//------------------------------// // Fear the Old Man in a Profession Where Most Die Young // Story: If You Want Peace, Prepare For War // by tranhdxrbntd //------------------------------// The Jaeger looked at the possibly senile mare and walked past her, going to the front door. Granny Smith, while her eyesight wasn't the best, still noticed this and frowned. "Excuse me? You can just go inta a pony's home like that!" The Jaeger continued to ignore her and went into the house. "Rude!" The Jaeger found himself inside of a kitchen/dining room. He looked at the dining table and set his helmet down onto it. He removed a sack off of himself and set it down beside his helmet on the table. He looked around the small house, trying to get a good bearing on things. That was when the Jaeger heard the same elderly mare yell, "Mac, we've got undesirables!" Frowning, he turned around and made his way back towards Granny Smith. He then stopped in his tracks upon seeing the elderly mare. The senior citizen in question was now armed with what appeared to be the most worn lever action rifle on the planet. He immediately brought up his arms to cover up his face, just as the mare fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. And fired. By the time she had finished firing (which took about two seconds mind you), the Jaeger felt like his chest had been used as a punching bag. While his armor had managed to stop every shot, it did cause a mite bit of pain. Once the sulfury grey smoke disappeared, he lowered his arms and looked at the grey mare. Much to his surprise, the old mare was trying to reload! His jaw dropped in amazement. The balls on her! He ripped the lever-action rifle out of the mare's hooves and held it away from her. "My Yellowcolt!" Granny Smith yelped. He snorted before pushing the mare down. "My hip!" He watched as the mare try to stand back up but fail to do so. Smirking, he looked at the rifle in his hands. The thing looked like it had gone to hell and back, being the most worn firearm he had ever seen. Bringing it to his shoulder, he aimed it at the elderly mare. Before he could fire, he was sent flying forward as something akin to a train hit him in the back. When he came to, he found yet another pony armed with yet another lever-action rifle. The only difference was that this pony wasn't an elderly, frail, small mare. This pony was clearly a stallion and a huge red one at that. He was clearly, as some folk would describe it as, built like a brick shithouse. Just like the pony wielding it, the lever-action rifle was also equally larger than the one that he had just previously faced. The stallion simply said one word. "Eenope." Once again, the Jaeger covered his face with his arms, just as the rifle fired. In addition to being bombarded with a giant cloud of sulfury grey smoke and the sound of a cannon, the Jaeger felt one of the most painful feelings he had ever felt in his chest. The feeling which was akin to being stomped on by a fully-grown dragon. He got knocked back a meter and found himself outside of the house, barely. Then, the stallion fired again. This time, the bullet struct the Jaeger in one of his arms. The following pain that blossomed told him that his arm was shattered, as was one of his legs because the stallion had fired again! Another two shots fired and the Jaeger found himself thrown off of the porch of the Apple family's beloved home. Big Mac slowly trotted up to the still conscious, clearly in pain Jaeger and slammed the buttstock of his rifle into the Jaeger's face, knocking the griffon unconscious. "Eeyup." The big stallion walked back into the house and helped his grandmother up. Granny Smith smiled at her grandson. "Thank you, Mac." Big Mac nodded and handed her the lever-action that the griffon had taken from her. Granny slowly walked out of the house and onto the porch where she could see the Jaeger. "Mac, get mah lasso." Just as Big Mac walking back into the house, a small filly sprinted out of the door. On her hips, she wore a crossdraw gunbelt with dual revolvers and carried a miniscule lever-action slung on her back. "What's going on! Ah heard shootin!" the filly asked. Granny looked at her hyperactive granddaughter. "Sorry Apple Bloom. Yah missed the excitement already." Apple Bloom frowned, dipping her head low. "Consarnit it!" Granny Smith frowned at her granddaughter. "Language!" Granny Smith looked into the sky in the distance and noticed a bunch of flying creatures. She knew they weren't pegasi. She looked back down at Apple Bloom. "Bloom dearie, ah'm gonna need yah to grab my bag." -X-X-X- Applejack collapsed to the ground, clutching her back right leg. "Celestia damn it!" Everyone (Princess Celestia especially) looked at their fallen comrade. "Mah leg is actin up like a buckin mule!" Wilson walked up to the cowpony and lifted up her pant's sleeve. It revealed a bloodied bundle of bandages covering up a small section of her leg. "Maybe you shouldn't be walking around on a leg that took a bullet yesterday!" Wilson said, examining her leg. "You need time to recover." He removed the old bandages and applied a fresh set, making sure the mule felt every little movement. Once he was done, Applejack pulled away her leg. "Ah've had worse!" Wilson looked at the clearly