If you have the courage to jump, the Parachute will open

"Macintosh!" shouted the jump master. "Are you ready to jump?!"

The soldier looked at the jump master with a nervous face. His comrades behind him shared the same emotions. They were in a plane which was being shot at by enemy flak guns. The aircraft was shaking, and the sound of bullets hitting the fuselage was echoing around.

But they were not the only ones. With them, hundreds of paratrooper planes were flying and being shot down by enemy flak. They were all headed toward Ponyville, the last Equestrian stronghold within the Chimeran occupied territory. They had one mission, and one mission only; to liberate the town at all costs.

Their ground forces could not get to the village because of strong Chimeran forces at the front lines. Therefore, Equestrian High Command had selected the untested Airborne Forces to take the task of liberating Ponyville.

One of the paratroopers undertaking this suicidal mission was Macintosh Smith, or more commonly known by his friends as Big Mac. He was a tall person, but was shy and did not speak that often. He was drafted into the army when the war started, and was selected to undergo the experimental airborne training. He was from Ponyville, living in an apple farm with his sisters Applejack and Apple Bloom, and his grandmother, Granny Smith.

Before the war, they had been happy apple farmers, making Apple Pies, Fritters and Ciders. When war broke out, his family was relocated to Manehattan whilst he prepared to fight a war.

The Chimerans had taken over much of Equestria, and in the salient that they were, they were within grasping distance of Canterlot. However, with the few remaining Equestrian Forces still defending Ponyville within the salient, the Chimerans could not make the full scale attack they wanted to do.

It was now up to the paratroopers to relieve the Equestrians of Ponyville.

"Big Mac!" shouted the jump master again. "Are you ready to jump?!"

The soldier looked again at the jump master. He knew that he was not only doing this for the fate of Equestria, but he was doing this to save his hometown. His nervousness turned into determination as he replied,

Eeyup!"

Suddenly, a green light flashed near the door of the paratrooper plan. The jump master, at seeing this, knew that it was time to go. He shouted at the paratroopers, saying,

"Go! Go! Go!"

With that, the paratroopers began to exit the plane. Big Mac was the first one in line. Before he jumped out, he took a huge breath and remembered what he learned from Airborne training.

If you have the courage to jump, the parachute will open...

He jumped out of the plane. Immediately, his static line, which connected his backpack to the plane, began to activate his parachute. Big Mac counted the thousands and, sure enough, his parachute fully deployed. Other paratroopers also jumped out of their planes. All of them began to descend to the ground from 1000 ft. Despite the heavy anti-air fire, it seemed that the paratroopers were being dropped on course.

Big Mac landed near the drop zone, which was a few kilometres from Ponyville. He landed on the field with some of the soldiers that were with him on the plane. Immediately, they began to take off their parachutes and prepared themselves for battle.

Big Mac looked around and recognized the area he landed on; it had been one of the renowned picnic areas of Ponyville, and he remembered when he and his family used to share apple pies, fritters and cider there with their friends on bright sunny days.

Suddenly, as they were regrouping and preparing to move out, Caramel, one of Big Mac's friends, spotted movement in the treeline nearby. All hell broke loose when muzzle flashes began to appear.

"Enemy Infantry!" shouted Caramel.

At once all the paratroopers jumped to the ground and became prone to evade the enemy fire. The Chimerans had found the drop zone and prepared an ambush for the paratroopers. But the Equestrians began to return fire.

Big Mac was firing his paratrooper carbine at the enemy soldiers, but the Chimerans were armed with machine guns that had a fire rate of 1200 rounds per minute, whilst the guns the paratroopers had were either carbines or sub machine guns.

There was not much cover where they were, since they were in an open field. As a result, some paratroopers got hit by incoming fire. Big Mac, then, noticed a ditch nearby, with led to the treeline. He tapped Caramel on the back and pointed toward the ditch.

"That's a good idea." said Caramel. Although Big Mac did not talk much, it was easy to interpret what he wanted to say. "Come on!"

The two began to crawl towards the ditch under enemy fire. Their comrades began to provide cover fire, shooting their peashooters at the Chimeran machine guns. When the two reached the ditch, they began to crawl faster toward the treeline. The Chimerans could not see them as they were beginning to flank around. They finally reached their left flank and began to fire upon them, Big Mac firing his carbine while Caramel fired his battle rifle, which held a larger calibre round than the carbine.

Within moments, the Chimeran fire squad was dead. The paratroopers who were pinned down on the field began to stand up and call out,

“Is the area clear?”

“Eeyup!” replied Big Mac, coming out of the treeline with Caramel.

One of the paratroopers, their commanding officer, Captain Shining Armour, stood up and said,

“Alright, guys let’s not waste any more time. We gotta reach Ponyville. Move out!”

With that, the Equestrians began to walk towards Ponyville, checking their sectors as they moved along. Big Mac continued to recognize where they were, with memories of events before the war came to his mind. He missed the times when Equestria lived in Harmony, under the rule of the gentle princess, Celestia. When the war broke out, Princess Celestia and her family did not want to go to war, but they knew they had no other choice. Families were relocated and men were drafted into the army. But even with that, the Chimeran forces still outnumbered them 3 to 1.

