A Pony in Takistan

by Merchent343

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Human
Length: 7584

When a purple, talking pony appears right in front of Matthew as he's playing ArmA 2: OA, how will he and his friend react? And what will they do? An ArmA 2 Crossover.

Matthew is playing ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead with his friend, Leon. It's a normal day… Until a talking pony enters the game. Something that should be absolutely impossible. Is it real, or are Valve and Bohemia playing the best prank ever on them?

What will they do?

Note: I self-inserted myself into this. All locations in-game are accurate (although I might have misspelled one or two)

EDIT: This story is possibly my worst.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-06-20 16:00:13 UTC

When the Impossible Happens

The sun shone high over the nearly barren terrain. The mountains of Takistan rose into the sky, covered in brush. Slowly, a large, metal machine rose up into the mountains on a narrow dirt road.

The driver of the Russian-build UAZ stared straight ahead, unblinking. Slowly, a grey dot appeared on a hillside, just enough to catch his attention. The grey dot swiftly turned red, however, as a 7.62x51mm round hit the gunner.

“Sniper!” The man said. He appeared outside the vehicle for a moment, before quickly being hit by another bullet from the sniper.

‘>HaDeZ556: Nice work, bro.’ A line of text said.

‘>JudgmentSupreme2: Wasn’t my fault the idiot came up the road alone. OPFOR should at least have a T-72 up by now, don’t you think?’ Another text replied.

‘>HaDeZ556: Judgment, switch to VON. I hate talking over Direct using text.’

Matthew let out a small sigh as he stared at the screen. He preferred text, but he just double-tapped CAPSLOCK to turn VON permanently on.

“What do you want, Leon?” Matthew said, after checking to see if his microphone was secure.

He heard a sigh come from the other end. “Why don’t you just call me Hades? I LIKE being called that. It sounds a lot better than Leon, anyway.”

Matthew grinned. “Well, Leon, I just do it to mess with you. Now come on, we need to get out of the area before those dorks come back with a Mi-24, or something heavier.”

“What kind of sniper do you even have, Matt?” He heard Leon ask.

“Let me check.” He responded, quickly tapping G to bring up the inventory. He moved the curser over the weapon before exiting out of it. “A M110. Fires a pretty fricken big bullet, in other words.”

“Sweet.” He heard Leon reply, before they quickly started moving again.

-=-=-

Five miniutes later, Matthew came across the top of a hill, looking down on a small village. Pressing M, he pulled up his map and checked the town name.

Nagara.

“Hey, Leon.” Matthew said.

The reply came seconds later. “Yea?”

Matthew closed his map. “We have a town coming up. Can you sweep the side of the road? I fuckin’ hate it when some hacker spawns an IED into the game.”

“Yea, Matt. Sure.” Leon replied.

They both ran down the hill, towards the trees at the edge of the road. Matthew quickly swept the trees with the sights of his rifle and, seeing no grey or red dots, slowly walked forward. Leon ran into the bushes, then slowly walked along the side of the road, checking for IEDs.

You see, hackers in multiplayer matches, when they appear, have the annoying tendency to spawn IEDs to troll players. They can be half the map away and detonate them, and keep track of where everyone in the game is with a playermarker hack. They needed to be found and either detonated via gunfire/explosions, or simply avoided. The latter option was easier, and the better choice.

“Nothing!” Leon called moments later over VON. Matthew gave a small note of thanks for that and started walking forward. There had been a hacker in the game recently. He had been kicked by the admin, but not before he had turned half the map into a shells cape with artillery hacks. Since this map only reset every 72 hours, the tiny in-game craters and blackened ground still remained. Plus the fact that every single push on the ground was knocked flat, and the southern airfield was completely out of commission.

Right now, they were headed to join the fight for the northern airfield. Whichever of the three teams that controlled it in this game would be able to completely dominate using fixed-wing aircraft. Helicopters could take off anywhere, but the really good stuff needed airfields.

Right on cue, an AI-controlled Su-34 flew overhead, on a long turn, headed for a bombing run for the airfield. Apparently, OPFOR was controlling it now, but for how long nobody could tell.

Suddenly, he saw he bushes to his right rustle a bit. Either that was generated ambient life, or someone had gotten much too close to him, and he would be dying momentarily. When none of that happened, however, he held shift and pressed in for a closer look.

Suddenly, a purple unicorn appeared.

Literally.

Matthew stared at the screen. A purple unicorn had just poked its head out of a bush. In ArmA 2. In a video game with absolutely no files for purple unicorns.

“Leon,” He said over direct. “You need to see this.”

Leon rushed over seconds later, stopping the second he saw it.

“What. The. Hell.” He slowly said.

“Hi!” The unicorn said.

“That’s weird.” Matthew said. “They can’t have in-game dialogue unless they are in the game files, and that’s impossible.”

“Oh, nothing’s impossible.” The unicorn said.

Matthew did another brain stutter.

“It just responded, Matthew.” Leon said blankly. “An impossible in-game generation just responded directly to what you said. That’s impossible.”

