• Published 30th Nov 2011
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Call of Duty - Equestrian Warfare - ChromeRegios



After a Disastrous mission gone wrong, Jackson was left for dead at a nucler explosion when he foundhimself to be the first human... in a whole new world.

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Chapter 16 - Story End. The Storm, Part 3.

After successfully defending Town Hall, the ponies and their human allies sense the battle starting to turn.

The Americans and British know from experience that the rebels need to win fights quickly, as a rule, before reinforcements or superior allied air power, training and tactics come into play, and it is quickly becoming apparent to the human soldiers that the same rules held as true in Equestria as they did on Earth. Their failure to take Town Hall has bought time for the reinforcing guardspony platoon that has been stationed at Sweet Apple Acres to arrive, backed by some light armor of their own in the form of a Humvee with a mounted .50… manned astonishingly by Applejack, who is standing in the turret using her hooves, teeth and lasso to work the unfamiliar weapon with deadly effect, possessing surprisingly good aim.

But she and the Guardsponies aren’t the only ones fighting back, nor are Applejack’s friends. The shock of the attack wearing off, the townponies themselves are now actively resisting as well, from the unicorns and earth ponies below to the weather patrol Dash has somehow freed now turning the very skies against the invaders above. They may lack the armor and wingblades of the Wonderbolts, but Rainbow and her fellow pegasi quickly prove they don’t need them to be deadly.

Under her direction, they hover high overhead out of effective rifle range and rain down lightning from their town’s storm cloud supply or grenades they borrow from their human allies; other times, they take a chance by swooping down to grab an enemy soldier and then fly him up to great height before dropping him to his death. The rebels and their diamond dog allies turn their fire upwards and do indeed kill a few, but their numbers are being slowly but surely whittled down and worse for them, the ponies are starting to grow in anger and confidence that they can defeat their invaders.

But pegasi aren’t the only ponies the increasingly hard-pressed rebels have to worry about. Though nearly out of arrows for their longbows, unicorn guardsponies can wield human weapons once shown how. Rarity is the biggest example of that, Foley thinks as they begin to push outward from Town Hall, noting how she shows great affinity for her purloined AKs and combat knives, her ability to magically multitask and wield all her self-stylized weapons at once making her as elegant and deadly as any anime assassin.

Unlike Rarity, most unicorns can only do one thing at a time with their magic, but even their simple levitation spells can be used to good effect, enabling them to strangle from a distance like certain movie figures or throw knives and grenades to good effect. The earth ponies prove formidable as well, their great strength and durability far dwarfing both the enemy Ultranationalists and Diamond Dogs. They may lack wings or horns, Griggs notes as he guns the humvee engine and Applejack guns down another group of Diamond Dogs with her accurate fire, but they’re tough as nails and have the strength to spare, as Big Macintosh and the guardsponies have already demonstrated by upending supporting infantry carriers.

Then abruptly, the heavy hammer blows of the .50 above his head stop. “Dangnabbit! Think I’m outta bullets!” she tells him, pointing down on all the expended shell casings and empty ammo boxes on the backseats.

Griggs grimaces at that, then starts when he looks back at her. “Whoa, AJ! You’re hit!” he says in alarm, pointing at her, but she just looks down at the bleeding hole in her left side and shrugs.

“Huh,” she says, examining it like she hasn’t noticed it before, grimacing as she rubs the entry word and her hoof comes away bloody for it. “It stings something fierce, but reckon I’ve had worse. And hay, if I can’t take a little nick or two, I ain’t got no business calling mahself an Apple!”

All Griggs can think at that moment is that she’s got ‘apples’ the equal of any marine—they’ve learned that pony term, at least—as he pulls the humvee into a sheltered area so he can clean the wound and patch it with a field dressing. “You’ve done great, AJ, but wounded and without a working gun, you should probably sit the rest of this out. Let’s get you to Fluttershy in Town Hall; she’ll take care of you!” He hops back in the driver’s seat and guns the engine to take her there, but she simply shakes her head hard.

“The hay I will! Ya’ll think I’m letting a little nick or two keep me outta this fight? We got ’em on the run now, and Ah aim to finish this!” she pulls her lasso out of her stetson hat, not having noticed there’s a bullet hole in it just above her head.

Griggs decides not to mention it, knowing by now how stubborn she and the rest of her family can be. “AJ, if you get yourself killed out here, then I’m gonna be the one who has to explain it to Apple Bloom and the rest of your family! And I really don’t wanna do that!”

