Sunshine in the trenches

Chapters

Chapter I: The tale of a tragic soldier
Chapter II: Encounter with the horses
Chapter III: The March Towards The Front

Chapter I: The tale of a tragic soldier

Sunshine in the trenches

Battle of Passchendaele
September 7th, 1917

How long have they been at it? How long is that artillery been going for? How long until they run out of ammunition?

Those questions were shaken from a soldier who just heard another artillery shell go off. He looked to his left over the trench and see his allies pulling someone from the field. One of the man's legs was torn off by the artillery and he started screaming in pain as his comrades struggled to pull him off the field. Suddenly, Gunshots started shooting from the distance, which was coming from the opposing side of the field.

"GIVE US COVERING FIRE!" The shout came from one of the men dragging the poor guy's body.

The soldier in the trench pulled up his rifle and started firing blindly at the opposing side, the sounds of bullets firing and the soldiers on his side screaming were deafening, but he heard one thing during that entire thing.

"ARTILLERY INCOMING! TAKE COVER!"

Just as he heard it, the explosion blasted some of the soldiers away, including him, but as soon as he opened his eyes, expected to be dead, he instead saw his officer and a couple of his men. The officer looked at him and slowly walked up to him and outstretched a reaching hand for him.

"Are you alright Merlin?" The officer said in a disgruntled tone, one that an officer would have. Merlin looked down to see himself on the ground, he then looked up to his officer and grabbed his hand. "Yes I'm fine, thank you sir." he replied. His officer then looked away from him and went up on the wooden boards in the trench and looked at the other side of the field. "It appears that the Germans really are a tenacious bunch, however since their artillery just fired and is currently taking its time to reload, this is an opportunity for us." Opportunity? for what? Merlin thought, what is his officer planning? Merlin looked around to see his men all rallied up to their officer, currently looking beat up after that artillery strike.

Their officer then stood up and looked at his men "Men, we are now going to charge the enemy! Prepare yourselves!" Merlin looked horrified, Attacking? after they just took an artillery strike? No this is insane, there's no way they are going to attack, right? However, due to the ranking stance between him and his officer, he had no choice but to comply with his order.

"Company forward!" The men moved up to the trench edge. Damn it, damn it damn it! This was it, the charge that is going to risk the lives of many soldiers, including Merlin. He didn't ask to be here, he was forced to conscript into the army after all! He looked to his fellow men and saw both determined and scared faces.

and then he heard the whistle, it's time.

"CHARGE!!!"

The yell from their superior immediately triggered a fight or flight reaction from the men, they all jumped out of the trenches and charged towards the enemy. They could hear each other screaming from miles away as they were in a do-or-die situation.

Merlin was in the middle of the charge, and he could see his comrades falling to the ground in front of him. The enemy is now aware of their charge and started to quickly riddle all of them with their mg, the Maschinengewehr 08. huffing and puffing his way through the field, he eventually made it, jumping into the enemies' trenches and quickly turning to see a couple of germans with him.

"Scheiße!" A German soldier exclaimed. They quickly pulled out their guns with bayonets and attempted to charge at Merlin. Merlin, being quick-witted, pulled the bolt back on his rifle with ease and shot the first German soldier in front of him. He fell dead on the ground before seeing the second German soldier looking at his dead buddy, then looking back at him with an angry look on his face. "You bastard!" The German soldier yelled then charged at him with his bayonet, Merlin didn't have enough time to pull the bolt back, so he had to resort to melee combat. He admits that melee combat wasn't his expertise, but then again, did he had a choice in the matter?

Merlin dodges the strike, then attempted a stab at the German, which failed as the strike went to his right, completely missing him. The German then laughs at the failed attempt as he grabs Merlin by his arm and preparing his knife to end him. "Bye-bye, little one." Merlin struggled to get out of his grasp but to no avail. This was it... He thought, his life was now gonna end at the hands of a German soldier, all because he made one mistake. He closed his eyes, preparing for the painful and slow death he was gonna be in.

Or so he thought.

He then heard a gunshot, he opened his eyes to the German soldier, looking at him, but instead of him grinning, he was in a shocking state as a bullet just went through his head. He let go of Merlin, then raised his hand at the wound, he was bleeding from his head. He looked at Merlin and said, "damn it." And then the German fell to the ground lifeless. Merlin was... Shocked, to the say least. He looked up to see a fellow soldier who had made it in the trench with him. "Ello mate, I see you're one of the lucky ones." The soldier said with a gleeful expression. Merlin was confused at the man but nevertheless responded "Yes, it appears I am."

The two of them then heard gunshots from the distance and started to take cover. Merlin turned to the soldier and said "Where are the other men? I thought they were in the trenches with us!" The soldier then replied, "The others are with the officer, they are planning to do another assault as soon as reinforcements arrive. So until then, we're just sitting ducks here!" He said as a load of suppressive machine gunfire over them.

"So we just have to wait until our reinforcements arrive? How long is that gonna take?!" Merlin yelled over the gunfire.
"Our officer said they are gonna arrive in 1 hour or so! So our job is to hold this line until they get here!" The soldier replied

1 hour? It's not enough, by the time it reaches half of that, most of their soldiers would be dead and the remaining ones would be captured. They cant hold off with such little supplies and the little amount of infantry they have right now. they should've waited for reinforcements to arrive before they decided to strike.

"Quickly! We need to head to the- AGH!" The soldier grunted as he got shot in the arm by one of the machine gun bullets. Merlin then heard shouting from the other side.

Oh no... They are attacking...

"SHIT!" Merlin cursed as he grabbed his gun and started firing at the group of soldiers charging. He managed to get 4 of them, but it was not enough... soon enough, the enemy spotted him and they opened fire. Merlin tried to dodge the shots, but it was inevitable, and soon enough, they got him in the leg.

While the rest of the Germans ran to the opposite side of the trench, one of them went up to the injured soldier, the injured Merlin's comrade eventually died of blood loss and so it was just only him left. The German soldier went up to Merlin while he looked up to the German.

"You have fought valiantly, but unfortunately, this is where your story ends." The German spoke fluent English and soon raised his rifle at the bleeding soldier. Merlin was struggling to grab his rifle, but it ended in vain.

BANG

The shot hit him square in the chest, making him fall back in pain. He realized what just happened, and soon started struggling for air and kept breathing out of pace. He started to slowly cry, "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die." He said as he started weeping, constantly struggling for some hope of survival. He started to see darkness in his eyes, and then muttered one last word, "Mother..." Before drifting away from his consciousness.
Merlin was now dead, a lifeless corpse, another sacrifice to the British kingdom. The German looked sympathetically at his corpse before saying "This... is certainly hell." The soldier then heard a shout from his comrade, and ran back to his regiment, leaving Merlin to be food for the birds...

Merlin was at home, drinking coffee, and reading the local newspaper that his mother had picked up. As he was reading through the contents of the newspaper, he then turned to the side to see his mother, currently cleaning clothes. "Merlin, you have to get ready, otherwise you'll be late for work." Merlin closed the newspaper and went upstairs to get changed "Yea yea, I'm on it." He then went into his closet to find... A military uniform? Didn't... The war passed? Strange.

He then heard a scream, and it was coming from downstairs, he recognizes that voice. MOM! Merlin ran down the stairs at light speed to find nothing but empty dishes, broken furniture, and smashed pieces of glass and wood, Everything you would find in a broken down-home. He then heard another scream and this time it was outside, so he ran to the front of his porch to see something bigger. The entire city... Was on fire. Most of Britain, if not all of Britain, was up in flames. People were screaming left and right, vehicles and carriages were burning as they were driving. It was insanity, and Merlin needed to get out of here. He started running through the field and the town as people started crying for help and begging those who could save them.

This is a dream, this has to be a dream. Merlin thought to himself, Theres no possible way any of this could happen right now! He kept trudging and trudging until he ran up to what was Buckingham Palace. The place was in ruins and fire was spreading everywhere. Eventually, the fire tried to spread around him, but he just jumped over the fire and made a run towards the palace to see if anyone is safe. He ran into the palace to see what he thought was truly a nightmare. The German empire flag being raised. He tried to make a run for it outside but only turned to see a German soldier, but not just any German soldier, to his shock, he saw the German who had murdered him in the battle of Passchendaele.

