War Never Changes

Following a quick re-briefing, the squads of the Royal Guard set out for Gryffsvale, all in different groups as they marched down the long and winding cobble path towards the town, where smoke could be seen rising from in the distance. The morning air was cool, and a brisk breeze flowed across the tall grass in the surrounding fields. As they approached the hill, a thick, grey blanket of clouds now covered the region for miles with no sign of blue sky in either direction. To some of the guards, it was a grim sign of what was to come.

"I wonder what it'll look like. You know, once we cross over that hill," Stormfire said, walking alongside Thunderblast and Sharpblade.

"I don't know, but from here, it doesn't look good already," Sharp replied.

Storm sighed. "And to think we're already at war with the country where I was born."

"You're telling me you were born here?" One of the guards walking behind them spoke up, raising an eyebrow and staring towards the pegasus in front of him, who's coat was turned white from the enchantment of the armor.

Storm nodded. "Close to this area too. I moved to Equestria with my mother after another conflict affected the country," he sighed.

"What were you and your mother doing here exactly?" Thunder turned to Stormfire.

"My father was stationed here, my mom lived here with him. I was born in this country. Go ahead, call me a traitor, but I'm loyal to Equestria and Equestria only," Storm put a stern look on his face as he marched.

"You aren't a traitor if you're here going to fight beside us all, and as long as you plan to take out the feathered heads rather than us golden helmets," Sharp said as he continued to stare forward, ignoring his surroundings.

"If that's what you think. It just...well...it kind of hurts to be back here, in the negative sense. Especially with death possibly looming over me. Its more than bone-chilling really," Storm turned and faced forward as well.

"Likewise," Thunder said. "I don't mean to sound rude, but our main focus is to get civilians out of the danger zone. Stick to that, and everything should be okay. Depending on conditions in the town, of course."

Both Stormfire and Sharpblade simply nodded in response, returning to their normal walking pace. Minutes later, the extensive line of guards started to cross over the top of the small hill that sat beside the riverside town of Gryffsvale. The group stopped, scanning over the area from their vantage point in astonishment. Smoke rose from numerous spots in town with small fires on the streets visible, even from their distance.

Towards the center of town stood a tall stone tower with an opening near the top, just below a crimson shingled spire. At the top of the spire waved the empire's emerald green flag, with navy blue stripes, bordered by skinnier yellow stripes striking through it. In dead center was a yellow-ringed and navy blue circle, with a griffon of unknown gender standing on it's hind legs and holding its talons out in a defensive stance. From where the line was, binoculars were required to spot the flag clearly.

"That flag there!" Shouted the squad leader from up front. "That's another one of our targets. We take the tower, remove the flag and place ours back where it belongs. By now, they've probably burned the damned thing, which is why we brought a new one to take its place. We will not, I repeat, we will not burn their flag under any circumstances, no matter how much some of you may want to. Now, march! We have a town to take back."

At the squad leader's word, the band of guards in full golden armor and armed to the teeth advanced downhill and towards the crippled town. Soon after marching down the hill just west of Gryffsvale, the combination of guard squads separated to explore different sectors of the town, while Thunderblast, Sharpblade and Stormfire, as well as two others progressed through the outskirts.

"Think everypony's inside?" Storm spoke quietly as he cautiously moved down the street alongside Thunderblast.

"I'm sure of it, they probably don't even know we're here to get them out," said a black-coated unicorn guard.

"Shadow Dust, watch our six," Thunder said to the unicorn.

"Yes sir," Shadow turned around, keeping his eye peeled behind them with his sword drawn.

The street was lightly coated with dust and little bits of debris, as well as dried pools of blood and a few feathers lying around and delicately rolling about in the breeze. Newspapers laid strewn all across the cobble street, some half burnt or torn apart. A few of the buildings around them were either mostly intact, or half destroyed with small, non-threatening fires burning inside of them. It gave an eerie thought to them as they made their way further into town.

"Sharp, see anything?"

"Nothing but debris, Thunder," Sharpblade replied.

"Storm, what about you?"

"Nothing on my side either."

"The Griffons might have pulled back, or they're waiting for us at the tower," Thunderblast said.

"I'd assume the second one," Sharp gripped his weapon tighter.

"Let's not forget, this could be an ambush. Keep your eyes peeled for Griffons, grenades, mines, snares, anything."

