//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 - Guns and Tanks // Story: Call of Duty - Equestrian Warfare // by ChromeRegios //------------------------------// Vasquez flinches back at the sound of rifle fire, certain he’s about to die only to realize two things—that he’s still very much alive, and the three-round bursts were the not the deeper bark of an AK, but the lighter chop of an M-4. Shaking badly, he opens his eyes to see the Russian fall dead in from of him, his head blown open, and… Sergeant Jackson bursting out of the bush, rifle still leveled at the fallen rebel. “Sir, you okay?” The marine sergeant calls out, scanning for more Russians, but none could be seen. “Yeah… th-thanks, buddy. Thought I was a goner there,” The Marine Lieutenant takes several deep breaths at having escaped death for the fourth—no, fifth time in less than a day, wondering how much longer his uncanny luck is going to to hold. And what other surprises this strange place may yet spring. “No problem, L-T.” With that, Jackson hears something moving behind him and points his rifle to it, but Vasquez quickly stops him. “Don’t shoot!” he calls out urgently, motioning for his Sergeant to lower his rifle. “They’re friendlies—one’s another pony, and one of them’s shot in the leg. Break out your medkit and help them,” he orders and the sergeant promptly obeys, only mildly surprised to find another brightly-colored mare but doing a double-take as he beholds a childlike purple-and-green reptilian creature gasping in pain. The two look at him warily, but his heart softens at the sight of them, particularly the wide-eyed lizard asking him if he can take the pain away. “Sure thing, buddy,” he tells him, pulling out a morphine syringe. “This’ll take the pain away, promise…” While Jackson attends them, Vasquez enters the cave, now cleared of rebel forces but dreading what he might find—what the rebels might have done to their ‘guest’. He’s both alarmed and relieved to find her missing. “Jackson! Where’s the yellow one?” he asks as the sergeant reappears, carrying the still-gasping ‘baby dragon’ inside, holding him like a child, a still-stunned Twilight in tow. The sergeant replies that Fluttershy went home along with the two cobra pilots they recovered, which are now in her care. Worried for their safety if rebels are still around, Vasquez asks where Fluttershy’s home is located. Twilight speaks up for the first time since the engagement with the Russians, telling them in a still-shaky voice she knows the way. Her mind still reeling at the violence and weaponry she’s encountered, the thought of helping Spike steadies her and she leads the two of them to Fluttershy’s house walking through the forest, finding the path heading to her friend’s home. The town of Ponyville was in an uproar. Odd things had been happening all morning, from strange lights and noises coming from the Everfree to panicked ponies speaking of strange apes about… to the huge tan-colored metal object that had somehow appeared directly in front of the Town Hall, blocking the the front doorway. Everypony tried to push the heavy thing with strength or magic but it was simply too big to budge. Some ponies remarked it looked like an iron unicorn because of the large horn in front of it… while others said it almost seemed like some kind of carriage given its many lower wheels, though it seemed impossible for them to move the object given they were surrounded by some kind of flexible track. Fluttershy encounters the strange thing herself when she goes into town to buy some food and medicine for her visitors. Deciding they would know what it is, she goes back to her house to tell the others about it, wondering how or even if she should keep them hidden. “What the hell?! You mean the names of cities in the U.S are much like in this place?!” Vasquez says after hearing a slowly calming Twilight tell him about the new world they find themselves in as they walk, a world called Equestria, which seemed uncannily similar to America in some surprising ways. “I mean… Manehattan? Fillydelphia? Las Pegasus?” He feels another headache coming on. “It’s much like ours, I know.” Jackson isn’t surprised because he after all he’s seen, nothing really surprises him now… he barely even blinks as Twilight magically carries Spike along, the baby dragon now sleeping after a morphine injection, meant to tide him over until they can get him better medical help. Or maybe I just don’t care anymore… the Sergeant shakes his head, but keeps an eye out for other rebels, bringing up the rear of their little