World War Equestria; the Great Pony War

Ponyville, 2 years into the war...

The infiltration was going as planned. The squad made their way through the streets of Ponyville, encountering fierce resistance from the earth ponies and unicorns who they happened to run into. They had me as sniper support however, so traversing the war torn and body-ridden streets that much simpler.

I hold the rifle that Night Rain gave to me on our four year dating anniversary. Yeah, four years... to think that we'd have gotten married by then... but anyway. The night of our anniversary, we went to this fancy restaraunt for dinner. Night Rain brought a big, thin black box with her. I asked her what it was for, but she simply said, "You'll see." with a wink.

About halfway through our meal, she pushed the box over to me.

"Happy anniversary." she said with a smile.

I opened the box, and inside was the most beautiful sniper's rifle that I have ever seen. It was black all over, but had these glowing cyan lines that ran all over it like a circuit board. Near the stock was a small engraving on a silver plate. It was our two cutie marks, my circle with cross hairs and Night's moon-shaped storm cloud with the two lightning bolts, inside a heart. I was so choked up and surprised by this that I had almost forgotten to breathe.

"It's beautiful..." I said.

"I'm glad you like it." she said, clearly happy with my reaction.

"Not as much as I love you." I said, and then pulled her in to kiss her. "But I think that you'll be more happy with my little gift."

I pulled out the small black box that I had in my pocket, inside it was a jewel encrusted necklace that I had bought for when I was going to propose to her. I got down on my knees, and opened the box. "Night Rain," I said, "will you marry me?"

The look on her face, I will never forget it. "Is this real? Am I dreaming?" she said.

"I sure hope not." I said. "Will you?"

"Yes." she said, a smile immediately exploding onto her face.

I reached around her neck and put the necklace on her, then pulled her in for another long kiss.

I smile at the memory, but quickly pull myself back to the present. I look through the scope of my rifle, and see our squad slowly but surely advancing.

Our objective was simple; infiltrate enemy territory, gather whatever Intel we could, and get the hell out of there before we got caught. Of course, taking out any earth ponies and unicorns was also there, but not necessary. What we weren't told by our spies is that the earth ponies had set up an all-night watch all around Ponyville plus several snipers of their own to prepare for such an infiltration. However, we all had silenced weapons, plus a storm that Night Rain had put together which was raining down heavily all around us. I was soaked from flying from place to place to keep up my sniper support however, and I was freezing.

Sure the rain was getting to me, but I had a job to do, and I was not going to let a little rain get in the way of me keeping my wife and everyone else safe. I never miss my target, ever. you could put a bobby pin behind a wall with a hole only big enough for the bullet in it a kilometer away and I would still hit it. I'm not called Sharp Shooter for nothing, my parents knew that, and I haven't given anypony reason not to. I blink as a flash of lightning strikes a building right in front of me, making me nearly jump out of my skin.

"Damn you Night Rain..." I mutter under my breath.

"What's that?" Ace, my spotter says, looking at me quizzically. I'm surprised that he could even hear my remark in this storm.

"Nothing." I reply. "Come on, they're moving around the corner."

Ace was a bright green, orange eyed and blue maned stallion who could probably take down anyone in a hoof-to-hoof throw down. Which is why he was assigned as my spotter, (not like I needed one, but an extra rifle makes me feel a little bit safer) because not only was he an excellent shot, but if somepony managed to sneak up on me while he was watching my back, he would have them down in less than ten seconds.

We fly to another position fifty meters away, right at the corner, and saw what must have been several dozen earth ponies and unicorns, and they were holding our friends hostage. Rainbow, Night, Spitfire and Lightning Dust were all lined up, their forehooves held behind their heads by four menacing looking earth ponies, who were holding sidearms up against their temples. My earpiece crackled, and I heard Dash's voice over the comm.

"Sharp, Ace, hold your fire." she said in a hushed whisper.

"Quiet!" said a masked unicorn mare, who was pacing in front of our captured squad mates. Dash left her mic on so we could hear what was going on. "What are you doing here?" the unicorn continued. Her voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't put a face to it, and it was driving me crazy. The unicorn looked Dash in the eye.

"Wouldn't tell you if I wanted to." Rainbow said.

The unicorn brought her hoof up and smacked Rainbow across the face. When Dash regained her composure, blood was oozing from her nose. The unicorn then turned to Night Rain, and looked her in the eye. I bit back the urge to blow her brains out right there, if she laid a hoof on Night Rain...

