War Zone-Equestria

Twilight turned around to face Bullseye and the other girls. Bullseye was highly confused by what the princess had told him.

“Ok, did the Princess just say you girls want to go on the mission? Are you insane?! It’s a Canterlot field extraction... probably one of the most dangerous and risky missions you can hand out!” Bullseye started.

“Simmer down kiddo. We’re doin it ta help Spike.” Applejack said, slightly annoyed that they were being told a second time that the mission would be dangerous, and that they weren’t ready.

“And you think a small amount of combat training will give you all the skills you need to go waltzing up to Canterlot to save him?”

“Well we can’t exactly get all the experience we need in the short time provided.” Rarity said, a little offended.

“You know we already have lots of experience in lots of areas, fighting or just natural talent. We’ve taken down a lot more troubling creatures back in our dimension then you’d think.” Rainbow said, trying to make him see it from their side.

“What about her?” he said pointing to Fluttershy, who reacted almost immediately. “No offence, but you don’t exactly look like soldier material.” he said studying her small physique.

Fluttershy didn’t care that he meant no offence, she felt very offended. She knew she was often feeble and helpless, but her friends had been trying to boost her confidence where ever possible by reminding her of her great achievements. And ever since her bad assertiveness advice from the Minotaur, Iron Will, she always seemed to snap at anypony who upset her, or judged her when they didn’t know her properly, and she was fighting the urge to have a go at Bullseye.

“Hey, don’t pick on her! Have you ever stared down a full grown dragon or a cockatrice?! Not to mention scare the scales off of them both? Fluttershy has!” Pinkie Pie said butting in to defend her friend, which made Fluttershy feel much better.

“I’m not picking on her, but I only ever briefly saw the rest of you when you were with Twilight, and if they were fully trained and still got killed on their mission to Canterlot, what makes you think you’ll come back after what might not even be an hour of training?”

The girls thought long and hard about this. But Twilight wasn’t intent on turning back, and she knew her friends would follow after her, but what Bullseye was saying was true, so she was unsure if she wanted them to.

“Look Bullseye, we’re all experienced fighters to some extent. I’m more experienced around magic myself, but we are going to Canterlot to save Spike, and we need the extra experience you can teach us, no matter how little it is. And I’m certain you can teach us a lot, from what I’ve seen you’re an amazing shooter, and you’re probably the best in the base. I’d be proud as a teacher.”

Bullseye didn’t seem to believe that these girls were capable of what they were telling him, but when Twilight spoke to him he felt differently. He’d always acknowledged her requests as her student without hesitation. He loved her as family and would strive to please her, so hearing that complement, even from a different version of Twilight, made him happy and very confident in his ability.

“I’ll give you as much help as I can.” He told them with a smile.

“Let’s get started with hoof guns.” He said walking over to a cabinet on the wall. He opened it up to reveal a weapon wheel holding about 10 hoof guns, some were larger than others and some had different sized barrels and harnesses. Twilight thought they must be customized for larger stronger ponies. Next to the weapons there were large bunches of magazines neatly piled to the side.

“Hopefully you won’t need to fire one on the mission, but chances are you will,,, so we need to get check your aim. Twilight, you go first, the version of you from this dimension was the best shooter before she died, you can see where you rank against her. For you and umm, what’s your name?” he asked Rarity, as he still hadn’t been told, and had never learnt her name in the past.

Rarity was a bit confused as to how he didn’t know her name. “Rarity.” She told him.

“Sorry if I don’t know all your names… it’s just that I never really talked to any of you in the past. But anyway, after weapons training, I’ll see if there’s someone I can talk to about finding out how useful yours and Twilight’s magical abilities could be in the field. But I think only Celestia can help there though. Ok so Twilight, come forward and take a gun please.” Bullseye said ushering her towards the weapon rack.  Twilight stared blankly at the weapons before her. She never took interest in areas of violence, and she’d seen what sort of damage the guns were capable of at close range. She didn’t have any intentions of  inflicting that damage on anypony, despite the war they were fighting, but she knew that as much as she was against the idea of injuring, let alone killing another, she had to prove she was able to carry out the action if need be, to get a position in helping Spike. Besides, it was just a paper figure, it’s not like she would have to shoot one at an enemy herself, and there would be other soldiers for that… at least she hoped it wouldn’t come to that. She studied the weapons for a bit; most of them were of similar size, but the barrels were the most notable differences. The different ones had numbers on them followed by the word caliber, the highest value being .50, which also had the widest/longest barrel, although it was still small. The shelves stocking the ammunition were also labelled with values, which Twilight realised were the same as their counterpart gun.

