Author note: Kurt Vonnegut once said, “Start as close to the end as possible.” In the spirit of that, this is just action without all the icky emotion and training that led up to it.
Elements of Harm
Two mares walked down the dusty street. The noonday sun reminded them of their mission. Nightmare Moon hadn't quite been able to keep her promise of everlasting night. After all, the crops had to grow sometime.
An orange earth pony sneered at the sickly plants. "Once we get Princess Celestia back in power, we'll have all the sunshine we want."
Her companion, a purple unicorn, said, "One thing at a time, Applejack. Right now, we're focused on the task at hand."
"Sorry, Twilight. This is almost gettin' boring, y'know?" The orange pony adjusted the duster she wore. Twilight was garbed in something similiar.
A few ponies watched them stroll into town. It had been a long time since either of the mares had visited Ponyville. The place had changed a lot. A couple of the watchers wore violet and charcoal uniforms. Shadowbolts, thought Twilight, angrily.
"Just get to the town hall and we can take down that puppet mayor Nightmare Moon installed," advised the unicorn.
"Puppy mayor," suggested Applejack. "It's a diamond dog."
Twilight gave her a quick smile at the attempt at humor. "Just stick to the plan."
"Ah think Ah know how it's supposed to go," said Applejack.
A dozen or so Shadowbolts filed out of an alley up ahead, blocking the street. The two mares stopped. Applejack sighed. "That ain't how it's supposed to go."
"Well, I guess we'll just have to do it a different way," commented Twilight. Both mares pulled back their coats. The orange pony slid a Winchester 1887 lever-action shotgun from a scabbord on her back. The barrel was cut short, but the stock was still full length to make the weapon easier to handle. Hooves weren't that great at controling recoil.
With magic, Twilight drew her pistols. She had a holster on each leg, and two on a belt around her hips. The guns were all Colt Single Action Army revolvers, identical except for their serial numbers. The unarmed Shadowbolts scattered.
Guns were fairly new to Equestria. The first few had appeared mysteriously in place of the Elements of Harmony after the failed battle with Nightmare Moon. Others had been steadily showing up since then.
"Aww shucks," said Applejack as the departing Shadowbolts fled. She and Twilight began to walk again. There was a sudden shot, and a pony in the Shadowbolt uniform fell off a rooftop, a pistol clutched in his hooves.
Twilight tapped her ear, where the magical communicater had been placed. "Nice one, Rarity."
On a hilltop overlooking Ponyville, a white unicorn lay with a scoped rifle. She pulled back the bolt on her Springfield Model 1903, a shiny brass .30-06 casing flying out of the chamber. "No trouble, darling."
Beside Rarity, a pink pony with a frizzy mane quivered with excitement. "Don't you have a cannon to run, Pinkie?" asked the unicorn, annoyed.
"Nope! They haven't asked for artillery support yet," Pinkie told her. The hyper mare adjusted a strap that crossed over her back and under one of her front legs. Rarity sighed, wondering where Pinkie had come across the ill-fitting thing she called a "shoulder holster." The sniper went back to looking through her optics, searching for targets.
Back in the center of Ponyville, Twilight touched her ear again. "Rainbow, come in."
From somewhere overhead, a multicolored pegasus replied, "Yeah?"
"Keep your eyes peeled," advised the unicorn. "Never know when we might need close air support."
"I'd never leave my friends hanging," said Rainbow. "Don't worry, I've got your steel rain right here."
Twilight nodded to Applejack and the two of them kept moving. The half-dozen six-shooters floating around Twilight pointed themselves this way and that. Applejack kept her scattergun ready. Then, just like a shooting gallery, Shadowbolts began popping up.
The first few enemy ponies fell to Twilight and Applejack’s combined attack. Return fire forced the two mares to take cover. The purple unicorn ducked around the corner of a stone building. Her earth pony compatriot, however, was caught behind an old produce cart mired in the center to the street.
“Ah could use some help!” shouted Applejack in annoyance, looking skyward.
A multicolored streak separated from the glare of the sun and dove into the town. Rainbow Dash fired on the crowd of Shadowbolts, driving them out of the street. The Vz. 61 Skorpion clutched in the pegasus’ hooves was only a .32 caliber, but it spat the small bullets at an incredible rate.
Twilight and Applejack covered their friend while she reloaded. After a quick triple brohoof, they set off again, heading for the town hall. The bodies of slain Shadowbolts littered the street, but there had to be more waiting. “Amateurs,” muttered Rainbow as she stepped over one of the fallen ponies.
