If You Want Peace, Prepare For War

by tranhdxrbntd


All’s Fare in Love and War

The air smelled like death. The smell of blood filled the air and the corpses from the previous day's battle was starting to decompose. Rats were roaming around trying to fill their stomachs with the casualties and flies buzzed around, irritating everyone. Then, there was the sewage. This fight had lasted long enough that enough soldiers had to answer to nature's call. Many attempted to bury it but the effort for some was too much.

It was a cesspool.

For the ponies, they were incredibly bothered by it. They were a prey species and they didn't like being around the scent, while also having a very power sense of smell compared to a humans' or a griffons' who were both natural predatory species. Still, that didn't mean that either weren't bothered by it.

Every soldier had their method of dealing with it. Some plugged their noses or wrapped cloth around their faces. Others just tried to ignore it but were failing miserably. Logan, was absolutely bothered by it and was double fist chain smoking cigarettes in an attempt to mask it with anything. He was on watch with the fellow ponies in the outer foxholes. He had generously given the nearby ponies in the two foxholes next to him cigarettes to also deal with the smell.

Then, Blueblood passed by, who had been going around checking with the soldiers. He hopped down into the foxhole with Logan, face grimaced from the smell of death in the air. "Having fun?" Logan asked.

Blueblood's grimace grew. "This foul stench is absolutely atrocious! I don't know how you can tolerate it! I can barely repel all mental attempts to stay towards the center where its somewhat bearable." Logan chuckled and offered Blueblood the cigarette he was currently smoking. Blueblood was aghast with the idea of taking sticking it his mouth. It had Logan's slobber on the end and smoking cigarettes had a reputation for being rather tarnishing to one's image.

However, Blueblood looked down at himself. His once perfect uniform was now marred with the debris of the field and he had already done a number of things that one would call 'uncouth'. He lit his horn and his telekinesis grabbed the cigarette from Logan's hand, going into his mouth. Taking a drag and breathing it in, he coughed lightly. It filled his mouth and lungs with a terrible taste but at least it was better than the smells of death. Blueblood looked back to Logan who had already started another cigarette. "I am indebted to your kindness."

Logan snorted. "No problem." He dug through the gear he was wearing and dug out an unopened pack of cigarettes. "Here, I got plenty to go around."

Blueblood accepted it and tucked it away. Before he could say anything, some shots rang out from the griffon's defenses. Logan shouldered his Mosin Nagant and Blueblood looked at the line.

"They're coming!" somepony yelled out.

Blueblood looked out of the foxhole in search of anything, as did Logan who was looking through the scope of his rifle. Logan noticed Blueblood was just gripping the edge of the foxhole they were in. "Get your gun ready!"

Blueblood realized his mistake and pulled out his rifle, pulling back on the bolt and chambering the round. "I'm sorry. I'm still not accustomed to this lifestyle."

Logan let out a sigh through his nose. "Just try next time. I'm not either but I've learned enough." Unlike the three others, Logan had never served in the military or seen anything resembling combat.

That was when the air was pierced by the loud sound of a wolf howling in the distance, followed by the sounds of more gunfire from the griffons. Then, everypony could see griffons taking to the air, off in the distance.

And then many large wolves exploded out from the line. The ponies and humans added their shots to the mix but it was quite the challenge. The wolves weaved left and right, causing shots to be missed. They were fast and the bolt action rifles that everyone wielded turned the panicked follow up shots into more misses. Even Logan couldn't get a good shot out. His scoped, bolt action rifle made it quite the impossible task. The only one to actually hit one of the wolves was Blueblood, who was armed with a semiautomatic carbine. He missed most of his shots but spamming it caused him to at least deal with one of the wolves.

Unfortunately, there was a lot more than one wolf. They were huge, bigger than both the ponies and humans and were very fast and strong. The wolves closed the distance and they were upon the ponies stuck in the foxholes. One wolf tackled Logan, pushing Blueblood aside and knocking both their rifles away before biting Logan's arm, using its weight to pull him partially out of the foxhole. Panicking, Logan used his other hand to pound on the wolf's head but it was for naught.

