Nightly attacks and nightly dreams,
Only Luna, who controls the night,
Shall see the end,
In the fight.
Thankfully, as it turned out, an enemy attack wasn’t happening.
Somepony had just started screaming about the enemy after seeing something over the top of the trenches. They never confirmed it was an enemy but had started screaming about it anyway, which quickly spread across the trenches.
The gunfire that had started was a response from the nearby gun position that began suppressing down range, which was standard procedure.
When the supposed attack did begin, the ponies of 2nd squad had grabbed their guns and ran outside to help defend. Once they learned that the attack was fake, some of them meandered about outside with everypony else who had come to the defense, while others went back to the bunker.
Gust, along with Snow and Blaze, were some of the few who lingered behind.
By now, the sun had fully set, and the moon’s light shined throughout the trenches and among the topside of the landscape.
Snow took a peek over the top of the trench after the gunfire had died a while ago, only to be pulled down by Blaze.
“That’s how you get shot Snow,” Blaze said casually.
“Weren’t you telling me off about how to play my card as well?” Gust asked.
Snow adjusted his helmet so he could see again, after it had gone wompy from the yank Blaze gave him.
“There isn’t shit out there that’ll get me though.”
“There could be a bug with a scope. You never know,” Blaze shook his head at the stupidity of Snow’s answer.
“Their only targets would be the gun nests.”
“Or a peeking head.”
“Hush it,” Blaze said.
“Just don’t peek back over,” Gust added.
As they finished up their banter, all three moved to the side of the trench as a group of ponies made their way through. All their guns were slung around their bodies as they chatted quietly among themselves.
Just as Blaze was about to start going back towards their bunker, Snow stopped him.
“So where’d Rain go off to? Once everything died down, he was the first to dip.”
Gust had to give it a thought. Everypony else stuck around for even a minute longer before leaving, but Rain was the first one gone. Gust was a bit slow with answering as Blaze gave one first.
“Probably off to ask about that gun I’d reckon.”
“The everfree?”
Gust chuckled. “He never found them originally. He ran out and then ran back in to tell us about what was happening. So that’s probably what he went off to do.”
“You don’t think the scare was caused by the black stripes?” Blaze asked.
“What? No. I saw some without that new gun when everything was hectic for that minute. They were ready for the attack just as much as we were, plus you saw them,” Gust motioned up and down the trench. “They were all down here with us. Whoever started the alarm, thought they saw something above,” Gust then motioned upwards.
“The only thing up there are ponies trying to get around the black stripes,” Blaze said with a scoff.
“Yeah, they need better trench etiquette if they’re going to be down here with us after they caused a pegasus to fly above the top,” Gust said.
Snow looked between the other two as they went back and forth for a second. “You think we should go look for him?”
“Ehh, nah,” Blaze said as he readied his stuff to leave again.
“I’ll go with you,” Gust directed at Snow.
“I mean, it’s fine, I was just curious if we should.”
“No, we should look for him. I’d prefer he doesn’t get kidnapped myself.”
“Fine.”
“Well, I’ll be asleep by the time you two’re back from your date. Good luck. Hopefully, he hasn’t been filleted,” Blaze said before heading off down the trench.
After Blaze had left, Snow and Gust were alone in the trench for a second before some more ponies wandered through. They made their way through quickly, all with their gear on, and most importantly, their proper clothing.
“Hopefully we do find him fast, shit’s starting to get cold,” Snow commented.
“Really? You’re cold? An earth pony AND your name is Snow? You seriously can’t be complaining.”
“What do you want me to say? I’m from Dodge, it’s hot all year long there. It’s what I grew up with.”
“Phfft, yeah. It’s not like we just survived two years already or anything while up here in the north.”
“Whatever. Where are we going to look for Rain?”
Gust started to lead the way down the trench in the direction he thought Rain was. “Probably wherever those black stripes are, so let’s just ask where they are.”
As Gust and Snow began making their way around the trench, they were quick to learn the location of some of the black stripes. After taking some straightaways and a few turns here and there, the two finally made their last turn when they came into a roofed pathway that was dug out into a pit.
Inside the small pit, were some of the black stripes, who were all sitting around with their weapons besides them. None of them had any everfrees and there was no Rain to be found.
When Gust and Snow came up on them, a few of the black stripes peered over at them. Of the three that looked, only one wore a mask over their face while the other two had it pulled down around their necks.
