Dear Diary,

We were awakened at the crack of dawn with a bugle call. I jolted awake and looked around, thinking we were under attack, but instead all I heard was some shouting and gunfire in the distance. I crept out of the thicket in the direction of the noise, and stumbled across a large golf course with a creek running through the middle of it. On the other side of the creek there were two groups of ponies, one group all wearing blue uniforms like the ponies at Canterby, and the other in plain clothes (most of them had white shirts and brown or black pants), except for one wearing a clean grey uniform.

I went back to the clearing and told everypony what I saw.

“Oh, goodness,” said Glorieta. “Should we help them?”

“Of course!” said S’mores. “This’ll be fun!”

“No, it’ll be dangerous,” said Dmitry. “...But it’s the right thing to do.”

“I’d like to, but I’m out of ammo,” said Valverde.

“So am I,” said Gallium.

I rifled through my saddlebags, but I was short on everything except for .308 rounds. Grapevine and Dmitry had the same problem.

“Alright, we’ll just use these,” I said, and tossed all five of our hunting rifles at the teens. I would try to rely on my sniper rifle and pistol for the upcoming battle.

When we were all ready, I led the group to a line of trees on the golf course.

“Take cover behind these trees,” I said. “They don’t notice us yet, which is good. Let’s keep that as long as we can. Don’t fire until I say so.”

I scanned the battlefield for an opportunity. Both sides were kind of clustered among trees. Then I saw a squad of cavalry gallop onto the field from the greycoats’ side. I aimed my sniper rifle at them and said,

“Fire.”

My companions all fired in unison. Two of the cavalry fell, as did two more of their infantry.

“Good work,” I said. “Fire again.”

Only one of the cavalry fell this time, but two more of the infantry did. Admittedly, my shot missed, probably due to my lack of experience with hitting moving targets.

I re-aimed at the cavalry.

“Fire.”

We went through the cycle three more times, never felling more than three soldiers at a time. However, between us and the blues, the cavalry squad lost half of their unit before it could reach the blues’ line. The survivors were shaken and began to retreat.

“Good work,” I said. “Reload your weapons but don’t fire until my command.”

“Pardon me, ma’am,” said Glorieta, “but it appears we’re being shot at.”

I looked across the river to see some of the bluecoats firing at us.

“Alright, who shot at the blues?” I demanded. “Those guys are friendly!”

“None of us,” said S’mores. “We know who the bad guys are.”

“I might have accidentally hit one of the blue guys in the last volley,” Febreze said. “I didn’t mean to, it was an accident!”

“Friendly fire then,” I said. “They probably think we’re with the greys. Keep going, and focus all fire on the grey guys’ line. Maybe that’ll convince ‘em which side we’re on.”

We kept shooting. After a few more cycles of fire and reload, the greys’ numbers had been whittled down enough that they started retreating. Before I left, I spot a glimpse of the bearded officer from last night. I could have sworn it was Major Sibley from Canterby!

“Alright, the enemy is in retreat,” I said. “Let’s cross the river and meet up with the blues.”

My companions followed close behind as I led them to the bridge. We laid low fearing they might start attacking us, which they did once we got to the bridge.

“Stop! We’re friendly!” Grapevine shouted, but I could barely hear her over the gunfire, and neither could they.

“Anypony got a white handkerchief?” I asked. Glorieta gave me one, and I tied one end to a stick to make a white flag and waved it around.

They only shot harder.

I lowered the makeshift flag and examined it. It wasn’t exactly a white flag-- rather, about a quarter of it was completely stained with blood, forming a vertical red banner along the edge opposite the stick.

“What? I get really bad nosebleeds,” Glorieta said.

“Okay, but I asked for a white handkerchief,” I said. “Completely white.”

Febreze gave me another one that was completely white, which I used to replace the blood stained one.

They stopped shooting.

“Great, they stopped shooting,” I said. “Now put down your guns to show we mean no harm.”

I walked across the bridge, and was greeted on the other side by a mustached lieutenant pointing a pistol at me, flanked by two privates pointing shotguns.

“Stay where you are and don’t move an inch,” the lieutenant ordered.

“We’re friendly!” I said. “We were helping you this whole time!”

“Really?” the officer asked, with one of his bushy eyebrows raised.

“If we were with them we would have retreated,” I said. “And I’m not wearing one of those grey uniforms.”

The three soldiers looked at each other. Finally, the lieutenant said, “Okay, follow me. But don’t try anything funny or you’re as dead as they are.”

We received a warmer welcome at the golf course’s clubhouse, where Major Chives Onion had made his headquarters.

“I’m deeply sorry about all the confusion,” he said. “I’m deeply grateful for your help, and once we set the record straight, the whole unit will be too.”

“I’m glad we could get it all sorted out,” I replied. “It looked like you needed help, so we helped.”

“You’re good people,” he replied. “We could use more of you in this forsaken world.”

“...Well, we also kind of have a score to settle,” Dmitry said. ”Do you happen to know who was leading them, by any chance?”

