My Little Soldiers

Chapter 1

The wing of the metal bird exploded, and the creature plummeted to the ground. It spun in circles, creating rings of black smoke as the broken wing spewed fumes. Rainbow Dash looked over her cloud in astonishment. She saw the white part of the metal bird's head fly off, and she thought it may be dead for a moment until something shot out of it. It was a little creature! Was that what was controlling the metal birds? A big piece of cloth came up out of a bag strapped to the smaller being's body, catching the air and slowing it's decent. Below it the metal bird crashed into the field, causing a massive fireball. Rainbow looked on until the other metal birds flew just above her, passing within feet of her cloud.

Two of the creatures, or were they machines, seemed to be ganging up on one of the others. The final one seemed to be damaged, as it left a black, smokey trail in its wake as it flew. As the one being ganged up on flew around, trying to shake it's pursuers, the damaged one dove toward the small falling creature. The loud clacking sound filled the sky again and she could see the little creature swinging and jumping around erratically. Then it hung still. The clacking sound stopped and the wounded metal bird started to climb back up, apparently to help its friend, still being chased. Only one Metal bird was chasing the uninjured one now, though. Where had the other gone?

Rainbow Dash barely managed to catch the sight of the missing metal bird screeching downward. She heard the clacking again, and could see thin glowing lines fly from the front of both of the strange metal contraptions. The lines cut into the already wounded flyer, causing small explosions all along the sides. The bird fell from the sky, twisting and smoking through the air. Another tiny creature seemed to jump from the top of the metal bird, and it to produced a sheet of fabric to slow it's fall to the ground. The other flyer, now smoking itself, pulled back up to help its friend, who had stopped chasing his target. Rainbow Dash decided to get Twilight Sparkle. She had already been told about these things, and she might know how to handle them.

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Lieutenant Daniel Marsh looked around at all his gauges. The fuel spilling into the cockpit made him mildly light headed, but not enough be unable to fly. His fuel was dropping fast, which meant he was probably leaking fuel on the outside as well. Some of the instruments were unresponsive all together. The R-44 fighter-interceptor had many draw backs, one of which were its incredibly fragile gauges. Options ran through his head. He heard his radio crackle it life.

"Hey good kill, Cross-Hair, good kill. That chase put me low on gas, though. Had to let that other Frank go. We should pack up and head home." Looking to the left of his plane, Marsh saw his wing man, Lieutenant Fred Gorichi, with his call sign, Moon Runner, stenciled in on the side of his own R-44. Fred seemed to be looking over the exterior of Daniel's plane with a worried expression. Daniel checked his gauges once more before making his decision.

"Negative, Moon Runner, Negative. I'm dropping to much fuel to make the flight home and my instruments are unresponsive. I'm going to try for a controlled crash in that field. I'll check on Mike, then hunker down and wait for some rescue." The radio was quite for a few moments before Fred spoke again.

"You know it might be awhile before anyone comes for your ass, right?"

"No choice, my bird will never make it over the forest, and I think I saw a little village not so far away. I can probably steal some supplies from them if I need."

"Well, alright, Cross-Hairs. Your call. I'll return to base and make the report. Good luck Dan."

"Thanks. Best of, Fred." Fred flew back around waiting for confirmation on the jump. If the canopy release failed or, God forbid, his parachute didn't open, there would be no need of a rescue effort. Daniel circled around the field to get the best angle of approach. He would have to bail out, but if enough of the plane survived maybe he could salvage the radio. He also used this opportunity to see the little village from earlier. It looked very old-world, with thatched roofs and a decentralized layout. He thought he could see one of the houses built into the very tree around it! Once on the crash course, Daniel locked the controls and waited until he could see the crash site of Lieutenant Mike Haggard's plane. Mike would have had to land somewhere around it. The smoking ruins of the R-44 reminded Daniel that the Frank pilot had ejected as well. Maybe he would get the chance to repay the bastard for Mike.

Daniel was close enough to the wreck now, so he pulled out and up on his canopy release. The glass shield that protected him fly away and allowing him to jump from the slowly descending aircraft. Once clear of the wings and tail of the now doomed plane, Daniel righted himself and pulled his ripcord. The canopy flew up and caught the air, allowing it to expand and slow his decent to a non-terminal velocity. Daniel raised a thumb at Fred's aircraft to indicate a good chute. With the distance that now separated them, Daniel could barely make out Fred's thumb back. The R-44 then turned and flew back over the forest. Simultaneously, Daniel's plane crashed into the field. The wings snapped off in an instant, and the fuselage rolled and tumbled towards a hill. Miraculously it didn't explode in a fiery ball of death, which meant some decent salvage.