fallen cowpony and then back to the rest of the group. "Someone carry this stubborn jackass." Tran stepped up and tossed Wilson his sniper rifle. Wilson caught the rifle and then grabbed Applejack's rifle. Hands-free, Tran walked up to the cowpony and hoisted her up onto his shoulders via fireman's carry. Wilson looked at Tran. "Are you good with the extra weight?" he asked, eyeing Applejack's large body. Tran shifted his shoulder's around slightly and nodded shortly afterward. Wilson then looked at Applejack. "Are you good sitting on him?" Applejack nodded. "Can't complain too much. Ah'm surprised mah weight ain't bothering yah too much." Tran shrugged slightly. "Ah weigh like a hundred ninety something kilos." Tran froze slightly before shrugging. "Well, at least we ain't too far from mah farm." -X-X-X- Spitfire and Scootaloo jumped through the broken window of a house as bullets flew by their bodies. "Horseapples," Spitfire said. Heart thumping, she blindly stuck her shotgun out of the destroyed window and fired. Obviously, she hit nothing but the thought counted. "Captain," Scootaloo called out. Spitfire focused on her shotgun, pumping it and firing it again. "What?" Spitfire asked. She turned her attention to the filly and then found that the filly was now holding a bolt action rifle and a pair of grenades. Scootaloo pointed to something deeper inside of the house. Spitfire looked to where she was pointing at and found the dead body of an REA mare. "Dear Celestia." She looked back at the filly and grabbed one of the grenades. "On three!" Scootaloo nodded in agreement. "One." Both of them readied their grenades in hoof. "Two." Both of them pulled the pins. "Three!" Both of them threw their grenades and ran to the opposite end of the house. "Grenade!" screamed someone outside of the house. Once the grenades exploded, Spitfire smashed a window and looked outside. "All clear, go!" She grabbed Scootaloo and tossed her out of the window, just as a griffon entered the house via the same window the two of them had used earlier. The griffon raised a bolt action rifle just as Spitfire jumped out of the house. *BANG* Spitfire felt pain blossom in one of her wings. Grinding her teeth, she stood back up in the window's opening and brought her shotgun up as the griffon worked the bolt on the rifle he was using. *CLICK* Spitfire's heart froze. The griffon smiled. *BANG* The griffon face went blank. He looked down to where he had been shot, finding a hole in his chest where Scootaloo had shot him. Looking back up, he found the filly holding a smoking rifle. He collapsed an instant later, face forever in confusion. Spitfire looked at the filly. The little tyke's face was frozen in horror. "Don't think about it, we still gotta get to Sweet Apple Acres!" Scootaloo took a few seconds to respond but eventually nodded in response. Spitfire reloaded her shotgun and ran forward, dragging the filly in tow. -X-X-X- From an open window, Granny Smith's rifle barked. A second later, a full-speed flying griffon was hit with a bullet. Granny worked the lever of the rifle as she screamed, "Get off mah farm!" From a separate window, Big Mac worked the lever of his rifle and fired at a tree. Behind the tree, a griffon fell down from the bullet that most certainly did not care about normal cover. Looking up at the sky, he noticed a flock of incoming wings. Granny, with her ever failing eyesight, aimed her rifle up at them. Big Mac noticed this. "Granny, no." Granny lowered her rifle. Seconds later, dozens of pegasi landed. One of the pegasi, clearly the leader, stepped up. "Royal Equestrian Air Force, we're here to secure the area!" Granny Smith smiled at the pegasi. "Finally, some help. Come on in!" she said while opening the door to the house. "We've got one of them tied up in the closet. Big Mac, can yah show them?" Big Mac nodded and led a few pegasi into the house while the rest of the pegasi spread about the general area of the farm, preparing defenses or pulling guard. Once inside the house, confusion filled his face when all they found in the closet was a bunch of rope. Also missing was the Jaeger's helmet and the rest of the items found on him. Mac didn't have much time to investigate as he heard his name being called. "Mac!" he heard Granny Smith call out. Mac, sans pegasi, walked back to the house's entrance where Granny was. He found his grandmother standing outside, on the porch, looking at a large incoming ground-bound group. Strangely enough, the group was made up of two of Equestria's princesses, one of Equestria's princes, four bipedal creatures reminiscent of minotaurs, a pair of random ponies, his sister's best friend, and his sister, of which was being carried by one of the minotaur like creatures. The creature carrying his sister set said pony down who proceeded to limp towards the Apple family home. "Mac, where's mah Winnychester?" Mac looked up. Applejack looked up. Looking up, she found herself looking at the window of the Apple family home's second story. A couple of seconds later, the window opened and her sister appeared in the window. "Hi Applejack," she greeted while waving at her sister. She ducked out of view and then reappeared, this time holding a normal-sized lever-action rifle. Apple Bloom tossed the rifle out