Millennia: Beginning

by Thunderblast


37. Manehattan Liberation - Part III

Trembling and bawling his eyes out of their very sockets, Silver Edge clung tightly to the lifeless body of a uniformed yellow unicorn before the rest of us. Tears streamed down his cheeks and soaked the fur down, all the while hyperventilating as he squeezed the corpse to his chest. No amount of effort was put into attempting to fix Solar's terrible wounds and save his life. His body was far too damaged, and it was far too late for any of that.

I stood just to the left of Silver, my chin pointed down and helmet held over my chest with a hoof. Tears built up and squeezed between my shut eyelids, one finding its way off of my cheek and patting against the concrete floor at my hooves. On the outside I was just hardly able to hold back from a total breakdown. Not that it would have made me any less of a stallion either way it went. Loss was loss. If tears came, you may as well let them flow.

It was even harder, too. Me and Silver both knew Solar to be frail at the start. Frail, but willing to try. Scared, but brave. If it wasn't evident prior to this very moment, it couldn't have been any less now. Without his sudden, selfless act, Anchorage would have been dead. So would Silver and Circuit Breaker. Possibly myself and Nightpath included. There would have been no time to get away before detonation. That's why Solar did what he did.

All the while, behind the anguish of losing a good friend and a great soldier, my blood boiled. Fury filled my soul. Physically, I could feel my body beginning to tremble with the imminent rage. No, Star. Hold it in. Keep it contained. Don't take it out on your friends, I thought to myself. With a deep breath, nearly instantly I eased. This would not remain so for long. Now I longed to kill something. I needed to kill something.

I cracked my eyelids open, watching as Silver reluctantly laid Solar's remains carefully on the floor. He sniffled a couple, wiped at his eye with one hoof, and stepped back. At any moment I expected him to break down again. That wasn't the case. Instead the beige stallion turned to look away and shut his eyes. His cheeks were visibly marked from the tears he shed. Off to the side, I caught Night wiping one away, too. Among him was Anchorage and Circuit, although they stood still with their heads down respectively.

A couple of more long moments passed, before Anchorage raised his helmet back to his head and clicked the strap into place under his chin. "That's enough of that..." he spoke quietly, in a rather somber tone.

"What about h-his body—" Silver paused to sniff deeply. "—Anchorage?"

The grayish-white pegasus stared down towards Solar, his ears falling slightly. "We will come back for him. H-he will get the funeral he deserves." Anchorage then turned tail to face the four of us. "But for now, we have a mission to complete."

"Is that all you care about?" Nightpath muttered under his breath.

Unfortunately for him, it was audible enough for us all to hear.

"Is what all I care about?" Anchorage shot Night a look of question.

"Nothing, sir."

Anchorage took a couple of slow steps toward the brown stallion. "No, it wasn't nothing. What did you say?"

"He said, 'is that all you care about?'," Silver repeated for him. "He's... questioning if you even acknowledge what just happened."

Night shot a quick glare at the unicorn, his gaze shifting back to Anchorage who was beginning to form one of his own.

"If I didn't care about our comrade, I would have walked away without any respect. Did I do that? No, I didn't. I care about Solar as much as you do, and it pains me that he's now gone. But aside from that, we do still have work to do. We have to make them pay for what they have done to us, to our city, and to Solar. The least we can do is f-finish this off. For Solar," Anchorage's voice was beginning to break while he spoke.

Night's ears drooped slightly, as did his head. He didn't say another word after that, and Anchorage was able to ease himself just enough to return his attention to the remainder of us.

"It's just a matter of time before the Marines reach Manehattan and we will not be the last line of defense these ponies have. Until then, we must do what we can, and efficiently," Anchorage paused, looking back at Solar's corpse. "Normally, a squadron would take ammunition off of fallen soldiers to partition off of, but that is disrespectful. Leave everything on him." He then gulped down hard and wiped at his eyes.

"Let Solar have one last fight, wherever he may be."

We nodded understandingly. The fight we had ahead of us, we knew, was for Solar. No remorse for the enemy. Not after what they have done now. We were all pissed.

"Now... Let's head out." Anchorage ordered with hesitation. He started out the doorway of the staircase and into the small lobby of the station. The others slowly followed, giving Solar's body one last look.

I walked behind Circuit, being the last one out. I stopped beside Solar's body and stared at it for a couple of moments. Briefly looking towards the others, I then knelt down to the body and reached into Solar's collar, yanking his dog tags from his neck and tucking them away in my uniform pocket. Next, I buttoned it up to keep them safe. I was not going to leave them.

