The gunfire picked up as we silently made our way through the hospital. We passed by more and more bodies as we went. Guards, doctors, nurses, patients... nobody was spared. I kept Dash's handgun pointed forward as I led the two of us down the next hallway. I was waiting and hoping for a griffon to round the corner, just so I could drop him. Attacking a hospital wasn't something I could take sitting down. I couldn't hold back the desire to show them why it was a bad idea.

And I had every intention of doing so.

Eventually, we reached an intersection in the hallways. I turned to Dash, who nodded her head to the right. We went in that direction, and as we went, the gunfire got louder and louder. I also started hearing muffled voices; commands being shouted to and from the Royal Guard soldiers, muffled by the distance and the gunshots. After walking a bit, I could see figures in the darkness further down the hall. Every few seconds, one or two would light up as their rifles discharged, the muzzle flash illuminating their faces. They were firing in short bursts, three to four rounds going out before they ducked back behind whatever cover they were behind.

I went low, trying to make myself unseen as we neared them. I didn't want to get shot by a pony mistaking me for a griffon. I let Dash take the lead, and we soon reached the equine soldiers. She called out to them; loud enough to hear, but not too loud as to startle them. A light brown stallion with a dark brown mane turned to us, called us out to the rest of the guards, and gestured us over. I followed Dash, this time keeping my gun low. When we reached the stallion, I recognized him. It was her sergeant.

"Where the hell have you been?" he asked us as we approached.

"We got stuck in an elevator when the power died," I said, crouching down beside him, "And I'm guessing it wasn't a coincidence."

"You guess right. The bastards cut it," he huffed. Then he looked at Dash and noticed something, "Where's your weapon, private?"

"Uh..." Dash fought to get the words out. I sighed, and helped her out by holding the pistol up.

"What the hell?" the sergeant glared at both of us, "Put that down, now!"

"Look, sergeant, I'd love to argue with you about this," I began, lowering the weapon to my side, "But right now, this entire building is under attack. We need to get it secured, fast, before more people are killed. Don't you want an extra gun in this fight? An experienced gun?"

The sergeant was about to retort, but stopped and thought. After a moment, he sighed angrily and shook his head in defeat, "Just make sure you put it down the moment this building is clear. Take any longer, and I'll shoot you myself."

"Understood," I said, nodding. I was about to ask for intel on the enemy when a barrage of gunfire started tearing away at the intersection around us. I saw two stallions go down, one of them screaming in pain. Everyone else shrank into their cover.

"Damn it!" the sergeant shouted, "There isn't going to be a fight at all if we don't take these guys down!"

I thought for a moment, going over a mental map of the floor - at least, the parts I knew - and remembered the first hallway we had been in. There was a way around through there. If we doubled back and flanked them, it could take them by surprise. With us picking at them from both sides, they'd go down pretty quickly.

"Wait here!" I said, getting up and taking off back the way I came. I heard the sergeant say something, but I couldn't understand it over the gunfight behind him. I worked my way back to the first hallway, moving much faster than before. I reached the stairwell in moments. I moved past it, into uncharted territory. The carnage continued in this direction as well. Dead hospital staff and armored guards were everywhere; but among them were something new - dead griffons. I'm not going to lie, I was happy to see that some of the bastards got their comeuppance for this attack.

Time to add a few more to that list.

I made it to the corner and peeked around. Sure enough, I could see faint muzzle flashes in the darkness up ahead. To make sure I wasn't being flanked myself, I turned my gaze back behind me...

To see two ponies in gilded armor standing right next to me. One I recognized as Rainbow Dash. The other was a dark red unicorn stallion with an AK-47 in his hands.

"What the hell are you two doing?" I asked, not even bothering to control my volume. I was way too confused for that.

"Our sergeant ordered us to follow you," Dash said, shrugging.

"Fair enough," I said before pointing at the unicorn, "You. Who are you?"

"Private Crimson Flare, sir," he said in a young-sounding voice, nodding curtly. At least he knew how to act like a soldier. Though, he still looked pretty green; his rifle was shaking a bit, and his eye had a nervous twitch.

"Alright," my gaze fell to the sidearm at his belt, "Give Dash your backup, and stick close. We're moving up."

Crimson Flare handed Dash his pistol - a Tokarev-style pistol, not unlike Captain Shining Armor's piece - and they both nodded. We snaked around the corner and moved forward, keeping low. We closed the distance between us and the attackers. I counted six in the darkness, all armed with small, suppressed automatic weapons. I hid behind a stray gurney that was up against the left-side wall. Flare went right beside me, and Dash took up a position across from us, inside a doorway.

