My Little Fortress: Night of the Living Dead

The black locomotive rolled under the floating barricade and along the rails, the wheels and pistons driving the train towards the Vanhoover Train Station as the scrap metal barricade reasserted itself over the rails. Eventually, the train approached the station and Engineer began to slow the black steel behemoth down to stopping speed. As they approached, the sight of ponies patrolling the station platform came into sight, their forms armed with various weapons from the Vanhoover Armory.

"Approaching Vanhoover. Ah repeat, approaching Vanhoover." Engineer said over the inter-carriage speakers. At once, ponies and humans alike began to gather their items and readied themselves by the carriage doors. The Mercs were still quite pissed with Soldier, due to the fact that they continued to glare daggers at the crazed American. As soon as the train stopped, the doors were opened and the passengers disembarked.

Almost immediately, the human Mercs were met at spear point.

"HALT FREAKS!" roared a unicorn mare survivor. She had the look of the punk rock crowd, due to her numerous piercings and the eye-catching dual-colored mane of bubblegum pink and white. "STATE YOUR BUSINESS!" she yelled, glaring daggers at Spy.

Spy, taken aback by the sudden hostility of the survivors, simply cleared his throat and bowed a bit.

"Apologies Mademoiselle, but we are not the ones you should worry about. In fact, we saved these ponies from the middle of Ponyville." he said gesturing to Twilight and the other pony survivors as they exited the train carriage. "Mademoiselle Twilight requested our help and we answered the call. After seeing what we were up against, we took to getting anypony we could out of hostile territory. We've just come from Canterlot, in fact. I am sad to say that it is lost." he said, giving a solemn nod.

"Canterlot? It's...gone?" asked the mare, her hostile resolve quickly falling to pieces as a defeated look entered her eyes. "What about the Princesses?" she asked.

"Ve...ve veren't able to save zhem." Medic said sadly from behind Spy. "Zhey vere turned as vell." he added grimly.

"What were you...things...doing in Canterlot in the first place?" asked a nearby survivor buck.

"We went there to share and gather information from Princess Celestia and Luna. Unfortunately, while we were gathering information in their study, Luna was assaulted by a turned guard and in turn attacked Celestia. Celestia had enough equinity in her to keep the undead pegasus horde chasing us at bay long enough for us to reach the station and escape." Timeless said flatly as he approached the survivor mare. "Lower your weapon. They're with me." he added, giving her an authoritative look.

"Oh yeah? And just who are you exactly?" she asked, squaring her jaw and glaring.

Timeless simply patted his Celestial Guard patch. "Celestial Guard Timeless Toaster- Paranormal Division. And I'm ordering you to lower your weapon and allow them in." he said, raising an eyebrow. The mare looked at the patch, her eyes filling with recognition at the sight of Celestia's sun with a phoenix in the center, spreading its' wings in song.

"Whoa...I heard rumors of your guys...but I never knew the Celestia Guard was the real deal..." she mumbled as she lowered her weapon. "Fine. You freaks can come in. But I have to take you to our leader first. Granite! Get those survivors to the barracks and get them set up with some beds and food." she barked to the nearby survivor buck, Granite. Nodding, he lowered his bloodied pitchfork and gestured for the ponies to follow him.

As they began to move off the station platform, Twilight and her friends gave the Mercs and unsure look. Spy and Medic both nodded simply, gesturing for them to go along. "Ya'll been through a nightmare. Ya' be needin' some rest after all that action. We'll meet up after meeting their leader." Engineer said, giving them a warm smile. With a nod, Twilight turned and began to catch up with the other group, her friends following her lead.

"I'm tagging along. Figured I can give these survivors some information on what's going on." Timeless said, joining the group of Mercs.

"Fine. We could do with the intel anyway." said the mare bitterly as she began to turn, ready to leave.

"May we get yer name, lassie?" Demo asked the mare.

