Living on the line

Chapters

So it begins...
Familiar face
Open season
Frost: arrival
Days after
New places, new people
Desert storm
The day I hurt
Black hawk down... Again
A look back
Midnight walk
What the buck are those!?
Old buddy

So it begins...

I suddenly awoke to the screeching oh the siren. "What the fuck!?" I yelled as I looked out the window to the perimeter walls of the base. When I looked out the window, my eyes widened in shock. There were explosions going on all around the base! I shot to my locker and grabbed my Kevlar vest and put it on. I grabbed an M4 and and about twelve mags and rushed outside into the battle. What I saw when I reached the wall I saw at least a battalion of griffons charge out of the Everfree Forest. I heard the distinct THUD! of our artillery. Explosions from the 155mm guns shook the ground as it tore the griffons to pieces. "Wait until they get within one thousand yards of the walls to open fire!" I commanded across the wall. Our artillery was killing and maiming the griffons as the kept running across the field. "Ready! Fire!" I yelled.

My name is Frost. A short name for most ponies, but it's still my name. I'm currently the commander of the thirty-first infantry division, Equestrian Army. I've only lived in Equestria now for about three months, even though I'm twenty-two years old. I'm a human. I was sent here after my death in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan by Princess Celestia for one reason, to defend Equestria from the griffons. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I enjoyed my peaceful time in this world, but now my time has come to lead Equestria to victory!

Even though I am a division captain, I still operate in a combat squad. My squad members are, Pvt. Applejack, our support gunner, Cpl. Rainbow Dash, one of our squad rifleman, me, our other rifleman and Pvt. Twilight Sparkle, the squad medic. We are the best in Equestria, but this really was our first time to prove it.

CRACK! The first shot. All of the sudden, automatic weapons were being fired from all across the wall. I was still waiting for them to get closer so I could make every shot count. While I was waiting, Applejack ran up the ramp with her M60. "Sorry I'm late Frost." she apologized in her southern accent. " you haven't missed the fun yet." I replied "Set up the sixty here and open fire!" I yelled as I fired two shots at a griffon flying at the wall. His head exploded and he fell out of the sky. Then I heard the whir of miniguns as a few pegasi flew overhead and ran a strafe run over the field. The griffons appeared to just fall apart as the miniguns tore them apart. To me this battle was just beautiful. Red and green tracers from our guns and blue tracers from theirs illuminated the night. Explosions looked like fireworks on the fourth of July when I was a kid. It was spectacular. Just then, the man to my left fell over, shot in the shoulder. "Twilight!" I called as the purple unicorn dashed up the ramp. "What happened!?" she yelled. "He's shot in the left shoulder I told her. She nodded, performed a pain relief spell on him and teleported him to the aid station in the center of the base.

"Where's Rainbow Dash!?" I shouted down at Twilight. "She is in Cloudsdale getting the thirty-fourth regiment back from leave!" she yelled up to me. "Applejack, hand me your headset!" I told Applejack. "Here ya go Frost!" she said handing me the special forces radio headset. I took off my helmet and put it on. I then strapped on the headset and replaced my helmet on my head. I switched the radio on then switched it to our squad's line. "Rainbow Dash, where the fuck are you!?" I screamed into the headset. "I'm on my way. Spitfire said she would have the regiment mobilized in about three hours." she said. "Alright. Try and hurry the fuck up! We need everypony we can get!" "I'm two minute out! Just hang on!" she said to me.

Jaze's POV

As the fighting picked up, I had to grab any ammo I could get my hooves on. I had picked up Dark Blaze's M249. 'He doesn't need it anymore' I thought to myself. Then a heard a Loud roar. I turned to see seven griffons holding a chained up ursa minor. "Battery, this is Sentry 1-1! I have eyes on an Ursa minor coming out of the forest!" I radioed to the artillery crews. "Roger that Sentry, switching to airburst shells."
"Roger! Thanks Spark, I owe you one!"
"All in a days work Jaze."
I feared our artillery. These guns were the most powerful weapons in our arsenal. I would hate to be on the receiving end of it. Especially the airburst frag showers. They made us do time in a pit in training where they would launch non-lethal airburst shells at you and you would have to get as few paint spots on you as possible while running a mile across a field. It sucked then, now I feel kinda bad for the griffons, having to run through thousands of pieces of shrapnel falling from the sky.
Then I heard five consecutive thumps that snapped me out of my daydream, and heard the shells screech toward their target. A second later, the shells exploded about five feet above the Ursa, showering it and its handlers in speeding white hot shrapnel. I heard the Ursa roar in rage as it charged the wall. Then I saw the commander shoot a 40mm grenade at it. The grenade embedded itself inside the Ursa, which gave a cry of pain before the grenade exploded, tearing it in half. Just after this, the griffons started to fall back to the forest. "They're retreating hold your fire! I yelled to my unit.

My name is Midnight Jaze. I am a Staff Sergeant in the Equestrian Army's thirty-first infantry division, seventh earth pony regiment, second battalion commander. I am twenty-one years old, and I am engaged to Rarity. I met her at a fashion show in Canterlot my sister made me go to. We talked about Ponyville and I told her I was a Canterlot magic school graduate. Yeah, I know, I'm in an earth pony regiment but I am a unicorn. That is actually how it works in most of the units of the army. Unicorns of the academy get field command positions and the other ponies get infantry assignments. I don't think it's fair, but I don't get a say in things up in the castle so I deal with it.

My unit was down about twenty-five ponies in total, killed and wounded. We were given the all clear and told to go get some sleep before our turn on the wall again.

First chapter is done. Got to introduce both OCs and the beginning of the war.

Familiar face

Frost's POV

It is dawn now. The sun is rising on the previous night's battlefield. For some it is a horrific sight. Dead bodies everywhere, severed arms, legs and heads, organs spilling out from gunshot wounds. But the worst part to the green soldiers was the stench. The air smelled of rotten flesh and gunpowder. I was unmoved by the sight. Hell, I was even proud of it! Our two regiments had stopped three divisions of griffons, the most feared warriors in the world, at a loss of thirty-one killed and one hundred twenty-one wounded. The griffon casualties were well above three-thousand. Shipments of ammo and medical supplies were being shipped in from Manehattan. We were not allowed to chase the griffon army because we were the only active division in Equestria at the moment. Other division were being trained, but at the rate they were going we would be on the defense for months.

CRACK! A shot rang out across the peace and quiet of the base and the tower sentry dropped to the floor, dead. Then more griffons charged through the forest. This time, as soon as the griffons were in sight, we heard the distinct noise of the newly arrived .50 M2s. These effectively doubled our frontline firepower while a second artillery battery was being set up in the gun yard.

The siren sounded and everypony started rushing to the wall. My whole team was together this time, and AJ was on a fifty. Twilight had an M16 on her now so she was shooting back at the griffons waiting for the first cry of 'Medic!'. Soon, the artillery started firing a blanket of airburst rounds over the killing field. Also new heavy mortars joined the fight, bombarding the griffons who managed to get past the heavy artillery. Then I started firing well placed shots on the griffons who managed to get close enough.

Within a half hour of the beginning of the engagement, the griffons retreated to the forest again.

About an hour after the battle I was in my room, when I heard a knock. I walked over to the door and opened it, revealing Spitfire. "Hey baby." she said. Did I forget to mention Spitfire is my marefriend? Well, she is. I planted a small kiss on her cheek. "Hey." We talked about last night's battle, and about what the supply situation was like. The usual military shit, right?