“This one isn’t dead…” said a quiet voice. The three mares looked back to see a yellow pegasus crouching over a Shadowbolt. She put a Smith & Wesson Model 36 to the stallion’s forhead. “Let me help you.”
“Why are you wasting bullets on those guys?” complained Rainbow after Fluttershy had pulled the trigger.
"Yeah, that's what bayonets are for," agreed Applejack.
“I just don’t want them to suffer,” the quiet pony explained.
“We have to keep going,” said Twilight. “Don’t want to let Spike beat us to the town hall.”
“Girls, you may have a problem,” reported Rarity. “There’s a fortified building along your route that appears to be filled with Shadowbolts.”
“Pinkie, do you have the target?” asked Twilight over the communicator.
“Absolutely! What kind of artillerymare would I be if I didn’t?” The pink pony bounced over to where her improvised mortar had been set up. Party Cannon had been painted on the side. Now it read ”Party” Cannon. It was a nice touch of subtlety, Pinkie thought.
After a quick calculation of ballistic trajectories, Pinkie set the cannon off. The weapon fired an explosive shell that arced from the hilltop into town, falling perfectly on the fortified building. From the rubble that was left, only a few ponies emerged. Rarity picked off the survirors. She hated to leave Pinkie’s work imperfect.
Back on the street, two Shadowbolts appeared at long range. Applejack’s spreading buckshot dusted them both with only one pull of the trigger. The group of mares raced forward. Rainbow covered the rest with automatic fire when needed. The tactic worked well—too well.
“I’m out!” cried the pegasus. “Completely!”
“Here,” called Twilight, tossing two of her revolvers to the cyan pony. Rainbow smiled with thanks and dashed off, six-shooters firing from both her hooves.
The town hall looked reasonably unguarded. Twilight stepped carefully towards the door, alert for any traps. Applejack looked around. “Where in tarnation is Spike?”
The door of the building burst open and the Nightmare Moon-appointed mayor ran out. It was a diamond dog, one of those that had survived the assault Twilight and friends had mounted to rescue Rarity when she had been taken prisoner months before. Speaking of prisoners, the dog clutched a purple dragon tightly by the throat.
“Help!” gasped Spike. As the only fireproof one of the group, his job was demolition. An improvised Molotov cocktail was clutched in his claws.
“Put down your weapons!” shouted the dog. He thought for a moment. “How do ponies manage to pull triggers with hooves, anyway?”
“We-we’d better do what he says,” whispered Fluttershy.
On the hill, Rarity watched the scene grimly. Her concentration was broken by a cold metal gun barrel pressing into the back of her head.
“Look what we have here,” said a Shadowbolt. “Too obsessive on what’s in front of you to see the big picture.”
Pinkie put the barrel of her sidearm, a chrome-plated .44 Magnum AutoMag, to the back of the stallion’s head. “This doesn’t look like your lucky day, punk.”
“Pinkie, don’t—” shouted Rarity.
Pinkie pulled the trigger. Her eyes widened in surprise, and not from the sound of the shot. “Oops. Sorry about that, Rarity. I should have realized the splatter would get all over you.”
The unicorn glared at her. “Worst. Facial. Ever.”
Down in the street, Twilight locked eyes with the diamond dog. “I’m not putting my weapons down. You put the dragon down and surrender.”
“Never!” shouted the dog. “You fillies are just a gun-toting gang.”
“Excuse me?” said the purple unicorn, offended. “We didn’t put in so much training to be just another mob. All of us have our own special talents.”
Gesturing to her friends, Twilight said, “Applejack is the element of scattershot, flexible for a concentrated blast, or spread over an area. Rainbow is the element of high volume fire, providing both suppression and offensive capability. Fluttershy is the element of the mercy kill, quieting those in agony and making sure they stay down. Rarity is the element of precision shooting, able to place a bullet exactly where it is needed. Pinkie is the element of fire support, doing what our small weapons can’t.”
“And I’m the element of backup. I always carry an extra gun.” Twilight smirked. “Or five.”
The dog cut his eyes back and forth to each of the mares in front of him. “You’re crazy.”
“No, this is crazy.” Twilight fired at the Molotov cocktail. The bottle shattered, throwing flaming liquid all over Spike and the dog.
The dragon rolled out of the way as his canine captor screamed in flaming pain. Fluttershy quietly walked over and put a bullet in his head.
“Are you okay, Spike?” asked Twilight.
“I’m on fire,” answered the little dragon, getting up. He brushed the flames off his unharmed scales. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Pinkie and Rarity came down off the hill as the noncombatant residents of Ponyville began to emerge from their homes. They stared at the grumpy unicorn who carried a rifle and the pink earth pony who was wheeling a cannon and carrying a large handgun in a shoulder holster. The two armed mares met with their friends in the center of town and huddled together for a pep talk.
