(EDIT: Please note that these 'New Weapons' may or may not be used. I went overboard on them, but chances are they will see action, but
in am more realistic and believable manner)
After the dust cleared and the debris stopped falling from the sky, the ponies and humans slowly and somewhat clumsily rose from the ground and back onto their feet and hooves.
"That... was... something. Ugh..." Rainbow mumbled, shaking her head as the ringing in her ears subsided to the point where she could hear to a degree. She didn't get a response, aside from Fluttershy making a slight whimpering noise.
"Is everybody okay?" Thompson asked, clutching his head with his left hand. He got several 'Uh-huh' 's in return, along with several thumbs-up from the soldiers and the other three Marines.
"Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" Twilight shouted in worry, running over to their side. "Are you both okay?!" She asked frantically.
Celestia and Luna both nodded. "Yes, Twilight. We're fine. Though we didn't expect such a thing to happen." Celestia responded with a curious tone to her voice as she looked over to Kayla.
"Um... sorry. I didn't expect the thing to blow up the entire wall." She responded with a sheepish smile as she slowly turned around, noticing that the wall she shot at was completely annihilated by the rod-like explosive round. Her eyes widened at the sight, getting a light chuckle from Celestia herself.
"Don't worry about the wall." Celestia said calmly and reassuringly. "You didn't know what would happen either."
Kayla nodded slowly as she clutched her throbbing shoulder, wincing as she sat back down on the ground. Thompson noticed this and walked over to Kayla, who was now sitting down on the ground once more. Thompson crouched next to her with a slight smirk on his face. "Thought you could handle that shot. Y'know, since you brag about doing more pull-ups than the guys." He said, his smirk turning into a shit-eating grin as he pulled out a small med-pack.
"You try shooting it then! It has like three times the recoil of my Barrett." Kayla shot back with an annoyed look on her face. "And when the hell did you get so cocky and sarcastic all of a sudden?" She asked.
"Ever since I've seen you get knocked on your ass by a sniper, in which you always brag about how you master them and shit..." Thompson replied with a chuckle as he put his hands around her shoulder and applied a bit of pressure, making her hiss in pain.
"Ugh... bite me..." She said through her gritted teeth, making Thompson chuckle once more. As they were talking and healing, Marcus looked over his shoulder, placing his eyes on the sniper rifle. He then walked over and picked it up from the scope with a silent grunt.
"She's got a point, Thompson..." He said, examining the sniper rifle even more. "Shit's heavy as hell." He then pulled back the bolt and pulled out the magazine. As he looked inside the magazine, he saw about seven of the same rod-like explosive rounds. He then turned to Twilight, who was helping out Applejack and Kevin get their hearing back with a spell. "Hey Twilight. Do you remember having this before we came to Equestria?" Marcus asked.
Twilight shook her head as she walked closer to the weapon Marcus was holding in his hands. "I don't remember storing this in my basement, let alone teleporting it here with the trans-dimensional spell." She then went into slight deep thinking. "I might've read the instructions wrong..." She muttered with a frown before she looked back up to him. "I can try it again, if you want?" She suggested with a slight smile now.
Marcus nodded. "Sure, but try to teleport something small." He then turned to the others. "You guys ready for another go?" He asked. They all nodded, a bit hesitantly, but they still agreed nonetheless. They then stepped back, as Twilight prepared herself to do the spell once more.
"Don't stress yourself, Twilight!" Marcus shouted as he put the Hyena Infra-Dead next to a slab of burnt wall, making it lean onto it.
"Yeah! No pressure!" Rainbow added.
Twilight just rolled her eyes as she pointed her horn at the ground once more. The group then close their eyes as Twilight grunts and completes the teleportation process, with much less mental strain, and focus. A bright flash enveloped them for a couple seconds before slowly dissipating, but keeping whatever Twilight teleported in a haze of black dust.
The group then slowly blinked their eyes open and focused on the ground once more. The first thing they noticed was a small item on the ground. Marcus then slowly walked towards it. He looked closer, noticing that it was about the size of a P-90 submachine gun, and around it were several oddly-shaped 'magazines'.
"What is it?.." Twilight asked, as she and the others leaned in closer to get a better look at what she had just teleported.
Marcus saw that the weapon was steaming slightly, but his gloved hands prevented any injury. He picked it up with his right hand from the handle.
