The bird in the crow family

by InedibleBeef

The honeymoon

“I now pronounce you, husband and wife.” Celestia declared. Shining Armor and Cadence kissed and the audience applauded. All members of the royal family were now dressed excessively special this time, a reason unknown to Jay. He didn’t care though, he just enjoyed the peace while he could.

Celestia had the most eye catching dress of all, and that was probably unanimous. It was a bright navy, with gold linings. Green peacock feathers covered the back of the dress, stretching down all the way to the floor, gently resting on the marble. Luna’s dress was simpler, bright shades of blue, navy and white. Pearls were strung around the edges, separating the shades.

As the cheering calmed down, Cadence looked out to the crowd and smiled. “Thank you all! But, this would not be happening if it weren’t for certain ‘people’ here today.” She said. At that moment, Jay and Will covered their faces with their hands, knowing they would be called up to the front of the room.

Sure enough, Cadence called out, “Will Kendrick, Jay Sparks, Gill Sanderson and Captain Barbossa. Please rise and come to the front.”

They all stood and made their way to the front isle. As they were doing this, Jay and Will realized that Gill was on crutches, and his leg was heavily bandaged. He was the marksman they healed before. They all stood in a line at the altar and Celestia personally stuck a gold ribbon on their plate carriers.

“Thank you, for your bravery to protect the innocent. And your willingness to put others before you. You have our thanks.” She said. More applause erupted from the audience and they all took a bow. However they ensued clapping for too long, Jay thought. Why couldn’t it be just good job, some praise and sit back down? This was their wedding anyways.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity of praise, Shining armor and Cadence stepped down from the altar and proceeded down the isle, roses thrown behind them as they walked passed. The humans stood where they were and watched. Eventually walked out the doors and onto a high balcony to greet the crowd that awaited them. Cheers exploded from the outside and nearly rumbled the ground. While this was happening, Celestia approached the humans.

“I want to thank you all personally. You put your lives on the edge and lost one of your own to save us.”

“No worries your majesty, it was our pleasure to defend civilians once again.” Barbossa interrupted her. She smiled and nodded, then followed the newly married couple. Leaving the humans in their thoughts.

“Jay, what’s wrong? You look troubled.” Luna whispered in his ear before following Celestia.

“Its nothing, just were going to have to call a meeting with our leader. Its nothing really,” Jay said nervously. Luna ignored it, and continued on, winking at him.

What the fuck did she- nevermind. He thought.

“Getting president Scott to agree to this isn’t going to be easy.” Will said.

Jay mumbled in agreement.

~~

Just a few weeks ago, Luna had fantasized about helicopters for a whole night. And tried to make her very own model, thinking a ride in one would be a thrilling experience.

She was so wrong.

It was only yesterday the real wedding took place, and Shining armor and Cadence were officially wedded. After that, the rebels packed up and moved everything to their camp in one morning. And formal arrangements had been made for the leaders of both worlds to meet at the rebel stronghold. President Scott had stubbornly refused to come to Equestria for security reasons, but they were good reasons. If the rebels were to be attacked while he was gone, the whole aspect of organization would fall to pieces.

Anyway, here she was, holding on for dear life as the MH-6 littlebird sped across the rocky terrain. She found that her choice in helicopters did not at all consider the safety of its passengers. She sat on the edge of the open center of the vehicle, only a light shove would mean her falling right out. And to make matters worse, she was wedged between two heavily armored and armed rebels that the lighter dressed ones called ‘jugs’. Them squishing her at least kept her in the helicopter. The rebels camp was set up on top of the mountain that Canterlot was built on, and what had previously been a small changeling hive. However the humans preferred staying outside, so they raised multiple tents and raised tarps around them. The helicopters and vehicles were crowded into one small flat space.

Don’t take the Blackhawk they said, the littlebird is fun they said. Luna thought to herself as the helicopter swerved around to fit into its space. Luna had jumped out before the helicopter even landed properly. She spread her wings and landed gracefully in front of the littlebird’s landing space marked by yellow spray paint. She observed the camp for a moment and watched the humans and ponies already moving equipment into huge metal vehicles and sending them off into the tunnels.

