Chapter Eleven: Affairs Of Darkness- Part II
"INCOMING!"
Mike Kaiser swung his Black Hawk sharply to the left, avoiding a flare propelled spear-bomb by inches.
He put his radio to his mouth.
...... "So much for covert! We need back up now! It's like they knew we were coming!"......
......."Roger bravo. You have support incoming! Hold on!"......
An arrow-flare passed through the glass of the cockpit and embedded itself in the co-pilots helmet.
He slumped in his seat.
Mike looked over his shoulder to the downed man.
"Help might not come fast enough." he mumbled.
******************
"Come on, Dash!" came the impatient order from a human pilot.
A cyan-blue and black pegasus desperately hoofed her way through here greatest challenge yet, water. The others had made it to the dark beaches of the island by now, and the multi-chromatic pegasus had straggled behind.
Lenard began to sweat as a circle of light produced by the search towers drew ever closer to the struggling pegasus. "You've got to move, now Dash!" Lenard urgently whispered.
The light grew closer.
"Hurry up, RD!" Applejack whined.
This light was almost there...
With an annoyed groan, Lenard threw himself into the water, taking Rainbow Dash by surprise. He pulled the panicked pegasus under the water, as far as he could, just a the light passed over. The two then surfaced, and slowly swam to the shadowed section of the shore line, where their friends were waiting.
It took all Rainbow Dash had to keep from yelling at the top of her water logged lungs.
"You almost drowned me, you idio-" she half yelled, half coughed.
Lenard put a five fingered hand over the pegasus' muzzle.
"What I did, was save your life." the pilot quietly answered. "Though I don't know why, you were just asking to be killed, stowing away with us in these conditions-"
Steven motioned for the two to be quiet.
"Listen sir," The Sergent quietly began."I know you technically out rank me, but with all due respect, this team is a menagerie of civilians and pilots, untrained in this form of combat."
"And you want us to follow you, right?" Lenard quickly answered.
"Yes sir. I was a candidate for Force Reconnaissance before I volunteered to come to this place. I have the training, and I just think it would be smart to use it."
"Understood, Sergent. Something like this doesn't happen often. We will follow your lead. Just remember, I am still your C.O. right now. And If comes down to it, I will make the difficult decisions, understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Oh and Sergent, don't ever call me untrained again."
The Sergent smirked, but straightened up. "Yes sir, sorry about that one."
"So, wise one, now that that's out of the way, how do you suggest we breach without getting shot up by the guards up there?"
The soldier looked up a the walled fortress that lie in front of them, then looked back down.
"Anyone up for some sniper practice?"
******************
The battle east of Ponyville raged on into the night.
The sounds of battle filled the ears of all still alive to hear them.
A human soldier sprinted up to an injured earth pony, standing near a ledge.
"General Rock, the line is getting too close to the town! We've got to push back before we get civilian casualties!"
Rock shook his head.
"We're maxed out as it is! Can't the whirly birds offer any protection?"
"We sent two of them to assist bravo team with Canterlot operations!" the solder answered.
Rock shook his head. "Well, what about the last one?!"
The soldier craned his head upward."Here it comes now!"
An AH-64 Apache Helicopter roared over heard, firing a barrage of rockets into a nearby column of enemy battle wagons.
"Go get 'em boys!" a nearby soldier called out to the craft, as the men began to cheer.
A rocket-spear from one of the surviving wagons quickly put an end to their exuberance, as the projectile, true to its name, speared straight through the aircraft, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.
"HIT THE DECK, NOW!" General Rock called out to the troops as the massive swirling ball of fire and metal crashed down on them.
The dust settled, and the General and the solider emerged battered, but alive.
"Hoof over those binoculars, son." The General instructed.
The human found the object in question and handed it over.
Just ahead, an entire legion of rams and griffins were crossing the hill, with refresher units for the recently destroyed battle wagon battalion.
The General put the binoculars down, and gave the soldier a grim look.
"We have no choice now, We've got to fall back." Rock finally spoke.
"but sir-"
"No choice, send the order out."
The jittery human quickly nodded. "Yes sir." and ran off.
The General looked down at his personal cache of weapons. He strapped a large crossbow to a mounting on his back, and a hoof bow on his left foreleg. With a quick look back at the solders behind him, he shouted:
"Hold the line Stallions!"