"Okay.. what and where the fuck is all this shit coming from?" He said outloud to nobody in particular as he studied the weapon. The weapon looked like something out of a space comic. The gun was red in some areas, along with black furniture around it, and it had a circle-shaped thing on the top of the handle. As he turned the gun to the sides, he saw that there were two small sets of grill-like plates, containing some sort of glowing green energy inside a glass tube. The same was for the more front part of the gun, which also contained glowing green energy in a glass tube, but it seemed a bit more longer, and more exposed. The inside and outside of the tube were also connected with two black wires, which he guessed generated some sort of electric pulse. He then aimed down the sights, which were tinted green on the sides from the front iron sight.
"That thing looks kinda cool, to be honest." Jackson commented. The others nodded once, but were still curious and suspicious on the weapon Marcus was examining with care.
"What does it shoot? For all we know, it could just be some weird water gun.." Kayla said.
".. or a special gun that shoots out acid, or radioactive waste." Thompson also said.
Marcus ignored their theories as he looked around for the magazine. He then looked at the back of the weapon, noticing a slightly bulged out 'stick', and on the side were two small buttons. He pressed them both quickly, making a series of beeping noises as the green liquid energy inside started to slightly glow.
Marcus then lifted the gun, aiming it at a wooden crate that contained hay inside. "Only one way to find out..." He muttered as he prepped himself to fire the weapon.
He breathed in and squeezed down on the trigger, the gun 'spitting' out a burst of three green laser-like projectiles, along with a laser-gun like sound. The recoil made him take a slight step backwards, but the results were quite pleasing. The three laser projectiles went through the crate as it it wasn't even there to begin with. Marcus then gathered his footing and placed a tighter grip on the weapon before firing again, having the same results.
He lowered the weapon before sighing. "This day's getting weirder and weirder by the fucking minute..." He muttered, then turned to Twilight. "Are you sure you're using you teleportation spell? Or are you using your trans-dimensional without even knowing?"
"I swear, I read the teleportation spell so many times, I can easily tell the difference!" Twilight retorted. "I know what I'm doing! Just let me keep trying! Please, I can do it!" She pleaded.
Marcus sighed again before nodding, picking up the odd magazines from the ground. He then stopped and looked at the back of the weapon. Pressing what seemed to be the release button, he tugged on the back, making it slide out the same oddly-shaped magazine he was holding in his other hand, along with two small glass tubes falling to the ground, seemingly depleted of what they contained before he fired, along with making more beeping noises.
"So that's how you reload this thing..." He muttered before sliding the magazine back inside the weapon, making it emit even more beeping sounds. Marcus then bent down and picked up one of the glass tubes, that was steaming itself.
"What are those?" Dempsey asked, his arms crossed and raising an eyebrow.
"They look like cold cell batteries. The same ones that are used to make the traps, except a helluva lot smaller and skinnier." Marcus replied. He then turned to Twilight. "Alright, you can go and try again..."
Twilight nodded as she turned to the ground once more. "I'll try to teleport more than one thing now..." She muttered. The group nodded as she used her spell once more, taking even more time than both, due to her trying to teleport more than one thing, also causing an even brighter flash, and a slight wave of heat hitting them. Heavily breathing, Twilight looked up.
"Oh, come ON!" She shouted in frustration. The others opened their eyes and looked at what Twilight was looking at. The Marines sighed in relief as they saw something they actually recognized.
"Hey! I remember this!" Thompson shouted as he walked over to the thing Twilight had just teleported.
"I swear I'm- wait, what?!" Twilight shouted in confusion and frustration, watching as Thompson passed by her.
"It's an Assault Drone!" Thompson shouted again in happiness.
"Um... call me dumb, but what's so special about it?" Rainbow Dash asked, making Thompson chuckle.
"It's a robot machine that can move around with- oh wait, there's no laptop here..." Thompson said sadly. "... if there was, I could control it and show you how- oh wait, nevermind!" His tone changed, noticing a control laptop panel next to the drone. Rainbow chuckled as Thompson opened the laptop and turned it on.
"The drone is outfitted with what looks like a wired MK46 light machine gun... and a tube that contains some anti-personnel rockets. A lot of them, it seems..." Thompson spoke as he switched on the Heads-Up-Display (HUD) on the laptop and switched the drone on with a beep. The ponies watched in awe as he used the right joystick to move the upper part of the drone, which contained the wired MK46 and the rockets, along with a huge battery pack, a camera set, and several boxes of 7.62mm ammunition.