Outside of the building stood Anchorage, peering either way down the street and trying to decide where to go next. Snow continued to gently fall from the grey skies above. Eerily enough, there was absolutely no breeze. It was as if it stopped the second we moved out to the street.

In an instant, the silence was broken by two far-off explosions. They must have still been close as the ground shook both times. It was a sure sign more troops were close.

Turning to face Circuit Breaker, Anchorage patted his shoulder. "Get yourself to safety. Take anypony you can find and get them out too. Don't come back until you know it's safe, aye?"

Circuit nodded. "Oorah. Stay safe. All of you." He said, tucking the pistol I handed him and galloping off.

The four of us watched Circuit run around the corner, after he did, more gunfire erupted further into the city. At that, Anchorage looked up at the sky. Time had passed a lot quicker than we thought, and the sun was beginning to set in the west. The pegasus moved his eyes back down, between me, Night, and Silver.

"Maybe it's time we find a place to hunker down for the evening," Anchorage suggested.

Between all of us, we were all equally exhausted, both mentally and physically. At least, I knew I was. I couldn't exactly speak for the other two.

"Hang on, hang on. You want us to stop now?" Silver stepped forward.

"Just for a few hours. Enough to eat and get some rest. We're long from being done here. And... I know you're all tired. It's been a long day..." Anchorage sighed softly.

Night and Silver exchanged looks for a few seconds, I nodded at Anchorage. The other two did so as well. With that, Anchorage started in the direction we came from in hopes of finding a warm place to rest. That was if any of us could rest.

Within a time frame of twenty minutes, or less, Nightpath found a sturdy brick building with a multistory basement in which the four of us could rest. The building belonged to a company, by the looks of the furniture and appliances inside, which handled in making clothing. As each of us split up to search for anypony else who might be hiding here, all each of us could find were more rooms of storage for dresses, sewing workshops, and design studios with different pony names on their doors. In the workshop, paper and other things lay scattered around as if everypony left in a hurry.

Aside from the mass amount of fancy dresses, no one else was occupying the place. Down in the basement was just more storage. Primarily crates and unopened boxes and equipment for moving them with ease. The basement wasn't nearly as messy as the other floors were when it came to things being tossed around carelessly as workers evacuated, although it was still very much clear that once the attacks started, the building was emptied in minutes.

Anchorage led us down to the second floor of the basement, the first having partially being above ground as it was a room where freight carriages loaded and unloaded. It was not particularly the best place to camp out, notably in the event the building was searched by enemy soldiers. I'd imagine that somehow, word of our presence was moving around between the squadrons.

After ensuring the doors were barricaded and there were no other means of entry, we took bits of unused cloth to make beds out of on the cold cement. They weren't the most comfortable things to lay on but it was certainly better than the floor itself. We removed our helmets and much of our gear, such as waist packs and body armor. The food that each of us grabbed consisted of bags of chips and other small things, as well as a few MREs.

The others exchanged short stories while we munched on a rather unhealthy supper. Most of which were attempts at humor to lighten the mood. Soon I realized I was the only one who hadn't laughed once. I felt left out. At the same time, I felt I couldn't catch on. Solar was still fresh in my mind. That likely was not going to change for some time. A long time.

As best as I could, I faked amusement to prevent Silver or Night acknowledging something was wrong. To be quite frank, it surprised me they weren't down like I was. Anchorage I presumed would have been accustomed to loss with him being in for a longer amount of time than me, Silver and Night combined. I couldn't be sure. Maybe I just needed to sleep. Yes, maybe that was it.

Some more time passed. I decided to wait until everypony else to call it a night. That felt less rude than to up and go to sleep while they talked without a word coming out of me. It would be fine, though. We would be back up in a few hours and on the move.

Now if only falling asleep was easier done than said.

***

"Star."

...

"Star!"

...

"Star, wake up!"

CRASH

***

My eyes shot open, meeting nothing other than total darkness all around. The room had no windows as it was underground and no moonlight—if any was even shining down through the cloud cover—could come through. I adjusted to the blackness gradually, calming my breathing as I realized nothing was going on. I looked around me, seeing the others were still fast asleep. Anchorage with his helmet over his head, Nightpath on his back like a dog playing dead, and Silver was—hugging his rifle?

I wasn't at all certain what time it was. Perhaps that was an indication that I needed to invest in a watch, namely a digital one. Many Marines on base, I knew, had one. And again, I could not take a look out of a window as there were none. Damn basements.

