If You Want Peace, Prepare For War

by tranhdxrbntd

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Sex, Scootaloo, Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human, Sweetie Belle, Main 6, Gore, Original Character, Apple Bloom, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 235479

Equestria is fighting her first World War after the 2nd Industrial revolution. She hasn't fought a war in a while. Before his death, Discord enlists the help of several creatures that are all too familiar with the concept.

War. Noun. (1) : a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state.

"Soldiers are always preparing to fight the previous war" is a saying that is common amongst those of military profession. Equestria has not seen a war on her own soil in several hundred years. As such, would she be prepared for when such a thing happens? Of course not.

Battling the griffons and the minotaurs has been a challenge due to lack of experience. Fortunately, her armies adapted and started to hold her own. That was, until Tirek returned and aided in the fight to defeat Equestria. To keep his friends safe, Discord successfully defeated Tirek and sealed him away. The cost of fighting Tirek? Dying. Knowing that he would die, Discord summoned several creatures to protect his friends. These creatures, never seen before in Equestria, are very familiar with the concept of war.

This world has experienced their second industrial revolution and Equestria is at war, a World War, the first this world has seen. Equestria and her citizens have a lot to learn if they want to see the end of this conflict with their culture and way of life preserved.

Author's Note: I have deployed so updates won't exactly be plentiful. I'll definitely try to put them out but I'm pretty busy. Also, if you comment on my story, showing an error, I appreciate it. If you point them out, I will fix it and then delete your comment so there's not too much spam in the comments.

Author's Note V2: Deployment is done.

Author's Note V3: Gearing up for the next deployment, busy again.

Author's Note V4: Not deploying with unit, got run over by a car while walking

Author's Note V5: Major health problems, not car related, Medically discharged now.

Published 2017-08-06 16:00:11 UTC
Last updated 2024-11-17 21:30:04 UTC

Only The Dead See The End Of War

Taking the griffon rifle in her hooves, Scootaloo shouldered it and aimed down the sights. She used her firing hoof and moved it towards where the trigger was, this time being able to actually touch it. The trigger felt rather strange, it being a lot smaller than the one on her service rifle. She then dry fired it, finding that the trigger was also a lot lighter than what she was used to.

None of this came to be a surprise to her as this rifle had been made for use with hands.

Looking back to her savior, she found that he was staring at her. "So... What are you?" Scootaloo asked.

He raised an eyebrow and stared back for a second. Finally, he opened his mouth replying with an answer that only served to irritate her. "Does it matter?"

Scootaloo sighed and took in his appearance. Maybe she'd find something that would give her answers. Now that she was closer to him, she noticed a small, rectangular strip of cloth attached to the upper chest portion of the vest that he was wearing. "Tran? What's that?" Scootaloo asked.

"My name." came the reply.

Finally, something helpful! Smiling, Scootaloo quickly said, "What kind of a name is Tran?" The question had actually seemed to confuse the creature but only for a slight moment. When he didn't answer, her smile faded. "So what group are you with?"

"1st Cav."

The 1st Cav? Scootaloo had never heard of that group before. Thinking even more about it, she realized something very important. The only nations that allied themselves with Equestria were the Crystal Empire and the Zebra Republic. Neither of which had a uniform that was even close to what he was wearing. Speaking of uniform, above his name tag was a grey, square patch that had a very familiar symbol on it. It was the rank insignia of a sergeant, three chevrons stacked, but his was pointed up instead of down.

Scootaloo doubted that this was a mistake. Whatever group or nation he was with, Scootaloo knew nothing about. "So what gun is that?"

He didn't respond verbally. Instead, he turned around and started walking away. Frowning, Scootaloo followed after him but stopped after a few seconds. She realized something very important, the rifle that he had given her was still empty and she had no ammo for it. She still needed to scavenge ammo! "Wait!! I still need to grab some bullets!"

-X-X-X-

Scootaloo followed the creature that had saved her, rifle slung over her shoulder. She didn't know who he was or where he was heading but being alone would only be trouble. "Where are we going?" Scootaloo asked.

"Out of the city" came the reply.

Scootaloo started running and got ahead of the creature, stopping in front of him. He stopped walking, staring at the pony obstructing his path. "We can't leave the city!" she exclaimed.

He stared back for a second, giving the statement a thought. "And why not?" he asked.

"Because that's treason!" Scootaloo replied with an exasperated tone.

"For you, it is" he replied with no change in emotion as usual.

Stammering, Scootaloo's thoughts were conflicting with each other. Going alone was a bad idea. That was clearly evident when she was almost captured by the griffons and minotaurs. However, Baltimare was her place of duty and desertion was punishable by firing squad. "But I can't go by myself!" There was no real way to get anything out of this situation.

"And why should I help you?" he asked back. He was right. He had no reason to help her. Whatever he was doing or supposed to be doing, it was more important than protecting or escorting a random soldier of the Equestrian army.

Without any response coming from Scootaloo, he walked past her. Scootaloo didn't bother following him and stared at where he used to stand, listening to his footsteps as he proceeded to leave. "Discord, why'd you have to die?" she asked herself. Discord's sacrifice was important. Tirek had been eliminating Equestria's forces faster than they came. His death was followed by a further escalation of hostilities and Equestrian losses. The most serious being the griffons had managed to finally get an almost-permanent stronghold in Equestria. Three of Equestria's major east coast cities were now in griffon control.

Then, she noticed that the sound of footsteps had died. Turning around, she noticed that the creature was just standing there. He was still facing away from her but was simply standing there. "What did you say about Discord?" he said, still facing away from her. "That was he was dead?"

Scootaloo was surprised. When Discord had died, every single major nation on the planet had known. A god's death, no matter how much of a pain he was, would be world-changing news. "Everypony knows that he died fighting against Tirek."

He turned around to look at her, showing the first real emotion that Scootaloo had seen from him. While only being a very minor change in facial features, she noticed that he was starting to get angry. He had started to grind his teeth subtlety, a few veins on his neck and head had started to bulge out, and his eyes had narrowed. "When?" This wasn't a question. No, he was demanding the answer from her.

"Six months ago" Scootaloo quickly replied. She really did not need to be the target of his anger right now.

He started to grind his teeth more visibly and tightened his grip on his massive rifle. After a few seconds, those signs started to disappear. The tight, crushing grip on his rifle had disappeared, the veins on his neck stopped bulging, and he had closed his eyes. "Where in this city is your group stationed?" he asked as he started walking again. Smiling, Scootaloo followed after him.

-X-X-X-

My eyes shot open. Looking around, I found myself lying down on a cold, hard surface. I shot up into a seated position, finding it a lot harder to do so than I thought. Looking down at myself, I found myself fully clothed and wearing a full set of IOTV body armor (including both main trauma plates, both side plates, the groin protector, lower back protector, throat protectors, neck protector, and both deltoid/arm protectors), an ACH, a war belt, and a full combat uniform (specifically the fire resistant flight uniform). All of it was in the digital ACU uniform.

First off, why in God's name was I wearing a full set of this IOTV bullshit!? With all of the pieces, it is one of the most annoying things that you can ever wear!

Second off, where am I? I was sitting in a blank, concrete room that had no windows and only one door. Strangely enough, there were no visible lights in the room but I could see clear as day. The only other thing in the room was a pelican case, one that was meant for a rifle, sitting to my left. Pulling the case closer to myself, I opened it up.

Much to my surprise, it wasn't a piece of military hardware. Instead, it was a civilian target rifle. What was more surprising was that it was my own personally owned rifle. I wouldn't mistake it for anything else.

I was still sitting down on the ground so I moved the rifle from the case to my lap. Turning it over, I found more evidence that it was my own personal rifle.

The rifle in question was a Savage 112 Magnum Target, a long range target rifle in .338 Lapua. The most noticeable feature about the rifle was her grey laminated wood stock. The second being that the scope on it was the most massive thing in existence. Seriously, it was a 4-50x75mm rifle optic. On a .50 BMG rifle, it would look sensible. On this thing, it overshadowed the rifle. Further complimenting the rifle was a small bipod that could be folded up or extended to be longer. A simple two-point sling was also on the rifle. Said sling also functioned as an ammo bandolier, holding ten extra rounds.

The Savage 112 was a pretty good rifle but improvements could be made. For one thing, it's a single shot rifle. This forces you to savor your shots. Another note, it weighs 12 pounds. This might be due to the fact that it's a target rifle.

Holding my hand over the ejection port, I grabbed the bolt handle and worked it. This resulted in a round jumping out of the rifle and into my hand. Holding it up to my eyes, it's appearance told me that the projectile was 250 grains. The bullet's other features were a nice, sharp point, and an immaculate case. This meant that it was most likely a match round, something more accurate though I could have been wrong. Since that was all I needed from the examination, I loaded the bullet back into the rifle.

Looking back at the pelican case, I found a note.

Dear Tran,
I have recruited you, along with others, to assist the Equestrian nation in her time of need. She is at war and she is losing. While this seems unprecedented and rather forceful, I was forced to do as so upon learning of the possibility of my death. While this seems crazy, you are now on another planet. Upon leaving the room, you shall notice this. I'm sorry that I had to do this but the need to protect my friends is of the utmost importance. Please protect my little ponies.

-Discord

What kind of a joke was this? On another note, how in God's name did they manage to get my hunting rifle from home? Taking the rifle off of my lap, I set it back on the pelican case. Let's see what else was I left with.

The first thing I checked was my IOTV. In addition to having all of the optionally worn pieces, it had a numerous number of pouches to it. There were 3 double magazine pouches, the IFAK pouch, 2 flash bang pouches, two grenade pouches, and two canteen pouches. There was no surprise when I found a canteen in each canteen pouch.

Inside the IFAK (Improved First Aid Kit) was your standard issue medical kit with a few extra items. There were two CAT tourniquets, two Israeli bandages, a roll of gauze, a roll of medical tape, an airway kit, 3 packs of QuikClot gauze, and 4 pairs of medical gloves.

Then, I opened one of the grenade pouches and found an M67 fragmentation grenade. Upon pulling it out of the pouch, I nearly dropped it as my heart started to race. This wasn't a fake grenade. In my company, I was one of the armorers and a certified ammo handler. THIS WAS A REAL GODDAMN GRENADE!!! Hell, it looked like it just came right out of the storage canisters that they came in. Jesus, it even had the safety clip that tightly held the spoon down.

Holding the grenade as tightly as I could, I unscrewed the fuze head off of the grenade. When I saw that the fuze was also real, my heart skipped a beat. It got worse when I saw (and smelled) that the inside of the grenade was indeed filled with Comp B. Opening up the other grenade pouch, I found a second grenade. Upon taking it apart, I found that it was also real.

I reassembled the two and stowed them back in the grenade pouches. I didn't want to be caught carrying them but just leaving them here would be irresponsible.

After that, I opened the two flash bang pouches. There were two revolver speed loaders in each of them. Holding one of them up, I noticed the red tips of the bullets that filled the speed loader. I also noticed that the rounds were in a caliber that was beyond all logical reasoning. What caliber? .50 caliber. Yep. They were .500 S&W Magnum rounds.

Why did I have these?

Then, the double mag pouches were next. The first one held a simple bundle of 550 paracord. The second pouch held a bundle of .338 Lapuas. There was thirty rounds total, held together with a rubber band. The last pouch also held a bundle of .338 Lapuas, also made of thirty rounds held together with a rubber band.

Lastly, was the war belt.

On the left-hand section of the belt? A recipient for the speed loaders. Yep, it was a S&W Model 500 along with two more speed loaders. Drawing the hand cannon, I found it to be the same case as the Savage 112. It was also my personal firearm.

Hitting the cylinder latch, the massive cylinder dropped to the left. This revealed that it was loaded and upon pulling some of the rounds out, I determined that it was real ammo.

Why did I have this as well? Let's say that I actually did have to fight in a war for someone else. I would definitely not choose a .500 S&W! There are a million things wrong with it like the five round capacity, the massive recoil, or its weight.

The revolver itself was as big as you could guess. If someone told me that it wasn't designed for shooting someone but for clubbing people to death, I'd believe them. My personal S&W 500 had a 6.5" barrel and rosewood grips. It was something that I had bought solely for large game hunting. Well, that and watching cocky people attempt to fire it.

On the right side of the war belt was a folding pocket knife (boring but practical), a non-serrated kabar (also boring but practical), four pairs of ear plugs (pretty straightforward), and two more tourniquets (you can never have too many tourniquets!).

Lastly, I went through my uniform's pockets. There wasn't much. The front pockets of my pants yielded two packs of gum (mint flavored and sugarless). In one of my ankle pockets, my wallet. The last item I found was a small notebook that was living in my right cargo pocket. The notebook, it held a bunch of dope cards (imagine a chart stating ballistic corrections).

That was all there was.

Picking up my Savage 112, I walked over to the door. Said door was a meter and a half tall and the door handle was too low for me to grab normally. Crouching down, I grabbed the doorknob. Turning it, I slowly pushed it open.

The scene in front of me absolutely confused me. There, in the open 100 yards away, stood 4 griffons and 2 minotaurs (all six of which were technicolor!). Noticing that all six of them were armed, I tried to take cover back in the room that I had recently exited. When my back hit a solid object, I turned around to see that the door had disappeared. Standing in its place, a brick wall stood.

I was shocked but only for the shortest of seconds. Looking around, I took cover behind some concrete rubble. All six creatures were facing away from me but being safe never hurt anyone.

I set my rifle down on the ground and looked through the optic. With the help of my rifle's absurdly powerful optic, I made out more of their features.

All four griffons wore dark grey uniforms (no helmets) that were covered in a series of pouches. Their weapons all consisted of some form of long guns, possibly bolt action rifles. Size wise, they all seemed to be the size of large dogs with the mastiff coming to mind.

The two minotaurs, they wore dark blue uniforms (also no helmets but that might be due to the horns that they had). Their uniforms were covered in pouches but were also covered in belts of ammunition. Both of them were giant. Their bodies, while covered in cloth, were bulging with muscles. It didn't help that they were double the height of the griffons nor the large machine guns that they were armed with.

It seemed that the six of them were... Shooting at a pillar? You know, it kinda reminds me of... They were assaulting an individual position!

One of the minotaurs walked over to the pillar and seconds later, walked back out. Following the minotaur was a... Small orange horse in a dark brown uniform?

I lifted my head up, rubbed my eyes, and looked back through the scope. Yep. That was indeed a small orange horse in a dark brown uniform.

You know, I don't think this was a prank anymore. That, or I'm dreaming.

Thinking back to the letter, I remember the part where it asked me to protect m'y little ponies'. Well, let's see where this takes me.

I grabbed the bolt handle on my rifle and drew it back, checking for the telltale sign of a loaded round. When I saw the brass, I pushed the bolt forward and chambered that round. Digging through my war belt, I took out a set of earplugs and stuck them in my ears. A .338 Lapua Mag was not quiet.

Looking back through the scope, I centered the reticle on the minotaur's chest. As I started to pull the trigger, the minotaur had picked up the orange horse, pony thing. Before I could stop myself, my rifle fired.

*BOOM*

To my surprise, the minotaur's head had exploded. Huh. I guess my rifle was zeroed for a longer range.

I worked the bolt of my rifle and ejected the spent casing. I almost forgot that my rifle was a single shot rifle. Grabbing a single round, I carefully slid it into the chamber of my rifle. Closing the bolt, I started adjusting the elevation of my rifle's optic. Let's hope it was enough.

Taking aim again, I searched for my next target. I found the second minotaur and placed the reticle on his chest.

*BOOM*

War Does Not Determine Who is Right, Only Who is Left

Cloudsdale was no longer a pegasi hub for weather control. Shortly after the war had started, it became a giant, mobile airbase. Among the changes that the city experienced was the change in population. No longer was the population all pegasi. Now, the city welcomed earth ponies and unicorns, all of which served or worked with the military.

Inside the city, pegasi milled about in anticipation for the next offensive. One particular cyan pegasus was playing with the gear that she was issued. She was part of the Equestrian Royal Flying Corps and was a member of the Dragon Hunters, a highly esteemed dogfighting group. To be more specific, she was the most experienced dogfighter of the Dragon Hunters.

Dogfighting was a very dangerous art as both sides had an equal capability of killing each other. For both sides, the average aerial dogfighter's life expectancy was 11 days. This specific pegasus had survived the entirety of the war since it had started. Considered a hero among her peers, Rainbow Dash was just as cocky as she ever was. Since she survived seventy times longer than the average pegasus, her boasts weren't lies (most of the time).

One of the benefits of having survived so long was that she could customize her gear as she wanted.

The standard uniform of the Equestrian armed forces was a dark brown jacket with dark brown pants. This uniform was meant for dealing with the cold, nothing else. An optional aviators cap and goggles were also available to be worn, the latter being useful for keeping the wind from attacking your eyes. Over the uniform, ponies would have to wear a set of canvas webbing gear. This webbing composed of multiple pouches and pockets meant for carrying ammunition and gear.

Rainbow Dash's uniform was bright cyan (the same as her coat) instead of the required dark brown. Her webbed gear, also cyan, had half the normal number of pouches and pockets. While this meant she could carry a very limited amount of ammo, she was weighed down far less than anypony else. For her, speed was key.

Her weapons, just as customized as her gear.

Her service rifle wasn't standard Equestrian issue as it was a captured griffon weapon. It was a Harpy Model 06, a magazine-fed semi automatic rifle. A normal Harpy Model 06 was chambered in 7x45mm Talon and held 10 rounds. Rainbow Dash's Harpy was rechambered to fire the standard Equestrian rifle round, 6.5x50mm Stomper, and hers held 15 rounds. Part of the rifle's design was a fixed magazine, meaning it could only be reloaded with stripper clips or loose rounds. There was no way getting around this, the magazine incorporated the feed ramp and held the lower receiver to the upper receiver.

Other than rechambering the rifle, she had to shorten the stock to be able to use it. In its original griffon configuration, the stock was much too long for ponies to use comfortably. Also, the rifle's trigger guard was removed and the trigger replaced with a long lever trigger, one that allowed easy usage with hooves. Other than that, the griffon sling was replaced with a standard issue Equestrian sling.

This was her rifle. There were few like it and this one was hers.

Then, there was her sidearm. Unlike her rifle, her sidearm was standard issue. It was an Equestrian Ordnance Works Model 92 revolver. The Model 92 was a single action or double action revolver chambered in 8x27mm Equestrian Ordnance and like most revolvers, it held 6 rounds. The 8mm Equestrian Ordnance round was, to quote the average Equestrian gunsmith, "a retardedly anemic round". Most ponies would agree with this statement, especially those that have shot at a minotaur with one.

Why would such an experienced dogfighter carry such a sidearm? Well, it and its ammunition didn't weight much. Also, Rainbow Dash carried it solely for the purpose of shooting down other enemy dogfighters. While the Model 92 fired a weak cartridge, any griffon would have trouble flying after being shot no matter the bullet.

There was nothing special about the revolver. It was in a basic flight configuration. It featured a snub nose barrel, parts made of light metal alloys, and a lanyard loop. This lanyard loop connected the revolver to the holster that was strapped to Rainbow's webbing gear so she could never lose it in flight.

Rainbow Dash drew her revolver and aimed it at a lone stray cloud in the sky. This revolver had served with her since the start of the war. It was no longer a simple handgun. It was now a piece of her.

"Rainbow Dash" came a voice from behind her. Surprised, Rainbow Dash turned around while instinctively pointing her revolver at whoever it was. Before she could think, she found herself disarmed and knocked down by an orange maned gold pegasus. "Be careful there," Spitfire said. "You might hurt yourself." Spitfire unloaded the revolver and tossed it back.

Rainbow Dash caught the revolver in one hoof while jumping back up. "You need to stop doing that," came her reply.

Spitfire smiled and gave the ammo back. "And you need to get a better sidearm," Spitfire said while drawing her sidearm. Her sidearm wasn't necessarily a handgun. Instead, she carried a sawed-off double barrel shotgun. "Like this!" There was nothing that could defeat a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with buckshot in a short ranged match.

A shotgun was a rather strange weapon for a dogfighter, but Spitfire wasn't a dogfighter. Well, she used to be a dogfighter. At the start of the war, she was one of the most feared dogfighters. Early on, she earned the nickname of "The Phoenix's Fire" from her aggressiveness in aerial combat. Unfortunately, she was shot out of the sky too many times and could no longer keep up with the average dogfighters' fast flight speeds. Now, she was an infantry pony who just so happens to be able to fly.

Rainbow Dash didn't bat an eye at the sight of the sawed-off shotgun. "What are you here for anyways?"

Spitfire's smile faltered. She let out a sigh before responding. "Just gotta ruin the mood, huh?" Spitfire said. "The higher-ups believe that a griffon offensive is starting in Baltimare."

Rainbow Dash reloaded her revolver and aimed it at the same cloud as earlier. "And? They're always saying that new offensives are starting or happening all the time."

Spitfire hit the unlocking lever on her shotgun, exposing the breach. Loaded in the chambers were brass shotgun shells, 12 gauge 2 3/4 inch buckshot (the standard combat shell). Snapping the shotgun shut, she aimed it at the same cloud that Rainbow Dash was aiming at. "They have proof this time."

Lowing her revolver, Rainbow Dash looked at Spitfire. "What proof?" she asked.

"They've started attacking the 5th Ground Division's main base."

A deafening boom echoed through the skies as a powerful shockwave rocked the foundations of Cloudsdale. Following that, a brilliant growing rainbow ring trailed through the air.

The Sonic Rainboom hadn't even fazed her. Too much exposure to artillery and explosions had desensitized the feeling to her, something that scared her to the core. Looking at the same stray cloud (which miraculously survived the Sonic Rainboom), she continued aiming her shotgun at it. Without blinking, she pulled the trigger and sent a spread of buckshot at the cloud's direction.

What was the importance of this news? Scootaloo was assigned to the 5th Ground Division.

Author's Note

Here are the guns from the story.

First, the sniper rifle.

Now, the .500 S&W.

War Isn't Fair, Take Every Advantage

Scootaloo's ears twitched.

Ever since she was sent to Baltimare to serve in the 5th Ground Division, her ears were constantly bombarded with the sound of gunfire. It seemed like it came from every direction, varying in intensity and distance.

Her unit, the 6th Infantry Regiment, was a major infantry unit of the 5th Ground Division. It's main headquarter's base was stationed in Baltimare. For now, Baltimare was also housing an enormous foreign enemy force.

She'd definitely need to get used to the sound if she was gonna stay here long. Now whether or not it was due to dying, going deaf, or mental resolve was yet to be determined.

Scootaloo looked at her temporary ally. It seemed like he didn't even know that this was a battlefield. Even when there was a distant explosion, he acted like nothing had happened.

In the mind of every young and stupid soldier, being unaffected by the loud noises of war (without going deaf) were the signs of a veteran soldier. Now that she had seen what war really was, she no longer wanted any part of it.

"Tran?" Scootaloo called out.

"Yes?" he responded, still walking and facing forward.

"What are you?" she asked again, hoping that he would answer this time.

"Doesn't matter" he responded again.

Scootaloo snorted. "Why are you such a grump?" she asked him. That was when he stopped walking. At first, she hadn't noticed. Only when she walked into his legs, did she realize. 'What the hell?' Scootaloo tried to say but she had a glove covering her mouth. Looking at the offending appendage, she found that , to no surprise, it belonged to the soldier she was following.

She then watched as he laid into a prone firing position, weapon pointed forward. Catching the hint, she laid down too and pointed her rifle forward. Two hundred meters ahead, the aftermath of a short conflict was in full view. The rotting corpses of the enemy (griffons and minotaurs) and allies (ponies and zebras) laid in the street, surrounded by discarded weapons and spent shell casings.

She gasped when she recognized the bodies of the ponies and zebras. It was her squad! Leaping onto her hooves, she started running towards the scene as quickly as her legs carried her.

"Wait!" she heard the grump call out.

She didn't care. Once she made it to the first pony body, she flipped it over. The face she saw belonged to her squad leader. "Sergeant Windy..." she said, looking at the body's still-open eyes. She reached down and closed his eyes. "May you find peace on the other side."

Looking at her sergeant's body, she checked the body's webbed gear. Most of the ammo pouches on his body were still full. Dropping the griffon rifle she was currently armed with, she took the ammo for herself. She unslung her rifle (the one she was originally issued) and reloaded it.

She definitely enjoyed the feeling of being able to use her service rifle again. The much shorter carbine length rifle was perfect for her small, underaged body. As she dumped the ammo she had scavenged for the griffon rifle, she noticed a handgun pouch attached to her platoon sergeant's right leg.

She opened it up and pulled out a Model 92 revolver. The first smile since coming to Baltimare graced her face. "Just like Rainbow Dash's," she said, savoring the feeling. Unlike Rainbow Dash's personal sidearm, this one was the ground/infantry version. Nothing about it was like Rainbow Dash's Model 92. It had the standard 4 inch barrel, had no lanyard loop, and was entirely made of steel (aside from the wood grips).

Despite that, she still treasured it.

In her stupor, she hadn't noticed someone walking up to her until she heard footsteps. She took a quick glance back and noticed the weird shape of whatever species that Tran was. "Just give me a minute."

"Drop the revolver." It wasn't Tran. When she realized that the voice didn't match Tran's, she froze up. "Drop the gun, now!" She dropped her Model 92 and kicked it away from her. "Now turn around, slowly." Once she obeyed the orders, she found herself facing another of whatever Tran was.

While being the same species, this one didn't look anything like Tran. Tran had clearly been wearing a military uniform, the camouflage was a dead giveaway. This one, however, was wearing black jeans, a dark grey hooded jacket, black leather boots, and a black shirt. On top of the clothes, he was wearing a mismatched set of webbed gear that seemed to be pieced together by a child. The basis of the webbing was black leather straps that went around his waist and over his right shoulder. The strap that went around his body was adorned with several square brown leather pouches while the strap that went across his chest held an easy-to-reach knife.

Like with Tran, she couldn't tell much about his face. The jacket's hood was up, obscuring most of his head's features and the features that were present weren't much different from Tran's face. The more important thing was the handgun in his hand. It was a pistol, something that she had never seen before.

In Equestria, pistols were relatively uncommon. For ponies, revolvers were just easier to use and maintain (what maintenance?). Also, the act of reloading an emptied magazine was rather difficult to do with hooves.

Scootaloo didn't know much about pistols. The only thing that she could say about the sidearm was that it was a pistol and it was painted a tan color.

She could also see that he was armed with a rifle but it was slung over the creature's back so she couldn't say much about it. All she could see was a small section of the rifle's barrel that peeked over his shoulder and the rifle's front iron sight.

"Now you're gonna answer a few of my questions," he said.

*CLICK*

The soft mechanical click came from her left and the sound was unmistakable, it was the hammer of a gun being cocked back. Both Scootaloo and her ambusher turn to face the source of the sound. Much to her happiness, it was Tran not too far away and he was aiming a revolver (on another side note, it was the single largest revolver she had ever seen) up into the air. Why didn't Tran shoot her attacker like when he had saved her earlier?!

"You know, I thought that was your face when I saw you," Tran said, still pointing the small cannon into the air.

The appearance of Tran seemed to confused her attacker. He started blinking rapidly for a few seconds followed by the lowering of his handgun. "Tran? You're here too?"

Scootaloo looked at Tran, then back to her attacker. "You two know each other?" she exclaimed.

Her attacker looked back at her. "You must be really slow if you haven't realized that by now," he said. He completely lowered the pistol and then lifted up the right side of his jacket, revealing a black holster. He then carefully holstered the pistol and unslung his rifle.

The rifle was a bolt action rifle, a very common sight in this war. Nothing about the rifle was special. It had polished wood finish (also very common in this war), an exposed fixed magazine (also very common in this war), a brown leather sling (so common that finding a rifle without one was beyond rare), and a small rifle scope. The fixed scope, in Scootaloo's eyes, was absolutely puny. It had a small diameter and was short overall. To compare this scope to the scope on Tran's rifle would be the difference between a shed and the largest skyscraper in Equestria.

Tran eyed the rifle. "I see you've added a PU scope to your Mosin like you've always wanted," Tran said.

He looked down at his rifle and smiled at the small scope. "Yep," replied the other... Whatever they were.

What were they!? It was killing her! "What are you things?!" Scootaloo screamed, frustrated at not knowing what they were.

"Americans," replied the other... American? What in Celestia's name was an American?

"What?" asked Scootaloo.

"Logan..." Tran said while facepalming.

Finally! It was a name, something that she could refer to him with! The name "Logan" was a name that sounded a lot like a griffon or a minotaur's name. In Equestria, names were directly tied to a pony's role in society or their special talent. A griffon and or a minotaur's name was often made up at birth. It wasn't meant to mean anything like an Equestrian name. Instead it was more for giving someone something to be called with that was entirely unique to that one being.

He smiled in response to Tran's gesture, clearly happy with the results. "So what's with the tiny horse?" Logan asked.

Wait, what?! Was he referring to her? "Hey!"

Tran took his hand off of his face and looked down at her. "Little tyke started following me after I saved her from some attackers, a lot like a stray cat," Tran replied.

Scootaloo glared at Tran. "Hey!"

Tran stared back. "So you're telling me you're not following me like a stray cat?" Tran asked back. Scootaloo opened her mouth to say something witty back but nothing came to mind. The only thing she could really do was to glare even harder in an attempt to guilt him... Much like a cat. "And to answer your question, we're humans. You can also refer to us as people or person. Just think of us as minotaurs that are more monkey than bull."

Scootaloo just continued to glare at him, still irritated at being called a stray and a tyke.

That was when Logan finally noticed the revolver that Tran was armed with. "Jesus! Why do you have that with you?!" Logan exclaimed. "What are you trying to shoot, elephants?" Tran looked at the revolver held in his left hand, stilled aimed at the sky. He lowered it and then shoved it into a holster on his left hip. "And are those fucking wood grips? Did you just want all of the fucking recoil?"

Tran grinned at the comments. "You should shoot it one handed. It's not that hard if you're used to it."

"I know you're used to it but I'm not!" Logan exclaimed.

Scootaloo completely agreed with the statement. It looked like an absolute cannon. It would even look massive in a minotaur's hands! "What does that even shoot?" Speaking of which, Scootaloo walked over to where her recently acquired revolver was and picked it up.

Tran's smile grew upon hearing her question. "Hand me one of the rounds from that revolver."

Scootaloo looked at the revolver. She had only ever fired the Model 92 once. Rainbow Dash had once taken her to go target shooting, a memory which forever held a spot in her mind. From what she remembered, you had to hit a lever and then swing out the cylinder to reload it. After a good amount of fumbling, she finally managed to do as such. The cylinder swung out to the right, revealing 6 spent shell casings.

Frowning, she looked at the body of her sergeant and dug through his ammo pouches for more ammo. After a short search, she found 5 speed loaders for the Model 92. She stowed all but one of them in her webbed gear, handing the last one to Tran. Tran, holding up the speedloader filled with the six 8mm EO rounds, simply started laughing. Logan, after taking one look at the speedloader, also started laughing.

Why were they laughing? "What?" Scootaloo asked.

Tran stopped laughing and held up the speedloader. "See this?" he said, while slightly shaking the small speedloader. Scootaloo nodded. He then opened up a pouch on his vest and pulled out his own speedloader. The only difference? Well, the speedloader's excessive size embarrassed her.

"Oh."

Author's Note

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You; Ask What You Can Do for Your Country

I looked at the speedloader that she had given me. It was puny! With a decent amount of effort and fiddling, I removed one of the rounds off of the speedloader. '8mm EO', it read. An 8mm revolver? As a service weapon? What idiot came up with that?

I took a look at the tiny orange horse, realizing that I didn't know her name. "Hey, are all horses your size?" I asked.

She gave me an irritated glare back. "We're ponies!" she said back to me.

That wasn't what I asked but okay. "So are all ponies as small as you?"

You know, I could actually feel her glare becoming stronger. How'd she do that? Seriously, it'd be the best skill to have as an NCO. "I'm a little smaller than others," she finally confessed. She then pointed at the body of the pony that she had scavenged from. "But others are around that size."

The size of the corpse's body wasn't too much bigger than the orange pony that had been following me. Judging from the dimensions, I'd say these ponies were about the same size as large dogs and were somewhere between a hundred to two hundred kilograms in weight. When they stood up on their hind legs (which looks strange might I add), they could have been around my height.

I handed the 8mm rounds back to Scootaloo who in turn, used it to reload her revolver. I took a short look at the other bodies lying on the ground. "So what did they mean to you?" I asked.

In response, she looked back at the body that she had looted from. She closed her eyes and took in a breath. "They were my squad. He was my squad leader."

I placed a hand on her shoulder. "They're in a better place now."

She looked up at me, locking her gaze on my eyes. "Why do they have to send us to fight?" she asked me.

Well that's something you never want to answer. There's no actual right or wrong answer to this question. Sometimes it's for peace (ironically). Other times, it was for religion. In rare cases, there was a necessary evil that needed vanquishing. Really, it made me think about my own past experiences on deployment.

"Because no one else will" I finally replied. She looked away from me and back at the body of her squad leader.

Tears started to drip from her eyes. "We were ambushed a few hours after starting our patrol. We tried to retreat but I got separated and-"

I interrupted her. "Yeah, I saw." I looked at Logan. He no longer had that asshole smile from earlier. It was now replaced with a serious look.

Scootaloo was moving towards the body of her squad leader again. "What are you doing?"

She didn't reply. When she revealed the front left arm of her squad leader, she pulled off a patch from the uniform's sleeve.

I walked over to the body of a different pony and looked at the corpse's left arm sleeve. There was a flag patch in the exact same area. It looked like a flag, albeit a strange one at it. It must have been their version of dog tags.

I looked back at the small orange pony. She had started moving to the next body when I walked over to her and grabbed her shoulder. "Be careful. Where I'm from, the enemy tends to booby trap dead bodies," I warned her.

She nodded and continued on with the duty of collecting the ID tags off of her dead squad mates. She took her time, I didn't blame her. I would have given her the rest of eternity to do this if I were to allow it.

Once she had finished, she walked up to me and held every patch in one hoof. "If I die, I want you to take them and hand them off to anypony else," she said. She then took the time to place them all in a pouch on her webbed gear, making sure I saw. "Mine is in there with them."

Oh. "I can do that." In war, the missing are in a separate count form the dead in hopes that they are found. Unfortunately, they're not always found. That was when I realized the implications of her small size. "Did you lie about your age to enlist?" She nodded. "Christ." I looked at her own left sleeve where her ID patch should have been. It was missing. "What do I call you?"

She blinked. "I never did tell you my name, did I? It's Scootaloo" replied.

Scootaloo? I then smiled. "To quote a little tyke, what kind of a name is Scootaloo?"

A smile appeared on her face but only for the shortest of moments. She still had to face the reality of her situation. "Let's get going. I think I know where to go from here," she said, trying to keep her gaze from the bodies of her squadmates. She took a few steps forward, her eyes letting out a few more tears in the process.

I ran up to her and grabbed her shoulder once again. "Wait!"

She pulled her shoulder away from my hand and glared at me once again. "What?" I looked in the direction that she had started to walk towards. The sound that I had been ignoring this whole time, distant gunfire and explosions, was coming from that direction. To describe it with the word 'intense' would have been the same as describing the sun as 'hot'.

It didn't take her very long to reach the same conclusion as I had. "Oh no," she said before immediately going off in a sprint. I ran off after her, sniper rifle at the ready.

"Oh fucking shit, I hate running!" Logan yelled, running after the two of them.

The Airspace Over Baltimare

Rainbow Dash ran her bayonet into the chest of her target, an enemy griffon dogfighter. She stared into the griffon's eyes. His eyes were young, inexperienced as she would describe it as. The griffon looked down at the bayonet, still stuck in his chest, before looking back into Rainbow Dash's eyes. "What?" he said.

She didn't say anything back. A split second later, her rifle discharged and sent a round through the griffon's chest.

No longer able to fly, gravity took over and the griffon slid off of the bayonet. Weapon at the ready, she swung it around ready for another victim. Finding no one else, she lowered her rifle. She wasn't too far from Baltimare's main base. Once she rendezvoused with the 6th Infantry Regiment, she could get some help finding Scootaloo.

She felt a bullet strike her chest. Luckily, her uniform stopped the bullet (thank Celestia for Rarity's miracle works of art) but the impact knocked the wind out of her lungs. It didn't take very long for her to recover (it wasn't exactly an unfamiliar feeling), deciding to dive to go along with the drop.

Wherever her assailant was, she had to avoid him. Staying airborne was too risky, cover being completely unavailable. Seconds later, she landed and hid in the remains of a destroyed building.

She was only a few kilometers away from her intended destination. It wouldn't be hard getting their by hoof, but she'd definitely have to watch out for griffons and minotaurs.

Rainbow Dash looked down at her rifle, frowning at its appearance. Fresh blood coated its exterior and the bayonet was starting to bend. She pulled back on the rifle's charging handle, ready to catch the expended round. Nothing came out. She looked into the rifle.

It was empty.

Digging through her webbed gear, she found nothing but air in every single pouch. One of the downsides to removing half of the ammo pouches off of her webbed gear? Only being able to carry half the usual load of ammo. Slinging her rifle, she drew her Model 92. Dropping the cylinder, 2 fired and 4 unspent rounds were presented to her.

Teeth grinding, she flicked the cylinder closed. "Fuck me."

Somewhere In Canterlot

There was a chalkboard. It was a normal chalkboard. It had no enchantments and due to the shortages in materials (due to the war), it was shoddily made. For all intents and purposes, it was the single most important chalkboard in Equestria. Scribbled upon its green surface, with easy-to-erase chalk, were the situational details of Equestria's military. This included current and future battle plans, supply routes, manufacturing capabilities, spy networks, and more along the like.

24 hours a day and 7 days a week, the entrances were under the supervision of several platoons of armed soldiers. Nopony without a top-secret clearance could even be within a hundred meters of it, much less see it. The list of those that could see it with unrestricted access was shorter than the list of uncorrupted politicians left in Equestria. And to add, only one pony in the entirety of Equestria (princesses included) could actually write on the chalkboard.

What was the punishment for looking at or writing on the chalkboard without permission? Firing squad. No, really. Unpermitted access to the chalkboard was considered treason and was punishable by death. There would be no jury or trial, violators would instantly go to a firing squad.

In lieu of that, a piece of chalk was currently being scratched across its surface. It's owner, a lavender alicorn, moved the small stick of calcium sulfate with her pinkish-purple hued telekinetic aura. Once she had finished writing a new set of words and numbers across her chalkboard, she carefully checked it for mistakes.

"Oh Twilight!" came the voice belonging to that of an alabaster unicorn. Twilight looked up to see one of her best friends, Rarity. Held in a blue aura was a light brown coat. She instantly recognized it as the standard ground uniform (obviously only the coat portion) of the Equestrian military. Specifically, this was her own personal coat.

Grabbing it with her telekinesis, she wasted no time in putting it on (teleportation spell). "Thank you for fixing my coat, Rarity," she said while giving her friend the best smile that she could muster.

Rarity, whose attitude and demeanor seemingly hadn't been affected by the war, smiled back. "Oh, it was no problem! Anything for one of my friends!" she said back. "And I do want to protect you after all."

She looked down at the coat. "Pardon?"

Much to Twilight's surprise, Rarity grabbed a knife from her mane (there was a little sheath on her neck hidden by her mane) and stabbed her with it. Twilight's heart skipped a beat as she felt the knife impact her chest... But why didn't she feel any pain? She looked down, seeing that the coat had protected her from death's embrace. The tip of the knife had failed at going through the outer layer of the coat.

Rarity still had that same smile as earlier, despite having attempted to stab her. "Enchantments dear. You are important to me." The knife disappeared back in that purple mane. Then, Rarity touched a hoof to Twilight's coat. "That coat is now fireproof, waterproof, and stab proof. And yes darling, I did mean to use proof instead of resistant. It will also stop most lower velocity projectiles, but that only means shrapnel and certain handgun calibers or rifle rounds from extreme range." It wasn't Rarity who had done the enchantments. Her skill with magic was nowhere even close to doing such a thing. That didn't stop her from contacting some ponies that she knew.

Twilight grabbed her chest with a hoof. "Mother of Celestia, I did not think I could get a heart attack!" she exclaimed, ignoring everything that Rarity had said.

Rarity giggled in response. "Oh, but I do have a bit of bad news dear."

Twilight, still clutching her chest, asked "What?"

"Our dear friend, Dashy, has launched herself towards Baltimare," Rarity replied.

Twilight's heart skipped another beat. "WHAT?!"

And that was when Rarity's smiled finally disappeared. "It appears that Scootaloo was stationed there." Twilight stopped clutching her chest, eyes narrowing upon hearing the news. She pulled a revolver out from her coat and popped open the cylinder, checking it's load. "I don't remember putting that in there," Rarity said.

"Magic!" Twilight quickly replied before teleporting off.

Somewhere In Vanhoover

A pink earth pony sat in a chair. In front of her was the desk of the CEO of Equestria's 4th most important steel processing plant. Splayed across the desk were several pictures of the CEO in compromising positions with a pony that clearly wasn't her husband. "Let's make this a win-win situation. Equestrian Ordnance needs that steel and you want to stay married. What will it be?," Pinkie Pie said.

The CEO tried to grab the pictures and succeeded in grabbing only a few of them. "And these are the only copies?" the CEO asked.

"Yepperoni!" Pinkie replied. She then retrieved a large stack of papers from her mane. "Sign here!" The CEO begrudgingly signed the contract where she needed to. Smiling, Pinkie started skipping away.

Now that business was done, she had some time off to herself!

But, that was when a strip of paper started coming out of her rat's nest of a mane. She looked at the paper hanging from her mane, noticing the writing on it. "Baltimare under Griffon offensive? Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo involved? Twilight and Rarity soon coming? Who forgot to invite me!?"

She smiled and reached into her mane. After a solid three minutes of searching, she pulled her hoof out of her mane. "I should really clean out my mane," she said before tilting her head to the side and tapping her head with a free hoof. Following that, random things started to fall out of her mane. Yo-yo's, sticks, building blueprints, more pictures, and various pastries were among the random items that rained out. Then, a large metal tube fell out of her mane.

The tube was hollow with a rectangular metal plate covering one end, leaving the other end open. Three-quarters up the length of the mortar, a bipod was welded onto the tube. Overall, the tube wasn't that big. It was only half a meter in length and the tube was barely wide enough for her to stick a hoof down into it.

'Party Cannon Mk. II', was engraved into the side of the tube. Pinkie picked up the mortar and smiled. "Let's get this party started," she said while her smile grew tenfold.

Somewhere in Ponyville

Fluttershy was sitting on her rump in front of a hospital bed. Sleeping in the bed (with the help of very powerful painkillers), was a stallion. He was completely bound in bandages and several of his limbs were suspended in the air via slings that were attached to the ceiling. The stallion had been one of the recent casualties of this accursed war.

Fluttershy sighed. She no longer cared about where they were from or who they were. He was one of hundreds of thousands.

She looked down at herself. She was wearing a white gown and apron and a white cap. The cap and left sleeve of the uniform bore a red cross, the universal symbol of medical workers in the war. Usually, they could roam about combat zones without issue. Usually.

Another nurse entered the hospital room. She was wearing an identical nurse's outfit but wasn't wearing the cap. "Uh ma'am," the nurse called out.

"Yes?" Fluttershy responded.

"We're needed in Baltimare. They're attempting to take over the full Baltimare sector," the nurse said.

Fluttershy sighed. She held up both of her hooves in front of her face. A pair of surgical gloves and boot combination were covering them. They had been a gift from her friend, Rarity. A very useful gift, given to her towards the beginning of the war. They had been enchanted to forever stay sanitized and would mend themselves when punctured or torn.

Rarely did she take them off now. When the war ended, if it did, she would finally be able to get rid of their weight. "Go gather the other nurses and my gear," Fluttershy told the nurse.

The 5th Ground Division's Main Headquarters

As artillery raked the buildings surrounding the 5th Ground Division's field post, Applejack lit the cigar in her mouth. She was a senior NCO of the Equestrian, nothing would stop her from smoking this. Seriously, this little rolled bundle of tobacco costed her 5 bits.

That doesn't seem like much until you know that the average enlisted private made 10 bits a day. At the beginning of the war, ponies were paid at the beginning and middle of each month but ponies were dying long before they could enjoy their wages. In response to this, ponies could collect their wages daily or let it accumulate before collecting it in sum.

She took a puff from her cigar. Right now, she was going through her "ritual" before going off to fight. Nopony could tell her otherwise, not even the Equestrian Royal Army's generals themselves. She was the personal friend to the ruling heads of the country. This meant she could effectively do anything she wanted.

Another puff. Looking down at herself, she carefully went over her gear. She only ever wore the coat portion of the standard uniform of the Equestrian Army (the pants always got in the way of her bucking).

Being the first of her friends to join the Equestrian Army, Rarity had thought it was a good idea for her to have some armor. The coat's enchantment would only protect from fire, stabs, shrapnel, and small caliber rifle rounds. That was only the cloth portion of the coat. Rarity had also included armored steel plates inside of key sections of the coat, these being able to stop the lower end of rifle rounds. When she first got the coat, she was surprised to learn of the steel plates. Enchantments had been placed on the steel plates, reducing them to half their weight. They definitely cut down on the weight but they'd still hinder movement.

Like every other soldier in the Equestrian military, she wore webbed gearing to carry, well, gear. Her's was the opposite of Rainbow Dash's. Instead of wearing half the number of pouches, she wore double the number of pouches on her gear. These extra pouches allowed her to carry three times the number of grenades, her lasso, and a few apples (to be fair, it's in her name). In addition to the extra pouches, she wore several bandoliers of shotgun ammunition.

The main recipient of the shotgun ammunition was a double barrel. No, it wasn't a sawed-off. This was the full-length version. There wasn't much special about it. It was just a simple hammerless double barrel shotgun with two triggers.

Loving the idea of a shotgun so much, Applejack also carried a sawed-off version as a sidearm. It was the same model as her primary, only sawed-off. You couldn't really argue with her against this choice. Well, you could but it'd be like arguing with a brick wall (she might be a little stubborn).

But a mare of her type would have the occasional need for something that wasn't a shotgun. To remedy this, she carried a Colt Single Action Army in .45 Colt. This was her own personal revolver from home and was a family heirloom. The revolver was single action only (meaning the hammer had to be cocked back before being fired) and had to be reloaded through a side gate on the right side, the process being very slow and tedious. There was another major downside to using such an old revolver, only black powder cartridges could be used with it. This meant that a large cloud of smoke would appear when fired and that the bullets wouldn't be flying very fast (in terms of bullets).

And finally, a small mace. Gifted to her by Princess Luna, it was brutally effective to everything. Hell, it would work on enchanted armor plates too.

Another puff. "Let's get this over with."

In The Streets Of Baltimare

Rainbow Dash tried her best to make it the rest of the way to the 5th Ground Division's main operating post but she had to do this with caution. With only 4 rounds (retardedly anemic rounds at that), she wouldn't be able to defend herself if a squad of enemy soldiers discovered her.

But then she heard the sound of running hoof steps, prompting her to take immediate cover behind a partially destroyed brick wall. She cocked back the hammer of the revolver.

*CLICK*

Peeking around the corner, she saw a small dark-pink maned orange pegasus filly being chased by a grey minotaur five meters away and a black minotaur ten meters away. "Scootaloo!" she screamed out loud. She quickly ran out of cover, revolver aimed at the grey minotaur.

*BANG*

You Can Do Anything but Not Everything

Rainbow Dash felt pain blossom in her chest. It was the unmistakable feeling of getting shot (again). Her eyes darted around in search of the shooter but a second bullet struck her chest by the time she found him. Neither bullet had succeeded in punching through her coat, though they did succeed in breaking some of the ribs in her chest.

Gasping from pain, she locked eyes with a griffon. He was fifty meters(roughly) away, on the ground, in the opposite direction of Scootaloo. Armed with a carbine, he was still aiming at her. The two of them stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before the sound of a third gunshot sounded.

*BANG*

A bullet to the neck was definitely something that would end your career in the military and so, the griffon fell to the ground. It wasn't Rainbow who had fired the shot. Once again, she followed the sound and was surprised to discover that it was Scootaloo who had fired the shot! The little orange filly's rifle was pointing at where the griffon used to be and the barrel was clearly smoking.

The little squirt had saved her!

Now, it was her turn. Raising her revolver again, she took aim at the grey dressed minotaur. The minotaur in question would definitely be a difficult target to hit. While he was standing still, being sideways on made his profile much smaller. To add to that, using a handgun at this range would be quite the challenge.

"No!" screamed Scootaloo.

The revolver went off.

-X-X-X-

I watched as the little tyke's shot tore through the neck of a griffon. As he collapsed, my eyes came to focus on a cyan pony. The presence of this pony surprised me, to say. For one thing, he/she was wearing the most brightly colored uniform I had ever seen. There is no way a cyan uniform can blend in with anything here. And what's with the wings? They cannot be real.

But more importantly, he/she was aiming a pistol at me!

"No!" screamed Scootaloo.

And then, a bullet struck me in the upper arm (right one), followed by the sound of a gunshot (a pitiful sounding one by the way). While it barely felt like anything, it was still enough incentive to dive behind rubble for cover. Even with this much armor on, there were still a good amount of body parts exposed to fire. Looking at my arm, I found a small hole present in the arm protector's cover but I doubted the kevlar was damaged.

Logan had also decided that taking cover was a good idea while the little tyke was still standing in the open. "Is she supposed to be shooting at us?" I asked her.

"Stop shooting!" Scootaloo screamed.

"Get over here!" came a female voice where the gunshot came from. Well, at least we now know the horse is a she, not that it affects the situation in any way.

I ejected the round in my rifle and leaned it against my cover, being wary of the massive optic (unlike in video games and movies, these tend to be delicate).

"What are you doing?!" I heard Logan say.

I raised both hands out of cover and started to stand back up. Let's hope that this works.

-X-X-X-

"Get over here!" Rainbow Dash screamed. Why was Scootaloo standing there? Right now, she had every chance to escape from those two minotaurs!

Then, two gloved hands appeared out from the top of where the grey minotaur was hiding. She instantly took aim, ready to shoot again. Three rounds left. Three rounds that were also known to be useless against minotaurs...

Wait, why'd that minotaur take cover when she fired?

Minotaurs were known for being aggressive and relished the idea of this war. It was part of why this war had waged such a long time. Whenever a minotaur came under fire (except from artillery), they would shoot back right away. For them, this wasn't a war but a fun game. On another note, Scootaloo was armed so why didn't she just shoot the two of them?

When he completely stood up out of cover, her hoof tensed. Was he a minotaur? Sure, he was bipedal and had the same general shape of a minotaur but his more minor features told a different story (like the lack of fur). The most disconcerting feature was his uniform. Minotaurs didn't wear uniforms. None whatsoever. They believe that their muscular features were to be on display unless armor was being worn (usually reserved for high-ranking officers). The helmet was another good sign. Their horns made it impossible to wear a helmet (a practical one).

Then he spoke. "Holster your weapon!" he yelled.

She paused at his demand. "And why should I?" she yelled back in response but as those words left her mouth, she realized something very important. Where was the other one? The one dressed in black, where was he hiding? Her head darted around in search for him but had no success.

The whatever-he-was started grinning. "You've realized it, haven't you?"

She scowled as she holstered the revolver. He dropped his hands but they soon came back up, rifle in hand. Upon seeing the massive rifle, her hoof wandered towards her revolver. "They're on our side," Scootaloo said as the two of them started approaching her.

As the two of them closed the distance with her, she watched as the whatever-he-was load a single round into that rifle of his. "So why the hell did you shoot at me?" he demanded.

"Why the hell were you chasing the squirt?" she immediately responded.

Scootaloo groaned. "I'm not a filly anymore!" she exclaimed before she started to point (with her rifle) in the direction they were running towards. "And he wasn't chasing me! Don't you hear the gunfire coming from that direction?!"

"Oh."

Scootaloo facepalmed (hoofed?). "Wait, why didn't you shoot him with your rifle?" she asked.

"..."

"You're out of ammo, aren't you?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"How did you survive the entirety of this war?" Scootaloo finally said. When there was no response from the cyan pegasus, she reached into her webbed gear and pulled out several en bloc clips and a couple speedloaders.

Rainbow Dash took the ammo and tried to reload her Harpy Model 6 with the three round clips but found that they weren't feeding into her rifle. "Are these the old three round clips?" Scootaloo looked at her with a deadpanned expression. "The Army was supposed to have stopped using these months ago!"

The grey dressed whatever-he-was started laughing. "You think that's how it works?" he said in between laughs. "They still have to get rid of the ones still in inventory!"

Grumbling, Rainbow Dash stripped the rounds from the clips and loaded them into her rifle one-by-one. "So where's your friend hiding?" she asked. To answer her question, she felt a light tap on her shoulder...

-X-X-X-

Applejack rooted through her gear in search of a grenade as gunfire ate away at her cover (a brick wall). "Nothin." She poked her double barrel shotgun out of cover and fired two shots blindly. Now that she thought about it, going off on her own two kilometers outside the base to hunt down enemy soldiers was not the best of plans.

Surprisingly, the gunfire stopped. "What in tarnation?" Applejack said to herself. She peeked out from behind her cover. Every griffon and minotaur that were harassing her now laid in the streets, oozing from multiple gunshot wounds.

"Are you just going to stand there?!" screamed a male voice that she definitely didn't recognize.

Turning to face the speaker, she found herself looking at a... Something. That "something" resembled a minotaur but lacked a lot of their features. What really caught her eye was the uniform it was wearing. No minotaur she'd ever met had ever worn clothing like this one did. Also, it's uniform was in the strangest color she had ever seen.

And it was armed with the strangest rifle she had ever seen. The rifle didn't have an ounce of wood on it (all rifles had wood on it, even griffon and minotaur ones) and had a very long ribbed magazine coming out of it. The rifle's buttstock was an especially strange sight for her eyes. It was hollow!

-X-X-X-

I stopped running. "Hold up!" I yelled out. The two ponies in front of me skidded (literally, not sure how they did that) to a halt.

"What?!" Rainbow Dash demanded. I looked to our left. The sound of gunfire was coming from that direction. "So what?!"

"Do those gunshots sound familiar to you?" I asked her.

"No!" she immediately replied, clearly aggravated. Then, her attitude disappeared as she realized the impact of my words. "Wait, I've never heard of a gunshot like that before!"

"But I have!" I yelled before running off in that direction. It was the sound of an AK74.

Author's Note

About the whole getting rid of whatever is left in the inventory first.

In WWII, the M1 Garand was the standard service rifle of US armed forces in WWII and the Korean War but the US Marines were forced to use the Springfield Model 1903, ones leftover from the 1st World War, in the early Pacific Theater.

And to this day, many units are still using M16a2s for training. Hell, in the armory I work in, we have a Browning M2 from the 60s.

Big thanks to McCoda for giving me writing tips

I Am a Warrior and a Member of a Team

"You had to stare at me longer, didn't you?" he said in a condescending voice.

Applejack glared back. So what if she had stared at him for a few extra seconds? It's not like it was the direct cause of the ambush they were dealing with (though it did provide the ambushers with enough time to find them). "Just shoot!" Applejack yelled, trying to get her voice through the auditory shroud of gunshots. A hole appeared in their cover (a brick wall) right beside her head, followed by a loud thunderous gunshot. "Fuck!" she cried as pulverized masonry showered her head. "Luna damned manticore rifles!"

"Manticore rifles?" her new ally said, puzzled at the mention of such an item. He kneeled down and poked his body out of cover (only slightly), firing his rifle at the general direction of their ambushers. "Bound up!"

Applejack stared at him. "What?"

Growling, he brought the entirety of his body back into the safety of cover. "Move up to a different piece of cover when I start firing!" he commanded.

She hated how she was being treated like she was wet behind the ears, but she needed the help. When her ally started firing out of cover (again), she sprinted out from the safety of the brick wall and to a pile of rubble. It was only ten meters, but it gave her an entirely different perspective on her attackers.

There were six of them total, two were minotaurs and the rest were griffons. All but one were armed with various bolt action rifles (pretty standard). The sixth, a minotaur, was armed with a manticore rifle. A manticore rifle (if you haven't guessed it by now) was a rifle designed for taking out manticores. They were typically double barrel rifles chambered in a round much larger than the ones used in normal military rifles.

The covering fire her ally provided had obscured the knowledge of her new position. Here, all six of them were exposed even when they were taking cover. Smiling, Applejack unloaded her shotgun and leaned it against the pile of rubble (her cover). Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes.

A single heartbeat later, her eyes shot open and she drew her Colt Single Action Army. In the time span of a second and a half, she fanned the hammer and emptied the six round cylinder of her Colt Single Action Army. Albeit hip firing, she hadn't missed a single shot.

Naturally, all four griffons succumbed to their gunshots. The minotaurs, on the other hand, barely flinched. "Oh shit" she deadpanned. Diving to cover, she barely made it as both minotaurs open fired. Heart racing, Applejack grabbed her double barrel shotgun and loaded a fresh pair of shells into it.

A stick grenade landed in front of her.

She stared at it for a second before jumping over the pile of rubble that she was hiding behind. Climbing back up to her hooves, she felt a bullet slam into her barrel. One of the steel plates inside her coat stopped the bullet but the impact knocked her to the ground.

"Get to cover!" screamed her ally. He brought up his rifle and pulled the trigger.

*CLICK*

"Well fuck!" he exclaimed. He let the rifle drop flat against his chest before immediately drawing and firing a revolver. The one with the manticore rifle took the round to the chest but barely reacted to the impact. "Fucking die already!" he yelled while firing three more rounds.

Applejack immediately ran back behind the same pile of rubble. She hadn't noticed it earlier but both minotaurs were wearing armor. While they didn't wear helmets, some (usually officers) wore breastplates that protected their torsos. These were capable of stopping most rifle rounds. Both minotaurs started advancing towards her position, ignoring the clouds of buckshot that Applejack had sent towards them.

Her ally fired four more times from his revolver before he ducked down into the safety of his cover. "Fuck me," Applejack said as she exposed the breech of her boomstick. While reloading, two thunderous gunshots washed through her ears. Both were absolutely the single loudest gunshots she had ever heard, louder than the report of a manticore rifle!

She poked out from behind her cover, shotgun ready. "What in Tartarus?" Both minotaurs were dead, lying face first on the ground. From here, she could see two massive holes in their upper backs. A bullet, a big one at that, had punched right through their armor.

Standing behind both of the bodies was another member of whatever species her new ally was. This one was much taller and wore a similar uniform, only his was grey. Oh, and he was armed with an absolute artillery piece of a sidearm. Even from this far away, the revolver's bore diameter was apparent. She thought her .45 caliber Colt Single Action Army was a large caliber handgun but that thing? Well, her sidearm felt incontinent now.

Her new ally was surprised at the sight of his presence. "Tran?!" he exclaimed.

-X-X-X-

I lowered my revolver. "Eric?!" I exclaimed. Eric was my friend, someone that I had met in the Army. Unlike me, he was wearing the OCP version of the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) and his wasn't a flight crew uniform.

He was also not wearing the Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV) body armor, instead wearing the Soldier Plate Carrier System (SPCS). The SPCS was a much lighter alternative to the IOTV because it had a lot less features than the IOTV. The SPCS had no arm/deltoid protectors, groin protector, lower back protector, any kevlar whatsoever, and throat/neck protector. His SPCS had the front and back plate but appeared to be lacking the sideplates. The SPCS was 10 pounds lighter than the IOTV and much easier to move in. If you don't think 10 pounds is much of a difference, you've clearly never done a road march beyond 15 miles.

There was a rifle slung across his chest, most likely a variant of an AKs74 (well there's the source of those gunshots). It looked rather bare as there were no extra attachments on it, other than the polymer furniture and the skeleton side folding stock.

"Is that an AK74?" I asked him.

He holstered his revolver and grabbed it, swapping the current magazine. He chambered a round into the rifle and held it up. "Yeah. Funny thing, it's-"

"Your own personal one from home?" I said, cutting him off.

He gave me a questioning look but then noticed my hand cannon. "You too?" He let the AK fall flat against his chest before drawing a revolver. Both of us dropped the cylinder to our S&W revolvers and replaced the spent rounds. "Got that Smith and Weston R8 like I said."

"Wesson," I corrected. "Smith and Wesson."

"Tomayto, tomahto," he responded. He glanced at my revolver. "Is that the 500?" I smiled and nodded. "Jesus! What are you doing with that?!" I held it up to my eyes and shrugged. "So what else do you have?" I turned slightly to reveal the sniper rifle on my back. ".338 Lapua Mag?"

"Yep."

He holstered his revolver and took hold of his AK. "Okay."

I heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching. I immediately pointed my revolver at the source. When I saw the orange pony (a stetson, really?), I lowered my handgun. "Hello."

"Hello," the orange pony replied. "Why in Celestia's name do you have that cannon for?!"

Author's Note

Fun fact: On a two way rifle range, you miss... A lot.

If We Don't End War, War Will End Us

Applejack patted the ammo pouches of her webbed gear. "Look, ah don't got much ammo left," she said before drawing her Peacemaker. Applejack opened up the loading gate of her revolver and gave the cylinder a spin, checking each of chambers.

Rainbow Dash sighed. "I'm in the same boat as you," she said. "We're gonna have to head back to Fort Platinum." She looked at Tran and the two other humans. "The three of you shouldn't follow us."

Scootaloo gasped. "What? They've been helping us this whole time!" she protested.

Tran snorted. "Your little blue friend here shot me, thinking I was one of the enemy. It's not a good idea," he explained.

Scootaloo looked up at the person who had saved her earlier today. "So what will the three of you do now?" she asked.

Tran and Eric exchanged looks while Logan started chuckling. "We're making this shit up as we go along," Logan said.

Tran nodded in agreement while Eric facepalmed. "We'll think of something," Tran said.

And so, the three humans left.

-X-X-X-

All three of us hid in a destroyed apartment building. While it was moderately unsecured, it would have to do for now.

Eric sat down and took off his helmet. A second later, his rifle was on the ground. "So, plan of action?" Eric asked.

Logan scoffed. "What can we do? There's only three of us and I've never served," said Logan. To emphasize the point, he grabbed his hoodie/jacket with a free hand.

I placed my rifle on the ground, unfolding the bipod to do so. "And we aren't exactly set with the best equipment for war," I said while drawing my S&W 500.

Eric pulled the magazines out of his carrier's pouches. "Let's start with how much ammo we're carrying, not already loaded."

"Little bit under 60 rounds for the .338 and a little over 30 for the revolver" I replied.

"5 thirty rounders for the AK and 40 more rounds for the R8," Eric said while drawing his S&W R8.

"100 rounds for the Mosin and 3 mags for the pistol," Logan said.

Eric adopted a puzzled expression. "Pistol?" Eric asked. In response, Logan drew his pistol and held it out for him. ".45?" Logan nodded in response. Eric holstered his revolver and took the tan pistol. "An FNX 45. Not bad." Not bad indeed. Who else can argue with a pistol that holds 15 rounds of .45 ACP? Hell, it's not even stupidly large like most other double stacked .45 pistols. Eric handed the pistol back.

I pulled out one of the grenades from my vest. "I also got a pair of these."

Eric stared at the grenade in my hand. "So we don't have much to work with, eh?" He was right. We were just three people with less than 500 rounds of ammunition between us.

A voice that didn't belong to any of the three of us cut through the air. "Maybe you need some help." All three of us had our sidearms aimed at the source in a heartbeat. Standing there, at the gunpoint of three spooked humans, was Scootaloo. As expected, she jumped at the sight of the guns. "Whoa! Take it easy."

Eric groaned as he lowered my revolver. "Why the hell are you sneaking up on people in a war zone?!" Eric yelled.

A smile grew on my face. "I see that you're still acting like a stray cat," I immediately said. Scootaloo, who was starting to get tired of this shit, adopted a frown once again. "So why did you follow us?"

Scootaloo walked into the room and sat down with us. "I thought the three of you could use the help," she replied.

Eric looked up and down at Scootaloo's small frame. "How old is the minimum enlistment age?" he asked.

Scootaloo, upon hearing the question, started to shift around. "Sixteen," she replied.

Eric folded his arms across his chest. "And how old are you?" he immediately asked.

Scootaloo blinked a few times upon hearing the question before replying with, "Sixteen." Eric raised an eyebrow. "Fourteen, but I can still shoot a rifle!"

I looked at the rifle that she had slung over her back. It was definitely small, especially when compared to Logan's Mosin (comparing it to my rifle would have been absurd). However, it seemed large in her hands (hooves?). The revolver she had scavenged was definitely too large for her to comfortably use (even though it uses an anemically small round). "Yeah and that's pretty much the only thing that you can do," I said.

She scowled at me. "What's that supposed to mean?!" she demanded.

I chuckled at her anger. "Are you gonna carry me to safety if I get shot or take shrapnel in my legs?" I asked her. I knocked on the ceramic plate in my IOTV. "Because I have nothing but cloth covering my legs."

Her scowl disappeared. "N-no," she stammered out.

I scoffed. "So what are you going to do after you run out of ammo? Being a soldier isn't only about shooting a rifle." The circumstances to how we met definitely come to mind.

She looked dead into my eyes and said, "So what?" She took the rifle off of her back and set it down on her lap. "I'll think of something."

I groaned upon hearing her say that. Well, at least there's four of us now.

-X-X-X-

Rainbow Dash filled the cyan pouches of her webbed gear with much-needed ammo. For Rainbow Dash, it wasn't a long process. Her customized webbed gear, light and composed of only a few pouches, made resupplies fast.

But Rainbow Dash would still have to wait for Applejack to finish resupplying herself. "Come on, let's go" Rainbow Dash said. She flared out her wings in irritation, only to fold them back up against her body. Something inside of her was radiating with pain. No doubt it had relation to getting shot, twice.

Applejack paused and glared at her. "I'll slow down if yah need me to, sugar cube," Applejack angrily said.

Rainbow Dash groaned. "Uuuggghhh."

A high-pitched voice cut through the air, clashing heavily with the current attitude of the room. "Hiya, Dashie!" Rainbow Dash found herself lifted into the air and hugged to death by a pink pony.

Rainbow Dash felt pain flare up in her chest again. This time, it was a hundred times worse and a scream of anguish left her mouth. Pinkie Pie, surprised, immediately dropped her. Almost immediately afterward, a loud but still very soft voice chastised her. "Pinkie!"

Fluttershy shot over to Rainbow Dash's side and immediately started to strip the cyan uniform off of her. "You've been shot, twice!" Fluttershy said upon finding two massive bruises and impact patterns. Fluttershy's yellow hooves gently touched one of the bruises causing a gasp to exit Rainbow's mouth.

Rainbow Dash slapped away Fluttershy's hoof. "It's nothing," said Rainbow. Fluttershy gave Rainbow a motherly look, the disappointed kind that could melt steel beams. "Okay, I'm a little hurt."

The disappointed look grew stronger. "You're going to the infirmary!" Fluttershy said while keeping up with the disappointed look. Before Rainbow Dash could protest, a sedative had thoroughly removed any ability to resist.

Applejack chuckled as Rainbow was carried away by two nurses with a stretcher (where those two came from, we may never know). Applejack turned to look at Pinkie Pie who was also chuckling. "So let's go find Scootaloo!" Pinkie Pie cheered.

Still chuckling, Applejack said, "Oh we already found her!"

Pinkie Pie gasped. "Where?!"

Applejack then realized that only the two of them were present. "Motherfucker."

Pinkie Pie graduated from chuckling to laughing. "Looks like she gave you the slip!" Applejack frowned at Pinkie Pie's amusement. Eventually, Pinkie Pie's laughter started to die down. It continued to slow down until tears were the only thing that remained.

But then, the tears kept on coming. Applejack's frown disappeared when she realized that her beloved pink party pony friend was crying for real. "We're using child soldiers, Applejack! We're using them and we're okay with it!" Pinkie said between sobs. Applejack wrapped her hooves around Pinkie Pie and pulled her in close. "This war needs to end."

-X-X-X-

Outside, the artillery assaulting Fort Platinum stopped. That only meant one thing, an immediate assault directly from the front.

Twilight knew this and she was already filled with a sense of dread. No matter the result, there was one absolute truth. For both sides, the casualty list would grow. The only thing that could treat the sense of dread was to try to limit how many Equestria's casualty list would grow and even then, it wouldn't do much.

Rarity knew exactly what Twilight was thinking about. She lifted a hoof and started patting her back. "It'll be alright, darling. Whatever you do, we know that you're acting with the best intentions."

Twilight sighed before hanging her head. Using her magic, she floated a piece of paper in front of Rarity's eyes. After a quick read, Rarity's eyes widened. Rarity's own blue magic surrounded the paper as she read it over and over. "Dear, please tell me the 'and' is meant to be an 'or' in the last sentence."

Twilight shook her head.

Rarity took the paper in her hooves. After a few seconds, she finally said, "Well, this is seems to be a rather unfortunate turn of events." Rarity looked at the paper once more, hoping that she had misread it. "An aerial Jaegar AND a war chief were spotted?" Rarity asked, hoping that she was wrong.

Twilight nodded again.

The Griffon Empire's air force was known for having the most powerful air force (hard to compete with a nation where literally everyone can fly). Most griffon aerial combat fighters were on par with Equestria's dogfighters. Unfortunately, they also had the numbers to dominate most aerial battles.

Experienced griffon aerial combat fighters were known as hunters. Most were simply griffons who were lucky enough to have survived more than a month.

Then, there were the ace hunters. Ace hunters were the aerial combat fighters and they actually knew what they were doing. The reason they survived was skill. The average ace hunter had at least six months of aerial combat experience.

Then, there were the Jaegars. Jaegers were the cream of the crop, the best of the best, and the ones that everyone feared. Each Jaegar had survived the war from start to present, a couple having been aerial combat fighters before the war had started. Out of the entire Griffon Empire, only 17 Jaegars had been identified. They were pretty easy to spot since they wore a red scarf that fluttered when they flew around. No griffon else wore those red scarves

How dangerous are they? One Jaegar was once solo-scouting the Wonderbolts Dogfighting Academy. Since he was deep in Equestrian territory, he was spotted quickly afterwards and three Equestrian dogfighters were dispatched. In the ensuing dogfight, the Jaegar dominated and got away with intel that compromised the Wonderbolts' dogfighting training process.

Who were the three Equestrian dogfighters that were dispatched against that one Jaegar? No one important, just Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot.

Wait, those three are important. They were three of the top Wonderbolts and dogfighters in the Equestrian air force!

One Jaegar. One lone Jaegar had defeated three of Equestria's best dogfighters in combat.

This defeat was the first time Spitfire had been knocked out of the sky and was the first time she was crippled in the war. It eventually led to the end of her dogfighting career.

Soarin's involvement in the dogfight also led to the end of his dogfighting career. Like Spitfire, he was also crippled but he lost more than his ability to fly fast. His right wing and left arm had to be amputated. The left arm was now just a stub that started at the elbow while the right wing was completely removed.

Fleetfoot's dogfighting career was also finished but she didn't have to worry about being crippled. Currently, she is one of the most famous war heroes of the Equestrian military. Fans who visit love often bring her gifts, like flowers. She can't really do anything with the gifts, they just pile up around her grave.

War chiefs were minotaurs and they were just as dangerous as Jaegars. Before this conflict started, a war chief was a minotaur who led a group of other minotaurs to hunt down various/random monsters. Examples include manticores, hydras, or dragons. In a few rare examples, they would hunt down these monsters by themselves. Now, they fight ponies in a war. Whether it was for fame or fortune, they were to be treated as a very large threat.

They were typically armed with the same equipment that they used when hunting monsters. Their rifles were usually chambered in a large caliber and the actual users themselves were pretty good shots. They were also pretty hard to kill, armor was something they definitely believed in and it was very good armor. While it was an outdated armor design (basic plate armor), it could easily stop the slash or bite from a manticore.

War chiefs were accompanied by the same group of manticores that they hunted monsters with. Their party members were similarly equipped, but they were nowhere as capable.

On his/her own, a war was as capable as a full platoon of troops. A war chief WITH their hunting party (6-20 members) was as dangerous as an entire company of troops. From previous observations, the war party almost always surrendered once their leader was killed, no matter the number of members left in the party.

Unlike Jaegars, war chiefs were more plentiful. At least a hundred distinct war chiefs (and their accompanying parties) had been identified. Each one had their own armor design with the leader wearing a fancier version.

Rarity blinked. Her mouth opened and she uttered a single word. "Fuck."

-X-X-X-

A singular griffon hovered high in the air, watching his fellow brethren assault the Equestrian's beloved fort. This war had lasted a lot longer than it should have. In the two years that he had served, he had personally witnessed the death of thousands of his brothers in arms.

He placed his clawed hand on his red scarf. This war had lasted long enough. No longer did he care about which side would win, only when the war would end.

Two years.

Two years, he had been chasing down pegasi dogfighters and systematically murdering them. Those young faces of those he defeated, he would remember forever. Two years, he wore his coat. Magically enchanted and bullet resistant, the coat protected him. Two years, his rifle and pistol had been barking fire. The loud call for death, always hungry for more victims.

It needs to end.

-X-X-X-

Life was good.

Fort Platinum was being assaulted and his brothers were with him. These ponies had definitely proven themselves to be a challenge, providing a very good hunt. Just how many of them would he get today?

His brothers were ready for battle.

Twelve brothers, he would entrust them with anything. Twelve brothers, clad in armor immune to any puny pony gun. Twelve brothers, armed with weapons good enough to kill manticores. Twelve brothers, ready to die.

The Raider clan will prevail.

The hunt begins.

-X-X-X-

Another battle, another glorious adventure...

Two years ago, he wouldn't have doubted that. Two years ago and his hunting party would also still be alive. When the last member of his party died two months ago and left him alone, it was then that he knew that it was time for him to finally leave this war. Of course, it ain't always that easy.

If he were to quit now and return home, he'd be branded a coward and the deaths of his friends would be blamed on him. If he wanted to leave this war, he'd have to be wounded.

That'll never happen. The only unprotected areas on him are his arms, legs, and face. Can't get shot in the face (if I have to explain why, how you survived this long is the more important question). If he gets hit in the arm or leg, no one will bat an eye. Why not the torso? His armor was too protective. Nothing the ponies were armed with can punch through it.

What's it take for him to go home?

He wanted to finally hang up his armor!

He wanted to pay homage to my fallen comrades!

He wanted to rest!

-X-X-X-

Logan aimed out a window and carefully surveyed the streets of this strange city through the lens of his Mosin Nagant's small optical scope. The PU scope was only a 3.5x optical zoom, but it was a million times better than using simple iron sights (no offense Simo Hayha). Now, it was time to pick out a target.

The twelfth floor of a building was definitely a good vantage point. It was high enough to give him full view of the griffons' and minotaurs' assault on the ponies' fort. A bird's eye view as they say.

Logan wasn't alone. Eric had decided to pair up with the fool and act as his spotter. Turns out, Eric had a pair of binoculars.

"I think we've got something" Eric said.

Logan gave an aside glance at Eric but didn't remove his cheek from it's weld to the buttstock of his rifle. "Where?"

"One up in the air, four away, long coat and red scarf" Eric replied.

Logan found the target. "Eyes on us?"

Eric's darted his eyes around the field in search for anyone. "Nope."

Logan pulled the trigger.

*BANG*

-X-X-X-

I felt something impact my chest. A rifle round judging from how hard the impact was.

My eyes scanned the general area of where it came from just as the sound of the gunshot filled my ears. Easily four hundred yards judging from how long it took the sound of the gunshot took to travel to my ears.

Where?

-X-X-X-

Logan just took his shot. My turn.

Scootaloo and I had chosen a different building from the building that Logan and Eric was posted in and we were on the fourteenth floor. It wasn't too far away from Logan and Eric's building in case we had to meet up again.

Scootaloo didn't have any form of optical device (Eric you lucky bastard) but since she was native to this country, but she could help me identify targets. Scootaloo gasped. "Down in the streets!"

I aimed my rifle down at the streets and saw nothing. "Where?" I asked, still looking through the scope of my rifle.

"Down there, like four blocks away!" Scootaloo answered.

I wanted to facepalm so bad. "Give me a distance."

"I don't know, three hundred meters?" Scootaloo finally said.

There, in the street, was a group of minotaurs. There was thirteen of them in total and every single one of them was covered in very shiny, heavily decorated plate armor. One of them, of the thirteen, had a set of armor that was gilded with gold (Well that's one way to stand out).

"It's a war chief!" Scootaloo said. "Take out their leader!"

"Anyone looking in our direction?" I asked.

"No, just shoot him already!" Scootaloo impatiently said.

I placed the reticle of my scope on their leader's chest. Maybe he should have worn something that was more inconspicuous.

*BANG*

Author's Note

When WWI started on July 28th, 1914, most people who were fighting believed the whole conflict would end by Christmas. Unfortunately, it would last until November 11th, 1918.

In a more modern sense, here's something to think about the war in Afghanistan. The children whose fathers missed their birth because he was first deploying to Afghanistan will be old enough to join the military in one year and fight in the same war.

War Is Delightful for Those Who Haven't Experienced It

Eric drew back the charging handle of his AK and looked inside the chamber. A brass cased 5.45 round sat there, prepared to send its deadly payload. Eric released the charging handle and reseated the round back in the chamber. He then removed a small knife from his belt and affixed it to the muzzle of his rifle.

Logan looked at the bayonet. "You think you'll actually use that?" Logan asked. Eric shrugged. Logan slung his Mosin Nagant over his back and drew his pistol.

Both of them looked at the closed door in front of them. Earlier, it was made clear that the griffons and minotaurs knew of their position. They had only gone halfway down through the building before they hid in another room.

"So you think they've started flooding into this building?" Logan asked.

The door opened, a stick grenade was tossed in, and then the door closed.

Eric looked at the grenade at his feet and said, "Yes." He picked up the grenade and tossed it out a nearby window before firing at the door with his AK74.

After expending half his magazine, Eric ran forward and kicked the door down. Three griffons and a minotaur were very surprised. The minotaur was more surprised than everyone else as he found the bayonet of an AK74 impaled in his neck.

Logan quickly brought up his pistol and fired. Three rounds of .45 ACP to the chest was enough incentive for one griffon to lie down and never get up. A second griffon decided to give up when he took a few .45 rounds to the chest, just like his comrade.

The last griffon wanted to fire his weapon but found the barrel of a .357 revolver pointed at his face. A split second later, the revolver went off and he too joined the other three On a trip to the afterlife.

"Well that was eventful," Logan said.

Eric withdrew his bayonet from the minotaur's neck and examined the body. He reached down and started to dig through the body's webbing gear. Of the items on the minotaur's body, Eric removed a bread bag filled with stick grenades and a large revolver with some stray rounds.

Logan noticed the sack of grenades. "How many did you find?" Logan asked.

Eric simply ignored Logan and walked over to the nearest stairwell. He then pulled the pin to one of the grenades in the bread bag and tossed the entire sack down the stairwell.

-X-X-X-

At the bottom of the stairwell, a team of minotaurs was preparing to ascend the stairs. They heard several gunshots, all of which sounded unfamiliar.

One of the minotaurs, the OIC (Officer In Charge) of the group withdrew a revolver. "Team one has failed, prepare to move!" the minotaur commanded. The mechanical clicking sound of multiple firearms sounded as every single minotaur checked their weapons.

*THUNK*

Every minotaur looked at the bread bag.

-X-X-X-

Scootaloo clutched her ears upon hearing the explosion, nearly dropping her Model 92 in the process. "What was that?!" she said.

I shrugged. I drew my .500 S&W and shifted the sniper rifle on my back. "Ready to go?" I asked her.

*CLICK*

"I'd drop those revolvers if I were you," came a voice from behind me. I gritted my teeth as I dropped my S&W 500. A second later, I heard the clatter of Scootaloo's Model 92 dropping to the ground. "Now step away."

As the two of us walked away from our sidearms, I silently removed one of my grenades. "Now turn around," he said. When we turned around, I hid the grenade by wrapping my hand completely around it.

There was no surprise when I came to face a minotaur.

Now every minotaur I've seen so far (which wasn't much) was huge. Him? He made them looked small. At two and a half meters tall, I felt short. And, those muscles! The muscles he sported were sporting their own muscles! How did he fit through the doorways in this tiny building?!

Aside from that, everything about him was also different when compared to every other minotaur I've seen so far. Every minotaur I've seen so far had some form of dark blue fur and sported a massive set of sharpened horns. He sported a snow white coat and he had no horns. Strangely enough, he also had no rifle, shotgun, or other forms of primary weapon.

He was wearing a large brown cloak with the front open, showing off the gear that he adorned. On his chest, he wore a very scarred and worn steel breastplate (he probably carried it through hell and back). Strapped to the breastplate were several leather pouches, various grenades, a warhammer (yes, a warhammer like the one in the old medieval days), and a pistol holster.

The pistol holster, currently empty, was probably the home to the revolver that he was currently brandishing. The revolver, like him, was gigantic. It was probably longer than my forearm (hand included) and looked as bulky as my .500 S&W. Like his armor, it looked worn (even more so than his armor).

Everything about it was nothing like a modern revolver. In the space where the ejector/underlug would have been, a loading lever took its place. The cylinder was unfluted and the barrel was held to the frame with a massive wedge. Then, there was the trigger guard. It was made of brass.

It was a percussion cap and ball revolver, a massive one at that. One that was currently pointed at my chest, hammer cocked back.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "I've never seen anything along the likes of you before," said the minotaur. I stuck my thumb in the grenade's safety pin and started to work the pin out. "Do you know what I am?"

I shrugged. "Can't say I do," I replied.

"He's a war chief," Scootaloo answered.

The war chief frowned upon hearing that. "Not anymore," the minotaur said with a sigh. "My party is dead. The last of my brethren gone two moons past." He lowered his revolver and gently eased the hammer down. "And I would now like to surrender," he said while presenting me with the massive revolver.

I took the revolver in my right hand and was surprised at the weight. I honestly thought it would be heavier but it felt just as heavy as my .500 S&W (around four and a half pounds).

Scootaloo picked up her revolver and aimed it at the minotaur. Immediately afterward, the minotaur started laughing. "If you shoot me in the eye with that, I maybe would notice," the minotaur said. "I never understood why you Equestrians would adopt such an underpowered revolver." Speaking of which, I stuck the grenade back in it's home and picked up my sidearm where I dropped it.

The minotaur raised an eye at the sight of my revolver. "Okay, I might notice getting shot with that," said the minotaur. He looked down at his armor and removed a pair pouches and the holster for the revolver that he handed me. "You might need these," he said while holding the items out to me.

I holstered my .500 S&W and stuck the surrendered revolver into its holster. Then, I took the item to attach the items to my war belt before redrawing the revolver that he had surrendered. "May I ask why you chose to surrender to me of all people?" I asked him.

He brought up a hand and tapped his breastplate. "Notice the armor?" he asked. I nodded. "I am among the largest of my kind, sport one of the most unique coat colors, have no horns, and I'm one of the few war chiefs that fight alone. I am easily one of the most recognizable soldiers in this war. If I tried to walk up to a platoon of ponies, they would notice me a kilometer away, and then subsequently shoot on sight."

I shrugged before looking inside of the two pouches that he had given me. One pouch held percussion caps while the other pouch held paper wrapped cartridges. The minotaur solemnly looked at his (well, not anymore) revolver in my hands. "I do hope you take care of it. It has been in my family for five generations," said the minotaur.

I drew back the hammer on it (wow it takes a lot of force to do that on this thing) and looked down the sights. The rear sight was just a simple notch cut into the hammer and the front sight was a small blade. Very simple and very obsolete.

"Ironically enough, it was designed by a pony by the name of Sham Colt," explained the minotaur. "Misses Colt made the revolver for species that walked instead of trotted. The Walker as she named it. Fires a .44 caliber conical bullet pushed with 60 grains of black powder."

Suddenly, a griffon appeared from behind the minotaur. The griffon was just as surprised to see me as I was surprised to see him. I watched as the minotaur instinctively tried to draw his revolver, having forgotten that he had surrendered it. The griffon raised his weapon, a rifle, and would have fired if I had not shot first with the Walker.

The griffon took a bullet to the face and crumpled like a sack of bricks. Much to my surprise, the corpse instantly erupted in a blue inferno originating from where the bullet had struck him. The blue fire, already a strange sight to behold, didn't affect the surrounding area. It was as if the fire was only concerned with burning the griffon. Three seconds later, the flames died off as suddenly as it had started. "It shall no longer be my burden to take the lives of those who fight in this war," said the minotaur. "Especially with such a brutal method."

I looked down at the magic revolver and drew back the hammer once more. "It sets people on fire?" I asked while looking at the Colt Walker's massive cylinder.

"Unfortunately so," replied the minotaur. "I don't know why my great, great, great grandfather would desire such a feature for a hunting implement." I eased the hammer down and holstered it before drawing my own personnel revolver. The minotaur he eyed my .500 S&W. "May I ask why you would choose such a revolver for a sidearm?" he asked while raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Why not?"

Author's Note

Yes, that nice air conditioned house is definitely a good place to form an opinion about something that you've never seen. This applies to other concepts. People who preach about the benefits of communism or socialism? Well, I'm from Vietnam so...

He Who Doesn't Fight, Has Already Lost

Three sets of ponies (five each) marched towards their target. In each set, each pony had their role. Three were carrying crates, one was carrying a bipod and a large plate, and the fifth was carrying a mortar tube. No matter what they were carrying, they were all armed with the same rifle, a Herdier No.2 Mk. 1 (literally a Herdier No.1 Mk. 2 but with a five round magazine). A select few between the three sets also had pistols.

This was your standard Royal Equestrian Army (REA) mortar team.

Mortars are one of the many manifestations of artillery. Typically, they're of the smaller and more portable kind of artillery. Because of this, mortars are short ranged and are only capable of lobbing their payloads. However, they're still a very deadly source of indirect fire (shooting at someone without a direct line of sight).

Do you know what you're supposed to do to counter enemy mortar fire? Take cover or run away while hoping that you don't die... What? That's it? Yes. That's pretty much it. Go ahead and try to do something while the world is exploding around you. Even the smallest of mortar shells is several times deadlier than a normal grenade.

As they neared their target location, a trio of airborne griffons spotted them.

-X-X-X-

"Prepare the first salvo!" commanded the Mortar Team OIC (Officer In Charge). Two ponies from each set of the three mortar crews distributed several HE shells to their fellow crew members. Once everypony was ready, the OIC drew his revolver and pointed it in the air.

*BANG*

Each of the mortars and a set of HE shells were sent flying through the air. Each of the crews readied the next shell and waited for the next fire command. When no such command was given, everypony was confused. They all looked at the OIC, only to find that a dead officer with a hole in his head.

All hell broke loose.

Some of them scrambled for weapons, having been set aside for easy mortar operation. The others, they scrambled for cover but there was none. They had all decided on emplacing their mortars in an open street (so that their mortars would have no risk of hitting the buildings in their initial trajectory).

Clearly, it was not the best of ideas.

All of this was happening as bullets were raining down on them. From where, none of the mortar crewmembers knew. It was a turkey shoot and there was no doubt that none of them would be walking away from this. Both the mortar ponies and their assailants knew this.

But then, a pair of small metal canisters was thrown into the fray. A few of the ponies recognized the canisters as grenades, albeit grenades unlike any other. Instead of exploding and spraying deadly shrapnel in every direction indiscriminately, both canisters started billowing smoke from one end.

"Run!" said a voice. A voice, one that none of them recognized. The remaining mortar crewmembers didn't care, they simply ran towards the source of the voice. After the remaining members of the mortar team had sprinted away from their smoke cover, they came to face their savior.

Suffice to say, they were surprised. Their savior wasn't a pony, nor a griffon. Minotaur wasn't it either. Whatever he was, none of them had ever seen anything of the likes that their savior was.

Their savior, like a minotaur, was bipedal. However, he lacked the horns, the muscular stature, and the fur coat that every minotaur had. It had small eyes, a small pointed nose, and small ears. He was taller than the average pony (on all fours), but not by much.

He (they could tell it was a he) sported the strangest uniform that any of them had ever seen. It covered up his entire body, leaving only the head exposed. It was also in the strangest color they had seen, sporting a pattern of grey and tan splotches. On its chest, he wore a heavily padded vest (same pattern as his uniform) that only protected the chest. The vest sported multiple pouches and it probably served as his webbed gear as well as body armor. On his back, he carried a massive backpack that was almost the same size as his torso. Whatever it contained, it was probably important.

Then, there was his rifle...

Was it actually a rifle? If it was one, it was a rifle design that was alien to Equestria. The rifle's short length told them that it was most likely a carbine and the overall structure looked like a child had played with some toy building blocks. The rifle's magazine was small and also blocky while sticking out at an angle from the bottom of the rifle. The barrel itself was puny, as it looked like it only stuck out an inch past the receiver. The rifle's stock was another thing that stood out as it looked like it was made of black plastic, was very short, and looked like it was going to break any second. To top it all off, it had a small optical sight mounted to the rifle in addition to regular iron sights (which were currently folded down). Like the rest of the rifle, both the optic and the iron sights were blocky.

The creature snorted. "Are you gonna keep staring at my KRISS or are you gonna keep moving?" said the creature with a male voice. Seconds later, he turned around and sprinted off in that direction. The remaining ponies sprinted off after him.

-X-X-X-

Wilson was not a happy man. For one thing, he was a medic. What does that have to do being unhappy? Well, you'd be unhappy too if you had to deal with the aftermath of bullshit (worse, Army bullshit) as a profession. Also, he was short (5ft flat) and he hated that fact.

There was also the issue of being in wherever-the-fuck-here-was and the apparent war that was going on between five species of creatures. The only thing he knew was that some asshole (Discord) summoned him to help fight a war and protect some ponies. Why the fuck would he ever fight for a different country? This wasn't his fight.

With him, he had his own personal set of IOTV body armor in UCP with a matching uniform and helmet to go with it. Wilson's IOTV lacked the groin plate, arm protectors, neck protectors, and back plate. Also, the magazine pouches had been replaced with a set of extended pistol magazine pouches. On the body armor, he also had an IFAK, some canteens, a flashlight, a pair of scissors, a multitool, and a pocket knife.

He also had his battle pack with him, something that was a nice sight for sore eyes. What's a battle pack? To put it in simple terms, it was his medic's bag. It was a medium-sized (massive when compared to his small stature) that was filled with everything that a medic needed. With this, he wouldn't let anyone die... Ever.

To top it all off, he was armed with a KRISS Vector. It was his KRISS Vector from his personal collection and it fitted his smaller frame much better than any other gun he had ever seen. For one thing, it was actually the pistol version of the KRISS Vector fitted with an arm brace stock. It was fed from 30 round stick magazines and was chambered in 10mm. Yep, 10mm auto. This thing was a beast. The 10mm auto round was a harder hitting round than most pistol rounds and coupled with an EOTech holographic sight, very accurate. Just in case he didn't want to use the EOTech, there was also a set of folding iron sights to fall back on. Paired up with the KRISS Vector was a stock Glock 20 in the same 10mm auto round. For the KRISS, he had seven magazines including the currently loaded one. For the Glock, he had eight magazines included the currently loaded one. Either way, both guns could interchangeably use each other's magazines.

Here he was, fully geared up and fully armed, in a foreign nation and leading fourteen ponies in a single file line. Where did he go wrong in his life?

"Can we stop!" asked one of the ponies that followed Wilson.

Whilst groaning, Wilson turned around to face the brave soul. "The fuck do you need!? We've only been marching for four fucking minutes!"

One of the ponies, a private, stepped out. "I'm hurt," the pony replied. He pulled open his uniform's coat, revealing a messily applied bandage stained with blood.

Wilson's frown disappeared and he ran over to the pony. Faster than one could yell out 'medic', he had donned a pair of surgical gloves and was treating the pony. After he had finished, he looked to the others.

There was no doubt that there were others. "Who else is injured?" Wilson asked. When five other ponies raised their forehooves, he frowned again. "Why did none of you mention this earlier?!" He had to work quickly. Otherwise, the same group that ambushed these ponies earlier would find them.

-X-X-X-

Applejack's eyes darted from building to building. She had forgone walking on all four hooves to walking on two hooves so that she could hold her shotgun at-the-ready. Right now, her instincts were telling her that she was being watched and they were never wrong (usually).

As she came onto a cross street, a bullet struck her in the back. Immediately, Applejack darted off towards the nearest cover but seconds before she was safe, another bullet struck her. The bullet, one fired from a rifle, had struck her in the right rear leg. Being completely uncovered, the bullet tore through her leg and she collapsed to the ground with a cry of pain.

Coming directly from her 6 o' clock, she heard the sound of four griffons landing not too far away. She scrambled around to look for where her shotgun landed and found it lying five meters away, having dropped it when she was shot.

"I wouldn't if I were you," said a voice coming from the exact same direction where she had heard the griffons land. Gritting her teeth, she rolled over. She came to face three griffons. All three of them wore the standard Griffon Air Force's uniform. Two were armed with standard bolt action rifles with the third wielding a carbine, all three of which carried a pistol.

"The legendary Cowfilly of the Equestrian Army," said the griffon armed with the carbine. Applejack turned around to look at her shotgun once more as she heard the chuckle of one griffon.

That was when she heard the sound of a dozen unfamiliar gunshots as she found herself in a very familiar situation again.

Turning around once more, she found all three griffons laying in the streets and oozing from multiple gunshot wounds.

"Good job getting shot," said a male voice that she couldn't recognize. She turned to look at the speaker and found another one of those humans (except this one was much shorter). He was wearing an almost identical version of the armor and uniform that Tran had been wearing. The only differences were that his was smaller and lacked the arm protectors, protective yoke, groin plate, back plate, and sported different magazine pouches.

Oh, and he was carrying the strangest rifle that she had ever seen. Stranger than the one that the Eric human had been carrying. Behind him, fourteen ponies stood. Some were armed, some were injured.

The human kneeled behind her and pulled out several pieces of medical equipment that she couldn't identify. As he got to work on her leg, she groaned. "Second time today that one of you human fellers pulled me out of a sticky situation," said Applejack.

Whatever he was doing, he stopped and nothing but immense pain shot through her leg. "Explain why you just said second," he demanded.

Author's Note

If you're a fan of this story, expect things to slow down or a possible hiatus. If you look at that short description under my username, it will tell you that I am in the US Army. Soon enough, I will be deploying. Let's hope all goes well and that I come back in at least two pieces.

There Is Only One Thing Worse Than Fighting with Allies, and That Is Fighting Without Them!

Twilight frowned upon hearing the news that Rarity had given her. "The mortar team is missing?"

Rarity nodded. "The OIC (Officer In Charge) was confirmed to be dead from a gunshot to the head. He was found with, what is to be assumed, the mortars that the team was sent out with," Rarity explained.

Twilight milled around in her thoughts. "No signs of the mortar team?" Twilight asked.

"Multiple trails of blood were found leading away from the mortars but no other signs of them were found," Rarity answered.

Fourteen ponies were missing; they could have been killed or captured. These two buildings were proving to be more trouble than expected. Why did the minotaurs and griffons send two companies worth of soldiers to kill /capture only three unidentified soldiers of unidentified species of an unidentified military and a singular member of the Equestrian Army. What was the importance of these four?

Twilight ran a hoof through her mane. "Send another team of mortars to perform the same mission but this time, have them escorted by two squads of infantry. Have another two squads ready for a direct assault immediately after the fourth salvo. Keep two squadrons of dogfighters providing cover and air guard. We're eliminating all risks this time."

-X-X-X-

As Wilson neared supposed location of the other supposed "human fellers," the sound of gunfire grew in intensity. What the hell had they gotten themselves into? More importantly, what the hell was he getting himself into?

The group of horses he had saved were, unfortunately, still following him. Seven sported injuries, making matters worse. It severly slowed down his progress having to constantly monitor their condition.

For the millionth time today, he looked at his surroundings for any signs of danger. Paranoia was most definitely a common friend amongst soldiers. After two years in Afghanistan and one year in Iraq, Wilson was definitely accustomed to being friends with paranoia.

"You've seen your fair share of war, haven't you?" asked one random pony.

Wilson just continued moving in the same direction, ignoring the question.

-X-X-X-

Scootaloo popped open the cylinder of her Model 92 and dumped out six spent casings. She looked at Tran and found that he was also reloading his own revolver. Right as she had closed the cylinder a griffon busted through a glass window, brandishing a bayonet-equipped carbine.

Scootaloo shrieked before raising her revolver and worked the trigger as quickly as she could. The first shot missed but only did the first shot miss. While the 8mm Equestrian Ordnance round was "retardedly anemic," getting shot five times was definitely something that you'd notice.

Seconds after the griffon fell back out did Scootaloo notice that she was still working revolver's trigger. Heart racing, she opened up the cylinder to her revolver and started to reload again.

Unfortunately, another griffon appeared in the same window and he was brandishing a similar weapon as the first one. This time, Tran was the one to shoot first. Instead of using his hand cannon (emphasis on cannon), he had used the surrendered Colt Walker. Right as Tran recocked the hammer for a second shot, the griffon had fallen back out of the window (right as his body sprouted a raging blue inferno).

Scootaloo looked at Tran. "Do you ever get used to it?" Scootaloo asked.

Tran lowered the hammer to the Walker and holstered it. "Yes, but don't try to," Tran said. He pulled out a fresh paper cartridge and reloaded the shot that he had used from the Walker.

The minotaur war chief, who was standing around in the background, added in his opinion. "War should not be a part of anyone's life," said the war chief.

-X-X-X-

Outside the building, griffons and minotaurs watched as a griffon fell to the ground; Another griffon (this one bathed in blue flames) followed afterwards. With that, more thoughts of dissent were filling the minds of the lower enlisted soldiers. To them, they were being led to their deaths.

Just what were they dealing with?

-X-X-X-

Eric threw a revolver (one that he had scavenged) at the face of one minotaur before ramming the bayonet of his AK74 into the same minotaur's stomach. He withdrew the bayonet before slamming the AK's buttstock into the minotaur's face/

-X-X-X-

Did they have a chance?

-X-X-X-

The bullet fired from Tran's S&W Model 500 punched right through the chest plate of a minotaur officer's breastplate as if it was never present in the first plate. It then continued through the minotaur's chest, punching through the other side of the breastplate before continuing on through a griffon's chest. Does the .500 S&W round tend to over penetrate? Yes.

-X-X-X-

Should they even try?

-X-X-X-

Three minotaurs approached a different window, reach to surprise their two targets. Right before they dove in, Logan appeared with his FNX 45 in hand. Before the three of them reacted, Logan began firing. Are fifteen rounds of .45 ACP useful? Yes, yes it is.

-X-X-X-

When three more griffons fell to the ground, several of them started to desert. They didn't care about what their punishment would be. Whatever it was, there was no way that it could be worse than facing whatever their targets were.

Right before some of the griffons had taken flight, they heard a sound. It was a sound that every soldier in this war knew. It was also a sound that every soldier in this war had come to fear.

It was a dull, constant whistle; the telltale sound of incoming artillery fire.

-X-X-X-

Twilight stood up from her desk, stretching out each of her limbs. Once finished, she looked at Rarity. "Let's head off to supervise the battle," Twilight said.

Rarity, who was looking at a battle report, looked up and raised one eyebrow. "You want to go towards the location of two companies worth of enemy soldiers?," Rarity asked in response.

"Yes," Twilight answered.

"Something that we both know is incredibly dangerous?" Rarity asked.

"Yes," Twilight answered.

"And I'm assuming we're just heading off by our lonesome?" Rarity asked.

"Yes," Twilight answered.

"And you do know that the two of us, two high ranking members of Equestria's military and government, are susceptible to being captured and tortured for what we hold in our heads?" Rarity asked.

"Yes," Twilight answered.

Rarity blinked once before crumpling up the report and tossing it in a random direction. "Right, I'll get my coat."

-X-X-X-

Twilight Sparkle and Rarity appeared on the roof of a particularly tall building, fresh from a teleportation. Rarity started to look at her surroundings as Twilight pulled out a pair of binoculars to survey the streets of Baltimare. Rarity groaned as she tapped her friend's shoulder. "Uh, Twilight dear. I believe you teleported us to the wrong rooftop," Rarity said.

Twilight continued to look through her binoculars. "What do you mean? I'm looking at the mortar team right now!" Twilight said. Rarity, instead of saying anything else, grabbed her friend and spun her around to face three griffons. "Oh." All three griffons were currently aiming carbines and rifles at the two of them.

"I'd say the two of you teleported to the right rooftop," said one of the griffons.

Rarity shot Twilight a glance. Twilight glanced back before her horn lit up. The three griffons, noticing the glow from Twilight's horn, immediately started firing. None of their bullets met their marks; they struck a large bubble shield that Twilight had thrown up. Smiling, Twilight grabbed their weapons with her magic and pulled them from out of their hands, tossing them off of the roof.

Dropping the shield, Twilight withdrew a revolver from inside her coat and aimed it at one of the griffons. "It looks I'm the one in charge," Twilight said. One of the griffons then threw something (later identified as a canteen) at Twilight, striking her in the face. Dazed, Twilight spammed the trigger to her revolver as the three griffons charged her.

Twilight felt herself getting thrown to the ground while also being disarmed of her sidearm. Once she had recovered, she found herself looking at the muzzle of her own revolver.

Rarity facehooved at the sight of her friend. "Twilight dear...," Rarity said.

"It appears we're the ones in charge," said the griffon who was holding Twilight's revolver. He looked at his two allies. "Did either of you get shot?"

One of the other two griffons was lying on the ground, clutching his stomach. "She got me but I think I'll be fine. Those ponies' puny pistols piss pitiful projectiles" said the griffon.

Rarity stopped facehoofing and stuck her hoof in her mane. Seeing this, the griffon aimed Twilight's revolver at Rarity's face. "Stop!" he said.

Rarity withdrew a derringer from her mane and aimed it at the griffon, using her magic to pull back the derringer's hammer. "That's empty." The griffon pulled the trigger.

*Click*

"As I said, empty," Rarity said before firing her derringer. The fired bullet struck the griffon in the neck who immediately dropped to the ground. She recocked the hammer to her derringer before taking aim at the other uninjured griffon. Without a second thought, she fired and dropped the second griffon.

Twilight picked up her revolver with her magic. "Thanks, Rarity."

Rarity popped open her derringer and withdrew the two spent cartridges. She took a look at the two cartridges before sticking them in her pocket. Pulling out two fresh rounds, she reloaded her derringer. "Do try to prevent that from happening the next time," Rarity said.

She looked at her derringer and frowned. Upon seeing the slight build up of carbon on the derringer's muzzle, she knew she'd have to clean it later. The oils that she had to use to clean her derringers were a nightmare, especially if any of it got on her fur.

She remembered when she bought this dainty little thing. Upon walking into the gun store, the shop's owner couldn't believe his eyes upon seeing the element of generosity. Why would anypony with such grace, such refineness, would ever need something like a firearm? Why to protect herself, of course.

The derringer had a nickel finish and sported an absolutely beautiful set of scrollwork engravings. The grips, made of ivory, were engraved with a trio of diamonds on each side to signify ownership. The dainty derringer despite it's dinkiness was definitely dangerous. Chambered in .45 Colt, it was something that you didn't want to mess with.

Twilight's revolver was definitely a weird contrast, especially when compared to Rarity's derringer. Twilight's revolver, a Model 73, was an antiquated piece of junk that was chambered in 11.5x17mmR Equestrian Ordnance (the R meaning rimmed). The 11.5x17mmR round was, despite being an 11.5mm caliber bullet, somehow even weaker than the 8x27mm Equestrian Ordnance round. Why in the world would she choose such a sidearm? Sure, the Model 73 was robust, and reliable but so was any other sidearm that Equestria fielded! It also only held six rounds so capacity wasn't good.

Speaking of which, Twilight reloaded her revolver and aimed it at the third griffon, who was still lying on the ground. "So, pitiful huh?" Twilight asked.

Rarity glared at Twilight. "Twilight! Don't be so cruel!" Rarity said. She lit up her horn and shot a bolt of magic at the injured griffon. A second later, the griffon fell asleep. "Teleport him to one of Fort Platinum's POW holding cells" Rarity demanded.

Twilight's horn lit up and the griffon disappeared. Picking her binoculars back up, she looked back down in the streets.

-X-X-X-

Spitfire and the three other platoon of infantryponies prepared themselves. Behind them, a mortar team was busy sending deadly explosive shells towards their target. As soon as this salvo was finished, they would charge.

Captain Spitfire of the Royal Equestrian Army (previously captain of the Equestrian Royal Flying Corps), was in charge of this assault. With every fiber of her being, she hoped that this assault would end up with the same number of ponies that it started with.

But then, a dogfighter landed in front of her. "Ma'am! We have a group of ponies, some injured, being lead to this location by a possible minotaur! They're approaching from our rear and we have fifteen minutes before they arrive" reported the dogfighter.

Spitfire's eyes widened and immediately took to the sky above the ponies she currently commanded. "Possible enemy to the rear! Prepare to defend! Do not fire unless commanded!" Spitfire yelled.

-X-X-X-

Wilson noticed something in the sky. It was only in his vision for the shortest of split seconds but he had noticed it. Whatever it was, it wasn't a griffon. It had a similar form as the ponies but there was no way that they could fly.

But then again, he shouldn't be doubting that they could fly. Even more so when considering the fact that he was in a world where ponies were tiny, pastel, and could speak English. Also, there was also the fact that griffons existed in this world.

Soon enough, Wilson noticed a set of abandoned mortar tubes off in the distance. He immediately stopped moving forward and raised his KRISS Vector. The ponies behind him noticed the same thing and did the same thing.

"What is it?" one pony behind him asked.

"Some abandoned mortar tubes," Wilson replied. "They're not the ones that you idiots abandoned either. These are different."

Wilson heard a loud crashing noise directly from the sky. Looking up, he found a team of ponies (fucking winged ponies) armed with rifles aiming at him. The same crashing noise then came from every direction and Wilson found himself targeted by more than two hundred ponies. "Well fuck me," Wilson said.

One of the ponies in the air, a female pony with a bright yellow coat of fur and an orange/yellow mane, landed on the ground while still aiming her rifle at the intruder. "Drop the weapons!" she demanded.

Wilson looked at his KRISS Vector before unslinging it and gently laying it on the ground. He then repeated it with his Glock.

"Spitfire?" said one of the ponies that had been following Wilson.

"Applejack?" responded the winged pony.

Applejack stepped out of the group that had been following Wilson. "What's goin on?" Applejack asked.

"We're just about to descend upon the location of possibly two companies worth of enemy griffons and minotaurs. They're supposedly assaulting a pair of buildings that are housing three minotaur-like creatures and one pony. Rumor has it, these four are the ones that killed the two war chiefs and Jaegar," Spitfire answered.

Applejack pointed at Wilson. "We're headin there too," Applejack said.

Spitfire looked at Wilson. "And he's with you?" Spitfire asked. Applejack nodded. Spitfire looked at Wilson and at his weird rifle thing. "Go ahead but don't make me regret this decision."

Wilson frowned as he picked up his KRISS and Glock. "So, where are these two buildings?"

-X-X-X-

I looked out of one window at what remained of the minotaurs and griffons after that last salvo of mortar fire. A few of the uninjured ones were holding white flags tied to their rifles. I looked at the war chief, who was also looking at the sight before his eyes. "It appears that we're no longer in danger," said the war chief.

I shrugged before looking back out the window. It was then that I noticed the glare of a lens.

-X-X-X-

Twilight noticed a rather large rifle come into her view from one window, aimed in her direction. Whoever it was, he/she knew that she was there despite being 1100 meters away.

-X-X-X-

I adjusted my sniper rifle's scope to the maximum possible zoom. Whoever was watching me, he/she was accompanied by another person and that they were using only a pair of binoculars.

"What is it?" Scootaloo asked me.

I moved my face away from my rifle. "Two ponies are watching us with a pair of binoculars," I replied.

Scootaloo walked (trotted?) over to me. "Can I see?" Scootaloo asked.

I moved away from my rifle and gestured to the rifle's scope. She understood me and grabbed my rifle before looking to the scope. Seconds later, she gasped. "I know who they are!"

Then, I heard a creak from our rear. I immediately drew my .500 S&W and aimed it at the source.

Standing there was a pink pony holding a small mortar. "Hello!" she happily exclaimed.

"Hello," I said back.

War Is Not an Adventure It Is a Disease It Is like Typhus

The orange stray (Scootaloo) was amazed at the sight of the newcomer. "Pinkie Pie?" Scootaloo said.

"That's me!" said the smiling mare. "And you're okay!" With that, she immediately started skipping around the room.

The war chief, who was quietly waiting in the corner, was surprised to see Pinkie Pie. "Overwhelming happiness, a rather strange sight to see in such a despairing period of world history," said the war chief.

Suddenly, the pink pronking pony pounced the puny pegasus and hugged her. "I'm glad you're safe, Scootaloo. Everypony is worried sick," said Pinkie Pie. Scootaloo succumbed to the affection and hugged back. Seeing Pinkie Pie, the pink party pony of Ponyville, was a nice moment of respite. Pinkie Pie pulled away from the hug and glared at her. "Why'd you leave Rainbow Dash and Applejack?"

Scootaloo frowned. "I joined to fight, not hide away in safety," she said.

Now it was Pinkie Pie's turn to frown. "You're not even old enough to be fighting. You should be enjoying your childhood," Pinkie Pie said.

Scootaloo's frown was replaced with a face full of irritation. "But there are ponies younger than me fighting," said Scootaloo.

Immediately upon hearing that, Pinkie Pie's mane partially deflated. It still had a poofy look but it was a very noticeable change. "We shouldn't be using kids in the first place!" she yelled. The war chief chuckled once and Pinkie immediately snapped back. "There's nothing funny about this!"

The war chief crossed his arms and grinned. "Back in the motherland, every calf with the ability to walk is trying to enlist," said the war chief.

Pinkie Pie's grip on Scootaloo tightened. Looking over at Tran, she eyed the name patch on his chest. "Tran?" she said.

"Yes," Tran responded.

"Is that your name?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Yes," Tran answered.

"Were you the one that helped out Rainbow Dash and Applejack?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Yes," Tran answered once again.

Pinkie Pie looked down at Scootaloo. "Is he telling the truth?" Pinkie Pie said, asking Scootaloo.

"Yes," Scootaloo replied.

Pinkie Pie eyed the red scarf that was hanging off from Tran's belt. "And was he the one that took out the war chief and the jaegar?" Pinkie asked.

"Yes," Scootaloo answered.

Pinkie pointed at the white, hornless minotaur. "And what are you doing here?" she asked.

The war chief shrugged his shoulders. "I surrendered," he replied.

Pinkie Pie looked at Tran and narrowed her eyes. "And you did all of this?"

"With a little help, yes" Tran replied.

The pinky pony pronked her pudgy person over to Tran. "Then we can end this battle with enough time to spare for a party!" She quickly skipped over to Tran and eyed his overall being. "And what kind of a name is Tran, anyways? I've never heard of any other name like that! Was it the one that your parents gave you? Do you like having it as a name? When other ponies look at it, do they ask you about your name? Why don't you change it to something else?"

As Pinkie Pie rambled on, Tran picked up his rifle and quickly walked out of the room. Naturally, Pinkie Pie followed him. Hell or high water, she was gonna befriend him!

The war chief, not sure about what the hell just happened, looked down at Scootaloo. "What just happened?" he asked.

Scootaloo shrugged and walked towards the doorway. "Pinkie Pie just happened. You're just supposed to go with it," replied Scootaloo before she completely walked out of the room.

-X-X-X-

Twilight nearly dropped her binoculars from what she had witnessed. She looked over at her friend, Rarity, and found that she had a similar look of shock. "Was that Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked.

Rarity nodded.

"And was that Scootaloo?"

Rarity nodded again.

"And was that the Great White Bull?"

Rarity nodded once again.

"And was that a creature of indeterminate species possibly belonging to a foreign nation that we have no quarrel or relations with?"

Rarity nodded for the fourth time.

"Do you think Pinkie will drive him insane before we reach them?"

Rarity didn't even have to respond for Twilight to know what she thought. Twilight immediately jumped off of the roof and started to fly away, leaving Rarity by herself.

Rarity stared at her friend as she realized that she was on the roof of a twenty story building and that she wasn't as fit as she wished. "Shoot," Rarity said.

-X-X-X-

When Spitfire was briefed for her task, she expected that assaulting two companies worth of enemy soldiers would have been a difficult task ladened with many casualties. A platoon's worth of enemy soldiers surrendering while telling her that they were what remained of that enemy force was the reality of her mission. She also didn't expect that she'd have to deal with some weird bipedal creature and the Element of Honesty.

Applejack, Equestria's most hard-headed pony, was demanding to be part of the group to clear the buildings. With something as large as a building, multiple teams of ponies would have to be sent in to clear it and Applejack was absolutely one of the worse ponies to work with.

Like Applejack, Wilson had also demanded to assist the buildings' assault. In every sense of the word, Wilson was an unknown factor. Spitfire knew nothing about what type of soldier he was, if he was capable of clearing a building/room, what his weapons were capable of or whether he could work in a team. Hell, she didn't know if he was actually on their side. All she knew was that he was armed.

And then, Spitfire realized that she had left Applejack and Wilson alone to interview the ponies that Wilson had supposedly saved. When she returned to where they were supposed to be, she found that the two of them were missing.

-X-X-X-

Wilson looked at Applejack who was looking back at Wilson. Both of them were climbing up the steps of one of the buildings. Was this a good idea? Probably not. Did they care? Nope.

While they were barely up the third story of this building, they heard incoming footsteps. Both of them raised their weapons and pointed them in the direction of the noise. As the seconds passed, their bodies produced more and more adrenaline as the possible conflict closed the distance.

But then, Applejack felt something sharp pressed against her neck. "I wouldn't if I were you."

Wilson turned to face the speaker but found himself looking down the barrel of a pistol. The pistol's owner, a human wearing a hoodie, was surprised to see Wilson. From the direction of the footsteps, came another human. This one was wearing a plate carrier in OCP camouflage and armed with a magazine fed rifle.

The human armed with the rifle eyed Wilson's uniform and equipment. "Army?"

"Yes," replied Wilson.

Applejack then recognized the two of them. "Hey, you're those two human fellers ah met earlier."

The man sheathed his knife and lowered his pistol. "How the fuck did we meet again?" asked Logan.

Eric looked at Applejack and facepalmed. "God damn it."

-X-X-X-

Five ponies looked over their gear and weapons as they stood at the opening of one of the buildings. Spitfire, standing in the rear with her rifle ready, held up a hoof and tapped her head.

That signaled meant 'GO!' but all of them froze up when a pink pony skipped out of the door. "Hi!" said Pinkie Pie.

Author's Note

In this universe, Twilight never visited the Equestria Girls universe. On another note, can anyone guess what Twilight's revolver is based on?

First Contact

Spitfire immediately grabbed Pinkie Pie and pulled her away from the door. "What are you doing?!" Spitfire demanded. Before Pinkie could answer the question, another pony exited from the same door.

The pony in question was a small orange pegasus dressed in a Royal Equestrian Army uniform and armed with the outdated Herdier No.1 Mk. 2 carbine. Spitfire realized that this pony must have been Scootaloo, Rainbow Dash's superfan. Up until this point, Spitfire had never actually seen the little scamp in question.

Strings tugged at Spitfire's heart. No way that this tiny filly met the enlistment age but here she was, all trussed up and ready to be eaten by war.

Then, another one of those humans walked out of the same door. This one was dressed a lot like the other human except his armor had more pieces to it. He was also a good thirty centimeters taller and had much smaller facial features. In a way, he seemed more dangerous than the other human that she had seen earlier today. It wasn't because he was taller. He just seemed more dangerous and she couldn't tell why.

That scarf.

Spitfire's eyes jumped out of her skull once she saw the scarf hanging off from the human's belt. She'd recognize those scarfs anywhere, as did everypony else that made up the assault team.

Spitfire's heart started trying to fight it's way out of her chest as her first aerial defeat came to mind. On that day, she had nothing but confidence coursing through her veins. After the defeat, that confidence was forever poisoned with pain and humiliation. Her best friend lost a key part of his very being while another one of her friends was gone forever. Those memories, they would stick with her to this day.

Wait, she was hearing something. It sounded like... Words? Spitfire blinked a few times and realized somepony was speaking to her. Following the source of the noise, she discovered that the human was speaking.

"-Lright?" asked the human.

"I'm sorry?" said Spitfire.

The human raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?" asked the human.

Spitfire pointed at the red scarf. "Where did you get that?" she asked.

The human looked down at what Spitfire was pointing at. "The scarf? This guy I killed gave it to me before he died" replied the human.

Spitfire's mind tried to comprehend the words that came out of his mouth. Only one type of soldier in the world wore those blood red scarves. How in the hell did he kill a Jaeger? There was no way that this human fought a Jaeger in the air and won; He had no wings. Most weapons weren't capable of defeating a Jaeger's coat and they were monsters in hoof-to-hoof combat.

Spitfire glanced at the red scarf again. "How did you kill a Jaeger?' she asked.

The human shrugged. "I shot him." came his reply.

Spitfire saw the barrel of a rifle peeking over his shoulder; He clearly had a rifle. "Would it be safe to assume that you used that rifle that you have?" asked Spitfire.

The human shook his head. "No, I shot him with my sidearm." said the human.

Spitfire raised an eyebrow. "In the head?" asked Spitfire.

The human shook his head. "Amidst a grapple, I shot him in the stomach" said the human.

Those words floated around Spitfire's head for a few seconds. No way would a mere handgun be capable of punching through a Jaeger's coat. "You killed him with a sidearm? Wasn't he wearing his coat, their trademarked armor?" she asked.

The human then immediately drew a revolver from his hip. Spitfire's mouth dropped. "Dear Celestia is that thing unnecessary!" The human looked at his revolver and shrugged. "And next, you're gonna tell me you also managed to capture the minotaur Army's generals or something."

Pinkie Pie jumped in (literally) between the two of them and sported a huge smile. "Does a war chief count?" asked Pinkie Pie.

The human stepped away from the door and everypony looked inside. There, in all of his glory, was the most recognizable soldier in this war. It was the Great White Bull.

Everypony, minus the human and Pinkie, took aim at the minotaur with their rifles. In response, he immediately raised his hands high up in the air. "I was joking!" said Spitfire.

The human glanced at the other ponies' rifles. "I captured him. No need for that." said the human.

Spitfire swung her head to look at a human. "I'm the one in charge of this outfit and we do not need somepony like him being a threat to anypony." she growled.

The human looked around and noticed the other ponies gathered around to provide support for the operation that was supposed to happen. He then looked at the minotaur. "Guess this is goodbye, huh?" said the human.

"I would believe so." said the minotaur. Spitfire dug through her web gear and fished out a pair of minotaur-type shackles. Upon being forced to wear them, the minotaur snorted. "Do you honestly think something of this... Quality could hold a minotaur?"

Spitfire looked at the shackles. To be fair, the chains that bound together the two cuffs looked thin and fragile. In reality, they were enchanted to be stronger. They would also sprout spikes on the insides of the cuffs if the wearer attempted to break out of them. "You may try." said Spitfire.

The minotaur shrugged in response. "I won't. From my past experiences, you ponies tend to enchant everything that seems lacking."

Scootaloo looked up at the human. "What now?" she asked. Life decided to give an answer as a lavender unicorn suddenly appeared (with a very loud purple flash of light) in front of the human. Surprised at the sudden appearance of a purple pastel pony princess, the human had immediately drawn a bead on Twilight's face with his .500 S&W.

Twilight stared down the .50 caliber bore of the revolver. It was only a centimeter away from her face and she could clearly see the bullet meant for her. An instant later, her horn lit up as she attempted to teleport the revolver out of his hands.

Absolutely nothing happened.

Twilight's pupils shrunk to the size of pinheads.

Half of the assault team (including Spitfire) immediately took aim with their rifles. "Drop the weapon!" demanded Spitfire.

Then, everypony present heard the sound of footsteps from a different direction. A voice called out from that direction. "I'd drop yours." Standing there were three humans and the Cowfilly of the Equestrian Army. One of the humans was pointing a pistol at Applejack while the other two were pointing their rifles at the assault team.

The rest of the assault team had no choice but to lower their rifles. Unfortunately, this assault team was in charge of entering in a back entrance so there was nopony else to cover them.

Scootaloo's heart sunk as she looked at Tran. What was he doing? "What are you doing?" Scootaloo softly asked. Had his demeanor, this whole time, been a complete ruse?

Tran kept his revolver aimed at Twilight's face. "Jesus Christ, what was that?!" he demanded.

Twilight's heart sank into her stomach. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Tran lowered the revolver but only slightly so. "You just appeared out of goddamn nowhere!"

Twilight was puzzled for a second before realizing what he meant. "I only teleported in." she said.

He lowered the revolver even more so. "Teleported?" he asked.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Did he not know what teleportation was? "It was a standard magical spell for instant transportation." explained Twilight.

He lowered his handgun completely. "A magic teleportation spell." he said. "Right. Magic." He holstered the revolver completely and everypony relaxed. "Sorry for the, uh, misconception."

One of the other humans, the one pointing his sidearm at Applejack, spoke up. "We're good?" asked the distant human. Tran nodded. The other three humans lowered their weapons.

Applejack maintained a hard glare at the human that had been pointing a pistol at her head. "Ah guess that was the fucking doozy, wasn't it?" Applejack said.

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "Nope!" she said happily.

That was when everypony heard the sound of rapidly approaching hoofsteps. Everypony aimed their weapons in that direction but lowered them when they saw a white pony in an REA uniform running towards them.

Rarity's lungs heaved as she struggled to breath. Sweat completely drenched her fur, mane, and REA uniform. Whatever makeup that previously decorated her face had been ruined and was now running down her cheeks. No longer did she have the looks of a refined lady. "Twilight! I. Hate. You." said the mare in between breaths. In every sense of the word, she looked awful.

For a few seconds, Pinkie Pie vibrated in place, jumped and floated in the air, deflated and overinflated herself, and finally landed on the ground and stood there. "Nope, that was the doozy," said Pinkie Pie.

Alone We Can Do so Little, Together We Can Do so Much

Opinions of the humans differed greatly between the scattered ponies. A great majority of the opinions, mostly aimed at Tran, were negative in nature. Whatever they were capable of was pure speculation. However, there was also the fact that one of them had captured a war chief (one of the more infamous ones too) and how the same human had supposedly killed a Jaeger.

The tension was so thick, it was capable of stopping a bullet. "So!" Pinkie Pie said. "What's with the silence? Why's nopony saying anything? We can't just stand here all day!" She attempted to skip on over to Tran but Twilight pulled her back with her magic.

Twilight shot a glance at their various firearms; Some of them were too strange for her to even guess what they were capable of. When one of them shifted slightly, Twilight nearly drew her sidearm out of fear. "So what exactly is your group's mission in Equestria?" Twilight asked.

To her surprise, all four of them shrugged. "Honestly, I have no idea," replied Tran. "I just woke up in a random section of the city. The only thing that gave clues as to why I am here was a letter telling me that I was recruited."

"Same shit with me," said Eric.

"Ditto with the fuckery," said Wilson.

"Same except I don't know why the fuck I was chosen," said Logan. "I'm not even military."

Twilight eyed Logan's gear and weapons. "If you're not military, why are you dressed and armed like you are?"

Logan scoffed. "What kind of military force would ever dress their soldiers in a hoodie, jeans, and a black shirt?"

"And the weapons?" Twilight asked.

"Mine" replied Logan.

Twilight's eyes widened slightly. "You privately possess military grade firearms?"

Applejack shot a look at Twilight. "Uh, Twi? You've seen Granny Smith's gun collection," said Applejack.

-X-X-X-

Somewhere in the skies above Baltimare, five pegasi dogfighters flew in a V formation as they kept guard over their assigned section of Baltimare. All they had to do was to make sure that the ground troops were notified of any incoming griffons. Essentially, fly in a circle and shoot at anything that comes close. "What do you think got the griffons so worked up, sergeant?" asked one of the pegasi, a lower enlisted.

"How should I know?" replied the lead pegasus. "All I know is that we're providing cover."

The three of them made a hard turn as they realized they were close to leaving their designated area. "Yeah, but aren't you curious?" said the enlisted dogfighter. "It has to be something big if they've sent in this many soldiers to assault it!"

The sergeant huffed. "And it still doesn't matter! Just focus on your task and keep your eyes peeled!" Right at that moment, he noticed some movement on the ground. Using a pair of binoculars, he spotted a small platoon of minotaurs. Without looking away from the minotaurs, he said, "Attack formation, we might have trouble!" He turned his head to look at his soldiers but found himself flying by his lonesome. "What?" A white-hot stabbing pain erupted in his back; The same pain shot through his body as he watched a bayonet erupt from his belly.

He wanted to scream but a set of talons ripped apart his throat. The owner of said talons withdrew his bayonet from the pegasus's body and watched the body drop to the ground. "Pathetically easy," said the griffon as he wiped the blood off of his talons onto his red scarf. Looking around, the griffon spotted a strange gathering of enemy soldiers far in the distance.

-X-X-X-

Applejack glanced at Tran's S&W 500. "So yah willingly bought that?" she asked.

Tran shrugged. "Why not?"

Scootaloo giggled subtly upon hearing Tran's answer; It was something she'll probably never get tired of hearing. Pinkie Pie noticed the filly's little outburst of happiness and smiled. "What now?" Pinkie asked.

Twilight looked at her beloved best friend, confused at her question. "What do you mean?"

Pinkie Pie gestured to the humans with her tail, which somehow formed into a glowing broad arrow (I don't even, what?). "We found Scootaloo, found what was attracting the griffons, and even captured a war chief. What do we do now?" Pinkie asked.

Scootaloo looked at Tran. "Are you gonna leave now?" she asked.

Tran shrugged. "Maybe," he answered. "There's not much else to do."

Scootaloo pressed her ears against her head. Of course, Tran had no idea of what that meant but Applejack sure did. "Tell yah what. You should stay with us fer a while til yah figure things out," said Applejack. She looked at her alicorn friend, the one who had more leeway than any other pony in the military. "What do yah think, Twi?"

Twilight looked at Applejack as if she had grown a second stetson. 'Are you crazy?!' was Twilight's expression.

'Come on, Twi!' was Applejack's return expression.

'Do you realize what you're asking?' was Twilight's next expression.

'Yes!' Applejack expressed.

'What the hell is going on?' was what every human was expressing.

Twilight looked at Rarity (who, this whole time, was still recovering from her short bout of exercise) and asked, "Is it feasible?"

Rarity, still heaving, replied with a curt nod. Wilson removed a canteen from a pouch on his body armor, unscrewed the cap, and held it out for her. Rarity graciously grabbed the canteen and drained half of it. After a deep breath, she handed the canteen back to Wilson. "We can bring them back to Fort Platinum," said Rarity, "but they'll need a constant escort and possible guard."

Twilight looked at the human's weapons. "I don't suppose you're willing to surrender your weapons?" she asked hopefully. All four humans said nothing but their faces gave her an answer. She didn't know why she bothered asking. "If you come to Fort Platinum, I expect no trouble."

Eric tightened his grip on his AK. "As long as no one starts it," said Eric.

'Definitely a 24/7 escort,' thought Twilight. Wait, they were recruited with a letter? "Was there a name on the letter?" asked Twilight

Tran answered, "Just Discord." Twilight and Rarity exchanged looks; The four humans noticed this. "I know he's dead but not who he was."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. Who didn't know who Discord was? Discord wasn't exactly a simple creature. "He was the god of chaos in the form of a draconequus" Twilight answered.

"A dracon-a-what?" asked Logan.

"Does it matter?" Tran asked.

Logan shrugged. "So now what?"

Rarity glanced at Twilight and nodded. Twilight smiled and replied with, "Now we head on to Fort Platinum, but you'll need to surrender your weapons once we get there."

All four humans tensed whilst tightening their grips on their various weapons. "And if we're fond of our toys?" asked Logan.

Twilight frowned. "I'm not sure all of yo-" she began to say before being interrupted.
"Oh, I'm sure we can figure something out," Rarity said.

Spitfire eyed the various weapons that the humans possessed. "Are you sure that's a good idea, ma'am?" she asked. Before she got an answer, Tran and Eric raised their weapons. They weren't aiming their weapons at them; Their weapons were raised a foot above their heads. Before Spitfire could turn around to look at what they were aiming at, the sound of gunfire erupted from her 6 O'clock position. Two of the ponies beside her, members from her assault team, had blood erupt from their bodies; They were shot, no doubt about it.

Tran, Wilson, and Eric all screamed, "Get to cover!" Everypony and human scrambled to find cover: The humans were the first ones to find cover. Logan and Wilson had their weapons up and were trying to find the enemy. "Where are they?!" Logan yelled.

Eric, while still firing, immediately replied, "50 yards, twelve, fallen brick building!" The instant he found their aggressors, WIlson immediately started spraying 10mm fire without a trace of accuracy. Logan tried to copy Wilson's action but was limited by the bolt of his Mosin Nagant.

Spitfire, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and the remaining ponies of the building assault team had also taken cover. However, only three of the ponies were returning fire. Applejack looked at everypony else and frowned. "Come on y'all, shoot back!" she yelled. For Celestia's sake, she was wounded and she was shooting back!

Rarity, who was using a bolt action rifle that she had literally just picked up, calmly fired shot after shot. "They're scared, dear," said Rarity. She looked at Twilight, who was hiding behind cover, trying not to get shot. Her lavender friend was shaking like a leaf. Rarity didn't blame her friend for being afraid; This was war.

Spitfire, where she was hiding, was sitting on the ground. Her heart raced and her lungs worked hard. She had come close to death, once again. She really needed to stop getting into situations like this.

Pinkie Pie, usually the happy pink party pony of Ponyville, was silently setting up her mortar. Her hair had gone flat and her coat had gained a slightly grey tinge. This got old a long time ago.

Scootaloo, scared out of her wits, had simply followed Tran. Beside him, she stood on her hind legs with her rifle up against her shoulder. She was actually one of the three ponies who were returning fire despite being the most inexperienced of the group.

Wilson looked around at his fellow humans. "Who's wounded?" he called out.

"Good!" Tran answered.
"All clear!" Eric answered.
"Still shooting!" Logan answered.

Wilson dropped down into cover and started reloading his KRISS Vector. As he seated a fresh magazine into his KRISS, he turned his head to look at the ponies. When he saw the two ponies that had been wounded early on in the ambush, his mind stopped caring about anything unimportant. Right now, the only thing that mattered were those two. "We got wounded!" Wilson yelled out. "Tran, follow me!"

Tran dropped to cover. "Where?!" Tran demanded.

WIlson pointed to the two wounded. "Cover, smoking!" he called out. All three humans popped up from cover and lit up the battleground. As this happened, Wilson pulled out a smoke grenade. "Smoke out!" With that, the grenade flew out and spewed out a temporary field of concealment. Afterwards, the two of them sprinted over to the two wounded. Both ponies were sporting various gunshot injuries throughout their bodies. For now, Tran and Wilson applied tourniquets to whatever limbs were spouting blood. After that, the two of them grabbed a single pony each and ran back to cover. Overall, this took them three-quarters of a minute. The smokescreen was still present and random gunfire could still be heard.

Now that the four of them were back behind cover, Wilson handed Tran his KRISS and got out his battle pack. Opening up his battle pack, he entered his field. He was now god.

The first pony, the one he carried, was bleeding from the torso from multiple sources. Using a pair of trauma shears, he removed the pony's uniform and found the source of the bleeding. From his battle pack, he removed a couple chest seals and applied them as needed. It wasn't the perfect solution but for now, it would work.

The next pony was a similar patient. He was also bleeding from multiple unknown sources from his chest but one of his legs (one that didn't have a tourniquet on), was also bleeding. The leg wasn't bleeding heavily but it was bleeding nonetheless. Digging through his battlepack, he pulled out chest seals and an Israeli bandage. First, he applied the chest seals. Next, was the leg.

"We're good!" Wilson called out.

*Clunk*

A stick grenade landed in front of Wilson. "Grenade!" Wilson called out. Tran picked it up and tossed it over their cover before immediately jumping on top of one of the wounded ponies. Wilson copied what Tran did and covered the other wounded pony with his body.

*BOOM*

Dirt and dust covered the four of them but none of them gained any new wounds. Getting back up, Tran handed Wilson his KRISS and pulled out his S&W 500. "Where did that come from?!" Tran asked.

Wilson gave Tran a hard glare. "The fuck you mean?!" he demanded.

"They're 50 yards away! No one can throw a grenade that far!" Tran said. Both of them immediately looked to the skies. It took them a few seconds but they found their answer. Ten meters above them, a griffon wearing a red scarf was soaring through the air.

"You fucker!" Wilson taunted. He raised his KRISS and sprayed away. Surprisingly, he landed a few hits but were only effective enough to irritate the griffon.

The griffon descended in altitude, giving the two of them a better view of his body. Like every Jaeger, he wore a red scarf around his neck and was equipped with a set of webbed gear outfitted for aerial use. Covering his face was a metal faceplate with a set of slits for the eyes. His beak, something that should have been yellow and made of keratin, had been replaced with a steel analog. "Your weapons are useless!" yelled the griffon. "Surrender and you'll receive a merciful death!"

Wilson and Tran exchanged a look. Tran holstered his .500 S&W and unslung his sniper rifle. In half a second, he took aim and snapped out a shot. The bullet punched right through the Jaeger's armored coat, through his body, and out the other side of his armored coat. He hovered for a few more seconds before immediately dropping straight down. Much to his embarrassment, the Jaeger landed right in front of Wilson. Wilson smirked before immediately kicking the Jaeger in the side of the head.

Tran looked at the Jaeger's equipment and dug through a few of the pouches. After a short search, he removed a pair of stick grenades and the red scarf.

Wilson raised an eyebrow at the sight of the red scarf in Tran's hands. "What's with that?" he asked.

Tran smiled before answering, "They explode and spray shrapnel everywhere."

Wilson frowned. "I meant the fucking scarf, you smartass!"

Tran suppressed a chuckle. "Just thought I'd take it," he said before tying the scarf alongside the other red scarf that he had. He then handed one of the grenades to Wilson before directing his attention back to the battle. "Ready to join in again?" he asked while slinging his rifle and pulling out his S&W 500.

Wilson nodded.

The two of them moved to the edge of their cover, ready to move. "Cover us while we move!" Tran called out.

"Covering!" Eric and Logan called out. The air immediately was filled with the sound of rapid 5.45x39mm and 7.62x54mmR fire. Both Wilson and Tran sprinted back to where they previously were before they went to help the wounded.

Tran looked at Scootaloo, who had been attempting to shoot the minotaurs this whole time. Tran grabbed the collar of her coat and pulled her back behind cover. "Pay attention to what I'm saying to you!" he said. He then held up three fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?!"

Scootaloo looked at him for a few seconds before realizing what he had asked. "T-three?" she answered.

"Now that you're paying attention, I want you to copy my every action!" Tran said. "Got it!"

Scootaloo nodded. "Copy everything you do, got it!"

Tran handed her a stick grenade. "You're gonna need this. Everything I do, you do but on the right side." Scootaloo pocketed the grenade and nodded. Tran moved over to the left side of this cover while Scootaloo moved over to the right side of the cover.

*THUNK*

A shell from Pinkie's party cannon soared through the air with a sharp whistle before exploding a dozen yards away from its intended target. Frowning, Pinkie Pie adjusted the distance knob on her mortar. "Pinkie, do that again!" Twilight called out.

*THUNK*
*THUNK*

A couple seconds before the shells landed, Twilight hopped up over her cover while bringing up a shield. When the shells landed seconds later (missing the minotaurs by only a few yards), Twilight started advancing towards them. Bullets pinged off of her shield giving her a sense of invincibility. Smiling, the glow from her horn brightened.

The dozen or so minotaurs that were firing on the group were nestled behind cover, taking pot shots at the ponies whenever they could. From there, they were impossible to get a hit on. Naturally, Twilight had the solution; She set their cover on fire. Some of the minotaurs were set on fire but most of them simply stepped backwards away from their cover, still perfectly safe from fire. Clouds suddenly appeared in the air above the minotaurs, taking some of their attention away from the battle. Seconds later, bolts of lightning rained down onto their position. Fortunately for them, none of them landed. Twilight's attention had been so focused on casting magic that she hadn't noticed the sack of grenades that landed in front of her shield.

