Mercs on a Mission

by Gairenard

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Princess Luna, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6
Length: 51880

With war on Equestrians on the horizon; nine hired guns, alongside a new one, are sent to seek and destroy behind enemy lines.

"If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight!" - Sun Tzu

With war on Equestrians on the horizon; nine hired guns, alongside a new one, are sent to seek and destroy behind enemy lines. A Team Fortress 2 crossover story with bureau background
Read the adventurous tale of how a group of ten men changed the face of the war, changed the lives of national heroes, and created the foundation for the days post war for said enemy nation.

First story on fimfic. Started as an idea I had to write down.

Published 2014-01-29 04:00:05 UTC
Last updated 2014-05-23 23:18:21 UTC

Meet the Team. Meet the Mercs.

Chapter 1- Meet the Team. Meet the Mercs.

They had to be brought in via airdrop. It was the easiest and quickest way.
The landing was smooth and there was great view of the scenery on the way down, never before had a land like this be seen in such beauty. The cargo included, this drop-in was only made possible through automated parachutes that could be programmed to get itself to a specified location. Ten humans, and a large bundle of cargo crates were being flown towards a large cave resting on a cliff face with the assistants from these parachutes.

The cave known as, once home to a dragon, was left untouched by any living being until today. That said the cavern was massive. A building could fit inside it. Due to its elevation, at the peak of the Smokey Mountain it rested on, the cave itself was well lit up from the sun. From its mouth: a view of Ponyville and the castle capital behind it. These men, the first visitors to lay eyes on the cave in a while, have been hired by another group of people that had been bickering among themselves for decades, before a new threat posed itself that would end the argument for the time being. These hired men would do what needed to be done; the dirty workers, the gamers of death, the political persuasions; so long as the money came through. They were mercenaries. More than that, but nine of them were veterans of the Gravel Wars, as well as defenders against a robot army. Those kind of things look good on a mercs resume. Now free from those conflicts and the rules of war that they had been forced to follow, the veterans had chosen to continue doing what they did best.

Having hauled the cargo crates that came down with them into the cave, each mercenary took their own crate that had been previously labeled with each members name, and took time to fully inspect their new gear. The unexpected guests knew that time was of the essence, the camp must be ready by nightfall. But taking inventory was first priority.

A young man, born in Boston, cracked open his crate to see what lie within. Laying on top of the goods was a thick, colorful pamphlet. Each mercenary received a pamphlet, inside of the crates, containing each mercenary's guns. These pamphlets held simple descriptions of what had been improved, by their employers, of their weapons and load-outs. There were old and new additions to the familiar armory, and without any rules of war, more than 3 pieces of equipment could be used at once! Most of them had their own personal melee weapon of choice unaltered by request.

Each member had vague code names, rarely do real names come up in conversation. "Titles" could be a good description of what the names are in question.

Scout, the Boston boy, was one of the younger team members, with his age approximated to be in the mid to late 20s. Most other members around him appear to be in the 35+ range. He wore a black cap, purple shirt with rolled up sleeves, and dog tags that sit around his neck. His hands were wrapped in cloth much like a boxers, but fingers had been left completely exposed. Fastened with a black belt and a rectangular buckle are his brown jeans that are tucked into long sport socks that sit in a pair of sport sneakers. Lastly, fastened to his back was a plain, black duffle bag.

Class:Scout
Primary weapon(s)
AA-Blaster (scattergun): 2× fire rate; 25% more bullets/spread; +50% clip; no drawbacks
Secondary(s)
Pistol: Increased damage by 25%; no fall damage; no drawbacks
Bonk: unmodified
Milk: unmodified
Cleaver: sharpened
Melee
Baseball bat and ball

Soldier, stared down blankly at his pamphlet. He wore a single piece, purple trenchcoat that reached slightly beyond his waist line. Perched on his head was a WW2 American helmet left unstrapped to his head, and the helmet itself sheltered his eyes from view of anything. Yet the man could still “see” clearly. An utility belt had itself around his waist and across his chest, on a sash, was two yellow emergency grenades. He wore brown jeans that were tucked into his tall war boots.

Class:Soldier
Primary weapon(s)-
Rocket launcher: Increased travel speed by 40%; increased damage by 75%; no drawbacks
Rocket jumper: unmodified
Secondary(s)
Shotgun: Increased damage by 15%; no drawbacks
Gun-Treads (Boots): 60% less self-damage from rocket jumping; deals ×3 fall damage to opposition landed on; 75% less push back from damage; no drawbacks
Melee
Standard collapsible military shovel
Gray-green pickaxe

Demoman read while drinking his alcoholic scrumpy bottle, somehow able to read clearly in a drunken stupor. The black Scottish man wore a black wool cap, and had has left eye covered by an eyepatch. A thin, scruff like beard completed his face. He wore a white long sleeve shirt that stopped at his mid-forearm, laid below a purple thick shirt that reached his elbows. Over those shirts was a black thick, but flexible bomb vest with a crotch flap. The vest had six yellow emergency pipe grenades fastened to the front of it in vertical rows of three. His legs had purple pants that ended tucked into black socks and black boots with its boot sleeve rolled down over his ankle.

Class:Demoman
Primary Weapon(s)
Grenade launcher: damage increased 75%; +50% magazine; no drawbacks
Loose cannon: damage increased 50%; fuse and Donk function unmodified; -25% damage after contact with surrounding surfaces
Secondary(s)
Splendid Targe: +50% resistance to explosive and fire damage; +70% charge damage at any distance; damage and re-charge rate increases when heads are collected; no drawbacks
Scottish launcher: +25% fire rate; +50% ammunition; no active stick bomb limit; detonation can be toggled between directed and simultaneous; bombs will detonate beneath you if a separate button is pressed
Melee
Eyelander: cleaned and sharpened
Scrumpy bottle: unmodified

Sniper sharpened his Jarate jars while reading. No one knows how jars are sharpened, nor do they have a desire to know. Especially if they are used the way he uses them. FYI “Jarate” is slang for piss. More specifically, piss he throws at people on a regular basis. Sniper wares a Australian hat, as he is a native of said country. The hat fails to hide his side burns that rub up against the frame of his sunglasses that protect him from sun glare. He wore an Australian kakadu shirt under an unzipped black hunters vest. A wrist watch was fastened to his left arm and a single finger-less glove covered the hand on that arm. Brown pants that ended in, what else but Australian boots.

Class: Sniper
Primary Weapon(s):
Sniper rifle: +15% damage dealt when fully charged; penetrating shots when fully charged; silencer reduces sound signature; penetrating shots are tracer rounds
Huntsman: unmodified
Secondary(s)
SMG: +25% damage; added silencer; no drawbacks
RazorSheild: blocks multiple backstabs; +40% blast and bullet resistance; no drawbacks
Jarate (piss): definitely unmodified
Melee
Kukri: unmodified

Spy calmly lit up a cigarette and focused on reading, rather than watching Sniper sharpen his jars. This French man wore a simple rubber purple mask on his head and neck concealing any distinct features except for his eyes and mouth. The his attire consisted of a purple tailored suit with matching tie and pants. Finally, a pair of dress shoes adorned his feet. An unusual choice of outfit given the circumstances, but the man had style.

Class: Spy
Primary Weapon(s)
Revolver: +60% damage; no drawbacks
Secondary(s)
Electro-sapper: unmodified
Red tape recorder: unmodified
Melee
Butterfly knife: unmodified
Tool(s)
Disguise kit: unmodifiable
Invis-watch: +50% duration; no drawbacks
Cloak and dagger: +50% recharge; same drawbacks
Dead ringer: +50% duration; no drawbacks
[One pocket book on pony anatomy included in crate]

Spy opted to immediately start looking into the pocket book, followed closely by Dr. Medic who had finished reading his pamphlet. Medic had a short, well groomed black head of hair, and a pair of small circular glasses. He wore a white collared shirt with tie that is underneath a lightly hued purple vest. Over that he wears a white overlapping coat where the buttons fasten to his left side with three buttons located in the upper body area. the coat extends down his side and behind his legs, leaving his brown pants exposed in front, before stopping an inch or two above his short boots. At his waist is a heavy duty belt that serves to secure side and back pouches. His hands are usually covered by thick, purple rubber gloves. Overall he was the photo finish, stereotypical, german field and lab medic/scientist.

Class: Medic
Primary weapon(s)
Syringe gun: unmodified due to personal request
Crusaders crossbow: unmodified
Secondary(s)
Medi-gun: +40% heal rate; +25% übercharge rate; move at the speed of any faster heal target
Übercharge grants krits, 200% heal rate, and invulnerability; no drawbacks
Melee
Übersaw: unmodified
Saw: unmodified
[One pocket book on pony anatomy included]

Pyro had tried to light his pamphlet on fire, but discovered, to its disappointment, that the pamphlet was made of a nonflammable material of some variety. The gender of this creature is still unknown. This is because Pyro wears a black, full head gas mask where the round lenses are one way tinted, so you can't see his/her eyes. The mask is technically a separate part of his outfit. The main body wears an asbestos-lined purple suit that covers the whole body. The hands wear firefighters gloves, the thick rubber-like kind. Firefighter boots that have their sleeve rolled down over itself but reaching above his ankles can be seen at his feet along with the full body suit that also includes socks. Three emergency incendiary grenades are strapped to a sash grouped near the shoulder. The mouth of this thing is muffled. Words only escape as genderless “Murphs.”

Class: Pyromaniac
Primary weapon(s)
Flamethrower: flame can be toggled between length and width; no drawbacks
Secondary(s)
Shotgun: +15% damage; no drawbacks
Flare gun: shots can knock back opponents; flares can be detonated midair; no drawbacks
Melee
Fire ax: unmodified

Engineer sighed and took a look at his leaflet. Lifting the hard hat perched over his bald scalp, he scratched an itch. The Texas ranger's eyes are usually hidden behind a pair of work goggles, similar in design and effect as Pyro's. A purple collared work shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows was underneath brown overalls that had an utility belt located at the waist. He wore a pair of yellow workman knee pads, and wore a pair of workboots at his feet.

Class: Engineer
Primary weapon(s)
Rescue Pomson: fires a laser that heals buildings and deals damage to opposition; no reload; laser charges when inactive; alt. Fire teleports buildings at the cost of 180 metal; no drawbacks
Secondary(s)
Wrangler: unmodified
Pistol: +25% damage; no drawbacks
Melee
Wrench: unmodified
[No active sentry limit]

Heavy stared both in amusement and confusion as Engi passionately hugged the badass monstrosity that is a Rescue Ranger-Pomson. To summarize the Heavy look before going into detail, the Heavy resembles a giant, shaved, Russian bear. Keep that in mind. Though bald Heavy wears an imposingly large purple shirt with an equally impressive black vest over it. Both hands wear fingerless gloves and a sash of large bullets is worn across his chest. Apart form that, the average pants and boots finished off his simplistic look.

Class: Heavy
Primary weapon(s)
Mini gun (Sasha): +20% damage; no drawbacks
Secondary(s)
Shotgun: +15% damage; no drawbacks
Sandvich: unmodified
Melee
Fists: unmodified

Rifleman calmly inspected his gear, satisfied with what he had read in the pamphlet. He wore a US marine, combat uniform and boots, but had left his helmet behind to reveal a young visage with the age of ~35 written on it. His black hair was cut short and, only when he stood, one could estimate his height of 6'. He wore black, Oakley sport sunglasses that had been custom ordered to have interchangeable lenses, presently he wore them with normal, clear, prescribed lenses; almost killing the badass vibe yet enhancing it as well. Lastly, a pair of finger-less gloves covered his hands.

Class: Rifleman
Primary weapon(s)
AK-47: 30 shot clip; red dot sight; detachable flashlight
Secondary(s)
M1911 pistol: 45 cal.; 7 shot clip
Melee
Machete

The Rifleman was tricked into being transferred from the U.S military to the TF-S (Team Fortress Squad). He signed up on, what he was led to believe, a confirmation sheet for Leave. Instead he was signing a confirmation sheet to join their team. Disgruntled, but nevertheless obedient, Rifleman soon found himself acquainted with nine other mercenaries.

Was he a marine? Technically yes. Did he act like one? Not entirely. This was a small factor, but a factor nonetheless, in how this modern man was transferred. In truth, he loved the concept of “merc for hire”, but this wasn't what he had in mind.

"Hey, guys?" The nine mercs turned to Scout. He had his pamphlet open in one hand, and his pistol in the other. "Do these “bonus stat” stuff really matter anymore?" A good question, as no longer was weapon statistics nearly as important. Outside the badlands, an explosion would be measured in size, not how badly the enemy was damaged. A bullet was a bullet. A dead man was a dead man. "Not entirely," answered Rifleman to answer Scout’s question, "It is the best way for you to gauge how improved your guns are. Since that is how you have been doing it for so many years beforehand." Scout looked down at his pistol, satisfied with the answer, but felt an ominous weight inside his chest. No longer would he need to empty most of his ammo to take down a few people, now one bullet would end a life. Instead of unchanged terrain, craters and fallen buildings will be left in the wake of rockets.
For them, his was a different kind of war altogether.

There came a still, boring, silence. Eyes slowly fell on Engie, who was still hugging his new gun. Realizing how stupid he must look, the Texan straightened up and quickly collected himself. "W-well boys, let's start setting up the base." The ten men grabbed a box or two each and began moving to the back of the cavern. The set up was to be kept simple and minimal. Several dispensers near the right wall, two workbenches at the other, sleeping by the back, a fire pit in the center, and a magnetic white board for briefing. With ten people the job took less than ten minutes. They sat in a semicircular C around the fire pit, and no fire was in place yet.
They all stared at the large mouth of the cave. A strange new world was just beyond it and they were one of the few to have tackled it so boldly, so head on.

Equestrians have recently appeared almost out of nowhere, along with their continent that has overtaken a large chunk of the Pacific ocean. This was the result of an experiment with the prized magical gems, known as the elements of harmony. This crated a dual dimensional phenomenon that allowed the kingdom to jump across time and space. Even now little is understood of exactly what allowed this to be possible.

At first, diplomatic relations with the two princessi went swimmingly. It appeared that magic and science could be meshed together for the benefit of all. A few months ago however, Equestria began a human to pony conversion program and it became a requirement for entry into Equestrian territory. Slowly, rumors, speculation, and discussion sprang up on the topic. Why did they make this a law? Is there a way to turn back? Is this even safe? It really took off when two of those questions were answered. Numerous reports and studies proved that the conversion was highly imperfect and brainwashed personality to the point that the individual barely retained any of his or her human character and became a simple, go-happy pony. No horse spoke an apology, no horse acknowledged the prevalent issue. The political tensions became tight and humanity wanted some form of justification, some reason as to why. Until a naïve mare spoke on international TV. For sake of simplicity, I’ll simply say that she indirectly, but clearly made all Equestrian intentions clear. To convert, or suppress the human race. It was outrage that followed a wave of confusion. The two species aren't at war, but the anger that is circulating needed to be vented. America’s president decided to take action and publicly denounced Equestria. Happy someone raised their voice the UN held meetings to formally list who would and wouldn't be involved in the war that was sure to ensue. They will make it official, but for now these guys were hired; by a specific, classified ring of allies in the UN; to soften up the Equestrians from the inside and work behind the lines before and during the war to throw Equestria into partial chaos.

The crew found themselves staring into the space before the cave and, for only one moment, failed to see the equine figure sticking her head in the great mouth. That moment had passed away quickly and instinctively ten pairs of arms reached for their guns, ready to shoot whoever thought could cut the mission off before it could start.
"WAIT!! WAIT!! DON'T SHOOT!!" She pleaded, her voice had a dull tone but it was but clear. "I was sent here by your employer!" The light refocused and her features became clear, “I am Derpy Hooves, your closest friend and ally out behind the enemy lines.”

Author's Note

[Any continuation of this story purely depends on reception. A chapter like this may take a week or two for me to do well. And of course, constructive criticism welcome]

Plan of action, or lack thereof

Chapter 2 - Plan of action, or lack thereof

"I am the overseer of the equestrian postal service. My job in your quest is to intercept and relay mail to you and keep any confidential information about your whereabouts contained. There are others who follow me that will ensure that all circulating mail is clean of your activities. And we can do this because we are the only postal service available on Equestria, so mail from every corner of the land is filtered through the Ponyville headquarters before sent to an outpost near one or more cities. This system is effective when letters travel long distance, but suffers if you just want to send it to the next town over." After the initial reaction to her sudden appearance, Derpy convinced the mercenaries to listen. They all sat around the now lit fire pit after having Scout fetch wood, much to his protest, and the muffins were under consumption. Derpy was a gray pegasus mare with a luscious golden mane and eyes, and a bubble mark on her flank known by natives as a cutie mark.

"Why would you betray your own country, let alone your own race?" Soldier asked between bites of the confection; patriotism has always been his ideal and he respected those with the same thought process, so long as that individual glorified America.
"I’m doing this as payment for saving my daughter's life.” Derpy’s voice became quiet and remorseful. Clearly uncomfortable how the conversation quickly took a unwanted turn. Not wanting to disappoint however, she told her tale “My daughter had been diagnosed with an unknown virus and nopony knew what it was or how to find the cure, because it reacted negatively when magic was used.” A visage of sadness and anger became apparent in her tone. “Those ponies would have just,..let her die. There was nothing they could do.” She looked back and forth at the humans before her, with a more fascinated look, and a fiery aura of self-redemption. “You humans however, you understand how everything works without magic! Humans were able to find the cure after doing some "weird science*" on her and I was ever in their debt. Afterwards they told me that they could also fix my crossed eyes that got me my name in the first place. They did fix them." Her golden yellow eyes reflected the firelight as she spoke. Her blunt yellow mane flowed from a soft wind that fueled the flames. Reminiscent of the days past.

"I sent letters and information across the border detailing what was happening in Equestria for the human newspapers. I was recently told to stop. When I was asked to help you via mail..-I couldn't refuse, when I said in their debt that also meant a giant hospital bill. I still hadn't fully paid the bill for both me and my daughter, and it was starting to pull me down the financial drain." She seemed to struggle to speak and started to stare into space towards the end. Shaking her head softly, Derpy regained herself. "I didn't come here to drown you out with my life story. Onto important business!" She seemed to confidently recite rehearsed words, crisp and clear. "Mail is still allowed to travel in and out of the country, therefore your orders are sent in, and I pass them onto you. Two: We handle goods from all around the Land; from your average birthday card - to Royal furniture, so we can smuggle you into any outpost or town. Getting you back here is less-"

"Hold yourself mam! I got that part covered." Engineer spoke up to add his two cents.
"You sure?"
"Heck Yes!"
"O-K then. Lastly, your first mission." Many mercs had voluntarily drifted into subconscious space once they realized she was starting to produce more exposition than the cause of the war itself. Now that she started saying stuff that mattered to them, they tuned back in.

Trotting up to the closest member, she presented herself to Demoman, who had snapped out of his drunk state, and held out a large envelope with a thumb printed wax seal.
Taking it he said, "Thanks lassie, but what if we need ta call ya?"
Derpy didn't know how to feel about being called "lassie", a common name for dogs, but kept that to herself. "I'll visit every morning and evening to pass over morning news and orders." Derpy glanced back and fourth. Satisfied with the first short meeting of many to ensue, she made a mock salute and flew out without another word.

(*Weird science is what is commonly referred to when magic and technology are used together.)

Demo blinked. By the time he blinked again the envelope had been torn open by his hands. Inside was two maps and a small rectangular block with speaker holes on one side. Taking the block out of the envelope, he looked up. Everyone stood or sat at attention around the fire. Demo looked over the block for any buttons, switches, anything else to activate it. The backside appeared to have a fingerprint reader. Placing his thumb on it, a voice came from the block a moment later.

"Hello, this is a message to the TF-S." The voice sounded like a man of authority. Like the kind of person you respect after talking with him for 5 seconds. Having stated the recording Demo went straight back to the bottle. "Recorders are to be destroyed as soon as you no longer require their information. These must not fall into the enemy han-..eh.. hooves as it were, for even this basic device might aid in their cause to use our technology against us." a few seconds of silence. "Your first target is the west coast town of TallTale. It is an easy target that has little support due to surrounding mountains to the east. We need you to disrupt construction of any military buildings; destroy as much military buildings as possible; and do anything else that will render the town vulnerable. The beginning of the war will be fighting off equestrian settlements on our land before heading to the main continent. So this job is merely to slow them down." A moments pause. "Remember that you are not to reveal to the populous of who you are. You will strike and nobody will know what hit them. All this said, you will not be blamed for civilian deaths so long as you get the job done, and you can use any means of destruction as you deem fit." A few more seconds of silence before the sound of static noise filled the air.

Sniper had taken the map of TallTale and placed it on the whiteboard with magnets while the man talked. Everyone moved to get a view of the map once the man finished. Sniper, having had the chance to examine it stood beside the board. The scene was not unlike a teacher preparing to address his desk-less students. "Right then, the town has three large districts evenly divi-d from a circle, which is assumed to be the city limits. The military district is to the east, busies to the north, and resis to the south, but there is an obvious problem."

The evidenced problem with this map, was that it only was a street map, name labels of major constructions happened to be the solitary indicator for structures. The military district had many labels, but the largest was labeled "Canon fort D." Two others were present on the map. One was in the residential, another in the businesses, and the military one placed in the center of the town.
"So when we arrive, we will be dropped off close to, perhaps into, ze military district?" Spy questioned, pointing at a spot labeled Postal Services. "That's right frenchie." Spy didn't respond to Snipers answer.

"Oh! Is that za hospital?" Inquired Medic, pointing at a large piece of land labeled "hospital" that was placed in between the residential and the military districts. "I vould love to have a chance to get my hands on their medicine for zome... experimental research." At the last part of his reasoning Medic looked left and right quickly to ensure his team of good intentions, despite his maniacal smile. Rifleman chimed in, "I don't think that should be a priority-"
"It is not?" Heavy said with an unanimous expression. "What are men without medics?" Heavy made a valid point. If done thoroughly enough, the reconstruction of the building should put a few things on hold. Scout too, pointed out a good reason. "That and medic might kill Rifleman if he gets too bored." Rifle knew these guys were somewhat crazy, and didn't doubt what Scout said either. He and medic glanced at each other in a I-will-be-watching-you way.

Soldier took charge, "We will take a stab at it, but this map doesn't show what anything looks like, we need to see this town in first person before we decide on anything; and for the record newbie, you can't call any shots yet. You earn your place after some experience with us on the battlefield."
"Murph-Murph-Murph, hudda-Murph. Murph-Mur-Murph."
"Pyro is right. We'll inform our transportation tomorrow, and we'll just have to see what we're up against before any plans are made." Soldier proclaimed. A reasonable course of action as the map provided little help for a proper game plan. "Its about 7pm." Spy said, glancing at his watch. "We should sleep in an hour. It might be the last full sleep we get for a while."
“Alright men! Lights out in thirty! DISMISSED!”

Engie pulled Rifle over and aside as the meeting broke up. "Look partner, you don't want to be here and we aren't nearly excited about it either, but for the record, why did they bring you into this? Really?"

"My best guess is that they wanted to get rid of me. I hated the discipline, but I had a good performance record if I do say so myself. Also they probably had someone look at your videos from the Gravel Wars and said,” (Rifle took up a high pitched voice) “ 'These guys are a bunch of maniacs! I would feel much more comfortable if you sent one of our dear boys with them'-like the damned mother f’ers they did! What did they think this was, a school for fresh mercs? Teaching me useless stuff just so I can get pulled out and dragged to the front lines? I don't need to be told about the bullshit that I need to put up with! I don't need to be told about what's at stake! I D-" Rifle stopped himself before he shouted. "I don't need to be told how to put bullets into the flesh of goddam pink. princess. ponies. You got that Texas ranger?"

"Boy, you better put what ever you have in your head away, and start putting your bullets where your dam mouth is, or I'll put one there for ya myself! You get that?"

-Morning-

"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS THIS?!" Soldier stared in fear at a silver pouch the size of a frying pan. The other mercs appeared intimidated by it as well.
"They're called MREs: Meals Ready to Eat." Rifleman was holding the offensive pouch, and found it hard to believe that they hadn't seen one before. "You just add boiling water and wait a minute for it to rehydrate/cook." The veterans suddenly became overcome with visible dread. "Please tell me, those aren't Mann.Co branded, please..." Pleaded Scout. His voice carried a rare honest tone of concern. "No," Replied Rifle somewhat confused still, "In fact I quite like this stuff." As he said this, boiling water from the fire was poured into the pouch and the sound of the hissing water slowly faded away.

Taking the pouch, Soldier decided to give the product a taste test. "I will be the judge of flavor! Unlike some people here; I AM NOT A PICKY EATER! I WILL SWALLOW!" The grave warning spoken, he grabbed a fork stuck on the pouch like a straw for a juice box. Peaking inside, the food revealed itself to be some form of ravioli with alfredo dressing. Braving the first bite, the American carefully chewed. He looked ready to spit it out at any moment should his tongue recoil in the slightest. Despite his promise to swallow. "Yo, is it alright hard head?" Scout said, silently trying not to laugh at Soldier's expression.

The man said nothing, for his mouth was full, then he swallowed, and he then spoke. "That ain't half bad! This is good food. YOU WILL ALL EAT IT! AND YOU WILL ALL LOVE IT!" Before Rifleman could say anything else, all the other mercs grabbed a pouch and began swarming the boiling water in the fire.

It was a warm Monday morning and the TF-S were having breakfast on their sleeping bags. Engie leaned over to Soldier, “I talked to him last night Solly, after the meetin.” Solly, Soldier's nickname, responded with a mouth full of food. “mmm, mm-mm”
“He's just angry and confused, I can hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. I doubt he knows the truth, he probably knows as much as we do.” Having swallowed Solly answered Engineer with words. “You think he will live through it?”

“You know he will. I jus don't understand though.”
“What?”
“Jus as a matter of why they did it in the first place. We are a team, a working machine that, time and again gets upgraded if whacked enough times with a wrench.” Soldier didn't fully understand the metaphor, but went along with it. “Well… maybe hes the metal needed for our next upgrade?”
“Perhaps, but that would be a pretty big upgrade, and one we migh not need.”

“Well, we can cross that bridge when we get there.” Solly took another bite. Engie grinned. “I'm surprised you're eating something not made in america for once. Ravioli is, uh..Italian I think?” He broke out into a small chuckle. “MMM! (GULP) THAT IS WHERE YOU ARE WRONG!” Turning the package so that Engie could see the bottom, labeled in fine print was “made in USA” “THIS IS MADE IN THE US MAGGOT! IT IS FILLED WITH CHEAP MEAT AND FAKE CHEESE!”

"Ah, our mail haz arrived!" Announced Medic. Indeed Derpy had delivered on her promise to arrive with the newspaper in hoof. "Morning guys! Its the big ol' Monday Equestria Daily news." Derpy called back as she held up the single newspaper in hoof.
Demoman called out from a mouth of Scrumpy infused re-hydrated eggs. "Paper boy!-" "Oh shut the hell up Demo! I'm moving!" Scout made his way to the rolled paper in Derpy’s hoof and began distributing parts of it to his team. "Heavy, here's the food section. Engie, the main page. Pyro, adds. Sniper and Spy, Politics/ Opinions. Demo, travel section. Sports, for me. Comics for Medic. Soldier, they have a section completely dedicated to the war effort. (OH! Give it here twinkle toes!) Yeah, yeah, here. And Rifle, you get wants left. (Weather section, eh)"

Scout sat down with his quadruped sport paper and, itching for some redemption, called for the coffee. "Yo Coffee Scott! How's the brew coming along!-" "ACH! Ye bloody, weasel. The brew should be done bi now, I’ll have ye know." The solar powered coffee maker was a gift from Engie's mother. The coffee beans from Brazil was a small gift from the United Nations for gratitude of carrying out the dark deeds that they were paying them to do. Demo was in charge of preparation and brewing of the coffee. "Ah! A fresh cup of Joe." Ten muggs had been provided as well. "Mmmm... and a firm medium roast." Soldier said as he drank in its warm aroma, for he was a man who loved his coffee. Rifleman overheard Soldier shouting about American made ravioli, and was curious. “So you don't eat non-american products, but drink brazilian coffee?”
“This is different. Apart from Demoman, I too know my way around coffee beans, coffee is sweet like the death of Tom Jones! And no one is out of deaths sweet touch!”

Derpy, who had gotten up early to ensure that she should arrive on time, had missed her morning cup, and was instinctively drawn to the brew. Before taking a single mug without asking, she noticed a lack of sweetener. “Wheres the creamer?”
“They don't give out such a luxury like that on the battlefield.” Sniper spoke, his head hidden by a thin wall of headlines. “You guys drink this straight?!” As she exclaimed this, other members of the party served themselves a mug, only for them to return to the paper and their food. “We are no puny men. We no need sugar.” Heavy responded, holding his mug with the utmost care, and sipping the coffee like tea, before eating a re-hydrated crumpet with butter.

“MURPH! Murr, Murr.” Pyro's mug and MRE bag were already empty. Even how it eats remains a mystery. “Pyro has ze point, we need you to take us to Tall Tale.” Spy translated. Thinking for a moment, Derpy replied, "That's a 4hr flight. I can have your transport arrive in an half hour. But you still haven't explained how you're getting back?" Derpy was aching for a good answer. What could they possibly have that can deliver them back in reasonable time? And across long distances?
"And it will stay that way." Engie adjusted his goggles as he spoke with blunt force.
"Do you guys have a plan then?"
“Of attack? Nooooo Mam!”
“Any particular target?”
“None of your bloody business.” Sniper curly responded.
“Do you want muffins on your trip?” Derpy wanted a positive response from them for once.
”YES!” was the unison answer.

“Fine then." Derpy said calmly. "Your transport will be here in thirty minutes and your muffins shall be blueberry.” The response she got was unison again but this time as movement as they actively readied themselves for the journey. Because the majority was still eating breakfast, nearly ten humans before her made a great effort to wolf-down their food and drink as if it were a eating contest.This was followed by a few burps for effect.
“Ugh, men.” Derpy left disgusted, but secretly amused, to call the transport forward.

