The Storms of War

D-2

I sat, feeling a bit glum, in a huge open field outside of Gladesgow. The town sat on the coast of the Great Braytish island, and the cold, gray skies did not help anyone’s mood. Not enough Pegasi could be mustered to clear the weather, and the Gryphons had sent out a stormfront to dampen our moods in the three days since the night time bombing raid. I was in the third row from the front, and we were being briefed on the upcoming invasions.

Up ahead, Major General Raging Storm, a MASSIVE brute of a unicorn, stood with Major Maple Leaf, Major Azure Skies, Lt. Col Green Plank, and Commander Ivory Tower. They were quietly talking, and had been for nearly an hour. Finally, he turned around, and his horn flared in what was revealed a moment later to be an amplification spell.

“LISTEN UP! You are all about to be witness to the greatest speech in history! MINE!

In a few days, the exact date being yet to be determined, the Royal Equestrian Army will launch the largest amphibious attack in recorded history. Drawing support from Caneighda and Great Braytan, we will land nearly a quarter million soldiers on Horshoe, Omareha, Sabre, Eclipse, and Hammer beaches. These are all beaches in Prance, nearly one and a half thousand miles from HERE, across the Braytish Channel. The Second Naval Battlegroup, led by Admiral Rising Tides, will be escorting two thousand troop transport ships. From those ships, you all will get into boats to take you ashore. Pegasi, as much as you may want to, do NOT fly onto that beach. They will pick you out of the skies! Any of you that can wink, don’t bother. The whole idea is to swarm up there like changelings, and take the beach by storm. DONT leave your comrades behind!

For all of you with doubts, think of this! The Gryphon Empire has shown that it is a bit nervous about us coming into the fight. Though this is the beginning of the war, our hope is that by next Hearths Warming Eve, you will be safe and home. They have not had time to fortify Prance, and that means it is our ONLY way into the mainland. Chineigh and the Crystal Empire are working against the Neighponeese, locking down their Marelantic fleets, and the Royal Marines are assaulting the Solomare Islands, hopping from one island to the next to seize valuable staging points. All of that will be for nothing if we cannot press in on the south-western flank of the Gryphon empire. If we fail, they will be able to attack Chineigh and the Chineigheese will fall within four months. After that, we would be totally on our own, and unable to withstand the might of two empires. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are counting on us to make this happen. Princess Twilight Sparkle is the supreme commander of the Western Front, while Prince Shining Armor, her brother, is in command of the Eastern forces. They are both brilliant tacticians, so don’t you all worry that some idiot like me is in command. After this briefting, all of you need to report to your staging areas for a further breifting in four hours by your regimental commanders.

Back to the plan at hand, this is to be called Operation: Overcast. This plan has many moving parts, and each one needs to go off perfectly in order for this invasion to work. If we fail this beach landing.... we will not be able to invade this way again. All of you are the best of the best, and the only ones free for this assault. Don’t let us down!”

He nodded sharply, and there was dead silence. Most of us were thinking about that horrendous bombing three nights ago, and the fire and dead civillians. I already wanted to simply go home, and I kept remembering that young stallion in the road, the one we left to die. I had gone back over, the next morning, and found his body, a smile on his face as his open glassy eyes stared at the sky, seeing nothing. He didn’t have a letter or anything on him, and I didn’t even know his name as his tag had been ripped away.

Looking at Blaze, she shrugged as we all started to get up. We had been told to attend this breifing in order to get an idea of what was going down, although I saw no real purpose in divulging this plan to us, the simple rank and file. In the end, my job was to get on a boat, get on a smaller boat, ride said boat ashore, and kill anything with a beak and feathers. I would probably die. Still, I had no doubts that I would be able to pull the trigger. The loud bang, and the squak of the Gryphon Sniper on the roof had confimred that I was more than able to kill.

“Hey, Wing, think we should grab some chow before reporting into the next lecture?”

This came from Radio Wave as he walked next to Blaze and me. All around us, the enlisted part of the squad converged. Iron Hoof shrugged as he added “I can always use something to eat. Grub around here ain’t all that bad.”

Shadow step giggled. “I really could go for a steak, really. I know YOU don’t eat meat, but us lunar Pegasi can get a bit peckish for red, juicy MMF” she said, before Bubbles put a hand over her mouth, glaring. “I already want to puke, don’t add your gastronomic preferences to the list of things that make me sick, eh private?”

She nodded, a twinkle in her eyes as I rolled mine and walked off. “Something got you down, Sarge?” I said, looking at him. He sighed.

