Very few townponies came out to watch Rainbow Dash and Twilight perform for the representatives of Emerald Ordinance. They had set up stands for the few that did, which were now being occupied by Vinyl Scratch, Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell, Tia, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and several of the kangaroo commandos notably, Captain Reginald Blackthorn, Lieutenant William Cutting, and Private Wilfred Dillingham.

Lieutenant Tebbs and his crew had been helping Rarity to design and construct a suitable obstacle course for the two ponies to run through. Complete with concertina wire, hand dug slit trenches, several broken up gliders, and the burnt out hulks of several kangaroo and gryphon tanks.

Two Mark VIII cruiser tanks had been parked on either side of the course; they would be firing blanks from their 7.55mm Sesa machine guns and would advance alongside the ponies during the trial in order to simulate the chaos and confusion of war.

Rainbow Dash had already strapped herself into the Ponyville Pattern Sen Guns; Twilight loaded two fresh magazines into the contraption and cocked each of them. She felt unnaturally heavy under the weight of both the Sen Guns and Rarity’s prototype combat barding.

“Ready to go Rainbow!?” Twilight called in excitement.

Rainbow Dash looked at her and smiled. Twilight would be running through the course with her, due to the fact that it was physically impossible to reload by herself, while under fire. Twilight was carrying all the ammo and would slide new magazines in with her magic whenever Rainbow needed them.

“I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be,” Rainbow said nervously. Ordinarily, Rainbow Dash loved showing off her stuff... but when it was something that actually mattered, like the Best Young Fliers Competition in Cloudsdale, or the trial for Emerald Ordinance. Rainbow got nervous.

“You’ll do fine,” Twilight said, planting a kiss on Rainbow’s muzzle. “Eyes down range, teeth on the control yoke, and blast all of Rarity’s creepy looking fashion dummies!”

Twilight levitated her revolver out, snapped open the breech, and checked the ammunition, satisfied she snapped it shut.

Rainbow Dash looked over in the stands again. Several more ponies had showed up. Derpy, Trixie, Lyra, Bon Bon... the Doctor?

Rainbow Dash was surprised to see that he was here, but then again, for all she knew this was something he would enjoy watching. Rainbow Dash barely knew him. All she knew was that he liked to be called “the Doctor.”

But what caught her eye the most was Fluttershy. Fluttershy was sitting by herself in the top corner of the stands, watching intently, their eyes met causing Fluttershy to give her a small wave.

Rainbow tried to wave back, but not accounting for the weight of the Ponyville Pattern Sen Guns caused her to fall forward on her face. Twilight giggled.

“Stop that!” Rainbow said coldly. Twilight ignored her, continuing to giggle as she helped the Pegasus up.

Rainbow Dash looked back towards the corner. Fluttershy was gone. She blinked several times and looked again. No Fluttershy.

“Huh,” Rainbow said aloud to herself. That was certainly odd.

Rainbow Dash eyed several important looking kangaroos take seats. These were the people from Emerald Ordinance.

“May I have your attention please!” called Lieutenant Tebbs through a bullhorn from the hatch of his tank. “We thank everyone for coming out, and especially would like to thank the kangaroos from Emerald Ordinance for taking time out of their busy schedules to watch the trial runs for the Ponyville Pattern Sen Light Machine Gun. In this scenario, the Light Machine Gun team, consisting of Ponyville’s own Corporal Twilight Sparkle and Lance-Corporal Rainbow Dash, will advance under simulated fire from the two Mark VIII Cruiser tanks at each side of the course. The tanks machine guns are loaded with blanks. Half way through the course, enemy targets will pop up at random. LMG Team, please take your positions.”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked at each other, they didn’t have ranks, but they figured that Tebbs had given them some to make them look professional.

“You ready?” Twilight asked.

“As ready as I’m ever going to be,” Rainbow said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be right behind you,” Twilight said.

“That’s comforting; at least you’ll have a nice view of my arse the entire course!” Rainbow Dash said.

“LMG team! On the sound of the tank shell, begin!” Tebbs called out.

Tank... shell?

Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked over at the Lord Stuart; Tebbs was pulling himself inside the tank, shutting the hatch behind him. The light tank’s turret rotated slightly towards the north and fired its 37mm cannon.