Luckily, Blueblood recovered quickly and despite being filled with the instinct to run away, drew his revolver. The short distance made it easy to not miss but six rounds from it barely made the wolf flinch. Panicking, Blueblood headbutted the wolf, horn first. His horn went into the wolf's throat, goring out a large wound. Blueblood pulled back, head covered in blood and unable to see in one of his eyes, not from injury but stinging from being irritated from the crimson shower.
This had finally distracted the wolf enough for it to let go of Logan's arm. As it reared back to attack again, Logan reached for his sidearm. Disastrously, Logan's dominant arm had been the one that became a chew toy and it was too much of a challenge in trying to draw a pistol.

Gritting his teeth, Blueblood dropped his worthless revolver and drew his other sidearm. Again, at point blank, he didn't miss. After the sixth round, the wolf was dead but Blueblood fired the last four rounds of his pistol into the wolf's corpse due to the adrenalin running through his body.

Neither Logan or Blueblood had much time to relax. Logan drew his sidearm with his other arm and Blueblood picked his carbine back up. The foxholes to their lefts and right were still in combat with a wolf of their own. Logan and Blueblood took aim at the wolves attacking the neighboring foxholes, firing like madmen. They weren't killed but it gave the wolves enough pause to change their minds. Before they could be finished off, the wolves ran off, tail between their legs.

While they weren't dead, the ponies in the foxholes next to them were definitely not in perfect condition.

Gunshots and fighting came from the other sections of their defense but they too were able to fight off however many wolves attacked them. Most of the ruthless predators hadn't been killed. Most had been driven off and injured enough to be scared off... For now.

Relaxing, Logan clutched his torn up arm to his chest, while his other arm was occupied with scanning the area with his pistol. Once he realized that all of the gunfire stopped, he holstered his pistol and felt all of the pain that his adrenalin was previously holding back. "Fuuuuuuuuuck." He looked to Blueblood, who was wiping the blood out of his eye. "Thanks for the help."

Blueblood felt a shiver run through his body as he finally had the time to realize what he had done and the amount of filth that he had forced himself to endure. "I would implore that you don't compel me to perform such barbarism again." He picked up his service revolver.

Logan looked at the revolver and gritted his teeth. He had started bandaging his arm from the amount of damage it had received. "That thing's fucking worthless. Six shots didn't do shit to that thing!" Logan yelled. Blueblood looked at the revolver and couldn't argue. It was a true statement. "Get rid of that shit!"

Blueblood looked at his other sidearm. It was a gift to him and was originally a griffon pistol bought before the war had started. It was quite powerful and significantly more effective than his other sidearm. "You're right. I should rectify it." Logan raised an eyebrow but was impressed when Blueblood straight up threw his service revolver off into the distance, followed by the holster and its ammo. "Why impede myself with useless weight?" He was right, ounces equal pounds.

-X-X-X-

The griffons hadn't been excused from the wolf threat either. They had to protect their wounded on the ground from being wolf food and that had yielded many casualties in that defense.

Gilda looked at their collection of wounded, their own medics trying to tend to the injuries. Next to her, was the major who was technically in charge of this operation. "Why hadn't everyone flee from those vermin?" stated the major.

Gilda looked at the major with anger. "If we hadn't done that, the wounded would have been ripped to pieces and eaten alive!" she screamed at him.

The major just stared callously at the numbers they had left. "The amount of soldiers we can commit to fighting have decreased?"

Gilda twitched in anger. "When you're wounded, we'll leave you to the wolves. As for the others, we have to do something." While the major was technically in charge, she was the Jaeger attaché. Jaegers had a strange level of authority and could sort of take over if they wanted.

"And what would you propose?" asked the Major

Gilda told him. The major disagreed. Gilda didn't care.

-X-X-X-

Everyone noticed her. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack definitely noticed her. Gilda had slowly flown down towards the center of the ponies' defenses, wearing a long flowing white blanket. She was also carrying a large white flag. Everypony was pointing their weapons at her.

Rainbow Dash was especially attentive, her hoof twitching on the trigger of her rifle. She wanted to do it. Give her the reason. End it.

Eventually, Gilda landed. Rainbow Dash immediately bolted out of cover but Tran grabbed the back of her uniform, stopped her in her tracks. She looked up at Tran who looked back with his usual emotionless gaze that somehow conveyed his irritation. She was reminded of the agreement she had made and sighed before looking back to Gilda.

