//------------------------------//
// Friendship Is Like War, Easy To Start, Hard To Stop, Impossible To Forget 
// Story: If You Want Peace, Prepare For War 
// by tranhdxrbntd 
//------------------------------//

As the end of the second week, since the destruction of the Dauntless started to arrive, everyone started their plans for the weekend. It was a nice Saturday and even in this war time schedule, everyone, aside from strictly crucial roles, had the day off. Since they were currently not on the frontline, every soldier was allowed a single weekend day per week. It was time for soldiers to relax and spend at least some of their life enjoying it instead of fighting for it.

The humans' headquarters was bristling with activity in the morning. Inside, all three humans and their escorts lazily went through their morning routines to start the day while guards were changing shifts outside. As Applejack delivered home cooked food from Sweet Apple Acres before greeting everyone inside before leaving to have some leisurely fun at home. Rarity and Blueblood only ate very little before leaving to go on a light date with today's free time. Then, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, Soarin, Gilda, and Scootaloo ate as quickly as they could before leaving to practice their flying maneuvers. With the three humans by themselves, Eric decided to take his food to go before leaving to hang out with the soldiers.

Wilson and Tran were the only ones to actually take their time to enjoy their breakfast but at one point, Tran started taking off his clothes. Wilson was very much confused from Tran's actions. "You know, I'm not really into you like that." Wilson jokingly said.

Tran sighed, finished undressing when he was just in his underwear. "I want morphine," Tran finally explaining himself.

Wilson straightened up and went completely serious. "The fuck?" Wilson said, unsure of what to do. "Fucking, why?" he asked.

Nothing about Tran's exterior showed that anything was wrong. Sure, he was scarred all over from his many, many previous wounds but everything was all healed up. "Ever since I died, something's been eating at me from the inside. When I'm working or training, it distracts me but when I'm left alone, it's all I can think about."

Wilson looked at the ground and sighed. This saddened him to the point of almost bringing him to tears. His fellow brother was suffering and he wasn't sure of what he should do. He went to grab some of his equipment and checked Tran all over. His breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure was fine. Wilson grit his teeth and grabbed a glass vial and a syringe. It was morphine alright. He withdrew a proper dose and looked at Tran. "Are you sure about this?" Wilson asked.

While Tran had the same usual dead expression on his face, Wilson could see in Tran's eyes that he was tired. The two had known each other for quite a while and this was one of the very few moments of weakness that Tran had ever shown Wilson. "Last week, I could barely manage through it. Yes," Tran replied.

Wilson started finding a vein that he could use. Once he started delivering the morphine, Wilson could see that Tran's body relax but his eyes still showed that he was still dead inside, basically. Once the drug administration was done, Tran started dressing himself back up and Wilson put away his gear. "We can't make this into a habit," Wilson said.

Tran nodded, once he was fully dressed. "I know, bad for you long term," Tran answered back. The two of them continued eating for a short while before grabbing a few things so they could go out and have some personal fun, like extra cash, keys, small journals, pencil, and their pistols (Wilson grabbed his recently acquired FN Five Seven while Tran with his .500 S&W magnum).

Wilson eyed the giant hand cannon that Tran had grabbed. "Man, that's like your brand," Wilson said with a smile.

Tran drew the huge revolver and held it up to examine. "Yeah. Bit annoying to carry, being this big and all." Tran said before re-holstering the pistol.

*THUD THUD THUD*

The two of them looked to the front door where someone was knocking. The two humans shot each other a quick look before looking back to the door. If it had been Eric or any of their liaisons, they would have just entered on their own without knocking. This was someone unknown. "Enter!" Wilson shouted, hopefully loud enough that their guest could hear.

The door's lock clicked as the guest unlocked the door and it opened, revealing one of the outside sentries that constantly guarded their headquarters. The sentry entered and saluted the two. "You have guests, incoming," the sentry reported.

Wilson was slightly nonplussed from the salute. Neither him or Tran were officers, being sergeants from their original world and also officially being sergeants in the REA. Nonetheless, Wilson saluted back. "Thanks. Return to your post." Wilson dropped the salute and then the sentry dropped his salute, walking back outside and closing the door.

Wilson and Tran shot each other a look before they finished up and walked outside the door. Outside, aside from the usual sentries that guarded the headquarters, there were a few extra ponies that were present. However, these two extra ponies, unlike the REA sentries that guarded the house, were bat ponies. The humans had seen them before but had never interacted with them before. The two humans looked around for more and noticed, off in the distance, in the sky, was a chariot heading this way, along with a whole hoard of more bat ponies.

Wilson and Tran shot each other a look again. Wilson's shoulders visibly sagged, realizing that this might mean they'd have to do some 'work' today. "Damn, I was looking forward to the day off," Wilson complained.

Tran looked at the incoming chariot and then back to Wilson. "Go on, I can probably handle this," Tran offered.

Wilson's raised his eyes. "You sure?'

Tran nodded. "You seem like you need the time off and this'll help distract me from..." Tran's voice trailed off as he implied what he had truthfully told Wilson earlier.

Wilson cringed, realizing what Tran had meant. He nodded. "Well, guess I can still drink and try to get my dick wet," Wilson stated before he started walking off. "Been way too damn long."

That had honestly been a mental flashbang to Tran. The three of them had been in Equestria for almost four months by now and their romantic prospects so far, had been, how you say, sparse. To be fair, they were busy with the war and ponies were very wary of the humans. But, to be fair, the city's occupants were starting to warm up to the humans and they were especially grateful that they were fighting for Equestria. Plus, the ponies were used to dealing with other species by now. Wilson was honestly hoping to 'relive some stress'. Tran waved Wilson off. "Ain't even noon yet!" Tran yelled out.

