

Healing and the others jumped down in the trenches and started to spread out. Healing started to walk to his left with couple of others. They didn't see any wounded on the that end of the trenches, just some blood splatters and shells. The dead changelings had been rolled over the sides by the cleaning group, making the moving in the trenches easier.

They came into a junction, which separated the main trench into three smaller ones.

"Let's separate here," one of the ponies said, and started to continued walking along the trench on the left. Healing Horn continued to the trench on the middle.

He walked for about half a minute, when he came into a spot where the trench turned. Healing peeked around the wall, and saw his first patient. There was a light turquoise pony with a red mane sitting on the floor of the trench, holding his head.

"Hey!" Healing shouted from behind the corner, and the pony winced. He turned his head towards Healing Horn. Healing saw that there were blood coming from behind the pony's hoof.

"Hey! I thought you'd never come," the pony said to Healing, who was now trotting towards him. Healing didn't know how to answer, so he just started to treat the wounded pony.

"What happened?" Healing Horn asked when he crouched next to the pony. The turquoise pony looked at him annoyed.

"What do you think happened?" he said angrily, and pointed his hoof on the floor. Healing looked around the floor and saw that it was covered in shells. Healing could only imagine what they had been trough.

"I meant what happened to your head," Healing said calmly, while digging bandages from his bag. The wounded pony's angry expression changed into a painful, when he remembered his injury.

"The tank fired -" pony pointed at a the wall of the trench, that was missing a piece from it. "- and something hit me in the head,"  the pony said.

"Okay, move you're hoof," Healing said to the pony, who obeyed. He slowly removed his hoof from his forehead, and Healing saw the injury.

There was about five centimeters long cut in the turquoise pony's head. Healing leaned closer to examine the wound. He saw a piece of wood sticking out from it.

"How does it look doc?" the pony asked. Healing thought what to say for a moment, then he said: "Well.. good thing is that the wound isn't deep, and it's not bleeding anymore."

"What's wrong then?" pony asked with a concerned voice.

"There's still a piece of wood in it," Healing said to the pony. The pony thought for a moment, then he turned his head to Healing Horn and asked: "What next?"

Healing took a pliers from his bag and held them in front of the soldier with his magic. The turquoise pony's eyes widened. He looked at the pliers, then Healing. He gulped and asked: "Can't you just bandage over it?"

Healing Horn shook his head and said: "It will get infected if I don't take it out."

The pony started to sweat, and he just looked at the pliers in front of him.

He sighed and closed his eyes. He drooped his head and said: "Buck... Let's do it.."

Healing took a small stick from the floor and gave it to the turquoise pony. He put the stick into his mouth. Healing Horn took a good grip from the wood splinter with the pliers, making the turquoise pony whimper from pain.

"Are you ready?" Healing asked.

"Mmhh!" the pony whimpered. Healing took that as a yes.

"Okay, on the count of three," Healing said.

"One,"

The turquoise pony tensed up.

"Two,"

Healing Horn tightened his magic grip around the pliers.

"THREE!"

Healing pulled the wooden splinter from the pony's head, and blood busted from the wound. The pony screamed and kicked the floor. Healing quickly took the bandage and tried to start rolling it around the pony's head, but he waved around too much. Healing grabbed the hysteric pony and held him still, until he calmed down. Healing Horn let go of the pony. Tears were forming in his eyes. He spit the from his mouth. It was bitten in half.

"Just put the fucking bandage already!" The pony cried, and Healing started to roll the bandage around his head. After he was done, he looked at the pony in front of him.

"You'll be alright. There's more of us over those bunkers there," Healing said and pointed his hoof at the bunkers, where the rest of the support team was.

"*sniff* Okay.." the pony said and swept the tears from his eyes. Healing Horn patted him on the shoulder and stood up. He then continued walking along the trenches.

Crack Shot was now leaning against the bunker with Riff and Heavy. They were sitting on the side that was towards the main building. Crack Shot heard gunfire from the main building. Everypony were waiting for the Equestria flag to appear on the roof of it.

Crack Shot took a pack of cigarettes from his vest. He took one cigarette and put the pack back to his pocket. He then tried to find his lighter, but didn't seem to find it anywhere. He searched it from every pocket of his uniform, but didn't find it. He stopped looking for his lighter and leaned his head against the wall.

Suddenly a lighter appeared in front of his eyes. Crack turned his head and saw Riff offering him the lighter.

"Thanks," Crack said and took the lighter. After he light his cigarette, he gave the lighter back to Riff, who light his own cigarette.

Crack took a long drag from his cigarette, and exhaled the smoke with great pleasure.

He heard more gunfire from the main building.

"We've done quite a mess," Crack said, and looked over the battlefield, where he saw smoking craters and many black dots lying in the ground. Riff turned his head towards the battlefield.

"Yeah.." Riff said slowly.

"How many do you think we lost today?" Heavy suddenly asked. Crack Shot and Riff were silent. They knew that the total body count would be somewhere between twenty to forty.

Crack Shot saw ponies walking towards the bunkers. They were bandaged, but not badly injured. They must be coming from the trenches. The wounded ponies walked slowly towards them. Their uniforms were torn and burnt. They looked tired and their faces were covered in dust.

Crack Shot looked at his hooves. They were clean. He then touched his mane, his mohawk was in perfect order. Crack Shot felt bad for doing nothing in the battle, he had only shot couple of times during the fighting.

"You know Riff, I didn't do anything important while you guys were out there.. fighting," Crack said, looking a bit disappointed to himself.  Riff turned to look at Crack Shot.

"You shot that sniper, didn't you? Without you, I'd probably have hole in my head right now," Riff said.

"I tend to guard my friends backs, even they would be as ugly as you, Riff," Crack Shot said and smirked to Riff, who only chuckled and stubbed his cigarette.

Crack took a last long drag from his cigarette, and then stubbed it on the ground. They sat a moment in silence, that's when Crack Shot heard it.

"What the.." he mumbled to himself and pushed his ear against the wall of the bunker they were leaning against. He heard something, like a silent shuffling and metal banging against metal.

At first Crack though that his mind was playing tricks, but then he heard the banging sound again. Crack shot hit Riff in the shoulder, to get his attention.

"Hey what the.." Riff started, but fell silent, when Crack lifted his hoof onto his lips, gesturing him to shut up. Riff had a confused look on his face, when Crack gestured him to push his ear against the wall, but did it anyway.

They waited for a short time, and Riff was looking skeptically at Crack Shot, who kept his ear against the bunker. Then they heard the sounds again.

Riff's eyes widened as he said: "There's somepony inside there!"

"Shh!" Crack hushed him with a hoof over his lips again. He rose up and Riff followed.

"Tell the others to stay away from the shooting gaps and door," Crack said to Riff, who nodded and trotted to warn the others.

"Hey, what's going on?" Heavy asked, with confusion in his voice.

"Changelings in the bunker," Crack said silently, and pointed his hoof at the bunker. Heavy seemed to tense up, and he dropped his assault rifle from his back, right into his hooves. He then laid flat onto his stomach and crawled near the bunker, so that he had a clear line of fire to the entrance.

Crack Shot sneaked next to the shooting gap, and took a frag grenade that was hanging from his combat vest. He turned around and saw that everypony was now behind some cover.

They were ready.

Crack pulled the pin and released the safety lever. He counted to three and then threw the grenade inside the bunker. Crack heard screaming from inside the bunker, and then black smoke exploded from the shooting gap, accompanied by a loud bang.

Crack climbed on the roof of the bunker, so that he was right over the door of the bunker. He saw heavy aiming his rifle towards the door too. They waited for a moment, and then the door opened slightly.

Crack aimed his pistol down to the door, waiting for changelings to emerge from it. Instead of changelings, a small object flew from the door, landing near Heavy.

Heavy quickly rose up and kicked the grenade into a crater made by a bomb nearby, where it exploded harmlessly. He turned to see Crack Shot, who was looking at him wide eyed.

"That was a close one!" Heavy shouted, smiling a goofy smile.

Then Crack heard gunshots, and saw Heavy's body nudge. He fell on his back, but quickly rolled to his side and started shooting at the Changelings in the doorway.

Crack too aimed his pistol downwards and shot one changeling in the neck, making him fall instantly. Another was killed by Heavy's bullets.

"Reloading!" Heavy shouted and started to change a new clip to his AR. Just then the last Changeling plunged towards lying Heavy with a knife. Crack saw no other choice than to jump right on it.

He landed on it's back, pushing the changeling in the ground. Crack was holding it still with his back legs, and pushed the changeling's head to the ground with his free hoof. Then he pressed his pistols mouth into the changelings back, and fired three times.

The changeling ceased to struggle. Crack puffed and looked at the blue blood running from the wounds he had made.

Exhausted Crack lifted his eyes to Heavy, and saw Riff sitting next to him. Crack dropped his pistol on the ground and quickly trotted to Heavy and Riff.

Heavy had three small holes bleeding in his uniform's chest, but he seemed to act like they weren't even there.

"We got them," he said briskly to Crack, who now crouched next to him.

"Yeah, we did," Crack said and looked quickly to Riff, who stared at something behind Heavy. Even he was a white pony, he looked pale. Crack peeked over Heavy's back, to see where Riff was looking

He gasped in terror.

There were three massive exit wounds on Heavy's back. They were bleeding like red rivers, soaking Heavy's whole back in blood.

"Medic!" scared Crack shouted.

"I'm fine guys, really. It's not that bad," Heavy said, but blood gushed from his mouth when he tried to continue, making him slur: "I'm.. fii.. real.. ly.."

Heavy coughed more blood and started to fall backwards, but Crack and Riff held him up.He groaned couple of times, and then his head drooped backwards.

"Ohhh fuuck!" Crack Shot shouted while they laid Heavy on the ground. His eyes were still open, and a small pool of blood started to form under his body.

Other ponies started to gather around them.

Crack watched at his fallen comrade, he had a tired look on his dead face, and his eyes were half lidded. Crack couldn't keep looking at him like that, so he closed Heavy's eyes with his hoof.

Rough Gunner was on the top floor of the changeling camps main building. His soldiers and the royal guards had fought their way there. Rough leaned against a wall just before a corner, reloading his assault rifle. He released a empty mag and inserted a new one into the magazine feed. He pulled the charging handle and then looked around himself.

They were in a dimly lighted corridor. Captain Brawny was standing behind him, with his pistol in his right hoof, and the rest of their soldiers were lined behind them. Rough peeked behind the corner, but bullets from fortified changelings weapons ripped the wall near his head. Rough quickly pulled his head back behind the corner.

"Did you see anything?" Brawny asked from Rough.

"They're shooting from a doorway, and it's the only way in!" Rough said frustrated. Brawny though for a moment, then he slowly tried to peek over the corner, but he too quickly retreated when the changelings fired.

"Those must be the last changeling's alive, we are almost at the roof," Rough pondered out loud.

Brawny and Rough Gunner looked at each other.

"Anypony got any grenades?" Brawny asked from the soldiers behind him.

"Nope!"

"Just used my last one!"

"I'm out too!"

Brawny sighed and swept his face with his hoof. He looked at Rough, and then at his royal guards.

"We have only one option.." he muttered to Rough Gunner, who was confused.

"Royal guards! VISORS UP!" Brawny commanded in loud army voice.

Rough looked at the royal guards, who were now attaching something to their helmets. Rough saw that they were some kind of a covers, that protected their eyes and half of the muzzle.

"Prepare for close combat!" Brawny shouted, and royal guards started to strap their rifles onto their backs. They then took their sidearms and reloaded them. Some of them even took knifes in their teeth.

Rough looked baffled, they couldn't possibly be planning what he thought they were.

"You can't be serious?" Rough asked from Brawny, who just pulled the slide of his pistol back.

"Yes I can," he said smirking. Then he braced up and shouted: "Royal guards, CHARGE!"

All the royal guards shouted their war cry, and dashed around the corner. Rough heard how the changelings opened the fire, but soon royal guards opened the fire too.

Rough turned to his soldier and shouted: "Don't just stand there! ATTACK!"

Rough threw his rifle back onto his back and pulled his pistol from it's holster. He started running after royal guards, who had already made it trough the doorway, and were now engaged in a intense hoof-to-hoof combat with the changelings. He noticed that there was only one dead royal guard in the corridor.

Rough heard how his soldiers followed him, and he dashed trough the door. He came into a big grey room, which had no windows, only couple of dim lights like the rest of the rooms they had passed.

He noticed a dark shadow on his left, and shot at it instantly. The changeling jumped a little when the bullets hit him, and then he fell against the wall.

Rough turned around and saw how one of the royal guards grabbed a changeling from the neck with his teeth. He spun around couple of times and released the changeling, making him fly across the small room and hitting on the wall.

Rough felt something hit him in the side from behind, making him fall down to his knees from pain.

He turned his head and saw that a changeling had kicked him with it's rear legs. Rough tried to point his gun at the attacker, but was too slow, and the changeling kicked it from his hoof with it's foreleg.

Then one of Rough Gunner's soldiers appeared from out of nowhere and did a move that resembled a apple-bucking kick. His rear legs hit the changeling right in the side of it's face, making him fall down on the floor. Rough grabbed his pistol, that was lying close to him, and shot at the changeling two times.

The crazy close combat went on for a good ten minutes, before all the changelings were dead or dying. Coupe of royal guards circled over the changelings, finishing the ones who were still alive.

Rough leaned at the wall, holding his side. It hurt every time he breathed. The pony who had saved him was sitting next to him.

"Private, where did you learn to kick like that?" Rough asked from the pony.

"I am from Appleloosa sir. I buck apples for my job," the pony said. Rough was about to say something, but pain jolted up his side when he tried to speak. The pony looked at him worried.

"Are you alright sir?" he asked,even he could see that Rough was not alright.

"Yeah.. Yeah I'm alright. Probably just a broken rib," Rough said slowly.

"Rough! We found the way to the roof!" Rough heard captain Brawny shouting. He started to rose up to all fours, grunting in pain. The pony from Appleloosa rose up and helped Rough to his feet. Rough nodded as 'thank you', and started to walk towards Brawny's voice. He held his side with his hoof, walking slowly with three legs.

He saw Brawny and couple of other royal guards standing in front of stairs, that let to the roof. He reached Brawny, who was still wearing the visor.

Brawny's armor was full of dents, left by bullets. Now Rough realized why there was only one dead royal guard in the hallway, their armor was bulletproof.

Brawny turned to Rough. He saw that Rough was in pain, and asked: "What happened?"

"Got kicked in the side pretty hard," Rough answered, trying to hear as casual as possible.

"How bad?" Brawny asked worried.

"I can manage," Rough said and looked up the stairs. Brawny too looked up the stairs. Then Rough turned to Brawny and asked: "you got the flag?"

"Right there," Brawny answered and pointed his hoof at one of his soldiers, who held the Equestria flag in his hoof. Rough turned back to Brawny and said: "Let's do this."

Brawny nodded.

Healing Horn had already come back from the trenches and he was now standing with Crack Shot and Riff. They were looking at a body in front of them.

"Where did you find him?" Riff asked slowly, as he watched at Payload's torn body.

"He was lying in one of the trenches," Healing said sadly. He looked at Crack Shot, who looked back at him. They both knew that Riff had been really attached to sergeant Payload. Crack nudged his head backwards, gesturing that they should leave Riff alone for a moment. Healing nodded and followed Crack Shot.

As they walked past wounded and soldiers from support team, Healing noticed that somepony was missing.

"Hey, where's Heavy?" Healing asked, looking around himself, trying to spot Heavy.

Crack was silent. He remembered the moment he peeked over Heavy's back, and saw the horrible wounds.

"Is.. Is something wrong?" Healing asked carefully, while looking at Crack. Crack looked back at him and sighed.

"Heavy's dead," he said.

Healing had a shocked expression when he asked: "What?  How?"

"There were still changelings inside that bunker," Crack said and pointed his hoof at the bunker near them. Healing drooped his ears.

They walked to a tree, that had exploded in half, and the other half was now lying on the ground. They sat on it and looked over the battlefield. Healing  Horn was surprised that the sun was already starting to set. The battle had seemed to last only for a couple of hours.

Crack took his flask and opened it. He took a long sip from it and sighed from relief.

"I don't hear gunfire anymore," he said after putting his flask back to his uniform's pocket. Healing noticed that too.

He had heard shooting from the main building just minutes ago.

"I'ts over," they heard somepony saying from behind them. They turned around and saw Riff standing there.

"What?" Healing asked confusedly. Riff lifted his hoof and pointed at the main building.

They saw Equestria flag waving on the roof of the building.

Healing Horn lifted his hoof over his eyes, to cover them from the sitting sun.

He was sure that he saw Rough Gunner waving the flag.

Night after the battle

It was night-time, and Luna's moon illuminated the battlefield. Royal guards were patrolling around the camp, looking for wounded or bodies the medics had missed.

There was dim orange light fluttering from near the main building. It came inside a bunker that had exploded in half, exposing the inside of it. There were seven ponies inside it, circled around a campfire.

There was a black billycan hanging over the fire. It was bound to improvised stand with a wire. The stand was made from three changeling assault rifles. They leaned against each other, forming a pyramid over the campfire.

There were steam rising from the billycan, and smooth aroma of coffee filled the air.

"I think it's ready," a blue unicorn said and rose to all fours. He took a grip from the billycan's handle, and started to pour black coffee into enamel cups that the tired ponies reached out towards him. After he was done serving the coffee, he poured some for himself and then put the billycan back to hanging over the fire.

Crack Shot, Riff and Healing Horn were siting right by the fire. Night was getting colder, so the warmth from the fire was welcomed. Healing Horn held his cup with his both front hooves. He took a sip from his coffee. He frowned and sneered when he gulped the strong tasting liquid. It was a lot stronger that he had used to drink. He looked at Riff, who seemed to drink his coffee without any problems. Healing then remembered that ponies in Crystal mountains consume most coffee in Equestria.

Crack was sitting on his haunches with a changeling assault rifle on his lap. He rolled it around in his hooves, examining it closely. He took a quick sip from the coffee, and then continued his work. He lifted the rifle and held it in firing position. He aimed trough the sights and then laid the rifle back to his lap.

"This thing is bucking heavy!" He said and lifted the rifle again.

"And the sights are really simple..." he continued. Then Crack took out the empty magazine and looked inside the feed. He then rolled the rifle in his hooves again, and pulled the bolt handle back, revealing the firing mechanism.

"It's so simply built!" He admired.

"Can you shut up already!" somepony said angrily from the back of the bunker. Crack lifted his head from the rifle and looked at the ponies around him. They had annoyed look on their faces.

"What?" he asked confusedly. Why did they look so annoyed?

Healing Horn leaned closer to Crack and whispered to his ear: "Uhm.. Crack, you've been talking about that rifle for last thirty minutes.."

Crack smiled sheepishly and laid the gun next to him.

"I didn't know that you were so interested in guns. I though that mares were only thing in you're head," Riff said teasingly, and earned couple of laughs from ponies around him. Crack Shot didn't seem to get upset from Riff's provocation. He just chuckled and took a sip from his mug.

Riff looked in his cup. There was only a little coffee left. He lifted the cup to his lips and drank it all in one gulp. Then he looked at the ponies around him, and started to stare at the flames like the rest of them.

After a minute of silence, they heard someone walking towards them. They all turned their heads towards the sound, and saw Rough Gunner climbing over the side of the collapsed bunker wall. He walked to the campfire, and stopped there.

"Captain," Crack said and nodded to Rough, who nodded back. He was looking at the billycan over the fire, that reflected from his aviator glasses.

The blue unicorn who had made the coffee, saw Rough looking at the billycan. He stood up and asked: "Would captain want some coffee? It's not the best possible, but it's still better than nothing."

Rough looked at him and said: "Yes, if you have any to spare."

The blue unicorn quickly grabbed the billycan into his teeth and poured some coffee into his own mug. He then gave it to Rough, who took a long sip from it. He smacked his mouth couple of times and said: "It  surely isn't the best,"

Ponies around him started to laugh. When they finished, Rough sat down around the fire.

"How are you all holding up?" Rough asked and looked at his soldiers. They were silent. Rough knew how they felt. He remembered his first battle, and the night after that.

"I know how you feel boys. It's going to get easier, trust me," he said.

Rough notices the light yellow pony, who had been with him in the trenches when Payload got killed. Rough looked at him and said: "You're pretty good with that machine gun son,"

The yellow pony looked at Rough surprised.

"Thank's captain," he muttered.

Rough took another sip from his coffee. He then turned around to see rest of his soldiers, but sudden jolt of pain running up his side made him grunt. He held his side and laid the mug on the ground.

"Captain, is everything alright?" Healing Horn asked.

"Yes, just got kicked when we were in the building," Rough said, gritting his teeth from pain. Healing Horn looked concerned. He then said: "I can take a look at it,"

Rough thought for a minute, but then he nodded.

Healing stood up. He walked to sitting Rough, and sat down next to him. He took a quick look at Rough Gunner's side, it didn't have any external signs of a injury.

"I'm going to press your side gently, okay?" he asked from Rough, who just nodded. Healing placed his hoof to Rough's side, over the first rib, and pushed it down a little. Rough didn't react. Healing then moved to the next rib, and pushed again.

This time Rough winced and Healing felt how the rib moved unnaturally.

"Your rib is cracked. It's nothing serious, they will heal on their own. I can give you pain killers, but all you really need to do is rest, a lot." Healing said and pulled his medic bag closer to him. He took a small glass jar, filled with pills from the bag. He gave it to Rough.

"Remember, rest." Healing said, with emphasis on the word rest. Rough looked at him and said: "Thank you, corporal Healing Horn."

They sat in silence again. Then Rough turned to Crack Shot. He looked at the light green pony, who looked back at him.

"I heard you took out the sniper that was pinning down the cleaning group today," Rough said and picked up his mug from the ground.

Crack wondered how did Rough know about that. He turned his head towards Riff and Healing Horn. They both quickly started to look up in the sky, trying looking as innocent as they could.

Crack turned back to Rough and said: "Yeah, I did."

"How far away was him?" Rough asked interested. Crack pondered for a second, then he said: "About seven hundred."

Rough was silent, he looked at Crack Shot with a proud, almost a smile resembling expression on his face.

"You saved many pony's lives today," Rough said to Crack.

They all fell silent, and Rough sensed how the mood changed quickly. He saw one of the ponies squirming in his place, before asking: "Speaking of lives.. how many did we actually lose?"

Rough took a slow sip from his mug, and then sighed.

"twenty-nine, and nine royal guards," he said with a calm, slow voice. The ponies looked at each other.

"That's almost half of us," somepony said sadly. Rough was silent, and so was his soldiers. They didn't feel like speaking now. Rough looked into his cup. It was empty.

"Well.. I need to go see captain Brawny," Rough said and stood up, holding his sore side.

"We will be transported back to fire base Zebra tomorrow, and you will get a day free from all your duties," Rough continued, trying to hear  as cheering as he could. He gave the cup back to the blue unicorn and thanked him for the coffee.

"Try to get some sleep boys!" he shouted when he left the bunker.

Then he started to walk towards the main building.

The rest of them stayed in the bunker. They all knew that none of them could sleep that night. They watched how the embers from the dying campfire slowly rose into the air, floating there like small red fireflies. The night was getting darker, and they could see the stars on the sky.

Dark grey earth pony, who was sitting in the corner, took out a small object from his pocket. He looked at it. Healing Horn saw how something silver sparkled in the moonlight. The pony lifted the object onto his lips, and started playing it. It was a harmonica.

He played a slow and sad melody, that seemed to reflect the feelings they had right now. Everypony listened the song in silence. Some of them even shed couple of tears. Riff, Crack Shot and Healing Horn stared into the small flames.

The grey pony played the song for a while, and ended the song with a long sad note, that seemed to stay hanging over their heads for a second, before it vanished into the cold night air.

One week later

Everypony was running around like a headless chicken. Fire base Zebra was full of activity, and the officers were yelling at their soldiers face red. It looked like they were preparing for a battle, but they weren't. They were actually cleaning the base.

Everypony had been ordered to wash their uniforms day before.

Engineers were repairing the buildings, to make them look more representative. The staff of the aid station had arranged their workstation so that it looked more like a real hospital. The guards standing at the gates were all standing in a perfect attention, holding their rifles from the barrels with their left hoof, so that the rifles stock touched the ground. Normally there were no ponies guarding the gates, because officers saw it unnecessary when they were so far from the border.

Nopony actually knew why they were cleaning the base, but they could guess it.

"I bet that it's general Triumph, we wouldn't be so damn formal if it would be anypony from a lower rank," a pony carrying planks on his back said to Riff and Crack Shot. Riff was Sitting on a roof of the barrack C. He had a hammer in his hoof and he held nails in his mouth, so he wouldn't need to take new ones from his bag every time he needed one.

Crack Shot was on the ground with the pony who had the planks.

"It must be somepony even more important, just look at the fuzz around here!" Crack said and waved his hoof at the running ponies around them.

"Like who?" the pony asked.

"Maybe marshal Toughie?" Crack suggested.

"Ofh mhayfb af phinfesh," Riff lisped on the roof. Crack and the pony on the ground looked at him with a questioning expressions. Riff banged the hammer onto the roof one more time, and then spit the nails from his mouth.

"Or maybe a  princess," he repeated.

"No way, why would one of them come to visit this place?" Crack said smiling to the thought of princess Celestia walking around the base. Riff shrugged and said: "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Crack passed a new plank for Riff, who started to patch a hole in the roof with it.

Crack started to smile again, then he said: "But I wouldn't mind if princess Luna came to visit us."

"I can remember when I saw her at one of her speeches at Manehattan," Crack continued. He sighed while remembering about the princess.  A sly grin appeared on his face. Crack Shot turned to the pony next to him and said: "And those flanks... I could just.."

