Did you know I was a officer in the Royal army? Ya see, I was taken off the streets Stalliongrad at 14, I was in a gang, but at that time the SS and the city really put the screws on us and rounded us all up. I was one of the lucky ones and got picked up by the royal army, most of the guys were either shot or enslaved.
 
I was a cadet at the Breaking Dawn youth recovery center. It was brutal…you either learn to be a good soldier or you die. I was 19 by the time I graduated as an officer and was sent to Canterlot to await assignment. Ya see, most of the officers in the army are upper class, most of ‘em come from Canterlot and all they had to do was go to officer’s school, take note, agree kindly, and that’s it. And because I was a commoner, they all looked down on me and felt they needed to pity me, because a single girl must be quite stressed in the army. I submitted my opinions in the form of fist fights, and thanks to my training, I kicked their asses and challenged anyone to fights to see if they could beat me. Shortly afterwords, Luna damned Prince Blueblood himself came to take up my challenge, He also said I was very pretty and proposed if he won, then I would have the honor to polish his boots, and if I won, he’ll polish my boots for me, in front of everybody, did I mention he was two ranks above me?
 
He was a big guy, but underestimated me, I caught him off guard with a swift kick to his crotch and I won! But instead of a good polish I was assigned to duty at the Bad lands outpost in charge of the military forces defending the oil fields…Oops.
 
I was assigned to the 134th Royal territorial army. The unit consisted of 105 mercenaries and was an army only in name, we were irregular troops who were not officially part of the army, more like a militia honestly. I was told that the troops were going to be inspected in three months, Blueblood was going to try and soil my name? Like to see him try. The state of the men was rough and tumble, and seeing a fresh female officer they all thought “Ooh, a nice NCO snob to play with.~”
 
Anyone who didn’t show me respect I beat the crap out of them, some of ‘em even tried to stab me, but I would disarm and then disgrace every attempt. That bullshit went on for several weeks as I took stock of the unit, it wasn’t good. We were out of damn near everything, so I sent requests to Canterlot for guns, vehicles, etc. And surprisingly, I got supplies very quickly via rail…But upon arrival, I find not a single bullet among 30 brand new MG42s, and all the vehicles sent to us were only scout cars painted bright pink, and three crates full of slips of paper printed with ‘Etc’…Very funny.
 
However, because my unit were irregular troops, meant we got to get up to some high grade mischief to get our resources and get the boys trained up. They knew most of the basic drills and maneuvers but years of weak COs who were scared of their troops meant they slipped into the idea that they could push their COs around, all I had to do was shake ‘em up. I liked my troops, I learned about where they came from and how they ended up here, I really liked the idea of being a mercenary, being your own boss and doing whatever you want? For a girl that’s grown up under oppression that sounds like a really good deal, it gave me ideas for the future.
 
Anyways, my boys and I start gathering up all the supplies we can find, barrow, trade, and flat out stole from nearby units. We took things from the Royal Air Cav., SS Shock troops, LPC Boarder Guard, We even took some 20mm auto cannons that were passing through to a navy yard in Las Pegasus. Ok, this sounds really petty but there was a VERY good reason for this, we were in a pretty hard spot.
 
My guys were supposed to protect a long belt of desert in the bad lands, 5 miles deep and 13 miles long, on our side is the southern oil fields, and on the other is the banished hive punishment zone. but recon and locals tell us there is a new breed of changeling that is itching for a fight, they were not kidding. The Scarab legion, as they were called, were almost pure white changelings with a tough outer skin that was proofed against small caliber smg and pistol rounds. And worst of all, these guys bred fast with big clutches, and they were chomping at the bit for revenge for their dethroned queen.
 
The attacks first targeted SS and Royal out posts near us, the Scarabs hit places pretty hard, capturing as many as they can and turning them into changelings. They also take all the equipment they can find to use against us. I tried to send word to the higher ups to send us supplies but Blueblood had convinced everyone in Canterlot that I was just tying to get attention and this was all my doing, so now I was being bombarded with letters from other commanders to return the troops I had taken (even though I didn’t). I was getting really fed up with it, so, we left. We put our entire base on the backs of trucks and half tracks and went mobile. We were out of reach of command most the time and we became raiders.
 
We rolled up and down the desert catching Scarab legionaries out in the open with spoils or prisoners, raiding bases and outposts, and weakening their ability to fight. One of the guys got the wise idea to write down our exploits and send them to newspapers back home. Only a few local papers reported our doings in the North, but in the South especially Appleusa loved the idea of a gang of cowboys rolling across the desert to dispense justice in a lawless land, we got a lot of care packages and apple pies from those guys.
 
After a few weeks of mucking around, the Scarab legion had enough and they surprised us with some fast tanks they stole from the royal army. Keep in mind, this was before tank ponies got good, so most folks had just tanks. But trucks are not good against tanks, so we had to high tail it out of there to think of a better plan of attack…Just kidding! We got in close. We surprised the hell outta them as they tried to chase us into a ruined castle.
 
Ya know…guns are great ranged weapons. But sometimes, you don’t have ammo. Then guns become great melee weapons. We crashed our jeeps into the sides of those tanks and dropped burning liquid into the engine or yanked them out from the unlocked turrets. The others then got stuck into hard fought melee, me included, I grabbed an MG42 and used it as a club to wail in these Scarabs, they may be bullet proof, but blunt force trauma still hurts. It was a vicious skirmish, but we won. I lost 30 of my guys and 8 of my 12 vehicles, everybody else was hurt and the other four vehicles were the troop and supply carriers and the command half truck, they were damaged. But hey, we killed 117 Scarabs and destroyed 2 tanks. We captured 70 Scarabs and 1 tank. The boys were less than kind to our guests, but I told them to treat them equal, if they are nice, be nice, If they are assholes, tear ’em a new one. Most of ‘em were jerks so we sawed off their horns, when that didn’t work, we tore off their wings, then they played nice.
 
A lot of folks saw us as heroes, forcing the Scarabs to fall back and sue for peace and securing our oil fields. The captured Scarabs were sent to the SS as slaves and they really liked the pure white and smooth carapace of Scarabs, so much so they secretly took every last Scarab they could find for high society slaves. Every-pony thought that my and my boys would come home to go on parade, get medals, the good shit.
 
Instead, we get disbanded, our achievements discredited, and I get sent to a court martial for “dishonorable conduct.” Blueblood was hell bent to make me look bad. So, I threw it back in his face and WORE that title. Yeah, I did dishonorable things, but I won! I crushed a larger belligerent force in the name of our country. The judge decided I was to be dishonorably discharged from the army and black listed from the all other Royal military branches. Gee thanks. On top of that, Royal censors went about to erase our legacy, replace us with some made up unit.
 
But to my pleasant surprise, it only made us even more famous. Because of the secrecy around us and local eye witnesses. After my last battle, (by the way, the ruins were named Koli-Bar) My troops and I got the coolest nick names.
 
The Badlands Cobra, and the Desert Thunderbirds. Bad. Ass.