Equestria: Global Offensive

Chapters

de_everfree
de_ponyville
de_apple
ar_appleloosa
cs_wonderbolts
de_castle
EXTRA: de_ponyvillenight

de_everfree

CT: 0 - T: 0

It was another fine day for Zecora within the Everfree Forest. The poison joke was, thankfully, not in bloom this season, so she was free to gather to her heart's content, her stores filling up with an effervescent variety of herbs and flowers of many different colors and appearances. Today would be no less different, and this time, she had decided to venture closer to the former castle of the Royal Princesses to gather some special flowers there.

She quickly gathered her saddlebags from the corner of her home, and then she went outside. Though she couldn't exactly fathom why, there had been something... painted on the side of her house. It was a rather crudely painted circle with a letter 'B' within. Just what manner of prankster could have done this, or for a better question: why?

And then they came.

They were strange blue-clad beings, wearing unusual clothing and masks, equipped with what she assumed to be weapons. The presence of knives as the group quickly ran up to her treehouse and began scouting it out seemed to indicate so.

"B. Looks like no one's home." By Celestia, she could understand them!

"Report in, team." It was like they were... they were speaking directly to her mind! They were communicating with each other in front of her, but how could she hear them?

"Got nothing at--B! They've got the bomb!" Bomb? Bomb! Oh, dear, what manner of events was unfolding before Zecora's very eyes?! She quickly turned to see another group, this one clad in tan clothing and also wearing masks, entering the small clearing that made up the majority of her home's front property.

The two groups seemed to stand off for what seemed like the longest time... then Zecora had realized that it had only been a split-second since the two groups had run into each other. And then the sounds came! The knives on the hands of these strange new beings had been replaced by strange L-shaped objects, and now they were using them against each other! The shock only multiplied ten-fold as Zecora stared, wide-eyed, at the first casualty, one of the blue-clad beings that had first arrived at her home.

It was a standoff between ten of these beings, five on each side. What were they doing here? What could they want?

She didn't have much time to contemplate that decision, however, as the firefight quickly came to the final throes of battle. One of the tan-clad had taken out another one of the blue-clad, and only one of each side remained. They began firing at each other, seemingly striking each other's limbs and other spots, their blood splatting across the floor. Then the blue-clad finally scored a killing shot on the last tan-clad, and then all was silent.

Followed by a single booming voice, spoken as if everypony were meant to hear it.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 1 - T: 0

What were these things? No sooner than they had appeared, they immediately disappeared, practically disappearing into thin air! The bodies and blood had all but vanished, and she quickly shook herself off, believing that may there was something more potent than poison joke that she had run into recently.

She continued along the quiet path towards the derelict castle, trotting along and humming to herself, only to notice one extremely specific detail: the birds weren't chirping. That usually meant that some manner of predator was nearby, or she scared them off. The former was more probable than the latter, but she continued anyway. Most of the creatures of the Everfree Forest didn't give her much trouble, and if they did, she knew how to deal with them thanks to Fluttershy's lectures.

She began to climb up the hill leading to the gates of the castle as she heard some rustling in the bushes. Turning to her left, she saw that same group of tan-clad beings running towards her! She quickly cowered in fear, but noticed as they completely ignored her and ran up the steps into the castle. Curious, she followed them, taking peculiar notice of the strange painted 'A' on the outside of the doorway.

One of the tan-clad began to crouch down in the atrium of the former castle, sitting in front of a broken waterfall and a large statue of Celestia in her former days. Then she realized what the blue-clads had said: the thing he was planting was a bomb! And no sooner than she had realized it, then...

The bomb has been planted!

"I'm gonna hole up here." The five figures quickly dispersed into various corners and hideaways in the atrium. They were going to ambush the blue-clad beings when they attempted to stop them! She couldn't allow this to pass! She quickly charged for the bomb, only to stop when she realized that she had absolutely no idea how to stop the thing that stood before her. She tried to push and hit the strange object to no effect: her hooves merely passed through the object as if it were a ghost!

Before long, she could hear the telltale sound of steps coming up the hill, and watched as the group of blue-clad beings, now armed with even larger objects than before, enter the room. The firefight quickly commenced again, as the groups traded their shots with each other, bodies falling in the corners and the doorway. Then things were silent, and Zecora had noticed one of the blue-clad walk up to the strange bomb and crouch over it, staring at it while doing nothing.

She didn't realize it at first, but she noticed that her heartbeats were pacing quicker and quicker as the beeping of the bomb became faster. The bomb was going to explode, and this blue-clad being is doing nothing! Then the being, the last of the ones still alive, drew his knife again and began running! That coward! He was going to let the bomb explode after sitting there doing nothing?!

Zecora broke into a pace, running alongside the strange being, who ignored her while she shouted expletives at him. The beeping had completely stopped as they quickly bound down the hill, before a final beep in quick succession resulted in the explosion of most of the castle grounds. How terrible! She turned her head to yell at the figure, who was now seemingly trying to knife her unsuccessfully, but was interrupted by the omnipresent voice yet again.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 1 - T: 1

Zecora stopped arguing with the insane being as his form disappeared. Just what in the name of the Celestia's flank was going on here?! Okay, she had been shouting at the air. That was most certainly it. There were no strange beings here, and it was just all in her head. She turned towards the castle, and it was actually... intact? The castle was intact, or rather, from what she witnessed, restored? It made no matter to her, she could now obtain her ingredients now.