"Ahem.." they heard somepony clearing his throat behind them, and Crack stopped his daydreaming. they turned around and saw Rough Gunner looking at them with a raised eyebrow. Crack's eyes widened and he quickly saluted.

"Uhh.. Captain! I.. I was just about to.. to.." Crack tried to think of a explanation, but failed. Rough looked at him from behind his aviator glasses.

"At ease, I am just checking the barracks," Rough said.

"Oh.. Hehe.. Well were just about to finish with her," Crack said. He immediately noticed what he had said, and quickly corrected:  ."..THIS! We were just about to finish with this."

Rough looked at blushing Crack, who was smiling sheepishly at him. He then looked at Riff and the pony carrying the planks, they were clearly holding a laughter. He then turned back to Crack and said: "I see. Well when you're ready, start fixing the B."

"Yes sir!" Crack said and saluted. Rough nodded and left them.

When Rough was far enough, Crack turned to Riff and the pony next to him. They looked at each others for a second, then Riff burst in laughter. The pony who carried the planks joined him, and the planks fell from his back, rumbling on the ground.

Crank blushed again and shouted: "Not funny!"

But the two ponies still kept laughing.

Healing Horn was polishing the surgeon instruments in the first aid station. He had leaned to be careful when he did that. Healing remembered how his hooves were full of cuts when he cleaned the surgeon scalpels for the first couple of times.

After Healing finished cleaning the instruments, he marveled at his handiwork.

All the scalpels, clamps and occluders, retractors, distractors and other tools made from stainless steel were now shinning. He could see his own reflection from their surface.

Healing Horn then placed the instruments back to their places in the nearby cabinet. He looked around himself. The aid station was cleaner than he had ever seen it. Even the papers on doctor Sawbone's desk was in perfect order. Nopony had told Healing what was going on, but he guessed that somepony important was coming for a visit.

Healing was just about to leave the tent, when a sea green colored unicorn dashed trough the door. He stopped by Sawbone and take couple of deep breaths. The winded pony then leaned closer to the surprised doctor Sawbone, and whispered something to doctor's ear.

Doctor's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He turned to the unicorn, and asked: "Are you sure?"

The unicorn nodded his head up and down furiously, looking at least as shocked as Sawbone. They stared at each other, then Sawbone nodded and gestured that the pony was now free to leave. The sea green unicorn saluted and left the tent.

Healing Horn was confused. He looked at the grey old pony sitting behind the desk. Doctor Sawbone was still quiet, rubbing his hooves against each other. Healing was first to speak: "Sir? Can I ask what that was?"

Doctor winced and looked at the Healing Horn. His expression changed from surprised to his normal calm stare.

"It's nothing important," Sawbone lied. He then started to rise from his chair. Healing dashed to help the old stallion.

"Oh, how mighty nice of you," doctor said when Healing helped him up to his legs.

After getting up, Sawbone looked at Healing Horn, who still had the same confused look on his face.

"Corporal Healing Horn, could you help me dress up in my uniform?" he asked from Healing Horn, who looked even more confused now.

"But sir, you are already wearing your uniform," Healing said, pointing at Sawbone's doctor jacket.

"Oh, I don't mean this one. I mean my better uniform," Sawbone said and pointed at his personal quarters. Healing knew that doctor never used his better suit. This had to be something really important.

"Of course doctor," Healing said.

"Maybe I can fill in some gaps for you after we're done," doctor said. He probably knew how much Healing Horn wanted to know what was going on. Healing's face lit up and he said: "Thank you doctor,"

Sawbone smiled and they started to walk towards Sawbones quarters.

A loudspeaker started to howl, just like when major Valor told them that they were in a war. Riff and Crack looked at each other, and started to walk towards the sound. Their quest must be arriving soon. They actually had a small bet going on. Crack Shot bet that the quest was general, while Riff bet that it was a marshal.

"How much was the bet again?" Riff asked, even he clearly remembered how much it was.

"one hundred bits," Crack answered.

Riff Smacked his lips. He looked at Crack with a wry grin.

"I am going to get so wasted with those bits, when we get our holidays," he said teasingly, but Crack didn't react. Riff frowned. He wanted Crack to get angry, it was his favorite pass time.

"But don't worry Crack, I will remember you when I drink," Riff continued his provocation, with no result. Riff drooped his ears and stared at Crack, eyes squinted. Crack was a thought one, but so was Riff, and he wasn't gonna give up.

Riff decided to stop trying for now, because they arrived at the loudspeaker near the landing pads.

Like last time, the team leaders were standing so, that they were facing their soldiers. The ponies formed ranks of seven ponies in front of their team leaders. Riff and Crack stood in the front row. Rough Gunner was standing in front of them, motionless and in attention. His uniform was ironed and clean. His aviator glasses crowned the outfit.

Crack noticed Healing Horn walking with doctor Sawbone, and he was smiling stupidly. Riff saw that Sawbone was wearing a army uniform, instead of the usual doctor jacket he had. Healing helped Sawbone to sit down on a chair that was brought there for him. Then he trotted next to Riff. He still was wearing that annoying smile.

"Why are you smiling like that?" Riff whispered to him from the corner of his mouth.

"I know who's coming here!" Healing replied whispering. Riff looked at him with a surprise in his eyes.

"Who?" Riff asked curiously. Healing just smiled at him stupidly, and said: "Sorry, Can't tell you."

"Come on!" Riff pleaded.

"Nope, sorry," Healing said teasingly. Riff looked at him angrily and raised his voice: "You're an assh..."

"TEN-HUT!" Rough and other team leaders shouted in unison, and everpony quickly stood in attention. Major Valor pushed the lever of the loudspeaker up, and the howling stopped. He then walked in the middle of the team leaders. He had his army uniform like always, but there were now different kind of medal attached to it's chest. He also had a army green peaked cap with army logo in it.

"Soldiers of 2nd platoon, 3rd platoon and the staff of fire base Zebra, we have gathered here today because we are going to have a special guest today!" Valor started. He looked around himself.

"Our quest is very important person, and we need to be at our best. So no fooling around!" Valor shouted, he emphasized the last sentence.

"You must also behave after we have welcomed our guest, remember that!" Valor said. Healing noticed that the same sea green colored unicorn he had seen earlier walked to Valor. He saluted and said something to major, who nodded. The pony then disappeared somewhere again. Valor looked around the ponies in front of him, then he said: "Our guest will arrive in five minutes. Remember what I told you!"

Everypony were anxious to see their mysterious guest. They all scanned the skies with their eyes, but they didn't see anything. After couple of minutes, somepony behind Crack whispered: "There it is."

Now they saw it too. It was still far away, but they saw that it was a small wagon, so there would be only couple of passengers in it. As it came closer, they saw how it shone golden glow. The wagon was pulled by two white royal guard pegasies in their golden armor.

Rough Gunner thought that it was stupid, their golden armor could be seen miles away, and even the wagon was golden! He though that it was really stupid, with such a important cargo on board.

The wagon started to descent. Now Riff and Crack could almost see the logo in it's side, but it was on the other side, that was facing away from them. They saw Valor was standing at the landing pads. The wagon made a long curve, and started to slow down. Now it was in line with the VIP landing pad. It flew even lower and slower, and everypony could see the logo on the side of it.

Their jaws dropped when they saw the royal logo. It was a princess.

"No way!" somepony said behind them.

Riff looked at the wagon, he then turned to Crack and said: "I think it's a tie?"

"Yeah," Crack muttered and stared at the approaching wagon. It was now almost at the landing pad, and the soldiers could see two figures standing inside it. One of them was a royal guard in his golden armor. The other one was light purple alicorn.

The two flying pegasies pulled up just before the pad, stopping the whole carriage, making it land on the pad with a small thud. The two pegasies unhitched themselves and walked to positions in front of the carriage.

The light purple alicorn sat in the carriage, while the royal guard besides her rose from the wagon. He was a pegasus too. His coat was orange, and his helmet had a dark blue crest on it. He helped the princess from the wagon by offering her a hoof, which she gladly accepted. The Royal guards pulled long spears from the carriage, and some of the soldiers chuckled at the sight.

They all were silenced by their team leaders, who angrily stomped their hoof on the ground.

The princess was now standing side by side with the orange peagasus, while the two white ones were standing behind them. They then started to walk towards major Valor, who knelt down in front of the princess. The purple alicorn said something and Valor rose up. Now he shook hooves with her, and then with the orange royal guard.

Healing thought that the guard must be somepony important too. Maybe a personal bodyguard?

After they had introduced themselves, major Valor walked towards the ponies with the princess and the three guards. Crack saw the princess better now.

She wasn't wearing any clothes, which was usual. Her straight mane was sapphire blue with violet and rose streaks. Her tail had the same coloring and style as her mane. Her cutie mark was a light purple star with smaller white stars around it. Her eyes were large and violet, and there were a bit of nervousness in them, that actually made her look very adorable. She looked at the ponies standing in attention. Crack couldn't take his eyes of her.

"Soldiers," Valor started.

"KNEEL!" Team leaders shouted, ending Valor's sentence. The sudden loud shouting made the princess jump, and a small blush formed on her face.

The ponies quickly knelt down, and then team leaders turned around and they too knelt. The princess nodded, and then the soldiers rose up and stood in attention again. Now major Valor turned to princess and gestured that she would begin now.

Everypony's eyes were now fixated to the purple alicorn. She walked forwards and stopped couple of meters from the ponies. She was shaking a bit. Healing actually knew the princess, she had been a librarian in Ponyville, an he knew that she wasn't too good in speaking in front of ponies.

Then the princess cleared her voice and started: "G.. Greetings, b.. brave soldiers from.. from,"

She looked at the orange pegasus next to her for help, and he leaned closer to the princess and whispered something to her ear.

"From fire base Zebra and 2nd and 3rd platoon of.." she stopped and looked back at the orange pegasus, who again whispered something to her.

"of 503rd Infantry Regiment," She finally finished. Her cheeks were getting redder. The ponies waited silently for more.

"Me and other princesses are visiting the near the border bases," she said. Then she looked like she remembered something. She smiled a sheepish smile and said: "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Twilight Sparkle."

"Good afternoon, princess Twilight Sparkle!" soldiers shouted in unison, starling Twilight again.

"Heh.. Good afternoon," she said.

Crack shot watched the purple alicorn, who started to walk in front of the ponies, looking at them shyly. She was just about to pass him . Crack was glad that he was standing in a front row. He could stare at the mare without anypony standing on his way.

Princess was now getting closer to them. She stopped in front of Healing Horn and Riff. Her expression was surprised, but the she started to smile.

"Healing! I can't believe you're here!" she said happily and turned towards the smiling Healing Horn. Her nervousness seemed to fade away when she saw Healing. She smiled at him for a moment, but Healing didn't answer. Twilight looked at him confusedly, but Healing Horn just rolled his eyes at Rough Gunner.

Twilight turned to see Rough. He looked back at the princess, who gave her a lovely smile. Then he turned his head to Healing Horn and nodded.

"Nice to see you to, princess Twilight," Healing said after he got permission from Rough. Twilight smiled to him sweetly and said: "You don't need to call me that,"

"Yes I do, princess Twilight," Healing said sternly. Twilight frowned, but was still smiling.

"I command you not to call me that," she said smiling victoriously. Healing Horn sighed, then he said: "Yes, Twilight."

Twilight smiled. She then asked: "How are you doing in here?"

Healing Horn didn't want to make Twilight worry about them, so he said: "We're doing good, nothing to complain about."

"Well that's good to hear," Twilight said happily. She then peeked behind Healing, looking for something.

"Didn't you enlist with Spade? I heard you two got assigned into same platoon," Twilight said and still tried to look around for Spade. Healing's smile vanished, and he said: "Yes we were,"

Twilight didn't notice change of Healing's expression. She was still smiling at him.

"Well where is he? I'd like to see him too," Twilight asked excitedly.

Healing didn't answer, he turned his eyes to the orange pegasus, who seemed to know what was going on. He quickly leaned to Twilight and said: "Princess, we should move on now."

Twilight turned to him. She had a disappointed look on her face, but it changed into a small smile when she turned to Healing and said: "Well, I really need to go now, but hopefully I can speak to you later."

Healing flashed her a quick smile, and then Twilight started to walk forward with her bodyguard.

Crack Shot was jealous for Healing Horn. It seemed that he knew the princess personally. Crack soon forgot Healing Horn, because the princess now walked past him. He looked at her, and for a second she looked back at him. Crack Shot smiled at her, but she shyly looked away from him, and walked past him.

Crack Shot frowned in disappointment, but soon a small smile crept on his face. He could now her from behind. He saw how princess's tail and hip swung rhythmically as she walked. Crack's nature got better of him, and let out a small whistle, without thinking about it.

Everything froze for a second. Princess Twilight's eyes were wide, and she had stopped walking. A violent blush had appeared on her cheeks. Riff and Healing Horn were wide eyed too. They couldn't believe Crack was so thoughtless. Even Rough's jaw was dropped.

Just as Crack realized what he had done, a wooden shaft of spear hit him in the side of his head with a loud smack. Blood burst from his mouth when he bit his tongue. There was also blood running from a small cut in the side of his forehead, where the shaft had hit him. Crack fell down to his knees, spitting blood.

Princess yelped and held her hoof on her mouth.

The pony who hit Crack was the orange pegasus, he was standing on his rear legs, holding the spear in her front hooves. He looked furious.

Riff crouched next to Crack Shot, to help him up. As soon as he touched Crack, he too felt how the spear's shaft hit his jaw. A white flash occurred in his eyes, and blinding pain made him fell to his stomach. Riff held his jaw and rolled over to his back. Crack tried to stood up, and the furious royal guard lifted the spear for another attack, but then the princess shouted frightened: "Flash, stop!"

The orange pegasus turned to see the princess, who was on a edge of tears. He lowered his spear and looked confused.

"But princess, they..." the guard started, but then the purple mare walked closer to the guard.

"Flash.. I'm not mad to them," princess said softly, and placed her hoof on guard's chest. He looked at her, and then nodded slowly.

Everypony was so confused that they didn't even breath, even Rough's mouth was still open. Princess Twilight remembered the two beat up ponies, and turned to them. She quickly walked over them, but now her bodyguard stayed behind.

Twilight knelt before them and asked, with genuine concern: "Are you alright?"

Crack Shot drooled blood and Riff was still lying on his back, holding his jaw. Crack Shot lifted his head, and said: "I've been better."

Healing Horn could see Rough taking off his aviator glasses. Even his eyes were green, Healing Horn could have sworn that he saw a red glow coming from his eyes.

"I'm sorry about that.. Flash Sentry can be pretty short-tempered sometimes," Twilight said with a apologizing smile. Crack chuckled and said: "I think I deserved that, princess."

Twilight smiled and turned to Riff, who had rose to a sitting position, but was still holding his jaw. Crack too looked at him.

"Sorry Riff, you shouldn't have tried to help," Crack said to Riff. Who looked at him angrily.

"Hfe bfoke mha fjaw, bfechaufe oh you!" Riff mongered. Crack and Twilight looked at him confusedly. Riff held his jaw, but when they didn't seem to understand, he rolled his eyes and clumsily stood up, back in attention.

Crack Shot looked at his friend, then at the princess in front of him.

"I think you should go now," Crack said. Twilight smiled at him.

"I hope they won't punish you because of this," Twilight said sadly. Crack Shot chuckled.

"I will get even worse flank whooping than your friend there gave me," he said smiling stupidly, while blood ran down his face.

Twilight smiled at him, then she stood up, and so did Crack. He was back in the attention, like everypony else.

Twilight looked at him for a second. Then she turned around and walked back to Flash Sentry. She said something to him, and he nodded. Then they walked to major Valor. They spoke for couple of seconds, then Valor showed them their way towards the major's living quarters.

Crack Shot still looked at the princess, but then his eyes met with Rough Gunner's death stare. He gulped and drooped his ears. He looked at Riff with corner of his eye, Riff looked calm, but his jaw was hanging weirdly. Was it really broken? If it was, he did a good job of not showing that he was in pain.

Crack saw major Valor walking next to Rough Gunner with princess and her three royal guards. Valor said something to Rough, who nodded slowly, without breaking his stare. Princess Twilight looked at Crack and Riff, she had a sad smile on his lips.

"Dismissed!" Valor shouted, and ponies started to move back to their posts and jobs. Healing Horn looked at his friends. He patted Riff on the shoulder and said: "Take care."

Riff nodded, and Healing Horn left them. They didn't move. They knew what was going to happen to them.

Riff was acting as cool as he could, but inside he was like a thunderstorm. His jaw hurt like hell and now he was going to get punished, all because of Crack Shot's stupidity.

"I fhucking hhate you," Riff mongered.

"Sorry," Crack Said and swept blood from his forehead.

Riff didn't answer, because he didn't want to speak with Crack now, and partly because speaking hurt his jaw.

After everypony had left, only they two and Rough Gunner were standing at the landing pads. Rough stared at them with his green eyes. He blew air from his nostrils, and started to walk towards them.

Rough Gunner shivered from rage. He crunched his neck, before he started shouting: "CORPORAL CRACK SHOT AND CORPORAL RIFF..."

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

Rough Gunner was sitting on the top of the watchtower in the middle of the fire base. He was sitting there with his rifle, watching at two ponies running around the outer defense lines. He looked at his watch, they had been running for last four hours. Rough thought that two or three more hours of running would teach them not to mess around anymore. After all his reputation was at sake here too. They were his soldiers, and it was his job to keep them in order.

Rough sighed.

Other officer would be looking at him judgmentally in the canteen, and it wasn't even his own fault. He looked at the running ponies again. He didn't enjoy punishing his own soldiers, but this time he had to do it.

Rough saw Crack running around the barbed wires, with Riff behind him. They looked exhausted, but they hadn't even tried to stop running. They were tough, he had to give them that.

Rough lifted his binoculars to his eyes, and watched at the running ponies. Riff was running with his head down. Rough saw how his jaw was hanging unnaturally. Rough had asked if he wanted to go to a medical station to get it checked out, but he had refused.

Now Rough saw that Crack's pace was getting slower, and how Riff passed him. Crack was now only jogging. Rough frowned and muttered to himself: "That won't do."

He lifted his aviator glasses onto his forehead, and took a sniper rifle into his hooves. He pulled the bolt back, and saw a bronze bullet in the chamber. He slid the bolt back to it's place, and held the rifle's stock tightly against his shoulder.

He aimed trough the scope, and the cross hair hovered over Crack Shot. He lowered the rifle a bit, and squeezed the trigger.

Shot fired and bullet ripped the ground under Crack Shot's feet, making him jump. He quickly started to run again at full speed. Rough smiled a mischievous smile and laid the rifle sideways on his lap.

After a while he heard somepony walking up the stairs. He turned his head to see who it was, and quickly stood up with the rifle in his hoof, when he recognized the two ponies rising the stairs. It was princess Twilight and her bodyguard Flash Sentry.

He knelt and said: "Princess, nice to see you,"

"Likewise," Twilight said cheerily. Rough stood up and looked at the two ponies.

"Why do I have a the pleasure of your presence?" Rough asked over politely. Twilight giggled and said: "You don't need to speak to me like that captain..."

Twilight stopped, she didn't know Rough's name. Rough perked up and said: "Captain Rough Gunner, at your service"

Twilight nodded and said: "You don't need to be so formal with me."

"As you wish," Rough said calmly. Then they were silent for a moment. Rough noticed princess staring at his rifle, that was still in his hoof.

"We heard you shooting at something. What was it?" Twilight asked and looked at Rough with questioning look. Rough pointed his hoof at Crack and Riff, who were still running. He then said: "Just reminding those two idiots not to slack."

Twilight, Flash Sentry and Rough looked at the two running ponies.

Rough immediately noticed that now Riff wasn't running as fast as he could. Rough loaded a round in the chamber quickly, and leaned the rifle against the handrail.

He aimed for a second and then shot.

Princess yelped and they saw wooden splinters exploding from a tree near Riff, making him duck. Rough watched Riff stumble back to his feet, and then starting to sprint towards Crack.

"How long have they been running?" Twilight asked.

Rough looked at his wristwatch and said: "About four hours and twenty minutes."

Twilight's eyes widened and she turned to Rough Gunner.

"Four hours? They are going to die from exhaustion! How much longer are you going to torment them?" she asked with a shocked voice.

Rough looked at his wristwatch again, then he said: "Couple of hours more, that should teach them."

Twilight's jaw dropped, she looked at Rough, and then at Flash Sentry.

"I can't accept that captain!" she said with a stern voice. Rough looked at her with a confused look on his face.

"I don't mind what he did! And that white pony just tried to help his friend!" Twilight continued, she had a angry look on her face.

Rough looked at her, then at her bodyguard. He seemed to disagree with the princess, but didn't say it out loud. Rough turned back to princess, who now had a pleading look in her eyes. He couldn't disobey her.

"Yes mam," Rough said, sounding defeated.

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

Crack Shot and Riff were now walking towards their barrack. They both were sweaty and still panting. Their legs were like jelly, and it was hard for them to even stand up.

All the ponies were turning their heads towards them, but they didn't care. They were too tired.

Crack's face was covered in dried blood, and his tongue hurt. Riff's jaw was still hanging weirdly, and he couldn't act like it didn't hurt. He whimpered from pain.

When they reached their barrack, Crack turned to his friend.

"You should really go to the aid station," he said to Riff, who was almost crying from pain.

"Okhay," Riff answered. He then started to slowly make his way towards the aid station. Crack looked at him for a minute, then he shouted to him: "I'm sorry Riff! Really!"

"Fhuck you!" Riff shouted back, but then yelped from pain in his jaw.

Crack Shot looked at him, and felt bad for him. He just tried to help Crack, but now his jaw was dislocated, or even broken. He must be pissed at Crack.

Crack didn't see Riff anymore, so he turned around and entered the barrack. There he washed his face and put a band aid over the wound in the side of his head. He looked at his reflection in the mirror.

His mohawk was out of shape and flattened. He shaped it back to somewhat representative shape, then he walked outside and light a cigarette. He sat down, because standing up hurt his legs too much. He took a long drag from his cigarette, and pondered how Riff was holding.

"Keep him down! Don't let him move!" doctor Sawbone shouted to Healing Horn and one other pony, who held Riff in place, while one of the medics took a good grip of Riff's jaw. Riff tried to struggle, but Healing and the other pony kept him down. In a swift motion, the pony holding Riff's jaw crunched the jaw back to it's place. Riff shouted trough his teeth, and then collapsed onto the floor, panting and whimpering.

"Sorry mate, how's the jaw feeling?" asked the pony who placed Riff's jaw back to it's place. Riff looked at him angrily. He pointed at him and said: "If I only had my gun.."

The pony started to laugh and lifted Riff back to all fours. Healing stood next to him. Riff looked at him, while holding his jaw with his hoof.

"I'm going to go back to the barrack," he said to Healing, who nodded. Then Riff started to wobble towards the barracks.

"Don't kill Crack!" Healing shouted after him.

Riff turned around and shouted back: "I'll try, but can't promise anything!"

Healing Horn and the other ponies started to laugh. After they finished laughing, they went back to their work.

Healing started to do the every week inventory. He levitated a piece of paper and a pen in front of him.

He counted the morphine they had, and scribbled the numbers on the paper. He then walked to the medicine cabinet, and started to count all the different pills and mixtures.

He continued that for a good ten minutes, before he heard a familiar voice saying his name: "Healing!"

He turned around and saw Twilight Sparkle walking towards him, with her bodyguard Flash Sentry.

"Your highness," Healing said teasingly, and knelt.

Twilight looked annoyed, she waited for Healing to stood up before saying: "I already told you that you don't need to do that!"

"I know Twilight," Healing said and grinned. Twilight rolled her eyes, then she looked around herself.

"So this is where you work, huh?" she asked.

"Yep, nothing glamorous, but it is best we could get," Healing said.

They were silent for a while. Twilight looked around the tent, then her eyes fixated to something in the corner of the tent.

"What are those?" she asked and pointed at something. Healing Horn turned around and saw a table full of dogtags and papers. Both Healing and Flash Sentry were silent, they looked at each other.

Twilight turned to them.

"They are.. dogtags." Healing said. Twilight looked confused.

"identity disks" Flash Sentry said, but Twilight still didn't get it. Healing dug his own from under his uniform and showed it to Twilight, who started to examine it.

"It has your name, ID and place of birth," Twilight said. She hold the tag in her hoof, and looked at the table. She pondered something.

"Why are they there? Shouldn't soldiers carry those with them, like you?" she asked confused.

Healing was silent for a moment, then he said: "They don't need them anymore."

Twilight looked even more confused.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Princess, what corporal is trying to say is.." Flash started, and whispered the rest to her ear. Twilight's expression changed to a mix of surprise and sadness.

"oh.." she said. They walked to the table and looked at the pile of dogtags on it.

"So all these ponies have died?" Twilight asked quietly and turned to Healing, who slowly nodded.

"There's so many of them," Twilight said sadly.

"And these are from only one battle." Healing said. Twilight looked at him, then at the dogtags. She stared at the tags for a moment, then she turned away from them and asked: "What are those papers?"

"They are infos from every fallen pony." Healing said and looked at the papers. Twilight shivered. She turned back to Healing, who noticed that she almost cried.

"I don't want to talk about those anymore.." she said an swept the small tears from her eyes.

Healing nodded.

Twilight started to smile a little when she asked: "Now where's Spade? You said he was assigned here."

Healing froze. He didn't know what to say. Flash seemed to understand the situation.

"Princess, I think that major is waiting us," he said, but Twilight waved his hoof at him and said: "He can wait, I haven't seen Spade since he enlisted."

Healing Horn opened and closed his mouth couple times, but when he couldn't say anything he closed his eyes and drooped his head.

"Healing, is something wrong?" concerned Twilight asked. Healing looked at her, and then he turned at the pile of papers. He flipped trough them, until he found the right one. Twilight looked really confused when Healing gave the paper to her.

