“Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.”

-Douglas MacArthur

“The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country.”

-George S. Patton Jr.

“We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.”

-Winston Churchill

Silently, I laid on the grassland hidden by a matching ghillie suit while staring through the scope of a standard sniper rifle of the Royal Equestrian military. I carefully scanned the field in front of me for anyone or anything I could put a bullet into. 'Can't let anything pass.' Pulling back the bolt on my rifle, I checked if it had a round chambered. One round in the chamber, another five in the mag.

Chambered in 8mm Mauser/7.92x57mm Mauser, it was a man stopper delivering of three thousand foot pounds of energy per round. Being a traditional bolt action rifle, it had a rather lethargic fire rate combined with only having a five round internal magazine but it made up with its sub MOA accuracy.

MOA is a unit of angular measurement equal to one sixtieth of one degree. To put it in simpler terms, it's how much of a grouping(spread) a firearm puts out. When a gun has an MOA of one, that means it will create a one inch grouping from one hundred yards, two inch grouping from two hundred yards, and so one. A standard assault rifle, in the US, has an MOA of somewhere between three to six while the average sniper rifle has an MOA of under three. Sub MOA is MOA when its less than one.

Back to the sniper rifle in question, it had an MOA of roughly zero point seven when I last tested it which was pretty good. When fitted with a standard eight to sixteen zoom scope, this rifle was incredibly effective at 900 yards.

I originally designed this rifle early on in the previous month when Logan's marksmen need a proper and more updated sniper rifle. When designing it, I had decided to go with a simply design so I created it with details with the Enfield SMLE's action and the Kar 98k's receiver. Another thing that I had to keep in mind while designing it was that it had to be fit for a pony, meaning it had to be shorter. After the rifle was initially created it was designated the SRT8 with SR meaning sniper rifle, T meaning Tran as I was the designer, and the 8 being the rifle's caliber.

Carefully, I squeezed the trigger, sending one round downrange. The round traveled four hundred eighteen yards before it hit a lump of grass that was situated right next to a birch tree. Upon the round hitting my intended target, the lump of grass stood up, revealing a pony in a similar ghillie suit rubbing the spot where I hit him.

Beside me, Logan pulled out a megaphone and yelled through it. "In what fucking universe, does grass clump up in the middle of nowhere next to a damn tree?!?" Logan yelled.

You see, I was currently helping Logan with his sniper unit learn about camouflage. Specifically, they were learning about hiding in the surroundings. Logan's soon-to-be snipers were making simple mistakes with their choices. Grass simply does not clump up in the middle of a clearing randomly. You have to tactically placed yourself that makes it seem like you belong.

Whenever I spotted one of them, I shot them with the same weapon that they would soon be using. The only difference was that my rifle was loaded and firing rubber bullets. It may hurt a lot but at least you leave with your body intact, with exception to the large bruise that will result of course.

Out of the two hundred and something snipers, I had already pegged ninety-seven of them. Not so hard with rookie mistakes though it is getting harder to find them now that the easy ones were out.

Oh look! There's another one of them! *Squee* I quickly worked the bolt of my rifle and took aim.

*BANG*

The Next Week

Bullets pinged off of the rock I was hiding behind. Large caliber bullets were sent with the intention to morbidly wound me. What really made things unfair for the enemy was that their weapons had an incredible rate of fire and they were happy showing that off.

In this situation, there was a high chance of something going wrong. Exactly what could possibly go wrong? According to Andy, a lot. According to me, nothing at all. Now the question is who should you trust? The man who knows everything or the man who knows everything about bad luck?

In my left hand was my Colt Python and in the other was the Sparda. Now there was a hitch in the plan, I wasn't wearing any of my jackets. In fact, I only had on my usual white collared shirt and black pants. This outfit isn't exactly bulletproof.

Normally, when this happens(being pinned by an enemy gunner), you have several choices to choose from to deal with the problem.

The most common of which is to flank the shooter. Flanking, in simple terms, is attacking on the sides instead of attacking head on. However, it is usually done with more than one person. As I was by myself, I did not have this option and the gunner(s) could simply trace my movement.

Another common solution is to distract the shooter. This could be done with a sniper providing support, a grenade thrown while behind cover, or a flying moose for all I could care but what really is important was whether or not the method worked. Whether or not it worked is whether or not the solution is there or not. This solution, I didn't like it as there was too much of a high risk to use this method. It could work or not. You could lose a man. This method isn't bad, I just don't like it.

And my favorite. Waiting for the gunner(s)/shooter(s)/enemy(s) to make a mistake. Reloading at the same time. Their gun jamming. In my case, it was probably one of the latter two when I heard very obvious mechanical clicks coming from the direction of the shooter.

I immediately jumped over the rock I took cover behind and ran towards the shooters, three stallions that were part of Nick's unit. Upon seeing me, one of them drew a pony 1911 pistol and shot me twice in the upper chest.

Even though I felt the bullets tear its way through my chest, I stood there looking at the guy who shot me. "Good job on switching to your secondary weapon but two of you still reloaded at the same time" I said to the three of them. "And you ruined my white shirt." I moved my hand across my shirt where the two bullets hit me. "However, you did hit me center mass with your pistol."

"Chief, my weapon jammed, chief!" the one with the pistol said.

"Then why didn't your third gunner take over?" I asked.

"Chief, I wasn't ready for that, chief!"

"You weren't ready for that? Then what will you do if that happens on the battlefield?!?" I gestured. "Anything can happen in war. You don't know if the enemy will outnumber you forty to one or if a flying moose will hit you in the face." I pointed at the stallion with the pistol and the one whose gun was empty. "You two can go. Your unprepared friend here is going to continue running this drill until he gets it down." As the three stallions walked away I picked up the jammed Gatling gun.

Yes, I just said Gatling gun. The only real thing you have to worry about is the crank on the side of the gun that has to be operated so that the gun can fire. Now the Gatling gun was already standard before I got here. For the average Equestrian gunner 1800 rounds a minute was a normal achievable rate of fire with how fast they could work the crank. Now here's the scary thing, from its six eighteen inch octagonal barrels it fired the massively powerful .45-70 round with relatively low recoil.

Compared to the 8mm Mauser/7.92x57mm Mauser round the standard sniper rifle fired, the .45-70 round has as much muzzle energy. The difference? Trajectory. While the 8mm/7.92 Mauser round has a more straightforward path of flight, the .45-70 round has, as I call it, a rainbow trajectory. After traveling for three hundred yards, the 8mm/7.92 Mauser will drop maybe a foot while the .45-70 round will start to drop six/seven.

Now this is a big problem as accuracy is thrown right into the trash at long ranges unless you really know what you're doing. Even I have difficulty hitting a 12 inch target from 400 yards with a proper .45-70 rifle. Really, the only person that ever existed that could accurately wield such a type of weapon is Billy Dixon, one of the only eight civilians ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor in all of US history.

However, the Gatling fixes this problem with fire rate. While the SRT8 was accurate and could be accurately fired from around 900 yards, the Gatling gun was designed to spew out as much lead as possible in a platform that can be carried by a normal pony. Who needs to be accurate when your gun fires hundreds of times faster than something that's accurate?

Now since it's a crank Gatling gun, it isn't belt fed. It is actually magazine fed. Now that's not a bad thing as belt fed guns have a tendency to jam as the exposed ammo belt can get dirty, which happens quite often. The standard Gatling guns fires from something called a Broadwell drum that is attached to the top of the gun's back mechanism housing. This was something that I actually made standard in the Equestrian military. The Broadwell drum was something that I actually had to travel back in time in the human world to retrieve and then redesigned to fix the problems(such as the mag falling off the gun when being fired at an elevated position or how much it weighed). Basically, it's a large metal drum with twenty columns that holds thirty rounds each. When one column empties, the drum has to be switched to another column which I fixed in the redesign by adding a multi-spring loaded system. The end result is a feed system that holds 600 rounds. Now that gives someone wielding one of these Gatling guns 20 seconds of continuous fire if needed. An alternate feed method were the original single stacked, 45 round stick magazines which did not last long in a continuous fire situation.

Now the biggest problem was that when a loaded Broadwell drum was attached to the gun, the entire thing weighed 100 pounds(60 of which is the loaded drum). I don't know about you but that is rather heavy for a gun the average medium machine gun weighs around thirty or so pounds.

