Chapter 1: Sent from the sky
I am in no way part of the military. I have no formal training, I do not know military protocol, and I was not a paratrooper during world war 2. So not everything I do in this is going to be 100% accurate. That being said I’m not trying to turn this into Call of Duty, I am trying to make it as realistic to the military as I possibly can. Also, none of the people in this story to my knowledge existed however the 101st and Easy company did. The reason I’m using fake people is that I don’t feel like I can do the men of Easy justice. The only reason I used that is because I know those existed and I’m kind of bad at naming things.
Chapter 1: Sent from the sky
“Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” - General Douglas MacArthur
Date 6-6-1944. Location Normandy, France. A few hours before operation Overlord…
A B 17 was flying over the early morning French sky, the paratroopers inside waiting to jump. Everyone in the plane was readying themselves for the jump 'me included'. I was looking out at the night sky. The French countryside was beautiful at this altitude and at night, it helped calm my mind. “30 seconds to drop!” the commanding officer called, we all stood up and readied for the jump. “Equipment check!” he called gesturing as well ‘for those for couldn’t hear him over the sound of the engines’.
Each soldier checked his gear and sounded off. “20 seconds” he called again. I was in front, the first to jump I took in a deep breath. At this point shit hit the fan. AA guns began firing on our planes. I think our plane got hit, all I remember was a bright light and an explosion. I woke up seconds later and I was falling, I guess I fell out of the plane.
“Fuuuuuuck” I shouted as I opened my chute. I could see faint silhouettes of my fellow troopers also gliding to the ground. I hit the ground safely and after getting detached from my chute and getting it stuffed in my bag, I readied my M1 and began heading for the objective.
I was out in a field, I could see a town that looked liked it had been bombed out before the attack “I don’t think we bombed the towns near the LZ” I thought as I quietly made my way across the field. snap. I stopped, got low, and pulled out my clicker ‘A children's toy the government thought it would be a good idea to give to its soldiers… maybe next they’ll give us toy guns too’. I clicked it once and waited for the response. click click. I stood up and another member of the para carefully walked over to me. It was a private Jameson, a Brooklyn native who signed up after pearl harbor like so many of us. “Have you meet up with anyone else?” I asked
“No, you’re the first person I’ve seen since the drop.” He replied as he knelt beside me.
The sound of a B17 caught our attention, we looked up and saw a B17 on fire and crashing. It flew over us and crashed out in the distance. Jameson whispered something, I couldn’t hear what he said. We checked our equipment, one standard issue M1 Garand, one standard issue M1A1 Thompson sub machine gun, eight pineapple type fragmentation grenades, four smoke grenades, two M1911 45.cal pistols, canteens, bayonets, a few M.R.Es, bandoleers, and plenty of ammo for each weapon. We carefully made our way to the town, we decided we might as well do a bit of reconnaissance on the way to the objective.
We arrived at the edge of the town, it hadn’t been bombed out, it was old, falling to pieces, and might have been hit with the back end of an incendiary bomb. BOOM . A shot rang out and we dropped and readied our weapons “Do you a visual?” I asked.
“No, but it sounded like it came from over there.” He replied.
We crawled across the broken ground and into a ruined building. I could see a huge tree that looked like it had been hollowed out and turned into a library. Jameson and I exchanged looks, more shots rang out “They don’t see us yet.” Jameson said in a hushed tone.
“I’m gonna go over there cover me.” I said and pointed to the huge tree library. He nodded and I counted down “three, two, one.” I sprinted towards the tree library and reached the side of the door. Jameson made the trek after me and quickly got to the other side of the door. I listened to what was going on inside the tree ‘really a building in a tree, why’ and I could hear a conversation, I wasn’t able to make out the words but I could tell the voices were stabbing something.
I attached my bayonet to my M1 and pulled out a fragmentation grenade, Jameson kicked in the door and I threw in the grenade. “The fuck!” was the only thing one of the occupants of the building could say before the grenade went off. We went into the building, the occupants turned out to be small horse like creatures 'about the size of a pony' wearing grotesque armor.
“The fuck are these things? They look like horses.” I said.
Jameson prodded one of corpses with his boot. “Last time I checked horses weren't this tiny…or color.”