She read it for a second, and then her mouth opened, eyes widened and ears drooped. Healing saw how tears started to run down her cheeks. Twilight started to shake and the paper fell down from her hoof. She looked at Healing Horn, who just sadly looked at her.

Twilight turned around and threw her hooves around Flash Sentry, who blushed. It seemed that Twilight caught him off guard, but soon he placed her hoof around Twilight's back and hugged her back. Twilight sobbed against his chest.

Flash looked at Healing Horn, who too looked sad.

Healing noticed Flash's questioning look. He flicked his head towards the door.

Flash nodded, and started to walk towards the door, with still sobbing Twilight. They disappeared from the tent.

Healing sighed and lifted the paper from the floor. He swept dust from it and looked at it.

Private second class, Spade, Ponyville

Deceased after the battle of ursa valley.

Died due a gunshot to the chest. Medic Healing Horn tried to revive him, but private second class, Spade from Ponyville died to his injuries on the way back to the base around 3am.

Medic tried to revive him.. Healing Horn shivered. He placed the paper back to the pile. He then noticed that everypony in the tent was looking at him. They no doubt had seen the princess crying, and that he was the one who made her cry.

"She was a friend of Spade," Healing explained quietly, and a understanding seemed to spread on their faces.

Healing saw doctor Sawbone walking towards him. The grey stallion stopped in front of Healing Horn and said: "You can go back to your barrack now, I bet princess want's to speak you more, after she calms down."

Healing nodded. He took his bag from a chair close to him, and swung it to his back. He then started to walk towards the barrack C.

Crack Shot was sitting outside their barrack, with Riff by his side. They had sat there for almost twenty minutes, without saying a word to each other. Crack nervously glanced at Riff, who looked really annoyed and angry. Crack didn't want to lose a friend because of his own stupidity.

"Riff, I'm really sorry. I know I shouldn't have done that, but it just slipped!" Crack started, but Riff just grunted back to him. Crack took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and opened it.

"Here, take one. I'm really sorry!" Crack said again. Riff looked at him and said: "you keep saying that."

"And I mean it!" Crack said and offered Riff a cigarette again. Riff looked at the pack, and took one cigarette from it.

Crack too took one and they light them.

"What do you want me to do, to prove that I'm sorry?" Crack now asked. Riff looked at him, thinking about something. He scratched his beard, and then said: "Stub that smoke into your face, then I'll believe you."

Crack looked confused. He looked at his cigarette, and then at Riff.

"Really?" he asked from Riff, who said: "Yeah, prove me that you're sorry."

Crack looked at the cigarette again. He knew that it was gonna hurt like hell, but not probably as much as a dislocated jaw. He gulped and thought about it. He then sighed and closed his eyes.

"The hay with it.." he muttered and started to move the light cigarette closer to his face. He felt the heat from the cigarette.

Just as it was about to touch his face, he felt somepony grabbing his hoof. Crack opened his eyes and saw Riff holding his hoof, and looking at him, surprised.

"You we're really going to stick that into your face?" Riff asked. Crack lowered the cigarette from his face, and nodded to Riff, who chuckled.

"So you're sorry huh?" Riff asked from Crack, who said: "Yes, really sorry."

Riff looked at him for a second, and started to smile.

"Apology accepted," he said and patted Crack on the shoulder. Crack's face beamed. He placed the cigarette back to his mouth.

"Isn't that Healing Horn over there?" Riff suddenly asked. Crack saw him too.

"Yeah, what's he doing here at this time?" Crack pondered.

Healing horn walked to them and said: "Hey fellas."

He sat down next to Crack Shot, who noticed that Healing Horn had something on his mind.

"What's wrong?" Crack asked. Healing looked at him and Riff, then he said: "I made Twilight cry."

Riff started to cough wildly and Crack's eyes went wide. They bot looked at Healing Horn.

"You made her cry?" Riff asked in disbelief. Healing looked at him and said: "Yeah. I sjowed Spade's papers to her when she asked where Spade was."

"Oh. That explains. Was she a friend of Spade?" Crack Shot asked. Healing nodded.

They were silent for a moment, then Riff asked: "So you know her?"

Healing looked at him and said: "Yeah. She was librarian in Ponyville, until she became princess. She still visits there almost every week though."

They were silent again.

"She's pretty good looking," Crack suddenly said. Riff and Healing looked at him angrily.

"What!? I think shes cute! There's nothing bad in that!" he defended himself. Riff seemed like he was going to attack Crack.

"You little.. All you think is pussy, and look what happens!" Riff hissed to him and poked him on the wound, making him yelp.

"What the f.." Crack started and grabbed Riff from his uniform, it looked like that they were really going to fight.

"Let go!" Riff shouted to Crack.

"No!" Crack shouted back. They started to struggle on the ground. Riff's long mane got loose and it got messed, while Crack's mohawk got flattened again.

"Guys.." Healing tried, but the two were too busy wrestling to notice him.

"Guys!" Healing shouted and kicked them. They both angrily looked at him, but their expressions soon changed when they saw why Healing tried to make them stop.

Princess and his bodyguard were standing there.

They quickly stood up and knelt before the princess.

"I'm really sorry about that princess," Crack said nervously.

"And that thing that happened earlier," Riff added, looking angrily at Crack from the corner of his eye. Twilight giggled and the two ponies rose up. They looked at each other confusedly.

"No need to be. I'm not mad at you," Twilight said, and then she saw the cut on Crack's head.

"Are you alright by the way? That cut look's pretty deep," Twilight asked from Crack.

"It's fine, you guy here can use his spear pretty well though," Crack said and chuckled nervously, while looking at the orange pegasus. Twilight giggled and said: "Flash sure can use his spear pretty well, don't you Flash?"

Flash's cheeks were getting redder. Healing noticed that. Was there something going on between those two?

Healing shook his head to clear his thoughts, he then asked: "Hey. About that at the aid station, are you alright?"

Twilight stopped smiling. She looked Healing into eyes and said: "Yeah, It's sad, but I don't have time to worry about it now."

Healing gave her a sad smile, which she returned.

"Look what you did with my mane!" they heard Riff complaining to Crack. He brushed dust from his mane and started to tie it back to a ponytail.

"What I did to your mane!? My mohawk's all messed up!" Crack said to him angrily and tried to straighten his mane.

Twilight giggled. He looked at the two stallions.

"Are those two always fighting?" she asked from Healing Horn. Crack and Riff both blushed when princess spoke of them.

"All the time," Healing Horn chuckled, he saw how a wide smile appeared on Twilight's face.

"You were Riff, right?" Twilight asked and looked at Riff, who was still tying his mane.

"Yes mam, Riff Frost actually" Riff answered. Twilight smiled to him, and then asked: "How's your jaw?"

"It's good, thanks to Healing and his 'mates'," Riff said and glared angrily at Healing Horn, who smiled sheepishly at him.

Twilight nodded happily, and then turned to Crack and said: "I never got your name."

"I'm Crack Shot, at you service" he said and nodded, earning a giggle from Twilight. She smiled and said: "Nice to meet you. Where are you from?"

"I'm from Manehattan," Crack said.

"Ooh, from a big city. I bet it's a bit different than small town like Ponyville," Twilight said and glanced at Healing Horn.

"I never been in Ponyville," Crack said.

"You should visit there sometimes. There's best parties ever!" Twilight said exited.

"maybe I will, after we get this mess sorted out," Crack answered smiling

.

"How about you Riff?" Twilight asked with a happy voice. Riff finished tying his mane and said: "I'm from Crystal mountains, mam."

"Crystal mountains? I never been there. What is it like?" Twilight asked interested. Riff thought for a moment, and then said: "There's a lot of snow."

Healing Horn and Twilight chuckled. Healing then said: "You always say that."

"I don't know how else I could say it. There is a lot of snow," Riff said to the smart mouth. Healing just smiled annoying smile.

They spoke about everything they could come up with. The weather, war and the food they served at the fire base. Their conversation went on for a good fifteen minutes.

After a while Flash Sentry leaned to Twilight and said: "Princess, we really need to go now. We still have three bases to visit for today."

Twilight seemed disappointed. She would have wanted to spent more time with her new friends. She sighed and turned back Healing Horn, Riff and Crack Shot. She smiled sadly and said: "It was nice meeting you, but now I really need to go."

The three ponies stood there, then they said in unison: "Princess, we thank you for your visit."

They all knelt before her. Twilight let out a annoyed grunt, and said: "Why are you irritating me like that, Healing Horn?"

They stood up and Healing was first to speak: "I am going to miss you Twilight."

Healing saw that small tears formed in Twilight's eyes, but she still smiled.

"Oh come here you," she said and hugged Healing.

They broke the hug, and now Twilight gestured Riff to come closer. They too hugged.

"It was really nice meeting you Riff," Twilight said when they broke the hug.

"Likewise, princess. I hope we see again," Riff said happily.

Twilight nodded, and now was Crack's turn. Crack came closer and hugged the princess. He looked at Flash Sentry, and winked at him while hugging Twilight.

Flash exhaled trough his nostrils angrily and hit his spear into the ground. Crack quickly broke the hug and said: "Whoa big guy! No need to get mad here!"

Twilight giggled, and Crack backed next to Healing and Riff.

"Goodbye! I'm going to miss you!" Twilight said to them and started to walk towards the landing pad with Flash Sentry.

"Goodbye!" the trio answered in unison.

After a while they saw the carriage taking off, and Twilight waving at them in it. They waved back, and soon they couldn't see the wagon anymore. Crack looked on the sky with a sad look on his face.

"I miss her already," he said.

"Yeah," Riff agreed with him.

"Well after this is over, you can come visit me in Ponyville. I'm sure she will come too," Healing Horn cheered them up. They both turned to see him. Their faces beamed.

"Really?" they asked in unison.

"Yeah! Totally!" Healing said smiling.

Both Crack and Riff looked at each other, and then at Healing Horn.

"It's a deal then!" Crack Shot shouted and patted Healing on the back so hard that it hurt.

"You better not forgot that!" Riff said and patted Healing on the back too.

Healing laughed, but then he felt his stomach growl. He looked at hid friends and asked: "Wanna go get something to eat?"

They both nodded, and then they started to walk towards the canteen.

Fateful day 1/2

It has been two weeks after princess Twilight Sparkle's visit to fire base Zebra. War front has been surprisingly quiet, only couple of minor fights had occurred between Equestria troops and the changelings.

It was a early morning, and soon everypony would be getting up and starting their daily chores. Soldiers of the 2nd platoon were already starting to wake up, before the bell even rang. It had become a habit for them.

Crack Shot slowly lifted his head from his pillow. He smacked his mouth lazily and looked around himself. He saw couple of ponies making their beds, and Healing Horn was playing cards with a black pony on his bed.

He turned his head and saw Riff waking up too.

Riff yawed heartily and at the same time he took a pack of cigarettes from his night table.  Riff placed a cigarette into his mouth and light it. He then looked at Crack.

They stared at each other for second, and then Crack said: "I think today is going to happen something."

Riff chuckled. That sentence had became their own joke during the last week. Crack said that to Riff every morning, even they knew nothing was really going to happen.

"Hah!" they heard somepony shouting. They turned their heads towards the sound, and saw Healing frowning at the black pony who he was playing cards with. The pony jumped up and down a little, pointing at Healing Horn.

"You lost! Hand them over!" he said and extended his hoof towards Healing Horn, who grunted something inaudible and dug a full pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

"Too bad those were your last ones," the black pony said, grinning teasingly as Healing gave the pack to him.

"Buck off," Healing said angrily.

"You can't always win you know," the black pony said, and jumped down from Healing's bed. He walked to his own bed and sat on it.

Just then the bell rang, and the last ponies sleeping soon woke up. They made their beds and then left for their jobs.

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

Crack Shot was standing at the main gates. With another pony. It was their turn to be at the guard. Crack though that it was even more boring than sitting in the watchtower all the time. Crack had been in the guards duty far more than he used to be. He was sure that Rough was still punishing him from the incident with the princess.

Crack sighed, and turned to the pony next to him. He was a pale yellow pony. Crack saw that he was a corporal too.

"Hey," he said to get the pony's attention. The yellow pony turned his head to Crack.

"Why did you get promoted?" Crack asked.

"I don't know actually," the pony answered. Crack looked at him confusedly.

"How can't you know?" Crack asked. The pony shrugged, and then said: "One day captain just came to me and said that I was promoted. Didn't really tell me why."

The conversation died as quickly as it started, and Crack was bored again. He was now sure that he would die of boredom.

They stood in silence for next ten minutes, holding their rifles by their sides. Crack was starting to get sleepy, and he had problems holding his eyes open. His head started to droop a little, but then he heard somepony coming towards them.

Crack opened his eyes and lifted his head. He saw that there was a pony walking towards them with his rifle on his back.

'

"Changing shifts," the pony said when he reached Crack.

"What? I've been here for less than two hours." confused Crack said.

"I know, but captain want's to see you," the pony said, and took his rifle into his hoof. Crack still looked confused. The pony started to stand with his rifle by his side.

"It sounded pretty important," he added.

Crack realized that what ever it would be, it wouldn't be as boring as the guard duty. He strapped his rifle onto his back and started trotting towards Rough's tent.

Healing Horn packed was packing a shipment of medical supplies, that was going to be shipped to some other base near the border. He closed the boxes, and held them, while some white pony sealed them shut with tape.

Unlike many others, Healing was happy that nothing had happened. He wasn't much for the action and killing, it made him sick.

He couldn't understand how others could kill a changeling, without feeling bad about it. Healing usually threw up after the battle, because he felt so bad about killing.

"Why do you care about them? They aren't like us!" Healing remembered somepony saying to him.

He frowned to that memory. Healing knew that they were wrong. He remembered how the changeling begged for help, when they were in the ursa valley.

"Hey!" somepony shouted to Healing, making him wake up from his thoughts. He shook his head and looked at the white pony who was standing with the tape roll in his hoof.

"You gonna help or what?" the white pony asked, and Healing noticed that he was waiting for him to give a new box to him.

"Yeah. Sure," Healing said and took new packet, closed and then held it while the white pony sealed it. Then they repeated that for couple of more times, until there were no more boxes left.

They lifted the packets to a pallet. The white pony looked at the pallet for a second, and then asked: "You wanna take this?"

"I'll take it," Healing said and lifted the heavy boxes and pallet into air with his magic. He then trotted outside the tent, and made his way towards the landing pads.

Healing Horn looked at the ponies around the base while he was carrying the boxes. They didn't seem to be in any kind of rush. The sun was shining and there were couple of white clouds on the sky. Everything was great.

He reached the landing pads, and placed the pallet on the ground next to him. Now all he had to do was to wait for the carriage from the other base to come and pick up the shipment.

Healing sat down and enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

After a while Healing heard somepony behind him saying: "Hey, you corporal Healing Horn?"

Healing turned his head to the pony behind him. He was a white unicorn.

"That's me," he confirmed.

"Captain want's to see you," the white unicorn said. Healing looked at the boxes, and then back at the unicorn.

"I really need to ship these boxes," he said. The white unicorn came closer and whispered into Healing's ear: "It's important."

Healing frowned. What was going on?

"Can you see that this pallet goes to the right wagon? Address is written on the boxes," Healing asked from the unicorn. "Sure," he answered.

Healing nodded. He then stood up and left the unicorn with the boxes.

Riff was in the armory, just about to light his cigarette.

"Corporal Riff! Take these to the watch tower!" some orange coated sergeant shouted to Riff and pointed at a full crate of 5.56 mm in front of him.

"Yes sir," Riff said and put the cigarette into his pocket. He quickly trotted to the ammo box. The sergeant looked at Riff, who huffed while lifting the heavy box onto his back.

"And be quick! You still have a lot to do!" the orange sergeant rushed Riff angrily.

"Yes sir," Riff said again, sounding a bit more pissed than last time. The sergeant let out a small 'hmph', and turned to somepony else.

Riff didn't like this new sergeant, nor did anypony else. He was too cocky, unlike Payload was.

Riff cursed in his mind, and started to slowly walk to the front door of the armory. Just when Riff reached the door, somepony opened it from the outside. He saw a blue unicorn in the doorway.

"Thanks," Riff said and was about to leave the building, but the unicorn stopped him with his hoof.

"Are you corporal Riff?" he asked. Riff looked at him and answered: "Yep."

"Captain want's to see you at his tent," the blue unicorn said.

"Corporal! Are you stupid or what? Get moving!" the sergeant in the armory shouted to Riff, who looked back at him. Riff turned his head to the blue unicorn.

"Captain has ordered corporal Riff to meet him at once!" the blue unicorn said firmly to the orange sergeant.

"He can go after he drops that crate at the watch tower," sergeant said to the unicorn, looking at him threateningly.

"It's important," blue unicorn said calmly. Riff looked at him, and then at the sergeant behind him.

A small grin appeared on Riff's lips when he said: "Can't disobey captains orders."

Riff dropped the crate on the floor and trotted outside with the blue unicorn, leaving the sergeant grinning his teeth in anger.

"Thanks," Riff said to the blue unicorn, who chuckle and said: "No problem."

They laughed and started to walk towards Rough's tent.

Rough Gunner was standing outside his tent. There were seven ponies standing in front of him, and more were coming. He saw that Crack Shot and Healing were already there, and that Riff was walking towards them with the blue unicorn that Rough had sent to round up the ponies.

They were all handpicked by Rough himself. He knew them all by the name, and he trusted everyone of them from the bottom of his heart.

He did a quick count and noticed that everypony was there.

There were two machine gunners, two medics, a combat engineer, a sniper, two grenadiers, AT soldier and Rough himself. Ten soldiers in total. They all looked at Rough, waiting for a explanation.

Rough cleared his throat and started: "You're here because I chose you personally."

Ponies looked at each other with a confused looks.

"I can trust you, and I know every one of you. That is really important in our mission," Rough continued, but then a black earth pony lifted his hoof and asked: "What mission sir?"

Rough realized that he hadn't briefed them.

"The camp we capture, has been under precise artillery fire. So precise that there must be a changeling spotters in the area," Rough told his soldiers, who listened silently.

"So we're going to search for them?" somepony asked. Rough looked at him and said: "No need for that Ace, we already know where they are hiding."

"Then why are we going there? Can't we just blow them away with artillery?" Crack Shot asked.

"No, we can't. The changelings are in a abandoned factory, that was build when the area was still inhabited by ponies," Rough said. Crack Shot looked at him confusedly and asked: "So?"

Rough lifted his aviator glasses to his forehead and rubbed his eyes. He then put the glasses back to his eyes and said: "The high command want's us to take command of the facility."

Everypony was silent, but then the black pony lifted his hoof again, and asked: "Why the hell?"

Rough chuckled, and then said: "I don't know, but we have to go by the rules."

"Why can't they send the guys from the camp? It's their problem after all!" The blue unicorn asked angrily.

"They can't leave the camp. They're short on soldiers already, and what would happen if the changelings decided to attack there?"

Everypony realized that Rough was right.

"Besides, the spotters would see them leaving the base, while we have a element of surprise on our side," Rough continued.

Some of the ponies nodded in agreement, while others were more skeptical about the whole thing.

"Why there's so few of us? I mean I counted ten," some light yellow pony asked.

"There can't be many of them in the factory, so we won't be needing many soldiers. Plus we can move to the factory unnoticed easier, when there's not too many of us." Rough explained.

"Will we walk there again?" the yellow pony continued asking. Rough had waited that phrase to come.

"No, we will have a carriage to transport us five klicks close to the factory. That same wagon will be our extraction, if the things go south," Rough said and looked at the yellow pony, who nodded.

"Any more questions?" Rough asked from his soldier, while looking at them. Nopony said anything.

"If not, go get your things together," Rough said.

"Hooah," ponies replied.

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

Everypony watched the ground underneath them, as they flew trough the sky in a big wagon that was pulled by four pegasies. They were flying low, really low. Rough said that it was because they couldn't let the changelings see them approaching, or they would lose their advantage of surprise attack.

Rough gunner looked around his squad. Everypony was wearing their green battle uniform, and their combat vests. Some of them had helmets, but most of them didn't have any headgear. Everypony had their weapons ready. Rough saw Thrill, their anti tank soldier packing his 66mm one shot rocket launches into his bag.

"Hey, Thrill!" Rough shouted over the sound of wind howling in their ears. Thrill stopped his packing and looked at Rough.

"Yes sir?" he asked.

"What are you doing?" Rough asked and watched at the three rocket launchers on the floor.

"I'm arranging these better! They press against my back annoyingly!" Thrill answered. Rough nodded and shouted: "Carry on!"

Thrill continued, and Rough turned to look at the direction they were headed. He could already see the mountains where the actual camp was. It wouldn't take long for them to reach the drop-off point.

Rough turned around, back to his soldiers. Now would be a good time for some last second advice.

"Okay, Listen up!" Rough started, and everypony turned to him.

"Even this should be a easy job, you need to keep your hooves on the ground," he started.

"Don't go acting like a hero, it will only get you shot!" Rough said sternly. He lifted his aviator glasses with his hoof, and looked at his squad.

"Understood?" he asked, and the ponies answered: "Yes sir!"

"Good. -" Rough put his glasses back to his eyes "- Now were getting close to the LZ. After we disembark, rally on me," he explained. He paused for a second, and then continued: "Intel told us that there's pretty much canopy near the facility, so we wouldn't have any problems sneaking up to them,"

"The facility is surrounded by some other buildings, so we need to proceed trough them to the factory," Rough started to explain about the battle plan.

"After we're at the factory, we need to clear it from the enemies." Rough continued, and everypony was listening carefully.

"After that, we start clearing the buildings surrounding it. You Crack Shot -" Rough pointed at Crack "- will stay up at the top of the factory. You will cover us from there," Rough explained.

"Yes sir," Crack said. Rough nodded, and then said: "When the area is cleaned, we will rendezvous at the factory."

Everypony were silent, but then Healing Horn asked: "What if something goes wrong, and we need to get out of there?"

"These fine gentlecolts here will come and pick us up," Rough said and pointed at the pegasies.

"Al right sir!" Healing answered.

After about ten minutes later, they reached the landing zone. The pegasies deceased their speed, and started to fly closer to the ground. When they found a good open spot, they pulled the wagon slightly upwards, making it hover over the open area. They then landed smoothly to the ground.

Rough jumped out from the carriage. The other ponies followed his lead, and soon they were all standing on the ground.

"We will be waiting here for your signal," the leader of the pegasies said to Rough, who just nodded.

Rough looked at his watch. It has a compas in it too.

"Rally on me!" Rough shouted and started to lightly trot towards north, where the factory was located. The others followed him and soon they started to notice small plant's growing up around the.

After about half an hour of walking, they were wading in a dense canopy. There were also small trees and bushes here and there. Making the terrain ideal for moving unnoticed towards the factory, which they already saw.

They reached the border of the old factory area. There was a old rusty mesh fence. It was about two and a half meters tall, so none of them could climb over it. Rough looked at the fence and thought.

"Riff, you got the cutting tools don't you?" Rough asked.

"Yep," Riff said and trotted to the fence. He examined it for a second.

"Hmm," he said. Then he gave a small push to the fence, and it collapsed onto the ground. Riff turned to Rough Gunner and grinned. He said: "Mission accomplished!"

Others laughed at Riff's joke, but Rough was serious.

"Celestia damn it! This is not a good time for joking around! What if there's enemies nearby?" Rough whispered to them angrily. The ponies looked at the ground, and said in unison: "Sorry captain."

Rough didn't say anything. He just started to walk inside the factory area.

"Eyes peeled," he said when they started to see the first buildings around the factory.

The factory itself was and old multi-storey building, that was build in simple style. The walls were grey concrete, and it had big windows with rusty metal grids on them in every floor. It looked just like an abandoned factory should look like. Creepy.

The smaller buildings around the factory were also very ramshackle. They were like big boxes with windows. It looked like some of the buildings had still been under construction, when the factory got abandoned.

"Why was this place abandoned?" Healing Horn asked and gulped.

"I don't know" Crack Shot answered, looking around himself nervously. They were getting closer to the nearest concrete building.

Crack Shot noticed that Rough had planned this attack very well. They were approaching the factory from behind it. There were much more less windows than on any other sides, raising their odds to reach the factory unnoticed.

Rough Gunner was on the lead with Blade, a black coated earth pony. He was the other machine gunner.

Suddenly Blade ducked and whispered: "Down!"

Everypony did just that, ducking into a tall grass. Rough leaned closer to Blade and asked: "What's wrong?"

"Movement," Blade said, and pointed his hoof at the corner of the building. Rough narrowed his eyes, and indeed saw something moving behind the corner. Soon after that two changelings emerged from behind the corner. Rough could hear the two changelings speaking, but didn't hear what they were speaking.

Rough gestured the ponies behind them about the enemy contact. Everypony pulled their guns from their backs, but Rough lifted his hoof to his mouth. They had to do this silently.

The changelings stopped at the door of the building. They had assault rifles on their backs. Rough heard them still talking about something with their insect like voice.

He looked at Blade, who looked back at Rough.

"We must take them out silently," Rough said, and Blade nodded. Rough pulled out his knife, and placed it to his teeth. Blade followed his example. Rough gestured other ponies to wait there.

They started to crawl closer to the changelings in the tall grass, but soon Rough stopped blade by touching him on the shoulder.

"It must be quick and silent, aim for the throat," he said with the knife still in his teeth. Blade nodded, and they again started to crawl closer.

This wasn't anything new to Rough. He had been on similar mission many times during the war with the griffons. The changelings were going to be easy. They weren't big like griffons, nor did they have hawk eyes like them. He had learned that with a precise strike to the throat, you could kill the enemy completely silent. Foe can't even scream, because he drowns in his own blood.

They could now hear what the changelings were speaking about.

"You know drone 18368, I'm sick of this," the other said.

