Operation Sombra

The first order of business the next day was weapons. The six friends had no clue what weapons they liked, nor how to use most of them. So, before hitting the simulator, all of them went down to the armory, which also had a small shooting range.

Twilight was the first to test. She eyed all the weapons, particularly those made for magic-users. Finally, she chose a long, elegant staff tipped with an emerald green energy crystal. It wasn't too fancy, being for military use, but it suited Twilight's persona perfectly. She also took a bandolier of "Support Crystals", or energy crystals that simply store energy for a spell a unicorn just can't quite cast.

Then, she headed off to the firing range. Her magically prowess was amazing, as always. Magic missiles, lightning bolts, fireballs, shards of ice, and stones the size of an apple, all took down targets with determined efficiency. She also showed that she could cast illusion spells and others with equal ease, an important asset on the battlefield.

Next to stand up was Pinkie Pie. She walked up and down the aisles of weapons, before picking a trio of knives and a pair of pistols. Pinkie decided she would be close combat-ish. She picked nothing to wear except for her "Twitchy hat", which she kept on her body at all times in case of random falling objects,

She was, by far, the craziest on the range. While seemingly playing around, she shot with unerring deadliness, usually in places to cause the most pain, ranging from the liver to the groin. Her most common trick was to dance around and, using her speed from the dancing, launch her knives at good speed.

Next was Rarity. She, of course, picked the most beautiful weapon she could find, a gilded sniper rifle with the word "Merciful" etched across the barrel. She also grabbed a scope and a elegant hat.

As it was, Rarity's trained eye allowed her to take down targets with accuracy in the extreme, although slowly, due to her time it took her to aim.

Applejack went after her. She didn't care much for her weapons, and she grabbed a simple, robust assault rifle. Along with it, she grabbed a vest with ammo pockets and a grenade.

She went about firing with precise bursts, simply aiming and shooting. In truth, Applejack wasn't very spectacular.

Next came Rainbow Dash. She was the only one with large amounts of battlefield experience, and chose an assault rifle with laser pointer and built in grenade launcher. She also grabbed an old-fashioned magnum.

On the range, she shot a mix of burst fire, full auto, the occasional grenade, and precise shots with her laser pointer.

Last to go was Fluttershy. She grabbed a small pistol, along with only a little ammo, and a medical pack.

Fluttershy, living into her reputation, couldn't hit squat on the range. Everypony agreed that she would be a medic.

Once that was over, Gilda nodded at them. It had been a mostly silent time, and she broke that silence. "Alright, you all seem to have figured this out. I think we should head over to the simulator." So, as they walked off in that direction, Gilda began to explain what was going to happen. "The simulator is completely holographic. However, hits will still hurt and knock you down. They are not lethal, but be careful. You will get holographic representations of your weapons to shoot. Thanks to the wonderful technology of the system, everything will feel normal. Dash and I will watch. You five get to go in."

After a few minutes, they all arrived at the simulator. It was a huge room, taking up a large space in the ship. The five friends walked into the room, while Dash and Gilda stayed outside in an observation area with controls.

"Alright!" came Gilda's voice when the door shut. "Starting simulator in five!"

Suddenly, Twilight found herself in a forest, full of oak trees. Around her were her friends, dressed in armor and with their weapons.

A speaker came on, and Gilda started informing them. "Alright your objective is to find the enemy commander and kill him. Round one, begin!"

Applejack took point. They were silent as they walked in the brush. Suddenly, they heard voices.

They went down crouched, and silently approached the voices. They found a pair of griffon soldiers in a metal armor plate, and another soldier about a dozen feet away, relieving himself. While their armor was simple, their weapons were still modern assault rifles.

Twilight, using her telepathy, began giving orders. "Alright, Pinkie, use your knives, one on each soldier. If any live, Applejack, Rarity, take them down. Fluttershy, if that fails, standby to provide medical support. I'll cover you if that happens."

Then, several seconds later, Pinkie threw her knives, going though the weak spots in the first twos' armor. The third fell, a dagger sprouting out of his left hind leg.

Following that, Rarity immediately silenced the third with a clean shot.

Twilight began telepathically giving orders again. "Wait! Don't do anything. I'm sure some of the other griffons heard Rarity's shot. We'll wait here for more!"

True enough, six more griffons, similarly armed and armored, ran up, and, upon finding their dead comrades, their guns went up. One of them called out in griffon for help.

Suddenly, Twilights plan was turned upside down. That call for help was answered by another dozen griffons, led by a griffon with a long red feathered plume. Twilight immediately determined him to be the commander. But they were now severely outnumbered, and they wouldn't stand a chance, if the leader had not made a critical mistake.

He split his troops up. After a minute, only five, including the commander, stayed in the clearing, while the rest fanned out, searching for the killers. It was by pure luck that they didn't find the five friends.

Twilight continued plotting as fast as her mind could, and began giving orders. "Take out the enemy, one by one. Kill them or knock them out. Rarity, Pinkie, you go do that. We'll wait for the panic to start before striking."

Rarity, following orders, climbed a relatively tall tree, and began sniping. It was cruel work, but she performed it admirably. Pinkie, meanwhile, well, was Pinkie. She took out several enemy soldiers, all in crazy ways.

Finally, the commander sent two of his griffons to find out what was going on. Twilight chose this time to strike.

She started it out with a fireball aimed to kill. One of the griffons was incinerated, and the other two were caught off guard just as Applejack fired, killing the second, leaving the commander.