"You two ready for this?" I asked quietly, more to Dash than Flare. After how she had been acting since the attack started, I was worried she would freeze up. Surprisingly, they both nodded. Dash even had a fire in her eyes. A fire I knew well. She was done moping about. She was ready for some good old-fashioned vengeance.

"Just tell us what to do, sir," Flare whispered.

I weighed our options for a moment as the gunfight raged in front of us. The griffons didn't know we were there. They could be dropped easily enough. But two of us only had pistols. I had to procure a better weapon. My gaze fell on one of the griffons. He was a bit further away from the group than the others, standing behind a large, square plant pot set against the left wall. If I could get close, I could drop him and get his gun easily.

I turned to my two allies, "Hold here a moment. When you hear 'weapons free,' start picking targets. Shoot at anything griffon-shaped. Don't stop until they're all down."

"You got it, boss," Flare saluted loosely with his right hand. Dash just nodded.

Keeping myself low, I moved out from behind the gurney and approached my selected target. He was too busy firing a long burst of bullets at the ponies down the hall to notice my approach. I got right up behind him, still undetected. I slowly stood up, and found out he was barely taller than me; maybe four inches taller. Good. That would make taking him out much easier. I carefully flicked my Makarov's safety off, then aimed it at the griffon's back. In one swift motion, I grabbed the griffon around his head, covering his beak with my elbow so he couldn't call out, and put three bullets into his spine. His death cries were muffled into my sleeve, unheard by anyone but me. Once I felt him go limp in my arms, I eased his lifeless corpse onto the ground. One down, five to go.

Not forgetting the purpose of this stealth-kill, I tucked my pistol into my fatigue pants and relieved him of his own weapon. It was an H&K MP7, a very modern, German-made Personal Defense Weapon. This particular one was fitted with a suppressor, a red dot sight, a flashlight attachment, and a drum magazine. Very expensive accessories. How the hell did a griffon on Equus get a hold of one?

Shaking the question away for now, I grabbed a couple of spare box magazines from a set of pouches on the griffon's tactical vest, which I just now noticed they had. They were all outfitted like mercenaries. Who the hell paid for all of this equipment? Again forcing myself to focus, I looked back at my allies and gave a thumbs up. They both returned the gesture and raised their weapons, waiting for my signal. I shouldered my newly-procured firearm and leaned out from behind the square pot. I aimed the red dot at the griffon furthest down the hall, and moved my finger over the trigger.

I took a deep breath in, and let it out slowly. The world around me seemed to slow down as adrenaline began pumping through my system. I waited. I wanted to shoot the bastard badly, but I held off. I waited until they stopped shooting. I saw the magazines in their guns drop to the floor. They began reaching into their vests for new ones. This was the time. They couldn't shoot back. It was now or never.

"Weapons free!" I shouted. I was loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear, and the griffons whirled around with looks of shock.

That's when the bullets started flying.

I sent two short bursts at my target, and watched him fly back into the wall. There were gunshots behind me, and another griffon went down. Not wasting any time, I swiveled my weapon to the next one down the line. He had a fresh magazine in his hand, and was moving it to his weapon. Oh, no you don't, I thought, sending a burst into his chest. He stumbled back before going limp on the ground. More gunshots from behind, and another griffon down. I was about to move on to the last one, when a number of bullets struck my cover, forcing me down. Looking back, I saw Flare and Dash in similar situations.

"We're pinned down!" I shouted as loud as I could, hoping it would carry to the Royal Guard. It seemed to work, as not a moment later, there were loud gunshots coming from that end of the corridor, and the barrage of bullets coming our way stopped. I peeked out to see the final griffon sprawled onto the floor, dead. There was movement behind his corpse, and equine figures could be made out in the darkness. I held up my right hand and eased myself to a standing position, "Friendlies! Hold your fire!"

The ponies talked among themselves to get the word out. I heard shouts of "Hallway clear!" and "Friendlies ahead!" It took me by surprise to see them acting so tactically. I mean, they were professional, but I never really paid attention to their chatter before. Mostly because I was busy shooting at them, but that wasn't relevant at the moment. Flare and Dash joined me at the center of the griffon corpses, where we met up with the sergeant. He took a moment to survey the scene around him.

"Damn," he said, "You Rangers really don't fuck around, huh?"

"Not when it counts," I replied, "Shouldn't celebrate just yet, though. We still have an entire building to clear."

"Right," the sergeant nodded. He barked a couple of orders to his soldiers, before turning back to me, "You with us? Or are you done being a hero?"

