//------------------------------// // "... Necessary to the security of a free state" Among other things... // Story: Equestria and the Second Amendment // by aegishailstorm //------------------------------// With Brandon Herrera off to god knows where and Angry probably beating the crap out of Nightmare. The team had no choice other than to just continue deeper and deeper into the castle towards where they supposed Nightmare had taken Angry and Twilight. Despite the human's confidence, most of the ponies there couldn't help but worry about Twilight. Mike glanced over at Fluttershy, " Ma'am, Richard's not trapped with Nightmare Moon, she's stuck with him. Not so sure how your friend's gonna fair though. " He shrugged and waved the group along as a rather anti climactic bolt of lightning arced across the sky. " You're gonna have to try harder." Donut whispered, knocking on his helmet. The 5 remaining humans alongside their equine companions made their way up to a set of enormous wooden double doors. Just like the ones at the entrance of the castle. The sounds of fighting and chaotic screaming emanating from within was a dead giveaway as to the identity of it's occupants. "Breach?" Hickock suggested, racking the slide of his rifle back halfway in the most aggressive fashion possible. "Yep, Matt, Scott, Cody, and I will help Angry out. Hickock, you get to deal with the traumatized unicorn." Mike calmly explained to the tea, Greg shrugged. "Alrighty, as long as I can get a few licks in on Nightmare with the abusive end of my rifle!" "Damnit Hickock, we're still being watched by them, you know that, right?" Donut gestured over at the 5 very confused ponies they had dragged along with them. "Ah, I ditched manners as soon as I saw the mustache sea dragon thing back there." He confidently responded. Rainbow hovered up a few inches and raised a concerned hoof. "Er, what are we supposed to do? I mean, since you're so keen on bossing everyone around." She pointed at Garand Thumb, then at the door's. He tapped his boot on the floor a few times, then chuckled and shook his head. " You little ones will come in after us, go straight to Twilight's side, and stay there until you've been given further instructions. Is that understood?" Rarity returned his statement with a rebellious, " Humph!" Before spinning away. Just as Mike and the other's had begun to get into position, there was a sudden rumbling at the door, and as soon as they had backed off, a very, very terrified Nightmare Moon crashed through it, scrambled back to her hooves, and began to teleport away just as a gunshot rang out, taking to top off her horn. She ducked and rushed off down the hallway, right past the the humans and ponies. Who watched on with confusion as she rounded a corner and disappeared out of sight. From the crumbling remains of the door emerged 2 figures, Angry, holding his rifle in one hand and a chunk of Nightmare's shimmering mane in the other, and Twilight, who was shaking uncontrollably. "Did you rip a piece of her mane out?" Donut asked, he sighed. " Yep, but in my defense, it was self defense." Mike facepalmed." You know what? I'm not even gonna complain, that was good." Angry grunted in affirmation, and stuffed the clump of shimmering blue hair into a cargo pocket. " War trophy." "The uh, those Element of Harmony thingies are still encased in those stone balls, I don't know how to get them out. And I was to busy giving Nightmare a bad case of ptsd and trying to keep Twilight here from dying to figure it out." Donut looked over at Twilight, and then back into the room which they had just been in. "Hey, you up for giving it another go?" She looked over at him, " Sure Cody, we have to stop her before she brings upon eternal night!" He blinked, I'm sorry, what did you just say?" "Leave it be Donut, she was ranting on and on about it while I was beating the crap out her. She's being serious." Scott opened his mouth to respond, but just as soon shut it. " And where did Brandon run off too?" Angry asked. " Uh, you weren't around to see that, wait... Is this that, ' Drill Sargent's Intuition,' again?" Angry winked back at him. " You got it! Now," He clapped his hands, " Where'd she go?" As soon as those words had left his mouth a flash of light lit up the room behind them, revealing a still mostly relatively intact Nightmare Moon. Standing atop the same podium as before with the 5 stone sphere's around her. " You didn't think to move them?" Mike casually asked Angry. Who glared over at Nightmare, then back at Garand Thumb. "She just ran out the door, what the fuck do you think man? We were just going to go in there and snatch them up! Oh whatever, it's to late now." Angry shrugged as a bolt of magic flew through the doorway and struck Donut center mass, right in the thickest part of his armor. It didn't kill him, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt, he doubled over for a moment, then got right back up and dashed to cover. Hickock, Matt, and Mike all swung around the corridor with their weapons to return fire, but Nightmare had already created a shield of magical energy around her. And, given that they were in no mood to test their luck as to weather it was the kind of barrier that caused bullet's to shatter and fragment, disintegrate, or just ricochet off. They all collectively decided it would be better for them to retreat back behind the stone wall's while Donut used the rpg 7 which Brandon had brought along with them. Donut turned to Twilight and the other equines. "Go hide behind Mike and cover your ears!" They followed his order, and as soon as he had ensured that there would be nothing behind him to take a gust of superheated air to the face, he poked his head, and the launcher out from behind the now smoldering remains of the doorway, got the sight's aligned, and fired it off. The warhead struck home, cracking and obliterating the shield. And when the smoke cleared, the alicorn underneath was left completely unguarded and in shock. Twilight took this opportunity to teleport over to the spheres and retake possession of the Element's. "Now what do we do!?" Mike, Cody, Rainbow, and Applejack all shouted at the same time. " The book said that the sixth element would be revealed with a spark, so..." She ignited her horn, and a wave of purple magic washed over the 5 spheres, but nothing happened. " Well try again!" Angry yelled. She paused, " Wait a moment, it didn't mean a literal spark. It meant-" "A spark of friendship? You better be joking." As it turns out, she was not. The 2nd