“Rainbow, take the flash drive” I whispered slipping it into her pocket. “...when they shoot fly away and get it back to base. I’ll hold them for a few seconds while you get out of here”
“What about you!” she said whispering loudly.
“...Don’t worry about me. You need to get that flash drive to the others”
“This is your last chance!” Yelled the female Russian. “...Give us the flash drive or die!”
We remained silent.
“Fire!”
Just as she yelled a bright white spark appeared in front of us then a sudden small explosion of light came from it. The Russians all opened fired but all the bullets deflected off a purple barrier. Twilight had teleported in front of us and created an energy barrier to protect us.
“Twilight!” Rainbow said with delight.
I then tackled both the ponies to the side behind some metal boxes before the tanks fired a shot at us.
I peered over the top of the creates. A few Russians aimed to shoot at me but as they did a lasso flew in from behind the guards and wrapped around the end of one of the AK’s. The lasso then pulled it back into the guards face, knocking him down and a couple others with him. Then multiple metal creates flew in from the side, surrounded by a magical purple glow, and knocked down almost half the guards. Rarity was standing over at the right side of the pads by a large pile of creates as she continued to throw them at the guards.
“Girls! C’mon!” She yelled in a bossy manner.
“Quick go! I’ll cover you” I said as I stood up to shoot the Russians.
Twilight and Rainbow galloped over to Rarity. I followed and climbed inside the hind closest to the ponies. Fluttershy and Pinkie pie were hiding behind the creates Rarity was throwing. Spike was on flutter shy’s back.
“Lets go every-pony! Inside the chopper!”
All the Ponies climbed aboard as I prepped the chopper for take off.
“Apple Jack!” Yelled Twilight, “...were leaving”
Apple Jack jumped off the Russian tank and galloped towards us. She jumped on the chopper as I began to lift off. Fucking Russians had SA-11’s. I was not as good at flying as Liam but I was still pretty damn good.
“Every-pony hold on back there!”
I flew up high to try and get out of range before they launched any rockets. Suddenly the dashboard started beeping and flashing red. The screen on the dashboard was flashing red: ‘Missile Lock’ ‘Missile Lock’. I looked out the left side to see a great big rocket hurtling towards us. I deployed the flares. I had no idea if this thing was loaded with any but I had to try. Luckily it was and the rocket missed majorly. After that I think I became out of range due to the fact that no more rockets were fired at us.

“That was much easier than I thought it would be...” I said with surprise. The Ponies then started talking to each other.
“Rainbow!” Said Fluttershy and Rarity with cheer.
“We were so worried about you” Fluttershy said quietly.
Twilight then broke up the group hug, “...Rainbow! We looked everywhere for you. It was only until the royal guards discovered that one of their ships were missing did we work out where you went”
“I thought you all hated me...” said Rainbow with a guilty tone.
“Oh Rainbow...” Twilight sounded really compassionate. “...We don’t hate you. You're one of our best friends. We were just a little upset with what you did. It wasn’t your fault though. It was a mistake and we were wrong to be mad at you”
“We sure are sorry Sugar-cube. Can you forgive us?” apologised Apple Jack.
Rainbow dash looked at them all and smiled, “Of course I can forgive you...”
“Oh Yay!” cheered Pinkie. “Dashie is back!”
“...but we can’t return home just yet.” Rainbow said pacing back and forth.
“...and why is that?” Twilight asked.
“Discord is back. He’s using the Humans to devise a plan against the princess and the rest of Equestria. Trixie is also working with him. We don’t know anything else but the fact is Discord is planning something and we need to stop it”
“Now hold on a second? Didn’t we freeze Discord into stone a while back?” stated Apple Jack.
“...well some how he escaped” Twilight Speculated. “...maybe Trixie aided his escape. There’s no way to tell for sure.”
“Well now he’s free and he wants revenge on Celestia and the rest of the ponies” Rainbow said with grief.
“...And we can’t have that now can we” said Rarity brushing her hoof through her hair.
“...so who’s your friend!” Pinkie chanted cheerfully hopping towards the cockpit. “...ooo, he doesn’t have hooves, or a tail! What is this we are flying in? How do you fly it? Do you use buttons? I like buttons! Can I press some? What does this one do?” Pinkie was exactly like she was in the show I thought. As hyperactive and bouncy as always. She went to push a load of buttons.
“Wait Pinkie no!!” I shouted in panic.
Suddenly the tail rotor stopped spinning and the helicopter started spinning out of control.
“oops..”
“Push it again!”
Pinkie pushed the button again and the tail rotors began to spin again.
“Pinkie...” I gave her a disappointed look, but I then gave her a forgiving smile.
“oops sorry. Silly me” she said with a giggle.