The moment my heart stopped attempting to pump out of my chest, I laid my head back down on the makeshift cloth bed. For some strange reason, I felt I hadn't slept for that long. In recent weeks before, even though I slept maybe six hours at most which was not nearly enough to be considered healthy, I was still rather lethargic despite the fact, just moments ago, I'd been plagued with nightmares of being in the heat of battle. Unless I wasn't dreaming. Where was Princess Luna when I needed her?

I let out a gentle yawn and shut my eyelids in hopes of drifting back to sleep, as if that would ever happen. I laid there motionless, turning once onto my side and another back with my chest pointed upwards. Neither time aided that effort. I was up for the long term now.

Sitting upright once more, I stretched my hooves out and exhaled deeply. My body was sore. Not nearly boot camp-sore, just mildly achy. I reached over to the side to take a swig of water from my canteen, removing the cap and doing so. The water itself didn't taste the best thanks to the container, but water was water. It was refreshing nonetheless. A refill would be necessary soon, however. Perhaps I would be lucky enough to find something upstairs.

Quietly, I turned over and pushed myself up and eased the aching muscles throughout my body. I picked up my canteen, as well as my waist pack just in case, and calmly made my way to the staircase and up while doing my best to muffle my hoofsteps. Then I felt my muzzle nudge against an object blocking the doorway and instantly remembered a barricade being put up. Thankfully, on our side, it was remarkably easy to move. Doing so without making noise was trickier but it was done.

Once upstairs, I closed the door by twisting the handle and letting go of it carefully to let it shut completely and looked around at the almost-equally dark room. The loading area had just a couple of smaller windows with steel bars over them for outside protection, and out through them I could just hardly tell that the sun was far from rising. I returned to my focus: Find water.

I moved up to the first floor, searching the few rooms it had cautiously. Most if not all workplaces had at least mini refrigerators that would have something in them, whether they be dinner leftovers or awful lean frozen meals that some ponies sadly could only afford. The first floor wasn't any luck. It was time go to even further up, all the while hoping somepony else wouldn't wake up and think someone took me.

Up on the second floor was mostly offices and smaller studios, as I had said earlier, then a lunch room. With the help of street lights outside the windows, I trotted to the refrigerator and opened it. It was an older model and therefore the light inside no longer worked, although inside I discovered a few of smaller bottles of water and a couple of cans of soda. No food, however.

I took a couple of the bottles and opened my canteen, gently pouring the contents into the stainless steel container until it was almost full. I twisted the cap back on and started out into the hallway to go back to the others in the basement. As I did, one door to my side swung open all of a sudden, and a hoof pulled me inside with great force, tossing me onto the floor.

I grunted softly, moving to push myself back up, but freezing the moment I heard the sharp ring of a knife, followed by the blade being pressed to my neck. The door slammed shut, and I was further pinned down by a hoof holding itself down on my chest with some pressure. I let out a low growl to who or what ever was on top of me and didn't make any further movements.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Came a quiet but deeper voice than my own from just above.

My ears perked realizing the pony spoke perfect english. This came to be a slight relief that it wasn't a Constitution-turned stallion.

"I am just getting water. My canteen was running low," I responded momentarily after and kept calm while doing so.

The knife pressed further against my neck, causing me to wince slightly and my head fall further back until it was on the wooden floor.

"That does not answer my question, soldier," this gave away almost everything. "Who are you?"

"...PFC Star Shooter. Lunar Marine Corps."

"Sweet Luna, Star?"

The knife pulled away from my neck and was tucked away. I sat up on my elbows, looking up at the darker figure. "Who are you? How do you know me?"

In an instant, the room's light flicked on. The light was blinding at first and made me squint and cover my eyes long enough to adjust. When I did, I moved my hoof out of the way and caught sight of a bluish-green, brown-maned earth pony removing a mask from the lower half of his face and keeping it around his neck.

"Shadow?" My eyes opened wide. I stood up straight to face him. "What the hell are you doing here, sir?"

"Looking for your crazy ass! What were you thinking coming out here to fight these bastards? You could have gotten your or somepony else killed!" Shadow scolded me.

My ears pinned back slightly. "Somepony did die, sir. Solar Wave, to be exact."

His pupils grew as Shadow's head recoiled back. "Oh. I am... I'm so sorry. Shit..."

"Yeah. So, I would prefer if you hold off the commanding officer bull for a little bit right now. You're right, however. I'm stupid for coming out here. But I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have without my squad. We've held our own all day. Mostly. Now, why are you out here by yourself?"

