An Advanced Warfare

"We already know how to use knives professionally. So what we need to know is how to use a gun." I said to Twilight. Me and my friends just learned that extracting us was Rainbow and her friends' first mission.

They were still cadets for now. We were just rookies currently, we have no idea how to use these new advanced guns, the only thing we did know was a few military terms. We were going to be taught how to use some guns by Fluttershy. I was surprised at first how such a shy and timid pony could be teaching us how to use guns. For all I know being timid and loud sounds don't exactly match.

When Twilight dropped us off at the shooting range, I saw Fluttershy start testing out some guns out by shooting one after the other. The guns were very loud and even I could barely take it. I had to flatten my ears to block out most of the sound. Fluttershy just casually walked around, correcting some shooters now and then.

"Ah, you must be the new shooters that were assigned to me." she said to us. I introduced myself and my friends. "My name is Fluttershy, I am the the shooting range supervisor." I already knew her name but I did not want to be ill-mannered as to cut her introduction.

"Let's get started shall we?" Fluttershy asked us. We nodded in reply. "We'll start with the Atlas 45, we normally don't associate the Atlas group but there is nothing wrong in using their weapon."

She handed each of us a gun and I put my hoof on the trigger button. Fluttershy stiffened and I said to her, "Et cessabit, calm down, it's not the first time I've fired a gun, only difference is that the guns back then weren't exactly the same.

I saw Fluttershy relax a bit, but she stood a defensive position. She nodded and moved on. We never had experience with shooting ranges, so my greatest challenge was to not whip around to a gunshot and fire at that direction.

Using my Eagle Vision I saw the targets that were behind walls as I shot round after round, hitting those targets. After I shot a few more rounds I heard the click in the simulation. I shook the gun and tapped it again the floor. Fluttershy could see my struggling with reloading and she came to assist me.

"Here Ray, to reload, you press this button here, and the thing that falls out is called a clip. When it falls out you can take another clip and load it back in like this." she said, showing me how it works. I saw the clip go in, heard a click and she pulled back on what is called a hammer. I wasn't sure how this was a hammer for I knew that hammers were much bigger and heavier.

"Thank you Fluttershy." I said to her as I retrieved the gun and continued shooting. I went round after round, clip after clip, until I ran out of clips. I got up and turned to everyone staring at me.

"Marnix, help me out here, why is everypony staring at me like this?" I said to Marnix. Marnix pointed at the scoreboard. I saw my score and was surprised. I got a very high score for a first shooter.

But right then I realized I was first in the leaderboards. The top five consisted of me, Marnix, Xerxes, Kyros and Fluttershy. That is amazing, how did I get such a high score?

Some ponies congratulated me after that and some gave me a look of pure hatred. I'm not sure how the rivalry works here but I may have a small clue. Some did look at me with envy though.

"Seems like you are a sharpshooter like Twilight said to me. How did you get all those digital ponies though? Some weren't revealed yet, they were still in their cloaking state." Fluttershy asked me. I told her about Eagle Vision and how my friends had it too.

I left out a part about being an Assassin, that would be hard to understand. She nodded and we left, waving good bye in the process. We also got ourselves an Atlas 45 in the process.

It was ours to keep, it seemed like a fitting thing to show the start of a new Assassin age. I examined it and almost got hit by a car. It startled me and I almost shot the driver but luckily I didn't.

There were many interesting things about the place here and I enabled my Eagle Vision to see if I could find any more interesting things. But as I did this four Atlas members immediately tackled us and they stripped me of my gun. Too bad I don't use only guns.

I looked at my friends and we nodded to each other. I rolled to the side, slashing out their throat in the process. I pushed the body off me as I grabbed me gun and shot two Atlas members.

The bullets went straight through their heads like it was nothing. I blew the smoke from the gun. The third Atlas member was sliced by Marnix's hidden blade. "Are we being attacked by Atlas? Or do you think this is some simulation again?" I thought to my friends. I was replied by Marnix saying, "I highly doubt that this is a simulation."

Not too long after that I heard many footsteps again and we all went behind cover to hide. I used my Eagle Vision and saw that these may be more Atlas members. We needed to take them out, for we were cornered.

"Everypony mark a target and do a mental broadcast." I said to my friends, for the mental broadcast reveals which pony one of my friends marked. We developed it after the simulation, it's still not working the best but there isn't really a bad consequence if it doesn't work.

I concentrated on my target and felt the strange watery feeling in my brain as I mentally broadcasted my target to my friends. Very soon I saw the ponies that were marked by my friends.

"Seems like we don't need our engage sign anymore, we are safe in our thoughts, nopony can hear us in our thoughts. Engage in 3, 2, 1. Go! I thought to my friends as they emerged from cover and took out their targets. I used my sword and impaled my target's throat.

My other target all of a sudden turned invisible though, I never doubt my eyes and I used my Eagle Vision to find them. They drew a knife and nearly got my throat if I hadn't backed up and put a bullet into their head.

I panted in fear. This wasn't the same as killing someone with my hidden blades. Marnix grabbed me and we started running down the alleyway, along with me, not fully recovered from the shock.