The Storms of War

Dear Mom,

I know you are scared about me going off to fight a war, and you haven't heard much from me, but I wanted to write you finally about my training.

Yesterday, we all graduated Basic Training, meaning I am now a Royal Equestrian Soldier. I'm a Sniper! Out of the top ten divisions, I have the number one score across every marksmanship board. Sidearm, Rifle, SMG, you name it, I got the highest accuracy!

This brings me to my second point, and promise me you wont freak out. I can already see you sighing, but here goes: I got my Destiny Mark. Orange Blaze snapped a picture, it should be attached, but it shows that I am really good at fighting. Buck Sergeant Lightning Striker said that I was actually worthy of my uniform.

Most of the people here are not very happy though... none of us want to go and fight, but we mostly understand that it has to be done. It makes sense, as Great Breytan just declared a state of total war against the Crimson Alliance, and surprised Princess Celestia by requesting that we proved ships to move ten thousand of their soldeirs to the mainland... and that is the next bit I need to tell you about.

By the time you get this, I will be on a Naval Ship heading to Great Braytan, where we are getting ready to stage some sort of invasion on the shores of Prance, in a place called Normaredy. I'm a bit scared... I'm a sniper, and that means I am supposed to sit as far from battle as possible, but in the end, I'm just a soldier and I gotta go where they tell me to. The Buck Sergeant said any of us could leave any time we wanted, as there was a soldier in a watchtoer at the gate ready to shoot deserters. Oh, the Company Lieutenant, Butter Bar, is calling for us. I kinda like him, he just graduated, but he is... not very bright. Anyways, if all goes well, my pay should be getting sent to you. Don’t save it! Spend it to make sure you have enough to live! If I come home and you haven’t gained a few pounds, I'm gonna cook nothing but cake and pies for a year!

Love,

Lance Corporal Steel Wing

1st Infantry, 5th Regiment

2nd Company, 17th Platoon,

9th Squad

I looked out over the edge of the railing on the boat. I was stronger, faster, and smarter than I had been a few weeks ago when I had walked through the doors at Basic Training. I knew how to fold and stow gear, I knew how to make a bunk properly, and I loved shooting. I had been issued, in the end, a Whinneychester Special Applications Rifle, Anti-Personnel/Anti-Material Scoped Rifle, Bolt Action.

It was chambered in a .308 round, and it was able to punch through very light armor and kill the soldier inside, and I could hit a moving target nearly three hundred yards away with it, or one standing still at five hundred. Of course, I had yet to shoot anyone, but I was the best marksman this side of anywhere. I grinned to myself, and a voice next to me asked “What'chu grinning about, Wing? Still got a boner for that rifle?”

I turned. Orange Blaze stood there, her helmet under one arm, smiling at me. “Oh, you know... just thinking about how many gryphons we are gonna kill. I hear we are gonna hit tGreat Braytain, pick up a bit of extra training, and then ship over to Gryphany. Er, Prance, but you know what I mean.”

She nodded, looking out over the waves. “Didja hear? Major Leaf, that officer from Boot, is in charge of our company. All of us are fresh vege, but she took a liking to us after that stunt us in the seventeenth pulled on Hearts and Hooves day. She said she had never seen such a thing in her life.”

I laughed, as did two other passing soldiers who heard it. On Hearts and Hooves day, nearly five hundred of us, mostly stallions, took it upon ourselves to piss in the snow. Only, we didn’t piss our names. Instead, we made a two hundred foot picture of Bristlebeak, along with a heart, and many references to the things we would LOVE to do to him. After the attack on Icelock, we were rather upset at him, and the next day, the major had nearly shit herself laughing at what we had done. The picture included our opinion on the size of his genitals and how many wives he had vs how many of them were actually little fledgelings.

I chortled at the memory. All in all, boot had not been that bad after the second week. We got used to the running and the pushups, and I got to stretch my wings when we did tribe-specific exercisers. Hand to Hand drills had been a nightmare though, and I learned to avoid Blaze. She was a menace with her fists, and twice she had broken my nose by accident in the ring. She had even knocked down Buck Sergeant Striker with the Pugil sticks, and he had NOT been happy with that. By an odd coincidence, we ran ten miles the next day.

“Hey Blaze, any-” I started, before the 1MC overhead spoke “Attention! Attention! Due to better than expected weather, we will be making landfall on Great Braytain in Four Hours! All Royal Soldiers must make ready to disembark at that time! Attention! Attention! Due to better than expected weather, we will be making landfall on Great Braytain in Four Hours! All Royal Soldiers must make ready to disembark at that time! Thank you!”

