A group of morning joggers were going through White Tail Park, the largest park in Canterlot City, when one of them stopped and took a seat on a nearby bench. She was dressed in jogging pants, a black hoodie, sneakers, and, oddly enough, sunglasses. She rested there for a few minutes before she noticed a similarly dressed woman take a seat next to her, holding a thermos.
"Lovely weather this morning, wouldn't you agree?" the second woman said.
"Eh, a little warm if you ask me," the jogger replied.
The second woman smiled, offering her the thermos, "Here, this should cool you down."
The jogger took the thermos, "Thanks." They both then got up and started walking in opposite directions down the path. After a bit of walking, the jogger opened the thermos, looked inside, smiled, closed it, brought out her cellphone, and made a call.
"Sir. I have the package."
"Excellent."
Sunset Shimmer sat down in front of the fully restored Wondercolts statue, brought out her magic journal and a pen, and started to wright.
Dear, Princess Twilight
How are things in Equestria? Things are going OK over here. They even fixed the Wondercolt statue. My magic did start to feel weird a few days ago, but it's probably nothing. I started looking into it tough, so if you've got any ideas, I'm all ears, or eyes in this case.
Your friend, Sunset Shimmer
"Sunset Sunset Sunset!"
Sunset Shimmer looked up and saw Pinkie Pie heading towards her. "Hey Pinkie? What's up?"
Pinkie stopped in front of Sunset and produced her phone. "Sunset! You have GOT to see this!"
Sunset closed her journal, grabbed the offered phone, and played the already loaded video.
A woman appeared on screen. "You've played Airsoft." A window opened up on screen with footage of people playing a game of Airsoft. "You've played Paintball." And another showing people playing Paintball. "You've played Laser Tag." And again with Laser Tag. "But you've never played anything like this." The screen switched to show footage of a battlefield with people shooting at each other with what appeared to be laser based weapons, with tanks no bigger than a person and planes no bigger than a hang glider. "Suit up in our U.E. Soldier Armor." The camera zoomed in to show a person dressed in what appeared to be a modified military combat uniform, without the pouches for extra gun clips. "Control the land by taking command of one of our E.E. Tanks." The camera angled away from the person and zoomed in on one of the tanks, showing it to be less angular and more rounded than a normal tank. "Take command of the skies by controlling one of our P.E. Gliders." The camera angled towards the sky and zoomed in on one of the planes, showing it to resemble a less angular and more rounded version of a Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. "Customize your own weapons with fully interchangeable handles, bodies, barrels, stocks, and accessories." The camera changed to show people putting together their own guns from parts hanging on a wall behind them. The screen changed back to the lady with four windows depicting the soldiers, tanks, planes, and gun assembly area. "This. Is MagiWars!" she finished with a grand flourish.
As the video came to an end, Sunset Shimmer said the only thing that came to mind in that instance, "What the heck?!"
"I know, isn't it awesome?!"
"No," - Sunset got to her feet- "I mean they're using Equestrian magic!"
"What? Are you sure?"
"I grew up with Equestrian magic, I know what it looks like!" Sunset snapped.
Pinkie through her hands up in a placating manner. "Alright, alright. Jeez, touchy."
Sunset sighed and started pacing. "Sorry. It's just, this is really, really bad. Remember what happened the last time someone tried to combine magic and technology?"
"You mean when our world's Twilight created that device to track and store magic then used it to unleash the magic got consumed by it turned into a she-demon that looked more like a fallen angel then tried to rip apart reality so she could go to Equestria and you had to do the exact same thing and turned into an angel to stop her?" Pinkie said, ending with a smile.
"Exactly!" Sunset said, without breaking stride. She then stopped and pulled out her phone.
"What'cha doin'?" Pinkie looked over Sunsets shoulder as she went through her contacts list.
"I'm sending a group text to the others to meet up at my place," Sunset said without looking up from her phone.
"OK."
When Sunset looked up, she saw that Pinkie was at the doors to the school. She looked to her, confused and asked "Pinkie? Where are you going?"
"To get Twilight. She's still in the library reading. And besides, she's never been to your place, so she doesn't know the way."
"That's right!" Sunset facepalmed, "Ugh, how could forget that?" She then started to walk towards Pinkie.
