“RAMIREZ! You alright back there!?” Shining screamed over the din of the near-constant automatic fire from outside.

“YEAH!” The SEAL yelled back, still trying to calm the foal down. It was still wailing, but then, who could blame it? He’d probably be scared shitless too if he was a couple decades younger. At least he’d gotten the little thing to cuddle up to his arm and not recoil every time he tried to get close.

“I’m gonna make a run for your pistol! I think my horn’s recharged enough for a shield that’ll keep me safe!”

A few bullets ricocheted randomly into the back store room, piercing a few bags of hayseed and spreading their contents all over the floor. “You sure you gotta do that, man!? Cantcha just levitate them to you, or some other magical horseshit!?”

“Naw, they’re around a corner! I can’t actually see them! I’d have to waste all my magic levitating the whole, stupid countertop over here!”

Suddenly, a stroke of brilliance struck Ramirez. “That’s friggin’ brilliant! Do that!”

“What!?” The same idea struck Shining. “Dear sweet Celestia, that’s insane!”

The kid’s wailing reached a new, higher pitch as another cluster of bullets peppered the room, splintering the mop handle leaning against the rear shelf. “You got any better ideas!? ‘Cause I am all ears!”

There were a few moments of silence before Shining replied: “I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold it once I got it!”

“Just tell me when everything’s in position,” Ramirez said, his hand reaching into his uniform jacket and producing a small, gold-plated crucifix. He kissed it gently and tried to recall the Lord’s Prayer from one of the millions of times he’d repeated it throughout his life. “I got a good friend who’ll handle everything else.”

“Okay, I’m starting!” The unicorn fell silent except for the occasional grunt of effort.

Ramirez started praying silently, the crucifix in his hand: Our Father, who art in Heaven…

The sound of wood snapping and nails being sheared out of place came from the front, accompanied with some groans from the unicorn.

…Hallowed be thy name…

The foal wailed as Shining’s grunts turned into moans of pure effort.

…Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…

Another cluster of bullets shattered the shelf of cleaning supplies next to the SEAL, raining cleaning powder onto his uniform. He pulled the foal in a bit closer to protect it.

…On Earth as it is in Heaven…

“GGYYYAAAHHHH!” Shining screamed from the front, veins popping out on his neck. The sounds of wood cracking and giving way now almost drowned out the gunfire.

…Give us this day, our daily bread…

There was a final, snapping sound, followed by wood scraping against wood.

…And forgive us our trespasses…

Ramirez set the foal down and patted its head, ignoring its cries and attempts to crawl back into his arms.

…As we forgive those who trespass against us…

The scraping sound out front came to a low, grating halt. The SEAL inhaled.

…And lead us not into temptation…

“RAMIREZ, NOW!” Shining screamed from the front.

“BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL!” Ramirez completed the prayer, raising his weapon as he rocketed out the doorway. Spraying the remainder of his magazine in the enemy’s general direction, his eyes filled with joy at the sight of the front counter propped across a pair of aisles, forming a perfect barrier between him and the muzzle flashes up front, all with his grenades and pistol resting on top. Somewhere far ahead, he could just make out the silhouettes of the enemy soldiers, completely taken by surprise and just starting to adjust their aim to compensate. It was like they were moving in Jell-O to Ramirez. A few bullets whizzed by in slow-motion. Weapon still blazing, he hardly even noticed Shining’s screams as he ran past and slid into place, ducking right behind his new barrier and listening to the beautiful sound of enemy rounds ricocheting overhead, unable to penetrate.

“Ramirez! You still alive!?” Shining asked, his voice finally making it through the wall of adrenaline pounding in the SEAL’s ears.

“Yeah, somehow!” The SEAL replied, unable to keep from grinning ear to ear from his new cover. He was practically on top of these bastards!

“Oh, good,” the unicorn replied before a loud thump filled the store. Ramirez spied a small dash of blue from Shining’s mane on the floor, poking out the side of one of the shelves. He shrugged. The guy probably deserved a decent rest after what he’d pulled. Somewhere behind him, the foal continued screaming, but it was time to drown that out and focus on the job at hand.

He inhaled once, changed the magazine on his weapon, and blind-fired a few rounds over his shoulder to give his hands the cover they needed to grab the grenades. Flicking their pins out with his thumbs, he kept breathing, waiting silently as their timers ticked down. Bullets whizzed by overhead, the enemy soldiers swearing at him in their strange, guttural language. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was the devices ticking away in his hands, their little mechanical hearts counting down to their final destiny.

With one second on the clock, he tossed the grenades, allowing them to arc over his barricade perfectly. A pair of explosions just behind the barrier signaled his next move, so he ducked up over the barricade and finished the stunned troops. It wasn’t much of a job: the frag from the explosions had annihilated the men closest to the storefront. One of them laid on his back with a few massive, blood-covered scraps in his chest and neck, his face staring blankly up at the night sky. The remaining few were stunned, their eardrums shattered, sitting ducks for the SEAL. It was all over in the span of a few seconds, and suddenly, Ramirez was just standing by his barricade with smoke drifting off the tip of his barrel and a whole ton of dead enemy in front of him, and a glint of silver in the corner of his eye.

