Chapter FOUR

A constellation bounded toward her.

Rainbow Dash decided that once the fighting was over she would live a slower life. If war in the Everfree Forest had taught her anything, it was that excitement was overrated, and that danger was not something to be sought out, at least not with great frequency. Retiring to the country side with AJ sounded like a good idea – no – it sounded like the greatest idea a pony could have.

Then another idea came to mind. A loud obnoxious idea that shoved its way passed the former, like a tween muscling her way through a crowd of screaming fans at a Sapphire Shores concert. This new idea shouted at Rainbow from inside her own head, in a voice that was like hers only much, much ruder. Fly, it demanded. Anywhere but here – just fly.

Had there been time for first thoughts, let alone seconds, Rainbow might have remembered that she had been charged with leading first platoon into battle, and that it was her responsibility to lead them out. But staring down a charging Ursa made her forgetful, and in an instant she was past the tree tops, fleeing from the ground like a flash of lighting escaping from a bottle.

Twilight Sparkle watched a multicolored streak of light bolt through the dusk sky opposite the direction of the rampaging constellation and cursed Celestia herself. From the very first day she met Rainbow Dash, Twilight had often wondered whether the young pegasus pony was unflinchingly courageous or just stupid. Now she knew for sure.

Never mind her, she thought, the voice in her head cool and dethatched. It needed to be. If she lived there would be time later for anger – and plenty of it when that time came. For now, the world was ending less than half a klick away from where she stood.

The plan had gone off without a single hiccup up until right now. First platoon had attacked the rebel stronghold, just as planned. Twilight had made it known that she was among the ranks of the advancing force, just as planned. And the rebels had taken the bait, just as planned. The day was all but theirs when suddenly this Ursa, that was not so large as to be called major but not so small as to be called minor, came tearing through the forest, great trees folding under its paws as it bounded toward them, cutting off their escape route. And though it was she who'd first laid the trap, it was Equestria's own favorite daughter who now found herself snared by karmas far reaching net. Caught between two great beasts: one of teeth and claws, and another of lead, and iron, and unflinching grit. Anypony else might have faltered. Twilight Sparkle was not anypony else.

She needed a flyer.

In the ensuing melee she managed to flag down Sergeant Fluttershy. The Pegasus Pony had fled from the clearing and had taken up position with three others inside of a shallow crater that had been dug with the aid of unicorn magic. Together the four of them were attempting to suppress some of the enemy's small arms fire.

"Sergeant!" shouted Twilight as she leapt down into their trench, enemy fire whizzing past her head like a swarm of angry parasprites. Twilight's horn sparked and the ground beneath her sunk in several feet. Happy with the newly added width and depth of the makeshift foxhole, the lieutenant ordered the other three ponies to move to the crater's edge and continue providing suppressing fire. The three of them crawled quickly but carefully up the sloping crater wall. A moment later one of them slid back down to the center, coming to a stop at Twilight's fore hooves – a hole in his throat and a haunting expression frozen on his still face. The unicorn ignored him. Fluttershy did her best to do the same.

"Fluttershy I need you to fly out of this hole and round up all of the surviving unicorns. Tell them to use their magic to cut a huge trench between us and the rebels." The sergeant stared back at her commanding officer with big frightened eyes, like a mouse staring up at a swooping owl. She looked on the verge of tears.

"Fluttershy, listen to me!" Twilight gave her a rough shake. A grenade that had been meant for their foxhole fell short, detonating just a few feet away. The blast rattled them both, but for Fluttershy – the sound of it, the heat from the explosion against her skin, the dust in her face – it was an unsubtle reminder that she was still alive. She shook her head, then nodded in understanding. Twilight continued in a hurried voice.

"Have the unicorns pull down a few trees to use for cover as well. I want every .30 cal and .50 cal we have laying into the rebel forces. I don't care if they can see a target or not, I want steady rounds in their direction. Enough to keep the rebel's heads down."

"Right." Fluttershy beat her wings but Twilight yanked her down by her tail before she got clear of the hole.

"Wait, wait Celestia damnit!" shouted Twilight. She held a confused and panicked looking Fluttershy down by the shoulders, muttering curses under her breath as she took a moment to regather her thoughts. "Once the perimeter is set up gather whatever pegasi you can find and tell them to get to work distracting that damn Ursa."

Fluttershy suddenly felt light headed. "Pe—Pegasi…"

"Yes all of the Pegasi. That means you too. I want you buzzing around that things head while I radio for back up." The Sergeant started to say something; something in stark opposition to her commander's plans, but when she parted her lips no words came. What did come said much more than any well constructed sentence could have. Fluttershy keeled over and vomited violently, choking as the contents of her stomach emptied onto the ground. Twilight understood. She gave the sergeant a moment to regain her composure. Another grenade landed near the foxhole – closer this time.

"Fluttershy I need to know you can do this. You understand me?" Fluttershy whipped her mouth sheepishly with her foreleg, embarrassment gripping her almost as tightly as fear. She took a deep breath and nodded again.

