Chapter 6
“How many of these are we going to find?!” Scootaloo called out, picking up another brass casing and putting it her bag.
Lieutenant Cutting picked up one of them, looking on the bottom of it. “10mm auto, standard chamber for one of these,” he said, holding his Austin submachine gun up.
“We did find a gun like yours!” Scootaloo said enthusiastically.
“I thought you said that the gun that hurt your friend was a revolver?” Cutting asked.
“It was! We found that gun later... what’s it called?” Scootaloo asked.
“This? Officially: Carbine, Machine, Austin. It’s a 10mm, Blow-back operated, open bolt, with a 30 round box magazine,” Cutting said proudly, and then he remembered who he was talking to. “You have no idea what any of that means, do you?”
“Nope!” Apple Bloom said with a smile.
Cutting couldn’t help but smile back. “This Austin that you found, where is it now?”
“Twilight Sparkle has it!” Scootaloo explained. “She took it from us when we showed it to her! Said it was too dangerous.”
Cutting nodded in agreement. “I’d have likely done the same. Kids shouldn’t play with guns. Let alone a damned machine carbine!”
Apple Bloom couldn’t help but feel bad at Cutting’s statement about playing with guns. She hadn’t known better then. Now she did, and she never wanted to touch another gun as long as she lived.
...
Cutting kept his eyes up when they approached a ridge; he kept looking at it as if he was expecting someone to be there.
“Lef-tenant Cutting? Wha’ are ya doin?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Force of habit, that ridge is a good spot for a gryphon airborne infantryman with one of their scoped rifles.”
Bang!
Apparently, someone else had thought so too. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo heard a bullet whiz by them, cutting through the air and making a terrible noise. Cutting motioned them to get to the side and take cover behind a tree, and to stay there.
“That was your only warning! Come any closer and the next one won’t miss!”
Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Lieutenant Cutting looked up. That voice was a South Islander accent.
“Oi! Dipstick! Care to take a look at who you’re shooting at before you pop ‘em?” Cutting called out.
A kangaroo appeared on the ridge, holding a very ornate looking bolt-action rifle that was clearly not of kangaroo origin.
“Willoughby you moron!” a female voice called out. “What did you do?”
A white unicorn pony with a blue mane and red eyes, and a beamed quaver cutie mark appeared behind him, she was levitating an ornate looking pistol that looked more like a knife than anything else. “Moron! You shot at fillies!”
“I couldn’t exactly see who was coming towards us, Vinyl,” the kangaroo said.
“Sorry about that! He’s been jumpy ever since we got here,” Vinyl Scratch called out. “There’s a slope around the other side of the ridge, come on up! View’s real nice!”
Cutting, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom got up from their cover and walked around the ridge and found the path up to where the unicorn and kangaroo were located.
“Who might you be?” Cutting asked of Willoughby.
“Trooper Benjamin Willoughby, King’s Own South Island Dragoons, sorry for shooting at you...” Willoughby said, not knowing what to call Cutting, as he wasn’t wearing anything to identify himself as a member of the Commonwealth of South Island Military.
“First Lef-tenant William Cutting, No.38/42 Commando.”
“Sir?” Willoughby questioned, “If I may ask, what are commandos doing here?”
“Not in front of the kids,” Cutting said quietly, he thought that Apple Bloom and Scootaloo couldn’t hear him, but they did, Cutting looked to Vinyl, who smiled and took to talking to the children so Cutting and Willoughby, could talk.
“How you kids doing?” Vinyl said with a grin. Her red eyes shining brightly at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.
“Are you friends with Twilight and Rainbow Dash?” Scootaloo asked.
“I am as a matter of fact! How are those two lovebirds doing?” Vinyl asked with a grin, knowing full well that both of them were going to hate her for saying that, and she found it all the more amusing.
“’Lovebirds?’ EW! Gross!” Scootaloo said.
“Ya got some crazy imagination lady!” Apple Bloom said.
“Well that’s not exactly inaccurate...” Vinyl said, her grin growing wider.
Scootaloo opened her saddlebag and pulled out the goggles that she’d been carrying around. “Are these yours?”
“Hey! You found my goggles! Thanks kid!” Vinyl said smiling brightly; she levitated the goggles over her head, snapping them into place. “Ohhh yeah!”
...
“Not in front of the kids,” Cutting said. When Vinyl Scratch had their attention, Cutting leaned in close to inform Willoughby of what was going on.
“Rumour has it that there’s a platoon of gryphon airborne infantry that are hiding out in Equestria. Office of Strategic Intelligence’s put heavy stock into these rumours, they sent No.38 Commando in to check them out quietly... there was a problem and they were dropped off course and landed in the wrong place, they took heavy casualties on landing.”
“Gryphons?” Willoughby asked.
“I bloody wish, it would have been less embarrassing, no they burned their glider in the middle of thick forest, caught the damn place on fire, and killed half the unit. They sent in No.42 with orders to amalgamate No.38 and finish the job... don’t suppose you can shed any light?” Cutting asked.
Willoughby nodded. “I can, there are definitely Gryphons hiding in this wood, they’re not airborne infantry though, they seem to be what’s left of an Artillery Platoon we jumped in the Hoofson Bay in December. It’s where I met her actually,” Willoughby said, pointing at Vinyl. “She don’t look like much, but she’s real handy in a pinch.”
“Why thank you Willoughby! That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me!” Vinyl said, looking back and grinning at him.
“Oh god, she’s got the goggles back,” Willoughby said. “Anyway, we whittled them down... there’s only four or five left, enough to still pose a significant threat to the region.”
“I heard that someone dispelled the rumours about Equestria for OSI... but I didn’t think they were that bad of lies!” Cutting exclaimed. “Are you sure that they’re arty?”
“That was me, actually. I was the one who reported it to the Op,” Willoughby said casually. “Vinyl? Can I see that officer’s pistol?”
Vinyl tossed Willoughby the pistol that she was levitating. He caught it and pointed out the markings on the handgrip. “See these? They denote a… I think that’s Sergeant Major, in an Artillery Brigade. My grasp on gryphon is a little basic, but I know that much.”
“Warrant Officer, actually, I’m fluent,” Cutting said. He examined the pistol before handing it back to Vinyl Scratch, which wasn’t so much a hand, more like, a “let-go-and-have-it-float-away.”
“Show off!” Willoughby said.
“You know me!” Vinyl said with a grin.
“These kids have been playing in this wood for days, not knowing how dangerous it really was, we need to get them back to town before someone gets hurt,” Cutting said.
Willoughby nodded. He reached into his vest and pulled out several box magazines, handing them to Cutting, “You’ll need these more than I will. I lost my Austin in the wood a few days ago.”
“You’ll be happy to know that the kids found it, and it’s in the hands… hooves, of somepony named Twilight Sparkle,” Cutting said casually. “And a magnum revolver too.”
“Oh good,” Willoughby said, showing Cutting the gryphon rifle. “I hate using this thing.”
Cutting nodded, he gathered everyone up. “All right, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, we need you to show us the fastest way back to town. I know we took a roundabout way to get here… Well let’s just say that something is in this wood that makes that way unappealing…”