Thompson then used the left joystick to more the drone. The drone made a whirring noise as it moved along with its caterpillar tracks. The drone moved at a decent speed, making its way towards Twilight and Rainbow. Twilight looked at it with a look of curiosity on her face as she lightly touched the barrel of the MK46 with her hoof before walking around it. The drone was then moved in front of Rainbow, who looked right at the camera with a raised eyebrow, before pulling back and watching it do a slow 360-degree turn.
"We could really use this for specific operations and situations. Such as when we need a first-aid station, we could remove the guns and rockets, and set medical supplies and such. This thing is very versatile, to put it simply." Thompson said as he moved the drone back to his position before manually shutting it off. Closing the laptop and storing it in his pack, he put both hands under the drone and lifted it up with a grunt. As he did, he saw a couple words on the side of the drone's rocket tube.
MANUFACTORING, METAL STORM LIMITED
ENCINO, CA
REMOTE ASSAULT DRONE. 1-SFOD(D) SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED
MODEL A501
U.S GOVT. PROPERTY
READ OPERATOR'S MANUAL
BEFORE USE.
"Looks like this thing was made in California, Marcus." Thompson said with a heavy chuckle as Marcus helped him with the drone. Swordstrike and Nimbius watched as they set it down next to them, allowing them to further get a better look on the drone.
"See? I told you I could do it!" Twilight exclaimed with a slight competitive smile.
"We never once doubted you, sugarcube." Applejack said with a slight smile.
"Well, actuall-" Rainbow started to explain, but stopped as she got glares from Celestia and Applejack. "I-I mean, Yeah! What A.J said!"
"I'm gonna see if I could try it one more time..."Twilight said with a smirk as she positioned herself again, but stopped when she felt a hoof on her shoulder. She turned around, noticing Celestia looking down at her.
"No need, Twilight. I think you've stressed yourself enough for one day. Allow me." Celestia said with a smile. Twilight quickly gathered herself and nodded, stepping away. The humans watched in awe as Celestia calmly lowered her horn to the ground and prepared to do the teleportation spell herself. They were then quickly blinded by a bright yellow-ish light as she did the same spell, but with much more ease and simplicity, not even breaking a sweat. She even had a peaceful smile on her face.
After blinking a couple of times, they looked at the same area once more, noticing a tiny silhouette as the smoke cleared.
"What the-?" Kayla said out loud. Celestia slowly walked to the item, clearing the smoke with each step. She then looked down on the item, and with a look of confusion, picked it up with her magic.
"Is this.. a toy?" She asked, turning around and facing the group. The humans leaned in close, noticing that she was holding a Cymbal Monkey. Or at least, that's what it looked like it was based out of...
"Oh God... the fuck's up with its eyes?" Kevin said, pointing to its red, beady, proturging eyes.
"Oh... oh my..." Fluttershy spoke quietly. They all turned to her, noticing that her pupils were the size of pinpricks, and she looked quite pale, even through her light-yellow coat. "I-Is that... b-blood?" She asked.
Celestia examined it. It seemed like it actually did have rusted blood stains mixed with its rusted metal on its tiny hands, torso, legs, and where not. Hesitantly, she nodded slowly. She regretted it immediately when Fluttershy froze in place and tilted side to side. Applejack went up to her and comforted her.
Then, without thinking, Celestia slowly turned the wind-up piece next to the Cymbal Monkey's side.
Marcus then noticed that the monkey had something on its back. His eyes widened as he was about to speak up about the T.N.T on its back, but was cut off by the monkey itself.
"I LOVE You..." The monkey's voice said creepily, banging its cymbals as Celestia stopped winding it up. Everybody's eyes widened in shock as Celestia's poker face turned into one of horror as she yelped and threw the Cymbal Monkey to the hay barrels behind her, the monkey itself letting out a yell, and several 'oom-phs' as it landed on the ground. The monkey then started playing some sort of carnival music while it hopped around in a circle and banged it cymbals.
"Make it STOP!" Fluttershy shouted as she covered her ears, pleading for the music to stop as she whimpered quietly. The others did the same. Then, the monkey spoke up again.
"Here I come, Sam!" The monkey said outloud over the music and the banging cymbals before exploding, making the girls yell and drop to the ground. The humans just stood there in shock at what the hell just happened.
"Well that... no. I don't even..." Kayla said, at a loss of words to explain the previous events.