"It's noon somewhere!" Wilson yelled out as he disappeared into the city.

Tran looked back to the chariot, which had started to land. He didn't count them all but he was sure that a few dozen bat ponies had landed with the chariots. All of the bat ponies were wearing a rather interesting variant of the standard REA combat uniform. The coat and pants, instead of being khaki like the standard army uniform, it was instead a very dark navy color, almost to the point of being black. They wore a black shirt underneath the uniform and also wearing the standard REA army combat gear on top of it all, albeit also being a black colored version. They were all armed, with various weapons, all of which was standard REA weapons. 

The most sight worthy of all, was the chariot's passenger. The passenger was Princess Luna! Instead of wearing standard REA combat gear, she was wearing a full set of black plate armor without a helmet. It looked like she had stepped out of the middle ages with all of the steel plates that protected her body. Of note, she was carrying a saber in a scabbard worn on her right side and an even larger greatsword worn on a back mounted scabbard. The princess stepped out of the chariot and trotted up to Tran who was patiently waiting and examining the bat ponies.

Tran had met all of the other princesses that ruled Equestria. Celestia was easily the largest and stood, on all four legs, a head taller than Tran who himself was the tallest of the humans at six feet tall. Princess Luna, while she was still large for a pony by Equestrian standards, was almost the same height as Tran. Normally, ponies on all four legs stood one head taller than the human's waistline and being the same height when standing on their back legs. Here, Princess Luna was able to look Tran in the eyes, her barely being an inch shorter.

Tran and Princess Luna looked at each other for a few seconds, as if they were squaring off. Luna, having finally met one of the humans, seemed to be... Unimpressed. "Normally, my subjects bow upon meeting a member of the royal diarchy but in this situation, I can disregard the faux pas," Princess Luna said.

Tran looked around and saw that the sentries that guarded their headquarters bowing. Tran looked back at the Princess and shrugged. "I ain't one of your subjects," Tran stated out loud. Some of the princess's bat ponies seemed to get agitated upon Tran's statement, to which, Tran noticed. Then Tran straightened up his stance and saluted the princess. "Nice to meet another prominent member of this country's government."

Princess Luna looked at the saluting human and smiled. "Ah, the respectful practice of the salute!" Princess Luna said with happiness in her voice. "While I wear no helmet, I understand the intent!" Princess Luna quickly saluted back and dropped it, to which Tran finally dropped his own salute.

Tran relaxed and crossed his arms. He eyed the bat pony soldiers for a few seconds, before looking back at the princess. "Not to be rude, but what are you here for?"

Princess Luna's was currently showing a political face, one that seemed to show happiness, but it cracked for a second with Tran's question. Princess Luna flared her wings and pointed to the human's headquarters. "We are here to alleviate the conundrum that the enemy's espionage has created! We hath brought our personal guards to assist!"

Tran walked over to one of the bat ponies and held out his hand. "Weapon?" Tran asked.

The bat pony was confused upon Tran's request and he turned to looked to the Princess. "You may," Princess Luna ordered.

The bat pony unslung his rifle and held it out for Tran. Tran took the rifle, unloaded it, before doing a quick inspection. Once he was satisfied, he returned the rifle and walked back over to the princess. "You're here to guard us?"

Princess Luna tucked her wings back to her side. "Indeed. Not me personally. I will be temporarily present until a proper defense network and chain of command has been setup to guard your prospects. Our bat pony sentinels are unmatched in stealth!"

Tran pointed at one of the bat ponies. "Your men are green and you want to defend me and my allies?"

Princess Luna narrowed her eyes and frowned. "While I am grateful for your actions towards Equestria's survival, I will not take your insults against our personal retinue of warriors, lightly. While they have not fought on the farce that your generation call war, their strengths lie in the discrete defense of the homeland from threats domestic. You'll find that their company deters the threats you face away from the battlefield." The princess eyed the human up and down, finding that his appearance was no more impressive than a common citizen. "And you expect to criticize us when you are no more prepared than a fresh foal from birth!"

True, all Tran was armed with right now was his hand cannon and a knife, both of which were hidden by his outfit, but that was pretty much all he needed on a common leisurely day. Tran looked down at himself before looking back to Luna. From looking at one of their bat ponies, Tran knew that they hadn't ever seen the battlefield. Their uniforms weren't damaged from being in the field and their weapons showed no signs of battle damage or hard use. However, he did notice that their gear and weapons were 'broken in' from being used. “Mayhaps these soldiers were more like an elite police force. Anyways,” Tran had his own thoughts. He was too used to soldier life to appreciate the bat ponies. "So, what will you do now? There is nothing scheduled for today," Tran questioned.

Princess Luna turned to face her troops and made a motion with one of her wings. With that, the chariot took off and flew away while the various other bat ponies started going off into the city. That left Tran alone with Princess Luna and just two bat ponies. "We shall join you in your common activities whilst my Night Sentinels create a defense network," Princess Luna announced.

Tran shrugged and turned around, walking back to the house. "Just don't get in my way," Tran said, as he disappeared back into their headquarters.

-X-X-X-

Even though it was the very morning of the day and it was the day off, Tran decided to do some work. It was very basic/minor work, he was merely making more ammunition for himself and his allies to use. Nothing in Equestria used the .338 Lapua round so each round was custom made. They were designed for both power and accuracy so he had to make each round by hand with custom lathe made solid brass projectiles. Each cartridge had hand measured power loads to make sure they provided a consistent velocity for his accuracy standards. This process was nearly the same for Tran's .500 magnum ammo and his .45 acp pistol ammo. It was just done much quicker as the accuracy demand for each round wasn't as high demanding.

