Part I: the training facility

It was a regular day back at ponyville but this story does not begin in ponyville this story begins in a military training camp where the most familiar characters of ponyville are training to be sent into combat in the jungles of Vietnam. This training facility was not like any of the others for this facility was built right on the Vietnam fronts but this camp was commanded by three of the most hardened war vets there was. The commanders of the elaborate camp were as listed: five stars general Captain Blood of the 45th infantry division, 3rd class staff sergeant artic Zamont of the 31's sniper brigade, 3rd class colonel Jonathan Tomax of the 23rd green berets, and 1st class sergeant Christopher rickets of the 101st airborne division. These three would be training the newest recruits to go under their command the new recruits are as listed: buck private first class twilight sparkle, private first class big Macintosh, private second class applejack, private 3rd class rarity, foot soldier 2nd class fluttershy, and foot soldier 2nd class pinkie pie. Along with these recruits were some others but let us begin the story at the beginning of this voyage.

Everypony was standing at attention with their commanding officers as general captain blood came out from his war room examining each cadet closely as he walked up to each group each one of the commanding officers would have their troops salute the general as he approached. "At ease cadets" the general said as he walked up and down the rows, "now then when i call your name i want you to get you uniform weapon and equipment and head to your assigned bunk do i make myself clear?!" as if all at they were thinking the same way everyone replied "Sir yes sir!". The general smiled a bit and started calling 7 names at a time "sparkle twilight, Macintosh big, rarity, applejack, fluttershy, pie pinkie, and dash rainbow you are all in bunk 13" he had said as he continued reading off names and they began grabbing their clothing and equipment then weapons and heading to their bunks. Once in their bunk the general and staff sergeant Zamont went into their bunk and informed them they had 10 minutes to get ready and be ready to receive farther instruction once the general and staff sergeant left they all began getting ready.

As they were getting ready, rarity looked at the uniform in disgust "oh my such dreadful rags do they really expect us to wear these?" twilight smiled and looked at rarity "well look on the Brightside it could've been a lot worse" rarity without hesitation responded "worse?! How could things possibly get any worse?" everyone else was standing in front of their cots ready for inspection in their uniforms with their belts on buckles polished boots shined knives and 1911 pistols holstered and M16's or M14's with the but stock on the ground being held by the barrel so the barrel was facing the ceiling. Fluttershy being the most shy and timid was shaking a bit but pinkie pie managed to help calm her nerves at least until the door was slammed open making both pinkie pie and fluttershy jump a bit as General blood walked in to examine how well they had followed orders. As the General looked over seeing rarity not in her uniform as he walked over to her as rarity asked "General i would like to request a new uniform i will not fight a war in these rags" the general looked at her and grinned "well if you want a new uniform you should talk to Zamont and Tomax". Zamont and Tomax walked up on both sides of her taking rarity outside and tossing her under the barbed wire in the mud as zamont said "if you want a new uniform you've got it right now otherwise get in you uniform" he said as they both returned to the bunk. General blood looked at the now incredibly scared pinkie and fluttershy. "What are you two shaking about?" he said looking at them as fluttershy quietly responded "n…nothing" the general tilted his head in confusion. "I cant here you maggot!" he said getting in her face as she spoke up to a normal level with all the courage she could muster "Nothing sir". The general smiled a bit and continued his inspection "this is a marine camp there for you will be trained to be marines and you will be trained to fear nothing now then at ease and report to the front of you bunk to begin your training".

Month 1:

It had been a month since fluttershy, rarity, big mac, twilight, pinkie pie, and applejack had join the military but at this point they had begun to wonder what had happened to rainbow dash she hadn't reported to the camp the first day and still had no sign of her anywhere. Twilight looked at rarity and softly said "rarity I'm worried about rainbow dash she hasn't reported to the camp at all i think she may have jumped ship out of here" rarity stayed silent and in her proned position wearing the uniform that had been given to her holding her M14 and shooting the targets as they appeared. Almost as if she had been ignoring twilight the entire time while everyone was at the shooting range fluttershy was having trouble with her M16 as it would keep jamming or misfiring General blood told her to take it apart clean it find the problem fix it then put it back together again.