The German soldier then Pulled up his rifle at him, muttering the same words "You have fought valiantly, but unfortunately, this is where your story ends." Merlin's eyes widened with shock as he understands what's about to happen, he was about to get killed, again.

"NO, NOT AGAIN! I WON'T HAVE THIS HAPPEN TO ME AGAIN!" Merlin shouted at the top of his lungs as he lunged at the German soldier. Merlin didn't care if this was a dream or not, all he knows is that he refuses to die again. Just as he was about to swing his left fist into the soldier's skull, he heard it.

BANG

Again...

"Merlin."

He was dying yet again...

"Merlin, wake up."

This was completely unfair, he didn't choose to be a part of the war.

"Merlin, wake up now."

All he ever wanted, was just peace.

"Merlin!"

Sweet, blissful...

"MERLIN!"

Soon as he heard someone spoke, he opened his eyes and saw a bright light covered his entire vision. What the hell is that? What was going on?! He tried to cover his eyes using his arm, but it was no use. The light was so immense that it practically covered the entire room.

Am I... Going to heaven? Merlin thought as the light was slowly expanding to the point where he could only see just the light.

Go forth warrior, and unleash justice to all!

And then, It all went dark.

It was a bright and sunny day, the birds were singing, the flowers were blooming and the breeze was calm and soothing.

In the middle of the field there lying on the ground was a soldier. A soldier who was peacefully snoring away on the grassy field surrounded by flowers.

Then out of nowhere, a mosquito flew around the soldier and then landing on his face. It tried to take some of his blood but was then swatted away by the soldier's reflexes, while he was sleeping. Persistent, the mosquito went again for another blood taking, but unfortunately for it, the soldier had woken up with a startle the moment it tried to went for a bite, thus startling the mosquito away, and making the starving insect look for other food.

Merlin was breathing heavily after that 'dream' he had and was currently clutching his heart to check if he was still alive or not.

"Still alive, good"

The British soldier now was on the ground, still shaken up by that dream he had. What the hell just happened back there? Who was that woman? He assumed the person that spoke to him was a female after he noticed the voice was kind of feminine. But the question was what did that woman said, "Go forth warrior, and unleash justice to all?" What is he, some kind of hero? The only thing he is is a soldier, a soldier forced to conscript into war and was prepared to die for his country.

As soon as he finished his reflection on the dream, he looked around the area. Nothing much but grass and loads amounts of trees around him, so the natural assumption would be that he is in a forest.

Wait... Why was he in a forest?

Shouldn't he be back at Passchendaele? As far as he knows, most, if not all of the trees were burned down or destroyed by artillery. So if this wasn't Passchendaele, where in the world was he? He decided to take a look around and find any civilization that could help him, and hopefully not the German army. He looked to his left and find his rifle and his equipment on the ground. He quickly went over the things he needed, as in case if the worse come, he would be prepared.

Rifle? "Check."

Gas mask? "Check."

Pouches of ammunition and grenades? "Check."

Rations and water? "Check."

As soon as he checked over and making sure he was ready, he sets off into the forest.

"Okay this is getting absurd now"

This was Merlin's thought as he now been walking for what feels like 2 hours. He had been trudging through the muddy dirt, for so long, he thought that he had been going in a circle. The sun was high above his head, telling him that it was the afternoon at the moment. He needed to get to some sort of town before it gets dark, otherwise, god knows what would happen to him in the middle of the night when he sleeps in a ditch in the middle of a forest, filled with god knows what.

As soon as he passed yet another tree, he slowly realized that he was getting hungry, so he decided to take a breather and take some of his rations. he opened a ration and took some of the biscuits that were there. After a while, as soon as he finished and save some of the leftovers for later, he set off back into the forest again.

As the trudging went on, he heard something.

KABLOOM

The sound instantly made the soldier get into a prone position. He then heard more explosions nearby and decided to move slowly and carefully through the forest.

As soon as he got out of the forest, he then saw a couple of things. There were what looked like to be a couple of trenches on one side of the field. There were other trenches on the other side, and he also saw a building that was broken down and burnt. He then heard more screaming, as he looked a little closer.

"ENEMY ARTILLERY INBOUND!"

"TAKE COVER!"

Then loads of explosions were shot in the air and he saw what looked like to be... Bombs? That didn't really matter as the bombs then hit the area, creating loads of craters. Merlin was in the middle of the artillery and it was getting dangerously close to him. Once again he had to do something before the enemy artillery would eventually blow off his legs or worse, his entire body.

He had then decided something, to run into the trenches.

Grabbing his rifle, he did a charge through the artillery, it was what some people would call insane. He was running through an open field, with no covering fire to support him getting back into the trench. as he ran past the huge craters, he eventually made it and jumped into the trench.

He looked around in the trench he was in to find no one to be found. He heard a couple of screams, but they were too far away to make contact with. Soon, the artillery eventually stopped, but Merlin then heard someone yelling from the opposing side of the field. He peeked over the trench to see what was happening, but his peeking was cut short when he saw a couple of shots when towards his way.

He took cover as some of the shots flew past him. He took notice as the shots just hit above the trench line, and what he saw was... arrows? Did the Germans ran out of ammunition and started resorting to medieval weaponry? As far as he knows, they should be well supplied with ammunition and weaponry, so why are they using bows and arrows? After the arrows had missed, Someone from the other side of the trench, which to his case sounded like an officer yelled,

"THEY'RE FIRING! RETURN FIRE, RETURN FIRE!"

Merlin peered over the trench with his rifle and began firing. He was now seeing arrows going back and forth, while he was the only one with an actual gun, which made him question what in the hell was going on. As the fighting continued, One of the men yelled, "I NEED AMMUNITIONS!"

"I got it! I'm on the way!"

Merlin heard a young boy from the opposite side of the trench, coming to resupply his ally.

Merlin shouted to the side giving a resupply, "I'll give you covering fire! get to the other side quick!"

"Thanks!"

Merlin heard the response, and quickly went back to firing at the enemy. The Germans did not let down-firing power as multiple arrows kept coming by the hundreds. He was supposed to give suppressive fire but ended up getting suppressed himself.

As Merlin was getting suppressed, he heard someone coming nearby, he assumed it was the supplier.

"Oop! Sorry coming through- Woah!"

The sound of supplies and ammo falling to the ground was heard.

Merlin then looked down left and saw the ammunition box on the ground, but what he saw above that, was something else entirely. It was a horse, that was orange-skinned, and had a short spikey mane, its tail was also wavey as well. Merlin was... Shocked, to say the least.

The horse looked up at him, "Sorry about that..." The horse, also being petrified at the sight of Merlin, left his sentence cut short as his entire jaw was hung open.

And then, they both had a response to each other.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"

To be continued...

Author's Note

Thank you all for reading if you made it this far! I plan to make the chapters as quickly as possible, so sit tight!

This is also my second story, as my first one did not convey much hope.

So feedback is appreciated!

Chapter II: Encounter with the horses

Sunshine in the trenches

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"AAAAAHHHHHHH"

Two people of different species started to scream at the sight of one another, there was both confusion and fear in the scream. Both Merlin and the horse then immediately jumped into a combat stance after they were finished screaming at each other for no reason. Merlin decided to take the initiative by attacking first, so he went for a jab with his bayonet at the horse's throat. Pulling his entire body forward, he went for it with a yell. But that ended up in failure as the horse dodged it so quick, that he believed that he had teleported.

The horse attempted a counter-attack by attacking Merlin in the stomach by bucking him, but Merlin was quick-witted as to realize what the horse was planning to do. As soon as the horse turned around and pulled his hind legs up, he pulled back his entire body and jumped back a step. This slow but careful battle went on, both of them not leaving each other sight as They were carefully watching each other moves. During their combat, a shout was heard.

"THE ENEMY IS CHARGING, PREPARE YOURSELVES!"