That seems to give her some pause, but only momentary. “Sorry, Part’ner. I don’t wanna die, but I’d be less a pony and an Apple if I didn’t fight to save my town! I may get killed, but it’s gonna be helping my friends and doing my family proud! Now get me another ‘gun’ or whatever and let’s get back in the fight!”

“Yes, ma’am! So hop back in and let’s go find one!” he says, making a run for Town hall and the ammo caches he knows they have there, hoping he can find something else for her to use.

* * * * *

“RPG!” Dunn shouts and shoots another purloined rebel rocket into a house turned into makeshift bunker, gutting it from the inside and killing the Diamond Dogs who are firing from it, replenishing his ammo from dead rebels as they advance.

“That’s another squad down! Damned if I’m starting to think we might just win this, L-T!” Jackson shouts as he picks off another diamond dog poking his head up from a hole with his rifle, but his triumphant smile is quickly wiped from his face by an ominously low-pitched whup-whup-whup sound that makes his guts clench; a sound that only belongs to…

“Hinds!” the shout goes up as every Marine, Army Ranger and SAS soldier instantly recognize the ominous sound of approaching Soviet-era Mi-24 assault helicopters, heavily armed and laden with additional troops, slow-moving aerial tanks almost impervious to ground fire but vulnerable to air power and stinger missiles—neither of which they have.

“You just had to say it, didn’t you?” Dunn all but sneers as the three choppers scatter the pegasi and then start laying cover fire down for their ground forces, a rocket strike taking out the unmanned Humvee and then gutting another house while the heavy rounds from the chain gun reduces several more guardsponies to red mist.

“Great. Now the fuck are we going to take them out?”

“Maybe we don’t have to…” Vasquez replies as he goes for the communication crystal that Spitfire gave him. “Captain! Those vehicles can be brought down by taking out their spinning rotors—they’re what let them stay airborne! They’re heavily armed, so approach carefully! If you can hit them from above with those magma bombs of yours, that should do it!”

“Sounds like a good plan. Unfortunately, half my force is down and we’re all out!” she tells them in disgust; they can just make out her form several hundred feet overhead… and see her shortly joined by a second blue pegasus not in a Wonderbolts uniform. “Say that again? You want to do what, Rainbow Dash…?” whatever else said was lost as she turned her head away from the crystal, but mere seconds later she came back on, her voice far more urgent. “Lieutenant! Take cover NOW!” she says urgently, suddenly fleeing the scene along with the rest of the pegasi… except for the second pegasus who goes in a different direction entirely—straight up.

“Huh? For what?” Jackson asks.

“Hey! Isn’t that Rainbow?” Griggs points up at the climbing streak above, passing nearly out of eyesight before she suddenly loops and goes into a hard dive, aiming right at the three Hinds in formation.

“Yeah. What the hell is she…?” Soap’s sentence goes unfinished as there’s a sudden explosion of prismatic light in their midst that rocks the three massive helicopters hard, causing one to spiral out of control, its crew crippled and avionics ruined by the massive shock wave that shatters nearby windows and nearly deafens those on the ground.

“A sonic rainboom! She did it again! she did it again!” a strangely excited Fluttershy yells out from behind them while the humans can only rub their still-ringing ears.

In Rainbow’s wake, the surviving Wonderbolts swarm the choppers; the humans on the ground can just make out the form of Spitfire as she takes advantage of one chopper’s crew stunned state to get close enough to slash open a damaged side door with her wingblade and charge in. They can’t see what happens inside, but the results are clear enough as the chopper suddenly falters and nose dives like its pilot has slumped forward over the stick. Its crew slain, Spitfire dives out the open side door trailing blood as two of her comrades catch her and immediately bring her to Town Hall with a pair of pistol wounds, coughing blood as the chopper crashes hard, exploding on impact with the plaza a hundred yards away.

“Oh my!” Fluttershy exclaims as they bring the Wonderbolts Captain to her and immediately starts tending her wounds.

“Gutsy move, Captain. Those rotors could have cut you in two!” Private Allen tells her as he jabs the mare with a morphine syringe, the private now on medic duty, but she just laughs as she coughs.

“That’s what I did to the pilot. Sergeant Surprise, take command and take out that third monstrosity!” she orders the white pegasus mare just before the painkiller takes hold and she passes out.

As it turns out, there’s no need. The other Ponyville pegasi belonging to the weather patrol are already attacking the third, not with wingblades or even lightning but with the simple power of the wind. Under Rainbow’s direction, they start flying in a spiral pattern and within seconds they’ve generated an airborne twister which they turn loose on the faltering Hind. Though able to resist heavy bullets and RPGs, it cannot stay airborne battered by such force as the violence of the vortex tosses it on its back and towards the ground, where it plows into a house and crashes through to the bottom floors, ruined.