Jaze's POV

I was startled awake by the siren. I bolted to my locker and levitated my vest on. I ran outside to regroup with my battalion before heading to the wall. By the time we got there, the fight was already over. I was slightly disappointed by this, but we will see plenty of battles in the future, so I shrugged it of. The commander walked b y me and said, "Take watch on the wall while the on duty units get breakfast." he said. I saluted him and said "Yes Sir!". While on watch, I was figuring out the intricacies of the new fifty cals. After about an hour, Razor walked up to me and said he found something on one of the POWs. He pulled out a picture. The picture was of the griffon and, Rainbow Dash!? "Go show this to the commander right away!" I ordered him. He'd dashed of saying a quick yes sir as he left. I walked down to the POW cages and looked at the griffon in the picture. "I see you know Rainbow Dash." I said to her. "Yeah! She is a total loser! She has a bunch of loser friend too, just like you!" I tried my hardest not to hit her. "Well," I said, "Our commander is coming to interrogate you. Oh and Gilda, we have more on you than you think." I said as I walked away.

Frost's POV

Spitfire and I were eating breakfast when Razor Edge came up to our table. "Sir, Sergeant Jaze needs you at the POW cages now! We have a bargaining chip with one of them that could get us some intel." he said. "Tell Sergeant Jaze I will be there shortly." I told him. "Yes Sir!" he said as he sprinted toward the POW cages. 'Good kid' I thought. As my team headed toward the POW holding area, AJ asked, "Frost, are ya gonna ask Spitfire to marry ya sometime?" Wow. Personal question, but these three were my best friends. "Yes. I've got the engagement necklace. I'm just waiting for the right time." I replied. We the arrived at the holding area and saw Jaze working on a broken down griffon. "Gilda?" all three of my squad mates asked in unison. "Wait, you know her?" I asked, confused. "Yeah, she used to be my best friend." Dash told me. "Okay." I replied. I then walked into the interrogating room.

Jaze's POV

"Do you know anything about a future attack!?" I yelled at the broken down griffon. "Yes!" she whimpered, "There will be an infantry assault supported by Ursa minors!" She was crying. "when!?" I asked. "At 21:00!" she whimpered again. "Thank you." I said walking out of the room. Then I saw the commander. "Do you need me?" he asked. "No sir. I already handled the situation. There will be an assault on the compound made by infantry supported by Ursa minors at 21:00." I replied. "Thank you sergeant." he saluted me and I returned the salute. "Any day sir." I said to him. He walked off toward the wall. My men were going to breakfast. I joined them for a relatively easy day.

Two chapters in one day. I'll try to get the next battle up tonight.

Open season

It was 20:45. Fifteen minutes before the attack was supposed to begin. We were prepared for this attack fully. We had our artillery dialed in right in front of the tree line. We had plenty of extra ammo with us, and the quartermasters were ready to bring us more. Also, our night vision goggles came in, so everypony had one attached to their helmet. Now we were just waiting. Waiting for the attack.

I heard a roar from the forest, then a whole battalion of griffons charged out in a scattered formation. Then, our artillery thundered and screamed overhead, exploding right on top of the griffons. Their advance stalled as we hammered them with artillery and our fifty cals, but they just kept coming. They never stopped! Eventually they started advancing again, moving very slowly. Our artillery kept decimating hundreds of them. We were killing scores of griffons every second. Unlike the last two attacks though, they didn't retreat, they kept on coming! I was amazed by this daring move, but I knew it was foolish. They weren't even within rifle range yet so I was getting bored, but I remained ready on the trigger the entire time. The griffons decided to launch an all out wave against us, because they brought out seven Ursa minors and an entire infantry regiment. Now with the combined strength of three regiments they began advancing past our artillery. They moved the arc of fire with the advancing troops, slowly killing two of the Ursa minors. They were still more than a thousand yards out and I was getting ready for the shit storm to hit. The mortars then joined the barrage, killing for more ursas. Now only one remained, but there were still at least a thousand infantryman advancing on us. They were five hundred yards out and I gave the order. "OPEN FIRE!!!" then the whole base erupted sending a solid wall of lead at our enemy.

This synchronized fire immediately killed at least a hundred griffons and wounding many more. This was a massacre! Why did they keep coming!? This reminds me of the Spartans last stand a Themopylae pass against the Persians. Then, out of nowhere a charge gained them enough ground to get close enough to use rockets on the wall. I ordered two of our five regiments onto the open battlefield. Before my squad got down to join them, all of us shot our grenade launchers at the Ursa minor, blowing it up. It was close enough that we were splattered with blood and shreds of skin.

The armies were in a close range, open battlefield struggle. They were going toe to toe with each other, some with guns and some with knives and bayonets. We had the upper hand. Us ponies were holding our own against the most feared warriors in the world, and we were winning! I was shooting griffons in support of my men when a griffon jumped on my back, knocking me down on my back. I quickly drew my Desert Eagle and put on shot to his head, sending brains an blood spraying all over me. It didn't bother me one bit I pushed the body off of me an picked up my rifle. I holstered my pistol and took off my night vision. I then attached the bayonet to my M4 and started shooting again. Then I ran out of ammo. "FUCK!" I yelled and drew my knife and my handgun. Then another griffon jumped on me and scratched my face withe his talons, causing blood to ooze down my face. I then punched him across the face and plunged my knife into his eye socket. He screamed in pain as I twisted the knife, slowly killing him. I got up and looked for my squad. Rainbow was right behind me shooting her M16, but she is the only one I saw.then a griffon jumped on her back. As he was about to plunge his knife into her back, I shot him once in the chest and once in the head. His blood and brains sprayed onto Dash, who got up and smiled at me. Before turning around and blowing a griffon's head clean off.

I turned around and saw a group of griffons sneaking up on some ponies. I shot two of them and charged the third, knocking him down. I drew my knife and slit his throat, then tore out his windpipe. I reloaded my Desert Eagle and ran off into another crowd of griffons who I gunned down. That was my las mag. I only had my knife now. I leapt onto a griffon's back and stabbed him through the bridge of his nose. Then, out of nowhere they start surrendering, as they noticed their reinforcements had retreated.

Jaze's POV

We were waiting. That's all we did was wait. I was manning one of the machine guns on the north tower. Razor was on the other machine gun to my right. Our tower was in the center of the wall, facing the Everfree forest. Our eyes were fixed on the tree line. We heard the roar and saw the griffons charging out of the forest, but held our fire. The thundering blasts of artillery were heard, and we saw griffons that were torn into pieces. When the griffons slowly started advancing, me and Razor opened fire. We were holding them back under the artillery barrage while the battery showered them in airburst shells.

After about half an hour of this all out massacre, a massive charge by the griffons pushed past the artillery and our machine guns. They started a slow but steady advance toward us. We still fired at the front of the advancing troops as our artillery followed them. Suddenly, rifle fire erupted from across the wall, then about a hundred griffons dropped dead. Small arms fire was heard from everywhere now. The griffons were shooting back now, with little effect. As an Ursa minor approached the wall, I started to fire on it. Then, my gun jammed. While I was trying to fix it, the Ursa minor exploded as a high explosive round hit it in the chest, sending blood splattering onto me. As I fixed the jam, my regiment commander came over and told me, "Get your battalion down onto the battlefield! Their getting too close for artillery!" he yelled at me. "Yes sir!" I yelled back, and ran down to rally my unit.