“As much as it pains me to say it, their commander was Major Sibley Tent,” Major Chives said.

“Ah knew it!” Grapevine exclaimed. Then her face sank into a scowl. “Ah knew he was up to no good!”

“Now wait just a minute,” Major Chives said. “You shouldn’t jump to conclusions about his character. Trust me, I’ve known him for a long time. I wouldn’t say he’s a bad pony. He was one of the finest soldiers I ever saw. I’m not trying to excuse any of his actions per se, and his betrayal pains me more than anything, but you have to evaluate the situation with some nuance. I suppose, if anything, he just became a victim of his own ambition...”

“‘Betrayal?’” I asked. “Let me guess: he raised an army of mercenaries to take over the town because he wanted to be in charge. ”

“Well… that’s a very blunt way of putting it, but basically, yes, he did,” the Major said. “And it’s a shame too, because the General was just about to promote him.”

“But it’s all good now, right?” asked Valverde. “His force was wiped out and they’ve retreated. We’ve won the battle, and he’ll no longer be a threat.”

“If he’s smart, he won’t bother showing his face around here ever again,” said Gallium.

“Well… not exactly,” the Major said, with a very un-reassuring look on his face.

“Whadaya mean, ‘not exactly?’” Grapevine asked. “Are you tellin’ me he’s got more?”

“If my scouts are to be believed, that was only a detachment,” the Major replied. “I’ll stay here and keep a lookout, but it’s possible that skirmish may have just been a distraction while the rest of his army slipped by.”

“Oh dear,” said Grapevine. “You should send somepony to warn Canterby before they get there.”

“I’ve already sent a messenger,” the Major said. “Now all that’s left to do is wait. If I can confirm that they’ve passed us, we can go in and attack them from behind.”

“How can we help?” S’mores asked. “I’d rather not sit around waiting. We should go ahead and attack.”

“I need more intel before I can make any moves,” the Major said. “So for now, I’m staying put until my scouts report back.”

“Hey, we could do some recon for you,” said Glorieta. “We’ll go on ahead and see if we can find the rest of his army.”

“Yes, please!” the Major exclaimed. “That’s perfect. Just what we need.”

“Alright,” I said. “Where should we start looking?”

“Check Milk Creek Road,” he said. “It follows the creek and goes due northwest from here. That’s probably the quickest and most direct way to Canterby. If he’s making a rush, he’d probably go that way.”

We traveled down the road at a brisk pace, keeping our eyes peeled for any signs of activity. However, we saw nothing except dead, desolate farmland along the route. Additionally, the entire landscape was covered with a thick grey fog that made it impossible to see more than a few hundred yards.

“Are we there yet?” Febreze whined.

“Does it look like we’re there yet?” Gallium asked snidely.

“No, but I wish we were,” Febreze replied. “I’m booored!”

“Hey, can it, will ya?” S’mores hissed. “You’re gonna give away our position!”

“To who?” Gallium asked. “There’s nopony here.”

“To whom,” Febreze corrected.

Gallium facehoofed.

“To whomst,” Valverde said.

“To whomst’d” Febreze said.

“Whomst’dve” Gallium corrected.

A confused Dmitry turned to me and simply asked, “What?”

To which I replied, “Whomst’dvely”

Grapevine chimed, “Oh, ah know this!”

Then she took a deep breath and exclaimed:

“Whomst’dvely’yaint--”

“Woah, hold up!” Febreze exclaimed. “I think we’re there!”

Ahead of us the road turned right, away from the creek which had been following the road and separated by a line of trees. Just before the turn, a few wagons were parked on the side of the road in a clearing.

“That’s just a caravan,” Gallium said.

“Can we go talk to them?” Febreze asked.

“No, because we don’t know if they’re friendly yet,” I said. “Let’s approach slowly and quietly and keep our weapons out just in case.”

As we crept closer, we could begin to see their campsite from behind the trees. It appeared to simply be a normal campsite set up by some normal travelers. They were filling their canteens in the creek, drying clothes on a line, chatting over coffee, and cooking food. Their knives pistols remained holstered, but their larger weapons had been laid off to the side and the group in general appeared nonthreatening.

“Wait, I see something!” said Glorieta. “Look, that mare’s wearing one of those grey uniforms!”

She pointed towards what appeared to be the commander of the caravan, who stood on the bank of the creek. She looked very non-threatening as she was lazily skipping rocks across it and appeared to be completely oblivious to her surroundings. However, she was unmistakenly clad in one of the trademark grey uniforms of Sibley’s army.

“Alright, weapons ready,” I said as I prepared mine. “Stay low and keep quiet as we approach. Fire on my command.”

They were caught completely off guard by our attack. Half of them instinctively began to flee before realizing they were supposed to guard the caravan and turned around. However, it was too little too late: despite outnumbering us four to one, their delay allowed us to pick off most of their comrades before they could counterattack. After getting only three or four volleys of shot out, their morale broke and the remaining soldiers began retreating, leaving about a dozen wounded behind. However, we weren’t in the business of providing care, so we just left them where they fell and looted their bodies for weapons, food, and ammo.

