Surprisingly, for what it was, the day actually passed very peacefully, at least, peacefully enough. We stood guard at all times, while some of our comrades ate and slept. Todd also received a video call from Ponyville from Fluttershy and Rarity.

"Please Todd, bring Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack home safely."

"Yes Darling, you simply HAVE to bring them back, AND PUNISH THE BRUTES WHO TOOK THEM!!!!"

Todd sighed. "I will. Violence is not usually in my nature, but there comes a time when certain lines get crossed. What the Zebras have done crossed those lines. Now I have no choice but to fight back! They want a war, they're gonna get one! I will help bring them home, or die trying!"

He talked to them a little while longer, and then the call ended, as he had to get back to his duty station.

Several of our train's structural engineers did have to build a system of vent pipes so as to help dissipate the smoke from the Big Boy, so that it wouldn't be as noticeable. The smoke was vented out into the still smoldering ruins of the surrounding area. We never saw any Zebras close to the train, however, we were always watching those inside of Zandia. However, at maybe 2:30pm or so, I suddenly got a report from a lookout.

"Captain Leopard! Are you there?"

"I'm here Lt. Hughes, what is it?"

"I've found something that you need to see!"

"Ok, hold on, I'm coming!"

I then quickly made my way over to the roof of the gunship car car where Hughes was stationed. "Ok, I'm here Lieutenant, what's going on? What did you see?"

He pointed to something. "Right up there, on top of that battlement on your 11 O'clock! Isn't that that one Zebra officer from Appaloosa?"

I picked up my binoculars. I looked where he was pointing, and sure enough, I saw him.

"General Tarrath!" I growled through clenched teeth. "Zakia's right-hand man! He's the general who led the assault on Appaloosa, and attempted to attack Dodge City as well! I thought that he may have been killed when we bombarded the Macintosh Hills, but evidently not!"

"What could he be doing here?" Hughes wondered.

"Most likely this is his city. His home-base, if you will. All important Zebras get to govern a city. Zakia rules from Zebrica, the Zebra's capital city, so it would make sense that Zandia would belong to his right-hand."

"And does this complicate things?"

I thought about that. "To be perfectly honest, I don't know. From what has been gathered from bios and other reports, Tarrath is a real wild card. Apparently, due to some accident in his youth, he suffers from Split-Personality Disorder. One side of him is calm, competent, and capable. The other side though is insane, psychopathic, and dangerous. Blows to his head can also cause his personalities to shift."

Hughes was shocked. "Wow, yeah, he sounds like he could be a real piece of work."

"Yeah, but there is one thing that I'm pretty sure that we can count on."

"What, that it'll be a tough fight? Or that he'll alert Zakia at the first sign of trouble?"

I shook my head. "Not quite. Actually, I think that Tarrath is actually pretty selfish. He wanted a piece of the 'action' with Twilight and her friends, and Zakia's hogging all of them. Now, if he raised an alarm, Zakia would kill them. However, if he said nothing, then they would be safe, and he might have another chance at getting his hands on at least one of them."

Hughes looked at me incredulously. "And you know all of this how?"

"During a debriefing with Princess Celestia after the Battle of Ponyville, she gave us files, bios, and basically everything that they knew about every Zebra and Caribou leader that they knew of. Some information, such as Tarrath having SPD, is surprisingly common knowledge."

"Oh, well, I guess that that makes sense."

"Yeah, however, I think that we need to go inform Don about this. He needs to know that Tarrath is in town."

Hughes and I then went to go inform Don about what we had just witnessed.

"So, we now have Tarrath in town, do we?"

"Yeah, we spotted him on the battlements of Zandia. We think that this may be his home base."

Don sat back in his chair. "Well, this could either work for us, or against us. It all depends on what personality is on top right now."

"If I had to guess, I would have to say that it's his competent, capable side. Considering how we watched the Zebras handle last night's incident, I'd say we're maybe a head-blow away from getting his insane side."

"Ok, now I'm confused, why would we want him to be insane?"

I turned to Hughes. "Because, if he's nuts, then he'll be far more likely NOT to inform Zakia of our presence, as well as preventing others from doing so as well."

"Precisely. Now, as to how we'll go about doing that, I do not know. What I do know though is that when we do strike, we're going to have to hit hard and fast. Normally, this would be a perfect job for the Marines and Night Stalkers. However, since we do not have them here to help us, this attack will have to be in two stages. Firstly, we'll have to drop some shells in there to cause some serious chaos. Then, with the Zebras in a panic, we bring in Big Boy Battalion, and storm the city."

I was a bit concerned. "Is that a good idea Don? I mean, we don't fully have a working knowledge of what they have in store for us."

"I can see where you would be concerned, however, we know that the city has a population of almost 3 million, and is home to a supply center, military training facility, multiple garrisons, and a weapons factory. About 2 million of the Zebras here are soldiers, with maybe a further 1 million or so civilians, most of whom are contractors, or run the weapons factory."

"And, when do we attack, assuming that we do?"

"We'll attack at dusk. We'll hit them so hard from multiple angles, so they'll have no idea where we're coming from. Then we clean house as fast as we can, get out of here, then drop a nuclear shell on the city. That should send a message to Zakia that we're here."

I was confused. "Um, yes, but why do we want to let them know that we're here? I thought that we wanted to remain anonymous. Also, why don’t we just nuke Zandia now, and be done with it?”

"We'll nuke them, after we've made fast tracks to far outside of the fallout zone. As for why we’ll have to wait, that’s because scientists back in Equestria are still trying to determine what a nuclear detonation on Equus would do. We won’t even be able to use any nukes at all if they deem it unsafe, but I’m sincerely hoping that they don’t.”

