Who Dares Wins

This has had to be one of the longest ordinary days I have had, I say that because the longest days I have ever had were because of that bastard. But, on to a happier note, when I got up, we were arriving in Ponyville, and surprisingly, Apple Bloom was waiting for me on the platform. As I walked out, she met me as soon as I exited the train.

“What did they want?” She asked.

“I’ll tell you, can we at least go with the engineers?” I replied, and she looked over to see the engineers exiting, carrying several boxes. She nodded and went to help the engineers, to their surprise. I just nodded over, and they handed her a few boxes. After we started walking, the engineers seemed to be a little surprised at the state of Ponyville, a lot of it was still under reconstruction, and half the time a former group of houses would be their support frames. Half an hour later, we arrived at the lake, and true to what I had said I explained to Apple Bloom what happened.

“They want me to train and lead a secret task force for special operations.” I told her, and she smiled.

“Good fer ya, Phalanx, Ah know ya have been bored.” She said, “Well, if ya need any help buildin’ this, ya know where tuh find me.” I honestly felt a little relieved, I knew she would say that, yet I had been paranoid she would wonder what I was thinking.

As she gave the boxes to the engineers, one of them walked over, and pointed towards a relatively flat clearing in the forest surrounding the lake. “I think that would be a good spot for the shooting range, wouldn’t you agree?” He asked, and I was confused. What did he mean by shooting range?

“Oh that’s right, you probably didn’t know!” He said running over to a crate. He came back with some shaped piece of metal that had several parts, the only thing that looked similar that I had seen were crossbows. “This is the Machine Pistol Five, or MP5 for short. It’s a recent development, in fact, I believe it was patented along with a bunch of other automatic firearms a month ago.” He said with eagerness, but I was stopping in my tracks. Firearms were the weapons of science fiction, Equestria had the capability for many years to produce them, but there was the problem of hooves. You couldn’t really use one unless you were a unicorn, and even then, they were hard to make. Had they really done this within a matter of months, where it would have taken years?

“I can definitely see what you’re thinking, just to let you know.” The engineer chirped, “How it works is with a similar grip to swords, it has the adhesive material used. But, how you actually use it, is by innate magic.” I looked at him, still wondering. “Everypony has a bit of magic within them, it’s how pegasi are able to fly, and why earth ponies are so strong. In the design, it is actually sensitive enough to it, that you can go and want to fire it, and it will do so.” He grinned like a foal on Hearth’s Warming Eve looking at presents.

“This is a joke, right?” I asked with all seriousness.

“Nope, I would give a test fire, but I think it wouldn’t be safe. Ponies will be wondering what the huge booms will be anyways, no need to give them an early start.” He said, packing away the gun.

I was definitely impressed, but I decided not to keep thinking about it, for now at least. “How many candidates are there?” I asked the engineer, he had to know what he was here for.

“Standard company size,” The engineer answered, “But I know I’ll be sleeping easier at night knowing we have these soldiers.” He got out a cardboard box, with tape sealing it that was labeled “TOP SECRET”. “There’s the files, standard selection protocols, pretty much all the paperwork in here.” He gave me the box, and I found a place to sit down, and opened it up. On the left side there was a whole thing of folders, presumably the dossiers, so I looked at the folder that was on its face on the right, which was labeled “SPECIAL EQUESTRIAN SERVICE”.

I opened it up, and after reading through the Parliament authorization, I looked at the standardized selection protocols, which had come from the General at the Equestrian Department of the Military. It read:

FROM: GEN. IRONHOOF, DEPARTMENT OF THE MILITARY
TO: EQUESTRIAN PARLIAMENT
CLASSIFICATION: ALPHA
SUBJECT: SPECIAL EQUESTRIAN SERVICE SELECTION PROTOCOLS

As requested, I have come up with a standardized selection for the new task force, and have also sent a list with the best candidates for the company. These protocols mainly require that:

Candidate must be at least twelve years of age. due to Equestrian Constitution Article XVI, Section III, which explicitly states that a pony may join military service when they turn twelve.
Candidate must be male. Although according to Equestrian Constitution Article XVI, Section II, all genders and races must be given the opportunity to join service, it also states that in the case of special task forces, it’s qualifications are at it’s commanding officer’s discretion.
Candidate must have served for at least one year. Although the Royal Guard was severely depleted six months ago, there are still candidates in the Equestrian Guard who qualify, even if they were not on active duty.
Candidate must have no criminal record. It is in my opinion that a secretive task force such as this one cannot be compromised by questionable stallions who have had criminal activity.
Candidate must have scored above 136 on their Health Evaluation, taken within the past month. This task force will need stallions at their top health.
Candidate must have scored above 140 on their Combat Aptitude Test, taken within the past month. This task force needs skilled and experienced soldiers, who are ready for situations.
Candidate must be willing to keep minimal contact and secrecy with others. The task force needs secrecy.
These protocols I believe will be the most optimal for the candidates, and I also know of a great candidate for commanding and training the company, though you’re going to have one hay of a time convincing him to do it. His name is Corporal Phalanx Hoof, who is retired, and he is married to Apple Bloom, and resides in Ponyville.

The general’s protocols seemed good enough, though I knew in training I would still have to weed out the ones who truly wouldn’t be able to do what was necessary. I got out a folder that was labeled “SUGGESTED STANDARD-ISSUE WEAPONS”. I opened it up, and it had another letter:

FROM: SUPPLY REQUISITION, DEPARTMENT OF THE MILITARY
TO: EQUESTRIAN PARLIAMENT
CLASSIFICATION: ALPHA
SUBJECT: SUGGESTED ARMAMENT FOR SPECIAL EQUESTRIAN SERVICE

In this message is listed suggested weapons for the task force:

MARELER & COLT MACHINE PISTOL FIVE: .35 CALIBER SUBMACHINE GUN
COLTING HIGH POWER PISTOL: .45 CALIBER SEMI-AUTOMATIC PISTOL
CANTERLOT MANUFACTURING MK II FRAGMENTATION GRENADE
CANTERLOT MANUFACTURING MK 45 CONCUSSION GRENADE
MANEHATTEN TECH MK IV NIGHT-VISION GOGGLES: USES INFRARED SPECTRUM VISION
CANTERLOT MANUFACTURING COMBAT VEST: CAN TAKE 4-5 .30 CALIBER BULLETS WITHOUT PUNCTURE, HAS 3 SPARE AMMUNITION POUCHES
CANTERLOT DESIGN COMPANY MULTICAM FATIGUES: CAMOUFLAGE PATTERN PROVEN EFFECTIVE IN SEVERAL TRIALS
CANTERLOT DESIGN COMPANY COMBAT BOOTS
CANTERLOT MANUFACTURING MARK VI GAS MASK
CANTERLOT MANUFACTURING MARK II COMBAT KNIFE

This all sounded extremely advanced, how would a small company have way more advanced technology than the Royal Guard? Perhaps Parliament is putting more faith into this than anything else, something that is kind of inspiring and frightening. I spent a couple of hours looking through paperwork, authorizing my command over the force, and surprisingly the fact that the SES wouldn’t report to the Equestrian Department of the Military, but directly to Parliament. I am not sure if this is good or bad. When the lead engineer tapped me and told me it was getting dark, I decided to head home. Apple Bloom was already asleep when I got back, so I just took some time to write in here. Anyways, I’m getting tired, see you tomorrow.