Pinkie just shrugged, "I dunno. Maybe it has something to do with you being super stressed because the world could be coming to an end soon?"
They walked through the doors and saw Twilight coming around the corner, "I'm so glad I caught you guys! Sunset, I got your text, but I have no idea where you live," she said with a sheepish smile, "Mind if I tag along with the two of you?"
Sunset smiled at her, "We were just on our way to come get you actually. Come on, we don't want to miss the buss." And with that, they made their way out of the school and across the road.
As they were waiting for the bus, Twilight turned towards Sunset, "By the way, Sunset? What's this emergency meeting about, anyway?"
"I'll tell you when the whole groups together. Your initial reaction is going to be key to making my point." Sunset said with a smile.
"OK?" Twilight said with a bit of uncertainty. Just then, the bus drove up, they got on, and spent the ride in an awkward silence, except Pinkie, who spent the ride making commentary on the scenery.
As Applejack walked through the door, she noticed she was not the first to arrive. Sitting on the couch in the living room where Rarity and Fluttershy, have a conversation about sewing techniques. "Howdy Rarity, Fluttershy." She took her boots off and set them next to the others'. "Guessin' y'all got Sunset's text then?"
"Hello Applejack, and yes, we received Sunset's text at the spa. I wonder what could have happened that would make Sunset call for an emergency meeting like this." Rarity said, with a mildly concerned look on face towards the end.
"I hope it's nothing too serious." Fluttershy said, concern evident in her voice.
"Ah'm sure everythin'll turn out fine," Applejack said as she took a seat on the chair to the left of the couch.
Just then, they heard mumbling coming from outside the door, "... afforda place like this?" They heard Twilight say as Sunset opened the door.
"I brought some money from home, and the exchange rate was ridiculously in my favor."
"Hello, darlings." Rarity greeted them.
"Hey guys." Sunset returned the greeting.
Twilight opened her mouth, ready to say something, "She doesn't even have to pay mortgage!" before she was interrupted by Pinkie Pie from in the Kitchen.
"What!?" Twilight exclaimed with clear surprise. "How much money do you have?!"
Sunset gave a small smile, "Enough for now." She then frowned, noticing something. "Hey, where's Rainbow?"
As if on cue, a knocking came from the door, "Hey! Anybody in there?! I don't have my key!" Though the voice was muffled by the door, it was obviously Rainbow Dash.
"Key?" Twilight said in confusion, looking at Sunset, who was already on her way to the door.
"You get sick when you live alone, you learn to let someone have a key if you want some decent rest. Speaking of, I should probably get you one." Sunset said, then opened the door.
"Hey Sunset." Rainbow greeted. She entered the house and turned so she was facing everyone else, "Hey, guys! You'll never guess what I just got," she said with barely contained excitement.
"Athlete's foot?" Pinkie said from the front door.
Rainbow got a disgusted look on her face and turned towards Pinkie, "What?! No!"
"Wait. Pinkie? Weren't you just in the kitchen?" Twilight asked, briefly looking from Pinkie to the kitchen then back again.
Pinkie just smiled, gave a brief nod, and said "Uh huh, but then I noticed I forgot to take my shoes off, and that's just rude, so I went back outside so I could come back in and take them off." She then looked at Rainbow, who then looked at her sneakers, rolled her eyes, and kicked them off next to the others' boots.
"Anyway, what I got, is this!" She then held up what looked like a credit card.
"You got a new credit card? That doesn't seem like something you'd get excited over, darling." Rarity said with an amused smile.
Rainbow just frowned in response, "It is not a credit card," She then smiled, "It's a team pass for MagiWars!" Sunset cringed at the mention of the possible armageddon. "It cost me, like, a years allowance, but it was so worth it."
Pinkie looked at Rainbow and said "Huh, that's ironic."
Rainbow turned towards Pinkie in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"She means that the reason I called this meeting is because of MagiWars." Sunset said, getting everyone's attention. "You see, MagiWars is using Equestrian magic in their technology."
Twilight went pale, "M-m-magic? A-are you s-sure?"
