"Man... what I would do to have a sniper rifle right now..." Firefly muttered to herself, looking down the ACOG sight attached to her DMR.

"At least you have something, Fly." Surprise said. "That DMR has proven to be very useful."

Firefly chuckled a little. "I still can't believe I took out all of Lavender Team. All headshots."

Surprise and Firefly shared a short laugh, before Sweetie Belle's head popped up.

"Firefly! Five contacts, 3 o'clock!" Sweetie Belle called out.

"Copy that!" Firefly rotated her DMR and looked down her scope. She activated her IFF, identifying the trainees approaching them as Crimson Team. A flash appeared from their marksman's DMR. Firefly quickly rolled to the right, narrowly escaping getting shot in head.

"Damn! Artemis has the DMR." Firefly stated.

"That's going to be a problem, take her out!" Sweetie Belle ordered.

"No problem." Firefly said, zooming in on Artemis's head.

Artemis saw the flash from Firefly's rifle and instinctively rolled to the left, the TTR round flying past her.

"Sniper!" Oscar shouted. He was one of the two humans with Crimson Team. The other human was a short, blonde maned female named Emily.

"I'll flank em'. Suppress them!" Artemis ordered.

"Open fire!" Emily shouted, as she and the other members of Crimson shouldered their LWC's and opened fire on the hill.

"Get down!" Scootaloo shouted, as hundreds of TTR rounds started zooming of their heads. Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Firefly were able to get down in time.

"Applebloom and Surprise are down!" Sweetie Belle shouted. Firefly looked over her shoulder, to see Applebloom and Surprise lying limp on the ground, covered in a dark, crimson paint that was meant to look like blood. They certainly looked dead, though in reality, they were perfectly fine, though maybe a little bruised.

"Firefly, take them out!" Sweetie Belle ordered.

"You got it." Firefly responded. She crawled over to the slope of the hill, aiming down the scope of her DMR, and fired off a few rounds. Two of the members of Crimson Team went down before the other two rolled behind cover, blind firing in the general direction the hill.

"Two down, two remaining." Scootaloo stated.

"Wait... where's Artemis?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Before anypony could answer, a single TTR round hit Firefly in the side of the head, covering half of her head in crimson paint.

"Does that answer your question? You just had to ask that, didn't you?" Scootaloo demanded, rolling behind a nearby rock. Sweetie Belle galloped over and dove behind the rock, narrowly escaping getting shot in the side.

"Shut it, Scoots." Sweetie Belle ordered.

"Good shot, Ari." Emily complimented over the COM. "They got Oscar and Star though, it's only me and Pip now."

"Of course, you two are too short to see from that distance." Artemis replied. Emily could hear her sniggering in the background. "I'm coming to you guys. Be there in five."

"Right. We'll just hold-" Emily began, before a TTR round hit her in the chest. Pip looked out from his cover to meet a similar fate. Through his paint covered goggles, Pip was able to make out a rainbow maned pegasus standing over him, her LWC aimed at his head.

"Buck... it's Gold team..." Scootaloo muttered.

"Crap, how many?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"All three of them." Scootaloo replied. Sweetie Belle had a quick flashback of the day the other two members of Gold Team, Jacob-757 and Sunny Skies-913 died in a training accident, both being killed by Artemis while they were sparring. Pip was also injured by her, but even though he fully healed, he will rarely ever speak.

"Cover me... I'm getting Firefly's DMR." Sweetie Belle whispered. As she started crawling forward, she felt the barrel of a DMR press against the back of her neck.

"Don't move, and listen." Artemis ordered. "Both of our teams will be bucked if we don't work together. So, for now, we're stuck together. Understood?"

"Loud and clear." Sweetie Belle said. "Scootaloo, stand down."

Artemis peered over her shoulder to meet the barrel of Scootaloo's magnum. Scootaloo placed it in her holster and nodded respectfully at Artemis.

"They're advancing. I don't think they know we are here." Scootaloo said.

"Let's keep it that way." Artemis stated. "Stay low, and don't move."

"How many teams are left?" Luna asked Doctor Halsey, trotting into her office.

Halsey flipped up the screen of her laptop. "Three. Gold, Crimson, and Aqua teams. And... it appears that the remains of Crimson and Aqua are now working together."

"Oh?" That caught Luna's attention.

"Yes, it would appear that Artemis of Crimson Team has teamed up with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo of Aqua Team. To be honest, that really surprised me."

Luna nodded. "Artemis isn't the most... friendly type. Keep an eye on them, Halsey." Luna remembered her last run in with Artemis. Though she has good in her, she normally bullies... or molests the other Spartans.

"I already was." Halsey stated, looking back down at her laptop.

Scootaloo held her breath as Gold Team reached the summit of the hill, slowly marching forward with their guns raised in the air. They passed by "corpses" of Surprise, Applebloom, and Firefly, and trotted up to Sweetie Belle.

"Nice try." She heard the rainbow maned one say, before firing a burst into Sweetie Belles chest. Both Artemis and Scootaloo rose up, shouldering their firearms and opening fire.

Two membered of Gold went down, before Artemis was hit in the chest with a burst from the last ones LWC. Scootaloo dove to the left, managing to dodge two bursts from the ponies LWC. She quickly jumped up and fired off a quick, well aimed burst into the chest of the remaining member of Gold Team.

Scootaloo trotted up to the pony and looked down at her. It was the mare with the rainbow mane.

"Nice try." Scootaloo said, smiling down at her.

The mare chuckled weakly. "You got me good, squirt."

Scootaloo's eyes widened in realization. She knew this mare, or... she did. Scootaloo slowly looked down at her flanks, before her jaw dropped at the sight of the cutie mark.

It was Rainbow Dash, alive and in the flesh.