Fluttershy had finished cleaning her gun and repairing it as she put it back together and gave it a fresh clip pulling the trigger getting knocked back by the recoil landing her in the arms of General blood now at this point even the hardened war vet had begun to blush. She did as well but after she got up she faced him with a salute "sorry sir the recoil of the gun knocked me into you" the general stood up and saluted her back and replied "at ease private fluttershy your still getting used to the weapons i understand". Fluttershy nodded and went back to the shooting range meanwhile Zamont and Tomax were inside the communications center where an urgent message had come in from the battlefield from sergeant rainbow dash.

Zamont and Tomax knew that a message from Rainbow dash had to spell trouble so as quickly as they got it they ran it out to general blood that read it and had to confer wit Zamont and Tomax about what was happening. Zamont shook his head looking at the general "it has become apparent general we need to put the troops training on fast forward otherwise sergeant rainbow is gonna be in some serious trouble". General blood faced his new recruits and had them all stand at attention as he said "you rawhides are gonna have to work even harder now cause as it would appear sergeant rainbow's brigade has been captured and put in a POW camp". All of the recruits were in shock as he shook his head not wanting to believe it himself as he looked down and shook his head.

Month 2:

The newest recruits had almost all been worked to the braking point but they had all received new unit responsibilities rarity became a sniper, big mac a machine gunner, fluttershy a medic, twilight a was on communications, and pinkie was a rifleman. Each took on these responsibilities with pride but with great pride comes great fear so even though they were proud to have been given these statuses, they were still very fearful of being on the frontlines but they knew general blood was working as fast as he could to make them perfect soldiers. Big mac looked at his little sister who was writing a letter to send back home to her little sister and grandmother back in ponyville. After he looked at his sister, he looked at rarity and twilight who were as well writing letters to send home. He looked at pinkie and fluttershy who were playing cards big mac just smiled and continued writing his letter to send back home to his wife and kids to inform them that he was safe. The silence was only temporary as the fight raged on and the sounds of bombs and gunfire could be heard out in the distance once lights out came they put away their stuff and went to bed. The next morning the ones that had wrote letters had mailed them off and reported to the mess hall as fluttershy and pinkie waited for them the moment they entered they grabbed a tray and got their food then sat at the table nearest the general and his three comrades. The commanding officers were planning a way to get rainbow dash and her squad out of the POW camp.

Month 3:

At this point the recruits had become hardened tough as nails soldiers but still had their flaws but they couldn't waste anymore time they had to get out in the field ASAP. General blood looked at the hardened troops that he had created and had them move out as he split them into four groups to ensure they covered more ground. "Zamont you take flim flam and applejack, tomax you take rarity, pinkie, and ace, rickets you take twilight, four speed, and berry burn, I'll go with fluttershy big mac and carrot cake" each group saluted him and ran out into the jungle to start their search and rescue mission for rainbow dash.

Once in the jungle the sounds of warfare echoed throughout as bombs and grenades exploded gunfire whizzed right past the groups as they charged up the hill "we are under some heavy fire commander are you sure about that Intel?" Big mac said as general blood looked at him returning the enemy fire "it's the only lead we've got on her whereabouts" general blood said throwing a grenade into the enemy bunker. As the enemies ran for the hills the grenade blew up killing some of the soldiers as they tried to run but were killed by the blast as fluttershy shook a bit as all three of them ran up the hill as if leading a full on assault against the Viet cong. General blood and his team rendezvoused with the other three only to find that some of them were missing but they had to morn the losses later.

General blood looked at Zamont and tomax finding that rickets was killed when he tried to charge up the hell but once the enemy's bunker was destroyed General blood took fluttershy and ran over to rickets. Fluttershy cringed at the sight of rickets lying on the floor with a hole in his chest. Blood knew he could not be saved so he just took the dog tags off rickets corpse as fluttershy looked confused but blood told her "we take the dog tags of our fallen brothers in arms and return them to their families." Fluttershy nodded in understanding as they continued on their venture into the dense and thick jungles.

