//------------------------------//
// You Can Never Have Too Much Gun 
// Story: Requiem For A Soldier 
// by Shieldheart204 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 12: You Can Never Have too Much Gun. 

In the basement below a thatched wooden house sat two men. A blond Commissioner and a brunet gunsmith. Around them were several aluminum cases opened and half emptied. The entire room was covered in white tiles, three quarters were separated by a wooden picket fence and five training dummies stood stiff in the various marked lanes. 

"So what is the first thing you wanna show me?" Asked Shield Heart as he glared at his friend. 

"Let me have Crimson and Silver." Asked the gunsmith with an extended hand.

Shield obliged, taking off the guns from their holsters and spinning them in his fingers. He flipped them so Gun could grab the pistols by the grips. 

The brunet walked all the way to the empty tables and started studying the, closely.

"Ah, I remember these two. They're custom made Mane 9 pistols, full steel fittings with leather grips, you had one specially stained in crimson dye and you had the other one fully polished." Gun continued checking them. He clicked the ejection button next to the triggers on both pistols.  

With a hiss the clips fell off, revealing a glowing purple light. "Both pistols have non-regenerating  amethyst cores. How many killer shots do you get from a full charge?"

"About five hundred."

"A cubic centimeter?" Gun gun asked. His friend nodded. He reinserted the clips and walked over to the firing range. 

He put Silver on the floor and gripped the other pistol with both hands. In the blink of an eye he pulled the trigger and released a grey bolt. The bullet hit a dummy in the breastplate, leaving a scorch mark on impact. He then released a torrent, but barely managed to punch through. The wound extruded some red drops.

Gun Nut immediately tossed both guns into a case. The thud produced made Shield cringe a little on the inside. 

"My friend, these guns are ancient. Let me see your backup?" 

Shield looked around. "I don't have a backup."

"Quit lying, I can clearly see it holstered to your right."

With an irritated grunt Shield went for his side pistol and handed it over in the same fashion as before. "But you'd better give it back. That one is mine."

"Like I would steal this." He started examining it, checking the outside and feeling the grip. "Actually I would steal this. It's a Petal 911, best pistol in you ever need a backup. It looks pretty standard, plastic exterior and steel slide. The barrel has the word Maria etched in steel"  He removed the clip and stared at the bright blue core. "A sapphire core? Damn, that has got to be expensive. How many maims do you get per clip?

"Just 20." Said Shield casually. He could really go for a drink right now, the weather was getting hot.

"I guess that means this sapphire is a mana breeder then." 

"Yeah, it wasn't easy to get it."

"Self-regenerating cores never are my friend. Anyways, let me give you a good reason as to why you should love your job." The officer said as he handed over the pistol. 

"Yeah, that would be best. But could you please return my other pistols?" Protested Shield as he stretched his hand. 

"Sorry, but I need to do some work on them. But I got you these." From another case he pulled put two thin, chrome-plated handguns with gel grips one was coated in dark polish and the other was whitened. "I present to you the Stallion 1001s. These are top quality, chrome-plated, interior aluminum fittings, ergonomic gel grip which also allows to give your shots extra juice." The man demonstrated. "Specially stained so you can give them a nickname."

"It has flawless garnet cores, which gives you a thousand maiming shots. It fires 10mm rounds at 255 meters per second.  Rate of fire depends on trigger finger but can only fire fifty shots before overheating. Cool down lasts about ten seconds, but you can slide it to open." Gun tossed the pistols toward the blond man. 

Shield grabbed them and in one smooth, spinning action he cocked both pistols with his belt and aimed forward. 

Within an instant he released a thunderous roar of crimson bullets toward all five dummies.  The wave struck all five, passing through their hearts and tearing apart the foam breastplate and released cherry juice all over the field. "Fuck yeah! Man these feel awesome! Thanks Gun!" 

"Yeah, now let's move on to something bigger." The officer grabbed a compact black gun sporting a curved magazine and a black finish. "This is the Feline 9mm sub-machine gun.  Capable of firing 800 rounds per minute." The gunner removed the magazine to show the purple core. "Amethyst core of 16 cubic millimeters holds 800 rounds, so you can theoretically fire weapon for a full minute."

"Isn't there an issue with overheating?" 

"Yes, every 100 rounds." 

Shield scolded. 

"I said theoretically."

