The Enemy Invariably Attacks on Two Occasions: A. When You’re Ready for Them and B. When You’re Not Ready for Them.
Everyone was on edge, whether they be griffons waiting to attack or the ponies and people on the train trying to get their mission rolling again. Everyone on the train knew that they were completely exposed with the way they were sitting dead on the tracks while the griffons knew that attacking one of Equestria's rolling fortresses was not an easy feat.
The train's chief engineer hopped out of the second front engine. "We're ready to start her up again but at a reduced speed. As long as we stay at half speed, we can keep a steady flow of fuel while inspecting the coal." A lone wooden crate sat behind the engineer. The crate's top was removed and inside it were various lumps of coal placed inside it.
Rarity gently levitated one of the coal torpedoes up to inspect it. It was roughly the size of a grapefruit and made of iron, most likely filled with dynamite or TNT. "We're lucky these didn't detonate the boiler", she said while setting the lump back down with the rest.
Tran eyed the clouds. "Prepare to dismount."
Rarity's mouth dropped. "Are you implying that we're abandoning the Dauntless?!"
Tran didn't need to answer the question. Instead, a series of dull incoming whistles gave Rarity all of the information she needed. Tran immediately tackled Rarity to the ground, covering her with his body. The action wasn't needed however, as the incoming shells had landed a good ways away. Specifically, they had landed far in front and behind the train, shredding the train tracks. Immediately afterward, every machine gun on the Dauntless lit up.
Tran rolled over and Rarity crawled out from her temporary prison. She dug through her gear and pulled out an enchanted trench whistle. She stared at the whistle and knew how hard it was gonna be in the ensuing few minutes.
*Fffwwwwwwhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeueeeeeeeee*
As everyone scrambled to get going, another salvo of shells came in. The shells hadn't landed directly on the train, despite being such a large target. Instead, they landed around the train. They also didn't explode with nearly as much explosive power as the ones that destroyed the rails, these ones dispersing a large artificial cloud of smoke.
-X-X-X-
Private Copper Harvest's hooves held down the lever of the machine gun he was manning. The gun's rattling, despite being active for only a few seconds so far, had already made his body numb. The first few of the gun's explosions, something that happened many explosions prior, had rendered him deaf.
It stopped when someone had grabbed him and thrown him off of his machine gun. He instantly reached for his knife but stopped when he saw that one of his fellow country ponies had done it. The pony's lips were moving but no sound came. Copper Harvest rubbed his ears a few times before shaking his head.
"-Cuation order! Grab what you can and let's go!" the pony said. They were leaving the Dauntless?! This thing was a fortress! As that thought had hit Private Copper's mind, smoke had started seeping into the train's compartments. "Fuck!" The pony in question grabbed the ammo box that was attached to the machine gun and disconnected it from the mount before darting off. The pony paused before looking back at Private Copper. "They have us zeroed! If you don't leave, their next salvo will make you!"
Private Copper's face blanched before he scrambled up to his hooves and grabbed his rifle and backpack.
-X-X-X-
Fortunately, Equestria had a lot of forests. There were plenty of places to go where they could find decent cover/concealment. Unfortunately, they would first have to get to that cover/concealment. They would also have the issue of preventing everyone from scattering and getting them to the exact same rally point. Rarity had a solution but there were a few flaws with it. What was her solution? Blaring her trench whistle. Because of a nice spell typically used for public speaking, everyone would be able to hear her. By everyone, this is including the griffons.
As everyone poured out of the train and into the smoke, more and more precious time passed. Tran looked around and saw what seemed like all of the train's occupants through the haze of the smoke. He couldn't wait around and check though. If he waited too long, their lives would be forfeit.
So, he charged out of the smoke and towards the forest, Rarity tailing him with her whistle blaring. Everyone else followed. The instant they exited the smoke, griffons descended from the air and dive-bombed their group.
"Air raid!" several ponies cried out.
Looking to the sky, everyone on the ground found themselves targeted. Tran himself was personally targeted by three griffons, having been at the front of the entire formation. He quickly drew his 1911 and started spraying rounds into the air. Only one got knocked out of the air before they reached him.
Tran noticed their rifles with bayonets attached and reached his arms out. Right as they were about to impale him, Tran had managed to catch a rifle behind the bayonet and prevented it from moving any further. Out of sheer luck, the bayonet of the second griffon's rifle slammed into his front armor's chest plate and shattered the blade. Before the owner of the rifle that Tran had been holding could recover, Tran gave a good pull on the rifle in his hands and slammed the griffon into the ground. Unfortunately, that move had given the second griffon the perfect opening to hit Tran over the head with a rifle buttstock. Tran was knocked aside but a bullet from Rarity's Model 92 revolver stopped the griffon from doing anything else. Rarity quickly turned her gun on the other surviving griffon and fired.
Tran nodded at Rarity and got back up, looking around. He saw his fellow friends and fellow soldiers with their own opponents. Bayonets and rifles clashed. Some, not having grabbed their rifles in the retreat, fought their adversaries with rocks or logs. It was chaos. Tran and Rarity, along with other ponies alike, helped fight off the ambush. It didn't last very long. Within seconds, the ambush was over, casualties high. That was when they heard another salvo of shells come in.
Whoever was wounded was picked up and whatever rifles were on the ground were immediately snatched up, the retreat continuing. Griffons in the air, gunfire also hounded them the entire time. Luckily enough, they found a small ravine where they could bunker down. The ravine had a small stream that they could use as a water source and didn't have nearly as much treetop cover as the rest of the forest so the griffons wouldn't have any concealment if they attempted any more attacks through the air.
After everyone settled in a defensive position, Tran, Rarity, and Eric met up. "So how long before they realize something is wrong?" Eric asked, looking at Rarity.
Rarity looked at what ponies had survived. Of the one hundred fifteen ponies that made up the crew of the Dauntless, seventy-two had survived making it here. Not included in that number was Rainbow Dash (who was currently ready to take off and go after any aerial targets that came too close), Applejack (digging out foxholes), Wilson (tending to whoever was wounded), Logan (collecting wood and scavenging what he could find), and Blueblood(taking stock of what they had). "Two, maybe three days," Rarity replied.
"Well shit."
Ah yes, me and my two dozen medications keeping me alive. Here's one day's worth of pills.
Yes, this is one day's worth. I can count on one hand using the fingers that I've had reattached, the number of days I've been not high as fuck since March.
A few of my friends have jokingly started saying that I'm unkillable. I sure as hell don't feel like it.
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yiks, gona be hell when it is time to get off from those, if thats a days worth senc march I do not envy you one bit.
But I am glade you are alive and can work when you are not to high or to low.
Well, I'm glad you're still here and thank you for the chapter! Hopefully you are on the mend and getting better?
Glad your alive as well, the quarter on the table to give size reference is a little disturbing
Damn, I'm sorry you have go through that.
Damn... How the hell is it possible to need so many pills? It just... It boggles my mind
Sweet mother of... Something tells me that I should really check the blog for context.
PILLS!?
Boy that's a lot of pills. I do wish you luck on your recovery, because that mustn't be pleasant. And the fact that you're still writing somehow, not to mention a good chapter ? Truly an amazing job you're doing here. You have all my respect.
Get well soon. I want to see a day when they finally go absolute Florida Man.
I wonder if Rarity could be talked into coal inspecting duty? She might be especially fast at it given her performance in" The Super Cider Squeezy 6000".
Also, if they can clear a path for her, they do have the fastest Pegasus in the world to go for help. If you go by a later episode, she also has long-range endurance.