“...Your report is unsettling. If these ships really are real then we’re in a lot of trouble. This invasion force in Poland is also a considerable threat. The Russians have pushed through Poland and have begun the invasion of Sweden and Norway. The Chinese have been pushing through our lines in most parts of eastern Europe and have began taking over northern parts of Africa. In a few days the Russians will most likely begin invading Germany and move straight to France”
“Question is what can we do bout it?” I asked.
“Well we have a large German-American garrison in Berlin. It isn’t enough to hold against a full invasion but with the right help it might be able to keep them at bay till the American forces are done fighting the Russians in Alaska”
“...by right help you mean me” I implied.
“Exactly. The Americans are the only military force we have that hasn’t already exhausted it’s power. The European forces have been greatly diminished after the fighting in Ukraine and Africa. Once the Americans are done fighting off the Russian invasion force in Alaska they will come assist us with the Russians and Chinese in Europe”
“So what exactly am I suppose to do in Berlin?”
“You're after the Russian General right? General Ricktov. He will be commanding the Russian invasion force. Take him out of the equation and the Russian forces will be demoralised and without a commander for a short time. You helicopter in behind enemy lines and track him down. I want you and your team in Paris in Two days. You have until then to prepare”
“Okay Mr. President. We’ll be there. Cobra out”

I went to the Motor-pool where the ponies were hanging out. I wanted to meet them properly and introduce them to the team and, for that matter, earth itself.
“So Girls? How are you all doing? Before I start, Would any of you like to ask any questions?”
“I have a few questions I would like to ask...” said Twilight. “...spike, the list please”
Spike gave Twilight an A4 piece of paper with lots of writing on it. She picked it off him with her levitation and floated it in front of her.
“Firstly... I would like to know what our next plan of action is” she demanded politely.
“I’ve been talking to the leaders of Europe and they want us to capture or kill an enemy general called Ricktov. I’d prefer capture as he is currently our only lead on Discord. We need to be in Paris in two days for briefing. In the mean time we have to prepare ourselves for heavy engagement. You ponies will be staying in the newly installed quarters as the french have kindly continued to expand the base for us. You will have everything you need here at the base and if you need anything over the next two days I will most likely be here in the motor-pool or in the armoury working. You are free to stay with us to help fight Discord, I will take all the help I can get. These Missions will be dangerous and I don’t want to force you to risk your lives but your flying and magical abilities will prove most useful in a fight. Any other questions?”
Twilight dropped the paper, “...no. That pretty much answered all my questions”
“Okay good. That’s actually all I wanted to say to you girls anyway. Rainbow, Isabelle would like to see us now to make sure our wounds are okay”
“A’righty then. We’ll see ya’ll later. I'm gonna turn in for the night. Every-pony else should do the same” Suggested Apple Jack.

The ponies all went off to rest while me and Rainbow went to check in with Isabelle.
“You two just can’t seem to stay out of trouble!” nagged Isabelle. “You two are in here after every mission. I wish you two would be more careful”
“It’s a war. People get hurt” I said in my defence.
“Well Ryder and Liam come out just fine”
“Well I’m sorry! I’ll ask the enemies nicely not to shoot me next time yeah? I'm sure they’d be happy to stand there and let me shoot them without resistance...” My sarcasm was very strong and I could see it was annoying her.
“You are the most tedious patient I’ve ever had”
“You’ve barely had any patients!” I said, again defending myself.
“Well you make it seem like I’ve had hundreds with your really annoying attitude”
“Woah! Burn!” yelled Liam peering through the door.
“Oh hay Liam. What do you want dude?” I asked curiously.
“Just came to see if you were okay”
“I’m fine. I was just having Isabelle check my wounds... Hay Isabelle, can you give me some more stimulants? I’m fucking tired and I need a boost so I can keep working”
“Courage!” Isabelle said in shock. “...you haven't sleep in days! Get some sleep. Stimulants can only do so much for you!”
“Well someone has got to stay up and work! I don’t see any of you doing that!”
“Courage. At least take a few hours nap. It’ll do you some good”
“Alright! Fine! I’ll get a little sleep”
“Good, you can sleep in here if you like”
“Thanks doc. Rainbow? Are you going to head to your quarters to rest for a bit?”
“Yep!” said Rainbow with a yawn. “G’night”
Rainbow walked out followed by Liam. Isabelle returned to her computer. I noticed she was looking at possible candidates for the medical team. I remained laying in the medical bed. Strangely I continued to watch Isabelle go about her business. Working on her computer, drinking her coffee and writing down notes...

