The ponies stood there for a moment, letting Repeater’s words sink in. All of them were still looking at Trench, and he began to feel uneasy. The ponies around him looked resigned, deflated. Even Repeater had his ears down, and as far as Trench could tell Repeater was a very upbeat pony. All their eyes were on him, not looking at him specifically, not focused, but on him nonetheless. Repeater broke the silence.

“Alright everypony, listen up. If we’re gonna go over the top ah want us ta be darn ready. Joe, Ah want ya and Cold ta figure out a way ta take the Browns with us. Longshot and Eyes, Ah want ya ta start trainin’ on the SMCC again, ‘cause there’s no way you’re gonna be able ta take Marcia with ya if we go over. Bloody and Muddy, start thinkin’ of stuff, anythin’ that can help. Everypony else needs ta start sharpening our entrenching tools. And everypony needs ta start practicin’ with grenades. Understood?” All the squadponies, save for Trench Broom nodded. “Get crackin.’ ”

The ponies all broke from their positions, given a job to do. Trench Broom stood still, a few thoughts eating away at him. He undid the bayonet and sheathed it, then trotted over to Repeater.

“Excuse me, Sergeant.”

“Repeater, partner. Call me Repeater.”

“I have a few questions.”

“Shoot.”

“Why do you think that we’re to go over?”

“Your name, partner, your name. How did ya earn it.”

“Well, I set the company record for the close combat course. Clocked in at 19 seconds.”

“What was the course like?”

“It was a trench… oh.” Trench Broom said, finally understanding the significance.

“Ah thought so. They named ya Trench Broom ‘cause ya’ll sweep the trenches clean, especially with that sword ya got on the end a your machine gun. That means that all ya new guys are bein’ trained ta attack, so we’re goin’ over the top. Ah don’t know when, but we will.” Repeater looked out past Trench at the rest of the squad, and sat in thought briefly. “Speakin’ of which, whenever ya get more acclimated, Ah think that Ah’m gonna promote ya to corporal.”

Trench Broom recoiled in surprise, “Really? I just got here!”

Repeater held out a reassuring hoove. “Ah know, that’s why I ain’t doin’ it right now. But ya are the most experienced pony in the squad when it comes ta this close up fightin’, and ah need ya ta teach us how ta fight in the trenches. Ah’m puttin’ ya up ta corporal so that ya have more authority. Ah ain’t doin’ it yet, but ah will.” Trench Broom nodded slowly as he digested the news.

“Alright then Sergeant, if you think that’s the best thing to do,” he answered hesitantly, already feeling the responsibility of the future weighing on him. For a moment he went over Repeater orders mentally. “Why do we need to sharpen the entrenching tools? Do you intend to use them to…?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you?”

“It’s what got Bloody Guts his name.” Repeater said. Trench nodded solemnly.

“I’m not certain that I’m ready for it, Sergeant-“

“-Repeater. Ready for what?”

“-Yes, Repeater. Sorry. Ready for fighting, sir.” Repeater nodded sympathetically. “I’m a bit afraid that I’ll screw up once we get into the thick of it.Everypony keeps saying that I’m new, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes today already.”

“Relax partner, everypony makes mistakes, and ya never feel ready. Ah mean, ah never thought ah’d be a good sergeant when the war started, but ah do alright. Ya’ll do fine.”

Trench smiled at that. “Really?! You think so?!” Repeater nodded. “Well, thank you Sergeant!”

“Repeater.” The pony corrected for the umpteenth time. “Partner, any particular reason ya keep callin’ me Sergeant? Ah mean, we’re all friends here.”

Trench shrugged sheepishly, “I guess it’s just conditioned… Repeater.” The name didn’t roll off of his tongue; it had to be forced off at gunpoint as Trench fought to keep a straight face. “I’m sorry; I just never called a superior officer by name, Sir. And I haven’t had the best of luck with officers today either. Just earlier I was going to link up with the platoon, so I went to the company headquarters and reported in, but I reported to the Major instead of the platoon leader like I should have.”

“And The Artist got ticked with ya, right?” Repeater said knowingly. Trench cocked his head at the strange name, then connected the dots.

“Yes sir. He told me that I have to…- Oh! Excuse me, Sergeant!” Trench said as he abruptly turned around and ran back into the dugout. He ducked in quickly and grabbed his saddlebags, turning around and heading back up before any of the ponies in there could ask what he was up to. He trotted up to the waiting Sergeant and set the bags down. “He gave me orders to be delivered to all sergeants in the company,” he said as he opened up one of the pockets. “Here.”

Repeater grabbed up the top one and opened it up, smearing a decent amount of mud on the back of the paper. He read it for a moment, and the further he read the more the smile receded. One of Repeaters eyebrows slowly made its way up as his eyes darted back and forth along the paper. He sat down, no longer reading, but glancing at parts of the paper.

“Partner, any idea what in the hay any of this stuff is?” Repeater said as he held the paper out to Trench. Trench read it quickly.

“Well, a MMMG Mk.I is this little beauty,” he said as he motioned to his machine gun. “SMCC Mk.II must be some upgrade to the service rifle. I don’t know about the others.”

Repeater shrugged. “Well partner, ah suppose that we’ll find out soon enough. Ya got ta deliver these out?” Trench nodded. “Well go deliver them and report back to us, then we’ll go back ta the rear and see what all a this is about.”

“Yes sir,” Trench said as he handed the paper back to the sergeant before snapping into a salute.

“Ya ever gonna just call me Repeater?”

“Oops. Sorry Sergeant.”

“Rep-, ya know, nevermind.”

About an hour later, Trench Broom got back to fifth squads section of the trench. After delivering twenty more of these notices up and down the line he was looking forward to at least sitting down. He saw the Sergeant sitting on the trench floor looking through one of the periscopes. Trench cleared his voice, “I delivered the orders Sergeant.”