column, Twilight and ‘Spike’ between the two marines who kept their weapons brandished, the pair still in some shock, one from his wounds and the other from the close brush with death dealt by strange creatures wielding stranger weapons. They’d encountered no more Russians, but that didn’t mean they weren’t out there. “What I want to know, is how the hell did those Ultranationalist Rebels find their way through here?!” Vasquez nearly shouts his words as they exit the forest to see a cottage dead ahead. “And for that matter, how did we?” As he speaks, Jackson thinks of a possibility, but doesn’t get a chance to voice it before Fluttershy comes into a view, along with two new ponies—a solid-looking blonde mare who lacked horns or wings but wore a stetson hat, and a massive-looking burgandy stallion with blond hair who wore a yoke. Both had marks on their hips not unlike the ones they’d seen on Twilight and Fluttershy, but unlike theirs, the newcomer’s marks were apple-related, and they both stopped short upon seeing the Marines, eyeing them warily. “Uhm, sirs? There’s a big metal thing in front of the uhm... mayor’s office. And um… I was thinking you might know what it is?” Fluttershy asks timidly as, getting over her initial shock, Applejack pushed her way past her friend and walked fearlessly right up to the two, peering at them from under her stetson with her bright green eyes. “Well now, Ah can’t believe my eyes. What Fluttershy was saying was true!” Applejack says as she gazes up at the two humans before her, sparking a concerned glance at Spike, who Fluttershy immediately notices and goes to, Twilight taking him inside her friend’s house to be treated. “So what are y’all? Some kind of ape? And what are those things you’re carryin’?” She points with a hoof at their weapons. “Oh, uh…” the two Marines look at each other then back to the two new ponies. “Yeah… we’re… a kind of ape called humans…” is the only thing Vasquez can immediately offer, finally accepting that this world was likely filled with intelligent equines, and multiple types of them if their horns and wings or lack of them was any indication. “I’m Lieutenant Vasquez and this is Sergeant Jackson, USMC.” The mare blinks. “You-ess-emcee? What’s that? Some kind of DJ group?” she asks a slightly nonsensical question. “But we’ve already got one!” The two humans look at each other again, by unspoken agreement deciding not to question or ask them to explain. “So who are you two?” Jackson asks, casting wary looks at the woodline. “Oh! Right. Introductions. I’m Applejack, and this here’s my big brother, Big Mac!” she sketches a bow and then motions back to the deep red stallion, who is eying the two curiously but not much more. “Eeyup,” is the only thing Big Mac says, speaking in a slow, deep voice. “So where y’all from? And why ya dressed like that?” Applejack looked them over from head to toe again. “Reckon Rarity would throw a fit to see such blotchy clothes. And I ain’t never heard of humans before!” Well, we’ve never heard of pastel talking ponies before! Was all Lieutenant Vasquez could immediately think as they went inside the house to see to their companions and a wounded Spike. Once everyone—everypony, they had to get used to the odd term—had been introduced and tended to, they start to talk, Twilight explaining at their request the difference between the types of ponies they’d seen—earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi—and the three conscious humans in vague terms who they were and where they came from. Vasquez finally decided not to sugar-coat it. “We don’t know how we got here, but where we came from, we were fighting a war. We’re soldiers,” he tells them, deciding they’d likely understand that term better than marine. “Soldiers? You mean like the Royal Guard?” Twilight pipes up, her interest piqued and her analytical mind starting to reassert itself. “I don’t know what that is…” Jackson admits. “But the point is… we were fighting, got sent here somehow and… some of our enemies appear to have crossed over with us. They were the ones we encountered in the woods,” he says with a worried look at Applejack, who was now studying them with a considerably more wary expression. “But… why are you fighting? Ah mean, what’s so important y’all have to kill each other?” she asks to the nods of her friends, all now looking in earnest to him for an answer. “Well, that’s—” “Hey, L-T?” Jackson stuck his head in, interrupting to Vasquez’s great relief. “Yes, Sergeant?” “There are some other ponies out here,” he announces, at which point everyone goes outside