My Little Soldiers

Second Lieutenant Mike Haggard was nervous. As a pilot, he knew of the very real possibility of being captured by the enemy. The military hardened him against torture and mind games. His instructors never mentioned this scenario, though. Tied to a pair of chairs, interrogated by a pair of royal, magical flying horses, surrounded by their subjects, in the basement of the facility that healed him. Weird how things turn out sometimes.

At present the interrogation was going as well as one could imagine any conversation between two species going. Confusing and almost violent. Daniel wasn't any help either, just repeating the same phrase. There was sticking to regulations, then there was being crazy. Even after the whole story about a rebellion and humans being summoned to their land, Equestria. Mike had to say something, anything. The rulers, so they called themselves, were getting impatient.

"So let me get this straight, your saying that humanity isn't from this world at all, but we were summoned to fight in some civil war one-thousand years ago," Dan shot Mike a dirty look for breaking the P.O.W. regs, but the regs never mentioned being captured by magical ponies, so Mike figured there wouldn't be a court marshal or anything, "and after said war humans just up and left? Never to be heard from again? Really?"

The darker pony that had identified herself as Princess Luna stepped forward, "Dost thou doubt our words, Human?"

Despite her size and frightening tone, Mike sat firm, "Yes, as a matter-a-fact I do. Teleportation? Elements of Harmony? This has got to be the biggest crock of shit Iv'e ever heard."

"Why would we lye to thee, Lieutenant Haggard?" Luna raised an eyebrow, and act Mike was sure no domestic horse should be able to do.

"I don't know, but I can tell you we wouldn't leave anyplace just because of a massive battle with huge casualties, if so the planet wouldn't have enough damn space. It doesn't make any sense. Hell if it weren't for the pain in my leg, I'd just assume I was in a coma. I'm still having doubts! This whole thing is ridiculous." Mike knew he was treading on thin ice, but he had to express his mind. This was ridiculous. Magic unicorns and pegasii? An ancient war? Extra-dimensional travel? This crap only existed in fantasy and science fiction... Yet here they were; talking equines, magic that could pin two grown men to a wall, and a small, apparently trained dragon glaring daggers at him. If Mike could pinch himself, his face would be red from all the self inflicted torture.

"Ridiculous as it may seem to thee, Second Lieutenant, all before thou is very much real. All we have said is true. What we must ask is why art thou here, now? What has brought you and your violence to our lands?" The dark unicorn/pegasus asked again, as she had asked Daniel several times before.

"War." came Mike's simple answer, "War between several countries on the far side of your 'Everfree Forest. The people of the New Lunar Republic have once again fallen under attack by the Franken Empire, who seek to restore the old order of kings and nobles. This war has slowly expanded through the forest as both sides keep trying to out-flank the other. I and my Squadron Leader" He made a gesture to Daniel, still perturbed, but not overtly glaring anymore, "were shot down while perusing a Franken air patrol. I was severely injured and was brought here, guided by one of the locals, for treatment."

"I see." The white ruler, Celestia, spoke, "So what was with your impromptu escape attempt? And why are you wearing the garb of your so-called enemy?"

Daniel, surprisingly, spoke, "He's wearing the enemy uniform because his actual uniform had been confiscated in order to patch him up. It's former owner had no more use of it. As far as the escape attempt, well, after I got strapped down and placed under guard, I figured my best course of action was to disappear, and hopefully reunite with my unit."

"And how exactly did you intend to get away with an injured companion and full search party after you?" The Celestia asked, pleased to finally get some answers.

"I never said it was a good plan." Daniel opened his mouth again to speak, but was cut off by a loud whistle. One that he and Mike both recognized instantly.

"GET DOWN!" They both cried as they threw themselves, chairs and all, to the floor. Immediately after the entire hospital convulsed from a large impact. Objects fell from shelves and clattered to the floor. A sharp shard of glass slid just close enough for Daniel to grasp it, the action going unnoticed as the occupants of the room gazed upwards to determine what had happened. When the chaos settled, Celestia went about directing their guards to various posts while Luna approached the pair.