The sounds of anti-aircraft guns continued to echo throughout the night as they began to shoot down reinforcement paratroopers. Big Mac and his men finally reached the bridge that led to Ponyville. But as they were crossing, the sound of gunfire began to be heard again. The men began to take cover on the low walls of the bridge. Captain Armour looked up and saw that the fire was coming from the Chimerans on the opposite side of the river. He then noticed another source of gunfire; an Equestrian machine gun was firing back at the Chimerans from a nearby house, giving cover fire to the paratroopers.

The paratroopers ran from the bridge toward the first squad of Equestrian soldiers they saw. They took cover behind a house and Shining Armour asked,

“Who’s in command here?”

“Captain Spitfire, sir!” replied a soldier. “She has her headquarters in the Golden Oaks Library!”

With that, Shining Armour made his way toward the library, ordering his men to reinforce the defences in Ponyville. Big Mac and Caramel were ordered to reinforce the defences at Sweet Apple Acres, which happened to be Big Mac’s farm.

“You’re one lucky bastard, Big Mac.” said Caramel.

Big Mac chuckled and replied,

“Eeyup.”

As they were reinforcing the defences, Shining Armour entered the library and saw Captain Spitfire there, together with her other officers, Lieutenant Fleet Foot, Leftenant Soarin and Sergeant Rainbow Dash. Spitfire was on her strategy table with her officers when Shining Armour walked up to them and said,

“Captain Spitfire?”

Spitfire looked up, saw him, and seeing that he was wearing a paratrooper uniform with an officer’s insignia, said,

“You must be our reinforcements.”

“Yes, ma’am.” replied Shining Armour. “I’m Captain Shining Armour, 1st Airborne Division.”

“Good of you to join us, Captain.” replied Spitfire. “We really needed you guys here.”

Shining Armour walked towards the strategy table and asked,

“So what’s the situation here, Captain?”

“Well, our defences are stretched to the max and our ammo supplies are dwindling. We have only a few machine guns, one of them, you already saw near the bridge. Our Anti-Tank guns have recently fired their last Armour Piercing shells, meaning that we don’t have any effective anti-tank weapons, unless you want to be brave and plant some TNT on it.”

Fleet Foot interfered, asking Shining Armour,

“How many men did you bring, captain?”

“Well,” replied Shining Armour. “We were ambushed at the drop zone, so we lost some men. I do believe I have at least less than 100 men here with me, but reinforcements will arrive soon. But if we want more men, we’ll need to take out their anti-aircraft guns.”

“Understood.” replied Spitfire. “We know the location of these guns, but we don’t have enough men to spare to take them out.”

“I can spare some paratroopers to take them out.” said Shining Armour.

“Very well, then. Sergeant Rainbow Dash will accompany some of your paratroopers to take out the guns.”

Pointing on the map, Spitfire continued,

“They are located here, in the Apple Orchard in Sweet Apple Acres. But that area is crawling with Chimeran snipers.”

Meanwhile, Big Macintosh and Caramel finally reached Sweet Apple Acres. Big Mac was horrified to see his house full of shell holes and broken windows. He also saw Equestrian soldiers taking up positions on the windows, their guns pointing toward the Apple trees. The Chimerans were all over the Apple orchard and the barn house was the Equestrian outpost in the area.

“Feels good to be home, huh, Big Mac?” said Caramel, trying his best to cheer his friend up.

“Nope.” replied Big Mac, saddened at what had happened to his home.

Caramel decided to just give his friend a pat on the back.

“Don’t worry, man.” he reassured. “Everything will be back to normal after this war, you’ll see.”

Just then, Sergeant Rainbow Dash, accompanied by a few men came in, running towards them. They stopped in front of them and the sergeant asked,

“Are you two Privates Smith and Caramel?”

“Eeyup.” replied Big Mac.

“The captains have a job for us.” she continued. “They want us to go into the orchard and take out those AA guns so that more paratroopers can come in.”

“Sounds easy enough.” said Caramel.

“Easy? That orchard is filled with Chimeran Snipers. I already lost a lot of guys patrolling in there.”

The two were nerve racking at hearing that, so Rainbow Dash just said,

“Just stick with me and you’ll be alright.”

“Eeyup.” replied Big Mac.

After forming up a small squad, the paratroopers, led by Sergeant Rainbow Dash, entered the orchard. As they walked through the apple trees, Big Mac continued to have memories of when he and his family picked apples from these trees. His sister Applejack, in particular, loved kick on the trees to shake the apples off.

Just as he had this memory, a sound of a falling object was suddenly heard. He thought was an apple that had fallen off, but when Big Mac turned his head, he saw that a grenade had fallen off the tree.

“Grenade!"

Immediately, the squad jumped to the ground and the grenade exploded. Some fragmentations his Big Mac, but did not go through much. He looked up on the tree and spotted a Chimeran soldier, preparing to drop another grenade at the squad. He raised his carbine up and began firing, shooting the soldier off.