The unicorn seemed to turn to look at them, defying all the physics of the game engine at once with it. Whoever was fucking with them, they were good.

“What do you mean by in-game?” It said, sounding through their headsets in a distinctly feminine voice. Even then, Matthew couldn’t see the usual tag that indicated someone was using VON and broadcasting. Which was unheard of.

“Leon, I think it’s alive.” Matthew said slowly. “Either that or someone has way too much time on their hands.”

“Of course I’m alive!” The unicorn responded. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because this is a game! None of this is real.” Leon responded, feeling himself partially lose his grip on sanity. “Actually, you’re an impossibility. There are no game files for a unicorn, so this is either overactive hackers or the best prank by Steam or Bohemia ever done.”

“What do you mean by ‘files’ and ‘game’? Is this some sort of joke to you?” The unicorn demanded. Drawing their attention to another sheer impossibility. “I got teleported here by somepony, and all I’ve seen are a bunch of whatever you are wandering the area.”

“This is a video game. This world isn’t real. This game is on a computer, so everything in this is fake. Including you, however strange this is.” Leon said.

“Guys,” A voice said over direct. “Just shut the hell up.”

Matthew quickly checked the chat, coming up with the name ‘Deitrich Jager’ before it disappeared. Looking to his left, he saw a BLUFOR soldier appear out of the bushes.

“I saw what you were arguing about, and I have no theories.” He said. “I’ve checked the running game files several times over, and nothing but the normal spawns are appearing. No new files have been added, so something strange is going on.”

“How did you get admin access to look into the files anyway?” Matthew asked.

“I didn’t.” ‘Deitrich Jager’ replied. “I was using modifications.”

“So you’re the hacker!” Leon said with a bit of anger.

‘Deitrich Jager’ responded quickly. “Yeah, I am. And if you try to go to global with it, I will for one deny it, and then I will lock your game.”

Matthew sighed. Locking a game in multiplayer meant using a hack that prevented any mouse or button inputs in the game, causing you to need to either restart the computer, or manually shut down the process in task manager.

“Will somepony explain to me what is going on?” The unicorn demanded.

‘Deitrich Jager’ turned to it. “Something strange is going on, you’re not supposed to either exist in reality or in this game, and I know my hacks aren’t the problem.”

“What do you mean by ‘hacks’?” It asked.

“Illegal game modifications I use to troll players.” He smoothly replied.

“Can you explain to me what this ‘game’ is?” The unicorn asked. “I was just teleported here from the middle of Ponyville.”

Suddenly, everything became clear to Matthew. He remembered his friend joking about a show called ‘my little pony’ a while ago, and while he had never maintained an interest in it, he had acquired knowledge of it simply to troll his friend. And this unicorn was the one on the fucking cover.

“Leon, do you remember anything about a show called ‘my little pony’?” He asked his friend.

“Should I?” Was the reply, moments later.

Matthew sighed. “This is the main character of the series. I know a bit about it from a friend. This is either his fault, or fucking impossible. I don’t know which.”

The unicorn looked a bit stunned.

“I’m the character of some ‘show’ where you are?” It, now a she, replied.

“Yes.” Matthew deadpanned. “And now about the game: We are currently in a game called ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead, on a map called Takistan. It’s a simulation of warfare, and we are playing it on a computer. Don’t ask for further clarification, because you won’t get any. Our characters are operated by a set of controls that we use to move, shoot, and do stuff.”

“I’m obviously real.” She replied.

“Yea, I noticed.” ‘Deitrich Jager’ said in a flat tone. “You don’t correspond to any game files, and therefore should not exist in the game, but you obviously do. You can interact with the environment, so we should take a bit of  care with that. Are you all up for an ‘escort’ mission?”

Matthew though about it for a moment. “Why the hell not? Ok, what are we going to use?” His moments of disbelief stopped the second talking ponies entered in-game. “And what should we call you, hacker?”

Said hacker sighed. “Just call me Mer. It’s easier to say than ‘Deitrich Jager’. Also, I can spawn us any weapon or vehicle in the game. Your choice, I know how to fly them all anyway.”

Matthew though for a moment. “Hmmm, how about a Mi-24?”

Leon could be heard facepalming over VON. “For Christ’s sake, Matthew. Why do you like the Mi-24 so much?”

Matthew grinned at his screen. “Because it has a gigantic MG on the nose, rockets, bombs, and assorted things on the side, has plenty of armor, is reasonably maneuverable, and has tons of cargo and people slots. Any questions?”

“No…” Leon replied slowly.

Suddenly, a Mi-24D appeared right in front of them. Literally right in front. The purple unicorn jumped back a bit at its appearance, while Matthew sprinted his character to the gunner’s seat. He quickly scrolled down on his menu and entered it, followed by ‘Mer’ entering the driver’s seat. Leon opened the cargo doors for their strange ‘guest’, and then scrolled down his list to enter a cargo seat. The unicorn rapidly got the idea, and simply hopped in.

“Hey, Judgment.” Mer said.

“Matthew is fine.” He interrupted.