“Wow. Who needs Stingers when you have pegasi?” Foley muses as with the rebel air support gone, they resume their advance, pushing the Ultranationalists into a smaller and smaller area, clearing them block by block from the town.

It isn’t long, however, before they reach the Ponyville Flower shop only to find themselves in a new predicament as the increasingly desperate rebels resort to one of their oldest tactics. “We have hostages!” A frightened Russian voice warns in accented English, holding a gun pointed at a shaking earth pony head from the doorway. The Americans and British know her; she’s one of the three earth ponies who runs the shop, a cream-colored mare with a mixed burgundy mane and Rose cutie mark on her flank. “Come closer, and she dies!”

“Dammit… now what, L-T?” Jackson asks, but his commander is already considering the question.

“Pinkie, can you get in there to rescue them like you did Sweetie Belle?” he turns to currently flat-haired mare, trying not to flinch from the dangerous gleam in her eyes.

“Yeah…” she says with a strangely eager smile, twirling a knife around her hoof. “Just give me a…”

“Do you not think we’re serious, Americans?” A second, more authoritative voice shouts, then a second pony with a gun to her head emerges, this one a deeper pink with curly green hair. “As you can see, we have other hostages! Kill that one!” he points at Roseluck, whose eyes go wide.

“NO!” comes a loud but unfamiliar female shriek from inside, and suddenly there is a series of both canine and human screams as blood spatters appear at the windows. A few shots rang out as well, but are quickly silenced. Uncertain what is happening, they rush the house, but by the time they reach it, they find a grisly scene of carved-up rebels… and in the midst of it is a whirling dervish of blades, at the center of which stood a reared-up pink-furred earth pony with blond hair and a lily cutie mark, ignoring her lack of fingers to spin kitchen cutlery effortlessly around her hooves, wielding and throwing them unerringly, impaling hearts and slashing throats with equal efficiency as she finishes off the remainder of her captors single-hoofedly.

She kills the entire squad within seconds with a will and efficiency that would even do Pinkie proud, then seemingly realizes what she’s done with a look of horror, dropping her blades and putting her hooves to her head with a shriek as she beholds the soldiers she’s slain… just before she faints dead away along with her two rescued companions.

“Holy fuck…” is all Vasquez can immediately say.

“Dear God in heaven…” Even Price is impressed.

“You said it, Captain! She wouldn’t even speak to us! In fact, she fainted nearly every time she saw us before this! Never thought Lily Valley of all ponies had it in her!” Jackson shakes his head.

“Yep-yep! Funny how it’s always the shy, quiet ones, don’t ya think?” Pinkie muses without a hint of irony, her hair now back in its floofy state before it falls flat again and the dangerous gleam in her eyes returns. “So now that they’re safe, what say we take the rest of these motherbuckers out?” She deftly picks up a gun and an ammo bandolier from the slain soldiers. “I’m having way too much fun to stop now!”

Jackson and Vasquez can only hope that she will stop once the battle is over, knowing that even if they survive this they’ll never look at her the same way again.

* * * * *

For all their individual victories, the greater battle continues unabated and still undecided.

The Hinds are down, but infuriatingly, the T-90 is still in operation, bearing scorch marks and occasional armor chink but still fighting and killing. Their ranks reduced, rebel soldiers and Diamond Dogs draw closer to it for protection along with the few remaining infantry carriers, clearly intending to escape through fresh escape tunnels the diamond dogs are frantically digging. And then, as if to drive the point home, there’s a fresh BOOM! as the tank destroys a house where surviving Guardsponies from the initial force have holed up, sniping at the Russians with longbow arrows and crossbow bolts.

Griggs wore viciously at that. “Dammit L-T, if we don’t take out that tank, it could win the fight by itself!”

“I know, but we’re out of antitank rounds, and there’s too much lead flying out here to try and set up the javelin!”

“Maybe we can…” he stops as movement to his left catches his eye. He turns and beholds… “Twilight?”

“Twilight? You’re okay!” Rarity exclaims, but Twilight doesn’t immediately acknowledge her, staring in shock at the wreckage of her town and carnage all around her.

“What… happened…” her lip quivers, and then she remembers… “Spike. Where’s Spike?” She looks around frantically.

They all look at each other. “We… don’t know, Twilight. We haven’t been able to take back the library yet…”

Twilight doesn’t immediately acknowledge his words, her lip quivering. Then she sets her sights on the tank.