"Would you care to tell me just what you're doing here?" the unicorn asked Night.

"Go fuck yourself!" Night Rain said defiantly.

"That's my girl." I whispered to myself.

"Now that wasn't very nice," the unicorn said, "kill her."

"Sharp, now." Dash said.

I turn my attention to the stallion holding the gun up to Night Rain's head, I focus on the bridge of his nose, and pull the trigger. The bullet passed right through his head, splattering his brains all over the wall behind him. I saw the same thing happen to the mare that was holding back Spitfire. I turned my scope on the one holding Lightning Dust, and blew his brains out too. The stallion that was holding Dash's head exploded a second later, obviously Ace's handiwork. The mare that had been interrogating our comrades had fled, but I was more interested in keeping the other earth ponies and unicorns from killing the rest of our squad.

I found Night Rain, who was fending off a group of earth ponies who were giving her a beating.

"Aw hell no!" I said as I took aim at one of their eyes. I blew his brains out, then turned to another one, killed him too, then the third, blew his brains out, and repeated the process several times until there were no more baddies attacking Night Rain.

"There's too many!" Dash yelled over the comm, "Fall back!"

"Nah! We can take 'em!" Lightning Dust says.

"That's an order Lightning!" Dash shot back.

"Not getting any arguments from me!" Night Rain said.

"Me neither." Spitfire added.

"You guys go ahead, I'll cover you." I say.

"No, Sharp." Night Rain says.

"Don't worry about me, they still haven't spotted me yet. My rifle's suppressed and I have the storm to keep me hidden. I'll be fine." I say, trying to reassure her.

"Okay..." she says.

"Now get out of here, all of you." I say, turning to Ace. "That means you too."

"No way I'm leaving you here by yourself." he says, "Besides, we'll provide better cover together."

I consider this, and realize that he's probably right. "Alright." I say.

We get to work, sniping any earth pony who makes the mistake of trying to follow our allies. Soon enough, the earth ponies get wise to our sniper support, and back off, leaving Spitfire, Night Rain, Rainbow Dash, and Lightning Dust alone. Good thing too, I was almost out of ammo. I stand up, and Ace does the same. We pack up our gear and silently fly in the direction that the others went in.

"Rainbow, it's Sharp," I begin into the microphone, "we're on our way."

"Glad to here it." Rainbow says. "Night was starting to worry about you."

"I'll bet, you can tell her that I'll see her soon."

"Copy that Sharp, Dash out."

I turn off the radio and turn to Ace, who is flying silently beside me. "Good job out there." I say to him.

"You too." he replies.

We reach the clearing that we were supposed to meet up at, and are greeted by our four comrades. Night Rain grabs me as soon as I land, hugging me tighter than she ever has.

"Don't do that..." she says, "don't you ever do that again!"

"If I didn't stay behind, you'd probably be dead along with everypony else. I couldn't let that happen." I say soothingly to her.

We press our foreheads together, and I pull her in for a kiss. We break apart as Dash walks over to us.

"Glad to see you made it back in one piece." she says to me.

"Me too." I say, looking lovingly into Night Rain's bright red eyes.

"Night, I need to have a word with you, alone." Dash says, clearly not wanting to break us up at the moment.

"Really?" Night Rain asks looking pleadingly at Rainbow Dash.

"Yes really." Dash says. "Come on."

"Alright," Night Rain says with a sigh, then, looking at me again, "We'll pick this up later, okay?"

"Okay." I say, kissing her on the cheek.

Night Rain and Rainbow Dash walk over to Ace and Spitfire, the latter of whom had almost crushed the former's neck with the hug she gave him upon our return.

I look around, trying to find something to entertain myself with, and am satisfied to see that Lightning Dust is all alone. Deciding that I'd like someone to talk to, I walk over to her.

"Hello Lightning." I say as I approach her.

"Hi Sharp, how's it hangin'?" she says to me.

"Can't really complain, yourself?"

"Same as always."

I try to think of something to say to her, and come up with something completely irrelevant, but I think that someone should bring it up to her at some point. "That was really stupid of you, defying Dash's orders like that."

"You did it too!" she shoots back.

"No, I did my job. I made sure that you and everypony else got away. You were pushing for us to stay and fight against impossible odds, overestimating our ability to fight. I knew the danger that I was putting myself in by staying behind, but I had to make sure that all of you got away."

"Yeah, right. You were just doing it for Night Rain."

