The Elements of Harmony and The Seven Deadly Sins

Midnight Flare grumbled as he walked through the heavy brush. "Your team are the only ones capable of going in the Everfree and surviving," he said in a singsong voice. "It's become too dangerous with all of the mutations you caused around. I didn't even do that! Discord did! I did one little genetic alteration on a pony. And BLAM! I'm blamed for everything wrong with the empire," he muttered. He had decided to find Wingbeat first. She was the one that was the least likely to shoot him on sight. Least likely, but still might. He sighed. They had all been very good friends, back before Discord had showed up. Their friendship had survived that. But then what happened with Buckshot had driven them all their separate ways. He had been the only one arrested for "war crimes", and had been locked on the Moon for three year, But Celestia apparently kept good track of his teammates. He really didn't know how good her info was. Wingbeat hadn't really seemed the person to isolate herself out in this forest for this long. But Discord had...... changed her somehow. The team field medic had been more violent after their encounter with the spirit of chaos. He hoped he was getting close. These woods were giving him the creeps. The sorcerer kept thinking he saw movement in the treeline, but when he focused there, it was nothing. As he pushed away a final vine, he saw a little shack sitting in the middle of the clearing. He began walking towards it, then froze when he heard a growl emanate from behind a bush. He turned slowly to see the biggest wolf he had ever layed eyes on walk out from behind thee foliage. He began backing away slowly. "Nice wolfie. You don't want to eat me, do you? I'm too tough and stringy." He silently cursed Celestia for not taking of the manacles up at the prison. The wolf barked, an earthshaking sound. Midnight heard the door open at the cottage. "Oh ANGEL," He heard Wingbeat yell. "What did you find now? You know I don't like you eating people!" As she came around the corner of the house, she saw her squad leader cowering on the ground. Her eyes widened and then narrowed. "But for him, I'll make an exception." Her voice oozed with malice. Even though she was a head shorter than him, he was more scared of her tha he was of Nightmare Moon. The wolf, apparently named Angel, began to advance. "WAIT! I'm here because the Princess forced me to come, not because I want to be here!" Maybe coming here first was a mistake. He didn't want to face her without at least four people backing him up. "You have five seconds to explain before I sic Angel on you." After he had explained the situation to the yellow doctor, she shook her head. "That still doesn't explain why you need me." "Whatever it was might have found my main armory." Her face darkened. "I'll help, but only to save the people in Ponyville from whatever monstrosity this thing may have let loose from your lab. Not to help you." She flexed her wings and flew to the upper level of her cottage. She flew back out with a satchel that had a red cross on it, and the shotgun that Buckshot had given her years before. He opened his mouth to comment, but then closed it when she glared at him. "Not. A. Word." He nodded and then proceeded out of the forest with the massive wolf trailing behind.

They started towards the last known location of Tornado Warning. They had been walking for at least three hours before Midnight worked up the courage to speak to his companion. "Wingbeat," he began. "I need to get something off my chest.." She cut him off. "I don't want to hear it. After what you did to Spike... and what he did to Buckshot..." She drew in a shuddering breath. "I should have shot you a long time ago." Midnight silently regarded his teammate. The angry woman walking next to him was a completely different person from the young, shy, straight out of training field doctor who wouldn't hurt a fly who had volunteered for his team a little over four years ago. She had beaten out much more experienced medics to be the only woman on his six person squad. He was brought out of his reverie when Wingbeat announced "We're here." Midnight looked out over the vast desert that stretched as far as the eye could see. There were no clouds for miles except for one enormous nimbus a mile in. He gazed at the black foreboding fortress that Tornado called home. He smiled faintly as he remembered his competitive teammate. He would start contests on who could kill the most enemies in a set period of time. He would almost never lose. His smile faded when he realized that Wings still had her shotgun, which meant Celestia hadn't confisticated their weapons. He was considering finding cover when the bullet whizzed past his ear. "That was a warning. You only get that much because we used to be friends. You have five seconds before I shoot to kill!" The royal blue sniper called out from behind them. "Stop! Ponyville might be in danger!" Midnight called. He turned around as the winged shooter put the sniper rifle over his back and flew down as he pulled out his pistol. "If this is because of you..." He growled as he pointed the revolver at Midnights head. "Wait. Don't shoot." Wingbeat said, looking bored. "Why the hell not?" "Someone might have found the armory. You know what that means." He holstered his pistol. "Ah shit, does this mean we have to work together?" Wings nodded soundlessly. "But he's a bucking maniac!" A smile grew on Midnight's face. "No, we're going to get the maniac next." His grin widened as the sniper paled.