“My town… my friends… my brother… you hurt them…” she says as she walks out almost drunkenly to face the T-90, which turns to face her, ignoring the orders to surrender from the surrounding rebel soldiers and pleas to get back from the friendly ones.

“What is she…?” his voice trails off as he sees Twilight’s mane starting to smoke and both Rarity and Pinkie Pie get alarmed and yank their human friends down hard with hoof nad magic.

“Everypony, get away from Twilight NOW!” Rainbow likewise shouts from above as her friend’s eyes glow red a split second before her fur somehow and very suddenly ignites.

“Holy!” As the horrified humans watch, her body explodes into fire, her striped blue mane turning to sheer flame and her purple coat glowing white hot, the radiant heat of her alone enough to ignite the nearest vegetation make them all wince and pull back.

“What the fuck just happened to her?” Soap asks, unable to understand why he’s still so continuously surprised.

“She’s an elemental!” a flat-haired Pinkie explains, staring at her friend almost gleefully. “If she gets really angry or upset, that can happen! And you don’t want to be near her when it does!” She’s suddenly eating popcorn out of a bag, kicking back to watch the show.

Their human friends fear it’s going to be a horror show as the the tank machine guns open on her, but the rounds are all deflected by her magic shield, or vaporize on contact with her… but the shield is visibly weakening and her flame sputtering from the power she’s diverting from it; they don’t know if she’s spent from earlier efforts or just unable to maintain so many drains on her magic, but either way, given a few more seconds the tank might batter down her defenses.

“Twilie…” a weak new voice says from beside them, and they turn to behold Shining Armor, his legs wobbly and horn badly singed from protecting them during the initial tank attack. Despite that, he projects a small shield around his sister, protecting her and allowing to spare all her power for her attack.

“Captain!” The surviving Guardsponies exclaim, going to him and supporting him from either side. “You okay?”

“No, but… that’s my sis…” the rest goes unsaid as he focuses his efforts on Twilight, his unicorn comrades feeding him magical energy from their own horn so he can keep the shield up around her, deflecting bullets and shrapnel alike as Twilight fully powers up her flame.

“You… hurt… my friends…” she tells the massive war machine again as her fire intensifies to the point the very air around is shimmering and the grass around her ignites. “Now… DIE!” She screams as a horrific inferno, hotter than any dragon flame, envelops the tank, turning it into a blast furnace and scorching the surround. Unable to penetrate her brother’s shield, the crew tries to drive the tank right over her but she simply teleports behind it and keeps it up until the big beast succumbs. The engine chokes, the fuel ignites, and finally, there’s a massive explosion as the tank’s remaining rounds cook off and by the time she withdraws her assault there’s nothing left of the Rebel T-90 but a pile of glowing slag; whatever remains of the crew inside now carbonized and mixed with molten metal.

“Jesus Fucking Christ…” an agape Dunn watches. “So tell me again why the rebels thought the ponies were easy targets?”

“So tell me again why you thought the ponies were pussies, Dunn?” Jackson asks as Shining Armor collapses again from the effort and the pain of an injured horn, and for once, the mouthy corporal has no reply.

The rebels still aren’t out of tricks, however, as a brave or foolish Russian steps forth to challenge Twilight, several of friends with rifles leveled as Twilight hurriedly puts back up her own shield. “Impressive, little pony. But we have your pet. Withdraw your magic and give up now!” To their shock, he’s holding a trembling Spike up with one hand and a gun to his head with the other.

“Twilight… I’m sorry…” Spike tells her. “I hid but they found me. Don’t worry about me…”

“I’m warning you…” the rebel cocks the hammer for emphasis. “I’ll kill him!”

“Shit…” Griggs snarls, wishing they have a marksman rifle as Twilight simply turns her glowing red eyes on Spike’s captor, considering his threat; it’s certain to all watching that should she withdraw her magic, they’ll kill her instantly. “Anyone got a headshot on him…?”

“No need, partner…” Applejack puts a restraining hoof on his arm, a strangely smug smile on her face. “Ah reckon this’ll be over lickety-split…”

“You said it!” Pinkie simply shrugs, tossing another piece of popcorn into her mouth. “That move was so dumb it’ll be fun!”

“Indeed, darling. This should take all of about ten seconds.” Rarity says as she watches with a sneer, seemingly as unconcerned as her other friends for Spike’s fate.

“Ten? I give it two!” Pinkie grins malevolently, then leans forward to watch in great anticipation.