Gilda especially noticed this and smiled. Tran, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity slowly approached the Jaeger, pistols (and hand cannon) drawn on her. Applejack decided to stay behind cover, aiming her lever action at the griffon.

Gilda let go of the white flag, letting it drop to the ground and crossed her arms. She gave Rainbow and Tran an aggressive ready-to-fight look. "I see he's got you on a leash, huh?" Gilda goaded. Rainbow Dash blood boiled and her wings twitched. Gilda smiled, knowing she hit a nerve. Looking to the others, she balked at Tran. First of all, he had her submachine gun. Second of all, he was impaled to two bayonets and looked completely unbothered by it. Lastly, he was armed with the largest sidearm she had ever seen. She wanted her submachine gun back and maybe a copy of that hand cannon.

"What do you want?" Rainbow demanded.

From here, Gilda could see where they had setup their wounded. She could also see her fellow wounded griffons that they had tended to. "We got attacked by wolves and I know they attacked you too. They're not done with us yet."

They immediately realized what she was suggesting. "Are you advocating for a truce?" Rarity asked.

Rainbow Dash flared out her wings and got ready to pounce. "No way!"

Rarity looked to Rainbow and held up a hoof. "Dash, we need to hold our differences aside for the greater good. Those horrid beasts will be back."

Dash was offended she would ever suggest working with Gilda. "But-" Tran stepped in between Rarity and Dash, staring down at Rainbow. Dash sighed, knowing Rarity was right.

Tran turned to face Gilda. He holstered his revolver and held out his hand. "No tricks, got it? We've already started caring for your wounded that was left behind."

Gilda, with took his hand and shook it. "We've seen. No tricks, you've earned it."

She let go of his hand and was about to fly off when Tran grabbed Rainbow Dash and shoved her in front of the griffon. "Shake."

Dash begrudgingly held up a hoof. Gilda smirked, grabbing it and shaking. "He really does have you on a leash, huh?"

Dash almost punched her in the throat when Tran stepped in between the two. He pointed to the dent in her armor from when she was shot fighting with Dash. "I will shoot you again if you cause any trouble, got it? I don't miss."

She had heard the rumors of him dealing with her fellow Jaegers and of him hitting a general from over a kilometer away. She swallowed, realizing he had been the one to interrupt her fight with Dash. It made sense, considering he had both her gear and submachine gun now. She also heard the rumors of even his handgun (made sense considering how massive the damned thing was) being able to penetrate her armor. The first time he did it, she had survived from pure luck. "Crystal," she said bitterly.

-X-X-X-

The griffons and ponies made a compromise. The griffons moved all of their wounded over to where the ponies had their wounded situated, more than tripling the numbers that they had to house. Wilson didn't give a shit, he had the griffon medics to help him tend to the wounded. Both Wilson and the medics had no qualms with each other, they had an obligation to fulfill.

Griffon machine guns and their crews were added to the ponies' machine gun nests. In front of the machine guns, ponies and griffons stood watch having abandoned the foxholes. In the air above, the griffons patrolled the air, on watch for more wolves.

it was Rarity's idea. She assumed the griffons knew how their defense was laid, having surveyed it this whole time day and night. The griffons probably wouldn't want to give up how their defense was setup so this was the best solution.

All of the big players sat in the open, near the wounded, aside from Wilson who was going around tending to people. Because of the ceasefire, they didn't have to hide from each other and their current threat didn't have any guns.

Gilda eyed the submachine that was stolen from her. Tran noticed her staring and unslung it, holding it out to her. Gilda was astonished but took the gun nonetheless. "Return it when this is done or I will not be happy," Tran told her.

Gilda shouldered the submachine, feeling its familiar weight. "You know this is mine, right?"

Tran pointed to the wound on her throat. "Was."

Gilda looked to Rainbow Dash who still had same the dour expression on her face. "Looks like you finally found some cool people to hand out with, huh?"

"Don't you talk about my friends like that!" Rainbow snapped back.

Gilda snorted. "Now you're gonna defend your friends?"

Tran stood between the two again. "Explain."