"Gimme that, I wanna try it." Said the commissioner, acting like a child. He yanked the weapon from his friend and inspected it. The barrel was very comfortable, not extremely round, but was definitely made for comfort. The grip was pure plastic, something to be expected when making guns. It had a retractable stock, making mobility the main characteristic of this magicarm.

Shield inserted the core and cocked the weapon. His friend launched a spell which regenerated the dummies before they would be slaughtered again. 

Unlike the pistols, this gun had more kick, it being an automatic. He fired in short bursts, always aiming towards the chest. Unlike his musket, which fired very slowly, this machine managed to punch through the foam and spitter put a lot of cherry juice. 

"That's awesome." 

"Still not done, leave it there on the table next to the Stallions." Ordered the officer. Shield obeyed.

"Now this is a prototype weapon, so I'll have to ask you to keep it quiet until it becomes officially released." He pulled put a curious olive green gun. There was an orange box right below the sights but still above the rest of the weapon. The trigger and trigger guard rested at the front of the gun, with only a small cylinder grip to maintain accuracy.

"This is the Parasprite bullpup SMG specifically commissioned by the Cloudsdale Warhawks. The unique horizontal magazine also has a special bar that tells you how much power there is left in the gun so you don't need to count the shots."

"And I suppose this is your first model." Said Shield with a smug grin. 

"No, the first batch is already with the commandos. They even invited me on one of their drills. It works perfectly. But they still need time to authorize it for the droppers." Gun explained. "The core is 36 cubic mills of flawless topaz, giving 900 shots before depletion. Which means it's easy to recharge and the topaz means reduced costs in manufacture."

Shield cocked the weapon and aimed down range. The thunderous roar emitted from the weapon unleashed a storm of bullets, spraying it everywhere like a fireman's hose.  

"That's the main problem, unless you have a lot of strength or fire in short bursts the weapon pretty much rebels. But it is easily concealable, fitting behind a Commissioner's coat or can be strapped to a commando's hip." He said as he inserted straps into the weapon and demonstrated. 

The black nylon straps could be easily adjusted to either sling the weapon on someone's back or tied around the waist, fixing the gun tightly next to the thighs. 

"Got any straps for the Feline?" Asked Shield. "I could really go for concealable weapons."

Gun gave him a confused look. 

"This town doesn't like seeing guys with weapons, so it looks like I'll need to be focusing on hold-out weapons, speaking of which. You wouldn't happen to know how to conceal a claymore wouldn't you?" Questioned the commissioner. 

"No, but I think I have the perfect alternative." Answered his friend with a grin. He grabbed a metal attaché case and placed it on the table. He pressed some buttons to remove the security locks and opened it.

Inside the foam interiors were two leather forearm bracers with perfectly round rubies in the center of each.

"These are the first of my experimental hold-outs, try them on." He insisted as he handed them over. 

Shield obliged, and was thrown off by the weight and thickness. The leather seemed to cover up a steel interior, what this did he couldn't tell, but he noticed the rubies were charged to full power. 

"This my friend is next gen shit. I call them the Mana Bands. Take your hand-to-hand stance." He said. "Don't give me weird look, just do it."

Shield jerked his arms to a defensive position, making sure to cover his face. And half a second later the forearm began assembling a cold steel glove. The back hand extruded a small platform with a single hole above the index finger. 

"What the hell?" Shield asked with shock, but his friend didn't answer. Instead he enchanted one of the dummies to take an offensive stance.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" He teased. "Make sure your punches have all of your energy, otherwise you'll miss all the fun."

With a chuckle Shield charged with a jab prepared. The punch resulted in what Shield could describe as the pinnacle of visceral joy. The second his knuckles connected with his opponent's left forearm a loud bang was heard as the hole fired a ball of crimson energy. 

He continued his assault with a cross punch to the right liver. And once more the loud bang produced from the bracer produced the most pure form of catharsis he could ever imagine.  The mannequin was blasted against a wall, where it fell down on a crate. The body took a few seconds of rest before coming back to life, getting off the crate and getting back into position. 

"His name is Buster. He's the greatest training golem you'll ever find. I leave him here so you can have a sparring opponent while you live in hippie town." Said Gun with a sigh. "But enough somber thoughts, I still have toys to show you." 