*BOOM*

Twilight's shield was instantly shattered and her head was filled with the most intense pain that she had ever felt. Most of the pain was centered around the base of her horn and it was now the only thing she could think of. Clutching her head, Twilight could no longer sustain any magic and the clouds above the minotaurs disappeared.

The minotaurs stepped out from behind cover and fired upon her. Most missed but the ones that struck were absorbed by the enchanted armored coat that Twilight wore. However, it definitely wasn't a pleasant feeling. Bruises formed on her body and she felt some bones crack, some even breaking. She quickly collapsed to the ground.

"Twilight!" Rarity cried out. She wanted to run up to her friend and rescue her but she knew that she wouldn't have been able to carry Twilight back. She wasn't a soldier; She was just an advisor.

"Covering fire!" Rarity looked at the source of whoever issued such a command. The one human, Tran, immediately peaked out of cover and aimed the hand cannon that he was so fond of. When it went off, everyone on this field heard the loudest gunshot that anyone of them had ever heard. Two of the other humans and Scootaloo took aim with their weapons and fired indiscriminately with their weapons.

The fourth human (Wilson), sprinted out from the safety from cover and over to the fallen alicorn. He then picked up her friend and sprinted back behind cover. Rarity was surprised. He had been behaving like Twilight had been one of his comrade in arms!

WIlson carried the fallen pony back behind safety and over to Rarity. Using a pair of trauma shears, he removed Twilight's coat. After a short examination, he looked at Rarity. "Bruising and possible internal bleeding. Can't do anything effective here. We just gotta get her out as soon as possible!" he said. "Watch her." Wilson readied his KRISS and sprinted back behind cover. "Good!"

The other three humans and Scootaloo dropped back into cover and reloaded their weapons. "Get ready to bound twice!" Tran called out.

Eric swapped the magazines in his AK74 and then looked for the source of the mortar fire that he had heard earlier. He quickly found the pink pony and the mortar that she had been using. He pointed at her and yelled, "Hey! Pink horse shit thing!"

Pinkie looked up and directed her attention to Eric. "Pink horse shit thing speaking!" she responded.

Eric paused for a second, dwelling on the pink horse shit thing's response. "Did you adjust since the last salvo and do you have more shells!?" Pinkie nodded and held up a crate of extra mortar shells. "Fire for effect, 10!" Pinkie Pie tilted her head and looked at Eric with a puzzled look. Eric groaned. "Drop 10 shells, then stop. Don't care about where they're landing, just go crazy! Only start when I start firing!"

Pinkie Pie shrugged before answering with, "Okie Dokie!" She set the crate of shells on the ground and picked up four, one in each hoof, one with her tail, and one with her mane. "Ready!"

Eric paused at the sight of her prehensile hair before redirecting his attention back to the battle. He could go ask questions later. "Ready!" Eric called out.

Tran looked at Logan who had switched out his Mosin Nagant with his FNX 45. "We're first!" Tran yelled. Logan nodded. He looked down at Scootaloo. "Ready?" Scootaloo nodded. Tran readied his S&W 500. "Cover!" Wilson and Eric popped up and immediately start firing their guns with wild abandon. Pinkie Pie, upon seeing that Eric had started firing his rifle, dropped a shell down into her mortar.

*THUNK*
*THUNK*

Downrange, every minotaur ducked down as bullets started whizzing over their heads. When they heard the whistle of an incoming mortar shell, they dove down to avoid being sprayed by shrapnel.

Tran and Logan jumped out from behind cover and sprinted forward. Scootaloo, trying her best, followed Tran. Logan and Tran sprinted forward for all of three seconds before diving for cover. Scootaloo would have kept on going if Tran had not grabbed her and pulled her behind the safe cover. Once safely behind cover, Tran and Logan popped up (while making sure their bodies were still somewhat protected by their cover) and started firing their handguns with wild abandon. Scootaloo copied Tran and did the same thing but with her sidearm.

*THUNK*
*THUNK*

"Good!"
"Set!"

"Moving!" Wilson and Eric called out. The two of them jumped out from behind cover and sprinted for dear life. A few seconds passed and they ducked behind whatever cover was nearby. They popped up a few seconds later and started firing their rifles.

"Set!"
"Set!"

*THUNK*
*THUNK*

Every time the minotaurs were ready to start firing again, more mortars or enemy gunfire came down on their position. It was either let them advance or die. A few of them tried to fire in between the breaks in mortar fire but were struck down by stray bullets. Never had any of them experienced anything like this before from such a small group.

"Moving!" Tran and Logan called out. Tran, Logan, and Scootaloo jumped out of cover and sprinted forward, doing exactly what they had done earlier in the first bounding iteration. They only sprinted for a few seconds, like last time, before all three of them dove behind cover. This time, Scootaloo ducked behind cover without needing to be pulled down. Somehow, she was the first one to pop back up and start firing.

"Set!" Scootaloo called out while firing off a shot with her Model 92.

Tran looked at her for a split second before popping up and firing a shot. "Set!" Tran called out. Logan popped up a second later and fire a shot, calling out immediately afterward.

*THUNK*
*THUNK*

"Moving!" Eric and Wilson called out. The two of them immediately jumped out from behind cover and then sprinted forward. While the two of them were the only ones between the five of them (Tran, Wilson, Logan, Eric, and Scootaloo) to have a primary arm with a large magazine (30 or more), the three others could definitely provide enough covering fire with their sidearms. It wasn't ideal but it was clearly working, especially since Pinkie was covering their gaps with her mortar. When the two of them dropped back behind cover, they quickly popped back up and started firing.

"Set!"
"Set!"

*THUNK*
*THUNK*

Eric realized that those last two shells were the last two shells that the pink horse shit thing was supposed to drop. "That was the last shell!" he called out.

"We're close enough!" Tran said. True to his words, they had closed a great amount of the distance between them and their attackers. What was once a 50 yard distance was now only a 10 yard distance. To those that couldn't tell, this was dangerously close. When the minotaurs realized that the mortar fire had stopped, they focused on firing back but their accuracy had degraded heavily.

Tran looked back at the others, finding that the others had closed the distance enough for any further action. Holstering his revolver, he pulled out one of the two M67 frag grenades that he was left with by Discord. Scootaloo did the same and pulled out the stick grenade that she was given earlier. "Wilson!" Tran called out. Wilson, instead of answering, looked over at Tran. He noticed the grenade that Tran was holding and pulled out his own stick grenade after sling his KRISS Vector over his back. "Eric, Logan!" Tran called out.

"Yeah!?" Logan called out.
"What?!" Eric called out.

"Throwing grenade, cover!" Tran called out. Upon hearing that, Eric's fire with his AK74 intensified. Logan, despite firing with a pistol, quickly reloaded his pistol before starting a mag dump.

Wilson, Tran, and Scootaloo pulled the pins to their respective grenades and threw them as hard as they could. Much to her dismay, the grenade that Scootaloo threw landed a couple yards short. On the other hand, Wilson and Tran's grenades landed behind the minotaurs. "Get down!" All four humans immediately dropped down into the safety of their cover while Scootaloo stared at her grenade. Tran immediately grabbed her by the coat and pulled her down to safety, right as the first of the grenades exploded.

*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*

Silence.

Tran drew his .500 S&W and popped out from cover. Stepping out from behind cover, he slowly walked towards the minotaurs. The four others did the same and advanced on the minotaurs. Upon moving past the rubble of the fallen brick building that their attackers were hiding behind, they found most of them dead. One of the minotaurs saw the humans and drew a sidearm. In an instant, all four humans and the pony open fired.

Scootaloo's heart was trying to break its way out of her chest. Why would the minotaur even make such an attempt. He should have known that it wouldn't have worked.

Logan kept his pistol trained at the minotaur. "Suicide or dumbass?" he asked.

Wilson snorted. "My bet's on dumbass."

Elsewhere

A griffon nearly dropped his binoculars in disbelief. His uniform, gilded with gold and covered in an astounding number of medals, fluttered in the wind. Looking to his advisor, he barked a few commands before looking back to the battlefield.

-X-X-X-

Twilight, despite having the god of all headaches, looked at the two remaining minotaurs. These two sported a matching set of plate armor as did their dead brethren. This was a war party. "Where is your chief?" she asked. Beside her, the four humans stood beside her for security. When neither answered, Twilight drew her Model 73 and aimed it at one.

The minotaur that she was aiming at shied away. "He's dead!" he answered.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I thought war parties surrendered once their leaders was killed."

"We just wanted revenge in his honor!" the minotaur answered.

Twilight pointed at the second red scarf that was hanging off of Tran's belt. "And why was a Jaeger assisting your endeavor? They're always lone fighters!"

"He was ordered to!" the minotaur cried out.

Twilight froze. Jaeger's were nearly the highest ranking members of the griffon military. They were the best aerial combatants in the entire world and had answered only to a handful of others. Some of a Jaeger's superiors would be the Griffon Empire's king, any general of the Griffon Empire's Air Force, and elder Jaegers. Twilight doubted that the griffon king was here and that there were other Jaegers so where was the general? Since the Jaeger was here, they were probably being watched.

-X-X-X-

He pulled out one of his many white feathers and dipped it into an inkwell. Withdrawing the quill, he started writing a letter. "Ready for your message, sir," said the griffon messenger.

In front of the messenger stood the extravagantly uniformed griffon. "Send for two more Jaegers and three squads of dogfighters" said the griffon general. He looked to a nearby advisor. "Any additional thoughts?"

"It might be a good idea to have a couple machine guns accompany the dogfighters, sir," said the advisor.

The general looked back to the messenger. "And four machine guns squads."

-X-X-X-

Twilight found him. The white uniform gilded with gold made it easy to find him with a pair of binoculars. He was so close, but so far away. She looked at her available assets. "Pinkie, do think you can hit him with your Party Cannon?" she asked while pointing at the griffon general. Pinkie Pie looked at the griffon general and shook her head.

Rarity trotted over to her friend. "Forget it, darling. He's too far for anything that we have," said Rarity.

Tran looked at the griffon general. "No he's not," he said. He unslung his rifle and got down into a prone position.

Twilight looked at Tran with an incredulous look. "You're going to try to hit him? With a rifle?!" Tran took off his helmet and nodded. "That's impossible!"

Rarity covered her friend's mouth. "Just let him try, dear."

Tran pulled out a small booklet from his vest and flipped through the pages. "Tell me how far he is and it needs to be as close as you can get it."

Rarity pulled out a map and found the building that the general was on. She looked around for the street they were on and found it. "1040 meters."

Tran looked through his dope cards until he found the right range data. "I don't suppose you know the humidity and temperature?"

Rarity's horn lit up as she casted a spell. "52% and 24 degrees" Rarity answered.

Tran had a mental pause. "I'm not gonna ask why you know that."

Rarity suppressed a giggle. With hair like her's, she needed to know when it was too humid or hot to go outside. "A lady has her secrets, darling."

Tran mentally shrugged. "What about wind speed?" he asked.

Rarity shook her head. "That, I do not know," she answered.

Tran looked around with scope and found a flag, one that most likely belonged to the country that he was in. It was barely flowing and it blew to the east. He would just have to make an estimated guess for the windage. He dialed in the calculations for his scope and closed his eyes. After a short cycle of breathing hard, he opened his eyes.

-X-X-X-

Through his binoculars, the griffon general watched. "What is that thing doing?" he asked.

The advisor, with his own set of binoculars, was also watching them. "It appears to be pointing a rifle in our direction, sir."

"I can see that."

"I think he may be firing at us, sir."

The general paused. "There's no chance of hitting anything at this range."

The two of them saw a flash originating from the muzzle of the creature's rifle. "It appears he fired, sir."

A second later, the general felt pain as his left leg was torn off of his body. He grabbed the bleeding stump as he screamed. "Get me a medic and order a retreat!"

-X-X-X-

Tran ejected the spent casing from his rifle before looking at Twilight, whose jaw had dropped to the ground. "Got him."

War Isn't Hell, There Are No Innocent in Hell

Spitfire looked at her rifle. She was no longer the same hero that the newspaper portrayed her as. Now, she was only a coward, nothing else. Maybe she should just resign her commission and retire.

But could she really retire? Equestria was at war and her citizens had answered the call. If she decided to stop fighting, she would forever be shunned. If she did continue fighting this war, would she be able to survive? She wasn't even close to being half of the mare that she was at the start of the war, physically or mentally. It was the exact reason why she was no longer a dogfighter. The war's toll was simply more than what she was capable of paying.

And what if she survived? What did she have left after all of this? She wouldn't be able to continue as a Wonderbolt; she'd never be able to perform the same stunts from before. Even then, the Wonderbolts were essentially disbanded and half of the original members were either dead or permanently crippled. What life did she have after this war?

"Ma'am?" Spitfire blinked, then looked at whoever addressed her. It was Rainbow Dash's super-fan. "Are you alright?" the filly asked. Spitfire thought back to the firefight. She did nothing but cower in fear behind cover while this filly was doing what she should have been doing. So young.

Even more impressive were the humans. They fought like they came from the depths of Tartarus. During the entire firefight, they performed like a well-oiled machine. Every aspect of that short incursion, from treating the wounded to dealing with the Jaeger, provided no challenge to them. It was if they had done this like they had practiced it a million times over. There was only four of them but then again, four was clearly more than enough!

Wilson, no doubt that he was the group's medic, was the first human that she had met. He had saved and treated members of the Royal Equestrian Army like they were members of his own military. With that strange rifle of his (if it was a rifle), he provided enough suppressive fire to rival that of a squad. Despite being a medic, he was also clearly capable of causing death to anyone he didn't agree with.

Eric, the least unhinged of the four, played a crucial support role. His rifle, one that was just as alien as Wilson's rifle, was a monster. It was clearly chambered in a round that was several times more powerful than whatever Wilson's rifle was firing. Also, it was he who provided the most effective and accurate covering fire, unlike the mess that Wilson had been putting out. Oh, and he somehow managed to command Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie, of all ponies!

Logan, the civilian, was just as capable as his allies. Despite being a civilian (so he claims), he wielded his bolt action rifle with more skill than most veteran soldiers. He also had no difficulty in keeping up with the pace of the firefight and was still able to provide covering fire, despite the deficiencies in weaponry. Unlike some of the ponies, the threat of death didn't faze him; he was acting without any change in behavior.

Then, there was Tran. He was easily the scariest of the four. Not only did he capture a war chief but he had killed two Jaegers! There was also the fact that he managed to land a bullet into a target from a kilometer away! Both of his weapons were beyond excessive, as evident from the fact that both seemed to ignore body armor, and he was clearly skilled with them. To be able to control the recoil of that hand cannon and the ability to shoot something from a kilometer away meant unimaginable hours of practice.

If only she could fight with a degree of lethality or fearlessness as any of those four. Countless times throughout the war, her cowardice had cost lives. At the start of this horrible conflict, she was a Wing Commander of an aerial combat company; she eventually shifted to being a commander of an infantry company after she could no longer keep up with the requirements of being a dogfighter. No matter what type of company she commanded, she was responsible for a selection of soldiers.

And every time she had been put in command of new soldiers, they would die. Pointless assaults, raids and battles against a nearly undefeatable enemy lead to more and more casualties. The death toll piled and piled up, a good number of them being the fault of her poor command.

"Stop that."

Spitfire blinked and looked up; the human's medic was standing in front of her. "What?"

The medic repeated himself. "Stop that."

Spitfire frowned. "Stop what?" she asked.

The medic crossed his arms and, despite the short stature, managed to look frighteningly imposing. "I know what you're thinking about, so stop it."

Her frown deepened. "And what are you insinuating?"

"That look of depression and despair. You're thinking about how you're responsible for the deaths of other people because you did or didn't do something." Spitfire went wide-eyed. How did he know what she was thinking? "I've seen that look enough times to recognize it anywhere."

Spitfire averted her gaze from the human. "They died under my command."

The medic's demeanor went from frightening to brotherly, something that she could recognize despite the difference in species. "This is war. People die no matter what you do. No matter how prepared the plan is, it will always go to hell once shit hits the fan." Spitfire kept staring at the ground. How would he know? "I'm a medic. It is literally my job to deal with the aftermath. In the wars I've experienced, I've seen the same thing over and over again."

Spitfire's looked back at the medic, eyes wide. Did he really just say 'wars', as in multiple? "Yes. I said wars, as in multiple," said the medic. Okay, is he reading her mind? "And no, I'm not reading your mind. You're just easier to read than a children's book." Spitfire frowned. No, she wasn't! "Yes, you are that easy to read."

Spitfire's frowned grew. The medic snorted in response before walking away.

-X-X-X-

Twilight kept her eyes on the human. Her subconsciousness kept her in a state of uneasiness at the sight of the human's face. There was no doubt about it, he was supposed to be a predator. It also didn't help that he didn't fit the description of any of the known species of this planet; nor did it help that she didn't know what their goals were.

And his lips were moving. Wait, that means he's speaking. "-Do next?," said the human.

She blinked a few times to regain her thought process. "I'm sorry, could you say that again?" Twilight asked.

The human raised an eyebrow for a second before repeating himself. "I said, you're in charge of this outfit. What do you want to do now?"

Twilight was surprised at what he had said. He was willing to respect her authority? "There's nothing else left to do but rendezvous with the rest of the assault team," Twilight said.

The human's face kept the same blank look on it. "I don't mean this as an insult but are you used to working behind a desk?" he asked. Twilight froze. How'd he know that? "I'll take that as a yes."

This was the moment Spitfire walked up to the pair. "Ma'am, I believe it's time to prepare for the march back." Twilight honestly had no idea what to do. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it a second later, realizing that she had nothing to say.

The human looked at Twilight and then back to Spitfire. "Check on the wounded and determine whether they're in any condition to be moved." Spitfire nodded and ran off. He looked back to Twilight. "Is there any way to contact that assault team that you've mentioned?" Twilight nodded. "How long would it take?"

Twilight lit up her horn as she attempted to cast a spell but a sharp pain filled her head. She instantly stopped accessing her magic as she knew that she would still have to suffer from the aftereffects of having her magic overloaded. "It can be done almost instantly with a spell but I can't cast at the moment. My friend can do it though." Twilight looked around in the general area for Rarity but ended up with nothing. "I'll look for her and have her do that."

He kept the same lack of emotion on his face. Did he ever show emotion? "Good, I'm going to perform a few checks with my fellow soldiers."

-X-X-X-

Wilson was treating various minor injuries on Logan. Being the only one in the group to not have been wearing any real equipment or gear during the ordeal, he had suffered from quite a number of scrapes and scratches. "Fuck, that hurts!" Logan yelled as Wilson yanked a small rock that was embedded in his arm.

Wilson snorted. "Maybe you should be wearing more than just a fucking hoodie and jeans!"

Wilson removed another piece of foreign matter from Logan's arm, causing him to jerk his arm away in pain. "Wasn't my choice!" He presented his arm again.

As the two of them argued, Eric simply smoked a cigarette. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, right? He saw Tran walking towards him and fished out his cigarettes. "Want one?"

Tran looked at the cigarettes and shook his head. "How much ammo did you use up?"

Eric looked down at the mag that was currently seated in his rifle. "So far or in that last firefight?"

"So far."

"For the rifle, all but one mag. For the .357, all but a fourth."

Tran looked over to Wilson and Logan. "How about you two?"

Wilson paused in treating Logan's injuries. "Three fourths," Wilson answered before he continued working on Logan's scrapes.

"Half of the Mosin ammo and and everything for the peashooter." Logan eyed the KRISS Vector and the Glock. "Those fire the same round?"

Wilson nodded. "Uses the same magazines, too."

Logan then realized what caliber of ammunition was loaded in Wilson's magazines. "10mm? Are those the twenty-five round magazines?"

"Thirty," Wilson corrected.

"There are thirty round 10mm magazines?"

Wilson finished up on Logan's treatment, finishing off with a set of bandages to cover the light wounds. "If you use a .45 extension kit on the 10mm glock magazines, yes," Wilson answered. Wilson looked over at Tran. "You?"

Tran tightened his grip on his rifle's sling. "I have a dozen rounds left for the .338, ten for the .500, and-" Tran drew the Colt Walker. "Fourteen for this."

Logan held back a laugh. "Well, if you run out of ammo, that thing would make a good club."

Tran holstered the Colt Walker, keeping the same dead look on his face. He then immediately turned around. Now, he was facing the pony that had been attempting to sneak up on him.

"Hiya!" Pinkie Pie greeted. Balancing on her back was a pair of ammunition cans. Strangely enough, the ammo cans were not the wooden crates that the Equestrian military used; Instead, both of them were metal and green. Somehow, both of them were the same ammo cans that the US military would use. "I have a surprise for you!"

And then, using her tail, she lifted the two ammo cans off of her back and set them down on the ground. Tran kept the same emotionless look on his face. "Okay." Tran kneeled down and opened up one of the cans. Inside was a large amount of handgun ammunition; ammunition meant for the four's sidearms. Hell, there were even some paper cartridges for the Colt Walker.

Wilson walked over to the ammo can and looked inside. "How in the fuck?" he asked as a headache formed.

Eric walked over and grabbed some ammunition. "Pink horse shit thing magic."

Logan walked over and restocked himself with some pistol ammunition. "I'm not gonna complain."

Tran picked up the other ammo can and opened it up. Inside this one was ammunition for the three's rifles (Wilson did not have a rifle and refilled his supply from the other can). The four of them emptied the contents of the two ammo cans, filling whatever magazines/speedloaders/clips while pocketing whatever loose rounds were left. Now, they easily had double the amount of ammunition that they started with.

Wilson looked at the can full of ammunition. "Where the fuck did you get this?" he asked.

Pinkie's smile grew. "A little birdie left it to me to give to you," she answered.

"Was the asshole's name Discord?" Wilson asked in response.

"Maybe."

Wilson looked at Tran. "Can I sedate her?" he asked.

Tran thought about it. "No."

Pinkie Pie, copying Tran, then immediately turned around. Now, she was facing the pony that was walking up to the five of them. "Hi Spitfire!"

"We have good news and we have bad news," Spitfire announced.

"Good news first," Tran said.

"Well, the injured are definitely in a condition to be moved and we were able to get in contact with the assault team that we mentioned," Spitfire said.

"The bad news?" Tran asked.

"Well..."

Wilson ground his teeth. "Out with it, you cunt!"

"The assault team was given rerouting orders so we're on our own."

War Is What Happens When Communication Fails

Spitfire waited for a response from the humans. Just how badly would they react? Tran shrugged. "It's not the worst possible news." Everyone, from the prisoners to the other humans, stared at Tran.

"Are you fucking insane?" Wilson asked. Tran nodded. "I meant more so than usual!"

Tran shrugged again. "What was the purple desk jockey's take on this?"

The what? "Who?" Spitfire asked.

"The one that thought charging straight towards the enemy was a good idea."

Spitfire thought about it for a second. "You mean Princess Twilight Sparkle?"

Wilson looked at Spitfire. "That's her name?! That is the worse name I've ever heard of.”

"Ahem."

Wilson looked dead into the purple pony princess's pupils. "You have the worst name I've ever heard of."

Spitfire stepped in front of Wilson. "The assault team was given rerouting orders."

Some of Twilight's mane hairs shot up, giving her a frazzled look. "What."

Spitfire cringed. "All able soldiers are being rounded for an immediate offensive against remaining retreating enemy forces."

Twilight ground her teeth together in a painfully calm fashion. "Who put out the orders? I personally put out the orders for this assault team! Nopony has authority over me!" She ran a hoof through her mane while sighing. "I hate bureaucracy."

Tran shrugged. "It comes with the military life. Can you radio in for an escort?"

Twilight rubbed the sides of her head to lessen the pain of her headaches. "If assuming that radio means contact, maybe but I don't think Rarity's trace will be able to get any responses. She technically has no command."

Tran raised an eyebrow. "Trace?"

Twilight looked at the human with an incredulous look. Everypony knew what trace was! Then, she realized that this thing wasn't a pony. "Everypony has a unique magical signature, a trace as we call it. It's impossible to replicate a pony's trace and identifying a trace is relatively fast and simple." And her trace commanded a lot of power. If she was able to get a message through, she could get anything she wanted. However, the pain from her magic's feedback reminded her that this would be a difficult endeavor and could risk an even longer recovery. Hell, she could even fall into a coma.

But screw it, this was an emergency. "You know what? I'll send the message myself, magical feedback or not." She dug through her pockets, pulling out a small roll of paper and a parchment.

Wilson stared at the massive feather. "A quill?"

Twilight nodded. "How else am I gonna write a message?" she asked while fishing out an inkwell from her pocket.

Wilson raised an eyebrow. "So you don't have pens or pencils?"

Twilight snorted. "Of course we do! I just prefer quills."

Wilson frowned. "Nope, I don't need to think about this," he said as he walked away. "My blood pressure is high enough as it is." And he was gone.

Twilight quickly wrote a short message down (Wilson's blood pressure skyrocketed upon seeing the pony write with the quill in her mouth) on the parchment before setting it on the ground. With as much caution as possible, she tapped into her pool of magic. Her horn lit up in its usual lavender glow and seconds later, the paper started to glow. She closed her eyes as sweat started to form on her head. Slowly, the written words vanished from the paper. After holding the spell for what she thought was long enough, the glow from Twilight's horn stopped abruptly.

"So how do we tell if it worked?" asked Eric.

Twilight opened her eyes and looked at the parchment. When she noticed that written words were no longer present on the parchment, she cracked a smile. "It most definitely worked. Otherwise, the parchment would have spontaneously combusted."

"Well, that's one way to notify a failure." Eric rolled up one of his sleeves, revealing a wrist watch. "So how long do you supposed it'll take?"

Twilight picked up the paper and rolled it back up before stowing it back in her pocket. "I honestly have no idea."

A Few Minutes Later

Thousands upon thousands of rifles, carbines, machine guns, and pistols were aimed at the four humans, the captured war chief, two captured minotaurs, and one dead Jaeger. Slowly turning to look at Twilight, Tran maintained the same dead look that he had been giving her since meeting her. "Exactly what did you tell them in that message?"

Twilight let out a sheepish smile. "Nothing too serious."

A Few Minutes Earlier In The 5th Ground Division's Main Communication Center

A simple comms pony received a magically sent message. This wasn't a rare occurrence; a counter-offensive was being prepared so this was expected. However, the comms pony definitely didn't recognize the magical trace of the message's sender. Doing the right thing, the comms pony simply asked a sergeant for help.

Unfortunately, that sergeant wasn't able to recognize the trace either so he asked a nearby officer to check the note. The nearby officer (a captain) recognized the magical trace as belonging to Field Marshal Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Engaged war party and Jaeger. Three injured including self. Captured war chief, two party members, and Jaeger killed. Send help. Coordinates 043.7 by 13.9

The captain instantly noticed that the note was written in the Field Marshal Princess's mouth writing instead of her horn writing. She also noticed that the message wasn't written in the way that the Field Marshal Princess's standard message writing format and deduced that the Field Marshal Princess (such a mouthful) was in such a bad state that she needed help this instant!

That nearby captain also happened to be the OIC (Officer In Charge) of the communication center and instantly brought the message to the attention of every single pony above the rank of major. Within a matter of seconds, the counteroffensive was canceled and every single able-bodied pony was sent to the Field Marshal Princess's location.

-X-X-X-

Tran looked at Twilight. "You're lying, aren't you?"

If War Is the Answer Then We Are Asking the Wrong Question

With the hundreds of armed escorts, the trip back to Fort Platinum was uneventful. Once the four humans had finally stepped foot inside the fort, ponies had swarmed around them to see what the scourge of the griffon and minotaur army looked like. Who cared about the war party or the war chief that they had captured; these four were far more interesting.

Some thought that they were minotaurs in disguise due to their tall and bipedal nature. The rest were more focused on their weapons. Specifically, they were focused on the fact that they were allowed to have their weapons. If the rumors were true, those four were capable of taking on anything and winning. What's stopping them from taking on the Equestrian Army?

But

They had saved the lives of many ponies, wiped out several of the biggest threats to the Equestrian military, and had taken out one of the griffon's generals. Perhaps they were truly on their side.

For now.

Twilight had then taken over a conference/briefing room (much to the dismay of several officers who were currently using it) and everyone important sat down inside at the table. In terms of Equestrians, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spitfire were the only ones in there. Outside of the conference room, on the other hand, hundreds of ponies of varying ranks and positions were quietly listening in. On the human end of the spectrum, Tran, Eric, Wilson, and Logan had made themselves home inside the room. They had removed their helmets and had their rifles sitting on the conference table inside the room.

"I honestly have no idea in the terms of what to do with the four of you," Twilight started. All four of them had essentially poofed into existence and their species was entirely unknown. The four of them couldn't be left to wander on their own. There'd be hell to pay, especially with a war going on. "I doubt this has ever happened before in Equestrian history."

"But we cannot simply leave you on your lonesomes and we'd like to give our thanks," Rarity added in.

All four humans shared looks with each other. "So now what?" Logan asked.

"We'll have to migrate the four of you to a safer town or city. Once there, we'll try to figure out how to deal with your situation," Twilight explained.

The four humans looked amongst each other before looking back to Twilight. "It'll do," Tran said.

Rarity smiled. "Do try to keep out of trouble! While we appreciate the help the four of you have given us, the four of you are still a bit... Alien to everypony."

Tran shrugged. "No promises."

Rarity shrugged in response to Tran's shrug. "Well, at least you tried your best." Rarity's dug through her coat and pulled out several pieces of paper. "I'll start on finding the four of you a barracks room to accommodate you."

Elsewhere in Fort Platinum

A particularly unimportant REA captain sat at his measly desk in a small room in a nondescript building, looking at various field reports and maps. He was simply the commanding officer of a small infantry company. Most of his day involved dealing with paperwork and dancing around bureaucracy. In the grand scheme of things, he didn't play too much of a crucial role.

The door to his office was bucked open and the smallest of small soldiers walked into the office. Both her worn uniform and her slung weapon were covered in grime and lightly damaged, unacceptable in normal situations. The captain immediately recognized her as one of the soldiers under his command, one that had been part of a patrol that had been sent out in the morning of this day. The captain checked his watch and looked back at her. "What are you doing here and where the hell is the rest of your squad?"

Scootaloo suppressed a growl as she dug through a pouch from her gear and pulled out several flag patches. The captain picked up one blood stained flag patch and immediately dropped it back down after he read whose name was stenciled into it. He dug through the other flag patches and recognized the other names among them. He pushed every flag patch to one corner of his desk and closed his eyes. "Dismissed for...I'll send somepony to retrieve you if you're needed."

-X-X-X-

Rainbow Dash shifted in her sleep.

"Wake up you flightless chicken!" yelled a rather lively voice (a barely suppressed giggle followed).

Rainbow shot up from her bed. "Who are you calling a flightless chicken?!" she demanded whilst reaching for her sidearm. When her hoof met nothing, she looked down at herself. Her uniform, her gear, and most importantly, her gun was missing.

Applejack chortled for a short instant. "Ah told yah that'd wake her up." Applejack was currently occupying her own bed. Her right leg, the one that had been hit with a bullet, was currently bound by several rolls of gauze and bandages.

Looking around, Rainbow Dash found herself in an infirmary bed (again) and surrounded by her five best friends. She jumped into the air and attempted to hover in the air. A second later, she face planted into her bed. Apparently, she could no longer feel her wings.

"And ah told yah that'd be the first thing she'd do."

Rarity rolled her eyes at Applejack. "Darling, all of us knew she would try to fly."

Rainbow Dash looked at her feathery appendages. "What's wrong with my wings?!" She tried to flap them with as much effort that she could muster but they stayed against her sides. A yellow hoof appeared in Rainbow Dash's vision and it jabbed her in the side, causing a slight jolt of pain to shoot through her body. "Ow!"

Fluttershy drew her hoof back. "Some of your ribs are broken, Rainbow. I had to administer a paralytic that only affected your wings."

Rainbow Dash froze for a short moment. "What?!"

Fluttershy sighed. "Flying is only gonna slow down the healing process so I had to do it."

"But, wings! Flying!" Everypony present, minus Rainbow Dash, facehoofed.

Twilight was the first to recover. "Anyways, there's an issue that I'd like to address with the two of you."

Rainbow looked at herself. "Two?"

Twilight eyed Applejack. "Both of you keep ignoring orders and running off on your own to do your own thing. And the only reason anypony lets you do this is because I let it." Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared a look. Both of them knew this was gonna be bad. "So now, both of you are being restationed."

"And what's stopping us from just fighting on ahr own?!" Applejack asked.

Rarity and Twilight looked at each other. "Literally, the entire Royal Equestrian Army," Rarity said.

Applejack narrowed her eyes. "Yer gonna do that to us, your best friends?"

Rarity frowned. "Yes, especially to keep our best friends alive."

Applejack looked down at her hoof. "Yah make a good point there. So are we just gonna sit on ahr flanks all day until the war ends?"

Rarity smiled. "Of course not! Both of you will be providing guard duty to some VIPs in Ponyville."

"Who?" Applejack asked.

Rarity and Twilight shared a mischievous look.

-X-X-X-

Rainbow Dash knocked on a door. No answer. Rainbow stepped out of the way as Applejack bucked down the door with her one good hoof. Applejack immediately found a saber on her throat. "How rude," said Prince Blueblood.

Author's Note

This one took a while to come out. Sorry about that, things got busy.

You Only See What I Choose to Show You

Rainbow eyed the sword at her friend's throat and growled. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

Blueblood harrumphed. "While it's none of your business, I have been instructed to supervise some military VIPs."

Applejack still felt the saber on her throat. "And we were told tah protect some VIPS." She gently pushed the saber away with her right hoof.

Blueblood realized his mistake and pulled the saber away. "Apologies." He returned the saber to its scabbard, the one attached to his side. He reached into his pocket with his telekinesis and opened it up. After a few seconds of perusing it, he stuck it back into the same pocket. "Have either of you been told who your charges are?"

"No," Rainbow Dash replied. "We were just told to meet them here."

Blueblood raised an eye at her statement. He also hadn't been given the description of what the VIPs he had been instructed to supervise. All he knew was that they were given the very room he was standing in. Just who were these VIPs? "I'll be taking my leave now."

He had started making his way towards the door but stopped when he heard hoof steps. Yes, hoof steps. The ones in question were only dropped one hoof at a time, therefore minotaurs. He could tell that there were four of them and oddly enough, their steps were very muffled. Were they wearing horseshoes instead of pads?

He unsheathed his sword and prepared himself. Why were there four minotaurs walking by themselves in this barracks?

"What are you doing now?" Rainbow asked.

"Shhh," Blueblood said.

Rainbow stared at the mad prince and his actions. Her ears twitch when she heard the familiar sound voice of a very strange somepony she had met.

"I think this is the room." Immediately following that, the door to the room was opened. Blueblood immediately threw his saber towards the throat of the newcomer, in a fashion identical to what he had done to Applejack. In an impressive feat of agility, Blueblood's saber was stopped midair when a gloved hand caught the handle.

All four newcomers drew their sidearms and aimed it at the offending stallion. "Nice catch," Eric said.

Applejack looked at Blueblood. Despite having four firearms aimed at him, he kept his composure. "I'm surprised you aren't pissin your pants right now," Applejack commented.

Blueblood snorted. "And why would I be?"

Applejack chuckled and took a glance at his choice of wear. He was wearing a crisp, official-looking dress uniform of the Royal Equestrian Army. It was the type of uniform one would never wear in real combat. Technically, all soldiers were supposed to wear the dress uniform when not in combat but no one upheld the rule. "Just a hunch that yer a mite wet behin the ears."

"Wet behind the ears!?"

Wilson let out an irritated sigh. "You're carrying a fucking sword! Who the fuck uses a sword?!"

Tran looked at the sword that he was still holding and threw it towards Blueblood. "Think fast."

Blueblood's eyes widened and he lit up his horn. A foot before the sword would have struck him, he caught it with his magic. "Are you insane?!"

Tran, without a second thought, replied, "Yes." He holstered his revolver a second later; The other three did the same and holstered their respective sidearms. "And you, should not be running around swinging a sword, willy nilly."

Rainbow Dash snickered. "So, what are you bucks doing here?"

"Your illustrious leader has arranged for us to stay in Equestria as some kind of military VIPs. Apparently, we're assessing whether your nation should be provided with foreign military assistance."

Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked at each other. "Figure they'd do somethin like this," Applejack said.

Blueblood looked at the four humans. "So just who might you four be?"

Tran was gonna answer but he looked to Logan. Logan smiled and looked to Blueblood. "Americans."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. Americans? That was an odd name. "So now what?" Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash yanked Tran's S&W Model 500 out of its holster. "I want to give this thing a try!"

Tran looked at the daft pegasus for a second before reaching out with a hand to take back his revolver. "Mayhaps."

Blueblood looked aghast. "We can't just run off and shoot guns!"

Logan raised an eyebrow. "We're Americans. That's literally the only thing we do."

-X-X-X-

Immediately upon entering the nearest shooting range, all gunfire stopped. It wasn't an everyday occurrence for four humans to suddenly walk in unannounced, escorted by one of the most famous dogfighters of the war and the cowgirl of the Equestrian Army. A few ponies noticed Prince Blueblood but most of the attention went to the other six.

Elsewhere

Fluttershy looked up from the medical chart she was reading. "Hmm." Her left ear twitched. And then it twitched twice more. "Oh no."

-X-X-X-

Rainbow Dash looked down the sights of Tran's S&W Model 500 in her right hoof. Attached to the revolver was a small trigger mechanism that was designed to be attached to griffon firearms so that ponies could fire said guns; Without any modifications, it was found that it could be attached to human weapons in the same fashion. Despite every humans' attempts to persuade the pegasus, she had insisted on shooting it with just one hoof. Applejack, Prince Blueblood, the four humans, and everypony else at the range watched the mad pegasus as she was about to be taught a very important lesson.

Before she could fire it, a yellow pegasus dropped in from the sky behind her. "Wait!" Fluttershy screamed. Rainbow Dash pulled the trigger to the revolver.

*BANG*

It came as no surprise when the revolver shot out of Rainbow Dash's single hoof from the recoil and straight towards her forehead.

*BAM*

Everypony cringed as the cyan pegasus hit the ground. Rainbow Dash raised her head and looked around. "Did anyone get the license plate of that carriage?" She went unconscious.

Author's Note

Well, I'm back! There's two meanings to that. One, my deployment is finally done. Two, I'm gonna get back to putting out more chapters of this little story.

Schadenfreude

In the military, there exists such a place where the hopes and dreams of soldiers disappear upon visiting. This place, it has many names but most call it the armorY. Yes, the armorY. Yes, we are talking about the place where all of the weapons/rifles/pistols/etc. are stored.

If you're wondering how the armorY is the metaphorical "black hole" of positive attitude, well, you're clearly new or have never served a second in the military. Even if you're the armorER (the hermit who works, runs, and lives in this "black hole"), any and all motivation that you've had has been rendered moot. It isn't a fast process either. The snail-like pace that the armorY normally runs at makes it that much more agonizing.

And how does the process of sucking away your happiness work? Well, here's some foresight into it. To check a weapon (let's go with a rifle for this example) out of the armorY, one does not simply go to the armorY and grab their rifle before casually walking away. No, the only person that can enter the armorY is the armorER. So, if you want to check out your rifle for duty, you must follow a certain process.

First, you must wait for the armorY to actually open and for that to happen, the armorER must open the armorY. Even if there is a sign posted that specifically states when the armorY is open or when the armorER is in, you have to show up half an hour to a full hour early to witness this. Otherwise, it may never open. Then there's this little tidbit. Even if the armorY is open or the armorER is in, you may not be able to check out your rifle because there might be certain criteria to actually check out or receive your rifle.

Once the armorY is open and the armorER is in (and you meet any criteria), you may finally receive/check out your rifle! Wait, no. I'm wrong. Why? Well, you have to wait for the armorER to actually find your rifle. That can't take too long, right? Well... Everyone gets issued a rifle, right? There are many like it, but... There are many like it. THERE ARE MANY LIKE IT!!! There's gonna be many copies of the same rifle on the same rifle rack that its on. You can pray that your rifle is on the first position of the first rifle rack but upon doing that, you've jinxed the process. Thus your rifle is on the last position of the last rifle rack that the armorER checks. This process is made even slower by the fact that the only thing that differentiates the rifles is the serial number, to which the armorER has to check one by one. The more weapons the armorY holds, the longer it takes. Once you finally have your rifle, you must sign some paperwork (the bane of literally everyone's existence) and you can march along your merry way.

So now that you have your rifle, what do you do? You can finally leave this forsaken place forever! Oh wait, you have to return later to turn in your rifle...
If you thought checking out your rifle took a long time...

Starting off, you can't turn your rifle back in if it's dirty. There is a standard that has to be kept! If you checked out your rifle and fired it, you're in for a painstakingly long process. Why? Obviously, you have to clean off the carbon that accumulates on it after a round has been fired. Carbon results from the gunpowder discharging and since this is such a violent and instant process, carbon can be found literally anywhere inside of the rifle. No matter the amount of time spent cleaning, the armorER will always find a spot that you've missed.

Eventually, the armorER has deemed that your rifle is clean and you can finally leave! But remember, you're gonna come back eventually (which is tomorrow in most cases).

What does all of this have to do with anything?

Well, the griffon army had launched a massive offensive that was forcefully ended short when too many members of their upper chain-of-command were killed. In the ensuing defense of Baltimare, literally all combat and combat-capable support personnel had fired their weapon at some point in the battle. While most of the combat personnel had to stay on guard/duty/watch in case the griffons launched an additional counter-offensive, the support personnel would have to go back to performing their intended roles.

But to do that, they first have to turn their weapons back into the armorY...

Somewhere in the 5th Ground Division's headquarters, there was an armorY. This armorY was special. Why? Well, it was the largest armorY in Baltimare! It was capable of storing 1000 firearms and could withstand direct artillery fire! Usually, armorIES were assigned two armorERS. In this case, there was only one assigned armorER.

One armorER? For the largest armorY in Baltimare? What kind of idiot decided that this was a good idea?

Well... The Baltimare sector wasn't exactly brimming with extra soldiers, especially after fighting off the griffons. On top of that, being an armorER wasn't a job that you started out immediately with. It was a position, one that required a good amount of extra training. On top of that, many consider it to be one of the most dreadfully boring positions in the military. You had to deal with other ponies's weapons, the paperwork of dealing with other ponies' weapons, and the fact that you'll be spending the rest of your life in a sealed room made of concrete with no ventilation.

Yeah... Volunteering to be an armorER usually didn't happen. Most are forced into the position.

The armorER for the largest armorY in Baltimare was a light blue earth pony with a brown mane and tail. He was a sergeant so he had a decent amount of leeway when it came to doing what he wanted, but he'd have ultimate power once he enters his realm.

This pony was a member of a very rare minority. You see, he actually volunteered to be an armorER! What in the world would compel someone to do such a thing? Mental disparity? Self-hate? Masochism?

Nope, none of that nonsense.

You see, this pony had a very unique talent. His cutie mark was a slightly tilted painting. What special talent would such a cutie mark represent? His special talent, specifically, is finding all of the little nuances and pet peeves that really set people off, just enough, and hitting almost all of them. And then thoroughly enjoying the outcome.

...

His name, Schadenfreude, is rather fitting.

What was he doing right now? Well, Sergeant Schadenfreude was currently sitting at a desk, surrounded by empty weapon racks, cleaning a revolver. By "cleaning a revolver," he was actually just sitting there with the pieces to a revolver on his desk. If someone came by, he could claim he was cleaning it so that he wouldn't have to help someone clean their weapon if they needed help.

In every armorY, there was only one exit. This exit had two doors. One door was a massive vault-like door that could secure the armorY if needed while the other was a door that could be separated in an upper and lower half. The lower half of the door had a board attached to it, making it also usable as a table. If you wanted to get your weapon checked in, you had to approach the door.

Just so happens, a pony came by. He was clearly a member of the Royal Army and he was currently carrying a rifle (bolt action).

Schadenfreude noticed the pony and smiled. "Yes?"

The pony in question set his rifle down on the lower half of the 2nd door. "Do you have any cleaning oil?"

Schadenfreude's smile grew.

He opened up a drawer on his desk and retrieved a small plastic bottle. He tossed it to the pony and then returned his attention to his desk, where he picked up a piece of the disassembled revolver to act like he was doing something.

The soldier caught the bottle and promptly left. Once out of view, Schadenfreude looked up and started to mentally countdown. 'Five. Four. Three. Two. One.'

The soldier had walked back, holding up the small plastic bottle. "This bottle is nearly empty," he said.

Schadenfreude leaned on his desk, both hooves propping up his head. "But is it completely empty?"

"No, but-"

"Then clean your rifle," Schadenfreude said before continuing to 'clean' his revolver.

-X-X-X-

Another pony came up to the door. This pony had a very noticeable distinction between him and the other enlisted ponies, he was an officer. Specifically, he was a lieutenant, 2nd grade. From what Schadenfreude guessed, this officer was new.

Being an officer didn't make him immune. "Yes sir?" Schadenfreude said, addressing him.

The officer unslung a rifle off of his back and drew a revolver, placing both of them on the table/door. "I'd like to turn in my weapons," said the officer.

Schadenfreude stood up. "I'll be right there, sir." Schadenfreude walked right over to the entrance and picked up the revolver. "It's still dirty. I'm afraid I can't accept this, sir."

"You haven't even checked it!" exclaimed the officer.

A smile appeared on Schadenfreude's face as he picked up the rifle and set it down inside the armorY before grabbing the revolver and quickly disassembling it. The cylinder was separated from the frame and the grip plates were separated from the grips. Schadenfreude then picked up the cylinder and pointed it down on the table/door. In the blink of an eye, he slammed it down on the table/door and watched as solidified carbon fell out of the cylinder.

Schadenfreude looked at the solidified carbon and then at the officer. Smiling, Schadenfreude picked up the frame of the revolver and handed it back to the officer. "Right, I'll be on my way then," said the officer. The officer, revolver in hoof, started to walk away.

Schadenfreude's shit-eating grin grew as he looked at the pieces that belonged to the revolver that the officer had forgotten about. "Sir!" Schadenfreude called out.

A few seconds later, the officer returned. "Yes?" the officer responded. Schadenfreude held up the revolver cylinder that the officer had forgotten about. "Oh. Whoops." The officer took the cylinder and went on his way.

Schadenfreude looked at the revolver's grips that he still had possession of. He couldn't call the officer back right away. No, he had to wait until the officer had traveled a decent distance. After the officer had left Schadenfreude's view, he called out again. "Sir!"

The officer returned, revolver still in hoof. "What?" he said, clearly irritated. Schadenfreude held up ONE of the two grip plates in front of the officer to see. "Oh." He took the grip plate and once again, left the vicinity of the armorY.

Schadenfreude looked at the other grip plate that the officer had forgotten about. He waited a few seconds and once again, called out. "Sir!"

A few seconds later, the officer returned. "What did I forget this time?" the officer demanded. Schadenfreude held up the second grip plate. "Oh for fuck's sake. I thought I already grabbed that!"

Schadenfreude removed the smile from his face. It wasn't that his enjoyment was being ruined. It was more so that he could continue without punishment. "They come in pairs, sir," said Schadenfreude.

The officer, whose face was showing the signs of angered frustration, took the grip plate. "Is that everything that I need for my sidearm?" the officer asked.

"Yes sir, that would indeed be everything that belongs to your revolver, sir," said Schadenfreude with as much false politeness that he could muster. The officer stuffed the grip plate in his pocket and walked away from the armorY, for the fourth time today.

Schadenfreude hadn't lied. There was nothing from the officer's revolver that he had forgotten...

Schadenfreude looked at the rifle that the officer had forgotten and smiled again.

-X-X-X-

There was a line of ponies waiting at the only entrance to the armorY.

How did he miss that? That's easy, he was "focused" on "cleaning" a revolver.

Why did no one ask for his help? Well, the ponies in line actually had been calling for his help.

Why didn't Schadenfreude respond? Well, he might have been wearing earplugs.

Oh, but anyone who has ever worn earplugs knows that it only muffles some of the sounds. True, but Schadenfreude might have also been wearing ear muffs in addition to the earplugs and these ear muffs might have been designed for artillery crew members.

Oh but he eventually has to look up, right? Well, he was REALLY “focused” on “cleaning” a revolver.

-X-X-X-

Schadenfreude picked up his daisy sandwich and took a bite out of it. It was his lunch break damn it and he was going to enjoy it! Especially so if ponies were waiting in line at the armorY’s door!

“Come on, we just need our rifles!” yelled one of the ponies in the line.

Schadenfreude took another bite out of his sandwich.

-X-X-X-

Someone approached the door to his armorY. Not somePONY, someONE. When Schadenfreude noticed the person, he almost drew his sidearm. Schadenfreude had nearly mistaken the person for a minotaur but had noticed the small features that made him think otherwise.

From the rumors that were being spread, Schadenfreude guessed that he was probably one of those humans that everypony was talking about. What was he doing here?

Schadenfreude walked up to the door and quickly looked him over. The grey splotchy uniform was definitely something that you’d immediately notice, as with the height. Then, he noticed the massive scoped rifle slung on his back. The titanic revolver/hand cannon strapped to his hip was also another surprise.

What exactly did he need? “Yes?” Schadenfreude asked. The human, at first, ignored Schadenfreude. Instead of paying attention to the pony, the human was just looking at the items that littered and lined the inside of the armorY.

The human snapped out of it and stared directly into Schadenfreude’s eyes. “I’m gonna need a bore brush for a shotgun and a .45 Peacemaker and some cleaning oil”, said the human.

Schadenfreude thought about his options. Should he try to push the human’s buttons? Of course! The question was, how could he go about doing it? This was a creature that he had never seen nor interacted with before. This was going to be a challenge.

Schadenfreude walked over to where he kept his cleaning supplies, grabbing the requested items. Since his name wasn’t charity, he chose the most worn brushes and a nearly empty bottle of cleaning oil (just like earlier). Schadenfreude brought the cleaning supplies to the door and gave them to the human.

After the human left, Schadenfreude started to wait. Any minute now, the human would return. Any minute now. And any minute now. Any minute now...

An hour later, the human returned. Held in his left hand were the cleaning supplies that he been given. Both of the bore brushes looked even more used and for some reason, the bottle of oil was still present. Then, the human said, “Thank you for the brushes, they were very useful.”

Schadenfreude froze for a second. He had been helpful? Since when did that ever happen? “They weren’t too worn for you to use?”

The human drew the titan-of-a-revolver that he carried before dropping the cylinder and exposing its shiny chambers. “The worn state of that shotgun bore brush was perfect for my revolver.”

Schadenfreude stared at the excessively large chambers of the revolver. “And you had no qualms with the amount of oil that I gave you?” Schadenfreude asked.

The human gently closed the cylinder of his revolver and holstered it. “Most people use too much oil when cleaning their guns”, he said.

Schadenfreude blinked. He had one hope left. Schadenfreude walked up to the human and stood up on his hind legs, making him eye level with the human. Leaning forward, he stated one simple word. “Moist.”

Nothing on the human’s face showed that he had even registered what Schadenfreude had said.

*Boop*

Schadenfreude’s nose scrunched when the human’s oily fingers touched his nose. The surprise had caused him to lean backwards leading to Schadenfreude falling over onto his back.

Author's Note

Who the hell has been capitalizing the Y in armory and ER in armorer...

Fucking Schadenfreude!

This is, in every way, a filler chapter. It features Schadenfreude from the aptly named story Schadenfreude by Demon McRae.

There Never Was a Good War or a Bad Peace

Ponyville, a small town that played a much bigger role to the war effort than what most would realize. Along with Dodge City, Ponyville was a major meeting hub of supplies and troops before it was shipped off to the frontlines. This made her a recognized target for pretty much everything. Sabotage, theft, gun running, smuggling, things that were normally frowned upon was now commonplace. If Discord was still alive, he would have been proud.

So naturally, all four humans were temporarily relocated there... Because of course!

In reality, it kept the humans away from the frontlines and it was a short train ride away. It also kept them close to the capitol (Canterlot) if they ever needed to go there.

With them, came their protectors. Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack still had to recover from their most recent bout of injuries; If they hadn't been forced to, they easily would have worked themselves to the death. With them, came their supervisor. Prince Blueblood, esteemed prince of Equestria, performed a very important task! He did paperwork and arranged the logistics of keeping the four humans in Equestria. Yes, it's an important job. Yes, I'm being serious.

Blueblood's first challenge upon reaching Ponyville was finding residence for all seven of them. It took him a while but he had eventually commandeered a small single story house in the south eastern sector of Ponyville. It wasn't too big, having four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a kitchen, and a basement but it would suffice for the time being.

Blueblood looked at the humans' protectors. "Do keep watch of them, I have to go authorize funds for our little task at hand."

Rainbow Dash harrumphed in disapproval. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know what we're doing," she said.

Blueblood eyed the bandaged gash on Rainbow Dash's forehead from when a it's-not-a-handgun-it's-a-cannon struck her in the face. "Do you really now?" Rainbow Dash frowned in anger upon realizing what Blueblood was staring at. Blueblood didn't attempt to prevent himself from smiling, causing her to march away in anger.

He looked to Applejack. Applejack shrugged. "They'll never leave our sight," Applejack said while looking over at all of the current number of humans in the house... At that exact moment, that number was two.

Wilson and Logan both stared at earth pony. "What?" Wilson asked.

-X-X-X-

Eric and Tran walked down one of Ponyville's streets. Both of them were still wearing their body armor and gear but didn't have their rifles (they had left them with the other two). Eric looked at Tran. "What do you want to do?" Eric asked.

Tran shrugged. "Let's go get some booze."

Eric nodded in approval. Then, he realized something important. "Wait, we don't have any money." Tran stopped walking and started digging through his pockets. After a few seconds, he pulled out a decently sized coin bag and tossed it to Eric. Eric opened it up, revealing hundreds of golden coins. "Where did you get this?"

"I stole it from that weird prince."

Eric closed up the bag and tossed it back. "Well, let's go find some booze."

-X-X-X-

In a diner, a black suit wearing mare was enjoying a strawberry sundae by her lonesome. The mare, without looking paranoid, kept a watchful eye on every possible entrance and all patrons. She was a veteran of the trade, after all.

When two mares(one of which was clad in a very conspicuous grey trench coat) entered the diner, she had to mentally groan. Of course she would wear something like that. Both new patrons found the lone mare and joined the lone mare. "Agent S," greeted the mare wearing the trench coat.

Agent S deeply inhaled. "Do you really have to wear that?" she asked, looking at the trench coat.

The mare in question looked down at her trench coat, causing her sunglasses to slide down her nose.

"Well where else would I hide my gun?" asked the mare in question, loudly enough for everypony in the diner to hear if there had been anypony else other than the three.

The grey mare beside her groaned at her partner's lack of professionalism. "Can we please, get back to our tasking?"

Agent S reached into her mane and pulled out an envelope. "Your assignment is to pull some hooves-on recon on a possible smuggling operation." She slid the envelope over to the two mares, of which the white mare snatched up as quickly as she could manage. Inside the envelope was a picture of what looked like a small pub. "We believe that two-thirds of the contraband that comes from Canterlot goes through there at some point. We're hoping to find where it all stems from so we can snuff it out."

The grey mare snatched the photo from her compatriot's hoof and set it back down on the table. "And it needs to be done as covertly as possible?" she asked.

The head mare nodded. "Right. If anything fudges up the place, their gazpachos might catch onto our attempts to corner them."

The white mare crossed her arms and slunk down into her seat. "Well that's boring."

Both other mares rolled their eyes. "In the off chance that your cover is blown, you will be provided with a few means of fighting back."

The trench coat class professional grew a smile as she realized what this meant. "Is it a machine gun!?"

Her partner face-hooved. "Are you ever going to act with any semblance of tact?"

Without a second thought, she responded with, "Nope!"

Agent S removed a briefcase from under the table. Placing it on the table, she opened it up to reveal a pair of disassembled shotguns and some shells. "The ammunition provided is under-pressured buckshot and low velocity handgun ammo. They're specially loaded to ensure lowered penetration. Since we are in a populated civilian location, we do not need a bullet or pellet punching through multiple walls and causing unnecessary collateral damage."

Both of the shotguns in the case were the same model and were pump action take-down shotguns. This meant that they could be easily broken down into two halves for transport or concealment.

"Even if your cover is blown, make sure intel is gathered. Even if they find out that we're onto them, we can still use whatever we find in identifying where everything is coming from."

"Is that everything?" asked the tactless mare.

"Don't die."

-X-X-X-

Inside a small pub in Ponyville, a bartender polished a glass mug while patrons enjoyed a nice cold beer and or played poker. As he moved onto his next glass, a mare entered the pub. She was wearing an eye-catching grey trench coat and everypony immediately recognized her. Her uniquely highlighted blue mane and accessories (a pair of headphones and purple-tinted sunglasses) made it easy to tell that she was Vinyl Scratch (also known as DJ P0n3), an up and coming DJ.

A very large unicorn bouncer standing at the entrance to the bar immediately stopped the two. "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to scan you for weapons."

Vinyl Scratch looked at the bouncer and shrugged, "Go right ahead, I'm not hiding anything." The bouncer's horn lit up and Vinyl was enveloped in a green glow for a few seconds. After the glow disappeared, the bouncer waved her off.

The bartender looked at the famous DJ. "Now is this the famous DJ P0n3 that I'm speaking to?"

Vinyl smiled and basked in the recognition. "You bet your ass it is! Now I don't know if you know where a gal like me can get something to drink?"

The bartender grabbed a glass and filled it up with a nice foamy beer. "First one's on the house."

Vinyl gladly took the beer and drank from it, taking her time. Whilst drinking, she took a good look at the bartender. He wore a nice immaculate white shirt, a black bowtie, and a black vest. The vest, she took notice to as it had a small lump on the left side of it. Possibly a gun? Off to the left of the bartop, there was a hallway to another room where she could clearly see other ponies milling about. After having downed half the beer, she set the glass back on the table. "Now that's good stuff right there," she said while leaning in towards the bartender. In a whisper, she said, "I don't suppose you know where I can get something that would make performing a little more bearable?"

The bartender crossed his arms. "That depends on what you're willing to pay."

Vinyl reached into her coat and pulled out a bag. "Because being a famous DJ definitely doesn't pay well, obviously." She tossed it to bartender who opened it up, revealing many bits.

The bartender pocketed the bits before removing a small tan tin from behind the counter and placing it in front of vinyl. "Fresh off the front lines."

Using her magic, Vinyl opened up the tin to reveal five hypodermic syringes. Each one was made of glass, filled with a clear liquid, and had a protective cap. "Morphine?"

The bartender nodded. "I'd suggest not taking two within a four hour period if you haven't had any before."

Vinyl picked up the tin of morphine and stuffed it into her trench coat. "Thanks for the fix." She began to leave the bar but stopped after taking one step. "Oh, before I leave do you know where I can get more? I'm gonna be in Canterlot for a gig in a few weeks and I'd appreciate it if you gave me a referral."

"Sure." The bartender reached into his vest and pulled out a business card, throwing it to her.

Vinyl caught the business card in her magic, stuffing it into her trench coat. "Thanks." She turned around and started to leave again but then realized that the bouncer was missing. 'Huh', she thought.

Almost immediately afterwards, the door to the bar was kicked open. The bouncer re-entered the bar with a grey mare in his arms and a cello case held in his magic. "Found a mare scoping out the place." He dropped the cello case and it burst open, revealing a pair of disassembled shotguns and a copious number of shotgun shells. "And lookie what she has."

The bartender reached into his vest and pulled out a revolver. "The Equestrian Secret Service must be getting brave." He took aim at the grey mare.

Before he could fire, five syringes full of morphine had been emptied into his heart. As he collapsed, Vinyl caught his falling gun with her magic and put three rounds into the bouncer (two in the chest and one in the head). Vinyl quickly walked over to where the cello case had fallen to the ground. "You just had to blow it even though," she started, picking up the pieces to one shotgun. "I got proof and found out where in Canterlot I could get more!" She expertly assembled the shotgun and had it loaded before her partner could pick hers up.

Octavia scowled back in response. "What's done is done. Let's just deal with them and go." She attempted to put her shotgun together but just couldn't seem to catch onto the concept. Octavia noticed a trio of ponies coming in from a hallway. "Well, shit."

Vinyl also noticed the three ponies and fired her shotgun at them. While she missed, the ponies took the cue to stop where they were and take cover behind some solid looking metal doors. Vinyl also did the same and ducked behind the bartop, but not before grabbing a couple hoof full of shotgun shells from the ground. "Come on, Octy. We don't have all day!"

Octy(Octavia) frowned at her usage at the nickname but took cover beside her partner, disassembled shotgun in tow. "I'm trying!" The ponies in the hallway fired back at the DJ, missing and hitting the bar top. Vinyl responded by firing her shotgun back at them. Octy (Octavia!) responded by continuing to put together her own shotgun(failing miserably at that mind you).

The ponies in the hallway were joined by three more ponies, significantly increasing the chances against the two Equestrian Secret Service(ESS) agents. Vinyl fire twice more at the ponies in the hallway to keep them pinned down. Ducking back down, she looked at her partner who was still trying to assemble her shotgun. "You have got to be kidding me," Vinyl deadpanned. More bullets hit the bartop, to which she responded back with a blind shot from behind cover.

Octavia fumbled with the shotgun pieces again. "It's harder than it looks!" Vinyl grabbed both halves of the shotgun in Octy's(its Octavia!) hooves while handing her the shotgun that she was using. In a split second, she had the shotgun together and loaded. Ducking back up, she had fired the shotgun and managed to hit a pony that had taken the brief pause to advance. Ducking back down, Vinyl smirked at Octy(I'll give you that one). "Shut up." Octy(but not this one) ducked up to fire the shotgun.

*Click*

Vinyl grabbed her and pulled her down in time to save her from a bullet. "Weren't you counting? I fired five." She stuck just her shotgun out from cover and blindly fired, hitting absolutely nopony.

Octy(stop calling me Octy, it's Octavia for Celestia's sake!) reached for some shells to reload her shotgun when she realized that she hadn't grabbed any from where they had fallen.

Vinyl smiled and reached into her trench coat, pulling out a number of shotgun shells for the grey mare. "Don't you dare diss the trench coat ever again!" Octy(well fuck you!) begrudgingly took the shells and proceeded to reload her shotgun.

Then, the doors to the bar were opened and everything went silent as two... Things came walking in. One was shorter than the other and was wearing clothing(?) that was colored with splotches of various shades of green and brown while the other was wearing clothing(?) that was colored with splotches of grey. "What seems to be the problem?" asked the tall grey one.

Vinyl looked at the two. "We're Equestrian Secret Service investigating a smuggling ring?"

He stared blankly back at the mare. "Okay."

One of the five ponies in the hallway had decided that now was a good time to take a pot shot at the two things. The bullet that he fired from his handgun missed wide and hit the door frame to the left of the two. The tall grey one looked at the pony who fired at him with an irritated look. "Go ahead and fire a second shot." Before the pony could fire a second shot, it had unholstered a behemoth of a revolver.

*BOOM*

In an instant, everypony involved in the gunfight had been rendered temporarily deaf. The bullet was aimed a bit too far to the side and had struck the metal door that the pony was hiding behind. Naturally, the bullet had no trouble going clean through the door and then the pony behind it. One of the dead pony's compatriots noticed the offense and raised his gun to fire. Big mistake.

One blast later and he too was dead. Also, if everypony wasn't deaf yet, they most definitely were now. The three remainders now decided that this was a good time to run. Unfortunately for all three of them, one of them decided that it was a good idea to desperately blind fire backwards while running away. The resulting gunshot was timed at the exact moment that all three of them were in a line and the resulting bullet had no trouble going through all three of them.

The shorter green one looked at his compatriot. "That was a bit much, don't you think?" He didn't respond. He was currently occupied with reloading the three shots that he had fired.

Vinyl tapped her headphones, being thankful that they saved her hearing. "Wow, that was loud." She turned to Octy(I'm going to kill you). "Come on, let's clear the building."

Her partner stared at the trench coat-clad mare, seeing that her lips were moving but hearing nothing. "WHAT?!" she yelled.

Vinyl looked back at the two. "You heard me, right?" Both of them nodded. Vinyl thought about the potential consequences of enlisting the help of a pair of random creatures that had just simply appeared. She immediately decided that you only live once in life so screw it. Octavia had some thoughts on the matter but decided against voicing them, help was help after all.

The four of them quickly cleared the entirety of the bar and found that all other rooms were empty, save for one. One room had a large metal trapdoor that was very clearly locked. Octy(One of these days, Vinyl) looked at the trapdoor. "Now what?" she asked.

Vinyl happily raised her shotgun and fired. The pellets fired from the shotgun did absolutely nothing to the trapdoor's lock and miraculously, no one was injured from the bullet splash that resulted from said bad idea. Vinyl frowned and pumped her shotgun, chambering a fresh round. Before she could fire, the tall one placed his hand on the barrel. Vinyl lowered her shotgun as he raised the same hand cannon that he used before. Immediately, Octy(why are we even friends?) covered her ears.

One gunshot later, and the door was open.

Inside, there were hundreds of wooden crates of what could be presumed was contraband. Also, there was a lone pony in there with a revolver. All four of them took aim at him. He took one look at the four before dropping the gun and raising his arms into the air.

Vinyl looked at her partner. "Well, this has been an interesting mission." She looked over to her two little helpers. "Big thanks to-," she started but stopped when she saw that both of them were drinking from bottles of hard liquor.

"What?" they both asked.

Author's Note

If you ever take a .500 S&W to an indoor range, you will earn the ire of everyone else in the range.

Better to Have and Not Need Than to Need and Not Have

Blueblood rubbed the sides of his head with the edge of his hooves, slowly digesting what he had been told by a team of Equestrian Secret Service agents. Two of his charges snuck out from his supervision, interrupted an important Equestrian Secret Service investigation, killed five ponies, and stole his coin purse in the time span of an hour and a half... For booze.

Both escapees looked at the prince, the shorter of the pair still clutching a bottle of rye whiskey. "To be fair, those two agents needed the help," Eric said. Blueblood immediately started to rub at his head even harder.

-X-X-X-

Several Equestrian Secret Service(ESS) agents carefully went through the pub's cellar, making sure to take note of what was found. Drugs, guns, explosives, and contraband of the like was present by the metric ton; This was easily the biggest bust in ESS history! Naturally, Vinyl(still wearing her trench coat) was bragging about it to her coworkers while Octavia assisting them in going through the found merchandise.

One pony mused over an important detail from Vinyl's story. "So, wait. You just let the two creatures go?" asked her coworker. Vinyl nodded. "Why didn't you hold them for questioning?!"

Vinyl snorted. "Well, they helped us and I don't think we would have been able to detain the two."

The coworker stared at the mad mare. "But you didn't even try!" he yelled out.

Vinyl shrugged. "Eh, it was fine. They told us where to find them." The coworker balked. Why in the world was she still being fielded by the EAS? She's a mess waiting to happen! "And why aren't you asking why Octy there-," she added while pointing to the cellist. "Why she didn't stop them?"

"Vinyl!" Octavia yelled out.

"Hell, I almost had it in the bag by myself."

"Vinyl!" Octavia yelled, louder this time.

"You should have seen it! I just waltzed in there-" Octavia threw a bucket of water at her partner. Vinyl sputtered for a second before facing her partner. "Alright, I won't embarrass you!"

Octy smiled and drenched Vinyl with another bucket of water to make sure the daft mare was paying attention. "Now that I've caught your focus, I've found something I'd thought you'd like to see." Octy motioned towards a set of four large, identical gun cases stacked on top of each other. Each one was made of metal and had four latches keeping it close while presenting no locks on the outside.

Vinyl reached down and tried to open the case on top of the stack but found herself unable to open any of the latches. "Hey, what gives?"

"Seems like it's magically locked," said Octy with as much smartassness(that's not a word(yes it is)) that she could muster.

Vinyl motioned for one her coworkers to come on over. The coworker in question was a unicorn stallion that sported the image of glimmering padlock as a cutie mark. Three guesses what his special talent was and the first two doesn't count.

His horn lit up and the the top case was enveloped in a light green glow. Seconds later, the glow disappeared and the stallion faced the mares. "Yeah, I can't open this," said the stallion.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought I was working with the best lockpicker in Equestria?"

The EAS agent frowned. "It's locked with chaos magic."

Vinyl and Octy shared a worried look. "That's impossible, Discord is dead," stated Octavia. He knew that. She knew that. Everypony knew that. It was a fact.

Vinyl looked at the cases again and noticed a small note attached to the side of the case, something that she hadn't noticed before. She tore off the note and everypony crowded against her to see what it said.

Vinyl and Octy shared another look.

-X-X-X-

More knocks were made on the door to the residence that housed Blueblood and Co. When the door was opened revealing more EAS agents, Blueblood entered a new state of irritation. "What is it now?"

Vinyl and Octy pushed pass the prince, the latter of the two carrying four long gun cases in her magic, and into the house. Despite the protests of the angry prince, they found who they were looking for. Sitting around a dining room table were the four humans, all of which were currently drinking.

Eric and Tran immediately recognized the two ponies. "Need something?" Eric asked. Vinyl placed set the cases down onto the ground while Octavia handed him the note that was previously attached to it.

Dear whoever finds this note,

Yes, I know I'm dead. It's entirely possible for me to have placed this here before I died in preparation for the future. I'd like to explain more but we're getting off topic. The more important question to answer is: What's in the box?!?! Sorry, I can't tell you nor can I let you be the one to open it. The only thing capable of opening them are these strange biepdal and tall creatures that I'm sure are the talk of Equestria right now whether they're already dead or not. Either way, you won't be able to open it.

-Discord

"Should we open them?" Eric asked.

*Click*

Everyone in the room looked at Logan who had already grabbed a case and started to unlatch it. "What?" Logan asked as he undid the last latch. He carefully lifted up the lid and peeked inside.

Vinyl frowned, being unable to see it's contents. "Well, what's in it?" she asked with a sense of irritation.

Logan closed the case and looked back at everyone else. "Something awesome," he answered. He opened up the case, making sure to not show everyone what it was, and reach into it. After a bit of fumbling, he pulled out a pump action shotgun. "This is my Remington 870." He reached back into the case, pulled out a strange rectangular foot long tube, and started screwing it onto the end of the shotgun. "And my Salvo 12." After the suppressor was fully attached, he racked back on the pump. "Only holds five rounds but at least the barrel is flush with the magazine tube."

The three ponies in the room looked at the over four foot long shotgun. "That thing is enormous!" Blueblood said.

Octavia eyed the Salvo 12. "Pray tell, what is a Salvo 12?" she asked.

Logan smiled. "Suppressor."

Octavia raised an eyebrow. "Pray tell, what is a suppressor?"

"Makes the gunshot quiet."

Octavia looked at the one foot long tube affixed to the shotgun. "You mean a silencer?"

Logan felt like punching her in the mouth. "Its a suppressor!"

Octavia noticed that he tensed up and took a mental note. "Wait, I thought those were only for .22s and you could only put them on rifles."

"Nope," Logan answered.

Deciding that he had seen enough, Wilson grabbed one of the long cases and unlatched it. Opening it up, it revealed a pump action shotgun... A small pump action shotgun... A really small pump action shotgun. The entire thing looked to be slightly over a foot in length and was rather comical looking considering it was the only thing in the meter and a half long(about five feet) long rifle case. Wilson blinked, unsure of what he was seeing.

Logan, who was finally finished with being smitten with his own shotgun, took one look at Wilson's shotgun and guffawed. "It's perfect for you," Logan commented. Wilson angrily turned to Logan and punched him in the stomach. Clutching his stomach, Logan stopped laughing. "Worth it."

Tran looked at the tiny shotgun. "It still has its uses."

Octavia eyed the short magazine tube. "How many shells does that thing even hold? Three?"

Wilson wanted to ignore the question but it was an honest question asked without any sense of intended irritation. "Two."

Octavia looked at Logan's shotgun and then to his. "Was this one of your own personal weapons?" Octavia pointed to Logan's Remington 870. "Like his?"

"Yes," he answered.

Eric looked at the tiny thing(the shotgun, not Wilson). "Why would you buy that? Like, how much does it hurt to shoot?"

Wilson looked at the shotgun and then to Tran's .500 S&W. "Bad." He pointed at Tran's hand cannon. "But nowhere near as bad as that thing."

Logan smiled and remembered something important about the shotgun. "Someone guess what it's called." Before anyone could answer, he had already spouted out the answer. "The Serbu Super Shorty Shotgun." While Wilson was even more irritated, Logan wasn't wrong. The shotgun itself was indeed a Serbu Super Shorty Shotgun and was actually built off of the same model of shotgun that Logan got. It pretty much existed to be a short 12 gauge shotgun.

Eric eyed the third rifle case, shrugged, and then grabbed it. He quickly unlatched it and opened it up, revealing that the meter and a half long case contained a singular pistol and a half dozen loaded magazines. "I want to say that I'm mad but I'm not." He pulled the pistol out of the case and checked that it wasn't loaded. Happy with the unloaded pistol, he tucked it into his belt while grabbing the magazines.

Vinyl felt offended. "Aren't you gonna tell us what you got?"

Eric looked at the mare. "Competition grade Walther PPQ, 9mm pistol with a seventeen round capacity. Yes, it's mine. Plain and simple," he marely stated.

Vinyl removed her headphones when she realized one very notable fact about what he had said. "Did you say it holds seventeen rounds?"

Eric held up one of the magazines for her to see. He noticed that she still wasn't having it so he started to eject each round slowly for her to see. Indeed, seventeen rounds popped out of the magazine.

Vinyl was incredulous at the literal pile of bullets that came out of the magazine. "Can I have it?" Eric said nothing but the fact that he quickly tucked the pistol back into his belt answered her question.

Everyone in the room, even Blueblood of all ponies, impatiently looked at Tran. "What?" he asked.

"Open yours up!" Vinyl demanded.

Tran shrugged. "Maybe later." Logan grabbed the fourth case and started to unlatch it, only to find that it wasn't opening up for him. Tran really wanted to wait but decided that he was gonna take pity on them. He grabbed the case and opened it up for everyone to see. Inside was another pistol, a half dozen loaded magazines, and a smaller version of Logan's Salvo 12 suppressor. Before anyone could really take notice of any notable features of the pistol, Tran had already picked it up and tucked it into his belt.

Eric suddenly realized how offended Vinyl felt while she felt even more offended. "No! Don't you dare do that too!" Vinyl said, almost yelling.

"1911, 45 caliber pistol. Holds fifteen rounds," Tran answered. It was a Remington R1 enhanced double stack 1911 chambered in .45 ACP and it was set up for a suppressor. This meant that it had raised iron sights and was threaded for the suppresor that came with it. Now if only Tran had told everyone that instead of just thinking about what it was.

"Wait, I thought 1911s hold eight rounds?" Wilson asked.

"Usually," Tran answered.

Before anyone could ask more questions, a loud knock came from the door. Blueblood trotted over to answer the door but it swung open before he reached it. The open door revealed their new guest. The pony standing in the doorway was easily the tallest pony the humans had seen yet. She would have been able to walk through the front door(barely) if her horn hadn't added added a further foot to her height. Every human being noticed that this was the first pony they've met that had both wings and a horn.

Princess Celestia ducked her head down and walked into the building. "I'd like to speak to a Tran if he is present."

Author's Note

I only own one gun that recoils worse than my .500 S&W. What is it? A black powder double barrel 10 gauge shotgun that I cut down. Barrel is 13" long and total length is 20". Whole thing weighs less than 2 pounds. The last time I fired it with a heavy load, the thing recoiled far and fast enough to put cut my index finger with the trigger guard and my middle finger with the front trigger. Mind you, I only fired 1 barrel.

Edit: Huh, I got featured 20/04/2019

War Is Mostly a Catalogue of Blunders

A griffon calmly read a book as he laid in his hospital bed.

"Sir?"

The griffon didn't answer back and continued on reading his book.

"They're here."

The griffon closed his book and looked up. In front of him, he saw a pair of heavily built griffons. They wore the same style of brown trench coat and red scarf. Both had rifles slung over their back and were carrying a full-faced helmet under one arm. The griffon looked down at the remains of his left leg; The surgeons weren't able to reattach the leg. "You have your orders," he said with a calm but rage-filled voice.

Both griffons nodded and donned their helmets. The instant their helmets were fully on their head, they disappeared in thin air.

-X-X-X-

Spitfire looked at the filly sitting on the train bench in front of her. The little filly was clearly too young for the uniform she was wearing but here she was, wearing it like it wasn't a costume. During the entirety of the train ride, the little orange filly hadn't looked away from the floor nor did she move. "Scootaloo," Spitfire called out. The filly didn't move, acting like she didn't hear the call. Spitfire felt guilt well up in her heart. Children were not supposed to be soldiers. Hell, nopony is supposed to be a soldier. "I'll get you discharged as soon as we get there."

Spitfire got up from her own bench and trotted into the next car down. This car was significantly larger than the one she just came from and was filled a half dozen numerous metal cages, each one holding dozens of griffons. At each cage were a trio of ponies, all armed with shotguns. A few of the guards noticed their new guest and saluted. Spitfire saluted back. Spitfire looked at the prisoners of war(POW) who just calmly sat in their makeshift jails. "So, why are we taking them to Ponyville? I've never been with POWs long enough to know what happens to them," Spitfire asked.

One of the guards looked at the captain and replied with, "They have to be properly processed and documented before they're divided up and sent to a proper penal facility."

Spitfire nodded and decided to go back to the previous car. There was nothing of entertainment here. She trotted over to the exit and went through the door. Before she could enter the next car over, her ears picked up something. It sounded like... A long strip of cloth, fluttering in the wind. The sound a scarf would make when exposed to high velocity winds. She rubbed her ears with a hoof. Impossible. They were three quarters of the way to Ponyville, there'd be no reason for one to be here.

She opened up the door to the next car and sat down, deciding to look at the filly again. Scootaloo finally moved and looked up at the captain. "You heard it too, right?"

Spitfire froze. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Scootaloo narrowed her eyes. "The sound a scarf makes when it flies through the air."

-X-X-X-

Princess Celestia looked at the humans inside the house. Based on what had been described in field reports, all four of them were quite a strange group. From what she had seen so far, it was true. She knew this the instant she saw them.

One was angry. No, he wasn't emotionally angry at the current moment. He was, however, angry with life. He was angry with the hand that life had dealt him. Why did everything that had happened to him have to happen to him? Why did he have to work harder than everyone else? Why did he have to endure more suffering than some pansy who had a silver spoon up his ass?

Another was bored. While it was a bit arrogant of him to assume, he believed that he had experienced enough in the few years (comparatively) of life that he had lived so far. Anything that is thrown to him, he can accomplish. He was here for the ride. No need to plan anything, he can just make things up as he goes along.

The third was unsure of himself. Unlike the other three, everything he did was to be done carefully. He had to be ALWAYS prepared for anything and everything. If there's a surprise, something has gone wrong. If it's his ass on the line, no risks should be taken. While it was not the most excitable life to live, at least he would be alive.

The last one... He was dead inside. She could see it in his eyes. Why? She had no idea. Unphased by anything, he could be shot in the leg and he would try to walk it off. Hell, she wouldn't doubt if it he had done something like that before. What was motivating him to keep on moving? "That would be me," said Tran.

Princess Celestia smiled. "Yes, I've read reports of what you've done to defend our country and I would like to thank you for being a key part in repelling the griffons from Baltimare." She eyed the other three humans. "And I can't forget to thank your friends too. They must have also been instrumental in that battle."

Logan crossed his arms. "Fuck yeah, we were."

Princess Celestia stifled a giggle. "It is everypony's duty to fight for their country but to fight for somepony else's country? That is admirable to the highest degree."

Wilson frowned. "I'll be honest. I don't fucking care about your country and I just want to go home."

Princess Celestia's smile faltered slightly. She had also read about how these four had arrived. A summons by a supposedly dead chaos lord. It wasn't too much of a surprise. "Yes, that's also why I'm here. I'll also be honest. I have no idea how to get you four home and I am arguably one of the most powerful magical beings on this planet."

A vein on Wilson's head momentarily appeared but disappeared shortly afterwards. He understood as did the other three. She wasn't the one who brought him here so it wasn't her duty.

Princess Celestia was quite surprised that they handled the news in such a civilized manner. "I can only see this going about in two ways. I can send you to the western portion of my country, the furtherst from the war that you can go. The other option." She narrowed her eyes. "Is to join up and continue fighting."

The four humans looked at each other. They all knew how this was going to go. They would not have been brought here if the help was not absolutely needed and they were no doubt a major enemy of the griffons for what they had done in Baltimare. Tran was the first to look back at Celestia. "I think you already know what we're going to say."

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "That you'll join up but not without terms and conditions?"All four of them simultanously nodded. "Five times the pay of a starting infantry officer for each of you, and not falling under anypony's authority?" The four humans looked at each other before looking back at the Princess. "Ten times the pay it is."

The four humans shared one final look before nodding. "We'll also need someone to make ammo for our arms, general supplies, and access to otherwise restricted materials like explosives or drugs," said Tran.

Celestia thought about it for a second before lightly nodding. "Done." Celestia had noticed that there were actually other ponies in the room with them and noticed that they were bowing and possibly had been the whole time. "Oh, sorry. You all may rise."

Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, Blueblood, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all stood up from their extended show of respect.

Blueblood was frankly, pissed. That was not how you speak to royalty! He looked at his great (many times over) aunt and was amazed at how she was still smiling (it was a genuine smile too, not that politician's facade that she usually puts up). "They could not possibly be worth that much." The other four ponies in the room stared at Blueblood. He noticed their disapproval and crossed his arms. "That's easily a thousand bits per pony a month. They could buy a small house every month if they wanted to. Are they really worth it?"

Rainbow Dash looked at Tran. He had taken out not one but two Jaegers. He had killed a war chief and captured another. He had successfully aimed and hit a target from a kilometer away, taking out a general. He had forgiven her for shooting him. He rescued Scootaloo. She gave Blueblood an angry glare. "Yes. Yes they're worth it."

Applejack thought about both of the times she was rescued by them. She owed her hide to both Eric and Wilson. "Cause they're very good at what they do."

Vinyl smirked. "And they're mad crazy!" Octavia smacked her upside the head. Vinyl looked at her partner, seeing her glare and straightened herself up. "They provided much needed assistance to the ESS."

Octy (Celestia damn it) nodded in agreement. "They played a key role in foiling Ponyville's black market."

Princess Celestia looked at each of the four humans. "I'm glad you four have made such an impact so far."

Blueblood, however, was angry. "They stole my coin purse! For alcohol!"

Princess Celestia looked at Logan. "Please return it."

Logan recoiled. "Why did you assume it was me?" He pointed to Tran, who was now presenting the stolen coin purse.

Celestia looked at the stolen coin purse and the person who was holding it. "I apologize. Out of the four, you seemed like the one to do something like that."

Logan smirked. "Yeah," he agreed. He pointed back at Tran. "He beat me to it." Tran tossed the coin purse to Blueblood, happy to finally have his money back.

Celestia dropped her real smile for a politician's smile, a change that was noticed only by Blueblood and Tran. "There is one last thing to discuss." She slowly approached Tran, who instinctively moved his hand towards his sidearm. "I believe you almost shot my fellow princess."

She had read Twilight's personal account of the experience. Supposedly, this human had brandished his sidearm (an enormous hand cannon of a sidearm at that) towards her once-student. Twilight had explained that it was mostly due to the surprise of a teleportation. Nothing too surprising about that. What had really caught Celestia's attention was the fact that Twilight had attempted to teleport away said sidearm and failed. She doubted that Twilight had failed the simple spell which meant a much more interesting conclusion, were they immune to regular magic? If so, it meant one of two things. Either they were magical golems made of a magic absorbing rock or were chaos beings. Both were just as likely.

Celestia adopted a mischievous smile. "Tell me, do you bleed?"

Tran most certainly had his hand on his sidearm, something everyone noticed. His human friends most certainly noticed and had their hands on their sidearms (except Logan who eyed Wilson's KRISS). The ponies in the room responded by doing the same, they had their hooves ready to grab their sidearms (minus Blueblood who wrapped the handle of his sword with his magic). Tran, narrowing his eyes, asked back, "Let's say I do, what then?"

Celestia's horn lit up and grabbed one of the bottles of whiskey that they had 'liberated', slowly bringing it over. As the bottle floated over, she knew what they weren't; They weren't golems. Otherwise, her magic would have been instantly sucked away. "Then, you can get drunk."

Tran, who's left hand was holding the handle of his sidearm, grabbed the bottle out of the air with his right handle. "I suppose that was some kind of test?"

Celestia, who had been staring directly into Tran's eyes this whole time without blinking, smirked. "You could say that."

Tran, who had been keeping up with the staring contest, took his hand off of the sidearm. Everyone did the same, thankful that the situation was de-escalated. "What for?" Tran asked.

Celestia thought about the possibilities. She doubted that they were true chaos beings, a creature born out of the desire for the world to change. They were probably supercharged with chaos magic. Considering they were supposedly brought in from another universe by Discord, who had been a very powerful chaos being, this idea was much more believable. "Just testing your sense of humor," Celestia replied.

Wilson snorted. "Fucked up humor."

While everyone was calming down, It was the exact moment that somepony had teleported in. To everypony's surprise, the same purple princess pony previously from the last teleportation incident was once again the culprit.

Once again, Twilight found a S&W Model 500 pointed at her face. Applejack immediately drew her Colt Single Action Army and aimed it at Tran, hammer cocked back. Wilson responded by drawing his Glock and aimed it at Applejack. Rainbow Dash drew her Model 92 and aimed it Wilson. Eric responded by drawing his S&W Model 8 and aimed it at Rainbow Dash. Octavia responded by drawing a Model 92 and aimed it at Eric. Logan responded by picking up Wilson's KRISS and aimed it at Octavia. Blueblood teleported his sword out of his sheath and at the throat of Logan. Tran drew his Colt Walker with his right hand and aimed it at Blueblood, hammer cocked back. Eric, taking a cue from Tran, drew his Walther PPW and aimed it at Vinyl. Vinyl simply threw her hooves into the air, deciding that had been the best course of action. Wilson, who got the same idea as Eric and Tran, aimed his Serbu Shorty with his free hand at Princess Celestia.

Twilight, like Vinyl, threw her hooves and her wings into the air. Tran let out a frustrated breath. "Again, really?" he asked.

Celestia, not caring at the tiny shotgun pointed at her face, looked at Tran. "I can see why you brandished a firearm at her," she deadpanned. She looked at all of the firearms still up in the air, primed and ready to drop whoever it was aimed at. "This is quite the stand off we're in."

"Yep," Tran deadpanned back. He slowly and carefully holstered his revolvers, soon being followed by everyone else in the room. Tran looked at their new guest, who still had her hooves and wings in the air. "Seriously, again, really?"

Twilight slowly nodded and brought her hooves and wings down. "Sorry," she softly (Fluttershy would have been proud) said.

Tran lightly glared at the purple pastel pony princess. "Please stop doing that." Twilight nodded in agreement. This was the moment that he, as did his other cohorts, noticed something about the princess. "You have wings?"

This was also the moment that an explosion rattled all of Ponyville.

Five Minutes Ago

Spitfire felt their train slowing down. She looked out the window of their train car and was filled with the view of Ponyville's military-only train station. "We're here," she stated. She looked back at the squirt. "Grab your stuff." Scootaloo just stayed frozen in place, still staring at the floor. She scowled and stepped closer to the filly. "Listen, I know you-" She froze. Her ears twitched. She grabbed the squirt and shoved her to the ground, covering the filly's body with her own. A split second later, something from the front of the train exploded. Not long after that, the sound of gunfire filled the air.

-X-X-X-

All four humans immediately grabbed whatever gear and weapons they had. Applejack, having supplied her own weapons to use in the war, grabbed her two double barrel shotguns. Everypony else, minus Princess Celestia, drew revolvers. Hell, even Blueblood had drawn a revolver.

Rainbow Dash looked at Blueblood's sidearm, a Model 73. "You've had a gun this whole time?" she asked.

Wilson was more interested in something much bigger. "Are we just gonna ignore that?" he asked, pointing at Princess Celestia. The princess in question was also armed, but not with a handgun. Held in her hooves was a full on machine gun. Not a light machine gun either, it was a full-sized machine that looked like it was intended for a static emplacement. Where she got this from, the world may never know.

The princess of the sun smirked. "What? Is something wrong with my hair?" While her permanently flowing hair was an interesting sight, she knew he was talking about her Model 14 HotKiss machine gun. The machine gun in question was an air-cooled 25 kilogram machine gun that was meant to be fired from an emplaced tripod (not that she cared). At 450 rounds per minute, it fired the older but more powerful 8x50mm Equestrian Ordnance round instead of the more modern but weaker 6.5x50mm Stomper. To make things even weirder, it was not fed from a flexible ammunition belt nor was it fed from a magazine. Instead, it was fed from a long metallic strip that held 40 rounds that literally stuck out of the right side of the gun. Speaking of which, she wore a saddlebag that was literally filled with more ammunition strips.

Tran looked at the machine gun. "Who cares, it'll be useful." He shoved past everyone and went out the front door. Immediately upon stepping out of the house, he noticed all of the griffons flying through the air. Unfortunately for him, they noticed him. "Out of the frying pan." He raised his rifle and snapped off a shot, hitting one lone griffon and knocking him out of the air. Naturally, they returned fire.

Luckily for the human, Princess Celestia had stepped outside and had thrown up a shield. The shield effortlessly bounced all of the incoming bullets, giving enough time for everyone else to step outside. Everyone raised their weapons. "And into the fire."

Author's Note

Well, things have been busy but I'm ready to get things moving again. Oh yeah, here's a picture of that 10 gauge sawed off I once mentioned.

Oh, and here's a comparison of it next to my 7 gauge elephant gun.

In the Midst of Chaos, There Is Opportunity

Scootaloo ears rang. Scootaloo's eyes shot open. The first thing that she noticed was that Spitfire's body was smothering her's. The next thing she noticed was that her ears hurt and fortunately, they were the only things that were hurting.

She gently shoved Spitfire off of herself and looked around. The cabin that they had been sitting in had been absolutely shredded by the explosion, as did a number of the other cars from this train. Standing back up, she scrambled to where she had been sitting and grabbed a duffel bag. From the duffel bag, she pulled out a revolver. It was her Model 92, the exact one that she found in Baltimore. Was she supposed to have it? Absolutely not. Did she care that she wasn't supposed to have it? Absolutely not. If it hadn't been for her obvious theft of Royal Equestrian Army property, she wouldn't have been able to defend herself from the shotgun armed griffon that had just busted into the train car she was in.

Scootaloo squeaked. The griffon squawked. Both of them raced to shoot first.

*BANG*

When Scootaloo saw that her first shot hadn't dropped the griffon, she kept on firing. Five more shots later and the griffon was down. She knew that her revolver was empty and that she had no other ammo for it so she scrambled forward and picked up the shotgun that the griffon had dropped. She didn't get too much time to do anything with the shotgun because the next thing she knew, it was ripped out of her hooves.

Spitfire looked at the small pegasus. "Better leave that with me." Spitfire held out the revolver that Scootaloo had dropped as well as two speedloaders. Scootaloo nodded and took the revolver. Spitfire looked at the pump shotgun in her hooves. "This was one of the ones those guards were using in the other car." She searched the griffon and found a hoofful of shotgun shells.

Scootaloo reloaded her revolver and stuffed the extra speedloader in her uniform. "What do we do now?"

Spitfire lept out of the train car's window and was immediately tackled down by a griffon. Spitfire growled and immediately kicked the griffon in the groin. This griffon also squawked and was now easily shoved away. The following shotgun blast ended him for good.

Spitfire got back up to her hooves and looked back at the train car. "Let's go." Scootaloo nodded and jumped out too.

Spitfire looked up and around, finding that many more griffons were flying around in the air. Her eyes widened and she dove under what remained of the train to hide from the sky, pulling the squirt along with her. Spitfire looked at the squirt and started checking her over. "Are you hurt?"

Scootaloo pushed Spitfire's hooves away. "No." She looked at the griffon that Spitfire had just dropped. "What are we gonna do now?"

Spitfire pulled out a shotgun shell and loaded it into her shotgun. "We have to get to Sweet Apple Acres, it's Ponyville's rally point in case of emergencies."

-X-X-X-

Princess Celestia's machine gun roared with the anger of the sun, slinging 8mm bullets at a squad of griffons hidden behind a house. While they were pinned down, Tran, Eric, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash moved up towards the house. When Celestia's machine gun finally clicked empty, the griffons ducked out of cover and started firing at her position in an attempt to take her out. Too bad for them, a protective bubble caught ever single bullet that they fired.

A few seconds later, Princess Celestia reloaded her machine gun and continued her stream of bullets at the griffons. The griffons, deciding that death was a bad thing, ducked back behind cover. One of the griffons looked at each other. "Screw this, we can't deal with her!"

Before they could run off, Tran and company flanked around the house and had their firearms trained on them. One griffon tried to bring his rifle on any of them but was immediately dropped by Applejack's Colt Army. When a griffon merely twitched, Rainbow Dash fired a warning shot into the ground from her Model 92.

Tran (brandishing his 1911) and Eric (brandishing his AK) looked over the nine remaining griffons. "Where did all of you come from?" Eric asked. They stayed silent.

Applejack then realized that she recognized a few of them. "Wait a gosh darn minute, ah've seen some of them before!"

Eric looked at the cowpony. "Where?"

Applejack looked at the griffons once more to make sure. "They were part of the griffons that surrendered back in Baltimare!" She trotted up to one of them and examined their uniforms. "Yeah, they're all from the same unit."

Rainbow Dash looked at the nine griffons. "So what do we do with them? We still have other important things at hoof."

Eric gave Tran a look, who nodded. Looking back at the griffons, Eric started executing them. Some tried to get away but failed, Eric couldn't miss at this range.

Rainbow Dash, horrified at what she had just witnessed, flew up to Tran and shoved him. "What was that for?!" she demanded. Tran, barely moved by the blue pegasus, holstered his 1911 and picked up one of the rifles that the griffons had dropped. He began checking if over as Rainbow Dash continued shoving him. "Hey, don't ignore me! Say something!"

Tran turned to face the pegasus and shoved the rifle into her hooves. "Faked a surrender, forfeit your lives. If you have a problem with it, shoot me." Rainbow Dash looked at the rifle and spat at his boots before turning away from him. Tran, ignoring the pegasus, picked up another rifle and tossed it to Applejack.

Applejack caught the rifle and cycled the bolt, noticing that it was an REA rifle and not a griffon one. "There was about six hundred of them." Tran looked at the cowpony, raising an eyebrow. "Six hundred. That's about how many of them had surrendered, all at the same time."

Eric gritted his teeth. "They planned this." Tran nodded.

Wilson and Logan, weapons ready, flanked around the house to join them. Seeing that everything had been dealt with, they lowered their weapons. Soon enough, everyone else (Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Prince Blueblood, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Celestia) joined them.

Tran picked up another of the rifles that the griffons were using and handed it to Octavia. Everypony else realized what he was doing and grabbed their own weapons, along with some ammunition. "Gentlemen." Everypony raised an eyebrow at this statement. "It appears that the enemy is conducting a false surrender operation. They're most likely here to destroy or capture something. I just don't know what." Tran turned to address Princess Twilight Sparkle. "Do you have any idea of what might be important enough that they would consider conducting an operation of this scale?"

PRINCESS Twilight Sparkle looked at the human that had seriously asked her that question before realizing that he was in fact serious. She looked at PRINCESS Celestia and PRINCE Blueblood, who both realized the meaning of what he had just asked. Twilight looked back at Tran, not saying anything. At that point, Tran finally realized what she was trying to get at.

"Oh," Tran said. "Well, in any case, we need to find somewhere safe. If they're after you, they will bring hell upon us to capture or kill any of you three."

Applejack's head shot up. "Sweet Apple Acres."

Tran looked back at the cowpony. "What was that?"

Applejack repeated what she had just said. "Sweet Apple Acres. It's Ponyville's gatherin spot for emergencies. It's about eight kilometers west of here on the outskirts of town."

Tran unslung his rifle. "Sweet Apple Acres, here we come."

High Up In The Clouds

Two Jaegers appeared out of thin air as the two of them pulled their helmets off of their heads. They settled themselves on a cloud, ready to strike at any moment. "Everything is coming along."

The other Jaeger looked down from the clouds. "Explosives ready?"

The first Jaeger pulled out a massive bundle of dynamite. "Yep."

The other Jaeger stuck his helmet back one, disappearing from thing air. "What does the target area look like?"

The first Jaeger snorted. "From the name. An apple farm." He too donned his helmet and disappeared from thin air. "Ponies are awful at naming."

The other Jaeger chuckled. "Yeah, what was I thinking. What could a place like 'Sweet Apple Acres' be other than an Apple farm?"

Somewhere In Sweet Apple Acres

Granny Smith gently rocked in her chair on the porch of her beloved family home. Distant gunshots could be heard but for the elderly near-deaf mare, they might as well have been silent.

Out of nowhere, a heavily armed and armored Jaeger appeared from thin air in front of the mare. Granny Smith squinted her eyes at the griffon. "Oh, hello dearie. Are you a friend of Apple Bloom's?"

Author's Note

Enjoy this latest chapter that was most certainly written because I was bored.

Fear the Old Man in a Profession Where Most Die Young

The Jaeger looked at the possibly senile mare and walked past her, going to the front door. Granny Smith, while her eyesight wasn't the best, still noticed this and frowned. "Excuse me? You can just go inta a pony's home like that!" The Jaeger continued to ignore her and went into the house. "Rude!"

The Jaeger found himself inside of a kitchen/dining room. He looked at the dining table and set his helmet down onto it. He removed a sack off of himself and set it down beside his helmet on the table. He looked around the small house, trying to get a good bearing on things.

That was when the Jaeger heard the same elderly mare yell, "Mac, we've got undesirables!" Frowning, he turned around and made his way back towards Granny Smith.

He then stopped in his tracks upon seeing the elderly mare. The senior citizen in question was now armed with what appeared to be the most worn lever action rifle on the planet. He immediately brought up his arms to cover up his face, just as the mare fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired.

By the time she had finished firing (which took about two seconds mind you), the Jaeger felt like his chest had been used as a punching bag. While his armor had managed to stop every shot, it did cause a mite bit of pain. Once the sulfury grey smoke disappeared, he lowered his arms and looked at the grey mare. Much to his surprise, the old mare was trying to reload! His jaw dropped in amazement. The balls on her! He ripped the lever-action rifle out of the mare's hooves and held it away from her. "My Yellowcolt!" Granny Smith yelped. He snorted before pushing the mare down. "My hip!"

He watched as the mare try to stand back up but fail to do so. Smirking, he looked at the rifle in his hands. The thing looked like it had gone to hell and back, being the most worn firearm he had ever seen. Bringing it to his shoulder, he aimed it at the elderly mare. Before he could fire, he was sent flying forward as something akin to a train hit him in the back. When he came to, he found yet another pony armed with yet another lever-action rifle. The only difference was that this pony wasn't an elderly, frail, small mare. This pony was clearly a stallion and a huge red one at that. He was clearly, as some folk would describe it as, built like a brick shithouse. Just like the pony wielding it, the lever-action rifle was also equally larger than the one that he had just previously faced.

The stallion simply said one word. "Eenope." Once again, the Jaeger covered his face with his arms, just as the rifle fired. In addition to being bombarded with a giant cloud of sulfury grey smoke and the sound of a cannon, the Jaeger felt one of the most painful feelings he had ever felt in his chest. The feeling which was akin to being stomped on by a fully-grown dragon. He got knocked back a meter and found himself outside of the house, barely.

Then, the stallion fired again. This time, the bullet struct the Jaeger in one of his arms. The following pain that blossomed told him that his arm was shattered, as was one of his legs because the stallion had fired again! Another two shots fired and the Jaeger found himself thrown off of the porch of the Apple family's beloved home.

Big Mac slowly trotted up to the still conscious, clearly in pain Jaeger and slammed the buttstock of his rifle into the Jaeger's face, knocking the griffon unconscious. "Eeyup." The big stallion walked back into the house and helped his grandmother up.

Granny Smith smiled at her grandson. "Thank you, Mac." Big Mac nodded and handed her the lever-action that the griffon had taken from her. Granny slowly walked out of the house and onto the porch where she could see the Jaeger. "Mac, get mah lasso."

Just as Big Mac walking back into the house, a small filly sprinted out of the door. On her hips, she wore a crossdraw gunbelt with dual revolvers and carried a miniscule lever-action slung on her back. "What's going on! Ah heard shootin!" the filly asked.

Granny looked at her hyperactive granddaughter. "Sorry Apple Bloom. Yah missed the excitement already."

Apple Bloom frowned, dipping her head low. "Consarnit it!"

Granny Smith frowned at her granddaughter. "Language!" Granny Smith looked into the sky in the distance and noticed a bunch of flying creatures. She knew they weren't pegasi. She looked back down at Apple Bloom. "Bloom dearie, ah'm gonna need yah to grab my bag."

-X-X-X-

Applejack collapsed to the ground, clutching her back right leg. "Celestia damn it!" Everyone (Princess Celestia especially) looked at their fallen comrade. "Mah leg is actin up like a buckin mule!"

Wilson walked up to the cowpony and lifted up her pant's sleeve. It revealed a bloodied bundle of bandages covering up a small section of her leg. "Maybe you shouldn't be walking around on a leg that took a bullet yesterday!" Wilson said, examining her leg. "You need time to recover." He removed the old bandages and applied a fresh set, making sure the mule felt every little movement.

Once he was done, Applejack pulled away her leg. "Ah've had worse!"

Wilson looked at the clearly fallen cowpony and then back to the rest of the group. "Someone carry this stubborn jackass."

Tran stepped up and tossed Wilson his sniper rifle. Wilson caught the rifle and then grabbed Applejack's rifle. Hands-free, Tran walked up to the cowpony and hoisted her up onto his shoulders via fireman's carry.

Wilson looked at Tran. "Are you good with the extra weight?" he asked, eyeing Applejack's large body. Tran shifted his shoulder's around slightly and nodded shortly afterward. Wilson then looked at Applejack. "Are you good sitting on him?"

Applejack nodded. "Can't complain too much. Ah'm surprised mah weight ain't bothering yah too much." Tran shrugged slightly. "Ah weigh like a hundred ninety something kilos." Tran froze slightly before shrugging. "Well, at least we ain't too far from mah farm."

-X-X-X-

Spitfire and Scootaloo jumped through the broken window of a house as bullets flew by their bodies. "Horseapples," Spitfire said. Heart thumping, she blindly stuck her shotgun out of the destroyed window and fired. Obviously, she hit nothing but the thought counted.

"Captain," Scootaloo called out.

Spitfire focused on her shotgun, pumping it and firing it again. "What?" Spitfire asked. She turned her attention to the filly and then found that the filly was now holding a bolt action rifle and a pair of grenades.

Scootaloo pointed to something deeper inside of the house. Spitfire looked to where she was pointing at and found the dead body of an REA mare. "Dear Celestia." She looked back at the filly and grabbed one of the grenades. "On three!" Scootaloo nodded in agreement. "One." Both of them readied their grenades in hoof. "Two." Both of them pulled the pins. "Three!" Both of them threw their grenades and ran to the opposite end of the house.

"Grenade!" screamed someone outside of the house.

Once the grenades exploded, Spitfire smashed a window and looked outside. "All clear, go!" She grabbed Scootaloo and tossed her out of the window, just as a griffon entered the house via the same window the two of them had used earlier. The griffon raised a bolt action rifle just as Spitfire jumped out of the house.

*BANG*

Spitfire felt pain blossom in one of her wings. Grinding her teeth, she stood back up in the window's opening and brought her shotgun up as the griffon worked the bolt on the rifle he was using.

*CLICK*

Spitfire's heart froze. The griffon smiled.

*BANG*

The griffon face went blank. He looked down to where he had been shot, finding a hole in his chest where Scootaloo had shot him. Looking back up, he found the filly holding a smoking rifle. He collapsed an instant later, face forever in confusion.

Spitfire looked at the filly. The little tyke's face was frozen in horror. "Don't think about it, we still gotta get to Sweet Apple Acres!" Scootaloo took a few seconds to respond but eventually nodded in response. Spitfire reloaded her shotgun and ran forward, dragging the filly in tow.

-X-X-X-

From an open window, Granny Smith's rifle barked. A second later, a full-speed flying griffon was hit with a bullet. Granny worked the lever of the rifle as she screamed, "Get off mah farm!"

From a separate window, Big Mac worked the lever of his rifle and fired at a tree. Behind the tree, a griffon fell down from the bullet that most certainly did not care about normal cover. Looking up at the sky, he noticed a flock of incoming wings.

Granny, with her ever failing eyesight, aimed her rifle up at them. Big Mac noticed this. "Granny, no." Granny lowered her rifle.

Seconds later, dozens of pegasi landed. One of the pegasi, clearly the leader, stepped up. "Royal Equestrian Air Force, we're here to secure the area!"

Granny Smith smiled at the pegasi. "Finally, some help. Come on in!" she said while opening the door to the house. "We've got one of them tied up in the closet. Big Mac, can yah show them?"

Big Mac nodded and led a few pegasi into the house while the rest of the pegasi spread about the general area of the farm, preparing defenses or pulling guard. Once inside the house, confusion filled his face when all they found in the closet was a bunch of rope. Also missing was the Jaeger's helmet and the rest of the items found on him.

Mac didn't have much time to investigate as he heard his name being called. "Mac!" he heard Granny Smith call out.

Mac, sans pegasi, walked back to the house's entrance where Granny was. He found his grandmother standing outside, on the porch, looking at a large incoming ground-bound group. Strangely enough, the group was made up of two of Equestria's princesses, one of Equestria's princes, four bipedal creatures reminiscent of minotaurs, a pair of random ponies, his sister's best friend, and his sister, of which was being carried by one of the minotaur like creatures. The creature carrying his sister set said pony down who proceeded to limp towards the Apple family home. "Mac, where's mah Winnychester?"

Mac looked up. Applejack looked up. Looking up, she found herself looking at the window of the Apple family home's second story. A couple of seconds later, the window opened and her sister appeared in the window. "Hi Applejack," she greeted while waving at her sister. She ducked out of view and then reappeared, this time holding a normal-sized lever-action rifle. Apple Bloom tossed the rifle out of the window towards her sister. Applejack effortlessly caught it, working the lever and chambering a round into it.

Big Mac eyed the Applejack's bad leg. "I'll stay and defend the house," Applejack said, noticing her brother's stares. Big Mac gave her a deadpanned look, knowing that was most likely untrue. "You stop giving me that look!" Big smirked, of which Applejack noticed. She frowned and just limped into the house.

The rest of the group walked up to the house. Of the group, the two princesses and prince walked into the house. Princess Celestia, before going into the house, gave her Model 14 machine gun (and ammo) to Vinyl and Octavia who immediately took it off to emplace it. Rainbow Dash, her main job being a dogfighter, took to the skies and joined the rest of the other pegasi in guarding the area.

When the four humans got up to the house, Big Mac and Granny stared. The four of them stared back. "Sup," greeted Logan.

Big Mac glanced at their guns, which they all noticed. "We're on your side," said Eric. He looked at the house. "Got any shovels?"

Big Mac nodded. "Eeyup." He pointed over to a shed in a distance.

Wilson and Eric headed over the shed while Tran and Logan stayed over at the house. Logan turned to look at Tran. "What do we need shovels for?"

"IFPs," Tran answered.

Both Big Mac and Logan stared at the man. "What?" Logan asked.

"Infantry Fighting positions, small holes you lay in and shoot from," Tran explained. Tran eyed the second story window and then back to Big Mac. "May I take up a spot up there?"

Granny, nodded. "That's polite of yah tah ask. Go right on ahead!" she said.

Tran walked onto the porch and then stopped to look at Logan. "Once they get back with the shovels. Scope out the area." Logan nodded and walked away from the house.

Tran, inside the house, was stopped by Applejack. "Whatcha doin in here?" she asked.

"Going to the second story," Tran answered.

"Oh, let me show yah the way." Immediately upon getting onto the second floor, both of them heard the sound of a lever-action being cocked. Both of them turned to see where it came from and found themselves looking at a small yellow earth pony filly with a red mane and tail armed with a small lever-action rifle.

"Applejack, watch out!" the filly yelled. The little filly pointed the rifle at Tran, who immediately grabbed the end of the barrel and pointed it away from him. The filly in question tried to pull the rifle back but didn't even succeed from moving it.

Applejack frowned at her little sister. "Apple Bloom, if he ain't on ahr side, why would ah ave been leadin him upstairs?"

Apple Bloom stopped trying to wrench her lever-action rifle back. "Oh," she said, sheepishly. Tran gently let go of the rifle and the filly pointed it up at the ceiling.

"Apologies," demanded Applejack. She turned around and started walking away. "Apple Bloom, stay outta trouble. Ah'm gonna take Granny to the cellar."

The filly flattened her ears against her head. "I'm sorry," she said. Tran shrugged. Apple Bloom eyed the various firearms that Tran was armed with. She took special notice to one rather large particular firearm. "Is that a Colt's Walker?!" Tran looked down at the firearm in question and nodded. "Can ah see it?!"

Applejack stepped in front of the filly. "We ain't got no time fer that, Bloom." She looked back to Tran. "Let me show yah a good spot for dat rifle of yers." The spot that Applejack had shown him was a small bedroom that had windows that overlooked most of the farm. Inside the room, he prepared a platform that he allowed him to stay a couple meters away from the windows but still allowed him to see through them. After the platform was set up, he set up a table with his dope cards and ammo ready to be used.

As Tran continued to improve his shooting platform, the same filly from earlier entered the room. Apple Bloom eyed the large rifle that he was armed with. "Whoa nelly, that's a dandy rifle yah got there," said the youngest Apple sibling. She noticed the ammo that he had laid out. "Yah know, I think you'd like my brother's Winnychester." She waited for a response but didn't get one. "Ah think you'd also get along with mah brother. Yah talk as much as him."

Tran finally looked at the filly in question. Before he could say anything, a distant explosion rocked the farm. Tran immediately grabbed his rifle and used the rifle's scope to look in the direction of the explosion. Not long afterward, gunshots started coming from that direction. Still overlooking that area, Tran watched as a large percentage of the pegasi (Rainbow Dash included) take off towards that direction.

Moving closer to a window, he looked down at the surrounding area of the house. His three comrades had taken cover behind various random items. Moving away from the window, he got down in a good prone shooting position. Seconds passed and the sound of gunfire grew, this time mixed with the sound of Equestrian rifle fire. The pegasi that responded must have found something.

Apple Bloom, who was getting a bit antsy at the anticipation of what could come, looked to Tran for answers, who was calmly watching the distance through his rifle's scope. "What's going on?" Apple Bloom asked. Tran didn't answer. He kept silent as the intensity of the distance gunfire grew.

Then, another distant explosion rocked the area, this one coming from the opposite direction. Once again, a significant portion of pegasi left to respond to the explosion. Tran looked to Apple Bloom. "Can you go outside and grab one of my friends?" he asked. Apple Bloom nodded and ran outside of the room. Not long afterward, Apple Bloom came back upstairs. Seconds later, Logan walked upstairs. He had his rifle slung over his shoulders and hands in his pockets. His face displayed bad news. "What's left?" Tran asked.

Logan leaned against a wall. "A handful," he answered with a grim face. "There's only three of them flying in the sky, circling the house. Other than that, six that are guarding the rear of the house." Logan paused for a moment. "Oh, and there's us four, those two secret service agents, and the farmers including our 'bodyguard'. Everyone else, including a few other civilians that you haven't seen, are in this house's cellar."

Tran stayed silent for a few seconds before finally responding. "Tell the others to prep defenses. IFPs, then foxholes. Civvies should be coming and those griffons might follow them here."

Logan looked out of an open window and stopped leaning against the wall. "Hold up," Logan dipped his head out of the window. A few seconds later, he brought his head back into the house. "The skies are empty."

Apple Bloom nervously brought her lever-action up and worked the lever, ejecting a live round. "Do yah think they just flew off?" she asked.

Logan shrugged. "Probably." Logan then froze. He brought a finger up to his mouth. "Shhh," he shushed. He poked his head out of the window. A few seconds later, he brought his head back into the house. "I still hear the sound of wings flapping."

At that instant, Logan was pulled through the window by an invisible force. He found the upper half of his body dangling outside. "Fuck!" Having reacted quickly, he had kept himself from being completely ripped out of the house by holding onto the window's sill.

Tran ran towards the window and grabbed his friend, starting to pull him back in. He saw nothing but felt something tug back. It was no use, Tran had won the tug of war and pulled his friend back into the room.

Logan, free from his attacker, drew his FNX 45 and fired three rounds at the open window. Surprisingly, all three rounds had hit something as the sounds of bullet impacts filled the air. Tran drew his 1911 and ran towards the window. Aiming the pistol, he saw three flattened bullets floating in the air and heard the sound of wings flapping coming from that same spot. He aimed the pistol where the bullets were floating in the air and fired his pistol. The bullet impacted the same invisible figure resulting in four bullets now floating in the air.

That was when the invisible figure shot back. The bullet struck Tran in the chest, shattering the ceramic plate in his body armor but doing nothing else otherwise. Tran moved out of the window's view and holstered his 1911. He then drew his Colt Walker and cocked the hammer.

The sounds of flapping were still coming from the same source in the same spot outside so Tran blindly aimed his revolver out of the window and fired. Whoever he was aiming at, he managed to land the shot. Outside the window, an invisible griffon was outlined from the blue fire that engulfed his form.

Logan holstered his handgun and got his rifle ready. By now, the griffon had obviously started trying to fly away but it was obviously very easy to track where he was. All you had to do was look for the giant blue floating fireball. He drew a bead on the blue fireball with his Mosin and fired.

Logan missed and then Tran decided to take aim with his Savage 112. By now, the blue fire had died down. It was still pretty easy to guess where the griffon was. After all, the lightly charred black form of a griffon was easy to track through the sky.

Tran fired and the two of them watched the bullet clip one of the griffon's limbs. Both of them heard a loud squawk and then watched as the black figure fly straight into the clouds, easily disappearing from plain sight.

Logan and Tran searched through the skies. "Do you see where he went?" Logan asked. Tran shook his head.

Both of them then heard one of their friends call out. "Hey." Both of them looked down to see Wilson, KRISS ready. "What the fuck was that?" Wilson asked.

"Invisible asshole," Logan replied.

Wilson's eyes darted around. "They're fucking invisible now?!" he yelled out. Eric, who was taking cover behind a water trough, stood up and also started looking around.

Something fell out of the sky and in front of the house. Whatever it was, it was round, dark green with light green spots and the size of a volleyball. Wilson and Eric sprinted away from the object and dove for cover behind the house. Tran and Logan immediately dove deeper into the house.

Seconds later, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia burst into the room that they were in. "What's going on?" Octavia asked.

Logan looked at the pony. "Take cover! They dropped a bomb!" Logan warned.

Octavia raised an eyebrow and ran over to the window, looking outside at the object. "That doesn't look like a bomb." She squinted her eyes at it.

Tran stood up and walked over to the window. Using his rifle's scope, he looked at the object. "It's a... Giant egg?"

Author's Note

Granny Smith's rifle is a Winchester 1866 "Yellow Boy" rifle chambered in .44 rimfire with a 24" octagon barrel and a 17+1 magazine capacity. Anyone who doesn't know, the Winchester 1866 was the first lever action rifle produced by Winchester and was only chambered in .44 rimfire. .44 rimfire was one of the best early metallic cartridges in use but unfortunately, it was a bit underpowered compared to later cartridges. .44 rimfire is a 200 grain .44 bullet backed up with 26 grains of black powder and out of a rifle, flew at around 1125 feet per second. From the muzzle, it created around 570 foot pounds of muzzle energy"Yellow Boy" was a nickname of the rifle due to the color of the rifle's receiver, yellow because it was made of an alloy of bronze/brass called gunmetal

Big Mac's rifle is a Winchester 1886 rifle chambered in .50-100 with a 24" octagon barrel and a 8+1 magazine capacity. Anyone who doesn't know, the Winchester 1886 was one of the later lever action rifles produced by Winchester and was the first of the lever action rifles designed by John Moses Browning, the greatest gun designer who ever lived. While the Model 66 was chambered in a pistol cartridge, the model 86 was chambered in a full powered rifle cartridge. While most Model 86s were chambered in .45-70, they also came in a number of other cartridges. The cartridge that Big Mac's rifle is chambered in is the .50-100 Express. The .50-100 throws a massive 450 grain .50 caliber bullet with 100 grains of black powder at around 1400 feet per second, creating about 1900 foot pounds of muzzle energy

Applejack's rifle is a Winchester 1892 carbine chambered in .44-40 with a 20" octagon barrel and a 12+1 magazine capacity. Anyone who doesn't know, the Winchester 1892 was one of the much, much later rifles produced by Winchester and was the second of the lever action rifles designed by John Moses Browning. The 92 Winchester is literally a scaled down version of his previous Model 86. The Model 92 was also chambered in a pistol cartridge like the Model 66 except the Model 92 was a significantly stronger and more modern design. The Model 92 was also chambered in .44-40, a cartridge that was significantly better than .44 rimfire. As opposed to being a rimfire cartridge, .44-40 was a centerfire cartridge. Featuring a 200 grain .44 caliber bullet, it was backed up with 40 grains of black powder and flew around 1325 feet per second from a rifle. It created around 780 foot pounds of energy when coming from a rifle.

Apple Bloom's rifle is also a Winchester 1892 carbine except her's is a trapper model carbine chambered in .32-20 with a short 15" barrel and a 8+1 magazine capacity. The .32-20 fires a 100 grain .32 caliber bullet at around 1200 feet per second from a rifle or 900 feet per second from a handgun. In the end, it creates about 320 foot pounds of muzzle energy from a rifle or about 180 from a handgun. Weak but with enough rounds, it'll do the job. It is a very small, handy little carbine.

Other than that. Blah, blah, blah. I've been busy. The usual stuff.

The Only Way to Swiftly End a War Is to Lose It

Vinyl grabbed Tran's rifle and tried to pry it out of his hands with all of the force that she could muster. It didn't budge, not even by a millimeter. She looked at him with pleading eyes. Tran lowered the rifle and held it out for her.

She took it and aimed it at the object in question. "Shit!" she said, upon realizing what it was. She instinctively tried to pull the trigger on the rifle. Too bad for her, the rifle was designed for humans with hands and not ponies with hooves so absolutely nothing happened. She handed the rifle back to Tran. "Shoot it!" she said. Vinyl looked at her partner, Octavia. "Get to the machine gun!" Octavia nodded and ran out of the room.

Tran took aim at the egg again. The egg was no longer there. In its place was a bunch of eggshells arranged in a circle with a large winged lizard standing in its place. The lizard was dark green with a light green underbelly and appeared to be about half a meter in height. It looked at its surroundings with angry looking reptilian eyes, taking note of who was surrounding it. "Is that... A dragon?" Tran asked.

Outside of the House

Eric and Wilson raised their weapons at the dragon and moved slowly closer to it. "What the hell?" Wilson said. Only taking a few more steps towards the dragon, it had spat a large fireball at them. The two men dove out of the fireball's way, barely dodging the attack.

Getting back up, Eric and Wilson raised their weapons. Much to their surprise, instead of a half meter tall dragon, it was now a meter and half tall. "What the fuck?" Wilson commented. In the time that it had taken him to say that, it had grown a few centimeters.

"Hey!" screamed somepony from their rear. Both of them turned around to find themselves looking at Vinyl Scratch, who was standing in the house's second story window. "Kill it before it grows more!" Both of them turned around and aimed their weapons, only to be amazed by how the dragon was now Wilson's height.

The dragon started growling and bearing its teeth upon hearing Vinyl's command. From the gaps in its teeth, both Wilson and Eric could see the beginnings of even more incoming fire (literally). The two of them fired their weapons at the dragon, only to be shocked when their bullets simply splattered against the dragon's hide.

The dragon opened its mouth again, this time creating a massive gout of flame from its mouth. Once again, Eric and Wilson jumped out of the way again. However, the dragon kept the stream of fire up and began to rake the area with flames. Luckily for Eric, the dragon was moving the flames away from him. Unluckily for Wilson, that meant the flames were heading towards him. Wilson tried rolling away and failed to do so, finding that his upper torso was on fire. He immediately hit the quick release on his body armor and his medic's bag, before literally tearing his uniform's coat off.

Picking up his still burning medic's bag, Wilson tried putting out the fire while Eric sprayed bullets with his AK74. The dragon, now two meters tall, sadistically laughed at the two humans.

The dragon's laughter was cut short by the sound of a cannon-like gunshot filling the air. With it, the dragon bowled over in pain as if he had been punched in the gut. Eric turned around, seeing Big Mac standing on the porch with his titanic lever action rifle. Big Mac worked the lever of his rifle, just as Celestia's machine gun came to life.

The dragon felt each and every bullet impact from Celestia's machine gun. It growled in pain, covering its face to protect it. While the bullets failed to penetrate its hide, each impact could be clearly seen as dents were being formed on its scales. Despite the stream of bullets, It began to charge towards the house while it prepared more fire in its mouth.

Mac fired again, striking the dragon in one of its legs. It fell down to one knee, still covering its face. Then, it stood up. Now, it was three meters tall and the bullets from Celestia's machine gun seemed to no longer affect it. Once again, Mac fired. However, the bullet from Mac's lever action clearly didn't do as much damage as it did earlier.

The dragon uncovered its face and spat a fireball at the house. Mac jumped off of the house's porch while Octavia, who was on Celestia's machine gun, ran off deeper into the house. Both ponies successfully dodged the effects of the fireball, which had set fire to the front of the house.

As Mac got back up, he found himself face to face with the dragon. "Eenope," Big Mac said, rearing up. He executed a well place buck, planting both of his hooves in the dragon's gut. The dragon, despite its armored hide, keeled over in pain.

The dragon recovered, now standing four meters tall, and swatted Big Mac. The big red stallion, despite being built like a brick shithouse, was sent flying away. Big Mac didn't get back up.

The dragon turned around, ignoring the machine gun fire, and looked at Wilson and Eric. The two humans, who had been pointlessly shooting at the dragon this whole time, stopped firing. "Shit," said Wilson. The dragon smiled, opening its mouth. Both Wilson and Eric could clearly see fire forming in its mouth. That was their cue to immediately start running in a desperate attempt to avoid being set on fire.

The dragon almost laughed at the attempt had he not felt the most painful feeling so far coupled with the loudest gunshot so far. On the dragon's back, a hole in its hide appeared, oozing red blood. It turned around, following the source of the gunshot.

The dragon, now five meters tall, found it facing another one of the humans, this one standing in the house's second story. Tran quickly loaded another round into his .338 Lapua and fired again. This time, the bullet struck the dragon in the stomach and created another hole in its hide.

The dragon clutched the hole in its stomach and growled. It opened it's moving, revealing that it was starting to create a fresh batch of flames. However, before it could spit out a fireball, Tran had fired again. The bullet flew true and entered the five meter tall dragon's mouth, punching a hole into the roof of his mouth. The dragon, fireball still forming, froze for a second before falling over forward. It twitched once and then stayed still.

Wilson and Eric looked at Tran. Wilson, angry at the damage to his gear was about to start yelling when he realized that Tran was covered in blood. "What the hell happened to you?!" he demanded.

Tran wiped some of the blood off of his head. "I was busy," he calmly replied.

Earlier

Tran took one more look at the dragon and then back at Vinyl. "I'm assuming its dangerous?" he asked.

Vinyl nodded. "Very."

Tran looked back at the dragon and then to Apple Bloom, then Logan. "I want you three in the cellar with those other three royals." Logan raised an eyebrow. Tran pointed at the filly. "She's a child." He pointed to Vinyl and Logan. "And I want you two to guard them in case someone gets to them." Logan and Vinyl looked at each other before shrugging and walking off. Apple Bloom wanted to protest but she had been picked up by Logan.

Tran walked over to his shooting platform and unfolded the bipod on his rifle, gently laying it down on the platform. He then had a sense of deja vu as he was tackled from behind. The two of them wrestled for control. The human, clearly stronger than his opponent, found himself disadvantaged due to having to fight an invisible opponent.

Tran forced himself out of his opponent's grasp, rolling away and drawing both his 1911 in his right hand and S&W Model 500 in his left. He took aim at random areas of the room, possible hiding spots for an invisible opponent. Nothing gave a hint as to where his opponent was. Tran frowned.

A bullet hit Tran in the chest, failing to penetrate his vest. Tran smiled, taking aim at the spot where the bullet came from and fired his 1911. The .45 caliber bullet impacted his invisible opponent, leaving a splattered bullet floating in the air. Before his opponent could do anything, Tran aimed both handguns at the clear target and fired both handguns as quickly as he could. The rounds that he fired from his 1911 did nothing but further splatter against his opponent's armor. However, the armor did nothing against the rounds Tran fired from his S&W Model 500. Once the first .500 S&W round had penetrated, the invisible Jaeger turned visible. When the other four .500 S&W rounds penetrated, the visible Jaeger's chest was reduced to hamburger meat and caused blood to splatter everywhere.

Tran reloaded his 1911, then his S&W Model 500. He then picked up his sniper rifle and began to walk back over to the window, only to stop and walk back to the Jaeger's corpse. He undid the red scarf around the dead Jaeger's neck, tying it to his war belt before going back to the window and taking aim at the dragon, now four meters tall.

Present Time

Tran wiped some of the blood off of his head. "I was busy," he calmly said. Tran then jumped out of the second story window, landing on his feet.

Eric cringed as he landed while Wilson looked in awe. "How'd you do that?" Wilson asked.

Tran looked at his rifle. "Think about it, does your gear feel as heavy as it previously did?" Eric and Wilson stared at their weapons. Tran noticed Big Mac's unconscious form. "Is he okay?" Tran asked, looking at Wilson.

Wilson walked over to the big red pony and then grabbed one side, preparing to turn the giant stallion over. When he did roll the pony over, he used significantly less strength than he thought. It felt like the pony weighed a quarter as much as he should have. "What the hell?"

Tran looked at Wilson. "When I was carrying that pony, I realized she didn't weigh as much as she claimed." Before he could explain further, he realized something horrifying. "Do you still hear gunfire?" The other two froze, realizing that the gunfire sounded like it was coming from the other size house.

Wilson looked at Big Mac and then the direction of the gunfire. "You'll have to go without me," Wilson said. Tran and Eric looked at each other, then simultaneously sprinted off towards the direction of the gunfire.

On the other side of the house, was a big, raging, blood-red dragon. Actually battling it was three pegasi, all of whom were suffering from some form of burns. Surrounding the small battleground were three additional ponies, all of which were severely burned, incapacitated, and lying still. The dragon, having been wreaking havoc this entire time, looked completely undamaged and was six meters tall.

Tran handed Eric his sniper rifle and unholstered his S&W Model 500. He fired a singular round at the dragon's back, immediately catching its attention. The dragon looked at the two humans in curiosity before opening its mouth, fireball already forming up. Eric took aim with Tran's sniper rifle and fired, putting a bullet into the roof of the dragon's mouth. The dragon, like the other one, froze for a second before starting to fall over backward. Once it fell over, the ground shook. The dragon started twitching but all movement completely died out when Tran had fired four rounds from his S&W Model 500 into the creature's mouth.

The three pegasi looked at the two humans in amazement. Tran and Eric looked back at the remaining three pegasi. "What?" Tran asked. He looked back at the house and then to Eric. "Pull security at the front of the house and send Wilson over here when he's done with that farm boy. And, if you can, try to build up defenses. I'm gonna check up on the cellar that they've been talking about."

Eric handed Tran his rifle back and left, leaving Tran with the pegasi. Tran noticed how the pegasi were still looking at his blood splattered body. "Who's the highest rank between the three of you?" Tran asked. Two of the pegasi looked at the third pegasi, who's eyes looked at the other two. Tran took a step towards that pegasus, who flinched in response. "Keep a guard up, I don't want anything surprising us."

The pegasus's eyes darted to the three chevrons on Tran's vest. "Y-Yes sergeant!" said the pony.

Elsewhere

Spitfire and Scootaloo finally reached Sweet Apple Acres. Sure they were on the outskirts of the farm but they had made it. Unfortunately for the two of them, they could clearly hear gunfire coming from three different directions. Most disheartening was the fact that one of the sources of gunfire sounded like it came from the center of the farm. "Shit," Spitfire cursed.

Scootaloo's ear's twitched upon realizing what the gunshots coming from the farm's center sounded like. "Do those gunshots sound familiar to you?" Scootaloo asked.

Spitfire looked at the filly. "What?" she asked.

Scootaloo looked at the direction of the gunshots, the ones coming from the farm's center, and then finally realized why they sounded so familiar. She ran off towards that direction, rifle ready. Spitfire ran after the filly, quickly catching up to her. "What are you doing?!" she demanded.

Scootaloo looked at the direction of the gunfire. "Remember those Americans?" Scootaloo answered.

Spitfire froze, remembering the one that had a cannon for a sidearm. She let go of the squirt and looked in the direction of the gunfire. "Let's go then." But carefully. It seemed that where ever those humans were, the biggest trouble was.

-X-X-X-

Wilson gently covered up the second degree burns of an unconscious pegasus, one of the ones that had battled the dragon. Beside the medic and pegasus was Eric, who was watching the distance.

Eric flipped the safety of his rifle off and aimed it at the distance. A half second later, he flipped the safety back on and lowered his rifle. "Hey, we got a pair of ponies coming up."

Wilson didn't even bother lookin up, still giving all of his attention to his patient. "And?"

Eric realized that the two ponies looked somewhat familiar. "Huh," Eric said.

-X-X-X-

Tran walked out of the Apple family's cellar (which turned out to be more emergency bunker than cellar), Applejack in tow (limping). "Your family is gonna have some cleaning up to do," Tran commented.

Applejack looked at Tran. "And what do you mean by that?" she asked.

Tran didn't answer, instead just opting to walk towards the entrance of the house. Applejack followed and the two made their way to the house's front porch (passing Eric at a window). She immediately noticed the dead dragon. "Ah see what yah mean," Applejack said.

"You should see the bigger one," Tran commented.

Applejack stared at the human. "Bigger one?!" she exclaimed. She was gonna ask more questions but then noticed her brother lying unconscious in front of the house. She sprinted over to her brother's body and pressed her head against his chest. While she was relieved that he was still breathing, she was still worried. "What happened to mah brother?!" she demanded.

Tran didn't answer, having seen a pair of ponies that he recognized. Scootaloo and Spitfire stared back at the human. "So explain to me, how you're different from a stray cat?" The smile that Scootaloo previously sported was now an irritated frown.

Spitfire eyed the red scarf that hung off of Tran's belt. She knew it was recently acquired. A third Jaeger. Three Jaegers, all killed by the same person. She looked at the dead dragon. "Did you do that?" Spitfire asked.

Tran nodded. Tran looked at Spitfire's bleeding wing. "Let's get you patched up."

Applejack punched Tran in the leg. "What about mah brother?!"

Tran let out a sigh before walking over to the stallion's body. He unslung his sniper rifle and held it out to the cowpony. "Hold this." Applejack took Tran's rifle and he hoisted the red stallion upon his shoulders. "I'll take him to the bunker."

While Tran carried the stallion back into the house, Applejack, Spitfire, and Scootaloo took a look at the giant dead dragon. "Why is there a huge dragon out here?" Scootaloo asked.

Spitfire kicked the dragon's corpse. "They're mercenaries. Griffons pay them in gems," Spitfire explained. She noticed a piece of eggshell and picked it up. "Using magic, they turn back into eggs for easy transport. After hatching, they'll grow back to their full size in a few minutes. This one isn't even halfway to full size. "

Scootaloo gulped. "That's not fair," she commented.

Spitfire sighed. All's fair in love and war. She opened her mouth to say something else but froze. She heard it again. The Sound. It was the sound that a scarf makes when its exposed to high winds. That was when Tran collapsed, having taken a bullet to the back where he stood on the porch.

Up in the Clouds

A charred Jaeger carefully attached a suppressor to a sniper rifle and loaded it up with armor-piercing ammunition. He took aim at his target, one of the four humans that he was tasked with hunting. He honestly thought the two dragons would have dealt with them. Obviously, he was wrong.

And what of his brother? He was supposed to rendezvous hereafter the dragons were deployed. His brother's task had been rigging up the house to explode but none of the marked areas had bombs on them.

The human he was currently aiming at had been the same human that had set him on fire. Oh how he was gonna pay for doing that. He was such an easy target right now, too. The human couldn't have been moving any slower, what with him carrying that huge red stallion. He didn't even need to adjust for drop. This was pretty much spitting distance! He did, however, have to adjust for the high winds that came from being up so high in the clouds.

*CRACK*

The griffon smiled as he watched human collapsed from eating an armor piercing bullet. The smile disappeared when the human got back up and sprinted into the house, dragging the stallion with him. "I was using armor piercing ammunition, you unfair shit!" he angrily shouted. He cycled the bolt of his rifle, taking aim again.

-X-X-X-

Tran dragged Big Mac into the house, bringing him into relative safety. Eric, who was keeping guard behind a window, ducked out of the window's open view. "Fucking snipers," Eric growled. Eric looked at Tran. "You hurt?"

Tran checked himself over. Much to his relief, he wasn't bleeding in any away. The ceramic plate in his vest had stopped the bullet, no doubt. "No," Tran replied. "Plate caught the bullet." The plate was no doubt shattered and whether or not it would stop another bullet was a risk he couldn't take. He reached for his sniper rifle... He didn't have his sniper rifle. Applejack was currently holding it.

On the outside of the house, Spitfire, Applejack, and Scootaloo had taken cover behind the dragon's corpse. Scootaloo briefly peeked out from behind cover but found herself pulled back down by Applejack, just as a bullet soared over her head. "Are yah stupid or somethin?!" Applejack yelled. Applejack looked to Spitfire and asked her a question.

Spitfire didn't hear Applejack's question, the sound of her own heartbeat was louder. She just sat there, clenching her shotgun. Applejack shoved the pegasus and she came to. "What?" Spitfire asked.

"Did yah hear where that shot came from?" Applejack asked. Spitfire shook her head. Applejack looked at Scootaloo and the filly also shook her head.

Applejack looked at the rifle in her hooves. "He knows where we are but we don't know where he is." She pulled back on the bolt. "And we only have the one round." Applejack dug through her uniform and pulled out a pony trigger adapter, attaching it to Tran's rifle. "It'll be a helluva shot." She looked over at the house. "Hey!" she yelled out.

"What?!" Eric answered back.

"Do yah think you can distract 'im?" Applejack yelled out.

There was a long pause in the air. Then, Tran answered. "Yeah."

Applejack looked at Tran's absolutely massive sniper rifle. While still being behind cover, she stood up on her hindlegs and practiced taking aim with Tran's rifle. She immediately found out that it was impossible to keep the rifle steady in that stance, especially with her injured leg. She collapsed to the ground and sat up against the dragon's corpse. "Ah can't do it."

Scootaloo grabbed the rifle out of Applejack's hooves. "I'll do it," the filly said.

Spitfire's mouth gaped at the filly's suicidal courage and immediately pulled the rifle out of her hooves. "Absolutely not," the captain said.

The filly glared at the mare. "And why not?!" she demanded.

Spitfire stared off into the distance as she thought about how the filly had saved her life earlier in the day from that griffon. She also remembered when the filly had been horrified by the griffon's look of confusion upon his death. She looked back at the filly. "Can you even hold up the rifle long enough to shoot?" Scootaloo looked at the rifle's massive size and then looked away, done with the argument but still angry.

Spitfire looked at Applejack and readied the rifle. Applejack put a hoof on the rifle. "Yah still don't know where he is."

Spitfire's mind came to focus on The Sound. "Yes I do." Spitfire looked at the house where Tran and Wilson was. "Now!" she yelled, readying the rifle.