However, the difference between my standards and their standards is that these are equines we are talking about. The average man in the US is around 5 foot 9 and weighs around 190 pounds. Currently, I'm 6 feet tall and weigh 125 pounds... I'm one skinny man.

In Equestria, the weight of the average pony is divided into groups due to the different pony types and for some reason, genders played no role in the differences in weight(besides extreme examples). While all ponies are around 3 and 3 1/2 feet tall, they all weighed differently. Pegasi, due to their flight capability, are unnaturally light so that they can take off. When I checked the Equestrian census, I found that most pegasi weighed somewhere between 90 to 120 pounds(don't you dare mention Bulk Biceps). A good example would be Rainbow Dash, albeit being very athletic, only weighed 104 pounds and reached 3 ft 4 in. The average unicorn weighed somewhere between 120 and 180 pounds as they had no physical need for a light or heavy weight. A good example for the average unicorn was Rarity who weighed in at around 143 pounds and reached 3 ft and 4 in without her horn of course.

My little pony indeed. They are very little.

Then there was the Earth ponies. The earth ponies were, due to physical labor, weighed anywhere above 200 pounds. The strange thing was that their weight was completely in random intervals. While some earth ponies weighed 200 pounds or so, there were some that reached nearly 600 pounds. My two favorite examples is Applejack and Big Mac. Applejack, who has been working on a farm all her life, weighed 268 pounds and reached 3 ft 7 in. Big Mac, same case as Applejack except more heavily built, weighed 384 pounds and reached 4 ft 1 in. This was what I was talking about when I said that there were random intervals. Applejack and Big Mac, who grew up in basically the exact same way, somehow are different in size and weight. What is this nonsense?!? Don't you dare tell me it's gender. Look at the episode with Appleloosa. Everyone is basically the same size, male or female. Oh God, imagine Bulk Biceps as an earth pony.

Now how does this take effect to the heavy gun situation? The stallions that Nick were training were enormous. They were all earth pony stallions who were heavily built up in muscle. Kinda like how Big Mac is. Now the average weight for a stallion in Nick's unit was around 350 pounds and reached 3 ft 9 in. Now that is a huge difference to the average man being 190 pounds and 5 ft 9 in. While the average Gatling gun weighed 100 pounds with 600 .45-70 rounds, the average gunner in the army carry an M249 with 1000 of 5.56 rounds of ammo which weighted 51 pounds. And here's another thing, equine have a higher muscle to weight ratio than humans.

Despite spewing out all of this sciency mumbo jumbo, all you need to know is that it is a very effective dealer of dakka.

Looking at the jammed Gatling gun I turned the crank and cycled the gun a few times. Nothing went bang. I hit the top of the Broadwell drum with my hand and started cranking again. A loud staccato of gunfire filled my ears as I spent the rest of the rounds. None of you here will ever be able to imagine how fun it was to fire this monster. I also found out what was the problem, the spring in the gun's magazine was a bit hung up. Probably needs to be broken in more.

Now since it's a .45 caliber weapon and that it was an machine gun(rapid fire weapon if you want to be technical) designed by a pony that was named Gatling, it was designated the MGG45.

Nick's voice came up on a megaphone. "Tran, start running!" I turned around to see six more gunners, all armed with gatling guns.

Following this, all six gunners started working the crank on there Gatling guns. Nick, my old friend, I can't wait for my revenge.

The air was then filled with the rapid fire of six Gatling guns.

The Next Week

Looking through the air with a pair of binoculars, I scanned the sky for any targets. Besides me were ten of Andy's scouts, all armed with standard carbines. Every scout being trained was a pegasi.

These carbines were pretty simple. They were bullpup which meant that the magazine and action was behind the trigger. This made the gun shorter and lighter which unfortunately made the gunshots louder and the muzzle flare brighter. Good trade off I suppose. These carbines were of my design and fired double over pressured .460 Rowland rounds. Despite the powerful round type, it had low recoil(of course, being only semiauto helps a little). Fed from a double stacked 35 round magazine, it was effective at short to mid ranges. Like the SRT8, I had designed this gun and it was meant to be small for close or short ranged combat. Maybe medium ranged combat. Following the same Equestrian designation system as earlier, it was called the CT460.

"Targets! Six O' Clock!" a soldier said.

All eleven of us turned to face the sky in the opposite direction. In the air were three pegasi, all of which were now desperately weaving left and right, clearly visible in the sky. Upon seeing them, all eleven of us open fired with our carbines. Like with Logan's Marksmen, I was firing rubber bullets and so were the other ten people with me. Now hitting a fast moving target is difficult. Hitting a flying, fast moving target is harder. Hitting a flying, fast moving target with a short barrel carbine is even harder. Hitting a flying, fast moving target with a short barrel carbine from a hundred yards is a bit in the impossible zone.

That didn't stop me from hitting all three of them. Sure it took me twenty something rounds but I still got them. As the three of them fell, I ejected the magazine and started the process of reloading.

I pulled out a megaphone. "You need to be more stealthy!" I yelled. "The point of scouting is to get more information on your enemy!"

-X-X-X-

I racked the charging handle on my gun and checked the iron sights. Again I scanned the air to find more of Andy's scouts. They were getting better at what they were doing and therefore, harder to find.

This time, I was wielding a submachine gun. Now there's always a great need for a submachine gun in any military force. It was a simple gun and was designed and built by Canterlot scientists ten years before my friends and I got here. Chambered in .38 super that delivered 450 foot pounds of energy per round, it fired at 950 rounds a minute which was pretty high compared to the few other full auto guns found in Equestria. What I really liked was the box magazine. It reminded me of the FN P90's loading system except the rounds went in towards the front instead of the back. Giving the shooter 45 rounds of ammunition, it was a dakka gun.

Another fun thing. When I first handled this, I had a longing desire to do something that most people would call 'mag dump.'

Even though it was the first and only current submachine gun in Equestria, it was designed the SMGCP38. Quite a mouthful.

*Ruffle*

I instantly turned towards where the noise came from and fire six shots. No screams of pain. What to check? Whatever is out of place or anything that could have been the source of the noise. Trees? Nothing out of place. Animals? No, the gunfire from other training exercises scared all of them off. Wait, there was a rock. They tried to distract me with a rock.

They were getting smarter. If I remember correctly, their goal was to first get the color of my tie(black), the color of my gun's grip(it was painted red), and where I was. Then, if possible, to return back, report said information, return to me, and then attempt to shoot me in the back. An even harder challenge was to sneak up on me and tap me on the head.

By now, I was sure that they already had the primary goals down as some had already potshots at me, missing only by inches. Now to be truthful, it is difficult to shoot from the air as you were constantly in motion meaning your sight picture was constantly changing. Scouts, not mean to be in direct front line combat.

I heard rustling behind me again. Instead of shooting, I drew a throwing knife(a safe, training one) and threw it backwards at the source without looking. In front of me, from the bushes, a scout came into view. Smiling, I shot him thrice in the chest and once in the head. I heard more rustling and this time, I fired eight times at the source, scoring some hits as I heard screams of pain. Gotta love rubber bullets though you need to be careful where you shoot somebody.

Rubber bullets, albeit meant to be non-lethal, can cause serious damage in the right place.

I spotted one in the sky and he was close too! I fired four rounds at him before scanning the ground. *Crack* Ah, tiny little sticks, you served me well. Turning, I mag dumped the rest of the magazine in the pony's chest. All I could think was 'that should hurt in the morning.'

Oh how I love hurting people when they deserve it or volunteer!

The Next Week

I stomped on my shirt in hopes of putting out the fire. You know, I have lost a lot of perfectly good white shirts in the past few weeks. All of these training exercises are killing my wardrobe. Might have to go to Rarity.

And Flamethrowers. It had to be flamethrowers. Now flamethrowers are evil weapons of war and I love the concept and use of them but I absolutely hate it when it's used on me. You see, there are many myths to flamethrowers that are magically thought to be true.

One of the most common myths is that you die from the fire when in reality, you die from asphyxiation or having your body deprived of oxygen. When your completely covered in fire, there is no surrounding oxygen in the air as fire needs oxygen to burn and therefore sucks out all of the surrounding oxygen. Bad way to die indeed. During WWII, flamethrowers were at their best when used to clear bunkers, trenches, or any other small enclosed spaces as it sucked the oxygen out of whatever it was fired into. To make matters worse, if you did survive, you would be left with horrible burns that would cripple and affect your actions and movements.