“Okay, the battle of Ponyville is over,” said Twilight. She smiled. “We took back our home, but now we have to free the rest of Equestria.”
“Let’s do this!” shouted Rainbow. The rest cheered in agreement.
Twilight nodded and looked north, towards Canterlot. “We’re coming for you, Nightmare Moon.”
Epic. This is just plum epic.
I am seriously enjoying this.
Keep fillin' 'em with lead, Applejack.
LLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYY
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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LEEEERRRROYY JEEENKINNNNSS! *gunfire*
Dear Celestia, she just flew in.
Stick to the plan stick to the plan!
Yup. Guess that Shadowbolt wasn't feeling lucky.
... This is just hilarious.
WWII Fire arms and MLP. Color me interested.
Meaning she whipped the cannon around and fired with her eyes closed, relying on the twitch of her forehooves to properly aim the cannon for her.
Oh ho ho dat slaps me on the knee
I have not been able to read any fics with a lot of action on it but this one definitely is a good read.
I didn't think I'd like reading this.
I was wrong.
I hate being right.
Awesomness!!!!!
It awsome dont get me wrong, but did you have to use steel rain, Thats reserved only for indrick boreale.
AH! WHY DO I HAVE TO BE SO CYNICAL ABOUT THIS!!! (Headdesk, headdesk headdesk, headdeak headdesk headdesk)
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HEADDESK
Sorry, because I like this idea, I really do, and your a good writer, I just saw SO many things to gripe about I couldn't keep quiet (though I probably should've put it in the latest chapter).
First, spelling mistakes: "Shooing" When talking about Rarity's talent, among a few others, but they're trivial.
My ONLY other gripe, after that, is something that doesn't matter but it's niggling at me. Their weapons.
Element of harmony fire-arms that run out of ammo? Reloading's fine I suppose but surely the elements themselves would provide more magazines, but even then reloading for them is a little, mundane, and if that bothers you, ya coulda given them weapons that covers the reloading.
Applejack's scattergun, that's fine, family's from Appleoosa, it fits. However Twighlight's six shooters, (six shots AND six guns) they fit the cutie mark she has, six guns, six shots, six star points, but they are just about the clumsiest things imaginable, I can see why ya chose them, they fit, but why not swap them for M1911s for sticking to American weapons, that'd be six guns with twelve shots each, still devisable by six. That's just me though.
Rainbow Dash's Scorpion, would it not have fit better for someone like RD to have two of these, strapped to her hooves maybe, since she doesn't seem to care about accuracy, just suppression, it fits, both light, and doesn't impede her speed like an LMG (e.g a Squad Automatic Weapon or SAW) would.
I'm haveing trouble thinking of somethign neater than a Springfield, though maybe a rifle from later, like a Bravo-51, still bolt action though, a Barret would be a bit too big, and makes a mess.
Pinkie's wepons are perfect, well done on picking
Fluttershy could do with a rethink, but I'm short on time.
Great story, I'll be watching closely.
Well done TNaB
Honora Imperator
I spent most of my time looking up pics of the guns. An all I could think when I read about Rarity's gun was "SNOIPEH!"
Good story so far. And btw I'm just going to leave this here.
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oh, god. why? she's dead.
I thought Twilight would wield an energy weapon, dubbed E-HARM, something akin to a plasma weapon or a disruptor... but this still works
so cool... all this group needs is a tank or a "meat shield" to take on incomming fire while every one else kills the attackers i rakdarian dragesverd nominate myself
uberfriendship.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/knight.jpg
For a) it's a scabbard.
For b) guns use holsters. Swords have scabbards.
This Fanfic has been brought to you by Man-Co. Publishing. Because character development is for wimps!
Imperial calibers.............. :| oh well I guess thats inevitable. And thats not meant as a compliment. Have fun killing each other yanks and dixies.
Hmmmm......really impressivre, I'll be keeping an eye out for this, and what happened to Celestria, or the CMC or Derpy Hooves? I'll be reading this, and looking up the pics for the guns soon since I have no idea what guns your talking about.
Fluttershy should be the team medic. Someone who's only job is to shoot the guys who already got shot seems pretty lame.
The orange pony slid a Winchester 1887 lever-action shotgun from a scabbord
This sentence managed to get a critical hit on me, so I actually stopped reading entirely.
That...is an exellent question. My guess is they (the non-unicorns) filed off the trigger guards and just move their hooves back and forth.
An even better question to ask is how they got the guns in the first place.
