• Published 2nd Apr 2014
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Of a German and American soldier in Equestria - redspark



World War II is at its end, but what happens when an American officer and a German private end up in Equestria?

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First encounter (The battle of Green Lake town part 1)

Chapter 14
First Encounter (The Battle of Green Lake Town part 1)

"I tell you, we are going too far, it can get dangerous," a black pegasus said. His wings flapped soundlessly in the night sky as he scanned the ground and the air for changelings.

"You know Flap, sometimes you are too over the top," said a grey one. "And also, changelings aren't that difficult to spot."

Flap grinned. "They're black, Glass. Black is difficult to be spotted at night."

Glass chuckled. "You know I can see pretty well at night. Those bugs would never pass without me seeing them, and they'll just pass by like a large group of insects. I don't think that they will be difficult to spot." Flap seemed unconvinced.

The two kept in flying. They were now on top of the forest that was in the south Of Equestria. Flap knew they were already in area where changelings were supposed to be, yet he hadn't seen any. That made him suspicious.

He looked back and saw the border of the forest and the main defense hill. He could see the fires where the sentries stood, looking for the enemy.

Yes, they were too far away...

"Glass, I think we are going too near the enemy."

"No, we are not..." Glass suddenly stopped. "Hold on! I think I see something..." h whispered. Flap holds his breath, trying to see whatever it was Glass had seen.

"There! In the trees, I see something!"

Immediately, Glass went down. Flap sighed and followed him. After a couple of seconds he saw a lone changeling flying above the treeline.

Now that was suspicious. Why would a changeling be flying alone in the forest. He had not be the first changeling he had seen, of course. He was a scout and he had seen many changelings the past few days and he had been the day Canterlot had been taken during the wedding. Changings weren't as alien to him as they were to many others.

That was why he knew there was something wrong with that lone changeling at night. There had to be something for this... Something he...

The second he saw them, his heart stopped. "Glass! Get out of..." He couldn't finish as a green beam of light got out of the treetops, hitting his friend. He saw as smoke came out of him and as he fell down.

"No!" he shouted. Tears threatened his eyes. Glass... His friend... Was... He was...

Dead...

He felt the heat of another beam pass by him, which quickly got him back to reality. He saw a dozen of changelings going towards him. He turned pale, if it was possible for a pony his color. He turned tail and flew away. He saw that the changelings kept throwing him spells, which he evaded doing maneuvers and tricks.

That's when he saw the changeling army.

Thousands upon thousands of changelings, all marching out of the forest and towards the fortified hills and into Equestria.

He panicked. He was supposed to do something! He was supposed to warn them, but his wings felt hard and stiff. He slowly began to fall.

'Control yourself!' he told to himself. He finally got back control of his wings and began flapping towards the camp. The changelings had given up pursuit and were joining the changeling lines.

Flap looked in horror at the army, he then turned and flew towards the camp...

*** *** ***

"Ring the bells! The changelings are coming!" shouted a pegasus scout as strong as he could. The little light the moon gave made his fast landing difficult. He fell down hard against the floor. Immediately, three royal guards helped him up.

He had landed in the main part of the army camp, with general Silver's tent in front. Many soldiers around got out of their tents, sleepy eyes clearly visible by the light of both the moon and some fires that were lit all around the camp.

SilverInk got out of his tent as soon as he heard the word changeling, though he wasn't sure he had heard it right. He had been on his table, checking some maps and thinking of the future battle right before he heard the shout.

He walked until he was standing just a few feet from the scout.

"Repeat that," he said, clearly concerned.

The scout breathed hard. "Changelings sir... tons of them... the hills... many more..." The scout suddenly fell down, passing out. Everypony around stared in shock, clearly unsure of what to do. The royal guards looked to each other, troubled. General Silver looked around.

Louis woke up as he heard the commotion outside. He stood up and quickly looked out of the tent.

SilverInk cleared his throat.