I took a closer look at the one he was prodding, it was blue why was it blue, horses aren’t supposed to be blue. Horses are supposed to be different shades of brown, grey, black, white and maybe a yellowy color...NOT BLUE! I stood up “I have no idea, maybe somebody died these ponies coats for a parade or something.” One of the creatures ran down the stairs and started to shoot at us “Take cover!” I shouted as I dove behind an overturned table. I popped up and fired two shots from my M1 and the horse thing went down ‘one shot to the leg and another to the neck. From the looks of it these things fired their guns with their mouths, strange.’ Jameson and I were forced up the stairs as more of the things came from outside and opened fire. We fired a few rounds as we evaded their fire ‘On a side note these creatures are terrible shots’ I had to reload my M1 as I went up the stairs.
“How many of these bastards are there.” I shouted as I took cover behind a wall as Jameson let out a burst of fire on the attacking creatures. A few of them backed down the stairs to dodge the hail of machine gun fire.
“How are we gonna get out of here?” he asked, I quickly looked around and saw a balcony with a now dead sniper on it.
“Cover me!” I called and ran towards the balcony, it was a bit of a ways up but the drop was survivable. We could get out this way and run into the town to evade the creatures. “We can jump from the balcony.” I called as Jameson let loose another burst of fire.
He ducked back over a desk he’d overturned and looked towards the balcony “Are you sure, what about these guys?” he said. I took one of my smoke grenades and threw it off the balcony ‘to give us some cover’.
“Toss a grenade down there!” I said as I put three rounds into one of the creatures. Jameson tossed the grenade and we jumped from the balcony then ran towards what looked like an old boutique, according to the sign that is.
Our escape plan worked and after dark we managed to escape the ‘town’. Whatever these things were they didn’t seem too smart. We were walking through a field when Jameson stopped me, “What the hell is on your arm?” he asked. I looked at my arm and to my surprise there was something there, it was under my sleeve but still noticeable. It was put on so comfortably that I hadn’t even noticed it.
“What the hell...” I whispered. It had several buttons and a large piece of glass on it.
Jameson backed up slightly “Could it be something a kraut put on you?”
I gave him a look “I don’t see how I’ve been with you since the drop and neither of us have seen a single German.” he shut up about that. It had a button labeled ‘on’ “should I push it?” I asked him.
He stepped further back “Uh I’m staying back, just in case.” he pulled back further ‘we were now ten feet apart’.
I gulped as laid my finger on the button, I looked to Jameson ‘ he’d gone prone and was watching me from behind a rock’ I took a deep breath and pushed the button. The machine kicked to life and the piece of glass turn out to be a screen of some kind. I looked to Jameson and he was looking at me, my vision suddenly went dark. I let out a scream and fumbled my M1, once I got it into my hands my vision came back, only it was different. I could now see little symbols they looked like a compass, an ammo counter, and some kind of monitor.
“You alright?” Jameson asked from behind his rock.
“No, I exploded isn’t it obvious.” I said sarcastically.
He got up and walked over to me “Yeah sure. Smart-ass.” he retorted. “So what is that thing?” he asked.
I shrugged “No idea.” A voice came from the machine, it was a woman's voice
“Hello! My name is Scoottaloo I’m the CEO and one of the founders of a company called Stable-Tec. I apologize for interrupting anything you might have been doing before you were brought here.” The voice of Scoottaloo faltered for a second, she’d been crying recently and was stopping herself from crying again.
“If you are hearing this and I pray you never will and that this whole experiment never happens, but if you are then that means I’m most likely, dead and so is Equestria. I-I’m sorry I’m rambling. Look the ruined world around you is our doing. We’ve made mistakes and destroyed the world. I’m hoping that you pony” she stopped “No, people sorry, will help us. If, we have any hope of returning Equestria to normal we’ll need your help. There is no point in restoring Equestria if we’re going to make the same mistakes again. So we brought you here to give ponies another point of view and to guide us. Again I’m sorry for interrupting whatever you were doing. If you don’t want to help us, that's fine I understand. If you want to leave there’s a machine to take you back in Canterlot, the Stable-Tec HQ to be specific. But I beg of you please help us, there are a few ‘quests’ on your pip-buck. There should be a safe house for you nearby your pip-buck will unlock the door and there’s enough food and water to last you a few days.” The voice of Scoottaloo cut out.