“Right. Don’t you think it’s strange? We’re in an online modern FPS, escorting a living purple unicorn suddenly inside of a digital one. I’ve already put godmode around all three of us players-”

“What.” Matthew interrupted. “When did THAT happen?”

“The moment you decided to tag along. Anyway, don’t you think it’s a bit weird?”

“Hell yeah, I do.” Leon said from the back. “She doesn’t even have to enter the seats, while I’m stuck working with control bindings.”

“What are you even talking about?” He heard the faint voice of a certain purple unicorn say.

“Nothing!” Leon said back.

Matthew heard starting the engines up. The moment they were at full power, Mer lifted the helicopter off of the ground, banking for the airfield. Matthew almost smashed his head into the desk at the direction they were going.

“For fucks sake, Mer. Why are we headed to the airfield?” Matthew growled.

“Because it’s the only place on the map I can take off in a C-130.”

“Why the hell are we switching to a C-130?”

“High altitude? Low speed? Flares? Plenty of cargo room? ‘Why the hell not?’” Mer countered, mimicking Matthew‘s reaction to their self-appointed mission.

Matthew sighed in defeat. For all he knew, they were going to die and have to respawn, which would be a pain in and of itself. Put the weird purple talking in-game pony thing might not. They had no idea how to react to something at wasn’t in the game code to begin with, and still wasn’t.

To their left, a AH-1Z owned by BLUFOR streak in, closing behind them.

“What the hell are you three doing in a Mi-24!” They heard a player bark over global. “You’re going to get your asses shot down if you show up like that.”

“Not if I can help it…” Countered Mer.

A nearby OPFOR Mi-24D noticed their lone helicopter. It spun around, the pilot noticing the green tag that hung over what was apparently an enemy Mi-24.

Leon, meanwhile, had switch to third person view, and was looking around the outside. He suddenly grabbed his mike and yelled into it, “Guys! OPFOR helicopter to our left!”

Mer suddenly banked the helicopter to the right, sliding sideways. He ejected flares, and started to raise the nose.

“What are you doing, Mer! You trying to get us all killed?” Matthew demanded. “I can’t get a clear shot.”

Mer was annoyed. “Just trust me. I’ve done this plenty of times,.”

The nose rose, as Mer also have the helicopter more power. It rose in the air, gaining altitude, before starting to slide backwards. Mer quickly jammed the X key, causing the helicopter to turn to the left while sliding sideways and down, reversing their direction quickly. He quickly switched the weapon to the AT-2 missile (he had completely forgotten the in-game name at this point), point the aircraft at the enemy helicopter. Taking manual control of the rockets using the scroll menu, he ripple-fired two of the small missiles, both headed for the enemy Mi-24D.

The pilot of the other aircraft fired off two flares, hoping to distract the missile. But, since the AT-2 was unguided, this did nothing. One missiles while the other hit the OPFOR chopped head-on, heavily damaging it. The pilot swerved it through the air as Matthew opened fire with the GAU on the nose, the machinegun firing off bullet after bullet, most hitting their mark. A small explosion erupted and the Mi-24 exploded right before its pilot could press ‘eject’ on the scroll menu, the wreck tumbling to the ground, blackening as it hit.

“What is going on up there!” They heard the unicorn yell over the loudness of the rotors.

Matthew smiled. “Nothing much, we just took out an enemy chopper. Pilot’s dead, so they won’t be bothering us until they can scrape up the cash to buy another one at the airfield - if they even control it.”

The helicopter was silent once more as er banked towards the airfield, closing in on it quickly. Mer looked out the window in first person, and was unsurprised to see the wrecks of dozens of airplanes on the field, especially at the end of the runway. BLUFOR held it now, although that was a matter of opinion. Right as a A-10 Warthog was taking off, a Tunguska opened up on it, turning the aircraft into flaming wreckage within seconds.

“How are we going to get through that?” Matthew enquired.

“Simple.” Mer replied, “I’m going to back us up, and then bombard the airfield.”

Mer proceded to back the jet up, moving about 500 yards away from the airfield. They were about a thousand meters up as Mer circled the airfield, opening us his hack menu. He scrolled down the list of options and came down n the one that said ‘Artillery’. He clicked on it, and a map opened up. He clicked on a spot just south of the airfield.

Suddenly, about a thousand bombs spawned up in the air in a line, crossing the entire airfield. The explosions shook the screen slightly as almost every BLUFOR and OPFOR unit was eliminated.

“What the hell, Mer?” Matthew said.

“Airfield’s clear.” He replied.

Matthew saw them going down, with Mer landing on the northern end of the runway. They raced out of the helicopter, the purple unicorn shortly behind them. Mer quickly spawned a C-130 from the hack menu, the large aircraft popping up right in front of him, staring down the runway.

The unicorn looked a little shell-shocked at it, but Matthew wasted no time. He ran for the driver’s seat, quickly entering it via the scroll menu. Mer followed a second later, landing himself in the second seat beside the pilot. The purple unicorn simply walked on as Leon enter in, spawning n a back seat and switching to third person.