Author's Note

Chapter 2!! So, what do you think of the dialogue? Not easy to keep track of when writing for eleven characters. The next chapter is expected in about a week and a half, so hold tight! Lastly, constructional criticism is presented with a humble welcome mat.

The Burning of Tall Tale

Chapter 4- The Burning of Tall Tale

The military base was simplistic in design and as such in function. There were only six main parts to the base as a whole, one of which being the Defense Tower that sat toward the very edge of the grounds. Behind the tower to its right was a large house shaped structure that served as the mess hall and briefing room. On the left, was an open training field. Behind the Main building, in a rectangular grid, was the barracks. Further beyond, a long solid building made of stone and iron. This building was the armory.
Sniper's job usually gave him the best seat in the house, and this was no exception. He sat on the highest study branch of a great redwood tree. An anomaly in this forest, but a plaque at the base of the trunk tells the reader that the tree was planted in tribute to Redwood Heart, a famous stallion of authority in ancient times who defended northern Equestrians from Griffin forces and made his greatest stand in this town. It was from this tree that Sniper had done his prior scouting after some eventful climbing.

[Hi readers! If you're having trouble visualizing this, or you're just too lazy to do so, then let Mann Co. Illustrations enhance your experience!] [Not to scale, some details missing]

A small piece of trivia: Redwood's body was used to fertilize the tree when it was first planted, a popular theory to the tree's healthy state and long life.

Sniper quietly scanned the tower window. Through the window a large cannon could be seen pointed towards the coast through a thin long opening just big enough for the barrel. As old fashioned as a cannon may seem, one still would prefer not to be in its sights when it might go off. To its right, a wooden contraption that resembled an oversized crossbow, again a menacing contraption. Three stallions were relaxing on a small group of chairs around and small table, their words could not be heard from this distance.
A feature of Sniper’s rifle is a small Mann. Co patented magnetic generator that lies within the stock of the rifle. This is the power source for all the features of Sniper’s rifle. The bushman hovered his cross hairs on the group. Under normal circumstances the rifle would emit a laser sight light for night combat and accuracy. It is activated by a sensor on the scope for when it detects Sniper’s head zooming in, however if one looked for it, you would see the red dot of death hovering around on who ever was targeted as prey. Another quality part is also a Mann. Co patented device with a classified mechanism known only as the Bullet Charger. This nifty device uses energy from the generator to “power the shot” before firing. At any time between the start of the charge to the point of capacity, the penetrating power of the bullet will increase and thus forth its damage. Of course the more power released the louder the suppressed rifle gets until it can no longer be classified as “suppressed” at max capacity. These functions are big giveaways for stealth.

Therefore the generator, and thus the devices, were turned off. This mattered little to Sniper for he refused to allow doubt of any kind to enter his mind. If he does, the brain is then clouded with subconscious worry and fear, and the shots he would fire might miss. Very unprofessional. He believes he is the best. Because that's how you stay the best.

A trap door on the floor of the room in the tower opened. Out came a mare with a smooth gold mane with a pink highlight and corresponding tail. Naturally the three stallions immediately gave her all their attention. She seemed not to care, and started talking casually to them. She then said something that caused the stallions to look out the window toward the ocean, and away from her.
Spy then made his move, as did Sniper. The mare, quick and swift, lifted her hoof and drew a blade into the spine of the stallion closest to her while cutting of screams of pain by covering his mouth. The very millisecond his eyes and brain saw this, Sniper but a bullet through the throat and neck of the stallion sitting furthest from Spy who had lost the disguise and moved on to the last pony in a single step. The victim had no time to react as he was killed in the same fashion as the first pony fallen.

Spy looked directly at his teammate through the other window and gave a silent nod of thanks before going back down the tower.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Heavy, Soldier, Rifleman, and Scout worked about in putting part two of the plan in place. Voices were in whispers, as they worked outside the barracks where hundreds slept. One by one, Heavy passed a barrel of powder from the armory to Scout of Soldier who laboriously worked to get 1-2 barrels placed by a sleeping barrack with a trail of powder linking them together. Two ponies had already stepped out to take a piss before being immediately taken down by Sniper, who could now focus all attention on the team below. Rifleman stood guard and heard something through his in-ear mic.

“Mate, you got three ponies patrolling the perimeter of the base with an oil lamp, far right behind the armory. Must’ve slipped by the edge of the forest. I can only get one before the others have time to react.”
Rifle was already moving, he put his hand to his ear for a gentle push-to-reply. “Gotcha, how close are they?”
“Close, fifteen seconds.”
“Shit.” Rifleman picked up his silent pace.
“Triangle formation, one on the left and one on the right, both in front of one.”
Rifleman could hear them as he got closer, two mares gossiping and the third was then a disgruntled, silent stallion probably lagging behind out of boredom. “I can get two around the corner.”
“Perfect mate, show me what ya got. On my word.”
His back was pressed against the edge of the bottom right angle of the rectangle building. His mind quickly preparing the body, it seemed to chant a subconscious protocol. Soft breaths, focus, plan your attack, wait and listen...
"I heard that Copper Hoof came back because he was kicked out of human territory!"
“Oh you don't say! Well I-call-dibs!”
Ready the weapon...
“No. I already asked him. Hooves off.”
“Shoot. Well I have some tricks up my sleeve, I steal him away, like-before you know it girl.”
Almost there…
“Oh, you're on sister!”
“Now mate!” KILL!
Time slowed as Sniper pulled the trigger on the mare to the left. At the signal, Rifleman put his right foot in a pivot position and threw his body around the corner for momentum as the mare fell, her friend barely starting to react to what at first glance appeared as a stumble. Her eyes hadn't seen the blood spray from her neck yet.

The black machete, made of high quality steel and alloys and sharpened to a microscopic point, was driven down at an angle into the throat of mare number two, cutting of any sound. In one large step with his right foot, his hand grabbed the throat of the stallion who was caught off guard and in doing so dropped the lamp. Rifleman brought his left foot forward to complete his center of balance and in the process twisted the long blade from the breathless corpse, mangling the neck in an unsettling way as the blade had embedded itself in the upper spine. He stood for one whole second with a struggling stallion hanging in the air within his death drip. The stallion’s eyes showed unrelenting fear. The human eyes displayed serious thrill. A terrifying contrast. Dropping the machete, a quick and cruel neck snap finished the job.

“...Good work. Quick and silent.” Sniper wasn't surprised, just impressed.
Rifleman answered back with a relaxed voice, like one fresh out of a hot shower. “Moving back to position.”
-Meanwhile-
“No.”
“Nein.”
“Bagh!"

“Oh! Here it is. Ze medical textbooks, records, and medical documents!” In a multi purpose medical storage room Medic made his way through what was available for items of potential importance, Spy fondled with a half spent cigarette, and Demoman was drinking scrumpy and medical alcohol. Spy looked to Demo and his unhealthy habit, not like his constant smoking was any better. “Are the bombs in place?” Demo answered with no sign of alcohol poisoning. “Of course, once Medic is done we can go.” Spy glared a forewarning toward the doctor, “We’ve spent far too long here. It won't be long before someone sees the sign and the dead receptionist. And I'm starting to feel the side effects of your smoke bombs in my stomach.” Medic looked impatiently at his comrades, “Fine dunkophs, help me find zomething unique or medically significant and ve can go. Besides, I varned you about ze effects! How else vould ve have gotten za patrolling guards.”

They searched in boxes and cabinets and, much to their chagrin, crates. Items collected include but are not limited two: Preserved organs, small gems, amputated parts, medicine, herbs and plants, a daisy sandwich, more medical alcohol, nurse hats, medical equipment/tools, a chemistry set, numerous medical books and records, and in the same filing cabinet where the paperwork was discovered a secret hidden picture of the now dead receptionist with Justin Beaver.

“I’m no medical expert but-wait!” Spy tuned his ears and listened to the tile he was walking on in the room. The pitch his shoes made was more sharp and not nearly as dull as surrounding sections of tile. “This part of the floor is hollow,” he stepped on it a few more times, “Something is under here!” Demo wasted no time or collateral care as he planted a sticky bomb at Spys feet and detonated it just as the frightened french man leaped away.

“You bomb chucking delinquent! I’ll-” Spy cut himself off when his eyes saw what was beneath the floor. There was a small cushion of dirt where the tile was laid on top of then a small chasm opened up to reveal a glowing object placed on a small alter. Demo jumped in after a moment of all three humans recovered from surprise.

“Hey, do ye fellas think this is a wee bit important?” A rhetorical question, as Demo presented a large important looking gem of an orange-red hue and soft pulsing glow placed inside a steel and glass case found within a safe spy unlocked. Large, glowing, and stored in a secure case buried underground. A good sign of importance, “Oh, zat looks good. But zat blast vill attract attention.” Demo put his finger to his ear. “Mates, were go to go! We might have attracted attention so we need to go ASAP!”

-Meanwhile-
“(Gasp!) Last one..(Gasp) is in…(Pant) place. Whew! The symbol.. is ready as well. I'm winded! That’s hard work.” Scout took a moment to catch his breathe
“Shut it Scout, if its ready then we retreat to Engie and Pyro.” Soldier appeared to not have broken a sweat and lead the group to Redwood’s redwood where Engie and Pyro sat in wait at the trunk of the tree. Pyro saw the group coming, and began skipping and hopping to the armory in a playful manner, passing the retreaters and “murphing” a happy tune to itself. Engineer said to his team, “Ok, boys. On my count we all teleport. Get ready. Sniper, is Demo ready?”
“Yeah. Hit it Demo!-Pyro just lit the fuse!” Pyro continued to skip and hop but did so backwards so that it may see the explosions. “Murph murr MURPH!”

And see it they all did. BO-O-OM-M!! The ground violently shook as a simultaneous explosion, as well as good fuse timing done by Pyro, sent the majority of the Military District in destructive motion. The tower before them was instantly torn to fine shreds of rock and stone, and in the distance while they could barely be seen, the other two towers had thrown themselves high in the air in the form of red hot rouble. The barracks lit up like a village attacked by a rampaging dragon. Fire and explosions erupted from a chain reaction from the barrels and trails of powder, and from the top of the tree where Sniper sat, he saw the hospital go alight with the sound of Demo’s sadistic laughter ringing in everyone’s mic. “Burn. In. Hell! HA HA HA!”

Engineer decided it was time to go before flaming falling rocks pelted them. “Now!” He touched a button on a metal bracelet fastened to his right wrist and in a flash, he along with the whole team who had done the same, disappeared… before reappearing in the cave on Smoky mountain.

It was a grand improvement to the teleportation system. Engie designed bracelets that are basically personal teleporter entrances, thus their nickname: PTEs. The exits had been fitted with technology first introduced in the Robot wars between Mann. Co and Grey Mann. The blue teleporter could transport groups of items at once, and therefore could be used here, to teleport the whole team back to base without multiple exits.

The next thirty minutes was spent celebrating a flawless victory with one another. Its not very often that a plan succeeds without a hitch. “Hey soldier!” Solly called Rifleman over. “You still have a long way to go but I see the potential for you to be a good part of the team! Just like how Scout had the potential to be the world’s most annoying ass back when he joined!”

“I HEARD THAT!”

“Thanks Soldier, I really think that I will find someway to fit in. I just need to find out how.” Soldier put his hand on Rifle’s shoulder, “All in due time.” Rifleman felt a soft sense of happiness that night, even though he knew real happiness was on the battlefield waiting for him.

-Morning-

Derpy flew in with a pep in her step, as if she well expected her fighters to have returned by now, odd being how she couldn't possibly know when they could have returned. “I suspected that you guys would be back! The early morning train found the whole town in a mass panic!”

Well that answers that.

Heavy responded whilst serving himself a cup of coffee, “They found ruins of our work then.” Derpy noded rapidly and pulled out the newspaper. Rather than handing the main headline to Engineer, she chose to read it to the party aloud. “Disaster at Tall Tale!, This symbol in the picture above was found scorched into the military training field of Tall Tale and drawn on the only intact wall of the destroyed hospital after the town was attack the previous night.” Derpy quickly turned the paper so the mercs could see, it was a outline of a human hand with a horseshoe in the palm.

The symbol was the one found in the field. The picture was black and white. The mailmare turned the paper back over, “Beneath the symbol found in the hospital the following was inscribed: ‘Celestia has betrayed us, humanity is our sanctum, we are the PHR, Pony to Human Revolutionists.’ ” Derpy looked up from the paper with a confused face and tossed the whole newspaper to Scout, who easily caught it. “What's that all about?”

Sniper replied to her with a proud smile, “Well it was no biggy, a little something we made up to put the public on the wrong track. Looks like it worked.” Derpy noded and spoke toward Scout who now was in possession of the Equestria Daily. “There’s a quote from Celestia in there. You fooled her too.” Scout scanned the main page for the quote, “Eh..ah, ‘I am truly heart broken that our own kind has betrayed us, however this must not go uncharged. If these ponies wish to live like the humans do, then they will suffer Capital Punishment the same way.’ You gota be kindin me. One town blows up and miss goody-four-hooves throws a fit about it. Princess Pansy.”

“Can I ask a question?” Derpy asked, asking questions didn't fly too high the last time so she thought about asking first.
The team glanced at one another with a few mumbles before unanimously shrugging in a greement.

“Was demolishing the hospital really necessary?”

“Zat it vas! I have collected plenty of samples and tools for experimental research!” The way Medic said “research” was slightly unsettling. “I have zomething to do in my zpare time.” Instead of eating, Medic was already setting up his lab apparatus. He did however, have a cup of coffee nearby.
Scout had distributed the paper during this little conversation, and Soldier found a similar article in his “war effort” section. “ ‘Evidence suggests that explosive powder was used to burn the soldiers in their sleep. While many survived either unhurt to injured, one third of those who slept last night burned before they could escape.’ Now those are my kind of statistics men!”

“Oh! Before I forget to tell you, there are no new orders so you guys are just to stay hidden here.” Derpy announced. “I can have somepony deliver some books if you want.”
Rifleman called out from laying ontop of his sleeping bag, “Can you bring muffins too?”
“Well, maybe..but-”
“Please?”
..(Sigh) “Alright, because you asked nicely.” Derpy smiled and rolled her eyes. “What flavor do you want?”
“Chocolate.”

“Na, Scout. Cramberry.”

“Heavy wants blueberry again.”

“Orange berry!”

“APPLE FLAVOR MAGGOTS!”

“Gentlemen Please! Something we can agree on.”
“Murph murr hud.” The only response the suggestion received was collective nodding.
“What did it say exactly?” Derpy was baffled of how they understood it. Spy turned to the poor mare. “Can you make them coffee cake flavored?”
“Sure! Its one of my favorite flavors. On batch of coffee cake muffins coming right up!”

Medic had finished assembling his little chemistry lab, “Soldier, can you assist me? I vill need you to share everyzing you know about magic and to help me with correzponding experiments.”
“I will help, but you must refer to me as the Soldier of Oz, UNDERSTOOD?”
"Nein, don't be silly."
"Then I wont help you." Soldier pouted. He never pouts.
“Ugh,.. fine."
"Then say it.."
"..."
"S-aa-aa-aa-y it!"
(Sigh)"Please help me, great Soldier of Oz..."
"Yay!"
"Lets just get started.” Medic slowly began to smile and chuckle to himself after shaking off the annoying term he must comply with, as the realization came over him, that he was about to embark on some of the first magical science he has ever attempted. Medic snatched a lighter from his pocket, “Let the experimentation,” he lit a bunsen burner, “begin.”

Meanwhile, at the ruins of the Tall Tale hospital, a pony with a coat of reddish-brown and a mane of chocolate stood before the inscribed wall. He wore a brown hat. The pony looked closely at the graffiti and snarled in disbelief. He turned to a mare adjacent to him. “I want samples of the material on this wall given a detailed analysis.” His voice was authoritative but luke warm “I also want to see construction plans of the towers.”

“Sir, a royal guard has requested that you report your findings.”

“Already? T-tell him I’m busy!” On the ground at his hooves, a surgeon's glove was found, out of curiosity he picked it up and found a single black dot on it. The smudge looked similar in color as the writing in front of him. “Hmm, I don't think these were ponies, examine this as well. It may be our biggest clue.” As the mare trotted off, the investigator observed the steaming ashes of the hospital around him, and the streams emitted from the tower remains. “I’ll find the ponies or..nay, the people that did this. Under Celestia’s blazing sun I will.”

Author's Note

Good marrow my readers! I hope you did enjoy the chapter-however! If you didn't then I extend an invention to you to the comment section to inform me of my foolish blunders. Until the next installment of this work, I bid you farewell.

Abrupt Abduction

Chapter 5 - Abrupt Abduction

“Who ever it was took the barrels of explosive powder from the armory and used it to create a grid of explosives around the sleeping houses.”
“Did they do the same with the towers?”
“I don't know, that would've been a lot of work if they did. We haven't found any traces of explosive powder in the wreckage of the hospital or the towers.”
“Well? What do you think?”

“Human explosives, that’s the best answer I’ve got. They had portable explosives and used them to demolish the towers.”
“Is highly unlikely that humans were responsible. The inscription would be different.” Inside a private talking tent, Investigator Clue and was chatting with a Royal Guardian sent to check-up on his investigation progress. Clue had reason to believe that the attack was caused by humans. “A equine surgical glove was found at the base of the inscripted wall and it has a small black smudge that matches the material on the wall. If a pony wrote it the glove would be covered in the stuff and the text would be bigger.”

“A unicorn could have done i-”
“There are no traces of magic found anywhere.”
“There are ways around that, you should very well know.”
“That is high level magic. Not many can pull that off.”
“The pony could’ve used the tip of the hoof, or even the horn itself.”
“We found traces of biological oil inside the glove. Stuff skin makes.”
The expression of the guard lifted, “Now that's more solid evidence. Does it check out with anything on humans?”
“No,-We don't know. It-We don't have that information on humans.”

His face fell into its original strait state, “There's the kicker.”
Clue’s patience was growing short, this royal guard wasn't exactly being very helpful, and he was trying his best to find the killers, “Damn it Shining Armor!”
The royal captain shrugged in response, “Look I want this to be caused by humans, really I do, but there is way too much against you to make a proper claim!”
“But-”
“Even if your right then what?” His voice rasped as he hammered at a delicate matter. "If the public finds out then the whole country would go bananas! Thinking they could be killed in their sleep!”

“We found bullets in the bodies!” It was clear from the look on his face that that he thought the statement was enough to prove the accusation. The face of Shining Armor suddenly grew deep in thought as he silently toiled the gathered evidence. “Thats evidence,” He put his hoof to his head, “but its still not enough. These ponies could be X-humans, they could have smuggled the weapons in.”

“Humans are the only creatures we know to possibly stoop this low this quick into the war.”
“We haven't declared war yet.”
Clue leaned back in his seat,“Yeah, but everypony knows it will happen, it just matters when!”
It was Shining’s turn to lose patience, “Celestia doesn't want to pull the trigger. It would be bad for the equine image and support the claims of this terrorist group!”
“It would also show that the ponies aren't cowards like they believe us to be!”

“No more of this!” As the captain shouted, a soft breeze wandered into the tent as both stallions stared at one another with poker faces. “This is why I chose you.” Shining’s face turned friendly, “You're putting the puzzle together even without all the pieces.” Shining Armor smirked, “You're one of the best investigators we have Clue.” Clue smirked in return, he always appreciated how ‘chill’ the captain of the royal guard acted sometimes. “Expect a visit from my sister.”

“What? Princess Twilight?!” This was most unexpected.

The captain nodded, “As dim the scenario is, Celestia did not overlook this as a rare learning opportunity. You will help her and vise versa through future investigations. Be gentle and patient with her.” Clue nodded, not denying the fact that dealing with a Nation crisis is a big part of the job. Shining Armor prepared to depart, “Oh, don't be surprised if she has her friends tag along. She rarely does anything without two or five of them lying around. And if you see a bright pink one then be prepared to have your mind blown multiple times.”

-Meanwhile, in the Cave of Smokey Mountain-

“Fascinating! I never knew magic could be in powder form!” Medic was having a whale of a time learning about magic with his college, Soldier of Oz. “Oh yeah! Marasmus has some powder that heals surface wounds and rashes in a matter of seconds. He stores it in a bin labeled ‘baby powder’ ”
“Now vhat are zese?” Medic opened a small box and pulled out an array of gems. “Oh! those are soul gems! Real good stuff you got here Medic. I've seen them used for all sorts of things, enchantments, spell casting, cough drops, magic batteries, but most of the time they are used in summoning.”
“Zummoning?”
“Yeah, he uses them to summon demons to throw me out of his room sometimes.”
“V--Vhy vere you in his room?”
“Maggot thats private.”
"OK... vhy vould zis be in za hospital?"
"If you're in an emergency and someone needs immediate attention, one of these babies can pump life back into the body until more help arrives.”
"In zat case," Medic pulled out the pulsating gem. "Zis is a soul gem too ya?" Soldier took the box and examined the orange-red gem. The glow seemed to twitch, as if it were alive. "This is a flawless soul gem, one of the most powerful components in the world of magic!" Soldier seemed to be frozen in aw.

"Vhat makes them so special?"
Putting the object down he began to explain with minor hand gestures, "During the soul transfer process from body to the gem, the soul loses some power and overall quality, rendering it ‘mundane’ for lack of a better term, and dimming it's glow. A flawless transfer retains the soul in its original state and contains quality's of the person it belonged to. For example, If a powerful wizard has his soul flawlessly transferred then someone else could summon a shadow of the wizard who would fight for him." Medic's pencil steamed across his notebook as he furiously wrote down what Soldier was saying. "Another use is to channel the wizard into one's self and temporary posses his powers combined with your own. Very useful.” His head turned to the box, “The big question now is, who do we have in here?" Solly gestured to the beating gem.

Medic looked at the gem with a fiery sense of fascination. "Ve must find out who this is! Is there any vay to find out?"
"The only way we can is if we cast an identification spell. I can perform it but I would need some magical juice." Derpy chose that moment to fly into the cavern and land in front of the duo, “New orders from the mysterious man?”
“Yep.”

“This message is for the TF-S. Thanks to correspondence from Derpy we learned that there is a large train carrying goods, troops, and supplies to Tall Tale to speed up recovery. The mission is plainly obvious: Eliminate the train with as much prejudice as you can muster. We’ll leave more details of the trains actual description to Derpy. Remember, subtly and surprise is both your friend and enemy, use it while you can.” Silence followed but the recording picked itself back up again. “Things have been difficult here.” The voice became tired and frustrated, “Ponies are very dutiful when it comes to complying with human law and therefore it hasn't been easy to drive them off our turf without provoking combat. Fortunately, we have the majority of public support and very little resistance from pro-pony human groups. The war will come soon however, just wait a little longer...” And with that, static noise filled the air.

The meeting had been called and the team had gathered to listen. Soldier looked towards Derpy with a visage of expectations as a signal to start talking. She complied, "The train will be long, very long, so it can haul all the supplies at once. Ponies haven't developed trains that can link together yet, but we have designed a type of caboose with an engine in it for pushing. This said the locomotive will be a hybrid of steam and magic for maximum horsepower." Reaching into her saddlebag, she pulled out a small device in the shape of a half cylinder. "This is a small version of the caboose motor. It is purely powered by magic energy, and yes, you can keep it." Derpy saw it coming and gave Engineer a straight face when a goofy-creepy grin grew on the mechanic’s face before tossing it to him.

“Magical engines, of all varieties, are extremely violent if there is any sort of major failure. So when you guys pop the front or back, you’ll get a big explosion.”
Spy lit another cigarette before asking, “Do you know the details of where and when we do this?”
“Yes, give me your map and I’ll mark it for you.” She continued to talk as she marked the map. “We can intercept it here, at about 9:30 at night.” Derpy looked up as Demoman started to chuckle to himself. Then he got laughed louder, and louder, and even more so in a fit of giddiness when he began to chant and dance, “I get ta blow up a tra-ain! I get ta blow up a tra-ain!”

The group wasted no time preparing themselves after Derpy left to fetch the carriage. It was a mission so simple that it would be a breeze under normal circumstances. Arrive early, set up explosives, watch fireworks. Simplicity in itself, but just as they were ready to aboard the transport again Derpy halted the party in their tracks in a wave of panic.

“I was just told that the Generous element of harmony will be on that train!” The team needed not be briefed as to why this was bad. They had been briefed on the plane of this important detail. The Elements of Harmony were to be kept alive at all costs because it is well believed that they are the only way to return the ponies to their rightful place in their universe. This said however, the Elements are also speculated to be a last ditch weapon in the long run of the war that hasn't even begun. The mercs are to either avoid them or capture them, or even obtain the elemental gems themselves. If humans got control of the Elements, be it pony of rock, then the enemy would find themselves in a “pickle” to say the least.
Spy facepalmed at the dreadful news, things just got a lot more complicated. “Oh, merde.”

-Train-

Rarity sat inside the passenger car looking outside at the world through a window for the fifth time during a the one hour she was on this train to Tall Tale. She wore a red vest with a sky blue horseshoe sewn on the back. The clopping of hooves hereby caught her attention as she was glad to possibly break away from the dull atmosphere, “I'm sorry madam, but I have been removed from my seat as the result of a pegasus who flew in late and happened to reserve the seat I was using. Do you mind if I plant myself here?”
Rarity looked at the stallion before her. His coat was of a dark maroon red and a well kept black mane. His cute mark was of a small stack of bits. Being too polite to deny and having no good reason to say otherwise, she could only say, “Of course darling.” The stallion humbly took his new seat.

Then came the awkward silence that arises when both sides are unsure of what to say next. Rarity however, stuck with the basics. “What’s your name?” The stallion responded in a firm calm voice. “Bit Trick. And yours?”
“Rarity. Pleasure to meet you Mr.Bit.”
“Pleasure to meet you Miss Rarity, but please, just call me Bit.”
“In that case you only need to refer to me as Rarity. Nothing more.” Rarity’s gifted charm was already breaking up the awkward ice as she continued with simple questions, “What brings you out to Tall Tale?” Bit grew a solemn face, denting the once neutral mood, “I have a couple of friends there and they need support through mourning over loved ones.” Rarity felt empathetic towards him and gently put her hoof on his shoulder, “I understand, its important that you're there to support your friends when they need it most.” Bit was touched by her understanding.

Continuing the topic she added, “I’m part of the volunteer group,” she turned herself to that he could see the horseshoe, before innocently including, “if you couldn't tell by the obvious uniform.”
Bit chuckled, “Do you volunteer often?”
“No, but I do it out of my generous nature. What is it that you do?”
“I'm, what you could call a money manager for Fleur De Lis. I keep tabs on where her money is and what its doing.”
“My! That must be a privilege.”
“You're a fan of her then?”
“Well, you could say that.”

They mingled back and forth over the course of the day, and the two were quickly well acquainted, and forever destined to stick together during the trip like a pair of school buddies. However, a pair of eyes of another stallion, with a dark purple coat and black mane with a yellow knife outline as a cutie mark observed from a safe distance. Only glancing every now and then, and listening intently to every word and detail.

For the next coming hours the pair sat in their seats, either sleeping, talking, or quietly observing the world go by. At one period of time during Dinner, Bit excused himself from the table for some fresh air out on the caboose.
The caboose was loud, the engine was magically churning away, doing its part in pushing the train to the ending destination. The sound resembled a large electric motor with the clanking of mechanical parts. Fortunately, the back balcony had a door access so you could close it behind you to partly block out the sound.

There at the caboose balcony, smoking, was the mysterious stallion mentioned earlier. “You smoke as well?” Greeted Bit. Looking behind him in surprise, the purple pony responded with a refined voice that was deep and smooth, “Yes, that I do. Its one thing the humans have brought over that I can use to relax.”

“I concur, I go as far to say that we don't even have the same health risks.” As Bit lit his cigar, he did not see the purple stallion make a odd face, like when one is told absurdly false information. Evidently ponies did not fully understand the health risks of tobacco and nicotine. The pair stood at the back of the caboose, and observed the night sky while puffs of smoke leaked from their lungs with the caboose working away. “What brings you out here?” The stallion began.
“Supporting friends through losses.” Bit said casually. “You?”
“I'm part of the clean up crew.” Mr.Purple turned to Mr.Bit with a questioning face, “Aren't you Fleur De Lis’s money manager?”
“Yes, how did you-”
Purple lied, “I met her once over coffee and she told me about you, I was working in a restaurant stationed in Canterlot and was on my lunch break.”
“Ah."

Purple took another whiff from his cigarette, "Is the mare with you your wife?”
Bit coughed slightly as the question caused him to inhale the smoke improperly. “What?”
“White coat, fancy purple mane,-”
“Yeah, her. I wish, but no she is not my wife. But who knows, maybe she could be.”
“Well the context of why where on this train hardly classifies itself as romantic.”
“Perhaps not, but in this mare is easy.”
“Is she?”
“Yep, I’ve seen them before, the dramatic type who can easily be manipulated.”
“Really?” The stallion had finished his cigarette.
“Yeah, sad but true. I met her only an hour after I arrived and I already caught her sleeping on my shoulder."
"Must be lonely to be falling that fast."
"That's my best guess. Hey, I never did get your name.”
“Sneak Shiv.”
“Oh.” Finishing his cigar, Bit chose to stamp it out. He focused on the red burning ashes, “Thats an odd name for an-ACK!!” (thud)

Bit returned to his seat at the table where Rarity ordered some wine, this being much more expensive on this certain type of train. “Oh! You didn't have to do that.”
“Pleasure is all mine dear, you’ve been such a gentlepony, and gentleponies are hard to come by nowadays.” It was true, lately it was hard to find anypony to treat her like the proper lady she believes to be.
“How’s about this, I found a certain constellation while I was outside and I show you while we drink.” He picked up his glass. As did she, “Certainly! I love stargazing!”

Returning to the back of the train, Rarity and Bit trotted along mingling away as they passed through multiple cars. "You know dear, we should meet up again sometime. Under more positive circumstances." Bit looked at her with a smile, "Are you suggesting we have lunch?" She smiled in return as they approached the door to the caboose, "How's about you look me up at the local restaurant, we can talk more when we have some spare time from our services." The pair soon stood alone gazing up into the night sky. The light from which was astounding, not even Luna projected night light like this as the Milky Way had it’s holy glow for all to see. “You know you're in a new part of the universe when your sky looks like that.” Rarity nodded her head at Bit’s comment, “So this constellation, well, what does it look like first of all?”