“The older versions of you each had .45 and .50 caliber weapons, but I’d recommend you try a .22 or .30 just until you know you can handle something more powerful” Bullseye told her nudging the two guns he had referred to.

Twilight realised that the size and higher values were obviously referring to the increase in power the weapons produced. She took the .30 and placed her hoof in the sleeve, until it reached her mid-leg and she could rest her hoof on the trigger. It was a nice fit, the barrel didn’t pass over her hoof, and the joints of the weapon bent cleanly with the joints in her leg.

“It’s a great fit.” She said to Bullseye turning to look at him.

“I thought it would be; that’s why I recommended it. The weapon is disengaged until you lock the body. Otherwise the trigger won’t release the body and firing pin into the primer of the bullet.” Bullseye said.

“I know most about how all that works, Derpy explained the weapons to me.” Twilight told him studying the weapon a little more.

“Well no the rest of you know, so whenever you need to fire your hoof gun, you need to straighten your leg out until the weapon clicks in both bend joints, cock the body to load a bullet and then the trigger will fire. If you press the joints inwards lightly at the same time, they will unlock and you can bend your leg again so you can run.” Bullseye explained, before turning to the other girls. “I’m assuming Twilight already knows this, but to load a bullet into the body, you push the small handle on the top of the body forward, which will release the empty case of the last bullet fired, then you pull the body backwards and load another bullet into place which will then be ready to be fired. You have to do this each time, because we haven’t figured out a way to make the guns semi-automatic yet. Anyway Twilight, step up to the compartment and I’ll set up a target.” Bullseye said, walking down the range and pulling his paper target from the holder, and slinging a new one in. Twilight walked up to the bench and put on the pair of earmuffs and protective glasses on the bench on. As Bullseye made his way off the range, she looked at the gun and then at the targets marked out on the paper target pony.  She lifted her leg with the gun on it and stood on her back legs lightly leaning on the bench. She straightened her leg and the joints of the weapon clicked into place, restricting her from bending her leg. She pressed the trigger lightly and it clicked.

“Whenever yer ready Twi, ah don’t mean te rush ye but we aint got all day. The others could be ready te start the mission real soon.” Applejack said trying to push her along. Twilight couldn’t hear her too loudly, but she could make out the sentence. She acknowledged her statement and looked at the clip lying on the bench in front of her. She quickly closed her eyes and let her thoughts flash back to seeing bullseye switch his mags over.

“Do you need some help Twilight?” Bullseye asked.

“No… I’ve got this.” She said opening her eyes. Fast enough to think she’d done it several times before, she pulled the body of the gun backwards until it stopped, picked up the clip in her mouth, pushed it into the open slot on the right side of the weapon, and using her free hoof, pushed the lever on top of the body, forward to lock in the clip, pushed it forward further to unclip a bullet and load it, then put her hoof on the other side of the lever and pulled it back till the body clicked in and locked into place. Bullseye was shocked and impressed at the same time; he knew she would be able to do it, but he didn’t expect her to do it so fast and fluently. He was about to praise her on her speed, but backed off because he realised she was about to shoot. Twilight was just trying to think of what firing it would be like first though. She didn’t know whether she’d be able to handle firing it and if it would it be to powerful for her to handle.

She took in a breath, brought the weapon up to a height where she could look straight down the top of the weapons body, aligning the back sights with the front, which was tipped with a red dot for improved accuracy, and braced herself for what she was expecting. She closed her eyes and pressed down on the trigger and through her ear muffs, heard a muffled *Bang*. She opened her eyes, and saw a small puff of smoke escaping the barrel of the gun. She was surprised though, she definitely thought the weapon would have had more power, but it felt more like she was receiving a hoof bump. She could hear another noise behind her that was also muffled, but when she took her headphones off she realised it was her friends cheering. She looked at them all as they applauded, and at Bullseye who also looked shocked.

