Soldier Abroad.

This was supposed to be a simple recon. How could I have screwed up something as simple as going to look at some poor grunts and turning in a report into me lying on my back in the middle of a big burnt circle, unable to move any part of my body?

It was a beautiful day by comparison to the previous one. When I woke and put on my well-worn boots not a single camel spider had made its home within then. Not to mention outside there were no fresh mortar craters for the engineers to fill in. This day was going as perfect as a new Second Lieutenant could ask for. As I slowly came to, I realized that I still had to take orders from Mother Nature, and slowly sauntered off towards the latrine. Once all of that was out of the way I headed back to my tent only to see a private jog up to me. He paused a few a seconds to catch his breath; then spoke.

“Second…*gasp*… Lieutenant Rise?” he called.

“Yes” I responded in my best impression of someone who hadn’t just rolled out of bed.

“CO wants… to see… you… Something about a recon mission.”

This was all too perfect. Recon missions were always simple. Go in. Look at nothing in particular. Go home. Easy.

After making my way to the CO’s tent, I gathered my orders and headed out to find my soldiers. I briefed my new platoon, a group of rough and tough, battle tested soldiers that had gone to hell and back, and were none too pleased to have their old Platoon Leader replaced by a fresh new one.

“Ring Banger”. This was going to be our first actual mission together and I was determined to have it go off without a hitch. “We shouldn't run into much trouble if our intel is right, however, we should be prepared to engage and destroy any hostiles we come across. Once again we go in, gather info on enemy movement, and get the heck out before they even know we were there. Any questions?”

Dead silence filled the interior of the bunk tent.

“Alright then, meet in hanger four at 1400 and we’ll head out from there. Hooah?”

A shout of “hooah!” through the room, the soldiers gave a salute and they marched single-file out of the room. They seemed about as interested in my Op Order as they would be if I had brought them in to watch new paint dry on our vehicles.

Once we were done checking our gear, we loaded up and started walking to the hangar where we would find our convoy. The engines of the Humvees sputtered at first but soon enough roared to life.

Once outside the base and on the open road, I began to relax. Everything so far had gone perfectly. We had even gotten a little bit lucky when the normally explosive ridden roads were clear and safe. I was sure at that point that my first mission would set a good tone for the remaining part of our deployment.

I even felt secure enough around my men to let my guard down for a second and just let my mind wander. I wondered about how my classmates were doing. I remembered the day that they found the little toy of Twilight Sparkle that I had gotten from McDonalds tied to my vest. I had gotten some initial ribbing until I told them the tried and true excuse of “it was a gift from my sister”. This was a blatant lie, as I had no sisters. I looked back down to where it normally was only to remember that I had hidden it in my magazine pouch.

I didn’t think it would be a good idea to show my men that I watched, and enjoyed, a show meant for little girls. I was supposed to lead these men into combat, wasn’t I? I couldn’t let my men think that I would let them down in the field when they needed me most. These thoughts were all brought to an abrupt end when one of the men’s voices crackled over the radio

“This is Hammer One to all Hammers. Five hundred meters to the Observation point. Grab your crap and get ready to move over.”

I grabbed the dusty radio from the dashboard and responded, “copy that, Hammer Three.” I swallowed my anxiety and turned to face my men, wondering if they were as nervous as I was, though as their leader I couldn’t say it outloud. “Alright let’s get ready to move, men.” An issue popped up several times here.

We set up on a ridge that overlooked some of the routes that insurgents had apparently been using to transport mortars, RPGs, and other small arms. None of which forward operating bases were too big a fan of.

It had been about forty-five minutes since we had set up our observation point and nothing of interest, other than two privates setting up a bug fighting pit and having two scorpions fight to the death, had happened. Both said privates should have been watching the hill behind us to make sure we had full rear security. Only after watching the fight did I turn around and realize why there was no traffic on the road we were watching. A loud screech followed by a deafening explosion echoed across our line followed by shouts of, “contact left! 50 men. RPGs and small arms!”