“See that small cluster of stars to your left?” Spy only needed a split second, having the target’s full attention on something is unnecessary effort for something this trivial. He’s dealt with far more superstitious people before. This said, in the moment Rarity turned her head Spy performed a backstab maneuver using the blunt handle if the knife on a certain part of the spine that induced the mare into temporary paralysis. She wasn't permanently injured, but that's not to say that it wasn't painful. “Good lord he was right,” Spy lit a new cigar as she quickly fell, “She is easy.”

Taking hold of his captive over his shoulder, he stood at the back of the caboose and prepared to jump. In a feat of strength for a man his size, Spy threw himself and Rarity off the moving train, before they hit the cold short grass with near lethal force. The pair of bodies lay motionless on the ground before fading, as the dead ringer deactivated itself by Spy’s command, the man ever thankful for its presence in his pocket.

The pony-napper looked at his watch, “Excellent timing, an hour ahead of schedule.” He looked down to the unconscious mare at his feet and set to work. Removing her vest, he pulled out a sharpie marker, and began to draw the PHR symbol on her back, she wouldn't notice until someone pointed it out. As he wrote Spy took care to write with the grain of the fur as much as possible, in his mind this was vandalistic courtesy. In case she did remove the mark on her back, he placed a sheet of paper with the symbol drawn on it on a few hair pins and tucked the paper neatly folded into her tail.

Lastly, he did the only thing left to do, but to try on the volunteer vest. It was a bit big simply due to the fact that the was a slightly different shape than the typical horse, but he knew someone back in the cave would love it. For the time being he would continue to wear it. Spy activated his mic, “I'm clear of the train with the mare at my feet, by the time she’s awake it will be too late.”
Engineer answered, “Good work, Derpy said that she’ll send authorities in a search party when complaints about the trains whereabouts show up. She’ll be fine.”

“Naturally. “Well, I’ll be waiting back at base, have fun waiting for the train!” Spy produced a smug smile, and pushed the button to be teleported to.. “What?!”... The site where the rest of the team was waiting for the train. The site was atop a hill with a view of the tracks. The mercs were scattered, entertaining themselves to pass the time. He turned to Engie, who was relaxing beside him, “You wouldn't want to miss out on all the ‘fun’ Spy.” He could only laugh as Spy facepalmed in despair, only an hour of doing nothing left anyways, it could be worse.

Heavy then saw Spy’s arrival. “Spy! We are playing hide and seek. Come, play with us, and Heavy will give you time to hide.” Looking around him, Spy even noticed that even Engineer had disappeared. With a straight face he pressed his invisi-watch and vanished. Heavy chuckled in his own fashion, before closing his eyes and counting to five in russian, “ [Ah-DEEN], [dvah], [tree], [che-TYH-ree], [pyat']!”

He turned around and announced to the forest and land around him, the landscape was void of human life and almost all sound apart from a soft peaceful breeze and the soft hum of a deployed dispenser. Reaching into his back pocket, he produced his trusty sidekick, who had proven useful in these kind of scenarios time and again. It was also a perfect excuse to yell the triumphant cry, “READY OR NOT! SANDVICH AND I ARE COMING FOR YOU!”

Author's Note

I'm noticing a pattern in that these chapters are getting longer, still my range is about 3000-to-3500 words per chapter so don't get your hopes up. I know some of you are waiting for the big action/warfare chapters, but that will come in about two or three chapters, depending on what I can manage to fit in each one.

As always I encourage constructive criticism, the words you may display in the comment section may prove useful to improve myself as a writer.

Strolling through the Park, that will become the Spark

Chapter 6- Strolling through the Park, that will become the Spark.

A fire crackled in the morning light, fueled by shards of wood, leather, and flesh. The stars above were just barely visible and the surrounding grass was catching fire as the blaze wasn't properly contained when it was first created. Before the newborn embers could eat enough grass to grow big, strong, and hot; the hard hooves of a pony crushed them for lack of oxygen.
The pony lazily stamped out more embers until he felt safe enough to sit down and have his caramel café mocha in peace. Clue sat in the wreckage of the train wreck and felt happy inside knowing he at least had a mocha to make the morning seem that much better.

"Why the hey are you drinking coffee at a time like this?!"

Everything from here is downhill. "I'll have you know that this is a caramel mocha. And its that time of morning when I typically have one." He softly gulped down a small portion, "You have to look on the bright side of things sometimes."
"You're unbelievable."
"Your Highness, I am most certainly believed. Otherwise how could I possibly be a investigator?"

He turned to his left and saw Princess Twilight Sparkle staring at him in annoyed disbelief. Clue lifted his hoof to her head height, and softly tapped her nose. "Boop." She only grew more annoyed. Clue decided it was about time to humor her. “Alright princess, what have you observed from the wreckage thus far?” Twilight suddenly became stiff, like when you are asked to do something you really don't want to do. Turning away from him, she could only see the mess of what was left behind.

The crime scene was so vast that it would take a mile of caution tape to wall it off, and then some. The debris was flown far from it’s original respective place upon the train; train car wheels with axles, doors, and in some places, horribly trashed bodies. These miscellaneous items were found 10-100+ feet away from their origination point. The front of the train and the caboose were indistinguishable from one another, other than the fact there was a larger crater at the front end, and a slightly smaller one at the back. Clue and Twilight sat parallel to where some car used to be. Its only indicating feature nearby of what it was at one time, was the piece burning before them.
“I...I d-don't want to look at this…why do I even-” Clue cut her off in a calm logistical demeanor, “You need to be able to approach these kind of situations with a sense of understanding, because the more you understand, the less afraid you are. The less afraid you are, the better your people will feel.” His voice was understanding and wise.

Twilight was still struggling to stare at the world around her, and only found safety looking at the ground at her innocent hooves. “How, how can I?” Clue sighed, “You're still young and innocent. I lost mine innocence when I was little, but you need to look at things like this from a factual point of view, from a brighter point of view.” Twilight looked like if she saw a dead body, she might breakdown. “All around you is a library of information about what happened here, you just need to learn how to read it...” His attention refocused to the mocha, “and drink in all it has to tell. Just observe one thing about the wreck.”
Softly, Twilight closed her eyes and inhaled. Upon exhaling she braved the world before her, and thought about looking at this more factually, like when Pinkie Pie investigated the crime of the Marzipan Masterpiece. In relating the current event to what was a positive memory, her brain clicked into place and began to approach this new field of investigation cautiously and discovery. As such with anything new, Twilight began with the basics.

The most obvious feature was the lack of any train at all, but thousands of chunks and millions of shards being the only remains. That said, in place of where everything would be was a large long trench that ended in either direction with a crater. As a part time mathematician, the image in her head resembled a line segment. “There’s a large even trench, like it all exploded at once.”
Clue spoke to her encouragingly, "What might that tell you about how the explosives were placed?" Twilight blocked out unsettling surrounding features and focused solely on the trench. "The explosives were laid out all along the track and were detonated at the same time." Her brain began to deduct possible facts, "The time taken to prepare them, let alone get them here, would have been painstaking."

Clue was growing a smile of great anticipation, “So, what can you conclude about them?”

Twilight eyes widened in realization. “They must have some kind of, overwhelmingly large supply of explosives, or even a supplier! They also must have a large professional workforce, and they must have had some way of knowing when and where the train would be, so they must have some ties to the rail lines!” Clue had just finished his drink and threw the mug behind him aimlessly before clopping his hooves together in a fit of pride. “Yes! That is exactly what I’m looking for in you! Quick, logical deduction, that opens up the door to many outcomes.” Twilight came back to earth when the sharp sound of Clue’s clapping snapped her out of her faze, and blushed out of flattery. Clue walked closer to her, “Now then, are you afraid?” She looked around her, the thoughts and images that scared her before were still present, but locked behind the force in her mind that is curiosity and push for discovery. “Not as much as before.”

“Twilight, we now must carry on with the art of deduction, for we are surrounded on all sides by potential evidence.You are well on your way to becoming a fellow investigator!”

-Meanwhile-

The carriage flew away from the drop off zone as two ponies made their way into the grand metropolis of Canterlot from the airport. One was a tall unicorn mare with a red carpet coat, milk chocolate mane done in long thin curls, with a tail rivaling Rarity’s, and eyes of aquamarine. The mare was levitating a long, rectangular, black suitcase with a number combination. Her magical glow was lavender. The other was a body guard who stood slightly shorter than her, but Sneak Shiv was never the less fearless of those who dare approach her, however he wore a disguise straight out of The Blues Brothers and therefore was unrecognizable.

They both made their way through the city of the rich with posh gazes towards ponies of respected power and wealth, all the while being somewhat protective of the levitating case. Looking at his watch, Sneak Shiv warned his friend, “Madam, we should get a cab if we are to stay on schedule.” The unicorn did not look toward his comrade but stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, invoking glares from passing annoyed mares but still attracting hungry eyes from almost every stallion around, her expression failed to acknowledge any of them. She turned to the cab parked on the side of the street who had just stopped to pick up a passenger.
“Excuse me, Sir?” Her voice was like a soft, enticing purr of a cat, but of one who knew how to use its own sharp front claws, “I’m in a bit of a hurry, could you be so kind to share the cab?” The stallion, turned around to deny her, but hesitated when he saw her. She was merely asking to share it anyways.

The stallion did his best to flirt with the big beauty, but she was more difficult to read than a human telephone book. That and Sneak Shiv was obviously suspicious and would probably prevent him from seeing her in the future.
The ride stopped in front of the Golden Bit Hotel one of the most well known in Canterlot. Sneak tossed coins to the driver and quickly leaped from his seat so that the Miss could escape the constant chitter chatter of the stallion. As she hopped off the carriage, with the case, she “accidentally” smacked the passenger in the head. Regardless, the carriage departed and the pair continued their important errand. The hotel lobby was of gold and white with Greek architecture and ponies trotted into the main lobby with gusto as most were of upper class.

Approaching the VIP registration, a mare in a simple bow tie was already looking at the list of the pre-scheduled and therefore should be quickly able to distinguish ‘who’ they were. “Good evening madam.” The mare in question only nodded and spoke her name so that she may proceed into the elevator behind her greeter, “Miss Quickscope.” The mare, despite having read the list before hand, scanned it again. “Oh, there you are.” She smiled in a typical way, and hoofed over the keys to Sneak, for his hoof was open and outstretched. “Enjoy your stay!”

The elevator was actually a unicorn powered teleport spell. Activated if one stood in the center of a stationary circle of four unicorns. At request, they were teleported directly to their room, and a different set of unicorns on the same floor would be of service to move them to the lobby, dining area, etc., at their request again.
As the pair appeared in the bedroom, Quickscope placed down the large briefcase on top of one of two beds in the room. The overall atmosphere of the suite was a combined familiarity of The Golden Nugget of Las Vegas, and of Caesars Palace, also home in Vegas. Elegant gold and marble color schemes were present once again in Greek pony architecture and decorations, but to not blind the guest the main color of the walls was a light blue. The beds were pure white, however.

Turning to her well dressed companion, Quickscope spoke with a new voice; rough, dry and one that preached Australia's way of talking, “Mate, I feel dirty, I feel wrong, and I never want to do this again.” Spy was still wearing his disguise like Sniper still was, but it was clear it was him from the hysterical laughter and snorting. “Its not funny.”

“Y-yes it i-i-is, ha ha ha, oh merde! The looks those stallions were giving you-hah-hah-so rich!”

Sniper left Spy in the bedroom so he could laugh to his heart’s content, and went into the kitchen. Like any hotel room you go too, the fridge is almost always empty, and what ever might be in it is ice or cold water. This was no exception, the counters were a plush gold, and the cabinets, wine racks, and tile were of complementary colors. Sniper turned to Spy who had reappeared from the bedroom, “You finished?” He straightened his suit, “Yes.”

“Good, since you're the one with the most experience with the pony public, you'll be down at the tucker store to get us dinner.” Spy rolled his eyes in annoyance and sighed as he knew the bushman was right. “Fine, I’ll be down at the market, and you jarate man, are to not leave the suite.”
“No worries mate, I'll do some reconnaissance from here.” He gestured to the window that overlooked the local park where the rich play. The next day, in that park, a royal family member would appear to do his weekly stroll. This little stunt was possible thanks to Spy sharing his disguise kit with Sniper. In an emergency, Spy could turn invisible and Sniper could keep the kit.

Sniper looked around the room once again absorbing its design as Spy left. “Bloody hell,” He picked up a glass with delicate iron etchings at the base of the glass and at the rim. “A bit too high class for my taste. Tall toppie mongrels.”

-Smokey Mountain-

Medic now handled a small pile of soul gems he grabbed from the gem box while Soldier stood nearby the fire, which was alive and warm, with the orange gem flickering a few feet from him on the floor. The rest of the present crew looked on at a safe distance away. Medic approached Soldier who removed his helmet where the soul gems were then placed, followed by a silent nod which then the doctor retreated to safety among his brethren. The rocket man out stretched the arm holding the gems in the helmet, and with his other hand, began to swirl it above the stash in a rhythmic motion. The gems began to brightly glow, until with a muffled whoosh, a phantom force with a lavender tint engulfed the man’s hand. Dropping the helmet, empty gems spilled onto the rocky floor with a noisy clatter. Two hands clasped together, both now covered in the aura, before Soldier shouted, “IDENTIFY GEM IDENTITY!” and threw his hands open toward the object. This motion sent the purple glow from his hands, and into the gem.

In return, the gem returned an orange haze back toward the caster who willingly accepted it, eyes closed. A few moments of silence, and he bent down to retrieve his headwear. “Well, that’s not a big surprise.” Desperate to know, Medic approached him, “Vhat? Who is it?” Soldier turned to this eager medicine man and spoke in a blunt voice. “Redwood, the pony mentioned on the plaque.” Medic was somewhat dissatisfied with this news, as he would have preferred a powerful wizard instead of a warrior, but he couldn't complain. "How do ve use it zen?"

Rubbing his neck in thought, Soldier came to a sound conclusion, "The best solution is to use him for soul fusion, that's the power that unites gem souls to your own. If he is a warrior, then the lucky individual will get increased melee combat skill." Picking up the glowing gem, he turned to Engineer who was, like the rest of the group, disbanding from the huddle up to continue the day as normal. "Engie?" The Texan glanced towards him. "I need you to make a necklace for this gem." Looking at the gem, Engie held out his hand and the contained soul was tossed to him. "Necklaces ain't my forte but I'll give 'er a shot." Turning back to Medic, Solly made a point, "Soul fusion requires the two bonding souls to be compatible with each other, it is entirely up to Redwood for who to bond with, so once Engie is done we need each of us to try on the necklace."

Over at the beds, Rifleman sported his new piece of gear, that being the vest Spy delivered, on himself. The colors were re-painted with colors they had Derpy order from Mann Co. The new vest sported a dark Forrest Green base color and a light purple horseshoe, because the two colors were in favor of the owner. Demo put his hand on the shoulder of his constant companion, "Now las, ya need ta name your vest, it be TF tradition ta name unique equipment." Thinking aloud, Rifle decided on a simple name. "How about Lavender Luck. Because it has a purple horseshoe."

-Later, back at the Golden Mane-

Sniper nor Spy are vegetarian people. Added to the limited diet of fruit and veggies, the pair decided on a simple BLT dinner together with a side fruit salad. In this case, the B stood for blue cheese. The beginning of the meal was slightly awkward at first, because even while their true identities known by one another, they still couldn't ignore the fact that one looked male and the other female. Spy tried to break the ice, “I like your BLT, grilled nicely.” To a degree it worked, “Thanks mate, I like the salad.”
“Glad you like it.”
Sniper stopped eating for a moment and looked out the window. “I’ve been thinking Spy.” He looked over to the stallion and found that his response was not possible as he was caught with food in his mouth. So Sniper continued anyways. “You know what this is? What our mission tomorrow morn’ will be like?” Spy looked curious at this question, and having swallowed said, “Know, I can't seem to recall-”
“It’s like the beginning of world war one.” Sneak Shiv’s eyebrow rose. “How so?” Quick’s attention returned to his roommate across the table. “Before that war the world powers were trying to prove to the whole world that each of their own countries were the best, people made alliances and choose sides. The spark-” Cutting Sniper off, Spy finished the sentence, “Was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke.”
“Right, now the world is split between ponies and humans.”
“Political and democratic ties are stressed.”
“Each side claims it is the better life form.”
“The public is angry at the enemy.”
“The war generals are shining their shoes.”
“All they need is a reason.”
At the same time the pair both said, “All they need is a spark!”
“...”
“JINX!”

“DOUBLE JINX”

“TRIPLE JINX!”
“...Wanker.”
“Jar man.”

(Knock, Knock, Knock) “Room service.” Called a happy mare behind the door. Quickscope instantly smiled innocently and glanced left and right while Shiv’s countenance demanded explanation, in return. “I pulled Derpy’s budget a little and ordered dessert…” This was innocently said in her feminine voice. Sighing, Sneak got up to answer the door. “Hello, sir. Angel food cake as requested.” All spending of said budget was thrown out the proverbial door as Spy quickly tossed a tip to the servant and closed said door with the quality crafted cake in hoof. If there was one thing the both of them loved, it was Angel food cake. “I dont know my dear, it would be dreadful if you lost your figure.” Shiv offered as he carefully absorbed it’s edible decorations.

“Shut your damn hisser, and give me a piece of that bloody cake!”
“You get the milk.”
“Fine..”

-Morning-

The air was heated by the fresh morning sun shining down upon the land below and the morning dew was softly glistening in mentioned light. The time was about seven a.m with ponies trotting around the park on their own personal business. A pony sat on a bench, reading his newspaper, and thus had his features obstructed. The eyesore of this perfect scene was the golden one pony carriage holding Prince Blueblood and being pulled by a poor servant of his. Nothing says those of snobbish royalty can't appreciate a 'stroll', as it were, through the park on a perfect day.

BlueBlood looked slowly around at the scenery of fresh grass and the fresh morning breeze that flowed through his cologne tainted mane. “Hmmm, feel that breeze. It tickles my senses like the mares at the Sky Yacht club.” That wind was also cutting into the lungs of the tiring mare pulling him. “Ye..Yes sir, very nice..w-wind sir.” The soft sound of chirping birds and soft chatter of ponies welcoming eachother was, apart from the hyperventilating servant, the only sounds in the area. “I should do this more often. Good for the soul, and for you my servant, good for your thighs.” Bitterly she was polite enough to agree between clenched teeth,
“Yes..good for my..thighs.”

About midway through the path through the park, the trigger was pulled. A shot was heard ringing across the city, and it would be heard around the world like few in similarity before it. The killers were already gone and the limp body hit the ground behind the frightened servant. The rifle was purposely unsilenced in order to take the cruel statement a step further, and so that the assassin's exact position could still remain anonymous.

This was the spark that lit up the fuse which would ignite the explosion and start the war. It was the moment the world was waiting for. In the window of the hotel room, vandalized across the walls, marker drawings of the PHR sign appeared to once again, prove authenticity of the artists

Author's Note

This was cutting it a bit close to my due date for a chapter simple as this. But I'm happy to see that I've broken 20,000 words, and we haven't even started with the good stuff yet.

Again I implore, nay , beseech my fellow readers to constructively criticize my work in the comment section.

War has crossed the Horizon

Chapter 7- War has crossed the Horizon

As any wizard like Marasmus will tell you, Soul Fusion is an advanced level of magic with the potential to rival the power of gods. Of course there is quite some complication involved as a price. Like a married couple, the pair of host and soul must be able to tolerate one another. This is because you basically have a intellectual ghost living within your body, with access to your consciousness, and actual Fusion will only occur if the soul agrees to do so. Ultimately, the soul will decides who to fuse with and when.

The finished necklace was built of material from Engineer's buildings. The gem had a hexagonal shape and was therefore given a red hexagonal frame with a purple plated backing. The matter that made up the lace was composed of rope made of woven copper wires with a single black insulator for comfort. Given the materials available and a lack of experience as a jeweler, the end result was quite impressive.

The team stood in a congregational circle around the flaming fire, however, Demo was the only one exempt from trying the necklace on because of the power (and potential jealousy) Eyelander possesed. The conflict created by two intelligent artifacts could be dangerous. Heavy was chosen to go first, as it made the most sense to give him even more durability than before. Puting the somewhat weighted accessory around his large neck, he waited for something to happen… “Heavy,” Suggested Soldier, “Try closing your eyes and think thoughts to yourself.” The fat russian did as told.

“Hello?”

“H-Hello?”
“Is this Redwood?”

“That thine be. Who is thou?”
“I am Heavy Weapons Guy.”

“Thats thy title name, I can see your real name, but it can't be pronounced.”
“Its foreign language.”

“I see...The more I’m looking yonder here, the more I see that we aren't compatible. Your strength is unparalleled as it is. You need not my help.”
“The men before me are available.”

“I see that, hand me to the one you know as: Soldier.”
“Very well.”

Opening his eyes, nine other pairs stared at him. “He is polite, voice of Thor from hollywood movie. He wants to see Soldier.” The necklace was passed around the circle until the hands of Soldier possessed it. He put it on, although no one could tell whether his eyes were closed or not.

“Hello?”

“You are more suitable.”
“Ha, you do sound like Thor!”

“..I won’t ask.”
“So Redwood, are we compatible?”

“So far it looks that way from what I can see from here. Fiery spirit, good combat experience... Come night time we can talk some more in your dreams.”
“Works for me!”

“I must rest, I haven't made contact in...who knows how long.”
“Ok Red, you make yourself comfortable in there, I think there's some room over by my knowledge of dentistry.”

“No, I found spare space large enough to be my quarters, but thank you.”
“Talk to you later then.”

“See you soon.”

“I like him! He says he needs to rest but so far he likes what he sees!” Multiple sighs gave way from once hopeful members. “The hard part will be to convince him to help us.” Team members then looked at each other with uncertainty, Soldier wasn't going to be gentle about betrayal of Equestria, the land Redwood had probably swore to protect so long ago. There was a good chance that all this would ultimately be for nothing.

That night Solly went to bed early. With a mind full of anticipation of meeting a historic hero, sleep did not come easily. However, the subconscious instinct to sleep eventually took hold and, much as promised, Soldier's dreams quickly morphed into a catalyst for the first proper meeting of the two souls.

The scene created was of a friendly wooden tavern, one resembling that of Redwood's time. The windows were closed and shuttered by drapes concealing the outside world. Light was provided by small torches and candle decor, the furniture was worn wooden tables and chairs, with stacks of hay in one corner towards the back. The customers were calm and gave an air of relaxation. The beings themselves were both ponies and humans dressed up in medieval styles happily interacting with one another.

At the bar, Soldier found himself sitting next to the mighty earth pony known as Redwood Heart with a bottle of honey ale in his hoof resting on the counter. Redwood’s fur was of the iconic wood he was named after and it was dashed with darker spots and lines like the real wood itself. His mane was a glimmering bronze hue with a simple unkempt style. His eyes were hard but malleable in a black color. Lastly the mark upon his flank was of a steel sword overlaying a bronze shield, plus both objects seemed to be made of real metal as the soft light within the tavern appeared to reflect off of the marks.

Looking over, Soldier also saw that his hand held a bottle of ale of the same flavor. “Quite a humble place.” Redwood felt inclined to agree, “Yes, humble.” Soldier had never tasted genuine ale before, so he eagerly took a quick swig from his bottle. The flavor was unique, unlike any alcohol he has ever tasted. “I saw that you had never had this kind of drink, so I instilled the flavor into your head.” After the first swig, Soldier softly gulped a few more pints down before answering. “Thats good stuff!” Looking around him again, Redwood began to talk once more. “You probably have a few questions to ask.”
“Mm-hum.” His throat was full of more booze.
“I don’t know who put me in that gem, or why I was abandoned on that alter, but I can say that your species and mine have a similar past. Thats how I was able to piece this place together,” Somewhere, a small group at a table began laughing aloud in mirthful waves. “By piecing your historical knowledge with my memories. It is also how I am talking to you in modern language.” Looking back over to his mind pal, he simply saw the man looking at him with attention he actually started giving ten seconds ago. “You seem to have a sense of pride Mr.Wood.” Red smiled, “Of course, like you say.. it is patriotism or nationalism toward my nation and home, like you have for this ‘America’ of yours” Soldier pointed a finger at him in a playful fashion, “So thats why you chose me, we share passions.” Redwood shrugged, “That and we think alike in that we both are warriors of different trades, I believe we can learn from one another.”

“Times have changed Redwood, I am going to be asking a lot of you, and I understand if you refuse.” The warm feeling of the tavern got cold. “I feared that, I ask that you do not sweeten the truth.” Taking one last chug, Soldier began to explain, “Your world has appeared on our world by your people. We seemed to get along, but the ruler Princess Celestia, put into place a law that required all humans to become ponies in order to enter the kingdom. She began to enforce this law, and also commissioned charter ships with settlers to claim land on what was already our turf.” Redwood held up a hoof, “I already know what this is, your asking me to betray my country, and my fellow kin.” Soldier nodded with no sign of pity or sympathy. Redwood shook his head solemnly, “Times have not changed, like so many that tried before her, the power of the throne turned to be too much for even her legendary ‘purest’ heart!.” Redwood tone was turning sour, and the tavern froze in time. “I predicted it, I so wish it were not true, but I cannot deny what I have seen from your mind… I will raise my sword in your favor!” Solly then stood tall and straight, quickly followed by Redwood, both having risen from their chair. Then the pair gave one another the manliest hand/hoof shake each of them could muster. “I am honored to have you by my side Redwood!”
“As am I Soldier.”
“I will hear from you tomorrow morning at breakfast.”
“That you will.”
“DISMISSED!”

-Canterlot-

The two sisters of the castle stood alone in the throne room, even the guards were sent out. Luna for one was handling the death of her nephew like any person would, now over the feeling of grief, the emotion of sadness was converged unto anger. “They killed our nephew sister! The human influence has gone too far!” Her voice was borderline booming. Celestia, however, was hoping to sight reason into Luna. “This was the work of the PHR, not humanity. We must hold on to neutrality as long as possible.” Luna was visibly frustrated at her sister’s diplomatic approach. “You talk of neutrality while our stallions train outside, slashing their swords at human dummies!? Your refusal to act is appalling!” Celestia knew this was hurting her sister, even if her nephew was snobbish, a thousand years on the moon makes you appreciate and love all within your family.

Luna continued, “The news of Blueblood’s death has spurred a cruel sense of satisfaction from our enemy! They don't send any condolences at all!”
“Luna! Please, we must at least consult this with the UN before taking full action! We will insult them if we reject democratic diplomacy.” Luna seemed to tense up and talk in a quieter tone, and got increasingly loud as she spoke. “Democracy is a disgusting practice. We have promoted our monarchy for thousands of years, and leave any democracy to major elections and the like! The Americans joke of their power and diplomatic carelessness; they make an example to how this will end, with one side shooting the crap out of the other!”
“Luna!”
“If there is one thing I can admire about them is their lack of innocence and dark humor. It is seldom you see a pony like that anymore.”
“But look at the French, the British, the Russians, Chinese, and the Italians! They have just as much rich culture as we do. Even the Americans have sophisticated arts.”
“Those Germans have an impressive history of warfare, sister.”
“So do we.”
"Then we take action."
"We must wait!"
"YOUR NEPHEW IS DEAD!"

The hall echoed those sickening words. The tense air was cool but it retained a stiff consistency as both sisters paused for a breath. There was a knock at the door. “Enter” Celestia replied. A guard entered and bowed before announcing the reason behind the interruption. “Reports from the colonies say that human forces are mobilizing toward them.” The two sisters looked at each other, both with concern for their ponies. the weight of the situation just got five times heavier. “If I may add your highness, at this point, you need to show your ponies that you are not afraid of them. We are ready.”
Luna flashed a smug smile at her sister. Giving in, Celestia saw herself ironically out voted by a random guard. “Fine, I will call the UN.” A new guard suddenly entered. “We revived a message from the UN, requesting an immediate conference!” Her expression becoming stern, she continued, looking at her sister. “We will propose war, and sign the document.” Luna met this with a noble nod. The recent guard rubbed his neck, “They're.. actually calling for you to sign a document...” Guard A quietly exited the room, leaving guard B alone to his peril. Celestia quietly muttered under her breath, “I’m also assuming everyone else has sighed it then?” Because of the room’s flawless acoustics, the guard heard her. “Well… it is impli-”
“Silence.” She started toward the door loudly. “Let’s get it over with then, it would be best not to keep them waiting.”

-Ponyville-

“The GALL I-no-HE had! If I ever see that two faced bucker again, he WILL regret ever siding against the crown! BY my HOOVES!”

“Holy daffodils Rarity, this is why were here, ya’ll need ta calm down.”

The main six took the opportunity of Twilight’s brief return to gather together for a relaxing day at the spa. However, Rarity was clearly still upset from the train incident. Most speculate her rage was anger for being played like a saxophone, mixed with the PHR vandalism upon her figure. The group sat inside the large hot tub. “(Sigh) I know. Still doesn't mean I can't occasionally vent my feelings.” Fluttershy tipped in her measly two cents, “Venting is good, but like all things...moderation.” Rainbow Dash still was quite keen to stay on that topic, unfortunately. “Twilight? Did Clue find anything from Rarity’s ‘tail paper’ “ Glaring in disapproval, she politely replied. “No, nothing that points in a definite direction.” It was then that Fluttershy noticed a strikingly docile Pinkie Pie. “What's wrong Pinkie?” The mare looked to be in a realm of space located at the ceiling, but was quickly brought back down with a shake of the noggin. “I.. I’m just sad that they didn’t want to become friends. Why did they suddenly become so mean?” The rest of the group glanced at one another in worry, a sad Pinkie, is a troubling one. Twilight though, ever nosey in her innocent way, had to ask, “Are you referring to the PHR?” Still looking blue and with a mane of worn pillows, she could only muster, “No.”
Everyone knew who she was now referring to. The race of the bipedal apes.

