“P-dubs!” Cried a mare’s voice.

“Whah…”

“P-dubs?” ... “P-dubs?” ... “PW.”

“Ah?”

“Good you’re awake, you silly pegasus, you did it! We’re on the ground! Look!” Frosty called, stretching her hand out towards the yellowing light from the rising sun. They had landed in a green patch with ferns and palms. Further out were large blocky basalt rocks and gray beach sand. They were only a hundred yards from the shore or so.

Polaris finally lifted his head off Frosty's lap. “We landed 2?”

“Yup.”

“Where’s our gear?” Asked the pegasus, looking all around himself.

“Over there. Most things, including this bad boy, survived!” Frosty exclaimed, removing and reinstalling her D16’s magazine.

“All right!”

“Unfortunately, I didn’t see the flying thing that took us out. But I did see the red ship again, briefly, under us. They turned south and vanished around the shoreline a few minutes ago.”

“Hmm…” PW grumbled.

Frosty re-positioned Windy’s head in her lap and leaned over him to look him in the eyes. “Now I need your help. Where are we?”

PW looked around, recognizing a large rockface near the beach. “Oh! I’ve seen that thing in pictures. 32 south, 39 east? Yes! We must be on Black Skull Island!” He chirped.

“It really is amazing how you do that P-dubs. Hehe!” Frosty giggled.

“Let’s hope I’m right.” PW replied, slowly standing up and rubbing his head.

“If you can’t walk, you got a free ride.” Frosty called, wiggling her back.

“I think I got it!” He responded.

“Darn flying boat, oh!” Complained PW, seeing the torn wreckage of the balloon.

“Never mind that now. It’s no longer our concern. We should now focus on ensuring the area is secure. I haven’t run a threat assessment or a perimeter check yet.” Advised Frosty.

“Let’s do it!” PW called, walking off not quite straight.

“Let’s get the beach first, buddy.” Frosty shouted, waving him back. They had scouted the shoreline south a hundred yards, then north a hundred yards, turning up nothing suspicious.

“Now we’re prepped to turn inland. Stay close to me and be ready to drop.” Frosty ordered.

“Got it!” The stallion agreed.

They started in towards the pine trees and thicket.

“Frosty, have you thought about what we should do next? We’re completely cut off!” PW realized.

“We’re out of the fight unfortunately- we’ll need to lay low and find a way to survive. Just our luck we only had a single day’s worth of food yet.”

“We’ll figure something out.” Responded PW.

The pair entered a large clearing carpeted with patches of dirt and tall grasses. “Looks like a bomb went off here.” Claimed Frosty, inspecting the small bumps and pits in the land.

“Frosty I got a bed feeling!” PW yelped suddenly, running up to her.

“What? You never panic…”

“I feel something! My sixth sense! I feel lightheaded!” He called.

Frosty heard dirt shifting around behind her. She turned to see a hole in the ground being excavated from the bottom. Then on her left side, seeing the same thing. Frosty turned back right to see a large creature emerging from the hole.

“Diamond dogs! It’s an ambush!” Yelled Frosty, rearing and readying her D16. The entire clearing’s patches of sand and soil around them began boiling.

“Five, six, seven, eight…” Frosty began.

“Eleven, twelve, thirteen!” She counted, becoming more nervous with each one. The first to emerge were now completely above the ground.

“ON THE GROUND NOW! YOU HAVE ENTERED AN ENGAGEMENT ZONE!” Yelled Frosty.

“FROSTY HE HAS A RIFLE!” Screamed PW. The Night-Mare whirled around and sent a barrage of bullets into the armed diamond dog. The crowd of dogs was still coming out of the ground, completely ignoring the fact Frosty had fired. By now the super-soldier had stopped her count at twenty, when she heard the clinking of metal, watching as the crowd around her began to remove solid black objects from their canvas slings.

PW was grabbed quickly and placed behind the giant mare by her swift hand. “ARMED COMBATANTS; BATTLE EMERGENCY!!!” Screamed Frosty in a tone that Recce hadn’t even used. “AUHHHH!” Roared Frosty, opening up the D16- and holding the trigger down- just like in PW’s dreams.

The stallion was deafened by Frosty's D16 firing bullets out in a fully automatic fashion, being swept around by Frosty’s boot as she rotated. However, none of the armed were opening fire, simply holding their rifles at the ready, in some cases being killed off without firing even a single bullet. This behavior was unnerving Frosty, who was recognizing the unbelievable obedience and discipline being displayed as a serious warning sign. There were a few unlucky dogs that happened to be within kicking distance, who were either stomped to death or kicked out of the clearing.

“Kh-kh-kh-kh-kh!” The D16 panted, to their horror. It was bound to happen. The D16 only held 50 bullets, and those 50 were expended on the growing crowd around them. Despite taking out over a dozen dogs, more stood alive now than when the gun began firing.

