Sunshine in the trenches

Everfree Forest
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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!