The Silent Killer of The Everfree Forest

SSGt Lopez POV

I sighed noticing that Duncan and the cubs were also gone. “Of course it had to be Duncan. He’s probably just showing them around the base or something.” I reasoned with myself as I grabbed my gear. I ran to the south face of the base camp where all the other marksmen were already suiting up, making sure to have their ghillie suits in place. The second I put my stuff down and got out my suit, a fellow marksmen helped me get my items in check before putting my ghillie suit on. I got some help making sure I looked not only presentable… well as presentable as a man wearing leaves, some straw, mud and a little bit of crap on the outer edge of the suit, can be; but I made sure I also looked very camouflaged.

“Attention!” We heard Master Sergeant Browski bark. We all snapped to attention in almost perfect unity with the exception of a Private. He had joined in at the wrong time, coincidentally when we were sent away from our planet.  “Adese.” We all snapped our left leg at shoulder width, our left hand crossing the small of our backs in perfect unity, right hand on the barrel of the rifles.

“Today I have a very special mission for all of you. As you all know we aren’t on Earth anymore. We are in unknown territory and know only what the drones have told us about the landscape. You should all have enough ammo to get out of any jam that should come but remember, if you encounter a populace do not engage. The last thing we need is another war. Considering reinforcements will never arrive we’re going to have to keep our relations as best as we can. Staff Sergeant Lopez, has already had an encounter with the local populace, even saving a young one, will lead this mission. Am I clear!?”

All in unison, as if one person, we yelled, “Yes, Sergeant Major!” With that, we departed going into the thick woods.

-1 hour later-

We slowly ran through the forest. It was more of a fast walk to be honest. We continued on, our footsteps muffled by the dirt, and grass. The forest was humid, to say the least. Before it had been nice and cool but now it was warm and moist. Strange how weather works aint it? Anyway we continued on until we could clearly make out a clearing of the tree’s and the large romps of marching.

“Everyone stay silent, stay hidden. Let’s move in.” I ordered silently, jogging briskly forward yet still managed to stay silent. Once we were ten feet away from the clearing we stopped and spread out, looking through the bushes, just the a few pairs of binoculars glinting behind some leaves as the sun's rays tore through them.

We saw a battalion. A battalion of ponies, dressed in gold armor only covering their chests, backs and heads. There were roughly 6 companies. It was huge: 2 platoons each.

I continued to look on, in almost amazement, as a white pony trotted out to speak to her troops, her voice was regal yet loud. Soft, and motherly but so commanding and strong. It was beautiful in a sense.

“Hello, my little ponies, today we are set on finding the infamous human. He has committed crimes against equestria, even assaulting several elements of harmony,” She spoke “We need to find him so that he is punished and so that he can no longer harm the ponies of equestria. From what we could gather, he is a master of disguise, immune to magic, and technologically superior to us. We do have an advantage though, he is one and we are many. Together, and united, we shall bring this criminal to justice.” The crowd rang out with loud cheers as she finished.

“Damn she has a way with the crowd, probably would’a made me stand and cheer if I wasn’t the criminal.” I thought, looking around at the ponies surrounding the stage. There were three different kinds of ponies, earth ponies, winged pegasi, and unicorns. I grabbed my arm unconsciously seeing the pegasi. It may not have been a pony, but it sure as hell had wings. I let my arm go, and pulled back, hiding into the thick close-knit forest, before meeting up with the rest of my team.

In a whispering tone, I addressed them. “Well guys, guess we know that someone is a criminal. I guess I understand how i’m being considered a criminal... Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna go. Just go. we’re gonna get back to base camp and tell them what we saw and heard. Am i clear?”

“Yes.” Several men spoke up, standing up a bit, before we all walked back towards the compost.

Silence surrounded us, as we walked back to base camp. The walk was just as long as before and we walked right in without much a problem. That was the beginning of a war unlike these ponies had ever seen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THREE MONTHS LATER~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SSGt Lopez POV

I loaded another clip into my rifle when I heard the screams. They were the screams of terror. Time had gone by faster than the world could have imagined. The first few days of the war were simple enough. No casualties, no wounded and no attacks. It was a war of charting the unexplored land. The fight was slowly dwindling, until a scouting team had ran into a pony scouting party. It was a single bullet that changed the history of the country. No one actually knew what had happened. Only, rumors. I looked out onto the city before me, aiming through the city blocks firing upon any pony that appeared to be holding a weapon. During the day I saw all there was to see; mothers running with their children, stallions bringing up resistance, guards attacking marines, even a zebra holding off a small alleyway with nothing but martial arts and a bamboo staff before being taken down by a 5.56 NATO round. The ponies of course that weren’t killed were taken in as POW’s. Even I had to struggle with keeping soft soil out of it. That’s a story for another time though.

The rest of the ponies in the compounds weren’t tortured or killed or anything that the ponies were thinking, but they were kept in a large camp. We had them work for pleasantries like they would in a town. We gave them dollar bills, which we just started reprinting using the printing presses in the town, and they worked like anyone would. The children were placed in homes with regular families to try and instill some normalcy into their, already hectic, lives. It mostly went without a hitch, but sometimes some patrols needed to be called. Of course, the children could still see their families, but the visiting hours usually ended with some kids not being able to see their parents.