As we made our way onto the battlefield, the griffons were already beginning to charge us! My unit got up to the front and joined in the shooting. As the griffons got closer, out of the range of artillery, they began shooting back. Some of my men were hit as we stood our ground. Then, the griffons launched a bayonet charge straight into my unit. I fixed my bayonet and stabbed one griffon in the forehead. Razor had stabbed one in the chest and fired two rounds into him. I started firing again, being careful of friendly fire, then I heard the Click! My gun was empty! So I dropped it and drew my M9 and my knife, just like we were taught to in training.then a griffon jumped on Razor's back. I shot him off with three shots to the head. I saw a griffon jump at me, claws raised. He tackled me, causing me to fall backwards. I pistol whipped him across the face and stabbed him in the stomach. Then I continued to shoot him through his chin and out the top of his head. I pushed the body off of me and got up. Then, I saw a mist of red, and felt an intense pain in my shoulder as I fell backwards. My vision went slow motion and my hearing shut off. I looked over at Razor. Three griffons were attacking him. One hit Razor's knee with his rifle, causing him to fall to one knee, then one griffon stabbed him in the chest with his bayonet and the other stabbed him in the side. He dropped to the floor, dead. I couldn't believe it I just got shot and watched my best friend die. I blacked out as a medic dragged me back toward the fort.

The Next Day

Frost's POV

"We took 1500 prisoners last night. We took heavy casualties also, at 567 killed and 1785 wounded. That is almost a third of the division's total strength. Aside from heavy casualties, last night was perfect. We killed over 11000 griffons. Well with that I need to get some sleep princess." I said to princess Celestia over the telephone.
"Alright Commander. Give me a status update on your supplies by 20:00 tonight."
"Yes your majesty, Frost out........."

Frost: arrival

just felt there was something missing, so I'm telling you how Frost ended up in Equestria.

Frost's memory

October 12, 2015
I was looking at an Afghan village that had been locked down by the Taliban through the scope of my TAC.50 . I loved this gun because of the sound and the range. "Sparrow 0-2 you are clear to engage hostiles......" came over the radio, then all was silent. It was eleven at night, and the insurgents were clearly visible with their lanterns illuminating their area to me.

I loaded a magazine and pushed the bolt forward and took aim. I steadied my breath and brought down my heart rate. Then I squeezed the trigger, I watched as the round flew down toward the village and impacted the insurgent's torso, killing him instantly. I loaded another round into the chamber and shot another insurgent. I went on like this for two hours.

I got up to leave when the insurgents located my position on the mountain. I ran to the extraction point to find the Taliban had killed my whole squad and the chopper pilot. One then hit me in the face with the butt of his rifle, knocking me out. I woke up in a cave, a blinding light and a camera in my face. A few men were shouting into the camera in Arabic, so I couldn't understand them. Then one walked over to me with a knife in his hand. He looked into the camera and cut my ear off! The men then began talking into the camera again. I was in intense pain while blood spurted out my head where my should have been. In all my years alive, I had never seen anything like this. Now I was experiencing it firsthand. Then the man with the knife came over and cut the end of my tongue off! This is going too far, I thought. I was trying not to scream. The men were obviously trying to get a point across using me. They brought a bottle of vodka over and poured it over my severed ear. I screamed in pain. Then they did the same with my tongue, then I passed out. When I woke up, the man with the knife immediately popped my left eye out of it's socket. I screamed once more before I was shot in the head.

When I woke up again, I was in a hospital. With bandages over my head. To my relief, I had both eyes and ears as well as my tongue. But my head was in intense pain. Just as I started to regain my senses, a nurse walked in I took a look at her and freaked out. "You're a horse!" I screamed. "Actually, I'm a pony, and so are you." she said kindly. I looked myself over and indeed, I was a pony. I'm going to get the princess, she wanted to talk to you when you got up!" she said cheerfully.

Then a larger white pony with a horn and wings walked in. She was white and her hair blew in a non-existent wind.

"Hello, I am Princess Celestia. I have brought you here for a reason Frost." she said to me.

"Woah! How did you know my name!?" I asked, startled.

"Because I brought you here to lead the army of Equestria against the griffon army."

"Alright. Sounds simple. When do I start?" I said.

"The thirty-first division is the only division we have. So you are their new commander." she told me.

"I need three combat squad mates to assist me in battle." I said.

"I already have three, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and my student, Twilight Sparkle." she told me.

"Alright. The division starts training tomorrow." I said.

"Excellent." replied the princess.

That is how I got here...

Days after

short chapter about the two days after the battle.

Jaze's POV

I awoke in the hospital, hearing the faint beat of the heart monitor as my senses returned. My shoulder was bandaged, but the wound was almost completely healed. A nurse walked in to the room and told me I would go back to my unit tomorrow. I said thank you and got up to go get breakfast. The hospital food was good but I was too depressed to care. My one friend in Equestria was killed in front of me and there was nothing I could have done about it! I slammed my hooves into the table, making a loud thud. This caused a few of the nurses to look at me, but they just continued doing their job. After breakfast, I went and took a shower. It was my first one in three days. I know that doesn't seem like a long time, but I'm not used to not taking one every day. After my shower, I got in bed and went to sleep. There was nothing else to do.

Frost's POV

I hung up the telephone and turned around to see a crowd of ponies. I walked through the crowd to see what all the commotion was about. It was Rainbow dash beating a stallion. "Rainbow Dash! What are you doing!?" I asked. "This guy killed three guards and was sticking bombs down the barrels of our artillery guns!" she yelled at me, still beating the guy. I pushed her off of him, "is this true?" I asked him. "Yes it is." he whimpered. "Get me two bricks please." I told Rainbow Dash. She ran off to get them while I dragged the stallion to the POW cage. Rainbow brought the bricks to me. I tied them to his feet then I lifted him up against the wall. I then stabbed him on the left side of his stomach wit my knife, sticking it in the wall. "Give me your knife." I said to Rainbow Dash as the crowed watched in horror at what I was doing. She handed me the knife and thrusted it into the right side of his stomach. Then, I let go of him. He slowly started to fall toward the ground screaming in pain as the knifes cut through his body as he was slowly falling. After about two minutes, his body fell to the floor in three separate pieces. "Let this be a warning to you all." I said as I walked to my room to take a nap.

Jaze's POV

The next day

I walked out of the hospital feeling great. I had a new kevlar vest and clean clothes. I went to my barracks to put my stuff back when I heard some of my men talking about an execution. "What execution?" I asked them. "The commander executed a traitor by cutting him into three parts." one of them told me. "Oh." I said.

I went up to the wall to look over the battlefield from two days ago. It was a horrifying sight. There were severed limbs, dead ponies and griffons scattered over the field, blood covered the grass and it stank of rotting flesh. I never thought this is what war would be like, I thought to myself. I went outside the gate, where some of the ponies were collecting intel, to Razor's body. I look over it and start crying. I take a pin off his vest and a letter out of his pocket for his wife and daughter. I went back inside the base and put the pin on my vest so I will remember him. The pin was a lifesaving pin he got in high school for saving me from a cockatrice. I start crying again at the memory. Then I wrote a quick letter to Razor's wife telling her what happened that night and attached his letter to it then I went to the post office and sent it to Ponyville, where they live. I then went to the barracks and went to my bed to calm down and sleep.

