C.O.L.T.S II

Next chapter.

After finishing dinner at the Sparkle's house. Deadeye went on his way with Twilight. The two ponies walked through the evening streets of Canterlot as Luna began to raise the moon.

"I'm so proud of you!" Twilight said kissing him on the cheek.

"I'm glad I got that crap of my chest." Deadeye said smiling. Deadeye felt as peace for the first time in a long time.

"No war going on, I finally belong to a family again, I've finally made peace with an old hatred, and best of all! No getting called in to missions at random!" Deadeye thought to himself as a beeper went off in his ear.

"Captain Deadeye report to the barracks immediately." The beeper said.

"Faustdammit! I just had to get ahead of myself!" Deadeye thought angrily as he faced Twilight. "Twilight, I gotta-"

"I know, duty calls." Twilight said smiling.

"Thanks, I'll be back after this whole thing is over." Deadeye said as the two kissed and he made his way to the barracks. This had better be important. When Deadeye arrived he put on his armor and loaded his weapon in case of emergency.

"Alright this had better be-GORE!" Deadeye yelled as he leapt at the ST in the room. He pulled out his sword as he jumped down on who he believed to be the infamous Captain Gore. The griffon pulled out his sword as well as the two soldiers met blades.

"How the hell did you survive?" Deadeye growled.

"Because I am not Gore." The griffon said as Deadeye jumped back. "My name is Captain Eaglebek, Steel Talons Team Four."

"An ST? Well if you are not Gore then you will be practice!" Deadeye yelled as he pulled out his crossbow.

"CAPTAIN! HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Soarin shouted as he landed next to Eaglebeak.

"Soarin?" Deadeye said lowering his weapon. "What the buck is going on here?"

"They are here to help us with the darklings." Soarin said.

"Its true mate." Pipsqueak said adding in.

"If you think for one second I am going to trust these scum-" Deadeye said.

"GRIFS!" Blitz yelled as he and the rest of COLTS Omega entered. Blitz and Shadow ran forward to attack Clawthorne and Goldbeak. Blitz flew into Clawthorne who could not hope to match the ponies speed. Shadow began fighting Goldbeak who couldn't lay a claw on the Ghost of Applossa. Autumn ran and tackled Gilda and pinned her to the ground and headbutted her. Big Mac ran up to hit Eaglebeak but the griffons blocked Big Mac's attack and roundhoused the stallion off of him.

"ENOUGH!" Spike yelled as he let out a trail of fire. "Listen, I know this is sudden but they are here to help us."

"Likely story!" Autumn yelled holding his sword to Gilda's throat.

"Back off lamo!" Gilda snarled slapping Autumn's sword away from her.

"Last time ah was in a room with a grif." Big Mac said getting up. "Ah saw mah team almost die and was almost killed mahself."

"Macintosh." Skullcrusher said coming up to him. "I swear on my life that they are here to help."

"Macintosh? Goldbeak thought remembering the stallion who helped him all those years ago.

"Alright ah trust you." Big Mac said.

"COLTS stand down." Deadeye ordered as each pony got off the griffons cautiosly.

"If you are not here to kill us, then you better have a good reason for showing up!" Blitz said.

"We are here to deal with the darkling threat." Eaglebeak said.

"Why do you care about our affairs?" Shadow asked.

"Because griffons have been captured as well." Goldbeak said humbly. Goldbeak seemed the calmest and most respectful of the griffons.

"And because I requested it!" Princess Celestia said as she flew into the room. All the ponies bowed.

"Your highness!" Deadeye said.

"Rise Captain Deadeye!" Celestia said. "I know that you were once enemies but that was a long time ago."

"With respect your majesty, it wasn't that long ago to us." Deadeye said. What was eight years to the ponies was only a few minutes to the COLTS in suspended animation.

"I am aware but you destroy your enemies when you make friends with them. There is a much darker threat that is much greater than Von Griffon." Celestia said.

"The Princess is right." Blitz said as he helped Clawthorne up.

"Do you agree to work with each other to stop this threat?" Celestia asked Deadeye and Eaglebeak.

"Steel Talons Team Four is at your disposal." Eaglebeak said.

"COLTS Omega will fight." Deadeye said as he shook Eaglebeak's claw with his hoof.

"I'm keeping an eye on you." Deadeye whispered as he clenched his grip on Eaglebeak.

"That makes two of us." Eaglebeak growled as the two shoved each other away.

"Captain Eaglebeak, you will be shown to your quarters along with your griffons." Celestia said.

"Thank you Princess." Eaglebeak said as he and ST4 was escorted to their rooms.

"I don't believe this!" Autumn exclaimed. "We are just gonna let them waltz right in?"

"I agree with Autumn, I don't trust them." Shadow said.

"I'll be damned if I let these buckers on our turf!" Autumn said drawing his sword.

"Autumn! Put your sword down now!" Deadeye ordered. Autumn reluctantly acknowledged as he sheathed his sword.

"Captain." Celestia said.

"Yes Princess?" Deadeye asked.

"Tonight is the memorial celebration for those who died in the war." Celestia said. "There will be a ceremony at the COLTS Memorial where COLTS-01 once stood. I was wondering if you would attend."

"I'm not sure." Deadeye said remembering the painful memory of having to bury his father at that spot.

"I completely understand if you do not want to." Celestia said in a kind tone. Deadeye looked over at his team, they all nodded.

"Yes, we will be there." Deadeye said. It would be hard going back to the spot where so many great ponies died at the hoof of those they served but Deadeye wanted to honor Recoil, Earthshock, and his father.