Matthew quickly started the engines using Q. The propellers spun up, as Matthew contemplated their plan. The rest of the team would hate him for abandoning the game to escort a fake unicorn from a TV series around, but what the hell, he was having fun over here. At what other time did you get to go around with a hacker and escort a completely fictional unicorn around in a video game?

He jammed the Q key, causing the C-130 to surge forward. They gained speed just as the first elements of both OPFOR and BLUFOR were arriving. A T-72 was almost right in front of them, about to blow them to pieces, before a shell from a M1A1 Abrams changed its mind.

They gained more and more speed, the battle erupting behind them again as both teams vied for control over the airfield. And with that, the nose lifted. The C-130 soared into the air, away from the airfield, headed towards the desert wastes east of Bastam.

Matthew rose higher and higher into the sky. He switched his attention back to the VON, and to Leon.

“Leon, is our guest secure?”

Leon switched back to first person and looked around inside the aircraft. Seeing the unicorn sitting in a seat, with the belt somehow around her, he sighed. He would never understand how it came to be in the game.

“It’s secure.” He replied.

Matthew banked the C-130 in a low circle. He couldn’t even see the ground now, the distance fog swallowing it up. He and the others were way up in the air now, safe from almost anything.

Almost.

Matthew suddenly spotted a red dot on the top-down radar. It was closing at a slight speed, signifying it was trying to approach them from behind. He looked behind him in third-person mode and held his breath.

“Well, at least we know OPFOR controls the airfield now.” Matthew muttered into the microphone, sending it through direct.

-=-=-

Behind them, at about a thousand meters, a player by the tag of SilentJoe6 tried to hold his distance. He had been on the top of a building overlooking the airfield, sniping at the BLUFOR forces with his SVD. He had also been recording the event for a video he was making soon.

When the artillery had flattened most of the town, missing his building, and then gone on to destroy all the forces on the field, he couldn’t believe it. The hacker was back! Shortly afterward, though, a helicopter had landed on the field. Out popped three BLUFOR soldiers. He was about to engage them, but what he saw next made him pause.

A fucking unicorn popped out.

Really.

Not just any unicorn, though. It was Twilight Sparkle, that unicorn from My Little Pony. He watched it occasionally with his little brother and, needless to say, he was a bit shocked.

As far as he knew, there were no unicorns in the game code. None. So either this was the best prank ever, or really series business. A C-130 spawning out of the air confirmed that the hacker was with them, probably the one who had been piloting the Mi-24D. They had quickly gotten in, including the unicorn somehow, and had lifted off as both BLUFOR and OPFOR returned to the fight.

Once OPFOR has secured the airfield, thanks to a T-72 rush along with two Mi-24s, he had quickly gone to the hanger and ordered up a Su-25, the only aircraft he could think of that could match speed with a C-130. He needed to see this up close, not through the view of a sniper.

So, after two miniutes of franticly chasing the distant view of the aircraft, he had finally caught up with it. He quickly typed out a message to them in global, and hoped they got it.

-=-=-

Seconds after spotting the Takistani jet, Matthew spotted a message in global.

‘>SilentJoe6: HaDeZ556, JudgmentSupreme2, either of you, skype my name.’

They were silent for a moment before Matthew butted in.

“Eh, what the hell. I’ll skype him, you two join. Mer, what’s your skype name?”

“MerCMP343.” He replied.

Matthew quickly pulled up skype, entering into a call with his friend Leon. Seconds later, Mer joined the called. He sent out an invitation to a user named SilentJoe6, causing him to enter seconds later.

SilentJoe6 wasted no time.

“For the record,” He said. “Just call me Joe.”

Matthew responded first. “I’m Matthew, HaDeZ is Leon, and MerCMP343 over there we just call Mer. What do you want, and why are you chasing us?”

Joe chuckled a bit. “I saw your takeoff, and the bit before with the purple unicorn. I either figure that you’ve got the best hacker in the world on your side - I know you have a hacker, anyway - or this is some sort of really strange event. I don’t know which.”

“So why are you chasing us down with a Su-25?” Leon said as they all maximized back into the game.

“Simple. I wanted to know if what I saw was real.”

Mer chuckled. “Of course it was. I’m the hacker, by the way. Also, I checked the game scripts. There’s nothing in there about a purple unicorn, and no running scripts to identify it. All I’m getting when it interacts with the environment are scripts saying that ‘unknown’ is doing it. She’s not in the game in any way, a complete unknown. And that’s kinda freaking me out a bit.”

“Any chance of landing in the southern area? I know a good-sized field south of Hazrotimam, which is slightly west of the southern airfield.”

“Sure.” Matthew replied to Joe. Although he was a bit wary of trusting someone who could blow them out of the sky in seconds, he hadn’t done that yet. Matthew settled in to a low bank, finally pulling up a few hundred feet off f the ground. He raised the nose slightly, bleeding off speed, then settled in on slowing down. He pressed Z occasionally before he brought the speed down lower. The large, mostly flat area was ahead of him. He was twenty feet off the ground, causing him to cut the engines with the scroll menu. He glided forward, quickly settling on the ground and slowing.

