Blackburn shook his head. He had been in some strange situations before, but this topped them all. Looking around, he saw that Captain Edson was right; they certainly weren't in Germany anymore. The trees that had lined the road before had vanished. The fields that surrounded the road were dotted with blue bonnet flowers, or at least thats what they looked like to Blackburn. Up ahead, a few trucks down, a signpost now stood on the right hand (or hoof) side of the road with two signs nailed to it. One sign that pointed down the road of continuous trucks read Canterlot 50 KM. The other sign pointed down a road that jutted straight out from the side of the main road and read Ponyville 5 KM.
Blackburn raised an eyebrow when he read the names. Ponyville? Canterlot? Those weren't any town names he had heard of before, nor did they sound German.
"I see you took notice of the signs as well gunnery sergeant." Edson said, pointing with his hoof.
Blackburn could only nod.
Edson in turn chuckled to himself at his gunnery sergeants confusion. Blackburn usually had an answer to every problem they had encountered, and to see him speechless for the first time in his military career, was quite amusing.
"Well as you can see" he continued, "that is the only clue as to where we are. The only other landmark I can see is that mountain range over there." He pointed a group of white capped mountains that the Canterlot road led to.
"Yes sir, but what should we do now?" Blackburn asked.
"Well gunnery sergeant, as you can see, it appears that our entire column has ended up here with us." Edson said gesturing to the line of marine corps trucks, "So I am going to go and see if I can find Colonel Parker or Major Leroy. In the meantime, see to your squad. I'll be back shortly."
"Yes sir." Blackburn replied. Then, as if by instinct, he brought his right fore hoof up to his head in a salute. He almost stumbled when he realized it must've looked. But if the captain thought so, he didn't show it, as he mimicked Blackburn in returning the salute. After doing so, Captain Edson then turned around and headed towards the rear of the 5th marines column.
Blackburn lowered his hoof from his head and, recalling the captain's orders, turned towards his own truck. Trotting around the back of the truck, he found a group of twelve other ponies dressed in forest green uniforms, standing around each other taking in their new forms.
"First squad!" Blackburn shouted as he approached the group of confused stallions. "Form a school circle in front of me!"
In a flash, all confusion was replaced by the instincts of each marine to obey the order of a senior. Soon, they had all formed a semi circle in front of the gunnery sergeant.
"Alright now listen up!" Blackburn addressed his squad. "As you all may have noticed by now, these has been a slight change in plans. So right now, lets at least make sure everyone is here, so sound off when you hear your name called, alright!?"
"Aye aye gunny!" the marines all replied in unison.
Blackburn cleared his throat, and began his roll call.
"Corporal Buckman?"
"Here gunny."
A stallion with a light brown coat and shaggy black mane and tail stepped up from the line. Clutched in his right hoof was a Browning Automatic Rifle and a light black mustache adorned his muzzle. Yep, Blackburn thought, that's Buckman alright. He nodded and continued.
"HM Hawkins?"
"Here gunny."
Now a light grey stallion stepped forward. His mane was also black, but it had a few streaks of shale grey running in it. Blackburn noticed that this pony had what appeared to be a horn that was sticking out through a hole in his helmet. Blackburn already knew it was Doc Hawkins because the same large glasses rested on his snout.
"Private O'Brien?" Blackburn continued.
"Here Gunny." piped up a grey-white pony with a wavy red mane and tail, and freckles that adorned his cheeks.
Blackburn continued on down the list until all twelve men, or stallions now, were all accounted for. Again, Blackburn was perplexed that some of them had wings and some of them had horns like Doc. Any further thoughts on this were cut short however when Blackburn heard his name being called. Turning around he saw Captain Edson and another dark grey pony dressed in another officers uniform except he had eagles on his collar.
"Colonel Parker sir!" Blackburn once again brought his right hoof up to a salute, The pony version of Colonel Parker returned it.
"At ease gunnery sergeant."
"Yes sir."
"Gunnery sergeant," Captain Edson spoke up, "Colonel Parker has informed me that not only has the entire 5th marines undergone the same transformation as us, but it also appears that the the 6th marines are in the same boat."
Blackburn was stunned. How could over 4000 men suddenly turn into ponies?
Edson continued. "It also appears that our colleagues from the army have joined us in this little situation as well."
Blackburn turned to look back towards the army trucks and sure enough, he could see ponies clad in US army brown uniforms staring at their new bodies and officers trying to sort out the situation. "It would seem so sir." He chuckled.
Edson however didn't look amused. "This is serious gunnery sergeant!" He said sternly, "We have no idea where we are right now or why we now look like this!"
Blackburn immediately stopped laughing. "Sorry sir. What's the plan now sirs?"
Colonel Parker cleared his throat. "Well gunnery sergeant." he said, "We are gathering up all the unit commanders so we can discuss our next move."
Captain Edson picked up when Parker paused. "You however are going to take your squad on a patrol down the road that the sign that says 'Ponyville' points down." He gestured towards the signpost. "Specifically, we want you to find that town and see if you can find out anything from the locals."
"Aye aye sir." Blackburn replied. "We'll take care of it."
"Try not to get into any brawls gunnery sergeant." Captain Edson added. "We don't know if the local population will be hostile or not. We don't want to provoke a confrontation."
"Aye aye sir." Blackburn said. And with that, he turned back towards his squads truck to gather them up.
"Listen up 1st squad!" He bellowed. "We got our orders from the skipper!"
"What's goin' on gunny?" Buckman asked, slinging his B.A.R. around his neck.
"All unit commanders are trying to sort all this out. We are going to lend a hand by doing a little reconnaissance. We are going on a patrol down that road over there and see if we can't come across this 'Ponyville' or any of the locals."
"What do we do if we find one or the other or both gunny?" O'Brien piped up as he adjusted his webbing.
"You just leave that up to me O'Brien." Blackburn replied. "As for order of march, I'll take the right side with Kent, Doc, Sampson, Allan, Cross and Jergins. Corporal Buckman will take the left with Phillips, Antoni, Rogers, Porter and Wilson. Let's get going okay?"
"Aye aye gunny."
And with that, the patrol set off toward the unknown.
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Meanwhile in the town of Ponyville, Miss Cheerilee's class was just being let out for the weekend. As the bell rang, dozens of fillies and colts ran out of the schoolhouse to begin the beloved journey home.
As the crowd of children dispersed, a trio of fillies lagged behind as they discussed their plans for the weekend.
"How about we try and get our cutie marks in gardening?" Sweetie Belle suggested as she wrote up a list of potential cutie marks.
"Ah like that idea." Applebloom chimed.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Um hello? Spring isn't for another two months. And besides, it sounds soooo boring!"
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle only shrugged and just wrote gardening down on the list as a possibility.
"Well, what do you suggest we do then?" Sweetie Belle challenged.
"Scootaloo put her hoof to her chin as she searched for an idea. After much pondering, she had one, and she knew she had to write it down because it was too complicated to remember in her head.
"Let me see the list!" she said excitedly.
Slightly concerned, as Scootaloo's ideas tended to land them in puddles of mud and covered in tree sap, Sweetie Belle passed the list to her pegasus friend. Unfortunately, at that very moment, a gust of wind came along and snatched it right out of their hooves.
"Oh no! Don't let it get away!" Sweetie Belle cried.
In a flash, the trio of fillies began chasing the list as the wind carried it further away. As they did so, they failed to notice that it was leading them into the highly feared Everfree Forest.