Griffins and Rams poured into the countryside, trampling everything in their way. Rock and his men took cover behind any structure they could find as firebolts whizzed past, and spear rockets rained down from the sky.
Rock peeked around his cover long enough to sight his adversaries.
"Open fire!" he yelled. "Suppress them!"
Ponies of the Earth Infantry began to fire arrows at a magnificent pace in an attempt to force the approaching enemies to take cover. Human troops opened up with assault rifles, pistols and anything else they could get their hands on.
Refusing to be scared away, the griffins and rams surged onward, trying to get within a reasonable range, firing their weapons all the while.
Lethal fire zipped past, as an older looking mare lined up her JSL at a large rolling vehicle.
As best as she could tell, the battle wagon seated a small, five strong team of griffins, rams and the same small red dragons that she'd seen earlier. The vehicle was being pulled by two rams, each firing their own weapons via muzzle mounted triggers. On the craft itself, a large catapult was being armed by two circling griffins. They seemed to be loading a large object onto it.
"Mortar bombs." the mare mumbled.
She'd only get one shot at this.
The mare pulled the JSL off of her back, and lied down on her stomach, in favor of using her hooves in the more accurate stance.
She placed the wagon in the center of the cross-hairs, and with a click,
she bit the trigger.
With a low thumping twang, the arrow sped off towards its target so fast, the mare could barely keep track of it.
At about the time she figured the arrow would impact, the wagon burst into flames, and an explosion rung out over the area.
The dumb struck mare watched as the dust settled, and the smoldering wreckage of the battle wagon and it's operators remained motionless.
.
"Hmm, must have be one of the new models." she muttered, looking down at her launcher.
"Nice shot Wisp!" General Rock called down from behind his cover, as a flare exploded behind it.
"Look out!" The mare cried.
Rock looked up to see a griffin perched right above him on the rock he'd made his cover behind. The griffin threw down a spent flare launcher, apparently annoyed by its ineffectiveness, and charged down at Rock with a large knife in his beak. Rock jumped backward just fast enough to escaped being beheaded, but not fast enough to avoid the paw the griffin brought forthcoming. The punch was enough to send the veteran solder reeling, bludgeoning the already battered General's face. Fighting through the pain, Rock quickly got back to his hooves to dodge the griffin's next knife strike, annoying the griffin that much more.
Years of hoof-to-hoof combat lessons came back to the old soldier, as he realized he was too close to use his crossbows. Reacting as fast as he could, Rock drew a tactical knife from his chest pocket with his mouth, and clenched the blade in his teeth. The griffin, who was already in the midst of a kick, was too late to withdraw his clawed foot. Rock brought the knife down as quickly as he could, slashing the talon, and knocking the griffin back.
Now completely enraged, the griffin took to the sky circling around as fast as he could.
"I will not be beaten by a lowly earth pony!" the griffin shrieked through the knife in his mouth.
The winged warrior zoom dived down on the old solder, using his speed and his paws to propel the knife as quickly as he could down at the earthbound soldier. The knife, now traveling the same speed as the griffin that threw it, flew straight down toward pony's head.
Rock dashed forward, jumped into the air, dodged the knife, and latched onto the griffin's back. The utterly dumbfounded griffin stared back at the pony with a look of pure bewilderment, as the two intertwined soldiers flew through the air at high speed.
Rock smirked. "You know you've tangled with the wrong pony, right?"
The griffin didn't answer, so Rock hoof punched him in the back of the neck.
Just as the General was about to drop the killing blow with his knife, the griffin dived and rolled over. The pony's grip on blade faltered, and the knife fell away. Rock barely managed to grab onto one of the griffins legs, narrowly avoiding the same fate.
"We'll see how strong you earth ponies really are!" The griffin yelled down. He repeatedly kicked at the earth pony with his uninjured leg, landing a few hits, but missing most as the pony deftly dodged the griffin's attacks.
"Your going to have to try harder than that!" the earth pony pony jeered.
"Release me!" the griffin yelled as he swung around wildly, doing anything to rid himself of the tenacious earth pony.