Looking back to the ground below him, Daniel now had to focus on landing without breaking his legs. Legs straight, hit the ground, collapse, roll, and untangle yourself before your parachute dragged you off to God knows where. This process came with a practiced ease to Daniel, who then pulled in his chute and stuffed it back in the pack it came from. He ran over to the smoking ruin that was Mike's plane and looked around. after circling the plane, he noticed an active parachute slowly pulling a pack across the ground. Mike had managed to get his chute off! that was good, but where was he? Following the path of where the chute had come from, he saw Mike's body lying against a tree.

Daniel sprinted to the tree faster than he thought his legs could ever move. Mike looked like hammered shit. He had two wounds, one in the right shoulder and one in the left thigh. The leg itself was bent at an unnatural angle from a botched landing. He seemed barely conscious, eyes half opened. He had vomited blood and bile all over his flight suit, and the red liquid still flowed freely from his wounds. Mike seemed to be in a trance, shell shock the grunts would call it. Daniel felt the panic rise up from staring at his wounded friend.

He immediately set to work. Pulling his aid pouch from the standard issue survival kit, Daniel wrapped the bullet wounds as best he could. When he ran out of gauze, he reached into Mike's untouched survival kit. Once wrapped, Daniel looked up into the tree for two straight enough limbs. With some difficulty, he climbed up and retrieved the branches he could find. He fashioned a splint for Mike's busted leg, careful not to disturb the bandages already in place. All this activity seemed to knock Mike out of whatever sort of trance he was in, because he moved his head and focused on Daniel's face.

"Danna" Mike groaned, "Danny. There you are. Listen, I gotta tell ya-"

Daniel cut him off, "Mike! Listen Mike, your going to be OK, alright? I've go you patched up, and Fred's already getting some help. We just gotta hold out until they get here, understand?"

Mike didn't seem to even register that Daniel had spoken, "I gotta tell ya, I'm sorry fer taken yer date at te club. Tat was not right. I's sorry Danny." The event he was talking about happened six months ago when he had swiped Daniel's date to a big show at the Officer's Club while Daniel had been in the bathroom. The two had fought about it for the next week, but made up after Mike took out an enemy fighter that had managed to draw a bead on Daniel in combat.

"Look Mike, I don't care about that. We got over that, remember? Come on, we need to clean you-" Daniel was interrupted when Mike coughed up blood and spittle, making an even bigger mess on the wounded man's uniform.

"No,no Danny." Mike hoarsely whisper once the fit had ended, "I wus in te wrong, and nevur apoligized. Ma always said ta be a good persun, and a good persun say sorry when he dose a man wrong."

"Don't worry about that, Mike. You can buy me a drink or two at the pub later, OK? You just gotta pull through for me."

Mike's dazed look moved past Daniel and his brows furrowed in confusion. "Danny," He said, "I think this blood loss is starten ta get ta me. I'm seein blue an' purple ponies."

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Twilight Sparkle had once again proved her lack of athleticism as Rainbow Dash impatiently slowed her flight to match the Unicorn's speed. She was so slow! The metal birds were already gone by the time they got back to the field, though there was another one smashed up on at the foot of the hill Pinkie Pie would sometimes throw parties on. They could see two figures leaning on a tree in the distance, and Twilight advanced carefully. One seemed to be hurt, and the other was putting bandages all around it. She couldn't make out what the beings were saying, but she was content at the moment just to look at them.

They seemed to walk on their hind legs like Spike, making them twice the size of regular ponies. They certainly didn't have hooves, but instead had arms and hands like her dragon assistant. Their heads were oblong and angular, like somepony had taken a clay egg and carved into it. They didn't seem to have much fur, but she couldn't tell while they wore all that clothing. They both had on brown jackets and black leggings with black boots on their feet. Their manes were even cut short and stiff, only stopping at the base of their short necks. From their body shape, she felt safe in the idea they were both male, but couldn't be sure until further research was done.

Twilight didn't realize she had move up until the wounded creature looked directly at her and mumbled something in a language she didn't understand. The other creature shot up and turned to her, putting it's hand in a pouch on it's hip. It took a step back looking scared and defensive. Rainbow Dash had said the creature flew in the metal birds, so they probably had something to protect them on the ground. She would have to proceed carefully, so as not to provoke the creature. It yell something at her, again in the language she didn't understand. It was waving it's arm around, and she could understand the signal as "Get Back".