‘So… what do we do about their wagons?” Glorieta asked. I pondered this for a bit: while it looked like there was a lot of good stuff in there, there was way too much loot for us to carry without slowing ourselves down. I didn’t want the supplies to go to waste and considered taking as much as we could, but we had a mission to do and couldn’t afford to waste time pillaging. In addition, their main force could be close by and would have certainly been alerted to our presence by the gunfire. There was only one reasonable thing left to do:

“Hey Grapevine, got a match?”

She didn’t, so we just went with a Moltotov instead. I ordered everypony to keep a safe distance before Grapevine threw it. She only needed to hit one wagon, as we had doused all the wagons and the ground between with some kerosene we had found. The fire spread quickly and engulfed them all within seconds, followed by a series of explosions. Some of them were much larger than I expected, engulfing most of the campsite in flame. I can only assume they must have had a few Balefire Eggs stashed inside those wagons.

The others wanted to stay and watch the fireworks, but I reminded them that one, we had to find the army before they reached Canterby, and two, these explosions would draw a lot of unwanted attention our way and that we should flee the area before Sibley sent a large force our way to investigate.

I was right: a little while down the road, we encountered an entire platoon rushing down the road. We just narrowly avoided a fight by diving into some foliage on the side of the road.

As they passed us, S’mores took out her gun and pointed it.

“What are you doing?!?” I said in an exasperated but hushed tone while pushing the barrel downward.

“I was gonna pick some of them off as they went past,” she said. “They’re the enemy, remember?”

“Yeah, but we can’t risk a confrontation,” I said. “There’s too many of them, and they’ll all start firing if they hear even a single gunshot. We’re a recon team, not snipers.”

S’mores grunted in frustration, but backed down as she was told. Gallium had also aimed his gun to fire, but got the message and backed down as well. The whole group watched them run by, and they seemed to ignore us…

Then a mine detonated in the street, turning three of the soldiers into mangled corpses and sent them flying. The rest went into high alert and began looking around for culprits.

A gunshot rang out.

“It was an accident, I swear!” Febreze said. “Just a little trigger hoof, that’s all.”

The soldiers started firing at us.

“That little ‘accident’ just gave away our position!” I shouted. “Fall back, fall back!”

We fled west for a block, then north, as half of the platoon chased us. We sought cover in the first place we could find: the parking lot of a large warehouse at the edge of a town. Big mistake. In our panicked state, I had forgotten that motor vehicles have a nasty habit of exploding when their engines get shot. Fortunately, we were reminded the easy way: a car far behind us exploded rather than one in front.

“We’re not safe here!” I yelled. “Quick, get into the building! Stay away from the cars!”

The nearest accessible entrance that wasn’t boarded up or locked under a heavy steel door were the glass doors of the office on the other side of the parking lot. The lot was a long thin strip of pavement running along the front of the building with two rows of parking spaces, one on each side. It gave us a clear straight path to the office, albeit one with large bombs lining the edges. The only solution was to sprint to the end.

After making it out of a chain of explosions by only the skin of our teeth, we made it to safety behind the doors of the office walls. From the safety of the office, we put up a good enough fight through the windows that our attackers decided to pull back and retreat. However, as they retreated, the sound of gunfire didn’t abate; instead, it only got louder.

“What the hell is goin’ on ‘round here?” Grapevine asked. “Ah thought they retreated.”

“Look over there, across the street,” Glorieta said, pointing to the windows at the back of the office. We all went over and saw a battle occurring in a cemetery on the other side of the road.

“Wait, I think I recognize that guy,” I said, looking through the binoculars. “Is that Sprigg?”

“Lemme see,” Grapevine asked. I gave her the binoculars, and within seconds she nodded in the affirmative.

“Ah believe so,” she said. “What’s he doin’ out here?”

“Trying to stop them from reaching the fort,” I said. “Which means we’re pretty close. Come on!”

The Canterbians seemed to be losing the battle, as it appeared that they had been continuously getting pushed back, and would soon be expelled from the cemetery entirely. A line of shrubs formed the western boundary of the cemetery, and I figured that if we attacked from there we could flank the greycoats’ assault and possibly push them away from the town. Unfortunately, just as we were getting into position to flank them, we got flanked ourselves.

“Fire!” somepony yelled from behind us. I had only enough time for a quick glance behind us, saw a squad of soldiers about the same size as ours aiming rifles at us, then jumped through the shrubs just in time to avoid their fire. I looked around and found that all of us had made it through safely, but we were now on the eastern side of the hedge where the battle was raging. No sooner did we get our bearings when we heard a bugle call announcing a cavalry charge. From our right, a squad of lancers was charging in our direction, and we had to run.

Eventually the lancers turned around to pursue their true target (Sprigg’s rear), but they had pushed us, either by accident or on purpose, into a lot in front of a maintenance shed on the northwestern corner of the cemetery’s grounds, where we were cut off from the rest of the battle by a chain link fence with only one entrance. We could have rejoined the battle, but the squad that had ambushed us earlier popped out of the bushes again and had us trapped. Our only chance was to hide inside the shed and lock ourselves in.