The two of them looked at Tran wanting to stay silent but his expression demanded answers. Gilda broke the silence first. "Her friends embarrassed me and ran me out of town."

Dash threw her hooves into the air. "You fucked with my friends and we just fucked with you back! And we didn't run you out of town, you left! We held a party for you and it was just a joke!"

Tran between the two. "The pink one?"

Rainbow Dash took a second to realize what what he was asking. "Yes, it was Pinkie."

Tran looked at Gilda and stuck a hand out, all five fingers pointing all at her face. "Learn to take some fucking jokes." She opened her mouth to respond but was silenced when Tran narrowed his eyes. He then turned to face Rainbow Dash, hand and all five fingers pointed at her face. "Tone it down the bullshit." Like Gilda, she opened her mouth to respond but stopped due to the same reason. It doesn't matter who you are. The man with the two bayonets sticking out of his body is not to be trifled with, especially when he's knife handing you.

The two dogfighters stared each other down for a moment before Gilda dug through her gear and pulled out a familiar handgun. Rainbow instantly recognized her personal service revolver and caught it when Gilda threw it to her. "I can see why he holds your leash," Gilda said jokingly.

Rainbow Dash smirked. "And yours too."

Gilda looked back to Tran and specifically the hand cannon he carried. "And what the hell is that thing?" she asked while pointing. He instantly knew what she was talking about without having to look at where she was pointing. He drew it and held it out for her. She gripped it and immediately realized one thing. "Damn! I want to give this thing a try!"

Rainbow had a look of horror on her face. "No you don't!" she immediately yelled out.

Gilda had a look of confusion on her face. "Wait-"

Dash shook her head. "Trust me on that."

Gilda still had the same look of confusion but returned the hand cannon back to Tran. "Finally looks like you got some cool friends." She pointed at Rarity, who was absolutely filth-ed up at this point. "You even got your prissy friends to do awesome shit with us grunts. Here I am, stuck with a major in charge whose stuck so far up his own ass, he doesn't even need to flap his wings to see the clouds." Blueblood's ears perked up upon hearing the word major. "Fucking officers. Once they get above captain, they become worthless."

Blueblood frowned, having heard the same insult but now from both sides. "I'm," he started. "a major," he deadpanned.

Gilda eyed the supposed major. He wore the standard standard REA army uniform but every small feature on it was stained with dirt and grime, making him seem like one of the ground pounders. He had the inklings of a white coat except all of the exposed areas where it should have been visible was absolutely brown and black with mud. Most of his head and face was covered in blood, staining it and giving him the look of a violent berserker. His horns had bits of flesh and fur stuck to it, giving her an idea on what he had used it for, as if the major she was partnered with would never touch anything with his claws. He had a saber like some officers had but that was the only indication that he was an officer. She opened her mouth out of amazement. "Looking a bit, uh, out of uniform, there," she joked.

Blueblood thought of something to respond but Tran beat him to the punch. "The best officers are the ones on equal ground as the privates, in more ways than one," he stated.

Blueblood smiled. "Maybe I'll just stay like this," he joked.

Rarity recoiled. "Oh please don't," she retorted.

Gilda eyed the rest of Blueblood, noticing his sidearm. Both were definitely not standard REA equipment. It was griffon equipment. "How the hell do you have that?" she asked while pointing at the pistol.

Blueblood looked down at where she was pointing. "Oh, they were gifts," he replied.

Gilda raised an eyebrow. "Must have been a really good friend. Can't even get those anymore in Griffonstone. Where do you even get ammo? 9mm, right?"

Blueblood chuckled. "Oh, you have no idea. I have to get it custom made. And yes, they're both 9mm, but." He drew his pistol and reluctantly held it out for her. He still had his animosities but Tran had already trusted her enough. Gilda took the pistol and aimed it into the air before bringing it down and pulling back on the bolt. She pulled it back enough to look at the round that it was chambered in but not enough to eject a round. She was surprised. "Yes, its the 9mm export model that came out a few years before the war."

Gilda handed the pistol back to him. "Must have cost a lot. I thought no one like it because it was too powerful for a pistol?"