Twilight complied, but Rainbow Dash was insulted that the weird creature was trying to tell her what to do. She took a few authoritative steps forward, but the creature only yelled louder and pulled a device from its pouch and pointed it at the ground in front of her. It had a metal tube on the front that attached to some little carriage system with a rotating cylindrical piece set in the middle. The creature pulled back a small piece of metal on the upper rear of the carriage, causing the cylinder in the middle to rotate. The metal bit seemed to click in to place as the being kept trying to order Rainbow to stop. Rainbow stubbornly continued to march towards it, unfazed by the apparent weapon.

A loud explosion came from the device as it knocked the creature's hand back. At the same time, the dirt of the ground Rainbow had just about stepped on kicked up, causing dirt to fly into the Pegasus' face. The sound of the explosion and the eruption of dirt was enough to convince Rainbow Dash of the dangers of the creature, and she flew back towards Twilight in a panic. The creature continued to yell in it's own weird language until the wounded one spoke again. The one with the device bent over to hear the wounded one's whispers, and seemed to be shocked by whatever it had said. The wounded creature weakly lifted it's arm and spoke softly, giving a "Come Here" signal.

Rainbow warily watched the one with the weapon while Twilight approached the injured creature. The other being stepped away a bit to give her room, but kept the weapon ready to use at a moment's notice. The wounded creature's hand reached up to Twilight's neck, giving it an amazingly relaxing rub. The fingers seemed to sink in right where the stress points were. Spike's hands had always been to small to do this sort of thing, and his claws would scrape and hurt her anyways. This one's hand was large and soft enough to hit all the good spots. After rubbing her neck for a few moments, the creature removed it's hand, and gestured to is wounds, groaning more of it's foreign words. Twilight understood. The bandages were already starting to bleed through, and it needed professional help, not thin bandages and some twigs.

"I understand." She said with accommodating gestures. The uninjured being seemed stunned for a moment before it apparently joked about what Twilight said to the wounded one. "We," She gestured to Rainbow and herself, "can get you," she gestured her hoof to the wounded man, "some help." she pointed at the bandages covering the wounded creature. The two beings spoke in their tongue, before the wounded one turned back to Twilight and nodded. She stepped back and made a "Follow Me" gesture, then turned to Rainbow Dash, who understood what was happening.

"Ohh, no!" Rainbow yelled, "Not with that thing!" she pointed at the weapon the uninjured creature was still holding. "That thing could kill somepony! It stays here!" The two beings spoke for a moment, before the one with the weapon reluctantly put the device in one of the knotholes in the tree. It then bent over and helped its wounded friend up off the ground, supporting the side with the injured leg. Satisfied, Rainbow and Twilight began the long trek back to Ponyville Hospital.

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Daniel could scarcely believe this! Unicorns and Pegasus! They were just old wives tales about the Great Migration mothers would tell children to get them to sleep. They couldn't exist! But here they were, talking and helping them get Mike aid! Did that frank pilot shoot him down? Was he asleep or something? No, the weight of Mike's body was real enough to disprove that theory. So... did that mean the rest of those legends were true? About the war with horses and the stop of the Eternal King? Mike's groan broke his train of thoughts.

He shook his head clear. Regardless of the historical significance, they had help, and Mike needed it. Glancing at his friend's face, he could see Mike was about to pass out. He needed to stay awake to ensure his brain didn't shut down. That's what the medics would always say. Some conversation should help him.

"Mike, where did you learn that thing with their necks?" Daniel opened.

Mike's awareness perked up as he whispered "Didn' I ever tell ya? Use ta work a ranch down in Hamshire. They didn't look to diffr'nt from your typical horse, thought it would work."

"These aren't regular horses. Their smart, intelligent. You could have molested the purple one for all you know." The two share a light chuckle.

"Would a' been the closest I been to a piece of ass for months!" Mike added, letting the chuckle break into a gentle laugh. The two shared this moment as they slowly walked along the path. "Sides, you shot at te blue one. If tat don put a downer on negotiaten, nuthen will."

"It was a warning shot." Daniel countered, a soft smile spreading across his face. He looked forward again and tried to increase the pace. The bandage on Mike's leg was already bleed through, and it would soon be useless all together. Daniel reached down and fixed it as best he could.

Mike looked down at his friend's actions and frowned, "Tats a lot a blood." he slurred.

Daniel Shook his head, "Don't worry, if worse comes to worse, you can take some of mine."

"You don even know my blud type." Mike wobbled his wounded leg, testing the bandages strength. He immediately regretted his course of action as a searing pain coursed up his leg.

"Your blood type is on your tags, man, and guess whose a match?" Daniel supported his aching friend and helped him along.

