War Was All We Knew.

Chapter Twelve

Sir, I have one small question about this mission...WHERE THE FUCK DOES IT SAY IN THE MISSION SPECS THAT WE WOULD BE FIGHTING DRAGONS?! I signed up to fight Locust and keep Jacinto safe. Now after almost ten years I'm in a world of talking ponies helping finding a way to save Sera from being rendered uninhabitable, and now I'm trying to protect a town full of the talking things and the Chairman against a bunch of massive, scale covered, fire breathing assholes. I just hope our weapons are able to kill these fuckers because we need to stop these things, not piss them off like we did the Locust.

(Onyx Guard Master Sergeant Biff Ralorez asking the Onyx Guard Captain about the new threat in Ponyville)

***

Ponyville town hall.
Three Minutes after the Dragon attack.

"Shit, I wasn't expecting this."

"This isn't like them, this isn't like them at all."

"Princess Celestia, I'm scared," Twilight said as she huddled up next to the princess.

Hoffman turned and gave Celestia a hardened stare.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us that there'd be dragons here too?"

"You never asked," Celestia replied. Hoffman gave a low growl and looked out the window again. Outside there were several very large dragons, one massive dragon and a horde of smaller ones bigger than Bezerkers, Hoffman ground his teeth and then turned to his Onyx Guards.

"Okay, now what?"

"You're the Chairman," one of the Guards said, Hoffman grunted and went back to looking out the window.

"I know I am but I never expected to be fighting Puff the Magic Dragon and his asshole friends."

"What about your soldiers?" Celestia said, "Surely they have weapons capable of stopping the Dragons."

"We might do but I don't know if we'd be able to attack without being destroyed."

Celestia let go of Twilight and stood firm, staring at Hoffman directly.

"What we need is a distraction so that your army can ambush them."

"You have a distraction in mind?" Hoffman asked.

"Yes," the princess replied, "Me."

"Princess Celestia, you can't do this!" Twilight said.

"I have to Twilight, for the safety of the town and the ponies."

"I agree with Twilight," Hoffman said, "My troops should be here soon, the Ravens will arrive a few minutes later but our armor will cover them."

"Do you think we'll be okay?" Twilight asked. Celestia sighed and hugged her again.

"I don't know."

Hoffman went back to staring out the window when his radio kicked in.

"Anya to Hoffman, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here, you seen what's outside?"

"Yes, unfortunately. Where are the troops at?"

"Hopefully, on their way," Hoffman said, "Where are you?"

"In Rarity's shop with Bernie."

"Okay. Hold your position until the troops get here."

Carousel Boutique. Shop center.

Anya took her finger off her radio and sighed. There was no hope of getting out of this alive without serious firepower and massive numbers. Both of which were more than several minutes away and anything could happen in that short period of time. She went over to the window and looked outside, several large dragons were walking in the streets, looking in each open window they came across as if they were looking for something. She then felt a hand on her shoulder and looked behind her to see Bernie staring out the window as well.

"Dragons," she said, "Fucking dragons. How the hell did this happen?"

"I don't know," Anya replied, "Where's the rest of our escort?"

"Hiding in the building, they're setting up defensive positions."

"What about Rarity? Is she here still?"

"Yeah, she's gone a hidden in the basement. I don't think she'll come out at all until these buggers are gone."

"So what do we do?"

"Keep our heads down, from what I know about how these tossers are behaving they're looking for something. So if they keep that up they should be taken by surprise when our Gears show up."

"If our guys keep quiet though and sneak in the town."

"Radio them and tell them that."

"Looks like I'm going back to my days in CIC," Anya said as she pressed her finger to her ear. "Anya to Marcus, are you receiving?"

"Copy Anya, where are you?"

"Were in Rarity's shop in the middle of town, where are you?"

"About one klick from the edge of town, why?"

"Look, you need to stay quiet and sneak in, the dragons are unaware of our presence here. If you can get the drop on them you might be able to kill them without any major casualties."

"Copy, I'll broadcast that on an open channel so the others hear it. Where is Chairman Hoffman?"

"In the town hall. You guys should go to him first. We'll be okay."

"Shit, you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay, Marcus out."

Ponyville Town Hall. Main Lobby.

"Okay Princess," Hoffman said as he paced between the Onyx Guards and terrified ponies, "Would you mind filling us in about these dragons?"

"Well, these creatures have been around for as long as anypony can remember. They don't really come around to our towns because they have their own sources of food and we know to never provoke them or cross into their territory."

"What is their main diet?"