Sunset nodded, "Positive." She then noticed Twilight starting to hyperventilate, "Twilight? Are you OK?" she asked in concern. I was expecting a strong reaction, but not this strong. When she didn't get an immediate reply, she lead Twilight over to the couch and sat her down in between Rarity and Fluttershy. She then went into her kitchen and came back out with a paper bag. She handed the bag to Twilight, who took it and started breathing in it.
After Twilight had calmed down, she gave the bag back to Sunset, "Thanks," she said with a small smile. "I'm good now. You can keep going."
Sunset looked to Twilight with worry, "You sure?" Twilight just nodded. "OK." Sunset took a breath before continuing, "I was thinking we should investigate. See if the technology being used is safe, figure out how they got their hands on Equestrian magic, see if the ones who invented the tech are actually from this world or are banished criminals from Equestria, that kind of thing."
"I agree with Sunset." Twilight said, and all eyes turned towards her, "We all remember what happened when I tried using magic without properly knowing how to. If MagiWars is using magic in it's technology, then what happened to me could potentially happen to everyone who plays it, and that can't end well."
The others started looking between themselves, "So, how would we go about investigating, then?" Rarity said.
"Yeah. It's not like we can just go up to 'em and ask 'em up front what's going' on." Applejack added.
Sunset nodded "True," and started to pace back and forth with her hand on her chin in a thinking pose, "We'd need to get close enough to study their tech, possibly get into their HQ and look around without raising suspicions, no matter how unlikely it may be. Any ideas?"
As it happened, Rainbow had one, "We could use my team pass, make us a team for MagiWars competitions. That'd get us close enough for you and Twilight to study the tech. That, and I, kinda, sorta, already put all of our names on the pass." Rainbow ended with a sheepish smile.
Sunset stopped pacing when Rainbow started talking. When she was done, Sunset gave a small smile, "That's actually a pretty good idea."
Rainbow lit up at that' "Really!?" Sunset nodded her head 'yes', "Awesome!"
"Right, so we become a MagiWars team, and investigate their facilities before and after competitions." Sunset then looked towards Rainbow, "Uh, when is the first competition?"
"The first competition's in about a week, but the fields open tomorrow for practice sessions, and friendly matches." Rainbow relied.
"Alright. Since tomorrow's Saturday, let's all go do a practice session, and see what we can find out. Everyone in?"
"Well, if you're sure there's no other way, I suppose I shall participate." Rarity said. "Hmm, I wonder what the outfits are like," she wondered out loud.
"Sounds like fun!" Pinkie said.
"Count me in as well," said Applejack.
"If you think it's for the best, I'm in," Fluttershy said.
Rainbow put her hands on her hips, "Do you even need to ask?"
Twilight looked a little uneasy, "I'll just, help from the sidelines."
Sunset nodes in acceptance of everyone's responses. "Well, since we'll be going to the same place tomorrow," she then looked to Pinkie with a sly smile.
Pinkie was practically vibrating in place, "Slumber Party at Sunset's!"
The warehouse district of Canterlot city. Here, a woman walked along the side of the road. She wore a black tracksuit, bandana face mask, and sunglasses. She walked up to a building with a guard on either side of the front door, both similarly dressed to her. After exchanging a silent greeting with them, she entered.
An hour later, she exited the building, and proceeded down the road in the opposite direction from which she came. As she walked, she pulled out her cellphone, and made a call.
"Sir, project 'Angel Fall' is proceeding according to schedule, and our partner has already completed the preparations for all subsequent projects."
"Very good. What of our other partner?"
The woman stopped and looked behind her, "The mob queen has set up her agents, just as she said she would."
"And target 'Prism'? Is their involvement guaranteed?"
The woman smirked as she began to walk again, "Their pass has already been issued."
"Then all is going according to plan. Excellent. Proceed to your next assignment."
"At once, sir." She then flipped her phone closed and dropped it in the nearest trashcan.
One would imagine that a facility for something like MagiWars would be big, intricately designed, and furnished with all the latest technologies. Imagine the surprise felt by the Rainbooms when they walked in, and none of that was the case. It looked like an average gun store, with a pleasant wood furnished aesthetic, and gun replicas adorning the walls and cases. "Welcome to the Canterlot MagiWars registration office. How can I be of service?" a woman greeted them from behind the back counter as they walked through the door.