And maybe perhaps visit Ponyville later to make sure she wasn't going insane, and talk to Twilight about it. She trotted up to the gates again, quickly poking her head in the door to make sure she wasn't seeing things again, and then walked around the atrium, enjoying the open sky and picking some rare flowers that grew here. She picked the last of her bunch when she heard the sound of footsteps again.

Slowly, with her eyes closed and steadfastly praying it wasn't those beings again, she quickly turned around and tried to fool herself. Again, it was the tan-clad beings, but this one was alone. She could hear the sound of fighting going on outside using those infernal contraptions that they used in their battles, and then, there it was again.

The bomb has been planted!

No, no! Not again! She quickly ran for the bomb, again swiping at it fruitlessly. The strange being, seemingly devoid of any emotion in its face, simply sat in the corner with its strange weapon as Zecora continued yelling at it. The fighting outside had long since stopped, and she simply resorted to moving away from the device before it decided to destroy the atrium... again.

A blue-clad being charged in through the door, and with quick attention, immediately killed the tan-clad one sitting in the corner, before running to the bomb. Zecora rolled her eyes: the damned being did the same thing it did last time. He just sat on his flank and stared at the damn device! She began to start for the door in her head start to get away from the explosion before she heard the voice again.

The bomb has been defused!

She turned around to see the being aim his weapon in the sky and fire in random directions while spinning at an unusually insane rate, and switching between his weapon and a knife at the same time.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 2 - T: 1

Zecora ran through her thoughts as she left the castle. She had what she needed, so there was no reason to stay. The being had again disappeared before her very eyes, so she began to piece together the puzzle. These beings here were at a point of conflict, the blue-clads wanting to stop the tan-clads from either killing them off, or succeeding in detonating a bomb. Oh, buck, can this sound any more insane?

She would just go home, take a rest, and visit Twilight within the next fortnight, and perhaps get a treatment at the spa, and binge at Sugarcube Corner, and maybe get a nice visit to Canterlot and be surrounded by other ponies. Just about anywhere else would be practically heaven compared to the less than half day's worth of insanity she had just lived through.

At least the damage they caused seemed to be only temporary, but it certainly scared the living daylights out of her when she had first seen the castle go up in flames. And what was with those strange paint markings? A? B? They were most certainly designations given by the strange bipedals, and it was hard to think of much else. The castle and her house were the only points of interest within the forest.

The bomb has been planted!

Oh, there they go again. Most likely at the castle, or at her... buck. Oh, what was the point? It would just reassemble itself anyway. She continued her walk, musing on her strange happenings and perhaps how to best present this issue to Celestia so it could be avoided in the future. As far as things went, these 'counter-terrorists' and 'terrorists' were seemingly benign to ponykind, but extremely detrimental to each other and various important buildings.

The sounds of fighting could be heard in the direction of her home: various pitt-patts of fire and some really big booms, no doubt caused by the ever-advancing arsenal of weaponry the beings had. They always seemed to return even more well-equipped than they had before, most likely to get the drop on the other side with superior firepower.

This time, however, it would seem that the fight had been drawn out a lot longer than previous engagements. The sound of the bomb quickly dwarfed the staccato cracks of the fight, and Zecora knew immediately that her home would be up in flames, and most likely completely fine by the time she returned. She would have to avoid being in her home during these times, and it would be fruitless to try to cook up any potions since there was a good chance that they'd all be destroyed.

Terrorists Win!

She sighed. What a long day this would be...

CT: 2 - T: 2

This would make it the fifth time now, if the beings actually did show up. Much to her disappointment, they did. They immediately began firing at each other out in the clearing as she dug through her belongings. It seemed that anything destroyed in the attack was immediately replaced whenever the beings disappeared, most likely to where they ran from.

She could hear the sound of things hitting the wall and subsequent explosions, and probably though it best not to check. She'd already lost too much of her sanity today, and taking a bath in poison joke was actually sounding like a very appealing option right now. The duration in which these strange and peculiar beings would stay here was unknown to her, but she hoped it wouldn't be too long.

Her thoughts were interrupted for the umpteenth time as one of the tan-clad ran into her home and into the back rooms, where he hid in a corner. A few of the blue-clads followed in and began searching. Zecora examined them, gauging them to see if they were actually aware of the tan-clad that awaited behind the curtains in the next room.

Much to her surprise, the tan-clad actually inched out of his hiding spot, crouching with a strange silver weapon that looked like it was slightly too big to fit in his hands. In quick succession, he aimed and fired at the heads of the three blue-clads, and apparently won his side another win.

Terrorists Win!

Zecora watched as the strange being walked up to the one of the blue-clad bodies and began crouching up and down above the head. What this strange ritual was exactly, Zecora was unsure of, but it was plainly obvious that this was an attempt to show dominance of some sort.

