When Two Worlds Meet

One thing the military failed to mention to any potential recruits is the factor of how repetitive the daily routine typically is...

Get up, eat, do some exercises, stare into a large patch of fog for about eight or nine hours, then repeat the whole process over again the next day. It was a long and tedious process in the trenches, and today promised nothing different. After going through the whole morning routine, my platoon moved once again to take our positions in the main trench at the southern end of the camp. We settled into the mud hole, and began our standard routine of watching for movement in the fog.

“Good news maggots!” The Sergeant shouted, grabbing our attention. “We’re expanding the trench today! All of you grab a shovel!”

A chorus of groans met the orders as men swapped their weapons for shovels. My squad mate Rich threw his rifle carelessly to the ground, but I knew better than to abuse my gun in such a way. I carefully set my M-4 against the nearby wall, being careful not to let any mud even near the barrel.

I saw Rich tossing me a shovel out of my eye, catching it little thought. I mentally prepared myself for the backbreaking work as I moved to join the others. When we finally reached the wall of dirt and mud we would work on, we immediately got to work. We dug for about an hour or so with no breaks, and sore muscles. After a little bit more silent digging Rich spoke up sounding madder than ever.

"This is bullshit…”

“What?” I replied, knowing it wouldn’t end well.

“I’m wasting my life, digging a fucking hole. I could be with my girlfriend, or finishing my engendering degree. But no, I’m stuck here digging… A. FUCKING… HOLE!” He screamed throwing his shovel in anger. I felt like I was watching a 5 year old on a tantrum, but at least he had a legitimate reason to be mad. By now everyone was staring at him, I was going to chip in a defend him but Wilson came at the right time.

“Stop digging!” I looked up and saw Sergeant Wilson holding the shoulder of a really pale man. Rich looked extremely embarrassed and looked up at Wilson. “This is Private Harris; he comes from the U.K and is here to help us win this damn war. I assume you guys will give him a warm welcome.” The man named Harris jumped in the trench and sat there wondering what to do.

I pointed “There are some shovels over there, go grab one and help us dig.” He nodded and picked up a shovel and walked over. Almost immediately some guys made fun of him.

“Pip pip cheerio!” one of the guys joked in a rather bad English accent.

“Come on guys, this isn’t a third grade classroom.” I told them. I could tell he was embarrassed. Idiots…

“Whatever” The guy said and went back to digging.

“Thanks mate.” Private Harris said, walking over toward me for.

“You’re welcome” I said. As we talked, I learned that he was 22 years old and his full name was Will Harris. Me, him and Rich grew

close friends and talked while digging.

After about three hours of the grueling work, we were finally done. Rich wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“God I hate manual labor.” He mumbled.

“Suck it up,” I said, putting my shovel back in its place. “It won’t kill you.

“But why take the chance?” I just rolled my eyes, not in the mood to start up an argument. I looked over to Will, who seemed to be staring into the sky.

“What are looking at Will?” I asked. Rich also looked over to where Will was staring.

“Eh, it’s just an incoming helicopter,” He said. “Probably coming to deliver some supplies or, maybe some reinforcements.”

“It’s not that,” Will said absently. “Something seems… off.”  I looked at helicopter, squinting to get a better look. Now that he mentioned it, something did seem wrong. It almost appeared as if a few smaller objects were flying next to it. At first, I didn’t understand what I was looking at, but then the helicopter’s tail suddenly exploded, and realization hit me.

“THEY’RE HERE!” Someone shouted. We ran for the top of the cliff when I saw Wilson.

“Come on, they’re coming!” He shouted. We all rushed to our guns and picked them up and got ready to fire. I soon realized the Will had no gun. Stupid military, I thought to myself and handed him my M-9 pistol. We all looked at the flying ponies and fired; I probably used half a magazine on them. We had shot 3 of them and the other 2 had escaped. I turned back to the thick fog and saw ponies charging at us.

“TAKE THEM OUT!” I screamed out of sheer terror. I heard the pops of rifles across the whole trench and let my rifle join them. I shot in every direction, spraying the bullets and praying they would connect, wondering if I had killed any of them.

“INCOMING!” a soldier shouted. I immediately ducked down, my shoulder buried in the mud. A blue ball of energy exploded just a few yards to my left, reducing a group my fellow troopers to ash.