"What just happened?" She demanded.

"Mortar. Franken. You can tell by the whistle." Mike struggled to right himself with his injuries. Before more questions could be asked, a guard pegasus with smudged armor barreled down the stairs.

"Your Highnesses!" He gasped, "Ponyville is under attack! The enemy is using strange weapons, and are wiping out the guard! We have fallen back to the hospital, but we cannot hold for long! We must leave!"

"Who would dare to attack our kingdom?" Luna turned on the guard pony.

"They look like him." the gold armored guard pointed his hoof at Mike, who tried not to look suspicious as Daniel passed on the glass shard. "We must leave, the enemy shall soon be upon us!" Before any more could be said, the sound of battle could be heard on the top floors. A loud shout of "Protect the Princess's" resounded before a 'bluuurp!' silenced all opposition. The guard ran back up the stairs before they could hear the door burst open and another series of shots sounded. The guard then tumbled back down the stairs, bloody and mangled. All but the humans in the room gasped in shock.

A series of thumps down the stairs gave Mike and Daniel their signal to move out of sight. While Daniel easily slipped into the shadows, Mike's injuries delayed him from moving with enough speed. He was still in the open when the Franken soldier slipped into view with his pistol in hand.

The soldier appeared to be a sniper of sorts, with a scoped rifle slung on his back. He wore the usual Franken uniform, a blue light jacket, brown trousers, black boots, and a blue patrol cap. His face looked young, his eyes attentive. He spotted Mike in an instant, but instead of placing a round in Mike's head, as expected, the boy looked at him carefully, then snapped a salute. "Sir! Corporal Beatu, sniper, fifth foot battalion, reporting Sir!" Mike gaped for a few moments before realizing that Corporal Beatu was trying to report to a superior officer. From the shadows, Daniel slid along the walls behind the soldier.

Straitening out, Mike spoke in his best French officer voice, which was actuall fairly weak due to his own accent, "At ease Corporal. It would appear your rescue has been a success." He seemed to fool Beatu easily enough.

"Rescue? Sir we are commencing the invasion of the lands. To reclaim the ancient homeland of Humanity? I was sent with a squad to clear the building, then set up for sniper support on the roof. If you don't mind me asking sir, how did you get here? I'm in the first wave."

"Uhh... Simple. My plane was shot down before the battle... yesterday in fact, while on a reconnaissance mission. You have managed to save me from these savages, Corporal Beatu, and are to be recommended for promotion." Mike's words seemed to warm young Beatu's face as hope for furthering his career filled his eyes. The boy never even saw Daniel.

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Twilight felt confused and sick. All this insanity had begun because she had helped the "human" known as "First Lieutenant Daniel Marsh" save his friend's life. Now she had apparently gotten her whole country involved in a war they had no interest in the first place. Ponies were dieing because of her decision, just like that guardspony that bled on the ground. She felt a bit of her die.

Then that other human came in, wielding weapons similar to the first two humans. While before the two men had claimed to be at war with these men, the soldier had saluted Mike. Talked in another foreign language that she couldn't understand. It wasn't until the human called Daniel struck out that the intentions were made clear. With a swift strike the soldier fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Well that was informative." Daniel stated, speaking in Equestrian, or English... Or whatever Princess Luna did to translate their language.

"What hath happened?" Luna asked, approaching the pair while Celestia tended to the frazzled ponies in the hospital basement. While Twilight could use her mentor's advice right now, she also needed more information to asses the situation as her stressed mind turned to logic and order to remain in control.

Mike spoke with a surprisingly level voice for someone who just looked death in the face, "Well, it would appear your nation has been invaded by the Franken Empire because it is the ancestral homeland of humanity. Your story has a little more credibility now, Princess." He looked over to Daniel, "What should we do?"

Daniel seemed deep in thought as Luna spoke up, "Thou shalt do nothing! Tis our kingdom in peril, and we shalt respond with force! Thou hast done enough to drag thine enemies to our doorstep, and shalt remain here until our battle is won!"

