“You all know the plan,” whispered Twilight. The mares and one dragon gathered around her nodded. The unicorn smiled grimly. “Let’s get to it.”
“One thing,” said Rarity. “Could somepony help me get set up?”
“Did you have to pick such a big gun?” complained Rainbow. She begrudgingly assisted the unicorn to set up her weapon. The others dispersed, heading towards the castle in the center of the city.
After the battle of Ponyville, Nightmare Moon’s forces were on high alert. Shadowbolts, diamond dogs, and all matter of evil creatures stalked the streets of Canterlot. It was not going to be an easy fight.
After Rarity was settled, Rainbow rushed to catch up with the rest of the formation. A hail of tracer bullets erupted out of an apartment building and she did a barrel roll, returning fire. The pegasus didn’t have to worry so much about running out of ammunition, because the P90’s magazine held fifty.
Pinkie pumped the action of her grenade launcher and fired a round through an open window of the building. The entire floor blew out. There were other threats on other floors, however. Applejack shot the front door off its hinges with her shotgun. Twilight aimed her pistols inside and opened fire. She expended a couple of seven-round magazines before deciding that all hostiles had been taken down.
From her position, Rarity had been carefully putting down any threat that showed itself. She hadn’t been attacked directly yet, probably because of the lethality of her weapon. Eventually a couple of pegasus Shadowbolts made a charge at her. In an effort to be harder to hit, they swapped positions in midair as if in a living shell game. Rarity carefully timed their maneuvers until they were in a line and then fired. The single high-caliber bullet ripped through all three ponies without stopping.
In the streets, Spike hosed down an improvised bunker that had been set up. Fire poured through gaps in the bulwark, igniting several diamond dogs inside. Applejack and Twilight set up a choke point with interlocking fields of fire and took down their targets as they came pouring out to escape the flames.
With that objective down, the two mares collected Pinkie and ran to catch up to Rainbow, who was engaged in an intense firefight with a couple of Shadowbolts. They were the ones who had found sturdy cover. Others were not so lucky, and the high velocity 5.7x28mm ammunition in Rainbow’s P90 had shredded their flimsy hiding places.
Despite the heavy fire from both sides, neither could gain an advantage. Rainbow was too fast and well-armed, and her opponents were too protected.
“Watch this!” said Pinkie. She aimed her grenade launcher over the heads of the dug-in Shadowbolts and fired. Pulling her Desert Eagle, the pink pony shot the grenade as it passed over the top of the protective cover. The explosion caught the enemy combatants from behind.
Pinkie blew the smoke off the barrel of her weapon and grinned. Rainbow, Twilight, Spike, and Applejack stared at her in astonishment. Their surprise was short-lived however, as an enormous crowd of Shadowbolts, diamond dogs, and various other generic bad guys poured into the street.
The range was far too close for explosives. Pinkie brandished her sidearm and formed a circle with her friends, their backs pressed together. With enemies closing from all sides the only thing that could save them was—
Rarity sighed. She’d hoped to avoid nasty fully automatic firing. The .50 BMG machine gun in front of her bucked on its tripod as the unicorn opened fire. The heavy bullets mowed through the crowd attacking her friends. And they’d called her crazy for putting a scope on a Browning M2.
In seconds, the street was littered with bodies and parts. The fifty-caliber rounds often dismembered, it seemed.
Twilight touched her ear. “Thanks Rarity! We’re about to enter the castle now, so keep watch out here.”
Pinkie used a grenade to blow open the castle doors. Nightmare Moon’s elite guards waited inside. Fighting tooth and hoof, bullet and flame, the battle commenced.
It was certainly a good thing Twilight had six guns, otherwise she wasn’t sure she could keep firing some while reloading the others. Beside her, Applejack slapped a new drum magazine into her AA-12 and resumed shooting. Pinkie sprayed grenades and bullets with equal aplomb. Overhead, Rainbow was ducking and diving, returning more fire than she had to avoid. Spike was assisting all the mares by keeping their attackers at bay with his trusty flamethrower.
They fought their way though the castle, heading for the royal chambers. Applejack shot the lock off an important looking door and kicked it open. Inside, a tall black evil pony stood, surrounded by crates of weapons.
“Nightmare Moon!” shouted Twilight. “We’ve come to take you down!”
The black mare laughed. “You think it will be easy?”
“Well, we did just kill every single one of your guards,” said Pinkie.
“That was just entertainment,” said Nightmare Moon. “Now it’s time for the real fun!” She pulled a M249 machine gun out of one of the crates. The evil mare paused, smirking. “Or how about doubling it?” A second M249 joined the first.
Everypony squared off across the room. Hammers were cocked and actions were racked. The tension built, all of them waiting to see who would move first.
Suddenly, the door slammed open as if hit by a train. Princess Celestia stepped in carrying a M134 Minigun. The weapon’s six barrels began to spin.
In a panic, Nightmare Moon raised her guns and opened fire. Celestia met her barrage with a wall of lead of her own. Both alicorns were powerful, but only one knew how to curve bullets and make them meet others in midair.
Twilight watched in wonder as Princess Celestia shot down all of Nightmare Moon’s bullets, the Minigun easily keeping up with the fire from both M249s at once. Suddenly, the machine guns jammed and blew apart, the result of Celestia’s bullets going the wrong way down their barrels.
The explosion knocked Nightmare Moon back, a veil of blackness stripping away to reveal a blue pony underneath. The newcomer stumbled and fell, more stunned than injured. Celestia lowered her weapon, knowing this pony was no threat.
“Princess, who is that?” asked Twilight. She and her friends turned to listen attentively to the royal pony’s answer.
“It’s my sister, Luna,” explained Celestia. “A thousand years of corruption had tainted her mind, but no longer. I am sorry to have to hurt her, but she should recover.”
Celestia was interrupted by a shriek of pain. Everypony looked to where Luna lay, a bayonet protruding from her chest. A yellow pegasus stood beside her.
“Fluttershy…what did you do?” shouted Twilight.
“Oh, well, I thought about what happened in Ponyville and I decided that a knife was a much better way to deal with the wounded. It’s so much less wasteful.” Fluttershy ducked her head modestly.
She jerked her face back up in surprise as everypony in the room pointed a gun at her.