“Guys, what are you all going crazy for? That took way longer than it should have.” Twilight said, wondering why all her friends seemed so excited by her firing the weapon.

“It’s not that Twilight; take a look at the target.” Rainbow said grinning.

Twilight turned her head to look at the target she’d been allocated. Her shot had perfectly struck the middle of the target circle on the head of the pony on the sheet, which was the smallest target of the five on the sheet. She had aimed around the head, but didn’t expect to get such a lucky first shot. She lit up and started to get excited. This is exactly the type of skill she needed to exhibit for a spot in the mission.

“Well done Twilight, you should be proud of that shot. Most ponies don’t even hit the sheet let alone a target on their first shot. You might be picking up where the other Twilight left off if you keep getting shots like this.” Bullseye said. Twilight blushed, and realised she already was starting to take after the original Twilight’s skill; she knew she would eventually but she didn’t think the knowledge would impact her so soon.

Bullseye turned looking at the others. “Now if you girls want, we can move this along much faster if I split you all up into different compartments to practice in.”

“The quicker we can get as much training done as possible, the better.” Applejack said trotting over to the cabinet of weapons.

“So these here bigger ones are the stronger ones huh?” she said shifting her gaze from Bullseye to the .50 caliber hoof gun.

“Yes, but while the one Twilight used is easy to fire it still packs a punch, those pack a punch on both ends. They should only be handled by someone with strength and experience.” Bullseye explained worrying that she might want to actually try and use one with no weapon experience.

“Oh don’t go talkin te me about all that. I’m a might bit stronger than ah look. This one will be just fine.” Applejack said picking up the weapon in her mouth and moving towards the door.

“You know, I’d recommend you didn’t...” Bullseye started, but Applejack dropped the weapon and cut him off.

“Don’t you worry, If the other version of me could handle it, ah can handle it.” She reassured him picking up the weapon in her mouth and whispering under her breath, “Aint gunna let no pony tell me otherwise”. None of the girls heard this, but they all had disapproving looks across their face. They knew Applejack had a tendency to be arrogant, and also knew she would probably regret her decision soon.

“We’ll just take the one Twilight used.” Rarity said, receiving an approving nod from the others.

Bullseye walked over to another cabinet opening it to reveal several .30 and .22 caliber hoof guns and stocks of ammo.

“These guns are the ones we give to beginners, but if you show accuracy with them and get a spot on the mission, you’ll receive a much more up to date model and more powerful weapon if you think you can handle it. But I don’t think any of you will be leaving here using .50s.” he said looking at Applejack, but she just rolled her eyes and ignored him. The rest of the girls walked over and picked up weapons from the cabinet, except for Fluttershy, who felt it might be better to leave weapons alone.

“Fluttershy... Are you gunna grab one?” Rainbow asked her.

“Oh, um, no. That’s alright I think I’d rather...” Fluttershy started, but got cut off by Twilight.

“Fluttershy, you know you won’t get a place if you can’t fire a weapon... I know you probably don’t like the idea, but if you want to come with us, you have to try.”

“If you think it’ll help, I can get you a .17, but I can’t get anything less powerful than that. They’re only used for hunting small...” Twilight knew he was going to say creatures, and had used her magic to force his mouth closed and muffle the word. She could tell Fluttershy would never even consider touching a gun that’s used for hunting animals. Bullseye looked at her irritated after he realised that she was the one holding his mouth closed.

“Hunting small what?” Fluttershy asked curious as to why he cut off.

He looked at Twilight, unsure as to what she wanted him to say, but she shook her head in disagreement to his original choice of words. He nodded to tell her he wouldn’t say animals, and she lift the magic.

“Small... uh threats; like... spies and, stuff.” He tossed a small, almost weightless hoof gun over to Fluttershy, and she picked it up, with a little less hesitation.

