We're Not In Europe Anymore...

Beyond the border of the Everfree forest two men stood watch. All was silent but the soft whispers of the wind, and the leaves it took with it. In the darkness of the night they watched with trained eyes the dark foliage of the forest no sane creature would dare enter alone, least, any creature not human. There was a wide array of creatures that spawned within, deer and hare for example, but there was a reason this place was feared by the locals, within bred creatures that would see to ending you in ways that made your stomach churn just thinking about it. Mutants and magically altered specimens that would see nothing more than your body disemboweled so to eat you from the inside out. Horrid creations never thought possible by man, and ones that the ponies often found themselves facing everyday. It's a wonder a community had been able to thrive within the area of the Everfree, but it did—somehow. And they saw to keep it that way.

The crack and echo of a bullet broke out as it found it's mark just within the brush of the forest about forty yards away. Killing the silence seemingly never ending, and the two men thanked God for it; as did every pair of troopers as they stood up in their watchtowers. Never let anyone tell you silence is a good thing.

He racked back the bolt and the hot casing ejected from the chamber, hitting the wooden floor of the room with a metallic thunk. He brought down his rifle from the long narrow window slit and replaced the spent bullet with a fresh one. The man besides him busy surveying the remains of the Cockatrice he had reduced to paste.

"Damn good shot. Blew the poor thing right in half." His partner said, not taking his eyes away from the pair of binoculars he held up.

Cockatrices weren't known for their durable bodies, it almost felt like he wasted that bullet on such a small and pitiful thing, but seeing as he hadn't the chance to shoot something in months, and that it was his job to kill anything that wandered to close to the border, he found it just. Plus the damn things were just creepy, and he doubted anyone fancied being turned to stone.

"When have mine ever been anything else?" He inquired.

"Good point."

He leaned his rifle against the wooden corner beam of the tower and pulled out his pack of cigarettes from his breast pocket. They were beautiful gryphon things, imported at the price of the Royal Treasury. He opened the bronze tin and took a whiff. Absolutely beautiful he thought. He made to pull one but stopped his hand mid reach and frowned. Within were two finely spread and rolled cigarettes. Only two. The frown deepened as he remembered the delay they had been waiting out. Those damn turkeys were supposed to arrive three weeks ago with a shipment of many goods, ammunition and lube kits being the main assets, that and his cigarettes.

He stared at the tin for a while, probably a lot longer than he should have. Not like anything ever really happens, he thought. Shrugging, he pulled one of the brown beauties from it's place in the tin and brought it to his lips. Striking a match he lit the end and took a long draw on it, blowing out a cloud of white smoke to be carried off in the chilly winds. Autumn would be upon them soon. The ponies had already begun preparing for the coming weather. They would soon be ordered to join them, not that he and his comrades wished to partake in such strange and, unnatural, activities at first. But as the years went by he, as with every man here, in search of something to pass the time and ease the pain that came with the end of every year, found it all growing on them—and they found themselves excited to go. And what proud man could not look forward to the parades?

"Could you not?" His trance was broken by the man besides him. Turning, he found that his smoke had been carried into the face of his watch-partner, who was busy waving his hand before his face to disperse it.

"Sorry." He apologized bluntly, moving the cigarette in his mouth.

"It's bad enough I have to deal with the others. I would appreciate if I could keep that stuff away from me."

"I said sorry." He blew the smoke right out the slit to his right, the smoke drifting out this time. "How long until sunrise."

His partner looked back out into the forest, "Oh, four hours. Five at most."

"Wish we had a clock in here."

"You’re telling me. Why you want to know anyways?"

He took the bud out of his mouth and flicked it out the sill where it plummeted to the dark earth below. Pulling his last cigarette into his mouth he lit it, "Because I'm out of cigarettes." He answered bluntly, placing the now empty tin in a webbing pouch.

"Oh."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking." He said before taking a much shorter draw, he wanted to savor this one.

