The young Colonel stretched his incredibly sore back, glad to finally be done with all the paper work. It had taken the better part of the morning, but now he had the rest of the day to allow it to pile up again. He pulled his list of obligations from a drawer in the desk and gave it a once over.

“Okay,” he said to his desk, “I’ll go to the armory and get outfitted. After that I’ll go to my training session with Dash and AJ, but before all that; I’m going to grab lunch with Trixie.” At the thought of the blue unicorn, Jaze’s hand went to his neck and failed to find the ring for the thousandth time in the week since the dance. He was more than happy to see the lovely piece of jewelry hanging around her neck, but a part of him still felt it odd that it was no longer his.

The assassin’s head snapped to the door at the sound of angry voices and heavy hoofsteps outside his door, “Let me through! I need to see Jaze, right now!”

“I’m sorry but…”

Despite the aide’s protests, the door was suddenly flung wide and an irate purple unicorn stepped into the office; a datapad floating next to her. This she tossed onto the Colonel’s desk, scattering the valuable papers all over the ground. He breathed in deeply through his nose, trying to keep calm. He had just gotten everything in order. Then he realized that Twilight was not just angry; she was disgusted, confused, and were those tears?

“You better have good reason,” the assassin said calmly, “for mucking up all that work.”

“Why?” the unicorn asked, bitter tears of pain now flowing down her face.

“Why what?” In answer, she flipped on the datapad and turned it to a page; then pressed her hoof into the words. Although she seemed to upset to speak, the command to read was not lost on him, and so he started scanning the page. It was something about one of the many battles in human history, and a journal entry from a citizen caught his eye:

“We civilians are dying by the hundreds, mostly the children, the sick, and the elderly. I’ve been asked to ‘help’ those who can no longer be saved. The first one was a small girl, so thin you would think she’s a skeleton.”

Thinking that this is what had his friend and recruit so upset, he read on:

“Food’s gone, mostly. We even ate all the animals in the city, lowest the rat population’s been since this hole was founded. We had to kill and eat my work ponies, they were good friends and I am sad to see them go. Every so often something turns up and everyone fights for it. Some have began to turn cannibal, eating the dead and rotting bodies that are piling up between the constant attacks, starvation, the disease and the general killings. More likely to die from a neighbor than from any enemy…”

Jaze looked to Twilight in askance, “What is the problem?”

“How could humans so causally kill and eat a pony?” the unicorn sobbed, “Why? It’s like she didn’t matter at all!” A flash of understanding lit the assassin’s face, and he soon had the sobbing pony wrapped in a warm hug. She beat his chest with her hooves as he ran his hands through her mane to quiet her.

“Listen,” he whispered, “those ponies were not like you. And bad things happen in wartimes. This is why I wanted you to stay far away from this; I knew you’d be hurt.”

“How could humans be so horrible?!” she yelled at him.

“I know, I know,” He wished that he could reach into her mind and scrub these terrible images from her mind, “but you have to understand; ponies on Earth are much different and when it comes down to it, human life is more valuable to us than any animal.”

“It’s still terrible!”

“Twilight, I have seen potted plants around. Could a pony physically eat them?”

“Yes,” she managed to answer through her hurt.

“And why don’t you?”

“Because, they are like pets.”

“Now, if you were faced with starvation, would you eat them?”

Sickening understanding appeared in her eyes, “Yes, I would. Anypony would.”

“Same thing on Earth.” he explained, “The ponies he is talking about is not intelligent, they couldn’t think like you and I.”

“But, he said he would miss them!”

“When faced with death, most will do anything to survive. Those who don’t are labeled as heroes at their funerals.”

“I…”

“Twilight, I don’t claim that this was right, but that is the past and we can’t change it. The only things we can do are look to the future and make the best of the present.”

“I guess so.”

A smile curled across Jaze’s face, “And from now on, Recruit, don’t just come barging into my office.”

She managed to give a watery smile and a salute, “Yes sir.” She spun and left, tears still in her eyes. Jaze sighed, he wished that she had not seen the ugliest parts of human wars. But this was the world she dragged herself into the moment she decided to become a soldier. He made his way to the door and followed the unicorn through it.

“Hey, Recruit Twilight!” he called to the shaken unicorn, who turned to see what was wrong, “Tell your instructors to meet me by the armory in a couple hours. I need to talk to them, and you.” She gave a solemn nod and left out the front of the command building.

Jaze stepped into his house to the smell of something delicious cooking. He caught sight of Trixie in the kitchen, already hard at work making lunch. She popped her head into the living room and threw the Colonel a smile. His stomach lurched at the sight of the ring hanging from her neck, he still found it strange.

