Land of Confusion

The plan was simple, and was already in action. The cards were all being played perfectly, and the Equestrian Pony (EP) Guard Forces had moved to protect the Eastern side of Mount Canterlot. Which had been getting crumbled with shelling since 0600, and was now under attack by several armored units serving as a decoy.

The time was now 2300, and my glorious squadron and I were closing in on Canterlot from the West. We were high above the radar, the gateway between dimensions was opened on the further Eastern side of a harsh desert known as the "San Palomino Desert". Meaning we were forced to fly higher than any Pegasus could dream of, in order to avoid being spotted. The hum of the C-130 engines soothed me to the brink of sleep, my eyes were hardly open.

"Thirty minutes to drop!" The company commander shouted at us, warning us of our imminent battle.

"Platoon, gear check!" Our platoon commander ordered, waving a hand over his body as a hand signal.

We all looked down and fussed with our vests, checking the clips, and searching for tears.

"Alpha clear!" Alpha actual shouted.

"Bravo clear!" I shouted.

"Charlie clear!"

"Delta clear!"

"Smokies clear!" The platoon commander shouted at the company commander.

"Daggers clear!" The other platoon commander echoed.

"All units, hook up!"

Both platoon commanders echoed, and we all got up from the seats and hooked our safety clips to the bars above us. We would remain this way, in dead silence, for the next 25 minutes. With nothing to occupy us except for the thought of the violent hell we were about to deliver onto an unsuspecting city. There would likely be collateral damage, and alot of civilian casualty. But all is fair in love and war.

Twenty-two minutes later, above drop-zone

The cargo door slowly dropped open, and the aircraft engines suddenly roared throughout the massive vehicle.

"Ready up!" The jump-master hollered, raising his hand and waving it in circles.

We all reached up and unclipped our safety-straps. Everyone checked each other over one last time, making sure nothing would go wrong. We could not afford to lose a single man. This would be our only opportunity to claim Canterlot itself.

I was shaken from my nervous pondering by a flash of color, as the red light near the hatch shut out for several seconds, before turning green.

"Go go go!" The jump-master yelled, waving at the door furiously.

Squad Alpha took off in front of us, and one by one bailed out of the hatch. I quickly darted forward as well, my footsteps echoed by my squad following me. We did not speak, there was nothing to say.

Reality seemed to speed up for several seconds, as if my brain had shut off. I felt my heart racing. The next thing I knew, I was dangling from a parachute below the cloudline.

I looked about, I couldn't see anything whatsoever. For all I knew, I could be on a collision course with another Marine. I wouldn't even see it coming. I looked down, the ground was illuminated with orange torches. Revealing several walls and exposing potential threats.

I spotted an area of wide courtyards, they hung from the side of the mountain and connected to Canterlot through spiral staircases. I assumed them to be something for pegasai to land on.

Now it was a Marine landing on them.

I steered hard left and spiraled towards the small plate. They were about a football field in diameter, and there were about five of them to land on. Looking closer, I saw several other chutes already flattened on the stone.

As I came to be about twenty stories above the ground, I yanked on the flaring chord, and held them down, slowing my fall to several feet per second.

I held my breath as my feet brushed the ground, and rolled onto my side. My chute was immediately off, and I unslung my HK-26 assault rifle. The cool steel pressed into my shoulder and I moved towards the spiral staircase, where a crowd of Marines had already formed.

"Bravo, here." I whispered hastily, several war-painted faces turned to look at me. Several moved from the crowd and gathered around me.

"Bravo, report." I ordered, looking at the two that had gathered around me.

"Two, Brown."

"Four, Pete."

"Ah, good. I have you two. Where are the others?" I asked, looking between the pairs of eyes that glowed in the darkness.

They did not answer. Instead, Pete asked a question.

"How did they not see the humongous fucking chutes? Are we seriously still under the radar?" He asked, astounded.

"It seems so, but be ready. They could spot Dagger platoon still. We need to find three and five." I responded, just as something touched my shoulder.

"Right here sir, we couldn't find you. It's bum-ass dark here." A voice spoke softly. I recognized it to be Allie.

"Copy, where's Parker?" I asked.

"Here too, sir." His little voice peeped up.

"Good, lets get rolling Marines." I moved from my position and made my way for the spiral staircase.

Climbing it in full marching weight proved to be a menace. I was almost falling backwards over every step, and they cracked loudly as pebbles shot out from under my feet. I could hear my squad having equal trouble. Looking up, it appeared we were the first squad up, making us the first to fight. Bravo, Bravo squad. Bravo...

