//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: The Battle Of Ponyville // Story: The Night Of Days // by Poodicus //------------------------------// Chapter 4: The Battle Of Ponyville         “Hey Cap’n.” Henderson called out to Capps, who was on the verge of sleeping, as he hadn’t had any for the past 24 hours. “Perhaps you should get some sleep Cap’n, we’ll keep watch.” “I can’t do that Henderson, who knows when the Krauts are going to come. I have to be ready for them.” Capps answered as he yawned shortly afterwards. It was about late evening in Ponyville, the last chariot to Canterlot having left hours ago. The only beings in Ponyville now were the men of the 101st Airborne. “You’ll be ready alright, ready to be killed. You’ll be useless to us if you can’t keep your eyes open. Come on, go to bed, we’ll stay up and keep watch of anything. If the Krauts do decide to come, we’ll come get you.” Capps sighed and nodded. “Fine, you do that…. Thanks Henderson.” “No problem Cap’n.” Capps nodded once more and got up from watching the outside through the window of the two story building he was in. He went outside and began to walk back to a house that wasn’t too far away where some of the men that hadn’t rest before were resting. However, Capps never made it to the house as he noticed something out the corner of his eye. Ponies. “What the…?” He questioned as he rubbed his eyes, unsure if he really did see the ponies or not. After he got done rubbing, he looked once more, and indeed, the ponies were there, or at least one, actually getting closer to him. He noticed that it was the one he had talked to earlier, Twilight. As she and the ponies behind her got closer to him, she smiled at him and waved. “Hello Capps, it’s-“ But was cut off by an angry Capps. “What the hell are you doing here?” He asked as he crouched down in front of her. “What? I don’t-“ “Don’t you know you’re in massive danger?” Capps nearly screamed at her. Twilight put a look of defiance and answered. “Yes, I do, but I’m staying here because I wish to protect the home that I’ve built here and protect the homes of all my friends. Besides, I’ve faced danger before!” Capps sighed and began to rub his eyes using his thumb and index finger. “Look, I don’t know what type of danger you’ve been in-“ “Oh, just fighting off dragons, a hydra, even a powerful god of chaos named Discord.” “Discord, huh? What did he do?” Capps asked, slightly impressed, but still tried to stand firm. “He turned the clouds in cotton candy and made them pour chocolate rain, and other stuff that was similar.” Capps sighed again. “So you’ve never been in any danger like this…. Listen, you need to leave Ponyville right now. I promise we’ll protect your homes.” “And I said no.” Twilight answered him. “I can handle myself!” “No, you can’t. The danger that’s coming here is danger you’ve never faced before. I’ve been lucky to have made it this far already!” Twilight looked down in defeat. She knew there was no point in arguing with him if he wouldn’t even budge so far. She then looked up at him with her defiant face once more. “Let me stay. If it becomes too much for me, I’ll teleport myself away to Canterlot.” “No, I-“ But Capps was cut off as the two heard machine gun fire go off. They both looked in the direction that the sound was coming from and Capps whispered. “Fuck, they’re here.” He quickly looked at Twilight and quickly spoke. “Fine, you can stay, but stay close to me and stay low.” Twilight looked at Capps and smirked while nodding. Capps nodded back and began to run back with Twilight right behind him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         The two had gotten to the upstairs of the building where the others were. Henderson had quickly turned his attention away from the tree line of the forest and turned to the steps, not sure if a German had gotten through, but was relieved to see it was Capps. “Cap’n! Good to-“ But he stopped as he saw Twlight. “What the hell is that doing here?” “Hey! I’m a mare!” Capps sighed and got close to the window as he crouched down against the wall. “She defied orders and decided to stay behind.” He answered. He then looked at Twilight and pointed to the wall opposite of him. “Stay over there, and don’t move.” She nodded and did as she was ordered. Capps then turned his attention to Henderson, who was firing his Thompson sub-machine gun out of the window some before taking cover once more. “How many?” “Hard to tell, but there’s a lot.” Henderson asked before popping his head out of the window again to fire, only to quickly retract it as a bullet flew by his head. “Fuck!” Capps popped his head into the window, quickly spotted a few targets, and began to fire at them using his own gun, hitting all three, before taking cover again. He used the corner of his eye to see that the Germans were rounding to the right, where there was less fire, and knew he had to do something. “Shit.” Capps quietly said as he began to look around to