Shadow's head shook. "Not by myself. I brought a team with me. They're searching the building for anypony else as we speak."

"Well, everypony else is in the basement sleeping. They're probably—"

"Shadow! Sir," then, in ran a stealthily-dressed white pegasus, bursting through the door. His attention focused to Shadow. "We've found a sailor and two Marines in the—Star?!"

My gaze shifted to the white pony. The pegasus removed his mask. He had dark facial pant over his eyes to match his gear. It was Lieutenant Snow Storm.

"Snow? You're back already?"

"The first to be," Snow nodded once. "Shadow collected us at the train station and we rushed in just a few hours ago. How long have you been out here?"

"Since ten-something this morning," I answered with a gentle smile.

"That long? Wow. I remember just before that, a message of Morse-code came in while we were setting up our command tent in Baltimare. Due to evacuations of the outer city, it took us a lot longer than usual to get here. The Marines are aiding in the evacuations as of right now, and thankfully we still have air superiority with the Navy's help.

"Now, listen, Star. The Marines are coordinating a large-scale attack on the Constitution later today, somewhere in the late morning and early afternoon. Intelligence says enemy troops are occupying some of downtown's offices near Batterneigh and plan to send in infantry to handle them, while squadrons will take care of any still on the street. Unfortunately, we still have no clue where their leader is," Snow explained.

"Probably in hiding in another city, like the coward he is," I said in a tone of seriousness. "Are we staying put?"

Shadow shook his head. "Negative. Our mission was to find you and the others and get the hell out before the shit storm starts. I'm afraid this means no more fight for you. Come on, we're going," he said, turning tail to walk out of the room.

"Sir, wait," I grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

Shadow turned around, a brow raised. "Yes, Star?"

"You're taking us... out of the fight? Away from it all?"

"I won't repeat myself, but yes. Orders are to evacuate unnecessary ponies in Manehattan and let the Marines do their job."

"Am I not a Marine?" My head tilted quizzically. "Or Silver Edge? Nightpath, too?"

"You are not infantry. That is why you are being taken out."

"Sir, give us a chance. At least let us help out," I pleaded. No, why was I doing this? "Or, better yet, order the others back. I'd rather them be out of harms way."

The lieutenant stood between the two of us and shifted his attention over to Shadow, who pondered carefully.

"I will consider it. I still would prefer you all leave. You have served your time here, and I honor your efforts," Shadow raised a hoof to salute.

"Th... Thank you, sir." I returned the salute and gave a weak smile.

"Now, get back downstairs."

"Meet up on the first floor," Snow added.

"Yes, sirs."

***

Once where I was ordered to go, I came across Silver Edge, Nightpath, and Anchorage with their gear gathered up, along with a few other Marines in stealth gear. One of which, a maroon unicorn, waved to me but didn't say a word. I gave a nod towards him as well as a smile as I regrouped.

"Where did you go? You worried us," Nightpath breathed a sigh of relief, seeing me walk up.

"My apologies. I went to refill my canteen." I scratched the back of my head with a hoof. "Had trouble sleeping."

"Don't scare us like that, aye?" Anchorage gently punched my shoulder. I nodded in response.

Shortly behind me came Shadow and Snow Storm. At that, those of us in the room stood to attention as they stopped just feet away.

"Listen up, Marines, and fellow sailor—" Shadow nodded once to Anchorage, then cleared his throat. "As I have informed Private First Class Star Shooter, the current situation occurring in the city of Manehattan will soon be under control, and by the end of the day, we expect the extremist militia, the Great Gryphon Constitution as they are called, to be eliminated from their current position in the lower parts of downtown, and wishfully be either killed or captured."

"Which ever way this goes down, we are all in this together and we will prevail. A good sixty percent or more of the Lunar Marine Corps will be joining the fight. Every street from west to east will be swept thoroughly of any remaining enemy until none are left. We will take back Manehattan. We will make each and every one of them pay for the countless lives that have been taken and the property of our great nation that they have destroyed."

The focus transitioned over to Lieutenant Snow Storm.

"The Lunar Marines will be launching a full-scale invasion that will take the fight to the Constitution in hopes of driving them out or eradicating the militia completely. They are currently on the outlying areas of the city, preparing for said attack. Princess Luna is even offering to send her royal guard to help, although the general was indecisive on that as much of the Royal Guard is not trained for weapons beyond melee. The Marines are also evacuating civilians further out and providing medical attention to those who need it," Snow further explained.

"Why evacuate ponies not on the island if they're not affected?" Nightpath blinked a couple of times.

