January 3rd, 1973 0345 Hours (3:45 AM)
Bà Triệu Airbase, Undiscovered West, Equestria, Equus

The sound of choppers pierced the air, as ARVN Airborne and regular infantry quickly rushed into the Hueys. Not so far off at the runway, two VNAF AC-47’s and three VNAF AC-119’s took off. The twin-prop gunships flew into the night sky as the Vietnamese ground crew yelled instructions and the last of the troops frantically rushed into their choppers.

“Last on!” One of the ARVN officers yelled as he entered Colonel Duc’s helicopter. Similar shouts were barely heard over the sounds of the chopper blades and the incessant radio squacks and crackles as the pilots did the last of their checks and radioed into air traffic control.

“Colonel!” The crew chief yelled, crawling away from the cockpit, “All choppers report that everyone is accounted for, all we’re waiting for is the permission to take off from air traffic control.”

The colonel nodded and looked back to his subordinate as the crew chief, a young lieutenant, crawled back to the cockpit area. “Any reports from the Australians and the New Zealanders?”

“Yes sir, their convoys already moved out from their camp not two or three hours ago.”

“Colonel! Air traffic control has given us permission to take off, we may go when we are ready!”

The colonel unfolded his map and checked the final plans sketched onto it. “Very well, begin Operation Broken Arrow!”

The crew chief nodded, and signalled the pilots to confirm takeoff orders. Duc picked up the radio receiver and pressed the transmit button, “The city of Las Pegasus has called for our aid. We must reinforce our allies, and provide the security and stability they need. Therefore, I will tolerate not recklessness, understood?”

Duc got various forms of affirmation from other choppers. “Very good, rest up, we will arrive in thirty minutes.”

Soon, a large swarm of Hueys, Chinooks, and Huey gunships hovered upwards, turned to adjust their heading, and tilted forwards, maneuvering the choppers forward as they flew in a staggered column formation. The time of rescue had begun.

January 2nd, 1973, 0345 Hours (3:45 AM)
Southern Wall Entrance, Las Pegasus, Equestria, Equus

“We don’t have time to wait for them, we’ll have to split up our forces.” Truc decided with finality. He walked over to a map on a table, gesturing for the armored cavalry officers and infantry officers to follow. He picked up some pencils, and quickly scribbled in some plans before presenting them to the officers. “An, take one of the armored lieutenants and lead a platoon of troops to secure and reinforce the eastern wall. Have the lieutenant assign three APC’s, two dusters, two M48’s, and three M41’s to accompany you. The rest of the dusters will cover the southern gate, and the rest of the M41’s and M48’s will conduct sweeps around the city. The rest of the infantry will wait here to guide the reinforcements in. If we aren’t careful enough, this can turn into urban warfare, and civilians will be harmed, so watch your fire. Questions?”

Silence filled the air.

“Good, dismissed. Get to your groups, and move out. I’ll monitor the situation through the radio.” The ARVN officers scrabbled to get their groups in check. All the while, Princess Flurry Heart and Scootaloo, accompanied by a squad of caribou guards, approached the colonel, surprisingly calmly.

“Colonel Truc, I see you are organizing your men to move out, what are you intending to do?”

Truc looked up from his map and replied in concern, “Shouldn’t your highness be in the government nexus? It is a lot safer than the battlefield.”

“My father taught me the ways of combat before the Fall, or at least tried to.” Princess Flurry Heart replied back, “Also, Governor Freiheit demanded for me, Scootaloo and his non-essential staff to move over here, and to tell you of some urgent news.”

“I’m assuming the eastern wall has been breached and compromised, and that the looters are now within city walls?”

“You are correct, Colonel.” Flurry replied in ever-mounting concern.

Truc nodded and said, “Very well, we’ll just have to plan around that. Don’t worry, your highness, the ARVN will do their best to protect this city to the last man.”

“I hope so, Colonel.”

January 2nd, 1973, 0400 Hours (4:00 AM)
Downtown Los Pegasus, Las Pegasus, Equestria, Equus

The column of M113 APC’s, M42 Bulldogs, M48 Patton's, and dusters raced through the streets, careful in their attempts to not run over any of the pedestrians. On top of the lead APC An scanned the area as the armor lieutenant next to him barked out orders and directions, the radio next to them squawked to life.

