I climbed onto the Phoenix, making sure that I had everything with me. Everypony thought the threat of the enclave was gone, but seriously, who would think that?
They were going to pop up at some point in the battle, no matter what. We had already taken precautions to take care of them, but I still felt a sense of unease rising up inside me. Last time I had faced the Enclave, I had been killed. It wasn’t going to be fun going up against them again.
And what if…?
No, no. They wouldn’t have.
What if they rebuilt Napalm? I mean, I remember having my head crushed by the chassis of the armored truck, so why couldn’t they repair a bullet wound?
Questions flew around in my head like Pegasi, but I shook them away. Right now, my priorities were getting the Ministry mares home, possible preventing the war, making sure Darin’ got home to Sophia, so he could get some much needed TLC with his family, and to make sure that I got home, so I could be with Blue Blossom. While she was sitting across from me, she had to report to Sandstorm right off the bat. I wouldn’t be seeing her much on the battlefield, seeing as how she was a scholar, and I was a piece of machinery.
“Be careful, Darin’, come home safe. For me and the baby.” Said Sophia, kissing Darin’ goodbye.
“I’ll be home soon, honey. Then, we can name the baby.” He said, and winked. He got into the Phoenix, and we took off. I scoffed, and he just clucked his tongue.
“You now, once you get into a deep relationship with Blossom over here, things will be just like that.” Said Darin’, and Blue Blossom blushed. I laughed a bit, and looked out the window. The vast landscape was pockmarked with craters and such, smoke from fires tainting the sky.
I then looked back at the to-be Ministry Mares. They were all talking to each other, trying to break the tension in the cabin.
It did nothing of that sort.
While hardened Ranger veterans like Darin’ and myself, just sat there in silence, others prayed to Celestia, or stared at me in awe. My armor was different now, all black, and instead of red lenses for the glasses, they were blue. I looked like the commander of them all, when really; I was just another foot soldier. I closed my eyes, trying to get a little shut eye before the big battle. While I had technically been asleep for the past 3 months, as I said before, it doesn’t really give you any real rest.
“Wake the buck up, Dust! We got 20 seconds ‘til jump!” I heard Darin’ shout into my ear. My eyes shot open, and I looked around, and everyone was laughing.
“Screw you guys. I was having a good dream!” I shouted at them, laughing myself now.
“About what, Blue Blossom? What dirty things did ya do to her, eh? Did ya plug ‘er?” Asked one of the Rangers, and we continued laughing. Blue Blossom was blushing, but smiling at the same time.
The helicopter landed, and I looked out the window. Hundreds of soldiers were bustling around, tents set up. On the left, strong colts were tearing the trees down so we could get a clear shot at the Moon Cathedral. On the right, both NCR soldiers and Steel Rangers were fighting off Alicorns from a distance.
Damn it. I didn’t think the Alicorns were going to be a problem!
“Darin’, I need you to go and deal with the Alicorns. I’ll go with Luna to talk to our agent. I’ll call you back with the radio when I need you.” I said, as the doors opened on the Phoenix.
“Gotcha, boss.” Said Darin’, who then put on his gas mask, and took to the sky. I walked out, the Pre-war ponies, Luna, and Blue Blossom in tow. The sound of gunshots rang out through the sky, and the Pre-war ponies covered their ears. I sighed, as I saw Sandstorm come out of her tent. As soon as she looked at us, her face lit up in happiness.
“Blossom! Sweet Celestia I’ve missed you!” She shouted, somehow overpowering the gunshots. She ran over to us, and gave Blue Blossom a kiss. I recoiled a bit, but not too much. I mean, it was one thing if it was another colt, but it wasn’t half as bad if it was another mare.
“It’s nice to see you too, Sandstorm.” I said, pulling my gas mask upwards, and then lighting a cigarette.
“I didn’t say hi to you.” She said, tilting her head in confusion.
“I know.” I said, pushing the cigarette into my mouth. I breathed in a cloud of smoke, and exhaled.
