Memoirs of a Soldier

With our squad split into two groups, I had taken the lead of the first group. Behind me was Lieutenant Segrid and four others. The group following mine was led by Sergeant Williams.

I sprinted to the corner of the door farthest from our position and placed my back against the wall. Lieutenant took a position behind, followed by the rest of our group whilst the other group mirrored us, except for our demolitions expert.

I pressed myself tighter against the wall and watched as Corporal Lang planted the explosives against the castle doors. Our squad had parachuted right outside the castle and pushed the ponies back through the gates without a casualty on our side, some of the other squads were not so lucky. Regardless, we all split up and now our squad was about to breach the west entrance to the palace.

A small beep came from the explosives as Lang armed it. He jogged over to the opposite side of the doorway behind the rest of his group and picked up the rifle laying on his chest. I clutched the trigger guard of my own ABR6 in anticipation.

Three seconds passed and the castle doors imploded. My mirror and I swung around our respective side’s corners as we lifted our rifles whilst we searched for targets through the haze.

Our footsteps thudded against the ground as the twelve of us charged through the entrance. Through my silicone mask and the dispersing dust I spotted three figures huddled in the far left corner.

“Three, ten o’clock,” I spoke into the mic embedded in my mask.

Someone yelled into the channel, “Incoming hostiles, three o’clock!”

I kept the three sharpening shapes in my iron sights as a series of gun shots pierced the air from behind me. The hazed dispersed enough for me to identify the targets. In front of me stood a pegasus guard, beside him crouched two unicorns. Both female, one a child, the other adult.

I spoke once more, “Papa uniform uniform.”

I heard the rustles of the combat uniforms from my squadmates as we surrounded the three ponies. The stallion was armored, but not equipped with any weapons. His face was a look of pure determination. The two unicorns behind him had neither weapons or armor, the child was cowering into the other’s chest, hiding itself from us. The elder one was whispering to her.

The lieutenant’s voice crackled into my headset, “You know the drill, take them out.”

One of the newer members of our squad, Private Johnson, stepped in front of the ponies and turned to us.

“Sir! We can’t just harm unarmed civilians!”

Lieutenant Segrid grabbed onto the front of the private’s vest with his left hand and pulled him close, “Last time I let one of these fucking unicorns live, they killed my best corporal,” -Segrid threw him to the side- “Fuck your god damn civilians.”

        The end of the Lieutenant’s rifle’s muzzle flashed as he shot the three ponies. Gore splattered across the wall behind them as each bullet impacted their bodies, the pegasus’s armor being torn like paper.

        I stared impassively as they collapsed onto the ground. In the corner of eyes, I saw Lieutenant back Johnson against the wall.

        “If you disobey my commands again, I’ll shoot your ass myself. Understood?”

        A voice filled with shock replied through my headset, “Y-y-yes sir!”

        I turned to my right to see Lieutenant walking to the next interior door. I jogged forward and took my place in front of him as he approached it. I turned my head over my shoulder to confirm my group was prepared when the door let out a loud creak.

        I snapped my head to face the sound and lifted my rifle.

        Out from the open door stepped out a soldier. His combat uniform was bloody and in tatters and his facemask was so condensed, it was futile to try and see his face. He also lacked his standard rifle or any other weapon. It looked like he came from hell and back.

        I relaxed my arm and pointed my rifle to the ground. Our team medic, Corporal Simons, sprinted out from somewhere behind me, grabbed the man, and started walking him away.

        “Lewis, help me out,” I watched as our medic started to loosen the soldier’s mask.

        I turned back around and peered through the open doorway, confirming that there were hostiles in the adjacent room.

        “So- Uh… Lieutenant, you may wan-”

        I looked away from the door and back to our medic to see what he-

What the fuck? Oh fuck.

A glossy obsidian spike protruded from Simon’s back; Simon himself was staring down at his chest. On the other side of Simon was the soldier, however, his eyes were not normal; The entirety of his eyes were luminescent and blue. His face held no expression.

I was at a shock for words as Simon collapsed onto the ground, the spike sliding out from his body. He fell backwards onto his back, giving us a view of the soldier that had stood in front of him.

The spike was the soldier’s lower right arm. I snapped my rifle up to the soldier’s head as his skin morphed into some sort of sheeny, black carapace.