Present day,

Sgt. Clare, Everfree forest, Hill 959:

Gunfire could be heard in the far distance, the heat was hot and several of the stallions were sweating. We were moving in a straight line deployment. Despite only having the rank of Sergeant I was appointed platoon sergeant and had suggested that we have Corporal Cranks, one of the veteran shadow guards, on point but Daffodil saw fit to have one of the new guys on point.

Christ I could see the kid from here, every time gunfire rang out he’d flinch and crouch down. I broke formation and paced quickly to the front of the line, Daffodil was about to say something but couldn’t seem to find the words. I tapped the new guy on the shoulder and he turned to me. It was Private Cloud Dasher, the guy who had spilt his drink on my lunch the other day. He was still very frightened and was breathing heavily.

“Why don’t you take a break from point, I’ll take lead for a while” I told him and he nodded. “Thank you Sarge” he said in an absolutely terrified voice, Christ it sounded like he was about to just sit down and start crying. I couldn’t blame him though, this was some pretty scary stuff.

Cloud Dasher was trotting up close behind me, like I was his personal protector or something. “Sarge… all I can think about is all that gunfire up there… what’s going on up there” he whispered. “It’s Celestia’s royal guard, they decided they wanted first crack at the hill this time” I informed him as we continued through the tall grass. Literally the stuff was taller than I was and I stood 6’4” so this stuff must’ve been at least nine feet high and it was dense.

“What do you mean, this time?” he asked fearfully. “Cause last time we went in first” Bakers piped up. Dasher looked back to him, “Last time?” he asked uneasily. “We’ve taken this hill before” I told him and he looked back to me. “Well if we took it before, then why are we taking it again?” Dasher asked with fear coursing through his voice.

“Cause that’s how we win these wars, Dasher. We give up our hard fought land to the enemy so that ponies don’t think we’re the bad guys” said Specialist Lickety Split, who was one of those hippy fighters who always made the war decisions look bad. Dasher looked back to him, “Man don’ play those games with my head Split” Dasher pleaded.

Daffodil trotted up, “Don’t worry Private it’s not that. Lickety, we can’t hold all the land we fight on because we wouldn’t have enough troops to cover it” Daffodil told Lickety. “Well then what’s the point in fighting for it” Split argued and Daffodil looked back to him. “You know what Split, when you become the general of staff you can tell the princess how to win these wars okay” Daffodil told him.

We reached the bottom of the hill and I looked back to the men and motioned for them to rally up. The platoon rallied up, “Alright listen, intelligence reports heavy zebra concentration at the peak but also pockets of fighters down the valley so I want every-pony quiet and listening, alright” I told them and they nodded. I probably should have let Daffodil give the order but he would’ve probably sugar-coated it for the guards and they would’ve been off guard.

I took point and began to lead them up the hill slowly and quietly. The grass was less dense here but still the jungle, or forest, was still thick with brush thickets and visibility was low. I wiped some sweat from my forehead as we continued on up the hill.

As we continued on up the hill, the gunfire from the peak ceased and everything seemed to go silent. “What’s going on up there?” Dasher whispered and I turned around as I kept sneaking forwards. “They’re done… it’s our turn” I whispered. He gave me a fearful look, “Are… are they okay?” he asked and I sighed quietly. “They’re alive but probably have heavy casualties” I informed him then returned my attention to the makeshift path.

Third person, Everfree forest, Hill 959:

The platoon of shadow guards continued up the hill quietly. Clare was still in lead and trying his best to keep Private Dasher from panicking from the silence.

“Sarge… why do they call this place 959 anyway?” Dasher whispered. Clare didn’t even look back. “Because it’s nine hundred and fifty nine feet from top to bottom” Clare replied. “Maybe nine fifty after that artillery bombing last October” Daffodil said silently. Dasher looked back to him, “How many times have you guys taken this hill anyway?” Dasher asked and Daffodil thought to himself and sighed.

“Five times, this one will be six” Daffodil whispered. Dasher turned back around and his breathing became heavy again as he realized that Bakers was probably right, it was a deathtrap down here.

