Back near the Princesses, Rainbow pulled herself out of Luna’s mane just long enough to look up at the four men. “Where’re they goin’?” She asked.

“Nowhere…you need to be…little one…” the Princess of Night panted, her chest heaving.

Twilight looked over the sisters, clenching her teeth with worry. The sheer amount of magic they’d used showed in the hairline fractures on their horns, the sweat matting their coats, the way both closed their eyes every few minutes only to jerk awake, as if just barely staying on the edge of sleep. Even Celestia’s omnipresent mane seemed to be frayed and split at points. “Princess, are you sure I can’t get you anything?” She asked.

“I have…all I need…right here…my little pony…” Celestia wheezed, pulling her student in for a hug. “I just need rest. Will be…in ship-shape…soon.”

“Gosh, what happened here?” AJ asked, turning to look up at the ridge line and the scattered bodies lying in the mud. “It’s like a nightmare or somethin’.”

“Maybe we should see for ourselves,” Rainbow shrugged. “We’re gonna be in this soon as the Elements charge up anyway…”

“NO! No…” Celestia gasped, earning a few surprised looks from the ponies around her. Sighing, she pulled Twilight in closer. “Up there…is no place…for a pony.”

“But what, the big, strong men can take it?” Rainbow Dash shouted. “Sorry Princess, but watching from the sidelines isn’t my style. I’m heading up there.”

“Dash, please!” Twilight gasped, reaching for her friend just as she opened her wings to take off. “Please, listen to the Princess! Has she ever steered us wrong before?”

The pegasus’ wings folded in against her body again, an unsure look crossing her face. “Well…no…but…”

“And besides,” AJ added, putting a hoof around her friend’s shoulder. “We can always head up there when those boys’re all busy with fightin’, an’ swoop in when they finally need us t’pull their behinds outta the fire.”

Rainbow put a hoof to her chin. “Us swooping in and saving Uris’s butt from certain destruction at the last moment?” She grinned. “Okay, I’m cool with that.”

“Ah figured ya’d be.”

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Daybreak over Coltton. Over five-hundred Marines and Navy SEALS laid in wait along the new ridge line on the outskirts of town. Every one of them had a friend lying face-down in a pile gathered at one edge of the ridge, and every one of them knew they could be next. Most of them now struggled to keep those thoughts at bay as the swastikas in the forest before them grew clearer, and the sounds of boots on underbrush grew louder. “Nazis,” Ramirez grumbled, sighting down his M4.

Next to him, Uris snickered, pistol still at the ready. “The hell’s so funny?”

“Dude, really? Nazis? Talking magical ponies? All this firepower? It’s like we’re in the head of an eight-year old.”

“Or a real immature twenty-something,” Ramirez added in a way that was somehow totally not insulting at all. The chanting grew; a thousand voices all bellowing in time with their bootsteps, all bearing down on the American lines. Uris took a shaky breath.

“Gentlemen, as ridiculous as this situation may be, it could very easily represent our last moments alive,” his father said, citing down his M4 along with every other man on the line. “If there’s anything you think the other men on this line should know, now’s the time.”

After a few minutes with nothing but the steady beat of the chanting, Miller spoke up from right next to them: “Vance, I’ll admit I was a little pissed when I was told I’d be subordinate to a Marine, but after today I see why Command chose you. You’re a capable leader and probably one of the bravest sons a’ bitches I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting in my life, and it’s been an honor serving with you.”

Vance nodded with that, and then he spoke, eyes on his son. “Pete, I’ve always loved you, no matter what. I know I didn’t always act like it, but everything I did was in hopes of giving you a decent life and a shot at NOT dying in a giant shithole a million miles from home, and I’m sorry it ended up like that anyway.”

“Holy shit, man,” Ramirez said, turning to the pilot by his side.

Uris was trying his level best to suppress his tears. It wasn’t working. The pilot wiped at his eyes and turned to his Father, smiling. “Dad, remember when Charlie broke your Joe Dimaggio Yankees Special Edition Collector’s Plate, back in ’97?”

“Uh…yeah…” Vance replied, cocking an eyebrow at his son.

“He was lying. It was really me: I was goofin’ around on the couch, fell off, and knocked it off its shelf. Charlie was just covering for me ‘cause I let him take my dessert the other night.”

Vance pushed himself up out of the mud to look at his boy. Uris smiled back, tears rolling down his face. The aging Marine just shook his head and smiled peacefully. “Yeah, that sounds like Charlie.”

“Yeah,” Uris wiped the tears away and sighed shakily, raising his pistol again. “Good ol’ Charlie. Hope we see him soon.”

“But not too soon.”

“Welp,” Miller turned to the other SEAL in their little group. “That’s everyone but you, son. Got anything you wanna say?”

Ramirez thought a while, weapon still at the ready. “Fluttershy is best pony,” he finally said, eyes never leaving the forest.