I agreed. “Yeah, me too Don.”

“Now then, we have a battle to prepare for. This will be a fight on the scale of Las Pegasus, only most of it will be at extremely close range. Ready the troops, and be ready to strike. Jim and Joe will be in charge of the train. You will be leading the first wave Leopard, Shining will be leading the second wave, and I'll bring in the third wave."

"And what about me Sir?"

"You Lt. Hughes, will be with the gunship. Our technicians have managed to patch it up, but they are still in the process of testing it. However, if they give the green light, then be ready to get your men together, and get the gunship in the air to provide heavy support. We'll have our drones with us as well, but still be on standby nevertheless."

Hughes saluted. "Yes Sir." He then left to go check on the gunship, and assemble his men.

I turned back to Don. "I just hope that this'll work Don. This city needs to fall, and if it does, then the Zebras will be massively short on troops, and supplies. They will hurt from this, and they may not bounce back. However, if we fail, this could be our last fight. I dare not go home if we DO NOT have Dash, Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack with us!"

"I know Leopard, that's why this battle HAS to work!" Don then flipped a switch, so that he could address the rest of the train's crew as well. "Ok, everyone, listen up. We're going to attack Zandia, and we begin at dusk! We have the advantage of surprise, and we've already whittled their numbers down. They rely heavily on magic, and don't really have effective armor. Their weapons are mostly from the Medieval Era, although there are a number of guns, and cannons as well. We'll drop incendiary rounds, as well as high explosive shells to cause chaos. We will also target their military facilities, and knock out as many soldiers as we can before we will attack the city in 3 waves. The first wave, led by Captain Leopard, will hit their central fortress, and see about taking out Tarrath. The second wave, led by General Shining Armor, will attack any other military facilities that our guns have left behind, before linking up with Leopard's wave. The 3rd wave, led by myself, will be the clean up. We will hit any and all infrastructure, before linking up with the other two waves. Then, once the battle is over, we fall back safely, and then if the Equestrian scientists deem it safe enough, we nuke this city!"

There were some concerns about the battle ahead, but others cheered the chance to kill more Zebras. Now that we had a plan in place, we just waited for Dusk, so that we could put it into action.

Finally, at close to 7:30pm, the sun began to go down. Under the cover of the low early-evening light, our first scouts slipped out to conduct reconnaissance, as well as take out a few things. They planted explosives on all rail lines leading in and out of Zandia, severed long-range communications lines, and even planted mines underneath the roads leading in and out of town as well.

"All targets hit Sir. You're all ready to attack now!"

"Ok, good. Now get back here quickly. And don't get spotted!"

"Yes Sir!" They began to fall back to the train, all while sticking close to the shadows.

Meanwhile, all 3 waves began to get into their positions. I was nervous, as my wave was going in first. We were going to attack from the side once a hole had been blown into the walls, and head right into the belly of the beast.

"Wow, so I guess that we're going in first?"

I looked over at my faithful wolf companion. She'd been with me during a number of battles, and now Aurora was coming with us into Zandia. She was in her full battle-armor, and was ready to go. I wrapped my arms around her. "Yeah, and I'm glad that you're coming with us Aurora. We need someone to help DELCI keep an eye on everything from the ground. Our drones just can't do that the way you can."

"Yeah, and I have multiple weapons system to help you as well!"

"Yes, yes you do. Now then, it's almost time for the bombardment to begin. I'll let Don know that we're ready."

Before I could though, my radio sounded. "Ok, all waves report in. I'm ready with Wave 3."

"This is Captain Leopard of the 1st wave. We're ready Don."

"And this is General Shining with the 2nd Wave. We're also ready Major!"

"Ok, good. I'll see if Jim is ready. You there Jim?"

"Yeah, I'm here Don. All weapons systems are locked and loaded. We've locked onto our targets, and are just awaiting your orders."

Don looked at his watch. "Ok, the time is now 8:01pm. At exactly 8:02, we'll begin. On my signal.....ready, set, NOW!!! FIRE!!!!"

Then, from the woods surrounding Zandia that survived the fire, the Battleship Express roared to life once again, delivering an overdose of death.

It was truly unbelievable. For a moment, I actually forgot that we were still In Equestria. I thought that we were getting another chance at Las Vegas! Then however, I looked around me, and then I remembered that we were in the Zebra Empire, attacking its second largest city.

The city most likely never even knew what hit it. One minute everything's fine, and then the next, all of our heavy guns fire all at once, sending tons of high explosive destruction into Zandia.

From my vantage point, I watched stone-faced, but yet with a growing smirk as the city got its dose of justice. Huge columns of smoke began to rise from within, as well as occasional plumes of fire.

"Why are the walls still standing?!" Someone next to me asked. "They need to hit the walls!"

"And they will! First however, they need to cause panic and mayhem."

"Well, I think that they're definitely succeeding in that!"

It was then that we heard it. Even as far way from the city as we were, (maybe 100 yards or so), we all heard the screams. The screams of the dying, and the soon-to-be dead. Then suddenly, from overhead, a series of railgun shells came whizzing by. They slammed into the city walls, and when they exploded, they brought huge chunks of them down!

"Whoa! Now THAT'S the shit!"

I was about to agree, but then my radio came to life. "THAT'S THE SIGNAL LEOPARD, GO, GO, GO!!!!!! YOU'RE THE FIRST WAVE!!!!!"

We all knew what that meant. We all grabbed our weapons. And had a final few moments of thought before we were to charge headlong into the city.

