Precious metal on Red beach

Lightning Rider was the landlord of the Green Horn, a quiet public bar in the small town of Ponyville. Lightning Rider was a modest, easy-going pegasus with patient eyes and the hint of a smile always playing across his lips. He seemed content with his lot in life. His wife and his two filly's lived with him in the rooms above the bar and, if they were happy and well provided for, Lightning Rider was at peace. On busy nights, the whole family helped to serve thirsty costumers. Lightning was proud of his filly's, and proud of being a good landlord. If other ponies didn't know any better, they might of thought he'd done the job all his life.

But lightning had seen a lot more of the world than the four walls of the bar. He'd been a soldier in the New Lunar Republic when the two nations were separated, his body bore scars from grenades, mortar shells and machine gun bullets. When he'd been standing for a few hours, serving drinks, the old wounds in his hooves opened and bled. There was still Solar Empire bullets lodged in his bones. He had splinters of bomb shrapnel trapped in his forelegs and there was a silver plate mounted in his skull, a memento of emergency battlefield surgery.

Lightning had another metal keepsake. Hidden inside a drawer behind the bar, lying among discarded bottle tops, balls of string and household clutter, he kept a bronze medal. It was a Lunar Cross, the highest award for bravery a New Lunar Republic soldier can receive. Princess Luna has pinned the medal to his uniform at a ceremony at the Lunar Castle in October, 1944. Even in the exclusive world of LC winners, his achievement was a remarkable one. His bravery had been exceptional twice on the same momentous day, while fighting alongside the best soldiers the New Lunar Republic could put into battle. Lightning was the only stallion to win a Lunar Cross on Operation Darkstorm. The quiet landlord with the gentle smile was one of his country's greatest war heroes.

Lightning Rider had been a 24-year-old sergeant major on the morning of the Manehatten invasion, waiting with his platoon on the lurching decks of a New Lunar Republic troopship. He had earned his promotion from the ranks of the Eclipse regiment, The Shadowmarines, after four years of bitter fighting. Lightning had been at Phillydelphia in 1940, when the New Lunar Republic Expeditionary Force was driven out of Equestria by the might of the Solar Empire Maremacht. During the evacuation, he distinguished himself by going to the aid of a platoon of Welsh Guards infantry who were almost surrounded by the enemy.

Stationed in Saddle Arabia in 1942-3, lightning fought Flash Sentry's elite Saddle Arabia Korps at the battle of Bloody Ridge in the Saddle Arabian desert. Lightning had been seriously wounded four times, but on each occasion forced himself to recover, anxious to rejoin his friends in the regiment. Although he had become something of a Shadowmarine talisman and a hero Figure to the raw recruits under his command, the sergeant major never let it go to his head. He was scared of being injured or killed as the next soldier, but this didn't stop him from doing everything he could to help win the war.

Lightning was born in Cloudsdale and had drifted through a series of casual jobs and a stint in the Wonderbolts before signing up with the Shadowmarines on the eve of conflict. He was proud of his regiment and their 300 year tradition, and counted his fellow Soldiers as his closest friends. Throughout his war service, he had tried to protect or rescue other soldiers from danger. Lightning never risked the lives of other soldiers for personal glory. His soldiers stayed close to him, knowing he would use his fighting skills and experience to protect them.

'Virgin' soldiers often feel reassured by the calm presence of a veteran. It was no different on board the troopship, Empire Lance, as novice Shadowmarines clustered around their sergeant major. Every soldier sensed the challenge ahead. They were seven miles off the coast of Manehatten and could just make out their target, Red Beach, a forbidding grey blur across the choppy waves of the Equestrian Ocean.

"Get your kit together," lightning ordered gruffly. "Pick it up, pack it, check it over, and check it again."

He knew he had to make his soldiers concentrate on the simple tasks of testing their weapons and equipment, rather than dwell on their chances of survival once they hit the beach. Around 500 soldiers from the Shadowmarines were going in as part of the first attack force on Red Beach. They were due to land at 'H-Hour' -06:30- and had already been up for three hours, preparing for battle.

Their mission was to capture and disarm the Mont Fleury battery, a network of concrete casements with heavy guns that threatened the invasion fleet. This was Defended by pillboxes, barbed wire and minefields; the Shadowmarine officers knew they'd been given a tough nut to crack. They had been warned to expect heavy casualties - perhaps 70% of their soldiers dead or wounded.

"Over you go," called lightning, when the signal to disembark finally came, shortly before dawn. "Mind yourselves on those scramble nets. "

Peering over the side of the ship, the Soldiers studied the flat - bottomed landing craft bobbing violently on the waves. The sea was still rough after the storm the day before, and each wave crest lifted and dropped these troop barges a good ten feet. Weighed down with guns, ammunition, food rations and all their other kits, the soldiers risked being crushed against the steel hull of the troopship as they slowly worked their way down the special rope webbing. It was a nerve racking decent. When the platoon of 20 was all safely on board,lightning breathed a sigh of relief as the LCA surged away.

For the next 45 minutes, they circled, waiting for the other boats to load up. The LCAs rocked violently and the bulk of the soldiers started to feel Seasick. By the time they were lined up and ready to begin the journey to the beach, the boats stank of vomit and sweat. Every few seconds a wave would crash over the side, drenching every soldier to the coat. The water was so cold it made their cheeks and hooves numb and the salt burned their eyes. Some soldiers suffered so badly with the motion sickness, they thought they'd die before they even hit the beach. It would take over an hour for their boats to reach the Manehatten beaches.

