Big Mac thought over about what had just transpired: He had been forced by a special forces captain to join a brutal squad of merciless killers, he was going to be away for six months for the training, and according to what Deadeye said the training was rigorous and brutal.

"This ain't fair!" Big Mac said as he kicked a stone clean across a field. After groping about it for ten more minutes, he finally accepted the fact he had to do it and decided to make his last three days special. He snuck back into his house to find his sisters had already gone to sleep. Macintosh decided it had been a long day so he decided to hit the hay as well. He awoke early the next morning to make breakfast for his sisters, he wasn't as a good a cook as Applejack was but his food was good nonetheless. He left a note saying he was sorry for how he acted last night and that he would make it up to them. He then headed out to Ponyville to find something to do.

XXXXX

Fluttershy was up gathering herbs and plants which would serve as pain-killers for all the injured troops. She heard someone yelling and she quickly fled behind a bush and tried to hide. She looked up to see it was just a squad of pegasi being trained by an instructor. She recognized one of the ponies as Thunderlane.

"Private Thunderlane! What is the sixth general order?" The instructor asked.

"Sir this private does not recall sir!" Thunderlane replied.

"YOU LITTLE MAGGOT! YOU MAKE ME WANNA VOMIT!" The instructor yelled as he slapped Thunderlane. "DROP DOWN AND GIVE 25 WING PUSH UPS!"

"SIR YES SIR!" Thunderlane replied as did his punishment. Fluttershy looked with distaste, just because Thunderlane forgot something doesn't give the instructor pony the right to hit him. Then again, it was necessary for the soldiers to be disciplined and punished for their minor mistakes if they expected to win any battles. The yellow pegasus finished collecting her herbs and she made her way to the Ponyville hospital. She felt weak at the sight of all the blood but she fought through it and delivered the herbs to a doctor, she than made her way as fast as she could away from all the blood and death.

XXXXXX

Applejack and Applebloom had awoken to find their brother had made them breakfast. The two ponies remembered his outbreak the previous night and were happy to see he was back to normal again. They finished their food and Applejack decided to take a walk around Ponyville while Applebloom went to find her friends to try and discover their cutie marks. Applejack passed by a news stand and took a look at the large print on the front page, she also noticed everypony else had a copy and was reading it.

COLTS. REAL OR MYTH?

Numerous ponies have reported seeing unidentified earth ponies clad in armor unlike any other in the military. Some pass it off as nothing but others believe otherwise. Several months ago, rumors ignited about a secret special force known as the Covert Ops and Lethal Takedown Squads, or COLTS. The military has not officially stated the COLTS to exist but the following pictures provide solid proof.

On the newspaper was a picture of a large earth pony clad in black full body armor with a visor covering its eyes. The image was blurry but it was unmistaken.

"Must be some punk teenagers pullin our legs." A unicorn said.

"I think they are actually the COLTS." A pegasi said.

"COLTS doesn't exist, it even clearly says that nopony has officially stated they exist." The unicorn retorted.

"Well isn't that the whole idea behind a covert fighting force? Noponies supposed to know they exist." The pegasi said. Applejack put down the paper and continued on her way. As she was walking she ran into an earth pony soldier who went up to her.

"Hey are you Big Mac's little sister?" The soldier asked.

"Yes ah am." Applejack replied.

"I just wanted to say your bro is a beast!" The soldier said.

"What do ya mean?" Applejack asked.

"You didn't hear? He slaughtered thirty three griffons all by himself!" The soldier exclaimed. Applejack's heart dropped upon hearing this again.

"I know it's hard to believe, some chick with a rainbow mane didn't believe me either when I told her." The soldier said. Applejack's grief was suddenly replaced with anger, there was only one pony in all Ponyville with a rainbow mane. That same pony also swore she knew nothing about Big Mac's condition. She immediately broke for a run.

"Ah dont know why you lied to me Rainbow but yer gonna regret it!" Applejack angrily thought she sprinted to find Rainbow Dash. She passed Twilight's library and saw Rainbow hovering through the window. She was about to bust in when she overheard a conversation, she also noticed her other four friends were in there.

"Applejack doesn't know anything about Big Mac right?" Twilight asked.

"Yes but don't you think we should tell her?" Rarity asked.

"We should and I feel awful about keeping this a secret." Rainbow said.