Ever since I became a demon, I had a natural resistance to fire but not lack of oxygen. I still needed air. That could still temporarily knock me out.

Now another myth about flamethrowers is that they have basically have no range. Most video games depict flamethrowers as being able to effectively throw flames out to ten or so meters. In reality a flamethrower can spew out burning hot death at five times the distance, fifty meters.

*Hiss* Turning around, I faced an earth pony armed with a flamethrower. God damn it. I wasn't armed so I couldn't shoot him so I did the next best thing, jump behind cover. It turned out there was a second pony with a flamethrower exactly where I hid behind.

Luckily, this one was close. Before he could light me up, I picked him up and threw him at the other flamethrower pony. The one I threw collided with the one on the ground which evidently knocked him to the ground and gave me enough time to get away.

Alex, the next time you suggest hide and seek with flamethrowers, I'm force feeding you liquid nitrogen.

-The Next Week

Okay, this training exercise was simple. In the previous Equestria(the low technology one), Ike was in charge of creating a direct assault unit. In this Equestria, he was in charge of improving the mobile armor unit. What does this mean in normal terms? Tanks. Lots and lots of tanks.

"Fire!" I yelled.

*BOOM* The entire cabin of the tank shook as a large shell was sent downrange. Following that, the sound of a spent shell falling to the ground was heard.

There I was, sitting inside a standard tank of Equestria acting as the commander. Looking downrange with the tank periscope, I found where the shell had hit, the ground several feet to the left of the target, an old car.

"Needs a two degree backwards adjustment! Load shell!" I yelled into the cabin. "Fire!"

*BOOM* This time, the target was hit, evident by the explosion that came from the car. "Good hit!" I yelled out. Being inside a tank is fun. Commanding a tank is even funner

Don't you dare say funner isn't a word.

I scanned the field for another target. Oh look. A dummy target tank. "Next target! Sixty-seven degrees! One thousand and eighty yards! Standard shell! Load and fire!"

*BOOM*

"Target hit!" I announced. Gotta love tanks.

Now in the previous Equestria, we were all in charge of two hundred ponies each and we still were in charge of two or three hundred ponies except for Ike and I. In this more modern Equestria, Ike was in charge of seven hundred eighteen ponies. Why was Ike in charge of so many ponies? Because seven ponies were to run a single tank. All seven hundred and eighteen ponies were all that made up of Equestria's armored division.

This raises a problem that I have not addressed yet, Equestria's military. Overall, Equestria was an enormous nation but that doesn't mean there are a lot of ponies. In the latest census, Equestria's population was around twenty-seven million mark and out of that, only 1.1% of the population was serving in the military. This may seem like a small number but then again, you guys are looking at it from a human stand point. Ponies are by no means violent creatures while us humans have signs showing that we were meant to be predators(eyes pointed forward, ears on the side of the head, sharp teeth for eating meat, etc.).

Also, if you want numbers to prove it, as of 2014, the US military, 2nd largest in the world(first place goes to China), has .4% of the total US population(around 320 million) serving in the military. That doesn't seem like much but that means there are roughly 1.4 million active military personnel (though the peak of military makeup was during WWII in 1945 when the US military made up 12 percent of the population but then again, it was a world war that involved everyone worldwide).

Now the Equestrian military(Royal Guard) only had a total makeup of 297000 active military personnel. From that 297000, they were divided up into five branches, the Frontline Army, Royal Air Service, the Ceremonial Guard, Royal Security, and the Royal Navy. Now these five branches were a bit finicky.

The Ceremonial Guard was a military branch that was supposed to make Equestria look good and nothing else. If they were sent into combat, they'd be nothing more than cannon fodder. Royal Security was a military branch charged to protect the princesses and important assets of Equestria. These two branches were almost useless for this war and unfortunately, more than half of Equestria's made up these two branches. Most of which were the white coated, blond guards in ceremonial armor that we see all of the time.

Now the remaining three branches were actually fit for war. The size? 132000 active personnel. While the Royal Air Service was in charge of providing air support or auxiliary support(delivering supplies, important documents, etc.), sometimes away from combat, it wasn't meant to actually fight a war. The Royal Navy was a better case as it was identical in its working to the US Navy which unfortunately meant that we couldn't use them for ground combat which was this war's case. They would most likely not see much at all as griffons travel by air. There is one major role that they play, the Royal Navy protects trade ships from pirates and enemy griffon ships so that the war can be supplied.

So this brings us to the Frontline Army. The Frontline Army is the branch that is going to be doing most of the fighting. The size, 41000 ready personnel. Between the seven of us, we were in charge of 5% of Equestria's ready-to-deploy soldiers. Between the griffons and their ally, the hippogriffs, we were outnumbered us six to one in terms of ready-to-deploy soldiers. This was the problem I was talking about. We were outnumbered

We could still win with a better trained and equipped military though. The 5% we're training will be a force to reckon with and the other 95% will be just as good. Due to the war and small military size, Equestria had been funding upgrades to the military. Everyone would have top of the line army, gear, weapons, and materials.

Now how is this related to Ike's tank unit? Several hundreds of millions of bits were spent towards upgrading the mobile division. Roughly 75% of Ike's unit will be in charge of operating super heavy class tanks.

Now when it comes to tanks, it goes light class, medium class, then heavy class, and finally super heavy class. Now how does the weight classes of a tank differ? Well, as a tank gets heavier, it carries more armor, weapons, and fuel. Most of WWII was fought with medium tanks and when a heavy tank was seen, fear was brought into the beings of everyone on the enemy side. In the modern day(2014), heavy tanks make up 80-90% of the total tanks found in the world.

Even though Equestria's military only possessed maybe 200 armored vehicles at the moment, 70 of them were super heavy class tanks. The rest were tank destroyers, APC, AA platforms, and weapons carriers. Eeyup, Ike's unit is just one big case of overkill. To make matters better for us, spies have notified us that the armored division of the griffon military is made up mostly of medium tanks though to be fair, their armored division outnumbers ours 10 to 1. Then again, it's a super heavy tank. Good luck out punching through the armor of one. Even from the weakest section, that would be difficult.

Now if we go back to what I was doing, I was acting as the tank commander of a 105 ton super class tank that was outfitted with upgraded armor. At first, when I saw this monstrosity, I though it was an enlarged version of the German Tiger II tank of WWII. When I got closer, I could see the differences it's size or its armor. It appeared to be cruder. My favorite, most noticeable difference? The main gun that it was packing. "Load! FIRE!!!" I yelled again.

*BOOM* The recoil of the tank's main gun shook the tank's cabin, giving all seven of the crew members(eight if you count me) a good jolt. Now here's a thought. The recoil of the tank's gun shook the whole tank. The very heavy 105 ton super heavy class tank. Do yah get I'm sayin?

This tank, not only was it heavily armored, it was heavily armed. The main gun of the tank was a 155mm gun that could easily pierce through 950mm of reinforce armor on any day. Easily effective at 1.5 miles, it could send a variety of shells with goodish accuracy. Who needs precision accuracy when the shell can take out a bunker?

Besides the 155mm gun, there were four Gatling guns that fired from the inside of the tank that was meant for antipersonnel means. On the outside, mounted on the turret via a coaxle rig, was a single Equestrian heavy machine gun and another Gatling gun. The mounted heavy machine gun was an interesting case. At 350 rounds a minute, it fired a .505 caliber rifle round. It was a rather powerful round with the six thousand foot pounds of energy it delivered but then again, it's a heavy machine gun. In comparison to a regular .50 BMG round, it had only 45% of the muzzle energy but that's still a lot of firepower.

Now the main armor of this tank was a reinforced armored steel chassis that provided 750mm of armor again standard tank rounds where the thinnest armored area of the tank provided at least 250mm of the armor. The one and only addition I made to the tank was the upgraded chassis. I called it the Mark I Thundercloud. With help from scientists from Canterlot and Cloudsdale What it did was that it electrified the lower portion of the tank's armor. It was constantly active but it could be switched off only from the inside of the tank.

