The Black Squirrel Brigade

In the night,

The bodies fall,

Down below,

Into the freezing cold.

The shelves were empty of any bottles and alcohol.

They had all either been broken or pillaged by Equestrian soldiers during the first battle of Chicoltgo, during the occupation by the Changelings, or after the city was captured again by Equestira. Either way, it was quite a boring place now.

The only window for the bar was broken out, the glass from it laying on the ground outside and inside. Because power for the city was out, the far back side of the bar was dark, while the bar’s counter sat near the window, providing the seats with plenty of light.

There were a few broken bottles on the ground behind the counter, whatever liquids they held had dried out, leaving behind faint-colored stains. Besides the broken glass, all the bar supplies were thrown about. Some of it was on the ground while some of it was on the counter while the rest was in its proper spot, though cabinet doors were nearly all thrown open. The last thing that was thrown about was a single chair. It was pushed over and it currently lay on its side.

The rest of the bar was in a bit of better shape behind the counter. Besides a few turned over chairs, it looked like it fared just fine. There was dust everywhere due to the building shaking from explosions.

Because the building was fine, it was currently being used by three ponies. Two of the ponies found themselves sitting at one of the booth tables, while the last pony sat at a center table near the booth working on the transcript as the other two spoke. They had chosen to sit near the broken window as well, so they had sunlight to work with.

At the table, both of the ponies wore Equestrian Army uniforms, while one had the rank of captain and the other was private. The captain only had a few simple things with him, a simple, small bag and a service pistol that he carried in a leather holster. His name was Gala Sparkle, or otherwise known as Captain Sparkle. He was a unicorn.

The other pony, the private, was Gust.

Gust’s equipment was with him, but it sat in the booth with him as he currently spoke away, going through his story of the assault that had taken place a few days prior. He had just gotten to the point where his squad met back up with its original group. Gust had been explaining it for nearly the entire time he sat at the table, all while the captain listened and the other pony wrote everything down.

The other pony that was writing everything down as a transcript wore a simple Equestrian Army uniform, but just the bare minimum. It didn’t bear any rank or patches of any kind. The pony also had a similar bag as Captain Sparkle, but they didn’t have a service pistol. What they did have was a hidden revolver under their uniform. This was Agent Mythic. They were also a unicorn. They were an agent for SMILE so their real name wasn’t used when in the field. They weren’t taking part of the conversation besides transcribing it.

Gust had been rambling on with his story for quite some time now, given that’s what was asked of him. The captain had no intention of stopping Gust until another pony came into the building. This new pony also wore a similar uniform as Agent Mythic. Given the ease they were able to come in past the door guards, they were likely a SMILE agent as well.

“Captain, we’ve found something important,” The pony entirely ignored the fact Gust had been in the midst of his story, even going above to make his own voice loud with urgency.

With the interruption, Sparkle raised a hoof at Gust to put the story on halt and then proceeded to turn towards the new pony. Sparkle lowered his hoof once Gust was quiet, “Watermark? What’s the report?” Sparkle’s attention had made the quick switch to Watermark as Gust’s presence was now nearly ignored.

Now that Gust had gone quiet, he along with Mythic both looked at Watermark with Sparkle, in anticipation of whatever the report was. Given how long he had been talking for, Gust took the opportunity to take a swing from his canteen.

Agent Watermark looked at Gust for a moment, before looking back at Captain Sparkle, “It has something to do with what some members from that 3rd platoon have found. Anything further though-” Watermark motioned towards Gust, hoping the Captain brought his attention back to him.

Sparkle’s attention indeed returns back to Gust at the mention of him. Sparkle readjusted himself to face Gust again. “Private Gust,” Sparkle turned his attention to Mythic for a moment and motioned with a hoof for them to stop the transcribing. Again, looking back at Gust, Sparkle continued, “I believe we have gotten what information we needed from you at this time, unless anything else of importance happened between then and now.”

A short silence followed after the Captain spoke, which Gust quickly caught onto as he answered, “Well, no, nothing else of importance happened, nothing that I don’t know about,” Gust gave the two agents a small look with that comment, given he truly had no idea why he was being held. He had already done his reports for the assault of the city so this interview was entirely unexpected.

The Captain and the two agents looked at Gust as if he was holding a secret from them, but as the stare down brought nothing else from Gust, the Captain spoke back up. “Then you are dismissed Private. I’ll expect you to hold this conversation to only yourself? You are bound to secrecy just as much as we are.” Sparkle then gave a smile to finish off his sentence, hopeful Gust took it as his sign to leave.