The two barrel rolled, dived, juked, and spun through the air, as the griffin became more and more frantic. Heads turned down on the ground as the two soldiers dueled above.
In one last desperate move, the griffin tried bucking the pony off of him. Shaken loose, Rock barely held on as the griffin rolled into a flip. As he leveled out, Rock got his first look at the ground below him.
They were several yards from the ground. Possibly too high to survive a fall. In the distance, the growing "Liberation Alliance" army was much bigger than anypony had expected. The earth pony's pupils grew small as the approaching army seemed to be tearing through the all of the resistance he'd set up.
The pony stifled a yell and threw a hoof upward, connecting with the griffin's stomach. The griffin lurched. Rock saw his chance. Climbing up with all the strength he had, the earth pony flung himself onto the griffin's back.
"Who says earth ponies can't fly!" he called out, flailing like the greatest of cowponies on a raging bull.
The pony's expression changed to horror as the griffin dove toward alliance forces.
Rock dug into one of the many pouches in his uniform. "If you want to get rid of me that badly, I'll see myself out!"
The griffin turned his head around, clearly confused. Rock shoved a hoof into the griffins beak, forcing him downward, out of the sky. As the two soldiers plummeted through the air, Rock pulled his hoof out, but left a small metallic apple like object in the griffin's beak.
Rock hurled himself off of the griffin, smiling through a metal pin clutched in his teeth. The confused and choking griffin grasped his beak, trying to force out the offending object as he too, rushed toward the ground.
The earth pony general slammed into the ground next to a large boulder. The thrashing griffin landed on the other side of it.
There was a loud explosion.
General Rock groggily looked to his left and right. "I'll have to thank that human later for that special present." he mumbled under his breath.
He turned his head to the boulder that had acted as his shield. Etched into the side of it, was the name "Tom."
The battered earth pony chuckled.
"Well, thank you Tom."
A snow white, uniformed mare with a light blue mane galloped up to him and put her hooves around his head. Several human and pony soldiers followed behind.
"You okay Rumbly?" the mare asked with an extremely worried look.
Rock could have sworn he'd seen a tear in the hardened mare's eyes.
"I've had worse, Snow." Rock coughed. "But I'd be lying, *Cough* -I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hurting right now."
"Don't worry, we're going to get you out of here." General Snow Wisp turned to the soldiers. "Take him to the infirmary." she ordered.
On of the ponies noticed that one of the earth pony's hooves had bandaging taped to it. His eyes went wide. This was the same pony that had been shot in the hoof, just hours before. The solider noticed the scars the pony had on his chest that had barely begun to heal, and the black eye he still wore.
"Unbelievable." the soldier mumbled under his breath.
The solders used a wooden plank as a makeshift stretcher and laid the stallion on top of it. Just before they lifted it, Rock noticed a shiny metal object on the ground. It as a knife with a swooping griffin etched onto the blade, stuck into the ground just a few feet away.
The earth pony closed his eyes.
"A worthy opponent." he mumbled.
Two soldiers lifted the stretcher. General Snow Wisp trotted alongside the wounded soldier and planted a short peck on his forehead. The soldier opened one of his eyes, flashed a slight smirk, and finally allowed unconsciousness to drape over him. As they carried him of towards the town, Snow Wisp reloaded her crossbows.
The snow white earth pony turned around to face her troops. Noticing the strange looks the soldiers gave her, she snapped back into soldier mode.
"What are you looking at?! Let's move!" The solders saluted and ran back into the fray, leaving the earth mare alone.
She looked back toward the town and sighed.
"Looks like Rumbly Rock is finally out of the fight."
*******************
Applejack and Pinkie Pie boosted Sergent Mace and Corporal Star Sabre into a tree.
"Thanks girls. Alright Star. My rifle is suppressed, but it's still loud enough to attract attention, so you're up first. Try to take out the soldiers that aren't standing in plain view of the others first. How many arrows do you have?"
"Twenty-three. But they'll be on us by the time I get through half of them!"
"Then take out the griffins first." Lime Tree quietly suggested from below, as he ran off towards cover.
"I agree." Mace answered.
"Applejack." Star Sabre called down.
"Yep?" the mare consciously asked.
"Tell the others they might be about to have incoming."
The blond pony nodded. "Ah'm on it!"