Reacting instantly, Ramirez bought the stock of his weapon around in a blow aimed at chin level, narrowly missing the enemy tango sneaking up on his side, a combat knife in his hand. Roaring with fury, the tango sprang, knocking the weapon from the SEAL’s hand. Ramirez immediately grabbed for the tango’s wrist, only to be knocked back by a blow to the stomach, followed up with a charge. The SEAL stumbled with the blow and fell back against a store shelf, raising his arms just in time to keep the tip of the enemy’s blade from plunging into his neck. Grunting, Ramirez pressed back with all his strength, only to slowly lose ground against the soldier’s superior positioning, the tip of his blade eventually scraping the SEAL’s Adam’s apple. The tango’s eyes narrowed with a dark glee in them, his mind obviously preparing for the joy of bathing in the blood of a fallen enemy. Thinking fast, Ramirez stomped on his enemy’s foot, coming nowhere near to gaining some leverage but gaining the distraction needed to grab for the pistol in the holster by his waist. No sooner did he have the weapon clear of its holster when one of the soldier’s hands lashed out, leaving the knife’s handle and wrapping around the sidearm. The two were now locked in a bitter struggle, Ramirez struggling to raise his pistol against the tango’s stomach, and the tango threatening to bring the knife down all the way through the SEAL’s throat. Adrenaline coursed through their bodies, their own heartbeats pounding in their ears, neither able to gain the upper hand.

Then a magical blast whistled by the tango’s ears, his eyes darting to the side for the quickest moment. It was just the distraction Ramirez needed to bring his pistol hand up in a strike that knocked the knife’s blade away. Stunned, the tango locked eyes on Ramirez as the SEAL pressed his pistol against the soft spot of his neck, just beneath the chin.

A single gunshot flashed in the store, echoing through the street just outside the shattered window.

Ramirez sighed and dabbed at the small wound the knife had managed to open on his throat. The kid’s wailing was the only sound left, making the SEAL’s ears ring with the new silence. Slowly, he pushed away from the shelf, Shining watching him with a knowing smile on his face. “C-can’t a unicorn faint in peace anymore?” He asked jokingly. “Just h-how many times d-do you expect me to save your life tuh-today, smoothskin?”

“Hopefully, that’ll be the last,” Ramirez replied as he scooped up the foal and allowed it to cuddle up to his chest as he searched through the aisles for some formula, or…whatever it was baby ponies ate.

“Ai-aisle fuh-five,” Shining stammered, barely able to lift his head up. “D-Doctor Foalman’s Specialized Formula.”

“Huh?” Ramirez asked. Tracking down the package and tearing it open to find a bottle of formula, he turned back to his unicorn friend: “How did you even…”

“I knew the wife was interested in having a foal at some point,” Shining replied as he stumbled towards them on four, quivering legs. “Figured I should read up on a few things for when that time came.”

“Damn,” Ramirez grinned. “I swear, if your woman didn’t give you pussy after telling her that…”

“Didn’t give me what?”

“Uh…I’ll tell you when the kid’s not in earshot,” Ramirez replied as the foal sucked happily on the little bottle.

“Fair enough. So, what’s the plan from here?”

“Uh…” the SEAL scanned around the store, his eyes eventually resting on the door to the stairs leading to the roof. “If we were up a little higher, I could probably think of something.”

“Sounds good,” the unicorn replied, walking up to the door and trying the knob. Unsurprisingly, it rattled uselessly beneath his hoof. “Locked.”

“What is with this place!? I mean, for a general store, it’s all locked down tighter than Fort Knox!”

“Now, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it,” Shining grinned. “Lemme just show you a bit of magic every stallion in Celestia’s army knows to get by a locked door.”

“Shining man, it ain’t worth you using up what little magic you got left just to…”

In reply, Shining turned his back to the door, reared up on his front hooves, and bucked the frame with all his might, shattering it and blasting the door clean out of place.

“Oh,” Ramirez smiled, the foal settling in deeper in his arms. “You meant that kinda magic.”

“Cheapest kind there is. Now c’mon,” the unicorn trotted up the first few steps. “We have a town to save.”

The pair muscled up the steps and tried the door leading to the rooftop, finding it opened easily. “Figures the only door that ain’t locked is on the roof,” Ramirez sighed, handing the foal to Shining and readying his Uzi just in case. The pair burst onto the rooftop and, after ensuring it was clear of enemies, ducked down low to avoid sniper fire. Ramirez pulled out a pair of binoculars and spied on the muzzle flashes continuing somewhere in the distance. “Alright, I got a visual on the town square, and I can see the hostages.”

“How’s it look?” Shining asked, still nursing the foal with the bottle.

“Not too good. The enemy’s entrenched pretty well: looks like they pulled in some scrap and junk from around town to build barricades,” the SEAL grimaced. “And they have the hostages all gathered in one corner, in the deepest part of their defenses, with at least a half-dozen guards that I can see.”

