Red Alert: 16 Years Ago

Bastok Peninsula

****

A young colt sets out to find the truth,

To discover the secrets of a veteran’s youth.

Unveiling forgotten mysteries of the past,

Just how long will those memories last?

****

“I guess it would make sense for me to begin at the beach landing, even though a lot of it is a blur for me. I’ll do what I can,” he reassured me.

Midnight Sparkle was sipping on a piping cup of tea and sighed with satisfaction after a taking a moderate-sized drink. He shifted into a more comfortable position in his chair and eyed me while taking another sip.

He used his magic to float a second cup of hot tea over to me and even though I had refused a drink earlier, I gladly took it in my hooves. I was refreshed when I took a sip, the tea was very good and it soothed my throat. I could feel my nerves beginning to calm.

“The Belkans were…crazy…to say the least. Blinded by their own hate and grief. As they captured more and more territories, they decided to reorganize their government into a totalitarian state,” he lectured.

“But what purpose would that serve?” I asked, bewildered that the Belkans would make a move that seemed completely pointless.

“They needed a way to rule over the vast amount of territory they had captured. They had split up their new provinces into regional governments…,” he paused for a second to sigh.

“Then they formed an alliance with the captured states. They called it a Soviet Union, I believe,” Mr. Sparkle put emphasis on the word ‘formed’ as he spoke.

“A Soviet Union huh?”

This story was getting more and more interesting by the minute. After I taken another swig of that delightfully warm tea, I had started jotting down some notes.

“Belka, by this time, had either occupied or annexed most of the entire Verusan continent,” he started.

My interest and my excitement grew when I realized that I was finally getting what I wanted.

My story.

It was actually happening!

It was real.

“And it was our job to take it back…”

****

The amphibious transport was rocking back and forth as it approached the coastline. Waves were beating against the sides of the small craft as Corporal Sparkle struggled to get a grip on the side rails to keep his balance. His Sergeant was standing tall near the entrance, giving a pre-deployment brief.

Behind the sergeant, visible tracer rounds danced along the former Yuktobanian coastline, the sounds of battle accompanying them. To Midnight, it was like an orchestra of war taking place in front of him, as if the bullets and the explosions were telling a story of some kind.

The riflepony tried desperately to listen to his Sergeant over the sounds of crashing waves, and artillery booms. He could hear the whistling of Equestrian destroyers firing missile after missile at the beach defenses and pounding of allied cruisers discharging their big guns. The humming of Longbow helicopter engines could be heard as he saw a flight of three flying in a v-formation towards the shore.

“WE WILL BE DEPLOYING ALONG THE BASTOK PENINSULA! FIRST BATTALION WILL BE DIVIDED INTO FOUR COMPANIES: A, B, C, AND D! WE ARE PART OF A COMPANY!”

The roaring of fighter jets and booming of explosions made up the background noise. Midnight then saw what looked like a lightning bolt coming from the coast; zap an amphibious transport, vaporizing it.

Then, the blue stallion heard a crackle over the radio that had been installed in the transport.

“This is the destroyer Cloudsdale to the cruiser Manehattan. We’d appreciate it if you could take out that Tesla Coil with your big guns,”

After hearing a thundering boom from the cruiser and witnessed a gigantic fireballs erupt from the coastline, two more Longbows flew past the transport, firing missiles at the shoreline. The transport was made of steel rather than wood, a benefit of acquiring Belkan technologies. Every side except the front entrance was walled off and it had a roof for overhead protection. The front entrance had a slit in the front that ponies could see out of it.

Midnight couldn't see any part of the battlefield except what was right in front of the transport. It was him, two other rifleponies, a pony with a rocket launcher and a light tank sitting behind them. All of them were wearing tan desert cameo and Kevlar helmets.

“OUR MISSION IS TO BREACH THE DEFENSES AND LINK UP WITH THE REST OF OUR BATTALION! DESTROY ANYTHING BELKAN ALONG THE WAY! ALL UNITS WILL THEN REFORM INTO BATTALION STRENGTH AND PUSH INLAND!”

They were getting closer to the shore. Midnight looked out at the beach but before he could see anything, a burst of water shot up and hit him in the face. His eyes began to sting as salt water got into them.

“ALRIGHT COLTS! LET’S ROLL! SEE YOU ON THE BEACH!”

Pinging and dinging of bullets bouncing off the front entrance became more frequent as the transport groaned. From the inside, Midnight and his squad could hear the screams of dying ponies and gunfire on the beach.