Attempting to keep control of the situation. I yelled though the radio.“Get on line! Alpha and Bravo teams return fire!”

As I was reloading my rifle I thought to myself, “where did my stupid recon mission go to?”

Another streak of white crashed right down at me and I did the only thing I could think of with my adrenalin-powered mind. I dove with all the force my legs could muster while shouting, “R.P.G!!!”

It landed with a teeth rattling impact. When I looked back up, I could tell that my eardrums were ruptured from the constant ringing and the feel of warm liquid running down the side of my head. My sunglasses were also smudged with the blood running down my forehead.  I spun around and began slamming rounds into the area where the rocket had come from with my own rifle. I looked left and saw my men fighting back with everything that they had. Our fifty Cal gunner was sending a wall of lead downrange and punishing the hillside, while doing his damnedest to keep us hidden behind his huge turret shield. To my right was one of my SAW gunners sending burst after burst of suppressing fire back up the hill, tearing into the enemy and sending many of them tumbling down the hill. I was snapped back to reality by a round ricocheting off the hood of the hummer I was behind. I popped up for a few seconds to fire back up the hill while rocket after rocket came down the hill at us. A soldier next to me shouted,

“Just how many of those damn rockets do they have, sir!?”

I responded with a quick, “doesn't matter, keep firing!”

After a few more bursts of automatic fire, my rifle made the worst sound a soldier can hear on a battle field.

*CLICK*

I shouted to the men next to me. ,“reloading!” and reached down to my pouch to grab a fresh mag.

However, when I looked down to find a magazine, I found something far more interesting. The Twilight Sparkle toy that I had carried with me for all these years was now shining with brilliant lavender light. I was dumbstruck at this point, thinking that I had hit the ground a little too hard after dodging that RPG, but as I went to touch it, something amazing happened. It flew out of my pocket and tugged hard on the dummy chord it was tied to, taking me with it.

As I looked around to the horrified faces of my troops, I thought for sure that I was going to be cut down by the fire from above, and end my short career as an officer in the US Army. I fumbled for my knife, but it was wrenched out of my hand by a sudden tug from Twilight that pulled me higher into the air.

That was, until Twilight glowed even brighter to the point where I had to shield my eyes with my arm, and everything around me started to slow down.  I looked around and could even see the bullets in mid-flight. The orb of light surrounding Twilight expanded until I was completely engulfed in it.

Everything went black and I expected to feel the cold that people have always associated with death. But that feeling never came. I didn’t feel the sensation of falling. What I could feel was my best guess for what zero gravity felt like. The weightless feeling didn’t persist for very long, and I was unceremoniously dumped onto the uncompromising earth. I then thought that I had landed back on the ground and the firefight was still raging around me. I went to grab my rifle that I thought was still beside me only for my body to freeze. I fought with all the fiber of my being to grab the one thing that could keep me alive in this world, but my limbs simply would not respond. I finally succumbed to my body’s stubbornness and simply tried to take in my surroundings. I was greeted not by a harsh, arid atmosphere but by a gentle warm breeze and the smell of wildflowers. I definitely wasn’t in the sand box anymore.

“Where in god’s green earth am I?”

Ignoring everything I had learned beforehand, I decided that my best option was to wait for my body to recover from whatever it had been subjected to, and tried to take a power nap in the middle of this new place. There was however a certain peaceful aura that persisted here, an aura that felt much like returning home after a long journey.

*drip*

“Son of a b-”

*drop*

It was at this point that I noticed something rather odd. There was no breeze, yet the clouds seemed to be moving incredibly fast. It was as if something was controlling them. It couldn’t have been ten seconds after that thought that a rainbow colored streak rocketed past my head. I didn't care what my body had to say at that point. I got up faster than I had ever moved before. I scanned the ground around me frantically for my rifle only to find it, as if someone had placed it there and said,

“Keep a hold of this. You’re going to need it.”

