• Published 6th Aug 2017
  • 13,996 Views, 1,058 Comments

If You Want Peace, Prepare For War - tranhdxrbntd



Equestria is fighting her first World War after the 2nd Industrial revolution. She hasn't fought a war in a while. Before his death, Discord enlists the help of several creatures that are all too familiar with the concept.

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War Is the Most Readily Available Form of Chaos

Two dozen ponies (crew members of the Dauntless), Eric, Logan, and Tran climbed out of their foxholes and charged. All they had to do was distract the griffons. They didn't need to focus on causing casualties, destroying or capturing resources, and or gathering intel. Just, stay alive and make sure they were focused on them. It was a pretty easy goal considering that all they had to do was run towards the retreating griffons while firing at them like maniacs.

By now, the smoke screen created by the "cooking" fires that everyone had disseminated across the area, providing ample long distance cover for their counterassault. In addition to that, Eric had chucked a pair of orange smoke grenades in the direction that they were heading in. This created two effects; It created more of a visible smoke screen and it signaled to everyone, pony, human, and griffon alike, that something was happening right there and then.

-X-X-X-

A griffon officer was punched in the face by a bleeding Jaeger. "Why in the fuck, did you send in the troops!?" demanded Gilda, whilst she clutched her bleeding throat.

The officer rubbed his face while angry looking at the clipped bird. "You sent the signal?"

The injured Jaeger grabbed the officer by his clean uniform, smearing it with blood. "That was their signal, not mine!"

Just as she had said that, a wounded scout crash landed in. The scout had a bayonet wound through his stomach and clearing had the butt end of a rifle smashed into him. "Attack repelled, too much resistance," the scout reported before collapsing backwards into a sitting position.

Despite her wounds, threw the officer aside and ran over to the scout to apply a rapidly pulled out packet of gauze. "You sent them into a goddamn firing squad all because you couldn't tell who fired the flare!"

Another scout flew in, landing in front of the officer. "Possible counterattack, orange smoke signal spotted even through smoke created from their campfires." The Jaeger pointed to the new scout and motioned him over to the injured scout.

The griffon officer, still standing there, actually had paused upon receiving the new information. "A counterattack? They're trying to disrupt our position or find out our defensive setup?"

Gilda growled. "Well no shit, did they send in a goddamn retard to lead us? Do I have to do everything around here?!" She unfurled her wings and got ready to take off again.

The officer raised an eyebrow. "I am a major?"

Gilda, if her hand (talon?) wasn't holding her throat, would have facepalmed (taloned?). "Pull in soldiers from surrounding area and bring them over to where that orange smoke is!"

-X-X-X-

Charging into battle. It doesn't matter if you're scared, don't show it. If you show your fear, the soldiers you're leading into battle will be scared. If you show that you have something to fear, you're televising to the soldiers that there is something to be fearing. You have to keep on advancing and if you do, your soldiers will advance with you. Lead by example.

And so, Eric and Tran led the charge. They were at the front, firing like madmen, not caring if they had a target or not. Everyone noticed, griffon and pony alike. While the retreating griffons had a head start, they were very close behind them and during the retreat, the griffons were in easy view.

Most of the retreating griffons suddenly dove down into cover and both Tran and Eric stopped running and took cover behind some trees. "Get down!" both of them yelled. Everypony and Logan stopped and either got behind some trees or dropped down into the prone position. Everyone successfully got behind some cover just in time for enemy gunfire to pepper their position.

Whether it was the smoke covering the area, miracle, or the fog of war, no one was hit but their advance was now stopped dead cold. It didn't matter too much. If this was where they wanted to fight, that meant that this was probably where they had more forces or their defenses set up.

Everypony else and Logan would cautiously fire a shot every now and then, if they had a potential target. Tran and Eric would also fire a shot every now and then, blind firing from where ever they were. Eric looked at Logan and threw a rock at him.

The rock to the head quickly got Logan's attention and his attention was diverted to Eric. Eric waved at Logan and then deliberately made a big sweeping hand wave at him with his left hand. Logan nodded and started grabbing ponies' attention.