Luna's outburst caught Celestia's attention, as well as frightened the ponies trapped in the room once more. As the elder princess approached, Daniel spoke, "No offence your highness but you don't have much choice, unless you want the rest of your army to end up like that." He gestured to the corpse of the guardspony on the floor, sending another feeling of nausea through Twilight, "We may be pilots, but both of us have taken a rifle course in our day. We know how to fight these guys, you don't."

Celestia and Luna considered his words for a while, then spoke with each other for a moment, pausing once to look to the dead guardspony, then to the small crowd of their subjects gathered in the hospital basement. Meanwhile Daniel and Mike searched over the soldier's body, grabbing his weapons and other items. The rulers finished their conversation, and turned back to the now armed men.

"We concede to your points. In the interest of the preservation of both our kingdom and your lives, please aid us in repelling this attack." Celestia stated in an official voice.

In response Mike and Daniel stood at full height, standing in admittedly heroic poses. "Well then, we have some work to do." Daniel stated, while Mike pulled a small handle on the weapon he held back, then pushed it froward, making the weapon clack. Corporal Beatu stirred beneath the pair, groaning slightly as he slowly regained his faculties. "What do we do about him?" Daniel asked his compatriot. Mike responded by raising his weapon to Beatu's temple. Twilight turned away, not bearing to look as the weapon fired.

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3 HOURS LATER
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Commander Frile peered over his maps in his command depot, which was actually just an awning to keep the sun and wind at bay. While the battle was being won, the locals were putting up more of a fight than initially predicted. While the day dragged on they could secure the village by night fall, two locations hampered their progress. First was what appeared to be a hospital of sorts. Squads sent there hadn't returned, and no word was getting back as to the cause of the delay. How was beyond him, as he could see the damn thing from his post. He was beginning to consider just blowing the whole building to rubble and moving on.

The other hold up was the apple orchard on the far side of the village. Apparently equine farmers here could be just as ornery as human farmers. The damn horses had begun a gorilla campaign in the trees and barn. While the fertile lands would be valuable when they won the day, it was ultimately as expendable as the rest of the worthless village. Maybe he should just level the whole damn place and march on the capital. With the swiftness the standing army had been dealt with, the city itself would no doubt fall within hours.

Frile's musings were interrupted by Lieutenant Schliefflen approaching him. "Commander.", Schliefflen spoke, "We've managed to recover the Colonel's Faucon Tueur, the plane is wrecked, but some parts may be salvageable. I have two men guarding it now. Still no word from the hospital, but we are making slow progress through the farm. I've had to personally oversee deployments though. You'd think some of these officers never took a lesson in tactics in their lives."

Frile nodded, "Yes, we have been given the runt of every litter that managed to finish training, but have no fear in your heart, my good man. With our guidance, this rabble of undisciplined buffoons can win the day yet!"

Being in that all the other officers were out trying to direct their platoons to secure the town, no one was around to hear the shot that sent a round through Lieutenant Schliefflen's head and Commander Frile's chest. As the Franken officer slumped to the ground, the last sight he could make out as darkness overwhelmed him was a telltale glint of a rifle scope from the hospital roof.

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Mike Haggard Chambered another round into the rifle. He murmured "Double kill" to himself as he watched the Franken officers fall to the ground. One looked to be pretty high in the command line, considering he was looking over the maps and he seemed significantly more shiny than the other officers he managed to kill while residing in his perch. He was almost out of ammo from all the runners he had picked off as well. From below he could hear Daniel's recently acquired machine gun burst down the hall towards the entrance.

According to Celestia the building had been reinforced with 'magic' during it's construction, so the Franks couldn't blow their way in, nor could they just climb in the windows because of a 'lock spell' the purple unicorn, Twilight Sparkle her name was, had cast to leave the only way in the building was the front door. Five squads had already tried to force their way in, but were all killed or stopped by the MG. One particularly smart team tried to out flank Daniel and hit him from a side room, but were rewarded with a grenade trap. Between booby traps and his sniper cover, not a soul had managed to report back to their officers. The officers would then personally try to discover what the hold up had been, only to receive the same.

