Snow nodded, "Good idea, but before we go, I have some things for you guys." She trotted down the hall to her study and came back a few minutes later with 6 bundles of armor and weapons, "I was putting the finishing touches on my Advanced Armored Recon and Combat system Mark II, or AARC M2 (pronounced ark), or as you guys probably know that name, Commando armor. It was in gold prototype phase before the Last Day, just needed some tweaks before it was ready for deployment. Would have been deployed to the Commandos along with the five Equestrian Victory Achievers, EVAs for short. You guy had the privilege of seeing the first of them, Equestria Prime, but Beta, Charlie, Delta, and Epsilon were also in development. Would have been deployed within the 2 weeks following the Last Day if it didn't happen." She then floated over the armor, which she had gotten to fit fairly well for each one of them, leaving 4 weapons in the air. "And these are the latest generation of PEARs and MWS rifles I produced, I have two 2 PEAR-30s and two MWS-16s. Just to give you an idea, the PEAR-30 was designed to be extrodinarily long ranged for a combat rifle while remaining compact for urban combat, and is extremely hard to get it to jam. The gun will probably break before it jams and the energy cartidge has a small metal pellet in it tjat allows it to penetrate most soft armors and cover, such as plywood and cloth. However, it has a fairly slow rate of fire at about 60 rounds per minute. Meanwhile, the MWS-16 is pretty much the opposite, it is a close up in your face sort of weapon. It can launch 20mm grenades, 12 gauge shotgun shells, and 5mm rounds. It can fire that last one at a rate of ovee 500 rounds per minute, but don't expect to be accurate at long range and expect to reload often, so just keep it on 3 round burst, and you'll have 10 shots at that rate. It will jam quickly if you don't care of it due to the complexity and multiple barrels, however, you can't get a bettee urban weapon, especially for taking out hard targets. I already got myself a PEAR-30, you guys get to choose yours." (Yes, I know I'm missing one, but that guy has a machine gun)
The Mockingbirds looked at another as all of them had a fairly large grin upon their face, as if they hit jackpot. All of them went upwards to the cache of weapons and selected their new armor. While the armor itself was extraordinarily light, it was astronomically tough as well. Damien liked this new feeling, as if he was wearing his duster and light armor once more. When it came to weapons however, all of them were diverse with their choices. Benedict didn't care while the others were getting their weapons, his trusty minigun got the job done anyway. Benedict thought that if he had a Mark.Co version of his own enormous minigun, he would be practically unstoppable. Damien and Jack, the best shots in the entire squadron, took the PEAR-30's for sniping uses. Alongside this, the design of the weapon being able for conserving ammo eliminated the temptation to "Rock and Roll". Roger and Ashley took the MWS-16's and under their hooves, were shockingly lethal. By the time everybody was done with their new armor and weapons, alongside their already super-human training, Snow's gift to them turned them into some of the deadliest ponies in Equestria. To keep their identity, they still took the dusters from their Riot Gear and wore it over their armor. Upon opening the door and taking whatever they needed, the entire group left Ponyville while the entire town burned with the notable exception of the pristine condition of Snow's home. As Ponyville went up in flames, the group left the town with no idea where to go or where to travel. However, the events of the next few months involving a certain "Light Bringer" and her companions would ultimately affect them in more ways than one.
As they left Ponyville's ruins behind, Snow looked back at them, "Now, just going to warn you, we can not let the Commandos find us in this gear, especially if they are anything like my sister's Commandos, and considering that they have original Commandos among their ranks..Well, needless to say that no matter how well you guys are trained, we're screwed. Remember, the Commandos fought the entire war behind enemy lines, they were more stealthy than the most stealthy of Zebras, which is pretty damn good. And that means those veterans have far more combat experience than all of you combined. And guess what, all that experience goes to the Soldier and his Commandos. So if they find out about us...well, we'll be dead before we have a chance to fight back." she told them
Upon hearing Snows words , the Mockingbirds were now unsure about their choice of action about the gear they wore. They were now essentially fighting an entire army of ponies who were just like them. But despite the group being the best in the human world in terms of infiltration and stealth, it would have taken a hell of a time to bring them down anyway. What made matters worse was the ever increasing price on their heads, somepony placed a bounty on them for 10,000 caps. The Mockingbirds and Snow now had to face the Commandos, the 7 of them against over a 1000 well trained mercenaries. Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
(aight) Snow lead the group away from Ponyville, being about as clueless as the Mockingbirds behind her as to the closest friendly settlement or anything. Behind them, they could see smoke rising up from the Everfree, which to them should someone, likely that Red Eye fellow, was trying to smoke out the Commandos. Unknown to them, the Commandos had saw it coming and had long since left, setting up shop on a new fort in another direction from them and Julion, Bloody 2, and a couple other Commandos on a personal crusade, their chances of discovery by the Commandos was very slim at the current point in time.
