Chapters Chapter 1: The Day of Days
Chapter 1: The Day of Days June 6th 1944, 0600 hours Two and a half years later…
The landing craft plowed through the choppy seas in the English Channel, staying its course. In less than a half an hour, I would by landing in Normanedy, on the northern coast of Prance. The ponies of Prance had been living under the yolk of an oppressive occupation for almost four years now, since their leaders surrendered to the invading forces from Germaney. Four years of occupation under a cruel oppressor. But if the Generals plan worked, that would all change today. At least for some of them. We were sailing towards a beach in Normanedy that the general named Omaha. My squad and the others on the craft would land and take the beach so the blockships could be sunk it form harbors.
I looked at the squad I was commanding, which was surprising given that I had seen no combat on the only active theater of war in my countries military, the Istallion peninsula. My second in command, and my best friend, Big Ben was looking over a map of the landing zone. The draftee, a whiney, playboy unicorn named Blueblood, was hollering at a career solder they put under my command, Big Mac. Razor Wind, a pegasus like myself, with a pair of scissors as a cuitemark, and Denver Bronco, an earth pony college football player, with a helmet cuitemark, were engaged in cleaning their M1 rifles. The last pony under his command was another pegasus, named Rainbow Blitz. There was something clearly different with him. He wore a short cropped rainbow colored mane and a heavy jacket, despite the sixty degree weather. He was smaller than the ponies in the squad, but was by far the most eager to get into combat. But today the cockiness that dominated his swagger was gone.
I walked over to him, to see what was troubling him. As I walk over to see him, I walked past Big Ben, who called me over to his table of maps. “What do you want?” I asked impatiently. I could not track Rainbow Blitz’s movements in the crowd I joined.
“Look at these obstacles between the beach and the cliffs.” he pointed out at the map which showed tank traps and machine gun nest littering the beach. “And then there is the artillery on top of the cliffs. We’re going to get blow apart!”
“We can do this if we believe we can.” I said trying to calm him down. “Never doubt the strength of a determined pony.”
At that point I left him to continue my walk towards the nervous pony under my command, this time passing the still arguing Big Mac and Blueblood. I could hear Blueblood saying “… but it’s so uncouth. Why do you not hire workers to do it for you?”
“Because we made what we did on hard work.” Big Mac responded trying to not get to mad. “That is something that you wouldn’t understand.” I left before Blueblood could say anymore. I knew Big Mac was intelligent from the moment he reported for duty. What I didn’t know at the time was how wealthy he was, his family owning most of the apple orchards east of the Mississippi.
As I passed Razor and Denver, both said that they were proud to be under my command. I nodded back at them and continued my walk to the nervous pony, who was now at the edge of the ship. “What’s the matter private?” I asked, catching him off guard, causing him to jump many feet into the air.
“Nothing” Rainbow Blitz responded to me after getting up from the deck of the craft.
I was about to press for more answers but the commander of the craft bellowed “Offices gather your troops and get to your designated area!”
“You better follow me.” I said to the cyan pony under my command, and I walked in the direction I came from, getting Razor Wind and Denver Bronco to follow me as well. When I got to the designated staging area, Big Ben was already there with the rest of the squad. Looked at them and said in loud voice “Now is the day that we make history!” At that point a column of water shot up next to the boat. “When the door lowers, run to a tank trap. Then provide cover so all the other ponies can get off the transport. After that regroup and charge the nearest machine gun nest.” My command the yelled in unison and readied there weapons. “Big Ben, you take Blueblood and Big Mac.” I yelled over to Big Ben. “Denver, Razor, Rainbow, your with me.” The ship began to scrap the bottom of the beach. “Get ready!” More water was being shot up around the landing craft, the fire from the eighty-eight millimeter guns on top of the cliff getting more accurate by the shell.