“Hello there,” the unicorn chirped, “the food will be ready in a minute.”

He broke into a wide smile, “How’d you know that I was going to come home for lunch?”

“Because,” she laughed, “I know that you have been eating that terrible camp food and your taste buds desired something a little better.”

“You have no idea how right you are, but I was gonna suggest going out to eat.”

“I am just as happy staying here today.”

“Whatever you want is more than good with me.” He fell on to the couch, surprisingly tired considering that he had only spent the day sitting behind a day. As soon as this is over, he thought with an inward laugh, I want to go back to being a Major. His thoughts soon turned back to the conversation he had just had with Twilight; that was probably what had him so strung out. He tried to bring his thoughts to something happier, but failed. All he could see was the purple unicorn’s tear streaked face. Trixie looked into the soldier’s eyes, and saw that something was bothering him.

“What is wrong, Jaze?” she asked quietly

“It’s something that happened earlier.” He said, his head and arms on the back of the couch.

The blue unicorn placed a hoof on either side of his head from behind and looked down at him, “Tell me, it might make you feel better.”

A grim smile flew across his face before disappearing, “What can I refuse you?” he told her in hushed tones everything that had passed between him and Twilight. As he had expected, fear and disgust were burned into her features. He kept his gaze on anything but her, trying desperately to avoid the heartbreak that would be on her face.

“I understand, Jaze.” Trixie said quietly.

That simple statement caught the assassin by surprise, “You do?”

“Yes. I know that desperation will make somepony do things that they would be loath to do normally. And everypony makes mistakes; I won’t blame you for something you can’t control. Twilight wouldn’t either; it was just that she was surprised.”

“Thank you Trixie, I know that humans must seem evil to you. We’ve brought so much into your life that you should not have to deal with.”

“And a few things I would not want to live without.” She was still looking down at him, the Colonel realized suddenly.

And then a smell hit his nostrils, “Is something burning?”

“Oh, buck!” The unicorn tore off into the kitchen to make sure that the food was still edible. Jaze had his first good laugh that day at the sounds of frantic frustration coming from the kitchen. “Shut up!” the unicorn called, beginning to laugh herself, “It’s not funny!”

“Sure is from this angle!”

“Well, the only thing that got a little burnt was your, um, ‘special’ part.”

“You didn’t have to cook anything special for me.” The Colonel said as he made his way into the kitchen, “I know that it bothers you.”

“Not really,” she assured, “it’s just a part of who you are. I told you that, remember?”

“Yes, but that was before you had to cook it.”

“I am well over that; so long as you never let me know what it used to be.”

“I can live with that, you cook so much better than me.”

“Enough gabbing, you look hungry.”

“Famished.” Jaze assured as his stomach rumbled audibly.

The armory was the last place that the Colonel wanted to see any of his friends. And yet here he was, about to give Twilight the news that she had been waiting for almost two weeks to hear. The purple unicorn in question stood at attention, waiting for Jaze to say something.

“Recruit Twilight, I believe that you have proven yourself capable of handling a fire arm.”

Her eyes lit up with excitement, “Sir?”

“Report to the Gunnery Sergeant and get fitted for a load-out.”

“Sir, yes sir!” She walked in as calm and soldierly as she could manage, but the anticipation still put a bounce in her step.

When Twilight was safely out of earshot, Jaze turned to the DIs, “What are your assessments of the recruit’s skills?”

“Sir, she seems quiet adept at code cracking and information warfare, sir.” the lead DI told said quickly.

“How do you figure so?”

“She broke into an encrypted file, a tester file that usually takes forever to crack; even after someone is taught how to do it.”

“She cracked the code,” another DI jumped in, “in less than two minutes. And she did it on her first try, sir.”

Jaze stared after the vanished unicorn, “Isn’t that something?”

“Sir, it defiantly is sir.”

“I would suggest,” an older DI said quietly, “that you put her in to information warfare, she is more valuable there than on the front lines.”

“I never had any intention of letting her in the frontline. Although she is technically a Marine now, if only an honorary one, so I can’t not let her help. I will consider using her for war-tech, but it will be her call. It’s the least that I can do for her after all this.” The Colonel gave a quick wave, “Dismissed.” He entered the armory just in time to see Twilight picking up a rifle with her magic.

The Gunnery Sergeant looked up to see the Colonel and smiled, “Ah, I was wondering when you would come to see me.”

“What made you so sure that I would visit?” Jaze asked.

“Because, you haven’t gotten a kit yet.”

“I already have my kit; I’ve had it since I fell to this planet.”