The eyes they looked at Gust and Snow with were sharp as they tried to win a one sided game of stare down.
Just as Gust was about to open his mouth and speak, one of the staring black stripes interrupted him. “No.”
“What?”
“No. Now fuck off,” It was one of the unmasked black stripes who said it, and they continued to stare down Gust and Snow.
“Yeah, well we’re just looking…” Gust trailed off as two of the black stripes, a masked and unmasked one, stood up and walked up to him.
The intimidating aura of the two made Gust and Snow both uneasy, nearly forcing them to ready their weapons in some off chance something happened. Nearly.
As the two black stripes stood in front of Gust, Snow was the one who pushed Gust through the two and forced themselves to continue through the pit.
Gust walked through the two, nearly butting shoulders with them as he did so. Once through, Gust and Snow kept going, not stopping as they passed through the spot. The whole time, all the black stripes focused their gazes on the two until they rounded another corner and were gone.
“What the fuck was that!” Gust asked concerned.
“Our apparent friends it seems,” Snow added.
“Yeah, no shit. They didn’t have to be so hostile though.”
Snow had been closer to having his weapon ready, but once they were clear of view of the black stripes, he relaxed. “But don’t ask me, I was just as tense as you were.”
“Yeah, no way Rain’s alive,” Gust said in a concerned tone.
“I’m sure he’s fine.”
“Yeah, I mean, of course, but damn.”
Snow pulled Gust to a stop once they reached an intersection in the trenches. “You think he just went back to the bunker then? I bet you all of them are going to be like that.”
Gust looked around the intersection, eying some of the ponies that were down some of the lanes, including another pair of black stripes in the opposite direction they needed to go.
Not wanting to gain the attention of the other two black stripes, Gust looked at Snow and nodded. “Yeah. Fuck that,” And as Gust lead Snow down the correct trench, he spoke up again. “Sure is a lot of ‘fuck that’ attitude going around tonight.”
“Sure is.”
After winding their way through the trench network, Gust and snow finally made it back to their bunker that they were staying in.
As they entered, the lights that had been lit before had been dimmed down. Only Jackpot had some lights going, which was coming from some orbs of magic she had floating around.
“Where were you two at?” Hazelblossom asked once Gust and Snow finally entered.
“Looking for Rain?” Gust asked. He was confused at the question as he began looking around the bunker to see who was inside.
At the mention of Rain, Jackpot’s magic light orbs directed themselves towards Rain’s cot as she herself looked at him. Rain was asleep in his cot with his rifle slung over his chest.
“He was asleep when I got back. I was the first one here besides him,” Hazelblossom said.
As Gust and Snow looked from Rain to Hazelblossom, Jackpot’s magic lights shined away from Rain and back towards the card game she was in the middle of. The lighting of the bunker dimmed to a low level again as that happened.
“Blaze?” Gust asked.
“Hmm?” Blaze asked as he came back into the bunker from behind.
“Oh! Where were you?”
“Smoking.”
“Hmmph.”
And just as Blaze had entered, Sergeant Shadow entered from outside as well. “I know we just had a,” Shadow mockingly coughed, “attack, but you need rest as well. Get sleep,” And as Shadow said that, she glanced at Jackpot. “Down with the cards you addict.”
Jackpot grumbled as she disgruntledly gathered her cards and put them into their package.
As Gust, Snow, and Blaze began taking their helmets and guns off themselves, Shadow stopped them for a moment. “Just so you know, we have two from that battalion that’ll be our POW crew tomorrow. They’ll meet with us before we leave, and before you ask, no, we don’t know their names. Ok? Ok.” Shadow smiled as she was quick to then leave the three alone, knowing well that question, or something like it, would come given that the rest of the squad had asked earlier.
As the three finally finished up taking off a few bits of gear, they went for their cots to get in, as did Jackpot.
“Blaze,” Gust whispered out now as he realized a few members were already asleep.
“Hmm?”
“Those stripes, we ran into them. They nearly fucking held us up for just walking through their little nest.”
“What?”
Snow came over and added in. “They were sitting in a covered pit and we were about to ask about Rain and they just shut us down. Stood up and gave us quite a fight.”
“No way. Why?” Blaze asked.
“I guess everypony else has pestered them already and they were just done with it,” Gust added.
Shadow came up and cleared her throat. “Privates.”
Blaze chuckled and Snow quickly made his way back to his own cot.