"It's a just in case procedure. In the event more action needs to be taken. This likely will not be so, but it doesn't hurt to be on the safe side," Snow Storm nodded to Night. "I am also putting this out there. Captain Shadow and I have been ordered to extract you four before this takes place later on. There's an offer I am here to give you as well. Those of you who wish to stay and fight are welcome to. I will assign you to my squadron just for this once. If you choose not to, I will not dishonor anypony."

With a sigh, Snow looked down slightly. "In a time like this, I can't guarantee all of you a ride home. Make it so, and you shall."

I glanced to my left to Anchorage and Nightpath, then to my right at Silver Edge. I looked ahead to the lieutenant, and eased my body slightly, taking a couple of steps toward him. Snow gave one nod, eyes moving to the others. "Anypony else?"

I didn't look back to break posture. All I could assume was one of them, most likely Silver or Night, were ticked at my persistence to stay in the fight. Even more I believed that when Nightpath walked up to my side, also standing at attention. Next came Silver to my other side. After a few more moments, Anchorage started up as well.

"Hold on, Anchorage," Shadow spoke up, walking to him. "Sailors are ordered back to Naval Station Manehattan at once. I'm sorry."

The pegasus' ears drooped and his head fell just a bit. "Yes, sir."

"You will come with me. No questions asked," Shadow added. Within a few moments, the two were out the door.

"You three," Lieutenant Snow Storm stepped forth. "Welcome to the team. Although, if you have any last minute mind changes, please speak of them now."

Not a word came from Silver nor Night. The entire room was silent enough to hear a pin drop from upstairs.

"Good enough for me. All right, everypony get geared up."

Piece by piece, we followed the lieutenant's orders. First came our body armor, followed by helmets, and then our backpacks. Within a minute, we were ready to go.

"If anypony needs any more ammunition along the way, there is plenty to go around," Javelin added, cocking his suppressed and scoped rifle.

"We're Oscar Mike. Everypony, on me," Snow held his gun in one hoof, waving the other in a motion that we were to move.

His squadron of six including himself formed a perfect line behind him, with Nightpath, Silver Edge, and myself behind. Snow moved over to the warehouse door, pressing a large red button. The door lifted, just outside being the small alley where the loading dock was. Some empty carriages sat outside, not yet touched by anything but snow. Overnight, a good inch or so blanketed the ground. With no one to clear the streets, around every corner there was nothing but white.

Only street lights kept the city well-lit. In lower Manehattan, there was word power had been cut entirely. Upon coming across one of the few lengthy streets that could look in either direction of the city all the way to the end, that could be seen clearly. Total darkness was all to be seen just a couple of blocks east of our position. With the snow still coming down, not much could be seen either way. Over the lieutenant's radio, I could hear Marines call it the Dark Zone.

For the first time, too, there was absolutely no sound. No distant blasts, no gunshots, nothing aside from the gentle crunch of hooves in the snow as we marched to the meetup point less than a klick away, about a half of a mile west. There, we planned to meet up with another squadron to plan out the final attack, as well as a search for the Constitution's commander, if he was even in Manehattan.

Eventually, we reached where we needed to go: a small command tent. Standing in it was none other than Sergeant Hardstaff. Walking up, we saluted to him. The sergeant was our real squad commander in a time when we aren't separated.

"Good morning, Privates," Hardstaff returned the salute. "Fancy seeing you three out here."

"It's a long story, sir," Silver replied with a grin.

"Well, you will have to tell me another time, because now certainly isn't that time." The sergeant gave a grin back. He took the map he had in one hoof and rolled it out across a table. It was a city map with markings towards the east side of the island. "Alright, intelligence tells us they have eyeball on enemy guards in these locations," he moved his hoof in a circle over the markings.

"What is central command saying?" Snow asked, looking over the map carefully.

"Command hasn't said much other than they appear to be staying put. Nothing has pointed towards them advancing any further than where they are currently," Hardstaff explained. "It almost appears like they are waiting for something."

My ears perked, as did my eyes widen. I stepped up to the table quickly to speak.

"Yes, Private?" Hardstaff glanced up.

"Sir, we rescued a captured Marine from a radio station about six or so blocks from here. He said he overheard that enemy troops used the station to communicate with the rest of their company. What we're seeing now isn't the big wave. They are on their way as we speak. That is what these troops are waiting for."

"Intelligence says there is no more than what they have now. If what you tell me is true, then we are looking at—"

"A full scale invasion of Manehattan, yes." The second lieutenant cut him off as he walked up. As always, the stallion was dressed in all-black gear, including a mask he had down around his neck and helmet strapped onto his head.