The door of the landing craft opened, and all hell broke loose. Five MG-42 in our sector of the beach opened fire, and several snipers began firing from on top of the bluff. I ran out of the landing craft followed by Razor, Denver, and Rainbow towards several steel girders bent into tank traps. Ben and his men did the same in another direction. We took cover behind one of the traps as a medic, a yellow pegasus, ran off the landing craft. Moments later an artillery shell plunged from the heavens into the landing craft. There we several barrels of fuel that were going to be used to power the tanks once they made it ashore later. The fuel tanks exploded instantly, demolishing the landing craft and the few tank traps next to it, leaving only twisted metal.
Rainbow Blitz turned to try and run back to the landing craft, but I stopped him. “Don’t do it. We can’t help them now. And if you break cover now, you would get killed along with them.” At that point the medic ran to a tank trap, taking cover from the copious amount of ammunition expended at him. Or at least was what I thought was a him. As the medic drew closer I saw that it was, in fact, a mare. I then yelled at her “Get over here now!” she listened to me and ran over to my already crowded tank trap and looked around towards the now burning wreckage of the landing craft. “Don’t do it. I already yelled at him about it” as I motioned towards Rainbow Blitz. “Now tell me, what’s your name.”
“I’m Fluttershy” she said in voice so quite that I could barely hear it.
“Come again darling, I couldn’t hear you.” I said back to the quite pegasus.
“My name is Fluttershy” she said again at the same volume.
Ping! Razor turned around to reload his rifle and saw the medic for the first time. “Her name is Fluttershy, Sergeant!” he yelled over the gunfire behind him “I meet her on the dock, before we embarked. She is attached to Sergeant Wings squa- What happened to the LC sir!” he yelled after seeing the wreckage of the landing craft.
“It was hit by artillery. Now reload and take out that MG nest!” I ordered him. I then turned to Fluttershy and said calmly “Do you see the other ponies down the beach?” She nodded that she did. “Can you run this note to them and tell them it’s from Bullet Speed.” She nodded that she could.
At that point Rainbow Blitz turned around and said “I’ll escort her, sir.” He turned and fired another shot. Ping! He reloaded his rifle and asked “What do you think sarge?”
“I think it’s a good idea.” I responded. “But if you get hurt I’m not rushing off to save you.” Ping! Denver turned around and reloaded. “Now get moving! I need his response now!” I yelled at them and they took off down the beach towards Ben’s troops. “Denver! Get a grenade in that emplacement now!” he pulled the pin on the grenade and threw it into the MG nest. The machine gun crew ran from the dugout and ceased firing.
Razor fired on the retreating MG crew, yelling “And don’t come back!” Suddenly a sniper’s bullet whizzed by his head. He ducked behind the tank trap again. I looked at where Big Ben had his troops and saw that Rainbow and Fluttershy had made it there, and was giving him the note.
I turned about and saw a Germane solder running down the beach to intercept them, on their way back. I shouldered my rifle and took a deep breath, and squeezed the trigger. Time slowed down. I could see the bullet traveling between my M1 and where the Germane solder would be, the Germane being at full gallop across the shell cratered beach. I could see the ejected shell, tumbling through the air. Then time once again returned to normal. The pony running down the beach suddenly keeled over, blood spurting from his chest.
At that point I saw Rainbow Blitz running full steam at us, but no Fluttershy. As he returned I asked “Where’s the medic?”
He handed me a note and said “It’s all in here sir” in between pants for breath. I opened the note, which looked like it was written rapidly, but due to the situation that was perfectly excusable. On the folded paper was the sentence ‘Good idea, see you soon.’
I looked back at Rainbow and said “That doesn’t explain where Fluttershy is.” At this point I looked down to Ben’s troops and saw her tending to Blueblood. “Men!” I yelled, the two ponies who were fighting took cover and turned to face me. “When I tell you too, run to Ben’s troops.” They nodded. I said “Good. Now run!!” and we took off down the beach, fire from MG-42s cauing little puffs of sand to pop-up around us. After three minutes of running we slid behind the tank trap Ben was using for cover. Now all that needed to be decided was our next course of action.
Chapter 2: A New Blue, New Allies
Chapter 2: A New Blue, New Allies
June 6th 1944, 0700 hours
“Our only hope is fight our way down the beach. Big Ben you said we were the far right of the Allied force landing here, correct” I asked Big Ben. More rounds from Kar-98s and MG-42s flew around us. The air so thick with lead that looking at the battlefield would give you lead poisoning.