No less than fifteen yards to the platoons left in some tall grass lay several zebra fighters. One of the zebras pulled out a grenade but the zebra officer held the zebra’s shoulder and shook his head then pointed the tailing soldier of the platoon. As the tailing platoon stallion trotted by the zebra officer nodded and the other zebra tossed the grenade at the stallion.

The grenade exploded violently and killed the stallion instantly as the zebras opened fire on the platoon with their AK47s. “GET DOWN!” Clare yelled and the entire platoon dropped except Daffodil who stood there in shock. Clare snarled as he lept over and tackled Daffodil to the ground, lead flew through the air above them. Clare unslung his Thompson and sprayed a volley of .45 caliber rounds into the dense grass, several cries of agony could be heard from zebras as they were hit from the lead rounds that now chattered out of Clare’s Thompson. The other platoon members shot at the zebras with their M16A4s.

The M16A4 was a versatile rifle but due to the three round burst it was really inconvenient at this close with this many zebras almost literally breathing down their necks. Clare’s Thompson spat out an incredibly high volume of fire but his fifty round drum magazine soon ran dry. He rolled over behind a tree and reloaded a fresh drum magazine into the gun.

“Hey Dickens… DICKENS” Clare yelled over the gunfire and Corporal Dickens looked over. “See where I’m firing?” Clare asked as he sprayed a quick burst into the grass. “Yeah” Dickens replied, “Use the M79” Clare ordered him and Dickens quickly unslung the M79 and popped a 40mm grenade round into the thicket of tall grass.

The grenade round exploded violently and several zebras were propelled a few into the air. Clare stepped out from cover, “I want a quick sweep” Clare ordered.

The others quickly got up and inspected the grass, a wounded zebra stallion stood up and Bakers cut him down with a burst from the M60. “All clear” Bakers called out. Clare looked to Daffodil who was hiding the deceased guards in the brush off to the side of the trail and Clare walked up to his side. “Hickland, Munsey and Red… goddammit” Daffodil cursed as he collected their dog tags.

“Hide them and we’ll pick them up on the way back down” Clare whispered. “Alright stallions form up, straight line. We’re going to the peak” Clare ordered and the others quickly rallied up and got into formation.

Private Cloud Chaser, Everfree forest, Hill 959:

‘Why the hell did I volunteer for this shit… I wanna go home’ I thought to myself as we continued on up the hill. It was so hot here, even hotter than summer days back in Manehatten and the grass was so thick I couldn’t see a goddamned thing.

The Sarge held up a fist then motioned for us all to get down. My breathing became erratic and I couldn’t control it, I was so scared. I saw movement up ahead that was descending down the hill, it was ponies but they looked… bloody.

Celestia’s royal guard-ponies trotted down the hill, some of them getting carried on stretchers. A lieutenant from the platoon stepped up to the Sarge.

“How’s things up there?” Sarge asked the lieutenant and he didn’t say a thing. “How bad?” Sarge asked uneasily and the lieutenant looked up to him with defeated eyes. “It’s like fighting ghosts… I don’t know about you Clare but I didn’t sign up to fight ghosts” the lieutenant said then began to trot down the hill with the rest of his platoon. One of the stallions who had a badly cut up foreleg slipped and fell. The Sarge caught him and held him up, “Thanks” the stallion whispered weakly as he continued to limp down the hill. It was like they had been to hell. “Yeah no problem” Sarge told the stallion then looked up to the hill.

We were so close now, probably less than one hundred feet. “Alright spread out, we want to hit them with a volley of fire, one team supports while the other moves up” Sarge ordered. We nodded and followed his lead, though it was weird. Wasn’t Lieutenant Daffodil supposed to lead us?

As we approached the peak of the hill it flattened out a little then without warning, it seemed like the world exploded around me. Gunfire deafened me and I quickly lept to the ground and rolled sideways until I was behind a fallen tree. Private Ramsey, one of the stallions who had enlisted with me, lept down beside me. “Why the hell’d we sign up for this shit” I screamed then peeked my head over the log and fired wildly into the jungle. In all the fear I had forgotten that the M16 rifle was three round burst so I only shot off three rounds but I held the trigger and in my fearful confusion I quickly slipped back down behind the log and inspected my M16, thinking it was jammed because it only fired three times.

