The Plot Thickens
A pony checked his stopwatch, the clicking seeming to pound through his head as a deadline came fast approaching. He twisted two wires together with his magic, yanking on them to make sure they'd hold. He turned tail and ran, descending a flight of stairs and pushing through a squeaky door. He heard quiet hoof steps behind himself, hopefully farther away than they seemed.
He didn't slow down, bursting through another door and onto the street. He continued to follow the wire as it snaked around stalls and trash in the Manehattan streets. He bowled over a foal, but was too focused on his task to care.
tick tock, tick tock
The wire ended, it's match separated by a few inches. He stooped down and bound the two halves, before setting off again. He turned down an alleyway, running through another door and into a deserted warehouse.
The door burst open to a back room and the pony limped through, completely out of breath.
"I see you're on time." Another pony responded. "Barely."
"It's- It's live." The runner breathed, watching the other pony's features seem to light up in joy. Not that he could be sure with the fact that his face was always obscured. "Can I see my family yet? Will you let my friends go?" He asked pitifully, trying to massage the cramp out of his hind leg. "That's all we've figured out, I swear!"
"In due time." The faceless pony responded, directing a goon with a flick of his hoof. "If I get my side of the deal."
The tired pony felt his veins run cold from nervousness alone, a hoof twitching as he kept his eyes on the henchman. The burly pony carefully put down a small digital clock attached to the wire, and watched the timer count down. It hit zero.
For a moment, the room was silent. The pony felt like he was about to throw up.
A thud sounded in the distance, followed by what sounded like thunder. The ground shook, and at least a few screams sounded, though they were muffled by the walls. The still breathless pony felt tears sting at his eyes as he fell onto his side and began to weep.
"Get him cleaned up." The nameless pony said, a grin almost audible in his voice. "He's free to go."
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Days passed, and life returned to normal. Though they met every day to train, the overshadowing idea of more fighting and death seemed to ebb. It wasn't as if the team assumed things would just pass, but only become less terrifying.
It was the same scenario as on the third day since they'd began that Jason was late. Dash didn't worry, she knew that he'd been off to grab something that he'd said would assist them in training. She knew generally what it was, but she'd love to see the looks on the other's faces when they saw everything. She still had a few things to clarify anyway.
When Jason did finally arrive, he came with a pile of boxes in tow, and set them down in front of the others.
"I guess you're wondering why we're meeting outside of Ponyville today?" He asked, becoming slightly annoyed as everyone chose to stare at the boxes and ignore him completely.
"Yeah…" Dash responded, with a knowing tone. "What're these?"
"These," He began, sliding against Dash to put a hoof around her neck, "Are airsoft guns. An entire shipment that I'm sure pissed the hell out of some producer." He paused. "Well, actually a lot of shipments before I got useful things."
"Jason, Ferris has already made a bunch of guns, and we still haven't-" Morning began, before Jason cut her off.
"Look, I'm not letting any of you- well, you kinda already did, Dash…" He lost his train of thought. "Uh… Anyway, these things are nonlethal, and they don't have much recoil. So we'll be using these for at least a day before we worry about actual target practice."
Eravel raised a talon. "Why would we use these if they can't hurt anything?"
Jason grinned. "They're nothing like a bullet, but these things sting. Kinda like short term bees. It's about as close to the real deal as we're going to get."
"So this- does it use gunpowder?" Dash asked, pulling an M4 out of a box and twirling it in her hooves. She found the magazine release after a second and let the slightly curved metal drop into her hoof. "Jason, there aren't any bullets."
"Well yeah." He replied. "Of course."
"So…"
"Hold on, I'm looking for them." Jason responded, opening several of the boxes. "Ah!" He dragged over the cardboard box, showing off the cans and jars inside. "The white balls are bullets, and those cans have stuff that fires them." He gestured for Dash's gun, and she handed it over. Jason pulled off the lid to a bottle and jammed it into the magazine, letting it hiss for a moment. His horn glowed and a carton of pellets unscrewed, flowing out like some sort of weird water. A little blob of them flowed into the magazine, disappearing as Jason closed it up and pushed it back into the gun proper.