Princess Luna went to look at the various amenities that the headquarters had but after finding them rather plain and boring, she decided to join Tran in his workshop. There, everyone's gear and weapons were displayed, ready to be grabbed used at any moments with ammunition nearby. Princess Luna eyed some of the helmets and body armor that the humans wore, unsatisfied with what she saw.

Princess Luna poked at one of the plate carriers sitting around, feeling the steel plate underneath, that was meant to stop bullets. She frowned. "This choice of armor seems to be quite inadequate for battle. You only protect one half your body and barely so, at that!"

Tran placed a finished .338 Lapua round down with a batch of other completed rounds. He walked over to the armor stands where Princess Luna was specifically looking at Eric's plate carrier. He went to his own set and quickly donned it, having managed to do so in mere seconds. He strapped down the secondary soft deltoid protectors, making sure they were a good fit. Looking back to Luna, he folded his arms. "It does the job," Tran said, tapping the front section of the vest.

Princess Luna threw a hoof out, pointing at the human's exposed legs. "And what pray tell, will you do when an enemy assails your legs with their weapon?"

Tran reached down and pulled up one of his pants legs, revealing a big nasty scar on the leg. He looked up at Luna. "I take the hit and keep going. You run my leg through with that sword, all you get have is me running at you with a sword sticking out of my leg, pissed off," Tran said, showing off both entry and exit holes from when a griffon had impaled his leg with a bayonet.

Princess Luna eyed the leg scar and lowered the leg she was pointing with. Her eyes showed a mix of astonishment and disbelief. "The fellow soldiers have rumored that you are unkillable, truly that is false?"

Tran lowered his pant's leg and straightened up. "Maybe. I'll die when I want to die," Tran stated.

Princess Luna turned away and looked at some of the weapons that belonged to the humans. "Sad that you prefer using these so called, weapons," Princess Luna said while scrutinizing one rifle in particular. "Fighting from a distance? No honor in that! These modern day soldiers don't know the true sport of war where life is wagered for glory. No skill involved in today's fighting." Tran picked up his sniper rifle and started stuffing his pockets and pouches with ammunition. Princess Luna saw Tran's actions and wandered over to him. "What are you planning now?"

Tran turned around and held out his sniper rifle for Luna. Confused, she took it and held it up in her magic. Tran reached out and drew the saber from where it sat against Luna's side. "A wager," Tran stated.

Princess Luna was taken aback from the point that Tran had stolen Luna's sword. She looked at the sniper rifle held in her magic telekinesis. "What challenge do you propose?"

For once, Tran smiled, which discerned Luna. He knew what was gonna happen and he was going to enjoy every bit of it. "You show that there's no skill involved with my expertise and I will show you that there's no skill involved in your expertise."

Princess Luna took a step back, offended. "Fine!" Luna stammered. She knew that she herself was unmatched in swordsmanship. If rifles did as they were rumored, it would be too easy for her to shoot something.

-X-X-X-

The challenge that faced Luna was simple. Tran, Luna, and two of her bat pony guards now were at a shooting range meant for military use. This one had been favored by the humans so certain accommodations were made for them. There were many shooting lanes and down side of each lane were were many, many steel targets placed downrange. The standard ones varied from 50 meters, all the way out to five hundred meters. Then, there was another section that had been recently added, setup long ago by Tran personally. On this lane, the closest target sat at 600 meters and the furthest sat at 1800 meters. Each target was a large circular steel gong, roughly half a meter wide, painted white. 

There was a neat table and chair setup, so someone could comfortably sit here and shoot all day, if needed. Tran had Luna sit down at the table with the rifle, as they were supervised by their two bat pony guards. Tran pointed down range at the closest target, 600 meters away. "Shoot," Tran stated. Luna looked at the rifle and the target far away. She was still all clad in her plate armor while Tran was still only wearing his leisure clothes, with his plate carrier worn over it. From here, the target seemed, oh so small. Tran could see Luna's trepidation towards the request. "If its so easy, you should be able to ring that steel.."

Tran's .338 Lapua sniper rifle was currently setup with a long trigger bar so that Luna could use it but for a few seconds, the rifle lay untouched as Luna tried getting into a comfortable shooting position. She had to shift or adjust several sections of her armor but she finally managed to get settled into a point where her aim wasn't moving around all over the place... Much. After quite a good wait, the rifle finally sounded. To give her an honest shot, Tran had correctly adjust the scope to make such a shot, at 600 meters. It didn't matter as Tran had been watching the impact. "Twelve feet high, four feet left," Tran reported.

Luna frowned as Tran reloaded the rifle for her. She reached up to rub her ears, the loud gunshot being very concussive to her unprotected hearing. When she got ready to aim again, she tried to get a good aim at the target but when she got ready to take another shot, she found herself flinching. She was honestly quite fearful of the gun going off because of its recoil and loud report. "Ten feet low. eight feet right," Tran called out.

Luna's mood soured more and more as she tried another shot and another shot. As she continued to fire more and more, the more she flinched and anticipated the shot, making her miss by a worsening margin. By the time she fired her eighth shot, she stood up in anger. "Bah! These weapons are worthless to me! I have never used them and will continue to never use them!"

Tran folded his arms and looked at the princess with disdain. "I thought you said it was easy?" Tran questioned.

Princess Luna turned to one of her bat pony guards. "You there!" said while pointing at the guard. "For a modern day soldier, it will be effortless. Shoot that target with your weapon!" she commanded.

The bat pony guard was uncomfortable with the situation but he trotted over to the firing line and got settled into a prone position with his rifle. He was wielding the standard service rifle of the REA, which was a bolt action, en bloc clip fed, five round rifle in 8mm. He fired. At 600 meters, the closest target at Tran's personal section of the shooting range, the bat pony guard still missed. The bat pony fire again, and again. Before they knew it, the bat pony's rifle was empty. Five shots, all misses. The bat pony, head low, trotted away from the firing line as he reloaded his rifle.