Meanwhile the ponies in the basement slowly trickled out to find another hiding place. Celestia and Luna had gone with the groups to shield and camouflage them. It was only a matter of time before the bombardments started again, and they would have to move shop soon, or the whole Franken army may fall on their heads. The only ponies left were a group of unicorns that were using their magic to make more booby traps, and drag off bodies. One of them was Twilight Sparkle herself, though she looked ill from her morbid task.

Mike's attention was drawn once more to the little post he just scored his kills at. Another officer had run up and seen the bodies. The man seemed to panic and began checking the pair for life signs. The man received no mercy for his efforts, and soon joined the pair in the afterlife. Mike's mind paused for a moment as he considered the little awning on top of the hill. There were maps up there. Franken maps sure, but fresh, aerial, up-to-date maps. With tactic and strategic data. With virtually no guards. Another officer ran up the hill from the direction of the farm on the other side of town. He took one look at the gruesome scene and turned to flee. He didn't make five steps before Mike's final round pierced his back, throwing him to the ground.

"I'm out," Mike called down to Daniel as the machine gun went quiet, "Lets get out of here."

"Roger that. Girls, plant those traps and pack up, we're leaving." Daniel's order was answered by quiet obedience. As Mike stepped down the stairs to the corpse-ridden lobby, he saw the disheartened looks on the faces of the ponies. They looked as if they had lost good chunks of their souls. A baptism by fire always did that to the unprepared. Daniel gathered up a rifle and ammo, the MG would be to heavy to take with them, and guarded the door as Mike descended from the upper floors.

"Here's the plan." Mike began, drawing everyone's attention, "I'm going to try and grab some intel from a command post I saw a few klicks east. You take the rest of the ponies to the rendezvous point, wait for me there."

Daniel's face screwed up for a moment, "Wait, Why do you get to go look for intel? Your still wounded!"

Mike smirked, "Do you speak Frankish fluently? No? I guess I'm more qualified in this situation. Besides," he steeped back and gestured to his blue, blood stained uniform, "I'm dressed for the part!"

Daniel considered this response briefly, before the shouts of Franken soldiers forced him to come to a decision, "Fine! go! Just be careful on that leg, ya here?" Mike's nod in response was all Daniel needed before the two went separate ways.

Mike skulked his way around the hospital exterior, trying to avoid any patrols as best he could on his injury. The devastation around the town was obvious. Doors were busted in, windows broken, and the odor of burning wood dominated the air. A few ponies lied dead in the streets, undoubtedly examples to others of the price of resistance. He had already seen it all from the roof of the hospital, but here on the streets the sight seemed so much more bitter. He felt his heart break at the sight of a very pregnant looking unicorn mare collapsed on the dirt path with a hole in her forehead and a broken off horn. He passed a large, candy themed building when he heard voices shouting from within in Franken voices.

"Damn it! These horses know nothing about the pilots, and even if they did we wouldn't understand anything they say! What do we do now?" Mike's attention shifted to the conversation. "Well we can take them over to the holding area, or we could... you know... just kill them. The second voice tapered off at the end of his statement, unnerved by the implications of his words. Mike decided to move before a conclusion could be reached. He tried to stealthily open the door and creep in, but his faulty leg caught on the door frame. He lurched through, forcing the door to crash into the wall and directing the attention of the two soldiers occupying the building from their captives.

For a few moments, Mike braced himself for death in a hail of gunfire. Instead the soldiers lowered their weapons and slowly came to attention as realization reached their eyes. Cautiously, Mike raised himself from his crumpled heap. "At ease" he rasped out.

The Frank troops visibly relaxed and one of them spoke, "Glad to see you sir. We've been looking all over for you."

"M-me?" Mike asked, perplexed.

"Of course sir! We didn't find a body in your plane, so we assumed you had jumped. Me and Tolbert here were sent to find you and those enemy pilots. The officers think they might be the ones stalling the advance." The soldier gestured to his friend, who nodded in affirmation.