There were no doors or windows on this shed except for the large windowless door from which we had came in.

“Well, now what?” S’mores asked.

“We wait in here until it’s safe to come out,” I replied.

“And how long will that take?” Febreze asked.

“It shouldn’t take long,” Glorieta said. “Those bluecoats looked like they were on the verge of losing.”

“Yeah, but the greys saw us come in here,” S’mores said. “I bet they’re just gonna force us out.”

“We’ve got enough food for a few days,” said Valverde. “No worries.”

“Yeah, but we have only a day’s worth of water, at most,” I said. “Nothing in here is edible or drinkable.”

“We could drill a hole in the roof and drink rainwater,” Febreze suggested.

“One, that water’s gonna be highly irradiated if there’s another of those radiation storms,” Gallium said. “And two, they’ll probably just stick a gun barrel through there and shoot at us while we have no way of fighting back.”

“So what, are we doomed?!?” Febreze asked with a hint of hysteria setting in.

“Nah, ah’ve got a better idea,” said Grapevine as she lugged a machine of some sort with a long metal tube protruding from it across the room.

“And just what would that be?” Galium asked with a raised eyebrow.

“We dig our way out,” Grapevine said, standing upright and holding the machine’s handles by her forehooves, with the end of the metallic tube touching the metal wall of the shed, revealing it to be a jackhammer. She pushed down on the levers on its handles and the entire thing began to jiggle.

“If we do it now, they won’t hear us over the noise of the battle,” she explained, raising her voice so it was audible above the machine’s noise. “If we can break our way out through the back, we might be able to sneak up on them. Now grab some picks and help!”

So we grabbed all the pickaxes and saws and hard hats we could find and took turns helping her break out of the back door. It took about an hour, but eventually we poked enough holes in the wall that we could just push it down, giving us a second doorway. To our luck, the battle was still going and making enough noise to cover our tracks, but it was starting to die down. Three yards away from the back wall of the shed was a road separated by a chain link fence. Just as we had all gotten out, I saw Sprigg and his staff running down this road, giving us an ominous sign.

“We need to get out of here, NOW,” I said.

“But what about the battle?” Glorieta asked.

“The battle is over,” I said. “The blues have lost, their commander has left the field. Sibley’s troops will be here any minute now.”

“What, you mean we’re gonna climb over that fence?” Grapevine asked.

“Or fly across, if you can,” I said. “But yes, we’re jumping that fence. Once you’re over, stick around and provide covering fire until everypony’s across. Keep your eyes peeled and your guns ready, in case they attack.”

There were a few disused boards and sheets of metal laying on the side of the shed that we picked up and used as shields. They came in handy, because a few minutes in we were spotted by the squad that had ambushed and trapped us. Whether or not they had been keeping guard the whole time or merely came back to check on us, I couldn’t say, I can only tell you that they wanted to keep us from escaping. Fortunately, my plan worked perfectly and we didn’t lose a single pony. We climbed over one at a time, and Dmitry stayed behind to shield the ponies climbing and, once we had enough ponies across, toss shields over for use as cover. When it got to the point where I was the only one left, I simply hid behind the corner of the shed and cast an invisibility spell on myself.

The ambush squad finally decided to charge forward during a lull when my entire squad had to reload. They came around the side of the shed and looked around. Two of them peered curiously inside the shed while the rest stood guard on the outside and resumed firing at my squad. Soon, the ones who went inside the shed returned after having found nothing. They didn’t seem to notice that one of their enemies had gone missing, but it did worry my allies, and it showed in their faces. I wanted to reassure them that I was still alive and hadn’t gotten lost or gone missing, but my escape relied on me not blowing my cover. I really wanted to sneak up behind one of the enemy squad and shoot or stab them from behind, but this too would blow my cover. Instead, I scaled the fence very slowly, restricting my movement to short bursts when there was gunfire to cover the sound. After what seemed like forever, I finally got to the top and began my descent.

Might I mention that this was the first time I had ever scaled a fence before? Crazy, I know, but a combination of a fear of heights and a fear of wrongdoing had prevented me from ever climbing more than one or two steps. It’s crazy how the fear of death seems able to overpower all others.

Coming back down was easier, because halfway through I could just jump to the bottom. This produced a light ‘thud’ on the ground and emitted a small cloud of dust, which attracted the attention of one of the enemy soldiers. Before she could respond, I whipped out my pistol and used SATS to shoot a few bullets at her head. Due to the chain barrier between us, only one of them actually hit, but it knocked her off guard long enough for me to escape to cover. This attracted the attention of everypony else on the battlefield, so once I was behind my friends’ shields, I revealed myself. This shocked them and made them lose their focus for a few seconds.

“Whoa, you scared me!” Dmitry exclaimed. “Don’t do that!”

“You know an invisibility spell?” Valverde asked.

“Awesome,” said S’mores.