Rainbow stepped forward, "Uh, hi." She pulled out her pass card, "We have a team pass, and we want to get geared up for a practice sesh. Help us out, uh," she looked at the lady's name tag, "Jade?"
Jade gave one of those professional smiles, "Of course," she then reached behind the counter and started to pull out some tablets, "Just take these and follow the instructions. Feel free to walk around the shop front if you feel the need for some inspiration." When she pulled out the last one, she gave a professional "Have a nice day."
The group took their tablets, shared a nod with each other, and went to separate areas of the shop.
Sunset went to the pistol section, and started looking at the individual guns on display. After several minutes of looking, she gave a sigh, Figures there's nothing. I don't even know what I was expecting to find, just something to help us figure out what's going on. She then looked down at the tablet in her hand and shrugged, "Might as well." She turned the tablet on, and words started to appear on screen.
:PLACE YOUR HAND ON THE SCREEN:
Sunset raised an eyebrow, "OK?" and did as the tablet instructed.
After she heard a beep, she took her hand off the screen, and saw there were new instructions.
:WELCOME TO MAGIWARS GUN SELECTION: :CHOOSE A STANDARD GUN: :MIX AND MACH PARTS:
Curiosity got the better of her and she tapped the 'mix and match'.
:BARRELS: :BODIES: :GRIPS: :STOCKS:
She tapped the bodies icon, and the screen switched to a list of gun bodies. After seeing the list, and scrolling through it a bit, Sunset sighed and had one thought, This might take awhile.
Meanwhile, in the front of the store, Rainbow and Pinkie forwent searching for anything, because Pinkie said "If they're smart enough to build a company, they're smart enough to not leave anything important out in the open," and were instead designing their gear.
"Definitely going to be a glider pilot, no question," Rainbow was adamant on that. "Gotta have a good gun mounted, but most importantly, it's gotta be fast."
Pinkie just nodded along, "Oh, definitely!"
"What about you, Pinkie?"
"Me? Oh, I'm just designing a couple of grenade happy tommys, that's all."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "Uuh, OK?" and went back to picking out her glider.
In the back corner of the shop, Applejack and Fluttershy had decided they weren't going to find anything useful, and were scrolling through the guns list. "Find anythin', Fluttershy?" Applejack asked.
Fluttershy was scrolling through the list, uncertainty in her eyes, "I'm not sure. None of these look like something I'd be comfortable with."
"Is it 'cause these are all modeled after guns meant to kill things?" upon receiving a hesitant nod, she offered a suggestion, "Well, have you tried the tranq' guns yet?"
Fluttershy looked surprised, then her cheeks grew red and she looked away, "No," she then hid her face behind her hair as she scrolled through the tablet in search of the tranquilizer guns.
Applejack smiled, rolled her eyes, and continued to scroll through her own list, when something caught her eye, "Tanks, huh?"
Rarity, having already picked out her gun, was currently scrolling through the accessories list, when she noticed Twilight looking disappointed. "Twilight, dear, whatever is the matter?" she asked in concern.
Twilight looked down and said, "It's nothing." Upon seeing Rarity's sceptical look, she let out a sigh, "It's just, I was kind of hoping one of these guns would have been a working one, so I could see how it's built," she looked at the guns with a furrowed brow, "But instead, they're all just plastic replicas."
Rarity put a hand on Twilight's shoulder, "Oh Twilight, we all knew finding something wouldn't be easy, it's nothing to get upset or discouraged over."
Twilight slumped against the wall, "I know." She then let out a defeated sigh and slid down until she was sitting on the floor.
Rarity looked on with sympathy, then offered Twilight her hand, "Let's go see if the others have had better luck."
Twilight looked at the hand, then gave a faint smile before taking it, "OK," and let Rarity pull her to her feet.
Once they got to the back counter, the others were already there, and judging by their faces, they're luck wasn't any better.
Jade saw them and gave her professional smile, "Ah, I see the whole group is back together again. I hope you were able to make adequate decisions regarding equipment?"
Realizing it was a question, rather than a statement, Rarity responded with "Oh, yes, of course."