“Captain, this is Colonel Truc, we’ve received confirmation from Princess Flurry Heart that the Eastern gate is in fact, compromised. We are overrun, I repeat, we are overrun, proceed with caution, over.”

The radioman passed the receiver to An for him to respond, “Copy, we are proceeding with caution, over.”

“Copy, over, and out.” An hung up the receiver, and yelled orders for everyone to stand on their guard. As the convoy quickly rushed to the front, they tried to keep an eye out for any hostile forces, as the city slowly descended into chaos.

January 3rd, 1973 0400 Hours (4:00 AM)
Bà Triệu Airbase, Undiscovered West, Equestria, Equus

“Dump everything over our heads*! I repeat, Dump everything over our heads.”

“Copy that, confirmed, all air units, Los Pegasus is compromised, all available air units, please respond to that location.”

In the war room, dozens of office personnel scrambled to organize the movements of VNAF, RNZAF, and RAAF aircraft, diverting and redirecting fire missions to Las Pegasus. Major Nha overlooked the entire room as it erupted into scurrying, organized chaos.

“Someone radio that follow up to the reinforcements approaching the area of operations.”

“Yes sir!” an ARVN WAC NCO replied as she quickly tuned into the proper frequencies. Dump everything over our heads, my god, what has Truc gotten himself into? Nha thought to himself, as he overlooked the map of coalition air force operations.

January 3rd, 1973, 0445 Hours (4:45 AM)
Eastern Wall Entrance, Las Pegasus, Equestria, Equus

“Load high explosive!”

“High explosive loaded!”

“Fire!” the large roar of cannons was heard as the M24’s and M48’s did their best to stave off wave after wave of bandits. Accompanying them were the ARVN infantry, dismounted from their APC’s, trying their best to fend off the attack from a makeshift barricade of furniture and carts alongside, what was left of the city watch and of the provisional guard. Soldiers of the latter factions had plates of armor missing, bodies cut and bleeding, and faces drooping in fatigue, nearly on the edge of collapse.

ARVN machine gunners pelted the enemy with M60 gunfire resting on bipods on the battlements, as their comrades on the M113 turrets accompanied them with their Browning machine guns. The two dusters with them rattled off a steady one, two beat as their double barrels, initially meant for anti-air fire, sprayed and prayed against the massing horde.

Civilians ran towards the ARVN forces as they covered their retreat. On the battlements with his radio officer, An fired off a few rounds from his carbine as Freiheit rushed towards the captain. “Captain Nguyen, more of our forces are routing to this area, they claim to be harassed by a giant minotaur wielding a mace.”

An looked back at Freiheit in worry, “If he makes it to our barriers past our armour, he can take them out and break the barricade, causing them to spill out onto the roadway!”

“Exactly, so forgive me if I feel it urgent to ask, but when is your help arriving!?”

“It’s hard to tell, I’m trying to keep up to date with this guy!” An points to the radio man, as arrows flew around them. “If he knew anything, he would’ve told us!”

“Let’s hope the word of your men are honest, Captain!” Freiheit yelled back. He soon rushed to one of the other walls where his staff was stationed.

Suddenly, a godly roar pierced the gunfire, as a giant mass of movement streaked through the enemy ranks, and broke through any of the remaining routing forces, causing them to fly off into other buildings and killing them.

“It’s him! That’s the monster, run! He’ll kill us all!” One of the guards yelled. Several of the guards followed the running, screaming guard.

“What!? Come back here you fucking cowards!” Yelled a Vietnamese private, his words fell on deaf ears, partly to the fact that his words were in Vietnamese, and therefore were unrecognizable for the equine troops.

Some of the braver guards tried to charge at the minotaur, trying to dissuade it from charging the barricade, only to be hit with the mace and flung far off. An looked on in horror at the carnage being created, bodies and viscera flying everywhere, screams piercing through the ranks, the consistent rhythm of the cannons and the guns being his only rock in this sea of battle.

The drum of the guns gave him an idea. “Sergeant, radio the duster near us to aim his gun forty-five degrees to the left, and standby to fire.”

“Sir, what do you have in mind?”

“Something so stupid it could work.” An replied back. He gripped his carbine tightly, trying to steady his shaking hands. He turned to his NCO, as soon as the guy gave him the thumbs up, he ran over the barricades and charged at the minotaur, screaming.