“Oh no,” Shining’s eyes widened in fear. “With that kind of setup, they could kill everypony in town way before your friends could ever get close!”

“Damn straight they could, and they would. That’s why my buddies haven’t moved in: they pulled the exact same shit in Hong Kong.” He stood up and pocketed his binoculars. “Wait ‘til defeat is certain, then butcher any hostages you have. Lost a lot of civvies that day. It’s brutal, but it’s probably the only reason we haven’t totally overrun ‘em yet.”

“Celestia above! How’re we going to get those ponies out of there!?”

“I dunno, I dunno,” Ramirez leaned back and took off his helmet, running his fingers through his sweaty, jet-black hair. “If my guys had a few more rockets or some close air support, we might be able to take out those barricades and stun ‘em long enough for a decent chance at saving the hostages, but…”

“Well, shoot,” Shining sighed. “Do we have anything like that?”

“Closest thing we got is this,” Ramirez pulled a small, tube-shaped object with a trigger and stock attached from off the back of his vest. “It’s an old relic from ‘Nam: the M70 40mm grenade launcher. We usually just call it a blooper tube.”

“You guys have weird names for your weapons.”

“We know,” Ramirez smiled weakly. “The thing is this weapon has nowhere near the range or accuracy we need. We’d have to practically be on top of these guys to get a decent shot lined up, and even then it’s just as likely to land in the middle of that crowd of hostages as it is to blow up a few of those barricades.”

“Well, what if the shot was…” Shining’s horn sparked slightly, “…magically augmented?”

Ramirez’s eyes lit up. “That could work. Think you’re up to it?”

“Those hostages don’t have much time, and we don’t have any other options, so I guess I better be.”

“Good answer,” Ramirez lied on his stomach and slid a round into the launcher’s barrel, starting the process of lining up a decent shot. Shining laid the foal, now sleeping peacefully, on the ground and placed one of the snack cakes from the lower floor beneath its head, trying to make it comfortable before taking his place at Ramirez’s side.

“You ready?” The SEAL asked, handing his binoculars over.

“About as ready as I’m ever gonna get,” the unicorn said, pressing them up to his face and zeroing in on the square.

“Good enough for me,” Ramirez replied before squeezing the trigger. The grenade flew out of the barrel with a little flash that almost caught Shining off-guard. It began to arc downwards just a bit before the unicorn’s magic kicked in, levitating it further along towards the town’s square. Eyebrows furrowing in concentration, his mind stayed with the little grenade to guide it towards the overturned dumpster serving as cover for a pair of enemy soldiers. Suddenly, the dumpster and the men disappeared in a massive cloud of shrapnel, and he grinned.

“Bull’s eye!”

“Hot damn!” The SEAL cleared the used casing and loaded a fresh round into his launcher within the space of the next ten seconds. “Think you can pull that off again?”

Think lightning can strike twice? Shining groaned inwardly, but he just smiled and nodded and waited for the now-familiar “CHOOK!” of a grenade leaving the tube. He kept his focus on it right off the bat, guiding it the entire way right into another cluster of troops, annihilating at least four of the guards standing over the ponies. “They still don’t know what’s going on!” He said, grinning. “A few more shots and I think we can take out those barricades and wipe out the last of the guards!”

“Do you have a few more shots in you?”

Celestia above, I hope so. “Of course I do! Hit it!”

Another “CHOOK,” another shot sent right into the heart of The Ridchir’s defenses. A bead of sweat dribbled down the side of Shining’s face. “Last shot!” Ramirez announced. “Make it count!”

“I will!” Shining replied, focusing on the last two guards standing over the town’s populace, waving their weapons wildly as they scanned the rooftops for the invisible assailant. Grimacing, he focused in on them as the world around him slowed down. Ramirez’s breathing slowed to a low, rumbling bass, as did the breathing of the foal just behind him, its breath whistling through its nose. He grit his teeth at the sound of Ramirez’s finger sliding along the trigger, the firing mechanism in his weapon slowly kicking into action. The soldiers in his sight reared up over the townspeople, weapons at the ready. Shining breathed in, and breathed out.

The shot seemed to take an eternity to travel from the rooftop to the pair of soldiers in Shining’s sights. It whistled through the air, every gust of wind, every gentle zephyr nudging allowing Shining to adjust. In his binoculars, he could see the last two guards flicking switches on the sides of their weapons, the ponies at their feet cringing in fear. And then they were gone. There was a quick poof, a flash of red, and the guards were no more.

“Got ‘em,” Shining said as he lowered the binoculars.

“Beautiful,” Ramirez replied. “God-DAMN, dude! Between the loss of their rearguard and the destruction of their barriers, I think we…”

All at once, the distant gunfire quieted down, dropping from a steady barrage to an occasional burst, only popping up every now and again.

“…Might have just won this thing for our side,” Ramirez grinned at his friend. “Dude, you have just saved a ton of…dude?”

The unicorn laid on his side, completely unconscious. Ramirez smiled and scooped him up into his arms, along with the foal. “Rest while you can, brother,” the SEAL whispered. “The war’s not over yet.”