"What do you mean?" other one asked confusedly. The first one then said: "You know, this war. It's completely useless!"

"I don't know what you mean, we need to conquer Equestria" the other said. They looked at each other, then he continued: "Think how long the love in there will last? We can live hundreds of years with it!"

The other one gave him a skeptical look.

"Maybe. But I sometimes feel like we wouldn't even need to feed on love to survive!" he said.

"That's blasphemy!" the other one said shocked.

"Nonono! Think about it! I'm completely in love with drone 18736, and I have never felt hungry!" the skeptical one said, trying to calm down the another changeling. The other one actually calmed down, and seemed to ponder about something.

"Hey, maybe you're right. I mean when I dated that cute drone from the west hive, I never felt hungry either," he said.

The other one seemed to smile exited.

"Do you get it? I bet that we could live just by loving some..."

The changeling got interrupted by Rough Gunner and Blade jumping from the grass. The two changelings didn't even have time to react, until it was already too late.

Rough tackled other against the wall, pushing his knife deep into changelings throat. The changeling tried to scream, but Rough pulled the knife to left, ripping the poor changeling's throat completely open. blood flew from the wound, and Rough let him fall to the ground. The changeling was holding his throat in panic, and all the sound he could make was silent growling.

Rough looked at the dying creature, and for a second it looked back with his eyes that were full of confusion and panic. Then the changeling died.

Rough turned to Blade, who had tackled his changeling inside the doorway. He hadn't been as accurate as Rough, and the knife had hit the changeling a bit too low, under the throat.  Blade had then hit the changeling three times more, and this time the knife had hit where it should have been.

The dead changeling laid under the pale faced Blade, in a big pool of blood. Blade clumsily rose up, and started to shake. Rough walked to him and asked: "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm alr..." Blade started, but suddenly turned around and puked.

Rough knew that feel. He had also done the same thing after his first kill with a knife. It was some kind of reflex, and after that you act like nothing happened, without feeling anything at all. It takes a while to learn how to control it.

"You all right?" Rough asked again. Blade turned around and wiped his mouth.

"Yeah, let's move these bodies inside," Blade said calmly. Just like Rough had thought, Blade was now back to normal now.

After Rough and Blade had dragged the bodies inside the small building, Rough waved at the rest of his soldiers, who stood up from the grass and gathered around him.

"We don't have much time, before they start looking for those two," Rough said and pointed at the dead changelings.

"There's more buildings on the way, so we can use them as cover," Rough continued and looked at the factory. Without without further ado they started to advance towards the factory.

The group moved quickly between the empty buildings. Somepony always stayed in the previous building, and kept watch wile others moved. After the group had moved into the next building, they covered the last pony, while he moved to the next building. It was slow, but they didn't wan't to risk anything.

It was Crack Shots turn to stay behind. He positioned himself behind one of the windows in the unfinished building they were in. Crack took his rifle from it's holster, and pulled the charging handle and clicked the safety off. He quickly scanned that the area between two buildings was clean.

There were stacks of concrete barriers in the middle of the area. It looked like the barriers were stacked there to be moved somewhere else, which never happened. On the right side there was a old road, that had been overran by small plants, making it hardly visible. on the left there was a old wreck of chariot, that had been rusting there for who knew how long. Crack examined the area for a second, and then nodded to Rough Gunner.

"Let's go," he said to the rest of the ponies. They then trotted trough the door.

Crack looked around the open area, keeping his rifle pointed at the way he looked.

Suddenly Crack Shot noticed that the ponies had stopped behind one of the stacks. He turned his rifle towards them, and looked trough his magnifying aimpoint scope.

He saw that they were all pulling their weapons out, and looking at a old road on their right side. Crack turned his rifle towards it, and saw five changelings walking there. How could he have not seen them?

Crack pressed himself closer to the wall, and watched the changelings walking there slowly. At least they hadn't noticed the ponies hiding near them.

Crack saw that one of the changelings had a light machine gun on his back, it could mean real trouble for the ponies if the changelings noticed them. Crack turned his rifle back to hiding ponies, who were pressed against the concrete barriers. Rough looked at Crack Shot, and made a gesture that said 'let them pass'. Crack knew that it would be the best choice, but he still kept his eyes on the walking changelings.

Everything seemed to go fine. The changelings were almost at a safe distance away from the hiding ponies, and they could soon continue approaching the factory.

Crack suddenly heard a loud thud from the direction where the ponies were. He looked there and saw that one of them had dropped his helmet, and it was rolling to the open, making a plonking sound. They all looked at the helmet, wide eyed.

Crack turned to see the changelings. They were too staring at the helmet confusedly.

It seemed like everything froze for a second, but then the changelings started to shout and pulling their weapons from their holsters.

Crack didn't think long, he shot couple of quick shots at the light machine gunner, killing him.

Other ponies too opened fire, killing one more, before the three last changelings managed to even open fire.

Ponies had do duck for cover, when bullets from three changeling assault rifles ripped their cover. Luckily the changelings hadn't noticed Crack Shot, they were too busy trying to engage the group of ponies behind the cover. They had ducked behind the road.They had good protection from ponies behind the barriers, but their sides were completely exposed for Crack.

He aimed at the closest of the three changelings, and fired. The round hit the changeling, but he didn't fall down. He held his side, and looked at the bleeding wound in confusion. Another round to head made him fall down.

Now the two other changelings noticed Crack Shot, and opened fire towards him.

Crack managed to fall flat to his stomach just before bullets hit the window frame, taking big bits with them.

He quickly crawled to the doorway, where he could see that other soldiers from his squad started firing at the changelings, while they were shooting at Crack Shot.

Blade fired a long burst with his machine gun, sawing down the other one. Last changeling looked at his fallen comrade. He seemed to understand that he didn't have any changes, he threw his weapon to the ground and started to run.

Crack rose to his rear legs, leaning against the door frame. He held his gun in his front hooves and aimed at the running changeling. He shot once, and saw how the bullet went trough the changelings neck, piercing the spine. The last changeling fell to the ground like a rag doll.

Without waiting any longer, Crack strapped his weapon back to his back. He exited the building and ran after the rest of the ponies, who were already in the next building. When Crack got inside, Rough Gunner shouted: "Weapons free! Move in cover and fire anything that's not a pony!"

Crack trotted to Riff, who looked at the light green pony in front of him.

"Nice shooting there," he said to Crack Shot, who panted and just nodded.

"Move up!" Rough shouted, and everypony started to ran towards the factory. They ran about half way there, when the firing began. Several muzzle flashes began flashing from the factory and it's windows, and running ponies dashed for cover.

Riff dived behind a big metal pipe, that was lying on the ground. Soon a cyan earth pony dived next to him. It was Charge, one of their grenadiers. He had a similar rifle as Riff, but it had a 40mm grenade launcher attached to it's attachment rail, under the barrel. The two ponies looked at each other

.

"What a fucking mess," Charge said and reloaded his rifle. Riff peeked around the pipe, and saw that the changelings and ponies were engaging in a intense gunfight with each other. Riff saw that there was a small ditch on their left, that leaded right next to changelings.

"Hey, Charge! Look over there!" Riff shouted over the loud gunfire, and pointed his hoof at the ditch. Charge looked at the ditch, and seemed to have the same idea as Riff did. They looked at each other, and then they shouted in unison: "Covering fire!"

Other ponies heard that, and they all opened fire at the changelings in the factory. There were more lead in the air than in wild west. The tracers flew across the battlefield, ripping the concrete walls of the factory, and breaking the glass windows.

Now Riff and Charge had a opportunity to run to the ditch. They galloped towards it at full speed, and jumped into it. Then they started to crawl towards the fortified changelings.

They soon were only twenty meters from the factory,and they could see the changelings inside.

"Ready?" Riff asked from the Charge.Charge nodded and placed a grenade to his grenade launcher, while Riff took two grenades from his combat vest.

"Three," they counted.

"Two," Riff pulled pins from the grenades with his teeth.

"One!" they said, and rose up. Charge pointed his gun towards the firing changelings. They heard a small blob, when Charge fired the grenade towards the enemy. It exploded, taking a big part of the wall wit it. Now Riff could easily throw the grenades inside the building. He released the safety handles, and counted to two. He then threw them both in from the hole in the wall.

Seconds later, they heard two hollow explosions from inside the building, and flames burst from the hole and the nearby windows. Charge shot second time, but now he aimed at the second floor windows. Wall exploded, and one changeling flew down from there, into his death.

Riff took his rifle, and shot at the windows of the second floor. Charge too opened the fire, keeping the changelings low, while other ponies ran towards the factory. Riff saw them jumping inside from the hole in the wall, and then he heard gunfire from the inside.

"Let's go!" Charge shouted to Riff, who fired couple of more times at the windows, before they started running towards the wall.

Just a couple of meters before the hole in the wall, a single shot was heard, and Charge let out a yelp. He took couple of more steps, but he then stumbled and fell to the ground. Riff turned to Charge, who gritted his teeth in pain.

"Oh shit! How bad is it!?" Riff asked and grabbed Charge from his uniform with his teeth. He started to pull Charge inside the factory.

"Nothing bad! The bullet went trough!" Charge said and held his stomach, that was bleeding blood. Riff managed to drag Charge inside the factory. There he saw many dead changelings, and the floor was full of shells. The air smelled of gunpowder, smoke and death.

Riff placed Charge to lean at one of the support pillars inside the factory.

"Can you shoot?" he asked from Charge, who was still holding his stomach.

"Yeah, just give me my pistol," Charge said, and pointed at his bag. Riff opened the back, and pulled a 9mm sidearm from it. He gave it to Charge, and dug two full clips from the bag too.

"Keep an eye on that hole! I'll go get you a medic!" Riff explained to Charge, who nodded and said, grinning in pain: "Just go already!"

Riff stood up and started to run towards the stairs. He saw couple of more bodies, but all of them were changelings, so they were doing pretty well. Just couple of minutes more, and the factory would be theirs.

Riff heard more gunfire from the upper levels, and he started to run faster towards the stairs.

Healing Horn shot at a doorway in front of him. Right after he stopped firing, two muzzle flashes fluttered from the doorway, making Healing to duck behind some boxes with scrap metal in them.

He looked at a grey earth pony, who was behind a nearby corner. His name was Buzzcut, and he lived by his name. His mane was cut short with a electric cutter. He was the second machine gunner.

He was there with their another medic, Boxsee. He was the blue unicorn. They too couldn't move due the enemy fire.

They were in a  big room, with only one way forward. It was a small corridor, and two changelings were doing good job protecting it.

Healing Horn tried to stood up to shoot at the changelings in the doorway, but right after he lifted his head, bullets ricocheted from the wall behind him. They couldn't move anywhere. Healing tried to look around for help, but everypony else had ran off somewhere else.

"Healing!" they heard somepony shout.

Healing Horn turned around and saw Riff trotting towards them.

"Stay back! We can't move here!" Healing shouted and waved his hooves at Riff, who stopped behind one of the support pillars in the room.

"What's going on?" Riff shouted from behind the pillar.

"There's two of them, and we can't get past!" Healing said.

Riff peeked from behind the pillar, he was at safe position. Changelings didn't see him there.

Healing watched Riff waving at Buzzcut.

When he got Buzzcut's attention, Riff took a grenade from his combat vest, and showed it to Buzzcut, who nodded.

Then Riff ducked, and slid the grenade across the floor, right into Buzzcut's feet. He took the grenade, and looked at Boxsee, and then at Healing.

Healing nodded, and then Buzzcut pulled the pin. He quickly leaned over the corner, and tossed the grenade into the doorway. Before he managed to pull himself back behind the corner, one of the changelings shot a quick burst, and bullet hit him in the front leg, went trough and hit his lower body.

"Shit!" Healing shouted, and dashed to help Buzzcut, while Boxsee shot towards the door with his assault rifle, covering Healing Horn.

Grenade inside the doorway exploded, making the other changeling fly trough the doorway, and landing in front of Boxsee.

He shot it once, and then he and Riff rushed inside the room with their pistols drawn.

Meanwhile Healing Horn was helping wounded Buzzcut. He heard couple of shots from the room, but didn't care about them.

Buzzcut's wounds were bleeding badly, but fortunately they hadn't hit any vital organs.

"Aah! Doc, Is it bad?" Buzzcut asked, while holding his arm. Healing placed a bandage over his side, where the bullet had hit him. Then he said: "You're going to live, but we need to get you a medevac!"

Boxsee and Riff came trough the door with smoking sidearms in their hooves.

"Is he alright?" Boxsee asked from Healing, who nodded and said: "Nothing too bad, but we need to move him."

Riff remembered something.

"Charge is down stairs, he got hit too," he said to the two medics.

"How badly?" Boxsee asked.

"I don't know, I had to drag him inside, but he could still shoot," Riff answered, and started to change a clip into his pistol.

Boxee looked at Healing Horn and wounded Buzzcut.

"Can you two move him? I could go see Charge," he asked.

Healing and Riff nodded.

"Okay, I'll see you upstairs," Boxee said, and started to gallop towards the stairs that led downstairs.

Healing Horn, Riff and Buzzcut looked at the running medic, until he disappeared down the stairs, and they could no longer see him.

Healing and Crack Shot then turned to Buzzcut, who was still sitting on the floor. Healing had done good job bandaging him up, but blood was still coming trough from the bandages.

"Okay, Up we go," Riff said when he and Healing lifted Buzzcut to his hooves. Healing lifted Buzzcut's wounded leg over his neck, suppoerting him while they started to move. Riff held his pistol, and was ready to shoot at anything. They were in the third floor, and they heard gunfire from above them.

Healing thought that Rough and rest of the soldiers were almost at the roof.

"We have three more floors to go, can you make it?" Healing asked from Buzzcut, who winced everytime he stepped with his right hind leg.

"Yeah.. just need to slow down a bit," Buzzcut panted, while they started to rise the first set of stairs.

"No need to hurry," Riff said, and helped Healing to keep Buzzcut in balance.

Suddenly they heard a new sound from above them. It was gunfire, but much louder, and it sounded different, like slower.

"What's that?" Healing asked and looked at RIff, who shrugged.

"It's fifty-cal," Buzzcut said.

Healing Horn and Riff looked at him. Then Riff looked up the stairs and said: "I wouldn't want to be up there right now."

Tracers from the roaring fifty-cal flew trough the big, hall like room they were in. Rough Gunner hiding with Crack Shot. They were behind pile of steel bars, that were piled in the corner of the room. He looked around, and saw rest of his soldiers hiding too. Nopony could fire back at the machine gun.

They had walked right into the trap. The fifty-cal was behind a crumpled brick wall, and when it started firing, at least two of them got hit, but Rough Gunner didn't know who.

"Sitrep!" Rough shouted, he needed to know who were still alive.

"SNAFU! (situation normal: all fucked up)" Thrill shouted from behind a support pillar.

"I'm hit, but it's just a flesh wound!" Blade shouted.

"Where are you? Can you move!?" Rough inquired further. He saw Blade rising his head from behind a pile of red bricks.

"I'm okay! It just went trough my hoof!" he shouted and waved his bloody left front hoof to Rough.

Fifty-cal opened fire at Blade, but he managed to get back behind cover before the rounds reached him. Red brick dust flow in the air, when the machine gun stopped firing at him.

"Sonawabitch! That was close one!" they heard Blade shouting.

Crack Shot chuckled at him, but Rough continued asking: "How about you Grunt!?"

Nopony answered, only the fifty-cal shot a short burst at them again.

"Grunt!?" Rough shouted, still no answer.

Grunt was their youngest, only eighteen years old, while most of them were twenty to twenty-five, and Rough was closer to thirty.

"Where is he!?" Rough asked from nopony in general. Machine gun in the other end of the hall answered to him with another short burst, that made hoof sized holes in the wall behind them.

"Oh buck! Hes dead!" They heard Thrill shouting.

"What? where!?" Crack shot asked. He saw Thrill pointing at a pile of wooden boxes near the door. The 50.cal bullets had ripped them apart.

Crack and Rough saw Grunt's hind legs from behind the boxes.

"Are you sure he's dead!?" Rough asked, he knew the answer, but didn't want to hear it.

"He's missing half of his fucking head!" Thrill shouted. He sounded like he was crying.

"Oh that's it!" They heard Blade shouting. They turned towards him and saw him rising to a half sitting position. He held his light 7.62mm machine gun on the hip.

"What the fuck?" Crack asked.

They saw him adjusting his weapon in his lap, and the fifty-cal started to turn to his direction.

"Get down you stu..." Thrill started, but just then Blade opened fire. He fired nonstop at the enemy machine gun. Tracers flew around the changeling machine gun, and bronze shells flew from his weapon.

Blade managed to keep the gun steady, even the recoil tried to pull the weapons mouth upwards. The bullets flew in a straight line, but they didn't see if Blade hit the enemies or not.

Rough noticed their change, and shouted: "Open fire! Open fire!"

Everypony rose up, and started to empty their guns at the fifty-cal. Rough though he heard  screams from it, but wasn't sure. The sound of gunfire was ear shattering. They all fired nonstop, and the bullets rattled in the brick wall, behind which the machine gun was

Blade was still shooting his machine gun, and tracer flew trough the air, looking like some kind of pearl necklace of death.

Rough heard his gun click.

"Cease fire!" he shouted, and everypony stopped firing. Everypony except Blade, who shot for five seconds longer. The barrel of his machine gun was glowing red.

Rough dropped the empty clip on the floor, and quickly placed a new one into the magazine feed. He looked over the steel bars, and saw that it wasn't moving anymore.

"I think we got them!" Crack said.

"Oh really?" Thrill shouted, sounding sarcastic.

Rough Gunner stood up, and walked to the machine gun, or what was left of it. Rest of his soldiers soon followed.

The gun itself was full of scratches and bents from the bullets, and the firing mechanism was blown to bits by probably by bullets from Blade's machine gun.

The users of the gun were laying next to the machine gun. They too were in a pretty bad shape. Their bodies were full of bullet holes, and they were pretty much covered in blood. Nopony could have recognized them. Crack thought that it was hard to tell if they even were changelings, the bodies were that messed up.

They heard a long whistle from behind them. Rough and Crack turned around and saw Healing Horn and Riff holding Buzzcut.

"Did we miss something?" Riff asked with a grin.

"Nothing much," Crack said smiling tiredly. He then looked at Buzzcut, who was panting between Riff and Healing Horn.

Rough came to them and asked concerned: "Is he alright?"

"Nothing bad, just need to take things easily. Ain't that right Buzzcut?" Healing said and looked at Buzzcut, who panted and said: "Yeah.. totally."

Rough nodded, and looked at the two ponies. There seemed to be somepony missing.

"Where's Boxsee and Charge?" he asked.

Riff and Healing looked at each other, they didn't actually know where they were.

"We're here!" they suddenly heard Boxsee shout at the door.

He was helping wounded Charge, by letting him lean on himself while they walked.

"Are you alright Charge?" Riff shouted.

"Yeah! -" Charge lifts his head and looks at Riff "- I thought that you had left me there!" he shouted back, making Riff frown. He then said angrily: "I would never do that!"

Charge and Boxsee reached the rest of the ponies. Boxsee looked around himself for a moment. He had a worried look on his face.

"Where's Grunt?" he asked, looking at Rough. Now Healing, Riff and Buzzcut too noticed that he was missing.

"He's dead," Rough said, sounding as calm as he could.

Boxsee's eyes widened, so did Riff's and Healing Horn's. They looked at Rough, and then they asked: "How?"

Rough Gunner pointed his hoof at the destroyed fifty-cal.

"Oh.. Well.. are we gonna leave him here?" Healing asked slowly.

"No, we will take him to the roof with us," Rough said.

Healing nodded, and then looked at Buzzcut and Charge. He then turned to Rough and asked: "How about the wounded?"

"They stay on the roof too, and when we're done, the flyboys will pick them up." Rough explained, and he saw a relieved expression on Charge's and Buzzcut's face.

"Hey! I'm wounded too! Can I stay up here too?" they heard Blade say. They looked at him, he was waving his bloody hoof in front of him.

"You said yourself that it was just a minor flesh wound," Rough said to him, looking at him.

"Yeah.. but.." Blade tried, but stopped when Rough continued: "Healing Horn will patch you up. Then me, Thrill, Boxsee, Riff and you will start clearing the rest of the area."

"Will Healing Horn stay with us?" Buzzcut asked from Rough, who nodded and said: "Yes, and Crack Shot will stay here too. You will watch over our backs, right?"

Rough looked at Crack when he asked that. Crack saluted and said: "Yes sir,"

Rough turned to face his soldiers. He looked at them and said: "Now get the wounded and take them to the roof. -" He turned to Boxsee "- Boxsee, come help me carry private Grunt to the roof."

Boxsee gulped and said: "Y.. yes sir."

Fateful day 2/2

Half an hour after they had captured the factory, Crack Shot saw rest of the ponies coming back towards the factory. They had finished cleaning the rest of the facility area.

They had been in two more gunfights, both were in the east side of the facility area, where two groups of changelings had been hiding. Crack counted five ponies returning, so they hadn't lost anypony else.

That reminded Crack Shot about Grunt. He turned around from the edge of the roof, and saw Charge and Buzzcut leaning against a air handling unit. Healing Horn was there with them, making sure that they were as comfortable as possible. Behind them, he saw the young pony's body hidden under a white sheet.

The sheet was red from blood where Grunt's head was.

Crack turned away.

He hadn't even know the colt, but still he was feeling bad for him, unlike when Spade died. He thought that maybe it was because Grunt had been so young, only eighteen years old.

Crack shook his head to clear it from all the unpleasant thoughts, and returned to watch the approaching ponies, that were almost at the facility.

Healing Horn changed the bandages around Buzzcut's wound in his foreleg. The wound was stubborn, and didn't want to stop bleeding. Healing took a quick look at Buzzcut's stomach, and saw that at least the wound there wasn't bleeding.

"There, try to keep your leg up," Healing said and tightened the knot he had made in the bandage.

"Okay," Buzzcut answered and lifted his leg above his head, whimpering silently. Healing smiled at him consolingly, and then turned to Charge.

"Everything okay here?" he asked and sat in front of Charge.

"Yep. Just hurts like hell, but I don't feel dizzy or anything," Charge said and grinned.

"That's good, It means you're not in a shock," Healing said, while examining Charges bandages. He saw that the wound wasn't bleeding at all, it was good.

"It still hurts though," Charge said, looking at Healing.

"Yeah, stomach is the second painful place to be shot at," Healing said to Charge, who smiled a little.

Buzzcut looked at Healing Horn with a questioning look. He then asked: "What's the most painful then?"

"Kneecap," Healing said and poked himself in his left foreleg's knee.

"Do they teach that in the medical training?" Buzzcut asked.

Healing nodded.

"Think about how they have tested that," Charge said, smiling stupidly.

"Okay, we're going to shoot you in the stomach, and then in the knee. Then you tell us which one hurts more!" he imitated doctor Sawbone's deep voice. Healing Horn and Buzzcut couldn't help them selves. They all burst into a laughter, but then Buzzcut and Charge whimpered and held their stomachs.

"Yeah, you shouldn't laugh," Healing said, still chuckling a little.

"Buck you," Charge said, and smiled a painful smile.

Healing chuckled and rose back to all fours. He then trotted to Crack Shot, who was aiming trough his scope.

"You see anything?" Healing asked from Crack.

"Yeah. They're coming back," Crack answered to him. Healing looked over the edge, and saw that Rough Gunner and rest of the ponies were already entering the factory, they should be up any moment now.

Riff just jumped in the building from the hole in the wall, that Charge's grenade had made.

Rough Gunner and Blade were in the lead. Boxsee walked behind them. He had a bandage rolled around his right hind leg. He had been hit during the first gunfight in the east side, but it was just a scratch.

Riff and Thrill walked side to side. They were getting closer to the first set of stairs.

"Did you see how Boxsee just kept fighting, even he got hit?" Thrill whispered to Riff.

Riff nodded and said: "For a medic, he is a pretty though one."

Thrill nodded, and then they walked in silence again.

They came to the stairs. Riff saw the same bodies lying in the hallway that he had seen earlier.

He walked past one, but stopped, and turned around. He thought he had seen something odd.

"What are you doing?" Thrill asked, when he saw Riff crouching over the dead changeling.

Riff picked something from around the neck of the dead changeling.

"What's this?" Riff asked from himself, when he held a silver necklace in his hooves. He rose up and showed it to Thrill, who too looked interested.

The necklace had a small silver heart hanging in it. They looked at it for a moment, and then Thrill pointed at it and said: "Hey, there's a button there."

Riff looked at where Thrill pointed. There indeed was a small button. He pushed it, and the heart opened. It had hinges in the corner, and when Riff opened it, they saw two pictures in the both sides of the heart.

The other one was a picture of a male changeling, with a spiky mane, or what ever the changelings had. His tail was short and messy, and his eyes and wings were clear blue. Even his expression was somewhat annoyed looking, he still seemed to be happy.

Riff looked at the changeling lying on the ground before him. He could tell that it was the same changeling that was in the picture, even his face was now twisted into a expression of pain and fear.

Riff then looked at the other picture. It had a female changeling in it. Her horn was a lot smaller than the male one's. Her mane thing was flowing on the side, and a small curl covered half of her face. Her tail was straight and flowed behind her like a veil. Her wings were also different. They were light purple, just like her eyes.

Then Riff noticed it. She was smiling, with her mouth little open. Her eyes were full of happiness and care. She didn't look like any monster that the new propaganda posters made the changelings look like.

Riff and Thrill looked at the two photos in silence. They then slowly turned to see each other.

"She's.. She's actually not that bad looking," Thrill said.

"Yeah," Riff answered. He then looked at the dead changeling in front of him. He was lying in a pool of blue blood, with his hooves resting on his chest.

Riff looked at the pictures once more, before closing the necklace. He then crouched over the body, and placed the necklace back around the changeling's neck.