"Okay, we'll have to wait until they all land." Mace instructed.
"Understood. You know, this is the first time I've actually been in combat." The Corporal mentioned.
"Really?" Mace spoke in a worried tone.
"Yeah, the last "war" ended when I was two. A bunch of traitors called "The Banded" wreaked havoc all over Equestria." Sabre explained.
"Why? I mean, what did they want?" Mace wondered.
"Total anarchy. They wanted to erase the government, and everypony in it. At first it was just riots, then they turned into violent protest, then outright attack. Pretty soon, the army was sent all over the place to uproot them all. They were based in Hoofston, where I grew up. That's why I joined up. Because some believe that they're still out their plotting their revenge."
"Sounds familiar." Mace commented."I got back from a tour in Iraq two years ago. Funny, the war ends in one world, and starts up in another." The human mused to himself.
"What's an "I rack"?" the Pony wondered.
"Long story." Mace stared into space. "If we survive, I'll tell you all about it. By the way, your targets are settling down over there."
"Time to clock in then." the stallion chuckled to himself.
The last griffin landed and began to walk toward the entrance. Sabre lined the griffin up just behind the cross-hairs of his scope to account for lead, and let loose an arrow.
With a muffled thump, the griffin collapsed.
"That's one." Star whispered.
"No one saw 'em, keep going." Mace confirmed.
With another muffled thump from the crossbow, another griffin fell, his comrades still completely unaware.
"There's one coming up to the wall now, take him out."
Whump!
"Good one."
Thump!
"That's four- uh oh!"
A griffin rounded a corner and stumbled upon the downed body of a comrade. He quickly looked around, spotting his attacker with the keen vision griffins had become known for.
Sabre went wide eyed."Clop! We're made! Duck!"
A firebolt splintered right through the trunk of the tree they'd made their stand in.
"Take him out before he triggers an alarm!" Sabre yelled to mace.
Steven Mace positioned his sniper rifle. "You don't have to tell me twice."
There was a dull crack, and the griffin fell right next to the other.
"That's five." Sabre nodded.
"Time to go.." Mace instructed, and the two soldiers hoped out of the tree into the waiting arms of the two earth ponies.
"That was mighty fine shootin' you two." Applejack drawled.
"Wait, that didn't disturb you or anything?" Star Sabre asked.
Applejack and Pinkie Pie looked at each other solemnly. For a second, Pinkie's mane seemed to droop.
"We were there when the fightin' started back in Ponyville. It wern't pretty." Applejack explained.
Pinkie nodded, then perked up. "This just means a bigger party when this all ends." She spoke without yelling for once.
"I say we clobber every last one of them!" Rainbow dash yelled out before getting a hoof shoved in her mouth from the orange cowpony.
"Quiet Dash! We're not out of th' woods yet!" Pinkie snickered.
"Actually, we are." the pink pony giggled.
Applejack glared, and Pinkie Pie's laughter ceased.
..."Nice work.".... Lenard's voice cracked over the radio. ...."If you timed that right, the other seven won't come around until you're right on top of them.".....
"Cap, are you ready?" Mace quietly spoke back through his radio.
...."We're in position, standing by.".... came the answer.
********************
On the other sided of the compound, a ram meandered along on the outer wall of the previously fictitious prison. As he boredly made his rounds, a glint in the forest caught his attention. He stared at the spot he'd seen the glare for several seconds.
"Probably a glowerfly." he mumbled.
As he continued his rounds, a pandragon mount landed nearby. The aerialist climbed down from the beast and tied it to a nearby post. The small, red, pterodactyl like creature walked toward the building, its slitted eyes creased with boredom.
The creature gave a gesture of greeting as it made its way into the compound. The ram nodded back, then continued his walk until a faint cracking sound stole his attention. Now curious, the ram put his trigger yoke in his mouth and consciously moved toward the edge of the forest.
The ram stopped as he noticed a strange looking item on the forest floor. It was flat, metallic and shaped like a "U"
Behind the ram, a green earth pony clumsily fell out of a tree. The ram turned around just fast enough to watch two green hooves fly toward his face. One of them was wearing a horseshoe.
A human dropped from another tree and quickly pulled the now unconscious ram into the surrounding foliage.