“Whatever. Somepony’s obviously cranky after his nap.” Sandstorm said, and both Luna and Blue Blossom giggled a bit. I rolled my eyes, and sighed.
“Okay, just give us the skinny on the operations. How is the assault going on Moon Cathedral?” Asked Luna, still chuckling from the joke Sandstorm cracked.
“Just fine. It seems that their dug in there good, and we are still bombarding them with missiles and mortars. The real problem is the Alicorns that have settled about 4 miles west of here. Mostly just jumpers, but they’re still annoying.” Said Sandstorm, and Luna nodded.
“Okay. I’ll send my men to deal with the Alicorns, and you just keep bombarding the cathedral. Seems like we have a good plan here.” Said Luna, who turned around, and walked over a large tent that was being pulled up by about 5 rangers.
“Well, I reckon I better rally up my troops to get the assault on the Alicorns, I guess.” I said, and started to walk off, when Blue Blossom trotted next to me.
“Be careful, okay? For me.” She said, and I nodded. I dropped the cigarette out of my mouth, and gave her a small kiss. She smiled, and ran off to Sandstorm. Sandstorm gave me a stern look, and I just shrugged.
“Now, let’s get this show on the road.” I said, pulling my gasmask on.
I walked slowly over to the Western front, which was just a long plain, for all I could see. There were a few crevices, and some rocks, but mostly just a 20 mile long death trap of yellow grass. A bunch of rangers were firing at purple silhouettes on the horizon, which kept on teleporting back and forth.
“Alicorns.” I said to myself as I walked down the small barricaded hill to the rangers encampment. A bunch of Steel Rangers walked along the makeshift trenches they had made, making sure none of the freaks had decided to use all their magic and do a super-teleport. I looked to the sky, and I saw Darin’, who was launching rockets at the enemies on the horizon.
“Darin’! Come down here! Rally up the troops!” I shouted, and he nodded. He swooped down in front of the rangers at the front like, shouting at them to meet up with me. They all pulled back, and the Steel Rangers took their place.
“Alright, gentle colts. We have a situation on our hands, as you may know. Those pricks out their keep on annoying the hell out of, using up some of our men that we could be using to get through the forest. Our contact and Princess Luna have authorized an assault on their little base. It’s about 4 miles from here, through the western area of the forest. Since there is rough terrain, were taking the journey on foot.” I said, and a bunch of the soldiers groaned.
“Can’t we go around?”
“How about we use a Phoenix?”
“I didn’t sign up for this!”
“SHUT UP!” I shouted, and they all quieted down.
“I’m tired of your crap! If you don’t want to be here, get the hell out now! I’ve been dead for 3 months, and you see me here, right now do, don’t you? Get ahold of yourselves, you worthless excuses for soldier. Prove to me that you are actually worthy to be called rangers!” I shouted at them, my fury showing.
“Yes sir!” they all shouted in unison.
“Then lets get a move on,” I said angrily, walking along.
The soldiers followed me into the small forest, letting the footsoldiers deal with Chrysalis’ legion. It was a simple matter of just walking to where we were supposed to be. Sure, we came across a couple manticores, but besides from that, we were safe.
It was sundown by the time we reached the small encampment of Alicorns. It seemed empty, but they had their ways of hiding. We approached carefully, activating our active camos. Silently, we scouted out the side of the camp we were facing, realizing the camp may be abandoned. We deactivated our active camos, and were suddenly under fire. 5 of us went down almost immediately, and the rest of us took a hail of laser fire.
“Get to cover!” I shouted, running behind a small concrete barrier.
The rest of them men followed my lead, except Darin’, who took to the skies, using his dual Gatling guns to dispatch the assailants. I peered over the barrier, and saw a bunch of Purple and Green Alicorns, firing upon us and Darin’.
“Okay, Longshot! I need you to lay suppressing fire with the .50! I’m moving up with the flamer!” I shouted, pulling the safety off the flame thrower.