After about twenty minutes I was in radio range of both mission zones of the other teams.
“Team two? Team three? Anyone read me? This is Cobra. I’ve achieved my objective and I want a sit-rep on your progress”
A few seconds of silence passed as the ponies moved close to the cock pit to listen. I had no response.
“...Anyone? Do you read? Guys?”
“...This is team two. We were unable to hold the base. Some of us are wounded and team three won’t respond. We need extraction at alpha site three”
“We’ll be there in eight minutes. There better not be any anti-air when I get there”
“I can’t promise that”
“Alright every-pony. We’re going to help some more of my friends”
“ooo, Friends? I love making friends!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly. I rolled me eyes at her.

I landed at the alpha site to find Pete and Megan carrying Edward out of the tree line. Bullets were flying in from behind them. I got up and went to the back to help them up into the helicopter.
“Where the fuck is Lister and Gavin?” I asked. I then turned my head to the side to talk to the ponies, “Ponies please! Make some room for Edward. This chopper isn’t very big.”
Megan was panting, trying to get her breath back, “They’re goners. The fucking Russians, they had tanks hidden in the garages of the base. They were waiting for us the whole time. As soon as we snuck in we were surrounded. I think they were expecting you and the rest of the team...”
I helped lift Edward on board then grabbed Megan's hand to help her climb on board herself.
“...Liam also won’t respond to our calls either... It’s a good job you showed up or we would be screwed...” She then looked to the ponies, “They new friends of yours?”
“Yeah... Now lets get out of here!”
Megan started firing back at the Russians and I returned to the Pilot seat.
I started flipping switches and hitting buttons, preparing to take off. A few bullets flew through the cock-pit’s windows. Rainbow joined me up front and sat in the co-pilot seat.
“Rainbow what are you doing?” I asked curiously.
“Choppers are inbound and we could really use some one on the main gun”
“...but the seat wont be very comfortable for you since your a pony”
“That's fine”
“...but you probably wont know how to use the gun”
“Then talk me through it...”
“Okay then. Well you just use the analog stick to the right side of the screen to aim the gun and the button on the left to shoot. Hinds are pretty user friendly”
“Okay, got it...”
I began to lift off again as more bullets flew through the windows. As we began to lift off the ground another hind raised from the tree line in front of me and started spraying bullets into the cockpit. Both me and Rainbow tried to duck but it didn’t help very much. I was hit once in the chest and once in the leg. Rainbow was hit twice in the flank and once in her front leg. The bullets continued to spray as our chopper slowly lifted into the air. Luckily Twilight made another energy barrier to replace the broken windows.
“Hurry... up... get us out...of here...” Twilight said struggling to hold up the barrier. She was in the door way between the cockpit and the back compartment, struggling to stand as she tried to hold back the fire with her Barrier. I got the chopper above the canopy and pulled away from the enemy hind. The barrier dropped as Twilight fell to the floor exhausted. Rainbow was now firing the gun at the enemy hind behind us. The hind fired missiles at me but I managed to deploys the last of my flares.
“Only two sets of flares? These hinds are fucking shit?” I yelled in anger.
“What do we do now?” panicked Twilight.
“Give me a second....” said Rainbow focusing hard on her screen.
Bullets were still banging on our hull, the dashboard flashing red from a missile lock.
“Rainbow! If your gonna do something about that chopper then do it quick!”
Bullets continued banging on the hull, sweat was rolling down Rainbows face as she squinted harder to focus. Suddenly the bullets stopped.
“Got him!” shouted Rainbow dash proudly.
“Nice Rainbow, now lets go rescue the others”

I landed us down next to Liam’s chopper. Me and Megan got out to investigate Liam’s helicopter to find no one inside. However there were some medical supplies so me and Rainbow used them to patch ourselves up.
“Megan, Pete. Stay here with spike and the ponies. Me and Rainbow are going to find the others...”
“Hold on ya’ll. We already lost Rainbow once, ah ain’t losin’ her again” said Apple Jack
“Agreed. We should stick together” suggested Twilight.
“Alright, Your skills could prove useful but someone has to stay here and look after the choppers. Megan and Pete will still stay here. I also think Spike and Flutter shy should stay here. It could get dangerous.”
“Al...alright” stuttered Flutter shy quietly.
“Don’t worry Sir. We’ll look after them” Pete said reassuringly.
A purple glow then surrounded one of the spare machine guns inside Liam’s chopper and floated over to Rarity. Her horn had the same glow. We all looked at her surprised and confused.
“What? Well I want to be able to defend myself” she said defensively.
“C’mon girls. We should get going” I suggested.