Tran looked to Luna who seemed rather displeased. "I thought you said your little vampires were skilled?" Tran taunted. Tran turned his attention to the bat pony who was still on the range. Tran held his hands out. "Weapon," Tran demanded as the guard finished reloading his rifle. The bat pony guard handed over the rifle without question, not wanting to earn the human's ire.

The first thing that Tran did was eject the round that was currently chambered and closed the bolt on an empty chamber, but still with the magazine full. He tried out the trigger, resetting the striker and then pulling the trigger again. It was to get a good feel with the long triggers meant for hooves on Equestrian rifles. Once satisfied, Tran loaded in the round he ejected while preventing the next round in the magazine to feed. Tran sat down in the shooting table and settled into a good shooting position. Just to be sure, he checked the sights on the rifle and they were set at a number marking that indicated 600. He licked his thumb and rubbed the wet saliva on the front sight, just to cut help cut down on the light's haze that reflected off of it.

The two bat ponies and princess were anxious to see the results as Tran took aim and fired. Much to their surprise, it was a miss. The first shot that Tran had fired was to gauge where the rifle would hit, to find out how much he'd have to adjust his aim to actually make a proper hit. He knew the first shot was gonna miss, it was a shot to gauge how much Kentucky windage /holdover he would need for the next shot. Before Princess Luna could say anything, Tran had cycled the bolt and fired again. A second later, an 8mm rifle round smacked the 600 meter target with a distant resounding  *CLANG*. Once more, Tran cycled the bolt on the rifle and fired again. Another distant *CLANG* rang out. Tran turned to the rifle's owner and tossed the rifle back to the pony, who barely managed to catch it.

Tran then picked up his own personal .338 rifle stood up, adjusted the scope, took aim, and fired. There was no loud resounding clang a second later. The only person watching the target being shot at was the shooter himself. He watched a bullet splattered against the 1000 meter targets white gang. Two seconds later, a barely audible but a subtle and satisfying *Clang* rang out.

Tran ejected the round in his sniper rifle and turned to face Luna who had been watching the targets downrange while holding her hooves over her ears. She was looking rather nonplussed. She lowered her hooves and held out a hoof. "I will concede that your expertise of distanced combat requires a unique practiced experience to properly employ but I still believe that combat in close proximity is the superior and honorable form of combat."

Tran slung his rifle over his shoulder. "I believe its time for the other half of our wager?"

-X-X-X-

Princess Luna and Tran stood in an open field facing a few meters away from each other. They found a local park where they could have their little bout. Despite being in public on a weekend, none of Ponyville's residents were present to watch them. The only other ones there were two bat ponies, both of which were once again part of Luna's personal protection detail.

The rules were simple, fight until the other yields or if the other is unable to fight without dying (if they were in a position where if their weapons were real, they'd be dead if they continued). Both of them armed with practice sabers and a wooden dagger. Luna was wielding her saber in her magic and held a held a dagger in her left hoof. Tran, naturally without magic, held his saber in his left hand and the dagger in his right hand. Princess Luna was confident in her abilities, being thousands of years old with lots of personal practice. Tran, despite being used to guns, was confident in his ability to just soldier on, pun intended.

Luna was the first to move. She darted forward, saber forward in a lunge, attacking at Tran's left side. Tran deflected the lunge with the saber but the instant both swords connected, Luna angled her saber forward so that Tran was in danger of the saber's point if he advanced. Despite this, Luna was quite surprised that Tran continued forward and before she knew he, the tip of Luna's saber struck Tran in the left shoulder. Luna smiled. "I believe that is point, match?" Luna asked. Tran smiled for once, which was quite frightening. Suddenly, she then felt something tap her on the underside of the chin. She looked down and saw Tran's dagger held against her neck.

"You might have got the first hit but I got the killing blow," Tran said.

Luna frowned. "And you think you can continue on with such a wound?" Luna asked while gently tapping the saber against Tran's shoulder.

Tran smirked. "I've fought with two swords impaled in my body before. The answer to that question is absolutely," Tran answered.

Luna frown continued to deepen. There were rumors of Tran's durability that Equestrians had spread but she wasn't sure of the validity of such myths. The two of them drew back, getting ready for another match.

The two of them continued fighting and much to Luna's expectations, her experience always ensured that she would get in a good hit. However, just because she got in a good hit, didn't mean that Tran didn't get any hits in either. He would always bait in Luna by accepting an attack on his body just to get in close for a killing blow. At once instance, Tran had even blocked a saber blow with his arm before rushing forward to get a blow with the dagger. This had been the first instance she had ever fought or practiced against someone who would sacrifice his own body to get a killing blow. No one she had fought before had such disregard for their own health.

Luna had started to show physical exhaustion when lunch had turned around. Luna was pretty sure that Tran was tired too from the fact that his physical actions had slowed down (only just barely, Luna had irritatingly grumbled), a bit after lunch had passed. Princess Luna suggested to go for nourishment and rest, Tran easily agreeing. 

As the two of them searched for a restaurant/café/eatery that suited the tastes of both warriors, the two bat ponies switched off shifts, also probably for lunch. It wasn't long before the two combatants were eating, chatting to pass the time.

Tran glanced at one of the bat ponies who was watching the sky and streets. "When you said that a network was being setup by your vampires, what did you mean?" Tran asked in between bites.

Luna finished her mouthful of food and her ears perked up from his question. She turned her attention away from her food and looked at Tran. "They are analyzing the city to find out where is the best place to covertly nest while also investigating the city for traces of the espionage. Also, they are determining where are the worse parts of the city, where the criminal element most inhabit so that it can be avoided by them, you, and the rest of your retinue," Luna answered. The lunar princess then realized a key component of Tran's question. "Vampires? They are not vampires," Luna retorted. "Vampires do not exist. I've never seen such a mythical creature in my thousands of years of life!" she continued. "While they are not vampires, they are thestrals, a variant subspecies of my little ponies that display very much bat like qualities that would appear to be what a vampire would appear to be, if such a thing existed."