Blueblood nodded. "Your assumption be correct. Its quite the hand cannon," Blueblood commented. Immediately, everyone in the vicinity looked at Tran. His usual dollfaced expression somehow conveyed amusement, everyone could tell. "Compared to normal sidearms, shall I say," he said while thinking back to the revolver he literally threw away. He had an amused expression on his face. "You might find more entertainment out of this," he said while unslinging his carbine off of his back.

The instant Gilda's hands graced Blueblood's carbine, she had many questions. "H-how did you get this?" she asked. "This was an experimental rifle trialed by only Jaegers." She knew because she had been one of those Jaegers that tested the carbines. It failed the trials as it was beaten out by the submachine she had owned (previously). She took the mag out of the carbine, noticing it was in 9mm, but a different shorter 9mm round than the pistol he used. It had a 40 round magazine, more rounds than her submachine gun's drum magazine (32 rounds) but it wasn't full auto.

Blueblood smiled, reminiscing on old memories. "My aunt gifted it to me when I passed the officer's academy and officially joined the service."

Gilda was still staring at the carbine, sticking the mag back in it. "Who's your aunt?!"

"Princess Celestia."
"Princess Celestia."
"Princess Celestia."
"Princess Celestia."
Everypony replied simultaneously.

Gilda handed the carbine back to Blueblood when gunshots immediately starting ringing out. Everyone perked up, weapons at the ready. Gilda had her (for now) submachine gun, Blueblood had his carbine, Applejack had her lever action, Rainbow had her rifle, Rarity had a rifle, Eric had his AK74, Logan had his pistol, and Tran his 1911. Everyone looked outwards and could see large masses of wolves approaching.

Then, the griffons that were circling the air and keeping watch descended into their ranks. A pair of griffons descended to Gilda and the three had a private short conversation.

"Fucking what?!" Gilda yelled as the two griffons flew off. Following those two, all of the other griffons that were with the ponies flew off with them. There were a few griffons that remained, most of which were the griffon medics that were with Wilson who were tending to the wounded.

Rainbow pointed an accusatory hoof at Gilda. "What the hell is going on?!" she demanded.

Gilda threw up her hands in a defensive fashion. "We just got an order to retreat!"

Rainbow pointed her rifle at Gilda. "I knew it!"

Gilda didn't make any rash moves, keeping her submachine gun down. "That wasn't my idea. I have no idea what's going on!"

"Hey!" yelled Tran. "We got other thing to worry about!"

The machine guns in the center of their defense lit up, in an attempt to stop the rapidly approaching wolves. A few got hit before they wised up and actually started weaving left and right to avoid the gunfire! Everyone else that wasn't on a machine gun added their guns to the mix.

Rainbow Dash growled, still looking at the griffon. "This isn't over!" She turned her rifle on the encroaching wolves, firing off a shot. Gilda followed her soon afterwards, firing the submachine gun.

Tran looked to the others. "Defend the wounded!"

Tran got out from where he was, the dugout of where the wounded was, and closed the distance between him and the wolves. Rainbow Dash and Gilda followed him and the three joined up with the ponies that were on the outer defenses. The wolves were only spotted when they were a short distance from them. Before anyone knew it, the predators found their prey.

The fight quickly dissolved into a serious hand to hand melee. Ponies found wolves on top of them before they could even react. Tran quickly reacted and took his attention off of shooting the approaching wolves to assist the ponies being mauled. Some quick shots took care of two.

When he shot and killed a third wolf that was actively making a pony into a buffet, he found himself knocked to the ground and pistol knocked away. The bayonets stuck in his body reminded him that life was a bitch as they aggravated all of the feelings in his body. He was face to face with the ear as he felt teeth latch onto the back of his neck.

Something angry really wanted to finish off its kill.

Tran drew his .500 magnum and aimed at the beast. It didn't take much brainpower to figure out where it was, considering it was currently attached to him. One gunshot rendered the attacker's head into mush and one of Tran's ears ringing.

"Fuck!"

Tran rolled to his side, seeing that Gilda had also been pounced upon. Rainbow speared the thing with the bayonet of her rifle but that only angered it. Tran took aim and fired, hitting it center mass. The thing dropped like a sack of potatoes, right on top of Gilda and covering her with its big furry body.

That was when everyone's hearts dropped into their assholes.

A deep sharp whistling filled the air. It was the sound of incoming mortar shells.