The sergeant turned and stood at attention, as did we. "Sir, I... I did not know you were here. My sincerest apologies." Even Hardstaff was afraid of Arc.

The grey earth pony waved a hoof, then rested his forehooves on the table. "Don't worry about it. Formality is not important right now," he walked up to the table to look at the map. "If Star's information is credible, perhaps it is a wise idea to have birds in the sky keeping a look out for anyone trying to sneak in, especially by boat."

"That won't work at this hour, Lieutenant. Not in this weather, either. They would be lucky to spot a seagull five yards away, let alone a dinghy or two a few hundred feet down," said Snow Storm, eyeing the stallion cautiously.

"Then we shall wait until dawn to engage our aircraft. There is no use in not receiving warning and being unaware of where to go. I would prefer our Marines stay safe and not be sorry. Enough has been lost as it is. Until then, it is only a matter of time before the cavalry comes in." Arc removed his hooves from the table and stood up straight, his eyes scanning across the ten of us across from him.

"I do not care what anypony has to bring to word, this will be over today."

"Oorah, sir," Nightpath nodded once.

"Exactly. Oorah. Let's get to work."

***

Within just a few hours, the sun had risen. It remained mostly blocked out by the heavy snow clouds above. Another storm was moving in soon as well. Here was to hoping it wouldn't hamper our efforts.

The final plans were exchanged between our outpost and the large one on the outskirts of Manehattan just an hour ago. Now, numerous squadrons of Marines marched onto the island from behind. They stopped where we stood by. The plan was that Lieutenant Snow's squadron, myself, Silver, and Night included, would storm in first just before jets would come in and carpet-bomb a line for us to defend. No one would be allowed to cross that line without being killed first. By now, we assumed civilians still stuck were in hiding as much of Manehattan's offices had bunkers beneath them.

After the bombs would come the infantry, in which we would lead them into the heart of it all. I understood there would be more bloodshed. Likely worse than the boarding of the Eclipse incident. This would be much worse.

Around 0720, Snow Storm gathered us off to the side. In a neat rectangle of eight, four in one row and four in the other with us in the second, we stood close. Hooves together, chests tight, gaze forward. As we did, the lieutenant stood opposite of us, a hardened look of determination set on his expression.

"Listen up, Marines. This is it. This is where all of your training kicks in. All of those hours of agonizing physical tests, included with many more weeks of advanced weaponry training. This is where it will all pay off. Our city, our coast, our country has been stormed by enemy soldiers who do not belong. They have caused severe damage to our nation's infrastructure and have taken too many lives to date.

"Innocent lives that cannot be returned to us. Lives of ponies trying to go about their own with no trouble. Lives of ponies attempting to defend those trying to live their lives. Now is when we say enough is enough and take from them what they have taken from us. And that is, Marines, that is the morale of us all. Not just us as a group, us as a community. We will destroy every single one of those griffon and pony-traitor bastards. We will make them regret ever pondering raiding our country.

"And I know what many of you are thinking. Not all of us will make it out of this. While this may be true, you should not let the possible outcome get in the way of what you can make it to be. The future is only set for those who make it that way. I wish you all remember those words carefully." The lieutenant paused, his eyes scanning across the line of ponies in front of him.

"Today will be a tough day. There will be much death that will follow. Let it be on their side. Let them pay for their heinous actions they have done upon our fair Equestria. We will make them pay. Is that clear?!"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"SIR, YES, SIR!"

Snow eased himself just slightly. "On me, Marines." He started around us. We turned and took hold of our weapons, getting into line behind the lieutenant as he began walking east.

Bizarrely enough, no snowflakes fell. There was no trace of a breeze. Nothing. It was as if a barrier was formed around the city to shield us from the elements. Maybe there was. Nobody could be certain.

Javelin had a small tracking chip on him in which it could be tracked down to notify air support when we would be reaching the line. The best part was, the chip could not be tracked by anyone else without a computer system programmed to be attached to the chip. It was virtually foolproof.

Turning down one street, and about halfway down, Snow raised his hoof to stop us. We did so, looking all around us and listening for any commotion.

Instead of hearing any of that, no, this was much worse. We heard jets. Snapping my head to look behind us, I caught sight of two fighters dipping out of the clouds, aligned with the street we were on.

"Shit, airstrike! Everypony down!" I called out.