of the window towards her sister. Applejack effortlessly caught it, working the lever and chambering a round into it. Big Mac eyed the Applejack's bad leg. "I'll stay and defend the house," Applejack said, noticing her brother's stares. Big Mac gave her a deadpanned look, knowing that was most likely untrue. "You stop giving me that look!" Big smirked, of which Applejack noticed. She frowned and just limped into the house. The rest of the group walked up to the house. Of the group, the two princesses and prince walked into the house. Princess Celestia, before going into the house, gave her Model 14 machine gun (and ammo) to Vinyl and Octavia who immediately took it off to emplace it. Rainbow Dash, her main job being a dogfighter, took to the skies and joined the rest of the other pegasi in guarding the area. When the four humans got up to the house, Big Mac and Granny stared. The four of them stared back. "Sup," greeted Logan. Big Mac glanced at their guns, which they all noticed. "We're on your side," said Eric. He looked at the house. "Got any shovels?" Big Mac nodded. "Eeyup." He pointed over to a shed in a distance. Wilson and Eric headed over the shed while Tran and Logan stayed over at the house. Logan turned to look at Tran. "What do we need shovels for?" "IFPs," Tran answered. Both Big Mac and Logan stared at the man. "What?" Logan asked. "Infantry Fighting positions, small holes you lay in and shoot from," Tran explained. Tran eyed the second story window and then back to Big Mac. "May I take up a spot up there?" Granny, nodded. "That's polite of yah tah ask. Go right on ahead!" she said. Tran walked onto the porch and then stopped to look at Logan. "Once they get back with the shovels. Scope out the area." Logan nodded and walked away from the house. Tran, inside the house, was stopped by Applejack. "Whatcha doin in here?" she asked. "Going to the second story," Tran answered. "Oh, let me show yah the way." Immediately upon getting onto the second floor, both of them heard the sound of a lever-action being cocked. Both of them turned to see where it came from and found themselves looking at a small yellow earth pony filly with a red mane and tail armed with a small lever-action rifle. "Applejack, watch out!" the filly yelled. The little filly pointed the rifle at Tran, who immediately grabbed the end of the barrel and pointed it away from him. The filly in question tried to pull the rifle back but didn't even succeed from moving it. Applejack frowned at her little sister. "Apple Bloom, if he ain't on ahr side, why would ah ave been leadin him upstairs?" Apple Bloom stopped trying to wrench her lever-action rifle back. "Oh," she said, sheepishly. Tran gently let go of the rifle and the filly pointed it up at the ceiling. "Apologies," demanded Applejack. She turned around and started walking away. "Apple Bloom, stay outta trouble. Ah'm gonna take Granny to the cellar." The filly flattened her ears against her head. "I'm sorry," she said. Tran shrugged. Apple Bloom eyed the various firearms that Tran was armed with. She took special notice to one rather large particular firearm. "Is that a Colt's Walker?!" Tran looked down at the firearm in question and nodded. "Can ah see it?!" Applejack stepped in front of the filly. "We ain't got no time fer that, Bloom." She looked back to Tran. "Let me show yah a good spot for dat rifle of yers." The spot that Applejack had shown him was a small bedroom that had windows that overlooked most of the farm. Inside the room, he prepared a platform that he allowed him to stay a couple meters away from the windows but still allowed him to see through them. After the platform was set up, he set up a table with his dope cards and ammo ready to be used. As Tran continued to improve his shooting platform, the same filly from earlier entered the room. Apple Bloom eyed the large rifle that he was armed with. "Whoa nelly, that's a dandy rifle yah got there," said the youngest Apple sibling. She noticed the ammo that he had laid out. "Yah know, I think you'd like my brother's Winnychester." She waited for a response but didn't get one. "Ah think you'd also get along with mah brother. Yah talk as much as him." Tran finally looked at the filly in question. Before he could say anything, a distant explosion rocked the farm. Tran immediately grabbed his rifle and used the rifle's scope to look in the direction of the explosion. Not long afterward, gunshots started coming from that direction. Still overlooking that area, Tran watched as a large percentage of the pegasi (Rainbow Dash included) take off towards that direction. Moving closer to a window, he looked down at the surrounding area of the house. His three comrades had taken cover behind various random items. Moving away from the window, he got down in a good prone shooting position. Seconds passed and the sound of gunfire grew, this time mixed with the sound of Equestrian rifle fire. The pegasi that responded must have found something. Apple Bloom, who was getting a bit antsy at the anticipation of what could come, looked to Tran for answers, who was calmly watching the distance through his rifle's scope. "What's going on?" Apple Bloom asked. Tran didn't answer. He kept silent as the intensity of the distance gunfire grew. Then, another