time she attempted to open up the spheres, it worked. Only instead of necklaces and a gaudy crown being revealed. All that resulted from it was a collection of dull crystalline shards which in no way resembled the stone spheres from which they had originated from. The six ponies joined hooves, but still, nothing happened. It was at about this time that Nightmare regained her senses, and rose back to full height. "Ah yes," Nightmare spoke up." You see, since these... Creatures here assisted you on your journey Twilight Sparkle, these shards here are neigh worthless." Angry snickered. " Care to explain that logic to us?" She just continued to laugh. He groaned and turned back to Twilight. " Is there any way we could jumpstart them?" " I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure you can't just jumpstart a magical artifact. Right Twilight?" Mike asked the unicorn, who replied with an uncertain, " Maybe." The 13 of them turned to look back at Nightmare Moon, who was glaring back at them. There was a sudden knock at the nearest window, which Donut promptly went over to investigate, it was Brandon, wearing an Altyn helmet and ballistic shoulder pads. His AK74M was slung over his shoulder. And in his one free hand he held, loe and behold. A fully completed AK 50, topped with a holographic sight. Only, this one wasn't quite what Brandon Herrera had intended. Along it's side were engravings and etchings, just like the ones on Scott's .50. "Hey guy's, uh, sorry I'm late." Cody looked at the rifle in his hand, then back at Brandon, who was precariously perched on the a ledge just outside. " Where have you been man!?" He demanded, " And what's with the completed AK 50?" he blinked. "Oh, yeah. I'll tell you later, hey, do you want me to... Uh, you know?" He pointed at Nightmare Moon and moved his thumb across his throat. "Yes please." Cody responded. At this point, the other's had overheard the conversation and rushed to help him though the window. " No, no thank you. Not will all this armor on, I'll go around. Ok?" The group looked at one another, and by the time they looked back he was gone. As Twilight and company once more attempted to put the Element's of Harmony together and reveal the sixth one. Brandon Herrera emerged from the window behind Nightmare, and gently tapped on her left wing. " Pryvet." He said in Ukrainian, the suddenness of it all, combined with his face shield made her jump back in shock. Brandon meanwhile, leveled his gun on her, and fired off 3 rounds from the him. As he pulled the trigger, the etchings on the sides lit up, and the end result was the projectiles being infused with magic did to Nightmare Moon what a 40 Mike-Mike rubber bullet does to a deranged man with a knife. It dropped her on the ground, and this time, Twilight had actually succeeded in getting the elements to function. She, and her 5 friends lifted up into the air with the crystalline shards around them forming into the artifacts that Twilight had told them about. And they were even more grotesque in person. " Brandon, get over here!" Angry ordered. "Nyet, rifle will do for cover." Brandon responded. A wave of rainbow colored light arced up from the six ponies and went careening down on Nightmare. The other humans all shielded their eyes, with the exception of Angry. Who laughed like a maniac the whole time. "Well, did it work!?" Mike called out, rubbing the blindness from his eyes and watching as the six ponies floated back down to the ground. "Gee Twilight, I thought you was spouting a bunch of nonsense when you told us about these things. But they actually work!" Applejack shouted as the other's admired the necklaces wrapped around their necks. " Well, I guess we really do represent the Elements of Harmony!" Twilight responded with a smile. " What the FUCK just happened!?" Angry exclaimed, pointing his club out as he scanned the room. On the far side, Brandon raised the visor of his Altyn and walked back over to his friends. They all turned to look out the window, and noticed that the sun had finally began to rise. "Well... I guess it worked." Donut murmured. A cry of success rose up from the men before Donut continued with. "Now why is the sun getting closer?" A few seconds later a bright light filled the other side of the room. And Twilight and her friends bowed their heads. From the light emerged an alicorn with white fur and a shimmering mane of varying colors. She appeared to be the exact opposite of Nightmare Moon. Which hopeful meant, she wasn't an asshole. " Should we kneel?" Brandon asked. "I didn't vote for her, besides, we're emissaries from another world. Hold." Mike whispered, The team stood their ground. "Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed, she pranced across the room and took up a spot beside her. " I knew you could do it-" She paused when caught sight of the humans. " Who are they?" Twilight looked back. "Oh, meet my other new friends! We couldn't have made it without them." Mike sheepishly waved. "And, you told me it was all just an old pony's tale." Angry laughed. " Hah! Those horse puns are never gonna get old!" He coughed into a fist. "Sorry, please continue." " I told you that you needed to make some friends. Nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moons return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well." She looked back at Angry and the others. Then over at the spot where Nightmare had been standing, laying on the floor beside the scrapes of her armor was a much smaller alicorn with blue fur. " Princess Luna," Celestia began to walk towards her. "It has been a thousand years since I've seen you this, time to put our differences behind us, we were meant to rule together little sister." Twilight and her friends looked at one another in confusion. " Will you accept my offer of friendship?" Luna's response was just as Angry had predicted, " Yes." Finally, after a few seconds of heartfelt affection from the 2 alicorns, Celestia turned back to the humans. " I must say, I never anticipated your arrival here, much less that you would help my student. It was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one at that. Thank you all." They tipped their hats. " Well ma'am, it's kind of our thing." Matt responded. They all took turns shaking Celestia's hoof. Even Charlie, Mike's camera man, got a turn. " Allow me to formally welcome you to Equestria." She told the group. All of a sudden Angry bounded up to the camera. " AND EVERYONE LIVED HAPPILY EVER FUCKING AFTER!! Or did they?" The camera cut to black.