P.O.V-Baker
It felt good that we weren’t in danger anymore, but we still had to find a way home. My men and I had homes, family, and dreams back on Earth. There was still a war going on, and for all we knew, the operation had failed because we weren’t there. I’ll admit though, it’s nice to see such a calm and peaceful place; one untouched by war and unscarred by conflict. I guess nothing lasts forever.
September 18th
“Thank you for letting stay around town while we’re stuck here, Princess,” Baker said.
“It’s no trouble at all,” the white alicorn said. “And please, you can just call me Celestia.”
The message Twilight wrote explained the situation to Celestia, and included all the things Baker had told her. She had explained the situation to the residents of Ponyville; ensuring there wouldn’t be any unnecessary panic. She was currently hallway through a meeting with the leaders of the humans, Generals Maxwell Taylor and James Gavin, Colonel Sink, Lieutenant Colonel Cole, and several other high ranking officers. Also attending were the Elements, and the squad of soldiers that had made first contact with them.
“Well thank you for the help, Celestia,” Taylor replied. “Now, could we move on to the matter of returning us to our world?”
“Yes, if my student Twilight’s letter was accurate, you were in the middle of a war, correct?”
“Yes mam,” Gavin replied. “We were in the middle of a major operation.”
“Interesting,” Celestia said. “Well first, we must figure out how you got here in the first place. Did you see or do anything strange or out of the ordinary?"
The men thought it over for a minute. Each of them went through his memory, going through everything in the previous days from getting on the plane to now.
“Our formation did fly through an unnaturally large storm cloud, but nothing other than that,” Cole said.
“We flew through a massive black cloud, too,” Gavin stated, and each of the men recalled going through the same anomaly.
The princess thought for a moment before a sudden look of realization came onto her face.
“I do know of one possibility,” she said. “I have read of a rare form of large black clouds that have a strange magic to them; it gives them the ability to teleport anything that flies through them to a random spot. It could be a few feet or, in this case it would appear, to a new world entirely.”
“So you think this cloud acted as a doorway between our worlds?” Baker asked.
“I do not see any other explanation, but it does make the most sense. Your planes flew through it, dropped you off here, then flew back through,” she answered.
“That would explain why we can’t get in touch with any of our planes,” Sink said.
“So, can we just go back through the cloud?” Gavin asked, suggesting the most obvious answer.
“Can’t,” Taylor replied. “It dissipated after the last plane went back through.”
“Prin- I mean, Celestia; your student said your pegasi could control the weather, correct? Can’t you just make another one?” Gavin asked.
“I’m afraid not,” she answered. “Such clouds are a rare natural phenomenon. They have a strange, naturally occurring magic that allows this teleportaion. How one ended up in your world is beyond me; but like I said, they have not been seen often and we are still learning about them.”
The men’s heads fell in defeat.
“So, is there any way back home?” Sink asked.
Once again, Celestia stood silent in deep thought; mentally going through the list of spells she knew of.
“There is one spell I know that could send you back. It requires a large amount of magic, but by using the elements of harmony, I should be able to return you to your world.”
“Will we be in the same place as when we left?” Taylor asked.
“Yes, I should be able to return you to the exact moment in time and the exact place where you entered; everything will be as it was before.” Celestia said, a smile of hope entering the men’s faces. “It will take several days to prepare because of the size of your force, but I can find no other alternative.”
“Alright, then,” Sink said. “I guess we should just sit tight until-”
He was cut off by a low but noticeable round of pops. The sound didn’t stop, continuing unabated.
“You all hear that?” Cole asked. “It sounds like gunfire. Sirs, did you schedule any kind of weapons demonstration or practice?”
“No, I gave the order not to use weaponry,” Taylor said.
“Me too, I told my men not to use them unless they were in danger, and I’m pretty sure there’s no real danger in this town,” Gavin added.
As the men continued to ponder possibilities, a pegasus in golden Royal Guards ran into the room.