"Us," Twilight squeaked, "They eat ponies sometimes, I've heard stories of entire towns ending up as dragon food."

"And if they don't eat you?"

"Then we become their slaves. It's happened before in the distant parts of the kingdom."

"So why are they here?"

"That, I do not know," Celestia said.

"Oh poniesssssssss," a sinister and almost juvenile voice said, "Come on out little ponies."

"Was that one of them?" A Onyx Guard said. Celestia nodded.

"Sound like a little asshole," another replied, "Should we go out there?"

"No," Hoffman said, "We need backup."

"Also, the dragons are much bigger than they sound," Twilight said, "The smaller ones are three times your size."

"I can hear them in here!" a slightly louder dragon voice barked.

"HIDE!" an Onyx guard yelled as he pulled Hoffman into an office behind them as the rest of the Guards followed. The slammed the door shut and trained their weapons on the door.

"I hope Fenix is on his way," Hoffman said.

Meanwhile, out in the lobby, the dragons were starting to get impatient and angry.

"Come on out ponies. Don't make us come after you."

"What do we do?" Twilight asked Princess Celestia. The sound of a loud crunching followed with a set of terrified screams. Celetia cringed and looked at Twilight, she sighed and then looked back out of the window.

"We go out there. We go out there and hope they don't hurt us."

"Are-are you sure?"

"It's either that or more ponies get hurt. I do not want my little ponies to get hurt."

"We've got some ponies!" a dragon shouted, "Come out and they live."

Celestia huffed and walked over to the door, Twilight following close behind her along with the rest of the hiding ponies. Celestia opened the door with her magic and was then grabbed by two massive dragons and then dragged out to the middle of the town center and in the center of a pack of dragons. The other ponies were surrounded themselves by the dragons, Twilight looked around fearfully then went back to watching Celestia be closed in by several evil looking, sniggering dragons.

"Marcus," Twilight thought, "Where are you?"

"Well well well," a young red dragon said, "If it isn't the princess of the ponies. We didn't know you were here, this makes our attack even more worth it."

"Why are you here?" Celestia demanded.

"You remember Smoke? The dragon you kicked out of the mountain a while ago?"

"What about him?"

"After he was expelled from the mountain he ended up weak and powerless. He's now lost all his self esteem and strength and we're here to get him back to his usual self."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Simple, we're going to bring him a feast. With you as the starter."

The dragons all laughed and started to smash houses and pull out screaming ponies from inside the buildings. Twilight watched in horror as the dragons started the herd the ponies into groups and crush more buildings for the fun of it. She looked around to see if she could find her friends but there was no sign of any of them. She was starting to get very worried until she saw movement behind a building. She focused on it and saw that it was Baird hiding behind a corner of a building. He made eye contact with Twilight and pointed at the ground and then his ear before ducking behind the building again. She didn't know what Baird was trying to say but she knew that he wanted her to look on the ground for something, she looked down and saw a small black device sitting next to her hoof. Twilight picked it up and examined it, from what Bernie had shown her on the first day they arrived it was a radio earpiece. She put it in her ear and looked around to see if the dragons had noticed, none of them were paying attention to her and the ponies she was with so she backed up into the group and tried to talk.

"H-hello?" she whispered, "Anyone there?"

"Twilight, this is Baird. Listen, there's no chance of escape right now. You need to make sure that once the COG arrive your civvies are out of there. Lead them to the east side of town and hide in the forest. Got it?"

"But, I thought you hated us? Why are you trying to help us?"

"Look, I don't like you but I have standards. I'm not leaving you guys to die in the crossfire."

Thank you Baird."

"Also, keep your heads down when the bullets start flying. I don't think any of you guys will be shot but it's better safe than sorry."

Twilight sighed and disconnected. So far the dragons were starting to make fires and spits out of the broken wood from the houses and building that were wrecked. Twilight watched as they dragged the princess over to the largest one.

"Um, what are you doing?" Celestia asked one of the dragons.

"Well, it's been a long trip and a lot of us are hungry. We thought that we'd sample some of the buffet before we take it to Smoke."

"But-but I thought I was going to be Smoke's starter."

"Nah, I don't think he'll mind if we bring him several hundred ponies to make up for it."

Celetia stared at the massive spit, horrified that she was about to become dragon food. She could escape but if she tried to there was the risk of the dragons lashing out on the innocent ponies instead. One of the dragons placed the spit on her back as another tied her to it, Celestia started to struggle but the ropes holding her were too tight. If there was any hope of escape it had long passed.