"So, if you'll direct your attention over there…" He said, pulling the gun into his shoulder with one arm. Jason made sure his footing was stable before he reared up a little, firing several rounds downrange. "Wow, gotta love the feeling of recoil." He said, as they watched the pellets impact a tree.
"You get recoil from those little things?" Dash asked, muffling a laugh.
"No, but-" Jason put a hoof to his chin, trying to find words. "These things are recreational, really. I used to use these for fun in the creek behind my house with Ben and some other friends of ours. Of course, how realistic is it if you don't feel any kickback whatsoever?" He paused. "So they added it, somehow. I could find out but I don't want to take this apart and look."
"So eye protection, everyone." Jason continued, pushing over a box of goggles with his hoof. "They're from Ferris and meant for other stuff, but they'll work."
"Is this like what we'll be using?" Tank asked, resting a gun against his shoulder. "And how do I pull the trigger?"
"Well…" Dash began, spinning a hoof around in the air as she thought. "Firstly, these are called assault rifles, which are like medium range things. We'll need a variety of weapons, because we don't know what we'll be getting into, exactly." She looked at her hoof, where she'd written a few words. "I'll be using something like what Jason already has, and hopefully you'll be using a shotgun, Eravel. Tank, Jason said that given the amount of weight you can carry you'd do well with the LMG, and that just leaves Morning and Thunderlane with…" Dash bit her lip, looking at Jason.
"We have a couple of sub-machine guns, but you may just want an assault rifle." Jason said with a shrug. "We couldn't pin you two as anything specific, other than the fact that you've still got to be able to fly."
"Isn't there a long range thingy?" Morning asked.
"Yeah, but Ferris is still working on making something that'll work for the ammo we found. Just to give you all an idea of how heavy these things are…" Jason trailed off, holding out a fifty cal round. Morning grabbed it and her hoof dropped, before she realized its weight.
"Holy shit." She breathed, weighing it. "Would not want to be hit with this sucker."
"Yeah. It probably sucks to fire too." Dash said with a chuckle.
"So how much weight are we talking about here?" Tank asked, taking the shell from his fiancé.
"A lot." Jason replied. "Good news is, they aren't brass, so you'll be able to carry more. The shells just burn up as they fire."
"How does that even work?" He inquired, looking up from the bullet he was carrying in disbelief.
"I have no idea. But hey, Ferris seems to." He paused. "Anyway, let's get on with it. Dash?"
She stared for a moment, before remembering what to say. "Oh!" She exclaimed, a blush passing across her face a moment later. "Well if you remember that practice thing we did before, way back when we were preparing for Windforge, it's the same idea in a way. The only difference is that we got some ponies and griffins to throw together some crappy little wooden buildings and bunkers."
"You're really enjoying the blank check from Celestia, huh?" Eravel asked with a smirk.
"I didn't ask for a mansion. Besides, you should be proud about what griffins can accomplish." Dash shot back.
"It was kinda freaky." Jason said. "They wouldn't take a break. Like, ever. Had to drag one away that looked tired."
"Well from what I've heard a lot of them are happy for the work." The griffin replied. "I would be, it's a whole lot better than the hard labor they used to probably do. That lasted from dawn to dusk, by the way. Not your silly nine to five stuff."
"I've got to say though, they've really got pride in their work."
"It's probably because they have something they care about building." Tank said with a shrug.
"It's a couple of shacks and ditches." Dash replied, deadpan.
"What I meant was, they aren't building it for a king that they hate."
"Yeah, what he said." Continued Eravel, pointing to Tank.
Dash shook her head, a little annoyed at the lack of focus. "Alright!" She yelled, shutting them up. "Two flags, two bunkers. We're the ones with experience, so we'll go on a team with Thunderlane against you three." She held up the gun, as Jason tossed them some pellets and gas cans. "Gas goes here, magazine release is here. Twist the little thing at the bottom of the mag to reload."
"Is that how it works with real guns?" Morning asked, staring at her own.