“Yes we are, but we have no supplies!” Big Ben yelled back in a heavy British accent. I looked out over the edge of the tank trap, seeing the Germane solders setting up a mortar.
“We need to move now!” I yelled back at him, trying to get control of the situation. “For two reasons. The first is that we have no supplies to defend with ether. The second is that there is a mortar getting set up over there. Now we are going to fight out of here!” I gathered my men and Fluttershy and said “Were fighting out of here. When I give the signal, throw grenades into the nests. Even if it doesn’t kill them it’ill damage the gun.” Everypony grabbed one of the few grenades we had left and lobbed them in the direction of a bunker. The fire stopped immediately as Germane solders ran from their cover, at the same time we did.
The sand on the beach was hard-packed from months, if not years of it being undisturbed by ponies. One blast from behind us. The then another, and so until all the lobbed grenade had detonated. By this point my squad was about a hundred yards down the beach from the Germane bunkers. I estimate because the shit storm that followed the grenade attack was incredibly intense. It felt like a whole machine gun platoon was firing on us. Sand was kicking up the beach in every direction. ‘Soon we’ll be out of range’ I thought.
We made it out of range of the bunkers and the Germane solder inside, but we still had the problem of making it to the next transport down the beach. We continued on our south-ward trek, on the watch for patrols. Oddly enough we only found a single one. It appeared over a sand dune and my ponies immediately took cover behind yet another beach obstacle. I waited for the rifle fire, which would spell our doom, trapping use between two hostile forces. We waited ten minutes and the fire never came. I peered out, over the cover, and saw they were looking at a damaged obstacle, about fifty yards from us.
I looked at my troops and said “When I give the signal we fire on them. Do you ponies understand?” They all nodded affirmative. I turned to Fluttershy and the asked “If anypony is hurt can you treat them?”
She looked back at me with her big blue eye and said “Yes sir.” quietly, but more confidant then before. Something had changed in her time with Ben’s detachment. I just couldn’t figure it out.
I then looked back at my troops. “Get ready.” I said, them shouldering their respective firearms, everypony having a M1 rifle except Big Mac, who had a Browning Automatic Rifle.
Then in a moment of clarity, time once more stopped. I was this point wondering if it would continue to do this when I fired on another pony. This time though, the world became unnaturally clear and sharp as well. The five solderers stood out in sharp contrast to the beach, cliffs, and landing obstacles.
“Fire!” I then hollered, and the rifles made their sharp cracks, shattering the quasi-silence that existed on the stretch of beach. The only sounds before the fire erupted was supplied the waves of the Channel and the fire of the guns onward. The small patrol, rather mercifully, didn’t have time to turn around. The patrol keeled over in pain and they dropped dead and wounded.
Moments later I ordered my troops. “Move now! Somepony probably heard that!” After less then a second, to confirm my suspicions, a pair of MG42s opened up from on top of the bluff at the beach. We were pinned down with no hope of escape. Again. For the second time in two hours we were pinned down by Gremane machine guns.
This time I had no plan. We were low on ammo and had no more grenades. The last daring escape used up the last of those supplies. At the same time my squad looked to me. To be fair, they had reason to. I had shown that I knew military strategy during training camp. That’s why they gave me my own squad. And they knew that. They saw me blank.
They knew that one of them was going to need to come up with a plan. Eight ponies wracked their brains for answers to the problem of getting out from behind the tank trap. Then Blueblood happened to glance at pilings that the Germane commander, General Field Marshal Erwin Rammel, a sheep, had sunk in to the beach with anti-tank mines on top to sink landing craft coming in at high tide.
“Big Ben, do you know any levitation magic?” asked the white unicorn.
“A little, why?” responded the second unicorn.
“Look at all the anti-tank mines there.” said the first unicorn, motioning at the pilings. “If we rip them off the pilings and hurl them at the Germanes we should break there bunkers.” he elaborated.