“Can you teach it to me sometime?” Febreze asked.

“You don’t have a horn!” Gallium yelled.

“I just wanna know how it works!” Febreze replied.

“I’ll show you later,” I said, “But right now we need to finish with these bad guys first.”

In just twelve hours, I had somehow managed to train a group of teenagers who had never fired guns before into seasoned soldiers who could now hold their own against a slightly larger squad of hardened veterans, and with good leadership, defeat them. I felt a sense of pride glowing within my chest as I watched the ambushers fall to the ground one by one, and the last two flee in terror. Yet I was also incredulous-- were they really that good, and was this really my doing? It couldn’t be-- I barely had any experience of my own! And yet, somehow it all turned out like this.

The warehouse, the cemetery, and the shed had all been on the outskirts of pre-war Canterby. We quickly traversed the deserted blocks between the cemetery and the downtown, where the newly consolidated post-war Canterby now stood. Though we were entering through a different gate with a different gatekeeper, the three familiar faces at the head of our group were instantly recognized and we were granted entry.

“I’d love to talk right now,” said one of the officers I had dined with on my last visit, “But we’re kinda in the middle of a battle for the fate of the city right now.”

“That’s why we came,” I said. “We’re here to help.”

“Great!” she said. “We could use some more ponies on the eastern wall.”

The ‘Eastern Wall’ consisted primarily of the back wall of a supermarket, a movie theater, and a makeshift gate blocking the road which ran between them. Before them lay a long and narrow parking lot, followed by a long and narrow field. There was very little cover that an enemy could hide behind, making an assault from this angle suicidal.

Rather ironically, immediately outside the gate stood a prewar war memorial, dedicated to all those Canterbians in the five branches of the military who gave their lives for freedom...

...the freedom for us civilians to fight about stupid shit.

Right on cue, the ‘stupid shit’ of a pony who started this whole mess, Major Sibley Tent, came forward with two assistants, one of them carrying… a white flag?!?

The others began whispering to each other. More soldiers came to our wall, along with a few officers and finally General Sprigg himself.

"What's all this about?" the General asked.

"A pleasure to see you, General," Sibley said. "At last we meet... on equal footing."

The General gave a contemptuous snort.

"Equal?" he balked. "We ain't equal. After your betrayal, you've sunk shoulder-deep into the mud, Sibley."

"I meant in rank," Sibley said tersely. "I'm a general, you're a general, we're both generals now. It doesn't matter how either of us got here. In war, ethics don't matter; only power does."

"Even if we were to assume you weren't leading a mutiny against your former commanding officer,..." the General replied, "your rank is still illegitimate because you can't just give yourself a promotion!"

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong, Eddy," Sibley replied with a snark. "'Cause this ain't MY army."

A familiar looking brown cat-like mare had been casually pawing her way up the field, but I only noticed her just now as she approached Sibley and wrapped her forehooves around his neck in a loving embrace. I could have sworn I saw her before, just not in a maroon-colored dress with purple-pink fur on its edges.

"So typical of you to insist on following convoluted procedures and outdated codes of conduct,” Sibley continued. “Day in and day out, it's always the same ordeal. If we were more pragmatic about things, we could get ten times the work done in half the time."

"The rules and procedures are what makes it an army," the General said. "Without them, we'd just be another band of thugs."

I smiled at the wisdom contained within that quote and chuckled a little at its wit. But my joy was short-lived, as a few seconds later, one of the town's regular lookouts tapped me on the shoulder and said under her breath:

"He's just stallin’ while his army approaches. Look!"

She pointed at the ground behind him, where several soldiers were slowly crawling through the grass, their brown uniforms appearing almost identical to the dead grass.

A stallion next to me cocked his shotgun and aimed it at the camouflaged soldiers. As I did the same, so did the rest of the ponies on the wall except for the General and a few other officers.

"Just whatch’a tryin’a to pull here, Sibley?" the General asked wryly with the raise of an eyebrow.

“Ah ain’t tryin’a pull anything,” Sibley said, recoiling in feigned offense. “After all this senseless fightin’ today, my boys are exhausted. Let’s just agree to bury the hatchet and go our separate ways.”

“If you really wanted peace, ya should have said so before killing twenty four of my men,” the General said. “Ah can’t have let them die in vain, nor can I let treason go unpunished. The answer is NO.”

Sibley’s ears drooped backward and his brow furrowed. This was one of the few times that he didn’t have that shit eating grin on his face. Although I knew he was playing a game, he looked convincing enough, and was a fairly decent actor in his own right.

“Fine then,” he said, lowering his head to face the ground. “Ah offered an olive branch, but it looks like we’ve got to fight it out ‘till the bitter end. Which means...”

“Sibley, I’ve got something to tell you,” the cat-pony said seductively.

“Not now darling, ah’m in the middle of somethin’ here,” Sibley replied in a soft, tender voice.

“But it’s important!” she whined.

“Not now dahling, ah’m in the--” he said in a firmer, angrier voice, pushing the cat-pony off him.

“Sibleeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyy!!!”

“What in tarnation is it?” he growled, facing her with a head-on glare. "What on earth could possibly be so important that it should interrupt my negotiations with the enemy?"

"The supply train hasn't arrived yet," the cat-pony replied innocently.

"The supply train can wait," Sibley said tersely. "It's supposed ta stay a little behind us. Otherwise--"

"It still hasn't reached the cemetery yet," she said.

A look of concern appeared on Sibley's face.

"Well... maybe it's just been, uh... delayed a little," Sibley said with a slight quiver in his voice. "Yeah, that’s right, it’s prob’ly just a delay. You know how the roads are around here. Lots of mud and potholes and--"

"Completely silent on the radio, too," she replied. "Signal Fire's repeatedly tried to ping them for the past half hour and not a single reply. All the other units still work. She double-checked the equipment and everything."

Sibley appeared genuinely concerned by this news, but regained his composure within seconds.

"Well, it doesn't matter whether or not they've made it," he declared. "We can search for them after the battle. Better yet, we'll have the supply cache of the entire fort under our control!"

"But what about the... um... those bale full-of-egg things?" the cat pony asked.

"What about 'em?" Sibley asked.

"Didn't you say we needed them for the assault?" the cat pony asked.

"I didn't say we absolutely needed them," Sibley replied, "I just said that they would be nice to have."

"We put them in the wagons," the cat pony said. "Which means they've gone missing."

"I-I-... well, I-uh, I know that!" Sibley said flusteredly. Then, angrily he shouted, "I know that, and because of that we're changing our plans. All units, begin attacking the fort right now!"

At once, dozens upon dozens of ponies rose up from beneath the tall grass, popped out from behind buildings and trees, and a few Pegasus burst out of some low-hanging clouds. It seemed as though the fort was being besieged from all sides. Even in the grass, where I had seen them approaching, their numbers seemed overwhelming. I could have sworn that at least some of them knew invisibility spells or used stealthbucks.

"Get behind the parapets, now!" a lieutenant cried. I immediately ducked, as did most of the others on our side of the wall, and a hail of bullets flew over the wall just a split second later.

"Phew, that was close!" said Valverde Ford. He began to rise, saying "now let's get back up there and--"

"Not so fast!" Glorieta Pass said, pulling him back down. "They're still shooting."

"What's going on?" Febreeze asked hysterically. "Is this a siege?"

“No, a siege would just be them sitting around and trapping us here,” S’mores said. “They’re actively trying to take this fort.”

“Well, duh, I knew that!” Febreze retorted.

“They’re providing covering fire for an assault,” Dmitry said, peering out of a small hole in the parapet. “They’ve got teams of ladders and big spears.”

I could only imagine what those teams would have looked like since it was still far too dangerous to peep above the parapet, even for just a second. I anticipated with dread the moment when they would actually mount their assault from the ladders and wondered when it was or where they were going to scale it. I reached into my bags to grab my 10mm pistol (which I still had plenty of ammo for), when suddenly there was a faint beeping followed by a large explosion outside. Everypony, myself included, was momentarily stunned and confused by his change of events. The firing slowed to a trickle, as presumably their rank-and-file were just as confused about what was going on as I was.

Then there were two more explosions, both preceded by the faint beep. More ponies were paying attention now. One mare even screamed.

More explosions followed in rapid succession. This time, the explosions were often accompanied by cries of pain and agony. I didn’t dare lift my head above the parapet yet, as it appeared to be complete chaos out there. When the smoke finally cleared, I cautiously lifted my head over the wall. Close to where the enemy line had been, the ground was now barren and scorched to a point of near total blackness. Thin wafts of smoke floated up from the epicenter of each explosion, and the faint smell of charcoal lingered in the air. Every hundred yards or so, a squad of corpses lay beneath pieces of charred wood, presumably the remains of ladders. As for the enemy lines, they were now fragmented, with most of the soldiers either dead or dying slowly from third degree burns and shrapnel wounds. The minority who had managed to escape relatively unscathed had retreated towards cover for the duration of the explosion, and were just now beginning to creep back into the open.

“Get ‘em while they’re weak! Fire!” shouted the lieutenant, and gradually the ponies on the wall began aiming their guns and shooting. The ponies in the field panicked, and some bolted for cover again while the more disciplined among them stood in their spots and attempted to fire back. As much as I admired their bravery, I knew it wouldn’t save them from their doom. Within three minutes, all who remained had been gunned down. A few minutes later, some reinforcements came up from the southeast, but we were ready for them.

After that, there was quite a bit of waiting. At first it was a welcome moment for everypony to catch their breath, but it started to get boring real quick. However, the officers were cautious and wanted to keep everypony on the walls in case they came back for another attack. After about twenty minutes, it became clear that they weren’t going to attack any time soon, and gave most of us permission to descend back into the fort.

“Woohoo, that was awesome!” Febreze exclaimed. “Can we do it again?”

“Probably not,” I said. “It seems that the battle’s over.”

Her smile quickly collapsed into a frown.