I looked across the town in time to see the last of the guards fleeing from it. This was their fourth time trying to take the town back. Originally, the POW’s were kept in town and let things go on like nothing was wrong but after some guards attacked we decided we had to move them back into the forest. The base wasn’t the first option, but after weighing our options it was the best option.

I stood up and walked forward. It was a silent walk only to get back to my regular vantage point atop the town hall. This vantage point had proven useful, for a good while now, but only now have I really appreciated it. Looking at the small calendar I had set up up there I saw that it was thursday. I felt happiness flow through my body as I aimed across the city again. I saw nothing but rubble.

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It had been two hours since I saw anything. A spotter had come to help me out but after seeing how silent the town had been he soon became bored. That’s what led us to this.

“I spy, with my little eye…. something… blue.” I said, looking 90 yards away at a small blue shrapnel of night guard armor.

“Is it…. that body?” he asked looking at a body that some grunts were moving.

“No.” I replied.

“Is it… that house?” he asked pointing towards a blue colored home down the street.

“Not the house either.” I replied.

This went on for a half hour before two soldiers came to relieve us. I was happy to go back to the camp, and to soft soil. I walked down the stairs and into a truck that drove a large amount of us back to camp. I looked out the side of the large truck and saw a batch of fresh recruits training hard. There were a few humans but mostly there were changelings. The human population was dwindling in people that were grown. There wasn’t many people, and seeing how our species was in danger, every one at the age of 14 entered their basic training. These changelings though. Man were they different. They were trained very young: at 8 I think. They trained in the basics of combat, sneaking and going incognito. They were out on the front lines and were perfect to help us in our war.

The truck came to a halt as we all jerked forward. I didn’t pay attention as I hoped out we were called into formation. The sun was in the middle of the sky when we were dismissed to

do our own accord. That was the worst 12 hour shift ever. I made my way into the bunk and put my rifle down along with my rucksack. I grabbed my towel and walked over to the showers.

After a good shower, I went back to my bunk and put on my cammies and walked out into the warm sun. I walked to the schoolhouse where I saw many kids playing around the fields waiting for their parents to pick them up. There hadn’t been much interaction between the foals and their “foster” parents in the first month of them being there but that changed after the first month. I saw a few ponies hug their “parents” as they came up and the occasional few would jump on them as well. They had soon became closer to each other than before, but i’m sure many of them hurt about this whole incident. Turning my attention back to looking for my filly it didn’t take long for me to find her.

“Robert!” I heard Soft shout.

“Hey softy,” I responded taking a knee and letting her hug me. “How was school?” I asked picking her up and leaving through the gates that served as the only opening into the school.

“It was fun, we learned how to add fractions today!” she started excitedly. “We also had a lecture about, uhhh, firearm safety and, and, and I even got to shoot one today!” she said excitedly. She also decided she wanted to sit on my shoulders so she ended up climbing on me while playing my head like a pair of bongos.

“Wow, that’s pretty cool.” I said looking up at her.

“Yeah, it was really fun.” she giggled happily.

“What weapon did you shoot today?” I asked curiously.

“I shot a, uhh, a M9 or uhh, hmmmm….” she started trying to remember something from within her memory.

“An M9 Beretta?” I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah! It was so awesome! It was really hard though, I had to use the tip of my hoof and I only got it to work by forcing it slightly…” she said as if she was a bit hesitant.

“Don’t worry, it’ll get easier with time.” I said as we entered the bunks.

“I guess,” she said jumping on the ruck. “it’s just so hard.”

“I know,” I said with a smile. “I mean it’s not like I have to have great aim for a living for anything.”  I got into bed with her as she crawled to me and hugged me tight.

I sighed as I hugged her back. This had become somewhat of a habit for us, where, since I worked the night watches, i would go pick her up then come back to my ruck where we would sleep for a while and she would always love napping with me. I fell asleep as Soft nuzzled my chest and yawned before falling asleep as well.

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~15 hours later~

I looked out from the truck towards the convoy behind us. We easily had 4 infantry transport trucks, 4 M1A2’s, 2 M104s Wolverines (with assault bridges),3 AH-1 Super Cobras, 2 F/A 6 Hornets and 2 m270s. We were trying to gain a foothold in the country and, while there were many other options, we decided that the best place to attack Equestria was their capital. I Breathed a silent sigh as I looked at the moon. It shone brilliantly in the night sky and only reminded me of the falling temperature. Three months ago, it was nice and cool, now... its a frosty chill.

Looking around as we halted several miles away from the mountain that held the capital high above the ground. I mentally sighed as the convoy stopped to inspect the best route to look up the mountain. As I looked up, I saw the mountains and the moon. It only served as a reminder as to how the weather has changed over the few months. It had gotten much colder and now I thought about what we were all doing. Humans, the violent species from another world, Vs. Ponies, the love and tolerant species trying to stop the aliens. I mentally grimaced at what the POWs told me about their species. My first encounter, after Soft Soil of course, with these damn ponies wasn't very loving or tolerant at all. I was arguing with myself mentally when it happened. I felt nothing but heat and pain for several minutes before opening my eyes and seeing nothing but greyness, blood and burning soldiers as I tried to stand. I felt someone force me to lay on my back after i tried to stand up. I saw a recruits face semi-soaked in blood before he pulled something out of his pack. The next few seconds I felt nothing but the cold tingly feeling of nothingness grasp me before silence reigned king.