The tank was also well designed. For it's weight, it had a pretty good power to weight ratio which was coupled with a large gas tank giving the tank a rather far combat radius of slightly over 250 miles. The inside of the tank was designed so that if there was an explosion from the inside(or from the outside if that was humanly possible), very few ponies would be injured from the shrapnel. Now to enter the tank, there was the standard entryway by going in through the top of the tank(the turret) or by the emergency exit that was on the bottom of the tank.

The enormous size of the tank was also a plus. Other than its weapons, it could carry a maximum of 13 large sized ponies(7 of which was taken up by the crew). The amount of space inside the tank also provided for another thing, emergency weapons for the crew. Dependent on choice, there could be CT460 carbines, 1911 pistols fitted with hoof grips, or a SMGCP38.

If the tank didn't kill you, the crew would.

The name of this super heavy tank? The Manticore Mark I. Such a fitting name.

There was a downside to this tank. It had a top speed of 20 miles an hour... Going downhill. In a real world situation where it would have to move through a battlefield or uphill, it would move around 12 miles an hour at top speed.

"Target sighted! Load high explosive round!" This one will definitely be heard. "Fire!" I yelled.

*BOOM*

-X-X-X-

"Medic!" I screamed as loudly as I could. There I laid, broken and battered from bad choices. Bullets riddled my chest. Burn wounds were covering my limbs. Shrapnel peppered my body. Stab wounds were on me somewhere. Pretty sure my left foreleg was out of its socket. Foreleg? Oh yeah, I was in my normal sized pony form. You know, the one where I'm an alicorn but I'm just as tall as any other pony.

Why was I in this form instead of my human form? Like in the previous form of Equestria, Austin was in charge of medics. The only difference was that Austin was now in charge of around four hundred ponies. Why were these medics different than regular medics in Equestria's military? Apparently, in Equestria, medics weren't deployed while combat was taking place. It wasn't a bad thing because back in the human world, there was a problem with medics being killed. It happened a lot during both world wars.

Now Austin's medics would be directly deployed with troops and had to be combat trained. However, instead of more advanced forms of training, they'd be lightly trained to use a standard CT460 carbine.

Another important thing? Good medical skills.

Here's an important lesson kiddos. Marines can kill you 8 different ways with a rifle and 10 different ways with their bare hands. Navy Seals can kill you 19 different ways with a knife, 21 different ways with string, and 30 different ways with 20 ounces of water. Who wins this fight? Neither. Medics win. Medics can kill you in over 10 million different ways with medical malpractice.

As a medic ran over to to my aid, I could only groan in annoyance. For the past few months, I had been assisting my friends in training their specific units. Whenever I gained an injury or injuries(like right now), I would then waltz right over to Austin's medic training area(after turning into a pony) and then they'd use me as a test subject(I had to disable some of my powers beforehand of course) for their medical skills. It was a good idea using me as a medical cadaver as the injuries I gained would be commonly found on the battlefield. Now the only problem was, unlike a medical cadaver, I was still alive.

Half of the time, they knew what they were doing and were able to temporarily mend my wounds like they were supposed to. The other half of the time, they were complete fools that would mostly cause more harm than good due to nervousness from the fact that I was still alive was rumored to be one of the most dangerous beings in existence.

"You have to stem the bleeding on the wounds first you idiot! The guy might bleed out while you're working on him" I said to the unicorn working on me. "That means drop the damn forceps!" He was already trying to fish out bullet fragments from various entry wounds with a pair of forceps held in his magic.

"Y-Y-Yes chief" the medic said. He put down the forceps and started working to slow the bleeding on my injuries. That was another thing. As I was still alive, everything about me was identical to working on a real soldier. I even used a little magic to turn my blood back to a normal red color.

"Don't be nervous. If you are, don't show it. Nervousness causes mistakes" I said.

"Yes Chief" he said this time without stuttering.

"Okay, do you know what to do first?" I asked him. He nodded his head in reply. "Now work carefully. You don't want the man to die."

I continued to walk him through the procedures but only when he needed it. Otherwise, he did fine. Forgot a few things here and there but if I was a normal injured pony, I would have lived.

As the medic finished, I reactivated my powers and I felt my wounds quickly leaving no trace of them. "They're getting better" I heard Austin say.

I turned to face him. "And so is everyone else's aim" I said. "Welp, I gotta go pick up the kids."

"Alright, bye" Austin said while walking away. "And for the love of God, don't give them access to guns."

In a flash of light, I was back in my human form. In another flash, my blood stained, tattered, needed-to-be-replaced outfits was gone and instead, I was wearing my robes, fleece, white polo(a new one), and standard dress pants. A few weeks back, I decided to stop wearing my camouflaged BDU as it was heavily faded from its decades of being worn. Currently, it was retired in an air sealed, temperature controlled room in my backpack.

Always respect a veteran folks. A lot of my family members lived through Vietnam and they could still remember it(like it was yesterday as they describe) decades after it had passed.

With my outfits were my usual open and conceal carry weapons. Yin and Yang were holstered on it's usual dual rig holster worn around my waist(thankfully they were loaded with my custom hand-loaded .460 Rowland ammo instead of .45 ACP frangibles) hidden away by my robes while my Colt Python and Webley MK VI were on a dual shoulder rig holster, both of which were also concealed by my robes. On my back attached to my flannel jacket and hidden by my robes was the Sparda.

You know, normal people would not wear this amount of clothing in the Spring or carry four firearms, plenty of ammunition for said firearms, and a sword. Then again, I'm a part-demon Asian from a different universe walking among small, talking ponies who value friendship like it's gold. Any sense of normalcy was thrown out the window long ago.

As I started my not-so-long journey, I thought about how much Equestria had changed from when I had entered this universe for the first time. Not only had Equestria shift from a post medieval time period placement to an early post industrial time period placement. That's a pretty major shift.

Eh. At least Equestria wasn't like early post industrial America. That would have ended horribly. Sorry to tell you this but the USA is filled with corruption and stupidity, even in the modern 21st century day. Want a good example? Gun control. Look at the amount of crime in the US cities with the most gun control(Detroit, Los Angelos, New York City, Manhattan, etc). Compare that to the cities with the least gun control. If any of you think that Britain is a prime example of how gun control works. No. Average amount of violent crimes in the United States per 100K citizens is currently 466. Average amount of violent crimes in the United Kingdom per 100K citizens is currently somewhere 2K. Yeah, gun control really works.

Need an example that isn't related to firearms? The affordable care act. Let's take money from those who can afford healthcare so that we can help people who can't afford healthcare. Sounds a bit like communism. I'm all for welfare and all but the affordable care act does this in a more extreme case that basically brings the US closer to communism. It's like logic exists everywhere except in Washington DC.

Eh. Long walk to the schools.

-X-X-X-

You know in the previous Equestria, I had an advantage over everyone when it came to academics or intelligence as I had a more advanced education in the US and because that more information was available. Albeit still being somewhat obsolete, this Equestria was much better than the previous Equestria. Technology, politics, and society was changed. Duh. More importantly, the educative system of Equestria was much more pronounced. Albeit being stuck in what appeared to be a bad 50s movie, it was better. Education means a lot to me. It's sort of a stereotype to being Asian but I take pride in it.

Both Dinky and Meadow were in grade school(I'd say around the second or third grade from what they're learning. I can't really specifically tell with Equestria). Where were they learning at? Public school.

It wasn't long til I actually made it to the school. Outside, like I was, there were other ponies who were waiting for school to end and to pick up their respective family members. Only a few more minutes before hundreds of small fillies and colts flood out of the school. Still disguised as a normal sized pony(my horn may have been showing but my wings were hidden under my robe), I looked at the other parents. As due to Equestria's strange male to female population ratio, most were mares. The stallions that were here looked to be rather bored of the current situation(can't blame them, waiting is boring). Some cars were present with their engines running with the parent(s) waiting patiently inside.

*DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG*

With the bell, torrents of the tiny ponies flooded out from the school's doors. The parents that once showed bored expression traded them for new ones of relief as their children came to them. One thing bothered me. Where's Dinky and Meadow? It's been a few minutes since the bell rang and I still haven't seen them.

Making my way through the hundreds of fillies and colts, I searched for the two of them.

That's when my pony ears picked something up. "Give it back!" I heard. Walking towards the source, I encounter Dinky. In front of her was another unicorn filly who was currently levitating a book in the air. Sneaking up behind the little brat, I snatched the book out of the air with my own magic before levitating it back to Dinky's grasp.