This went unnoticed by both, as they were concentrating on each other. Making sure that none of them were to make a move on each other. As Merlin still had eyes on the horse, he noticed something about it. Despite it being orange and having a spikey mane and tail, it had wings.

Is this a pegasus? Merlin thought, was this horse one of those ancient divine creatures from the old ages? One of those beings that valkyries ride during the Viking era? This makes Merlin have so many questions about this place.

Then all of a sudden a beast hopped into the fray. both Merlin and the pegasus looked up to see a beast looking at them, with his mouth open, letting saliva out. Before both of them could react, the beast had pounced at the pegasus, claws opened and mouth open for meat. Merlin just stood back flabbergasted at the situation at hand, what were these things, who are they, and those were just only a pinch amount of questions! Merlin saw the pegasus struggling to get off the beast's grasp, and saw the beast trying to open his mouth to eat him alive.

After what felt like minutes, Merlin had decided to act. Raising his weapon at the scene, he suddenly realizes something, who does he hit?

If he targets the pegasus, that leaves trying to get bucked by a horse out of the table. But on the other hand, if he leaves the beast alive that could very well mean his death, as the thing looked carnivorous, making him look like a piece of meat on the table, ready to be eaten. After a final decision on the matter, he pulled his rifle up, loaded it, and fired.

BANG

The beast screamed as he took a bullet to the head and then fell over dead. The pegasus looked at the corpse in shock as it fell off him, and then looked back at his rescuer.

"You... Did you kill him?.."

Merlin's eyes widened now, did that horse just spoke? "Wait a minute, so that guy who was bringing the supplies, this is him? I've been talking to a horse this entire time without noticing?! Merlin clutched his head in anger and confusion as the pegasus looked at him in confusion. They then both heard sudden footsteps coming from behind them.

"Zappy! Are you alright?!" Merlin turned around to the sound of the voice and saw another horse. This time he had a grayish brown, he stood taller than the pegasus Merlin had saved, and the most unique feature on him was his mustache. He had a sort of French mustache on him, which seemed very bizarre, as horses do not grow facial hair. He also had a cap and uniform that looked very much like a British officer would have. The mustached horse had a couple of other horses behind him, but they didn't matter to Merlin anyway.

The officer tried to run to Zappy but was stopped by the bipedal thing standing in front of them. The officer and the thing stood in front of each other, not leaving each other gaze. But soon Zappy decided to break the silence.

"U-Uh yes sir, I'm fine!" He replied with a salute, looking a bit nervous at the situation right now. Then again, everypony looked nervous. There stood in front of them was what looked like an ape, except it didn't have much hair, and it stood tall, really tall...

Merlin is usually considered a calm and collective guy, and he always saw some situations that were either crazy or insane, but still maintained composure. But this... Is just bonkers. This situation, this entire thing, was enough to make any other soldier in the British army lose their mind, probably to the point where they would pull a gun on themselves and shoot themselves in the head. Nevertheless, Merlin would always, and still, face adversary in the name of the British Kingdom.

As Merlin was about to explain himself and the situation he was in, suddenly, out of nowhere a horse comes from the left-field and tackles Merlin to the ground, rendering him useless to do, well, anything. He struggled to get his captor off him, but it only ended with him getting a hard punch... By a hoof.

"I got 'em, Sir! Where do you wanna put this one?!" The horse pulled up the dazed Merlin who couldn't see straight for the life of him.

The officer was completely stunned by one of his soldier's actions and then sighed. "Go tie that one and put 'em by the cages."

With the order given, Merlin's captor was now taking him to the cages to be interrogated. The officer looked over the battlefield, and saw bunches of corpses scattered on the ground, his troops were now picking up their fallen allies to be taken back to their families. While the beast's corpses were to be burned.

On that note, the officer replied while wiping sweat off his forehead, "Quite a day, isn't it?"

"What in the world is even happening..."

Merlin thought as he was still trying to convey this entire thing into his head.

Merlin remembered being in the battle of Passchendaele, where he and his fellow soldiers were about to capture the German's strategic points.

Now, he is tied up, in the middle of a field, where he was fighting in a battle, with HORSES! Against those beasts that looked like wolves, but even uglier! And worse of all, He is now tied up by those Horses, who he had fought with!

Out of everything that has happened to him, from the battle of Passchendaele up to here, this was considered the worst thing happening in his entire lifetime.

Just what in the entire goddamn world did I do to deserve this? All I did, was being a good soldier, following orders, doing my kingdom proud, and this is the thanks I get? It was clear that Merlin was angry at this turn of events.

He looked around at the area, so far nothing out of the ordinary. Except for the talking horses. The camp was filled with them. Some of them looked over in his direction, some with curious looks, others with fear. It's been only 5 minutes and he's already being looked at like some kind of jester, ready to perform some tricks and make a fool of himself.

Two guards with spears were standing by the gate of the cage, checking to make sure he's not doing anything funny. He noticed that one of them would get a little tired, as one of them nearly snoozed off to sleep. It was honestly quite hilarious that he saw his fellow guard waking him up by slamming him on the head with his spear. Nevertheless, his situation right now was big.

He was trapped in a cage, in an unknown location, filled with horses that are probably readying his execution. If he doesn't do anything and just sit there like an idiot, it's possible by morning, he'll be somewhere worse than a cage. But he couldn't do anything, the moment he tried to tell the guards to unbind him and let him go, they just snorted in response. So he was, in what most would say, a fucked position.

As he was lying in the cage, he suddenly heard someone familiar.

"Sir, Please with all due respect, That ape had just saved my life from a diamond dog. can't you just let him go?"

Merlin turned to the sound of the voice, and to his surprise, he saw it was the pegasus that he had saved recently. He got up off the floor and got a little closer to hear what was going on over there.

"Now I understand that the ape had saved you Zappy, but that doesn't mean we can fully trust it."

"But sir, if he was on their side, he would've just killed me on the spot and ran to the other side and murdered the rest of us! I saw what he did to the diamond dog sir, he shot it with one bolt from that weird crossbow he has!"

Merlin had been listening on into the conversation, it appeared that the pegasus is now pleading to the officer for his freedom, which he is hoping would work. And the mention of the bolt and crossbow, he didn't call it the rifle and bullet, which means that the technology here is quite in the middle ages. Also, did he just called him an ape?!

Soon the officer and the pegasus and a couple of other horses were heading towards him. Merlin had to prepare himself, so he can probably explain himself without having a horse to tackle him from the sidelines. The grey-brownish horse had soon reached the front of his cage and looked up at him with a stern gaze, to which Merlin replied back with a gaze of his own. The pegasus was off on the sidelines just nervously witnessing the staring contest. Finally, the officer gave a response,

"Can you speak?"

Merlin was taken back a bit at the sound of the officer's tone, it was gruffly yet kind, sounded like his own officer back at the British army.

"Yes sir, I can speak."

The officer was also taken back a bit. Not many captured enemies had that kind of tone, usually, they would just snort or just be enraged. But then again, diamond dogs weren't the smartest bunch.

"I see, so that means we could get on with the easy part. What is your name?"

"Private Merlin Shuffle, of the 54th British infantry brigade."

The officer looked at him with a curious eye, he was an infantry soldier? He looked over to his stenographer, to which he got a shrug in response. That's strange, he doesn't remember gaining any more troops to his force. Also what the heck is the British Infantry brigade?..

"I see, so you're a soldier. That would explain why you were on the battlefield. But that begs the question, what are you?"

Merlin gave a questioning gaze. "What am I?"

"Yes, while we understand that you're an ape, we haven't seen an ape such as yourself. Are you a newly evolved species?"

Merlin was boiling red under that statement. He gritted his teeth in anger but kept it hidden as to not anger his captors.

"No sir, I am not an ape, I am what one would call a human."

"A hooman?"

"No sir, A human. H-U-M-A-N." he had to pronounce the word human to a horse, this was possibly considered the dumbest thing in his life.

"A human you say?" The officer gave a thinking look, before looking back at him.

"So what was a human like yourself doing at the battlefield Mr. Shuffle?

That was certainly a question he was asking himself. What was he doing there, why did he join the battle when he could've just run away?