On cue, Rainbow Dash and Twilight ran forward, ducking into the trenches. Machine gun fire from the Mark VIIIs overhead rang in the two ponies ears, but they kept moving and quickly as they could. They reached the end of the trenches, towards a wall of piled up sandbags. Good enough for cover.

Two targets popped up, each of them had an Emerald Rifle taped to the side of them, but what did not expect was the fact that the targets shot back at them. Rubber Bullets whizzed by the two ponies as they kept their heads down. One of the rubber bullets struck Rainbow Dash’s brodie helmet and bounced off.

Twilight peeked around the sandbag, the rifles were glowing, there were unicorns operating them from a distance.

“Ready Rainbow?” Twilight said.

Rainbow didn’t answer; instead, she popped up and bit down on the control yoke. Ripping apart the ex-fashion dummy,

Several more dummies popped up, Rainbow Dash turned towards them and bit down hard, spraying bullets in their direction. Interestingly enough, several of the dummies dropped back down, taking cover from Light Machine Gun fire.

They had to give Rarity and the Kangaroos credit; they knew what they were doing when they designed this scenario.

Rainbow Dash continued to fire, then her Sen Guns clicked empty, and she dropped back down into cover.

“Reload!” she called out, from now on, she needed to pay more attention to how much ammo she was using, or she’d run out when she needed to not run out the most.

Twilight pulled the old magazines out from the Sen Guns, allowing them to fall to the ground; she slid two new ones in.

“Go!” she called.

Rainbow Dash popped back up and fired, cutting down two more of the dummies. To even more of their surprise, all of the dummies that were in cover popped up and began moving towards them! Whoever was operating them really knew what they were doing.

Rainbow kept her focus, using her ammo sparingly. The last thing she wanted to do was run out here.

She fired, mowing down the dummies as they approached her until there was one; it was three metres from where they were. Rainbow bit down hard, intending to cut this last one to pieces.

Click Click.

Empty!

Twilight heard the clicking, and just as the dummy came up to the sandbags, she pointed her revolver at it and pulled the trigger, sending an 11mm magnum bullet right through the dummies head, knocking it over.

The machine gun fire from the Mark VIIIs stopped.

“And there you have it!” Tebbs called out.

Everyone in the stands was cheering.

...

Rainbow Dash and Twilight made their way back out into the open. Vinyl Scratch and Scootaloo were grinning at them in accomplishment. Lyra and Bon Bon were stomping their hooves in applause. Derpy was cheering; Trixie was smiling warmly at them. The Doctor kept a neutral face.

But most important of all, the kangaroos from Emerald Ordinance were clapping. They had been impressed. They’d done it! They’d won!

Eventually the applause died down, and everyone piled out of their seats.

“How did you like the targets?” Trixie asked. “Trixie certainly couldn’t make it easy for you, of course!”

“That was you? All of it?” Rainbow Dash cried out in surprise.

“Well, Lyra helped too, but Trixie did do most of them,” Trixie affirmed.

Captain Blackthorn and the Kangaroo Commandos walked up to them.

“Good show!” Blackthorn called out. “If we have even a hundred ponies like you, we’ll kick the gryphons back for sure!”

“Corporal Sparkle?” Another kangaroo that they didn’t recognise said. “Peter MacGregor, Emerald Ordinance, you’ve certainly impressed us! We’ll be putting the proposed design into production post-haste!”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash grinned at each other. This was the happiest they’d been in the longest time.

...

Twilight and Rainbow walked back into the library. They were out of combat barding, having turned it back over to Rarity. Rarity had complained that it smelled, but the two ponies had just laughed at her.

“I need a nice long bath,” Twilight said.

“What’s the point? We’re just going to get dirty again,” Rainbow said sensually, stroking a hoof down Twilight’s flank.

“Twilight! Rainbow!” Tia called out.

The two mares froze, they had completely forgotten about her, and both of them turned red in embarrassment.

Tia fortunately was too young to pick up on it.

“That was so cool today! You two were amazing!” Tia called out in excitement. “It was super loud too! I had to keep my ears covered!”

Twilight and Rainbow Dash smiled at each other. They were parents now after all. They’d have their time later.