"Hey!" the brat said.

"Thank you Tran" Dinky said.

"It's not yours" I said to the brat. I walked over to Dinky and placed one of front legs around her, before lifting her to my back. "You shouldn't take things that aren't yours."

As I walked away a red coated unicorn mare walked up to me. "What were you doing with my child?" she asked.

I pointed at the small red filly that was pestering Dinky. "Your brat was bullying my child" I replied.

"You can't call my Fruity a brat! She'd never do something like that" she said back.

"Yes she did" Dinky said on my back.

"No, it's my book!" Fruity said.

"Then return my daughter's book!" the mare demanded.

I walked up to the small filly and lowered my head to face her at eye level. "If it's your book, what's the name of the book and what's on the cover?" The filly only stammered as it was obvious that she was lying from the start. "Exactly. Not only is your daughter a bully, she's a liar." I turned to face the mother. "You need to raise your child better."

"And? It's my child" she said.

Unfurling my wings I took air and hovered, leaving both the filly and the mother in awe as I revealed that I was an alicorn. "She's still a brat" I said. Once I started to leave, I turned to face Dinky. "Where's Meadow?"

"She went to the playground" Dinky replied.

"Why?"

"She likes the swing."

Flying over to where the playground was, I found Meadow happily swinging on the swing.

"Tran, catch me!" Meadow yelled out.

What? Out of the random, Meadow jumped out of the swing, flying towards me.

*SMACK*

The next thing I know, my head is buried in the playground sand with Meadow sitting on my head and Dinky on my back. "Big Brother, are you okay?" Meadow asked.

"Mmph mmmph mph-mph mmph mmmmph!" I replied with my head still l buried in the ground.

"Okay."

-X-X-X-

"Okay, time to pick up my students" I said to Meadow and Dinky who were both sitting on my back.

"Students?" Dinky asked.

"I teach some small fillies how to defend themselves. Not as small as you two but still small" I told them. "And there's their school." I pointed forward to the CMC's school.

In this Equestria, they were in a separate school. In a more human perspective, this school taught what was the pony equivalent of grades six to 9. In the next year, all five of the crusaders(remember, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are now crusaders) would have to attend would have to attend the Equestria version of high school which strangely lasted for five years.

As I waited with Dinky and Meadow on my back, I realized that I never finished my education. In my home universe, the zombie apocalypse cut it off when I was halfway through my sophomore year. True I had read literally thousands of books through the entire apocalypse, traveled through universes learning all sorts of nonsense, and absorbed some of the databanks banks of the TARDIS but I feel rather unfinished. Eh. Can't really change that.

Like earlier today with Dinky and Meadow's school, a bell rang signifying that school had ended. Again, fillies and colts filed out of the school. Not much later, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo appeared but instead of calmly walking out of the school, they were sprinting through the crowd, pushing past other ponies.

"Tran, we need your help!" Scootaloo yelled out.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"It's Diamond Tiara" Sweetie Belle replied. "Somepony's trying to take her tiara."

-X-X-X-

Once we found where the situation was, behind one of the school buildings, I found six fillies facing Silver Spoon, Apple Bloom, and Diamond Tiara. The latter of which was indeed missing her crown which was being held by one of the fillies. Funny, simple case of bullying. Rich girl not being like by other people. Yes, those cases exist. Simply bully tactic of outnumbering the victim and her friends if there are any.

"Who are you?" one of the fillies asked.

"Nobody important" I replied. "I'm only here to get that tiara back." I said pointing to the filly that had it.

"You mean this one?" The filly that had the tiara held it up to emphasize the fact that she had it.

"You mean the one that I already took from your hands?" I asked. I held up my left hoof and held in my grasp was indeed the tiara. Walking(trotting) over to Diamond Tiara, I placed it back on her head. "Let's go girls." I pointed at the six fillies. "Leave now or I will tell your parents and the school's dean." They turned tail and ran.

"Thank you Tran" Diamond Tiara said.

"It's no problem" I said back. "I'm glad the five of you didn't choose to attack them." I started smiling again. "Now who's ready for the Foal and Filly Fair?"

"I want to go eat some junk food!"

"I want to play the games!"

"I want to try the arcade!"

"I want to see the puppet show!"

"I want to see the the circus ponies!"

"I want to see Daring Do!"

"I want to try out the rides!"

"Junk food!"

"Games!"

"Arcade!"

"Puppet Show!"

"Circus!"

"Daring Do!"

"Rides!"

The only question is what to go to first. Let's settle that before we have a giant argument. "Calm down" I said. "I'll think up of a number between one and a million. The first one to get it or get the closest will decided."

"1911" all of them said simultaneously.

I only stared in silence. "..."

"You're that see through" Dinky said.

"Okay, I have another number in my head" I said.

"17?" Dinky guessed.

"109?" Scootaloo guessed.

"10593?" Silver Spoon guessed.

"982911?" Apple Bloom guessed.

"Trapezoid" Sweetie Belle guessed.

"That isn't a number!" Apple Bloom said.

"But it is correct" I said chuckling. The glare coming from them, minus Sweetie Belle, was enough to destroy a standard super heavy class Manticore tank.

-X-X-X-

There we were, at the arcade, trying out the various video games that were out for the fillies and colts. For all seven of the fillies, I had given them a budget of 100 bits... Each. You know, now that I think about it. That's a lot. If I am correct, 100 bits is the same as fourteen grand in the US. Eh. Equestria is strange. Magic! Logic! Sandwich! Flowerpots!

If they run out of money, I'm going to shoot myself in the foot/hoof. Then again, they have fourteen grand each. Then again, we are dealing with three fillies who have a knack for chaos that rivals Discord, two fillies that have lavish lifestyles, one filly that used to be a little sister, and one normal filly. What could possibly go wrong?

Spitting out my current piece of gum for a new piece, I realized the implications of what I had just said. Murphy's law. Gotta love it. Andy believes that by saying that phrase something will immediately go wrong or something bad will happen. I believe that it's just a phrase and nothing will happen. Actually, whenever I say a phrase that supposedly tempts Murphy's law, something good usually happens.

As if I was being mocked, something hit me in the face. I was ready to tear it off of my face and shoot it when I realized how pink and fluffy it was. Calmly removing Fluffle Puff from my face, I got up from the bench to set her down on the ground in front of me. Once she was on level ground, Fluffle Puff blew a raspberry as I sat back down.

"Hello Fluffle" I said to her. She blew a raspberry in response. "Gum?" She happily gasped in response. Pulling out two pieces of gum, one for me and one for her, I popped a piece in my mouth and held the other in front of her mouth which she happily took. "So, how'd you get here?"

Instead of responding, she just looked up. I looked up to and saw Derpy flying away. She must have been working. She did have her uniform and two mail bags on. "Sorry Tran!" she yelled out while flying away.

"It's okay!" I yelled back to her.

"By the way, she has your mail!" Derpy said

"My mail?" I said to myself. I looked to Fluffle Puff and found that she was now holding a small bundle of letters in her mouth. Taking the bundle out of her mouth, I checked the letters. Most were junk mail while others were magazines I had subscribed to.

Sighing, I just placed the bundle of mail on top of Fluffle's back where it sank down and disappeared. I swear. Her fur contains a black hole or something. Jumping up, she landed on my lap. Eh. She's cute and adorable so I started petting her.

That was when Sweetie Belle walked up to us. "Hi Tran, I was wondering if you could take us to Twilight's" Sweetie Belle said.

Pulling out my Webley revolver, I pointed it at her face. "Nice try. Drop the disguise or I'll put a bullet through your head."

"But Tran-" I pulled back the hammer with my free hoof. "Fine." A green flame enveloped her body and she grew until she was as big Celestia. When the flame disappeared, it revealed Chrysalis.

"What do you want?" I asked her. My Webley was still trained on her face.

"My species is starving" Chrysalis said.

"And? I distinctly remember a small wa-, no pest control, that was waged between the changelings and the ponies" I said.

"What were we supposed to do? We needed food. Ever since the wedding invasion of Canterlot, changelings have been rejected everywhere" Chrysalis said.