"What are you waiting for fools! Sound the bells!" he exclaimed angrily.

Immediately, two huge bells that had been placed on a tower began to sound, their chiming quickly waking everypony up and alerting the little town not far away. Ponies got out of their tents, hurrying to be ready.

Louis ran around his tent, quickly putting on his uniform. He took his belt and put it on, strapping the sword to it. He also placed his gun on the belt and quickly took his rifle. He walked outside and walked over to organize the ponies under his command.

As he walked, he noticed that all around ponies moved doing their different tasks. Platoons organized in lines as fast as they could, officers barked out orders and organized the troops to stand in lines and get ready with their armor and their weapons. Weapons were quickly taken from the armory, as well as armor and shields. The equestrian lines quickly formed up outside of the camp, all facing the south and their general, SilverInk, who was looking at them.

Louis began to walk towards him.

"General, we are ready to move," a unicorn officer said. Silver looked around until he saw general Ace walking towards him, full in his armor and carrying a long sword on his back. He also noticed Louis walking towards him with the equestrian battle uniform and his large metal stick that spat fire strapped to his back. He felt his anger rise but quickly ignored it. Not time for that now.

"General, the third regiment is ready," Louis said as soon as he reached him.

"And so is the second," said a tired Ace. He had clearly been awoken by the bells.

"And the first..." Silver said. "I guess that means we are ready to go." He turned to Ace. "Ace, remember to protect the left flank. I'll take the center and the right flank. Louis..." He turned to the german. "Remember to keep your troops ready in case the battle starts to go badly for us. You have the reinforcements, and they can prove out to be our last hope, so be ready." He looked at the troops. "We move now..." he said, almost in a whisper. Both Ace and Louis nodded as the walked off to their regiments.

*** *** ***

"Hold the lines!" Louis shouted at the top of his lungs. He moved slowly with the army on his side. He needed to move fast in order to remain in front of it, since his walking was very much slower than a pony's. He looked back at his regiment.

SilverInk had called each of the three divisions of pony regiments, though Louis would have simply called them divisions. He sighed and then pushed his thoughts away. He couldn't get distracted, at least not then and there.

He had a thousand ponies under his command, and called the reserve forces for the battle. He had argued that they'd need every hand... hoof, available to fight, but SilverInk had said that having reinforcements was basic for his strategy to succeed. He had stopped arguing after that, not because he agreed with the general, but because he knew that he must respect the hierarchy of officers even though he didn't wanted to.

His regiment consisted of seven hundred earth ponies, two hundred pegasi and one hundred unicorns. He had them organized in three different types of squadrons: the first type composed of the three kinds of ponies, the other of only unicorn and earth and the other of only pegasi. Unicorns where to protect his units while in the fight, as well as throwing magic blasts and fighting with short swords, since their magic allowed them to wield them faster than long swords. Earth ponies consisted of three types of units: spear ponies, sword ponies and bow ponies. Bow ponies were to remain behind as they charged the enemy, protected by unicorns. Pegasi units where to fly and fight changelings on the air and also to shoot bolts of arrows from the sky. They were also trained to fight in the ground in case an attack to the back lines of the enemies was needed or support for the main force.

Louis saw the other three regiments moving not far off from each other. Ace had his troops organized the same way as Louis, but Silver had them organized differently, separating them into races. The two were already getting into their positions on top of the main hill that overlooked the forest and where the changelings' attack was to come.

He began looking for the position he had been assigned. Soon enough he found the hill he was supposed to take as position for the reinforcements. He directed his troops there.

The hill was completely barren with not even grass but dirt on the ground. In it they had made a couple of cover positions and even placed up some tents for the wounded. It was strategically placed to stop the enemy should they get that near to the little town they were supposed to guard. Wooden posts had been placed around the hill to make the enemies advance harder and they had even built a small sentry tower to have better ground view. There was a small dirt bunker he had asked to be made to store food on. If the hill was attacked, the enemy would have a hard time getting it, and They would have supplies that would last for days.