distant explosion rocked the area, this one coming from the opposite direction. Once again, a significant portion of pegasi left to respond to the explosion. Tran looked to Apple Bloom. "Can you go outside and grab one of my friends?" he asked. Apple Bloom nodded and ran outside of the room. Not long afterward, Apple Bloom came back upstairs. Seconds later, Logan walked upstairs. He had his rifle slung over his shoulders and hands in his pockets. His face displayed bad news. "What's left?" Tran asked. Logan leaned against a wall. "A handful," he answered with a grim face. "There's only three of them flying in the sky, circling the house. Other than that, six that are guarding the rear of the house." Logan paused for a moment. "Oh, and there's us four, those two secret service agents, and the farmers including our 'bodyguard'. Everyone else, including a few other civilians that you haven't seen, are in this house's cellar." Tran stayed silent for a few seconds before finally responding. "Tell the others to prep defenses. IFPs, then foxholes. Civvies should be coming and those griffons might follow them here." Logan looked out of an open window and stopped leaning against the wall. "Hold up," Logan dipped his head out of the window. A few seconds later, he brought his head back into the house. "The skies are empty." Apple Bloom nervously brought her lever-action up and worked the lever, ejecting a live round. "Do yah think they just flew off?" she asked. Logan shrugged. "Probably." Logan then froze. He brought a finger up to his mouth. "Shhh," he shushed. He poked his head out of the window. A few seconds later, he brought his head back into the house. "I still hear the sound of wings flapping." At that instant, Logan was pulled through the window by an invisible force. He found the upper half of his body dangling outside. "Fuck!" Having reacted quickly, he had kept himself from being completely ripped out of the house by holding onto the window's sill. Tran ran towards the window and grabbed his friend, starting to pull him back in. He saw nothing but felt something tug back. It was no use, Tran had won the tug of war and pulled his friend back into the room. Logan, free from his attacker, drew his FNX 45 and fired three rounds at the open window. Surprisingly, all three rounds had hit something as the sounds of bullet impacts filled the air. Tran drew his 1911 and ran towards the window. Aiming the pistol, he saw three flattened bullets floating in the air and heard the sound of wings flapping coming from that same spot. He aimed the pistol where the bullets were floating in the air and fired his pistol. The bullet impacted the same invisible figure resulting in four bullets now floating in the air. That was when the invisible figure shot back. The bullet struck Tran in the chest, shattering the ceramic plate in his body armor but doing nothing else otherwise. Tran moved out of the window's view and holstered his 1911. He then drew his Colt Walker and cocked the hammer. The sounds of flapping were still coming from the same source in the same spot outside so Tran blindly aimed his revolver out of the window and fired. Whoever he was aiming at, he managed to land the shot. Outside the window, an invisible griffon was outlined from the blue fire that engulfed his form. Logan holstered his handgun and got his rifle ready. By now, the griffon had obviously started trying to fly away but it was obviously very easy to track where he was. All you had to do was look for the giant blue floating fireball. He drew a bead on the blue fireball with his Mosin and fired. Logan missed and then Tran decided to take aim with his Savage 112. By now, the blue fire had died down. It was still pretty easy to guess where the griffon was. After all, the lightly charred black form of a griffon was easy to track through the sky. Tran fired and the two of them watched the bullet clip one of the griffon's limbs. Both of them heard a loud squawk and then watched as the black figure fly straight into the clouds, easily disappearing from plain sight. Logan and Tran searched through the skies. "Do you see where he went?" Logan asked. Tran shook his head. Both of them then heard one of their friends call out. "Hey." Both of them looked down to see Wilson, KRISS ready. "What the fuck was that?" Wilson asked. "Invisible asshole," Logan replied. Wilson's eyes darted around. "They're fucking invisible now?!" he yelled out. Eric, who was taking cover behind a water trough, stood up and also started looking around. Something fell out of the sky and in front of the house. Whatever it was, it was round, dark green with light green spots and the size of a volleyball. Wilson and Eric sprinted away from the object and dove for cover behind the house. Tran and Logan immediately dove deeper into the house. Seconds later, Vinyl Scratch and Octavia burst into the room that they were in. "What's going on?" Octavia asked. Logan looked at the pony. "Take cover! They dropped a bomb!" Logan warned. Octavia raised an eyebrow and ran over to the window, looking outside at the object. "That doesn't look like a bomb." She squinted her eyes at it. Tran stood up and walked over to the window. Using his rifle's scope, he looked at the object. "It's a... Giant egg?"