"You should feel awful!" Applejack screamed as she practically broke down the door. The five mares inside could tell she was extremely upset.

"Oh um hi Applejack." Twilight said nervously.

"How could y'all? Why would you keep something like this a secret?" Applejack demanded.

"What secret?" Fluttershy muttered. She was a very poor liar.

"Oh ah dont know maybe the secret that mah brother killed twenty three griffons and saw his best friend die in front of him and y'all knew about it the whole time!" Applejack screamed.

"Oh you know?" Pinkie said nervously.

"OF COURSE AH KNOW! BIG MAC SCREAMED AT ME ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT!" Applejack shouted. "Why didn't anypony tell me earlier if y'all knew?"

"It would have broken your heart." Fluttershy said quietly.

"Ah almost had a broken jaw! Last night Big Mac went crazy and scared the livin daylight out of Applebloom and he almost bucked me in the face!" Applejack screamed. The five mares suddenly collapsed with guilt.

"We just didn't wanna hurt you." Rainbow said.

"Rainbow, you even swore you knew nothing! Ah trusted you!" Applejack yelled.

"I-i j-just." Rainbow said. For the first time in her life, she admitted she was wrong.

"You do realize ma brother could have seriously hurt ma sister and me?" Applejack asked.

"Im sorry I didn't know he would do that." Rainbow said as tears started forming in her eyes.

"And the rest of y'all! You should have told me! Ah thought you were ma friends! Ah would have never kept this a secret from any of you!" Applejack scolded. Deep down, they knew she was right. Around the corner, a red stallion happened to hear the whole thing and walked in.

"Uh AJ?" The stallion said as he put his hoof on her shoulder.

"Big Mac?" Applejack said as she hugged her brother.

"Ah'm so sorry bout last night, ah don't know what came over me." Big Mac said as he held onto his sister. "I scared Applebloom and almost hit you."

"It's okay big brother, the stuff you went through was horrible." Applejack said.

"That don't excuse ma behavior though." Big Mac said. "Look ah know yer angry at yer friends for not tellin ya but they only did what they thought was best."

"Ah guess yer right." Applejack said.

"Don't ever let yer friends go. Ah'll probably never see Steeltank or Gunny again cause they're missing in action and just a day ago Redwood was killed right in front of me, all ma friends are dead or missing and ah would do anything to get them back." Big Mac said. Applejack realized her brother was right. She smiled a little, even thought Big Mac was quiet he was very wise.

"Girl's ah sorry ah yelled at y'all." Applejack said.

"Oh Applejack we should have told you can you forgive us?" Twilight asked.

"Of course ah will." Applejack said as they all gathered for a group hug. Big Mac smiled but he noticed Rainbow Dash was missing, she must have flown out because she felt bad.

"Looks like you got one more amend to make AJ." Big Mac said as he pointed to the sky. Rainbow Dash had flown up to her home and was crying in her bed. She felt absolutely awful for lying to her friend. Outside her house a certain ex-wonderbolt was knocking at her door.

"Hey Dash you there?" Soarin asked.

"Y-yeah hold on" Dash said as she walked to her door trying to suppress her tears but to no avail. Soarin saw her eyes were red and her face was soaked with tears.

"Hey what happened?" He asked as he put his hoof on her shoulder. Rainbow told him the whole story.

"I should have told her! I didn't know Big Mac would lash out like that!" Dash sobbed into his shoulder.

"It's okay, something similar happened to me a while ago." Soarin said.

"Really?" Dash asked.

"Yeah, I remember when I killed for the first time I couldn't sleep for days. Spitfire and Fleetfoot tried to comfort me but I lashed out at them because they had no idea what it was like to kill." Soarin explained.

"But you seem fine now." Rainbow said.

"The more you kill the less it bothers you" Soarin said. "It's terrible to not feel guilt when you kill something but Big Mac will learn to cope with it like I have."

"Do you think you could talk to him?" Dash asked.

"Of course, nopony better qualified to talk to him than a fellow soldier! In fact I'll go right now!" Soarin said as he prepared to take off into the sunset.

"One more thing Soarin" Rainbow called out.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks"

"No problem, see ya later Dash." Soarin said as he went to find the troubled earth pony. Soarin flew for about an hour when he found the stallion helping himself to an apple on the farm. He flew down to greet him.

"Commander Soarin!" Big Mac said as he spit out his food and saluted at once.