"The plan. Say it back to me," ordered Twilight.

"Unicorns – trench –.30 cals—pegasi – buzzing – Ursa. Uh – uh…"

"That's it. That's my Fluttershy." Twilight drew her friend into a tight hug. "You're gonna be fine. You're coming back to me safe and sound, understand?" she said, more for her own benefit than for her sergeants. She patted the pegasus pony on the helmet as if she were a child. Fluttershy shrugged off the radio equipment she'd been carrying, as well as a few other supply packs that would've otherwise slowed her down. Then, with an impressive beat of her graceful wings she took to the sky, not quite as swift as lightning loosed form a bottle, but swift enough.

Twilight watched Fluttershy's departure longer than she probably should have. An enemy riffle barked and another body rolled down from the edge of the hole, coming to a rest beside the first. This one was an earth pony. The round that finished him landed a few centimeters north of his right eye and, judging by the size of the hole and the precision of the shot, Twilight deduced, with a certain grim satisfaction, that a sniper had been responsible for the poor colt's death. The bullet had pierced his skull at an angle, a downward trajectory. The sniper was above them, a pegasus maybe, or an earth pony hiding in a treetop. But he wasn't directly above them. I didn't take an educated mind like Twilight's to deduce that if he were directly above them everypony in hole would be dead by now. Where ever he was hiding, Twilight figured that only the edge of their foxhole was withing the snipers sight.

"Solider get away from the edge. Head down now!" ordered the lieutenant. Just as the soldier was turning to slide down the slight incline, another round from the sniper knocked off her helmet with an audible ping, but the grunt was so terrified she didn't even seem to notice. Now that they were face to face Twilight recognized her. She was the green filly from before. The one who had been naively eating up every word of Applejack's story.

"Name and rank soldier."

"I'm Carrot Top. Private Carrot Top, Lieutenant Sparkle sir." She had a light coat and her mane was earthy orange and surprisingly well kept given that she lived in a warzone.

"Can you operate one of these radios private?"

"No sir, I'm afraid not." Ponyfeathers. That meant she was going to have to do it herself. Those trenches needed digging, and Twilight new she was the best magic user in the platoon – hell in the entire company. She could do it quicker than any of the other unicorns. Not that it mattered now. She and Carrot Top were pinned down by the sniper, and if Twilight knew her enemy as well as she thought she did, she knew he'd keep his scope trained on this hole. Whether the rebels won the war or not, gunning down Equestria's favorite daughter was sure to get him a paragraph or two in the history books.

"Listen Carrot, I want you to peek over that edge very quickly and try to get a fix on that snipers position. He's above us. Be careful and don't linger." Carrot crept up the slight incline slowly. She climbed on unsteady hooves, still afraid, but somehow being near the lieutenant made it easier to brave the battlefield's silent promise of death.

Twilight marehandled the radio. It was a difficult device to deal with; a great archaic slab of metal, decorated with knobs and dials to adjust range and frequency. It weighed something like thirty pounds and whoever had designed it seemed to fail to take into account that its future operators possessed hooves. Twilight put the hoof-set up to her ear and twisted one of the dials hurriedly.

"First to second and third. I repeat first to second and third. This is Lieutenant Twilight Sparkle requesting immediate response. Over." She waited for what felt like a long time. Then the receiver in her hooves cracked and the static of an empty line was replaced with a tempered voice.

"Lieutenant Octavia of second platoon reporting in and awaiting orders sir. Over." Upon hearing the voice, Twilight suddenly became aware of the fact that she'd been holding her breath and exhaled heavily into the receiver.

"Lieutenant Cheerilee of third platoon reporting in. Make that a ditto on my end as well. Over," came a second voice. Good, that meant the both of them could hear her. She wouldn't have time to repeat herself.

Twilight Sparkle looked up at the sky. Thin slivers of copper sunlight snaked their way through the thick treetops. It was nearly nightfall and she knew she had to get her ponies off of this battlefield before Celestia had finished dragging the sun down beneath the horizon. She tried to gather her thoughts as to explain first platoon's situation to her fellow lieutenants in as few words as possible, but all she could think of was Applejack, and the disgust in her eyes, and the venom in her voice. Maybe she was right. Maybe her status really hadn't been earned. She thought about giving it all up right there and then. Rainbow had, why couldn't she too? Her eyes fell from the treetops and landed on the little green pony perched at the edge of the trench, scared out of her mind but still willing to peek her head out in hopes of spotting the sniper without soiling the ground with the inside of her skull. If this one could risk her life for a glimpse, the mere possibility to better this dire situation, to gain some minute advantage – then Twilight knew she would just have to pony up as well.

She summoned the courage needed to hold down that little button on the hoof-set and speak. "Listen closely you two." She spoke with the fortitude and composure of something that could not be moved. The way a great stone pillar would speak, if it knew it shouldered the weight of a coliseum. "I'm afraid I won't have time to repeat myself." Next Chapter: Chapter FIVE Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 37 Minutes