Applejack softly but quickly shook her head, waving her golden mane wafting through the water. “Them humans are cruel but genius, have you read the article about how they spray gallons of acids on crops jus ta keep critters away? I didn't think you could ever find a way to industrialize farming, but they did.”
Rarity jumped in at the chance of spreading gossip, “I heard that all of their clothes are... manufactured,” That last word seemed to hesitate before leaping out of her mouth. “And that some types of their clothes are made of, animal leather!”
Fluttershy for one, was appalled “What! Animal leather! W-Why would they do that!?” Her protest was no more than a loud whisper, and Rarity answered in a most vague manner, “Beats me.”
Twilight choose to step in. “Humans are intellectually, brilliant and terrifying, and a bit stupid. I’ve read the stories of World war one and two, its horrifyingly fascinating!”
Rainbow did not seem to care, “We don’t need their technology! Were better of on magic alone!”
Pinkie perked up a little at a memory, drawing attention from her mood change. “They have some of the best jokes,(giggle), I’m always left on the ground laughing.”

“Excuse me?” Twilight looked over the side of the tub at the welcome interruption known as Spike below. “I hate to burst any bubbles you have left, but Celestia just mailed in…” Twilight took the parchment from his loose claw. “Its very, bad news.” The princess almost dropped the message in the water as she then read the message to her friends. “Prince BlueBlood is dead. Killed by the PHR in morning light. War is also to start today, and I’m supposed to attend the official signing of the war conformation!”

The group sat there frightened and amazed. Rarity for one, felt mixed feelings, “BlueBlood was a sorry excuse for a stallion, but even he didn’t deserve that.” Applejack narrowed her eyes toward the marshmallow. “Part of you is lying.”
“J-Just a small part.”
Fluttershy on the other hoof, was more keen to focus on the fear frozen princess in the steaming water. “Oh Twilight, I’m sorry you have to go through a horrible thing like that…” Pinkie took the news even harder than most realize, “Humans, I wanted to be friends with a whole knew species, the ones I met in New York were..surprisingly nice...” Rainbow Dash refused to allow sympathy to enter her mind, “Pinkie, this is a different kind of living being altogether, they don’t want to be our friends? Fine. By. Me.”

-The cave-

“So, this is what rehydrated American ravioli taste like.” Redwood could only comment on the taste as Soldier ate his breakfast the next morning. “Glad you like it, I should eat some French cheese burgers and see if you like that as well.” Slightly annoyed, Scout turned to the chatting rocket man, “Soldier, you’ve been talking to Redwood out loud all morning. Keep it in your thick head!”
“I’ve been talking aloud?”
“Yes, you have.”
“Oh, my bad.”
“Thats better…”

Off to the side, Derpy was having an odd intervention with Engineer, who was leaning against a dispenser. “You put poop in your crops?!” Engie had his paper on his lap and his head in one hand. “Mam’, we call it manure, and yes we do. It ain't our poop, just poop from things that strictly eat greens. It helps the plants grow.”
“That makes some sense, but still...gross.”
“Look,” Engie looked up. “What is it that you want?”
Derpy hesitated and started shuffling her hooves, “I’ve seen how much stuff your bags and pockets can hold, can I have one for my mail deliveries?” His finger made contact with his chin as he thought the idea over. “I can git one custom ordered from Mann. Co but that migh’ be expensive.” Derpy saw this coming, and had an offer already in her head, “I know of a magician and herbalist that has books on magical alchemy-” Medic appeared suddenly from behind the dispenser, frightening the duo. “Get me zose books, and I vill pay for your bag!” Derpy had her hoof on her chest from the jump scare, “Ok, ok, I’ll get you those books.
The doc’s massive smile expanded a millimeter. “Excellent!”
“Doc?”
“Yes?”
“Please don’t go off and scare me like that again. Or else we’re gonna have ourselves a problem.” Engie didn't even look at the doctor as he slowly disappeared back behind the dispenser.

Demo had finished breakfast and was clean his sword to pass the time. “How are ye feeling Eyelander?” The soul sword replied in a honest tone. “Can’t complain. I’m loving the unicorn souls, they carry a lot of spare juice.” Demo paused for a moment and stared into his reflection on the blade. “I was wonder’in mate, if we could try to expand on our soul powers.”
“Pal, if I gain enough heads, you and I will be able to do some crazy cool shit.”
The reflection smiled at Demoman. “Sounds like we need ta get out more often then.”
“Why don't you ‘get out’ the fresh orders from the envelope Derpy gave you?”
“Good idea, Hey lads! Round up! We got new orders!”

"Its a good day for the soldier boys to stretch their limbs. War is now a reality and we have our forces moving forward to kick out those four legged basters out of their settlements, and off human land. I have no doubt that they will give us more trouble than we think, plus we still have to fight our way across the ocean, so the United Forces won't hit homeland for month or more. As for the ones wandering city streets, we will be enforcing a similar program upon them like America did to the Japanese during WW2, but not nearly as harsh.” He stopped for a moment, and the sound of a fresh mug hitting the table was heard.

“In the meantime, this message came with a list of ancient castles and forts, built in the early age of Equestrian civilization, and their approximate locations. I want them demolished by the time my foot hits enemy soil. However, given the time frame of this task, you can go through the list at your own leisure. Periodically we will send you specific missions, but remember, these forts were built to defend Equestrian country against invaders. When I get there I want to move forward knowing that I have less hell to push through to the end of this war-.” The ending of this message was oddly abrupt as the audio cut off before the man could finish the ‘r’ in war.
Rifleman picked up the recorder, it was his turn to dispose of the device. Walking to a dispencer and typing in a few numbers from the button console at the top, he reached inside and pulled out a Demo granade and some copper cable. He took the granade and recorder and tied them together with the cable whilst whistling a merry tune. Once finished, he put it on the ground facing the cave exit. He stared at it and took a few paces back, leaned down like a marathon racer, and sprinted for a short distance, and football kicked the object out of the cave. The foce of the impact armed the explosive which exploded mid air. He laughed to himself and said, "I wish highschool football was like that, you could kill of rivals real quick."

This was a big deal to be given some more free reign. The team was filled with a sense of freedom, and decided to celebrate with the first defensive fort bash. Soldier felt an unpleasant swell in his chest, because Redwood was having a similar reaction. "Hey, are you alright?" His response was distressed.
"I know of those castles, and I lived in those forts. I am going to witness and partake in the destruction of, what is effectively, the remains of my home. Forgive me if I withhold any enthusiasm."
Soldier tried to be somewhat understanding. "I would be upset too...but these are our orders."
"Do not fret yourself over my troubles. It is not time that changes with me, but it is I that must change with time."
"I should get you a device we call a watch."

Author's Note

Good News! The next chapter will contain major combat! I have been anticipating writing this part and have set personal expectations higher. Next thing to say is that due to certain circumstances, I might be able to write into overtime over the weekend, so you might get an early upload. MIGHT!

And the 'fat lady' makes her curtain call whenever I type it: Please leave constructive criticism in the comments.

Hoofs clash against Hands

Chapter 8- Hoofs clash against Hands

Clue was and wasn’t happy that Twilight was here to assist him, teaching was never an occupation he thoroughly enjoyed, but now the time had come to sit down and gather the evidence together back at the office. The CSI building was relatively new, opened five years ago. The building was remodeled some little time after the first encounter, as it then became influenced by human design. The main colors were gray, white, and a dull silver. However, the building was separated into multiple floors, each with a different color on the walls for some much needed contrast. Clue was just entering the bottom grey floor through the front door, when he was greeted by his pegasus college, Paper Flap; a soft grey pony with a blond mane and tail, and his eyes of brown.

"Good morning Flappy." Greeted Clue in his casual manner. 'Flappy' did not enjoy his nickname, but he was used to it by now. "Hey Clue, how was lunch?" Flappy’s voice was high and sharp. "Liked it," He flashed his badge to the security guard and receptionist, as Paper followed suit, hovering the whole way down the hallway beside him. "I appreciate the recommendation."
"I assume then Flora will be joining you next time?” Clue rolled his eyes, “Hopefully, but that's none of your business.” Flappy knew Clue didn’t like how other ponies tried to get involved with his relationship, but, like himself, they didn't care.

“Flappy, talk to me, what do we know from this Tuesday?” Flappy took out a pad and paper, and began going through the list. “We were able to locate the location of where the shot was fired, a hotel suite in the Golden Mane.”
“Who was staying in that room?”
“Well, any documentation of their reservation is gone, or wasn't there in the first place. We did get a description of what they might look like. Purple stallion, earth pony, with black mane; accompanied by a mare with red coat and brown mane, unicorn.”
“So we still don't have any leads on their identity?... Are there any employees that quit recently?”
“Not that we know of.” Flappy noticed that as he was unconsciously floating beside Clue, that the pair moved into the stair case.
“What did you find in that room?”
“PHR symbols strewn across the walls, and the place vandalized.”
“Did you find any shell casings?”
“No.”
"So, all'n all we haven't learned much more about the case than what we knew from yesterday."
"Yep."
“What have the guys up here found out about the bullet?”
“I don’t know.” Flappy now saw they were on the science/research floor, themed green. Clue looked back to his friend. “In that case lets have a chat with the bio colts.”
This is the floor where all of the medical research, autopsy, and experiments takes place. While there was still an abundance of cubicles, this floor was mostly structured like a school house with each classroom a lab or medical room. Clue navigated the grids of these halls as if he had a gps hardwired into his head, and quickly, the pair came upon a room with a door number of 49. Without knocking, Clue and Flappy entered the lab where upon seeing the ponies of Twilight Sparkle, a dark brown earth pony by the name of Micro Scopic, and a gentle green Unicorn mare by the name of Botany Flora.
Micro was the first to greet his observant co worker and go-for intern with a rich lower voice with a carefree attitude. “Hey there you two. Clue, Twilight here has been quite an interesting sidekick you’ve chosen.” Flora agreed with that statement in her sweet and mellow cords, “Yes, she is quite an interesting choice for a sidekick.” putting a suggestive emphasis and countenance on ‘sidekick’ and tossing her beige mane back. Before Clue could object, and before Flappy failed to contain his chuckle, the present princess did both. “(giggle) He didn't chose me voluntarily, Celestia assigned me to him.”
Clue for one wanted to get down to business, “Alright, small talk later. What have you found out from the bullet?” The trio of scientists looked at one another with uncertainty. “Nothing? Really?!” Trying to find a good excuse, Micro did better and found a good reason, “We aren't gunsmiths, no one here is. And what good can we find in it? Any traces of oil or magic wasn’t found on it in the first place.”
“Look, here. We might just discover something. Do we know what's it’s made of?”
“The results haven’t come in yet, but its still probably just a lead bullet.”
“Bring me the bullet. I know a thing or two about them.” Obliging his friend, Flora levitated the near perfect bullet from a nearby table. "The fact that it went through someone's skull and still came out hardly dented is scary, but fascinating." Clue leaned his head back in an exaggerated motion. "That is the main reason for the material make-up testing." Clue only need see it before he knew what he could learn from it. “7.62 by 51mm NATO round.” His face grew slightly sour. “Typical sniper’s bullet. Dam, there is a wide variety of guns that can shoot this.” Flora put her hoof on his shoulder, “Look Cluely, as the war will go on we will get more data. This is all part of the learning curve.” Deeply, Clue appreciated her touch. But he wasn't about to tell her how much.

-South West of the Nation-

Fort Juniper, while famous for the forest around it, also had a unique construction of wood and stone walls. It was midday and the sun beat down with scorn upon the stone walls, backed by the local wood. If one took 25 average single story houses, including the backyard, and grouped them together into a 5x5 cube, the resulting area would be an approximate representation of the surface. Below, barracks and supplies found shelter. Juniper was a happy fort. Glad to have her original purpose fulfilled once more, and only desired to see the fire of war. The main interior behind the walls was a simple half circular area and beyond that the rest of the fort was structure with doors leading to the barracks below. A small tower stood at the very back.
A soldier, chosen at a game of miny-moe, rubbed his eyes from boredom once more before a bullet intersected with his head. The nearest sentry turned, and saw a sight for frightened eyes. “HUMANS INCOMING!” A horn was blown and the heart of Juniper came alive with the pulsing of hooves. Heavy, Medic, Pyro, Rifleman, Engineer, followed lastly by a careful Sniper, charged at the fort with guns ablazing.
Unicorns at the rim of the castle wall drew bows as fast as they could, but fellow archers were being brought down by a quickscoper.
A stray arrow shot its way through heavy’s arm, but the only response he gave was a painful growl. His spirits lifted, the arrows a Sniper could fling hurt much more compared to this. It still hurt though. Heavy focused on the charging airborne pegasi. They swerved and dodged but the unpredictability of bullets was more than able to down the birds before they got too close.
Fallen birds and Earth ponies, who ran at them with drawn swords and blades, most only got half way as a machine gun ate through the thin armor. Rifleman's wrath was smooth and efficient; Two bullets or three per target, equals 10-15 ponies per 30 rounds. If one caught him off guard, a pistol was still at hand, or a quick swipe and limbs would fly from the machete.
Pyro focused less on the charging horses, but more on the flying arrows. The unnatural reflexes of the beast proved impeccable as Pyro perfected the reflection technique. An arrow aimed at it flew at menacing speeds, but not before making a perfect 180 back to the sender, ending his career.
Medic was paying as much attention to his teammates as he was to the enemy. The arrows team members absorbed were pushed out by the body thanks to the medigun’s rapid heal rate. The german was misleadingly swift and nimble, almost as good as Scout. His job was to stay standing, and let them do the killing, so Medic ducked dodged and weaved through the majority of arrows directed at him, while he ran two and fro teammates.
Engineer threw down a single mini-sentry. The sentries received new software and programming, thus they became quick killers with some AI intellect. The little gun had no range limit and put pegasi as priority. What many heavy couldn't catch, it shot down, and Engie kept the archers at bay with persistent pistol shots.
The party moved forward at a profound pace with decreasing resistance. A warrior hesitated at the gate, the sight of his fallen brothers and sisters gave instinct reason to run. As he looked behind him, he felt stupid for not noticing the surprise attackers.
Soldier, Demoman, Spy, and Scout had sprang above the wall from behind. The fort was experiencing a full on massacre. The pony tuned back to his opponents, only to have life cut short with an uncloaked revolver from the high walls. The area was filled with cries of pain, explosions of blood, and the desperate yelling of human voices.
“To ye left!”

“Missed me!”
“MEDIC!”

“Cover me Heavy!”

“Da”

“I will have to wash my suit after this.”
“Reloading!”

“Makin horse-bacon.”

“HUDA!”

“Piss of archers! I’m hit!”
“Rifleman! Pick the archers!”

“On it!”
“You maggots are a disgrace to the art of war! Your death is a service to your princess!”
"I am both happy to see the blood of battle, yet sad to slay my kin. But it is too late to switch sides." Soldier shot rockets unto the ground below as more ponies flooded out from the underground housing. "To your right!" He tuned right and fired at a unicorn. This pony was lucky and leaped left before her horn glowed in an attempt to hold the weapon. Her face was slapped into a state of surprise as the magic could not grip the launcher or the arm that held it.
But she did not give up.
The next rocket was held in blue aura, it flew past on her right and made a sharp orbit to return back to the target.
Soldier rolled to dodge and drew his shotgun, but the mare formed a projectile shield as he had moved, therefore the shotgun shells bounced harmlessly off the field.
Soldier was left with one option and drew his shovel whilst charging at his foe.
She didn't back down and upholstered a single sword from her holster to parry the shovel's swing.
"Soldier, let me have control, this is where we can excel!" Suddenly, Soldier felt a influx of energy and strength fill his body and swell through pulsing veins. Redwood's thoughts became part of his own and his arms and legs moved with sub-involuntary action. His eyes dilated and his vision sharpened, as the two souls fused into one.
The mare swung her blade only to have it parried with impressive force, and the rebound from impact gave Redwood enough time to strike a dazzling blow that she would not recover from.
From behind, an earth pony with a flail whip on his tail swung but Soldier rolled forward under the swing and drew his shotgun. The pony was then dragged of the platform as his limp body could not resist the momentum from the flail. “Ahh, the thrill of battle, my true home. I am sorry brothers, but I must indulge myself.”

“Getting a little dark there.”
“I haven't seen or done anything in hundreds of years! I am more than willing to do this deed! Condemn me to hell if it comes to it!”

On the ground, a level three sentry laid waste to the enemy forces. Engineer leaned on his dispenser and played his guitar while body parts were sent flying from an explosion. In the eyes of the autogun, the ponies had red target boxes overlaid them, and a processor calculated action every millisecond in order to keep pace with the chaos of battle. A group of three ponies, one unicorn and two earth, was moving toward an unsuspecting Pyro, who had cornered some helpless fighters and was merely roasting them to well-done. A quad set of sub-rockets was propelled towards them, while the turret then focused on pegasi gaining altitude. Radar alerted main control that the rockets where coming back. With only precision achievable via computer, a quick spray of bullets intercepted the rockets and they detonated mid flight.
The three ponies were left in the dust of a french man, lighting a new cigarette. An archer; aiming for the Spy’s head, was blown to bits by a well placed headshot.

Demoman’s grenades had been overrun by a valiant trio and he was forced to use his Eyelander. His greatsword was, unlike most heavy weapons, half the weight of what one would expect. Each head (20 collected so far) made him faster and the small shield proves invaluable against ax heads and other sharp objects. The Scott leaned to the left to avoid a mace, but also threw up his shield to thwart an arrow. The soul sword collected another head upon aggressive stance recovery.
The remaining fighter pony could only think a partial thought before he was instantly killed by the human slamming into him with unknown speed and impressive momentum. This transferred force threw the body upon the archer behind him, and the pair was eliminated with a single grenade.
A pegasus managed to slip through the meaty fingers of sentry fire and covering Heavy support, his target was Demo and daggered horseshoes would be driven into the man’s spine… If not for the baseball knocking the stallion into the ground. Followed by a cleaver to the face.

Suddenly, the main doors from the fort housing within sprang open, a pair of unicorns emerged followed by a team of pegasi and earth ponies. The unicorns were supporting a projectile shield bubble around their team, and everyone else used ranged weapons or where on guard if anyone got too close. The force crept forward unscathed thus far as the sentry was powerless against the shield. Sniper unleashed a fully charged shot, but it bounced off and into an earth pony instead. "Ahh, piss. Soldier! We need some support here!"

"Kinda busy!" An electric unicorn was trying to chip away at Soldier's health while a chain whip earth pony slashed at a safer distance. "I would think electricity would hurt more." Redwood only chuckled in response, "I am the embodiment of the redwood wood. That wood is excellent against the elements and therefore, as a pair, we possess a major magic resistance!" Soldier parried the whip and quickly threw his shovel at the unicorn with huge strength. As predicted, the shovel made a counter; a quick U-turn behind the horse and sent back with equal momentum. Leaning to avoid it, Redwood outsmarted the poor colt by using the predicted move to send the shovel into the whippers face. The stallion froze as he saw his undoing, and made no move to stop the pickax from making contact. "They were probably good friends Soldier, I do feel bad for that."
"Incoming!" A black unicorn in thick chain mail approached with two menacing blades fastened to the wrist of each front hoof. The weird thing was that he hovered toward them in a bipedal way
of standing. Soldier retrieved his shovel and met his foe in proper combat.

Demo was trying to bust through the bubble with his grenades, but with no success. "Demo!" Eyelander called, "I have a good idea! If you do find a way to break the bubble, charge at them, trust me!" Demo growled at his lack of progress, "This is a wee bit of a sticky situation! The stick bombs are getting pushed aside, and I can’t dump too much on them without blowing us up as well!" Eyelander still pursued opportunity, "Then what do you use in a finicky spot?" This was rhetorical. "DONKING TIME!"
The grenade launcher was set aside, the Loose Cannon was brought out to play. The first timed cannon ball barely had time to bounce of before an explosion came no later than .5 seconds. This is the time window is for the donk affect. The following donk rang throughout the grounds as an odd, out of place noise.
But make no mistake, double donk 2.0 hurts much more than the original, Demo has had some extra time to improve his explosives some more than what he was given at the start. It is his own design after all, and he was dissatisfied with how his Loose Cannon was improved. The bubble visibly rippled in the funny noise, and Demo saw that this was the best current option against the shield.
"MEDIC!" Demo ran to the doctor as fast as his legs could take him. The forces where just more than half way to Engie and Heavy.
"Vat!?" He yelled over the gunfire, even when they had mics.
"Charge me doc!"
"Are you sure?!"
"Damn right I am!"
"Then," Medic turned the medigun on Demo, "Go set them!"
Uber deployed.
Demo burned a holy purple, and shot krit cannon after krit cannon, each one performing a deadly critical donk. "You’re all bloody dead!"
The force field rippled, wavered, cracked at the seams as the unicorns inside began bleeding from the nose and crying in thirsty pain.
The sixth donk broke them.
Demo charged and Eyelander channeled his power into the charge. The moment the shield made contact with flesh, a humongous shock wave blew back all the ponies and debris in front of Demo as if they were all hit at the same time by a freight train.

-A few minutes prior-

The two warriors on the wall swung their weapons back and forth, with each stroke intending to kill if it did hit the elusive opponent. The pegasus was unusually substantial and lean for one of his kind, but Soldier was unusually strong and swift for one of his own. Then again one could say that Heavy is unusually big for an individual, but don’t tell him I said that.
The pair of them traded blows against each others weapons, the pegasus used his swift anatomy to strike and recede with impressive speed. Soldier had to stand his ground, but found his enemy moved too fast for him to counter an attack. The shovel and pick had great defensive traits, but they were never designed for combat. Because of the curve of a pick the ax may only be swung in certain ways, and the shovel wasn't very sharp. Neither of them had a longer reach or versatility. Redwood needed to hold a sword. "These things are clumsy to work with! I need a sword, or a mace!" The black pegasus bounced back from Soldier's parries and just as quickly recovered, providing an unrelenting attack. "Damn it Solly! I need a real weapon!"
Soldier was getting tired of this complaining. He wished he had his zatoichi but that could be ordered later.
The weapons at his feet from the fallen where daggers in his huge hands, but if Redwood needed a break, they were the best option.
However, looking at the ground for only one minuscule moment, gave Soldier a good idea. "I am optimistic about this plan!"
“Then let me take care of it numb-nuts!” Soldier rolled to his left before back reaching into his into his pocket to draw his back up plan. The black horse turned on a dime and backed off to avoid the swing of a-
Rocket launcher?
Dark horse swerved left to avoid the rocket and charged in. He would be too fast to hit before his swords teared the human to shreds.
In the last moment, Soldier jumped and pulled the trigger at his own feet. The man was launched high from the blast but his boots protected him from major self infliction.
The pony wasn’t so lucky.
He felt dazed from the explosion and falling rubble, and agonizing pain told him that he was lucky to still have eyes to see the open sky. To see the holy light take him…
To see a pair of shoes crashing down on his face.
Followed by a deafening shock wave that he could no longer hear.
The wall proved to be enough of a barrier to thwart the shock wave from sending Soldier off the wall.

Suddenly, silence. The sound of the sentry gun beeping back and forth indicated no more hostiles in the area. Engie stopped playing his guitar and heaved a relaxing sigh. "Welp, I guess thats that. Rifle, got yer blade stuck?" The marine had his hand on the machete's handle, and was trying to wrestle it from having it wedged in a dead skull. "Com’on bastard, let me, have my. Knife. Back..." A sickening crack later and the weapon broke free. Soldier stood in a small ring of dead bodies and a crater. The flow of physical power subsided as fast as it came. "I haven’t moved like that in ages! Its feels good to live a little."
"Augh.." Soldier lifted a shoe. "I got pony brains on my boots, I wanted to keep his head!"

Scout picked up his dirty cleaver and Demo picked up the ball. "Good shot lad." He handed the ball back to its owner. "Thanks. Oh! To victor goes the spoils! Lets raid this place!" Hearing the call, and being closest to a door, Rifleman opened said door. Ajar at first, but the moment he fully let light shine into the base, a unicorn mare with two axes leaped out of the darkness, charging towards her prey!

This was met with a door slamming into her face.

Reopening the door again, Rifleman saw the two battle axes embedded into the wooden wall. "I'm sorry mam but you need to take your complaint to the customer service department." He pulled out his pistol and shot her twice. "We have a valid search warrant." Glancing over his shoulder, everyone else was waiting behind him. Spy looked into the dark staircase. "There may be more down there. Perhaps some traps as well." Sniper agreed, "Fair point mate," he put his hand on Spy's shoulder, "You go first."
Spy sighed in defeat and grumbled under his breath as he cloaked himself while descending. Though invisible, his footsteps could still be heard until there was silence.

More silence...

Then, quite suddenly, apart from Rifleman, the team began to speak in unison. "One, two, three," Noises began echoing from the chaos below.
"Ahhhh!" Bang! Booom!....

...Peace and quiet. "Four, five, six,"
Bang! "The ha-"
"Die damn you!"
"Buck!!"
Bang-Bang!

Like the fall of a feather. "Seven, eight, nine,"
Crunch! Bunk, Bunk, “AGH!” Snap!
"Ten."
"Gentlemen! I'm waiting!"

The stairs where dry and light was only present from a single torch seen a distance down the staircase. After the party descended into the base, Spy was found leaning against a wall eating an apple. “From what I can tell, there is a healthy inventory down here.” The walls of stone turned slightly damp, and the head height was barely high enough for Heavy. The interior was wood and stone, the set up was right out of the medieval era. Barrels, sacks, clumpy furniture, and hay beds. They would take all they could and retreat back to the mountain.

-Across the Sea-

A man of high rankings stood before a burning cottage on the edges of Australia. Beside him a pony in battle armor struggled against chain cuffs and a human restraint. “Sir,” The restrainer said, “We found this officer hiding under a desk.” The man turned to his private, and then looked down at the resentful stallion. His tone was merry and his voice was rough. "War has come at last boys. Let the bullets ring and the reaper sing. War has come at last." He pulled out his pistol, aimed at the pony’s head, and pulled the trigger.

Author's Note

Huzzah! Over 4000 words! I know that is beyond my limit, but I couldn't find a way to split this into two parts and still have good plot flow. Besides, 500 extra words wont hurt. I had planned some extra 300+ words of detail, but at that point, it would have been overboard.

And as always: Constructive feedback is always appreciated.

The Law and the Campaign

Chapter 9- The Law and the Campaign

Derpy trotted along the streets of Ponyville, the day was of to a good start. A young stallion ran past her, he seemed to be in a bit of a rush. An indistinguishable cry of a distressed mother flowed behind the child’s trail. “You get back here young man!" Derpy saw that she had tears flowing from her eyes as she went galloping after him. "What's your father going to say when he finds out you're fighting humans!" It was a good start to a melancholy day.
The war is officially on and what just happened was a young stallion running, as one of the many, to sign up for battle.
"Of course Celestia chooses now to start recruiting." Thought Derpy, "The last thing she wanted was to imply that she was going to war at all. Now she need forces, and fast." She had to keep moving, in her bag was expensive packages for Zecora. The overseer herself must make important deliveries every now and then.
As she continued to walk from one side of town to the other, she wondered how other ponies were reacting to the prospect of war. "Celestia needs to be real convincing if she wants a good army in short term." Military recruiting is completely voluntary in Equestrian society. Exempt only if you get a personal invitation from an alicorn. The best way to convince the ponies without pushing the laws is a strategic plan that originally came from WW1; propaganda and advertising agencies.
This thought caused Derpy to observe her surroundings and facehoof afterwards for not noticing before hoof.
Posters, flags, and banners promoting military service had been placed on every other building; they had suddenly appeared overnight all over town.
Derpy carried on, but couldn't help giving the posters her attention, much like other citizens. One showed an earth pony standing up with his front hooves on top of a human's chest, while Celestia's symbol provided light to the background. It read on the top: "Fight against the inferior, Join the Forces today!"
Another poster on the next building across the street was of a hoof standing on a hand, crushing it. It read, "Hooves are stronger than hands!"

Derpy entered the local market and smiled to those who said hi. She turned to the Sweet Apple's stand, and saw a profound image. A large poster was divided in half, one half had Applejack standing proudly with a coil of rope leaning on her leg, but the other half had a thin scrawny human wearing a helmet too big for his head, and using gear that had seen better days. The text at the bottom was of size and number that it made you stop whatever you where doing so you could read it. “This pony can buck her apple trees to oblivion if she desired, this human could barely make the tree shake. Join the Equestrian Army, its an easy fight.” Looking over to the actual stand, she noticed a large banner over it, and almost growled in frustration. “Sweet Apple Acres, proud sponsor of the Equestrian cause.”
Applejack waved to Derpy unaware of her distress. Derpy smiled and waved, but as soon as AJ turned to mingle with a customer, she frowned slightly and rolled her eyes. “Of course, if Celestia presents a business with enough cash, I can bet my wings that they will be more than happy to promote this war.” Just as she was leaving the market, a Rainbow pegasus flew over head pulling a “Join the Army” banner across the sky. “And not surprisingly, Twilight’s friends will most likely be doing everything they can to support Celestia.” More posters depicted similar statements, comparisons of species, or simply promoting the cause in some other way. A poster showed a shadowy figure of a human with unnaturally sharp hands reaching around a mother and her filly, “Keep those hands off! Buy war bonds!”
Another depicted a lunar guard standing on a cliff overlooking a human encampment, with light provided by Luna’s symbol as the moon. “We attack at night, Join the Lunar division.”

Predictably, as Derpy passed by SugarCube Corner, she saw an add in the windows. "25% off on patriotic baked goods." A line extended from the doorway indicating successful sales. She turned way to look somewhere else, but only saw more propaganda, “Idle hooves do human’s work!”
Slightly peeved now, she marched on through town. Derpy decided that the TF-S wouldn't want to see the posters, but they needed to regardless. So, when she sure no pony was looking, she swiped posters from the walls and moved on. She only glanced at the Carousel Bouquet. It sported a new kind of line of patriotic clothes.
She passed by the Golden Oak library, a bill board was planted in the tree canopy. “If you want to contribute to the war without going to battle, listen closely my ponies. Instead of throwing metal trash away, donate it to your closest recruitment centre, and get a discount on select taxes. Keep an eye out for markets and businesses supporting the cause, shopping from them helps fund the food soldiers will eat. If you own a business, firm, or other company, and you want to contribute; send us surplus supplies for a larger tax refund. Lastly, as a herd you must all be frugal on any or all resources. Your soldiers need them more than you do.”

