//------------------------------//
// There Is No Glory in Battle Worth the Blood It Costs 
// Story: If You Want Peace, Prepare For War 
// by tranhdxrbntd 
//------------------------------//

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.