After a couple of minutes to recover from their state of shock and confusion, they were finally able to speak, but not without a hint of fear from the ponies themselves.
Marcus looked over to Celestia. "Can you keep on trying? I'm sure we can get the right stuff. I mean, we've already gotten one thing, we can get it again." He asked hopefully. Celestia let out a small sigh before hesitantly nodding in agreement.
"Okay.. but please note that if I get one more of those... 'things', I will have to stop." She said.
"Duty noted."
"Okay..." Celestia then positioned herself to do the spell one last time. They all covered their eyes one last time as Celestia used the spell to transport whatever might come next. They were all sick and tired of getting odd items, especially what had happened after the Cymbal Monkey incident not even ten minutes ago. She then completed the spell successfully, without letting out any smoke of steam of any sort whatsoever.
"Okay. It's done." Celestia said tiredly. The humans and ponies looked up hesitantly, noticing a pile of what seemed to be a variety of weapons.
"Oh shit!!" They all shouted in unison as they actually ran up to the pile. The ponies watched in a mixture of confusion and slight happiness from their reaction, and from probably getting something 'normal'. For their defenition of the word, at least.
Thompson noticed what looked like two odd weapons that were on the very top of the pile. He immediately recognized them as the under-rated High Standard Model 10 semi-automatic shotgun, or HS-10, for short. He quickly picked up the two shotguns with happiness. As he did, he noticed that these two shotguns didn't have a flashlight connected to them like normal models of the gun, and that it had weird makings all over the body of the shotguns, similar to the ones seen in the Hyena Infra-Dead.
"This is sick!" Thompson shouted, fixating both HS-10's to fit on both of his shoulders. He turned around and looked at the ponies, who looked like they didn't know whether to be happy for him, or terrified because he's aiming the shotguns at them. Thompson quickly noticed this and lowered them with a sheepish smile. He then quickly placed it down next to the Hyena Infra-Dead.
As he did, Applejack chuckled. "Ya looked kinda funny holding those things in both yer hands. It just doesn't look right." She commented. Thompson just shrugged and walked back to the group, right when someone let out a slight gasp.
"Woah, dude! Check this shit out!!" Dempsey shouted at the top of his lungs. The four Marines and the ponies quickly ran up to him. The first thing they noticed was that he was putting on what seemed to be a fuel pack on his back, and he was holding a flamethrower gun, along with a tube that connected the tank with the main flamethrower gun, except it was glowing blue, along with the two fuel tanks.
"What the.. is that a flamethrower?!" Mike asked. Dempsey nodded gleefully.
"Hell yeah, it is! It's heavy, but I don't give a shit! This is the kind of thing that I like to use!" He said happily.
"Um.. a flamethrower?" Applejack asked. "Does it do what ah think it does?..." She asked. Again, Dempsey nodded.
"Pretty much. This is a very old M2 Flamethrower. Its name basically says it all. It spits out flames at an effective range of 20-40 meters, and it weighs about sixty-three pounds. Including the fuel tank I'm carrying." Dempsey informed Applejack and the others.
"Wait a second..." Rainbow bumped in. ".. if it shoots out flames, then why is the tube there blue?" She asked.
Dempsey looked at it questioningly for a second, never realizing that it was glowing blue this whole time. "Uh... oh crap. I didn't even notice." He then looked over his shoulder and smirked. "Let's find out, sha'll we?"
The Marines and the other soldiers nodded as they watched Dempsey fixate his footing and aimed the flamethrower at a slab of burnt, broken off wall. Dempsey then squeezed the trigger. They were all surprised when they found out that instead of it spitting out flames, the flamethrower gun spit out a large stream of crystalline blue, making a crystalline-like sound, as if it were shooting crystals. Dempsey did a quick burst, but it was too late. The blue stream connected with the wall slab. They watched in awe as the wall slab was immediately engulfed in frozen ice to the very core. As it made a slight cracking noise, the wall then combusted into nothing but icy dust into the air, making it rain down like snowflakes.
Dempsey, with his eyes wide, slowly looked down at the majestic weapon he held in his hands. He then noticed some writing on the side of the flamethrower gun.
U.S GOVT.
M2A3 FLAMETHROWER
PROTO #115
LIQUID NITROGEN
"This isn't a flamethrower..." Dempsey said as he saw cold white steam emit from the barrel of the gun. "This shit shoots out liquid nitrogen!"
