Marcus and his squad ran past the group of firefighters and stood outside the Sheriff's office. Marcus then brought up his Honey Badger to his shoulder, then turned his head to his squad.
"Okay. Let's go and see if the pilots survived the crash. Do not engage them or any ponies inside. Also, Fluttershy, can you tell the firefighters to hold what they're doing?" Marcus asked. Fluttershy nodded as she trotted towards the firefighters. They all waited as she explained what he and his squad were about to do. The firefighters looked his way, then back at Fluttershy. They nodded in agreement as they ran back to the wagon.
"Alright. Three. Two. One. Go!" Marcus then turned and kicked down the door, adding in more dust and debris to the inside of the office. Marcus walked in first, aiming down the iron sights as he rapidly walked in and looked to the left and right, while his squad followed along right behind him, using their side arms and shotguns to save up space in the cramped area. The girls followed behind them, watching them as they did their work.
Marcus saw the figure of a pony, who was about to touch the front of the Little Bird helicopter. He then aimed his Honey Badger at the pony. "Woah! Stop right there! Don't touch that thing!" Marcus shouted. The pony looked at him in confusion, but nodded as he slowly backed away from the cockpit.
Twilight saw the look of confusion on the Sheriff's face and spoke to him. "Don't worry, they know what they're doing." She said reassuringly. The Sheriff nodded again, making him more calm.
Marcus then turned his Honey Badger and hit the door of the Little Bird with the buttstock, making it more loose. He then lowered his Honey Badger and let it hang from his right side as he pulled open the door, making a loud metallic creaking noise. Inside, he noticed two pilots wearing black aviation suits, and helmets. One with a cracked visor over it, and another with Night Vision Goggles strapped to it. He carefully unstrapped the helmet off the one wearing the N.V.G's, making sure that if he had a neck injury, he wouldn't make it any worse. Marcus then pressed two of his fingers on each of their necks, feeling a strong pulse in each of them.
"Looks like we got a few more friends.." He said as he unstrapped the other pilot's helmet and set it down on the ground. He pulled himself back and looked at both of their faces. They had several scratches and deep cuts on their faces, covered in blood. Marcus then turned around and faced towards Thompson, who was looking at the condition of the outside structure of the Little Bird.
"We got live ones! Thompson, come over here and help me pull them out." Thompson then went towards Marcus and helped pull out the co-pilot. Marcus pulled out his combat knife, and sliced the straps holding him onto the seat. He then went behind the seat and lifted up the co-pilot from his shoulders, while Thompson lifted his legs and they started pulling him out of the Little Bird slowly and carefully.
"Easy.. Easy.. Lay him on that table over there." Marcus moved his head towards the table behind Thompson. They then started carrying the co-pilot over towards it.
"Hey, Jackson help us out, will ya? Clear the stuff from the table." Marcus asked. Jackson then ran towards them and sweeped the items and pieces of wood from the top of the table as they met the floor.
Jackson then turned to the Sheriff. "Hope you don't mind." He said, chuckling.
"Jackson, come help me pull out the other pilot!" Kayla called. Jackson ran over to her as they started pulling put the pilot.
"Alright. Ready? Lift!" Marcus and Thompson then lifted the co-pilot with ease and put him gently on the table.
"Thompson, you think you and Fluttershy can patch these guys up?" Marcus asked. Thompson smiled and nodded as he ran outside and called out to Fluttershy. Marcus then turned to Kayla and Jackson, who were having a bit of trouble freeing the pilot from the wreckage. He ran over and helped them out. They then put him on the table besides the co-pilot while Thompson and Fluttershy rushed back inside the office, with Fluttershy carrying a first-aid kit in her mouth.
Marcus then ran back into the Little Bird and looked around for any useful supplies. He saw that the control panels were damaged, but he was sure that one of the pilots could fix it. The outside, however, was battered and beaten. The tail and its rotor were steaming out black smoke, and the tail was nearly snapped in half, hanging from a line of wires and small metallic parts. Marcus was no engineer, but he knew that nobody in his squad, nor the pilots, could fix this without finding some sort of blueprints or something. He also noticed that this Little Bird variant must have been an AH-6J, since it had both room to carry four men on the interior, and it was armed to the teeth; carrying what seemed like missile pods and miniguns. Somehow, the missiles didn't explode on impact, and the weapons seemed like they didn't take much damage. Marcus then found a small compartment on the walls, with its lock missing. He opened it, and inside, was a huge blue roll of paper, with white lines all over it. He grabbed it and unrolled a bit of it, noticing that it was blueprints to the Little Bird's design. Both inside, and outside. Marcus then turned to Twilight, who, along with Rainbow, were watching Thompson and Fluttershy patch up the pilots.
"The Cryptids are in for a fun time.." He thought as he kept looking inside the Little Bird's interior. He found an AR-15 on the floor near the ammo box for the Little Bird's miniguns, a MP5 below the control panels, and a P-90 with several attachments on it behind one of the seats. He carried all of the weapons in both his hands as he slowly walked out of the interior.