Repeater looked over at him and grinned. “It’s about time, ah thought that ya ran off on us.” He got up and leaned into the dugout. “If ya ain’t named Longshot or Cold Blooded, then ya’ll are comin’ with me. Full dress.” Immediately, Trench could hear the dugout come to life with rustling. The twins were the first ones out.

“You know that Joe’s in the MG hole, right?” Muddy asked. Repeater nodded as the rest of the ponies clambered out of the dugout, each with their saddlebags and weapons in tow.

“Longshot, fork that rifle over ta Eagle Eyes and get on Marcia. If the Unicornians decide ta attack while we’re out the trench, it’s up ta you and Cold ta kill ‘em all.”

“I don’t even get to keep my minion?”

“Nope. Eagle Eyes comes with me.”

“OK,” Longshot sighed as he unslung his SMCC and gave it to Eagle before heading back off to his indent and Marcia. Repeater led the rest of them to the MG hole, and ducked his head inside.

“Hey Cold, Ah need ya ta send Joe on out here with both’a your rifles!” Trench could hear rustling from inside, and waited with the others until the large unicorn crawled out of the hole. “Alright, if the Unicornians attack its up ta you ta stop em, ya understand?” the hole was silent. Repeater finally waved off and pulled his head out of the entrance. “He understands. Let’s go.”

“So Repeater, whats this all about? Where are we going?” Hack Saw asked as they navigated their way through the trench.

“Everyponys gettin’ brand new stuff, so we’re all goin’ ta the back ta get it.”

“New stuff? For what?” Nopony answered for a moment, until Eagle Eyes broke the silence.

“For going over.”

“Yep,” Repeater confirmed.

“Crap,” said Hack Saws.

“Hey, at least they’re outfitting us; it’s more than last time,” Joe said.

“Last time? Wait? There was a last time?” the medic asked in surprise. “We tried going over before?”

“Yep, before ya showed up, we had just beat the Unicornians to a pulp at the first battle a Canterlot. Then our former general Cavalry Charge figured that we could just charge across the field after them,” Repeater answered.

“Idiot,” somepony muttered, Trench couldn’t tell who.

“Ok, so what did you have last time?”

“Lances,” The Specialist said.

“Celestia, lances? Really?!”

“Yessir partner, ah told everypony ta drop ‘em as soon as we got onta the field and grab up grenades from the Unicornians. Ah’m pretty happy about gettin’ new equipment, shows that they want us ta be ready.”

“Yeah, but equipment doesn’t matter without a good plan, and I’m willing to bet that this plan will involve walking across an open field towards the baddies,” Eagle Eyes said.

Something about his tone rubbed Trench Broom the wrong way, and he felt compelled to respond. “Well, how else are we supposed to cross seven miles?”

“I don’t know, all that I know is that walking across an open field towards the baddies has a lot of disadvantages, like the fact that you are walking across an open field toward the baddies.”

“Do ya got any better plans?” Repeater asked

“No, all that I know is that you don’t have to be Commander Hurricane to know not to walk across an open field toward the baddies.”

Trench piped up. “We probably won’t. The princesses don’t want us to get killed, so I’d have to think that they’ve come up with the best plan possible to keep us safe.”

“Wait, new guy, do you have any idea what the plan is?” Joe asked excitedly. “You’ve been training for the attack, right?”

Trench could feel the attention shift to him. “Well, I have been training for trench fighting, but I never heard about any plans whatsoever. Sorry.” He heard some groans.

They had trotted a pretty fair distance down the trench before they ran into an intersection that started taking them to the back. As they turned and started heading in the direction of Canterlot they could see a machine gun nest at the end, pointing down the length of the trench.

“You think that they’ll have guns set up like that?” Hack Saw asked.

“Yeah.”

“Yep.”

“Probably.”

The answers arrived simultaneously. “So how do you deal with that?”

Trench answered immediately. “Those aren’t bad. Put down smokes ahead, and then have all the unicorns cast a shield between you and the gun. Move up until you can grenade it out.”

“Ya’ll teach us, right partner?” Repeater asked with a wink.

“Yeah.”

“Great.”

One of the twins-Trench couldn’t tell the difference yet- spoke up. “Sergeant, me and my brother were wondering about the new equipment?”

Repeater nodded as he reached into his saddlebags for the orders, and then found himself fishing around for them. “Ah really miss mah vest,” he muttered before finally grabbing them out. “Alright, we’re getting’ new service rifles, a couple ‘a Trench’s fancy-pants machine guns, and some other stuff.” He passed the letter back to the twin. “Don’t ask what it is cause ah don’t know.”

The twins read it quickly as they trotted along. “It appears that Joe and Eagle can get the machine guns. You can too, Sergeant.”

“Naw thanks, Ah’m keepin’ mah Marechester.”

“I can get one of those?” Eagle asked, pointing at Trench’s gun. Immediately the twins snapped into a coy grin.

“You certainly do, but me and my brother have first-hoof experience, and while it’s all good fun we can tell you-

“-without a shadow of a doubt-“

“ -that it is far from perfect”

“Quite right brother, it hurts the shoulder-“

“-And the muzzle climbs!“

“- Not good for a soldier-

“-at any time!”

“But we’ll fix it up-

“-and we’ll make it hit”

“And we’ll do it all for just a few bits!”

“Yessir, they’ll do it all for precisely zero!” Repeater interrupted. The twin’s ears deflated instantly.

“But… we made a song for it,” Muddy said.

“And ah’m sure it was wonderful, but ya’ll still ain’t gonna charge a thing.”

“Fine, we’ll improve it for free.” Bloody said dejectedly.

