The Horrors Of War

Edward sighed. "I'm sorry, Spike.", he said. "You have to stay."

Spike looked down. "But...I can help.", he said.

Edward knelt down to his level. "Look, Twilight doesn't see you as an assistant. She sees you as her little brother. She told me that.", he said.

Twilight blinked. She was about to chastise Edward for lying, when he continued.

"When you ran, I saw her crying. Just now, she was begging you to stay. If you were merely a helper, she would just find someone else, right?", Edward said. "Plus, she's supposed to be the Princess Of Friendship."

Spike looked up, as Edward used the strap on his BAR to wipe his tears away.

"Besides, doctor's orders.", Edward said, smirking. (Shout-out to THE DOCTOR for coming up with this story's first OC.)

Spike looked confused, before ignoring what he just said. "Yeah, sure...doctor...", he muttered. He was about to walk away, when Twilight hugged him.

"Please forgive me, Spike. I don't want you gone, or ever sad because of me. I'm sorry for all the times you felt like you were taken for granted.", Twilight said, a few tears streaming down her face. "I-I'm so sorry."

Spike sighed, before grinning a little. "I forgive you...", he said.

Edward sighed, as he looked at his men, and the Germans and Russians walking back towards Ponyville.

"I really hope I made the right choice.", Edward sighed. Then a sound filled the air.

"boom...boom...boom...boom...boom..."

Everyone could hear the noises, looking around.

"boom...boom...boom...boom...boom..."

A soldier holding an M-1903 Springfield looked out in the distance, using his iron sights.

Two gray German 3-ton 4 x 2 cargo trucks drove along the still burning Everfree Forest, with German 2 cm Flak 38 cannons mounted on them.

The trucks swerved a couple meters closer, and the flak cannons fired again.

"BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...BOOM...BOOM..."

Everyone ducked and took cover, hands over their heads and helmets, hitting the ground. Celestia quickly teleported out of the way.

The loud flak fire kept booming, but no explosions rang out in Ponyville. However, something was blocking the clouds.

Jones looked up, to see a certain blue Pegasus dodging flak explosions, leaving a rainbow trail behind her.

"Schieße sie ab!! Schieße sie ab!!", the German sergeant standing with one of the flak guns in a truck yelled.

The two guns kept firing, as Rainbow Dash flew forward as fast as she could. But the trucks were fast, and those flak gubs had ridiculously long range.

She hid behind a cloud, and the gunfire stopped for a moment, before a cloud right next to her exploded in shrapnel and smoke. Rainbow Dash yelped and flew off, the trucks still chasing her.

One of the truck drivers swerved around, heading towards Ponyville to intercept her, before a BT-7 rolled by, blocking the truck.

The driver hit the brakes, and the truck stopped, jolting the Flak 38 in the back.

The German gunner jumped up. "Was zur Hölle machst du...", he said, when he saw the Russian tank blocking the truck's path.

The DP-28 gunner on the tank's turret glared down on the truck. "Otoydi. Teper'.", he said.

The other truck was still chasing Rainbow Dash, firing fast.

Celestia and several Royal Guards charged at the truck headfirst, firing bursts of magic.

The flak gunner saw this and turned to aim at the incoming equine attackers, getting ready to spin the hand crank.

Celestia generated a magic shield against the incoming flak fire. She glared at the truck, as the flak began to fire.

Suddenly, a two guards exploded in a cloud of smoke and bloody mist, shrapnel hitting the ground. Celestia gasped, seeing as her shield had no effect against the barrage off flak.

Then she remembered. The humans didn't use magic, instead using technology, which she had no countermeasures against.

Unless...

She generated a new shield against the truck, and quickly galloped off, as did the surviving guards.

The truck rammed into the golden barrier, before getting stuck, the back end completely sticking into the air.

The gunner let out a yell as he fell off the flak gun and onto the ground. The truck driver smashed through the truck's windshield, and hit the ground, a busted tree trunk impaling him, right in front of Fluttershy, who's just arrived.

She let out a shriek of horror, instantly bringing everyone else over.

A trooper came over, and saw the driver impaled on the branch, his bloody guts everywhere.

"Whoa...that's gotta hurt.", he said.

Fluttershy passed out in front of the soldier, and Celestia went over to one of her Royal Guards.

"What's the situation?", Celestia asked.

"A tank intercepted the other one.", the guard said. "Miss Dash will be safe."

Rainbow Dash flew over and stared at the Flak 38. Her eyes widened when the turret turned to aim at her. She let out a cry as she hid behind a tree.

Twilight and Spike came over. "Rainbow Dash?", she asked, worried and concerned. Rainbow Dash peeked back at the flak gun.

It was still looking down, shells smoking in the basket. An American and a German looked up at the truck sticking up in the air. Twilight and Rarity were helping Fluttershy up, ans comforting her for the horrible sight she'd just witnessed.

The American rubbed his head, or helmet, and looked over at Celestia.

"Do you think you can, uhh...bring it down?", the American asked.

Celestia released the barrier, and the truck landed on the ground. The front was wrecked way beyond repair, and the back was slighlty dented. the Flak 38, however was completely undamaged.

Rainbow Dash could hear the booms of the flak gun, chasing her, shrapnel grazing her fur and feathers. She felt her forehead, it was bleeding lightly. She hurried over to a puddle on the ground and gazed at her reflection.

A half inch shard of flak was embedded in her head above her right eye, and she didn't even notice. It didn't hurt either.

But the sight of it was still enough to make her pass out. A medic and Rarity saw her fall to the ground, and they hurried over to Rainbow Dash.

"Girls!!", Rarity cried. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy hurried over to Rarity, as the medic pried the piece of flak out of Rainbow Dash's head.

"She'll be fine. Slight blood loss.", the medic said.

"Oh, I hope so. That thing is scary.", Fluttershy said, looking over at the flak, which was being inspected by the Germans.

The second truck drove over, the BT-7 keeping its gun on it.

The Americans took the crew and began to explain what was going on, as the Germans hurried over to the other truck.

They all went back to Ponyville, the undamaged truck towing the other truck back to the town. There, they took off the flak and set it up in the town square. The truck was mounted with a couple Brownings and loaded with ammo.

"This is bad...", Applejack said.

"Yeah, tell me about it!", Pinkie Pie said, stuffing a cupcake, out of nowhere, in her mouth. Applejack gave a confused look, but remembered it was Pinkie Pie.

"Hey!"

Applejack looked back to see a German and a tank she'd never seen before.

The German soldier pointed at a Marder III. He had a confused look on his face. "Wann hatten wir das?", he asked.

Suddenly, the roofless tank destroyer roared to life, before firing at a Sherman.

The tank went up in flames, metal shards and fire shooting everywhere. Luckily, the Sherman was empty.

Soldiers panicked and ran to cover, aiming their weapons and firing.

The German that was in front of the Marder ran to the flak gun and started aiming at the tank destroyer.

The Marder turned around and the soldier stared, not believing at what he was seeing.

The open crew compartment was empty. The steering wheel was spinning on its own, and an artillery round just floated into the gun chamber. He shook himself back into reality and started firing.

The flak storm completely annihilated the compartment. The metal was ripped apart, and a round hit the artillery chamber, blowing up the whole back of the tank.

The tank stopped moving, ,but a loud cackle filled the air. Everyone slowly looked out to the tank destroyer.

Out of the fires, a black shadowy mist floated out, the evil laughing flying away with it.

Soon, everything was silent, except the crackling of the burning Marder III.

The soldiers and ponies walked up to the tank. Edward kicked at the hull, before looking at the German who destroyed it.

"We could've used that, you know.", he said.