CT: 2 - T: 3

Trixie had been trudging through these woods for the longest time now, unsure of her whereabouts and just exactly which direction town was in. She quickly pulled out her rations and sat down, ready to enjoy yet another day's rounds of barely-passable food. It was such a disgrace to her, but she had finally relented to learning how to forage from the zebra, and was on her way back to see what else she could learn from her, and perhaps share lunch.

The surprise was plainly written across her face as these strange blue-clad beings armed with black, brown, and green objects ran past her, completely ignoring her. She put down her sandwich, rubbing her eyes to make sure she hadn't just seen the most strangest occurrence she'd ever seen in her life just walk past her as if she were nothing. Hah, how ironic. Now even her hallucinations were giving her the cold shoulder.

There was the matter of hearing those loud noises coming from this general area of the forest earlier, but she'd just chalked it up to random creatures within the Everfree being... well, themselves. She hadn't actually expected it to be, well... this. She quickly scarfed down her sandwich, trying to ignore the chatter from the beings in the distance.

"I'm gonna guard bomb site B."

"Let's hole up here for a minute."

The bomb has been planted!

"I'm gonna check A."

Trixie looked as group of bipedals split, two going one way, and three the other. Unwilling to let even her hallucinations get the best of her, she followed the group of two, eventually catching up to them as they were just about to head up a hill. On top sat a castle, most likely the one that she'd remembered hearing about in the old books. What could they be doing in there?

"The bomb is at A--oohhh, boy!" One of the blue-clad soldiers immediately flew backwards, dropping his weapon as Trixie saw a plume of blood shoot from his head.

"Sniper!" the other one shouted, shortly before backing away, only to have a tan-clad being run outside and gun him down.

Trixie was absolutely confounded by the appearance of these beings, and now completely terrified as it was obvious that they just killed each other without the slightest hint of hesitation in cold blood. What was she supposed to do? She could feel her legs shaking as she stared at the lifeless bodies of the two beings as she heard the sound of footsteps.

"The bomb's at A!" one of them shouted, running up the stairs and throwing a handheld metal object inside the room. There was a bang and then a giant cloud of smoke as the other two members started throwing in theirs, as well. Then they charged in, and the sound of booms and bangs was evidently clear as the smoke began to fade away.

"The bomb site's secure, ready to defuse the bomb." She inched her way up to the gates, nervously peeking around a corner to find two of the blue-clads hanging around the corners of the castle, and one crouching directly over a small green box with wires sticking out of it, seemingly staring at it for no good reason.

The bomb has been defused!

Oh, goodness, was that what the box was? She hadn't even noticed. Her current attentions were elsewhere, however, as she noticed the three blue-clads pull out what seemed to be knives, haphazardly swinging them... as they charged straight for her. Her pupils narrowed into pinpricks as these seemingly insane beings were going to cut her up and eat her for dinner! She could feel her consciousness fading as she began to faint...

Counter-Terrorists Win!

...and she was out cold before she even hit the ground. She was not conscious, however, to notice that the figures had disappeared, nor to learn that they couldn't actually hurt her. The Great and Magnificent Trixie lay on the ground before the gates, having unceremoniously fainted like a little filly.

CT: 3 - T: 3

Zecora looked around. Well, the now-present 'voice in the sky' was still around, so that certainly meant that the strange beings were, too. She heard the notice about the bomb being planted, and it pleased her to see that the 'counter-terrorists' had again saved the castle from yet another temporary untimely explosion, since it was obviously it wasn't here.

She stirred her pot once more before quickly pouring out the hot mixture. This potion, in particular, was one made to steel a pony's nerves. She felt that she could definitely use one given the madness going on around her. After pouring the brew into a dozen small flasks, she quickly grabbed one and guzzled it down. The feeling of her nervousness disappearing was a much-welcomed one.

"B. There's nobody home."

And like clockwork, the beings had returned. Zecora quickly stuffed the bottles into her bag, throwing it on her back, and slamming the door open. She stood face-to-face with one of the blue-clads, who merely walked inside and examined her home in case of any hiding tan-clads, though she already knew there were none.

"Sector clear." The group of blue-clads began to make for the path leading to the castle. Zecora could already guess what was going to happen next. Really, why hadn't anypony else noticed this? No pegasi, or anypony at all from Ponyville had even noticed. Perhaps this madness was merely contained to a single area, unknown to everypony else?

The bomb has been planted!

Well, wasn't that a surprise? Zecora watched with dulled interest as the blue-clads ran around the corner, out of her sight, and out of her mind. She decided to go down by the river and pick some of the aquatic plants around there. Maybe if she was lucky, she'll even meet a bear, or even better, a manticore.

She ventured in towards the river, the body of water actually being the only obstacle between her treehouse and the castle, besides the forest. The frogs and fish in the river dove around as she quickly began pulling a few roots, giving a passing glance to the blue-clads who were making their way up the road across the river. They stopped, though, as the tan-clads quickly descended, and one of the blue-clads threw a strange black-and-red-dotted object, bouncing off a tree and landing right in front of Zecora.