"Barbed Wire. Now come on." she ordered as she began to lead the Mercs and pony out of the station.

~~~ooo000ooo~~~

"Sinny? Ma'am?" Barbed Wire asked, poking her head between the tent flaps of her leader's tent.

"Hmm? Yes, what is it Barbed?" asked the mare within.

"We've got some visitors. Figured you'd want to meet them." Barbed Wire said, pulling back a tent flap. A snow white mare decked out in cobbled together armor with a cherry red mane and tail walked out of the tent, her crimson eyes scanning the new arrivals with surprise and intrigue. A few piercings adorned her features, but they were only limited to some ear piercings and twin snake bites on her lower lip. Suddenly, her eyes landed on Timeless and brightened with happiness almost in that instant.

"TIMELESS!" she cried joyfully, tackling the buck to the ground with a heavy hug before he could get a single syllable out.

"S-SINNY! AIR! I N-NEED AIR!!" Timeless begged, trying to free himself from her crushing hug as she buried her muzzle into his chest.

"But I missed you! It's been ages since you've been out this way!" she whined, pulling back from Timeless. The two exchanged glances before diving into each other with heavy kissing.

All the Mercs could do was stand there and watch in amusement as the two wrestled on the ground.

Barbed Wire wasn't going to have any of it.

"MA'AM! Please!" she scolded, stamping a hoof to the ground. The Mercs snickered and shook their heads at Wire's behavior.

"Aye, leave 'em alone lass. They obviously not seen each o'ther fer quite a while." Demo said with a chuckle.

"I agree with the Scoltish cyclops." Sinny said happily as she and Timeless got onto their hooves, her form standing close to Timeless. Demo simply blinked his one eye at her remark, then busted out in laughter.

"Oh laddie, I be likin' her!" he said in an amused tone.

"IF WE COULD PLEASE GET BACK TO BUSINESS!" Barbed Wire said, fuming now.

"Jeez Barbed, calm down. We'll get there, we'll get there. Besides, I'm sure you guys are hungry and stuff, right?" Sinny asked, gesturing to Timeless and Mercs, who all nodded in agreement. "Barbed, can you please tell Ladle to get some soup put together and brought to my tent with some water?" Sinny asked sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes at the punk rock mare. Barbed Wire stammered and flustered, but she gave in and sighed, drooping her head in a defeated manner.

"Yes ma'am. Would you like any cheddar bay biscuits with that?" she asked in a snarky manner.

"You do not kid about those biscuits. I'VE TOLD YOU THAT BEFORE!" Sinny snapped playfully. Barbed Wire simply waved her off with a hoof and began trotting in the way of the mess tent. "Anyway, come in, all of you! Get yourselves relaxed and adjusted! Plenty of room in my tent." Sinny said as she led the Mercs and Timeless into her tent.

"I'm surprised to see so many of you punk rockers alive." Timeless said.

"Are you kidding me? We formed a Punk Army and drove those deadheads out of the Lower District a while ago! For now, we've got patrols going along the old quarantine zone in the north and east of the city." Sinny said as she plopped herself into a comfortable looking cot.

"So. Mind introducing us to her?" Sniper asked, nudging Timeless.

"Jeez...I feel like I'm introducing her to my parents again..." Timeless said as he gave a sigh. "Her name's Sinful Vengeance. She had two sisters and a brother, but I have not seen them since last winter."

"Yeah, they all went their own ways after Hearth's Warming Day. Family had a huge fight and we've been distant ever since." Sinny explained quickly.

"Anyway...Sinny, these fine fellows are Red Team. The one who sounds like he's from Prance is named Spy. Next to him is Medic. Then you have Scout, Heavy and Pyro. The one with the country accent is Engineer, followed by Demoman, then Sniper. Lastly we have...wait a minute..." Timeless trailed off as he raised a hoof and began to count the Mercs. "Where's Soldier?" he asked abruptly.

"He did get off the train, right?" Scout asked, looking to the others.

"Aye. I made sure he got his stupid ass off." Demo said with a nod.

"Then where could've he gone?" Sniper asked, crossing his arms in minor frustration.

"I didn't see him come in with all of you. In fact, I think we split off while I tackled Timeless." Sinny said, rolling her hoof a bit.

The Mercs all exchanged glances at each other, each coming to the same conclusion.

"No." Spy said simply.

"But Spy! We need to go look for 'im!" Scout countered.

"And why should we? He is the reason why we're at such a disadvantage against Smert'. He started show boating and boasting about himself and created a lack of a productive atmosphere. He maybe a great warrior, but we do not need an idiot helping us protect these ponies." Spy said angrily. The air quickly became cold at his statement and he received many surprised looks by his fellow comrades.

"Wow Spy. I knew you were a jerk, but not this much of one." Scout said as he turned to go look for Soldier. "Anyone who wants to help look for him, let's go before he hurts himself." he added. One-by-one, the other Mercs all followed Scouts' leave, except for Demo who stayed behind to speak with Spy.

"He's me best friend. If sometin' were to 'appen to 'im, I wouldn't forgive me self. He maybe a complete arse and lacking some knowledge at times, but he's still a friend to us. It's about time ye' be seein' that Spy." Demo said, placing a hand on Spy shoulder as he walked out of the tent. Spy simply pinched the bridge of his nose and began the process of lighting a cigarette from his disguise kit.

"Hey! No smoking in here! Get out if you want to do that!" Sinny snapped. Spy looked to her, then blinked in surprise at the sight of Timeless' and her bodies entwined on the cot, looking as if they were about ready to get wild.

"I'll just leave you two alone then." he said simply, dismissing himself from the tent. At that moment, Barbed Wire bumped into Spy, her magic imploding and dropping the soup bowls and water cups.

"OH FOR- You know what? No. I'm done. I'm just going to go to my tent and go to sleep. I'm so done with today." she said, turning on the spot and storming off to her tent. Spy simply stood there dumbstruck as he watched the mare storm off. Looking down at his suit, Spy grimaced as he noticed the large soup stain that occupied the upper and lower abdomen of his suit jacket. With a grimace, Spy unbuttoned and removed the stained jacket and began to walk through the camp, looking for the laundry tent.