Blaze looked at me and sighed as we headed back through an open door. Luckily neither of us were suffering from sea-sickness, thankfully, although more than a few of us seemed to be pitching our carrots over the railing. The ship we were on, ERS-Indomitable, was a Troop Transport Ship nearly the size of the ships the Pegasi used for mobile airbases, and carried nearly five thousand soldiers in cramped quarters. She was armed lightly, but off to the right... er, starboard, as it were on a ship, the Battleship ERS-Dauntless and the cruiser ERS-Sunlight Surprise were guarding us.

As we walked through the bowels of the ship, heading for Section Gamma, other soldiers were packing their bags, cleaning their guns, or otherwise managing buisy works. Here and there officers were getting to know their sergeants, sergeants were lamenting their North-Point ROTS/OCS rookies, and troops grumbled about anything up to and including how many people were grumbling.

Upon reaching our bunks, Blaze looked at me and asked “Hey, you started to say something before the overhead cut you off. What did you wanna know?”

I glanced at her. “Hmm? Oh, I was wondering if you spoke any Gryphon. I learned some growing up, one of my friends went to Flight Camp with me. There were a few there, including one really mean one named... Glider? Gilded? Something like that. They were very proud, but even that... Ah, Gilda! Even she wouldn’t go along with just slaughtering innocents. I can speak it pretty well, and read it, but Markus said that my accent was terrible.”

She shook her head. “Nope, never had any call to speak that language. I usually prefer to let my actions speak for me anyways. Is that the major?” She asked, looking over my shoulder. I glanced behind me and yelled “Officer on Deck!” as I snapped to a salute. All around me, others did the same, and silence fell.

Major Leaf walked forward, looking from side to side. “You guys the Seventeenth? The ones that piss in snow?” she asked, a corner of her mouth quirking up. Looking around, she considered each of us. All of us in here had been in the same boot division, and there were still one hundred and forty four of us. A sergeant stepped down, chewing the end of his ciggarett. “Yes Ma'am, thats us.”

She looked at him. “Sergeant, you the senior enlisted man here?” she asked.

“No, ma'am, not any more than anyone else here. I just got higher marks in a few places, and Sergeant Striker told me to slap on three chevrons and a rocker, made me a Buck Sergeant. Said no one would know the difference on the battlefield anyways.”

She nodded. “Thats fine, just do your job. Anyways, I want all of you to meet Lieutenant Butter Bars, fresh out of North Point. He's just fine, so don’t worry. When I am not around, he is. Now I know usually there would be a captain and two lieutenants, but we are a bit stretched for manpower here. Who is my Company Sniper?”

I stepped forward, shouldering my rifle. “That would be me, ma'am. Corporal Steel Wing, Sniper.”

She looked me up and down, her gaze lighting on my Mark. “Alright... you good with that thing, corporal?” she said, grinning.

I smiled back as best I could, a bit nervous at a nearby superior being happy. “Y-yes ma'am. Ninety seven percent accuracy against moving targets at one hundred yards. One hundred percent at two hundred against stationary, but only seventy three against moving.”

She nodded. “I am assigning you and Ninth Squad to be my personal squad in the future. I'm your CO, you report directly to me, and when we go into battle, all of you stay within ten feet of me.”

I nodded, and Sergeant Bubbles stepped forward. “We're all yours ma'am!”

The Lieutenant turned and smiled at us all. “It's good to meet all of you!” he said as the major left. “I hope we can all get along well. Now... I know this isn’t something you usually hear from an officer, and really not something you want to hear at all from your leader but...”

My heart prepared to sink, fearing that he was about to prove all of the rumors about ROTC officer, but then he spoke again. “I would really like it if you, Staff Sergeant.... Stoker? If you could help me out a bit. I don’t have much real combat experience, and I'm not too proud to ask for help. Watch my ass, and I will make sure we all get home. Deal?”

There was a moment of silence, and then the staff sergeant, usually silent by default, pulled out a cigar and offered it to the Lieutenant. Peace had been made.

Four hours later, we all stood in a long column, getting ready to head out and off the ship. Above us, the Equestrian Army Anthem started playing, and the Major cried “Forward, HARCH!”