"I can think of half a dozen different things you could have done. You could have asked for aid. Maybe integrate changelings into society bit by bit. Maybe disguise changelings as people that join the general population. Invading is probably the worse thing you could have done." I manually decocked the hammer and reholstered it back it's shoulder holster. "But you have people starving none the less." I clicked my tongue as I realized something. "How does changeling society work? Like ants?"

Chrysalis smiled. "Contrary to belief, no. We do not behave like bees or ants with a single queen as the head. We do however live in hives. Not giant bee hives but magically hidden hives built into caves" Chrysalis explained. "It's almost identical to how ponies work except we have an insect body and that we live in the ground."

"Why are there multiple kings and queens?" I asked.

"Kings and queens are just titles for elected individuals that are in charge or certain areas of the hive" Chrysalis replied. How big is this hive?!?

"Are there families?" I asked.

"Yes."

"An economy?"

"Yes."

"And is the military made up of volunteered individuals?"

"Yes."

"Is gold of any high value?"

"Yes." That's all I needed to know for now.

"Okay, here's how this is going to work." I pulled a business card from Fluffle Puffs fur and held it out. "Bring another king and queen to this location next week."

The business card was enveloped in a green glow before it was floated into the changeling's mane. "Thank you" Chrysalis said. Chrysalis started flapping her wings to fly off when Fluffle Puff jumped off my lap and onto Chrysalis's back. Once safely on, Fluffle Puff gasped happily.

"She likes you" I said smiling.

Instead of making a retort, her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. "She's a paragon of love energy! I have never, in my life, been this full!"

"Eeyup." I actually already knew that. Love is easily detected when you are a part demon that runs on dark energy/magic. "Why don't you stay for a bit. Ole Fluffle Puff likes you."

"Fluffle Puff huh?" Chrysalis said. "Wait, won't everyone be wary of me?"

"Use a disguise you fool!" I almost yelled in her face. "You're a changeling!"

She sheepishly smiled. "Riiiiiiiiiiight." The same green fire enveloped her and gained the appearance of a red maned, brown coated mare. Her cutiemark was a heart that had an arrow through it. "By the way, how did you know I was in disguise earlier? I'm one of the best infiltrators in the hive."

"You will soon learn that I know everything" I said. "Also, Sweetie Belle's coat is a lighter shade of white, her horn was shorter than what you had, and her eyes are bigger than how you made them out."

"Did I really mess up that much?" Chrysalis asked.

"Yes" I replied. "That and I can see her right over there." I pointed out behind Chrysalis. Off in the distance was Sweetie Belle playing on a little arcade machine with a small brown colt.

I patted the empty bench space beside me. "Why don't you sit with me?" I asked Chrysalis.

"Yes" Chrysalis replied smiling. She jumped onto the bench beside me, assuming a lying down pony position. Right, the way I'm sitting(just standard upright sitting position) is strange to everypony else. Except for Lyra. She likes sitting this way.

And so we sat there waiting. At the start, I had told the fillies that they could only spend forty minutes here before we had to move on. What surprised me was that they all returned fourteen minutes early.

"One question, why are all of you here early?" I asked the seven of them.

"We ran out of money" Scootaloo replied.

"How much money did you give them?" Chrysalis asked.

"100 bits. Each" I replied.

"They managed to use up 700 bits in less than half an hour?!?" Chrysalis nearly screamed.

"Yes." That was when I noticed that the brown colt Sweetie Belle was playing with earlier was now standing next to her in front of me. Atop his dual toned brown hair was a red and white propeller beanie that spun infinitely. "Who's that?" I asked while pointing at the colt with my left hoof.

"Tran, this is Button Mash. Button Mash, Tran" Sweetie Belle replied. There was obvious nervousness in this conversation.

"H-H-Hello" Button Mash said. He was scared of me. That's why.

I returned the gesture. "Hello Button Mash." I realized what his name was and smiled. "I'm going to guess that you like video games. Any favorites?"

Button Mash's face lit up. "Oh there's this computer game called Minecraft-" Oh my god it exists here. "and it's so awesome! And there's this new game called Super Humgonian Adventure about adventures and villages and saving ponies! Then there's this awesome army game called Call of Duty!" Oh my that exists too. "You get to blow stuff up and shoot guns!"

Call of Duty. Call of Duty. It is the bane of my existence. I do, however, enjoy playing the game. Why is it that it's the bane of my existence? Well, Call of Duty gives its millions of fans a strange perception of reality that somehow, shooting a gun is very simple and relatively easy. Many times in life have I bested Call of Duty fans at gun ranges with a pistol, shotgun, and or rifle.

"You know Button Mash, I used to enjoy video games but I realized something" I said to him.

"What?" Button Mash asked.

"It's funner to do it in real life" I said. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen?" Button Mash replied.

I pulled out Yin and Yang and held it out to him after I unloaded them of course. "These are my two favorite guns. I call them Yin and Yang."

"Cool! Can I shoot them?" Button Mash asked.

"Once we get permission from your mom or dad and at a proper shooting range" I replied. "Where is your mother and or father today?"

"Well my dad's on a business trip and mom's working" Button Mash replied.

"Where does your mother work?" I asked.

"Some store called the War and Peace" Button Mash replied.

I froze. It can't be. No possibly way. "Is her name Calamity Jane?" I asked.

"That's right. How'd you know!" Button Mash said.

"Let's go have a talk with her then" I said. I stood up from my spot on the bench and jumped onto the ground. "Can all of you cover your ears?" Puzzled, all of them sat down on their haunches and covered their ears with their now free front legs.

Now that they their ears were covered, I pulled out my Webley revolver and shot myself in the left back leg.

-X-X-X-

I limped through the busy doors of the War and Peace. Business was going well. Today, there was a celebration for all of the fillies and colts of Ponyville giving the parents a lot of free time. Logan was busy showing a pony a 1911 pistol with a hoof grip.

1911 is king. Think about it. It was originally designed in the year 1911 and was continuously used by almost everybody for the next century without any major change. Can you think of any other firearm that shares the same trait?

Eh it might be the fact that I'm a fanboy of the 1911. I'll tell you now, it's not the best pistol in the world. I simply prefer it over other pistols. The 1911 is a good gun but there are other pistols that can do it's job the exact same way and maybe even better. There is no such thing as the perfect gun. Believe me. This is coming from the know-it-all Asian gun nut. You can't really argue with me about that and expect to win.

After Logan was finished dealing with that customer, I spoke with him to ask what I needed to ask and to retrieve adequate hearing and eye protection.

Then I walked(limped) back outside where Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Button Mash, Scootaloo, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, Chrysalis, Fluffle Puff, Dinky, and Meadow were waiting for me.

"What's the box for?" Button Mash asked.

"Hearing protection and safety glasses" I replied.

"Why do we need those?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Ah, this talk. I have given this lesson to a lot of people back in my home universe and to a lot of ponies here. I smiled as I got ready to give this lesson again. "Well, whenever you are shooting, you need to wear two things. Those two things are safety glasses and ear plugs. The safety glasses are meant to protect your eyes from anything that might get or hit them. Unburnt gunpowder, a shell casing being ejected, or the gun kicking into your face."

"As you can see, I wear glasses so I don't need to wear a pair of safety glasses. You nine don't wear glasses so you will need safety glasses." I handed each of them a pair of safety glasses(minus Silver Spoon as she wore glasses).

I dug through the box and handed each of them a pair of ear plugs via magic, except for Fluffle Puff which I directly placed in her ears. "Next are ear plugs. You need to wear them no matter what. You generally won't see me with earplugs because my hearing isn't as strong as yours. If you don't wear the protection, you will suffer permanent hearing damage."

Once they had adorned their protection, I placed the box on the ground. "Now we just need to find your mom, Button." Wait a minute, Logan said that Calamity Jane was supervising customers who wanted to shoot their guns? Why couldn't I hear any?

Just as that thought crossed my mind, a loud, rapid staccato of booms filled the air. Logan told me that Calamity was watching customers but I only heard one shooter. Another thing to worry about was that there was only one shooter. With that rate of fire, I'd say he/she was buying a gatling gun. Yes I sold those at my store? What could possibly go wrong with selling military grade weapons to civilians? Nothing at all. In the US, class III title weapons have been used in exactly 1 homicides since 1930 and it was by a cop.

The eleven of us followed the gunshots and eventually found Calamity Jane. The gun that they were shooting was indeed a gatling and it was currently equipped with a Broadwell magazine. Who was behind the gun? Fleur De Lis. Beside her was his husband, Fancy Pants.