Longshot nodded, and quickly stood up, his .50 cal firing. I sprinted into the camp, lighting everything flammable on fire. Alicorns screamed in agony as they burned alive, as did their prisoners. Sure, it was a terrible thing to do, but I had no time to deal with half-dead mutants right now. I needed to get those six ponies back to their own time as soon as possible.
After about 2 minutes of burning the camp to the ground, all the Alicorns were dead. There weren’t many to begin with, which was slightly odd, but we had a new trace to follow.
“Sir! Orders from Luna, she says we’re moving in on Moon Cathedral right now! We’ll be using the flank route!” shouted a soldier, a radio floating in his face.
“You heard him boys! We are leaving, whether you like it or not!” I shouted, and I heard audible groans.
We started marching again, and I started to ponder why the Alicorns had left their post. They were very territorial, not the type to just abandon ship. Perhaps those were remnants of the fighting force that had attacked the Cathedral? I didn’t have much time to ponder it, because before I knew it, we were in the defense mine field.
A massive explosion marked our entrance, as Longshot shielded himself from the massive explosion. A young earthpony wasn’t so lucky, being dismembered by a incendiary mine.
“Spread out! Sheilds up!” I shouted, running, covering myself in a bluish shield.
We ran through the explosions, some of us turning into mulch, the others barely surviving. We reached the inner area of the defenses, and jumped behind a log. I took a head count, and my jaw dropped.
Only 9 of us left, only the veterans. I groaned, and the others picked up the hint.
“Damn it! Why is it always us!” Shouted Longshot, looking around.
“Not sure, maybe because Celestia’s up there watching us, trying to keep us alive. I mean, technically, we’re protecting her sister.” Said Darin’, pulling his mask off, and lighting a smoke.
“Yeah, well, her sister can launch lasers that literally un-shift Equestria’s balance. It’s not like she can’t protect herself.” Said Longshot.
“Look, lets keep moving up. The legion will be weakened by now, and we can deal with them.” Said Darin’, pulling his mask back on.
With that, we took off once again, using our night vision to stalk through the forest. It was a short walk before we heard the screaming of soldiers, and the sound of guns and lasers. All 9 of us picked up the sound of lasers, and sprinted to the cathedral.
It was a mad house.
The Alicorns who had deserted the previous camp were fighting the Legionnaires, the Legionnaires were fighting Enclave agents, who were fighting the NCR, who were fighting the Alicorns. All of the rangers went into attack mode, and started picking off enemies, easily killing them from 400 yards from the forest.
Suddenly, a massive fireball flew at us.
Longshot was instantly incinerated, as was 2 other rangers. Almost as if on cue, two other fireballs landed directly near us. I was thrown back into a fiery haze, blood spattering against my HUD. I looked around, watching the already burned trees falling into their final fiery graves. I was being crushed by one of the shells of the fireballs, and tried to force it off me.
Suddenly, I felt a massive uplift, and realized I was being pulled from under the tree. I looked behind me, to see a burned Longshot pulling me along, floating a .454 beside him. He kept on firing at the enclave agents, who were swooping along, hitting him with lasers. He didn’t budge the least bit, just fired with more fury, screaming in rage.
Finally, we came to a stop, as he fell down, panting, blood slipping between his lips. I had only barely knew Longshot, but he put his final moments on Equestria into saving me.
“Get ‘em home, for my kids, Dust. For everypony. They deserve a hero like you.” Said Longshot, wheezing heavily.
I saluted, and gave him a grenade. He just smiled, and I sprinted off, towards the cathedral. I heard the Enclave shouting something at Longshot, then a faint explosion. Went out like a true soldier. Fighting until the end.
I got close to the cathedral, when I felt a shock on my back. I fell to my knees, my eyes closing, as I saw a familiar face overlooking me.
“Close your eyes Dust. You’re going to be turned into a rainbow, won't that be fun?”