Twilight and Wafer started walking through the foxholes behind the barricade, occasionally apologizing to other soldiers whom they almost dropped their equipment on, thinking the foxhole was empty. Finally they found an empty one and settled in. It was far from comfortable, but stray bullets wouldn't strike them and snipers couldn't hit them when they were sleeping. As soon as Twilight was comfortable, she heard someone yelling quiet loudly. She peeked out of her foxhole and determined it was coming from farther down the street. A soldier in the closest foxhole let out a curse and quickly ran over to the wall. Twilight finally figured it out. The Rebels were likely making another push soon. She turned and looked at Wafer. "Come on, I think the Rebels will make another push soon. Grab your stuff and let's get to the others." Wafer nodded and grabbed his standard issue Gewehr 43 and jumped out of the foxhole. Twilight quickly followed and they ran to the rest of their squad.

Twilight crouched down next to Brass Badge "Sarge, what's going on?" Brass looked back and replied. "Rebels are pushing again. Rookie, you are not going to believe how crazy these bastards are. Reports and letters do little to prepare you for the actual thing." Twilight was confused. "What do you mean?" "Listen carefully and keep your rifle downrange, shoot at anything carrying a rifle that is not wearing a Royal army uniform and pray they don't breakthrough."

Twilight was just about to ask what she meant when she finally heard a slight change in the background yelling. "For the Rodina! For true Equestria! URA!" That was followed by a ground shaking reply of "URA!" and with that Twilight saw a wave of bodies charging down the street from a rough barricade, similar to what she was behind but not as well maintained, as machine gun and rifle fire started flying towards her line. She heard Turner yelling to the rest of the platoon behind her. "Don't let those bastards break through! The rest of the Division is counting on us! The Princesses are counting on us to hold them here!" Gunfire started to fly from Twilights side and Twilight started firing as well. When her rifle clicked empty, she loaded another mag and kept firing. She heard the yells of dying soldiers all around her. Some dropped with nary a sound, while others fell screaming in agony as bullets impacted shoulders, legs and guts, their hosts bleeding out as medics attempted to keep them calm so they could patch up the poor soldiers. When Twilight looked out towards no man's land she was shocked with what she saw. being in the middle of a routine she didn't quite notice just how brutal the assault was on the Rebels. Bodies lay strewn in the street. But still the Rebels kept fighting. Suddenly there was a deep rumbling as a tank busted through the rubble of a nearby house. During Twilight's time on the base and from Rainbow Dash telling her about each tank she drove and tried out, she knew this wasn't one of theirs. She opened her mouth and yelled "T-34! Get down!" Immediately the tank's turret started moving as most of the platoon ducked down. One trooper broke off and started running towards HQ as the T-34's MG opened up on him. rounds struck the ground around him but he made it to the rear line trenches. The machine guns kept firing, pinning down the rebels. The tank rotated to the far turret position. Brass Badge ran up to Belt Feed and started yelling. "Move that goddamn HMG! I am not losing another member of this squad to stupidity!" Brick and Cane started packing up the MG42 as Brass dragged Belt Feed kicking and screaming from the gun position. There was a sudden boom that made Twilight look over to the other nest. There was nothing left but a pile of rubble and, Twilight nearly puked, an arm that was still wielding a destroyed MP40. Brass smacked Belt over the helmet and yelled. "THAT COULD HAVE BEEN YOU! SMARTEN UP" And with that she was plopped down next to Windstorm as Brass crawled over next to Twilight. "I swear, if I die before that mare, drinks are on me in Hell."

A sudden whistling overhead made twilight freeze. It sounded like the Katyusha strike from earlier that killed Burner. Twilight hugged herself close as she imagined the rockets tearing her and her platoon to shreds, the eventual letter sent home to her parents and her BBBFF Shining. She realised her mistake of joining the army. But the rockets didn't hit her position, she heard the explosions behind her. She poked her head over the wall and saw the dust being thrown up by mortar fire striking the tank and Rebel infantry. Quite suddenly a mortar round struck the top of the T-34 and it exploded, sending metal shrapnel flying over the street and wounding a few Rebels. After the tank went up in flames the Rebels started turning tail and retreating. The whole day was filled with shocking and disturbing sights, but none would haunt Twilight more then the Rebel machine gun teams firing upon the retreating soldiers. Twilight just stood there stunned as the Rebels were torn apart by their own guns. "Disturbing isn't it?" Twilight whipped her head around and looked eye-to-eye with Windstorm. "The one thing that brings this whole war into question. Why even fight these Rebels if they're just gonna gun down their own men?" He patted Twilight on the back. "Now to begin the worst part of each battle. Gathering up the dead and dying to tally who've we lost and have the Cap write out letters to the families who they left behind."