“Courage. Wake up. You’ve been asleep for hours...” My eyes began to open. I was overwhelmed by the light. “...C’mon Courage. Wake up. You’ve got work to do”
“Holy Crap! Turn down the lights. They hurt my eyes” I complained, blocking the light with my arm.
“Of course, as long as you get up”
Isabelle turned down the brightness of the lights in the room. I looked at the clock and it was almost 10:30am. I had been asleep for Eight hours, five hours more than I wanted. I instantly jumped up out of bed.
“I'm going to get to work now. See you later Isabelle”
“Okay bye. Remember, any problems with your wounds come straight to me”
“Alright. Thank you”

I was in the motor-pool working on my car some more. I was under the car making some modifications suddenly I could hear Violets voice by my feet, “Working on your car again I see”
I slid out from under the car, “Of course I am. This thing is beast”
“Cool. I was just checking you're okay. Rumours say you actually slept last night. I find it hard to believe”
I laughed, “Yeah, it’s true”
She smiled at me with relief, “Good. I’d hate for you to fall asleep half way through the next mission”
Liam walked into the room and looked at us for a few seconds before speaking, “The sexual tension between you to is extreme”
“Liam, That's hardly appropriate” I said defensively, “...We’re just friends”
“Sure....”
“Liam? Don’t you have something better to do than troll us? I'm quite busy working on my car”
“Sure you are Courage. That’s why you're standing around flirting with her”
“I was not flirting! I was just answering her questions! I have more important things to do than standing around flirting with chicks!” I was very agitated now.
“Courage, Guess what. U mad bro?”
I looked at him grimly then returned to working on my car. A few moments passed...
“Oh by the way, Fluttershy wanted to talk to you in the medical bay” said Liam.
I gave a huge groan. I just wanted to work on my car. “Okay, I’ll be there in a sec”

“Hello Fluttershy. You wanted to see me?”
“Well... yes, if that’s okay with you that is... I um... wanted to talk to you about my... role...” She was really quiet and hesitant. She kept her head down. She was clearly very shy of me.
“Of course. What do you want to talk about?”
“Well I um... I am quite a good medic. I think I should be the team’s medic, I mean if that’s okay with you. I know a lot about pony anatomy and physiology and I could revise humans over night”
“Sure! We could use a field medic. Especially for the ponies”
“Oh erm... thank you. I’ll start working right away” She gave me a little smile.
“You can work with Isabelle for the night. She can teach you how to work on humans and how you use the tools. I will design and prepare you a medical kit for the mission”
“Thank you very much...” She said before moving over to Isabelle.
Well that was Fluttershy’s role sorted. Now I just needed to design her a pony friendly medical kit. Not too difficult to do. I could make it pretty similar to Rainbow’s ammo kit. In fact I needed to make armour for all of them.

I got to work in the armoury making all the ponies their own armour. Black Kevlar would cover their bodies, flanks and upper legs. Fluttershy’s basic medical supplies in pockets on the body of her armour, Two side packs with all her surgical equipment and I designed her a body scanner that would wrap around her lower leg and could thoroughly scan a patient on the field. This would make treatment easier on the field. It was touch screen and she could use her nose to operate it. Not very professional but there isn’t much I could do for a pony. I gave Twilight’s armour a book bag on the left side of her in case she wanted to take a book with spells or something.

Twilight and Apple Jack walked into the armoury.
“Hello Courage. I came to see what you were doing. I understand that this mission will be dangerous so I want to see what we could do to make it... less dangerous”
“I'm working on it. I'm making you ponies some protective armour to try protect you from dangers. Your defensive capabilities will be quite useful but unless you're willing to hurt other living beings then there isn't much more you can do”
“We can’t do that. It’s not right to take another life” Twilight stated with sadness.
“Ah agree with Twilight. This is wrong. How can ya take another life. It’s not right”
“...It’s not wrong either” I said sadly.
They both looked at me confused. “How exactly is does that work?” asked Apple Jack.
“Let me ask you something... Would you rather sacrifice one pony? Or would you sacrifice every-pony?”
They both looked at me with guilty looks, remaining silent.
“That’s exactly my point. Discord is planning something and judging by his and Trixie's...” I paused to find the most appropriate word possible, “... methods, I would say it’s something nasty. Sacrificing a few Russian soldiers is a small price to pay to save Equestria and the free people of the UN”
“I see your point and...” Twilight hesitated for a second. “...you may be right. For me, for my friends, for Equestria, I will fight with you. I only ask that we at least try to spare as many lives as possible”
“Of course Twilight...” I said comfortingly.
“Well I’m ready to do whatever is necessary to save Equestria” Apple Jack stated confidently.
“Good. I'm glad to hear you both say that”
They both left me to my work as they walked out talking to each other casually. I returned to focus on finishing the armour for the ponies.