Eric then threw a rock at Tran and got his attention. Tran looked at Eric but quickly noticed Logan's action. Tran diverted his attention back at Eric and nodded. In a heartbeat, Tran started firing his newly acquired submachine gun with reckless abandon.

Logan, along with ten ponies, grouped up.

Eric, upon seeing Logan with his squad, returned to shooting at the griffons. Eric, albeit with a fast trigger finger instead of a full auto mechanism, fired as quickly as he could with his AK74. "Keep up the fire!" Eric commanded. The remaining twenty other ponies, despite using bolt action rifles, intensified their rate of fire. Everyone remaining, had to make up for the sudden decrease in personnel.

On both the Equestrian and Griffon side of this firefight, no one had been wounded so far. A combination of good cover, the smoke screen they created earlier, and the natural effect of gunfire causing people to be suppressed, meant that accuracy was out the window. This exchange of wasted ammunition kept up for a lot longer than one would want.

Through this cacophony of chaos, an adept listener could hear the many different resources available on each side.

Eric's AK74 made a very distinctive sound when it fired, it using an intermediate light rifle cartridge coupled with a uniquely human muzzle brake. Tran's new submachine gun made a slow almost sewing machine like cadence of pistol ammunition being fired. The twenty ponies were using standard REA bolt action carbines that fired full powered rifle rounds with a rate of fire that was fast for a bolt action.

For the griffons, it was obvious that the Equestrians were limited on what they brought to this firefight.

On the griffon side, you could hear the intermixed fire of six or seven machine guns that fired full powered rifle rounds. The distinctive machine-like rate of fire made it easy to count them. Combined with the machine guns, you would also hear the additional gunshots that were brought upon by the griffon's rifles, also bolt action carbines, also firing full powered rifle rounds. The stacked or uneven fire rate brought upon by the usage of bolt action rifles made it easy to determine that the griffons outnumbered them.

That was when the gunshots from the griffon side increased in intensity and repetition. They were getting reinforcements.

Tran stopped firing and swapped over to his sniper rifle. He pointed up into the air and fired it. The .338 Lapua Magnum round that it fired, coupled with the massive muzzle brake it had, made the sniper rifle's report very loud and very unique. Tran worked the bolt on it, loading in another round, then fired again. The second gunshot sounded out, echoing through the forest, just like the first.

Eric stopped firing. He turned around to face Logan's squad. "Grenades out!" Eric yelled with as much volume that he could muster. Logan and the ten ponies he was with pulled out frag grenades and threw them. Seconds after they went out, they exploded.

For a brief moment, gunfire from both sides died out. A few seconds later, it picked up again. However, the gunfire from the griffon side came in more intense than earlier. They were probably now expecting an assault, an advance, or a flank.

However, Logan and his squad of soldiers were long gone. They had left in a different direction, away from this mess.

Elsewhere

The gunshot of Tran's sniper rifle rang through the forest, echoing for miles. A short moment later, several explosions rang through the forest. Upon hearing all of this, Wilson, Rarity, Applejack, Blueblood, and twelve ponies charged into the forest, in the opposite direction of where that firefight was going on. They outright ran as fast they could.

By now, the smoke screen that was deployed earlier was thick enough that it mimicked a nice, heavy, marine fog. This killed the griffon's ability to effectively watch the Equestrians and Wilson and Co. seemingly left the area without difficulty. The further they went, the more the sounds of battle died out.

Eventually, they were far enough away that it seemed like you could forget that a battle was going on if you weren't focused enough. They were also out of range of the smoke screen Wilson kneeled down and everypony else stopped behind him.

Rarity, drenched in sweat, trotted up to Wilson. "What is it?" she asked in between inhales.

WIlson looked at the other soldiers and noticed they were all in various states of exhaustion. He, however, was fine. "Everyone catch your breathe, we'll need it." Rarity happily nodded in agreement and ran a hoof through her brow, wiping away a river of sweat.