On the flip side, Zandia seemed to be impenetrable. The city was surrounded by very high walls, in addition to being protected by nearly 2 million soldiers, multiple garrisons, a military training center, and a main munitions depot. No enemy had ever succeeded in successfully attacking the city. This made the Zebras within become somewhat complacent. Even with the war going on, and never having faced an enemy like Humanity before, they still believed that they were safe. They shouldn't have.

All of a sudden, just as Dusk was beginning to fall, there suddenly came the sound of great guns.

From his private quarters inside of Zandia Fortress, even Tarrath heard the noise. "Huh? Now what in Zakia's name could that be?"

Before he could answer his own question though, there suddenly came the sounds of great explosions. The whole fortress shook, and smoke began to fill the air.

Suddenly, another officer burst into his quarters. "GENERAL TARRATH, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!!! THE NAZIS ARE HERE!!!!"

"What? Do you mean the Humans?"

"YES, BUT THEY'RE NAZIS!!!!!!"

"Um, what's a 'Nazi'?"

"I don't know, but the dream I just had told me that the Humans were Nazis! My dream also told me that they're here to destroy us all!!"

Tarrath leapt to his feet. "ALL HANDS, BATTLE STATIONS NOW!!!! THE HUMANS ARE ATTACKING US, I REPEAT, THE HUMANS ARE HERE!!!!" Tarrath began to leave his quarters.

"But Sir, aren't you going to alert Overlord Zakia?! He needs to know about this!"

Tarrath glared at the officer. The officer, Lt. Cordia, could see that the general had sunk back into his psychotic state. "No you fool! If we tell Zakia about this, he'll either kill the hostages, or worse, SEND THEM TO THE CARIBOU!!!! I WANT some of that action, so NO! We ARE NOT telling Zakia about this! We hold them here, DESTROY them, and then finally TAKE OUT THAT GODS-FORSAKEN TRAIN ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!!" Tarrath then stormed out of the room to help lead the battle.

Cordia was left alone with his thoughts. He knew that they were doomed. He had seen the Humans in action at both Las Pegasus and Appaloosa. He knew that there was no escaping us. "Gods forgive me", he muttered. He then pulled out his gun, and shot himself in the head.

Meanwhile, outside of the city, we were mere moments away from storming the city.

Just before we did, I finished loading my shotgun. "This looks like it's gonna be lots of fun", I sang. "The guns opened up the city walls, WATCH OUT ZEBRAS HERE WE COME!!!" I then led the charge towards the city.

Aurora was running alongside me, "YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND BABY, RIGHT ROUND, LIKE A RECORD BABY, RIGHT ROUND, ROUND, ROUND!!!" She sang.

(0:55-1:08)

I was stunned. Up until that moment, I had had no idea that Aurora even knew the words to that song!

"Wait, you know the words to that song?!"

"Yeah, You always played that song, so I just asked DELCI for the lyrics! I always waited for the best moment for a sing-a-long, but now I guess that that time is now!"

I nodded while running. "Sure, I guess. Anyway, WE STORM THE CITY!!!"

In record time, we managed to run the full 100 yards, and after climbing up the rubble that used to be one of the city's walls, we all began to pour inside.

"We're in Don, we're in! Heading to the objective now!"

"Roger! Just tell us when you're all in, and I'll send in Shining with the second wave! I'll also have Jim on standby for any artillery strikes!"

"Roger that, Leopard out!" Moments after I put down the radio, I started shooting to cover the troops behind me.

Our entrance into the city did not go unnoticed however, and we were quickly being surrounded.

"SHIT!!! That's a lot of shit! EVERYONE OPEN FIRE!!!"

We all took cover behind fallen rubble, and let the Zebras have it. Bullets flew, grenades were tossed, and the Zebras quickly began to go down.

"Move forwards boys! We have to push forwards!"

I knew that we were maybe a good quarter mile away from the fortress. We continued to move, but every few paces, we came under fire again.

"Oh, for bloody f@#k! JIM?!"

"Yes Leopard?"

"We're taking some pretty heavy fire over here! South-Western Quadrant, building appears to be a temple of some sort. Can you knock it out please?!"

"Copy that, firing now!"

"HEADS DOWN!!!" I yelled.

Moments later, the entire building got slammed by a cruise missile, and was completely flattened.

"WOO! Thanks Jim, you really saved us there!"

"Eh, no problem Leopard."

"Ok boys, NOW we can keep moving!"

And move we did. We found ourselves in the middle of what appeared to be a block of shops and apartments.

"Guys with flamethrowers?"

"Yes Sir?"

"You know what to do!"

They smirked. "Like you even have to remind us Sir!"

They then quickly shot out huge jets of flames into all of the surrounding buildings, causing them to combust. We also knocked down some power lines, a few radio antennas, and kept knocking down Zebras.

"Damn", Someone muttered, "These bastards are everywhere!"

I hit one with my ax, then two more. "That's why we have to keep killing them!"

"MASTER, GET DOWN!!!" Aurora suddenly knocked me over sideways. Moments after she did, a hail of bullets hit right where I had been moments ago! Aurora then opened fire on them with her minigun, quickly eliminating the threat.

"Wow, um, thanks Aurora!"

She gave me a few loving licks to the face. "Mmm, it was my pleasure Master!"

I grabbed my radio. "Don, we need more guys in here! We're getting SWARMED!!!! You need to take some of the heat off of us right now!!!"

"Roger that! Shining Armor is on his way now, and so am I!"

"Copy that, but hurry! They're coming at us faster than we can kill them!"

"Just hold on Leopard, we're coming!"

Not too long after this, Shining and his wave reached their targets; a breach in the walls close to the ammunition factory.