Suddenly, my thoughts returned to the baby-blue nurse mare for a moment, and what she said, "Actually, sergeant, I need to find the doctor. Any idea where he is?"

"He should be on the first floor. I take it you're going after him?" I nodded, and the sergeant said, "Alright. Take Dash and Flare with you. You'll need their help. I'm going to try to gather up what soldiers I have left and start clearing the second floor."

"We'll grab the doctor and any other survivors we find," I said, "We can link back up with you afterwards."

"Alright. Good luck."

So, we all split up. I headed back to the stairwell, with Rainbow Dash and Crimson Flare in tow. We reached the door to the stairs, went in and started down. As we descended, I took the magazine out of my gun and counted the rounds. I had half of a magazine left. I turned to my party, "Check your weapons. You good on ammo?"

Flare checked his magazine, and responded, "I've got twenty-four rounds left, and four spares."

"Dash?" I looked at the blue mare.

"I-I'm good," she said, without checking her pistol. Maybe she had counted them as she fired? It wasn't hard with a low-capacity pistol, but it still gave me an uneasy feeling.

I shoved the feeling to the back of my mind. There were more pressing matters. We went down the stairs until we couldn't go any further down, reaching a door labeled with a one. I cautiously opened it and peeked out to find a completely empty hallway. It was a welcome change of scenery from the blood and bodies, but it still raised some concerns. Where the hell was everyone? When Dash and I went through earlier, there were plenty of ponies on this floor. Granted, it wasn't as busy as the upper floors, but I expected to see someone down here.

"Stay sharp," I told my comrades before stepping out into the new hallway. They followed closely, and we swept through the first hallway without encountering anyone. We went right from the stairwell, towards the exits. I wanted to make sure nothing else got in before clearing the floor. My fears were, unfortunately, confirmed when we reached the reception area. The glass doors were shattered, and several guards were dead on the floor. No civilians, though.

"Eyes open," I reminded the equines following me, "Flare, check the front desk."

As the red-furred stallion moved towards the reception desk, Dash and I went to the center of the room, weapons up. I scanned the room around me before stopping my gaze outside. At some point between my walk outside and now, it had started to rain lightly. The wet concrete reflected the moonlight, giving it a white shine. It wasn't important to the task at hand, so I moved on, but Dash stopped when she saw it.

"Weird," I head her mumble to herself.

I turned back to look at her, "How is that weird? It's just rain."

"It wasn't scheduled, though," she said, merely adding to my confusion. She didn't notice my expression, and continued, "The weather ponies must still be laying low due to the fighting outside the city. Storm must have rolled in while they weren't looking."

I pretended to know what she was talking about, and ignored it. I could ask about it later; right now, we were still in combat.

"Sergeant, you need to see this," I heard Crimson Flare say, pulling me out of my thoughts. I moved over to him. He had moved behind the reception desk. I vaulted over to join him, and immediately saw what he meant. There was a single reception worker - a pink mare - on the floor, on top of a pool of blood that soaked the grey carpet. She had a bullet hole in her chest, but that wasn't what stood out the most about her. Her clothes were ruffled around the wound, as if someone had moved them and then replaced them.

Flare was bent over her body, examining it. He noticed the clothing too, and pointed it out, "It looks like her uniform's been moved; like they were checking the wound. Which might mean..."

"They tried to help her," I finished his thought as I knelt down on the other side of her body. I reopened her blouse, which caused the red around Flare's cheeks to darken, and looked at where the wound was. It was covered by a bandage, which was soaked through. She had been given medical attention, "No griffon did this - not from what I've seen of them. Someone else is in here, too."

"H-how can you be sure?" he asked, "Couldn't this have been a Royal Guard?"

"Unlikely," I heard Dash say. I had only then noticed that she had joined us, and was vaulting over the desk herself, "We don't carry medical supplies around with us."

"One of the doctors, then?" he offered.

I shook my head, "They would've known she was a lost cause. They'd have comforted her, but wouldn't waste a bandage. Not in an active combat zone."

"So, who could it be, then?" Flare asked.

I would have responded, if not for the gunfire erupting in the near distance, further into the hospital. The three of us jumped up and vaulted back over the desk. We raised our weapons and followed the sound of the shots. As we got nearer, another noise could be heard over the fighting.

Screams.

Author's Note

Somehow, I managed to get another double complete. I guess it's because I really like writing combat and death? Who knows

Hope you guys enjoyed this installment. I can say I'm finally starting to be really happy with how this is turning out. Again, hope you liked it.

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thanks for reading.