“Pretty good pitch though,” Eagle said.

They trotted out of the trench system and into the bombed out field. Yet again Trench could see the giant Equestrian flag in the distance. “Sergeant?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What’s the story with the flag?”

“Ah, the flag is there so that every mornin’ Princess Celestia can look out the window of Canterlot Castle and see that we haven’t all been killed. If the flags gone, then it means it’s high time ta get outta dodge. It’s also there ta rub it into the Unicornians faces.”

“So if we get attacked and lose we have to take the flag down before we get overrun?”

“Naw, it’s covered in somethin’ flammable, ya shoot it with a flare gun and it goes up. The first flag got struck by lightnin’. They say that the Princess nearly keeled over from shock when she saw it was gone in the mornin’. Almost ordered Canterlot evacuated before the Field Marshall calmed her down.”

Behind them the others had all gotten into their own conversations, save for the Specialist. Trench looked back at them briefly, they all seemed relatively happy.

“Ya likin’ the squad so far?”

“What? Oh, yeah. They seem alright, and hopefully I’ll be friends with them soon. It’s just that, well, I already had a squad at training. And then they busted us up.”

“Ah understand. One of the best soldiers in this squad got sent away ‘cause ‘a some orders.” Repeaters ears dropped, and Trench saw an emotion that he didn’t expect from the upbeat Sergeant. Sadness. “He was mah best friend, too.” He perked up a little at some thought. “Hey, when ya were in trainin’, did ya ever meet any instructor by the name a Manifest Destiny?”

“Manifest Destiny? No, can’t say that I have.”

“How about Static Sparks?”

“No. Are they the same pony?”

“No,” Repeater answered.

“What kind of a fighting name is ‘Manifest Destiny’ anyway? It’s not aggressive, you know?”

“Well, what kind of a fightin’ name is Joe?”

“Is it the type that you give out?”

“Nope. Ah named Manifest Destiny. Guess who named Joe?”

“Who?”

“Cold Blooded.” Trench blinked in surprise.

“Cold Blooded?”

“Yessir. Have ya met him?” Trench squirmed a little. “Then ya have. He wasn’t always like that. He used ta talk, used ta do anythin’.” Repeater shook his head. “And now he don’t.” He stopped talking for a moment. “Ah’m sorry, ah just got distracted. We were talkin’ about friends that we’ve been separated from, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well just write ‘em. Ya’ll find that just about everypony here writes all the time. Hay, Ah write ta Manifest, mah cousins, and the folks at Appleloosa just about every day. Just write your friends. Ah’m sure they’ll appreciate it.”

“Appleloosa?”

“Mah old stompin’ grounds.”

Trenches mouth dropped open, “W-We aren’t allowed to talk about that stuff!”

Repeater waved off the claim nonchalantly. “Naw, we just ain’t supposed ta. Sorry partner, but everypony in the squad knows
where Ah come from, and a good chunk know mah real name.”

Trench let this sink in for a moment. “Does everypony here do this?”

“Well, most do. Ah know something about the old life of just ‘bout everypony here, save for you and… Eagle Eyes actually.” Trench realized that he did know something about the old Eagle Eyes. He brushed it aside for now.

“Back at training they used to make everypony run, or not feed us, and chew us out if we talked about things like that.”

Repeater shrugged. “Well, let me let ya in on a little secret partner. Once ya get out a basic, ponys really stop carin’ ‘bout that. Take mah hat for example. Back in boot camp, ah would have never thought a bringin’ it, but here it’s fine. One time some high rankin’ pony saw me with it and he chewed me out, but ah’ve been chewed out before. He didn’t even confiscate it.” Repeater looked over to him. “It’s a pretty long winded way a sayin’ it, but if ya ever felt like ya wanted ta talk about your past, we won’t put ya up against the wall for it.”

Trench nodded, but looked back at the others, namely Eagle Eyes. ‘I should probably go talk to him, tell him about the stationmaster,’ He thought briefly. Eagle Eyes was talking with Hack Saw though, and he didn’t want to interrupt.

“What are ya lookin’ at, partner?” Repeater asked, following his gaze.

“Just at the west, I guess,” Trench lied fluently. He wasn’t really, but he didn’t want Repeater to find out that he knew about Eagles past. If Eagle Eyes wanted to tell Repeater anything then he would, but Trench wasn’t going to spill for him.

“How does it make ya feel?”

“The west?”

“Yeah.”

“I think we’ll beat them if we get into the trenches. Give them a good taste of the Equestrian steel.”

“Are ya afraid at all?”

“No, maybe a bit nervous, but not afraid.”

They kept trotting toward the rear. They had already passed the last of the craters that the Unicornians 8 inchers had made. “Ah bet you’re pretty tired a trottin’ back and forth.”

“Dear Celestia Sergeant, you don’t know the half of it.”

“Well ah bet ya’ll be glad ta hear that it aint far ta the armory. its right over there.” he pointed off to the left, and Trench followed his hoof. Out in the middle of the field, a couple hundred yards away, sat a small lone tan tent.

The armory tent was at first glance nothing very interesting to look at, but at least slightly confusing to ponder, a small island in a sea of green. more importantly, an island that was much to small to hold anything. At least that was how it appeared to Trench. After making this trip for the third time, not to mention his tour of the trenches, nothing seemed to interesting to him apart from the prospects of laying his head down to sleep.

The rest of the squad definitely didn’t share in this notion as they lively trotted up to the bland tan tent, led by their Stetson-adorned Sergeant. However, The Quartermaster behind the table that Trench could see just inside of the tent clearly did, a blank look in his eyes that barely acknowledged the approaching squad. Before Repeater arrived, the Quartermaster preempted him.

“Are you here for the new equipment?” he asked, a bored voice that had asked the question numerous times before in the day, and seemed ready to ask it numerous times again.