"I doubt they would have snares in a city, sir," an earth pony guard on their squad said.

"Just do what I say, corporal," Thunder said.

The five rounded a corner, all turning and facing forward in awe, staring down a street with a destroyed building leaning over the street on the verge of collapse. Shadow Dust turned back around, scanning the street in the opposite direction.

"Sir, I don't like the look of this," he said, eying a tall pile of bricks, broken glass, and rebar further down covering the entire street.

"I don't know, Thunder. I think they've all gone," Stormfire said, moving to walk ahead of Thunder.

Thunderblast reached a hoof out to his side, stopping Storm and raising it to his mouth. "Everyone be quiet," he whispered, slowly looking around at the damaged buildings and debris-covered cobble streets. His ear swiveled, and just as the breeze stopped blowing, the distant shouts of other guards and the pops of gunfire caught his attention.

"They're still here," he said. Thunder turned to the abandoned building to their right, then slowly approaching one of the broken windows and peeking inside. As he glanced around, he noticed small, circular devices with flashing red lights planted on the walls, the flashing frequency increasing every second with a faint beep gaining a pitch higher at every pulse. His eyes opened wide, then he ran in the opposite direction from the building. "Everypony get down!"

The group and Thunder quickly ran to the other side of the street and ducked into a much safer, but still damaged brick shop, diving behind the wall between windows as the building rigged with mines opposite of them exploded into a massive fireball. Brick and stone rained everywhere, and all remaining windows on that street shattered instantly at the blast. Beside ground zero, two smaller shops on either sides were mostly leveled.

When Thunderblast moved his head back up to see if everything was clear, the wall beside him was struck by a magical bullet. The shot startled him, and he quickly ducked. "Everypony stay down, its an ambush!"

The explosions and zaps of gunfire as they struck the walls around them came closer and closer, and with a quick peek around the corner once more, Sharpblade watched as five griffons hopped down on their hind legs with rifles gripped tight in their talons, all with either an evil grin, or a vile glare on their beaks as they approached them.

"I've got...four...no, five! Five on our six," Sharp shouted to the group.

With a slight sigh of relief, but also keeping a thick flame on his face, Thunderblast turned to the others. "We're not outnumbered. Each of you, pick your cat and take them out! We just got here, we will NOT be going down this easy!"

"Yes sir!" The others said in unison, then moved into further cover, but also out into the open to get a clearer shot, and soon they surrounded the advancing group of griffons.

Swooping upwards, Stormfire stood atop a building roof and whipped out his rifle, then loaded a cannonball-shaped bullet into it. He moved his hoof to the trigger, the other to the handle under the gun, then thrust the trigger into the barrel with all of his might. As he did, a small explosion caused by the ignition of the gunpowder propelled the bullet out of the barrel at high speeds, and soon down into a griffon's unprotected shoulder.

The griffon let out a screech of pain and fell backwards, dropping his rifle. Without further hesitation. Storm loaded another bullet, and took careful aim as the griffon struggled to sit back up. One more gunshot later, the griffon dropped lifeless on the street in a large pool of blood.

"That's one!" Storm shouted, then opened his wings and flew over a small alleyway to another building, then reloaded his own rifle.

Down below, Sharpblade leaned against a half-destroyed pillar, his teeth were clenched as he gripped his rifle tight in his hooves. He reached one hoof into his armor, then pulled a rifle bullet out of it and slipped it into the barrel, then clicked it together. Bullets flew and buried themselves in the ground and the wall behind him, then briefly stopped and allowing him time to make a retaliation. Sharp's eyes moved over to another wall just a few meters from where he was, he waited for the right moment, then ran out in the open for a brief second, gripping the gun in a magical grasp and shooting it in the direction of the fire.

As he did, one of the bullets pierced through his armor, embedding itself in his upper flank. He yelped, sliding into safety and looking back over the wound. Sharp bit his lip and winced, but did his best to ignore the pain as he reloaded his weapon. The gunfire briefly stopped once more, and he whipped back around the corner, shooting at just the right moment where one of the approaching soldiers caught Sharp's bullet in the forehead, and falling with a loud thump and a clatter of his gun. Sharp grinned, then grabbed the downed griffon's weapon in a blue magical aura, bringing it to him and scanning over it.