"Um, Jim, are you there?"

"I'm here General Shining, what do you need?"

"I need some guns turned on the ammunition factory, as well as some nearby ammo dumps. We need to start starving them of their ammunition supply!"

"Copy that, coordinates?"

"Northeastern quadrant, close to the wall!"

"We see it! Sending you some 16in. rounds. Take cover!"

Shining heard the guns firing. "HEADS DOWN!!!"

They all got down, and moments after they did, several salvos of 16in shells hit not only the ammunition factory, but also several nearby ammo dumps.

"Yes, direct hit Jim! We can take it from here now!"

"You're welcome General Shining. Glad to have been of service!"

Shining and his wave then went on to keep storming the military industrial section. Most of the Zebras had already been killed in the blasts that destroyed the factory and ammo dumps, but there were still a number willing to fight.

"Just another glorious day in Big Boy Battalion!" Shining muttered before opening fire on the Zebras. The rest of his troops weren't far behind.

On the other side of the city, my wave and I were leaving a huge swath of death and destruction wherever we went. Buildings were burned, Zebras were shot, slashed, stabbed, blown to bits, or axed to death. We were also getting closer and closer to the fortress.

I suddenly saw a wounded Zebra soldier on the ground ahead of me. He was trying to crawl away from the battle in the burning streets. It looked like both of his legs were broken.

"Oh no you don't!" I walked over and stomped on his back before rolling him over. "And where do you think that you're going?" I asked coldly, raising my ax.

"PLEASE, HAVE MERCY!!! I'M ONLY A PRIVATE!!!"

"Where have you fought, anywhere?"

He shook his head. "NO! I've never fought a battle until now! PLEASE, I have a family!"

I looked down at him. "So did I. Until WW4 took them from me. Then I found another girl, but she died in WW6. Now I have a marefriend, and she was taken by the Zebras. Now I must get her back!"

The soldier looked at me. "If you're going to kill me, just make it quick!"

I nodded. "You shall receive a warrior's death. It will be painless." I then lowered my ax, then quickly drew my pistol, and shot him in the neck. He fell back dead. "And may your family soon follow you so that you will all be together again." I muttered. I then looked back at my troops. "Alright, we keep moving! This city is still full of Zebras, so let's keep going!"

We moved on, now to within a mere 2 blocks of the central fortress.

Out of all of us, Don was having the most luck. His wave met with the least resistance. They still went on a killing spree, but they didn't have to take cover like my wave did. By the time that they entered the city through the front gates, (which had been blown open) they killed the guards at the gate, and slaughtered a nearby garrison before quickly moving on to the road that led to the fortress.

"Other waves report in!"

"This is Captain Leopard! We're to within 2 blocks of the central fortress now! We've slaughtered all Zebras that we've come across, and we're closing in fast! The remaining Zebras seem to be in full retreat towards the fortress!"

"This is General Shining! The ammunition factory, multiple ammo dumps, have been destroyed, as well as the military academy being set on fire as well. We're driving them back to that fortress! We're following them as close as we can, whittling them down all of the way!"

"Excellent work boys! Now all that we have left to do is storm the fortress, and take out the last defenders! This battle is almost ours!"

"Yes Sir!"

We all kept moving, completely unaware of what lay ahead of us at the Zandia Fortress.

"SIR, THIS BATTLE IS LOST!!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!!"

Tarrath sat at his command center. Reports from the battlefield never seemed to stop coming in, and none of them were good.

"SIR, THEY'VE BLOWN UP THE AMMUNITION FACTORY!!!! THERE'S FLAMES EVERYWHERE!!!!"

"WE'VE LOST THE AMMO DUMPS!!! WE'RE RUNNING LOW ON AMMO OUT HERE!!!!"

"THEY'VE TORCHED THE MILITARY ACADEMY!!!! WE NEED A FIRE BRIGADE NOW!!!!!"

There were many more. Tarrath also heard reports of the enemy burning down civilian apartments, and killing any that they found in the streets. Most of the city was on fire, power was failing, water pipes had burst, and a huge number of the population, both soldier and civilian, was dead.

"Fall back, I repeat, FALL BACK!!! All remaining survivors of Zandia, GET TO THE FORTRESS NOW!!!"

"What do we do now Sir?"

Tarrath looked over at the acting-lieutenant. "Well, assuming of course that you don't kill yourself like Cordia did, we make our last stand here!"

"I STILL say that we need to alert Overlord Zakia right NOW!!! He NEEDS to know about this!"

"For the last time, if we alert Zakia, THE HOSTAGES DIE!!!!! I DO NOT WANT THAT!!!! Plus, the Humans have GOT to be running low on ammunition by now. They CANNOT hold on much longer!"

"But Sir, what if they do manage to hold on?"

Tarrath smirked. "Well then, I just give them a little dose of this!" He held up a gun that contained a strange, glowing, purple liquid.

"Um, what's that?"

"This, is the Geneticiser! From what I've gathered from all available sources, the Humans have a combination of both Human DNA, and a mixture of wolf DNA. These two types of DNA do not tolerate each other. If one of them should get hit with a blast from this gun, then their bodies would slowly begin to tear themselves apart on a genetic level!"

The acting-lieutenant, Burn, was very surprised. "Wow, um....that's actually a really great idea Sir!"

"And who's leading the Human Soldiers?"

"Um, from the reports, it's Fox-Face, the Kid, and some Royal Guard officer. Um, 'Shiny Armory', or something like that."

Tarrath smirked. "Heh. Fox-face and the Kid. Two of their highest-ranking officers, soon to be taken down by the Geneticiser!" Tarrath then burst out into maniacal laughter.

