We Damned Fools.

Stone awoke, he was in the basement of a home in Manehatten. Right and left were the members of his squad. He grabbed the rifle beside him. Working the bolt he saw it was loaded. He checked to see of the revolver was still there, in a holster on his side they had taken from a dead grif. Heading up stairs he looked around. The ground was ripped up, many of the buildings had fallen, crawling over to the indent in the ground he found himself in the trenches they had built in the roads of the city. He reported to the command tent. “Corporal Stone, glad you could join us. The griffons have launched an attack on the bank to our south, you are to gather your squad and join Lieutenant Broken Sword for an attack to repel the attack and reinforce our boys down there.” Stone nodded and began to head back toward the basement his men had inhabited. “Oh, and this letter came for you, from Ponyville, you’re from round that way aren’t you?”

Stone accepted the letter and headed back toward his men. He kicked them awake. “Rise and shine boys, we’re heading out in twenty.” They all groaned and began to stir. Stone opened the letter, figuring it to be a letter from his parents.

Dear Stone,

I hope you are well. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since we met upon the train. I wasn’t sure about them asking Princess Celestia to write you an admittance into the army, but I hear you went through your basic quite well. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Rarity.

Inside the envelope was also a picture of her, smiling. Stone folded the letter back and put it into his haversack. He strapped the gear over his khaki uniform, doing a mental checklist of all that he had on him. He looked about the room, his men were dirty and tired, but they were ready to fight, and that’s what mattered.

They walked through the tight trenches south to where they would be meeting the Lt. “Hey corporal, who was the lady in that picture back there?” Candlestick asked. Candlestick was tall and lengthy, and was a silversmith before the war. His hair was shaggy and silver, and he always seemed rather jipper. He had only recently been brought to the front, from the most recent draft.

“No one private.”

“Come on corporal, you can tell us.”

“Candlestick, don’t bug the corporal.”

“Should I bug you instead, Private Journal?”

“It’s not Journal, its Book.” Sketch Book was an artist, always doodling away on scrap paper. He had inky black hair and was of average height, he enlisted at the same time as Stone, but was originally a stenographer, but once the attack on Manehatten began, it was established he was needed more as an infantryman than a writer. “And don’t bug anyone, just be quiet.”

“But that's no fun.” Candle retorted. He received a small hit from the butt of Sketches rifle, he was quiet for the remainder of the short walk.

The sound of gunfire got louder as they approached the bank, from a side trench they were beckoned over. “You Corporal Stone?” He nodded. “Lieutenant Sword, you’ll be assisting my platoon on the assault.” He pulled a map from the front pocket of his harness. “The grifs are dug in here, but recently they got ballsy and made a push, they moved here to where the mg’s for the bank are located. We gotta move in and push them back off of the bank and if we’re lucky here to 23rd street. Questions?”

Candle raised his hand halfheartedly. “Yeah, the corporal never answered my question, and I wanna know what gives.”

“Private cut the shit or I’ll have you doing this mission on your own, fall in and join the Lt’s ranks.” His troops saluted and fell into the lieutenants platoon.

The Lt shouldered his rifle and began toward the bank, his sergeant followed suit, Stone fell in behind him. The Lt halted the column as he entered the bank, shortly after a pigeon flew from the shattered window of the bank, back toward their command areas. The Lt rushed from the bank and had them rush toward where they would begin the assault. Once they reached the location they sat, a silence before the storm. The ground ahead of them shook as the artillery barrage hit its mark. Dirt was kicked loose from the walls around them. Once more silence, the lt gave the signal.

The men gave their war calls as they charged around the corner. Dead bodies lined the fresh shell craters, those who were spared by the artillery looked around aimlessly, disoriented and confused. They tackled them and restrained them with rope, a soldier lead them back toward the bank. They continued through the trenches. The Lt rounded a corner, he was dead before he even fully rounded corner, mowed down by the grifs mg. The sarge began to rush forward to get his fallen commander, Stone grabbed him. The Sargent resisted at first, but slowly regained his composure.