"Well, that explains a lot." Twilight commented. "I would be lying if I didn't say that look pretty sweet."
"Yeah! That looked even better than a flamethrower!" Rainbow said with a very wide grin. " It's a nitrogen-thrower!... What?.." She said, crossing her forelegs and shrugging. "It was worth a shot!"
Dempsey just chuckled as he walked toward the group. "I think I'll look into this beautiful thing further later. There's still some weapons there. Or at least I think that's what they are..."
"You got that right!" Kevin shouted. The group looked over at him and noticed that he was already standing up from the pile, picking up another weapon. "That flame- nitrogen-thrower isn't the only old thing hidden in this pile! Look at this!"
The humans' jaws dropped. "I-Is that what I fucking think it is?..."
"Great, a Nazi weapon..." Kayla muttered.
"I didn't know these things were still even operational!" Kevin said, looking at the StG-44 like an ancient relic. "And this looks like a re-made antique. Looks at the damn furnishing."
"It also looks operational. I mean, look at the size of that damn magazine! Looks like it could hold fifty rounds!" Jackson said. Kevin nodded.
"Let's see if this thing's really useful." Kevin said with an evil smirk. Before they could cover their ears, Kevin aimed the StG-44 at the sky and shot randomly. The first thing they noticed about the sound is that it had the same 'pew' sound that the Hyena Infra-Dead, except a lot less louder. Kevin quickly lowered the gun and quit shooting. "That answers that."
"Ugh... yeah..." Swordstrike muttered, rubbing his ears.
"Oh, come on. It's not that loud!" Kevin said.
"I'm not as young as I used to be..." Swordstrike retorted. Kevin just shrugged, taking out the magazine and storing it.
"No use in really using that gun. It's outdated as hell. And if we are gonna make guns for the guard, we're not gonna equip them with Nazi weaponry." Marcus said sternly. Kevin nodded as he walked over, still holding the StG-44. "If anything, I'd want to equip these guards over here," He leaned to Swordstrike and Shearslice. "with weapons made from Heckler and Koch. Not Sturmgewehr."
"Speaking of which..." Jackson spoke out loudly. "Here's something that we should consider arming some of them with..." He said, holding a light machine gun in his right hand, and two pistols in his left.
"I second that..." Dempsey said, looking at the light machine gun in awe. Marcus looked over at him, and he could've sworn he saw the slightest trail of drool seep from the corner of his mouth to the ground.
"Care to inform us on that weapon?" Shearslice asked, eager to see and know what the weapon was and could do. Jackson nodded happily.
"Oh hell yeah. But wait a second.." Jackson paused. He then turned to Marcus and threw him both pistols he held in his left hand. Marcus let go of his Remington R5 and caught the two pistols. Smiling, he looked at them, immediately noticing what kind of pistols they were.
"Oh fuck yeah!" Marcus said happily as he was holding the two M1911's in his hands. The odd thing about them were that they had the same reddish markings as the Infra-Dead, and that the size of the pistols in general were a bit wider, making it look somewhat fat, but he was happy with them nonetheless.
"Alright. Now that I got him his pride and joy's, this here..." Jackson nodded towards the light machine gun he held in his right hand, that was rested comfortably on his right shoulder. "... is FN Herstal's very own HAMR."
"Um.. a 'hammer?' " Shearslice asked, confused by the name somewhat. Sure, the weapons that were shown had weird named themselves, especially the 'Hyena Infra-Dead', but why this was named after a construction tool was beyond him.
"No, a 'HAMR'. H-A-M-R." Jackson corrected, spelling it out. Shearslice let out an 'Oooh' before he continued. " 'HAMR' stands for 'Heat Adaptive Modular Rifle'. It was designed by the Belgian firearms manufacturing company, FN Herstal. In fact, several of our weapons were made by that company."
"Really?" Shearslice asked. "What other weapons?"
"This gun right here." Mike said, lifting up his P90 SMG.
"And our .50 Cal machine gun up there on our Stryker." Dempsey said, pointing at the M2 Browning turret that was on top of the Stryker.
"Plus, this pistol right here. My Five-Seven." Kevin informed, shaking his Five-Seven in his hand, twirling it.
