This was it. The day they had been training for. The day they had been anticipating. It all culminated in this. Mac looked back over his shoulder to ensure that all of his squad mates were there. They stood at the edge of the capital, it was nearly midnight. Nearly all of the lights were turned out, except for those of the occasional insomniac. The night was calm and clear, all the stars glinted, almost out-shined by the light of the full moon.

Macintosh had made sure that his gun was fully loaded, and that his knife was as sharp as it could be. Zecora and Marktime, as well as any sick and wounded, were to remain just outside of the city. They would be safe there. Macintosh thought back to all of the promises he had made in that week. The promise he had made to Granny and Applejack that he would be home when the week was out. The promise he had made to Marktime that he would come back from the Republic alive. Finally, the promise that he had made to Zecora that she could come with him back to Ponyville. He wanted to keep them all, he needed to keep them all.

Suddenly, he saw a stallion far across the foliage waving to him. That was the signal to move. The whole squad, in fact the entire Company rose from the ground like a wave. They moved quickly and quietly into the city. In the dead of night, only a few guards would be out to patrol the city. None of them expected a raid from Equestria, supposedly they were all at the border. Macintosh attempted to clear his mind. The only thing he could focus on at that moment had to be the mission. Nothing else could matter. He found this difficult to do, however, because he had so much riding on this victory.

Every step he took sounded to him like thunder. Every breath sounded like a hurricane. Macintosh became so acutely aware of what was going on around him, he began to feel each bead of sweat as it formed. He could see the top of the capital building from nearly a mile away. Every time a guard truck passed, he froze in place, scared to move. Macintosh did not want his allies to see him scared, so he took a deep breath and quickly let it out before turning back to the squad and offering each of them a nod, as if to say “Let's do this.” They all returned the gesture and followed in close behind him.

The Company gathered in an alleyway close to the capital building. The specialists were assigned to pick the locks on the front door and report back as soon as they were done. After they returned, they would ferry across, two by two, until the entire Company was in the building. The specialists, none of which Mac knew personally. They were gone for almost too long. Macintosh and the rest of the squad became worried. They could have been killed, or worse, captured.

At last, the sounds of hoofsteps could be heard coming around the corner. Just to be safe, some of the soldiers in the alley raised their pistol to repel the oncoming threat. They all breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the specialists come around, all except one. He had remained at the capital building to ensure it stayed unlocked.

The ferrying began with the lowest ranks moving over first. Everything went smoothly, only hitches being when they had to wait for a patrol truck to pass by. The ferrying began again soon after it passed. When there were only Corporals, Master Corporals and the Sergeant left, Splintstitch was the first of them to go.

“See you on the other side.” Splintstitch smiled as he gave Mac a pat on the back.

The rest of the movement of troops was swift and simple. When it was Macintosh's turn, he ran, not looking around to see if anyone was coming, just needing to reach the other side of the road and get into the building. He ducked quietly inside and was draped in darkness. His eyes quickly adjusted and he saw the rest of the Company scattered about the room.

The Sergeant was the last one through the door. He ordered one of the specialists to lock the door behind him. The room fell silent as the Sergeant led the way to the house of commons where Koren would meet with his staff the following morning. The troops took cover around the massive hall and lay silent and still. As the night dragged on, none of them slept. Not just because they were not permitted to, but because their adrenaline was pumping, and they would not have been able to if they had wanted to. They all feared that if they fell asleep, they would wake up with a gun in their face, and a Zebra smiling cruelly down at them. Mac held his cover, which he had chosen to take just behind a desk on one side of the main entrance. The room fell dead as the cover of darkness hid the bodies of the ponies who were to take the Republican Dictator the following morning.

The sun peaked through the windows, and would have revealed the troops hiding in the room, if they had not taken cover beneath the hundreds of desks in the house of commons. None of them were even tired, they were still riding out the adrenaline rushes from the night before. Macintosh kept his eyes fixed on the main entrance, holding his gun in the event of a firefight.

Suddenly, the house of commons filled with the sounds of distant speaking. All of the voices were deep enough to be Zebras, and Macintosh would bet his life that one of them was Koren. The voices drew near, and the room filled with the electricity of troops preparing themselves for whatever came through the door. All of the troops held their ground and kept as well hidden as possible.

The main entrance swung open and Zebras started filing into the room. There were nearly two dozen Zebras coming into the room. They were Koren's personal staff, and Koren himself was the last to enter the room. As the door closed behind Koren, Big Mac readied himself to jump out and take the uniformed Zebras by surprise.

“Now!” The Sergeant shouted as the troops jumped out from behind their various blockades.

Macintosh was about to jump when Koren's staff pulled out their side arms and aimed them at whichever ponies they saw first. Macintosh held his place in case the Zebras started firing. The room fell silent again as the Zebras weighed their odds. From where he was, Macintosh could see Topnotch across the room, twitching slightly. Macintosh saw a look forming in the cloudy eyes of the once proud pony. The look was of a creature whose only drive was the promise of blood. Topnotch had become no more than a murderer looking for his first kill. His kill had to be a Zebra.

Macintosh could do nothing. If he shouted, the Zebras would find him. But if he didn't, Topnotch would soon open fire. Macintosh thought over what he could do. Unfortunately, it seemed he took to long.

Shots rang out from Topnotch as the first of the Zebras fell. Topnotch kept firing, and the Zebras lunged for cover. Koren just happened to jump on the other side of the blockade Macintosh was using. Macintosh knew he was there, but Koren knew nothing of the red stallion on the other side.

“Stop him!” The Sergeant screamed as he pointed over to Topnotch.

Koren was all too happy to do as the Sergeant ordered as he jumped from behind the blockade and fired two shots into Topnotch. Topnotch fell instantly, rolling to the ground as the shots subsided. Macintosh saw an opening to act. He jumped up, taking Koren by surprise and punched him squarely between the eyes. Before he hit the floor, though, Mac grabbed him and took him into the standard hostage hold, his gun trained on the unconscious Zebra.

“Drop your weapons, or he dies!” Macintosh bellowed in the coming silence of the room.

The Zebras looked at their helpless leader and almost instantly dropped their weapons. Troops moved in to take the disarmed Generals prisoner. There were five dead ponies, and three dead Zebras. But at the time, Macintosh was not concerned with the dead. He was concerned with the dictator in his arms.

Koren awoke and tried to move. Of course, he could not. The remainder of 761 had tied him to a chair in his office. The Sergeant stood before him holding an order of cease fire that needed only to be signed by the Zebra he held captive. He held out a pen for the Zebra to grasp in his teeth. Now was the moment of truth. Macintosh remembered the words from the night before. How the Sergeant had said that if Koren refused to sign, he would kill him and move on to the next highest rank.

Koren looked the Sergeant in the eyes and then looked back to the page he had in front of him. Reaching down, Koren took up the pen in his mouth and moved towards the orders. He slowly signed his name, giving up his rule over the Zebra Republic, and ending the war. When he dropped the pen to the floor and let his head hang down, the room erupted into cheers from 761. They chanted their Company number the same way they had in the barracks the night they were ordered into the war. It was a fitting end. The war, for them, had ended in the exact same way it had begun.

Author's Note

So the war has ended, but the story has not. Please stick around to see how the whole thing kicks off.
-Cog out.