New places, new people

Frost's POV

Two new divisions arrived today. Princess Celestia told us that my division was being moved to a new defensive line outside Appleoosa to defend that region from the zebras, who allied with the griffons. We moved out at about eight this morning to the Ponyville train depot to load up and head out. There were already replacement troops in Appleoosa, so there was at least some security while we were on our way. After I read some intel on the zebras, I concluded these guys were more of a Vietcong guerilla army fighting with support of the griffons. This was fine by me, since we were still on the defensive, so we can use our terrain to our advantage instead of the other way around. We arrived in the city thirty one hours sharer departure and immediately went to the defensive line. It was a system of trenches placed on a hill overlooking the desert border of Equestria and the zebra nation. A good strategic high point overlooking a flat killing field. Although significantly less trained than the griffons, the zebras had a ten to one manpower advantage over them and a twenty five to one against us. This worried me a little but I did not fear the zebras...

Jaze's POV

I am looking around the new desert arsenal, and might I say it is pretty impressive. We had the standard M2s, we had M249s instead of M60s, and we had M16s instead of M4s. We were all given new desert fatigues, vests and helmets to match the environment. The trenches were very nice. Everything was underground except the entrances, which were sealed shut 24/7. Firing positions were smal slits in the hill and artillery bunkers had sliding camouflaged blast doors. We had in excess of ten thousand rounds of ammo per pony at the moment, but we would need more after one or two battles. On good days we could see about three miles, but in dust storms it is impossible to see outside and the facility is locked down as to not fill with sand. We have motion sensors outside to tell us if they made a move through the storm, so there are no worries about a surprise attack.

It has been a week since we moved here. We haven't seen any action yet, but we don't let our guard down. We keep seeing scouts walking around the field, so we know they are here. I'm sending out three pegasi to scout and preform a strafe run over an area believed to hold an enemy camp.

About an hour later the lieutenant of the squad radioed back to the fort that they had found the enemy base, but we're taking heavy fire. We told them to get back to the fort, and we would cover their retreat with artillery. Then the lieutenant's squad flew out of the danger zone as the distinct thump of our artillery echoed through the entire fort. We saw the flashes of light from the explosions in the moonlight. The artillery ceased firing and the lieutenant told us the artillery did more damage than he ever could. We expected an immediate assault as we had now given away our position, but the battlefield was quiet. I was still crying myself to sleep every night. I really missed Razor. I delivers his letter to his wife, and she broke down to tears as soon as I told her about his death. She calmed down and read the letter aloud.

My dear wife and beloved daughter,
My best friend Jaze should be giving this to you, and if he is, I am dead. I want to let you know I hope you move on and find somepony else to love. I will always love you both.

Your father and husband,

Razor Edge

Desert storm

I woke up to the fort siren going off and the intercom voice yelling, "ALL TROOPS GEAR UP AND EQUIP FLIR! GET OUTSIDE IMMEDIATELY! HOSTILES ADVANCING IN THE SANDSTORM!" I got up and put on my desert fatigues and vest. Then I put on the special forces helmet the commander gave me as a promotion gift. I am now a lieutenant, and I command the second regiment. The helmet had desert digital camouflage with black timed glasses and a wireless radio headset. I grabbed my rifle and my 1911 (another promotion gift) and rushed outside to my regimental rally point at the base of the hill. I paused for a moment and looked at the battlefield with my FLIR goggles. What I saw was a horde of zebras stumbling through the storm toward our positions. I galloped down the hill and joined my regiment. "Machine guns up in front of every platoon, and snipers on top of the hill I shouted at my unit. We all used our FLIR to our advantage and set up some decoys with tactical flashlights in the center of ous sector as our unit was shaped in an arrow pointing toward the mountain, with them right in the middle. Our platoons were staggered to prevent friendly fire in the storm. Now we just waited as the enemy approached...

Frost's POV

I was on the hill with the other nine snipers in the division. The snipers were considered the elite because there were so few of them, and they never missed. I lie on the hill with a Barrett M82 fifty cal. I attached a FLIR scope to the rifle so I wouldn't need the bulky goggles. I took aim at a group of Zebras crossing a row of barbed wire about nineteen hundred meters out. I looked at my combat conditions analyzer or CCA. It told me the wind speed was up to thirty nine kilometers per hour westward. I loaded the weapon and aimed carefully at the lead zebra. I steadied my breath and pulled the trigger, sending a bullet down range that caused the lead zebra and the one behind him to drop down to the dirt, and, a few seconds later, disappear from my FLIR. I took aim at another one of the zebras who was on the ground hiding from me. I took the shot and watched his head explode. I quickly killed two more of the enemies before they got up and foun the rest of their group. I liked the looks of the slowly, but carefully advancing group. I switched my rounds to explosive armor piercing rounds and lobbed a few at the group, killing seven of the zebras. I lobbed two more rounds to empty the magazine before popping down my goggles ang grabbing my rifle. I then slid down the hill to my already waiting squad. "Ya'll really that anxious to get started?" I asked jokingly. "You know it!" replied Rainbow Dash. "then let's kick some zebra flank!" I said. Then I went on the radio and said, "All batalion commanders this is Commander Frost. The enemy is in disarray and lost. All units advance and attack any units in your sector. We are going silent, so attach silencers or use knives. No spells, that will create light which will give away your position. The enemy has a superior number of troops. Do your best and fight for the princess." i then attached a suppressor to my M16A4 as my squad did the same.we then moved out as the rest of the regiment and snuck up on a group of zebras. There were ten of them, one of them had a flashlight trying to find us. We then all simultaneously fired three rounds at each of our targets killing all of them. Then we moved on. I found a slightly smaller group of seven and shot all of them. It has been eleven minutes and no audible gunshots have been heard, yet...

Jaze's POV

I had gathered a group of eight ponies to go hunting with. About five minutes into the hunt, we saw a group of seven zebras approaching us. We all laid down on the ground and waited for them to pass over us. When they did, we got up silently and used our knives to shred them into a bloody pulp. We then moved on to the east to find a group of thirty two zebras advancing toward Thunderclap's group. We immediately got behind som stragglers and stabed them in the back of the neck, killing them instantly. Suddenly a torrent of bullets came out of nowhere and tore the other twenty four to shreds I looked over to se the commander and his squad approaching us. "Don't know what you'd do without us lieutenant?" he said jokingly as he handed us three silencers. "Thank you sir." I said to him as he saluted me. "Anytime Jaze." he said before running of into the storm. He is a good man. We advanced on a far larger force than the last. This group numbered about sixty, and we were severely outgunned. "Commander, I need your assistance. I have a group in excess of sixty hostiles advancing on my position." I said into the radio. "Roger lieutenant is see you. Backup is on the way." he replied. I took ail with my M16, ready to open fire. Then I watched as they stared to get cut down. I looked to my left to see Applejack with a suppressed M60, unloading on the group. I smiled and opened fire on the group. They were all dead within seconds. "Commander Jaze. The enemy is retreating!" said a sniper on the hill. "Roger that overwatch." I replied. That was the easiest battle yet.

The day I hurt

this explains Spitfire's absence in the last two chapters.

Spitfire's POV

I woke up at the Everfree base. How I wished I could be with my coltfriend in Appleoosa. But I was here, commander of the base. I was recently promoted to captain because our previous commander deserted two weeks ago. Since then we have had daily attacks on the base. One day in particular was very sad for me.

72 hours earlier...

