Heroes travels

Hey there guys, DWR here and I'm posting this on May 5th 2012. I'm giving you a little heads up that chapters 1 - 13 are going to be rewritten when the story finishes. Looking back, I can see how horrible they are and I want to fix them soon. I may have to rewrite some more chapters. I've decided to go back and delete previous A/N's of those chapters.

Also side note; Humans don't arrive in Equestria until chapter 4. You can skip to there if you want.

Name:  Ashley “Toast” Cook

Age: 25

HeightL 5ft 11 inches Weight: 164lbs

Medical Training: Basic

Appearance: short Brown hair, blue eyes. Small scar on right cheek

Specialty: Stealth operations, works best with CT. High success rate with this fellow soldier. Assign to missions requiring stealth, precision and too dangerous for other soldiers. Weapons expert; capable of using any weapon on the field with ease

Preferred weapons:HK MP5 w/ suppressor, Combat knife, Sig Sauer Sig P226 pistol w/ Suppressor and flashlight.

Name: Callum “Hammer” Thomson

Age: 25

Height: 6ft 2 inches Weight: 167lbs

Medical Training: Basic

Appearance: Short Black hair, Brown eyes

Specialty: Stealth operations, works best with AC. high success rate with this fellow soldier. Assign to missions requiring stealth, precision and too dangerous for other soldiers. Advances in hand to hand combat. High precision when using

Preferred weapons: HK G36, Combat knife, Sig Sauer Sig P226 pistol w/ suppressor and flashlight

The day was a Tuesday... or was it a Thursday? The season? Fall. In the middle of war, you tend to not pay attention to these things.

Ashley was sleeping in his bed while cradling his favourite weapon, his pistol. It has saved his ass in the most dangerous of times as well as saving fellow soldiers; he grew very fond of it and made it unique to others by having a small image on the handle. Callum was lying in his bed next to Ashley's with his head resting on his hands while looking at the ceiling. He was thinking of home, his mother who he loved with all his heart and how she will react to seeing him since he left to go to war 5 years ago with Ashley by his side.

The pair are inseparable, being best friends since the age of 4; they never once got into a fight with each other and were always willing to do what was necessary to make each other happy. They have seen fellow soldiers die in front of them, killed enemies with their bare hands. The army didn’t care what they did during missions as long as they got the job done which they did. They gained respect of fellow soldiers, some even wish that they would be part of their team but they will never be able to cut it. The team is built on trust, efficiency and sacrifice; many soldiers lack one of these in both Callum and Ashley’s eyes.

Callum turned his head to Ashley and nudged his bed with his left foot "Ashley, wake up...” no response. “Typical of Ashley; he was always the heavy sleeper” Callum thought to himself, he then nudged the bed with more force and said in a slightly louder voice "Ashley, stop dreaming and wake up"

Ashley slowly opened his eyes and could just make out the image of Callum’s face and smiled "what is you wanted? You know I like to sleep"

Callum looked back at the ceiling and responded "what do you think will happen when we are able to go home? I know we could have gone home many times but knowing you, you don’t like leaving a job half done and god forbid I’m going to let you fight in a war without me. So much would have changed back home you know?"

Ashley picked up his pillow and leaned it against the wall, allowing him to get more comfortable as he sat up with his back leaning against the wall. He thought to himself "I’m not going to get any sleep tonight again".

He grabbed his bag of personal belongings from under his bed and unzipped the front pouch, taking out a small cloth and putting it on his lap; he zipped the bag back up and dropped it gently at the side of his bed. Grabbing the cloth with his right hand and his Sig Sauer Sig P226 pistol with his left, he started to clean his gun and quietly said to Callum "I don’t know, maybe with my pay check I can buy a house or send my ma' somewhere nice. Take her somewhere that she would love, like Canada. She has done so much for me and I feel she deserves something in return" Ashley stopped cleaning his gun and turned his head to Callum and asked "why did you want to ask?"

Callum was silent for about 10 seconds, trying to think of a response. His mind drew a blank and he turned his head to Ashley and moved his sight to the handle of Ashley's pistol "you never told me why you painted that lightening cloud thing on your pistol..."

Ashley held his gun sideways and held it closer to Callum with his right hand to show the handle, pointing to a cloud with lightening bolt coming out of the bottom of it; the bolt was coloured red, yellow and blue. With his left index finger and responded "you remember that show I told you about? It’s a cutie mark from one of the characters” he took the pistol back and continued to clean it with the cloth “the show has affected my life so much and I just thought that it would be awesome to have something from it on my favourite weapon. After all, this pistol has saved my ass plenty of times as well as yours"

Callum glanced at Ashley's face and gave a weak smile "you will never get me to become one of your "bronies", that’s the term right? But like I said when you tried to get me to watch a couple of episodes, it's a show for little girls and I don’t watch cartoons"

this was one of the many things that Ashley loved about having Callum as his best friend, being honest. Well that as well as he would put his life into Callum’s hands and he knew Callum would do the same. After all, they were the best of friends as well as team mates.