Fancy Pants tapped his wife on the shoulder a few times and she stopped firing. “Yes dear?” Fleur De Lis said in her strange Euro accent.

“We have guests” Fancy Pants said while gesturing at me.

“Sorry dear” Fleur said.

“There’s no harm, Fleur” Fancy Pants said. “Why hello Tran” greeted Fancy Pants.

“Hello Fancy. I’m guessing you’re here to buy that?” I said pointing at the Gatling gun that Fleur was manning. “You know its thirty-five hundred bits, right?” Or about fifty thousand dollars in the US.

“Mere pocket change” Fancy Pants replied.

“Besides, it’s worth every bit” Fleur said.

“So Tran, what brings yah here?” Calamity Jane asked.

“I know the accents fake, Jane” I said to her.

“Celestia bucking damn it!” she yelled out. “So what are you here for, Tran?”

“Well, as you know today’s the Foal and Filly Fair so I took several fillies that I care for out to have fun” I explained to her.

“So what are you here for?” she asked.

“Duh! The gun range!” I replied. “That also raises another issue.”

“Oh that’s nice but what’s the issue? Don’t keep me waiting” Calamity said.

“The issue is that one of the fillies I’m looking after met a colt that she likes and now he’s with us. I have to ask for permission from one of his parents so that they can go shooting” I further explained.  “And we don’t know who his parents are.”

“Oh so you still need to get permission for this one colt? Who is he?” Calamity asked.

I laughed. Behind me was everyone that in our little fun group. The ten of them had been standing behind me in a perfect enough manner that they couldn’t see me at all. “Why don’t you introduce yourself, Button?”

“Button?” Calamity said.

“Hi mom!” Button Mash yelled out as he jumped out from behind me.

Calamity’s jaw dropped and she nearly fell over as she realized who it was. “Tran, what are you doing with my son?!?”

“Duh, mom. We’re here to shoot guns” Button Mash loudly replied.

Calamity Jane glared at me with the fury of a thousand sons. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll rip you limb from limb and feed your soul to a liberal” she seethed out in anger.

“He might hit himself in the face with some large bore weapons” I said to her.

“Let the colt have fun” Fancy Pants said. “I was a little adventurous as a child and look how I turned out!”

“Fine” Calamity said. I knew she was still mad and irritated. “Button, I may be mad at him for now but I want you to listen to everything he says.”

“Yes mom” Button Mash said in an annoyed drone.

“I mean it!” Calamity said. “If I heard one worth that you didn’t listen to Tran, I’ll destroy your computer.” She started smiling again. “Have fun!”

-X-X-X-

I started all of them(except for Fluffle Puff) out with .22 rifles modified to be fired with hooves(and I also had to teach them how to load and shoot their guns). What I always see that I don’t like is when someone starts out a new/novice/beginning shooter with a large bore or heavy weapon and expect them to shoot it. When you have someone who has never handled a firearm before, always star them out with something easy. You want them to enjoy their first time with guns. You don’t want them to start hating firearms when they’ve been hit in the face with a Desert Eagle or get knocked over by a shotgun or have something go wrong. You want them to actually continue shooting.

Everyone was having a blast. Instead of having them formally shoot a paper target. I let each of them shoot whatever targets they wanted. I also let them shoot as fast as they want and they were loving it.

If you readers out there are worried that I was giving Chrysalis a gun even though we went to war with her race, I had warned her of the repercussions of trying anything. She knew that I was several times more powerful than when I had gone to war with her race and knew that if she did try anything, it may result in her species being wiped off the face of the planet.

By now, the lot of them had already gone through a few bricks of ammo. Pulling out Yang, I fired three rounds into the air.

“Good!” I yelled out. “I think it’s time for everyone to move onto something else.

“What are we going tah shoot next?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Your choice” I replied.

Realizing the implications of what I had said, they all went into a frenzy.

After a long discussion(it was more like war negotiations), they all chose their firearms.

Scootaloo wanted to shoot Yin and Yang but because I was only able to fire them, I let her use a pair of standard Equestrian modded 1911s.

Apple Bloom, much like her sister, went for a pump action shotgun that fired standard 2 3/4 in shells.

Silver Spoon, decided to go with a simple bolt action rifle chambered in .308.

Diamond Tiara, even though her first choice was my Barrett rifle, had gone with a rifle that matched her best friend's rifle.

Dinky, because she was rather small and young, had gone with my .22 PPK.

Chrysalis decided not to shoot with everyone else and decided to watch like how Fluffle Puff was.

Meadow, much like her daddy, had gone with a double barrel except hers fired a .410 round.

Button Mash had a rather interesting choice. It was a Gatling gun. Why? No reason.

Sweetie Belle. Her choice was sweet. "I'll just shoot with Button Mash" she said. She went up to the gun with Button Mash. Aww. They're so adorable together.

"Now go have fun. My feet are tired" I said. Everyone, minus Fluffle Puff, Chrysalis, and Button Mash, gasped upon realizing what I had just said. "It's not that strange."

I walked over to Fluffle Puff and sat down on her. Oh my god, she makes the perfect chair.

"Are you fine, Tran?" Button Mash asked.

"Yeah. I'll be fine" I replied. I leaned forward from my Fluffle Puff chair and pushed his hat aside to pat him on the head. "Go have fun with Sweetie Belle."

"Wait, can I go first?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Okay!" Button Mash replied. Aww.

Now think about this. The Cutie Mark Crusaders now have guns. The next question is when is the world going to end?

-X-X-X-

Next in the agenda was Dinky's choice, meet Daring Do.

At one stall in the fair(which was in the town square) was a stall ran by Daring Do. Other than the three security guards, there were hundreds of ponies here wanting to meet her.

Unfortunately, this included Rainbow Dash. Even worse, she stood in line right in front of us. It's not like I don't like Rainbow Dash, its that she's really annoying in fan girl mode.

After waiting in line for quite a while(and listening to Rainbow Dash's fan girl rants), I got to meet my dear partner. "Tran! How has my number one sidekick been?" she greeted.

"Still not your sidekick, Daring and it's nice to see yah" I greeted back. I brought some people here to meet you."

"Tran, since when did you know Daring Do?!?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"For quite a while actually" Daring replied for me. "We're" She stepped up front her seat. "Now lets meet the little colts and fillies that you brought here for me to meet."

I stepped aside and let revealed the fillies and colts(and Fluffle Puff and Chrysalis) that were following me. "Hi Daring!" Dinky said immediately.

"Dinky! You've grown since the last time we've met" Daring said. Rainbow Dash's jealously levels increased by 20%. It was funny to see her like this.

"Hi miss Do! I love your video games!" Button Mash said.

"Video games?" Daring said. Then she face hoofed. "I honestly hate those. They portray me horribly."

"What do you mean?" Button asked.

"I never go through a fortress or a temple guns blazing" Daring said. "That's his job." She pointed at me.

Rainbow Dash just stared at me, mouth dropped. Oh what I would give to know what she's thinking.

"Me and mah sister love yahr books' Apple Bloom said.

"So do I" Scootaloo said.

"And me three!" Sweetie Belle said.

"It's good to see that fillies your age are still reading" Daring said. "You know, when I was a kid- Is something chewing my pith helmet?" I walked beside her and picked up the Fluffle Puff that was gnawing on her helmet. "Oh it's just Fluffle."

"So how do you know Tran?" Silver Spoon asked.

"He helped me in one of my adventures" Daring replied. "You'll read it in my next book." That's right, Daring Do pushed back the release date of her next book, the one she already gave me a copy of, back by a month. "Tran, what did you think of the advance copy I gave you?"

"Pretty good" I replied. "Dinky, your thoughts?"

"It was amazing!" Dinky said. Rainbow Dash was absolutely seething.

-X-X-X-

Next up was a quadruple. We went to the circus that was passing through Ponyville. Since it was the circus, this included junk food, games, rides, and the choice to go to the circus. You know, I love it when I can do things like this. You know, something that requires effort to have fun.

If you ever asked me whether I wanted to play video games for five days or go mountain climbing for five hours, I'd easily choose the mountain climbing. However, back before this all started, I couldn't exactly go mountain climbing ever day due to how far away I lived from any cliff sides/mountains so I usually had to settle with video games.