"Excellent. Now, if you'll hand me your tablets, I'll upload the data to the assembly, and you'll have them by the time you're done getting your uniforms. Now, about payment."
Sunset pulled out her wallet, "Right, how much do we owe you?"
Jade looked to her computer screen, "With the cost of uniforms, as well as the guns and equipment you all chose, it comes up to..." she trailed off and double checked the screen, "Huh. Looks like you're being sponsored, so you're all paid up."
The girls all shared a look, Sunset was the one to voice their confusion, "Sponsored? By who?"
"By me, of course," came a wholly unwelcome voice, to which the girls all had various negative reactions, ranging from hostile, to disgusted, to concerned. "Or rather, Crystal Prep," the voice amended.
"Cinch," Sunset growled, then turned around. "What are you doing here? Trying to help us? Redeem yourself in some small way?"
Cinch just raised an eyebrow, "I think we all know that is complete rubbish. Why I'm here, is to improve my reputation, as well as that of Crystal Prep."
Sunset frowned and started to turn away, "Yeah, I think we'll just pay for our own stuff, thanks." She then asked Jade "How much is it if we're not sponsored?"
Jade looked at her screen, typed a bit, and said "If you're not sponsored, the total comes to, five thousand," she ended with her professional smile.
Sunset smiled, "OK. Yeah, I can afford that." She then started to reach for her credit card, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw it was Rarity.
Rarity turned to address Jade, "Would you excuse us for just a moment, please?" When she saw Jade nod her head 'yes', she dragged Sunset to the side.
Sunset frowned, "Rarity, what-"
"Sunset, darling," Rarity interrupted, keeping her voice low, "I know you can afford that, but I also know that you have expenses. If you pay this money, you'll need to find a job all the sooner, and need I remind you you haven't the proper paperwork to get a legal job as of yet?"
Sunset just groaned in response, "Principal Celestia said she was going to take care of that."
Rarity nodded, "Yes, but until then, our options are to either rely on Cinch's generosity, or postpone our little investigation."
Sunset growled, reluctantly agreed with a "Fine," and walked back to the others. "Cinch," she started hesitantly, "we would," she held back the urge to say what she really thought, "appreciate, your sponsorship."
Twilight tugged on Sunset's jacket sleeve, then asked in a harsh whisper, "Are you sure this is such a good idea?"
Sunset let out a sigh, "I know how you feel, Twilight, but apparently our options are a bit more limited than I first anticipated."
Jade clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. When they looked back at her, that smile was still present on her face. "Now that that's settled, uniforms are through that door there," she said, pointing to her left, "And when you're done getting dressed, the practice range is through the back door."
Cinch folded her hands in front of her, "I'll be waiting for you in the back." She then proceeded through the back door.
Pinkie couldn't remain quiet any longer, "Wow! She's just as unpleasant as last time."
Rainbow snorted, "Yeah, no kidding."
Sunset hummed softly to herself. Applejack noticed this, "What's up there Sunset."
Sunset looked up, "Huh? Oh, just thinking. Why would Cinch sponsor us for a brand new sport?"
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "Maybe because it's the most endorsed sport, like, ever?"
Sunset raised a sceptical eyebrow, "Really?"
Pinkie nodded her head, "Yeah. How do you think I found out about it?"
Sunset turned to her, "I try not to think too much about how you know things."
"What is the meaning of this?!" Rarity yelled from the room with the uniforms. As the others came into the room, they saw Rarity looking at one of the uniforms in disgust, "It's so, bland! It's completely devoid of personality, or individuality of any kind! Even that could be forgiven somewhat if it at least looked nice, but no! It's grey! I wouldn't mind it being grey if it at least had some accents, but no! Nothing! It's just a plain old grey set of cloths with a hat and combat boots! COMBAT BOOTS! You cannot honestly expect me to wear this!"
The young man that was holding the uniform appeared to be quite nervous "Um, ma'am? The uniforms are mandatory for all MagiWars participants."
Rarity gave a 'hmph' and said, "Very well. I shall wear this 'outfit', if I am aloud to make modifications."
The young man scratched behind his head, "Well, uh, you can't cut any of the fabric off, but you can add accessories."
Rarity grabbed the uniform the guy was holding, "That'll have to do," before disappearing into one of the dressing rooms.