I was talking to the former wonderbolts, remembering our old times as an arial acrobatics team. Those were the days, peace and quiet. I got separated from the group when I was drafted, but it seems the rest of them stayed together through the draft. Then the base alarm went off. We all rushed outside the gate to the trenches and readied our weapons. Then an enormous wave of griffon heavy infantry came pouring out of the forest, firing their light machine guns with no effect. Our artillery then started showering them in airburst shells. We were now equipped with 75mm auto-cannons, instead of the 155mm howitzers we had. This dramatically increased our volume of fire over the field. The griffons kept coming, like always. We opened fire when they reached the 750 yard mark. We were killing more and more of them but they kept advancing. I watched in horror as Rapidfire was hit in the head with a bullet, spraying his brains over the back of the trench. I couldn't dwell on it. "Somepony get on the fifty!" I yelled. Fleetfoot stepped up to the gun and opened fire on the advancing griffons. Then one of the griffons fired a burst that caught her in the shoulder, but she kept firing the fifty, killing the griffon. We held them back for another hour when, CLICK! Fifty's empty Fleetfoot yelled as she drew her pistol.the griffons immediately capitalized on this while ammo was being brought up and charged the trench. One of the griffons tackled Fleetfoot and slashed her neck with his talons, causing her to scream as blod spurted everywhere. She soon died from blood loss, then the griffon tackled me. Then, Soarin' bucked him in the face and charged him. The griffon punched him and slammed him against the wall of the trench with his forearm he drew his pistol as I drew mine. He fired first, hitting me in the shoulder, sending me to the ground. I could only watch as the griffon put the gun under Soarin's chin and pulled the trigger, blowing his brains out. Some sprayed onto me as I sat there with a horrified look on my face. Then the griffon was shot three time in the head. I looked up to see Quartermaster standing over the trench. He hopped down and picked me up and put my good foreleg around his neck. "Thought you might need some help!" he said to me. I weakly smiled at him as he dragged me to the aid station in the base. I was still shocked. My best friends were all just killed right in front of my fucking face! I started to cry as he set me down on a cot. "what's wrong?" he asked. "All my friends just died!" I yelled, still sobbing uncontrollably. "Oh." he said, "I'll be your friend, if you'd like." he said. "Thank you." I said before I passed out from blood loss.

That was three days ago, and I will remember that as the saddest day of my life. The military is accepting my transfer request. I'm headed to the fort in Appleoosa in two days. I'm happy I gate to see Frost again. It's been almost a month since I've seen him.

Black hawk down... Again

"If ya knew what's best for ya, you'd leave this here country! You understand!" Applejack yelled at a zebra warlord as she pinned him to the ground, knife drawn. "We can't! The griffons have taken over our country and are forcing us to fight!" he whimpered. "Likely story!" she yelled at him as she plunged the knife into his mouth and out the back of his head. "Holy shit AJ! Maybe you went a little far on that one." I said walking into the warlord's tent. Then the camp siren went off and the zebras were running out of their tents. Most of them were unarmed, but a few had AK-47s and Makarov PM pistols. We started firing at them in no particular order. All of them were all charging us, armed or not. We dropped about thirty of them before retreating the warlord's tent and running to the LZ, where one of the new Blackhawks would pick us up. We made a dash to the LZ to find a horde of zebras waiting for us. We were surrounded by enemies we started shooting them, but there were too many of them! We started getting hit. I was the first, getting shot in the chest with a Makarov. My vest stopped it, but it knocked me on my ass. Then Twilight got hit with a burst of fire for an Ak-47. Then the chopper flew overhead and tore the hostiles apart with the miniguns as AJ and Rainbow Dash hit the ground. One of the zebras fired a burst from his PKM before losing his head in a shower of bullets. That burst hit my stomach, tearing three decent sized holes in my vest, ripping my abdominal area. Blood was spilling all over the ground where I was. I was fading from consciousness when Applejack and Rainbow Dash picked me up and Twilight limped to the helicopter. We took off, then the worst possible thing happened, we were hit with an RPG. The pilot held control of the chopper long enough to send a mayday message to the base. We then impacted in one of the pits of barbed wire. The fort replied they were sending a relief battalion to our position.

Gatling's POV

We hit the ground, hard. I felt my rear right leg snap from the force of the impact. I felt no pain in my leg, however. I assumed it was because of adrenaline. I squeezed the trigger on the minigun to find it still functioned. I looked back to see two of the members of the commander's squad hand me a pair of FLIR goggles. I had night vision, but a dust storm was incoming, so I tossed the night vision goggles aside and attached the infrared goggles to my helmet. "They're comin'." the yellow mare said shouldering a SAW.

"I see them, twelve hundred meters and closing fast said the cyan mare as she took aim with her M14. She fired three shots and I saw as two of them dropped down to the ground.

"Hold your fire," I told them, "I'll take care of them at the longer distances, you shoot em' in close."

"Alright. I'll watch our backs, just in case they try and flank us." said the cyan one as she turned around and went to check on Lance.

"Got a group of about twenty, dead ahead! Engaging!" I said as I flipped the power switch on the minigun. The gun let out a ferocious roar as I started firing at the incoming hostiles. I watched through the thermal goggles as body parts flew everywhere and blood sprayed over the hot area.

I then heard the minigun behind us come to life as I looked back at Lance, who was engaging targets that had gotten behind us. The two pilots were in the crew compartment with their MP5s, waiting to use them on anyone who got too close. There were two wounded with us, one was the commander, who was unconscious, and the other was a unicorn medic. She was trying to stop the commanders bleeding abdomen.

I turned back and looked at the zebras, who were crawling, hoping to avoid detection. I immediately started firing at them, killing most of them. My gun suddenly stopped firing. I looked at the feeding belt to see it was empty. "I'm empty!" I yelled at the yellow mare. "Here ya go! Yer' locked n' loaded!" she yelled at me, throwing me a G36C.

"Got any extra mags?" I asked.

"Here! I've got eight! Fire in bursts, we can't us all of it now!" she yelled at me while handing me a vest. I put on the vest, not having one of my own. I started firing at the zebras. I then noticed the rifle had an underslung 40mm grenade launcher. I moved my hand to the grenade launchers grip and pulled the trigger. The grenade exploded in the middle of a crowd of enemies, sending them flying in multiple directions. I continued firing precisely aiming each shot. I was down to three mags and the yellow mare had two belts remaining for the SAW.

"Rainbow! How ya'll doing over there?" she yelled to the other mare, whose name was Rainbow Dash.

"Crew chief's dead, I'm almost out of ammo!" she yelled back.

"How long until backup is here Applejack!?" the medic asked, "Frost won't last much longer in his condition!"

"Ah don't know Twi!" shouted Applejack.

"Does you radio work!?" asked the medic.

"Ah don't know! Take it and try!" Applejack screamed at me.

"I've got signal!" she yelled, "This is Twilight Sparkle, do you read me!?"

"Twilight, this is sentry 1-1! We are looking for you! Do you know where you are!?" Jaze yelled through the radio.

"Jaze, we crashed in the sector three barbed wire pit!" she yelled, "I'm hit, one of the crew chiefs are dead and Frost is in critical condition!"

"Roger we are inbound! ETA three minutes!" the voice said through the radio. Twilight tore off the radio and threw it aside.

"Applejack! Jaze will be here in three minutes!"

"He better be here! Ah've only got thirty rounds left in my handgun!" Applejack said.

"I'm dry!" I yelled.

"Here you go! Don't lose it!" Twilight said as she handed me the commander's Desert Eagle.

"I won't!" I said, chambering a round.

"Watching out, it kicks!" she warned me.

"Don't worry!" I said. I fired the gun, it kicked me in the face. "Ow! Fuck!" I yelled, rubbing my snout. I then started firing again, this time controlling the weapon while I shot the oncoming zebras.

The zebras were starting to get in the chopper. One tackled me, and I shot it off of me. Then watched as the rest of them were gunned down from behind. I looked over to see a pitch black unicorn followed by about twenty other ponies.