After grabbing it, I headed to the nearest cover I could find; a large forest on the edge of the field. I made a mad dash towards those trees. without even thinking of looking back. I didn't stop at the edge of the trees to try to find the best way through. I made my own way. As I barreled through the trees, I didn't care about them scratching at my face as I rocketed through the underbrush. Only when I couldn’t see the edge of the field did I stop running. I looked around quickly only to realize that I may have been better off in the field with the rainbow missile. My new surroundings were very much a downgrade from the peaceful, if not wet, field. The tops of the trees seemed to block out any light from the outside world, sealing me in a dark foreboding prison. I scanned the area around me for any way back to the outside world. All I was saw was dead and gnarled trees with trunks that seemed to make grotesque faces. mocking me. I looked down and checked my rifle. Detaching the magazine, I could tell by its weight that it was about half full. Five more mags in my vest would make me a formidable meal for anything that was looking for a quick bite. Next thing to check was my vest. It seemed to have all of the components save for the plate on my back that seemed to have shattered from the earlier impact. Even my knife was there despite losing it midflight.

“Alright...Well screw this,”

I decided that the best course of action would be to attempt to find some semblance of civilization. From there, I could contact someone to get me home. I began walking deeper into the forest, at least from my perspective. It wasn’t too long until I got the feeling that I was being watched. Too many things seemed off. There were no birds singing, and leaves seemed to move by the breeze despite there being no wind. Whoever or whatever was watching me was good.; not making any undo movements or snapping any branches. It was as if they simply hovered above the ground. This continued for a good while until I decided to investigate my mystery pursuer. I spun around on my heels as fast as my body could move and leveled my rifle at a row of bushes only to catch a glimpse of a yellow wing.

“Who’s there!” I bellowed while simultaneously switching my rifle from safe to burst.

Nothing but a small rustling from the bush. I approached the bush slowly. Ready to end whatever had been stalking me.

*WOOSH*

“GRAAAH!”

I screamed as I let off a three shot burst, two hitting nothing but dirt, the third finding its mark. As pink mist erupted from her wing, a scream that I wish I hadn’t recognized echoed through the forest. I turned around only to have my blood freeze.

“Jesus Christ.”

The small pegasus skidded to a halt before a large tree. What I saw in front of me was no predator but a wounded yellow pegasus with a long pink mane, screaming in agony from a gunshot to her right wing. That scream was like nothing I had heard in Afghanistan. This wasn’t the scream of a soldier whose arm had been shredded by mortal shrapnel, nor that of a driver whose hands had been burned to the bone. Their screams echoed with rage. Not this one. This scream was much worse. It was a scream of both absolute terror and searing pain from a creature that was, up until now, untainted by the horrors of war.

I couldn’t move. My body just seized up. On the first hand I was staring at a children’s cartoon pony that slowly leaked her life force onto the forest floor, crying for everything she was worth. The other hand...

“SHIT! Fluttershy are you ok?!”

Of course she wasn't ok you moron. I just shot her in the wing.

She just kept screaming balled up in a small, but growing, pool of blood. For a split second I didn't know what to do. Then my training kicked in. I reached on my vest for my first aid kit. I opened it up and pulled out a gauze bandage and some quick clot.

“Hey! Fluttershy! Can you hear me”

“H-how do y-y-y know my name?” she said trembling, eyes slammed shut with pain

“I’ll explain later, but right now you have to trust me.” I said, as I was getting the gauze out of its packaging.

Yeah. trust me. don't mind the fact that I just about blew off your wing.

“This is going to hurt a little bit but I have to do it to save you.”

“O-ok, if it will *sniff* help. Just be gentle wi-AAAAAAAAHH!!!”

She screamed again as I poured the chemical on the wound, and once more when I applied the bandage. It looked to me like the bullet had passed though, and there didn't seem to be any of it left in the wound, but my knowledge of pegasus autonomy wasn’t exactly up to date, so I had no idea how bad the damage was, or could be, if I wasn't careful. I was snapped back to reality as the blood began to soak through the bandage and flow down my hand.