“So that settles it.” I said, “We’re not in France and there aren’t any Germans, I didn’t sign up for this shit.” I said tiredly. We were lost in a world not our own, lost in unknown territory with an unknown enemy and NO allies, no reinforcements, no supply chains, virtually no chain of command, and our whole damn company is scattered.
Jameson could tell what I was thinking “Hey we’re behind in enemy lines with virtually no reinforcements. I don’t see much of a difference between here and France.”
I almost punched him “What!?” He backed away, out of fist range.
“Well think about it. In France we were behind enemy lines. Like we are now. Had little to know reinforcements. Like we do now. And as for a supply chain, we would’ve had to wait until we could have taken the beaches.”
I understood where he was going, I sighed “Fine...” a blip appeared on the ‘compass thing’ “I guess we should find that safe house huh.”
He asked which way it was and I told him about the display on the ‘pip-buck’.
The safe house was about three miles north. We had to dodge between several camps of the pony-things with only a few of them attacking us, each those being put down. The safe house was in an old shack, the door to the safe house had another machine like the pip-buck near it. I looked at the door and then to the pip-buck “So what do we do now?” I asked.
“That thing’s on your arm not mine.” He said backing up.
I groaned and tried to open the door by using the machine. “Please connect your pip-buck to input authorization code. See your Stable-Tec terminal manual (page 149/35) for more information.” The ‘terminal’s’ words flashed on its screen.
I found a cord connected to the terminal and a similar socket on the pip-buck. I put the cord into the socket and a flash of numbers and symbols enveloped my vision, I almost flipped out again but it wasn’t as surprising as it was the first time... I still let out a yelp though . The door slowly opened, screeching as it did so. I disconnected the cord and we went into the safe house making sure it was empty. After closing the door we settled down for the night, Jameson was writing in his journal and I was trying to figure out what the pip-buck was.
“Goood evening wasteland, this is DJ-Pon3 with the news. Some reports are showing that a strange aircraft fell from the sky. Well that’s true, I saw it myself it almost crashed into Tenpony tower. I also have reports of even stranger creatures being seen everywhere from Fillydelphia to PonyVille and all of them I hear came from the sky. Now some of you might be thinking this is Enclave and for all I know it could be. Not many ponies know what these creatures look like, but from what I can tell they seem to look a bit like hell hounds mixed with a dragon or a gryphon. I’ll let you all know when I have more but for now be careful out there.” My pip-buck blurted out.
“Okay I guess this things a radio too.” I said amazed at what this thing can do.
Jameson threw a pillow at me “Can you shut up I’m trying to sleep!” I shut the pip-buck radio off and kept watch, I didn’t trust this place, so we were taking shifts on watch.
I had the first watch, I occupied myself by reading a book I'd found about this place. Apparently this world used to be peacefully ruled by two princesses, one named Celestia and the other Luna. War eventually broke out and Luna had put six of her closest friends in charge of six ministries. Each had their own respective ministry. The book also told who led what ministry, Twilight Sparkle led the ministry of arcane sciences, Pinkie Pie led the ministry of moral AppleJack led the ministry of war time technologies, Fluttershy led the ministry of peace, Rainbow Dash led the ministry of awesome, and Rarity led the ministry of image. I took off my helmet and rubbed my head "These name are just ridiculous and who goes and names a ministry 'the ministry of awesome'! This place is giving me headache... And these things are called ponies well they are horse like and look like horses...only like something you'd see in a children's picture book."
We ended up staying in the safe house for two days, we occupied ourselves by thinking up a way to get in contact with the rest of our company. I was lying in one of the bunk beds with the pip-buck radio on.
“Hello wasteland, it’s me again and I’ve got some more news. Remember those creatures I told you about a few days ago. Well turns out they might be some kind of militia or something. Some ponies been picking up their radio signals.”