“Sounds like a good plan.” I chimed in. I figured we were about three miles from our lines, and we would need to hurry. Anymore skirmishes like this could end up using up the last of our ammo. By the time I looked back there were several AT mines around us. I looked at Blueblood and asked “Are you sure this will work?”
He nodded and said “If it doesn’t you can court marshal me.” He then turned to Ben and asked “Are you ready?” A sharp motion said he was. “Then let’s give them a lesson in artillery, unicorn style.” Then several mines began to glow gold and dark grey, and float off the ground. After a couple of seconds like that the mines were hurled at the MG nests, blasting holes it the concrete, and damaging the guns.
“Now run!” I hollered, the silence of the MG music to my ears. We once again took off down the beach, the sounds of the battle getting louder as we neared it. The cliffs had become much smaller now, little more then a small ridge now. We were about a half mile from the lines, off in the distance we saw artillery, aimed at our beachhead.
KABOOOM!
We all looked towards an artillery peace that was about two hundred yards from us and further inland. It was not there, replaced by a column of smoke. “Were going there!” I yelled to my troops. “The Germanes must be in retreat there!” We then diverted our course to the demolished gun.
It took moments to arrive at the gun, still a smoldering wreck. And instead of Amareican solders there were two mares running about the blown artillery. They looked at us as we walked into the clearing. Both were unicorns. One had a purple coat, and a long deep purple mane with both a pink and a lighter purple stripe in it. The second had a white coat with a long blue curly mane and similar tail. The purple one grabbed a revolver, a Smith and Wesson 200, from her belt and pointed it at us yelling “Stopp legen Sie Ihre Hände auf!” in what was clearly not a Germane accent.
The white one next to her said “Twilight, look their Amareicans.” as she pushed down the revolver.
“Sorry.” said Twilight, reholstering her revolver. “I didn’t know that anypony else was operating behind the lines.” She then walked up to us and said “But you don’t look like paratroopers. So what are you?”
“We are an Amareican infantry squad. Our LC was destroyed and and the only pony on the craft to survive not in my squad was Fluttershy here.” I said as I motioned to where she was standing.
“There’s nopony there.” responded the still nameless white unicorn. I looked where I was motioning to. She wasn't there. I looked around, worried that we lost her in the fighting. Then I saw her hiding behind Rainbow Blitz.
“She’s back there.” I then responded. “Now I have a question. What are you doing here?”
“We snuck in from Spain about six months ago. Since then we have been working with the Resistance. When they heard of the landings they dispatched us here to help.” responded Twilight.
“Well we need it. Can you come with us were going to try to bust through to the other side of the lines.” I then asked.
“I don’t see why not.” was her response.
Chapter 3: Assault and Defense
Chapter 3: Assault and Defense
I looked over the ridge, through a pair of binoculars. There were several lines of bunkers and trenches, three to be exact. I looked to my left, Twilight Sparkle next to me.
“Is that what we're supposed to attack. It looks very solid.” I said, with concern lacing my voice. Concern for my troops, most of whom had re-equipped themselves with Germane weapons.
“Yes we are. And it is a good line... from the beach, not inland.” responded the resistance member. “Look, all the MGs are pointed out to sea. Plus all we have to do is clear out a small part of it.”
“Good point.” I said. I then turned to my command, which recently gained three new ponies. “Form up!” I ordered to the troops. They walked to the small depression in front of me. “We’re going to break through the rear of the Germane lines. When I give the order we take the back trench. Now get ready.” My troops got into position along the ridge line.
I looked to both sides of me. On one side was the sub-squad commanded by Twilight. Rarity and Big Mac were in it. They were going to be our right flank on this operation. On the other side were Big Ben, Blueblood, Denver Bronco, and Fluttershy, Fluttershy being there to help the wounded. That left me with the Razor Wind and Rainbow Blitz. Our plan was that the two squads commanded by my subordinates were going to hit the Germanes on their flanks. When they did the pegasi would drop in on top of them. It would be brilliant, and, as Ben put it, ‘give them a taste of their own medicine’.