-X-X-X-

The Jaeger carefully watched the front of the house. Movement. In one of the windows, something stirred. It had to be one of those two humans. One of them peeked their helmeted heads out of a window, then ducked back down as quickly as he appeared. The Jaeger took aim at the same window.

Then, from an adjacent window, a different helmeted head popped up. It was only there for a fraction of the second, giving no time for a clean shot. He didn't want to plant a bullet in its helmet. If its vest could stop an armor piercing bullet, maybe their helmet could too. He'd have to put a bullet where it wasn't protected.

A few seconds later, the first human peeked again. This time, he popped up a little higher and the Jaeger could make out the protective glasses that it wore. The Jaeger smiled and he fired, putting a bullet between its eyes. There was no blood.

He had been duped. He looked around with his scope and found a mare scanning the skies with a scoped rifle. He took aim again. The mare hadn't fired yet, he still had time.

-X-X-X-

The instant she heard the sound of a bullet impact, she stood out of cover and took aim. She heard no gunshot but she could still hear The Sound. It was clear as day where it came from. She focused the reticle on exactly where The Sound came from and... Her heart stopped.

There he was, just sitting there up in the clouds. His form, charred, highlighted his position against the white background he was in front of. All she had to do was pull the trigger, but she couldn't. She couldn't stand the sight of them, Jaegers. They were why she couldn't fly like she used to.

She closed her eyes. Everything changed at that instant. Her heart went back to its normal rhythm and all she had to focus on was the weight of the rifle in her hooves. She pulled the trigger. The explosion of the rifle discharging deafened her ears and the recoil nearly knocked her down.

She opened her eyes. The Jaeger fell out of the skies, his body going one direction and his head going another. She had won.

-X-X-X-

Spitfire and Tran walked alongside each other, the former armed with a shotgun and the latter armed with his Savage 112. Spitfire glanced at the rifle. "That thing hurts to use," she said. Tran continued walking, staying silent.

The two of them finally found what they were searching for. Lying on the ground was the decapitated body of a Jaeger. Tran bent down beside the griffon's body and examined the stump where the head had been detached. What remained of the griffon's neck was, surprisingly, still wearing the red scarf.

Spitfire noticed the red scarf and her heart skipped a beat. "Fleetfoot," she whispered.

Tran pulled the blood stained scarf off of the corpse and found a small hole in one section of the scarf. "Nice shot," complimented Tran. He noticed Spitfire staring dead at the scarf and held it out to her. "Do you want it?"

Spitfire hadn't hear anything but realized that she was being spoken to. She blinked a few times. "What?" Spitfire asked. Tran repeated his question and Spitfire began staring at the scarf again. Slowly, she reached a hoof out and took it.

The simple red strip of cloth burned in her hoof as if it had been made of lava. What little wind that blew through the air was enough for the scarf to make The Sound. She could almost hear the thing mocking her, telling her that she would be dead soon enough. It didn't matter. She had won.

Spitfire wrapped the scarf around her shotgun's stock. "So why did we search for his body?" she asked.

Tran continued searching the Jaeger's body. "A lone sniper, one from a special corps of soldiers? He's bound to have something on him," Tran answered. He pulled a slightly burnt small scroll from the Jaeger's body. "Like this." Tran opened up the scroll and quickly read through it before rolling it back up.

Spitfire looked at the scroll in Tran's hand. "What did it say?"

Tran stuffed the scroll away. "Just as I thought, the princesses and prince were their target."

Spitfire raised an eyebrow. "Princesses?" she asked.

Tran looked at the Apple Family house in the distance. "They're in the house's cellar." He looked back to the pegasus. "But they were a secondary objective."

"Secondary objective?" Spitfire questioned.

Tran continued searching the Jaeger's body. "Apparently, my three friends and I were their primary objective." He pulled a couple stick grenades off of the griffon's body and then, some ammunition.

Spitfire looked at the bullets that Tran was pulling off of the griffon's corpse. "What do you need the ammo for?" Tran looked up. Spitfire looked to what he was looking at and found a rifle hanging in a tree.

Tran stood up and pulled the unscathed rifle out of the tree. The rifle was clearly a griffon rifle, having a trigger guard designed for usage with hands/talons. The bolt action rifle had some common features, such as having a wood stock and a leather sling. However, it also had a few uncommon features. What Tran had immediately noticed was that it had a scope attached to it with no backup iron sights. Strangely enough, the scope wasn't attached to the top of the rifle like what he was used to but instead, it was attached to the left side of the rifle. The other thing he took note of was that it had a short round suppressor attached to the end of a barrel.

Tran took aim with the rifle, realizing that he hated it. It balanced weirdly, was much lighter than what he felt comfortable with, and had a scope that was designed for right handed use that was fixed at 4x magnification. Tran worked the bolt of the rifle and emptied the rifle of three rounds of ammunition. Considering two rounds were fired, it could be assumed that it held a maximum of five rounds. He looked at one of the rounds. It was a rimless 7.92x57mm round. Interesting.

Tran looked to Spitfire. "Let's get back to the house."

Over at the house, Eric, and a trio of civilians from the house's cellar bunker had dug various foxholes around the house. Tran was actually surprised at the defenses. "How'd you dig them so fast?" he asked. He jumped in one and indeed, it was a properly dug out foxhole that was armpit deep. "It hasn't been half an hour since I went searching for that sniper."

Eric gestured towards the trio of naked civilian ponies beside them. "Something about it being their special talents or something? Hell, they even got ass tattoos about it."

One of the civilian ponies looked at Eric. "Ass Tattoos?" Spitfire questioned. Eric pointed to the pictures that were on his ass. All three of the ponies had a tattoo of a shovel on their ass, the only difference being the shovel type.

"Incoming," Tran said. Spitfire and Eric immediately jumped into one foxhole and got their weapons ready. The ponies also jumped into a foxhole and instead of readying themselves or battle, they ducked down for safety. Off in the sky, both humans could see something incoming.

"What is it?" Eric asked.

Tran lowered his rifle. "They're horses." Spitfire and Eric also lowered their weapons. A short moment later, a couple dozen pegasi landed, Rainbow Dash included. Tran knew these were the pegasi that were supposed to guard the house.

Rainbow Dash looked at the large dragon corpse littering the ground. "Whoa, what happened here?" Rainbow Dash asked, walking towards the foxhole that Tran was in. He climbed out of the foxhole and her eye immediately caught sight of the new red scarf hanging off of his belt. "Jaeger?"

He shoved past her and walked towards the group of pegasi. "Which one of you is in charge of the defending force?"

One of the pegasi stepped up. "Lieuten-," the pegasus started saying. Tran had interrupted his speech by kicking her to the ground and planting one foot on the pegasus's chest.

Some of the pegasi immediately drew their weapons on Tran. "Were you or were you not supposed to defend this location?" Tran asked.

Rainbow Dash shoved Tran with all of her strength in an attempt to get him off of the poor lieutenant, he didn't budge. "What are you doing?!" Rainbow Dash demanded.

Tran turned to look at Rainbow Dash and answered, "asking her a question." He looked at the pony trapped under his boot. "Well?"

She tried to get out from being pinned but Tran put more pressure on her chest, causing immense pain. "We were!" the lieutenant screamed.

Tran let up on the pressure but still enough to hurt. "So why did you leave with more than half the defending force?"

Rainbow Dash decided enough was enough and drew her trusty Model 92 and pressed it against Tran's head. "There were griffons, now let her up," Rainbow Dash demanded.

Tran kept his foot on the lieutenant and looked at Rainbow Dash. "What happened when all of you engaged those griffons?"

Rainbow Dash, cocked the hammer to her revolver. "They tried running away, shooting at us while they ran. Now, get off of her!"

Tran took his foot off of the lieutenant and she tried to scramble away, except Tran had grabbed her tail. "And none of you were hit?"

Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi lowered their weapons. "No," she angrily replied. She froze, realizing what Tran was getting at. "They were distracting us, keeping us away from here."

Tran let go of the lieutenant's tail, who finally ran off into the safety of her platoon. "They fired back to keep interest in the chase and while they were off, I got shot twice, my medic got set on fire, and six of your soldiers burned alive, three of which are dead."

Rainbow Dash flew up to look Tran at eye level. "How were we supposed to know?!" she screamed in his face.

Tran grabbed Rainbow Dash by her uniform's collar. "Tell me what is more important. Running off to fight some griffons off in the distance or protecting the rulers of your country and some civilians?"

*BANG*

*Chk-Chk*

Everyone looked at Spitfire, smoking shotgun pointed in the air. "Enough! We still have a house to defend!"

Tran and Rainbow Dash went back to looking at each other. "Yes we do," Tran said. He shoved the pegasus away from him and walked towards the house, disappearing inside it.

Author's Note

I bet y'all didn't expect this chapter, did yah?

The More You Sweat in Training the Less You Bleed in Combat

Rarity wrote down the names of the four humans along with a brief description of them. "And you quadruple checked?" she asked.

Twilight, who had been looking over field reports, shook her head. "Yes," she replied. "Even Princess Celestia checked. They're definitely chaos beings."

Rarity paused. "So are they here to replace Discord?"

She eyed a different report, one adorned with Celestia's seal. "They're not true chaos beings. Discord was born from the world's desire to experience change and growth. The four of them were summoned. They're not going to have Discord's discord powers."

Rarity remembered when she first met Discord. While he was a menace, he never really killed anypony, or creature for that matter. What he did, albeit annoying, eventually did something that would benefit everypony in the end. He most certainly made life interesting and if it weren't for his sacrifice, Tirek and the griffons would have been presiding over the continent. "What can they do?"

-X-X-X-

Tran loaded up a full cylinder of some custom ammunition that he had handloaded. These bullets were created with the maximum allowed gunpowder, lead payload, and pressure. One for one, each bullet delivered nearly double the lead on a target than a shotgun shell. Not only that, they flew significantly faster than shotgun pellets or a slug which meant more muzzle energy. Naturally, Tran held the revolver with his right hand, ie the nondominant hand. The instant he pulled the trigger, a bullet came out of the barrel followed by a massive gout of flame and one of the loudest gunshots to grace anyone's ears. Naturally, the revolver tried to jump up and out of the user's grip but it found itself trapped by the steely grip of a demon. It was a well-fought battle but it had lost.

Wilson watched as the .500 S&W barely moved in Tran's right hand. While it sounded like a cannon and looked like a cannon, the recoil that showed made it look like he had been shooting 9mm. "Give me a go," Wilson asked.

Tran shrugged and handed the revolver off to Wilson. Wilson, unlike Tran, gripped the thing with his dominant hand and fired. Once again, the gun fought back. It found itself fighting a weaker opponent and did indeed manage to jump up more than it previously did. However, it still didn't get to jump as much as it liked to. While the gun recoiled more in Wilson's inexperienced grip, it definitely didn't recoil as much as it was supposed to in the hands of normal folk.

He handed it back to Tran. "Wow," Wilson said. "Bad but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be."

Tran turned around to find Applejack watching them in the distance. He waved her over and she trotted up to the two of them. "Need mah help?" Applejack asked.

Tran held his revolver out to her. "Shoot this?" he asked.

Applejack looked at the revolver and then back at Tran. She remembered when Rainbow Dash tried to shoot it. "What's the catch?" she asked, eyeing the hand cannon with wary.

"Reference," Tran answered.

Applejack, with steel determination, grabbed the revolver. "If this here gun hits me in the face, I'm killin both of yah in yer sleep."

Wilson snorted. "You'll be doing us a favor."

Applejack stood up on her hind legs and took a nice strong shooting stance, holding onto the gun with both hooves for dear life. She pulled the trigger. For the third time, the gun fought. It found itself fighting an opponent it could easily defeat and rejoiced! It felt resistance but a nonexistant amount compared to the resistance it felt earlier. This was no battle, it was a slaughter! It gleefully jumped out of its opponent's grip and up towards the challenger in an attempt to teach a lesson. Its opponent fought hard and unfortunately succeeded, being kept mere millimeters away from tasting blood. "Dad gum that is a monster!" Applejack yelled. She handed the revolver back to Tran before starting to shake her hoof in an attempt to get rid of the pain that stayed behind.

-X-X-X-

"For one thing, they're stronger," replied Twilight.

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "How much stronger?"

-X-X-X-

Eric ran on a track, lightly sweating in his exercise. He wore sneakers, running shorts, and a t-shirt. Other than that, he was wearing his armor, helmet, and Logan. Well, no he wasn't wearing Logan. He was actually fireman carrying him.

Eric then crossed a finish line where Wilson was waiting with a stopwatch. Eric slowed himself down, bringing himself to a halt while Wilson brought him a water bottle. Eric set Logan down and drank from the bottle. "How'd I do?" he asked.

Wilson looked down at the stopwatch and then back at Eric. "Well, I'd say it was impossible but considering the magical bullshit we're surrounded by, fourteen minutes and thirty five."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "For two miles?" he asked. Wilson nodded. Earlier, he had also been timed while doing pushups and situps. While also wearing his gear and with a person standing on his back, he had managed to perform fifty-seven pushups. While performing situps with a fifty kilogram plate held to his chest, he had managed to achieve sixty-six. "You think it's the magic in the air?"

-X-X-X-

"Anything else?" Rarity asked.

"Possibly a higher metabolism," Twilight answered.

-X-X-X-

Wilson drained the bottle in his hand of its content, beer, before setting it down on the bartop amongst a couple dozen other beer bottles. Sitting next to Wilson was Eric who also had a couple dozen beer bottles sitting in front of him.

-X-X-X-

"But I asked them about it."

"And?" Rarity asked.

-X-X-X-

Wilson stopped drinking from the beer that he had upon hearing the question. "Nah, everyone in our military are just alcoholics", he said.

-X-X-X-

"Not the most reassuring of explanations," Rarity commented.

Twilight nodded in agreement. "There's also-"

-X-X-X-

A beer bottle, held in the glow of a magic field, flew through the air and into Wilson's head. "Get out of our country you bullheaded asses!" yelled one pony. The glass bottle promptly shattered against Wilson's head, shooting daggers of pain radiating into his skull. Wilson clutched his bleeding head and stood up, facing the assailant.

The unicorn in question was smugly sitting at a table with two other ponies, both of which looked equally as heated as their buddy. Wilson picked up his stool and threw it at the ponies, knocking his attacker over. The two other ponies stood up from their seats, as did Eric.

Before anyone could fight, someone and somepony stepped in between both groups. Rainbow Dash, in full military uniform, and Tran, in civilian clothes, stared at both parties. "We're leaving," Tran stated.

Wilson looked at the Tran, then at the ponies, and then back to Tran. "Let's go then," he resigned. The two drunk humans exited the bar with Tran and Rainbow Dash following.

Outside the bar, Tran walked up to Wilson and took a look at his skull where the glass bottle had struck him. "You have an inch long gash that's already starting to scab over."

-X-X-X-

"According to all four of them, it should take hours, even days for some wounds to scab over," Twilight explained.

"Anything else?" Rarity asked.

Twilight shook her head. "No. With the four of them like this, there's something still up in the air."

"Will they stay on our side?"

Plan for What Is Difficult While It Is Easy

One minute, we were all riding peacefully in a rail car. The next minute, there was an explosion and the train was disabled.

We had been heading directly north to the Crystal Empire for a diplomatic meeting and supposedly, we were going to meet up with yaks(?) to discuss supporting the Equestrian effort. The yaks, despite being a very lightly populated nation, could be an important potential ally due to their nation's resources.

The Day Before

With a light click, the long metal gun case had popped open. It was one of the four that Discord had left behind for the humans and inside it, was nothing. A second after being opened, a KRISS Vector and its magazines were gently placed inside the case. Wilson closed the case and moved it onto the ground where a pile of other equipment had been sitting. Among the pile were his medic's bag and various medical items.

"Yaks?" Wilson asked, raising an eyebrow. "You mean those big hairy things that live on arctic mountain tops?"

Rarity nodded. "Yes, but don't say anything like that near them. Yaks have very big tempers and are prone to outbursts." Rarity's horn lit up and she floated over a medium-sized wood crate. "Here's your armor." She opened up the crate and revealed Wilson's IOTV. The burns the armor had earned in the defense of Ponyville were gone, having been freshly repaired.

Wilson picked up his body armor and opened it up, checking the plates and kevlar. They were still there. 'Good', Wilson thought.

Rarity's magic brought in another wooden crate. This one revealed a pair of two armored plates. "These are for your friend. We weren't able to make a ceramic set as he asked but we made a steel counterpart with enchantments to absorb impact and fragmentation. Hopefully, it'll be an adequate substitute."

Wilson took the plates from her. "He'll probably won't complain too much and I'm pretty sure he'd be gracious that he was able to get a replacement set."

-X-X-X-

Tran sat in front of a large table with a map of Equestria on it. Standing there with him was Princess Twilight with a pointer stick held in her magic. "Yakyakistan, the many millennia old home of the yaks located in the far north," Twilight started. "Early on in the war, they adopted a policy of isolationism in regards to military or economic involvement."

'I don't blame them,' Tran thought. "So why are we going there now?" he asked.

Using the glow of her magic, she highlighted the various mountains that Yakyakistan existed on. "Their nation owns these mountains in the northwest and a few decades ago, these very mountains were found to be inundated with coal and iron ore deposits."

Tran blinked. "Again, why are we going there now? You said they don't want anything to do with the war."

Twilight pointed at Ponyville and Manehattan. "Due to recent military victories, the Yaks have decided that they're interested in a trade-focused alliance. They're also interested in meeting you and your friends."

Tran raised an eyebrow. "Out of curiosity's sake, what exactly does Equestria have that Yaks are interested in?"

"The usual items, gold, gemstones, and machine guns," Twilight answered.

"I can understand the first two but machine guns?"

Twilight pointed at Tran's hand cannon of a sidearm. "Typically, yaks prefer their weapons big and loud but they've taken a liking to Equestria machine guns. Apparently, they're amusing to them. Their king has a personal collection that would rival some state arsenals."

"They can't make their own?"

"They're not known for complicated manufacturing capabilities." Using her magic, Twilight lifted up a large wooden crate and placed it down on the table, covering up half the map. She ripped off the crate's lid, revealing a half dozen machine guns. "You'll be giving them these as gifts."

Twilight removed the crate from the table and highlighted a series of railroad tracks. "The route is secured but you'll be passing within a hundred kilometers of Manehattan, a griffon occupied city."

Tran leaned back in his chair. "And I'm assuming this is when you'll be describing our resources?"

She teleported in a color photo and placed it in front of Tran. The photo pictured the side of a train, one that resembled a porcupine considering the number of gun barrels sticking out of it. "That's the Dauntless, one of seven armored trains in Equestria's arsenal. Eighty millimeters of steel protecting every possible angle, five mortars, eight direct fire cannons, thirty-four machine guns, and a crew of one hundred fifteen ponies. You'll also be accompanied by your bodyguards, Rarity, and Prince Blueblood, Equestria's diplomatic representative."

She brought in another photo, this one picturing the entirety of the train from an aerial view. "Her main coal fired-engine moves her at a max speed of fifty kilometers an hour but if they go out, she has an additional two coal-fired engines that can propel her at half speed if used individually and a lightning-powered engine that can propel her at full speed but only for three hours."

"Did you just say lightning powered?" Tran asked.

"Yes, bottled lightning," Twilight answered.

"Lightning in a bottle, as in the electrical discharges that come from the sky during a storm? A bottle filled with that stuff?" Tran further questioned.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I take it, catching lightning in a bottle is not common where you're from?" Tran's deadpan expression was all she needed to answer her question. "Right, I'll make sure the rest of the supplies you need are delivered."

-X-X-X-

The four humans and company stood in front of a massive rolling fortress. "Holy shit," Logan said.

"No kidding," Eric added, eyeing one of its many artillery pieces.

Tran started walking up to the train. "It's impressive, load up. We can admire it from the inside."

-X-X-X-

The Dauntless slowly screeched to a halt with its front main engine on fire. Her pegasi crew members were quick to put the fire out with various nearby clouds. While everyone else was in full alert status and manning their battle stations, Tran and Rarity had gone to find the senior-most engineer of the Dauntless. It wasn't a difficult search, the pony in question wore a completely charcoal stained version of the Royal Equestria Army uniform while also being stained charcoal black.

"Sabotage?" Rarity asked.

The engineer nodded. He reached into one of his coat pockets, pulling out what appeared to be a lump of coal, and tossing it to Tran. "Coal Torpedo. Fake Coal lump filled with explosives," the engineer explained. "Classic sabotage."

Rarity looked at the main engine of the train. "How bad?"

The pony wiped some of the charcoal off of his face. "The trip was supposed to take two days. Now? I'm not sure. The main engine is dead weight and before we fire up either spare, we have to inspect all of the coal."

"Casualties?" Tran asked.

The engineer shook his head. "Luckily the firebox was closed and vented the blast sideways."

Tran turned around and surveyed their surrounding area. They had only traveled for half a day so far and were in a heavily forested area. To make matters worse, clouds plagued the skies. "Good spot for an ambush or artillery barrage."

Rarity nodded and faced the engineer. "Get the lightning engine ready." She walked over and stood beside Tran. "See anything?"

Tran narrowed his eyes. "Not Yet."

-X-X-X-

A distant voice pierced through the cloud cover. "Fix Bayonets."

Author's Note

So, I've recently finished my fourth and final surgery regarding my apparently-not-minor boo-boo. I was supposed to only have three but the third one resulted in a fourth surgery shortly afterward due to uncontrolled bleeding. On a completely unrelated side note, losing slightly more than a quarter of your blood volume leaves you severely anemic and weak. On a more unrelated sidenote (I swear its unrelated) when you're missing a lot of your blood, the doctor will try to give you as few blood transfusions as possible as your body will slowly build up a permanent rejection-response immunity to blood transfusions with each transfusion. On an even more unrelated sidenote (I just wanted to share random facts that I randomly learned today), getting through four transfusions in a 12 hour period is a lot.

I also want to add to last chapter's PSA, if you get run over by an SUV and have the chance to go to the hospital via ambulance, do not forego the offer and try to sleep it off because you feel fine. To further add to that, after attempting to sleep it off, do not do the morning Army warmup prep Drill and run three quarters of a mile before you decided that you have to sit down and can't get back up. Most importantly of all, if you do decide to do PT and run, make sure you do not have:

A. Massive internal bleeding
B. Air bubble slowly building in your abdomen that's threatening to damage other organs
C. Have a fracture in your right hip
D. Have a fracture in your right femur
or E. All of the above.

These are all things I randomly learned through a pamphlet. I definitely did not learn this through first hand knowledge.

Final unrelated sidenote: While Oxycontin is fun (so much fun), it is illegal to take it without a prescription

The Enemy Invariably Attacks on Two Occasions: A. When You’re Ready for Them and B. When You’re Not Ready for Them.

Everyone was on edge, whether they be griffons waiting to attack or the ponies and people on the train trying to get their mission rolling again. Everyone on the train knew that they were completely exposed with the way they were sitting dead on the tracks while the griffons knew that attacking one of Equestria's rolling fortresses was not an easy feat.

The train's chief engineer hopped out of the second front engine. "We're ready to start her up again but at a reduced speed. As long as we stay at half speed, we can keep a steady flow of fuel while inspecting the coal." A lone wooden crate sat behind the engineer. The crate's top was removed and inside it were various lumps of coal placed inside it.

Rarity gently levitated one of the coal torpedoes up to inspect it. It was roughly the size of a grapefruit and made of iron, most likely filled with dynamite or TNT. "We're lucky these didn't detonate the boiler", she said while setting the lump back down with the rest.

Tran eyed the clouds. "Prepare to dismount."

Rarity's mouth dropped. "Are you implying that we're abandoning the Dauntless?!"

Tran didn't need to answer the question. Instead, a series of dull incoming whistles gave Rarity all of the information she needed. Tran immediately tackled Rarity to the ground, covering her with his body. The action wasn't needed however, as the incoming shells had landed a good ways away. Specifically, they had landed far in front and behind the train, shredding the train tracks. Immediately afterward, every machine gun on the Dauntless lit up.

Tran rolled over and Rarity crawled out from her temporary prison. She dug through her gear and pulled out an enchanted trench whistle. She stared at the whistle and knew how hard it was gonna be in the ensuing few minutes.

*Fffwwwwwwhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeueeeeeeeee*

As everyone scrambled to get going, another salvo of shells came in. The shells hadn't landed directly on the train, despite being such a large target. Instead, they landed around the train. They also didn't explode with nearly as much explosive power as the ones that destroyed the rails, these ones dispersing a large artificial cloud of smoke.

-X-X-X-

Private Copper Harvest's hooves held down the lever of the machine gun he was manning. The gun's rattling, despite being active for only a few seconds so far, had already made his body numb. The first few of the gun's explosions, something that happened many explosions prior, had rendered him deaf.

It stopped when someone had grabbed him and thrown him off of his machine gun. He instantly reached for his knife but stopped when he saw that one of his fellow country ponies had done it. The pony's lips were moving but no sound came. Copper Harvest rubbed his ears a few times before shaking his head.

"-Cuation order! Grab what you can and let's go!" the pony said. They were leaving the Dauntless?! This thing was a fortress! As that thought had hit Private Copper's mind, smoke had started seeping into the train's compartments. "Fuck!" The pony in question grabbed the ammo box that was attached to the machine gun and disconnected it from the mount before darting off. The pony paused before looking back at Private Copper. "They have us zeroed! If you don't leave, their next salvo will make you!"

Private Copper's face blanched before he scrambled up to his hooves and grabbed his rifle and backpack.

-X-X-X-

Fortunately, Equestria had a lot of forests. There were plenty of places to go where they could find decent cover/concealment. Unfortunately, they would first have to get to that cover/concealment. They would also have the issue of preventing everyone from scattering and getting them to the exact same rally point. Rarity had a solution but there were a few flaws with it. What was her solution? Blaring her trench whistle. Because of a nice spell typically used for public speaking, everyone would be able to hear her. By everyone, this is including the griffons.

As everyone poured out of the train and into the smoke, more and more precious time passed. Tran looked around and saw what seemed like all of the train's occupants through the haze of the smoke. He couldn't wait around and check though. If he waited too long, their lives would be forfeit.

So, he charged out of the smoke and towards the forest, Rarity tailing him with her whistle blaring. Everyone else followed. The instant they exited the smoke, griffons descended from the air and dive-bombed their group.

"Air raid!" several ponies cried out.

Looking to the sky, everyone on the ground found themselves targeted. Tran himself was personally targeted by three griffons, having been at the front of the entire formation. He quickly drew his 1911 and started spraying rounds into the air. Only one got knocked out of the air before they reached him.

Tran noticed their rifles with bayonets attached and reached his arms out. Right as they were about to impale him, Tran had managed to catch a rifle behind the bayonet and prevented it from moving any further. Out of sheer luck, the bayonet of the second griffon's rifle slammed into his front armor's chest plate and shattered the blade. Before the owner of the rifle that Tran had been holding could recover, Tran gave a good pull on the rifle in his hands and slammed the griffon into the ground. Unfortunately, that move had given the second griffon the perfect opening to hit Tran over the head with a rifle buttstock. Tran was knocked aside but a bullet from Rarity's Model 92 revolver stopped the griffon from doing anything else. Rarity quickly turned her gun on the other surviving griffon and fired.

Tran nodded at Rarity and got back up, looking around. He saw his fellow friends and fellow soldiers with their own opponents. Bayonets and rifles clashed. Some, not having grabbed their rifles in the retreat, fought their adversaries with rocks or logs. It was chaos. Tran and Rarity, along with other ponies alike, helped fight off the ambush. It didn't last very long. Within seconds, the ambush was over, casualties high. That was when they heard another salvo of shells come in.

Whoever was wounded was picked up and whatever rifles were on the ground were immediately snatched up, the retreat continuing. Griffons in the air, gunfire also hounded them the entire time. Luckily enough, they found a small ravine where they could bunker down. The ravine had a small stream that they could use as a water source and didn't have nearly as much treetop cover as the rest of the forest so the griffons wouldn't have any concealment if they attempted any more attacks through the air.

After everyone settled in a defensive position, Tran, Rarity, and Eric met up. "So how long before they realize something is wrong?" Eric asked, looking at Rarity.

Rarity looked at what ponies had survived. Of the one hundred fifteen ponies that made up the crew of the Dauntless, seventy-two had survived making it here. Not included in that number was Rainbow Dash (who was currently ready to take off and go after any aerial targets that came too close), Applejack (digging out foxholes), Wilson (tending to whoever was wounded), Logan (collecting wood and scavenging what he could find), and Blueblood(taking stock of what they had). "Two, maybe three days," Rarity replied.

"Well shit."

Author's Note

Ah yes, me and my two dozen medications keeping me alive. Here's one day's worth of pills.

Yes, this is one day's worth. I can count on one hand using the fingers that I've had reattached, the number of days I've been not high as fuck since March.

A few of my friends have jokingly started saying that I'm unkillable. I sure as hell don't feel like it.

If You Are Short of Everything but the Enemy, You Are in the Combat Zone

"Well shit," Eric said as his gear felt heavier. Everything he was wearing and carrying was all that he had for at least the next 5 or 6 days. He had a canteen half full of water, only some snacks for food, and only a basic combat loadout in terms of ammunition: No grenades either. His gear didn't feel heavy enough.

This was going to be an experience. Facing them, was the might of the griffon army. The griffons most likely outnumbered them, had artillery, possibly had reinforcements, most likely had more food than them, and had them surrounded with air superiority.

-X-X-X-

Logan, a civilian in his past life, had a mish mash of gear that was all convoluted. He, of course, had his "sniper rifle", his shotgun, and his pistol in terms of armaments. When he first came to Equestria, he had no tactical gear but remedied that problem shortly after the quartet of humans made their service agreement with the princesses. He now had a tactical vest (simply a carrier with steel plates as kevlar didn't exist in equestria) that was adorned with multiple utility and ammo pouches and a steel helmet that was essentially a copy of the US M1 steel pot helmet.

When everyone had to evacuate from the train, he had the presence of mind to grab some of his bags. One was a backpack, which was easy to carry out of the train. Another was a messenger bag, also easy to haul out of the train. The last was a decently sized suitcase, despite being fully loaded up, didn't prove that much of a challenge to haul in the evacuation. In the ambush/melee that happened during the evacuation, he was still capable of fighting, wielding a suitcase in one hand and a pistol in the other.

Right now, he in a recently dug foxhole. His suitcase and bags were also with him in the foxhole, sitting on the ground beside him. Unbuckling his helmet, he placed it on the ground and sat on it. Opening up his suitcase, he pulled out a small canvas sack and some homemade smokeless fuel tablets. From his back, he removed an E-tool and from a pouch on his vest, he removed a canteen and canteen cup. Opening up the canvas sack revealed some beans. "Coffee," Logan said while drooling.

He dug a small hole in the earth and placed a smokeless fuel tablet in the hole, lighting it. A canteen cup full of water was placed onto the fire. He then filled a spare clean sock with some beans, tied up the sock, and then began smashing the beans with his E-tool.

"Yo."

Logan paused, E-tool raised, ready to strike. He looked up to see Tran standing at the outer edge of his foxhole. "Yeah?" Logan responded.

Tran looked at the suitcase. "Got any tape?"

Logan placed the E-tool down and dug through his suitcase, finding a roll of duct tape before tossing it to his friend. "Knock yourself out." Tran, duct tape in hand, walked off, leaving Logan with many questions. "Fuck it." He picked his E-tool back up and went back to work. "Coffeeeeee."

-X-X-X-

Prince Blueblood carefully went from foxhole to foxhole, interviewing soldiers and inventorying what they had on hand by writing down on a small notebook. It was a task of utmost importance. There would be no reinforcements or resupply. What they had, was what they had. In times like these, a little meant a lot.

The average Royal Equestrian Army soldier's uniform was a light tan khaki pocket-adorned coat and pants with a grey undershirt. The uniform (both dress and combat) had no helmet. Instead, soldiers wore a wool cap that was the same color as the rest of the uniform. On the rear hooves, soldiers had to wear boots that was reinforced on the outside with a iron horseshoe while the front hooves were covered with thick canvas gloves.

Worn on top of the uniform was a set of straps, pouches, and belts that made up the webbing that housed the soldier's equipment. Every soldier was supposed to have two 1 qt canteens and canteen cups, a non folding entrenching tool, a bayonet scabbard and bayonet (if it wasn't mounted to the soldier's rifle), two bandages, a mess kit (composed of two metal tins, a fork, a knife, and a spoon), two grenades, 150 rounds of ammunition (if armed with a rifle), and their rifle (which housed a cleaning kit inside of the rifle's partially hollowed stock). They also typically wore a backpack that typically contained a backpack, the day's food, an extra uniform, and whatever personal items the owner had.

Out of the seventy-two crew members of the Dauntless that made it here, maybe a dozen and a half had left their service weapons behind for something else. Half of those soldiers that had ditched their weapons because they decided that dismounting and bringing some machine guns were more important! Because of their quick acting, they now had three of the Dauntless's machine guns (Model 14 HotKiss machine gun), with some crates of ammunition but unfortunately none of its equipment (like its tripod). They had even managed to survive the ambush while carrying those machine guns! Anyways, the three machine guns were crewed by two ponies each, both of them completely unarmed, aside from their machine gun. Some of the other initially unarmed crew members had managed to scoop up some fallen weapons from the griffon ambush and had affixed a pony firing trigger to them, making them usable with hooves.

Aside from weapons, they only had a day and a half worth of food. Water, they maybe had half a days worth but luckily, there was a nearby stream that they could drink from. There was no extra medical supplies aside from their standard two bandages and whatever Wilson had carried.

Sighing, Blueblood looked up at the sky in frustration. His eyes caught a glimpse of a griffon a few hundred yards away and he drew his revolver.

"Stop." Blueblood jumped slightly and turned around, revolver at the ready. It took him a few seconds to find the culprit but when he did, he lowered his sidearm. It had been Tran and he was dressed up as a pile of leaves and dirt. The only reason Blueblood had been able to find him was that Tran had been standing, making the silhouette of his body quite easy to spot. "Meeting, machine gun nest." With that, Tran walked off.

Blueblood frowned slightly at the rather abrupt message but understood the urgency. He holstered his revolver and put away his notebook.

-X-X-X-

In the center of their encampment was a small circular trench/machine gun nest that had all three of the machine guns. It even had sandbags (made from randomly scavenged sacks, blankets, and haversacks) to further protect the gunner and a canopy cover made from the nearby trees. Once Blueblood climbed down inside of it, he found himself in the company of the four humans, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash.

Rarity narrowed her eyes at Blueblood while Rainbow Dash scoffed at him. "Do we really need him for this?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Applejack looked up and down at Blueblood. Blueblood proudly wore his REA uniform with a large trench coat covered everything. Everyone was all prim, proper, and clean. Peaking out from under his trench coat on his side, was a saber. "We ain't got no desk for yah ta sit behind."

Tran whistled, getting everyone's attention. "We're missing crew."

Blueblood nodded. "42 crewmembers unaccounted for. This includes the train's engineer, the train's assigned sapper, and the supply sergeant."

"Musta gotten lost in the run," Applejack said.

Rainbow Dash smirked. "Betcha I can find them in 10 seconds flat," she said while flaring out her wings.

Wilson snorted. "You're a fucking idiot if you don't think you'll be shot the instant you get to the skies."

Rainbow Dash growled. "Oh yeah?" she stepped closer to Wilson, ready to pounce but Tran stepped in between the two.

"Right now, they have all of their eyes everywhere on us. They've been watching us dig, emplace, and they know we're probably having a meeting. You'll be the only thing in the air that's not on their side if you go by yourself."

She jumped into the air and hovered to be at eye height with Tran. "Then what? We forget about them?" Tran grabbed Rainbow Dash and shoved her to the ground, eliciting another angry growl from the pegasus. She posed herself, ready to jump but Tran turned his body slightly, making it seem like he was also down to fight, and narrowed his eyes at her.

*Click*

Everyone here, minus Blueblood, since the beginning of this meeting, had been holding their rifles at the low ready, as any soldier would have. It was so standard that no one would have batted an eye at that. However, Tran, in what looked like he was getting ready to fight, had turned his body enough that the barrel of his rifle was now pointed at Rainbow Dash's face. That click had been the safety of his rifle being disengaged. Rainbow Dash's face dropped.

Tran turned away from Rainbow while Applejack suppressed her laughter and Rarity had her turn to smirk. "Rainbow, please reserve your outrage for the griffons," Rarity said.

Tran reengaged the safety to his rifle. "We need to send a team to link up with them to join back with us."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Ah thought yah said that they're watchin us? Won't they wipe out that team right when they make a move?"

Tran nodded. "That's why they need to be distracted."

Everyone immediately had the same thought. "How?" Applejack asked back.

"We convince them to attack us and when they fail, we launch a counterattack," Tran answered.

"And I presume that's when we send out the party?" Eric asked. Tran nodded. "We'll need to go all out. The counterattack team will need enough firepower to convince them to focus on them and we'll need the machine guns in the center to be ready for our eventual retreat back." Eric did a brass checked his AK74 and checked the mag. "I'll be on the counterattack assault team. I have the most firepower out of anyone here." Eric looked to Logan. "You and that shotgun, will be with me."

Logan grew an evil smile. "Maybe I can tactically reacquire something for us to use."

Eric looked to Wilson. "The search party will also need to be prepared to engage the enemy and deal with casualties. You have the second most firepower and you're the medic. How's your stock?"

Wilson removed a large backpack from his back. It was his medic's bag. He opened it up revealing an absolute treasure trove of medical supplies. "Might not be enough."

Eric took the statement in stride. "Bring some strong soldiers. You might have to carry soldiers back."

Applejack stuck a cigar in her mouth and adjusted her hat. "Guess ah got mah job cut out for me." She lit the cigar and took a few puffs before continuing. "I know some nice strong ponies that can join us. They ain't got that much gun tho. Everypony sides us got the short rifles." Aside from the machine guns, most of the crew members had Herdier No.2 Mk. 1s, a five round bolt action carbine. "How many soldiers we takin with us?"

Eric did some math in his head. There were seventy-two soldiers that they had on hand. For an effective counterattack and distraction, they'd need at least thirty soldiers. Any less and they wouldn't be able to create enough of a commotion to convince the griffons that they weren't making a secret move behind their backs. They would also need to have at least an equal number of defenders to stay behind when the assault force would inevitably retreat after wreaking havoc. That left behind twelve other crew members in the reserve.

However... Eric turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "How many fliers do we have?"

"Eight," answered Rainbow Dash. She flared out her wings. "Nine including myself. They were the Dauntless's aerial guard and scouts."

"Six of them will go with Wilson, but not as part of the rescue element."

Rainbow Dash tucked her wings back to her sides. "Then why are they going?"

"Getting help. Letting someone know that we're here," answered Eric. He pointed over to Wilson. "Once Wilson and his group make their move, I want them to alert anyone that we're stranded." He paused and held up two fingers. "I want them separated into two groups and headed off in different directions, flying low."

Wilson frowned, realizing what Eric had known for the past minute or so. "How many soldiers will I be getting for this rescue?"

Eric let out a pained breathe. "Six at best, choose some unwounded ones." Another grim reminder that things were limited; The wounded were also going to be involved in scenario. Of those who were fighting in the ambush that had happened earlier, no one had been wounded enough to be completely put out of commission but they still needed to eventually go to a proper hospital.

Wilson started grinding his teeth and everyone could see the irritation on his face. Worse yet, Wilson knew that it was an honest answer and he was just stuck in a shitty situation.

Both Rarity and Blueblood spoke at the same time.
"I'm going with you."
"I'll go with you."

The two of them turned to look at each other while Applejack snorted and Rainbow Dash looked like she was she was ready to die of laughter. The angry glare shared between the two prim and proper ponies was legendary.

"Yah really think y'all can get your manicured hooves all dirtied up with us ground pounders?" Applejack asked while eyeing the two ponies.

Rarity was wearing the standard REA uniform and it was absolutely spotless. She had the standard army revolver tucked in an enclosed officer's holster worn on her left side (worn exactly as regulations required) with a couple ammo pouches for her pistol and was sporting a capture griffon bolt action rifle (modified with a hoof trigger). Something that completely contrasted her uniform and accompanied "her" rifle were a set of standard griffon army leather ammo pouches, obviously filled with ammo.

"Yes,"
"Yes,"
replied the two prima donnas. The two started glaring at each other again.

Wilson stepped up to inspect Blueblood. "You don't even have a rifle."

Blueblood stood up on his hind legs, making him taller than Wilson. At first, Wilson thought Blueblood was squaring up but that thought was immediately destroyed when Blueblood undid his trench coat and dropped it to the ground. This revealed that he was wearing a standard REA uniform that rivaled Rarity's uniform in cleanliness, of which was absolutely unsurprisingly. It also completely revealed the rest of his cavalry saber and a standard army revolver tucked in an enclosed officer's holster, the exact same holster in the exact position and manner that Rarity was wearing/using.

Accompanying his sword and revolver, he was wearing a wooden pistol holster completely encompassed the pistol, save for a pistol grip. Just like Rarity, his belt was also adorned with multiple leather magazine pouches that were very long and thin. The leather pretty much gave away the origin as being gear from the griffon army (REA gear was made of canvas).

Blueblood reached from behind his back and pulled up a rather strange carbine. The first thing of note about the carbine was the magazine that stuck out from the bottom of the gun. The magazine was very long, sticking out of the carbine's exposed steel magazine well by about 20 cm and it was also very thin or wide. The carbine had a pistol grip stock that ended at the trigger and a small, short handguard that started after the magazine well. It had a half meter long barrel and from the back of the carbine's receiver, you could see the presence of an exposed hammer.

Wilson stepped away from Blueblood. "Good enough" Wilson commented.

Eric dug through his many pouches and pulled out a pair of orange smoke grenades. "Once we've got them on the retreat. We'll throw these out to signal out counterattack." He pointed at Rainbow Dash. "Once we charge, you and the other two fliers need to harass them. Try to get as much of their attention as you can. Make sure you brief the other two on this."

Rainbow Dash smiled. "You're looking at the best dogfighter there is!" Rainbow Dash boasted.

Eric shoot his head. "Don't try to engage them. Just annoy them. If they're on you, shake em, don't dogfight them."

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped. "But-"

"Not important" Eric interrupted. "We need to distract them from the rescue party and the messengers we're sending out."

Applejack smiled, despite holding a cigar between her lips. The smile died when she realized one important thing about the plan. She grabbed the cigar from her lips and exhaled. "Now wait a gosh darn minute. How in the hell are we supposed to trick them into charging right at us?"

Eric shrugged and looked at Tran. "I don't know. This was your idea."

"They'll attack us if we're unprepared for a defense," Tran answered.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "Ain't that bad thing?"

Tran nodded. "If they think we're unprepared when we aren't, then its not."

Applejack did a slow blink. "How in the hell are we supposed to do that?"

Tran looked at Logan. "How much coffee do you have?"

Logan shrugged. "Like a five pound sack, why?"

-X-X-X-

A trio of griffon scouts, from a kilometer away, watched the ponies with binoculars. They were there to take note of anything out of the ordinary. Even from this distance, they could easily see that the ponies were wildly unprepared. They hadn't even finished building defenses and they could clearly see that some of them had started small fires. In addition to that, the smell of coffee permeated the air. The highest ranking of the three griffons pointed to the lowest ranking one and sent him off with a message.

From a spot, hidden from any prying eyes, Tran watched this interaction.

-X-X-X-

Two griffons went over a hastily constructed battlemap of the area. The map depicted the general position of the entrenched ponies and the general position of the griffon surrounding them.

One of the griffons wore a pristine dress uniform free from any dirt and a large cloak across his back. The uniform was adorned by no other gear other than a belt that carried a holstered revolver and a sword gilded with gold that matched the shiny gold buttons and chains of his uniform. Covering his head was a leather helmet with a gold spike on the top.

The other griffon wore a combat uniform that was also free from any dirt and was adorned with many, many huge, circular leather ammo pouches. The uniform was colored a light blue color that blended well with the sky and was cinched down to her body. There would be nothing on that uniform that would flap in the wind at high speeds. Nothing, aside for the red scarf wrapped around her neck.

A short distance away, a griffon landed. Both officer and Jaeger noticed him. He was clearly a scout, judging from the short carbine he was armed with and the binoculars he wore around his neck. He saluted the officer and walked forward. "Sir, they've started small fires and we can smell coffee in the air."

The officer saluted back and turned back to the battlemap. "Eating this early? After a retreat? With major forces in the area? Bold of them to leave themselves open like this. Typical prey behavior? Regaining lost energy after bolting?" He used a stick to trace a circle around the entire position of the ponies. "Send in the troops now? Try to wipe them out early on while they're unprepared? Have we finally moved enough forces into this area for an assault?"

The Jaeger pursed her lips (beak?). "Easy. Too easy." She narrowed her eyes. "No one is that stupid."

The griffon officer folded his arms. "A feint?"

"I don't know but they could be faking it." The griffon officer slowly blinked while she cracked her neck. "I'll go in and find out what they're trying, maybe say hello to that hummingbird or that stupid cowfilly they have out there. Think those Americans' reps are overplayed?"

The officer picked up some small sticks and placed them on the battlemap. "Let's not leave that to chance. Scout them out and find out what they're doing first."

The Jaeger grabbed her scarf and tucked it under her uniform so it didn't move around when she flew. "If I shoot a flare into the sky, send in the troops."

-X-X-X-

Tran laid in wait, lying in the grass, like a predator that was ready to strike. He had managed to lose sight of the griffons and find himself a nice, secluded hiding spot. Only one person and one pony knew he was there. He didn't need the griffons being suspicious of why so many people were checking a random spot in the forest. Since he didn't have any form of wireless voice communication, he had to use signals. It wasn't ideal but it would get the job done.

He need to time when to start the attack. Too early and they'd be sending an assault to directly attack an opposing, in-progress assault, otherwise known as one big ass melee. Too late and they'd be sending soldiers into a completely retreated enemy with fully strength defenses.

With the fifty times magnification of his optic, he could see everything clearly. He had to time when everyone had to act and he would be the first to fire a shot. Once that happened, either Logan or Applejack would signal to everyone else to take the first steps in their move. The direction as to where they'd send in their assault was also dependent on where he'd be firing his first shots. Once the griffons found out where they would be attacking from, all of the attention would go to them and not on the rescue party being sent out in the opposite direction.

That was when he spotted a griffon fly in. The griffon in question flew in faster than anything he had seen so far since coming to this world and he could see the hints of a red scarf wrapped around the flier's neck. From their end of the defense, one pony flew out to intercept the griffon. She flew out of her foxhole at blindingly fast speeds rivaling that of the griffon that just arrived.

-X-X-X-

Rainbow Dash immediately noticed the incoming Jaeger and exploded out of her foxhole, as fast as her body could push. With the two of them flying at blindingly fast speeds, the two found themselves face to face in no time. One of the griffon empire's best and one of Equestria's best, faced each other. Both of them were eye level, hovering in the air and staring at each other for the longest time. Both had their weapons at the low and ready, waiting to be used. Who would make the first move?

The Jaeger broke the silence. "You're using that piece of junk?" the Jaeger asked, referencing the pony's choice of weapon.

Rainbow Dash eyed the Jaeger's gun. "You're right, maybe I'll get rid of it and use yours." The Jaeger's gun looked alien to the pony. It had the size profile of a carbine but everything else about it was different. The gun's receiver was one long circular tube and had a very short shrouded barrel that had the same size profile as the rest of the receiver. Instead of a magazine sticking out of the bottom of the gun, it had a drum magazine sticking out of the left side of the gun.

The Jaeger smirked. "You can try but we both know a hummingbird can't do anything to an eagle."

Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and smirked. "An eagle? Where? All I see is a chicken."

The Jaeger smirked back. "The same Dash I remember. Still with those same lame-O's?" she shot back.

Rainbow Dash's smirk dropped. "They're my friends! They're better than you'll ever be, Gilda!" Rainbow Dash immediately shot forward and tackled the Jaeger, doing nothing except for knocking the weapons out of both of their talons/hooves. Dash had speed and agility but that was all she had. She wasn't very big, actually being smaller than most other pegasus (hummingbird), which were already the smallest of the three pony races.

Gilda, barely affected by such a lame excuse of an attack, took it in stride. She was tremendously bigger than Dash and wearing a steel breastplate, the tackle hadn't even moved her. All it had done was close the distance between the two. Gilda slammed her elbow onto the hummingbird's back where her wing went into her back, eliciting a very loud crack from Dash's left wing.

Dash screamed and kicked herself away from the griffon, already reaching for her revolver. When her hoof met her holster, she found nothing.

"Looking for something?" Rainbow Dash looked at her opponent, barely being able to keep herself in the air, and saw that Gilda was holding the pony's Model 92. There had been a lanyard attached to the revolver but Gilda's talons had made quick work of that.

Gilda tucked the revolver away in her belt, on her back. "Its been good knowing you Dash, but you got lame," Gilda said while cracking her knuckles.

*BOOM*

A bullet soared through the air and hit Gilda in the chest. It went through one of the leather magazine pouches, drum magazines she was carrying, and then impacted the steel breastplate that she was wearing. The bullet, having lost a lot of its energy and being deformed from going through a drum magazine, didn't have enough energy to go through the breastplate.

However, the bullet still did quite a number to the Jaeger. The bullet splattered and went in all directions. Chunks of the bullet tore off the griffon's leather gear and sent it dropping to the ground below. Some of the other bullet chunks had gone into the griffons arm and more importantly, punctured her throat and the bottom of the griffon's jaw (beak?).

Gilda squawked and lost a little bit of elevation, dipping a little. She glared at her old friend. "This is isn't over!" Gilda yelled while clutching her bleeding neck. She turned tail and flew.

Rainbow Dash thought pursuing but decided against it. She probably had a broken wing while Gilda had two perfectly working wings.

-X-X-X-

Logan saw that Tran had fired (how could he not, that .338 was loud and the muzzle brake threw dirt and leaves in every direction) and signaled to everyone else that it was time to begin their move. The signal that he threw up, was a flare fired up into the air...

-X-X-X-

The griffon officer, through a pair of binoculars, saw a flare shoot up into the sky and blew a whistle. A significant number of the griffons, placed in an almost perfect circle around the entrenched ponies, charged. They came in from both the sky and the ground.

-X-X-X-

On the defensive side, every foxhole had a small fire burning. Each fire, much to the digress of Logan, had coffee grounds and beans roasting in order to fill the air with the smell of coffee beans. Once everyone had seen the flare, everyone took a bunch of foliage and threw it onto their fires. To be more specific, everyone threw still-alive green foliage onto the fires. The burning green foliage slowly started converting into smoke and started obscuring the surrounding area.

Logan and Eric stood together in a foxhole and overlooked the other foxholes, specifically the ones that housed the soldiers that they'd be leading into this mess. Logan, armed with this shotgun (sans suppressor) started shifting around while Eric, armed with his AK74, stood as still as a statue. Everyone, pony and human, covered their faces with a cloth as they got ready to charge.

*BOOM*

Logan and Eric's eyes darted to the direction of the gunshot. It had come from Tran's rifle. Why was he firing again? He was giving his position away! With the current level of smoke obscuration, everyone (griffon, human, and pony) could see Tran's silhouette running. Naturally, every griffon fired at the human.

They watched as Tran ran out to... Somewhere. He stopped for a moment and then starting running again, this time running towards them all.

Eric's eyes widened as Tran jumped down into the foxhole with him. He was wearing his makeshift ghillie suit as he was earlier. However, Eric could see that Tran was now wearing a set of damaged griffon leather gear and pouch set. He had his sniper rifle and Rainbow Dash's Harpy Model 6 slung over his back and held in his arms was this strange new gun that had a drum magazine sticking out of the left side of it. "What happened?!" yelled Logan.

Tran sneered. "That fucking idiot happened," he growled. "I had to save her from her own stupid ass decisions."

Eric paused for a split second, then remembered Rainbow Dash's immediate take off and exit. "Well fuck. Are we still doing this?"

Tran nodded. "Yeah but not yet. They're coming now!" Logan face went white and he looked off into the distance, aiming his shotgun.

Eric looked at the new gun that Tran had. "Where'd that come from?"

Tran shouldered the new gun and finally got to look at it. It wasn't a rifle or a carbine. Tran pulled the drum magazine from the gun and found that it was chambered in 9mm. There was a charging handle connected to a bolt and currently, it was in the rearward position. Tran pulled the trigger and the bolt shot forward with a dull clunk. He kept squeezing the trigger and cycled the bolt a few times, realizing that it was an open bolt full auto. There was no other lever or safety on the gun except for the trigger.

It was a submachine gun.

Tran stuck the magazine back into the gun and pulled the bolt back. "That fucking idiot fought a Jaeger and the two of them dropped their weapons."

Eric's mouth dropped. "And you thought it was a good idea to run out and grab them?!"

That was when waves of griffons came in. Because of the current level of smoke covering the battlefield, the griffons had managed to close a good amount of the distance before engaging them. The smoke idea was a risky tactic but it would help in the long run.

The defense setup was as follows. There was a main center collection of foxholes that housed the three machine guns they had, along with two dozen soldiers to help support them in a defense. Surrounding the center defensive point in the center, were 6 other groupings of foxholes setup like the points in a star. Each "point" or grouping of foxholes were three foxholes arranged in an arrow/point. It was basically a classic bastion fort, minus the walls. This would ensure that the outer points/collections/groupings of foxholes would have interlocking fields of fire and an area in the center to fall back to. Tran, Eric, and Logan were located in one of the out points/collections/groupings of foxholes, the furthest outer one of the sets too.

Everyone defending immediately started firing with their rifles. Tran, using his newly captured submachine gun, pulled the trigger and it immediately started spitting out bullets. It was a slow, automatic staccato. A slow fire rate indeed.

Tran looked at Eric. "It seems useful!" Tran yelled over the automatic fire of his new submachine gun.

Because of the smoke, the griffons thought that coming from the sky was a good idea. Attacking from the sky was generally a bad idea as there was literally no cover anywhere. With the current level of smoke obscuration, they could possibly make aerial divebomb attacks.

The outer foxhole defenders found themselves being attacked from the sky by brazen griffons but by the time they had come in close enough to fire accurately enough, the center foxholes, the ones with the machine guns, opened up to rip them to shreds.

Also, Logan had a shotgun. As he would say, "Pull!"

The griffons, facing such a response, realized that they weren't facing an unprepared enemy. They quickly turned tail and retreated. Once Eric realized that the griffons were retreating, he pulled out a whistle and blew into it.

*Fffwwwwwwhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeueeeeeeeee*

Author's Note

I live bitches.

I now have an old school, all steel, OBS, 1997 f350 dually reinforced flatbed with a 7.3 covered in barbed wire, fitted with stacks, and ram bar WITH disabled parking permits.

Now enjoy these horse words.

Tell me, what gun is Tran using and what two guns are Blueblood using?

War Is the Most Readily Available Form of Chaos

Two dozen ponies (crew members of the Dauntless), Eric, Logan, and Tran climbed out of their foxholes and charged. All they had to do was distract the griffons. They didn't need to focus on causing casualties, destroying or capturing resources, and or gathering intel. Just, stay alive and make sure they were focused on them. It was a pretty easy goal considering that all they had to do was run towards the retreating griffons while firing at them like maniacs.

By now, the smoke screen created by the "cooking" fires that everyone had disseminated across the area, providing ample long distance cover for their counterassault. In addition to that, Eric had chucked a pair of orange smoke grenades in the direction that they were heading in. This created two effects; It created more of a visible smoke screen and it signaled to everyone, pony, human, and griffon alike, that something was happening right there and then.

-X-X-X-

A griffon officer was punched in the face by a bleeding Jaeger. "Why in the fuck, did you send in the troops!?" demanded Gilda, whilst she clutched her bleeding throat.

The officer rubbed his face while angry looking at the clipped bird. "You sent the signal?"

The injured Jaeger grabbed the officer by his clean uniform, smearing it with blood. "That was their signal, not mine!"

Just as she had said that, a wounded scout crash landed in. The scout had a bayonet wound through his stomach and clearing had the butt end of a rifle smashed into him. "Attack repelled, too much resistance," the scout reported before collapsing backwards into a sitting position.

Despite her wounds, threw the officer aside and ran over to the scout to apply a rapidly pulled out packet of gauze. "You sent them into a goddamn firing squad all because you couldn't tell who fired the flare!"

Another scout flew in, landing in front of the officer. "Possible counterattack, orange smoke signal spotted even through smoke created from their campfires." The Jaeger pointed to the new scout and motioned him over to the injured scout.

The griffon officer, still standing there, actually had paused upon receiving the new information. "A counterattack? They're trying to disrupt our position or find out our defensive setup?"

Gilda growled. "Well no shit, did they send in a goddamn retard to lead us? Do I have to do everything around here?!" She unfurled her wings and got ready to take off again.

The officer raised an eyebrow. "I am a major?"

Gilda, if her hand (talon?) wasn't holding her throat, would have facepalmed (taloned?). "Pull in soldiers from surrounding area and bring them over to where that orange smoke is!"

-X-X-X-

Charging into battle. It doesn't matter if you're scared, don't show it. If you show your fear, the soldiers you're leading into battle will be scared. If you show that you have something to fear, you're televising to the soldiers that there is something to be fearing. You have to keep on advancing and if you do, your soldiers will advance with you. Lead by example.

And so, Eric and Tran led the charge. They were at the front, firing like madmen, not caring if they had a target or not. Everyone noticed, griffon and pony alike. While the retreating griffons had a head start, they were very close behind them and during the retreat, the griffons were in easy view.

Most of the retreating griffons suddenly dove down into cover and both Tran and Eric stopped running and took cover behind some trees. "Get down!" both of them yelled. Everypony and Logan stopped and either got behind some trees or dropped down into the prone position. Everyone successfully got behind some cover just in time for enemy gunfire to pepper their position.

Whether it was the smoke covering the area, miracle, or the fog of war, no one was hit but their advance was now stopped dead cold. It didn't matter too much. If this was where they wanted to fight, that meant that this was probably where they had more forces or their defenses set up.

Everypony else and Logan would cautiously fire a shot every now and then, if they had a potential target. Tran and Eric would also fire a shot every now and then, blind firing from where ever they were. Eric looked at Logan and threw a rock at him.

The rock to the head quickly got Logan's attention and his attention was diverted to Eric. Eric waved at Logan and then deliberately made a big sweeping hand wave at him with his left hand. Logan nodded and started grabbing ponies' attention.

Eric then threw a rock at Tran and got his attention. Tran looked at Eric but quickly noticed Logan's action. Tran diverted his attention back at Eric and nodded. In a heartbeat, Tran started firing his newly acquired submachine gun with reckless abandon.

Logan, along with ten ponies, grouped up.

Eric, upon seeing Logan with his squad, returned to shooting at the griffons. Eric, albeit with a fast trigger finger instead of a full auto mechanism, fired as quickly as he could with his AK74. "Keep up the fire!" Eric commanded. The remaining twenty other ponies, despite using bolt action rifles, intensified their rate of fire. Everyone remaining, had to make up for the sudden decrease in personnel.

On both the Equestrian and Griffon side of this firefight, no one had been wounded so far. A combination of good cover, the smoke screen they created earlier, and the natural effect of gunfire causing people to be suppressed, meant that accuracy was out the window. This exchange of wasted ammunition kept up for a lot longer than one would want.

Through this cacophony of chaos, an adept listener could hear the many different resources available on each side.

Eric's AK74 made a very distinctive sound when it fired, it using an intermediate light rifle cartridge coupled with a uniquely human muzzle brake. Tran's new submachine gun made a slow almost sewing machine like cadence of pistol ammunition being fired. The twenty ponies were using standard REA bolt action carbines that fired full powered rifle rounds with a rate of fire that was fast for a bolt action.

For the griffons, it was obvious that the Equestrians were limited on what they brought to this firefight.

On the griffon side, you could hear the intermixed fire of six or seven machine guns that fired full powered rifle rounds. The distinctive machine-like rate of fire made it easy to count them. Combined with the machine guns, you would also hear the additional gunshots that were brought upon by the griffon's rifles, also bolt action carbines, also firing full powered rifle rounds. The stacked or uneven fire rate brought upon by the usage of bolt action rifles made it easy to determine that the griffons outnumbered them.

That was when the gunshots from the griffon side increased in intensity and repetition. They were getting reinforcements.

Tran stopped firing and swapped over to his sniper rifle. He pointed up into the air and fired it. The .338 Lapua Magnum round that it fired, coupled with the massive muzzle brake it had, made the sniper rifle's report very loud and very unique. Tran worked the bolt on it, loading in another round, then fired again. The second gunshot sounded out, echoing through the forest, just like the first.

Eric stopped firing. He turned around to face Logan's squad. "Grenades out!" Eric yelled with as much volume that he could muster. Logan and the ten ponies he was with pulled out frag grenades and threw them. Seconds after they went out, they exploded.

For a brief moment, gunfire from both sides died out. A few seconds later, it picked up again. However, the gunfire from the griffon side came in more intense than earlier. They were probably now expecting an assault, an advance, or a flank.

However, Logan and his squad of soldiers were long gone. They had left in a different direction, away from this mess.

Elsewhere

The gunshot of Tran's sniper rifle rang through the forest, echoing for miles. A short moment later, several explosions rang through the forest. Upon hearing all of this, Wilson, Rarity, Applejack, Blueblood, and twelve ponies charged into the forest, in the opposite direction of where that firefight was going on. They outright ran as fast they could.

By now, the smoke screen that was deployed earlier was thick enough that it mimicked a nice, heavy, marine fog. This killed the griffon's ability to effectively watch the Equestrians and Wilson and Co. seemingly left the area without difficulty. The further they went, the more the sounds of battle died out.

Eventually, they were far enough away that it seemed like you could forget that a battle was going on if you weren't focused enough. They were also out of range of the smoke screen Wilson kneeled down and everypony else stopped behind him.

Rarity, drenched in sweat, trotted up to Wilson. "What is it?" she asked in between inhales.

WIlson looked at the other soldiers and noticed they were all in various states of exhaustion. He, however, was fine. "Everyone catch your breathe, we'll need it." Rarity happily nodded in agreement and ran a hoof through her brow, wiping away a river of sweat.

Applejack, barely a drop of sweat on her brow, trotted up to Rarity and patted her on the back. "At least yah got some time to spend with your colt dolt!"

Rarity angrily glared at her friend as she walked over to the other six soldiers. Rarity's curiosity betrayed her and her attention drove her to look at Blueblood, who was standing only a few meters away from her. The stallion in question was in a similar state of intense exhaustion, not being used to this sort of field work.

Blueblood, having heard Applejack's comments, flicked his ears in annoyance. "I'm your colt dolt?" he asked.

Rarity frowned. "As if I would lower my standards that far?!" she shot back. Applejack chuckled from the interaction.

Wilson glowered at the two. "Alright, let's go. That's enough of a fucking break." He stood up, KRISS Vector at the ready. "Eyes fucking peeled and get ready for anything."

Ponies had a significant handicap when it came to using rifles; they were quadrupedal. To use their rifle, they would have to adopt a bipedal stance, taking a dangerous amount of time to do. If they had a handgun, they could simple fire it without having to stand up on their hindlegs. Ponies could easily stand on their hindlegs but it wasn't a natural stance and they naturally wouldn't be walking around like that.

Every pony, upon hearing Wilson's command, stood up and took their rifles off of their back. Every pony made sure their rifle had a round chambered and that it was ready. Applejack, ever the cowfilly she was, had her Winnychester 1892 carbine. She, with great force and speed, worked the lever of her rifle. Working the lever had ejected a round into the air above her and loaded in a new one. The ejected round stayed airborne for a couple seconds before Applejack caught it and loaded it back into the magazine tube of her rifle. "Right, Ah'm ready."

Wilson waited until every pony was ready and then started marching. Every pony followed him, trotting on four hooves, Their intended destination was the Dauntless but not exactly. In the initial retreat of the Dauntless earlier today, one third of the Dauntless's crew went missing. They were most likely going to be near the Dauntless but not in it. The griffons had the Dauntless zero with artillery and would outnumbered whoever was still alive. Of course, the griffons probably knew this too.

With the gunfire and explosions going on over where everyone else was, a lot of attention would be redirected over to that direction. Anyone would be able to hear it for miles, meaning whatever crew that was still alive would also be able to hear it. There could be two possibilities; they would head towards the source of battle or away from it. Hopefully, it would be the former.

At the moment, counting everyone, there was sixteen of them. Applejack led the front with the six earth ponies that were with them. The center was composed of the six pegasi that would eventually take off to go on their own side mission. The rear was composed of Wilson (medics stay in the back) and Blueblood and Rarity (the ones with the least combat experience).

Wilson looked at the two prima donnas with their immaculate uniforms. Both of their uniforms were gilded with gold edges and tassels. It was absolutely gaudy. They also both of them sported the same rank, signified by a gold crown on their epaulettes and a silver crown on their sleeves. It was obvious they were both officers but Wilson didn't recognize the rank, even with how long he had spent on this world. "What the hell are your fucking ranks?" Wilson blurted out.

Both Rarity and Blueblood looked back at Wilson but Blueblood spoke up first. "Pardon me?" he asked.

Wilson pointed at the rank on Blueblood's sleeves with his non dominant hand. "What fucking rank is that?" he repeated.

Blueblood took a quick glance at where Wilson pointed at and realized it was his own jacket's rank. "Oh, apologies. I am a major, one of the Royal Equestrian Army, specifically the Royal Corps of Signals."

Wilson raised an eyebrow. "Wait, then why the fuck does fucking everyone calls you a fucking prince?" Blueblood and Rarity's ears twitched upon hearing Wilson's words. Wilson internally chuckled knowing that his natural way of speaking agitate them.

Blueblood swallowed before answering. "Because I am a proud prince of this great country!" he answered with as much pride in his voice that he could muster. "A member of high nobility! A-"

"Real asshole," Rarity interrupted. "With no chivalry."

Blueblood glared at the mare with as much indignation he could muster. "Pardon me!?"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Your ability to treat a lady and show her, her respects is absolutely lacking."

"And you would know how? Every lady I've ever met, I had treated her as my princess," Blueblood growled back.

Rarity's face grew red with anger. "Do you not remember what happened with the gala?! You treated me as if I piece of trash under your hoof!"

Blueblood chuckled. "I respect a piece of trash under my hoof more than you. The instant you gaze fell upon me, you didn't see a pony. You saw a title. You didn't pay attention to anypony or anything else."

Rarity froze like a deer in headlights, breaking her marching stride for a second before continuing. She looked at Blueblood, ready to respond but her gaze fell in silence. "I did, didn't I?" Rarity said while looking at the ground in front of her.

Blueblood glared at the mare, something Rarity couldn't return. "I deliberately left to see if you would follow me and you did. No matter what I did to you, you stayed by my side. Aside from not being from high standing, you mirrored every other noble I've had the displeasure of meeting." Rarity stayed silent.

Being tired of the awkwardness, Rarity finally spoke up. "I want to apologize. I guess I wasn't behaving like a lady, was I?"

Blueblood raised both of his eyebrows in surprise. "A first."

"Pardon me?" Rarity asked back.

"No noble has every apologized. They all just engrain deeper in their horrid behavior even more or deny any wrongdoing, never apologizing," Blueblood responded.

Rarity nervously swallowed. "You are correct, I wasn't behaving like a lady."

Blueblood let out a deep snort. "Let's start over, yes?"

Rarity smiled. "It would be an honor. An end to the constant hostilities between us."

"Yes, as equals."

Wilson finally spoke up, finally being done with this soap opera of a drama show. "Equally fucking worthless."

Both Rarity and Blueblood glowered at Wilson with a look of indignation. "Pardon/Excuse me?" they asked at the same time.

"Fucking both of you are fucking officers, worthless" Wilson immediately replied as if it were the most obvious of statements.

The two prima donnas simultaneously harrumphed at the American. "I'm surprised your friend, Princess Twilight, didn't tell you about me," Blueblood said.

Rarity looked surprised. "You're acquainted with Twilight?"

Now it was Blueblood's turn to look surprised. "Yes, we shared the same babysitter, Princess Cadance," Blueblood replied. "I'm astonished she hasn't mentioned that."

Rarity chuckled. "To be fair, she didn't tell us, her best friends, that she had a brother nor that she knew Princess Cadance until we went to their wedding."

Wilson didn't break stride but mentally froze for a second. "How many fucking princesses do you guys have?"

Blueblood huffed. "Just the five."

Wilson eyed the gun on Blueblood's back. "So what gun is that?"

Before Blueblood could answer, a gunshot sounded out from ahead of their marching formation. Almost everyone dove to the ground, aside from Blueblood. He had to be physically pulled to the ground by Wilson. Most of the ponies there, once they hit the ground, had their weapons off of their back and ready to be used.

Most.

Blueblood looked at the direction of where the gunshot came from, front hooves empty. Wilson also noticed this. "Fucking get your gun out!" Wilson yelled. Once Blueblood had in fact armed himself, Wilson turned his direction to the other important objective. "Where the fuck did that come from?" In a jungle or a forest, the report of a singular gunshot wouldn't travel very far. Was it a possible sniper that knew their position?

At the front of the formation, Applejack suddenly got up and walked out in the open. "Hold up," she called out. Wilson got up from the ground and walked up to the front of the formation and up to Applejack. From there, he looked in the direction of where the sound of the gunshot came from.

There, the source of the gunshot was visible, a singular pony standing out in the open. Wilson turned around to face the rest of the ponies. "Stay down!" he commanded. He turned to look at Applejack. "Let's go."

Applejack nodded back and the two of them walked towards the pony. The pony in question was wearing the standard uniform and gear of the Royal Equestrian Army and was armed with a handgun. When they got close enough, Wilson recognized the pony, he was the Dauntless's chief engineer. The engineer then waved a hoof and several other ponies, previously hidden, were now unhidden.

Wilson counted out the ponies there, twenty-three total. Most of them were armed, with rifles. Hell, two were carrying one of the machine guns from the Dauntless. A small handful, weren't armed at all. Most importantly, eight of them had visible wounds. Wilson slung his KRISS and set his medic's bag down, getting to work as fast as he could.

Applejack, after counting out the ponies, looked at the chief engineer. "Know where anypony else is?" Applejack asked.

The chief engineer let out a depressed sight. "I know ten that are dead. Three, captured," he answered. Applejack took her stetson off in respect for the deceased. "We got ambushed by some griffons. Death from above." Applejack redonned her hat and walked away, back to the ponies they just left behind.

After some time, this group of ponies was joined up with the group of ponies they came with. Blueblood and Rarity, led by Applejack, trotted up to the engineer and Wilson.

Rarity looked amongst the ponies there. "Is the sapper present?" she called out.

The tiniest earth pony stood up and walked up to Rarity. This pony looked like she was two thirds the size of your average pony. "Sapper, present!" she beamed while standing at attention. She was not armed. She also was not wearing a set of webbing gear but she did have her standard army backpack. She also wore a large tool belt and three pairs of saddlebags that were filled to the brim. Because of her small size, the collection of saddlebags and backpack looked like they were just as big as her.

Applejack eyed the saddlebags. "Damn, filly. Did yah try to take the entire train with yah?"

Wilson saw the saddlebags too. "What in the hell are those filled with?" he asked.

The sapper smiled. "TNT," she responded. "A hundred bricks."

Applejack whistled. "Now that's a lotta damage." Applejack grabbed one of the saddlebags off of the sapper. "Here, let me help yah with that."

Blueblood searched the other soldiers. "Is the quartermaster present?" he asked.

One massive brick shithouse of an earth pony stepped up. He didn't have a rifle but he sure as hell was armed as he had one of the Dauntless's machine gun strapped to his body. On the other side of his body were a couple crates of ammunition. Tied down onto his back was a massive wood crate that was marred with bullet holes.

"Damn!" Wilson exclaimed. "Do you also have fucking explosives?"

The stallion shook his head. "Food, meds."

"Beneficial to our situation," Blueblood commented.

Applejack pointed off in the direction that they just marched from. "Alright, we got dugouts about an hour in that direction."

The engineer shook his head. "We can't go yet."

"Ah'm sorry, what?" Applejack said back.

The engineer pointed in the opposite direction. "The griffons are commandeering the Dauntless. I think they'll be using her guns to bombard your position soon," he responded.

Rarity's eyes widened in horror. "The Dauntless's mortars have the range to reach our position and they're far more dangerous than whatever mortars they brought in for that barrage they displayed when we disembarked," she said. The salvos of shells fired that created the smoke screen for when they retreated most likely came from mortars that the griffons had flown in. This meant that the guns had to be portable. Portable mortars and their corresponding ammunition aren't that big in the realm of mortars. The mortars that the Dauntless were equipped with were siege level mortars. She had five of them and they weighed several tons each. Just the shells that these mortars fired weighed more than entire small and portable mortar systems.

Wilson stood up and away from the pony he was treating. "Is that why you grabbed all of that TNT?"

The sapper nodded. "Chief Steam Piston and I have already discussed this."

Wilson looked to the chief engineer. "Steam Piston? Is that your name?"

The engineer nodded and performed a mock salute to the human. "Warrant Officer 2nd Class Steam Piston, at your service." He dropped the salute and let out a slow, sad sigh. "We'll have to destroy her."

Wilson folded his arms. "You think we have enough explosives to do that?" he asked.

"Yes," replied the sapper. "We can either target the guns specifically or destroy the entire train. Destroying the train would be easier."

"Fucking what?" Wilson asked, puzzled upon hearing the sapper's statement. "How would it be easier to destroy the entire train than destroying just the guns?"

The sapper gave Wilson a predatory grin. "I'm glad you asked," she responded. "The Dauntless's mortars five siege mortars are spread across two center cars that aren't next to each other. To destroy the guns, we'd have to get inside the Dauntless and blow up the guns individually." She dropped both saddlebags filled with explosives and dug through her toolbelt, pulling out a coil of bomb fuze. "If we decided to destroy the train instead, we'd have to target the main engine."

Wilson threw his hands up in frustration. "How does destroying the engine destroy the entire train?!"

The chief engineer walked up to Wilson and jabbed him in the chest with a hoof. "That engine is a steam locomotive that is still under pressure."

Wilson shoved the engineer away and clenched his fist in anger. "And what the fuck does that mean?"

The chief engineer snorted in anger and tensed the muscles in his rear leg, getting ready to rear up. "20,000 liters of water at 300 psi? If that engine ruptures, it will be the biggest explosion you'll have ever seen. It'll be like an entire ton of TNT going off!"

Wilson threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "Fine, let's blow up the fucking engine already. How?"

The engineer took a step back, giving him some distance away from the angry medic. "That engine is armored to take anything from the front, top, and sides. We'll have to put the bomb under the train where it has the least armor and hope its enough."

"And," the sapper continued. "Putting the charge between the earth and the train will give the TNT a mostly unyielding wall that will force most of the blast up."

Wilson gathered up all of his medical supplies and swapped the KRISS on his back with his medic's bag. KRISS in hand, he performed a brass check. "What are we facing?"

The chief engineer pursed his lips. "Forty, maybe fifty griffons."

Blueblood looked around at the number of soldiers they had. "A fair fight," he commented.

Wilson smacked Blueblood upside the back of the head. "This is war, nothing is supposed to be fair!" The pony rubbed the back of his head in irritation but knew Wilson was right. "And its not a fair fight anyways!" Wilson pointed at the six pegasi that journeyed with them. "You can fuck off now." The six pegasi nodded and flew off in two different directions. They had 33 total, some wounded, some unarmed, and the griffons had a fortified position to shoot from.

The sapper looked at the pegasi flying off and frowned. "We could have used their help."

Wilson returned the frown with a scold. "They have their own more important task. We'll have to split our forces in half. One half to distract, the other half to blow up the train." Wilson pointed at the two ponies that had salvaged machine guns from the Dauntless. "Once we're there, setup where you can shoot in a wide zone." He then pointed at the sapper and the chief. "We'll be destroying the train, along with ten others."

The sapper nodded and set down all of her bags onto the ground. "I'll get three charges ready. Only one of us will have to get a charge in place."

Wilson pointed at Applejack. "You'll be leading the rear force that's distracting them." Wilson then looked at what soldiers they had available. "And I want all of the fucking grenades, now."

A short moments later, there was a literal pile of frag grenades. The sapper looked at the pile, giddy. "While I liked more and more explosives, why?"

Wilson smiled. "Combat in built-up areas requires extensive use of hand grenades."

Author's Note

"Combat in built-up areas (mainly during the attack) requires extensive use of hand grenades"

Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT)
The marine corp's bible basically.
page A-23, part 18

A lot of people in the Army have hearing damage. I used to be in artillery where most of the long termers had significant hearing damage. I was a unit armorer and later memo-ed to be battalion armorer/small arms repair. Basically, this means I went to every range, small arms or big. After six years of armorer bullshit and being in the army, my hearing is untouched. My ear drums have been inspected, audiogram done, tone detection tested, etc. I have basically perfect hearing.

Here are a few of the things that I have experienced without ear-pro/plugs:
A trip 7 firing on two separate occasions (one of which was a literal wakeup call)
A 120mm mortar
a 260 round belt dump from an m2hb from a humvee (I was the firer)
The other belts of .50 ammo from the humvee (fun fact, the driver of the humvee I was with got severe hearing damage from this because he also wasn't wearing ear pro)
3 different occasions of a patriot missile being launched
an AT4
an entire m320 range.
driving 3600 km in a truck that uses an unmuffled/un-sound suppressed CAT C15 15.2-liter diesel engine

War Is Fear Cloaked in Courage

Most of the crewmembers of the Dauntless were not frontline soldiers or had done ground operations on foot before. Most of the concepts and squad tactics that they would be using would be a little alien for them. Wilson, the combat engineer, the chief engineer, Blueblood, the sapper, and nine others loaded themselves up with as many grenades as they could fit on their body.

Everyone else set themselves up in a position that provided them with a lot of cover and concealment from either brush, trees, or the uneven landscape that they found themselves at. Machine guns and their tripods were setup, soldiers built up a good shooting position, and Rarity found a site where she could overlook the area with a pair of binoculars.

Surrounding the Dauntless, centered around the front of the train, flying in the air, were maybe a dozen or so griffons. They were probably in the air to act as scouts. On the ground, maybe another half dozen griffons were walking about. Inside the train, Rarity could see many, many griffons going about.

Wilson and the assault team got as close to their target, the front of the train, as they safely could before bunking themselves down. Wilson looked back towards their other half, the "bait" element, and waved. Rarity saw Wilson's wave and waved at Applejack, who was with the machine guns. Applejack saw the wave and tapped a machine gunner on the head.

All of the machine guns lit up, spraying the Dauntless and the griffons on foot (paws?). All of the ones on the ground dropped, whether they were hit by gunfire or taking cover. All of the griffons that were airborne immediately disappeared behind the train for cover. Wilson and crew waited as the gunfire intensified. The griffons were starting to return fire. Wilson gripped his KRISS tighter. Everyone in the assault crew were getting antsy or nervous. Applejack and her machine gunners were giving the griffons absolute hell.

Wilson got out from where he was hiding. "Let's go!" he screamed as he charged towards the train's engine. Everypony else got out from their hiding spot and followed him. No one from the assault team had fired a shot yet, they didn't want to give away their position.

The railroad tracks that the Dauntless sat on created a natural berm area that provided excellent cover and concealment for the griffons. Wilson was at the very front of the assault and as such, he was the first to make it over the railroad tracks and onto the same side that all of the griffons were hiding behind.

The instant he made it over, Wilson locked eyes with a griffon and the two of them froze. Then, more griffons noticed Wilson. Wilson then realized what he just did just as some of the griffons quickly tried to get their weapons to bear on him. "Fuck!" he yelled while diving back behind the other side of the railroad tracks. Gunfire went over Wilson's head as he slammed into the earth beneath him. He had been a split second from eating a bullet.

Wilson brought up his KRISS and immediately started blindly spraying over the berm, giving them a reason to stay away from him. Even over the gunfire, he could hear the griffons yelling and rushing to form a plan. Beside him, the other members of his assault team started gathering, joining in on exchange of gunfire.

Blueblood, one of the first members of the assault team to make it to the rally point, had his carbine out and was watching out for targets of opportunity when Wilson ran up to him and smacked him over the head. "Why aren't you fucking firing?!" Wilson demanded.

Blueblood looked around and wasn't able to see anything to shoot at. "I don't see anypony to shoot at!"

Wilson, stuck his KRISS up to be able to shoot over the railroad track berm. He sprayed wildly while sweeping his gun left and right. "Doesn't fucking matter. Give em a reason to stay down!"

Blueblood blinked a few times, letting that statement stew in his mind for a short moment. He then brought his carbine up to bear and cocked the bolt on it. Blueblood mirrored Wilson's actions and pointed his carbine over the top of the railroad track berm and sprayed it while sweeping it left and right.

With someone else providing covering fire, Wilson slung his KRISS and pull out three grenades. He pulled the pin to one of them, waited three seconds before tossing it over the berm. It exploded two seconds later and screams of pain came from the griffons.

"Grenade out!" Wilson yelled as loudly as he could. He pulled the pin to the second and third grenades and tossed them over the berm. Blueblood and Wilson watched as four griffons shot up into the air trying to get as much altitude as possible, but it was fruitless as Blueblood quickly had them in his sights and shot em down, one by one.

Blueblood froze, staring at the birds falling out of the air. Wings clipped, unable to fly, they impacted the ground hard. Some screamed from the drop, others didn't make any noise other than the obvious sound of smack of meat hitting the dirt.

Instead of trying to fly away, a few griffons, in an attempt to get to safety, tried running up over the berm. It was also a fruitless effort as Wilson was waiting for exactly that. After having downed the two griffons, he stood up where he was and exposed himself.

No one shot at Wilson as the only ones that remained that were able to shoot back had tried running away from the grenade, successfully doing so but had doomed themselves as they had shifted their focus from shooting at the assault team over to running away from the grenade. They tried to run to new cover, a tree line off in the distance, but were very easy targets for Wilson, being completely out in the open.

Wilson downed two of the fleeing griffons before some gunfire erupted from the tree line that the griffons were running towards. Wilson dropped back down behind the berm as bullets whizzed above him. "Fuck!" he yelled out when he hit the hard berm.

From there, he could see the frozen form of a still alive FNG Blueblood as well as the other members of the assault team starting to gather around him. Wilson locked eyes with the sapper. "Get to work! We don't have long!" he yelled out.

The TNT that they had were split up into three demolition charges and only one had to be set. The sapper obviously carried one of the charges while the other two went to the engineer and Wilson.

Wilson took off the demolition charge he was carrying and tossed it to the sapper who moved towards the train's engine, who was being followed by the engineer.

The engineer dropped his rifle and the demolition charge he was carrying before lying down on the ground. He looked to the sapper and said, "I'll put a charge underneath the engine, stick one inside the engine compartment."

The sapper nodded and set her rifle down before moving up to the side of the engine compartment but then realized something, she was too short to be able to climb up into the train.

"..." her face said. She looked at Wilson who was busy shooting over the railroad track berm and at the tree line. She tapped him a few times on the back to get his attention. Wilson stopped firing and looked at the diminutive mare. She pointed at the train's engine. "I can't reach up to the engine, can you help me? You're tall enough!" Wilson, the miniature medic, stopped firing and slung his KRISS. Having been called tall for possibly the first time in his life, he picked up the sapper and held her up to a large open porthole on the train engine's car.

The engineer, who was lying on the ground, tossed the demolition charge he was carrying in between the wheels of the train and underneath the engine. When the charge landed with a thud, he crawled in between two of the train's wheels, getting underneath the train.

By now, the assault team was taking heat from many different sources. Griffons that were dug-in in the tree line off in the distance were gladly returning fire. Another unfortunate source, griffons that had been inside the train when everything started, had, by now, figured out how to open some firing portholes on the train and were shooting out of them. Fortunately and unfortunately for both the griffons inside the train and the assault team on the ground, the angle of fire, due to the high positioning of the portholes on the already tall train, were so extreme that no one could get an easy shot on each other.

"Fuse is lit!" yelled the sapper from inside the train's engine car.

Way off in the distance, a pair of griffons flew up into the air carrying red flags and not long afterwards, the griffons that were firing out of the portholes stopped and their weapons disappeared from them.

"The fuck?" Wilson yelled out. That was when everyone heard it, a sound that nobody wanted to hear. It was a long drawn out whistle coming from up above. "Incoming! Get the fuck out of here!" Wilson announced. The sapper practically exploded out of the same porthole that she had climbed into, joining the rest of the assault team who had started running back towards the defensive position where Applejack and the machine guns were.

Shells rained down from the sky and impacted around the train, doing no damage to it and no members of the assault team, who had evacuated in time. The artillery barrage continued on for five more seconds before it died off, leaving only the sound of machine guns filling the air.

Wilson, leading the charge as usual, was the first one to make it to Applejack, Rarity, and the machine guns. Once there, Wilson immediately turned around and found a position to fire from, laying down suppressive fire. He watched as the remaining members of the assault team joined him, one by one.

Once he could see that there was no one else left running back, he found where Rarity was and waved at her. Rarity saw the gesture and pulled out a whistle, blowing into it. Hearing the signal, Applejack and the machine gunners started packing up their equipment.

The griffons probably thought that they had been trying to retake the train and failed. If so, the griffons would soon be launching a counter attack. It would take them time before they would have a new firing solution to whatever artillery they had so they had to leave quickly. The machine guns would be first, they would take the longest to pack up and leave.

With the suppressive fire of the machine guns gone, the griffons, off in the distance, could be seen charging towards where the Equestrian's main defensive position was. By the time the Equestrians had their machine guns packed up and going, the griffons had closed most of the distance and getting a lot of infantry to bear on that defensive position.

Wilson, looking at the some of the other members of the assault team, made a throwing motion with his hands. The members of the assault team threw as many grenades as they wanted, having a huge surplus of them. Getting up, Wilson went over to Blueblood. "Is everyone ready to leave?!"

Blueblood, looking around at the other members of the assault team, surveying who was there, shook his head. "We're missing the engineer!"

Wilson balked before moving over to the sapper. "Where's that coal covered piece of shit?!" he demanded. The sapper looked around and found out that what Wilson had asked was true.

The sapper gulped, remember where he was last. She and Wilson looked out from their cover and at the front of the train where the train engine was. By now, that area was teeming with griffons again but they could make out the form of the engineer still lying under the train. The chief engineer, despite being a considerable distance away, waved at the sapper.

The sapper, realizing the situation, grabbed Wilson. "We have to go back!" she demanded.

Wilson rubbed the back of his neck. "Fuck." There was a whole bunch of griffons in between the assault team and that engineer. They no longer had the support of the machine gun and were probably running low on grenades. "How long was that fuze supposed to last, on the charge you threw in the engine car?"

The sapper's eyes went wide and she checked a watch on her forehoof before looking back at the chief engineer in the distance. The sapper recognized the chief engineer shaking his head. The sapper saluted and the chief engineer saluted back.

Seconds later, the train exploded. Hot water and steam went in every direction as everyone was unable to hear. Half of the engine's car went airborne while the other cars were destroyed or derailed. Whatever griffons had been trying to advance on them were now dead, wounded, or knocked out.

The battlefield was quiet and the assault team stood up looking at the carnage. They walked away, in the direction of the others.

Author's Note

The US entered WWI 3 years late into the war. They were naturally inexperienced and had to learn a lot from their fellow British and French comrades. One of the biggest things they had to be taught was the idea of covering fire. A lot of US soldiers wouldnt fire until they could see a target to shoot at.

There Is No Glory in Battle Worth the Blood It Costs

Rainbow Dash's ears were bombarded with the sound of gunfire and grenade explosions as she quickly descended. With one broken wing, she didn't need to be airborne right now. She reached for her rifle and found nothing. She must have lost it in her struggle against Gilda. Smoke was quickly filling the air and making it harder to breathe and see. Not good.

Touching her hooves to some mud, she found it cold. It wasn't something she didn't like spending a lot of time in, preferring the air. There were gunshots coming in only one direction, both rifle and machine gun fire.

Snorting, she started legging it. She was very much going in the right direction because before she knew it, gunshots rang out through the smoke filled air and some bullets impacted the ground behind her. She dove to the ground, covering herself in the grime of the earth as more gunshots rang out, narrowly missing her. She closed her eyes and more gunshots rang out, more dirt going into the air and showering her while her ears zeroed in on the source.

It was definitely an Equestrian rifle that was making the potshots, judging from the sound. Searching through what brain cells she had, she found what she was looking for. "North!" she screamed out into the smoke, hoping that it wouldn't be drowned out by the sounds of battle.

Dash stayed still as several agonizing seconds ticked by, one by one. By some miracle, somepony answered back. "Cadance!" She slowly stood up and made her way towards her answered, finding a pair of ponies in a foxhole. When they could make out each other in the smoke, the ponies in the foxhole lowered their weapons and Dash joined them.

Despite all of the earth covering her, the two ponies recognized the distinctly blue uniform that Dash wore and saluted in response. Dash saluted back. All three of them dropped their salutes.

"Where's the center?" Dash asked.

Before any of them could answer, a bright light shone through the haze of the smoke that filled the air, taking the attention of everyone in the vicinity. Then, a tremendously deep and throaty gunshot sounded through the sounds of battle. A second later, it repeated. Another second passed and it repeated again.

It took everyone quite a while before they realized what it meant. All three of them threw their attention back to direction where the battle was being raged. All of the campfires in the area were snuffed out and they waited. And waited. And waited.

By now, the smoke was starting to lift and they continued to wait until... Figures started emerging and everypony held their breath, as did their fire. The figures turned out to be other ponies, returning back from their tryst with the griffons. All three of them took a breathe of relief as the nearby foxholes were joined up by their comrades.

One of the ponies that welcomed Rainbow Dash took note of her ragged appearance, looking her up and down. "Are you wounded?"

Rainbow Dash grimaced, feeling her wing. "Nothing that matters."

The other pony pointed in a direction opposite of their foxhole. "Command's in that direction." Rainbow Dash nodded and climbed out of the hole and was about to start trotting when she was stopped. "Wait!" She turned around to find the soldier holding out his rifle. "Just in case."

She took it and left.

-X-X-X-

Dash found the command center bustling with activity. The raid on the griffons had yielded a few serious casualties partnered with a few minor ones but no dead.

She also found Tran, Eric, and Logan. Tran immediately took notice of the brash pegasus and, despite showing the same dead expression that he had, was clearly not happy with her. "Look, I know I fucked up." Tran said nothing and reached back and pulled up... Her rifle and Gilda's gun, whatever it was. Her eyes widened but then she realized he must have been who had saved her hide by shooting Gilda. He reslung Gilda's gun before holding out her rifle, offering it to her.

When she reached out to take it, she found Tran's foot slamming into her chest and knocking her to the ground. She immediately shot back up and was ready to slug him back but untensed her muscles. "Okay, I deserved that."

Tran held the rifle out again and she reached out to take it again. This time, she was able to take back her rifle but Tran then kicked his foot out again, stopping his foot before it impacted her chest again. She shot backwards in fear before angrily glaring. Tran smiled, in her schadenfreude, for once. "No more, got it?" he ordered her. She nodded.

Tran reached back and held up Gilda's gun. "You did net me a new submachine gun."

Rainbow finally got a decent look at the thing and it was still, just so, alien to her. "Submachine gun?" she questioned.

"Fully auto subcaliber machine gun, chambered in a pistol round," he answered. A portable machine gun! She was so jealous!'

Logan turned around and held something up. "Wasn't the only thing we got!" He was just straight up holding a machine gun, a griffon one. Like most machine guns used in this war, it was watercooled. Unfortunately, he didn't have the tripod that was supposed to go with it. Either way, they could still, sort of set it up and use it somewhere. "Got a crate of ammo to go with it."

Eric opened up a wood crate, revealing some grenades. "These too," he added in. He pointed to the last of the crates. "Tran stole some of their mortar ammo too, nothing to fire it though."

She then felt pain in her injured wing as Tran grabbed it. She pulled back on it, sending even more pain coursing through her body. "Definitely broken," Tran said.

She pulled her wing back and winced. "Grounded now, I guess."

Fun.

Author's Note

Still not dead yet.

I Know My Soldiers and I Will Always Place Their Needs Above My Own

Everyone tried to settle themselves in as the night approached. Supplies, like ammo or grenades, were redistributed and rotating watch shifts were drawn up. If you weren't on guard, you were either sleeping or eating. Unfortunately, no one had brought anything for the night's rest and there was little food to be had. What was there to eat, would have to be eaten cold. A fire was useful earlier but now, it would be a death sentence.

The night was especially dark, the moon being barely started in a new cycle and the griffons had an advantage here, they could inherently see better in the dark compared to the ponies or any of the four humans with them being part eagle. It was something that both sides knew in addition to the established weapons and numbers advantage. They had their jobs cut out for them.

Rainbow Dash gave it her all in cleaning her rifle but she'd definitely need to get it completely taken apart and detail cleaned out, when she survived this mess. She had even used some of her feathers in trying to clean out the internal mechanism of her rifle but it was an effort in futility.

She was now focused on her next all too important task, food. This whole train fiasco started when in the morning and now it was night time. Since it all began, she hadn't eaten yet. All of the action that she had done so far today had burned a lot of calories that she had yet to account for. Worse, she was a pegasus, the most calorie burning variant of the three pony species.

What little food there was, was now being eaten. Whoever had the mind to grab their field packs, would have the standard emergency ration. Soldiers were expected to always have it with them and having it was an inspectable item that officers could ask to see. Unfortunately for everypony who had the standard emergency ration, they had to eat the standard emergency ration. The standard emergency ration consisted of three things.

The first part was half a kilo of hardtack. Hardtack was an incredibly dense cracker/biscuit that was composed of only two ingredients, water and flour. After being mixed, it was then baked for eight hours. The extremely long baking period made it long lasting and hard, very, very hard. Supposedly, it could stop a bayonet thrust if somehow worn as body armor.

The second part was desiccated (more like desecrated vegetables). Desiccated vegetables contained string beans, turnips, carrots, beets, and onions (no apples) that had been forced dried for several days before being compressed into a small brick (it could probably be used to make a house). Soldiers would often refuse to eat the desiccated vegetables because they tasted so dreadful.

The last part was a tin of a half kilo brick of chocolate. Unlike the other two parts, it wasn't an edible war crime. It actually had a good taste to it and most soldiers would enjoy eating it, if it came to it. Unfortunately, soldiers didn't get to eat it often as it was a very expensive commodity (industrially for the country to produce) and was only consumed in emergencies when other rations weren't available.

Rainbow Dash really wanted something to eat, anything to eat really. She wasn't one of the ones who had grabbed their gear, only having grabbed her rifle. She did, in fact, have a tin of the chocolate ration but it wouldn't have been good to eat right now, in terms of regaining proper body sustenance. Right now, she was in the center of their defensive position, looking over the supplies, wondering if she could find something to consume.

Being here in the most defendable position they had, she was also in the area where all of the wounded were. Specifically, these were the wounded who wouldn't be able to move much or fight with the rest of them. They were as comfortable and tended as the others could make them. Hopefully, they'd live to see the end of this.

The distraction counter raid had yield four casualties, two of which were severe enough to knock them out of commission. One was caused by a few unwanted bullets while the other was caused by a grenade explosion. They needed a hospital, not a hole in the ground.

Rainbow Dash's stomach growled and she grimaced. She was really hungry. If only Pinkie was here. If she was, she'd somehow have an infinite number of cupcakes or pie. That was when somepony tapped her on the shoulder behind her with no warning and she damn near jumped out into the open, had her wing not been broken. She almost damn near stabbed the offender but found herself facing Tran. "Don't do that!" she demanded.

Tran didn't say anything and held out his hand, offering her... A pair of large food bars? She cautiously took it and scanned it over. It was very dense and reddish/pink in color, appearing to be mostly made of oats and nuts. She tentatively took a bite of it and it was indeed, made of oats and nuts but strawberry flavored and with a hint of honey. She looked back to Tran, chewing on a mouthful of the beautiful sustenance. "Logan's homemade," Tran answered. "We suffer as one."

"Hank phu," Rainbow Dash said through a stuffed mouth. Tran nodded once before walking off. Dash was about to copy what he did and leave this area to check up on the other defensive positions when she looked back to the worse of the wounded, the one who had been shredded by a grenade. She thought back to how, despite the hostility between them, she and Tran was in this horrid situation together and they'd have to work together to survive this ordeal.

She trotted up to the severely wounded pony and gently tapped one of his forelegs. He groaned in pain and shuffled in the spot where he laid. His body was covered in bloodied bandages, including his eyes. The explosion had blinded him and he had served enough for this country in this blasted war.

He was part of that distraction raid that she had almost ruined. That was many hours ago. She doubted that he had eaten yet. She broke off a chunk of the food bar that she had started eating and stuck it onto the soldier's mouth who quickly recognized what was happening. He started chewing and soon swallowed. He let out a groan, not one of pain or discomfort but one of gratefulness. She finished feeding him the rest of the food bar and turned to leave but noticed the other wounded soldier sitting up with what little strength he had, looking at her.

She looked down at the second/last of the food bar that Tran had given her before grimacing again. She took one bite out of it, slowing savoring it's taste before she handed the rest of it to the other wounded soldier. He looked at her with a face full of appreciation. He didn't need to say anything, she understood. The wounded were suffering from a lot but hunger would not be one of them.

-X-X-X-

Logan had a lot of other stuff. He tried his best to distribute what he could. Grains, sweets, and other vegetarian foods went to the ponies, obviously. It wasn't enough for everypony to have but it was enough to supply the ones who hadn't grabbed their packs, and consequently their food. For himself, Tran, and Eric, they definitely had enough food to be comfortable, for now. He had a decent amount of pemmican and dried salt beef for them to temporarily subsist on. However, he didn't have enough coffee to share. He had enough for only himself. It was his black gold.

Eric chewed on a piece of dried salt beef. "You really enjoy hoarding, don't you?" His mouth was dryer than a desert in a drought, probably from the excessive amount of salt used to make said salt beef.

Logan crossed his arms and had a look of 'Are you serious' on his face. "You're literally eating my food." He and Eric were sitting in a brand new machine gun position, armed with a machine gun courteously gifted by the griffons. Logan's messenger bag was with them, one that was full of crucial tools and food.

Eric chuckled lightly. "True. I still don't know how you managed to bring all three of your bags."

Logan smirked. "Just talent, I guess." Logan reached down to his belt and pulled out a canteen and took a swig of it. He offered it over to Eric who took it.

Eric, with a mouthful of salt beef, took a drink from Logan's canteen in an attempt to remedy his mouth's salted status. Replacing the salt taste, his mouth was now filled with the taste of coffee... And whiskey. He honestly didn't expect that and choked on it a little before swallowing down whatever entered his mouth. Eric looked back at Logan who had a look of evil on his face. "You fucker," Eric said to Logan. Eric moved to hand back the canteen but froze. Logan was about to ask something when he heard it too. "GET DOWN!" Eric screamed out, loud enough that even hell could hear him.

Whistling filled the air and then shells started raining down from the heavens. Logan and Eric had ducked down into their machine gun hole together, cuddling up to each, close enough to wear each other's cloths.

Many, many shells impacted. No one had the focus to count. They were more focused on praying that they'd survive. The explosions rang in everyone's minds, reminding them that they could die any second.

When the explosions ended, some could hear pained crying/screaming. Eric jumped out of their hole, AK74 ready. "HEADS UP! WATCH YOUR SECTORS!"

It took Logan longer to recover. By the time he was up and manning his machine gun, Eric had already run off in the direction of where the pained screams originated.

Eric knew that the shelling was a preemptive strike, there would most likely be an attack and the griffons were probably going to want to use their superior night vision as soon as possible. The first sounds of gunfire erupted as he sprinted towards the screaming. Bullets threw up the dirt around him. Looks like they wanted a piece of him.

Author's Note

So I've done a few things since getting out of the army. I've managed to get a few silencers approved, along with a few anti tank bazookas and a mortar. Yes, I have rockets and shells for them.

Also, new meds. Wooo.

The True Warrior Is Not Immune to Fear, He Fights in Spite of It

Eric just ran in the direction that he heard screaming. It didn't matter if someone was shooting at him. If he got hit, then he got hit. For now, he wasn't hit yet so it didn't matter. A straight beeline sprinting made the trip very short and the source of the suffering was one pony who had been hit by shrapnel. When the shelling had started, he was inside a foxhole but had been sticking out of it when one had exploded nearby. He noticed one pony that was not moving at all as he slid into the foxhole with the screaming pony.

Shelling be damned, he climbed out of the foxhole and sprinted over to the pony and grabbed him before moving back into the same foxhole, being careful to not drop the soldier into the foxhole. His attention immediately then went to the screaming pony. Shrapnel had shredded one of his legs and part of his hindquarters.

Getting to work, Eric pulled a tourniquet off of his vest and stuck it on the bleeding leg. Working quickly, he then ripped out the two bandages that the wounded soldier was carrying as part of his standard gear and wrapped it as tightly as he could around the damaged part of the hindquarters. He then felt up the soldier's other limbs and performed a wound sweep, he found nothing on the other limbs.

He then put a knee on the wounded hindquarters, eliciting even louder screaming from the pony before turning his attention to the pony he had dragged. Even though his own heart was racing, he could feel that this other soldier still had a heartbeat. Luckily, the unconscious soldier was also actively breathing. Doing a wound sweep on this pony, Eric couldn't find any bleeding. Looking around on the soldier, he found why she wasn't conscious. Her helmet had a significant dent in it.

Well, she was alive and breathing so, good.

At that moment, the shell immediately stopped and everyone noticed. Heads stayed duck down but alert at the sky. While every pony wasn't capable of flight effectively every griffon was. Griffon tactics often involved an artillery attack shortly followed by an attack from both ground and aerial forces.

Hearing gunfire coming from all directions, Eric poked out of the foxhole and flipped the safety down on his AK. He immediately saw a pony and a griffon in hand to hand (hoof?) combat in another foxhole so he quickly ended that. He turned his attention towards the treeline and saw an approaching mass of griffons but before he could fire on them, something hard struck his chest and something else filled his vision while knocking his rifle away.

A griffon had dove in from the air and attempted to spear him through with a bayonet but fortunately for Eric and unfortunately for the griffon Eric's body armor caused the bayonet to snap. The griffon was shortly stunned at this revelation and before he could do anything Eric grabbed one of his lion legs and pulled him down into the foxhole before repeatedly slamming his fist into the griffon's face.

Whether he was dead or unconscious, the griffon stopped moving so Eric picked his AK back up and lit up on the encroaching mass of enemies. His heart was racing too quickly to accurately fire but whatever rounds he put downrange very obviously slow down their advance and sent them scrambling. In the other foxholes, ponies were adding their rifles to Eric's fire and shooting at the sky or the treeline.

Eric's rifle eventually clicked, signaling that it was empty. As he reloaded, the machine guns centered in the center of their bastion defense setup woke up, spraying the surrounding tree lines with machine guns. However, the machine gun fire only lasted a few seconds before it was silenced. 'What the fuck?" thought Eric. Chambering a new round, Eric looked at the other two foxholes. At least two ponies were sticking out of each one and defending this sector.

Climbing back out of the foxhole, he sprinted. This time, he made it for the machine guns. Dirt kicked up around him, implying that they were trying to shoot at him but were missing. Looking back, he sprayed wildly with his AK. He wasn't really trying to hit anything, only trying to keep them occupied. They stopped wasting their ammunition on him by the time me made it halfway to his intended goal, probably more focused on the foxholes.

That was when a griffon dropped from the sky, dead and landing in front of where he was running. Looking up, he saw another griffon, this one diving towards him. Eric aimed his rifle up but before he fired, the griffon closed the distance and knocked his rifle aside. Eric heard a gunshot and felt a bullet impact the plate in his front chest carrier. He didn't have much time to think about it so he shoved the assailant away, immediately seeing the source of the bullet, a revolver that the griffon had somehow drawn. Before he got shot again, Eric let go of his rifle and quickly drew his pistol, firing it from his hip at the direction of the griffon.

Eric didn't stop firing until the griffon dropped and once he did, the pistol was returned to its holster. Heart racing, Eric picked up his AK and aimed up at the sky to check for more possible attackers. He found nothing so he continued his previous goal of getting to the machine guns.

It turned out, the griffons had very much rightly seen the machine gun nests as a serious threat so it had been directly attacked by a team of griffons, that the ponies in the machine gun nest were still combating. Raising his rifle, he started to fire at whatever targets he could target. Griffons dropped, taking as many rounds as needed. When his rifle clicked empty, Eric wasted no time, letting go of it. The rifle fell against his body as it was still slung and in the split second that it did, Eric drew his pistol and started firing with it as fast as he could. It too clicked empty so he drew his revolver with his support hand and fired away but before it emptied, any griffons left were dealt with.

Running forward and getting into the machine gun nests with both handguns in hand, Eric looked at the damage. Many of the members of the machine gun nests were very much no longer in fighting condition. Some were obviously dead while many others were severely wounded. Worse yet, one of the machine guns and its crew had been completely wiped out by a direct mortar impact.

Reloading his AK74, Eric looked at a conscious pony. "Are you hurt?!" he demanded. The pony, shocked at the battle that he partook in, took a precious moment to gather his senses before he could reply. Once he did, he shook his head. Eric picked up the pony and threw him at a working machine gun. "Shoot!"

It took some time, time that would cost lives, to get the two still functioning machine guns firing. By some miracle, there had been enough ponies left unwounded to man them and a few after that to tend to whoever was wounded but their numbers would affect how effective the machine guns would be in the long run. In addition to that, the machine gun that Logan had stolen and set up was also speaking its deadly language in addition to the remaining machine guns they had.

Unfortunately, two sections of their defensive setup were unsupported by machine gun fire. Gritting his teeth, Eric finished reloading his weapons and stood up out of the defenses to get a better look. Both of the unsupported sections were getting hammered. On one of the unsupported sections, despite having no covering fire, the griffons were actually having no progress. The griffons in that section were being held back by the few ponies left in that area and... Tran.

The other unsupported section, the attacking griffons were getting close to overrunning them. Eric finished reloading his pistol and drew his AK. He rose up enough to see and took aim, firing quickly at the encroaching invaders. Bracing the AK against the earth, Eric's rifle took up the role of an impromptu light machine gun. The safety lever was flicked up one position and it spat out a familiar repetitive staccato that many were familiar with.

Eric's first mag definitively scattered their willpower. Even though most of the shots missed, it definitely notified the griffons that they were in sights of someone with a lot of firepower. By the time Eric's second mag went dry, the griffons were stopped in their tracks.

That was when a significant amount of gunfire erupted in the distance, past the attacking griffons. That gunfire quickly advanced on them when suddenly, the griffons advancing on them took flight. Despite the risk, all of them retreated, a few falling to lucky potshots. Eric stood up to look at the other sections. Like a spooked flock of birds, the griffons attacking the other sections had also taken to the skies.

However, the new uninvited guests to join their fray were still approaching, gunfire still alive. With no target left, everypony and Eric stopped firing. Tightening his grip on his rifle, Eric waited. "STEADY!" Eric commanded. Fortunately, their new guests were Wilson and the other members of the Dauntless! Eric breathed a sigh of relief.

-X-X-X-

A separate area was made and dugout for the wounded to be kept. It was in the center of their defensive position but offset to the machine guns, in case those nests were targeted again by mortars. Then, there was the dead. They were kept on the opposite side of the machine guns, in the open. Their was no free time or energy to bury them. They could only be covered.

Wilson did his best to tend to the wounded, starting from the worst. He had his job cutout for him. As he worked, someone tapped him on the shoulder. "What?" He didn't even bother facing them.

Tran's voice answered. "We've gathered all of the badly wounded, except for a few."

"Why?" Wilson demanded.

"One can't be moved and the other, I think I'll be fine." Wilson stopped what he was doing and looked at Tran. There was two long bayonets sticking out of his body.

For He Who Has Shed His Blood With Me Shall Be My Brother

Blueblood went over the facts.

Forces were re-divided so that there was an even coverage in all directions. Fortunately, their firepower was doubled with the additions of the two machine guns that they had salvaged from the Dauntless. They also increased their supply of food but, it was only enough for maybe a day if they rationed. Grenades were effectively out and ammunition supply was starting to get antsy.

In terms of manpower (pony power?), they had lost a eleven ponies in the attack with another dozen and a half wounded severely enough to completely compromise their fighting ability. All they had to worry about now, was just waiting for help however many days that took. Even with the new reinforcements from Wilson, they were still at a loss especially considering some of them had already been wounded to start with.

Sitting in a circle, Eric, Tran, Blueblood, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash sat in a circle passing around a brick of Logan's emergency food, lit up by only the moon's dim light. When Eric's turn came around, he damn near dropped the precious thing. His body was still packed with adrenaline from the battle and his hands were shaking like a Parkinson's patient being tased.

Applejack took notice and took off her stetson and pulled a large flask from it, popping it open and holding it out to Eric. "This'll calm ya down some." Eric took the flask and brought it to his face, immediately getting the odor of alcohol. Very, very strong alcohol. He took a sip and immediately went into a coughing fit. Applejack chuckled as he handed it back to her. "Yeah, get's ya every time." She took a sip herself and coughed once before composing herself. "Used tah make it mahself. Don't get to nowadays."

Applejack smiled and looked at her best friend, Rainbow Dash. She looked pretty ragged herself. Probably not used to fighting on the ground. For once, her boisterous self wasn't expressing its usual status, loud. "What's got your tail in a twist?"

Rainbow Dash frowned. "My wing's broken!" She said while displaying said appendage. She winced from the pain it caused it. "And when they attacked, my rifle wouldn't work! I had to use a pistol!" In that battle, she had fought in one of the foxhole groupings, one that was completely manned, getting no casualties from the initial mortar attack. She and the rest of the soldiers she was with were luckily able to easy stop the griffon attack in their section.

Applejack snorted in amusement before offering her the flask with a challenging grin. Rainbow Dash returned the grin with her own cheeky smile before taking the flask and taking a sip of it. The instant the liquid touched her throat, her eyes bulged and she immediately started coughing and heaving like she had just breathed in pure hate. Applejack started laughing like a banshee, having expected that outcome. "Holy Fucking Celestia, is this moonshine or poison!?" Rainbow Dash demanded.

"Little ah both," Applejack replied.

Rainbow Dash looked down at the flask with a frown before realizing her next move. She looked at Tran with the same challenging grin that Applejack had given her. She held it out. Tran stared at the flask, frozen in time as it seemed. "Chicken?" Rainbow Dash goaded.

Tran stared at the flask for another second before taking it and taking a deep inhale of its aroma. He looked at Applejack. "Apples and peaches?" he asked. Applejack nodded. He put the flask to his lips and took a long sip of the flask. After he had accumulated a significant amount in his mouth, he loudly swished it around to prove he had not falsified anything. He held it for a few seconds more in his mouth before swallowing it all. Everyone waited. Nothing else happened.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash's mouths were agape. "Reminds me I'm alive," Tran stated.

Eric eyed the two bayonets sticking out of him. The standard griffon and REA bayonets used half meter long blades. One was stuck in the upper right section of his back. A griffon had tried to bayonet him from behind, hitting the back plate of his armor. However, it slid off and then imbedded itself in his right shoulder left before the blade snapped off half way down. The other bayonet was stuck all the way through his thigh and out the other side and it was the entire bayonet, hilt and all but obviously disconnected from the rifle that it was originally mounted to. Pulling either out could possibly worsen or make a tremendous wound so all that had been done was a bandage being wrapped around the entrance and exit points of the bayonets, around the blades. He should be among the wounded, just waiting for help. He had more work to do.

Tran looked to Blueblood. Blueblood was originally, as they say, a deskie. He wasn't supposed to be fighting directly but here he was. Either way, it was his duty. Despite the battle at the train that he fought being long ago, his mind still hadn't moved on. Tran held the flask out to Blueblood. "Drink." It wasn't a suggestion. It wasn't a question. It wasn't an offer.

It was an order.

Blueblood's mind snapped out of it and he realized what Tran had said. Everyone watched as Blueblood tentatively reached out to take the flask. Everyone could see the uncertainty in Blueblood's mind. "Drink." Blueblood put the flask to his mouth and took a slow sip. Swallowing, a warm shiver went through Blueblood's body and he realized what he had done.

"Blech!" Blueblood exclaimed, sticking his tongue out. "Dear heavens, that is horrid!"

Applejack smiled while Rainbow Dash had her turn at laughing like a banshee. "As strong as Ah could make it," Applejack responded while taking the flask and tucking it away. "If y'all are hankering for somethin that ain't like drinking kerosene, Ah'll let yah have some. If'in we survive this mess." Rainbow Dash smiled, knowing what it meant. Tasty, tasty cider. As for Tran and Eric, they were up for any alcohol. Free alcohol is the best type of alcohol. As for he Blueblood, he reflected on the offer. He really wanted to refuse but he couldn't. He smiled for once and nodded.

-X-X-X-

Wilson eye's were closed. He wasn't trying to sleep. He was trying to listen. It was dark and he could hear everything. Soldiers' kits being banged around, the occasional griffon flapping about, undecipherable conversations, and some people/ponies heaving their lungs out, he heard.

He also heard pain. The wounded were suffering and he heard it. It wasn't isolated to just them either. In the act of defeating that attack, the griffon left behind a lot of dead and a lot of wounded. Letting out a weary sigh, he gripped his gun tighter. He had work to do.

-X-X-X-

Gilda, even wounded, was in her element. She could effectively see everything they were doing in this near darkness, watching with a new rifle at the ready. That human had stolen her submachine gun and there wasn't any other to replace it, being a relatively new firearm. She snarled, knowing her own gun was being used against them.

That was when one of the humans had jumped out of their defenses and ran towards their outer foxhole defenses. Surprisingly, he went past their foxholes and kept on going, as if they were about to conduct a raid on them. She raised her rifle and signaled to some nearby others to get ready for some action. What could he accomplish by himself? Was this another ruse?

She was getting ready to fire but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that he had stopped at where one of their own wounded soldiers had fallen. They had to be left behind in the retreat. If they had made an attempt to evacuate them, it would only result in more casualties. Astoundingly, the human, a member of the REA, were tending to their wounded, members of the Griffon Empire . What was going on? Gilda lowered her rifle and motioned for the others to do the same.

The human carried the downed griffon away and added it to their own wounded. Slowly and over a long period of time, at great risk to his own health and safety, the human went around and tended to the other wounded griffons while also adding them to the pile of their own wounded.

-X-X-X-

Wilson placed the last of the wounded enemy griffons with their their own wounded, having removed everything off of their bodies aside from uniforms. He tried his best to give the griffons some food and water while scavenging what supplies those griffons had.

Why had he done this despite the griffons being the enemy?

Their job was done now and there was no point in their continued suffering. They're wounded now, why would they be an enemy anymore?

Author's Note

hypothetically speaking, I might have been the soldier who made peach cinnamon moonshine in the barracks closet that was 160 proof

All’s Fare in Love and War

The air smelled like death. The smell of blood filled the air and the corpses from the previous day's battle was starting to decompose. Rats were roaming around trying to fill their stomachs with the casualties and flies buzzed around, irritating everyone. Then, there was the sewage. This fight had lasted long enough that enough soldiers had to answer to nature's call. Many attempted to bury it but the effort for some was too much.

It was a cesspool.

For the ponies, they were incredibly bothered by it. They were a prey species and they didn't like being around the scent, while also having a very power sense of smell compared to a humans' or a griffons' who were both natural predatory species. Still, that didn't mean that either weren't bothered by it.

Every soldier had their method of dealing with it. Some plugged their noses or wrapped cloth around their faces. Others just tried to ignore it but were failing miserably. Logan, was absolutely bothered by it and was double fist chain smoking cigarettes in an attempt to mask it with anything. He was on watch with the fellow ponies in the outer foxholes. He had generously given the nearby ponies in the two foxholes next to him cigarettes to also deal with the smell.

Then, Blueblood passed by, who had been going around checking with the soldiers. He hopped down into the foxhole with Logan, face grimaced from the smell of death in the air. "Having fun?" Logan asked.

Blueblood's grimace grew. "This foul stench is absolutely atrocious! I don't know how you can tolerate it! I can barely repel all mental attempts to stay towards the center where its somewhat bearable." Logan chuckled and offered Blueblood the cigarette he was currently smoking. Blueblood was aghast with the idea of taking sticking it his mouth. It had Logan's slobber on the end and smoking cigarettes had a reputation for being rather tarnishing to one's image.

However, Blueblood looked down at himself. His once perfect uniform was now marred with the debris of the field and he had already done a number of things that one would call 'uncouth'. He lit his horn and his telekinesis grabbed the cigarette from Logan's hand, going into his mouth. Taking a drag and breathing it in, he coughed lightly. It filled his mouth and lungs with a terrible taste but at least it was better than the smells of death. Blueblood looked back to Logan who had already started another cigarette. "I am indebted to your kindness."

Logan snorted. "No problem." He dug through the gear he was wearing and dug out an unopened pack of cigarettes. "Here, I got plenty to go around."

Blueblood accepted it and tucked it away. Before he could say anything, some shots rang out from the griffon's defenses. Logan shouldered his Mosin Nagant and Blueblood looked at the line.

"They're coming!" somepony yelled out.

Blueblood looked out of the foxhole in search of anything, as did Logan who was looking through the scope of his rifle. Logan noticed Blueblood was just gripping the edge of the foxhole they were in. "Get your gun ready!"

Blueblood realized his mistake and pulled out his rifle, pulling back on the bolt and chambering the round. "I'm sorry. I'm still not accustomed to this lifestyle."

Logan let out a sigh through his nose. "Just try next time. I'm not either but I've learned enough." Unlike the three others, Logan had never served in the military or seen anything resembling combat.

That was when the air was pierced by the loud sound of a wolf howling in the distance, followed by the sounds of more gunfire from the griffons. Then, everypony could see griffons taking to the air, off in the distance.

And then many large wolves exploded out from the line. The ponies and humans added their shots to the mix but it was quite the challenge. The wolves weaved left and right, causing shots to be missed. They were fast and the bolt action rifles that everyone wielded turned the panicked follow up shots into more misses. Even Logan couldn't get a good shot out. His scoped, bolt action rifle made it quite the impossible task. The only one to actually hit one of the wolves was Blueblood, who was armed with a semiautomatic carbine. He missed most of his shots but spamming it caused him to at least deal with one of the wolves.

Unfortunately, there was a lot more than one wolf. They were huge, bigger than both the ponies and humans and were very fast and strong. The wolves closed the distance and they were upon the ponies stuck in the foxholes. One wolf tackled Logan, pushing Blueblood aside and knocking both their rifles away before biting Logan's arm, using its weight to pull him partially out of the foxhole. Panicking, Logan used his other hand to pound on the wolf's head but it was for naught.

Luckily, Blueblood recovered quickly and despite being filled with the instinct to run away, drew his revolver. The short distance made it easy to not miss but six rounds from it barely made the wolf flinch. Panicking, Blueblood headbutted the wolf, horn first. His horn went into the wolf's throat, goring out a large wound. Blueblood pulled back, head covered in blood and unable to see in one of his eyes, not from injury but stinging from being irritated from the crimson shower.
This had finally distracted the wolf enough for it to let go of Logan's arm. As it reared back to attack again, Logan reached for his sidearm. Disastrously, Logan's dominant arm had been the one that became a chew toy and it was too much of a challenge in trying to draw a pistol.

Gritting his teeth, Blueblood dropped his worthless revolver and drew his other sidearm. Again, at point blank, he didn't miss. After the sixth round, the wolf was dead but Blueblood fired the last four rounds of his pistol into the wolf's corpse due to the adrenalin running through his body.

Neither Logan or Blueblood had much time to relax. Logan drew his sidearm with his other arm and Blueblood picked his carbine back up. The foxholes to their lefts and right were still in combat with a wolf of their own. Logan and Blueblood took aim at the wolves attacking the neighboring foxholes, firing like madmen. They weren't killed but it gave the wolves enough pause to change their minds. Before they could be finished off, the wolves ran off, tail between their legs.

While they weren't dead, the ponies in the foxholes next to them were definitely not in perfect condition.

Gunshots and fighting came from the other sections of their defense but they too were able to fight off however many wolves attacked them. Most of the ruthless predators hadn't been killed. Most had been driven off and injured enough to be scared off... For now.

Relaxing, Logan clutched his torn up arm to his chest, while his other arm was occupied with scanning the area with his pistol. Once he realized that all of the gunfire stopped, he holstered his pistol and felt all of the pain that his adrenalin was previously holding back. "Fuuuuuuuuuck." He looked to Blueblood, who was wiping the blood out of his eye. "Thanks for the help."

Blueblood felt a shiver run through his body as he finally had the time to realize what he had done and the amount of filth that he had forced himself to endure. "I would implore that you don't compel me to perform such barbarism again." He picked up his service revolver.

Logan looked at the revolver and gritted his teeth. He had started bandaging his arm from the amount of damage it had received. "That thing's fucking worthless. Six shots didn't do shit to that thing!" Logan yelled. Blueblood looked at the revolver and couldn't argue. It was a true statement. "Get rid of that shit!"

Blueblood looked at his other sidearm. It was a gift to him and was originally a griffon pistol bought before the war had started. It was quite powerful and significantly more effective than his other sidearm. "You're right. I should rectify it." Logan raised an eyebrow but was impressed when Blueblood straight up threw his service revolver off into the distance, followed by the holster and its ammo. "Why impede myself with useless weight?" He was right, ounces equal pounds.

-X-X-X-

The griffons hadn't been excused from the wolf threat either. They had to protect their wounded on the ground from being wolf food and that had yielded many casualties in that defense.

Gilda looked at their collection of wounded, their own medics trying to tend to the injuries. Next to her, was the major who was technically in charge of this operation. "Why hadn't everyone flee from those vermin?" stated the major.

Gilda looked at the major with anger. "If we hadn't done that, the wounded would have been ripped to pieces and eaten alive!" she screamed at him.

The major just stared callously at the numbers they had left. "The amount of soldiers we can commit to fighting have decreased?"

Gilda twitched in anger. "When you're wounded, we'll leave you to the wolves. As for the others, we have to do something." While the major was technically in charge, she was the Jaeger attaché. Jaegers had a strange level of authority and could sort of take over if they wanted.

"And what would you propose?" asked the Major

Gilda told him. The major disagreed. Gilda didn't care.

-X-X-X-

Everyone noticed her. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack definitely noticed her. Gilda had slowly flown down towards the center of the ponies' defenses, wearing a long flowing white blanket. She was also carrying a large white flag. Everypony was pointing their weapons at her.

Rainbow Dash was especially attentive, her hoof twitching on the trigger of her rifle. She wanted to do it. Give her the reason. End it.

Eventually, Gilda landed. Rainbow Dash immediately bolted out of cover but Tran grabbed the back of her uniform, stopped her in her tracks. She looked up at Tran who looked back with his usual emotionless gaze that somehow conveyed his irritation. She was reminded of the agreement she had made and sighed before looking back to Gilda.

Gilda especially noticed this and smiled. Tran, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity slowly approached the Jaeger, pistols (and hand cannon) drawn on her. Applejack decided to stay behind cover, aiming her lever action at the griffon.

Gilda let go of the white flag, letting it drop to the ground and crossed her arms. She gave Rainbow and Tran an aggressive ready-to-fight look. "I see he's got you on a leash, huh?" Gilda goaded. Rainbow Dash blood boiled and her wings twitched. Gilda smiled, knowing she hit a nerve. Looking to the others, she balked at Tran. First of all, he had her submachine gun. Second of all, he was impaled to two bayonets and looked completely unbothered by it. Lastly, he was armed with the largest sidearm she had ever seen. She wanted her submachine gun back and maybe a copy of that hand cannon.

"What do you want?" Rainbow demanded.

From here, Gilda could see where they had setup their wounded. She could also see her fellow wounded griffons that they had tended to. "We got attacked by wolves and I know they attacked you too. They're not done with us yet."

They immediately realized what she was suggesting. "Are you advocating for a truce?" Rarity asked.

Rainbow Dash flared out her wings and got ready to pounce. "No way!"

Rarity looked to Rainbow and held up a hoof. "Dash, we need to hold our differences aside for the greater good. Those horrid beasts will be back."

Dash was offended she would ever suggest working with Gilda. "But-" Tran stepped in between Rarity and Dash, staring down at Rainbow. Dash sighed, knowing Rarity was right.

Tran turned to face Gilda. He holstered his revolver and held out his hand. "No tricks, got it? We've already started caring for your wounded that was left behind."

Gilda, with took his hand and shook it. "We've seen. No tricks, you've earned it."

She let go of his hand and was about to fly off when Tran grabbed Rainbow Dash and shoved her in front of the griffon. "Shake."

Dash begrudgingly held up a hoof. Gilda smirked, grabbing it and shaking. "He really does have you on a leash, huh?"

Dash almost punched her in the throat when Tran stepped in between the two. He pointed to the dent in her armor from when she was shot fighting with Dash. "I will shoot you again if you cause any trouble, got it? I don't miss."

She had heard the rumors of him dealing with her fellow Jaegers and of him hitting a general from over a kilometer away. She swallowed, realizing he had been the one to interrupt her fight with Dash. It made sense, considering he had both her gear and submachine gun now. She also heard the rumors of even his handgun (made sense considering how massive the damned thing was) being able to penetrate her armor. The first time he did it, she had survived from pure luck. "Crystal," she said bitterly.

-X-X-X-

The griffons and ponies made a compromise. The griffons moved all of their wounded over to where the ponies had their wounded situated, more than tripling the numbers that they had to house. Wilson didn't give a shit, he had the griffon medics to help him tend to the wounded. Both Wilson and the medics had no qualms with each other, they had an obligation to fulfill.

Griffon machine guns and their crews were added to the ponies' machine gun nests. In front of the machine guns, ponies and griffons stood watch having abandoned the foxholes. In the air above, the griffons patrolled the air, on watch for more wolves.

it was Rarity's idea. She assumed the griffons knew how their defense was laid, having surveyed it this whole time day and night. The griffons probably wouldn't want to give up how their defense was setup so this was the best solution.

All of the big players sat in the open, near the wounded, aside from Wilson who was going around tending to people. Because of the ceasefire, they didn't have to hide from each other and their current threat didn't have any guns.

Gilda eyed the submachine that was stolen from her. Tran noticed her staring and unslung it, holding it out to her. Gilda was astonished but took the gun nonetheless. "Return it when this is done or I will not be happy," Tran told her.

Gilda shouldered the submachine, feeling its familiar weight. "You know this is mine, right?"

Tran pointed to the wound on her throat. "Was."

Gilda looked to Rainbow Dash who still had same the dour expression on her face. "Looks like you finally found some cool people to hand out with, huh?"

"Don't you talk about my friends like that!" Rainbow snapped back.

Gilda snorted. "Now you're gonna defend your friends?"

Tran stood between the two again. "Explain."

The two of them looked at Tran wanting to stay silent but his expression demanded answers. Gilda broke the silence first. "Her friends embarrassed me and ran me out of town."

Dash threw her hooves into the air. "You fucked with my friends and we just fucked with you back! And we didn't run you out of town, you left! We held a party for you and it was just a joke!"

Tran between the two. "The pink one?"

Rainbow Dash took a second to realize what what he was asking. "Yes, it was Pinkie."

Tran looked at Gilda and stuck a hand out, all five fingers pointing all at her face. "Learn to take some fucking jokes." She opened her mouth to respond but was silenced when Tran narrowed his eyes. He then turned to face Rainbow Dash, hand and all five fingers pointed at her face. "Tone it down the bullshit." Like Gilda, she opened her mouth to respond but stopped due to the same reason. It doesn't matter who you are. The man with the two bayonets sticking out of his body is not to be trifled with, especially when he's knife handing you.

The two dogfighters stared each other down for a moment before Gilda dug through her gear and pulled out a familiar handgun. Rainbow instantly recognized her personal service revolver and caught it when Gilda threw it to her. "I can see why he holds your leash," Gilda said jokingly.

Rainbow Dash smirked. "And yours too."

Gilda looked back to Tran and specifically the hand cannon he carried. "And what the hell is that thing?" she asked while pointing. He instantly knew what she was talking about without having to look at where she was pointing. He drew it and held it out for her. She gripped it and immediately realized one thing. "Damn! I want to give this thing a try!"

Rainbow had a look of horror on her face. "No you don't!" she immediately yelled out.

Gilda had a look of confusion on her face. "Wait-"

Dash shook her head. "Trust me on that."

Gilda still had the same look of confusion but returned the hand cannon back to Tran. "Finally looks like you got some cool friends." She pointed at Rarity, who was absolutely filth-ed up at this point. "You even got your prissy friends to do awesome shit with us grunts. Here I am, stuck with a major in charge whose stuck so far up his own ass, he doesn't even need to flap his wings to see the clouds." Blueblood's ears perked up upon hearing the word major. "Fucking officers. Once they get above captain, they become worthless."

Blueblood frowned, having heard the same insult but now from both sides. "I'm," he started. "a major," he deadpanned.

Gilda eyed the supposed major. He wore the standard standard REA army uniform but every small feature on it was stained with dirt and grime, making him seem like one of the ground pounders. He had the inklings of a white coat except all of the exposed areas where it should have been visible was absolutely brown and black with mud. Most of his head and face was covered in blood, staining it and giving him the look of a violent berserker. His horns had bits of flesh and fur stuck to it, giving her an idea on what he had used it for, as if the major she was partnered with would never touch anything with his claws. He had a saber like some officers had but that was the only indication that he was an officer. She opened her mouth out of amazement. "Looking a bit, uh, out of uniform, there," she joked.

Blueblood thought of something to respond but Tran beat him to the punch. "The best officers are the ones on equal ground as the privates, in more ways than one," he stated.

Blueblood smiled. "Maybe I'll just stay like this," he joked.

Rarity recoiled. "Oh please don't," she retorted.

Gilda eyed the rest of Blueblood, noticing his sidearm. Both were definitely not standard REA equipment. It was griffon equipment. "How the hell do you have that?" she asked while pointing at the pistol.

Blueblood looked down at where she was pointing. "Oh, they were gifts," he replied.

Gilda raised an eyebrow. "Must have been a really good friend. Can't even get those anymore in Griffonstone. Where do you even get ammo? 9mm, right?"

Blueblood chuckled. "Oh, you have no idea. I have to get it custom made. And yes, they're both 9mm, but." He drew his pistol and reluctantly held it out for her. He still had his animosities but Tran had already trusted her enough. Gilda took the pistol and aimed it into the air before bringing it down and pulling back on the bolt. She pulled it back enough to look at the round that it was chambered in but not enough to eject a round. She was surprised. "Yes, its the 9mm export model that came out a few years before the war."

Gilda handed the pistol back to him. "Must have cost a lot. I thought no one like it because it was too powerful for a pistol?"

Blueblood nodded. "Your assumption be correct. Its quite the hand cannon," Blueblood commented. Immediately, everyone in the vicinity looked at Tran. His usual dollfaced expression somehow conveyed amusement, everyone could tell. "Compared to normal sidearms, shall I say," he said while thinking back to the revolver he literally threw away. He had an amused expression on his face. "You might find more entertainment out of this," he said while unslinging his carbine off of his back.

The instant Gilda's hands graced Blueblood's carbine, she had many questions. "H-how did you get this?" she asked. "This was an experimental rifle trialed by only Jaegers." She knew because she had been one of those Jaegers that tested the carbines. It failed the trials as it was beaten out by the submachine she had owned (previously). She took the mag out of the carbine, noticing it was in 9mm, but a different shorter 9mm round than the pistol he used. It had a 40 round magazine, more rounds than her submachine gun's drum magazine (32 rounds) but it wasn't full auto.

Blueblood smiled, reminiscing on old memories. "My aunt gifted it to me when I passed the officer's academy and officially joined the service."

Gilda was still staring at the carbine, sticking the mag back in it. "Who's your aunt?!"

"Princess Celestia."
"Princess Celestia."
"Princess Celestia."
"Princess Celestia."
Everypony replied simultaneously.

Gilda handed the carbine back to Blueblood when gunshots immediately starting ringing out. Everyone perked up, weapons at the ready. Gilda had her (for now) submachine gun, Blueblood had his carbine, Applejack had her lever action, Rainbow had her rifle, Rarity had a rifle, Eric had his AK74, Logan had his pistol, and Tran his 1911. Everyone looked outwards and could see large masses of wolves approaching.

Then, the griffons that were circling the air and keeping watch descended into their ranks. A pair of griffons descended to Gilda and the three had a private short conversation.

"Fucking what?!" Gilda yelled as the two griffons flew off. Following those two, all of the other griffons that were with the ponies flew off with them. There were a few griffons that remained, most of which were the griffon medics that were with Wilson who were tending to the wounded.

Rainbow pointed an accusatory hoof at Gilda. "What the hell is going on?!" she demanded.

Gilda threw up her hands in a defensive fashion. "We just got an order to retreat!"

Rainbow pointed her rifle at Gilda. "I knew it!"

Gilda didn't make any rash moves, keeping her submachine gun down. "That wasn't my idea. I have no idea what's going on!"

"Hey!" yelled Tran. "We got other thing to worry about!"

The machine guns in the center of their defense lit up, in an attempt to stop the rapidly approaching wolves. A few got hit before they wised up and actually started weaving left and right to avoid the gunfire! Everyone else that wasn't on a machine gun added their guns to the mix.

Rainbow Dash growled, still looking at the griffon. "This isn't over!" She turned her rifle on the encroaching wolves, firing off a shot. Gilda followed her soon afterwards, firing the submachine gun.

Tran looked to the others. "Defend the wounded!"

Tran got out from where he was, the dugout of where the wounded was, and closed the distance between him and the wolves. Rainbow Dash and Gilda followed him and the three joined up with the ponies that were on the outer defenses. The wolves were only spotted when they were a short distance from them. Before anyone knew it, the predators found their prey.

The fight quickly dissolved into a serious hand to hand melee. Ponies found wolves on top of them before they could even react. Tran quickly reacted and took his attention off of shooting the approaching wolves to assist the ponies being mauled. Some quick shots took care of two.

When he shot and killed a third wolf that was actively making a pony into a buffet, he found himself knocked to the ground and pistol knocked away. The bayonets stuck in his body reminded him that life was a bitch as they aggravated all of the feelings in his body. He was face to face with the ear as he felt teeth latch onto the back of his neck.

Something angry really wanted to finish off its kill.

Tran drew his .500 magnum and aimed at the beast. It didn't take much brainpower to figure out where it was, considering it was currently attached to him. One gunshot rendered the attacker's head into mush and one of Tran's ears ringing.

"Fuck!"

Tran rolled to his side, seeing that Gilda had also been pounced upon. Rainbow speared the thing with the bayonet of her rifle but that only angered it. Tran took aim and fired, hitting it center mass. The thing dropped like a sack of potatoes, right on top of Gilda and covering her with its big furry body.

That was when everyone's hearts dropped into their assholes.

A deep sharp whistling filled the air. It was the sound of incoming mortar shells.

All of the soldiers that were previously in the outer foxholes were now out in the open. This was gonna quickly turn into a bloodbath. "Get to cover!" Tran yelled while getting back up and picking up his 1911 with a free hand. Unfortunately, everyone that was exposed was busy with a very personal experience with wolves. Whoever wasn't in an active personal skirmish ran for the machine gun nests that had dugouts and mounds to hide behind. The ones that weren't, were being actively mutilated by a wild animal's teeth.

Tran looked at Gilda and realized what had to be done. "Get under the wolves!" he yelled out. .500 magnum in one hand and 1911 in the other, he turned and started shooting at the wolves that were actively attacking someone. "Use their bodies as cover!"

The wolves didn't know what was gonna happen. That was an unfortunate upside to this situation. They were gonna be the cover, if they didn't kill them in the process. Rainbow realized what Tran was doing and turned to shoot at wolves that were with somepony. Tran and Rainbow didn't have much time or ammunition in their guns. By the time they had to reload, they were about to have a very bad time.

When Tran's 1911 clicked empty, he gritted his teeth and charged at Rainbow. Her eyes widened upon seeing the approaching mass. Both of them slammed into the ground, with Tran covering her with his body.

Seconds later, shells started impacting. The wolves found themselves at the mercy of war. It didn't last very long but it was incredibly effective against everything.