They had landed.

****

It was at this time that I realized how well the story was gripping me. I looked down and noticed my pencil was shaking violently in my grasp.

“You alright? You look a little shell-shocked,” he chuckled.

I shivered and took a deep breath to calm myself down. Taking another sip of that heaven-sent tea helped.

“What was the Bastok Peninsula?”

“It was a former Yuktobanian territory; it was the southeast tip of the country. The Karalians were supposed to land at the northern end of the continent, us at the southern tip, and the other allies in the center. All of us were to land in the western part of the continent, combine into one large force, and then systematically retake the continent. As we did so, we had to rescue stranded allied units that got left behind during the Belkans’ first offensive, along the way,”

He had explained the simple yet effective strategy in detail. I was really getting some good information here.

“What kind of allies?”

He coughed and shook his head as he took another swig of his tea.

“Early in the campaign, mostly Yukes but as we drove deeper into the continent, we found the Veronans, and helped out the Prussians as well,” he responded, smacking his lips as he dove into his teacup for the last time, emptying it.

“What happened next?” I asked, getting the story back on track.

The blue unicorn looked down at the ground and without looking up again, he spoke.

“All hell broke loose,” he said solemnly.

****

The transport’s front entrance was creaking loudly as it opened, only to reveal to the occupants an incoming hail of machinegun fire and the sight of fellow Equestrians getting slaughtered on the beach.

He watched helplessly as the crossfire of multiple machinegun nests ripped apart an entire group of thirteen Equestrian earth ponies in what seemed like a split second. Immediately after, he heard cries for help coming from the wounded and screams of agony.

Midnight watched his sergeant charge out the transport and immediately followed him, sloshing through the salt water in an effort to get to the beach. He tried his best to step over and ignore a young colt lying on the ground, his body cut to ribbons by machinegun fire.

“Momma?! Momma! Momma!” the colt cried out in despair.

A riflepony directly behind Midnight took a bullet to the throat and made a disgusting gurgling sound as he dropped onto the floor of the transport. As the rest of the squad sprinted towards the cover of a few rocks on the beach the light tank followed them out.

As the Equestrian light tank departed the transport, it spun its turret in the direction of the cliffs above the beach and fired at two Belkan soldiers manning a heavy machinegun nest. The tank shell hit its mark dead-on as one of the enemies’ bodies was catapulted off the side of the cliff from the force of the blast.

The chaos of combat surrounded the squad as they poked their heads out from cover to get a bearing on their positions. The light tank noticed another machinegun nest directly in front of the squad pinning them down behind the rocks with machinegun fire. It adjusted its turret and fired, destroying that emplacement as well. The tank then drove off to find other defenses to attack. Thanks to the light tank, the Equestrian squad a lot less machinegun fire to worry about.

“ALRIGHT! THIS IS HOW ITS GONNA GO! WE ARE GONNA CLIMB UP THAT MOUND TO THE RIGHT OF US! THAT WOULD FORCE US TO CROSS ABOUT THIRTY FEET OF OPEN TERRITORY SO WE MOVE ONE AT A TIME WHILE THE REST OF US PROVIDE COVER FIRE! THEN, AFTER WE CLIMB THAT MOUND, THERE IS A DIRT ROAD LEADING TO THE TOP OF THE CLIFF! WE TAKE THE ROAD AND THEN STICKY HERE WITH THE ROCKET LAUNCHER WILL TAKE OUT THE BUNKER AT THE TOP! GOT IT? GOOD!”

His sergeant screamed at the top of his lungs.

Midnight then felt a hoof tap him on the shoulder.

“SPARKLE, YOU FIRST!” his sergeant yelled.

Midnight galloped towards the mound at full tilt, desperately trying to make himself as hard a target as possible. His soaked uniform hindered his speed and was making him uncomfortably itchy. With his squad giving him cover fire, he reached the mound without a hitch, sliding on his knees to cover the last few feet.

Once he made it, he leaned against the corner of it and brought his Mare-16 assault rifle to bear and rammed the stock into his shoulder. He then took aim at a machinegun nest on the cliff that had a perfect view of the crossing point between the rocks and the mound.

He gently hovered his hoof over the big red button in the grip and prepared himself as one of his ears twitched.

“Move! I’ve got you covered!” the corporal called out to his two remaining teammates.