“Your highness, one of our patrols was ambushed by a force of Griffons!” he said, trying to catch his breath from the quick flight.
“What!?” Celestia said, trying to hide the shock of the new discovery to keep everyone/pony calm. “Calm down and explain exactly what is happening.”
“Well, we sent out a small force of five guards, including myself, to go and find a missing filly. We found her and were nearly back to town when we were attacked. The Griffon’s technology was for more advanced than our arrows; actually, they were quite similar to these ‘guns’ the humans used. One of us was killed and the rest were driven into a small, house in a nearby field. I was sent back to get reinforcements, the others are still stuck there.”
Celestia quickly went over her options and, after exhausting all of them, came to a conclusion. Being a leader meant making tough decisions, and not all were good or had a happy ending.
“There is nothing we can do,” she announced in a solemn tone.
“What!?” the guard yelled. “Forgive my tone, princess; but, there must be something!”
“I’m afraid there isn’t,” she replied. “We need to keep what few guards we have here in place in case they decide to attack the town.”
“Princess, let us go!” Twilight said. “We could use the Elements; it should be able to stop them!”
“I’m sorry, Twilight; but, the biggest weakness of the Elements of Harmony is that their magic can only work on other magic. These griffons are using conventional means. The six of you would not last long against them,” she told her student.
“But what about the young one!?” the messenger spoke up again. “What about the rest of my fellow guardsponies!?”
“I do not enjoy making this decision,” Celestia said, more sternly now. “I do not want to leave them to die, but we cannot spare anypony in case they attack the town. It could be a diversion to draw off our forces while a larger enemy moves in. I truly wish I could save them, but there’s no way we can.”
The men had been silent during all of this. Some were listening to the conversation; others were looking back on similar times and experiences from the war. One of those thinkers was Baker.
He looked at the ground for a while, remembering all the events he had been through; all the men he’d seen lost because there was nothing he could do. He had never asked to be squad leader, but he made a promise that he would do everything in his power to protect lives; not just his men, but the lives of all who didn’t deserve an early death.
It all went through his head quickly. He knew all too well that each decision, especially in his line of work, has a consequence. Still, such important decisions are usually made in the blink of an eye.
“You can’t, but we can,” he said, standing up. “Sir’s, I know this doesn’t involve us, but I can’t sit by and watch people, or ponies in this case, die, especially when there’s a child at risk. With your, permission, I’d like to lead my squad on a rescue mission.”
The ponies were a rather surprised, but most of the men had a more serious, yet understanding look on their faces.
“Well sergeant, I’m not sure. This isn’t our fight and we don’t really know what exactly we’re dealing with; but, if you really feel like you have to, and if the princess will allow it, you can go,” Taylor said, turning to Celestia.
“Yes, can you help us?” Celestia asked, voice now quivering and tearful from the kind offer. “Please?”
“We’ll do what we can,” Baker said, grabbing his gear. “Can your messenger lead us back to the house where they’re pinned?”
“Yes,” the guard said. “It’s in a field outside of town.”
“Matt, thank you,” Baker heard a low voice and looked down to see Twilight standing next to him, nuzzling his leg. “But, please be careful.”
“We’ll be fine,” he assured her. “Remember, this isn’t my first fight.”
The men got their equipment in order and assembled near Baker.
“Alright guys, let’s get moving! We don’t have much time!” he ordered, assembling his troops near the door.
“Matthew, there is something I must warn you of,” Celestia said. “Transporting living things and physical material is one thing, but the transfer of deceased souls is something entirely different.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“It means that if any of your men die here, then there is a they won’t return with you. I’m not even sure if the spell itself will work properly, as it is very complicated and unknown,” she warned.
“Well,” Baker thought about this for a moment. “I guess we’ll just have to be extra careful.”
The ten troops, along with the pony, moved along a small dirt path. Most of the area was field and some small hills, not giving much cover. Still there were some assorted pieces; some random fallen tree trunks, a wooden picket fence every now and then near some other small structures, and the stone walls that ran alongside both sides of the trail.
