Original Description:
The uniformed unicorn in full combat camouflaged vest, with an added dark green bulletproof layer (That has seen better days) and an olive green helmet, looked at the celestially white princess with rainbow-colored pastel-colored mane with a strong mix of incredulity, confusion and maybe even defiance. “No, I refuse to let you participate in this bloody mess my Princess!” His accented voice sounded through the room with vehemence as he slammed a hoof on the table in front of the crown-wearing alicorn. “You don’t know how harsh war can be, and you’re our leader! Our only leader! You can’t die! Otherwise morale will plummet like a Pegasus that got shot down!” He said with a demanding tone, but in reality, he was just seeking for the safety of his princess. He was a Royal Guard anyways, despite being a Combat Engineer, his main duty was to protect the Princess with her life, and he would not let her go to frontline combat, especially something so dangerous like urban warfare.
“Worry not my little pony” The celestial Princess said, gently patting the helmeted non-com with one of her forehooves. “They will not hurt me, I promise you” She said, her gentle and kind tone betraying the real message she wanted to portray with that sentence… One that indicated that the benevolent ruler was dead and now there was someone with a roaring rampage of revenge to supersede her. “But I won’t let them go away…. They have to pay for their crimes” She said, looking away, a thousand yard stare towards the window, before she went back to dress appropriately for the last mission, putting on the gold-like gloves tailored just for her and trying to fit the helmet appropriately.
“But my Princess, it’s my duty to protect you! And as your subordinate this petition is madness!” The unicorn pony retorted, fixing the blue bangs that dropped to his face to look at her eyes clearly. What she saw was a fiery determination to burn the opposition, and it actually made her cower slightly, involuntarily managing to put his drum-magazine submachinegun between him and the royal princess.
“I understand… And I appreciate your effort my little pony” She said, putting on the long boots on her hindhooves, then proceeding to look at the makeshift HQ’s entrance “Vivacus, Stella, could you please hand me some stick grenades? Thanks” She yelled towards the entrance, where two royal guards were standing next to the door. A small response, indicating they understood and complied with the order, and they left to get the grenades “But… I can’t… forgive them…” She trailed off, looking aside momentarily, a tear escaping her right eye. “Twilight… Cadance…” She wiped the tear with one of her gloved forehooves, as she started to take the Flammenwerfer 41 on top of the table, already filled with fuel and propellant. “I won’t let them hurt anyone else… I won’t let them hurt more of my little ponies…” She said, picking up the flamethrower gun, at the same time an unchanged changeling and a sphinx proceeding to enter inside the room and give her the grenades she was looking for, which the Princess promptly put in her boots. “I’m sorry, I know it’s your duty to take care of me, but I don’t plan on sitting here as my little ponies get murdered by those… animals…” she said coldly, the warm and motherly tone almost gone, as she proceeded to exit the HQ building.
…..
2 years later…
Celestia looked at the battlefield with magenta eyes that showcased her tranquil fury that could melt steel beams, then she glanced behind her figure, at the tanks, halftracks and armored vehicles that conformed her battle unit. She was mostly a proficient commander herself, but over the past years she has also become an almost unstoppable soldier, and more often than not a lucky charm for the armored unit she was into; “1st Royal Guard corps Celestial Sentinels”, in honor to the princess of the sun herself. Her units, together with the “2nd Night Guard corps Black Watch”, commanded by Celestia’s counterpart; Princess Luna, were both going to do a direct attack on the enemy capital. This was it; this was the final stand for the enemy. The city was a fortified hellhole and they were going to take it, whatever it took. They didn’t want to sign a peace treaty when they could, and now they’re going to end this war by debellatio if needed.
She looked at her uniform, her eyes almost immediately locking onto her medal of Twilight’s cutie mark, a sudden sensation of sadness invading her psyche as she looked aside, trying to not think of that. She picked up the gun of her trusty flamethrower, absentmindedly looking at the countless killmarks on the side, that indicated how many have fallen prey of her rage, afterwards accommodating the fuel and compressed gas cylinders backpack, making sure to not squeeze her wings with the heavy load. She fixed her rugged helmet, worn by the constant use, some little snippets having separated from the main area, and even some near misses from enemy bullets that grazed the surface, ricocheting away. She had the symbol of her army corps in the helmet, and was further complimented by the patch on her right hoof with her pet Philomena, saying the words ‘Ignis’ on top, and a cuff title indicating “Celestial Flamers” ; a symbol that referenced the combat engineers that more often than not used flamethrowers and other kinds of fire-based weaponry in the dense urban warfare they often fought into.