“Yessir, we sure are!” Repeater answered enthusiastically. The Quartermaster slid a sheet of paper and pen toward the approaching pony. “Fill out the forms and then I’ll get it for you.”

Repeater picked up the pen and then started filling out the paperwork as the rest of the ponies gathered behind him. Trench looked out behind the small desk. The tent seemed much too small to house any arms, and seemed to only hold administrative equipment. He shifted his gaze down, and saw a set of stairs going into the floor. Ah, that was probably where the armory was.

“Joe, rifle or machine gun?”

“Rifle.”

“How ‘bout ya, Eagle?”

“Machine gun.”

Whatever paperwork Repeater had to do was apparently quite quick, because he was already handing the paper back to the Quartermaster. The quartermaster looked at the paper dully. “Turn in your Mk.1’s, and I will have your equipment soon.” The ponies deposited their rifles onto the table as the quartermaster turned and began down the stairs.

Muddy and Bloody pushed themselves up to the front of the group, right next to Repeater.

“”Muddy?”

“Yes Bloody?”

“Are you excited for the new rifles?”

“No brother, I’m excited for the new modifications that we’ll have to create!”

Repeater looked over to Muddy Ruts. “Ya better calm down partner, what if it’s a perfect design? What if ya’ll can’t make any improvements?”

“I quite doubt that Sergeant, if it exists in the realm of machinery-“

“-then we can improve it!”

Repeater cocked his head. “Ya’ll know that ah won’t let ya make a dime off a anything that ya’ll do, right?”

“We know Sergeant, but we after some discussion we decided that we don’t want to do it for the money.”

Repeater raised an eyebrow quizzically at this. “Really?”

“Yes sir, what we want to do is make a quality product that ponys will remember us for-“

“-and may hopefully secure for us some sales in the future!”

“Ah,” Repeater said, shaking his head. “And for a moment there ah almost thought ya’ll had changed.”

“Well what’s wrong with profits?” Bloody asked.

“And future sales?”

“Nothin’s wrong with profits or futures sales, it ya’lls-” Repeater was cut off before he could finish his sentence by a loud thud as the Quartermaster laid down several crates upon the table. The Twins looked at them greedily before levitating one up over to them and setting it upon the ground to open.

Everypony gathered around them as they opened up the crate. Trench hadn’t been in the squad long, but he did know enough to know that the twins were bound to be the best judges on the quality of this new equipment. As the lid propped open he could see the new rifle laid out, along with ammunition, a sling, a manual, a strange cylindrical piece of metal, and a large sheathed bayonet. The twins murmered their opinions.

“Bayonet, makes sense-“

“-Why don’t they have a cleaning kit?-”

“-the clips are the same.”

“We could lose the sling immediately-“

“-I wonder what this does?” they fell quite for a second, before looking at eachother.

“Let’s pick it up.”

They levitated the rifle out of the box, and Muddy slotted his hoove into the triggerguard and brought it up to aim. He looked to his brother in surprise.

“They stole our design.”

“What?”

“Feel it!” Muddy said as he hooved the rifle over to his brother, who shouldered it as well. He cocked his head.

“They did.” Trench raised a hoof in mild confusion.

“Who stole what?” Muddy and Bloody looked at him like he was a fool for a second, then Muddy relaxed.

“Oh, right. You’re new. My brother and I made a clever modification to the original service rifle. It was too front heavy, and the recoil hurt the shoulder, so we added a counterweight and rubber padding to fix it, and now it seems that the Royal Equestrian Ordinance has stolen it from us! See!” he said as Bloody thrust out stock of the rifle in their general direction, revealing that it did have a layer of rubber on it.

“Well that’s great then!” Repeater said, “It’s already better than the old one.”

“But they stole our idea!” Muddy protested vehemently.

“Ya’ll will live. What else did they do?” Bloody looked at the rifle that he held.

“They made the sights a lot better. Looks the one at the rear is a circle now, so all you have to do is put the front post at the center. This thing on the front”- he said as he pointed to a small protrusion with holes in the side of it sticking from the barrel- “is a flash hider, should keep the muzzle flash down and make us harder to spot.” He looked over it one last time. “And that sums it up.”

“Is it better?” Repeater asked.

“Much,” the twins said.

Repeater nodded in approval. “Any ideas as ta improve it?”

The twins looked at it. “Well, they took our last idea, but I believe that my brother and I will be able to find ways to improve it.”

The rest of the ponies that needed them grabbed up the rifle crates. Eagle Eyes took the time to locate the only outlier from the crates, and then opened it quickly to reveal his new MMMG. He looked over to Trench. “You’ll help me with this thing, right new guy?”

“Yeah, absolutely,” Trench said with a weary grin. Eagle Eyes nodded. Repeater was looking at the order sheet.

“Just two more things ta get and then we’ll be headin’ on back.”

“What about mail, Sergeant?” Joe asked.

“Ah, we can swing by there just as soon as we’re done here.” The Quartermaster was coming back up the stairs with one large crate on his back. He set it down in front of them.

“For the Browns,” he said bluntly, before retreating back down into the depths of the armory. Joe trotted over to it, and the others gathered around. He opened the crate.

For a moment he deliberated, then arrived at a conclusion. “I don’t get it.”

Inside the crate was a saddle, obviously designed for a pony of a large build. On one side were two large pouches, on the other was all the pockets that came standard with saddlebags. On the top of the saddle was a pivotable stand with a hydraulic arm, and a small reservoir tank behind that. All in all, a lot of gear that had no apparent value. Joe lifted up the manual and flipped it open. “Oh.” He flipped the book around for everypony to see.

