//------------------------------// // You Can Do Anything but Not Everything // Story: If You Want Peace, Prepare For War // by tranhdxrbntd //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash felt pain blossom in her chest. It was the unmistakable feeling of getting shot (again). Her eyes darted around in search of the shooter but a second bullet struck her chest by the time she found him. Neither bullet had succeeded in punching through her coat, though they did succeed in breaking some of the ribs in her chest. Gasping from pain, she locked eyes with a griffon. He was fifty meters(roughly) away, on the ground, in the opposite direction of Scootaloo. Armed with a carbine, he was still aiming at her. The two of them stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before the sound of a third gunshot sounded. *BANG* A bullet to the neck was definitely something that would end your career in the military and so, the griffon fell to the ground. It wasn't Rainbow who had fired the shot. Once again, she followed the sound and was surprised to discover that it was Scootaloo who had fired the shot! The little orange filly's rifle was pointing at where the griffon used to be and the barrel was clearly smoking. The little squirt had saved her! Now, it was her turn. Raising her revolver again, she took aim at the grey dressed minotaur. The minotaur in question would definitely be a difficult target to hit. While he was standing still, being sideways on made his profile much smaller. To add to that, using a handgun at this range would be quite the challenge. "No!" screamed Scootaloo. The revolver went off. -X-X-X- I watched as the little tyke's shot tore through the neck of a griffon. As he collapsed, my eyes came to focus on a cyan pony. The presence of this pony surprised me, to say. For one thing, he/she was wearing the most brightly colored uniform I had ever seen. There is no way a cyan uniform can blend in with anything here. And what's with the wings? They cannot be real. But more importantly, he/she was aiming a pistol at me! "No!" screamed Scootaloo. And then, a bullet struck me in the upper arm (right one), followed by the sound of a gunshot (a pitiful sounding one by the way). While it barely felt like anything, it was still enough incentive to dive behind rubble for cover. Even with this much armor on, there were still a good amount of body parts exposed to fire. Looking at my arm, I found a small hole present in the arm protector's cover but I doubted the kevlar was damaged. Logan had also decided that taking cover was a good idea while the little tyke was still standing in the open. "Is she supposed to be shooting at us?" I asked her. "Stop shooting!" Scootaloo screamed. "Get over here!" came a female voice where the gunshot came from. Well, at least we now know the horse is a she, not that it affects the situation in any way. I ejected the round in my rifle and leaned it against my cover, being wary of the massive optic (unlike in video games and movies, these tend to be delicate). "What are you doing?!" I heard Logan say. I raised both hands out of cover and started to stand back up. Let's hope that this works. -X-X-X- "Get over here!" Rainbow Dash screamed. Why was Scootaloo standing there? Right now, she had every chance to escape from those two minotaurs! Then, two gloved hands appeared out from the top of where the grey minotaur was hiding. She instantly took aim, ready to shoot again. Three rounds left. Three rounds that were also known to be useless against minotaurs... Wait, why'd that minotaur take cover when she fired? Minotaurs were known for being aggressive and relished the idea of this war. It was part of why this war had waged such a long time. Whenever a minotaur came under fire (except from artillery), they would shoot back right away. For them, this wasn't a war but a fun game. On another note, Scootaloo was armed so why didn't she just shoot the two of them? When he completely stood up out of cover, her hoof tensed. Was he a minotaur? Sure, he was bipedal and had the same general shape of a minotaur but his more minor features told a different story (like the lack of fur). The most disconcerting feature was his uniform. Minotaurs didn't wear uniforms. None whatsoever. They believe that their muscular features were to be on display unless armor was being worn (usually reserved for high-ranking officers). The helmet was another good sign. Their horns made it impossible to wear a helmet (a practical one). Then he spoke. "Holster your weapon!" he yelled. She paused at his demand. "And why should I?" she yelled back in response but as those words left her mouth, she realized something very important. Where was the other one? The one dressed in black, where was he hiding? Her head darted around in search for him but had no success. The whatever-he-was started grinning. "You've realized it, haven't you?" She scowled as she holstered the revolver. He dropped his hands but they soon came back up, rifle in hand. Upon seeing the massive rifle, her hoof wandered towards her revolver. "They're on our side," Scootaloo said as the two of them started approaching her. As the two of them closed the distance with her, she watched as the whatever-he-was load a single round into that rifle of his. "So why the hell did you shoot at me?" he demanded. "Why the hell were you chasing the squirt?" she immediately responded. Scootaloo groaned. "I'm not a filly anymore!" she exclaimed before she started to point (with her rifle) in the direction they were running towards. "And he wasn't chasing me! Don't you hear the gunfire coming from that direction?!" "Oh." Scootaloo facepalmed (hoofed?). "Wait, why didn't you shoot him with your rifle?" she asked. "..." "You're out of ammo, aren't you?" "..." "..." "..." "How did you survive the entirety of this war?" Scootaloo finally said. When there was no response from the cyan pegasus, she reached into her webbed gear and pulled out several en bloc clips and a couple speedloaders. Rainbow Dash took the ammo and tried to reload her Harpy Model 6 with the three round clips but found that they weren't feeding into her rifle. "Are these the old three round clips?" Scootaloo looked at her with a deadpanned expression. "The Army was supposed to have stopped using these months ago!" The grey dressed whatever-he-was started laughing. "You think that's how it works?" he said in between laughs. "They still have to get rid of the ones still in inventory!" Grumbling, Rainbow Dash stripped the rounds from the clips and loaded them into her rifle one-by-one. "So where's your friend hiding?" she asked. To answer her question, she felt a light tap on her shoulder... -X-X-X- Applejack rooted through her gear in search of a grenade as gunfire ate away at her cover (a brick wall). "Nothin." She poked her double barrel shotgun out of cover and fired two shots blindly. Now that she thought about it, going off on her own two kilometers outside the base to hunt down enemy soldiers was not the best of plans. Surprisingly, the gunfire stopped. "What in tarnation?" Applejack said to herself. She peeked out from behind her cover. Every griffon and minotaur that were harassing her now laid in the streets, oozing from multiple gunshot wounds. "Are you just going to stand there?!" screamed a male voice that she definitely didn't recognize. Turning to face the speaker, she found herself looking at a... Something. That "something" resembled a minotaur but lacked a lot of their features. What really caught her eye was the uniform it was wearing. No minotaur she'd ever met had ever worn clothing like this one did. Also, it's uniform was in the strangest color she had ever seen. And it was armed with the strangest rifle she had ever seen. The rifle didn't have an ounce of wood on it (all rifles had wood on it, even griffon and minotaur ones) and had a very long ribbed magazine coming out of it. The rifle's buttstock was an especially strange sight for her eyes. It was hollow! -X-X-X- I stopped running. "Hold up!" I yelled out. The two ponies in front of me skidded (literally, not sure how they did that) to a halt. "What?!" Rainbow Dash demanded. I looked to our left. The sound of gunfire was coming from that direction. "So what?!" "Do those gunshots sound familiar to you?" I asked her. "No!" she immediately replied, clearly aggravated. Then, her attitude disappeared as she realized the impact of my words. "Wait, I've never heard of a gunshot like that before!" "But I have!" I yelled before running off in that direction. It was the sound of an AK74.