"Listen to me. I've faced situations like this a million times, and there have been cases where I was the only survivor because i ran away instead of providing cover fire. I watched my squad mates die, and I didn't lift a hoof to stop it. I was not going to go through that again. Especially not with my wife and my two best friends on the line."

I look Lighting sternly in the eye, making sure that she understands me perfectly.

"Okay, I understand."

"Do you?"

"Yes. I've faced the exact same thing a dozen times. Not only because of the 'not-giving-cover-fire' part, but because i was the only one fast enough to get away."

I think about her words, and know that she isn't lying. Next to Rainbow Dash, she's the fastest flier we have.

"Okay." I say. "But when you have sompony even half as good a shot as me as sniper support, you evac when you're told to."

"Okay."

"I'll see you later." I say.

"See ya." she says.

I walk over to Ace, who smiles at me as I approach him.

"Hey buddy." I say.

"Hey." he says.

"Thanks for staying behind with me back there."

"No problem, that's what friends are for right?"

"Fuckin' A."

"Why did you stay behind anyway Sharp? I know that you wanted to keep Night Rain and Rainbow safe, and I respect that. But what rooted you to that rooftop for those last few minutes?"

"You already know."

"No, I don't."

"Yes you do, you said so yourself."

"I know you Sharp, there was more than just protecting your wife behind your motives."

"Keep telling yourself that."

"Sharp."

"Ace."

"What was it? Do you think...?"

"What? That Rarity was there? Shit, if she was there I wouldn't have sniped her. I would have flew straight into her and slit her throat, savoring every last second of it as that little bitch died."

"So that is why you stayed behind."

"Then why? Why risk your own life other than to save your wife?"

"There's no other reason."

"Alright, I believe you."

"Don't know why you doubted me in the first place."

"Ah you know me Sharp, always digging for answers where none exist."

"Damn straight." I chuckle. "So how's Spitfire holding up man?"

"She's great. Worried sick when I wasn't right behind her though."

"Night was the same way."

"I can see why."

"Yeah... she threatened me never to do it again though."

"Ha ha! Is that so?"

"Yep."

"Well, she loves you, man. i can;t see why she wouldn't want you to stay safe."

"Me neither."

"Anyway, did you hear about what happened to Thunderlane?"

"No, what happened?"

"He disobeyed direct orders, got himself and his buddy killed."

"Why would he do that?"

"I don't know."

"He must've had a good reason."

"I know, and that's the scary part."

"Well, whatever the reason, I think he was just a little loopy or something."

"Drunk?"

"I didn't say that."

"Then what?"

"Hell if I know, man."

We turn to Rainbow Dash, Night Rain, and Spitfire as they approach us.

"What's up Rainbow?" I say.

"What did you have to talk about?" Ace asks.

"Nothing important." Rainbow says.

I look at Night, who seems to be nervous, but manages to smile at me, and I smile back.

"You okay Night?" I ask her. "You look nervous."

"I'm fine." she says.

"Me too." Spitfire says to Ace.

"Alright you two." Rainbow says to the two other mares. "Remember what I told you."

"Yes ma'am." Night Rain and Spitfire say in unison.

Dash walks away, leaving the four of us to converse with each other.

"How's it going Spitfire?" I say, trying to spark up a conversation.

"Not too bad, yourself?" she says.

"Can't really complain, although the storm that somepony, not gonna name any names, put together is starting to get on my nerves." I say, playfully nudging Night Rain.

"I'm sorry for being good at what I do." Night Rain said proudly.

Dash comes back, Lightning Dust at her side. "Alright everypony, let's get a move on. Back to Cloudsdale."

"Yes ma'am." we all say, and begin our flight home.

Cloudsdale Army F.O.B (Forward Operating Base) 1-A, 2 years into the war...

The flight back to the F.O.B. was rather uneventful, and we made it back in one piece. After having our fill of the mess hall's daily supper, everypony went to their own separate little houses. Night Rain and I lived right next to Ace and Spitfire and Ace, who have been together since a year before the war broke out. We lived closer to the mess hall than they did, and so we were the first to say goodnight.

Yeah, the Cloudsdale Army was nice enough to let everypony (or at least the couples such as Night Rain and I) with separate living spaces, provided that it was a very small house that could easily be moved and that it was within the fence that surrounded the F.O.B.

It was a pleasant enough community, albeit with only about twenty houses out of the several thousand soldiers who served the army. The rest of them had to stay in an extremely large barracks area, which was big enough to fit the entire army and then some inside it.

When Night Rain and I got home, we resumed where Dash had cut us off, and that night I slept better than I have throughout the entire war.