When Riff rose up, he heard Thrill say behind him quietly: "Maybe they're not so different from us after all,"

"Yeah, maybe not," Riff said, and turned to see Thrill, who looked as confused as Riff felt himself. They looked at each other for a second, trying to get their thoughts straight.

"You two coming or what!?" they heard Boxsee shout, breaking them from their thoughts. They turned towards the stairs where they saw Boxsee standing. He looked annoyed.

"Yeah, were coming!" Riff shouted and started to trot towards him, with Thrill close behind him.

Rough Gunner looked behind him. He saw Boxsee, Thrill and Riff galloping up the stairs. He then turned to Blade, who was walking next to him. Blade noticed Rough looking at him. He looked back at Rough with a questioning look.

"Hows the hoof holding up?" Rough asked from Blade, who looked at his wounded hoof.

"It feels okay. Hurts a bit when I walk, but otherwise it's good," Blade then said, and looked at Rough again. He examined Blade's hoof for a second, and then asked: "You wanna go with the other wounded? The wagon's coming soon."

Blade looked at Rough amused.

"You really think this little paper cut would keep me away from the action?" he said.

Rough smiled a little, he had already known Blade's answer.

"Okay, but there's no other changes after the wagon leaves. Remember that," Rough said, sounding serious.

Blade chuckled and said: "You don't need to worry about that, captain."

Rough nodded, and they continued to walk in silence.

After couple of minutes, they reached the hall with the destroyed machine gun. The ponies walked around it, towards the staircase that led to the roof. They quickly rose up to the roof, where they saw Crack Shot standing on the edge with Healing Horn. Charge and Buzzcut were sitting against a air handling unit. They both seemed to be in a stable condition.

"Oh you're back," Crack Shot said when he turned around and saw Rough and the rest of the ponies.

"Yep, no more enemy presence in the area," Blade said, grinning proudly.

Rough walked to Crack Shot and Healing Horn. He then quickly looked at Charge and Buzzcut.

"How are they?" he asked from Healing Horn.

"They're okay. Wounds don't bleed anymore, but we need to get them back to base as quick as possible," Healing said and looked at the wounded ponies, who were now talking to Riff and Thrill.

".. so you found a medallion with pictures of two changelings, that were in.. love?" Charge asked from Riff. He sounded suspicious.

"Yeah! I saw it too!" Thrill explained wide eyed. Charge and Buzzcut looked at each other confusedly. Then Buzzcut turned to face Riff.

"What do you think about it?" he asked from Riff, who scratched his small goatee in his thoughts. He then looked back at Buzzcut and started: "I don't know.. but I can tell you that they aren't so different..."

Riff's sentence was cut short by a loud thud behind them. They turned to see what that was, and they saw Rough holding a flare gun in his hoof. They looked up, and saw a bright yellow dot high above them.

"The wagon will be here in less than ten, get the wounded ready for escort," Rough commanded while putting the flare gun back to his bag. Riff and Thrill turned back to Charge and Buzzcut, who were getting ready.

"Let me help you with that," Thrill said and crouched to help Charge, who tried to get his bag onto his back. Riff helped Buzzcut onto his feet, and held him up with his body.

"Thanks guys," Charge said.

"I promise that the beers are on me when we get back to home," he continued. He spoke to the whole squad.

"I need to remember that. It's been too long since I've been drunk," Riff chuckled.

Healing rolled his eyes. He remembered how Riff and Crack Shot used to slip out from the boot camp during the night. They usually went to the local bars, where Riff could get intoxicated and Crack could find some cute mare to play with.

"Yeah yeah yeah, we should first win this bucking war," Boxsee said, sounding annoyed. They all chuckled, but then Rough gestured to be quiet and said: "We'll have enough time to talk after we get to the base, lets just focus on the task at hand."

Everypony got the message, and they spent the rest of the time waiting for the wagon in silence.

After about five minutes, they saw the wagon approaching the factory. The pegasies flew low, just above the factory's roof. The circled the factory two times, and then stopped to levitate to the side of the factory's roof, so that there were about a hoof's length between them and the factory's wall.

"Why the hay did you park there? Couldn't you just land on the roof?" Crack Shot asked angrily from the four pegasies.

"We don't have time for a safe landing, we need to leave now!" The leader of the pegasies, a deep cyan pegasus with small moustaches said. The pegasies looked nervous and kept worriedly looking around themselves.

"Get the wounded on board!" Rough commanded. Healing Horn and Riff helped Charge and Buzzcut to walk towards the wagon, that levitated on the edge of the roof.

Rough meanwhile walked to the leader, and asked  with serious tone: "What's going on?"

The cyan pegasus looked around him nervously, before turning to face Rough.

"We got message from the HQ, there's a changeling gunship coming this way!" the pegasus said.

Rough's eyes widened in surprise. He looked at the nervous pegasus for a moment, and then asked: "What else?"

"They also have infantry with them. We can't stand a change against the gunship, we don't have any weaponry!" the cyan pegasus explained, while flapping his wings faster, to keep in level with the other three.

Rough turned around to face his soldiers. There were only seven, who were capable to fight anymore. He thought if they would have any changes against the new wave of enemies, that were approaching them fast.

He looked at himself. He had five full clips in his combat vest, and enough single bullets to fill at least two of them again. He didn't feel too tired either.

"Everypony! I've just heard that there's another group of enemies approaching the facility!" Rough Gunner shouted to the ponies, who instantly stopped what they were doing, and turned to Rough, looking surprised and confused.

"I want to know, that are you all are sure you can face them! If not, then we all will leave right now!" he quickly continued.

He saw the ponies looking at each other confusedly. Rough knew that they weren't sure. He saw Healing Horn and Riff changing quick glances with each other. Thrill stood still and looked at the others, trying to find help from them. Crack Shot looked at the others, then at Blade. They stared at each other for a second, and then they both nodded.

"We will stay," Crack and Blade said in unison. Rough nodded to them. He then turned to Healing Horn and Riff.

Healing Horn looked at Riff, who still didn't seem to know what to decide. Healing then turned to see Crack Shot. He gulped and then said: "I will stay too."

"I stay!" they heard Thrill shout. Now everypony except Riff were staying. They all turned to look at him. Riff seemed to shrink under their gaze. His ears were drooped, and he had small dribs of sweat running down his forehead.

He looked at them for a moment, but then he saw Healing Horn looking him right into eyes.

He sighed and closed his eyes.

"I know I'm going to regret this, but I'll stay," he said, sounding defeated.

"Alright! It's settled! Get the wounded and Grunt in the carriage. After that get ready for a battle!" Rough shouted, and everypony started to check their equipment and loading their empty magazines.

Riff and Healing Horn helped the two wounded on the carriage. After Charge and Buzzcut were sitting inside the wagon, they turned to look at Grunt's body. They looked at it for a moment, then they moved closer.

The sheet was now soaked in red blood, and there was a small pool of blood under him. Healing was becoming pale, and Riff noticed that.

"You take the other end," Riff said, and placed himself over to Grunt's upper body. Healing nodded and moved to Grunt's legs. They lifted the body in the air with their front hooves, so that they were walking on their rear legs. They left the sheet on the body, but there was still blood dripping on the roof when they walked. It formed a small red line behind them.

Riff carefully stepped into the wagon, and Healing followed him. They laid Grunt's body on the corner of the wagon, so Charge and Buzzcut wouldn't need to sit right next to his body. When they stood up, Healing and Riff looked at the body with bloody sheet on it. They then turned to the two wounded ponies.

"You two take care now," Healing said and patted Charge on the shoulder.

"We will," Buzzcut said and gave him a painful smile. Riff grabbed Charge from the shoulder. He looked serious when he said: "And you don't forget what you promised."

Charge looked confused first, but then his mouth turned into a smile when he remembered what he had promised.

"Don't you worry. I will remember that," he said.

"Would you four already knock it off? We really need to get going now. The changelings could be here any mi..." the cyan pegasus started, but his jaw dropped when he turned his head to their direction.

"They're here!" he shouted and pointed his hoof behind him.

Everypony turned to that direction, and they all saw it.

A huge, completely black carriage with four changelings flying it appeared from behind a small hill. They had used the same tactic as the ponies had, when they arrived. The changelings had flown low, and nopony had seen them.

The flying changelings were wearing a blue armor, that looked almost like the royal guards armor. There were also changelings inside the wagon.

Rough saw that there were at least half a dozen of them. They too were wearing the blue armor. His eyes went wide when he saw what was attached to the side of the wagon.

There was a big, mean looking machine gun. It was not like the one in the factory. It had multiple barrels, that formed a circle. He saw that two changelings readying the weapon.

"Get out of the wagon and let them go!" Rough shouted to Healing Horn and Riff, who were still in the carriage. They winced when Rough Gunner shouted at them, but quickly moved to the side of the wagon.

"You go first!" Riff shouted.

Healing looked down, and saw that there was at least a twenty meters fall. He gulped and backed to the other side of the wagon. He looked to the other said, where Rough waved his hoof and shouted: "Quickly!"

Healing took couple of running steps, and jumped over the gap, landing safely to the other side.

"Now you Riff!" Crack Shot shouted. Riff looked at the approaching gunship. It was not far away.

He too backed to the other side, and just as he was about to start jumping, when he heard one of the pegasies shouting: "It's going to fire!"

First it was just barely audible rattle, but then the sound changed into a loud, rapid gunfire. It sounded more like a very loud buzz than gunfire, but then they saw the tracers flying trough the air in one solid, golden line. They were aimed towards the carriage.

The gun was deadly accurate. The bullets connected with the four ponies, and ripped the screaming pegasies into a red mist. A big part of the wall got covered in blood and big holes.

"Hold on!" Riff shouted from top of his lungs, when the wagon started to fall down, spinning around violently. He saw that there was only one pegasus left alive, but he didn't manage to keep the whole carriage in air by himself.

Riff and the other ponies screamed and held on for their dear lives as the wagon rushed downwards. The three bodies of dead pegasies were still attached to the wagon, and they lugged around like rag dolls.

Everypony on the roof watched in terror, as the wagon spun trough the air with Charge, Riff and Buzzcut in it. They saw that somepony flew from the wagon, followed by a white and red sheet.

"Who was that!?" Boxsee asked terrified, as the body hit the ground and splattered blood all around.

"I think it was Grunt!" Thrill shouted, and watched as the wagon was about to hit the ground.

The wagon started to steer to away from the building. Probably because the still alive pegasus tried to pull it back up.

It's speed reduced a little, but not enough.

It crashed right into the side of one of the smaller buildings around the factory with a loud smack, lifting a huge cloud of dust into the air. Pieces of concrete flew around the air when the wagon crushed the wall and landed inside the building.

"Holy shit!" Crack Shot shouted, and looked at the big cloud of dust.

"Do you think they'r...." Boxsee started, but then they heard the familiar rattling sound again. They looked up, and saw that the black changeling gunship was coming for a second pass.

"Everypony get down!" Rough shouted and jumped behind the air handling unit with the others.

The changeling weapon roared, sending a deadly stray of bullets towards them. The air handling unit got shredded to pieces. The changeling weapon fired for about two seconds, and then went silent.

Rough quickly rose up, and saw ponies crawling from under the pieces of air handling unit. Luckily nopony got hit.

Rough Gunner looked up to the sky, and saw that the gunship was now facing them so that the weapon couldn't shoot at them. He knew that they should get down form the roof.

"Run to the stairs!" he shouted, and they started to gallop towards the staircase. He saw that the gunship was turning for another sweep, and just as they managed to get down to the stairs, another two second burst ripped big holes to the door that led to the stairs.

"We need to get somewhere where the gunship can't shoot!" Boxsee shouted as they ran down the stairs.

"You're right! Get to the second floor, there should be safe enough!" Rough shouted and stopped running. He let the other ponies pass him.

When Thrill tried to go past him, Rough stopped him with his hoof. Thrill looked at him with confused look on his face.

"You still got those rocket launchers?" Rough asked from him.

Thrill dropped his bag to the floor, and opened it. There was four launchers in it.

Rough nodded and said: "You come with me."

"Yes sir," Thrill said and swung his bag back to his back. They then started to run in towards the windows of the floor they were in.

Crack Shot and the other ponies had reached the second floor, and were now getting ready for a fight. They rolled empty barrels and pallets to the windows and doors for protection.

Crack Shot rolled a barrel towards one of the doors to a staircase, that led to the bottom floor. He closed the door, and placed the barrel so, that it was leaning against the door, jamming it shut.

"This won't hold them of for long, but it will slow them down," he said to himself, and then rushed to help Blade with a pallet.

Meanwhile Healing Horn and Boxsee used magic to lift heavy objects, like old rusty steel bars that were ling in the corner, and placing them by the windows.

"Okay, I think that's enough, now start readying your weapons," Crack shouted.

"Hey, wheres Thrill and captain?" Boxsee asked when he noticed that the two ponies weren't there.

"They stayed upstairs." Blade said, while inserting a new ammo belt to his machine gun.

"Why?" Healing Horn asked.

"I don't know, but they probably have a plan or something," Blade answered. He pulled the cocking handle, and opened the bipods of his weapon.

Crack Shot laid full clips in the ground next to him. He then looked outside. The gunship was circling over the building, where the wagon had crashed. There was still a thick dust cloud around it, and they couldn't see what the situation was.

"I hope they're okay," he heard Healing Horn say behind him.

"Yeah, me too," Crack answered quietly.

"Aarghhh.. My head.." Riff mumbled as he slowly started t open his eyes. First his vision was blurry, but then it started to become more and more accurate. He lifted his head, but the world started to spin when he did so, and he decided to rest his head back down.

Riff looked up towards the ceiling of the building, or actually the sky, because there was no ceiling anymore.

All the dust made him cough, and he covered his mouth with his hoof. He felt something warm and sticky running down his forehead, and he swept his hoof across it.

Riff was bleeding.

"Riff.." he heard somepony saying. The sound echoed in his head, and he  didn't know who said it.

He turned to his side, and saw Buzzcut. He wobbled badly as he walked towards Riff. His wounds had started to bleed again, and the bandages started to get even redder. His grey coat was ruffled and his green uniform was ripped from some points.

"You okay Riff?" he asked, and knelt down to Riff, grinning in pain.

Riff coughed, and then lifted himself up to a sitting position. He looked at Buzzcut, who held his stomach and panted slightly.

"Yeah. I'm okay, I guess.." Riff said, and started to look around himself. He saw the carcass of the wagon, and it's flyers.

They all were dead.

"Is Charge okay?" he asked, when he didn't find the third pony anywhere.

Buzzcut drooped his ears and pointed at the carriage.

"His under there," he said.

Buzzcut noticed Riff's questioning expression, and then added: "Dead."

They were silent for couple of seconds, until they heard the terrifying buzzing sound again. They looked up and saw the gunship above them. It was shooting at the factory.

The shells fell trough the air, like golden rain.

"We need to get out of here!" Buzzcut shouted over the sound of gunfire. Disoriented Riff nodded, and slowly rose to his hooves. He noticed that his rifle was still on his back, but his bag was left to the roof.

Riff had only one full clip, and Heavy didn't have a weapon at all.

They slowly started to walk, leaning into each other. They made it to the closest opening in the wall, where they crouched behind what was left of the wall.

They saw that the gunship was now starting to land. It was flying slowly and low. Soon it stopped to levitate, and then it smoothly landed on the ground.

Riff and Buzzcut saw how the changeling soldiers started to climb out of the carriage. They quickly dashed to cover, when they got out.

Not long after the gunship landed, Riff and Buzzcut heard gunfire. They looked towards the factory, and saw four muzzle flashes fluttering in the second floor windows. At least some of them were still alive.

The changelings started to move towards the building where the wagon had crashed, but luckily ponies in the factory kept them under heavy covering fire. It forced the changelings to move behind cover, which slowed them down.

"We need to move now!" Buzzcut said, and they helped each other up to their hooves.

They started to run towards the factory. Riff felt that his left front leg hurt a little when he ran, but didn't let it stop him.

The changelings opened fire at the factory windows, but some of them also fired at Riff and Buzzcut, who dived behind a old, broken wagon, that hadn't been moved in years.

The old wagon, didn't protect them from bullets, they went right trough it. The two ponies laid on the ground, as flat as they could. The changelings fired few seconds more, and the wagon was full of holes and it hardly stayed together.

Riff was sure that they would get killed, but then the changelings stopped firing at them. Riff carefully lifted his head over the wagon, and saw that the ponies in the factory suppressed the changelings with machine gun fire. It had to be Blade.

"Buzzcut, get up! They..." Riff started, but stopped when he turned to Buzzcut, who was laying still on the ground. There was blood coming from under his body. Riff gasped and crouched over the grey pony.

"Buzzcut!" Riff shouted and turned him over to his back.

He had two bullet wounds in his right side, and they were bleeding dark blood. Riff shook him from his shoulders, but Buzzcut's body was limp, and he didn't react in any way.

Riff realized that Buzzcut wasn't with him anymore. He looked at Buzzcut's face. There was blood running from the corner of his mouth. His face was calm and expressionless. Like he was sleeping, except his eyes were open.

Riff ran his hoof over Buzzcut's face, closing his eyes.

Then another storm of bullets hit the old wagon, ripping it even more.

"Is he alive!?" Healing Horn shouted and fired quick shots at the changelings. He saw a changeling firing at him, and ducked just before the bullets could hit him. They fizzed over his head and hit the ceiling.

"Yes! His going to make a run for it!" Boxsee shouted back, and used magic to reload his rifle.

Healing Horn looked outside the window, and saw Riff behind the wagon. He was getting ready to run.

Healing looked at the group of armored changelings. Couple of them were approaching Riff, but most of them were moving towards the factory.

"We need to cover him!" Crack Shot shouted and aimed his rifle at the changelings that were moving towards Riff. He aimed and shot three times. One of the changelings fell down.

Crack tried to shoot again, but then, all of the sudden they heard the buzzing sound again. They all crawled behind any cover they got, when the golden string of tracers ripped the room around them.

The shooting lasted for couple of seconds, and then it stopped.

Crack Shot looked at the other side of the room they were in. The whole wall was full of bullet holes, and the burst was only couple of seconds long.

"We can't fight with that!" Blade shouted scared.

"We need to fall back!" Boxsee shouted.

Healing Horn was lying under the window. He looked at Crack Shot, looking terrified.

Crack looked outside.

There was at least twelve changelings getting closer to them, and the gunship was getting ready for another pass. None of them was hit during the shooting, but Crack was sure that they wouldn't be so lucky next time..

They were outnumbered, almost out of ammo and the enemy had even a gunship with a devastating weapon they had ever seen before. What chances they had?

Crack Shot thought that they were going to die.

He saw the gunship turning. It was now facing them.

Everything seemed to slow down when Crack saw the changelings turning the devastating weapon towards them. Crack couldn't move, his body didn't want to, like it was waiting for the inevitable.

The barrels of the changeling gun started to rotate, rattling like a tail of the rattlesnake.

Crack Shot thought that this was it, this was how he's going to die.

Just before the weapon fired, they heard a loud bang, followed by a swoosh. They saw small object fly through the air with high speed and smoke following it. The gunship tried to pull up harshly, but failed to dodge the missile.

The missile hit the gunship in the front end, behind the flying changelings.

A big explosion snapped the gunship in half, and the back of the wagon fell from the sky with the weapon and it's users still in it. It hit the ground and crushed into big pile of twisted metal and changeling remnants.

The flying changelings got either killed, or knocked unconscious by the blast, and they too fell from the sky, crashing in the ground with a sloppy splat.

"Fucking great shooting!" Rough Gunner laughed and patted Thrill on the back.

Thrill was still in a half sitting position, with his rocket launcher still on his shoulder. He looked at the smoking wreck of the changeling gunship on the ground.

He turned his head towards Rough. He had a confused smile.

They looked at each other for a second, the whole battlefield had fallen silent, there was no shooting from both sides. Everypony seemed to wonder what the hell had just happened.

Then the firing started again. The changelings shot at the ponies, and the ponies shot at changelings. They seemed to move more aggressively and faster now, to avenge the destroyed gunship.

"We need to get down and help the others," Rough said and helped Thrill to pack the rocket launchers back to his bag. After that they galloped down the stairs, until they reached the second floor.

They approached the windows, keeping their heads low due the enemy fire. Rough saw that the floor was full of empty shells. He though that there was so much of them that the ponies must be running out of ammo soon.

Blade was first to notice them. He stopped firing his machine gun and shouted: "Awesome shooting!"

All the other ponies turned to them, they all had looked at Rough and Thrill, then they cheered at them. Thrill seemed a bit embarrassed by all that.

"What's the situation down here?" Rough asked, breaking their cheering.

Crack Shot, who was back to normal now, shot two shots at the advancing enemies. He then turned to Rough and said: "I'm almost out of ammo, and Riff's still out there."

"I'm almost out too!" Healing shouted from the other side of the room.

"We'll all almost out of ammo!" Blade shouted, and fired a short burst with his machine gun.

Rough thought for a moment. Then he quickly peeked out trough the window, and saw that Riff had moved closer to the factory. He was now behind a small bulge, where he tried to shoot at the changelings, who were coming towards him.

"Wheres Buzzcut?  I thought he was with Riff!" Rough shouted.

"He was! I think he's dead!" Boxsee shouted back at him. Rough looked out the window again.

"How can you tell?" he asked.

"He never left behind that old wagon," Boxsee answered, and pointed at the broken wagon behind which Riff and Buzzcut had been hiding.

Rough knew that that was probably true. He had been injured already, so maybe the wounds got open again in the crash, and he bled to death?

Anyway Rough was sure that Riff wouldn't have left a wounded friend behind.

"Okay," Rough said and looked out the window.

"Riff's still there!" Crack Shot shouted, sounding worried.

Rough looked at Riff, and the attacking changelings. He could still make it to the factory, if they laid a good covering fire for him.

"COVERING FIRE!" Rough shouted, and everypony started to shoot at the changelings.

Riff saw every pony opening fire inside the factory. Riff counted that There was now six muzzle flashes.

He saw that the covering fire from kept the advancing changelings at bay, and he might just and just have a chance to make it to the wall.

He saw one of the changelings got hit in his chest armor, but he didn't even wince. Riff realized that their armor was bulletproof, just like the armor of the royal guards.

Riff didn't really have time to think that right now, and he strapped his weapon to his back. He made sure that the coast was clear, and then he dashed towards the wall.

He galloped towards the factory zigzagging, while bullets whizzed around him, and ripped the ground around his legs. His leg hurt at every step he took, but he was getting closer to the factory.

Now Riff had to decide that where would he enter the building. The main doors were too far away, the windows in the first floor were too high from the ground and the only door there was would probably be closed.

Riff heard gunfire from behind him. He didn't have enough time to look back, and he just dived to the ground without looking. He felt how the bullets flew just inches from his head. Riff then noticed where he was diving.

"Fuck.." he managed to say, before he landed on his face to some ditch.

Riff laid motionless in the bottom of the ditch for a moment, and then lifted his head from the mud. Now his face was covered in mud, in addition to the blood that ran down hi face. Riff swept the mud from his eyes, and then he noticed something on the bottom of the ditch.

It was a shell casing of a 40mm grenade.

Riff quickly peeked over the edge of the ditch, and noticed that he was in the same ditch he and Charge had been when the fighting started. There was the hole in the wall that the grenade from Charges grenade launcher had done.

It was Riff's way in.

"He's in!" Crack Shot exclaimed, and he and Healing horn looked at each other happily. They were brought back to reality by a long burst from a changeling weapon, and bullets that almost decapitated them.

Crack looked at Healing with a sheepish smile, who returned it.

"That was close one," Healing laughed nervously. Crack just nodded, still smiling stupidly.

"Okay! Let's move to downstairs!" Rough shouted, earning confused looks from his squad.

"We're almost out of ammo! We're not staying here any longer!" he explained.

"I'm okay with that!" Blade shouted and shot last long burst at the enemy, before he stood up and threw his weapon to his back. Everypony else too left their fighting positions, and started to move towards the staircase.

On the bottom of the stairs they met the winded Riff, who was leaning against the wall.

"You look like shit!" Crack shouted from the stairs.

Riff grinned painfully and shouted: "So do you!"

They shared a quick laugh, before Rough Gunner came down the stairs, shouting: "We'll exit from the back! Then we will move to the camp as quickly as possible. It's only six klicks away from here!"

"Hooah!" rest of them shouted in unison.

They heard a loud crash from their left.

They looked towards the sound, and saw that one of the doors got kicked in, and there was a changeling in his blue armor standing in the doorway.

Nopony moved, and for a second, they all just stared at the changeling soldier, who stared back at them. They all had their weapons strapped onto their backs, even the changeling.

Then everything happened so fast that it was hard to even understand.

First the changeling had started to pull out his weapon, and at the same time Crack Shot had pulled out his sidearm. They both pointed their weapons towards each other.

Luckily Crack was faster, and he fired his weapon at the changeling, who got hit in the troath.

The changeling lowered his fore leg, but he managed to fire his pistol couple of times, probably from a reflex.

The changeling fell down to his knees, and then to his back.

Right after the changeling died, two more appeared in the doorway. They had their assault rifles hooves.

The ponies quickly ran towards the corridor, escorted by bullets. The corridor led towards two large doors. They ran trough the doors, and entered a big hall. There were some kind of factory machinery in the hall, and in the far end of it they saw the back doors.

They stopped there, to reload their weapons. Crack took out the empty clip from his pistol, and Rough leaned against one of  the big, old, rusty machines.

"Now.. Get out of here.. and get to the camp," Rough Gunner said to his squad. His sound was a bit slurry.

Everypony turned to him. He leaned against the machine. He panted slightly.

"Come on captain, we need to move!" Crack said and tried to help Rough to move. He gasped when he saw blood coming from Rough's mouth.