It’s in fact, less than one second later that Twilight simply plucks the gun from his hand and then turns on the blast furnace again; they can just hear some agonized shrieks before the rebel and his friends are reduce to a pile of ash with Spike still in their midst, almost instantly but brutally incinerated by Twilight’s fire.

“Jesus! She’s bloody insane! She killed Spike!” Soap exclaims.

“No, she didn’t…” Rarity assured them, a very satisfied smile on her face “Spikey-wikey is a dragon, even if just a baby one. And that means…” her answer was given as Spike simply runs free of his now-dead captors, right through Twilight’s hellfire, not harmed at all. Sobbing, he rushes up to a still-fiery Twilight and hugs her hard despite her internal furnace, like a child reunited with his mother.

“And that means, he’s fireproof…” Price realizes, suddenly eternally grateful the rebels didn’t figure that out.

“Oh yeah! He could swim through a river of lava and not be harmed!” Pinkie offers helpfully, her hair floofy again; her human friends aren’t sure if her ability to shift from happy-go-lucky to cold-blooded assassin is a good thing or not.

Regardless, Spike’s safety seems to calm Twilight down as her coat cools off. She then teleports away with him, only to reappear without him a few seconds later, her eyes hard as she finds the marines and SAS men. “I left him with Fluttershy,” he tells them before they ask. “Just… don’t ask me to do that again. Most of my magic’s gone after that, but I can still help!” she assures them, her horn aglow.

“You sure you’re okay, Twilie?” Shining Armor asks her weakly, being attended to by his unicorn guardsponies.

Twilight’s expression softens. “I’ll be fine. You saved us twice now, so let me finish the fight for you,” she goes up to him and nuzzles him, before she turns back to her pony and human friends, anger and determination in her eyes. “So let’s do this! You hear me? For what they’ve done to my town and my friends, I want them all dead!” she puts her hoof down hard, her eyes glowing red again for just a bare moment in emphasis.

The Americans and British look at each other, than to her. “That’ll be our pleasure, Twilight!”

* * * * *

The tank destroyed, the remainder of the battle goes quickly and quite poorly for the rebels.

Twilight teleports to and fro, magical beams lancing from her horn, spearing enemy soldiers, both human and diamond dog alike, only to disappear in a flash again before gunfire can find her. Though lacking a horn, Pinkie continually pulls off identical feats, simply appearing and then disappearing from behind bushes, doors, and windows to reach out and slice a throat or break a neck. Though unable to teleport and only able to advance at a trot, Rarity duel-wields her captured AKs—which she’d given an ornately designed purple and blue exterior to match her coat just as she’d done with the combat knives—gunning or cutting down all in her sight without so much as a hair going out of place on her mane or tail.

Though lacking a weapon, Applejack charges right into the melee herself without any weapons except her bare hooves and her lasso, both of which prove lethal enough, the former crushing skulls and breaking limbs, bucking down trees onto soldiers, the latter snatching guns or snaring necks. Other times, she just kicks rocks into the air and bucks them with enough power and precision that they may as well have been bullets, impacting on their targets with the force of the Humvee-mounted .50 she’d previously fired.

She takes a second round to a foreleg, then a third to her shoulder, but she still refuses to go down. “And she said Big Mac was stubborn and stupid?” Griggs asks in wonder as they clear another street, pushing the rebels into a smaller and smaller corner. “Strong as an ox, tough as nails and good in a fight? So help me, I’m really starting to like that mare…”

“So why don’t you marry her, Griggs?” snarks Dunn as he feeds a steady stream of grenades to unicorns and pegasi who come for them, tossing them into the air for magical auras and hooves to pluck and deliver to the enemy.

“You know what? Maybe I will!” the Marine Recon Sergeant says as he kills another rebel in a tree, their remaining soldiers now withdrawing into a hastily dug hole. “Guess I should propose to her first…”

“Might want to save setting the date until we’ve cleaned these fuckers out!” Vasquez reminds them all in deadpan, but within five minutes the job is done as the remaining rebels dive into a hole and then the Diamond Dogs seal it behind them, leaving a few unlucky comrades behind who are quickly killed or rounded up.

“And STAY out!” Applejack puts the punctuation mark on the failed attack she puts both hind hooves into the chest of a final Diamond Dog, blasting him through a wall and killing him in the process.

A great cheer goes up at the won battle, from the earth ponies and unicorns below to the pegasi above, one the humans can’t help but join in despite the casualties they all suffered.

“Wow, Twilight! That was awesome!” Rainbow comes down, bearing a couple bullet holes in her feathers but otherwise unharmed. She hugs all her friends, then turns to Fluttershy. “How’s Spitfire…?”