"And how do these work?" Asked a confused blond

"They're linked to your brain. Whenever you take a stance the rubies assemble the glove, and to disarm them all you have to do is stiffen your hands like the dummies over there. And you don't always have to fire the cannon, you just have to think of not discharging and done!"  Responded Gun as he pulled out a black plastic rifle from a case. Now to continue my presentation, I give you..." 

"Manny!" Exclaimed Shied as he retracted his gloves and dashed forward.  He grabbed the gun as soon as it began flying in the air. He immediately hugged it. "I missed you!" 

"Yes, because going old school is not cool." 

"Maggie is awesome, and served her time with me in Canterlot. But I totally prefer this to the old musket." 

"Yes, a carbine capable of firing 700 5.56mm rounds per minute is much better than an old musket. Also, I took the liberty of upgrading it. Now it has a silver receiver which will increase mana output, the fore-end now has a special gel which will allow you to enchant bullets." He pointed out to a bar of dark green at the bottom of the weapon. It started a couple of millimeters from the front and stopped before the magazine assembly. "The grip slows personal mana input."

"Impressive. Let me try it out." Said Shield prepared to fire once more. "So what do you think of these girls? Anyone you think could be a potential Auxiliary?" He fired a shot. The bolt hit directly in the glabella. The concussion caused a splat of red juice to fly to the back wall. 

"I can't say much, but Cadence is out of picture." Commented his friend as he rubbed his chin. "Twilight Sparkle and her violet-haired friend seemed very promising. Twilight in particular. I never expected someone to deliver an overcharged shot on their second try, and that was accidental. With a little training she can become a murder machine."

"The other one is different story. If you could teach her how to use a sniper rifle you would have another sharpshooter in your arsenal. Also, you might want to investigate on Miss Pinkie. I know that there was some weird shit going on with her pistol, there's no possible way that she conjured four additional shots out of thin air. And I'm sure those pistols have no scatter option."

"The cowgirl is probably your last option. She looks dependable, but I doubt she can become a half-decent marksman or markswoman as the case should be. She seems to be more focused on using her legs. So if you need her for anything, it should be for delivering kicks to the balls."

"What about Rainbow Dash?"

"You mean the girl who shot the forty-five? Brash potential. That's all I have to say." 

"All right, so how about the pink-haired Seraph? What did you see about her?"

"All I could see her do was watch you with horror my friend, something she has in common with any sane person." Responded the chestnut haired officer with a loud chuckle. 

"Har dee har har." Shield focused once more on setting his sights on the range than paying any sort of attention to his friend. With a loud pew the blond managed to hit his target right in the neck, but didn't manage to knock the head out. 

"Ha! You missed."

"Did I?" Asked Shield as he snapped his fingers. Instantly the dummy exploded into a thousand pieces, dropping several cherry-stained bits of gore all over the fences.

"Explosive shots, totally should have seen it coming." Said gun as he spat out a bloodied foam nose. "I still have four more items for you." 

"Aww, really? You totally shouldn't have!" 

"I know." Gun Nut produced a pair of falchions. The silver blade was carefully engraved with elegant lines and runes. The grip was dyed ultramarine blue leather with a ring of  blue magic gel.  The round pommel had the a six-point star inside three circles, with the smallest circle touching all six points of the star. This was the transmutation symbol used by the  The weight was ridiculously well managed, as the blade fixed itself in his index finger right next to the pommel. It was also very light, lighter than Arby even.

"What you are holding are specially crafted Mithril falchions. I had the Golden Brothers transmute the swords, and it took them a very long while and a lot of tries. They even took the time to engrave the swords." Pointed out the gunsmith as he removed a pair of sheaths with slings. 

"These are special sheaths which allow you to store your weapon in a variety of forms, even upside down, so long as you have a magnetic harness." 

"Which I imagine you will kindly provide."

"If had brought them, but I left them in Vanhoover. And speaking of Vanhoover..." Gun Nut produced a pitch black squared rifle, the straight box magazine was also black, but with silver linings,  around each groove. The barrel, fore-end and firing mechanisms were lined with silver, while the stock and grip had gold extruding. 

"Holy shit! Is that..." 