Left, right, left, right. Forward we all marched, the Lieutenant next to us with his sword. All of us were in our best uniforms, and as we headed off the ship hundreds of Braytish civillians on all sides cheered. The town we were going into looked... bad. Sections of it seemed to have been bombed, and off in the harbor there was a smoking wreck of a ship. Smoke curled up from a blasted building to our right, and more than a few of us paled at the sight of the damage that the Gryphic air force had inflicted. Forward we all marched, the anthem blaring overhead to cheer us forward, and the looks of hope on these ponies faces was far greater than any of us had expected. A mare came forward towards me, and at a nod from the Lieutenant, I fell out of formation as the mare, not much older than a filly, leaned up on her tip toes and put a flower in my jacket pocket. Others were presented with similar gifts. The major received a gold watch from an elderly stallion in a uniform from the First War, who nodded and went back into the crowd. My rifle slung across my back as I fell back into formation, and marched along.

After nearly half an hour of parading and showing that we were in town, Major Leaf called “Company... HALT!”

We took two more steps and then stopped. Out from behind a podium, an elderly stallion stepped forward and said “Thank you, Equestrian Soldiers. We asked for help on behalf of our sister nation, Prance.... she has fallen under attack from the Gryphans, and in exchange for your help, what we have is yours... we don’t have any barracks here, so our citizens have agreed to quarter you. Please, rest and relax a bit before you go off to fight. I wish there was more we could do for you, but we had to repel several attacks already, and we do not have much left in us. Thank you again for your help, but I imagine you are all tired... Major Maple Leaf, I gave you the housing assignments. Can you see them off?”

She nodded while we all looked on. Around us, corporals and civilians handed out slips of paper. “NINTH SQUAD! Look for the Inn at Fifth and Maple! You will be staying upstairs!”

I looked at Blaze and grinned. “Hear that? An Inn! Bed and breakfast!”

She giggled and said “Sounds great. Think we can fall out yet?”

I looked around. Everyone else was already on their way to their places of residence.

The in we were staying at, called 'The Hungry Dragon”, sported a large dragon with a gaping maw on its sign. The interior was cozy, the downstairs sporting a small bar, a leisure parlor, and best of all, a radio with a table and many chairs. The only thing that had me wondering was the company. Other than Bubbles, who we had met on the ship, and Blaze, from Boot Camp, I didn’t know anyone else in Ninth Squad. Nevertheless, we all went inside with the Major. Looking around, Blaze quipped “Wowzy shit. How did we get a sweet place like this?”

Major Leaf laughed. Butter Bar grinned as he spied the Wine Rack, and made a beeline for it as the major replied “Perks of having a senior officer as a loveable breezie godmother. Plenty of bunks upstairs, but I gotta split and talk to General Marshal. You kiddies enjoy yourselves, okay? And Butter, make sure to settle in. I know out of OCS you expected to get a couple of squads, but in this one, we're a family. Everyone should know what they need to do.” At that, Butter Bar nodded and we all got ourselves settled in.

Two hours and three shared bottles of '22 Red, we were all getting to know each other well. I took a sip from my bottle, and looked at the Warrant Officer with the black cloak for a mark. “So... sir, you mind if I ask where you are from? And, erm, your name?”

He looked at me, and shrugged. “Name's Wire Tap. Mareiapolis. Graduated from Canterlot University with a degree in Cryptoanalysis, and then went to Reingly to join up with Royal Intelligence.”

The room went dead silent, and Butter Bar's eyes bulged as he overfilled his mug with ale. “You... you're a spook?”

Wire Tap grinned. “Yes, sort of. Technically, I am just on the front lines to gather intel and radio it back to HQ. But the real reason...” he said, leaning forward and whispering conspiratorily, “Is that I owe Major Maple Leaf my life. When I was working a nasty case undercover in Baltimare, trying to rout out a Gryphic Terror Cell, I got my cover blown. They cut off my wings, and the only thing that saved me was Major Leaf happening by the bar they were gonna gut me in. After that... I swore my life to her. Princess Luna, my boss, was NOT happy, but agreed to let me serve her until my debt is payed.”

I looked at him, noting the nubs under the back of his uniform. “And... when is that?” I asked, genuinly curious. “Is there a time limit on that, like when you get out of the intel business?”

He shook his head. “It ends when I die.”

We all went silent, looking around at each other, before Bubbles sighed and said “I'll go next. Name's Bubble Popper. I REALLY loved to jump on that packing plastic when I was a foal, and my mom figured that it should stick. Anyways, I got assigned with Major Leaf when we were working up in the Crystal Empire on a year long deployment in Icelock, co-ordinating with Shining Armor and his soldiers to give them some experience in modern equipment and Tactics. They were still using Muzzle Loaders and swords with steel armor. Gave me a scare when I asked one of them if they wanted to spar, and he pulled out a claymore. NOT the mine, the fucking sword” he said, as we started to laugh.

