the day after the meeting, my first real meeting with blackwidow, and planning our deployment to appleloosa- part 2

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After an hour every pony was back, and ready for some target practice. It was going to be a good thing to see just how accurate every pony would be in the event of something big happening, and I was a bit rusty myself, as was Harmony. I was really shocked at just how deadly accurate the Black Widows were, and how efficiently they worked together, as was Grey Hoof who himself was an amazing shot. I guessed that if we were going to work together with these 2 groups of ponies it would be best for all under me to be able to shoot as accurately as all of the others we were with, so I urged them all to shoot to the best of their abilities. In no time at all I had several expert shooters in my group, and none below sharp shooter. After almost a full day of target practice it was getting a bit dark, and I asked the other 2 leaders of the other groups that were joining us if they wanted their units to get some night training taken care of while we were in the process of training, and they both agreed.

I divided the units into an opposing team, and a team to take them out, and told them all to load their rubber rounds for this training. Kills would be confirmed by all of the leaders of the groups, and those that were injured would have to be taken off the field as in a real combat experience. Grey Goof, Black Widow, me, and Harmony would each lead our teams, Black Widow's team would be the opposing force, and Grey Hoof's unit would be a wildcard, i.e. neutral until provoked, or becoming friends with either side. The battle would be over as soon as all the Black Widows were neutralized, or my team was dead, it would be a draw if both teams lost too many ponies or if one side befriended the other in non combat negotiations which I was really good at by the way, it often came in handy crossing Equestria, and dealing with the n.l.r checkpoints, so I would try to use diplomacy anytime I was able to do so, so I was planning to use it during tonight’s training to see just how I would need to adapt it to certain circumstances. I told Harmony to take charge of the Special Forces that I had with me, and told them all to make their move only if need be, otherwise I had no real use for them, and they were an insurance policy to keep me and my unit safe. She agreed and had them all stay out of sight, the objective for us was to clear Bitter Creek of an n.l.r element that had taken the town over, every pony in the town was involved in this training, and were in fact civilians in a mock combat zone making the realism of it all sink in as some of them would pose as informants for the opposing force, and have mock bombs strapped to them as well increasing the realism as well. Grey Hoof's forces were in the town as well, and were posing as a mercenary team that was there to try to take out the n.l.r, and gather Intel on them as well and were neutral for the time being. To make it more real I had my father have the town take up arms against the occupying force, to cause a since of something really bad about to happen and add that since of urgency to get the mission done, and save the town. The mock war went on into the following day and almost up to the time we had to deploy to Appleloosa, my side lost. We made a mistake and ended up killing the entire mercenary team, and the leader of the n.l.r got away in the confusion, it was a valuable learning experience for us all, and in the 2 hours before we deployed we had our a.a.r and went over the whole mission from start to finish going over all that went right along with what needed to be improved upon.

The only thing that saved my hide in the battle was the fact that I had my special forces ponies come to my aid and help me escape after losing almost half my unit in an ambush set up by a small n.l.r unit inside the mayor’s office. The breach had been good, but we got bad Intel on the size of the element that had taken over the office and I made a mistake in not double checking the Intel twice. That mistake cost me almost 10 lives, and 6 wounded, it wasn’t my shining moment to say the least, but that was what the training was about, to see what if anything would happen if we were put into such a situation, and what would the outcome be. The only thing that saved the leader of the mock n.l.r team was the fact that she as well had not seen a use for her Special Force ponies and had them as a backup unit as I did, it came down to the 2 s.f teams going head to head, and in that right it was an instant mission success in both our eyes. We had both found a use for our heavy armored units, and they worked just as we had thought they would. My ability to use non combative skills to solve problems came in handy once, and that was only due to the fact that the leader of the mock n.l.r unit had told some of her ponies to act as though they were new recruits and to also try to see just how good I was in fact at persuasion for ponies to join my side, it was kind of an ego boost for me that she had taken the time to do so, and I thanked her for it. Grey Hoof had some things to say about his ponies as well and congratulated some of them for using false information until proper payment was acquired for services rendered. They indeed had provided misinformation just as a real mercenary group would in some cases and it was really interesting to see them interact with the towns ponies as well. They would help some of them actually, especially the older and younger generation for no cost whatsoever and in my opinion that was just how we would be from now on, and I made that clear to all with us.