"Sheesh Lime! I don't think he's getting up anytime soon." Lenard spoke in a hushed tone, as he hid the ram in the bushes. "Though you might not want to drop this." He handed a horse shoe to the stallion.
The pony snatched it and used his forelegs to put the shoe back on.
"Hey! You! Stop!" a voice called out behind them.
Lime Tree and Lenard slowly turned around.
Before them, stood an angry ram with the same belt-fed firebolt gun that had been seen earlier in the east invasion. The ram pointed the weapon at the two and clenched his jaw around the trigger.
Clink! Clink! Clink!
The ram looked down at his chest, sunk to his fore-knees, and face planted.
Lime Tree and Lenard slowly turned around again. High up in the forest canopy, Gerri Reed held a smoking suppressed M9 pistol.
"Come on guys, back in the tree before you get caught." Gerry called down from above.
The two eagerly obliged. After Lime Tree hid the Ram, and Lenard hoisted Lime Tree back into the tree, the low volume speaker of Lenard's radio spoke up.
...."How are guys doing over there."....
...."Alright, we're clear. How you guys doing over there?".....
...."All griffins down, repeat, all griffins down. What about the rams?"....
...."Neutralized. We took out two right before we called.".....
....."Then the dragon is all that left, keep a look out for the dragon or its pilot."....
...."Will do, out"....
"Alright, lets find that dra-" Lenard paused as he noticed Lime Tree's pale expression. The pony pointed behind him.
Just a few yards away, a sleeping red mass snored, oddly quiet.
Lenard turned around in the tree. "Whoa ho! Good thing I didn't scream."
*****************
The battle line moved ever so close to the out skirts of Ponyville.
A unicorn slowly opened her eyes. She found herself on a hospital bed being pushed by several lab coated ponies and humans. A nurse pony noticed the unicorn coming to, and galloped up to her.
"Miss? Miss, can you hear me?" the nurse questioned.
The unicorn fluttered awake and turned her head toward the nurse.
"How- whats going on? the unicorn weakly spoke. Even with those few words, the nurse could pick out the unicorns noble-like accent.
"I'm Nurse Redheart and you're in the hospital, well at least right now, were moving you out at the moment."
"What?" the unicorn answered. "why am I- How did i- what?"
Another hospital bed was pushed next to her's. "It's okay Rarity, they're moving us to safety! Calm down!" the patient in the other bed explained.
"Twilight? Safety from what?" the unicorn answered.
Twilight spoke up. "We're both a bit, uhh, under the weather and-"
A mortar impacted nearby causing all the lights in the hall to wobble and flicker.
The other patient looked flabbergasted. "No time to explain now, Rarity! Just stay calm. We're getting out of here!"
Rarity tried to sit up in her bed, but a massive migraine sat her back down.
A butter-yellow pegasus trotted along side the hospital beds.
"I got the medicine." she quietly mumbled. "Oh, Rarity! You're awake!"
The Violet maned pegasus clutched her head in pain.
"Sorry, too loud?" the pegasus spoke almost inaudibly.
"Fluttershy? You wouldn't happen to have any pain killers, would you?" Rarity asked.
The butter pegasus nodded and pulled a bottle out of a saddlebag with her mouth.
Rarity focused on the bottle, willing it to move toward her.
Nothing happened.
Twilight looked over to Rarity, confused at first, then quickly realized what the unicorn was trying to do. "That's not going to work right now, Rarity. Magic seems to be... out of order."
"Just give me the bottle!" Rarity yelled.
Fluttershy "eeped" and timidly tossed the bottle to the angry unicorn.
Rarity awkwardly fumbled with the bottle with her hooves, unused to opening anything without magic. She downed two pills and turned to her friends, who were now giving her very strange looks.
"Anypony want to to tell me what's going on?" She finally asked.
The sounds of another mortar impacting the ground rattled the halls.
Twilight quickly looked in every direction.
"Twilight? What was that? Seriously! Tell me!" By now, everypony in the ward was giving Rarity strange looks.
Fluttershy turned to Twilight with those signature pleading eyes of her's. Twilight turned to Rarity, bearing a defeated expression. The lavender unicorn's only answer was,
"Their trying to take Ponyville! We have to get out, NOW!"