All of the soldiers that were previously in the outer foxholes were now out in the open. This was gonna quickly turn into a bloodbath. "Get to cover!" Tran yelled while getting back up and picking up his 1911 with a free hand. Unfortunately, everyone that was exposed was busy with a very personal experience with wolves. Whoever wasn't in an active personal skirmish ran for the machine gun nests that had dugouts and mounds to hide behind. The ones that weren't, were being actively mutilated by a wild animal's teeth.

Tran looked at Gilda and realized what had to be done. "Get under the wolves!" he yelled out. .500 magnum in one hand and 1911 in the other, he turned and started shooting at the wolves that were actively attacking someone. "Use their bodies as cover!"

The wolves didn't know what was gonna happen. That was an unfortunate upside to this situation. They were gonna be the cover, if they didn't kill them in the process. Rainbow realized what Tran was doing and turned to shoot at wolves that were with somepony. Tran and Rainbow didn't have much time or ammunition in their guns. By the time they had to reload, they were about to have a very bad time.

When Tran's 1911 clicked empty, he gritted his teeth and charged at Rainbow. Her eyes widened upon seeing the approaching mass. Both of them slammed into the ground, with Tran covering her with his body.

Seconds later, shells started impacting. The wolves found themselves at the mercy of war. It didn't last very long but it was incredibly effective against everything.

Once it ended, there was still movement on the battlefield. There were a number of wolves that had been mortally wounded and tried to leave this living hell but couldn't. They were doomed to only crawl around as they slowly loss their last bits of life. Ponies got out from under their fleshy bunkers, having barely survived that encounter. Unfortunately, there were some that were exposed when the shelling started. No one had to worry about them anymore, they were dead. The machine gun nests and those that were in that area were miraculously not struck by any of the shells.

Gilda pushed the shredded wolf's body off of her, getting up with panicked breathing. Tran rolled off of Rainbow and onto his side. Rainbow, looking at Tran on the ground, found that he was still alive. He wasn't untouched though. The left side of his body's limbs were bleeding. Now, one leg was peppered by shrapnel while the other had a bayonet running through it. "T-thank you," Rainbow said.

Tran sat up, his body filled with all of the reminders that he should not be alive. "Help me," he calmly stated as if he had been asking someone to pass the salt. Tran got out a bandage and wrapped it around the teeth marks on the back of his neck, giving Rainbow an idea on what he requested. She got out one of her own bandages and started wrapped it around the leg that had been mutilated by shrapnel.

Gilda walked over to the two, claws wrapped tightly around her submachine. It still had ammo in it. Both Tran and Rainbow weren't armed at the moment. "This wasn't my idea," Gilda said.

Rainbow froze, seeing her stand above the two, eyeing the submachine gun in her claws. "What are you gonna do now?" she asked Gilda.

Gilda sighed. "You're the enemies," she said with a pained voice. She slung the submachine gun and pulled out a bandage, tending to Tran's heavily bleeding arm.

Tran stood up, picking up his pistols. He was gonna look like a mummy at this point, all of these bandages wrapped around him. "We had a treaty" he stated.

Gilda unslung the submachine gun and handed it to Tran. "We did," she said angrily. She shot up into the sky. Rainbow watched as she left. She had the instinct to follow her but her broken wing told her otherwise. In the meanwhile, Tran had ran into the center of their defense before returning with his sniper rifle and camouflaged suit. He looked to Rainbow. "Stay here, help with the cleanup and the new wounded."

Rainbow nodded as he ran off into the woods.

-X-X-X-

Gilda landed at the griffon's planning and command area. There was the major, as usual. However, there were a two others that she did and didn't recognize along with two guards.

One was wearing the clean uniform of a griffon general. Oddly enough, he was missing his left leg. Obviously, the number of generals that existed were not that many and she didn't remember any missing a limb. It must have been fresh. He had an angry expression on his face.

The other was a fellow Jaeger. He wore the usual reinforced breastplate armor that all Jaegers wore and was armed with the same submachine she had previously owned. He had a neutral expression, rather bored as it seemed.

"What the hell was that?!" Gilda demanded.

"Mortars?" the major responded. "You were told to retreat but you didn't?"