I reached the top and slowly poked my head up, my eye through the rifle sight. It was a clear courtyard, there was some occupancy, several EP's wandered the courtyard. Tents were set up all over the place, as if some kind of market. I counted about 5-10 just with a skim.

"Contact, EP, 100 meters, front." I cautioned. Slowly creeping up in a crouched position.

I crept forward, masked by darkness in my type 2 urban marpat. Dark grey and brown textured. As I neared about 50 meters from the nearest tent, I dropped to a prone position and slowed my approach. I heard the uniforms behind me shuffle as well, matching my position.

I started sweeping my head left and right as I crawled, looking about the courtyard for anything with a horn. My answer was quickly found as several EP's walked past a burning torch. Revealing 2 females, one with wings, the other with a horn. She was about to walk behind a tent out of my view.

"Engage at will!" I shouted, hardly finishing the last word before I sent several 7.62 rounds downrange into my target. A cry confirmed my hit, and I sent several more rounds forward.

Behind me, a loud 'fwish', followed by a bright light that illuminated the entire courtyard. It revealed many more contacts than I saw before. About twenty. There wasn't much fighting, but several bolts of energy did sizzle overhead. They were pot-shots, and whoever was blasting clearly didn't know where we were.

An entire company of Marines began blasting away at the courtyard with anything in the Marine arsenal. M250's rattled away, HK-26 rifles poppled, and several MK32 grenade launchers clunked rounds further into the city, over buildings.

"Squad, move right, high crawl, get out of the open!" I shouted into my radio. Turning and high-crawling towards safety. Looking up, a large building appeared in the light of the white flare. I set direction for it.

As soon as I was out of the line of fire, I jumped to my feet and made a dash for cover. The cold sweat adrenaline produced soothed my muscles and pushed me further.

I unclipped my radio and changed the channel as my squad copied my run and sprinted against the wall beside me.

"Stranger, this is Bravo actual. Do you read? Over!" I shouted over the gunfire.

"This is Stranger, reading you. Over." The radio buzzed into my earpiece.

"Has any other squad signaled for allmighty yet? Over." I asked, risking a brief peek past the corner of the building to look at the battle. There were no more bolts of magic, and no more EP's. There was still gunfire, however. They were gunning down anything in sight. Windows, houses, tents. MK32 grenade launchers blasted holes in several buildings.

"That's a negative, Bravo. She's all yours. Over." Command responded.

"10-4, thank you Stranger, out!" I switched the channel further up until I reached allmighty's channel. I turned my head to face Brown, who was standing behind me as a second in command.

"Hey, I want to know the exact grid on the buildings just past the courtyard here in the next ten seconds, as well as which way is North. You have ten seconds." I warned him, turning on my radio.

He nodded, and looked down at his wrist, observing his MARPAD (or so we call it, as a joke.)

"Allmighty, this is Bravo actual. You're free to make the run. I need-" I turned to Brown and leaned in.

"North is that way-" He pointed to my left. "And you'll want to call grid 05930345" He explained.

"-Need an East-to-West run at 05930345. Do you copy? Over." I finished.

"This is Allmighty, please confirm. East-to-West run at grid 05930345. Over." The deep voice of allmighty actual replied.

"That's a solid, no spray North of the hot-zone. Got it? Over." I requested.

"Copy that, gun run is a go. Ten seconds to pain." He confirmed.

"Everyone, get dicks in the dirt!" I screamed as loud as my lungs could allow.

Several Marines looked at me, and quickly ceased fire and flopped onto their bellies. The others that didn't hear turned and followed suit.

As we fired, after only several seconds, the ally behind the buildings at the end of the courtyard glowed white. The stone exploded and entire houses were blown away. As soon as the rounds ceased, we heard the buzz of the beautiful F-36 machine gun. Before the entire street blasted white from the explosion of its glorious explosive ordinance.

"Run complete. Out." My radio sounded. I switched it back to squad channel, and clipped it back onto my vest.

"Bravo, flank front." I ordered, starting a slow jog forward with my guns raised.

Several ponies darted away from the explosion, and quickly curved left at the sight of us. A male and a female. They moved behind a tent, before I heard the snaps of gunfire. I wasn't sure if it was at them, or if it made its target. But it wouldn't matter. That's a one in one hundred casualty rate right now.