"I've got one of their guns!" He shouted, then his eyes widened when he realized it was similar to his own. "Change of plan..." Sharp dropped his rifle, then cocked the griffon-built one that seemed to have a way of making unlimited ammunition.

"I have no ammo!" Shouted Shadow Dust from a few meters across the street, before the largest of the griffon squad turned and shot an electrocuting round into his leg.

The black unicorn let out a loud cry of pain, dropping his sword on the ground and collapsing beside it. His hind leg sizzled and smoked from the hit, and before he could get back to his hooves, the griffon jumped down on top of him and held him down by the neck with a talon. His eyes widened as he stared up at the larger creature, and Shadow gulped when the griffon brought his own sword down onto where his forearm connected to his torso, slicing directly through it and blood spewing out moments later. Shadow let out another loud cry of pain as he bled onto the ground, then laid his head to his side as he awaited his fate.

Before the griffon could drive the bloodied sword into Shadow's neck or chest, he let out a deep screech just after the loud pop of a gun firing. The brown griffon dropped beside him with a gaping hole through the back of his neck and out his chest that bled severely, and immediately he was frozen, devoid of life.

Floating just above him sat Thunderblast, who quickly reloaded his rifle and swooped down to the injured pony. Once his hooves met the debris-scattered ground, he cringed at the sight of Shadow's left arm mostly severed other than what looked like strings in his body with bits of his blood-covered meat still stuck to it, and a small bit of the bone sticking out in the middle. Red liquid continued to gush from his wound, forcing Shadow to scream even more.

"Hey, you're going to be okay!" Thunder stared in concern, then reached into his armor quickly as more bullets flew through the air above and behind them. He yanked a white medical cloth from his armor, then pressed it against the unicorn's wound. Shadow hissed in even more pain. "You're not fit to fight, buddy. You won't see any more of this, I promise. I'm going to get you back to the camp, but not until we finish the mission, you hear me? We can't leave yet, but you will not be fighting. Got me?" he put his hoof to Shadow's cheek, who gently nodded.

Pulling Shadow into safety, Thunderblast ran back out into the firefight, sword drawn instead of his rifle. He charged towards one of the two remaining griffons and tackled it to the ground, before finally driving the steel sword into its feathery chest. His ears pinned back when the griffon let out a screech of pain, and then finally going limp and dying moments after. He pulled the sword out and left a gaping, bloody hole through the deceased enemy's chest. Thunder's sword was now half covered in the griffon's blood, which only made him cringe at the sight.

Thunder stared down towards the corpse of the griffon he had killed, completely oblivious to the final fighting griffon that had seen him standing before his fallen comrade and took aim. From cover, Stormfire noticed and gasped.

"First sarge, look out!" Storm shouted from a few meters away.

Thunder quickly turned his head, now facing the griffon as he quickly cocked his weapon and prepared to fire at the grey pegasus who was out in the open. The weapon fired with a loud pop, and a green flaming bullet shot towards the grey guard's chest. But, before it could kill him, Stormfire swooped down in front of the bullet, taking the hit in his right hind leg with a loud yelp. Storm fell to the ground in front of Thunder, who with the help of Sharpblade shot down the final enemy with four quick hits, and then returning to the dark blue pegasus.

"Sweet Celestia, Storm. Are you nuts?!" Thunder shouted to Storm as he picked him up.

Storm let out a loud groan of pain and winced as he held his hind leg slightly curled in the air. "It wasn't your time. It was either my leg, or your life."

"Still, don't do something stupid like that ever again, you hear me?" Thunder snorted and bandaged Storm's wound.

"Copy," Storm rolled his eyes. "Is that all of them?"

Sharp moved atop a taller pile of debris and scanned over the street. "Looks like it. We got 'em good."

"All five?"

"All five."

Thunderblast nodded once, then walked back to Shadow Dust, who whimpered quietly in discomfort while the centimeter-long remains of his arm still bled into the bandages and would not stop. He bit his lip and blenched as his eyes scanned over the blood-soaked compress, then moved to lift him over his back.

"Shadow's arm is severed. Try not to puke," Thunder walked back to the others. "We need a medic, stat."

"We'll have to return to camp, first sergeant," spoke the earth pony on their squad. "Don't you think we should focus on the mission at hoof first?"

"The mission is important, yes, but if we continue on, Shadow Dust will bleed to death, and so might Stormfire. We have to get them to a medic at once."

