The years after the fall

I awoke to a bunch of footsteps, over a dozen of them I think, a good way away. Their voices carried across the valley and everypony was awake now. Dirk and Sugar had rushed back, and had set up a machine gun on a nearby hill. How did that get there? I wondered. I didn't think anypony had grabbed any weapons, not that I was complaining. Strawberry saw I was awake , and tossed a pack to me. "Come on, open the pack!" She yelled, "You got sniper detail!"

Oh, so they thought I was a good shot eh? I hope I wouldn't disappoint them. But where was the sniper? When I opened the pack, my question was answered. The COOLEST break-down sniper rifle was inside the pack. I had no idea how it got there, but I didn't care. I grabbed it and the 2 extra mags, each with 6 shots. As I rushed up the hill behind us to set up, Muffins and Jet ran to go set up another machine gun next to Sugar and Dirk. Strawberry was still busy getting her weapon out, and from the looks of it, her weapon was an automatic assault rifle. Daisy was still wandering in a daze, because she hadn't had any real sleep, and after Strawberry was done assembling the gun she started making a shelter. I completed setting up my sniper just as the changelings ran up the second hill. Two more hills lay between me and them. One more between Sugar Dirk etc. I looked down the scope and zoomed in on one of them. Damn the night-vision on this weapon was SWEET!

Blam! The bullet flew out the barrel and took the changeling's head right off. His body fell down the hill, and the changeling next to him turned his head in surprise. A second later his body followed, minus 2/3 of his head. By this time the rest had ducked behind the next hill, and were in range of the machine guns. I only focused on looking through my sniper scope, and nothing else. The first changeling appeared over the hill. Bang! His chest erupted with purple blood, and fell back on his comrades. By this time there was only around 10 left, I counted in my scope. At least, 10 had made it over the hill. I shot another and he fell screaming, mortally wounded by a shot to the chest. Jeez, my aim was getting waaay off. I adjusted my aim as Sugar and Jet open fired on the changelings. They were completely taken by surprise, and 3 of them fell to the onslaught.  4 more fell while they turned and ran. I decided to save ammo and not shoot them while they ran. Plus it was also a moral thing to do. By not shooting enemies who were retreating. I glanced over to where Sugar and Dirk where, and as Dirk was getting up from feeding the gun ammo, a bullet came out of nowhere and hit him in the shoulder. "Arg Goddamnit!" He cried out, which was good, because that meant he wasn't dead. He fell down the slope, Sugar chasing after him, looking worried. I looked down my scope, and saw a sniper in the trees, about a whole klik in the direction the changelings came from. I pulled the trigger, and saw the sniper's head disappear in a cloud of red mist. I yelled over to Jet and Muffins, "I got him!" Jet just turned his head slightly, not taking his eyes off the jungle, and nodded. "Good kill!" Muffins yelled back, appreciative of the fact that I alerted them there wasn't a sniper problem anymore. I looked down my scope to make sure that there wasn't another changeling trying his luck out as a sniper, then checked in on Sugar and Dirk. Dirk was hit badly in the shoulder, but the wound wasn't anything near fatal. I heard Daisy say that when she rested up, she could fix it, but at the moment a bandage would have to do because she feared she would screw up his shoulder if she tried anything in her drowsy state. At least she could think enough to know that. Dirk nodded and Sugar led him over to the sleeping bags, gently laying him down so he could rest. She rushed back up the hill with an automatic long-range.... Shotgun?   Daisy staid with Dirk as I looked down my scope again to look for hostiles. Instead I saw 4 changelings pushing a struggling figure into a chair that just had appeared out of nowhere. The pony's  coat was orange, and they had a very green mane. One of the changelings had a modified sledgehammer in his hooves, and brought it over his head. I wanted to see what would happen next. The changeling brought it down on one of the pony's legs! Even from far away, I could hear the bone snap, and the pony screamed. Then yelled "I can still kick your ass with my other leg!"

As the changeling raised the hammer again, I realized what I had to do.

I aimed down the sights, and pressed to button on the side to shoot. The bullet tore off the changelings arms, and he fell, screaming louder than the pony, blood spewing from the stumps that used to be his fore-hooves. A second shot killed him. The pony looked around for me, just as another changeling charged him. Bang! I took him down, after I reloaded, and he fell just inches from the captured pony. Another changeling had finally made it to the chair, but a bullet stopped him. His body fell on the chair, causing it and the pony to start rolling down the hill. The pony screamed again as his leg got twisted. Fuck! I thought as the last changeling fled. This was a set up! They meant for us to do this, they wanted us to see this happen. The pony strapped to the chair had not moved since he fell down the slope. By this time, the rest of the group had noticed what was going on. Muffins called out, "I'll get him! Keep me covered!" But as he ran towards the fallen pony, not a hill away, the crack of a sniper ran out, and Muffin's head exploded in a red mist. His body sunk to the ground. This was the first up close death that I had witnessed since Kicker. It was a shock to us all. I know because I looked around and saw the faces of my friends. The second shot went zipping by Sugar, who had set up shop again on the machine gun. Shit! I thought as I aimed down my sights. I looked for the sniper, and found him in a clump of bushes. Blam! The bullet tore off his left fore-hoof. He rolled out of the bushes, screaming, then disappeared. So that's how I didn't see him at first. He must be using Shadow Armor! But only General Toxicsparky's men used Shadow Armor I thought, remembering seeing that in one of the cadet handbooks. And if Toxicsparky's army was here..... Then he must be here as well! As I looked around for more snipers, I noticed a tree rustle. And out stepped a changeling with hair like a mohawk, but it was braided..... Shit.... General Toxicsparky looked across the valley to where we were set up, and a bugler came to his side. How many of them were there? I wondered, as I got ready to snipe the General. The shot missed, and his head turned to where I was hiding. Damn! I just gave away our position! His hoof pointed to where I was, and a swarm of changelings ran out of the trees. There had to be 10 of them halfway flying, halfway walking. I wasted the rest of my clips, getting 4, 2 in a collateral shot, and 2 with the other 2 bullets. Again, the changelings began to retreat, but this time Jet wasn't being so lenient on the retreating foes. The bullets from his machine gun ripped them to shreds. None of them made it back to the tree line. I looked again after I reloaded for the General, but he had disappeared. I looked around at our group, and we were all exhausted. I decided to take first watch with Sugar while Jet, Strawberry, Dirk, and Daisy slept. Muffins was dead for sure, his head was missing. Our mission before everypony went to sleep was to decide whether or not to see if the pony in the chair was alright. I had 1 more clip left in the sniper, but Sugar handed me an assault rifle with 5 mags. We approached quietly, watching for any more attacks. There were none, apparently the changelings had decided we weren't worth their time. As we got nearer, the pony moved slightly. At this point, Sugar gave up the silent approach and rushed to the pony. "Goddamnit Sugar, you know it's not smart to do that!" I whispered in a harsh voice. "Sorry" she replied, "I have to help him though" and she went back to work cutting the pony's hoof cuffs off. He was knocked out from the pain still, and his left leg was bleeding badly. We scurried back to camp, this time it took longer because we had this new pony. "Hey" I said to Sugar, "let's let him sleep tonight, and question him tomorrow."

"Agreed"

We then changed the guards, as getting the pony back to camp took up a lot of our time. I slipped back inside my sleeping bag, Daisy had already warmed it up. She was still sleeping however, and I tried to be careful not to wake her up. She was our only medic now, after all. I forgot about everything that happened that night, and feel asleep