"Sir, I'll admit, I don't honestly know, I just happened to be there. And I decided to help you all out, seeing as I was also being attacked by those beasts."

The response he gave was truthful, and it conveyed a much better chance of him being freed.

The officer started to think. "That would explain why he had saved Zappy."

"See sir? I told you he was on our side!"

Merlin and the officer turned to the pegasus who had interjected into their conversation. Zappy looked proud at the fact that he was right for once!

Merlin looked over to the pegasus, who is still leaning towards his side. Which was strange, considering they once fought. Had that beast not intervened in the battle, one of them would've ended up dead. As Merlin was still looking at him, Zappy continued.

"Now while I admit that he kind of freaked me out and made me go into my super awesome self-defense mode, he did prove to be a valuable ally. He shot that stupid diamond dog in the head with his sick crossbow!" Zappy replied with an eccentric tone and lots of body movement.

Merlin however was just standing there looking bewildered. "What the fuck did he just say?" Super awesome self-defense mode? Sick crossbow? "Did this pegasus take too much coffee before battle?" He looked over to the officer, who was currently sighing at the pegasus's choice of words. "Jeez, this guy has it rough huh?"

Zappy noticed his officer's look and chuckled nervously. "So anyway, I believe that it could be good to uhh, have him help us out."

The officer looked at both Zappy and Merlin, before coming to a conclusion.

With yet another sigh he asked, "Merlin will I have your word, that if I free you, you will not harm my troops?"

"Yes sir, I won't do anything that is considered harmful." After all, it's not that he wouldn't, he couldn't. He was surrounded by god knows how many infantry soldiers, and the moment he would make a move, he'll just be tackled to the ground again and back into the cage.

"Alright boys, let 'em out." The guards obeyed the officer's order and opened the cage. Merlin stretched before slowly walking out of his cage, finally, some ground to move his legs. One of the guards then walked up to Merlin with a knife and with a quick slice, his bonds were removed. "Thanks." The guard responded with a nod.

Merlin turned around to see Zappy smiling at him, He looked down and just stared at him "What a weird fella." He acts so friendly that it's a little concerning. Merlin wasn't really a friendly type, he was just used to being alone and being that one guy in the back. That being said, being around someone as energetic as him, it could cause problem to his mental state.

"Heya bud! My name's Zappy, in case you didn't know! We met on the battlefield, and you saved my life! so put 'er there!" Zappy showed an open hoof to give a hoofshake.

Merlin just looked at the open hoof and just shook it. "Might as well go with the flow." He said while sighing to himself.

"Ahem"

Merlin and Zappy looked at the officer, while he was trying to get their attention.

"Well, now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, Merlin, do you need your supplies?"

That's when Merlin remembered, his supplies! When they took his rifle and things away and threw him in a cage built for monkeys! "Ah yes sir, I would love to have them back, as they are essential for me."

"Right, come this way, it should be somewhere there." The officer was now taking Merlin and Zappy to one of the tents where Merlin supplies were held up. As they were walking towards it, Merlin started looking around, there were tons of carriages located there, and soldiers picking up crates from those carriages. Merlin then looked to the right and saw what appeared to be a training ground. Two soldiers were there sparring with each other, but what caught him off guard was that the two soldiers were holding swords by their bare teeth.

"Ooo, I see you have an eye for a good battle." Merlin turned his head to see the pegasus talking while also looking at the spar at hand. "Yea Ruckus and Fire have a competitive thing going on, I heard that the score is currently 73-26. Fire keeps losing because he's always quick and doesn't realize Ruckus's defense. While Ruckus maintains coolness and swiftly takes out Fire in a snap!"

"73-26? That's 99 spars they did!!" Merlin turned back to the battle, now suddenly having a keen interest in it.

Fire slowly started readying himself by scraping the ground like a bull would, while Ruckus was over there, standing tall and mighty, ready to take on Fire's strike. The battle began as Fire moved as quickly as possible towards Ruckus, while he went into a combat stance. The first strike appeared, but unfortunately, it was the final strike. The moment Fire's blade and Ruckus's blade met, Fire's blade immediately turned into tiny pieces of shards. Merlin saw the entire thing and his face went into complete shock.

However, Fire didn't count himself out. After his blade broke, he dropped the hilt and turned on his hinds legs, and attempted to do a buck at him. Ruckus, however, noticed and was very quick as the dark grey pony, also turned on his hind legs and did a counter buck at him. They both charged up their kick and...

BAM, THUD

Merlin couldn't tell what just happened, but it looked like the dark grey pony won. Fire was somehow across the other side of the stadium, on the ground, and eventually conceding. The battle had ended, and Ruckus was the winner.

Merlin had so many questions... Like what happened to Fire's sword? How did the kick push another horse off by like 10 meters? Or how they were holding their swords with their TEETH?!

While Merlin was still trying to figure it out, Zappy was charting something down. "Looks like it's 74-26 now." After that, he placed the piece of parchment into his pocket and looked at Merlin, who was still shocked at how the battle had transpired.

"You good?"

Merlin turned to him, "Uh yeah, kind of."

Zappy then grinned at him, "I bet where you came from, stuff like this doesn't happen right?"

"Yea... It doesn't."

"Oh? So you like, didn't understand what just happened?"

Merlin in response just shook his head. "Not a clue."

...

"You mean... You don't know how magic works?"

"..Excuse me?" That was Merlin's first response. "Surely you're joking? Magic? As in, like witchcraft stuff?" Merlin heard many tales of magic before, but those were all just fairytales he heard from when he was a child. Magic wasn't real, it's just a thing that old people say in made-up stories.

"Witchcraft stuff? No, no, Magic isn't used for evil stuff, Though it does happen in some parts." Zappy whispered that last part.

"Wait what was that last part?" Merlin couldn't hear it and he looked at Zappy with a suspicious eye.

Zappy shook his head and continued. "Magic is basically nature itself, it's in the air, the ground, even the sea! We use magic for building things, growing some crops, and other sorts of wonderful things!"

That... Doesn't make sense. Merlin already had enough trouble trying to stay calm at the fact that he was with talking horses, but with magic on the field now. That's definitely gonna cause some trouble. For now, he'll have to-

AHEM

Merlin and Zappy both jumped in surprise and turned to see the officer staring at them with a look saying "I'm waiting here." They then both followed him into the tent where Merlin saw his service rifle, the Lee Enfield mk3, sitting on a table. What was behind his rifle was a horse.

He had a very short formal hairstyle, as it was combed back. He had a pastel-tan-colored skin on him, A brown mane and tail, And he also wore glasses!

But what caught Merlin's eye was on the backside of the horse, he saw a tattoo on him. The tattoo was a wrench along what looked like to be a builder's cap. Was that imprinted at birth?

He decided to get some answers, Touching Zappy's shoulder, he asked, "Hey, why does that horse have a tattoo on the back?"

Zappy's eyes were wide open as soon as he got asked that question, but it wasn't just the question that made him go wide eye, it was the fact that Merlin had called a pony a 'horse'. The officer and the pony who was just called a horse turned their heads to Merlin in shock. The officer spoke in his grizzly tone.

"Merlin! Did you just call him a whorse?!" Merlin turned to the officer in confusion.

"A what sir?"

Zappy then interjected, "A whorse, you just called him a whorse!"

Merlin was still in complete confusion.

"Aren't all of you horses?"

"No, we are not whorses! First of all, we aren't mares! Second of all, it's completely rude to call somepony that!" The horse in glasses replied, with an angry tone and an angry look.

"Wait a minute, did they just thought I called him a whore?" Merlin facepalmed when he got to that conclusion.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to call all of you a 'whorse'." he did a shallow bow in apology. He didn't like to apologize for something he was completely misunderstood for, but in order to keep their guard off them, he had no choice.

"Sigh It's alright now, I suppose."

"Pardon me, but Woods, might I ask why is the ape out?" The pastel-colored pony asked.

Merlin looked back at the horse in glasses in anger, while the pony just completely ignored him.

The officer, now Merlin know as Woods sighed and said, "First off, he's not an ape, he is what is known as a Human."