As she neared the edge of town, she relaxed at the sight of FlutterShy's cottage, what would she possibly be able to advertise? A shy pony like herself wouldn't dare to publicly advertise.

Derpy thought too soon.

A colossal flock of birds erupted from the tree canopy, each one holding flyers. A single bird approached Derpy and dropped a flyer in her hoof before retreating to the tree, and emerging with another flyer. Derpy looked down upon the small paper, the reasons why you should come to the recruiting center and benefits filled the page.
“Realy?!”
She tucked the paper into her bag regardless, and moved on to the everfree forest. At the edge of the forest, Derpy inhaled some bravery, and darted into the Everfree. Speed was key, too slow and you become prey to “God knows what.” Too fast, and anything unexpected can catch you off guard before you have time to react. She made deliveries like this before, and weaved through the trees like water. Her wings flapped rapidly for speed, and were kept close to her body to reduce size.
Zecora's house was visible and the lights were thankfully on. Derpy’s wings flew open and a wall of air collided with her, the drag slowing the flight and almost bringing the pegasus to a total stop. A few quick flaps and she made contact with the ground.
Almost instantly, the door to the voodoo tree house opened and a humble Zebra stepped out to greet her good friend. “Ahh Derpy, good to see you again. Come inside my humble den.” Derpy huffed a few times and nodded her head. The ceiling and walls had voodoo decor, but of a friendly variety. Even so though the place did carry an ominous feel. A large black cauldron sat in the middle of the room with boiling water inside.
Derpy reached into her bag, and pulled out multiple jars with alien plants with in them. “Here’s your..uh..ingredients?” The plants did look quite odd. “Ingredients? Yes that is true, but not the ones for this particular brew.” Gesturing to the pot of water, Zecora took the jars anyway, and placed them on a high shelf. Derpy took out a piece of paper and red the amount due for the delivery. “Now Zecora, you said that you would pay in some books? This delivery was quite pricy.” The zebra sighed and trotted over to a bookshelf. “These books are expensive and rare, but the recipes are finally copied, with due care.” Hoofing the books over to Derpy, she calmly took them and placed them into her bag. When she looked up, she caught a glimpse of an ornate wooden box being hidden behind books from the ones that were just removed.
Zecora turned to Derpy, having caught the glance. “Remember the rath Trixie brought? That box contains the amulet that started the wrought.”
“Ohh.” Derpy said in an intriguing manner. The box was still fascinating, even though she had no reason to stare at it.
“My efforts to rid of it are so far for naught.”
Silence, apart from the bubbling water, made the place more disturbing than before. Derpy seemed lost in the moment, her eyes focused on where the box was.
“I must leave to collect native plants, one is called; the devil’s dance.” This broke Derpy’s concentration.
“Oh, sounds hard to get.” Zecora only nodded.

Outside the pair waved each other goodbye, and one flew straight up, while the other trotted along the winding path.

A few minutes later, Derpy came back down. The forest was awfully quiet.

Derpy tried to open the door, but found that the zebra locked it. Kicking down the door, Derpy ran inside and charged for the bookcase. The amulet…
Derpy opened the box and the alicorn amulet was still there, in all its glory. “Under normal circumstances I would never do this, but…” She held the jewelry in her hooves, it was warm and smooth to the touch. She heard whispers, from the amulet, calling for a new host. “Oh! The TF-S will love this, after all, humans can’t perform any major magic!”
Taking a paper from her bag, it was the PHR symbol, she placed it where the box was. “It feels better knowing you're blaming it on a group of terrorists that don't exist….still,” Derpy looked around the room, she had to make the place look vandalized, like they broke in and randomly searched for the amulet. Otherwise it would clearly lead to her. “Ohh..I don’t want to…I’m not that kind of pony.”

“You don’t, and ye won’t.”

Frightened frozen from the rhyme, the mare stared at the door way. Demo then appeared through the doorway, opening it suddenly. “BOO!”
“EEEP!”
Demoman found this adorable and amusing, but refuse to laugh at her reaction out of kindness. He still had a unstable smile. Meanwhile, Derpy was understandably infuriated. “Buck you Demo! I thought you were Zecora! Try that again and I might buck your eyepatch off!”
“My apologies lassie.” He observed the room. “I was getting a wee bit board so I thought I would try to see how far I could launch myself with as much stickies as I desired.”
Derpy was confused and dumbfounded, “Wouldn't that have killed you? You flew over Ponyville! How many did you use!?”
Demoman held up an orange ball, the size of a grapefruit. “They didn't reprogram the dispenser to limit the types of ammunition it could put out. These baby’s dont hurt one bit, my launcher can use them, and a few of these can soften any landing.”
Eyelander shouted from his sheath, “As for the amount of bombs? You don’t wanna know sweetheart; Demo, for the record, never do that again.”
Derpy wasn’t completely convinced, “Butt..butt, the momentum, and the G-force, and your ability to stay conscious-” She found a dark finger on her lips, “Listen, in all the years of my work, I’ve learned to not question the holes in reality, but to embrace them while you can.”
Eyelander recited a famous saying. “I reject your reality, and subsitute my own!”

"Now you watch for anything, and I'll demonize this place me-self." Derpy felt unsure about how this will work out in the long run, but figured he would have destroyed the place regardless.

Outside, Derpy waited and listened for anything to appear. The noise Demo was making made that simple task difficult. CRASH, SMASH, SNAP… "There goin to glue this back together, at IKEA." Derpy thought IKEA was a form of furniture store, but maybe it also is a curse word. Eventually, after a thorough job done by Demo, he emerged from the house with a smile on his face. “Satisfied with yourself Demo?”
“Eye!”
“Well,” Derpy lowered her eyelids half way and grew a keen smile. “How are we getting back to the base?” Demoman’s smile vanished into thin air, “Ah, bloody hell.” Derpy held the amulet box in her hooves and waved it in a taunting motion, “I’m not giving you this unless we go together.”
Demo found himself cornered, “I...uh..Oh! One o'clock, scrumpy time!”
She merely sat there patiently, “Take your time.”
Demo struggled to down the bottle out of distressed thoughts. Eyelander didn’t see the big deal. “What’s your deal with keeping it secret? She is the nicest pony I ever met, and you need to remember what your mother taught you about treating females with respect!” Demo choked on his alcohol.
Derpy pleaded with a sincere heart and baby eyes, “Pleeaase?”
“Bloody hell! Ye used the magic word…”
“So-o-o? How do you do it-Tell me-tell me!” She was bouncing like Pinkie Pie in anticipation. “Well,” he turned his arm and showed her the bracelet. “We use teleportation watches.”
She stopped bouncing, “Oh, I imagined a more sophisticated set up…” She suddenly got angry, “Why did you keep this a secret?!”
“Lassie, please understand that we don’ trust anyone other than fellow members. Not even our employers. It be part of our line of work.”

Derpy then got hurt slightly, “So, you guys still don't trust me, after all this time?” He heard the pain swelling in her chest, “No-no, well, yes, but no. Don’ take it the wrong way Derpy, we do sincerely care for your help, and muffins.” She still looked and sounded hurt. “How can I trust your telling the truth if you don’t trust me?”
“Now lassie…” She quickly thrust the box onto him and flew into the forest. Eyelander chose to comment, “Oh, you hurt her.”
“Shut up!” He sighed a deep breath, and rubbed his hands on his face. “We do care…”
“Then show her, prove it to her.” Demo straightened up, put the box in his pocket, and pressed his teleport button. “I have an idea.”

-Over the Sea-

"Just because you have a decent ranking and a half ass reason, doesn't mean that you can shoot our God-damn prisoners!" Killing a prisoner is a war crime, and those are not treated lightly. General Sult A. Seons was standing and having a loud chat with First lieutenant Sam Nickels in his temporary station/office in Australia. "The only reason I'm not having your ass smacked is because you're a good man. But good men shouldn't pull that kind of shit off! I’m pulling contact strings here!" Sult was an older man with history written on his face. His hair was grey and almost gone but he was still healthy and well under his decorative uniform.
"Permission to speak sir?"
"Granted.”
"The laws of war apply to humanity, not equine life!"
"That right there, is the only reason why I have leeway for doing this! We need to be merciful when it comes to these terms! They probably will re-write those conditions now that you brought attention to it so congrats on that."

"Sir, they killed a lot of good men I knew!” Sam was letting his anger and frustration leak through his demeanor, “I saw one of my men get beheaded by his own knife! Another had his whole clip emptied into himself!" Sam was almost halfway through his thirties and his body was stiff like a board from all the verbal abuse he took from almost everyone for bending a delicate matter. But he was still pissed at the four legged horrors.

"We weren't prepared for it, no one was. Levitation is a right-wing bitch." The northern front assault of Australia, the ponies biggest foothold, experienced a harsh beating and had to retreat.
With simple levitation and projectile bubbles, the few unicorns present in battle gave first combat troops some major issues. With no resistance to magic, individuals are killed in a number of gruesome ways. The most popular tactic seen thus far, is the act of stealing a soldier’s gun, and killing him with it. Or arming the grenades still attached to the soldier. The understanding of these weapons is still alien to pony kind, but even the dull ponies still figured out that if you point the gun and pull the trigger, something dies, and if you pull this and that, something explodes.

The pegasus is hard to aim at, so that was a problem as well. If you couldn’t get a feed on them, then they slash and stab before the poor victim gets a second glance.
Earth ponies have it hardest, they can't out run the turn radius of a gun, and are easier targets to shoot. Come too close, however, and they will break you into pieces.

In the end, sheer explosions where the only known thing that could punch through magic, even then, some rockets were launched right back.
"Sam, I did as much as I could, but you can't walk away from this unscathed. Lieutenant you are now a second lieutenant, and your staying there for a while. Also you are being reassigned to a new platoon. You will be under First lieutenant Michael Zonger." Sam tried to keep a straight face, but his mouth frowned ever so slightly. "Will I still be fighting in the Australian Campaign? Sir?"
"Yes. But don't be surprised if you find yourself held back from optimistic colleges. No one wants to partake in a genocide Sam."
"Thank you General."

Sult held up his hand, "Son, I brought you here for another reason. If it were not for the stretching of an international book of laws, you would have been promoted for your valiant success in the northeast Australian colonies. I want you to compose a report of all you know and have learned from combat against the ponies specifically. We need as much info as we can get.”
“Yes sir!”
“In fact,” He leaned back in his chair, “Lecture me on what you know, right now.”
“Don’t you have the mission report sir?”
“I lost it. Now, humor me.”

Sam’s micro frown disappeared, and his face visibly relaxed, but his posture remained diligent and his gaze was cold. “I observed that projectile shields failed to protect against melee attackers when I killed one with my knife around a corner. But the more unicorns that got involved turned the bubble into a, level two stage force, for lack of a better term.”

“The level two shields kept all objects we threw at it out, even fighters, like a brick wall. But we did find a way around it, or, I should say through it. We had some Patton tanks with us but they were afraid to get too close to the unicorns in case they were picked up by a trained duo, and generously shot at anything they could hit. After some convincing, I got a tank to ram one of the major sheilds, and it broke right through it. The unicorns could not levitate and support a shield at the same time. Sir, let me just say that we made lots of meat pancakes that day.”

“For those fast flyers, I had men either stick close to tanks, or kept the ones holding shotguns vigilant. Those birds fall like stones with shotguns. The earth ponies do as well.”
“The hard part about those flyers if that they hide on clouds. We didn’t have a powerful enough satellite radar for that, but we used infrared goggles we had to took at suspicious or lower clouds. We found some of them.”
“We fell into a routine of squish ‘n shoot and moved forward quickly.” He stopped. “Thats basicly it sir. The ponies did not have com. or radio communication, so they couldn’t formulate a counter as a team fast enough.”

Sult looked to be taking mental notes during the course of this monologue, “Good work Sam, I’m proud of you. And so would ‘he’.”
“Thank you Sult, but this is supposed to be official business.” Sam’s original father (referred to as ‘he/him’ for sensitive reasons) died a while ago, his mother remarried to Seons, but Sam still prefered to use his last name Nickles. Its not that Sam hated his new father, but they never did get any family bonding time all those years ago. This left an emotional gap.
“I know. I know.. but pull a bullshit rule like this again and you won't be getting any help from me.”
“Yes sir.”

“Dismissed. Go get’em tiger.” Sam rolled his eyes in an agitated fashion, and stood up to leave.
As the man saluted and departed, Sult picked up his phone. The operator was quick and alert. “Yes sir?” Sult opened a drawer and picked up a light cigarette. “Get ‘him’ on the line.”
“Right away sir.” Almost instantly, the phone switched lines. “Hello?”
“Hello, good to hear from you General.” Seons lit his cigar. “I need you to send a message.”
“Oh, and what might that message entail?”
“Ask if they could send reports on any relevant findings about fighting ponies. Time is not a factor, but they are the best insiders we have.”
“I can do that. How do you want their responses delivered to you?”
“Like any other mail.”
“Perfect...Is that all?”
“Yes.” The phone hung up. The general put the phone down, then picked it back up. “Yes sir?”
“See if you can tap me into the General of the Army, I need to have a quick chat with him about battle strategies and the P.R.A.P. If he seems to hesitate tell him that it involves the TF-S.”

Author's Note

I was on spring break and decided that this could be uploaded a little early. Sam was created so we have a character to follow whenever we need to look at how the humans are coming along during the course of the war.
There is a small reference in this chapter, it shouldn't be too hard to find if you haven't found it already.

And as always: Provide some constructive feedback!

Muffins and Demonic Mares

Chapter 10- Muffins and Demonic Mares

“Dear Mysterious man who mails us orders,

Hello! I am ze Medic! You never told us how to address you but I doubt you care. You should have noticed zat zis is being sent via recorder. Ze same one you sent us, ve viped it and here it is. I’m finding zis to be more efficient than to write it out. Engineer has programed into a dispenser ze construction code for another recorder. Fascinating machine zat is, but I digress.”
“From vhat ve have learned so far is zat ze projectile shields are in fact fruitless against hand to hoof combat. Ve all possess skills in melee, so the shields aren't a major issue. If two or more unicorns form a bubble, zen nothing can seem to get in. Ve dealt vith one using high explosives, but zat is much too inefficient for our standards, no much too inefficient. I have constructed a makeshift lab vith materials I got from ze Tall Tale hospital. I say make shift, but as I am experimenting as I’m talking, I vould call it a crafted lab. Makeshift is too much of a negative vord for vhat I have in front of me.” There was a scuffle across the mic as the recorder was moved. Sounds of bubbling liquid and the soft sound of a bunsen burner, alongside occasional clinking of glass, became present in the background. “My research has been slowly moving forvard, my understanding of magic is steadily growing, but my calculations predict zat you vant faster answers. Vell, all I can say is that I’m vorking hard vith vhat I have. Attached to zis mail, is a report of my findings on soul gems. Ve have found a flawless gem and are using it to our major benefit.”
“I vant to take zis opportunity to have my good friend Soldier share his opinion. Now hand me zat vial.”
“What do you refer to me as maggot!?”
“Ugh, my friend, ze Great Soldier of Oz…”
“Thanks Doc, here. Ok Sir, I have something to advise you of, you need your men to be trained in more thorough close quarters combat. These ponies use swords, axes, whips, flails, if you want your men to have a better chance out there, then teach em the old ways. Teach them how to parry, give them better and bigger knifes to wield, show them how to thwart a whip and to avoid swings of the ax! Teach them how fight like knights!”
“Also, believe it or not, my team is immune to feeble attempts to be levitated. I can’t tell you why, its a secret of the trade. But from what I know about magic and from what we’ve experienced so far, I can tell you that it takes magic to stop magic. You said that you have in state ponies relocated into camps. I recommend seeing of you can convince one to help you with your research. I will also send more information as it comes. That is all.”
“Good, now pour zis blue stuff into za water... I have concluded after consulting vith teammates, zat ze most effective way to detect and take down pegasus is vith either extreme computer precision, or a large rapid fire spread. As for how to achieve that, vell, you have your own team of zinkers for zat part.”
“Uh, medic?”
“Vhat?”

“The water turned green. More blue stuff?”
“More blue stuff, vait for it to be a color yellow as hell.”
“Earth ponies are seldom an issue for you so I vont talk about them. Overall I vill send over my findings vhen I comacross somezing useful, for now, ve must push through vith vat ve have at hand. End message.”

The recorder was set aside, and Medic picked up the vial he was working on. It was a thick creamy yellow substance. “Engie, I have dyed your cream filling.” The texan reached over and snatched the paste before moving over to Pyro who was the team chef. “Here you go. Chef.” Pyro had Heavy move a workbench closer to the fire for easy access. He was wearing his famous chef hat. The workbench had various colored smears from cut vegetables on one side, and the other had flour and small dough circles. The food was supplies from Juniper Fort and wheat powder with what other seasonings they scraped from the raid made up the dough. Small portions of yellow paste were placed inside the circles which were then bundled up neatly into balls. Taking a makeshift oven box made from sentry metal, Pyro inserted the stuffed balls into the box and placed it gently to the side of the fire to bake. Pans, pots, and veggies supported by an engineered campfire grill.

The overall setup wasn’t pretty, but the important thing is that is was functional. Cooking was the only thing that tamed the mysterious beast from burning things to a crisp. Nothing was more satisfying to it than to cook for his fellow companions. It was a passion. He used Rifleman’s machete as a spatula, with his permission of course, and moved quickly and carefully around breakfast.

-Ponyville-

Derpy awoke in the dark dew of dawn. Light from the distant sun and setting moon failed to be hardly close to bright enough in order to awake even the most sensitive of sleepers. An alarm clock, quiet enough to only wake a single pony, rang next to Derpy's bed. Her response was quick. Her subconscious mind recognized the noise, and sent sudden signals to the rest of the body, effectively jumpstarting the whole system.
She tapped the snooze button, too fast, and then needlessly spammed the button to get the soft beeping to stop. Once the noise died down, Derpy looked up at the ceiling with a messy mane and half open eyes, a strand of mane was on her nose. She blew it upward, out of the way and began her morning routine. She stood up from her bed, yawned, and stretched herself like a dog. The house was quiet apart from her movements and activity. Dinky slept in her room and wouldn’t be awake for another two hours, but Derpy needed to leave the house in fifteen minutes to reach Smoky Mountain in time.

A quick trip to the bathroom gave her daily relief and made her mane clean. The pony softly fluttered into the kitchen, the morning paper was already at everypony’s door to appeal to early risers like herself. Doors are seldom quiet and one must move carefully, yet quickly, to make a small amount of noise when opening the front door. Even if it may seem loud, the constant creaking of a slow door is more disruptive than a short yelp.

As Derpy held the paper in her mouth after performing the ‘yelping door maneuver,’ her mind now began to slowly click into gear as it reminded her about the unjust reasoning of her bipedal companions. She went through a lot to bake muffins and escape with them without Dinky noticing. Keeping tabs on your followers and insiders for the human cause, while doing her normal job, also takes a toll on the body and mind.
Her bag was waiting by the door on the floor, inside were the books for Medic, plus papers she needed for her day job. She stuffed the Equestria Daily into the weighted bag, and put it on without her muscles giving any sign of strain. She has made deliveries of all shapes and sizes over the years, and has become deceptively fit as a reward.

One more with the door maneuver, she was out if the house, and on her way to Smoky Mountain. As she flew through the sky, the looming emotions about yesterday weighed down in the chest. Its not like they knew what she went through on a daily basis. However, she did understand that these were men who kill on a near daily basis. She didn't know what they went through during missions.

That doesn't change the fact that they don’t trust her.

The upsetting part is that it is irrational. If she wanted to betray them then she easily could have them all hunted down and killed, but the main part of it was that they simply weren't nice people. This is completely expected, but as a pony, it is difficult to cope with. “Perhaps,” She thought, “I just want some acknowledgement of what I do, some kind of apology.” She did not doubt that they loved the muffins, they did thank her for those. Yet, muffins are but a small piece of the pie, as to what she does for them. “It feels selfish to request more praise when they can't have any idea of understanding. Regardless, they did lie in an unnecessary way.” Derpy was the one that felt betrayed, because she trusts them, but they don't trust her. “I still should confront them about this.”

-Time passes-

The mare entered the cavern as usual, but the quick and firm movements of her body indicated stress or agitation. She paused at an unusually flat ground, and lack of rough stones in her path. The cave was normally like an unkempt dirt trail, with rocks and an uneven ground. Here, the dirt and loose rocks were, for the most part, removed and thus was left with a solid rock floor, but dirt filled where sharp divots and holes would be.
She threw the paper at Scout without even saying hello, and almost stomped up to Soldier. He was helping Medic at the lab. Her voice was like a mother who was confronting her child who did something bad. “So, Soldier, Demo told me about your little teleporter watches.”
Soldier wasn’t one for hopping around the proverbial bush. “Derpy, I know what it seems like, so we wanted to show you that we cared.” This quick to the point attitude was something she did not count on. “Oh, you do?” She refused to be beaten like that so quickly and remained stubborn. “Prove it then.” She closed her eyes and stuck up her nose.

The mailmare yelped when she was carried up in the huge arms of Heavy from behind like a baby. She then felt herself turn and be placed in a warm bear hug. “Umm, Heavy?” The hug wasn’t painful, but it was awkward, touching, but awkward. The embrace was held for a few more moments to let the emotion sink in. He then held her up under the front legs in front of him. His face beaming, “Derpy is credit to team!” She blushed in response, “Oh, Heavy thats sweet, but could you please put me down?”
“Da.” Derpy’s hooves made contact with the floor and she smiled up at the gentle giant. “Well, at least you care-” Derpy felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Pyro holding a plate with boiled cabbage, cooked carrots, and some local flowers. A grumble from her stomach told her surprised brain that breakfast was served. “Did you make this for me!?”
“Huda.” Engie called from behind Pyro, “That means yes!”
Derpy thought that they were nothing more than ruthless humans doing the bidding of their respective owners. Caring was a word thought to be quite distant from the group of savage humans.

Engie moved from behind pyro to present the coffee. “We flavored it with sugar.” Derpy was clearly caught in a moment where she didn't know how to react. She mouthed words that were not spoken, and then found herself lifted by Heavy again, before being placed at a workbench turned breakfast table. The food was set before her, and she noticed a plate of baked dough balls, was added. “What. Are. Those!?” They were of a golden brown, soft appearance, and the smell was enticing. The team stood around the table, and Scout answered,
“They're little puff balls we made with what we had from the fort we recently raided.” She anxiously dug in. “Murp is really-muph (Gulp) Good!”
“Glad ye like it lassie. It our way of saying sorry.” Demo seemed most apologetic. Derpy still didn’t want to accuse, but had to point out, “Well, I know for a fact Pyro made this, and Heavy gave me a hug…”

“Yeah, but I got those flowers you ate from the forest below while getting Pyro fire wood.”
“Medic and I colored the puff paste yellow.”
“That there plate you're eating on, I built that.”
“That strong little bite you taste lassie? It be from my Scrumpy.”
“My machete was a tool used as a spatula for cooking.”
“Heavy moved tables too.”
“Spy and I helped clean the floor, in fact most of us contributed to that.”
"Trust me, I had to change suits from being so dusty."
Derpy felt sincerely touched at the effort they made just to show that she was appreciated. Her eyes watered slightly and her ears fell back. “A polite sorry would have been enough, but thank you, thank you all.” She slowed down and took care to savor the food. “I hate to dampen the mood, but I bought some stuff with me that you guy’s won’t like to see.” Reaching into her bag she pulled out a stack of propaganda and Soldier grabbed it from her hooves. As he looked through the posters, his face grew enraged. "What the hell is Celestia trying to pull off with these!? Hooves stronger than hands!? I would like to see her and Heavy in a boxing match and then ask her that question! This crap is right out of World war one and two! War bonds!? Why that little-”

As Soldier went on to negatively rant about the claims the posters made, Derpy brought out the books Medic requested. “Oh, zis is wunderbar! Danke Derpy!” She ate a puff whole, and swallowed, “Now you get me that book bag-”
“Of course.” The food was nearly gone from her plate. “Did you guy’s find out anything from the Alicorn Amulet I got you?” Rifleman held the amulet in his hand, it was unchanged apart from a cable rope to support human necks. “Soldier couldn't make out what was inside, but he said it possessed powerful magic, so he still thinks its a flawless soul gem. Medic tried it, but didn’t pick up anything from it, and the rest have tried it apart from myself. And Soldier and Demo of course.”

She swallowed the last bite, “Well, try it on. I’m not returning it.” Slightly hesitant at first, Rifleman put on the amulet and felt the cold metal press against him. His mind braced itself for anything, and he closed his eyes…

Darkness at first, duh, his eyes were closed. Nothing appeared to approach him, or talk to him. “Hello? Is anypony here?” Nothing. “What the hell is this thing then? Some crappy piece of jewelry with an enchantment?" The darkness grew warm. Rifleman felt heat on his skin even though he only closed just his eyes. He opened his eyes, and saw that he was no longer in the cave, but standing on a heated cliff over looking a fiery pit under a red sky. “Oh shit! Umm..” He looked behind him and saw the cliff was actually a small flat plateau, surrounded by fire far below. “Am I in hell? Or is this another dream about spicy salsa?” He walked to the centre of the rock, “I hate spicy salsa, or most things spicy for that matter.”
“Something we share in common, creature.” A female voice that had a chocolate silkiness, but an evil red filling hidden inside. Attractive, but foreboding.

Instinctively, he turned around as nothing presented itself in front of him at that very moment. A unicorn mare stood behind him with a black-grey coat that reflected the light of the fire, a mane of purple with and corresponding tail that was plush, long, and thick. Her visible eye, the other being obscured by her mane, was a rich blood red, and her smile was both intimidating and inviting. Her cutie mark was a purple earth crystal with orange light burning inside.

“A dark unicorn that sounds like Loki’s twin sister...cool.” In spite of this...unique appearance to say the least, the man did not show fear, but lack thereof. “Hello there! I was beginning to think that this was fruitless. My name is Ri-”
“Rifleman, I know.”
“Ok, and yours i-”
“Saura, Saura Sombra. Descendant of the the King Sombra himself.”
“King Some-bra what now?” The team was not versed well in Equestrian history. Saura seemed quite agitated at this, “Sombra, tyrant who controls the Crystal Empire!”
“Never heard of him. The ruler of the Crystal Empire is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”

“What?!”
“Mouthful, I know.”

“No…” she stared into space at a realization. “What year is it?”
“I’m not the right person to ask. My people are in a different year.”

“Listen creature!”
“Human, but I prefer Rifleman.”

“Human! I need answers and you will help me get them.” Her tone was quite demanding.
“And say I am inclined to refuse.” The fire around the rock rose in intensity and the heat level increased to uncomfortable. “Test me human, and you will never mentally recover. You mind will be nothing more than my puppet.” A pop sounded and Saura looked up, wondering what came into existence.
A man sized jar of hot jalapeno salsa. The lid faded away and the jar tipped. The contents threatened to spill on it’s target. Naturally thinking to move away, Saura tried to move but found her legs bound in chain. She tried to use her horn but magic had no existence in a dream world, and she looked up to her captor. He sat on the top of a soft chair relaxing and drinking an ice tea. “My mind, your mistake.” Saura struggled at the chains, she tried to summon a counter threat, but nothing obeyed by her command. She was a soul, prisoner to the human mind. She stomped and yelled in frustration. “ARGH! Buck you!-AH!” A pint of salsa, getting warm from the heat, had dripped onto her back. “Didn't your daddy teach you manners?”
“No, he taught me to crush all that dared oppose me!”
“Good. I’m simply making it clear that I’m not the victim here.”

“Why should I surrender to a human, creature, thing!? You will bow to me like all the other ponies hav-MURPH!” A flexible hooze appeared in her mouth and her eyes slowly followed it upward to a 4 ft wide funnel just under the looming salsa. “MURPH!! MUR!” Saura shook her head back and forth vigorously. She tried to spit it out, but found the tube glued to her lips. Rifle sipped from his bottomless drink. “I’m sorry what was that? I’m not a pony you know, not easily swayed.” She glared death at him, but soon looked down, defeated. There was nothing she could do. “I’m not here to make your life a living hell of salsa jars. But please understand I don't want you to take advantage of me.” The funnel and jar disappeared as did the chains. The fire died down. She looked up angry, but found the ice tea staring back at her. Her gaze softened, and the drink was accepted. A wise choice to back down.

“Let me wake up and talk to Soldier.” He suddenly turned hostile, “Try anything and your soul may never see light again!”

Rifleman opened his eyes again and saw Medic looking over him. “Hello doctor. Sorry to dissapoint you, but I’m not dead.” He laughed out loud in his maniacal habit. "Hah, haha! You were still breathing but the thought did cross my mind." Looking around, Rifle saw that he was laying down on his bed and Soldier was still yelling about the posters. "I will take those bonds and shove them up her ass! And this one; Ride alone and you ride with Obama, share carriages...Heh, I like this one."
Heavy saw a flaw in the claim, "Ponies do not use gas."
"They eat greens that soldiers could eat..." Soldier also had his doubts.

Medic called to him. "Soldier, he is awake, and not dead.” Soldier tossed the papers to Scout, who had just finished taking apart the newspaper and distributing the parts to people’s beds. “The hell am I going to do with these?” Derpy reached for them and Scout handed them over. “I’ll send these to your Mysterious Man. I think the human public would like to see this.”

“Well, what did you find?”
He stood up and dusted himself off. “A mare by the name of Saura Sombra. She sounds like a female version of Loki.” Soldier chuckled, but was interrupted by a ping of
pain in his head. “Saura Sombra?! This could be dangerous, Soldier, give me control of your voice and tongue!”

“Uh, ok.” He immediately felt a swell form in his throat and face. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it felt weird. “Rifleman.” The merc had his eyes open wide in surprise. “Redwood? Jesus, you do sound like Thor.” Redwood sounded annoyed. “Who is this Thor you keep speaking of? Nevermind. Let Saura control your speech, but be wary! Do not let her control anything else.”

“Um, alright.” He felt the swell, not expecting it, he resisted. “You heard him, let me have control!” Carefully, he let the swell pass through his throat. Her tone was bitter sweet. “Redwood Heart, father told me how you thwarted his expansion campaigns. How did Celestia’s precious war horse get soul trapped? And who is Loki?” His tone was no different. “I do not know the answer to either of those questions, but I can tell you without a doubt that you and I have been at rest for at least many centuries, possibly a thousand or more.”