Within seconds, everypony else scrambled into buildings as massive blasts lined the end of the street towards us. One missile inadvertently struck a building I was running toward and debris rained down on top. I felt multiple strikes to the head by bricks and shards of glass, thankfully shielded by my helmet. Except the hits were hard enough to knock me off of my hooves.

What I found to be worse, was when I tried to stand back up, except I couldn't. Looking down, I saw my hoof pinned beneath a section of brick wall. Not again, I thought to myself. The memories rushed back, but before they could completely, the strike was over. I snapped my head in the direction the jets were heading, watching as one of them turned around and was beginning to come back our way.

"Shit, Star's pinned!" Night shouted, jumping through a shattered window pane of a store and galloping up to me, trying to free my hoof as the roar of engines grew louder with every passing second.

His efforts to pull my leg out from under the wall were to no avail. Instead of running back, this time, he jumped on top of me altogether. Within that second, I felt the air rush out of my lungs as his huge torso landed on mine. I would have been damned if I didn't squeak in the slightest way like a dog's toy when being stepped on.

The secondary strike was primarily muffled, the first one having shot mine for the most part, as well as having a much larger stallion crushing me. Except he did it to shield me from the bombs and any more falling debris, like more bricks and glass.

Once it ceased again, it stopped for good. The jets zipped away and were out of sight in seconds. The street all around was in total ruin, but it worked. Miraculously, the intense shaking moved the debris off of my leg with ease.

Slowly, I moved the huge lump of a dirt-colored stallion off of me, also taking a massive gulp of air. "Damn it, Night. Don't do that! Enough ponies have died today!"

Rolling upright and pushing himself up, Night yanked me up with a hoof. "Exactly, I wasn't going to let you be the next one!"

I stood up and shook my hind leg slightly, ridding of the strange feeling from having my hoof pinned. I wiped my hooves on my sleeves to remove dust from myself. "Well, thank you, Night. But that was very stupid. Don't do that again, you hear?"

"I can't make a promise," Night nudged my shoulder rather hard. His hoof recoiled as he nearly knocked me back over. "Sorry."

I rubbed my shoulder and threw a glare up at the brown pony, then shifted my focus to the others as they came out of cover. "Everypony alright?"

"A bit shaken," Javelin replied. "Damn it, damn it to hell. They screwed up on the positioning. They're two blocks short."

"You're kidding," Snow blinked a few times, giving Javelin a look mixed with aggravation and anxiousness.

"I wish I was, sir," Javelin glanced right back at him. "There's no changing this now. We have to work with this."

Sighing, Snow nodded in understanding. "Alright. Call the outpost, let them know we're clear."

"Yes, sir," Javelin removed his helmet and slipped on an earphone with a small microphone attached for communications, then sat his helmet back on his head. "Osprey main, this is Osprey actual. Operation Deliverance and Liberty is a go. How copy."

"Copy that, Osprey actual. Hold position for Marine squadrons. Open fire if you are engaged. Copy, over," the communicator on the other end, Arc Nobis himself, replied.

"Acknowledged. Hold position and open fire if engaged. Wilco."

"Wilco?" Silver blinked.

"Will comply," Snow answered.

Switching off his radio, Javelin turned to us. "Ten minutes. We wait here."

"Roger. Everypony inside, we will hold up some of these shops and keep watch until they arrive." Snow ordered, motioning his hoof.

Some of his squadron split up, heading to a shop, Snow flying up to the second floor where the airstrike made a gaping hole in the wall. Me, Silver, and Night took up a position in the building beside it, remaining on the first floor and in cover while I watched over, scanning over either direction. Our orders were clear: engage if engaged.

While we held position, all was quiet. It was unbelievable that in just a few minutes that a war would be breaking out. For the first time in a few hours, snow began to flutter down from the heavens. It was gentle and sparse. The breeze was even more so or even nonexistent.

At the outpost, each of us were given single earphone devices shifted over to Snow's battalion's frequency to communicate with each other easily in the event one or two of us were split up somehow. Every so couple of minutes, Javelin or Snow would whisper to us to check in. This changed after about six or seven minutes.

"Heads up, naval air patrol reports seeing three to four militarized dinghies approaching the city from the west-northwest at approximately twenty-four knots," Javelin reported. All of us could hear it.

"This is it. This is the main wave, boys. Batten down the hatches." Snow added. "Check your ammunition and prepare. Cavalry should be here any minute."

"Copy that," I replied, peering back at Silver and Night. "Get ready."

"I was born ready," Silver shuddered shortly afterwards.

"Sure looks like it," I gave a gentle grin, turning back to looking out of the building. "All looks clear—"

I was instantly cut off by multiple bullets striking the pillar beside where I rested and the wall inside, through the shattered windows. It came from slightly above as well as both directions.

