To say that the Everfree forest was quiet and peaceful would be a lie; there’s always some beast howling or some spooky noise filtering through. But today, there was a new noise present in the forest, one that stood out and muffled all others. The sounds were ones that the forest had never heard of before.
These came from an armored company that was making its way down the road at the time. Led by a massive, and threating, tank, the machines hummed and whined as they moved, slowly but surely, down the narrow forest path. It was quite the sight.
Though the forest is known for always being very dark on the inside, Ortelli, wasn’t bothered by it, nor was anyone else in the team; night vision goggles were a very useful invention. Ortelli caught every sharp turn or possible obstruction in front of the tank. He led the team through the woods without much trouble.
None of the forest’s inhabitants dared to even go near the convoy. Many were too afraid to come near those though-looking objects making loud noises. Even the deadlier predators were taken aback by this force of great…things.
Bannon and the others kept an eye out; a forest provided excellent ambush ground for infantry. Every now and then, he would get a bit scared if he thought he saw figures or here something and thought a track had struck a mine. The threat of losing his whole team in a forest like this was starting to get to him. He just hoped that whatever he met on the other side would be worth it.
“Hm, I hope Shining will get here in time,” Twilight told to herself.
Twilight was pacing around the library, waiting anxiously for her brother. She hadn’t seen him in the longest time, she also didn’t know why. All she was told is that he was very busy with ‘Royal Guard duties’ in the east of Equestria.
Today, he had been scheduled to visit his little sister for the first time in a while, but it was getting close to the arrival time and she hadn’t heard of him. She hated schedules being off even the slightest bit, and something told her he was going to be really late.
Despite being a princess, Twilight still wasn’t being informed about the more secretive affairs. It really irked her that Celestia, Luna, and the rest of the higher ups kept her in the dark about certain things. Maybe she had to prove herself in that specific field.
“Let’s see, Celestia said it had to do with the Royal Guard and something about politics. What could I do to show her I’m trustworthy in that area?”
She began to think of ways to do just that. As she did so, she thought she heard some strange noises from the direction of the Everfree, but waved off any concerns. Strange things were always going on in there, and this was probably nothing new.
“YANKEE ACTUAL TO ALL YANKEE VICTORS-DEPLOY INTO LINE FORMATION AT THE TREE LINE AND WAIT FOR FURTHER-OUT.”
Bannon’s 66 had stopped at the entrance of the forest. Behind him, the convoy broke up and went to the left and right and took up positions in the tree line. Bannon, standing up in his cupola and staring through his binoculars, could hardly believe what he saw.
There, down where the road led, was a quaint little village inhabited by horses. More specifically, they were small, colorful horses that seemed to be interacting with each other intelligently. Bannon got back on the radio and asked Uleski if he could see what he saw or if he was just going nuts.
“YOU MEAN THE CARTOONISH HORSES IN THAT VILLAGE?-YEA, I HAVE EYES ON-OVER.”
“YANKEE ACTUAL-THIS IS YANKEE 3-1-DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD MOVE IN, SIR?”
“NEGATIVE-ALL YANKEE VICTORS STAY IN COVER IN THE FOREST AND HOLD UP-DO NOT MOVE FORWARD OR ATTEMPT TO ENGAGE-WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST-OVER.”
“YANKEE ACTUAL-SEAN, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING-OVER.”
Bannon thought of calling Uleski on using his name, but figured the amount of shock was enough to make him stumble.
“ALL YANKEE ELEMENTS-HOLD YOUR POSITIONS AND WAIT FOR FURTHER-I’LL TAKE 66 IN AND SEE WHAT WE CAN FIND OUT-I SAY AGAIN-POWER DOWN AND SETTLE IN, BUT KEEP A WATCH OUT-66 WILL MOVE INTO THE VILLAGE-COPY?”
“GOOD COPY, YANKEE ACTUAL-GOOD LUCK, SEAN-OVER.”
“THANKS, U-WE’LL NEED IT-OUT.”