She started down a short slope to the nearest tent where ponies were being taught basic earth knowledge. She also noticed the guards were in line to get their armor a paint job in some form of camouflage she was not familiar with. However it was similar to what the rebels were wearing. There seemed to be no official uniform, the rebels wore from solid colored tees to full camo. Most who wore camo preferred tiger stripes in a more woodland color scheme.

Almost all of them were armed with the same weapon, an AK-47 as Will told her. Some carried ones that were identical or similar to Will’s and some carried one that was called an FN FAL, the classic version. She walked past a tarp that sheltered some humans feeding the guards freeze dried foods. The guards all were either disgusted by its stale taste while others were laughing at their reactions.

“Just what do you think you’re doing wandering around camp like this?” A voice came from behind her. She spun her head around to see who had spoken. A tall human with an FAL slung on his back. Sporting short, slightly greasy hair. He wore camo tiger fatigues, and a red shirt with a black handprint on his chest.

“Well hello Huey, wonderful weather we’re having.” Luna replied. Huey smiled and shook his head.

“Come with me, the others are waiting for you.” He motioned for her to follow, which she did. After a minute of silent walking, Luna finally spoke up.

“You didn’t have to kill her.” Luna stated matter of factly.

“You will see soon that you are wrong.” Huey said flatly. With that, he opened the enormous tent flap and waved her in. All six elements, Barbossa, Jay, Will, Calestia and Cadence were all crammed in the tent, a map of a land unknown to Luna on the middle table.

“Ah good, you have finally arrived.” Barbossa said in a strangely warm tone.

“I’ll bring the captain over when he’s done getting painted.” Huey muttered as he closed the flap.

Barbossa grunted as he placed a red flag over a hill.

“Time to bring you up to speed,” He said, annoyed. “This is hill 501, the biggest nuisance to our camp at the moment. It is a radio station for the NCC, heavily guarded. Many pillboxes, dugouts, tanks… It will be a challenge to take you anywhere with it there… no less to overtake.”

“So you want to take it over?” Luna asked.

“Yes” Barbossa answered. “But they outnumber and outgun us.”

“Maybe not with the Equestrian army” Luna said.

“We don’t know your skill sets, or magical abilities.” Will deadpanned, slightly rolling his eyes.

The three humans sat in silent pondering, watched eagerly by the ponies. Twilight tried to make sense of strategy but it never made a connection in her head without a book, by then all who were bipedal were pacing the room thinking of their next move.

“We could bomb them!” Jay eventually said, brightened up.

Barbossa sighed “You said that thirty minutes ago, we don’t have enough ordinance.”

“I know! But I forgot about the cache at White Plains!” Jay was nearly jumping up and down because he was finally going to get to blow something up.

“Yes!” Will exclaimed, throwing open the tent flap, “We can blow something up!” He jumped out of the ten and began repeating his reason of excitement to the other rebels, Jay eventually in follow.

Barbossa hung his head in embarrassment of their sheer stupidity. “Idiots” he muttered.

“Does this mean we can go? This is boring.” Pinkie Pie complained. Barbossa waved them out. They were first greeted by an extremely confused Shining Armor in his new tiger striped armor. He was staring at a group of rebels literally jumping with joy and fantasizing about explosives.

“Dammit! I never said anyth- ah fuck it.” Barbossa sighed in dismissal. He knew deep down that he would have to blow the place up, he would lose too many men otherwise.

A long line of Equestrian soldiers readied their packs and weapons. Each was armed very simply, a crossbow and a small sword. They had added cloth to their uniform, covering all that was not covered by the armor itself. This included the face, and their eyes were covered by cupped brass goggles which were tinted a dark brown. They looked badass, as said by nearly every bypassing rebel.

Many of the rebels sat at the cave entrance and some were in the cave in discord. Some were standing, leaning, or crouching. Their presence tipped off the soldiers, who stood in orderly rows at the appearance of their leaders.