"At ease corporal" Soarin said. "Listen I heard you have been having trouble coping with your last battle."

"Oh you know bout that?" Big Mac said embarrassed.

"It's natural to be angry after your first kill, the same thing happened to me." Soarin said

"Really sir?" Big Mac asked.

"You think you can drop the whole 'sir' thing for right now? I want you to be able to talk to me like I'm just another pony and not a commander." Soarin asked.

"Okay Soarin." Macintosh said. He found it hard to address somepony as something other than 'sir' or ma'am.

"Trust me it gets easier to you know...kill after a while." Soarin said.

"Ah know it's just hard to live with it." Big Mac said.

"Trust me I know, I know." Soarin said as the two soldiers sat together as the sun went down.

XXXXXX

In the early hours of the night very far away from Cantelot, a battle carriage was pulled through the air by two pegasi commandos. On the carriage were three earth ponies, all clad in COLTS uniforms. Their leader, Captain Deadeye.

"Heres the situation, Captain Shining Armor went MIA about ten weeks ago, intelligence and recon says he is being held in the facility you are about to enter. We also have reason to believe Claws Von Griffon is there as well, if you see him take him down." One of the pegasi commandos explained.

"What's our time window?" Deadeye asked.

"Once you have custody of the Captain you will activate the beeper on your hoof to let us know. Be advised you have exactly and only fifteen minutes to get out of there and make no mistake we WILL leave, with or without you do you understand?" The commando asked.

"Yes sir." The three COLTS replied.

"Excellent, remember this is your debut mission don't buck it up." The commando said as they flew over the drop zone. The three COLTS jumped over the side of the carriage and fell three hundred feet to the ground. The wings attached to the back of their suits helped them glide gently to the ground. After about five minutes, the ponies reached the ground.

"Recoil, Earthshock lets move out." Deadeye said.

"Yes sir!" The other two COLTS responded rather quietly. The trio made their way through enemy territory completely undetected. Any and all griffon sentries were permanently silenced by the special force ponies. After twenty minutes, they came up to the POW camp. It was illuminated by numerous light sources and was loaded with armed guards. It was so heavily guarded not even a mouse could sneak in. Deadeye turned around to face his two teammates. He held up his hoof and pointed to the left of the facility where there was a cliff with a river under it. The trio made their way to the cliff and looked for the entrance the recon teams had discovered. Recoil found a sewage drain and called over his comrades. Earthshock used his strength to silently bend the bars so they could squeeze in. It was a tight fit indeed and the ponies could barely fit but managed to force themselves trough and crawled through filth and sewage until they saw a light above the ground. They came to a stop as Deadeye overheard a conversation between two grifffon guard from above the sewer.

"Did you hear about the Steel Talons?" A griffon asked another.

"Yeah, Captain Gore is heading it." The other griffon responded. Deadeye flinched at the mention of Gore's name. He had heard many stories about how he would disembowel even little fillies and colts if he found them.

"The ponies wont know what hit them, no soldier they have can beat our Steel Talons!" The first griffon said.

"You have never dealt with the COLTS before beakhead." Deadeye thought to himself making a mental note to tell his superiors about this later. Deadeye and the other two COLTS continued to make their way through the sewer until they came into a large room where all the pipes met at a conjunction. The trio emerged from the liquid filth and looked through a hole in the wall to see a badly beaten white unicorn. Deadeye knew this had to be Shining Armor, he made a hoof signal to Recoil and Earthshocker as they moved into formation behind him. Earthshocker wound up his legs and bucked the weakened wall where the hole was bringing it down. The COLTS moved in and made quick work of the guards in there.

"Captain Shining Armor?" Deadeye asked as he approached the tortured unicorn.

"Y-yeah, w-who are y-you?" Armor asked weakly.

"You're rescuers." Deadeye said as Recoil flopped the unicorn on his back as Deadeye clicked the beeper to call in the evac carriage. The ponies took the same route to escape as they took to get in. It was a hassle since Armor was malnourished and injured and he had to pushed through the pipes. After ten minutes, they exited the sewage pipes and began to run to the extraction point. As they ponies were running they could hear the alarm sounding at the prison. They reached the hidden evac site just as the carriage landed.

"Careful, he's taken quite a beating." Recoil said as two medics hoisted Armor on to the carriage. The three COLTS than boarded the carriage and took off and headed back towards Canterlot.