She could heard some gunshots coming from the dense urbanization that was the enemy capital… a nightmare to fight into. She herself experienced many of her fellow ponies fall dead by a machinegunner hidden in the sewage, or a sniper under a bunch of debris. They could not walk in the middle of the road by those risks and often blew entire building and walls to mouse-hole through adjoining rooms. She looked at her right arm, the decoration of three tank destruction badges in gold and one in silver, which indicated 16 tanks destroyed, mostly using the same urban tactics to her advantage in the battles. After a thorough inspection, checking even the grenades that were on the loose ends of her boots, she proceeded to go forward, the entire regiment, like if they were following a celestial order coming from heavens itself, advanced alongside her. She was not the spearhead though, and soon, the tanks advanced in front of the infantry, letting some soldiers ‘ride’ on them and being followed closely by anti-aircraft tanks and halftracks, the former being useful for targeting enemies high in the roofs where the tank’s main cannon would’ve been ineffective due to insufficient gun elevation.
As a halftrack was approaching the lines, she quickly jumped towards it, and, hanging from the left side, she took a ride herself into the borders of the city, already cleared. She hopped down, and with her, the occupants of said halftrack, who belonged to her brigade. Alongside her was the same soldier that accompanied her since the start of the war; her trusty personal bodyguard… and sadly… the only one from the 10 that originally were tasked with protecting her. She sighed as she remembered their names, their faces, and even their voices. Those memories would never leave their head, but she felt that she was going to avenge those fallen ponies right now, right here.
“Ya zdes’ moy komandir” Said the pony with his grave accent, approaching her and staying on her side, checking his submachinegun to see if everything was alright. She smiled at him, and proceeded to trot towards the buildings, taking cover alongside the sandbags lined on the middle of the street, her loyal companion following suit, but also other two ponies, a diamond dog and a changeling that approached her, the two ponies with different camouflage smocks, and the diamond dog with a dark blue uniform with gold decorations, indicating that the two camouflaged ponies were from the 3rd Recce unit and the diamond dog a naval infantrymen, possibly from the 9th Naval Infantry Assault Company. The changeling was just dressed with a regular uniform, but covered with a dark cape and a rhomboid crystal patch on his left hoof, that suggested he was from the cold Crystal Empire’s front. The Recce elements had one a submachinegun and the other one a light machinegun, the diamond dog had a semi-automatic rifle, and the changeling had an assault rifle, newly introduced.
“Kommandant” The diamond dog started, looking at the rest of his makeshift gang that followed the solar princess “We wish to fight at your side”, the ponies and the black, holed changeling nodded energetically. She looked at them while on cover, and smiled. Almost every time she was in the battlefield there would be soldiers that decided to join her, so it was no surprise for her to see those ponies being so eager in accompanying the sun royalty. “Okay then, follow me” She said simply and directly, proceeding to abandon the cover made and follow some other soldiers towards the subterranean railroad network. The diamond dog nodded, with an “Alles klar, bin unterwegs”, as he followed her, along with the rest of this ragtag bunch of misfits, passing in front of a super heavy howitzer that had just fired point blank in a structure, killing the combatants inside, and was now reloading the heavy 260mm shell on the gun breech.
They kept trotting through the subway, looking at each dark spot where any enemy could be hiding, until the changeling, with a cracky voice that deceived his war experience, said “Over there!”. The reaction was almost instantaneous, and soon, green, blue and red tracers flew towards the spot the caped soldier pointed towards, and, as reciprocation, bullets erupted from that same area, towards the group of ponies. They took cover, occasionally popping out to fire a few burst and then get back behind the makeshift concrete cover, as Celestia herself readied her flamethrower, then, out of sudden, she raised from her prone position, and, in a fraction of a second, she pointed at the bunch of sandbags with her flamethrower, and squeezed at the same time the fuel release trigger and the ignition trigger, the napalm running through the hose as it reached the end of the flamethrower, and went through the tip to be lit up by the spark plug. In an instant, hell was let loose when the stream of sticky fuel exited the barrel of the flamethrower’s gun, lightening on fiery white flames as the burning liquid was propelled by the compressed gas towards the target, setting it on fire.
The brightness that the flame generated was enough to briefly illuminate the entirety of the subway station, the white, almost heavenly, flame that now covered the enemy soldiers, who ran and shrieked trying to get the burning napalm off their uniforms and bodies, managed to produce enough light for the group to now be able to see the rest of the enemies that were hiding behind that makeshift sandbagged position. They all popped out from their own makeshift cover and started shooting at the enemy, providing suppressive fire for Celestia, the flamethrower operator, to close in and fire a burst of white napalm (As it was called by the troops) right in the porthole of the small makeshift pillbox, the fire bouncing off the sandbag by its liquid properties and engulfing the opposition. The fire brighter than the sun in an ironic way as Celestia took one of her grenades in her hoof and threw it at the fortification, the offensive grenade exploding and sending one of the adversaries against a wall, the machinegun loader being thrown like a ragdoll towards the ground, his arm missing. “Let’s go!” Shouted Celestia, as she inspired her gang of soldiers, other three joining the already mixed group, one of them a combat medic that seemed fresh from the academy, they all followed her, firing at any other enemy on their way and using the squad tactics they’ve learned in bootcamp to survive, all the while Celestia unleashed her wrath upon the shadowy figures occupying defensive positions and screaming in her Royal Canterlot Voice ”FOR EQUESTRIA!”