"A hooman?"

"No, a Human. And he is known as Merlin, right?" Woods turned to Merlin, asking for confirmation if his name was correct.

"Yes, that is correct, sir." He then turned to the engineer and saluted.

"My name is Private Merlin shuffle, of the 54th British infantry Brigade."

The engineer backed up a little in surprise at the soldier's greeting. "Well uhh, greetings Merlin, my name is Wrench Bolts, I'm the army's engineer in this regiment.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Wrench, and once again, I apologize for offending you by calling you a whorse."

Wrench smiled at the young man's kind word, but then asked him something. "That kinda begs the question, why did you call us that?"

Merlin only looked at him with a straight face. "Well uhh, truth be told, back where I came from, we had animals- SPECIES, we had species like you!" That gave everyone a suspicious look on their face.

"And they were, uhh domestic and what was different about them was that they are taller than all of you and they didn't have the ability to speak." Merlin ended his sentence while looking at everyone around him, they were quite intrigued about it.

"So I was kind of wondering if all of you aren't called uhh, the H-word, then what are you?"

Woods then stated, "We are ponies."

"Ponies, sir?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"I see..."

Ponies. Talking ponies. That's something new.

"I also have one more question, where exactly am I?"

Everyone, or everypony, to their case, looked at each other than at Merlin.

"You're in the Everfree Forest. Were you lost somewhere on the way here?"

"The... Everfree Forest? Is that somewhere in France?"

They looked at Merlin with a confused look. Merlin just sighed "Okay, this is clearly getting nowhere."

Merlin then responded, "Is there a map I could take a look at?"

Wrench then went to the back of the tent and brought out a large piece of paper. "Here ya go."

"Thank you." Merlin then took a look at the map, and his entire face went into confusion, then shock. There was no France or Germany on the map. Just different cities and towns! No Passchandele, no River Somme, just other things like Canterlot, and Ponyville!

He started to breathe out of pace as he tried to search for a location that he could actually recognize, but no luck. The officer noticed his fast breathing.

"Merlin, are you alright?" He then heard a tiny response.

"Where am I? Where am I?"

It was clear he wasn't taking this thing all right. He could hear the pain in his voice. The officer then ordered a guard to act. "You! Bring some water now!" The guard hastily responded as he galloped to a nearby water station. The officer then turned back to the British as he tried to comfort him. "Breath Merlin, breath."

Soon Merlin started to slowly calm down, he needs to stay calm and remember that he will always face adversary. He went to a nearby bench in the tent and sat, trying to calm his breathing and control himself. Soon, a pony appeared with his water and the officer took it and gave it to Merlin. "Here, water." Merlin took the drink and began chugging it down, after finishing, he thanked the officer and the guard and sat in silence.

After what felt like minutes Merlin stated, "It appears I'm no longer in Belgium... But rather, somewhere else entirely. Which would make kind of sense considering there weren't any talking hors- ponies in France or Germany." He then looked down in sadness, after realizing he had left his comrades, his country, and more importantly, his family.

But he will have to grieve later, for now, he needs to think about how to survive in this world. It's clear that there are things in this country that are willing to eat you alive... Like those beasts, he saw on the battlefield. Which reminds him, what were they?

He decided to ask, "Um excuse me, sir." The officer looked at the boy.

"Yes, Merlin?"

"I'd hate to ask, but what were those beasts on the battlefield." He pretty sure he heard something about a 'Diamond dog' but he just wasn't sure. After all, it came from Zappy's mouth, so he could've said something else that is considered dumb.

"You mean the diamond dogs?"

"Yes sir, what are they?"

"Well, they aren't smart things first off, hehe." He chuckled at his own joke, then continued.

"The diamond dogs are what some would say a.. 'Ravenous bunch'. They tend to live in caves where they would find diamonds and all that. But now things are turning, a little severe." The officer looked away in the thought of the past.

"How severe sir?"

Sighing, Woods said, "We are currently at war with them..."

War. The very word that makes Merlin shudder. The very idea of killing others for political needs is just utterly disgusting. And now it seemed like he was part of it, how perfect. It was bad enough to be a part of a war that had killed hundreds of thousands, but now another war? After he was killed in his last one? This makes him believe that fate wanted him to suffer.

He wasn't gonna question it though yet, probably because it involved politics and he was not one to indulge in that. He looked back to what he was after, his rifle and his supplies. "Excuse me Wrench, but do you mind if I had my rifle back?" Merlin pointed at his gun on the table.

Wrench turned to him, "Oh! you mean this." He hands him back his Lee Enfield while looking troubled holding the weapon properly. "That sure is a strange weapon, compared to our crossbows and bows. What is it?"

Zappy spoke, "OH! That's the thing that saved my life! It's that weird crossbow Merlin uses and fires that weird thing that puts a hole in the head!"

"I think he meant a bullet, but close enough." Merlin just let what he said go. He went ahead and checked how many bullets were loaded in it.

"10 bullets, all right."

The Lee Enfield was a great rifle. Having a quick and smooth bolt action and a 10 round magazine clip, and an impressive rate of fire. After checking his magazine, Merlin strapped the gun over his shoulder, making it prepared to use in case of an emergency. He then told the officer, "I'm also gonna need my supplies sir, might I ask where they are?"

"It's in the back."

Merlin went in the back and grabbed his supplies. While checking if he has everything in there, Wrench turned to the officer and said,

"Well, now that that's out of the way, what are we gonna do with Merlin, Woods?" Wrench asked.

The officer looked at Wrench. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it not that I don't mind having an ap- Human, in our army. It's just that he came in outta nowhere, doesn't understand what's happening, and appears to be lost when he's supposed to be somewhere in... Belgium correct?" He turned to Merlin for confirmation. Merlin nodded.

"So we have a human, who is on a completely different army, from a completely different nation!"

Everypony (and one) looked at each other after realizing what Wrench means. Merlin was an outsider in this war, he's not meant to be here. So that leaves the question for Woods, will he bring him into the war? Or will he take Merlin back to where he came from, which to Woods seems impossible since Belgium is something unheard of here in Equestria.

"To be truthfully honest, I don't know what to do with him. But since he has helped out and saved one of my troops, I have decided that he'll get the option to choose." Woods turned to Merlin. "Merlin, you get to choose, you can stay in the army and help us fight against these diamond dogs, or you can be taken back to a place called Ponyville, where they'll help you rest and get some meals."

Merlin looked stunned at the moment, he didn't know what to do, everything just seems to be going in his favor, but he just wasn't sure...

On one hand, He can go back to this Ponyville, and just relax and just live his life how he wanted to live it. The question was, did he really want it? An easy life? Abandoning his duties as a soldier? He regretted the fact that while he's here, many of his comrades were dying on the field. He went to this place, while his brothers are struggling to push the Germans back. He hated it. He hates war with a burning passion, but leaving these people to go to the frontlines while he's just back there relaxing is just disgusting to think about.

"You fought valiantly, but unfortunately, this is where your story ends."

No.

He's wrong. This is not where his story ends.

After a long decision, He looked at the officer with a determined look. "Sir I have decided until I can somehow find my way back home, I will join the army and help you push back these beasts to where they came from." He ended that proud statement with a salute.

Everypony there looked surprised at the decision, and also the look on his face. Woods just looked at him with a stern gaze, and then chuckled. "Well, this sure is quite a day..."

Zappy looked at his superior and was surprised, "Did... You just laughed sir?" Him, laughing? That was saying as if asteroids were hitting the ground!

Wrench then looked back at Zappy, "You do know he has emotions too right?"

"U-Uh, it's not that I'm saying that he doesn't! but... It's quite rare to see that ya know?" Zappy smiled at the sight of his Officer chuckling.

"Well, I guess that settles it, Welcome aboard Private." The Officer raised up a hoof for a hoofshake, Merlin raised up his hand shook his hand... Hoof.

"All right, well, it's getting dark now, so I suggest everyone get some shut-eye." The french mustached pony then went out of the tent to head back to his bed.

Merlin and Zappy were just about to head out when they heard Wrench, "Well, I also have to sleep as well. Oh and one more thing." He turned to Merlin, "Welcome aboard."