Everyone had fun gorging on junk food while trying out the various rides and games of the carnival. Even Chrysalis was having fun. Albeit being for small children, she enjoyed the meri-go-round very much especially with Fluffle Puff. So adorable I tell you what.

The only problem with the carnival was the carnival games. They were always trying to scam you.

I was standing, enjoying some popcorn when I felt two somethings plow into my head. "Tran! We need your help with something!" I heard Button Mash called out.

"It's important!" I heard Sweetie Belle cried out.

I pulled Button Mash off of my head. "Yes?" I said.

"There's this game with a grand prize that we all want but we can't get it!" Button Mash replied.

"What do you need to do to get it?" I asked.

"Shoot down some targets with a little toy gun" Sweetie Belle replied. "It should be easy for you."

Oh this should be interesting. If I remember correctly, any carnival game that involves shooting something down employs the tactic of making the projectile being incredibly inaccurate. "Let me take a look."

-X-X-X-

The game stall in question was in fact a target shooting game. It had small stuffed animals as the prize but who needs a stuffed animal when you have a Fluffle Puff? There was also a grand prize and it was awesome. It was a small train that looked like the ones you saw in a mall or circus giving kids rides. I could tell the train wasn't a mere toy as it was made of a metal alloy and an engine. It consisted of five carts, four passenger carts and the leading engine. The entire thing was so massive that it laid down on the ground.

Oh my god that would have been awesome to own as a child. Too late for me but not too late for Dinky and the others.

"How do I get the grand prize?" I asked the stall's owner.

The stallion in question held up a what looked like a pellet rifle. "Using this air rifle, you have to knock down all of the targets. Fifty cents gives you five shots, two bits gives you thirty, and ten bits gives you a hundred and twenty five shots" the stallion replied. "You get the grand prize, you have to knock down all of the targets to get the grand prize. There are a total of one hundred and one targets."

I pulled out a ten bit and placed it on the table. "Ah, you're after the grand prize." I don't know why but the way he said that made me want to punch him in the mouth. There was nothing wrong with how he said it, I just suddenly felt like punching him in the mouth.

As he loaded the air rifle, I readied myself. I was in my pony form and it was rather strange to shoot with hooves. I still had my shooting skill as a pony but it was rather handicapped. Standing up on my back legs, I took off my jackets and shirt, placing them on the stall's table.

"Holy Celestia! You actually have an upper torso!" Button Mash joked to which Sweetie Belle laughed. I chuckled a little bit myself. What? Even I have a sense of humor.

As the stall's owner handed me the air rifle, I popped my long pony neck. "You know that I'm going for the grand prize" I said.

"I know" he said back. "It's just that, in the twenty-something years that I have been running this stand, no one has ever won the grand prize." There was this smug look on him that suggested that he knew something was going to go his way. "Fire away." A buzzer rang out and immediately ten cartoonish soldier griffon targets the size of watermelons popped up.

Taking aim, I shot down all ten with ten shots in less than a second. Looking back at the stall's owner, I could see that his smile was still prevalent but smaller than earlier. "You're a good shot, you know that?"

"Not the best but not the worst" I said. I wasn't the best in Arizona but being able to place in state competitions is still pretty good.

The same buzzer rang out again and another ten targets popped up. These, albeit still big, were smaller than the previous targets. Again, I shot all ten down in seconds without a second thought.

Decently sized targets from seven yards away? This was easy. Too easy. What's the catch? There's always a catch.

"Twenty down, eighty-one more to go" the stall owner said.

The buzzer rang again, and more targets came up. Again I shot all down within seconds again. More minutes passed as I continued shooting down targets. Every increments of ten targets became harder and harder until they were moving targets the half the size of apples.

Then I shot down the hundredth target. "Last one" he said. The entire time I was shooting, he was in a positive mood. The smile plastered on his face didn't falter and I knew it didn't mean well.

The last target popped up. It wasn't a griffon like the other targets. It a simple picture of a red and white target. I immediately fired a shot at the center and scored a hit. It didn't fall down.

What?!? That's his game?!? I rapidly fired whatever was left in the air rifle, scoring every single hit on the target but it refused to fall down. It only stopped when the air rifle was only shooting air. Of course the last target is hard to knock down! It's a one inch plate of steel!

"Sorry, better luck next time" he said in a sarcastic tone.

"What?!? He shot all of the targets!" Button Mash yelled out.

"Ah but I said that you have to knock down all of the targets." the stall owner said.

"You're just a lying con artist!" Sweetie Belle said. "Tran, you can't just let him do this to us!"

I pulled out another ten bit coin and placed it on the table. "Again."

"Really? You know you're not going to shoot the last target" the stall owner said. I just gave him the same stare. "Fine." I handed him the air rifle to reload it.

"Hold on a minute. I have to go to the restroom" I said.

-X-X-X-

When I returned, Sweetie Belle, Button Mash, and the stall owner was still there waiting. I immediately stood back up on my hind legs and shoulder the air rifle. "Start."

"Your loss, my gain" he said.

The buzzer sounded once again and the entire cycle of targets started all over again. When the last ten targets(before the cheat target) was up again, I paused. "Sweetie Belle, Button Mash, I want the two of you to cover your ears" I said. They did as I said. "Good."

I shot down all ten targets and looked at the stall owner. "Last target" he said smiling. I just smiled back at him.

The last target popped up in the same fashion as earlier. This time, I didn't shoot at it foolishly like earlier. Instead, I placed the air rifle on the table and pulled out my M4a1. I didn't fire the rifle.

Instead, I took aim with the 40mm M203 underbarrel grenade launcher. Then I fired. There was no massive explosion from a HE(high explosive) grenade hitting the target. Instead, the sound of a shotgun being fired was heard. A very, very loud shotgun actually. Why? There was no 40mm grenade round. Instead, it was a 40mm shotgun shell loaded in the tube. That is roughly the equivalent of a 1 gauge shotgun. Why were buckshot grenade shells ever created? I have no idea and I don't want to find out. Seriously, they're evil. This is the kind of thing that leaves clouds of red mist in place of the victim.

The last "cheat" target was sent flying through the back of the stall and embedded itself into the ground. "I think I'll be taking that grand prize" I said while pulling out the spent 40mm shell. I wasn't going to the restroom earlier.

-X-X-X-

There I was, sitting in the conductor cart of a small train with a conductor's hat on my head. In the passenger seats were the other members of our little group of chaos. The next stop for the We Have Our Own Fluffly Train Express(they named it, not me)? To the puppet show!

Well, that was the plan when the ground suddenly turned into gold, the trees turned into crystal, and the buildings became miniature places/castles. To make matters even stranger, everything that was unnecessarily decorated radiated a benign form of dark magic.

"What is going on?" Diamond Tiara said.

I licked a hoof and stuck it in the air. "Black magic" I replied.

"Black magic? I though dark magic has been forgotten over time" Chrysalis said.

"No though finding users is a rarity" I said. "Celestia and Twilight knows how to use it a little and Luna as Nightmare Moon."

I laid a hoof on the ground, feeling the now gold dirt. "This dark magic is completely harmless and only appears to be cosmetic. Who would do this? And why would they do this?" I said.

That was when I noticed an any Nick walking by. In his hands was his minigun but it looked like Rarity had it in her workshop for a few hours. It appeared to be made of gold and every single square inch was bedazzled.

"Um Nick, what happened to your minigun?" I asked.

"Rarity" Nick replied without so much as looking at me. Oh. He's that angry.

"Nick, please hand me your minigun. I'll fix it for you" I said to him. Instead of handing it to me like I asked, he tossed the entire thing to me. You know, I had superhuman strength because of the whole dark magic, demon thing but still, it's a damn minigun. If it's loaded, like Nick always does, then the entire gun rig weighs close to two hundred and fifty pounds. I don't know about you but having a two hundred and fifty pound gun tossed at you will do something.

After stumbling a little in my conductor's chair, I took off the spell that turned it gold and bedazzled reverting it back to its usable state. After I was done, I tossed it back at Nick. "Thank you. Now if you need me, I need to dye Rarity, green."

"Do you know what this means?" I asked Fluffle Puff.

"Toot toot?" Fluffle Puff replied.

"Onward!" I revved up the train's small engine and we lurched forward.