Applejack, barely a drop of sweat on her brow, trotted up to Rarity and patted her on the back. "At least yah got some time to spend with your colt dolt!"

Rarity angrily glared at her friend as she walked over to the other six soldiers. Rarity's curiosity betrayed her and her attention drove her to look at Blueblood, who was standing only a few meters away from her. The stallion in question was in a similar state of intense exhaustion, not being used to this sort of field work.

Blueblood, having heard Applejack's comments, flicked his ears in annoyance. "I'm your colt dolt?" he asked.

Rarity frowned. "As if I would lower my standards that far?!" she shot back. Applejack chuckled from the interaction.

Wilson glowered at the two. "Alright, let's go. That's enough of a fucking break." He stood up, KRISS Vector at the ready. "Eyes fucking peeled and get ready for anything."

Ponies had a significant handicap when it came to using rifles; they were quadrupedal. To use their rifle, they would have to adopt a bipedal stance, taking a dangerous amount of time to do. If they had a handgun, they could simple fire it without having to stand up on their hindlegs. Ponies could easily stand on their hindlegs but it wasn't a natural stance and they naturally wouldn't be walking around like that.

Every pony, upon hearing Wilson's command, stood up and took their rifles off of their back. Every pony made sure their rifle had a round chambered and that it was ready. Applejack, ever the cowfilly she was, had her Winnychester 1892 carbine. She, with great force and speed, worked the lever of her rifle. Working the lever had ejected a round into the air above her and loaded in a new one. The ejected round stayed airborne for a couple seconds before Applejack caught it and loaded it back into the magazine tube of her rifle. "Right, Ah'm ready."

Wilson waited until every pony was ready and then started marching. Every pony followed him, trotting on four hooves, Their intended destination was the Dauntless but not exactly. In the initial retreat of the Dauntless earlier today, one third of the Dauntless's crew went missing. They were most likely going to be near the Dauntless but not in it. The griffons had the Dauntless zero with artillery and would outnumbered whoever was still alive. Of course, the griffons probably knew this too.

With the gunfire and explosions going on over where everyone else was, a lot of attention would be redirected over to that direction. Anyone would be able to hear it for miles, meaning whatever crew that was still alive would also be able to hear it. There could be two possibilities; they would head towards the source of battle or away from it. Hopefully, it would be the former.

At the moment, counting everyone, there was sixteen of them. Applejack led the front with the six earth ponies that were with them. The center was composed of the six pegasi that would eventually take off to go on their own side mission. The rear was composed of Wilson (medics stay in the back) and Blueblood and Rarity (the ones with the least combat experience).

Wilson looked at the two prima donnas with their immaculate uniforms. Both of their uniforms were gilded with gold edges and tassels. It was absolutely gaudy. They also both of them sported the same rank, signified by a gold crown on their epaulettes and a silver crown on their sleeves. It was obvious they were both officers but Wilson didn't recognize the rank, even with how long he had spent on this world. "What the hell are your fucking ranks?" Wilson blurted out.

Both Rarity and Blueblood looked back at Wilson but Blueblood spoke up first. "Pardon me?" he asked.

Wilson pointed at the rank on Blueblood's sleeves with his non dominant hand. "What fucking rank is that?" he repeated.

Blueblood took a quick glance at where Wilson pointed at and realized it was his own jacket's rank. "Oh, apologies. I am a major, one of the Royal Equestrian Army, specifically the Royal Corps of Signals."

Wilson raised an eyebrow. "Wait, then why the fuck does fucking everyone calls you a fucking prince?" Blueblood and Rarity's ears twitched upon hearing Wilson's words. Wilson internally chuckled knowing that his natural way of speaking agitate them.

Blueblood swallowed before answering. "Because I am a proud prince of this great country!" he answered with as much pride in his voice that he could muster. "A member of high nobility! A-"

"Real asshole," Rarity interrupted. "With no chivalry."

Blueblood glared at the mare with as much indignation he could muster. "Pardon me!?"