By Celestia! Whatever the thing had been, it was loud, and it was bright, and induced in Zecora such a terrible fright! She quickly fell backwards, the oblivious to the gunfire in her ringing ears, and tried to pick herself up. The disorientation was made to be a temporary one, it seemed, but while the ringing in her ears cleared up, the whiteness within her eyes took longer. She stumbled around a bit, leaning against a tree for support, holding her eyes shut as her balance returned.

When she came to her senses, the bodies of four of the tan-clads had fallen into the river in front of her, as well as two of the blue-clads. She frowned: that would normally have taken a while to clean up, but the bodies of these strange new intruders had a habit of disappearing, and then they all show up, completely fine, so she paid it no mind. She just hoped they wouldn't stay here forever.

She sat down by the river, pulling out a small cask of tea, and sipping it while she waited for the whole thing to blow over. If it ever did, that was.

The bomb has been defused!

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 4 - T: 3

Trixie's eyes shot open. She didn't know what was going on, nor... wait! The beings! They were going to chop her up, eat her as food! Oh, Celestia, she would renounce all of her ways and became a paragon of love and peace and friendship! She would have to go see Twilight soon and repent for her mistakes. She was too pretty to die!

She quickly got to her hooves, determined to find Zecora and hasten her escape from this absolutely dangerous forest before the beings returned to exact their hungry vengeance upon all of ponykind! Yes, that sounded... important. The Great and Magnificent Trixie shall become a savior!

She quickly began for Zecora's hut, running across the roads and through the small brush that led to the clearing. Yes, she knew where the castle was, so knowing which way the hut awaited her was foal's play. She quickly bound around the trees, hearing the telltale sound of fighting again. She entered to clearing and was greeted with an explosion of light and sound.

She'd been blinded! Oh, no! In her bid to try to save Zecora, the hungry bipeds had ended up springing a trap on her, knowing that she'd come to rescue the zebra! What if they already ate Zecora?! The thought was absolutely unbearable to Trixie, but she stood her ground, knowing that she must bring word to Ponyville if Zecora wasn't alive.

"Need help!"

Trixie could hear them speaking in the background as the ringing wore off. She quickly flared her horn, trying to grab any object near her and began throwing them in random directions. If they were going to eat her, she wouldn't go down without a fight, help or not!

She could feel her magic's grasp on the rock collide with something. Haha, she'd done it! She'd bested one of the beings, and could stand proud and tall as Trixie Lulamoon, savior of Ponyville! She opened her eyes to see that she had incapacitated the last of the blue-clads with a rock she had grabbed from her right... or had she?

She was proven wrong as a tan-clad walked up and shot the stunned blue-clad in the head, leaving Trixie to again reconsider the consequences of her decisions as he continually kept firing into the corpse while hopping around it like a bunny, much to her horror and fragile state of mind.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 4 - T: 4

Zecora had heard all the noise coming her hut. No doubt they had engaged in another fight again, and it ended rather quickly, too, judging by how the voice in the sky had quickly declared a victor. The games that these beings played were sure unusual. She couldn't even begin to comprehend the kind of magic needed to be able to reconstruct something after completely blowing it up. A most strange type of magic indeed.

She entered the clearing, noting the lack of bodies and blood again, as usual, when she spotted a huddling blue figure at the edge. It was Trixie! Zecora quickly trotted to her, attempting to say something, but the only thing she could hear from Trixie's lips were dreadfully fearful things about jumping and bunnies. Zecora shook her head: the poor thing must have been exposed to the antics of the bipeds. Not even Trixie's ego could save her this time.

Picking her up and putting the manic Trixie on her back, she quickly trotted towards her home, only to see the blue-clads entering and searching it again. This had gone on, long enough! Zecora swallowed hard before reaching into her pack and downing another emotion-dulling hit, and ran inside. Within, she began packing up her things for her trip to Ponyville. The Elements of Harmony and the Princesses needed to know what was going on within these woods, even if they were harmless to ponies!

She heard footsteps as she saw a tan-clad walk straight in front of her cauldron, and crouched down with the small green box.

The bomb has been planted!

This was madness! She was still in it! Despite the effects of being able to return buildings to normal, Zecora wasn't really entirely sure about testing to see if that applied to ponies, as well. She quickly grabbed everything the essentials like her potions and some cloth for sleeping and stuffed it into her saddlebags. The beeping had begun, and the tan-clad again retreated to the back room to wait for the blue-clads.

"I'm gonna hole up here."

Well, of course you were, you idiot! Zecora allowed herself that single thought, before tossing the manic Trixie on top of her saddlebags. This was going to be quite a trek with all the things she was bringing, but hopefully with Trixie as an eyewitness, there would be better weight in this story when she presented it to the Princesses.

She quickly hopped out the door, beginning in a trot for Ponyville as the sound of gunfire again broke through the skies around her, as well as the sounds of hissing from those strange smoke-emitting canisters and the sounds of a pop from those blinding and deafening objects that they had. Before long, the gunfire had died down, but not without a few more pops and more gunfire.

The bomb has been defused!

So her home would get to live a while longer.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

That voice was becoming seriously infuriating now.

CT: 5 - T: 4

Trixie opened up her eyes as she became aware of the sound of hooves clopping on the ground.

"Wh-what?! Where am I?!" She began to flail wildly on Zecora's back.