"An early birthday present from the Vanhoover Steel Legion. A custom fitted, semi-automatic Vulcan-Pattern Mana  rifle with a fixed stock. The silver is used as an accelerator to fire special 7.62mm rounds with armor piercing capabilities. Rate of fire is based on your finger, it fires as fast as possible. The barrel has a liquid nitrogen cooling pack on the exterior to help prevent overheating." He pressed the magazine release button and showed a glowing gem. 

"Flawless Opal delivers 1400 rounds, more than enough for your average skirmish." Explained Gun Nut. "But you will need to cool down every 200 bolts, the nitrogen can only do so much."

"Okay. So are you returning to Van after you're done here?" Asked Shield.

"Yes, I still need to work on Battle Suits. Last tests were not good, Arc nearly died when he engaged the weapons systems." The officer sighed deeply. "I'm sure it has something to do with the energy pack."

"I'll need you to promote Armstrong to Commanding Colonel of the Defence Legion. I'll promote Fire to Brigadier, he's the one who has to control the acting army." This weighed heavily on Shield, but he felt it was the right thing to do. He wasn't going to return to Vanhoover any time soon.

"Are you sure? I don't fully trust Armstrong with this task. Maybe Thunder..." 

"Thunder is too rash, if I put him in charge he'll send off the legion at the first sign of attack. No, I plan on keeping him in the STG for now. That's where he belongs."

"I guess that makes sense. But are you going to leave Hawk Eye behind? Nana will not be pleased, she' still angry you left her."

"Actually, I need you to tell Nana to bring her here at the beginning of summer."

His brunet friend coughed a little before speaking. "Are you sure? I doubt Nana will want to leave her home..."

"Oh, I'm not inviting her here. I need her to bring Hawk to me. As of the next school year she will be attending Ponyville Elementary."

"I doubt she will agree..."

"If there's one thing I know about this town is that it's a better place to raise a child than Van." Shield's face was serious, his eyes staring right into his friend's soul. "I need her here, please."

"I won't continue this thread of conversation out of respect." Sighed Gun. "So instead I'll focus on something more important." He opened a new case and showed a scoped bolt-action rifle. 

"This a Macintosh hunting rifle chambered in .308 rounds. You can either use a Topaz battery pack or..." He placed a box labeled: Zircon Cells. "You can go really old school."

Shield opened the box and admired the zircon-tipped bullets inside. The dark brass casing contrasted heavily with the light blue gem. He grabbed a single cartridge and held the gun with his left arm. 

He quickly chambered the round and prepared to fire. The scope was masterfully set, with no offset as there usually was. The bullet was bound to hit where the crosshairs pointed to.  He took a deep breath to steady his aim and pulled the trigger. Unlike the other weapons he had shot today, there really wasn't much recoil in this gun. The gem flew across the range, covered in a crimson haze.

He opened the chamber and the brass case shot itself into the air. The clang was second sound emitted, during which the inside hissed.

"Takes you back, doesn't it?" Asked the gunsmith with a breath of nostalgia.

"Only so much. Shame about these though." Responded the blond as he grabbed the residue. "Now I remember why they discontinued these."

"Yes, they're expensive as hell and weaker than a piss-filled ballon."

Shield was left wondering. "How does piss make a balloon weaker than water? You'd think that they'd have the same strength, urine being just water carrying wastes. Unless it's Seraph piss, no wait, it's their crap that's special. I wonder how many times someone takes a  clear piss in the clouds and it arrives to the ground-walkers. Can they tell if it's piss? Or will they think it's rain?"

His thoughts baffled his friend. "It was just an expression."

"I know, but think about it. Imagine if half of Cloudsdale took a clear piss at the same time? Whoever is unlucky enough to be under them will be showered in urine and they'll probably not even notice it." 

"I'm both happy and worried to hear that."

"You should be. The drugs are finally being flushed away."

"I think it would be wise to show you the next and last item." Gun Nut pulled out something odd.

"Straight from the Labs for your protection..." The officer paused for a moment. "I give you Dragon scale flak vest!" He announced as he revealed a dark grey bundle with some heavy chest pads. 

Shield grabbed the armor and tapped the pads. The sound produced was slightly hollow, so it wasn't Kevlar or flak. "Are these synthetics?"

"No, they're the real deal. I was the one in charge of cleanup after your fight against dragons, remember?"

Shield pointed his index finger to his friend. "Right."

"The zipper is at the back, to ensure maximum frontal protection. And every single pad was specially crafted to your comfort."