Nah, that'd ruin the whole thing. You never, ever bring logic into anything. It just ruins the fun.
:O OH MY GOD
Fluttershy mercy killing...lol
Ahh no complete background logic + story just action, lots of it.
I love it. i love it i love it i love it... you get the idea. I LOVE IT.
Excellent, very entertaining. The only thing that really confused or bothered me was how Rainbow Dash managed to use two single-action revolvers at once, although I suppose that is a silly thing to get caught up on in a story about ponies with guns. :D
NO COMMENT
Wha...
*snrk*
BWAHAHAHA HAHA HA HAHAHA!
^ That, right there, is my reaction.
“Are you okay, Spike?” asked Twilight.
“I’m on fire,” answered the little dragon, getting up. He brushed the flames off his unharmed scales. “Yeah, I’m good.”i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/200/420/BRTky.jpg?1321408042
1321672
i'm guessing you mean how she reloads? yeah, that be hard lol
Now I am peaslantly surprised. I feared how this would turn out, but except for a few grammar mistakes, this is actually a favorite of mine.... Something to gripe..... Ah! W-how does this make so much sense!
someone should make a proper elaborated story out of this.
not to say anything bad about this, it's both funny and fun to read
B-b-b-but Twilight's the sniper
love it love it!
but just a question. rarity the sniper of the group....but yet she not wearing cameo?
green area + white coat of hers = can be spot out very easily. least pinkie was there to save her...this time and is her rifle bolt action or it doesn't need to reload a new round each time?
also, i'm happy twi gun(s) is the Colt Single Action Army revolver. fits her well, since only twi can remember how many bullets she have left. its a high class gun after all :P
Dash gun, also fits her as well. its a good weapon to have for hit and runs but dash better not get too trigger happy, since the scorpion only fires 20 round, unless its custom mag that carries 30.
Shy gun.....needs a suppressor and it will be prefect :3
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well, if twi did had the M1911s, she will heavily customized it like "stepping" texture on the mainspring housing to avoid slippage during recoil, as well as a checkered front strap part for a more positive grip,
a high-profile 3-dot type sight system. It features an enlarged front sight, giving it superior target sighting capability, helping the user to see over the suppressor,
a ring hammer from the Colt Commander model, replacing the the standard spur hammer. This eliminates "hammer bite" occasionally experienced by some shooters and decreases lock time, making the ignition system faster and so on lol
And then Nightmare Moon summoned the Team Fortress 2 goons.
Sniper: "Yer goin' down yeh prancin' show-ponies!"
Heavy: "Sandvich is magic!"
Spy: "Fat man, please!" *Face-palm*
Scout: "Need a dispenser here!" *Points at the ground*
Engineer: "Nope!" *Flips off Scout*
Pyro: *is toasting a marshmallow with his flamethrower*
Demoman: "Burp!"
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That is all.
"Fluttershy is the element of the mercy kill"
encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRlC2P7npEJeYVLCtoReWW8fFhth55kaDoC3ypLFzo7il-E7YG-lQ
While the concept seemed like a first time writer's utter debauchery of all we hold sacred, this is actually pretty damn awesome.
steel rain...
http://1d4chan.org/images/thumb/7/7d/Borealemlp.jpg/200px-Borealemlp.jpg
Ponies, WWII guns AND Dirty Harry?
readlaterandfavorite
OK! you know what, I don't care!!!
I read plenty of deep intelectual fanfics, I fill myself with plenty of philosipy, I deserve a fanfic now and then thats just good becasue its awesome. It doesn't have to be deep or metaphorical.
I am content with making this fic on of my few guilty pleasures.
watched and favorited, don't worry "Elements of Harm", you'll fit right in next to "fallout equestia" and "I meet a pony in hell"
I like this. A lot.
Yep.
Suggestion:
Needs Big Macintosh toting a 50-Cal Machine Gun on his back, like an M1917 or M1919.
"Ah have this gun. Ah like ta shoot this gun. All ya need tah know."
Yay for the complete absence of character development!
I can totally see Big Mac: "I am heavy weapons guy. And THIS... is my weapon."
This is so
Honestly I have no problem with guns in Equestria, but one thing I really hate is when a writer is SO bloody specific with the guns. In total the story is good but again I don't like the idea of real guns in their world.
1319352 They are very simple to convert you know...
1318174
Revolver Ocelot disapproves of your comment.
As for Rarity, what about an M1 Garand. ping
Anyone else hear Short Change Hero in their heads?
holy fuck this is AMAZINNG!!! I always knew I would be aritllery.
This should have been the pilot episode. Heck, maybe this was Mrs. Faust's original vision for FiM.