The Equestria Offensive

Siluam, 2:33 P.M., June 7th, 2013

Alpha had been positioned in Siluam for almost three weeks, and everyone had grown accustomed to their new system. Luckily for those assigned to Caelian communications, they had a short break. They had kept communications with Equestria for quite a while and had given their allies a great amount of information. To keep suspicions down, Equestria had begun jamming communications of all of the locations. No decoy communications would be needed for a while.

The squad took their time to gather in the break room they liberated. A little group and r&r. The group was very chatty. To them, it had felt just like time after training back home. They all told stories of home and all of the great times in their past. Ace had taken notice of Midnight, who hadn’t  said much of anything. “Hey, Flare. Something wrong?”

Midnight leaned back in his chair lazily. “O pnorg...O’wi diir pesgork...iruykn zuh ruj...”

“Wanna say that in a language we can all understand?”

“He said that he thinks he’s been talking enough for now.” Storm said

“Right. That makes sense. Must be tough, talking to the enemy like you’re their friend.”

“Auy newi ru otie.” Midnight hopped out of his chair lazily. “*sigh* O’c kurre ku pu pni pub uz pni pujih.” He stepped out of the room.

“He what?”

“He’s going to the top of the tower.”

Midnight sat up in the metal walkway that circled the tower, staring up to the clouds, letting his body rest and his mind wander. The thoughts of what had passed and where he wished he could be. “We’ve been gone for almost 2 months now.” Midnight thought. “I wonder how everyone’s doing.” His thoughts trailed to the end of his orientation. After orientation, each soldier had 1 hour to spend with family and friends. After that, they leave their friends and families to sleep in the armory and are shipped off to basic the next morning.

Midnight was saying his final goodbyes to his friends, mother, and sister. “So this is really it, huh?” Rainbow Dash was kicking the dirt around on the ground.

“Yeah, but don’t you worry. I’ll come home. I promise it.” Twilight and Starbuck were with them too. “You two are great together. You swear on your life that you’ll keep her safe for me?”

“I swear it, sir.”

Midnight smiled. “Good. That’s what I like to hear.” He turned to his friends. “I know you ladies will be fine without me for a while, right?”

“I’m sure we’ll all be fine and all.” Fluttershy said, “We’ll still all miss you soo much while you’re gone.”

“No please don’t go  and tear up your pretty face out there.” Rarity said.

“But while you’re there, still make sure to kick some griffin tail fer all of us, yah hear?” Applejack said.

“And when you come back, we’ll be sure to throw you a BIG party!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Thank you. All of you. It’s nice to see you all care.” His mother was there too. “And Mom, I’m sorry. I just came back home to family, and I’m already leaving.”

“It’s okay, sweetie. Just promise me you’ll come home alive, all right?”

“I promise it. You’re not the only one who’ll be waiting for me.” Through the mist in her eyes, she cracked a small smile. Midnight brought his hooves around her, and she did the same; sharing that moment with family that they both knew may have been the last. Both felt a tear of the other resting on their back. After a moment, the two pulled away, clearing their eyes. “This has been great. I wish I didn’t have to send you all off like this, but could I get a few minutes with Rainbow Dash alone please?”

“Sure thing, Midnight.” Twilight said. Before they each left, they each got their own friend/family goodbye hug, and each stepped out the door. After that, Rainbow Dash was the only one left.

“I’m sorry I have to do this. I don’t want to have to leave you like this again.”

“I’ll be fine. Just promise me two things.”

“And what would those be?”

“Come back to me alive, and with a bunch of great war stories to tell us all.”

Midnight smiled. “Then I’ll hold both of those promises. I’ll come back with both.”

“Good. I’ll be holding you to that. Can I get one last kiss?”

“You know you can.” The two brought their lips together for one long, final sentimental time together. The two pulled away with a few tears in their eyes. “I’ll be home in no time. I promise.”

“I know you will. I just don’t want to see you leaving. But, I guess I have no choice, so I guess this is goodbye.”

“Yeah, it is...goodbye. I love you.”

“I love you too.”  She turned around and walked out the door as they both knew how long they would be apart.

Midnight sat up in the tower, holding his rifle and stroking the side where the letters “RBD” were carved in. “I’ve been here for awhile, now. But who knows how long I’ll still be?” As Midnight sat in the tower, the rest of the squad sat in the break room, chatting away.

“So right then and there,” Mahoff was telling one of his exaggerated stories. “you could bet I had no idea how I was gonna be getting out of there, but you’d be bettin’ wrong. Just as that 40 foot buffalo came chargin’ at me and the town, BOOM! One hoof in the face sent the thing runnin’ for his mommy!” The group chuckled in enjoyment from the story, even though they knew how much of a lie it was.

“That’s great, Mahoff.” Ace said. “Hey, Storm. We haven’t heard many stories from you today. Not much to tell?”

“Well, I didn’t have much of an exciting childhood. And my life after that still wasn’t a happy one.”