"No! Please!" Celestia pleaded as she was lifted up over the fire.

"As if," a dragon said. Celestia let out a loud scream as she was lowered over the fire.

"Hey you scaly assholes! Put her down!"

The dragons stopped and looked behind them at the source of the voice: A metal bipedal creature holding a strange weapon.

"Who are you?" a large dragon asked.

"Clayton Carmine. And I'm here to kick your ass."

Three dragons closed in on Carmine and laughed.

"You think you can stop us with your little toy?" One said.

"I don't think, I know," Carmine replied. He aimed his Retro Lancer upwards at the upper chest of the dragon in the center and pulled the trigger, sending a four round burst into the sternum of the dragon. The rounds cleanly punched through the hide of the dragon and made a sickening crunching sound. The dragon placed his hand over the heavily bleeding wounds and then looked at Carmine once before keeling over backwards and laying still on the ground which was now turning a dark red. The other two dragons stared at their fallen friend then shot their glances at Carmine, they bared their teeth and snarled at him. Before they could attack a thundering boom rang out and the dragon on the left had his head blown off and was now staggering around spraying blood over Carmine and the other dragon. The remaining dragon looked up and saw Cole standing on the back of a Packhorse with a Oneshot resting on the top of the cab. Standing around the Packhorse were a hundred Gears and several Centaurs and Armadillo APCs, a fleet of Ravens then flew overhead and circled the town, gunners were in place on the Raven's guns along with Gears standing in the bay with Vulture heavy machine guns.

"Game on, baby!"

The dragon that was holding Celestia continued to stare, he then pointed the spit at the Gears like a sword.

"Attack them!" he bellowed.

The smaller Dragons charged forward and were met with a hail of gunfire from the Gears. The Ravens dropped lower and then showered the larger dragons with the Vultures. As the dragons were pushed back or killed Marcus heaved himself up on the Packhorse with Cole.

"All Gears, engage targets at will!"

Centaurs suddenly rolled in from the west side of town and the Gears swarmed into the center of the battle, utilizing whatever was around for cover. The now more terrified ponies all huddled up together and kept their heads down as bullets flew over them, a loud and rhythmic thumping started making its way over to them, Twilight looked up and saw several massive metal bipedal creatures heading towards her. A voice then rang out in Twilight's ear along with the sound of mechanical machinery and the same rhythmic thumping.

"This is Silverback Squad One-Four, we're making our way to the prisoners."

"Copy that," Marcus said, "Get them out of there and extract the Chairman."

"Wait, what about the princess?" Twilight asked.

"It's okay, we got our top sniper ready to free her."

"Bernie? How's she going to do that?"

"Simple my purple friend," Bernie said over the radio, "I'm gonna shoot the dragon's fingers off."

"Please don't miss," Twilight said fearfully.

"I'll make sure I don't, now get out of here."

Twilight followed the ponies as several Gears made their way through the Silverbacks and escorted them out of the battlefield. She looked back as the Silverbacks opened fire and tore apart two dragons that were trying to cut them off from escaping. Twilight turned away and then ran off with the rest of the ponies, hoping that the Gears could win the fight against the dragons. Meanwhile in the center of the battle, Marcus had teamed up with Cole and they shot out the knees of a smaller dragon and then blasted it's arms off before they both jumped up onto it's chest and revved up their Lancer chainsaws and drove the blades deep into the eye sockets of the dragon which was now screaming loudly. Cole pulled out two grenades and dropped them into the blood pooled eye sockets and he and Marcus jumped off the dragon's face just as they detonated sending up a mix of fire, blood and brain matter that showered the body, the two Gears and several square yards.

"Remind you of the Riftworm?" Cole asked Marcus.

"Not really, it didn't blow up in a fountain of gore."

Marcus and Cole took cover from a burst of fire that a dragon had shot at them. The dragon roared and then a small rocket plume entered it's mouth and then vanished inside it's gullet before exploding showering Cole and Marcus in more gore and organs. They looked up and saw Baird standing behind them with a Longspear launcher on his shoulder and his usual smug grin.

"Sorry guys, did I get you?"

"Yeah, thank for that," Marcus said. Baird ran over and slid behind the body.

"So how's it going?"

"Well, from what I can see, we're kicking their asses. The ponies are all save as well, all we need to do now is get Hoffman."

"Sounds easy enough," Baird said.

"You kiddin', Baird?" Cole said, "Have you seen the number of dragons out there?"