Twilight sat on a crate of ammo as she ate from a bowl of soup that the company mess gave out. Wafer was sitting next to her as they ate. Wiretap approached them with a smile. "Hey! Glad you made it through your baptism by fire. Apparently not many recruits do." Twilight looked up at Wiretap and frowned. "How can you smile? We just killed people and watched others get killed all around us! I watched a T-34 destroy one of our gun emplacements with a single shot!" Wiretap looked down sadly, but looked back up. "Twilight, don't dwell on who didn't make it. Be happy that you made it, and others you know made it." Hardhat walked up to the three. "He's right, when we lost Low Caliber to a rebel attack a week ago, the rest of the platoon was celebrating that we were finally stopping the Rebel advance but Belt just didn't talk to anyone. Later she announced that she was going to march straight to Stalliongrad to decapitate whoever started this war because she lost her brother." He made eye contact with Twilight. "Never stray down that path. Belt's ferocity is helpful at times, but earlier you saw how that nearly got her killed. I won't be able to live with myself if I see another become as sick with the world as she is." Hardhat walked of, checking on some of the wounded as he went. Twilight just stared down into her bowl of soup before turning to Wafer and Wiretap. "Did either of you see Sunshine? I wanted to ask her if her platoon got hit." Wiretap shuffled on his hooves and Twilight looked over. "What is it Wiretap? Why are you nervous? What happened?" Each question came out more forceful and harsh then the last. Wiretap just pointed towards the wounded and dead. Twilight looked over and gasped. Sunshine was lying down on a tarp as a medic attempted to work on something in her chest. Sunshine had a look of pain etched on her face, her breathing was shallow and ragged. Twilight ran over and crouched on the opposite side of the medic, looking over she asked. "How can I help sir?" The medic looked up at Twilight before gesturing to Sunshine. "Keep her awake and comfort her, I'm not a hundred percent sure I can save her." This was followed by mutters of 'Live damnit, Live!'. Twilight looked over at Sunshine's face. Sunshine looked up and shakily asked. "How.. bad.. is it?" Twilight chuckled lightly. "Your not going to win any beauty pageants anytime soon." Sunshine had a ghost of a smile before looking at Twilight seriously. "Twilight, I don't think I'm going to make it. Everything feels cold... I don't want to die.. I don't..." Sunshine's head just fell to the ground, her eyes unfocused and unseeing. The medic sighed before lifting a bloody hand over and gently closing Sunshine's eyes and ripping the dog tags around her neck. Twilight felt herself crying at the passing of one of her recent friends before the medic got her attention. "Look, I know it's not easy losing someone you know. But you gotta remember to move on, would the dead want you to mope around after they're gone? No. They want you to keep living." The medic patted Twilight on the back. "I'm not saying to forget them, I'm saying keep living for their sake." The medic left to work on others who were groaning due to one kind of wound or another as Twilight just stared at the body of the mare she knew from Basic and who would never make it home after this awful war. The words of Hardhat and the medic crossed her mind and she silently nodded to herself. People she knew and would meet in this war would die, she would try to prevent as many deaths as she could and would survive this war. For Sunshine and Burner, and for every other dead soldier. She would fight and win this war for any and all who would never see the light of the sun again as the passed on. Twilight was torn out of her thought's as Wafer shook her lightly. "Captain wants us, we're gonna be briefed on the plan for the counter-attack."

Author's Note

Chapter 4 is done and over with! as usual I would love to hear what you all think, nice or not as nice, it's good to know people are reading this and enjoying this. Till next time!

CanadianPony, Out!