There was another moment of silence before Gust realized his dismissal, so the moment he realized it, he responded with, “Yes sir!” Gust then gathered his equipment and gun as fast as he could before he got up from the table and stood at attention for the captain, saluting, and then leaving.

Once Gust was gone, Sparkle’s attention was brought back to Watermark. Since turning in the seat to face Watermark wasn’t the most comfortable, Sparkle got up from it and faced towards Watermark. “What’s the report Water?”

Mythic also looked at Watermark in anticipation for what the report was. Currently, Mythic was also tidying up their work, getting the transcript filed away into some folders and shoved into a bag as he paid attention.

“Well sir, I was with the platoon that was helping us investigate Luna’s sector and a few of the soldiers found some dead Changelings that had something odd about them,” Watermark turned around to check the door, making sure there was no peeping heads or ears present, “Well, I believe you should take a look yourself. I can explain it when we get there.”

“How far away are these Changeling bodies from us right now? I’m not opposed, but I do want to check out the building that private captured a Changeling in,” Sparkle responded.

Having no clue what the Captain was talking about, Watermark answered, “Ten or so minutes away. It will be faster with your command car though.”

Sparkle gave everything a thought as he figured out what to do. His attention was drawn around the table he had been sitting at before it moved over to Mythic. A sigh built up and was released before Sparkle came to a conclusion, “Ok, that’s what we’ll do,” he then turned his attention back to Watermark, “Are you coming with us or do you have anything else you need to look at over here?”

Watermark shook his head at the question and jiggled the bag he had on, which carried documents.

Sparkle adjusted his uniform as the answer came in, which only prompted him to turn to Mythic and ask him if he was good with going as well.

Mythic had just finished tidying up their supplies and equipment as the question was asked, already standing up themselves so they could get on the move, “I’m also good sir.”

As all three were set to go, they made their way out of the building, and when they did, Sparkle dismissed the guards who stood outside. They were part of the 22nd Everfree Division’s security forces.

Because Luna didn’t inform any of the high command about the existence of the brigade she sent, it had brought the attention of a few generals, but none of them pursued Luna to explain it. It wasn’t until after the city of Chicoltgo was taken that concerns were brought up by the officers and NCOs of the 22nd Division, who brought it up to their general, Sun Marble.

Because Sun Marble knew just as much about Luna’s Brigade as the other generals, once the concerns were brought up to her by the 22nd commander, Brigadier Brindle Dew, Sun Marble sent a message to General August Fon Eisenstadt regarding the concerns and requested for a simple investigation into the brigade past what was learned and documented by the 22nd. Since all of Sun Marble’s divisions were currently fighting on the front lines at the moment, and none of them had investigation detachments to them, that’s why she contacted General Eisenstadt.

Since General Eisenstadt was at the meeting where Luna first brought up her brigade, she had also been one of the generals who had an interest in them, but she had since forgotten it until Sun Marble sent for the request. Since Luna’s Brigade had left soon after the city was entirely captured and the 22nd had dug into the fortifications before Sun Marble learned about the concerns, there weren't any concerns between her or August regarding the investigation and Luna learning about it.

Since Captain Sparkle had been stationed at the nearby airfield base in Crystalville, he was chosen to lead the small investigation. To aid him, August had sent a request to the SMILE agency in Whinnyapolis for help. Since the railway was still intact, it connected Whinnyapolis directly to Crystalville and straight into Chicoltgo, or did until the rail bridge over the river was blown up. It would be a while until it was repaired for use again.

But since that morning, the three had been given a command jeep for traversing the city, along with some power to command 22nd troops to help with the investigation, well as long as they were reasonable commands that neither brought too much attention to themselves or disrupted the ponypower at the western fortifications. There was no dire threat of any Changeling counter attack at the moment, but the 22nd didn’t want to take any chances.

Even though Captain Sparkle had the authority to command troops for various things given his rank, like having the security outside at the bar or having some squads from the 22nd help search the city, the SMILE agents didn’t, at least not directly. The only authority they had was directly under him, but even then, it was limited. From a military point it was. They still had authority over civilians and areas away from the front lines, but given their location, the military was in charge here.