"Yep, but I got some help for us," Baird said. He looked up at the Ravens and then pressed his finger to his ear. "Hey, Gettner. You still with me?"

"Loud and clear," Gettner replied, "You ready for my help now?"

"Took the words right out of my mouth."

"Okay, I'm coming in, stay under me so that you don't get shot."

"Copy that. You two ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Marcus said.

"Hey! Hold up!" Carmine's voice rang out, "Lemme help out too!"

Marcus looked up and saw Carmine running over to him, also he saw a dragon looming over him.

"Carmine! Look out!"

Carmine had no time to react as the dragon pushed the house that was next to him over and send it falling on top of Carmine and several Gears.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Marcus screamed. He grabbed the Longspear from Baird, loaded another rocket, aimed and fired at the dragon which was now standing on the rubble letting out a roar of victory. The rocket impacted the side of the dragon's head and exploded in a fireball leaving no trace of it's skull once the smoke cleared.

"FUCK YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!" Marcus bellowed.

"Shit, Carmine," Cole said. Baird sighed and placed a hand on Marcus's back.

"Look, we need to get to Hoffman now. We'll dig him out later once the dragons are all dead."

"No, we need to get Carmine and the other Gears out of there."

"Marcus? Hey, Marcus!" Carmine said over the radio, "Listen, get to the Chairman now. I'm gonna be okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, me and the Gear got stuck in a massive hollow part of the rubble. We're gonna try and dig our way out."

"Okay, try to not bury yourself."

"Wilco, Marcus. Good luck."

Marcus changed frequencies and then contacted Gettner.

"Okay, you can cover us now, we're gonna make the run."

"Copy, coming in for gunrun."

Gettner's Raven circled around and then flew at Marcus, Cole and Baird. Marcus could see that she had two Gears on the guns and a few more with Vultures in the bay. Marcus, Cole and Baird all faced towards the Town Hall and just as Gettner's bird was overhead, sprinted through the hail of gunfire and fire plumes. In order to ward off the smaller dragons coming towards them they opened fire and dropped grenades causing most of their attackers to lose limbs, wings or sensory appendages. Just as they reached the battered door to the Town Hall, Marcus span around and saw that the largest dragon still had Celestia tied to the spit.

"Bernie, where the fuck are you? The princess is still in trouble."

"You want me to free her or not?" Bernie snapped back.

"Now would be a better time than later."

"Hold on, almost there."

A loud crack of a firearm sounded over the explosions and gunfire and the princess fell from the spit, blinded the dragon with a flash if light and flew upwards where a Raven caught her and flew off. The dragon staggered around a few steps before tripping over a 'Dill and falling flat on it's face in a pile of burning and jagged rubble. It struggled against the rubble and pulled itself up, letting out an earthshaking roar. It looked up and then saw that it was staring down the barrel of a Centaur's main cannon.

"Surprise motherfucker!" The gunner yelled. The cannon then discharged and blasted a hole clean through the dragons face and out the back of it's skull before detonating against another dragon in flight that was pursuing a Raven. by now the dragons had gained second thoughts and had now started to run. Most of the 'Dills and Centuars were now setting up position to shoot down the low flying dragons while the Ravens cut them off and sprayed bullets into their wings to make them fall out of the sky.

"God damn, we really fucked up those guys didn't we?" Cole said.

"Yeah," Baird said, "Fucked up them, and most of the town."

Marcus looked around and sighed.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath. He then turned and started to kick at the door with Cole and Baird, after several unsuccessful attempts to open it a Silverback approached them from behind.

"Here guys, let me help you out," The pilot said. The Silverback tromped up to the door and swung it's leg around and impacted the door which sent the doors flying into the empty building, Marcus, Cole and Baird stormed in and checked the inside for any surviving dragons. Marcus took a few more steps into the building and looked around.

"Chairman Hoffman, are you in here?"

A door creaked open and Hoffman exited followed by his Onyx Guards.

"Good of you to show up," Hoffman said, "What's it like outside?"

"All dragons are either dead or have run away," Anya said over the radio, a few of our Ravens are doing an aerial sweep of the area.

"Alright, good. What about Princess Celestia? Is she safe?"

"Yes, one of our Ravens picked her up mid air and took her to safety. She'll be outside soon, you'd best go and show you're okay too."

Hoffman let out a sigh and followed the Gears outside.

"Something wrong?" Baird asked.

"Yeah, I didn't get a chance to kick some ass myself. What did I miss?"

"Why don't you come and see for yourself?"