“Wait five minutes before you attack to let us get into position.” I ordered the two other ponies in command. I then took off and flew up to a low cloud and got ready to attack. They looked up to the cloud and I nodded. It was time.
The two squads on the ground broke cover silently and ran at the Germane trenches. The few of guard ponies inside the trench and not the small underground barracks were ambushed and killed before much could be done to us. But the sounds of fighting just outside the barracks caused the twenty-five man garrison to rush out, with their guns at the ready. When they spotted my troops they stopped for a moment, staring at them.
That was my chance. “Go.” I said to the pegasi with me. We jumped into the air and went into a steep dive aimed at the center of the Germane mass. We ripped the pins off of grenades and hurled them into the troops below. They exploded seconds before we landed, causing about six Germanes to fall to the ground. As we did so, several Germanes fled to the south, screaming “Die Amerikaner sind da! Ziehen Sie sich!” Several more took aim at me, Razor, and Rainbow Blitz. I dove into a side trench, Rainbow going with me. Razor tried to take off again. He was not lucky enough to succeed. A Germane round hit him in the thigh, sending him to the ground.
I would have tried to save him, but I heard another voice behind us. “Die Regenbogen-Narr!” it hollered as the brownish pony wielding a trench knife, charging at Rainbow Blitz. We both fired from the hip, not having time to aim. Rainbow’s shot missed, but I had a far larger problem.
The Kar98 was a good gun, a safe gun. A very solid mechanism, one of the best in the world. But every gun can have a catastrophic failure. And that is what happened. The bolt of the rifle exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions, including into my back right leg. The Germane Sergeant leapt through the air and landed on Rainbow Blitz, slicing his stomach, causing a good sized cut. I had one chance at saving him. The Kar98 I grabbed had a bayonet on it. I hefted the gun like a javelin and hurled it at the Germane, still slicing at Rainbow Blitz. It hit its mark perfectly, not only knocking the pony off of him, but killing him as well.
I ran over to the Rainbow Blitz and...
“Poppop, did that really happen?” asked the young mare sitting in a chair, looking at an older version of Bullet Speed. His mane was now grey and his coat was in the process of doing the same. She had the same rainbow mane and cyan color as the other pony in the story.
“Yes it did Rainbow Dash. Now let me finish my story. Where was I? Oh yes...”
I ran over to the Rainbow Blitz and saw he was unconscious and bleeding rather badly from the knife wounds, but he was still breathing. I got out the small medkit a carried with me and bandaged some of the knife slashes, but there was not enough to cover all of them. After doing what I could I drew the only other weapon I had, my Colt .45.
Back in the present the elderly veteran motioned at the drawer of his dresser. “Can you get it out of there for me please?” he asked his granddaughter. Rainbow Dash reached into the draw and grabbed a hard, metal object. She lifted it out, revealing an old, well worn, .45 caliber pistol.
“Is this the one you had in the war?” she asked.
“Yes.” responded the veteran. She handed him the gun, and he started again. “Now this is all I had against the Germanes...”
...and they were not happy with me. Another Germane veered off, charging right at us. I got my sight picture and fired. No matter how many times I fired that gun in training, it still had a ridiculous amount of kick. The solder dropped to the ground, dead.
It was then that I noticed that he was running from the direction the of my other troops. And it was not just him. Others were retreating as well, putting a little bit of a smile on my face. As my troops ran past the side trench I was in I flagged them over. They were missing Blueblood, Big Mac, and Denver.
“Where are the others?” I asked them.
Ben stepped forward and said “We lost them. We surprised them in the initial attack, but they we able to counter attack something fierce. We drove them off, but not before losing them.” I took a moment to realize that the ponies that I had been talking to less than four hours earlier had died. There were several shouts in a foreign language behind us. “And it sounds like they're ready to try again.” Big Ben then added.
I grieved quickly over my fallen friends, and then began to give orders. “Ben, Twilight, Rarity, can you cast a shield spell when they attack again?” The three ponies in question nodded that they could. “Good. Now Fluttershy, go help Rainbow Blitz. I’m not losing another soldier.” She dashed off to the wounded pony. At that point three more Germanes were tossed across the small view I could see of the other trench. A second later a large red stallion was standing there. He was battered and covered in blood, but he was alive. “It’s good to see you Big Mac.”