"No." Jason said. "You've got thirty rounds in a gun like this, and then you have to put in a completely new mag. So keep that in mind when you're firing. That said, don't worry about wasting bullets here or with real guns too much. Obviously you shouldn't fire at everything, but shooting in the enemy's direction isn't a bad idea. It's called covering fire, let's you move around while their heads are down."
"Alright…" Eravel trailed off, slapping a mag into his gun and grinning. "Alright, I'm good."
"Oh yeah, Tank, Morning." Dash began, tossing them two different rifles. "You've got something to pull next to the trigger there."
"Ah, yeah. This'll do." Morning replied.
"Okay, then without further ado, get going!" Dash yelled, sprinting off just like the others.
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Jason pushed his back against a tree, hearing pellets whistle past. He pivoted around the trunk, spraying out a few of his own before he was forced to return to his spot. In a way, he liked this a lot more than fighting with knives. Things seemed simpler, or at the very least more familiar.
He galloped to another tree, by this point only needing to delay. But then again, sitting behind a tree was no way to hold attention.
Jason shifted his wings back into their changeling form, giving the things a few testing flaps. It'd been a while since he'd had these, not to mention even being a full changeling. Somehow that made him feel a little depressed, though he couldn't pinpoint exactly why. If he had time he had been thinking about frolicking in some poison joke again. He missed his old body.
But this was neither the time nor the place, and Jason hopped into the air, drawing an upwards diagonal until he was just below the canopy. He opened fire, stopping to go sideways when Morning fired back. If these wings were good for one thing, it was changing direction. With regular wings it all had to be on a beat, but with these, well, the beats were so little time between that it didn't really matter. And they rotated better to boot.
Jason watched a projectile whiz past, not having spectacular luck hitting his opponents either. Dash appeared into the brush to one side, but was almost immediately discovered and kept under wraps. It was no longer the festival of easy surprises that things had been. They'd learned and gotten stronger, and checking their own backs and covering one another was hard-wired in by now.
Eravel went down from someone's gunfire, a talon to his chest as Thunderlane popped out of the brush to join in. Jason felt a pellet bounce off his arm and shook it painfully, realizing after a moment that he was supposed to act like it was real. He let himself spiral to the ground, landing on his good hooves and falling somewhat gracelessly onto his side. He was only on his own for a moment, watching what he could see over the tall grass before Thunderlane wrapped a hoof around Jason's chest and started dragging him backwards.
Jason grinned, pushing his gun into his shoulder with his good arm and beginning to fire again. He saw Dash in the distance, pushed up against a tree as she tried to catch her breath. She had a grin across her face, evidently enjoying what she was doing. Of course, none of them would like it as soon as real danger was factored in. Airsoft was a game, and no matter how much strategy could be applied, it wouldn't shape up to the real deal.
They would have to deal with combat they'd never really seen before, the disastrous possibilities of things like tunnel vision and stress. And finally, the fact that it was just them. More ponies could be trained, but none would have the same credentials for a long time. Steve and Hunter came to mind, but they were still somewhere in the griffin empire with Sartos. Honestly, Jason would rather have them stay there, if something else came up.
From what he got in the newspapers, they'd already put down a small insurrection and cleared up a supply route. If they had a job there, Jason wasn't about to pull them away from it.
Tank got hit by someone, presumably Dash, and Morning quickly tried to cover the pair.
"He's dead, I think." Thunderlane said, leaving Jason behind a tree and peeking out. "Yeah, headshot."
"Alright, I'd probably be safe from bleeding out, but obviously not too mobile. So just try to regroup with Dash before she gets hit." Jason said, gesturing for Thunderlane to leave, which he did after a moment. The pegasus took off, flying between a few spread branches and disappearing into the leaves.
He weaved around a few trunks, sure that he was all but invisible to those below. Yet almost immediately he heard one impact behind himself, followed by a few more. His heart rate soared, and he grinned. It thrilled him, in some crazy sort of way. He knew it shouldn't, but with the fact that he was already dodging around branches at high speeds he ended up with a grin spreading across his face.