Though Frosty didn’t care. She ejected the empty cartridge and grabbed a new magazine, passing it over to the gun.

*Pwang!* Frosty heard as she missed the slot, slapping the side of the rifle and making a second *pang* against the barrel.

“I NEVER miss!” Frosty complained, repositioning the magazine to finish the job.

*Pwang!* Frosty heard again, this time feeling the gun kick as if it fired.

Now hissing, Frosty tried a third time to insert the magazine.

*Pwang!* Her magazine went sideways again. This time Frosty and her assistant below noticed dents in the gun’s metal and paused in wonder.

*Pwang! Pwang!* The D16 went again, as the ponies saw new dents appear in the weapon. Frosty connected the dots and looked in the direction of the incoming projectiles.

A particularly large, silver coated diamond dog was standing upright, holding one of the largest rifles PW had ever seen that wasn’t a Night-Mare weapon.

“UTT!” He barked. At once all of the weapons around them rotated from the ground to aiming position. “All of my battalion's weapons are pointed straight at little Windy!” He barked. Frosty noticed this and confirmed it.

“Drop your weapon now or we’ll fire! Behold the one hundred strong Dream Catchers!” The dog chanted. Then a ring of dirt several yards wide boiled as one hundred diamond dog soldiers armed with cannons erupted from the ground, easily tripling the enemy numbers.

“ONE CHANCE FROSTY! You keep reloading, he’s dead! We’ll pummel you with cannons until you’re down!” He yelled.

“Do it Frosty! I’ve served you well but I’m expendable!” PW shouted. The Night-Mare began moaning in anger which turned into a roar of emotion. Frosty left the ground on both pairs of hooves, slamming them back into the ground as hard as she could, creating a small crater.

Still yelling, she wound up her forehooves carrying her D16, and hurled the hundred pound assault rifle through the crowd of diamond dogs, as hard as she could. It wiped a trail of diamond dogs from the first through the sixth rings of combatants, leaving only the seventh ring unscathed.

Frosty dropped to all fours, heaving and snorting just as Recce did in front of her enemies.

“Impressive display, Night-Mare!” Called the dog.

“ARE YOU THE ALPHA?!?” Frosty screamed.

“Oh no, I am but a mere Zeta Rank in this effort." "ERE-GO!" Shouted the Zeta dog. The first three rows, composed of the dog soldiers armed with guns, dove into the ground, giving the Night-Mare and her assistant some isolation from the cannon lines.

“IRE!” Screamed the silver dog.

*KHOUUU!* Blasted four of the cannons. Purple and green smoke enveloped them, and they began coughing.

“IRE!” He yelled again.

This time both Frosty and Windy were peppered directly. “TEARGAS!” Choked Frosty.

PW instinctively tried to fly, then a gunshot went off. “I’m HIT!” PW screamed, careening into the ground.

The dogs wasted no time, breaking rank to pull him into their lines and separate the ponies.

“IRE!” Shouted the Zeta dog. Another round of teargas hit Frosty, who was now coughing and struggling to see.

“REA- RANK- HOU!” The dog yelled. All the lines in the circle ran back away from Frosty.

“FROSTY THEY’RE RUNNING AWAY, THEY’RE GOING TO TRY SOMETHING!” PW shouted.

“BAAAAANG- HOU!” Shouted the silver leader.

“GRENADE!” Shouted PW. Frosty was unresponsive. PW was blinded as the ordinance detonated and lost hearing. “FUCK! It’s OVER!” He realized. The grenade had detonated by Frosty at point blank. Half a minute later, PW was able to make out shapes and saw Frosty still rocking back and forth, prone on the ground.

It was around the time that PW’s vision cleared up that he noticed the Zeta dog himself running towards Frosty. Larger than the others, he shoved her withers into the ground, holding her muzzle in the ground. PW struggled to free himself but was held solid by the dog soldiers. Frosty was stripped in the most unceremonious of ways, right down to her trousers and jacket- leaving only the mare’s hands attached.

“FROSTY! Naaaaaaaaaaaah!” Wailed PW. With the area around Frosty cleared, so too cleared all the dogs, except Zeta. He struggled as he did so, but managed to lift the huge mare from the ground, into a sitting pose.

“Oh how many times we have practiced and drilled to capture an Elite Night-Mare… of the Royal Guard!” Zeta celebrated, shaking Frosty. She was only panting and shaking- blind and deaf, unable to hear or respond.

Windy heard a radio beside him squawk.

“Grand-Glow!” The dog grunted.

“You may speak.” Came a very confident female voice at the other end.

“Frosty and Windy are down!” He yelled.

“Well that was easy!” Came the response. PW spat onto the ground.

Author's Note

I get the feeling that these two are about to use more than all their combat survival training they've received...