When I saw the fortress for the first time, I was very surprised. For starters, it was rather tall. It seemed to have at least 9 levels to it, and was shaped similarly to a Ziggurat from ancient Mesopotamia. It was dark grey in color, and seemed to be nearing the end of its life.

Parts of the building were on fire, and others were little more than just rubble. I also spotted a stream of Zebras heading inside. "Ok Boys, this is it, we storm the place, clean it out, and get General Tarrath!"

We were about to charge forwards, but we suddenly heard a loud rumble behind us. We turned to look, and we all saw a massive line of Zebras coming straight at us, and they were all heavily armed!

"OH F@#K!!!!"

However, our savior was about to do something extremely stupid. Aurora got scared, and acted out of panic. In her final moments, she meant to activate her frag-grenades, but instead, she not only armed her mini nuclear missile, but she also aimed, and fired it! A missile containing a small nuclear-tipped warhead, capable of a 1 kiloton yield, was now heading right for our attackers!

"OH......!!!!! EVERYPONY GET DOWN!!!!" I screamed. I then grabbed Aurora, and dragged her with me behind a pile of rubble inside of the fortress. The others did likewise, but would it be enough? The Zebras were maybe 40 yards or so away from us, and we were behind rubble, but still, the radiation from Aurora's little mistake could still kill us. "ALL WAVES, MINI-NUCLEAR MISSILE INCOMING, 40 YARDS BEHIND THE FORTRESS ON THE SOUTH SIDE!!!! GET TO COVER!!!!"

Suddenly, there came a blinding flash of white light, and the world around us changed forever.

"Ha ha! We've got them trapped now boys! General Tarrath will be so proud of.....Hey, what's that thing?" He never got his answer to that. Moments later, the missile hit the ground, and the payload was delivered, all 1 kilotons of it!

The Zebras were instantly incinerated. The shock-wave then reverberated all across the city. Most remaining windows shattered, some buildings still standing toppled, and fires began to rage. Many more Zebras trying to get to the fortress were killed almost instantly as well.

When the shock-wave hit my wave and I, it almost blew us away! We were blasted back a bit deeper into the fortress, but the thick walls, as well as our lead-lined armor saved us, at least for the time being. Once everything was over, the only sound that could be heard was dead silence. There were no sounds of battle, no screaming, nothing.

After cautiously getting up again, I managed to crawl over to the hole in the fortress's wall that we all piled through, and peer out. All I could see were clouds of smoke, as well as dust and debris. I grabbed my radio. "Other waves, report in! Are you guys still alive?!?!"

For a while, there was only silence. Eventually, a voice said, "L-Leopard? What....just happened?"

"Don? Is that you?!"

"Yeah, it's me! And I repeat what I just said, WHAT IN THE WORLD JUST HAPPENED!?!?!"

"Um....well......l-long story short, we reached the fortress, we were attacked by a HUGE wave of the enemy that horribly outnumbered us, and in her panic, Aurora accidentally launched her mini-nuclear missile at them!"

"WHAT?!?!?!"

"This is General Shining with Wave 2, what just happened?!"

I repeated my story.

"WHAT?!?!?! YOUR DOG JUST LAUNCHED A NUCLEAR MISSILE?!?!?!"

"It was a mini-nuke. 1 kiloton, but I think that it might have been a bit too much!"

"YEAH, NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!!! And normally I would have punished you, however, this time, we were being attacked as well. Your little 'accident' just took out 2 waves of Zebras that had us pinned down!"

"Yeah, same here. We're pretty shook up about this, 'nuclear missile' business, but hey, if it kills the Zebras, then it's alright in my books!"

"Um, yeah, I guess so Shining, assuming that the radiation doesn't kill us first!" Don said worriedly.

"I don't know. The isotopes in those mini-nukes have a pretty short half-life. Assuming that we don't stick around here for too much longer, I'd say that we should be ok. We had protection, and according to our Geiger Counter, we're only registering a 7, and that's at ground Zero. You guys are farther out, so assuming that you have protection, you should be ok." (A human can tolerate 5 Roentgens of radiation without protection and still be ok. 500 is fatal, but a lot before that can be pretty deadly as well. We were currently being exposed to 7 Roentgens of radiation, and we had protection).

Don sighed. "Yeah, well, at any rate, the battle's reached a lull, at least for the moment, so let's just get this over with, and get out of here!"

"Roger that Don!" I then looked at the rest of my troops. "Alright, you heard the Major, let's go!"

We all then picked ourselves up off of the ground, and charged deeper into the fortress.

We had a long way to go. The fortress was quite large, and we faced oftentimes stiff resistance at every turn.

"I'm still so, so sorry Master!", Aurora said as we fought to clear a hallway on the 2nd level, "I didn't mean to do that! I was just trying to fire the frag-grenades!"

I blasted a Zebra with my shotgun. "Don't worry about it Aurora. I'm not angry with you, and neither is Don. In fact, he and his troops were pinned down by a huge wave of Zebras, just like we were. Your nuclear blast eradicated the threat!"

Aurora was still unsure. "If you say so Master, but I still think...." Suddenly, from out of a side-corridor, an armored Zebra suddenly hit Aurora, and sent her flying across the hallway! She hit the wall, and was momentarily stunned.

"AURORA!!!!" I screamed. I then turned to the brute. "HEY, that was my dog you motherf@#ker!!!!"

He laughed. "She was a bitch, so I killed her! Now I kill you!" Then, with speed that must have been magically enhanced, he suddenly punched me, and knocked me to the hallway floor.