"Contact! Open fire, boys!" Snow shouted through the comms. From either building we were situated in returned fire at the advancing enemies.

Sitting over the ledge to my side was Night, pointing in the opposite direction of the street than me while Silver ran upstairs to get a better view and take aim. On my side, I caught sight of at least ten fully armored griffons moving towards us. Possibly more than ten. It seemed like they kept coming.

"They're everywhere!" Silver called from upstairs, shooting almost continuously at the group I focused on.

"Take 'em out!" Night shouted. I didn't once look to see how his side looked.

The nine of us in the squadron separated where we shot to focus equally on either side. After one dropped on my end, another two appeared to take his place. Within an instant, another three collapsed due to wounds. Fire was briefly focusing toward them before one of Snow's ponies called out for a grenade just a second prior to it being thrown.

The grenade did almost no damage but one griffon did end up injured and pulled off into cover in an alleyway. Once the whole group was killed off or badly injured, another came around the corner. This one was far more careful with their aim and forced me and Night to reside in cover and come back out only in increments while they reloaded.

A couple of small blasts immediately took them out, however. Neither explosion originated from a grenade thrown by any of us and left a few of us puzzled, that was, until the shouting of other Marines was heard from down the street. In an instant, they came into view and were opening fire on the other enemies further down on the northern end of the street. Finally, we weren't pinned anymore.

One marine galloped up to our building and inside. He was a taller, military-green earth stallion decked out in full gear. He stopped, seeing the both of us. "Oh, hey, you two!"

"Ash! Get upstairs and help Silver out!"

"Roger!" Ashfall replied, running up the stairs to Silver.

Suddenly, a massive explosion blew some of the coming Marines up and in all directions. One very disgustingly had his hoof visibly dismembered with the explosion, a couple others not moving at all. I snapped my focus upwards to a glass skyscraper across the street.

"Up there, tenth floor! RPGs!" I called out.

At that, everypony's focus changed to the tower. Another rocket was fired down towards the street, striking a couple of floors above Silver and Ash. Glass and brick rained down onto the street as well as some of the floor coming down around the two, although they were uninjured.

I shot up towards the pony reloading his launcher, not a single bullet reached or aimed his way. Shit, not now. I couldn't lose my aim at this moment. I had a perfect shot.

Ease yourself. Let your mind control the weapon, let your muscles go, and shoot.

Snow's advice came back within that instant. No, I couldn't do that. The moment was far too intense. No, I had to give it a try.

I relaxed slowly. My eyelids shut. I took a deep breath in, my muscles loosening up. Then, I reopened my eyes, gaze moving up to the pony as he prepared to shoot towards the building the lieutenant and the remainder of his squadron sat in. I narrowed onto him and exhaled. The trigger was pulled.

The rocket launcher dropped out of the pony's hooves, dropping down to the ground below. The rocket exploded and shattered much of the building's glass and wiped out the tower's lobby. Any further damage would have resulted in a total collapse most likely.

Looking up toward where the pony was, I watched as his body fell over, slumped against a desk and motionless. I killed him.

"Star Shooter! Great fuckin' shot!" Ashfall called from upstairs.

I stood up out of cover and looked around. All was quiet for a moment. Marines walked carefully across the bomb-damaged, bullet-riddled remains of the block. My chest expanded and contracted as I breathed quickly, not fully realizing what was happening at the moment. Was it over?

Ash jumped down, Silver following a second after. They walked out where the other Marines were. Down to the right, a couple of medics tended to the injured. The dismembered pony's bleeding was stopped altogether with the help of unicorn magic. He would be okay. The others, no one could be sure. Both were knocked out cold in the explosion.

"Good work, Marines," Snow called over comms channel. "Our work is done here. Report back to base at once."

My breathing didn't slow at all. I reached a hoof up to my ear to speak back. "That's it? We're done?"

"We are. The others aren't. We were just to lead them into the fight. There is still one ahead, but we are leaving that to the infantry. Captain Shadow and Second Lieutenant Arc Nobis are ordering that we return to Naval Station Manehattan." Snow replied. "Our fight is over."

And so it was. The nine of us packed up and marched out while the remaining Constitution troops fought back until the very last one. Some surrendered. Within a couple of hours, Manehattan was free of the enemy. Even then I felt I could have stayed in the fight a bit longer. The lieutenant insisted I go with them. No, he didn't insist. It was an order. I couldn't abandon an order.

Not again at least.