//------------------------------//
// Survivor's Guilt 
// Story: A Soldier In Equestria 
// by The Alchemist 
//------------------------------//

"What are you talking about? America is not going to be destroyed."  
"Never? Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed.  All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you really think your own country will last?”

I slammed my fist into the TV, wishing I could hit the Chinese Prime Minister at that moment. He had ruined my life. 
Yeah, I wanted to join the military, but as a pilot. America needed cannon fodder, though. We were told that we played a huge part in the war, when all we were actually needed for were targets for the Chinese. 
The war effort was going good for us. We were winning, and the Chinese were getting more and more desperate, with heavy casualties being suffered. 
Throughout the years, many events had happened, shaping Earth. First off, the economic collapse hit Europe pretty hard except for the UK, which turned around and started to prosper. America had had rising tensions with China since 2015. This escalated to war in 2048. 
My name is Jake Eld. I'm a 17-year-old U.S. Marine Corporal, 1st Marine Division. I lied about my age to get in on the war effort. 
Now, I'm built larger than a couple of 19 year olds I knew at the time.  They helped get me in, of course. I got separated from them, though, and was soon found out.  Luckily, leathernecks supported my decision and helped me. 
Mysteriously, my name was bumped to the top of the list for advanced education, and I was trained in the use of the prototype nanosuit, a high-tech armor. It gives special abilities to the wearer including enhanced strength, vision, and the ability to heal wounds.  The healing had a cost to pay - your strength.  If you were near death while healing, you could be knocked unconscious for months. Let me start at the beginning of my story, though.
"ELD! Get your sorry ass above deck with the rest of Whiskey Squad!"  Lt. Shepard barked at me.   We were getting ready to leave our position aboard USS Enterprise.
"SIR YES SIR!" I saluted and moved out. I found the rest of Whiskey waiting for someone to give us our orders. 
We were all ready for combat. I was carrying a M4 Carbine Rifle and a M9 Pistol holstered on the prototype combat armor I was wearing. 
"Alright you skum fucks get in the helicopter, get to the LZ and regroup with the 1st Force Recon Battalion,” Lt. Shepard Barked at us again
“NOW MOVE, SKUM FUCKS!"
*15 Minutes later*
We landed in the city of Guangzhou. "Alright now what the fuck do our orders say?" I asked my CO, Sgt. Moore.
"Assassinate the Premier of China,” he replied.
"Holy fuck, that's their equivalent of a prime minister. Are we up for this job?" 
"Does this Nanosuit show my ass off?" Private Reddings sarcastically asked.  
"Fair enough, but stay quiet.  We need to carry this out swiftly and efficiently," said Sgt. Moore. We all nodded and began running from building to building, making our way up the street we landed on.
Suddenly the crack of rifles and machine guns broke the silence. "Get behind cover!" shouted someone.
"Check your six," came another voice. 
"Insurgents on the balcony above," I called. At this point, I was running on pure instinct, the HUD of my nanosuit highlighting enemies so I could take them down easier. 
The shooting was all over in a moment.  Silence, that's my least favorite part of a firefight. I didn't know whether we would be ambushed again or if we could move on. 
Something hit my foot. "FUCK! FRAG! HIT THE DECK!" I flipped the grenade out the window and ran for cover. It exploded, but more were thrown in through another window.
"FUCK SARGE, WE NEED TO MOVE! THEY’RE TRYING TO FLUSH US OUT!" 
"AGREED! FIRETEAM CHARLIE MOVE OUT!" Five marines from Charlie ran from the building with my fireteam, X-Ray, providing cover fire. They were mowed down in seconds.
"FUCK NO!” They can't be dead, I thought. They can't. We've been through so much together.
“GODDAMN, THOSE WERE MY FRIENDS! YOU'LL FUCKING PAY FOR THIS YOU BASTARDS!" I screamed at the sky.
"Eld, pull yourself together. They knew what they were getting into and so did you. Now are you gonna sit here and cry over them or are you gonna help me and the rest of X-ray kill our target so fireteam Charlie didn't die in vain?" Moore looked on the verge of breaking down. We charged taking down the rest of the Chinese soldiers outside.

*Outside of safehouse*
"All right everyone breach and clear. Leave no one alive, they have control of a WMD." Moore explained 
"They have one in there or just controls to launch one?" I asked 
"The latter." He replied. We set a blasting charge on the wall and waited.  It detonated and everyone dashed in. I went last. 
"What the fuck? Where the hell is it?" I asked.
"Eld come take a look at this." I went over to where the voice came from. "It's a timer FOR A NUKE! WE ONLY HAVE A FEW SECONDS!" 
"Relax they wouldn't nuke their own country," Redding said.  
Ironically, at that moment the timer hit zero. 
"They did. They nuked themselves," someone said. I was instantly knocked off my feet I didn't hit a wall like I was expecting I felt myself falling for what seemed like an eternity before I hit ground.
"OOMF,” was the only thing I could say as the wind was knocked out of me. I groaned and rolled over, feeling for my carbine which wasn't there. I heard a gasp and I looked up expecting a U.S soldier but what I saw was a white alicorn with a crown staring down on me.  I only knew what I was looking at from mythology lessons that I took in school.
I said "Oh no,” as realization dawned on me. “Oh no no fuck they died! The nuke went off, I'm in magic fucking ponyland and they all died!" Tears dripped off my face and onto the floor but I wasn't crying full on because I was in the presence of an Alicorn.