Uris turned to him, shaking his head and laughing through the tears streaking down his face. “Ho-Ho-Holy shit…” he started, only to be interrupted by a loud crack and a thump as a bullet smacked into the dirt by his face, kicking up little clods. “HOLY SHIT!”

“THIS IS IT! AW GOD, THIS IS IT!” Someone screamed down the line as the first shots filled the night, building in volume as more and more men entered one another’s sights.

“HOLD YOUR GROUND! THIS IS THE LAST PUSH!” Vance screamed, returning fire. Just then, the first men burst from the tree line and onto the field. These were mostly whatever conscripts the enemy hadn’t used up in the first wave, wearing tattered clothes with swastikas lazily sewn on and waving machetes and rusty pistols in the air. This time, however, they were joined by regularly uniformed troopers with their assault rifles blazing and faces contorted with battle rage.

All along the line, the Americans opened fire, their muzzle flares illuminating their faces for the quickest millisecond: some held fear, some a grim determination, all focused on killing the enemy. In desperation, a few Molotovs crashed against their barricade. One Marine fell away, screaming as his shoulder ignited, only to be doused by a few quick-thinking SEALs and their canteens. And still, the enemy onslaught continued.

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The ponies gazed up at the battle growing over their heads. A few tracer rounds lit through the growing daylight like shooting stars while the occasional explosion rumbled through the ground. One of the humans, burnt by a Molotov, was led to the makeshift Aid tent set up amongst the wreckage of vehicles in the gorge, screaming and clutching at the horrific burns on his face. “Do you still wish to be up there, Rainbow?” Rarity asked quietly.

“Not as much as I did before all that started,” Dash replied, the smallest hint of fear edging into her voice.

A small squeak interrupted everypony. Celestia smiled gently and turned to the little shivering bundle of daisy-yellow feathers nestled beneath her left wing, eventually coaxing Fluttershy into lifting her face out of her hooves. “I-it’s terrifying,” she whispered. “And-and there’s so many…”

Her eyes darted to the hillside. One of the mud-covered bodies shifted and turned over; the dirt around it stained a crimson red, its eyes staring blankly into the sky. The pegasus stared at it for a second more before quickly covering her face again. “So many…”

“And they’re all up there,” Twilight mumbled, Luna and Celestia’s ears perking up. “They’re all up there, fighting and dying for us. They just keep on going and fighting and dying and pushing and…” she trailed off, a new look of determination replacing the fear in her eyes. The Princesses smiled as the little lavender unicorn pulled herself out of Celestia’s hold and started the trot up the embankment.

“Twilight?” Pinkie asked. “What’re you doing?”

“I thought we had to wait for the Elements to finish…whatever it is they are up to,” Rarity added.

“And every second we wait, more of them die for us,” the unicorn replied sternly, touching the tiara in her mane. “Can we really wait for these if it means even one more of them dying? If it means even just one more life thrown away?”

“Dang good point, egghead!” Rainbow Dash shouted, suddenly rocketing out of Luna’s reach.

“Daggum Twi, you could talk a bull out of a rodeo!” Applejack added, pulling herself free and landing next to her friend.

In an instant, Rarity and Pinkie were next to the three ponies already starting up the hillside. “When this is all over, it’s gonna call for the biggest, most spectacular party EVAR!” Pinkie gasped.

“When this is all over, I’m going to need a MONTH at Aloe and Lotus’s,” Rarity remarked, smiling weakly at her friends.

“Now, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, turning to face the Princesses. “I know you’re scared, but…”

“…But the humans have done a lot for us tonight,” the quiet pegasus’ voice remarked behind them. The five all turned in surprise to find their ultra-shy friend, having swooped out of the Princess’s grip and alighted a few feet ahead of them. “I-I think it’s about time I started to return the favor, r-right?”

“Right,” Applejack said, grinning wildly as the six friends all pulled in together for a quick hug.

“Princess?” Twilight turned to face her monarch. “I know you said it was no place for a pony up there, but…”

“Just go, my faithful student,” Celestia replied, her eyes sparkling. Twilight looked down to her friend and mentor in shock. “I simply didn’t want you all to be overwhelmed by the sounds of battle at once. Better for you to hear those sounds and reach the conclusion to help on your own terms than to rush headlong into the fray with hardly a care.”

Immediately, Twilight galloped down to her mentor and nuzzled her. “Thank you, Princess,” she said, not noticing the tears gathering in Celestia and Luna’s eyes as she turned to trot back up to her friends.

“We’re gonna win this for you two!” Rainbow hollered as the ponies began the trek up to the frontlines. “Just put your hooves up and relax! It’ll be fine!”

“We have faith in thee!” Luna shouted, keeping her eyes on the six until they were well out of earshot before she turned to her sister. “That Twilight is going to make an incredible Princess when the day comes,” the Princess of Night whispered.

“Spoilers, dear sister,” Celestia whispered back as she laid her head in the mud to rest. “Spoilers.”