Act 4-7
Preparations

"General Night Shade, our recon unit established that the PMC's are planning to take Appleloosa. If we don't do something, we're gonna lose another town." A radio operator warned, Night Shade was not amused at this news. He put a hoof to his chin to think. He had to open the vault, it was the only way.

They had just recently been defeated at Dodge City not too long ago, losing good stallions and mares in the battle, almost losing Andrew, too. He underestimated their numbers, and their firepower, but this time...this time he was ready. He had gained full authorization to wage war with the invading PMC soldiers by his fiance, and he requisitioned to be able to use weapons from the Canterlot Vault, underneath the castle.

"Andrew, come with me, I need to show you something." Andrew looked over to Night Shade, he had been standing right next to him the whole time while in the communications room.

Night Shade slowly walked himself and Andrew out of the comms room, and down the hallway of the once populated part of the castle. Nick, Jhon, and Helena followed them close behind. Andrew couldn't help but wonder where Night Shade was taking him, hopefully some place private so they could discuss battle strategies.

As he followed Night Shade through a security checkpoint, he knew that something was up, and that Night Shade was up to something. Nothing good could come from this, Night Shade was desperate, and so was he. He didn't want to have another city lost to the PMC army, nor did Night Shade, he especially didn't want the war to get to Ponyville.

"As you can see a few days ago Celestia had granted me the permission to wage war with the PMC's, as well as grant me access to the underground vault. You may or may not have seen this place before, but it holds most of our destructive weapons since the last great war. Of course, that was well over a thousand years ago, but these weapons may be familiar to you." Night Shade's magical aura gripped the lock, and it unlatched as if it was nothing.

As Andrew switched on the lights, a whole warehouse was lit up by a bright glow from the ceiling. Andrew and company looked around the vault, seeing that this vault was nothing more than a big armory. The weapons that were on the racks were very old, and almost in unworkable condition, if they ever were to restore them, it would take some time.

The shelves were stocked to the brim with assault rifles, submachine guns, sniper rifles, and even some compact crossbows. Boxes were full of multiple types of ammunition; explosive rounds, incendiary rounds, armor piercing, shotgun slugs, buckshot, and even some artillery shells. Nick was left speechless, Helena was left with her jaw wide open, and Jhon was silent the whole way through.

"I know you're wondering, 'How is this possible?" Night Shade smirked, "we locked away this stuff a long time ago, and the means to craft these types of weaponry were wiped from memory, thus devolving ourselves in order to stop armed conflict, until now at least."

"They might need a bit of a tune-up, but nothing a little magic can't fix," he looked behind him to see Echo Team just stand around and look, "don't just stand there, take a look!"

Andrew put his hand up against one gun in particular, his eyes watered just by looking at it. He could've swore he was in Heaven at the time, but he's still alive so that wasn't possible. He picked up the assault rifle carbine he was looking at and held it firmly in his hands.

"The old fashioned M4A1 Carbine -I always wanted one of these, but they were put out of service about 75 years ago." He chuckled, aiming down the sights on the gun. The magazine wasn't in the gun, and it seemed to need some cleaning in order to work properly. He then averted his gaze to a handgun lying on the table, he picked it up and rotated it in his hand. He then placed the M1911 into his second holster, located on his left thigh.

Helena was over in the sniper rifles, looking at the choices she could pick from. She was looking for a battle rifle almost, because she knew she would be fighting more PMC's in close quarters than at long range. She picked up one sniper rifle, but she quickly started to fall backwards due to the weight of the gun, and she accidentally fell into a gun. She dropped the current one she was carrying and she turned behind her, and grabbed the rifle that hit her.

"M21, eh? Looks promising..." The ACOG sight on it needed some adjusting, and the barrel could have used some cleaning, but otherwise it was in pretty good condition. She took it and slung it over her back, waiting for the others to choose their weapon, and then they would be off to the gun maintenance room just on the other side of the vault.