Stone Removed his helmet and placed it on the barrel of his rifle. Slowly he peeked it around the corner, a hail of bullets came for it, one bounced off the helmet, the rest missed. He repeated the tactic above the trench, nothing. Moving back a few yards he called the sarge over. “Me and you are gonna scale this, once we clear out that mg, you use your whistle and signal the men to come in.” The sarge nodded. Stone was the first over, the sarge following close behind.

Crawling ever so slowly atop the open ground, it left an eerie feeling upon the two. Seeing all the broken in and collapsed buildings was disorienting, the place that only two weeks before had been a bustling town. They reached a point where Stone could see the end of their trenches, where it T’d off and diverted into two different directions, no doubt where they had the mg set up. Stone pulled the grenade from his belt, he pulled the pin and lobbed it, he could hear the soft patter as it hit one wall then the ground. “Grenade!” The explosive rang true.

Stone peered over, some smoke, the gunner was lying over top of the mg, his assistant propped against the wall, face blackened from the explosion. He nodded to the sergeant, who gave a short whistle, they heard the boots hitting the dirt behind them. They slipped back into the trenches. They continued onward, they had reached the junction, “Have two of your men grab that mg, we’ll take it back to the bank, they might need an extra gun.” Two soldiers began to move the equipment back to their lines. “We need the destroy this area, we could try and fortify it, but that wouldn’t fix anything they’ll just close one side and do another mg trick, we close it up and make our own mg trick, they try and get back through they get mowed down.” The sergeant nodded. They made their way back to the bank. “Send another message to barrage this area, he showed them on the map. The man nodded and scribbled another message on a small piece of parchment, he opened another pigeon cage and attached the message to its leg.

Before long they could hear the sounds of the explosions. The buildings adjacent to that trench collapsed and closed that line. “Have your men mount an mg over at the opening to that trench, if grif tries to get through, mow ‘em down.” Stone added, the man nodded and turned to two men at the back of the bank.

Outside the sarge stopped Stone. “Hell of a good job back there, you saved my bacon. With the Lt gone, they might want to promote me, if they do, I’d like you to be my second, would you accept?”

Stone shook a negatory. “Sorry, sir. I’m no commander, I have my men, I get my orders, that's about all I can handle.”

“You were on the beach the night of the first air raid, right?” He nodded. “Then you were there the first night of fighting, on the mgs?” He nodded. “You’ve got balls son, thats for sure, you keep your head down out there, you need anything, names Sargent Steam Track, you got that?” He nodded.

Stone called his men up and they headed back toward the command post. “Candlestick, you wanted to know who that woman was?”

“Yeah?”

“She’s nobody, just a stranger on a train.” Candlestick boo’ed. “Let’s go find some chow, eh?” His men gave a short hoot.

It had been almost a month since they had met him on the train. She worried, and she didn’t even know why she worried, she didn’t even know him. They knew each other for a total of thirty minutes before he left her. She wrote him a letter, she doubted it reached him. She looked out from her room in Canterlot, she could see the ocean from here, a glint of blue in the distance, nothing more. A knock upon her chamber door. “Rarity? You in there?” Twilight was behind the door. “Rarity I’m coming in.”

“Yes dear, come in.” She called back to her.

Twilight and Fluttershy entered her chamber. “We were just worried, haven’t seen you in a few days. You alright tin here?”

“Yes, yes dear, just rather… anxious I guess.”

“About him?” They could see it in her eyes, she was worried for him. “Rarity, I don’t mean to sound rude, but what’s your infatuation with this man?”

“Oh that’s just it darling, I don’t know. Couldn’t tell you. I’m five years older than the lad, I don’t know a thing about him, and I’ve got my stomach all up in knots like a schoolgirl with a crush.”

“Well, I had Shining check, and he’s alive. He’s in Manehatten, but… I really shouldn’t tell you this. His unit was selected to stay behind during the retreat.” Rarity went pale. “Now all that means, is that when they retreat backward to meet the Crystal Army, he’ll be on the front just a little longer, until they call full retreat.”

“Oh don’t worry Rarity, I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Fluttershy pipped up, trying to comfort her friend. Rarity smiled sadly at the two of them.

“Ladies, how about we go get something to eat, my treat?” Rarity said, closing the shades on her window.