“Ahhh, but do you have these?” He picked up an assault rifle that looked almost exactly like the one the assassin had stored in his house; the only difference was that this rifle was slightly smaller.

“I am going to guess that there is something special about this gun.”

“It is the G-8 Tactical Assault Rifle. Or TAR for short.” The Sergeant explained excitedly, “It’s got a sixty round clip, twice the size of the old G-7, with the same bull-pup design, and a lot more reliable to boot. It’s more accurate, and it can be registered to its owner via DNA signatures, so only you can use this gun once it’s yours.”

“Doesn’t that mean that I can’t pick up and use a fallen soldier’s weapon?”

“That’s half the beauty, if the weapon registers its owner’s death, it disables the DNA coding!”

“That’s a little gruesome, don’t you think?” Twilight asked, nervously eyeing the gun before her.

“It’s a lot better than someone being able to take your gun and shoot you with it.” the Sergeant assured, “Plus you can manually turn it off, but only if the registered owner is holding the rifle.”

“Okay, that’s nifty,” Jaze said slowly, “But hardly worth jumping to reissue myself a weapon over.”

The Sergeant’s smile grew wider, “Then check this out!” He retrieved a few ammunition boxes and set them on a table for the Colonel’s approval. Inside the first was what appeared to be regular bullets, except that they had cracks running along the surface. The second contained bullets that were slightly bulged at the top, like a mushroom. And the final one appeared to be normal bullets, just heavier.

“I give,” the assassin finally admitted, “what are they for?’

“These babies,” the Sergeant smirked, “are where the TAR gets the ‘Tactical’ part of its name.” He picked out one of the heavy rounds, “This is a specially hardened round, designed to tear through Cye armor plate. Penetrates up to three-quarters of an inch of the stuff.” He next grabbed one of the mushroom headed ones, “This thing has a small amount of explosive in the head of the bullet. One shot from one of these will turn the average Cye weapons platform into a memory.” Lastly, he grabbed the fractured bullet, “A personal favorite, these are shredder rounds. The rounds break up and stay in a tight pattern until they hit something. Great for the softer targets, still does alright against a basic trooper. And they can obviously still use the old ammo.”

“Still not jumping for joy here.” the assassin laughed.

“Then if this doesn’t sell you, nothing will.” The master of the armory thumbed the release for the magazine, “What is the one of the biggest limiters for a gun’s effectiveness?”

“The availability of ammo,” Twilight answered, catching Jaze off guard.

“How did you know that?” the Colonel and the Sergeant asked simultaneously.

“I had to take lessons on war theory,” she replied with a wink, “I know more than you think.”

“Right,” the Sergeant coughed, “So, it doesn’t matter if you have a gun if you have no ammo. The TAR solves that by having the ability to use virtually any type of small arms ammo.”

“No. Way.” Jaze’s voice was stunned and his eyes were widening in excitement, “How does that work?”

“I’ve got you now, boyo.” The smirk was firmly in place on the Sergeant’s face now, “The receiver and barrel are made of a special, reactive plastic that forms around the magazine and bullets you put in there. Within reason, of course.”

“Fine, you sold me.” The Colonel picked up the rifle and brought it to his shoulder, checking the sights, “Does it do anything else? Like turn into a robot sentry or aim for me?”

“I think not,” the Sergeant replied with laugh, “but do you need more?”

“No, I think this will do.” He turned to Twilight; who was turning over her gun, looking at it from every angle, “I want you to report to the firing range and begin learning to use that rifle. I expect you to be up to scratch before the end of the day.”

“Yes sir!” The unicorn saluted, but in her mind she was panicking. She had not held a rifle before today, and now she was expected to hit a target with it. She left the tent quickly, wanting as much time as she could get to work on her marksponyship.

“I can’t wait to use these babies on some Cye.” The Sergeant said as he lovingly cradled one of the rifles.

“Don’t worry,” Jaze began collecting magazines, “that will happen all too soon.”

Twilight took a deep breath and, her gun floating before her. She peered down the sights and lined up on a target. With a magical squeeze of the trigger, the rifle barked and sent several rounds screaming down range. The bullets slammed into the target and the unicorn’s breath came out all at once.

“That’s five for five!” the soldier teaching her to shoot yelled in surprise, “You sure you haven’t done this before?”

“Yes sir, I haven’t done this before!”

“You can drop that sir load with me, recruit.” He smiled, “I ain’t no DI, I’m just a guy that knows how to put lead on target.” He was a shorter man; his hair closely shaven to his scalp to the point that you could not tell what color it was. The left side of his face was scarred from a severe burn, but he did not let that dampen his bright spirit.