Rarity rolled her eyes. "Your ability to treat a lady and show her, her respects is absolutely lacking."

"And you would know how? Every lady I've ever met, I had treated her as my princess," Blueblood growled back.

Rarity's face grew red with anger. "Do you not remember what happened with the gala?! You treated me as if I piece of trash under your hoof!"

Blueblood chuckled. "I respect a piece of trash under my hoof more than you. The instant you gaze fell upon me, you didn't see a pony. You saw a title. You didn't pay attention to anypony or anything else."

Rarity froze like a deer in headlights, breaking her marching stride for a second before continuing. She looked at Blueblood, ready to respond but her gaze fell in silence. "I did, didn't I?" Rarity said while looking at the ground in front of her.

Blueblood glared at the mare, something Rarity couldn't return. "I deliberately left to see if you would follow me and you did. No matter what I did to you, you stayed by my side. Aside from not being from high standing, you mirrored every other noble I've had the displeasure of meeting." Rarity stayed silent.

Being tired of the awkwardness, Rarity finally spoke up. "I want to apologize. I guess I wasn't behaving like a lady, was I?"

Blueblood raised both of his eyebrows in surprise. "A first."

"Pardon me?" Rarity asked back.

"No noble has every apologized. They all just engrain deeper in their horrid behavior even more or deny any wrongdoing, never apologizing," Blueblood responded.

Rarity nervously swallowed. "You are correct, I wasn't behaving like a lady."

Blueblood let out a deep snort. "Let's start over, yes?"

Rarity smiled. "It would be an honor. An end to the constant hostilities between us."

"Yes, as equals."

Wilson finally spoke up, finally being done with this soap opera of a drama show. "Equally fucking worthless."

Both Rarity and Blueblood glowered at Wilson with a look of indignation. "Pardon/Excuse me?" they asked at the same time.

"Fucking both of you are fucking officers, worthless" Wilson immediately replied as if it were the most obvious of statements.

The two prima donnas simultaneously harrumphed at the American. "I'm surprised your friend, Princess Twilight, didn't tell you about me," Blueblood said.

Rarity looked surprised. "You're acquainted with Twilight?"

Now it was Blueblood's turn to look surprised. "Yes, we shared the same babysitter, Princess Cadance," Blueblood replied. "I'm astonished she hasn't mentioned that."

Rarity chuckled. "To be fair, she didn't tell us, her best friends, that she had a brother nor that she knew Princess Cadance until we went to their wedding."

Wilson didn't break stride but mentally froze for a second. "How many fucking princesses do you guys have?"

Blueblood huffed. "Just the five."

Wilson eyed the gun on Blueblood's back. "So what gun is that?"

Before Blueblood could answer, a gunshot sounded out from ahead of their marching formation. Almost everyone dove to the ground, aside from Blueblood. He had to be physically pulled to the ground by Wilson. Most of the ponies there, once they hit the ground, had their weapons off of their back and ready to be used.

Most.

Blueblood looked at the direction of where the gunshot came from, front hooves empty. Wilson also noticed this. "Fucking get your gun out!" Wilson yelled. Once Blueblood had in fact armed himself, Wilson turned his direction to the other important objective. "Where the fuck did that come from?" In a jungle or a forest, the report of a singular gunshot wouldn't travel very far. Was it a possible sniper that knew their position?

At the front of the formation, Applejack suddenly got up and walked out in the open. "Hold up," she called out. Wilson got up from the ground and walked up to the front of the formation and up to Applejack. From there, he looked in the direction of where the sound of the gunshot came from.

There, the source of the gunshot was visible, a singular pony standing out in the open. Wilson turned around to face the rest of the ponies. "Stay down!" he commanded. He turned to look at Applejack. "Let's go."

Applejack nodded back and the two of them walked towards the pony. The pony in question was wearing the standard uniform and gear of the Royal Equestrian Army and was armed with a handgun. When they got close enough, Wilson recognized the pony, he was the Dauntless's chief engineer. The engineer then waved a hoof and several other ponies, previously hidden, were now unhidden.

