Everfree Forest, Pony Gulch One. Not much can be said about this dismal, poor excuse for a territory; only that for as long as the two oppositions stationed in the clearing of where Ponyville once stood, they have always fought. A battle as old as time itself; South against the north, waves against the stone, fire against water, Red versus blue. History has always provided such ample clashes of opposites. The only difference this was that this time, this conflict was completely, utterly, and absolutely pointless in every conceivable way.

In the large clearing between the circle of dank, dark woods was only the rolling hills of what once was inhabited Ponyville, which had been wiped clean of any structures except for two stone bases that looked almost identical in everyway. But, they were very different. Only an idiot could not see the difference between these structures. You see, one had red flags hanging from it while the other had blue. Each was stationed as far as they could be in this gulch; red taking the west, and blue capitalizing the east.

For the longest time, this war zone was a stallion only zone; a manly place for only the manly. But, that was quickly dashed when fillies and mares began to outranked and prove far more competent than any of the stallions… if only by a small margin. Since then, Pony Gulch One had quickly become a female dominated area… and no one was complaining.

This day, nothing was any different then any other day. The sun was high, the wind was dead, and as always, no one was doing a single thing. At Red Base, they awaited the return of their commander with what news came from command. But until then, Private First Class Spike and Private Big Macintosh –Mac for short- stood atop their base with Spike leaning his back against one of the stone walls. Moments passed with relative silence except for the chirps of the birds that hid inside the Everfree forest; no one ever looked for those birds since it was the only thing that kept them from absolute silence. It was in this constant silence that Spike looked to Big Mac with his bored green eyes and his arms crossed in front if his maroon breast plate. "Hey…"

Big Mac, as if waking from a deep slumber, snapped his eyes to attention to his dragon partner, "Yeah?"

"Do you ever –I don't know- wonder why we're here?"

For a short silence, Big Mac looked up to the sky with a serious look, as if delving into his thoughts, "That's one ah' life's great mysteries, huh?" He turned his face back to Spike at this, "Why are we here?" now, he turned his whole self to his much smaller dragon friend, ""I mean, are we a product of... don't know, some cosmic coincidence, or is there really a God, watchin' everythin'? One with plans fer' us and all that." Again, his eyes drifted off to look at the vast land before him, "don't know, Spike, but keeps me up a' night…"

The words sunk into the two of them for some time before Spike gave a chuckle. "What?"

"Huh?" Big Mac replied.

"I meant, why are we out here, in the middle of a forest?" Big Mac gulped and looked away from Spike with a fluster, "What's all this about God?"

"They were nothin'…" quickly dismissed Big Mac.

Spike gave a shrug and looked off into the distance for a second before looking back with a raised brow, "you wanna talk about it?"

"Nnnope…"

"…You sure?"

"Eeeeyup, I'm sure."

Sure enough that Big Mac wasn't in the mood to speak so much right now, Spike decided to work off his own conversation. "But really. Why are we here? The way I look at it, we're in the middle of a forest, in an empty clearing, with nothing good about it."

Big Mac grunted a little to show that he was listening.

"When you think about it, we only have a Red Base here is because there's a Blue Base over there," pointing one of his claws over to the distance, he continued, "And they only have a Blue Base is because we have a Red Base right here."

Big Mac must've gathered his nerves again, because he looked at Spike. "We're fightin' them, right?"

"Well, yeah. But what if we all just left and the blues stayed? They'd steal our base and then they would have two bases here… in the middle of nowhere," twirling a single claw, Spike frowned, "Yippy…"

"Yeah," Big Mac agreed, "I signed myself up so I could fight some changelin's. But before ah' can even get shipped off 'fer a fight, Queen Chrysalis goes and get's herself destroyed and gets me stuck here in the middle of nowhere…"

---

Clearly, this recognizance wasn't going anywhere so Private Twilight Sparkle of Blue Team laid her sniper riffle next to her laying body while she was sitting inside the cover of one of the outlining trees. She could've taken a shot at the Reds while their defenses were lowered, but even she knew the likeliness of her hitting anything what any sort of gun was as likely as the moon rolling Equestria over. If anything, the sniper was only good for a telescope in her hooves.

Behind her, fluttering softly in the air was Private First Class Rainbow Dash, clearly bored as no other, "What're they doing?"

Begrudgingly, Twilight looked up with a sigh, "…What?"

"I asked what're they doing," Rainbow Dash said again, this time reaching for Twilight's sniper only to have Twilight jerk it away with a snarl.

"God damn you Dash!" Twilight cursed, flinching at her own word for a second, "I'm tired of answering that question!" Twilight hissed while snapping her eyes away, sure that if she didn't, she would only get even more angry.

"Hey! Don't get snippy with me!" Rainbow Dash snapped back, resting her back against the trunk of the tree they hid in, "You're the one with the feathering riffle, I can't see squat! Don't go bitching at me because I don't feel like flying behind you and bucking myself all day!"

Twilight only snarled in displeasure, but rolled her eyes as she looked back at the aqua blue armored foal. "Look, they're just… standing there. That's it. They always just stand there. They never do anything, they never have done anything, and quite frankly I'd put money on that they never will do anything! All they ever do is just-just… talk! That's it…"

For sometime after Twilight's rage, the two feel into a quiet moment. But, perhaps out of curiosity or just to spite her partner, Rainbow Dash spoke up. "What're they talking about?"

"…I bucking hate you…" Twilight cursed as she slammed her face into the tree branch below her head.