"CAPTAIN!!!" Others tried to intervene, but the brute knocked them back as well. He then tried to kill me on the floor with spiked club, but I kept dodging the blows.

"WHY WON'T YOU F@#KING DIE?!?!?! He screamed.

I brought my shotgun close to his head. "BECAUSE DEATH IS A CHOICE I F@#KING REJECTED!!!" I screamed, just before pulling the trigger.

The Zebra may have been armored, but let's just say that I pointed the shotgun to the front of his helmet, where he didn't have any armor. The blast hit him at point-blank range, and his head completely disintegrated! Blood splattered everywhere, and his body fell to the floor.

"CAPTAIN!!! Are you alright?!?!" My soldiers helped me back to my feet.

"Um, yeah, I'm....fine, just...really shaken up!"

"And I'm good too, just a little, woozy, is all!" Aurora had made it back to her feet as well.

"And what about the rest of you? Are you all ok?"

They nodded. "Yeah, we're fine Sir. We're ready to move on."

"Ok, good. Let's do that, but this time, let's keep a better eye out for brutes like that!"

We all agreed, and we pressed on to find the stairs to Level 3.

By this time, Don and Shining's forces had reached the fortress as well, and were clearing out any Zebras that we missed.

"Leopard, where are you?!"

"We're up on Level 3 Don! Any idea where Tarrath might be hiding?"

"Um, according to this map, the officer's quarters are up on Level 5. That's 2 levels above you guys, However, please wait for us!"

"Roger that. We need you guys to back us up. Just get to us, and hopefully we'll have all of Level 3 cleared out by then."

"Roger that, Don out."

It was difficult, because some areas of the fortress looked like they could collapse at any time. Other parts of the fortress were on fire, and without any water for the sprinkler systems, (yes, the Zebras had fire-suppression sprinklers) the fires were starting to spread rather rapidly.

Finally, after clearing Level 1, they moved up to 2. 2 was largely on fire, so they decided to leave most of the Zebras to be consumed by the flames, and after clearing a path to the stairwell on their end, they moved up to level 3.

"Ok Leopard, we've made it to 3, where are you now?"

"We're on the far end! We're pinned down by machine gun fire! JEEZ, these guys are REALLY getting desperate now!"

"Yeah, tell me about it! Level 2 was almost completely engulfed in flames! They must have all been trying to commit suicide, or something. Don't worry though, we still have an exit if anything does go wrong!"

"Sure, but please hurry! Several of my guys are now dead, and we're still pinned down!"

"Tell your dog to launch some frag-grenades over there! That might do the trick until we've gotten over there!"

"Yeah, you're right!" I turned to her. "Aurora?"

"Yes Master?"

"Send the enemy some frag-grenades! That might do the trick!"

"Yes Sir!" Aurora then complied, launching the grenades.

A couple of explosions later, the enemy fire ceased. "Enemies neutralized Don! We're just about done here, and ready to move on up to Level 4!"

"Roger that, we're moving in now, just hold on!"

Up on Level 5, General Tarrath was preparing for the end. Levels 1-3 had been fully cleared out, and Levels 6-9 had already collapsed. Level 4 was now almost done being cleared out, and that just left his level, Level 5. He knew that he had maybe half a battalion with him, but that was pretty much it. All others had already fallen. Zandia was lost, but yet, Tarrath STILL refused to contact Zakia! His acting-lieutenant had also committed suicide, leaving Tarrath all alone in his office. He shut, locked, and bolted the door, and told his soldiers to protect him, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before the Humans reached him.

"How....??? How did it all go so wrong???" He heard the Humans fighting their way up to Level 5. "Where did these Humans come from?! Why were they sent here?!" They were now up on Level 5, slaughtering his half-battalion.

"And why now?! We were winning!" There came a series of thuds on his door.

"HEY, OPEN UP THIS DOOR!!! WE'VE GOT YOU SURROUNDED GENERAL!!! EITHER COME OUT, OR WE'RE COMING IN!!!!"

"So, you've think that you've all won, huh?" Tarrath grabbed his Geneticizer, and after standing in front of the door, he prepared to blast the first soldier(s) that came through the door.

"Last warning Tarrath! We've already killed your soldiers. Either come on out and surrender, or we're coming in!"

"NO!! Tarrath yelled, "I'M NOT COMING OUT!!!"

"Ok, fine, have it your way! BLAST IT!!!!"

The door then got blasted in, and some soldiers made the move to bust in. "TASTE IT!!!" Tarrath screamed, before firing his Geneticizer at the closest soldier.

"Dang, how many more soldiers do these bastards have?!?!?!"

"I HAVE NO IDEA!!!!" I yelled back. "But we have to KEEP MOVING FORWARDS!!!! We have to get Tarrath at all costs!"

Finally, after spending even more time blasting through his soldiers, we finally arrived outside of Tarrath's door.

I tried to open it. "Blast! It's locked!" I began to bang on it. "HEY, OPEN UP THIS DOOR!!! WE'VE GOT YOU SURROUNDED GENERAL!!! EITHER COME OUT, OR WE'RE COMING IN!!!!"

There was no answer.

Don was losing his patience. "Ok then, he wants to play hardball, we'll play hardball!" He then ordered his troops to plant explosives to blast the door in.

"Last warning Tarrath!" He yelled. "We've already killed your soldiers. Either come on out and surrender, or we're coming in!"

"NO!! someone yelled back, "I'M NOT COMING OUT!!!"

"Ok, fine, have it your way! BLAST IT!!!!"

The door was then blown in, and in a prearranged maneuver, myself, and 4 others burst into the room. Just as I entered, I saw a figure standing in front of a desk. Even though the room was rather dark, I knew that he had to be Tarrath.