Once it ended, there was still movement on the battlefield. There were a number of wolves that had been mortally wounded and tried to leave this living hell but couldn't. They were doomed to only crawl around as they slowly loss their last bits of life. Ponies got out from under their fleshy bunkers, having barely survived that encounter. Unfortunately, there were some that were exposed when the shelling started. No one had to worry about them anymore, they were dead. The machine gun nests and those that were in that area were miraculously not struck by any of the shells.

Gilda pushed the shredded wolf's body off of her, getting up with panicked breathing. Tran rolled off of Rainbow and onto his side. Rainbow, looking at Tran on the ground, found that he was still alive. He wasn't untouched though. The left side of his body's limbs were bleeding. Now, one leg was peppered by shrapnel while the other had a bayonet running through it. "T-thank you," Rainbow said.

Tran sat up, his body filled with all of the reminders that he should not be alive. "Help me," he calmly stated as if he had been asking someone to pass the salt. Tran got out a bandage and wrapped it around the teeth marks on the back of his neck, giving Rainbow an idea on what he requested. She got out one of her own bandages and started wrapped it around the leg that had been mutilated by shrapnel.

Gilda walked over to the two, claws wrapped tightly around her submachine. It still had ammo in it. Both Tran and Rainbow weren't armed at the moment. "This wasn't my idea," Gilda said.

Rainbow froze, seeing her stand above the two, eyeing the submachine gun in her claws. "What are you gonna do now?" she asked Gilda.

Gilda sighed. "You're the enemies," she said with a pained voice. She slung the submachine gun and pulled out a bandage, tending to Tran's heavily bleeding arm.

Tran stood up, picking up his pistols. He was gonna look like a mummy at this point, all of these bandages wrapped around him. "We had a treaty" he stated.

Gilda unslung the submachine gun and handed it to Tran. "We did," she said angrily. She shot up into the sky. Rainbow watched as she left. She had the instinct to follow her but her broken wing told her otherwise. In the meanwhile, Tran had ran into the center of their defense before returning with his sniper rifle and camouflaged suit. He looked to Rainbow. "Stay here, help with the cleanup and the new wounded."

Rainbow nodded as he ran off into the woods.

-X-X-X-

Gilda landed at the griffon's planning and command area. There was the major, as usual. However, there were a two others that she did and didn't recognize along with two guards.

One was wearing the clean uniform of a griffon general. Oddly enough, he was missing his left leg. Obviously, the number of generals that existed were not that many and she didn't remember any missing a limb. It must have been fresh. He had an angry expression on his face.

The other was a fellow Jaeger. He wore the usual reinforced breastplate armor that all Jaegers wore and was armed with the same submachine she had previously owned. He had a neutral expression, rather bored as it seemed.

"What the hell was that?!" Gilda demanded.

"Mortars?" the major responded. "You were told to retreat but you didn't?"

Gilda pointed at the general. "Was this your idea? A bullshit treaty before stabbing them in the back?!"

The general pointed at his missing leg. "All's fair in love and war. If they can do this to me, I can do that to them. You should have retreated and left them to the wolves."

Gilda clenched her claws. "And our wounded? Were they just a way to convince them that we weren't going to stab them in the back?"

The general snorted. "Mere casualties in a war that should have ended long ago," he said callously.

The Jaeger pointed an accusatory claw at Gilda. "I saw you bandage up that human after he was wounded. There was also that rainbow one. You could have eliminated one of those humans and one of their best dogfighters. You had the chance and you left them live."

The general looked to the Jaeger." Is that so?" The general pointed at Gilda. "Arrest her!"

The Jaeger had beaten the general to the punch and had already been aiming his submachine gun at the fellow Jaeger. The two guards in the background walked up to Gilda. One of the guards took Gilda's sidearm while the other grabbed her wings.

Gilda's clenched her beak with anger. "This isn't over," she hissed.

The Jaeger smirked but then dropped to the ground as a bullet went through the front of his breastplate before liquifying his chest. The loud and familiar sound of Tran's .338 Lapua rang through the air. Gilda's eyes widened but she turned to one of the guards, the one who wasn't holding her wings, and ran her claws through his throat. The other guard tried to pin her to the ground but Gilda had taken back her sidearm and put a bullet through one of his eyes.

The general felt a familiar pain run through his body as a bullet tore his left arm off of his body. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain, clutching the remaining bleeding stump. Everyone could hear Tran's rifle ring out again.

Standing proudly, wings on full display, Gilda faced the major who was filled with terror. The major stupidly opened his mouth. "Surrender?"

Gilda snickered before coldly gunning him down with the remaining rounds in her sidearm. She holstered it before picking up the submachine that her fellow Jaeger dropped. She took a few extra seconds to take his scarf and his gear, donning it. It was the same as the one she had lost and been scavenged by Tran. Feeling the familiar weight of it on her shoulders and waist, she took off as other griffons started to approach the area to investigate.

Gilda quickly found where Tran had hidden. It wasn't exactly hard. He was still firing his rifle and the thing gave off a muzzle flash that was visible from the moon and a report that could be heard by the deaf. "You didn't miss," Gilda stated. He stood up and the two went off back to the pony's line.

-X-X-X-

In the foxholes that were situated on the outer defenses, ponies tried to fill them back up. Not many soldiers were left in good fighting condition. Most of the foxholes were manned by some wounded ponies. They weren't gravely wounded but they weren't lightly wounded either. Some could barely walk.

Rainbow was among the few lucky ones who were somehow unwounded. She filled one of the foxholes. They weren't gonna last very long at this rate.

"North!" yelled a familiar voice off in the distance.

Rainbow's ears perked up. It was Tran. "Star!" somepony immediately yelled back. She and the ponies in the foxholes beside her watched as Tran slowly walked up to them. As he approached, she could see, even with his camouflage outfit on, that he was bleeding badly from his wounds. Walking alongside him was... Gilda.

The other ponies were antsy, seeing the Jaeger. When they got close enough, Rainbow got out of her foxhole and approached the pair.

"Gilda," she said with strong animosity.

When Tran and Gilda was close enough, Gilda charged forward and wrapped her arms around Rainbow. Rainbow scrambled around for a few seconds before she realized what was going on. "I'm sorry for ditching you," Gilda said.

Rainbow wrapped her own arms (fore legs) around Gilda, returning the embrace. "No, I'm sorry for how my friends and I treated you."

Gilda squeezed her arms around Rainbow even harder. "No, I was being an asshole," Gilda responded.

"Shut the fuck up and help me," Tran demanded. The two turned to look at him. He was lying on the ground on his side. His bleeding was getting worse, especially around the two bayonets still impaled on him.

The two exploded away from each others arms and scrambled towards Tran. They helped him up to his feet and started carrying him over to where the wounded was. Gilda felt Tran's blood run on her. "I thought you were unkillable?"

Tran mustered up enough strength to answer back. "Does it look like I'm dead?"

"Yes!" both Gilda and Rainbow replied.

"I'm not dead yet."

Author's Note

I did not smoke while I served. However, once I started dealing with the big C, I started smoking because it took my mind off of things. Don't smoke kids, its bad for you.

Oh and Blueblood's two sidearms are the 1873 Chamelot-Delvigne in the 11mm French Ordnance cartridge (which is worthless considering its power) and a Mauser c96 in 9x25mm Mauser export (a bit powerful for a pistol). His rifle is a Mauser 1917 trench carbine. Gilda is armed with, an MP18 and a luger pistol in 9mm.

Oh, reminder that I did the Army's stretching/warm up exercises and then ran 3/4 of a mile with a broken hip, a broken femur, some ruptured intestines, internal bleeding, and my body going septic because waste was spilling into my abdominal cavity.

The Amateurs Discuss Tactics, the Professionals Discuss Logistics

Wilson angrily readjusted the bandages on Tran, who was lying on his side and among the rest of the field of wounded. "You should be dead." Tran shrugged. Wilson pressed some fingers against Tran's neck. "I can barely feel a pulse. You've lost way too much blood." Tran shrugged again. "You're not done yet, are you?" Tran shook his head. Letting out an annoyed breath, Wilson dug through his bag and pulled out some prefilled needles. He stabbed one intro Tran's thighs, emptying out the needle's contents. All of Tran's weight was lifted from his shoulders and he sat up, being careful not to agitate the bayonet that was still in his leg. "Ketamine, better than morphine. Just try to stay here and don't try to move much."

Tran's eyes fell over to the rest of the wounded, seeing that they were in a similar state, just waiting til this all ends. Whether it was some relief from the battle ending or the easier relief of death, it wasn't going to come soon enough. Tran noticed one particularly eye opening crater in one section of their dug out sector that housed the wounded. It was the very obvious impact from a mortar. "What was the damage?"

Wilson turned to see what Tran was looking at and was instantly filled with rage. "Killed twelve, eight of which were ours. When this ends, I want them set on fire," Wilson said through gritted teeth seething in anger.

A passing griffon medic who had been tending to the wounded heard the conversation. "You have all the right too," the medic commented.

"They've been already shot," Tran stated.

Wilson grunted and handed Tran another one of the prefilled syringes. "Opposite thigh, only if you need it." Tran nodded and tucked it into his gear.

-X-X-X-

Rarity and Blueblood stood at one of the machine guns that the griffons had given them in an attempt to falsely win their trust. They had taken it apart and checked it over. It was real and it was perfectly working. It even fired to its full capacity. Before, their defense only had two machine guns. Now, it was eight. Two more were from the reinforcements that Wilson brought back and the other four were griffon. While their total numbers were severely marred from the fact that many were wounded and some dead, they now had a significant amount of more firepower. Hell, they even had a decent amount of ammunition for the time being.

"I suppose we're lucky," Rarity said.

"Pardon?" Blueblood asked.

Rarity's eyes glanced at the direction of the wounded. "We haven't taken our fair share of bodily punishment."

Blueblood looked up and down at the mare's previously perfect uniform and coat. "No, only in appearance," he joked.

Rarity let out a chuckle. "At least its not cake."

Blueblood also chuckled and reminisced on old memories. That had been so long ago, when times were better. Blueblood pulled out the pack of cigarettes that Logan had given him. "Would you like one?" Blueblood asked. Rarity looked at the pack and nodded.

Blueblood had seen a fellow soldier do this. He pulled out two cigarettes and simultaneously stuck both in his mouth. He lit both of them at the same tame, taking a puff to make sure they were lit. Then, he pulled one out of his mouth, by hoof not telekinesis, and offered it to Rarity.

Rarity had watched the entire process and only took a bare heartbeat to make the decision. While it had his saliva and germs on it, she didn't care. She took one of them, also by hoof, and stuck it in her mouth. All of them, humans, ponies, and griffons, were in this hellish situation as one. She took a puff, coughing as she felt the nicotine gave her a relaxed feeling.

Rarity dug through her gear and pulled out a bar of chocolate. It wasn't one of the military chocolate rations, it was a milk chocolate bar that Pinkie had given her. She unwrapped it and took a bite from it before passing it to Blueblood. He took the chocolate bar and took a bite from it, biting into it right next to where Rarity had bitten. "You know," Blueblood started. "This isn't one of the worse dates I've ever had."

Rarity scoffed. "You would call this a date?"

Blueblood smiled. "I thought you wanted to find your prince charming?" he ribbed. Rarity looked away and took an embarrassed puff from the cigarette, coughing from the still unfamiliar experience. "Tell you what. Once we get out of here, I know of a cafe that still manages to make the most delectable menu, even with the war rationing."

Rarity smiled. "Would you like to try your hoof at some commoner's carnival fare?" Blueblood raised an eyebrow at the question. "I have a friend who makes the best pastries in Equestria."

It took Blueblood a second to realize what she was referencing before nodding back. "It can't hurt to try." He took his own embarrassed puff from his cigarette. "I was trying to dissuade you from my company. Nopony ever sees me as a pony. All they see is a noble and expect snobbish, conceited pony who contributes nothing to society except inconsequential complaints. I joined the army to prove that I wasn't a drain on society and even then, everypony still has the same beliefs."

Rarity leaned against Blueblood. "I think you showed that you're a very brave pony, one that anypony can always depend on for life."

A massive roar tore through the forest, shaking the trees and everyone's souls. Rarity and Blueblood's fur stood on end, recognizing the source. This time, it had to be a full sized one instead of one that had been magically compressed for transportation.

-X-X-X-

Applejack looked to Logan. "Ah don't suppose yah got a cannon in one of dem bags ah yours?" she asked. Logan shook his head. "We're boned."

A powerful wind started removing the leaves from the trees and throwing dirt up into the air as a five story tall Dragon landed in the middle of their defense, between the foxholes and the center's setup of machine guns. Everyone scrambled about as it smiled, looking down at its prey.

The smile was interrupted when one of its eyes was blown out, followed by the sound of Tran's sniper rifle. The dragon started screaming and thrashing about as everyone started shooting at its head, attempting to do any damage to it. The dragon recovered and blew a stream of fire at one of the groupings of foxholes. The cloud of fire filled every crook and crevice of the foxholes, setting ablaze to everyone inside them. They screamed in pain for anyone to help them but it was for naught.

A group of ponies jumped out of their foxholes and rushed forward. They pulled out grenades and threw them up at the dragon. Some weren't timed right and exploded under the dragon when gravity took over them. However, a few were timed right and exploded when they close to the dragon, opening up large wounds in its body.

The dragon roared in anger and swiped its tail at the ponies, striking one of them. The pony soared through the air before hitting a tree and falling down. He wasn't moving.

The ponies in one of the other grouping of foxholes jumped out and ran when the dragon targeted them and spat fire at the defensive holes. Most of the fleeing soldiers managed to escape their demise. Most. One unlucky pony's lower body was caught ablaze and he dropped.

One of the dragon's leg's exploded with the force of a mortar and the dragon collapsed to his side. Everyone was stunned, what the hell was that?

"Hey!"

Tran stood in the open and was holding a mortar shell in each hand. He slammed the shell in his left hand against his helmet before throwing it at the dragon's head. The shell blew apart the front of the dragon's face and it stopped moving. Everypony cheered as Tran threw the second shell at the dragon's head. The corpse no longer had a head anymore as it was spread apart in every direction. Tran felt all of the strength leave his body and nearly collapsed but somehow managed to stay standing.

The celebration was cut short. Gunfire had started to erupt from the outer lines. Ponies and humans alike scrambled to defensive positions as the griffons had started to advance on them. Tran tried to get to a defensive position but could barely amble about.

Then another roar echoed through the forest, coming from the skies. Everyone looked up, finding an equally giant dragon hovering alongside several groups of griffons.

Rarity popped out of the foxhole she was in. "Oh come on!" Rarity screamed. Blueblood pulled Rarity back down as some pot shots nearly hit her.

Eric slung his rifle and drew his pistol. The rifle had clicked empty and he carried no further ammunition. Looking around, he saw his disabled friend out in the open. He jumped out of his foxhole and ran towards his friend. Grabbing one of his bleeding arms, Eric started dragging Tran towards cover. "Jesus fuck, how the hell are you still alive?" Eric asked as Tran's blood started staining Eric's uniform and gear. Tran let his friend take over his strength and put his attention up at the hovering dragon. The two of them didn't have to look very hard for cover as conveniently enough, the previous dragons corpse wasn't far. Being close still meant that they had to get to it first.

The hovering dragon saw the two humans out in the open and smiled. His first victims. It filled up its lungs with superheated air and let out a powerful blast of fire down into the battlefield. Eric was surprised when Tran got out from Eric's assistance and wrapped himself around Eric. The two were hugging face to face when Tran collapsed the two of them onto the ground with him exposing his back to the sky. Tran covered Eric's head with his arms as the blast of fire hit them.

The wave of fire only last for a second but it was a very long second. When it ended, Tran rolled himself off of Eric, the entire back of his body alight with flames. Eric felt the heat of the flames that engulfed the very few bits of himself that were exposed when the attack hit and quickly worked to extinguished him. It didn't take very long, he wasn't wearing anything that was flammable. He looked over to find his friend, who was very much on fire.

No screams or panicking came from him. Tran just worked around on the ground calmly as he worked to put out the flames. Eric scrambled over to help put out Tran. With Tran's body smoking and uniform and bandages smoldering, Eric grabbed him by his body armor and dragged him the rest of the distance over to the previous dragon's corpse was, where cover was.

Eric propped up his battle body up against the dragon's neck, who then pulled a syringe out of his gear and inject it into this thigh. "Still alive?" Eric asked.

"Still moving," Tran replied.

Eric redrew his pistol and looked up at the dragon who had turned its attention at something else. "What the fuck are we gonna do about that?"

"Eric."

Eric looked over at Tran. "Yeah?"

Inside the stump of the dragon's neck was the shiny glints of metal. Eric crawled closer to it and used a knife to further expose the item. Pieces of flesh were removed and Eric exposed... Gun cases. He pulled one by one out, the total ending at four. They looked the same as the ones found inside of that one smuggler's bar inside of Ponyville.

Each one was labeled with one of the four's names on them and Eric found that he couldn't open any of them, aside from his own. Inside of it was something helpful, just not against the dragon. Eric picked up something that would help the fact that his rifle had run out of ammunition, along with several loaded magazines for it. Picking up one of said loaded magazines, he loaded it into his Saiga 12 and chambered a round.

Tran's case, well... Tran felt the painkiller course through his veins. As his body felt its pain go away and fresh energy and strength fill it up, he got up as if he was right as rain and pulled himself over to where his case was.

-X-X-X-

The bolt on Gilda's submachine dropped on the last drum. Gilda clenched her beak as she slung it and drew a pistol. She looked over to Rainbow who was firing with her rifle. The two were sitting behind cover at one of the machine gun nests. "I'm out!" she screamed.

"Tell me some good news!" Rainbow yelled back.

Gilda looked up at the dragon who was trying to find a new target. "The dragon's still here!"

"I said good news Celestia damn it!" Dash replied.

The dragon filled its chest up with more fire but before it could release the deadly blast, its chest had exploded open, engulfing the nearby supporting griffons in fire. The griffons were set ablaze while the dragon looked down at itself, trying to process what had happened with its freshly open chest orifice. A second passed and its neck exploded, decapitating the beast and sending it tumbling to the ground where it crushed various advancing griffons.

All around, the griffons were shocked with the latest breaking news. When roasted chickens started falling from the skies, they all turned tail and fled. Ponies around (and Logan), cheered as the griffons retreated, some taking pot shots. "Worthless chickens!" Rainbow Dash taunted. She turned to look at Gilda. "No offense."

Gilda took it in stride and got out of cover. "What in Tartarus was that?"

Over to where the first dragon's corpse was, around its upper chest and neck area, was a cloud of dust in the air, as if an explosion had happened there. It quickly settled, revealing Tran standing with Eric standing beside him.

Gilda got out of cover, followed by Rainbow Dash, and walked over to Tran and Eric. "Was that you?" Gilda asked.

Tran was carrying something new. His hands were holding onto a pistol grip that was attached to a large tube that was resting on his shoulder. The item had a set of crude ladder iron sights welded to it and it was all painted a dark green. "Yeah," he replied.

Dash pointed at Tran's leg. "You're, uh, on fire." True to her word, the bandages wrapped around Tran's left arm were on fire. They were previously smoldering and smoking but where there's smoke, there's fire... Again. Eric reached over and put out the fire. "So, uh, what the fuck is that?" she asked while pointing at the tube.

"Bazooka," Tran replied.

Earlier

A small airship landed at the Royal Equestrian Royal Flying Corps mountain base at Neighagra falls. In recent news, the griffons had started an offensive from their holdings in Fillydelphia towards Baltimare to take it back. It was inconveniently timed with the diplomatic mission with the yaks so both the humans and the Dauntless were unavailable for any counteroffensive or defense. In light of this, all nearby Equestrian forces had sent all immediate response and frontline units to help reinforce the area, having started doing so since yesterday. The first forces that had been already been sent were obviously the air based units like dogfighters or light infantry. They would hold the line while the regular forces were brought up.

The airship was filled with a number of personnel ready to refresh the base's numbers. It held only two platoons worth but more were coming. They'd be linking up with other personnel before being sent off to fight in Fillydelphia. They'd also be gathering up more supplies and taking a short rest before being thrown to the lions.

The soldiers that were inside of the airship exited the craft but stayed in its vicinity as it awaited preparations. Four of the soldiers trotted (except one who bounced) a good distance away, stretching out their legs. Spitfire, uniform impressive and proud, led a much less experienced soldier. "Just because I used my name to transfer you to my unit doesn't make you immune to the rules. You're still in the army, act like it while you're with me," Spitfire said to the much smaller soldier. The soldier in question wore the same uniform, just not with the same rank or accolades. She also had all of her standard gear and rifle, as if she was ready to go into battle. "And keep that pistol you stole away from prying eyes. I don't give two shits if you have it but others will."

Scootaloo hugged the model 92 (the one she scavenged in Baltimare) closer to her body. It was tucked away from sight inside of her uniform's coat, loaded and ready to go. It was the same that Rainbow Dash had, definitely not a hand cannon like Tran's. "I didn't steal it!" she retorted.

Spitfire scoffed. "It might as well be. Standard issue pistol? They'll want it back."

Scootaloo felt somepony put a foreleg on her back. "Oh, you'll be fine. Everypony here is stealing at least something," Pinkie Pie said. Pinkie turned to look at Fluttershy. "Right?" Fluttershy kept quiet. She definitely did not want anypony to find out about what she kept in her cottage (or her shed) with all of the medical equipment or supplies that she had accidentally taken home while being the head nurse.

A pony hobbled up to great them. He wore the standard Royal Flying Corps's uniform. Well, he wore most of it. He wore the just the dress coat. It wasn't like anyone was gonna stop him, he was quite well known. As for the ones who didn't know him, the coat very clearly displayed all of the authority and chest candy that would tell the remainders to "fuck off". "Spitfire! Where the hell have you been?! I haven't seen you since the last Gala!" Spitfire groaned, realizing what she just walked (trotted) into. "I heard you got to work with those new human things. They can't be-"

The words died in his throat, as did all of the emotion on his face, when he spotted something that Spitfire was wearing. She instantly knew what had gotten the loudmouth to shut up for once in his life. The red scarf that she wore, at this moment, felt like a noose around her neck, with what it meant to the two of them. "Its real."

The pony, once her partner in dogfighting, trotted closer to her. The pony slowly reached up with his left hoof to touch it but grimaced and set the hoof back down before reaching up to touch the scarf with his other hoof. The instant his hoof felt the silk, pain filled his body. "H-How?"

Spitfire pushed his hoof away. "Wasn't a dogfight. Needed help from one of those humans you mentioned." Soarin grabbed Spitfire, tears welling in his eyes, and hugged her. She wrapped her forelegs around him and returned the hug. "I miss her too."

Two pegasi fell out of the sky to interrupt their moment. They both look battle ragged and physically drained, as if they hadn't eaten in days. They had bad news. The two of them were part of the Dauntless's aerial accompaniment.

Spitfire looked at Soarin. "Want to meet those humans?"

Soarin grinned. "Are they as cracked up as everyone says?"

Spitfire shrugged. "One of them's killed at least three Jaegers."

Soarin's mouth dropped open and closed repeatedly as if he was trying to mimic a fish. When he recovered, his remaining wing bristled in excitement. "How are we gonna get there?"

Pinkie popped up in literally in between the two of them. "We steal!"

Spitfire shoved herself away from the surprise. "Steal what?"

Pinkie turned around to look at something, like she was a dog. Soarin and Spitfire followed her gaze and found that she was looking at the airship that they just stepped off of. Spitfire opened her mouth to say something but closed it when she looked at Soarin and realized it was futile. "Want to get your hooves dirty for once?"

Soarin held his left hoof, the fake wooden one. "I'll lose another."

Spitfire nodded and turned back to the two exhausted pegasi that gave them the news. "You're coming with us." The two pegasi groaned internally but knew they had a very important job to do.

The seven of them made their way back to the airship. As Soarin hobbled his way there, he whistled, getting the attention of the other soldiers that had left the airship to stretch their legs. Their uniforms and reputations proceeded him, and none of the other soldiers disagreed with the idea of coming with him and Spitfire. Inside the airship, the soldiers got to their seats, gear ready for battle and minds ready for combat.

-X-X-X-

Pinkie, Fluttershy, and the two Dauntless pegasi made their way to the airship's command/pilot's room. The aircrew and pilot refused to take part on the journey.

"We're needed in Fillydelphia and you have no orders to do this supposed mission!" the airship's pilot/commander angrily told them.

Pinkie smiled. "And where were those orders when you smuggled back goods from the frontline?"

The pilot's anger disappeared. "One unsanctioned trip, coming up," he said while going to the controls.

Fluttershy blinked a few times, looking at Pinkie. "How did you know he was smuggling goods from the frontline?" she asked Pinkie when the two of them were alone.

Pinkie started to make her way back to the troop transport area of the airship, skipping her way there. "I told you, everypony here is stealing something!"

-X-X-X-

Spitfire and Scootaloo returned to where they had been originally sitting at in the airship when they first started riding it, finding their original seats and where Spitfire had intentionally left behind her gear at. Soarin followed them sitting beside his best friend. He eyed Scootaloo's youthfulness. "So we're taking along this stray?" Scootaloo's face adopted a, starting to be familiar, frown on her face. Spitfire nodded. Soarin looked back to Spitfire. "You know, I don't even have any gear or even something to fight with." He detached his fake wooden foreleg. "I'll guess hit them with this or something."

Spitfire almost started laughing but kept it welled inside her. She went to her gear and grabbed her rifle, handing it to Soarin. "You can borrow mine."

Soarin reattached his leg and took up the rifle before looking back at Spitfire. "And what'll you use? You gonna hit them with my leg for me?" Spitfire smiled and handed Soarin the ammo and gear that went along with the rifle before digging through her gear again. She pulled out another rifle. It had a silencer and a scope and it was obviously a rifle that previously belonged to the Griffon Empire.

Soarin whistled at the sight of the rifle. "Where'd you get that?"

Spitfire smiled. "Same place I got the scarf at." She had ammo for it too.

Soarin adopted Spitfire's smile. "Niiice." He turned to look at the stray. "So what's that pistol you're hiding?"

Scootaloo's heart sank into her asshole. "I-I don't know what you're talking about," she replied.

Soarin looked at her with disbelief. "I can see the bulge. It's either a knife or a gun. If it was a knife, you wouldn't be hiding it." Scootaloo looked away from Soarin and over to Spitfire who's face told her that Soarin was trustworthy.

Soarin smirked. "I don't care if its stolen. Everypony here steals."

Author's Note

Theoretically speaking, it is very easy to enter and then leave the service with some goods that may or may no have been reappropriated.

Also STEAL
Strategic
Transfer
Equipment to
Alternate
Locations

Also, this is a reminder that I own a live, registered M1 bazooka.

War Is Organized Murder and Nothing Else

Tran sat up against the headless dragon's corpse and let all of the energy leave his body. He didn't have much left in him to keep on using. He hadn't slept since this all started either and he was sure that he'd loss his entire body's volume of blood twice over. He needed a vacation.

Applejack trotted up to the lone soldier and sat beside him. She was one of the very lucky few who were unwounded and she was very grateful for that fact. "How are yah holdin up?"

Tran weakly looked at her and shrugged. The ketamine was still holding him together but it wasn't gonna be enough if this kept up. "Alive."

Applejack pulled out a cigar and lit it up. She took a few puffs before giving it to Tran. "Yah sure as tartarus don't look like it." Tran took a deep puff from the cigar and inhaled it. He knew you weren't supposed to inhale cigars like you would cigarettes but at this point, he had other pressing concerns. Applejack chuckled. "Thank yah." Tran looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "For fightin for us. Fighin for yah own country is your duty but fightin for somepony else's country? For somepony else's freedom?"

Tran smiled and did a mock salute. "I won't be dying for your country... Yet."

Applejack returned the mock salute. She took the stetson off of her head and stuck it on Tran's helmeted head. "Ah'm glad ah had the honor of fighting alongside with yah. Might as well be part of the family."

Tran took the stetson off of his helmet, took off his helmet, and stuck the stetson on his head, fixing it so that it was tilted upward. That was right about the moment when Rainbow Dash and Gilda walked up to them. Rainbow opened her mouth to speak but closed it when she saw Tran wearing Applejack's stetson. She took a second to process before opening her mouth to speak again.

"Howdy there Applejack." Tran tipped the stetson. "Aside from your transformation into an unkillable weirdo, Gilda has some ideas on what the griffons will try next."

Tran looked to the griffon and waved his hand, motion for her to speak. She pointed at the outer cluster of foxholes that made up the outer defense points. "Well, we don't have enough soldiers to fill all of the foxholes anymore." At this point, everyone had gathered up the remaining griffon(pony?(man?)) power and positioned them near the center machine gun nests. "And I'm assuming our... Their air scouts have reported that along with the current condition of whoever's left." At this point, out of the nearly hundred ponies they started out with (not counting the chain of command), only half was still able to fight. Of those that could fight, only a third of them sported zero wounds or injuries.

Tran let out an irritated snort. "From what I was able to see when you went back to their line, they were getting in more manpower."

Gilda nodded. "That general you shot wasn't here when we started and I saw some other fresh meat. I don't know how many reinforcements we... They got but its going to be a lot if they brought in an officer that high AND another Jaeger."

Applejack balked. "Another Jaeger!" she exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash snorted. "Applejack here," Dash started, pointing at Tran. "Already shot him."

Applejack turned to Tran. "Damn, did he even do anythin? And how many's that make by now?"

Tran shrugged. "Four, five if you count her," Tran said while pointing at Gilda. "And only thing he did was try to arrest her."

Applejack chuckled. "Are yah tryin to kill all of them?" she asked.

"Anyways!" Gilda loudly said, trying to get back to the topic on hand. "There might be a big attack real soon and I don't know what itll be or how we'll handle it." She took out her submachine gun and aimed it at Tran's chest, pulling the trigger. The bolt dropped with an exaggerated click. "Most of us are running out of ammo here."

Rainbow Dash pointed over at the machine guns they had setup. "We still have plenty for the machine guns. We can take their ammo and give it to the soldiers."

Tran shook his head. "Don't. The machine guns can put out more firepower with less effort."

Applejack reached down on her belt and pulled out a mace. "Guess we're gettin our hooves dirty then."

Rainbow Dash nervously trotted in place a little. She still had ammo but was close to empty. Being a dogfighter, hoof to hoof fighting wasn't exactly her expertise. "Is everypony gonna fight hoof to hoof?"

Gilda smirked, looking at Rainbow Dash. "Scared?"

She was scared but that wasn't the reason why she had asked. "Most of us are wounded. Some can barely walk. You want them to fight like that? Against griffons who have ammo?"

Tran dug through his gear and pulled out two drum magazines for his and Gilda's submachine guns. He handed them both to Gilda. "I only got the one in my gun but I have many other weapons I can shoot with." He pointed to Rainbow. "We need to lure them in closer before ambushing them."

Gilda folded her arms together. "And how are we supposed to do that?"

Tran shrugged. "Y'all can figure that out. Its mite hard for me tah think right now," he said, copying Applejack's drawl.

Everyone heard the sound of hooves running towards them, the source being Blueblood in a mad rush. He didn't have the time to attempt to stop so he just ran straight into the dragon's corpse, painfully crashing into it. The pain didn't even register into his mind as he blurted out, "We've got something in the east!"

Blueblood, Rainbow Dash, and Gilda immediately ran off while Applejack sat beside Tran. Tran took off the hat and stuck it back on Applejack's head. She fixed the hat on her head so it was properly seated before getting back on all four hooves. "You take care, ya hear?" Tran said. Applejack snorted and trotted off in the direction that the other three went off in.

-X-X-X-

They came from the east. the first sign was the disappearance of the griffon scouts in that area and the sounds of troop movement coming from that direction, mixed with what sounded like people banging on pots. It was followed by smoke grenades being thrown from the griffon side, towards the pony's defenses. The smoke quickly spread out and removed both side's ability to see each other from medium and long distances.

There was a pause. Nothing moved. Other than the sound that continued, it was as if time had paused. That was when griffons exploded out from the smoke screen. Half were on foot (paws) while the other half came from the sky. The machine guns setup in the middle of the pony defenses lit up, aimed at the griffons coming from the sky while everyone on the ground fired at targets of opportunity.

Blueblood's grimaced up as he fired round after round from his carbine. Just as the machines woke up and turned their direction towards the airborne targets, a bullet zipped by and grazed his horn, breaking it off. The cluster of nerves protected by bone that made up a unicorn's horn meant that Blueblood fell to the ground as he clutched his head in intense pain. Blood poured from the remainder of what used to be his horn as the battle raged on.

He screamed and then felt someone grab his coat and haul him up to his hooves. His face met Applejack's as she ran her hooves across his body, seemingly groping the stallion. "Yah ain't that hurt, Bloody. Come on!" Blueblood seemingly fell down to the ground again but he returned into a shooting stance, having picked his carbine up from the mud. He brought it up to bear and searched for a target only to realize that the gunfire had paused on both sides.

Applejack raised her stetson while she scratched her head at the sight that everyone had stopped to look at. "What in the sam hell?" Out in the open, from the smoke screen, came a bunch of rectangular boards. Sheets? They were all next to each other, side by side evenly, in one long line. Each one was one meter wide and almost three meters tall.

That was when rifles poked out over the tops of the sheets and fired. The first wave of rounds they fired took out the remaining machine guns. Everyone armed with a rifle lit up again as the shields started to close the distance between the two groups. None of the small arms fire or even grenades did anything to shields. The shields completely obscured whoever was using them and they were quickly making their way towards the defenses.

A very small earth pony, a short mare, not a filly, moved around behind the defenses towards one of the humans. Of the four humans, only two were busying themselves with trying to defeat the mysterious shieldsmen, Eric and Logan. The mare poked at the human to get his attention. Eric turned to look at the mare as he paused his shooting. Before Eric could ask any questions, the mare handed Eric a stick grenade that had the explosive heads of six other grenades bound to it.

Eric took the grenade and threw it at the incoming assailants, hitting one of the shields. When it exploded, two of the shield users' shields completely shattered while a few others went tumbling down. Before the ones with shattered shields could hide behind the shields of their comrades, their identities were revealed. They were minotaurs. Minotaurs that were wearing very sturdy looking steel plate armor. All of them, minus one were wielding a spiked club in one hand and a dagger in the other. The one that wasn't, was wielding a large basket hilted broadsword. What was this, a renaissance festival?

Realizing that they might be facing a real threat, the minotaurs started charging and once they got close enough, some could see that they weren't completely covered up. Their arms, necks, and lower legs were exposed. By now, they were too close by then for anyone to take advantage of that weakness to take an aimed shot at, especially at the speeds they were now moving at.

Fortunately, there was only two dozen of them. Unfortunately, there were two dozen of them. They were fresh into the fray, well rested, uninjured, well fed, and not battle weary.

Eric and Logan looked at each other, remembering/knowing that they were empowered by chaos magic and physically stronger than normal, charged out from behind cover and both tackled a minotaur of their own before a move could be made by their respective minotaurs. It was a huge mistake. For the two humans, the instant their body impacted a minotaur, they were stopped dead in their tracks. It was akin to tackling a tree. The two minotaurs almost snickered at their attackers and forced the humans off of them, throwing them to the ground on their backs like they were ragdolls.

Eric had the slightest inkling in his mind that tackling a significantly larger and armored foe would have resulted in that happening. The instant he hit the ground, Eric drew his revolver and fired a round into his foe's unarmored leg. The .357 round absolutely ruined the minotaur's leg, turning the bone it struck into worthless bits of shards. The minotaur dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, screaming, and before he could continue, Eric dumped the rest of his revolver into the minotaur's face. Some of the .357 rounds struck helmet and simply splattered against the metal but one went through an eye slit and silenced the minotaur.

Logan, on the other hand, obviously wasn't expecting the resulting outcome with the minotaur he tackled and fell to the ground, mentally stunned. By the time he realized what had happened, he noticed the minotaur was menacingly approaching him, club in hand. Logan, horrified, crawled away in the mud as fast as he could and he could see that the minotaur was reveling in slowly walked towards some prey. It could have easily done something serious to Logan if Eric hadn't shot the Minotaur in the neck with his secondary sidearm. The minotaur's slow predatory walk towards Logan had made the minotaur's neck an easy shot for Eric to take. Logan turned to face his savior, who was still lying on the ground in the mud like he was, and silently thanked him.

Meanwhile, the rest of the defenders were no where near having the same success in facing the minotaurs. Ponies were naturally a quadrupedal species, meaning they were nowhere near as skilled in hand to hand(hoof?) fighting as bipedal creatures. The other minotaurs were clearly aware of this fact. Groups of four or five ponies would gang up on a minotaur of their own and pay dearly for facing an opponent that were much better trained in fighting this close. Hastily thrown bayonet thrusts would hit armor. The ones that were aimed at unarmored parts of the minotaurs, would be parried by a club before being followed with a skillful jab from a dagger.

Applejack, in her judgement (done without any fancy schmancy schoolin's) had ditched her long arms completely before sneaking behind a minotaur that was occupied with removing his dagger from a fellow soldier, and bucking one of the minotaur's legs with as much force as she could muster. The minotaur's leg buckled and bent in a direction it shouldn't have been bending, sending him falling down. Applejack then quickly drew a mace and struck down at the minotaur's face with it. To her surprised, the mace was parried by the minotaur's spiked club.

Applejack was quite astonished at her opponent's accomplishment but then realized the minotaur had, lying from the ground, swung out with his other hand with the dagger. Applejack, out of reflex, reared up out of instinct. The minotaur then quickly swung out with the club and managed to get a good glancing blow on Applejack (still rearing), and knocked her backwards, onto her back. The minotaur tried crawling towards the cowfilly, club and dagger at the ready, but was stopped when a fellow soldier buried her bayonet into the back of the minotaur's neck. Realizing the threat was gone, Applejack relaxed on her back, taking a second to get her mind and heart back together.

Elsewhere, the leader of this assault team, the minotaur that was wielding a basket hilted broadsword, locked eyes with a fellow sword wielder. The minotaur addressed his adversary with a sword salute. Blueblood returned the sword salute using his cavalry saber.

Before the duel could start, a bullet pinged off of the leader's helmet and he turned to face whoever had the audacity to do such a thing. He did so, just in time to parry a bayonet thrust from a pony, using with his sword. After the parry, the minotaur knocked the pony's rifle and bayonet completely out of the pony's hooves before he picked up the pony and threw him at the general direction of Blueblood.

Blueblood's eyes widened and he dove out of the way of the thrown pony, covering himself with the mud that made up the ground. Blueblood quickly climbed back up to his hooves, sword at the ready, just in time to parry a sword slash with the flat of his saber. Blueblood was quite accustomed to his cavalry sword but most of his sword experienced was while it was used in conjunction with it being held in his magical telekinesis. Due to his previous horn injury, he was forced to wield the sword by hoof, something he was still relatively practiced with using.

Already unbalanced from having to get back into a fighting stance from dodging a thrown pony, the force from parrying the sword slash from a much, much stronger and larger opponent sent Blueblood recoiling from the sheer momentum behind the opposing sword. By the time Blueblood recovered and was ready to send his own sword slash, the minotaur punched Blueblood straight in the face. It took him all of his determination to keep himself from going unconscious. This left him completely open to attack, something that the minotaur easily noticed.

Blueblood was done for, if somepony else nearby hadn't picked up a clod of mud and thrown it into the face of the minotaur. The minotaur screamed in anger and tried to remember where Blueblood had been, wildly swinging the sword with the strength of anger. There was an opening. He full on blocked a wild full forced blind swing from the minotaur but... The cavalry saber could no longer handle the mistreatment and snapped a quarter of the way up the blade. There was no time to mourn. Blueblood dropped the sword and reared up, planting the jagged remains of his horn into the blinded minotaur's throat.

The minotaur grabbed Blueblood in a bear hug but his strength died as quickly with his ability to breathe. Once Blueblood was free, he looked at his broken sword. Blueblood leaned down to pick it up as he got ready to shed some tears. He, along with his tears, paused, when he realized something. Blueblood picked up the minotaur's claymore. It needed a new owner. Looking around, Blueblood locked eyes with Rarity, who was sheepishly holding up another lump of mud.

Somewhere else, the instant the minotaurs were revealed, Gilda had immediately charged forward while beating her wings to provide additional forward momentum and speed. She lead this dash with her claws out, aimed at the neck of one of the minotaurs but he must have seen her coming as by the time Gilda was close, he was already swinging with his club at her. Gilda saw the counter at the last second and angled her wings to direct her body aside, barely missing the brunt of the attack. However, what she didn't see was the minotaur's other hand with the dagger. The razor sharp dagger left a long, deep gash through her left wing, cutting through most of the feathers and leaving her squawking when the pain registered in her mind.

Her right wing was still attempting to direct her body through the air but without the help from the other wing. As a result, she spiraled into the mud, tumbling nearby. The minotaur was about to follow up with a club strike before she could react but he redirected his attention to the sound of somepony screaming at him. The minotaur turned just in time to see Rainbow Dash charging at him, rifle and bayonet leading forward. He sidestepped as she sailed on by and swung down with his spiked club, shattering the rifle in two, right in front of the rifle's chamber.

Before the minotaur could capitalize on the opportunity, pain shot up through one of his legs. Looking down, he saw Gilda with her claws buried deep in his flesh. He reactively kicked his other leg into the traitor's face just as pain flared into the side of his torso. Rainbow, using the front half of her rifle that the bayonet was still attached to, had stuck it in an opening in his left side. The minotaur swung his dagger hand towards the pegasus but she had jumped backwards away from him, dodging the blade.

The minotaur jumped away from the two, blood seeping from his armored torso. He took a very quick glance around this small battleground and let out a long whistle. The minotaur somehow managed to replace the dagger in his hand with a grenade and he dropped it to the ground as he ran away from the dogfighters. The other remaining minotaurs had copied the same maneuver and dropped grenades of their own. The battlefield quickly found itself devoid of active fighters.

The grenades eventually exploded, as expected, and screams of pain were heard. They came from those weren't fast enough to react to the enemy's retreat or... To the Equestrian's horror. Many of the ponies who had fought the minotaurs and didn't fare as well as some others, they had been too injured or consciousness to even run away from the grenades. Even worse, there were some who had tried to evacuate one of the ones who weren't able to move on their own, becoming a victim of the tactic themselves.

The remaining sixteen minotaurs had gathered up not too far away, with a dozen or so griffon reinforcements who had landed in. They were tightly grouped up, the griffons amidst the process of rearming the minotaurs with a new long arm of sorts to fight with. The minotaur's primary rifles, periscope rifles, were permanently attached to their shields and had been ditched earlier.

The ponies were crestfallen. That assault had devastated the remaining fighters and some had lost their weapons in the ensuing brawl or in the process of hiding from the grenades. The minotaurs definitely must have expected something like this. Logan and Eric looked at each other and both of them drew two pistols each, ready to start firing. They were still breathing so they weren't done fighting yet.

Well...

The gathering of minotaurs and griffons exploded. It wasn't a tremendous explosion but it was akin to a perfectly fired round from a small mortar or... A rocket from a bazooka.

While the gathering of minotaurs and griffons were dazed, Tran and Wilson charged at the wounded group, firing their weapons. Fully automatic 9mm fire and semiautomatic but very rapid 10mm fire rained down on the group of enemies to further decimate their numbers.

To the defenders, they had no idea what was happening. By the time Tran and Wilson had ran past the edge of the defender's dugouts/defenses and were seconds away from being in melee range of the grouping, would other defenders join their charge. The two angry charging humans ran out of ammunition in their subguns at practically the same time so they dropped them in the dirt and drew sidearms.

Wilson had drawn his trusty glock, a pistol that has been with him since this chaotic adventure, and a recent addition to his arsenal. The pistol had been in the gun case that was inside of the dragon's corpse and it was quite a doozy of a pistol because of one very important fact. The minotaurs wore armor across most of their body. This wouldn't have been something that Wilson would have known but the armor that covered the minotaur's torso was the thickest and was capable of stopping up to rifle fire and heavy shrapnel. To save on weight, everywhere else that was armored up was only capable of stopping pistol fire and light shrapnel from small explosions. Of course, Wilson's new pistol was, well, a pistol. However, it was an FN Five Seven and it was currently loaded with 20 rounds of 5.7x28mm armor piercing ammunition. Naturally, Wilson was aiming high and the new pistol was converting the helmets into worthless colanders.

Tran had naturally drawn his .500 magnum, something that found no challenge in the full head helmets that the minotaurs were wearing, armor piercing ammunition or not (it was indeed armor piercing ammunition and loaded so hot that anyone looking at the load data would mistake its load data for artillery).

The two berserkers stopped just outside of double arm's reach firing their sidearms, one carefully while the other willy-nilly. The minotaurs and few remaining griffons started to recover just as a wave of charging ponies threw themselves into the meat grinder.

The first minotaur to recover enough from the explosion to react notice the two humans standing in front of approaching ponies. Grabbing a nearby ally (another minotaur), he sprinted towards the closest enemy to fight. He easily close the short distance between them and shoved his ally at the sniper before turning his attention to the medic. He weaved enough that any reactionary sidearm fire from the two merely grazed his helmet or his torso.

The minotaur instinctively swung his club at the medic who dodged backwards just in time. The medic grabbed at the club after the miss and tried to pry it from the minotaur's hands, giving him a good tug of war. It would have been for naught considering the shear strength and size difference between the two, had someone had not shoved a basket hilted broadsword into the minotaur's side. The blade went between the section where two plates interlapped and planted itself into some formerly undamaged flesh, giving the minotaur a significant emotional event.

Wilson, using his new club, swung it at the minotaur, who dodged it like Wilson had done early. Impressively, the minotaur had managed to do that, while a basket hilted broadsword was planted in the side of his torso. Blueblood failed to keep a hold of his new basket hilted broadsword and it seemed like being impaled with a long blade was the new trend, considering Tran was standing mere meters away sporting the same fashion statement. The minotaur still had his dagger, something he was quite adept at wielding.

Wilson charged forward and swung the club at the minotaur who easily parried the novice's televised attack but was unable to do anything against the large clump of mud that Blueblood had thrown in his face. This gave Wilson enough time to throat punch the blinded minotaur with a non dominant haymaker. Even though the minotaur's next breathe had died in his throat and was blinded, Wilson's punch had brought himself to be close enough for the minotaur to grab a hold of the medic and get thrown with as much blind anger that the massive bipedal bovine could muster up. The medic soared through the air away from the fight, leaving Blueblood standing between the minotaur he was facing and Tran, who seemed to be busy fighting someone else.

Blueblood, somewhat unused to all of this excitement, was shocked at the turn of events, leaving the minotaur enough time to regain his eyesight. Blueblood jumped backwards to avoid a quick swing from the minotaur's dagger. Blueblood bumped up against the side of Tran, who turned to look at the pony before turning his attention away. The minotaur closed the distance between himself and Blueblood as Tran calmly reloaded his revolver, not paying attention to Blueblood or the minotaur that Blueblood was facing, all while another group melee was raging around them.

Blueblood, with one hoof, threw another glob of mud at the minotaur who dodged the meager failure of a rather annoying tactic. While the minotaur was busy dodging, Blueblood used his other free hoof to quickly grab a hold of the bayonet lodged partially in Tran's leg and ripped it out, charging forward with it.

He charged forward with the blade, ducking down to evade an overhead reactionary dagger stab, and stuck the bayonet into the minotaur's unarmored left leg. The minotaur fell down to his side and while down, kicked the nearby Blueblood away with his other free hoof. Before either pony and minotaur could react, the cylinder of his reloaded revolver closed with a loud snap, directly both of their attention to him, despite the air being filled with the other sounds of melee fighting about. The minotaur's face temporarily had a shocked 'Oh shit' look under his helmet but it disappeared along with his head when Tran delivered a .50 caliber bullet.

The few remaining extremely explosion-concussed griffon and minotaur fighters stood no chance against the few remaining minorly-explosion concussed pony and human fighters, leaving a gruesome scene to everyone to behold. In the second round, not that many on the Equestrian side took any significant injuries. However, everyone took a severe injury to their mind and anxiousness when they all heard a long drawn out high whistle.

*PHWEEEEeeeeeee*

The defenders all scrambled back to safety and took cover, some needing help to move faster. Much to the defender's fears, the griffon position started exploding from impacting shells. The defenders look up to see what was going on and saw griffons taking to the skies only to meet fresh flying fighters. They could also see an incoming airship off in the distance.

Author's Note

minotaurs shock troopers took a while to show up but here they are. They're a mix of german ww1 stormtroopers and italian ww1 arditi special forces using the early french ideas of using shields with rifles attached, but more extreme.

Take a guess at what two historical characters I am slowly giving Blueblood characteristics of?

Also, someone shot me in the leg. This would be the 3rd time I've been shot in my life. While this may seem bad, the two people that were also involved got out much, much worse than I did. Ironically enough, despite being the one that was shot in the leg, I was the only one that walked away.

picture of my entry wound for the not squeamish

They Fought Together as Brothers in Arms; They Died Together and Now They Sleep Side by Side

The griffons were fleeing as fast as they could, abandoning the area and flying off in the distance. The fresh pony fliers didn't bother chasing after them and returned to the ground where the griffon defenses had been built, making sure there was no opponents left. Everypony cheered and uniform caps/hats were thrown into the air. Even the wounded had partaken in the uplifting festivities.

Despite the distinct lack of an aggressor., there were a few of the battle weary and exhausted defenders who were still busy. Namely, the medical personnel. Four REA medics were working tirelessly, not having slept for two days, dealing with the fresh wounded from the previous battle. Having learned from the human medic's example, they worked on both griffon and pony injured alike, even a few still alive minotaur assault troopers. Joining the REA medics were IGAF (Imperial Griffon Air Force) medical personnel.

Unfortunately, they had only been working for a short minute before some of the fresh troops had drawn weapons on them and were attempting to round them up. One of the other, non-griffon medics, angrily left the patient he was furiously working on and charged towards the group of REA soldiers were trying to lynch the griffon medics. This medic charged from behind the fresh soldiers, threw the rifles out of a few of ponies' hooves and knocking them to the mud below before stepping in front of the griffon medics. He drew a sidearm with a free hand and aimed it at a member of the lynch mob. "You fucking kill any of them and I'll fucking drop all of you!" Wilson threatened.

The fresh ponies were stunned but some of them kept their resolve and kept their weapons leveled at the griffon medics. Eric quickly joined the company of Wilson and the griffon medics, aiming his revolver at one of the fresh ponies. A few members of the lynch mob lowered their weapons but that still left some of the more radical lynchers still brandishing weapons at the griffon medics, who, by the way, hadn't stopped working on wounded soldiers the whole time.

And then, from another direction came the frightening visage of Tran, who was covered in the blood and guts of minotaurs, dragons, and griffons and not caring that he was impaled with a short sword styled bayonet, with his hand cannon drawn. If they weren't scared off by Tran, the unarmed REA pony medics who had also decided to protect the griffon medics, definitely changed their minds.

With that Mexican standoff dealt with, the medics went back to work and Tran tactically collapsed to the ground. Wilson holstered his pistol and sprinted back to his patient to work on him. Meanwhile, Blueblood and Rarity walked over to the fallen sniper, who was looking very, very pale. Wilson saw their guests and scowled. He had a few fingers in a deep bloody wound in Tran's leg, where a bayonet previously was. "You fucking moron. Do you know how much of a fucking moron you are?!" Blueblood flinched, realizing he was the cause of this. There was a lot of bleeding that Wilson was having trouble controlling. "I should feed you your fucking teeth right fucking now!"

Blueblood and Rarity was standing beside the two humans, both afraid of the angry medic. Blueblood felt bad for what he did but it had been done in the heat of battle. Wilson got ready to stand up to face the major but Tran put a hand on Wilson to stop him. Wilson looked back at Tran and was shocked, but only for the shortest of moments before continuing his work. Tran looked to Blueblood, who was giving the human a look that was thankful for the human at stopping the angry might of 1000 suns. Blueblood got down beside Tran, who was lying on the ground, and gently put a hoof on Tran's chest. "You're not as bad as everypony rumors."

Tran smiled at the compliment before lashing out with a fist into Blueblood's jaw and knocking the major down. "Thank you," Tran replied.

Blueblood was stunned for a few seconds before he got back up, rubbing his jaw. "I deserved that," Blueblood replied. He felt around in his mouth with his tongue before spitting out a pair of teeth into his hoof. "And that."

Rarity was horrified at the sight of the bloody broken teeth but recovered her composure quickly. "The personnel in charge of this airship will be rendezvous with us soon to discuss plans. They're reinforcements intended for the defense of Fillydelphia."

Tran nodded in acknowledgement while drinking from his canteen. Despite Wilson literally hands deep in his leg's giant gaping wound, he didn't so much as flinch from each of Wilson's efforts. A familiar pink sight hopped into view and looked at the fallen soldier. "Wowee, you look like you had a fun time!"

Wilson grunted as he pulled his fingers out of Tran's leg and finished putting a pressure bandage around it. Wilson stood up and held up a hand to Tran, who took it and stood up with the help of the medic. "Leg's packed with clotting gauze and bandage should keep enough pressure to help keep it the wound compressed. Can you stay off the leg?" Wilson asked, already knowing the answer. Tran shook his head. "I figured." Wilson let out a irritated snort. "At least take it easy." Tran nodded.

That was when a gunshot rang out, followed by angry yelling. Blueblood, Pinkie, and Rarity immediately took off in the direction while Tran and Wilson were left standing, guessing what was the problem. With Wilson's help, Tran slowly walked off in the direction of the commotion.

-X-X-X-

Gilda sported a new bullet impact on her body armor and she had a pony pinned to the ground with her talons wrapped around her victim's throat. Beside her, Rainbow Dash and Applejack had their sidearms drawn on four other fresh soldiers who had their hooves on their weapons but not raised. There were other soldiers, part of the original defense force, weapons drawn and holding other fresh soldiers at gun point who had their weapons pointed back.

More ponies, from both sides, were quickly joining the commotion and the Mexican standoff. Spitfire and Soarin, when they joined in, immediately homed their eyes in on the red scarf that Gilda wore and both of them had their hooves instinctively reach to their respective sidearms. Applejack noticed this, while her sidearm was pointed at a set of different fresh soldiers, look at the two and shook her head, mentally telling them to back down. The two pegasi didn't draw their pistols but were ready to quickly draw and fire.

Meanwhile Blueblood and Rarity entered the fray and immediately ran in between both sides, hooves in the air. "Stand down!" Blueblood commanded. The fresh soldiers eyed the major and were hesitant to leave, keeping their primary attention on the Jaeger.

Another rather important pony entered the mix, the airship's commander. He immediately recognized Gilda and what she was. "What in tartarus are you doing!? That is the enemy!"

Blueblood growled and trotted up to the pilot and squared up against him. "No she is not the enemy and as a major, I am ordering all of you to stand down!"

The pilot shoved Blueblood back. "Well, major. I am a wing commander and if memories serves correctly, I rank above you and I am demanded that she be shot before she causes trouble!"

Rainbow Dash heard the verbal dick measuring contest and naturally had to join in. She trotted closer to the two high ranking officers while keeping her pistol still up and ready. "Hey! If you're gonna pull that rank bullshit, I'm also a wing commander and I say you aren't demanding anything!"

The pilot eyed Rainbow Dash and her uniform, trying to corroborate her claims, finding them true. She was indeed a wing commander, as he was. "And you're siding with the likes of her!" he demanded while gesturing to the Jaeger.

Gilda shot the pilot and angry stare, pointing her free clawed hands at him. "I'll kill you first if you think you're gonna kill me."

At the same time, Logan and Eric arrived at this situation from one direction while Tran and Wilson arrived at another. All four of them had their sidearms drawn at the fresh ponies and slowly stepped in between both factions. The most frightening presence out of the four of them came from Tran. He was coated in blood, (his own, griffon blood, and pony blood), had a bayonet sticking out of his body that he paid no attention towards, and was the tallest of the bunch. Also, he sported a piece of artillery as a primary sidearm. "You try to kill her, then you'll have to try to kill us," Tran stated.

Everypony in Equestria were aware of who these four were, at this point in the war. Their exploits weren't exactly subtle. Wilson was helping Tran stand but it didn't take away any of his presence. Wilson snorted in anger. "Key word, being TRY."

More of the Dauntless former crewmembers were joining in on the situation, having heard the commotion and realized what was going on. They stepped in between Gilda and the fresh forces. "You fight them, you fight all of us!" yelled out one former Dauntless crewmember.

"Yeah!" yelled out another Dauntless Crewmember.

Tran lowered his handcannon and turned around to address the Dauntless crewmembers. "Soldiers of the Dauntless, should we kill this griffon, a Jaeger, formerly of the Imperial Griffon Military? Say aye if you agree!" Dead silence came from the, once again, defending side. None of the Dauntless former crewmembers made a noise. "Say aye if she belongs to us!" Cheers erupted from the Dauntless crewmembers as they screamed in Gilda's protection. They didn't even need to know her name to defend her.

Tran turned around to see Spitfire slowly trotting over to him, joining in on his support. She was weary of having to defend a Jaeger, her mortal enemies, but stood alongside Tran. Soarin was appalled at Spitfire's choice for a split moment but trotted over to join his compatriot. Following the two was, to Tran's surprise, Scootaloo who had somehow made her way to this situation.

Spitfire separated Blueblood and the pilot. "If you absolutely want to pull rank, I am an air force captain and I hold the senior position her. You will stand down and let this Jaeger on your airship or I will relieve you of your ship," Spitfire said while jabbing the pilot in the chest with her hoof.

The pilot angrily snorted and darted his eyes at everyone defending the Jaeger before turning around and trotting back to his ship. You could easily hear the anger in his hoof steps as he left, along with the fresh soldiers who wanted to kill Gilda. As every aggressor left, weapons were lowered. Tran hobbled over to Gilda who was still pinning the pony who had shot her. Tran put a hand on her shoulder and she angrily pulled the pony up to his hooves. Beside them, was a rifle lying on the ground. Once the pony was up to his hooves, Gilda picked up the rifle and shoved it down into the earth, muzzle first, and plugging the barrel with dirt.

"Hey!" shouted the fresh soldier. Tran and Gilda silently glared at the pony who sheepishly grabbed his rifle and sprinted away.

Spitfire looked between Tran and Gilda. "What's the story behind this?"

Tran shrugged his shoulders. "Later."

Soarin tentatively made his way closer to Gilda, in such a sheepish and scared manner that he would have made Fluttershy proud. He stood beside Spitfire and nudged her. "You sure about this?"

Spitfire shrugged. "He trusts her," she said while pointed to Tran.

Tran looked at the fellow veteran and held out a shoved his open hand forward. Soarin flinched but recovered when he realized what he was doing. He put his his fake hoof in Tran's hand and they shook hands/hooves. "If not, I've dealt with five of them so far."

Gilda gave Tran a glance. "I thought you've killed like four of us?"

Tran looked back at Gilda. "I said I've dealt with five." Gilda looked away, realizing what he meant.

Blueblood eyed the griffon's uniform and gear. "This is gonna be a constant problem," he stated. Gilda looked down at herself and realized what he meant. She sighed and ripped off her uniform, leaving just the gear and scarf. "That's not gonna do much."

Rainbow Dash had taken off her gear and uniform, handing her coat to Gilda. "Here," she said.

Gilda tried to don the coat but failed to and handed it back. "That's not gonna fit me," she said. "You are a tiny hummingbird while I am a huge majestic eagle."

Rainbow Dash blushed in embarrassment. "I'm aerodynamic!" She was indeed aerodynamic. Aerodynamically fucking tiny. She was a pegasus, the smallest of pony races, and she was on the smaller end of pegasus size. She was barely a size up from Scootaloo.

Applejack chuckled and handed her REA coat to Gilda. Gilda took the coat and and tried it on, finding that it indeed, did fit with some extra room to spare. She would have to cut wing holes later on. Applejack as an earth pony, the largest of the pony races (barring alicorns) and she was on the larger end of the spectrum.

Blueblood looked at the weird combination of Jaeger scarf and equipment and REA coat. "Well, from afar, that might pass." The standard Equestria military uniform was a light tan while the standard griffon military uniform was a dark grey.

Tran grabbed a handful of Gilda's new coat. "You stick with me and do what I say, no ifs, ands, or buts." Gilda nodded. Tran then pointed to Scootaloo. "And you, the fucking stray cat that won't fucking go away, too." Scootaloo glared back indignantly but nodded. With that, Tran collapsed against Gilda who took the brunt of Tran's weight without falling. He was still conscious but his energy was waning.

Tran, leaning against Gilda, grabbed Blueblood and pulled him in closer. "She is now one of us, understand?" Tran whispered to Blueblood. "You take care of your soldiers and they'll take care of you, Understand? Blueblood nodded rapidly in response. "You don't take care of your soldiers and they WILL, take care of you." Blueblood gulped and nodded, understanding the hidden meaning. Tran let go and the major walked off.

-X-X-X-

Eric looked around the group and pointed at Spitfire. "Since you're in charge, what the hell is going on?" Spitfire explained that the griffons had sprung an offensive from their holdings in Fillydelphia. The airship with its soldiers and supplies were intended to help reinforce the defense but were sidetracked to here. Eric looked to Tran and then back to Spitfire. "There's a defensive line that's been setup there ever since the griffons took that city, right?"

Blueblood was aghast. "You want to keep fighting?" he asked.

Eric shook his head. "No, if there's a defensive line and resources, it should have a field hospital and medical posts. Its two times closer than going to Ponyville or Manehattan."

Blueblood looked back to the airship. "We could head to Neighagra Falls where the airship came from?"

Eric shook his head. "I've studied all of the war maps. Neighagra Falls doesn't have the capacity to handle the amount of wounded we have nor do they have the facilities to treat what some of them need. We can rush them to the front line in a matter of hours."

Blueblood raised an eyebrow. "You've read ALL of the war maps?" he asked.

Eric nodded. "Yep, all." Eric looked back to where the griffons previously had their defenses. "Hey, grab some of those fresh soldiers and have them scavenge the griffons' old site. One hour. Take anything useful."

As if summoned like a demon, two ponies appeared. One was the tiny sapper/combat engineer and the other was the quartermaster, both previously of the Dauntless. The sapper, despite being dead tired with more bags on her eyes than height in her stature, bumped into Eric to get his attention. "Did you just say, take anything useful?" the sapper asked.

Eric looked down (really, really down) at the sapper. "Are you sure you want to be a part of that detail instead of napping on the airship?" he asked the tiny chihuahua.

The sapper, shook her head, trying to hide the beginning of some tears. "Nah, Steam Piston would kill me if he found out I had the chance to steal something and didn't take it."

Eric smacked his gums before gesturing towards the griffon trenches with a hand. "Alright, go ahead and start grabbing everything not nailed down. You can be in charge of that detail." The sapper nodded and trotted off with the quartermaster in tow.

Blueblood looked to Eric. "Who is Steam Piston?"

Eric looked back to Blueblood with a look of disgust. "Steam Piston, he was the fucking Chief Engineer for the Dauntless." Blueblood had the look of a scolded dog. Eric grabbed a handful of Blueblood's coat and pulled him in closer. "You gotta learn your soldiers." Eric let go of Blueblood's coat and shoved him away. "You don't have to be their friend but if they're gonna be your soldier, learn about who your soldiers are. Not just their names, but what they are. If they're yours, they're yours." Eric pointed at the sapper who was now off in the distance. "He was their husband."

-X-X-X-

As the last of the remaining wounded, soldiers, and scavenged equipment was loaded onto the airship, a number of people/ponies stood (except one) at the loading dock of the airship, having a last smoke before the journey. Blueblood stuck two cigarettes in his mouth and lit them with a lighter, all without the use of his telekinesis due to the broken horn. Once both were lit, a light blue telekinetic aura enveloped one of the cigarettes and moved it from Blueblood's mouth to Rarity's mouth. Like Blueblood, Logan lit two cigarettes, handing the second to Eric. Meanwhile, Applejack prepped two cigars, cutting the ends off of them. She stuck one in her mouth and handed the other to Tran. She then pulled out a box of matches, handing one to Tran and taking one to herself. She struck the match on the crate that a helmet-less Tran was sitting on and lit her cigar. Tran, not wanting to lean over, just struck the match against the side of his face and lit his cigar.

Minutes passed as they enjoyed their nicotine in silence. Being able to have a break and relax, not having to be on guard, was nice. All good things must come to an end. The airship's horn was blown indicating takeoff was imminent. Everything was finished being loaded. All the smokers finished or threw away their smokes, the last ones being Tran and Applejack. Applejack took one last puff before giving a sad look at her cigar before stomping it out on the ground.

Applejack looked at Tran, who had stood up and was in the process of stomping out his cigar. "She's all over yah, yah know?" Applejack asked. Tran nodded. "She shouldn't be fightin this adult's fight, but home ain't even safe anymore. You keep her safe now, yah hear?"

"Yep," Tran responded with.

Applejack snorted while chuckling. "You remin me of mah brotha," Applejack said. "Promise yah keep her safe?"

"Yep," Tran responded again.

The top of the crate that Tran had previously been sitting on popped off and Pinkie Pie shot out of it like a Jack-In-The-Box. "Pinkie Promise?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Tran redonned his helmet. "I'll be dead before she is."

-X-X-X-

A number of very tense creatures sat around each other, eyes fixed on one another. Tran (no longer impaled with bayonets) was getting a blood transfusion from a sleeping Logan by Wilson while also getting fluids intravenously from Fluttershy. Scootaloo was intently watching the two's efforts to save the sniper while two pegasi were having a very intense staring contest with a pegasus and Jaeger.

Gilda was still wearing her Jaegers scarf along with the REA coat she got from Applejack, now with wing holes. Spitfire was also wearing an identical red scarf. Tran was using two of the red scarfs as a sling for his rifle and the other two were hanging off of his battle belt. The red scarf represented strength. The red silk came from giant magical intelligent spiders and was stronger than steel. They were incredibly expensive and only a very small number of beings wore it. It was a number that was quickly dwindling.

The fastest heartbeat easily belonged to the pony with the least limbs at this spot while the slowest heartbeat belonged to the one closest to death. Soarin's eyes was fixed to Gilda's scarf. Gilda was the first to break the silence. "Want to try it on?" she asked. Soarin didn't respond or move. The loudmouth had no words. Gilda raised one of her hands to undo the scarf around her neck and Soarin flinched when she raised her hand, almost like he was ready to bolt. "Easy there, not trying to hurt you."

Something grabbed Soarin's hoof. Soarin looked down to see what had grabbed his hoof and noticed Spitfire holding his hoof with her hoof. He looked up at her and she had his gentle, supportive look on her face. She slowly nodded.

Soarin looked back at Gilda, who was holding her scarf up to him. Since one hoof was occupied, he reached out to grab it with his left hoof. His left front hoof and most of the leg was not real. Soarin had loss 3/4 ths of his front left leg because of a bad encounter with a singular Jaeger. Spitfire had been his supporting wingmare that day, just like right now. There had been a third Wonderbolt, Fleetfoot, with them that day and she loss a lot more than a leg, her life. Ever since then, Soarin wore a mostly wooden prosthetic. The red scarf made contact with Soarin's prosthetic wood leg and it stung. It felt like his leg was back and the red scarf was burning it like a red hot poker. Soarin dropped it and reeled his fake hoof back against his body. Spitfire squeezed Soarin's other hoof as tears welled in his eyes.

Spitfire looked at the Jaeger. "Why switch sides?"

Gilda picked up her scarf and gestured to Tran. "Saved my life, twice. Meanwhile, the birds I'm working for are trying to get me killed with their stupid decisions. The only times they're not making stupid decisions, they're being dirty back stabbing rats."

Spitfire looked at Tran and the new scarf that he had acquired, indicating another Jaeger kill. "And he didn't just shoot you right away?"

Rainbow Dash snorted, knowing the exact answer to this question. "Nope! He did!" she interrupted.

Gilda nodded in agreement and pointed at the big bullet impact and splatter mark on her chest armor. It was through shear luck that she had survived. Tran's rifle was capable of punching through the steel breastplates that Jaegers wore but the bullet that Tran had shot her with had lost too much energy beforehand from punching through a drum magazine. She then pulled the bandage off of her neck, revealing the bullet splash wound on her throat and bottom of her beak.

Soarin finally averted his eyes from Gilda and looked at Tran and then to Spitfire. "You trusted him enough to protect her?" he asked to Spitfire.

Spitfire gave his hoof a gentle squeeze and nodded. "He put his life on the line for me."

Soarin looked back at Tran. "Well, if that's true, that puts you in my good book!"

Gilda pointed at their hooves, holding each other. "What are you, fuck buddies?"

The two looked at each other, blushed, let go of each other's hooves, and looked away in opposite directions. "No," Spitfire answered. "The two of us were part of the same team of Wonderbolts."

Gilda raised an eyebrow upon mentioning of the name 'Wonderbolts' and she looked at Dash beside her. "I think I've heard of them before. Dash here, used to mentioned some kinda flying group?"

Rainbow Dash stood up in incredulity. "Some kinda flying group?! The Wonderbolts are the best flying group in Equestria!"

Soarin and Spitfire were surprised at the level of interest that Rainbow Dash showed while Gilda nearly busted out laughing. "Nah, you're crazy. The best flying group in Equestria are the Jaegers."

Rainbow Dash was ready to bust a blood vessel in her forehead but Spitfire's statement surprised her. "Yeah. You're right. We left the Wonderbolts because we loss against our first action against a Jaeger."

Soarin chuckled. "We weren't good at dogfighting but we were the best aerial demonstration team there ever was." Soarin's face went downtrodden. "We lost the best of ourselves that day." Spitfire grabbed Soarin's hoof again. Gilda eyed the hoof play between the two, something that both Spitfire and Soarin noticed. "Jealous or something? Do you want to join in?" Soarin asked. In the next instant, he popped off his prosthetic leg and tossed it to Gilda. She caught it and looked down at it in curiosity before dropping it upon realizing what it was. A smirk crept up on Soarin's face as he reached down to get his prosthetic back.

"That was one of the early days, right?" Gilda asked.

"What?" Soarin asked.

"Your aerial loss? All of you pegasi don't dogfight anymore," Gilda explained. "It really took the fun out of it. For the first year or so, that's what pegasi would keep on trying but losing."

Rainbow Dash smirked. "Says you!" Rainbow Dash boasted. "I'm the best dogfighter and fastest mare in Equestria!"

Gilda smirked with an evil grin. "That's not something you should really be bragging about."

Rainbow Dash had a look of confusion on her face for a second before realization struck her face as it turned red. "Fastest flier in Equestria!" she corrected.

Gilda folded her arms and squared up against the dogfighter. "Pegasi are still dog ass at dogfighting," she boasted, gaining a look of irritation from the nearby pegasi. She noticed this and flared out her wings. "You guys can't bank as well against us. We got bigger wings. They turn better. You definitely have the speed advantage but I've never seen one of you take advantage of that."

Tran ahem-ed to get everyone's attention. "They got size and probably strength advantage." Tran pointed to the bullet impact on her armor. "Do all of ya'll wear armor?"

Gilda shook her head. "Just Jaegers and dogfights," Gilda replied. She rubbed her bullet-splash-damaged beak with a free hand. "And minotaurs."

Tran pointed to Rainbow Dash who was just about ready to fight. "We're gonna fix that."

Rainbow Dash sat down. "Fix what?"

"REAF's dogfighting."

All three pegasi dogfighters, two former and one current, had questions. "I've been doing fine so far!" Rainbow Dash boasted.

Tran adopted a frown. "Only you. Others, no," he replied. He also reached out and grabbed the pegasi's broken wing, eliciting an angry pained yelp. "Doesn't matter right now, does it?"

Soarin eyed the broken wing. "How'd that happen, anyways? How did the best dogfighter in Equestria get her wing clipped?" he asked. Rainbow Dash blushed in embarrassment, looked at Gilda, and sat down. Soarin's jaw dropped slightly. "No. She didn't, did she?"

Gilda smirked. "I did. She got close and lost."

Soarin looked between the two and raised an eyebrow. "Wait, why didn't' you finish her off? I don't remember Jaegers being merciful." That was when Gilda had an embarrassed look and looked at Tran, as to which, Soarin realized the cause.

Soarin looked at the unkillable monster and had questions. "Is that why she got shot?" Tran smirked, but only for a barely noticeable second, something that Soarin and Spitfire noticed. "I'm glad you're on our side." He pointed at Gilda.

That was when they started hearing explosions. They weren't close enough to be hurt them but close enough to worry about. Blueblood ran up to them. "We're close."

Author's Note

if you havent noticed. There's a reason why there's only four humans. Each one represents a role that will be much more obvious later on. Oh, I don't remember if I've stated this but eh. Spitfire's rifle, the one she got from the Jaeger she killed, is a Gewehr 1888 sniper rifle with a maxim silencer

Also, this is an Equestria where there's herds. Also, go fast horse smol. Appul honse big an strong.

As for dogfighting history. In WW2, US planes found themselves being not able to match the IJN planes' ability to maneuver. However, US planes were much, much faster. The US would adopt a policy to basically bait potential enemy planes. By working in pairs, one would bait out a plane. When the enemy plane would inevitably try to fail in chasing the bait plane, the second of the pair of planes would fly by and do a quick running strafe attack on the Jap plane.

Two Armies That Fight Each Other Is Like One Large Army That Commits Suicide

Astoundingly, Pinkie Pie had brought ammunition for the humans. They quickly covered themselves in spare ammunition but obviously, she didn't have spare ammunition for their new weapons. Luckily, she did have the almost omniscient sense to have 9mm ammunition for Gilda and Tran's submachine guns and Blueblood's carbine. Tran carried the bazooka on his back while holding his sniper rifle in his hands. Spitfire, Soarin, Gilda, and Rainbow Dash was alongside him. Tran had given Spitfire his remaining rockets to carry, a total of a eight of them (not counting the one loaded in the bazooka). Spitfire looked at the heavy load that she was given, a whole extra 15 kilograms. "Are these fireworks?" she asked, taking a look at one that she exposed from its protected carrier.

Tran nodded. "In a sense."

Rainbow Dash grinned. "You gotta see that thing in action. Its awesome!" she said.

Gilda nodded with a smirk. "If we see another dragon, maybe."

The three new ponies had questions to what Gilda mentioned but didn't push the topic. Soarin did have an important unrelated question. He noticed all of Tran's injuries. His wounds were barely treated and he was still quite pale from blood loss. "What are you planning to do? You're more broken than I am!"

Tran pulled back the bolt on his rifle, making sure that it was loaded. "Our Group is providing overwatch and scouting. Eric will be directing artillery and troops." Fluttershy and Eric, they planned to not involve themselves in battle. They were going to deal with the wounded as best as they could once they touched down.

"Okaaaay," Soarin replied. "What's overwatch?" To be fair, he was originally a Wonderbolt and after his career ending injury, he played only administrative roles afterwards.

"You'll adjust," Tran replied.

Soarin smiled. "I'm liking you more and more."

-X-X-X-

Fillydelphia had been a major griffon holding since the early onset of the war. Most of the citizens had naturally fled from the city as refugees but there were a few unlucky or stubborn citizens who stayed in the city. Originally, it was one of Equestria's industrial cities, one that had developed really quickly, as evident from the many, many large buildings or skycrapers that used to make up the city. However, after a few years of war, most of the large buildings had been reduced to rubble.

The griffons had an extensive network of outposts and small bases that made up their primary holdings in Fillydelphia. They varied greatly and were buried deep in the city's ruins making it impossible to target with artillery fire. As for the ponies, they held the outskirts of the city in buried-in fortifications. Between the two sides were a grand network of trench lines. The land in between the two sides was no-man's-land and attempting to cross it was a death sentence.

The rest of the humans went to worth doing what was needed. Wilson gathered the wounded, griffons included, and had them offloaded to the closest battlefield hospital. As previously done, lots of threats and positions of authority was used. Even then, the wounded griffons were under close guard.

Logan and his crew (him, the sapper, Applejack, and the Quartermaster) went to 'requisition' supplies.

Eric and his crew (him, Blueblood, Pinkie, and Rarity), went to meet with the artillery direction command. Way in the back of all of the pony defenses, were the big guns, the primary siege artillery. Lines and lines of the giant howitzers were proudly pointed in the area, ready to release their deadly payload. In an underground bunker nestled in the middle of all of the guns, ponies busily went in and out like a nest of ants. Eric and crew entered, finding themselves standing in a very obvious command room. There were maps of the surrounding area and a table in the center of the bunker that held a 3d model of Fillydelphia along with many models that denoted various military resources. The bunker held a myriad of ponies of all uniforms and types all around. Most of the eyes were immediately on them. There were looks of confusion and lots of questions to be had.

"Who holds seniority?" Eric immediately demanded. Eyes turned away from Eric and to one earth pony mare in the room that sported the standard REA uniform, albeit one that sported a lot of gold decorations, medals, and almost no dirt on it.

The mare snarled lightly. "I've heard of your kinds' exploits. That doesn't mean you can waltz in here like you own the place and take over!" she shouted.

Eric waltzed up towards the pony and noticed the star insignia on her uniform's lapels, indicating a general. Ponies silently moved out of the way as Eric got up beside the general next to the table map. "All I've done so far is asked for who's in charge," Eric calmly said.

The mare still had her frown. "Brigadier General Daring Charge, leading officer of all ground forces in this sector," she finally growled out.

Blueblood stepped in between the Eric and the general to separate the two. "We are here, merely to observe and assist where ever we can."

The general looked up and down at the stallion and her eyes rapidly blinked twice upon recognizing the pony. "Prince Blueblood?"

Blueblood nodded. "Major Blueblood, correct," he said while attempting to dust himself off. "We heard the rumors of a griffon launching an offensive in Fillydelphia?"

The general looked from Blueblood to Eric, still with the frown on her face and then turned back to the table map. "Their navy managed to get through the blockade and drop in more supplies and more importantly, more soldiers. Yesterday, they started launching night raids and they managed to take over one of the major outposts." The mare picked up a stick and pointed to a tiny pile of sandbags arranged in a circle on the table map. In the center of the little sandbag model was a unspent singular rifle cartridge. There were additional tiny piles of sandbags arranged in small circles all around the city, each one with an object on the models similar to the model the general pointed to. Examples of objects on them were spent rifle cartridges, bandage rolls, and a flower.

Eric looked at the map more closely. "Where are we?" he asked. The mare pointed at a tiny sandbag circle that had a bunch of sticks stuck into it.

The general pointed back at the model that denoted the outpost that the griffons had taken over. "The outpost they took over was the primary ammo dump for the Fillydelphia defensive lines but just for small arms." The outpost in question was conveniently right next to the outpost they were in, to make things worse.

"Uh oh," Pinkie Pie commented.

"Once the evening standto happens, we expect an attack from that outpost and their line, a pincer attack. If not, they'll slowly whittle us down until we're out of ammo."

"Double Uh Oh!" Pinkie Pie said.

Eric shoved Pinkie Pie away from them. "I'm assuming you have something planned?" he asked.

The general paused, not sure whether she should answer or not. Rarity stepped up to the general and pulled out some paperwork, showing it to her. "We're personally working with Princess Twilight Sparkle. If you're implying we're untrustworthy?"

The general furled her brow. "We're planning a combined arms attack to take back the stockpile."

Eric raised and eyebrow. "The day after they've taken it, you want to take it back?" Eric asked.

The general looked back at Eric with an angry look. "And what are you implying?"

Eric scoffed. "Even the dead would be expecting that move."

The general stomped one of her hooves. "If we don't take it back, we'll run out of ammo in five days for the troops! The lives we throw away are worth that risk!"

Rarity magically picked up the cartridge case from the model that represented the outpost that was taken by the griffons. "Standard attack tactic? Bombard them with the big guns, hoping it weakens them enough for troops, hoping they succeed?"

The general took the casing from Rarity's magic and placed it back on the model. "WHEN they succeed, we can send in more troops to attack their line when they try to fall back."

Eric picked up the casing and threw it away. "IF they succeed, how do you expect them to react?"

The general's frown deepened. "Are you new to this? They'll do the standard griffon counterattack! Just like us, they'll fire their big guns and then attack, only with just air cavalry!"

Eric took a mental double take, his eyes clearly showing it as he rapidly started blinking to register what the general had just said. "Here's a novel idea."

But before Eric could speak, the general stood up on her hind hooves so she could look at him eye to eye. "I fucking told you that you aren't taking over!" the general yelled into Eric's face.

Before Eric could respond, everyone in the bunker froze up as it suddenly felt like the room temperature dropped a few degrees. A split second later, the stench of death filled the room. "A-hem," Tran spoke out. The sniper in question was standing at the only entrance to the bunker. He had a very imposing look and had a very frightening and petrifying aura surrounding him. It didn't help that he was covered in enough blood to paint a barn, enough wounds to make him look like a thrice-dead corpse, and was covered in the viscera of his previous victims from the battle he just came from, which was likely where the smell came from. "Do we have a problem here?"

The general swallow the lump in her throat. "I-I said that you counterfeit minotaurs couldn't waltz in here and take charge," she said, dropped back to four hooves.

Tran starred her down and stepped further into the bunker, finding a place beside Eric. A few seconds later, Spitfire, Soarin, Gilda, Rainbow Dash, and a white furred, yellowed maned pegasus trotted in. The instant Gilda entered the room, many of the ponies in the room started to reach for weapons but Tran had quick drawn his .500 magnum faster than one could blink and had it aimed at the pony who was closest to having their weapon up first. "She's with us," Tran calmly said. The REA soldiers in the room froze where ever and whatever they were doing. "Do not test me." No pony said or did anything in response so Tran cocked the hammer back on his hand cannon. "Do we have an understanding?" Eric put his hand on Tran's revolver so he pointed it in a safe direction and lowered the hammer before lowering it. He didn't holster it, he still kept it out.

Pinkie Pie looked at the new ponies that entered the room and tackled at the white furred, yellowed maned pegasus, enveloping her in a hug. "Surprise, its so good to see you!"

The pegasus in question returned the hug. "Pinkie, its so good to see you!"

Rainbow looked at Pinkie. "You know Surprise?"

Pinkie turned to look at Rainbow Dash. "Yeah! She's my cousin!" Pinkie Pie responded.

Rainbow Dash had a deadpanned look on her face. "That explains so much," she said.

Eric looked at Surprise. "Who's she?" he asked.

Surprise broke away from the hug and saluted Eric. "Air Commodore Surprise Party, current commander of all air forces in this sector!" she replied. Eric quickly went to attention and returned a salute and the pegasus put her hoof down, followed by Eric putting his hand down.

Tran tapped Eric on the side to grab his attention. "Plan?" he asked.

Eric pointed to their location on the table map. "We're here at the moment. They want to do what they and the griffons have been doing this entire war, artillery and then charge with infantry."

The general got in between the two humans. "No we are not! This time, we attack with air infantry AND the ground infantry after the artillery stops!"

Eric turned back to look at the table map and pointed to the ammo depot model that signified the outpost the griffons had recently captured. "This idiot wants to take back an outpost that the griffons took over last night."

Tran rolled his eyes. "Like they won't see that coming," he commented.

Eric let out a laugh. "I know, right?"

"Plan?" Tran asked.

Eric pointed to the main line where the griffons were, instead of the ammo outpost they had just captured. "Start an artillery bombardment on the outpost they just captured just like this idiot," Eric said while point back to the general. "-Was planning. While the guns are still firing, charge their main line."

Surprise got beside Eric and looked at the table map. "Why are we doing that?" she asked, tilting her head.

Eric put a hand on Surprise's back and pointed at the model of the outpost. "They'll probably start moving soldiers in the back to get ready to reinforce that area, expecting an attack there, only for us to attack their main line, hopefully with less soldiers than usual. You fliers should attack first all at once as fast as possible, hopefully taking it. There, you should hold until the ground forces can arrive and reinforce it for the counterattack they'll send to retake the area."

Surprise smiled. "Oh, I like that plan!" she complimented.

The general got up on her hind legs and shoved Eric. "I said I'm in charge here and we're retaking the ammo outpost!"

Eric looked at the general in anger. "No we are not."

The general snarled. "And how are you gonna take charge with your lack of authority and command of my forces?" she demanded.

Surprise stood on her hindlegs to look at the general in the eyes. "I like his plan and your plan won't work without my fliers," Surprise said while crossing her arms. "And last I believe, we're on the same pay grade."

The general adopted a stupefied look on her face before readopting the previous angry look on her face while throwing her hooves into the air. "Fine, we'll go with your plan!" she finally relented.

Eric shoved the general back, knocking her down to four hooves, before looking back at the map. "Once we have a hold of a good spot, we can use that area to pincer attack and take back the ammo post they took over."

Tran pointed to a seemingly random spot on the map that was within proximity of the ammo outpost and the section of the griffon main line they wanted to take. "I'll provide overwatch here. It's close enough to the attack location so I can provide overwatch but not too far from this outpost for runners to take too long."

Eric patted Tran on the back. "Take it easy, okay?"

"I'll try."

Author's Note

New 30 grand rifle, take a guess.

Life Went On. Death Went On. The War Went On

Wilson, after having dealt with the griffon wounded, had rejoined up with the rest of his friends to get ready for the upcoming assault. The first person he went to find was Tran, the most wounded of the four. The sniper in question was in the process of cleaning himself up. He had removed all of the items off of his body that wasn't clothes or body armor before dumping literal buckets of water on himself. Afterwards, he had stripped himself of everything, sans underwear, before sitting down in a chair, resigning himself to Wilson.

Wilson had restocked his supply of medical equipment and was working to carefully sterilize Tran's many, many wounds, before applying fresh bandages. In some cases, Wilson was stitching up tears/holes or in a few cases, packing or chemically cauterizing wounds. It was slow but very important work. "Thanks," Tran said.

Wilson nodded before pulling out a pair of glass syringes. "Morphine. Up to you whether you want it." Tran stared at the syringes before nodding. As the opiates coursed through his veins, Tran felt some of the world's weight get lifted off of his shoulders. His mind felt like it was floating and he had to put more mental effort than usual to be able to focus on his surroundings. "Combined with the ketamine, you've already had a lot, probably too much but you're probably gonna need it for what's about to happen and its not like anyone is gonna be able to stop you from overworking yourself."

Wilson pulled out a pack of cigarettes and started two of them. Once lit, Tran accepted one and took a long drag, going through a quarter of it in one go. As the two of them enjoyed their tobacco, Logan and his crew (him, the sapper, Applejack, and the Quartermaster) joined their company. Wilson gave up his cigarette to Logan and started another one for himself. Applejack already had a lit cigar in her mouth and the other two ponies, instead of smoking dropped several heavily ladened saddlebags onto the ground. The sapper went over to one of the bags and showed off its contents, revealing many, many grenades and bricks of explosives. "We got a pretty good haul. Managed to use up some favors owed to me, other places stole some favors for your team to use," the tiny sapper explained.

Tran nodded in approval as he released a built up cloud of smoke from his Lungs. Applejack pulled out a flask and held it to Tran, to which he drained a significant amount into his body. Handing it back to her, Applejack hid it back in her hat. Tran, still in just underwear, strode on over to his gear. He turned to look at Logan. "Help me out, will you?"

Logan nodded and strode on over to Tran, picking up his gear as Tran picked up his clothes, getting ready to regear himself up for the upcoming future. Before any of that. Two gunshots rang out. One bullet struck Tran in the upper right side of his back and the other struck Logan in the face. As Logan collapsed to the ground, Tran's mind struggled to realize what had happened. Whether it was the trauma of getting shot again or more likely the shock of watching his friend collapse to the ground, he stood there, staring at the unmoving corpse of his headless friend.

Around him, everyone else started taking cover, looking for the source of the shooter. Tran felt someone grab him and try to pull him but nothing moved the paralyzed warrior. Tran finally stirred, looking at his stomach/chest where the bullet exited. He touched the large hole, coating his hand with his life essence.

Wilson continued in trying to pull his friend to cover but found the sniper rooted where he stood. "Come on, its too late for him!" he screamed into Tran's ears. Tran calmly drew his hand cannon from his pile of gear, took aim at a seemingly empty patch of the sky and emptied the cylinder of his revolver. Despite the sky being completely clear of clouds and flying creatures, two griffons shimmered out from magical invisibility and fell out of the sky, no doubt dead. Tran watched the assassins hit the ground at terminal velocity, ensuring that he knew the assailants were dead before finally looking at to look back at Logan's corpse.

Wilson got in front of Tran and prevented him from being able to look at their friend's corpse. Tran looked up at Wilson before finally collapsing unconscious in a bleeding heap on top of his gear.

-X-X-X-

"Get me a needle!" Wilson screamed. Tran's breathing was labored and erratic. The natural breathing rhythm favored one side over the other meaning one of the lungs had collapsed.

Wilson had rushed Tran in a blinding fast speed, having bowled through anyone in his way, over to the closest medical tent. Medical personal alike didn't bother asking questions and brought over any and every medical item they could get a hold of. Wilson was only a medic and not a doctor or nurse but he was more familiar with human anatomy than the others, so he was in charge. Under his instructions and guidance, a nurse had stuck a needle in the right side of Tran's chest and the rise and fall of his breathing rhythm returned to a normal, even rate.

Unfortunately, Wilson wasn't even close to being none. The packing that Wilson had quickly applied to the entry and exit wounds of the shot were soaked with blood. Wilson noticed that the color of the blood soaking the bandages on the exit wound wasn't the normal color of blood red it was supposed to be. It was more pinkish than normal and Wilson loudly cursed. He tore off the packing he had previously placed on the exit wound and blood started spraying out from the wound. The spray wasn't squirting in a constant stream. Worse, it was squirting before stopping before starting to squirt again, constantly stopping and starting. It was spraying in rhythm with his heartbeat.

Wilson and the surrounding medical personal immediately recognized it. It was an arterial bleed. An REA unicorn doctor, with forceps and various other tools floating in the area. The situation was made even harder because seconds after Tran's breathing was fixed, he had woken up. He felt nothing but pain and his mind screamed at him to get up and move but he had the mental strength to recognize where he was and what was going on, barely. Still, Tran's arms shot up and started grabbing at the medical team surrounding him. Wilson gripped Tran's shaking hands and gave it a strong squeeze. "This is gonna hurt but you're gonna have to hold still!"

The REA doctor, when he finally had the opening he needed, started digging in the massive exit wound with his tools. Tran's body tensed and Wilson felt his hands nearly crumble from all of Tran's hands squeezing back. "Got it!" the REA doctor said as the blood stopped squirting out and went to a slow, steady stream.

Wilson placed one of his hands on Tran's face. "You're gonna be okay!" Wilson yelled out. Tran smiled back before closing his eyes. Tran's hands, which had been trying to crush Wilson's hands, fell down, with no more strength in them. Tran's breathing had stopped and his heart stopped beating. It took Wilson a split second to realize what had happened before screaming in anger. The medical team realized what had happened and took a step back in respect. They were surprised when Wilson had started repeatedly pressing down on Tran's chest. He turned away to look at one of the nurses while he was doing chest compressions. "Get me a weather pegasus!"

-X-X-X-

Tran's eyes shot open. Looking around, he found himself surrounded by many, many wounded ponies and griffons lying down in beds. Sitting up in his medical cot, he was immediately accosted by nurses rushing towards him. He got ready to get onto his feet but found himself unable to muster up the strength. He was weak.

A different nurse slowly trotted over to him, a nurse that had been constantly burdened with the weight of other's lives resting on her metaphorical shoulders. "Lie back down," Fluttershy softly commanded. Tran looked her in the eyes before putting his feet back on the bed and lying back down. She looked to the over panicking nurses and dismissed them before turning her attention back to Tran. She gently patted his side to comfort him. "You should be dead right now. You're lucky your friend was able to save you."

Tran turned to lie on his side while still keeping his eyes on her. "He's dead right?"

Fluttershy kept her eyes on him and swallowed. "There was nothing that could be done."

Tran paused with the information sitting in his mind, trying to focus his breathing. He sat back up in his cot. "Who were they?"

Fluttershy put a hoof on him. "If you keep pushing yourself, I will have you tied down," she calmly threatened. Tran stared her down who was staring at her back. Letting up a sigh, he lied back down. She was right. Even now, it was painful to breathe. If he focused enough, he could feel grinding in his chest. "It was two Jaegers. Invisible assassins. You couldn't have done anything."

Tran gently nodded. "Did I get them?"

A resounding voice answered. "Yes," Gilda responded. Gilda and Rainbow Dash joined Fluttershy's side. "I don't know how you knew where they were but you got both of them."

Tran looked down at the exit wound in his stomach. The site burned and had an aching pain. It felt like some chemical cauterization had been done and he could feel stitches. "I based the angle of there shot from where the entry and exit wounds were."

Rainbow looked at the exit wound and grimaced. "We don't know how your friend did it but he restarted your heart. Your friend used a pegasus to shock you with some lightning." Tran put a hand on his chest and gently pressed. He felt some of the ribs move. They were definitely broken, most likely from CPR.

That was when everyone could hear the sound of guns going off in the distance, big ones. It sounded like REA artillery. The counter assault on the griffons was starting.

Your Heaviest Artillery Will Be Your Will to Live

Tran lied down in his medical cot. Pain wracked his body, even with all of the pain meds he was allowed. Even breathing was painful. All he could do was close his eyes and listen to the sounds of the battle filling the air.

"Get up!" Logan yelled at him over the sounds of battle, from no particular direction. Tran's eyes shot open and he shot up from his cot, looking around for Logan. He didn't find the source. He looked around more before lying back down and closing his eyes again. "I said, get up! We got a war to win!"

Tran let out a sigh before opening his eyes and sitting up. He look at the ground surrounding his gear and found his clothes and gear sitting in a pile. He reached down to grab it when he heard a voice call out to him, this time being Fluttershy once again.

"Lie back down or I will tie you to your cot!" Fluttershy yelled at him as she ran to his cot. Tran took a deep breathe in, finding that it no longer hurt to breathe so he looked down at his bandaged chest and tore off some of the bandages. "What are you do-" Fluttershy's voice trailed off. Tran's deathly pale chest was free of any injury that he had mere minutes ago. She reached up with a hoof and tried to check Tran's chest but the instant her hoof touched his skin, she reeled back her hoof. Her leg felt like it had been trapped in a frozen lake for a century. She hissed in pain as she tried to bring back feeling and warmth to the limb.

Tran was internally shocked to see her do that but didn't have time to ask questions. He reached down, rushing and from an outside view, it seemed like all of his gear teleported onto his body. Before Fluttershy could say anything, Tran shot off into the horizon.

-X-X-X-

Everyone (Eric, Wilson, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Rarity, Blueblood, Applejack, Spitfire, Soarin, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, the Engineer, the quartermaster) was gathered at one of the trenches that was holding other soldiers that were getting ready to charge into the meat grinder. The sound of artillery guns firing filled the air, leaving everyone unable to hear anything. Eric and Wilson's attention was redirected somewhere else when someone tapped them on the shoulder. When they turned around, they were astounded to see Tran standing behind them. Wilson's temper started to flare up but it died back down when he saw that Tran's chest was exposed with no wounds, with his coat unbuttoned and his body armor off. He had questions but they didn't have the time. Wilson nodded, knowing that Tran wasn't going to kill himself by pushing himself too hard. Wilson handed Tran the bazooka he borrowed for the battle.

Tran rebuttoned his coat and body armor before grabbing the attention of Gilda, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Blueblood, the Stray, Soarin, Spitfire, and Pinkie Pie. When he had their surprised attention, he pointed to each of them before pointing to himself, hoping that they understood what he was trying to tell them. Right as that happened, all of the artillery stopped and the battlefield was dead silent. "With me!" Tran yelled out as the silence was immediately filled with the sound of whistles being blown.

From every trench line, soldiers started climbing out of the trench lines. Thousands of soldiers were making the charge but the first ones out were Tran, Wilson, and Eric in unperceivable speeds. Just as the humans were leading the charge, flight able soldiers from both trench lines started to fill the air with flesh while machine guns from both sides filled the air with metal. Once the humans were on No Man's Land, they could see their objective from here, the enemy trench line, with completely unrestricted sightlines. It was only a mere, one hundred meters away, and those lines were teaming with griffons.

Eric was the furthest one forward and he was blasting away with his AK, not bothering to aim properly but merely providing, hopefully, suppressive fire that would scare the enemy enough to not shoot back at them accurately. Whilst still sprinting forward, he turned his head to look backwards, making sure that he was being followed by his allies. Confirming his thoughts, by the time Eric looked back forward, he had easily covered half the distance. From here, he slowed down and started taking more careful shots, easily hitting any griffons that had popped up to take pot shots. One griffon that had taken flight initially managed to surprise dive and attempt to stop Eric in his path but a quick shot from Tran's hand cannon saved him.

As Eric took more steps, he felt a bullet impact his chest and another graze his arm but neither fazed him. As he reached the griffon trench line, he didn't slow down and jumped into it. Falling twelve feet into the griffon trenches, he found himself crashing into the wall of the trench line before sliding to the ground in a heap. He didn't bother to climb back up, looking down one side of the trench to see a bunch of surprised griffons. Unfortunately for Eric, the crash had caused him to lose his weapon in the mishap and by the time he had realized, the griffons had started scrambling to shoot him. The closest to Eric was then cut down by Wilson, who was standing at the lip of the trench line. Wilson started shooting at the other griffons in one direction as Tran reached the trench line and was shooting at the griffons from the other direction of the trench line.

Once this section of the trench was clear of any hostile griffons, Eric found his rifle and was going down one end of the trench line while Wilson and Tran took over clearing the other direction of the trench line. Just as the three of them were making their way through this trench line, REA ponies (and griffon) reached the trench line and were swarming in. Eric's AK74, while being a full sized AK pattern rifle, was still significantly shorter than the very long rifles the griffons used and was a vastly dangerous tool in clearing the griffons while Tran's handguns and Wilson's short 10mm Vector were even smaller and just as, in some ways more, handy and devastating to use.

Across the entire griffon trench line, the enemy griffons found themselves swarmed and losing this up close fight. Most of the ponies didn't even bother trying to shoot, resorting to bayonet charging every griffon they came across even the ones with short carbines. This didn't mean it was perfect and flawless. Many REA ponies found themselves victim to the griffon's ability to fight. However, the griffons suffered far more casualties. They were easily outnumber by the attacking REA. Just as predicted, the incoming enemy fire was far more intense coming in from the ammo depot the griffons had freshly taken when compared to the incoming fire from the main griffon trench line.

As the fight continued, Tran, Wilson, and Eric regrouped with everyone in their cadre to prepare what was to come while ponies throughout tried to shoot down airborne griffons that were engaging friendly pegasi forces. Eric immediately went to Applejack, the quartermaster, and the engineer. Charging into the battle, the quartermaster and some of the other larger built ponies had strapped machine guns to themselves. Now, they were unloading them and setting them up. Meanwhile, Wilson, and Rarity were grabbing the emplaced griffon machine guns and turned them 180 degrees around to face the other direction.

From histories sake, whenever a trench assault succeeded, you would always expect an immediate counter attack to see if it could be retaken in the surprise before the enemy could build up defenses in the taken trench system. The others, Spitfire, Soarin, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Blueblood, and Gilda followed Tran who then immediately climbed out of their captured trench line, in the opposite direction (going back towards the allied REA trench line). The others didn't follow him. They didn't have to. Tran hadn't gone very far, a few meters at most. He quickly handed his bazooka and sniper rifle to Spitfire. "The fuck are you doing?!" Spitfire called out to him.

Tran didn't answer. He immediately dove to the ground in the wettest pile of mud he could find. He rolled around in the filth, coating his entire body in a thick layer of mud. He crawled around until he found himself sitting next to a mound of dirt, completely blending in with the ground. Reaching out to Spitfire, she knew what he was doing and handed him back his sniper rifle and only that.

There was the loud call of a trench whistle that rang throughout the battlefield but this time, it came from the griffons. Waves of griffons charged from various griffon holdings and towards the freshy taken trench line that the REA and humans now held. Tran looked towards his ragtag group and pointed at Rainbow Dash. "They got a team of minotaurs carrying machine guns. 50 meters left. Get to Eric and have him reinforce that section!" he commanded her. "Repeat what I said, then go!"

Rainbow Dash's mind worked hard for a few seconds, her head almost releasing steam. "Minotaurs, Machine guns, 50 meters left. Got it!" she repeated.

Tran nodded. "Good! Go, then return!" As Rainbow Dash ran down the trench line, Tran looked to the other members in his team. "Do not fire your weapon unless absolutely necessary!" he commanded.

Spitfire, Soarin, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie, Blueblood, and Gilda all had varying thoughts. Gilda was the first to speak up. "What, we're just sitting her and watching!?"

"More important than you think!" Tran retorted. He looked at Gilda, releasing what she was, a griffon. "Get up here with me and help keep an eye out!"

Gilda looked at the mud/filth covered man. Her skin/feathers/fur crawled. As a Jaeger, who'd never usually be touching the mud, this was an insult. She handed her weapon off to Soarin before crawling out of the parapet and covering herself up in filth. As she finished up with her costume, she was handed back her weapon. "Why me?!" annoyed, she demanded Tran.

Tran reached out and plucked one of her feathers. "You're a griffon, hopefully, they'll think twice before shooting you," he answered.

The answer stuck in her head, realizing she was going against her people but that thought burned away when she remember how the IGM (Imperial Griffon Military) shelled her and how Tran had personally saved her from from what would have been torture and a firing squad. "Where do you want me, coach?" She jokingly asked Tran.

Tran pointed to the right. "Find a hide to the right (south) and keep watch. Call out anything to note." Tran then pointed to Blueblood and Pinkie Pie. "You two, go with her. You're her runners! Once Rainbow is back, I'll have her link up with you three. Do not engage anything unless its a direct threat to your life! Relocate if you fire or you're found! Always have someone watching up above! Now, GO!!!" With that, the three of them ran off to find their own section to watch.

Tran turned his attention back to the rest of his soldiers. He pointed at Spitfire. "Get back to headquarters and have a artillery battery fire a salvo between this trench line and the next! Repeat!"

Spitfire got her rifle ready and shook off some nerves before getting ready to jump out of the trench. "Headquarters, artillery between this trench and the next!"

"Go!" Tran yelled. Soarin, on four legs, squatted down to lower himself down where Spitfire jumped up on his back and then out of the trench line, gunning it back to REA main holdings.

Soarin looked up at Tran. "So, this is Overwatch?"

"Yep."

"Seems a little boring but I can see how its important." Tran, instead of replying back, fired his rifle. He quickly reloaded and fired again. Then, he reloaded and fired again. With the third shot, Soarin covered his ears with his hooves. "Holy fucking Celestia that is fucking loud!"

Tran directed his attention towards Soarin. "Hey!" he called out. Soarin looked up at the Tran who was now holding his rifle out to the amputee. "Take this and follow me!"

Soarin took the rifle. "Where we going and why?" he asked. Tran while still outside of the trench line, started crawling while hugging the ground, towards the left (north) of the trench. Mere seconds after he left, bullets started striking Tran's old position, kicking the mud into the air and raining down in all directions. After losing a mortar team's crew, the griffons noticed where Tran was, especially with how loud and bright the .338 Lapua's muzzle flash was, and directed machine guns to fire at Tran's previous position.

By the time Tran found a new position, Rainbow Dash returned and seconds later, Spitfire did too. Tran sent Rainbow Dash to regroup with the other three while Spitfire took a position next to Soarin and Scootaloo, who were dutifully watching the skies above for any griffon. Tran, having been resupplied with his sniper rifle from Soarin, surveyed the no man's land that existed between this freshly capture trench line and the next griffon's defense lines. The counterattack the griffons had sent in an attempt to retake this captured trench line had ground down to a halt. Those unfortunate griffons were holed up in craters or behind mounds of dirt to stay safe.

Tran looked down at the trio of ponies and pointed at Scootaloo. "Find Eric and let him know an artillery strike is inbound! Repeat!"

Scootaloo stood at attention. "Find Eric, artillery strike inbound!" she repeated.

"Go!" Tran yelled. He then looked at Spitfire. "What's expected?"

Spitfire looked away from the sky and at Tran. "Mortars will be firing any second now! Standard saturation bombardment!" This captured formerly-griffon trench line was only a mere hundred meters away from the closest REA trench line. Behind the REA trench line were many other layers of trench lines, defenses, and small bases. If mortars were to be expected, they'd prolly be firing from a kilometer away. If Spitfire had ran as fast as possible to give the request for an artillery barrage at the closest REA trench line, then they'd have to send their own runner, most likely a pegasus to fly instead of run the 1 kilometer distance from there to the mortars. That second runner would probably take, at worst, ten seconds. Hell, it took Spitfire about twenty seconds to run the 100 meters.

So, Spitfire was indeed correct. Any second now, which, by now, was now. The sound of another whistle filled the air. However, this was no trench whistle. If only. It was something much worse. This was the sound of an artillery shell flying overhead. A random section in the middle of no man's land between this formerly-griffon trench line and the next griffon's defense lines, exploded. Seconds later, the sound of more mortar shells soaring overhead overpowered the sound of gunfire with its all too familiar cry. Everyone, on both sides ducked down.

Unfortunately for one side, the side that currently had hundreds, possibly thousands, of soldiers stuck on open land, it was not going to be merciful. The air, having previously been nothing but gunfire had made way for the screeches of griffons. The shelling continued, with no regard for any cries of help. It was a complete slaughter. Lasting not even thirty seconds, it lasted long enough to wipe out the vast majority of the exposed griffons. When it ended, silence filled the air, with the exception of cries of help. The victim's pained screams tugged at both side's heart strings. To be cut down like this, having your entire existence extinguished in mere seconds by something you couldn't see nor avoid was something everyone could regrettably understand.

What remaining griffons started to fall back. There weren't many left able bodied to retreat but those that did, found it a rather harrowing task for their attempts at finding sanctuary was hampered by the renewed continuation of gunfire from both sides. There was no easy way out for it was war and she was a cruel mistress.

Author's Note

I'm still alive, barely, but still.

Conflict Is the Price We Pay For a Deeper Understanding of Ourselves and Others

The griffon counterattack stood no chance. The REA now held a strong hold on a significant portion of the Imperial Griffon Armed Forces' (IGAF) primary defensive trench line. After the takeover, more REA forces were moved forward to make it a stronger holding. With more REA forces present, the ammo depot the griffons had previously taken over was quickly abandoned by the griffon forces as they knew it would cost more lives to hold it if any attempt was made to take it back.

However, it hadn't meant that the griffons had merely rolled over and given the ammo depot back. When they abandoned that holding, they had destroyed any ammo that could be used, leaving behind an even bigger issue for the Equestrians to deal with. Once everything was finished up, humans and crew returned to the rear REA trench lines where the command structures and primary resources were held to plan for the next steps ahead. None of the humans realized the other problem that was floating in the area that one had realized.

-X-X-X-

Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, and a number of the Crystal Empire's auxiliary guards were nervous right now. The diplomatic entourage with the humans were supposed to have arrived by now. Even if they were running late, they would have sent a messenger ahead of time to let them know. It didn't help the situation that the crystal ponies and rulers were accompanied by an entourage of Yaks and their diplomat.

"Yak diplomat tired of waiting! Yak want to word stomp with new not-minotaur minotaur-warriors!" yelled the yak diplomat with a stomp of his front right foreleg.

Just as that complaint had been lodged, a tiny trail of green fire rushed through the air and went straight to Princess Cadance's horn. Once it connected with the princess's horn, it turned into a rolled up scroll. That couldn't have been good news. Only the four alicorn princesses of Equestria could send messages like that (and one small purple dragon of course) and judging from the lack of a wax stamp, that meant it came from the Princess of Friendship. Once Cadance had read the message, her face blanched. Handing the scroll off to her husband, she turned to face the Yak diplomat and his entourage of eight yak guards.

"I'm sorry to break the news, Sir Grovious, but we'll have to reschedule our meeting. The train that was delivering the 'not-minotaur minotaur-warriors' was ambushed and they were rerouted to Fillydelphia," explained Cadance.

"No, yak diplomat want to meet new not-pony pony warrior diplomats now!" demanded yak diplomat Grovious while taking a few aggressive steps towards the pink alicorn.

Shining Armor stepped in between his wife and the diplomat. "Sir Grovious, I'm afraid that will no longer be possible. The trip takes a minimum of two days and the diplomatic entourage is stuck in a major warzone."

"Yak want to see new not-minotaur minotaur-warriors now or Yak no give coal and iron!" threatened Grovious.

Princess Cadance frowned. "They're on the frontlines of the battlefield. Unless you want to join them, its not possible."

The yak diplomat turned to his protection detail. "Gather other yaks and gear. Yaks will join battle!"

The royal couple was astounded. "Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Shining Armor.

The yak diplomat snorted. "Yak did not stutter! Pony and griffon war easy and pathetic!" Well that was a challenge if Shining Armor had ever heard of.

-X-X-X-

Incidentally, the yaks were serious. They had gathered every available yak (roughly two dozen) and got ready to go to the battlefield, the yak way. They covered themselves in enough steel plating to make a bunker jealous and had gone to the center of the Crystal Empire's castle. Shining Armor arranged REA ponies to accompany them (also two dozen), while Princess Cadance readied a very powerful teleportation lodestone. There was a major magical teleportation network between the Royal Castle in Canterlot, the old palace of the two sisters in the Everfree forest, Twilight's castle in Ponyville, and naturally the Crystal Empire's Castle. It could only be powered by Alicorns, in person, and the caster had to go with the teleporters.

When the diplomatic envoy with the humans was planned, this teleportation network was originally the intended method of transportation but unfortunately, the humans were completely immune to most of Equestria's various types of magics leading to the idea of traveling with the Dauntless. Airships were also suggested but airships were significantly more "fragile" than trains being much harder to defend in attacks and once it reached the northern winds and temperatures, it'd render them impossible to fly.

Princess Twilight had been notified about the human's detour to Fillydelphia and was nonplussed about the change. The diplomatic mission was quite important. The yaks, despite being a small country with a small population, was a very good possible source of resources that were useful to the war effort. Cadance, Shining Armor, and the yaks, after teleporting to Ponyville, linked up with the princess of magic, and commandeered an airship to take them to Fillydelphia with their royal authority. In addition to the airship, they commandeered two additional airships to escort them there with several teams of pegasi to also provide protection. At the rate they were going, it'd only be a day before they'd reach their destination.

-X-X-X-

The remaining crewmembers of the Dauntless were given their own area of respite at the rear lines where everyone was. They stuck together and didn't have assignments to attend to for the war effort giving them what was essentially leave. Most of them were asleep at the moment, after getting medical care for whatever injuries they had, or were eating their body weight in food. The whole incident left them drained.

The other ponies that accompanied the humans ordeal with the Dauntless had their own tasks of leisure.

The humans all had their own desires. Wilson, after taking a short power nap and three meals worth of food, went to help out with caring for wounded or dying soldiers. Eric, also after a short nap and a lot of food, was making sure his soldiers (the former crewmembers of the Dauntless) were taken care of and getting whatever they wanted. Tran, after getting a short once over from Wilson, was milling about, not tired or hungry at all. He walked around the rear lines, getting stares from other ponies.

The other ponies that accompanied the humans' ordeal with the Dauntless had their own tasks of leisure. Rarity and Blueblood were familiarizing each other about them, wanting to forget about any prior negative experiences and trying to get a fresh start with each other. Pinkie Pie was entertaining Scootaloo with Applejack at the current moment, wanting to take care of the stray at the moment, so Tran could have some time to himself that didn't involve the responsibility of having her as his charge. Hopefully, Pinkie Pie wouldn't cause trouble while taking care of Scootaloo... Much trouble.

Then, there were the others...

-X-X-X-

Gilda, couldn't be alone by herself, less she be the incident of unintentional friendly fire from some REA soldiers who didn't know about her state of defection. Luckily, she had a loyal friend that would stick by her side, one that would kill to protect her. Rainbow Dash, being a wing commander of the REAF (Royal Equestrian Air Force) which was the REAF equivalent of a colonel of the REA (Royal Equestrian Army), was allowed her own private tent. This private tent was too big for a single pony to use and was situated with the other tents that made up the tent city where the former crewmembers of the Dauntless lived. This tent city wasn't too far from the other tent cities in the Equestrian Rear Line.

Rainbow Dash, after having her wing treated and splinted, was haphazardly shoveling food into her mouth, wanting to recover all of the calories that she had made a deficit of in these last few days. Gilda, who was also a dogfighter who had done the same physical exertions, was also eating at the same disgusting rate. The two of them were sitting on their own cots but eating at the same desk, facing each other.

"-Ing against me," Dash said in between chews.

Gilda swallowed whatever food was in her mouth. "I don't remember losing a few days back," Gilda said before immediately taking in a mouthful of food.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Doesn't count, that wasn't a dogfight!" she shot back.

Gilda smirked. "Yeah it does! That's how I do it, get in close and send em dropping out of the sky!"

"Then you're not a dogfighter!"

Gilda paused in her eating before fluffing up her chest fluff to seem bigger. "Still a Jaeger!"

Before they could continue their conversation, there was knocking on the front flap of the tent. The Element of Harmony (Loyalty, the coolest element!) and the Jaeger paused in their eating with a quick swallow. Since the tent's owner was Rainbow Dash, she was the one to answer. "Help yourself, Enter!" she said, loud enough that the guest could hear. The front flap of her tent was zipped open and there stood Soarin, former Wonderbolt. He was still wearing only his dress coat, Spitfire's gear, and carrying Spitfire's rifle slung across his back. "Whatcha need, Soarin?"

Soarin removed as much mud off of his hooves before entering Rainbow Dash's officer's tent, stepping onto the wood floorboards that made up the tent's ground. "Well, since I'm not officially part of the REA (pronounced ree), I don't have a company to join up with." That also meant he wasn't privy to use any of the resources that the REA had.

Rainbow Dash held up a hoof to silence him. "Say no more, you can stay with me!" she offered. True, Rainbow Dash's officers tent easily took up the space that 12 enlisted soldiers would use up in a normal setup, so she easily had the space.

Soarin smiled. "Thanks! I owe you one!" Soarin looked around the tent space and found a relatively clean looking area to use. He walked over to it, his wooden leg making a very obvious wood on wood clunk noise with each step he made.

Rainbow Dash eyed the prosthetic as it made each step. "Where's your stuff, we can help you get it," Rainbow Dash offered.

Soarin looked sheepish. "You're looking at it. When we got your distress message, we left in a hurry. Didn't think to grab anything. And I'm technically a civvie," Soarin started while using his hoof to ruffle his REA dress coat. "I can get in trouble if I get caught pretending to be somepony important so I can't go to a quartermaster and force them to give me anything."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. "Well that's bullshit!" Rainbow Dash stood up from her cot and pulled the unrolled bedroll off of it. "Here, take my cot! I can sleep on the floor."

Soarin held up his good hoof in protest. "No, it's your stuff! I can't!" he replied.

Rainbow Dash placed the bedroll she picked up and placed it down beside her cot. "Too late! Already happening!" she said while sitting down on the bedroll on the ground. "Now get to your cot before I drag you onto it!"

Soarin had a guilty look on his face as he trotted over and sat down onto the cot. The cot still had a pillow on it. As he looked around the tent, he could see Rainbow Dash's other possessions. More importantly, he could see Gilda. Nothing but a table with some food and water and a few lit lanterns separated the two of them where they sat. Swallowing, he opened his mouth. "Uhhh-"

Rainbow Dash realized what situation she had forced Soarin into. Getting up she trotted back to her cot and sat down onto the cot beside him to his right. Dash brought up her left foreleg and patted him on the back. "Sorry, I forgot. The floors yours if you really need it." Gilda stayed silent, just looking across the table at the two ponies, trying to have as friendly a face as she could. Right now, She wasn't wearing any of her gear or clothes but she was still wearing that red scarf.

Soarin turned to look at Rainbow Dash before looking at the bedroll on the ground before looking back at Gilda. "I'll be fine. I have to work on it eventually."

Gilda gave an awkward smile. "Uhhh," the griffon droned, mirroring Soarin, unsure what to say.

Soarin turned to look at Rainbow Dash, who was still sitting next to him. "So, fastest mare in Equestria, huh?" he said with a goading smirk.

Rainbow Dash scrunched her nose while Gilda started laughing. "Shut up!" Dash said while giving Soarin a playful shove.

When the joke died, Gilda wiped a tear from her eye while leveling her gaze at Soarin. "I understand you haven't had the best friendships with griffons, much more, Jaegers. I get it. If I do anything wrong, just tell me," Gilda offered. She held her hand across the table out to Soarin.

Soarin took the hand in his hoof and shook it. "-Preciate it."

Gilda eyed Soarin's dress coat. "So, Wonderbolts? Anything else?"

Soarin shook his head. "Just the 'bolts. Had been in it for 4 years by the time the war started. Medically discharged after a bad run-in with one of you," Soarin said while pointing at Gilda. "bout a year in."

Gilda smiled as he was warming up to her. "So, what's the Wonderbolts? Before the war, I mean?"

Soarin shrugged. "I duuno. Just stunt flying, I guess?"

Rainbow Dash's mouth dropped open. "Just stunt flying?!" She blurted out in shock. "You guys were the best stunt fliers I had ever seen!" Dash said with such passion in her voice that she flared out her wings, wing-smacking Soarin in the side in the process. "The most awesomest, coolest shows, ever!"

Soarin, almost having been knocked over by Rainbow Dash's wing, recovered. He playfully smacked Rainbow Dash back with his own wing. He did this gently, of course, by flaring out his right wing and smacking Rainbow Dash's left side and left wing. "I'm assuming you were a fan?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah!" Rainbow Dash said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I won one of the Young Flyers Competition in Cloudsdale just to meet you guys! I was your biggest fan!"

Gilda had a smug look on her face. She pointed at Rainbow Dash's flared wings. "Nice wing boner," Gilda taunted.

Rainbow Dash flushed red with embarrassment as she tucked her wings back to her side as fast as possible. Soarin adopted the same smug look on his face that Gilda had. He closed his eyes and gave Rainbow Dash a quick nuzzle. "Its always nice to meet a fan!"

Rainbow Dash flushed even redder as she covered her face with her hooves. "Ugh!" she groaned.

Soarin unfurled his right wing and used it to pull Rainbow Dash closer. "It's all in good fun!" he said.

Rainbow Dash uncovered her red face as she look at Soarin, still wrapped in his wing. She looked up at the larger stallion before leaning forward and up to give him a quick nuzzle back. "It's always good to meet a Wonderbolt!"

Soarin chuckled before looking down at the bedroll that Rainbow Dash placed on the ground. "You don't have to sleep on the ground."

Rainbow Dash looked at the bedroll on the ground before looking back at Soarin. "I said you could have the cot, I don't mind."

Soarin looked at cot he was sitting on and then back at Dash. "I'll sleep in the cot."

Rainbow Dash was confused for a second before she realized what he meant. This, combined with the fact that she was still wrapped in Soarin's wing, meant that she started blushing again, redder than ever. "Oh."

Gilda also realized what was happening. "Look, it'd be weird to just sit here and watch, but I can't just leave by myself." Soarin knew that Gilda would be shot dead in an instant but she was a Jaeger and there were thoughts gnawing on his mind. However, there were other thoughts...

Soarin looked at the griffon, who was wearing nothing at the moment with exception to her Jaeger's scarf. "You don't have to sit there and watch," Soarin suggested.

Gilda was confused for a second before she realized what he meant. That was when she started blushing. "Oh."

-X-X-X-

Spitfire was in quite a bit of trouble. Not physical trouble but official trouble. She had technically, without permission, gone AWOL (Away Without Official Leave) when she went to rescue the humans. Since the humans were in their own personal brand of authority/command, there was some leeway to what was gonna happen to her. However, she still technically abandoned her post and it was now catching up to her.

"Ugggh," Spitfire groaned, having recently left the verbal ass chewing that she had received from her chain of command. Now that things around here were simmering, her body was also catching up to her and exhaustion filled her. She also felt hungry but not enough to find where the chow tent was. She just wanted to lie down and die... Okay, maybe just sleep for now.

She slowly trotted over to where her tent was, also an officer's tent, just like Rainbow Dash's officer's tent. Her tent, along with the tents that belonged to all of the other soldiers that had gone on the rescue mission, was attached to the tent city that housed the Dauntless Crewmembers. As she made her way, she bumped into her lifelong friend, Soarin. Seeing something positive for a change, she smiled. "Soarin!" she called out.

The former Wonderbolt flinched in surprise before smiling. "Yeah?" he responded. He was wearing nothing except for that REA dress coat that he always wore and was carrying nothing else.

"I finally got my ass reamed for going AWOL for those humans," Spitfire said.

Soarin raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?" he said again. "How bad was it?"

Spitfire frowned. "Bad."

Soarin winced. "Sorry."

In the distance, the sound of a machine gun flared up but stopped after a while. Just Soarin flinched but he returned to his usual demeanors after he realized what it was. Spitfire keyed in onto this. "Been a while since you've been to the line, huh?"

Soarin frowned before looking down at the ground. "That obvious huh?" he asked. He was a civvie here, surrounded by possible death on all sides. He was a fish out of water, here. For him, the battlefield was a long, painful, distant memory to him.

Spitfire went over to his left side and wrapped her right wing against him. "It's all right. I'm here for you," Spitfire said in a soft voice. Soarin looked up from the ground and turned to look at Spitfire, smiling. "I know being around that Jaeger hurts you. You don't have to hurt alone. I'm always here for you. Just talk to me."

Soarin looked into Spitfire's eyes and right now, despite it being night right now, this was like the sun parting the clouds to Spitfire. Soarin took a half step away, pulling himself away out of Spitfire's wing hug. Before Spitfire could react, Soarin leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. Spitfire was confused for a split second but she realized what he had done and closed her eyes, embroiling herself deeper into the kiss. The two embraced each other and after what seemed like an eternity, Spitfire broke from the kiss and gazed at Soarin with half lidded eyes. "Want to help me find my tent?" Spitfire offered in a husky voice.

-X-X-X-

Tran walked amidst the tent city where all of the Dauntless's remaining crewmembers slept. He didn't have his own personal tent to sleep in. It wasn't that he was given one, it was more that he preferred to be with the enlisted soldiers. His 'home away from home' was a cot with all of the other cots inside the giant tent where a large number of enlisted soldiers collectively slept together inside. Enlisted Soldiers slept in two rows of cots.

In all directions, Tran's cot was surrounded by other occupied cots that belonged to REA soldiers. Unlike the other REA soldiers, the Dauntless crewmembers weren't afraid to be near Tran. However, the cot immediately to the right of Tran's cot was empty of any sleeping soldier. It seemed like it belonged to someone and was supposed to be occupied. All of the other cots in this tent was currently filled with a sleeping soldier except for Tran's and this other cot. The reason as to why it was empty was because it was supposed to be Logan's cot. Underneath that very cot were Logan's previous belongings and weapons.

Sighing, Tran walked out of that sleeping tent. He made his way to find Gilda, just to make sure she didn't need anything. She was one of them, despite being a griffon and formerly a Jaeger of the Imperial Griffon Military (IGM). However, she wasn't officially a member of the REA yet so she wasn't privy to any of the REA's resources. He knew that she couldn't be left alone and was most likely with her lifelong friend, Rainbow Dash. Even in the dead of night, he could easily make his way and he did, as quietly as he could. as not to wake any of his fellow soldiers.

When he was at Rainbow Dash's tent, he could hear the sounds of shuffling and quiet clattering. Undoing the front tent flap, he stepped inside the lantern-lit-up tent. Inside, were Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Soarin and they were doing quite the intimate "physical activity". Tran quickly left the three of them to their "physical activity". Obviously, Gilda was being taken care of. Excessively so, some would say.

With that idea dashed, he decided to go plan for future activities involving the war effort. Eric was probably doing the same thing but multiple perspectives could never hurt. The best people to talk to were either Blueblood, Rarity, and Spitfire. Rarity had explicitly asked for some privacy for her and Blueblood so the two of them could get to know each other so he decided to go find Spitfire. Just like Rainbow Dash's, he knew where it was. From here, it was relatively close by. It wouldn't take that long to make it there and he quickly found himself at the tent.

From outside the tent, Tran could hear quiet shuffling. Stepping in, he found himself standing in another lantern lit-up tent. Inside, he found himself looking at Spitfire engaged in a rather intimate "physical activity" with Soarin. Tran froze and stared at the two, despite many, many protests. He then charged towards the two, despite the many, many protests, and grabbed Soarin off of (and out of) Spitfire. Again, there were many, many angry protests and shouts from both party members but Tran ignored them. Carrying the angrily writhing stallion, he made his way back to Rainbow Dash's tent, while being angrily bombarded by Spitfire's attacks.

Everything all ground to a halt when Tran, once again, barged into Rainbow Dash's tent and interrupted Gilda's, Rainbow Dash's, and Soarin's intimate "physical activity". However, that intimate "physical activity" took a major stutter when the three of them realized that Tran was carrying Soarin. When Spitfire barged into the tent, she too noticed the discrepancy. Soarin was locked in Tran's grasps where another Soarin was locked in a very, very different type of grasp from Rainbow Dash and Gilda.

Tran threw the Soarin he was carrying to the ground and quickly drew a handgun in each hand, pointing it at both Soarin's.

Author's Note

alright, place your bets. Which one is real.

War Created Bizarre Allies, While Peace Itself Would Be Divisive

Tran held everyone at gunpoint. He had his 1911, aimed at the Soarin engaged with Rainbow Dash and Gilda, and his hand canon, aimed at the Soarin he had whisked away from Spitfire. Both Soarin's eyes darted from each other and to the guns pointed at their faces. The Soarin that was engaged with Rainbow and Gilda, when he gained an inkling of what was going on, pointed at the Soarin that Tran brought in. "What the Tartarus-" Soarin (the one with Dash/Gilda) started saying.

"QUIET" Tran immediately commanded, silencing him.

The Soarin he touted in took a gentle slow step towards Tran. "Look, we can-", he started. He stopped speaking when Tran pulled the hammer back on his hand cannon.

Tran gestured towards the Soarin with Dash and Gilda. "Sit beside the other one," Tran ordered.

The Soarin with Dash and Gilda untangled himself from the cyan pegasus and Jaeger and slowly trotted over to the other Soarin. With each step, his fake leg made audible clunks against the floorboard that made up the ground. Tran looked between the two Soarin's, both of them still having a gun aimed at their faces. Then, Tran, aimed lower with his 1911 and fired a round. The bullet hit the fake foreleg that the Soarin from Dash and Gilda, doing nothing but punching a hole through the wood prosthetic. When he took aim at the other Soarin's supposed fake leg, the Soarin that he brought in, raised both hooves, in surrender. "Wait! I'm the imposter!" he cried out realizing what was going to happen.

Spitfire trotted towards the real Soarin. "How can I know you're not real, either?"

The real Soarin detached his fake wooden leg. "Well, I'm missing the leg," he said in a joking matter. Spitfire was unimpressed. Soarin's smile dropped. "After we loss Fleetfoot, I stopped you from hanging yourself."

Tears welled up in Spitfire's eyes and she shot forward and hugged him. "He's real," Spitfire said. Tran holstered the 1911 aimed at the real Soarin and focused on aiming his hand cannon on the fake Soarin. He grabbed the dress coat that the fake Soarin was wearing and started to drag him outside. Before he fully left the tent, he turned to look at Spitfire. "Talk to each other, good idea. Keep fucking, don't care," Tran said before leaving the tent.

Soarin looked down at the Spitfire, realizing what she was doing with the fake Soarin. Hell, she reeked of fresh 'activities'. "Have you always felt that way?" he asked her.

Spitfire gave him a playful shove. "Always! It's why I could never stop helping you through your troubles," Spitfire replied. "I sent you signs but you never saw them."

Soarin chuckled. "I was always a dumb colt, aren't I?" he asked.

Spitfire smiled back. "This feels weird, holding you like this after seeing what you were doing with those two," she said while looking at Rainbow Dash and Gilda, who also reeked of fresh 'activities'. "And, I'm still really worked up from the fake you."

Gilda looked at Spitfire. "Well, he did say fuck each other?" the Jaeger offer, arms crossed. "And I'm still in the mood."

Spitfire looked back at the tent door. "Ugh, I don't know, we have to deal with this shitshow dealing with the fake you," Spitfire groaned.

Soarin squeezed Spitfire harder. "He seems like he has a handle on it and if you still want to?" Spitfire shoved Soarin down to the ground. Soarin was confused but then Spitfire got on top of the stallion and started passionately kissing him.

-X-X-X-

Tran and the imposter sat in a commandeered officer's tent by themselves. Both of them were sitting on chairs with a table separating them. Tran far enough away so that he couldn't grab the gun that he was pointing at the imposter.

"Who are you?" Tran demanded.

The imposter Soarin looked at the gun and then back at Tran. "I can show and tell you but please be careful with your pistol as it has a exciting side effect." Tran raised an eyebrow and stayed silent for a few seconds before nodding." The imposter was then sheathed in green fire before turning into a black insect version of a stallion. In the process, Tran raised the gun, but kept from firing. "I am a changeling."

Tran lowered the pistol as the green fired disappeared. He eyed the changeling up and down, taking in the interesting features. "Explain."

The changeling stayed silent for a few seconds, tentative on what to say. "We are similar to ponies but more insect based. Like, we bleed green in our natural forms but will bleed red if disguised as another species."

Tran holstered his hand cannon and folded his arms. "Disguise? How? Why?"

The changeling looked at the tent's exit, behind Tran, but looked back to the human. An escape attempt was not going to be the best idea right now. "We disguise ourselves with magic. We do it because we are creatures of positive emotion. We feed off of it. The more we take in, the stronger we become."

Tran's eyes narrowed. "So, parasites?"

Upon hearing the word, disgust filled the changeling and it showed on his face. "No, but unfortunately yes. We can't live without it. Most of us feed only a small amount that's enough to get by and that amount we take doesn't negatively affect the donor."

Tran's face returned to its usual neutral expression. "Why Soarin?"

The changeling let out a sigh. "It was a mark. I could feel the connection and desire coming from his partner. Love is the most powerful emotion we can feed off of and I thought I could harvest some off of her. Usually, we can influence surrounding ponies in order to possibly gather some but with him, there was barely any need. Natural love is the most powerful of it all and it was too tempting for me to pass."

Tran didn't say anything for a few seconds, letting the information marinate in his mind. "Most? The rest?"

It took the changeling a few seconds to realize what he was asked but then scowled. "There are a minority of us that believe that our donors are nothing but cattle to be slaughtered. Just a container to be emptied. If harvested from too much, the victim becomes an empty shell with no drive. A vegetable."

That was when Tran scowled. "You can lobotomize people." Tran's face became neutral again and he stood up, surprising the changeling. "Your leader, now."

The changeling sighed. "We both work for large military organizations. We both know the consequences for revealing too-sensitive information. Everything I've said you so far would have been revealed to you by your allies."

Tran stepped closer to the changeling and grabbed him by his left wing, hoisting him into the air. "Your countrymen might kill you but I will definitely kill you now, but much slower."

The changeling dangled in the air with an angry but scared look to his face. However, after a second or two had passed, fear and pain filled his face. "Let go!" he cried out.

Tran didn't capitulate and his grip tightened. "You know what I want."

"Please!" the changeling cried out. Again, Tran ignored the changeling. Much to the surprise of Tran and later the changeling, the wing ripped off of the changeling. The changeling fell to the ground in pain, as Tran was left holding the remains of the wing in his hand. To even greater shock, the dismembered appendage quickly rotted away in Tran's hand. The changeling looked at Tran and then to the tent's only exit. Before the changeling could act, Tran planted his foot on the changeling's chest, pinning him to the ground.

The area on the changeling's chest where Tran's foot was planted, started to turn grey and it cracked, oozing out green blood. The changeling let out a few more screams of pain. "Alright, I'll take you to him!" the changeling relented.

-X-X-X-

At gunpoint, the changeling had led Tran to a dug in commander bunker, one that was quite away's away. The first to enter was the changeling, Everyone inside was shocked to see the injured changeling, trot inside undisguised. Before anyone could react further, Tran entered. Inside the lantern-lit up interior, Tran could see many other ponies inside the bunker, all of which were in standard REA uniform. Some were wearing the standard combat gear and were armed, but all weapons were either slung over their back (rifles) or holstered (pistols).

Everypony inside had a similar reaction to seeing the human, after immediately seeing the changeling. Most of the ponies inside were officers, the highest rank being a major, with a few enlisted spread about. Upon entering, Tran already had a pistol leveled at one of the ponies, in addition to the hand cannon focused at the undisguised changeling. No one made a move. "What is the meaning of this?!" demanded the major.

Tran's face showed nothing. "Reveal yourselves," Tran commanded.

The major's face grew angry upon hearing Tran's request. "I don't know what you're tr-" the major started but stopped when Tran leveled the hand cannon at the major's face. Tran cocked the hammer back, the mechanical click resounding through everyone's ears. The major's face kept the scowl. Tran stared back, waiting. The major let out a defeated sigh and slowly raised a hoof into the air before waiving it in a circle thrice. There were eleven ponies in this bunker and of them, all of them were wreathed in green fire before transforming into changelings, all of them still wearing the uniforms/gear that they previously had pre-transformation.

Tran looked around the bunker, examining each of them. He noticed one changeling focus on one of the lanterns that lit the room. Tran shook his head slowly at the changeling. "Don't," Tran warned. Tran thought that the changeling was planning to douse the lantern in a surprise attack. "I can see in the dark." It was a lie but the changeling didn't know that. A lot of myths and false rumors were levied about his and his friend's capabilities. Tran looked back to the main changeling in the room, the major who was still wearing the uniform and rank. "You know who I am?" The changeling nodded. "And what I am?" Another nod. "And what I can do and have done?"

The changeling nodded for a third time. "We heard you can't die. That anything you want dead, dies," the major answered.

Tran pointed to the changeling he brought in with him. "You," Tran commanded while pointing at a random changeling in the room. "Help your countryman." That changeling slowly trotted over to the injured changeling while occasionally looking back at the Tran and the gun trained on himself.

Upon reaching the wounded fellow, the other changeling gasped. "What did you do to him?!" he cried out upon seeing the wounds.

Tran noticed a different changeling in the room, one that looked more skittish than the rest. He aimed the pistol he had been aiming at the previous changeling at that skittish one. "We disagreed," Tran answered. Tran turned to look at the major again. "Weapons, ground."

The major stared at the human. "If this is an execution, we will die fighting," the major growled out.

Tran took a step backwards until his back hit the only entrance to the bunker. "I control the only exit. I have grenades. Would you prefer an execution?"

The major kept the scowl on his face but nodded. "Do it," he said. Slowly, all of the changeling dropped their weapons, Tran making sure that all of them followed the instruction to the letter. Once they were all disarmed, Tran holstered both pistols, making sure to carefully lower the hammer on his hand cannon.

Once his hands were free, Tran walked forward to the major. "Now, we will reach an agreement," Tran said while offering a hand out. The major's mouth gaped open as he balked upon hearing the human's confusing statement. Confused, the changeling slowly reached out and shook the hand. The instant the major's hoof connected with the human's hand, the major cried out in pain and drew the hoof back while taking a step back. Tran too was surprised, but he didn't show it on his face.

When the major recovered, he looked up at the human while. "What was that?!" the major demanded.

Tran crossed his arms. "Just a handshake," Tran replied.

The major held out his hoof and looked at it, searching for any ailments but found none. He took a step back and looked at the human with fear. "It felt like I touched my own death!" the major exclaimed.

This comment surprised Tran but once again, he kept the same neutral expression on his face. "Just a handshake," Tran once again, replied.

The major looked at the other changelings in the room before looking back at the human. "Tran, I expect?" the major asked. Tran nodded in response. "I should have expected that from the unstoppable emissary of death!"

Tran took the comment in stride and pointed at the changeling he brought in. "We are going to come to an agreement."

The major looked at the other changelings in the room, unsure of what to do but eventually turned his attention back to Tran. "What do you want?" the major asked.

Tran looked around the room before noticing a chair. He walked over to it and took a seat. "Name?"

"Pharynx," the major replied. Pharynx decided to take a seat across from Tran but instead of using a chair, he merely sat on the ground on his haunches.

Tran folded his arms again. "Are you soldiers of this country?"

Pharynx shook his head. "No."

Tran eyed the uniform that Pharynx wore. "Then what are you?" Tran immediately demanded.