He stopped once he was on top of the hill and then looked back. He saw his troops take their assigned positions, prepare the defenses and man a large ballista he had designed.

The ballista was more like a large bow than an actual medieval ballista. It was mounted on a rotating base that worked using wooden tires and had a range of a mile, much more than any other weapon he had seen on equestria could fire. The only problem was that it seemed to slowly break with each shot fired, probably because of the strain of the large bolt. The wood tires didn't help much either and he knew they could break easily, leaving the ballista without any rotation. It was manned by three ponies: two earth and a unicorn. The earth where in charge of loading and firing and the unicorn of loading as well as rotating it.

So far it seemed to be holding the large bolts it fired with no problem, which were easily twenty times more lethal than a normal bolt fired by an arrow. He had even managed to light the ballista bolts on fire, causing much more damage where they hit.

He knew that balista wasn't much help though. It would soon break and they'd need to leave it behind or even burn it so as to not let the changelings get it.

Louis' thoughts were distracted by a pony officer calling his name.

"Sir, a messenger arrived and notified us that the other two regiments are on position and ready." Louis nodded. The messenger made a salute and walked away. Now, he needed to wait for the signal.

He only hoped that that the alarm hadn't been fake. So far there had been two warning calls reported by the scouts of the changelings advancing that had proven to be fake, probably due to the scouts' tension while looking. He understood them though. It wasn't easy to think straight on time of war, at least not easily.

He heard in the distance a shout that he recognized as the order to fire the arrows. He saw as tiny red dots flew into the sky and back down to the floor, luckily against enemy troops.

He slowly made the sign of the cross, then he took his hand towards his hat to adjust it. It wasn't going to be an easy fight, and it being at night wasn't going to help.

He looked around. The ponies had clearly seen the flying arrows. They knew this was true, and that war had finally started. He looked pitifully at them. They shouldn't be living war...

"Captain Bolt!" he said out loud. A red maned earth pony approached him. He had a light orange coat and a hammer cutie mark.

"Yes sir!" he said, saluting.

"Please tell everypony to be on attention, I'll say some words." The captain nodded and hurried off. Louis heard him shout.

"Attention!"

Everypony looked at him, then at Louis. The german gulped. He had never been good with words, and now that he knew words where needed, a heavy feeling of nervousness filled him.

"Alright everypony..." he began. "I know you are all tired. So am I. I know we have a heavy disadvantage, but that's not what matters." He walked towards the front of the hill, where everypony could see him. "What matters is the courage you fight with, what matters is the cause we are fighting for."

"I can see in your eyes the same fear I had on my first battle... Hell, I have that same fear on me this very second. It's normal to be afraid, but now think. Do you think that on the wars in the past, heroes were not scared? I'm damn sure they were, and for good reason! You're about to face the worst thing in your lives, hell on earth, but right there is where heroes are made..."

He had begun to speak, and with every word he felt more confident and sure.

"Right there, right here," he said, pointing down to the ground. "...is where the a war begins to be decided. The first encounter. Today, you'll be what stands in the way of victory and survival; to slavery, destruction, and defeat."

"So I ask: are you ready for this! Are you ready to fight for what you believe in?!" Ponies began to stomp and many even began to cheer. Slowly, the ground beneath Louis' feet began trembling. "Today we fight for our homes! We fight for our land! We fight for our families!" Now everypony was shouting and stomping. Many cheered while many simply shouted. Louis was now shouting at the top of his lungs. "So I ask: are you with me?!"

The cheering just grew louder with every second that passed. Shouts and stomping made the ground Louis was standing on feel like if there was an earthquake. He smiled and lifted his gun. Ponies cheered more and more; shouted more and more. Soon even the officers were shouting and stomping.

Louis turned around and looked towards the battlefield. He could see the pegasi units flying off to fight off the flying changelings. He heard then, in the distance, cheering of the already engaged troops. Shouts filled the air as the troops engaged the enemies.