While chewing, Tran turned around to look at one of their escorts. Bat like qualities indeed. Just like Luna earlier, Tran then realized a key component of her answer. She implied she was thousands of years old. That suggested she was immortal or ageless but she wore armor to protect herself meant so it probably the latter. "Are you and your sister ageless and not immortal?"

A quick nod from the alicorn answered the question. Well that was certainly an interesting fact that came to light. Luna stopped mid chew as she opened her mouth to speak. "That is most certainly true. That is why I wear the armor, one of my treasured personal possessions before my imprisonment. And I must say, your wager. I must 'swallow my pride' as the current generation say and admit that your expertise requires skill but will not relay the other half of the wager. You're quite skilled with melee combat. Its rather odd that you would sacrifice your own personal health and endure the pain, as if you have no care for it." Luna had manage to exact many blows against the human and some of them were no minor hits. The human showed no pain from them but she most certainly saw minor and major bruising that would suggested otherwise.

Luna then paused mid swallow as her attention was turned away from the conversation with the human and something past the human. Tran turned around to look at what Luna had directed her concentration towards. One of their guards was in the company of two other fellow thestral guards. They spoke with each other for a split second before the two new guests approached them. These two new bat ponies seemed... Off. Their coats seemed dull and eyes were sunken. Their faces seemed to show that they were exhausted and their wings that were tucked against their sides were almost sagging. "There is a... Unique problem that needs your attention," one of the new bat ponies slowly reported.

Princess Luna swallowed her mouthful of food, despite the fact that it had barely been chewed. She stood up and right as she was about to leave, she lightly curtsied. "I apologize but we will have to continue our conversation another time," Luna said.

Tran quickly spat out the mouthful of his food onto his plate and reaching on the ground to his side, he picked up his sniper rifle. "I'm joining you. We can continue it on our way there," Tran said while standing up. He was still wearing his IOTV plate carrier and all of its extra bits that he had brought on their excursion. The princess was about to argue but decided that it would have been pointless considering the man's personality and past showings that he would ignore whatever, from whoever he wanted.

-X-X-X-

The man, the alicorn, and the two bat ponies were guided by the two other bat ponies to a rather sketchy section of Ponyville. They were lead down a wide alleyway where they entered the cellar of a run down building. The instant they entered, Tran let out a sighed and gently placed his sniper rifle on its bipod on the ground a good distance away from himself. Luna was about to question what he was doing when she sensed something. Without a second thought, she drew both of her swords in her magic. She was about to charge ahead when light filled the room and they all found themselves surrounded by almost a dozen ponies, all of whom were brandishing firearms, aimed at them.

Luna ground her teeth at the sight of this betrayal from her citizens. She wanted to charge forward and kill them all but even she knew that it would be an unwinnable situation. Even if she attempted to throw up a shield spell, she'd be shot before the spell would be completed so she reigned in her anger and very slowly lowered her weapons until they hit the ground. The two bat pony guards that were with them did the same and dropped their weapons but surprisingly, not the two that had led them there. The two bat pony guards that had led them here, one trotted over to behind Princess Luna and the other behind Tran.

A good blow later, Princess Luna was knocked out cold. As for Tran... The other guard slammed his rifle into the bad of Tran's head but all that did was give him a nice goose egg. A second and then a third strike to the back of the head left Tran with an ever deepening glowered look on his face. One of the other ponies in the room scoffed with impatience. "Do we have a bag or sack somewhere?"

-X-X-X-

When Luna's eyes opened and she shot forward only to be stopped by her hooves, she found herself chained to a wall, each limb with separate cuff chained to a hook on the wall. Her head hurt and she felt... Naked. Looking down at herself, she found that their assailants had stripped her of her armor and even her signature decorative peytral. She tried to cast a spell but pain filled her mind. She looked up at her horn and saw multiple magic suppression rings attached to it. Taking a look at the rest of the room, she found Tran chained to the wall, beside her, also stripped of his belongings... and clothes. Speaking of belongings, she found that their belongings were piled in the corner of the room they were in, a good ten meters away from them.

Suffice to say, this wasn't a good situation as the two of them were stuck to the wall in an position that made their bodies look like an X letter. The room they were in was windowless and was only lit up by one hit-set window, of which it was the only window for this room. The two of them assumed that they were in a basement. In one corner of the room was a ladder going upwards with a trapdoor that had a large looped handle.

From the corners of the room that were opposite to her, stood the two bat pony guards that had led them there. They were not restrained in any way and were wearing armor and carrying weapons. she knew every member of her personal guard and it bothered her that she didn't spot such obvious imposters. "Changeling scum," Princess Luna growled out.

"They're not changelings," Tran called out.

Luna wanted to know what Tran had meant by that but her attention was directed to the thestrals as they stepped forward, especially when one of them whistling loudly. Then, to her horror, somepony crawled their way out of the literal shadows in this room as if someone was rising from a pond. This pony was a unicorn stallion with a dark grey coat and a black mane. He had a lecherous smile on his face as he trotted towards the lunar princess. "Changelings? No, they're something much more fun," their new guest said. "And your turn with them is over. My turn now!" he gleefully added. "My thralls, now!"

Tran gently pulled against his chains, filling the room with the sound of the clattering chains. He looked at the chains that bound his arms and legs to the wall and then redirected his attention to their strange guest. "How high's the bounty the griffons have on me?" Tran asked.