“Hey, asshole, follow me!” An yelled in broken English. His actions were enough to capture its attention. Presuming that it could easily defeat him, the minotaur took the bait, and began to chase the captain. An panted as he ducked and dived through debris, trying hard to dodge the swings of the mace. C’mon An, a little longer, An thought as his legs began to cramp up and flared from pain, and his throat felt dry from the running.

Suddenly, a steady drum of fire broke out behind him, and he jolted. He felt the sudden splash of warm liquid as he dove for cover. An quickly wiped at the fluid on the back of his neck with two fingers, revealing them to be red with blood, blood that was not his own. An looked back, and stared in relaxed satisfaction with a smile.

Standing before the captain was the minotaur, his side full of holes of spraying blood, his intestines, stomach, and lungs spilled out from the new cavity as the duster pelted him with constant rounds. The minotaur writhed in pain as he was hit with round after hot round, the insurmountable amount of pain caused him to drop his weapon, and collapse, screaming in sheer agony. The titan was no more. As An stood up and ran back towards the barricade, he heard the faint sound of propellers turning, and of jets slowly approaching their position.

January 2nd, 1973, 0500 Hours (5:00 AM)
Los Pegasus Airspace, Equestria, Equus

“Sir, we’ve got word from command, we’re cleared to begin moving in after the air support begins their strafing rounds.”

“Very well, prep the music.”

“Yes sir!”

As the ARVN officer scrambled to set the tape, the colonel picked up the receiver, “Alright, you heard them, get into position and move in!” Duc switched frequencies to the squadron. “All air units, form up at nine o’clock high from the position, we will attack with the sun at our backs.”

Duc turned to his command staff. “Gentlemen, I have no doubts as to your skills, now, I propose a toast. To an answer to an age old question…” Duc turned and nodded to one of his officers to play the tape, as his subordinates in the other choppers cocked their rifles and held on tight.

Ahead of them, Duc saw waves of planes, from VNAF skyraiders, AC-37’s, AC-47’s, and F-5’s, to RNZAF A-4’s and RAAF Canberras flew in, poised to drop their red hot, sticky load all over the giant swarm of enemies.

The poor officer tasked with setting up the tape, finally winning in his struggle against the tape player, finished properly placing the second canister of tape and gave a thumbs up.

The colonel nodded back, and the lieutenant summoned the drums of death from a single press of the button, as Duc saw the circling AC-47 fire the first shot from its side howitzer.

January 3rd, 1973, 0500 Hours (5:00 AM)
Eastern Wall Entrance, Las Pegasus, Equestria, Equus

The first thing the captain heard was a drumroll from speakers, and then all hell broke loose. An explosion erupted from the eastern gate, causing it to collapse, crushing several of the attacking thieves. Many of the marauders scattered as gunfire erupted around the entire area from the skies. “All air units, release the bombs outside of the wall.” A voice erupted from the radio receiver next to An. The ground shook and explosions were heard in the distance as VNAF, RAAF, and RNZAF aircraft constantly dropped their loads from their wings and the AC-47’s fired off their howitzers. Thousands of pounds of explosives were dropped on the perimeter around the wall.

Further out, AC-119’s swept up the retreating foes, dying to get away from the carnage. Any brigand who had tried to run at the sight of such awesome power in front of them were soon met with a wall of explosions and minigun fire from the flying boxcars. The wing of three gunships formed a perimeter, locking down the city from the outside. To the brigands below, it was as if Faust herself had used her powers to strike with fear and ferocity into the hearts of the enemy. To the AC-119 crews on board the flying artillery platforms, it was mere target practice.

Overhead, An saw huey gunships with VNAF markings fire off thousands of rounds to the ground below. As they flew over the battlements, the gunships fired their rockets at the enemy ballistas, causing explosions of stone and splinters. The ARVN troops cheered as their air support had finally arrived to break the deadlock. Invigorated, the ARVN troops began to push harder against the enemy lines. With nowhere else to go, the enemy had no choice but to hold their ground, as the ARVN hunted them down like fish in a barrel.

VNAF and RNZAF planes started on their strafing rounds, gunning any enemy they saw with their machine guns. Suddenly, two VNAF skyraiders dropped their large ovular tanks outside of the perimeter, the resulting explosions engulfing many of the enemy troops outside. Anyone unfortunate, but lucky enough to be close to the blast without dying felt the air heat up and leave their lungs as everything was touched by the eating flames.