The young man noticed the other girls in the room, and put a bit more confidence in his voice, "Hello. My name is Helping Hand. If you need any assistance with finding a uniform that fits, just tell me your size, and I'll get it for you."
Sunset nodded at him, "Thanks, we'll keep that in mind." And everyone went to look for a uniform in their sizes.
Fluttershy came up to Twilight and asked her "Um, Twilight? I noticed you're not wearing your backpack. Did you leave Spike at home?"
Twilight looked away from the uniforms to address Fluttershy, "Huh? Oh, Spike's staying with my brother for the weekend. Why do want to know?"
"Oh, I was just thinking he could help us with our, investigation. Because he's so small, he could go places we couldn't."
Twilight stroked her chin for a moment, "Huh. That's a pretty good idea. I'll talk to him about it when I see him tomorrow."
Eventually, they all found a uniform in their sizes, and got dressed. Pinkie was the last one out. "How do I look?" she asked with her usual level of enthusiasm.
Rainbow snorted a short laugh, "Like a soldier with cotton candy under their hat."
Pinkie pumped her arm, "Yes! Nailed it!"
Rarity was busy looking over her own uniform, "You know, despite it having no visual appeal, I have to say, this uniform is quite comfortable."
Sunset tapped the toe of her boot on the ground, and readjusted her hat, "OK girls, time to get our weapons."
Rainbow looked up with a big smile on her face, "Sweet! Time to check out my glider!"
Applejack started for the door, "And mah tank." Everyone looked at her in surprise at that, except Fluttershy. She noticed and said "What?"
Rainbow put voice to everyone's surprise, "You got a tank."
Applejack raised an eyebrow, "Yeah. So?"
"Why?"
Applejack shrugged, "Dunno. Just felt right, ah guess."
Sunset stored that bit of information away as something else to look into. Afterwards, everyone left the uniform room, and went to the back room were their guns, and Cinch, were waiting.
The Faierie, Canterlot's oldest pub, was currently playing host to only one occupant, a woman dressed all in black. A ringing sound started playing from within her pocket. She pulled her phone out, and read the text that she had received.
H.H.: Trojan has been gifted.
She smiled to herself, taking a sip of her wine. As she was savoring the flavor, her phone started to ring. She picked it up and answered, "Report."
The person on the other end was keeping their voice down, as though they didn't want to be heard, "Ma'am, the scientists here are building some crazy stuff. Most of it looks like what they already showed us, but the rest-NoNo. No, please NOOO-" he was cut off with a sickening crunch, followed by a thud.
After a moment of silence, a deep, menacing voice took up the line, "You would do well to focus your resources, and spies, on your assignments." There was a cracking sound, then nothing but a dial tone.
She listened for but a few more seconds before ending the call, clenching her jaw in anger. She then took a few calming breaths before making a call. "Trojan has been planted. It's only a matter of time until project 'Lucifer' is put into effect."
"Excellent. What of our 'divas'?"
"No luck. It's almost as if they fell off the face of the planet."
"Keep looking. They are an asset we cannot afford to substitute."
"Understood," she then took a breath for what she needed to say next, "There is, one other thing. There is a body in need of disposal at the labs."
"It's already being taken care of." and with that, he ended the call.
She sat there, silently looking at the phone in her hand, feeling powerless for the first time in years. "This all better be worth it," she hissed, then knocked back the rest of her wine, and ordered something stronger.
"About time," Cinch said as the girls exited the building into the shooting range, "Honestly, how long does it take to put on a simple uniform?"
The girls chose to ignore her, with Rainbow Dash shooting her a glare. The enclosure the girls found themselves in was about the size of a football field. It had concrete walls on either side, and a metal one on the far end. There was what appeared to be a large shed off to the side.
The door to the shed opened, allowing a man to exit. He was dressed in the same uniform as the girls, was holding a tablet in one hand, and carrying a duffle bag in the other. Not looking up from the tablet, he set the bag down and said "Alright, the simulators are ready for 'Applejack' and 'Rainbow Dash', through there," he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at the shed.
"Sweet! Come on, AJ!" Rainbow was already racing towards the shed.