Part II: the letters

After a hard day of fighting in the jungles the entire platoon sat down, ate, and wrote letters to their families as fluttershy just ate one of her MRE's (meals ready to eat) meanwhile back in ponyville the letters that had been sent out had just arrived as the mail carrier ran the letters to each of the addressed homes. First was applejacks house where applebloom had been waiting anxiously for the arrival of her sister's letter. Once the letter was handed to her, she waved goodbye to the mail carrier and ran inside to granny smith. Applebloom was so excited she could hardly stand the wait as she opened the letter and read it aloud for her dear old grandmother. "Dear applebloom and granny smith, big mac and i are safe and we have been working incredibly hard to get onto the battlefield. Fluttershy, twilight, rainbow dash, rarity, and pinkie pie are all here as well and are doing well as well. I miss you guys a lot and hope to return home ASAP sincerely, Applejack " applebloom looked at granny smith who smiled a little glad to know that applejack and big mac are safe. As the mail carrier continued on his route dropping off the other letters, he stopped at cheerilee and big Mac's house as the mail carrier dropped off big Mac's letter as the mail carrier went and finished delivering the letters. Each person in ponyville that had received a letter from either family or loved ones took solace in knowing that they were safe and ok.

Part III: the jungles can be ruthless

The sun had just barely begun to rise as the sounds of warfare echoed through the thick wooded jungle as Blood had the platoon pick up their gear and equipment and continue moving he started thinking about his own life. His platoon had been working so ruthlessly on becoming the best that the equestrian Marine Corps had to offer that they had actually begun feeling no pain at times. As they pressed on problems began occurring as morale fell low illness and infection became frequent. Twilight looked at rarity, rarity looked at fluttershy, fluttershy looked at pinkie, and pinkie looked at big mac all the way, until everyone was looking at blood. This did not surprise him at all but he just pressed on as they followed him to which he saw a hill where a POW camp was set up he said rarity zamont tomax and twilight to scope it out and hold their fire until he gave the order. As twilight, rarity, zamont, and tomax examined the POW camp they had notice four unarmed prisoners on their knees with four executioners aiming at the backs of their heads. Twilight whispered to blood "sir, we've got visual on four hostiles getting ready to execute four POW's what do we do?" blood looked at her giving the order to hold their fire. Rarity moved her finger to the trigger, as did zamont and tomax, as they got ready to pull the trigger and kill the hostiles as blood used his binoculars to scout out the camp.

Blood spotted about fifteen to twenty guards as he called over big mac, flim, flam, and Mr. Cake "you four on me we 're going to take out some of the guards this was we weaken their forces." Big mac, flim, flam, and Mr. Cake nodded following him as he went into the river and began heading across the stream cutting a hole in the fence as he gave the order to take the shot. Four shots were fired and four people fell dead as blood, big mac, flim flam and Mr. Cake all ran in shooting up the Viet Cong soldiers as they freed the prisoners from two different areas in the camp as they looked around checking all the buildings. "Clear" big mac said from inside the bunkhouse, "clear here" Mr. Cake said from inside the prisoner bunk, "clear here as well" flim said from the enemy barracks "clear here to" flam said from the mess hall as blood gave the signal for all clear and enter the enemy camp and look for supplies and weapons.

When everyone split up to search the camp flim and flam had gone to the garage where they had found two tanks, two half tracks, four jeeps, and one helicopter all of the vehicles were fully loaded and ready to go as the platoon ran over. "flim and flam zamont and tomax u guys take the jeeps, twilight and rarity you two take the half tracks and get the prisoners and give them some weapons to help us fight this war. Applejack and big mac you take one tank fluttershy and i will take the other, and Mr. Cake you take the chopper" blood said as they all saluted him and got in their vehicles and began to leave the enemy camp as Mr. Cake got the helicopter up and kept in communication with everybody.

Part IV: the night assault and the loss of a friend

After a few hours of driving night had finally come and everyone except for Mr. cake had been able to get out of their vehicles to bunk down for the night as Mr. Cake flew around looking for a place to land as he looked frantically. An allied soldier group saw the Viet cong helicopter and without hesitation blew it up with a single RPG shot as the helicopter burned it finally hit the ground and in a fiery explosion causing blood zamont and tomax to go see what had happened. Shocked they found the smoldering remains the Viet Cong helicopter that Mr. Cake had been flying and inside the cockpit was the smoldering body of Mr. Cake as blood reached in retrieving his dog tags and the letter he was going to send back to his wife but it was only lightly burned but still readable. As blood, zamont and tomax returned to camp only to find the allied soldiers ran out of the jungle to check the wreckage and to see if they had brought it down. When they saw the helicopter had been blown up they high fived each other cheering and laughing which made blood stop and tackle the leader of the three that had shot down the chopper. As blood began beating the soldier, senseless zamont and tomax tried to get blood off the soldier before he actually killed him. When zamont and tomax pulled blood off the stunned and badly beaten soldier blood became pissed off "you fucking idiots you just shot down one of my squad rant members!" the soldiers looked at him confused as their leader sergeant cheval stepped up and replied "we did no such thing we took down a Viet Cong chopper General". Blood had gotten free of his two officers "you idiot we took a Viet Cong prison camp and took the vehicles that they had in an attempt to pull a surprise attack on the Viet Cong Camp where Sergeant Rainbow dash is being held" blood said trying to calm himself down. Bloods platoon looked at the wrecked and burning helicopter unsure of what they were going to tell his wife when they finally returned. Blood looked at his platoon and gave the order to let the POW's out of the vehicles so they can travel with sergeant cheval as they were heading back to a nearby allied camp blood and his platoon pressed on. Twilight looked at rarity and said, "What are we doing here rarity? We might end up just like Mr. Cake." Rarity looked at Twilight and responded quickly "we are soldiers and if we make the ultimate sacrifice then we make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the safety of those in ponyville" shocked by this answer twilight fell back next to big mac, fluttershy, and pinkie pie.