Now that the three were in the command car and driving away from the bar, Sparkle did his best to navigate around the city to where the building Gust had cleared that had the AT gun.

It was later in the day now and Sparkle and Mythic had spent most of the day so far interviewing a select few ponies who took part in the assault of the city. They were trying to gather as much information they could on the so called ‘black stripes’ from first hoof accounts while Watermark went along with some squads to search through the areas the stripes had cleared. Obviously, they had found something given he had reported back to the Captain.

“So, Sir,” Watermark asked from the backseat of the command car as Sparkle drove through the city, “Did you learn anything from the interviews?”

While the Captain was navigating through any of the debris that lay about in the road, he was still able to talk as he was going carefully through them, “Well, the most interesting thing that last soldier said was something about a ghost, or what his apparent Changeling POW mentioned. I’m sure there was some translation error with his team mate. Where he captured them is where we’re going actually. I just want to check out the building and see if they had anything lying about that mentioned this supposed ghost.”

As Sparkle continued driving down the road, he eventually looked to Mythic, who was riding in the passenger seat of the car and asked for directions. Mythic had jotted down the location on a map at Sparkle’s request during Gust’s story.

“What about your search Water?” Sparkle asked to Watermark.

“As I said, it’ll be better to wait until we get there and then explain. I already took photos of the Changelings, but the soldiers have been told not to mess with them.”

Sparkle gave a grunt in response as he focused back on driving, they had come across a destroyed building and had to carefully go around the debris of it.

The destruction to the city was very apparent while driving through. While there were still sections of the city untouched, there were broken windows on just about every building from the explosions that had gone off. Bomb creators from airplanes or artillery, from both sides, weren’t rare. What was rare, unless you looked for it, were the signs of actual ground fighting between the forces. It was hard to tell at this point which fights had happened during the first battle or the second.

That was until they came across the Changeling Panzer III tank that had been destroyed a few days prior. It was also on the road that matched where their destination was, so it matched with Gust’s story.

While Sparkle didn’t stop at the Panzer, he did drive around it and looked at the bodies of a few Changelings that were piled together on the side of the road. Among the few bodies was a Changeling wearing a tanker uniform. There were also bullet holes and marks surrounding the area from when the 22nd pushed down the street. Sparkle didn’t pay it much mind as he drove by.

Once he had turned the street corner and drove around the Panzer though, up the street was the Equestrian Muletilda that sat in the middle of the road still. Sparkle drove around it as well but parked close by given the house he wanted to look at was right there.

Once parked, Sparkle and the two agents got out of the car. Sparkle walked over to the destroyed Muletilda to look at it while the agents looked at the specific building.

The Muletilda, along with any tank really, looked massive when you stood next to it. Sparkle walked to the front of it and saw the hole that had been punched into the tank, which had black scorch marks surrounding it and right above it. Sparkle couldn’t see any of the hatches open on the tank, so either the crew really didn’t get out or the infantry couldn’t get in.

His mind stared at the tank for a moment more until he turned to look down the road where the Panzer sat, who’s turret stared in the direction of the Muletilda, who’s own turret did the same for the Panzer. Both stared at one another’s lifeless body.

Sparkle turned back to the Muletilda and stared at it once again before he stepped away and went to join the two agents. He didn’t want to think about what the insides of the Muletilda had turned into.

At the house, which had been found, the two agents stood at the window and looked into it where the Changeling AT gun sat still. All the bodies of the Changelings that were from the house were in a pile outside, though Blaze wasn’t present. Medical units from the 22nd had come through the city to retrieve their dead after support groups did a secondary clearing of the city. They’re who piled the Changelings into piles.

“So what exactly are we doing Captain?” Watermark asked.

Sparkle stood at the window with the other two and peered inside before his focus turned to the Changeling pile. He grumbled to himself as he thought, “Well, if you two want search the bodies of the Changelings, I’ll take a quick look inside. I’m going to look for any journals or books that belong to them. Papers, maps, anything like the sort.”

“Didn’t the 22nd already clear it out if the bodies are outside?” Mythic asked.

“Maybe they missed something,” Sparkle commented before he found a way into the building.

While Sparkle left the two outside, he checked through the building.

Besides the stains of blood that adorned the place and the many bullet holes and markings that were about, there really wasn’t much inside the building when it came to intel. The previous run through the town by the 22nd really had cleared out the building. The only things that remained was the AT gun and all the equipment from the Changelings that wasn’t attached to them, so guns and various things. It was all thrown into a pile in the building and left behind. This made it easy to check through after searching the rest of the building. Since it was all just equipment and had no value to Sparkle, he eventually made his way out of the building.