The radio had both my attention and Jameson's, the captain's voice came on the radio “To all members of Easy company who can hear this. We are not in France our current location is unknown and all members of Easy are to rendezvous on the north side of Canterlot mountain’s base. Repeat rendezvous at base
of Canterlot mountain north side.”
The captains voice ended and the voice of DJ Pon3 came back on “I’m not sure what this fellas talking about or why these things want to go to Canterlot. Don’t they know that Canterlot is the most dangerous place is wasteland. Well if any pony see’s these things on their way please try to at least warn them about what their getting into.”
I switched the radio off. We now knew where to go, to find the rest of our company. Text flashed in my vision “New quest added. Find Easy company, objectives; go to Canterlot mountain.” I rubbed my eyes, I was never going to get use to that.
“So we’re going there right?” Jameson asked.
I nodded “First we’re going to need to find out where that is.” After I said that, more text flashed in my vision
“Waypoints added.” I checked the map and it had the Canterlot mountains on it along with the places we’ve been and Tenpony tower. We got our gear and any food we’d need ready for the trip, it was quite a ways away, about a hundred miles. Then we’d set out.
footnotes :
Average para S.P.E.C.I.A.L
S. 7
P. 8
E. 9
C. 5
I. 7
A.8
L.7
new perks added: Para training, “Death from above!”
Can jump from almost any plane and land safely provided you have a parachute. +1 to agility and +15 to guns and survival. Human, as a human you are not native to this planet and as such equine ponies may attack you without provocation +2 to endurance -1 to agility
Chapter 2: Blood on the Risers
Chapter 2: Blood on the Risers
“Gory, Gory what a hellava way to die.” Blood on the Risers chorus
We were walking along a ruined road heading towards the base of Canterlot mountain in silence. My mind was plagued by questions about this world, why were these ministries important, what did they do, how had the world been destroyed, what was this war about, who were the combatants, and what else is out there.
“So uh, where are ya from?” Jameson asked awkwardly.
“We’re on an alien planet surrounded by colorful talking ponies...and you want to know where I’m from.” I said.
“Well I’m bored and you’re the only one I too. So I’ll ask again where ya from?”
I groaned “A ranch near Dallas Texas.” He stopped and gave me, I swear the biggest shit eating grin.
“So you’re a fuckin’ cowboy.” Ah Christ here we go again. He began asking about Texas and if I’d lived like a cowboy.
We heard the sound of a distant firefight. “Is it one of ours?” Jameson asked.
“There’s only one way to find out, come on.” We ran towards the firefight, passing a destroyed wagon along the way. It took us five minutes to get to the field, we were behind the attacking ponies. The ponies were attacking another group of paratroopers who were hidden on top of a fallen bridge raining fiery death from a top their position with an MG. We hadn’t been spotted at this point. I moved behind a pillar and signaled for Jameson to wait and toss me his tompson. He tossed it to me along with the ammunition, in turn I tossed him my M1 and ammo. I peeked around the pillar, five hostels in front of us, one with an ax and the rest with guns. I got back behind the pillar and signaled Jameson ‘five in front wait for my mark’ I moved to get a little closer to the ponies ‘MARK’
I stepped out from behind the wall I hid behind and opened fire. The ponies died before they had a chance to react. Jameson moved to a nearby ridge and gave me covering fire from afar as I moved closer into the fray. I ran across the terrain to get closer to the other troopers killing the attacking ponies along the way. I jumped into the makeshift pillbox the troopers made “Are you boys alright?” I asked as a bullet hit a wall not to far from my head.
“We’re alright sir, but Gareth got hit in the arm!” one of them said, there were five of them, only two of them had weapons and that was counting the MG.
“How many of them are there?” I asked and bullet struck a few feet beside me.
“Twenty-five sir! We’ve been holding them off since we got here.” He replied. I asked if they had enough ammo. “Yes sir we’ve got plenty of ammo. It’s just these bastards are staying low, I think their gonna try to wait us out.” He responded.
I began to look around, trying to formulate a plan. There was a small ridge that was elevated above the battlefield. If we could the MG up there then we can lay down some serious fire. “Can we get the MG up on that ridge?” I asked as several bullets flew above our heads. The other trooper, which it only just now occurred to me to ask these troopers their names “Also what are your names?” He gave their names, the one I was talking to was Irving then there was Marston ‘the one on the MG’, miles ‘a medic’, and Vineyard.