“She’s fine,” her friend assures her. “Her wounds aren’t life-threatening.”

“Well done, My Little Ponies…” a new female voice sounds from above them, both soft and commanding all at once, causing gasps and eyes to go wide. “You and your allies have fought well.”

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” the ponies all shout and hurriedly bow before the two new arrivals, both massive and much larger than average ponies, ones that bear both wings and horns.

“Are those… alicorns?” Soap recognizes in some worry.

“Just after the nick of time…” Dunn grouses, but the others glare him silent.

The larger and lighter-furred one with the sun cutie mark spares the humans a single appraising glance, but it’s the darker-furred one with the moon cutie mark that speaks up. “Indeed. We are sorry we are late, but there was a dragon attack on Canterlot that had to be… dealt with.” The darker one smiled thinly, sparing the British and Americans an equally dark glance. “We came as soon as we could.”

“But it’s too late, Princess! We’ve already driven them off, and those who survive are escaping!” Rarity points at the sealed tunnel.

“No, they are not! Ready, Celestia?” Luna asks.

“Ready, Luna! All ponies clear the area!” Celestia’s voice booms out, waits for her instructions to be obeyed, and then their eyes glow.

The very ground shakes beneath them as they apply their power and suddenly the ground collapses in a jagged line leading from the sealed hole outwards for hundreds of meters, the outward sign of a collapsing tunnel that will kill anyone caught inside.

“And that, I believe, is that,” Celestia nods in satisfaction.

“Good riddance!” Rainbow sticks out her tongue.

“Ya’ll reckon we got ‘em all?” Applejack wonders aloud.

Celestia glances at Luna, but has to shake her head as her sister answers for her. “Likely not, given how deep and how quickly the Diamond Dogs can dig. However, ‘tis clear their losses were severe and not easily overcome. Be assured they will think twice about doing this again. And be assured as well we will not be caught off guard a second time!” she turns her baleful gaze on the humans again.

With that, the humans step forward.

“Greetings, Princess Celestia and Luna…” Vasquez speaks for all of them, knowing their names from Twilight’s stories of them and bowing before them as the ponies did. “We must apologize for the bloodshed here. We didn’t mean to bring this war to you or your ponies, but… we did.”

“They fought for us, Princess!” Rainbow quickly steps in front of them, followed by Twilight and the rest of her friends, surviving guardsponies quickly forming up to flank them as well. “They’re not like the others. They fought and died for us! They’re friends and we’d’ve lost without them!”

“Friends? These creatures?” Luna is unimpressed.

“Peace, Luna…” Celestia puts a restraining hoof on her foreleg. “Twilight has told me of you, Lieutenant Alberto Vasquez, and the land you have come from. We do not know how you arrived here or where these mysterious portals came from any more than you do, but as it seems they are a permanent feature of both worlds now, I offer you greeting. You have clearly earned my ponies’ friendship, and that means, mine as well.” She lands and steps forward to greet the human, bowing before him. “If these ‘rebels’ return, we will need you to help plan our defense, as they are equipped with weapons and tactics we have not seen before. To that end, I offer you and your nations alliance.”

“Methinks you are far too trusting, sister…” Luna says. “But, I extend the offer as well, if only to remember the old adage and one should always keep one’s friends close and enemies closer!”

“Luna…”

“No, she has every right not to trust us, Princess,” Vasquez agrees, though uncertain how he should address the near-goddess figures before him—how do you speak to someone who can move Celestial bodies? “It’s not my place to speak for our nations, but as long as we’re here… we’ll help you,” he glances back at his mixed American and British team, who all nod in agreement. “Just know for now that we’ve been fighting these rebels for months now, and every time we thought we’d beaten them, they came back for more. Expect they will here, too.”

“Let them,” Celestia smiles thinly. “We ponies have fought wars before, and have always emerged triumphant. And though there may be more fights ahead, be assured that in the end, this one will be no different in outcome…”


Two weeks after the battle, Ponyville is returning to stride. Surprisingly so, in the view of their human visitors.

“Eh. We’re used to town-destroying disasters,” Applejack just shrugs when asked about it, putting her farm back to rights with the help of the marines now stationed there, which she plies with plenty of fresh produce and pies. “After Nightmare Moon, the parasprites and a rampaging Ursa Minor, reckon ya get used to it. Ya’ll wanna know how many times I’ve already had to rebuild this here barn?”