“Well, it was fun while it lasted,” Gallium said.

“Not so fast,” said an officer (a captain, based on his rank insignia), a big burly muddy grey stallion with an enormous and impeccable moustache. “Some escaped and might be regrouping with whatever reserves they still have. We’re sendin’ out scouting parties to search for ‘em. Y’all interested?”

We were assigned to search through Burrow, a small village just west of Canterby, and its immediate surroundings. The kids' ecstasy over receiving another combat mission soon soured after we spent twenty more minutes just wandering around the village, searching through houses and stores for any signs of life. Instead, all we found were some abnormally sized rodents and cockroaches. They quickly became bored again, until we reached a nursery on the edge of the village.

"Hold up, do you see that?" asked Glorieta. "It looks kinda like a--"

"Like a bear?" asked S'mores. "Gimme the binoculars, let me see!"

I passed the binoculars, which she swiped out of my hoof.

"Yep, that's definitely a bear alright."

"Bears aren't green," Gallium said flatly.

S'mores took her eyes out of the binoculars and glared at him like he had just called her fat.

"They are if they're irradiated!" she replied. "Come on, you've seen giant irradiated animals before."

"Yeah, in science fiction movies," he said. "Made long before the war. Radiation doesn't actually work like that. Most of the time, it just kills you."

"I saw a two-headed deer once," Febreeze said. "Two weeks ago. It was outside the walls, and its veins were green, and its flesh was rotting off and everything!"

"Yeah, and I saw a house floating up in the sky just the other day," Gallium said sarcastically. "Look, this place has been pretty barren. There's so few living plants and animals that it's a miracle any pony is still alive outside of the Stables."

"Personally, I'd rather live out here than back in the stables," Dmitry muttered. "It's much more quiet out here."

"We've only been out here for two days," said Valverde. "Actually, less than a day. I'm sure there's plenty we haven't seen yet."

"Technically, we've only been out here for twelve hours," Breeze said.

"Twelve hours is plenty," said Gallium. "Hell, you can get the feel of a video game in just two or three. I'm not complaining about what's out here, I'm just saying it's really fucking barren."

"Hey, y'all," the green monster said, and the teens all screamed and hugged each other for dear life.

"Help, it's gonna eat us alive!" Breeze screamed.

“Calm down, it’s just Grapevine,” Dmitry said.

“Yeah, calm down, it’s only a grape vine,” the green monster said.

Febreze breathed a sigh of relief.

“Phew, I thought you were a mutated ursa major,” she said.

“Damn, I was hoping you’d be a mutated ursa major,” S’mores said dejectedly.

“Don’t you worry,” Grapevine assured them. “Grapevines are like ursa minors of the wine world. Someday I’ll grow up to be a big and strong vineyard. Then you’ll be scared!”

“I don’t think anypony’s afraid of vineyards,” Gallium said.

“I’m afraid of vineyards!” Febreze said quickly and with trepidation.

We all stared at her.

“What? It’s an irrational fear I’ve had for years. I genuinely am afraid of vineyards, and have been since I was a little filly! They scare me!”

“How’d that happen?” Valverde asked. “Was there an incident in your early childhood?”

Febreze began entertaining the others with her story about ‘The Vineyard Incident,’ while myself and my Stable buddies began leading the group back into town.

“Where the hell were you?” I asked. “You disappeared right when we needed your explosives skills!”

"Looking for materials," she said. "I burned through the fort's stockpile when setting up the perimeter, so I figured I'd help them make new ones."

"So it was you who laid those mines?" Dmitry said.

"But wait, how did--?" I asked.

She lifted her right fore hoof and showed off a device she had acquired: it consisted of a circular disc tied to her hoof by a leather strap, a red button and four dials on the edge of the disc, and a concave dish which folded out from the top.

"A Stealthbuck, eh?" asked Dmitry. "That explains a lot. Where'd you find it?"

"I... don't quite remember," Grape vine said. "Somewhere back in the Stable. Probably bought it off the black market. Those guys owed me a loooooot of money."

"You'll have to show me how it works sometime," I said. "I want one of those for myself."

"I don't think you need one," Dmitry said. "Your stealth skills are good enough."

"I can show you right now if you want," Grape vine said. "In fact, I'll show all of you." She turned to the others and yelled, "Hey kids, watch this!" And once their eyes were all on her, she pressed the red button and almost completely disappeared. I could see the faint transparent outline of a pony and some rippling of the light within it, but she was transparent enough that you couldn't really see her unless you were looking for something.

"Whoa, cool!" the kids exclaimed.

She began running around, which made her already difficult to find body become almost impossible to see, just a dash of light identifiable only by her unsilenced hoof steps. She then plucked a feather from Gallium and Breeze's wings, then used them both to tickle Valverde. Once the joke got old, she then pressed the button again and undid the invisibility, then bowed to the group's applause.

"How does it work?" I asked.

"I don't really know the details, but it basically creates a refraction field around you that reflects light," she said.

"No, I meant what do those dials do?" I asked.