“Twilight feel free to keep practicing in here.” Bullseye told her. She nodded and turned back to the range sliding the earmuffs back on.

“I’m going to take you all to another range with more free compartments so that you can get some practice done.” Bullseye said to the others walking to the door and opening it for them as they all walked through.

Twilight looked at the target as everyone left and started thinking to herself, ‘Could this end up being a real pony?’ She dismissed the thought, licked her lips, pointed and cocked the gun, and firing another shot through the very centre of another target on the front of the paper body. She smiled, if she could do this with no past weapon experience, she must have been gaining knowledge from her past self, and that meant the others would too.

Bullseye led the other 6 girls out to the multiple ranges. They were grouped with two compartments in each room separating each pair with reinforced glass. Rarity didn’t like the overall lack of décor, but obviously an underground base wasn’t going to be decorated like a palace, she was surprised they could even light the rooms so well at the depth they were underground.  She looked at the compartment they were heading towards, but realised there was only one free compartment in it. She also saw what the other soldier in the room was shooting at. It was a paper outline of a bunny; he was obviously a hunter to keep pests out of the base. She hurriedly pulled it down with her magic hoping Fluttershy hadn’t noticed it. She turned around to check, but Fluttershy was staring at many different areas of the room and hadn’t noticed it. She looked back and noticed the confused soldier about to put it back up, and quickly used her magic to shred the paper. The soldier was a little creeped out, obviously he didn’t realise it was magic that destroyed the paper target, but that was understandable considering he hadn’t seen a unicorn in over a year. He put down his gun and left the compartment visibly confused, leaving the whole room free. Bullseye hadn’t seen Rarity destroy the target, so seeing the soldier leave with a worried expression confused him, but he seized the opportunity to get the chamber for two pairs.

“Ok I’m going to split you guys into girls into groups of two. One of you will have to come with me to the next chamber across. I’ll show you all how to load and fire the weapon, and then leave you to practice. After you all hit all 4 targets on one of the paper figures, come see me, and I’ll take you to another area to check your hoof to hoof combat skills. So first things first, who would you each like to practice with?” Bullseye asked them.  Rainbow was about to say something, but Pinkie spoke up before her.

“Ooh ooh, I’ll go with Dashie.” She said gleefully bouncing around. Rainbow knew that Pinkie was going to want to go with her, so she sighed, and gave a weak smile.

“Ok Pinkie.”

“I’ll go with either of ya.” Applejack said to Rarity and Fluttershy.

“I’ll go with Applejack... unless you want to Rarity, I don’t mind either way.” Fluttershy suggested.

“It’s settled then, ok everypony inside.” Bullseye instructed.

Twilight had hit every target in the exact centre with perfect accuracy and had gone through 3 sheet targets. She was about to take pop another fresh clip in the hoof gun before she suddenly felt a massive amount of pain in her head. She fell over clutching at her horn which was glowing with crackles of magenta energy. The pain kept increasing and she started to scream. What in Equestria could have been causing her this much pain. Between each scream she tried to yell for help, but she couldn’t even make out a word. Even if she could though, no one would hear her; the room was almost completely soundproof and concealed from the others by concrete. The only noise loud enough to be heard through the doors was pops from gunfire. The pain was unbearable. She felt as if her horn was about to explode or tear itself out of her head. The base of her horn started to bleed. Twilight couldn’t figure out through the incredible pain what could have possibly been happening.  She rolled around in agony as the outside of her horn started to splinter, tears were streaming out of her eyes and she started to groan as the pain reached a new height of intensity. But then all of a sudden it stopped. The pain as long as it had been there left the site in her head and her horn seemed to reform itself. It became smooth again while her scalp cleared shut. The blood that had streamed out was drying in her fur, and the sparks emitting from her horn ceased. She shook her head groaning, more confused than she’d ever been in her life, but then all of a sudden voices started echoing in her head. They were so muffled Twilight couldn’t make out the words, but it slowly got clearer; was it two voices? Suddenly her horn blazed and threw a magical image of Princess Celestia and Spike in front of her. She was still dazed and feeling the pain from the spasm in her head, but she could make out the words. They looked like they were trying to talk to her, but she couldn’t tell if they were succeeding or not.