see if he could somehow cut the Germans off. Capps got off the ground and began to go into the hallway when Henderson called out to him. “Where are you going?” “They’re rounding to the right! I’m going to try to cut them off!” Capps answered as he ran down the hallway, seeing a window at the end of it. Outside the window, he could see the Germans that had made it passed the fire, and began to open fire himself at them, shattering the glass that was there. He was able to take down four more before they realized where the gunfire was coming from and opened fire themselves at Capps. He took cover and began to reload, waiting for the Germans to run out of ammo themselves and reload before popping out and firing. There was so much happening around Twilight, that she had no idea what was happening. For some reason, she had felt like that she was in danger, but she didn’t know why. Several minutes had passed since Capps had left the room and went down to the end of the hallway, while she stayed where she was told to stay. ‘There must be some way I can help.’ Twilight thought to herself. Twilight thought of an idea and ran to the window where Henderson was at. “What the hell are you doing?!” He asked as he continued to fire outside. “I want to help!” Twilight yelled over the sound of gunfire. “No way! You need to- Fuck!” Henderson yelled out as another bullet flew by his head again, this time closer than before. “You need to stay away! It’s too dangerous!” “I won’t leave!” Twilight yelled back. She then quickly poked her head outside and saw that there multiple men in grey, some using sticks and some using what looked like upside-down black U’s to fire something at them. She got the idea to use a stun spell on one of them, and fired it at the men in grey. It hit. The German fell to the ground, completely paralyzed, with the men around him confused. Henderson looked at Twilight with astonishment. “Can you keep doing that?” He asked her as he shot the paralyzed soldier. “I-I guess so!” Twilight answered, and shot off three more paralyzation spells at the Germans, hitting three more, who then got shot by Henderson, before having to take cover like him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         Back in the forest, Hauptmann Eisenberg was overseeing the battle as he watched his men storm out of the forest, a smile on his face as he thought that they were winning. Just then, a scout had come back to report on the battle, saluting him as he came up. “Herr Hauptmann, the battle in the south is going according to plan.” Eisenberg smiled and nodded. “And in the north?” “We don’t know how Hauptmann, but for some reason our men are getting stuck as something is striking them and paralyzing them, causing them to be easy targets.” “What?!” The Hauptmann yelled out as anger overtook his face. “How?!” “W-We don’t know sir! All we know is that one of the Americans are using some sort of weapon to paralyze us and taking cover in a house to-“ “Then tear it down! Use everything you can find to destroy that cover and kill that American!” “Yes sir!” The scout replied as he saluted once more and ran off to tell the soldiers. “Morons.” Hauptmann Eisenberg said under his breath as he continued to watch the remaining men pour out of the forest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         Back the house, Henderson began to curse. “Shit! I’m running out!” He called out to the others nearby. “Same!” One of the soldier nearby called out as well. “Shit! Danny!” Capps called out as he had gotten back in the same room minutes earlier. Danny replied from the stairs. “Yes sir?!” “You’re gonna need to make a run for some more ammo! We’ll hold them off for as long as possible!” “Yes sir!” Danny called out, and went down the stairs, where he started to run off to the town hall, where the ammo was stored. Capps turned to Twilight and could see she was getting exhausted from using so much magic. “How are you holding up?” He asked her over the sound of gunfire. “I-I’m doing fine.” Twilight replied. “I’ll be able to con-“ “Panzerfaust!” Henderson yelled out before grabbing Capps and throwing him to the ground, on top of Twilight, before covering his own head. Soon after doing so, the wall that was covering them had exploded, making them completely visible to the Germans after the dust had subsided. “Move!” Capps yelled out as he picked Twilight up and ran down the stairs of the house, Henderson right behind him, avoiding another shot from the Germans as the wall next to him exploded as well. The three began to run back to the second line, made out sandbags and a trench. They looked around and had seen that it wasn’t just them that were retreating as others from the houses around them were retreating as well. Even the men who were downstairs in the house were running back, one of them having the MG42 they were using on their back as the other carried the second belt. As they got into the trench, Twilight yelled. “What was that?!” “Panzerfaust!” Capps yelled back, while at the same time firing his last Thompson cartridge. “German anti-tank, very destructive and- Fuck! I’m out!” He turned to Henderson. “You got any extra?!” “Sorry sir! On my last one as well!” “God damnit!” Capps yelled as he pulled out his M1911 colt and began firing at the Germans, using his shots very wisely. “Where the hell is our mortar support?!” “No idea Cap’n!” Henderson replied. Capps looked over and saw one of his men get hit in the head. “Fuck! Don’t we have any god damn support?! Where’s the medics?!” Meanwhile, Twilight was shaking uncontrollably in the trenches, scared out of her mind. ‘Why did I stay?!’ She finally asked herself. Despite it though, she knew she had to continue helping them, as she did defy the order to retreat to Canterlot. She used her magic to this time put up a purple force shield in front of them. The men around her noticed this and looked at her after they saw that the bullets from the Germans were bouncing off the shield. “How long can you hold that up?!” Capps asked. “A-At l-least ten m-minutes!” Twilight strained to get out, doing her best to focus on the shield. “That’s good enough for me!” Henderson called out as he used the last of his Thompson before switching to his pistol. The Germans had noticed and understood what the purple shield was, and began to run around it, while at the same time trying their best to avoid the American fire. “MG team! Kill them! Don’t let them flank us!” Capps ordered. “We’re doing our best sir!” The MG team replied. Before Capps could reply though, he heard his name be called out. “Cap’n!” Capps looked behind him and saw that Danny had come back with as much as ammo as he could possibly carry, making a smile appear on Capps face. “Good job Danny! Right on time!” The men reloaded their weapons with the freshly brought ammo and began firing once more. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         Nearly an hour and half had passed since the battle had begun, and the men of the 101st Airborne had been pushed back to the final line, to the town hall, where they hid behind sandbags on the steps of the building. The ammo for the mortar had long since run out, the MG’s had been used up, everyone was near to out of ammo, and they had none left inside the building. It seemed to have been a lost cause. “I only got two clips left!” Capps yelled out as he continued to fire at the Germans. “Three here!” Danny yelled out as well. “I’m down to my last one!” Henderson replied. “Hey Unicorn, you got anymore magic left inside ya?!” Capps asked Twilight. “My… My name is Twilight, and no… I don’t have any more magic to us. I’ve used up all of it and I’m… I’m going have to rest up.” Twilight answered him as she panted from exhaustion. Another panzerfaust was shot and exploded near Capps. “Shit! How many more of those things do they have?!” Danny yelled out. *Click click* Capps gun had run out of ammo. ‘Fuck!’ He thought as he quickly scrambled to switch cartridges. After he was able to switch, he continued to fire, using his last ammo wisely, as he spoke. “Twilight!” Twilight looked up at Capps. “Yes?” “I’m sorry… I’m sorry for having you see this and being here!” Capps yelled out as he continued to gun down Germans. Twilight shook her head. “Don’t be!” She yelled back. “I chose to stay behind, you don’t have to apologize for anything!” Just then, Danny was hit in the head by a stray bullet. “Danny!” Capps yelled out as he saw his friend go down. “No!” It was too late though, as he hit ground, his lifeless body just laid there, doing nothing. “Fuck! Forgive me Danny!” Henderson called out as he reached down and began scavenging Danny’s dead body for any extra ammo. He found the last two clips. “Cap’n! Here!” Henderson yelled out as he threw Capps one of the two clips. Capps caught the clip and nodded at Henderson, before using the remaining ammo in his current clip on the Germans. All hope seemed to have been lost, when a miracle happened. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         Hauptmann Eisenberg had moved out of the forest, moving up into the town and watching his men continually charging to the town center. “Herr Hauptmann!” A scout saluted and spoke as he ran up to Eisenberg. “We’ve nearly taken the town Herr Hauptmann. We’ve been able to push the Americans back to the center of the town.” “Good, so it should be over soon then?” Eisenberg asked, and the scout nodded. “Ja, mein Hauptmann.” Eisenberg nodded in satisfaction and smiled. “Very good Gefretier, I’ll be sure to-“ But the Hauptmann was cut off as a large explosion could be heard in the background, an explosion that shouldn’t have been heard in this world, along with another sound that went along with the explosion. Tanks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         Capps, Henderson, and the soldiers around them began to cheer loudly as they saw giant machines painted green and white star on their sides rolling