"Can't you just get some more?"

He blew the smoke out, "Our shipment still hasn't come in."

"What? It's been three weeks."

"I know, that's why I'm pissed."

"I'm sure they have a reason."

"I'm sure too, but it better be a damn good reason."

"Why do we buy from them anyways?"

He huffed, "It's not like they make our damn ammo or anything."

"Bullets are easy. Besides, we cache enough out of the Everfree."

"Yeah? But what about the guns? You forget about those?"

"They're primitive, any Equestrian factory could make them."

"Equestria has factories?"

His partner said nothing.

He finally brought the cigarette to his mouth again and sucked in sweetly, "Besides," He blew the smoke, "It gives me and the others an excuse to get these babies for free. Nothing better than free stuff."

His partner honestly couldn't argue with that one either. "Well, you're still not supposed to smoke on duty."

He gave a deadpan stare at the man across from him, "Seriously?"

The man shrugged.

"Christ, you need to learn to lighten up Richard. I can't believe you still care for the small things."

"You know how strict the Colonel can get." Richard warned.

"The Colonels not here is he?"

"Well...no."

"Then get that stick out of your ass and calm down."

"Fuck you Don."

"Not until the Colonel get's his out of yours first."

Richard simply shook his head and took up the lenses again. Don grinned.

"You know Richard, you really should try and live a little. Learn to appreciate the little things."

"Like your cigarettes?"

"Yes."

"No thanks, I'd like to keep my lungs in tact. I'll take a beer any day."

He chuckled at that, "Keep the lungs, but take the liver."

"Hey! You can't tell me every man here ain't an alcoholic by now."

He shrugged, "I can name a few. Like that artist fellow. Good drawings he does."

"Hüller?"

"Yeah. That lucky bastard with the bike."

"I've seen him at the tavern before."

"He won't drink anything but cider though."

"Yeah."

They went quiet after that. This summed up the general conversations held by the pair when stuck in the tower, often they found themselves mentioning the habits and actions of their comrades in arms, discussing the goings of the ponies, or when they felt risky, to talk behind the backs of their superiors. All of which got old after awhile. It was boring. Those who had all these years ago, with the urge and feel of duty to fight and serve, would never had thought for a second that they would be stuck within a whole other realm of reality for so long as to eventually resort to belittling their superiors and getting into drunken brawls, if only for that little bit or a chance you may be caught and to get a slice of action.

Then you had the ponies in the First. At least they knew what they were getting into. Not that much of them really had a choice, you see.

He sighed as he took up his rifle, the cigarette still in his mouth, and sat on the small stool he had dragged up to relax his legs.

"You really shouldn't be sleeping on the job either." Richard said.

He gave his partner a glare.

Richard smirked, "Sorry if I do things by the book."

He said nothing as he rested his head against the wall of the tower and closed his eyes, taking little puffs on his smoke now and then. He wasn't tired really, there was not much he did on a daily basis that would make him feel drained, but his eyes were starting to get a bit heavy, and if it was pitch black outside, it was darker in the tower with little beams of moonlight creeping in through the narrow sills. That and the light from his cigarette. He couldn't say he was looking forwards to taking this last one, but hopefully those Birds would get here with their shipment soon, or he might just have to make a pit large enough—

There was a striking red flash that suddenly flooded the room, he threw open his eyes and gripped his rifle and looked out towards the source.

"That's not good..." Richard said, the binoculars away from his eyes, them wide in surprise.

He had to squint his to see out, but felt himself on edge when he spotted the cause.

"No. No it's not. Can you get down the cords?"

Richard moved quickly off to his right and opened a small compartment, revealing a map and a box of Mauser cartridges. Taking the map he looked back out to where the flare flickered and fell miles into the forest. He made a large mark on the map and gave it to him. Muttering 'Shit!' all the while.

"Here. Now go! I'll keep an eye here."