After introductions he returned his attention to the matter at hand “We could if they’d stop shooting at us!” as he finished a bullet glanced off his helmet.
We were interrupted by the sight of Jameson running towards us taking fire “Shit give him covering fire!” I yelled as I let out a burst of fire from the thompson. He jumped into the pillbox and crashed into my side “The hell were you thinking!?” I chastised him.
He responded with a shit eating grin, then said that he’d spotted what looked to be a large group of ponies coming our way “I’ve got good news and bad news. Bad news more of them are coming from the east and from the looks of it they brought a lot of firepower. Good news is I think I found a way out of here.” He told us about a small passage to the west that looked like it would lead out of here “But downside is we’ll have to go one at a time it’s too narrow for anything else.” Dammit why couldn’t this be easy.
The plan changed “Jameson, remember the wagon we passed on the way here?” he nodded “I want you to lead these boys there, while I draw the enemy’s fire.”
He began to refuse “Sir, with all due respect...”
I cut him off by saying “That’s an order soldier.” He nodded and told the rest of them to get ready to move out.
They were ready to move out I tossed a grenade and yelled “Go!” They jumped out of the pillbox and Jameson led them towards the exit. I let loose a barrage of fire upon the ponies. Making sure they couldn’t get a clean shot on my fellow soldiers. “Come on you bastards!” I yelled as I jumped out of the pillbox and made my way towards the enemy.
BOOM. Something exploded from where Jameson’s group was. I back peddled and made my way there tossing another grenade into a group of enemies. I fired a three round burst into a piss-yellow pony with a sharpened shovel in her mouth. Her head exploded, blood and brain matter covered not only the wall behind her but me as well.
I reached the passage “No” the passage had collapsed, I couldn’t get out this way. As I looked frantically around for another way out I got shot in the lower back. I let out a scream as the bullet exited my flesh. “I’m not going to die in this place.” I spun around and let loose a burst of fire at the pony who shot me. Hitting it in the chest and eye.
I ran out of the passage and more ponies started to shoot at and chase me. For every shot they took at me I took one at them, though I wasn’t necessarily aiming so it was a miracle when I actually hit them. There was an old building that was covered by the fallen bridge. The building’s door and windows were boarded up. Thinking quickly I threw another grenade behind me and ran for the building.
Somehow I pulled one of the boards off of the window, if I had to guess I’d say it was the adrenalin pumping through my body. I pulled off enough boards for me to slip through but kept enough of the boards on to keep the ponies out as I slid through I got shot in the leg. I poked the thompson slightly out of the window and opened fire click
“Shit!” I pulled back and reloaded. Looking into the building I saw that only half of the building was still standing but the ponies couldn't get to me.
The ponies had stopped pursuing me at this point and I’d been walking for an hour, I also lost a lot of blood and was limping badly. I leaned against a wall “I just need to rest for a minute…” I slid down the wall, I was dying, my body was plagued with exhaustion, I was coming down from the adrenaline rush of combat, and I was bleeding out.
I faintly heard footsteps, looking up I saw a pink mare with a well kept yellow mane, several bags on her sides, and a small gun in her mouth. I weakly leveled the thompson at her. She mumbled something around the gun. Wait they can’t talk while their using their guns, that seems problematic and strangely cute.
She holstered her gun “You’re hurt.” she got closer, I moved the thompson to keep her in its sights. She sighed and began digging in her bags. I think I consciousness because the world went black and when I came back the mare was bandaging my leg. Do to exhaustion I lost consciousness again.
I was walking through a starry void and I could hear a little girl crying. Following the sobs I came across a little blue filly with wings, a horn, and a picture of a crescent moon on her flanks. I bent down and asked if she was okay “I-I’m lost and I can’t find my sister.” She sobbed even more.
I pet her gently “Hey it’s gonna be alright I’ll help you find your sister.” I said as I picked her up and held the little filly in my arms.
“Thank you mister.” She said and I walked further into the void. I don’t know why I decided to help this filly but something told me that it was something I needed to do. “Mister what’s your name?” She asked.