He came to a stop with about a hundred feet of room in front of him. Slowly, a Su-25 rolled past him as Joe slowed down, finally stopping a few hundred feet in front of them.

Joe ejected out of his jet. “Hey guys,” He said. “I’m going to put my weapons on the ground. Can you do the same?”

“Sure.” Matthew said.

Upon exiting, Joe pressed G and pulled up his inventory. He quickly double-clicked his SVD and his pistol, causing hem to drop. He did the same for his grenades and such, then exited out and looked at the others.

They had all dropped their weapons on the ground, the little weapons and pouches of ammo spreading out in small circles on the ground.

“So.” Matthew said, echoing their thoughts. “What now?”

Contacts Inbound/Countdown to the End

Four players stood in a rough circle, along with one Unicorn. They had all dropped their weapons on the ground, the little weapons and pouches of ammo spreading out in small circles on the ground. There was a small silence in the group, before Matthew spoke up.

“So.” Matthew said, echoing their thoughts. “What now?”

“I have no idea.” Mer admitted. “The best thing to do would be to talk to the Unicorn thing. Everyone, be sure to set your VON to constantly be on, and on Direct. Hey, Unicorn, can you hear me?” He asked, turning his character slightly towards the purple pony.

“Of course I can.” She replied. “You’re asking one another what you’re going to do, which I assume has to do with me.”

“Yes it does, Twilight Sparkle.” Joe said.

The unicorn visibly stiffened.

“How did you know my name!” She asked.

“How did you know her name?” Matthew asked. Apparently, he wasn’t the only person who had heard of the show here.

“I’m a Brony, Matthew.” He replied. “As for you, we know your name because you’re in a TV show. Before you ask what that is, it’s sort of like a viewable book.  We, or at least me, know pretty much all about the Elements of Harmony, your adventures, ect.”

Leon spoke up next. “Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on!”

“Leon,” Matthew said, “Remember how earlier I was talking about a TV show called ‘My Little Pony’?”

“Yea.”

“This is Twilight Sparkle, one of the main characters from the show.”

“Ok…”

“And, somehow, this is real. No flawed game code, no new update trolling us. Real.”

Silence reigned over the small group. Finally, Matthew spoke up.

“Everyone, we need to get out of here.” He said. “Our best shot is in the air, so that’s where we’ll go. Mer, can you spawn me an A-10?”

“That I can.” He replied. Ten seconds later, a A-10 Warthog was on the field, facing the opposite direction that the rest of the planes were.

Matthew nodded in real life. “Good. Joe, can you mount up on your Su-25 and help escort the C-130?”

“Yep!” Joe replied. “I always wanted to do something like this…”

“Like what?” Mer inquired.

Joe smiled at his screen. “Oh, something impossible, like fending off an F-35 in a Su-25.”

Matthew ignored him. “Everyone mount up! Leon, you and Mer are gonna be inside the C-130. Twilight, I need you to just get in back and hold on. I‘ll be inside the A-10.”

Everyone quickly got to their aircraft. Mer and Joe turned the C-130 and the Su-25 around, and quickly lined up in a small row.

“Ok everyone.” Matthew said. “Throttle up and get in the air, match speeds at 250 knots.”

At that, all three pressed their throttles forward with Q. Matthew saw the A-10 quickly accelerate past 150 knots. Holding the Alt key, he looked behind him to see the other two accelerating, with the Su-25 finally lifting off into the air, followed moments later by the C-130.

The C-130 pulled into the lead, with Mer piloting it, Joe and Matthew close behind in their jets. They quickly reached a large height above the ground, circling around.

“Now what?” Joe asked.

Matthew sighed. “We’re a group of three aircraft traveling high up, two BLUFOR and one OPFOR in close formation. People are gonna investigate.”

There was a brief pause before Mer spoke up. “The purple unicorn here, whatever her name was, just asked what we were doing.”

“Becoming the perfect bait.” Leon interjected. “If we keep flying like this, we’ll attract attention faster than a naked girl in the middle of a street.”

“It’s all we can do, Leon.” Matthew said. “On the ground, we’d be more vulnerable than we are now. Plus the fact that, on the ground, we’re stationary unless we get vehicles. Which would mean either going back to our bases, or stealing some from an unclaimed town. Or from a retarded player. Either way, we’re fucked.”

Leon groaned. “How did I get myself dragged into this? Flying escort for a purple unicorn…”

“Nobody made you come.” Joe said.

“Leon, you’re free to parachute out right now if you don’t want to do this.” Mer offered.

Leon quickly freelooked outside of the aircraft, turning the camera straight down… To see large mountains.

“No thanks.” He mumbled out.

They flew along for a couple more minutes before Matthew spotted something.

“Hey guys!” He said. “One Su-34, on our six, closing fast, I’d say at 400 knots.”

Mer quickly double-tapped ALT, turning freelook on, and turned the camera to look behind him. A Su-34 piloted by a player named ‘[THJ] Jarmin’ was quickly closing on them. Suddenly, text popped up in global.

‘>[THJ] Jarmin: wtf r u doin, silent? lets shoot down those planes.’