He took no time to open the hatch at the back of the room, revealing the ladder into the tower and the dark dirt below. He moved so fast it might have looked as if he just jumped down the hatch and when he felt the earth on his feet he let go of the ladder and sprinted through the complex. His equipment clattering as he ran he probably woke the entire base up. A guard making his rounds tried to stop him in the road, but quickly let him go on at his words, "Red Flare!" Even the guard was surprised.

His cigarette flickered and died as it lay in the cold road.

There were not many things that could best the pure ruthless nature that was the Everfree, not many things were capable of dominating the land of which the forest grew, not much which gave off the sheer feel of power so much that not even the widely feared manticores of the Everfree were willing to challenge such a beast. Spewing a black cloud behind it, the roar of it's engine deafening, it's treads clattered as they worked to haul the twenty-five ton steel behemoth forwards. Nothing stood in it's way. Under its tracks cleared away were the overgrown foliage of the forest floor, the entangled thorned creepers that ran along the ground and grew between trees; it's reinforced hull made short work of the tall trees that grew clustered, uprooting them out of their shallow anchors and loose soil. It was still a dangerous task, even with the enchantments, but it helped to have such a competent crew.

"God damnit!" Lieutenant Saxon cursed as he nearly fell out of his commander's seat as the tank hit a decent sized rock, "You're going to throw the damn track Ehren! And it's going to be your lousy ass to get out there and fix it!"

Ehren was having a good time. Despite his not so great start to the day, having fallen off the top bunk in the barrack when the Lieutenant came barging in a few hours before shift, he was not looking forward to the coming day.

That was until they were told to get their asses outside and crew their steel beauties and prepare to move out. Now, he was just savoring the moment. It had been a long while since he could take the old girl off-roading, even if it took a red to give him an excuse. He stepped on the gas as they smashed aside a particularly large tree, causing the tank to stall for a moment before pushing forwards once more. "You got is sir!" He called back to his commander over the deafening sound of complex working machinery. He made sure to hit a particularly large stone, causing Saxon to nearly fall again. Surely not his fault, it's not payback for giving him latrine duty last week or anything.

"If you so much as dent my tank Corporal, I will have you licking up motor grease for the next month!" Saxon threatened.

Ehren grinned and shifted the gears, moving off to avoid a boulder. The tank veered out of the way barely, the boulder an inch away from scratching the paint.

"I'd listen to the Lieutenant Ehren! I'd prefer not smashing my head against the wall!" Lukas, their loader, shouted down into the hull.

"I'll keep his threat in mind!" He shouted back.

"It's not a threat, it's a damn promise! This old girl has seen me through four fronts, I won't have her getting abused!"

"This is exactly what she was made for sir! Besides," They struck down another thick patch of trees, "She's had worse!"

Saxon grunted and peered out the copula, "Looks like we're about to hit water, get Geert on the radio and tell them the river is coming up on the right!" She shouted down into the hull.

Bernd, their radio operator, got to work. Saxon pulled out their navigation map, "We're about ten minutes out from our mark if we keep up this pace!" He frowned, "They better not be dead by the time we get there..."

The world was still lit up in red when the shots rang out. She barely had enough time to see one of the humans fall flat on his back, holding a pistol, and see Lieutenant Chase reloading her gun before she felt the barrel of a pistol at the back of her head. There was a lot of yelling back and forth. Her ponies had their guns trained on the mystery humans, and they on her ponies, problem was, they had bigger guns than she did. Not to mention whoever was behind her could blow her head off whenever they wanted.

"You fucking rat bastards!" One of the human sergeants, Americans they called themselves? Yelled out at no specific pony in particular.

"He shot first! He shot Brawn!" Chase yelled back.

There was another round of outcries and yelling. Pure ferocity shown on many of the American's faces as they so desperately wanted to pull their triggers. She felt the gun barrel press harder into her head.

"Tell your...ponies to lay down their arms." She head to Lieutenant command from behind her.