“Twilight! Twilight! Can you hear me? Where are you and the others? Are you still in Equestria?” Celestia asked trying to telepathically connect herself to Twilight. Twilight looked back at her, but couldn’t speak properly, still trying to recover from the incredible pain she had endured. Spike was standing on her back looking down at Twilight.

“Princess she’s not answering... she looks like she’s been bleeding around her horn. Princess she looks hurt! You gotta save her!” Spike said.

“Twilight if you can hear me, I know you’re in the wrong dimension. I wouldn’t have this much trouble connecting to you if you were in our dimension. I’m going to disconnect the spell shortly; I’ll be coming to that dimension to get you soon. You can’t stay there. It’s too much of a....” Princess Celestia became more muffled to the point where Twilight could no longer understand her. She wanted to tell her not to come to this dimension, but she could hardly lift her head.

“I’ve got to disconnect Spike. An inter-dimensional telepathic connection like this could be killing her.” Celestia said, before fading away. The pain from before started to grow in her head again, but was less intense and far shorter, but when it was over this time Twilight felt all movement and warmth leave her body, and she  fainted.

Bullseye had run all the other girls through the basics of using a hoof gun and moved to the next compartment with Rarity. Fluttershy kept insisting that Applejack go first, same as Pinkie Pie with Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy wasn’t keen on shooting it so Applejack did her a favour and went up to the bench. Having the most powerful available gun, she wanted to see how powerful it really was. She cocked the gun and lent on the bench in front of her, pointing the weapon as straight as she could towards the head target.

“Watch n learn everypony.” She said to the other 3 in the room. Rainbow was about to shoot, but wanted to see what would happen when Applejack fired it, to see if she really did have the necessary strength. Applejack braced herself, and pressed down on the trigger. The noise cracking from the weapon was incredible, if it weren’t for their earmuffs the lot of them might have had trouble hearing for a very long time. But hearing was the last of applejacks problems. She had been thrown by the force of the weapon and launched into the glass wall of the back of the room. She had completely underestimated the power of the weapon against her shooting style, and was lying there in agony, groaning and clutching her right shoulder.

“Owwww... Dangit... That was much worse than expected... Fluttershy... you go... Owwww”, Applejack moaned telling Fluttershy to take over.

Rainbow Dash chuckled shifting her gaze over to Fluttershy who was a little shaky about needing to shoot the gun, especially after seeing what Applejack’s did. She slowly cocked the body of the rifle, clenched her eyes shut, pointed the gun forward, and pressed the trigger. Compared to Applejack’s hoof gun blast, hers was barely louder than a pop through the earmuffs. She scored a perfect middle headshot on the pony target Applejack had missed. Fluttershy opened one eye and then surprise swept over her face and she opened the other. To all the others’ surprise, she grinned a little, and chuckled, loading the gun again and firing another perfect middle shot on the next target. She began to laugh harder, and her smile became a little more sinister, as she repeated her actions, getting more and more perfect shots. The others started to look a little edgy; was Fluttershy starting to enjoy herself? And how could she be hitting such accurate shots right off the ball?

Rainbow looked away and tried to focus on her own target; she loaded the gun and pointed it, using the sights as best she could. She pressed on the trigger, and the bullet fired, and hit inside the target. It didn’t hit the middle but it was still an accurate shot, she fired 3 more with short gaps in-between to adjust her aim properly, and had the same results with the other 3 targets.

“Yes! Hit every target on my first try just like Twilight! I am so gunna get a spot on the mission!” Rainbow Dash while pinkie clapped her hooves for her shot. “Go ahead and have a try Pinkie, see if you can hit a target.” Rainbow said jumping down, and moving out of the way.

“Thanks Dashie.” She said hopping over to the bench and leaning on it. “Now what I’ve seen from Fluttershy...” Pinkie began staring over at Fluttershy who seemed to be going crazy with sinister delight and laughter which got more intense with each shot; she’d gone through the whole clip in the time they had been standing there. She seemed to have her free hoof always ready to cock the weapon so to keep shooting it.