"Tanks Danny. It'd mean a lot ta me ta not die of blood loss. Hopefully tey have some decent food, wherever their taken us. Don't think I could handle army rations with how ma stomach is now." Mike light heartily groaned.

"Well, they look like herbivores, so we might be out of luck for good protein, unless they have peanuts or something." Daniel answered.

"I don't care if I have to eat the damn grass! It would still taste better than those so-called granola ration bars they give us." Mike complained.

"That's why we joined the army, right?" Daniel joked, "The delectable food, amazing locals, and the beautiful women."

Mike took a cursory glance at their surroundings, saying, "Well they got one of em' right."

Daniel looked around as well, and had to admit, Mike had a point. This country, where ever they were, was indeed beautiful. The trees looked fresh and lively, the ground covered in lush, green grass, and even the sun seemed to ave a calming aura as it beamed down on creation. It felt... peaceful. Innocent. He almost felt guilty for dragging the squadron's dogfight over this unscathed land. His sight seeing was interrupted when he felt the weight lift off his right shoulder. Mike fell to the ground, unconscious, causing his bandages to slip. Blood flowed freely once more from the open wound. Daniel was immediately at his dying friend's side.

"MIKE! Mike wake up! Wake up! Get up damn you! I will not let you die!" The two ponies guiding them turned around, having heard the screams. They ran up to see what was wrong. "We need to go!" Daniel cried at them, frantically trying to convey haste into hand signal form. "He is bleeding to much!" He indicated the leg wound as blood spurt from it. "He needs a doctor now!" He mimed a sewing motion over the wound and pointed straight down, praying the little creatures understood. The blue pegasus seemed puzzled, but the purple unicorn caught on immediately.

She, or at least Daniel assumed it was a she, closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate on something in her head. The horn on her forehead started to glow a similar shade of purple as her coat. Daniel moved back, unsure about what precisely was happening to the little horse. To his shock and surprise, Mike became covered in the same mysterious glow. Slowly the unconscious man levitated off the ground and floated at a good three and one half feet. The unicorn opened her eyes and said something in her own strange language before turning and ran off, Mike's body floating only feet behind her. Daniel and the pegasus stood their for a moment before chasing after the apparently magic unicorn. In the back of his head, Daniel made a note to smack himself later. Since when are there non-magical unicorns?

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Twilight managed to get the wounded creature to the hospital in relative haste, with Rainbow Dash and the other creature not far behind. Unfortunately, they had drawn a large crowd along the way, ponies were curious to see who was causing all the ruckus from earlier. The mob had grown to the point they blocked the door to the hospital. Undeterred, the creature that was still awake yelled and screamed at the ponies, waving his arms around like it was shooing a flock of birds. Intimidated by the large loud being, a wide berth was made Twilight could pass through with relative ease. Once inside, Nurse Red Heart, who seemed to get some word from the mob that she was coming, immediately put the bleeding creature on two stretchers tied together to accommodate the size of the being.

The other one, stooping down to enter the pony-size building, paused here, and seemed to consider following them. While it was clear it had some form of medical training, the being obviously was no doctor. The creature looked at the doors the nurse had gone through, a lost look of pain across it's face. Twilight pitied the being. To not be able to help a friend in such a time of need must have been heart wrenching. If any of her friends were in a similar situation, she wouldn't know what to do. The creature seemed to give in, and moved to sit against the wall. It grumbled to itself in it's own language as it ran it's fingers through it's short, fuzzy mane. Rainbow Dash left to tell the others what happened, while Twilight sat next to the being, offering a comforting hoof. It seemed to appreciate the gesture.

An hour passed before Nurse Red Heart returned, gaining both Twilight's and the creature's attention.

"The... patient has been stabilized, but he is still unconscious." She said, "We think he may have slipped into a coma from blood loss. We will just have to wait and see."

"The creature is a male?" Twilight asked.

Nurse Red Heart blushed, "Oh, um, y-yes. We had to undress him to get to his wound and his... well... I caught a look at his... never mind! You can go see him now. He's in the recovery room down the hall."

Twilight nodded, "Thank you Nurse Red Heart. I'm sure if our friend here could speak like us, he'd thank you too." The nurse nodded as her blush faded and stepped aside, letting the creature and Twilight in the recovery room. The injured creature laied out on a bed that had to be adjusted for it's size. It had been stripped of it's outer layer of clothing and outfitted with a hospital gown that had beeen cut from a bed sheet. The creature's belongings had been stacked in a chair next to the bed.