"They're for fine-tuning the refraction field, since not everypony's body is the same" she said. "I'm not really sure how they work myself, I just stood in front of a mirror and tweak the dials until I couldn’t see myself anymore. There’s one dial that just accounts for race.”

“Is ‘changeling’ an option?” Dmitry asked. Grapevine shook her head.

“Nah, just the three standard types of ponies,” she said. “I’ve heard of ones with settings for dragons and changelings and shit, but this is just the standard version.”

“Do they have to have a special setting for the crystal ponies?” I asked. “Or do they just fit under earth pony?”

“I don’t know,” Grapevine said. “You’d think that their coats would mess with the refraction field. I thought I saw one at a Stealthbuck exhibit at a museum once down in San Horse...”

“Damn, it’s a shame we won’t going there any time soon,” said Dmitry. “I’d love to see it.”

At that moment, I saw something moving on the horizon.

"Stop," I said. "I think there's some pony there."

Day brought out his binoculars. "Not just one," he said. "There's a whole pack."

"Are they friendly?" Glorieta asked.

"I can't tell," Dmitry said. "Wait-- it looks like they have prisoners."

"Then let's free them," Valverde said, and he charged forward. His friends followed suit.

"Wait!" I called, and began running after them. "We can't just run in there! We have to be cautious!"

"Caution won't save them!" S'mores called back. This retort only made me angry, and I began running faster.

The kids burst into the yard of a machine shop, and stopped abruptly in front of the group that had been assembled there. Inside this yard, nothing looked particularly out of the ordinary. Heaps of scrap metal and broken machines lined the edges, as well as a few abandoned cars and trucks. The space in the middle was completely clear, as well as the space directly in front of the metal building which housed the shop itself. The only unusual thing here was the large mass of uniformed ponies standing in a sort of semicircle in front of the shop all looking towards the wall. They were startled by our approach and all looked shocked and panicked, some of them pointing guns.

Then a familiar voice (presumably their leader) called out, "Stand down boys, they're friendly."

As I ran through the gates, the crowd put down their weapons, except for a few in the middle of the semicircle, whose guns had been aimed toward the shop wall the whole time.

"What's going on here?" I asked, approaching the crowd and nudging my way through it. When I got closer in, I saw what was inside the center: seven unarmed ponies sitting against the wall. Three of them wore gray uniforms. In the middle of this smaller group was Sidney himself.

Chive Onion walked over to me and gave a curt bow.

"Let them through, please. Let them all through," he told the crowd, and they parted to allow my compatriots into the center. As soon as they were through, the crowd closed in behind them.

"These," he said triumphantly, "are the fruit of our labors: the enemy's leader and the remnants of his general staff, disarmed and out our hooves. And since you guys helped us thwart his plans, I figured I’d give you the honors."

“What honors?” I asked.

“Of dealing with them, of course,” Chive replied, gesturing towards the captives with the barrel of his revolver. “We were just about to do it ourselves, but then you guys showed up.”

The rest of my party began digging out their rifles and loading them with ammo.

“Hey, use these,” one of the soldiers said, and passed a box of bullets around. Each of them happily took five bullets from the box and unloaded their rifles, switching out the old ones for the new. None of them took any issue, except for Dmitry who raised an eyebrow when glancing at the box, but raised no questions and simply took them, then passed them to me. I looked at the box and gawked.

“Soft point bullets?” I read. “Aren’t these illegal?”

“They were,” Dmitry said, “But apparently none of the old rules apply anymore.”

“Hey, in times of war, anything goes,” Chive said. “And you can keep the box, there’s plenty more where those came from.”

The others finished loading their weapons with the new bullets. Then everypony started looking at me. I started to get nervous.

“...Well?” one of the soldiers asked. “What are you waiting for?”

“Do we really have to do this?” I asked. “Couldn’t we just… you know, exile them?”

“Of course not!” Glorieta gawked. “After all they’ve done? They tried to kill us!”

“Multiple times,” Gallium said.

“They ripped us off!” Grapevine exclaimed.

“They betrayed those who they swore to serve,” Dmitry said. “That’s treason. And treason is punishable by death.”

“Okay, but do I really have to kill--” I asked, but was cut off when both Dmitry and Grapevine shouted into my ears,

“JUST DO IT!”

I furrowed my brow and took a deep breath. Then, I stepped forward and, trying not to tremble, I gave the orders.

“Get in a straight line,” I said.

They got in a straight line facing the prisoners.

“Ready your weapons.”

They readied their weapons.

“Aim.”

They aimed their weapons.

“Fire.”

Progress to Next Level: 3850/5800

Stats:
Ponies Led: 2
Puzzle Pieces Collected: 2
Price of Silver: 108 bits per Troy Ounce

Author's Notes:

This chapter was several months in the making, and I'm finally glad I could finish it and move on. It was a random idea I had decided to put in there, loosely based on an obscure battle from the American Civil War. This and the next chapter will conclude the first major story arc, allowing us to move onto the second, which I anticipate will be kind of fun to write.