The rest of the town is likewise being quickly repaired with practiced efficiency that puts most human ones to shame, bullet damage patched and destroyed structures swiftly rebuilt, ponies helping each other out and their human friends erect a real camp. They still don’t know where the portal came from, but their continuing presence have allowed reinforcements to flow through… on both sides, meaning that the war against the Ultranationalists will rage on.

Still, it’s not all bad. Diplomatic relations are swiftly established once they’re able to get messages back across to Earth, and the fruits of their new alliance are already apparent around them, from the American and British flags flying alongside the Equestrian one over a battered but still standing Town Hall, to the joint human/guardspony garrison now patrolling the town and further protected by a mixed company of eight American TOW-armed Bradley fighting vehicles backed by a platoon of four British Challenger tanks. The Town Hall flags are lowered to half-staff to honor the casualties of the battle, but with the joint funeral service completed, they are raised back to full staff that morning. Lower with dignity, raise with pride… Jackson thinks to himself as he salutes his colors and receives a salute from a passing guardspony as well.

“Did we win, L-T?” Jackson can’t help but ask as they look at the fresh cemetery filled with their fallen, including dozens of guardsponies, five Wonderbolts and their own dead tank crew. Civilian casualties had been surprisingly light only because the rebels were trying to capture instead of kill the ponies, but at least four dozen had been killed, either resisting or simply caught in the crossfire… or made an example of, like the Town Mayor. “Ain’t seen hide nor hair of the rebels and double-Ds since the battle. They got their flanks kicked pretty hard. So maybe it’s really over?”

“I don’t think so, Sergeant…” he sighs and shakes his head as Apache attack helicopters buzz overhead flying in formation with surviving Wonderbolts, of whom Rainbow Dash now wears the trainee uniform of. “We whipped the rebels here, but if we’ve learned nothing else from this whole fucking war, we know they won’t give up so easily. They take their losses but they always come back to try again. You can be sure they’re out there somewhere, planning another attack or takeover. And worse, they’ve got allies now…”

“The Diamond Dogs,” Jackson confirms grimly. “Well, so do we. The ponies fought hard and we couldn’t have won without ‘em. They may look cute and cuddly, but I don’t think I’d want anyone else on my side in a fight… ‘cept maybe the Brits.”

“Heard that,” Vasquez agrees, looking over to their right where unicorn archers are now practicing aiming and firing human weapons as well as their own, the SAS team training them in their use and even trying their own hands at the longbows in return. “Between their weather control and magic to just being able to upend a BTR or throw a spear right through a rebel soldier, they may look harmless, but they’re anything but.”

“You’re telling me!” Jackson nods vigorously. “After seeing Shining Armor stop a 125mm tank round with a shield and Twilight fucking melting that T-90…” he shook his head. “Glad she’s on our side. She was in bad shape afterwards, though. Had PTSD something fierce. Think she’s gonna be okay, L-T?”

He hesitates before responding. “She killed a bunch of people and is having a hard time dealing with it. Just have to give her some time. Never mind her magic, she’s a tough little filly. The Princess and her friends are helping her too, but I think the main thing is that as long as Spike is safe and she can defend her town, she’ll be fine.”

“Here’s hoping,” the marine sergeant says, having taken quite the liking to the lavender unicorn over their stay. “She’s keeping busy, at least. She even says she’s getting close to figuring out how to magically replicate our fuel.”

“Good. We’re gonna need it to keep these metal beasts in business,” Vasquez says, nodding at a passing Challenger tank. An American armored battalion is tasked with the protection of Canterlot, while pony and human construction crews are building airfields for attack helicopters and eventually long runways for close-support aircraft in the flat fields east of the town. They will be needed to defend against dragons even if the rebels didn’t bring their own MiGs and Hind attack helicopters with them; it will be weeks, however, before the first squadrons can pass through an aerial portal and touch down. “We still don’t know how many rebels are out there or how they’re bringing their own equipment through.”

“Well, that’s for the brass to worry about. So I take it they’re gonna keep us here now?” Jackson wonders aloud.

“Ain’t official yet, but ain’t no real secret either. Yeah, they’re assigning us as guardspony liaisons and trainers,” Vasquez confirms. “Orders’ll be issued as soon as they hash out a treaty and figure out our chain of command with the ponies. Have to say, it makes sense. If we’re gonna fight together, we need to train together, and the ponies know and trust us now.”

“I’m glad. Just wish we hadn’t brought this war to them…” Jackson sighs as he watches Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo drive by in their wagon, having shaken off their trauma quickly and now enrapt by the sight of all the new human war machines; he’s even heard they’ve asked if they can try driving a few in hopes of earning their cutie marks. “Twilight and her friends didn’t deserve any of this.”