Plated couldn't believe he had guard duty. Tonight of all nights. He was scheduled for it next week, but Dust had caught the flu. So here he was, guarding the red weirdo they had captured a month ago. Apparently, he was a high ranking member of Celestia's military, part of the legendary Sin squad. Ha. If he had been, he'd have escaped the minute they had caught him and killed them all. Instead, he just sat there murmuring to himself. Red Velvet sat in his cell, thinking about all of the parties he could have been going to, instead of being here in this cell. He had planned for every type of party possible. Cinco de Mayo, Arbor Day, and even National Laundry Day. He still didn't understand how that had made it to holiday status. He was contemplating that when all of a sudden, his left hand started twitching. Index, middle, thumb, pinkie. He stared at his hand. He hadn't had his body give him that signal since... He grinned. Someone was coming to rescue him. He might as well help them a teensy bit. Plated looked back for the first time in five minutes. The prisoner was hunched at the back of the cell that was bored into the side of the mountain, fiddling with something in his lap, singing softly to himself. Plated Armor and his partner leaned towards the cell as the singing got louder. "..Women to the left of me, women to the right..." "Hey, prisoner, shut the heck up." "....Ain't got no gun, ain't got no knife. Don't you start no fight...." "Didn't you hear me? I said SHUT UP!" The guard yelled. His partner's eyes widened as he saw the wires leading up to the front of the cell and realized what song the person in the cell was singing. " GET DOWN!" Gladius yelled as Red Velvet turned around, revealing the object in his lap to be a T-bar detonator. He stood up. "'Cause I'm TNT!" He yelled as he jumped and pushed the bar down.

Midnight and his current team sat in their camoflagued area and surveyed the rebel base. "How many do you see, Tornado?" questioned the purple squad leader. The sniper grunted. "I can't tell. There are only a few outside of the caves, but there may be a thousand inside." The medic sighed. "How the heck are we supposed to get Red out of there?" As if in answer to her question, a huge cloud of smoke billowed out, accompanied by an earth shattering boom. They looked at each other as people began streaming out of the caves. "Hit 'em now, Greed." Wingbeat said. He smiled. One after another, they began to fall, eyes rolling back as a hole appeared in their skulls. They saw more come out of the caves, but they were trying to run backwards, blasting away at something. A red streak appeared out of the hole in the mountain, speeding towards the terrified soldiers. It blasted right through them on its way to wherever it was going. They looked at each other. And promptly fell apart, torsos sliding off of their legs. "Well,that takes care of that," said a voice from behind Midnight and the others. They jumped and turned around to see Red Velvet wiping the blood off of his greatsword. He smiled as his friends gaped at him. "Wings! Haven't seen you in forever!" Red exclaimed as he held her in a huge embrace. "Tor! Nice taking them all out." He said as he slapped the speechless sniper on the back. Then he realized Midnight was there. His eyes widened. Midnight shrunk in fear as the red demolitions expert, scout and ruthless killing machine walked towards him. Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted into the air by a huge hug. "You didn't tell me you were getting out of prison so soon!" Red grinned. Out of nowhere, he gasped. "WE NEED TO THROW YOU A 'JUST GOT OUT OF PRISON' PARTY!" The red party animal yelled. "Maybe later, Red." Midnight said as he shook his head to get rid of the ringing in his ears. "Right now, we need to get to Ponyville."

They walked down the familiar streets where they used to spend every off-duty day. They had lived here, and two of them still did. Red Velvet worked as a baker when he wasn't partying, and Scarcity worked as a tailor in the city. No one here knew about their military involvement, so they accepted the story that Midnight was the new librarian, though they thought the dragon odd, and everyone else had assumed other jobs. Wingbeat, being good with animals and trained in medicine, had become the new vet. Tornado became the only cop they had. Or needed. Buckshot had actually been local. His family owned an orchard here. That's why they had set their base of operations near this town. He grimaced at the memory of what had happened. He heard a roaring. Suddenly Wingbeat screamed. "BUCKSHOT! HE ATE BUCKSHOT! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HIM, YOU MONSTER?!" He shook those memories off. Soon they would find out the truth. He realized they had arrived at the shop that Scarcity called home at the edge of the city. As they walked in, a bell rang. "Welcome to Tailor's Touch, the best clothing shop this side of..." The white clothesmaker trailed of as he saw who was standing in his lobby. "Hey, Scarce. How's it goin'?" Tornado said with a huge grin, holding out his hand. Scarcity shook it distrustfully. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" He said through gritted teeth. "Ponyville is in danger. Celestia wanted me to reform the squad." "That certainly sounds awful, but I really think that I should stay out of it. I'm out of your little team after what happened to Buckshot. I may not always have seen eye to eye with him, but he was one of my closest friends. And after Spike..." He shuddered. Midnight sighed. "They might have found the armory." He said looking straight into Scarcity's eyes. His face hardened. "Fine. Lets go."