"Captain! He's been hit!" Crack shouted terrified. At once Healing Horn and Boxsee ran to Rough, who started to collapse. They grabbed him from under his fore legs, and gently placed him to lean against the machine.

"He's hit in the left side!" Boxsee said to Healing Horn, who duck out bandages from his medic bags. Rough tried not to show that he was in pain, but failed to stay silent when Boxsee started to bandage over the wound.

"Argh, motherfu..." he started, but was interrupted by a changeling coming trough the doors.

Crack Shot, Blade, Riff and Thrill were quick to react, and they opened fire towards him, before he could even react. The changeling's armor managed to stop most of the bullets, but some of them made it trough, and the he got wounded badly, and fell back behind the doors.

They could still hear him screaming behind the doors.

"We'll cover you!" Riff shouted to the two medics, who tried to save their captain.

Healing Horn or Boxsee didn't answer, they kept bandaging the wound in Rough Gunner's side.

"You two, scram.." Rough muttered, and shooed the two medics away from him. They had confused and worried expressions on their faces, but they moved away from Rough.

Rough started to rose up, leaning against his assault rifle. Healing and Boxsee helped him to his feet, and then he leaned against the machine again.

"Crack Shot.." he said quietly.

Crack quickly moved to Rough, who took a good grip from his shoulder. Rough looked at Crack Shot trough his aviator glasses, and then said: "You need.. to get out of here."

Crack looked shocked.

"We won't leave you captain!" he said loudly.

Riff, Thrill and Blade shot again at new enemy, that had appeared trough the doors, forcing him to fall back.

"You don't have much.. time," Rough said, and moved his face closer to Crack's. Rough saw refusal in Crack's face, and he then said: "Leave me."

"But captain.." Crack Shot started, but was stopped by Rough Gunner saying sternly: "That's an order."

Crack Shot's face drooped, he looked at Rough.

"Are you sure.. Rough?" he said, using captains name to make his point.

Rough smiled painfully, and then said: "Yes, I'm sure. I'd just made the moving slow, and then we'd all be dead."

Crack knew he couldn't change Rough's mind.

He nodded to the panting pony, who nodded back.

"Okay! we're leaving!" Crack Shot shouted.

Other ponies looked at him with expressions filled with disbelief. They first looked at Crack Shot, and then at Rough, who panted and nodded.

"I will hold them off.. as long as I can," Rough said, and patted his assault rifle.

Everypony was silent, they looked at Rough.

"But captain.." Healing Horn tried, but Rough silenced him with a small gesture with his hoof.

"We can get out with you! I'll carry you cpipn!" Blade offered, but Rough shook his head and said slowly: "You can't change my mind, I'll stay."

They were silent again, but now they heard more sounds behind the doors. They were running out of time.

"Go.." Rough said, and rose to his hind legs and reloaded his assault rifle. The others still looked at him in disbelief. He noticed it, and he took off his sunglasses, revealing his green eyes.

"Go, I'll hold them.." he said, and looked at the squad.

They all looked at him, but then Crack saluted, and others followed.

Rough looked at them, feeling proud.

"It's been honor serving you, captain," Crack said.

Rough nodded, and then the ponies started to make their way towards the back doors.

Healing Horn walked to Rough Gunner, and opened his medic bag.

"This isn't much, but it should take some of the pain away.." he said and offered Rough a syringe full of painkiller.

"Hit me," Rough said and stretched his fore hoof towards Healing, who stuck the needle into Rough's leg, and emptied the contents to his circulation.

"Thanks.. I hope it works," Rough said sadly and patted Healing on the shoulder.

"Good luck," Healing said, with almost tears in his eyes. Rough patted him on the shoulder again, and then Healing Horn started to walk towards the doors.

"Riff," Rough said when Riff passed him.

"Yes sir?" Riff asked. Rough pointed at Riff's bag and asked: "You still got those plastic charges?"

Riff looked at him confusedly, but then said: "Yes, I still got them."

"Give them to me," Rough said.

Riff did as he was told, while the others looked at them two. Rough took the bag of explosives, and threw them to his back. Then Riff gave him the remote controller, that would set off the bombs.

Thrill didn't say anything to Rough, but Blade shouted teasingly: "I'll see you in hell!"

"I hope we won't see too soon!" Rough returned the joke.

"There's everything," Riff said when he gave Rough the detonator.

"Good, now get going," Rough said, and pointed at the back door, where rest of the ponies were.

"Yes sir, good luck sir," Riff said, looking straight in the eyes of Rough.

Riff ran to the rest of the ponies, while Rough looked them.

He saw his squad starting to leave trough the back door. Crack Shot was last. He stayed in the doorway, looking at Rough, with a sad look on his face. Rough saluted at him, and Crack returned the gesture. He then returned trough the door, leaving Rough alone.

He looked at the door. There was light coming from behind the door, and there was shadows moving under it. He thought that the changelings didn't know that the ponies had left, leaving him alone. It could give him more time to prepare.

Rough felt the drug kicking in. His side was starting to feel better. It wasn't burning anymore, and he started feel pretty tired. That wouldn't stop him now. If he was going down, he would take as many changelings with him as possible.

Rough was still leaning against the machine on his hind legs. There he had actually pretty good visibility to the door.

He lifted his rifle, and held the stock tightly against his shoulder.

He was ready.

As if on cue, the first changelings emerged trough the door.

Rough cut them down with two well aimed shots to the head. They fell, but two more came to replace them. They had more time to react, and managed to pull out their guns.

Rough killed the another one with couple of shots, and he fell over another body of a changeling. The another one started to fire at Rough, but the bullets missed him, giving Rough enough time to take out the shooter.

He shot at the feet of the changeling, making him fall to the ground. Then Rough finished him with aimed shot to the head.

Now there was three changelings coming trough the door. One of them stopped and dug his gun. He manged to fire at Rough, but Rough managed to duck, still leaning against the machine. The bullets made holes to the metal, where Rough's head had been just seconds ago.

Rough opened fire and, dropped the shooting changeling with three quick shots.

He aimed at the another two, but when he squeezed the trigger, his gun clicked. The changelings used the moment to their advantage, and started to go around Rough, while two more changelings emerged trough the doors.

There was a lot more changelings that Rough had though.

He still had his pistol, and he started to reach for it. He was about to get it into his hoof, but then he felt a strong tuck in his back, and a red mist exploded from his stomach. Rough fell forward, hitting his face to the floor.

"I got him!" Rough heard changeling voice behind him.

He didn't feel hurt. He actually didn't feel anything but anger. He wanted to smash every single one of them, but his body felt limp. He saw more of them walking towards him. They all had identical armor, but one of them had a red helmet.

"Bastard's still alive!" the changeling with a red helmet said and kicked Rough in the side, but Rough didn't feel it. He thought that it was because of the drug that Healing had given him, or because he was dying.

"He made quite a mess," the one with red helmet said, pointing towards the five bodies near the door.

"Clear!" Rough heard changeling shout from the other side of the other side of the hall.

"They're not here!" another voice shouted.

There was silence. Then one of them said with it's high pitched voice: "Okay listen, We will go after them, and drone 18265"

"Yes sir?" Rough noticed that the voice belonged to the changeling that shot him in the back.

Rough tried to turn his head, but all he managed to do was just move his head a little.

Rough couldn't see the changeling behind him, but he saw the one with red helmet. He was clearly the leader of the squad. He looked aback at Rough, and grinned evilly.

"You will finish him off," the leading changeling said, looking at the changeling behind Rough.

"What? Why me.. I.. I mean he's going to die anyway.." The changeling behind Rough said nervously.

The leader looked at him angrily, and then took his pistol and threw it on the floor in front of Rough.

"No need to hurry," the leader said, and then left with the rest of the changelings, leaving Rough alone with the changeling behind him.

Rough heard footsteps behind him. Soon four legs appeared to his vision. Then they stopped in front of him. And soon the changeling crouched in front of him. The changeling looked almost sad.

He took the gun into his hoof, which shook a little.

Rough started to tense up. This was the first time he was this close to death.

"I.. I'm sorry," the changeling said.

All Rough could reply was just a barely audible grunting sound. He tried to say 'fuck you', but his mouth didn't cooperate with his brain.

"This is nothing personal.. I.. I don't want to do this," the changeling continued. He lifted the pistol to Roughs forehead.

When the mouth of the gun touched Rough's head, he felt sudden rush of adrenaline flow trough his body. Now Rough felt like he got new strength, and there was only one thought in his head. He wouldn't give up without a fight.

Rough Gunner concentrated all his powers, and quickly grasped the gun that was pressed to his head. The changeling got surprised by the sudden movement, and failed to squeeze the trigger in time. Rough turned the pistol away from him, before the changeling pulled the trigger.

Gun fired four times towards the ceiling. Rough and the changeling struggled more, and the gun fired two more times. Rough managed to turn the pistol towards the shocked changeling. He pressed it against the unprotected part of his side.

Rough pulled the trigger, and a single shot rang trough the hall.

They didn't move for a second, but then the changeling fell backwards and backed up a little, while blue blood sprayed from his wound. Rough still held the pistol aimed towards him, but it was empty. He threw it away, and took his knife from his combat vest.

He showed it to the shocked Changeling, and asked slurring badly: "You.. wanna.. do.. this?"

The changeling looked at the knife, with his mouth hanging open. Then he shook his head, and backed more, so he could lean in one of the machines.

"I'm.. I'm going.. t.. to d.. die.." the changeling spoke, while he spit blue blood.

"We're.. both.. going to die.." Rough Gunner chuckled painfully, and started to crawl closer to his bag. The changeling watched him.

"Wha.. what are.. you doing?" the changeling asked, but Rough didn't answer. He took his bag to his hooves.

"I'm.. sorry.. I didn't.. want this to.. happen.." the changeling cried, and took off his helmet.

Rough looked at him.

He was a young one, Rough could tell that. The blue blood had formed a big pool under him. He cried softly, and looked at Rough.

Somehow, Rough felt bad for the kid. He then turned back to his bag, and took the explosives from it. He placed them in front of himself, and started to plant the detonators to the blocks of plastic charges.

"Are.. you.. going to.. blow.." the changeling started, but was too tired to continue, so he just watched Rough work.

Rough too was feeling rather sleepy, but he had to do this.

"Yeah.. This.. fucking place.. nothing but harm.." Rough answered slurring, and planted the final detonator.

He looked at the changeling, who chuckled a little. He seemed to think the same.

"Tell me.. about it.." he said with as amused voice he could at the moment.

Rough then took the controller in his hoof.

He locked his green eyes with the changelings blue eyes. He saw that the changeling too felt tired, they both could just barely keep their eyes open. They looked at each other for a second. Then the changeling nodded, and Rough pressed the button. He thought that now he could have some rest.

Then everything in his world went black.

On the run

Rest of the squad had already gotten pretty far from the factory, almost one kilometer away.

They heard a loud bang from the direction of the factory.

Everypony stopped running, and turned towards the factory.

There was smoke coming from the first floors windows. They waited for a second more.

Then they saw big flames exploding from the windows of the first and second floor. The sound came late. Then there was smaller explosions in the uppers floors too, and the whole building started to wobble.

There was thick black smoke coming from its windows, and the factory started to slowly tilt to the right.

It stopped tilting, and it looked like it would still manage to stay upright. Everypony looked at the factory with their eyes wide, waiting for something to happen.

The building started to shake violently until it's abutments gave up, and the whole thing started to fall towards the ground. When it contacted the ground, it lifted a enormous cloud of dust and smoke into he sky, followed by a loud rumble that came couple of seconds after the building hit the ground.

The dust was so thick that when it rose up to the sky, it blocked Celestia's sun's light.

"Fuck me.. Captain went out in style.." Blade said, smiling sadly.

Nopony answered, they just kept watching at the smoking ruins of the factory, that had cost them the lives of eight ponies.

The four pegasies, Charge, Grunt, Buzzcut and Rough Gunner.

It all was for nothing now, but they didn't care. Most of them were satisfied to see the factory in ruins. It had done them enough harm already.

"A tough fucker till the end," Boxsee said.

Again everypony were silent. They looked at the ruins

After a while, Healing Horn asked: "Did he have a family?"

They all thought for a moment, and then Thrill said: "I guess so.. Parent's at least."

"Yeah. I never heard him talking about any special somepony," Riff said.

"Well he had been working in the army ever since he joined. I bet he didn't have any time for any relationships,"  Crack shot pondered.

"I bet it's hard for you to even think of life like that," Blade said teasingly.

Crack seemed annoyed, and he looked at the grey pony angrily.

"Let's get moving, the changelings will be here any minute now," he said, looking at Blade angrily. Blade looked back at him, and then said:  "You're right, let's move."

With that they turned away from the smoking ruins, and started to make their way towards the camp, that was still four kilometers away. They waded in the dense canopy, but after about ten minutes, the plants started to be smaller, and soon there were none. They were now walking on a flat, rocky landscape. The ground was dry and was full of cracks. Air over the ground shimmered from the heat, making it look like there was water on the dry landscape.

The mountain where the camp was, could be seen clearly. No wonder the changelings had used the factory for a observation point. There was good visibility to the camp there.

Crack Shot was on the lead with Blade. They led the rest of the ponies towards the camp. Thrill was talking with Boxsee as they walked, and Healing Horn walked besides Riff.

Healing glanced at Riff, and he noticed it.

"What's the matter?" Riff asked.

"Your head, there's pretty bad looking cut," Healing said and pointed at Riff's head. Riff touched his head, and then winced as his hoof touched the open wound. He looked at Healing and said: "I didn't notice that, but now it started to hurt like hell."

Healing Horn looked at Riff's painful expression, and then shouted: "Crack! Could we stop for a moment!?"

Crack Shot turned his head to Healing Horn, and looked at him questioningly.

"Riff got wound in his head!" Healing shouted, and pointed at Riff, who was now holding his head.

Crack looked at Riff, and then shouted: "Okay, You and Boxsee take a look at it!"

They stopped and Riff sat on the ground, while Healing Horn and Boxsee examined the wound.

Healing Horn looked at the wound, and then turned to Boxee and asked: "What do you think?"

Boxsee scratched his chin, and then said: "I think we need to stitch it up."

They looked at Riff, who's face drooped, and he started to shook his head wildly.

"Nonono! Nopony's going to start sewing my face!" Riff said, covering the wound with his hoof. Healing Horn and Boxsee looked at each other, and then nodded.

"Of course we can glue it together, but it will need to be stitched after we get to the base," Boxsee said, and took a bottle of surgical glue from his medic's bag.

Riff looked at the bottle confusedly. He then turned to Boxsee and asked: "Glue? Really?"

"Yeah. It works as good as stitches," Healing said to Riff, who still looked at the bottle.

"Just get it done already! We don't have much time!" They heard Crack Shot shouting angrily.

The trio looked at each other, and then Healing said: "He seems pretty tensed."

"I mean, we're all are, but he's the most," Healing added.

Riff looked at Crack Shot, and then said: "He had some kind of a pond with captain."

"Yeah, a love hate relationship," Boxsee said and unscrewed the glue bottle's cap

"Okay, here we go," Boxsee said as he leaned closer to Riff, while Healing grabbed surprised Riff from the fore legs.

"Hey what the.." Riff started, but then Boxsee poured the glue to his wound, and a burning sensation ran trough his head and face. Riff yelped from the pain, but managed not to scream.

After Boxsee had poured enough glue to the wound, he started pressing the skin together.

Now Riff couldn't hold off the scream. He yelled, and tried to kick, but Healing kept him in place. Soon the pain eased, and Riff calmed down. Healing let go of him, and rose up.

"Good as new!" Boxsee said and patted Riff on the back, but he tried to hit Boxsee. Boxsee manged to dodge the punch, and laughed as he stood up.

Riff clumsily stood up too. He lifted his head, and saw Crack Shot looking at him worriedly with Blade.

"You okay?" Crack asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Riff said, and touched the wound, that now felt better now. He then looked at the duo of medic's in front of him, who were smiling sheepishly at him.

"Thank's a lot," he said sarcastically.

"No problem!" Healing Horn said, smiling a little.

"If you're done, let's get moving!" Crack said, but more calmly this time, and nopony tried to protest. They gathered their equipment, and then started to move again.

While they were walking, Crack Shot said something to Blade, who nodded. Crack Shot then started to fall behind, and soon he was walking with Riff and Healing Horn.

He looked at the two, they both were younger than him, but only for a year or two.

"What's up?" he tried.

Riff and Healing Horn looked at each other, and then they looked at Crack. Healing then said: "We're doing good. How about you?"

Crack got surprised, by the question. He wasn't waiting for that. He thought for a good response, and then said: "I'm fine."

Healing Horn looked at him. He seemed to know that Crack wasn't fine.

"You sure? You don't look too fine to me," he said, and Riff nodded.

Crack looked at the two ponies. They seemed to knew.

"I'm pretty sad about Rough," Crack said. Healing and Riff noticed how Crack used Rough Gunner's name instead of 'captain'.

"We all are," Riff said. Healing nodded, and said: "Yeah, he was our captain ever since we entered the boot camp."

Crack smiled a little, when he remembered the time in the training.

"You know what," Riff said suddenly.

"What?" Crack asked. Healing too looked at him questioningly. Riff waited a second, before he continued: "I bet we will have a holiday after this."

Healing and Crack noticed how he tried to change the subject, and they decided that it was a good idea.

"Yeah, I was thinking about that too," Healing said, and Crack nodded.

"I hope that there's a good weather in Crystal mountains," Riff said, gazing towards the horizon.

Crack threw Healing Horn a sheepish smile, and said: "I think I'm going to visit Ponyville."

Healing looked at him confusedly, and then asked: "What? Why?"

"Is it wrong to visit my best friend?" Crack said teasingly, and patted Healing on the shoulder. Healing still didn't seem to understand, and Riff then asked: "Remember what you promised us?"

Healing though for a moment, and then understanding spread across his face.

"Ooh! You're coming there to see Twilight!" he said, chuckling a little. A smile formed on his face, and he said: "Nahh, just want to spend some quality time with you!"

Riff couldn't help himself, and he said: "I didn't know you were one of those colt-cuddlers."

Healing Horn and Crack Shot looked at him angrily, and he just smiled teasingly back to them.

"I see the camp!" Blade shouted.

The others looked forward, towards the direction that blade was pointing at. They saw the familiar hill, where the camp was. Even they were still pretty far away, they could see the it's destroyed main building, trenches and bunkers.

There was a small glimpse of hope starting to form on the ponies faces, when they saw the safe zone.

"Not far anymore!" Thrill exclaimed.

"Well.. There's still at least two klicks," Blade said, and Thrill frowned. He looked at Blade annoyed and said: "Thanks for killing the mood."

Blade just chuckled, and then he said consolingly: "It won't take long to walk there. Only about half an hour."

Thrill lightened up a little.

"Let's go," Crack said, and they started to walk.

After a while of walking, Riff looked at Healing Horn, who looked back at him.

"What?" Healing asked, looking at Riff.

"If Crack Shot actually goes to visit Ponyville.." Riff started, and looked at the confused Healing Horn.

"What are you trying to say?" Healing asked quickly.

"I was just thinking that, maybe.. Maybe I could come too?" Riff asked carefully, looking at Healing with a small asking smile. Healing Horn looked at Riff, and started to laugh a little.

"Of course you can!" he said, and Riff smiled at him. He then said: "Thanks! And don't worry, I won't harass princess like Crack there."

"I heard that!" they heard Crack Shot shouting from the front, and they both laughed. After they calmed down, Riff continued: "I knew I could trust you," Riff said happily. Healing Horn smiled at him, and then said: "That's why friends are for."

Riff smiled and said: "You're a true friend."

Healing Horn turned to him and smiled, he was about to say something, but he didn't get to say even a single word, before they heard a gunshot.

Thrill jumped a little, and then dived on the ground. Everypony else followed his example, and they all laid down to the ground. They placed their backpacks in front of them for some cover and then they started to look for the enemies.

"Where the fuck are they!?" Blade shouted, and rested his machine gun onto his bag.

"I don't know! How can they even hide in this landscape!?" Crack Shot shouted back to him, and started searching for the enemy with his scope.

Couple of more shots were heard, and then Crack saw the enemies. They were lying about three hundread meters from the ponies, and the shimmering air almost made them to blend against the ground. He counted about nine more changeling's left.

"There! Um.. ten o'clock!" Crack shouted, and pointed his hoof at the direction.

"I see them!" Blade shouted, and readjusted the sights of his machine gun. He then took aim, and fired a short burst towards the changeling elite.

Then the shooting really started.

Changelings shot at the ponies with everything they got. The ground around the squad of ponies ripped from the bullets, and the ponies returned fire.

"They're pepper potting!" Boxsee shouted, when he saw the couple of changelings running towards them, and diving back to ground after about ten meters of running. Then the changelings behind them did the same, and they repeated the maneuver.

"Shoot at the standing ones!" Crack shouted. He shot twice at one of the running changelings, who fell down.

"They're getting closer!" Boxsee shouted. He and Healing Horn were lying side by side. They had shared their last magazines, and they had their last single ammo's in a small pile between them.

"Boxsee!" Healing shouted. He had a worried look on his face, and he pointed towards Thrill. Boxsee turned his head towards Thrill, and he too saw it.

Thrill was laying on his back, resting his head against his backpack. He held his side, and the two medics saw that there was blood coming from under his hoof. Boxsee turned to Healing Horn, and said: "You go, I'll cover."

Healing nodded, and then started to crawl towards wounded Thrill. While Healing Horn crawled, Boxsee gave him covering fire. He fired accurate single shots towards the changelings.

Healing reached Thrill, even the changeling bullets flew past him.  Thrill turned to see Healing.

"Somepony get the launchers," he said, offering one of the launchers to Healing, who quickly said: "You won't die!"

Thrill looked annoyed.

"I didn't say anything like that! I just can't use them myself now!" he said to Healing, who looked at Thrill embarrassed.

"Oh, Well.." he muttered, and took the launcher to his hooves. He then turned around and shouted: "Riff!"

Riff turned his head towards Healing Horn, who called him. He saw the medic holding a rocket launcher in his hooves.

"What!?" Riff shouted, while shooting at one of the closest changelings, that were only about ninety meters away.

"Take this!" Healing shouted, and threw the launcher towards him. It landed just next to Riff, who took it to his hooves.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Riff asked, turning the launcher in his hooves.

"I don't know, maybe USE IT!?" he heard Thrill shouting, while Healing Horn patched his side.

Riff looked at the launcher, and then at Crack Shot, who was lying couple of meters behind him. Crack looked at him, and then nodded.

"Okay! How do I use this!?" Riff shouted to Thrill, who squirmed in pain as Healing Horn bandaged him.

"First, open the pin on the back of it!" Thrill shouted.

Riff did as Thrill advised, and shouted: "Okay! What next!?"

"Pull the back of the launcher so it opens!" Thrill shouted, gesturing with his hooves.

Riff did that, and the launcher locked to the extended position.

"Now it's ready to be fired! You need to rose to a kneeling position, and then just aim and press the button on top of it!" Thrill shouted.

Riff looked at Crack Shot, who looked back at him.

They nodded to each other, and then Crack shouted: "Covering fire!"

All the other ponies, except Healing Horn and Thrill started to fire towards the enemies, that were about hundred meters away from them.

Riff then rose to a sitting position, and lifted the launcher to his shoulder.

"And watch out for the backblast!" Thrill warned them.

Riff aimed at the closest two changelings, who were almost side to side. It was perfect. He lifted the launcher's muzzle just a bit, and then he pressed the button on top of it.

There was a loud bang, that almost made Riff deaf. The rocket let out a loud swoosh, and it then hit the ground just before the changeling soldiers in their blue armor. The explosion was big, and the changelings got ripped to pieces by the shards.

The shooting stopped for a moment, and the ponies looked at the smoke pillar, that rose from the ground where the rocket had hit it. Then The changeling's started to shoot again, and the ponies  joined them.

Riff hit the ground, and threw the smoking launcher from his hooves. He leaned against his backpack, and looked at Crack Shot.

"That was a clear shot!" Crack Shot laughed at him. Riff then took his rifle to his hooves again, and checked how much ammunation he had. He took of the magazine, and saw that there was only half a mag left.

"I'm almost out of ammo!" he shouted to Crack Shot, who answered: "I'm almost out too!"

Blade stopped shooting suddenly. He then shouted: "I'm out!"

"I'm on my last clip!" Boxsee shouted, while shooting at the changelings.

"I don't have much ammo, and Thrill's wounded!" Healing Horn shouted, while the bullets from the changeling weapons rippled around them.

Crack knew that they needed to pull back. He looked at Thrill and Healing Horn.

"Can Thrill run?" he asked from Healing Horn.

"I can walk just fine!" Thrill shouted, but then he yelped from pain.

Crack looked at Healing, who shook his head and said: "He can barely stand up!"

Crack thought for a good course of action, and then looked at the approaching changelings.

"We need to carry him then!" Crack shouted, and started to dig his bag for something. He pulled two smoke grenades from the bag.

"After I throw the smokes, Get you're things and somepony carry Thrill!" Crack shouted, and pulled the pins from the smoke grenades. They started to hiss, and white smoke started to push from them.

Crack threw the grenades as far as he could between the ponies and the changeling elite, and soon the air was filled with thick black smoke. The changelings stopped firing for a moment, but soon they continued it. This time the firing was much more inaccurate.

Ponies threw their bag onto their backs, and strapped their rifles onto their backs too. Riff and Crack Shot alread ystarted to move towards the base.

Healing Horn and Boxsee helped Thrill up. Just as Healing had said, Thrill had problems to even stand, and he leaned against Boxsee. Thrill panted slowly and looked at them.

"I'm sorry guys," he said.

"Can you carry him?" Healing asked from Boxsee, who looked back at him worriedly.

"I don't know if I can," Boxsee said. They looked at each other, trying to come up with a solution.

