MiE: Divided Path

Stepping off of the helicopter in the POW camp, I sighed as I put Duran's body over my shoulders, grunting a little under the weight.

"You don't have to do that, you know." Duffy commented.

"Process the prisoners." I muttered. "And get the gryphon checked on, I don't know if I gave him brain trauma or not."

"Aye aye." He replied, and proceeded to lead the unicorns out, being helped by the changeling.

'Doppel, I'ma need a cloak to get through the town.' I told her. A pop later, and I was in the underground war room, being stared at by a few humans, changelings, and ponies.

"...Or teleport me. Either way." I sighed and put Duran on his bunk, doing my best to not fuck his body up anymore than it already was. I also noticed that the map had been moved from the table and pinned to a wall.

Half an hour later, I snapped.

"GODFUCKINGDAMMIT!" I shouted, throwing my helmet and it became a lethal projectile as it flew down the barracks.

"What the buck?!" A reserve yelled in pain as I strode over to the map, looking over for our next attack.

"Are you well?" Luna hesitantly asked. In return, I gave her a glare that I only rese- No, having those thoughts would only make this worse.

"I'm just FUCKING peachy!" I sarcastically growled. "Shut the fuck up, I'm looking for a place to liberate." Luna recoiled as if I had slapped her physically; I bet a billion bits nobody had the balls to say that to her before.

"Mark, taking it out on Luna isn't going to help you any." Dawn said as he stepped up next to me.

"Would you rather I beat myself raw? Because that's the other option." I grumbled, slamming my head against the wall. As I tried to do it again, I found that my head was encased in a silvery aura.

"No. You couldn't have known what would happen. It could have been your helicopter rather than Duran's." Dawn half yelled.

"Well I fucking ordered him to pilot that damn scrap heap!" I yelled back. "I had a trained pilot for it already, and I told him to pull guard duty!" I then sighed. "It was a big fucking mistake, and Duran paid for it with his life."

"You can grieve for your loss later." Luna hesitantly said once she noticed that I was unable to yell anymore. "Right now, we need you to lead us into battle."

"Right..." I sighed, and Dawn let me go to return to the map. "First off, we don't have enough stores of food to last us if we're also going to hire mercenaries. We need to occupy a farm town. Or two."

"I reccomend Appleloosa, if humans are able to eat apples." Dawn offered. Luna said something about a peach town down near where Florida was. Glancing down briefly, I noticed they had a city named Maneami. Joy.

"We'll go after Appleloosa first, since it's only fifty miles from Las Vegas." I said, before looking around for something. "How many ponies live there?"

"Roughly a hundred, about a third are Apples." Applejack answered, causing all of us to look up in surprise. Doppel was standing next to her, a somewhat sheepish look on her face.

"How the hell did you know we were down here?" I asked, smiling for the first time that day.

"Pinkie." Was all that she answered.

"Right. Anyway, if there's only a hundred ponies, we certainly won't be expecting that many in guards." I said, turning back to the map. "Hand me the radio, will you?" Doppel did as I asked. I clicked three times; that was for Schmidt to answer.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Send about a third of the forces about fifty miles south." I said. "From the map I'm looking at, there should be a farming community called Appleloosa."

"How many do you want to stay behind and garrison Las Vegas?" He asked the million dollar question.

"A Panther, a Humvee, a few squads of Night and Death guards, and a regiment of changelings." I answered. "The rest of them return to base to rearm and prepare for another attack. If this all goes well, we'll have two farming communities under the NLR banner by the end of the week."

"Roger that. I'll be leading the forces into Appleloosa if it's fine with you." He answered.

"Bro, you're the leader of another nation. Make your own damn decisions." I laughed.

"With all due respect General, we're operating on American soil. Therefore, you're in charge, not me." He replied. I sighed and lightly thunked my head against the wall.

"Our men need somebody to lead them. I'm going to be doing some stuff that require my expertise, so you're in charge. Please, don't get any of my men killed. You know that I care more of them than the changelings, as the drones are pretty much weapon fodder." I finally said. I hated saying that, but that's pretty much what they're born to do.

"Roger that. Blitz leader out." Schmidt said, before turning off.

"What does fodder mean?" Applejack asked as Doppel handed me a clipboard that I mentally asked for while talking to Schmidt.

"Food. Picked up on the word while watching Star Wars. Great movie series, I'd recommend it if you guys had any of our DVDs or books." I replied, looking down the list of stuff. Nodding, I motioned at a changeling.

"Sir?" He asked after giving me a salute.

"Can you teleport yourself and somebody else?" I asked, walking down to the armory with him and Applejack in tow.

"Yes sir." He said with a nod. I grinned and opened the door, before dragging out my old ass suit.

"What're ya getting that fer?" AJ asked as I started suiting up.

"Reasons. Go get Duffy and Dash, and bring 'em back. I'll explain when the five of us are together." I said. AJ relucantly nodded as I started looking around for what I'd need.

[Half mile outside Canterlot]

"You know this is a stupid idea, right?" Duffy quietly said over his walkie talkie.

"With this being the only railroad to the bloody castle, it's gonna hit them since most of the nobles don't like walking long distances." I answered. "And any military airships going in and out of the area will be blown out of the sky. "

Bless Dawn, Luna, and Chrysalis for bringing in five A-10 Warthogs. I'm being held for giving each of them a kiss later, when I'm outside of AJ's range of detection.

"Celestia wi-" Duffy started.

"Will wonder what the fuck they are. I know for a fact she doesn't really know what in God's name a tank is. She only knows what it can do and what it looks like." I cut him off. Poking a final wire into the brick, I nodded and stood up.

"Teleport us to Duffy's position." I said, and we disappeared with a flash of light.

"Still think this is a bad idea..." Duffy muttered as he got down on his stomach, watching the tracks.

"This blast is dedicated by the USMC, proving that even after the human race has been extinct, that we cannot keep from blowing shit up!" I remarked.

"Poetic." Dash sarcastically said, before I pushed the little red button. A small chunk of ground and railroad ceased to exist as the C-4 detonated into a beautiful mushroom cloud.

"We safe back here?" The changeling asked, a little nervously.

"Yea, the cloud pattern is tellin' me exactly what's happening." I replied, before comically opening an umbrella and putting it over my head. All of them looked at me like I was insane. "Shrapnel's gonna be little shards of metal and rock shooting straight up in a shotgun pattern. Anything that flew above th-" I was cut off by a day guard pegasus scout slamming into the ground, almost into the crater. "Like that. Shrapnel's sliced him all to hell, and the only thing that would survive that shit would be our vehicles or a dragon. Anyway, we might have some of it blown our way pretty soon, but the only way they'll hurt is if they get in your eyes." I finished. About-facing, I nodded to the changeling, who started charging his horn.

"What about me, Duffy, an' Dash?" AJ asked.

"Keep yourselves out of sight. Duffy knows the drill already, so listen to him. Him and Dash will be staying behind for a couple of days to drive off anybody wanting to repair the tracks." I answered right before disappearing.