Before any nearby troops could respond, Twilight was on top of him, pounding magic missile after magic missile into his body, until she knocked off his helmet.

She froze. In front of her was a female. The griffon, in fact a mare, was crying, shaking her head, horrified as death was so close. "Please!" she gasped in accented Equestrian. "Please, don't kill me!"

Twilight couldn't do it. She knew it was an illusion, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't kill this griffon.

Bang!

A hole appeared in the griffons skull.

Twilight flipped around, only to see Applejack. "Sorry, sugercube." she said. "It's for the best."

The simulated environment dissappeared, as did the griffons, replaced by the bland, black room. Twilight's tears, however, did not. Something about that griffon scared her. It was too real. She could fight cultists and demons, but to simply end another pony's life... She couldn't do it.

Gilda shook her head. "Alright, Twilight needs some help. No more simulated enemies for now. Begin new set of rounds, computer. Dash, you up for some fighting."

Dash nodded. "Of course."

Suddenly, Dash walked onto the court, surpirsing the five friends. At the same time, their guns and armor were replaced with long shock poles. A mechanical voice said: "Beginning round. Team 1 vs. Major Rainbow Dash. Shock poles. Start."

The five friends were surprised, to say the least. They had to fight Dash!

Applejack's eyes widened. "Woe, what in tarnashion...!" she never finished, a shock pole sending her flying backward.

Twilight struck next against Dash, missing completely. Dash, in response, whacked her back, causing her to fall to the ground.

Rarity, seeing reason, took a defensive stance. A minute later, she laid on the ground, clutching her nose.

Pinkie lasted the longest. She did crazy, random things that allowed her to survive. Finally, Dash got her, tripping her and slamming her into the ground.

Fluttershy was last. "Um, guys, are you ok?"

Dash was right behind her. "Shy, in this type of combat, it isn't them you want to worry about."

CRACK!!!

The computer continued. "Round one complete. Point Dash. Beginning round two. Shock Poles."

The five friends got back up, pains gone from the assault. Twilight took charge. "Alright, we need to work together, or we'll... ooph!" she fell backwards, hit squarely in the chest.

Fluttershy got hit hard, spiralling back.

Rarity came up on a block, countered with a skimming blow, and hit the ground as Dash's shock stick hit her back.

Pinkie scratched Dash using her pole, and got knocked clean down.

Applejack dodged and parried to the best of her ability. Suddenly, she was knocked in the stomach, slapped in the back, and, while keeling over, was knocked in the face, Dash's pole breaking clean in half.

"Round two complete. Point Dash. Beginning round three. Blank pistol rounds."

Thirty minutes later...

"Round 10 complete. Point Dash. Final Results: Team 1: Zero. Dash: Ten. Major Rainbow Dash wins."

Gilda's beak hung loosely open at the absolute massacre Dash made of the five friends. She knew Dash was good, but damn. She was good.

The six fighters walked in silently. Twilight spoke first. "Dash, why did you do that?"

Dash shrugged. "If you have to hesitate to kill, you won't live long. I showed you that. I had no hesitation to hurt you. You, meanwhile, did have hesitation to hurt me, which was your problem. If you had been quicker, you probably would have won."

Twilight's nodded, understanding. She realized that, but it would be hard to enforce, especially with Fluttershy.

"Well," said Gilda, shaky after such a fight. "We've got briefing after lunch. I hope your there."

...

The briefing room was quite. The six friends, Gilda, Fury, Princess Cadance herself, and the holograms of various generals and admirals leading the force were in the room, all around a hologram of the system.

Gilda started the lecture. "All right. This is the Crystal System, the new home of the Crystal Empire. We will come out of jump here." she pointed to a place on the outer edge of the system. "From their, we will make our way to Emerald, the last planet in the system. It is a lush planet, with two main biomes: Jungle, and mountain. We will make our first landings their. The enemy have a presence of several ships in orbit. They shouldn't stand to much a chance. Once we land, we will hit the enemy bases." When she says this, the hologram zooms in to show only Emerald, which was indeed covered in jungle and mountain. Several dots popped up to indicate the enemy bases. "Once we capture these bases, we will have a forward base to mount attacks into the rest of the system. The fighting will be torturous. The jungles will prove an adversary to our troops. My suggestion is for arial landings nearby enemy bases, then the troops make their way there on hoof. The main problem is the enemy field command base." The hologram continued to zoom in, showing now a large, walled outpost and the surrounding area. "This command has coverage from nearby anti-air cannons. Any of our ships smaller than cruiser will be torn apart by these guns, allowing only a few bases to be hit without getting in their range. Me and a squad of my choosing will take out these guns. Using a teleport spell by our friend Twilight Sparkle, we will enter the turrets and take out their power source, a nuclear fission generator four hundred feet beneath the surface. The destruction of this will not only deny power to the cannons, but also cause a power shortage across the planet as the enemies power systems adapt to the sudden lack of power. It will open a hour window of weakness in enemy automated weapon systems. Hit then, and we will only have to deal with enemy ground troops and magic-powered weaponry. The fleet, while this is going on, will pound enemy positions from orbit. After we secure the planet, we will need to construct a base. Once we capture Emerald, we will move on to Ruby. After Ruby, we have Diamond, the capital of the system. After that, the final two planets of the system, Topaz and Garnet. This is an important mission, and I expect for you all to do your best. Princess Cadance is here, and will greatly appreciate our assistance in liberating her worlds. Alright, we have twelve hours! Move out!"