“On your feet!” Barbossa roared at the rebels as he stormed to a buffel only filled with several riflemen and an MG gunner. He climbed the ladder and took a loudspeaker.

“UP! BE READY TO MOVE!” His electronic voice sounded at maximm volume throughout the camp. He turned to the rebels near the cave that had lazily gotten up.

“2nd SQUAD GO FIRST! WE WILL WAIT ON YOUR SIGNAL!”

A group of rebels mobilized, running into the cave. The rest all stood and watched, the soldiers moved up their lines and the buffel started its engine. Huey ran to the ponies, this time wearing his jacket and gear. Gill was eventually in follow, a shemagh tied around his face and carrying his rifle by his scope.

“Are we missing something?” Gill asked as he approached them.

“Ah think your troops are mobilizing.” Applejack said, slightly rolling her eyes and smiling.

Gill nodded. “Come on Huey, we don’t want to keep them waiting.” Before running off to the cave entrance.

“All royalty and guests come in the buffel please.” Barbossa called in the loudspeaker significantly quieter. They walked in front of the soldiers standing still as stone. They eventually all piled in the buffels top, kicking out the riflemen. They only had to wait at most thirty seconds before only one of the rebels came out of the cave.

“Motherfucking NCC!” He screamed. “They’re attacking the hive and firebird!”

Suddenly, the rebels were all on their toes. Shouting erupted from every direction.

“TEAMS THREE THROUGH SIX RUN IN TO ASSIST, TEAM ONE BRING THE WOUNDED HERE AND GET MEDICAL ATTENTION RIGHT NOW!” Barbossa bellowed. All obeyed, the ponies stayed right where they were. Luna spotted Jay sprinting into the cave full on with the crowd.

The next five minutes were the most nerve racking that the six elements could remember. The teams of rebels that were left behind, were just pacing back and fourth. Not a single pony knew exactly what to do other than stand still.

“MEDIC!” someone screamed. “They’ve got napalm!” All living things with eyes turned to the cave to see the most horrendous thing in any of their lives.

All of them.

A rebel was carrying another; a completely black figure at first but then made out to actually be completely black. His clothing was almost gone, scorched off. His skin was charred a dead black. It spread from his whole face down to his everywhere. His body was still smoking from the burn. The rebel threw him down at another with a medical patch.

~~

Will picked off an NCC soldier from his sandbag cover. He covered himself to reload his empty mag.

“Jay! How the fuck are we going to get through?” Wills shouted, seeing no possible way to break through the NCC patrol. He turned to the cover Jay was firing from to see he was not there. Slamming his back against the sandbags and saw him amidst the chaos, with a loaded RPG aimed at the sky.

“Oh shit” Will muttered.

Jay fired the rocket, blasting the ears of all the men. The projectile flew straight, on a collision course with an attack helicopter. It struck the main body of the chopper, completely tearing it apart with one shot, leaving the rest of the parts flying in the same direction. The napalm ordinance exploded with it, raining fire on the soldiers below.

He stood, observing the burning soldiers for a second, proud of his wonderful shot until a bullet whizzed by his head. He then lazily tossed the RPG to the side and unslung his own rifle and slid back into cover next to Will.

“Nice shot man.” Will complemented.

“Why thank you” Jay said as he opened fire on a cluster of NCC soldiers, not paying a single ounce of attention to how many went down.

Will took his turn and emptied his mag on the advancing line of soldiers running from behind a destroyed tank.

“Reinforcements!” Someone shouted behind them. They weren’t lying, three helicopters rose from over the hill, packed with more soldiers.

“Somebody get an RPG for all that is good!” Will hollered at the ones in charge of those kinds of things.

Jay ran back to the cave entrance and next to an ammo crate. More like a crate messily filled to the brim with ammo belts, explosives, and rockets. He took two rockets for the RPG and ripped a loaded RPG from a grunt’s hands. Almost immediately he aimed and fired at the center cluster. Quickly shoving another rocket in and waited for the smoke and dust to clear. However this didn’t last long because he got tired of waiting and fired again.