And all Louis could do was look...

He looked at the still cheering ponies of his regiment. His mind began to wander off... He wasn't sure if their expectant and hopeful faces would ever be seen again. If he would ever see that pony on the left cheering again, or that officer with a smile on his face and a clear sense of pride around him. Which of those ponies would not see his family again?

He snapped out of his thoughts as ponies began to slowly stop shouting and stomping. Soon silence fell again with the sound of fighting in the background, the only difference now was that the faces that had been of fear and confusion where now of ponies maintaining a straight face, either hiding their fear or their fear simply gone from their minds. Many were smiling slightly, ready to fight and to engage the enemy troops. He smiled slowly.

That was an army worth fighting for. A country and a land worth fighting for. Even in their most desperate moments, they clinged onto hope and were ready to give up anything for their land.

"Sir," he heard from behind. Louis turned and saw the same messenger that had brought the news of the changeling's advance.

"What is it?" he asked concerned. The messenger seemed worried.

"General Ace and general SilverInk had asked for immediate assistance. They said that their center is about to be overrun by a strong force of changelings."

Louis nodded slowly. It was time.

'So fast...'

"Thank you private."

He turned to the ponies and saw that they were all looking at him, clearly wondering what the messenger had told him. He looked down slowly and calmed his breathing. He soon looked up again, showing a neutral face. "We advance now!" he shouted. That was followed by a couple of random shouts and cheers from within the troops. He turned and began walking to the fray.

With the sound of marching hooves behind him, he advanced steadily and without any doubts towards the battle. As the ponies had found inspiration in him, he had found inspiration in them. His fear was now completely gone, something he had never really thought would happen, but was rather replace by a growing desire to jump against those beasts that had dared walk into Equestria and try to enslave that wonderful place.

Soon they were ascending the main hill. They could clearly hear the sound of fighting now, of metal against metal and of metal against flesh. Many ponies seemed to doubt after Louis' speech, their faces clearly showing it.

Soon they were on top of the hill. Louis could now see the fight developing right in front of him.

It didn't looked good in any way.

Ace's side seemed to be holding, barely. They were slowly falling back towards some fortified positions that were on top of the hill. Soon, if that kept on, they would be in danger of being flanked by enemy forces. To Silver's side the battle seemed to be going with no clear side winning ground. The equestrian force battled the changeling with swords and spears against bare hooves and horns. The changelings, as much as they seemed to be overwhelmingly more in number, had very bad odds considering they were relying on their horns to impale the equestrians and throw the occasional magic blast.

The worst side of the battle though, was the middle of the equestrian lines.

The middle had been the one Silver had thought would be less likely to be attacked with force. He had been wrong. Whoever the changeling leader was, he had clearly expected the equestrians to put more strength to the flanks and less to the center. He could barely make out the equestrian soldiers there.

He looked at his thousand soldiers. they seemed ready to fight, though many were now clearly scared. He placed the gun on his back and unsheathed his sword. He would fight like his troops, not with the gun.

He lifted the sword, still looking at his troop. He saw the fear in each of them. He felt for the first time a sense of dread.

Many of them could... No, would die.

He had never guided many men before. He was just a private, he was not prepared for this... He shook his head. No time for those thoughts, he needed to be in the battle.

He lifted his sword above his head. "For Equestria!" he shouted. Turning, he ran downhill towards the enemy, shouting. It was a couple of seconds after that the sound of shouts and the trembling began, announcing the arrival of reinforcements.

"For Equestria!" Louis heard somewhere behind him. Many other chorused back, but most were concentrated in running with the sword or the spear in hand.

"Spears first!" he shouted.

He had told the officers in a reunion that he wanted the spears to hit first, since they would inflict heavy damage on the enemy because of the reach, opening space for the rest of the troops to attack. Apparently, they had remembered to tell their troops since he clearly saw the line of spears forming, approaching fast the enemy lines.