"Yeah. Those are all weapons made by FN Herstal. The HAMR was designed and competed for a weapons contract for the U.S Marines with my M27 light machine gun that I had on with me the entire time here." Jackson said, pointing at his M27 IAR. "The only thing really special about this gun, is that the first seven rounds fire faster than the remaining magazine. At about 937 RPM for the first seven, before dropping off to a steady 625 RPM. The recoil on this thing is quite low, and it's pretty damn light for a machine gun. At about five pounds."
"Amazing..." Shearslice said, looking at the tan weapon in awe, before shaking himself out of his trance, and looking at Marcus. "And what about those?"
"These?" Marcus said, waving the two M1911's in his hand. "These aren't nothing special. Well, they are, but they're just side arms."
"Care to show us?"Shearslice asked. Marcus just shrugged.
"If you want. It's nothing spectacular." Marcus said as he walked past the Commander and aimed both M1911's at a rotting wooden wagon. They watched as Marcus pulled the trigger.
What they didn't expect was the same 'pew' sound they heard before, accompanied with two explosions connecting with the wagon, effectively blowing it to bits of rotting wood, and then some.
"Holy shit!" Marcus shouted, dropping one of the M1911's. He then quickly picked it up, and looked at the group. They were once again in a slight state of surprise. Marcus then quickly pressed the release button on the side of the M1911, pulling out the magazine. He then looked inside it, noticing that there were what seemed like small grenades inside. They looked like 40mm, but much smaller. Like small skinny grenades that seemed to explode on impact to anything. He looked down on the ground, noticing one of the shell castings for the grenades itself. He picked it up and showed it at the group.
"I take it back... these things had a helluva surprise inside them." Marcus chuckled, but the looks on their faces didn't change the slightest.
After a couple of moments, Celestia shook her head and spoke. "I-I think we should head back to the train. I have a feeling you are all quite tired of being here." She said with a slight smile. "And we can also discuss some things on the way. Plus, Nightmare Night is going to be in a couple of days. I wouldn't want you all to miss it just for this."
"Hmm.. good point, I guess. Alright. Just give us time to pack up." Marcus said. Celestia nodded. Jackson picked up his brand-new HAMR and the rest of his items before helping out Thompson with packing up and storing the Assault Drone.
"Ugh... we got a lot of new toys, eh?" Kayla said, nudging Twilight. She responded back with a smile as she helped Kayla with her stuff.
"Um.. I can help you out, if you don't mind." Fluttershy said, walking up to Thompson and Jackson, who were disassembling the drone.
"Yeah, ah think that ya'll are gonna break your back with all of that.." Applejack bumped in, looking on with concern as Jackson stored the ammo boxes on his back. The Marines just chuckled.
"This isn't heavy at all, actually. Well, for us at least. We're trained to carry heavy loads also." Jackson said, taking out the magazine on his HAMR and storing it in his pack. He looked back at Applejack, noticing her as her concern grew. With a sigh, Jackson spoke up. "... but I guess you both can help out, if you really want to."
Fluttershy and Applejack nodded as they walked over to help out. As they did, Marcus picked up the Ray Gun-like weapon and stored it in his pack. Rainbow noticed this and smirked.
"Who said you could have that thing?" She said, accusing Marcus of stealing. Marcus just chuckled back.
"Hey, I picked it up first, didn't I?" He said, not looking up from his pack. "First come first served, no?"
Rainbow's smirk grew as she responded. "I guess so. Heheh. I still want to see what other kind of toys you guys have."
"Oh trust me, we haven't even shown our main equipment. But we won't show any more until Twilight can either find a way to fix our ammo problem, or if we can get some factories to develop some ammunition for us." Marcus said as he stood up, slinging his pack and walked alongside a flying Rainbow.
"Don't worry about it. Twilight's the world's biggest egghead. She'll figure out something." Rainbow said, either not noticing the slight glare Twilight gave her, or just ignoring it. "But you gotta promise me to show me more of that stuff soon."
Marcus smiled. "Alright then. I'll show you everything we got left to show." As soon as he said this, he saw Rainbow's extended hoof pointed towards him, covered in spit. Marcus' smile turn into a grin as he spit in his hand and shook her hoof firmly. They then caught up with the group, who were already walking out of the courtyard.
"Wait! What about the vehicles?" Dempsey said, almost punching himself in the throat for forgetting about the Stryker and the Little Bird.
Celestia thought for a moment before coming up with an idea. "You all can take your vehicles and move it here. I can have the train to be equipped with two storage carts so it can carry both of them on the way back."