Too bad he was totally afraid of the real deal. He hadn't been on this team for long, if it was even the same entity anymore, though he was honored to be a part of it even if for a little bit. But he'd seen what Jason's guns had done in Windforge especially. It was so instantaneous, so foreign to everything else he knew. The idea that you could just point and shoot something that killed ponies still seemed impossible, though obviously the evidence proved otherwise. And he'd only seen a few unrelated events. The central square was a bloodbath.
At least he was going to get one to shoot back with.
He dove through a gap, pulling his gun against his shoulder and firing like there was no tomorrow. Morning sidestepped his bullets, firing back her own. They were starting to get an idea of how to lead a target, and Thunderlane felt pellets just missing his hind legs. He wound up the magazine, hovering behind a tree as he caught his breath. Morning was still shooting at Dash, until her gun started making a different noise and then stopped altogether.
Thunderlane peeked out, watching her try to pull a gun from under Tank. Her head went sideways a second later, and she collapsed on top of Eravel.
"Dammit." Tank said, rising to his hooves. "You had to run out of ammo, huh?"
"Hey, you weren't a lot of help, getting shot like that."
"It's not like I'm a small target like you are." Tank countered, grinning.
Morning stopped for a moment to think of a comeback. It hadn't really been an insult, and it threw her off a little. "You know you'll have to do better than that later."
"I know." Tank replied, shrugging. "But then again, we're not fighting amongst ourselves. Those ponies could break under pressure, while we- most of us won't."
"That was good, all of you." Jason said, walking up. "Injuries?"
"One to my rear leg." Dash volunteered.
"Obviously one to my head." Tank replied. "And to Eravel's chest."
"Alright, so Morning ran out of ammo, which was a total of several hundred pellets. So let's see… You probably won't use that much to shoot a few ponies, on account of the fact that bullets travel a lot faster, but that many will pretty much destroy a barrel, I think. Point is, if the thing starts to glow, I had Ferris make barrel replacements. Just swap it out."
Jason picked up a gun and pointed to the end. "Some of you will have knives at the end called bayonets. That way you can stab things without needing to pull out a knife, and you have longer reach."
"So is it alright if I get something like what I have now?" Thunderlane asked, smiling as he held up his rifle.
"I can try." Jason replied, grinning back. "Now all of you, back out there! Three more rounds!"
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Scootaloo sighed, looking away from Cherilee and out the window. Something clacked against the panes, and everyone lost whatever interest they had in learning. That wasn't too much, because Equestrian history was horribly devoid of anything interesting whatsoever. She was hardly even exaggerating. Several more taps rang out, and Scoots quickly located the source. Eravel was partially inside a bush, moving from side to side behind a tree as some other pony that she couldn't quite see shot at him.
She briefly recalled her parents talking about training with fake weapons today, but those looked real enough. Maybe those little things didn't kill anything, especially if they couldn't bust a window.
"Scootaloo!" Cherilee exclaimed. "What exactly is it that you find so interesting outside the window?"
The foal looked around, slightly annoyed that she had been singled out. "It's… uh… classified?" A few chuckles swirled around, as some more things tapped the glass.
"Oh? I'm sure you can share the generalities." The teacher replied, her tone the opposite of happy.
Scoots twiddled her hooves, not making eye contact. "Jason and Dash are over there training with Team Green Bean." She mumbled.
"Oh, and my brother!" Rumble exclaimed. "He's part of that now!"
The class let out an 'ooh' before they all flocked to the window. Cherilee frowned, but gave in. She couldn't say she wasn't interested.
"What are they training for?" The teacher asked.
Scoots shrugged. "I can't tell you." She paused. "But if it needs them, it can't be anything good."
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"Darling, hold still!" Rarity exclaimed, shaking Jason a little until he stopped trying to move. "I had to make a lot of stuff up on the spot, and your old wedding specs only work to such a degree!" The mare giggled, pulling the body armor tight against Jason's chest. She moved on to his legs and strapped parts together there as well. The rest of them were already suited up, looking themselves over with admiration. Jason could see why, he already felt like a tank.
"This feels great, Rarity." He said, moving around a little before a whack to his flank made him still again. She began to move more pieces into place.