“It wasn’t by choice, Sergeant.” Vasquez puts a hand on his subordinate’s shoulder. “They don’t blame us, and we shouldn’t blame ourselves. We weren’t trying to come here, and we still don’t know why we got here. By all rights, we should have died in that nuke explosion back in Basrah. But in the end, we’re here, and ain’t nothing for it but to fight for them now,” the marine officer states. “In the end, it doesn’t matter where we are. It’s our job, and we’ll do it.”

“I hear ya, L-T,” Jackson nods. “And they’re worth fighting for, too. So be it. Guess whether we’re in Equestria or on Earth, the Call of Duty never ends…”


THE END

Author's Note:

Chrome, reporting! So, it seems Firesight and me had reached the breaking point to CoD. He decided to end it, and I agreed to his decision, since I saw this chapter's... "Epicness", if you want to call it that. Anyway, It's been a pleasure to have made this a long time ago, but as I said, long time stories are behind me, and... so, without further ado, here's Firesight with a message. Peace out, yo! :rainbowdetermined2:


Hey folks! It’s Firesight, story editor and author of the final few chapters. Though the story could continue, I’m calling it here as I heavily edited/rewrote this work as a favor to Raven, but I need to concentrate on my own writing now. Room has been left for a sequel, but if one happens, it’ll be on my account. Hope you enjoyed the retelling and story additions and thanks, Raven, for letting me put my stamp on the story!
Those of you who like what I did with the story and military epics in general are invited to check out my premiere work, Before the Storm: The Rise of Firefly. It tells the story of the founding of the Wonderbolts and its first Captain, Rainbow Dash’s ancestor Firefly, in the context of a coming war with the Gryphons. Yes, Firefly as in the G1 pony. It’s a war epic chock full of battles and badassery, so if you liked the storytelling here, check it out.
Thanks for bearing with me and I’m sorry I couldn’t turn these chapters out faster, but this was an unfamiliar universe to me—I haven’t played the CoD games—and writing something in present tense was not easy as well. I’ll consider it a triumph for all I did with it, however. Raven and I thank you for following, and take care!
—Firesight

Comments ( 18 )

More for clarity sake than anything,
Raven is ending the story and,
Firesight is picking it up?
Do tell me if I am wrong.

8129364 nope, it's over. We decided that, it'll be the last chapter, and so it shall be. Sorry... :pinkiesad2:

8129364

Just saw this. To be clear, we agreed to end the story with this last chapter, and if there’s a sequel, it’ll appear on my account.

8961500
Not sure I follow? With a ticking Nuke you really want to stop it as quickly as possible. Liquid nitrogen could damage some internal components via thermal contraction, but it's not reliable, or quick. And that's assuming you could get it inside the warhead in the first place.

8962173
Sorry about the VERY late reply but the Liquid Nitrogen would freeze EVERY component pretty fast.

“I hear ya, L-T,” Jackson nods. “And they’re worth fighting for, too. So be it. Guess whether we’re in Equestria or on Earth, the Call of Duty never ends…”

With a new game every year? Definetly.

Also, I wonder how many Geneva convention restrictions were violated in this story. Fuckin ell.

Comment posted by Lunar eclipse airsoft deleted May 27th, 2019

9495588
There is one, but it's left with only one chapter that was published back in 2012. Best to assume that it's discontinued and left to dust smh. :fluttercry:

Comment posted by Lunar eclipse airsoft deleted May 27th, 2019

9643826
Plus the fact that there are those type of authors that develop the story on the get-go as they publish the finished chapters, and what happens when they suddenly run out of ideas? The story enters a hiatus, the author becomes pressured to keep up the story they become discouraged and abandon it altogether. Happy that I've kept this in mind for my own story, as much as it is a pain to not have anything made, still having a lot of ideas coming in at a decent pace. Cheers man!

7412553
Check again, in every briefing sequence before a mission, an insignia of the unit or branch will appear based on the character you'll be playing as. The insignia of the United States Marine Corps appears every time you play as Daniel Jackson, so you can conclude that they're Marines, specifically Force Recon Marines.

Comment posted by Lunar eclipse airsoft deleted May 27th, 2019
Comment posted by ChryseumKnight deleted May 27th, 2019
Comment posted by Lunar eclipse airsoft deleted May 27th, 2019

well to honor cold war zombies guess what story is getting reviewed next

media0.giphy.com/media/W3I7WY5JCSKvD1wNRY/200.gif

This was amazing!!! Oo-rah!!

11719217
Different equipment, different tasks, different branches.

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