"Goddamn ladies!" Blade shouted, and lifted Thrill onto his back. He then started running after Crack Shot and Riff, with Thrill hanging on his back. Thrill seemed to be in pain, and grinned a little.

"Thanks Blade!" Healing said, when he galloped next to the black pony. He didn't answer, and just kept running.

Crack Shot and Riff were running on the lead.

Crack Shot looked behind himself, and saw Blade carrying Thrill, while Healing Horn and Boxsee were behind him. They had gained a good distance between themselves and the changelings. Crack could see them emerging from behind the smoke, but there was now about two hundred meters to them. It would be hard for the changelings to hit them at this distance.

They ran for couple of minutes, and the changelings kept firing at them, but the bullets missed them far.

They were now running in a gently sloping hill. The base was still about one and a half kilometers away. If they would get behind the hill, they would easily make it.

Crack Shot noticed that their pace was getting slower. They were now jogging, and they all were winded. The bullets still fizzed around them, but nopony was concerned about it.

"We.. are almost.. there!" Riff said, panting wildly. Crack looked at him, and a small smile started to form on his face.

"Remember.. when Rough... made us run.. for four hours?" he asked, smiling stupidly.

Riff remembered. Thinking about it made him smile. The two ponies looked at each other, and then started to laugh.

"What are you guys.. laughing at?" they hear panting Healing Horn ask from behind them.

Crack turned around, and saw Healing smiling at them questioningly. Crack still laughed, but managed to say: "Just remembering.. the time when.. Rough.. made us run for four hours straight!"

Healing too started to laugh. He remembered it too. He had watched Crack Shot and Riff running past the aid station.

"Well.. That taught you.. not to mess with the roy.. " Healing Horn started, but his sentence stopped to a loud 'gack'.

Crack Shot's eyes went wide, and he shouted: "No!"

Riff turned around too. He saw Healing Horn falling to his stomach, with blood spurting from his torn chest. Healing first fell to his front knees, and then  he rolled to his side, gasping for air.

Everypony stopped running, and turned towards the quivering Healing Horn. Even Thrill looked terrified at the wounded grey zebra colored pony, who whimpered when blood started to run from his mouth.

Boxsee was first to react. He threw his backpack on the ground, and ducked over Healing Horn.

"Somepony take off his backpack!" Boxsee shouted, and Riff quickly did that. He knelt next to Healing Horn, who looked at him. His face was twisted in a expression of pain and fear. He looked at Riff, who struggled with Healing's backpack.

Riff managed to take off the backpack, and then he looked at Healing, who stared at him. Riff was terrified, Healing looked really bad, and he started to shake violently.

Crack Shot looked at Healing Horn, who was shaking badly. Boxsee and Riff tried to stem the bloodflow.

Crack heard a small thud, and a small cloud of dust exploded near them. Crack looked at the changelings, who had picked up the pace. They were galloping as fast as they could towards the ponies. They were only about hundred and fifty meters away.

Crack trotted in front of Healing Horn, Boxsee and Riff, to give them some cover from the bullets. He crouched to a half sitting position, and took his rifle from its holster. He pulled the charging handle, that let out a small click.

He lifted the rifle, and held it tightly against his shoulder. He then shouted: "Keep the changeling's away from us!"

The crosshair of his four time magnifying aimpoint scope hovered over the closest changelings body. He fired, but the bullet dropped too low, and it hit the ground in front of the changeling. Crack lifted the rifle a little, and fired. This time the bullet hit the changeling's chest armor, but the changeling only winced a little. Crack frowned from frustration.

He shot two more times, and this time the changeling fell to the ground, and started to quiver.

Now the changelings dived to the ground. They soon started to return fire.

Crack noticed that Blade had laid Thrill on the ground. Thrill gave him his own carbine, because Blade didn't have any ammo, and Thrill himself wasn't in a shape to shoot.

Blade too sat on into a half sitting position, and started to fire accurate single shots towards the enemy. They were so low on bullets, that every shot had to count.

Meanwhile Riff and Boxsee tried to treat Healing Horn as good as they could. Boxsee's face was focused, but Riff could see some concern in his eyes. He turned his head back to Healing, who was shaking and gagging blood.

Riff was trying hard to look as calm as he could, but there was small tears forming in his eyes. Healing was getting paler.

Crack Shot and Blade kept shooting, but Riff knew they couldn't hold the changelings away from them for long.

"Give me the adrenaline shot," Boxsee said sternly, and Riff dug the shot from Healing's bag. He gave it to Boxsee, who took of the plastic cover from the needle, and struck it into Healing's chest. Healing winced a little.

Boxsee threw the empty needle away, and started to place new bandages over the old ones.

Riif's and Boxsee's eyes met. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Boxsee shook his head slightly.

Riff's face drooped, and he swept his face with his hooves. He then looked at Healing Horn, who looked back at him with his eyes, that were full of tiredness and fear.

"R.. Riff..." he said with a shaky voice. Riff moved closer to him and said: "I'm here.."

Healing Horn blinked couple of times, and then said: "I.. I c.. can't see you.."

Riff couldn't hold off the tears anymore. Tears flow down his cheeks, and he took Healing's hoof into his own.

"I'm right here," Riff assured.

Healing shook even harder. He squeezed Riff's hoof between his own hooves. Riff looked at Boxsee, who was still trying to bandage Healing's wound.

Crack Shot shot at one of the changelings, but the shot missed just a inch. The changeling shot back, but he too missed. Crack Shot took aim, and then shot again. This time he hit the target, and the changeling fell, but rose up again. The shot had probably hit the changeling in the armor.

Crack was starting to get nervous. The changelings were getting closer. They had only gotten two of them, and they all were running on their last clips.

Crack shot again, and then his weapon clicked. Crack Shot turned to Riff, and said: "Riff, throw me a cl.."

Crack stopped, when he saw Riff crying, while he held Healing's hoof.

Crack quickly sat next to him, and looked at Healing Horn, who had stopped shaking, but now his eyes were wide, and he looked at both of them, or actually something behind them.

"Riff.. where's Crack?" Healing asked, with a slurring voice. They looked at each other, and then Crack said: "I'm here Healing."

Healing seemed to relax a little, but he still squeezed Riff's hoof pretty tight.

"I.. I.." Healing started, but couched blood. Crack swept the blood from his face, and then Healing continued: "I'm.. going to die.. aren't I?"

Riff and Crack Shot looked at each other. Healing's green uniform was soaked in blood, and his grey coat around his mouth was red. They knew it was true, but they didn't know what to say to their dying friend. They heard Blade shooting, but they didn't care about it. Crack Shot nodded to Riff, who sniffed and said: "Yeah.."

Healing's expression changed to a little bit more scared. He tightened his grip around Riff's hoof.

"You guys.. tell my.. my mother.." Healing slurred. He started to fade away. He squeezed Riff's hooves even harder. His eyes widened, and his back tensed into a arch. His mouth opened and he let out a small growl.

Then Healing's body relaxed, and his grip around Riff's hoof softened.

Riff and Crack Shot looked at Healing's body. Riff then lifted Healing Horn's limp body, and hugged him tightly, while weeping into his shoulder. Boxsee looked at the two ponies, he also had small tears in his eyes.

Crack Shot held hoof on Riff's shoulder, and then turned to Blade, who shot at the changelings.

"Let's move," he said to him, and Blade nodded. He shot one more time, and then threw the rifle back to Thrill, who strapped it onto his back. Blade then lifted Thrill to his back.

Boxsee took his backpack, and threw it onto his back. He was ready. Crack looked at Riff, who was still holding Healing's body. He leaned closer to Riff, and said: "We need to move now."

Riff looked at him. His eyes were red from crying.

"We can't leave him here," he said to Crack,  who nodded and said: "Of course not. Can you carry him?"

Riff looked at his dead friend. He nodded slowly and said: "Yes."

Crack rose up, and helped Riff to lift Healing's body onto his back. When they were ready, they started to run towards the hilltop.

Crack looked behind them. He saw that the Changelings were already at the base of the hill, but they seemed to be winded too, and their pace was getting slower.

Crack looked at Riff, who was carrying Healing's limp body. His white coat was getting red around his neck, and his blonde mane was getting red too. His face had a determined, but aslo sad expression.

Crack saw that Blade was doing good, even he was carrying wounded Thrill on his back. Boxsee was running with them.

He then turned his head towards the hilltop. It was only about thirty metes away. If they reached the top, they would be safe from the changeling fire, and they would reach the base, where they would be safe.

Crack started to run faster. He was focused on getting to the hilltop, that was getting closer to them fast.

He thought that they could still make it.

Then Crack heard a terrifying sound behind them. It was rapid gunfire. He turned around, and saw that there was a muzzle flash fluttering in the base of the hill. It was a light machine gun.

The tracers flew towards the ponies, but the bullets flew too low, and hit the ground behind ponies. Crack knew that they had to make it to the top before the machine gun fired again.

"Move!" he shouted, and the ponies started to sprint towards the hilltop. They almost made it to the top, when the machine gun fired again.

This time the tracers were going right towards the ponies. Most of the ponies managed to get behind the hilltop, where the bullets couldn't reach them. Riff who carried Healing's limp body, wasn't fast enough

The bullets hit him in the hind legs, ripping them into a bloody mess. Riff felt how bone in his left leg snapped in half like a match. He let out a yelp, and fell down. Healing's body fell on him and knocked air out from his lungs, but he didn't even notice it. His legs hurt so much that he almost passed out.

Other ponies turned around, when they heard Riff screaming.

Crack quickly ran to him, and rolled Healing's body from top of him. Riff and Crack looked at Riff's legs. They were ripped into a big mess of meat, and his left leg was hanging weirdly. Riff's eyes were wide, and his jaw dropped. He looked at his destroyed legs. His lower lip quivered, and then he started screaming.

"Boxsee!" Crack Shouted, and the medic ran to them. He looked at Riff's legs for a moment, trying to think what to do with them.

"Do something!" Crack shouted, and Boxsee crouched over yelling Riff. He laid hi medic's bag next to him, and took a brace from it. It was metallic stick, with two straps.

"Hold him!" Boxsee said to Crack Shot, who instantly pressed Riff to the ground. He tried to resist, while screaming loudly. Boxsee took a hold from Riff's broken leg, and started to move it back to it's normal place.

Riff shouted even louder, and then his eyes rolled over, and he passed out. Crack looked at him terrified. He thought that Riff was dead.

"Boxsee!" he shouted, and the blue unicorn looked at Riff. He then turned back to place the brace into the broken leg, and said: "He just passed out!"

That made Crack calm down a bit. He didn't want to lose third friend in a same day. He saw how Boxsee took a injection needle from his bag, and he stuck it into Riff's leg. Boxsee then started to bandage the wounds.

"They're getting closer!" Blade, who was looking down the hill shouted. Crack too peeked down the hill.

The changelings were running towards them. It wouldn't take long when they would reach the ponies, and then they would be dead. They didn't have ammo, and they only had three ponies, who were capable to fight.

"What do we do?" Blade asked, looking worried.

Crack thought. He looked at Riff and Thrill.

Thrill was still somewhat okay, but he couldn't walk. He maybe could shoot, but it wouldn't make any difference against the changeling elite. Crack looked at Riff, who's legs Boxsee was now bandaging. They didn't look too bad now, but of course he couldn't move himself, and somepony had to carry him. That would slow them down.

They could make it, if they left one of them there. Crack knew that it wasn't an option.

"We could fight," he said, looking at rest of the ponies. They looked back at him. Everypony was thinking the same, they wouldn't last a minute against them. Blade looked worried, and Boxsee seemed to be against the idea, but he didn't say anything. Crack didn't know what else they could do without leaving their friends behind.

Crack's thinking got interrupted, when he heard Thrill saying: "I don't mind dying here.."

Everypony turned to him. He had his pistol in his hoof. They looked at him for a moment.

"I mean.. I can stay here," Thrill said.

They all looked at him. Then Boxsee sighed and turned to Crack Shot. He looked at him and said: "I don't want to leave him."

Blade too turned to Crack Shot. He took a pistol from its holster and pulled the slide back. He then said: "I'll stay right here."

Crack Shot nodded, and he too took his pistol, and clicked the safety off.

"Ahh fuck!" they heard somepony saying. They noticed how Riff lifted himself up, and leaned to his front hooves. He looked at Crack Shot with a painful expression.

"How are you feeling?" Crack asked worriedly, and knelt down in front of Riff, who looked at him, and then back at his legs. He then said: "They don't feel that bad now, I guess they weren't so bad as I thought."

"They were. I just gave you a sedative," Boxsee said, looking at him sheepishly.

Riff drooped his ears, and asked: "How long will it last?"

Boxsee just shrugged, and Riff sighed. He then looked at Crack, and asked: "What now?"

Crack looked at him, and said seriously: "We will fight."

That made Riff froze for a second. He quickly looked around himself, and saw that everypony had their sidearms in their hooves. He then looked at Crack Shot with a confused look on his face. Crack looked at him with a calm expression.

Riff looked at him for a second, and then just shook his head, and said: "I knew I never should have joined the army."

He then took out his pistol, and rolled to his back. He placed his backpack behind his back, so he was in a half laying position, where he could shoot better.

"Okay! Well shoot them when they come from behind the edge!" Crack Shot shouted, and crouched. He aimed his pistol towards the edge of the hilltop. They were only ten meters from it. They already heard the approaching changelings.

Thrill and Blade glanced at each other. Thrill was lying on the ground, while Blade was crouched next to him. Thrill looked at Blade nervously, but Blade was calm. Blade reached his hoof towards Thrill, who pumped it with his own. Then they turned their guns towards the edge.

Crack Shot looked at Boxsee, who was laying next to crouched Crack Shot.

"We will die," Boxsee said. Crack didn't answer first, but then he answered: "Probably, but we will die fighting."

"That doesn't make it any easier," Boxsee said, and checked his pistol.

Crack chuckled, and said: "Yeah, not really."

Riff held his pistol with his both hooves. He looked quickly towards Healing Horn's body, that was laying near him. He felt tears coming back to his eyes, but he quickly swept them away, and said to nopony in special: "I'll fucking kill them. Kill them all.."

The changeling's were getting close, they could tell that. Just couple of seconds more, and they would start to appear over the edge. Everypony lifted their guns towards the edge. They heard the clanking sound that the armor the changelings were wearing. They held breath, and were ready.

Then the first changeling's head appeared from behind the edge, and then the second.

Everypony opened fire with their pistols, and the first changeling got hit in the head couple of times. He fell down dead, but the other one ducked before they could shoot at him.

Crack knew that they all could be dead next second, when the changelings would all push towards them at once. Crack Shot shook his head to clear it. He then pointed his gun at the edge again, and got ready for the next wave.

The changelings started to push towards them, and the ponies opened fire. Their guns blazed, and the ground was soon full of shells. They emptied their clips at the advancing enemies. Crack fired at one of them in front of him. The changeling got hit first in the chest armor. Then he lifted the pistol upwards, and shot again. The changeling got hit in the face, and it fell down in the ground.

Blade and Thrill shot at one changeling in front of them, but they didn't manage to take him down.

Riff noticed that they didn't have any weapons in their hooves, not even pistols. He quickly forget that, when one of them tried to dash towards him. Riff emptied his pistol at the running changeling, and he hit the changeling just under the chest armor. The changeling fell to ground, and curled up to held his stomach.

Their guns clicked, and everypony lowered their weapons. They looked at the changelings in front of them. There was only one dead changeling, and other one was wounded. There was five changelings standing in front of them, in their blue armor. Their armor was full of dents made by the bullet's from ponies bullets.

One of them had a red helmet. Crack thought that he was the leader of the group. He had to be.

Blade tried to quickly rose up and reload his pistol, but one of the changelings hit him in the face with his hoof. Blade grunted, and there was blood bleeding from his muzzle. He fell to his back, and held his muzzle.

The changeling's started to pull their sidearms from their holsters, and the ponies started to get nervous.

"Nopony move!" the changeling with the red helmet shouted. His sound was high pitched, and sounded evil.

The changeling started to walk towards Boxsee, who still held his empty pistol in his hoof. The changeling punched Boxsee in the face, and the pistol dropped from his hoof.

"Stop!" Crack Shot shouted to the changeling, who was about to hit Boxsee again. The changeling stopped and looked at Crack Shot, who stood up.

Changeling looked at him, and nodded to his soldiers.

Two changelings kicked Crack in the knees of his hind legs, and Crack dropped to his haunches.

The changeling picked up Boxsee's pistol, and dropped the empty clip from it. He took another one from his own combat vest, and put it into the pistol. He released the slide back, and started to walk towards Crack Shot.

"No!" Riff shouted, but one of the changelings kicked him in the wounded leg. Riff shouted in pain, and the changeling with red helmet started to walk towards Crack again.

He stopped just before Crack, and leaned closer to him.

"Are you the commander of this squad?" the changeling asked slowly, looking at Crack's green eyes. Crack looked back at him, with his eyes full of anger.

"You killed him at the factory," He hissed. The changeling chuckled and said: "Oh. He was your commander?"

The changeling that Riff had shot, was lying on a pool of blue blood. He whimpered loudly, and the other changelings glanced at him nervously. He kept whimpering, and Crack saw that the changeling with the red helmet started to get annoyed.

"Shut him up!" he shouted to his soldiers, who looked at him confusedly. One of them stepped forward, and said: "His wounded sir! He can't walk."

The leader changeling rolled his eyes, and then said: "Why is he still alive then?"

"Excuse me?" the changeling soldier said, and looked at the leader with confused look. The changeling leader looked at him and explained: "If he can't walk, he slows us down."

"But sir.." the changeling started, but then the changeling with the red helmet lifted Boxsee's pistol, and shot at the wounded changeling three times. He winced when the bullets hit him in the back, just under the armor. He then stopped moving.

Everypony looked at the scene in front of them, and even the changelings looked shocked. Riff stopped his whimpering, even his legs hurt like hell. He decided that now was a good time to be quiet. Blade looked at Crack Shot, who was held up by two changelings. The leader was in front of him, and the last two changelings guarded the rest of the ponies.

The changeling leader looked around himself, and then sighed.

"Take the live ones, and shoot the wounded. We can't drag them around with us," the leader said, and Crack Shot's eyes went wide. He looked at Riff and shouted: "No!"

"Shut up!" the changeling shouted, and hit Crack with the pistol handle. Crack dropped to the ground, holding his face.

Meanwhile the two changelings moved closer to Thrill and Riff, who tried to back away. The changeling kicked Thrill in the side where the wound was. Thrill yelped, and fell to his other side. Then the changeling pressed him against the ground, and pressed the gun to side of Thrill's head.

"No! Thrill!" lade shouted and tried to rose up from the ground, but then one of the changelings kicked him in the face. He fell down to the ground. He saw Thrill looking at him, with scared and sad expression.

Then the changeling squeezed the trigger, and the gun fired.

Thrill's head nudged, and blood sprayed from side of his head. Thrill's face went expressionless and his body jerked couple of times.

"No! No!" Blade kept shouting.

The changeling with red helmet smiled a evil smile, and then said: "Now the crippled."

Riff looked at the Changeling soldier in front of him, and then at the lifeless body of Thrill. There was still blood spraying from his head. Riff started to back away, but his legs didn't move. He lifted his hooves to protect himself from the changeling, who pointed his pistol towards him.

"Riff!" Crack shouted, and reached his hooves towards the white pony in front of him.

The leader changeling looked at them, and then said: "Do it now."

The changeling in front of Riff looked at him, and Riff noticed that the he looked at Riff with a apologetic expression. He lifted his gun towards Riff's head, and he closed his eyes. He waited for the shot, that would end his life.

He heard the shot, but didn't feel anything, except the burning in his legs. Something was wrong here, and Riff opened his eyes.  He saw the changeling in front of him wobbling on his hooves. He had a gunshot wound under his chest armor, and it was bleeding badly.

Everypony looked at the changeling in confusion.

Then it fell down to the ground, and the pistol dropped right next to Riff. Then there was another gunshot, and the bullet hit one of the changelings in the helmet, but it didn't go trough.

Now the changelings started to react, and so did the ponies.

Crack grabbed Boxsees gun from the hoof of the leader of the changelings. Boxsee rushed and tackled one of the changelings, while Blade kicked one in the legs, so that it fell to the ground. Riff grabbed the gun that the changeling had dropped when he died. Crack hit the leader of the changelings right to the middle of his face with the handle of the pistol, making him back up a little. Crack then pointed the pistol at his face and shouted: "For Rough!"

Then Crack shot the surprised changeling right between the eyes. He wobbled for a second, and then fell to his back.

Blade was struggling with the changeling he had tripped over. The changeling was on top of him, holding his hooves around Blade's throat. Riff pointed his gun towards it, and Blade pushed the changeling upwards. Riff shot twice, and the bullets hit the changeling between the armor and helmet. Blade pushed the changeling away from him, and looked at Riff, who was still pointing at the changeling.

"Thanks!" Blade shouted. Riff shot at the dead changeling twice more.

"What was that for!?" Blade shouted at Riff, who answered: "That fucker kicked me in the leg!"

Blade chuckled, but then they noticed Boxsee being in trouble. The two changelings left were kicking him, while he was on the ground. The other one took his pistol into his hoof, and pulled the slide back. Just before he managed to point the gun at Boxsee, they heard gunfire. The changeling's body was ripped by the bullet's that came from somewhere behind the ponies.

The changeling fell down to the ground, and the other one stopped kicking Boxsee, and looked surprised. He looked at something behind the ponies. He dropped his pistol on the ground, and just stood there.

Ponies looked behind them, and their eyes widened from surprise. Their faces lit up as they recognized what they were looking at. There was a group of five ponies standing there, or couple of them were crouching, with their weapons pointed at the last changeling.

They started to move closer to the squad, and the changeling dropped to his knees.

"Are you alright!?" one of them shouted, and walked closer to Crack Shot.

"Never been better!" Riff shouted, but he then yelped from pain, as his legs started to hurt again.

"They need medical attention!" Crack Shouted.

"Where's captain Rough Gunner?" the pony they recognized as the commanding officer of the camp said.

"His dead!" Crack said, holding the side of his face where the changeling had hit him.

The officer was silent for a moment, but then said: "What's the situation?"

"What the fuck does it look like!?" Blade shouted, and clumsily rose up. he then started to walk towards the body of Thrill. The officer was silenced by Blade's straight language, but he  soon managed to say: "I mean.. How many casualties?"

Crack Shot sighed, and then looked at the bodies of Healing Horn and Thrill.

"Ten," he said, and looked at the officer, who seemed surprised, but he then turned towards the changeling and said: "Private Stamp! Send a letter to the base! We need medivac ASAP!"

"Yes sir!" a dark green unicorn said, and started to write a message.

Crack looked at the ponies. They were putting hoofcuffs to the changeling, who looked scared. Crack Shot didn't feel sorry for him. He saw Blade dragging the body of Thrill, while Healing Horn's body was on his bag. The sight tugged him from the chest. Two of his friends, dead and torn.

Crack Shot snapped from his thought's when he heard Riff saying: "Crack.."

He looked at Riff, who was again in lot of pain. Crack knelt down in front of him. Riff took a good grip from his uniform, and looked him into eyes.

He smiled painfully, and said: "I think I'm going to pass out again.."

"You better not," Crack said, chuckling little. He lifted Riff a little from his shoulders, and placed his backpack behind his back. Riff was still looking really disoriented, and Crack realized that he wasn't joking around. He looked at Riff's legs, that were bleeding badly. He gasped, and then shouted: "Boxsee!"

Riff looked at Crack, and he noticed that Boxsee was running towards him. He felt light headed, and his legs were on fire. His head started to droop, and Riff's eyelids felt like they were made from lead. It was impossible to held them open. He looked at Crack Shot, who was shouting something to him, but it sounded lie they were underwater, and Riff couldn't understand what he was trying to say. The world started to spin around him, and he felt like dropping trough the ground, into darkness.

He passed out.

Epilogue

Riff slowly opened his eyes. He saw a white ceiling, and there was blue curtains around him. He looked around himself, and noticed he was laying in a very uncomfortable bed. Even a pillow was flat and hard, and it made his neck hurt. The air smelled like chemicals and there was small talking behind the curtain.

"Where the hell am I?" he asked from himself.

Then he remembered. He was in the same uncomfortable bed, where he had been laying so long that he was sure he had been rooted into it.

He was in the Canterlot's rehabilitation hospital. He had been moved there right after they had arrived back to fire base Zebra, from the fateful mission almost five weeks ago.

Riff looked down, towards his legs. They were cast in plaster, and they were strapped to racks that held them motionless. Riff noticed that they were getting really itchy, but he couldn't scratch them.

He sighed and dropped his head back to the flat and hard pillow.

He looked at a clock, that was in the night table besides his bed. It's pointers showed that the time was half past twelve in afternoon. Another day to spent doing nothing, Riff thought.

"It's been two days, since the changeling forces surrendered to the Equestrian forces, when they stormed the..." Riff heard a silent voice speak behind the curtain. He knew it was coming from the old radio they had in the ward.

"Most of the equestrian soldiers are meeting their family and loved ones for the first time in long.." the voice continued, and it started to annoy Riff.

He pulled the curtain aside, and looked at the direction of the sound. The radio was on the other side of the ward, on a table. There was a deep blue pegasus sitting on his bed near the radio. His right front leg was in plaster, and there were bandages around his upper body.

"Turn that thing off!" Riff said to him loudly, starling one of the ponies who had been sleeping.

The blue pegasus looked at him annoyed, but then his eyes met with Riff's. The pegasus drooped his ears and clicked the radio shut. He looked at Riff with a look that said 'You happy now'.

Riff didn't say anything. He just pulled the curtains shut, and laid back to his bed.

He laid there for a while, but something seemed to be wrong. Riff thought what it was for a minute. He then realized what it was.