“Captain An, this is Colonel Duc, clear your troops from the area, the AC-47 gunships are about to dust the area with their machine guns, I repeat, fall back to a safe position and take cover, they will begin their attack in ten, nine…” An, panicked from the sudden call for a retreat, shoved his subordinate toward the rear, yelling, “Evacuate the men! They’re clearing the area.” Word quickly passed to most of the ranks, and soon, the majority of the ARVN troops and their indigenous allies fell back from a safe distance, some tripping along the way in their panic, the armored division slowly backing away and providing suppressive fire as they closed the rear of the ranks. A safe distance away, behind some rubble, An heard the last of the countdown over the radio, “Five, four, three, two, one.”

A hail of tracer fire broke through the skies as the AC-47’s miniguns sliced through the enemy ranks like butter. Dust choked the air as the rounds impacted the ground. An looked up at the sky as two AC-47’s, one flying in the distance in the direction of the eastern gate, and another to his back at the west, combined their fire power and swept the area of any thugs. Minutes felt like they drew into hours as the tracer fire continued to slice the ranks unhindered.

Finally the dust settled, and before them stood millions of corpses. Many of the ranks had lost their limbs, others were bleeding out profusely, moaning. The siege was over, and the enemy laid dead or dying in front of them.

January 3rd, 1973, 0530 Hours (5:30 AM)
Northern Wall, Las Pegasus, Equestria, Equus

Freiheit and his lieutenants looked in sheer horror, mouths agape and eyes wide, as they processed the carnage on the ground.

“They...they killed them all. All in one, single blow.” Stuttered a lieutenant in shock and awe. Freiheit nodded, walked away from the table containing maps of the city, and stared as he took in the distance westward.

In the air was a large, flying beast, colored in a large array of browns, blacks, and greens. The creature looked to be made of metal, and had a roar that broke through the battlefield as it continued its flight. The large being circled around, and joined its mate to the east as they slowly flew into the distance.

“An iron dragon…” the governor muttered, “An iron dragon with the breath of dragons a thousand-fold, the men in green fought without any mercy, and with such total and utter destruction. Dear Freya, is this punishment for our actions in the war for conquest? What have I done in allowing the men in green to come in, and in allying with them?” Freiheit whispered to himself, as he saw a flock of iron dragonflies approach a clearing. He looked in fascination as more men in green jumped out of the machines flying just a thread’s edge off the ground. Larger machines unloaded troops from the back. He looked on with his men as the men in green yelled orders in the strange language they called Vietnamese.

January 3rd, 1973, 0630 Hours (6:30 AM)
Eastern District, Las Pegasus, Equestria, Equus

“Clear the area, take prisoners! Care for any of the injured! Over there! There’s one!” Shouting broke through the battlefield as the ARVN reinforcements grouped up and went their separate ways, searching and securing the area for any survivors who miraculously survived the attack.

The air was hot as some napalm fires still burned outside of the perimeter, and more dust kicked in as ANZAC land rovers soon arrived with their reinforcements. “Alroight, lads! I want B section to process prisoners! A section team up with C section and conduct further searches for the enemy! O section I…” the Aussie and Kiwi troops quickly dashed to their positions as they helped the ARVN troops process prisoners and bark out commands to line up in clear, understandable English.

Among the awaiting prisoners stood a griffoness, feathers tattered, and tail singed, with cuts, scrapes, and bruises plastered all over her body. Gilda licked her cracked beak as she waited for what she expected was the execution. For four years, she had been dragged from her home, and shoved right into the battlefield. She was told by her ‘employers’ that she was fighting ‘To spread the glory of the empire!’ and that since they managed to defeat the most powerful country in Equus, that this conquest would be a piece of cake. Some cake that was. Gilda thought.

Four years of unwittingly fighting for the most fucked up creatures in the world, made even more painful as she saw the homes of her friends burned in pillaged right in front of her eyes. She gagged at the memory of many a young mare raped, some young enough to not be in heat yet. What made it worst was her first fight with the new beings from the strange land, men in green who harnessed the power of fire and magic to wipe out most of her fellow mercenaries. She ran after that first battle, ran without a single thought on direction, ran to survive an unspeakable hell. With everything I’ve done in this war, death is is the only way I’ll get out of this bucked up hell. Heck, I might be able to meet Dash on the way up as well… oh, who am I kidding, with everything I’ve done here, I probably deserve to go to Tartarus. Gilda thought.