"It better, I've been up all night putting on the finishing touches and getting Thunderlane's together." She stood back and allowed her horn to lose its glow, watching Jason take a few steps away and stare at a hoof.
"You're sure this is bulletproof?" He asked, craning his head around to look at his backside.
"It's been tested ad nauseum, Jason."
"Then why do I have velcro on my chest and back?"
"Oh!" Rarity exclaimed, clopping her hooves together. "I figured it could be hard to carry things around, so I took the liberty of taking your guns and attaching patches to them." She grabbed an assault rifle out of the corner with her magic, floating it over and sticking it to Jason's chest. She held it there for a moment as she attached a sling, tightening that a little. "See?"
Jason jumped into the air, watching the gun stay on as he came down. Hopefully the velcro wouldn't wear out. "Yeah. Good thing this gun has a pretty flat side."
"I wouldn't expect it to stay on no matter what, darling." Rarity continued. "I'm no miracle worker."
"These are way better than I could've expected." Dash cut in. "I mean, I expected a few issues with stuff you've never used before, especially with the armor plates in here."
"Honestly, dear." Rarity shook her head. "It took weeks, and a lot of meetings with Ferris. The fact that it worked out at all was surprising. Especially for Eravel."
"Hey, come on. I've got a perfect body." Eravel responded from across the room, chuckling to himself.
"I guess we just need to get everyone familiar with their guns, and we'll be good to go." Dash murmured, staring at her hooves. She sighed.
"Assuming we have something to do." Jason reminded.
"Go!" Rarity exclaimed. "Walk around in them, do whatever it is you do! I need to know if there's anything to fix with them. Plus, despite all of the usability, you six look fairly dashing. Maybe there's hope for stylish war attire after all."
Jason raised an eyebrow, scratching at his mane before Dash pulled him away. "Race you to Sugarcube corner." She challenged, watching the disguised changeling float the gun away and follow her. Dash got out the door first, skidding along in the thin layer of powder that was only being augmented by the current light snowfall. She almost fell but saved herself, throwing a laugh backwards as Jason wasn't quite as lucky.
He pushed the snow off his face, still feeling warm as he took off again. Jason knew he was hopelessly behind by now, but he wanted to finish strong. Even if it was just a pointless race.
Snow slid from his armor as he raced by the towns ponies, enjoying the fact that it felt a lot lighter than he'd expected. It was heavy, but still lighter than the metal of the Royal Guard. Nothing like his changeling plates though, but those would never take a bullet. He figured that they might even shatter and make things worse.
Though, to be realistic, if he was hit in the vest or elsewhere, it would hurt a lot less to crack his armor than to bruise. Ben had sent him a picture once that he didn't fancy bringing up in his mind. Oh, too late. There it was. Ew.
Jason skidded to a less than majestic stop, looking up at a boastful Dash. She held the door open to Sugarcube corner, gesturing for him to enter beforehand. He shook his head, giving her a small kiss as he walked past.
Scoots waved to them from a table with the rest of the crusaders, several cupcakes already set around the table. "You look awesome!" She exclaimed, as Applebloom nodded.
Dash looked at herself once again and giggled, pulling out a chair. Jason followed suit, tilting backwards in his own. "So how was school, you four?" He asked.
"We saw you training outside!" Sweetie exclaimed, pushing her chair backwards a few feet and striking a pose. "They were all like 'pew pew pew'," she began, acting like she was holding a gun. "And some pony else was shooting back, and it was so much better than Cherilee's lesson."
"Dammit, I told them to make sure they were far away…" Jason mumbled.
"Eh, those things weren't that bad."
"Yeah, but it's the principles, Dash. The principle-" The door burst open, and Twilight rushed inside.
"You seen today's paper?" She asked, clearly freaking out.
"No. I never read the paper, Twilight!" Dash laughed, elbowing Jason. "But this guy, on the other hand."
"Hasn't had the time." Jason finished, elbowing her back.
Twilight let out a huff, before she slapped the thing onto the table. "I- This isn't a joke!"