"TASTE IT!!!" He suddenly screamed. He then fired some sort of weird gun, and a purplish-blast suddenly hit me right in the chest! I began to fall backwards.

"CAPTAIN!!!!" Don screamed.

As I fell though, I managed to work my shotgun. First one blast, then another, and another hit Tarrath; all three of them fatal. I hit the floor, and he followed moments later. The last thing that I remember is hitting the floor, and then completely blacking out.

"LEOPARD!!!!" Don screamed again. He raced over to me. Others went over to Tarrath.

"This bastard's dead Sir! Leopard got him!"

Don didn't answer; he was too busy trying to find a pulse. Finally, he found one. "HE'S STILL ALIVE!!!" He then grabbed his radio. "JIM, JIM!!! ARE YOU THERE?!?!?!"

"Yeah, I'm here Don. What is it? What's wrong?"

"I NEED A MEDICAL UNIT ON THE DOUBLE!!! I'VE GOT WOUNDED SOLDIERS UP HERE, LEOPARD AMONG THEM!!!"

"WHAT?!?!?!" Jim yelled.

"YES!!! He got blasted with some kind of magical gun. He's not dead yet, but he easily could be soon!"

"Right! Just get him out of there if you can, as well as the other wounded, and meet us halfway! I'm sending out a recovery team to come and meet you! And I just heard from those scientists back in Equestria. They said that we could use nukes, and Princess Celestia’s ok’d it as well!"

"Copy that we're pulling out of Zandia now! Once we're out of here, we're going to nuke this God-forsaken hellhole into oblivion!"

Once Don was finished with his radio call, he officially took command of the evacuations, and the survivors all fell back. They exited Level 5, and after having to use those with magic abilities to help ferry those who couldn't fly, or use magic, in addition to the wounded, down to the ground. The fires on Level 2 were burning completely out of control, and were rapidly spreading to Levels 1 and 3. From Level 3, some flew out, others used their magic, and once they were all safe, they helped get the wounded to safety as well. Then they all hastily evacuated the city, and went to meet the medical team.

Once they arrived, the medical team quickly sorted out the wounded by how dangerous their wounds were. Since myself, and a few others had life-threatening injuries, we were rushed to the medical car on the train. The former Amtrak double-decker dome car had really seen some use in its day, but now functioned as a hospital on wheels. All medical treatments were done here, performed by Dr. Wilhelm Fritz, the Chief Medical Officer of the Battleship Express, and his team of doctors and nurses. They could do it all, from treating minor injuries, to severe burns, to surgery, to even delivering babies! If you can name it, then they've probably done it at least a few times! And ever since Ponyville, they had been joined by a series of Equestrian medical professionals as well.

I was quickly rushed to an exam table. Don and Aurora were right behind me.

"So, vat are ve looking at here?" Dr. Fritz asked in his rather heavy German accent.

"We're not sure Doc." Don then explained what happened. "He got hit with some kind of energy weapon. As he fell, he fatally shot the weapon's owner, General Tarrath, and then he hit the floor."

"Do you have ze veapon with you?"

"Unfortunately, no. Leopard himself destroyed it with his shotgun blasts after he was hit. The weapon exploded, and whatever was left of it we tried to bring with us, but for whatever reason, its parts disintegrated when we picked them up. I suspect that it was rigged to do that."

"Argh!" Dr. Fritz muttered. "Vell, I guess zat ve vill have to do zis ze hard vay! Computer!"

"Yes Sir?"

"Please scan ze patient, and see vat is vrong viz him."

"Right away Doctor!" (Computer was a medical database and scanning machine used by the medical team. Some considered her to be a sister to DELCI, although she's not a true AI. However, she is a close second.)

Eventually, the scanning was complete. "Scans complete!"

"And? Vat is vrong viz him?"

"It is very bad sir! His body is beginning to tear itself apart at an alarming rate!"

"VAT?!?!?!"

"Yes Sir! His genetics are tearing themselves apart! He does not have long to live!"

"Doctor, is there anything that can be done?!?!" Don was close to panicking.

Fritz sighed. "It vas zat gosh-damned 'Project Sterling'! If zat God-awful monstrosity had never been created, zen zis never vould have happened!"

"What does he mean by that?" one of the Equestrian doctors asked. "What is 'Project Sterling'?"

"Project Sterling was an attempt during WW4 to create super-soldiers", One of Fritz's nurses answered. "The project took the DNA of a wolf, and spliced it together with the DNA of a Human host. However, the technology behind it was EXPERIMENTAL at best! It should have NEVER been rolled out on a large scale! Long story short, Human bodies don't take to the wolf DNA very well. They refused to bond with the new DNA, and that led to MORE experimental trials with drugs, which led to even MORE disasters! In the end, the project was cancelled, but not before the damage was done. Now Captain Leopard, and many others, are trapped with failing human-wolf DNA!"

"Precisely! And now vhatever zat gun was, it's forcing his DNA apart! If ve cannot shore up ze damage, zen Captain Leopard vill die!"

"But how do we do that?" Don was still close to panicking.

"Well, to do zat, first ve have to extract as much of his volf DNA as we possibly can, meaning ze parts zat have already been corrupted by that veapon." Dr. Fritz then took a special extractor, and after stabbing it into my chest, he began to withdraw a black, oily substance. He then emptied the contents into a container, and after sticking me with the injector again, he pulled more out. (luckily, I was unconscious throughout this whole ordeal, so I was in no pain.)

"Zere. Now I have removed all of ze corrupted DNA. Zis vill keep him alive for at least a little vhile longer, but if he is to survive, zen ve have to find fresh genetic material!"