“Look, I hate to say this, but this operation has me scared. My grandma, Crystal Ball, she had the gift of sight... or so she always said. No one believed her but... she knew when bad things were happening. And... I got a bad feeling about this. Eh, don’t worry about it, you lot. Just an old sarge griping” he said, as I paled a bit. The thought that this rock solid sergeant could be scared had me on edge.

“HEY! SARGE! Don’t you go scaring my men!” came a chipper voice. I turned and snapped a salute along with everyone else as Lieutenant Butter Bar jogged over. He snapped one back and said “Hey, sergeant, you got bad thoughts, mind keeping them locked down? We don’t need that around here. You all know he's full of shit, right?”

I looked back and forth, along with the others, before the sergeant grinned and said “Hehe, don’t you all worry. I'm just pulling your legs is all. El Tee, wanna grab some food with your grunts?”

A breath was let out as the tension defused, and a moment later we were all on our way to the mess hall. It was busy, and a open-air affair. Several dozen chefs worked their magic on crappy army food, turning the nasty pickled vegetables and other assorted grains into stew and heavy salads. Our squad walked along a line, holding out our mess kit cups to get a ration of soup.

The Lieutenant wrinkled his muzzle. “You guys actually eat this shit? We get REAL food in the officer mess. The hell is this shit? Sergeant, is this standard?”

Bubbles nodded. “Been eating it three meals a day for four years, sir. Don’t plan to stop anytime soon. Why, what do you get?”

The Lieutenant continued to have a scrunched up muzzle as he stared at the gray-green glop in the bottom of the tin cup. “Erm... Usually salad and tea... what is this?”

We all sat down around a fire, and I looked up. “Permission to make a guess, sir?” I asked. He sighed and shrugged, and I kept going. “Well, to my eyes sir, it is all of the nutrition needed to keep one soldier going for four hours until the next meal. But I think there may be more to it than that.”

Blaze nodded. “Sir, I think Corporal Wing has a point. This is meant to boost our morale.”

At that, everyone looked over, including another squad that was passing us. They stopped as Shadow Step snorted into her cup, and Radio Wave guffawed. “Morale? THIS slop? Ain’t this what they feed hogs?”

She cleared her throat. “Under a VERY BROAD definition of morale, it is just about anything that keeps a soldier moving forward, right? Morale is that thing inside of us that USED to be there, about week three of boot camp, that told us that this was a good fight, that we would get to go home after being heroes. Ain’t that right sir?”

“Yeah, Blaze, that sounds about right. And this helps... how? I feel depressed just LOOKING at it, let alone actually thinking about eating it.”

Suddenly Shadow Step started laughing. “I get it! Ooh, pick me, I get it!”

I grinned at her. “Care to tell the El Tee why this keeps us going forward?”

She nodded as Butter Bar looked at her, eyebrows raised.

“Sir, do you want to win this war quickly and stop eating this, or keep fighting longer and eat this forever?”

He snorted, and we all dug in.

A few hours later, we stood in formation in a smaller clearing. Colonel Forward Thinking stood next to Major Maple Leaf and looked out over us, Fifth Regiment. In here were First, Second, Third, and Fourth companies, and two other captains in charge of their respective companies. We were lucky, as we got a whole major to ourselves.

“Alright, listen up. You all heard the Major General earlier, but now is our specific assignments. We, the Fifth Regiment, will be carried via Amphibious Assault Landing Craft to Omareha beach. It is expected to be heavily fortified, and we are expecting upwards of fifteen thousand birdbrains on that beach alone. The bad news... well, it is the 297th Clawverkrin, under Oberlieutnant... thats Colonel, for you that don’t speak Gryphic, Colonel Darmach Stormcrow. While he isn't the best tactician, he listens to orders from his superiors and is known for getting the job done. He has fifteen successful operations in Zebracity, and two against the Chineigheese. He has not lost a battle yet. YET being the keyword.”

All around us, we were casting uneasy glances, and there was a low murmer. Back at home, over the radio, we had heard rumors that he ATE fallen pony soldiers, even in the middle of battle. He was vicious and cruel, and he enjoyed instilling fear in his enemy. A white flag usually just served to mark his targets, although he harshly punished those who purposefully killed Medics. He followed the Rules of War... technically. Eating your opponent was still a cruel thing to do.

Finally, the Major stepped forward. “Alright! We know what we are facing, and you all trained for this ONE thing! I promise you, I will be right on that damn beach with the lot of you maggots, and to hell with anyone who says otherwise! I want that beach, and whoever brings me Stormcrow's head on a pike gets free drinks for life! WHO'S WITH ME?!?” she cried.