Pharynx pursed his lips but he didn't have a choice. "We are gatherers," Pharynx replied. He knew that this was essentially betraying his people upon the utterance of any information.

Tran blinked twice quickly, remembering what the other changeling had told him. "Of emotions? Love? Parasites?"

Upon the uttering of the word 'parasite', Pharynx's face was filled with anger. The other changelings in the room also showed various signs of irritation or disgust upon hearing the insult. "We are not parasites!" Pharynx corrected.

Tran was tempted to call them parasites again but kept from it. "Explain."

Pharynx looked to the other changelings in the room before looking back at Tran. "What we gather doesn't affect the ponies we harvest from. We're careful not to hurt who we derive it from. If we were, parasites, there'll be more zombies walking around. Living corpses with no drive or emotion."

Tran narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Pharynx closed his eyes and he was wreathed in green flames as he transformed. This time, Tran didn't react as Pharynx turned into a much tinier version of a changeling, one that was roughly the size of a small colt, one that was hilariously still wearing the full sized REA major's uniform. "For the hive. Others depend on what we bring back. They need to feed. Otherwise..." He transformed again, turning back into his previous self. "They wilt away, and eventually die."

Tran narrowed his eyes. "Why pose as soldiers?"

Pharynx let out a defeated sigh as he guilt wracked his body, enough shame to fill a thousand life times. The other changelings showed it two, their heads dipping and some not want to look the human in the eyes. The truth was too painful but it was a necessary evil. "They were already dead. An identity we didn't have to make up."

Tran's eyes widened and he stood up in shock. He looked at the other changelings in the room and then marched up to Pharynx. "Change back into them. All of you." Pharynx was confused at the request but he took the form that he previously had, the one of the major he was posing as. The other changelings obliged and they turned back into the ponies/soldiers' forms they previously held. "So the soldiers you are, right now."

Pharynx nodded. "They're dead. Someone who died or were sent into oblivion from artillery. The friendships they made with fellow soldiers, the family they had, we fill the void they made upon their deaths."

Tran stayed standing for a few seconds before sitting back down. The truth anger him so but he still kept the same neutral expression on his face. However, Tran now knew what they were. "Parasites," Tran spat out with venom. This time, none of the changelings were angered upon being insulted. In a way, the human was right.

Pharynx dipped his head low in shame. "You have to understand, we wish we had a better alternative. Some of us have died fighting in this war for them."

Tran's mind stayed unchanged. "Parasites," Tran repeated. The insult stung just as badly as it previously did. "How many?"

Pharynx raised his gaze to meet the human's. "Thousands, Maybe ten thousand."

The number sat terribly in Tran's head. On both sides of the war, hundreds of thousands had been loss. Both the griffons and the ponies still had plenty more soldiers to lose in this war and it wasn't like the war was over yet. "This is gonna stop. The soldiers that have paid the ultimate price, they deserve the honors they have earned."

All of the changeling knew it was the right thing to do but it wasn't viable for their situation. Pharynx bared his fangs. "We die out that way and we'll fight before we do."

Tran nodded. "Correct."

The changelings in the room tensed, of which, Pharynx eyed the closest weapon. "You want to fight us all? Preemptively declare war on changelings?"

Tran shook his head. "You are already fighting for Equestria, posing as ponies. Instead, fight for Equestria, as changelings. Tell me, why didn't the changelings join the griffon side of this war?"

"More ponies would be killed off. Less of them to support the changelings," Pharynx answered. Pharynx changed back into a changeling. "Look at us, the ponies will reject us." He trotted over to the changeling that Tran had brought in, the one he severely wounded. "You tried to kill him upon finding out he was a changeling."

Tran pointed at the changeling he wounded. "I did that not because he was changeling but because he posed as someone I knew. What will the rest of them do when they find out the same with someone else? It is inevitable, them finding out. Do you want them to find out that they have infiltrators among their midst or allies? You already depend on them, have them depend on you."

Pharynx eyed the human up and down before looking at the other changelings in the room. "You are no pony. You do not speak for the ponies and I do not speak for all changelings."

Tran finally smiled. "I'm pretty sure you know someone who speaks for all changelings and I absolutely know someone, many some ones, that speaks for all ponies," Tran said with a grin.

Pharynx eyes widened. "You want the presence of our leader?"

Tran nodded. "I'll bring you the presence of their (the ponies') leader," Tran replied. Tran stood up and went to the exit. "Would you prefer an enemy or an ally?" he asked before leaving.

When a Man Makes Alliance With the Almighty, Giants Look Like Grasshoppers

Spitfire's eyelids started to flutter open. She felt cathartic. Consciousness started to flood her brain as the next day's light assaulted her vision. The first thing she saw was that somepony's arms and wings wrapped around her. They were light blue forelegs and wings. Memories came to her as she remembered last night. She untangled herself from Soarin's limbs, rousing her cuddling partner from his slumber. Both of them sat up on the same cot beside each other and looked away from other in awkward silence.

Soarin held out his fake leg in front of him, looking at the bullet hole that Tran made in it. "So uh, that happened," Soarin said, breaking the ice.

Spitfire leaned against him. "How far are we gonna take this?" she asked.

Soarin draped his wing on her. "As far as we'd like to," Soarin replied. Soarin set his head on Spitfire's head and closed his eyes. "I've always was living the rock star life but I want this to work more than anything else."

Spitfire nuzzled Soarin's neck and then reached back to kiss him on the lips. When the two broke apart, Spitfire looked him in the eyes. "Last night would be a strange start to it but let's give it our best performance."

Soarin chuckled. "Just like the bolts?"

Spitfire smiled back. "Just like the bolts," Spitfire replied. Spitfire looked to the other cot in the room. Even though this was technically Rainbow Dash's tent, she was absent, along with Gilda. "I'm surprised you gave that griffon a shot."

Soarin had an embarrassed, sheepish look on his face. "I mean, she was pretty rough, in a fun way. Are you fine with her and?"

Spitfire's face flushed red. "Those hands of her, they are magical." More memories from last night came to her mind and she blushed further. "Just them and nopony else, got it? You're mine."

Soarin pulled Spitfire further into his comfort. "No more rock star life from this pony."

As the two embraced each other, the tent flat was ripped open, filling the inside stale air with the fresh smells of the morning. In stepped Eric, who's face was immediately wrinkled with disgust as the tent's inside stench filled his nose. Eric covered his face with a hand as he immediately started coughing. "Holy fuck, it smells like a fucking Thai brothel in here!" Eric yelled out.

Both Spitfire and Soarin took into the air in shock. The two of them realized who it was and settled their hooves back to the ground and they immediately started grabbing their clothes. "What?!" Spitfire demanded.

Eric took a step back out into the fresh outside air while keeping the tent flap open. He was also busying himself by fanning the air away from his face that he nearly didn't hear her question. "Hey, we got a meeting."

As Soarin donned his familiar dress coat, he grumbled at the human. "Can it wait, we're busy with... Something."

If Eric was showing his face, he would have been showing a lot of doubt on his face. The smell might have convinced him otherwise. "All hands on deck, now."

-X-X-X-

Much to the surprise of everyone, a trio of large airships and thousands of pegasi landed down at the main REA defense area. This was a complete surprise to everyone around and the general moral of the REA forces here went up, every pony thinking it was a large number of reinforcements. Once it was found out that two of Equestria's princesses, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and the only other prince of Equestria, Prince Shining Armor (who was a field marshal which made him even more important), arrived, things went even crazier. All of the REA's defense defenses was excessively reinforced, guard patrols and positions being tripled up. With such important VIP ponies present, no chances were to be taken.

The two princesses and prince, once they stepped out from their airship, sought out the presence of the humans in addition to all of the VIP ponies that were attached to him, such as Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Scootaloo, Rarity, and Prince Blueblood. The biggest command bunker was temporarily borrowed, having been emptied of soldiers and officers that worked in it, much to the owners' dismay, so it could be used for this meeting. Everyone was dutifully waiting peacefully while the yak diplomat with them was pacing around, growing ever more impatient and making a mess of random furniture or junk. Aside from said VIP's, the only other strangers inside the bunker were four of the yak diplomat's guards and two of Princess Cadence's and Prince Shining Armor's Crystal Empire's auxiliary guard troops. The remainder of the royal couple's guards and the Sir Grovious's guards were waiting outside the bunker.

Only Wilson was entertaining their presence, at the moment. Judging Wilson from his outside appearance, the yak's didn't have an almighty opinion of the humans. To the Yak's, the humans were like the minotaurs, only smaller and seemingly weaker. That was when Eric entered the bunker, along with Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, Soarin, and more importantly, Gilda. Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armor, and the crystal pony auxiliary guards were alarmed at seeing the Jaeger. Gilda, despite wearing a REA combat coat, was still wearing her combat gear and scarf, and most importantly of all, a griffon! She didn't have her submachine but was still clearly wearing a bayonet and holstered pistol.

The crystal ponies raised their weapons, in addition to their prince who drew a revolver from his coat. Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and Soarin stood in front of the Jaeger, hinder their aim. "What is the meaning of this?!" demanded the prince.

Twilight Sparkle, noticing Rainbow Dash's decision trotted over to her brother. She raised a hoof and used it to lower Shining's raised sidearm, who was tentative at the decision but lowered it. The other crystal ponies were still poised to strike though. Twilight met Rainbow Dash's gaze. "What are you doing?" she gently doing.

Rainbow turned to look at Gilda before looking back at Twilight. "She's one of us now!" Rainbow declared without a second thought.

Twilight looked at the Jaeger for a few more seconds before turning to address the crystal ponies. "Lower your weapons," she commanded. The crystal ponies were anxious at the command but after a few more tense seconds, they did as they were told. Gilda did her best to look as peaceful as she could, not making any sudden moves, but it barely helped.

Eric loudly coughed to get everyone's attention. "A-hem. Tran's on his way. Once he's here, we can get started," Eric stated.

Just as he had said that, a number of ponies started entering the bunker. All of them were REA soldiers of various ranks, enlisted and officers. Shining Armor turned his attention to these new troops. "This is a private meeting. You have to leave until its finished," Shining Armor commanded. None of these unfamiliar REA troops did as he said and more continued entering.

When the last of them entered, a high ranking officer, a colonel entered. Behind the colonel was Tran. All of the unfamiliar REA soldiers seemed to be uncomfortably following the human and he seemed unbothered by the fact. His presence wasn't a friendly one as every one inside, aside from the other two humans, were very anxious with having him here, more so than the other two humans. Something about Tran made him rather, mentally agonizing to be around. "We're all here," Tran said.

Twilight looked at the unfamiliar troops and then to Tran. She noticed a particular some one was missing. "Where's the fourth?" she asked. "Logan, I believe?"

Sorrow filled Tran's mind, filling the face's of the other humans and some of the ponies that accompanied him. Twilight noticed Applejack take off her trusty stetson and holding it to her chest. "He's dead," Tran reported. Shock filled Twilight's face as the implications came to her. At least this answered a question she had. These humans were in fact mortal and killable like the ponies. "He and I were successfully assassinated by a pair of Jaegers assassins."

The revelation was surprising to Twilight but then the meaning of the statement came to Twilight. "Wait, you're still here," Twilight commented.

Tran nodded. "Yes, they succeeded in killing me and I was in fact dead for a good moment but, I refused to stay dead," Tran replied. While Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armor, and the crystal ponies were looking at Tran with a look of shock, the yaks were looking at him with a look of interest.

The yak diplomat snorted. "Yak think you lying!" he said while giving a light snort.

Tran showed no reaction on his face, having the usual dead expression he usually had. "I don't give a flying fuck, we have more important issues," Tran said.

The armored yak was immediately thrown into a bout as anger as he immediately charged towards Tran. As he closed the distance, Tran subtlety moved his hand towards his hand cannon. "Even if you and other one die by assassin, that means you all bad warrior!"

Everyone went tense as the two were almost face to face, ready to fight. "Still don't care. Do whatever you want," Tran challenged. The yak smiled and immediately rear back and... Threw a head butt. Tran had actually expected this, having remembered the descriptions of the yaks back when they were briefed on their diplomatic mission before their trip on the Dauntless. Having predicted something of this attack, Tran had stepped back and threw a left hook at the charging yak's armored face. Normally, punching a charging, possibly half ton creature's helmet protected head would render said puncher's fist into dust but when fist met helmet, a loud CLANG resounded through the air. There was a distinguishable dent where fist met helmet and said puncher was completely unmoved while said yak noticeably bounced back.

While the yak diplomat was dazed, Tran darted forward and grabbed an exposed area of the yak's neck, under where the helmet's ended under the chin. Somehow, the half ton creature was pulled upward and the yak's front hooves left the ground as both participants were now eye to eye, mere centimeters away from each other. No one could see Tran's face now but the yak diplomat could. The diplomat could see into Tran's eyes and was scared and... He felt something else growing inside the yak where the human was holding him. "Let go of yak!" the yak diplomat screamed in fear. The yak diplomat tried to get out of Tran's grasp but it was impossible, as if he was trapped in a metal statue's grasp.

The diplomat's guards wondered if they should get involved as the two were locked together. Normally, physical confrontations were normal in yak society but this was getting to a point that none of them had ever seen. As the diplomat struggled more and more, screaming and nearly bursting into tears, it all ended when Tran suddenly dropped him. The yak diplomat looked up at the monster in terror, backing up to put any distance between the two. Unfortunately for the diplomat, Tran stepped forward along with the yak, forcing him to face the monster.

When the diplomat wasn't able to back up anymore when he reached a wall, Tran stopped, leaving only an arm's length between the two. The diplomat was subtlety shaking in terror as he was forced to face the monstrosity. As usual, Tran had the same dead expression on his face. "Anything else you would like to do?" Tran asked. The yak shook his head as fast as he could to answer the being, then Tran finally letting up, taking a face steps back. "We have more important issues to discuss." Tran turned around and started walking back to where he originally was, with the unknown REA soldiers. As he walked back, he turned to look at Wilson who was standing by himself. For the shortest of moments, Wilson could see a smirk of schadenfreude on Tran's face before it returned to his usual dead expression. Wilson smirked with his friend before it returned to his usual resting-bitch-face expression.

As fast as his hooves could carry him, the yak diplomat returned to the safety of his bodyguards before turning around to continue the meeting. The yak tried to show a face of resolve, but every pony could see that his very being was shook. Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor were mouth agape, having had to deal with the yaks for quite some time. Tran's attention was immediately turned to look at the yak, his head turning as fast as lightning. All of the yaks flinched as the human's ice cold eyes looked at them. "Yak want to say anything?" Tran asked while attempting to mimic the Yak's accent.

The yak diplomat quickly shook his head in fear. "No, yak d-diplomat, understand!" the diplomat said. Tran stared down the yak before he took a few steps towards the yak again, again causing the yak diplomat to flinch upon the taking of the first step. The yak was already, ready to bolt.

Tran reached behind himself and unslung a weapon that he was carrying on his back. The diplomat's guards got ready to react as a weapon of lethal deadliness was finally being brought into play. Tran moved slowly as he held a shotgun, Logan's shotgun, in front of him, presenting it to the yak. "A gift for you," Tran said.

The yak was incredulous at the human's actions. He took a few slow, fear filled steps forward and looked at the shotgun and then back at the human. "Yak don't understand?" the diplomat stated.

"An apology for my behavior," Tran replied. "This belonged to my friend, my comrade, the one that died in the assassination attempt."

The yak looked back at the shotgun with a face full of understanding and nodded. He threw it across his back before bowing to the human. "Yak, Sir Grovious, apologize for insulting friend," the diplomat said, regret marring his face.

Tran nodded back. "I, Tran, accept your apology. We all make mistakes," Tran said before he bowed back.

When the yak recovered from his bow, followed by Tran, the yak looked at the other two humans in the room before looking back at Tran. "Why not-minotaur warrior fight for ponies?" the yak asked.

Tran looked to his fellow human friends and then to the new pony friends he had made so far. "To fight for one's country, that is duty, the patriotic action to take. We fight for someone else's country so they may have a chance at survival and the continuance of their culture and people. To sit aside as someone else dies, is cowardice," Tran said, spitting out the last word with disgust. "And we are no cowards." Tran turned to address the yak diplomat. "Are you?" he asked.

The yak diplomat was inclined to head butt him again from the implied insult but refrained from doing so, remembering what happened last time. "Yaks no cowards!" the diplomat announced back.

"I don't see no yak's fighting," Tran commented.

No pony would usually dare say something like this to a yak's face so the yak diplomat was quite surprised upon finally hearing a challenge of sorts. "Yak will show ponies who best warrior!"

The words sat heavily on Princess Twilight and Cadance's mind, the meaning hitting them like a freight train. Princess Cadance stepped up to bring more attention to herself. "Sir Grovious, are you saying the yaks will join Equestria in the war effort?"

The yak diplomat turned to look at the princess of love with a look of determination. "Yaks will send best warriors!" the diplomat replied, answering the princess. "And yak's will show that yak weapons, best!" The yak diplomat turned to address his guards. "Show ponies, yak weapons!" The yaks had in fact, been carrying weapons. Aside from being covered horn to hoof in enough metal to make a smelting factory jealous, they were wearing saddlebags and cloaks across their backs. When the cloaks were torn away, the yak bodyguards all revealed that they were carrying literal cannons across their back. They were small cannons but still big enough that any of the humans could probably fit a few fingers down the muzzle. However, they all appeared to be a very old design.

Gilda whistled at the sight of the cannons. She turned to look at Rainbow Dash who was just as surprised. Gilda elbowed her friend. "That or the bazooka?" Gilda asked.

Dash shook her head immediately. "You kidding? Bazooka, easy."

Tran turned to address the two princess and prince in their presence. "But I have recently discovered an important matter Equestria is plagued with. Something that has gone under all of your ponies' noses. Something that only I have now discovered," Tran stated.

Princess Twilight Sparkle and Cadance and Prince Shining Armor and Blueblood looked amongst each other with shared looks of worry. What could they have not known about this whole time? The war effort had taken most of Equestria's and her ponies' attention so a lot of things could have gone wrong that they had missed already. What else had they missed? "What have you discovered?" Twilight asked.

Tran turned and point at the various unfamiliar REA soldiers that had followed in with him. The various REA soldiers looked nervous as Tran brought everyone's attention on them. "Normal REA soldiers, correct?" The royal ponies scrutinized the various REA soldiers and found nothing wrong with them. Just as he had said, they seemed to be normal REA soldiers. Even to Shining Armor, a field marshal of Equestria, he could find nothing wrong with them. Tran raised up a hand and then brought it back down quickly. All of the REA soldiers in the room were all sheathed in green fire and transformed into changelings.

Author's Note

I've had a good deal of free time and sitting by the fire time on my hands so I've been writing more. I hope y'all enjoy my writing. As usual, I'm not dead yet and I enjoy reading your comments so leave one. It can be about anything, even questions about me, and I might comment back. Anyways, i hope the mild cliff hanger isn't too much for y'all. I will be finishing this story unless I die and if it gets enough attention by then, I'll write a sequel story.

The Allies We Gain by Victory Will Turn against Us Upon the Bare Whisper of Our Defeat

Absolutely everything went crazy. Princess Twilight lit up her horn and and went bright as she started casting a spell and Princess Cadance took up a position behind her husband for safety. Prince Shining Armor also lit up a horn and a bubble shield covered up himself, his sister, his wife, and the other crystal ponies in the room. He also drew his sidearm, as did every one else in the room. There were no demands or threats or questions as he took aim at the closest changeling in the room and fired. Luckily for the changeling her fired at, Tran had stepped in front of the changeling, shielding the lucky changeling from the bullet, taking the bullet to his body armor covered chest.

Having taken a bullet to the chest, Tran drew a handgun in each hand and had one aimed at Shining Armor and the other at one of the crystal pony auxiliary guards, who were aiming their weapons at either Tran or the changelings. Joining in with their fellow human, Wilson had drawn pistols of their own and were aiming it at random ponies. The changelings also drew weapons and were aiming them at the crystal ponies or princesses. Meanwhile, the ponies (and Jaeger) that were assigned with the humans, had weapons drawn but not aimed at any pony in particular. The yaks, unsure of what was going on, were aiming their cannons at literally any pony or changeling in the room.

"Out of the way!" Shining Armor demanded.

Tran, despite having just been shot by the stallion, remained unmoved and stared the stallion back down. "We are gonna come to an agreement or half of us aren't walking out of here," Tran stated.

Eric took a few steps forward so that he could be better noticed by the other ponies in the room. In both of his hands were hand grenades. They had the pins pulled to them but he was holding the spoons down on them so they couldn't explode it. "I wouldn't hedge your bets on you coming out of here unscathed," Eric said.

Shining looked around at all of the guns raised in their direction before looking to Twilight. "You've been working with changelings this whole time?!"

Twilight looked at the humans and balked. "I-It can't be. I've ran scans. They can't be!"

Eric raised an eyebrow. "I don't know what changelings are but we aren't them," Eric answered.

Tran nodded. "Do whatever you need to confirm. I'm not a changeling."

Twilight lit their horns and beams came from their horns and hit Tran, Eric, and Wilson. Then, she repeated the same spell with one of the changelings in the room. "They're still not changelings but the rest of them definitely are."

Shining snarled at the changelings in the room. "So, you're trying to take over Equestria? Again??!" he demanded.

The changeling that had been wearing the colonel's uniform shook her head. "No! At the behest of him," the changeling said while pointing at Tran. "We've gathered here to discuss. A treaty, of sorts."

Tran slowly holstered his pistols. "Can we be civil?" he asked. The ponies in the room weren't convinced and kept their weapons up. Tran frowned and took a step forward towards Shining Armor.

"Stay back!" Shining Armor demanded.

Tran look at the magical bubble shield that housed her, Shining, Cadance, and the other Crystal Ponies. "If you want a enemy, go right on ahead," Tran said while taking another step forward. Shining aimed his pistol directly at Tran's face who remained unwavering. He took another step forward and went right through Shining's shield who was astonished. "Do you want this fight?"

Shining looked at the human standing inside of the bubble shield with him and the others and then to the two other humans in the room, who were still aiming their weapons at them. He looked back at Tran and then let out a frustrated scream. He stopped aiming his revolver at Tran. "You want us to work with them?" Shining asked while pointing at the changelings, who were still aiming their weapons.

Tran nodded. "Would you rather be working with them or fighting them?" he asked.

Shining looked at the lead changeling. "Where is she?!" he demanded.

The changeling wasn't quite sure of what he was asking? "Who?" she asked.

"Chrysalis," Shining spat out with disgust in his voice.

The colonel shook her head. "She's not with us. We are changelings that refuse to be shackled by her tyranny." She turned towards the other changelings in the room and waved a hoof at them. Much to the ponies' surprise, they lowered their weapons. "We wish to fight for Equestria, if we are allowed a place in Equestria."

Princess Cadance walked out from behind the safety of her husband and up to Tran. She looked up and down at the human, taking in his features. "You have been fighting on our behest since you've arrived, correct?" she asked. Tran nodded. She turned to look at Twilight. "Can they be trusted?" Twilight looked at the other humans in the room and then back to Cadance. She nodded.

Prince Blueblood walked up towards the bubble shield. "They've made great progress for the REA. I can personally attest for their actions. If it weren't for them, I would be dead and Equestria would have failed in many of her fights," he stated.

Cadance nodded and turned to her husband and nuzzled his neck. "Let's hear them out," Cadance said.

Shining was surprised by his wife's words. "Even after what they did to us?"

Cadance nodded. "They did more to me than you. Let's humor them," she answered back. Shining paused for a second before lowering his pistol. He gestured at the other crystal ponies in the room and they also lowered their weapons. Cadance coughed and pointed out the shield he was still holding up and with much disdain, he dropped the shield.

Shining looked at the changeling colonel. "Where is Chrysalis if she's not with you?"

The changeling colonel gesture towards Gilda. "She and her supports fight for the griffons."

Shining frowned. "Great. More soldiers we have to fight."

The colonel shook her head. "No, not soldiers. Spies."

Shining, Twilight, Cadance, and Blueblood balked. "Spies?!" Shining exclaimed.

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. "That would explain a lot."

The colonel nodded. "They aid the griffons by providing valuable intelligence and sabotaging the Equestrian war effort."

Shining scowled. "Great. And what are you here for?"

Tran took a step back away from the prince and walked up to the changeling colonel. He grabbed the changeling's uniform. "They want to fight, just like the others. They've been fighting this whole time and none of you noticed it."

Shining looked at the uniform that the colonel was wearing. "It can't be, we would have noticed extra soldiers just appearing out of nowhere."

Tran let go of the changeling's uniform. "Therein lies the problem," Tran stated.

The changeling colonel fixed her uniform before magically turning into the same appearance that she had before, that of a Equestrian unicorn. "We take up the identity of ponies who have gone missing or become a victim of the war."

All of the ponies and humans were aghast upon this being revealed. Shining Armor marched up to the changeling colonel and aggressively shoved his head into the changeling's. "No!"

Cadance's horn lit up and she pulled Shining back with her magic. She looked at the changelings with a down trodden look. "Is it to gather love?"

The changeling colonel sighed and nodded with much guilt wracking her face. "Yes," she answered. "We don't gather enough to harm our donors. There are changelings who depend on what we bring back. The elderly, children, even changelings who have been crippled from fighting in the war."

Cadance looked into her husband's eyes and. "We can't let them starve."

Shining was tentative at his wife's request. "And what? We're their livestock?"

Tran crossed his arms. "Yes and no. If the griffons succeed, there will be less ponies for the changelings to gather from. If they fight, they are earning what they gather. A trade, of sorts."

Eric looked at how many changelings there were in the room. "How many of you guys are out there? "

The changeling looked at Eric and opened his mouth to answer. She had the answer to give but that was a huge tactical truth, one that could be used for nefarious purposes if the Equestrians desired. "A few hundred thousand. Maybe half are full fledge infiltrators and soldiers."

The answer sat heavily in Shining's mind. While the Equestrians outnumbered the changelings several times over, both in military might and the civilian population, it wasn't a number that couldn't be ignored. If they were truly an enemy to Equestria, any small number of them could wreak havoc on Equestria's war effort. Worse, that meant something else. "Chrysalis," Shining Armor asked, again with disgust in his voice. "How many side with her and the griffons?"

The colonel smirked. "Just as many. That means you face double the threat if we're also the enemy," she stated. Manipulation, that was one of the many skills that changelings were skilled at. This was a very bold faced attempt at it and every pony and changeling in the room noticed.

Princess Cadance had a sullen look on her face. "That was a low blow, but the truth, nonetheless." She sighed. "We can't afford to deny the offer."

The changeling colonel smirked. "After this war, we want a peace treaty. Changelings are freely allowed in Equestria when this war ends."

Eric scoffed. "If this war ends," Eric commented. "If you fight for the Equestrians, you will also help find the changelings that are fighting against Equestria.

The changeling colonel looked up at Eric and took in a deep breathe. "We can... Do that," the colonel said with pain in his voice.

Tran folded his arms. "No more stealing the identity of another soldier," Tran added in. "The soldiers who have paid the ultimate price deserve the honor they have earned."

The changeling colonel looked down at the ground in shame and nodded. "We understand but if we are to abandon our... Practice, we cannot show our faces. How are we to serve Equestria while serving our people?"

Princess Cadance trotted up to the changeling colonel and used her hoof to lift the colonel's head up from her sullen bow. The colonel was confused and even further so when Cadance kissed the changeling colonel on the lips. Their lips stayed connected before Cadance broke first. "A gift," Cadance cheekily whispered to the colonel. "Earn your love, as changelings."

The colonel blushed from the contact and felt quite full, love wise, from the kiss. "B-but we can't show ourselves without scaring anypony," the changeling replied.

Eric scoffed. "Who you fight with, becomes your family, regardless of something as stupid as blood," he said. "Fight with them, as yourselves, no lies up front, and you will get what you need."

Cadance gave the changeling colonel a warm smile. "We will make sure all of you have a chance to prove yourselves, as changelings. We will give it you a chance if you take the chance," she cooed.

Wilson walked up to Eric and smacked him in the side to get his attention. "Say, I have an idea," Wilson said. He turned to the changeling colonel. "Since your people are natural infiltrators and soldiers, how are your medical skills? With ponies?"

The colonel was confused for a second but she then took a second to think. "We are taught everything on Equestrian biology to help us infiltrate Equestrian society."

That last bit, while it made everypony in the room uncomfortable, cemented Wilson's idea. Wilson turned to Shining and pointed at him. "Medics. You don't fuck with doc and when he's your savior, he's your best friend and favorite brother."

Eric rubbed his chin with a hand. "Now that, that could work." Eric turned to Princess Twilight. "Can you have them fall under us?"

Twilight did some mental planning and then nodded. "We can arrange something."

Eric turned to the changeling colonel. "Your people, we'll lead you and if anyone has anything to say," Eric said.

Tran drew his hand cannon for emphasis and brandished it for everyone to see. "They can take it up with us." Tran looked at the yak diplomat. "Do yak warriors want to fight with us or ponies?"

The yak diplomatic performed a rather attentive hop into the air before raising a foreleg up into the air. "Yak will fight with not-minotaur warriors and not small, weak pony warriors!" the yak diplomat loudly exclaimed. Many ponies took offense to that statement (namely Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Spitfire, Soarin, Prince Shining Armor, Prince Blueblood, Princess Twilight, Princess Cadance, and the crystal pony auxiliary guards) but Tran raised a fist into the air to join the yak in his jubilee. The yak diplomatic cheered before stomping the leg back down, causing a slight tremor to go through the ground.

Tran turned to face Twilight. "When we get back to Ponyville, I want all of your princesses and princes for a diplomatic meeting," Tran said before turning to face the changeling colonel. "And you will send your rulers." He then faced the yak. "And you too." The princesses and princess, yak diplomat, and changeling colonel looked amongst each other before facing Tran. They all agreed.

Author's Note

As usual, leave a comment, I enjoy reading them. Also, important detail for the feature. This is a poll so leave your vote in the comments. Should I go with a griffon or a pony? What this character is, I won't say but go ahead and vote.

The More You Sweat in Peace, the Less You Bleed in War.

We all returned to Ponyville. The three of us, with heavy hearts, brought Logan's body back to be buried. Even though we were leaving the battlefield, every pony understood the sentiment. We decided to bury him at the edge of the Everfree Forest, where he and the rest of us hunted and personally trained. It was a private affair, just the three of us, as we gave Logan the honors he earned from paying the ultimate price. He went into the ground in his combat uniform and gear, along with his Mosin sniper rifle.

From there, we got ready for the takeover of Fillydelphia. Fillydelphia was left in the hands of the REA and they had started to harass the city. While we had stopped the griffon advance dead in its tracks, that didn't mean it would be an easy victory. The griffons were dug in deep in the city with defenses that had been built up and continuously reinforced over years of war. They easily had the manpower and firepower to continue holding it if they wanted. Currently, the REA was just making sure the griffons didn't expand where they were. Any attempts to move forward would be met with artillery strikes and machine gun fire. Unfortunately, between the defenses there and the griffon's holdings in Manehattan, any damage done would be quickly undone. The Equestrians blockaded the entire eastern coast of Equestria but the griffons were still able to occasionally get through with their airships or naval ships to bring in fresh reinforcements or supplies.

We needed to recuperate. While Tran had miraculously recovered from his wounds, that didn't mean everyone else was. Rainbow Dash's had broken her wing fighting with Gilda, Gilda had a nasty neck wound from being hit with bullet splash when she was shot by Tran, Prince Blueblood had a broken horn and lots of minor battle damage, and so on and so on. Wilson and Eric, while they weren't shot, all had gashes from running around in the field or had shrapnel injuries from explosions, along with many other ponies.

Since Tran was in perfect health, he worked on rebuilding their supplies. He made a copy of his bazooka and several dozen high explosive rockets for him and the second rocketeer to use. While the ideal scenario would be to get Equestria to adopt the bazooka as a weapon, it would be too much of a hassle, as getting the production and tooling of it started would be too much of a drain on Equestria's war effort and economy. Since they were now down a man in terms of firepower, Tran decided to significantly modify Eric's primary rifle. Eric's AK74 was a good rifle and all but it could be better. Tran changed out the barrel to one with a much heavier profile so that it could be fired more before overheating. Since this AK74 was Eric's personal civilian rifle from their original life, it was semi auto. That was easily changed. Now, being full auto, with a heavier profile barrel, the other natural step to take was to give it larger magazines. Tran made several dozen 100 round drums for Eric to use though he'd realistically carry three or four in the field.

Since Eric now held the team's primary machine gunner position, he was the source of the most mobile firepower. Everyone else's role was to support him. In infantry combat, the machine gun is the highest casualty producing weapon of a fire team. Eric and the other two knew this so they would have to practice their new roles. Luckily, they had the time.

Tran, Eric, and Wilson had to train, and train they did. They didn't just have to train their own roles, they had to train others for their future roles. Once they were settled back in Ponyville, they found themselves amongst the company of a lot of new faces. It was decided that a battalion of soldiers were to be led by the humans, as decided by several of the royal rulers of Equestria. Spitfire was reassigned to the humans to help them lead the battalion, with assistance from Soarin, who was recommissioned into the REA despite his physical handicaps. Gilda was also commissioned into the REA despite the fact that she was a former Jaeger of the Imperial Griffon Air Force. Rainbow Dash was a big proponents of Gilda's commissioning and no pony could do anything against the Elements of Harmony.

The leaders and officers that led and ran the battalion that were assigned to the humans were familiar faces. Many of them were the former crewmembers of the Dauntless. Since they no longer had the Dauntless, they had to do something else and after what they went through, they were happy to work with the humans again. Now, this was a secret to the rest of the REA, half of the soldiers of that battalion were secretly changelings. The other portion were normal REA soldiers but they weren't let in on the secret. Mixed in with the ponies and changelings were zebras, who's population did not have much of a negative view towards changelings because of a lack of many interactions with them, and several dozen yaks, freshly brought in from Yakyakistan. Also, coming from the north, Prince Shining Armor tried to include crystal pony guards but the offer was refused, as they weren't very experienced in modern combat and training as they were still recovering from the Crystal Empire's return from being sealed for 1000 years. Realistically speaking, actual ponies only made up somewhere from a quarter to half the battalion.

This battalion that the humans ran was very much an experimental venture. It was an attempt to see if the changelings could be trusted or if the yak's warriors could properly fight with the REA. The humans weren't going to train them in how the REA normally fought or performed, they would be trained in the true modern combat that the humans were experienced with. Each of the humans trained their own sections. Wilson was training a significant number of the changelings in how to be proper combat medics. Eric was training the yaks, the earth ponies of the battalion, and many of the unicorns in how to be infantry fire teams, squads that would be centered around the machine gun. Tran was training changelings (disguised as pegasi), actual REA pegasi, and REA zebras in how to be scouts and the battalion's air support.

From the human world, in final moments of WWI, every country figured out the best way to fight battles instead of just shelling each other and then sending waves of infantry to their deaths. Modern wars was best fought with combined arms, which was the idea of integrating infantry with air support, artillery, and armor backing the infantry. Unfortunately, the REA didn't have real armor (IE tanks), but the closest they could get were yaks covered in enough steel to stop small arms rifle and carrying a cannon and or a machine gun. Fortunately, that meant that the ad hoc "tanks" was much more mobile and could hide and move much better than a slow lumbering tank. Painfully, the IGAF had the REA beat in terms of armor. They had allied themselves with dragons which were completely immune to small arms fire when they were in a full sized form. Fortunately, the yaks carried small cannons which were likely to be able to injure the dragons and the humans now had anti tank bazookas which both the REA and IGAF had never experienced before.

With the humans, they had their cadre of ponies of help train their soldiers. Eric had Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Blueblood to help him train his infantry and armor. Wilson had the assistance of Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pharynx to help train his medics. Tran had Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Spitfire, and Soarin to help train his scouts and air support. The battalion had two months before they would be put in their trial by fire, a battle. They would partake in the next major offensive, when the REA would attempt to retake Fillydelphia back. Until then, Fillydelphia and Manehattan would be continuously watched and all of the forces and defenses built around them would just carry out a holding action. The REA was slowly building up forces and supplies to replace previously loss ones from the past months.

For now, only a week had passed and things had barely been setup.

-X-X-X-

Gilda flew through the air, acting as the OPFOR (the opposing force in a training scenario). Somewhere else, two pegasi (actually one changeling and one pegasus) flew through the air, acting as scouts. Both sides did not know the locations of each other. Griffons were natural predators and ponies were natural prey. Because of this, griffons sported larger eagle's wings and could turn better. Unlike them, pegasi had smaller wings but could fly much faster.

The two airborne pegasi spotted Gilda in the air and sped up to apprehend the enemy. One of the pegasi (the actual pegasus) shot forward and passed by Gilda. Gilda, smiled, and started flapping her wings faster to get ready to attack, readying her submachine gun with bayonet attached. As she chased after her target, she heard a gunshot from behind her. She groaned as she realized what had happened. The other pegasus (a changeling) had a shotgun in his hooves and he pumped it, ejecting the spent blank.

From the ground, Tran and Rainbow Dash was watching them. "Exercise end!" Tran yelled out with a megaphone.

All three airborne fliers flew down to the ground over to their two coaches. Gilda frowned and slung her submachine gun over her shoulder. "BOOR-ing. Didn't even merge with me," Gilda grumbled out. The two pegasi hi-fived each to celebrate their victory.

Rainbow Dash trotted over to the two pegasus and joined in on the high fiving. "NNN-ICE. You two just managed to beat a Jaeger at dogfighting," she declared.

Gilda threw her hands into the air. "That wasn't a dog fight! That was just a bait N switch!" she complained.

Tran set the megaphone down and wrote something down on a clipboard. "Safety over glory. Doesn't matter," Tran stated.

Gilda continued her grumbling. "Still wasn't a dogfight," she said again.

Tran looked at the two pegasi who were in full combat gear. Both were wielding pump action shotguns. That was gonna be their standard combat weapon. Instead of having to setup a new supply line that would cost lots of money to equip these fliers, the air support troops that Tran were using 12 gauge pump action shotguns that were commercially bought. The shotguns fired standard 12 gauge #4 buckshot to deal with griffons. They didn't have to kill a griffon, they just had to knock them out of the air and just being hit by any of the #4 pellets could do that.

As for air support, they also carried bombs that were meant to bombard ground based targets. These bombs were just standard mortar shells that they would drop, so the REA didn't have to start a factory building a new weapon to use. There were two sizes of bombs to use, a standard weight and then a heavy bomb. The standard weight bomb was a 60mm mortar shell that weighed 2.5 kilograms and had a possible lethal blast radius of 12 meters. It was a respectable bomb. As for the heavy bomb, it was a 81mm mortar shell that weighed 5 kilograms and had a possible lethal blast radius of 35 meters.

There were 3 standard bomb loadouts that these scout bombers would carry. There was a bombardment loadout where they're carry 14 light shells in order to bomb multiple light targets. Then, there was the most common loadout, where they're carry 8 light shells and 2 heavy shells which let them bomb targets as needed with choice of bomb. Then, there was the heavy loadout, where they'd carry 6 heavy bombs, if there was a many hardened or large targets. When bombs were dropped, the fliers would always drop two bombs at a time, as the bombs were evenly split carried half on each side of their body. If they dropped a single bomb at a time, the weight difference from being offset could affect their ability to fly. To clarify, not all scouts carried bombs, only scout bombers. These scout bombers would always be protected by a pair of fliers because they couldn't fly as fast or bank as well as a non-scout bomber.

Tran dismissed the two scouts and got things ready for a fresh exercise. Gilda shot into the air and flew a good distance as the next two scouts (also a pegasus and a disguised changeling) stood in front of Tran. "This exercise. We will practice break-off. Approach the enemy and let her engage you. On the spot, both of you will have to decide which one of you will be the lead and which one will be the pursuit," Tran explained. This time, they were to practice disengaging with the enemy before reengaging. It was basically a exercise in how to effectively leave the enemy alive so that both could survive to actually win the fight.

As the next two fliers shot into the air, an unknown pegasus touched down in the present of Tran and Rainbow Dash. Tran immediately recognized the new pegasus as a disguised changeling while Rainbow Dash was none the wiser. This pegasus did not look like he was here to shoot the shit. This changeling was wearing the standard REA uniform so Tran guessed that this changeling was a messenger from the changelings. "I have been ordered to let you know that your headquarters has been broken into," the messenger told the two. "It is to be believed that rogue changelings, Chrysalis's, was the culprit. The Equestrian Secret Service is already on site."

Rainbow Dash shot into the air in anger. "Celestia-damned spies!" she exclaimed.

Tran looked at the blue mare. "Take charge here," Tran said before he walked off in the direction of his home.

-X-X-X-

The human's headquarters was the home where the four (three now) humans lived. It was also where Tran's personal workshop and lab was. It had been where Tran had made/modified his and the other's weapons. It had Tran's personal notes and thoughts on their weapons and new weapons and ideas to be made in the future. It was also where the other humans had their plans for the Equestrian military, in terms of training and war strategy. There was a lot of possible intel that could be gathered from it.

Upon arriving to the headquarters, Tran found many REA guards protecting it and many Equestrian Secret Service personnel roaming about. He went to the entrance where two REA unicorns were guarding the door and they did indeed stop the human. The REA guards guarding it looked up and down at the human. Tran recognized both as disguised changelings and they lit their horns and a magical wave went across Tran. After the scan, one of the guards opened up the door for Tran. "Sir," the other guard said while saluting.

Tran ignored the soldier and walked inside. There were more Equestrian Secret Service personnel running about and most of them froze when the human stepped inside. Tran ignored them and made his way to his workshop, where all of his tools, and bits of metal scraps and projects were lying about in various states of mess. This very room had even more Equestrian Secret Service personnel roaming about along with a single REA officer. All of them were either scanning things with magical tools or with their horns.

The one REA officer in the room walked up to Tran to greet him. This officer was a major, one that Tran had met before. "It was definitely changelings that did this," the officer reported. The officer walked closer to Tran. "Don't let them know," the officer whispered.

"Pharynx," Tran greeted. He stepped away from the officer and looked around at his room. Nothing was missing but some stuff had been moved. "Found anything?" Tran asked.

The officer fished something out of a uniform pocket and handed it to Tran. It was a crystal, one that was dull in color. "Some listening devices. Nothing else. We're scanning every inch of this room." The centerpiece to this room was a large workbench, one that had many papers, notebooks, and drafts of prototypes for weapons or other ideas for the humans to use. Tran looked through his papers to make sure everything was there. Nothing was missing, but some of the papers definitely had been flipped through, some pages of notebooks having been marred from being touched by a hoof. Pharynx trotted up next to Tran and look at the papers and scrunched up his nose in confusion.

Luckily, when the humans arrived, the Equestrian language was identical to English, both in its spoken and written form. For personal things, Eric, Logan, and Wilson had written letters, entries in journals, and missives in English/Equestrian. However, for anything that was important to the human's assistance to the war effort, Tran was in charge of taking notes, no matter what level of importance. This was done so that no one (pony, griffon, changeling, etc.) could look at them and gather any intel.

When Tran wrote, it wasn't that he had encoded all of their important information. Tran had written very plainly and everything was obviously written down exactly as it was. However, Tran didn't write in English/Equestrian. Instead, Tran had written in his native language... And in four other languages, including two different types of foreign short hand. There weren't even standard numeral characters, Tran had written numbers in Chinese Kanji or Arabic symbols. Tran looked at Pharynx. "I doubt they were able to gather any info," Tran said, flipping through his papers.

Author's Note

I still havent died yet so I'll keep on writing. Here's another chapter for all y'all. Please leave a comment, I love reading them all! If its about the story, go ahead and ask. If you want to ask something about me, go right on ahead. If you spot an error, please let me know.

Also, Make sure you vote on the poll that I mentioned last week. Should I go with a pony or a griffon character? I still won't say what this character is but its important so make sure you vote in the comments!

Friendship Is Like War, Easy To Start, Hard To Stop, Impossible To Forget

As the end of the second week, since the destruction of the Dauntless started to arrive, everyone started their plans for the weekend. It was a nice Saturday and even in this war time schedule, everyone, aside from strictly crucial roles, had the day off. Since they were currently not on the frontline, every soldier was allowed a single weekend day per week. It was time for soldiers to relax and spend at least some of their life enjoying it instead of fighting for it.

The humans' headquarters was bristling with activity in the morning. Inside, all three humans and their escorts lazily went through their morning routines to start the day while guards were changing shifts outside. As Applejack delivered home cooked food from Sweet Apple Acres before greeting everyone inside before leaving to have some leisurely fun at home. Rarity and Blueblood only ate very little before leaving to go on a light date with today's free time. Then, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, Soarin, Gilda, and Scootaloo ate as quickly as they could before leaving to practice their flying maneuvers. With the three humans by themselves, Eric decided to take his food to go before leaving to hang out with the soldiers.

Wilson and Tran were the only ones to actually take their time to enjoy their breakfast but at one point, Tran started taking off his clothes. Wilson was very much confused from Tran's actions. "You know, I'm not really into you like that." Wilson jokingly said.

Tran sighed, finished undressing when he was just in his underwear. "I want morphine," Tran finally explaining himself.

Wilson straightened up and went completely serious. "The fuck?" Wilson said, unsure of what to do. "Fucking, why?" he asked.

Nothing about Tran's exterior showed that anything was wrong. Sure, he was scarred all over from his many, many previous wounds but everything was all healed up. "Ever since I died, something's been eating at me from the inside. When I'm working or training, it distracts me but when I'm left alone, it's all I can think about."

Wilson looked at the ground and sighed. This saddened him to the point of almost bringing him to tears. His fellow brother was suffering and he wasn't sure of what he should do. He went to grab some of his equipment and checked Tran all over. His breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure was fine. Wilson grit his teeth and grabbed a glass vial and a syringe. It was morphine alright. He withdrew a proper dose and looked at Tran. "Are you sure about this?" Wilson asked.

While Tran had the same usual dead expression on his face, Wilson could see in Tran's eyes that he was tired. The two had known each other for quite a while and this was one of the very few moments of weakness that Tran had ever shown Wilson. "Last week, I could barely manage through it. Yes," Tran replied.

Wilson started finding a vein that he could use. Once he started delivering the morphine, Wilson could see that Tran's body relax but his eyes still showed that he was still dead inside, basically. Once the drug administration was done, Tran started dressing himself back up and Wilson put away his gear. "We can't make this into a habit," Wilson said.

Tran nodded, once he was fully dressed. "I know, bad for you long term," Tran answered back. The two of them continued eating for a short while before grabbing a few things so they could go out and have some personal fun, like extra cash, keys, small journals, pencil, and their pistols (Wilson grabbed his recently acquired FN Five Seven while Tran with his .500 S&W magnum).

Wilson eyed the giant hand cannon that Tran had grabbed. "Man, that's like your brand," Wilson said with a smile.

Tran drew the huge revolver and held it up to examine. "Yeah. Bit annoying to carry, being this big and all." Tran said before re-holstering the pistol.

*THUD THUD THUD*

The two of them looked to the front door where someone was knocking. The two humans shot each other a quick look before looking back to the door. If it had been Eric or any of their liaisons, they would have just entered on their own without knocking. This was someone unknown. "Enter!" Wilson shouted, hopefully loud enough that their guest could hear.

The door's lock clicked as the guest unlocked the door and it opened, revealing one of the outside sentries that constantly guarded their headquarters. The sentry entered and saluted the two. "You have guests, incoming," the sentry reported.

Wilson was slightly nonplussed from the salute. Neither him or Tran were officers, being sergeants from their original world and also officially being sergeants in the REA. Nonetheless, Wilson saluted back. "Thanks. Return to your post." Wilson dropped the salute and then the sentry dropped his salute, walking back outside and closing the door.

Wilson and Tran shot each other a look before they finished up and walked outside the door. Outside, aside from the usual sentries that guarded the headquarters, there were a few extra ponies that were present. However, these two extra ponies, unlike the REA sentries that guarded the house, were bat ponies. The humans had seen them before but had never interacted with them before. The two humans looked around for more and noticed, off in the distance, in the sky, was a chariot heading this way, along with a whole hoard of more bat ponies.

Wilson and Tran shot each other a look again. Wilson's shoulders visibly sagged, realizing that this might mean they'd have to do some 'work' today. "Damn, I was looking forward to the day off," Wilson complained.

Tran looked at the incoming chariot and then back to Wilson. "Go on, I can probably handle this," Tran offered.

Wilson's raised his eyes. "You sure?'

Tran nodded. "You seem like you need the time off and this'll help distract me from..." Tran's voice trailed off as he implied what he had truthfully told Wilson earlier.

Wilson cringed, realizing what Tran had meant. He nodded. "Well, guess I can still drink and try to get my dick wet," Wilson stated before he started walking off. "Been way too damn long."

That had honestly been a mental flashbang to Tran. The three of them had been in Equestria for almost four months by now and their romantic prospects so far, had been, how you say, sparse. To be fair, they were busy with the war and ponies were very wary of the humans. But, to be fair, the city's occupants were starting to warm up to the humans and they were especially grateful that they were fighting for Equestria. Plus, the ponies were used to dealing with other species by now. Wilson was honestly hoping to 'relive some stress'. Tran waved Wilson off. "Ain't even noon yet!" Tran yelled out.

"It's noon somewhere!" Wilson yelled out as he disappeared into the city.

Tran looked back to the chariot, which had started to land. He didn't count them all but he was sure that a few dozen bat ponies had landed with the chariots. All of the bat ponies were wearing a rather interesting variant of the standard REA combat uniform. The coat and pants, instead of being khaki like the standard army uniform, it was instead a very dark navy color, almost to the point of being black. They wore a black shirt underneath the uniform and also wearing the standard REA army combat gear on top of it all, albeit also being a black colored version. They were all armed, with various weapons, all of which was standard REA weapons.

The most sight worthy of all, was the chariot's passenger. The passenger was Princess Luna! Instead of wearing standard REA combat gear, she was wearing a full set of black plate armor without a helmet. It looked like she had stepped out of the middle ages with all of the steel plates that protected her body. Of note, she was carrying a saber in a scabbard worn on her right side and an even larger greatsword worn on a back mounted scabbard. The princess stepped out of the chariot and trotted up to Tran who was patiently waiting and examining the bat ponies.

Tran had met all of the other princesses that ruled Equestria. Celestia was easily the largest and stood, on all four legs, a head taller than Tran who himself was the tallest of the humans at six feet tall. Princess Luna, while she was still large for a pony by Equestrian standards, was almost the same height as Tran. Normally, ponies on all four legs stood one head taller than the human's waistline and being the same height when standing on their back legs. Here, Princess Luna was able to look Tran in the eyes, her barely being an inch shorter.

Tran and Princess Luna looked at each other for a few seconds, as if they were squaring off. Luna, having finally met one of the humans, seemed to be... Unimpressed. "Normally, my subjects bow upon meeting a member of the royal diarchy but in this situation, I can disregard the faux pas," Princess Luna said.

Tran looked around and saw that the sentries that guarded their headquarters bowing. Tran looked back at the Princess and shrugged. "I ain't one of your subjects," Tran stated out loud. Some of the princess's bat ponies seemed to get agitated upon Tran's statement, to which, Tran noticed. Then Tran straightened up his stance and saluted the princess. "Nice to meet another prominent member of this country's government."

Princess Luna looked at the saluting human and smiled. "Ah, the respectful practice of the salute!" Princess Luna said with happiness in her voice. "While I wear no helmet, I understand the intent!" Princess Luna quickly saluted back and dropped it, to which Tran finally dropped his own salute.

Tran relaxed and crossed his arms. He eyed the bat pony soldiers for a few seconds, before looking back at the princess. "Not to be rude, but what are you here for?"

Princess Luna's was currently showing a political face, one that seemed to show happiness, but it cracked for a second with Tran's question. Princess Luna flared her wings and pointed to the human's headquarters. "We are here to alleviate the conundrum that the enemy's espionage has created! We hath brought our personal guards to assist!"

Tran walked over to one of the bat ponies and held out his hand. "Weapon?" Tran asked.

The bat pony was confused upon Tran's request and he turned to looked to the Princess. "You may," Princess Luna ordered.

The bat pony unslung his rifle and held it out for Tran. Tran took the rifle, unloaded it, before doing a quick inspection. Once he was satisfied, he returned the rifle and walked back over to the princess. "You're here to guard us?"

Princess Luna tucked her wings back to her side. "Indeed. Not me personally. I will be temporarily present until a proper defense network and chain of command has been setup to guard your prospects. Our bat pony sentinels are unmatched in stealth!"

Tran pointed at one of the bat ponies. "Your men are green and you want to defend me and my allies?"

Princess Luna narrowed her eyes and frowned. "While I am grateful for your actions towards Equestria's survival, I will not take your insults against our personal retinue of warriors, lightly. While they have not fought on the farce that your generation call war, their strengths lie in the discrete defense of the homeland from threats domestic. You'll find that their company deters the threats you face away from the battlefield." The princess eyed the human up and down, finding that his appearance was no more impressive than a common citizen. "And you expect to criticize us when you are no more prepared than a fresh foal from birth!"

True, all Tran was armed with right now was his hand cannon and a knife, both of which were hidden by his outfit, but that was pretty much all he needed on a common leisurely day. Tran looked down at himself before looking back to Luna. From looking at one of their bat ponies, Tran knew that they hadn't ever seen the battlefield. Their uniforms weren't damaged from being in the field and their weapons showed no signs of battle damage or hard use. However, he did notice that their gear and weapons were 'broken in' from being used. “Mayhaps these soldiers were more like an elite police force. Anyways,” Tran had his own thoughts. He was too used to soldier life to appreciate the bat ponies. "So, what will you do now? There is nothing scheduled for today," Tran questioned.

Princess Luna turned to face her troops and made a motion with one of her wings. With that, the chariot took off and flew away while the various other bat ponies started going off into the city. That left Tran alone with Princess Luna and just two bat ponies. "We shall join you in your common activities whilst my Night Sentinels create a defense network," Princess Luna announced.

Tran shrugged and turned around, walking back to the house. "Just don't get in my way," Tran said, as he disappeared back into their headquarters.

-X-X-X-

Even though it was the very morning of the day and it was the day off, Tran decided to do some work. It was very basic/minor work, he was merely making more ammunition for himself and his allies to use. Nothing in Equestria used the .338 Lapua round so each round was custom made. They were designed for both power and accuracy so he had to make each round by hand with custom lathe made solid brass projectiles. Each cartridge had hand measured power loads to make sure they provided a consistent velocity for his accuracy standards. This process was nearly the same for Tran's .500 magnum ammo and his .45 acp pistol ammo. It was just done much quicker as the accuracy demand for each round wasn't as high demanding.

Princess Luna went to look at the various amenities that the headquarters had but after finding them rather plain and boring, she decided to join Tran in his workshop. There, everyone's gear and weapons were displayed, ready to be grabbed used at any moments with ammunition nearby. Princess Luna eyed some of the helmets and body armor that the humans wore, unsatisfied with what she saw.

Princess Luna poked at one of the plate carriers sitting around, feeling the steel plate underneath, that was meant to stop bullets. She frowned. "This choice of armor seems to be quite inadequate for battle. You only protect one half your body and barely so, at that!"

Tran placed a finished .338 Lapua round down with a batch of other completed rounds. He walked over to the armor stands where Princess Luna was specifically looking at Eric's plate carrier. He went to his own set and quickly donned it, having managed to do so in mere seconds. He strapped down the secondary soft deltoid protectors, making sure they were a good fit. Looking back to Luna, he folded his arms. "It does the job," Tran said, tapping the front section of the vest.

Princess Luna threw a hoof out, pointing at the human's exposed legs. "And what pray tell, will you do when an enemy assails your legs with their weapon?"

Tran reached down and pulled up one of his pants legs, revealing a big nasty scar on the leg. He looked up at Luna. "I take the hit and keep going. You run my leg through with that sword, all you get have is me running at you with a sword sticking out of my leg, pissed off," Tran said, showing off both entry and exit holes from when a griffon had impaled his leg with a bayonet.

Princess Luna eyed the leg scar and lowered the leg she was pointing with. Her eyes showed a mix of astonishment and disbelief. "The fellow soldiers have rumored that you are unkillable, truly that is false?"

Tran lowered his pant's leg and straightened up. "Maybe. I'll die when I want to die," Tran stated.

Princess Luna turned away and looked at some of the weapons that belonged to the humans. "Sad that you prefer using these so called, weapons," Princess Luna said while scrutinizing one rifle in particular. "Fighting from a distance? No honor in that! These modern day soldiers don't know the true sport of war where life is wagered for glory. No skill involved in today's fighting." Tran picked up his sniper rifle and started stuffing his pockets and pouches with ammunition. Princess Luna saw Tran's actions and wandered over to him. "What are you planning now?"

Tran turned around and held out his sniper rifle for Luna. Confused, she took it and held it up in her magic. Tran reached out and drew the saber from where it sat against Luna's side. "A wager," Tran stated.

Princess Luna was taken aback from the point that Tran had stolen Luna's sword. She looked at the sniper rifle held in her magic telekinesis. "What challenge do you propose?"

For once, Tran smiled, which discerned Luna. He knew what was gonna happen and he was going to enjoy every bit of it. "You show that there's no skill involved with my expertise and I will show you that there's no skill involved in your expertise."

Princess Luna took a step back, offended. "Fine!" Luna stammered. She knew that she herself was unmatched in swordsmanship. If rifles did as they were rumored, it would be too easy for her to shoot something.

-X-X-X-

The challenge that faced Luna was simple. Tran, Luna, and two of her bat pony guards now were at a shooting range meant for military use. This one had been favored by the humans so certain accommodations were made for them. There were many shooting lanes and down side of each lane were were many, many steel targets placed downrange. The standard ones varied from 50 meters, all the way out to five hundred meters. Then, there was another section that had been recently added, setup long ago by Tran personally. On this lane, the closest target sat at 600 meters and the furthest sat at 1800 meters. Each target was a large circular steel gong, roughly half a meter wide, painted white.

There was a neat table and chair setup, so someone could comfortably sit here and shoot all day, if needed. Tran had Luna sit down at the table with the rifle, as they were supervised by their two bat pony guards. Tran pointed down range at the closest target, 600 meters away. "Shoot," Tran stated. Luna looked at the rifle and the target far away. She was still all clad in her plate armor while Tran was still only wearing his leisure clothes, with his plate carrier worn over it. From here, the target seemed, oh so small. Tran could see Luna's trepidation towards the request. "If its so easy, you should be able to ring that steel.."

Tran's .338 Lapua sniper rifle was currently setup with a long trigger bar so that Luna could use it but for a few seconds, the rifle lay untouched as Luna tried getting into a comfortable shooting position. She had to shift or adjust several sections of her armor but she finally managed to get settled into a point where her aim wasn't moving around all over the place... Much. After quite a good wait, the rifle finally sounded. To give her an honest shot, Tran had correctly adjust the scope to make such a shot, at 600 meters. It didn't matter as Tran had been watching the impact. "Twelve feet high, four feet left," Tran reported.

Luna frowned as Tran reloaded the rifle for her. She reached up to rub her ears, the loud gunshot being very concussive to her unprotected hearing. When she got ready to aim again, she tried to get a good aim at the target but when she got ready to take another shot, she found herself flinching. She was honestly quite fearful of the gun going off because of its recoil and loud report. "Ten feet low. eight feet right," Tran called out.

Luna's mood soured more and more as she tried another shot and another shot. As she continued to fire more and more, the more she flinched and anticipated the shot, making her miss by a worsening margin. By the time she fired her eighth shot, she stood up in anger. "Bah! These weapons are worthless to me! I have never used them and will continue to never use them!"

Tran folded his arms and looked at the princess with disdain. "I thought you said it was easy?" Tran questioned.

Princess Luna turned to one of her bat pony guards. "You there!" said while pointing at the guard. "For a modern day soldier, it will be effortless. Shoot that target with your weapon!" she commanded.

The bat pony guard was uncomfortable with the situation but he trotted over to the firing line and got settled into a prone position with his rifle. He was wielding the standard service rifle of the REA, which was a bolt action, en bloc clip fed, five round rifle in 8mm. He fired. At 600 meters, the closest target at Tran's personal section of the shooting range, the bat pony guard still missed. The bat pony fire again, and again. Before they knew it, the bat pony's rifle was empty. Five shots, all misses. The bat pony, head low, trotted away from the firing line as he reloaded his rifle.

Tran looked to Luna who seemed rather displeased. "I thought you said your little vampires were skilled?" Tran taunted. Tran turned his attention to the bat pony who was still on the range. Tran held his hands out. "Weapon," Tran demanded as the guard finished reloading his rifle. The bat pony guard handed over the rifle without question, not wanting to earn the human's ire.

The first thing that Tran did was eject the round that was currently chambered and closed the bolt on an empty chamber, but still with the magazine full. He tried out the trigger, resetting the striker and then pulling the trigger again. It was to get a good feel with the long triggers meant for hooves on Equestrian rifles. Once satisfied, Tran loaded in the round he ejected while preventing the next round in the magazine to feed. Tran sat down in the shooting table and settled into a good shooting position. Just to be sure, he checked the sights on the rifle and they were set at a number marking that indicated 600. He licked his thumb and rubbed the wet saliva on the front sight, just to cut help cut down on the light's haze that reflected off of it.

The two bat ponies and princess were anxious to see the results as Tran took aim and fired. Much to their surprise, it was a miss. The first shot that Tran had fired was to gauge where the rifle would hit, to find out how much he'd have to adjust his aim to actually make a proper hit. He knew the first shot was gonna miss, it was a shot to gauge how much Kentucky windage /holdover he would need for the next shot. Before Princess Luna could say anything, Tran had cycled the bolt and fired again. A second later, an 8mm rifle round smacked the 600 meter target with a distant resounding *CLANG*. Once more, Tran cycled the bolt on the rifle and fired again. Another distant *CLANG* rang out. Tran turned to the rifle's owner and tossed the rifle back to the pony, who barely managed to catch it.

Tran then picked up his own personal .338 rifle stood up, adjusted the scope, took aim, and fired. There was no loud resounding clang a second later. The only person watching the target being shot at was the shooter himself. He watched a bullet splattered against the 1000 meter targets white gang. Two seconds later, a barely audible but a subtle and satisfying *Clang* rang out.

Tran ejected the round in his sniper rifle and turned to face Luna who had been watching the targets downrange while holding her hooves over her ears. She was looking rather nonplussed. She lowered her hooves and held out a hoof. "I will concede that your expertise of distanced combat requires a unique practiced experience to properly employ but I still believe that combat in close proximity is the superior and honorable form of combat."

Tran slung his rifle over his shoulder. "I believe its time for the other half of our wager?"

-X-X-X-

Princess Luna and Tran stood in an open field facing a few meters away from each other. They found a local park where they could have their little bout. Despite being in public on a weekend, none of Ponyville's residents were present to watch them. The only other ones there were two bat ponies, both of which were once again part of Luna's personal protection detail.

The rules were simple, fight until the other yields or if the other is unable to fight without dying (if they were in a position where if their weapons were real, they'd be dead if they continued). Both of them armed with practice sabers and a wooden dagger. Luna was wielding her saber in her magic and held a held a dagger in her left hoof. Tran, naturally without magic, held his saber in his left hand and the dagger in his right hand. Princess Luna was confident in her abilities, being thousands of years old with lots of personal practice. Tran, despite being used to guns, was confident in his ability to just soldier on, pun intended.

Luna was the first to move. She darted forward, saber forward in a lunge, attacking at Tran's left side. Tran deflected the lunge with the saber but the instant both swords connected, Luna angled her saber forward so that Tran was in danger of the saber's point if he advanced. Despite this, Luna was quite surprised that Tran continued forward and before she knew he, the tip of Luna's saber struck Tran in the left shoulder. Luna smiled. "I believe that is point, match?" Luna asked. Tran smiled for once, which was quite frightening. Suddenly, she then felt something tap her on the underside of the chin. She looked down and saw Tran's dagger held against her neck.

"You might have got the first hit but I got the killing blow," Tran said.

Luna frowned. "And you think you can continue on with such a wound?" Luna asked while gently tapping the saber against Tran's shoulder.

Tran smirked. "I've fought with two swords impaled in my body before. The answer to that question is absolutely," Tran answered.

Luna frown continued to deepen. There were rumors of Tran's durability that Equestrians had spread but she wasn't sure of the validity of such myths. The two of them drew back, getting ready for another match.

The two of them continued fighting and much to Luna's expectations, her experience always ensured that she would get in a good hit. However, just because she got in a good hit, didn't mean that Tran didn't get any hits in either. He would always bait in Luna by accepting an attack on his body just to get in close for a killing blow. At once instance, Tran had even blocked a saber blow with his arm before rushing forward to get a blow with the dagger. This had been the first instance she had ever fought or practiced against someone who would sacrifice his own body to get a killing blow. No one she had fought before had such disregard for their own health.

Luna had started to show physical exhaustion when lunch had turned around. Luna was pretty sure that Tran was tired too from the fact that his physical actions had slowed down (only just barely, Luna had irritatingly grumbled), a bit after lunch had passed. Princess Luna suggested to go for nourishment and rest, Tran easily agreeing.

As the two of them searched for a restaurant/café/eatery that suited the tastes of both warriors, the two bat ponies switched off shifts, also probably for lunch. It wasn't long before the two combatants were eating, chatting to pass the time.

Tran glanced at one of the bat ponies who was watching the sky and streets. "When you said that a network was being setup by your vampires, what did you mean?" Tran asked in between bites.

Luna finished her mouthful of food and her ears perked up from his question. She turned her attention away from her food and looked at Tran. "They are analyzing the city to find out where is the best place to covertly nest while also investigating the city for traces of the espionage. Also, they are determining where are the worse parts of the city, where the criminal element most inhabit so that it can be avoided by them, you, and the rest of your retinue," Luna answered. The lunar princess then realized a key component of Tran's question. "Vampires? They are not vampires," Luna retorted. "Vampires do not exist. I've never seen such a mythical creature in my thousands of years of life!" she continued. "While they are not vampires, they are thestrals, a variant subspecies of my little ponies that display very much bat like qualities that would appear to be what a vampire would appear to be, if such a thing existed."

While chewing, Tran turned around to look at one of their escorts. Bat like qualities indeed. Just like Luna earlier, Tran then realized a key component of her answer. She implied she was thousands of years old. That suggested she was immortal or ageless but she wore armor to protect herself meant so it probably the latter. "Are you and your sister ageless and not immortal?"

A quick nod from the alicorn answered the question. Well that was certainly an interesting fact that came to light. Luna stopped mid chew as she opened her mouth to speak. "That is most certainly true. That is why I wear the armor, one of my treasured personal possessions before my imprisonment. And I must say, your wager. I must 'swallow my pride' as the current generation say and admit that your expertise requires skill but will not relay the other half of the wager. You're quite skilled with melee combat. Its rather odd that you would sacrifice your own personal health and endure the pain, as if you have no care for it." Luna had manage to exact many blows against the human and some of them were no minor hits. The human showed no pain from them but she most certainly saw minor and major bruising that would suggested otherwise.

Luna then paused mid swallow as her attention was turned away from the conversation with the human and something past the human. Tran turned around to look at what Luna had directed her concentration towards. One of their guards was in the company of two other fellow thestral guards. They spoke with each other for a split second before the two new guests approached them. These two new bat ponies seemed... Off. Their coats seemed dull and eyes were sunken. Their faces seemed to show that they were exhausted and their wings that were tucked against their sides were almost sagging. "There is a... Unique problem that needs your attention," one of the new bat ponies slowly reported.

Princess Luna swallowed her mouthful of food, despite the fact that it had barely been chewed. She stood up and right as she was about to leave, she lightly curtsied. "I apologize but we will have to continue our conversation another time," Luna said.

Tran quickly spat out the mouthful of his food onto his plate and reaching on the ground to his side, he picked up his sniper rifle. "I'm joining you. We can continue it on our way there," Tran said while standing up. He was still wearing his IOTV plate carrier and all of its extra bits that he had brought on their excursion. The princess was about to argue but decided that it would have been pointless considering the man's personality and past showings that he would ignore whatever, from whoever he wanted.

-X-X-X-

The man, the alicorn, and the two bat ponies were guided by the two other bat ponies to a rather sketchy section of Ponyville. They were lead down a wide alleyway where they entered the cellar of a run down building. The instant they entered, Tran let out a sighed and gently placed his sniper rifle on its bipod on the ground a good distance away from himself. Luna was about to question what he was doing when she sensed something. Without a second thought, she drew both of her swords in her magic. She was about to charge ahead when light filled the room and they all found themselves surrounded by almost a dozen ponies, all of whom were brandishing firearms, aimed at them.

Luna ground her teeth at the sight of this betrayal from her citizens. She wanted to charge forward and kill them all but even she knew that it would be an unwinnable situation. Even if she attempted to throw up a shield spell, she'd be shot before the spell would be completed so she reigned in her anger and very slowly lowered her weapons until they hit the ground. The two bat pony guards that were with them did the same and dropped their weapons but surprisingly, not the two that had led them there. The two bat pony guards that had led them here, one trotted over to behind Princess Luna and the other behind Tran.

A good blow later, Princess Luna was knocked out cold. As for Tran... The other guard slammed his rifle into the bad of Tran's head but all that did was give him a nice goose egg. A second and then a third strike to the back of the head left Tran with an ever deepening glowered look on his face. One of the other ponies in the room scoffed with impatience. "Do we have a bag or sack somewhere?"

-X-X-X-

When Luna's eyes opened and she shot forward only to be stopped by her hooves, she found herself chained to a wall, each limb with separate cuff chained to a hook on the wall. Her head hurt and she felt... Naked. Looking down at herself, she found that their assailants had stripped her of her armor and even her signature decorative peytral. She tried to cast a spell but pain filled her mind. She looked up at her horn and saw multiple magic suppression rings attached to it. Taking a look at the rest of the room, she found Tran chained to the wall, beside her, also stripped of his belongings... and clothes. Speaking of belongings, she found that their belongings were piled in the corner of the room they were in, a good ten meters away from them.

Suffice to say, this wasn't a good situation as the two of them were stuck to the wall in an position that made their bodies look like an X letter. The room they were in was windowless and was only lit up by one hit-set window, of which it was the only window for this room. The two of them assumed that they were in a basement. In one corner of the room was a ladder going upwards with a trapdoor that had a large looped handle.

From the corners of the room that were opposite to her, stood the two bat pony guards that had led them there. They were not restrained in any way and were wearing armor and carrying weapons. she knew every member of her personal guard and it bothered her that she didn't spot such obvious imposters. "Changeling scum," Princess Luna growled out.

"They're not changelings," Tran called out.

Luna wanted to know what Tran had meant by that but her attention was directed to the thestrals as they stepped forward, especially when one of them whistling loudly. Then, to her horror, somepony crawled their way out of the literal shadows in this room as if someone was rising from a pond. This pony was a unicorn stallion with a dark grey coat and a black mane. He had a lecherous smile on his face as he trotted towards the lunar princess. "Changelings? No, they're something much more fun," their new guest said. "And your turn with them is over. My turn now!" he gleefully added. "My thralls, now!"

Tran gently pulled against his chains, filling the room with the sound of the clattering chains. He looked at the chains that bound his arms and legs to the wall and then redirected his attention to their strange guest. "How high's the bounty the griffons have on me?" Tran asked.

Their guest smiled and let out a chuckle. "In bits? Five million in gold. Even though we have to work with those disgusting parasites, we each have a good portion after the split. I don't know what those wannabe leeches, unlike us, would even do with their share!" The unicorn looked at the princess and saw the angry expression on her face. "Oh, you're not gonna do anything about it. My master is coming to make personally make sure you don't remember a thing." The stallion looked between the princess and the man and tapped his chin with a hoof. "Ah but with this unique opportunity, I must have a taste!"

Luna was about to demand answers when the stallion suddenly appeared before Tran, moving so fast that it looked as if he had teleported. In another blink of an eye, the stallion had buried a dagger into the Tran's upper right shoulder. The stallion was surprised to see the man not react to it but shrugged his shoulders and giggled happily as blood started to flow from the wound. The stallion brought out a goblet and used it to catch the blood dripping off of the dagger's handle. The stallion brought the goblet to his mouth and just as he was about to drink from it, he transformed before their very eyes. Fangs sprouted from his mouth as the first droplets of the crimson fluid touched his tongue. His eyes turned red and almost seemed to glow in the dark. The fiend seemed to be relishing the taste of Tran's life fluid, letting out moans of pleasure.

Tran, despite being impaled again, turned to look at Luna. "And you said that vampires aren't real," Tran joked.

The fiend stopped drinking from the goblet and held out the cup to refill it. "Oh we're real, alright but we like to keep our numbers low and the knowledge of our presence a secret, as does Equestria. Isn't that right?" he asked while turning to look at Luna.

The princess scowled at the vampire. "Despite our greatest efforts, they refuse to stay extinct. My sister and I give our best efforts in protecting the public of their existence!" she growled out.

The vampire laughed at Luna's statement, bringing the goblet back to his mouth. "Oh, I can't wait to taste you," he said while sipping from the goblet. As he continued to drink, he turned his attention back at Tran to the dagger. "And I must say, you have a rather unique flavor to your blood. Its powerful, very robust." He took another sip and smacked his lips. "But, you've tainted it with something. Morphine I believe? Still, its a rather exciting flavor compared to the guards you generously gifted to us. Wait... There's something else in your blood, something.. Subtle that's growing on me. "

Luna grit her teeth as she speculated on what they must have done to her precious guards. The changelings must have tricked them into exposing themselves into becoming these creature's thralls. Every fiber of her being wanted to rip these monsters limb from limb for what they had done. The vampire saw Luna's ever increasing aggression and slowly trotted over to her, levitating the goblet along with him. However, as he trotted, his gait started to become more... Impaired. It was like watching a drunk person walking. He dropped the goblet and leaned against the wall for support but he then slid down to the ground. "W-What, is happenning? HELP!" he cried out.

When he vomited, both of the bat pony guards sprinted over to the vampire to assist the victim. Just as the two thestrals reaches the vampire, Tran pulled out both of his arms out of the cuffs that locked him to the wall. He slammed the snout of one thestral with his left arm's elbow and then, quickly afterwards, planted his left fist into the other thestral. Both of them were knocked unconscious with what looked like severely broken snouts. As they were falling down, Tran grabbed the rifle of one falling thestral.

He pulled one leg away from the wall and used the rifle to shoot the closest section of chain that held his right leg to the wall. Well, his right leg was free. He cycled the rifle as fast as he could and then repeated it with his left leg.

By now, both Luna and Tran could hear yelling coming from the only entrance to this room, up above. Tran ignored the still conscious(barely), vampire on the ground and ran over to ladder. He quickly climbed up a few rungs of the ladder and slipped the rifle through the loop of the trapdoor's handle and against the ceiling. That should stop them for a short while. It was done just in time too, as someone up above tried to open the door, only to be stopped by the rifle.

Tran dropped down from the ladder and ran over to the two thestrals, grabbing the other rifle that they had. The vampire was trying to crawl over to Luna but he was still a good distance from her. Tran still ignored the vampire and ran over to Luna. He used the rifle to shoot off Luna's chains.

As Tran shot off the last chain, he felt pain shoot up his right leg. He turned around to see the vampire biting his ankle. Tran used the other leg to kick off the fiend with a good kick before stepping away and redirecting his attention to the princess. "You know what we're going to have to do," Tran stated.

Luna tried to hide a grin but wasn't able to present her usual political face. They were probably going to have to fight their way out of here. She went over to her pile of weapons and equipment while Tran ran over to his. Luna scowled as she realized she was going to have to put on her armor without her magic, IE with her hooves. Tran had a similar problem as he only had one good arm to do the same with his equipment.

Luna first focused on trying to equip the first of the major pieces of her plate armor, the cuirass, while Tran easily put on his plate carrier. On the good side of his torso, he naturally hung the shoulder strap as normal but on the bad side of his torso, where the dagger was still planted, he hung the other shoulder strap under his armpit. He next managed to put on his pants, which also had his knife and revolver. He then used his shirt as a makeshift bandage to stunt the bleeding from the dagger. By then, Luna barely had the first piece of her armor, her cuirass, on her body and it wasn't properly strapped/tied down yet. She really was not used to using her hooves for this kinda task. Hell, plate armor typically needed a squire or two to assist the wearer in donning it.

Tran ran over to the only window of the room and smashed the glass with his hand cannon. He holstered the revolver and then stuck the muzzle of his sniper rifle out of the window and fired it. He repeated the action twice more, wasting two more of his custom bullets. Considering how loud his .338 Lapua was, it could grab someone's attention and since they were in the city, there were a lot of people who's attention would be grabbed. Tran set the sniper rifle on the ground on its bipod before making his way over to Luna, who was still struggling with her cuirass's straps.

The accursed cuirass was finally on, properly, much to Luna's hatred. "Thank you, my squire," Luna joked. Luna grabbed the next major piece of armor to put on, the crupping, IE the armor that would protect her haunch and flank. The armor came on pretty quickly with the help of Tran's good hand but as it came on, Tran's hand started accidentally touching/brushing some of her... Personally intimate areas. Luna gasped while blushing and bucked her left rear leg backwards.

Much to her indignation, Tran had managed to catch the hoof that Luna threw at him that would have impacted his chest. "We do not have the time for this," he called out. Just as the last word left his mouth, across the room in a dark corner, another pony started to crawl out of the shadow, just as the first vampire did when he arrived. With speed that would have surprised Applejack and even Granny Smith, Tran let go of Luna's hoof and drew his big iron, three rounds fired before anyone could have even blinked.

The rounds from the hand cannon were powerful but they didn't kill this second new vampire. The .50 caliber hollow points did, however, manage to blow large chunks out of him. Their new visitor fell down to the ground, angrily screeching at the gunman but they fell on death ears, mostly because Luna was deafened from the .500 S&W's report in an indoor setting and that Tran wasn't paying attention to the fiend.

Tran reloaded his revolver as quickly as he could, as Luna continued slipping on one of her rear leg's armor plates. When Tran was finished reloading, he holstered the revolver and strapped in the armor pieces that Luna had slipped on. "Watch those hands, this time," Luna warned. Tran didn't care and was just working as quickly as he could. She looked at the angry vampire in the room and then back to Tran. "Your weapons cannot kill a vampire. Only a stake to the heart, silvered and magical weapons, complete cremation, or the removal of their head will bring about their deaths."

Upon hearing that last bit, Tran used all of his self control to keep himself from smiling. He then drew his trusty sidearm again and silenced the screaming vampire with a .50 caliber hollowpoint to the head. He holstered his sidearm and looked back at Luna. "I have removed his head," Tran stated.

As the two of them had been doing all this, ponies from up above had been trying to break into the basement. At first they had been trying to break through the door but by slamming various things into it. By the time Tran had killed his first vampire, they had started shooting at the trapdoor. The trapdoor seemed like it was about to give. At this point, Tran was wearing all of his gear while the princess was wearing her upper and lower body armor and half of one of her the leggings, specifically the upper section of her left rear leg. Luna was armed with both of her swords while Tran was armed with his hand cannon and two other revolvers that he had scavenged from the unconscious bat ponies.

Something that sounded heavy slammed into the trapdoor and it audibly cracked as the trapdoor started to give way. Tran stopped helping Luna and he fired his sidearm at the trapdoor. The trapdoor broke as a pony fell through it, along with a metal chest. The pony seemed like any other regular pony, aside from being dead, until it transformed into a changeling, still dead. Through the doorway, the two of them could see many other ponies. How many, they weren't sure. They were quite occupied with the fact that they were trying to kill each other.

When Tran fired his sidearm again, hitting another of the ponies(most likely a changeling), the assailants up above did one of two things. They either scrambled for cover and were no longer visible to the princess and man or they fired back. None of the assailants' gunfire hit either the princess or the man so Tran fired the last two rounds of his hand cannon as quick as he could while dipping to the left, so that he'd be a harder target to hit.

Then, a changeling dropped down from the trapdoor's opening, who was immediately followed by another changeling. Both of them were wielding military style rifles, full power bolt action rifles with bayonets attached. Luna charged forward and engaged both of them. She tried to slash the first changeling and it was met with an attempted block from her opponent with the rifle he was wielding. The great sword sunk into the middle section of the rifle's stock. She tried to wrench her sword back but it was stuck to her opponent's rifle so instead, she pulled the rifle out of his hooves. The rifle stuck to Luna's sword was an unexpected attached weight so when she drew back, it threw her off from her next attack. She grit her teeth and dropped the great sword and went to draw her saber.

She wasn't the only one to go for another weapon. Her opponent went to draw for a second weapon like Luna had done, him going for a large knife. The second armed changeling to join them saw the situation he joined late and went to stab the princess with his bayonet. He didn't get very far as Tran was immediately drawn to Luna's second adversary. Instead of trying to reload his revolver, Tran had holstered it and drawn a second revolver, an Equestrian one, and was firing it as quickly as he could. The first bullet impact didn't drop the changeling, Tran blamed this on the rather low power on the small 8mm bullet of the standard Equestrian service revolver. The immediately soon quickly fired second bullet was also not enough to drop the changeling. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth was absolutely enough to drop the changeling.

Between the princess and her current adversary, in their contest to see who could draw their weapon first, the contender won. To be fair, he had to draw a much smaller and shorter weapon. In their contest to see who could use their weapon first, Luna was the winner. To be fair, the adversary was temporarily distracted as he had been belted in the head by a thrown revolver. A quick sword slash to the throat ended his future dueling prospects.

Luna sidestepped as more bullets came from up at them while Tran drew his next revolver to use. He started firing rounds back at their assailants but he noticed that Luna was running towards one of the corners of the room. Two more vampires crawled out of the shadows to face them. One was armed with a scimitar and the other was armed with hooked blades that were attached to each of his four hooves via gauntlets.

Luna went to engage the one with the scimitar as the other one was engaged by Tran. The swordspony, despite being fresh into this fight, managed to stop the sword blows sent his way while his companion could not say the same about what he faced because instead of meeting a blade, he met bullets. Fortunately for the hook blade armed vampire, he was shot with only the 8mm EO rounds which were, to quote the average Equestrian gunsmith, 'a retardedly anemic round'. However, being shot definitely disorientated him, along with being hit in the face with a thrown revolver. This gave Tran enough time to draw a knife and charge forward.

Meanwhile, Luna was dueling a fellow swords pony in a test of skills. Both parties parried sword strike after sword strike while maneuvering around each other. Both of them then had their attention engrossed in the decapitated pony head that was thrown at the scimitar wielding vampire. Luna tried to use the distraction to get a hit on her assailant but he managed to stop her lunge. Fortunately for Luna, her opponent received another distraction from Tran. He had picked up one of their fallen assailant's rifles and managed to get a well placed chest shot with it on the vampire.

Being a vampire, he naturally survived but it gave enough of an opening for Tran to impale said vampire on the bayonet attached to his scavenged rifle. The vampire angrily snarled at Tran, who was using the impaled status of the vampire to forcibly reel him around. The vampire furiously swung his scimitar at Tran, who shoved the vampire away. The vampire used the opportunity to wrench free his body's control free from Tran, pulling at the rifle in Tran's hands. Instead of being pulled along with the vampire, Tran let go of the rifle as Luna slashed at the vampire's head with her saber. The vampire blocked the attack with his scimitar but then fell to the ground when his one of his rear legs was separated from his body. Tran stood behind the vampire, now holding Luna's great sword.

The vampire was about to let out an angry growl but was silenced when Luna separated his head from his body. Luna looked up at Tran as she tried to retain some of her breathe. She was shocked to see that in addition to the dagger impaled in Tran's upper right shoulder, he now had one of the previous vampire's gauntlets hanging from his left forearm, because one of the hook blades was impaled through said limb. "I told you I can fight with swords impaled in my body," Tran boasted. The two of them returned their attention back to the trapdoor opening where the bullets that had been coming through had completely stopped. The two of them could hear incoming distant gunfire and then much closer gunfire. "We've got more company," Tran calmly commented.

Luna got ready to fight another target, watching her surrounding for more enemy combatants. Tran tucked his borrowed great sword under his left armpit while he started to reload his personal sidearm. The gunfire coming in towards them completely died down as more and more distant gunshots started to sound out from up above. More and more yelling and screaming was heard. The two of them heard lots of rushed hoof steps and was worried that they had more enemies to face. Their fears were thankfully settled when somepony from up above called out to them. "3rd Night Sentinels, who's down there?!" a voice from up above demanded.

"It's your princess!" Luna called back. She continued to stay on guard as Tran walked over to the first vampire that they had met. During the entire fight, he had been slowly crawling around on the flood, barely clinging to consciousness. The vampire noticed Tran's sudden interest in his still unliving existence and started to crawl faster in a futile attempt to get away.

As Tran got closer, the vampire vomited and let out an inhuman (inequine?) screech. "Stay back!" the vampire cried.

Tran refused to relent and stood over his fallen captor. The vampire's eyes was filled with fear as he realized just how badly everything had turned for him. "Still want a taste of me?" Tran taunted. Tran positioned himself so that blood dripping from the dagger's handle that was still impaled in his shoulder, dripped down onto the vampire. Each drop of blood that fell from the dagger and onto the vampire, seemed to hurt the him. Where the blood droplets touched, the vampire's skin sizzled and burned as if acid was hitting him.

Luna trotted over to Tran and put a hoof on his shoulder. "That's enough," she said pulling Tran back. "We need to have at least some mercy on our enemies. We aren't monsters. " He resumed the torture for only a few more seconds before finally stepping back.

-X-X-X-

Luna and Tran sat in the headquarters, sharing cups of tea while some medical personnel attended to Tran's wounds and some mages worked on removing the magic suppression rings still attached to her horn. Luna looked at some of Tran's newly acquired injuries. "You played quite the significant role in our survival," she praised. Tran nodded in agreement and took a sip from his tea cup. Luna sighed. "I need you, Equestria needs you, to keep this secret. S.M.I.L.E. will take over and hopefully hide this incident from the public."

Tran held up his arm, the one that had the hook blade impaled in it. "Vampires?"

Luna slowly let out a pained nod. "Its pertinent that the public stays ignorant of their existence. You must not even tell your closest friends," she explained.

Tran stared at the princess for an uncomfortable amount of time before nodding. "You owe me," he said.

Luna grinned and nodded. "It appears I do," she said. Despite the sweat and exhaustion filling her body, she got up and trotted closer to the human. Tran was quite surprised when she leaned forward and gave the human a kiss on the cheek. "Equestria and I thank you for the work you accomplished today," she gingerly whispered into his ear. "And it would be my pleasure to call such a skilled warrior such as yourself, my friend." She returned to her seat and continued drinking her tea, as did Tran. "I should consider my debt for you paid off. You finely acquainted yourself with a personal experience of my bosom with a caress more intimate than anypony has managed to attain in many a long centuries."

Tran smirked and held up his tea cup, Luna clinked hers to before the two took a drink. "You were asking for it," he joked.

Luna balked. "Are you inferring that I am a mere common harlot?"

Tran's smirk, hidden by his teacup, grew. "Are you not a lady of the night?"

Before Luna could retort, the door to the headquarters was kicked open and in walked Wilson, who looked rather buzzed and happy for once. Maybe he got lucky today, maybe he didn't, who could know. He immediately noticed Tran's current condition and frowned. "T-The fuck happpenned to you?" he slurred.

Tran looked at Luna who gave him a pleading look. Tran turned back to his friend and shrugged. "Got into a bad fight. Don't worry about," Tran answered. Luna visibly relaxed when Tran stayed silent about the truth of their ordeal.

Wilson started walking away from the duo. "Fffuck it, I can deal with it tamarra. I need, uh, fffuucking sleep."

Tran felt one of the medical ponies remove the hook blade stuck in his arm. The pony shrunk back from Tran's curious looks. "Sorry, sir," the pony let out.

Tran relaxed as the pony worked. "I have a request," Tran calmly inquired. The medical pony shrunk back, in fear of the human. "Morphine. Get me some."

Author's Note

There is just a unique level of satisfaction in shooting long range, iron sighted. My personal record for an iron sighted pistol caliber rifle (winchester 1873 in .357) is 650 yards. My personal record with an iron sighted military style rifle (lee enfield no1 mk 5 trials) is 900 yards. Both of these were done with the same target, a 30" steel gong.

Also, I'm writing Luna like a boomer, if you haven't noticed. I'm not good in writing ye olden English.

Once more, leave a comment on what you think. I enjoy reading them all. Please continue a vote on whether I should use a pony or a griffon down in the comments. As for what its for, its important but I will explain no further. As usual, I am still alive, mostly.

What Is Difficult In Training Will Become Easy In A Battle

Another two weeks of training had passed and everyone who was injured in the previous battle were now back to decent fighting condition. Well, aside from Tran who sported a still-healing right shoulder and left arm injury, of which, he did not explain, not even to his fellow humans. Everyone of the recruits that made up the battalion, since all of them were chosen from previous military units army wide, were prior active duty soldiers. This meant that they didn't have to be passed through basic training and had an already built up basic set of soldier skills. This experimental battalion was essentially extra training on top of what they already knew. Extra training that, compared to anything else any of them had experienced, more advanced than what they had ever seen/experienced.

Even better news, the battalion of soldiers were now properly equipped. It had taken quite some time and money, but all sixteen hundred soldiers were now ready for war, in terms of gear. All of them now had their own sets of REA combat gear, modified to fit their body type, per the human's request. Even better, they now had steel helmets and plate carriers with a single steel plate in the front and back to protect their torso from rifle threats. The plate carrier itself was built upon a very thick hardened leather base, reinforced with thick canvas and cotton, to possibly stop minor shrapnel or blade slashes. Everyone in the battalion had their own set of body armor, no matter the role, even fliers. The only exception were the yaks who wore a full body suit of steel plate armor. No matter what species they were, they had to wear thick rubber soled, leather boots on their rear legs.

Weapons wise, the choice of weapons given to them would have raised some eyes amongst the rest of Equestria's military units. One interesting thing any common soldier would immediately notice was that every single soldier was armed with a sidearm. Typically, only officers or specific combat roles were armed with pistols but with this experimental battalion, every soldier, down to the lowest ranked soldier, had a revolver. One decision in choosing their armaments was the ease of acquisitions. For example, everyone in the battalion couldn't each be given an M4a1 because Equestria would have to invent the rifle, the cartridge, and then get it into production. This would require building up a tremendous amount of infrastructure that would take a lot of time, money, and resources. Instead, the chosen weapons were ones that already existed in Equestria's inventory, some having to be bought on the commercial market.

The only ones who wouldn't raise eyebrows were Eric's machine gun teams, which were primarily armed with a five round carbine version of Equestria's standard bolt action rifles which were usually reserved for reserve roles. However, they definitely would be surprised to see every yak and every fifth pony carrying a full sized machine gun, the Model 14 HotchKiss, chambered in 8x50mm. Instead of being fed from 30 round metallic strips, like the rest of the ground army, they were fed from disintegrating links of belted ammunition, typically only used by airship machine guns. Each team was made up of seven members, a heavily armored yak armed with a low velocity 20mm cannon and a machine gun, a large well-built earth pony that was also armed with a machine guns but no cannon and instead only a backup carbine, at least two unicorns with carbines, and three other ponies of any other race. The yak and large earth pony had the important role of bringing a machine gun into a good position. They could then be supported by one of the unicorns (or disguised changeling) to fill in the role as assistant gunners whether it be by helping in reloading or protecting them. The three remaining ponies were there to protect the machine gunners and carry spare ammunition. They were all armed with carbines chambered in the same round as the machine guns and in prolonged engagements, they could share ammunition. Eric's section had the most changelings as almost every single team, the non machine gunners, were almost all changelings. They were to be disguised at all times but in emergencies, they could become a unicorn and be the assistant gunner.

Naturally, Eric's section of the battalion took up the most soldiers, significantly more so than Wilson's. Wilson's section was primarily the support element, the medics. They were composed in six pony teams. Two of the ponies were unicorns that were the actual medics themselves and all of them were disguised changelings that were very knowledgeable in pony biology and medicine. The remaining four ponies in the teams could be any of the other three pony races. Aside from their pistols, every single member of the teams were also armed with the same bolt action carbines that Eric's section was armed with. However, the medics wore significantly less ammo than Eric's soldiers. They were more supposed to act as medics and support line, not the primary combat soldiers. They did, however, carry a lot more medical equipment than the REA's combat medics. Some of their medical equipment was either REA standard or changeling issued, but none of the ponies knew that.

Then, the second largest section of the experimental battalion was Tran's. All of the zebras in the battalion were part of Tran's section and none of them were disguised changelings. The zebras were part of a four man scout team meant to provide reconnaissance. Every member of the team were people that Tran had picked out, ones that had an aptitude for stealth, communications, or scouting. Two members of these teams were pegasi(or a changeling disguised as pegasi) so that they could relay battlefield information quickly by flying to hand deliver information.

Surprisingly to the ponies that knew Tran personally, he did not train snipers. If they had the time, he would have trained snipers but that would require months and with Tran being by himself in that venture, he'd only be able to train very small batches at a time. These scouts were armed with lightweight lever action carbines that fired a pistol cartridge (.44-40). The scouts need a small, lightweight weapon and this weird choice fits that role. Consequently, if they had to engage an enemy element, they could quickly unleash a lot of firepower, but only to disengage. They were not intended for protracted or long distanced engagements. The scouts' primary purpose was reconnaissance. Each of their pistols, for ease of logistics, were revolvers chambered in the same cartridge that their carbines fired. Applejack, was breathtakingly jealous that she wasn't a part of Tran's section, for not being issued a lever action carbine and revolver in addition to a bunch of free ammo to shoot them with.

Tran's section also had the most pegasi. Most of the designated fliers, whether they be bombers or dogfighters, were pegasi. Specifically, they were pegasi that were extremely skilled fliers. Some of the fliers were disguised changelings but a grand majority were actual pegasi because a changeling had to have considerably more aerial skill and or wingpower to match a decently skilled pegasus's flying ability. There were two flying teams, air superiority or bombing. The air superiority teams were composed of four pegasi. They were to help maintain dominance of the sky so other air operations could be held. If they had to engage other air elements, air superiority teams were to split off in pairs and engage targets one at a time, no matter what. At all costs, these air superiority teams had to protect the bombing teams. Bombing teams were composed of six fliers. Four of the six were fliers that carried bombs and most of the changelings disguised as pegasi were bombers. The two remaining team members were fliers to protect the bombers. No matter the role or team, every flier was armed with a 12 gauge pump action shotgun that fired #4 buckshot. This made it easier for them to fight in air engagements and using #4 instead of 00 buckshot gave them a better chance at hitting another aerial target while giving enough stopping power to disable a griffon if it hit flesh or wing.

A few days after the battalion was fully equipped, the humans and their caretakers were given a request. Luna's Night Sentinels had managed to track down some of the sources of the espionage in Ponyville and the rest of Equestria, with the help of the allied changelings. With the destruction of a few changeling nests, the Night Sentinels had managed to get a lead on a major hive of changelings. This possible hive was located south, between Appleloosa and the Badlands. Princess Luna wanted to get rid of the vile parasites as soon as possible and the rest of the REA chain of command agreed. The experimental battalion was the closest large military unit to Appleloosa and while they only had a month of training so far, its soldiers still had their prior active military service and training they had prior to joining their current unit. The three humans easily agreed to the task at hand. Better deal with the problem before the changelings find out they'd been had. Or, if they had been had, better deal with it before they've had time to move.

The humans, their pony (and griffon) friends, agreed to it after a healthy discussion. All of them gathered up their equipment and gear and got ready for a trip. They rallied their battalion and boarded several airships and made their way to Appleloosa. The trip would only take a day at most. The humans and their battalion chose to travel via airship despite the higher risk. Train travel was a safer choice but now, speed was an important factor. They didn't want to give them time to prepare and given the espionage problem, they'd eventually find out.

To help mitigate the risk, they took several airships and were escorted by a little over a thousand pegasi. Safety in numbers. Luna and her Night Sentinels joined the humans in their task to provide security during travel and to help track down the hive once they were at Appleloosa. For now, they just had to relax as they traveled.

-X-X-X-

Tran stood on the deck of the airship, taking in the sights. His presence was joined with Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Princess Luna, Soarin, and Spitfire. Spitfire and Soarin were right beside each other, cuddled up leaning against the airship's railing with both of them having one wing wrapped around each other. Princess Luna was slightly unnerved by Gilda's casual presence, especially as her red scarf whipped in the air. The princess was still unsure of the former Jaeger's loyalty, thoughts of betrayal still theorized.

Just as they were sightseeing, a pair of soldiers approached the group, the two of them carrying a large wooden chest between them. "Sergeant," a pair of ponies greeted as they dropped the chest. Tran handed each one something and they smiled as they trotted away.

Princess Luna turned to Tran and tilted her head. "Pray tell, what did you give them that earned such merriment. Ordinarily, most have a degree of trepidation before you?" she asked. Tran fished out another of what he had given the soldiers and handed it to the princess. Princess Luna looked at the object she had been given. "Cigarettes?"

"Soldier food," Tran responded.

The princess scrunched up her nose. "A foul and disgusting habit," she muttered.

Tran ignored her and turned to Rainbow Dash and Gilda. The two of them had their attention to the human, having witnessed the interaction. Tran held a hand out to Rainbow Dash. "Weapon," he demanded with his usual calm demeanor.

Rainbow Dash was curious as to what he wanted but shrugged. She was decked out in her usual combat gear. Her prior service rifle, her griffon-captured rechambered Harpy Model 06 semi automatic rifle, was lost long ago back in the Dauntless train incident so she had switched over to a pump action shotgun like the rest of Tran's flying section. She unslung her pump action shotgun and hoofed it to Tran. When he had it in his hand, Tran immediately threw it overboard. Dash was shocked for a second but then flared out her wings to go and fly after it. However, a hand gripped tight on the collar of her uniform stopped her. She pulled against the human. "What the hay?! What gives?!" she demanded.

Tran ignored her and turned to Gilda who was busy laughing at the pegasus. Gilda was armed with the 9mm submachine gun that she always used. She had her original one, Tran having given it back in trade for the one she captured. Tran then held out his hands, to which Gilda immediately stopped laughing and clutched her submachinegun for dear life. "Hand me the drums for that," he demanded with the same calm demeanor. Gilda was hesitant to do as he requested but from his unrelenting glare that seemed to worsen over the next few seconds, she eventually handed over the two drums she carried on her body. "Including the one in the gun." When Tran had all of Gilda's submachine gun's drum magazines, he chucked them overboard like he did with Rainbow Dash's shotgun. Gilda wanted to go fly after and retrieve them but she didn't go through with it, instinct telling her that it wouldn't work out.

Tran turned to the chest that was delivered and opened it. Rainbow Dash tried to get a look into it but Tran kept its contents a mystery. He quickly pulled out and handed Rainbow Dash a copy of Gilda's submachine gun. It took her a few seconds to realize what she had been given but once she did, her eyes widened. "I made a copy of her and my submachine gun for you to use," Tran finally answered. "Personally, by hand."

Rainbow Dash shot forward and hugged Tran, standing up on her hindlegs. "Awesome! Thanks dude!" she gleefully bellowed. Tran let her have the moment for a few seconds before pushing her off of him.

He then dug through the chest and pulled out several long stick magazines. He handed a few to Rainbow Dash and then a few to Gilda. Gilda grumbled and loaded the stick magazine into her submachine gun. "Thanks? I guess? But I liked the drums," Gilda complained.

Tran frowned. "These stick mags are better. They're easier to carry more of and they're more reliable," Tran replied.

Gilda looked at the stick mag in her gun. "Yeah but the drums held more rounds," she responded.

Tran shook his head. "No they don't. The drums hold 32 rounds. These hold 60," Tran retorted.

Gilda froze for a second and then ejected the magazine from her gun. On the back of the magazine, there indeed was a witness hole for 60. "That's fucking awesome, dude!" she finally announced, joining in on Rainbow Dash's celebration.

Luna frowned at the griffon's adulation. "Is it the wisest of decisions to be assisting her prospects of combat?" she asked.

Tran closed up the chest and went back to the railing to continue sightseeing, taking up a position next to the princess. "I've killed seven scarves. She's not gonna try anything anytime soon," Tran answered.

Luna's eyes widened for a second but she regained her composure. "I'll support your decision. I just worry, for it is my job to be wary," she said. Her eyes wandered to Soarin and Spitfire who were completely unfazed by the whole thing, still just enjoying each other's company. "Ah, young love. "

Speaking of which, their group was then joined by Rarity, Blueblood, Applejack, and Wilson. Of the three ponies, only Applejack was fully decked out in her combat gear. Rarity and the prince were just wearing their combat uniforms. Wilson wasn't wearing his combat gear but did have a bag of his medical equipment with him. Tran eyed the medic and smacked his lips. "Time already?" Tran asked.

Wilson pulled out a vial and needle. "Got it right here," Wilson replied. The medic walked over to Tran who sat down on the chest and rolled up a sleeve. Everyone's attention was drawn to the humans as they wondered what was going on.

Since they were there, Wilson handed the vial and needle over to Rarity to temporarily hold in her magic. As Wilson prepped Tran's arm, Rarity read the label on the vial. "Morphine?" she read out loud. She realized what this meant and looked at Tran with worry. "Oh my, are you experiencing pain, darling?"

Tran nodded. "I got stabbed twice, a week ago. What do you think?" he sarcastically answered.

Wilson took back the vial and syringe and started to prepare a dose. "Yeah, you never explained what happened," Wilson said, not taking his eyes off of his task.

Tran and Luna exchanged a short look, of which Luna was pleading with him with her eyes. "The princess and I got captured by changelings. We fought. Now, we're following a lead on them to here," Tran half-truthfully answered. The painkiller coursed through his veins and he closed his eyes as it took its course.

He felt someone shake him and when he opened his eyes, he found Blueblood's hoof. "Should you be joining us in our combat endeavor if you're still wounded?" he asked.

Wilson scoffed. "Being stabbed has never stopped him before," Wilson added in. He turned to look at his friend. "Stay in the rear this time. I mean it."

Tran nodded in agreement. "I'm not getting directly involved this time. I'll prolly stick by Luna helping with security."

Wilson stuck the used syringe in a container so he could dispose of it later before putting the used items away. He took a seat beside Tran and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He offered one to Tran but he refused, just wanting to relish the morphine's effects. Wilson took a glance at the night princess's plate armor. "Yeah, protection from a medieval knight. Best idea ever," he sarcastically remarked.

The princess frowned at the short human's comment. "My combat ability is not to be belittled, ask your colleague!" Luna demanded. All the while she spoke, she was giving Tran a pleading look, with eyes that would rival that of Sweetie Belle's.

Tran didn't relent. "You needed my help to get into your armor," Tran said, betraying the princess.

Luna threw her hooves up in frustration. "Turncoats, I am surrounded by!" Everyone present chuckled at the princess's frustration but it didn't anger the princess, she understood the comradery. She got back down on all four hooves and adorably scrunched up her muzzle at Tran. "If you are to spend the campaign in my presence, you cannot molest my hindquarters as you did last time!"

All chuckling, except for Wilson's and Gilda's, died in an immediate halt. The ponies there all had their eyes almost shot out of their head as they looked to the human for answers. Of note, Rarity feigned feinting, falling into Prince Blueblood's forearms. The prince shot a questioning look at the human. "What did you get into with the princess?!"

Tran did not say anything. Instead, he stood up and walked over to Princess Luna. She opened her mouth to ask what he wanted but before she could speak, she got her answer. Tran had the gall to give her a hard smack on her hindquarters. Even though her plot was covered in armor, she went 'EEP' and reared up. The chuckling exploded into laughter as Luna's face went from blue to crimson. Once all four of her hooves were touching the deck, she gave her compatriot a rather cute glare. She had thought about giving him a buck but decided against it considering his wounded status.

Tran went back to the chest and sat next to his fellow human. He gave his friend an elbow to get his attention. "I've been working with her since she arrived, security should be fine even against changelings," he finally relinquished.

Luna and her Night Sentinels had set up a decent system to make sure enemy changelings couldn't spy on them. For important meetings and briefings, everyone present would be tested to make sure they weren't rogue changelings. For general security, a system of challenge and pass phrases was setup. If someone couldn't properly respond with the right password, they would be detained until they could be determined that they were an enemy or not. Pharynx was assigned to Luna's security network to help determine if a changeling was a clueless ally or a true rogue element. He was also a significant help in finding disguised changelings aside from Tran's almost supernatural ability in doing the same. To make sure changelings couldn't infiltrate them, everyone went in groups of four and even then, groups were challenged before they went to major areas.

After a little more socializing, everyone left on their own accord to continue waiting for the trip to finish. They should be arriving the next morning so that gives them a little chunk of freetime to themselves.

The Next Day

The airships landed in Appleloosa at a small military outpost where everyone was offloaded, along with their equipment. A few days prior to the aerial departure, a train had been sent here with additional equipment and support. Everyone and the battalion equipped themselves as if they were going to war. Full gear and ammo was the requirement and it was not to be shed until we were back in Ponyville. Being here, everyone was to act like they were on the frontline. There would be no lollygagging and everyone was to expect anything nefarious.

This military outpost also doubled as a POW(Prisoners Of War) camp. The griffons and minotaurs captured would be sent here where they would work until the war's end. It only had the bare minimum amount of REA personnel to function and they were mostly armed with shotguns. They were quite wary of the sight of thousands of soldiers as it meant they were here to do some pretty serious business.

The first thing that was ordered out were the start of the flying patrols. A random section of the desert would be searched, from the air. Teams of eight pegasi were given their own section that totaled twenty square kilometers. No one was to go on their own without a pair of ponies with them, not even to do the littlest task. Once they were done with their patrol, they were to return and get another section of the desert to scout out until everything within 300 kilometers of us was searched. We had a thousand-ish pegasi that escorted us no longer doing anything so we sent them out in addition to the battalion's airborne units. Teams, once they were assigned sections of the desert, were recorded when they started and finished patrols. If we didn't find anything today, we'll fly our airships out to make a base at the next section of the desert before continuing our search.

The battalion's chain of command was handling everything else that was relatively important so that gave the highest up leaders some minor free time. Of note, Applejack was leading Tran, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Soarin, and Spitfire somewhere into town. As they walked, Tran noticed, mixed in with the ponies, the occasional large buffalo. That was the first time he had seen a buffalo since coming to Equestria. They reminded him of the yaks, only bigger. Appleloosa wasn't as big as Ponyville, both in terms of population and number of buildings. It was a small town that was centered around food production, most of which was sent to the war effort.

Before long, Applejack had found where she had intended to lead them to, an Apple orchard. Spitfire raised a brow upon seeing the apple trees. "Ugh, Applejack? We've seen an apple orchard before," Spitfire said.

Rainbow Dash smirked and turned to look at Spitfire. "Give it a second," the speedster retorted.

Then, a bell started ringing and from behind some apple trees, two people appeared. One was a yellow earth pony stallion wearing a vest and stetson and the other was a small, young female buffalo wearing a purple/white headband with two feathers sticking out of it. The duo ran up to their group and when the two arrived, the yellow stallion reared up with a smile on his face. "Howdy, cousin Applejack!" the stallion greeted.

Applejack ran up to the stallion and hugged him. "Cousin Braeburn. It's always nice meetin' family!" she greeted back.

The two broke off from their hug and the stallion looked past his cousin and at the group she came with. "Well, why don'tcha introduce me to yer friends?" he said as his eyes went from pony to pony. He then noticed the human and he immediately had several questions. It got worse when he saw Gilda. His eyes went wide in shock and he reared up again, this time to stand up to draw a holstered Colt Peacemaker.

Fortunately, Applejack grabbed him to keep him from doing so. "Ah'll explain if you stay calm," she said to her cousin. Braeburn was hesitant but he nodded and Applejack let go of him. She turned to the group she arrived with. "So, we're here on official army duty and yes, the griffon is workin' with us. Her name is Gilda." Said griffon gave a slow, friendly wave. She pointed to Tran, next. "And that there is Tran. It's hard to explain what he is but think of him like a minotaur but meaner." She pointed to Spitfire and Soarin. "They're some Wonderbolts who's helpin with all the flyin' and whatnot." She finally pointed at Rainbow Dash. "And you've met Rainbow before."

Braeburn looked between the curious assortment of creatures his cousin arrived with. "Well, Ah can't say I expected your choice of company but ah guess ah'll hav ta give em the ole Apple hospitality!" He tipped his hat at Applejack's followers and then reared up while swinging his hooves in front of him. "Welcome to Aaaaappleloosa!" he greeted in a long drawn out manner.

While the ponies and griffon were quite amused at the stallion's display, one person wasn't. Tran already had his usual unfriendly dead expression on his face and the stallion was quite unnerved from it. "Don't do that again," the human told the stallion, immediately after he finished pronouncing 'Appleloosa'.

Braeburn tried his best to keep a friendly outlook, resulting in a rather awkward forced smile. He turned to face his cousin. "Well cousin, whatcha brings yah to the good ole family orchard?" he asked. "I reckin' it has to do with all of them airships we saw comin' in?"

Applejack gave him an awkward smile. "While ah'd love ta say that I wanted ta visit family, the REA is searching for a mighty big group of no good someponies out in the desert. I was wonderin' if yer buffalo friends might a seen anythin' strange out in the badlands?"

Braeburn gave a tentative look back at the people that were with Applejack before turning to the buffalo he was with and gave her supportive nuzzle. The small buffalo cautiously stepped forward, carefully watching the griffon and human. "My tribe, they stampede all across the badlands. But... Lately."

She started giving information about how her family and fellow tribes buffalo traveled all across the unsettled parts of the badlands and area surrounding Appleloosa. However, because of the war, things had been tense. Now, when they performed their traditional cultural stampedes, they did it much slower and filled with paranoia. The buffalo were a peaceful sort and didn't want to involve themselves in the conflict, afraid it would curse them with violence for eons. Apparently, all of this fighting gave a miasma of 'bad spirits' that the buffalo said they could feel.

More importantly, certain areas were much worse where they would feel the 'bad vibes'. In certain sections of the Badlands where there were mountains, dragon dens had been spotted. The bison, when they roamed in packs, didn't get any animosity from other ponies but that didn't mean that ponies were friendly to them either. Ponies had very little reason to go into the badlands. Most were prospectors who were searching for gold, silver, or other important resources or were researchers/adventurers that were searching for an 'interesting find'. The bison would notice the occasional pony or groups of ponies as they roamed but the bison wouldn't stop to interact nor would the ponies try to catch up to interact either.

Judging from the size of the hive from the information that the Night Sentinels had gathered, the hive should have numbered in the hundreds. A population in those numbers meant large requirements and out here in the desert, even the most basic resources like water was needed. Appleloosa was the only major settlement for miles meaning it was the only place where anyone could get large amounts of resources.

The group relayed some questions to the small bison and Applejack's cousin about whether they had noticed any frequent visitors coming to town often to buy large amounts of goods but never actually being seen staying in town? Naturally, Applejack's cousin and family members were always present in town to see anypony new in town and aside from the usual town's residents, this settlement was shouldn't be popular enough that they were constantly meeting large numbers of new ponies visiting town every day. Which meant that the fact of them having an inordinately large number of new visitors in the last year or so, was a strange coincidence. Combined with this fact; The town's various general goods stores were needing frequent restocking because they were constantly selling off all of their inventory faster than they would expect, even after accounting for the usual town's residents and the occasional wayward travelers.

To someone that wasn't a native to this town, their descriptions sounded like there was a nearby town that they were supporting and regularly getting visitors from. That was an unsettling thought considering the nearest town was Dodge City and that city was a major military hub that supported the war effort to the north of itself which meant that the only visitors from Dodge City would have been large groups of military folk and resource requirement wise, Dodge City would receive everything it needed by train.

Applejack and her posse didn't tell this revelation to Braeburn and Little Strongheart, but they couldn't exactly leave suddenly or that'd tip anyone off of something. Applejack took a glance at Tran and back at her cousin and grinned. She drew her peacemaker and checked to make sure it was loaded. She then closed the loading gate and gave the cylinder a spin. "Hey cousin, where can I show off mah skills? I gotta prove that I'm still the Apple with the fastest draw."

Braeburn scoffed and smirked at her cousin. "As if! You're only the fastest mare in Ponyville and that's only cause Granny Smith doesn't want to hurt your feelings," Braeburn taunted back.

Applejack snorted and dug into the ground with one of her back legs. "Well why don't ah show you then!" she yelled back.

Braeburn let out a friendly chuckle and turned to trot away. "Come on, let's go get Jonagold so she can teach you a lesson," he said as he started trotting away with Little Strongheart.

Applejack started to trot along with her cousin and while she did, she turned back to look at her 'posse' and gave them a wink. The rest of them started to follow along with her. However, Tran, Soarin, and Spitfire walked slower than they did, creating a decent distance. Once he was pretty sure no one else could hear them, he leaned down between Spitfire and Soarin. "Have them watch the town's general goods and supply store. Anyone leaving town in groups larger than two or with lots of supplies, have them tailed, covertly," Tran whispered.

Spitfire nodded and she and Soarin trotted off in a different direction while Tran played catchup with Applejack and the rest of them.

-X-X-X-

Braeburn, Little Strongheart, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Tran stood at a 'shooting range'. The term 'shooting range' could be barely used to describe what this was. It was more like a small area where there was random junk piled on top of barrels at random distances, for people to shoot at. It wasn't the best but it would function.

Braeburn was the first to start. He sized in on the closest barrel, which was a mere six meters away, and quick draw-ed his Colt Peacemaker and fired a round, from the hip, fanning the hammer to do so. His shot hit the barrel, just barely so at that. To be fair, he had drawn and fired at a relatively decent speed.

Applejack gave a playful smirk upon seeing her cousin shoot and then stood up on her hind legs. Her right hoof hovered over her holstered revolver for a few seconds and then, she drew. Significantly faster than what her cousin had performed, her round hit a glass bottle that had been sitting on the barrel that Braeburn had shot. She held up her revolver's muzzle in front of her face and blew the smoke coming off of it before giving it a nice twirl and then holstered it. She turned to her cousin. "Definitely still faster than you could ever be," she boasted.

Braeburn grumbled indignantly but his face grew the happy go lucky expression as he saw somepony approaching them. Everyone turned to see another earth pony approaching them. "Howdy Jonagold! Come to join the shootin?" he asked.

The mare in question was a yellow mare with a two tone orange mane tied up in pigtails accessorize with a bow on the end of each pigtail and her tail. Judging from the three green apples that she had as a cutie mark, she was probably a member of the apple family. She was also wearing a stetson and carrying a Colt Peacemaker on a right side hip draw holster.

Rainbow Dash eyed the Colt Peacemaker that Jonagold that she was carrying. She turned to look at Applejack's Colt Peacemaker and then Braeburn's Colt Peacemaker. "Are all Apples born with a stetson and gun?" she asked.

Applejack chuckled and drew her Peacemaker, spinning it in the air. "Can't deny it, they're good guns," she said while using her other hoof to tip her hat at said pegasus. "You're just jealous that you can't shoot like us Apples."

Rainbow Dash trotted up to Applejack and reared up, putting her head against Applejack. "Oh yeah! I bet you're just scared I'd be faster than you!"

Meanwhile, Gilda leaned closer to Tran. "Fastest mare in Equestria?" she whispered to Tran. Tran said nothing back and luckily, Rainbow Dash heard nothing.

Applejack gave Rainbow Dash a playful, knowing smirk. She unbuckled her gun belt with gun and held it out for Rainbow. "Go ahead. Show me, you're faster. Ah'd bet mah left hoof yah can't even hit the ground in front of you." Rainbow Dash frowned and grabbed the belt and wrapped it around her waist, flying into position. Applejack, meanwhile, trotted over to Jonagold. "You'll get a kick outta this."

Rainbow Dash gave Applejack a glare. "I heard that!" Rainbow Dash yelled back. She turned to face her target and tried to focus on the closest barrel where there were other glass bottles perched on top of it. She quick-drew the revolver, with speed that, while it wasn't faster than Applejack's, was impressively speedy for somepony who had never practiced quick draw before. However, the bullet didn't hit anything and went flying off into the distance where it landed somewhere no one could see. "That was a practice shot!" Rainbow Dash shot out.

Applejack grinned. "If'n ya say so," she shot back.

Rainbow Dash grumbled and holstered the revolver. She repeated the quick draw, faster than before, but this time, the bullet hit the ground, barely a meter in front of her. She glared at the revolver in her hoof. "Your gun's broken!" she screamed out.

The three members of the Apple clan laughed at the mare's refusal to face the facts. Gilda flew over to her fellow speedster. "Here, let me give it a shot," Gilda asked. Rainbow Dash ripped off the gun belt and threw it to the griffon in frustration, flying away from the shooting line to sulk. Gilda donned the gun belt and stood up on her hind legs. She gave it a good attempt at a quick draw but it was much slower than anyone else's and when she fanned the hammer, the gun didn't go off. She looked down at the gun and holstered it. "Yeah, I already hate this," Gilda groaned out.

The Apple family members started laughing harder, Braeburn slapping one of his legs. Tran stayed silent and gave Applejack a glance. "May I?" he asked.

When Applejack regained her composure, she nodded. "Sure, Ah don't mind," Applejack replied.

Tran walked up to the firing line where Gilda handed off Applejack's gun belt rig. Tran donned the belt and drew the revolver to give it a decent once-over. Applejack's Colt Peacemaker was very, very similar to the Colt Peacemakers from the human world. The only difference between the human and pony Colt Peacemaker was the trigger and the trigger guard. The Colt Peacemakers from the human world had a trigger designed for one finger with a just as small trigger guard while the pony Colt Peacemakers had a trigger that was as long as a grip, to accompany hooves, with a trigger guard just as big. He could fit all four fingers on the pony Colt Peacemaker's trigger and to pull the trigger, he just had to squeeze his entire hand.

He holstered the revolver and adopted a relax stance, hands hanging by his side. As everypony (and griffon) waited, the human just stood there, almost frozen. Then, faster than anyone could blink, the Colt Peacemaker was gone from its leathery home and a shot rang out. One of the glass bottles that had been sitting on the closest wood barrel had exploded. Tran looked down at the revolver as everypony was shocked, eyes wide and jaws almost touching the ground.

Tran walked back to Applejack while taking off the gun belt. "It's not for me," Tran said, handing the gun belt rig back. "I prefer a lefty rig."

Braeburn gave a whistle. "Damn son, you outdrew your shadow!" he complimented.

Tran reached up with his left hand and rubbed his right shoulder which was still recovering from the injury. "I'm faster with my left," he stated.

Applejack redonned her gun belt and looked at Tran with a look of awe. "That was fast. Hell, that was Granny Smith fast!" she exclaimed. She put a hoof on the grip of the gun to make sure it was a good fit. "Seems like somethin you're good at, like ya've done this before."

Tran let out a sigh as memories filled his mind. Memories of... Better times. "When I was younger, I did a lot of cowboy competition shooting. Was some of the most fun in my life," he reminisced. For some of the ponies there, they saw the smallest semblance of a true smile on Tran's face. It didn't last long and he soon returned to his usual dead expression.

Applejack walked over to Tran and patted him on the back. "Why don'tcha join the family in some shootin, some time? Not training shootin but just fun shootin? Ah think Apple Bloom would love-ta have yah around."

Tran shook his head. "Busy with work," he responded.

Applejack thought back to every time she had spent time with the humans, when they weren't 'workin' and couldn't recall when Tran hadn't been working. The few times she hadn't seem him work, all he did was drink but she hadn't seen any of that recently. "Ya gotta spend some time on yourself," she offered.

Tran shook his head once again. "I'll take the day off when I'm dead," he grimly responded.

Jonagold trotted up to the firing line, feeling inadequate. She wanted to raise the mood of the group after what he had said. But before she could do or say anything, a team of four pegasi arrived. They went over to where Tran, Rainbow Dash, and Gilda were standing. Tran, Spitfire, Soarin, and the team of pegasi distanced themselves from everyone else to get some privacy. "Speak," Tran commanded.

One of the new pegasi stepped forward. "To the southwest, there are small mountain ranges with caves that are possibly dragon dens. No dragons have been spotted but no teams entered the caves or went close enough to see inside," the pegasi started out saying. The risk of going too close to a dragon's den was too high. A dragon had the chance of chasing down a pegasus, especially if it was fully grown. By now, a few hours had passed so some of the pegasi teams should have finished some of the scouting missions. "Nothing significant has been spotted but some caravans of supplies and ponies have been spotted headed to the southeast, where the mountain ranges lie."

Tran pursed his lips. "The caravan, what were its people composed of? Military age adults? children? Were they armed?" Tran asked.

One of the new pegasi handed a scroll to the one that was speaking with Tran. He opened up the scroll and quickly went through it. "Four caravans heading southeast. Three caravans containing children. Possibly settlers. Fourth caravan, adults only. Possible prospectors or adventurers. All four caravans containing no less than two dozen ponies. All four caravans utilized carts and carriages. No armaments' spotted," the scout read out loud.

Tran turned to Rainbow Dash. "How often are ponies going out to search for treasure or adventure?" Tran asked.

She shook her head. "Its a very common venture. With how many magical artifacts and treasure left over from the post lunar rebellion period, ponies would go out to try to strike it rich," Rainbow explained.

Gilda tapped Rainbow on her side. "Wait. The ponies that would go out for adventure, wouldn't they have joined the army thinking they'd get the 'Grand Adventure'," Gilda explained. Her face went grim as she looked at the ground. "Fools we were. All we got was death and wet mud."

Tran blinked twice. "And, wasn't there a draft for all able bodied adults? And that 'type' wouldn't they all have joined up on their own anyways?" he asked.

Rainbow narrowed her eyes. "There's the chance those adventurers are just unpatriotic or greedy ponies," she responded back. She grit her teeth upon realizing those ponies were the exact type of ponies Equestria didn't need. They had no loyalty to the country. She trotted up to the team of pegasi. "Have them tailed just in case but do it from a distance and covertly."

The pegasi saluted Spitfire and prepared to fly off but was spotted when Tran grabbed one of them. The human looked the pegasi in the eye with the usual dead expression he had, terrifying the scout. "Red," Tran said.

The pegasus was terrified from the human's actions and he opened his mouth in confusion. "W-What?" he asked.

One of Tran's hands gripped his sidearm. Rainbow and Gilda were anxious from what the human was doing. "Red," Tran said again.

The pegasus looked like he was gonna piss himself and one of the other pegasus slowly stepped up. The other pegasus looked to his fellow scout. "The pass phrase, Berry," the other pegasus said.

Berry was still confused for a second but then realized what was going on. He gulped and opened his mouth. "T-Tusk," he finally replied.

Tran let go of the pegasus and took his hand off of his revolver. All of the passwords were based around things from his homeland. This made it so that no pony or changeling could figure it out. This password was about the Red Tails, IE the Tuskegee Airmen. This team of scouts were part of the security escort that accompanied them. They weren't part of the experimental battalion. "Don't seize up next time. MY soldiers might react worse than how I was," Tran explained.

The pegasus tried to regain his composure, still terrified of the human. "Y-Yes sir," he replied. Tran pointed at the rank patch that was on his plate carrier and Berry looked like he was about to shit himself. "Y-Yes sergeant."

Tran folded his arms and kept the usual emotionless expression on his face. Rainbow stepped in front of Tran with a frustrated look on her face. She faced the team of pegasi. "Go, while there's daylight," she ordered. All of the pegasi saluted her and then finally flew off. She turned to Tran. "Was that necessary?"

Tran snorted. "There are shapeshifting imposters? What do you think?" he responded. He did a 180 and started walking off. "Go join the others, I'm going back to the airships," he said.

Some Time Later

It took Tran a good while to walk back to the airship. The meeting with Applejack's cousins and the buffalo gave them a good amount of information they could use. The fact that Braeburn knew how Appleloosa worked was quite helpful. Tran's intended destination was the airship that was being used as the primary command and security station. Where the airship was parked, all of its dismounted soldiers and escorts had already setup a defensive perimeter. Sandbags and defensive holes were made and guard posts were setup while the skies were filled with constantly roaming pegasi guards.

As Tran walked up to one of the guard posts, every pony present directed their attention to him. The guard post he walked up to, a team of four ponies staffed it and two of them trotted out to intercept him. Both of the two ponies that trotted out were armed and of the two, one of them held out a hoof. "Halt!" the pony demanded. Tran stopped where he was, hands by his side, taking up a leisurely stance as the pony dropped his hoof. "Base!" the pony then called out.

The pony had issued one of the challenges passphrases. Tran narrowed his eyes at the pony. "You think I could be an imposter?" Tran asked. He looked down at himself with all of his gear and his signature hand cannon side arm that could be easily seen by all of them. "Really? Me?"

The pony in question looked like he was trying to shrink himself down so he could be unseen, as if he was unsure of himself but he stayed where he was, still blocking the human. His ears fell flat to his head and he almost seemed to be shaking in fear. "Y-Yes sir," he stammered. "Base!" he called out again.

Tran was a good ten meters away from them and when he took another step forward, shrinking the distance even further, the guards all seemed to get more anxious. "Halt!" the same guard pony called out again. "You are not allowed to enter!"

Tran stopped walking as he stared down the guards manning the security entrance. He hovered one of his hands near his signature sidearm and the fur on all of the guards in the guard shack stood up as every one of the ponies started readying their weapons. The guard that was addressing Tran pointed his weapon at Tran. "If you cannot verify yourself, you will be detained!" the guard threatened.

Tran froze as he stared down the guard that was aiming a rifle at him. This soldier, an earth pony, was one of the soldiers from his experimental battalion as were the other three guards manning this checkpoint. Tran looked the pony in the eyes. "Jumper," Tran finally said. Right as he said that, the guard gently lowered his rifle while taking what seemed to be the deepest breath he could muster. The other guards visibly relaxed and Tran walked forward, dropping the distance between him and the closest guard. Once he and the first guard was a mere arm's length away, Tran stared the pony down, unnerving the poor guard. "You think you can challenge me of all people? Who do you think you are?"

The guard gulped and nodded. "S-Sir, we have to challenge everyone, no matter who they are," the pony stammered out.

Tran stared the guard down for a few more seconds. "Good," Tran answered. "You're doing your job. Keep up the good work." The guard almost seemed like he had an aneurysm as he processed what he had been told. He opened and closed his mouth like he was mimicking the behavior of a fish. "If you hadn't have challenged me, I would have really been pissed." The guard seemed to still be frozen in place so Tran walked away, leaving the pony to wallow in the sheer amount of mental anguish that came from the interaction.

-X-X-X-

Princess Luna and some of her Night Sentinels were gathered around the loading deck of the primary command airship. The princess was currently engage in melee combat with a pair of her personal guards, all three of them fighting with swords. The princess deflected a sword lunge as she turned her head to look at their visitor. "Ah, my fellow martial brawler, we received the information you garnered from the local population!" she said, lowering her sword. The two thestrals she was sparring with lowered their weapons and retreated as their princess walked over to the human. "And how does your health fare?"

Tran shrugged. "Same as ever," he replied.

The princess nodded. "And I appreciate your continued silence in the truth of the perpetrators," she lauded.

Tran reached up to rub the site of one of the wounds before stretching his neck. "As long as they don't show themselves again, you will have my silence."

The princess scowled. "They are an exceptionally rare threat. You shan't expect their presence again, my Sentinels and SMILE will make sure of it," she replied.

Tran eyed the various weapons the princess was equipped with and drew his 1911, holding it out for the princess. "When are you going to equip yourself with a weapon appropriate to modern combat?"

The princess scoffed and drew the great sword off of her back by hoof and held it out for the human. Tran grabbed the sword and the princess, likewise, did the same with Tran's pistol. The pistol enveloped just the grip of the 1911 as she gave it a thorough examination. "When I need the usage of one, I will but for now, I will leave it to my men." Tran gave Luna's great sword a few practice swings, testing out its weight and handling. He had used it before when the two of them were captured but that had been his only experience with it. "It certainly fits your reputation," Luna said, as she watched him play with the sword.

Tran shrugged and set the tip of the sword on the ground, putting a hand on the pommel, using it like a cane. "What happens if someone is shooting at you? You'll still use a sword?" Tran asked.

Luna smirked and her horn lit up. A magic shield enveloped the two of them, separating them from the rest of the world. As she was still holding Tran's pistol in her telekinesis, she fired three shots and the bullets were stopped instantly when it struck the shield. If a standard combat mage attempted to do the same thing in modern combat, they would have struggled. The average unicorn might be able to stop one or two pistol rounds before their shield would break and the strain would probably give them severe magical backlash that would debilitate them for a week before full recovery. Here, the princess didn't show any sign of strain, as if she were picking up a piece of paper. Something she had also done that Tran hadn't noticed was that she was covering her ears with a silence spell, which she now stopped casting.

Luna levitated the pistol back into Tran's holster and dropped the magic shield. "I'd do that. My sister is the more powerful magic user but I am the superior caster. While she has raw power, I have more skill with complex magical tasks. While this seems like I am trying to show off, as they say, my sister will acknowledge this, as well. And if I were to face somepony too cowardly to engage me in a proper martial dual, I will make full use of my magic to level the playing field," Luna explained.

Tran pointed the great sword at Luna while holding pointing his other hand at Luna like a pistol. "And if I were to engage you with sword and gun?" he asked.

The princess drew her saber and pointed it at the human, while lighting her horn again and covering Tran's finger gun with a magic field. "I will even the match and force you to properly engage me as a proper warrior should," she replied. Tran pulled his finger gun out of her magic field, having been completely unaffected by her magic, which surprised her. She met Tran's questioning look with a frown. "If it were a true enemy," she added in. Tran lowered the sword and gave her a playful shove as if he were attacking her to which she reciprocated. She giggled as her hoof impacted his armored plate carrier. "I'm glad we can be allies, friends, as my sister would call it." She never had an equal to interact/socialize with before. Everyone always acted tentative towards her, even her sister. Tran knew nothing of her imprisonment and ignored her royal status.

Tran slowly nodded. "Have your men found anything so far in following their investigations and searches?" he asked.

Luna nodded. "A few changelings have been found, rogue ones at that. Unfortunately, they've kept silent ever since their detainment," she replied.

And then to interrupt the two of them, a pair of ponies quickly bumbled into their little meeting. The Night Guards had their weapons up from the surprise, to which their guests froze in their tracks. The two ponies were some of the pegasi scouts that had been sent out.

Luna eyed the two pegasi with suspicion. "What is the meaning of this interruption? Explain yourselves!" she demanded.

The two pegasi had their hooves up in fear of being shot, not moving a single muscle. "We bring news! Some scout teams have not reported in and the scouts sent to investigate the issue also went missing," one of the pegasi explained.

The princess's eyes widened and she turned to the human. He had the usual same dead expression on his face but she could see veins starting to show their presence. "Where?" Tran demanded. Even though he had said that in a monotone dead tone and showed no emotion on his face, everyone in the vicinity felt their blood curdle.

"D-Down nearby the mountain ranges, where the d-dragon dens are," the scout finally answered.

There was an spine-chilling silence for a few seconds as Tran stared down the two messengers. "The scouts lost, were they Luna's or mine?" he asked.

This was the million-bit question. The scout teams sent out, did they belong to the security and escort detail that accompanied everyone or did they belong to the experimental battalion ran by the humans? One of the messengers, even though he was commanded to answer, didn't want to, out of fear from the human. He slowly opened his mouth. "T-The lost scouts. B-Both teams, w-were f-from your unit," the messenger replied.

Tran subtlety clenched his teeth, something that only the Princess noticed. "Someone's going to die," Tran said.

Princess Luna had an inkling of what he was going to do from what little she knew about him. She just managed to envelop the human in her magic as he had started walking but it had no effect on the man. She tried to think quickly and held out one of her front legs to stop him but the man shoved her leg away. He had managed to get past her and the instant his hand had touched her front leg, she reeled back in terror while yelping. Surprisingly, he had stopped to turn around to see what had happened as Luna clutched her front leg while he stared her down. She looked at him in fear, feeling as if someone was vandalizing her future gravesite where she was currently taking the eternal rest. "W-What did you do?" Luna asked in a manner as if she were a child being scolded by their parents.

Tran, despite the fact that his face was expressionless like he was dead, had rage coursing through his veins. He slowly calmed down as what Luna had asked finally registered in his mind. "What?" he asked as he examined the princess. To him, it looked like she was clutching the leg he had shoved out of the way as if it was now a major source of pain. He took a step closer to her, to which the princess flinched. "Did I do something. What did I do?" he finally asked.

Princess Luna looked at the leg he had shoved away, rubbing at it, as if she were trying to remedy some imaginary pain. She lit her horn and casted some scanning spells on the leg, but found nothing. It felt worse than dark magic but somehow not tainted or evil. She had no idea what was going on. "When you touched my leg. I-It feels like I am dead b-but not dead at the same time," she answered.

Tran looked down at the hand that he had used to shove the princess's leg out of the way. It had looked normal to him but he hadn't intended to do anything other than shove her leg out of the way. "I did nothing but moved your leg," he answered. He looked back at the princess. She was shaking. She was afraid. "I intended nothing malicious," he added in.

She looked at him like he was the grim reaper, terrified from what she had felt. "Y-You had'th done something. It feels... Vile."

He took another step closer to the princess and she winced. He held up both hands in surrender. "I swear, my hate is for the enemy, not you." He slowly took another step closer to the princess, now within striking distance of her. He slowly reached forward with a hand towards the princess. She wanted to flee but she was frozen in terror. His hand contacted her head and he started scratching her scalp.

She wanted to feel offended from the fact that she was being treated like she was a dog but... The abhorrent feeling in her leg disappeared. In fact, it felt better than ever. She felt alive, in the sense that she was currently experiencing something she cherished like she was a child and getting a hug from her mother. She closed her eyes and relished the moment. When she realized she was moaning from enjoying the experience, she froze and blushed, her eyes shooting open in an instant.

Tran ignored her faux pas and grit his teeth again. "My hate is only intended for the enemy," he said. Princess Luna could see neckveins bulge and she started feeling awful again, only barely but it was growing. Tran withdrew his hand and she felt normal again, instantly. "We have work to do."

Author's Note

1600 soldiers in this experimental battalion, Unit makeup is divided roughly like this

eric: 7:700: 100 teams of machine gunners
wilson 6: 180: 30 teams of medics
tran 4/4/6: 620: 25 teams of scouts/25 teams of air fighters/70 teams of bombers

Also, I don't think I've clarified this before but eh. Blueblood carries a Mauser c96 trench carbine in 9x19 with 40 round magazines and his sidearm is a Mauser c96 pistol in 9x25mm Mauser Export. As for Gilda, she also carries a mauser c96. Well, they carry the my little pony ww1 universe equivalent of them.

If you can't tell, I really like my guns and enjoy the history of them, especially as a gun collector/nut.

The standard carbine rifle that everyone is using in the experimental battalion is the 5 round version of the berthier carbine in 8mm (Mousqueton Berthier Mle 1892/M16) where the rest of the Equestrian military is the full length 1886 lebel rifle. The standard handgun that everyone uses is the french MLE 1892 in 8x27r. The machine gun that Eric's yaks and earth ponies is the Hotchkiss Mle 1914, also in 8mm. The scouts are armed with winchester 1892 trapper carbines in .44-40 which actually did happen in wwi. The british military bought and used commercial winchester 1892s and the french military bought and used commercial winchester 1894s. As for the flying teams, they use a pump action shotgun. You can take your pick of real life equivalent, the remington model 10 or the winchester 1897, which are both 12 gauge pump action, slam fire able shotguns. The griffons, standard, use gewehr 98s and mauser c96 as sidearms, for standard troops. Whenever I mentioned water cooled machine guns, it doesn't matter if its a vickers machine gun, a browning 1917, maxim machine gun, an MG08, or any of the other ones, they're functionally the same in usage.

Once again, enjoy and leave a comment down below. I enjoy reading them and I'll respond if I can. This is the last chapter for the poll. Should I go with a griffon character or a pony character? Its important, thematically to the story. I can't say more about but vote in the comments, griffon or pony?