"Rest for now, silly one. From the strange beings, we have run."

"The... the... the beings! I remember! They walk on two legs and they have knives! Knives! We have to warn Ponyville! They're going to eat them all! They were going to eat me!" She began sobbing.

"I know it was a most terrible sight, but now to Ponyville, we must take flight."

"Yes... yes..." Trixie cleared her throat. "Let us hope that we can convince the ponies of this threat. I wouldn't want to go down in history as the madmare who cried wolf. I fear the extent of our story may already seemed too deluded to begin with."

The sound of gunfire in the distance indicated that the bipeds were far from being finished with what they were doing. However, the resulting explosion in the distance, definitely from the castle at this distance, seemed to indicate that their influence wasn't entirely far-reaching. The voice in the sky could not reach them when they were this far away.

But it didn't stop Zecora from hearing it in her head.

Terrorists Win!

She could do with a good vacation right about now... with any luck, they would be able to find some peace and quiet in Ponyville. That was definitely something that both of them could look forward to.

END MATCH SCORE:

Counter-Terrorists: 5
Terrorists: 5

MATCH RESULT: TIE

MAP ROTATION:
Current Map: de_everfree
Next Map: de_ponyville

de_ponyville

CT: 0 - T: 0

The hapless citizens of Ponyville went about their day as usual. There was a minor commotion, however, over the topic of seeing something new around, most likely chalked up to pranksters, or perhaps the Cutie Mark Crusaders again. There had been a huge 'A' spray-painted on the outside of the Ponyville Town Hall, while there was a 'B' that stood starkly out of place on Twilight Sparkle's library treehouse.

The trio of fillies had denied any wrongdoing, however, so the origin of this strange new occurrence was left up to the ponies to contemplate. Attempts to remove the letters using magic or water had proved to do absolutely nothing, so Mayor Mare merely decided to order a heavy-duty cleanup crew from Canterlot to visit the town next week, hopefully providing the solution to this weird problem.

Much to their shock, blue-clad beings began stalking through down, running down side alleys and hopping on boxes, pretending to knife them in almost comical fashion. The ponies, however, simply began screaming and running in terror as no sooner had the blue-clad run into a group of tan-clad right outside Roseluck's flower stand, they had begun firing their guns at each other, destroying the stand and the precious flowers in the process.

Daisy had to break Roseluck out of her stupor, as her red-maned friend merely stared on in horror as the strange beings exchanged fire over the remains of her flower stand.

"Come on, Rose, we have to get out of here!"

"Wuh--buh--but... my... stand..." Roseluck meekly said.

"Just get out!"

Daisy pulled Roseluck down to an alley, where another group of ponies sat watching the spectacle unfurl. The blue-clad had engaged the tan-clad using strange black objects that made terrifying noises. The general consensus among those in the alley was that it was best to wait until Celestia and her royal guards could show up. If they did, that is.

Before long, the firefight had died down to a simmer as a blue-clad and a tan-clad were the only remaining. They had taken up shelter in various places, though from what the ponies could see, the blue-clad had taken to hiding in Sugarcube Corner, while the tan-clad proceeded into Ponyville Town Hall. Mayor Mare's shriek could be heard for blocks around.

The bomb has been planted!

The ponies gave each other continued looks of shock. A bomb? Where was the bomb? Even more important, just what was this voice? They could see the blue-clad quickly exiting the gingerbread house, making his way towards the Town Hall. He stood by the open door and seemingly played a game of hide-and-peek with the tan-clad, taking potshots at each other while the ponies close to the Town Hall could hear the sound of beeping growing faster and faster.

Mayor Mare had cleared out the area around Town Hall for quite a distance as the continued standoff between the two beings seemed to go nowhere. Soon, though, they noticed the blue-clad pull out his knife and begin running quickly away from the Town Hall, shortly followed by the tan-clad. The beeping stopped, and then produced a single three-tone beep.

And then the Town Hall exploded. Mayor Mare fainted.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 0 - T: 1

Twilight Sparkle had been reading in her library, minding her own business while reading the latest on magical theory straight from the University of Canterlot, until Spike burst in through the door, huffing and puffing, and trying to futilely gasp out a few words. He wildly gesticulated his arms in an incoherent manner, until Twilight forced him to settle down.

"Things! Two legs! Explosion! Town Hall!" he said, taking in huge gulps of air in between.

"Oh, dear! Has anypony been hurt?"

"No! There's... things! The two-legged things blew up the Town Hall!"

Twilight stood for a moment, her eyes barely moving. Somepony blew up town hall? "Really, Spike?" she nervously laughed. "That sounds a bit... outlandish."

"Twilight! Didn't you hear that loud voice saying 'the bomb has been planted'?"

"No, I didn't! Is that what that was? Sorry, Spike, I was reading a book, so I wasn't exactly paying attention..."

"It doesn't matter now, we have to get a letter to Princess Celestia before they--"

The two heard the sound of doors opening, and quickly ran downstairs. When they burst into the living room, several of the tan-clad beings were looking around the library.

"B. Area's clear."

Then one of them walked up to one of many pile of books around the ground floor of the library, leaning down, and dropped a small green box on the floor. The group of tan-clad then took up positions around the room, most likely to watch for possible intruders on the small parcel.