“That’s kinda creepy... What I’ve seen from Fluttershy though is I can shoot more bullets faster, if I do what she’s doing. So Pinkie stood on her back legs, leaned on the bench, and loaded the weapon. Before Rainbow Dash could expect it Pinkie was firing multiple shots right off the ball. She stopped quickly on four, and lifted her glasses. Rainbow Dash just saw Pinkie start jumping and yelling out happily. She walked over to the bench and her jaw dropped. Pinkie had gotten the very centre of all 4 targets.

“Did you see that Dashie? I did it! My first try and I did 4 really fast shots and got the middle of every target! Now I’ll get a spot too!” Pinkie said with delight as Rainbow just stared at the target in awe. Pinkie happily bounced towards the door. “I better tell Bullseye that we hit our 4 targets... I don’t think I want to keep shooting like Fluttershy.” She said looking over at Fluttershy, who looked like a mad-mare, firing away at her paper figure. She had only hit targets, but fired enough bullets to have almost shredded the paper inside the targets. 2 clips had been emptied with casings and clips on the floor beside her, and Applejack who was also getting a little creeped out, decided to try and convince her to stop. Pinkie walked outside to go next door and find Bullseye, leaving Rainbow to simmer in light anger. Pinkie just seemed to always outshine her somehow at everything, and it was starting to annoy her. She loved Pinkie as her best friend, but still couldn’t help but feel annoyed whenever Pinkie did something better than her.

Bullseye had taken Rarity to the compartment next to the other girls which was separated by reinforced glass. He decided it might be good to get a few questions answered seeing as they were alone.

“So Rarity, why exactly did you 6 come to this dimension of Equestria? Like is there a worse war in yours and you’re trying to escape or something?” Bullseye asked her.

“Actually, Twilight learned a spell which brought us here. We all chose to see what this dimension was like. We didn’t intend on staying for long, and if you’d told me back then that I would be practicing shooting to go on a mission to Canterlot to save an alternate version of Spike... well, none of us expected any of this.” Rarity explained putting on her glasses, and sliding on her earmuffs. Bullseye nodded and did the same, and watched Rarity about to get up and begin shooting, but she stopped and turned around and took them back off.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked curious for answer herself.

“Uh sure.” he replied lifting his earmuffs off.

“What’s it like to live in a war zone at your age?” She asked curious as to how the war might affect someone younger like him. Bullseye had to pause for a bit, before answering.

“It’s been hard ever since Twilight died. My mother died when I was a colt, and I’ve had to grow up without her. When this war began, Twilight found me in one of the places Celestia was searching for survivors, she took out 22 attacking Lunar soldiers that were clearing the towns out to get prisoners, and they bought me here. I asked Twilight if she could teach me to shoot like her, and practiced for months and months. That was when the war felt like it might be easy to live with. Twilight filled in that space that my mother had left, and taught me everything she knew, but when she died... I lost hope. This war won’t end. So I have to learn to live with how much these ponies rely on me as the top soldier to fight for them. With Derpy as commander a little weight is lifted from my shoulders, but there’s still a lot there. So living in a war zone at my age, with the burdens I carry... it’s hard.” Bullseye explained. Rarity hadn’t asked for a life story, but she got it anyway.

She felt sorry for him, having so far only known the sad past of her sister and the other unicorns. Every story just seemed to get worse and worse. Her grim look showed Bullseye that she understood, and felt bad for him. Rarity didn’t know what else to say to reply to him, but he spoke up again before she could figure out what she could say.

“Others here have been through worse. You haven’t even heard Derpy’s story yet. She doesn’t tell anyone this but she never knew her parents. When I was talking to Celestia, she told me what Derpy had told her, and what Derpy had been told when she asked about her parents. When she was too little to remember them her mother died, and her father went into depression which resulted in suicide. She’s been growing up on her own in a pegasus city called Cloudsdale up until the war. She grew up hardened and rough which is one of the reasons Celestia asked her to train as one of her soldiers. And that mission... that she took the place I wanted on... after that I sometimes wonder how she goes on. Anyway, you can’t tell anyone I told you that. She doesn’t even know I know. Let’s get into shooting some targets now ok.” Bullseye said to get off the topic of the past. Rarity nodded and slipped on her ear muffs again, but while moving over to the bench to shoot, she couldn’t help but think about what Bullseye had told her, and it made her sad to see that war could cause so much bad in everypony’s life.