When Sparkle came out, he saw that the two agents were still searching through the bodies of the Changelings, so he ended up joining them to help. It wasn’t a fun task, as their bodies had been dead for awhile now, especially with the mess some of them were.

“So, were you able to find what you were looking for? Or did you find anything at all?” Mythic asked.

Sparkle shook his head, “No, I think the 22nd already got everything useful. We might have to talk with their command later to see what intel they ended up finding,” Sparkle said.

They pursued on through, but their search turned up nothing as they went through the Changeling bodies.

After they did what they could to re-pile the bodies for later cleanup, they piled back into the command car and left for the location Watermark was wanting to show Sparkle. The distance to where they went wasn’t far from their location, due to them driving the car, but the distance was surprising with how close the southern push had gotten to the black stripes sector.

Once they had arrived at the building Watermark directed Sparkle to, they found some soldiers standing outside the building who were guarding it, who were doing so under the order from Watermark.

There wasn’t much authentication that the three had to do to get past the guards. One thing Sparkle did was dismiss the guards once they had arrived, while Watermark told them to continue helping search through the area.

“So, here’s the thing that makes this weird Captain, there’s two Changeling bodies on the top floor, but the one window they were at isn’t damaged, no bullet holes, no broken glass, nothing.”

The three were currently walking up the stairs of the building and had reached the top once Watermark finished speaking. They had come across the bodies of the two Changelings that lay on the ground near the only window of the room.

Watermark motioned around the room, “There’s nothing indicating there was any damage by bullets or shrapnel. Nothing is destroyed here as well.”

Sparkle took a look at the two bodies of the Changelings as Watermark talked about them.

“But the Changelings were obviously shot, is the thing,” Watermark said as he made his way to the bodies. He pointed at some spots on the Changelings with his hoof, “Here and here. This one was shot a few times in the chest and neck, while this one was in the head,” Watermark then stepped away from the bodies to let Sparkle have a better view on them.

Sparkle looked at Water, who in turn saw the question forming on Sparkle's face so he continued and pointed around at the floor, “The thing is, there’s no bullet casings around,” Water then started moving to the stairs they had taken up, “No casings downstairs either. This building wasn’t touched by anything but two dead Changelings.”

Sparkle began looking around the room for the non-existent casings Watermark talked about, before he went to the stairs. Seeing how there truly was no casings anywhere on them, he took Watermark’s word for full truth, assuming he did inspect the whole building. “And who found this?”

“A few of the patrols who helped search. They didn’t touch anything and came to inform me,” Watermark said.

While this was going down, Mythic had gone to the bugs to inspect their bodies himself.

“Was it suicide?” Sparkle asked.

Even though there were no casings, Mythic had picked up the Changeling guns and opened their bolts to check. In both, their chambered bullets flew out while the remainder inside were all accounted for, so neither had shot one another.

Sparkle grumbled while Mythic went on to check more things.

“They also weren’t brought up here while dead given the amount of blood that poured out,” Watermark said.

“So?” Was all Sparkle was able to ask with their given information.

“I don’t think it’s the work of the 22nd or Luna’s brigade,” Watermark answered.

“Do you think it’s related to that ghost?” Mythic asked.

Despite the oddity of the situation that was before them, Luna’s secret forces had done their job while in the city. The cleanup crews had come across their work on Changeling held positions where their fights had taken place.

While Luna’s brigade only had a few injuries and two deaths, they had carried them out themselves when they left. The direction and way they left was unknown, but it’s believed they took the railway to Whinnyapolis, though that wasn’t confirmed. Along with their own injured and dead, they had taken the few POWs that were captured during the whole assault.

Sparkle gave Mythic a look, “What else do you think ghosts do?”

While they documented the situation and wrote down notes, there wasn’t much else they could do until they reviewed everything over the next few days. The day had been good though, as they they gathered plenty of information to start with.

Nothing else showed up in the section of the city that the black stripes cleared, so the troops that were helping search were dismissed.

With what they were able to do this first day, they finished up and went back to the eastern trenches where the main command post was still set up and got to work finalizing everything they did. It was going to be a long night for them to get the information sorted before they left for the Crystalville airfield, where their first report would be sent in.