Applejack gave a small chuckle, said "I'm comin'," and followed Rainbow.
The guy then looked up from the tablet and addressed the remaining girls, "Hello. My name is Sure Shot, and I will be handing you your temporary weapons, and helping out any way I can. Now, any questions?"
Sunset half raised her hand, "Uh, yeah. What do you mean 'temporary'?"
Sure Shot looked at Sunset before answering, "These weapons are nothing more than the functional prototypes used in that god-awful commercial. The final product, and your permanent weapons, will be ready by the time the first competition starts. They'll have the same functionality as these, but they'll look more like their own gun, instead of a mish mash."
"What of us whom acquired a gun without mixing parts?" Rarity inquired.
"They'll have enough of a design difference to differentiate between them and the ones that shoot bullets. Anything else?"
"What do you know about how the guns are built?" Twilight asked.
"Just that they use some new energy discovered by some scientist from overseas."
"Oh," Twilight said despondently.
"That everything?" When no one made an attempt to ask another question, he knelt down next to the duffle bag, saying "Alright, then I'll hand out your guns." He opened the bag, pulling out a pistol, "Looks like first up is a glock pistol. Who's this for?"
Twilight took a hesitant step forward, slowly raised her hand and said" U-um, t-that'd be m-me, sir."
Seeing her hesitate in coming towards him, he held the gun out impatiently, saying "Come on, we haven't got all day."
Twilight started towards him, feeling her breath coming faster every time she thought about the magic inside the gun. When she was within arms reach, she slowly reached for the gun. As she did, her chest felt like it was in a vise, slowly squeezing tighter and tighter. As her hand wrapped around the guns handle, a odd, almost imperceptible sensation traveled up her arm, then her neck, and ended at the base of her skull. When the sensation dissipated, her breathing returned to normal, and the pressure in her chest began to lessen. After she had grabbed it fully, the panic she was feeling had left, replaced by a sense of confusion. She was snapped back to reality when Sure Shot asked her "Have you ever shot a gun before?"
Twilight looked up at him, "Huh? Uh, no, no I haven't." Sure Shot then proceeded to demonstrate the proper way to hold her gun, as well as pointing put the location of the safety.
After he handed Twilight back her gun, he picked up his tablet, touched the screen a few times, and a target popped out of the ground around thirty yards away. "Whenever you're ready, start shooting."
"R-right," Twilight began shooting, hitting the inner third portion of the target. Wherever one of her shots landed, the target glowed red for a few seconds, before returning to normal.
As Twilight was practicing her aim, Sure Shot went back over to his bag and pulled out another gun, "Looks like a combination tommy gun and grenade launcher."
Pinkie Pie jumped up and said" That's mine! But there should be two of them."
Sure Shot looked back through the bag and pulled out another gun identical to the last one. He looked at Pinkie and asked "One for backup, or both at once?"
"Both at once."
Sure Shot then proceeded to do for Pinkie what he did for Twilight. When Sure Shot brought up the target fifty yards away, Pinkie fired off a barrage. When she was done shooting, everything within thirty feet of the target was glowing and starting to dim, except the target itself. "Oh, come on! How'd I miss?" and then a shot sounded from her right, hitting the target dead center. Pinkie looked to the source of the shot and said "Wow! Nice shot Fluttershy!" she took a look at the gun, "What type of gun is that?"
"Oh, um, a long range tranq' rifle." Fluttershy said.
"That is not something I would have expected you to choose, Rarity," at Sunset's statement, everyone turned to look at what Rarity chose.
Rarity was holding a rather large rifle. In response to the looks of confusion everyone was giving her, Rarity said "Well, the AS50 happens to be the firearm I am most familiar with, courtesy of my father. Honestly, the only thing he loves more than guns is football."
Before anyone could say anything else on the matter, Sure Shot spoke up, "Since you're using a sniper rifle, you'll want to climb that ladder over there"-he pointed back towards the shed- "to get to the snipers nest. We'll start you off with targets at the end of the range, then move you onto ones set-up on top of nearby buildings," as he was talking, he tapped on his tablet and set-up three targets at different positions at the end of the enclosure, and two that popped out of the metal wall.