“Damnit!” I reached for another bandage and pressed it down. The additional bandage elicited yet another blood chilling scream.

I had to bury those screams deep in my mind.  I had to keep telling myself that it was to save her and that if I did nothing there was no doubt that she would die. I had to get her to her home.

“Which way is your house?”

She weakly lifted her hoof in front of her and squeaked out, “t-that way.”

I picked her up in my arms. I didn’t care how heavy she was. She might as well have been weightless for how much adrenalin was pumping through my veins. I began sprinting through the woods, cradling the wounded creature in my arms. I moved as fast as my legs would take me. After a good bout of sprinting, my goal was in sight. I ran for all I was worth, striding with a greater power than I had ever felt in my life until I felt my boot catch underneath something. As I fell, I tried to turn my back to the ground as to not hurt Fluttershy any more than I already had. I landed, skidding to a halt in a small patch of blue flowers. As I looked over my shoulder. I saw  her small cottage was only about one hundred yards away. Its chimney emitted wisps of smoke. As I approached the door I didn't waste any time in putting her down. I lowered my shoulder and slammed into the door. It swayed a bit as it swung open, indicating that it had nearly been torn from its hinges.

I ran into the living room, clearing a place on the wooden floor. I set Fluttershy down as gently as was humanly possible. As careful as I was, she still let out a small whimper that tore at my heart strings.

How could I have hurt her? Why did I have to shoot? I’m a trained soldier god damn it. I should have known not to shoot. Tears began to run down my face, and I slammed my blood stained glove down onto the floor.

“I-I’m sorry...” she whispered.

“What?”

She looked up at me with half closed eyes. “Don’t cry. It’s not your fault. It... it’s mine. I shouldn’t have followed you like...I...did.” Her voice trailed off and her eyes closed as she uttered those words.

“N-no...NO! Fluttershy, stay awake!”

I bent down to check her breathing and her pulse. Both were weak, but, thankfully, still existent. I picked her up in my arms again and headed for the door. I didn’t bother with the whole process of opening the door, and instead opted to open in with a swift kick. By the time it had returned to its normal position, I was halfway down the path that led to her house, heading towards the only place I knew I could find help.

I tried to remain as stealthy as possible to not shock the other inhabitants of the placid little town. I didn't think my or Fluttershy’s condition would much improve if someone caught a glance of a blood covered monster carrying one of Ponyville’s kindest inhabitants. I moved as quickly as I could towards the large tree located near the park. The park would make for great cover while moving to the library. While moving through the park, I carefully pushed each branch out of the way as to avoid harming Fluttershy more than I already had. I didn't want to look back down at her. I felt so ashamed for what I had done, but I had to. I had to keep making sure that she was still alive. After coming to the last building before the seemingly vast expanse between us and Twilight’s home. I looked down once more before the last sprint. When I checked her over she squeezed my arm weakly and whispered.

“Don’t let go. It’s cold...”

That was all the motivation I needed. “Don't worry. We’re almost there. Just a few more feet”

With those last words I exploded out from the cover of the trees. My heart was pounding furiously, and I felt like was moving faster than ever had before. My energy seemed to erupt from the bottom of my boots. I didn’t have time to look back at the wake I was leaving.

Fifty feet.

Twenty-five.

Ten.

One.

Just like Fluttershy’s cottage door, I slammed my back into the front door with all I was worth. This time, however, it sent me flying across the room. I landed with a loud thud as I fell into Twilight's home. I had just enough energy to see a small purple and green dragon come from downstairs. The sight must have been awful for him. A monster covered in blood clutching a wounded Fluttershy had just send his front door careening across his home.

“WHAT THE HAY IS GOING ON!”

I had only a few words to say to him before my I allowed my mind to slip into unconsciousness.

“Help...her”

As my head dropped to the floor I couldn't help but smell a small bit of ozone in the air. The smell didn’t persist very long, as it was soon overpowered by the smell of my singed uniform.