The bomb has been planted!

Twilight looked to Spike quickly. A bomb?! In the library?! They heard Owloysius fly down the stairs, landing in front of the bomb and trying to peck at it to no effect. Spike swiped at it with his claws: they also had no effect. Then Twilight tried using her magic: still no effect! So she used her hooves to try to push or knock over the bomb: unsurprisingly, no effect.

"Uh, Twilight? What do we do?!" Spike shouted.

"I--I don't know! Quickly, just grab a scroll and quill and write up a letter to--"

The sound of gunfire erupted as the first of the counter-terrorists ran into the room. He managed to down one of the terrorists sitting in the corner, leaving only two left to defend the bomb. The sound of more gunfire coming from outside indicated that the other two terrorists had run into the blue-clad somewhere in Ponyville. Screaming ponies could be barely heard over the din of the bullets flying through the air.

Unfortunately, much like the incident with Town Hall, the prolonged gunfight prevented the blue-clad from being able to disable the bomb. Twilight realized that if the bomb was beeping faster, that was probably a good idea to grab everything and get out as soon as possible. Her assumptions were confirmed as the two tan-clad quickly changed to knives and ran out the door behind her.

They had run a suitable distance from the treehouse before the tan-clad pulled out their weapons again, firing over a group of huddling ponies in an alley at an awaiting blue-clad on the other side. The kill was quick, but left the ponies mentally scarred over seeing the biped die.

That, of course, and the following subsequent explosion as Twilight watched her precious archive of books go up in flames. The smoke rising into the air was tantamount to the worst crime or pain imaginable to the young lavender unicorn.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 0 - T: 2

Zecora had immediately expected the worst when she heard the sounds of explosions coming from Ponyville. Did more of those strange beings enter Ponyville now, too, of all places? She quickly galloped out of the Everfree alongside Trixie. The sight that befell their eyes was more than anything they could have imagined: the beings were freely running through the streets of Ponyville, engaging each other at first sight!

The ponies of the town, at least those who were completely hapless to these new arrivals, were in a mixture between cowering in places where they hoped the beings would not find them, while others were running through the streets screaming at the top of their lungs. Zecora could notice several plumes of smoke around various parts of town. The situation was beyond bad.

"Quickly, Zecora!" Trixie said. "We must find Twilight! You have told me that she is the Princess's student, yes? Then perhaps she can help!" They nodded at each other and began running for the treehouse.

"B. Need backup!" One of the blue-clad seemingly ran through Zecora, falling back as the group of tan-clad aimed their weapons down the streets at the two ponies as a few of them entered the treehouse. They quickly shielded themselves with their hooves, hoping that their projectiles wouldn't hit them, and preparing for eventual death...

...only to have it never arrive. Trixie quickly opened her eyes to see a bullet zing through her body as if it wasn't even there. She was shocked! So it was clear that the weapons these beings used were to only be used against each other. It had no effect on ponies!

"Look! They can't hurt us!" Trixie said. Zecora nearly had to do a double-take when she saw another round fly through Trixie's head. That shot would have most definitely have been fatal. So the extent of their magic only applied to a great voice in the sky that could only be heard within a specific radius, and on top of that, their rounds were only capable of hurting each other? Did the beings treat this as if it were some sort of game? The thought of such brutal acts being enjoyed as a pastime sent chills down Zecora's spine.

"Trixie, let us not tarry long! To Twilight, before they plant the bomb!" she said.

The bomb has been planted!

Curses! She'd thought the old Zebrican tales about being jinxed were just a hoax! Nonetheless, they needed to find Twilight, and quickly! A quick stare through the window only revealed nothing but more of the tan-clad sitting in the corners of the library again, and it was evident that the purple unicorn was not present, else she would have certainly attempted to do something to these intruders.

"Zecora? Where is Twilight? Where is she?!" Trixie shouted.

"I do not know to where she has fled! Now let us make haste, before we are dead!" They quickly ran away from the treehouse, passing several alleys with cowering ponies and headed straight for Town Hall. If Twilight would be anywhere in the town, she would most certainly be with Mayor Mare planning to make some order out of this madness.

They quickly found a group of ponies in front of the Town Hall, all circled around something... or somepony.

"Mayor Mare!" they heard Twilight shout. "Wake up! Oh, where's Spike with that water?!"

There was the sound of some groaning as Mayor Mare came to her senses. "Oh... what...?" Her eyes quickly widened as she recalled what had happened just mere moments before. "My Town Hall!" She looked up at the multi-floored building. "Oh, thank Celestia, it's... it's okay..."

"Twilight Sparkle!" Trixie shouted. Twilight had a look of confusion until she saw that Trixie was with Zecora. "You must help the ponies! We have to send word to Canterlot about this!"

"I know, but Mayor Mare here fainted, and I thought she needed medical attention!"

"Make way, make way, nurse coming through!" Nurse Redheart quickly pushed through the crowd of ponies, only to breath a sigh of relief when she saw Mayor Mare. "Oh, thank goodness. We've had a huge influx of patients recently, all delirious and out of their mind! What in Equestria has been going on out here?!"