Once Shadow left back to her cot, Gust whispered even more quietly. “Yeah, they’re real weird. Worse than what we thought.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, just, we’ll see what they’re like tomorrow then. Hopefully, they’re not in our way,” Blaze whispered back before he finally left for his cot.
Now that everypony had split up, they all were quick to fall asleep, or nap. It was still hard to get rest on the front line for some. Others were able to snooze away at a moment's notice, whether gunfire, artillery, or cold wet mud surrounded them. If only Gust was so lucky for such a skill.
After a slow night, Gust had to get up.
He hadn’t been able to sleep for much of the night for whatever reason, so he finally got to his limit and had to get up. While having no regard for how much noise he made, not that he made much as he moved around, he grabbed his basic kit, but this time his extra jacket he could put on. Overnight, the temperature had obviously dropped, so it was heavily encouraged to wear it at this point.
Wearing the warmer clothing and having his stuff, he stepped out of the bunker and back into the trench.
Outside of the trench, in the spot where he and Blaze had smoked last night, stood Moonshadow, who quietly smoked her own cigarette in silence, by herself. Gust must not have noticed her missing from the bunker.
Moonshadow wore her helmet and her own jacket, but they didn’t have any of their kit or gun on them. Just themselves and some smokes.
When the two noticed one another, nothing was said. Moonshadow exhaled some smoke and Gust nodded at them before leaving her be.
There wasn’t much noise around as Gust walked through the trench. There weren’t as many ponies about as before, and the ones who were out huddled together with their guns ready, whispering away to pass the time.
As Gust continued around, he eventually came across a lookout who was glued to a mirrored periscope that looked up and over the trench. They were alone.
When the quiet mushes of the mud that came from Gust’s walking became audible to this pony, they got excited. “Hey, come check this out.”
As this pony looked away from the periscope to look at Gust, they looked disappointed. “Oh, you’re not Crate.”
Gust adjusted his rifle as he slowed to a stop. “What is it?”
The pony peered through the periscope again before looking back. “Ah, well, look. It’s just a random light out in the far distance. I think it’s at the city, but it’s hard to tell due to the darkness.”
The pony then motioned at the periscope device for Gust to look through it.
“It’s just an ever so small light. Nothing our guns could reach. Take a look.”
Gust stepped forward towards the periscope to look through it. Pressing his eyes up against the device, he was able to see over the top.
Most of what Gust saw was just the darkened outlines of trees until the obvious light in one direction glowed. It really was in the far distance, which was easy to tell by the brightness and size of it.
“Yeah, do you see it?”
Gust took his face away from the device and looked at the other pony. “Yeah? I saw it.”
“It’s been there for a few minutes, and I’ve just been watching it.”
“Do you know what it is?” Gust asked.
“No. It appeared a few minutes after my bud went to get something for us, so I’ve just been scanning since while I waited for them and saw it appear. I’m surprised some artillery has been called onto it yet.”
Gust took a peek back at the periscope and looked at the light one last time before stepping away from it. “Yeah, surprising.”
Everything in the direction that they were looking was all considered enemy territory. But the Changelings didn’t have any trenches themselves on this side of the river, or theirs, as they currently just sat in the city.
Just as Gust was stepping away from the periscope, a new pony appeared. The new one was quick to be spoken to by the other pony and it quickly became clear that this new pony was Crate, or at least somepony the periscope one knew.
As the new pony was shown to the periscope themselves, Gust took the moment to scoot away and continue down the trench without saying anything else to the other.
When Gust took a few more turns and began going around the back line of trenches back towards his own bunker, he came across another interesting thing.
In a different bunker, belonging to some other squad, there was noise. The entrance to this bunker had a simple wooden door made out of planks, but it was open. Outside of the bunker, were a few ponies peering into it as they stood at the sides to not block it.
As Gust joined the few ponies outside, he nudged one to get their attention.
“What’s going on here?”
The pony Gust had nudged, turned around to respond. “They’re dancing,” And with that simple response, they motioned into the bunker.
Gust took a peek with the others and listened. As he tuned into what was happening, he heard drumming and banging.
Once Gust’s eyes adjusted to the lanterns inside the bunker, he finally realized what was happening. A few ponies were dancing, as he had been told.
But what was really interesting was the sound of the music that was being produced.
It was rhythmic, while being broken up with the sounds of rattling. The source of the drumming and banging was from a few empty tank shells and brodie helmets, while the sound of the rattling was still unknown.