Soon after, snipers from the other trees began to open fire on the squad, killing a paratrooper. Rainbow Dash, Caramel, Big Mac and the other soldiers began to return fire at the direction of the snipers. They began to take cover behind other apple trees as they began to fire back at the snipers.

The paratroopers were able to take out some snipers one at a time, catching a glint of light reflecting off their scopes. They slowly advanced through the orchard, firing at the trees whenever they saw a flash of light.

They finally reached the edge of the treeline, were the battery of flak cannons were, still shooting at the sky toward the reinforcing paratrooper units. But seeing the Equestrians, the Chimerans dismounted their Anti-Aircraft guns and began to fire their sub machine guns at them.

The paratroopers began to fire and move, taking out the gun crews, one gun at a time, taking cover behind Apple trees. Some paratroopers were killed, but the Chimerans thought that they were under attack from a much larger force. They began to abandon their guns and retreat into the treeline.

Rainbow Dash and the paratroopers then began planting some bombs on the flak cannons to make sure the Chimerans would not be able to use them again. Big Mac and Caramel were on the last gun when they began to hear a rumbling sound in the treeline.

“Tank!”

A Chimeran Heavy Tank suddenly appeared from the treeline, along with some of the gun crews who had abandoned their guns earlier. Immediately, the tank began firing its long 8.8cm cannon at the Equestrians.

Rainbow Dash and the paratroopers retreated back behind the trees and returned fire in vain at the Chimerans. Big Mac and Caramel however were still at their flak gun, hiding behind the ammo crates.

“What the Tartarus are we gonna do now, Big Mac?” asked Caramel frantically.

Big Mac looked around. They did not have enough bombs to take out a tank, and even if they did, the enemy infantry was supporting the tank. He then looked up at the flak gun they were supposed to destroy. Unlike the other guns which had a calibre of 20mm, this gun was 8.8cm in calibre, the same as the one on the Chimeran heavy tank. It was powerful enough to take out the tank, but he needed to position it to aim at the tank. He looked back at Caramel and pointed at the gun.

“Are you crazy?” asked Caramel, thinking that his idea was suicide.

“Nope!” replied Big Mac.

Caramel sighed, knowing that it was the only way they had left. He looked back at Rainbow Dash and the other paratroopers who, were planning on retreating. He shouted at them, saying,

“Cover us!”

Rainbow Dash heard him and saw that they were near the 8.8cm flak gun. She nodded her head, knowing what they had in mind, and said to the paratroopers,

“Covering Fire!!!”

The Equestrians began to fire their guns at the infantry and the heavy tank, hoping that they would distract them as Big Mac and Caramel were pointing the flak gun towards them. Big Mac began to crank the gun to turn its position from anti-air to anti-tank. Caramel watched his back, aiming his battle rifle toward the enemy, making sure none of them are looking at his friend. The Heavy tank suddenly fired again towards the trees, splintering some paratroopers.

Big Mac finally aimed the gun at the tank and was about to fire. Suddenly, a Chimeran soldier spotted them and fired his rifle, hitting Caramel on the chest.

“Caramel!” shouted Big Mac, something he rarely did.

“Don’t mind me, Big Mac!” replied Caramel in pain. “Just kill the damn tank!”

Big Mac nodded and loaded an anti-tank shell into the flak gun. The Chimeran soldier was about to fire his rifle again, when Rainbow Dash fired a burst from her sub machine gun at him from the treeline.

A shell was finally loaded and Big Mac pulled the trigger of the flak gun. An 8.8cm shell flew into the Tank’s magazine, sending its turret flying, killing the crew and the Chimerans around it. The surviving Chimerans began to retreat back to their lines. Big Mac left the gun and ran straight for his friend, who was seriously wounded.

Caramel looked up at him and said,

“Don’t worry about me, Big Mac. I’ll be fine.”

Blood started coming out of his mouth as he began to cough. Tears began to flow from Big Mac’s eyes as he tried to keep him alive. But alas, he died where he lay. Rainbow Dash and the other paratroopers came out of the treeline and continued planting the bombs on the anti-aircraft guns. When all the charges have been set, they began to withdraw. Big Mac carried his dead friend from the area and, just as they left, the guns exploded.

The squad made it back to the barn house a little later. Big Mac lay his friend down on the ground, setting his rifle down with a bayonet and placing his helmet on the butt end, making it a grave stone. Rainbow Dash walked up to him and said,

“You two were really brave back there. With men like you, I’m pretty sure this war will end soon.”

“Eeyup.” replied Big Mac. “I sure hope so…”

Later that night, more paratroopers began to land into Ponyville. Soon, the Equestrians had a large enough force to stage a counter attack against the Chimerans. At the same time, Equestrian Ground forces, reinforced by men from their ally, the Crystal Empire began to push back, flattening the salient and, soon, liberating Ponyville. The Chimeran rush for the capital never materialized, and the enemy began to retreat, losing military equipment along the way.

Within the year, the war was over, and Big Macintosh could finally return home in peace