Their guest smiled and let out a chuckle. "In bits? Five million in gold. Even though we have to work with those disgusting parasites, we each have a good portion after the split. I don't know what those wannabe leeches, unlike us, would even do with their share!" The unicorn looked at the princess and saw the angry expression on her face. "Oh, you're not gonna do anything about it. My master is coming to make personally make sure you don't remember a thing." The stallion looked between the princess and the man and tapped his chin with a hoof. "Ah but with this unique opportunity, I must have a taste!"

Luna was about to demand answers when the stallion suddenly appeared before Tran, moving so fast that it looked as if he had teleported. In another blink of an eye, the stallion had buried a dagger into the Tran's upper right shoulder. The stallion was surprised to see the man not react to it but shrugged his shoulders and giggled happily as blood started to flow from the wound. The stallion brought out a goblet and used it to catch the blood dripping off of the dagger's handle. The stallion brought the goblet to his mouth and just as he was about to drink from it, he transformed before their very eyes. Fangs sprouted from his mouth as the first droplets of the crimson fluid touched his tongue. His eyes turned red and almost seemed to glow in the dark. The fiend seemed to be relishing the taste of Tran's life fluid, letting out moans of pleasure.

Tran, despite being impaled again, turned to look at Luna. "And you said that vampires aren't real," Tran joked.

The fiend stopped drinking from the goblet and held out the cup to refill it. "Oh we're real, alright but we like to keep our numbers low and the knowledge of our presence a secret, as does Equestria. Isn't that right?" he asked while turning to look at Luna.

The princess scowled at the vampire. "Despite our greatest efforts, they refuse to stay extinct. My sister and I give our best efforts in protecting the public of their existence!" she growled out.

The vampire laughed at Luna's statement, bringing the goblet back to his mouth. "Oh, I can't wait to taste you," he said while sipping from the goblet. As he continued to drink, he turned his attention back at Tran to the dagger. "And I must say, you have a rather unique flavor to your blood. Its powerful, very robust." He took another sip and smacked his lips. "But, you've tainted it with something. Morphine I believe? Still, its a rather exciting flavor compared to the guards you generously gifted to us. Wait... There's something else in your blood, something.. Subtle that's growing on me. "

Luna grit her teeth as she speculated on what they must have done to her precious guards. The changelings must have tricked them into exposing themselves into becoming these creature's thralls. Every fiber of her being wanted to rip these monsters limb from limb for what they had done. The vampire saw Luna's ever increasing aggression and slowly trotted over to her, levitating the goblet along with him. However, as he trotted, his gait started to become more... Impaired. It was like watching a drunk person walking. He dropped the goblet and leaned against the wall for support but he then slid down to the ground. "W-What, is happenning? HELP!" he cried out.

When he vomited, both of the bat pony guards sprinted over to the vampire to assist the victim. Just as the two thestrals reaches the vampire, Tran pulled out both of his arms out of the cuffs that locked him to the wall. He slammed the snout of one thestral with his left arm's elbow and then, quickly afterwards, planted his left fist into the other thestral. Both of them were knocked unconscious with what looked like severely broken snouts. As they were falling down, Tran grabbed the rifle of one falling thestral.

He pulled one leg away from the wall and used the rifle to shoot the closest section of chain that held his right leg to the wall. Well, his right leg was free. He cycled the rifle as fast as he could and then repeated it with his left leg. 

By now, both Luna and Tran could hear yelling coming from the only entrance to this room, up above. Tran ignored the still conscious(barely), vampire on the ground and ran over to ladder. He quickly climbed up a few rungs of the ladder and slipped the rifle through the loop of the trapdoor's handle and against the ceiling. That should stop them for a short while. It was done just in time too, as someone up above tried to open the door, only to be stopped by the rifle.

Tran dropped down from the ladder and ran over to the two thestrals, grabbing the other rifle that they had. The vampire was trying to crawl over to Luna but he was still a good distance from her. Tran still ignored the vampire and ran over to Luna. He used the rifle to shoot off Luna's chains.

As Tran shot off the last chain, he felt pain shoot up his right leg. He turned around to see the vampire biting his ankle. Tran used the other leg to kick off the fiend with a good kick before stepping away and redirecting his attention to the princess. "You know what we're going to have to do," Tran stated.

Luna tried to hide a grin but wasn't able to present her usual political face. They were probably going to have to fight their way out of here. She went over to her pile of weapons and equipment while Tran ran over to his. Luna scowled as she realized she was going to have to put on her armor without her magic, IE with her hooves. Tran had a similar problem as he only had one good arm to do the same with his equipment.

Luna first focused on trying to equip the first of the major pieces of her plate armor, the cuirass, while Tran easily put on his plate carrier. On the good side of his torso, he naturally hung the shoulder strap as normal but on the bad side of his torso, where the dagger was still planted, he hung the other shoulder strap under his armpit. He next managed to put on his pants, which also had his knife and revolver. He then used his shirt as a makeshift bandage to stunt the bleeding from the dagger. By then, Luna barely had the first piece of her armor, her cuirass, on her body and it wasn't properly strapped/tied down yet. She really was not used to using her hooves for this kinda task. Hell, plate armor typically needed a squire or two to assist the wearer in donning it.

Tran ran over to the only window of the room and smashed the glass with his hand cannon. He holstered the revolver and then stuck the muzzle of his sniper rifle out of the window and fired it. He repeated the action twice more, wasting two more of his custom bullets. Considering how loud his .338 Lapua was, it could grab someone's attention and since they were in the city, there were a lot of people who's attention would be grabbed. Tran set the sniper rifle on the ground on its bipod before making his way over to Luna, who was still struggling with her cuirass's straps.