‘>SilentJoe6: Unless you want to die, move away now. We will not hesitate to shoot you down.’

‘‘>[THJ] Jarmin: fine, i’ll kill them myself.’

Joe did not hesitate. “Mer, bank hard and flares! Matthew, help me shoot down this fucker.”

The Su-34 shot a massive Ch-29 missile at the C-130. Mer quickly turned and pulled up, the deadly missile missing by about twenty feet.

Matthew quickly turned the A-10 on the side and pulled up, causing the plane to quickly turn to the left. He turned in a wide circle, the Su-34 shooting past him. He quickly rolled the A-10 into another tight turn, coming behind the Su-34. To his right, he notice Joe lining up behind him and to his left, also gunning for the fast jet.

Thankfully, the player in the massive fighter-bomber had to slow down to engage the C-130. He was at about 220 knots, just above stall speed. Matthew shot an AIM-9L Sidewinder as soon as he got a lock-on tone. The missile flew and hit the OPFOR jet dead-center, damaging it. The player in the jet move the throttles forward and rolled to the right, turning to evade the angry A-10.

Matthew quickly switched to the GAU-8 and fires, the stream of rounds hitting the Su-34 dead-on. It exploded, a trail of fire and smoke marking it as the dead jet spiraled down.

“Clear!” Matthew said after a moment. “The Su-34 is down. The only problem is that he’ll be back, along with more.”

“Uh, Matthew.” Mer said. “I don’t think they need to be back.”

Matthew quickly noticed a few green and red dots on the edge of his vision, the dots morphing into squares on his radar.

“Shit!” Matthew shouted, just as a line of bullets flew by him. “We’re over the OPFOR camp, for Christ’s sake. Get us out of here!”

He and the others quickly formed up and shot to 260 knots, exiting the area. They knew it would be a matter of time before more OPFOR or BLUFOR planes arrived. Matthew could guess what was going on in the TeamSpeak chat by what he saw in global. Most players were questioning why two BLUFOR and an OPFOR jet were all flying together, and several players had already vowed to find out.

In Matthew’s view, two green dots appeared at the edge of the radar screen, slowly approaching.

“Hey guys,” He said. “We have two BLUFOR jets approaching, probably F-35s or AV-8s. Get ready to evade. Remember, protect the C-130.”

The two jets closed the distance gradually, with the planes eventually coming into view. Two BLUFOR AV-8s appeared on his screen, closing. Chat began to appear in global.

‘>Hilden67: Guys, what the hell are you doing. Why are you flying with an OPFOR jet?’

‘>SilentJoe6: Just stay away, and we won’t shoot you down.’

‘>JudgmentSupreme2: We won’t hesitate to do so.’

‘>Hilden67: But why?’

‘>JudgmentSupreme2: Stay away or we will open fire.’

‘>Hilden67: Can’t you tell me why?’

‘>JudgmentSupreme2: No, just go away. Yet again, we won’t hesitate to shoot you down.’

Matthew noticed that the planes were closing, fast. Apparently, Hilden67 didn’t care.

‘>JudgmentSupreme2: Last chance, Hilden, or you and your friend die.’

‘>Hilden67: Try me.’

Mer spoke up. “Matthew, Joe, break off and show our guest we are serious.”

A AIM-9L suddenly shot off of one of the AV-8s, headed towards Joe. He quickly turned and fired off flares, the missile missing.

“Just shoot them down, guys.” Matthew said, quickly turning his aircraft. He fired off a brief burst from the GAU-8, missing one of the planes before they both shot past. He went into another turn, quickly doing a 180 degree turnaround. He spotted one of the AV-8s going into a wide turn and selected his remaining AIM-9L. He fired it off, the missile missing as the enemy player shot off flared. Matthew quickly rolled his A-10 the other way and prepared his GAU-8.

Joe went into a wide turn, quickly rolling over and turning the other way, trying to shake Hilden67. The determined BLUFOR player stuck with him, quickly shooting off his two AIM-9L sidewinders, not even bothering with a lock. Joe easily evaded them with another turn, the unguided missile shooting past him.

He quickly slowed down to 180 knots, the enemy plane shooting past him, unable to go that slow without stalling. Joe sped up, coming in behind the enemy player. He switched to his unguided S-8 missiles and started firing, holding down the trigger as the small missiles flew out, two dozen of them reaching for the AV-8. The doomed pilot rolled over to evade before eight of the tiny missiles struck in quick succession, the enemy jet turning into a fireball, hurtling towards the ground.

“Hilden’s down!” Joe yelled into his mike.

Meanwhile, Matthew quickly rolled out of the way as several Hydra missiles zoomed past him. The remaining AV-8 was on him, and he couldn’t shake the determined player. He tried for one gamble, quickly slowing down his craft and moving up. Surprisingly, the BLUFOR jet shot by him. He turned the nose down and matched speeds, arming his GAU-8. The enemy jet rolled to the right, attempting to evade, but Matthew turned his A-10 to match, the reticule hovering ahead of the AV-8s flight path. He pressed his mouse button, sending a stream of bullets, into the AV-8, turning it into a fireball within seconds.