There was a bit of whispering from some of the ponies watching into the bunker before one spoke out. “They’re from the third. They have a bunch of bats and jungle ponies in their squads. It’s apparently a ritual they do before they go on a hunt.”
“Oh! The ones from Acama- What’s it called? Acamadichi? Acamasuchi? That one jungle in the south?”
“Yeah, yeah, that jungle area west of Stableside.”
After Gust’s attention was drawn back into the bunker from the chit-chat, he finally saw one of the bat ponies come into view.
This bat pony flared their wings largely as they shook two helmets tied together. When they began spinning around, the drumming intensified and a language none of the ponies outside knew began being chanted in.
“They apparently used bullets for those make shift shakers,” One of the ponies mentioned.
Just as it seemed that the ritual dance was about to intensify even more, a pony walked up behind everypony at the bunker entrance and yelled out at them. “What in Luna’s moon is going on here!”
With all the ponies jumping at the sudden announcement, they all turned to look at who it was.
Before them stood a captain. A pissed off one at that.
One of the other ponies spoke up. “They’re havin–”
They were cut off by the captain. “All of you, go back to your positions!” And as they said that, they stormed through everypony and into the bunker.
Once a yell came from the captain, the entire bunker was silent, but before watching whatever was about to happen unfold, the other ponies started to scatter.
“Best not stick around bud,” One of the ponies said to Gust as they headed off themselves.
Gust took that advice to heart and took off, with a bit more speed in his step towards his own bunker a few minutes away.
The direction Gust took was the same direction one of the other ponies was taking.
“I think a corporal turned them in. I was there since it started and they didn’t seem too happy about it.”
Gust looked around the trench for a second until he realized he was being spoken to. “Oh! Really? Why? It’s not that loud until you’re next to the entrance.”
“Who I think did it, isn’t fond of bats, so he just wanted to ruin their fun.”
“Why so?
The other pony shrugged. “I think they were robbed by one back in o-eight.”
“That’s kind of stupid.”
“They’re also just kind of an asshole, so it’s expected.”
As the two reached a split in the trenches, the other pony motioned down an opposing path. “This is my way.”
“Huh, well, cool chatting,” Gust said as he went down a different path. The two didn’t have any further goodbye than that.
“How was your walk?” Moonshadow asked once she saw Gust show back up.
Moonshadow was still outside of the bunker.
“Got yelled at by another company for watching a ritual take place,” Gust laughed at his own statement.
“A what now?” Moonshadow said as she floated her fresh cigarette near her mouth.
“A ritual. Some jungle folk were dancing and singing in their bunker, then their command came in and yelled at them. For us that were watching, we dipped before we could get yelled at again. It was kind of weird.”
“Oh, the third? I heard they had a few batties from the jungles that had some odd traditions.”
“That’s what somepony said they were. They had their own music as well. It was quite interesting really,” Gust said.
“You think it’s a bad omen?” Gust asked next.
“What, that a ritual’s taking place?”
“Of course. Why else would some strange ponies show up all of a sudden, and then the jungle folk start a ritual? They said it was for hunt.”
Moonshadow was surprised at the final comment. “A hunt for what!”
Gust could only shrug, but Gust and Moon both had some idea as to what a hunt might mean.
“Good thing we don’t have any batties in our platoon,” Moonshadow said.
“It was also some normal ponies. I think an earth pony is what I saw.”
“I’d just be worried about the batties myself.”
“Sounds like smart thinking,” Gust added. “Can I take a smoke?” Gust then asked right afterwards.
Moonshadow agreed with a smile and took out a smoke from her pack and floated it over to Gust.
Once Gust had the smoke in his mouth, Moonshadow also helped light up his cig. Because there wasn’t any wind, Gust hadn’t bothered with shielding the cigarette and lighter.
With the cigarette lit, Gust joined Moonshadow outside as the two smoked. He stood in the same spot he had earlier with Blaze.
“You should really get your own pack,” Moonshadow said.
“I’ve never been able to,” Gust replied back.
“You’re always hitting off of ours.”
“You all keep sharing.”
Moonshadow took a hit and puffed it out. “Touche.”
What? No Morocco Mole?
12057861
who's that?
12057869
Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole
https://i.redd.it/wat10g0wk1721.jpg
12057906
Thatd be pretty funny to do actually.
I saw that when i was looking if “secret squirrel stuff” was a actual thing before making the title/description