Eventually, the MOCKINGBIRDS and Snow encountered the ruins of one of many pre-war towns that dotted the landscape of the Equestrian wasteland. The town was fairly small and was a considerable distance from Ponyville. But while the town survived in terms of architectural terms, it happened to have a raider gang of about 30 ponies. About a kilometer from the town, the group stopped for a quick rest next to a dead tree. Once they took their rest, they could hopefully bypass the town entirely and travel elsewhere, hopefully to a 'normal town'.
"So what do you,guys think we should do about the town?" She asked them, "I mean, I dont like fights but...that's a good amount of raiders to leave threatening the ponies around here, you know?"
The Mockingbirds looked at each other before Damien and Jack suddenly walked about thirty meters away from the group on a hill to the right and took out their PEAR-30's before laying down on their stomachs, the rest of the MOCKINGBIRDS looked back at Snow. "We'll just clear the entire town, nothing particularly threatening." Ashley said before looking over at the two snipers nearby. "If it goes as planned, we won't have to do anything. We can just move into the town, Benedict take care of the bodies since he's the strongest."
Before Ashley would respond, Damien and Jack suddenly roared into life as their PEARS shot the signature blue bolt that flew across the environment before slamming directly into the head of two different raiders. A split second later, two more raiders fell to the ground dead. Damien and Jack shot as many Raiders as they could before any of them fell into cover or whatever passed as a fortification, which soon reached about 12 raiders before the confused gang of Raiders desperately tried to find out what was happening. Whenever one of them poked his head out, which surprisingly wasn't often, the Raider met a swift end. The MOCKINGBIRDS were no strangers to cleaning out Raiders, sometimes being sent to the chore of having to kill them between missions by NCR figures in the Army. Damien and Jack then rose back up and rejoined the group before looking at the rest. "Whatever is left of these Raiders are now deciding if they should fight or flee. Should they flee, they are allowed to live. But should they fight however..." Jack spoke.
Snow nodded before adding, "Oh and uh, just warning you, I try not to get into fights uhm...Mainly because if I get too angry I kinda...blow up..." she said, her voice getting quieter after every pause, "So...uhm, trying to keep me out of combat so I don't?"
"Oh...um...we will keep you out of combat whenever possible then" Jack replied as Damien stood alone, watching the raiders in the town below that ultimately decided to rush outwards from the building and charge towards the group. Damien reloaded for safe measure as all of the Raiders came together in a tightly condensed group on a road that ultimately led out of town to the hill towards the town. Damien just walked downwards away from the group, no expression on his face as he watched bullets and laser fire shoot past his head, almost as if nothing happened. Damien then cracked his neck as he rose his rifle and walked towards the street. With a short burst, five raiders were shot down as the others tried to advance. As the raiders fell, their other brethren marched over them as if they were obstacles. Two energy bolts were then fired again and hit their marks, one of them hitting a Raider directly in the eye that briefly turned his eyes a shining blue before collapsing. As some stray rounds missed Damien, he continued walking towards them, just as his horn began to glow. A second later, the ground around the Raiders began to violently shake around them as Damien charged up his magic ability. The magic enveloped a pre-war truck as Damien flung it from the right side of the group of Raiders, many of them screaming in terror before being crushed by the truck hitting them into a pre-war building and then exploding. While two did survive, almost all of them were killed. Damien then watched as the surviving two raiders, likely high on chems, mindlessly charged towards him. Damien then took a manhole from a sewer and used his magic to throw it across the street, spinning wildly before hitting the neck of a raider hard enough to decapitate him in a single blow. But as the last Raider jumped from the wreckage of a car and came to attack him from the air, he was stopped suddenly by Damien's telekinesis before suddenly feeling a sharp pain. Damiens eyes turned red once again as the mysterious yet powerful rainbow lightning struck the last Raider, killing him instantly and having enough force to send him flying over two hundred meters. Once the battle was over, Damien achieved a fairly impressive amount of collateral damage. He turned around at the group again and waved for them to come down, a slight grin on his face for friendly expression.
Snow blinked at what Damien had done, "What in the name of all that is good?" She muttered, "Does anypony know what in Equestria just happened other than Damien having some weird powers?"
The rest of the Mockingbirds were just as surprised as Snow was, watching Damien from below. "I....I think he just cleaned up the whole town" Ashley said Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
"I know that...but HOW?" Snow said in disbelief, her jaw dropping open, at lost for any more words than that.
Damien eventually came back up to the rest of the group, who were all speechless about what just happened. "Hey guys, the towns saf-" Damien then studied the faces of each individual pony, where all of their jaws just dropped. "What?"