“The other one is toast.” Matthew quickly said.

“Good!” Mer said. “Now get back here, I’m flying northbound over Sakhe right now. I have a plan.”

Matthew quickly pulled up his map. He exited out of it and corrected his course, boosting his speed up to 280 knots. He quickly reached a spot north of the town and saw the C-130 just ahead. He slowed down, matching its speed at 250 knots. Off to his left, Joe formed up with the rest of the group.

“Ok everyone, listen up.” Mer said. “The game ends in a half-hour. We don’t know what will happen then, but let’s assume that the unicorn disappears when that happens. If that’s the case, we just need to survive for thirty more minutes. We won’t do that flying around, not anymore, so I suggest we go off the edge of the map and into the generated terrain in a northern direction. We can simply keep a low profile if we are out there. Any questions?”

Joe quickly spoke up. “Yeah, what will we do to keep every BLUFOR or OPFOR person from finding us?”

“Simple.” Mer replied. “I spawn us a couple Humvees, we driver around, end of story.”

“Sounds good.” Matthew said.

The group continued north, passing over the northern airfield two minutes later. A few bullets reached up to meet them, but the combatants on the ground were more focused on blasting one another.

Thirty seconds later, the flight crossed the edge of the map and into the generated terrain.

“Ok everyone.” Mer said. “Begin your decent, and stay as a group.”

The three aircraft began to lower in altitude, quickly lowering their speed to 150 knots and settling down on the mostly flat terrain. Matthew shut the engine off with the scroll menu and waited for the aircraft to come to a halt. When it did, he climbed out, running towards the small gathering. The rest of the group had gotten out of their respective planes and stood in a rough group, waiting up for him.

He gave a small glance at the purple unicorn in front of him before turning his attention to Mer.

“Ok,” Matthew said. “You can spawn the vehicles now.”

Firs tone Humvee with an M2, and then another spawned, right next to one another. Mer also spawned a motorcycle for Joe, as OPFOR couldn’t enter the same vehicle as BLUFOR. Matthew and Leon mounted up on one of them, with Mer and Twilight Sparkle on another, and Joe on the bike. They quickly set off, putting some distance between them and their landing zone.

“Twenty-six minutes left.” Mer said.

Suddenly, a Mi-24 appeared in the distance.

“Oh, fuck me.” Matthew said. Apparently, some players on the server were still searching for them.

‘>[THJ] Jarmin: ur going down, bitch.’

‘>SilentJoe6: No you.’

Leon on the turret quickly rotated the gun to face the incoming Mi-24. He fired the M2 machine gun, scoring hits along the front of the heavily armored helicopter. A stream of bullets began to fire out of the gunship, flying past the Humvee and scoring a few glancing hits. Leon kept firing, aiming for the cockpit canopy. A Falanga 3M11 missile soared past the Humvee, impacting the ground in front of them.

Suddenly, the M-24 spun, the back rotor gone, it impacted the ground in a fireball, the blackened wreck sliding to a halt as the group continued on.

“What the hell just happened!” Leon said.

“I used a hack called HitBackRotor on it.” Mer explained. “No time to talk, just keep moving. We have twenty-four minutes left.”

Matthew suddenly chimed in. “Takistani UAZ, AGS-30 on the back, behind us and slowly closing!”

Leon turned the gun around once more, firing a few shots before the gun started to reloaded.

“Damn it, reloading.” Leon said.

Grenades began to impact around them as Leon once more pressed on the trigger. Suddenly, a grenade hit Joe’s motorcycle, instantly killing him.

“Fuck!” They heard Joe say through Skype.

“What’s happening out there?” Matthew heard the unicorn say.

“A fucking war to protect you while they try to kill us! At least this is just a fucking game…” Mer said.

“Not to me!” He heard the unicorn reply.

Meanwhile, Leon had finally killed the gunner of the UAZ. The driver was still closing. He quickly used the scroll menu to switch to the gunner’s seat and started firing grenades again. Leon started firing again, round after round hitting the UAZ, causing it to finally explode. The Humvee was damaged, though, and the ‘Hull’ icon was orange.

“It’s fucking dead, but we’re damaged.” Matthew said.

“Twenty minutes left!” Mer said.

Matthew grimaced. “Fuck it, we won’t make it like this. Mer, we need to get across the map, and quickly.”

“I can teleport us.” Mer said.

“Why the hell didn’t you do that before!” Leon shouted.

“Because too many bad things can happen if we’re moving when I teleport each of us, one by one. For example, we could drive off a fucking cliff or fly into a goddamn mountain.” Mer replied.

“Just do it!” Matthew said, slowing down to a stop.

He was suddenly in a south portion of Takistan. Moments later, Mer’s Humvee appeared beside them. Matthew opened the map and noted that they were in that open field again, where they had met Joe.

“How long until they find us?” Leon said.

“They won’t.” Mer replied. “They’re searching to the north, and after I bombed out the entire southern portion of the map, nobody really comes down here.”

A full minute passed in silence before the unicorn spoke up.

“I appreciate what you’ve done, but why?” She said.