The archers took positions and began shooting. As long as the equestrians were not fighting hoof to hoof combat, firing arrows was safe.

Pegasi units jumped to the sky to engage the flying changeling troops, wielding their swords and the bows with a mastery he had never seen his ponies have before. They didn't seemed like the recruits they had been a couple of weeks ago, but rather highly trained soldiers.

The charging troops saw equestrian archers firing arrows against the enemies from a dangerously close distance.

That is when Louis noticed that there was no equestrian troops facing the enemy. He saw many corpses that littered the floor where the battle for the center had been fought.

Realization hit him.

The equestrian troops had been exterminated in the middle and only a bunch of archers had managed to hold them at bay...

Anger filled him this time. He shouted and charged faster. Many ponies got the same effect as they renewed their shouts of war.

The changelings stopped advancing as they saw the large force of Equestrians running down the mountains. Many seemed to turn around, but what appeared to be the changeling captains quickly placed their troops in order. He saw changelings forming a line and pointing with their horns.

This was The first time he had seen an actual changeling. They were far worse than he had imagined. Their eyes stared at him, and he noticed something in them... Like, they were not thinking. Lack of expression...

Only a couple of seconds before they managed to hit the enemy at full force...

The changeling's horns began to glow with a sickly green tone..

'Come one! Only two seconds!' Louis thought.

The horns began to make a green ball of light around them...

But the changelings had been too slow to organize. Before any changeling had the opportunity to fire, the first spear ponies hit them and, like water against sticks, the changelings fell back with the equestrian's force of charge. Second after the spears neutralized the changelings about to fire, sword ponies got there, quickly overwhelming the changeling front lines.

Louis attacked with a cry, hitting a changeling with his sword, which was tainted green as soon as he moved to attack another.

He slashed nonstop, not caring even as his muscles began protesting for the effort he was making.

He slashed his sword in the many ways he had been taught by the equestrians. Even though he wasn't the best swordsman, he knew how to wield it thanks to a certain royal guard. He had practiced and now he knew how to use the sword.

So he kept fighting on and on, yet changelings kept coming. He soon found himself surrounded. He slashed and stabbed, but the changelings were almost on him.

Suddenly, a magic blast took out half of his attackers. Louis didn't had time to see who it had been because soon he was engaging other changelings.

He managed to parry a horn directed to his stomach, quickly stabbing his attacker. He looked around and saw that his soldiers were still pushing the changelings, though slowly they were beginning to lose their momentum. Momentum was the key to his charge, if they lost it, the charge, and the battle, would be lost. Somehow the changelings were being more organized than when the charge began.

Then, he saw what looked like their commanding officer.

It was a larger changeling, though not by much. It wore armor and had a sword. The only changeling with a sword. It had red marks on it's back and it's head, probably to distinguish itself even more.

The changeling was shouting orders, telling his troops to stand their ground. Louis saw
soon, the changeling forces were in retreat. The ones attacking Silver's flank realized that their plan to hit the equestrians from they were let that happen...

He took his rifle and took aim. He pulled the trigger as the sound of the bullet exploding inside the barrel reached his ears. He saw as the changeling officer screamed in pain, but the wound wasn't fatal. He loaded and aimed again. The officer had seen him.

"You!" the changeling shouted.

He shot once more. The changeling growled in agony, then aimed with his horn.

'Come on Louis...'

He aimed at the horn. He pulled the trigger. The changeling's horn went flying as the bullet hit its mark. The changeling stopped as he jumped back, hiding its horn. Louis took aim once more and shot again, hitting the head. The changeling fell down hard, lifeless.

All the changelings that saw that turned around and began to flee. Louis smiled. They were going to win.

Soon enough, the changelings were in full retreat with Louis pursuing close behind. The changelings entered the forest, which was where Louis stopped his troops' advance.