After traversing across the forest landscape we made it to a coastal base where Liam and the rest were supposed to capture the Russian general. The guards were not alert which suggested that the others were not in their custody. The base was just across the road from a small village and had fences all around the perimeter. Massive battle ships were docked at the piers. Each battle ship was armed with many guns and anti-air missile sites. These were bigger than any ship I had ever seen. They were the size of the titanic. Each ship had multiple helipads with helicopters on them. Massive cargo doors on the front that would open to release many tanks. These ships were fucking war machines. They would have the ability to handle any situation. Many workers and machines were preparing these ships for war: Loading the torpedo's, loading up tanks and finishing the overall construction of the hull. The ships were not yet finished but were not far from it.
“Team three? This is Cobra. I'm outside the base now. Anyone read?”
“This is Duke”. I sighed with relief after hearing he was fine. “...We have infiltrated the base. The general isn’t here but we know were he is. We’ll meet you outside in about half an hour. We are trying to find away out. Please, we need Radio silence so stay off the radio till we get out”
“Rodger that Duke”

After about an hour Ryder and the rest regrouped with us.
“Whats the news Duke?”
Ryder then looked at the ponies blankly then looked to me. Liam was looking really happily at the ponies but of course I had everyone stay quiet to avoid being detected by the Russians.
“The General you're after... He’s on his way Poland. He recently advanced a huge army into Poland and is now using Poland as a front line to deploy his units on France. He wants to take out the UN leadership. He is heavily protected by his army”
“I suppose he’s going to use these ships to aid in his attack. Well it’ll be a little while before these ships are ready. I need to get back to base and contact the UN. This general is probably our only lead”
“Probably?” Violet said curiously.
“Yes. Well me and Rainbow recovered a huge amount of data from the science base. I need you to analyse the data while I contact the UN and work out our next course of action. Try to find another lead. Anyway we’ll discuss it later. We need to get back to the choppers”

Back at the choppers we prepared to take off. All the others of my team took Liam’s chopper while I took the hind with the Ponies and spike. The Ponies were talking in the back quite happily, laughing and joking as they caught up with Rainbow. Spike walked through to the cockpit and jumped up to sit on the dashboard.
“Hay Courage. That’s your name right?”
“Hay Spike. What’s up?”
“Nothing much, you just looked a little glum up here by yourself so I came to keep you company... and get away from them. They get really girly around each other”
I few moments of silence passed as I continued to focus on my flying. Spike kicked the air in boredom, looking around randomly. I began to zone out as the laughter in the back reminded me of my family. My dad: when he was home we would play xbox together. He always told me how the army was just like Call of Duty and that it was always fun. Of course he was just lying to make me feel better about him going away all the time but the way he told me was always funny. He would come home and tell me he got an eleven kill streak and got to use an AC-130, or got eighteen kills and was given Juggernaut armour. Mum use to play along by telling me she revived him with second chance at one point. Back then I believed it... till I was thirteen years old and my sister got that letter telling us about the bomb attack on my parents battalion. My mum died instantly and my dad died painfully from severe burns after hours of agony. With his last moments he wrote me a personal letter:
“Hay son, I was out on the field today. Got hit by a C4 noob. I wish I could say I would be able to come home but I can’t. It looks like it’s game over for me. I couldn’t go on forever. You know as well as I do that every game has an ending. Your game is just beginning. This is going to be your toughest challenge yet, a challenge worth lots of XP. I want you to stay strong, look out for the rest of the family and never give up the fight. You're a strong lad Courage, stronger than any of us could ever be. Never forget that boy. I love you son. Lots of Love, Dad. AKA xXsnipsmanXx”
I stared at that letter for hours as I memorised it. Even now while I fly the ponies to base I can picture that letter perfectly, burnt into my mind.

A tear was now running down my face as I continued to think. Spike looked at me confused. I looked back and gave him a fake smile. He just jumped down, tapped me on the knee compassionately then walked to the back to join the ponies. More tears began to flow as I continued to think of my parents. I was missing them so much. Missing my whole family. I then wiped my tears to try and further hold back the years of sadness I have been building for so long.