Merlin turned around and said, "Thanks." Before turning back.

After a couple of minutes outside, Merlin had set up his sleeping quarters in one of the dugouts here in the trench where they had fought. Nopony saw him, cause he was on the other side of the trench. Just as he was about to lay down, he saw an orange figure standing outside of his dugout.

"Who's there?" Merlin pulled up a lantern to see who is the perp in his little room. He soon sighed to find out it was none other than Zappy.

"Hey Merlin, I just came to uhh, say goodnight." He looked around to find his Dugout is a little small than the other ones.

"Oh, well goodnight then." He immediately turned off his lantern and was getting in his bed.

"W-Wait!"

Merlin turned to Zappy who just shouted. "What?"

Zappy looked down. "Uh, I just wanted to ask you something."

"What is it then, spit it out, I don't have all day."

Zappy nodded at Merlin's demand. "Um, When you saw me and the diamond dog fighting, Why didn't you shoot me, instead of him?"

Merlin looked at him as if he just said an insane question, "What do you mean?"

"Well I mean, we were fighting before the dog came at us, so why didn't you?"

Merlin sighed. "It was because he could've killed me if I had shot you, so it was natural instinct ok?"

Zappy only nodded at the statement, it appeared that Merlin only cared for himself than others' well-being.

"But also."

Zappy looked up to find Merlin speaking again.

"I saw that you were struggling, and it reminded me of my comrades back in Belgium who also struggled. I saw that you were just a young boy, trying to just survive this war, just like me. So I didn't want to see someone died at the hands of the beast." Merlin had said it with sincerity since he spoke it from the heart. He never really cared about anyone (or any pony) much, but he saw the fear in Zappy's eyes when he was attacked. And it reminded him of himself back when the war started.

"I see..." Zappy looked at him with a smile.

"Well, goodnight Merlin." Zappy then turned around and left.

"Goodnight Zappy."

And with that, Merlin closed his lantern and went into bed. He wondered what was gonna happen tomorrow.

But he just left that problem to tomorrow him. As soon as he went to bed, he only had one response to this entire thing.

"What a day..."

And with that, he went to sleep.

To be continued...

Author's Note

Here another chapter for yall! Sorry If it took a while, I had a lot of stuff going on, but I'm back on it!

This chapter mostly involves Merlin talking with the horses- I mean ponies. But there is a fight scene I put in there and it depicts a scene where Merlin will eventually fight things that has magic.

But anyways, That's all for now. See you next chapter!

Chapter III: The March Towards The Front

Sunshine in the trenches

Everfree Forest
???,??,????

THUD THUD THUD

Merlin woke up with a startle and went for his rifle the moment he heard noises coming from outside his dugout. He could hear people shouting outside of his hole. "Are we being attacked? What's happening?!" Merlin picked up his rifle and gear and quickly head outside to find out.

As soon as he stepped foot outside, there was loud stomping, shouts going off, and equipment being moved. Most ponies didn't notice him because they were focused on getting things done, while the few who did just looked at him and carried on.

He decided to head to the main camp area, where hopefully he would find the officer, or the engineer and find out what's happening. As he got out from the trenches a pony with supplies came running towards him, and without realization, knocks into Merlin.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to- Merlin!" Merlin heard that voice one too many times. He looked to see Zappy carrying a crate in front of him. He saw an arrow symbol on the front of the crate, meaning that it's an ammunition crate.

"Morning to you too, Zappy," Merlin said with a blank face. "What's happening here? Are we moving camps?"

"Uh yes! The central command has told us to move all of our supplies and move out further east since we took down most of the diamond dogs from the battle yesterday."

That would explain it. Merlin knew how trench warfare worked, so it's not like he was surprised. "I see. So where is Sargeant Woods, I would like to speak with him."

Zappy turned and pointed at the main camp area. "He should be around there, he's setting up some soldiers in regiments." As Zappy turned around he quickly widens his eyes. "Oh, I forgot! Sarge would like to speak with you as well, he needs to set you up in a regiment." Merlin nodded in confirmation of the order.

"I'll be joining yall in a sec, once I finished packing up the supplies in the carriages. Anyways, May Celestia be with you, Merlin!" Zappy then left to the carriages, leaving a confused Merlin to try to understand what he said. "May Celestia be with you?" is that a new term in this world for 'May God be with you?"

So whoever this Celestia is, either someone they're fighting for or a goddess in this place. Either way, that didn't matter to Merlin as he didn't consider himself religious. Brushing his clothes off from the bump, he headed towards the main camp, wondering what regiment he'll be in.

After a 2 minute walk towards the main camp, he eventually arrived and saw chaos happening in front of him. Everypony there was scrambling to gather whatever was there and moving to place them on carriages. Ponies were tripping, Crates were falling over, and he swore he heard a pony screaming for help. Regardless of all that's happening, Merlin quickly tried to run past the ponies, which some of them were shocked to see his face. After a couple of screams from the ponies that saw him, he quickly saw the officer with a couple of soldiers. The soldiers looked disciplined and fierce, none of them showed any fear, just all of them with stern looks.

Woods looked at his men making sure they are prepared, then turned his head around to see the human who had just joined the army. "Ah, Private Merlin."

Merlin saluted at his superior. "Merlin reporting for duty sir. Zappy has told me you have requested to see me.

"Yes about that. I have told central command about your situation and I have been ordered to assign you to a regiment." Woods pulled out a list of regiments that could have slots open for Merlin. He quickly scanned through the pages searching for something that could work for the British. He then spotted something that could work, it's a new regiment and something quite unique for him. All Merlin needs in that regiment is a partner...

"Sorry I'm late, sir!"

Woods looked up from his regiment list and saw a Panting Zappy beside Merlin. Merlin just stood still in a stern gaze, ignoring Zappy's need for breath. Woods suddenly had an idea, "Perfect..."

"Zappy, reporting for duty, sir." Zappy gave a salute while still attempting to gather oxygen to his lungs. "I have huff placed the crates huff in the carriages, and are awaiting further orders, sir."

"You certainly don't look like it."

Woods looked at the two of them before giving his decision. "So, after a decisive conclusion, I have decided to put you, Private Merlin, to the newly 'Autobow' regiment. And Zappy, you will be switched from your original regiment to the autobow regiment as well."

Zappy looked in shock because of the fact that he has to switch from his cool regiment to some other one. Meanwhile, Merlin was deep in thought about this regiment. "The autobow regiment?" As far as he knows, most, if not all crossbow's he saw was all manual. Does this mean they get a chance at an automatic weapon?

While Merlin was still in thought, Zappy was still in shock. "WHAT!? Sir, you're switching me from my regiment? The regiment where I kick butt and take names, to some random auto whats-it-called regiment with him!?" He stated while pointing at Merlin. "Sir, with all due respect, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, let me stay with my regiment!" He went down on his knees with his upper hooves in a begging position.

Merlin just stared at him dumbfoundedly, while Woods was just looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "So what you're saying is that you want to deny my orders and go rogue?"

Zappy widens his eyes as he realizes what he did. "N-No sir, I didn't mean that! I meant that- Never mind..." Zappy looked down in shame of trying to disobey orders from his officer.

Woods turned from Zappy to Merlin. "Alright, Merlin, you will be heading to the engineer's camp to pick up the autobow. Once you're done that, meet back at this point so we can rendevous and move out." Woods took out a map and showed Merlin and Zappy the point where they will be meeting up.

"Uh sir, just one question."

"What is it Zappy?"

"Whats an autobow?"

Woods looked up in thought. "Well, it's a project that Mr. Bolts have been working on for quite some time. It just got recently approved by the army and is now heading into service. You two will be one of the few users of this weapon." Zappy and Merlin nodded at the information.

"Now, any more questions before you head off?" After that it was silence. "Alright then, you're dismissed."

"I wonder what that autobow will look like."