into town, a .50 caliber machine gun on top being fired at the Germans. “What the hell are Shermans doing here?!” Capps yelled out. “Who cares!” Henderson replied. “Go you beautiful babies go!” He yelled as he watched the tanks drive by. The M4 Shermans began to shred the Germans apart as they retreated, following them through the town towards the forest edge. One of the Shermans rolled up in front of the town hall and stopped, its hatch opening up after it did so to reveal a smiling American. “Heard you boys were having quite a problem here.” “I don’t care how, but I’m glad you beauties decided to show up for the party!” Henderson replied while smiling. “What are those things?!” Twilight had to yell over the roar of the Sherman engines. “Friends!” Capps replied to her as he watched the Shermans continue to drive off and chase after the Germans. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         “Where are you going cowards?!” Hauptmann yelled after his men as they retreated, hoping to escape into the forest. “Come back here and fight!” But his orders fell on deaf ears. Soon afterwards, he was captured by the Americans. The first of the Germans to have retreated had saw the forest line, thinking he was home free, only to be shocked and disappointed as a force shield, very much like the one from earlier, had cut them off from the forest, entrapping them in the town. Unicorns were on the other side, all looking the same with white coats and golden armor, inside the forest, casting their most powerful magic to keep the shield up. The Germans began to panic as they had no way to get out of town, banging on the force shield trying to break it using the butt of their guns, but to no avail. Soon afterwards, the Shermans and reinforcement infantry had caught up with the retreating Germans and captured them. The Germans complied and put their hands behind their heads after setting their weapons on the ground, and were escorted back to the center of town. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~         Back in the center of town, Capps had recognized a certain horse come flying down to the men who were still in the town hall. He recognized her as Princess Celestia. “Did you do this?” He asked as she landed, and she nodded. “Shortly before the attack, I had sensed a presence I thought was gone for good, but it seems I was wrong. Luckily for me though, the being I speak of was heavily wounded, and could barely keep itself awake despite all the blood it had lost. Because I know that type of horrible things that being is capable of, I simply ‘asked’ it if it knew anything about why you and your enemies are here, and it told me that it brought them here in hopes of using them to conquering the world. It seems things didn’t turn out as planned for that being and was almost killed by your enemies.” Capps smirked a bit. “Well I guess that explains why we got here in the first place, but what about-“ But Capps stopped as Celestia put her hoof up. “I was just getting to that my good soldier. I had convinced the being to tell me how they brought you here, and they were kind enough to tell me. I used that same spell to retrieve some of your comrades here and tell them the situation. They gladly accepted and it seems we were able to get here before my dear student could be harmed.” She said as she looked over to Twilight. “By the way Twilight…” Celestia said her name in a harsh tone. “It seems you have defied specific orders that I gave the town.” Twilight looked down, ashamed. “I’m sorry Princess, but I just-“ “What would have happened if you had gotten hurt? What would I have told your mother and father? What about your brother?” Before Celestia could continue anymore, Capps stepped in front of Twilight. “I know this isn’t any of my business Princess, but I owe my life to Twilight.” Celestia raised an eyebrow as she looked at Capps. “Oh? How so?” “If it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t have been able to hold on for as long as we did. It was because of her that we were able to retreat with safety as she used her magic to put up her shields to protect us from the gunfire.” Twilight had stepped around Capps, but still hid behind him a little bit as Celestia continued to look at Capps, before turning her gaze to Twilight. “Is this true Twilight?” Twilight nodded. Celestia sighed and continued. “I suppose if that’s the case… I suppose that there is no harm done then.” “Says you.” Henderson commented under his breath. Again, Celestia sighed. “Yes, war is a horrible thing, and there are lives that will be lost in the midst of battle, but remember this. Just because they quite possibly gone now, doesn’t mean you should forget the memories of the times you had with your friends.” She said as she smiled at the troops. “But enough about that, perhaps we should see what we must do first about our ‘friends’.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alright, end of Chapter 4. See ya next chapter.