“The gunfire sounds like its closer now,” Courtland asked. “How much farther is it?”
“It’s just on the other side of that knoll,” the guard replied.
“What’s your name, anyways?” Baker asked.
“Quick Keeper,” he replied. “I’ve been in the guards most of my life; but I’ll admit, I never thought something like this would happen.”
“Nobody ever thinks it can happen,” Baker replied. “That’s why everyone is so shocked when it does.”
“Guys, hold up!” Corrion said. “I see something coming over the top of the knoll!”
Baker quickly surveyed the area and spotted two places where the stone wall broke off to the left and right. He quickly whispered his orders; Japser and the support team took cover to the right with him, the rest went left. The men held their fire, waiting for the enemy to come into full view.
Watching the top of the knoll, Baker spotted the enemy come over the top and continue on down towards his men. They really were griffons, about ten of them in two groups of five, moving single file down the path. Baker looked in closer to see their weapons; they were rifles alright, but they looked rather old as compared to their weapons.
Baker’s men kept their heads down, waiting for an order. The griffons seemed extremely relaxed; perfect targets for an ambush. They came closer and closer, and the men took aim at individual targets. After a few more tense seconds, they came into grenade range. Baker continued to let the unsuspecting targets close in.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Baker gave the order of “Fire!” and the troops attacked. Some threw grenades while others fired their weapons. The initial volley of bullets, combined with the grenades exploding in the center of the group, took out all but two. These two survivors were able to duck behind a fallen log, but wouldn’t return fire from the shock of what just happened. Some sharp marksmanship from Baker’s M1 brought an end to their journey, as well.
“Alright, form up guys,” he ordered. “Reload and keep an eye out.”
“That was amazing,” Keeper said, “in a horrible sort of way.”
“It’s not as easy when you’re on the receiving end,” Zanovich replied.
Baker stopped to take a look at one of the griffons in the road. Inspecting it, he found a couple of bullets holes and a missing leg from the grenade explosion; no getting up from that. He picked up the fallen enemies’ weapon and inspected it closer. It looked quite identical to the old Winchester repeater rifles he had seen. Inspecting the body again, he also found a revolver sidearm.
“Alright, let’s keep moving towards the house,” Baker said.
The troops moved up to the top of the knoll and spotted the house. It was a small, wooden, one story house that was surrounded and being shot at from all sides by some twenty griffons; five on each side. The stone wall made a large square, with the house being in the center. Occasionally, an arrow would fly out and strike the wall, not hitting its target.
Going prone with the rest of his men to avoid being seen, Baker surveyed the situation; there wasn’t any cover between them at the top of the knoll and the nearest stone wall, but the enemy still didn’t know they were there. On the farthest end, what looked like an early form of the Maxim machine gun was hammering away at the house. He also noted that the griffons seemed to be rather strong. That, combined with their ability to fly and their talons, told Baker that they had a slight upper hand in close combat.
“Ok guys, here’s what we’ll do,” he explained, taking a knee. “The closest cover is that stone wall. The enemies that are currently using it have their backs to us, so they won’t see us coming. On my mark, we’ll charge towards the wall, firing as we go, and take cover behind it. Once we’re there, I want Jas and the rest of the support to set up the thirty and keep their gun on the far side occupied. Zano, take the fire team and follow the wall down the left flank, eliminating the enemies there; Corrion I want you to do the same for the right. Both of you guys keep moving along the wall until you get into grenade range of that MG. Make sure to stay low. Keeper, you’re with me; we’re going to run to the house and make sure everyon-pony is okay.”
“Ok, I got it!” the guardspony replied; the rest of the men nodded their heads in understanding.
“Ok, on three, we move,” Baker whispered. “One,”
Franky and a few others got up from their prone position, taking a three point running stance as if they were about to make a play in a game of football.
“Two,”
McCreary took the opportunity to attach the bayonet to his beloved Garand rifle, while Keeper pulled out a small dagger; he had left the arrows for his bow with the others in the house.