Hoffman took up the front of the squad and looked around as he entered the battlefield. Bloody chunks of mutilated dragon was strewn across the center of the town, huge puddles of blood had now formed under the lifeless bodies of the dragons and were being spread around by Gears and armored vehicles. Several Gears were sawing off parts of the dragons and mounting them on the Centaurs, a few were even climbing on the larger bodies and taking pictures of themselves on the bodies. Hoffman didn't get in the way of his Gears, they seemed to be celebrating in a way and they had precious little to celebrate for eighty years. He waited as the Raven carrying Princess Celestia landed several feet in front of him and the Princess stepped out, Hoffman kept his posture as the Princess shakily walked over to Hoffman, she looked around and then stopped in front of him. Celestia took a deep breath and then spoke.

"Even though half of the town has been destroyed, I thank you and your soldiers for saving us."

"We'll help you rebuild," Hoffman replied, "There's enough manpower here to get this place fixed up in a few days."

"Thank you again, but I must ask, what your soldiers are doing?"

"Collecting proof that they killed dragons. They're pretty damn happy about that."

"Please, these dragons were a pushover," Bernie said as she walked over to them, "All they seemed to be were just large, easy to shoot targets."

"Bernie. Were you the one who shot me free?" Celestia asked her.

"Yes, I was."

"Thank you for doing that, I thought I was done for."

"Well, I was going for the dragon's fingers so he'd drop you but I thought it would cause a ricochet and hit you instead."

"You are impressive with that weapon, but your round did graze me a little."

Celestia held up her front hoof to show a small cut on her front leg. Bernie cringed and reached for her first aid kit.

"Here, let me fix it up for you," she said as she approached the Princess. Celestia held up her hoof and backed up a little.

"No no, I can heal myself. But I do thank you for offering to help me."

Bernie put her first aid kit away as Celesita's horn glowed and the cut disappeared.

"Impressive," Bernie thought, "Only if we had that sort of thing back in the Pendulum Wars. So many lives would've been saved."

Several minutes later most of the town's residents returned only to find destroyed homes, dead dragons and a lot of bloodsoaked Gears patrolling the place. Many of them just stood and stared in shock of what had happened, their town had been wrecked by a horde of dragons that now lay in the center of the town, all killed by the humans and their terrifying weapons. But what stunned them more was that the Gears had actually killed the dragons rather than warding them off like they had originally thought. As they wandered around the town in total silence, staring at the bodies, two small voices rang out and broke the monotony of light conversation.

"Carmine! Carmine!"

Marcus turned around to see Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle running through the town, looking around frantically and calling the same name over again. Apple Bloom saw Marcus and ran over to him, Sweetie Belle followed.

"Marcus, where's Carmine?"

"Is he okay?" Sweetie Belle said, tears forming in her eyes. "Please say he's okay."

"Girls, listen to me. He's okay but he got trapped under a building, we're digging him out now."

The two fillies started to cry and they sank down to the ground.

"Is he hurt?" Apple Bloom asked.

"I don't know."

"Girls? Hey! Girls!"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked up and saw Carmine running over to them, they jumped up and ran over to him, still crying. Carmine crouched down and held his arms out to the fillies who ran into them and hugged him.

"It's okay, I'm still here."

"We thought you died." Sweetie Belle wept.

"Well, I'm still here. There there, calm down."

"We're glad you're still alive. We'd miss you if you were gone."

"Say, where's Scootaloo at?"

"She ran back home and hid there. You need to show that you're okay."

"I'll go and tell her," Marcus said, "I need to talk to her anyways."

"Why do you need to talk to her?" Carmine asked as he picked up the two fillies and carried them over to him.

"It's on a need to know basis."

"Is that something like a secret?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah," Marcus said as he stroked her mane, "It's a secret."

A second later a voice blared over the radio.

"KR-Six-Three reporting in, we've got company! Up high!"

Pretty much everyone looked up to see six very large dragons descending on the town. The Ravens all scrambled and set up a perimeter while the ground forces reloaded and aimed high.

"Shit, we didn't need this," Hoffman said.

"They're too far away for our machine guns and our Centaurs can't aim that high," Baird said.

"Relax Delta," Dizzy called over the radio, "Me and the boys got this covered. You can thank us later."

Several thundering booms shattered the air and the sky lit up with explosions the sound of the dragons screams were carried on as each of them burst into fireballs and fell from the sky, vaporizing before they even hit the ground. Marcus ground his teeth for a second before putting a finger to his ear.

"Well one things for sure, Dizzy. Those guns work."