“George Winters, what’s yours?”
“Luna.” And with that Luna closed her eyes and quietly drifted to sleep in my arms.
I woke up in a wagon wrapped in bandages and covered up by a blanket. Where am I, what happened to my weapon… Jameson, oh God what happened to them. My thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of the pink mare “Oh you’re awake. That’s good I was worried about you for a second there.” She said with smile after she set a bucket of water down.
I eyed the mare cautiously “Where am I and who the hell are you?” I demanded.
She walked up to me and offered a hoof “Names Strawberry Diamond, what’s yours?” I told her my name and mimicked her actions which it turned out to be a pony version of a handshake. She told me that she’d heard about strange creatures on the radio and figured I must be one of those creatures. “And after you passed out I bandage you up the best I could then brought you here.” She said.
I tried to stand up as the wagon came to a stop and almost fell from the pain that shot through my leg. Strawberry helped me to my feet and out of the wagon. “Where’s my stuff?” I asked.
“Oh I put it all in my footlocker so no pony would get into it. I Can get it for you if you want.” she said and I nodded.
I looked around at the ponies who were a part of this caravan, they weren’t like the ones we’ve seen before they weren’t trying to kill me, not wearing grotesque armor, and in general seemed like decent people. The ponies were eyeing me with a mixture a curiosity and fear. “Ah don’t mind them, once they see you won’t try and kill us they’ll open up to you.” She said warmly as she led me to another wagon.
“Okay I’m confused.” I finally said. She raised an eyebrow “Everyone of you ponies I’ve seen so far have tried to kill me and yet you didn’t. You did the opposite and healed me. Why?” I asked.
She climbed up onto another wagon and went into it while saying, “Well that’s because you’ve been in raider territory and we’re the only caravan that's come this way in about. Uh. Two weeks.” She dragged out a footlocker and opened it. The locker had not only my things but some of her’s as well, I waited for her to take out my things. She set all of my stuff out and I took it all ‘I felt better with a loaded gun by my side’. She told me about Raiders and other groups in the wasteland.
I’d been traveling with these ponies for a few hours, they’d already told me that I’d been with them for three days and according to the pip-buck they were right. A calendar yet another thing this pip-buck can do.
The caravan stopped “I think your friends gonna want to see this.” One of the ponies at the front of the caravan said. I went to the front, with help from Strawberry. There was a dead paratrooper on the ground, he wasn’t shot, his chute had failed to open and he’d plummeted to his death.
“Did you know him?” Strawberry asked.
I knelt down in front of the corpse and turned it over so he’d lay on his back. I took off his dog tags "corporal O'Brien, age 20", I put his tags in my pocket and took his equipment, even the faulty chute. I didn’t like taking from the dead especially a fellow American but I wasn’t going to get resupply anytime soon and I’m probably the only one around for miles who’s going to pay him the proper respects.
“I’m burying him.” I told Strawberry and grabbed the M1928 folding shovel and began looking for a good spot to bury the body.
“You can barely walk and you're gonna try to dig a grave!?” Strawberry said astonished but when she realized that no matter what she said I'd still bury him, she grabbed her own shovel and began to help.
As I dug I wondered how many of my fellow troopers were dead in this place, how many of them died like this, how many were killed by the wastelands inhabitants, had Jameson and the others been killed by raiders, or were they under the impression that everything in the wasteland wants us dead and accidentally attacked another caravan. What of the Captain had he been under the presumption that all the ponies were like the raiders, had he and fellow troopers adopted a shoot first ask later policy, and was there anything worse than raiders out there.
“I think that’s deep enough.” Strawberry said snapping me back into reality.
The grave was more than deep enough. “Y-Yeah...” I got out of the grave and carefully and respectfully laid the corporal's corpse into the grave. I tied two lead pipes together to make a cross and using it as a makeshift headstone, I set his helmet on the top of the cross after he was buried.
“You never answered my question.” Strawberry said as she sat beside me, in front of the grave.
I sighed “No.”
Footnotes: level up.
new perk added: Lunar guidance.
You’re not sure what your hallucination meant (if anything) but you gain a +1 perception during the night.