“It holds the machine gun,” he said, but the diagram showed it clearly. The Browns .30 Cal would go on the saddle, which would go on Joe’s back. Wherever he could go, it could go.

“Well, ah suppose that it’ll help when we go on the offensive,” Repeater said. It was a bygone conclusion at this point. The Quartermaster came back with one final large crate. Repeater looked over to The Specialist. “Let’s see what they got for ya.” The Quartermaster set the crate on the ground, and Repeater opened it.

It was another saddle, on one side it had a set of three tanks, hoses ran from these over to the other side and connected to what looked like a fixed fire hose nozzle with a heat shield over it facing forward. Just below this was a trigger group. Stamped on the saddle it said “PWD Dragon MK1.”

“Well, another mystery,” Repeater said. He looked up, “Anypony got any ideas what this does?” Before anypony could answer, a voice from behind them spoke up.

“What it does is terrify me.” Everypony turned to face the voice, and were greeted by The Artist, a grim look on his face. Repeater saluted quickly, and The Artist quickly threw one back.

“Why?”

“What’s it called?”

Repeater read the label. “A PWD Dragon.”

“And what do dragons do,” The Artist said simply. Repeater looked at the device with newfound concern.

“Does this thing shoot fire?” The Artist nodded in the affirmative.

“The outer two tanks have petroleum, the inner one a gas that shoots it out. The nozzle lights it, and at the end this thing shoots flaming liquid around 50 yards.” He shook his head again.

“Petroleum?” Repeater asked.

“Yes, this new burning wonder-liquid courtesy of our griffon friends. They use it to power Airship engines. See this?” he said as he lightly kicked the saddle. “PWD, Petroleum Warfare Department. They have an entire department just for the stuff.” He shook his head as they looked at the strange device.

“Scares the daylights out of me,” he finally concluded. He looked up to Repeater, “You know what this means, right Sergeant?”

“Yeah, ah pieced it together when we got our new replacement.”
The Artist looked over and spotted Trench Broom. “Oh, the idiot, right.” Trench Broom ever so slightly backed up into the squadron as the Artist turned his attention back to Repeater.

“Ya got any idea when we’re gonna go?” Repeater asked. The Artist shook his head.

“Nopony high up has said a word, but I’d bet sooner rather than later.”

“And what do we do until then?”

“Wait. Don’t write about it, and don’t tell other squads; they’ll probably piece it together anyway. I suspect that we’ll start training ponies on how to operate these things. Just try your best to get them prepared for it.”

“Yes sir,” Repeater said with a salute. The Artist leaned in closer and spoke lowly.

“For all of you, if you’re afraid, keep it private. Don’t let anypony know. Can’t have ‘The Miracle Squad’ setting a bad example,” The Artist finished with a wink. Everypony nodded knowingly save for Trench, a blank look on his face as he tried to determine what The Artist just said.

The Major turned and began to trot off, leaving the squad to their own devices. Trench watched him as he went, when suddenly the light bulb came on. “Wait, ‘The Miracle Squad?’” he asked to anypony in general. “This is ‘The Miracle Squad’?”

“Yessir, the Artist didn’t tell ya earlier?” Repeater replied, eyebrows raised.
Trench shook his head in disbelief. “If he did, I don’t remember. But you’re them? The ones who made it back through the Unicornians at the Gorge?”

“Not me,” muttered Eagle Eyes before Repeater could answer properly.

“Well, Hack Saws and Eagle Eyes weren’t there, but everyone else was.”

“Really?” Trench asked, still not quite believing that he had just joined one of the first squads of war heroes. Repeater reached into his saddlebags and grabbed something out. In his hoof was a small gold half medallion in the shape of the sun rising, hanging from a blue and yellow ribbon.

“Celestial Sun, Second Class. For bravery shown by standing alone at the Battle of the Galloping Gorge.” He tucked it back away.

“Why don’t you wear it?”

“We don’t deserve it any more than anypony who’s fought so far. It ain’t a reason ta boast.” He faced the squad before Trench could ask any more questions. “Alright everypony, let’s get all this packed, go ta the mail, and get on back ta the trench.” The ponies started grabbing up their assorted crates and slinging them over their backs.

“Take the rifle, Saw,” Joe said to the Medic, who grabbed up the riflecrate that Joe indicated to. Trench looked over and saw Eagle Eyes staring pointedly at him.

“Are you gonna help me, or do I have to carry two crates back?” Tench grabbed up a rifle crate and threw it over his back.

“You could just ask,” he said in response. Eagle Eyes paid no attention. The squad began to follow Repeater back toward the tents they could just make out in the distance.. Each of the members began to sink into their own conversations. Muddy talked with his twin about the prospects of the new rifles. Joe was talking to Hack Saws about something. The Silent Specialist was staying true to his name. Repeater was probably up for a conversation, but trench wanted to give him a break. Trench looked over at Eagle Eyes, who was roughly right next to him. He glanced around to make sure nopony was paying attention.

“Do you mind if I ask you something?” Trench said slowly.

“I guess not,” Eagle Eyes answered, not making eye contact.

“Why is the armory in the middle of nowhere?”

“Nopony can be this green,” Eagle Eyes replied gruffly. “Remember basic?”

“Yeah” Trench replied, choosing to ignore the thousandth ‘new guy’ comment.

“Why did they keep the armory away from the barracks in basic?”

“Oh, yeah.” Trench Broom said, feeling slightly foolish for not remembering. “ka-boom.”

“Great, you remembered something from basic. Conversations over.” Eagle said bluntly.

Trench studied him briefly. The stationmaster at Ponyville said that Eagle Eyes used to work with him, and used to always smile. On the one hoof, the stationmaster said that his assistant got named Eagle Eyes and worked as a spotter. On the other, the pony that Trench looked at hadn’t turned the edges of his lips up once. This couldn’t be the same one the stationmaster mentioned. But it could.