The earth pony sighed. "Very well. You heard the first sarge, fall back."

***

Later on that evening, a heavy shower swept across the land and drenched the area with no signs of stopping. Inside the mess hall aboard their respective airship, Thunderblast and Sharpblade had seated themselves at one of the many tables in the cramped room while other soldiers ate their dinner. As he ate, the grey unicorn noticed Thunder playing with his food with a fork and quickly swallowed his bite.

"Why aren't you eating?" Sharp asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Can't," Thunder replied.

"I see," Sharp stared Thunder down, then returned to his dinner quietly.

Thunder sighed and pushed his tray to the middle of the table. Sharp stopped, then looked up to the pegasus.

"Two injured in one day, one severely. Shadow can't even fight with us anymore. In fact, he'll be lucky to even have his job in the guard once we all get home, if we go home," Thunder sat his forehead on his hooves in stress.

Sharp gulped down another bite politely and set down his silverware. "But, no one died. Shadow was scared and was hesitant to defend himself. He lost his arm, but he wasn't killed. Storm-"

"Jumped in front of me like a dumb ass."

"...Yes, jumped in front of you like a dumb ass. But, that dumb ass took a bullet for you and saved your life. Had he not, we wouldn't be talking. Even then, he can still fight. The bullet didn't find its way that deep into his leg, and they can patch it up fairly easy, and it'll heal quick depending on what potions they brought."

"But still, Sharp," Thunder stared him in the eye. "We almost didn't make it out."

"Bull," the unicorn returned to his food.

"Excuse me?"

"I said bull," Sharp looked back up. "If we were outnumbered, then I can agree, but we all had one to take out on our own. Of course, not all of us actually took one out, but we got the job done, even if our main objective was not met."

"Tell me about it. Captain Armor's not going to be happy."

"I'm sure he already isn't."

"And neither am I, to be real honest."

"How so?"

"For one, you know that reason, and for two, what squad leader splits his teams up and sends five at a time into an active war zone? Its almost as if he tried to get us all killed," Thunder rubbed his forehead with a hoof.

"You know he wouldn't do that. Perhaps he thought it would work out better that way," Sharp replied, motioning a hoof.

"Or, as I said before, he was trying to get us killed."

"Again, I doubt that is the case. After today, he'll know to send more, and tomorrow we'll be sure to take back the city."

Thunder sighed softly and looked up to Sharp's face. He then sighed in return.

"I know you're stressed, we all are. After all that happened yesterday, I honestly wanted to flee back home like a coward. But, I didn't let an incident like that stop me, and you shouldn't let this stop you either even if it did turn out to be far worse than my situation."

"That doesn't help, Sharp."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I'm trying to help you. We have an objective, and if we ever want to see our sweet, sweet home again, we must get that objective done," he stopped, then looked down. "And it will cost us blood. Lots, and lots of blood."

"Yeah, well, I'm more than willing to give up every drop of my blood if it means you all get to see another day," Thunder looked down to the table.

"And I would the same for you and the rest of my friends, Thunder. But, we must let fate decide. If it is our time to go, it is our time to go. No ifs, ands, or buts about it."

"Still not comforting, but..." Thunder's lips flapped in a louder sigh. "I accepted death years ago, and I still accept it to this day."

"Most soldiers do after they've become that loyal to their country, at least that's how I see it. Maybe the younger ponies are less willing to die for their fellow civilians, or even other soldiers' lives. Or, it could be the other way around. Who knows, all I know is, death comes for us eventually. The universe works in mysterious ways, but I chose not to question it, as should you. The more you question it, the more complicated things will come. Trust me, you don't want that," Sharp said as he took a bite of his food.

Thunder computed the advice in his head, then slowly nodded moments after. "I'll try my best. Its just...well, I don't know where my life went. Yeah, I met somepony, yeah I married her, yeah I have skill in something I enjoy doing...most of the time...its just, sometimes when I think about it, I feel like a complete mess, or a void."

"I don't think so," Sharp smiled softly. "You're a good pony, both to your career and other ponies. You're a mare's dream actually, I can see how you managed to bag such a hot one so early."

Thunderblast smiled back, before his cheeks turned a light pink. "Oh, shut up squaremane, you're making me blush."