“What in God’s name…” I handed Will my M-4 and ran over to the ash pile. Luckily for me, that blue ball didn’t destroy guns. I picked up an M-240 machine gun and an M-9 pistol and ran for Will. Rich had mounted a nearby Humvee turret, screaming something inaudible as he sprayed hot fifty-caliber lead into the fog, trying to hit something, anything. I smiled over at Will, seeing how he was eying my machine gun.

“Here’s where the fun begins!”  I said mounting my M-24 on the edge of the trench.

“Damn straight!” He yelled back. The noise of the gun was almost deafening. It felt as I was playing a children’s game, pointing at colors and them dropping. But I knew this was much more that a silly child’s game. I couldn’t believe these ponies were so strong; their magic could creep in and blow up. But we fought back very hard and finally after fifteen minutes of loud pops, they stopped.

“Cease Fire! Cease Fire!” The Sergeant shouted. “They’ve stopped attacking for now. Someone get me a status Report!” After several exchanges back and forth between squad leaders, we learned that we had lost about twenty five men and a few choppers. Our Sergeant pointed toward our general area.

“

You men, keep a watch over the line, there might be a second wave coming!”

I looked at Will and we both said at the same time “What the hell just happened.”

From 6 ponies to 3 in about 30 minutes sense the other fire team was elected to run in our first ‘little’ charge towards the enemy. Well, I can tell you one thing… That charge was a win within a loss. We had lost about 70 ponies in that single charge, pretty harsh. But one thing that came out of it was us softening the enemy’s lines, plus when we go in for our 2nd and last charge they won’t expect to be hit a second time.

Back to reality… We had told Rainbow to get me, her and Applejack some water. We made sure she stayed low while flying, because we didn’t want to be that group that ruins everything! When she finally left me and Applejack talked about our families and friends back at home. We talked about her friends that were the true embodiments of loyalty, laughter, kindness, generosity, magic, and herself, honesty.  Finally, we reached the topic of my past…

“Well, Ah told you all about my life. Tell me bout’ yours.”

“Um, I don’t know…”

“Come on now, you can trust me.”

“Really”

"Of course” she smiled “That’s what friends are for”

My heart did a hop, gallop and a jump when she told me we were friends. But explaining my past was hard, because there was little past explain…

“Okay”

“Well, come on now.”

Well, Applejack… When growing up from being a baby colt to getting drafted into the army I had no friends, and little family. I was abandon in the Everfree Forest when I was a month old; a zebra that spoke in rhyme had found me on her “herb day” and brought me in. I had no friends growing up, just… well my mom… When I got older I moved out and tried to get a job in Trotingham, but sense I had never talked to anypony I had no social experience. I ended up with no friends and no way back to moms… I lived on the streets for half my life, getting food in hay kitchens until one royal sun guard told everyone in the hay kitchen we had to join the army… That’s how I got here…

Applejack just stared blankly at me. She came over and put her hooves around me and hugged me. “Ah am so sorry.” She said in a kind voice.

“Awwww!” I saw Rainbow looking at us with a HUGE grin on her face. Applejack and I quickly backed away from each other, her blushing. Rainbow floated down to where we were.

“Didn’t want to interrupt, but I got you the water” She gave us the water, with that signature grin on her face. “The general told me to inform you, we are going to charge in, and oh I’d say about 5 minutes. Applejack and I looked at each other with a ‘WHAT’ look. There is no time to waste I better get ready to fight.

Silence filled the room for the next 5 or so minutes until… *DING*. That was the bell for the charge. Rainbow immediately flew straight into battle. Me and Applejack looked at each other and nodded.

“CHARGE!” our shouts blended in with all the other screaming ponies. We fired our guns at the hole about 40 yards away. I made sure to I was always near Applejack, and her to me. I shot a fire spell at the trench and saw 3 burning clothing fall to the bottom of the pit. We were making progress; the only thing stopping up was the vehicles with machine guns mounted on the top. After three minutes of intense fighting we made it to the trench where two different races tried to kill one another. I aimed my gun at a 6 ft tall man and pulled my trigger. He fell to the ground lifeless, I was horrified. I saw Rainbow create a tornado around one of their metal flying contraptions. I was surprised at how easy this was, they were running back into the main facility and we chased them. We reached the wall,

“Open the door” somepony shouted. The doors slowly moved open, and with it were 4 viechals with huge cannons pointed at us.

“RUN!” I heard somepony shout. I ran back, hearing bullets fly past my face. When I was just jumping out of the trench I heard a moan in the pit. I looked back, and under a bloody mess I saw my friend Applejack…