"My plane!?" Mike stammered in the foreign language.

"Yes sir. It was a total wreck, I'm sorry to say. We found the other crashes too, one of them was mostly intact! No bodies, though, so we can only assume the pilots are still hiding somewher-"

"The pilots are dead!" Mike exclaimed suddenly, "I- uh - I killed them this morning! They tried to take me out as I was recovering from my injuries." Mike gestured to his busted leg to try to give his story some credibility.

Fortunately, the soldiers were very gullible. "Ha!" the other soldier, Tolbert, snorted, "Served them right! Of course we wouldn't expect anything less from Colonel Beauregard, Prince of the Skies!" Mike felt his heart stop. Colonel Beauregard was the top ace of the Franken air forces, having shot down fifty planes in his two year career. He was the most feared man in the sky. He had a place reserved for him in the Emperor's Court. And now he lied dead in a hospital with five bullet holes in his chest from Mike's pistol. He and Daniel had killed the Prince of the Skies, who he now wore the uniform of. Bile threatened the back of Mike's throat as the world seemed to spin on it's heel. He could handle it when he was putting on a dead man's uniform, but now he knew who that dead man was, and it made him sick.

Mike swallowed hard, mentally calming himself as the world slowed and he came to the realization that the soldiers were still staring at him expectantly. He was no actor, but it looked like his best chances to get out alive was to assume the role of a Frank aerial ace. Putting on his best officer's face, Mike straitened himself up and assumed a confident pose.

"But of course, men! What kind of man would I be if I allowed some Lunar hicks kill me? Now then, Whats the situation?" Mike asked.

The other soldier, Tolbert, spoke this time, "Well, we're not too sure sir. We've been looking for you all morning so all we know is the advance has been stalled at some points, and that's just what we've heard through word of mouth. As for our situation, me and Aslain here were just about to decide what to do with these, ah... prisoners." Mike looked over the ponies still cowering in the corner. There was a yellow stallion next to a light blue mare, both wearing baker's garments. Then there was a pair of mares, a light green, kind of bluish... turquoise, that was it! A turquoise unicorn with a minty mane and tail next to a cream colored regular pony with a strange pink-blue mane.

Finally there was a little ball of pink fur and fluff. Mike immediately recognized her as one of the ponies who were at the hospital. She was supposed to be at the regroup point, not here! She must have come looking for some friends and got caught. Admirable cause, but it almost got her killed. Now Mike had to find a way to get the group out without casualties. Killing the soldiers seemed to be the most immediate solution, but the more Mike thought about the situation, the more scenarios ran through his mind. One phrase in particular kept running through his mind. 'We found the other wrecks too, one of them was mostly intact!'

Intact meant working parts, which meant radio, which meant calling back to friendly lines. A plan of sorts began forming in Mike's mind while the two Franks stared at him confusedly. Finally The one called Aslain spoke up "Well sir, our mission is done, so lets get rid of these pony things and get you back home." He chambered a round in his rifle and turned to the pink pony, who trembled with fear. Tolbert looked nervously at his friend, then back to the ponies. He obviously did not share his comrade's disregard for the pony's lives. Mike's mouth summoned a response before Aslain could fire.

"Hold your fire, soldier. Save your ammo for the ones that fight back." Aslain paused, gazing at Mike as if he said the moon was made of rye bread, before retracting his rifle and slinging it around his shoulder. A look of relief washed over Tolbert, who also slung his rifle. "Now", Mike continued "Before we do anything else we must check on my plane."

"Bit sir," Tolbert interjected " our orders were to find you and immediately bring you to-"

"Soldier, before I do anything I must see my plane. That machine and I have a history together, she saw me through the roughest times of my life, and if there is any piece of her that can be salvaged, I must see it before anything else. Understood?"

The two men snapped to attention and offered a hasty salute while chiming "Sir!". Mike nodded and let the soldiers out into the street. As they left, Mike barley heard Aslain grumble "Pilots...". Mike followed the pair, but not before turning to the still shivering pink pony and offering her a small wink as he stepped out the door.