"What, you don't like my mohawk?" Sharp raised an eyebrow and grinned. "You'd look good with one."

Thunder shrugged. "Not my cup of tea."

Sharp rolled his eyes and kept a grin on his muzzle. "Just finish your dinner so I can go to the gym room."

***

The hours following dinner went slower than planned, but before they knew it, it was lights out. Thunderblast and Sharpblade made their way back to their room to recount their ammunition. The halls were fairly quiet, no talking, no hoofsteps, and no laughter coming from the other rooms from other ponies. To them, it was eerie. Very eerie. Before they could reach their room, they were stopped by a taller white unicorn out of his armor. He stood before them, and the two snapped into attention and raised their hooves to salute. It was Shining Armor.

"Captain, sir!" Thunder said, surprised. "I did not expect to see you here tonight."

"I did not expect to see you two either," Shining Armor said in a riled tone.

Thunder and Sharp slowly lowered their hooves.

"We abandoned the mission, sir. But, we have a reas-"

"You not only abandoned your objective, but you abandoned the others searching the city. With that, they almost did not make it out alive. In fact, one of them was taken captive," Shining Armor glared at the two ponies.

"I-...sir," Thunder's ears pinned back.

"Don't sir me, Thunderblast. You and I know very well that this mission was important, and you were supposed to guard the city while we sent more troops in."

"But, sir-"

"We had injuries that needed immediate attention," Sharp stepped in front of Thunder and took the captain on with a thick stare. "If we did not evac, we would be carrying a dead unicorn and a slowly bleeding pegasus. Corporal Shadow Dust lost his arm, captain. With his injury, he would have died within the hour from loss of blood. Then sergeant Stormfire was struck by one of their bullets. His injury was not as bad, but he still lost a lot of blood. Even more so, he took the bullet so it wouldn't hit Thunder. Had he not, Thunder would not be standing with us right now."

The captain stared in some surprise that Sharpblade took him on, and even spoke without permission, but his point was more than valid. After a few moments, he finally spoke. "Yes, of course. I am terribly sorry for the mix-up, everything has been busy over here and I am not receiving the most accurate of reports at this time. Although, I will say this. Normally, I would have discharged you dishonorably Sharp for talking back without permission. But, seeing as you had a valid point, I can't do anything. Please, carry on," he said, stepping out of the way of the two.

"Thank you, sir," Sharp replied, saluting.

The captain saluted back, then trotted around them and up the hallway.

"Are you crazy?" Thunder turned to Sharp. "You could have lost your job."

"Over here, there is no losing your job. Not until we're home, safe and sound. Besides, he was attacking you because you felt the need to get wounded men to safety. I don't know about you, but I think this whole 'captain of the guard' thing is going to his head after all of these years. But, that's enough of that. Ammunition and armor check."

Thunder simply nodded once, then the two walked to their room where they looked over their weapons and armor.

***

The night passed slowly, and Sharpblade found himself unable to sleep most of the night. He slipped out of bed slowly and quietly, then tip-hooved out of the room to avoid waking Thunderblast. He let out a soft sigh and shut the door to their room politely and made his way to the small armory built into the ship. When he walked up to the door, he found it was chain-locked shut. Sharp glanced around at his surroundings, then lit his horn in a faint blue aura, casting just enough magic to pick the lock and open the armory, then opening the door enough to slip inside.

The armory was half-packed with sets of armor, complete with helmets, hoof guards, and knee guards, and then ammunition for the issue rifle, as well as knives, spears, and swords. Sharp looked around, then started to levitate ammunition, a new set of dark blue unicorn's armor, and a new knife. He quietly walked to the tiny fitting room the armory had, where he slipped the armor on and packed his weapons into it.

Sharp made his way back out of the armory, quietly re-locking the door as if no one had ever entered, and then made his way to the exit of the airship which was still open. Outside, a brisk wind flowed across the nearby forest, and down onto the field where the camp was set up. In the tents toward the center of the make-shift base, some of the higher ranking officers stood, oblivious to Sharp still being awake. He heard the chatter, then moved to the edge of the tent and eavesdropped. To his surprise, he was shocked to find that the guard was planning counter offensives and other possible attacks to possibly invade the entire empire. At this, his mind was set.

Sharp cautiously left the camp without being spotted by any soldiers on watch, and made his way back towards Gryffsvale.