“Can I ask you another question?” Trench asked hesitantly.

“make it quick.”

“Were you once called Lucky Clover?”

Eagle Eyes immediately shot him a suspicious look. “How the hay do you know who I am!?” he said in a hushed tone, the aggression behind it bleeding through.

“I was waiting for a train to show up at the Ponyville train station, and was talking to the stationmaster, he told me about you.”

Eagle Eyes sighed. “Of course he would.” He looked over to Trench again. “You don’t tell anypony about this, about me, you understand?”

“Of course, I wasn’t going to anyway, I just wanted to know if you were the right Eagle Eyes.”

“I am.”
For a moment Trench Broom didn’t really know what to say next. “He said that you were happy in Ponyville, that you smiled a lot.”

“A lot more than him, anyway. Yeah, I was a pretty happy guy back there. But just because you smile a lot doesn’t mean that you don’t want more.” He glanced over to Trench. “I was never noticed in Ponyville. You know who lives in Ponyville? The bearers of the Elements of Harmony. They always go off and save Equestria, and I cower at home and hope that nothing bad happens to me. I wanted to do something, you know? Have people say ‘hey, look at Lucky’ for once. I wanted to be noticed.”

Slowly Eagle was getting louder, apparently Trench had unwittingly tapped into an area of pent up frustration. Eagle threw a hoof in the air as he continued. “Geez, everyone was noticed in Ponyville but me. Ponies would notice Lyra because she sat on benches wrong. Ponies would notice the mailmare because she has crossed eyes. But nopony ever noticed Me.” He shook his head. “It took a war for them to notice me.”

Trench Broom nodded appreciatively as Eagle Eyes fell silent. He looked over to Trench and chuckled. “Heh, I guess I told you all about me there, huh?”

“Yeah, I understand. The stationmaster told me to tell you that everyone in Ponyville’s rooting for you, and they all care about you a lot.”

Eagle shook his head, “Yeah right. The Stationmaster may have given me my first job, and I sure do respect him, but he wouldn’t say that. He kept telling me not to go, that I was foolish, that I’d be noticed at my funeral. He finally just stopped talking to me. So thanks for lying to save my feelings, but he didn’t say that and I know it. ”

Trench shrugged. “Yeah, he didn’t. He did say that he wanted you back safe though.”

“But he just wants me to quit today, or get discharged. He doesn’t care if I come home empty-hoofed. And I’m not coming home until I have something.”

Trench looked around, he hadn’t noticed until now, but they had trotted into the tents of the rear position. He thought of what we would ask next as he looked at the mess of tents about him. “So you and Longshot-“

“We’re going to be the highest scoring sniper team in Equestria. He’s dead set on it, and I am too.”

Trench shuddered involuntarily. “When you say scoring, you mean-”

“Killing. Yeah.” Another strange pause followed as Trench worked up the courage to ask the next question.

“What’s it like?”

“I’ve never pulled the trigger.”

“But what’s it like watching?”

“I don’t, once I see them get hit I look away.”

“But you see them get hit, so what’s it like?”

Eagle Eyes looked at him. “You have to listen to me on this, and it’s going to sound awful, but you get used to it. The first time you see it you freeze up, get sick, and start sweating. Maybe your legs give out, mine did. You feel horrible. The next time, it’s a little bit less. Soon, it doesn’t affect you so much.”

“But is it bad, with the blood and everything? I saw a photo of a Unicornian who was blown in half at camp, is it like that?”

Eagle looked away, “Not like that, but -well- it doesn’t matter how bad they look, it’s just… Trench, do me a favor and stop asking about it. Please.”

Trench pressed on, “Is it usually worse than that though, with the blood and guts?”

The pony next to him twitched his ear, and answered with a raising voice. “No, but it doesn’t matter how bad they look, alright!”

“Why not?”

“Celestia new guy! Can you shut the hay up and stop talking about dead ponies! It doesn’t bucking matter how they look when they’re dead because they’re bucking dead and never going home!”

Trench recoiled down and away in the face of the verbal onslaught, but Eagle Eyes followed him, now towering over him. “You don’t know what it’s like, so stop asking! Once you’ve done anything, then you can talk, but for now shut up and quit bucking asking about how it feels to kill other ponies!”

Eagle Eyes stomped off, aware but not caring about the fact that the entire squad was now looking at him and Trench Broom. Repeater trotted on back to Trench. ”What happened?”

“We were talking, and I asked him what it’s like,” Trench whispered, still shaken up by the outburst.

“Yeah, partner, don’t do that anymore. Ya OK?” Trench nodded. “Alright.” Repeater headed on back up to the front and the squad resumed walking.

‘Great. Great-great-great.’ Trench thought to himself sullenly. ‘You really messed that up Trench old pal. Okay, Learn from it, don’t ask them about killing.’ The others went back to their own conversations, save for Eagle Eyes, who had marched up toward the front and refused to talk with anypony. Trench was left, for the most part, alone at the back.

The lack of conversation was welcome, because now at least he had some time to internalize the events of the day. ‘Okay Trench, lessons learned: Don’t be stupid near the Major, check. Don’t talk about killing, check. We are probably going to attack soon. Check. I’m going to have to teach them about trench warfare. Check. I need them to respect me in order to do that.’ He frowned. ‘Uncheck. I’ve ticked Eagle Eyes off and nopony else thinks that I’m competent enough to be in a position to teach them. Alright Trench, how are we going to fix it?’

He picked up the pace, passing the Silent Specialist, then Hack Saw, and then the twins as he pushed his way to the front of the group. Eagle Eyes glanced back at him for a second, then looked away. Trench Broom trotted up next to him anyway.