“Because.” Mer said. “We didn’t need a reason, we just wanted to do it. It’s something to work for. You’re not a part of the game at all, a complete unknown. That means something that’s far beyond my understanding, especially after looking through the game’s running scripts. In other words, we all decided, ‘What the hell? Let’s fucking do this.’”

“Actually,” Leon said. “I just followed Matthew.”

“Stalker.” Matthew teased.

“I’m not into you like that.” Leon replied.

Matthew smiled. “Really? I thought that you were into guys.”

“If by that you mean your mother, then yeah.”

Mer grinned. “Oh shut up, both of you.”

Moments later, chat started appearing in global again.

‘>Server Admin (Remote): Guys, we’re restarting the server a bit early because of the hacker, and the blue-on-blue stuff going on. What the hell is up, anyway?’

‘>Hilden67: Some assholes are flying around, three BLUFOR, one OPFOR, and something else.’

‘>[THJ] Jarmin: something else? wut you mean.’

‘>Hilden67: I suspect hackers or something. For a second, the playerdot for one of the guys inside the C-130 had a purple dot, or some shit like that. Also, those three that are flying around? Killing everyone that gets near.’

‘>[THJ] Jarmin: i tried to kill them twice, but they killed me both times.’

‘>Server Admin (Remote): This concerns me, how?’

‘>SilentJoe6: Just ignore them and restart it already.’

“What?” Joe said over Skype. “Did you think I was gone?”

“Sort of.” Matthew replied.

He turned to the purple unicorn. “The server is restarting now, and you should be gone when it does. I think, at least.”

“Well…” She said. “Today has been… Interesting.”

“Talk about it.” Mer muttered.

‘>Server Admin (Remote): Server restart in ten seconds.’

“Goodbye.” Mer said.

“See ya.” Leon casually remarked.

Matthew was last. “Yet again, goodbye.”

The screen went dark.

[End of Round]

Victory/Home

Matthew fidgeted while he waited for the game to start. This time, all four of the group had managed to fit on BLUFOR. Mer claimed he could tell if the unicorn was in-game by looking at the scripts for ‘OBJECT-UNKNOWN-INTERACT’ lines, which would be a sign that she was in-game and moving. Matthew hoped that it didn’t come to pass. He couldn’t spend the next 72 hours online, after all, waiting for the next game to end.

Finally, after two full minutes, the server host finally started the game. Takistan quickly loaded, and he was left with the black ‘RECEIVING’ screen while he waited. It disappeared, leaving him a view of the BLUFOR camp, surrounded by the BLUFOR players.

“Did it work?” Matthew immediately asked through Skype chat.

Ten seconds passed before the reply came. “No sign of any interaction in the game scripts. It worked.”

Matthew exhaled, along with Leon. It had worked! Joe gave out a small cheer that could be heard through his microphone, and Mer simply smiled. All of their efforts had paid off.

Whether it was a glitch, a joke, or something else entirely, Matthew did not know. But he knew that, if it was ‘something else’, he had done the right thing. The unicorn would be home.

-=-=-

Twilight Sparkle was blinded by an intense flash the moment the ‘game’ ended. Seconds later, after blinking the spots out of her eyes, she found herself on a road outside of Ponyville. She took a deep breath, enjoying the feel of the crisp spring air. She was home.

Truthfully, she was thankful to whoever had protected her during her stay in – what had they called it? – Takistan. She could have actually died dozens of times, while it seemed it was all a simulation for them, something that was not real, like an artificial dream they could all join. If she had died, though, there would have been no ‘respawning’ for her.

She looked up at the sun. No longer was it the harsh glare of that desert, but the glorious rays of Princess Celestia’s sun.

She got to her hooves and quickly started running back to town, headed for her library. Several ponies have her odd looks as she ran past, but she didn’t care. She opened the doors and happily trotted inside, startling Spike.

“Twilight!” He said. “Where have you been? Half of Ponyville saw you disappear in a flash-“

“Later, Spike.” She said. “For now, please take down a letter.”

Her assistant scrambled for paper, before finding a sheet, quickly taking out a quill and dipping it in ink, ready for whatever she wanted to write.

She cleared her throat, and started her letter. “Dear Princess Celestia…”

Prologue - A Normal Day (Or Not)

Twilight Sparkle walked through Ponyville, happily singing to herself. This day was going to be perfect! She had everything planned out, from the picnic she was headed from to the spa visit later in the day.

A bird soared through the air, catching her attention. It drifted on the air currents, happy with its day as well.

It was beautiful outside.

Suddenly, a bright flash filled her vision. It surrounded her on every side, blinding her.

Twilight Sparkle, personal student of Princess Celestia, vanished from Equestria.

-=-=-

Matthew quickly put his gaming headset on, sitting down at his computer.

"Hurry up, Matthew!" He heard his friend Leon shout through the headset. "We need to grab a sniper and get moving! We've fully recovered from that hacker earlier, and the AI is building our base for us. We're attacking now!"

With that, Matthew dived into his game of ArmA 2: Operation Arrowhead, happily moving along the desert terrain.

This day was going to be great.