“What hell happened to the Empire, my father, and who the hell is this Mi amoru pony?”

“You catch on to human curse quickly, not surprising.” Even though she had no control over facial expressions, you could almost tell from the lips she was glaring at Soldier. “Celestia and Luna overthrew your father and banished him, he took the empire with him. His return was put down by the Elements of Harmony, for good. And the Empire returned to its colorful glory.” Soldier had to ask Derpy about this history to get the whole story as Equestria knew it. “Your father is dead. His throne destroyed and replaced by the original to be used by Mi Amore Cadenza. An alicorn of a younger age.” To Saura’s credit, she did not vocalize a sob, rather she voiced annoyance. “Father didn’t pay his advisors any heed, more of he sent them to me as targets and test-subjects for destructive magic training. So what of now, why are we here, and who are these humans?”
“Leave that answer to your new host, Rifleman.”

Author's Note

I'm unsure about how I wrote this chapter, but I'll leave it up to you guys to decide on that.
You might be wondering about how many flawless soul gems there will be. Well there is only one more and you wont be seeing it for a while.

And as Mickey Rooney (God rest his soul in peace) loves to hear feedback from his fans, I would love to hear some too: Leave constructive criticism in the comments.

Training with Minor Discipline

Chapter 11- Training with Minor Discipline

Down the mountain, deep in the wood below, Rifleman stood in a small clearing. He was all alone. Magic is foreign to humanity, and if he and Saura wanted to be an unstoppable force, then extensive training would be required. “Alright then Rifleman,” She said in her soft vocal air “before I let you sample my power, I must learn more about yours.”

Rifleman shuffled in the spot which he stood, thinking over the question well.
“Well, I shoot my gun with quick movements and precision, I have adept strength if I need to fight close quarters, and I have a tactical thought process.”

“Ok, now let me feel your power.” Looking around the clearing, there wasn’t much to shoot other than trees, bushes, and rocks. “There’s nothing here for me to kill. My power lies in the death of my foes.” She sounded annoyed for stating the obvious, “I see that. Here, let me give you Eyes of Life, any living being will be glowing pink.”

“That takes fusion, right?” Redwood forewarned Rifleman of her ways of trickery. For he himself saw a good friend fall prey to her power, and had to be killed as a price.

“I have access to your senses, besides, it is a minor spell.” She sensed that his way of thought is more logical, and less ethical. Easy to take advantage of.
“Pink. Why pink?”

“It isn’t a common natural color, so you can see it through the trees and up in the sky.” She turned blatant “Plus pink is a color I hate so when I see it I want to kill something.”

“Smart.” In a blink of his eyes the world looked the same, but in his field of view, moving distant pink dots could be seen; walking through the trees and flying up in the sky. He looked around for something closer. A lone bear-esk blob could been seen in a pink glow a hundred yards away. “Target acquired.” Rifleman bolted forward.
The world raced past him and Saura felt his muscles move harmonically, much like a machine, a deadly and precise machine with one thought in his head. The thought of getting the job done with as much prejudice allowed. He leaped above a bush, curved around the tree behind it, rolled under a supported log, and swerved in multiple directions to follow the unsuspecting bear. He repeated these movements without any particular order through the forest.

He leaped over a boulder and stopped. The bear was close, and Rifleman needed the element of surprise to better his chances of success. Like the hunter, he crept carefully toward one of the most dangerous wild animals known to man. “Let me have more control and I can hide your sent. You haven’t bathed in days, and that could give your position.” Rifleman could hear the sweet lies she fed. The fault wasn’t her logic, but his pathic desire and self pride. “Ha! No. This bear is already dead thank you very much.”

The grass and rocks at his feet hardly made any sound as he continued to creep, and the bear came into proper view. Rifleman looked up from his position slightly with a confused countenance, something about that bear didn't seem right. It looked like a bear, it was brown like a bear, large like a bear, but the fur and claws seemed different. He continued to follow so the prey could be in range for a surprise attack.

Closer, closer, and closer did he come. The beast loafed around with a destination in mind, but seemed to be in no hurry, and his back faced his predator. At last, the trees thinned out and the light wind died down. The bear was close to its demise, and the Eyes of Life faded with another blink for clarity of the target.

The gun was raised. The human narrowed down his shooting position. He held in his breath and his body froze. The bear was pausing to eat something in the dirt, but Saura wasn't going to let an opportunity like this pass by. "Rifleman, you will sneeze." He didn't respond, but he knew that he wasn't going to sneeze if air wasn't flowing through the nose. He could hold it in quietly regardless if he did.

He did not do so quietly, his vision blurred and a migraine came out of nowhere, putting him in no position to quietly sneeze. "A-ACH-OO!-ooo-fuck." The sneeze was of such power and volume that it leaves its victim with a tinge of pain in the nostrils. The bear turned around, it revealed itself to be a great bear with an obtuse owl head. Rather than running away like he thought it would, the mutant began to romp towards him in a violent charge.

“What the hell was that Saura!?” The blurred vision and migraine vanished, but bears can move quite quickly when they have enough space, and the distance between the two started to close rapidly. Saura's voice was taunting, while Rifle’s mind was racing. "Looks like you're in trouble..." Rifleman raised his weapon, and aimed for the head. He fired off an unpleasant amount before the bear crumpled over in death.

“What the hell?” The creature before him was clearly not a bear. Equestria is a land of myth and magic, with creatures that can be found in mythology and a Dungeons and Dragons monsters book. Having played D&D in his past, Rifleman knew what this was. For reasons unknown, he spoke aloud. “Shit, an Owl bear, why did I not see that?” Owl bears are more or less what they sound like. Bear body, longer claws, and an owl head with multiple types of beaks available. This bear had a shorter, curved beak.

“Oh, this is bad…” Saura giggled merrily. “Is it Rifle?” She then sounded like a pouting mother worried for her little child, “I wouldn’t want to see my little host hurt.” If the land holds true to the game, and it should, then this Owl bear is not alone. They are typically found in packs. "Give me Eyes of Life again!" She quietly obeyed, and around him was 3 more pink Owl bears only a few yards away from multiple sides. Where they came from did not matter, what did matter was the danger that presented itself.

Naturally, Rifleman became stiff and paranoid about what to do next. Saura taunted Rifleman again like innocent greek sirens. "Take refuge behind my power. You have little hope getting out of this yourself." The predators slowly closed in on their regretful meal, but Rifle wasn't one to back down easily. He fired at one pink target and they charged. The Owl bear he shot fell after two seconds of solid fire.

Rifle turned to face the remaining two, who roared screening growls. One had a long, thick beak, the other being more short and blunt. The pink glow faded from his vision. The long beak was first to reach him and it moved to swipe, but had it’s paw cut clean off in a quick maneuver.
The black machete blade gleamed in the light of the Sun and its new red coat of blood. “Common bird brains! Lets tussle!”
“I can't believe you just said tussle.”

He leaped backwards to avoid a dangerous but feeble beak bite, and struck upwards into the wrist of the paw of the attacking second bear to prevent it from making contact with his vulnerable body. The armor that the post marine wore was good against debris and some bullets, but not full on bear claws.
The first bear struggled to stand up having lost a whole paw, and his wound bleeding profusely. Rifleman, however, found the machete stuck in the joint of the opponent's wrist. He fell backwards as the second bear lunged forward, it’s short beak unable to reach the man.

Said man drew his pistol, and he fired repeatedly into the Owl head.
Before it lost brain function, the beast swiped with all its might at the helpless merc.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the assault rifle, to try and block the blow.
The claws ground at his gun with a high pitched scream, but couldn't get through. The beast’s legs started to give and the head went limp.
Rifleman threw up his legs and pushed against the dead body, and let gravity drag it sideways and away from him. The first one limped off on three legs.

The adrenaline was still pumping as the ‘fight or flight system’ began to slowly shut down. "Fuck you Saura. Fuck you."
"Me?" Her voice was faked offense. "What did I do?"
"You know exactly what you did! You could've told me that they were fucking Owl bears! You also made me sneeze!"
"But I gave you Eyes of Life and I also gave you the chance t-"
"You were trying to force me into fusion so you could try and control me!"
"I was trying to help. Besides, you threatened me with salsa, and I don’t take threats lightly."

"Bitch." He looked at his trusty machine gun. It did not look mechanically functional with sharp gashes and dents from the single blow. With the parts and some time he could rebuild it, but programming dimensions and what not into the dispenser might be a lengthy process. "We're going back to the base, I need to fix this."

-Elsewhere-

Soldier and Redwood thought it beneficial to do training with Demoman in the art of melee combat. This time Soldier had the Half-Zatoichi. The pair stood off in a clearing with Medic standing by. “Ready?” Medic sounded.
“Eye.”
“I am ready.”
“GO!”

The pair of fighters charged forward with no intention to kill, but they were using real swords. The agreement was that it was to be only sword fighting, no use of legs or fists, just trading blows against each other's swords. The “cling” and “clang” of the blades sounded through the area as the pair of warriors moved quickly and swiftly as if they were fighting for their lives.

Soldier was just using a one handed sword while Demo was using a two handed greatsword. There was a clear disadvantage. Soldier struggled under the opponent's blows as he had no way to properly use both of his arms for bracing.
“I must admire your peoples’ combat abilities.” Said Redwood feeling Soldier’s strain. “As ponies, we are limited in terms of flexibility.”

Medic watched with a straight face and a cherry bowl of popcorn in his hands. Corn kernels were one of the goods found in the fort.

Demo was having a conversation with his own sword at the time. “Ah, like the good ol’ days, when there were two identical teams with only their color code to differentiate. I miss those times when we were dodging rockets.”

“Good for ye, cause I sure don’t.” As more blows were traded, the more Soldier got tired. He did not posses the skill in this form of combat like Demo did, nor a proper secondary melee other than his shovel and pick, both unwieldy. “Demoman?” Soldier said between swings. “Yeah?”
“Dont you have a Zatoichi?”
“Yes, you want ta try dual wield?” Not expecting a response, Demo reached into his pocket and pulled out his Zatoichi, and tossed it to his friend. The Soldier caught it and repositioned himself. "Let's go!" The fighting resumed.

This time there was a noticeable difference in his performance, as both arms could work together to block and strike. The sight was really odd to look at as a spectator though. Soldier simply doesn't appear like the type be nimble and flexible, nor does he seem like the dual wielding type. Regardless, he held his ground and the pair of friends parried time and again throughout the hour.

At the peak of eleven, they stopped, and Redwood separated from Soldier. Medic stood up and lifted two pails of cleaned river water to be given to the heaving sweating swordsmen. Each one grabbed a pail and chugged the liquid down. "Zat vas fun to vatch! Like ze good ‘ol days!" Demo exhaled in refreshing relief. “I threw your stance off a few times there laddie.” Soldier’s swallowed a mouthful and instantly stopped heaving for breath, like an instant recovery. “I’m not used to moving like that Cyclops,” He smiled at Demo, “but you almost fell down because you were moving that sword so much.”
Demo chuckled, “Heh, yeah, it may be light, but it is still a big sword. You almost caught me a few times as well.”

Solly put his hand on Demos arm in a friendly gesture. “Keep your eye on both swords maggot. It only takes one to keep you busy.”
Demo shrugged, “Not easy with only one eye.”

Soldier’s smile disappeared and he pointed accusingly, “Bull crap, you can still see a lot with that one eye alone!”
“How do you even see through your bloody helmet?”

The smile returned, “You know I can’t tell you that.”
Demo was also wearing a friendly smile. “We need ta do this some more. Some later time though, I think Eyelander has had enough.”

“Damn right I have! I’m gonna be sore tomorrow!”

Medic tossed in a few words before pressing his teleport button. “Ve should head back. Engineer vants to talk about attacking ze next fort.” He disappeared in a blue flash, followed closely by the sparring partners.

Upon appearing into the cavern, the group was greeted with a disturbing sight. Rifleman was wearing his amulet, but was leaning over a bushman’s jar and lowering himself, and thus the amulet, into the liquid. His face seemed to be relishing in the unheard voice of Saura pleading for mercy. Redwood was dying from laughter.

-Canterlot-

Celestia looked around the meeting table. Along with her sister, Cadence, Shining armor, Princess Twilight, and even Discord sat with her. Everyone gave her their full attention, apart from Discord who was on his new smart phone. He was one of the few to embrace human culture and technology, and get away with it. “Discord, could you please put that infernal thing away?” He said nothing, but the device disappeared in a flash. Celestia inhaled a long breath, and began her short speech.

“The first week of fighting has brought so much to light. The main danger being that we are largely outnumbered. In main brute force they could overwhelm us in the long run, but I believe if we can steal their technology then we have a much better chance of prevailing. We haven’t been able to replicate any of the weapons we have found, and there is simply not enough stolen guns and ammunition to hoof out to our army. I leave the table open to any ideas, comments, and recommendations.”

Shining spoke first. “Our unicorns are our biggest asset. The shields and protective spells they cast can keep the rest of the troops safe. However, we don't have anything that can easily punch through armor and take down airplanes other than unicorns. The only thing the Pegasi can do is hack and slash at soldiers, and try to overwhelm aircraft, but that leaves them highly vulnerable to attack. Earth ponies are practically helpless. Guns and ballistics would definitely level the playing field.”

Twilight was hesitant, “Bows and arrows carry too much mass for human cloth armor to handle. They were designed to stop bullets, not arrows. If we focused on training more earth ponies with long bows we could fight more defensively and wear down their infantry.”

“Twily, it’s not a bad idea, but that leaves ponies vulnerable to tanks.”
“How so? Most don’t have the firepower to breakthrough our shields.”
“They have developed a horrific strategy of ramming into the shields with tanks at full speed! They literally shoot ponies or run them over!”

Luna spoke up, “I’m afraid the only way to move forward is to emulate the thing we wish to restore. Arrows are effective, but we must develop human weaponry.” Twilight jumped in again at a chance to share her vast knowledge. “I’ve read about guns, and a little bit about how they work from my time at Canterlot High school. I know we can recreate some of the older, simpler models, but I couldn’t tell you everything from what I remember from the top of my head. Discord, do you know about -Discord!” He was lounging in his chair, playing March Madness repeats on a tablet with popcorn in his talons, he looked up innocently. “Yes Twilight? I do know a lot about myself.”
“Put that away!”

“Fine, meetings are just sooo boring.” It disappeared. Twilight repeated the question, “Do you know anything about the guns from world war one or two?” The god of chaos reached into his pocket, and pulled out an electric bubble blower. Ignoring the blank faces from his companions, he turned the device on, and the machine began to blow a coconut sized bubble. When released from its origin point and allowed to linger in the air, it collapsed into a black hole.

The gravity that the force created pulled in some loose debris around the room, but it was no where near the strength of an actual black hole of that size. Reaching into the dark hole, Discord pulled out a pistol, and the black hole flashed into nonexistence. “This was a gift. It is a genuine 1911 pistol used in World War two by a lieutenant that saw D-day. Still works, great shape, and is still quite accurate.” The whole table was visibly dumbfounded that some demented human would give the god of chaos a gun, as a gift nonetheless.

Discord saw this and explained, trying not to laugh at their faces. “Being, one of the few to not hate on mankind can earn a lot of respect, and a lot of good friends.” The smile faded and he grew solemn for only a moment. “That said…” He looked at the pistol. “I may be unpredictable in my ways, but the last thing I need is to be remembered as the one who gave ponies guns.”

Cadence looked uncomfortable, Discord saw this as a possible out. “You seem distressed Cadence, what's the matter?” She looked left and right nervously, “Sorry, but I haven't been following the war as much as I should because I’ve been busy with the Crystal Empire. What are guns exactly?”

Twilight projected a magical display screen, Discord’s pistol was on screen. “Guns are basically rapid fire hand cannons, they shoot metal projectiles like a cannon, but at extreme speeds. No practical armor that we have developed can stop them.” The picture changed to a Abrams Tank. “The benefit of getting gun technology will give our soldiers the ability to fight back at a longer distance, and give us the ability to take down tanks, or even make our own.”

Shining Armor stared with a gaze pure hate at the picture, “I hate the Abrams. They can shoot a target two miles away! We can’t see those coming in time, and if we catch a bullet, we don’t know where to put it cause we can barely see the fucking tanks!” He suddenly realized what he said and his iris and pupil shrunk to the size of grapes, “Pardon the language…”

Discord laughed out loud, “Oh you ponies are becoming more human everyday! Their culture is rubbing off on you and you don’t even see it. Even better reason to not give you this.” Celestia decided to step in. “Discord, we need that gun. My little ponies need guns to fight back.” Discord laughed out loud some more, “Hahaha, do you hear yourself?! That sounds wrong coming from you, of all ponies. I was told to promise that I wouldn’t do this very thing." He began to pout "To break my promise could ruin the friendships I have in the outside world.” Apart from Luna and Celestia, no pony wanted to talk back to that comment, Luna spoke, “You would be immortalized in fame here, forever known as the one to save Equestria!”

Discord gave a straight face, “I’m already immortalized in a fame I am quite content with. Besides, can't you just steal some guns to use for yourself? The mechanism must be the same thing as this one.”
“No we can’t, new guns are made of plastics and alloys, stuff we can't hope to recreate. Older guns have durable designs and more reasonable materials, like the one you're holding. It's not that we can't find other guns, we're working on that, but they won't be in our hooves for some time. A pistol now would make all the difference for our soldiers."

“Sister,” Celestia insisted, she moved her head backwards as a gesture. “We’ll be right back.” The both stood up and talked off to the side near a window. “Luna, I don't want to push Discord.”
“Nether do I, but he will not give us the gun, not like he needs it.”

“We must force him, but I fear...”
“I agree, something tells me that he will make us regret it.”

“I have no doubt in my mind Lulu.”
“Don’t call me that. Please.”

“I fear more for Twilight, I do not doubt her bravery, but this is the first time she is dealing with outright war.”
“She must learn that one must take steps into darkness to come out the other side.”

“Well, I'll hoof that responsibility to Clue."
"It is decided then.”

“Yes.”
They both turned around, and were greeted with a surprise.

Discord was lounging on the top bunk of a double decker couch with a BudLight beer, while Shining Armor and the two guards that were supposed to be standing outside the room, were sitting on the bottom. They also had beer. They were watching March Madness replays on a 60 inch Hi-def plasma TV on the wall. The ladies simply looked on as the four men raised their hooves and voices at a beautiful three point shot.

Celestia had enough of this, “Discord!” The four looked over at the angry sun god. Discord looked at the bottle and wolfed the rest of it down, “Here we go.” The group scrambled back into position, the guards sprinted back out the door, and Shining and Discord fumbled over to the table. The TV and double decker couch disappeared, but Discord resumed eating popcorn. Cadence was glaring disapprovingly at her husband.

Celestia began her demanding. “Give us the gun Discord. Now.” He shook his head like a child. “Or we will turn you back into stone.” His eyes opened wide, and he swallowed some more popcorn, but instead of frowning at the threat he smiled, “That escalated quickly, Celly, this is blackmail.”
“Yes, it is.” She looked over at Twilight’s face, it showed little fear, but more confusion. “We need to do this, the fate of the nation may rest on it. I will do anything to protect my ponies.”

Discord threw his popcorn up in the air only for the snack to stay suspended at the ceiling. “Fine, fine, here.” In a flash, the gun appeared in front of Celestia’s chair. “Have fun with that, I will be in my office if you need me.” He stood up, and opened the door to leave. As soon as it closed, the popcorn fell. Right on top of Twilight’s face.

Celestia levitated the bucket off of her student, and found her blank face and mane covered with butter and popcorn debris. “Twilight,” Her ex-student turned to her teacher. “I know hope you understand that there are things a princess must do to keep her ponies safe. Especially in times of war.” Twilight blinked and glanced over to Cadence, who looked like she was about to give her husband a lecture on decency. Looking back to Celestia, she merely nodded.

“Good,” Celestia smiled down at her. “You should probably clean yourself up now. Lulu will get him back for that I’m sure.” Luna was looking innocently around the room like a devilish foal in a candy store. “Oh, I might have a few tricks up my mane…”

Author's Note

Don't fret, man is making progress as well...
This is quite the lengthy chapter, but I find its a better read than what I had planned originally.

There is a reference, it should be easier to see than the last one.

Please Leave constructive criticism in the comments below.

Management

Chapter 12- Management

The American pony internment camps were originally going to be comfortable accommodations for all ponies alike, and most of their needs would have been met. The plan was to have open, government owned land, that was fertile and needed little prep work. This gave ponies the freedom to grow crops, have buildings built either buy their own hooves or with human construction, govern themselves, teach their foals, and over all wait out the war. This would all be done under supervision of course, but intervention would only occur if reasonable guidelines were broken.

One such place in Kansas was constructed and operational, but the human supervisors quickly realized that rebellious ponies with either wings or a horn could easily escape if they could deal with the ‘no turning back’ consequences. It seemed Earth ponies were the ones that could easily be contained.

Debate sprang up on what to do. Manny ideas would be too expensive, like a plan to construct large underground living spaces or to put them on aircraft carriers. Others would be too uncivil, like to separate the species and have each one live a confined lifestyle that places them in habitats where they cannot escape. One idea was agreed upon. It would not be cheap, but it would work.

The plan was to construct colossal domes for ponies to live within. These domes would have to be big enough for pegasi to fly in, and still support communities on the ground. The construction materials would be wood and hollow pipes for faster construction, but the problem was that they would still take some time to make. For the meantime, ponies would have to live in large buildings and constructions until they were ready.

Unless, you were an Earth pony. Earth ponies had the exemption to go live in open farmland, most of the paperwork had been already purchased and everything needed to oversee their stay was already prepared to move into action, so why waste the land? Many Earth ponies agreed to this proposition, while some chose to go to the benevolent ‘containment camps’ and wait for better accommodations.

As for General Sult, he took Soldier’s advice to a degree, and convinced advocates to develop the C.H.E.R.P. Cooperational Humanitarian and Equestrian Research Program. It would be the foundation of future pony and human scientific research and development, a historical step in the right direction. The first action of this program was getting some ponies to join. Harder than one thinks because of pony patriotism and the concept of betrayal against their beloved princess, something most ponies fear of.

So lets go to a Containment camp set inside the The Arthur Kill Correctional Facility. This repurposed facility is located on Staten Island in New York, and was bought by the Government to house and contain equines. Of all the camps, this one wasn’t the best, wasn't the worse either. The ponies inside behaved well, and overseers did their best to treat them nicely, but it still could hardly classify itself as cozy.

Electro Scope sat inside his room/cell. They were told that they were not prisoners, but that 0doesn't help the fact that they are in a repurposed correctional facility, which is much like a prison, even though its not. Electro was a silver unicorn with an electric mane and tail that was usually well kept as his professional lifestyle demanded he dress formerly. His eyes were a dull green, and his cutie mark was a closed jar with a stick running through the cork lid, at the end of the stick inside was two golden leaves of metal. Above the lid was an iron ball attached to the same stick through the cork.

An electroscope cutie mark of course. (The text is not part of mark)

Electro looked at the ceiling, the single light bulb provided ample light, but for one with big eyes it was hard to stare at. He glanced at the rest of the ceiling, and found it was smooth and bland, like it was designed to be uninspiring. Thoughts of electricity and magic filled his head, so much could be done with one of the other, but fantasies of blending the two filled his dreams is what kept him sane through the night. Not that he was growing insane, but being cooped inside of a building 24-7 is not good mental health.

It was a groggy morning, but ponies were allowed to get up at their own leisure. Breakfast came through at intervals every hour until 10:30. Lunch came right after, and at 5:30 dinner would start. This being early morning, Electro’s mane was not done, but neither was his roommate's, though he never bothered to do his anymore. He slept like a dog on the bottom bunk.

“Well,” came a gruff voice from below, “Guess I should get some breakfast. You awake yet Electro?” With a deep sigh he responded in a medium voice, with an enlightened sub tone. “Yes, yes I am.”

“Its about 7:00.”
“I would rather avoid hitting the rush hour, but my stomach seems to have made up its mind.”
“Same here.”

The sound of hooves appeared indicating that his roommate had left the bed and onto the concrete floor. Another sound reminded Electro of his own internal impending release, forcing him to get out of bed. He jumped from the bunk unto the floor and walked over to the sink to make his mane. The solid concrete floor making a perfect surface for the sound of trotting hooves, the constant noise was maddening to some guards, and thus they adjusted shifts accordingly. The process only took a few moments with the help of magic. The sink was basic and embedded into the concrete wall. They did provide a single bar of soap that was supposed to last them a month, and the toilet rested right next to the sink with a cold steel rim and no lid.

"See you later." His earth pony roommate had a black mane, brown coat, and grey eyes. His mark was in the form of a blue box filled with paper. "See ya Sort." Sort Through opened the curtain covered jail door with little effort thanks to smooth door wheels, walked out, and closed the door behind him. The curtain or tarp that covered the cell doors and bars were the only way ponies could get some privacy. One did not choose the color of your door, you just had to deal with whatever you got. Even then, you were most likely sharing a room with one sink and toilet.

In this case, the pair sharing the room spoke little to one another, and seldom saw each other during the day. Its not like they disliked one another, but they were not friends. They only saw each other as sharing a room. Nothing more.

After having released himself on the cold can, Electro followed up on going to get a breakfast tag. Stepping out of the cell, other ponies wandered around and about quietly while others slept in. Not one pony seemed to be in a cherry mood, but things would change once everypony was awake and socializing.

However it would also get loud, the noise the ponies were making with their hooves reflected off of the walls and the sound waves could find almost no route for escape. When everypony was awake they spoke in whispers, but the noise level was still uncomfortable. The hall was 10ft wide from cell to opposite cell, with the walls reaching 8ft high. A standard space with room for the pegasi to hover, but not a lot of trotting space. As such, ponies stayed within the confides of the cells.

As a unicorn, life outside Equestria was particularly stressful.

Its not like they kept what happens on the battlefield a complete secret. Everyone knew about the brutality of simple levitation, and any four legged creature with a horn was immediately shunned, vocally insulted, and on a rare occasion attacked by civilians on the streets around the world. This went for most pegasi as well, electrocuting your enemies to death is not much better than pulling someone's grenade pins and running. Many agree that the relocation and containment acts keep the equestrians safe from harm, and keep humans happy.

The Earth ponies, however, aren't beaten badly. Simple familiarity to normal horses gave those with no wings nor horn an advantage with positive human interaction. This did not excuse them from containment. So, while horrible on the battlefront, they were living the easy life outside of the rest of Equestria. Their influence being especially profound in agricultural countries or communities, where they are praised for making farm work a lot less harder. Countries like Italy, Brazil, Ukraine and Russia to name a few.

Still, things were only so much better inside the camps. If somepony was seen using levitation then that individual would guards starring in their direction intensely, therefore, most did not use magic at all to lessen tensions. Pegasi were told not to fly fast or erratic, as to not invoke suspicion. And Earth ponies were kindly told not to do anything that involved escape if they were permitted to go outside for an hour. No pony was to be treated badly, but there is nothing that says people had to be nice.

Most ponies that were awake made their way to the food counter at the back of the building. Guarded by two tall and fit people, who glared silently at ponies they thought deserved their cold gaze. They wore the standard blue collar button up shirts with chest pockets, black pants, and black shoes. Each one was equipped with a Taser Gun, baton sticks, cuffs, and walkie talkies. They could be seen chatting to another pony, or listening to music, and sometimes a game of chess. However it was believed that they did those things just to keep themselves entertained and had no intention to make friends.

The counter/table was a place where ponies could order food that would arrive at the next feeding interval. The lines were long and only two could order at a time. That particular area was especially uncomfortable for those living in cells blocked by the line. Patience rewarded Electro over time and he approached the table.

He didn't want to write without magic, even though he was more than able to use his mouth, but after a whole week of staying in the facility the guards were slightly less wary of magic. Slightly. He knew that they were looking down at him thinking thoughts of how to take him down should the sleazy pencil do something unexpected, as it floated innocently around the paper taken from the large stack of forms.

One would bubble in your choices of drink, main course of the day, and side dish. A device in the wall behind the table would suck the paper inside facing up. A few moments later, and a food tag would be produced from a slot below. The food tag was to be turned in when the food was collected.

The unicorn took the tag and moved out of the line without looking at it. Once outside the fray, he looked at it. “8:30, perfect.” Of course it wasn’t as he woke up starving in the first place. Now all he had to do was wait out the morning until food came, and he did this with a new friend of his, Action Shot. Action was a professional photographer who came to the U.S to photograph the famous New York metropolis in all its glory, up tit recently she had made some bits from her hit images. Her previous fame was short lived from images of the changeling invasion.

From the food counter, her cell was a few doors down, covered with a blue tarp with white polka dots. As he approached said tarp it opened and the mare in question stepped out. Her fur was a light coconut brown with a mane with white and lighter brown stripes. Her mark was a $ sign, and her eyes were a turquoise. Her voice had a Manehattan twang that only got stronger in American Manhattan.

“Ay there bumkon’! How was your rest last night?”
“Not bad, although by back might suffer in the long run.” Electro rubbed his back in regards to the mattresses
“Yeah, I get what ya mean. Oh! I got a new roommate!”
“You did?”

“Yeah, Sundrop left for those, farms.”

Farms was not spoken positively. “Well, can’t blame her, it certainly beats living here. Shut up inside most of the day.” Action shrugged, “Still don’t change the fact she left without say’n goodbye. Anyhey, I think you might like my new roommate, she’s quiet until you get into a conversation with her, but she’s very smart in her field of expertise.”

The pair entered the cell, and found sitting on the bottom bunk, playing with a small pebble, was a grey mare with a flat purple mane turquoise eyes slightly darker than Actions. She wore a frock of a dull blue green color that and blank expression. “Maud, this is the stallion I told you about, Electro Scope. Electro, meet Maud Pie.”
Maud did not change her expression, but she did get out of bed to greet the guest. Her voice was perhaps more dull than her appearance. “Nice to meet you Electro. Action says that you are a magic professor and researcher. I myself have a "rocktorate" in rock science. Which is basically a doctorate in Geology, although I specialize in petrology.”