Zappy was now walking down the dirt path with Merlin to the engineer's base. Zappy was suddenly very interested in this weapon, ever since he heard that it was now sent into service, and he gets to be one of the very few users for it. "I bet it does super awesome things, like arrows that can fly faster than a Wonderbolt's themselves! Or-or could have the power to take down hundreds like those legendary mages I've heard in tales! What do you think Merlin?" Meanwhile, Merlin was in his own world. He had many questions regarding the autobow. Such as what are its capabilities, whats its magazine limit, whats its fire rate, and-

"Merlin!"

"Hm?"

The soldier looked down to his new regiment partner to see a weird look on his face. "You okay bro? You seemed kinda off there for a sec." Merlin just sighed. "I'm fine Zappy, it's just that I'm trying to think what kind of use we can make use of this autobow."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there are multiple ways we can use it. One, we can use it for anti-aircraft. Two, we can use it for taking down infantry. Or three, it could be just mostly used for suppressive fire."

Merlin had seen a lot of machine guns back in his war. In which most of them didn't amount to the Prussians, which killed loads and loads of his allies. He was always against those MG's when it came to the charge. Remembering the bitter memories, he suddenly had a headache and clutched his head with one hand. The feeling of remembering them and losing them in a split second was too much for anyone to bear. Zappy noticed the pain in his face but kept quiet about it.

After a long and silent walk, they eventually made it to the engineer's camp. Filled with eagerness and excitement, Zappy decided to head in first. Merlin followed behind, filled with what felt like anxiety. When they went inside the large tent, they expected to find Wrench somewhere in the middle of the area, but he was nowhere to be found. After looking around, Zappy tried to call him out. "Mr. Bolt! Are you in here?"

All of a sudden, they heard a noise coming from the back of the tent. Merlin and Zappy quickly ran to the back of the tent to find Wrench, the army's engineer, on the ground with his eyes closed. Merlin ran past Zappy to quickly check on Wrench. "MR. BOLT! MR. BOLT ARE YOU OKAY?!" he quickly tried to check his pulse and heartbeat but was stopped by a mutter.

"Wake me up in 5 minutes"

Merlin looked in disbelief. He thought that he had died when it turned out that he was sleeping. Zappy also looked in shock and then suddenly started giggling, and then started laughing.

Merlin turned around to glare at Zappy and then later heard the engineer. "Huh?"

Wrench looked up to see Merlin and Zappy. Merlin was over him, while Zappy was in the corner laughing. Zappy who just noticed that he was awake immediately stopped laughing and tried to take the tears out of his eyes. Wrench tried to get up from the ground but then fell over again. He had to get Merlin to pull him up.

Once he was up, Merlin spoke to him, "Sir are you alright? what happened?" Wrench looked at him before looking around. "Oh, I just uhh, pulled an all-nighter and was working on tweaking something." Wrench looked at his room and then started quickly tidying up. "So why are you two here?"

Merlin then out of nowhere saluted, "I've been given orders by Officer Woods to pick up the autobow." Wrench looked at him in shock.

"Wait, so you mean to tell me you two are the new autobow users?"

Zappy then spoke out of nowhere, "Yep, me and good ol' Merlin here are in the new autobow regiment." Zappy then tried to pull his hoove over to Merlin's shoulder, but no luck. The engineer pulled up his glasses. "I see... Well, I guess you're here for my new contraption. Come right this way."

Merlin and Zappy followed Wrench back to the main area, where they both saw a tarp covering something kind of huge. Could this be the new autobow they would have to use in the war? They both stood in front of the clothed machine on the table, while Wrench went behind it to show it.

"Ahem mares and gentlecolts! I present to you," He then threw the tarp off the machine. "The Chatter 20!"

When Merlin saw the weapon, it looked familiar. It was a weapon that had a wooden stock on the back of it and a long wooden barrel, which had a bipod holding the weapon up. It had the handle, the iron sights, and everything, it looked like an actual gun. The only thing about it was that the magazine clip, instead of having a clip or a drum mag, the weapon had an oval-looking magazine. There were bullets (Arrows?) showing on the outside of the magazine clip. Making the entire thing look like,

"A Chauchat."

Yes, Merlin remembered that gun. It was made by the French, and to him, it was considered one of the worst LMG in his time. From what rumors had told him, the gun had a slow rate of fire, a small capacity with just only 20 bullets, and it had a large recoil. It was also known to jam in the first 100-300 shots, so that created a lot of problems for the French.

Zappy looked at the gun with sparkling eyes, "Wow Mr. Bolts, you really know how to make a weapon look super awesome! What does it do, what does it do?!"

Wrench grinned as he put one of his hooves on his weapon. "This beauty can fire arrows automatically, and it doesn't need to have reloaded manually! Observe." Wrench pulled out the magazine from the gun and pulled out another mag. He then tried to insert the magazine into the gun but started fumbling with it. Merlin and Zappy watched as the army's engineer tried to insert a magazine into the Chatter but was failing at it. "Just... Gimmie... A second!"

Eventually, after a minute of him struggling, Merlin walked up to the table and grabbed the magazine clip from Wrench. "Allow me, sir." Merlin picked up the weapon and held the gun sideways with one hand and the magazine in the other. And, with a sudden push, slammed the magazine into the Chatter.

Zappy was amazed at how Merlin quickly loaded the gun, while Wrench was a little shocked at how he only loaded the gun with just one hand. "How did you... do that?"

Merlin turned to Wrench who was questioning how he loaded the gun. " I uh... Just grabbed it and loaded the magazine in?"

Wrench pulled his glasses up and said, "Well yes but, it's just that, it isn't usually loaded by one pony..."

Zappy entered the conversation. "Well, how do you mean sir?"

"Well... The gun was tested and it took quite a while for one pony to load a magazine in quickly. But when there were two ponies, it took a while but they managed to load the magazine in. Hence why the Autobow is required to have two ponies to use it."

Merlin nodded at the information. He completely understood what he meant. Most of the machine guns in his war had to have multiple operators on the machine gun for it to be operational. But this gun was lightweight, almost too lightweight to say it's a machine gun. Merlin guessed it was because he and the other ponies were different in terms of weight and the ability to handle and grip things.

"Well, as much as I want to stay here and chat sir, I'm afraid we have to get going. Our sergeant will kill us if he finds out we're late." Zappy Stated while making a throat cut with his hooves. Wrench just chuckled at Zappy's antics and said, "Oh don't worry, Woods isn't that kind of guy. for the most part anyway."

"Wait wha-"

"Anyways, y'all should be going now. The ammunition for the weapon is located along with the army moving out, so you should be good. Just carry the weapon back with ya."

After that statement, it left a cut-off Zappy and a Nodding Merlin, who quickly placed the Chatter 20 behind him on his back. He then dragged Zappy out of the campsite and headed to the rendezvous point. Wrench came out of the tent behind them and said, "Good luck out there!"

Merlin turned around to the campsite and said, "Thank you, sir!" Before turning off to where they needed to go.

Woods was on the rendezvous waiting for a certain human and a certain idiot.

He would expect Zappy to be late as usual but for Merlin, well he's a different story. After all, not much is known about the British soldier who just joined in the war out of nowhere. He hopped into the fray without regard for his own life, and that takes serious commitment and courage to do something like that.

When He explained the situation to central Headquarters, he expected to have Merlin be investigated in case if he was a spy for the enemy. Instead, the central command just gave him the order and have him enlisted into a regiment. They said it was a 'matter that will be handled later' and such, which was something he didn't understand completely, but he just believed that his higher-ups will handle it.

But that still raised some questions, like what's gonna happen to him when he gets taken by headquarters? Will he get executed? Will he just be forced to work and participate in the war against his will? Woods didn't like that, not one bit. It was also kind of strange for the others too. After all, seeing an ape-like creature roaming around their camps does give them a bit of concern for their well-being, but he stated to some of them that he isn't willing to harm us. That relieved them but still makes them a bit suspicious.

As Woods was still in thought, a soldier came up to him which brought him out of his head. The soldier saluted and said, "Sir, the last two have arrived and we're are ready to move out."

Woods nodded at the information and thanked him. "Notify everypony that we're moving out in 5 minutes."