The accursed cuirass was finally on, properly, much to Luna's hatred. "Thank you, my squire," Luna joked. Luna grabbed the next major piece of armor to put on, the crupping, IE the armor that would protect her haunch and flank. The armor came on pretty quickly with the help of Tran's good hand but as it came on, Tran's hand started accidentally touching/brushing some of her... Personally intimate areas. Luna gasped while blushing and bucked her left rear leg backwards.

Much to her indignation, Tran had managed to catch the hoof that Luna threw at him that would have impacted his chest. "We do not have the time for this," he called out. Just as the last word left his mouth, across the room in a dark corner, another pony started to crawl out of the shadow, just as the first vampire did when he arrived. With speed that would have surprised Applejack and even Granny Smith, Tran let go of Luna's hoof and drew his big iron, three rounds fired before anyone could have even blinked.

The rounds from the hand cannon were powerful but they didn't kill this second new vampire. The .50 caliber hollow points did, however, manage to blow large chunks out of him. Their new visitor fell down to the ground, angrily screeching at the gunman but they fell on death ears, mostly because Luna was deafened from the .500 S&W's report in an indoor setting and that Tran wasn't paying attention to the fiend.

Tran reloaded his revolver as quickly as he could, as Luna continued slipping on one of her rear leg's armor plates. When Tran was finished reloading, he holstered the revolver and strapped in the armor pieces that Luna had slipped on. "Watch those hands, this time," Luna warned. Tran didn't care and was just working as quickly as he could. She looked at the angry vampire in the room and then back to Tran. "Your weapons cannot kill a vampire. Only a stake to the heart, silvered and magical weapons, complete cremation, or the removal of their head will bring about their deaths."

Upon hearing that last bit, Tran used all of his self control to keep himself from smiling. He then drew his trusty sidearm again and silenced the screaming vampire with a .50 caliber hollowpoint to the head. He holstered his sidearm and looked back at Luna. "I have removed his head," Tran stated.

As the two of them had been doing all this, ponies from up above had been trying to break into the basement. At first they had been trying to break through the door but by slamming various things into it. By the time Tran had killed his first vampire, they had started shooting at the trapdoor. The trapdoor seemed like it was about to give. At this point, Tran was wearing all of his gear while the princess was wearing her upper and lower body armor and half of one of her the leggings, specifically the upper section of her left rear leg. Luna was armed with both of her swords while Tran was armed with his hand cannon and two other revolvers that he had scavenged from the unconscious bat ponies.

Something that sounded heavy slammed into the trapdoor and it audibly cracked as the trapdoor started to give way. Tran stopped helping Luna and he fired his sidearm at the trapdoor. The trapdoor broke as a pony fell through it, along with a metal chest. The pony seemed like any other regular pony, aside from being dead, until it transformed into a changeling, still dead. Through the doorway, the two of them could see many other ponies. How many, they weren't sure. They were quite occupied with the fact that they were trying to kill each other.

When Tran fired his sidearm again, hitting another of the ponies(most likely a changeling), the assailants up above did one of two things. They either scrambled for cover and were no longer visible to the princess and man or they fired back. None of the assailants' gunfire hit either the princess or the man so Tran fired the last two rounds of his hand cannon as quick as he could while dipping to the left, so that he'd be a harder target to hit.

Then, a changeling dropped down from the trapdoor's opening, who was immediately followed by another changeling. Both of them were wielding military style rifles, full power bolt action rifles with bayonets attached. Luna charged forward and engaged both of them. She tried to slash the first changeling and it was met with an attempted block from her opponent with the rifle he was wielding. The great sword sunk into the middle section of the rifle's stock. She tried to wrench her sword back but it was stuck to her opponent's rifle so instead, she pulled the rifle out of his hooves. The rifle stuck to Luna's sword was an unexpected attached weight so when she drew back, it threw her off from her next attack. She grit her teeth and dropped the great sword and went to draw her saber.

She wasn't the only one to go for another weapon. Her opponent went to draw for a second weapon like Luna had done, him going for a large knife. The second armed changeling to join them saw the situation he joined late and went to stab the princess with his bayonet. He didn't get very far as Tran was immediately drawn to  Luna's second adversary. Instead of trying to reload his revolver, Tran had holstered it and drawn a second revolver, an Equestrian one, and was firing it as quickly as he could. The first bullet impact didn't drop the changeling, Tran blamed this on the rather low power on the small 8mm bullet of the standard Equestrian service revolver. The immediately soon quickly fired second bullet was also not enough to drop the changeling. The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth was absolutely enough to drop the changeling. 

Between the princess and her current adversary, in their contest to see who could draw their weapon first, the contender won. To be fair, he had to draw a much smaller and shorter weapon. In their contest to see who could use their weapon first, Luna was the winner. To be fair, the adversary was temporarily  distracted as he had been belted in the head by a thrown revolver. A quick sword slash to the throat ended his future dueling prospects. 

Luna sidestepped as more bullets came from up at them while Tran drew his next revolver to use. He started firing rounds back at their assailants but he noticed that Luna was running towards one of the corners of the room. Two more vampires crawled out of the shadows to face them. One was armed with a scimitar and the other was armed with hooked blades that were attached to each of his four hooves via gauntlets. 

Luna went to engage the one with the scimitar as the other one was engaged by Tran. The swordspony, despite being fresh into this fight, managed to stop the sword blows sent his way while his companion could not say the same about what he faced because instead of meeting a blade, he met bullets. Fortunately for the hook blade armed vampire, he was shot with only the 8mm EO rounds which were, to quote the average Equestrian gunsmith, 'a retardedly anemic round'. However, being shot definitely disorientated him, along with being hit in the face with a thrown revolver. This gave Tran enough time to draw a knife and charge forward. 