“Three!”
The men immediately got up and started running, weapons at the ready, towards the target. They didn’t open fire at once, as the distance was nearly fifty or so feet and firing from the hip whilst running at this distance would only alert the enemy. Nor did they yell or shout, as this too would have done no more than seal their fate.
Amazingly, the enemy didn’t take notice until they were thirty feet away; at which point they opened fire. The five griffons who had their backs to them didn’t notice the new contacts who were charging them over the noise of the battle. Four went down in seconds; the last turned around just in time to be harpooned in the chest by McCreary, who also fired a round into the chest before yanking his rifle free.
All eleven had made it to the wall without a scratch. Jasper and his team set up the gun and opened fire on the gun opposite; not hitting anything but certainly drawing the gunner's attention to him.
Zanovich took his three men and shuffled to their end of the wall. Readying his BAR, he peeked around the corner and opened fire on the line of five targets, killing three. The final two turned stood and prepared to fly away, but were both hit by Dawson and Franky. The three men, whilst still crouched, turned the corner and followed the wall until they were within throwing range of the machine gun and lobbed a grenade into its position, killing the two operators.
Corrion had a tougher time. He too flanked the enemy and killed three with his Thompson, but the final two decided to fight back. They took off and hovered near the soldiers, placing several rounds of their ball type ammunition dangerously close to their heads. Eventually, the team was able to shoot the down.
While this was happening, Baker and Keeper made a mad dash towards the house. The Pegasus flew through the front door, followed closely by Baker. They found one, a unicorn, dead from a shot to the head. The other two, normal earth ponies armed with bows, were both wounded, but alive.
“Keeper, thank Celestia you came back!” one of them said.
“Don’t thank me, thank the human here,” he replied, helping his comrade up. “He volunteered to come rescue you.”
“Thank you for coming to our rescue,” the other one said. “May I get your name?”
“Matthew Baker,” the sergeant replied. “Can you walk?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine,” he said, getting up and wincing in pain. “But, could you help the filly in the corner over there? She’s not hurt, just very scared.”
Baker looked over and saw a young, orange Pegasus with a purple mane curled up in a ball in the corner. Baker walked over to check on her.
“You okay?” he asked. The Pegasus looked up and instead of being afraid of the new creature, was in awe and curious of it.
“Whoa,…what are you?” she asked looking up at Baker.
“I’m a human; and don’t worry, I’m here to help you,” he replied. “You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“I’m okay,” she replied, “just a little scared.”
Baker picked the young Pegasus up and cradled her in his arms; walking out of the house and into the sunlight.
“Well, there’s nothing to worry about anymore; we took care of those bad guys,” Baker told her. “What’s your name?”
“Scootaloo, but you can call me Scoots if you like,” she said. “And thanks for saving us.”
“What were you doing here?” Baker asked.
“I was playing out here in this field yesterday when those griffons attacked. They kidnapped me and brought me back to their camp” Scootaloo explained. “They must have thought I’d just follow whatever they said, cause they didn’t bind me or anything. I was able to sneak away at night and that royal guard’s patrol found me in the morning. I guess the griffons followed us.”
Baker ordered his men to rally up and start marching back towards town.
“What’s your name?” Scootaloo asked.
“It’s Baker.”
“It’s different, I like it,” she continued. “Is this what you do for a job? Protecting ponies?”
“Yea, it’s something like that,” Baker replied. “We’re soldiers.”
“Hey, maybe me and my friends could get our cutie marks doing that!” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“What? What are those?”
“Oh, a cutie mark is something that appears on every pony’s flank when they discover what they’re special talent is,” she explained. “Me and my friends Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom haven’t found ours yet, so we formed the Cutie Mark Crusaders to help pones find their special talent!”
Baker realized that the marks, that he first thought were some kind of cultural tattoo, were also magic.
“Do you have a cutie mark?”