It had been about 10 minutes since they all started practicing, Pinkie and Rainbow had been taken to another room to practice hoof to hoof combat skills with a trainer, Applejack had borrowed Rainbow’s gun to practice with so she could actually get some work done, while Fluttershy had picked up Pinkie’s, which brought more joy to her in shooting because of the increase in power. Rarity had also found herself scoring very well targeted shots and was also practicing hoof to hoof combat. Bullseye finished up helping Applejack adjust her stance to shoot properly and not injure her shoulder further. He looked over to Fluttershy and to his shock she had picked up the .50 cal, and fired a shot. Applejack through her earmuffs recognised the noise it produced from when she had fired it and also looked over. She and Bullseye were absolutely dumbfounded. Fluttershy hadn’t even flinched or been bothered by the weapons force, and had shrugged any bother off and fired another shot. Applejack couldn’t figure it out at all. She was one of the toughest of the tough, but couldn’t fire the weapon without being thrown backwards, and here Fluttershy was, hardly any raw power in her and she was firing the gun like it was nothing. Even Bullseye couldn’t explain it, but he was more creeped out by the sinister looking faces and joy shooting the weapons seemed to bring her. He looked back to Applejack and spoke to her between Fluttershy’s shooting.

“I’ll be... back shortly... to take you girls to... the hoof to... hoof combat area.” He said. Again Applejack didn’t think it would be necessary and wanted to prove it.

“Ah may not have been able te fire the big gun, but ah definitely don’t need no fighting training. Ahm strong enough te handle mahself in a fight.” She said.

“After what happened with the hoof gun, I don’t think I should listen to you.” Bullseye told her. Applejack expected him to say this and needed to prove she didn’t need fighting training, she looked around and then it hit her.

“This here glass is bulletproof right?” she asked.

“To some extent.” Bullseye said. Applejack grinned, leaned forward lifting her back legs off the ground and balanced on her front ones, pulled in her back legs, and with massive force, gave a mighty buck which shattered and destroyed a large portion of the glass.

Bullseye didn’t think he would see anything like Fluttershy firing a .50 cal hoof gun, but even bullets had trouble breaking that glass. Applejack didn’t need to do anything else. She’d proven her true strength.

“How in Equestria did you do that?!” Bullseye asked.

“I’ve been bucking apple trees a long time now. These legs can break a lot of surfaces.” Applejack replied.

“Ok... I’ll let you skip the hoof to hoof training... I feel sorry for the sucker that’s gunna get that when they get on your bad side. I’ll also have to find someone to replace that now.” Bullseye said. Applejack smiled and nodded turning around to practice shooting.

Bullseye turned to go check on Twilight; he’d forgotten that he’d left her on her own for almost 15 minutes now. He left Fluttershy and Applejack and trotted over to the door to his private compartment, but when he opened it he sprinted inside horrified to find Twilight lying on the ground with dried blood all around her horn and on the ground.

“Twilight!” he yelled grabbing her and shaking her. “Twilight!” he continued yelling her name, but she wasn’t opening her eyes. He put her down as he noticed she was breathing, but he was still worried. What could have done that to her head? he tried shaking her a bit to wake her up, but it wouldn’t work. He lifted her over his shoulder and dragged her outside. Applejack noticed her instantly and ran over to see what was wrong. Fluttershy noticed Applejack leave, and when she saw why, became extremely worried and threw her hoof gun away flying over to Twilight at top speed.

“What’s wrong with Twilight?!” Applejack asked, before noticing the blood dried all around her horn.

“What happened?” Fluttershy also asked before she too noticed the blood.

“I don’t know, I found her like this. Help me take her to Celestia.” Bullseye said. Applejack quick as ever went around and picked up Twilight’s other leg and they ran out the door with Fluttershy close behind.