“Oh, right... Well, would you wanna tell us what it was like to be a Caelian prisoner?”

“I wanna say that it is what you would expect from a prison...but that would be FAR from the truth. The things they did in those prison camps were unspeakably horrible. Men, who seemed fit enough were put to hours of grueling work, but they got it easiest. Women were used and tossed like their own personal sex toys. And lastly, the children, where I was...the children were used for experimenting, mental and physical torture. I’m still unsure that I am still mentally stable. And there was one colt behind all of our testing, a scientist who came in from the foreign country of Germaney as an associate of Fortis. His name is Fohlen. He’s the bane of my existence as he was the one who made me and every other kid suffer. Many didn’t make it out alive. The place was pure torture and that’s all you need to know.”

The squad stared speechless. “Well, I um...” Ace stumbled over what to say. “I guess we’re sorry we asked.”

“Don’t worry about it, comrade. I’ve fine with telling my story.”

“So, uh...Thunder. You got any stories you wanna share?”

Thunder looked down to bring back the memories he had tried to hold onto while repressing at the same time.. “My story I will share is a story from home, a story I hold close to my heart. As you may know, I am a prince and royalty has its duties. And that is all it was for me all the time. ‘Do this’ and ‘Do that’ everyday. I needed something to help get me away from all that. And I just so happened to find her. She was... a peasant girl. As you may guess, my family and my country’s rules did not like this at all. Why should such royalty be with a filthy peasant? But none of that mattered to me. She was too perfect for me to just leave her. We had to meet in secrecy, but she was completely worth it. She went by the name of Lilith. I loved her like no pony had ever seen, and she did back. She was humble too. She didn’t ask for much more than my company. No need for any royal treatment or catering. I wanted to leave all of my duties for her. But now I have duties here. And for what? To end war? War will never end, and it will never change. Someone’s quest for power will always get before what’s important and brainwashes everyone into thinking the greedy will lead them to glory.”

“Wow, that’s really deep.” Mahoff replied. “If yer so against war, why have I seen you fightin’ so hard and killin’ so much?”

“I fight because I’m given no other choice. Royal obligations force em to be here. I wish to make it through these ‘obligations’ and make it back home. There’s only one face I wish to see.”

“I wish I could say that much about somepony. I don’t have anyone I care to go home to. Our military is my family now.”

“What happened to your family?” Thunder asked

“Nothing happened to my family. They’re still alive, I think. I just don’t wanna be goin’ home to see them anytime.”

“What’s so bad about your family?”

“Let’s say my mother is a filthy drunken idiot, my stepfather is an angry cripple who hates everyone he talks to, and my real dad is either in jail or dead.”

“Oh, I’m sorry I asked.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I really don’t care anymore. Anyway. Ace, you got any stories to share with all of us?”

“None that come to mind.”

“Really? Nothin’?”

“Yes. Nothing.”

“Where’d you grow up?”

“In a small town in Germaney.”

“Yer from out of country?”

“Ja. I was a scientist/doctor from Germaney who was specially requested to help with some studies in Equestria.”

“Really? What did you do to make you so great?”

“I worked for a company known as Black Mare industries. I was up in the ranks for working with them for long enough.”

“Wow. That’s pretty cool. Can yah share some of the stuff yah worked on as a scientist and such?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t. That’s still confidential information.”

“Ah well, yah can’t blame me fer tryin’. You’ve shown me you know how to handle a gun and handle it well. That’s good enough fer me.”

“Thank you, sir.”

During the group story time, Midnight had stayed up on the tower. It had been peaceful for the most part until something had caught his attention. In the distance, a Caelian truck was making its way to Siluam. The vehicle was clearly armored and Midnight was pretty sure the windows were bulletproof. If the truck were to make any contact to Caeli, their tower would be cut off from communications. Midnight quickly uses his headset to contact the rest of the squad. “Alpha, we have a problem outside. Enemy forces moving in on Siluam.”

“What?!” Mahoff hopped out of his chair and reached for his M16. “We’ll be out in a minute! Stay up there and stay hidden!”

“Roger that.”

The rest of the squad had then worked their way outside into the town. They all took positions where they could watch the oncoming truck and avoid being noticed. The truck stopped just before the com. tower.  Two griffins stepped out of the truck. One was talking over headset. “Pni pujih ebbiehl pu di ederturit. Ellycork murpus pujih ol nist da iricoil.”

Storm was the only one close enough who could understand them. “They know we’re here. Take them out.” Mahoff drew his M16 and quickly tagged down both griffins. All five members of the squad moved in on the truck for a quick search. The situation appeared to be safe.

“So now what?”

“We verify our next plan of action.” He clicked his headset. “Overlord, this is Alpha 1. Our situation has been compromised. We’re confident that some form of Caelian force is on its way here.”

“Roger, Alpha 1. We’ll be tracking your AO now. Get to a safe distance from Siluam and we’ll pick you up at extraction.”

“Roger. Moving now. Alpha out.”