“Then what do I call you?”

“I told you before, Lance Corporal Yatran. Or Stacks, that’s what everyone calls me.”

“Stacks?” the unicorn laughed, “Why do they call that?”

“Cause we had to stack the bodies of the Cye that were storming the facility I was tasked to guard. And I was the one that had to do the stacking.”

“Okay then… Stacks. Then you don’t have to call me recruit, you can just call me Twilight.”

“Much better, I hate to think that you think that I am like those DI demons.”

“Oh you’re much nicer.” The two shared a laugh at the expense of the DIs.

“But seriously, you know the DIs are only evil because they care, right?”

She remembered the conversation that she had overheard between Jaze and one of the instructors, “Yes, I know.”

“If there is a more thankless job, I’ve yet to see it. Next to combat medic, that is the last job I want in this outfit.” His eyes were briefly dark, but soon returned to their previous enthusiasm, “Enough of that though, I know that I won’t be taken off my sniper team for while.”

“You’re a sniper?”

“Yep,” He held up his right index finger, “this is the Finger O’ God, right here.” He looked around to make sure no superiors were around before whispering conspiratorially, “You wanna shoot a real rifle?”

Twilight bit her lower lip, thinking of the alternatives, “Couldn’t we get in trouble for that?”

“Yes, but that’s half the fun!”

“Maybe we shouldn’t…”

“Aw, c’mon! Trust me, you’ll love it.”

“Hey Stacks,” a female voice called, “Are you trying something with the recruit?” Twilight turned to see a woman jogging over to them. Her face looked a lot like Stacks’, but she had let her hair, which was a dirty blonde, grow to where it touched her ears.

“What? No!” he yelled back, embarrassment coloring his face.

“Watch out, rookie.” she said with a wink, “Even with that scar he’s still a player.”

“That’s no fair, Sis.” he said, false hurt dripping from his words.

“What’s a ‘player’?” the purple unicorn asked, her head cocked in confusion.

The woman let out a loud laugh and slapped Twilight on the back, “You’re so innocent, I love it! I think you can hang with us, but you gotta ditch ‘Twilight’ and get a good nickname.”

“Yours is Sis?”

“Yep,” she grabbed Stacks in a headlock, “got it from this idiot here. If you can’t tell, we’re twins and he kept calling me Sis and it stuck. Your friends call you anything?”

“My friend Applejack calls me Twi.” the unicorn confessed.

“It’ll do for now.” Sis turned to her brother, “Now what were you trying to pressure Twi into doing?”

“I just wanted her to shoot my rifle.”

“I’ll bet.”

“No! I meant my sniper’s rifle!”

“Sure, playa.”

“Would you cut that out, I got a rep to protect!”

“You still haven’t told me what a ‘player’ is.”

“Maybe when you’re older, Twi.” Sis said as she ruffled the unicorn’s mane.

“So, what are you doing here Sis?” Stacks asked.

“The Colonel and those two ponies are at it again. I thought you might want to watch.” She gave the sniper a wink, “And perhaps to bet?”

“Oh no,” he said with a laugh, “you’ve already cleaned me out. No way am I betting against you again.”

“Fine, I’ll let you keep your money. How bout you Twi, you in?”

“I’ll watch, but I don’t have any money.”

“Dammit! That’s my luck!” the woman said with a laugh, “Oh well, we can still watch. I bet the Colonel’s gonna get himself beaten.”

“No way! Those ponies are toast.” The pair bickered all the way to the recreation fields.

The Colonel had always tried to hide the training bouts he had with Dash and Applejack before, and yet the soldiers always managed to find the three of them. So the Colonel had decided to have the matches at a set time and place for the past week. The fights were a big hit with the soldiers; everyone placing friendly bets on the matches. The two brightly colored ponies soon came to enjoy the attention, and the industrious farm-pony had soon brought Big Macintosh into the camp to sell refreshments to the screaming soldiers. Celestia and Jaze had come to the agreement that one Earth Coalition Credit was equal to one Bit for the time being. At least this way the humans and ponies could trade.

As Twilight neared the field where the match was being held, she could hear the sound of steel crashing into steel over the cheers of the crowd and knew that the fight was under way. She managed to push her way to the front of the ring of people to catch sight of the three fighters. Jaze and Dash were trading blows, the pegasus having taken to the air to increase her mobility. Their blades came together time and again, each strike letting out a bell-like peal that did not have time to fade away before the blades crashed together again.