As soon as the sergeant galloped from his position, Midnight squeezed the hoof-sized button in the grip and as a result, the weapon discharged a three-round burst. As he fired burst after burst and watching his shots kicking up dust on the cliff, he could of swore he saw one of the two Soviet machine gunners fall off the side of the giant dirt wall.

He saw his sergeant moving to take his place so he took cover behind the mound and watch as his sergeant provided cover for the rocketpony. Once they all had united, they scaled the mound and reached the dirt road.

“I’ll go first this time,” the sergeant said in a lower volume than he had during the rest of the day.

Midnight followed close behind him and the rocket pony behind him. They were moving at a trotting pace up the dirt road.

Suddenly, two Belkan soldiers in solid green uniforms crossed into the path, and spotted the Equestrians. Midnight aimed for the one on the right and dropped him with two quick three-round bursts and the sergeant downed the second one with his own Mare-16.

However, right after the engagement, the sergeant’s body hit the dirt-covered ground with a thud. Midnight ran over to him and flipped his body over.

What he saw was a perfect line of bullet holes lined across the squad leader’s gut. Midnight snatched up some of the former squad leader’s magazines from his uniform and placed them in his own.

“Sorry,” the blue unicorn whispered to his late leader.

He turned to the rocket trooper, his only remaining squad member.

“You! Follow me. We still have a bunker to destroy,”

“Roger,” the rocketpony responded.

“After that, we’ll link up with anypony we can find alright?” Midnight added.

“Yeah, I’ll follow you,” the rocketpony replied.

It wasn’t long before both of them reached the bunker. Once they got within visual sight of it, they both hit the deck and remained prone.

The structure itself was very odd.

It had ports sticking out in all four directions and did not attack how one would expect.

“Is that thing…shooting fireballs?” Midnight asked bewildered.

The other pony glanced at him with an equally mystified expression.

Sure enough, that bunker was actually a strange contraption that fired balls of flame from four open ports at intruders with devastating effect. Right now, it was pummeling the beaches down below with searing balls of death. Midnight and his last teammate had to destroy it to protect any Equestrians still landing on the beach.

“Alright, blast it! Do your stuff!” Midnight encouraged the rocketpony.

The earthpony remained prone and adjusted the tube that was slung over his shoulder.

Click!

SWOOSH!

The first rocket went on its way and slammed into the side of the flame tower. The resounding force of the explosion blew off one of the firing components of the flame tower.

“Hit it again!”

At that a second rocket ejected from the tube and left a white vapor trail in its wake. This one pierced the side of the column that was holding the tower up. Midnight noticed that a significant hole had been blown into the tower’s support structure.

“Right there! Aim there!” Midnight yelled frantically, jabbing a hoof at the breach.

The earth pony reached into his saddlepack and fished out two more rockets and one by one, shoved them both down the tube. Once he finished, he took aim once more.

Click!

SWOOSH!

It flew through the gap created from the last hit and exploded inside the tower itself. The tower gave a painful groan as its foundation was severely weakened.

“That’s the spot! One more should do it!” Midnight half-cheered as he glared and gritted his teeth at the tower, attempting to will it to the ground.

The earth pony took careful aim and fired.

Click!

SWOOSH!

An ear-shattering explosion threatened to deafen anypony within a hundred yard radius as the top of the tower popped right off and crashed on the ground below. The rest of the structure, without its stand, toppled over and slammed into the dirt-covered ground, spewing debris everywhere.

The fireballs coming from the now non-existent tower had ceased.

“Great shot! Now let’s move up and try to find our unit!” the blue unicorn half-cheered.

The rocketpony shuffled onto his hooves and as he tried to swing his rocket launcher tube over his back, three bullets whistled through the air and made three distinct thuds as they slammed into his chest. He body twisted sideways and hit the ground.

Midnight stayed down as machinegun fire emanated from behind the wreckage of the flame tower. He took a risk by peeking his head up, only to drop back down due to enemy fire.

But before he took cover, he noticed that there was a cement trench behind the tower wreckage and that a machinegun emplacement was there firing in his direction. He stopped and thought for a second before remembering that he had four fragmentation grenades in his pack.

He fished one out with a hoof and tossed the portable bomb with his teeth. The pin, which his teeth were holding the grenade by, remained in his mouth as the rest of the device was lobbed through the air and into the trench with one quick jerk of his head.

After few seconds, Midnight heard the resounding boom coming from the trench, followed by cries of pain and screaming in a foreign language. Midnight gripped his Mare-16 with a hoof, got on all fours, and charged towards the trench.