Meanwhile, Luna was dueling a fellow swords pony in a test of skills. Both parties parried sword strike after sword strike while maneuvering around each other. Both of them then had their attention engrossed in the decapitated pony head that was thrown at the scimitar wielding vampire. Luna tried to use the distraction to get a hit on her assailant  but he managed to stop her lunge. Fortunately for Luna, her opponent received another distraction from Tran. He had picked up one of their fallen assailant's rifles and managed to get a well placed chest shot with it on the vampire. 

Being a vampire, he naturally survived but it gave enough of an opening for Tran to impale said vampire on the bayonet attached to his scavenged rifle. The vampire angrily snarled at Tran, who was using the impaled status of the vampire to forcibly reel him around. The vampire furiously swung his scimitar at Tran, who shoved the vampire away. The vampire used the opportunity to wrench free his body's control free from Tran, pulling at the rifle in Tran's hands. Instead of being pulled along with the vampire, Tran let go of the rifle as Luna slashed at the vampire's head with her saber. The vampire blocked the attack with his scimitar but then fell to the ground when his one of his rear legs was separated from his body. Tran stood behind the vampire, now holding Luna's great sword.

The vampire was about to let out an angry growl but was silenced when Luna separated his head from his body. Luna looked up at Tran as she tried to retain some of her breathe. She was shocked to see that in addition to the dagger impaled in Tran's upper right shoulder, he now had one of the previous vampire's gauntlets hanging from his left forearm, because one of the hook blades was impaled through said limb. "I told you I can fight with swords impaled in my body," Tran boasted. The two of them returned their attention back to the trapdoor opening where the bullets that had been coming through had completely stopped. The two of them could hear incoming distant gunfire and then much closer gunfire. "We've got more company," Tran calmly commented.

Luna got ready to fight another target, watching her surrounding for more enemy combatants. Tran tucked his borrowed great sword under his left armpit while he started to reload his personal sidearm. The gunfire coming in towards them completely died down as more and more distant gunshots started to sound out from up above. More and more yelling and screaming was heard. The two of them heard lots of rushed hoof steps and was worried that they had more enemies to face. Their fears were thankfully settled when somepony from up above called out to them. "3rd Night Sentinels, who's down there?!" a voice from up above demanded. 

"It's your princess!" Luna called back. She continued to stay on guard as Tran walked over to the first vampire that they had met. During the entire fight, he had been slowly crawling around on the flood, barely clinging to consciousness. The vampire noticed Tran's sudden interest in his still unliving existence and started to crawl faster in a futile attempt to get away. 

As Tran got closer, the vampire vomited and let out an inhuman (inequine?) screech. "Stay back!" the vampire cried. 

Tran refused to relent and stood over his fallen captor. The vampire's eyes was filled with fear as he realized just how badly everything had turned for him. "Still want a taste of me?" Tran taunted. Tran positioned himself so that blood dripping from the dagger's handle that was still impaled in his shoulder, dripped down onto the vampire. Each drop of blood that fell from the dagger and onto the vampire, seemed to hurt the him. Where the blood droplets touched, the vampire's skin sizzled and burned as if acid was hitting him.

Luna trotted over to Tran and put a hoof on his shoulder. "That's enough," she said pulling Tran back. "We need to have at least some mercy on our enemies. We aren't monsters. " He resumed the torture for only a few more seconds before finally stepping back.

-X-X-X-

Luna and Tran sat in the headquarters, sharing cups of tea while some medical personnel attended to Tran's wounds and some mages worked on removing the magic suppression rings still attached to her horn. Luna looked at some of Tran's newly acquired injuries. "You played quite the significant role in our survival," she praised. Tran nodded in agreement and took a sip from his tea cup. Luna sighed. "I need you, Equestria needs you, to keep this secret. S.M.I.L.E. will take over and hopefully hide this incident from the public."

Tran held up his arm, the one that had the hook blade impaled in it. "Vampires?" 

Luna slowly let out a pained nod. "Its pertinent that the public stays ignorant of their existence. You must not even tell your closest friends," she explained. 

Tran stared at the princess for an uncomfortable amount of time before nodding. "You owe me," he said.

Luna grinned and nodded. "It appears I do," she said. Despite the sweat and exhaustion filling her body, she got up and trotted closer to the human. Tran was quite surprised when she leaned forward and gave the human a kiss on the cheek. "Equestria and I thank you for the work you accomplished today," she gingerly whispered into his ear. "And it would be my pleasure to call such a skilled warrior such as yourself, my friend." She returned to her seat and continued drinking her tea, as did Tran. "I should consider my debt for you paid off. You finely acquainted yourself with a personal experience of my bosom with a caress more intimate than anypony has managed to attain in many a long centuries."  

Tran smirked and held up his tea cup, Luna clinked hers to before the two took a drink. "You were asking for it," he joked. 

Luna balked. "Are you inferring that I am a mere common harlot?" 

Tran's smirk, hidden by his teacup, grew. "Are you not a lady of the night?" 

Before Luna could retort, the door to the headquarters was kicked open and in walked Wilson, who looked rather buzzed and happy for once. Maybe he got lucky today, maybe he didn't, who could know. He immediately noticed Tran's current condition and frowned. "T-The fuck happpenned to you?" he slurred. 

Tran looked at Luna who gave him a pleading look. Tran turned back to his friend and shrugged. "Got into a bad fight. Don't worry about," Tran answered. Luna visibly relaxed when Tran stayed silent about the truth of their ordeal.

Wilson started walking away from the duo. "Fffuck it, I can deal with it tamarra. I need, uh, fffuucking sleep." 

Tran felt one of the medical ponies remove the hook blade stuck in his arm. The pony shrunk back from Tran's curious looks. "Sorry, sir," the pony let out. 

Tran relaxed as the pony worked. "I have a request," Tran calmly inquired. The medical pony shrunk back, in fear of the human. "Morphine. Get me some."