Trixie decided to fill them in. "It's those things! We saw them in the Everfree only hours ago! They were doing the same thing there, as well!"

"Doing what sorts of things?" Twilight asked. The sounds of gunfire could be heard in the background, but abruptly stopped. The ponies paid it no heed, but Trixie and Zecora already knew that if gunfire stopped and no victor was announced, that could only mean...

"They were doing--"

An explosion rocked the background as another huge plume of smoke rose into the air. Twilight knew what had just happened, and nearly turned into a sobbing mess, almost going insane, but was calmed with the help of Spike, who had returned dragging a bucket of water. Twilight immediately returned to her senses after being drenched, but it didn't help much.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 0 - T: 3

"Look! Look, Bonbon! I knew it! I knew it! HUMANS!" Lyra whispered loudly. The pair of ponies sat at the window of their second story bedroom, observing the humans as they fought tooth-and-nail against each other in the town streets.

"Can't you be serious about this, Lyra?" Bonbon hissed. "They're destroying the town!"

"I know, I know, but it's just so... so exciting to actually be able to see a human! I want to touch their hands!" Lyra began to turn for the door, her mind practically filled to the brim with imaginative glee.

"Lyra, no!" Bonbon forcefully dragged Lyra as the aquamarine unicorn attempted to bolt for the stairs. "You're staying here with me! We are not going out there until Celestia tells me herself that this problem has been dealt with! You've heard the explosions! And those things that they're holding, those are just horrible!"

"I know, aren't those things so amazing? They use their hands to operate them!" Lyra exclaimed, completely ignoring Bonbon's warnings.

Bonbon sighed. "Lyra.... please, just promise me that you'll stay... okay?" She stared deeply into Lyra's eyes, pleading for her to remain with her special somepony. The cracking sound of gunfire and the shrill wails of ponies screaming continued uninterrupted in the background.

The bomb has been planted!

"You hear that, Bonbon? They have bombs! Bombs! Made by humans!"

"Lyra! Please, I don't want to lose my special somepony to something as... as stupid as this!"

Lyra's mad smile merely faded to a soft one, and she closed her eyes, nodding her head. "Okay... I'll... I'll stay with you, Bonbon. I won't leave my special somepony alone..." She snuggled up against her, and they both turned their heads to watch the carnage outside unfold like spectators in this insane game of bullets and death.

They had heard the shots being traded before, but Lyra nearly squealed with glee when she noticed one of the blue-clad emerge directly in front of the home. "Look! Look, Bonbon! It's a--!"

"A human!" Bonbon whined. "Yes, I know already! Now get down, before he--she--it sees us!" She hid her head beneath the windowsill, but Lyra wasn't so keen to do the same, her face frozen in ecstasy. Bonbon rolled her eyes when she noticed a unattended drop of drool fall out of the smiling unicorn's mouth. "Lyra, get down!"

"Huh? Oh, yeah!" Lyra quickly huddled down next to her. "Isn't this so exciting?" She stared at Bonbon, expectant for an answer, as gunfire loudly erupted just outside their window. "It's so intense, like those Daring Do books!"

They could hear the sound of the projectiles pinging off of metal, as they heard several screams of humans dying. "This isn't funny, Lyra! This is one hundred percent serious! Those humans could possibly harm ponies! Harm us!" A rogue bullet smashed through their window. "See?!"

Bonbon looked on in confusion as Lyra quickly jumped across the bed, landing squarely on top of the nightstand, looking into the wall where the bullet had impacted. "Whoa... a real human... uh, object... but it's so awesome..."

"Lyra! Get down!" The bullets were haphazardly flying through the streets now. Screams of several ponies nearby alerted Bonbon to their precarious situation; their screams had been much too loud, and that meant that they were close. Too close. "Lyra! Please!"

"Okay, okay!" Lyra dived off the nightstand and slided up next to Bonbon. "Isn't this day amazing?!"

The gunfire quickly stopped as the voice in the sky declared a victor for all ponies to hear.

The bomb has been defused!

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 1 - T: 3

Rarity had heard the beginning of the panic when a herd of ponies had zoomed by Carousel Boutique. Curious, she wandered outside, only to hear terrible crackling noises like when a precious gem was broken in half, and then, much to her horror, an explosion! Her immediate reaction was to immediate fortify herself within her shop, and deter all intruders from ever attempting to enter, but she knew her friends were in danger. She had to find them!

She quickly made for the bridge nearby, until she saw a group of five bipedal beings materialize out of thin air.

"I--! Uh... oh, dear... what is this?" The five were merely standing around, completely ignoring the gaze of the white unicorn. "Um... excuse me? What are you doing?"

Their hooves, or whatever a pony could call those appendages, seemingly shifted as they were replaced with objects that fit to their digits. She had a curious idea that they were most likely weapons, but that wasn't what interested her: what interested her was how they were dressed. She'd never seen another sentient race wear clothing like these strangers, and the way they wore them was as if they had form and function bred into one. The deep blue of their dress, covered with a thick matte black padding, most likely for protection, she assumed.

"Hello, darlings?" she repeated. "Can you hear me?" The masked and helmeted beings ignored her again. "Excuse me! Over here!"