The changelings attacking general Silver's side noticed that the attack to the center had failed and soon were in retreat as well. Only the ones against Ace seemed not to realize that the attack had failed.

Louis quickly stopped his troops feet from the forest. To continue the pursuit in the forest would be suicide.

"Halt!" he shouted, lifting his arm.

Most ponies stopped once they saw Louis give the order. Many others took some time to realize that the changelings were gone and had to be stopped by other fellow ponies. Louis smiled as he saw the changelings retreating into the forest. He turned and saw the hill.

He slowly opened his eyes in surprise.

The changelings there had advanced a lot without him realizing that. He saw the hill at least a mile away, the way towards it littered with changeling bodies. He looked at his sword and noticed the green substance on it. He quickly realized what that was and quickly turned away.

Changeling blood.

He looked at his troops. Many were too tired to do anything else than simply stay still, but many others where coming to their five senses and realizing exactly the same as what Louis had realized.

The distance they had pushed the enemy back. Some began to smile tiredly.

He looked at the hill and noticed that fighting was still going on on Ace's side.

"Quickly! Form up, ponies! Battles not over yet. We have to help general Ace!" he exclaimed.

The ponies reacted quickly, forming lines. He began to advance towards the hill.

It took the some minutes, but soon they were going up the hill to help Ace. He saw that the changelings were beginning to fall back. They had reached the top and fighting had seemed to be hard there, but he guessed that, reinforced by general Silver's troops, they were easily beating them. Soon the changelings realized they were lost and turned to flee only to see Louis and his ponies surrounding them. The changelings began to fight desperately.

Some attempted to fly away only to be taken down by arrows or the pegasi that were still on the air.

"Surrender! You can't win!" Ace shouted. Louis saw him and smiled in relief. He was still alive.

The leader of the changelings looked at him and laughed.

"We will never surrender, pony!" The changeling jumped at him. Ace lifted his sword only to be taken back the changeling's strength on the attack with his horn. Soon his sword had flown away by a strike. The changeling was about to impale him when Louis arrived and stabbed him in the back. The changeling's face contorted in pain and then he fell down, dead.

After that it was a matter of seconds before the changelings were exterminated.

Louis helped Ace up.

"Thank you Louis. You saved my life."

Louis shook his head. "It was nothing, general. Anypony would have done the same, only that it happened that I was in the right moment and in the right place." Ace laughed tiredly and then walked off to inspect his troops.

Louis looked around, cleaning sweat from his head. The ponies were too tired to do anything more than sigh in relief at the battle being over. Many looked around, shock in their faces as they saw the dead changeling all over the ground. Louis saw one pony, an earth pony, in particular.

"We killed them all! We killed them!" he shouted, panicked. His officer ordered him to shut up, but the pony kept on as tears began forming on his eyes. Many other ponies began to see not only the changelings, but also their fallen comrades.

Louis saw captain Bolt not far away.

"Captain, organize my troops in lines. I want a losses report." The captain nodded and began barking orders.

"Alright ponies, in line!" Officers began to organize their units, quickly forming up. Captain Bolt began to check the losses. Louis began to look for Ace.

"General Ace!" he shouted as soon as he saw him. Ace turned.

"Yes Louis?" he asked.

"I'm making a loss report from my brigade, and I don't have any available field doctors, since mine are looking for wounded already. I suggest you do the same."

Ace nodded. "Yes, I already ordered that. I also ordered to help both our troops and the enemy's."

Louis grinned. "I don't think we should help them. Let them die." Ace shook his head disapprovingly.

"No, we can't think that way, because the moment we do we lose who we are." Ace saw a dead changeling in front of him. "We can't let war get on our personality, commander, or else we become beasts."

Louis nodded slowly, unconvinced.

"But that's me," Ace said. He closed the changeling's eyes. "I'm not a monster, and I'll never be one." He turned and walked away, leaving Louis alone. The German looked at the changeling and sighed, walking in the opposite direction...