Jason looked at her and sobered, grabbing the newspaper with his hooves. He felt a rock seem to appear in his gut as he cracked the thing flat and turned it over. The headline made his blood run cold.
Explosion in Manehattan! Princess Luna Missing
"Oh god." Dash whispered. "This can't be real…"
"Hold on, I'll read it." Jason choked out.
Last night, an unknown noise awoke Manehattan citizens, as an old building toppled to the ground. It is believed, though not confirmed, that Princess Luna was conducting military operations inside when the explosion went off. Three Royal Guards have been found dead, and many more are suspected to be in the wreckage. Princess Celestia made a brief statement yesterday, on a brief stay with her sister when the event occurred. "All I can say is that I hope the perpetrators get theirs. And I hope that it's much worse that what we've taken."
Celestia could not be reached for further comment, and our reporters found it a bad idea to approach her.
Authorities are unsure where the explosives came from, as the only ponies that know how to make gunpowder and related explosives are located in Ponyville. Though they must be regarded as suspects, it seems more logical to assume that the recipe was separately discovered, because most all of them have obvious alibis. It must be considered, however, that within Ferris's blacksmithing operation some leakage of ideas could have occurred to new or fired employees.
It is far more shocking, however, to think of a new enemy. Equestria has already fought off the griffin menace, and the idea of something so close to home is worrying to say the least. If this is a new threat, far more shocking is its command over technologies that most ponies cannot even begin to create any for themselves. Some progress has been made with recent advances, but nothing that would imply such results, so to speak. However, alien technology continues to appear without end, and could be used to reverse engineer whatever was used. It could also be possible that it was used as found.
Princess Luna, however, has not been found in the wreckage. This means little, as there are numerous guards that have not been found as well, and much rubble remains. Though our hearts go out to those that lost their lives today and those that we hope are still living, previous veterans have began to band together once again, and have joined into the wreck full force.
It is a chilling thought to think that Luna will no longer be there to move the moon, and one idea many here at the Gazette refuse to believe. Until proof surfaces of her death or any national heroes' involvement, we will go on believing in what we know is right. We can only hope that our faith stands the test of time, and that Equestria's reaction to this problem is as swift as ever. Team Green Bean's active training recently should mean that if they are pulled in, they'll be ready.
In trying times like these, Manehattan needs something they can put their might behind. We can only hope that the might of the most populous city in Equestria is enough to eliminate these threats.
Jason set down the newspaper, his eyes wide. He stared at Dash, who stared back. Minutes went by before one of them spoke. "Ex- Explosives." Dash said. "They have explosives."
"And-" Jason put his head in his hooves. "Luna, oh my god!" He pushed back any grief, feeling the room turn sour with the sudden twist in emotions. "I swear to god." Jason said calmly, rage replacing his sadness. "If she turns out to have died, I'm going to make Bob regret even living. Hell, if I get the chance, I'll do it no matter what." He looked away, standing up and pushing the chair back a few feet. He paced around, mumbling. "Forty fucking ponies in that building."
Dash stared off into space, brushing her hooves together in thought. Twilight looked away, feeling guilty for being the bearer of such news.
"You know what?" Dash asked, not waiting for an answer. "This changes nothing. We'll get the team together, and we'll kick some ass. We'll just be a little more motivated to do it."
Jason stopped pacing, turning towards her with eyes full of angry tears. He walked over and wrapped her in his arms, trying to muffle himself as he let out angry sobs into her shoulder. A little of his rage disappeared, and he lost the urge to kick a table through the window. Dash stroked his back, waiting for him to get his emotions under control. She knew that it tended to be a lot harder for him when everypony was feeling the same and he got a constant reminder. Or so it seemed. They still knew next to nothing about what being a changeling meant.
Jason had dissolved into whimpers and occasional sobs, but Dash couldn't blame him. She felt like joining in anyway.
But as time went on, she felt the shock and anger wear off, replaced by blank feelings. She didn't really feel much of anything else, besides a drive to kill Bob. It felt like busywork that she had to complete, and she was done feeling things towards it. She was tired of the feelings, and she could tell that Jason was too.
"When do we leave?"