Before they were halfway in, the New Lunar Republic fleet behind them began a massive shore bombardment. For 40 minutes, the huddled soldiers watched as huge shells tore across the sky, smashing into the coastal fortifications. Soldiers later described it as sounding like freight trains crashing past. Their explosions shook every soldier to the core.

But the ship-to-shore blasting was only part of the New Lunar Republic barrage. Lightning watched thousands of rockets launched from floating platforms that had been towed across the Equestrian Ocean. He craned his neck to scan the squadrons of bombers droning overhead. These planes carried huge, concrete-busting bombs designed to smash through the Equestrian Wall. The Manehatten coastline bursts into flames as curtains of fire raced into the sky hundreds of feet high from the horizons. It was a breathtaking sight. The inexperienced soldiers in the platoon were convinced that nothing would be able to survive it. But lightning and the other veterans knew better. The Solar Empire defenders were hiding deep underground, safe in their steel-reinforced concrete bunkers. Seconds after the shelling ceased, they would be racing to the surface to prime their guns.

As the platoon chugged towards the beach, lightning spotted what he thought was a pillbox set back on the dunes. Fearing his soldiers would be cut down by an MG-42 as soon as they landed, he quickly ran over and manned a .30 caliber machine gun and started blasting at it. (Hours later he found out it was only a crude rain shelter). That moment, the NLR fleet bombardment stopped, the landing craft began to come under heavy fire from the dreaded 105mm guns and Heavy mortars. The Landing craft pilot revved the LCA engine to get closer to the beach and lightning stopped shooting, ready to jump out with his troops in waist deep water.

He thought it would be a good idea to take the 30.cal with him. Without hesitating he seized the gun and unlocked it from its tripod and attached it to his combat harness and awaited for the ramp to drop. The next moment, the landing craft ramp crashed down and the platoon charged forward. One of lightnings' good friends, Sergeant Trail Blazer, was among the first out. Before he even had a chance to fire a single shot at the enemy, him and a few other Shadowmarines were cut down by a MG-42 on the cliff above them. He wasn't the only soldier to be killed by enemy fire before firing a single shot at the enemy on Operation Dark Storm.

But there was no time for the platoon to mourn the loss of their friend. They were exposed and vulnerable to heavy enemy fire as they waded towards the beach, and lightning did his best to keep his troops moving. When they finally reached the beach every soldier darted for cover behind anti-tank obstacles and burnt out tanks from the earlier failed assault, when acouple of soldiers made it across the beach under murderous enemy fire, the platoon set up two 30.cal machine guns and some light mortars to launch smoke canisters. It was their job to lay down smoke and covering fire across a minefield that ran up between some dunes. This was the Shadowmarines pathway to the battery. Lightning watched as a group of Lunar Engineers inched forward to clear the mines, laying a white tape behind them to indicate where it was safe to tread.

As soon as two platoons were assembled to make the attack, the Shadowmarines scrambled across the minefield and began to climb through the scrubland to their target. Lightning followed with his own platoon and a senior officer, Major Firestar. As they worked their way up a hill, lightning suddenly saw the platoon infront of them get wiped out by machine gun fire. Lofthouse and the sergeant major crawled through to the top of the hill and studied the terrain. After a few seconds, Lofthouse spotted a mound of concrete, camouflaged in the scrub.

"There's a pillbox over there, Sergeant Major," Lofthouse whispered.

Lightning followed his officers gaze until he detected the stronghold, only yards away. He could see the muzzles of the Solar Empire guns traversing in thin slits in the concrete shell. They were
MG-42's.

Lightning ditched his heavy 30.cal machine gun and attached his M-1 Thompson to his combat harness, clambered up to his hoofs and charged at the pillbox.

It was an incredible sight to see for the pinned down Shadowmarines. One of their soldiers was sprinting across the sand, weaving and ducking, firing bursts at the pillbox from his M1 Thompson at the fortified Solar Empire machine gun post. The Solar Empire gunners were shocked to see a lone Shadowmarine sprinting across the sand under heavy fire coming straight for them. They fired at lightning, nicking his ear and grazing an eyebrow, but they couldn't gun him down. In a few seconds, he'd reached their position and rushed up to the slit where the barrel of a MG-42 was protruding out of, he stuck the barrel of his M1 Thompson into the gun slit and fired a 20 round burst into the pillbox killing the enemy gunners inside. As he silenced the pillbox he noticed a trench running towards another concrete bunker. Lightning rushed at it, ejecting the spent magazine and loading a fresh one into his M1 Thompson. The unsuspecting enemy wasn't expecting an attack from behind. Convinced that they'd been outflanked by a whole platoon or more, they came out carrying a white flag as they surrendered.

Lightning took over 12 prisoners in his solo assault, clearing the way for his company to seize the battery. It was an amazing act of selfless bravery, and won him a recommendation for the Lunar Cross. But lightning wasn't a one shot hero. Only a few hours later he received a second nomination for the medal, for another act of courage.

By noon of Operation Dark storm, the Shadowmarines had secured most of Red Beach and were advancing into the Manehatten countryside - known as bocage. This rolling landscape of small fields separated by high hedgerows with the massive city of Manehatten in the middle of it all. From the air it looked like good terrain for advancing infantry, but in one of the major blunders of Operation Darkstorm, the bocage turned into a nightmare for the New Lunar Republic forces.

Author's Note

This is an update of the chapter im going to be a little busy so I won't really have a chance to work on it