to look, finding Mayor Mare, looking for help in moving the big metal box that was blocking the front door to town hall, visibly surprised to see human visitors. “Wait… metal box?” Vasquez asks. “What did it look like?” “Well. Um, it was kind of brown, it had a lot of wheels, there was a large tube stuck to it, it and—” “Show us!” Jackson and Vasquez run outside without even letting Fluttershy finish her description, following her towards town. When they arrive, waking through a crowd of gawking ponies, they are stunned at what they see. “It’s War Pig!” Vasquez says as he goes for a closer look with Jackson, recognizing the M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank they’d been defending and working with for days. It had been instrumental in wresting a section of city from the rebels and looked none the worse for wear despite the nuclear blast and recent repairs to its tracks and 120mm main gun, its turret swivelled slightly right. While they study the surprisingly intact vehicle, the ponies around town watch them still unable to make sense of what was going on, Applejack trying and failing to imagine her farm pigs at war. “So what is it?” Twilight wants to know, studying the strange vehicle from front to rear. Having seen the ‘rifles’ in action earlier, she has a sneaking suspicion as to what the long protruding tube is for but fervently hopes she is wrong. The two marines were too stunned to reply. “This can’t be! How did this thing get here?” Jackson climbs up the hatch and checks inside, where he sees… a crewman sitting there unmoving, leaving the sergeant worried he was dead. Climbing in, he checks his pulse… and finds it weak, but there. Reasoning the War Pig crew was stunned or suffering from stagnant air, they pull out the entire crew of four one by one. “Hey! Any doctors here?! Please... help these people!” “Put them in my house,” Twilight offered, picking one up in her aura, other unicorns following suit. Jackson follows Twilight to a Treehouse, which Twilight explained happened to be the town Library and her home. Fresh air and emergency IVs seemed to help the tank crew, and they were soon stirring even before the pony doctor arrived. But he did treat Spike, magically withdrawing the bullet, then resetting the bone and giving him some special gems to speed healing; the Marines were all stunned when the baby dragon ate them. Several minutes later, Jackson and Twilight sit across the room as Applejack looks after the wounded crew and the two pilots, who were fast asleep in the basement, tired of talking to Big Macintosh. “So, where’s Spike?” Jackson asks her as she snaps out of her deep thought. “Oh, uh... He’s okay now; he’s just sleeping that’s all. It’s just, I can’t bare to see him suffer like that!” Twilight starts to cry a bit, the upset of the past several hours finally catching up to her now that Spike is safe.. The Sergeant’s face softened. “Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s going to be fine,” he says, chancing putting a hand on the unicorn’s withers. “Are you sure?” Twilight sniffles a little, but responds to the gesture with a smile. “I’m sure.” He considered staying silent after that, but decides he needs to say more. “Listen… we didn’t mean to bring our conflict here. Believe me, we don’t like seeing innocents hurt.” Can’t say the same about the rebels, though... “I b-believe you,” she told him. “Y-you took care of Spike and Fl-Fluttershy. B-but I st-still don’t understand how you can just fight and kill s-so casually.” It was a question Jackson had occasionally asked himself, and didn’t necessarily have an answer for. He didn’t get one either here as Vasquez stepped inside after doing a little maintenance on the tank, covered in grease. “Well the engine was a bit fried but i got it working again and backed it away from the building. It’s not blocking the door of the building now, at least. Turret and coax seems to be in working order too, and the magazine’s more than half-full. Still, we can’t refuel or rearm it, so once it’s out of gas and ammo, it’s only good as a pillbox,” he shakes his head. With that, he asks his Sergeant to come out, saying he wants to speak with him privately. Jackson excuses himself for a bit, as he steps outside. Big Mac goes upstairs as Twilight asks how the humans are doing. “They’re fine, they’re all just resting,” he says in his usual brief manner as he sits beside Twilight. “By the way, y’all have any idea what’s going’ on here?” She shakes her head—any other time, that Big Mac would be asking a question would be worthy of special