Wilson counted out the ponies there, twenty-three total. Most of them were armed, with rifles. Hell, two were carrying one of the machine guns from the Dauntless. A small handful, weren't armed at all. Most importantly, eight of them had visible wounds. Wilson slung his KRISS and set his medic's bag down, getting to work as fast as he could.

Applejack, after counting out the ponies, looked at the chief engineer. "Know where anypony else is?" Applejack asked.

The chief engineer let out a depressed sight. "I know ten that are dead. Three, captured," he answered. Applejack took her stetson off in respect for the deceased. "We got ambushed by some griffons. Death from above." Applejack redonned her hat and walked away, back to the ponies they just left behind.

After some time, this group of ponies was joined up with the group of ponies they came with. Blueblood and Rarity, led by Applejack, trotted up to the engineer and Wilson.

Rarity looked amongst the ponies there. "Is the sapper present?" she called out.

The tiniest earth pony stood up and walked up to Rarity. This pony looked like she was two thirds the size of your average pony. "Sapper, present!" she beamed while standing at attention. She was not armed. She also was not wearing a set of webbing gear but she did have her standard army backpack. She also wore a large tool belt and three pairs of saddlebags that were filled to the brim. Because of her small size, the collection of saddlebags and backpack looked like they were just as big as her.

Applejack eyed the saddlebags. "Damn, filly. Did yah try to take the entire train with yah?"

Wilson saw the saddlebags too. "What in the hell are those filled with?" he asked.

The sapper smiled. "TNT," she responded. "A hundred bricks."

Applejack whistled. "Now that's a lotta damage." Applejack grabbed one of the saddlebags off of the sapper. "Here, let me help yah with that."

Blueblood searched the other soldiers. "Is the quartermaster present?" he asked.

One massive brick shithouse of an earth pony stepped up. He didn't have a rifle but he sure as hell was armed as he had one of the Dauntless's machine gun strapped to his body. On the other side of his body were a couple crates of ammunition. Tied down onto his back was a massive wood crate that was marred with bullet holes.

"Damn!" Wilson exclaimed. "Do you also have fucking explosives?"

The stallion shook his head. "Food, meds."

"Beneficial to our situation," Blueblood commented.

Applejack pointed off in the direction that they just marched from. "Alright, we got dugouts about an hour in that direction."

The engineer shook his head. "We can't go yet."

"Ah'm sorry, what?" Applejack said back.

The engineer pointed in the opposite direction. "The griffons are commandeering the Dauntless. I think they'll be using her guns to bombard your position soon," he responded.

Rarity's eyes widened in horror. "The Dauntless's mortars have the range to reach our position and they're far more dangerous than whatever mortars they brought in for that barrage they displayed when we disembarked," she said. The salvos of shells fired that created the smoke screen for when they retreated most likely came from mortars that the griffons had flown in. This meant that the guns had to be portable. Portable mortars and their corresponding ammunition aren't that big in the realm of mortars. The mortars that the Dauntless were equipped with were siege level mortars. She had five of them and they weighed several tons each. Just the shells that these mortars fired weighed more than entire small and portable mortar systems.

Wilson stood up and away from the pony he was treating. "Is that why you grabbed all of that TNT?"

The sapper nodded. "Chief Steam Piston and I have already discussed this."

Wilson looked to the chief engineer. "Steam Piston? Is that your name?"

The engineer nodded and performed a mock salute to the human. "Warrant Officer 2nd Class Steam Piston, at your service." He dropped the salute and let out a slow, sad sigh. "We'll have to destroy her."

Wilson folded his arms. "You think we have enough explosives to do that?" he asked.

"Yes," replied the sapper. "We can either target the guns specifically or destroy the entire train. Destroying the train would be easier."

"Fucking what?" Wilson asked, puzzled upon hearing the sapper's statement. "How would it be easier to destroy the entire train than destroying just the guns?"