A purple blast exploded just several meters to my right, and triggered an explosion that knocked me off of my feet. I went several feet up into the air before landing on my left, crushing my arm under my carry-weight.

The world seemed to blur, my ears rang out and I felt the bitter taste of blood coating my tongue. I slowly sat up and looked about, only faintly aware of the rapid blasts of purple that sizzled the air.

I looked to the rear flank, at the Marines. Several new corpses lined the ground. The bodies of our own, fresh ashes floated about them like that of a dying campfire. My eyes slowly focused as I realized how quickly they were dropping. It was all purple, each beam. As if it was one enemy firing upon us. Each hit was making a target. I had yet to see a single blast miss, each had smashed a Marine in the chest or belly, and incinerated their torso almost instantly.

My squad lay between me and them, slowly rising ourselves.

I tried to stand up, but a leg collapsed under me, and stung with a fiery pain I had never known before. As if the devil himself had branded my knee from the inside out. I screamed and went back down.

Pete was close to me, several meters. He wasn't moving. I unclipped my bag and military crawled towards him, letting my legs drag. This didn't hurt as much. The ringing slowly ceased and the sounds of gunfire were rising in volume. A grenade fired from a MK32 whizzed overhead and hit a building. When it exploded, several lanterns collapsed from the wall and ignited the wood. The house quickly began spreading a fire.

I didn't care, my head was throbbing, I needed to grab my squadmate. I slapped my hand on Pete's carry-handle on his bag, and dragged him with my remaining arm.

"Davison! I'm coming!" Brown shouted, standing up. I saw his silhouette charge for me, fire burning behind him. Earth started to spin in slow motion. A fog that had always clouded my mind was suddenly lifted. I could think more clearly than I knew possible. Everything around me seemed to real, that I doubted its reality.

Several others stood up behind him and limped with him, following him. As they reached me, Brown picked up Pete, and another pair of hands wrapped under my arms and lifted me. The next thing I knew, I was being carried back to the landing site, my feet dragging as we moved.

"Rear flank! EP'S!" Parker screamed. I was immediately dropped next to several sizzled bodies. The smell would have made me scream, but it didn't phase me in my current state.

The remaining squadmates began hailing fire on the armored guards that revealed themselves between us and the spiral staircase. There were hundreds of them. Pouring out like fire ants. Some had pikes, some had swords, others were blasting away with that horrible magic. A brief gaze put me at the idea of casualties. There were only about 3 squads-worth of Marines still standing, and the guards were making fast use of them.

I looked at the bodies around me, attempting to recognize any of them. I found something much better.

Beside me, in the arms of a Marine with a melted face, was a loaded M250 light machine-gun. It was not slung on him, all I had to do was grab it.

And I did.

Before I had time to think, I was holding the trigger and waving it frantically through the crowd of guards. I squeezed the trigger so hard I swore it was bending under the pressure. I thought the barrel would melt, the rounds kept coming. But I was noticed too quickly.

Several bolts of energy were now aimed at me, they crackled past me in slow-motion, burning the air with a searing heat. My heart ceased to beat as I concentrated on nothing but shooting.

But, to no avail, I wasn't concentrated enough. A bolt of green energy smashed against my chest. A flurry of new feelings raced through me. It felt as if Thor's hammer had collided with me at the speed of sound. A boiling-hot sledgehammer's worth of energy punched into my chest, and spread throughout my body. My blood seemed to boil, my vision was out instantly, and I lost the ability to think for several minutes.

It was as if I was asleep. Opening my eyes, realizing time had passed but not feeling how long. I stared at the sky. Smoke plumed into the air, and ashes danced upwards. The sky was absolutely astonishing here. Constellations were visible in full. I wanted to count the stars, every single one. Even knowing I'd never reach the end. Faint dusts of Violet lay across the night sky, casting a calming tone onto the dark canvas.

A head quickly moved to block it, staring down at me. There was anger in those eyes, a furious fire burned within the soul. It was a female, her dark purple hair hung low, strands poked out where they had been seared. She was a color between purple and violet, but was covered in soot. Masking her true color. She had huge Purple eyes that glared into mine as if they knew more about me than I did.

I knew I should reach my arm to swing, I knew I should face death before I let them have me alive. But when I tried to lift my arm, I was immovable. Not as if I was forcefully held down, but more a feeling of having no ability to control my muscles. I closed my eyes, and exhaled slowly, letting the fatigue take over.