"So you can kill us? After I offer you and your men help." She responded.

"And now another one of my men are dead. Lee's going to bleed out now, and Davis has a bullet in his fucking chest. I think you and your ponies have helped us enough Major..."

"They're coming you know. What will happen to you when the Heer get here? Who will vouch for you?"

If the barrel was pushed any harder against her skull it would dent it, "What the hell did you just say..." The Lieutenant nearly snarled. He knew their uniforms looked too damn familiar, but he couldn't really confirm anything, especially since he doubted the Germans had sapient ponies to use as soldiers, not in his wildest dreams would he ever thought such a thing, but at that one word...he felt himself slowly losing the restraint on his finger.

"You heard me, that flare was to bring our boys in as soon as possible. I did it cause I knew your private is dying, we can give him the medical care he needs, we can save him. But if you want to blow my brains out I'm not stopping you, just let me wish you good luck. They'll have a whole damn company on us soon."

Castillo narrowed his eyes. If what this pony said was true, that they had a whole company of krauts converging on their position soon, there was no way in hell they could fight them off, especially if they had heavy weapons. He also knew that if they didn't get Lee and Davis care soon, they surely would die. He didn't trust this Major at all when she and her group had emerged from the forest, and now that he can confirm these ponies were working with the Germans, he should have put a bullet in her head by now, and have his men kill these damn quadrupeds. But something was keeping it all at bay. Something was keeping his finger from squeezing that extra little bit it needed, something was keeping his from giving the order to his men, something was telling him to give in.

He looked across the clearing in the wood at Herrera, who was working to stop the bleeding in Davis's chest, pouring the powder and warping the wound in gauze, only for them to overflow with blood. They were nearly laying side by side, him and Lee, the pair inseparable even in the eyes of death. He knew then that he wasn't going to let these men die, not here, not in some God forsaken forest in some God forsaken world that they had only just been plunged into, he wouldn't see their mothers cry as the flag is passed. Not again.

"Sir, what the hell do we do!?" Castillo was broken to see Sergeant Miller, his Thompson still trained on a uniformed pony, look to him for him for orders.

He took in the standoff before him, his men in a defensive circle along his side, ponies in the opposite of them, a few in the air. He leaned down to whisper into the Lieutenant's large ear, "You promise to see my men's lives saved, to see to it they get the medical attention they need?"

The Major nodded and made a few motions with her hooves, "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

He raised a brow at that, but questioned it no further, not that it mattered now. He pulled the pistol away from her head, "Stand down." He ordered.

His platoon looked at him like he was crazy while the ponies smirked.

"8th platoon on me!" The Major hollered, "Corporal Silktouch, assist Corporal Herrera with the wounded, I have a promise to keep!"

The white stallion simply saluted and hurried off towards the medic, who said nothing to the stallion as he approached, neutral faced. Silktouch looked over the body of his fallen comrade first, checking his pulse, nothing. He shook his head and pulled out a black body cover and threw it over the body and made his way towards the fallen humans.

"Don't you fucking touch them!" Brown yelled, ready to rush the pony medic but was stopped with a hand on his shoulder.

"The Lieutenant said stand down Corporal." Miller grunted, he was just as sour about the situation as any other man here. But orders were orders.

There was a long drawn out moment of awkward silence amongst the two groups. The only ones to speak out being Herrera or Silktouch as they did their best to save Davis's life when asking for some assistance or muttering curses. Castillo gathered his men to organize the camp and they did so, watching Herrera and the pony work by the tents the whole time. The pony major had her troopers watching the forest for anything that might try to jump out at them. It was all eerily silent as they all waited. The men of Castillo's platoon dreaded the moment they found out what for.