“Uh, not really,” Baker said.
“Hey, maybe you could join the CMC!” Scootaloo nearly yelled in excitement.
Baker chuckled a bit; he knew he probably wouldn’t get one, but decided to play along.
“Heh, okay kid; but, let’s get back to town, first.”
Getting back into town was rather difficult. Upon returning, they were swamped by dozens of cheering ponies and soldiers. Rainbow, upon seeing Baker carrying a safe Scootaloo, quickly flew up to the two and gave the two a crushing hug and knocking him onto his back. When the other five got through the crowd, they immediately piled onto the sitting soldier and nearly smothered him with hugs.
“Thank you soooo much, Matt!” Rainbow said. "You're so awesome!
“Yea, you saved Scoots and those guards!” Pinkie said. “You’re a hero!”
Baker smiled at this; he felt truly good. It wasn’t the first time he had been called ‘hero’ after everything he had done, but he had never really felt like it. This time, he felt different; he truly felt like a hero.
After everything settled down, the men made their way back to the town hall where Celestia and the officers had been waiting.
“I cannot thank you enough for rescuing my little ponies,” she said.
“We’re just doing our job, mam,” Zaonvich replied.
“Celestia, do you mind if we hold another meeting? There are some things I would like to find out,” Taylor asked.
“Of course,” she replied, opening the doors and letting the men pile in.
“Why were these griffons attacking your territory and how do they have guns?” Taylor asked.
“That is a bit of a long story,” Celestia replied. “Though they can fly, griffons do not have natural magic like our unicorns. This has casued them to strive for a technological advantage; especially in the military sense.”
“Kinda sounds like us,” Gavin commented.
“Griffons also tend to be…aggressive, so our two nations haven’t had the best of histories.”
“So, they want to take over your country with their new weaponry; why?” Gavin asked.
“I don’t have enough time to fully explain the details, but over time our relations with the Griffon Kingdom have…soured, to say the least,” Celestia admitted. “We have constantly asked them to cease aggressive actions against other nations, so they threatened to turn their aggression against us.”
“And you can’t stop them from taking over this whole nation?” Sink asked.
“We may not be as advanced, but we are strong enough to defend our country against them; they know they cannot take complete control of all of Equestria, so it seems they have decided to focus attacks this town instead,” Celestia explained.
“Why this little town?” Cole asked. “Is it some kind of terror attack?”
“Ponyville is actually an important transportation hub. It lies in between our capitol at Canterlot and the rest of the nation; all major roads run through this town,” Celestia explained. “Attacking and seizing the roads, or the town itself, would put an unbearable strain on our economy; we would then be at their mercy.”
Gavin pulled Taylor aside and spoke quietly for a minute. They went over some possible options, problems, and strategies. After a short time, they came back to face the princess.
“Princess Celestia, after speaking with my colleague, we would like to offer you our support in defending your nation and its residents,” Taylor said.
“R-really?” Celestia said in shock. “Why?”
“Because what’s going on here is the same as back home; you’re a peaceful people coming under threat from a technologically advanced bully. We’d like a chance to stop it from going too far here, too,” Gavin explained.
“I can’t believe this; I can’t thank you enough,” she said through some tears.
“We’re just doing what we think is right,” he replied, the other men nodded in agreement. “But there are a few things we need to work out, first. One is of supplies and logistics; do you have any kind of factories for mechanical production?”
“We do have several factories, but they are spread out all over and mostly small. Most are in Detrot or Stalliongrad; but, they are easy to build or change. If you send some of your men to explain what you need and how to make it, we should be able to keep you supplied.”
“Alright, and I’m sure we’ve got enough supplies to last until then,” Taylor said.
“I do have one request, generals,” Celestia asked. “Even though your men came to the rescue, Ponyville’s residents seem to have been badly shaken by the attack. I would like to raise their spirits again by showing them that they are safe in your hands; perhaps by a demonstration?”
“A military parade to boost morale?” Gavin said. “I think we can do that.”