The sapper gave Wilson a predatory grin. "I'm glad you asked," she responded. "The Dauntless's mortars five siege mortars are spread across two center cars that aren't next to each other. To destroy the guns, we'd have to get inside the Dauntless and blow up the guns individually." She dropped both saddlebags filled with explosives and dug through her toolbelt, pulling out a coil of bomb fuze. "If we decided to destroy the train instead, we'd have to target the main engine."

Wilson threw his hands up in frustration. "How does destroying the engine destroy the entire train?!"

The chief engineer walked up to Wilson and jabbed him in the chest with a hoof. "That engine is a steam locomotive that is still under pressure."

Wilson shoved the engineer away and clenched his fist in anger. "And what the fuck does that mean?"

The chief engineer snorted in anger and tensed the muscles in his rear leg, getting ready to rear up. "20,000 liters of water at 300 psi? If that engine ruptures, it will be the biggest explosion you'll have ever seen. It'll be like an entire ton of TNT going off!"

Wilson threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "Fine, let's blow up the fucking engine already. How?"

The engineer took a step back, giving him some distance away from the angry medic. "That engine is armored to take anything from the front, top, and sides. We'll have to put the bomb under the train where it has the least armor and hope its enough."

"And," the sapper continued. "Putting the charge between the earth and the train will give the TNT a mostly unyielding wall that will force most of the blast up."

Wilson gathered up all of his medical supplies and swapped the KRISS on his back with his medic's bag. KRISS in hand, he performed a brass check. "What are we facing?"

The chief engineer pursed his lips. "Forty, maybe fifty griffons."

Blueblood looked around at the number of soldiers they had. "A fair fight," he commented.

Wilson smacked Blueblood upside the back of the head. "This is war, nothing is supposed to be fair!" The pony rubbed the back of his head in irritation but knew Wilson was right. "And its not a fair fight anyways!" Wilson pointed at the six pegasi that journeyed with them. "You can fuck off now." The six pegasi nodded and flew off in two different directions. They had 33 total, some wounded, some unarmed, and the griffons had a fortified position to shoot from.

The sapper looked at the pegasi flying off and frowned. "We could have used their help."

Wilson returned the frown with a scold. "They have their own more important task. We'll have to split our forces in half. One half to distract, the other half to blow up the train." Wilson pointed at the two ponies that had salvaged machine guns from the Dauntless. "Once we're there, setup where you can shoot in a wide zone." He then pointed at the sapper and the chief. "We'll be destroying the train, along with ten others."

The sapper nodded and set down all of her bags onto the ground. "I'll get three charges ready. Only one of us will have to get a charge in place."

Wilson pointed at Applejack. "You'll be leading the rear force that's distracting them." Wilson then looked at what soldiers they had available. "And I want all of the fucking grenades, now."

A short moments later, there was a literal pile of frag grenades. The sapper looked at the pile, giddy. "While I liked more and more explosives, why?"

Wilson smiled. "Combat in built-up areas requires extensive use of hand grenades."

Author's Note:

"Combat in built-up areas (mainly during the attack) requires extensive use of hand grenades"

Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT)
The marine corp's bible basically.
page A-23, part 18



A lot of people in the Army have hearing damage. I used to be in artillery where most of the long termers had significant hearing damage. I was a unit armorer and later memo-ed to be battalion armorer/small arms repair. Basically, this means I went to every range, small arms or big. After six years of armorer bullshit and being in the army, my hearing is untouched. My ear drums have been inspected, audiogram done, tone detection tested, etc. I have basically perfect hearing.

Here are a few of the things that I have experienced without ear-pro/plugs:
A trip 7 firing on two separate occasions (one of which was a literal wakeup call)
A 120mm mortar
a 260 round belt dump from an m2hb from a humvee (I was the firer)
The other belts of .50 ammo from the humvee (fun fact, the driver of the humvee I was with got severe hearing damage from this because he also wasn't wearing ear pro)
3 different occasions of a patriot missile being launched
an AT4
an entire m320 range.
driving 3600 km in a truck that uses an unmuffled/un-sound suppressed CAT C15 15.2-liter diesel engine

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