Gilda pointed at the general. "Was this your idea? A bullshit treaty before stabbing them in the back?!"

The general pointed at his missing leg. "All's fair in love and war. If they can do this to me, I can do that to them. You should have retreated and left them to the wolves."

Gilda clenched her claws. "And our wounded? Were they just a way to convince them that we weren't going to stab them in the back?"

The general snorted. "Mere casualties in a war that should have ended long ago," he said callously.

The Jaeger pointed an accusatory claw at Gilda. "I saw you bandage up that human after he was wounded. There was also that rainbow one. You could have eliminated one of those humans and one of their best dogfighters. You had the chance and you left them live."

The general looked to the Jaeger." Is that so?" The general pointed at Gilda. "Arrest her!"

The Jaeger had beaten the general to the punch and had already been aiming his submachine gun at the fellow Jaeger. The two guards in the background walked up to Gilda. One of the guards took Gilda's sidearm while the other grabbed her wings.

Gilda's clenched her beak with anger. "This isn't over," she hissed.

The Jaeger smirked but then dropped to the ground as a bullet went through the front of his breastplate before liquifying his chest. The loud and familiar sound of Tran's .338 Lapua rang through the air. Gilda's eyes widened but she turned to one of the guards, the one who wasn't holding her wings, and ran her claws through his throat. The other guard tried to pin her to the ground but Gilda had taken back her sidearm and put a bullet through one of his eyes.

The general felt a familiar pain run through his body as a bullet tore his left arm off of his body. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain, clutching the remaining bleeding stump. Everyone could hear Tran's rifle ring out again.

Standing proudly, wings on full display, Gilda faced the major who was filled with terror. The major stupidly opened his mouth. "Surrender?"

Gilda snickered before coldly gunning him down with the remaining rounds in her sidearm. She holstered it before picking up the submachine that her fellow Jaeger dropped. She took a few extra seconds to take his scarf and his gear, donning it. It was the same as the one she had lost and been scavenged by Tran. Feeling the familiar weight of it on her shoulders and waist, she took off as other griffons started to approach the area to investigate.

Gilda quickly found where Tran had hidden. It wasn't exactly hard. He was still firing his rifle and the thing gave off a muzzle flash that was visible from the moon and a report that could be heard by the deaf. "You didn't miss," Gilda stated. He stood up and the two went off back to the pony's line.

-X-X-X-

In the foxholes that were situated on the outer defenses, ponies tried to fill them back up. Not many soldiers were left in good fighting condition. Most of the foxholes were manned by some wounded ponies. They weren't gravely wounded but they weren't lightly wounded either. Some could barely walk.

Rainbow was among the few lucky ones who were somehow unwounded. She filled one of the foxholes. They weren't gonna last very long at this rate.

"North!" yelled a familiar voice off in the distance.

Rainbow's ears perked up. It was Tran. "Star!" somepony immediately yelled back. She and the ponies in the foxholes beside her watched as Tran slowly walked up to them. As he approached, she could see, even with his camouflage outfit on, that he was bleeding badly from his wounds. Walking alongside him was... Gilda.

The other ponies were antsy, seeing the Jaeger. When they got close enough, Rainbow got out of her foxhole and approached the pair.

"Gilda," she said with strong animosity.

When Tran and Gilda was close enough, Gilda charged forward and wrapped her arms around Rainbow. Rainbow scrambled around for a few seconds before she realized what was going on. "I'm sorry for ditching you," Gilda said.

Rainbow wrapped her own arms (fore legs) around Gilda, returning the embrace. "No, I'm sorry for how my friends and I treated you."

Gilda squeezed her arms around Rainbow even harder. "No, I was being an asshole," Gilda responded.

"Shut the fuck up and help me," Tran demanded. The two turned to look at him. He was lying on the ground on his side. His bleeding was getting worse, especially around the two bayonets still impaled on him.

The two exploded away from each others arms and scrambled towards Tran. They helped him up to his feet and started carrying him over to where the wounded was. Gilda felt Tran's blood run on her. "I thought you were unkillable?"

Tran mustered up enough strength to answer back. "Does it look like I'm dead?"

"Yes!" both Gilda and Rainbow replied.

"I'm not dead yet."