They trudged through the Everfree. It was miserable, to say the least. They had nearly died six times already. Luckily, everyone was armed. Midnight with an assault rifle, Wingbeat with her shotgun, Tornado had his pistol, his sniper rifle not very useful in the dense foliage, Scarcity used his dual SMGs, and of course, Red with his six foot long greatsword. Every time a mutation attacked, all of them, with the exception of Red, looked at him with disgust. Midnight walked up to the wooden door they had arrived at. "Hey, this isn't the armory! Why the heck are we stopping where Zecora used to live?" Wingbeat said angrily as she walked up next to him as he raised the knocker and banged it against the door in a specific pattern. "Hold it, Ahm a-comin', Ahm a-comin'," said a gruff voice from inside. Footsteps began coming towards the door. Wingbeat's pupils dialated. She began breathing heavily. "Buckshot?" she whispered, and then said louder, "Buckshot?!" The footsteps stopped. "Ah buck." They heard a swoosh of a cloak and the sound of something heavy being picked up off the floor. "Midnight, Ah told you, Ahm done with the military, even if ya brought Wings. Now git off of mah property." "Celestia ordered me to..." Midnight began. He heard a mechanical whirring start from behind the door. His eyes widened. He tackled Wingbeat to the ground as the door was torn apart by minigun fire. A cloaked figure walked out of the dust, holding a gun that would have put a car mounted turret to shame. He was at least as tall as Luna, towering a foot over Red Velvet, who, at six foot six, was easily the tallest member of their group. Wingbeat stared up at him, her mouth hanging open. He used to be only Midnight's height. Now he was nearly as tall as Celestia. She couldn't see anything of his body. The cloak covered everything except the enormous chaingun. She ran up and hugged him. He jumped, startled, and then dropped the minigun and hugged her back. "I thought you were dead.." Wingbeat whispered. "It's good ta see you, Wingbeat, but Ah need ya ta stay quiet about me bein' alive. Ah need ta stay here. If anyone figured out Ahm alive..." He trailed off. Wingbeat backed up to look at him."But what about your family? Apple Bloom nearly died of grief at your funeral! I need to tell her, at least!" The cloaked figure shook his head sadly. "Ah don't want them to see me like this. Especially not Apple Bloom." "See you like what?" She reached up to take the hood off, but he jumped backwards. "Ah don't want you seein' me like this, neither." The hood turned towards Midnight. "What do ya want?" "Celestia told me to form the team again. Something happened near the armory. I am really sorry that I had to disturb you." Midnight said regretfully. Just then, the rest of the team came into the clearing. Tornado looked at the towering figure and asked, "Since when is Zecora so tall?" Wingbeat turned around angrily. "Where were you idiots?!" Red walked up. "Well, I was telling Tor all about the three years he's been gone, and then I needed to piss and then he needed to piss and then I saw you guys come up here and then we hid and watched this guy make his door explode. We were too far away to hear anything, though. Why did you hug him, Wings?"She turned. "This," she said, "is Buckshot." Tornado stepped back. "How did you get so tall?" He asked suspiciously. " It's.... a long story." The hood turned towards Midnight again. "An' from the sounds of it, we don't have time to waste."

They walked up to the tree that housed the spell that went down into the fortress below the forest. Midnight went up and inspected it. "No sign of forced entry. Actually, no sign of entry at all." Scarcity raised an eyebrow. "Than what, pray tell, did Celestia detect?" "I don't know but..." He trailed off as he inspected the panel he had just opened up. His eyebrows went up as the lights on the panel went dim. "No. NO!" He screamed as he rapidly pressed buttons, trying to get down to his lab. "What is it, Midnight? What's wrong?!" Buckshot asked panickedly. Midnight turned, his eyes full of fear. "The machinery in my lab is activating."