"Um, what does that mean?"

"What the Doctor means is that we have to find a new set of genetics that will bond perfectly with Captain Leopard's, so as to be able to fight off the rest of the corrupted DNA. We don't have any fresh wolf DNA, not that we would use it if we did! But we have to find some new material! It comes in blood, so all we have to do is find blood that matches, and see if we can create enough genetic material to save Captain Leopard!"

Don was about to ask what that meant, but his head was already spinning so much from everything that had happened, so he instead slumped into a chair, and tried not to pass out.

And thus, did a search begin to find blood that contained the proper genetics.

All across the medical lab in the medical car, both the human and pony lab techs worked tirelessly to search through the blood that they had on file to see if they could find a match. Vial after vial was found, checked underneath a microscope, and then rejected for not being a match.

"I'm beginning to think that we don't have any blood on file that matches his!" One of the techs said worriedly.

"We HAVE to keep looking! There's still plenty more vials to check!"

They kept searching. All the while, my condition continued to worsen. By Dr. Fritz's count, I had maybe 2 hours left to live.

"Ugh, I give up! There isn't any matches!" One of the pony techs threw up his arms in disgust.

"We have to keep looking. We have to.....wait a minute, I FOUND A MATCH!!!!"

"WHAT?!?!?!"

The tech checked again. Sure enough, from what his microscope was showing, he had indeed found a match!

"It IS a match!!!!"

"What vial is it?!"

"Um...." The Human tech looked. "Vial 00597." He then turned to the Pony tech. "It's one of your vials. Um, what's a 'Bat-pony'?"

The tech was extremely surprised. "Oh....um, well, a Bat-pony is a somewhat rare pony subspecies. They look like Pegasai, except that they have bat-like wings, cat-like pupils, large, furry ears, fangs, and tend to have slightly thicker manes, tails, and fur than the rest of us."

Now it was the Human tech's turn to be surprised. "Um, wow. Well, I don't know about that, but, we've found a match, and we have to save Captain Leopard's life, so let's get this sample to Dr. Fritz!"

"Hmm, Bat-pony DNA you say? Vell, zis is very interesting! It does appear zat zere is enough here to save ze captain's life. I'll perform ze reconstuction of his DNA right now!"

With the help of 2 nurses, Dr. Fritz then took the vial, opened it up, and after filling a new injector with it, he stabbed me in the chest with it! He then reloaded the injector, and repeated the process, until the vial was empty. I was hooked up to a number of health monitors, as well as a small device so that Computer could keep an eye on me as well.

At first, nothing seemed to be happening. All of a sudden though, my bode began to twitch extremely violently.

"Alert! DNA reconstruction commencing!" Computer warned.

Everybody, and everypony, took more than a few steps back. My physiology began to change once again. Almost 45% of my wolf genetics had been removed. Now those 45% had just been replaced with the DNA of a Bat-pony. I was now 50% Human, 5% wolf, and 45% Bat-pony. The changes that were happening to my body were incredible.

Oddly enough, most of my features seemed to stay the same albeit, slightly altered. My furry wolf ears became less pointed, and more furry, and turned black instead of gray. my black hair did seem to get a little thicker, and a bit messier, my human ears stayed the same, as did the rest of my Human body, however, my face did seem to grow a bit of a muzzle, and two fangs protruded from the top of my mouth as well. On my back, my dark spots of fur suddenly turned from black, to gray, to back to black, my wings turned from gray to black, although they did remain feathery. My tail remained the same gray that it was before, though it now seemed to be thicker than before.

From the waist down, almost everything remained the same. While I previously had wolf legs, and wolf everything below the waist, now my legs at least retained most of their original structure, although my lower legs straightened out a bit more. I still had wolf paws for feet, but they, and my legs, were covered in gray fur, and my two paw-print "cutie-marks", were still black. Also, between my legs, my balls got slightly bigger, and my dick changed as well. Now, instead of being a red wolf-rocket, now it was all black, was slightly bigger, thicker, somewhat veinier, and looked like a cross between a wolf's dick, and a stallion's dick, and my knot was a lot smaller than it was before, and almost completely disappeared.

Eventually, my transformation was all complete, and I went still.

"DNA reconstruction complete!" Computer reported. "Subject has survived, and appears to be doing well!"

Dr. Fritz smiled. "Ah, another successful procedure!"

I was now a Human-bat-pony hybrid, with a little bit of wolf thrown in as well. I was sleeping, but soon, I would wake up, and when I did that, all hell could possibly break loose when I realized what I had become!

Author's Note

Woah! This chapter went from "Big battle scenes", to "Captain Leopard just became a human-bat-pony hybrid"! So now, I went from being one type of freak, to being a completely different type of freak. Also, now Zandia has fallen, and is soon to be nuked, and General Tarrath is dead as well. Our conquest of the Zebra Empire continues. What will happen next? Has Zakia figured out yet that we're here? How will he react to Tarrath's death? Will he kill the 4 Element Bearers and Private Cole, or does he have something more sinister in mind for them? Will we be able to save them in time? And most importantly, how will I react when I find out that I'm a human-bat-pony? Well, you know the drill, keep reading to find out!

Meanwhile, as always, comments, feedback, questions, as well as spreading the word about this story, are always appreciated, and I'll see you all in Chapter 13! That one will be really exciting, so don't you dare miss it!

ScarFox out for now, ALL ABOARD!!!!!

(Also, while I have seen the views keep going up, I haven't been getting too many comments lately. I really do enjoy reading comments and replying to them, as well as answering your questions. I would like to know how you all feel, so keep the comments coming!)