First there came the rumbling, the loose earth shaking and shifting in itself, and then the distant sound of an engine cutting through to scare away any birds that inhabited the trees, a flock making off into the sky in the distance. The men knew the sound and the symptoms all too well and found their anxiety and fear getting a better of them. They formed up about Lee and Davis, who by a miracle had stopped bleeding and was breathing, and made ready for that what they knew was coming. The major stood indifferent, along with her ponies, but she did cock a brow at Castillo and his little formation.

"They won't kill you." She said turning to them.

The men glared and clinched their guns all the harder.

She shook her head and stood waiting, counting the seconds and tapping her hoof in the dirt. "I'm waiting..."

The earth was really rumbling now as whatever was making it's way towards them got ever closer, and closer, and closer even.

A few trees suddenly found their lives ended as the steel behemoth bulldozed through their comparingly thin trunks and uprooted them, twenty-five tons of German steel thundered into the clearing, its grey color barely visible amongst the piled roots, leaves, vines, and green covering it. It's tracks clogged with the dirt and mud of the forest.

"A fucking panzer!" Garcia yelled, taking a few steps back. It took every man all their willpower not to reach for their grenades and anything else to make the thing go boom, but they knew they'd probably be dead before they could pull the pins. They did make ready to lift their guns at a moment's notice though.

The tank rolled to a stop mid-field. The roaring of it's engine thundering through the air as the Major flew atop the turret as the copula's hatch opened to the German commander within, a thin faced man, a scar along his check, large enough for Castillo to see it from where he stood.

"Major Dust! It's good to see you are well and sound." The commander surprisingly saluted, one which the Major returned as she stood atop the metal monster, she was tiny in comparison.

"Thanks for reviving our call so soon Lieutenant Saxon, I hope the Colonel decided to get his ass out of bed and trek along, we have a very...unique situation on our hands and hooves. One that I think should be addressed as soon as possible."

Saxon shook his head, "I wouldn't want to catch myself speaking of the Colonel in such a way Major, especially around the 352nd. But to answer your question, no, he is not."

She swore, "Damn, I'm not surprised honestly. But one can hope. Is the Lieutenant Colonel on his way at least?"

Again, he shook his head, "No ma'am. Once the rest of the response team arrives, command falls to you. They should arrive any minute now."

She nodded, "Alright, then let me give you the short brief. We have a pony down and two wounded humans that need immediate attention." She pointed out Castillo and his men, all of whom glared at the two.

Saxon eyed them, there was something oddly familiar about their uniforms, the patches on their tunics, and the weapons they held, and the way they looked at him told him they might not me much on the friendly side.

"They're soldiers?"

She nodded her head, "Apparently so. From a place called America, the United States to be more precise. They call themselves Americans."

Her words racked the Lieutenant's mind, why did all those things seem oh-so familiar?

"Are they hostile?"

"Potentially, but I told them I'd have you all gun them down if they try anything." She could feel the glares at the back of her head harden.

"Hmm, we shall deal with them as you command Major, but I feel like the Colonel would be quite interested in these...Americans. Though I would propose disarming them sooner rather than later."

She nodded and shouted the order to her ponies, obviously his men put up a fight, but Castillo knew it was the best idea to comply, so he handed over his Thompson and pistol without much fuss, though the knife in his boot remained untouched. Their weapons were gathered behind the tank and guarded by two uniformed ponies.

Soon, the convoy arrived. Four trucks worth of German soldiers and ponies came through to secure the area and found the Major giving the orders. Castillo and his men were searched once again, every trooper, human and pony, eyeing them with curiosity and caution. They were given the time to pack away their camp, get properly uniformed, and say a few final prayers before they were herded into the back of a truck at the Majors command. Castillo had just enough time to see Lee and Davis placed unto stretchers and hoisted into the back of a truck, Herrera with them accompanied by that pony medic, Silktouch, before two very surprised Heer troopers filed in after them to play guard. The panzer lead the convoy, their truck following behind and Herrera's truck right behind them, followed by another and a motorcycle escort.

Castillo felt his stomach sink as they were rushed away from their campsite. He had a very bad feeling.