He checked the zipper ad noticed that the back pads each had a round, clear opal. 

"This thing has barriers?"

"Yes, we finally got them working. The barrier should protect you from most hazards, but once broken requires a ten second recharge. The opals produce their own source fast, so you don't need to input any of your own."

"There's no time limit?"

"No, but you have to invoke the protection yourself, otherwise it'll never activate."

"Good to know, so I guess that'll be all." Sighed Shield.

"I'm afraid yes. I'll try to send you a basic armory package when I get back to base. These were just the specials I had to give you. My father wasn't very happy when he found out about all these gifts."

"C'mon' it's not like this stuff was expensive. I also hold half of the shares of his company, and I fund most projects. Not to mention that I am the owner of half of the factories." Snapped Shield coldly. "And he should consider himself lucky, there aren't many who trust weapon developers. It's not a stable industry. And I mean it in all aspects."

"You don't have to threaten me you know?" Answered his brunet friend.

"I'm reminding you so you can remind your father." 

"I know what you meant. But I'm warning you, not everyone knows you they way I do. Make sure you watch your mouth, we wouldn't want to repeat the Gala incident." 

"Start a food fight during the Grand Galloping Gala and you'll never hear the end of it!"

"Must I remind you that you etched an explosive rune on that pie you threw at Pearl. He lost his left eyebrow and one of his teeth."

"His face is insured, and its not like anyone else got hurt I that food fight."

"Unless you count your punches as knuckle sandwiches, there was hardly any food in your fight. And you did knock out five of his guards. You even left one hospitalized after you drove a sword to his chest. You could have killed him!"

"He was Lion's Guard. No one gives a shit about those assholes."

"He was a man doing his job, you had no right to try to kill him!"

"He was lucky I missed the organs. And you'd think the Precious would invest a little more in keeping their guards alive. That sword was cheap and horribly off-balance. But yet it still managed to slice through that cheap leather armor."

"They did upgrade to steel plating."

"When was that?"

"After the Gala."

"Really?"

"Yes, it still didn't help when they were humiliated by the Mystery Guitar Man."

"No one has claimed that seventy-thousand bit bounty? Where did they go? World's End?"

"No one knows."

"They must be pros at disappearing. And speaking of disappearing people, have you heard anything from Iron Fist? It's worrying me that he didn't send in his report."

Gun immediately looked around, almost as if he expected to notice someone spying on them. He neared his friend and speaking in a very hushed tone. "I can't say much, but he's been forced underground and sending a report is dangerous."

"Did he tell you this? Why hasn't he warned us?"

"Because I was in Manehattan two weeks ago sealing a deal with the Marines. They wanted Ares Defense to issue a new standard-issue firearm to replace the Bushmaster mark 4. He didn't tell anyone because..."

"Because he knew I would get pissed if I found out that the M.P.D had managed to screw up yet again!" Exclaimed an enraged Shield. "I just cleaned up their mess two months ago, can't they keep it clean at least until December? Celestia!" 

"Because the problem still hasn't reached critical levels. The police can still handle it, but the candidates are being idiots. They insist on lowering costs, which is giving the Mare a chance at recovering. But it's not just her, several mobs have formed by the immigrants. And they are getting very bold."

"They should initiate Protocol Exterminatus."

"We both know that the only way in which Celestia will consider allowing Exterminatus would be if she was locked on her room with all of Equestria full of bad guys..."

"Then they should tell cops to kill all criminals they see, no matter how minor their crime actually is. That's the only way in which we will finally get rid of those parasites."

"Are you trying to paraphrase Free Will?"

"No. But I find it easy to relate to him when he seems to be the only one who fully understands the problem and knows the fastest way to with the situation."

"But he is a radical."

"Who got rid of a serious problem. He gets shit done. You can't expect people to give up their evil ways just because you ask them to. Those parasites must die!"

"I strongly suggest you watch your tone, people in Vanhoover may agree with you but here it will probably get you in trouble."

Shield merely sighed as his friend scolded. He gave him a moment to relax before answering. "I think we should stop arguing. Your train is going to be leaving soon and I believe the Commander will want to see me."

His friend scoffed and chuckled. "You really have no idea what trouble you're in."

Shield Heart cocked the black rifle answered. "My friend, if I had even the slightest idea of half of what I was doing I wouldn't be a Commissioner."