“Eagle Eyes, I want to say that I’m sorry. I should have known better.”

Eagle Eyes sighed. “It’s okay, you’re new, and you’re curious. I asked back when I first got here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I asked Longshot. He just told me I’d see soon enough. He didn’t blow up on me. I should have been better.”

“No, I should have taken a hint.”

“Well... yeah, you should have.”

Trench glanced over. “You know, the Stationmaster said that you smiled, and you seem like the angriest pony here. Why?”

“I guess that I can be angry here, and nopony really cares. I can be different here.”

“But why be angry? What’s so good about it?”

“I don’t know. I never said it was good.”

“Ponies always appreciate a smile.” Eagle Eyes didn’t answer, choosing to just keep trotting. They had worked their way out the sea of tents, trading it in for a sea of cannons. A ways off Trench could see one large tent just behind the flagpole for the giant flag, and a group of other tents about it. The large one must have been the Field Marshal's headquarters.

One of these tents had the Royal Mail insignia upon it, and its identity was made even clearer by the undyed ponies with blue caps that milled about it. “Alright everypony,” Repeater said, “If ya got a letter then hoof it over ta them, collect any mail that ya got, and then we’ll head on back.” There were still a few gun positions between them and the mail tent, but they were closing the distance.

“Maybe,” Eagle Eyes said finally.

“Maybe’s good,” Trench said with a grin. Eagle Eyes wasn’t looking his way, he was looking at the crowd of mailponies very intently, he leaned forward as he trotted, squinting his eyes as he looked.

“Oh, wow. That’s my mailpony over there.”

“Huh?”

“Over there, the grey Pegasus mare with the yellow. That’s my mailpony. The one with the crossed eyes.” He paused for a moment. “Maybe I should say hi.”

Trench shrugged, “I don’t see why not.”

At this, Eagle Eyes raised a hoove. “HEY! DERPY!” Trench glanced over in surprise, along with the rest of the squad.

“I thought you would just trot up to her and talk.” Trench said to eagle. The Pegasus turned around, revealing her wildly crossed eyes. She looked at them with one, the other looking brazenly up at the flag. She squinted in an effort to find the voice. Eagle waved some more, and her face lit up with joy when she saw him.

“TIME TURNER!!” she yelled in excitement, and almost immediately the smile ran off of Eagle Eyes face. She started running toward them, straight through a battery of guns. She was running up to a set of the 5.5 inchers when Trench noticed a white pull cord extending from the back of one of the cannons laying right in the charging Pegasus’s path. He reared up on his hooves and started waving wildly to get her attention.

“STOP!”

The pegasus’s hoof caught on the cord.

Inside the Headquarters Tent, Field Marshall Shining Armor looked over a table of maps, models, force charts, and reports. He glanced over at a small letter that lay by the side. It was from the princesses. He looked back at the table. There was a lot of information to weigh, and the fact that they were weighing it made him nervous. Not that he could show it, but still.

He looked up at the tired faces across the room. Field Marshall Ace, General of the Calvary Clockwork Engine, Air Marshall Flying Fortress, and a whole host of lesser generals. They had been arguing nonstop for the better part of a day now, hammering out plans, exposing flaws, but Shining decided that it was now time to draw discussions to a close.

“Alright, so are we in general agreement on the plan of battle?” the heads across the room nodded, some faces showing misgivings, but still in agreement. “Okay then. When will the forces be ready?” He looked to Ace first.

“The Foreign Air Fleet and Legions are always at the ready.” It was the Response that Shining had expected. He looked over to the Air Marshall.

“The REAF is ready for fighting and support, and the Airborne is as well.”

Shining looked over at the General of the Calvary, who in turn was conferencing with the three generals underneath him. Finally he faced the Field Marshall.

“The guns are always ready, and will be able to provide ample support. You know my opinion on the new weapons; they can be ready to go today, but the more we wait the more defects are sorted and the more of them we can have ready for battle. The real issue is the Calvary. We have a split between the new reinforcements who are trained for this but have no experience, and veterans who have experience but no training. Add in weapons that no one has used before and I’d say that the absolute soonest that we can go for is two weeks. We would prefer a month.”

For a moment Shining thought. On the one hoof, more time would lead to a better ready army. And for what he intended to do with them they needed all the readiness that they could get. Despite him just hearing that everypony was ready except for maybe the poor bloody calvary, it was on the tip of his tongue to delay for the month that they asked for. And although he would never admit it, he knew that a lot of ponies would die if he gave the order, and this delay would give some precious time to those who would not be so lucky.

On the other hoof, every day that they waited was hundreds of tons of precious metals, gems, and ores excavated from Equestrian land and shipped to the enemy. Every day was another day that every Equestrian Pony out west lived in oppression. They had waited a year, which was too long.

But on the other hoof… No, there was no other hoof. “You have two weeks.” Shining said. “The Calvary troops are smart, and they’ll be ready by then. I know this.” The ponies across from him nodded, a somber look across their faces as the implications of two weeks until attack hit them. “Dismissed.”

They began to fall out. The Griffon headed over to Shining as the others vacated the room. he waited untill they were alone before he spoke. “You look concerned Field Marshall.”

“That’s because I am, Ace. In two weeks a lot of ponies will charge across that field, and a lot won’t come back.”

“Yes. Rarely do I have to consider culture in terms of war fighting, but what you just did was brave. A griffon would not hesitate from attack in this situation, but this is only because we know that victory for freedom is worth any cost. We are fighters in our souls, and do not shy away from using the sword, or in this case rifle. You ponies are not, so I must commend you. This order must be difficult.” Shining nodded. “You know that no one dies for nothing. The price may be high, but there is never too large a sacrifice to lay down at the altar of freedom.” There was nothing but sincerity in the griffons voice.