"Boy am I glad to see you!" I said to the unicorn, who appeared to be the leader.

"You hurt buddy?" he asked me.

"Yeah. My right hind leg is broken." I told him.

"Brink! Get over here with the stretchers!" the unicorn yelled. An orange earth pony walked up with four stretchers. They put Frost and me on them first then they put Twilight on one before picking us up and moving us back to the fort. "Thank you lieutenant." I said.

"You're welcome, and my name is Jaze, Midnight Jaze." he said.

Frost's POV

I woke up in the fort's hospital ward. "Ughh. Where am I?" I asked.

"You are in the hospital." a familiar voice said to me.

"Spitfire? Is that you?" I asked, looking at the mysterious figure.

"You know it is baby." she said.

"I've missed you I said, still not able to see more than her shadow. "how did you get here?" I asked.

One long explanation later...

"After that day, I requested a transfer here to be with the only pony I have left." she said, finishing her story.

I was shocked. All of her friend were killed? "I'm sorry Spitfire." I said.

"Don't be," she said, "that's just part of war."

I pulled her into a deep, loving kiss. "You think you can stay here tonight?" I asked.

"You know it." she said.

I didn't mean to rip off Black Hawk Down, it just happened. I named it after the movie because it seemed appropriate.[Also, new OC.../b]

A look back

This chapter is about the OCs lives before the war.(excluding Frost)

Midnight Jaze

Midnight Jaze was born in Canterlot twenty-one years ago. His parents names were Midnight Star, his father, and Twilight Sun, his mother. He was raised in an apartment in the outer part of the city. Life was comfortable, but Jaze was always interested in magic. When he was five, his parents enrolled him in princess Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. He attended school there through high school with his cousin, Twilight Sparkle. After completing high school there, he was invited to the Equestrian army officer academy, or simply known as the academy. It was too generous an offer to refuse. If he graduated the school, he was gaur teed the rank of sergeant, and twenty-five hundred bits per week. After his junior year had ended at the academy had ended at the academy, he had gone to Ponyville over the summer. There he met another unicorn named Rarity. He instantly fell in love with her. After two weeks in Ponyville, he asked her if she would go out with him. She said yes, and he stayed with her and her sister for the two weeks he was in Ponyville. When it was time for him to go, he asked Rarity and her sister, Sweetie Belle, if they wanted to live with him in Canterlot, and that he would buy Rarity a store with his generous officers pay. (he started receiving pay after his sophomore year.) She said yes and went to tell her friends. She said goodbye and they left on his chariot to go to his apartment in Canterlot. When she saw the apartment, Rarity almost had a heart attack. It was filthy. She immediately started to clean up, much to Jaze's amazement. She told him to keep his apartment clean from now on and he told her he would try.

Rarity had been living with Jaze for a month now. She loved him and he loved her. He taught Sweetie Belle some things about magic, and helped Rarity open a new fashion boutique in downtown Canterlot. One night, things got intimate between the two, and a few days later, Rarity found out she was pregnant. Jaze passed out after hearing the news. It was almost too much for him, but Sweetie Belle was ecstatic. She was happy she was going to be an aunt, and she wasn't even ten yet. Over the next three weeks, their love strengthened. The night before he went back to school, he got news that all classes except senior classes were being cancelled, and senior classes were to study combat tactics with the new arsenal. Equestria was going to war. Jaze was shocked at the news. One thousand years of peace, and now a war was going to start, dragging him into it. He was worried because there were only twelve seniors at the academy. What worried him more was that he wouldn't get to see Rarity. That night, he took Rarity out to dinner, and took her for a walk to the palace balcony, overlooking all of Equestria while the sun set. He then dropped to one knee and levitated a box out of his suit, revealing a silver engagement bracelet and asked, "Rarity, will you marry me?" she looked completely shocked and Jaze thought she would say no, but the she squealed and started shouting, "YES! Yes, I will marry you!" the two then shared a deep passionate kiss before walking back to their apartment.

The next day, he started school again. He sat down in the front of the classroom next to his best friend, Razor Blade. "Hey Razor, who do you think the new teacher is?" he asked him. "No fucking idea dude." he calmly replied. Then the door opened and we all shot up to attention. Then a navy blue Pegasus stallion with a darker blue mane walked into the room. "Everyone get in line and come get some combat gloves then stand in front of your desk." he commanded flatly. Jaze could tell he was not from around here because he said 'everyone' instead of 'everypony'. We all got a pair of gloves and stood in front of our desks, still at attention. "At ease." he said, "These are your new combat gloves. Put them on now." he ordered. We did as we were told. When he put them on he noticed he could control the appendages attached to the glove. "these gloves are magically designed to give you control of the fingers." he said to us. "Now follow me, we are going to weapons training." he said. Weapons training? He thought this was tactics training. We arrived at a brand new facility it had a row of concrete stalls and a building about a hundred yards out in front of it. "My name is commander Frost." he said, "I am the commander of the division you will be drafted into after the next three months of training. Do you understand!?" "Yes sir!" we all yelled back. "alright! I want you to stand on your hind legs and walk to that wall over there. Now!" he yelled. We all stood on our hind legs. We all knew how to stand on our hind legs at attention, but not how to walk on them. We eventually made it to the wall. "Alright I want you to sprint to the other wall and back on your hind legs. If you do not finish in under ten seconds, you will all run again! do you understand!?" "yes sir!" we all yelled again.

"Ready! Go!" he yelled. We all ran to the wall, but Razor tripped on the way back.
"Soldier, what's your name?" he asked.
"Razor Blade, sir." he said.
"come here Razor." the commander said.
We all expected for him to yell at Razor, but he whispered something to him and came back to the group.
"Ready! Go!" he yelled again. This time, razor beat all of us by about ten feet.
"What I told razor was you cannot keep you weight forward. You are only using two legs, so keep you balance centered." He said. He then turned around and picked up a long black object. "this is an M4 rifle. It will be your companion through battle. Repeat after me. This is my rifle, without me it is useless, without it I am useless." he said. We repeated this slogan and continued to learn its functions, how to clean it, and how to properly fire it. He then presented us all with an engraved officers pistol. It was a 1911 .45 caliber.

After three months, my training had ended and I got placed as a battalion commander in the second regiment. Razor was assigned as my executive officer (XO). I went home to Rarity and told her that I was going to a new base outside of Ponyville, looking over the entire Everfree forest. I only had two more days with her and I spent them at home. When I left, I told her we would have our wedding as soon as I could see her again...

Gatling Wind

Gatling Wind was born nineteen years ago in Cloudsdale. His parents were killed when he was three weeks old, and he was moved to an orphanage. He spent three years with two fillies named Oak Leaf and Dear Fawn. He was then adopted by two mares named Cloudy Sunrise and Misty Summer. They loved him very much. They sent him to junior flight school when he was five, one year earlier than usual. He arrived at flight school and, to the amazement of his teachers, was hooves down the best flier in the class. One day the class bully, Lightning Blitz, found out his parents were both mares. He started to tease Gatling about it. He took it too far for Gatling. Gatling punched his snout, breaking it, then broke his left wing with one hard chop. Blitz went down, crying like a little filly, and the class started cheering for Gatling. He was the best flier in his class Through the entire course of flight school. Before high school, he shocked his parents by saying he wasn't going to high school. Instead he trained for the royal guard. After three years of training, he was drafted into the army at the age of seventeen to fight the upcoming war. To his surprise, he was put in an experimental flight group. After five months of training and development the first helicopter force was activated. There were only six choppers in the unit, all of them Blackhawks, but they had the mobility of a Pegasus, and could carry ponies or equipment. He was a door gunner on the first chopper. The unit was deployed to Appleoosa, where his crew was shot down on the way back from their fist mission...