NIck already knew what he was going to pick, he had his sights on a machine gun in particular the moment he went into this room. Though it was a bit overkill, he checked out the M2 Browning on display on top of a table. The barrel was rusted and the whole gun seemed like it was about to fall apart, he would have to do some heavy maintenance on the gun to get it to work properly again, which wouldn't take long with his skill.

Jhon knew he would be fighting close quarters, so he would have to choose a melee weapon as well as a shotgun, so they wouldn't get all up in his face. He picked up a Remington 870 tactical shotgun, with a black finish to it. The gun he found was in perfect condition, and he didn't really need to do anything to it but give it a small inspection so it wouldn't blow up in his face. As for his melee weapons he had found a ka-bar knife as well as a small hatchet to pair.

"Alright guys, let's get your stuff restored and we can head out, I also have a few vehicles to showcase." Night Shade smirked, unlocking the cages to the maintenance wing of the vault.

"I have a few vehicles to show you guys, it was also from the war, but they still work." He uncovered two vehicles from a beige tarp, one being a heavily armored transport vehicle, the other being an infantry fighting vehicle.

"I hope you all know how to drive an IFV, because I don't think anyone I know can."

"Sure we can, we've had universal training back on Earth. It was required in order to join The Unit." Andrew explained.

Helena was the first to climb into the IFV, opening the hatch that seemed to be rusted shut. She didn't know how she could get this thing running, but it seemed that she fit in like a glove. Night Shade's horn started to glow, and so did both the IFV and the armored truck. The next thing you know the cars weren't the color of rust and it did not smell of decayed metal, but instead they were both the color of a sandy desert.

"Night Shade, when are we shipping out?" Nick asked, only for Night Shade to shake his head in disappointment.

"We're going to leave in about 2 hours, so if you need to do anything you'd better do it now. I'll prepare the vehicles for combat, meet up here once you're ready." He said slowly.

The whole team dispersed into the barracks with their new gear in hand. They each wanted to be alone in order to prepare for the fight in their individual way. Andrew was all alone at the phone booth, trying to suppress his headache once more. He dialed a number, and he waited for someone to pick it up.

"Hello?" A familiar feminine voice answered.

"Hey Rainbow." Andrew responded. On the other side of the phone was an audible gasp, and what seemed like crying.

"Andrew! What's happenin'?"

"We're about to go out again, to Appleloosa this time. We lost Dodge City though."

"Wait, what?! How did you, of all people lose?!" She exasperated, her expression was a mixture of shock and fear.

"We underestimated their numbers, and we ran out of ammo."

"Oh, okay then. Whoever you're fighting, I know you're gonna win this time! Come back safely for me okay?" She asked, Andrew smiled.

"I will. I'll see you in a few months, alright?"

"I'll see you then." She hung up the phone with a click, and the next thing you know she was gone. As Andrew walked away from the phone booth, he heard someone inside his head create a telepathic link, which sounded like sparkles and glitter, like magic almost.

"I see you're still with your beloved, whatever happened to me?"

"You're dead, that's what happened!" He spat back, as if he had a sour taste in his mouth.

"That doesn't mean that I can't still love you, you were my fiance."

"That's right, I was your fiance, but that's a done deal. It's over Carmine, I'm over you and I've moved on." Andrew cut the telepathic link and blocked Carmine out of his mind, but that didn't stop him to ponder.

He still couldn't understand why Carmine, or most likely and more hostile, the Darkness was back. He saw it right in front of his eyes that he ended it at the mountain temple, it just wasn't possible that it could still be alive. If anything, it was still a hallucination, but he had a hunch, a hunch that it was still alive, and growing. Getting more powerful every minute he wasted.

"I need to tell Night Shade about this, something's not right here."

Author's Note

I'm going to be taking a break once I update Trottingham University, school's almost out and I'm ready for summer vacation. So, it could take a few weeks before anything gets updated, especially my smaller stories.