Despite her lower than life tone, Electro could clearly see the intellect she possessed. “Well, it is nice to meet you too Maud, my field of work lies in the study of magical energy, a broad topic, but that leaves more room for discovery.”
Action butted herself into the conversation. “Well, I be back, I need to geta food tag. You two get to know each other.”

Turning the attention back to one another, the pair of professionals began to chat away, “So,” Electro started, “I would think somepony like you would be out in the prairie. There's not much in the way of diverse rocks here."
"Humans have mined rocks deep in the Earth, so I came to America to see some of them. I came to New York to look at human concrete and some of the brick buildings and analyze them." Her tone nor expression did change as she talked, she was as flat as a perfectly level floor. “And for the record, the diversity one can find in the concrete walls and floor is quite interesting.”

"I brought myself here to see the city, ponies keep going on about it. They were right in that is is not the same as Manehattan."

"It is a marevel of creativity and innovation to get all of the ore and rock and transform it into a colossal maretropolis. As an earth pony they represent what can be done without magic, something I don't have. It is one of the reasons why the earth ponies have a natural attraction and fascination to anything made by hands. For me its the rocks they mine."

"For me it is a sign that we are too reliant on magic, and that trots should be taken towards learning more about how our world works. Humans have done so much without it."
"Agreed. I don't know where to start my search for rocks, I need to find a state with rich mining history."
Electro shrugged, indicating his impressive lack of knowledge about rock museums.

"I recommend you visit Arizona. They have a great history in mines, and you can even go to a petrified forest park." The pair of scientists turned to see the new visitor. A man, in a clean uniform dotted with badges, stood at the doorway, Action Shot was beside him. "You're looking for the yellow one sweetheart, but Maud should be of some use."

The man stepped in the room, and held out his hand. "Electro," the unicorn gave him his hoof and the pair shook limbs. "I am Colonel Ross. My business here is not consequential I assure you, it is in fact, an opportunity for you." He moved his hand over to Maud and shook her's as well. "Are the domes done?"

"No, but I'm here for another reason. If you three could come with me to an interrogation room we can talk in private. Bring any personal possessions you might have, and I'll meet you at the front door."

Ross turned on his heels and exited the cell. Maud neatly placed her rock in a pouch and Action Shot leaped onto her bunk to retrieve a baseball cap and her camera. Electro Scope made no move to his cell. Maud noticed this, "Don't you have any possessions?" If it wasn't for context, one could mistake the question for a statement.
"Only one. My electroscope, and I can get that on the way out."

True to his words, the device was collected inside of it's case via levitation, (much to the chagrin of the guards) and floated by his side until the group reached the front door. Ross was standing there patient and attentive with multiple guards beside him. “Come, let us leave.” The trio proceeded cautiously forward, “Lets be brisk, the longer the door stays open the worse it might be.” The door wasn’t open yet but the guards were visibly tense.

Once the party was in position, Ross knocked on the door, and it immediately opened. If humans had tails then the ponies would be right on it, having paid heed to his words. Looking behind her, Action noticed the ponies looking on in anguish. The image was cut off as the door shut just as fast.

Surrounding the quad were more humans as the brisk escort moved forward. “Brisk” is a particular term for the movement of the humans, for four legged mammals this hardly classified as brisk. The grounds were green, and the Earth ponies were out and about from a different building. Most did stop whatever they were doing to look at the parade.

There was only one reason for all this security of course. If it were just Maud and Action, then only two guards would be present. Not five, and then some closely watching simply patrolling the area. It was merely due to one unicorn among the group.

The main building was quite quiet on the account that there weren't many visitors. The interior walls were white and other colors being relatively bland, as is the reputation of human city development. With this theme came a professional atmosphere and the ponies were, for lack of a better word, herded into an interrogation room.

The door closed behind them, and the Colonel sat down in a chair behind the single table in the space. He gestured to the front of the table where no chairs presented themselves. Ponies don't sit the way people do, and a typical bench can only support two ponies, therefore it was better to just have them stand.

The ponies stood at attention, awaiting whatever conversation that was about to take hold. "I have a proposition for each of you. And should you decline then we understand." He paused for reasons known only to him. "Recently we have developed the C.H.E.R.P, which stands for Cooperational Humanitarian and Equestrian Research Program. We are looking for avid professionals to work with human scientists and engineers. You three would be a welcome addition to the team." He stopped there for an opportunity for comment.

Maud had barely seemed affected by his announcement. "You want us to help you learn about ponies and magic so you can win the war. You desire me for my knowledge of Equestrian geology and Electro for his knowledge of magic energy, while smart on paper you need to give us a better reason to join you, as doing so would be in direct conflict with my sister who is this Element of Laughter."

Ross smiled in amusement. "You saw right through that."

"I saw through it the moment you said that you had an opportunity for us. I would prefer that you get straight to the point as you're obligatory approach will not help you at this moment."

Ross obligated that request, "We need you," he pointed at Electro, "to help develop ways to protect our soldiers from levitation, weapons that can punch through shields, and use magic for any other advantages we may come across. Your knowledge," he pointed to Maud, "of their land will influence where, when, and how we attack. Lastly, you," he pointed at Action, "Can participate in the documentary on this war." He retracted his hand. "Each of you will receive on-base housing, any equipment you might need, with the exception of magic items of course, and all the support we can offer."

Electro spoke up before Maud. "Tempting, but my brother works for the CSI in Canterlot." Ross inhaled more air. "We are fighting for the right to be who we want to be. Taking the throne is not our objective, it is nothing more than stopping Celestia's campaign and uniting our species. Let me ask you this, do you support the conversion bureau?”

The trio shook their heads.

“Then let me ask another question, unless you know of a relative fighting in the war, why shouldn’t you help?”

Electro and Maud began to speak at once, the main difference being that the unicorn had raised his voice in a display of emotion in his voice. “The work we wou-” Electro stopped as the sinc caught him off guard, and the petrologist kept talking without skipping a beat. “-ld do would end up being the cause of death for numbers of ponies.”

“But if nothing is done, then many of us will die as well, in body and soul. You're a scientist, look at this from multiple angles.” A good point he did have. Maud grew quiet, Electro followed her lead.

Ross decided that it was time to bring the argument to a close. "In the big scheme of things, humans will grab hold of magic eventually in some way no matter what happens. Celestia’s cause is not properly justified from multiple points of view, and the likelihood that the death toll will only get worse on both sides is high, and at that point no one is safe once it becomes a total war. For Maud Pie, your sister is very likely to stay away from the battles, this was also true for Electro Scope and his brother. From a logistical point of view, there is no good reason not to join."

From his seat he could see the internal distress influenced by emotions and ethics. The right from the wrong conflict was a immobile wall higher than the imagination, that was rooted in the depths of the unconscious mind. The battery ram of logic being the only thing that could go through it.

Ross added one more detail, “You can leave C.H.E.R.P after one week if you want, we won't force this on you.” That minor detail, sweetened the deal just enough to override the mountainous emotional ethics. “I’ll give it a shot. Sounds better than stayin here.” Action made her decision. From there the pieces fell into place as the other two nodded. “Great, I have transport waiting outside.”
As the man stood up, there was one more question spoken in blandish. “How did you know we would join?”
“What?”
“Otherwise why did you have us grab our belongings?”

“Ah, there was no major reason behind that. It was part of protocol to keep your possessions with you if you were being sent to the main building. Under real interrogation situations, the items would have been taken and stored somewhere else.”

“You really don't trust ponies do you?”
“Look, if humans trusted ponies, then there wouldn’t be a war going on right now.”

Author's Note

This is a bit different in that there are no changes in setting, I actually wrote a whole chapter about a single scene.
We haven't seen Clue for a while, he will be back very soon though.

As always, I am open for constructive criticism.

We can (hopefully) work it out

Chapter 13-We can (hopefully) work it out.

The cavern was almost dead in silence. The only noises being a dispenser, softly humming away, not caring about anything. And the other being Heavy's breathing. Rifleman was having a discussion with Saura in the dream world, something that both agree should have happened much sooner.

The pair of them sat in a great dining hall at an equally impressive dining table. The hall was over thirty feet tall, and almost just as wide. Everything was made of a light blue crystal. The walls had crystal architecture and design with great arches and large crystal columns. The floor was made of the blue crystal and not one bump, chip, or unglamorous spot could be found on the royal floor. On this floor was a carpet between it and the table, colored in black, red and purple diamonds.

The table was almost as long as the hall, and made of crystal as well. It rested above the carpet rug and seemed to be made out of solid blue crystal. Once again, if you were to examine every inch of the crystal with extensive care and attention, you would find the structure flat, smoother than silk, and glossy as a pool of pure water reflecting the moonlight. It was that very light, full and bright in the glimmering sky, that was being shown on the table.

The plates, silverware, and chalets on the table were silver and polished to perfection, reflecting the light almost as well as the table. The pair of blood lusters sat in the center of the table, not off to the left or right, but in the middle of the table. A hand held a chalice filled with whatever liquid he desired, in his preference, the drink was orange soda. Just across the table a unicorn swiveled her cup filled with crystal wine. The purple aura emitted from the horn in a soft glow and the lip of the cup came to another pair of lips and Saura took a silent sip. The man had his legs propped up on the crystal, and the large boots projected the power of every step that the person made. "We will kill each other if this keeps up, and we both know that compatibility issues are not part of the problem." Saura swallowed a sip of the drink. “I am very aware of that. But you must understand that for the past few hundred years it was the only life I knew.” Rifleman raised his eyebrow. “Thats all you’ve been doing? Possessing ponies to do your bidding?”

The cup tilted back and forth in a fiddling motion. “Well, its more brainwashing really, ponies can be fooled to take me off, I’m more like an evil voice in somepony’s head. Besides, causing pain and agony to others is all that daddy Sombra taught me. Working with someone else is not something I’m familiar with.”

“Well then you and I need to come to a simple agreement. You stop trying to control me, I stop dunking you in vintage Australian urine, and we both work together as a magical force of death everywhere we go. Deal?” He raised his glass. “Deal.” She raised hers and they clinked cups together. As the pair of them drank their respective drinks. In a swift motion the hollow cups came down on the table, echoing the sound around the room. The man tilted his glass upside down, and a book of encyclopedia size fell out of the glass onto the hardy crystal table. He picked it up, observing the wear of such a book with old age, and opened it for personal examination. “We will need to do some more magical training if we want to paint Fort Rocker red tomorrow. Medic even has some weapon equipment to test.”

He glanced up at Saura, who was holding his Ak-47. She caressed the gun in her hooves, like a loved one resting against the partner. “We have a whole night ahead of us. Learning the ways of magic is mostly channeled into the mind. Tonight I shall teach you what I can, but only til tomorrow will you truly be able to attempt what you will learn.”

“You seem to like my gun.”

“I love it. It is the deadliest contraption that I have ever seen.”

“She is one of the best killers invented.”

“For my sake I will call it a he. So he is one the best killers invented.”

Rifleman’s expression towards this spoke in the silent words, ‘really?’

“I will hug him, and squeeze him, and call him George!” She tightly held the weapon in her adorable grasp, but its owner was not amused in the slightest. “Alright, we only have so much night and if we sleep in Soldier will make us regret it.” Saura only squeezed tighter in defiance.

There was a sound of repeated thunder and flashing light.

The jump scare caused the mare to fall backwards in the chair and on the floor. The sound had disappeared only when she let it go. Her ears rang like high bells from having the barrel so close to her ear. In a daze she tried to stand up, but to only stumble into a crystal support beam. Slowly, a new sound could be heard through the echo of gunfire. It was loud at first, then it got quiet, then loud again. It was the sound of a human roaring in laughter so much, that he was running out of breath despite efforts to inhale.

In a flash she stood face to face with her new student by standing on the tale. He stared at him until he stopped….
…

“Are you finished?”
“Ahhhh, yes.”
“Good, I now have the next five hours to decide how I will get you back for that while we train.”

-Galloping Gorge: Fort Rocker-

Fort Rocker is one of the largest Forts in Equestria. With its size and rectangular shape borderlining a short football stadium. It's bulk was enforced by thick stone walls and a generous crew. Having been built in the gorge there wasn't much inside that wasn't made of stone or rock.

Having investigated the remains of Fort Juniper, Clue and two others traveled to Rocker for a better understanding of how the small villages ran. Clue was in the underground mess room, with the cobble walls reflecting the lively idle chatter of the occupants. The appearance of any underground fort interior is almost identical in layout, the only major differences being the materials at hoof in the area, the standard setup being wood and cobblestone. The ceiling is only a mere 9ft high, large enough for some minor flying room overhead. The ceiling was the floor to the world above and, in this case, large stone support beams kept everything from collapsing. The chasms dug deep into the earth were humble as if it were a house built under the ground. The ancients who built these forts intended the occupants to live comfortably under the surface for long periods of time.

Clue made mental notes in his head. There wasn’t anything out of the major ordinary, but his pony gut told him something was amiss, something noteworthy perhaps, something helpful. He began to trot through the mess hall and downward some stairs into the cell room. Reserved for war prisoners. The stairs were narrow and moisture from the surrounding ground had seeped through the walls from a recent rain. The torches were kept lit as part of safety, but as the free floating dust indicated, nopony visited the site often. "In fact," he thought "I'm willing to bet that they just have a unicorn light the room with magic so they don't have to go too far in."

Not one sought to wander down there, as the location brings unsettling thoughts to the mind. Torture would have also taken place here, and Clue felt these odd emotions flowing through him as one griffon skellington sat off to the side at the bottom of the stairway, as if to greet any visitors.

“Awgh, couldn't they have removed this?” Clue stepped carefully around the dead, and saw the dim image of the hanging cages, cells, and wall snackles. He was here more out of curiosity than pure reason, but there was plenty reasons why he should leave. A older guard recommended that there might be some remains of ancient writings of prison documents that haven't been gone through yet. That was the one thing that made him stay in the room he walked into.

Toward the back, there was a door. A small, unassuming door. He slowly trotted past the cells, one by one. His hooves echoed across the area, and the mere sound waves jolted dust from untouched stone. It wasn't the first creepy place he had been to. He was slightly used to the foreboding atmosphere that areas like these present themselves.

Torches lined the walls and casted shadows of the ominous decor. At last, he reached the door. Old and rotting. Clue placed his hoof on it, and pushed forward. The sight was slightly disappointing but not unexpected. Whatever room that was beyond the door had collapsed and left a wall of rubble behind it. The only trace of its existence being half of a bookshelf partly crushed.

"A shelf with books! A possible insight into what this place was." There were only three old tomes left on the piece of broken furniture. Picking up one at random, he opened the ancient document. The text was old but legible. However only a historian would know what the expired language said. As the pages were flipped there were diagrams on the pages, some of them Clue recognized as summoning circles. Others were more obscure. "Why would books on magic be stored near the prison?" He quietly picked up another book.

The sound of a hoof hitting the floor, in the midst of dead silence. Clue recognized that the noise was not his own doing. Turning, he saw the old guard that had told him to come down here in the first place. “Well, you were right about the documents," Clue started, "but they are linked to old magic I do not understand.” Reaching into his side pouch, the guard drew a pistol. “I knew that they were down here, I just needed you here first.” The guard's new voice was unlike what Clue remembered, it was deep and elegant.

“Changeling!” He took a defensive stance. The shape shifter smirked, “Oh please, I have a pistol you silly goose.”

“You wouldn’t dare to cause such a racket, that would blow your cover.”
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve for that, besides, this is for your own safety. Get into that cell.” The chosen cell happened to be the closest.
“Why should I comply?” The imposter stood only a few feet from him. However, he faded into nothing. Which was untrue when something was said from some direction. “I do oblige you to obey.” Clue retained his stance, but suddenly heard a “swiff” like noise from over his shoulder. There was pain, then darkness.

“Spy, come in Spy, do you read me crutan?”

“Yes, I hear you. I’m now inside the Lieutenant's quarters underground, he had a very nice dagger with him.”
“You can play with your new toy while you work!”
“Fine.”

“Remember, the interest in this attack is Life, LIberty, and the Pursuit of not Fucking it up!”

The dagger had an arrowhead shaped design, with the beaming blade being about five inches in length and two plus a half in width. The handle was a simple wooden cylinder with a convex end, but there was no handguard/hoof guard between the handle and head. “I’ll skip formalities, my pretty shall be called Arrowhead.”
There was a knock at the door. Spy looked at the wardrobe where the body was being held, as if to reassure himself of its concealment. “Come in.” He spoke with a firm tone not his own. Entered a stallion with a straight face as he saluted to the imposter. “Sir, you called.”

“Have all available staff assemble outside for an announcement.”
“What about the visitors?” Spy did not change his costume’s expression, but there was distress behind the mask.
“Where are they now?”
“Investigator Clue was last seen in the mess hall and The Elements of Magic and Generosity are being escorted around the northern wall.”
“Send the Elements here.”
“Yes sir!”

Twilight Sparkle and Rarity knocked on the door minutes later and stood outside awaiting the call to enter. “Enter.” The mares both entered, but without the stiffness of a standard soldier. From their perspective, they saw lieutenant Head Hammer twiddling his dagger and staring straight ahead. “So, how is your stay coming along so far?”

Head Hammer was an Earth pony who took pride in the strength of his fellow stallions as he did in his body. His size was larger than most stallions his age and his coat was a military brown with a black mane. And even though his name and voice suggests a attack-head-on kind of pony, he does take some strategic thought rather than get his soldiers killed, and learns under his military captain, who happened to be visiting. His uniform, like most in the force, covered his mark.

“Its been fine so far,” Twilight said scanning the simple room. “although I still wonder why Clue insisted on going to an actual fort, I have books that describe them just as well.”

Hammer suggested, “There’s a difference between what you can picture, and what is real.” Twilight shrugged as if to say ‘true.’ Rarity seemed a little stiff, “So long as he gets me closer to that PHR snake. I wont argue with his style.” Head Hammer seemed to take great interest in that comment. “Who is this snake?”
Rarity showed signs of embarrassment. “He’s a.. charming back stabber of a gentlecolt. He vandalized me and threw me off the Tall Tale train.”

“Vandalized?”
“Trust me.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You want revenge on him this badly?”
“But of course,” The way she talked implied that her actions and emotions were unarguably justified. “Nopony has, or ever will, get away with taking advantage of me.”

“Well, anyhay, I need you to follow me into the dungeons, Clue wants to see you both.”

-Outside, behind some rocks-

“Are we Ready?”

Engie was holding two mini tool boxes, and hauling one big one on his back. “I'm good to go.” Sniper had his rifle ready, and was tossing a jar in his hand. “I’m all set mate.” Scout was trying to perform a pistol trick, “I’m personally losing patience here.” Heavy was munching on his sandvich, “So filling…” Demo was getting drunk, or technically, more drunk,
"I'm gonna be (belch) a few more..zzzzz." Pyro had his flare gun drawn, "Murph." Medic was building up Uber on Rifle, as Heavy was eating the sandvich. “I’m am almost charged.”

Soldier spoke into the Mic, "Look Spy, I'm not waiting for France to finish another cigarette. My men are ready, and I'm getting bored waiting here. Wake up cyclops! Were attacking!"

It was a front assault with the gorge walls on either side. With the sticky jump help from Demo, sentries were placed high up on the cliffs. With the high ground, the team had an immediate advantage.

"Erectin a can of whoopass!" Engine pressed a button on his PDF and the sentries sitting silently inside of their toolboxes up on the cliff began to move into action. "Com'on boys, git goin!" The team charged forward as time was of the essence. The rocks used for cover were 30 yards from the front door and sentry cover would only last for so long until they were shot down. The colossal door was wood and stone, so a few rockets blew open a hole for Scout to jump through.

The interior was wide open with few stone stairs leading to the wall. Perfect battle grounds.
Scout was swift and quick, too quick for most ponies. Every blast from his gun took down one pony while he dodged spell fire. And he was well known for having an itchy trigger finger.

But the fort grew into a bloody chaos. Sentries poured down onto the fort tearing souls apart limb from limb; those who did not pay heed to Scout were killed by him or the guns; the high walls became under the influence of a red dot prowling from a distance. The wall burst open to reveal more humans attacking.
Demoman choose to fight like a demoknight, slashing his way through charging forces; Heavy was churning away next to a pre-upgraded dispenser; two mini sentries covered engie as their bigger brother was being built; Pyro skipped along without a care in the world, so long as it was filled with burning horses; Medic was preoccupied with dissecting a pegasus; and Rifleman was popping heads.

A big fort comes with a big crew. Magic shielding sprang from around the camp and anypony who couldn't make one flocked to safety. Demoman was chasing a cowardly archer who was fortunate enough to make it to safety through a bubble. “Aw no ye don’!” Refusing to let his prey escape, Eyelander sacrificed a soul to charge itself in a yellow glow, and slashed at the bubble. The “POP!” that came from the act of penetrating the shield resembled that of a large balloon meeting its demise. The ponies inside glanced at the unicorns who failed against the attack. They were on the ground, clutching their horns in pain. “Sorry ta burst yer bubble, but its time ta die!”

The grass that grew on the open ground were watered in necks of blood as the dense population of ponies within the bubble could not retaliate the master swordsman. Heavy was getting worried at a large group of ponies that had banded together and armed themselves with archers. Even warriors picked up fallen bows. “Incoming! Demo, help us!” He turned to see his companion much too far away and preoccupied with helping Soldier with some tough fighters. For a moment he admired the unnatural speed at which the pair of old friends moved.

Returning to the large archer bubble, he could only grind his teeth when arrows began to quickly turn him into a pincushion. He did try to aim at any pony who was trying to enter the shield. Saha did her best, churning through bullets and raining horizontal hell on any victim she could see. “MEDIC!”

The doctor was about 10 feet too far for his medigun to reach Heavy. Rather than pull out the crusader crossbow, he turned to his current heal target Pyro. “Pyro!” It turned to look at him, reflecting an arrow as it did so. Medic pointed to Heavy, “Give me a lift!”
“Hudda! Murph!”
Medic looked toward his dying Russian and jumped in the air. He then felt a condense wave of wind sending him flying shortly through the hazardous air, an arrow missing him barely, as soon as he was in range he latched his medi-beam onto his patient while in mid flight. He landed right behind the russian pincushion, who felt grateful for the wave of healing.

Sniper ran through the opening of the wall, as the high walls were now mostly clear, he saw the increasingly large bubble and reached into a shirt pocket. He retrieved a bullet with a shiny bullet head, and jammed it into the gun. Then came the painful task of waiting for the rifle to charge, he could see a pony raise her hoof and have all the others raise their armed bows in turn. He saw them being drawn back, but the gun was at 75% charge. He fired as they did.

The sniper rifle bucked Sniper in the shoulder harder as it had ever done before. A flash of magical light erupted from the barrel; the bullet flew through the air like a meteor; it broke through a few arrows it intersected with; and it smashed through the shield. In that time, Heavy ducked and shielded Medic and Engineer dove behind the dispenser. The onslaught of arrows never came.

Looking up, Engineer saw Rifleman rooted to a spot directing between them and the exposed ponies. HIs hands were raised, and a red aura coated them in a foreboding manner. This same glow was the force that caught every single arrow that was destined to kill at least one target. “Ah, its good to feel the real rush of magic again.”
“I did it! This is fucking awesome!”
“We can celebrate the results of last night later, I say we put these in their rightful place.”

The pointed sticks turned around and and before anyone could retaliate, every shaft was given its speed again and was hurled into a body. The fellow fortress members cheering in approval. "Magic is credit to team!"

A warrior charged at Rifleman in his moment of glory, but found his body lifted and his axe taken away. He could not flail or move, but could see the human grow a wicked smile. His captor stepped to the side, revealing a computerized turret being reloaded. In his fit of panic, the stallion moaned in a suppressed scream. "Beep-beep," the gun detected the stallion was no longer a threat, but scanned the visage of Rifleman, who nodded at the sensor. The AI interpreted the vague movement as a command to fire. Being the efficient robot, it fired of a whole second of bullets into the head before concluding that the target was definitely dead.

Feeling cocky, Saura opened Rifleman’s hands to unleash something else, but ended up blowing himself backwards a few feet and landing flat on his back. “My bad, we... have more training to do.”
“Dammit woman,” He spoke aloud, “That hurt. Lets stick to the levitation.”

In the next few moments, between Demo and Sniper, bubbles were bursting across the fort. Sniper chose to rest his sore arm on the dispenser while he took shots. “Boom.” BANG “Headshot, cricky my arm hurts.” The conflict came to a standstill, quite unexpectedly. The sentry detected a cease fire, and paused. The remaining forces of the one powerful fortress looked at the body of the dead military captain in charge of the whole fort, shot dead in the face with a scattergun, and missing most of his head. Scout took advantage to bask himself in the glory of the kill. “Your stupid face just got dominated you peace of crap. You say I am inferior compared to your all powerful pony greatness, well I say fuck you!”

He turned to the rest of the ponies standing around him. “Yo why we stop fighting? Was that kill really that awesome? I thought it was pretty cool, but I just shot the guy. If you want I can-”

“SCOUT!”
“Jesus! What!?” Demoman walked up to him, “Shut your bloody face, ye chatterbag. But I do agree, why did we stop?”

The ponies looked at one another, the air was tight, and the silence was eerie. Captain Sharp Sword was famous for being ferocious on the battlefield, his acts of successful bravery got him through the rankings faster than any other before him. While the death of their leader does not call for unorganized chaos, it was a huge blow to moral. This pause turned the area into a place of awkward confusion as to what was to happen next. It was like a row of dominos, what ever somepony did, everypony else would follow. If somepony attacked, the fighting would resume, if somepony ran, everypony would run.

The pony next to the dead captain mentally tipped, his mind almost shattered with brain blood not his own dripping of his coat. He simply let go of the weapons like they were lethal snakes, and threw up his hoofs in a desperate gesture. “I surrender!”

Author's Note

I'm cutting this chapter way to close for comfort. But I lost a few days because life threw more work at me than I expected.
Clue is not dead. Just saying that now.

I may have left a detail or two unexplained, but that will be revealed in the next chapter

As always leave your constructive commentaries below.

Remains

Chapter 14- Remains

"Look Spy, I'm not waiting for France to finish another cigarette. My men are ready, and I'm getting bored waiting here. Wake up cyclops! Were attacking!"

The man in disguise was tempted to do a face palm but couldn't bring himself to do it in the presence of the two Elements. He would have to make do given the circumstances at hand, or hoof in this case; he only had so little time before the attack started. Head Hammer lead the two mares through the halls of the subterranean complex. They trotted in a single file line through the passageways in order to leave room for those traveling in the opposite direction.

Castle traffic was minor, but there are such things as civility habits. That and it was an unspoken rule of the undergrounds to be followed by all equestrinel. Especially since the fight force was making their way outside under earlier Head Hammer’s orders.

They passed warriors that bowed quickly as the princess went by, and other stallions glancing lonesome looks at the white marshmallow who trailed behind.

“Mr. Hammer?” Inquired Rarity, “I know this is one of ‘those’ questions you get all the time, but how do you manage to live in such dreary conditions?” They entered a large weapon maintenance room. Individuals were slashing a sharpened blade, polishing armor, or fine tuning the bow string.

Spy maintained his facade. “Madam it is quite alright, but life here is actually quite humble if you look past the musty air, tight quarters, and preserved food. Everything is routine, there is always good company, and you can rest easily knowing your behind massive walls and deep underground.”

Twilight Sparkle looked at her companion at this as they both shared a unsure expression of doubt. “If you say so.” An unexpected alarm immediately rang throughout the caverns, “WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”

Everyone in the area looked up, ears perked in surprise and momentary panic. The ceiling shook and muffled noises of explosions and yelling became a horrifying background noise. Hammer looked back to the company. “We need to get you to Clue now!” He barked to everypony else, “Get ready and get to the surface!”

He galloped down the corridors, the noise of hooves close behind him indicating that he was being followed. The Castle traffic was under rush hour. The close confines of the stone walls also made the sound of a large force of hooves galloping louder than one would like, but the rumble of war kept looming over their heads in the most literal way. The dungeon door burst open with almost too much force for the wood to bear, the ponies ran down the stairs, dust and dirt clouding the area with the vibrations being caused above. A particularly loud explosion caused the ceiling to collapse somewhere and yells of those victim to the wrong-place-wrong time principle came through like a howling wind.

Head turned into the dungeon, looking behind him to see the princess and fashioness to stop at the griffen skellington in a scare. A desperate voice came from a cage towards the back at the sound of their screams. “Help! I’m trapped in a cell!” Ignoring the squeamish mares, Spy smiled under his mask at the sight of Clue in a cell, but his disguise showed a serious face. “How did you get in there?”

“A changeling trator I think, but first thing first get me out of here! Where are the girls?!”

The flustered mares caught up with him and Clue released a breath of relief. “I’m glad to see that both of you are ok, but I think he broke the lock and the gate won't move!”

The protege began to examine the lock, she had done something similar but all locks are not the same. With her mind under pressure from forces above the quick thinker was mentally stumbling. “O-OK, I can get you out! Give me a few moments...”

Hammer turned to Rarity and pointed to the back of the dungeon, “Look behind that door in the back and see if there are any books there.” She galloped away before Clue could respond with a shake of the head.

“I think he stole them but-” His pupils shrank in momentary surprise as Hammer raise a knife the wrong way around in an unnatural position. “-Twilight!” She looked up from the lock agitated from the break in her concentration before feeling something jab her spine and send a horrifying cramping sensation through her body. “AAHH!” Her scream was shrill and filled with agonizing pain, but just as Spy’s disguise cloud began fading, he cloaked himself.

Rarity recognized the type of scream from the one she made, the tone was indistinguishable and it haunted her ever since the train her head whipped to look back at the unconscious body. “Twilight!”

“He’s here, the changeling is here! Celestia dammit!” Rarity galloped over to her friend and was relieved to see her breathing, but her body was stiff and unresponsive. Seeing her friend suffer the same fate that had befallen her was almost heart breaking, but in this case, it was converted into anger. Spy uncloaked himself as Sneak Shiv lighting a cigar.