Midnight walk

Back to school, oh joy. Only five more weeks until I graduate high school, or not. We'll see.

I woke up, my mare cuddled up next to me on the hospital bed. She started crying in the middle of the night, so I helped comfort her. Spitfire was one of my only friends here. I did everything I could to make her happy. I got up, and clenched my stomach. I stood up anyways, ignoring the pain. I walked to the locker on the other side of the room and grabbed all of my belongings and suited up. I then shook Spitfire awake. "Hey, let's go." I whispered in her ear while she stirred. "Ten more minutes." she's aid rolling over. I rolled my eyes at her and walked over to the table and wrote a note.

Spitfire,
I went to the OP. Will see you later.
Frost

Short and to the point, just the way I liked it. I then walked to the OP to ask about what happened in my absence.

Gatling's POV

I was sitting in the squad lounge. Applejack moved me from the chopper force into the commander's elite team. I looked over at Applejack, who had her hat over her eyes. I looked at my leg, which was in a brace. It had been fixed, it was just weakened. I had to wear the brace for three more days.
One perk to being in an elite unit was that you get fully customized weapons for any mission. I had selected a SR-25 for my long range rifle. I had it fitted with an 8x zoom standard scope and a forward flip-off FLIR scope. I had a seven inch retractable bipod added to the forward rail, a padded cheek guard on the stock and a heavy suppressor clamped to the side, ready for use. For close range, I chose an MP5. I added an EOtech sight and a detachable suppressor, along with a forward looking motion sensor. I was ready for a fight, if one ever came...

Three days later...

I finally got that pesky leg brace off. I then grabbed a desert ghille suit and my SR-25. I attached the suppressor and walked to the fort exit. "An' just where do ya think yer' goin'?" came a voice from behind me.

"I'm going to do some scouting, Applejack." I said to the orange mare.

"Alright, just be careful. Don't want to lose ya so soon." she said jokingly.

"Don't worry, I plan to." I said, walking out of the fort. I looked around, it was about one in the morning, and it was about twenty-nine degrees out here. 'we're in the desert, and it's colder here than Cloudsdale.' I thought to myself. I then picked some grass up and entangled it in the suit. Need to look as natural as possible. I then slid down the hill and galloped about a thousand yards before getting to the wire fence. I simply climbed over a destroyed portion of the fence and continued onward. I then climbed a shallow hill. I was surprised that it overlooked a zebra encampment. I lie down on my stomach and drew my rifle's bipod legs out then I screwed on the silencer. I flipped the FLIR off and looked through the standard scope. I could see the camp perfectly. I then wrapped my rifle in desert environment camouflage wrap, just as a precautionary measure. I looked through my scope and saw a general's tent. I saw a figure walk out wearing a steel helmet and armor. He was accompanied by two guards. That must be a leader, I thought. I loaded a magazine, I had brought fifteen, totaling three hundred rounds. I looked at the target with some ranging binoculars. Distance was eleven hundred meters. I knew it was a near impossible shot to make, but I knew I could do it. I chambered a round into the bolt and watched the grass on the ground for wind. Absolutely still wind. I adjusted to the most promising trajectory and pulled the trigger. All I heard was a soft pew! come from the weapon. I watched the bullet as it flew along the flight path I had chosen. It slammed right int the leader's helmet, punching a hole through the helmet and the warlord's skull, as his brains were sprayed all over his guards. They immediately turned around facing away from me I took this opportunity to shoot both of them in the back of the head. I then started picking off random soldiers one by one for about twenty minutes until the alarm was finally raised. I grabbed my empty mages and put them back in my vest as I ran for the fort. I had a crowd of zebras on my trail, following my hoof prints. I made it back to the fort and sealed the door. It was three thirty in the morning. I went to the nearest firing position I could find, reattached my FLIR scope, and picked off each zebra in the search party one by one...
About ten minutes later a few watchmen came over and told me, "Somepony said there was a gunfight outside, do you know anything about it?" one of them asked me, examining my attire. "Yeah, they were kind of shooting at me." I told him. He looked at me,"You went outside the fort without permission?" he asked, obviously shocked by what I told him. "Hay yeah I went outside! I need to go file a mission report, so if you'll excuse me." i said walking past him. "Why were you outside if you are in the chopper force?" he asked me, eying my unit patch. "I'm in the commander's squad now!" I said, running off. I went to the squad briefing room, and picked up a mission report file. I wrote down I had killed an officer, and about twenty-five soldiers and fell back, sniping a search party as they approached the fort. I signed it, Spec. Gatling Wind 1300943. I then went to the couch and lie down to take a nap until everypony else showed up at breakfast.

What the buck are those!?

new OC! Yay!

I was at the OP, looking down on the battlefield, when I saw a small dot run across the field. I took a look through the binoculars to see that it was Gatling Wind. Spitfire told me Applejack had brought him into the squad. I decided to watch him and see what he was doing. He ran up the hill and came into the fort, looking back in the direction he came as he ran. I looked over to the hills and saw a zebra search party looking for him, trying to stay undetected. I then watched as two of them toppled over. I was confused by this, there was no gunfire, but the zebras were obviously being shot. I then noticed a suppressed gun barrel sticking out at the entrance firing position. I then noticed he was firing a suppressed weapon over eleven hundred yards. "Kid's a sniper, huh." I said as I watched the rest of the group get gunned down. Gatling shot with one hundred percent accuracy. Nine shots, eleven kills. 'Pretty impressive' I thought to myself. He was just as good as AJ said he was. I then heard footsteps (I don't like speaking like a pony) coming from the hall. I watched as Gatling ran into the briefing room. I took one last look at the battlefield and went into the room. I saw him asleep and a mission report on my desk. I picked it up and read it.

It was now about six and AJ showed up in the room. "Read this." I told her.

"Ah told ya he was a good soldier!" she boasted.

"Yeah, you were right. I watched him take out a patrol with more than a hundred percent accuracy." I said, still looking at the report.

Applejack whistled, "That is pretty impressive." she said, obviously quite impressed.

"I know, but he took the shots from over eleven hundred yards, with a supperessed SR-25!" I said.

"No way!" she said, "There is no way a seven-six-two can make that shot! Much less a suppressed one!"

"Take a look." I replied flatly, throwing her the sniper rifle.

"Ah can't believe it." she replied, shocked.

"Look at this," I said, "his shot computer registered a thirteen hundred meter headshot about five hours ago."

"Damn, this one's stayin', right Frost?" she asked me, amazed at the man's shooting skill.

"Of course he's staying." I replied.

Then the alarm rang. I ran to the closet and grabbed an M82, determined to do some long range damage, and my G36, which Gatling had used on the chopper. AJ immediately went and grabbed her M60, preferring it to the smaller SAW. Gatling shot up and shook his head. "What the fuck is going on!?" he shouted at me. I tossed him an M82 and said, "Let's see if you can out-shoot me." His face immediately lit up, "Hell yeah sir!" he said. "it's Frost now, not sir." I told him. He nodded and ran to the fort exit. I followed and we set up on the concrete support on top of the fort...

Midnight Jaze's POV

I was talking to cousin Twilight when the alarm rang. "Well it was a nice talk Twilight." I said getting up and grabbing my M16.