“Eeyup.” the stallion responded. It was amazing how much he could say with one word.
“You think you’re in any shape to help us hold out here?” I asked him.
“Eeyup.” he once again responded. It’s a good thing he was so dependable.
The shouting was closer now. “Get ready!” I yelled over the approaching fire. A group of five Germanes ran into the trench. before they could fire the force field went up stopping their shot, Big Mac and me then fired out of it. We repeated this several times, each time causing the Germanes to retreat, but we were using some of our own ammo in the process. By the fifth wave of them, we were almost out, even counting the extra from the ponies not fighting.
Then we heard, to our rear, “J'entends la lutte contre l'avance jusqu'à monsieur.” I loaded what ammo I had left into my model 1911, and ran off to charge the new arrivals behind us. Then, I was stopped. I looked back, and saw my tail cloaked in a light blue aura.
“Don’t attack them you dolt!” yelled Rarity behind me, holding me back with magic. “Their Prench!” she continued.
The ponies voices grew closer, then they appeared to our north, climbing over the second line of trenches. By the time they reached us, we were ready to surrender to the Gremanes, because we were low on ammunition, and would have lost the next assault. A short very light yellow pony with a slightly darker colored mane wearing the markings of a Colonel approached me and asked in a Polish accent “What are you?”
“I am Staff Sergeant Bullet Speed of the US 4th Infantry Division.” I reported. “My squad has taken heavy casualties and were forced away from our LC, and inland.”
“Your squad is assaulting with us.” he ordered.
“Sir, we can’t.” was my response.
“You have no choice.” responded the Free Polish officer.
“Yes he does.” said another officer entering the trench behind him. He walked with a limp and had a cane with him. He wore the star of a Brigadier General. It was Teddy Roseluck Jr. the commander of the landing force. “It looks like your squad has seen much action today. You can come back to the reserve. I’ll get somepony to attend to your wounded.”
“Thank you sir.” I responded as I left. The rest of the squad rejoiced when I told them that we were going to the reserves now.
“That was the last fighting I saw in the war.” the old veteran said to the young pony next to him. “We were in reserve when Operation Cobra took place, and by the time we were put back at the front the Germanes were retreating in disarray. We were put on occupation duty in a small town south of Paris.”
“Then what happened Poppop?” asked the prismatic pony.
“The war ended.”
Prologue
December 7th 1941, 1330
My friend and I were at the local hobby shop buying transistor radios. My friend, Big Ben, a grey unicorn stallion from England with a curly black mane and a pocket watch cuitemark, and I were buying them to talk when we were at our respective homes, which were across town from each other. It then came across the radio in the shop, which was usually playing the news anyways, so we generally ignored it. But something was different this time; the newscaster was worried and seemed as if he was deeply saddened and enraged.
“This just in,” said the newscaster as the radio crackled to life, “the Pacific Fleet of the United States was just attacked by the Naval Forces of the Japonyese Empire, when a berth in Pearl Harbor. I repeat, the Pacific Fleet of the United States was just attacked by the Naval Forces of the Japonyese Empire. Tomorrow, President Roosevelt is expected to ask for a formal declaration of war on the Empire of Japony from congress.”
But we didn’t hear the last part. We were already on our bicycles, riding to the local army recruitment center. Sergeant Flash, a brown pegasus, was rushing to grab enlistment papers out of a filing cabinet. As Sergeant turned around he saw the two stallions at the counter, recognizing both of them. “You both heard the news?” he asked in a distinctly southern accent, betraying his place of birth. Both Big Ben and I nodded, confirming we had. He shook his head and said, “Then I’m gussin you’re here to enlist?” Again we both nodded in agreement. “Well I’m not one to turn away hard workers, but I’m not going to let you.”
I was at first enraged “Why not?” I asked, trying not to leap across the counter and slug him in the face.
That was almost two and a half years ago.