I worked for hours. Designing and making the armour for the ponies. By 2:37am I had finished. In a few hours we would be leaving for Paris. I assumed that everyone else was sleeping, resting up for tomorrow's mission. I decided not to sleep tonight. I figured I’d do some more work on the car or something. 3:47am and I was still working on my car. I couldn't stop myself. I always feel the need to push myself, to keep on working and doing my part, as I have done for years. Always helping others and sacrificing myself to do it. It wasn’t easy but it always makes me feel better about myself.

4:53am. Sitting in the car drinking a coffee, listening to some calm music and reading mission reports given to me by the French military. Quite a relaxing way to analyse the enemies tactics and strong points. I always read mission reports to try to find where things went wrong and try to think ‘how I would avoid making that mistake?’. Research and testing myself was what made me so much smarter to begin with.

6:04am. I was cleaning my car by hand. I wanted it to look shiny as it always does. I had taken it out for a drive half hour before and I wanted to clean it again to make sure it was still shining. Truly amazing car. That's when Rarity walked in. She was wearing a really stylish purple dress with white butterfly patterns. More of a night gown really. She was tired, yawning and she had some pretty bad bed hair... well bed mane, you know, the pony equivalent.
“You still up?” she said with a yawn.
“Yeah, couldn't sleep” I replied, returning to focus on cleaning the car.
“Well, how about some breakfast then? I’ll go make us some breakfast and we can eat it out here with your car”
“Thanks Rarity. That's very kind of you to offer” I said thankfully.
“Well I AM the element of generosity” she said gracefully.
“...Touche”
She giggled a little, “Okay, well I’ll be back in a bit with your breakfast. You can’t fight a war on an empty stomach!”
“...and how would you know that?” I questioned.
“...because you can’t do anything on an empty stomach” she said with a taunting grin.
“...Touche again. You win again miss Rarity...” I gave her a sly yet cheeky look.
She just giggled again then walked out.

A few minutes later she came back levitating two trays of food. One had Bacon, Eggs and a cup of coffee. The second had a few eggs and a slice of apple pie. She laid the first tray on the car bonnet by me. She then levitated a work stool over and laid her tray on that.
“Bacon? I didn’t think ponies ate meat...” I said in confusion.
“We don’t but you do...”
“How did you know how to cook it?” I asked curiously.
“Cook book...”
“...Touche. You're a very intelligent and resourceful little filly aren't you”
“True... I'm very smart. Like when I knew that weapon WAS a weapon. I bet that surprised you”
“Well not really. You saw me use one before hand... erm.. hoof... you know what I mean”
She giggled again then started eating her pie. I started to drink my coffee. I was quite tired after all that working last night and needed the caffeine.
“What a beautiful machine” said Rarity in praise.
“What the car? Yeah, she’s lovely ain’t she”
“Yes... Such grace, such style. I think I’d look great in that. Do you think I could have one?”
“When this is all over, I’ll design one for you so you and other ponies can drive it safely”
“Thank you thank you thank you! I’ll be the envy of all ponies!”

We talked for a while as we ate breakfast. It was nice to sit down and have a normal conversation for once: No mission reports, no briefings, no talking about next moves, Just idle talk between two good friends.
“Thanks Rarity” I said with a thankful smile.
“Oh it was nothing. Cooking is real easy for a unicorn”
“Well that too but I meant for everything this morning. It was really nice chatting to you. It’s rare for me to have an idle conversation like that”
“You're welcome Courage. Rare IS in my name after all. I'm sure we will have more of these chats soon”
I smiled at her with joy. She just chuckled and walked out the room. It was nearly eight and we all needed to get ready to leave for Paris. I could tell that today was going to be a long day...