She heard some of the men in green speak in some weird language. Suddenly, most of the troops began to draw their knives. This is it. Gilda thought, I’m done for. She closed her eyes, anticipating the sweet silence of death. She felt someone grabbing her taloned forearm. Going for my wrists first, maybe they’re going to make us suffer first. Gilda chillingly thought.

She felt something that was similar to paper, like a leaflet. Curious, she opened her eyes, and looked at the leaflet before her. The leaflet was a bright yellow, with a giant banner of yellow with three red stripes in the middle flying in the center of the leaflet.

Surrounding it were several other banners, one with white stars in a blue rectangle, and red and white stars and stripes, another with a red and blue circle surrounded by black lines similar to Equestria’s flag, two banners with a similar coloring of blue with red lines crossing vertically, horizontally, and diagonally, on the top left of each banner, and stars to the right, another banner had a white triangle with four stars, one on each point, and one in the center, the triangle was surrounded in blue and red, and the final banner had a blue line sandwiched in between two red and two white lines.

There was some large, bold text on the top written in a strange language. Below the group of flags, was a sentence written in what looked like Equish, “Safe-Conduct Pass To Be Honored By All Vietnamese Government And Allied Forces.” Presumably similar lines written in in other strange languages followed below the sentence.

Gilda flipped the leaflet to the back, There were two yellow lines sandwiching more text, and two pictures, one of what looked to be a farmer being guided by one of the men in green. The other picture was of an aged man with a signature below it. On the upper yellow line read the same Equish language from the front, below that was more text in the strange language.

The fact that it was written in such unintelligible text made Gilda tilt her head in confusion at why the buck the men in green would hand her such a thing. Gilda looked up to the person who gave it to her: it was a pale man with brown hair, dressed in clothing made of an assortment of greens and browns. He wore a green harness of some kind, with a helmet covered in cloth of a similar color under his arm. It was all rounded out with green and black boots and a maroon beret, and he wore a nametag labeled “Taylor”. “What the buck did you just give me? I thought you people were going to kill us.”

“Your one opportunity, young missy.” The thing talked, and it had an accent none too similar to a certain orange and blonde mare that Gilda knew before everything went to tartarus.

“Do you know what it says?”

“Oh, whoops. Sorry about that ma’am.” The man replied back, hastily grabbing the leaflet from Gilda’s grasp. “I forgot that the ARVN forces haven’t translated all of these darn things to English, hold on, I’ll take a look.” Taylor looked closely at the text and began to read it aloud.

“‘Take this pass to the National Government, meaning us, and you will be kindly welcomed, given guaranteed security, and properly treated.’ Signed, Nguyen Van Thieu, that’s the South Viet- I mean the leader of the men in green as a whole. And then under that it says, ‘this safe conduct pass to be honored by Vietnamese government agencies and Allied forces’.” Taylor handed the leaflet back to Gilda. “In layman’s terms ma’am, join us, and you won’t be jailed for the rest of the war. We’re willing to give you a second chance, I’d consider it if I were you, we have tons of jobs you can do under our protection.”

Gilda stared back at the simple leaflet, and looked up, observing what her fellow mercenaries were doing. Some of the various creatures, and most of the caribou, shredded up their leaflets after receiving an explanation from one of the men in green. The few that didn’t walked up to one of the men in green and started talking, showing them the “Safe-Conduct Pass.”

Gilda looked back at her leaflet, Maybe this isn’t a hopeless situation after all. She thought, as she looked hopefully at the giant collection of flags.

Author's Notes:

Welp! Back from the dead and reporting for duty. Sorry for the delays guys, I was busy with writing a short story. In addition school is starting up for me, so apologies for the delays in Chapter Seven. Like always, feel free to leave a comment, like this story, and share it with friends... oh and also, I don't own anything but my ideas. Anyways, see ya in country.

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Fast Facts!

*The QLVNCH equivalent of an American broken arrow status. Broken Arrow meant that a position was overrun, and that all aircraft are to respond to that location to provide support. Vietnamese doctrine was summarized by this, 'They'll have to take it from our cold, dead hands.'

* During the war, the ARVN had a policy of repatriation of any VC willing to defect, hence the leaflets given out to the enemy. It's safe to assume that they'd like to follow the same doctrine in Equestria.