"Yes sir!" The pony saluted and headed to the back of the line. Woods took a look at everypony behind him. They were all either preparing themselves for a fight, or they were just laughing and just goofing around. Woods chuckled at the sight of the two ponies that were just making the others around them laugh, as he heard before, laughter can ease the tension and is considered a stress relief.

He then saw two soldiers in the middle that were bickering, and it was the two soldiers that everypony was waiting for. He could see the orange spikey pegasus doing some kung fu moves while the bipedal uniformed human was trying to calm him down. Everypony around them was watching them but some of them kept a keen eye on Merlin, as he was making weird claw gestures. Some of the soldiers looked at Merlin with curiosity and there were some with disgust. He could only sigh at those who thought Merlin was some weird ape running wild in their battalion.

The pony who came up to him before has appeared before him again. He saluted again to him said, "Sir, it's been two minutes, shall we head out?"

Woods saw everyone ready to go and said, "Yep, give the signal please."

"Yes sir." He turned to everyone and yelled at them.

"EVERYPONY, MOVE FORWARD!"

and off they go.

Everfree forest
2 hours later

The march to the next area was tiring. Then again it's always tiring to march for almost 2 hours straight.

Merlin was scouting around the area, or as a citizen would say it, looking around. He would see his fellow men (ponies?) looking around cautiously as if there was someone lying in the bushes, waiting to strike them. It would make sense for them to do that, considering that they are in the woods, and there could be potentially dangerous animals or people waiting to sneak upon them.

That led to Merlin's next question. If the ponies can walk and talk like humans, then what of the other animals? Do they also talk and walk, or are they just domestic animals for ponies to keep? The thought of ponies owning an animal is just weird.

"Ughh..."

Merlin could only sigh at the sound of his partner beside him groaning. He had been doing that for the past hour now and had been only getting worse by the minute. He could've sworn he saw him nearly falling asleep and had been asked by multiple soldiers around him to wake up!

"Just how far... We've been walking? It's been like 2 days now..."

"It's been only 2 hours Zappy."

"That's still so long though!"

Merlin only sighed at his companion's stubbornness. "Listen, I understand that your legs are getting tired and that you've been groaning for the past hour or so," Zappy only pouted at that last part. "But you gotta keep pushing, we're probably almost there anyways." The soldiers around them were listening to the conversation and all nodded towards Zappy.

"Besides, aren't you a pegasus? can't you just fly your way instead of using your legs?"

Zappy widens his eyes as he took the statement in, and lowered his head in shame. Merlin noticed this. "Can he not... fly?" That was Merlin's only thought when he saw Zappy looking defeated. Merlin could only just look forward and keep walking and remember later to apologize to him if he had offended him.

After traveling about an unknown amount of distance, a pony came up to them and said, "Sergeant has ordered us to take
a break, use the 10 minutes of your time to rest."

"Finally!" Zappy laid down on the ground as he said that, feeling the grass as he does snow angels on it. Merlin only looked at him with a raised eyebrow and decided its best to leave him be.

He went to a nearby rock and took off his autobow and rifle and placed it beside him on a tree. He then took his canteen and started to consume the contents in it. After drinking half of it, he wiped some of the water left on his mouth and took a look around, and saw a pony that appears to be glaring at him and was walking towards him. "Oh boy, this can't be good."

"Excuse me."

Merlin just looked down, pretending not to hear the pony addressing him. He could hear an accent from him that sounded familiar. British, perhaps?

"Excuse me..!" The Dark blue pony exclaimed.

Merlin sighed to himself, "Welp, nowhere of getting out of this now." He looked up to the blue pony and said, "May I help you?"

"Why yes you can, my dear chap! If you could leave right now that would be really generous of you." The dark blue pony said with a smirk. Merlin can tell this fellow doesn't like him.

Merlin decides to retaliate. "And why would I do that?"

The pony sneers, "Well my dear friend, the real question is, why would they let an ape in a pony battalion? Shouldn't species of your kind be put in cages and eat bananas all day?" Everypony around them was listening in on the conversation. Some of them looked at the pony with disgust, while others with disappointment.

Merlin didn't really care about what this half-ass pony was trying, so he just went back to drinking his canteen, ignoring the pony attempting to anger him. It was just then that the dark blue pony noticed that he was getting ignored, and started getting angry. He noticed the canteen that Merlin was drinking and slapped the canteen off of Merlin's hand and smirked after seeing the canteen drop to the ground. "Oh dear, my apologies, dear chap, it seems that my hoove had slipped."

Zappy saw the entire scene and decided to intervene. "Hey! Watch what you're-" But Zappy was cut off all of a sudden when Merlin got up from his seat and suddenly grabbed the pony by the neck and had pushed him back to a tree where he was getting choked against it.

"Agh! Let... Go... Of me!!" The pony was struggling against Merlin's grasp, trying to swing at him and kick at him, but it was no use. Merlin had a tight grip on him, and he wasn't gonna let go.

The ponies that were witnessing the scene started to shout at Merlin to stop, while others were telling one of the ponies to get an officer to put a stop to it. Merlin didn't care what was happening around him, what mattered was the horse in front of him, and only him. Merlin looked at him dead in the eye and said, "Now you listen to me you little shit, I don't care about you or what you do around here, but if you start to mess with me, then you'll find out just how we apes handle horses like you."

The pony couldn't speak because of the grip Merlin has on his neck and also because of the death threat that he just got. He could only look at him with wide eyes as he slowly realizes that his oxygen is running out, and is now merely whispering to Merlin to tell him to let go and that he's sorry. The ponies around them suddenly all turned silent. They wanted to help the pony in need, but they also didn't want to also get choked to death. Everypony then suddenly heard something coming from the front, and they saw a soldier and a random officer arriving at the scene.

The officer looked around and saw a bunch of stiff ponies and then looked at the two soldiers in the middle. "HEY, what's going on here?!"

After a few moments upon hearing the officer's voice, Merlin let go of the Dark blue pony's neck and turned to the officer demanding an answer. He saluted to him and said, "My apologies sir, it seemed I have lost my temper and attacked one of my comrades."

"You'll lose more than a temper if you keep that up, private! Now both of you, on the double! We move out in 2 minutes, and if I hear any more of you're temper tantrum, then you'll be out of the army within seconds!" The officer then turned away and went back to the front.

The dark blue pony was lying on the tree, trying to gather any sort of oxygen into his lungs after that long choke. He then saw a shadow under him and looked up to see Merlin, the person he was antagonizing, stood over him. He was scared to death when all he saw was just a silhouette of him under the sun and those lifeless eyes, that looked numb.

"What is your name?"

The pony jumped when he heard his voice. "H-Huh?"

"I said, what is your name?"

The pony hesitated to answer but just one look at Merlin's face told him to do it. "... Its, Bark. Bark Oaks."

"Bark Oaks, huh?" Merlin said aloud. "Well listen here, Bark Oaks, I'll repeat what I said before. Mess with me again, and I'll show you what happens when you mess with an ape."

With that, Bark quickly got up and picked up what supplies he dropped, and quickly went back to the front. Everypony around them looked at each other and quickly went back to their short break, trying their best not to anger Merlin.

Merlin just merely sighed at the event unfolded and went to pick up his canteen. After picking up his drink, he saw his partner coming up to him with a smile.

"Wow Merlin, I didn't know you had it in ya!" Zappy said as he threw a playful punch at Merlin's shoulder.

Merlin only looked at him with a straight face. "Thanks..."

Zappy noticed it and frowned. "You... Aren't really a talker are ya?" Merlin only looked at him with the same straight face, "I only speak when necessary, or when I want to."

Zappy sighed at that, knowing that Merlin was a tough nut to crack now. "Gotcha." Zappy then went back to his area and began packing up for another journey towards the next line.

After seeing Zappy leave, he started to pack up himself and then heard the go for moving out. As he started to make haste he wondered,

just what is ahead of him, in this land filled with ponies and beasts?

He could only sigh at that thought and continue marching.

To Be continued...

Author's Note

Helloing again! I would like to severely apologize for the long-awaited chapter, as I was busy with a lot of things. But I can promise you there will be great things coming up in the next couple of chapters!

See you all at the front until then!