Ashley picked up his bag again and opened the middle pouch, taking out his combat knife and showing the side of the blade to Callum. It read Love and tolerate as well as 17 tally marks scratched into it which appeared to be the number of people killed with this knife. Ashley smirked and said "you know what this means"

Callum lightly pushed Ashley's hand away and said with a small laugh "yeah yeah, I’m going to love and tolerate the shit out of you..." Callum then got out of his bed and put on his tank top, trousers and combat boots. While tying his boots he asked Ashley "I’m going to walk around a bit, care to join me or you going to be a wimp and stay in here because it’s too cold for ya?"

Ashley put his pistol at the bottom of his bed and put the cloth and knife back into his bag. he got out of his bed and put on his plain black T-shirt and put on his trousers and boots, grabbing his pistol and putting it into the waist band of his trousers he responded "you know I love the night and I’m not going anywhere with this bad boy"

Callum gave a light smile and knelt down to grab the bag from under his bed, he opened the middle and took out his water container, his knife and his pistol.

Ashley and Callum walked out of the tent together. The night sky was clear and the stars were shining bright. The moon was at its highest peak. There was a small breeze of cold air flowing around. The only thing missing was rain. Ashley loved it when it was dark and rained. He didn’t know why, maybe it was because it felt so relaxing to him? Who knows, no one questioned him about it. He took in a deep breathe, this relaxed his whole body.

Walking around the base, you could see other soldiers lighting up cigarettes or just walking around. Who could blame them? It was quiet at night. The perfect time to think to yourself or in this case, talk with other soldiers in their tents to swap stories about home and those they loved.

Callum and Ashley spent the next few hours walking slowly around the base, talking to other soldiers about their missions and having to decline others from joining their team. Time flew by and before either of them realised, it was already 5:55am and everyone had to wake up at 6am for training. Luckily, Ashley and Callum were only called onto “suicide missions” and would train by themselves at a different time so both of them went to the mess hall to grab something to eat.

Grabbing trays, Ashley picked out his usual breakfast which consisted beans, egg, bacon and toast with water. Callum on the other hand decided with just toast and water. The both walked over to their usual spot, a small table in the corner of the hall. Both of them sat down and started to eat their breakfast when a soldier walked up to them with a small smile on his face. In his hands was a brown cardboard box which appeared to be mail.

The soldier was a private and his name was Richard Jenkins, he looked up to Callum in the hopes he could be like him. The reason? Callum saved the kids life.

***

It was only a few months ago, Ashley and Callum secured a package which contained blueprints of a superweapon which would be used by the Russians. Richard was part of the evac squad. As the helicopter landed, Richard and 4 other soldiers ran out and provided covering fire for Callum and Ashley as they ran towards the helicopter while trying dodge explosions and enemy gunfire. It took them a while to get to the helicopter as safe as possible, as soon as they boarded all the other soldiers got back on the helicopter except for Richard

Ashley shouted “RICHARD! GET YOUR ASS ON THIS FUCKING HELICOPTER NOW!”

Richard ignored the orders. He was in the zone, picking off enemies one by one. In his mind he thought he was being the hero and this would make Callum want him on their team. He was wrong. Burning through his clip he tried to reload only to get shot in the arm by an enemy.

Richard screamed in agony which caused him to drop his weapon and get behind better cover, he put his hand onto the wound and saw a distinct crimson red liquid which formed on his uniform. he pulled his hand away from the wound to see blood covering it. Shock fell hard onto his face, He felt his heart pump harder, his sight started to blur and grew dark. He passed out...

Callum saw the private pass out and couldn’t just stand there and let him die. He knew Richard just joined and he wasnt going to let the kid die on his 1st mission.

“Toast! GIVE ME COVERING FIRE IM GOING TO GET THE PRIVATE!” Callum shouted.

Ashley saw the desperation in his friend’s eyes and turned round to the other soldiers who boarded the helicopter already.

“Come on! Help me provide covering fire for Hammer!” Ashley ordered to the other soldiers who were part of the evac squad. They scrambled out of the helicopter firing their weapons at the enemy.

Callum ran over to Richard’s unconscious body and started to drag him by his arms back to the helicopter.  One of the evac squad soldiers grabbed Richards legs and started to help Callum drag Richard to get out of the fire fight quicker.

Ashley saw Callum, Richard and the other soldier board the helicopter and shouted “Come on let’s go!” to the remaining soldiers outside of the helicopter and provided covering fire for them as they boarded.

As soon as everyone was aboard, Callum hit the door close button and banged on the door to the cockpit to signal the pilots to get them out of there. All that could be heard was the helicopters rotor blades spinning and bullets being deflected by the helicopters armour.

Ashley was tending to Richards wound during the flight but could only try his best by keeping pressure on the wound and wrapping it in a bandage and from a medical kit onboard the helicopter to stop the blood from escaping.

It took them a good 20 minutes before they got back to the base, medical teams were already at the landing pad due to a message sent by the pilot. As soon as the helicopter landed, the door opened, Richard was whisked away to the medical tent. 2 of the evac soldiers followed while the others stayed with Callum and Ashley for what felt 10 minutes before going to their tents to brag to the other soldiers about their mission.