“Yeah, I bet you shat yourself sarge!” said the soldier to my left, a Lunar Pegasus mare, her leathery wings twitching as she laughed. “I wish it WAS a claymore mine though!”

All eyes turned to her. She looked around, and her left eye twitched. “What? Explosions are fun. Ask Hoofie over there! He used to be a miner!”

Eyes went to Iron Hoof, the corporal who was easily as big as any two of us put together. Standing over seven feet tall, his arms were at least as thick as my thighs, and his hands were like spaded shovels. He looked down at us from a bottle of pure grain alchohol, and sighed. “Name's Iron Hoof, but you already knew that. I worked the mines since I was about a wee colt, pushing carts at first, before swinging a pick. Hard, honest labor.”

I took a swig of my ale, having long since finihsed the wine, and hiccuped. “Ain’t mines dangerous?” I inquired, shuddering at the thought of being underground in small tight areas all day.

“Yeah, they can be. But then I got enough money to go to Mareami University of Technology. Got a Masters in Engineering using their accelerated program in about... three years. Top of my class.”

I gawked at him, as did everyone else. Blaze piped up “You have a degree? Why don't *Hic*you have officer stripes then?”

He sighed. “Was offered, but since it was'nt a REAL degree, gotten in four or six years, they were reluctant in the first place. And someone as big as me has no damn business sitting in an office filing paper. Not when I can pick up any of you and the gun you are holding in one arm. You think Apple Farmers are strong? I've been able to lift two hundred pound rocks over my head since I was fifteen. That's why they gave me this” he said, hefting a Browning Automatic Rifle. Long strips of amunition sat neatly piled next to him. “And what about you, miss batpony?” he asked, turning towards the lunar Pegasus. She grinned.

“Name's Shadow Step! I'm from the Darklands to the southeast. Cold, always night there because of some sort of curse put on it by a cult or something. But I LOVE blowing things up. They gave me a Rocket Launcher after I kept stealing them and going onto the range. I know how to mix explosives too, got an associates of Chemistry in community college! If anyone needs anything blown up, let me do it! PLEASE!”

Her voice was fast and a bit high, and her left eye twitched on every fifth consonant. Her wings flutterd quite a bit, and she talked very quickly overall. I shied a couple of inches from her, and she turned, grinning with her fanged teeth. “Something wrong, Corporal? I don’t bite... often” she said, before nipping at the air inches from my muzzle. My face felt flushed, and Blaze giggled. “Don’t Tease him, you crazy bat. He's never been-” she started, before I grabbed a biscuit and shoved it in her mouth. “HEY LOOK AT THE TIME GOTTA SLEEP!” I said in an excited hurry, getting up. Blaze guffawed around her mouthful as the last member looked up from a dismantled radio in his lap. “Hey! Don’t forget me!”

I looked at him as he said “Eh, not much really. Name's Radio Wave, and I love working with Radios. And anything else that uses EM radiation. Wanted to go to Tech School, but got drafted instead. Same as Miss Silk, right?”

A mare in the corner working on some knitting nodded. “Was going to be a vet, love taking care of animals. Then the fucking recruiter came by, handed out draft notices, and BOOM, army medic instead.”

Looking around her, I asked “Did you forget your gun?”

She shook her head. “I wont let them put one in my hands. Having to help people kill each other is bad enough. I told them the farthest I am going is patching you lot back together so you can go and have a second chance at dying. And a third and seventh if I do my job right. Conscientious Objector, means I wont fight or even defend myself if someone comes at me. Killing another thinking being ain’t right, no matter how you justify it. But until everyone is finished killing each other, I can't go home. So knock yourselves the fuck out” she said, before going back to her knitting.

The radio Radio Wave's lap sparked to life, one of our army long-range backpack radios, and he slid it into the metal case, twitching a dial. Satisfied, he turned it off. That was when I thought I heard something.

Ears perking up, I looked up at the sky out the window. “Hey guys... do you hear that?”

They all looked around, and Bubbles shrugged. Butter Bar walked over towards the door and opened it. “I gotta-” he said, before stopping dead. Upon opening the door, a buzzing, whining sound filled the room. A distant sound like rolling thunder suddenly resolved into the sounds of explosoins, and bright light visible past a few buildings spoke of fire.

Then a slight whistle and the sound of God clapping turned the world white, and the windows shattered, throwing me across the room. What had been peace turned to panic, and I blacked out.