Riff leaned over the edge of his bed, and lifted his duffel bag to his lap. He opened it and took a pack of cigarettes, and a bottle of clear liquid. He placed the pack on the table, and looked at the bottle.

There was 'Crystal Vodka', written with big letters on the label.

Riff hadn't had a sober day since he had persuaded one of the nurses to get him booze from the city. It helped him to forget the pain in his legs, and the nightmares he had during the nights.

Riff shivered when he remembered the one he had seen last night.

In his dream, Riff had been alone in the trenches. All his friends were lying around him, dead and mutilated.

Then the changelings had come, and his gun didn't work. His dreams usually ended to him getting shot, and he always woke up sweating cold sweat. It had started to eat him from inside.

Riff shivered again, and opened the bottle. He lifted it to his lips, and drank it straight from the bottle. He frowned due the strong liquid burning his throat. He lowered the bottle, and swallowed the rest of the booze. He couched after that, and looked at the bottle. There was one fourth of it gone.

He placed the bottle back to the table, and took the pack of cigarettes from it.

He took one cigarette from it, and placed it onto his lips. He then light it with matches he had on the table. He took couple of long drags from it, and then relaxed on the bed.

He heard couple of annoyed hmphs from the other side of the curtains, when the smoke from his cigarette started to spread to the rest of the room.

Riff didn't care. The nurses had tried to make him to go outside for a smoke, but Riff had just pointed at his legs. The nurses had looked at him embarrassed, and apologized from him. They hadn't bothered him about that after that.

Riff smoked his cigarette, and looked at the table next to him. Next to the clock, there was a small pile of letters that Riff hadn't bothered to read yet. He looked at the letters for a moment, and then reached his hoof towards them.

"Maybe I should get trough these," he said to himself, and took the letters to his lap.

He started to browse trough the letters.

"Army, army, army.." he said, and threw every letter that had the army logo on them to the trash bin next to him. He then stopped browsing. He quickly checked the rest of the letters, and noticed that they all were from the the army.

Riff sighed, and threw the letters to the trash bin.

He had gotten only one letter he had actually read. It had been from his family. It said that they all missed him, and were devastated about the news of Riff getting wounded. They said that they would visit him soon, but the letter is already three weeks old, and nopony had visited him.

Riff took one last drag from his cigarette, and stubbed it to a empty bottle, that was on the floor next to his bed. Riff started to feel the booze kicking in, and felt a bit dizzy. He decided that it would be stupid to stop there. then opened the vodka bottle again, and took another long sip.

Before he finished drinking from the bottle, one of the Nurses popped his head from behind the curtain. She starled Riff, who almost inhaled the liquor. Riff gagged and couched like crazy, and the nurse looked worried.

Riff soon calmed down, and managed to breath normally. He looked at the earth pony in front of him, who was wearing her nursing cap. Riff recognized the mare as one of his favorite nurses.

Her name was Cinnamon Smooch.

"You shouldn't be drinking this early," the smiling nurse said to him.

Her coat was creamy yellow, and she had a red mane. It was naturally curled, and hanged down her shoulders. She  swayed her red tail, that was too naturally curled.

She looked at Riff with her eyes, that were dark orange, and they had caring look in them. Her eyelashes fluttered cutely every time she blinked. Riff noticed the freckles on her cheeks. They highlighted her beautiful eyes.

"You know what they say. Early bird catches the worm," Riff said, and put the bottle on the night table.

Cinnamon looked at him, smiling heartily. She then looked at Riff's legs and asked: "How's your legs feeling?"

Riff looked at him annoyed. He then said: "Like they'd been shot."

Cinnamon raised her eyebrow, and smiled at Riff. She leaned closer to him and said: "I mean is there any pain? Or do they feel swollen?"

Riff tried to frown and look irritated, but he could help himself, and he smiled back at Cinnamon Smooch.

"Nah, they're fine," he said, And Cinnamon nodded at him happily.

She turned around from Riff, and walked to the night table. Riff saw her cutie mark. It was a thermometer inside a heart. Riff looked at it for a second, but then Cinnamon looked behind her. Riff quickly looked at the ceiling, and felt heat rising on his cheeks. Cinnamon just giggled a little.

Cinnamon threw some empty packs of cigarettes into the trash bin. she then noticed that it was full of letters from the army.

"Aren't you going to read those?" she asked, and looked at Riff.  He looked at the letters, and then shook his head.

"Nope. I do not want to have anything to do with the army anymore," Riff said, staring at the ceiling.

Cinnamon looked at him with a upset expression.

"How about old friends from the army?" they heard somepony saying from behind the curtain.

Riff looked at the curtain confusedly. He then turned his head towards Cinnamon, who giggled happily.

"Oh, I think I forgot to tell you that you have a visitor," she said giggling, and holding her hoof over her mouth.

The curtain started to slide, revealing a light green stallion, with a brown mohawk, that had green stripes in it.

He had a crosshair as his cutie mark.

"Crack Shot!" Riff exclaimed.

Crack Shot moved closer to the white pony laying in the bed, and they hoof bumped. Crack then spent a moment, looking at Riff, and his legs. He then smiled a mischievously, and said: "You look like shit."

"So do you," Riff sad, smiling back to him. Cinnamon giggled behind them.

"I'll leave you two alone now," she said and started to trot towards the door of the ward. Crack Shot looked after her, until he couldn't see her anymore.

"Wow," Crack said aloud.

"Yeah," Riff said. They looked at the door for a second, hoping that Cinnamon would appear from there again, but she didn't. Crack turned to Riff, and now he had more serious look on his face.

"How are you holding up?" he asked from Riff.

"Crippled, bored and drunk." Riff said, and reached for the bottle again. Crack gave it to him, and Riff nodded as thanks. He took a quick sip from the bottle, and then offered it to Crack.

"you want some?" he asked, but Crack Shot shook his head and said: "Nah, I really need to be sober today."

Riff looked at him questioningly. He then asked: "Why's that?"

Crack Shot perked up, and said proudly: "I'm being promoted to sergeant!"

Riff looked at him for a second, and then started to smile a little. He saluted, and said: "Corporal Riff Frost at your service!"

Crack Shot chuckled, and said: "At ease."

Riff leaned back to his pillow. And took a cigarette from the table. He offered one to Crack Shot too, but he looked around himself nervously.

"Aren't they gonna be mad?" he asked from Riff, while looking at the other patients. Riff just waved his hoof at them and let out a small 'pfft'.

"What can they do about it? They're just some cripple's and nurses! What can they do?" he said more loudly than he had planned, probably due the alcohol. They heard some mumbling from around them.

"Well, give me one," Crack said, and took one cigarette from Riff.

They light them, and enjoyed the cigarettes. They smoked in silence for a moment, before Crack spoke again: "When are you getting out?"

Riff looked at his hind legs, and then said: "Not for a while I guess."

Crack nodded sadly, and then stubbed his cigarette into the empty bottle. Riff did the same. Then Riff asked: "Were you in the attack to the hive?"

Crack was taken aback by that question. He stared at the wall blankly for a moment, and then said: "Yes. Yes I was."

Riff noticed Crack's expression, and asked with concerned voice: "You okay?"

Crack winced, and then quickly said: "Uh.. Yeah. Just saw some pretty messed up shit there."

"Wanna talk about it?" Riff asked, but Crack just shook his head. He looked at Riff, and smiled sadly.

"I don't want to make you feel any worse than you already must feel," Crack Shot said, and looked at the bottle, that still had a one fourth of booze left in it.

Riff noticed that, and said: "Take it if you want, I'm feeling drunk enough myself."

Crack Shot nodded, and lifted the bottle from the night table. He opened it, and emptied it at one long sip. He pouted and grunted, but managed to swallow the booze. He looked at Riff, and said: "Thank's.. ugh.."

Riff laughed loudly, earning some annoyed looks from the other patients.

"It's pretty strong huh?" he asked, still chuckling lightly. Crack was now too smiling, and he said: "Yeah, what the hell is this thing?"

"It's vodka from Crystal mountains," Riff said, while Crack Shot inspected the bottle in his hoof. He looked at Riff confusedly.

"How did you get this here by the way?" Crack asked. Riff smiled, and said: "Cinnamon brought it to me."

Crack's eyes widened, and he looked at the Riff surprised.

"That nurse?" he asked. He didn't seem to think that Riff was telling the truth.

"Yep. I just had to wink for her, and she got it for me from the town," Riff said, leaning into his pillow.

Crack started to smile at Riff, and then he said: "I know you're trying to fuck with me now."

"Yeah, I am. I really needed to peg and give some bits to her," Riff said smiling sheepishly.

They laughed for a moment, and then Crack seemed to remember something.

"I brought something for you!" Crack said excited. He then disappeared behind the curtain, leaving confused Riff all alone. He tried to look what Crack was doing, but couldn't see behind the curtain. Riff grunted and leaned his head back to his pillow.

After a minute Crack came back, carrying Riff's guitar in his other front hoof.

Riff's face lit up as he recognize the instrument in Crack Shot's hoof. He reached his hooves towards it, smiling widely. Crack too smiled, and gave the guitar to Riff, who looked at it with his blue eyes full of excitement.

"What.. where.. how.." Riff started, but the alcohol in his brains made the words get stuck in his throat. He calmed down for a second, and then asked: "How did you get this? I thought I'd never see it again!"

Crack smiled happily and said: "I grabbed it before we left from the base."

Riff beamed at Crack, and then he took the guitar into his hooves, and gave it couple strums. He played a short melody, and then laid the guitar onto his lap. He looked at Crack Shot, and had a thankful smile on his face.

He was just about to say something, but then they heard somepony clearing her throat. They turned towards the sound, and they saw Cinnamon Smooch standing there. She looked at the two ponies, smiling lovely.

"I'm sorry, but visiting time is over," she said.

Crack Shot looked at Riff, who turned to Cinnamon and asked, slurring slightly: " Can't Crack stay just a little longer.. I promise.. that we won't be loud..."

Crack smiled, when he noticed how drunk Riff had become.

"Sorry sweetheart. I have my orders," Cinnamon said, and winked to Riff, who's cheeks blushed deep red. Crack chuckled, and patted him on the shoulder.

Crack Shot looked at his drunken friend, who looked back at him.

"Corporal Riff Frost!" he said and saluted. Riff chuckled, and saluted back.

"Sergeant Crack Shot!" he said, slurring and wobbling a little. They then laughed a little. Cinnamon looked at them, smiling a bit confused.

"Okay buddy, try to take care of yourself," Crack said, and reached his hoof towards Riff. Riff looked at the hoof for a moment, and then grabbed it with his hoof. They shook hooves for a second, and then Riff said: "You too, and don't forget to write me."

"I won't," Crack said, smiling happily.

They then said farewells, and Crack started to walk towards the exit with Cinnamon Smooch. Crack Shot turned to look at Riff for the last time, and he saw how Riff took the guitar to his hooves, and started to play it.

Crack Shot and Cinnamon Smooch walked out of the room, and into the corridor. They heard how Riff started to play a sad melody with his guitar. Crack was surprised, that he could play so well, even he was pretty drunk.

Crack noticed that Cinnamon too listened to the melody, and smiled gently.

Crack got an idea.

"You know, Riff really likes you," he said to Cinnamon, who looked back at him confused.

Crack didn't give her time to answer anything, and he continued: "He's really nice guy, even he's pretty ugly."

Cinnamon giggled, and said: "He's not ugly!"

"Anyway, you have to look hard for somepony like him," Crack Shot continued with serious tone. Cinnamon Smooch looked at him, and they stopped. They were at the front doors, that lead out to the streets of Canterlot.

They still heard Riff playing his guitar, and the sound echoed in the hallways.

"Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" Crack Shot said, looking at the red maned pony in front of him.

Cinnamon Smooch smiled at him, and said: "I think I did."

Crack smiled a goofy smile, and then said: "His too shy to do the initiative."

"I know, but I don't know how to do it," Cinnamon said shyly. Crack Shot's jaw dropped. She really liked Riff? He thought that this could actually work.

"Just ask him out.." Crack Shot started, but stopped when Cinnamon looked at him with a serous face.

"Uhm.. I mean when his legs get better," he corrected himself quickly, and Cinnamon started to smile again. Then her smile vanished, and her ears drooped.

"What do I do before that?" she asked, and Crack just chuckled.

"Well you shouldn't bring any more booze to him," he said to the mare, who looked surprised, and she smiled a sheepish smile to Crack Shot.

"Heh.. Maybe I shouldn't," she said. Crack just smiled to her, and said: "Don't worry, you'll figure something out."

Cinnamon smiled to him sadly, and then said: "I'll try at least."

Crack Shot looked at the clock on the wall, and his eyes widened.

"Oh sh.. I'm already late!" he almost shouted. He looked at Cinnamon, he then nodded and said: "Goodbye, and good luck!"

Crack Shot the disappeared behind the doors, into the crowned streets of the Canterlot.

Cinnamon Smooch, looked at the door for a second.

She then turned around, and listened. She heard that Riff was still playing the melody, that was pretty sad in her opinion.

"Maybe I can make it a bit happier," she though out loud, and checked if her mane and tail was alright. He then straightened the nursing cap in her head, and started to walk towards the ward six.

She had found a new spring in her step, and she was humming with the melody that echoed trough the corridors.

Arrival

Celestia's sun was beaming down on the rocky landscape in Equus Valley. Bottom of the valley was covered in small trees, but there were little cover in the higher ground. 2nd Platoon of Bravo company was making their way towards fire base Zebra, closest actual military installation from the border of Equestria and The Changeling Kingdom. Most of them had volunteered to go there because the salary was fifteen thousand bits for six months of service.

They were having a break in middle of the hill, where the fire base Zebra was located. Hill was steep, and terrain was rocky, which made moving of twenty-four soldiers slow. It takes about thirty minutes to reach the hilltop from the bottom, and high temperature wasn't helping at all.

"I can't stand this heat!" white earth pony complained while sitting against a small tree. He was wearing a green combat uniform with a tactical vest on top of it. His light brown mane was tied on a ponytail and beads of sweat were running down his forehead. He scratched his small goatee.

"Nopony asked you to come Riff. You volunteered," said  a grey unicorn leaning in the same tree. His name was Healing Horn, but everybody called him 'doc'. His coat was light grey with darker grey stripes here and there. Even his mane was grey. He says that's because his father was a zebra, and mother was a unicorn.

Riff looked at him with annoyed look on his face. He took a sip from his flask and said: "Yeah I did, but it doesn't mean I can't hate this climate."

Healing horn chuckled and took a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. Riff looked at him with a puzzled look.

"I didn't know that you smoked," he said.

"There's lots of things you don't know about me," Healing said and took one cigarette from the pack. Riff watched him light the cigarette. He licked his lips and asked: "Could you give me one?"

Healing put the pack back to his pocket and said: "No, you have you're own!"

"Yeah, but they are deep in my backpack!" Riff said and gave a angry look to Healing Horn. Healing took a took a long drag from his cig and said, with a satisfied smile on his face: "Not my problem."

"You're an assh..." Riff was interrupted by someone coming from behind them.

They turned around and saw light green stallion. It was Crack Shot, platoon's best shooter. His brown mane was shaped into a mohawk, with grey stripes in it. He had his rifle strapped to his back. Unlike Healing Horn and Riff, he had taken of his jacket, having only combat vest to cover his upper body.

"What are you girls fighting about?" Crack asked as he sat down next to Riff.

"Healing was just being a prick," Riff said and gave Shot his flask, who took a sip from it. He gave it back and dug a pack of smokes from his combat vest. Crack saw how Riff was looking at it, and offered it to him. Riff took one and nodded as 'thanks'.

After lighting their cigarettes, Crack said: "I scoped ahead. Were about twenty minutes from the camp."

"That's cool," Riff said, enjoying his cigarette.

"I heard you can see the changeling camp from up there," Healing Horn said excited.

"That's Bullshit. Were almost thirty klicks away from the border," Riff said.

"Yeah, I think you meant OP Alpha. Its only about two miles from the changeling camp," Crack said to Healing Horn, who blushed in embarrassed, because he had flashed his ignorance. He wasn't stupid, but he got exited easily sometimes.

He turned around to hide his blush from others. He lifted his hoof to cover his eyes, and looked at the top of the hill. He looked at there for while and said: "I think we're moving out soon."

Riff and Crack stubbed out their cigarettes. They started to gather their belongings. After they were done, they picked up their carbines and went to find rest of the platoon. Crack Shot went to retrieve his own equipment. Healing and Riff found rest of their unit and Crack Shot soon joined them. Everypony was preparing to get moving. Soon their Commanding Officer, Rough Gunner, brown coated pony stood up.

He was 220lbs of pure muscle. Army had to order tailor-made uniform for him, because there were no clothes big enough for him. His head was bald and his right ear was missing a piece. Rough was always wearing aviator glasses. There was a rumor going that he even slept with them on.

Everypony respected him, because he was a veteran of at least a dozen conflicts all around Equestria and beyond.

Rough shouted with his deep voice: "Alright! Let's get moving. If we hurry up, we can get to the top before dinner time! There's also warm water, so everypony can wash up when we get there."

Promise of dinner and a shower made everypony perk up. they had eaten MRE's for the last three days, and all of them looked like they had been rolling in a pool of mud.

"Are you ladies ready to move out?" Rough Gunner asked half shouting.

"Yes sir, Captain sir!" They answered in union.

"Hooah!" Rough said, and soldiers replied.

Then they left.

After ten minutes of brisk climbing they had almost reached the top. Captain Rough Gunner was at the point. He moved quickly for a pony of his size. Even the most athletic of them had hard time keeping up with him.

Riff was helping Crack Shot climb over small cliff by lifting him with his hoof, while Healing Horn just jumped over it.

"Try to keep up," Healing said to them smirking.

"Buck off... Not everypony is related to a Zebra," Crack said, breathing heavily while climbing over the cliff. Healing had a shocked expression on his face.

"That's racist..." he muttered.

Crack's cheeks flushed red.

"I.. I didn't know..." He muttered, tumbling over his words. Riff rolled his eyes and said: "He's just fucking with you."

Crack looked at him, then at Healing who was holding a laughter. His panic soon turned to anger.

"You little..." He started, but was interrupted by somepony shouting: "Who's there?"

Everypony else, except Rough jumped a little. He stood still and shouted: "Princess Celestia!"

There were short silence, before voice shouted again: "You're clear! Head this way!"

Healing, Crack and Riff were dumbstruck. They didn't know what just had happened. Healing was first to speak: "What was that?"

"That's the password," Somepony next to them explained. They looked at each other for a second, then Riff shrugged and started to follow the others.

Soon Healing and Crack followed him. They found the source of shouting after they passed one big rock. There were three ponies guarding the passage. One of them was talking to Rough.

"We had to move guards lower to the path, after the firefight near the front gates," unfamiliar sergeant said to Rough.

"There was a firefight? With changelings?" Rough asked, with surprise in his voice.

"Well.. Four of our guys were heading out, and they met group of seven changelings. They were about fifty meters from the outer defensive line, when one of the changelings opened fire towards them. We don't know if it was accident or something, but our guys returned fire, killing one of them. Two others escaped," sergeant explained.

Rough had a puzzled look on his face. He thought for a moment and then asked: "Did changelings ever send an explanation?"

"No, never," sergeant answered.

Rough scratched his chin. Everything wasn't feeling right here.

"By the way, there's a bunch of Princess's royal guards up there. They are inspecting near the border bases. Try to make a good impression," Sergeant said to him.

Rough turned around to face his soldiers. They all looked half dead from the exhaustion, covered in dust and other filth. He let out a small chuckle.

"You hear that boys? We are supposed to make a good impression!" he shouted.

Others shared a small laugh and looked at each other, realizing how tired they actually were.

"Let's go boys!" Rough shouted and started to make his way towards the base.

Riff, Healing and Crack had been listening Rough's and sergeant's discussion.

Healing gulped and asked: "Did you guys hear that?"

"Yeah we did," Riff answered.

"Why would changelings do something like that?" Healing asked.

"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this," Crack said.

"Calm before the storm," Riff stated.

They soon came across the place where the firefight had occurred. It looked like a total war had passed the place, even the firefight had lasted only for couple of minutes. Some of the rocks had bullet holes in them, and there were shells everywhere.

They could see where the changeling had been hit. There were small pool of  dried blue blood behind a bush.

it seemed that he had not died immediately, because there were blood trail leading from the bush to behind nearby rock, where was bigger pool of dried up blood. They saw how the blue blood was smeared all over the rock.

Healing looked at the scene in front of him, silenced by what he saw.

Crack Shot noticed how Healing started to wobble on his hoofs. He quickly trotted to his side and pushed against Healing Horn, preventing him from falling over.

It took a while before Healing could stand straight again.

"T..Thanks," he said in a shaking voice.

"Are you alright? You seem a little pale you know," Crack said looking at his friend.

"I.. I'm okay.. Really. Just got a little nauseous," Healing said, turning his head away from the blue mess behind the rock.

Other ponies were walking pass them, and soon Riff appeared next to them. He saw Crack Shot holding pale looking Healing Horn in upright position.

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking at Crack, who nodded his head towards the blood covered rock. Riff got the point. He looked around for a moment, before he turned to Healing Horn and said: "If you need to throw up, don't let Rough see it."

Healing nodded slowly.

Crack Shot pushed Healing slightly, to get him moving.

They were now slightly behind the others, but when Healing started to feel better, they quickly caught the others. They walked for less than minute, when Crack pointed his hoof in front of him.

"There it is!" he exclaimed.

The fire base Zebra was bigger than they had though. Engineers were filling bastions and sand bags, strengthening the fortifications of the old base. There where defensive fighting positions or 'foxholes' outside the inner fortifications.

About twenty meters from the foxholes, there were first first arrangement of razor wire, second ten meters from that and the third after twenty meters from the second.

FB Zebra was strategically perfect to defend. It was located on a steep hill, with only one way where to attack, if the attack wasn't airborne.

Enemy stupid enough to attack was always in the line of fire after one hundred meters from the base.

Ponies of 2nd Platoon passed the razor wires, and were getting closer to the actual base itself. Everypony admired the arsenal of the base.

It had six howitzers, used by four ponies. Two earth ponies aimed the cannon, while two unicorns charged the howitzer with their magic.

After fully charged, they would discharge the magic trough the barrel of the howitzer, turning it to a deadly projectile that could bring down full shopping center.

If changelings were to attack, FB Zebra could blow them to bits right after they would cross the border.

Soon they were over the main gate of the base. Rough Gunner announced his business to one of the guards, who saluted and went inside the base. He soon returned with his commanding officer, major Valor. Valor was a pony at his fifties, his once brown mane was now starting to get grey and there were small bags under his eyes.

He greeted Rough with half a salute and half a wave kind of motion.

Rough returned the salute, then he spoke: "Captain Rough Gunner and 2nd Platoon of Bravo company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment reporting for duty, sir!"

Valor chuckled a bit. He looked at Rough and said: "No need for formalities around here, unless you see one of those royal guards."

"As you wish, sir."

Valor nodded and walked past Rough, to see the rest of the platoon.

He watched at them for a while before saying: "Welcome to fire base Zebra! We have arranged sleeping places for you all in the barrack C. There will be warm food served after you take care of your equipment. Your tasks will be given to you tomorrow morning."

"Is that clear!?" Captain Rough shouted.

"YES SIR!" platoon answered in unison, then Major and Rough saluted and they started to move in the base.

The engineers were running inside the base too,constructing and maintaining it.

The Tactical Operations Center was located in the middle of the base and there were two fully armed ponies guarding it.

Next to it was a communications bunker, a big construction made from concrete. It was also heavily guarded.

An aid station was next to the canteen, a big tent, which had a chimney coming out from the top of it. There were also two landing pads near the south edge of the base. One bigger for ammo and other supply shipments. Smaller one was VIP landing pad.

Rough notice the army green carriage on the landing pad. He saw two pegasus pilots leaning against it, while mechanics were doing something under the carriage. On the side of the carriage was a big logo of royal guards.

They reached the barrack C and went inside. It was made out of plywood and 2x4 planks. It wasn't much, but it was better than sleeping outside. Rough gave them quick orders and left to his own personal tent. Crack Shot, Healing Horn and Riff started to unpack their things

.

Healing put his clean clothes in the closet next to his bed, to prevent them from getting dirty. Then he took his toothbrush and placed it next to his clean clothes. Then he hopped onto his bed.

First thing Crack did was attaching pin up pony poster on the wall. He took couple of steps backwards and admired his creation. Couple of other ponies noticed the poster too, and soon everypony was looking at it. It showed a light yellow pegasus mare with a pink mane covering part of her face. She was wearing a sexy nurse outfit. Pony in the poster looked a bit shy, in a cute way. In the left bottom corner was the manufacturer's name, Photo Finish.

Riff took a pack of cigarettes from the side pocket of his backpack. Then he carefully opened his backpack, and started to pull something from it slowly. First came the head, then the fretboard and the body. He smiled when he took his guitar into his hooves. He ran his hoof down the neck and gave it a little strum.

Healing turned to see him.

"You have a guitar?" he asked.

"Yep," Riff said and started to play simple melody. Healing was amazed by the act and just sat on the edge of his bed. Crack noticed Riff's guitar too. He sat next to Healing and listened as Riff played.

He played for a while, making more complex melodies appear out of nowhere. Riff looked at Crack and Healing. He then quickly stopped. He rose up and threw his backpack under his bed and placed his guitar on top of the bed, slowly and carefully.

Crack and Healing were confused.

"Why did you stop?" Crack asked.

"Because I'm fucking hungry," Riff said and held his stomach, giving them a sheepish smile. Healing and Crack then noticed it too. They must've been so distracted by all this that they didn't even notice how hungry they really were.

"Let's go get something to eat," Riff said. Crack and Healing nodded in agreement. They left the barrack C and started to walk towards the canteen.