The soldiers nodded. "Alright. Sounds like a plan. We'll catch up with you leathernecks in a bit!" Kevin shouted as they jogged off to their respective vehicles. The Marines just smiled and shook their heads as they headed towards the train station. As they did, Swordstrike spoke up.
"So, you still haven't shown us all of your main equipment?" He asked to Marcus, who nodded in return.
"Yeah. We have a lot of stuff we can show that would benefit and interest you and the entire Royal Guard. The only main equipment we have is the Vulture here," He pointed to the right side of his pack, where his Vulture drone hung. "but it's low on battery power."
"Why? What made it lose its energy?" He asked.
"Let's just say it was for a... 'reasonable' cause, and leave it at that." Marcus said, holding back a shit-eating grin so it wouldn't appear on his face. Swordstrike just shrugged and continued.
"Okay... well, me and Commander Shearslice would like to come along with you on your journey back to Ponyville so we can see what you have in store."
Marcus nodded. "Sure, but we're gonna need to do it in a secluded area. I don't want the locals to see what we have. Especially if we're gonna be attending the so called 'Nightmare Night' event."
Swordstrike nodded. "I understand. We'll be gone before today. Nightmare Night is tomorrow, actually."
"Speaking of which, we'll answer more of whatever questions you have on the train ride back. And we can give you a look on one of our missions, so you can see how we operate as a group, and with other groups."
"What other groups have you done operations with specifically?" Swordstrike asked.
"Several other Tier-One groups. Some from the same nation as us, and some from foreign ones. Before and during the Cryptic War." Marcus replied.
"I still want to see how you compare with our special forces." Shearslice commented.
"Well, what are your special forces made out of?"
"Only the very best in the Guard. Both Lunar and Day. The only thing that everypony finds odd is that it's all mostly made up of mares."
"Mares? You accept wom- I mean, mares into the guard?" Marcus asked.
"Yes, we do. I will be honest with you, very few mares go into the Royal Guard, let alone pass basic. But these mares are pretty much top-tier, and have proven themselves."
"Have they even been into combat?"
Shearslice shook his head. "Nope, but they did pass the hardest training there is to do here."
"So they say? I'll be the judge of that.."
Shearslice looked at him with a suspicious look on his face. "What do you mean by that?"
"I want to see if the members of your 'special forces' will be able to go through our kind of training. We'll talk more about it once we yet on the train, but I think you'll like the idea I have." Marcus said with a slight smile plastered on his face. Shearslice was a bit nervous, but he was interested nonetheless.
The group started walking in silence to the train, each and every one of them thinking of what they could do on Nightmare Night. As they walks, each of their train of thoughts were put on hold when a sudden flash of lightning struck the cobblestone ground a couple feet away from them.
The girls yelped, while the humans just jumped slightly into the air, immediately raising their weapons to where the streak of lightning hit.
"What the?! Who the buck did that?!" Rainbow yelled, looking at round frantically for whatever made her and the others yelp.
"That's not what I think it means... right?..." Jackson asked, still aiming his HAMR.
"It better fucking not be..." Marcus replied with an angry and concerned mutter. He then turned to the ponies. "Get behind us!" He ordered loudly.
The ponies and the Princess' did what they were told, and quickly stood and watched in worry as another sudden flash of lightning, struck the ground, this one lasting much longer. The girls yelped again.
"Fuck..." Marcus muttered under his breath. "Looks like we got company! Get ready!" He shouted. Jackson and Thompson crouched in front of Marcus and Kayla, all of their weapons taken off of their safeties and ready to fire.
A third long a lasting yellow bolt of lightning struck as the four Marine braced for impact.
After a couple of seconds, nothing happened.
Marcus slowly looked away from his red dot sight. "What the fuck's taki-"
Marcus was cut off when Rainbow shouted. "Look! Up there!" She pointed high above with a hoof.
The group looked up, noticing a fiery streak rocketing towards the ground. The Marines quickly moved back a couple of feet as it got closer an closer.
"That doesn't look like a Seeker meteorite to me.." Thompson said, looking at the falling object with squinted eyes.
"We're about to find out..." Jackson replied. The Marines looked at each other briefly before nodding once wind looking back at the falling object. After a moment or so, the object finally came in contact with the ground with a loud crunch-like sound, followed by a small shockwave that made the Marines lose their balance for a split a second before looking back at the object.