"Oh. Very well then," Rarity slung her rifle over her shoulder, keeping it in place with its strap. She then went over to, and started to climb, the ladder.
As Rarity was headed to the nest, Sure Shot handed Sunset her gun, "An FN P90 with an AK 47 barrel, and the full range selective fire option. An impressive piece of hardware."
As Sunset grabbed hold of her gun, a sensation entered her body. The sensation registered to Sunset, and her eyes widened at the familiarity, staring at the gun. A shot from the roof of the building snapped Sunset out of her trance, followed by the sound of a body falling over and Rarity saying "I'm okay!"
Sure Shot sighed and shouted up to Rarity "You need to either brace yourself or lie down when using a sniper rifle!"
"Thank you!"
"Hey, Sure Shot, got any moving targets?" Sunset asked, a smile growing on her lips.
Sure Shot taped on his tablet a few more times, an several new targets popped up, some moving left and right, others moving in an arch on an axis. Sunset closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her smile turning all too familiar to the other girls, minus Twilight. As she breathed out, she opened her eyes to look out at the targets with that old smirk of hers. She brought her gun up, prepared to fire, and pulled the trigger. She hit the outermost portion of one of the targets, took aim and fired at another target, hitting it closer to the center. She continued on like this, getting closer and closer to the center, until she was hitting dead center every other shot.
"...crying?"
Sunset blinked, and looked to were the voice came from, seeing Pinkie and Fluttershy looking at her, concerned and confused, "What?"
"I said 'why are you crying?'" Pinkie said.
"I'm not..." she trailed off as she lowered her gun and ran her hand over her cheek, seeing it come back wet. "I'm fine. Let's just shoot some more and get out of here," she said, with a small smile.
"Actually, I think it'd be better if we left now," Twilight said as she came over to them.
Sunset looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Why?"
Twilight looked up at the roof, were Sure Shot had gone to check on Rarity, "Just, trust me. We need to leave."
Sunset gave her a sceptical look, but them sighed and said "Alright." She then looked up to the roof and cupped her hand over her mouth, shouting "Hey Rarity! Time to leave!"
"Alright! I'll be right down!"
By the time Rarity and Sure Shot got down from the roof, Pinkie had retrieved Rainbow Dash and Applejack, telling them they were leaving.
Sure Shot picked up his bag and held it open, "Alright, put your guns back in the bag."
"Why?" Rainbow asked, looking confused.
"Corporate espionage." At the confused looks she received, Twilight adjusted her glasses before going into an explanation, "If the prototypes get out and into the hands of a competitor, they can reverse engineer them, know how to sabotage the final product, and adapt the technology for themselves," she then placed her gun in the bag.
After they had all returned their weapons and left the building, with a not too pleasant goodbye from Cinch, they all piled into Fluttershy's van. After Fluttershy had driven awhile, Pinkie nudged Twilight with her elbow, "Stop fidgeting. We got what we needed."
"You mean we stole it," Twilight mumbled.
"Potato, tomahto. The bottom line is we got it. Aaannd I got a little something extra," Pinkie said with a sly smile.
"What are you two talking about?" Rainbow asked as she leaned over the back of the seat to look at them.
Pinkie reached into her hair with both hands and pulled out a gun with one, and a laminated card with the other. "I grabed a couple things to help our investigation," she said as-a-matter-of-fact.
"Wait. Yah stole somethin'!?" Applejack exclaimed in surprise, looking at Pinkie.
"I'm gonna give 'em back!"
"Doesn't matter, yah still stole 'em!"
Twilight interjected before the situation could escalate, "Yes, it was bad to steal them, but this is our best chance to find out why and how they're using magic in their technology."
"Twilight's right, AJ," Sunset said, "Twilight, after you dissect that gun, let me take a look at your notes. I have something I wanna check."
"Can you do anything with this employee I.D. card I grabed?" Pinkie asked.
Twilight grabed the card and looked it over, "Actually, I should be able to access their servers with this and, maybe, find out were they got the magic from."
"Alright, get on that as soon as you can," as she said that, Fluttershy pulled up in front of Sunset's house. "Meanwhile, I have something to take care of," she got out of the van, bade her friends farewell, and went inside, "Time to get to work. I just hope I remember enough."