"The ceremony starts at 8:00." Celestia said as she flew away. The COLTS all took off their heavy armor and headed to a shower to spruce themselves up.

"Come on Blitz! You're using all the hot water!" Autumn whined as he banged on the shower door. The COLTS had drawn straws to see who showered first and Autumn had wound up as being the last.

"This is the first shower I've had in eight years! I'm gonna enjoy it buster!" Blitz replied as Autumn growled in aggravation. Big Mac was putting on his COLTS dress uniform. It was a dark navy vest with two white bands crisscrossing on the chest. It had gold buttons going down the chest to the stomach. There was white pants that covered the flank and back legs. There was a golden belt that wrapped around the center of the body. There was also shining black boots that were made for each hoof. On both front sleeves was the COLTS insignia with the COLT motto "Born into fight, fight into death" stitched on. It was COLT tradition to not wear any medals on the dress uniform unless it was the Equestrian Cross. The tradition was made by General Blue River who said that wearing a COLT's uniform is evidence enough of an impressive service record and that any sort of medals or awards were unnecessary.

"Hey let me fix that." Shadow said as he realigned one of Big Mac's buttons.

"Thanks." Big Mac replied as Blitz finally stepped out of the shower.

"Took your sweet bucking time ugly!" Autumn said to Blitz aggravated as he walked into the shower. "There better be hot water."

"Oh there is." Blitz said smiling. Autumn snorted and walked into the stall.

"Blitz what did you do?" Big Mac asked as he saw the devious smile on Blitz's face.

"You'll see in...3...2...1." Blitz counted down.

"AHHHH! THIS WATERS BOILING! BLITZ!" Autumn screamed from the showers. Blitz broke down with laughter as Autumn scrambled to turn the hot water valve off.

"What did you do?" Shadow asked.

"I turned all the hot water valves on before I left so instead of starting out cold and warming up it would come out boiling hot!" Blitz said chuckling as Big Mac and Shadow began laughing.

"You bastard!" Autumn stepped out completely pissed off.

"Uh oh!" Blitz said as he began running.

"Yeah you better run! Wait till you come back! YOU ARE DEAD!" Autumn yelled throwing a bar of soap at Blitz's retreating form. "The buck you two laughing at?"

"Nothing!" Shadow said with a scrunched up face trying not to laugh. Deadeye watched from the other room and just rolled his eyes.

COLTS Memorial-Everfree Forest, 7:55 pm.

Hundreds if not thousands of ponies gathered at the COLTS Memorial where the original COLT base once stood. It was a gentle night with a warm setting and an occasional cool breeze. All of the COLT-II's were present in dress uniform along with hundreds of veterans from the war. COLTS Omega had arrived in full dress attire. Nostalgia hit them like a sledgehammer as they all remembered their days of training here. They also remembered the heartbreak when they came here after they were framed. They were impressed by their statues.

"Not bad." Blitz said looking at his statue.

"Yeah, they made you even uglier in your statue. I didn't think that was possible." Autumn retorted cooled down from the incident earlier. If there was one thing about Autumn it was that no matter how pissed he got at somepony, he was always over it a few minutes later. Deadeye stood at the base of Recoil's and Earthshock's statue. He placed a hoof on each of them.

"Damn feels like yesterday don't it? When we were handpicked to be the first COLTS." Deadeye said remembering like it was yesterday.

Canterlot, ten years ago.

"YAH!" Deadeye screamed as he took down his sparring partner for the tenth time in a row. Sweat ran down Deadeye's head as he helped his partner back up. It was the early days of the Griffon-Pony War and Deadeye had worked his way through the ranks. He had killed many griffons and had gained some recognition for his skills.

"Geez yer gonna kill me on o these days." His partner said in a heavy country accent. "Feel sorry fer any grif that screws witcha."

"Sergeant Deadeye, there is somepony here to see you." A Commander said. Deadeye walked out of the sparring arena and into the observation room where the supposed guest was waiting.

"I have been observing you for some time Deadeye." The pony said without turning around. "Your skills and strength are unique."

"Thank you sir." Deadeye said.

"Tell me something Deadeye." The figure said turning around revealing a white earth pony with a blue mane with the name 'Striper' stitched on his vest. "What do you know about Covert Operations and Lethal Takedowns?"

XXXX

"Never would have guessed that Striper was my father." Deadeye said to the two statues. "You guys remember when I bumped into that trainer the first day? Faust did that suck!"

XXXX

"MOVE IT FILLIES!" A large trainer pony yelled into the confused recruits faces.

"YES SIR!" The recruits yelled as they moved to processing to receive their training equipment. Deadeye was having difficulty organizing his things and he caught the attention of three trainers.

"LET'S GO! MOVE IF FASTER! LETS GO!" A trainer screamed as drops of saliva landed on Deadeye's face.

"SIR IM TRYING SIR!" Deadeye replied.

"OH SO DO YOU 'TRY' TO WIN BATTLES? DO YOU 'TRY' TO PROTECT EQUESTRIA? DO YOU 'TRY' TO FACE THE ENEMY? THERE IS NO 'TRYING' HERE, ONLY DOING!" The trainer yelled.

"Sir sorry sir!" Deadeye said as he finally got his things organized and went to head outside when he slammed right into a trainer.

"Hmmm what do we have here?" The trainer asked.

"Sir I apologize sir!" Deadeye said nervously.

"I think you wanna fight me!" The trainer said grabbing Deadeye by his mane. "Lets go duke it out back there huh?"

XXXX

"Heh, my ass is still sore from that beating." Deadeye said chuckling at the memory. "I'll see you boys soon." He said as he saluted them. He then headed to where his team was standing in the center and waited for the ceremony to start.