"Looks like we got some new toys.." He said as he dusted off a part of the floor and laid down the weapons. He then turned to the girls. "You can look at them, just don't touch them." With that, he switched the saftey on all of the weapons in case. The girls walked over to the weapons and looked at them. Twilight was using every fiber of her being to not ask any questions about the weapons until later, while Rainbow Dash thought that they looked pretty slick and cool. Applejack, however, was behind the wreckage, trying to get a hold of something.
"Hey Applejack, what're you doing behind there?" Marcus asked. Applejack then walked out from behind the wreckage, and was holding a long stick in her mouth. When she turned around to face Marcus, he noticed that it wasn't an ordinary stick..
..it was a Winchester 1873 lever action. His jaw dropped at the sight as Applejack spit out the glorious weapon from her mouth. "Is that one of your weapons ya'll carry 'round?" She asked.
Marcus slowly nodded as he walked over and picked up the Winchester. He was a huge fan of the Winchester rifle designs, and the grin on his face grew as he pulled the lever on the Winchester to look at what rounds it chambered, noticing it was fully loaded with .45 Colt rounds.
He then turned to Twilight. "I-I thought you girls said you didn't HAVE firearms like this!" Marcus said as he lifted up the Winchester to his shoulder and aimed it at what remained of the ceiling.
Twilight then turned around to answer his question. "Uh, we don't. Maybe one of the others brought it with him here?" She theorized.
"Well then, that explains it. Still, I can't figure out why they'd bring a Winchester rifle here.." Marcus said as he laid the rifle down with the other weapons for the girls to look at.
"Holy buck.. that thing looks so cool!" Rainbow said excitedly as she gazed on the rifle.
"Just wait 'till you see how it works." Marcus said with a grin as he let the girls look at the weapons. "Remember, don't touch them. And Twilight, I know you have a volley of questions for me.." Marcus said, making Twilight blush a bit. "..But you can ask me them later when we get back on the train. And figure out how we're gonna get this thing out of here and repair it."
Twilight nodded and grinned as she turned back around to look at the weapons. Then, they all heard a groan.
"Ugh... where the fuck?.." A voice said. Marcus ran over to where the pilots were laying, and noticed that the co-pilot was awake, with his eyes looking like two fried eggs as he looked at the ponies around him, and his squad.
Marcus grinned and looked down at him. "Welcome to paradise."
Dempsey's P.O.V
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"Ugh.. what the fuck?.." Dempsey said quietly as he raised his bruised head off the controls. He groaned as one of his hands clutched his throbbing head, but noticed that he was still wearing his helmet. He used both of his hands to unstrap it and he lazily took it off, making it hit the floor with a thud.
"Damn.. this isn't cool." He said as he looked at the condition of the inside of his Stryker. Dempsey noticed that most of the electronics and systems were fine, but were on the brink of turning into nothing but electronic scrap parts. He started unstrapping himself from his seat, until he heard voices outside the Stryker.
"Sir, permission to inspect the inside of the object?" A voice outside asked.
"Granted. But watch yourself in there. We''l be right behind you." Replied another voice.
"Aw shit... looters. Not on my fucking watch.." Dempsey thought as he got himself free from the seat so he could move freely now. Dempsey then looked around for a weapon nearby him. As he did, he heard footsteps inside the Stryker, and whoever was inside, they were moving slowly. It sounded like they were walking with metal boots on.
Dempsey then looked to his right and saw his M16A4 on the other seat. He grinned as he reached out for it. He then grabbed it, turned the safety to 'semi-automatic', cocked it, and looked to the back of the Stryker. The lights inside the Stryker were off, so they couldn't see him as he noticed two small horses walking inside, both of them wearing what seemed like gold armor, one was holding a shortsword, and the other had a horn sticking out of its head. Dempsey then looked at his remote gunner, Kevin, who lifted his head slightly, groaned, and laid his head back on the control panel.
"What the fuck?.." Dempsey thought as he noticed the horses have now stopped and looked at Kevin. It then did something that completely blew Dempsey's mind.
It spoke. I know.. cliche..
"Hey, are you alri-" Before it could finish, Dempsey, without even thinking, raised his M16A4 at the horse and fire off a round. The noise of the weapon echoed all around the interior of the Stryker as he saw the 5.56mm rounds connect with the horse's skull, piercing through the gold helmet like butter, and literally obliterating half of its skull. The other pony was in shock for a second as he looked down at his now dead partner. It then looked towards Dempsey's direction. Dempsey then noticed its horn started glowing a bright light blue, covered in white streaks of electricity as it started shooting off white streaks of blue energy at his direction. The streaks hit randomly as the pony sprayed and prayed all around. One of the streaks hit the control panel, and made it come back to life, while another hit the control panel behind Dempsey, bringing back the engine and weapons systems.
Dempsey was about to end the other pony, until he felt a heavy feeling in his chest, and a surging amount of electricity go thorough his very veins. As he collapsed on the floor, he heard a faint female voice in his head.
"Just one more wreched soul to feed the demons..."