Our Flag Does Not Fly Because The Wind Moves It. It Flies With The Last Breath Of Each Soldier Who Died Protecting It

Tran had an agenda right now after hearing that some of his soldiers had been lost. However, his mind was also occupied on figuring out what he had done to the princess. What he had done was enough to scar and cause Princess Luna to freeze in terror, in addition to her body guards. All he and the alicorn knew was that what he had done was unintentional and occurred when he had wanted to go and kill the changelings they had captured, while he was filled with silent wrath. He had been able to perform something that was the opposite of his new skill when he controlled his emotions and expressed resentment towards accidentally assailing his unintended victim. Then, he was able to repeat the terrifying mental attack when he was refilled with the same wrath that was directed towards the rogue changelings. His ability to control himself was important if he was to be a sniper.

However, they didn't have the time to dwell on this conundrum. Tran looked at the still terrified alicorn. "Where are the captured changelings?"

The alicorn was hesitant to continue cooperating with the human. She sighed and didn't want to be on his bad side. She looked towards one specific door in the room they were in, on this airship and then back to Tran. "I'll lead you to them," she finally answered.

A Few Days Prior, Near Fillydelphia

Dirt fell off his body as he rose. Memories were missing and he had no idea what was going on or where he was or who he was. He looked around. There were other bodies, body parts, damaged weapons, and further away, trench lines with soldiers, griffon soldiers. He looked down at himself. He didn't recognize what he was wearing, a uniform that consisted of a grey tunic and grey pants that was overlaid with a set of leather gear.

His eyes focused on something peculiar. There were large holes in his chest but the wounds didn't bleed and he felt no pain. He raised some taloned hands and poked at the wounds. His body gave no reaction to the action. In fact, he didn't feel anything at all. He couldn't feel the wetness of the mud that covered him or was under his paws and talons, he didn't feel the cold of the early winter day, he couldn't feel the uncomfortable texture of the wool uniform he wore, he couldn't feel anything. He was numb. There was no emotion to him, only instinct driving him.

He had no idea what was going on or who he was. Then, his furry ears perked up as the sound of distance machine gun fire filled the air. Instincts caused his body to grab a nearby abandoned weapon, one that was damaged but seemingly functional, and he dove to the ground to take cover. When the gunfire stopped, he stood back up, looking at the direction where it came from.

He was then filled with aggression. Instinct was telling him that he needed to fight, right now. He sneered his beak and then flared his wings. He had wings. He looked at the wings with confusion, head tilted. One of the wings had a gaping hole in it.

In the far distance, an explosion went off. He finally felt something, hearing the explosion. It was... FURY. He took to the sky, wings flapping, one of the wings losing some feathers in the process. He didn't know where he wanted to go but instinct drove him to fly somewhere and that somewhere was south. As he flew, there was a peculiar sound that filled the air. It was the sound of a long loose strip of cloth, fluttering in the wind. A crimson scarf that he wore, barely wrapped around his neck, but somehow resolute in being attached.

His talons gripped his weapon tightly. No matter how fast or far he flew, he gained no fatigue. Anger filled his body. He had a target and he will find that target.

Elsewhere In Equestria, Near Manehattan, Also A Few Days Prior

She was tired but she could not rest. She could not afford to. Her taloned hands wrapped around the only thing she had with her, the singular saddlebag she wore on her loins, barely filled up. She had been hunted but she got away from her pursuers. Tears filled her eyes as she thought about the people who hunted her. It was a sad day when your fellow people hunted you down, like you were prey and they were predators. Well, she and her people were natural predators but that didn't change the despair.

Her tail twitched as her stomach grumbled. It had been long since she had a proper meal. Her ribs were starting to show through her skin. She couldn't afford to hunt, she was about to be hunted again, only this time, she would be hunted by prey.

Her life had only been filled with misery and she wanted respite. She wanted it so much that she had illegally tricked her people into transporting her across the oceans, to a new world. Maybe she could finally find a break in her suffering. She had worked so hard towards her attempt at a new life. No matter what this new world could be, it couldn't be as bad as her former home. The Equestrians were supposed to be a tolerable people that emphasized friendship, a concept alien to a predator like her.

Her ears perked up as she heard some distant sounds. She couldn't discern what or who caused the sounds but her instincts told her whatever or whoever it was, it would be bad if she were caught. She flared out her wings and took to the skies. Flying would take a lot of energy out of her but she couldn't afford to be captured. She used what little stamina she had remaining to hopefully find somewhere where she could hide and rest.

The Present Time

Three rogue changelings had been discovered and captured in Appleloosa by Luna's Night Sentinels. All of them were housed in the same room, a prison/jail room in the large command airship, separated into individual cells. None of them made any noise and simply sat on the floor, waiting. They were under constant supervision by four guards and were strapped with anti-magic prisoner's shackles. Each prison cell only had a bucket and nothing else, where outside the cells, the rest of the room housed a couple desks and several chairs.

The instant the door opened, the guards and prisoners were surprised to see the princess of night and one of the humans. The guards stopped them from continuing any further. "Hairy," one of the guards called out, as he readied his weapon.

"Potter," Tran immediately replied. He looked at the prison guards with a look of discontent. "Leave," he ordered. The guards had their orders never to leave the prisoners out of their sights but they were willing to make this exception. There was something about Tran, almost like a miasma, that terrified them and they wanted any excuse to get as far away from the man as possible. One of them dropped a set of keys at one of the desks before scurrying off with the others, as fast as his hooves could carry.

That left the prisoners alone with the princess of the night and Tran. The changelings felt the same feeling about Tran, as the other guards felt, paralyzing fear. Every one of the changelings backed away from the cell bars, putting their backs to the wall behind them, nowhere else to hide. Tran picked up the keys off of the desk and walked over to one of the prison cells. Before he entered the cell, he looked to the princess. "Can you this a private matter?" the man asked.

Luna hesitated to answer but she nodded. "I can cast a spell to make the other two deaf for the moment but they'll still be able to see you," she answered. She didn't have to ask whether or not she should cast it. She knew that he would need it's use. Her horn lit up and the other two prison cells were shrouded in a bubble of magic, like they were shielded.

When Tran saw that Luna had casted her spell, he unlocked the cell door and entered the cage with the first changeling. Up close, he could see that the changeling was shaking in fear. It had a nervous look to it and its eyes darted around, looking for any way out of their situation. "You know what I want," Tran stated. The changeling, an infiltrator, was skilled in espionage and everything involved with it. That meant he was trained to resist enemy interrogations but just being in Tran's presence was enough to put him on edge already. "Where?"

The changeling stayed silent, trying to rely on the best way to not give away information to the enemy. It wouldn't help him. Patience already running thin, Tran approached the changeling and grabbed the changeling, pulling him off of the wall and up to eye level with the human. The changeling gasped, his fears soon replaced by an even worse feeling. It was something it couldn't describe, a feeling it had never experienced before. It felt like he was going through the emotional rollercoaster of the worse experience of his life, only with a continuous stream of the same negative extreme with no reprieve. It couldn't focus on anything else other than the dreadful feeling of wanting to be dead so everything could end while simultaneously wanting to feel alive again.

All the while, the other two changeling captives in the room, being creatures that fed on emotion, could sense something going wrong with the changeling. To them, it felt like they had just finished witnessing someone living out the last moment of their life, only the constant feeling of it. It felt wrong to them and they couldn't do anything about it.

Tran had no desire to be lenient towards the rogue changelings. Any time a griffon was a prisoner of war, he would treat them fairly but this was a different scenario. "Prisoners of war have the right to be treated fairly," Tran started explaining. "You changelings have never chosen a side or officially declared war. Your actions against this country have branded you as terrorists and I do not negotiate with terrorists. There are no consequences to me pulling off your limbs like I would on a spider."

The changeling that Tran was holding in his hands started hyperventilating. It's body was constantly telling it that something was wrong. It felt like its body was filled with pain, only the pain wasn't physical or mental. It had no idea what the feeling was. It was akin to starvation, but not from hunger from lack of food or even love. It was like it was missing something, something important to being alive. "S-Stop!" the changeling cried out.

Tran, still holding onto the changeling, slammed it against the wall. It struggled to get out of Tran's iron grasp, forever stuck in its newfound punishment. "I'll stop when I find out where your hive is and if that answer doesn't match up with what the others tell me, I won't leave," Tran said. "You've taken my men from me and I will stop for nothing to get them back."

The changeling wanted to break eye contact with the human but couldn't stop focusing on the human. It felt like its life force and desire to live was being sucked away by being in contact with the human. Luna, even though she was keeping up the silence spell on the other two changelings, was unnerved from what she was witnessing. She could feel a similar negative feeling, as if she was near her own death.

The changeling was forced to endure the mental torture and tears started to fill its eyes. All the while, it started to feel sick, as if its health was slowly getting worse. "I'm not a warrior! Just a gatherer! I only bring resources to the hive. Please, I'll tell you where my home is," the changeling pleaded.

In all, the changeling told the human and alicorn what it knew. On a map, it knew the general area of where it lived. However, it only knew by pheromones and a connection to the rest of the hive. It couldn't pin point an exact location. Since it wasn't a warrior, it had no idea on the hive's military size or power. The other two changelings were similar. The other two were gatherers, however one gathered resources and the other gathered love/power. They knew nothing else than what the first changeling knew. Despite not giving out much information, this gave them a general heading.

-X-X-X-

If the rogue changelings had truly captured the scouts that went missing, then they have an idea of what was coming. The humans had to mobilize quickly before they could prep anything so they had to gather everyone that had been sent out. They had arrived to Appleloosa in the early morning barely after sunrise and had already been scouting out for a few hours so they still had plenty of time in the day. Recalling the pegasi scouts took up time but not much. They didn't try to gather up everyone that was sent out, just the members of the experimental battalion and a small chunk of the secondary pegasi that were the trip's escort bodyguards. The scouting missions were now only being done by the bodyguard pegasi that escorted them there and, to make up for the fact that less pegasi were available to scout, the scouts were then supposed to spend less time on each area. If the primary command team did indeed find the changeling hive and needed reinforcements, they had a way of signaling for help and where their location was.

Of the four airships they arrived with, they took two of them, leaving the other two behind in Appleloosa with a large contingent of soldiers. The airships that headed to the supposed general area of where the rogue changeling hive was, went as fast as it could, so the changelings didn't have enough time to react and prepare. Onboard, the members of the experimental battalion prepared themselves as if they were going into battle. They geared themselves up and grabbed whatever they could. Which pegasi that had been previously scouting, armed themselves with appropriate bombs or equipment. In advance of the airships, some of Tran's aerial superiority dogfighters were making sure their path was clear.

Blueblood, Rarity, and Applejack trotted into the airship's command room where the pilot worked a ship's wheel and various other crewmembers were handling other controls/dials/levers. Also in this control room was Spitfire and Soarin who were looking out into the distance with binoculars. Soarin lowered his binoculars and took note of the trio. "Afternoon, ladies," he said with a smile on his face. "Prince." He raised his binoculars back up so he could continue his searches.

The three found their own spots to sit besides the two former Wonderbolts, also looking out into the horizon. Of note, Prince Blueblood stayed standing, trotting over to the pilot. "Are you aware we are heading towards the possible dragon dens that were spotted by the scouts?" the prince asked.

The pilot stayed resolute in steering the airship. He kept his eyes on looking where he was piloting the ship towards. "Yes. Princess Luna personally ordered our new course," the pilot answered.

The prince frowned before trotting back to join the others, finding a spot beside Rarity. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and she blushed in response. "This is quite the risk we're taking for such a minute chance," the prince commented.

Applejack unsling her lever action rifle and started playing with it, wanting to do something with her hooves. She took a glance at the prince who was nuzzling Rarity. She rolled her eyes at the sight. "Well, it's better than waitin' around, sittin' on our hooves," Applejack replied.

Rarity nuzzled the prince back, her blush disappearing before turning her attention to the farmpony. "Well, to be fair, we are diverting a significant amount of our resources to investigate this issue instead of using them for scouting, lowering the chances the scouts will find something," Rarity explained.

Applejack shrugged. "Well, a chance's a chance. It's somethin'," Applejack responded.

That was when the door to the command room opened up and in walked Tran. He stood at the doorway, as if waiting for something as he looked around at everyone and everything in the room. After an uncomfortable silence, he walked in, followed by Eric. The two closed the door to the command room and walked further inside. Eric walked over to the rest of the group. "We still on course to our hint?" Eric asked.

Spitfire lowered her binoculars, taking a look at the human. Then, she nodded. "According to the princess's instructions, yes," Spitfire replied. She set her binoculars on the ground and turned her attention to Eric. "We weren't given exact coordinates, only a general location."

Eric picked up said binoculars and tried to look at the mountain range in the distance, where some of the dragon dens were supposedly located. He was able to see some of their airborne protection detail in the distance, performing their duties. "How are the troops? They setup for a quick pump and dump?" Eric asked.

Rarity and the Prince frowned from the crude metaphor while Applejack smirked at their disapproval. Spitfire and Soarin didn't react, continuing to watch the horizon. "We have bombers setup with a general purpose bomb load. Two heavy bombs and eight light bombs," Spitfire replied.

Meanwhile, Soarin dug through his hooves through his uniform and returned with a scroll. He handed it to Eric. "Here's platoon makeups. We got the ground pounders geared up for an assault," Soarin added in.

Spitfire frowned at Soarin and smacked him with a wing. "Soarin!" she chastised. "You can't say that, that's racist!"

Soarin flinched at the wing strike and looked back at her sheepishly like a scolded puppy. "Sorry," he apologized.

Applejack chuckled at the two. "Ain't no sweat off ah my back," she said to Soarin.

Rarity looked at Applejack with a frown. "We can't support behavior like that and you know it, " Rarity chastised. "It's rather-"

"Uncouth," Blueblood finished.

Rarity looked at the prince and smiled. "Yes, uncouth," Rarity continued.

Applejack once again rolled her eyes at the two. "It's just words and we're all friends here," Applejack countered back.

While everyone had been socializing, Tran had first walked over to the pilot, giving the poor pony some bad anxiety from being scrutinized heavily by the human's cold eyes. When Tran relented, he walked over to the other crew members, taking time to scrutinize them too, also making them quite uncomfortable. Once he was done with them, he walked over and joined his friends.

"-All friends here," Applejack countered back. She took notice of him joining the rest of them. She was about to open her mouth and greet him as she'd usually do because of her friendly disposition towards life and her friends but something about Tran, at the moment, made her freeze up mentally. Sure, he currently had a cold, dead, emotionless face but that was how he always was like. She was already used to people like that, having dealt with some pony similar before, Maud Pie, Pinkie's sister. However, right now, she was unnerved. She felt like she was facing the firing squad now that Tran joined their presence.

It made things worse when he drew his hand cannon side arm and aimed it at Prince Blueblood. Everyone looked at the human in shock, even Eric. "What the hells, the problem?" Eric asked.

Soarin opened his mouth. "Is there-?" the Wonderbolt started saying.

Tran cut him off before he could finish. "Quiet," Tran immediately said, cutting him off. Soarin immediately closed his mouth, pressing his lips tightly together, afraid of the man.

Prince Blueblood looked up at the gun, shocked like everyone else. He had no idea what he had did wrong. "What did I-?" he started saying.

Like with Soarin, Tran cut him off. "Quiet," Tran said, cutting him off. Tran cocked back the hammer of his revolver, finger on the trigger. Blueblood could see down the revolver's barrel, seeing the bullet that would end him. He started to shake in fear, wanting to plead for his life. The other ponies in the room, like the other crewmembers and pilot, were also focused on the spectacle, not making any sudden movements.

"You know why," Tran cryptically said.

Blueblood closed his eyes as tears welled up. Again, he didn't make any sudden movements, as did anyone else. The others wanted to speak up or do something but they were afraid of Tran's reactions and he made it quite clear that no one was allowed to say anything. Then, green fire sheathed his form and he turned into a changeling.

Rarity and some of the others jumped away from him in shock while Eric drew his sidearm and pointed it at the intruder, as did Applejack just with her lever action. Tran decocked his revolver and lowered it. He pointed at Soarin and Spitfire. "Take em to the brig," Tran ordered. "And make sure you pass check anyone."

Without a word, the two obeyed the man and drew their own sidearms, taking the changeling away with them in tow. Eric holstered his pistol and put a hand on Tran's shoulder. "How'd the fuck you know?" he asked.

Tran holstered his sidearm. Then, he looked at the hand on his shoulder, turning his attention to Eric. "I just do," he cryptically responded.

Meanwhile, Rarity was reeling in shock. "It can't be!" she cried out, nearly fainting. She looked at the others frantically. "I did things with him. Dear Celestia, I could have slept with a changeling!" And immediately after saying that, she definitely fainted into Applejack's forearms.

Tran pointed at Applejack. "You two stay here," he commanded. He then pointed to Eric. "We got some searching to do." He turned to walk out the door but turned around, where the airship's crew members and pilot was looking at the human in fear. "Any of you speak about this, just one of you, I'll come back and kill all of you," he threatened. The various airship's crewmembers and pilots either gulped or quickly nodded their head's in agreement. They quickly shut their lips, not making a since noise as they continued piloting/controlling/manning the airship.

-X-X-X-

Eric and Tran grabbed Pharynx and some other changelings and went throughout the ship, making sure there weren't any other rogue changelings. As for the prince, it didn't take them very long to find him. Blueblood was found inside of a large wooden cargo crate, where he was sealed in a pulsing green cocoon, filled with goo. He was freed from a dreamless, coma-like trance. Once he was free, it took the prince quite a short while to regain his bearings. He hadn't been replaced for very long, having been replaced only recently within the day. However, he was still affected, being in a somewhat nauseated and almost-intoxicated-like state.

The almighty Prince Blueblood was currently enjoying his newfound lodging in the airship's medical bay as he deposited bile into a bucket, courtesy of his stomach. All the while, Wilson was starting an IV into the prince's forearm while Rarity was doting after the stallion. The prince's uniform and belongings was currently sitting in a heap at the bed's legs, recently repossessed from the imposter and provided by Pharynx who was behind the medic. "Urrrghh," the prince whimpered out.

Wilson finished with sticking the prince and stood back, to address Pharynx. "Well, he's dehydrated and all of his vitals are tanked," Wilson listed out.

Pharynx, who was disguised as an REA soldier, scowled at the sight of the prince. He wasn't mad directly because of the prince, but disappointed in himself and his species from this unexpected but predictable infiltration. "The infiltrator must have drained as much love energy from the prince before the typical cocooning paralysis. Must have also gleamed through his thoughts and recent memories to get a better disguise. Either one, on their own, would leave a pony in a wreck. Both? I'm surprised he's conscious," Pharynx explained.

Blueblood rested his head on the bucket as he lied in his bed. Rarity patted him on the back, trying any little thing to make him feel better. "Is that why my head feels like Aunty Celly is balancing on my horn?" he groaned out.

Pharynx chuckled. "Yeah, that would do it too," he replied. Rarity gave a glare at the disguised changeling's behavior but the allied changeling was completely unaffected by the mare's disapproving glare. "Go ahead and get used to it. It won't go away until you rebuild your reserves of emotional energy, literally, that is unless. Gonna be a while. You won't be able to use your magic until you're fully recovered."

Rarity rubbed Blueblood's back as tears welled up in her eyes. "This is my fault! I should have noticed!" she damn near shrieked.

Blueblood raised his head from his bucket and weakly put a hoof on Rarity's back. "Don't say that, you couldn't have known," he feebly chimed, trying to uplift her spirits. He gave her a pained smile. "I heard you were inconsolable when you assumed you had unintentionally slept with him."

Rarity wanted to shush the prince from speaking of such a private and vulgar topic but gently soothed him instead. "Save your strength, you need to recuperate your health."

The prince let out a pitiful whimper as he looked to the medic. "I can't just stay confined to a bed on the precipice of battle. I have to go help direct the soldiers."

Rarity was about to interject but a glare from the medic cut her off. The short human folded his arms at the prince's request. "You aren't Tran but if you really want an early grave like him so bad, I can give you a little pick me up but it'll only help a little. This is gonna take some intestinal fortitude on your end and it's gonna hurt," the medic explained.

Blueblood looked at the medic with bated breath, deep in thought. He took a deep breath and nodded. "We have work to do," the prince replied.

Wilson nodded and left. After a short while, he returned with several needles in tow. Rarity tried to convince the prince of his decision but he stay resolute in his stance. Wilson administered the medications to Blueblood's IV line and he found himself with more energy and some of the pain gone but existence was still painful to him. As Wilson disposed of the needles and removed the IV, he glanced back at Blueblood. "No alcohol at all until you're better and drink water as often as you can," Wilson told him. Blueblood nodded and then Wilson held a hand out. Blueblood took the hand with his hoof and Wilson helped pull him up to his hooves. Blueblood stumbled a bit and then felt Wilson's iron hard grip on his neck. "You really sure about this?"

Blueblood nodded, still firm. "We can't let our men down," Blueblood replied.

Wilson smirked. "Good. You're finally showing that you aren't an ass but hear this, you stay fucking alive and I'll try my damnedest it stays that way or I'll bring you back to kick your ass myself."

Blueblood chuckled after hearing Wilson's words. He felt rather content with having someone he could be chummy with, a friendship forged in the fires of battle, made him feel all the better. Somehow, just being with Wilson made him feel healthier, not just mentally. Hell, he felt like he was better than he ever was before and it wasn't the drugs talking, mostly. He grabbed his uniform and belongings, getting helped by Rarity as he wasn't able to use his magic. "Mademoiselle," Blueblood said, addressing Rarity. "Let's have a chat with our uninvited guest." There was no hint of weakness in Blueblood's eyes or stride as the two walked away.

Their uninvited guest, speaking of the devil, was currently in the company of Tran where the changeling wearing a magic suppressing ring and was chained up in a prison cell. The changeling looked like he was close to tears. He didn't show any signs of being physically mistreated but he was most certainly not doing mentally fine. Just being forced to be in Tran's presence, even separate by the jail cell's bars, was very harmful to the changeling's emotional health. The changeling was very obviously distressed and Blueblood had no sympathy to him. If any other normal person walked in on this, it seemed like the changeling was behaving like he was being coerced into killing himself.

There were other ponies in the room, some REA soldiers, members that weren't part of the experimental battalion but had been assigned to this special assignment to take out the changeling hive. They were standing in the corners of the room and before entering the room, Blueblood and Rarity had passed two more non-experimental battalion REA soldiers that were guarding this jail room's only entrance, from the outside. The ponies outside of the room looked like your standard REA soldiers and they had challenged Blueblood and Rarity. They like every other REA soldier when on guard duty, having a very serious professional attitude but looking bored overall. The two ponies inside the room, however, they looked like they were doing almost as bad as the jailed changeling, looking scared and that being physically present with Tran was excruciating to their existence.

When Prince and the Element of Generosity entered the room, Rarity leaned closer and clung onto Blueblood. The room felt mentally draining to be in, as if there was something in the room giving a sense of dread and despair. Tran barely paid the two new visitors any mind, keeping his attention on the changeling by continuing to stare at the shapeshifter. Blueblood, unlike every other pony in the room, didn't feel any mental anguish like the others, feeling just as alive as ever. He trotted upto the bars of the jail cell, looking at the changeling. "So this would be our guest of honor?" he asked.

Tran kept his attention directed at the changeling, maintaining his death stare. "Cell's unlocked if you want to have words," he said.

Rarity squeezed onto Blueblood's foreleg tighter. His warmth and companionship was the only thing keeping her from feeling as tortured as the others. "Something... Doesn't feel right," the fashionista said. It was a sentiment that every other pony in the room other than the prince agreed with.

Blueblood looked at his partner and could see the discomfort on her face. He took a glance at the other ponies in the room and saw that the other ponies in the room were experiencing similar. He noticed that the REA soldiers in the room and changeling were trying their best to not pay attention to the human. He turned his attention at the human. "May I have some privacy with my doppelganger?" the prince politely asked.

The human kept silent and stayed paying attention at the changeling. After an uncomfortable wait, the prince had been about ready to ask again when he executed a 180 turn and walked out of the room. The instant the human's presence was gone from the room, it seemed like the room's temperature raised itself from being deathly cold to now, tolerable. The other ponies in the room visibly relaxed, as did the changeling. Blueblood had definitely noticed Rarity's newfound relief, as her grip on him had lightened. Blueblood was somewhat confused but redirected his attention to the changeling. "I feel like I should be angry at you for stealing my identity but no," the prince told the changeling. The prisoner's eyes darted around to scrutinize the rest of the room and ponies, at one point focusing on the cell door, thinking if it had a chance of escaping. The imposter didn't want to make an attempt, knowing exactly what could befall him with the human waiting outside. "I'm outraged that you would take advantage of the lady, Rarity," the prince angrily spat out.

Rarity smiled at the prince and let go of the prince to trott closer to the changeling. "You thought you could drain me too, didn't you, you parasite?" she jeered, having no sympathy for the imposter.

The changeling looked at the mare with an angry look. "Fooled you, didn't I?" the changeling taunted. "One of Equestria's famed Elements of Harmony?"

The prince shot forward, pointing a furious hoof at the changeling. "Don't you speak to my mare like that!" he warned.

The changeling smirked at the prince. "I'm surprised you're even standing after what I did to you. I'm not scared of you," the changeling further taunted.

The Prince sneered at the changeling and before he knew it, his horn lit up and he had grabbed the changeling in his magic, pulling the imposter forward, painfully pressing him into the jail cell's bars. The changeling was shocked from the display of powerful magic, immobilizing him. "I-Impossible! I drained you!" the changeling said, mouth agape.

Prince Blueblood jeered at the changeling. He remembered what Pharynx had said earlier and he could start to feel the telekinesis start to drain his magic reserves. It was almost like day and night, he started to feel weak, both physically and magically. He wouldn't be able to maintain his telekinetic hold on the changeling and he felt close to collapsing to the ground. However, he also remembered what Wilson said and he felt some of his strength come back, even though there should have been no real reason it should have. Just to be safe, he dropped his magic, the changeling collapsed to the ground in a heap and Blueblood leaned against Rarity for support. Right as he did that, he was hit with a wave of exhaustion both physically and to his magic. It took all of his willpower to keep it from showing. "So, you decided I was an acceptable target. Was it to gather intelligence?" Blueblood asked. The imposter gave the prince a look of anger as it gathered itself up after falling to the ground when Blueblood released his magical hold. "Or perhaps to misdirect us, because we're making headway to your home?" Just as he said that, the changeling's face went from angry to blank as he tried to stay indifferent to not give any hints or secret information. The prince smirked. "So we're getting close."

The changeling's face betrayed himself as it showed a look of terror before going back to angry. It remember what Tran had said earlier and went for the cell's door, only to be stopped when Rarity lit her horn and locked the cell with a satisfying *Click*.

Rarity looked up at Blueblood. "We should notify the others, especially Eric. He's probably preparing the soldiers," she said.

Blueblood nodded and turned to leave, Rarity following behind him. When they left the room, they were right on time to watch as Tran punch one of the outside guards in the face. They were quite shocked and ready to spring into action when Tran looked at them with the usual dead expression on his face. "There's nothing to be worried about, just some friendly banter," the human said.

Rarity raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth. "What could you have possibly been talking about that involves punching somepony in the face?" she asked.

-Earlier-

Tran stepped out of the room to let Blueblood and Rarity interrogate the changeling. Outside of the room, stood two REA guards, soldiers that weren't part of his battalion. However, he did recognize one of them from Ponyville. He took a deep inhale to gather his emotions, to get rid of the building anger he had. He remembered that the strength of the emotion he was feeling was connected to this weird new aura/ability he had. He wasn't very sure of how it worked but he'd have to figure it out if he wanted to not pose as a threat to his friends/allies or cause discomfort/pain to those that didn't deserve it.

The pony Tran recognized took an interest in the human. "Sir, are you Tran?" she asked.

Tran nodded. "I'm not an officer and either way, you don't have to care about my rank," he replied. "And yes, I'm Tran."

The pony, a pegasus mare, eyed the man up and down. "I'm sorry about your loss," she said. "I'm Cloudkicker, a reserve guard from Ponyville. They recalled me for the situation here in Appleloosa. It's changelings, right? We saw the spy you discovered and brought in. How do you tell them apart?"

Tran blinked. Him, Luna, and the Night Sentinels had tried to keep details about the situation secret but it would have been impossible to keep soldiers from gossiping and making rumors. "I don't really know myself. When I'm near a disguised changeling, my instincts scream at me to kill them so I just hold them at gunpoint and they crack. Hasn't been wrong so far."

The mare looked at the human with an inquisitive look on her face, tilting her head. "There's a lot of rumors about you. None of us know what's true and what's not. Some time back, I shagged up with your short friend and he said a lot of wild things. Something about how you already died, is that true?"

Tran smirked, remembering his "death". Both allies and enemies alike made a lot of rumors about him and his friends. He wasn't invincible, as the many injuries of his would attest. However, he still found it funny that some of Equestria's denizens looked upon him like an avatar of death. "Only a little. I came back cause I had some unfinished work," Tran replied. He then realized the rest of what she had said. "Shagged up?"

She smirked upon hearing his realization. "We banged. It was just a one time thing when we were both drunk," she said. "You know how soldiers work."

Tran scoffed. He knew exactly how soldiers worked. He was one, after all. If you didn't know, soldiers were fucking stupid; wanting to spend all of their money the instant they got it, fuck anything with a pulse if it was willing, and make any stupid decision when it was possible. "I'm not his mom," he replied.

The pony nodded. "Whew, I thought you'd be mad," she said. She looked Tran up and down again. "Wanna bang sometime?" she boldly asked.

Tran's mind froze for a second and it showed on his face. When his brain rebooted, he immediately replied with, "No." He shook his head. "Don't ask again. Ever."

The mare chuckled at his reply. "Your short friend and I had a blast! You seem so tense, don't you wanna-"

She was immediately cut off when Tran punched her in the face, not enough to kill her but definitely not a love tap either. Right at that moment, Blueblood and Rarity walked out of the room to witness the punch. The two of their new guests were shocked to have witness the short altercation. They seemed ready to spring so Tran held up a hand, waving it off. "Don't worry, just friendly banter," Tran said as the mare rubbed her snout.

Rarity looked at him with a scowl of disapproval. "Why is it that you're always getting into trouble?" she asked.

Tran ignored her and looked at Blueblood, who was gently leaning against Rarity for support. "Prognosis?" Tran asked while gesturing at Blueblood's body.

Blueblood stopped leaning his weight against Rarity. He straightened up and dusted himself off. "He gave me a little chemical pick-me-up for the short term moment. However, your friend and Pharynx said that I'll be weak, physically and magically. It'll be quite the hiatus before I'm back to full health," the prince replied.

Tran folded his arms. "I'm the unkillable one, not you. Take it easy," he told the prince.

The prince shrugged. "We have work to do."

-X-X-X-

Eric stood on the top deck of the airship, watching the land pass by as they flew. Along with him, were hundreds of soldiers from his battalion. All of them were completely geared up, ready for war. Especially ready were the pegasi in the group. The pegasi, and disguised changelings, were ready to jump into the air at the drop of the hat if anything were to happen. Surrounding the airship were hundreds of flying pegasi.

That was when they could hear gunfire. It was close, definitely within a few kilometers of the airship. The pegasi that were ready to take flight looked to the human in charge, pleading with their eyes. Eric looked towards the direction where the gunfire came from and could see groups of various flying creatures darting throughout the air, at breakneck speeds. He wasn't sure what was happening, even when looking through a pair of binoculars. All he could tell was that pegasi were engaged with other pegasi.

Eric looked to the teams of pegasi he had at his disposal. All of them were Tran's aviators. "Get ready to deploy! Stick together and do not be a hero!" he ordered. One by one, the teams of pegasi ran to the edge of the airship, getting ready to fly, spreading their wings. Eric turned back to his soldiers. "Machine gunners, take position near the edge, get ready to provide covering fire!"

Now, no pegasi would have admitted it but in the air, when you're engaged with someone in aerial combat, ie dogfighting, getting any help was especially useful. The enemy changelings, before they had started the engagement, used their ability to disguise themselves to get in as close as possible. They looked exactly like the REAF (Royal Equestrian Air Force, pronounced exactly like reef in coral reef) pegasi that were guarding the air ships, even wearing the same uniforms and wielding the same weapons, the standard Equestrian military bolt action rifle. Even after the fighting had started, it was nigh impossible to tell who was a friendly and who wasn't.

Luckily, Eric had a trick up his sleeve. The airship's horns quickly blared three times, each time lasting only a few seconds. All of the escorting REAF pegasi left the skies and returned to the decks of the airships where there were armed REA soldiers waiting who would validated their allegiance. Eric had planned for something like this, beforehand, the idea of fighting a faction that had the changeling's abilities. The rogue changelings, still taking up the form of REAF pegasi, were confused as to what happened as they wouldn't know the tactics the humans had made up.

Now, was when the pegasi of the human's experimental battalion took to the skies. All of the air superiority dogfighting pegasi from Tran's section of the experimental battalion had formed up with Eric, in expectations of this. All of them took off at the same time before splitting off in predesignated teams of four to join the engagement. The disguised changelings were taken by surprised and some had immediately started firing at the pegasi.

It was nothing close to resembling a fair fight. Of course, the changelings tried to get in close with their usual tactics of being disguised but the pegasi did not let them approach without caution. When they tried to come in close and refused to answer any challenges with the correct pass phrases, the pegasi open fired and wiped out a good number of them. After that, the changelings just attempted to dogfight the pegasi, trying to break the pegasi out of their teams. If it was a one on one, they'd be able to use their disguises and surprise to give them the advantage. Unfortunately for them, while this tactic would normally work with your average cocksure pegasi (like Rainbow Dash), these pegasi refused to break apart from their teams so it came down to just who had the best tactics and firepower.

The changelings had the numbers but they weren't able to use them to their advantage. When the teams of pegasi faced groups larger than two, they'd just fake a retreat. This would bait the changelings into giving chase, where they flew into the firing lines of Eric and the machine guns that were waiting on the side of the primary airship. The other airships were trailing behind them a few kilometers back so there wasn't a risk of friendly fire. This was essentially a shooting gallery for Eric and his machine gun teams, against flying targets. For the pegasi air superiority teams, it was good experience in engaging an airborne target, using the tactic they'd been practicing to use in dogfights (the so called that Thach Weave) that Tran had been drilling through their skulls.

"Ceasefire! Ceasefire!" Eric shouted through the sound of machine gun fire. "Cease fire!" Slowly the machine gunners stopped firing as the remaining changelings were getting too far away to accurately shoot at. When the machine gunners stopped firing, the dogfighters knew that was when they had to return to the ship. Also, since the changelings were retreating, they didn't have an enemy to fight.

The battalion's pegasi suffered very few casualties. There were no deaths and whoever was injured weren't seriously wounded. The body armor that the pegasi wore, was a tremendous advantage, something that the rogue changelings knew nothing about. It prevented them from the most serious of injuries and the shotguns gave them the edge in a aerial shootout. The returning pegasi, once they were verified to be friendly, were gathered up except for the few that sported fresh battle wounds. They were sent to the infirmary.

Eric eyed the changelings that were retreating into the distance. He grabbed two of the air superiority teams. "Trail them to where ever they regroup to. If its somewhere important, return. Keep your distance and stay as close to the ground as possible. We don't need all of you getting captured too," Eric quickly briefed.

The two air superiority teams saluted and flew off in the direction of the retreating changelings. Meanwhile, the airship's crews and attachment of REA soldiers were reporting that they had possible changelings captured from the engagement. They were pegasi that had not been able to answer the challenge and password correctly. In addition to that, there were the confirmed changelings that had been captured. They were easily confirmed because they had loss an aerial engagement and were no longer holding a disguise due to severe injuries. Furthermore, there were plenty of pegasi on their side that had been seriously injured. These seriously injured pegasi weren't members of their experimental battalion but were REAF pegasi that were part of the defensive detail that were escorting them.

No matter their species, Eric had all of the injured sent to the infirmary. Just because the fighting stopped in the sky, meant that the fighting had stopped entirely.

-X-X-X-

Wilson and his medics were being put to work. Dozens of no rogue undisguised changelings had been rushed into the airship's infirmary, in addition to the injured REAF pegasi and the experimental battalion's flying teams. Part of the airship's crewmembers were indeed medical personnel but they were only a few doctors and a couple nurses per doctor. The rogue changelings were obviously stripped of their weapons and gear but there was still a problem.

One doctor had managed to stabilize one patient and moved onto the next, only to realize... "Are you fucking insane?!" the doctor demanded.

Wilson was holding the doctor's lab coat. "Yes, but you're gonna fucking fix him!" Wilson screamed into the doctor's face.

The doctor pointed at his next patient... A changeling. A changeling from the rogue faction. "He's part of the enemy and we have actual ponies that need our help!" the doctor argued back.

Wilson let go of the doctor's uniform and the stubborn unicorn fell to the ground. Wilson then used his free hand to draw a pistol, pointing it at the doctor's face. The doc froze, seeing the weapon. "You let him die and you die with him," Wilson threatened. The doctor gulped and got to his hooves, trotting over to the undisguised changeling. He looked back at Wilson who was still pointing the gun at him. "If I check back later and any of them die because of your negligence or laziness, I will shoot you myself."

The doctor nodded and pointed at a medical cabinet. "C-Can I get to work, now?" the doctor asked.

Wilson kept the pistol level for a few more seconds to emphasize his point before he finally holstered it. He angrily left this trauma bay, kicking open the doors, to find another person to work on. Luckily, most of the injured changelings that were captured were being attended to by the changeling medics that were part of his battalion. Only a few seriously injured changelings had been captured because most of them had simply fallen to their deaths. Pharynx was along with Wilson and the medical personnel in the airship's medical bay. Pharynx wasn't there to help with the medical treatment, he was there to magically drop the rogue changelings' disguises, if they were thought to be a changeling (one from the rogue faction).

When Wilson had moved to another trauma bay, he noticed a doctor and a pair of nurses frantically working on a pony. However, sitting on a hospital cot, in the corner of the room away from the others, was a heavily bandaged pegasus. Wilson ran past the doctor and nurses and to the pegasus in the corner of the room. The lone pegasus in the corner looked like no one had worked on him yet, but he showed signs of being severely wounded. Wilson turned his attention to the other medical personnel in the room. "Hey, what's going on with this guy?" Wilson demanded.

One of the nurses trotted over to Wilson and pulled him away. The nurse took a glance back at the lone pegasus and then back to Wilson. "He's not gonna make it. We can't waste our efforts on him with our workload," the nurse whispered to Wilson.

At first, Wilson was shocked. Then, he was angry. He ran over to another doctor and grabbed her before dragging her over to the pegasus in the corner. "Get to work!" Wilson yelled. The doctor looked at the dying pegasus before looking up to Wilson with a sad look on his face. "Hey, we're not giving up on anyone until they're dead. Go one step at a time, come on!"

The doctor sighed while pointed to the other nurse. "Clamps, three of them and a cauterizer," the doctor finally called out a few seconds later. The nurse ran off to get the needed tools.

That left Wilson alone with the pegasus. The pegasus was still conscious but he was weak. The pegasus was bleeding through his bandages in three spots. The pegasus looked up at Wilson. "I-I know I'm not gonna make it," the pegasus feebly said.

Wilson could identify that he had been shot in three places, once in one leg and twice in his barrel. Wilson identified the one that was bleeding the most and pressed the bandages against bullet hole, trying his best to keep the bleeding minimum. "What's your name, soldier?"

The pegasus gave a weak smile. "T-Thunderlane," he finally replied.

The other nurse in the room was stabilizing the other patient in the room while the doctor lit up her horn and used it to clamp off a vein in this pegasus's barrel where he'd been shot. "Where's those clamps!?" the doctor yelled out.

Wilson dug his fingers into one of the pony's other bullet wound and used his fingers to clamp the vein manually. "What do you want to do after the army?" Wilson asked. "Your dream job?"

The pegasus was losing color in his face as he loss more blood. "I-I've always wanted to be a W-Wonderbolt," he finally replied.

The nurse finally returned with the necessary equipment and the doctor clamped off whatever veins they had closed while Wilson applied the tourniquet on his affected leg. "You're gonna live and you're gonna be the best Wonderbolt, okay Thunderlane? You have any family in Ponyville?" Wilson said to the pony. He could see that the wounded pony's eyes were half lidded, like he was about to go to sleep. "Thunderlane?!" Wilson immediately shouted into the pony's face.

That managed to get him to "wake up" more and he looked up at Wilson. "B-Brother. A little colt," Thunderlane replied.

It continued on and on. They'd didn't give Thunderlane any morphine, so he could feel everything they did to him because they couldn't afford to tank his blood pressure with opiates. By the time Thunderlane was stabilized, Wilson left the pegasus to the attention of the medical personnel so he could step out. Once he was outside of the trauma bay, he pulled out his cigarettes and started smoking, not caring that blood was covering his hands. He was soon joined by the doctor.

The doctor trotted up to Wilson. She had a sad look on her face. "I don't think he'll make it to the morning. He's been shot through the lung and his liver's been grazed, and he's lost a lot of blood," she whispered to Wilson. "We can't save them all."

Wilson threw his cigarette to the ground. "He's not gonna die!" Wilson yelled out. The doctor flinched from Wilson's scream. "If he's alive, we will do everything we can with our best!"

By the time this mission ended days later, Thunderlane survived. Wilson would constantly go back to help the medical personnel in constantly attending the wounded pony but he survived. He would be medically discharged from the REAF where he would then start his long recovery. He would fortunately make a full recovery but it took a few long years.

Of all of the people that were brought in to the sick bay, only a couple died. One was a REAF pegasus and the other was a rogue changeling. All of the people that Wilson had worked on or helped work on, would survive, no matter the severity of their injuries. The only other members of that short engagement that didn't survive the engagement had either died immediately during the engagement or had fallen to their deaths. It was sad true nature of being an aerial combatant. If you were injured enough to where you couldn't fly anymore, you would then spend the rest of your life falling. There was almost no chance of being caught as any other members of an aerial engagement were busy with their own tasks/fights.

But if you managed to return from the fight and Wilson was there, you weren't going to die on his watch. He'd rather die than let someone else die.

Author's Note

Well, the votes have been tallied up. For everyone who participated, thank you! It came out ponies 3 and griffons 6. You'll soon find out what this character is.

Also, I saw the comments about the self insert thing. The Tran in this story isn't a 100% insert, more like 30% me. I've made him the trope of "cold sniper". Also the Tran in this story is from the alternate universe where I was able to continue my military career, had I not been run over by a car and grown a tumor the year later. This Tran has done 5 more years in the army and is completely jaded to life from being in the army so long. I hope its not cringe-y but I'm aware its a self insert My Little Pony fanfiction so there's already some cringe in the first plate but eh. Writing the self insert story lets me fantasize about what I could have possibly done, had I not have to deal with all of this bad luck that life has given me with all of my health problems.

As usual, thanks for reading my story. I hope you enjoy this latest chapter. If you'd like to, go ahead and leave a comment, I enjoy reading them.

The Tragedy Of War Is That It Uses Man's Best To Do Man's Worst

The pegasi scouts that Eric had sent out had managed to tail the changelings back to their hive. The two airships that went off in this direction had landed and parked themselves about 15 kilometers away. It was close enough so that the ground troops didn't have to march for ages, when they would attack the hive, but far enough away that enemy ground artillery would hopefully not be able to fire on their position. The airships' parking location was hidden from the hives and hopefully, they wouldn't be at threat from enemy artillery, if they had any. They had to work fast as the more time that passed by, the more time that the changeling hive could prepare for a fight.

The changeling hive was nestled in between some mountains, near where the reported possible dragon dens sat. The scouts reported that the exterior of the hive already had defenses set up. There were crescent shaped trench lines, that had the tips pointing away from the hive dug into the desert and hundreds of ponies(most likely disguised changelings) and griffons were milling about outside the hive. The changelings that had returned from the aerial engagement, had probably notified them of the impending danger. Between the many small trench lines were lots of the rogue hive's forces, building more hasty defenses like berms, setting up sandbags, or digging holes.

The REA debated completely destroying the hive and burying the changelings, but Princess Luna changed their minds. Pharynx had told her that the changeling hive could be home to hundreds, possibly thousands, of captured ponies and POWs (Prisoners Of War) that were being used as food sources. Also, if they wanted to destroy the hive, they'd have to destroy all of the entrances and they only knew of the one entrance that they could see at the moment.

Since this hive looked to be huge, housing possibly thousands of changelings, Princess Luna had decided to send a signal back to the airships that had been left behind in Appleloosa. They were told to send reinforcements and possibly send one of the two airships to their position, to help assault the hive. The ponies didn't have radios and sending a pegasus messenger team would take hours. Luckily, the princess had her magic and she sent a magical message, exactly like how Princess Twilight did in Baltimare. The message had their coordinates and the call for reinforcements, and it was incapable of being intercepted like what's possible with messengers. It was instantaneous too unlike a pegasus messenger which would take almost an hour. This location was only a couple hundred kilometers away from Appleloosa, so they'd be expecting the reinforcement's arrival in the next few hours. Though this wasn't accounting for how long it would take the airship to gather up their necessities to mobilize.

Eric had planned an assault for the changeling hive. It would start out with the airships shelling the hive's defensive positions with their guns. Each airship was equipped with a small number of large bore, long range artillery but they had a limited number of shells. Then, when the changelings would most likely try to give counter battery fire, like most people would do after an artillery barrage. That was when the pegasi would fly in and drop their bombs to destroy or disrupt their artillery fire and defensive positions. At that point, Eric and his troops would assault the position on foot while the pegasi flew overhead to provide additional bombing support. Once they took the trench lines that the changelings had built up, they could siege the changeling hive. How they would siege the changeling hive would be for the future. They didn't need to waste the resources in planning/preparing that far ahead.

Eric mobilized all of the soldiers from the experimental battalion, including all of the soldiers from Tran's section and half of the medic teams from Wilson's section. The other half of the medics were still on the airship, in its infirmary, attending to the wounded personnel. In addition to the experimental battalion, half of the airships' escorting defensive pegasi would be involved in this offensive, assisting in keeping the skies clear from enemies.

All of this started with a 15 kilometer ruck march. Eric and the experimental battalion gathered only the essentials and started walking.

-X-X-X-

Inside the changeling hive and outside of it where the outer defenses were built, hundreds, possibly thousands of changelings and griffins were milling about. They were preparing for a fight, one they somehow knew was gonna be big and bad. They hadn't had much time to prepare, with the REA surprising them. They still had a short time to have staged a significant chunk of forces out in the pre-dug trenches that existed beforehand.

The changeling spies and scouts had reported the power of what they faced, the scouts having given more information. The spies were barely able to probe the REA forces, with nearly all of their spies had been caught. With what little information that was gathered, the average soldiers in the hive and outside where the defenses, felt anxious about what they were facing. The tiny iota of successful spies and scouts that were able to gather intel and return had made things worse. From what they could amass, there was a battalion of soldiers on the only airship they were able to infiltrate. They then assumed that each airship held a battalion of soldiers, not including the pegasi that were escorting them, if they considered the worst case scenario as was usually done in wartime.

That meant the rogue changeling hive thought they were facing four battalions of soldiers and the hundreds of escorting pegasi. Then, there were the humans. So many rumors of what those... Things could do. Before they(the rogue hive's chain of command) knew it, their soldiers were fighting. Not just one or two, but a very significant quantity of them were fighting with luckily only hoof and claws, not using their talons, knives, guns, bayonets, and or whatever variety of lethal weapons that were at their disposal.

This meant that exceedingly valuable time was being wasted on the required amount of effort to halt said fights. The fight had been caused by some soldiers trying to forcibly switch roles. It was an unwinnable situation. Everyone knew that being assigned to the inner defenses or the support mortar line was a much safer prospect than the outer defenses but in the end, someone had to man it. Usually, the changelings were much more disciplined, not just from training, but culture as the changelings warrior and role caste system and pheromones helped control behavior. However, even the changelings were unnerved right now. It was like there was someone in the air that was making them anxious, something that wasn't the usual pheromones. Not something physical but something intangible, almost like a powerful aura.

-X-X-X-

All Eric had to do, was to signal the airships to start the artillery barrage. He and the soldiers with him had made the long ruck march and found a good point where they could start their assault. They were as close to the changeling hive, as they could be without their numbers being discovered. They were maybe slightly under a kilometer away now and were just staging their forces.

After a long and arduous trek through the Badland's desert, everyone should have been tired. They had marched for hours through the rough Badland's desert while ladened down with all of their gear. However, with Eric in their company, the soldiers felt... Powerful. They felt like warriors. They wanted this fight. Just being around the human was enough to make them stronger than ever before, as if they were always meant to fight.

Eric checked the chamber of his Ak74 to make sure it was loaded. He looked around and saw that all of his troops were in place and that machine gun teams had been set up to provide covering fire. Everything was in its place. He pulled out a flare gun and fired it into the air. The green flare soared high in the sky, signalling everything off.

The changeling hive and its forces immediately saw the flare that was fired into the air, but their attention was soon taken away as the airships in the distance had started firing. From the range they were firing at, it took quite a few noticeable seconds before shells started impacting. None of the airships were to fire directly at the changeling hive, with caution not to destroy the entrance, only at the outer trench lines. Of the shells fired, none had made any direct hits as the airships were firing from near their max range. However, the threat of the shells made all the difference. All of the changelings and griffons in the hive's outer defenses had battened down for safety. There were many changelings and griffons that were flying in the air who were now forced to the ground under threat of the artillery.

It had taken a little over a minute for the airships to stop firing and when they did, Eric blew a whistle. At that moment, hundreds of pegasi took to the air. These were the pegasi of Tran's section of their battalion, which were further reinforced with additional pegasi taken from the airships escorting security detail. When all of them took flight, all of the machine guns that were on Eric's side started firing. The forces of the rogue changelings gave back return fire, but while they were under assault, all of their flying forces that were previously airborne, didn’t get the opportunity to take to the skies again.

The only side that had forces in the air was Eric's and hopefully, it'd stay that way. At the moment, the forces of the rogue changeling hive had their entire attention diverted to combating the machine gun teams that Eric was currently with. As the rogue changeling hive's forces were firing on this two way rifle range. The bomber teams had started dropping some of their payloads. The first targets to start exploding, were those crescent shaped trench lines that the rogue hive had built up.

When the first bombs hit, Eric had fired another flare into the air while throwing a smoke grenade. Everyone on Eric's side had started preparing to or had been charging to assault those damaged trench lines. The first ones to get out and charge came from Eric's machine gun teams and Tran's scouts. Of each of the individual machine gun teams, half of each teams' members were packing up the machine guns they had emplaced while the other half had just charged.

Noticeably, the yaks of the machine gun teams were a part of those specified halves that were out and charging. The yaks were easily the largest targets (being two to five times bigger than a pony) and would hopefully be the first ones to be noticed by the enemy and attempted to be shot at. The yaks had planned for this, so they wore enough steel armor to make them bulletproof, at least to small arms fire. They were also the fastest runners/chargers out of anyone there, so they'd be in the front, again, making them more noticeable than anyone else. They were naturally meant to soak up the enemy fire, while also taking all of the attention so that the other much squishier soldiers could survive.

The bombers had been circling the rogue hive's outer defenses, dropping bombs every now and then. Some had flown away to other sectors to destroy key targets, like mortar batteries or other targets of opportunity. By the time they moved on/stopped their bombing, the yaks, with Eric leading them, had made it so close to the first of the hive's trenches, that they were well within the possible wounding blast radius of the bombs being dropped. The outermost defenses were several short individual trench lines that were made in the shape of crescents. The trench's crescent shapes had the points of the crescent pointing outward, towards the attackers. This design meant that anyone that reached the trench line in the middle where most attackers would go, would be in a beating/firing zone of defenders from the crescent's tips. Worse yet, the changeling factions had set up machine guns in each of these crescent's tips, but fortunately, none of them were firing. They had been pinned down or destroyed by the dropped bombs.

With the bombing runs ceasing, the defenders were finally able to peak out from their hiding spots, but they were immediately met by pegasi diving from the sky and attacking them. These pegasi weren't any of the flying teams from Tran's section of the human's battalion, but were the pegasi that were borrowed from the airship's flying security escorts. There were enough of these pegasi, attacking with such aggression and force, that they were able to distract the defenses long enough for Eric and the first of the charging yaks to make it the rest of the way to the changeling's defenses without problem. With Eric and the yaks joining in the melee in each of the trench lines, it was turning into a one sided slaughter. The instant the yaks jumped into a trench line, they would charge straight down one direction to gore any enemies with their horns. They were absolutely unstoppable juggernauts in those small confined trench lines.

The changelings and griffons knew this and many of them started climbing out of those trench lines and retreating to the hastily built up defenses between the trench lines and the hive's entrance. These final defenses were just hastily and poorly made berms or firing holes. With the enemy falling back/retreating to rear line defenses, Eric, the yaks, and the pegasi started defending the trenches they captured as they waited for the rest of the charging soldiers to arrive.

As the bulk of the remaining forces started arriving, Eric fired another flare into the air. At that moment, the bombers who were still airborne resumed their bombing runs with whatever bombs they had remaining, targeting the final defenses of the hive before the entrance. The bombers had to make good use of their bombs, mostly to keep the defenders from trying to mount any form of counterattack.

Eric took the time to look at the conditions of his forces, using a set of binoculars to look across the battlefield, at the other outer crescent trench lines. Almost all of them had been captured with very minimal casualties. What few casualties he took, had been dragged away by Wilson's teams of medics. The yaks did their job and soaked up a lot of enemy fire. He had seen one that had dozens of bullet and shrapnel impacts. The airships in the rear line, after having watched this successful assault, had started flying forward to a new position closer to the changeling hive.

Eric could easily see and identify the two airships that they had marched from. However, he saw a third. It was a familiar airship, being one of the other two airships that arrived at Appleloosa with them. That third airship was rapidly approaching their position as fast as it could. That third ship should have meant good news. They had freshly arrived at the battle and should be carrying reinforcements for this assault. It was supposed to be good news to have had that third allied friendship's arrival.

Suddenly the third airship started firing its guns. That third airship had freshly arrived to battle and like the first two airships that started out this battle, it was armed with some artillery guns. They had a fresh supply of shells they could use. However, they hadn't been involved in the beginning and planning phase of the battle. The commanders and pilot of the third airship did not know the battle plan. The third airship, having just joined the battle, wanted to help out. They couldn't be directly involved in the battle but they could provide secondary support by providing artillery support

As the third airship's shells started impacting, everyone on both sides realized the tremendous mistake that this airship was making. They were firing on the changeling hive's defenses. Hive defenses, that included the many small trench lines that Eric and his soldiers had taken over and were now filling. They were firing at an extreme range, meaning their accuracy was also sub par, landing all over the general direction of their target.

The first ones to react were the bombers and aerial superiority teams. They flew high up and far away as fast their wings could drive them, to avoid the friendly fire. Unfortunately, not everyone had wings. The hive's defenders were forced to batten down to save themselves from the artillery fire, as were Eric's forces. A large chunk of Eric's forces were still charging towards the trench lines, the tail end of the assault force that had lagged behind. Eric grabbed a few of the pegasi that were bunkered down in the trenches and sent them to fly back as fast as they could to the airships, to stop this mistake. Unfortunately, even flying as fast as they could, it would take them a good while before they crossed the many kilometers distance that separated them and the airships.

Eric charged out of the safety of the trench line he took, to the danger of the open ground, to hurry along the remaining members of his forces. He screamed at the still exposed ponies to ditch whatever equipment they were carrying to bring up to the battle, so they could get to safety faster. There were some of the still exposed forces that had simply dove into shell or bomb craters, hugging the ground while praying that they wouldn't get hit.

Worst of all, the ponies that were furthest away from the trenches had been soldiers trying to carry wounded. These wounded had taken injuries during the initial assault and were stuck out in open fields where they were naked targets to war. Some brave souls had tried to help bring them to safety, working in teams. Eric had tried running up to a grouping of six ponies. Of the six, two of them were severely wounded, being barely able to move on their own, and were being slowly dragged to the closest safe haven each by a pair of heroes.

Eric had tried running up to them to assist in their futile quest for safety. As he came within spitting distance of the six ponies, a shell landed nearby and those six no longer existed. They were simply vaporized by a shell's impact, showering the entire area with the body parts, dirt and shrapnel. Eric was caught in the blast of the shell's explosion and it was a miracle he wasn't hit by shrapnel. Instead, he was showered in the vaporized remains of the six unfortunate souls. Eric froze on the spot as he realized what had happened. Shells were still impacting around and Eric's body robotically walked to the crater of the shell impact that was filled with the remains of the six and lied down, only instinct driving him.

The 3rd airship's artillery barrage didn't last long. Those airships carried a limited amount of ammunition so they wouldn't weigh down the airship's ability to fly. When the last of the shells impacted, a silence filled the air. No one on each side was shooting. Nothing made a noise. When Eric finally stood up, breaking out of his stupor, he checked himself over. He didn't find any physical wounds. Emotionally, he was effectively destroyed. He was covered in the viscera of the six soldiers, reminding him of the nightmare he just witnessed. Eric looked down at his hands, finding they were all red, completely covered in the blood and gore of his former soldiers.

From the captured trench lines, some of the REA forces ran out of the trench lines and away from the battle. They made their way to the shell out sections of the battlefield to search for any survivors of the shelling. When a yak and his assistant gunner arrived to find Eric, they were shocked. From a distance, they had seen the human's general shape and size. Up close, they didn't expect to see a monument of the war. They were absolutely frightened from how much blood and body parts that Eric's appearance/outfit was now composed of. Eric was covered in so much viscera that he was entirely blood red, arms, legs, torso, and head.

When Eric stared at the two soldiers that approached him, he stared at him. The two soldiers, even the yak, were petrified from the hollow stare they received. They didn't expect to see blood red eyes to stare back.

When Eric finally came to, he slowly picked up his dropped rifle from the shell crater and he crawled out of his temporary earthen prison. When Eric reached the soldiers, he walked past them and back to the battlefield. When he walked past the two soldiers, the yak and pony were scared of what was to come. Eric stopped walking, causing the two soldiers to flinch. Eric's slow turn around to face the two soldiers further unnerved them.

When they could see his face again, they now saw eyes filled with aggression and war. They knew Eric was out for blood. Apparently, being showered in his fellow soldier's eviscerated remains and being forced to lie in a pool of gore wasn't enough. Slowly, Eric's dead face turned to one of rage. A haunting snarl came to Eric's face, as if he had started growling. He screamed to the high heavens and charged back to the battlefield.

Although they were scared, the two soldiers that went to check up on their commander knew what was to happen. They shared the same feelings, wanting revenge. They could feel the same blood lust that Eric felt and charged forward, trying to catch up to Eric as they also started screaming to the heavens for blood.

-X-X-X-

The final outer defenses before the changeling hive were slow to recover from the artillery barrage. While most of it had landed on the REA's forces, some still landed on what remained of the hive's defenses. When soldiers started popping out to continue fighting, they hadn't expected the REA forces to be all charging at them. An unearthly screeching/howl came from the charging REA forces and they didn't know what to do. Leading the charge at the front of the REA was an unearthly red monster that drove in nightmares of haunting butchery.

In terror, some of the defending hive's forces started running away in terror. The defender's chain of command tried to stop their forces from retreating, but fights broke out as the soldiers fought their allies for their own personal survival. They could not face the hoard of attackers and just seeing that red monster drove them to a new heightened state of panicked dread. The closer and closer that inhuman creature came to them, the more they felt scared for their own personal being. They felt like they were prey, being hunted by a predator and running away almost felt pointless as their survival almost felt futile. There were more of them fighting each other instead of wanting to fight their incoming onslaught.

When the hoard hit the final hive's outer defenses, it was like a wildfire spreading to kindling. None of the hive's remaining defenses were able to mount any decent defense. It was a complete slaughter as the final defenders fell and the hive's entrance fell into REA hand's.

-X-X-X-

With the outside of the hive captured, the REA airships had closed the distance and landed close by to the hive. The REA forces held down the outside of the Rogue changeling hive, while others were herding prisoners of war into the airships. Eric, the leader of this assault, had walked over to where the REA airships had parked. He was like a hollow ghost that nobody wanted to interact with. Just one look at his gore covered form was enough to rile up buried feelings of helplessness, as if they were a broken child being trampled by an angry mob.

Eric made his way through an airship's bowels. It was the third airship that had joined in on their assault, the fresh one from Appleloosa meant to help reinforce them. Eric had no idea how the inside of the airship was laid out. He had no instructions or anyone escorting. However, he kept on walking through the airship, just walking in a direction driven by instinct. Everywhere Eric went, the ponies would immediately leave the area upon seeing him. Everyone could see that he was a man on a mission and wherever he was heading, it would end in a fight. He just had that look to him, the look of a dangerous predator out on a hunt.

Eric had no idea where his instincts were driving him, but wherever it pointed him to, he followed it without a second thought. He did know, however, that wherever he was going, there was going to be war. Before he knew it, he was in the air ship's control room. Inside, there was naturally the ship's pilot, along with random REA and REAF officers and some of the airship's crewmembers. They were all standing around, having been discussing something when Eric entered the room.

What they were talking about, Eric had no idea as the instant he stepped foot into the room, everyone inside went silent as they tried to figure out who had walked in on their meeting. He cast a very imposing sight, being entirely covered in blood and gore and the ponies inside were scared of what he would want. The room felt mysteriously warmer as they could feel the rage that radiated from Eric. The ponies inside felt further unnerved as the human was unfazed by what he was covered in. The smell of blood drove the ponies' brains into flight or fight mode, but there was something else that was driving them into a state of ever growing aggression in their very beings. Something about Eric, not just his appearance, was digging up deeply long buried primitive instincts. For each of the ponies, Eric just being present felt like they each had someone standing behind them, goading/taunting them into fighting.

Eric looked at the various officers in the room, his ghostly gaze peering down into each of the ponies' very beings. "Who ordered the artillery barrage?" Eric asked, finally breaking the silence. No one wanted to answer but the perpetrator was betrayed as some ponies looked over at the pilot. Eric keyed in on this and stared down at the pilot. "Were you ordered to provide artillery fire?"

The pilot, being brought up on the spot, felt like a socially anxious child being forced to speak to a large audience. "N-No," replied the pilot.

Eric stared at the pony for a few more seconds before anything else was spoken. "You are part of the reinforcements we sent. Did you know we had planned this assault?" Eric had asked.

The pilot swallowed. "N-No," the pilot repeated. "We saw the fighting and thought we should join in to help."

A deep rage started to well up in Eric. It didn't show on his face. However, for the ponies in the room, it felt like the room was growing ever warmer. With Eric standing in the command room's only doorway, he was forcing the room's occupants to interact with him. Instead of feeling like a boring meeting, being in this room with Eric felt like they were standing at the frontlines during a major battle. "So you started firing indiscriminately? Did you know where friendly forces were positioned?" Eric asked.

The pilot shook his head, beads of sweat starting fall down his muzzle. "We only s-shelled the hive's defenses," the pilot said.

Tears fell from Eric's eyes that ran down his face and dripped to the floor red, like he was crying blood. His eyes, they should have been white like any other creatures, but at the moment were deep red. The first assumption anyone level headed and rational would make was that a vessel in his eye must have blown from being in such close vicinity to a shell impact explosion. No one in this room was level headed right now and Eric just looked like a red demon that came straight from hell.

Finally, something showed on Eric's face and it was rage. It was a rage that scared everyone in the room. "We were taking the changeling defenses!" Eric shouted at the pilot. Eric surged forward and grabbed the pilot by his uniform. "You shelled us! You shelled your own forces, you fucking Idiot!"

The pilot tried to break free from Eric's grasp but was unable to. He should have been scared, but the longer and longer Eric held onto him, the pilot felt more and more angry. Eric's touch was driving him to feel belligerent, as if he was being taunted and forced to fight. Adrenaline pumped through the pilot's veins and he saw red. The pilot roared and punched Eric in the face with a nasty right hook. Eric's head split open from the hoof's impact, who roared back at the pony while throwing him forward. The pilot soared across the room, impacting the airship's steering wheel. The pilot fell to the ground, but he recovered quickly and charged back towards Eric.

Eric dodged the buck the pilot tried to threw and slammed his elbow down onto the pilot's back, collapsing the pony to the ground. Eric raised his foot to literally kick the pilot while he was down, but he was then knocked down himself. Eric looked to his assailant, finding that one of the other officers in the room had joined in on the fight by bucking him. Eric snarled and grabbed the second pony's front legs and pulled him to the ground. While the brawl's newest fighter fell to the ground, Eric pulled himself up to his feet and approached the new fighter only to feel pain in his side. He looked to find the pilot up on his feet, brandishing a knife. Eric slowly approached the pilot, drawing his own knife in the process.

A lot of people say that, in a knife fight, no one wins due to the danger that a knife poses as it is always a "loaded" weapon. Eric was still wearing his gear and body armor so the pilot's slashes didn't find any flesh, unlike the first lucky cheap shot he executed earlier. As for Eric, his knife tasted a lot of blood. The pilot was only wearing his uniform, effectively providing no protection. By the time the pilot collapsed, the other ponies and officers in the room started taking their own actions upon realizing the gravity of the situation as the two closed in on each other.

One officer tried to draw his sidearm but Eric saw the threat. At supernatural speeds, Eric drew his own revolver and had it aimed before his opponent's revolver cleared its holster. Without a second thought, Eric fired. The officer froze for a second, as if his body wasn't able to process what was happening. A second later, the officer fell to the ground, twitching and leaking blood.

The gunshot was the metaphorical flip of a switch for this dangerous situation. The next thing anyone in the room knew, everyone's flight or fight response was thrown into overdrive. That said, none of them had the thought to run. Eric's presence had an almost taunting aura to it, as if someone was ordering them to fight. Others tried to draw their own sidearms, but Eric keyed in on each of them and dropped them with a shot before any of them could clear their guns from leather.

Only the officers were carrying sidearms, the airship's crewmembers were unarmed, so they tried rushing the raging human down. A few were dropped before one of them managed to tackle Eric from the behind. Eric was once again being knocked to the ground, but he was able to quickly regain his senses. Turning around in his attacker's grasp, he smashed his revolver into the crewmember's face, knocking him out.

The crewmember's body fell limp on top of Eric, pinning him to the floor. That didn't stop him from aiming his revolver at another crew member that was quickly approaching. The charging pony froze at the sight of the gun even though his instincts were telling him to fight. "Enough!" Eric yelled, still pinned to the ground. The few remaining ponies in the room that were still conscious or alive and able, also froze in terror as Eric pushed the unconscious pony's body off of him. Getting to his feet, Eric still kept the revolver level while drawing a second handgun with his other hand. Eric kept both handguns level as he just started walking away, done with this bloodshed. The other ponies in the room still felt like they should be trying to fight him, as their instincts were compelling them to do so but they managed to keep it well off. Much to the surprise of the remaining ponies, Eric simply walked out of the room.

The instant Eric closed the door of the room, signaling that he had truly left, the metaphorical flip of a switch was flipped off. The ponies in the room no longer felt compelled to fight. All of their adrenaline was gone, replaced with a feeling of shock and confusion. The room felt supernaturally colder as if their tempers were being forced to cool off. One of the crewmembers, one who was barely involved in the fight, had one question. "What the fuck just happened?" loudly asked one of the surviving bridge crew.

Elsewhere

On the deck of the primary command airship, Luna and Tran watched as soldiers were being fielded onto the ground so that they could properly have a proper hold/control of the rogue changeling hive's entrance. As that happened, soldiers were being brought back onto the airship so they could be properly relieved and that wounds could be treated. Tran looked over at the Princess. "Did you order the other airship to provide artillery support?" Tran had asked.

The princess shook her head. She saw the consequences of the late artillery barrage as they were speaking, as wounded soldiers were being brought onto the airship. "They did it of their own volition, most likely the pilot trying to take initiative, chasing for some chest jewelry," the princess replied.

Tran's usually dead expression turned sullen. "Friendly fire, isn't," Tran said. The two of them were distracted by something else. They heard the sound of someone with wings landing behind them. When the two of them turned around to address their new guest, they were shocked. Instead of one of their fellow pegasi, like a messenger or scout, they found a lone griffon standing there. It wasn't Gilda but a different griffon, one that wore the Imperial Griffon Air Force's uniform and a prominent red scarf around his neck. The griffon looked to be heavily wounded, with several bullet holes in his chest and wings, but also looked unbothered by the injuries he sported. From what they could see, his fur and wings were white, under his uniform. However, his eyes also looked white and hollow, as if there was no life in him. Hauntingly of all, his eyes had no pupils as if they were rolled back into his head.

Worse of all, the wounded Jaeger was wielding a rifle in his talons and it was leveled out at chest height, looking ready to fire. "Trraaaan," the griffon growled out.

Make Friends, Not War

The Jaeger, Princess Luna, and Tran stared each other down, as if they were gunslingers in a duel. The Jaeger had a terribly conditioned rifle in his taloned hands and it was leveled in their general direction. Meanwhile, Princess Luna had no weapon ready but she was prepared to cast a spell as fast as she could, if she had an opening. However, she was sure that the Jaeger could fire before she could finish casting any kind of magic. It was exceedingly easy to tell if a pony was using magic, you'd just have to stay alert for any glow appearing on the caster's horn. Tran also had no weapon ready as he and the princess had just been supervising troop movements below. He had his hands by his side, near his signature hand cannon hung on a drop leg holster near his left hand.

The princess and human could take the chance, hoping speed and skill would win out in this duel but their opponent was a Jaeger, so they knew they were facing someone with significant skill too. However, the griffon appeared to be wounded so there was the chance that they could use speed and agility while hoping that the Jaeger would be slowed down from the wounds. Speaking of the wounds, he should have been dead from what they could see. The Jaeger had a few gaping holes in his chest, hell there was one large hole where his heart should be, and one of the wings was missing a significant chunk, also from what looked to be a gunshot, damaged enough that it should be impossible for him to fly. Princess Luna had also questioned how this Jaeger was standing to face them from something else, both of the griffons legs were crushed, as if he had fallen from a tremendous height and landed on his legs.

Everything in Princess Luna's mind was screaming at her that this Jaeger, no, this monstrosity was an affront to Faust. She felt more and more drawn to her great sword as she continued to look at it. The Jaeger scowled. "Goddamn cheap shot, trying to kill us while we were just shittin' around," the griffon said. Tran's face was its usual dead expression but he clenching his teeth in anger. He knew exactly what the Jaeger was referencing, when an assassination was attempted on Logan and himself. The hand that was hovering around his signature sidearm was feeling more and more enticing.

The Jaeger looked around for a bit, as if he was confused. "Just woke up and all my shit was gone," the Jaeger said. The griffon pointed the rifle up into the sky, to give the two of them a good view of the damaged rifle. "Found this so I'm just using this fucking shit ass trash." The Jaeger lowered the rifle so it was level again. "Do you know what fucking happened? I woke up and shit was gone. Did you fucking dust off without me or something?"

That was when Tran went from angry to confused. He had no idea what this griffon wanted. This Jaeger hadn't killed either of them by now like both he and the princess had expected. That was when he realized something even more confusing, the Jaeger had been speaking very oddly, using slang in a manner that didn't match how other griffons cussed. Then, he realized the most important thing about how the Jaeger spoke. The Jaeger had asked if they had dusted off. Dust off wasn't a slang that the griffons or Equestrians used. Tran was no longer confused as his eyes went wide. "Sort off. Dust off to charlie mike. Had a bright light," Tran quickly said.

Princess Luna had no idea what Tran was saying or what was going on but it definitely seemed like the griffon did when he sighed in response. "Well shit. What the hell happened anyways? I woke up and all my shit was gone? Where can I find it and some coffee?" the griffon asked.

Tran didn't reply for a few seconds. He thought of what to ask next. "I'll get you a cup, what do you want with it?" Tran asked.

The griffon replied an instant later, not bothering to think. "They got some heavy cream and bourbon anywhere on this bird?" he asked back.

The princess was confused as to what was going on but she definitely knew that Tran had an inkling of an idea. She turned to Tran but was astonished to see him casually walk up to the griffon, as if he was not afraid of getting killed by the Jaeger. "Pray tell, what in Tartarus is going on?

As Tran got within spitting distance of the Jaeger, the griffon pointed the rifle in a safe direction so that it wasn't a potential threat to the human. Tran held out a hand, offering a handshake. "Do you know what's going on right now?" he asked the Jaeger.

The Jaeger had an almost confused look to his face. "Yeah? A battle or something, like we're always in?" the Jaeger replied. The Jaeger took up Tran's hand and shook it and the instant they shook hands, the Jaeger jolted like he was hit with a bolt of lightning. "What the fuck?" The griffon broke his hand away from Tran's and held it out in front of his face. "The hell?" The jaeger dropped the rifle and held out both of his arms in front of him as he started hovering in the air with some wing flaps.

At that exact moment, Princess Luna enveloped the Jaeger with a shield and drew her saber. She was about to charge but Tran held out a hand to stop her. She had questions but kept them reserve as she dropped the shield spell. Meanwhile, the Jaeger was looking himself over. "The fuck's going on?" the Jaeger asked.

Tran snapped a few times to get the Jaeger's attention, to which he did. "What's your name?" Tran asked.

The Jaeger looked confused for a second. "What?" he asked back.

Tran just repeated his question. "What. Is. Your. Name?" Tran asked slowly.

The Jaeger still looked confused but he opened his beak. "Logan? You know my fucking name," the Jaeger replied.

Tran smiled for once, knowing his friend was back. He wasn't physically the same as he was now a griffon with a different voice and everything but he was back. Tran looked over to Princess Luna and gestured at the Jaeger. The princess looked just as confused. "Logan?" she repeated back. Her eyes slowly opened. "The same name as your late friend?"

Tran looked back at the Jaeger. "You've been dead for like a month," he said to the Jaeger.

The griffon looked at Tran like he had grown a second head and was about to refute it but then he looked down at his taloned hands for a second before looking down at himself. He then realized he was hovering in the air, not having ever noticed that he had taken flight. "What the shit?" he asked himself. "Why the fuck am I a griffon?"

Tran folded his arms and shrugged, not knowing the answer either. "To make it weirder, you're one of the Jaegers that ambushed us, killing you and me."

Logan looked back at Tran. He noticed something about Tran that didn't match his condition. "Wait, then why am I a griffon and you're still you?" he asked.

Tran shrugged again. He didn't know the answer but he did have some theories. "You died immediately, shot in the back of the head, no head left afterwards. Dead instantly. I was hit in the upper back. I killed them back and then died later, Wilson restarted my heart," Tran explained.

Logan at Tran. The explanation took a few seconds to really hit. "Shit, that's fucking metal," he said. Logan, then looked back down at himself and noticed the big holes in his body. "Huh," he said while poking at one of the holes. "This is weird. Like, I can feel things when I touch them with my hands but I don't feel anything coming from the holes." Tran reached out and grabbed his wing, the damaged one, as to which Logan flinched, trying to pull it back. Tran didn't let go and before Logan knew it, some of Tran's fingers brushed against the wound in his wing. Logan immediately yelped in pain and pulled the wing out of Tran's grasps. "Ah, fuck!" he cried out.

Then, strangely enough, the wound on his wing started bleeding. This was odd because none of the other wounds were bleeding, but for some reason, the one on his wing only now wanted to start bleeding. To make things seem more eerie, he wasn't bleeding a normal consistent flood of red blood like a normal person was. Instead, a dark red, almost brownish sludge-like blood oozed out, as if it was already coagulated. Tran stared at the wound that he had just touched and then at the hand he touched the wound with. He lowered his hands and looked to the princess. "Can you help him with that?" he asked.

Although Princess Luna had many questions, she trotted over to the wounded Jaeger with caution. This entire encounter was strange and she didn't know what to ask or say about it. She was about to cast a spell but she looked over at Tran to get a final confirmation. "Are you sure about this?" she asked. Tran slowly nodded in response. She looked over to the Jaeger and let out a snort. "Princess of Equestria caught aiding and abetting the enemy, back to the moon?" she whispered to herself. Her horn lit up and a magic glow surrounded the hole in Logan's wounded wing. At first, Logan vocalized his protests to the princess's actions but then let out a moan of relief as the hole in his wing slowly started to close up, flesh knitting itself back together. Seconds later, the wound was no more as there was now a patch of new flesh, with no feathers or fur, could be seen.

Once Princess Luna released her magic hold on the wing, Logan stood there, looking at the wing. "Thanks, miss whoever you are," he thanked.

The princess, in response to Logan's statement, look at him with a look of incredulity plastered on her face. How in the world did someone not know who she was? To be fair, before his death, Logan had only ever met two of the princesses of Equestria and didn't know much about Equestria's history and lore. "Pray tell, how did you find your way here? How did you even know where we were?" the princess asked. She eyed Logan's current appearance, a Jaeger. "We are more than a thousand kilometers away from Fillydelphia where that Jaeger's body you've stolen, was probably buried. I would sincerely doubt you were able to get assistance from any ponies."

Logan paused as he looked at himself and realized he was still hovering in the air. He slowly descended and dropped to his feet. "Huh. Well, after I woke up in this guy's body, I just suddenly got really mad and then went here. I don't know how I knew where to go but I just did. I just had a feeling and I followed it. Until I found you two, I just felt... Anger? Only angry, nothing else, I don't know why? It was weird. I didn't notice anything else about myself other than me being angry until I saw Tran and only after seeing you, I felt not... Hollow? I don't know how to describe it other than that. I know it's not helpful but it's all I can describe it as. When we finally shook hands, it was when I noticed everything, the talons, being a griffon, being hurt, and all that," Logan explained. "I don't even know how I knew how I flew here. I know I have wings but I don't really know how to use them. I've only been like... This, for... I don't know."

Princess Luna still had many questions to ask as barely any of them had been answered. This situation was entirely alien to her, even with her thousands of years of life experience. She keyed in on his eyes, those haunting orbs of only whiteness. After having spoken with the Jaeger for quite some time, she determined he wasn't too much of a threat so she trotted closer to the griffon. Focusing in on those eyes, she waved a hoof in front of the griffon's face. He swatted away her hoof in response. "What?" he asked.

She took a few steps back from the action before recovering her stance. She refocused back on the griffon instead of just his eyes. "C-Can you see?" she asked the griffon.

Even without pupils, Logan was quite still capable of showing confusion on his face. He raised an eyebrow upon the strange questioning. "Yeah, why the fuck wouldn't I?" he responded.

"Your eyes. There are no pupils. They are the mirror image of one who's eyes hath rolled back into their head," the princess asked.

It wasn't if his eyes were dilated or cloudy. They were just pure white orbs, matching the rest of his fur and wings. Tran dug through his gear and withdrew a small metal mirror, holding it out to Logan. He looked into the mirror to look at what Luna referenced and his eyes went wide. "Now that's fucking gnarly," Logan said. He spread open one of his eyes to get a better look at it, finding exactly what was described as true.

Before any of them could continue onward, several REA soldiers and a Lunar Sentinel stormed out from the lower deck of the airship and into their presence. They went to address the princess or human but were immediately alarmed to see the Jaeger. Tran stepped in front of the griffon to shield Logan as many of them had weapons drawn and aimed. Tran had
drawn two of his own pistols and had them aimed in response.

The princess waved them off before anything could escalate. She turned her attention to the one bat pony. "What do you report my loyal soldier?" she asked.

The soldiers' attention darted from between the princess and the Jaeger, as if they were almost unsure of what to do or say. They stayed their curiosity as the one bat pony saluted the princess. "Night Mistress, there has been a situation at the recently arrived airship. Several of its crew and chain of command were killed in a surprise attack by one of the humans, a changeling as to be believed," the Night Sentinel reported.

The princess took a few seconds to gather the information in her mind, shocked from the revelation. She turned to look at Tran and Logan. "We'll have to continue our conversation for later. We have more important matters to deal with," she announced. She turned back to the ponies and started trotting forward. "Escort me there," she commanded. The bat pony dropped the salute and quickly started marching away, along with the other REA guards.

Tran turned around to face Logan. "Lose that uniform before you get shot," Tran said while taking off his plate carrier. Logan quickly ripped off the tunic and pants but not the scarf, revealing that his entire body was indeed all white under the Imperial Griffon Air Force uniform. Tran handed Logan his uniform coat before redonning his plate carrier. When Logan had the coat on, Tran started walking at a fast pace to catch up with the princess, Logan quickly following behind him.

-X-X-X-

Princess Luna, since she was the head of security during this mission, initiated a manhunt for the possible changeling that killed the 3rd airship's personnel. The search encompassed all three airships and involved a large number of personnel, in teams of four, to look for the possible threat. Logan was incapable of participating in the manhunt so he stuck with Tran who, instead of searching for the culprit, went on his own path. Although the princess wanted to question the man's motives, she kept her suspicions to herself. She had learned to stop questioning Tran's motives and went along with it,

If there was a supposed imposter posing as his friend, Tran wanted to find his friend first. He went through the bowels of the primary command airship, to go to the main gathering/rally point of his battalion, the cargo bay of the airship. As expected, he found the remains of his battalion. By now, all of them should have been relieved from the battlefield after this most recent battle. Whoever was wounded was obviously sent to the ship's infirmary while the rest just wanted to rest after such an ordeal.

The man in question, Eric, was just sitting amongst his soldiers, smoking with them. He was still covered in blood and viscera from the battle, his entire body being stained red. Eric didn't bother cleaning away any of it, save for what was on his face. The many soldiers of the battalion seemed to be completely unbothered by the man's state of address, as if it was a completely ordinary sight.

However, the Princess and her four escorts were completely appalled at the sight of the man. Unlike her, Tran was completely unfazed while Logan seemed to be only slightly bothered by it. Eric saw Tran coming up to him and was about to greet him until his eyes honed in on the griffon trailing behind his friend, one that wasn't Gilda. He was further confused by the fact that the griffon was wearing Tran's combat coat. All at once, anyone could see that Eric seemed to become visibly agitated. He immediately stood up, completely straight and rigid. He had his hands by his side, one hand hovering near his sidearm.

As if a light switch was being flipped, the room became dead silent. Every single one of the hundreds of soldiers in the cargo bay simultaneously stopped whatever they were doing and focused in on their new guests. Having just finished an offensive, they should have been exhausted from the hell they just came from. However, being in the company of Eric, they all felt like they could take on the world. As long as Eric was leading them, they could fight forever. Being fresh from battle, they had all of their arms, armor, and ammo. All of the soldiers seemed tense and some of them looked like they were preparing themselves for a fight. From seeing how the mood in the room turned to, Princess Luna and her escorts were rather unnerved. The princess and her escorts felt like they were walking into a battle. Those five ponies felt tense and their hearts raced as they prepared themselves for the start of an armed physical altercation.

Once Tran and company were within arm's reach of Eric, Tran offered a hand out to Eric. It took him quite a tense few seconds before he had realize what Tran was doing. Eric, still apprehensive about the situation, took Tran's hand with his own and shook it. "Did you make a new friend?" Eric asked.

Tran turned to look at the griffon that tailed him. He knew the griffon was Logan but the red scarf and the whole, griffon-ness, obviously made him look like any other Jaeger. Sure, Logan was unarmed but it did not help the sentiment. "A friend, yes. A new one, no," Tran cryptically replied.

Tran gestured over to Logan who stepped up to address Eric. Logan eyed up Eric's blood covered form. He smirked. "New body, who dis?" Logan asked. Eric was completely confused by Logan's questioning and was further confused when he suddenly had a cup of coffee in one hand. "Hey, you got some bourbon I can steal? I need some for my joe. Also, know where I can get some cream?"

Eric's eyes went wide. "No," Eric whispered. "You can't be."

Logan nodded with an ever growing smirk on his face. "Tran's better at throwing a 9 line and you know it," Logan taunted.

Before Logan knew it, Eric punched him in the chest. It wasn't a serious punch but a playful one. It was, however, enough to spill his coffee. "How the fuck are you alive?" Eric asked. He gestured at the griffon body and all. "And what the hell is with all that?"

The proverbial switch was flipped again and as suddenly as it happened, every one of the battle weary soldiers of the battalion returned to what they were doing, some even going to sleep immediately afterwards. The princess and her escorts could breathe a sigh of relief as they relaxed. The room felt cooler to be in, with that threat of a fight gone. Logan tossed the coffee mug he was holding at Eric, now that it had been unintentionally emptied. "How the shit am I supposed to know? I woke up like this buried in the ground!" Logan replied.

Eric grabbed Logan and hugged him. Despite Logan now having a perfectly white griffon's fur coat and Eric being covered in gore, somehow, none of it stained Logan's fur. "It's great to have you back," Eric said, still clutching Logan.

Logan reciprocated the hug. "No homo," Logan said, patting Eric on the back.

Eric playfully shoved him away. "Yep, it's you alright," Eric said.

Logan chuckled and picked the mug back up from where Eric had set it down. What surprised Eric was that Logan was now holding a pistol. Ever since Logan had originally died, Eric had taken up Logan's sidearm, the FNX 45 since he was the least armed of the remaining three humans, in terms of sidearms. At this very moment, Logan had managed to draw the FNX 45 from where Eric had it holstered. "I believe this is mine," Logan said while sticking it in a coat pocket. "Still got it, by the way."

Eric smirked. He reached down to where he had the pistol holstered and removed the holster from his belt. "You can have it back. You'll be needing it. We gotta get you the rest of your stuff, whatever's left of it," Eric said while tossing the holster to Logan. "By the way, Tran's better at stealing than you." Eric then handed off the spare mags he was carrying for the pistol.

Logan frowned and looked at Tran. "Bullshit! He's better at sneaking maybe but not stealing!" Logan indignantly said.

Princess Luna stepped up to interrupt the three of them. "While this reunion is lovely, we have a more important matter at hand," she said. Logan exchanged one last look with Eric before running off into this airship's cargo bay, leaving Eric and Tran alone with Princess Luna and her escorts. "We believe there is a rogue changeling intruder masquerading as you. He's attacked the chain of command of the airship that's just arrived."

Upon hearing that, Eric went rigid and tense again. He started scowling and was very obviously angry. For the Princess and her escorts, it felt like the room was all of a sudden, supernaturally warmer like they were standing in a sauna. "That was no changeling. I did that," Eric confessed.

While Tran was completely unfazed from the confession, the princess was quite shocked from hearing Eric admit to the crime. She wasn't sure of what to do considering the importance of the human's in the war effort. "You know the implications to your admittance to committing your crime? We have to detain you," the princess said.

Eric stared down the princess. She could feel his eyes bore into her skull and how much resentment he had with the scowl on his face. It once again felt like a battle was about to start and she braced herself, mentally, for a physical altercation. Eric pointed an accusatory finger at Luna's face. Luna flinched and her escorts nearly sprung in to intercept him, stepping closer in the process. "They started a fight and lost, " Eric growled out.

The princess wasn't convinced. She had a look of disgust on her face, remembering the reports of the aftermath. "Five ponies are dead! Officers! Six more are in critical condition! The pilot, the captain of that airship, is barely alive after you cut him to pieces!" she accused.

Eric brought his hands down by his side from a natural reaction and clenched his fists in anger. The princess was rather nervous from Eric's reaction. One hand was very close to where he had a pistol holstered and the sight of him clenching his hands into fists was a good indication of the man's mood. Every second felt like an eternity, as if time was going by in slow motion. The mood/air felt made it feel like they were on the battlefield, as if they were threatened with the intensity of war. "I wasn't the one who drew first. If they didn't want to get shot or stabbed, maybe they shouldn't have tried to involve a knife or gun. I only reacted. Whatever happened, they caused it. Just because the outcome ended up being terrible doesn't mean they're free from the consequences."

The princess took the man's words to heart and sighed. "We have to investigate this and whoever initiated what will have to face the repercussions," the princess said.

Eric sneered. "Well I didn't start shit. I only finished it," he bitterly said while folding his arms. "And you know what they did? They killed more of us than they killed changelings! In that whole ass battle, more of us died to those fucking idiots than to the fucking enemy! Even if I was the one who started it, even though I didn't, they deserved every bit of it!"

Tran walked over to stand beside his friend and leaned against Eric. "And if you want us to keep helping all of you, don't expect us to be passive bystanders if you do anything to him," Tran said. Even though Tran had his usual dead expression on his face, he looked tense, as if he was getting ready to fight. While one arm was leaning on Eric's shoulder, the other hand was hovering around his holster signature hand cannon. The princess had become somewhat like friends with Tran and she was saddened to be in a situation where he was against her.

The princess eyed the two humans standing beside each other and knew that this was a lose-lose situation. If Eric wasn't the cause of this wholesale slaughter of their own forces, they would still have to deal with the fact that her own ponies were causing unnecessary problematic situations. If Eric was the cause of this mess, she wouldn't be able to punish him too severely if she wanted the continued cooperation of the rest of the humans, and probably their retinue of ponies and soldiers like Spitfire, Gilda, or their battalion. No matter who instigated the conflict, she was still left with the aftermath, that the entire chain of command of one airship was entirely decimated, rendered non-mission capable. The princess had a pained look on her face. "I can use magic to force out the truth. I will personally interrogate whatever survivors and witnesses that were present while I enact a zone of truth spell," the princess told the two humans. She eyed Tran who shook his head. "I guess I have some work I need to undertake," she announced before turning tail and trotting away with her escorts.

As she left, Tran turned to face Eric. He stopped leaning against him so he could properly address him. "You said that you didn't start shit and I believe you. But. Big but here, if any of us starts something big down the line, we can't always protect each other," Tran said.

Eric snorted. "If we deserve it, we deserve it," Eric said while holding his hand. Tran took Eric's hand and shook it. Eric turned to look around. "Where the hell is Logan? We should probably give Wilson the news. Probably the others too. A random ass griffon Jaeger might raise alarms if we don't say anything." Eric was unable to see where Logan was in the cargo bay room they stood in. He cupped both hands to his mouth like a megaphone. "Yo Logan, where the fuck are you?!" Eric yelled out. "Get back here! We got shit to do!"

The two humans waited a few seconds before they got a reply. Off in a random direction in this airship's cargo bay where the two humans couldn't see, Logan responded back by yelling. "Trying to find food!? I'm hungry as fuck!" A few seconds later, Logan walked back on three legs. He was using the fourth limb, his right hand, to hold onto something. Once Logan was back in the company of Tran and Eric, the two of them could see that Logan was chewing on a snack that he somehow managed to find. In his right hand was the same mug he was carrying earlier, now filled up, and a long paper cone that was topped with a big cloud of cotton candy. A few large bite marks were made in the cloud of cotton candy and they could see why as Logan was chewing with his mouth full.

Eric eyed the mug, now full with a brown liquid. "You found some coffee?" Eric asked.

While still chewing, Logan shook his head. He held the mug up closer so that Eric could see. "Chocolate milk. Couldn't find any coffee," Logan replied.

Eric eyed the chocolate milk and cotton candy. "Where the fuck or who the fuck had cotton candy and chocolate milk?" Eric asked.

Logan shook his head. "I don't know, I just found it."

Author's Note

Hello folks. Here's what the voting was about! Logan has returned, now as a griffon Jaeger that had been previously killed. This was one of the very ones that killed Logan and Tran and were immediately killed themselves afterwards. If the voting would have turned to pony, he would have returned as a pegasus. However, voting poll is also for another future character that will show up more in the future, also a griffon as the votes from y'all decided.

Friends Come & Go, But Battle Buddies Last Forever!

Surprisingly Wilson was very nonchalant about learning that Logan was still alive. He chalked it up to "Magical cartoon pony bullshit". Also, a significant portion of his attention and mind was mentally assigned to keeping the casualties of the previous battle alive. Anyone that meets Wilson and interacts with him for more than a few minutes would immediately notice Wilson's unique characteristic of how he places the physical well-being of his fellow comrades' health, easily over anything else physical or intangible in the universe. When he was informed of the friendly fire incident that was the result of gung ho officers chasing after some chest candy, he wanted to go maim and torture the instigators. Luckily for those officers, the only reason Wilson didn't immediately go after them was that he had to treat and take care of the casualties that came from it.

When Wilson had a moment of free time where he wasn't critically needed in the infirmary, he decided to take a quick once over on Logan. Logan sat on a cot in the infirmary as Wilson was using a stethoscope on his new body. Wilson dropped the stethoscope and then placed a bare hand palm on Logan's chest. "You're dead," Wilson announced. "Not in a, I'm gonna kill you way, but in a you are not alive kind of way. You have no heartbeat or body heat. You do breathe, weird, but with that hole in your chest, I don't know how its possible. Somehow, you can see with your eyes even though they're rolled up into your head."

Tran and Eric were sitting nearby in chairs and they eyed the various wounds in the Jaeger body that Logan now occupied. When Tran and Logan were assassinated, they were shot by two Jaegers. His immediate return fire had managed to kill them, having used his signature hand cannon. The Jaeger's body that Logan now occupied had two enormous bullet holes in the chest, very obviously from Tran's hand cannon. The body also used to have a hole in the wing but it had been healed by Princess Luna. The two entry holes were huge and the two exit holes were even more colossal. One of the holes was in the general area of where the heart should be and the other was in the stomach. Strangely enough, both of the wounds did not bleed and Logan felt no pain from it when it was touched. The wounds did have a lot of old blood staining and obscuring things but Wilson had cleaned up the entry and exit wounds so he could properly examine Logan's new body.

Logan shrugged. He poked at one of the wounds on his chest with one of his talons. Again, he felt no pain from it. "I mean, I did die. Maybe I might still be a little dead? The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated. I don't know how this shit works," he said. His eyes went wide as he remembered something. He looked over at Tran and had a grimace on his face. "Remember when that big pony healed me and why?"

Tran nodded and stood up. He walked over to Logan and Wilson. "You sure you want to try?"

Logan still had the grimace on his face, remembering how much it had hurt. He nodded. "Well, we gotta learn how this shit works," he said. Wilson wasn't sure what they were talking about but held out a hand for Logan. Logan saw this and grabbed Wilson's hand.

Tran reached out with a bare hand and touched one of the entry holes in Logan's chest. At first, the action had only felt like someone was poking him. However, the next thing he knew, he was immediately filled with mind numbing pain. Logan clenched Wilson's hand with a terrifying amount of strength, some of the talons digging into Wilson's hand. He screamed like his life depended on it and Tran immediately retracted his hand. His fingers were now stained with blood that had oozed out from the wound. "Fuck!" Logan cried out.

The wound that Tran had touched was now oozing deep red, almost brown, blood. Wilson looked at the bleeding wound and as he was cleaning it up, he paused. Wilson put his palm against Logan's chest. "Holy shit, your heart's beating."

Logan clutched his chest. It was still clear that he was in pain. "Is that why I feel like death?" he asked with a strained voice. Logan looked up at Wilson. "Please do something, I feel like I'm dying." Wilson walked away to get something while Tran took a few steps away from Logan after the pain he caused.

Wilson didn't ask any other questions and gave Logan a dangerous dosage of morphine and Logan's body relaxed. Wilson wasn't worried too much about other health complications that he could cause because his patient was basically already dead. That didn't stop him from packing the oozing both sides of the bullet wound with gauze and bandages. The blood was barely a liquid, almost being a sludge and it was so dark, it almost looked to be a reddish brown. All of this pointed to signs of being aged, drying, almost coagulated blood. "It's like you're a zombie. Everything says you are dead and have been dead for quite a while," Wilson said.

Eric, who was still sitting in his chair, threw up a hand to get their attention. "Well, if that's the same Jaeger that tried to kill you and Tran, its a month old corpse," Eric said.

Wilson looked over at Eric and tapped Logan's chest with a bloody hand. "Yeah but a month old corpse should be a liquified mess of rotting flesh. There should be only bone and barely any flesh left," Wilson said.

Logan took a deep breath and put a talon-ed hand to his chest to feel his heart beat. "And why did it take a month before I 'respawned'? And why the body of who possibly killed me?" Logan asked.

Wilson let out a sarcastic snort. He was still patching up the wound that was now bleeding. "Magical cartoon pony bullshit," Wilson answered.

Logan chuckled but the smile disappeared from his face as his gaze fell to Tran. He could still feel some of the pain from whatever Tran did, even with all of the morphine going through his system. "And what the hell is Tran doing whenever he touches my ouchies?" Logan asked. He looked up at Wilson. "Why doesn't something happen when you touch the holes?"

Eric stood up in his chair and started walking over to Logan and Wilson. "Let's see if I do something," Eric suggested.

Logan had that pained grimace on his face again. He looked back at Tran and then to Eric. "Fuck, I hope its not feeling like death again," Logan said.

Wilson held up a hand for Logan to grasp and clench as Eric reached the two of them. Logan grasped Wilson's hand and mentally prepared himself for him to experience hell. Carefully, Eric reached forward and touched the other open wounds on Logan's chest. Logan could feel Eric prod the wound and after a short moment that seemed like an eternity, Logan didn't feel any of the hell he was expecting. However, what none of them expected was for the wound to start bleeding profusely. Eric's eyes went wide as he saw blood flow significantly from the wound. He pressed his hand against the wound to put pressure on it, to slow down the bleeding. As that happened, Wilson started grabbing a chest seal and something to pack the wound with.

As for Logan, he felt his heart race. He didn't expect Eric to put pressure on the wound and since he was sitting up, he was pushed over and fell off of the cot. Eric almost fell over with Logan but managed to stay standing. Logan quickly got up, wings flared out and him holding out his hands, talons bared, from his body's natural instincts. His heart raced and adrenalin surged through his veins, it felt like he was in a fight for his life. He now had the body of a predator which made things worse. Even though Eric and Wilson were his friends, he looked at them like they were his prey/enemy and he needed to fight them.

Wilson, holding the medical supplies he sought out earlier, held out his hands in front of him in surrender. "Logan, calm down. I gotta fix your shit!" Wilson yelled.

Logan didn't hear Wilson's words, he was too focused on keeping the two of them in his sights, ready to fight them. He almost shot forward to strike first but then he realized who his targets were, his friends. He shook his head and look back at Eric and Wilson. He took a few deep calming breathes as he kept reminding himself that he was in the company of his friends. He got back on the cot and allowed Wilson to patch himself up, breathing very deep and heavily. "Goddamn," Logan said.

Eric looked at his bloodied hand and back at Logan. "What the hell was that?" he asked.

Logan was trying to control his heart, which felt like it was beating a million beats a minute. Some of his extremities were shaking or twitching, as he was still feeling very antsy. "When you knocked me over, it felt like I was gonna have to fight for my life," Logan said. "My new predator bird brain."

Eric was about to wipe the blood off of his hand when he realized something about it. The blood was not as dark as earlier, now being a lighter shade of red, as if there was actually some life in it. "Hey, your blood, its changed color," Eric said while holding his blood covered hand up.

Wilson, who was now patching up Logan's latest bleeding wound, paused, looked under the gauze. This wound was bleeding normal red blood like a normal wound, unlike the other wound that oozed out almost-coagulated blood. He finished up packing the newly bleeding wound and then went back to the other one. Interestingly enough, instead of bleeding, the first wound was now scabbed over. He redid the packing on the first wound and then went back to the second wound. The wound was still bleeding but it was slowing down. He used a spare piece of gauze to clean off the blood so he could look at the flesh underneath and when the flesh was revealed, he watched as the wound rapidly scabbed over where he touched. "Well, you're healing. Fast, wounds already starting to stop bleeding and its already scabbing," Wilson explained.

Logan looked down at the flesh wound and poked at it with a finger. "Well, that's good," he said. Once Wilson finished packing all of the wounds, Logan stood up and redon Tran's borrowed coat. "Well, aside from the Magical cartoon pony bullshit, we got the gang back together."

When Wilson finished with bandaging up Logan's entry and exit bullet wounds, he walked over to Eric. Eric, at this very moment, was still covered head to toe in blood and viscera. He was completely blood red, aside from his face which he had wiped off. However, the entirety of his eye was red. There was no white to his sclera, giving Eric a very haunting appearance. "I heard about what happened to you from the soldiers I had to treat," Wilson said.

Eric gave an agitated snort. "Fucking morons," Eric said. He suddenly recoiled, realizing what he implied. "Not our soldiers, the idiots that shot at us."

Wilson chuckled. He understood the faux pas. "I know you'd never do or mean anything bad to your soldiers," Wilson said. "I want to give you a once over just in case."

Eric nodded and took off his body armor and coat. Wilson went through the usual things, such as checking the heart beat and how his breathing was. When he went through the usual cognitive tests, Eric passed them. Even though his eyes were completely blood red, there was nothing hindering his ability to see or follow an object, eyesight wise. "Well, you blew some blood vessels in one of your eyes," Wilson said. "That's why its all red like it is."

Eric shrugged. He had seen how he had looked in a mirror and several of the soldiers under him had mentioned the condition of his eyes. "Figured. I was pretty close to a shell impact. That's why I'm covered in another soldier," Eric commented.

Wilson coughed to interrupt him. "Only your right eye. Your left eye is perfectly fine. I don't know why its red like the other one," Wilson said.

Eric was about to ask some questions, when they had a few new guests. The four of them were occupying a personal infirmary room by themselves and the door to it had been essentially kicked in. Tran, Eric, and Wilson immediately drew pistols and aimed it at the door while Logan dove behind a cart of medical supplies. Hilariously enough, Logan had instinctively flared out his wings. However, he was wearing Tran's coat and it wasn't meant for someone with wings which meant it had no wing holes for Logan's wings to poke through. This meant that when he tried to flare out his wings, it threw up the coat up and over Logan's head.

As Logan's new bird brain was beginning to panic, Spitfire walked into the room. At the sight of all of the pistols, she flinched and doubled back, hiding behind the doorframe. The humans reholstered their weapons at the sight of the pony. "Fucking don't surprise us like that!" Wilson yelled out.

Spitfire sheepishly walked into the room, followed by Soarin, Gilda, and Rainbow Dash. The four of them had their attention immediately drawn to the griffon that was covered up by his own coat and panicking and walking around in random directions. "Aw, shit!" Logan cried out as he walked into a chair and fell over.

Gilda's ears (earholes?) perked when she heard the voice and recoiled back. She took into the air, hovering, as she drew a sidearm. "You!" Gilda yelled out, alarmed. Everyone reacted to Gilda drawing a sidearm, all in the same fashion, as in they also drew a weapon. No one knew where the threat was so everyone was just paranoid at every direction.

"STOP," Tran commanded with a rather imposing tone. At that very moment, everyone stopped where they were, not moving a single muscle. No one made nary a noise as Tran's dead facial expression somehow conveyed supernatural irritation. It was rather frightening for the ponies and griffons (even Logan), as they felt like children being scolded by their parents. He had a rather frightening glare, that brought up deep primal fear from the ponies and griffons. Even Logan felt it, even though he couldn't see anything because his face was still covered, but not Wilson or Eric. The room, to the five of them, felt supernaturally colder as they froze in a never before felt, primordial dread. "What the hell is your major malfunction?" Tran demanded.

Gilda sheepishly lowered herself to the ground and lowered her pistol. Words seemed to escape her mind, as she was terrified from being scolded by Tran. She did, however, managed to slowly raise and point a shaky talon at the Logan, who still had no idea what was going on since his face was still covered by his coat that was still upended over his face. Tran snorted at her answer. "Carry on," Tran called out.

All at once, the terrifying presence that everyone felt was immediately gone. All five of them realized they had stopped breathing in fear and all simultaneously took in a deep breath. Logan, finally realizing what was the problem, uncovered his face and returned the coat so that he was wearing it in a reasonable manner again. Spitfire, Soarin, and Rainbow Dash immediately realized what had worried Gilda as they were now faced with the sight of a red scarf-wearing Jaeger staring back at them. All three of them had the same shocked expression, only surpassed by Gilda's horrified face. Gilda, who was still pointing a shaky taloned finger at the Jaeger, was dumb struck. "Y-You're dead!" she cried out.

Logan realized that Gilda was pointing at him and he pointed a talon at himself, and patted himself down. "Doesn't look like it," Logan replied.

Rainbow Dash, absolutely confused, looked to the humans for answers. She had no idea why there was a Jaeger here without causing alarm... Well, aside from Gilda of course. "What the buck is going on?!" she demanded.

Tran pointed over at Logan. "Old friend o' ours," Tran replied.

Gilda rubbed her earholes upon hearing the answer. She blinked a few times, still dumb struck. "Y-You killed him! We all saw you kill him. He should be dead!" Gilda said.

Rainbow Dash was still just as confused. Tran's reply had answered nothing. "Okay, what the buck is going on?" she asked again, less demanding than the first time she asked.

Gilda looked at Rainbow Dash because of her question and then back at the elephant in the room. "That's Snowhawk! He's one of the Empire's best Jaeger assassins! Tran killed him and his brother partner!" Gilda answered.

Logan's ears (griffon earholes) perked up upon hearing Gilda speak. "Snowhawk? That's a dumb shit name. Is that who I'm supposed to be?" Logan asked.

Soarin looked at Spitfire. He was just as confused as everypony (and griffon) else. "Well, I can see why you like working with these human weirdos. They do make life spicier," Soarin commented.

Spitfire took Soarin's statement in stride. She looked at the Jaeger, the new one, and then to Tran. "Can you explain what the buck is going on?" she asked, mirroring Rainbow Dash.

Eric, finally wanting to advance the conversation, pointed over at Logan. "Remember our friend, the fourth one who died a month ago? Well, he's back, And he's using the dead body of a Jaeger" Eric finally addressed. A few seconds later, Eric continued. "And no, this isn't an ability humans have, we're blaming this on the bullshit magic of this world."

Gilda looked away from Eric after hearing his description and looked at the now ex-Snowhawk, now Logan. She still had her pistol drawn and was very paranoid about anything with the supposed Logan. Logan noticed Gilda's tentativeness and he waved at her, to which she flinched in reaction. She almost pointed her weapon at Logan in instinct but kept herself from doing so, considering her company.

Spitfire pointed a paranoid hoof at Logan. "Are you sure it's your friend?" she asked.

Eric nodded. He looked at Logan with tired eyes. "He was alone with the princess and Tran and he didn't take the chance to kill them. He knows things only Logan should've known. I trust that it's him and the others trust that it's him. That should be enough for the rest of you to trust him," Eric answered.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. She slowly trotted towards Logan and held up a hoof. "It's nice to have you back, Logan," she greeted.

Logan took Rainbow's hoof and shook it. "Nice to meet you again, rainbow ass," Logan greeted back.

Rainbow scrunched her nose from Logan's nickname for her. "Yeah, it's him," Rainbow said.

Soarin instead of his attention being directed at Logan, he was more interested in Eric. He was still covered entirely in blood and viscera and he had just returned from battle. "Hey buddy, we heard what you went through, then did. We came here to ask your side of it. What happened? Are you all right?" Eric's blood and viscera covered form didn't help the three ponies and griffon try to figure out Eric's current status. That repulsive fact obscured whether he was fine or not and it also made him seem rather... Psychotic? Deranged?

Eric frowned. Fighting the battle was enough to tire him substantially but having to bear witness to the obliteration of his fellow troops was the death knell in how he felt. His body ached and his mind ached even more. "Yeah, Fine, where it counts. A few things are hurting a little but I should be fine," Eric replied.

Spitfire opened her mouth, wanting to speak but her emotions were holding her back. After a few tense seconds, she finally spoke. "And what happened at the other airship," Spitfire tentatively asked.

Eric straightened up and his body tensed. "They deserved every bit of it," Eric said. Spitfire's statement looked like it had set off Eric, and he no longer seemed like he was their friend/ally. Eric clenched his fists but it wasn't enough to suppress the growing fury. It seemed like he was about ready to fight them, even though they were his friends. As more and more rage built up in the human, the room strangely felt warmer and warmer for the non-humans, to the point where it was almost unbearable and raging hot. The ponies and griffons in the room, even Logan, felt inclined to get themselves ready for a fight as their instincts screamed at them that they were in peril. Adrenaline pumped through their veins and despite whatever they had done previously in the day, none of them felt tired any more. All of their day's exhaustion was gone as they were completely focused on a possible danger and they were ready for battle.

It all stopped when Tran walked over to Eric and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's been dealt with and it was entirely justified," Tran commented. Eric unclenched his fists and let out a breathe that he only now realized he'd been holding. As that happened, the sense of danger that everyone felt suddenly disappeared. Everyone let out a sight of relief as the room seemed to cool down, as did their tempers. Lethargy flooded their bodies as the adrenaline was gone and the muscles they had tensed up in expectation of the fight, was now relaxed. Tran turned to face their new guests. "What did all of you just experience, right then?"

The ponies were confused and looked amongst each other, Gilda joining in on their confusion, wondering if any of them had a clue what he had been asking. Spitfire looked up at the human with confusion. "What do you mean?"

Tran pointed back at Eric who was now, relaxed, controlling his emotions. "When Eric looked like he was about to pop his top. All of you tensed up and froze. What was that?"

The ponies and griffon seemed uneased. Even Logan had felt the same thing as the ponies and Gilda. The only ones who didn't feel the same sense of anxiousness as the rest of them were Tran and Wilson. However, Tran and Wilson had witnessed them all become anxious and tense up in response. Logan shivered and pointed at Eric. "It was like earlier, when we were dealing with my wounds. I felt like I was getting ready to... Fight?"

Gilda looked at Logan and shook her head to try to shake off some lingering mental fog. "Hey, I know we're cool, but it seemed like Eric was gonna kill us?"

Spitfire only now realized that she had slowly backed up, to the point where it seemed like she was trying to hide behind Soarin. She took some steps forward so she could join in on the conversation. "It felt like we were threatened? Like our lives were at stake?"

Soarin looked at Spitfire with a shocked expression. "You felt that too? I thought it was just me? I thought we were about to have to fight for our lives!"

Wilson and Eric looked at each other. Tran shrugged while Eric looked at his hands. They were shaking. "Is my anger that scary to you guys?"

Rainbow hovered into the air, appalled. "No! You're our friends! It's just that, at that moment, it felt like we were gonna charge into battle. That rush in your heart, the power to charge, the feeling and heat of being in... Danger? Maybe fighting for your life in a battle?"

Tran patted Eric on the back to calm him down. Eric seemed to still be tense and was subtly shaking "How about me?" Tran asked.

Rainbow, still hovering, tilted her head, at Tran's questioning. She raised an eyebrow. "You're scary but we're used to it. We know you're cool to us."

Tran folded his arms and started glaring at her with the same emotionless expression on his face. Rainbow was used to people who was like this, having met Pinkie Pie's sister, Maud Pie before. However, the next thing she knew, Tran's seemed more... Chilling than usual. Before she knew it, she stopped hovering in the air and touched down to the ground as she slowly froze in terror. It wasn't confined to Rainbow. Before anyone else could react, Gilda, Spitfire, and Soarin felt the effect from Tran's glowering expression. Even Logan, who was standing to the side of him and wasn't in Tran's direct eye line, felt some terror. The room seemed unnaturally... Colder as they all froze in their tracks and even thoughts.

No one made a sound as the room essentially became dead silent, enough that each of them could hear their own heart racing. They felt no pain, no terror, no prior weariness even though it was close to evening. All of them were filled with a feeling of hopelessness as life seemed to be no longer worth living. It felt like they were... Dead inside.

Tran finally broke his gaze and all of them all took in a deep breath, nearly collapsing from oxygen depravation, they had all simultaneously stopped breathing the instant it had started. Some of them were on the verge of collapse and Spitfire suddenly had tears falling from her eyes. Soarin realized what was going on with her and grabbed her with a wing and held her close. While he tried to comfort Spitfire, Soarin looked at Tran with a startled expression. "W-What was that?" he asked.

Tran let out a sigh and shrugged. "We don't know and neither does Luna. It happened to her too," Tran answered.

Soarin kept staring at Tran with a rather scared expression before turning his attention to Wilson. "W-What does he do?" he tentatively asked.

Wilson scowled and shook his head. "How the hell am I supposed to know? None of this makes sense! It's your guys' magical cartoon pony bullshit! It's all new to us!" Wilson quickly answered.

Logan shivered and manically dusted himself off, trying to get rid of some residual feelings of what happened. He searched through his coat out of habit only to realize he was wearing Tran's coat instead of the gear and clothing he had before turning into a griffon. He looked back to Wilson with a pleading look. "Please tell me you have a cigarette?" Wilson dug through his gear and tossed something to Logan. He tried to catch it but was shaking too much that it fell to the ground. Logan picked up the cigarette pack and opened it up, sticking one in his mouth. He lit it with a lighter that was in the pack of cigarettes. He took a long drag and finally redirected his attention back to the others. "I missed a helluva lot while I was gone, didn't I?"

Spitfire looked at Tran with a terrified expression, mentally unclear on what she wanted to do. She was petrified, worried about what he would do next. She looked over at Wilson and realized that none of what she and the others had felt did not affect Wilson. He looked as angry as he usually did, with his normal resting-bitch-face, and showed no discomfort like the others. "D-Did you not feel that?" she asked.

Wilson was confused for a second but could see that the ponies and griffons looked very distressed. He looked at Logan and also saw that he was emotionally distressed. He knew very little about griffon and pony body language but it was obviously clear that it seemed like they had gone through the emotional/mental wringer. "No. Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to affect me, whatever Eric or Tran did. We don't know how it works, only that it does," Wilson explained.

Spitfire turned her attention back at Tran. She still had the mental fog that the experience had created but steeled her resolve. "Please, never do that again. Nopony deserves to go through that, not even our greatest enemy. It was terrible. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't do anything. I was going through every bad experience in my life all at the same time. It felt like I was... Dead inside. Truly dead. L-Like I didn't want to live anymore," she pleaded, tears dripping from her eyes.

Tran sighed, emotionally drained. He took a step forward and every pony and griffon, even Logan, flinched in fear of what he was going to do next. They didn't flee but watched as Tran walked over to the four of them, Spitfire, Soarin, Rainbow Dash, and Gilda. Every instinct in their bodies were telling them to run away, coming from the memory of what they had gone through. When Tran was in arm's reach of them, he reached over to Spitfire and patted her on the head. "We've only known each other for half a year but, you are my friends, all of you. Friends, I would trust my life with. We have fought together, bled together, and protected each other. I don't want anything bad to happen to any of you," Tran poured out from his heart, as he patted Spitfire on her head.

Spitfire's tears slowed as she took the words to her heart. The feeling of dread was gone and her body was filled with warmth as Tran was finally showing some emotion for once. "We're family now," Tran continued. "I want the best for all of you. I want all of you to stay alive. If any of us are to die, I would rather be the first so that none of you are harmed." Spitfire's eyes started filling with tears again, except these weren't tears of sadness or sorrow like previously. These were heartfelt tears.

They all felt touched by his words, they were a good reminder to continue to try to live, for the best of their well being. Being near him was no longer dreadful like earlier. Now, it was the exact opposite. They were all heartfelt and were mentally uplifted. The mental cold dread in their body was now replaced with an spiritually uplifting warmth. Before he knew it, Spitfire reached up and hugged him. The feeling was now multiplied several times over and she felt like she could take on the world, no matter what it would throw at her. The next thing any of them knew, Soarin, Gilda, Rainbow Dash, and Logan rushed over and hugged him in a group hug. Just like Spitfire, they all felt an unnaturally amazing spiritual uplifting feeling the moment they made contact. It felt like they were going through all of the past good experiences in their life, all at the same time, reminders of life. As long as they had each other, nothing would stop them from soldiering on.

Eric walked over to the group and and raised his fist. "After everything we've done together, fighting in this war, you're our family. Our bonds are forged in fire, War! An unbreakable bond that can face anything!" Eric chanted. From the group hug, they looked at Eric. The ponies and griffons felt fire in their bodies. They could feel their hearts race and that they were ready for anything. They broke away from the group hug and all raised a fist/hoof/fake-hoof. They felt like they could fight through any battle no matter how difficult. If they survived every battle in the past that they had fought through while being with each other, any other battle in the future would be a cake walk. They wanted to fight!

Eric lowered his fist and Tran walked over so he could be beside his fellow warrior. Tran folded his arms and the two of them had an intense gaze on the ponies and griffons. Before they knew, that feeling of being ready of going into battle slowly died down. In addition to that, the warmth they had felt from Tran's uplifting words slowly burned away.

Spitfire, Soarin, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and Logan all suddenly looked confused as their spirits mellowed out. Soarin looked amongst his fellow ponies and griffons and was suddenly confused. "Whoa," Soarin said.

Tran glanced over at Eric and the two shared the same thought. "I thought about what Tran had done earlier, making you all feel scared and depressed. Now, it seemed like he did the opposite, making you guys feel all happy and whatnot," Eric postulated. "And I joined in to see what I would do."

Rainbow Dash started hovering, her heart and mind still feeling some of the aftereffects of that supernatural supercharge. "Yeah, you did that... Thing? I mean, Wow, it was... Awesome! I felt like I could take on a dragon all by myself, what was that?" she exclaimed.

Wilson scrutinized the various ponies and griffons, having been a witness to everything they had gone through. "When they made you guys feel those weird bad emotions, I think they just wanted to see if they could do the opposite," Wilson commented. "And it looks like it worked."

Logan had an absolutely confused and astounded expression on his face. "Man, I wonder if I can do that?" he asked.

Rainbow hovered over to Logan and had a look of awe on her face. "That'd be cool. What would you do if you could do what they did?" she asked. She rubbed her chin with a hoof in deep thought. "We gotta get Twilight to see how this works."

Wilson threw his hands up into the air. "Damn, where's my weird mind juju magic aura?" the short medic demanded.

Tran looked at the exasperated medic. "Did that happen to you, what me and Eric did?" he asked. Wilson shook his head and Tran directed his attention to Logan. "But it worked on you, right Logan?"

Logan nodded his head and he had a surprised look on his face. "But why didn't it work on you guys? Is it because you three got your human bodies?" he asked.

Tran shrugged his shoulders and looked at the other ponies. "What did I make you guys feel? The second time?" he asked.

Spitfire rubbed the tears from her eyes and smiled up at Tran. "Like I was... Alive. That everything was good in the world and it was right to be alive. It made me forget about everything bad in the world," she answered.

Eric looked at Gilda, the only other griffon in the group aside from Logan. "And what did I make you feel?" he asked.

Gilda smirked and hovered up to be beside Rainbow Dash. She put an arm over her shoulder. "Like I could take on the world. Like I could fight anything!" the natural predator boasted.

Rainbow pumped a hoof into the air. "Like we were awesomely unstoppable!" the ace dogfighter added on.

Tran and Eric, who were still standing beside each other, glanced at each other. The two of them didn't know much about how this work but they did learn something during the entire ordeal. Whenever they felt emotionally charged, whether negatively or positively, it was affecting the denizens of this world in a rather strange and extreme way. Eric looked over at Wilson who was standing by himself. "Now, we gotta figure out what you can do," Eric said to Wilson from across the room with a wave of his hand.

Wilson folded his arms and started pouting. "It better not be something fucking stupid like I make their ouchies feel better with a kiss," he grumbled. Logan chuckled and made a loud air kiss in Wilson's direction towards while pointed at the wounds on his chest. Wilson turned his head away from Logan's direction while pouting.

Rainbow Dash circled around the room. "Mare, I want to fight something! What you made us feel was awesome!" she cheered. Just as those words left her mouth, a siren started blaring. All of them recognized it as the airship's emergency siren.

'ALL HANDS ON DECK, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!'.

Everyone slowly turned to look at Rainbow Dash. Wilson had an especially angry look on her face. "You stupid fucking bitch," he insulted.

-X-X-X-

All of the airships took off while troops on the ground filled in defensive positions. Troops that were on the airship gathered on the top deck, the observation deck, of the airship and had their weapons ready or filled in weapon positions. This rogue changeling hive, it was located and situated in the side of a large hill, borderline a mountain, that was one small section of a long line of other mountains that made up a long spanning mountain range. A few mountains away, they dejectedly watched as a dragon, a full sized one, crawled out of one of a nearby mountain. It was a several kilometers away so they had a short amount of time to prepare.

Everyone was on the deck right now, ie Tran, Wilson, Eric, Logan, Princess Luna and four escort sentinels, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Soarin, Spitfire, Rarity, Blueblood, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were gathered together, looking at the incoming threat. Almost everyone had a pair of binoculars and were surveying the giant beast. Princess Luna tossed her binoculars overboard in irritation. Prince Blueblood and Lady Rarity were quite surprised at the princess's rather humorous display of decorum. "And that would be a metallic dragon," Princess Luna dejectedly said. "An iron one at that."

Eric, who was still covered in blood and viscera mind, lowered his binoculars and turned his attention to the princess. "What makes them different?" he questioned.

The princess groaned, knowing how bad this was going to be. "Their scales and hide are tougher than a normal dragon's. Basically made of iron like their name implies. They're flying bunkers that spew fire. Nearly impossible to kill," the princess explained. As the dragon quickly came into full view, the situation got worse. It would have been bad if they were facing a full sized iron metallic dragon. What made their situation absolutely horrifying was that they were facing a full sized iron metallic dragon... That was wearing metal armor... That also had a partner. Immediately after the first dragon came into view, they watched as another dragon crawled out of the same mountain the first one came from. Wilson slowly walked over to Rainbow Dash and then smacked her sharply upside the head. She was about to angrily retort back but then shrank back, considering she had tempted the gods by literally asking for a fight.

Tran lowered his binoculars and looked over at the princess. "How thick would you say their hide is, with scales?" he asked the princess.

The princess snorted. "At least five or six centimeters," she answered. She looked back at the dragons. "And there's no telling how thick the armor they're wearing, is."

Tran paused for a few seconds and searched through his mind for solutions. "How much weight would you say you can support while still being able to fly at over, say, 200 kilometers per hour?" he asked next.

The princess was confused for a few seconds before finally answering. She was the the second largest alicorn in Equestria, so she had a significant advantage with her physical abilities compared to other ponies, pegasi in this case. She was nearly the same height as Tran, being maybe an inch or so shorter, meaning as a pony, she weighed a little under five hundred kilograms, another thirty five kilograms if you included her wings. Being one of the powerful alicorns of Equestria, her physical flying ability and capabilities were further boosted by her earth pony strength. "Maybe a thousand kilograms?" she replied with a curious expression.

Tran looked over at Logan. "Want to go see some of the stuff I've been working on since you've been gone?" he asked.

Luna's ears perked up from Tran's question even though it wasn't directed at her. She made some assumptions from what he had asked her earlier. "Have you a weapon for me to carry into battle?" the princess asked the human.

Tran didn't turn to face her. He had a smirk on his face that only Logan could see. "Something like that," Tran replied.

-X-X-X-

Luna had a look of scorned indignation on her face. The lunar princess, one of the few alicorns of Equestria, a royal princess, was now being ridden like a simple packanimal as if she was a trivial travel mount with no intelligence. Standing around her were four of her escorts who were doing their best to remain stoic, Rainbow Dash and Gilda who were on the verge of breaking out in laughter, Spitfire and Soarin who were indifferent, and his three human (one ex-human now griffon) friends who were busy running around and grabbing things as they were in this airship's cargo bay. Everyone else was gone, having rushed to battle stations or preparing for battle.

The princess, not bothering to look back at her 'rider' had a look of indignation on her face as she slowly came to terms with her situation. "Pray tell, why did you have a saddle sized for somepony of my stature?" she asked.

Tran who was sitting on a saddle that was perfectly sized for, theoretically speaking, the second largest alicorn princess of Equestria, was adjusting the bags/satchels of extra bazooka rockets strapped to his body. "It's not mine, Logan found it," Tran replied. The weight of Tran and his gear was barely a trifling matter for Princess Luna to carry, in terms of physical hindrance. The power of the earth pony portion of her alicorn genes was a great boon to her, for this task.

Wilson and Eric had returned to them with a large chest, one that Tran had requested. When they opened it, the container was revealed to contain several long cylinders with stabilization fins. They didn't have pointed noses like a conventional mortar or air dropped bomb. When Eric pulled one out of the box, he was surprised to find that they didn't weight as much as their size would suggest. He had no idea what they were.

Hand pointed over at Rainbow Dash and Gilda. "Hand those to the two fliers," Tran commanded. Instead of the two humans going over and handing them to the two fliers, the two fliers flew over to them where the chest were. They were confused at the look of the objects and they had no idea what they were. They guessed that they were bombs but their weights and shapes mystified them. They were a large cylinder with a flat back and a inverted concave front nose. They had fins to stabilize their flight and weighed about 6 kilograms. They were about half a meter long while being 15cm wide. Gilda and Rainbow Dash could probably only carry four each, due to their large awkward size. There was two extra of the bombs and one each were given to two of Luna's escorts.

Logan looked at Tran. He pointed at one of the bombs that Rainbow Dash was carrying. "Are those HEAT bombs?" Logan asked.

Tran nodded. "HEAT with copper EFPs, I made some just in case we had to deal with something really armored," Tran replied.

Gilda raised an eyebrow as she settled the weight of the bombs on her body. She was trying to get them in a comfortable position where she could fly with them. Every time she repositioned them, she would hovered into the air for some test flying. "Heat? EFP? What's that mean?" she asked.

Tran looked over at Gilda as he tried to settle the saddle in a good spot. He was constantly dismounting and remounting the saddle, every time it was repositioned or adjusted. The princess was still wearing her usual armor so the saddle was not wanting to stay still, sliding against the armor a little bit in every direction. He had to find a good spot for the saddle so it wouldn't interfere with the princess's wings. "High Explosive Anti Tank," Tran responded.

Gilda was still confused. She obviously knew what high explosive meant but she didn't know what a tank was. "Tank? What's a tank?" she asked.

Tran finally managed to position the saddle in a perfect spot so that it was comfortable for the princess to wear and for Tran to sit down on. He sat down on top of the saddle for hopefully the final time. "Just imagine a large steel bunker that can move," Tran responded. He pointed at one of the bombs. "Those things should be able to punch through 35 centimeters of steel."

Rainbow Dash and Gilda's eyes went wide from hearing the bomb's capabilities. Rainbow Dash whistled in amazement. "Damn, those dragons don't have a chance!" she exclaimed.

Tran, now sitting on the saddle strapped to Princess Luna's back, pointed at Rainbow Dash and Gilda. "Wait for the princess and I to distract them. Once that happens, head in and try to drop those bombs on them. Try to aim for their head but anywhere on their body works. They're magnetic so if you manage to hit the dragon, it should stick to him before detonating" Tran explained.

The two ace dogfighters and the two of Luna's escorts carrying the bomb nodded. Meanwhile, Princess Luna, who still had a look of indignation on her face and had been patient as Tran adjusted the saddle to her, grumbled. "I would prefer to conclude this as quickly as we can," the princess complained.

Tran reached down and gave the princess a reassuring pat on the neck, as if he was trying to calm a horse from his home world. "We gotta take our time. Those are the only ones I've made so we can't waste them," Tran replied. The princess frown grew.

Eric, who was standing nearby, closed the chest and turned his attention to the others. "I'll direct the airship's cannons and the soldiers on deck to provide some covering fire," Eric said. He looked up at Tran, sitting atop the princess. "Have fun with your horse ride." Gilda and Rainbow Dash used all of their mental fortitude in trying to keep them from laughing at the princess, not wanting to get banished by the powerful alicorn. Meanwhile, the princess's escorts were just as offended as the princess, due to their loyalty to their night mistress.

The princess glared at Eric, wishing she had the ability to smite people with her eyes. Tran wasn't able to see the princess's irritation since he was sitting on her back, only being able to see the back of her head. However, he could see the princess flick her ears in irritation and after having lived in Equestria and being around ponies for quite a while, he could guessed that she was probably annoyed. He looked back at Eric with the same blank look on his face. "Imagine if I had my scout's spurs. It'd complete the joke," Tran commented.

Rainbow Dash burst into laughter while the princess's escorts looked at Tran in shock with jaws dropped. Spitfire but not Soarin, who were standing on the sideline, was also looking at Tran in shock, eyes wide. The princess turned her head so she could look at Tran. She had a look of absolute outrage on her face. "I am not appreciating your attempt at lewd humor," she remarked.

Rainbow Dash flew over to Tran, who was calmly sitting on Luna's back with the same dead expression on his face. She nudged Tran on his side with an elbow. "Spurs? I didn't take you for tackplay." The princess glowered at the hovering showboat and flared open one of her wings, smacking Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus laughed as she flew back up to Gilda.

Soarin turned to look at Spitfire and nudged her with his elbow. "If even he has spurs, maybe I should get some spurs to join the club?" he joked. Spitfire didn't appreciate the joke and smacked him in the face with one of her wings, something he accepted and chuckled.

Tran raised an eyebrow and looked down at the princess. "Lewd? Tackplay?" he questioned.

The princess retained the same frown on her face but there was a tinge of redness in her cheeks, impossible to tell if it came from anger or embarrassment. She turned her head around to look up at Tran. "Pray tell, aren't spurs meant for controlling the 'horse' you're 'riding'?" she commented. "A rather private task you only indulge in the 'bedroom'?"

Tran mentally paused for a second. They were ponies so obviously they weren't riding horses so if they used spurs... It was pretty funny, now that he thought about it, when he mentioned his scout's spurs. Tran blinked and directed his attention back at the princess. "We have a more practical use for them but the ones I'm referring to are ceremonial and were earned when I proved my combat worth with my fellow soldiers," Tran explained. "They meant a lot to me when I was given them and if the soldiers that helped me earn mine were present, they would have been proud that I earned them."

The princess, despite still being irritated, raised an eyebrow at the human's tale. "Were your fellow soldiers not able to attend your ceremony?" she asked.

Tran let out a slow breath through his nose. Even though he displayed no emotion on his face, the princess could see tiredness in his eyes. "They were no longer present to attend," he stated.

The princess understood his answer and the look of indignation disappeared, replaced by a look of sympathy. Rainbow Dash and Gilda, despite joking earlier, no longer had the look of mischief, now only sorrow. The princess's escorts lowered their heads in respect. "Those who pay the ultimate price are to always to be remembered, whether they belong to a different army," she reassured.

Tran nodded. "That they do," Tran replied. He turned his direction to Rainbow Dash and Gilda. "Is everyone ready?" he asked. The two dogfighters, with bombs strapped to their bodies, unslung their submachine guns and nodded. He looked to the four princess's escorts, two of which were armed with the special bombs, and pointed at them. "Ready?" he asked. The four escorts saluted in him response. He drew his own submachine gun while his bazooka was slung on his back. He looked at Eric. "Ready?" Eric nodded and grabbed Logan, the two of them quickly leaving the cargo bay to get to their role in this battle.

Wilson drew his Serbu Super Shorty Shotgun and handed it to Tran, along with a bandolier of shotgun shells. There were maybe thirty shells to go with. After Tran tucked the weapon away in a safe manner, Wilson held out a hand. Tran grabbed Wilson's hand and the two firmly squeezed each other's hands in a non-moving handshake. "Stay alive," Wilson ordered.

Tran broke off the handshake. "I'll die, when I want to die," Tran answered back. Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and the princess's four escorts took a position nearby the princess and rider. Wilson walked away from them and over to a large bay door. This door was the loading bay door for this cargo bay, for the airship. Wilson pulled on a chain and the bay doors opened, revealing the outside world. This airship had taken off long ago and they had been airborne for a while. Upon the opening of the bay doors, wind started blasting into the cargo bay and the sounds of gunfire, artillery fire, and explosions could now be easily heard. The eight of them charged forth and took flight, ready for battle.

Author's Note

Hello again fellow readers. Here's another step towards this story's completion. I hope y'all enjoy! Big thanks to my editors, Silver Echo and Luckyfanisaac for being proof readers. If you can tell, I'm not dead yet.

If you see a mistake, please let me know and if you have any criticisms, go ahead and tell me. Please leave any form of comment, I enjoy reading them and go ahead and ask questions, I'll prolly answer them. I do enjoy engaging with my readers!

We Have Forged the Type of Bonds That Only Battle Brings

The two iron dragons, fully grown beasts that were easily as tall as a five story building, were a menacing sight to behold. The metal armor they wore protected their torsos and limbs, but left their wings unprotected. Even their heads were protected, a large metal helmet that also covered their eyes, leaving only slits to see through. None of the ponies or humans knew how thick the armor was but if it was something this big, it had to be very thick. The upside to their armor, for the Equestrians, was that it appeared to be very heavy and the two dragons seemed to be heavily impaired by the weight of the armor judging from their flying speed.

They didn't fly through the air at the speeds that the Equestrians expected from normal dragons. By the time the dragons closed the distance from their lairs to the airships, the airships had reached decent combat speeds and had their weapons to bear. Also, this gave enough time for the airborne forces of the Equestrian side to completely mobilize into the air, including a very irritated alicorn that was carrying a human as a passenger. All across the decks of each of the three airships, machine guns raked the bodies of the dragons with rifle caliber bullets but it seemed like it was as effective as spitting at the dragon. Every now and then, a yak would fire their small portable cannons and hit the dragon with a direct hit. These were obvious to tell because a small explosion would appear on the dragon's armor. Unfortunately, because it was a low velocity 20mm high explosive round being used against something as big and powerful as an iron dragon, it was barely any more effective than the machine guns. The only visible effect those yak cannons did was they'd leave slight dents across the light grey armor or the slightly lighter grey hide of the dragons.

The entire time the dragons were closing the distance to the airships, the airships were flying as quickly as they could, away from the dragons, trying to make as much time as they could before the dragons were within their engagement range. As hindered as the dragons were from their armor, they were still significantly faster than the airships. While the airships were attempting to fly away, the airship's cannons were firing back at the dragons. However, at the angle the airships were facing them at, only a few of each of the airships' guns could be aimed at the dragon. For the gunners of the airships' cannons, it was a daunting task. They were firing from a very fast moving platform with a single shot weapon and even though the dragons were enormous targets, they were still a very fast moving target.

Hundreds of pegasi were charging towards the dragon, nearly all of them were setup with heavy bombs. The princess and her team of pegasi (and griffon) were using all of their effort to catch up to the aerial pegasi bomber fleet, having been amongst the last to take flight. Luckily, this was a team that included Gilda and Rainbow Dash, two fliers that were speed demons. As for the princess, she was a powerful alicorn so she could decently keep up with the speedsters. However, the princess's bat ponies were trailing far behind the trio. By the time the princess and her team closed the distance, one of the dragons had taken a direct hit from one of the airship's cannons. Despite it being a larger caliber artillery round, compared to the yak's small 20mm cannons or the rifle caliber machine guns, it didn't have nearly the effect some of the airship's crewmembers had expected. It blew a chunk out of the dragon's armor but that was all it did, there was no visible damage to the dragon's hide underneath the armor aside from some black blast residue that stained the dragon's hide.

That direct cannon hit, a 75mm cannon by the way, did have the unfortunate effect of angering the dragon. It was still at least somewhere between one and two kilometers away. The dragon that was hit stopped flying forward and hovered midair. No one was sure what it was doing until a bolt of lightning shot towards the airships, originating from that dragon's mouth, barely missing the airship the dragon had been targeting. The sound of that attack was deafening and all three of the airships had immediately started taking evasive maneuvers.

Tran tightly gripped the saddle strapped to Princess Luna. "How often can they do that?!" he yelled over the sound of the high speed winds as the duo soared through the air.

The princess kept most of her focus on flying but she did indeed hear the human's question. "It's very taxing for them and takes up a lot of energy and mana! It's not an attack of easy repetition!" the princess answered back.

Tran patted the princess on the neck as a thanks. The princess wasn't sure to be thankful for the return acknowledgement or irritated that she was being treated as a mere pack animal. Anyways, Tran had noticed that the dragon had to stop to make that attack, as did the princess and the other fliers that accompanied them. At the moment, both dragons were more focused on the airships than the ponies that were about to swarm them. The dragons probably assumed that none of the ponies would pose a threat to them, especially with the armor that they wore.

Luckily for the Equestrians, the moment the iron dragon had stopped to make that lightning breath attack, several of the bomber pegasi teams had soared above the dragon to make a bombing run. Whether it was an act of hubris from the dragon to ignore the pegasi or if it simply couldn't see the pegasi bombers because of the helmet it wore, the pegasi bombers took an unimpeded flight path above the hovering dragon that had stopped charging forward to make that lightning breathe attack. Several teams of the bomber pegasi managed to drop their bomb loads with impunity.

Several bombs struck the dragon's head and explosions rang off on random sections of the dragon's head. Several chunks of the dragon's helmet were blown off of the helmet but the dragon looked relatively fine. It roared in anger and swung its head around, looking up at the sky to find out who dared to attack him. It flew up higher while swinging its arms around, trying to take out some of the pegasi that attacked him, but the bombers and their escorts were too nimble and fast to strike down.