The one that accompanied Twilight in moved the gear and sat in the chair, which groaned under the weight. He whispered a few sentences to the unconsious one in their language and sat patiently, as if waiting for an answer. Twilight walked to the edge of the bed and observed the pair. They had formed some sort of friendship, or at least mutual repect for her, despite the shaky start. If Twilight could break the language barrier, she could be the first pony to sucsessfully contat a new civilization!

Her excitement smoldered as looked to her new friends again and noticed the long and lonesome expression on the conscious male's face. Again he must feel helpless and weak, not able to help his friend in their hour of need. Twilight sat opposite of the creature and tried to comfort him.

"He'll be okay. We'll take care of him." She whispered. While the being couldn't understand her, she hoped her tone could convey her words meaning. It seemed to come through to him, as he smiled a bit and nodded. He whispered something in response and gestured to his friend's body in a wide, sweeping motion. He wanted to know what was wrong.

"His wounds bled too much" Twilight indicated the body's leg wound and then the blood stains, "and he can't wake up." She pointed to his head and made a sweeping motion over his eyes to express closing. The creature sat quietly, staring off into space, processing what her gestures meant. For a moment Twilight worried he might not understand her message when he bolted upwards, surprising her. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, another feat of dexterity achieved by his multi-jointed fingers, and presented her with the undersides of his arms. She blinked, not quite sure what to make of the gesture. He was offering her something.

He waited for a few moments before slapping against the inside of his elbows and waited again. Something to do with his arms. Twilight kept her questioning gaze until the being groaned in exasperation. He reached into one of is pockets and pulled out a small blade. He dragged the blade across his arm, drawing blood from the light scratch. Once a small amount pooled up on the arm, the creature pointed at the blood with the tip of the knife, then at the wound.

Twilight realized he intended to sacrifice his own blood to save his friend! From the arm gestures, he must have blood veins they could reach from there! She nodded emphatically to convey she understood, and ran to the door to find the nurse. Once the nurse arrived, Twilight told her what the creature wanted. She was resistant at first, but Twilight pressed the issue. When she relented, she left to get the appropriate equipment and Twilight turned back to her friend. He looked confused, but hopeful. The nurse returned and after some brief hand and arm signals to set the creature in position, she began to drain blood.

The process was long as more blood was drained. As the red liquid flowed from the creature's arm, Twilight admired his dedication to his friend. He was visibly weaker when the process was done. His skin had become pale and almost sickly. He even had trouble standing. After a few attempts, he contented himself to just fall asleep next to his friend's body. Twilight could only assume he would recover with some time. She helped the nurse set up the blood drips and and settled in to wait for recovery. At some point she fell asleep.

Twilight's dreams were interrupted when she heard Applejack's voice from down the hall, "Ya mean there's more of em? I done found this one hanging from one of mah trees in the south feild. Took me an Big Macintosh two hours just to drag him here after Applebloom went an took the cart for another of her and her friend's Cutie Mark missions." Had Applejack found another creature? The generous being that had given his blood seemed to have gotten some color back to his face, so Twilight stepped out to the hall and saw Applejack, Rainbow Dash and another of the strange beings, who was walking with them while nursing a head wound.

This one was dressed diffrently. Whlie the two Twilight had found were dressed in brown jackets and black pants, this one was fully dressed in blue. A dark blue jacket covered it's torso and blue pants covered over the top of a pair of black boots. The boots were laced up instead of the simple slip ons most ponies wore, but with their complex fingers, they could probably manage the strings without magic.

A thought occored to Twilight. The creature seemed suprised when she levitated it- his friend and brought him to the hospital. Like he had never seen a standard levitation spell before. Rainbow said the flying metal birds were mechanical, and she didn't sense any magic next to the one that wreaked. That meant the birds didn't operate on magic! Their civilization didn't use it! Twilight tried to wrap her head around the concept of an entire people who didn't know about magic. They had flying machines, so clearly they were advanced, but how could they have gotten their without magic to guide them? Did they use some other power? Somthing unknown to pony-kind? She had to discover what it was! It could be the most important scientific discovery of the century!

If Twilight wasn't so wrapped up in her thoughts, she might have been aware when the newest creature turned the corner into the recovery room. She might have heard the being in blue gasp and start crying in a language diffrent from the other two, waking her friend, but still not equestrian. She might have seen the one in blue frantically grasp for somthing in one of it's various pouches while the brown-clad creature hastily retrieved an object distinctly similar to the one he left in that tree from his friends belongings, also screaming in the new stranger's tongue. She would have been aware when the creature in the brown jacket that had become her friend pointed the weapon at the one in blue. She would have been prepared for the five loud explosions that came next.