Ramsey sat beside me. “I can’t take this shit man… I can’t… AAAHHHHHH” Ramsey screamed and started thrashing around on the ground. I reached over and grabbed him to try and keep him still. “Ramsey… Ramsey what’s wrong?” I asked my friend.

“What the hell’s wrong with Ramsey?” Sarge screamed over the sound of gunfire. “A snake bit me man, a snake bit me… ARRRG, GAAHHHH” Ramsey screamed as he started to twitch and the Sarge ran over and lept beside us. “Ramsey… what the hell’s going on?” Sarge yelled. “He said a snake bit him sir, but I don’t see no snake” I told him and soon Ramsey’s screamed became gags and he finally stopped twitching and lay there, lifeless.

“FUCK” Sarge yelled and looked back over the log. He hunched back over and looked to me. “Fuck, this place is too open to make a flank around the sides… LIEUTENANT” Sarge screamed as he shuffled over top of me then quickly dashed over to where the lieutenant was. I saw them conversing then the Sarge and lieutenant Daffodil tossed some smoke grenades down range, soon there was a smoke screen off to the side of the machinegun nest. “COVERING FIRE” Sarge yelled and every-pony began to fire down range at the zebras, I peeked over to see it wasn’t individual zebras but an actual dug in machinegun nest. I brought my M16 up and held back the trigger but once again it only fired three rounds, I almost face-hoofed as I remembered that these rifles were three round burst. I really wish that they would’ve made them fully automatic.

The Sarge did something I thought no pony would ever do, he lept from cover and ran forwards. I thought it to be stupidity, running into the line of fire of a machinegun but then I realized that the smoke screen had given him enough cover to successfully run up to the machinegun nest.

But as he approached he didn’t take it head on, he instead went around to the side and lept into a trench and moved through the trench, his Thompson sub machinegun spraying any zebra that stood in his way. He reached the back of the machinegun nest and fired into the nest with his Thompson. Other zebras were now approaching from behind and soon he would be surrounded, but for some reason he did something truly ridiculous. He lept out of the machinegun nest and began to run back to us, zebras fired at him furiously but no rounds seemed to strike him. He was either very lucky or very talented.

He lept over the fallen tree I had taken cover behind as a violent eruption thundered and several zebras could be heard screaming. The Sarge ejected the drum magazine from the gun and loaded it with a fresh one.

We all sat there for what seemed like ages but it was probably only a few minutes. “Alright... sweep the area… LT… call HQ, we’ve taken Hill 959” Sarge said through heavy breathing.

We all walked up cautiously towards the destroyed bunker and inspected it. Lieutenant Daffodil got on the radio with HQ in Canterlot. Daffodil started arguing with the radio-mare on the other end of the radio. “I got nothing, I repeat nothing, zippo” Daffodil reported and waited as his response came through, “So what do you have?” the voice from the radio asked. “I said I got nothing HQ, I got no bodies, I got no body parts… a little blood” he told the voice on the radio. It was weird now that I looked at it, there were no bodies at all. It was like the zebras picked them all up before they retreated.

“Alright, I want a defensive perimeter set up over” Sarge began but Lieutenant Daffodil interrupted him. “Don’t even bother” he told the Sarge. “Why not?” Sarge asked and Lieutenant Daffodil stood up, “HQ wants us to leave the peak. Pack up and move out” Daffodil ordered.

“Bullshit” Bakers screamed as he kicked over a burning piece of wood. “Man… I can’t believe this shit” Lickety Split complained as he kicked the ground, kicking up a bunch or dirt. “Orders are orders” Daffodil told us as he stood up and hung up the radio that was attached to the back of the radio stallion.

The others all sighed irritably as they began to walk down the hill again, I looked back to the machinegun nest, knowing that I’d probably see it again in the not too distant future.

Author's Notes:

Okay I just wanted to say two things: Thanks to all you readers out there you favourited the story and think it's good, you guys and gals make my day, and two: sorry it's taking so long to get chapters out, I'm not gonna pull the sappy 'Fell pity on me because' because I'm not that kind of guy so I'll just say that I'm helping out a local dairy farm because I'm a good guy and they need help so alot of my time is going to be devoted to helping them so the chapters won't come out as fast as they did for Secret Crush. So sorry about that