Princess Luna took this distraction as a moment to charge forth, her escorts following behind her. They quickly closed more of the distance, until they were only a few hundred yards away from the dragon, holding a position where they were probably in its blind spot. Sooooo, Tran took aim with his bazooka. The bazooka sang its unique song of death and a rocket streaked towards the dragon, managing to strike its neck. Where the rocket impacted, its armor looked perfectly fine, other than black blast residue. However, a few seconds passed and blood started fountaining out from where the rocket had struck the dragon as the black blast residue was replaced with large splotches of red that drooled down. Finally, it showed a sign of injury.

Once again, the dragon roared out, however this was a roar of pain instead of anger and irritation like it previously did, a roar that was distinctively different, resulting from the beast finally finding an opponent that could pierce it's hefty armor. The other dragon stopped where it was flying and looked back to its partner, finding the problem the other dragon was dealing with. The other dragon's ears perked from the rear dragon's roar, having noticed that it was a roar of pain, he stopped going after the airships. He started retreating, to help the other dragon and immediately noticed the blood gushing out of the other dragon's as there were two neck wounds gushing out blood, Tran's efforts having wounded the first dragon even further, despite the fact that it was quite difficult to see through the paltry slit on the dragon's helmet.

Tran and the princess had daringly closed more of the distance to the first dragon, close enough that the dragon could have swiped at the duo with its claws, though Princess Luna was literally flying circles around the dragon to prevent that. With this peculiar flying strategy, the first dragon was hovering where it was, circling around in place for the purpose of attempting to try to knock the princess and Tran out of the air with its claws. Naturally, this dragon was unsuccessful in its attempts to get rid of its comparatively diminutive pest and two's efforts were effective in forcing the dragon to do something it didn't notice, keeping it in place.

The dragon's anger grew and it paused to open its mouth, everyone and pony seeing a bright ball building up and growing in its open mouth, a bright ball of light that had several lightning bolts arcing and shooting out in many random directions. At that exact moment, before the dragon could release the tremendous build-up of a powerful lightning breath blast, bombs rained down onto its head and face. While the princess and Tran had been engaging the dragon, they had been distracting it and been keeping it in place to make it an easy target for Rainbow Dash and Gilda to take aim and drop Tran's special EFP HEAT bombs. Both Gilda and Rainbow Dash rained down two bombs each and both bombs from both dogfighters managed to successfully strike the dragon on its armored head.

The effects were immediate. Even though the dragon was wearing a metal helmet armored enough that it would have made a bunker jealous, it did nothing to stop the EFP (Explosively Formed Penetrators) from turning its head into swiss cheese. From the outside, the EFPs looked like it didn't do much, but anyone knowledgeable in bomb science would know that properly shaped copper sufficiently propelled by explosives would form into a hypersonic 2km/s jet of molten copper, that had been punched straight through the dragon's helmet, head, and skull before turning its brain into mush. One of the bombs, Gilda's, had missed the dragon's skullcap and hit the dragon on its armored nose, punching a hole straight through the helmet and then through its nose before the jet of molten copper exited through the roof of the dragons mouth and went through the ball of lightning the dragon had been building up, causing the ball of lightning to explode. Bolts of uncontrolled lightning shot in every direction, one managing to hit Luna and Tran but the lunar alicorn had the foresight to have been holding a shield spell the entire time they had been engaging the dragon, just in case.

The dragon, much to the shock of the second dragon, immediately froze in the air, its wings no longer beating. It then immediately started falling, where it hit the ground with a ground shaking thud, causing what seemed like an earthquake to everyone who witnessed the impact. The other dragon was in a state of shock, having stopped where it was in the air to watch its brethren fall out of the sky dead, not believing something as tiny as these ponies could take out something as great and mighty as them, an iron dragon with their impervious iron armor. Even the ponies, the bombers and their fighter escorts, had stopped whereever they were in the air, having paused to watch the iron dragon fall out of the sky. Everypony was shocked, even Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Princess Luna, and her bat pony sentinel escorts, having also stopped wherever they were to watch the dragon fall out of the sky.

Tran smacked Princess Luna on the side of her neck to get her attention. "We ain't done yet!" he shouted. That had managed to shake her from her stupor and she nodded before flying forth towards the second dragon. The princess's escorts and then the two dogfighters soon followed forth, all of them following the princess towards the dragon. The second dragon noticed the movement in the corner of its vision, rapidly heading towards itself and reacted by building up a powerful amount of energy in its mouth.

At the exact moment the dragon blew out a blast of lightning, Tran had fired his bazooka. The rocket had soared a short distance away from the flying duo before it detonated midair when it made contact with the charged lightning breath. While the rocket exploded harmlessly and stopped where it was, the blast of lightning kept going towards the flying princess and rider. Try as she might, Princess Luna was unable to dodge the blast despite her aerial skills and weaving attempts but fortunately, she still had her magic shield up and it took the brunt of it, however, the shield shattered into millions of magical light particles even though it was a powerful shield spell casted from one of the almighty diarchal alicorns, from taking such a mighty attack. The destruction of her protective shield resulted in Princess Luna being immediately knocked unconscious from the magical overload and resulting backlash. Luckily, the lightning breath only managed to hit the duo, most likely them being the primary aim of the dragon considering their paired up size and the fact that they were leading the charge of attackers towards it.

While the princess had started tumbling out of the sky, unconscious, Tran was unscathed and very much conscious as he was strapped to the alicorn, falling out of the sky. Considering that this battle took place high up in the sky, Tran had a good amount of time before he would impact the ground while still strapped to the princess. At their current altitude, it would take about half a minute before they'd splatter so Tran did the only thing he could. He started shaking the princess's head and neck as hard as he could while shouting at her while Rainbow Dash, Gilda, and the Night Sentinel escorts that were with them, when they realized the situation that Tran was stuck in, had immediately darted after the falling duo. When the shaking wasn't enough, Tran drew his .500 S&W and positioned it near Princess Luna's head before firing it once. The princess's head immediately jerked violently away from the source of the hellish eruption of sound and she yelped in pain upon hearing the explosion-like report of the hand cannon. Her eyes darted around and she quickly figured out what situation she was involved in, flaring her wings out and flapping them as quickly as she could. With a couple thousand feet before splattering, she leveled out in flight just as their escorts caught up to them.

The princess rubbed at her ears, feeling the weight of having to carry Tran on her back, as she remembered what she had been previously doing. She looked around and saw her escorts catching up to her, flying up to be beside her. She watched as one of her Night Sentinel escort's mouths moved but she heard nothing, nothing except for a constant ringing in both of her ears. Her attention was redirected towards a rapping against the right side of her neck. Craning her head around, she saw Tran slapping the side of her neck with his right hand, his hand cannon held in his left hand. She quickly realized what had happened and she frowned in irritation. Tran's mouth was moving and she could hear nothing but the ringing but she realized what he was trying to tell her when he pointed at the other dragon they were still flying towards. She nodded her head and continued flying towards their target. With the ringing in her ears, the princess tried to fix them but when she lit her horn up to cast a spell, her mind exploded in pain as the effects of magical backlash still plagued her. The princess groaned as she realized she would have to continue enduring the effects of tinnitus.

Tran signaled to the following fliers with him and the princess and they broke off to reengage the dragon, going high up to drop their next clutch of bombs. The other nearby bombers regained their composure and rejoined the assault, flying towards the dragon. This dragon took no chances and was swiping at any pegasi that got near it, meaning the bombers had to fly higher and higher to drop their bombs. Considering they were dropping a bomb from a high speed moving platform targeted at a different high speed moving platform and only using instinct to aim, the grand majority of them missed the mark. Of the first flock of bombers to attack the dragon, only one bomb managed to hit it and it impacted the dragon's head, doing nothing other than angering it. The bombers would only attack the dragon only when a sufficiently large amount of them gathered up to attack the dragon en masse but by now, most of them had either scattered too far away from each other or had dropped their bombs and had to return to the airship to rearm.

With less pegasi bothering it, the dragon was freed up enough to start building up another powerful blast of energy, again aimed at the princess and Tran. The princess's eyes went wide and she immediately started diving. At the moment, she didn't have the speed to make any effective evasive maneuvers because she lost most of it earlier due to her momentary loss of consciousness so that was all that she could do at the moment. Right as the dragon was about to release a bellow of lightning, it turned its head at the last second. The explosion of energy and lightning arced through the air and impacted the side of one of the airships.

The forlorn airship immediately had various small explosions erupt from random assorted places in addition to the many stray fires immediately erupting and the doomed airship immediately started descending, rapidly. Whether it be luck or the airship's pilot being sufficiently skilled or possibly both, the airship managed to land despite its unplanned significant loss of altitude, albeit a bit rougher than normal landings. The dragon bellowed out a sadistic bellow of pleasure as it revealed in its achievement, a thunderously loud roar that rattled the minds of many ponies. As if out of spite, one of the downed airship's guns then fired and successfully impacted the dragon's chest with an HE shell, exploding harmlessly against the dragon's armored chest. The dragon snorted, taking the hit in stride but then had its attention torn away when it felt pain in its back.

It tried to sharply turn around in the air as Tran started reloading his bazooka again, getting ready to hopefully land another hit. Since it had been effectively hovering in place, Gilda and Rainbow Dash had dropped their next pairs of bombs each. This time, the pair weren't so lucky with their aim due to the fact that the dragon was trying to spin in place to face its next victims. One bomb from each of the two dogfighters missed while another bomb impacted the dragon's back and the fourth impacted the dragon's left arm. The bombs were still effective in what they did though. The bomb that impacted the dragon's back punched a hole through its chest that the dragon absolutely felt and the other bomb blew off the dragon's arm, just above the elbow. The dragon grabbed its severed arm, before it fell to the ground and it stared up at the pegasus and griffon ace dogfighters.

It growled in anger and before the two of them could react, the dragon threw its severed arm up at the two. Both of them weaved to the side, barely dodging the dismembered limb. Rainbow Dash, befuddled from the idea of such an attack, stared at the arm as it soared away from them. "Did it just really?" Rainbow Dash yelled out, asking her fellow ace.

Gilda, who was in an equal state of befuddlement, was also watching the arm fly off in the distance. "I know, right?" Gilda responded. When the two turned their attention back to the dragon, they were horrified to see another object fly towards them, the dragon's helmet. Try as they might, there wasn't enough time for either of them to dodge the attack and both of them were smashed up against the massive iron object. With the second projectile being as big as it was, the two were taken flying away flattened against one side of the helmet and by the time they peeled themselves off of the helmet to take flight, the normal way instead of being attached to a giant thrown iron dragon's helmet, they found that trying to fly was a painful and arduous task. Both Rainbow Dash and Gilda, even if they wouldn't want to admit it, were definitely no longer in any condition to fly like they previously were just seconds ago. They could feel that something or possibly many somethings were probably broken and they spent the rest of their time in this massive air engagement, painfully descending to the ground to relieve their bodies of any more agony.

The dragon, now that its face could be seen, was smirking, having been able to get revenge on its attackers. Having not learned from earlier, another rocket struck the dragon, this time, impacting the dragon's neck. Since the dragon so graciously exposed its head and neck by removing the armor from aforementioned body parts, this rocket had a much greater effect than any of the previous rockets it had taken. However, it wasn't like this iron dragon was just as squishy as its more delicate non-metallic dragon colleagues. The rocket only blew a small hole in the dragon's neck, creating a marginally bigger wound than the other rocket impacts, unlike the decapitation that Tran was able to perform on a regular portable red dragon during the Dauntless incident. That didn't mean it didn't hurt. The dragon was absolutely angry, judging from how loud it was roaring in reaction

The dragon turned its head in the direction of the attack, seeing the ever present alicorn and human rider. With the dragon's attention torn away and redirected at the princess and the veritable knight, once again, the princess's Night Sentinel escorts were attempting to make their way above the dragon to make a bombing run and unlike every other bomber teams of ponies, they tried to fly to their intended bombing run bomb drop start position without drawing the dragon's attention. It was a mere simple task for said elitist soldiers and they made their way to their desired positions.

A rocket soared past the dragon's head as it whipped its head to the side, the princess and Tran, her lightly wincing and him angrily grinding his teeth respectively. With the dragon dodging the rocket, it knew it would have quite a good number of seconds, roughly 25 seconds as Tran had to reload the bazooka by himself in quite a stressful difficult situation(while riding a horse((Alicorn, Faust damnit!)) that was flying at very high speeds that was also performing aerial maneuvers), had decided to look up to find out if there were any threats up above. Right as it looked up, it got a very good view of the two Night Sentinels after they had long dropped a single one of Tran's special EFP HEAT bombs each. The Night Sentinels had taken their time trying to aim the bomb drops and it was absolutely worth it as one bomb struck the dragon in its left eye while the other one impacted the dragon's forehead; even if the dragon wouldn't have look up, the bombs would have absolutely struck the top of the dragon's exposed head.

The dragon, from an outside view, appeared to have frozen midair as he stopped performing any actions like it had been doing seconds prior, such as flapping its wings. The bomb's explosions and resulting EFP copper jets easily punched through its vulnerable head and mulched its brain. As a result, it immediately started falling out of the air as it no longer had any life in it, the bombs having been exceptionally effective. Everyone(griffons and humans included except Tran) immediately started cheering like earlier but with even more energy. The princess couldn't hear the cheering but she definitely saw it, from the other fliers in the air surrounding her. Unexpectedly, especially to her Night Sentinel escorts, the princess joined in the exhilarated rallying, not showing any hint of royal etiquette.

The dragons had been defeated and the battle had been won.

-X-X-X-

The one airship that had been struck by the dragon's breath attack had its damage controlled and the fires had been put out. Casualties were low, with no deaths, all of them quickly being rushed to medical treatment. When the airship was crash-landing, everyone inside had braced for the impact, minimizing injuries. It was a miracle that the pilot was able to land the airship without destroying the aircraft, whether it be luck or the pilot's skill, or both.

Finally, with nothing major happening, Princess Luna had her tinnitus removed by a unicorn mage medic, restoring her hearing. She also wanted to incinerate the saddle now that Tran was no longer riding her(...that's what she said, ~Logan(I will murder you in your sleep, Logan, ~Tran)) but decided against it, believing that an event like that could happen again in the future. Much to her chagrin, no tackplay was involved(Luna was very disappointed, ~Dash(We doth believe somepony will gain quite a new torturous future tasking, ~Luna)

Now that she was free, Princess Luna was meeting up with Tran on the top deck of one of the undamaged airships, without her escorts. He was leaning against the railing of the ship's deck and looking off in the distance, surveying the land. As she trotted up to the lone human, she used her magic to levitate a bit of rubbish and tapped the human on his shoulder to get his attention. Tran turned to look at the princess and nodded at her to acknowledge her presence. "Hello, Tran," she casually greeted.

"Aye," Tran responded.

She took a position beside Tran, standing beside him. Tran was staring at the corpse of the dragon that they had defeated and the princess joined him in his leisurely activity. "We make quite the duo," the princess commented.

As usual, Tran had the same dead expression on his face. As he leaned against the railing, he made no other movements, not even twitching. He appeared to be like a statue, as it was even difficult to see any movements in his chest as he breathed. "Aye," Tran responded again.

The princess gave a deep sigh, as she finally had time to relax, considering all of the excitement that had happened today. She was calming down her body, adrenaline still coursing through her body. "I appreciate the relationship we have, the manner in which you treat me, my fellow warrior," the princess said.

Tran, still unmoving and not making even the most minor of twitches or body language, still pretending to be a statue. "Aye," Tran once again responded.

The princess turned to look at Tran, with a look of concern on her face. "I unintentionally overheard your conversation with that guardsmare, rebuking her seductive advancements. All of your companions have indulged in their carnal and bestial urges, as natural for anyone who is alive, in addition to their usual leisurely breaks from this war but you have done nothing but work. I hath never seen you spend nary a leisurely furlough for yourself unless forcibly invited. It's not healthy, acting as if you are a mechanical machine, for somepony's mental health," the princess vocalized.

Tran said nothing this time. The princess waited for a response but after a few seconds, sighed and the concern on her face grew. She sidetrotted closer to Tran and her body was now up against Tran's. Even to the lunar princess, his body felt cold, as if he were a corpse. "Ever since my return from my imprisonment, I hath nary met a pony who doth treats me as an equal. Everypony tiptoes around me, worried that they will offend me and I will use it as an opportunity to pounce their soul being a former ghastly 'myth'. You are a true friend to me," the princess spoke, drawing from her mind's true feelings. The princess's face went crimson, realizing what the situation looked like. "Not as a romantic partner but as a lifelong friend."

Tran finally moved, breaking away from his performance as a statue. He chuckled and put an arm around the princess's neck. "We haven't known each other for long but the time we've spent with each other, is more than a lifetime's experience. I enjoy the bond we've made and I pity for your former history. Everyone deserves to be treated as equals," Tran finally said breaking his silence. He was not oblivious to the position he was in with the princess, especially with his arm around the princess. "I would also prefer to not advance our relationship into a romantic one, I'm content with our relationship as it is. A bond forged in fire," Tran added in. His face turned grim for a short moment. "In war. I hate that it had to be from war. War is fucking terrible," he further added in while his face slowly returned to its usual dead expression. "Alright, I'll spend some time for myself. Fucking, I'll figure something out." Tran pulled his arm off of the princess's neck and returned it to his side. The princess chuckled and gave him a quick nuzzle before side trotting a few hoofsteps away from him. Tran looked back at the princess. "I'm still not getting a fucking mare or filly friend, whatever it's called. Bachelor until I'm dead."

The princess chuckled and playfully smacked the human with a wing. "Your terms are acceptable," the princess responded.

The two were once again just standing close beside each other, looking at the dragon's corpse that they defeated. Tran looked at the Princess who was still wearing her armor and sword. "Fucking, my turn, get a gun," he grumbled.

The princess snorted. She pressed her wings closer to her body, pressing them against her swords for a warrior's comfort. "Neigh, as a true warrior, I use only proper weapons, fighting up close, not as cowards!" the princess declared.

Tran turned to look at the princess with a raised eyebrow and a playful, challenging look on his face, surprising the princess as she was used to the usual dead expression on his face. "Are you implying that I'm not a warrior?" he cheekily asked. "And what about everything we just did with the dragon? Does that mean we weren't fighting a dragon and were, what, just trying to have fun giving an acrobatics airshow while entertaining your interest in tackplay?"

The princess scrunched her nose, realizing the trap she was put in. She wanted to teleport away but that would mean she was a coward trying to run away from this intellectual skirmish. "Bah, fine, I yield!" she pronounced. She then adopted a similar cheeky look on her face. "I will only adopt a so-called, gun if it is a true warrior's weapon!"

Tran stared back at the princess, still with a challenging look on his face. "Am I, a true warrior?" he asked.

The princess raised an eyebrow at his question but then nodded. "Aye? You have proven that you are a true warrior with your skill and achievements," the princess answered.

Tran immediately removed the holster that was currently holding his 1911. He held it out to the princess, with the grip end facing her. "Here, a true warrior's weapon, that is also a, so-called, gun," he responded.

The princess took a deep breath and steeled herself, as if she were entering a battle, an intellectual one instead of a physical one, but released the breath and sighed. She knew it would have been a losing battle going against the implacable man. Her horn lit up and she levitated up the pistol and holster. She attached it to a free section of her armor by magically fusing the holster to a strap. Afterwards, she used her magic to draw the pistol, holding it in the air. Looking back at Tran, she had a flat look on her face. "Are you aware I hath never used a, so-called, gun in my long life?" she deadpanned.

Tran shrugged. "Everyone starts from nothing," he responded. He pointed off in the distance. "Do you know how it works? If so, try firing it off into the distance," he further added in. He himself drew his signature hand cannon and pointed it off in the distance.

The princess grumbled, levitating the pistol where it was pointing off in the distance. "I have witnessed others utilizing them and am aware of the intended steps to wield these so called, weapons, but I have never done so myself," the princess responded.

Now, Tran continued his attempts to tutor and coax her to finally join the modern world. Since Tran had given the princess a pistol meant for humans, that meant she would be incapable of firing with her hoof. In the future, he or someone else would have to modify it for pony hooves, ie, making the trigger guard big enough that she could fit a hoof in and fitting a massive trigger meant to be pulled by hooves, if Princess Luna wanted to fire the 1911 by hoof. For now, she would utilize her new and first firearm with magic. This was a skill field that was nigh impossible for the average unicorn, wielding a firearm with magic.

Anypony capable of levitation would very much be capable of levitating a firearm and using it as a melee weapon, but it would further require more magical skill to levitate a firearm AND be capable of firing it with magic. The challenge of trying to fire a firearm with ONLY magic is that you had to hold only a portion of the firearm and not the entirety of it. If you were to levitate the entire firearm, you would be holding all of its components where each moving part would be frozen in place. For a unicorn, alicorn in this case, were to levitate a firearm AND fire it, they had to levitate, ONLY onto the grip or stock of the firearm and then magically pull ONLY the trigger of said firearm in order for it to fire. After that, the unicorn would then have to control the weapon recoiling in their magical grasp which was a further challenge to the caster's casting/levitation field strength. This required a significant amount of practice for a unicorn to be able to do this so it was a very rare skill in Equestria. The sheer amount of magic practice, magical dexterity, and magical strength meant that anypony capable of doing this showed/proved that they were a great and powerful mage.

Tran had been explained this before by none other than, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's premier expert on magic, who proved that she was quite capable of simultaneously firing multiple firearms with her magic field when asked to demonstrate, to which she did with great zeal and expertise with multiple different examples of standard Royal Equestrian Army firearms. Tran was able to explain a simplified version of this to Princess Luna, as he wanted her to join the modern age, in terms of weaponry. The princess had already regained her ability to use magic, having fully recovered from the magical backlash that she suffered from earlier. Between the alicorn princesses, she was the alicorn with the best magical dexterity while her sister was the one with the most raw magical power.

The lunar princess levitated the 1911 in the air, past the railing of the airship's top deck, being aimed off into the distance at nothing in particular. For the first time in her life, Princess Luna fired a gun. The 1911 barked its deadly roar of death as a .45 caliber bullet was sent flying off into the distance. The princess stamped her hooves as if someone was clapping. "Huzzah, a mere simple task!" the princess exclaimed. As usual, she had been protecting her ears with magic, as she hated how loud guns were.

Tran held a thumb up with his free hand, the other one still holding his S&W model 500. "Keep going," he encouraged.

The princess smiled and fired again. Then, again. Then, again and again and again. Before she knew it, she was out of ammo. The princess looked at the pistol and then back at Tran. "I can see why you prefer these," she admitted. There was a certain allure to it. The act of firing it was quite the desirably, entertaining experience, with the sound it made and knowing the power it possessed. She smirked again. "Swords are still superior."

Author's Note

lil bit of world building here that u should have inferred from "Princess Luna had her tinnitus removed by a unicorn mage medic, restoring her hearing. ". IRL, in WWI soldiers had severe tinnitus because u know, shooting guns and artillery with no hearing protection. However, in Equestria, tinnitus or hearing damage isn't much of an issue because its a very minor issue that they can have fixed. If they can easily have dental/teeth easily regrown/fixed, I'm gonna say they can easily have their hearing fixed by a unicorn. Hilariously enough, after each battle, that just makes me imagine each medic that has free time, having a long line of soldiers going to them to have their hearing fixed. Just a quick spell and your hearing is back instead of IRL where ur just fucked if u get hearing damage.

I've mentioned this before, supposedly the army says I have no hearing damage... After hearing .50 cal machine gun, artillery, constantly a big-ass diesel engine, IED, etc.

The government is always correct/never wrong,, right? .

...

I hope y'all were able to see the sarcasm in the last statement

Also, I'm trying a new writing style. Its an attempt to write more complex chapters, unlike the previous chapters I've been writing. Do u guys like it? This one is the first of it.

other notes, when I was writing princess luna's dialogue, I couldn't figure out a ponified version of "tiptoe" so I just used "tiptoe"

I hope I managed to bait y'all into thinking I was going to have the princess enter a romantic relationship with Tran before I metaphorically dumped a bucket of cold water on top of that. They've only known each other for 3-4 weeks by now so they're only new quick best friends.

As usual, I hope you'll enjoy this latest chapter and leave your thoughts and questions in the comments below. I'll try to respond to them and have a time day.

To Win Any Battle You Must Fight as if You Are Already Dead

This day had been very exciting and eventful so far. The crew of important REA ponies and humans had initially arrived in Appleloosa barely after the sun had risen on four airships, only to fly a few hours out into the middle of the Badlands Desert to battle for a rogue changeling hive which took three or four hours to prepare and finish, after which Logan had graciously showed that he had returned from the dead and wanted to rejoined their company and fight for the war effort, discovered that the humans had very anomalous yet incredibly potent abilities that heavily relied on their emotions, and fought two very powerful armored iron dragons. All of that had happened by the time lunch time had started! With ample daylight still remaining, they could still possibly accomplish quite the checklist.

Of the four humans, only two of them were in optimal fighting condition for direct frontline combat. While Eric looked like he had walked straight out of hell with the literal bloodbath that he previously had to go through, nothing was physically impairing him. Wilson was the only other fully capable man but as a medic, he wasn't intended for direct frontline combat. Tran was still physically recovering from his wounds and even though he helped defeat the iron dragons, he was in no physical condition for the extended physical exertion that would inevitably be demanded by frontline combat. Logan, who had freshly returned from the dead, being a literal corpse, needed time to acclimate to his new body and its currently unknown capabilities and limits. Eric was going to be the vanguard for the next combat action, as crazy as it sounded knowing that he just finished a battle that had been preceded by a arduous long distance ruck march mere hours ago.

This next battle was another major assault, once again attacking the rogue changeling hive, but this time they would try to get into the hive. They had a good hold on the outside of the hive but who knows what the defenses were like on the inside and judging from the defense the rogue changelings had put up in the initial attack, it could be just as or even more greatly fortified. To support this attack, the two still functioning airships were staged up much closer to the hive, with the airships' built-in defensive AA(Anti Air) machine guns pointed right at the hive's entrance.

Everyone had amassed in one of the airship's cargo bays for a pre-battle meeting, ie Tran, Wilson, Eric, Logan, Princess Luna, Soarin, Spitfire, Rarity, Blueblood, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and most importantly Pharynx, where there was a small tactical map and hastily built 3d model overview of the battlefield . Rainbow Dash and Gilda weren't present as they were in a medical bay, having to contend with the new injuries they gained after being bowled by a giant iron helmet. The entrance to the hive was quite sizable for a cave entrance, but being what it was, it was still too small to plan an enormous battle around. From a distance, it looked like you could park five trains, side by side, at the entrance of the cave. All of the fliers would be useless for this battle so the pegasi were out. Soarin and Spitfire, while physically fine, were also out of this battle because they were coordinating the outside aerial security for the duration of the battle just in the unlikely but still possible situation where the rogue changelings got aerial reinforcements. The only other VIP ponies that would fight in this battle with Eric would be Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. With the nature of this battle, they expected close up tunnel fighting.

The grand majority of the forces that would primarily make up this assault would be the uninjured remainders of Eric's section of the experimental battalion, of which they were barely fully combat capable in their original guise. While very few of Eric's machine gun teams had been killed in the initial invasion battle, a grand majority had been wounded by the unintended friendly fire artillery barrage, so much so that they were at half strength. Of the ones that weren't injured, many of Eric's machine gun teams no longer had their machine guns, as they had ditched the big, heavy weapons while trying to flee the friendly fire artillery barrage where said abandoned weapons were destroyed by the incoming shells. What little machine gun teams that did have their crew served weapons had very little ammunition left, having used most of their supply in the first attack. Luckily, this last problem was easily solvable as they took some of the other airship's machine gun ammunition and by also scavenging the ammo off of the wounded that wouldn't be participating in the battle but that wasn't a perfect solution; They were not able to fully replenish their stocks from doing this.

Eric and his forces wouldn't have the company of not that many other soldiers. What fliers that had fought in the previous air battles, would be securing the sky from the outside, making sure that no one else could join in. The airship's all had hundreds of crewmembers and a small detachment of soldiers but none of them would be joining in as they were either trying to repair the one damaged airship or were providing security for the airships. Wilson's section of the experimental battalion were all swamped with carrying for the wounded from the prior battles and what little weren't busy would be staying in the background of the next battle in order to quickly respond to medical emergencies if someone got wounded. There were Tran's scouts but they were busy with keeping an eye on the captured rogue changelings or the enemy wounded they were watching out for. Also, Tran's bombers and fighters couldn't help either as this type of ground fighting was way out of their expertise. The only upside Eric could see was that every yak that he had in his section of the experimental battalion was going to be participating. None of the yaks that had been involved so far had been knocked out or killed. It wasn't that they were untouched, it was due to the heavy steel armor that they wore had prevented them from gaining any major injuries so far. Also, it might have helped that the yaks were as stubborn as they were.

Eric had an exasperated look on his face, as he took in the situation. Everyone nearby could see the stress that this battle was causing Eric, from his body language. "Sooooo," Eric started saying. "No artillery support, not even mortars, and air support because we don't want to collapse the entrance. AAAAnd I ONLY have two companies to fight a position that we can't scout out because its fucking underground, so it could be heavily built up with lots of bodies to back it up," Eric droned out with an annoyed tone. He brought a hand up and started rubbing his neck. "Anything else?"

Blueblood, still physically and magically drained, handed Eric a flare pistol and some flares, by hoof while he shook his head to answer Eric's question. "You've managed to nail your troubles on the head," Blueblood responded. Prince Blueblood wanted to join Eric in the fight but he was still recovering from his changeling cocooning so Wilson was forcing him to stay back. He trotted over to Rarity, him nuzzling her when he arrived next to her. "Stay safe, madam."

Tran looked over at Eric, handing him an empty .338 Lapua casing from his rifle. "If you need more help, fire a green parachute flare and I'll try to bring in some aerial forces to try to reinforce you. I also have a machine gun but it might not help much," Tran offered.

Pharynx looked at the 3d model of the cave's entrance. He was currently in his REA officer disguise, so he wouldn't cause any alarm while trotting around. "If it's like every other hive, once you've taken the doors, you control the hive. We, er, changelings, build them all pretty much the same, aside from small differences for the hive to meet a specific demand," Pharynx added in.

Princess Luna, who was still suspicious of the changelings, narrowed her eyes at the changeling. "And pray tell, what is the purpose of this hive?" she demanded.

Pharynx could sense the hostility in her voice but he pushed away the sense of unease it caused him. Since he was a changeling fighting this secret war, he knew details that even these ponies didn't know. Those details that he knew made him antsy, which everypony could see from his body language with how much he was twitching and shifting around in place he stood. "With it being this close to Appleloosa, it might be a farm," Pharynx responded.

Applejack raised an eyebrow at Pharynx and held up a hoof. "A farm? What kinda farm we talkin' bout 'ere? What could they possibly be growin' in an underground cave?" she asked.

Pharynx grimaced, knowing that the truth was going to be unsettling for the ponies. He pointed at the Prince Blueblood and everyone immediately knew the answer. "Love farm," Pharynx soon responded.

Rarity, the most dramatic of the bunch, audibly gasped. "So are we going to find a myriad of cocooned ponies?" she asked.

Pharynx rubbed his neck and nodded. He looked over at Tran who, while appearing to be emotionless, seemed to be staring into Pharynx's soul, greatly unnerving him. "We could find something worse but let's hope we don't run into that situation," he explained. Before anyone could ask further questions, he opened his mouth to continue and everypony closed their mouths to let him speak. "I'd prefer not to explain what's worse, but you'll know it if you run into it." Mentally, Pharynx was praying to the gods of harmony that they wouldn't run into worse, for the sake of changeling kind in Equestria.

Eric, sighing, unslung his AK and pulled back on the bolt, checking that it was loaded. Satisfied, he turned to leave. He cut a very imposing figure, as he was still covered head to toe in blood. He had yet to clean himself off from the day's earlier events, only wiping the blood off of his face. He cut a very imposing figure into everypony/ling's minds. "Let's get this over with," he announced to everyone.

-X-X-X-

Eric and his troops staged themselves at the many defensive areas that they had taken earlier today and when everyone was sufficiently positioned, the battle started with Eric blowing a whistle and charging forth, where he was quickly joined in by many other leaders blowing their trench whistles where soldiers quickly started charging forth. Machine guns from all directions started firing, most of it coming from the Equestrian side. From the inside of the cave's mouth, machine guns could be seen firing where the muzzle flashes lit up the darkness of the cave's entrance, occasionally lighting up the figure of the quadruple defenders.

Something immediately felt wrong, to Eric. It was going too easy, unexpectedly effortless. The return machine gun fire that came from the defenders was very... Ineffective. It was almost like whoever was firing back at them were firing blind. True, the Equestrians were putting up a good wall of lead that made return accurate fire virtually impossible but it seemed like the return fire they got was not up to snuff, for a trained military force. When they made it into the cave mouth, it was difficult to discern targets with the lower levels of light inside. All Eric and the attackers could do was to fire at any moving or pony/changeling shaped silhouettes.

Before anyone knew it, the attack was over and the Equestrians had taken over the entrance of the cave mouth. None of them could continue further into the rogue changeling hive as they were stopped by a tremendous wall of concrete blocking any further entry. There was only one set of doors on the concrete wall, a giant behemoth example, a set of double doors made of steel that looked impossibly thick. It was easily fifteen meters tall, reaching the top of the cave roof, and each door being twenty meters wide. None of the bunker door's hinges were on the outside and there was a giant visible section of the door's middle where the ends of giant steel rivets stuck out, signaling where the door's locking bar would be positioned on the other side of the door. Eric looked at the door in irritation, as he was now stuck between a rock and a hard place.

With the attack over, Eric had signaled to the airships that the entrance had been taken. They made sure that the cave entrance wasn't booby trapped, in case the changelings would have wanted to collapse the cave in on the REA forces. When it was deemed safe, the rest of the command team started to gather at the entrance of the cave, to plan what to do next. While waiting for everyone else, Eric made sure his soldiers were fine. There were very few casualties expected for something like this. Only a handful of ponies had been struck by return machine gun fire, where their armor protected their vitals preventing them from being killed, leaving no deaths were found on the Equestrian side. On the defending side, there were hundreds of casualties.

An officer trotted up to Eric to deliver some news. To survey the door, Eric had a lit torch that he was using to light up the general area. The instant the officer stepped into the torch's light, Eric could see a haunted visage on the pony's face. "Yes?" Eric asked.

The officer gulped. "Sir, you have to see this," the officer announced. "The changelings we just fought for the entrance..." The officer trailed off from there, refusing to speak, as if he didn't believe what he thought about saying next. Instead, the officer started trotting away instead. "Just, you have to see this."

Eric had many questions, especially with how horrified the pony looked but he opted to follow the pony. The officer led Eric to where a group of his soldiers, a machine gun team, was gathered. The ponies(with a few secretly being allied disguised changelings) and yak were standing around one of the erected fortified machine gun positions that the hive's entrance's defenders. The machine team had a few torches of their own lighting up the fortified position, in addition to a few torches having been set up at the defensive position by the prior defenders.

The machine gun team, in the dark, had moved all of the changeling defender's corpses into a pile before lighting torches of their own so they could see. When they could actually see inside the cave, they were shocked. The corpses that they had piled up, weren't the corpses of changelings. These were the corpses of ponies. They weren't disguised changelings, as some of them had thought, a few just-in-case bullets having proved that hypothesis wrong.

Eric could now understand why the officer looked haunted. He went to some of the other defensive positions inside the cave's mouth and he found the same thing, the grand majority of the defenders' corpses were ununiformed pony corpses. Overall, there were only a minimal number of rogue changeling corpses mixed in with the pony corpses, outnumbering them twenty to one.

As more and more questions popped up into Eric's mind, the rest of the command team had finally arrived in the cave's mouth. Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, when the attack had ended, had immediately gone to grab the rest of the command team, meaning they hadn't seen the carnage yet. The command team arriving, Tran, Wilson, Logan, being led by Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity found Eric standing near a pile of corpses along with one of his machine gun teams. Eric immediately turned to focus on the command team. "We've got a problem," Eric loudly stated and before anyone could ask questions, he threw the torch down next to the pile of pony corpses.

Everypony gasped while the humans(and one ex-human now a griffon) looked indifferent. None of the pony corpses looked right and the sight of them made the ponies rather anxious. The carcasses' coats looked dull and greyed out unlike what normal ponies usually looked like with their usual extravagantly cartoonish pastel coat colors. Something else that was quite alarming to the ponies was that every single one of the rogue changeling hive's pony corpses showed no emotion on their faces. The faces of the rogue changeling corpses that were mixed in with the pony corpses showed emotions such as fear, pain, terror, and or shock, faces with emotions that would normally be on the faces of a casualty of war but the pony corpses displayed nothing. It was like they had reacted to dying as if it was a mere common day task, their dead faces essentially mimicking Tran's usual emotionless face.

While everypony was shocked to see all of this, knowing that they had slaughtered members of their own kind, Pharynx was looking at the pony corpses with eyes filled with sadness and weariness. Wilson noticed that Pharynx had reacted to the pony corpses differently and thought that he knew something about this situation. He drew his pistol and pointed it at Pharynx. "You!" he shouted with an accusatory tone in his voice. "You know something about this!" he shouted.

Pharynx looked at the pistol aimed at his head with the same look of emotional pain in eyes. "Parasites," Pharynx stated. "These ponies had all of their love and emotions drained. If a changeling drains everything out of a pony, they become an emotionless drone with no drive, they eventually die from starvation or dehydration. However, a changeling can then control them like a machine, to do anything."

Wilson growled, looking at Pharynx with an angry drive. Before things could escalate, Eric walked over to Wilson and put a hand on Wilson's drawn pistol. Eric gave Wilson a look of compassion on his face while shaking his head. Wilson grit his teeth before lowering the pistol.

Pharynx trotted over to one of the pony corpses and used a hoof to close its eyes. "This is one of the reasons why we broke away from the hive, why we fight our own family. We couldn't stand the cruelty. My brother was one of the first to speak out against the queen and things escalated from there," Pharynx explained. Pharynx looked into Wilsons angry eyes. "We wanted to be better. They are the real parasites, not us."

Pinkie Pie trotted up to Pharynx and looked the disguised changeling up and down. She then charged forward, scaring the changeling and causing him to flinch, but was then surprised to find the party pony hugging him. Pharynx could feel love radiating off of the party planner , giving the changeling a boost. It wasn't emotional love but a familial type of love which was still contributive to the changeling's being. When Pinkie broke away, she looked to Wilson. "He's not our enemy, sir, Wilson," Pinkie announced. She looked back at Pharynx. "You're our friend!" Pinkie Pie announced with her usual bubbly voice.

Pharynx smiled before looking back to Eric. "Even though we didn't do this, this isn't going to look good for changeling kind once the rest of Equestria finds out about this," Pharynx stated.

Eric snorted before looking at the big metal doors. "So what are we going to find once we're inside the hive?" Eric asked.

Pharynx's face dropped and the same look of weariness came back. "Worse," Pharynx answered. His eyes and face showed centuries of mental exhaustion again, like earlier. He pointed at the section of the door where the locking bar would be. "They're either waiting for reinforcements or are gathering everything to evacuate the hive through possibly a secret escape route," Pharynx explained. "We don't have much time for either direction so we have to get in quick."

Pinkie pronked/skipped up to the metal door and gave it a tap with her hoof, only getting a dull thud in response. It was obvious that the door was very, very thick. "So how are we going to get through?" she asked.

Eric, Wilson and Logan looked at Tran while doing and saying nothing else. When the ponies saw that the humans were standing still, staring at each other, one by one, they started doing the same thing, staring at Tran. When all eyes were on Tran, he smirked. "I might have an idea," Tran stated.

-X-X-X-

The ponies looked at the door after Tran's first attempt of blasting through the door had seemingly done nothing to the door. He had placed a few of his EFP bombs on the door, roughly where the rivets of the giant door's locking bar were bolted in place. While he had been doing that, ponies of all sorts were bringing giant containers of water to the door. Although the first bombs that Tran had detonated weren't able to punch all the way through the door, they did manage to put neat little holes into the door, holes that were barely six centimeters wide, that were angled slightly downwards so they weren't completely horizontal. Even with this damage to the rivets, the door still held firm with the locking bar still in place on the other side.

This was to be expected so the next thing Tran did was that he stuck a rod in each of those blast holes. The ponies were quite confused when Tran had lit the fuses on the rods and only took a few steps back to watch the explosive go off. Naturally, the ponies took cover to protect themselves from the explosives, even if the human wasn't going to. Even more confusing was that when the "explosives" went off, there was no explosion. When the fuses had been lit, they had heard a sound that was akin to something sizzling, like when you were cooking, but significantly more intense and also, the entire cave was lit up with a light that was akin to someone placing the sun on the door. The loud sizzling sound and the bright light lasted quite a while and once both had stopped, the ponies got out from their cover to see what had happened.

They were quite surprised to see large chunks of the door had been melted away, positioned right where the rivets of the door's locking bar held it in place. Of course, this "explosive" hadn't eaten all the way through the door but had obviously melted away a significant amount off it. Tran looked at his handiwork and smiled. Eric walked over to Tran and squinted to look at the white hot iron slag that was pooling on the ground. "I didn't know you made thermite?" Eric asked.

Tran looked at Eric and then back at his handiwork. "Aluminum powder small enough for it was annoying to source but yeah. Prepped a good amount, just in case," Tran answered. Thermite was an explosive, but instead of being a high explosive, it was a low explosive. This meant it didn't explode, instead only just burning. However, just because it "only" burned, it didn't mean it wasn't capable of doing damage. Thermite burned at 2500 degrees Celsius(4500 F), easily being hot enough to easily melt through steel or iron. For the Equestrians and Griffons, thermite wasn't unknown to them but it was still too relatively new and untested for its use in military applications. The biggest thing holding back its usage in military applications was the fact that it needed finely powdered aluminum, while common in the modern world, was much rarer in this world's industrial era.

Eric looked at Tran with a flat expression on his face. "You really need a hobby," Eric joked. He looked back to the door, trying to figure out what Tran was going to do next. He had obviously seen the water containers being gathered, so he had a good inkling of what was going to happen next. "Water impulse charge?" Eric asked. Tran nodded. "I'll get the men ready for a charge."

The Other Side of The Armored Door

There were a few teams of changelings in defensive positions set up near the armored door that isolated them from the Equestrians. They were there for the hive's defenses, just in case anything came through the door. Of course, all of the changelings defending the door thought their roles were pointless. The door was a dozen centimeters (about 5 inches) thick and was essentially invulnerable, with no way for the Equestrians to break it down. Unfortunately for them, Equestrians weren't the ones trying to break down the door, Americans were.

The first thing that would have keyed them into realizing they were about to have a very bad time, was the first explosion. Of course, the explosion seemingly looked like it did nothing against the door, as the view from this side of the tunnel showed that no damage had been done to the door. Naturally, some of the rogue changelings scoffed or laughed at the Equestrian's attempts at blasting through the door as the giant metal gates stood firm where they were.

The next thing that should have keyed them into realizing their soon-to-be predicament was the large amount of light that suddenly came from the other side of the door, from the slits from the imperfect seal of the top, bottom, and center of the door. It was brighter than any torch or light bulb they had ever seen. This had been the thermite charge that had detonated but the defending changelings wouldn't have known what was happening.

Nothing major happened for a few more minutes, other than the obvious sounds of hoofsteps from troop movements and objects being moved, whatever it was they had no idea what was going on the other side. Unfortunately for the rogue changeling defenders, they didn't know that the Americans had severely damaged the rivets holding in the locking bar that was locking the door in place. Of course, the door was still locked as the Americanss hadn't completely destroyed the rivets but they were close to being almost completely melted through.

With the doors being this massive, twelve centimeters thick all the way along the doors, the defenders assumed the doors were impregnable. This was their folly, to which they were very laxed with their ordered surveillance of the door. After the door's locking system had been substantially damaged, the 'Muricans were preparing to breach the door with a technique that was completely unknown to anyone in this world, other than the 'Muricans obviously. It was a breaching technique where you used water to back up the explosives intended to blow in/breach the door. Due to many of water's properties, such as being incapable of being compressible unlike air, this technique considerably boosted the effectiveness of any explosives used to breach a door. This was a breaching technique discovered in the modern world and it was easily applicable with this world's technology and resources, so the rogue changeling defenders were about to have a rather significant surprise.

And dazed and bewildered the defenders were, the doors that they once thought to be impenetrable, were blown open at the speeds of Equestria's fastest dogfighter. The doors weren't blown off of the hinges but they did swing open with the force of every dragon on this world combined, haplessly striking and pulverizing a few ill-fated changelings who had been obstructing the colossal door's swing path. With something as massive as those two doors swinging open at the velocities they had gone, a massive pressure and air wave, in addition to the breaching charge's blast wave, had rushed down through the caverns of this hive, to which it had knocked over many of the closer unlucky flabbergasted defenders of this rogue changeling hive.

Despite this rather unfortuitous event happening, the defenders of the rogue changeling hive weren't immediately dominated by the attackers they faced. The defenders had distanced themselves from the explosives, for safety, so far that they had to travel a significant distance, a distance so long that it had given enough time for the defenders to recover from this surprise. Machine guns on both sides roared but none of it was effective fire, the caverns that this latest battle took place in were dark enough that it was nigh impossible to see anyone to accurately shoot at, as every torch had been extinguished from the blast wave. That didn't mean it wasn't difficult to get a bead on where to fire. The attackers only had a singular path that they could take, meaning the defenders had a very good idea on where to shoot to stall these raiders.

The entrance was large, being a dozen and a half meters(60 ft) wide, but at the same time small. Being the only path the assailants could take, the army that was attacking was severely handicapped in their attempts to make any headway. With everyone recklessly firing in the dark, it was impossibly dangerous for anyone to attempt any movement. Essentially, it was a death sentence for anyone to expose themselves, ie, get out from behind cover. Due to the darkness of the caves, everyone on both sides were unable to see the sights on their weapons but they still knew they had to lay down some covering fire. This meant that everyone on both sides were forced to the only option of blindly firing their weapons in the general direction of each other, with fruitless results other than making it a hazard to be up and out of cover.

That was when the defending side used their trump card. The entire cave system was temporarily lit up with the muzzle flashes of a cannon going off, which was quickly followed by a different second other artillery piece firing off that also lit up the caverns with a hellishly bright muzzle flash. The first shell had worthlessly impacted the massive bunker wall but the second shot had managed to go through the open doors. This shot managed to hit the ground somewhere barely past the bunker door's entrance, where it exploded in a deadly blast, throwing shrapnel in every direction.

If machine gun and rifle fire hadn't been filling the air, everyone involved in the battle would have heard the screams of some of the REA soldiers screaming in pain. Whether they were killed, severely wounded, or lightly injured, it was impossible to tell and any rescue attempts would have been death sentences with the threat of the random bullets flying through the air. This meant they were solitary to their health and rescue, all they could do was hide behind some cover and treat themselves, hoping they would survive long enough for future salvation.

The sounds of the cannons, in addition to the obvious muzzle flash, had been a wakeup call to the assaulting REA forces. They felt like they were in over their heads with this battle, as if they had been forced to push a boulder up a hill. Still, they continued their attack, continuing their return fire. At least they now knew that the defending forces had at least two artillery pieces and were willing to use them, despite the significant risk of a cave-in or perhaps the defending forces wanted a cave-in as it would cut them off from advancing further into the hive.

The darkness severely handicapped their usage of those artillery pieces, slowing their rate of fire and reload, and hindering their ability to aim. As the battle continued, both sides were still stuck in the same positions and hadn't let up on the wild blind return fire. It seemed like this battle was going to be won by whoever had more ammunition.

As the defending changelings were working hard to reload their two cannons, something extraordinary happened. Far in the back of the battle on the attacking side, it suddenly seemed like something had exploded near the REA rear line. This explosion was abnormally intense. It wasn't as if the explosion was massive. What had made this explosion unique was that it was long and never ending. It was as if an unknown monster was continuously roaring and where this explosion was happening, it looked like a dragon was breathing fire nonstop.

Down at the defending side where one of the defending changeling's artillery guns were at, the crew that was operating the artillery gun were hard at work. One of the cannon's crewmembers had opened the breech, ejecting the previous shell's spent casing. The instant the breech of the cannon had opened and the casing had been ejected, a stream of bullets shot down the barrel and out of the breech of the artillery gun and struck several of the crew members! Bullets had started raining down on their position with the intensity of a swarm of hungry locust. The remaining crewmembers grabbed their weapons and scrambled for cover, thinking that maybe some of the REA forces had managed to sneak up on them. However, what they experienced was impossible to pinpoint how many or even what had managed to attack them, the battlefield was too loud from the gunfire. One changeling crewmember took cover behind a big metal shield that was attached to the artillery cannon. In an instant, all of the gunfire hitting that cannon crew ceased, to which the few remaining crewmembers of that artillery piece breathed a sigh of relief.

While that artillery gun position had been ravaged by unknown shooters, the other artillery gun that the rogue changeling hive owned, had been working hard to reload their cannon. Even though they were working in the dark, they were almost ready to fire another devastating HE(High Explosive) shell. Before they could complete the final steps, they were immediately bombarded by a hail of gunfire that they never could have imagined. In the matter of seconds, hundreds upon hundreds of bullets were hitting absolutely everything in mere seconds. Some of the artillery gun's crewmembers were somewhat safe, being protected by the artillery gun and the protective shield that was built into the artillery piece but still, several of the crewmembers were cut down by the gunfire causing the rest of the crewmembers to scramble for their weapons and safety, them thinking that, just like the other artillery gun's crewmembers, they had been ambushed by a squad of REA soldiers. All of the incoming fire was coming from the general direction of where the Equestrians had been attacking from. They knew the direction of their assailant, but just like the other artillery crew, they couldn't determine how many or even what had attacked them for the same reason.

The crewmembers of the artillery guns had foolishly thought they had been safe as their positions were far from the main battle, at the open gate, but now they were proven wrong. The second crew, having been interrupted in the process of reloading their cannon for another shot, had a few steps left before firing. Unfortunately for the artillery piece's crewmembers, those final few steps were now much more challenging to complete. An HE shell was loaded in the artillery gun's breech and its propellant charge had also been stuffed into the gun, leaving the last steps left being a primer needing to be inserted into the propellant charge and to close the breach.

Miraculously, they were suddenly unable to finish reloading the gun due to a sudden series of unfortunate events that rendered the task impossible. The sheer amount of firepower that was being rained down on their position had done something disastrous for this cannon's crewmembers. So many bullets had been fired at them that nothing was safe from being hit by a stray bullet. A definitely-not-insignificant number of bullets had managed to find a path down the barrel of the aimed cannon where they impacted the front of the HE shell that was loaded in the gun. Normally, a single bullet wouldn't be able to detonate an HE artillery shell, even if it hit the tip. The problem was, the HE shell wasn't hit by a singular stray round, but an uncountable number.

Naturally, the shell exploded in the chamber of the artillery gun which also detonated the powder charge behind it and since the breech wasn't closed due to the reload process having been interrupted, the explosion traveled further outwards in its path of destruction. On the attacking side of this battle, all of the attackers got to watch a massive series of explosions as that single HE shell's detonation had manage to travel far enough to detonate the cannon's spare ammunition and propellant charges that were nearby which was then big enough to take out the other artillery cannon and also detonating its spare ammunition. The explosion rocked the defending side, taking out heaps of the changelings and severely stunning many others. For a short moment, it felt like the earth was shaking with the intensity of the chain of explosions rocking the cave system, it being a miracle that there were still no cave-ins. The blind gunfire coming from the defending side effectively died out as many of the rogue changeling hive's defending forces were affected by the explosions.

With this lull in the return fire, the REA forces started charging forth and making leeway. In a matter of minutes, the rogue changeling hive's final defenses had been taken over.

-X-X-X-

While REA forces were mopping things up, such as dealing with POWs or wounded soldiers(of both sides), Eric, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie were gathering up at the cave's entrance where their "rear line" was which was where Tran was stationed during the battle, not being able to directly "participate" in the fighting. As Eric and Co. walked, all of the ponies talked to one another while Eric was thinking about what had happened during the battle. They had been fighting through a bottleneck, which had cost them many casualties and when the rogue changelings revealed that they had cannons, Eric had thought they came close to losing the battle.

After the two cannons had fired their first and only rounds, Eric had been planning a maneuver with some teams of soldiers to try to make any headway. Before he could initiate his plan, it seemed like they had suddenly gained a lot more firepower on their side, small arms wise, to help fire on the defending rogue changelings. He had an inkling of an idea of where it came from and what it was, the sound being somewhat familiar to him.

When Eric and Co. found Tran, it confirmed Eric's idea of where the extra firepower had come from. Tran, due to the fact that he was still recovering from prior injuries, didn't have 100% of his strength to participate in the up close direct combat they had just gone through, but that didn't mean he wasn't completely incapable of assisting the battle. The other ponies, upon seeing Tran, were astounded, but not Eric.

The unkillable human was standing atop a platform built onto a large carriage, where he was standing behind a massive gun contraption device mounted to a massive tripod. The gun had 10 barrels and had many mechanisms, gears, and objects attached to it. The top of the gun had an absolutely massive corrugated steel drum that Eric assumed was the magazine and attached to the side of the gun's receiver was a glass bottle attached to a mechanism. It wasn't any regular glass bottle but one that contained a bolt of lightning.

Applejack was awestruck at the sight of the massive gun, which was currently steaming from substantial heat. "Dadgum, Ah didn't know yah had a genuiiiine Gatlin' Gun!" she exclaimed.

Tran nodded and patted the Gatling Gun with his left hand. "Kind of, it's been changed."

Eric ran up to the gun to get a better look. He had an inkling of an idea of what Tran had used in the battle, before he saw it and was walking to here, as the roar sounded somewhat familiar, its rate of fire. He shot Tran an irritated look. "When you said you had a machine gun, why didn’t you say it was a minigun?!" Eric demanded. ”And Why the hell didn't you spring this earlier in the morning?!”

Tran turned the Gatling Gun so it's back was exposed. Upon seeing the back of the Gatling Gun, Eric immediately understood why it was kept hidden. The rear of the gun had many, many controls, knobs, and dials. It looked like an intricate mess that barely functioned. "It's a work in progress, but it works, barely, if you guys noticed."

Eric turned to look back into the cave system before looking at Tran. He sighed, knowing that his friend was right. "Is that what took out their arty?" he asked.

Tran nodded in response and proceeded to remove the drum off the top of the gun, setting it on the ground. "Yeah, I've tested it before but I thought now would be a good first field use," Tran answered. "It still needs more refinement for further future use. It's too complicated to be carried by anything at the moment."

Eric continued looking at the gun, then smirked. He couldn't deny it, it was an awesome weapon. "What's it clock in at and why no belt feed?" Eric asked.

"4500 rounds per minute and I tried but, making a belt feed mechanism to work with the REA ammo belts was basically impossible," Tran answered. "So, for now, I just went with a big drum like the Lewis gun's, ‘cepted scaled up to hold 600 rounds instead of 47. I might be able to add a belt feed in the future with more handiwork."

Applejack whistled and she trotted over to the Gatling Gun, tapping the side with a hoof. "4500 rounds a minute? Holy Celestia, that has tah be a record!" she exclaimed. "Only time Ah ever tried one, it took me bout five seconds tah fire forty rounds, but with this thing, that'd be a cake walk, wouldn't it?"

Tran nodded to Applejack's question, patting the weapon. "Forty rounds, gone in half a second with this," Tran responded.

Applejack was stupefied at Tran's statement, that answer she was given seemed impossible but knowing him, impossible was what he did. "Where'd you get somethin' like this? Most ah dem are gone, destroyed! They're relics now," Applejack asked.

Tran chuckled and hand-spun the barrels to clear it. He looked over to Applejack and waved at her to come closer. She trotted over to him and then, looked closer at the Gatling Gun, somewhere that Tran was now pointing at. Tran was pointing out a section of the Gatling Gun's receiver that would be hidden by the magazine. Looking, Applejack could see several names engraved into it, very crudely as if someone had done it with a knife. Of the names engraved, she saw a familiar one. "Calamity Mane?" Applejack read out loud. "Nah, it can't be!"

Tran nodded again. "Yep. Ah got dis 'ere Gatlin' Gun from yer Granny Smith," Tran replied, copying her drawl.

Author's Note

Fun fact, the first electric gatling gun was made in 1893, by Richard Gatling himself. It had a Rate of Fire of 3000 rounds a minute. The only reason why it was dead on arrival was that powering it was impossible for practical field use. In Equestria, bottled lightning so suck on that! The feed mechanism in the story is a mixture of a broadwell drum which held 240 and the lewis gun's 47 round magazine. a 600 round drum sounds extreme and would prolly weigh 100 pounds but Tran has magic strength to help

as usual, I am still alive, barely but I'm unkillable. As usual, please leave a comment, I enjoy reading them and responding to the questions.

A True Friend Is Like a Soldier That Never Abandons His Partner Alone in the Battlefield ·

With the REA's latest victory against the rogue changelings, they were that much closer to complete victory. This day had been incredibly busy after they arrived in Appleloosa, starting with an battle in the skies for aerial domination, followed by them having to deal with Blueblood getting captured, then battling to take over the outside of the changeling hive where an airship fired on friendly forces, before battling two iron dragons, and then finally battling to get into the hive. The troops were getting weary with all of this activity but they were close to victory. They had to continue further so the rogue changelings couldn't escape, meaning they were now preparing to storm and clear the inside of the hive.

The REA chain of command, Princess Luna, and the commanders of the experimental battalion gathered the least worn out soldiers that weren't wounded. Eric and Tran's sections of the battalion still had plenty of soldiers still capable of fighting and they were bolstered by reserve soldiers and the protective escorts that were assigned to the airships. Even Tran's flying teams were participating, being armed with shotguns and not being nearly as physically exhausted as Eric's machine gun teams, as the primary assault elements.

The main rally point where all of this would start was the massive gates. Previously held by the rogue changelings, the REA had quickly converted it to a defense checkpoint. Eric and Wilson were at the head of the charge, ready to lead the way. Pharynx would be joining them in the assault and warned them of the hive's makeup. They all knew that the hive was a large network of tunnels so the group expected to split up into smaller teams.

But something unexpected happened before they could start. Eric, Wilson, and Pharynx were at the cusp of battle, standing at the very edge of the rally point with hundreds of soldiers behind them that were ready for battle. A pony on guard shouted an alarm and everyone went into "battle" mode, expecting a fight. Much to their surprise, three changelings slowly walked out into the open where everyone could see them, one of them holding a white flag. They walked a good distance before stopping, not making any sudden moves. All three of the changelings were undisguised, being in their natural insect changeling forms, and dressed in haphazard combat gear. None of them were armed with weapons and one of them wore significantly less gear than the other two, only wearing a belt with a revolver. By all standards, the three of them were definitely soldiers from the rogue changeling hive. "Parley!" one of the changelings loudly announced.

Eric and Wilson, both of them having taken cover and had their weapons out, looked over at Pharynx who was behind a different piece of cover. "Hey cockroach!" Wilson whisper-yelled at Pharynx. "What the hell is this?"

Pharynx scrunched up his nose at Wilson's insult but was still attentive to the situation at hand. "I don't know!" he whispered. "This isn't something I expected!"

Eric stared at the trio of changelings with a look of suspicion, as the three changelings were standing out in the open, thinking that there had to be a catch to this situation. He thought that there was no way that this was as it seemed. However, he knew they couldn't just keep hiding, hoping that their work would be done for them. Taking a deep breath, Eric stood up, exposing himself to everyone. Wilson looked at Eric with a worried look, knowing the risks. "Be careful!" Wilson whisper-yelled at Eric.

Eric nodded and slowly walked forth, rifle in his hands, ready to react to anything. The three changelings were clearly just as paranoid and nervous about the situation, as their eyes darted around worried about what could happen next. When they could fully see the human, they were quite alarmed from Eric's appearance. The man was still covered head to toe in blood, only leaving his face free from being stained red and it gave him quite the intimidating sight. Eric stopped walking when he was a half dozen meters away, close enough for them to interact with each other. "What is this?" Eric demanded from the three changelings.

One of the changelings, one that Eric presumed was the officer in charge of the group, cleared his throat to ready himself despite all of the tension running through his body. "You have gained a foothold in our hive, having taken the great entrance," the officer stated. He looked past Eric and took a pained glance at the massive destroyed doors that the REA had taken earlier today before redirecting his attention back at Eric. "The chain of command has seen the writing on the wall from the speed you have gained your many victories today and we are requesting to negotiate the terms of the hive's surrender."

Eric was flabbergasted and the three changelings could see it on the human's face with how his jaw had dropped. He was frozen in place, stunned from the revelation but he soon recovered. Eric looked over at Pharynx and motioned for him to come on over, which took quite a bit of coaxing but the REA's changeling attache finally relented. When Pharynx was given the same news that Eric had been given, the changeling was just as stunned but when he finally recovered, he trotted over to Eric. Pharynx motioned for Eric to come close and when the human did as requested, the changeling started whispering to Eric in hopes of a private conversation. "This might not be a farce, they might actually be surrendering," Pharynx quietly said to the human.

Eric was still confused about the situation, his mind giving many doubts. After everything he had experienced today, it seemed too easy. "But why? All of the resistance they've given so far, now they want to surrender?" Eric asked.

Pharynx looked away from the human and over at the three changelings. The three rogue changelings looked ragged and most importantly hungry, not of physical sustenance but from needing love. "We might have gained a hoofhold too fast for them to abandon the hive. Too much to gather if they want to evacuate, food, water, and more importantly, love," Pharynx speculated. "If they leave now, it's just a death sentence in the desert to not have what the hive holds."

Eric broke away from their private conversation and directed his attention back at the changelings. "So what are your demands?" Eric asked.

The officer stared at Pharynx with an angry expression. Pharynx had no doubt that they knew what he was, a fellow changeling, just one that wasn't allied with them. "We will not be surrendering to the Equestrians but to the traitors."

-X-X-X-

Long story short, the rogue changelings surrendered. Pharynx was in fact correct in his deductions. With how fast the REA had taken a foothold in the rogue changeling hive, the rogue changelings knew that the REA would be soon planning a storming of the hive and they had surrendered just in time to prevent the casualties from such an event. It was a pained but practical decision to prevent more casualties with needless fighting as the rogue changelings knew they were fighting an uphill battle that they knew they'd lose. The hive was simply too spread out with its manpower and resources to immediately mass-evacuate or organize any real defense. With gritted teeth, the rogue changelings relinquished themselves to the hooves of the changelings allied to the Equestrians. It was a verdict that was secretly done with the presence of Princess Luna to represent the government, Prince Blueblood, Rarity, and Spitfire to represent the REA, Pharynx to represent the allied changelings, and the humans to represent, well, themselves, the humans.

Prince Blueblood, Rarity, and Princess Luna knew that there would be consequences to the rogue changelings being left to the responsibility of the allied changelings, once others found out about the situation. Only the highest of position officers in the REA and government knew about the faction of changelings that were secretly fighting on the Equestrian side, because the rest of Equestria were quite intimidated by any changeling at all. Despite there being very few who knew the truth, the few that existed held a lot of power and could create quite the stink if they wanted to. The surrendering changelings were forced to disarm themselves and undisguise themselves. To make sure they couldn't disguise themselves and intermingle with the allied changelings, all of the surrendering rogue changelings were forced to wear magic suppression rings. To make these rings more semi-permanent, as in not easily taken off, the rings were looped through one of the holes in the rogue changeling's horn before being welded shut. This prevented them from taking on any forms or using any magic, effectively neutering their abilities.

Once every rogue changeling was properly processed, they were handed off to the allied changelings where they'd be sent to their secret hive. One of the remaining airships was tasked out to deliver the rogue changelings to the allied changeling hive and the aircraft would only be crewed by changelings. The allied changeling hive's location was supposed to be a secret so no pony would be accompanying them on their travels, with some exceptions. As a display of trust, several of Princess Luna's night sentinels would be also crewing the airship for this delivery. Also, Rarity and Prince Blueblood would be accompanying them, the latter of which will be getting treatment for his weakened condition of having almost all of his magic and love being quickly sapped away. Pharynx was leading this expedition back to their hive and had invited Eric and Tran to accompany them as a display of how much trust and respect the humans had earned from the changelings so far but they refused the offer as they still had more important work to do. Pharynx understood the sentiment and bid the humans a polite and respectful goodbye, relishing when he'd be able to work with the humans again.

This victory had meant that the rogue changelings were now almost ten thousand changelings smaller. A few thousand changelings had been killed, ones that were either infiltrators or soldiers, in that entire day's battle. The remaining enemy changelings that were now being transferred over to the allied changelings' hive were mostly only civilians but losing them was still a tremendous blow that had been dealt as they had been essential to the underground conflict that the rogue and allied changelings fought. No matter how many soldiers a nation had, the army still needed civilians on the home front to support, supply, and feed them. The enemy changelings were also now lacking one of their important producers/gatherers of love from the Equestrians as the hive that had been lost was one of the closest infiltration hives to Equestria, in terms of espionage or love gathering.

Most importantly from all of this, the REA and humans gained a lot of intel from the capture of this hive. This rogue changeling hive was one of the primary spy networks that was aiding the griffons. These rogue changelings were the reason why the griffons were able to track the REA's movements so effectively or move their soldiers secretly, enough that they could ambush the Dauntless months back. This would be a crippling blow to the Griffon Empire's war effort and hopefully help lower the amount of enemy espionage that the Equestrians face. These rogue changelings had also been supplying the griffons with raw materials and supplies stolen from Equestria for their war effort. What the changelings gained in this deal were POWs that the griffons had captured, whether they be soldiers or civilians. This supplemented their own supply of ponies that the rogue changelings captured themselves, meaning this rogue hive was a major factory/farm for the production of love. Any excess was stored in crystals for further changeling use.

Speaking of gathering love, this hive housed a few thousand captured ponies. All of the ponies they freed had to be removed from cocoons where they had been being used as a food source for god knows how long. These ponies they had freed still had enough emotions/magic left to not be a zombie but would need lots of treatment and therapy before they would be back to full health. The ponies that were too far gone had been already taken care of, having been used as cannon fodder in one of the previous battles. The survivors were divided almost perfectly between military POWS from past battles or civilians that had been kidnapped. However, a big however, was that this hive, according to Pharynx, had far too few ponies for the size of the hive and how many changelings it housed. According to the allied changeling attaché, there should have been more than double the number of ponies, ponies that would have been sucked dry. The REA and humans had faced a good amount of the love and emotion sapped ponies but there easily should have been more. Strangely enough, prior to the events of today, once a pony had been used up, love and magic wise, the emotionless husk would then be given back to the griffons. The leaders of this hive didn't know why the griffons wanted the emotionless husk zombie ponies after they had been sucked dry. It was a mystery what the griffons were using them for as this was the first occasion in the history of the war that the Equestrians had encountered the emotionless husk zombie ponies. The current speculation was that they were being used as slave labor due to the fact that emotionless husks wouldn't complain or fight back.

Still, after a very long day, the mission had been completed.

-X-X-X-

Tran, Wilson, Eric, Logan, Princess Luna, Soarin, Spitfire, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were once again gathered together on the deck of the airship, watching the ground fly by as the airship flew. They were now flying back to Appleloosa so they could stay there for the night. As they had previously done, they were being escorted by many scores of pegasi flying in the air, acting as a protective escort. They were accompanied by the airship that had been damaged, having been repaired enough that it could fly back to Appleloosa, being barely able to.

These two airships that were flying back were chalk full of ponies that had been freed from that rogue changeling hive. The freed civilians filled up the cargo and troop bays and would be dropped off in Appleloosa where they would be later disseminated back into Equestrian society, after they had been rehabilitated from being used as love cattle by the changelings. Wilson's medics, the ones that were changelings, were working hard to help treat the most severe cases of emotion sapping. Despite how full and busy these two airships were, it was nowhere as cramped as it could be. The third airship, the only other undamaged one, also the one that was temporarily loaned to the allied changelings, was using almost every bit of deck space it could to house all of the changelings they captured.

Eric, after all of today's events, had finally cleaned himself off of all of the blood and changed into a new set of clothes. Despite that, ponies would swear that the sight of him still held a red tinge to his figure, especially when looking at him from a distance. However, his eyes were still entirely blood red with pupils, as if some veins/arteries had been blown in his eyes despite there being no signs of said condition, of which, gave him a very terrifying visage up close. Many ponies were wary of him, after finding out he had killed many of the officers and crewmembers of one airship with one exception, the soldiers that were part of the experimental battalion. They cared not that he killed fellow REA soldiers, they had wanted to do the same after being shelled by them. Astoundingly enough, he was in decent condition, health wise, only sporting a few minor shrapnel wounds in some of his limbs and some slight ringing in his ears, nothing else noteworthy.

Rainbow Dash and Gilda, were annoyed with their current conditions, heavily wounded from being bowled over by an iron dragon's heavy helmet. Both of them had a few broken limbs, many major bruises, and gashes that were stitched closed, but they weren't in pain. Morphine was a hell of a drug and they had been given a good amount. Both of them could still move around on their own, Gilda using crutches and Rainbow Dash in a wheelchair. Irritatingly enough, both of them were barred from flying until they recovered, having been banned from doing so by a doctor and if they did try to fly against doctor's orders/recommendations, it would cause them a not-insignificant amount of pain.

Logan was obviously not wounded as he had not participated in any of today's battles, nonetheless he still sported the wounds he started with. The body he was inhabiting still should have been dead but he was still alive despite obvious medical knowledge. Ponies were especially distrusting of him, being a griffon now, and the fact that he sported eyes that were completely white gave him quite the haunting appearance. Said unique bodily feature meant that it was impossible to tell what he was looking at, which unnerved anypony he faced up close.

Tran, Wilson, Princess Luna, Soarin, Spitfire, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie had been completely untouched by today's events, of which, Applejack and Pinkie Pie being unwounded was quite the marvel as they had participated in many of the day's battles directly up close. Pinkie Pie had chalked up her survival from being able to sense and dodge danger before it happened, which sounded like complete nonsense to the humans who were told it was just "Pinkie being Pie". As for Applejack's survival, she just chalked it up to luck, something rather desired on open battlefields.

Logan walked over to Wilson on unsteady legs, still not used to his new quadrupedal griffon body. He was currently trying to walk on his hind legs, a shaky affair for his current state of health. "Sounds like y'all were pretty busy while I was gone," Logan commented. "Made some new toys I want to play with and got your own soldiers to lead. Say, what do you call them anyways? You keep calling them 'the experimental unit' instead of any name or nickname."

Eric scoffed, walking over to the living corpse. "Well, it very much is an experiment for these idiots," Eric shot out, referring to the ponies. "But we don't know what to call them."

Logan looked at some of the ponies that were filling the deck of the airship, not choosing any particular pony, whether they be a recovered civilian or member of the REA, to focus on. Knowing that he had been previously dead was a very mentally impacting concept to his psyche. He had no idea what to make of it, not remembering anything during his period of death. To him, it had very much felt like he had gone to sleep one day and woke up the next, referring to when he died as a human and then reanimated in a new body a month later. He was finally realizing all of the new feelings and senses that came from switching from a human to griffon body, further impacting the current strain on his mind in dealing with this situation. Now that there was a lull in the day's excitement, all of it was crashing down onto him, giving him a lot to think about, as it was a lot to comprehend. "Am I going to get my own soldiers?" Logan asked.

Tran and Eric shared a look upon hearing the question and both of them had a lot to think about. They were the true leaders of this experimental unit, being in charge of the primary combat forces of the battalion. Logan's background prior to coming to Equestria did not involve any prior military experience, which was a huge nail in the coffin to the idea. "No," Tran replied.

Logan heard Tran's reply and the answer did not offend him in any way. He knew his limits and shortcomings, remembering his civilian past. Eric interrupted Logan's thoughts when he added in his own two cents. "You can definitely help teach, though," Eric replied.

Spitfire glanced at Gilda and then to Logan. They now had two Jaegers on their side, which was a very strange thought to her. "Well, it wouldn't be a first, having another griffon work with us," Spitfire mentioned.

Soarin, looking at Logan's spine-chilling appearance, and shrugged. "But not zombies, that's different. Something new, every day, right?" Soarin jokes.

Logan chuckled at the joke, fully aware of what he looked like. "Having a zombie serve in the military, that's a comforting thought," Logan joked.

Princess turned her attention to look at Logan, thinking about the implications. "Though I believe you are akin more to a revenant," the princess corrected. "And if you have a fraction of your friends' skills, you can provide quite the contributive service to Equestria." Having a griffon be in such a high position and close proximity to such powerfully positioned ponies brought some unease to the princess's mind, the same with Gilda being with Rainbow Dash, but she trusted the human's decision. After all, they had clearly displayed their ability to deal with problems of this sort, if it arose.

Logan rubbed the bottom of his chin, an idea coming to mind. "How about the revenant legion?" Logan asked. "As a name for your unit?"

Pinkie Pie gasped and shivered. "Revenant legion? That's too scary!" Pinkie Pie remarked.

Wilson chuckled, the suggestion name eating at his mind. "Are we trying to be edgy?" he joked.

Tran cleared his throat, loudly, to get everyone's attention. "How about the lost battalion?" Tran proposed.

Eric, meaning a fellow military history academic, knew the history behind the name. "Why d'ya propose that?" Eric asked. In WWI, the name referred to a battalion of men who the US chain of command had forgotten about, losing their position. As a result, that unit suffered horrid conditions and at one point getting shelled by their own friendly forces, ending with only 1/3 of the unit surviving their experience. It reminded him of what they had gone through, getting lost during the Dauntless Incident and getting shelled by their own forces.

Tran looked the Princess in the eyes before he answered back. "For when we were lost, for those we have lost and will be lost permanently, and once we are no longer needed, when we are lost in everyone's mind, when you want our existence to be forgotten, censored from common knowledge," Tran replied.

Princess Luna was offended and stunned, thinking back to the bond the two of them shared, but knew there was a kernel of truth to that statement. They had achieved astounding achievements but at the same time, had executed deplorable actions in the meantime. Their tactics, despite being effective, were taboo to the REA's chain of command and had the chance of not lingering once the war ended.

Applejack grimaced and took the hat off of her head, putting it to her chest. "It fits," she commented. "And it's the truth, one that's mighty hard tah swallow."

Eric looked at Tran and let out a sigh. "I don't see anything wrong with it. I'm going for it," he added in.

Tran looked over at Wilson, who shrugged in response. "Ditto, I'll go with it," Wilson said.

Tran turned his attention back to the ponies. "From here on, us and our soldiers are the Lost Battalion," Tran announced.

Soarin narrowed his eyes. "The Lost Battalion," Soarin said, testing out the name. It rolled off of the tongue decently and it was definitely catchy in his mind. "I like it."

Applejack, still holding her signature stetson in her hoof, dug into the hat with her mouth, retrieving a flask. She held it up for everyone to see. "Let's have a toast! The Lost Battalion's first battle and success!" Applejack commemorated. Miraculously, Logan pulled out a flask from his(Tran's loaned) coat and held it up with the farm pony. Applejack raised a brow at the sight of Logan holding the flask. "Where'd you even get that?"

Logan had barely been back could barely move around on his own, making several someponies question how he had already managed to acquire a flask, or hell, alcohol. He shrugged in response. "I found it somewhere." That raised even more questions in everyponies' minds as these airships weren't exactly a liquor store so the options for getting a flask was limited. "Let's drink!" Logan declared before more questions could be ask.

As the walking corpse took a drink from the flask, Applejack shrugged and opened up her flask to join in on the celebration. She took a quick sip before handing it around to fellow ponies, Logan doing the same with his human friends. When the flask came around to Wilson after Eric's sip, he walked over to Tran while pulling out a syringe of morphine. Tran was eventually given Applejack's flask while Wilson administered morphine to his friend, temporarily pausing the passing of the flask he currently possessed. Tran took a long sip from Applejack's flask, savoring the burn the moonshine gave him, as the fleeting pains of his body were whisked away by the morphine's embrace. Even the princess joined in on the celebrations, getting passed Applejack's flask from Tran.

Much to everyone's amusement, the princess went into a hacking fit upon the slightest drop of alcohol touching her throat. Applejack chuckled and took the flask from the squawking princess before the princess could drop it and waste any of the precious liquid. "Yea princess, it's a touch stronger than most ponies can handle," Applejack commented. The princess, specifically her alicorn's boosted constitution, was being tested from the potent poison. She regained her composure and display of regality despite tears of pain and suffering filling her eyes. Having returned from the moon not that long ago from her thousand year prison stint, she had yet to build up her resistances to stuff like this. Just to emphasize her acclimation to alcohol, Applejack took a long, slow sip from the flask in front of the princess before swallowing it quickly, followed by one loud cough. "Puts some fluff on your chest!"

Princess Luna gave Applejack quite the smiting glare. "While the concept of alcohol is the purposeful intoxication of oneself, I do believe you have affixed yourself to the poison aspect of it far beyond what should be considered suitable," the princess said with quite the irritation in her voice.

Applejack chuckled and handed the flask back to Tran, now that Wilson was done with his task. Everyone else had already taken a drink in celebration, leaving the medic last. Tran clunked Applejack's flask against Logan's flask held in Wilson's hand and they each took took a sip, the unkillable one taking a longer drag than the other. When Tran brought the flask down, he started swishing the alcohol that was in the process of burning away every nerve ending in his mouth. Just to show off, he made sure the princess could clearly see the clear display of hubris, before slowly swallowing away the borderline explosive.

Tran returned Applejack's flask to the farm pony while the princess debated whether or not her friend could be considered a living being or not. He looked at everyone with the usual emotionless display on his face. "Now that the Lost Battalion has survived her first trial by fire, she must face her true challenge," Tran cryptically declared.

-X-X-X-

Tran, Wilson, Eric, Logan, Princess Luna, Soarin, Spitfire, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie had reconvened in the airship's loading bay, the one where the Lost Battalion's soldiers were gathered in. Every living member of the unit was gathered here, even the wounded, albeit only the ones in stable condition, being the only ones in this large cargo bay. The only ponies not affiliated with the unit that were also present were several of Princess Luna's Night Sentinel who were guarding the exits and entrances to this area, not allowing anyone through. The command team was gathered up together in no particular uniform military fashion, standing atop a temporary platform so they could be seen.

The soldiers were gathered up in battalion formation, all at proper military attention in front of the raised platform that housed the command team. They had relinquished their weapons into one area, in front of the platform, between the chain of command and the soldiers in formation leaving the humans and primary members of the chain of command being the only ones armed. Every soldier thought this was some type of ceremony and the humans in command started out by initiating a roll call, verifying the soldier's expectations.

A roll call, simply put, was the official ceremony of them reading down from a list of names and calling them out, checking on their condition or presence being very similar to attendance roll calls done in schools. Of the 1500 soldiers that made up the battalion, about four dozen had been KIA(Killed In Action), most of which as a result from the friendly fire. More than double the number of KIA, were ponies that gained new major wounds that would temporarily put them out of commission but they'd be able to recover and continue serving with this unit if they so desired, to which they summarily wanted with all of their soul and heart for they did not desire to leave the new family they joined.

Of the remaining members of the Lost Battalion, a quarter had gained minor wounds, the body armor they had been issued performing as intended and protecting their vitals. A significant majority of these minor wounds were light shrapnel wounds in their limbs, something that could be easily treated, before they would quickly heal from, benefitting from the accelerated healing that ponies possessed. As the roll call ended, they had a moment of silence for those that had fallen. They had paid the ultimate price in the defense of their country and would enter a state of immortality as they would be forever remembered for the sacrifice they were and did give.

Once the moment of silence was over, all of the soldiers were still standing at attention in formation while the humans and chain of command stared them down. Tran was the one standing out in front, standing casually, where hopefully everyone could see and hear him. "We have faced our first trial by fire and rightfully succeeded," Tran announced, pausing for dramatic effect. Soarin started stomping his hooves, the pony equivalent of clapping hands, to which everyone joined in on. The celebration was short lived as everyone returned to a moment of silence, their attention back on the unkillable human. The cheering soon ended and Tran continued his speech. "But now we must face a far more difficult battle. Remember, we have fought and bled together. This is your family now, no matter what happens or who or what they are."

Tran then started pointing at the soldiers standing in formation. First, he pointed at a zebra. "Whether they're a zebra." Then, he pointed to a yak. "A yak." He next pointed at Logan. "A griffon." That last one had definitely raised some murmurs but they accepted the statement, many of them having been taught by a rather friendly griffon, Gilda.

As Tran continued, he pointed at a supposedly random pony. "Or anything else. Today we have faced a great enemy, the changelings. We have heard of what they are capable of, being able to shapeshift to look like anyone. And... By now, All of you may have heard tales of my apprehension of changeling spies, especially the one who attempted to mimic the prince, as I am immune to the changeling's illusions." Tran paused again, giving the crowd to marinate in the statement. Some of the soldiers in the crowd started booing, remembering their ordeal with the changelings, more of them joining in by the second, jeering making some disparaging remarks about the changelings after remembering they had to free ponies from cocoons or having to slaughter their own citizens that had been turned into emotionless husks. Before the crowd could get rowdier, Tran yelled, silencing everyone. He cleared his throat to continue his speech. "No matter what you experienced, especially today's battles, the changelings are still people, we will not be exterminating their race. Do not think they are bad people just because of what you have seen so far. "

Tran then pointed to Eric as he continued speaking. "Remember, we had to root out the unscrupulous in the REA's chain of command. Ponies, not changelings," Tran continued on, no longer pointing at Eric. "Changelings are the same as you, just people trying to survive." Tran paused and with the silence, there were murmurs among the soldiers, side comments they made to fellow soldiers, unsure about this new information.

Tran pointed to the supposedly random pony soldier that he had pointed out earlier. The pony in question was a unicorn stallion, and was a member of one of Eric's machine gun teams. He sported a few minor injuries on some of his legs that were wrapped up in bandages. "Present yourself up here," he commanded, still pointing at the pony. The stallion in question gulped, afraid of what would happen to him, but he still properly marched up to the front of the formation, placing himself at attention on the platform in front of Tran and the rest of the Lost Battalion. "Undress yourself!" Tran commanded.

There were some chuckles from the battalion, but deep glares from the humans stopped that pretty quickly. The unicorn stallion didn't know what was going on but he still reached up with a hoof to start taking off his REA uniform, as the command was still a lawful order. "Stop!" Tran commanded, as the unicorn had undone the first button of his khaki/tan tunic. "Undress yourself," Tran ordered again, this time with a much more chilling tone.

The unicorn stallion gulped, knowing what the human was ordering. He was afraid of what would happen, but those fears weren't enough to convince him to not do as he had been commanded as the consequences of not obeying the human was perhaps far worse. The unicorn stallion was sheathed in green fire as he transformed into a changeling, still bearing the REA uniform he had been wearing.

There was an uproar amongst the ponies in the battalion formation, as fury and wrath blossomed among the ranks of the formation, aside from the other changelings that secretly made up the Lost Battalion. All of the hate was directed at the changeling that had been singled out, who was disheartened from seeing and hearing his fellow soldiers wanting to kill him. Tran quickly drew his signature hand cannon and fired a round into the deck. "Quiet!" Tran commanded as the gunshot rang out, silencing everyone. The changeling was still facing Tran but he didn't need to look at the rest of the battalion to feel all of their negative emotions that were now being directed at him.

Tran looked at his soldiers with an angry expression and all of the gathered soldiers felt fear and a growing sense of unease building up in their body. "I am not exposing an imposter or spy," Tran continued. "This is a changeling who wanted to fight for Equestria's survival, he is no enemy." He looked back to the changeling. "You are a part of our family," he said, trying to soothe the changeling's worries. Still, the changeling was distraught and filled with fear, knowing that his fellow soldiers had no trust for him. Tran's next words were quieter, enough that only the changeling could hear him. "Form griffon hands," Tran quietly commanded. Even though the changeling was mentally and emotionally destroyed, he did as he was commanded and green flames sheathed his front legs as they transformed into griffon arms, including the clawed talons.

Tran slowly raised his signature hand gun and pointed it at the changeling's head, who was flinched and closed his eyes, scared that he was about to be executed. However, the battalion were aghast when Tran twirled the hand cannon in his hands, spinning it 180 degrees, so he was presenting the hand cannon's grips over to the changeling. "Take it," Tran commanded, quiet enough that only the changeling could hear. The changeling opened his eyes and wasn't sure what was going on. He was still mentally devastated, but took the hand cannon in his taloned claws. "Point it at me," Tran quietly ordered next. The changeling hesitated but did as he was ordered, raising the hand cannon and pointing it at Tran's head.

All of the soldiers in the formation raised their concerns by loudly protesting, some starting to break rank and charging towards the changeling pointing at the human. However, they were stopped when Princess Luna joined in and raised a shield, stopping anypony from reaching them. "Silence!" The princess boomed with all the power of the Royal Canterlot Voice, amplified with magic, nearly deafening some of the soldiers. The soldiers were stunned, but quieted down and the soldiers who broke rank, returning to their original position.

Tran redirected his attention from the soldiers reforming back up in their formation to look at the changeling that was pointing a hand cannon at his face. "Are you the enemy?" Tran asked, raising his voice so that everyone could hear him.

The revolver shook in the changeling's claws, uneasiness plaguing his mind. "No!" the changeling yelled.

Tran could see the bullets in the revolver's cylinder and knew that if the changeling fired, it would blow apart his head to smithereens. Tran gestured over to the standing soldiers of the Lost Battalion with his hand. "Do you consider those soldiers as your friends and family?!" Tran demanded, yelling.

The changeling's eyes started watering. Even though the ponies of the Lost Battalion now wanted to kill him, after finding out that he was a changeling, he still wanted to be a part of the unit. "Yes!" the changeling answered, yelling loudly enough so that everypony could hear him.

Tran looked past the changeling to see the various reactions of the battalion's soldiers. "You are my brother, don't forget it!" Tran replied. "Do you consider me the same?" he demanded.

"Yes!" the changeling immediately answered.

Tran nodded and eyed the revolver still pointing at him. He once again lowered his voice so that only the changeling could hear him. "You can lower the gun now," he said, to which the changeling immediately did while sighing with relief. The changeling was then surprised when Tran shot forward and hugged the changeling. "Don't worry about the other soldiers, they'll grow on you," Tran said, reassuring the changeling.

The changeling nodded while a few tears fell from his eyes. He reached up to wipe away the tears, when he felt... Alive and powerful. It felt like he had been filled to the brim with love but supercharged. Tran took the revolver back in his own hand and broke away from the hug, the changeling doing the same. "Take a position next to me," Tran quietly said, the changeling only hearing the command. As the changeling walked over to his new position, Tran aimed the revolver at the deck and pulled the trigger. Naturally, the hand cannon barked its deafening roar of deaf and sending a bullet into the deck, to which it punched through the floor and continued on. This had proved to everyone who was watching that the hand cannon was indeed loaded and that the changeling had been given an opportunity to kill the human, but didn't.

Tran looked amongst the soldiers of the Lost Battalion, most of the soldiers being stunned at what transpired. "Undress!" Tran commanded like he previously did. All at once, every changeling that were members of the Lost Battalion and were holding their illusionary disguises, transformed, revealing their true selves. All of the other ponies, zebras, and yaks were filled with mixed feelings as a riot nearly broke out. However, as a display of true alicorn strength, Princess Luna's horn and eyes glowed with the nearly brightness of a star, and every single non-changeling soldier was sheathed in the princess's magic. Before any of them could react, they were all rooted to the deck, unable to move. "We are the princess of the night, and you will act as proper soldiers, or we shall teach you the true way!" she commanded, again using her magic amplified Royal Canterlot Voice.

Everyone was immediately filled with fear, terrified of the princess. They knew that Princess Luna was not a changeling as no changeling could display the power they were currently witnessing. Tran looked amongst his soldiers and cleared his voice. "This is the truth and it always has been. These soldiers have always been changelings and it changes nothing! They are still your family and you do not hurt your family!" Tran bellowed. "Are we clear"!?" Tran demanded while staring all of them down aggressively.

All of the frozen soldiers stayed quiet, unsure of what to do. Tran’s frown was becoming more and more impossible to face, as everyone felt like they were now going through the worst experience in their life. It went dead quiet as everyone in the battalion had their blood curled, as if someone had started dancing on their grave. If the princess hadn't been magically holding them from moving, they still would have been frozen, in terror. The vitriol the soldiers previously held was gone, replaced with... Nothing. They couldn't bring themselves to create more hate, as if their souls felt empty.

"I said, Are we clear?!" Tran demanded again, his voice breaking through to them. As if hit by a runaway carriage, every one of the soldiers felt their hearts sink far enough that it threatened to shoot out their rear. Tran turned towards Princess Luna and gestured his hand at her and she dropped her magic hold on everyone. All of the soldiers shifted as they could finally move again, using the chance to finally shiver like their bodies desired. Most of the soldiers in the formation turned to look at their undisguised changeling comrades with some apprehension. The tension in the air was so thick that it could stop a bullet and you didn't need to be a changeling with the ability to sense different emotions to see it.

"If you wish to betray your family and leave, you may file for a transfer," Tran said, his voice piercing through the veil of tension. "But know that if you do, you are a coward that knows no bounds. Those that wish to do so, report to Captain Spitfire or Major Soarin. You have until midnight. Dismissed!

-X-X-X-

The soldiers had five hours to file for a transfer and the seconds ticked by as Spitfire and Soarin waited. Midnight hit and zero transfer were filed.

Author's Note

Still alive! As usual, leave a comment, I enjoy reading them and replying to the good ones.

The Best Preparation for the Future Is to Live as if There Were None

With this rogue changeling hive mission completed, we were going to be spending the next five days in Appleloosa. They had to wait to deal with the ponies that had been liberated from the changeling hive before they could leave and either way, it was a miniature vacation for the Lost Battalion and the people who commanded it. It was most certainly a welcomed bit of respite for many of the dutiful humans and their friends, especially to a pony like Applejack. The small town didn't reject having the extra guests, they saw it as an increased amount of tourism that brought money to the town. Obviously the REA didn't provide more money to the town but the soldiers on break most definitely did. This being a western/cowpony town, it had saloons/bars, which any soldier worth their salt would most certainly enjoy.

Naturally, everyone had mixed feelings that varied greatly amongst each other. Somepony like Applejack would obviously love the idea of spending extra time in Appleloosa as she would be able to spend some time with her extended family. However, someone like Tran, only cared about going back to work. Either way, Appleloosa had plenty of things to do, with it being a town that was known for its cowpony characteristics and it being a hub for less common non-pony creatures, like the buffalo or even the occasional abyssian (giant walking cats).

This mini-vacation started two days after the humans and crew re-arrived back in Appleloosa after their victory against the rogue changelings. They had contacted Ponyville and Canterlot, via magic-fire burnt letter-ash (of which the humans immensely hated the concept of) and relayed the news of their victory and the REA had sent for more hands (hooves) to help deal with the liberated ponies, coming via a trio of airships and a great flock of flying pegasi. With those extra hands(hooves), the soldiers of the Lost Battalion were given leave(official paid time off from active duty), as the task of processing the liberated ponies was handed off to someone else.

Everyone split off to do whatever they wanted, after a quick battalion formation where there was a quick roll call and then a safety brief, where Eric told the soldiers of the Lost Battalion what they could and couldn't do(like being able to drink as long as they weren't by themselves but not being able to go beyond the outskirts of town). Even Princess Luna's Night Sentinels were given time off, the princess believing that she would not be needing protection as she would be accompanying her friend, Tran. At the current moment, the princess had the desire to go to a firing range, where she could practice her shooting skills, extremely so, now that Tran had gifted her a new accessory to her pistol. Said accessory was a silencer, of which, she was immediately smitten with. The princess hated the loud report of firearms and something that would be able to muffle it was essentially a godsend to her.

However, to safely practice her pistol skills, the princess had to find a safe spot where she could fire her 1911, to which the pair were currently searching for the famed cowfilly, Applejack. It was a trouble-free task for them as the princess was currently using a tracking spell, where they were led to a rodeo arena. It was halfway between the morning and afternoon when the duo found their target. Unsurprisingly, the cowfilly was practicing her lassoing skills(how the fuck is she doing that with her tail?), where a good number of ponies were watching her. Sitting in the bleachers were a trio of fillies that Tran recognized, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, who was wearing her tiny REA uniform... And a giant faux cactus mounted to a sombrero that was about just as big as she was in lieu of her service dress cap. Also in the bleachers with the CMC(Cutie Mark Crusaders) was Applejack's cousin, Braeburn, and... Wow, that was a gigantic draft horse.

Applejack noticed the duo approaching her and tipped her hat at them. "Well howdy Luna, Tran! Why'd y'all fancy comin'?" she asked. Applejack was completely unfazed by the sight at the two of them but everypony else was immediately flabbergasted at the lunar princess. Everypony, minus Applejack, went and scrambled to bow at the princess. Notably, the gigantic earth pony, who had been sitting in the bleachers, had, like everypony else, scrambled to go bow to the princess but instead of running down off of the bleachers in a neat manner, he had tripped in the process. This resulted in him rolling down the bleachers, only stopping when he was mere millimeters from the princess. Everypony gasped at the mishap and some of them closed their eyes, not wanting to witness what horrible punishment the princess would execute.

Instead of being offended as everypony expected, the princess was more worried about his health. She used her magic to help lift him up to his hooves while looking him over. "Good gracious my dear countrypony, are you hurt?" she asked.

The earth pony, who was slowly regaining his bearing, realized what had happened and immediately bowed. "Ah'm sorry, princess, ah didn't mean tah!" the behemoth cried out.

The princess realized what was going on and put a hoof gently on the pony's shoulder. "I take no offense to your misgivings, I am more in interested in your well being. Please tell me your name and act as if I am another fellow pony!" the princess insisted.

The behemoth rubbed his head and blushed. "I'm Trouble Shoes and, uh thank yah kindly fer helpin' me up," the horse responded. Now that he was standing up, at full height, his size was now more easily seen. He was easily more than a head taller than Princess Luna and if you counted the alicorn's horn, he would have been a half head taller. Hell, he was probably just as tall as Princess Celestia, including her horn. From his appearance, he was probably a draft horse, something that Tran had never seen before in Equestria, only having seen ponies so far in terms of Equestrians.

The princess looked to the other bowed ponies and frowned but quickly regained her regal composure. She reared up, displaying her wings and full might, being covered in her armor and carrying her two swords. "Arise my citizens, I am a humble guest to your town. Please, continue with your lives!" she declared. Luckily for the princess, the ponies who were groveling to her visage stood back up and appeared to go back to what they had been doing previously, sitting on bleachers, watching Applejack.

Once Princess Luna told everypony to carry on, Scootaloo jumped off of the bleachers and ran towards the duo. Unsurprisingly, Apple Bloom jumped off the bleachers and ran, following behind Scootaloo. Applejack chuckled at the sight of her little sister and trotted towards the duo. Sweetie Belle, after much apprehensiveness, also jumped off of the bleachers and ran with her two friends.

Scootaloo ran up to Tran and hugged his leg. She was barely tall enough to reach Tran's waist and it was an adorable sight to see her attach herself to Tran. Sweetie Belle, who was the last to reach the duo, amongst the CMC. Sweetie Belle was, like many ponies, scared of the humans but as long as her friends were fine with them, she'd try to tolerate being around them. "Tran-y!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

Tran stood stoically like usual but he did pat her on the head while looking down at her. "Hello Stray," Tran greeted. Apple Bloom snorted upon hearing Tran's nickname for Scootaloo, who herself scrunched her nose at hearing the nickname.

The princess looked at the precious sight of Scootaloo's attachment to the usually emotionally distant statue with a raised brow. "Pray tell, what is happening? Do you know this filly?" the princess asked.

Tran picked up the filly and stuck her on his shoulders, giving her a piggyback ride. Scootaloo wrapped her hooves around Tran's head who, as usual, showing no emotions on his face. It was a rather mentally jarring sight for the princess to witness such interaction from her usually emotionally distance friend. Tran could see that the princess was dumbfounded. "This filly was the first pony I met when I arrived to Equestria. I had to save her from being captured by enemy soldiers in Baltimare," Tran answered. "I've long since taken on the roll of being one of her caretakers." Later on, he would tell her more of the truth. Her parents weren't dead but they were, however, missing ever since this war had started. Her parents had been around Manehattan when the griffons initially invaded and captured the city. There was the high likelihood they weren't dead as Scootaloo's parents weren't military but they were still absent for the time being. The little filly hated being present when that topic was brought up so Tran had waited until he was alone with the princess to tell her.

The princess looked at the little filly and was surprised, not expecting someone like Tran to take up a roll such as a filly's caretaker. That was when she realized what the filly was wearing, a smaller version of the REA uniform and her heart sank. 'It can't be. Please, don't,' she thought. She pointed at Scootaloo's uniform. "That's a nice little costume you're wearing. Do you dream of being a soldier when you're older?" she asked.

Scootaloo sitting on Tran's shoulders, raised an eyebrow at the princess. "Costume? I'm already a soldier! This is the uniform the Royal Equestrian Army gave me when I enlisted!" she boasted with pride.

The princess expression dropped and her heart sank further. "H-How old are you, little filly?" she asked with much trepidation.

Scootaloo was oblivious to the mental trials that she was subjecting to the princess and grinned. "I'm fourteen!" she gloated.

The princess mind broke as she realized that she was in the company of a child soldier. She had already known that the war was at this point and she hated it. Every time she was reminded of it, it was another dagger that tore at her heart. How many more child soldiers did they employ in their military? How much children had they subjected to this hell that not even adults weren't able to face? How many children has had their childhood and innocence forcibly ripped away?

Tran looked at the Princess with tired eyes, knowing exactly what the princess was thinking. "She's technically part of the Lost Battalion, but part of the quartermaster's section, not part of any combat team," Tran told the princess, trying to comfort her. "I try to keep her away from battle... And trouble."

Scootaloo frowned and tapped the top of Tran's head. "And its boring! I joined to help fight!" Scootaloo boasted.

Both Tran and Princess Luna were shot in their hearts upon hearing that statement. The ignorance hurt both of them and Tran had remembered how much the little tyke had been suffering, when he first met her, and how every time she was subjected to battle emotionally damage she had gained from fighting in the war. Any time she had to participate in the terrible hell that was war, she was only ever scared. No matter what Scootaloo asked for, Tran only ever gave her what she needed, not what she wanted. Princess Luna surrounded Scootaloo in her magic and lifted her off of Tran and onto her own back. "Here!" the princess declared. "An alicorn ride! You may never know when you will get another chance, ever again!" Princess Luna reared back and took flight, all the while, Scootaloo laughed with childhood innocence and glee.

Meanwhile, Tran looked at Applejack. "The princess wanted to test out her new firearm. Where's the closest firing range we can use?" Tran asked.

Applejack glanced at the princess who was currently flying around this rodeo arena, giving Scootaloo one of the most exciting pony rides she would ever experience. "Bout damn time she got a gun!" Applejack exclaimed. She looked back to Tran and smirked. "And tah answer yer question, here!" She gestured to the rodeo arena that she had been practicing in. "Equestria's national rodeo competition is happenin' tomorrow! Ah thought ah wouldn't have gotten the chance tah try out this year but our little trip here brought me here just in time!"

Tran folded his arms. "Well that's good for you. I hope you win," Tran told her.

Applejack chuckled. She was still holding her lasso with her tail so she quickly flicked her tail at Tran. The lasso flew and went around Tran, falling down and circling around Tran's boots. She pulled lightly and they lightly cinched around his legs. "Hell, why don't yah try a hoof in the competition? It'd be fun to have yah in it!"

Tran raised an eyebrow at Applejack's suggestion but then shrugged. "Sure," Tran replied, thinking about his promise towards the princess to "have fun" instead of working all of the time. He looked at the lasso lightly wrapped around his lower legs and stepped out of the entanglement. "What do I need for it? Gun, lasso?"

Applejack whipped her tail back and brought her lasso back to herself. "Ah got yah covered. Ah'm sure the Apple family can lend yah the stuff yah need," she replied.

Princess Luna finally landed back around Tran, Applejack, Trouble Shoes, and the other two Crusaders. Tran walked over to the princess and lifted Scootaloo off of Luna's back. The instant Scootaloo touched the ground again, her hat fell down over her eyes and the other two crusaders, clamored over to the princess for their own turn on Princess Luna. The princess chuckled and she magically shepherded Apple Bloom onto her back for a turn, taking off quickly afterwards.

Scootaloo, now that she was on all four hooves, tugged at Tran's coat. "Oh, you should meet our new friend, Trouble Shoes!" she suggested.

Tran looked over at Trouble Shoes who blanched now that he had the human's attention. Tran could clearly see the giant draft horse shaking in his skin and it seemed like he was somehow trying to hide from plain sight, obviously failing with his size. "And exactly how'd you meet him?" Tran asked with slowly narrowing eyes.

Scootaloo was completely unaware of the situation where Tran was scrutinizing the draft pony for any reason to mentally condemn him, because her giant cactus sombrero hat was still covering her eyes. "We met him when me and the crusaders got lost in the desert and we became friends when we broke him out of jail and got him a job as a rodeo clown!" Scootaloo deftly answered as she tried to readjust her hat to not cover her eyes.

Tran stared into Trouble Shoe's eyes with an ever increasing disapproving glare. "Broke him out of jail, huh?" he said. "My name is Tran, are you aware of who I am. Buck?" He asked, the last word causing the stallion to flinch.

Most of Equestria was, by now, well aware of the four humans, having heard of their achievements and shenanigans and this stallion was clearly not exempt from this.

"Y-Yeah and its not what you think!" the stallion quickly stammered out. He opened his mouth again to explain but Tran's petrifying gaze caused him to mentally blank out, being put on the spot. He opened and closed his mouth in an attempt to restart his speech but his mind was unable to produce any words.

Luckily for the stallion, he was quickly saved by Applejack's intervention. "Yah gotta stop doin' that tah ponies. Yer scarin' the poor fella half inta an early grave!" Applejack admonished. She turned to the draft pony and poked him in the side with a hoof. "Trouble Shoes has some mighty bad luck, 'specially when he was a young-un, and he got into accidents all the time and ponies wrongfully blamed him fer it!"

Also, luckily for the stallion, Scootaloo had finished readjusting her had and could see Tran's disapproving glare, specifically this one, which was worse than the usual one he had. She elbowed Tran in the side of the leg to get his attention, to which she did, and gave him a disapproving glare of her own, one that she had tried to get as close to mirroring his. It was more cute than admonishing, but the thought counted. "He's a good pony!" the little filly added in.

Tran looked away from the filly and back to Trouble Shoes, this time with the usual emotionless face he gave out. While others were used to it, this stallion wasn't and it only unnerved him. "A good pony, is that right?" Tran asked.

The stallion swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded. "I ain't never done nothing wrong in my life, on purpose," the stallion explained.

Tran paused for a second, giving a moment of awkward silence that only discouraged the stallion even further. He finally did something by bringing his hand up for a shake. "Tell you what, compete in that competition with us and I'll give you a clean slate in my mind," Tran offered.

The stallion stared at the man's offered hand, still wary of the man. Applejack nudged him in the side. "Come join us, Ah'm sure ya'll have some fun!" she said. "And don't worry 'bout needin' anythin', Ah can loan ya some stuff and whatnot too!"

The stallion sighed and reached up to grab Tran's hand. Only ever being used to shaking hooves with ponies, having Tran's cold fingers grab around his hoof was not a very comforting feeling. "O-Okay, I'll do it," the stallion finally agreed.

The Next Day

A few hours after the sun rose, ponies gathered up in the center of Appleloosa's biggest rodeo arena. The arena was a big oval and had bleachers running along one half of it and inside the arena close to the bleachers, there was a massive stage that held two long tables separated by a few meters. One table sat two ponies, both of which had microphones in front of them. The other table, a table that was twice as long as the other one, sat a buffalo and two ponies, Princess Celestia and Granny Smith. Noticeably, Granny Smith was wearing a suede brown leather pants and jacket that had suede brown leather fringe running along her coat's sleeve and base. Sitting in the bleachers was half the town, most of the REA soldiers that had been sent to deal with the changelings, the human and pony leaders of the Lost Battalion, and assorted buffalo. Everyone was happily munching on street fare as they waited for it to start.

"Good morning Equestria!" one of the ponies sitting in front of a microphone yelled, getting everyponies' attention with his loud speakerphone magnified voice. "Are we ready for Equestria's fifty-second grand national rodeo competition!" From the bleachers, ponies immediately yelled or whistled in approval, stomped their hooves, threw hats into the air, and some even shooting some pistols wildly into the air! "This year, our first guest judge is the great leader of the buffalo, Chief Thunderhooves!" Of note, all of the buffalo in the bleachers stomped their hooves, giving everyone sitting down a good shake through their bodies. "Then, we have our own great leader, Princess Celestia!" Said princess stood up and turned around to wave at the ponies in the crowd who cheered on to voice their approval. "Aaaaaaaaaaand finally, our last guest is a very special one. Gracing us from retirement with her presence, it's the very, Calamity Maaaaaane!" Granny Smith, despite her age, stood up and waved at the crowd. The then immediate amount of gunfire that was shot into the air made it sound like a battle was going on, surprising a number of ponies and buffalo. The first field announcer got up from his chair and trotted over to Granny Smith to help her back to her chair.

The other field announcer chuckled, his laughter being magnified. "It looks like we have some Calamity Mane fans in the crowd!" he said.

The first announcer returned to his chair and pulled his microphone in closer. "Indeed we do! Before we start, let's bring all of our contestants into the arena!"

From one gate from one end of the arena, a hundred contestants strode out in front of the bleachers and stage for everyone to see. There were mostly ponies, most of which were earth ponies, but there were a small handful of buffalo included and obviously one human. Each contestant strode in, one at a time, and as they did, the announcers named them off. Once every contestant was standing in the arena, Equestria's national anthem was played before every contestant returned to their own set of sets.

The competition was composed of five events, shooting, tree bucking, lassoing and roping, bull riding, and buffalo wrestling. When competitors competed, their performance would be graded by the judges from a score of 1-10. At the end of the competition, whoever had the most points, won. A minimum amount of gear was needed by the competitors as unlike a rodeo competition in the human world, you didn't need horses or saddles, for obvious reasons. You did, however, need a pair of revolvers or one revolver if you wanted the handicap, a lever action rifle, and a double barrel or pump action shotgun for the shooting event and a rope for the lassoing and roping event. The other events, all you needed was your body.

Shooting Event

This event had three stages. The first of these stages had two barrels, one staged slightly behind and to the left of the other, being behind ten meters away from the competitor and had three glass bottles that sat atop each barrel. The idea was to hit all of the bottles in as few shots in as little time as possible with pistols. The second stage occurred when the shooter ran thirty meters to their right and involved five steel full-sized pony targets that were progressively staged to the right and behind the next. In this stage, you had to put one round on each target in again which would fall down in a single shot, with as few shots and time as possible, this time with a lever action rifle. The final stage involved shooting three large steel buffalo targets. When you hit a buffalo target, it would fall down and in the process of falling down, it would launch a clay pigeon in the air that you would then had to hit before it impacted the ground, using a shotgun. Like the other two stages, this was to be accomplished in as little time as possible. All of your weapons would be carried on your body, in addition to your ammunition. You were allowed to reload, if you missed your shots and ran out of ammunition in your weapons.

Trouble Shoes was the first of the three notable contestants(himself, Applejack, and Tran) to compete. Like Applejack had promised, he had been loaned some equipment to use, a pair of revolvers, a lever action rifle, and a double barrel shotgun that came from Big Mac. The big stallion got up in position to start, right as a pony trotted up to him. This pony was a safety judge that was meant to follow him and stop him if he broke any rules or did anything that was dangerous.

What signaled the stallion to start was a loud buzzer and the instant Trouble Shoes heard it, he reared up on his hindlegs and drew a revolver. However, he was not used to quick drawing a revolver and did the most remarkable thing. He accidentally threw up the revolver into the air where it spun a few times and when he realized what he had down, he reached up to grab it. Once he had his hooves on the revolver, it inexplicably went off, hitting one of the glass bottles on the first barrel before hitting the iron band on the second barrel and ricocheting back and hitting another glass bottle on the first barrel. Trouble Shoes reached up with his other hoof to cock back the revolver but accidentally fired it before he was ready and hit the last of three bottles on the first barrel before the bullet hit another of the second barrel's iron bands, ricocheting forward before hitting another iron band, this time on the first barrel before ricocheting back and hitting a bottle on the second barrel.

Of course, these first two shots that Trouble Shoes had fired were completely accidentally done on his part but none of the judges or spectators had known that. He was absolutely gobsmacked but he then cocked back the revolver and once again, it fired before he was ready. Despite being another accidental shot, it somehow managed to hit one of his remaining two bottles, shattering it. He had no idea what was going on today with his life, like usual, but went along with it like he did and went to cock back the revolver's hammer again. This time, me made sure not to accidentally fire the revolver again and took aim, firing it and hitting the last bottle. He was quite surprised at actually managing to hit his last target, as he wasn't used to things going right in his life and decided to go along with it, holstering the revolver.

Running to the next stage, he ran to the next stage, unslinging the lever action rifle off of his back, cocking it. Being a different gun, he wasn't used to it and he had accidentally fired it like he had done with his revolver. Despite his intended target being the first target to his left, he hit the fifth target, furthest to the right that was five meters back and to the right of the first target. Being Big Mac's rifle, it fired an absolutely enormous round and was easily knocked down the steel target it hit. Miraculously, it also it ricocheted forward into the back of the closest target which knocked it down forwards before ricocheted backwards and hit the front of the second target, knocking it down back. Trouble Shoes had no idea what was happening as all he saw was that he now only had two targets so he worked the lever to his rifle and fired, this time hitting the 4th target where it ricocheted and hit the 3rd target, much to everyone's surprise.

Trouble Shoes was about to work the lever of his rifle to fire again but realized there were no other targets left standing. He started to wonder but was quickly urged on by his safety judge. At the final stage, Trouble Shoes took aim with his double barrel shotgun and fired at one of the three steel buffalo targets. His shotgun had enough spread that he managed to hit two of his steel targets, knocking both down and sending both of their clay pigeons into the air. This was possibly the only stage where Trouble Shoes actually thought he was going to hit any of his intended targets with any decent accuracy so when he say the clay pigeons fly into the air, he took aim at one and fired. Once again, his shot managed to hit both of his targets. Reloading as quickly as he could, he took aim and fired again, hitting the last of his steel buffalo targets and sent the clay pigeon flying into the air. With one round left, he took aim and fired his last shot, obliterating his last clay pigeon.

For a few seconds, the crowd and the judges were stunned. That had been quite possibly the fastest anypony had ever completed any of the stages, with as few shots ever possible. When the awkward silence was gone, everyone was in an uproar and the judges had awarded him 10 points each, totaling thirty. They actually wanted to give him 11 points each but 10 was the max.

The next notable competitor was Tran who gave the normal performance that everyone expected. Having done cowboy competition shooting in the past, he sped through the pistol targets with no missed shots, thumb fanning the hammer to get the speed he wanted. When he advanced to the second stage, he once again missed zero shots and nailed each the last target by the time the 1st target fell. At the last stage, using a pump action shotgun, had shot all three steel buffalo targets, one after the other with enough speed that he was able to ignore the clay pigeons until he had shot down the third and final steel target before doubling back and hitting every airborne clay pigeon before they could hit the ground. This performance was evenfaster than Trouble Shoe's and earned him his 30 points.

The last of the three notable competitors was Applejack. For the first stage, she missed none of her shots, firing fastest out of every competitor, as natural from the "legendary Cowfilly of the Equestrian Army". As for the lever action rifle shooting, she didn't miss any any of her shots but definitely took her time. For the last stage, despite her good speed, she was penalized for missing one of the clay pigeons. Her performance earned her a respectable 27 total points.

Tree Bucking

The next event was a pretty simple and fast affair. There was a fake tree that you had to buck as hard as you had to. The tree was equipped with a mechanical sensor that tested your bucking strength. You had to perform three separate bucks and technique didn't matter, as long as your bucking strength was good.

Trouble Shoes, despite not having much tree bucking experience, performance amazingly. It was barely a challenge as he was a massive draft horse. His first two bucks managed to max out the readings on the bucking machine and on the final buck, he outright broke the fake tree. This naturally netted him a perfect 30 out of 30 points.

Tran, being a human and having zero bucking experience, performed terribly. He had his magically enhanced supernatural strength but that didn't even come close to helping him in this event. Even using a technique that would generate the most strength, a backwards door breaching kick technique, it didn't help. Out of the hundred possible competitors, he had the second worse performance, earning him 5 out of 30 possibly points.

Applejack, being an apple buckin' member of the Apple Family, she performed almost as good as Trouble Shoes. Her lifetime of apple bucking meant that it was barely a challenge for her. She even performed better than the buffalo competitors. All three of her bucks maxed out the reading on the bucking machine which also gave her a perfect 30 out of 30 points.

Lassoing and Roping

The next event involved the challenge of roping in another pony and tying him. You had to do this twice, on two separate ponies, one at a time though. Two factors were important in this event, how fast you could lasso a pony down and how fast you could hog tie the fellow. The pony in question was given a five second head start before you had to chase him down for the event.

When Trouble Shoes was up to perform, his performance was both entertaining to watch and productive. On his first pony, when Trouble Shoes chased after him twirling the lasso to throw, he accidentally lost track of the lasso and sent it flying into the air. It flew for a good while before flying into the pony, which sent him falling in a tumble. When the pony had finished tumbling, he was already hogtied up! When the second pony was sent out, Trouble Shoes went running with the lasso again. This time, he wasn't twirling it and when Trouble Shoes went to lasso the pony, he managed to trip and send himself into a tumble this time. In the process of tumbling, Trouble Shoes went crashing into the pony he was meant to lasso and when they were done tumbling, both of them were hog tied! Everyone got plenty of laughs as Trouble Shoes was awarded 30 out of 30 points.

As for Tran, he didn't perform very good nor did he perform terribly. It took him a good amount of time to chase and lasso his target pony but he managed to make up some time by quickly hogtying his target. When the second pony was up, Tran repeated his previous performance but only faster. He earned a total of 14 out of 30 points.

The last of the three, Applejack, had an easy time with this event. She was the second best performer, behind Trouble Shoes. She quickly caught up to both of her target ponies and hog tied them faster than anypony else could. She earned the max 30 out of 30 points.

Bull Riding

The fourth event was a simple but especially difficult task. You started out the event by sitting bareback on a bull who would then start bucking. You had to hang onto dear life as the bull would be trying for his life to buck you off of his back. You only had to perform this task only once and this was an event that was graded only once everyone had finished their performances, points given out on longest times.

Normally, an event like this would be difficult. For somepony like Trouble Shoes, it proved to not be. Trouble Shoes was so big that the bull, a very strong and heavily built example of one, was rather appalled. This was the only time in Equestrian rodeo history where the rider outlasted the bull as the bull was dead tired after a relatively short bucking performance. Naturally, he scored first place with 30 out of 30 points.

After a backup replacement bull was sent in, Tran performed second best. Being a human meant he had hands which meant he could more easily hold onto the bull. He managed to hold onto the bull the longest out of anyone else in the competition. This netted him 29 out of 30 points.

As for Applejack, she didn't score very high. She was an experienced cowfilly and all but that didn't change the fact that she was a pony. This meant she had hooves which weren't very good for holding onto a bull and that she didn't weigh very much, compared to the bull, so she was relatively easy for the bull to buck off. Still, she had a decent performance and scored 20 out of 30 points.

Buffalo Wresting

This was considered the hardest challenge out of the five events. For this event, you started facing a buffalo, a full sized one, that you would have to wrestle to the ground. Like the previous event, it was scored only when everyone was finished with the event, where you would be given points based on how fast you accomplished the task. However, this task was assumed to be one that not everyone would be able to accomplish so performance would also be taken into account for score.

Like the previous event, Trouble Shoes performed amazingly with his natural strength and size. However, be as big as he may be, he was still not bigger than a fully grown male buffalo. Wrestling was also not a skill he had developed much in his life but his bad luck prevailed. The instant the event started for him, he took hold of the buffalo and the two of them were at it for a while before his klutzy nature took over and he had tripped in the process where the two of them were send bowling to the ground. Overall, he earned 27 out of 30 points.

As for Tran, he was finally the top performer for one event. To be fair, he also cheated in his own unique way. When the event had started, for seemingly no apparent reason, his opponent suddenly became demoralized and despondent which made him a very easy adversary. Combined with magically enhanced supernatural strength and being a bipedal human, he was able to easily knock the legs out from under the buffalo. He earned 1st place at 30 out of 30 points.

The last of the three notable opponents, Applejack, did not perform as well as she previously did. She was strong for a mare but she was still a small pony facing against a buffalo. Like many other competitors, she failed to knock the buffalo down. She did, however, give the judges a decent show of doing so. Overall, she earned 12 out of 30 points.

The End of the Competition

With all 100 competitors going through all 5 events, the points were quickly tallied and added up. Then, they had all of the competitors lined up in front of the stage so that winners could be called out and prizes be given. Prizes were secret until the competition ended but everyone knew the prizes were good judging from every prior year with a lot of cash prizes involved.

Taking first place was easily Trouble Shoes, much to everyone's surprise, the most surprised party being Trouble Shoes himself. He didn't expect to perform good enough to place at all, much less take first place! For his amazing performance, he received a giant gold trophy and a massive grand prize of 5000 bits. It was quite the king's ransom and was seen as a life changing amount of money, especially for the stallion.

Taking second place was neither Applejack or Tran but a random buffalo. He earned 1500 bits and a silver trophy. This was still seen as a very good amount of money, being a little more than what the average pony made in a year. The buffalo was a native to Appleloosa and made his tribe, who were in the crowd watching, proud.

Taking third place was still neither Applejack or Tran, but a random pony. He received a bronze 3rd place trophy, 150 bits, and a paid three day vacation to Canterlot. He was a complete unknown but he performed decently in every event.

Taking fourth place was finally Applejack. Despite how low she placed in the victors, she still made her family proud. Also, the rodeo competition was happy to see her compete again, not having seen her the previous year. As for prizes, she earned a decently sized medal, 100 bits, and ironically enough, a free 3 day vacation. The ironic part was the vacation destination. It was to Ponyville... To live in the princess of friendship's castle... Applejack wasn't amused.

Fifth place was Tran. It was interesting to have him compete and the crowd got some enjoyment from his performance but not everyone was happy to see him. Some were scared, having heard the rumors of him. At least he still got a prize. He earned 50 bits, a week's worth of ration cards/books/coupons/tickets for 5 people, and two dozen pies. Because no one was expected to eat two dozen pies before they went bad, they were magically enchanted to stay hot and fresh until they were eaten and had a decent variety. It was quite the shame that Tran was not a purveyor of sweets nor did he need ration cards/books/coupons/tickets as his special "position" in the REA netted him whatever resources he wanted.

Applejack, Trouble Shoes, and Tran, now that the competition had ended, met up with Granny Smith who was being helped around by Big Mac. Trouble Shoes graciously returned the firearms he was loaned back to Big Mac, being the only pony who had anything remotely big enough for Trouble Shoes to use and even then it was still small for him. Meanwhile, Tran returned his borrowed equipment back to the pony he borrowed it from, Granny Smith.

Tran looked over to the massive pony and held out a hand to shake his hoof, fixing him with a stare from his usually emotionless face. Like earlier in the day, all it served was to unnerve the stallion. "I knew from the start you weren't a problem. Don't worry about," Tran said to the stallion, holding his hand out.

Trouble Shoes sighed and reached up to shake Tran's hand and like the first hoof/hand shake, Tran's cold, corpse-like touch was not a comforting thing to feel. "Y-Yer a scary fella," Trouble Shoes replied.

Applejack smirked and nudged Trouble Shoes in the side. "That's how he always is. Ya hafta get used tah it," Applejack said reassuringly to the stallion.

Once Tran broke the handshake, he eyed the pair of saddlebags that Trouble Shoes wore, the ones that were carrying his competition winnings. "Be careful with that money and don't get into trouble now. I don't need the tyke breaking someone out of jail, again," Tran said jokingly.

The stallion chuckled, finally getting a little used to the usually frightening man. "Yes sir, I will. It was nice meetin' yah," Trouble Shoes said before he finally trotted away from them. Applejack bid the stallion adieu with a subtle hat gesture and he left the four of them.

With Trouble Shoes gone, Granny Smith went over and gave Applejack a hug. "Good job in the rodeo," she lauded. "Ah'm proud to have yah as mah grand daughter."

Applejack hugged her back and blushed. "Ah love yah too, Granny," she said back.

Granny broke away from the hug and waved Big Mac over, who trotted over. "Why don'tcha spend some time with yer brother for once. Take a break from all of that army, nonsense," Granny said. Both Applejack and Big Mac shot the matriarch a worried glance but she waved them off. "Consarnit, ah'm a grown pony, many, many times over. Ah can take care of mahself. Plus, I want to have some fun around town alone."

Applejack and Big Mac looked at each other before she looked back at Granny. "Well, Granny, please be careful. Yer hip still isn't the best," Applejack said. Granny harrumphed and waved for them to go already so Applejack turned her attention to Tran. "What are yah goin' tah do wit the rest of yer day?"

Tran shrugged. He had the rest of the day to himself and he had nothing to worry about. "Drink with the soldiers? Its been a while," Tran replied.

Applejack snickered at the thought of Tran relaxing for once. "Don't go startin' any saloon brawls. Take care!" Applejack said before she trotted off with Big Mac, leaving Granny Smith and Tran alone with each other. Applejack and Big Mac had expected Granny and Tran to part ways and have fun with their own escapades so they didn't wait to watch them walk off.

Granny Smith waited a good amount of time to make sure her two grandchildren were out of earshot. Now that the two of them were alone, Granny gave Tran a grin. "Now that we have some alone time, yah got mah stuff?" Granny asked.

Tran, despite the fact that he had a backpack, reached into his coat and pulled out two bottles of whisky. "Right here and even your fave, too," Tran replied. He walked over to the elderly pony and reached out to help her trot around. Before he walked off, Tran looked around before focusing on a seemingly random spot. Now that it was the evening, it was getting dark and Appleloosa was soon switching to its night life where ponies drank and had fun.

Granny Smith gave Tran a curious look. "Whatcha got eatin' yer mind?" she asked, looking at the general direction that Tran was staring off at.

Tran didn't answer and continued staring. Said spot was between two buildings, where the darkness was especially concentrated. He clicked his tongue twice as if he was challenging somepony. Granny Smith damn near had a heart attack when a large pony walked out of the shadows. Said pony was Princess Luna who had a light smirk on her face. "Astute as ever, my friend!" the princess exclaimed.

Granny Smith gave out a sigh of relief upon seeing the princess. She then frown at the princess with a disapproving expression. "Yah may be a princess but yah still hafta have manners! You can't sneak up on ponies like that!" Granny admonished.

Princess Luna chuckled before trotting up to Tran. "I had the desire to join in your festivities to celebrate your success in the tournament!" the princess said.

Tran pointed past Princess Luna. "With a guest?" Tran asked.

Princess Luna had no idea what Tran was talking about and shot him a look of inquisitiveness. She was about to turn around to look at what Tran was pointing at when something tapped her on her shoulder. Princess Luna had expected to be alone so she shot up into the air, jumping out of her skin. There was playful giggling from behind the princess who was transitioning to battle mode, drawing a sword.

Coming out of the shadows, behind Princess Luna, was none other than Princess Celestia. "Gotcha!" the solar alicorn said while lightly snickering. She winked at her sister who touched back down to the ground and sheathing her sword. Celestia winked at Luna with a mischievous grin. "I didn't want to miss out on the fun, too."

Luna glowered back at her sister. "You win this time, sister," she admitted.

Celestia snickered and turned her attention back to Tran. Using her magic, she teleported in and held up two bottles of liquor of her own. She floated one bottle over to her sister who took it with her magic. Luna's magic's glow revealed it to be a bottle of moonshine, a joke/pun on Princess Luna's character. The other bottle, revealed by Celestia's magic glow, was a bottle of brandy. Celestia looked over at Tran and Granny. "Shall we?" she suggested.

-X-X-X-

Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Tran, and Granny Smith sat around a small campfire situated at the outskirts of Appleloosa. All four of them shared drinks while socializing and just generally having a good time. The two bottles of whisky that Tran had sourced for Granny Smith was spiced pear sour whisky. It wasn't an apple related whisky or cider as anyone would expected from a member of the Apple family. In general, Granny Smith was rarely able to drink due to her advanced age and the fact that her grandchildren tried their best to keep anything alcoholic away from her.

Granny Smith took a sip from her bottle and roared in laughter that she hadn't been able to produce in a long while. None of them had cups, instead just passing around the bottle whenever any of them wanted a drink. Both princesses were no longer wearing their crowns, instead Tran wearing Luna's crown and Granny Smith wearing Celestia's crown. "And he goes and asks her anyways!" Granny Smith said, completing her story.

Both Princesses laughed while Tran had a small smile, the closest thing he would come to laughter. Celestia looked at Tran and took a long drink from the bottle of brandy. "Ever since the war started, I never get the chance to relax like this," Celestia said. Tran, still smiling, reached into his backpack and produced a box, containing one of the apple pies that he had won from the rodeo competition. Celestia's eyes lit up and she used her magic to rip the pie from Tran's hands before he could even blink. She was devouring it as if she had been starving for days.

Luna laughed, seeing Celestia's joy in the destruction of the pastry. "She made the decision, as did I, to abide by the ration system the rest of the populace endures, to support the common folk. She rarely ever has the ability to partake in her fondness of sweets," Luna explained. The ration system was a food program to help support the war effort. Ponies willingly agreed to ration their food nationwide. You still got plenty to eat, you just didn't get to eat in excess or have anything extra, like sweets.

Celestia had quickly devoured the pie in record time and looked back at Tran with puppy dog-esque eyes, pleading for more, knowing he had more. Luna rolled her eyes at her sister's shameless display while Tran dug into his backpack, producing four more boxes of pies. Celestia squeed at the sight of the pastries and took all of them in her magic, before she started quickly eating another pie, all the while, Tran drank from Celestia's bottle of brandy and Granny Smith took another sip from one of the bottles of spiced pear sour whisky.

Granny Smith tossed the empty glass bottle behind her, the sound of glass shattering happening a few seconds later. Tran grabbed another of the bottles of spiced pear sour whisky and started opening it. "So, Granny, why pear whisky? I thought you Apples liked apples?" he asked.

Granny Smith went stiff before upon hearing the question. Sadness started to fill her mind and her eyes started watering. "Mah son's wife, my daughter in law, and Big Mac, Applejack, Apple bloom's mom, wasn't an Apple," she explained. "She was a Pear, another family o' earth pony farmers, that farmed pears." Granny Smith sighed. Normally, she hated talking about this, it was a thorn in her hoof, mentally. However, there was alcohol in her veins and she was a bit more loose with her words and history. "Yah see, us Apples have had a long standin' feud with dem Pears but mah son, mah grand children's father, rest his soul, fell in love with a Pear. Ah hated her at first." Granny Smith paused as tears started to fall from her eyes, she reached up with an old hoof to wipe them away just as Tran sat beside her and gave her a reassuring hug. "Thank yah, sonny. Ahem. Only when Ah started lovin' her as if she were mah own flesh and blood daughter, I... We lost her."

Tran was, like usual, had an emotionless expression on his face but his eyes were ones of sadness for her. He patted her on the back while he had her in a supportive embrace. "We always lose them once they're finally family," Tran said. Meanwhile, Luna had her bottle frozen midair held in her hooves as she had been about to take a drink and Celestia had stopped her annihilation of the pies. Celestia wiped some of the pastries from her mouth and trotted over to her sister and wrapped a wing around her, nuzzling her, her sister returning the gesture. "Love them when you have the chance, otherwise, you will regret it."

Tran finished opening the bottle of the whisky and handed it to Granny who took a long drink. "Ah still miss her," Granny Smith said.

Tran nodded at her. "Good, that means you still love her," Tran replied. He held up Celestia's bottle of brandy and Granny Smith clinked her bottle to Tran before the two drank from their respective bottles. "Granny, I appreciate you for everything you've done for me," Tran thanked.

Granny, despite her age and eyesight, nuzzled Tran. "Ah don't care if yah ain't an Apple or even a pony. Yer mah grandson in my old eyes," she said.

Tran chuckled and hugged her back. "Thank you Granny Smith, especially for giving me your gatling gun," he said, jokingly.

Granny Smith chuckled back in response before takin a sip from her whisky. "Yah better take care of mah boy. He's been through a lot," Granny said, referring to the gatling gun. "Its from my Calamity days."

Luna, who returned to drinking, looked at Granny Smith with a look of curiosity. "Yes, we heard you referred to as Calamity Mane. What is the source of that appellation?"

Granny Smith let out a pained sighed and took a long drink from her bottle. "All of y'all are really tugging at mah heartstrings, ain'tcha?" she said. "Ah was a famed cowfilly, one of the best but... One of the worse." She took another drink from her bottle and looked at down at the ground, ashamed. "Ah started out as a bounty hunter, lil after mah settlin' days."

Luna leaned forward, wanting to hear more. She had a inquisitive look on her face. "Pray tell, wouldn't that be a proud history, taking in criminals?" she asked.

Granny Smith stayed silent, unmoving. Then, she took a long drink from her bottle. "It was easier tah bring in bounties iffin they're dead," Granny replied. "When ah finally decided to retire from my cowfilly days, Ah did shows fer a while but then I went and settled down, havin' a son, mah past didn't want to retire with. Someponies wanted revenge. They didn't get what they wanted but ah didn't win either." Tears started to build up in her eyes and she took a long drink from her bottle. Tran put a supportive arm around her and she let out another pained sigh. "That's how Ah loss mah daughter. Mah son wanted revenge but he wasn't as good as Ah was. Ah lost him and was mad. Ah found them and killed them all, as painfully and slowly as ah could but once ah was done, they were still gone."

Luna was aghast, as was Celestia. Their wide eyed and opened mouth expressions showed it all and they knew the pain Granny had gone through. Despite being millennia older, they felt young in the presence of Granny Smith, somepony who had gone through so much. The two sisters looked at each other and gave each other a familial hug, embracing their ability to be with each other. Celestia soon had tears in her eyes, remembering the years she had to spend without her sister. "Those years lost. I don't ever want to be without you, ever again," Celestia said.

Luna embraced her back. "I had so much hate, waiting on the moon but once I saw you again, it all disappeared," Luna replied.

Granny Smith drank from her bottle and looked over at Tran. "Yah better keep my grandaughter safe, yah hear?" she demanded. "As an honorary Apple, she's yer family too."

Tran nodded slowly. The two clinked bottles again and they drank. "She and I have a family bond, one forged in blood. I will die before any of my family die," Tran said. Granny Smith nodded back and took a drink from her bottle, Tran following after her.

Tran walked over to Celestia and grabbed himself two slices of pie, to which it looked like Celestia wanted to bite his hand off. He shot her a disapproving glare. "They're my pies, I won them fair and square," he said while eating a slice. He returned back to sitting next to Granny Smith, handing her the other slice.

She took the slice and started eating it with her hooves. Pie in one hand and bottle in the other, Tran held his bottle to toast again with Granny Smith, who was doing the same, pie in one hoof, bottle in the other. They clinked bottles and drank while eating pie. "Ah don't get ta touch a drink near Mac and Jack, they're scared ah might so much as keel over if ah so much a get a whiff." She chuckled and took another drink, as if to spite them. "But that means they care. They're good, young'uns. Sides, ah know bout how much they get o' the drink themselves. Ah've seen Jackie's secret still 'n that flask she carries around!"

Luna wrinkled her nose, remembering having to drink from Applejack's flask. "That swill your granddaughter calls moonshine is an affront to sanctity of moonshine," she said with a spit of disgust. Just remembering it's taste gave her shivers.

Granny Smith groaned. "Yea, ah've had a nip of it when she wasn't lookin," she said, remembering the taste of it. "She thinks strength and only strength makes good moonshine, no smoothness tah her brews."

Celestia raised a brow. "How strong is it?" she asked. "It can't be that bad." With her age, she had tasted a lot of alcohols, especially when Luna was serving her stint on the moon.

Tran smirked and dug through his coat and revealed a flask, a very familiar looking one that was engraved with three apples. "Nicked it off of her," he said before tossing it to Celestia who caught it with her magic.

She used her magic to open it up and the first thing she did was sniff it, which she would immediately regret. Her nose hairs felt like they had been set ablaze from such an olfactory assault. Her next mistake was sipping from it. The second a drop hit her tongue, the magic that was enveloping and holding the flask up faltered and it dropped a foot before she recovered her senses and telepathically caught the flask. All the while, she was coughing up a lung while Luna laughed with schadenfreude. It took a good while before Celestia recovered enough of her composure to speak. "Nope. That's the worse drink I've ever had!" Celestia said with tears in her eyes.

Tran walked over to the solar princess and took back the flask. He then took a big swig before swishing it around in his mouth to prove that he actually drank some. He swallowed it down without any complaint before offering the flask to Granny Smith. With much common sense, she refused. Taking one final drink from the flask, he tucked it away and returned to where he originally sat. "Its not the worse or the strongest I've had but its up there," Tran commented.

Celestia took a swig of her brandy to take the taste away. "She needs some lessons," Celestia said before taking a bite of pie to further give herself a taste of something to take her mind off of it. "The fact that you're able to tolerate any drop of it makes me question what's the worse you've had."

Tran shook his head while taking a drink from Luna's bottle of moonshine. "You don't want to know," he answered back.

Luna used her magic to sneak away a piece of pie from Celestia, who shot her an angry glare the instant she noticed. Luna stuck her tongue out in defiance before taking a bite from the pie she stole. Granny Smith took a drink from her bottle of whisky, polishing off the bottle. She tossed the bottle behind herself and turned to Tran. "Thank yah, Tran, fer the mighty fine meal and the mighty fine drinks!" She had a decent buzz to herself after all of these drinks and she was getting mighty tired.

Tran turned his attention to the two princesses who were feuding off in minor ways. "Let's hope for a quick end to this war," Tran said.

The two princesses paused in their sibling battles and looked at the human. "I'm glad you and your friends came to Equestria and we would be glad to have you as a citizen," Celestia said.

"And I am glad to have made you my friend," Luna said. As if they had practiced it, the two of them simultaneously stood up and took a seat on opposite sides of Tran. He was quite surprised when the two princesses simultaneously gave him a kiss on the opposite sides of his face. For the rest of tonight, the four of them continued drinking and eating but they eventually peacefully fell asleep around the fire. It was nice to relax every once in a while.

Author's Note

Ever since I started dying and retired from the military. I keep in touch with all of my military friends. I told all of them that now that I was dying, I will be the first to die, not anyone else. It brought tears to my eyes that I lost one of my friends, not to conflict but to the mental war that all veterans face. His PTSD won and he's gone now. I miss him dearly. Check up on your friends. You may never know what they are facing. Goodbye Lynch the Grinch, I'm expecting to meet you again once I go.

An Efficient Bureaucracy Is the Greatest Threat to Liberty

With the Appleloosa business completed, the Lost Battalion had returned to Ponyville. For the next two months, nothing else exciting happened. All they did was train more but just because it wasn't exciting, compared to battle, did it mean it was time wasted. With the truth of changelings being members of the Lost Battalion coming to light, the troops had to rebuild their relationships with each other. The humans had deliberately waited until the unit had fought together in at least one real battle before they revealed the truth, so that the non-changeling members knew that the changelings would fight with them in battle. Although it was a rocky restart, they became fast friends once again, just refreshing a bond that had already been forged in fire. They were all in this venture together and they rebuilt their Esprit De Corps, stronger than it ever was before.

With relationships rebuilt, they could function together more efficiently, making the Lost Battalion more effective. The extra training also made the Lost Battalion's troops more skilled and now that the secret of being a changeling was out, the changeling soldiers could use their changeling abilities to its max potential in whatever roles they took up in the unit. With the extra time and training, the Lost Battalion slowly grew additionally ready for more and different situations. Also, the battalion got more equipment to help each section become more effective in their roles.