The weather pony turned warrior brought her single-edged sword down to strike the top of the Colonel’s shoulder. He swept his sword across his front, catching the pony’s blade in mid strike and pushing it away and putting his sword between hers and her body. Jaze swung his sword at the pony’s face, catching her off guard. Twilight was stunned that he would swing a sharpened blade at a friend so casually, like he did not care if he hurt her. When Dash stopped beating her wings and fell to the ground to avoid the blow, the studious unicorn saw that the blades were blocked by a hard plastic coating. The blades were only slightly more dangerous than a butter knife, if a butter knife could break bones. Upon the realization that her friends were not trying to kill each other, Twilight sat down to enjoy the show.

The rainbow-maned pony launched herself from the ground, putting all her force behind the tip of her blade. Jaze was forced to roll away, giving Dash the time she needed to get back in the air and begin circling her grounded opponent. Suddenly, Applejack came out of nowhere and tried to land a blow on the human who was climbing to his feet. He spun away and made to bring Sairugi down on top of the farmpony’s skull. Dash forced him to back off his assault by charging him from the air.

The two ponies made a perfect team, each playing off the other’s strengths and covering their weaknesses. Whenever the human would try to outmaneuver his ground-based opponent, he would find himself blocked by the pegasus’ blade before he could finish his steps. And any time he tried to swat the nimble aerial pony down, the stronger earth pony was there to redirect his attack. The pair of ponies managed to give as much punishment as they were taking, and the three seemed to tiring at the same rate.

“Go Dash, go Applejack!” Twilight called out to her pony friends. Of course, when they turned to smile at her; Jaze stepped between them, used the flat of his blade to knock the pegasus from the air and kicked the earth pony in the foreleg to send her sprawling to the ground. He placed his blade on the orange pony’s throat and lightly set his foot on the other’s neck.

“Don’t let yourselves get distracted.” the assassin huffed, out of breath from the hard fight. He stepped back to let them up and readied himself for another skirmish.

“Oh Jaze.” A certain blue unicorn called out from the crowd. The Colonel’s head snapped in her direction, and the two ponies launched a quick attack. Applejack swept his leg out from underneath him while Dash’s hoof connected with the side of his head. He managed to twist himself in the air to land on his back, but he felt two swords cross over his neck, pinning him to the ground.

“Don’t let yourself get distracted.” The two ponies said in unison.

Jaze smiled from his defeated position, “I guess that I deserved that, didn’t I?” The host of humans roared with laughter, and soon the three in the ring were caught up in it as well. “Sorry folks, that’s all for today!” A collective groan could be heard as the humans departed in twos and threes while the scarred soldier made his way to the one who had distracted him.

“Did I make the master swordsman lose?” Trixie asked sweetly.

“I guess you did, but I let it happen so I won’t hold it against you.” the Colonel laughed.

“I was actually here to tell you that some Royal Guards are at the house to pick you up. They said that the Princesses had an urgent message for you.”

“We better see what the fuss is about then. Wonder what I messed up now.”

Jaze sat across a table from the Princesses in a room just off the throne room. So far neither had made any effort to talk about why he was here, a fact that did not fill the young man with confidence. They had asked how the logistics of the army were, if they had enough food, that sort of thing.

Finally frustrated, he leaned onto the table, “Alright, Princesses. I think that we are close enough to cut the diplomacy and talk about why I am really here.”

A look passed between the sisters as Celestia began to explain, “We have decided that we would like you to take the Royal Guardsponies into the human army, as well as the Wonderbolts.”

“That’s great, every little bit of battle strength we can muster will do worlds of good later.”

“There is, however,” Luna cautioned, “a problem.”

“What do you mean?”

“Only another Royal Guard can lead the Guards, that or a Celestial Sister.” Celestia explain almost nervously.

“And that means?”

“That, to lead them, you would have to be a Royal Guard yourself.”

“We would like to ask you to join the Guardsponies, the first non-pony member since times immemorial.” Luna said formally.

The human’s mouth hung open, he had no idea what to say. On the one hand, this was a huge honor and would help him to gain standing with the ponies and other races that inhabited the land. He would be a messenger from the Princesses, trusted by most; as opposed to some thing from beyond the stars who nopony had heard of before now. On the other hand, would that make him subject to the Princesses will? And if so, could he afford to allow them to exercise their control in a battle?

His thoughts were interrupted by a beep from his ever present communicator. He placed it in his ear and finally found his voice, “Colonel Armand here, what is the problem.”

“Reaper 1, the Colonel is listening. Repeat what you just said to me.” the Control operator said quickly.

“Sir, we have multiple contacts at extreme scanner range. Profiles suggest Cye ships.”