Part V: ambush at the jungle clearing

The platoon had finally made it to a clearing but its seemed way to quiet and with nightfall just over the horizon they had no choice but to try to clear the area to set up camp. Zamont looked at rarity and gave her hand signals to go investigate the area but she looked at blood who was giving her signals to keep low because of mines ad punji spike pits rarity nodded and began heading into the clearing carefully and quietly. Once rarity had entered the clearing, twilight told her to wait and not to move. Just before rarity put her foot down, she had noticed the land mine right under her foot before she had stepped on it she took a step back as flim began working on defusing the mine rarity went around. Shortly after going around rarity found herself dangling four feet above a punji spike pit as she held on to the ledge the Viet cong had begun opening fire on the small platoon. As blood and his platoon returned fire, blood ran and slid over to rarity to try to help her. As they cross fire, continued rarity began reaching for bloods hand only to have the hand she was hanging on with get shot. Rarity plummeted four feet into the pit being impaled by the sharp bamboo spikes at the bottom of the hole when blood looked down rarity weakly handed him a letter and her dog tags as her blood dripped down the spikes. Once he had them rarity's body became limp as se had died as blood started shooting again the moment after flim was about to defuse the mine he was shot in the side of the head causing his body to fall and trigger the min to explode. Blood and body parts splattered all over the surrounding trees as well as blood and his platoon.

When the enemy retreated flam ran over to where his brother had been killed and blown up, he looked at blood that had taken flim's dog tags and told his platoon to press on. Flam stood up and pulled out his 1911 pistol and put it to his head and with tears in his eyes looked at blood and said "so long commander… this is where my journey ends" before blood could say anything flam had pulled the trigger and committed suicide. When his lifeless body fell to the floor blood took the dog tags and a letter he was going to send home at the first chance he got. Blood looked at twilight, fluttershy, big mac, applejack, pinkie pie, zamont, and tomax the only survivors left he saw they were all greatly disturbed to have seen their friend and two brothers be killed in the same location. Blood ordered them to press on cause they couldn't stop until they reach the Wong choa river where a bridge that lead to POW camp where their missing comrade was.

Blood knew that his platoon would not be able to hold out much longer at the rate they were getting killed they had only a few days to get to where they had to get and get their equipment. Blood knew of a place they could get what they needed but they had to pool together all their money to do it. When they had continued their mission, they had come to an old Vietnamese town the platoon headed to the local restaurant that had two dragons on the door. Bloods platoon wondered what they were doing at this restaurant but once they sat down blood had a friend that brought them all "special" menus. When blood flipped to the last few pages of the menu, he found a lot of heavy artillery and vehicles but he knew they did not have too much money.

Part VI: the old weapons and the new attack plan

The owner of the restaurant led blood and his platoon down into some underground tunnels where he kept his weapons in secret. Bloods platoon went looking around at some of the stuff as the owner of the restaurant led blood to a covered up care package crate. When blood and the restaurant owner uncovered the crate, blood opened it up finding weapons from almost every war period dating back to the First World War "how much for the lot of em?" the owner looked at him as blood examined a 1911 pistol that was in the case. "1500 for them all" the owner said as blood pulled the slide back it got jammed as blood picked up a dusty hat and smacked the dust off of it. "we'll give you 950" blood said throwing the pistol back into the case as he closed it the restaurant owner replied "your cheap but I'll take it" blood paid the owner as big mac lifted a case of beer up "how much for the beer?" the owner looked at him and replied "it'll be the compliments of the house". Big mac smiled picking up a couple of the cases of beer as blood with some assistance from zamont lifted the weapons crate and left through an underground passage.