He dived into the trench and was immediately jumped by a survivor. The pink unicorn swung at Midnight with her rifle, but Midnight blocked it with his own and used his superior strength to push her back. The mare lifted her rifle to take a shot at him, but the corporal dived out of the way at the last second. As he hit the deck he brought up his own rifle while lying on his back and squeezed off two three round bursts.

The first volley missed right, ricocheting off the wall of the trench. The second burst hit the foreign mare dead-on, killing her instantly. As Midnight watched her drop, he didn’t notice the second enemy charging at him from behind. The unicorn, still lying on the ground, looked over his back and saw a pegasus stallion flying towards him with a sword drawn.

“Dok-ta-ria!” was the Belkan pony’s battle cry.

Midnight spun his rifle around to get a clear shot at the charging pegasus. He took careful aim and squeezed the red fire button with his hoof.

Click!

“…Uh-oh,” he said sheepishly.

Empty magazine.

“Yeah…so I’m gonna die…”

He thought as he frantically dug into his saddlebag to retrieve a fresh magazine.

He eventually grabbed one but as he tried to pull it out, it fell off of his hoof and skidded out of his reach. He summoned his magic to bring it back for him but it was too late. The pegasus was already standing over him, his sword above his head, ready to slice Midnight in half with a downward stroke of his blade.

Midnight looked up at his executioner with helplessness. He closed his eyes shut as he awaited the blow that would end his life.

It never came.

Instead of the sound of the sword cutting through his flesh, all he heard was a lone gunshot.

The unicorn opened his eyes and watched the hovering pegasus in front of him stop his motion and just floated there with a glazed look in his eyes. The pegasus grunted as his wings drooped and fell to the floor of the trench, his sword clattering to the ground.

Midnight looked at the body with amazement.

“What luck!” he thought with his mouth agape and his eyes shot wide open.

“I’d take that sword if I were you. Could be useful,” a new voice uttered.

Midnight looked up at the spot where the enemy pegasus once hovered and saw another pegasus floating there.

This pegasus was dark blue stallion with a green mane. He looked about the same age as Midnight. The corporal watched as his savior put away the pistol that he used to put down the enemy soldier from behind. The blue unicorn looked into the purple eyes of the pegasus through the visor of a pilot’s helmet.

“Well…you’re alone…and my Longbow got shot down…wanna roll with me?” the helicopter pilot asked him.

Midnight scrambled to his hooves.

“Uh…yeah, sure,” he answered, almost dropping his rifle as he picked himself off the ground.

The winged pony pointed at his weapon.

“You better reload that thing,” the pegasus commented with a smirk.

“Right,” Midnight whispered as he magicked over his dropped magazine.

He slapped the mag release button on the side of the rifle and rammed the fresh banana-shaped mag into the chamber while the spent one clattered to the ground. He slapped the opposite side of the rifle and heard a distinct click, letting him know that it was locked and loaded. After he had finished, he gazed down at the sword and grasped it with his magic.

Midnight held in front of him so his new friend could see.

“So…where am I supposed to put this thing anyway?” he asked inquisitively, swinging the metal blade back and forth with his blue aura surrounding it.

“Check the dead Soviet. I’m sure he has a sheath for it,” the pilot said.

Midnight searched the dead pegasus’s body and recovered a black scabbard with yellow triangles on the design. He noticed a clip that came with it and snapped it to his belt. The unicorn would admit that it did feel awkward to wear the sheath but it didn’t hinder any normal bodily movements, and for that he was grateful.

“Good! C’mon friend! Let’s get the hay outta here,” the blue pegasus said as Midnight put the sword into the sheath.

****

“That’s amazing! He saved your life huh?! Who was he?!” I asked with anticipation, nearly jumping out of my seat in excitement.

Midnight laughed at my antics and urged me to settle down by throwing up a hoof in my direction as he set his empty teacup down.

“Heh! Calm down kid. I’m getting to that,” he reassured me as he dropped his head to hiccup.

“That guy ended up being one of my best friends,” he said as he picked his head back up and looked at me with a smile.

“Skyflare Dash…”

“Where have I heard…wait…you don’t mean…”

“Yeah,” he finished.

****

Afterthought

I wanted to make sure you guys got a good fill of some Red Alert elements in this chapter, you know, to remind you that this is a crossover. This story is merely in bloom and much has yet to be put in.