Just as he decided that was issue was solved, another arose. And he definitely did not have enough rockets for it. Four tanks rolled over the hill, opening fire as soon as they were in sights. Already one person was running back into the cave. Huey.

~~

The anxious waiting was once again interrupted by a rampant Huey storming through the cave.

“Captain Shining Armor! We need your soldiers on the front lines! Use explosive bolts! We’ve got seven tanks blowing our asses up!” He shouted.

Shining motioned for his troops to mobilize, which they did quickly. Barbossa picked up an MGL-180 and slapped the driver’s window. The horn blew once and most of the ponies scattered out of the way. The engine hummed and drove into the cave.

~~

“Fall back!” Will ordered. “Fall back!” He ran for the cave but was stopped by a loud horn thundering through the cave. He jumped back, startled. Plus, a crossbow bolt flew beside his head and stuck to a tank and exploded, leaving nothing but a dent.

At least twenty ponies stormed into the front lines. And jumped behind the sandbags. Many immediately cowered in fear to the cracks of explosions. Though some took aim at the tanks.

“Fire at the tanks!” Huey shouted.

Barbossa took aim for himself and fired a grenade, hitting directly on the tank. Upon impact, the plating combusted and fully penetrated to the internal parts of the vehicle, disabling it.

“Get the fuck out of the buffel!” Barbossa yelled at the ponies, “Get behind it!” They hastily did as ordered, even the princesses. They had all just witnessed ten seconds of the horrors of war, and they wished not to view it more.

Jay shoved the last rocket into the RPG and aimed at another tank. Nothing interrupted his train of though so he fired. He didn’t pay attention to whether he hit or not, he just lazily tossed the RPG away and unslung his rifle. Before he could so anything, a tank shell blasted the cave sides. The force threw him against the cave, his head smacking against the rock. His vision blurred, and all hearing became muffled.

Will pulled Jay deeper into the cave and set him down on a wall before turning back to the fight. Everything was in chaos, ponies already looked like they had mid level PTSD.

He took to a line of sandbags completely occupied with ponies and dead humans. He spotted Shining Armor, silently praying with his crossbow clutched in his hands.

“Snap out of it!” Will yelled in his face. “Aim on the tanks!” Will did so himself, firing the magically enhanced crossbow he snatched out of Shinings arms. “ALL OF YOU!” He screamed at them. They didn’t move. Will silently cursed himself and sat behind the cover trying to thing of something else to do. Suddenly a blast of gold light sped from the cave on directly onto the tank, actually blowing it up. Just as Will attempted to put together what had just happened, a navy blue beam did the same to the last tank.

“What. The. Fuck.” Will uttered.

Minimal cheers could be heard from the last of who were alive as the NCC scurried off the battlefield.

“On your feet!” Huey shouted. At the ponies as Will ran to see if Jay was alright. Somehow, he was standing right in between the princesses staring at the burning tanks.

“Jay! How are you up?” He asked, bewildered.

Jay looked at him and smiled, “Did you really think some bitch ass concussion could stop me?”

Comments

[Setton]

Every time I see the AK-47's being the standard issue of weapon for a militant force in any story, I cringe. Today what most people call AK-47's are actually AKM's, as the actual AK-47's are quite rare nowadays. Nevertheless, good chapter.

[InedibleBeef]

2528242
The war is between an American government and its people. Since Kalash weapons are a popular choice (at least by the people I know) by armed civillians I decided to use that as one of the common weapons the rebels carried. But thanks anyways for the info.

[Setton]

2549034
The Kalashnikov is by far the most popular weapon on the earth today, not to mention the most readily available, gun and/or ammunition. It's just a pet peeve of mine, seeing when people make a simple mistake of identification, since most Kalashnikov variants look-alike. Anyways, I look forward with much anticipation to the next chapter!

[InedibleBeef]

2549492
Yes, many more firefights ensue.