Once they had gotten far enough from town blood and his platoon went to work separating and cleaning the weapons. Blood had picked up a bazooka, an AK47, 1911 handgun, and a few grenades. Big mac came over with some beers for the platoon as they cleaned the weapons "hey general what's our new plan of attack?" blood looked at him and smiled with a simple reply "new weapons new attack I've had twilight intercept some of the Viet Cong's communications". Blood's platoon looked confused as he pulled out a map of the POW camp "see they have a bridge where they bring in new prisoners there are four guard towers and only two ways in" blood said as twilight looked at him "and those ways are what?" blood replied "through the fence or through the drainage pipes."

Part VII: the final stand and the deadly rescue

After blood and his platoon geared up and headed toward the river, he spit up the platoon into two groups "fluttershy, zamont, and big mac you're with me on the water because we gotta blow that bridge to keep out the reinforcements, twilight, applejack, pinkie pie, and tomax you guys blow up the guard towers and artillery facilities." When they split up and bloods group headed into the water blood told his squad to dive down cause there was a PT boat on the river headed straight for them. When they dove down blood came up on the side of it chucking a grenade onto it as it approached the docks it exploded making things easier for the ground assault.

Blood, Zamont, Fluttershy, and Big mac went to rigging the bridge meanwhile tomax applejack and twilight went to work rigging the guard towers. "Tomax how are those bombs coming along" twilight whispered as tomax got done rigging the bombs "all clear lets keep going we gotta rig the ammo storage house" tomax said as pinkie finished rigging her bomb to the guard tower. Once everything was rigged and set to blow up blood handed zamont the detonator. "The moment you hear those reinforcements step onto that bridge you blow that sucker to kingdom come," he said as he led big mac and fluttershy through the tunnel. Zamont was waiting as tomax's team finished rigging up the ammo buildings as over bloods radio he got static and a few words from twilight "bomb- hav- placed- red—you are". Blood picked up his radio "say again say again twilight" over the radio came static but this time it was much more clear "the bombs have been placed we're ready when you are". Blood smiled a bit and replied, "Copy that 10-4 we are currently in the tunnels approaching the camp go ahead and execute your plan and blow those suckers up". Twilight nodded to tomax applejack and pinkie pie as they lit the fuses, got clear, and as if in one big explosion the whole camp was exploding as fluttershy big mac and blood climbed out of the tunnels.

At this point blood fluttershy, big mac, tomax, applejack, and pinkie pie had begun looking around for any signs of rainbow and her squad. They searched high and low until twilight found rainbow in an underground cage where her wings had been tied up so she could not fly away. Meanwhile back at the bridge Zamont heard the reinforcements coming and started detonating the bombs but only one was a dud as fluttershy grabbed a satchel charge and threw it out onto the bridge and began shooting at it blowing the rest of the bridge sky high. Blood told fluttershy to help the POW's then ordered Zamont to get topside and into a chopper blood looked at tomax who was climbing into a fifth guard tower to provide cover fire. Blood zamont and twilight got into the cockpits of three helicopters as twilight, applejack, rainbow dash, pinkie pie got in one big mac, and some of the other prisoners got in another and as blood took the remaining prisoners and fluttershy in another. They began to take off but some of the soldiers from the camp set up and began shooting at the three choppers as the left as they were flying off the Viet Cong had begun firing rockets one of which hit twilights chopper sending it crashing and burning into the river below with a huge explosion.

As of the machine gunners they had been shooting at zamonts chopper only managing to kill a few POW's and big mac as they continued to fly off into the distance to prevent any father problems tomax pulled the pin of his grenade that he wore around his neck and took the gunners out with him when the grenade exploded. As they flew into the distance, they returned the helicopters to ponyville only to find everyone waiting to see their loved ones when the helicopters landed the wave of sadness washed over the town knowing that they're loved ones had died on the battlefield. Later that day blood had gon to a tree and memorialized them so that they're memory and legacy of what they had accomplished would be immortalized for as long as ponyville was around.

The end

This story was written in the memory of Colonel Jack Tomax and the many men and women who gave their lives from the revolutionary war all the way to the war in Iraq.

Please no flames.