note, but now she’s just too tired and spent to give it any thought. “I have no idea, Big Mac, and from what they’re saying neither do they. It’s unnatural for these kind of creatures to appear in Ponyville. There must be a reason they came here. But why?” She turns her mind on the problem like so many others she has in the past, but finds no immediate answers. “Maybe to make trouble?” Big Mac drawls. “Ah mean, this bunch seems okay, but whoever they were fightin’…” “I hope not,” Twilight replies, feeling more than a little insecure, worried that they had indeed brought their war with them and now all Ponyville was in danger. “But I think you’re right; the ‘humans’ here with us don’t seem to be bad.” Meanwhile, outside of Twilight’s house Jackson and Vasquez sit on the now-working tank, trying to make sense of everything as well. “I don’t get it, L-T. First us, Now this freakin’ tank. What’s next?!” Jackson asks. “Is an aircraft carrier about to drop on our heads?” Vasquez tried to chuckle, but after everything that had happened, he couldn’t discount the possibility. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next, Jackson. All we can do is try to save our men and watch out for rebels. But…” he trails off. “But what, sir?” The Lieutenant waits several seconds before replying. “Just a feeling, but something tells me it’s going to get worse before it gets better.” Jackson doesn’t reply. At his Lieutenant’s words, he feels a sudden chill down his spine, sensing that his superior is correct; something is going to happen to this place. And this tank is just a piece of it. Just then three young fillies walked up to them looking at them in amazement, breaking them out of their brooding mood. “Well, hey there! What can we do for you fine fillies?” Vasquez asks at them while they looked up at them in awe. “See! See! I told y’all! It’s huge!” The filly with a red bow says while pointing at the tank, speaking in an accent that reminded the pair of Applejack. “Wow! It’s much bigger than I thought!” An orange one with wings says while hopping up on the tank. her small wings buzzing audibly. “And it’s way cooler than our carriages!” says the white one with a horn, poking at one of the track wheels. Jackson laughs a bit at their antics and adorableness. “So, do you three have a name?” he asks while looking at the three. “I’m Scootaloo!” The young pegasus says instantly, puffing up her chest a bit. “Ah’m Apple Bloom” adds the earth pony with the bow. “And I’m Sweetie Belle!” finishes the curly-haired white-furred unicorn. “Nice names you got there!” Vasquez says while laughing a bit, the presence of kids, even pony ones lightening his mood. “Thanks! So, what’s your names?” Sweetie Belle asks earnestly, the other two listening eagerly. “Oh. Well, my name is Richard Vasquez and this is Paul Jackson,” the lieutenant spoke for both of them. After playing on the tank and keeping them company for a while, the three fillies giggle and bid them farewell, running off, leaving the pair in much better spirits. “Man, they’re just like our kids, huh L-T?” Jackson watches the sky as the sun goes down surprisingly quickly, making the sky turn crimson red — the veteran Sergeant fervently hoping it isn’t an omen. “Yeah… they are,” Vasquez agrees with him, staying up talking with his subordinate a few minutes more before deciding it was time to see Mayor Mare as he had earlier promised . “Okay… just don’t get yourself ambushed by ‘Diamond Dogs’ again or whatever,” Jackson suggests, eliciting a weak chuckle. With that, he climbs down the tank and walks toward Town Hall, leaving Jackson alone to tend the tank. He was just starting to walk up the stairs when a bright light bursts in front of him, bringing out a large box tumbling from the sky from out of nowhere. “WHAT THE FUCK!!” Vasquez shouts as the box suddenly flies past him, nearly hitting another pony and demolishing the market stand she was packing up. The commotion brought Jackson running. “L-T! What the hell happened?” he asks as he beholds the ruined stand and shaken pony, helping the latter to her hooves, his eyes catching sight of something sitting in the middle of the debris. “That can’t be…” Recognizing the box as an unopened ammunition resupply carrier, Vasquez opens the box and finds hundreds of 5.62mm and 9mm rounds and 12 fragmentation grenades. Jackson follows behind and recognized the cache as well, exchanging a worried look with his superior. At that moment, the sergeant knows beyond any shadow of a doubt that his L-T is correct… That whatever is happening is far from over.