Joining the Lost Battalion was Logan, as one of it's major members, its leaders, and instructors/trainers. Of course, he first had to acclimate to his new body first before he could start performing his new position's responsibilities. It took him a good amount of time before he could even achieve any basic task by himself, such as consciously fly or run around fully equipped in combat gear without assistance or guidance. Then, he also had to relearn how to shoot and fight with his new body, to even be a soldier. After weeks of self practice and his body slowly regenerating enough that he was no longer a walking corpse, he started helping train Tran's scout section of the Lost Battalion. From Logan, the scouts learned further skills in how to function and fight, once they were behind enemy lines such as sabotage and or enemy harassment.

Of course, Logan had to get entirely new gear and weaponry to suit his new body. With Gilda's help, custom griffon gear was made for Logan and weaponry was specifically bought and made for him. He received a griffon version of the REA standard gear and uniform so he fit in with the unit more. As for weaponry, he was given his pistol back from from Eric who had been using it since he had "died". However, he was fleeced in terms of primary arms. His shotgun had been given away to the yak diplomat, which he understood and didn't try to take back, and his Mosin Sniper rifle was probably in an unusable condition due to rust and decay because it had been buried with the corpse of his original body. However, he did have the new weapon he received during the Dauntless incident, a scoped rifle that he hadn't been able to use yet, a scoped Dragunov marksman's rifle. Since he had died shortly after receiving it, it had gone into storage and was collecting dust as it fit no one's role. To further supplement his arsenal, he had received a copy of the submachine gun that Gilda, Rainbow Dash, and Tran were using made by and given by the latter.

Logan wasn't the only one to get new equipment. While the Lost Battalion was already well equipped enough for war, they were further supplemented by new gear. One member of each of the scout teams was given a scoped version of the standard REA service rifle. Whoever was in charge of this rifle had to carry it and its ammunition in addition to their standard primary arm (a Winnychester 1892 in .44-40). To clarify, while they were equipped with a scoped rifle, they weren't a sniper, but more of a designated marksman to engage targets at a further range than normal and so they could more easily identify things of interest.

As for Eric, he functioned as he did normally. He was a serious member of the Lost Battalion, who acted with the utmost regard for his roll as a military instructor. The soldiers of the unit loved him and how much Eric cared for them. He had even gone to the extent that he would use some of his personal funds to occasionally buy things for the Lost Battalion's soldiers. Not equipment but things for personal fun like pool tables, liquor, or extra snacks. However, just because the Lost Battalion's soldiers loved Eric, did the rest of the REA(Royal Equestrian Army) normal members share the same sentiment. Eric's actions in personally enacting his "judgement" upon the ponies that caused friendly fire deaths on his soldiers was not seen as something good amongst the higher echelons of the REA. Combined with Tran's reputation, the humans did not have a good image to the rest of Equestria. They saw it as vigilant justice and it gave all the more bad press for the human leaders of the Lost Battalion. Combined with the fact that the unit employed two former Jaegers of the IGAF(Imperial Griffon Air Force), Equestria's support for the Lost Battalion was lower than it ever was.

Understandably, Eric didn't care about what the elite of Equestria thought about what he and his soldiers did. All he cared about was that he had a job to do, that wasn't done yet and the wellbeing of his soldiers, this being war and all. With the extra time and training, Eric used some of it to figure out how his "magical cartoon pony bullshit" worked. He had the uncanny ability to encourage and embolden his soldiers to "fight better". It wasn't a mere mental or superficial thing. Whenever Eric used his magic "mojo/aura", his soldiers shot more accurately, were stronger and faster, could resist pain and injury better, and have more energy to fight.

Speaking of which, Eric's section of the Lost Battalion, the machine gunners, also received new and different equipment that made them more effective in their role. The core of Eric's machine gun teams was, the machine gun, obviously. Each machine gun team had access to two machine guns, one carried by a yak and another carried by a large earth pony. The goal these teams had to achieve was to bring up machine guns, advancing the squads firepower. The yak could easily carry a full sized machine gun into the front but the second machine gun in each team was also a full sized machine gun, only this time, carried by a large earth pony. The earth pony was supposed to be the first machine gun to be setup, being faster than a yak, but since they were carrying a full sized machine gun, it took them quite a while before it would be up and running.

-X-X-X-

A large frame, heavily built, muscle packed earth pony REA soldier armed with a machine gun sprinted forward with all of his might. While he wasn't the fastest pony alive, he was definitely faster than his fellow soldiers, who were slowed down by the heavy loadouts that they carried while he was completely unaffected by the weight he had to carry. As he sprinted, other REA soldiers that were behind cover dozens of meters behind him, were providing covering fire with the rifles they were armed with and one yak that was armed with his massive machine gun, the Model 14 HotchKiss. Finally, this massive building of an earth pony found a spot he was content with, one that would provide safe cover for him. Getting behind cover, he brought his weapon up to bear.

He used to carry a Model 14 HotchKiss like the yak, a massive beast of a weapon but now, he was currently armed with a much smaller and lighter machine gun, the Model 15 ShowSaw light machine gun that was also in standard REA 8x50mm. The Model 15 ShowSaw light machine gun was a rushed-design crudely-made machine gun that was fed with 20 round magazines, instead of belts or strips like the Model 14 HotchKiss, meaning it couldn't provide as much firepower as the heavy machine gun.

However, the Model 15 ShowSaw light machine gun had one major benefit that the Model 14 HotchKiss couldn't do, it could be immediately used and fired without any additional setup. The Model 14 HotchKiss required to be setup, emplaced, and then loaded before it could be fired, if it was carried by anything other than a yak, who could carry the entire gigantic heavy gun mounted and loaded on their backs. This earth pony machine gunner was big but he wasn't yak big, therefore, he couldn't be armed with the massive Model 14 HotchKiss armed and ready to fire. This earth pony machine gunner immediately started firing his Model 15 ShowSaw at his intended targets. With this Model 15 ShowSaw, this titan of an earth pony machine gunner was able to provide covering fire much faster than he usually would, when previously armed with the Model 14 HotchKiss. The ShowSaw was reliable enough to get the job done and had the benefit of being easily operated by 1 user instead of 2-3 like the HotchKiss. As he provided covering fire, his fellow squad mates advanced forward and found spots to take cover behind alongside the earth pony machine gunner, before their final slowest squad mate advanced forward, the previously mentioned yak.

Once the yak was in position and firing his machine gun, a loud siren started blaring and everyone stopped firing before standing up out of cover. Watching their whole performance was Eric with a set of binoculars and he walked up to the machine gun team. As he made his way to them, Eric started clapping. "Bravo!" Eric applauded. Every member of the machine gun team, even the yak, was smiling and proud of themselves but they were humble enough to not start boasting. "How do you like your new light machine gun?" Eric asked, directed at the massive earth pony machine gunner.

Said stallion held up his Model 15 ShowSaw and looked down at it. "She might be ugly but she works," he said.

One of the machine gun squad's members, a changeling patted the stallion on the back. "And it suits your role much better than its bigger sister," the changeling said.

The yak snorted. "No, big machine gun better!" he exclaimed with a quick stomp. "But little machine gun good enough for big pony!"

Everyone chuckled at the yak, while another machine gun team trotted up to them. Eric pointed at the big stallion and the yak. "Alright, clear your weapons and take a break. You guys did good," Eric complimented.

-X-X-X-

Just like Eric, Wilson did not care about what Equestria thought about what he or his medics did. All he and his medics cared about was if anyone needed medical help. The experience in Appleloosa gave his medics something drastically important, experience. Wilson's medics were given an idea of what combat was like while having to play their role and having to deal with wounded soldiers. They treated wounded equally. If you were wounded, you were no longer a combatant, regardless of what side you previously were. With what went down in Appleloosa and the Badlands, it gave Wilson a look into how his troops acted in combat. He trained his soldiers in their weaknesses, in terms of how they acted under duress. While it would be impossible to perfectly simulate true combat, Wilson would provide as much simulated stress as possible in training.

Wilson's medics' jobs were also made easier from having the truth of the changeling's role in the Lost Battalion being revealed. The grand majority of Wilson's medics were changelings, in terms of the actual medics of the medical teams. Now that the changeling medics didn't have to hide their true selves, they could use as much changeling magic as they could, in terms of treating their patients. Most of the changeling medics were well versed in pony biology, from having to know how to be able to properly pose as a pony without getting caught and how to keep a pony captive in good health for the best love harvesting. This meant they had more proper medical experience in dealing with ponies' health's than recently trained pony medics. They were able to use this knowledge to be better medics for the ponies than actual normal pony medics in the REA.

The changelings, unlike other teams of the other sections of the Lost Battalion, didn't receive new equipment/gear from the REA. Instead, they used changeling-manufactured medical equipment/gear sourced from their hives. It was much more effective and significantly higher quality medical equipment/gear than what was standard in the REA, as the REA had to make as much gear as cheaply as possible to equip every medic team in the REA, where the changelings had a surplus from not being a direct participant in the war. This lessened the REA's logistical strain on medical equipment/gear, by a decent margin.

-X-X-X-

Wilson walked down the halls of a military hospital, pushing a metal cart filled with various medical supplies as he passed by patient room after patient room. He finally reached his destination, no surprise, a patient's room. Pushing open the door, he did something he rarely did, he smiled with genuine happiness. "Thunderlane, how's my favorite pegasus doing?" Wilson greeted.

Inside the room, sat a heavily bandaged grey maned, charcoal black coated pegasus in a hospital bed. He breathed heavily, having difficulty performing such a basic autonomous bodily function and had many monitors and IVs connected to him, ones that were gifted to them by the changelings. He smiled at Wilson's entrance. "Hi, Doc! Been doin' great," he replied back between a few pained wheezes, each word making his lungs burn with the fire of a thousand suns.

Wilson wasn't a doctor, only a medic but a lot of troops would just refer to him as "Doc". Whether he was referred to as "Doc" or "Wilson", he didn't mind. Wilson pushed the cart to be beside Thunderlane's hospital bed and he pulled out a syringe and a vial. "I'm here to change out your bandages and give you your morphine," Wilson said.

Thunderlane grunted. "Bout time, hurts to breathe," Thunderlane complained with a gravel-ly voice.

Wilson snorted and filled up the syringe with the life giving pain killer while Thunderlane weakly held out an foreleg that had a IV in it. Thunderlane gave out a sigh of relief as Wilson filled his body with a considerable amount of morphine, the pain slowly ebbing away. The pain was still there in the background but it was now, much more tolerable. Setting the syringe aside, Wilson went through the slow process of replacing Thunderlane's old bandages with fresh ones. "I told you, you were gonna live. How's it been?" Wilson asked while he worked.

Thunderlane giggled in a opiate induced high. "Family visitin', 'specially younger brother. They're more worried than I am!" Thunderlane exclaimed, each word coming out much easier, now that he had morphine coursing through his veins.

Wilson chuckled and whilst he was replacing the bandages, he made sure to check the status of his wounds, specifically the status of his stitches and scarring. Even though he was in magic pony land, Wilson would say he was healing much faster than expected. He had gained some considerable experience in dealing with the ponies so he now had a decent frame of reference for the ponies' health and recovering rate. "Looks like you're doing okay," Wilson commented. "Ready to join the Wonderbolts when you're 100%?"

Thunderlane scoffed before his lungs wrought some revenge, forcing him to cough. "Yea', when the war ends, fer sure," Thunderlane replied but his face suddenly went straight and serious as if he was no longer addled by opiates or pain. "I know I've said it a thousand times so far, but thanks for saving me." Thunderlane sighed and he grabbed one of Wilson's hands that were working on him. "I know this war ain't ending soon and I've been offered a full medical discharge... I refused."

Wilson was aghast and he pulled his hand away from Thunderlane's hooves. "You've done your service, you can rest now," Wilson said.

Thunderlane nodded and he folded his forelegs. "I want to fight with you and your friends. I owe you my life," Thunderlane said. "Can you get me transferred to your unit?"

Wilson went as rigid as a ramrod as he looked at Thunderlane with a serious face. "You know how specialized my unit is. You'd have to pass a full military physical before you can even rejoin the military and then you'd have to pass our rigorous tests. You really think you can do that?" Wilson explained.

Thunderlane nodded and sat up in his hospital bed with no trouble. Turning to the edge of the bed, he hopped off, standing on all four of his legs. He wobbled quite a bit but he managed to keep himself from falling. Immediately, Wilson ran over to help him but Thunderlane refused the help. "I'll get better and I'll fight with you," Thunderlane demanded.

Wilson let out a pained sigh. "Alright, if you get better, I'll get you transferred to my unit," Wilson finally relented. He pointed back up to the bed. "For now, just worry about getting better."

Thunderlane nodded and climbed back up to his bed, with some difficulty. " 'Preciate it doc," Thunderlane replied. Getting back to a comfortable position in bed, be put his blanket back on his body and got comfortable. "Yah know, everytime you visit me, I feel better more and more. Those hands of yours magic?"

Wilson scoffed. "Sure, just like how I'm a pretty pastel magic little pony like you guys," Wilson joked. Right then, a pair of doctors entered the room. One of them was secretly a changeling doctor while the other was a REA doctor, both of them unicorns. Wilson did a mock salute to Thunderlane. "See yah next time, Thunderlane." Thunderlane returned the mock salute and Wilson walked out of the room.

The two doctors walked over to Thunderlane's bedside. "Hello, private Thunderlane," greeted the changeling doctor. "We're here to drain some of the fluid buildup from your lung damage and just perform some overall checkups."

Thunderlane groaned, he always hated this procedure. He had been shot through one lung so it was an agonizing treatment. The changeling doctor pulled out an extremely large needle/syringe and started to prep it while the other doctor lit up her horn to scan Thunderlane's chest to find where to insert the needle. "Where to?" the changeling doctor asked. Meanwhile, Thunderlane took a deep breath and braced for the imminent pain.

The other doctor had a perplexed look on her face. "I don't know," the doctor said flabbergasted.

The changeling doctor lowered the massive syringe. "What do you mean? It's usually in the same general area. Where's the fluid build up? " he asked.

The other doctor threw up her hooves. "I can't find it!" she exclaimed. Thunderlane let out his held breath and looked between the doctors, wondering what was going on.

The changeling doctor sighed and gave her the giant needle/syringe. "Fine, swap," he said before lighting up his horn to scan Thunderlane. Once again, Thunderlane took a deep breath and braced but once again, nothing came. This time, it was the changeling doctor to be flabbergasted. "What the?" the changeling doctor said before he started magically scanning Thunderlane's chest again. All the while, Thunderlane once again let out the deep breath he had been holding in. That was when he realized something. He took a few more deep breaths and notices that the pain was gone, breathing was no longer a chore and his lungs no longer ached.

The changeling doctor looked at Thunderlane in this face. "I can't seem to find your lung damage," he said, confused. Thunderlane paused before looking at the room's only door, thinking about Wilson once again.

-X-X-X-

Then there was Tran. Like his three human(technically two human and one griffon) friends, he trained his section of the Lost Battalion in their usual battle tactics so they could be more effective at their jobs. The flying teams didn't receive any new equipment as what they were currently using was seen as effective as they could be. Being the most technically and mechanically gifted of the four humans, he, in his free time, spent a good majority of it maintaining and replacing their used current equipment. The pseudo-minigun was further refined so that it was less complex to use and so that it could finally be fed with standard disintegrating ammunition belts. He was also able to make a clone of it but only one clone as two months wasn't enough time to make further copies. He also couldn't just release it for the REA to adopt as it was way too complex and expensive for Equestria to manufacture. For now, the two pseudo-miniguns would only be for the human's use in only the most dire of situations. Like with the rest of his designs, it was a closely guarded secret that was encoded/encrypted in the languages that only he knew.

With two months passing, the rest of the REA found it rather irksome that nearly two thousand soldiers were sitting behind frontlines, who were, in their minds, doing nothing. The higher ups of the Equestrian government and REA command wanted results and the Lost Battalion was not accomplishing anything since Appleloosa. It further strained the idea of having essentially four aliens hold so much power in being able to command a fully strengthened combat battalion, one that had a higher equipment demand and cost than other conventional units. In additional to that, the higher up members of the REA's chain of command and elites most certainly did not like the idea of fielding changelings in the ranks of the REA. They barely tolerated the idea of having zebras and yaks fight with them, being traditionalist(IE racist assholes, ~Wilson) in the makeup of the Equestrian military.

Soon enough, the Lost Battalion and the people who commanded it would be facing their worse enemy yet, bureaucracy.

-X-X-X-

Rarity was relaxing in Ponyville's day spa, after a good morning physical training session with Prince Blueblood. She was lying down on a table and getting her sweat foam covered body massaged by a blue maned/tail, pink coated spa pony while she drank from a cocktail that had a little umbrella. Beside her on a different massage table was Prince Blueblood, who was also getting his sweat foam covered body massaged by a pink maned/tail, blue coated spa pony, and while enjoying a little cocktail drink. He had long since recovered from having his love, magic, and life essence sapped away by a changeling and rejoined the Lost Battalion's command team.

While the two relaxed, a pony trotted into the day spa. This pony wore a magically enchanted armored coat that decorated heavily and befitted somepony in a high position/role of the REA and Equestrian government. She strode in without notice from anypony else despite the importance and great power that she held. Rarity noticed their new guest and arose from her massage table, acknowledging her guest. "Why Twilight! It's always a pleasure to see you!" she greeted. Blueblood, realizing who he was in the presence of, turned to look at her while still lying down and performed a mock salute.

Twilight, eyes filled with irritation, eyed the massage tables with longing. She sighed and redirected her attention to her friend. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Ponyville's going to be real busy soon," Twilight explained. "You have some officials coming to inspect your unit, soon arriving."

Rarity groaned upon hearing Twilight's news. She sat up on her massage table and set her drink down. "Give it to me straight, darling, how bad is it?" she asked back.

Twilight had the same veil of obvious irritation on her face. "Stars and her entourage. A very big entourage," Twilight answered.

It was then Blueblood's turn to sit up on his massage table, his masseuse standing aside. He rubbed his chin as certain thoughts came to mind. "Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer?" he asked.

Twilight looked at the prince, impressed. He had surprisingly guess their guest's name correctly. "Yes, how did you deduce her identity?" she asked.

Blueblood sighed as he raised his drink to take a sip from it. "She's the flag officer that travels the heaviest," Blueblood replied. His mind was already filling up with memories of how much he despised the vice-marshal. The mare was a real stick in the mud, pain in the flank, killer of all joy, fuddy duddy, and much more.

Twilight frowned, joining in on Blueblood in the disapproval. "And she's a real pain in the flank," Twilight added in. Being in as high of a position that she was, she had been forced to associate with much of the government and the military's elite. Most of the experiences were negative, as came with the territory of having to deal with the aristocracy and nobles that ran Equestria and her military.

Blueblood nodded, agreeing with her statement. He had met her a few times due to his position as a prince and none of them were positive interactions. "She'll be impossible to mistake, she'll be the one with the log up her plot," Blueblood remarked. He turned to look at Rarity and almost blushed. "Pardon my Prench." Before any of them could continue their conversation, they were interrupted by noise, a lot of it. There was the slowly growing sound of magically powered engines, specifically the types that were utilized by airships. When the three of them checked outside, a fleet of airships were landing in Ponyville, coming in from the direction of Canterlot.

Twilight eyed the airships with disgust. It looked like she had arrived too late to warn them. "And I thought we'd have more time before her entourage arrived," Twilight commented.

-X-X-X-

Today was a Saturday so it was a day off for the members of the Lost Battalion. Being mid-day everyone had already separated and gone off to go have their own fun. Of note, Tran was walking through town. He was headed towards the sectioned off area of Ponyville that was only meant for the REA. There was an REA base attached to Ponyville that only REA and affiliated members were only allowed. He had gotten a missive from a Night Sentinel to meet Princess Luna in one of the base's training centers.

As he arrived, he found the princess standing outside of the training center. He had expected to meet her inside of the training center, but instead was standing outside at the building's entrance, in her usual set of knight's armor and accompanied by her usual pair of escorts. He managed to get pretty close to the princess before he was spotted, getting within sword fighting range. Upon seeing Tran, the princess threw a hoof up into the air. "Huzzah, a true soldier instead of the farces we will soon face!" the princess greeted.

Tran reached out with a fist and bumped the princess's outstretched hoof. She was confused from the courtesy for a moment but realized what he had done, not very familiar with the modern gesture. "Soon face?" Tran inquired.

Princess Luna's rather positive expression drooped. "Oh, you shall soon see and comprehend the circumstances," she announced. She turned to face one of her Night Sentinels and motioned him over with a wing. Said bat pony night guard was carrying a long equipment case on his back. "But before our confrontation, I bring gifts!" she declared, her face readopting a positive expression. Upon the utterance of the last word of her previous sentence, the bat pony guard opened up the case. Inside the case was a lightly curved saber with a gold plated oval handguard, one that was heavily engraved and inscribed with countless numbers of thaumatological runes that implied powerful magical power.

Tran picked up the saber and drew it while looking at the princess. The princess grinned while she drew her own sword. "While I would love to, this is no invitation to duel. Since you gifted me one of your treasured weapons, I thought to return the favor," the princess explained, while drawing her 1911 with her magic from its holster worn on her chest. Since she had been gifted the pistol, it had been modified for her use. It now had a much larger trigger guard and trigger meant for usage with hooves, was fitted with a suppressor, and she had it engraved. She had practiced using the pistol with her magic while wielding a sword in her hooves. With much practice, she was scarily effective with it in close quarters and while she refused to admit it, she enjoyed firing it, finding it a rather satisfyingly experience to punch big holes in her targets, finding it rather fun. "I commissioned an artisan to finally ensure that you can trot around armed as a true warrior should be!" Looking at the blade, Tran plucked a hair from his head and touched it to the sword's edge. With no surprise, the hair was cut without it even bending in resistance. "And it shall stay deathly sharp as long as ye will live."

Tran returned the blade to its scabbard and looked back to the princess. "So what's the actual reason you wanted me to meet you here?" Tran asked. Before the princess could properly answer him, the front doors to the training center's building was kicked open outwards. Standing in the doorway was a large grouping of ponies. Most of the ponies were REA and REAF officers of varying ranks and races, but notably, they were all mares and they were all congregated around one specific pony in general. That pony was a red maned/tailed, white coated middle-aged pegasus mare who wore an immaculate REAF dress uniform that was decorated with many ribbons and medals, bearing the rank insignia of three stars on each shoulder, and she wore a holstered revolver on her right hoof side. Due to her uniform, it wasn't possible to discern what her cutie mark was and she had what seemed to be a perpetual frown on her face.

Being in the presence of Princess Luna, most of them directed their attention to her but not the high ranking REAF general. Her eyes were immediately drawn in to Tran and her frown became a scowl. "So you must be one of the monkeys Celestia hired," the vice-air marshal assumed. She went over Tran's various features, who was wearing his casual off-time clothes instead of his combat gear due to today being a weekend.

Tran had noticed that she had referenced Celestia without the princess moniker. This either meant that she was comfortable around and friends with the solar diarch, enough that she no longer had the subconscious thought to state Celestia's title all the time, like Tran was with Princess Luna, or that she did not have much respect and care that other ponies did when citing the princesses. Considering the marshal's unfriendly demeanor, Tran highly doubted that it was the former.

Tran fixed a slightly disapproving stare at the marshal who scoffed. "If you think I'm scared of you like so many ponies are, you'll be highly mistaken," the marshal taunted. "I'm already not impressed." Behind Tran, Princess Luna had a similar disapproving glare directed at the marshal. The marshal directed her attention away from Tran and to the princess. "Good afternoon, princess," the marshal greeted while lightly bowing. Once she stood back up, she turned her attention back to Tran and smirked. "You have the pleasure of speaking with Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer, commander of all Royal Equestrian Air Force aerial assets in the eastern front, fucking me."

Tran could feel all of the arrogance radiating off of the marshal and he hated it, being reminded of Rainbow Dash's and Gilda's attitudes only much worse and more aggressive. It very much reminded him of how USMC(United States Marine Corps) marines behaved, acting like they were constantly trying to defend their masculinity and reputation but significantly worse. It was a further death knell in how he perceived the mare negatively. "Tran," he stated, introducing himself to the mare.

The mare readopted her frown and eyed the man up and down. "And here I thought you were supposed to be the Lost Battalion's super tough, unkillable, super dangerous element of death, not some scrawny little minotaur with his horns clipped like a neutered dog. Is that why you and your little club are twiddling your hooves, relaxing on Equestria's dime in the rear lines while the real mares are out fighting?" she taunted.

Princess Luna, who was standing beside Tran, scowled at the mare. She looked over to Tran to gauge his feelings but was flabbergasted to see the usual emotionless expression affixed to his face. She half expected him to have tried to kill the audaciously bold marshal by now but as a show of exemplary self control, he showed no anger or malice towards the mare other than a slightly disapproving stare. If it had been Wilson, there would most certainly be a physical altercation going on right now. "I believe we're the only ones achieving victories while your forces have done nothing but fail everywhere they try?" Tran finally responded back.

Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer, face immediately started burning crimson with anger, her white coated face almost matching her red mane. She shot forward a few steps closer to Tran, as if she was physically squaring up with him. "You think stomping a few bugs is a victory? Hah!" the mare shot back. The mare grew a cruel smirk on her face as her rage filled face slowly cooled down, enough that her face was finally white enough to match the rest of her coat. "I read the report when you and your little friends tried a hoof in real war, at Fillydelphia. What was it again? Oh yeah, one of you died and you almost died yourself! You couldn't even succeed at riding a train to the Crystal Empire, with one of Equestria's best rolling fortresses!" Once again, Tran's face only held an emotionless expression which only seemed to frustrate the mare. The entire time so far, it was as if the mare had been intentionally taunting him to try to get a rise out of him but she had chosen the worse possible person for the endeavor.

Princess Luna interrupted the marshal before more verbal jabs could be thrown. "Other than ridiculing my compatriot, what is your purpose in Ponyville?" the princess asked.

Thunder Hammer stared at the princess for a few seconds, trying to think of how to phrase herself, without offending the royalty. When she was ready, she turned her attention back to Tran. "You took hundreds of my wings and some of my airships," the mare stated. She pursed her lips and opened her mouth again. "Oh and some of those worthless ground pounders. I'm sure even as useless as they are, we can use them to soak up some bullets somewhere. You're doing nothing with them when we need as many hooves on the frontline as possible. I'm here to take them back. Your little club is just sitting on your hooves, doing nothing. Hell, you mixed them with those damn bugs, letting them use our soldiers as food." That last bit was quite the disconcerting or puzzling statement for the various officers that accompanied Thunder Hammer. The knowledge of changelings being a part of the Lost Battalion was supposed to be secret on a need to know basis, meaning that this mare was spewing out secret information to ponies that weren't supposed to know.

As usual, Tran displayed no emotions on his face but Princess Luna was emoting enough for the two of them. "You don't have enough authority to disband the Lost Battalion," the princess retorted.

Thunder Hammer smirked. While she held a powerful position, she was still only one mare. However, one mare could still do a lot. "You are correct, princess. But, if I prove that the Lost Battalion is a pointless venture, that'd be enough precedence to show the rest of the Equestrian military to disband the unit," the mare explained. When she had arrived in Ponyville, she had brought along five airships, all filled with pegasi. Not to mention, all of the pegasi that flew along the airships when they were traveling, as protective escorts. "I brought soldiers and one of the units I used to command, the legendary Flying Circus, here to war game, against the Lost Battalion. With Princess Twilight and all of the inspecting officers I brought watching, they can write enough field reports and documentation to make it irrefutable that the Lost Battalion should disband."

Tran raised an eyebrow at the bold mare. "A war game, the Lost Battalion, against you and your soldiers?" Tran said, inquisitively.

The mare smugly looked at Tran and nodded. She had no doubt in her mind that her and her fliers wouldn't lose. She had brought a significant number of her aerial forces to contend against the Lost Battalion. It included dogfighters, flying infantry, flying scouts, bombardiers, and a myriad of other types of pegasi soldiers to stomp the Lost Battalion into dust. "Yeah, scared?" the mare asked, satisfied with herself.

Princess Luna threw the mare a glare of disapproval and shot a hoof into the air. "Tis not a fair fight, your forces far outnumber the Lost Battalion!" the princes protested.

Thunder Hammer, being ever the so bothersome mare, gave the princess a rather audacious look. "Its a battalion against a battalion, fair as what the rules for war games dictate" the mare remarked. It was simultaneously the truth and a lie. Thunder Hammer had brought only a battalion for the intended war game but her battalion was a combat unit that was at max strength/filled beforehand and then had also been temporarily bolstered with additional soldiers in expectation of high combat losses for future battles. In addition to that dishonest characteristic of the unit's manpower(ponypower?), the battalion had a few extra companies of pegasi attached to it, that were only intended to act as security while escorting Thunder Hammer and the Flying Circus while they traveled via airship. Naturally, in a show of bad sportsmanship, she would also be using the flying security escorts as additional manpower(ponypower?) in the battle against the Lost Battalion in the future war game. Numbers wise, Thunder Hammer and her battalion, the Flying Circus easily doubled, possibly even tripled the Lost Battalion's numbers/forces. All of this cheating wasn't known to either Tran or the princess, only finding out until after everything had gone down.

Tran had an inkling in his mind that Thunder Hammer was going to be cheating in the war games, not trusting her words. Even if she did, he would still fight this battle and win it. If he chose the option of not fighting this war game, he was pretty sure it would show him as a coward and lead to the disbanding of the Lost Battalion or someone else taking over it, in terms of leadership, from his and his friend's hands. Tran pointed the sheathed sword at Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer. "You're on," Tran accepted.

-X-X-X-

As it was Saturday, a weekend day, the war game would start on Monday. This gave enough time for Tran and his friends and Thunder Hammer and her forces to prepare for the mock battle. They obviously wouldn't be shooting at each other with live ammunition but fake magical ammunition that would allowed them to more accurately fight a simulated war. This magic ammunition would allow them to safely shoot at each other and even use larger ordnance, such as cannons/bombs.

The magical simulation system was two parts, the ammo and a pair of magic bracelets. The bracelets would detect "wounds" when the user was shot with the magic ammunition. While being shot with magic ammunition, if a killing blow/shot was done, the victim would be completely paralyzed, mimicking death and be rendered no longer able to continue "fighting". If a nonlethal blow/shot was done, it would paralyze the limb, that would allow a medic to "treat" it to enable the soldier to continue fighting. Anyone that was airborne when they were hit with the magic bullets would be teleported straight to the ground before being paralyzed. The magic ammunition wasn't perfect, as it wouldn't be able to simulate a bullet's piercing power, so concealment meant cover.

The war game would contain multiple invisible "referees" watching the entire spectacle, either pegasi flying in the air or unicorns riding in hot air balloons. They would ensure that no one was "cheating". They were immune to the magic ammunition's affects as they didn't wear the bracelets that ensured wound/hit detection. The humans, even if they wore the magic bracelets, were immune to the effects of this war simulation magic so each human would be closely followed by their own "referees" who would be intently scrutinizing, to make sure the humans weren't acting as unkillable soldiers. The humans' guns could still use the magic ammo for them to get "kills" against the enemies, however.

The first step that Tran had to do after getting all of this information was to make a game plan, which meant he had to gather up the Lost Battalion's leadership. He had the help of Princess Luna who could cast a magic spell to discover/track the location of their fellow compatriots. Because Equestrian magic didn't work on them, Princess Luna had sent her Night Sentinel escorts to go hunt down Tran's fellow human friends. Afterwards, the duo easily found the first of their targets, Rarity and Blueblood, being the closest and were located at the spa. The princess and Tran were quite surprised to find the two of them accompanied by Princess Twilight Sparkle. The three of them were told to meet up at their next destination, Sweet Apple Acres, before they'd make any future plans.

The two of them made a quick path to the farm after a quick pitstop somewhere else and as they arrived, they found themselves walking/trotting up to the Apple Family household, seeing Granny Smith knitting and relaxing on a rocking chair on her porch. She looked up from her work and squinted her ailing eyes. "Well, howdy Tran. Ah didn't expect tah meet yah here today but its still a welcome sight," Granny greeted. She glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby before leaning in closer towards Tran and lowered her voice. "Did yah bring any..."

Tran walked up to the elderly mare and gave her a hug. "Howdy, Granny" Tran greeted.

The princess followed behind Tran, stopping a little bit before the porch. "Greetings too, Apple matriarch," Princess Luna said. "We are here on official business. We desire the company of the younger Apple and the ostentatious fliers." According to Princess Luna's tracking spell, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Soarin, and Spitfire were at Sweet Apple Acres. This made gathering up everyone a bit easier with so much of them gathered up in one location.

Granny pointed towards the giant field of apple trees. "Jackie's out in the fields, bucking some trees with Mac and her pink friend. As fer the others, ah believe the flying folk are holed up in the root cellar out by the chicken coup and pig pens," she directed.

Tran dug through his coat and pulled out a small bottle of whisky, discretely handing her the bottle. "Much obliged, Granny," Tran replied. Granny took the bottle while grinning, quickly hiding it away in her pile of yarn supplies. Princess Luna rolled her eyes before trotting off early. Granny chuckled and Tran gave her a farewell hug before following along with Princess Luna.

As the princess and human got closer towards their destination, something felt off. The first thing that gave it away was the slowly growing stench of alcohol. It all came to a head when the two of them were standing in front of the door to the root cellar, where the stench of alcohol was the strongest. From the outside, they could all hear shuffling and movement. They could also hear ponies speaking but couldn't decipher any of the words being said, but the two of them could recognize the speakers' voices being very familiar.

Of course, the door to the cellar was locked. Tran thought about kicking down the door but that would have been rude to damage the Apple family's property. Luckily, Princess Luna was able to solve the problem by opening the door with a spell. In an instant, the smell of alcohol was so great that they snorting rubbing alcohol would have yielded a similar result. Inside the dim cellar, they could see shelves, large indistinct objects, and four figures in the near-darkness. When Luna lit up the room with a light spell, they could see shelves stocked up with canned/jarred foods, a few copper alcohol stills/distilleries, and the people they were looking for.

Much to Princess Luna and Tran's surprise, Spitfire, Soarin, Rainbow Dash, and Gilda were all engaged in quite the intimate physical activity. It was quite clear that all of them were sloshed out of their minds, judging from all of the many, many stereotypical brown stoneware moonshine jugs spread around on the ground and the pervasive smell of alcohol. The fact that none of them were sent scrambling upon the interruption was another indication of how hard their livers were working. Luna, face burning red from seeing the four of them in such a state, looked away from them while shielding her eyes.

Still, Princess Luna still had the mental fortitude to cast a spell and in an instant, the smell of alcohol in the room was gone. There was a silent pause in the room, before the four fliers started scrambling around while yelling, having regained their mental faculties as the princess had removed all of the alcohol in the vicinity which included what coursed through the fliers' veins.

"What the buck, Tran?! Again?!" Rainbow Dash demanded, currently trying to cover her body with a coat(not hers) in a poor attempt to preserve any ounce of her dignity.

The others were equally as nonplussed. Soarin, looked at their guests with some exasperation. "Can't a bro have a moment?" he begged.

Princess Luna was too stunned to speak, not wanting to look at the four of them in their current state of intimacy. Tran, displaying no emotion as usual, was completely unbothered, more focused on their problems. "Emergency meeting," Tran calmly stated.

Rainbow Dash rushed out from her "entanglement" and shoved the princess and Tran towards the door. "Got it! We'll be there," Rainbow Dash yelled, shoving the door closed.

The princess was still madly embarrassed enough that she was in no state to be offended from being marehandled out. However, Tran was still unperturbed. "30 minutes, the house!" Tran yelled loudly enough for the fliers on the other side of the door to hear.

"We get it!" all four of the fliers yelled from their side.

Tran looked at the crimson-faced princess and motioned off at the field of apple trees. "Let's go find the others while they're busy," Tran suggested. The princess was still too flustered to speak so she just nodded vigorously.

By the time the princess recovered from the mental flashbang, she used her tracking spell again to find Applejack and Pinkie Pie. They were a good distance out with how big Sweet Apple Acres was so they started trotting/walking. As they traveled further in the Apple family's farm, they spotted the CMC(Cutie Mark Crusader's) tree house. Princess Luna eyed the club house with much fascination. "What a lovely little structure!" the princess complimented.

To be fair, it was quite impressive that Apple Bloom was able to maintain such a large tree-borne property. Despite being a good distance away, the two of them could see that the treehouse was occupied, seeing a few figures through the various open windows and door of the clubhouse. Tran took a mental pause. Focusing more on the clubhouse, he could make out that there were three people inside of the clubhouse and two of them bore the distinct outline/figure of underage ponies, but there was a third figure that had the body shape of a griffon. He thought it could have been Logan except the figure of that griffon was far too short and slim to be him.

Princess Luna was quite alarmed to see Tran draw his revolver. "What disturbs you my friend?" the princess asked, while drawing her own sword in caution.

Tran didn't answer the princess and instead charged towards the clubhouse, stopping at the stairs leading up the tree. When he got closer while making sounds of very obvious movement, the people inside of the clubhouse could he heard running around hastily. A few seconds later, Apple Bloom popped out of the club house, standing at the door. She looked at Tran with a fake nervous smile, sweat dripping off of her brow. "Well howdy Tran! Ah didn't expect yer visit to the farm!" she greeted, her eyes darting around. Tran narrowed his eyes and started marching up the stairs, Apple Bloom immediately flinching. "Sorry, uh, we're busy doing, uh, crusader stuff! You shouldn't come inside!"

Apple bloom tried to stop Tran from going inside of the treehouse but he merely stepped over her while entering the clubhouse. Princess Luna, who was not sure what was going on, slowly followed after her friend. She stopped in front of Apple Bloom who was still standing in the clubhouse's doorway. A nasty glare from Luna was enough to make Apple Bloom step out of the way. Inside of the clubhouse was a mess with the remains of various food supplies and apple cores littering the floor. Sweetie Belle was standing inside the clubhouse who had been diligently cleaning but had frozen up as she looked at the Princess and Tran with horror.

Tran looked down at Sweetie Belle, who flinched with fear. She had never gotten used to Tran, having heard the rumors and believing in them. "Busy with crusader stuff?" Tran asked.

Sweetie Belle was too anxious to answer. Instead, she nodded vigorously in response. Tran noticed her eyes would dart around and she would occasionally look up. When Tran followed her eyes during one of those moments, he found that there was a trapdoor in the ceiling. When Sweetie Belle had noticed that Tran finally detected the trapdoor in the ceiling, she stood over to block the ladder for it. "Y-You can't go up there. It has, uh, confidential crusader stuff!" Sweetie Belle clearly lied.

Tran just ignored here and stepped up and over here, climbing up the latter. Sweetie Belle, despite her fear of Tran, clung onto his leg to try to stop him but he still climbed the rungs of the ladder as if he were unimpeded. Once he pushed up through the attic's door, he found himself face to face with a small female griffon who, despite all of the random junk that littered the attic that she tried to hide behind, looked scared out of her mind. Tran immediately had his signature sidearm out and aimed at her face. The griffon shrieked from fear and threw her talons up. "Don't kill me, I surrender!" she cried out.

-X-X-X-

There was a large gathering of people at the human's primary house and workplace, everyone having been gathered in an expeditious manner. Tran, Wilson, Eric, Logan, Princess Luna, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Soarin, Spitfire, Rarity, Blueblood, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Princess Twilight Sparkle, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, and the new griffon that was recently found were all jam packed inside the biggest room of the house, the basement. Many questions were floating in everyone's mind but Tran had forced everyone into silence. Of the three CMC members, two of them were sweating nervously and had faces filled with fear as they were standing aside their very mad, respective sisters.

The small griffon was obviously a female and had a very lithe, skeletal frame, as if she was on the verge of starving. She was dirty and looked ragged, as if she had been living a very rough and difficult life. She was shaking in her feathers, obviously from fear, and was nervously sweating. Despite being surrounded in all directions by everyone, she was squarely focused on Tran. The group had the griffon sitting on a chair in the middle of the room as everyone surrounded her for an interrogation. In the back of the gathering of people/ponies, Gilda was hovering in the air, looking at the small griffon with immense pity.

Tran was squarely staring into the griffon's eyes, who herself was staring back at Tran. Every now and then, her eyes darted away from staring into Tran's eyes to look at the hand cannon that he was holding in his left hand, at the low and ready. She was not having a good time, emotionally, with facing Tran, especially with his cold emotionless face. "You obviously think you recognize me," Tran commented. "What the griffons are calling me now?"

Despite being on the verge of tears, she slowly nodded. "E-Equestria's conqueror of death, the pale one of the four," she answered, her eyes glancing at Tran's revolver. Tran glanced to his friends who was slightly confused, having heard the griffon's answer.

The first bit of that nickname made sense but the second half was a little confusing. Did they refer to him being pale compared to his fellow friends? True, his skin was much paler than his fellow still-human friends, to the point where his visage seemed ghoulish in nature. Because he was in a ceaseless state of being injured, he was always low on his internal blood volume, making him much paler in contrast with his friends. He constantly bled it away to the point where he needed blood transfusions in a few occasions and him having to eat a iron heavy diet to help his body create more. "So you know who I am, but I don't know who you are," Tran replied. "Name?"

The small griffon felt tightness in her throat as she felt like the world was bearing down on her. She swallowed the lump in her throat and opened her mouth. "G-Gabby," she tentatively answered. "I-I'm a courier."

"Why are you in Equestria?" Tran then demanded.

By now, Gabby was starting to tear up, thinking she was only delaying her inevitable death. The humans were rumored to be very intolerant of griffons in general, supposedly wanting to extinguish their race. "There's nothing to eat, everygriffon fight for what scraps of food available, there's riots over what's left almost every day. If you work, you're allowed to buy food but its barely enough to live on. If you don't work, you get nothing. Everygriffon works, even chicks barely old enough to walk. I thought it'd be better in Equestria," Gabby explained. That explained her condition, how she looked like she was on the verge of starving to death. There was barely any meat on any of her limbs and her ribs showed through her torso.

After a few seconds, Tran turned to Logan. At that very moment, Logan had just landed beside Tran just having taken flight mere seconds ago. Tran waved his hand at Logan who reached out and raised a hand at the griffon. She flinched and closed her eyes, expected to get hit but it didn't come. When she opened her eyes back up, she found that Logan was holding something up in front of her. It was several long strips of something and only when she smelled it did she realize that it was some kind of jerky. She looked up at Logan who had a much friendlier expression unlike the frightening emotionless face of a deathly spectre. Even then, she was still tentative at accepting the gift. Logan, paused, took a bite from the jerky before offering it back to her. With caution, she finally reached up to grab the jerky, taking a small bite out of it.

Tran looked over at Gilda. "Is she telling the truth?" he asked.

Gilda sighed and slowly nodded. "Back when I was younger, I remember there was plenty of game to hunt and eat but as I grew older, it quickly disappeared. The years leading up to the war, food was getting scarce, to the point that there were fights over anything everytime anygriffon managed to successfully find and kill something during a hunt. I remembered, right before the war started, somegriffon was murdered over the baby rabbit he managed to snare," Gilda explained. Unnoticed in the background, Fluttershy winced.

"Sounds like you guys exhausted your country's supply of food, overhunting," Eric commented. "No effort in conservation of the environment." The Equestrians and the humans knew that the griffons were a carniverous species and could barely tolerate much else. Unlike the Equestrians, they didn't have the option of eating just anything. Eric took a glance at the two CMCs who were in trouble before looking back at Gabby. "Wait, what have you been eating since coming to this country?" he asked.

Ironically enough, Gabby's stomach rumbled from hearing the question. She had been quickly going through the beef jerky that Logan had gifted her, having burned through it in a short instant "Eggs. Just a few every meal for the last month. One week, I had a chicken," she replied.

Applejack growled and faced Apple Bloom. "Ah knew it! The hens weren't layin' less eggs every day! You've been giving them tah her!" the cowpony accused. Apple Bloom's face blanched as she knew she had been caught, to which Applejack noticed. "Missy, yer in even bigger trouble now!"

Twilight trotted forward a few steps. "Hold on, by the time you defected to the Royal Equestrian Air Force, you were in peak physical condition. The statistics of your body weight from your physical was in the upper range of bell curve for average female griffon body mass. Also, every griffon corpse we've studied showed no irregularities in terms of nutrients," she stated. "And it requires a significant amount of calories and protein to maintain a high muscle percentage of somepony of your stature and physical activity."

Gilda tapped her chest and gave an exaggerated tug on her red scarf to emphasize it. "I'm a Jaeger, baby. We get anything we ask for and more. Anygriffon who joins the military gets extra food rations compared to civilians, its one of the biggest selling points to join," she answered.

Twilight raised her eyebrows for a split second, accepting the answer. However, she then rubbed her chin while her face showed that she was in thought. "That raises another question. Raising an army of the grand size we faced at the beginning of the war, going off of what you've just explained, would require tremendous amounts of food resources. Where did that all come from? And, to support the war for as long as it has been going on would require increasingly rising amounts," the princess of friendship further asked.

Gilda opened her mouth to answer but then closed her mouth when she realized that she had no idea. Twilight had asked an important question, one that Gilda had no clue where to even answer. "I-I don't know, huh. That's a pretty good question," Gilda confirmed.

Tran redirected his attention back to Gabby. "What was it like right leading up to the war, when it started, and then as it raged?" Tran asked. She flinched from getting Tran's attention again, taking a glance at the revolver that Tran still had out. He noticed her tentativeness from the image he projected so he holstered his signature hand cannon and held out his hands in front of himself in surrender. "You're fine with us for now, we wanted to make sure you weren't a spy," he said in an attempt at a calming voice. He dug through his gear and pulled out a huge chocolate bar, holding it out for the griffon. "Sorry for the hard time."

She was somewhat flumaxed at his suddenly friendly demeanor, as was Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom but not Scootaloo, having expected only a raging demon of death. She had long devoured the jerky that she had been giving, so she cautiously accepted the chocolate bar. Once she took a bite, she let out a moan of pleasure, as if she hadn't tasted sweets in years, which was most likely considering the situation. "As the war was beginning to start, there was less and less food than what was normal, to the point that griffons were starving to death in the streets. But, a few weeks in, the government just suddenly had lots and lots of food, more than enough for everygriffon!" Gabby answered with happiness on her face and in her voice. "It was like that for the first year of the war and everygriffon was glad the war happened and everygriffon I knew were enlisting in droves! But-" she started off again, her voice growing depressed. "In the last half year or so, it seemed like there was less of it than usual. Not as bad as before the war started but enough for griffons to start getting mad again."

Eric pursed his lips and looked between Gilda and Gabby. "Hey, does the griffon army hunt everything anywhere where they hold Equestrian territory?" he asked.

Gilda paused for a second, as if to search through her memories. "I remember some hunting details but it was never a primary goal. It only ever happened if the territory was completely secure," Gilda answered.

Eric shrugged and folded his arms. "They're prolly doing the same thing here in Equestria that they did in the Griffon Empire, overhunting everything into extinction," Eric commented.

Fluttershy flew up to the front, out from behind everyone. "That can't be!" Fluttershy cried out.

Rarity sighed and trotted up to put a hoof on her friends back. "Fluttershy, darling, we know your disposition towards animals but you can't deny something what they're obviously doing," she said to comfort her friend.

Fluttershy pushed herself away from Rarity's embrace with an annoyed look on her face. "No, I'm not denying that they could be doing that. What I'm saying is that, that can't be whats happening!" Fluttershy said. "We'd see the environmental impact if they're hunting that much. There's animals still to be found where they hold ground and the ecosystem hasn't collapsed in territories they hold, in Equestria," she explained.

Twilight trotted up to her conservationist friend. "Well, its obvious they're using Equestria as a food source in some fashion to that scenario. If they're feeding their army and country, solely with Equestrian resources, they're bound to run out in due time, whether they lose all of their held territories or run out of prey to hunt," Twilight commented. Twilight paused, to run numbers through her head. "Hold on, to feed a population of that grand scale, they'd have to setup a tremendous, almost industrial-like farm dealing only in livestock. We've found no evidence of that, how are they gathering these foodstuffs?"

Eric pointed at Gilda. "You guys only eat meat, right?" Eric asked.

Gilda gave Eric a bland look. "No, the beak and talons are for show," Gilda commented.

Tran smacked Gilda upside the head as Eric directed his attention to Twilight. "Well, they're getting it from something and they got changelings to help. Can't be hard to find out how they're doing it and to cut the source," Eric suggested.

Gilda shoved her way over to Eric. "You're suggesting starving away my country!" she cried out.

Eric shoved Gilda away from himself. "The sooner this war ends, the faster we can go and help them out with their situation to stop the bloodshed and prevent future wars," Eric clarified.

Tran loudly grunted, getting everyone's attention. "Before we start counting our chicks before they hatch, we got bigger fish to fry," he announced. Tran then explained their unit's existence under threat from the Air marshal Thunder Hammer. The pitched battle's scenario would have both sides protecting a fortified area over the course of three days. The goal was to inflict as many casualties as possible or would end early if the opposing side's chain of command/HQ was completely wiped out. Everyone's reaction was different, from anger and annoyance all the way to fear and trepidation.

Eric, clearly one of the angered people there, was clenching his fists in anger. "And we got two days to prepare," Eric groaned out.

"Yep," Tran replied. He redirected his attention back to Gabby. "Okay, you will be staying with her," Tran said while pointing at Fluttershy. "We'll feed you and she'll house you. You're not a prisoner but you're not a citizen. We'll figure out your situation once we deal with more important matters." Gabby nervously nodded while Tran turned to face everyone else. "Let's go to war."

Author's Note

As usual, I haven't died yet(again, i mean) so I'm still alive. If none of y'all know anything bout me or my problems, here yah go, an explanation
https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/1045640/health-life-explanation-update

It's pretty obvious but if you haven't figured it out the Model 15 ShowSaw is a 1915 CSRG Chauchat. As for the story, I named Vice-Air Marshall's personal unit, the Flying Circus after the IRL unit of fame from the German Empire's Air force of ww1.

As usual, leave ur comments and criticism in the comments below. I enjoy reading them and engaging with my readers. Enjoy this chapter!

For Those I Love I Will Sacrifice

The weekend had quickly passed and everyone was antsy as the planned war game came to fruition. Because of how early it had been planned, there was barely any time to prepare. It was quite clear that Vice-Air Marshal Thunder Hammer had the clear advantage in terms of preparation for the battle, since she had been the pony who initially scheduled it and arrived in Ponyville, already prepared to fight the battle in advance. For the Lost Battalion, two days was not enough time to requisition extra equipment or supplies so they had to make due with what was available. Instead of the usual field gear that soldiers were expected to carry, the Lost Battalion ditched anything unnecessary and were told to only bring their usual field loadout, one day's worth of extra rations, and as much ammo as they could physically carry.

Both battalions, the Lost Battalion and the fighting battalion that Thunder Hammer brought along, had formed up at the Whitetail Woods to the west of Ponyville. Since it was now Fall/Autumn, most of the trees had lost their canopies and the ground was littered with piles upon piles of scattered orange/yellow leaves. Gathered there, it was obvious that Thunder Hammer had clearly cheated. The Lost Battalion's soldiers and the people/ponies who commanded it could obviously see that they were outnumbered twice over, if not even more. Every single member of Thunder Hammer's battalion were pegasi and they all looked just as cocky as the mare who commanded them, thinking they would win especially considering their numbers and preparation advantage.

The rules of the war game were simple. Once it started, any attacks or aggressive actions were not allowed for 3 hours. It was to give each side ample time to prepare themselves before the other side could try any underhanded tactics to achieve an early victory. No vehicles were allowed to be used and what each side could use were restricted to only what the soldiers were able to carry into the war game without the assistance of things such as carts/wagons. Once the war game started, no extra supplies were allowed in through any means.

A few hundred unbiased/outside officers and NCOs(Non Commissioned Officers, IE sergeants) were present to supervise the war games for safety purposes, to make sure no cheating was allowed, and to learn from anything effective/interesting that came to light that could be used in real battles. The war game had an expected length of three days but could end early if the opposing side had the entirety of their chain of command wiped out. There was an advanced system of magic ammo/explosives used to simulate the weapons so they wouldn't be needlessly killing off a bunch of soldiers in training.

With the start of the war game, both battalions were currently formed up facing each other, as an introductory meetup to see your opponent before the battle started. The Lost Battalion's primary chain of command included Tran, Wilson, Eric, Logan, Gilda, Rainbow Dash, Soarin, Spitfire, Applejack, Pinkie pie, Pharynx in his natural changeling form, Rarity, Prince Blueblood, and Princess Luna while their opponent's, the Flying Circus, chain of command included Vice-Air Marshal Thunder Hammer and a dozen random officers of varying ranks, all of which were the rank of Captain or higher. Standing between the opposing battalions were random officers and sergeants that were meant to act as the supervisors and safety coaches being led by Princess Twilight Sparkle and Air Commodore Surprise Party.

Every soldier of both battalions had their gear and extra equipment sitting beside themselves. Notably, the Lost Battalion's chain of command were doing the same thing and two of the humans had a few large trunks/chests in addition to their gear while Vice-Air Marshal Thunder Hammer and her officer underlings looked woefully underequipped, as the Flying Circus's chain of command didn't have any extra gear sitting on the ground besides them and were just wearing their uniforms with no combat equipment/gear/webbing. Thunder Hammer and her officers were clearly looking down at the non-pony members of the Lost Battalion disdainfully, occasionally sneering at them.

Princess Twilight waved at both chain of commands of each battalion and Vice-Air Marshal Thunder Hammer, Tran, and Princess Luna walked up to meet her. Looking at her fellow Princess, Twilight eyed Luna's long horn. "If you are to involve yourself in this exercise, I cannot allow you to use your alicorn powers, in order to keep this fair," Twilight explained.

Princess Luna looked to the frowning air marshal, making sure to make eye contact. Princess Luna bowed to the air marshal. "I accept those terms, they will need every benefit," Luna goaded before rising from her bow with a sarcastic smirk.

The vice-air marshal scowled. "Are you ready for this beatdown?" the mare taunted, looking particularly at Tran.

Tran showed no emotional reaction, simply displaying his usual emotionless expression. Despite the mare's taunt, he was completely unbothered. "May the best soldier win," Tran said in a very sportsman-like manner.

Princess Twilight looked in between both sets of leaders and spread out her wings and lit up her horn. A loud siren wailed, filling the ears of every soldier within miles with a deafening warning. "Alright, no fighting shall be allowed for the first three hours. Once battle is allowed, the same siren will sound," Twilight explained. Her magic field covered her neck and her voice was heightened with the power of the Royal Canterlot Voice. "It Begins."

Almost immediately, the Flying Circus and their chain of command took to the skies and flew off in one direction while the Lost Battalion spend a few valuable minutes gathering up their gear. Princess Luna used her telekinesis to do the same and equipped her body with a few set-aside saddlebags while Tran and Wilson grabbed the two set-aside trunk/chest/boxes after they had gathered their equipment. Once the Lost Battalion was ready with all of their gear gathered up, they took off, with all of their flying-capable soldiers taking flight, all of them headed in the direction opposite of where the Flying Circus had headed.

-X-X-X-

Ten kilometers out from the starting point of the war game, the Lost Battalion's fastest fliers, it's bomber escorts, led by Tran sitting on Princess Luna's back had found and scouted out a good area for the rest of the unit to take a hold of and fortify. Since the rest of the unit would take quite the considerable amount of time to ruck march to this fresh defensive position, half of the pegasi left to ferry/carry the rest of the unit while the other half started fortifying their soon-to-be FOB(Forward Operating Base). Within half an hour, every member of the Lost Battalion was present at their new position, fortifying it and building up defenses and fighting positions. Notably, Eric, Prince Blueblood, and Rarity were going through the ranks to lead the soldiers and help where ever they were needed. With everyone setting weapons up, the two trunks that Tran and Wilson had carried were opened up, each one revealing one of the pseudo-miniguns that Tran had worked hard to make. The trunks that carried the miniguns were also carrying a significant amount of ammunition and random other necessary equipment like extra charges of bottle lightning to power it or its tripod mounts.

All the while, as they were building up their fortifications, they were being shadowed/scouted out by their adversary. It was very easy to distinguish their foes, the flying scouts of the Flying Circus, from their own flying troops as they wore standard REA uniforms and gear while the soldiers of the Lost Battalion wore their uniquely customized uniforms, their battle armor, and the gear personally tailored to their tasks. Those enemy scouts were watching the Lost Battalion work, rather brazenly, as they were only flying at a few hundred feet in altitude and were well within rifle engagement range, knowing they were safe with the required neutral time still in place.

Eric walked over to Soarin and Spitfire who working hard, digging, in a partially dug foxhole. Spitfire eyed their guest and took a short pause, wiping the sweat off of her brow. Eric kneeled at the edge of the foxhole, looking down at the two. "What do you know about how this, Thunder Hammer, lead?" Eric asked.

Spitfire scowled upon the utterance of the air marshal's name. "Real cunt of a mare. She'll try to hit real hard and fast from every direction the instant she can, before we can finish setting up good defenses or make an attack before her," Spitfire replied.

Soarin, despite working with just one good foreleg, had worked up a decent sweat, digging. He looked up at Eric, while still digging. "We've seen her do this before and just like every other big officer in the REA or REAF, she doesn't change a damn thing," Soarin added in. "Anytime she sees other units that don't show results that falls in line to her standards, she'll try to get them disbanded and absorb their pony power into her own units."

Spitfire thought back to her past memories, back in the early portion of the war. "Early on in the war, after the Wonderbolts were the first to get into dogfights with the griffons, Thunder Hammer immediately petitioned to have the Wonderbolts disbanded once we started having our first failures, so she could steal all of the pegasi with dogfighting experience," Spitfire explained.

Soarin stopped digging and flared out his right wing, the metal magic prosthetic that let him somewhat fly, and held up his left arm, the fake wooden one. "Didn't even wait for Fleetfoot's body to get cold before she started," Soarin further added in, with a scowl on his muzzle. "She's a real treat." Soarin tapped Spitfire on the side with his prosthetic wing. "Remember how mad we made her?"

Spitfire chuckled and looked to Eric. "We didn't give her the satisfaction when she tried her hoof at stealing every former-Wonderbolt for herself. We disbanded our own unit and every remaining member of the 'Bolts transferred to different units on our own, just so we didn't have to work for that bitch," she explained as Soarin joined her in laughing at the Air Marshal's expense. "And boy was she jumping mad." Spitfire then spat on the ground. "She'll send as much of her forces in the first attack, probably in all directions all at once. She only has pegasi in the units she commands, she hates anything that can't fly," Spitfire said. Spitfire scowled and looked over at Soarin. "Tartarus, she doesn't even like pegasi stallions. She thinks stallions are only good for lugging around their equipment."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "So, she'll send all of her forces in a quick early surrounding attack?" Eric asked for clarification.

Spitfire nodded. "Yeah, to try to knock us out early on. They'll probably be all pegasus mares kitted for a quick assault," Spitfire replied.

Eric grinned. "Want to embarrass her?" Eric asked. Both Soarin and Spitfire suddenly had all of their attention on Eric and the two of them immediately stopped digging. "When she attacks us early on, I'm thinking about sending some small groups to her FOB to harass and sabotage them, in secret."

Soarin grinned and hopped out of the half-dug foxhole with the help of his wings. "I'll take every chance to fuck that bitch over!" Soarin exclaimed. Soarin turned to look down at Spitfire who was still standing in the foxhole. Eric sighed from pity and placed a reassuring hand on Soarin's shoulder. Soarin adopted an emotionally hurt look to his face. "Yeah, I know, I can't go." He held up his wooden prosthetic left hoof and looked at it with a pain expression.

Spitfire hopped out of the unfinished foxhole and took a position to the right of Soarin, placing her left wing on Soarin's back. "I'll cause enough trouble for the both of us," Spitfire consoled.

Eric looked at the two with pity. "We'll prolly send eight teams of five once their attack starts. During the chaos, they'll steal or destroy as much of their equipment as possible," Eric explained.

Spitfire directed her attention away from Soarin and over to Eric. "Let me guess, all of the teams are gonna be from Tran's scouts and you're gonna have, Rainbow Dash, Gilda, Logan, and me leading them?" she guessed.

Eric shook his head. "Nope. Rainbow and Gilda are gonna stay here to help defend home base and Logan still hasn't gotten the hang of flying faster than someone can sprint," Eric corrected. "It'll be just you and Pharynx. Remember, the goal is sabotage only, you don't need to fight them."

Spitfire shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I was a little too blood thirsty for that guess," she said with resignation.

Eric looked at the two pegasi, who were essentially cuddling up to each other. "So, how goes the, uh, relationship?" he brazenly asked.

Spitfire looked quite surprised from the question while Soarin just smirked. Soarin flared out his right wing, the prosthetic one and draped it across Spitfire's back. "Good, why? You trying to join our herd?" Soarin taunted.

Eric rolled his eyes and pointed off in a random direction. "A lil' birdy told me bout you four got caught by the Princess, doing, uh, stuff," Eric replied.

Soarin started laughing and turned to nuzzle Spitfire who was trying to disappear into thin air by covering her face with both hooves and both of her wings, trying to hide the massive blush that adorned her face from the embarrassment. "Ugh, does everypony know?" she asked, still trying to hide from reality.

Eric smirked and nodded, which Soarin noticed but Spitfire didn't from her attempts to hide her face. "Oh, yeah. Everyone's talking bout it," Eric answered.

Soarin, now laughing even harder, nudged Spitfire who refused to do anything other than hide behind her limbs. "Come on, you're the alpha mare of our little herd for a reason," Soarin joked. When Spitfire refused to do anything other than continue hiding, Soarin redirected his attention back to Eric. "Dashie and Gildie were being needy and Spitfire here arranged to have some, uh, fun."

Spitfire finally revealed her face from hiding, still blushing hard and showing a frown on her face. "He keeps interrupting us!" Spitfire groaned out. Meanwhile, Soarin started patting Spitfire on the back to playfully comfort her while he was still cackling off.

Eric turned to start walking away but before he did, he turned his head to look at the couple. "An hour before the ceasefire ends, form up at the gatling guns. We'll arrange your sabotage mission," Eric mentioned. With that, he started walking off to work on something else, leaving the two to their unfinished foxhole.

-Two Hours Later-

Everyone was nervous, having to wait for the incoming attack, the time limit to the ceasefire having ended recently with the same deafening siren from earlier sounding mere minutes ago. With only three hours available to them before the fighting would officially start, the Lost Battalion had to rush to build the most basic of fortifications. However, shoddily made and rushed defenses were better than nothing. It was however, enough time for them to setup what machine guns they carried into this war game, with sandbags to protect them and the liberal repurposing of the tree's fallen leaves in an attempt to hide certain positions.

The yaks from Eric's machine gun teams, the ones carried Model 14 HotKiss heavy machine guns, had said machine guns removed and emplaced. While the yaks could fire the machine guns from their backs, it was much safer and more accurate to have them setup on the ground to be fired by a dedicated machine gunner. It allowed the yaks to only focus on firing their primary weapons, the 20mm cannons that the yaks always boasted about. Also, with the machine guns emplaced, other ponies could help assist the machine gunners, working on loading them, bringing more ammo, cooling down the weapon, and or anything else. The other machine gunners of Eric's machine gun teams, the light machine gunners, built safe spaces for them to fire from, accompanied by an assistant gunner to help load their Model 15 ShowSaw light machine gun if they ran empty or take over if the machine gunner was lost.

On the sideline, Tran's aerial units were ready to bolt into the air when ordered to and Wilson's medics were hidden in safe hideaways that were well hidden with, again, piles of the trees' fallen leaves, ready to help the "wounded". As for Tran's scouts, they had been scattered around where ever they could bolster fighting positions or assist machine gunners or load ammo for the yak's cannons. Hidden on the outskirts of their defenses were eight teams of five pegasi or changelings with Pharynx and Spitfire accompanying them, ready to bolt the instant the expected attack started. In the air, there were a couple teams of airborne pegasi and or changelings patrolling the skies at every major direction of their base's defenses.

One obvious thing clued in that they were about to be attacked, the weather. Slowly drifting towards their position in skies above the Lost Battalion's position were large groupings of clouds blowing in from the west with the wind. To the humans, they didn't notice anything off about this but all of the pegasi that made up some of the ranks of the Lost Battalion were alarmed.

Rainbow Dash and Gilda quickly made their way to Tran and Eric, the two of them each manning one of the pseudo-miniguns, stationed in the very center of the Lost Battalion's defenses, where they could fire in every direction, but more importantly, see all of their soldiers and defenses. Rainbow Dash and Gilda, having flown up to the two humans, landed in front of them. "I think we might have a problem," Rainbow Dash stated while pointing up at the clouds. "The weather scheduled for the next three days is supposed to be a sunny forecast with light clouds."

Eric glanced up at the clouds blowing in towards their direction before looking back to Rainbow Dash. He and the rest of his friends knew the basics of the ponies' magic so he had an inkling of what the pegasus was implying. "You think they're hiding up in the clouds?" he questioned.

Dash smirked with cocksure attitude. "I'd bet my left wing on it," she replied.

Eric turned to share a look at Tran who tapped the minigun he was currently manning. Eric understood the suggestion and aimed the minigun he was manning at the nearest cluster of large clouds, a grouping that were roughly two kilometers away, and adjusted his aim for the extreme range. Eric squeezed the trigger of his pseudo-minigun and let out a short burst that lasted a few seconds or so. Of course, a couple seconds from a weapon like a minigun meant he fired around a hundred fifty rounds and from this distance meant that the burst was spread throughout the entire cloud he had fired at. For a while, nothing happened, after the bullets had effortlessly passed through the clouds but before anyone in the Lost Battalion's defense network could run around and question why someone had discharged their weapon, every nearby cloud started squirting out flocks of pegasi. Gunfire erupted everywhere on both sides as the sky was quickly filled with flocks of pegasi.

For the Lost Battalion, they were certainly safer on the ground as they were able to stay behind actual safe cover while the Flying Circus's attempts to fire accurately were heavily hindered by the fact that they were trying to fire while flying, a very difficult task as they were shooting while moving in all three dimensions. For the time being, the members of the Lost Battalion that were capable of flying and or dogfight, were kept on the ground out of fear that they would be casualties of friendly fire. With the concealment of the clouds, this enormous airborne threat had managed to get within a few thousand meters of the Lost Battalion's position, meaning they only had less than twenty seconds before these pegasi would be on top of them. As expected, every automatic weapon the Lost Battalion had their disposal were currently firing at their cyclic rate of fire with no break in sight, trying to capitalize on what little time before the real fight would began.

With the help of the two miniguns, a tremendous chunk of the attacking pegasi were wiped out before they closed the distance. However, with only two of the devastating weapons available, only two directions could be focused on and with the pegasi attacking in all directions, it wasn't long before the pegasi had landed and were attacking specific pieces of the Lost Battalion's defenses. Once on the ground, the Lost Battalion's soldiers could see what kind of threat they were facing. A good majority of the Flying Circus's aerial forces were armed with the same crude light machine guns that some of Eric's machine gun teams were armed with. Accompanying each of these light machine gunners were a pair of pegasi that were armed with shotguns, appearing to be the machine gunner's assistant gunners. As for the rest of the pegasi that weren't machine gunners of accompanying machine gunners, they were primarily armed with standard shortened bolt action rifles, but, they were using a pistol or a revolver in lieu of their rifles in such close quarters combat.

Fortunately for the Lost Battalion and unfortunately for the Flying Circus, the Lost Battalion's defenses and fortifications were much, much more spread out than what the Flying Circus had been expecting/prepared for. Eric and Prince Blueblood had settled the furthest troops in a very wide, large setup, with machine gunners structured with interlocking fields of fire who's positions were covered with secondary inner defenses/fortifications laid out to cover the outer defenders and even more additional defenders setup closest to the center of the defenses to further defend everyone else. Being as spread out as the Lost Battalion was, the Flying Circus, even with their numbers advantage, had found themselves with too few soldiers to mount up an effective attack after making landfall due to disastrous losses in their attempt to penetrate the Lost Battalion's defenses and had broken themselves up too much in an attempt to do as much damage as they had planned for. What few groups of attacking pegasi that did stay grouped up to make an attempt at a inflicting damage, found themselves at the focus of the minigun's firepower, cutting them down like grass. If this hadn't been a war game with protective spells and magic, blood, body parts, and dead bodies would have been raining down from the skies.

Not long after the assault had started, were the Flying Circus trying to retreat. With the jig up, they couldn't use the same idea they used to get in close, to get away. The entire time they tried to flee, the skies were filled with lead until they finally left the effective range of the Lost Battalion's machine guns. Soon enough, the gunfire died down until there was finally enough silence to think. With that threat over, Eric left the comfort of the minigun he had been wielding and quickly made his way towards a specific grouping of soldiers.

During that entire escapade, Tran's aerial troops had been poised to jump into the air if needed but had been held back to provide cover on the ground. Now that the Flying Circus was in retreat, Eric ordered Tran's aerial fighters to take flight. Their new mission was short and simple, to harass the Flying Circus as they retreated back to their home base. Their goal wasn't to inflict casualties but to delay the enemies' return to their base. Once Tran's aerial escorts/dogfighters took flight, Eric ran to the outskirts of their defenses to a pre-determined hidden away defensive position. The position was empty, its occupants having fled long ago, entirely by design/plan. Its original occupants were the eight teams of five pegasi led by Pharynx and Spitfire, their mission being to sabotage as much of the Flying Circus's defenses and to scout out their fortifications, hence, why Tran's dogfighters were given the mission to delay the return of the bulk of Flying Circus's forces. If Spitfire and Pharynx were to inflict enough damage to actually affect their enemy, they would need time. Of course, those dogfighters weren't supposed to throw away their lives. They just had to be annoying enough to force the retreating Flying Circus to slow down. If the Lost Battalion's dogfighters encountered too much resistance, they were supposed to back away to preserve their fighting ability.

With his primary tasks and checks done, Eric slowly made his way back to the center of his battalion's defenses. There, Tran, Wilson, Prince Blueblood, and Rarity were gathered up at the site of where the miniguns were emplaced. While walking his way back, Eric could see the safety coaches/supervisors that were overseeing this war game, no longer invisible and escorting the formerly-paralyzed, currently-unparalyzed "casualties" out of the war game, out of these woods now that they were no longer "in play". Once Eric was back to the minigun he formerly manned, Wilson, who was smoking a cigarette like the chain smoking soldier he was, offered out a cigarette to the sergeant. Eric graciously accepted the cancer stick and stuck it in his mouth and pressed the end of it to one of the barrel's of the minigun. Still being dangerously hot, the minigun's barrels easily lit Eric's cigarette and he was puffing away in an attempt take the edge off of the adrenaline his body had been flooded with due to the battle.

Eric looked at Blueblood who was puffing away on his own nicotine. However, instead of a cigarette, Blueblood was using a pipe, one that was made of ivory and exquisitely engraved and scrimshawed. "I like the pipe," Eric complemented, eyeing said implement.

Blueblood took the pipe, out of his mouth, manually with his right hoof. "Thank you," Blueblood responded. The prince pointed at Rarity with the pipe. "Credit goes to the mademoiselle."

Rarity blushed and waved with a hoof. "I thought it would look more refined than something as crass as a cigarette," Rarity replied.

Eric puffed away at his cigarette with a smirk. "Anyways, what are we looking at?" he asked.

Blueblood stuck the pipe back in his mouth and dug through his coat pocket to pull out a notebook. He flipped through the pages of the notebook and looked back to Eric. "Our defensive fortifications, as rushed as we made them, were effective enough for this first onslaught. We only lost 43 soldiers," Blueblood explained.

Eric took a deep inhale of his cigarette as he thought. The Lost Battalion had a little under 1500 troops, meaning they had only lost 3% of their troops. "And them?" Eric asked.

Blueblood smirked with schadenfreude. "More than 500," Blueblood responded.

Eric raised his eyebrows and he whistled in amazement. "Well that's embarrassing," Eric commented. Sure they had lost an irreplaceable number of troops, it was a good tradeoff for the damage that the Flying Circus had taken. Eric still knew they were outnumbered due to Thunder Hammer's blatant cheating but they were performing quite admirably so far. Soon enough, they could hear gunfire. It wasn't close enough for them to worry about, it sounded like the gunfire was many kilometers away. Eric glanced at Tran, guessing that Tran's dogfighters must have finally caught up to the retreating forces of the Flying Circus.

Looking back to Blueblood, Eric tossed his cigarette to the ground. "Have a third of the soldiers continue building and fortifying our defenses. Rotate them out every two hours in work schedules. Go around and gather up soldiers to start performing combat patrols. We're still on the defense for now," Eric ordered.

Blueblood nodded and tucked away his notebook. He looked back to Rarity and held out a foreleg. "Shall we?" Blueblood asked. Rarity took Blueblood's foreleg with her own and nodded, the two of them trotting off.

Tran, looking at Wilson, rolled up his sleeves. "I think it's time," Tran commented. Wilson sighed and took off his aid bag. He dug through his medical equipment for a few seconds before pulling out a sealed glass ampule and a needle.

As Wilson prepped a needle full of morphine, Eric eyed Tran with worry. "Still haven't found a cause?" Eric asked.

Tran shook his head. "No, it still feels like I'm a living man occupying a corpse," Tran replied. Once Wilson administered the painkiller, Tran showed no change in his emotional appearance but Eric and Wilson could see Tran's muscles relax. "We've already had the soldiers strip the ammo off of the dead, both ours and theirs. Let's start relinking ammo for the miniguns and distributing what is left over," Tran suggested.

Eric looked to the still smoking miniguns that they had previously used. "How much ammo did we use up?" Eric asked.

Tran grunted and tossed the tray he had dug out earlier. Eric took a quick look at it, it was a device to relink ammo for belt fed weapons, for their miniguns or for the machine guns that the yaks from Eric's machine gun teams were armed with. "We got less than a quarter left but we might be able to refill our reserves with the ammo we scavenged," Tran replied.

Eric thought back to him wildly firing the minigun into the skies, mere minutes ago. They had started off with 10,000 rounds per gun so to relink enough ammunition for them to fully resupply the miniguns would take ages. Sighing, Eric walked over to the minigun he previously manned and started going through the discarded ammunition links and brass, separating the two piles. "Alright, let's get to work," Eric said.

Elsewhere

Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer angrily threw an empty glass bottle at a fellow officer, a major. The mare wasn't able to dodge the attack and her face was cut by glass, her shrieking from pain. "Out!" Thunder Hammer screamed.

The mare that Thunder Hammer assaulted scrambled to run away, exiting the tent that she and Thunder Hammer were occupying. This tent had been setup for Thunder Hammer to use as a command post and housed her cot and belongings, also acting as the air marshal's personal sleeping tent. Hyperventilating with rage, Thunder Hammer walked over to a trunk and pulled out a crystal decanter and glass, pouring herself a drink.

As the air marshal sat down and drank to calm herself down, a pair of pegasus mares suddenly appeared in the tent. These two mares had appeared out of thin air. Thunder Hammer was about to break into a fit of rage until she recognized who her two new guests were. Thunder Hummer lowered her glass and glared at the two mares. "Is our deal still on?" Thunder Hammer asked.

Both mares were wearing the standard REA officer's dress uniforms with the rank insignias of a major, but accessorizing the uniforms were a heavily engraved golden gorget around their neck and matching bracelets on all four legs. These were the magical accessories that the war game's safety overseers/supervisors wore that would turn them invisible and out of sight, a highly advanced and expensive piece of magical technology that required constant magical recharging. This specific magical equipment was also instrumental in keeping them safe from being affected or hurt by any of the magical bullets. Both of the mare majors, like most officers, wore a holstered sidearm on their dress uniforms. However, unlike most other officers in the REA, the sidearms they carried were pistols equipped with silencers. "We retrieved the payment at the dead drop. The contract is sealed and will be carried," one of the mare majors replied. "If somehow interrogated-"

"Which we won't be," the other mare major quickly added in, interrupting her colleague.

"We're going after the bounty the griffons setup," the first mare major finished.

"With even our memories of you as the buyer soon to be replaced, if somepony tries to pry into our mind," added in the other mare.

Thunder Hammer finished the remains of the drink that was in her glass and shot both mare majors an evil grin. "Good, no loose ends," Thunder Hammer eerily responded.

The two mare majors nodded and both of them simultaneously pulled out a large diamond, throwing it to the ground. Despite being a diamond, the gems shattered upon hitting the ground and a burst of magical energy and light exploded from the destroyed gems. This magical energy enveloped the two mares and they turned invisible once again. A few seconds later, the only exit flap of the tent opened, as if moving on their own but Thunder Hammer knew it was the two invisible mare majors exiting the tent. Still grinning evilly, Thunder Hammer refilled her glass with the crystal decanter.

Before she could take a drink from her glass, explosions thundered through the defenses of Air Vice-Marshal Thunder Hammer's Flying Circus's defenses. Thunder Hammer left eye twitched as she heard her soldiers panicking about.

-X-X-X-

Spitfire, Pharynx, and the teams of pegasi and changelings they commanded touched back down at the Lost Battalion. All of them were heavily laden with full saddlebags, with some even carrying crates crudely strapped to their backs, and they were now working hard to offload that carried gear. Eric ran out to meet up with the returning pegasi, eyeing all of the stuff they were dumping onto the ground. "How'd it go?" Eric asked.

Spitfire smirked and held out a hoof to Eric. Eric took Spitfire's hoof and the two powerfully shook hands/hooves. "They stood no chance!" Spitfire boasted, breaking the hand/hoof shake. Spitfire took off her own saddlebag and dumped it out, revealing many belts of ammunition "We blew up some of their ammo storages and stole some of their ammo for us to use! Thanks for distracting their retreat, by the way."

Eric looked over to Pharynx who was emptying out his own saddlebags. "A very fruitful sabotage mission," Pharynx added in. Pharynx revealed several pieces of metal that Eric could recognize as machine gun components. "While they were distracted from our vandalism, my changelings were able to disable many of their machine guns by stealing critical components."

Eric smiled and picked up one of the machine gun components that Pharynx had dumped out. He recognized it as the bolt to an REA heavy machine gun, one of the rifle caliber belt fed, water cooled machine guns. Sticking it in his pocket, Eric looked at the other soldiers, changeling and pegasi alike, who had also littered the ground with lots of machine gun ammunition and weapon components. "Good, I'll distribute the ammo where its needed and and go ahead and break into rations. I'm sure you'll need to recover the lost calories," Eric said. Eric dug through his own gear and pulled out a chocolate bar, one of the hyper dense REA rations, holding it out for Spitfire.

Spitfire, face still adorned with a cocky attitude, took the bar and starting eating it with gusto. "Don't suppose you know where Soarin is?" she asked while chewing.

Eric chuckled and pointed off in a seemingly random direction. "He's organizing combat air patrols with Dash and Gilda. Go ahead, just try not to get caught by Tran or the princess again," Eric goaded.

Spitfire, adopting a light blush, gave Eric a light shove as Pharynx noticed a slight amount of love and lust radiating off of the former Wonderbolt. "It's not like that!" Spitfire shot back.

Eric gave her a joking smirk and rolled his eyes. "Sure it isn't," Eric responded. Spitfire harrumphed and flew off, leaving Eric with Pharynx and the rest of the sabotage team. "I'm assuming you and your parasites, need to replenish your 'love' energy?"

Despite the obvious usage of said negative moniker, neither Pharynx or the other nearby changelings were offended. Pharynx nodded in response but didn't verbally reply. Instead, he looked to the rest of the sabotage team that was composed of changelings and pegasi. Despite the differing races and former animosity towards each other from months past, the pegasi and changelings were helping each other offload the rest of the supplies they had stolen off of each other's backs. "I think it's covered."

Eric looked at the soldiers and smiled, knowing they were getting along. The past few months were good for the soldiers to build up the loyalty between each other. "Alright," Eric started out. "Have them join back in once they're replenished."

-X-X-X-

Wisely enough, the Flying Circus made no other attempts to attack the Lost Battalion and eventually, the day gave way to night. With Princess Luna amidst their presence, some of the soldiers enjoyed the performance she gave when raising the moon. Once finished, she trotted away to meet up with Tran who was currently in the company of Pharynx, Eric, and Rainbow Dash. "Pray tell, what is the occasion?" the princess asked.

The moon was half full so there was some clarity to eyesight when up close but still had the difficulty of near total darkness, unless you were the princess of the night who had perfect vision in darkness. "We're planning a night raid," Eric replied.

The princess flared out her wings and stamped her hooves in celebration. This was her element, her specialty! "A night raid? Huzzah! I love night raids!" the princess merrily announced.

"You're not going," Tran responded. Upon hearing those three words, her heart shattered into a million pieces, especially considering who the response came from. "Don't take it personally, I'm not saying you're bad at sneaking but modern military sabotage and harassment is something you're not familiar with," Tran explained in a rather poor attempt at consoling the mare, which it hadn't. "And your mastery of the night is better used to prevent any intrusions of our own."

Even then, Princess Luna was still heart broken upon hearing the pre-made decision. The high and mighty princess was, even if anyone could barely see, pouting and had her ears flat against her skull. She finally noticed Pharynx and Rainbow Dash amongst the group and questions welled up in her mind. "But if not me, who then?"

Eric coughed to get her attention. "We were getting to that."

Tran looked to Pharynx who had stayed silent and indifferent so far. "Find me our two best infiltrators and make sure they have watches," Tran ordered.

Pharynx nodded in response, already thinking of a few names. Working with changelings, he knew many infiltrators that excelled in stealth and infiltration. "When do you need them?" Pharynx asked.

"As soon as you find them," Tran replied. Pharynx immediately bolted off into the night, in a seemingly random direction. Tran looked back to the Eric. "He'll take a few minutes, I'll be at the minis," Tran said before walking off. Tran directed his attention at the dejected princess who was watching Pharynx walk away with jealously. He patted her on the back a few times in an attempt to comfort her.

Princess Luna turned to face Tran, with a sullen look on her face. "Nay my friend, I understand its for the greater good," the princess responded. She emitted a long exhale and then chuckled. "Its just, ever since my return, I have the desire to involve myself in everything I can, for the fear of missing out in any possible experience that could provide even the smallest modicum of amusement."

Tran gave her a small smile, which surprised her, assuring the princess. "I'll be sure to make it up to you."

-X-X-X-

Mere minutes later, a pair of changelings met up with Tran who was standing next to one of the minigun's equipment crates. He was no longer wearing his combat body armor and was now adorned with a large bushy suit that made him look like a walking mound of the same fallen Autumn leaves that blanketed the surrounding area, leaving only his eyes partially exposed. The two changelings could see that, strangely enough, he did not have his usual sniper rifle and a pistol instead of his usual sniper rifle and signature hand cannon. Hanging down on the human's side was one of the griffon Model 18 submachine guns that he often used, one that was just as camouflaged as the rest of him. The two changelings trotted over to the walking leaf mound and stood at attention, waiting for an order.

Tran recognized the two changelings as members from one of his scout teams. Both of them were armed with the standard lever action and revolvers and both of them were currently undisguised, meaning they were in their changeling forms. "Gentleman," Tran greeted. "Our mission will be to cause disarray in the enemy ranks so that they spend more time on alert instead of resting. This will be a infiltration mission, one that calls for stealth. We will first fly out there, the two of you taking turns carrying me and once we're within eight kilometers of their position, we will make the rest of the journey on foot. If you have any questions, ask them now."

The two changelings stayed silent for a few seconds, no questions popping up in their minds. Due to their prior changeling infiltration experience, they understood the basic aspects of the mission, even understanding why they would stop flying five kilometers way. They couldn't chance being discovered by the enemy's flying units.

Tran drew his pistol and ejected the magazine, checking that it was loaded. In doing so, the two changelings were able to see that the pistol had an attached silencer. For this mission, Tran had swapped sidearms with Eric, trading his .500 S&W magnum for Eric's silenced Walther PPQ, as his usual signature hand cannon was not exactly stealthy. Once Tran holstered his pistol, he looked back to the two changelings. "Change into forms y'all think is best for the mission. Then we can leave," Tran suggested.

Both changelings nodded before green fire encompassed their forms. After a split second, the green fire disappeared, revealing that the changelings still retained their changeling bodies but their insect wings had been swapped out for feathered bird-style wings and their eyes were no longer the same solid light blue orbs that changelings had, replaced with a massive black pupil surrounded by yellow sclera. The two changelings noticed that Tran was eyeing their new features with some curiosity so one of them cleared his throat to speak. "Owl wings, completely silent when flying compared to pegasus wings and owl eyes, for better perception in this darkness," one of them explained.

Tran nodded in approval and unslung his submachine gun. "Alright, if we're ready, let's go," Tran announced. The two changelings shared a look with the pair before looking back to Tran and nodding, one of them stepping forward. Tran walked over to that changeling and carefully climbed onto his back. Tran's weight wasn't too much for a changeling to carry, a pegasus could easily carry their body weight and more while flying and changelings were similar, being able to carry only slightly less when utilizing their natural bug wings.

The changelings took to the skies once Tran was fully settled. They knew the location of where Thunder Hammer and the Flying Circus had setup their base. It was thirty kilometers away and according to their scout's findings, they had only partially setup defenses. Preliminary reports had told the Lost Battalion that the Flying Circus's defenses/position was barely setup. It was revealed that they had nowhere near the same level of built up fortifications as the Lost Battalion's base. Prince Blueblood, Rarity, and Spitfire had speculated that due to the fact that the Flying Circus was entirely composed of pegasi, their ability to build fortifications was severely hampered. With no Earth ponies, the Flying Circus was heavily unable to do the simplest of military tasks, such as digging fighting positions.

The scouts had also reported that the Flying Circus was still performing basic defense tasks, such as defensive patrols. According to distant observations, the Flying Circus patrolled their base from the sky, with significantly more aerial patrols than what the Lost Battalion did. However, the same observations had revealed that the Flying Circus were not patrolling their base on the ground, which Tran was hoping to take advantage of, once he arrived their. Spitfire speculated that the Flying Circus did not want to degrade themselves with patrolling the ground like the "ground pounders". While the Flying Circus wasn't patrolling on the ground, they were still seen having setup machine guns on the ground, of which, Spitfire and her saboteurs were able to disable a small fraction of earlier in the day.

In addition to what the Flying Circus had setup on the ground, the scouts, Spitfire, and the saboteurs that accompanied her had reported that the Flying Circus had emplaced a myriad of machine guns in clouds above their base, more than what they had on the ground. According to the scouts' reports, the Flying Circus had setup more machine guns in the clouds above their base than what they had emplaced on the ground. Eric had speculated that placing the machine guns on the clouds would give them a larger field of fire than placing them on the ground. However, Eric also voiced his disapproval of doing such a thing as being in the clouds, those emplaced machine guns would have no cover and would be very easy to shoot at, to take out. The only thing protecting their machine guns in the skies was concealment, which the scouts had reported that their enemy were attempting to conceal with cloud cover. It was possible that there were more machine guns in the clouds than what the scouts witnessed but they could only speculate. Soarin joked that the pegasi manning the machine guns emplaced on the ground compared to manning the machine guns setup in the clouds was a job for the lowest dredges of their personnel, with how elitist the Flying Circus was with their belief in aerial supremacy.

Being thirty kilometers away, it wouldn't take the two changelings and Tran very long before they'd dismount to continue the rest of their journey on foot/hoof. Now, if it was Rainbow Dash, she would have traversed the entire journey in less than a minute but since we're talking about normal changelings who were laden down with a massive human, each kilometer took a minute to fly, with them switching off on ferrying Tran every kilometer. As they travelled, Tran focused on watching every direction to make sure they weren't followed/noticed, making sure their clandestine mission stayed that way, as he had nothing to do while the changelings were focused on flying.

The trio dismounted to continue their journey a quarter hour later, ready to finish the final leg of their journey on foot/hoof. Tran held up his wrist to look at his watch, being barely able to see it. "Synchronize watches," Tran said. The two changelings each held up their forelegs where they wore a watch. All three of them synced their time pieces to the same hour, minute, and second. "10 o' clock on the dot. I want you two to make some noise at the closest end of their base. I don't care what you do as long as it catches their attention," Tran explained. After Tran had finished explaining that to them, he reached forward at the changelings and took one of their bayonets. Before they could ask, he sank it into a nearby tree. "Once you do, leave and return back to here. This'll be our relay point. If I'm not back by midnight, return to base."

The two changelings gawked, surprised at their mission briefing. One of the changelings raised a hoof and Tran directed his attention to him. "Sir, are we to leave you to trot back by yourself?" the changeling asked. While carrying Tran on their backs was a tedious and somewhat physically demanding task, they did not want to leave him behind in the bad case scenario that was discussed.

Tran nodded. "Yes," Tran answered. "While I have taught you men that we will never leave a soldier behind and I am proud of your discipline in adhering to my teachings, in the worse case scenario event of if I lose to these showboats, do not turn yourselves into casualties on my behalf."

The changelings paused for a second before saluting Tran. "Yes sir," both of them answered. As the two changelings prepared to separate from their beloved leader, the last changeling to have been ferrying Tran, saluted. "Good luck sir."

Tran eyed the saluting changeling. "Stay safe," Tran responded back, before he unslung his submachine gun and walked off, leaving the two changelings to themselves.

-X-X-X-

In the darkness of the night, it wasn't long before the two changelings had travelled without Tran enough that neither parties knew each other's position's anymore. Even though the two changelings had lost sight of their leader, one of them would occasionally glance to the previous direction they had formerly been able to see him at, from force of habit. The other changeling eyed his compatriot, taking note of the obvious anxiety he could see, even without having to feel it with their emotavore's natural skills. "He'll be fine. He's shown he's unstoppable," the other changeling said, in an attempt to quell his comrade's apprehension.

His ally changeling sighed. "Yeah, I know. It still just feels weird we're in this situation, fighting with the Equestrians out in the open like this now," he said, gesturing to his undisguised changeling form. "I never thought the ponies would ever trust us enough."

The other changeling chuckled. "While they're not all friendly, it looks like they're trying enough to be our friends," he said.

Before either of them could say anything else or continue on in their journey, two sharp cracks simultaneously rang throughout the air. It wasn't as loud as your standard deafening gunshot but it was nowhere close to being dead silent. One of the changelings immediately dropped like a sack of bricks with a hole in the back of his helmet and subsequently, his head, while the other changeling froze in a stand still. He opened his mouth to speak but only blood poured from his open maw... And the hole in his neck. The remaining changeling finally realized what was happening and clutched his bleeding neck with his hooves in a fruitless attempt to save himself. Unfortunately, he collapsed and slowly bled to death, not knowing what happened.

-X-X-X-

As Tran walked by himself towards his target, he gave his best effort in trying to stay as quiet as possible. Unfortunately for him, it was well into fall and leaves settled the ground no matter where he stepped, meaning every foot step elicited the loud crunches of leaves being crushed, every time his foot met the ground. As he walked, he also made sure to keep an eye and ear out for any sign of trouble, being ever-so-vigilant so he wouldn't be caught and captured/"killed" in this war game.

Tran stopped mid step as he thought he heard something. What he thought he heard was the beating of feathered wings but once he froze, it seemed to disappear. Faster than anyone could blink, he turned around with his pistol drawn, aimed at a seemingly random spot behind him. When he had stopped mid-step, he hadn't set his foot down but he still heard the tell-tale sound of leaves crunching as if they were being stepped on. Worse yet, it had happened the instant the sound of wings flapping had stopped.

Taking careful aim, he readied his borrowed pistol to fire a shot, only to be surprised. "You got me!" a familiar female voice called out. The voice he heard sounded familiar, having heard it before but only having heard it once before. In the dead of night, with only the light reflected off of the half present moon, he watched as a pegasus seemingly appear from air. The pegasus in question was dressed in a very decorated and clean officer's uniform, one belonging to that of a general from the Royal Equestrian Air Force. She was also ordained in the same magical training equipment that the surprising officials of the war games wore, the gear that enabled them to become invisible so they wouldn't be a distraction in the war games.

Tran had his pistol pointed right at her, having correctly guessed where she was. He quickly holstered his sidearm and took a deep breathe, trying to calm his nerves. "You must be my peanut gallery," Tran commented.

The mare chuckled and trotted over to Tran. "Yepperoni, I'm here to make sure you don't try out any funny business!" she explained. She immediately realized what she said and switched from her real happy smile to a nervous smile. "Not that you'd cheat or anything, it's just official business."

Tran patted her on the head. "Nah, I understand. You're doing your assigned job," Tran said. The head pats eventually evolved into head scritches and Surprise Party relaxed, leaning further into Tran's ministrations and purring, almost like a cat.

"My cousin speaks highly of you and there's a lot of rumors bout what you and your friends can do," Surprise explained. "So there's ponies assigned to each of you, watching your performance to see if any of it is true. Course, when we heard bout what you had planned, I wanted front row seats to what you would personally do!"

Tran shrugged. "I just do my job. Whether or not its exciting is up to the watcher," Tran replied. Tran turned back around so he was facing the direction he was previously, when he had been traveling towards his intended destination. "Well, I gotta keep going, otherwise, I'm gonna be off schedule. And please, don't get in the way or get hurt while supervising me."

Surprise party nodded with vigor. "Got it, I won't keep you waiting!" she exclaimed. She fished through one of her uniform's pockets for a few seconds before pulling out a fist-sized gem. She threw it to the ground, where it shattered, exploding in a ball of light and magic. Shortly afterwards, she slowly started to become invisible again.

*CRACK*
*CRACK*

Surprise Party had been standing when she had fully become invisible and she was revealed to any prying eyes as she became visible again, though this time, she was lying on the ground, collapsing where she had been standing. At the same time, Tran felt a heavy impact on his back and pain blossomed in the same area. Collapsing to the ground in a heap, he mustered all of his willpower to get back up but his leg's stayed unresponsive, not wanting to move.

From instinct, he unslung his submachine, getting it ready to fire, only to realize it was worthless. Whatever had him had punched a hole clean through his submachine gun, rending it into worthless scrap metal. Realizing the depth of his situation, he drew his pistol and started crawling away, using his ever dwindling supply of energy and lifeforce to move. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be and he eventually stopped moving.

Wings could be heard flapping as a pair of hooves touched down next to a quickly dying Surprise Party and motionless human. Surprise Party had no idea what was going on, other than the fact that she was getting weaker and weaker. "Oh damn, its Air Commodore Surprise Party," a random mare's voice called out. Surprise Party had no idea who was speaking but all she knew was that whoever was speaking, was close. Surprise Party was heaving, starting to feel blood pool up in her lungs. "And I think she's still alive."

"W-Who's there?" Surprise Party weakly called out.

"Doesn't matter, no witnesses. Just put one in her head so we can find him and finish up," another mare's voice called out in the darkness of the night.

Surprise Party heard the sound of a bolt action rifle being worked and she immediately realized what was happening. She cried out in pain with the beginning of tears rolling from her eyes as she realized her life was about to end. However, before either of the two assailants could do anything, bullets flew through the air, towards the direction of where both voices came from. The gunshots weren't loud like normal gunshots, sounding like a silenced small caliber pistol being fired. The two assailants cried out in pain, their forms became visible and both of them falling to the ground.

Surprise Party turned her head towards where the source of the silenced gunshots, seeing Tran, perched on his side with silenced pistol in hand. The silencer's muzzle was smoking, another indication of who had just saved both of their lives. Legs still not responding, Tran slowly crawled over towards Surprise Party's bleeding prone form and the two dead bodies of their assailants. Tran coughed, blood coming from his mouth. "Who the hell are they?" Tran asked..

Surprise weakly chuckled, her strength continuing to drain away. She looked over to the dead bodies of their assailants. "I-I don't know," Surprise answered.

Tran ignored the two fresh corpses and crawled closer to Surprise Party, looking over her body. She had been shot through her right flank, going diagonally through her body and exiting out her shoulder. From the shear amount of blood coming through her body, she didn't have much time left. "It hurts," Surprise Party weakly cried out. "I can feel everything hurting. Oh Celestia, I shouldn't feel my organs hurting."

Tran dug through his equipment and pulled out a morphine syringe, injecting it into Surprise Party's body. She initially cried out in pain but slowly started to relax as the drug took over. Checking himself over, he found that the bullet had hit the center of his upper back and pierced his armor, going through his spine and exiting out the front of his torso below his heart, stopping at the front armor. He knew he didn't have long either, knowing the two of them were close to getting their ticket's punched. "We'll make it through this, Surprise. Your cousin's planning a party for you," Tran said, trying to comfort her.

Surprise weakly chuckled again but she knew the truth. She wasn't gonna bounce back from this. "Yeah, her parties are the best!" she said with what little remained of her strength. Her face blossomed in discomfort as things were starting to feel worse. Tran sighed and dug through his gear, pulling out more morphine. He injected the second dose into her body and she relaxed once again. "Thank you for protecting Pinkie." She closed her eyes and then exhaled, no longer breathing.

Tran leaned against Surprise's corpse and threw the used morphine syringe away, glad that he had at least made it painless for her. Unfortunately for Tran, he didn't have any morphine left and he wasn't sure if he was gonna make it this time. He was in the middle of nowhere, with no way to contact anyone and worse yet, alone. Over time, it was getting harder to breathe and his heart was slowing down, pumping more pain than blood throughout his veins. He wanted to relax but he knew how bad it was. Alone, without his friends and family, he breathed his last.

Author's Note

Still alive bitches! like usual, like/fav/leave a comment pls, I enjoy reading them. Go ahead and point out mistakes if I made any. Other than that, I hope y'all enjoy this latest chapter!

War Is Chaos

Today, the first day of the war game, had quite entertaining to watch and she, along with many other high ranking Equestrian military officials, had been incredibly busy supervising all of the action. Seeing such tactics used by the Lost Battalion had also taught/given the supervising officials some good ideas for how to better wage modern combat with how successful the Lost Battalion performed against the Flying Circus instead of using their old outdated tactics. Since it was getting late, no one expected that there would be any more major combat actions so everyone was getting ready to retire for the night.

In her own personal tent, Princess Twilight Sparkle was getting ready to go to bed, having already peeled off her uniform and gear. Just as she was about to get into her bed, all of her fur stood on end and she went ramrod rigid as everything felt wrong in the universe. She lit her horn, trying to get any inkling what was going on, and was mystified from what she found. Chaos magic was saturating the entire area and was so thick that she could almost taste it. Being an Equestrian and one of the Elements of Harmony, it worried her as to what could possibly be causing it. Her first thoughts were that one of the humans(and griffon) could be the cause of it but the last time she checked, they had nowhere near the levels of chaos magic she was currently detecting.

Sighing, she donned her uniform and gear as she went to terms with the fact that her aspirations of rest were long gone. It was probably important that she find the cause of this abnormality so she already started running scenarios through her mind. No matter wat scenario she mentally went through, she flew in the direction of where the Lost Battalion was located.

-X-X-X-

The first pony Twilight sought out for was Princess Luna, her fellow royal and magically powerful peer. Much to Twilight's shock and horror, the princess of the night had no notion towards the origin of the newfound conundrum. It wasn't as if Princess Luna hadn't noticed the problem herself, the sudden and fresh fountain of chaos magic had alarmed the lunar princess just as it had the princess of magic. To regular ponies, being near such a tremendous well of chaos magic only gave them a slight sense of alien discomfort and minor anxiety but to the two magically attuned and sensitive alicorns, it inflamed their spiritual existences in such a grating manor for them to be bathed in such a visceral amount of the unfamiliar primordial power that was chaos magic.

Before the two princesses could further deliberate, it all stopped as suddenly as it had started with seemingly no cause. To the two alicorns, they were filled with relief as it no longer burned their existences but it still didn't stop them from feeling trepidation as they still had no idea of its cause. Away from any vying eyes, the two princesses tried to investigate the matter but neither of them could figure out its origin. Obviously, the first things they dug their noses in were the two humans and griffon but found nothing.

Although the three of their alien benefactors were sources of chaos magic, none of the three had the same taste of chaos magic that they had felt earlier. The only thing that the two princess found that was was slightly anomalous, or more anomalous than usual considering who they were dealing with, was that one of the three had a stronger well of chaos magic than the other two, that being Logan. The two princesses chalked it up to being due to the fact that he was a griffon making so that his chaos magical signature feeling different or that he was a recently resurrected member of the strange posse. Either way, it was a dead end.

Of course, there were four members to their group but the fourth member was indisposed of for the moment. Princess Twilight eyed Princess Luna with a knowing look. "It has to be him, if its not of the other three," Twilight commented. Having gone through the possible list of suspects and eliminating all of the options, the simplest explanation was usually the best one.

Princess Luna sighed and looked off into the night sky with a look of resignation. "At this point, after having dealt with their lot for this long, I would be surprised if he hadn't caused it. That or Discord has returned, the only other time we felt anything along this sort was when Discord broke from his imprisonment and decided to turn our beloved country into his plaything," the lunar princess replied.

Princess Twilight paused, thinking which option was worse. Discord was Discord but she knew a certain pink-maned meek-mannered friend of hers would be happy to be able to re-meet a long-gone friend but she knew that scenario was impossible as the lord of chaos was long dead. If it was Tran, she hoped the bulk of his reputation was no where near as bad as the rumors made him out to be. Unfortunately for both princesses, neither of them could investigate the matter any further as the location of Tran's whereabouts were up in the air and it would be impossible to tell when he'd return with his envoy. All they could do now was wait until he returned and hope that nothing serious had happened.

The Next Morning

By the time daylight hit, every member of the Lost Battalion's chain of command knew something had gone wrong and hell, most of the battalion's chaff knew that something had gone wrong. They noticed that Tran hadn't shown up anywhere: such as inspecting the troops with Eric and or Wilson when in a combat situation like this. However, they had no knowledge of the chaos magic event earlier, thinking it was war anxiety when it had happened; the two alicorn princesses withholding the knowledge of it happening from anyone, even their pony peers and the humans.

Some members of the command element of the unit had gathered up(Prince Blueblood, Rarity, Eric, Spitfire, and Soarin), looking like they were holding a meeting. "-Pare for the worse case scenario," Eric said.

Blueblood, who was smoking a cigarette, used his still broken and jagged horn to telekinetically pull out the cigarette while exhaling a stream of smoke. "If they managed to capture or eliminate Tran, then they are either really lucky or more skilled than we thought," the Prince commented.

Rarity pulled the cigarette out of the prince's telekinetic hold with her own magic, taking a short drag from it before simultaneously exhaling the smoke and sighing. "So their terrible with offense but proficient in defense," Rarity suggested.

Spitfire growled. "Celestia damned air marshal, at her age(early forties), she got her position through either success or bureaucratic corruption," Spitfire mentioned.

Soarin chuckled and patted Spitfire on the back. "Well, the best defense is a good offense," Soarin commented. He rubbed the bottom of his poorly maintained short bearded face with a hoof. "Though, I've heard ponies talk about how she ran. She wasn't known for her defense tactics. She was known for aggressive tactics."

Just as Soarin had finished his sentence, life had decided to prove Soarin correct as whistle alarms blared from some of the various aerial scouts that they had on watch. Everyone went to their defensive positions and prepared to fight as the Flying Circus showed up in two large waves. They had approached from the front and the rear of the Lost Battalion's position. Unfortunately for the Flying Circus, the Lost Battalion were completely prepared.

Since it was the second day, the Lost Battalion now had all of their defensive positions completely and properly setup, even with top cover comprised of logs scavenged from the surrounding area that were then concealed to blend into the area. Every machine gun was completely emplaced in hidden gun pits, setup with over-arcing fields of fire, even being able to aim at high elevations into the sky to takeout any flying threats. Very skillfully camouflaged foxholes that were swiftly filled with the defenders dotted the Lost Battalion's base, making it extremely difficult for the Flying Circus to perform their assault.

All of the Flying Circus' forces consisted of aerial troops and because they believed in their airborne supremacy, they were flying high up in the air. Upon arriving to the Lost Battalion's base, the Flying Circus's aerial forces had paused or had started to circle around the supposed location of the Lost Battalion's position being completely confused as they were unable to pinpoint any of the Lost Battalion's forces due to the skillful camouflaging, thanks to Rarity, of their opponent's defensive positions. At the elevation they were flying at, it would have been impossible for anypony to identify any of the Lost Battalion's concealed defensive positions.

Before any of the Flying Circus's pegasi could start investigating to make any leeway in their assault, the hidden soldiers of the Lost Battalion started firing. It was a complete massacre as the Flying Circus's troops were completely exposed in the air, not having any concealment, including not having any clouds for them to use as concealment as the Lost Battalion had erased them all from the sky in the entire vicinity. The Lost Battalion had allowed the Flying Circus to get in relatively close before they had started firing.

Some of the Flying Circus forces decided to take the intelligent route and retreat but the grand majority of them pressed their attack. Surprisingly, a small fraction of the attackers dropped bombs but in the chaotic skirmish, they were very poorly aimed, missing any of the Lost Battalion fortifications. Believing in the superiority of their aerial tactics, they tried to carry out their usual tactics, which was dive down to the ground to attack their opponents. Unfortunately for the attackers, all of the Lost Battalion's foxholes and fortifications were setup with fortifications that were placed further behind into the Lost Battalion's position that would cover the outer foxholes, with the center of it all being the pair of miniguns, currently manned by Eric and Logan, that would be able to fire in any direction to cover any outer foxhole.

In mere minutes, the Flying Circus's had been routed with the grand majority of their numbers being casualties, eliminated from participating in this war game. Judging from the number of "casualties" that the Lost Battalion had "inflicted" in their defense, the Lost Battalion's chain of command assumed that the Flying Circus no longer had the numbers advantage. Compared to the Flying Circus, the Lost Battalion were well off in terms of manpower, having gained only a few "casualties" in the attack.

The Flying Circus's attacking forces weren't completely decimated. By the time they had realized their mistake, and after gaining a tremendous number of "casualties", they had started retreating and flying back to their own base. Unfortunately for them, the Lost Battalion had quickly send out a skirmishing force composed of their escort dogfighters and scouts, to harass them as they retreated. Following not that far behind the skirmishing force that was following the retreating Flying Circus's forces, were the rest of the flight capable troops of the Lost Battalion's forces. Because half of the Lost Battalion's forces were composed of changelings and with the non-changelings being fine with fighting with changelings, the Lost Battalion had a great number of flight capable troops. The changeling troops of the Lost Battalion had transformed into a flight capable form (pegasi form) and carried their fellow allies. While they weren't as fast as the "superior" pegasi, they could still fly decently fast and for a long time.

The changelings and non-changelings of the Lost Battalion trusted each other to the point that there was no trouble with the non-changeling soldiers allowing themselves to be carried by their changeling brethren, while following the skirmishing force that was currently harassing the remaining members of the retreating Flying Circus, with exception of the yaks. While the yaks trusted their changeling brethren, they simply couldn't be carried and elected to stay behind to defend their original position and defenses, as no pony or changeling would be able to carry the massive brutes.

The Lost Battalion's skirmishers finally followed the retreating Flying Circus's forces all the way back to their base and once there, they immediately dropped to a much lower elevation in their flying and started circling the Flying Circus's base while occasionally engaging them. This was a much needed distraction for the additional trailing forces to fully arrive and dismount before completing the final closing distance on foot/hoof.

With every good assault, unlike what the Flying Circus did, the Lost Battalion opened up with an artillery barrage, utilizing light mortars that they carried along with. The first bombardment was only intended for ground targets, which there were very sparse compared to the sheer number of aerial forces the Flying Circus used. The mortar firers' primary goal of this bombardment wasn't to hit the machine gun emplacements they were intended for, though that would have been a bonus if they did, but more to force the defenders to duck down into cover. This initial attack bombardment was useless against the emplaced aerial defenses their opponent utilized, so it was paired with long ranged covering fire with machine guns that were aimed at previously mentioned enemy aerial defenses. Just like the mortar fire, the machine gun fire wasn't intended to hit their intended target either, although also being a bonus if it did, but to force their targets out from their cloud concealment and scatter them away from their hidden aerial machine gun nests. In order to protect themselves from the incoming long ranged machine gun fire, the Flying Circus either dove to the ground for safety or take aerial maneuvers to dodge the machine gun fire, further scattering their forces over an ever expanding area.

The machine guns' covering fire and the mortars were intended as a distraction for the next phase of the assault, an aerial bombing run. The Lost Battalion's bombers went in for an escorted attack run and unlike the mortar barrage, It was much better aimed. Due to the Flying Circus's every growing incoherence, the bombers were able to safely land their bombs, further disabling more of the Flying Circus's dwindling supply of machine guns. Once the bombers returned to the safe company of comrades, Eric, Blueblood, and Spitfire ordered an a quick yet concentrated assault on the heavily dispersed forces of the Flying Circus before they could gather up to form a defensive strategy.

Long story short, it was less like a military assault and more like a genocidal slaughter. The incohesiveness of the Flying Circus's remaining scattered forces meant a quick end to the war games with victory easily in the hooves/hands of the Lost Battalion.

Author's Note

still alive, bitches! I hope you enjoy this relatively short chapter. The last several chapters have been long so here's a short one. I hope it still has the same level of quality I try to give to y'all. Anyways, leave a comment/question as usual, if you have one, or point out mistakes. I'll try to respond to them and stay safe y'all.

Oh, btw, I have a new toy that I made.

No, its not a prop, its made of steel. Yes, it runs, it has a 25cc 2hp gas engine. Blood for the god emperor, skulls for the golden throne!

There Is Nothing Good In War Except Its Ending

As Scootaloo dropped to the ground, bits of bone and grey matter showered the general area around the minotaur. The rather explosive display of violence had indeed registered in her mind but she had given something else more notice, along with the rest of the enemy squad. Whatever had caused that minotaur's head to explode, had sounded like artillery. It was also as loud as artillery meaning everyone present was clutching their ears as pain radiated from the sides of their heads.

Well, everyone but Scootaloo. Yes, she did hear the explosion but she didn't care about the pain coming from her ears. She was still staring at the minotaur's headless corpse. More specifically, she was staring at the gear that the corpse still wore. The first thing her eyes had taken note of was the enormous knife that the body was still wearing.

Without a second thought, she dove down on top of the corpse and ripped the blade out of its sheath with both hooves. Jumping back up on her hooves, she got up in time to see that the griffon who had sliced her flag patch off of her uniform had recovered and started raising his rifle. Heart racing, she stabbed forward with the knife. While meant for minotaur hands, it's heft combined with the adrenaline pumping through her veins had given her enough strength to drive the knife into the griffon's chest.

With the knife buried to its hilt in his chest, the griffon fell to the ground. Breathing heavily, Scootaloo looked at the enemy soldier she had killed for a split second which gave the rest of the enemy squad enough time to finally take note of what Scootaloo had started doing.

That was when the second thunderous explosion deafened everyone which was then followed by the other minotaur dropping to the ground. Unlike his compatriot, his head hadn't exploded but his chest turned into a geyser of blood as a gaping hole appeared where his heart had been. This explosion, while just as loud as the previous one, had only caused everyone to flinch.

Scootaloo, who was still looking at the body of the griffon that she had killed, reached down and tried to grab the weapon that he had been armed with. This time, she had tried using her mouth and her luck caused her to miss the griffon's rifle. She still managed to grab something but whatever it was, it didn't feel like a weapon. Whatever was in her mouth not only felt smaller but was hard, metal, and round like a coin except it tasted like iron and seemed to be missing its center.

There was no time to try again. Moving her hooves as fast she could, she started sprinting away from the remains of the enemy squad. Just as the remaining three had started firing, Scootaloo had managed to find cover... Except it was the same broken pillar she was hiding behind earlier.

At first, she didn't notice but when she did, she simply just sat back down and readopted the seated fetal position she was using her. Before she started crying again, she noticed that she still had that round metal object still in her mouth.

Spitting it out in her right hoof, she examined it. Like it felt in her mouth, it was round and metal. In fact, it looked a lot like a steel or iron ring. A very large ring in fact. For some reason, there was a long, flat wire wrapped around it...

Realizing what it was, she covered both of her ears as an explosion rocked the general vicinity. She was still breathing rather heavily but she got back up on her hooves and walked out from behind her cover.

Seeing the bodies of the dead enemy soldiers, she immediately grabbed the nearest firearm among the bodies. To her surprise, the griffon that was clutching the rifle shuffled. Shocked, Scootaloo fell backward on her rump. To her relief, all that the griffon did was shuffle and gurgle. Getting back up, she looked at the griffon and noticed the injuries that he had sustained.

His body was absolutely shredded from the shrapnel that the grenade threw in the explosion. Whatever was left of his uniform had now only served to soak up all of the life essence that his veins were releasing. The once deadly talons that he wielded were now broken and unusable.

When he finally died, Scootaloo picked up the rifle he was clutching. Like her service rifle, it was a bolt action rifle but much, much longer. Bringing it up, she shouldered it. The iron sights were still intact and were a simple V notch and post design. She moved her hoof towards where the trigger should have been and felt something round and hard. Looking at the rifle, she noticed that there was a protective metal guard surrounded the rifle's trigger and unfortunately for her, this guard was preventing her from pulling the trigger with her hoof. Grinding her teeth, she tossed the rifle to the ground and started searching for a better weapon but not before taking two grenades off of the griffon's body.

Looking at the other weapons among the bodies, she noticed that all of them were wielding rifles that all had the same guard around the trigger. Grinding her teeth even more, she walked over to where her service rifle was which was in the ownership of the minotaur who had been shot in the heart. Just as she reached down to pick it up, it went off with the bullet nearly hitting her in the leg.

By now, she was grinding her teeth hard enough to reduce a diamond into very fine powder.

Working the bolt, she expended the cartridge out of her rifle. She paused for a second before leaning down to pick up the casing, stowing it in a pocket.

With time to breathe, she finally relaxed. "Can't believe that really happened" Scootaloo said as she picked up her Equestrian flag patch from where it laid. The patch, once proudly the symbol of her country, was now dirty and damaged from the explosion. She also stowed it, the same place as where she had stowed away that spent casing from earlier.

'What now?' Scootaloo thought. She really didn't know what to do and had no idea where she was. Earlier in the day, she had been on a patrol with her squad but they were ambushed hours after leaving the safety of her home base. She had no map and compass but it didn't really matter as she also had no navigational skills. Even worse, her squad wouldn't check in until three days from now so no search party would be sent. She would have to do this alone.

And to top it all off, her ears were still ringing in pain from the explosion earlier... Wait, what had started all of that from earlier? Bringing her rifle up, she searched the surrounding area. If he or she had been friendly, they would have called out by now. If they were hostile, she'd be dead. Who had done it?

Her rifle, while only loaded with hopes and dreams, was pointed at every destroyed storefront, pillar, dirt mount, and generally anything that could serve as concealment for whoever had helped her out.

*CHK-CLACK*

That was the telltale sound of a bolt action rifle being worked. Turning around, she found herself faced with a minotaur... Only it wasn't a minotaur. Whatever he or she was, it was definitely strange and she lowered her rifle as she stared at it.

This creature was standing on two long legs, while looking like it was natural for it instead of some awkward stance that ponies did. Its shoulders weren't as broad as a minotaur but were still broad enough to be imposing. Attached to the shoulders were a set of arms that ended with hands, just like a minotaur's only his was nowhere near as muscular.

That's where similarities ended. The legs that it stood on looked almost completely straight. There was no curve like a minotaur's or griffon's legs, nor did they have the rearward bend like a pony's rear legs when standing up. At the end of its legs were a set of boots that, for some reason, extended outward into feet.

The creature's head was almost completely featureless; To be fair, a good amount of it was covered. Strapped to its head was a thick helmet and a bluish grey cloth covered its neck. The helmet it wore meant that it had no horns and probably didn't have a set of ears like any normal pony. Whatever mane it had, it was either short or nonexistent. The creature's face was something that she'd never think of as it was completely devoid of fur, except for eyebrows of course. The creature's eyes were definitely a surprise. They were small, thin, and shaped almost like almonds with a set of eyeglasses protecting and assisting them. Centered on its face was a nose, smaller than any she'd ever seen.

The rest of the creature's body was completely covered up. It was definitely wearing a uniform and a strange one at it. It was wearing pants and a coat, both of which were covered in splotches of grey and light tan. In addition to the coat, it was also wearing a vest. This vest was not any normal vest. Like the rest of its uniform, it colored and done in the same pattern. Besides that, it appeared to be heavily padded and had pieces connected to it that covered its groin region and upper arms. Attached to the front and sides of the vest were several pouches, the contents of which being a complete mystery.

And in its gloved hands was an absolutely massive bolt action rifle. The rifle's stock was made of a grey laminated wood stock and was absolutely void of any damage. Then, she noticed the scope mounted to it. It was the largest rifle scope that she had ever seen! It had a few other minor bits like a bipod and a sling but that didn't change how imposing it was.

Then, whatever it was, started walking towards her. Instinctively, she got up on her rear legs and brought her rifle back up with it aimed at the thing. The creature paused before continuing to walk towards her. She tried her best to be threatening but she was the opposite of intimidating. The difficulty of which was further exaggerated with her height, being only a head above his waist.

Slinging her rifle, she went back down to all four legs. What was the point? There wasn't much she could do now and if it had wanted to kill her, it would have by now. It was also likely that it was the one who helped her defeat that enemy squad.

The creature stared at her for a second before it walked over to one of the dead bodies of the griffons. It slung it's rifle over its shoulder and picked up the bolt action rifle of a griffon. Scootaloo watched as the creature went through the motion of chambering a new round, working the bolt to do so. It repeated this many times until the rifle's magazine was empty.

Holding it in one hand, the creature opened up one of the pouches on its vest and pulled out a small block of metal. It unfolded the block of metal to reveal a pair of pliers.

What was it doing?

Then, Scootaloo watched as it used the tool to rip off the curved metal guard that had been protecting the trigger. Now, it turned around and walked back over to her. The two once again face to face, sort of, but this time, the creature held up the rifle that it had modified. "Grab some ammo and let's go" he said in a clearly male voice.

Enemy Soldiers Are Not Always Acting with Evil Intentions

I am the leader of the Raiders. Unlike the other war chief, my clan has actually survived. Maybe he should have chosen better brethren.

These ponies, how have they lasted two years? I have fought in eight battles against them and we've only traded three of our brethren for a couple hundred of theirs. Their heroic sacrifices will be celebrated!

Then, something struck me on my chest armor. I started laughing as the gunshot was finally heard. Nothing those ponies were armed with could even hope to mar my armor. "Fellow brethren, their attempts to kill me are worthless!" I said while raising my rifle high in the air. All of my brethren, instead of joining me in my jeers, just stared at me. "Brothers?" Why were they staring at me?

"Your chest," one of them said.

What? I looked down at my remarkable armor. There it was. Right there, on the center of my chest, was a hole in my armor. Is that my blood coming out that hole?

I touched a finger to the blood. Yes, it was my blood. I stared at the blood staining my fingers before finally realizing what this meant.

I felt gravity take over as darkness filled my mind.

-X-X-X-

I ejected the spent round of my rifle before manually inserting a new round into the chamber and closing the bolt. Why couldn't I have gotten something other than a single shot rifle?

-X-X-X-

Right there! There he was, the one who shot me! He's in the right general direction and four hundred meters away.

I straightened my wings and dove.

-X-X-X-

I folded up the bipod on my rifle. "Let's go" I said, looking at Scootaloo.

She started screaming while pointing a hoof at past me. I turned around and found the reason why she was screaming. Diving towards us, was a very large griffon wearing a red scarf.

Sighing, I unfolded the bipod on my rifle and gently placed it on the ground. Right as I took up my revolver in my left hand, the griffon tackled me.

Ground fighting, not the best way to fight. Even worse, he was on top of me. Immediately, he raised his claws and stabbed them down at my chest. When they clunked against the ESAPI plate in my vest, I threw my right hand up in an attempt to punch him in the chin. When it landed, he recoiled back in pain.

I brought up my left hand, trying to get my revolver on him. Unfortunately, he recovered in time and grabbed the barrel of my revolver right before it was pointed at his face.

Six quiet gunshots reverberated throughout the room as Scootaloo emptied the cylinder of her Model 92 revolver. Unfortunately, whatever 8mm rounds that landed did absolutely nothing (retardedly anemic indeed). In fact, it looked like he hadn't even noticed getting shot.

I continued my attempts to aim my revolver at his face but he was moving it further and further away. Then, I remember something very important about revolvers.

Smiling, I pulled the trigger even though it was aimed completely away from his head.

Now there is one very special thing about revolvers that make it very dangerous to have your hand past the cylinder when one fires. What's this reason? The cylinder gap! What's the cylinder gap? On a revolver, there is a very small gap between the cylinder and the barrel of the revolver. This small gap expels out an enormous amount of expanding gas when a round is fired. The amount of gas expelled varies between revolvers (but this is a .500 S&W Model 500 we're talking about so I'd say there's a lot). What does this mean?

My opponent screamed as several of his talons were ripped free from his hands. Once again, I punched him in the chin before finally throwing him off of me.

The griffon stood back up and started to charge me but I quickly lined up a shot and fired. He squawked as he took a .500 S&W magnum round to the gut. Surprisingly, he just stood there.

Then he sat down, my finger tense around my revolver's trigger. Despite bleeding to death, he smiled. "No need for that anymore," he said. I kept my revolver trained on him. "Here I was, hoping that I'd see the end of this horrible conflict." Strangely enough, he just started laughing. After he had his laugh, he took off his red scarf.

Scootaloo gasped. "You're a Jaegar!"

He chuckled. "Not anymore, eh?" he said. He held up the scarf to me. "I want you to have this." I didn't budge. He sighed before tossing the red scarf, to which I caught in my right hand.

I took a short glance at the scarf. It was a deep red color and looked like it was made of cotton. Even though the red color was still nice and clean, it was clearly well worn. "Thank you for removing this burden," he said.

By now, his breathing started to grow heavier. "Just one last question," he said. I raised an eyebrow. "Why do you have such a cannon for a sidearm?"

I blinked. "Why not?" I asked back.

He shrugged. "At least it's some form of an answer" he replied before his head dropped down. Shortly afterwards, his chest stopped moving and his body fell forward. I waited a few seconds before lowering my revolver.

Scootaloo moved closer to the griffon's body and poked it with a free hoof. "You actually killed a Jaegar," she said.

I holstered my revolver and looked at the red scarf. "What's a Jaegar?" I asked her.

And then I suddenly found a tiny orange horse in my vision. "You don't know what a Jaegar is?!" she exclaimed. I raised an eyebrow again. "They're the best air to air fighters that the griffons have! How do you not know what a Jaegar is?!"

I shrugged and looked back at the scarf. I didn't want to wear it around my neck so I tied it down to the left side of my belt beside my S&W Model 500. It didn't hang too low (the scarf barely reached my knee) so hopefully, it wouldn't get in the way of anything. "Let's go."

-X-X-X-

Logan watched as the griffon that he had just shot dove towards Tran's position. "Well shit," Logan said.

Eric, with his binoculars, was watching the same griffon. "Shoot him again," Eric said.

But it was too late. The griffon had crashed through the window and tackled Tran. Both of them disappeared from view. A very tense moment later, Tran reappeared in the window. "Looks like I don't need to," Logan said.

Elsewhere

Both Applejack and Pinkie Pie sat behind a brick wall. No, they weren't getting shot at and taking cover in response. They were just simply sitting behind a brick wall. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie's dropped her party cannon (mortar) and jumped into the air as her body shook all over. "We've got a doozy!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

Applejack's face blanched. "Ah hate those. Yah never know if they're good or bad," Applejack said.

Pinkie Pie picked up her party cannon and giggled. "We'll find out later!" Pinkie said before she stuck her hoof into her mane and pulled out a bag of beef jerky.

Applejack's stomach churned at the sight of the beef jerky. "Is that what ah think it is?," she asked. Beef was incredibly rare (cows were an intelligent species). This made beef jerky the griffon version of caviar.

That was when several hundred griffons landed in front of the two of them. If Applejack's face was any paler, she could have convinced somepony that she had white fur.

One of the griffons, an officer judging from his uniform, stepped up to the two of them. "We're surrendering," the griffon said.

Applejack turned and look at Pinkie Pie. "Ah guess it's the good kind of doozy."

"That wasn't it."

-X-X-X-

Rarity, with a pair of binoculars, watched as a massive formation of griffons approached Fort Platinum on foot. There were two things about the formation that really puzzled her. For one thing, they were walking. Griffons hated walking in formation, flying was faster.

The more important detail regarding the formation was that her two dear friends, Pinkie Pie and Applejack, were leading the formation.

"What a rather peculiar sight."

-X-X-X-

Twilight and Rarity stared at the formation that Pinkie Pie and Applejack brought. "All of you are surrendering?," Twilight asked. The same officer from earlier nodded.

This early into the offensive and this many of them are surrendering? That was unheard of! "May I ask why?" Rarity asked, hoping to satiate her curiosity.

The officer sighed. "I'm assuming that your scouts have spotted our three special service soldiers?" the officer asked.

Rarity remembered the report that Twilight had given her. Even though it was confidential information, half the base had already found out about it. "The two war chiefs and the Jaegar?" Rarity responded.

Applejack's eyes widened upon hearing what Rarity had said. "There are what?!" she exclaimed.

The griffon officer nodded. "There were two war chiefs and a Jaegar," the officer explained.

Twilight's ear twitched upon hearing him. "Were?" she asked.

The griffon officer once again nodded. "One of the war chiefs was shot through the chest, the bullet completely ignoring his armor. The Jaegar was found dead from a gunshot wound that went straight through his flight coat. His scarf was missing," explained the officer. "The other war chief is missing."

Applejack nearly dropped her shotgun. "All three of them are dead or missing?," Applejack asked.

Twilight could have died happy then and there. This was the best news possible! Twilight looked at her friend Rarity and smiled. "Looks like we won't lose that many ponies after all!" Rarity smiled at Twilight's happiness.

Applejack looked at Twilight and then back to the griffon officer. "How long do yah think 'fore everypony else finds out about this?" Applejack asked.

Rarity looked at her friends and realized something important. "Well that depends, dear. How long ago did Pinkie disappear?" Rarity asked.

-X-X-X-

Logan ducked down into concealment (there is a difference between cover and concealment) and worked the bolt on his Mosin Nagant. He and Tran had been taking turns taking pot shots. Their targets had been soldiers that appeared to be important. Anyone whose appearance was different from the others were shot, especially those that had an obvious and ostentatious accessory or uniform item.

It was only a coincidence that they had shot a Jaegar and war chief. Lucky for Equestria, huh?

Logan heard the familiar boom of Tran's .338 Lapua. Standing out of concealment, he took aim again. When a bullet whizzed over his head, he ducked back down. "Time to move," Logan said.

Eric, who was at a different window, quickly moved away from his window. They hadn't noticed him yet but waiting for that to happen wasn't necessarily the smartest of ideas. He tucked his binoculars into a small pouch and brought his AK74 to bear.

-X-X-X-

Five hundred eighty-three. That was how many griffons had surrendered. Before, the highest number of enemy soldiers to have surrendered all at once was a little over two hundred. It was barely noon and an entire battalion's worth of soldiers had surrendered.

Twilight sat at her desk and filled out the paperwork (the bane of literally everything's and everyone's existence) to allow someone else to fill out the paperwork (more proof of why paperwork is so horrible) for the paperwork (yep) for the prisoners. As she dipped her quill into an inkwell, she contemplated shooting herself. While she was slightly depressed, it was more because of all of the paperwork that she still had left.

Rarity trotted into the room and dropped off more paperwork, forcing a groan from Twilight. Inside her thoughts, Twilight was fighting a mental battle over the option of setting fire to everything. Rarity suppressed a giggle and sat down on a stack of paperwork. "Perhaps we should hire or appoint somepony to a position solely for filling out paperwork," Rarity said.

Twilight slammed her face down on the current form she was working on. "I don't think I could ever sentence somepony to that type of Tartarus," Twilight said in response to Rarity's idea.

Rarity looked at the stacks of paperwork that Twilight still hadn't finished. "Oh, but I'm sure somepony somewhere has a cutie mark for that," Rarity said. "Anyways, a large section of enemy forces are advancing upon a pair of buildings two kilometers east of us."

Twilight, head still slammed down into a paper form, asked, "Who and what are posted in these buildings?"

"Nopony knows," Rarity answered.

Twilight lifted her head from her desk. "What are the scouts telling us about the building?"

Rarity brought a piece of paper out of the stack of paper she dropped off and read it aloud. "Two companies worth of soldiers currently assaulting two buildings two kilos east of home post. Possible enemy reinforcements. One friendly personnel spotted, unidentified EA soldier with arms. No known assets in buildings. Three unidentified soldiers spotted. Species, unknown. Weapons, rifles. Equipment, unknown."

Rarity set the paper down on Twilight's desk, who had decided to read the report herself. "Send a mortar team there. Have them shell whatever they're sending to attack the building. Make sure they avoid those three unidentified soldiers."

Rarity nodded and walked away.

Update: Still writing

Author's Note

So short update on life. While walking around, I got hit by a car. Some time in the hospital later, I am back. Will continue with this story.

On a completely unrelated sidenote (I swear): If you get hit by a car, don't try to sleep it off because internal bleeding will eventually catch up with you, especially if you're running at PT the next immediate morning afterwards. Apparently, it will cause things to get worse.

That is all.

Hopeless, For Now

Scootaloo was curled up in a ball clutching her ears as the sounds of gunfire rang in her ears. This was supposed to be her 'Grand' adventure, the tale of which she would brag to friends and random strangers til the day she died. Now? She'd be dead within the next few minutes, her tales of awesomeness unheard. Her dream of impressing other ponies would also die with her, having been unfulfilled.

A week and a half out of boot camp, she was immediately sent out to the front lines in war-torn Baltimare. What made it worse was her age; she was fourteen years old, far too young to be fighting in a war. Despite the age disparity, her recruiter hadn't given a second thought about enlistment. Even in boot camp, no one else had taken a second glance either as there were other ponies of similar age along with her.

"Move forward on the right!" The voice's owner was close. Frighteningly close. It wouldn't be long. The fate that had befallen hundreds of thousands of other soldiers would soon be her's too.

The gunfire stopped and the sounds of hoof, foot, and talons approaching started to fill her small ears. They were barely audible but at the moment, they were the loudest sounds she had ever heard; it was all she could think about.

She lifted her head from her knees and looked at the ground in front of her. It was here where her service rifle lay, the one issued to her name.

She got up from her curled up position and leaned her back against the broken pillar she had been using as cover. Picking up the rifle, she cradled it in her lap and examined it. In her hooves, was the Herdier No.1 Mk. 2. It was a bolt action rifle chambered in 6.5mm Stomper, fed from a three-round en bloc clip. Once the last round is chambered, the clip would fall out of the magazine. The design needed improvements but for now, it served its purpose. Well, sort of. It wasn't exactly the best rifle being fielded in this war.

Working the bolt, she looked down into the rifle's magazine. She saw a single solitary bullet. She had no other ammo but this one bullet. Her uniform, something that was amazingly awesome in her eyes, was now useless. The pouches, pockets, and bandoliers adorning her uniform? All empty now, having been expended in an ambush earlier.

Days ago, literally everypony was telling her to save one bullet for herself. Why? There were rumors of torture, hard labor, and being the target of depravity of enemy soldiers. At first, she didn't believe those tales.

Then, she saw her first dead body. It wasn't even the dead body from somepony killed in combat. It was the dead body of a POW that had escaped enemy capture. After successfully escaping from enemy imprisonment, he had died after eating too much. After starving for so long, his body was incapable of handling a large amount of food but nopony knew that at the time. Afterwards, a mortician examined his body. The mortician's findings were quick to be known by everyone in the camp.

Closing the bolt of her rifle, the last round was chambered back into the rifle. "I'm sorry," Scootaloo cried as tears started flowing from her eyes. She brought her rifle up to bear and placed the muzzle of the rifle into her mouth. She felt the rifle's muzzle touching the roof of her mouth, the cold barrel causing her to shiver.

It tasted predictably like iron, with hints of mud.

Tears flowing more freely, memories of her life occupied her mind. Her friends, her family, and her scooter were among the things that flashed through her mind. Good memories, bad memories, and even the boring ones flashed. In an instant, it would all be gone.

Closing her eyes, she slowly moved her hoof towards the trigger. When she felt its familiar shape, she took in a deep breath. Slowly, she let her final breath and savored that last feeling.

She pulled the trigger.

*Click*

Eyes opened wide, she pulled the rifle's muzzle out of her mouth and angrily glared it at. "Stupid fucking piece of junk!" she yelled before quickly throwing her rifle down onto the ground, using all of her strength. Since she was sitting on concrete, it loudly bounced off the ground and quickly clattered on it's side.

Lying down, she curled up into a ball and started crying more heavily.

"Hear that fellas? She sounds young!" Whoever said that sounded like he was within spitting distance.

Somehow, her tears starting flowing even more now. All hope was lost.

After she had been crying for a minute, something hard hit her in the head. "Get up!" Looking up, Scootaloo saw the barrel of a rifle pointed right at her face. Holding the rifle were not hooves but the blue hands of a minotaur. "I said get up!" Clambering up to her hooves, she wiped the tears from her face. "Move."

Sighing, Scootaloo started walking out from behind the pillar that was previously hiding her from the enemies. Looking back, she saw the minotaur pick up her rifle from where she threw it down. As she started walking forward, she saw the rest of the squad that was pursuing her. There were six of them total, including the minotaur that had confronted her. There was one other minotaur while the rest were griffons.

Early on in the war, it was discovered that the minotaurs were exceptionally skilled at waging a war. It was natural for minotaurs to have large statures and bodybuilding was a popular hobby. In a squad, they were generally the one armed with a machine gun or heavy weapon. Either way, they were definitely a major threat.

Griffons, while not having the capability to use magic like a unicorn, were as capable as pegasi. That does include weather manipulation. There were only two real differences between griffons and pegasi. Pegasi were faster and capable of making sharper turns. Griffons, in turn, could support more weight in flight. The second difference? Griffons had talonss, infinitely more useful than hooves (though they would never be as perfect as hands). Also, their hands could also function as knives due to the talons that they grew.

As she moved closer to the enemy squad, she noticed that they all were giving her rather lecherous looks. She shivered as various thoughts filled her mind. One of the griffons in the squad moved closer to her and looked at her left sleeve. Sewn onto it was a small Equestrian flag patch that was sewn onto the left sleeve of her uniform. "You won't be needing that anymore," said the griffon while he sliced it off of her uniform with his talons. The Equestrian flag patch, something that she was proud to wear, laid on the dirty ground. It almost seemed worthless despite her hard efforts in earning it in boot camp.

The other minotaur moved closer to her and looked down at her. "You'll definitely make a great addition," he said while giving her toothy smile. Tears started to well up in her eyes again as she just looked indignantly into the ground. This was it. Laughing, the minotaur picked her up with one hand but quickly dropped her onto the ground. He hadn't meant to drop her. No, he had dropped her because his head had exploded.

Author's Note

Well, this is a new story that I'm trying out. My previous story, I didn't really like some of how comical the combat was getting. Really, it was absurd now that I think about it. Also, some of it was structured weirdly mostly due to the fact that English was not my first language.

Hopefully this one will go better now that I have more experience with the English language and that I have even more knowledge of how combat really is. Please leave a favorite, like, and follow.

Update: Will try to keep writing

Author's Note

My incident last year with a car gave me quite a challenge. I was given the choice of being medically discharged but decided to stay in. It took quite a bit of effort for me to recover and bring myself back into pre-accident condition. I thought I was 100% okay when I was finally able to climb up a rope with 35 pounds strapped to my waist like I could before.

Unfortunately, things decided to take a turn for the worst. On a checkup, some scans revealed quite the surprise. I had a large mass growing in my pelvic region. Its crazy how a 5" diameter, 2 pound tumor can just decide to grow as quickly as it did. They've already removed it, along with some other unimportant things like my appendix, 15 feet of my small intestine, and other unnecessary organs.

I'll be honest with all of you. I'll try to finish this story but there's a lot of other things I'd prefer to doing. People think being in your 40s as middle aged but your 20s (23 in my case) is where its at. I'll soon be busy with more treatment, medically retiring from the military, arranging certain things, and dying.

Pic: Me in the hospital with my 8 different medications keeping me alive and pump full of painkillers keeping me from setting the hospital on fire.

Unrelated (I swear), sidenote: It's gonna be quite entertaining to see handicap placards/plates/symbols on my armored up, souped up, barbed wire wearing OBS f350.