“Do you believe that ground is worth thousands of lives?”

“You do, or you wouldn’t attack.”

“Yes, but I don’t know that I believe in it as much as you.”

“Life is not so dear that should be chosen at the cost of freedom. Life without freedom is not a life worth living, and it is the life that your citizens west live. Your ponies must know this, and they must know that if they should die in battle that they die making their country free and whole again. If they don’t believe this, they will fight without conviction, and prove themselves right in their thoughts that fighting is futile.”

Shining was surprised at the Griffons insight. They had always been good at strategy and statistics, but what Ace was discussing had been completely missed by everypony, including himself. “What if they don’t believe it?”

“They do, as you do, but they may not remember it when the time comes. You just need to remind them why they are going before they go. We have found that a good speech helps. Combine that with the effects of seeing your contraptions, and they will have the fortitude to win the day.”

“Thank you, Ace,” Shining said with a weary smile. The thoughts of the dead still hung heavy in his mind, but the griffons words were helping. Ace was inspecting him closely, scrutinizing him with eyes of far greater vision than his. He was probably picking up every emotion that ran through him

“It still weighs on you?” Shining nodded. “You know it will only get worse. You know in your heart, or in your head, that we will have to invade their country to destroy this weed from the roots.”

Shining hadn’t thought about this yet, or at least when he did he pushed it out of mind. “All we want is Equestria back.”

“But while their leaders rule, Equestria will not know peace. If you take your country back but leave them they will fan the flames again, and someday they will be back. You can understand this.”

“One battle at a time, Ace.”

“But tomorrow is coming, and you can’t turn a blind eye to it.”

“I know.”

Ace nodded curtly, and then let the Field Marshall be.

Shining sifted through the plans, and pulled out the final recommendations. He looked directly to the only part of the recommendations that mattered to him. Estimated casualties: 25,000. It was a lot less than it used to be, but there was no way to make 25,000 dead or injured ponies and griffons sound small. He knew that the griffon was right, but the feelings that he felt were not going to go away.

BOOM!!!

The entire room shook as the tent walls were buffeted by the force of the explosion. Shining ducked under the table instinctively. Ace ran back into the room, Talon cannon out.

“ACE! WHAT THE HAY HAPPENED!” Shining yelled in exasperation.

“Doesn't matter! We got to get to the bunker!” Shining’s mind was spinning. ‘Do they have new artillery with the range to hit us here?’ He and Ace got up and ran out of the tent for the entrance to the general’s bunker. As soon as they got out of the tents entrance and into the open air of the field Shining was greeted with a sight of almost pure confusion.

There was a dust cloud hanging around one of the 5.5 inch cannons, and just next to it splayed on the ground was a very surprised mailmare. He looked next to her, and saw the white pullchord wrapped around her hind leg.

“You! Stand at attention!” he yelled at the mare. She looked around in confusion, examining the cannon and the chord with her crossed eyes. “Stand at attention!” he yelled again. She finally noticed him with at least one of her eyes, and hovered up into the air, hooves behind her back, and a small worried grin on her face.

“What the Hay happened?” Shining yelled. The Mailmare dropped down and saluted, trying her best to look serious despite the eyes.

“I don’t know what went wrong, sir! I was running over to meet a friend and I tripped, sir! And then everywhere exploded, sir!”

Quite a crowd had gathered around, artilleryponies, the generals and field Marshalls, and a squad of Calvary ponies. Shining thought for a minute about what needed to happen next. “General Clockwork!”

“Yes Field Marshall?”

“I want the crew for this gun to be disciplined for failing to keep it secure and for having the pull cord in an area of obstruction. I want you”- he said to the mailmare. “to pack up and never return here. Understood!” The mailmare nodded sullenly.

General Clockwork looked over to him with concern. “We’ve never fired one of these cannons at the enemy before. If that round hits in their rear area they’ll know that we now have the range. We may lose the surprise.”

“If that’s the case, then would you feel comfortable with moving up one week?” Shining asked.

“It would be prudent.”

“Then we’ll move it up one week.” Shining said. If they were going to know that the Equestrians had upgraded their cannons then he couldn’t afford to allow them the time to exploit it. He turned around to head back into the tent. This was going to be a massive headache for him. Paperwork. Explanations.

“Dear Celestia!” somepony behind him yelled. He turned around and looked for the cause of the commotion. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong. He saw ponies pointing out west, and followed their hooves.

“My…” Shining searched for words, but they wouldn’t come. A cloud of dust and smoke rose up in the west, towering in the distance. Clockwork trotted over slowly, looking at his watch as he went.

“Is that at their lines?” Shining finally managed to ask.

Clockwork nodded. “Our shell must have hit an ammunition storage. Luck is on our side.”

“No kidding.” Shining said softly, still looking at the rising cloud.

“You may want to plant your hooves in the ground, Field Marshall,” Clockwork said as he looked at his watch intently. ”And perhaps avert your ears.”

The ground shook beneath them, but strangely there was no sound. “Waves travel faster through earth than through air,” Clockwork said, preempting Shining’s confused glance. “It’ll be close-“

The air shook as the blast from the explosion finally hit, kicking up dust and drowning out any words from the softspoken general. Just as quick as it had come it resided, the dust dropping back to the ground and the explosion leaving nothing but ringing ears all around. Shining blinked the dust from his eyes, and then faced Clockwork, a smile on his face.

”General, if you could track down that Mailmare, I’d appreciate it. She’s done a great service to Equestria today. See to it that she gets a medal before we ban her from ever returning.”

Author's Notes:

If you need help visualizing, the new SMCC MK.2 is in essence a Lee-Enfield MK 5 with a flash hider, the Mark 5 being shown below.

finals are next week for me, so don't expect any miracles