Coughing, they waited until the cloud of dust settled before the could get a clear view of what had landed. The thing that landed in front of them was a whitish metallic container. It resembled an Obelisk, but it was white, metallic, and much bigger. Marcus slowly walked up to it, noticing the scorch marks on the sides before appearing right in front of it.
"What the hell? What is this?..." Marcus said quietly to nobody in particular as he walks around it, studying its features and looks.
Another think that made this thing different from a regular Obelisk was that it had writing on it. In English.
Marcus leaned in closer and read the words. " 'Atlas Corporation: AST Suit No: 935?... What the fuck?.." He said out loud. The others watched him as he looked closer.
Marcus then noticed a button pad on the side of the words, along with a simple note of instructionnext to it, which he read. " 'Press green and blue button each one time to release Goliath'?" He said. He then noticed a small image next to the button pad.
"Bullshit..." He muttered. Hesitantly, he used his left hand to do exactly what the instructions told him to do. He then quickly stepped back, aiming his Remington R5 as it made a heavy hissing sound. Steam came out from the sides and from the top for a couple of seconds before stopping suddenly. Marcus waited for a couple more seconds, until all of the sides simply fell down to the cobblestone with a metallic clang. Marcus' jaw dropped as he saw exactly what was in the image.
"Oh.. My... God..." He whispered in pure awe, lowering his Remington and walking up to the armored suit. The suit was pretty tall, at around eight to nine feet high, and looked like it was reinforced with heavy titanium plating all around, with several tubes, and a small helmet in the middle where a head should be. He then walked behind it, and noticed more words written on one of the plates.
" ' Manual Punch-Out' ?..." He read. It also had an image of how to do it. Cautiously, he reached behind one of the plates with his left hand, grabbing a lever. He then forcefully pulled it out, showing that it was a yellow lever. He then twisted it down, and let go.
The group and Marcus wat he'd in astonishment as the lever slowly went back behind the plate. Then, several armor plates moved slowly in several directions, starting from the top all the way to its feet, revealing a slight interior made to fit a human.
"Jesus Christo..." Marcus muttered as he et his Remington down on the ground. Carefully, he then slowly stepped into the suit, his person fitting perfectly as he moved his hands to grip what seemed to be manual control grips, and moved his feet into position. As he did, the armor plates close back into place, keeping Marcus stored inside of the suit. As then plates moved, a female voice spoke from the inside.
"AST suit, online." It said. Marcus moved his head under the inside of the helmet. As he did so, the glass interior glass screen emitted a slight light. Once the plates close, a huge armor piece arose and clamped itself around the helmet. It then slid away the armor plates, revealing even more glass screening.
Then, Marcus noticed a huge cylinder-shape tube extend itself from the left side of his shoulder, showing what looked to be like mini-missiles, before it pulled back to where it was. As it did, the screens showed a bright green for a split-second, before revealing a HUD, which showed several words and a huge bar.
Marcus then read the words. " 'AT6 MSL Swarm, Mk4 RKT, GAU 3/A Main Gun'?..."
Then, the woman voiceover spoke again.
"Recalibrating Weapons Systems..."
After a couple of moments, he accidentally pressed a button on the panel. His right robotic arm shook. Purposely, he used the panel to stretch out his right arm, which revealed a black tube over it. The tube then stretched itself over and under the arm and hand, revealing a huge minigun with a rocket tube underneath it. The barrels spinned for a moment before his hand gripped the minigun's trigger/grip. The woman voice over spoke again.
"All weapons systems online." She said, before naming each individual weapon and systems.
"Rocket ready.
Swarm missiles ready.
Main gun ready.
Trophy Systems ready.
Ping systems online."
Marcus then saw that on the HUD, the names of the weapons were highlighted in green, with the words 'ready' below each one. Clumsily, he then turned to face the group. He noticed that Fluttershy had, unsurprisingly, passed out again. Applejack looked like she had just seen a man kill a basket of kittens, Twilight was just astonished as always, and Rainbow looked like she was about to explode.
He then turned to Celestia. " I think we're gonna need another transport cart.."
Marcus then tried to move forward. Instead, he pressed the button that shoots out the rocket. The rocket soared over their head, missing the group by inches.
"Uh.. Oops?" He said with a sheepish smile, nobody noticing that he now had a robotic tone to his voice. Instead of bashing him, they just watched as the rocket streaked its way towards one of the towers high above the castle...