“Gentle mares, and stallion.” The mare still awake was clearly pissed, and for a second Shiv did a double take, put off by a outburst. “You!..” Her mouth seemed to struggle to find the correct word, but her involuntary dictionary chose wisely, “Bitch! You were the one-”

“On the train? That I was you little fool.” His voice was taunting and insulting having quickly recovered from the outburst, causing rage was like candy to one of his talents. Especially if its full blown discharges.

“I will tear you to shreds after what you did on the train, and to Twilight!!” She tried to levitate him but to no avail to her surprise. Growling, she charged at him with every intent to beat the smile of his face.

He knew full well that she would do just that if she got the chance. In a well timed simple side step, Spy did a signature move of his; the side stab. Again he recloaked himself while Rarity screamed in anguish and defeat once again. “I think not.”

After redisguizing himself, her body was flung as well as the princesses’ into a new cell. Spy spoke to Clue. “Consider yourselves lucky, my colleagues might have killed all three of you.” He turned his pony ears upward. “From the lack of noise, it looks like his fort is finished.”

The words were true being that the quakes from above were in dead silence. Clue glared death at the stallion, but he knew that his efforts to do anything could be in obsolete vain. But he decided to investigate from a fresh source.

“I would think that capturing the elements could be a smart move for you.” Shiv shook his head. “Not yet, if the humans were on land, I would have taken her to them already. We cannot risk exposure in the process of holding them.” As he exited the room the turned back, “You will be out of here soon, once they wake up at least.”

Clue croaked his a state of disappointment and a heavy emotions of the reality. “What were those books anyhay?”

“Ah! They were books on dark magic involving necromancy and sacrifices. I know this because I recognized some of the symbols from a spell book I used one particular halloween.”

-The field-

Spy stepped out of the fort and into the main field. The sight he saw was not expected. Ponies were lined up in organized rows and were stripped of their armor and weapons in dishonor, but a sentry looked over them just in case.

The Frenchie approached the team who was chatting amongst themselves. “What the hell happened?!”

Scout huffed in disgust at the ponies behind him, “They surrendered.”
A hand met the face on a gentle facepalm. “Oh no…” They were given strict orders not to take prisoners except for the Elements of Harmony. Something obvious given the circumstances of their stay. Rifle rubbed his forehead, “Lets just kill them already. There is no way around it.”

Soldier moved to slap him but restrained himself, or more likely, Redwood restrained him. “I will not spoil this chance to make a dream of mine come true! Heavy? Are you almost done?”

The Russian was writing on a large piece of blank construction paper from Engineer’s stash. “Heavy is...done! Here.”

Soldier took the paper and smiled in a way not seen often. He turned away from the group and drilled the deprived prisoners on what to do next. “Alright maggots! As much as I would like to have each of you killed here and now, there is formal paperwork that prevents me from doing so. In the interest of formalities and proof to my superiors of your capture, you will all sign the back of this document before your departure. I highly advise you do it now in case something goes wrong...”

He handed a pen, notepad for a writing surface, and the document to the first in row. “I will remind all of you that is one of you tears up, scribbles all over, or damages the paper in any way, you will all be killed on the spot. TF policy.”

The team waited in silence and curiosity as Soldier supervised the signing of the document. The eventual process ended, and Soldier retrieved the paper at the last obedient warrior. He examined at the paper, the main jest of the document was written in Russian, hence why Heavy wrote it, on the back was every name of those present.

“Demoman,” Solly said quietly as he approached him, “how many heads do you have?”

His voice and face was dumbfounded seeing the paper and connecting the dots in his head. “Mate, you didn't...”

“Answer the question.”

“I’m good, but I doubt Redwood likes the idea."

“Redwood supports me, he thinks that if it's going to happen, might as well be with a smidge of honor. Besides, he knows how much this means to me." He turned to Engineer. "Grease Monkey, deploy two more sentry guns flanking the captured."

Engie appeared to be confused but did not argue. The eyes of the prisoners followed him as he placed down one tool box on their left, and as he placed another one on the right. The ponies looked at each other with uncertainty.

Soldier nodded, and his Texan friend obeyed, activating the guns. One earth pony decided to speak up. "What is this? What are you doing?"

Soldier happily answered the question, with his voice expression the feeling of achieving a personal goal. "The document that you all signed was your own collective death warrant! Haha!" He yelled at the sentries and pointed at the panicking ponies, "FIRE!"

-Underground-

Twilight had regained consciousness after about fifteen minutes, but was still feeling the aftereffects of the backstab. Her body pleaded not to move in some places, but others were communicating with slight agony to shift position. Her poor state of mind prevented her from trying to assist in the escape of the dungeon. Rarity also found herself incapable of doing anything productive for the same reason.

Clue bucked at the cage again, but could not get the door to budge despite its age. He sat in defense, but stared at the cage with a sense of respect and honor for the blacksmiths who forged the iron all those years ago. He looked over at the two girls moaning and whining away like they had for about ten minutes, and shook his head in shame.

“I would say that I'm sorry for letting this happen to you, but I suppose the changeling was right, better here than dying up there.” The statement was inspired by a soft thunder of fire about fifteen minutes ago. After the girls woke.

In that time voices of shouting rang through the corridors and loud sounds indicated the movement of heavy objects. A sign that the base being raided.

He saw the cell locks glow in a white hue, and the gates for both cells opened. Clue saw Rarity grind her teeth as it would have been painful to focus enough to use the spell. He sprang from the room, and yelled back as he went up the stairs, “I’ll see if I can find some painkillers!”

As he ran up to the almost broken door, he noticed that something pushed it open with great force, he became worried that some raiders were still in the castle.

He carefully looked around the corner of the door, checking the halls for any sign of life. Hearing and seeing nothing he moved forward working his way through the castle, slower than he would like, but caution had to be exerted. His streak eventually lead him to the medical room, known by the Medical-plus sign above the door. It’s door was open slightly ajar, but that did not worry him in the slightest. What matters is the medicine.

There was none. All the shelves, cabinets, drawers, and what bags remained were out of all medicine. "How could they have cleaned this place out that quickly?" He scrambled through the bags and furniture in ultimate vain. He sat in the lonesome room; the fort being as dead as the silence that occupied it.

He made his way back to the girls in a shameful trot. Upon arrival he saw their faces look toward them in pain filled hope, with tears in their eyes; a sight painful to see. “I’m sorry, but they took all the medicine.” Rarity seemed to only grow furious at this announcement. Using what little strength she could muster, she communicated to her inmate. “Twilight..power start…” She opened her eyes wide at this, and almost facehooved herself as a result but settled for wincing her expression.

The two unicorns tilted their heads and tweaked their bodies as little as possible to get their horns in touching distance of each other. Once the horns finally made contact, both horns glowed, and in a massive flash the pair of ponies sprang to their feet. Albeit they were slightly disoriented. Clue went off his rocker for a moment to ask one valid question.

“What the hell was that?!”

“That,” began, “Was a unicorn power start.” She straightened herself up. “In laymare's terms by allowing our power to connect to one another we create a power surge that can rejuvenate both ponies, complete a spell, or teleport impressive distances.”

She seemed proud in reciting this knowledge. She turned to Rarity for an inquiry. “How did you know about it?”

“Well,” She blushed, “When I was dating a few years ago. Our horns accidently bumped into each other...and I found out about it from him…”

The face Clue was making indicated that he had something snarky to say.

“Shut up! Its in the past!”

Twilight shook her head in a way that told how the past of the mare did not surprise her. “C'mon guys, lets get out of here.”

The ponies made their way to the surface, again carefully with all three of them slightly paranoid at the deadly silence. The shelves, tables, chests and anything that might have contained anything of use appeared to have been looked through and left to rot until more inhabitants filled it’s place.

The final stretch of stairs had a dry waterfall of once fresh blood, now the source appeared to be dry, but left a damp staircase. The topside door was missing from its original spot.

Carefully, the trio peaked over the edge and saw a decapitated body laying a few feet from the doorway, but the head was leaning right next to the doorway. Strong stomachs for this the girls did not have. Even Clue was tempted to regurgitate some lunch he never ate. After a small break, the ponies collected their guts and exited the building.

A massacre. The evidence of an outright massacre was laying in the middle of the open field. Clue would have rolled his eyes when the entourage had to excuse themselves again, but not even he could muster an inappropriate gesture in the presence of such death and destruction. “My celestia…I guess they don't take prisoners.”

He waited for the couple to return. “Twilight, I know this is grim but there are few things that can compete with the joy of a fresh crime scene for a pony like myself.”

“It doesn't take a genius to see from the density of the bodies that this was an organized horse slaughter, and that means they must have surrendered at some point in the battle. Twilight, make an observation.” She responded with made a simple statement. “They’re worse than the ponies at Juniper.”

Rarity agreed, “Absolute monsters, they must be.”

Clue’s face became plain and straight. “A better one. Something in common about them, look at one and tell me-not that one-that one.” He swerved her gaze from a particularly horrible example to something less gruesome. "Tell me what you see."
“I don't want to see this!”

“Keep your mind steady! Push through your fears and look at the corpses! This wont get any better until we get to the bottom of it!”

“... I see holes. Lots of... bullet holes.”

"Yep, and if my suspicions are correct, the same bullets from Juniper; pull out a bullet."

"What?!"

"You heard me. Pull out a bullet from the corpse."

"That's disgusting! No!"

"As your teacher I demand that you do it."

"No!"

"Oh for Celestia sake! I'll do it!" Rarity choose to rip more than to pull out a bullet from the flank; this destroyed the cutie mark in the process and would make it harder to pinpoint who it was. Turning to Clue she shoved the piece of metal in his face and awaited a response. “This appears to be identical to the ones found in Juniper, an estimated 50% of the fallen had one of these in them. I have no doubt that the humans are feeding whomever is behind this attack, or somepony had finally unlocked human smithing secrets.”

“This location also points out the possibility of their influence being much more widespread than we anticipated, or they have really good transport. Unless…”

The girls had listened to his rant. Happy to think about something other than the dead lying about. The investigator turned to both of them suddenly, “Can you both keep a secret?” They nodded, “I have had suspicions from Tall Tale, but I think that the PHR might have humans working with them. The oils and markings on the hospital wall, the footprint we found in Fort Juniper in that black pegasus’ brain slpatter, the material used here, blast radius consistency; it makes sense and there is enough evidence to put the idea on the table. I need more in order to make a official call.”

Wanting her own questions answered, Rarity asked, “What was behind those doors anyhay?”
He answered more to Twilight, “Necromancy magic.” The gasp that predictably followed made her trott to and fro in a short distance in panicked thought.

“Necromancy is strictly forbidden unless approved for research purposes! If equines were experimenting on war prisoners...what kind of ponies were we back then?”

The answer was a true one, but not a fact to easily admit to. “We were no better than the humans. The only difference being we evolved to be who we are today.”

There was an eerie silence as there was nothing more to be said. “How do we get home?” The stallion sighed and began trotting back to the missing door.

“I can grab some parchment and one of you can send a letter for help.” He snapped back, “Don't contact Celestia.”

-The Smokey Cavern, an hour later-

Derpy ate from a bowl of fresh veggie soup, the large supply of food called for a bit of splurging, and she happened to get off of work early to visit. As she swallowed the food, a giggle escaped her lips,

“I’m surprised you didn't take the kitchenware sooner, its nice eating out of a normal bowl.” Soldier gave a hearty slap to Pyro on the back as thanks for cooking the meal, “An American needs his greens to keep his vitamins in check!”

“Murph mur.”

Spy sat next to Scout, he chuckled to himself and shook his head at a close memory. “You know, this soup reminds me of the ones Scout’s mother makes.” By instinct, the defensive Bostonian moved to twack the Frenchman on the head, but stopped.

“Y-You know what, yeah..it does.” The pair simply nodded with a heavy sigh, staring into space at the memory of the home made cuisine.

Rifleman for one was exercising his levitation on the soup itself; negating the purpose of a spoon; like a liquid in zero gravity. This captivated Demoman in his limbo of being drunk. "Its like a lava lamp, but with food..."

“Trust me, Zero gravity is harder than it looks, but it does seem to warrant a state of zen.”

Medic was hard at work moving new magical material. The mad man happily organized his lab station. "Ah! I hafe so much more research material, zis vill satisfy my curiosity for a vile." Sniper picked up a large gem and felt heat radiating from it. A small reminder of the power they held. "Those gem tipped bullets did the trick mate, but I need more."

"Fear not Sniper, I can teach you how to make zem, und zen ze experiments can continue." Taking another box he opened it and pulled out a unicorn head. "Ah perfect. Zis brings me one shtep closer to learning about magic, and how ponies vork."

"Don't let Derpy see that for bloody hell's sake!"

He looked at the innocent mare being distracted by a guitar strung with a rubber glove and an enthusiastic singer playing a catchy tune.

"We were at the beach,"

"Everybody had matching hats!"

"Somebody went under the dock, and there they saw a rock."

"But it wasn't a rock."

"Its was a rock SENTRY!"

Author's Note

I'm back baby! Plus, more good news! Summer vacation is here leaving with more time on my hands for writing. I could write this story double time, but I have multiple pilot chapters of other stories I want to try. Writing a single story this large can get monotonous and a change in ideas might be what I need to keep the brain satisfied.

Please leave any constructive criticism in that comment section below this old box!

Meet your enemy. Meet the ponies

Chapter 3: Meet your enemy. Meet the ponies

"You guys ready back there!?" Called the pilot. Looking left and right and receiving nods from every face, Soldier noded to Scout who called back through the small air vent. “Ready!" With no response back the furniture carriage jerked forward with slight unexpectancy, and the crew felt momentum build until the unique sensation of liftoff hit everyone at once.

Our ten mercenaries sat either on the floor, on each other, or on a small shelf inside of the movers carriage. It would be a long flight to their target, Tall Tale. Perfect time for briefing!
Soldier wanted to get it started right away, they had yet to be informed in detail about the ponies they would be fighting. "Medic, Spy, what have you found out from your pocket books?"

Spy held up his hand in a “hold on a moment” gesture. “First of all, Medic got a clinical version of this book and I got a more, combat detailed book.” Spy explained holding up his book and Medic did the same. The titles appeared the same but for those who looked closely, in small black print was “Medical Edition” and “Spy Edition” why they would do such a thing was beyond their knowledge.
There are three different types of ponies we will be facing." Spy started before Medic jumped in. "Vell, technically vour, but we shouldn't vory about it too much."
The two who has center stage looked at each other.
“We should take turns then.”
“Ya.”

Medic went on. “Virst it tells us about za general anatomy, I vill list of only vhat matters. ahem!- Ponies are vour legged quadruped mammals who resemble horses in both body and mind and have three sensory advantages in sight, hearing, and veel. Zey have a larger range of sight that can stretch up to 180 degrees and the overall field of view is bigger and more detailed thanks to large eyes. Zeir ears have a greater pitch range and are more acute. Lastly they can more easily detect ground vibrations.”
"The virst kind ar called, Earth Ponies." Medic read from his pocket book now the types of ponies. "Earth Ponies are za most basic species of pony. Lacking any magic or flying abilities, zey rely on zeir brute strength to make zeir stand among others. Packing impressive stamina for both long distance galloping and strenuous phzsical vork, these horses can also reach impressive speeds.” Medic broke from reading the text to a tone of observation, and for a breath. “Zey have unusually thick bones compared to their brethren, and have thick muscles to pull their own veight, and then zome." Medic paused to let anyone comment. The only noise in the background being the soft rattle of the flying carriage.
Spy took over from his book. “Earth ponies are melee fighters wielding a poll-arm, sword, flail, axe or mace. Another unique fighting tactic, is a weapon fastened to the end of their tails. For example: spike balls and chain, or chain/rope used like whips, many times a combination of the two.”

"Sounds like something you wanna keep your distance from." Sniper stated. Engie added to this, "Now I have had experience with both horses and ponies, and either one of them can buck your bones to barnyard dust if they land a solid hit." Scout softly nodded his head from his perch on a low shelf next to Sniper. “I ain't too worried about em, I can stay out of their range with my scattergun.”

“Not unless they have a chain whip twinkle toes.” Soldier reminded him.
“Sounds like something Rifle would be good at, it's an easy target anyhow.” Demo said, slightly tipsy. Rifleman took this as a double edge comment, saying you'll be good at shooting an easy target is not exactly a flattering compliment.
Noticing the sour expression on his face, Engie felt some sympathy. “Son, look here, you can take them out quickly even while staying out of their range. Take it as a complement.” Engie said, almost as if reading Rifle’s mind.
Nothing more was said before Medic read in his own fashion. “Za second kind are called Pegasi, flying bird ponies- and if I may, zeir bone structure is very interesting, the illustrations show that zeir flight comes from both wings and hollow bones.” Medic jumped back to the main text. “While athletic in ze air, zese ponies have little muscle strength in zeir legs due to lack of use with zem, but remain extremely quick and agile. Speed records have apparently broken the speed of sound, but rarely are zey seen flying at such speeds.”

“Pegasi also have ze unique ability to manually manipulate clouds, and zerefore surrounding weather as well. Mmm- I must have a specimen to look into this, well, another experiment to look forvard to.” Medic started mumbling to himself, whether it was about mad future procedures, or mad scientific reasoning was indistinguishable with his german tongue.
Spy rolled his eyes and picked up the talk. “Pegasi are also melee fighters, but use lightning from clouds to attack at range. Any weapons used will either be a stab or slash tool. They attack then retreat, and can decimate targets quickly when in flocks.”

“Sasha loves shooting down little flocks of little birds in little spare time!” Heavy’s mini-gun does possess decent bullet spray, providing good anti air coverage. “Murph Murr?” Pyro asked pointing to himself. “Thats right, you can grill some chicken you mumbling sarcophagus.” Sniper said in a cold but heartfelt joke. Engineer scratched his head and smiled. "I could possibly design something to keep them out of the sky, but for now my sentries should still be effective."

“Hudda! Huda, murph murph murr murr, murph.” A fair point, for who knows how fast pegasi can prove to be when they are close to the ground? They might be impossible to hit! “Well, we will have to find that out first hand, now won't we?” Solider concluded.

"Ahem! Finally we have za unicorns. Instantly recognizable from zeir horn, zese ponies are za only kind to possess natural magic capabilities. Zey are not very fast nor are zey strong, but unicorns have strength in magical power. Enough levitate whole buildings, and possess a large selection of spells.” Medic looked up from the book. “Down zer road I want to do some magical experimentation, try and use magic to our advantage.”

Spy went on, his tone suggesting that this was the last of the info, “Known relevant spells are as follows: Levitation, Projectile Shields, Heal beams and the like, Fire magic, Water magic, Ice magic, Electric magic, and Lasers. If not wielding a form of destruction magic, unicorns use bows and arrows, crossbows, dual wield melee, or melee and shield.”
" OK-won't unicorns just take our weapons and gear with levitation?" Rifleman pointed out. This trait and ability alone gave unicorns and ponies a huge advantage over humans.
Soldier sat up proudly, as if he was presented a medal. "Not too worry! Before my team left for the airport prior to this mission, we said hi to my good friend Marasmus."
"Who?"
"A wizard who owed us a favor after giving him back his castle. He gave our team magical resistance! As long as any your equipment is within a foot of your reach, no one can take it from you."
"Well I wasn't there." Spy shifted in his spot. "Its OK, I had Spy sneak some magical pills into your coffee. You'll get the same benefits." Rifle quickly but softly grabbed his throat before glaring showers of bullets at Spy, who felt grateful to be sitting next to Heavy. “On this matter, I was told by Marasmus that pony magic is similar to our understanding of magic. Therefore, as the one with the most experience with it, I am your go-to person on magic! CALL ME THE GREAT SOLDIER OF OZ!”
Scout agreed with his proposal, “Yeah, you boast your ass about magic but you can't cast squat! Perfect title for ya Solly.” Soldier mumbled cursed words of rue at Scout who happily loafed on his secure little shelf.
Demo spoke up with a slurr. "Those bloody unicorns don't sound like much of a threat up close. Eyelander has been itchen for magical heads and I am more than (BURP).. to oblige him." Before Rifle could ask, Demoman answered with a snap in his voice. "My best great sword and good friend, ya worthless noobie!"
"Don't take what he says to heart. He's drunk." Rifleman appreciated Spy words, but still the insult made impact.
“Men, lets summarize. Earth ponies: powerful melee attackers, say out of their reach and their helpless. Should you get too close avoid their rear legs at all costs, and say nimble.” Nods came from around the room, “Pegasi: fast, evasive, and soft hitters, but hard to hit. Either get close or spray and pray.” More nods, “Unicorns, powerful magic users, but weak in every other category. Get point blank, and they are at a disadvantage. Otherwise they will try to pick you off at range.” Final round of nodding. “While weak as individuals, these horses complement each other very well, we need to stay sharp when we face these guys in groups.”
Silence. As with the conclusion of the brief. The soft sound of the flying carriage and the pegasi wing beat would be heard.
“Scout, what you see?” Obliging, Heavy’s request, Scout peered through the air vent. Six flying ponies were pulling them all, half mares, half stallions. Postal uniforms, adorned their forms but they did not appear to do anything of interest. Around them, Scout could see clouds moving by at decent speeds, but not much else, the air vent did not provide enough field of view to see the ground. “Nothing good.”

-An hour passed-

“~Ive got a lovely, bunch of Jarate jars, here they are sitting in a row~, big ones, small ones, one as big as your head!~” True to his playful song, a full jar as big as Heavy’s head was present on what little space there was on the shelf. “PUT THOSE AWAY BEFORE ONE FALLS ON ME MAGGOT!”

-Another hour-

“Do you have any fives?”
“Murph. Murr Murph.” Rifle took one card from the deck. “Hudda hudda, murph murr murph?” Disgruntled, Rifle handed Pyro half his hand. “Threes?” Medic and Demo handed Heavy a total of five threes. "Vours?" Pyro and Heavy gave Medic cards. "Ones?" Rifleman handed over two. “Do ye have any nines?” Medic shook his head, “Nein.”
“Well, give them ta me.”
“Demo I said nein.”
“Com’on doc.”
“No, not nine, but nein.”
“The bloody hells your point? Give me your nines!”
“Nein!”

Suddenly, the feeling of flight that had captivated the crew when they started became rejuvenated from the confides of dull boredom. A new sensation was taking hold of the party. They were descending. Scout looked out his air vent and saw the same picture as last time but the ground could now be seen rapidly approaching. “Yo! The hell is going on?!” he called to the nearest flyer. The mare to his right responded without turning her head. “Pitstop before dropping you outside the city limits.”
The landing was surprisingly smooth, but the air vent still prohibited a great view of the scenery on the way down, nevertheless from what could be seen, one would still agree that never before had a land like this be seen in such beauty. Such perfection. Such freedom from the human stain.

They all landed in an open field surrounded by trees. Next to where they landed was a large log cabin. The cabin appeared to be long abandoned seeing the moss, rot and decay overtaking the wood logs it was made of. After a quick leg stretch, both humans and ponies went their separate ways for bathroom breaks in the bushes. Rifleman was the first human to return to the carriage and, feeling the need to exercise his legs more, decided to investigate the cabin.

Opening the short door and ducking inside, Rifle reached into his pocket and pulled out his gun’s flashlight, as it was quite dim from within. Before proceeding any further, he also took out his pistol should he encounter an animal who made this cabin it’s new home. Apart from insects and cobwebs the cabin was void on any large critters, or anything else for that matter. The purpose of the house when it was in its heyday was unclear as only a wooden table remained as a solitary piece of furniture. The short oval table was about the length of two human household toilets back to back. Condition wise it wasn't that bad. “Some elbow grease and this thing would look as good as new.” As Rifle was observing the dining table, his foot put pressure on a particularly fragile piece of flooring. “Ack!” Catching himself before his leg fell through the hole he threw himself of balance… “OoF!” right onto the floor. After recovering from the fumble, Rifle cautiously shone his light down the hole.

A box, an ornate wooden box. Ripping way a few more boards with little trouble, the box was freed from its coffin, and placed on the table. Feeling for hinges or a key hole, Rifleman eventually found out how to open the box. Inside was a large number of, “Poker chips? Must be a gambling set.” The chips were finely crafted but not painted, instead each one treated with a form of finish to bring out the beauty of the wood they were made of. Their purpose was likely to be used in the dead of deep winter, when there wasn't much point in going outside. In a small pouch, old dust and degraded paper could be seen within the box. “Mmm. You can't do much with a bunch of poker chips without..cards… (Gasp) Li-ght-bu-lb!”

“I didn't know you were proficient as a dealer Scout.” Spy said, pointing out Scout shuffling Soldier’s deck. “I grew up in Boston, learned from a part time job in a back alley.” The vintage table was placed with the mercs in the movers carriage, and a game of Texas Hold'em was about to begin using the chips in combination with Solly’s deck. The only ones not partaking was Medic and Sniper whose job was to restrain and distract Pyro from lighting the only source of entertainment. “Rifle, this is the best idea you have come up with since joining.” Soldier remarked, anxious to begin. Rifleman gave a genuine smile, grateful to be truly complemented.
“Alright punks, lets pass the time with a nice game or two.” Scout dealt the first set.

-Time Passes-

Three cards from the flop have been dealt, two nines and a jack.
“I fold.” Heavy leans back.
“I check.” Soldier sits quietly.
“I raise.” Demo adds a small stack to the centre of the table.
“Shoot.” Engie “folds” his cards over.
“I raise.” Spy tosses in a small stack as well, challenging Demo.
“I check.” Rifleman waits, tapping the table anxiously.
Scout puts down the next card, his face is unusually straight, a trademark for dealers. The card is a two of hearts.
“I che-no!, I raise.” Soldier tosses in a small stack.
“I raise.” Demo looked confident in his move.
“I fold.” Spy’s face remains emotionless, but you could hear his disappointment.
“Raise,” Rifleman throws in a slightly larger stack.
The next card is a two of spades.
“HA! All in!” An unexpected turn from Soldier, he pushes all his poker chips in to the now large pile.
“Ach, fold.” Demo backs out, afraid that his opponent has a good hand.
Rifleman looks at Soldier, with a smirk. “Lets tussle Soldier. All in.” The pile of chips became impressively round much like Soldier's helmet.

“I double dare you maggot.” Solly was visibly loving this, a good old fashioned gambling game with your war pals. The last card is a three of diamonds, and now competitors use the two cards they have, combined with what was on the table, to create the best hand. The winner gets what was tossed in during the round. Soldier flips his cards over to reveal them; a jack and a king of spades. “Soldier has two pair, with nines and jacks.” Scout observes. Rifleman flips his, a two of diamonds and a two of spades. “Gotcha rocket man. Full house.”
The pilots, and remaining on lookers “ooohh” in response to the victory. The carriage had stopped at the destination, and the ponies decided to let the humans finish their round before they told them to put the game away. “Next long distance trip maggot, I will best you. You will be humiliated!”
“Likely story.”

“Alright humans, its a thirty minute walk until you can see the town, can't risk dropping you into the military district. Now hurry, we have to leave ASAP.” The Pilot explained. Spy looked at his watch, “It is only 10:30, I say we unpack and set up camp.
“Good plan. ALRIGHT MEN! MOVE OUT!” Soldier set movement in motion.

The landscape was surrounded by a large temperate forest, the wall of mountains was placed to the east, and the town would be further north. After fifteen minutes of walking north, the mercs came to a small hill, from the peak of which the town of Tall Tale could be seen. The team takes a few moments to observe their immediate surroundings, the ground is covered by the soft grass the nation was so well known for, the trees provide decent overhead camouflage, and the trees directly in front of them slightly obscure the image of the city; also obscuring the camp from anyone looking out from the city. They all looked at each other without saying a word, it was a given fact that this was the spot.

From where they stood Tall Tale was a large mundane looking town with houses of wood and stone all packed in relatively closely. The only outstanding features being the three large and wide towers towers made of stone and held together with early age concrete. From the light of the near midday sun, the company could make out long cannon barrels sticking out from the towers pointed toward the ocean coast.

The camp itself, when all said and done, had a fire, some green bedding covered by a large slanted roof, and a dispenser. Rifleman reached behind him and pulled out his assault rifle. He laughed aloud at this action and said to himself, “I love man-co pockets.” Demo looked over to him and added while pulling out his Eyelander from a small pouch on his belt, “Ya mate, they are some deep pockets.” The sword agreed with a gruff ghost voice, “Its warm and cosy in there, like a second sheath.”

“Yo people!” Scout called attention, standing next to him was Spy and Sniper. “We are gonna do some reconnaissance. Brb in an hour.” Heavy called to them as they departed, “Be careful my baby men! Please return before curfew! OR NO SUPPER!” Heavy looked toward Engineer who had packed food for the mission. “What is dinner any-way?” Heavy asked. Engie picked up a pouch and examined it, “Well big boy, you ever try American Ravioli?”

-Evening-

The trio had returned before curfew just as told. They didn't want to risk the chance of Heavy being serious or not. For two hours they took the map of Tall Tale while eating, and drew in details before calling the group for a meeting.
Sniper looked up to Soldier from the map laying down on the grass. “Alright, Solly, with your permission we will explain our plan.”

“Granted, what ya got?”

“Demo, what can you tell from the towers from these pictures?” Spy handed some photos to Demoman. Instantly his face lit up in a cruel smile, “I'm no engineer-(Heck no your not)- shut up Engie! I may be no engineer, but these towers are similar to some used by the Degroots. Strong exterior, but has many weak points on the inside. A few bombs, and CA-BLOWY! Down they'll go.”

Sniper smiled, “Perfect. Medic, how much do you know about smoke bombs?”
“Eh, If you mean I know a few recipes vor somezing smoke bomb like with minor biological side effects zen yes.”
“The rest of you, how would you like to blow the military district sky high?”
Rifle rubbed his hands together and hopped up and down like a maniac merc in a gun emporium, “Oooh this is going to be awesome!”
Sniper, Scout and Spy smiled, looked at each other, and chuckled darkly. “Alright, here's the plan…”
-CLIFFHANGER!-

Author's Note

Ladies and gents, this is the first chapter to be actually "Manufactured" in a week and a half. Hopefully I was able to prefect it in that time, but I digress for it is now due. And don't worry, no tricks. You'll get some action next chapter.

On a separate note I hope I didn't exaggerate medic's accent too much...

Please! I encourage constructive criticism in the comments. It bugs the hell out of me if I don't know if you guys liked it or not and I want to do the very best I can.