For a moment there was silence, and then I looked directly at her. In her eyes, there was not a manic gleam like Shadow Step had. It wasn’t the calm focus of Bubbles and Iron Hoof, it wasn’t the hope in Radio Wave's eyes... she had... trust? She believed in us. Her eyes met mine, and, as if from somewhere else, my voice cried “Hell yeah ma'am!” as arms that were not my own lifted my rifle above my head. That was all it took as nearly three thousand strong voices cried out against the foe we faced. I cried out again, and our cheer lasted nearly five minutes. Beside me, Orange Blaze had a manic look on her face, mouth stretched wide. We had a bit of hope, thanks to Major Maple Leaf.

D-1

I stood in front of Orange Blaze, gulping. She grinned down at me from on top of her pillar. Below us was the Sandbox, or as we had taken to calling it, Pitfall. I flared my wings a little bit, trying to balance, but the breeze dragged me forward. Clutching my pugel stick, I waved it back and fourth before swinging as hard as I could. Unfazed, she didn’t even budge as she took advantage of my opening, pushing me backwards. Flapping, I pushed myself forward and recovered.

“What's the matter, pretty bird?” she taunted, before twitching the stick forward. I flinched, backsteped, and fell off of the pillar. Bubbles guffawed as he helped me back up, and my cheeks flushed red.

“Damnit Blaze! I wasn’t ready!” I said, before the Breytish combat instructor stomped over. “The hell is wrong with you, Corporal?!? You think that the damn birdbrains are gonna wait for you to be ready? If she was a gryphon, you would be dead! What was the sequence?” she cried.

“Parry, Recover, Stab...” I said, looking down. The combat instructor, a Donkey with an evil look in her eye, nodded. “Lets see you do it again. Blaze, get down here. You seem to have a knack for this. Get him ready. Iron Hoof, Radio Wave- er, hmmm.... Bubbles, get in the ring” she said, much to the tiny Radio Wave's relief. Iron Hoof towered a good foot and a half over him, and could probably accidentally break his arm.

Blaze stood over me. “You never were very good at this were you?” she said, picking up a practice rifle with a rubber bayonet. “Didnt you SEE those gryphon claws?”

I nodded. “I don’t really want to get into close quarters with them anyways.”

“Again!” the instructor cried.

D-Day

The day of the invasion dawned gloomy and dismal. At four o'clock in the morning, or Zero Four as those of us in the military called it, we all got out of bed, heading to the mess hall. Major Leaf joined us, and many looked at her with awe and respect. Yesterday, word had spread like wildfire that she would personally lead the attack on Omareha beach, much to the irritation of both her junior officer, and her senior officers. I was glad that she was coming, but on the other hand, that meant that I would have to follow her into the fire. My hands this morning would not stop shaking as we all headed onto the boats that would carry us across the channel.

“Hey, Blaze... you think we are gonna make it through this okay?” I asked as we went up the ramp with about ten thousand other soldiers. She shrugged. “Hard to say. I mean, on paper this plan looks solid. They have good defenses, but they barely have enough ammo to kill half of us. Unless this goes pear shaped, I bet Major Leaf will get us through this” she stated.

Iron Hoof nodded. His deep voice said “Well, personally, I pity any of them that come within reach of me. I just got my brass knuckles” he said, grinning. I chuckled. “Something funny?” he said.

I shook my head. “Naw... but look what MY mom sent me” I said. Everyone gasped, It was a genuine Colt Revolver, standard issue for police in Cloudsale. “She said that my boss wanted to send me something to make up for me having to go overseas, and he and everyone at the factory pitched in to mail me this thing. Chambered in Fourty Five Magnum, it's gonna go right through any protection those beakheads go. Anyone want a piece of this?” I said, grinning.

Butter Bar reached over. “Well, as your commanding officer, I order you to turn that over to me, Corporal” he said, grinning. I snatched it away. “Not a chance, sir! I plan on putting this beauty right up Bristlebeak's gaping a-”

“SILENCE!” shouted Major Leaf. “All of you in First Infantry? We are landing on Omareha Beach. Colonal Forward Thinking will be aboard here, so keep your radios tuned in to give sitreps on the go! There should be one radio for every two squads, so make them count. We land in about half an hour, people!”

A cheer went up, and we took off over the waves, the Equestrian National Anthem playing loudly over the 1MC.