"It was. We need to talk again sometime." she said as she left the room.

I ran to the to the regimental sector, on the first floor, southeastern end. We were located next to the southern end deployment gate. Our job was to keep the zebras away from that gate. If they got through, all he'll would break loose. We took our firing positions, my being behind a fifty cal. The regiment was set. Now we waited for the hostiles. Then I saw something that made my stomach turn...

Jewbei's POV

We were going to attack the ponies with our new super weapons. The ponies had artillery, we had tanks. I was still scared shitless. I knew the power of their artillery firsthand. The griffon general Grikon had taken control of the army after the lords assasination this morning. He commanded us to use the experimental weapons. We rolled down to the hill fort. I was riding on the back of the lead tank, my FAL across my legs. I knew we would get slaughtered by the ponies. I had no intentions of fighting them, but if I had to kill them to stay alive, so be it. I intended to surrender at my first chance. I was nervous when the tank I was riding on shook as it fired its 120mm gun. I watched the shell hit the hill, kicking up large amounts of dust. As the dust cleared, I noticed the shell hadn't even made a scratch. Oh shit, I thought, we're fucked. Before the artillery even started, the tank I was riding on ceased to move ans a bullet hit the engine...

Gatling's POV

"Yeah! Right in the engine block!" I yelled as the tank I fired at immediately ceased moving. I took a second shot and it hit another tank's engine, disabling it too. "Don't get ahead of yourself, kid." the commander said as he killed another tank with his fifty. "yes sir." I said as I squeezed of another round, this time hitting the front of the tank, hitting the magazine, causing it to explode. The tanks were still over twenty-eight hundred meters out and we were taking perfectly aimed shots. I smiled as I shot the next tank in line, stopping it in its tracks. Then the artillery opened fire with HE rounds, shooting for the disabled tanks. We were on a roll, we had disabled or destroyed seven out of ten enemy tanks. Our tanks were deployed to Ponyville, ours were going to arrive in three weeks. We were to receive twenty-two M1A2 Abrams tanks. I ran out of fifty cal ammo and stood up and headed into the fort and grabbed an M60 and four extra belts of ammo and set up next to Rainbow Dash. "Where's your SR-25?” she asked. "Already did some sniping. Now it's time to tear those bastards a new asshole!" I said. "Hell yeah!" she yelled back as we high-hoofed...

Old buddy

I slowly started to register what was happening. I could not hear anything or see, but I assumed I was dead. I tried to move my arms, they moved just fine. I next tried the fingers. My fingers didn't respond. I opened my eyes slowly, my arms were covered in black hair. I was still wearing my vest, but it was shredded by bullets and shrapnel. I looked at my hands ant they weren't there, only hoof-like ends to my arms. I looked around and saw a figure with a gun searching the ground. I looked around the ground and noticed there were dead and dying horses and zebras all around me. I took a closer look at the figure approaching me, he was a horse! I tried to get up but I felt a tearing in my legs as I tried to move them. 'Broken.' I thought. It then hit me, if the figure was a horse holding a gun and wearing a ballistic vest, then maybe I was a horse. It would explain the hair and hoof hands. I decided to assume I was a horse until told otherwise. I then noticed a puddle of blood coming from my rear legs. 'Definitely broken' I thought. Then I started feeling lightheaded and dizzy. The figure stood above me and asked "Are you alive soldier?". "Help...me." I was able to rasp, before passing out due to blood loss.

I woke up again in a hospital ward. I looked over myself, I was definitely a horse. I had the bent back rear legs and an all hair tail. My legs were no longer broken, so there was an upside. "How long have I been out?" I asked to no one in particular.

"About seventeen hours, buddy." replied a very familiar voice.

"Sir, is that you?" I asked, not looking at the source of the voice.

"Yup. It's me." He said.

"Well Frost, it's been a long time." I said looking at the captain. He was a dark blue horse, but he had wings.

"It sure has Eagle." he said, "Almost too long."

"One question, why is everyone a horse?"

"You are in Equestria now Eagle, this is basically the land of ponies."

"Well, that's news, but I've heard weirder."

"Well let me explain the situation to you since you are here now." he said.

One Long Explanation later...

"So I am a normal hor... I mean pony?" I asked, just to be clear.

"Yes you are, so are you going to fight with me again?"

"Hell yeah, sir."

"Hey, it's Frost here. Come with me we'll get you some gear."...

Frost's POV

Today was great. I got to see my best friend, and he will be fighting in my unit again. He met the team, and they seemed to like him, especially Applejack. I think she likes him. Well we are going tho get some sleep, tomorrow we are going on a raid.

The next morning...

We loaded into the chopper, all of us were carrying light recon packs filled with ammo. Yesterday, Eagle got a SCAR-H from the armory. He liked the heavier barrel and round. We took off at 02:30, we were flying to the enemy camp to kill some of the supervising griffons and secure some HVTs, and grab some vital intel to send to Canterlot. We were circling the camp, getting in to position to drop the ropes over the parade yard. We dropped into the 'hot zone' and waved off the chopper. I immediately waved my team up against the back of the nearest tent. I drew my knife and cut out an entrance. Then, Gatling pulled out his MP5 and shot the sleeping zebras. We proceeded to the camp roads and ran across. I spotted the flag on top of the command tent about a half a klick from our position. "Guys stay behind the tents and find a shadow to hide in, I've got a plan." I said to the team. They did as they were told. I then pulled out a flare and lit three of the eastern tents ablaze. The fire attracted a lot of attention, zebras were rushing to the fire, not noticing us slip past them. We approached the entrance to the command tent when Eagle stopped me and said, "Hold up, I got this one." he stepped inside and we heard a couple of suppressed gunshots and a scream, which was drowned out by the commotion going on in the east. I walked inside to an absolutely beautiful sight. There were brains on the table, a griffon slumped over on the table, a few guards that had their chest cavities blown away, pieces of their organs scattered around the entrance and Eagle, standing over the leader's body. He tore his heart out of his chest with a knife. I looked at him and smiled slightly. "What? I haven't killed anyone in almost a month." he said.

"Have fun?" I asked, heading over to the commander's desk.

"Fuck yeah that was fun!" he shouted.

I went through the desk and found what I needed, deployment priority maps.

"Alright, Dash, burn this place down. Eagle you go signal the chopper at the LZ with AJ. Gatling, you and Twi are coming wit me. We still have a prisoner to rescue." they all nodded and went to do said assignments.

We approached the cage where the HVT was located. I walked up to it and cut the lock. The prisoner woke up and looked at us. "Thank you, Commander. I thought I was fucked!" the prisoner said, "Twilight, are y'all all here?"

"Yes Midnight, we're all here." she said.

"Here's a gun. We've got to go, now." I said.

"Right behind you." Jaze said.

We all ran to the LZ as Rainbow Dash had just detonated a large thermite charge, sending glowing pieces of molten iron flying through the night sky. The camp started burning to the ground, the fire spreading quickly. We sprinted for the LZ, trying to avoid getting caught in the blaze. We saw the chopper in the clearing ahead when I heard a scream from behind me. "AH! I'm hit!"

The yell came from Gatling. I toned around and put him on my shoulders. That's when I noticed the zebra crowd behind me. I ran as fast as I could for the chopper. I jumped aboard and set Gatling in the door gun seat. He was shot in the leg, so he could operate the minigun. The chopper started to lift off the ground as Gatling tore the damn bastards apart, limb from limb. This was an almost perfect mission, except for Gatling getting hit. What a wonderful morning...