"Lock and load." Some of the group pulled out knives, while others pulled out small cylindrical objects, unknown to Rarity. They quickly bounded over the bridge and headed into town proper, leaving Rarity to ponder just what exactly these things were.

She was broken out of her thoughts, however, as the gunfire again erupted, this time sounding extremely close to Town Hall. It came back to her: her friends! She had to find her friends! They would need her help! With a new resolve, she charged over the bridge, heading for the Town Hall, only to see a purple hoof grab her body and pull her out of the street.

"Twilight?" she whispered. "What's going--"

Twilight put a hoof over her mouth. "Those beings are here to destroy Ponyville!"

"Actually..." Rarity turned and gave a frown at seeing Trixie. The showpony ignored her and continued. "...they are here to enact some sort of... invasion, you could put it. Zecora and I have seen them before, in similar numbers, in the Everfree Forest."

"So? What do they want? Why are they here?" Rarity asked.

"The objective of the blue ones is to stop the tan ones from either killing them all off, or blowing up one of two key locations in the area. It would appear that the locations in this case just so happened to be Twilight Sparkle's library... and the Ponyville Town Hall."

"That's awful! I... I heard the explosions earlier, but I could tell from a distance that Town Hall was fine..."

"The magic they bring, I have never seen," Zecora said.

"Yes," Trixie said. "Zecora is correct. Whatever these strange new things are, they have the ability to appear out of nowhere every single time, after one of the prior conditions explained have been met. They seem to go on about this endlessly, with a very loud and annoying voice in the sky broadcasting their main actions, it would seem."

"Can't we stop them?"

Twilight shook her head. "We can't. Zecora and Trixie say that we can't do anything to them, or their bomb. Our hooves just go straight through them!"

"Indeed," Trixie nodded. "I had the firsthoof experience of having those strange projectiles of their fly straight through me, but I was left completely unharmed. It is unlike any magic I've ever seen before."

"But... Twilight!" Rarity said, looking to Spike. "Can't you send a letter to Celestia?"

The bomb has been planted!

"As expected of these strange tan beings and their strange new game, they have planted a bomb, one the blue ones must tame," Zecora said. The occasional bouts of small explosions, no doubt from the strange hand objects that they threw, was present, before more gunfire erupted again.

"Anyway," Twilight said. "I can't send a letter to Celestia! I can't use my magic, either, it's like they... they can stop ponies from using magic!"

"And stop pegasi from flying!" shouted one from the back of the group. "It's like I completely forgot how to use my wings!"

"Oh... dear Celestia..." Rarity muttered, facehoofing. "So... what do we do Twilight?"

"We must wait until this madness ends," Trixie said.

"How so?"

"They only go about doing this for ten times, it seems," she shrugged. "We noticed that after the sounds stopped coming from the Everfree. They must have made their way here... but how they did so before we even arrived is beyond the Great and Magnificent Trixie."

"I know the answer to that one," Rarity said. "They have the power to teleport!"

"So they can do some extremely powerful magic," Twilight thoughtfully said. The gunfire had stopped, but they could hear the chatter from the beings in the distance, no doubt reporting in on their searches or otherwise commenting on the lack of enemy presence. "I'll have to research this... when it's safe, of course."

The bomb has been defused!

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 2 - T: 3

Just who... or what were these things? Derpy had been hiding behind the counter in the lobby of the Ponyville Post Office, terrified as these strange tan beings that appeared right in front of her! At first, they seemed harmless, just standing there as if she didn't exist, but not a single moment longer than they had began for the door, one of them turned around and fired its weapon at her box of muffins!

Oh, the horror of that moment. Her sweet, delicious muffins had been all but obliterated in a single moment, forever lost to the dirty ground. She could still see the bits and parts of the box and its contents strewn across the floor in front of her eyes.

But... she couldn't stay here. She had to find help! Surely, the news must be relaying to Canterlot right now, but they would need a firsthoof account in order to believe anything! She looked at herself at a large vertical mirror that lay across from her: she was dirty, covered with minor bruises in her scuffle to dodge the being's fire, and her eyes were bloodshot. That would do. She had to avenge her muffins!

Poking her head over the table to make sure they weren't there, she quickly hopped across the counter, opening her wings and preparing to fly. She could make it to Canterlot in good time as a mailpony, so she could... she tried to flap her wings, but they didn't flap... it was like she was trying to randomly flail them. That was not how flying worked.

She tried again. Same results. Damn those strange beings! Did they somehow have the means to stop magic from working? Was that why Celestia's royal guards had not shown up in a timely fashion? She could understand how Twilight Sparkle from down at the library wouldn't be able to notify Celestia if magic was completely nullified. Derpy would have to deliver the message herself... how fitting for a mailpony.

The bomb has been planted!

She'd heard that said several times before. Most likely, it had something to do with the strange green box the tan beings kept protecting, as if it were some sort of sacred treasure of theirs. If they kept blowing things up in Ponyville, it would only be a matter of time until there was nothing left! Bolting out the door, she began to proceed up to Canterlot by hoof, running through the center of town and passing by the beings as they were fighting each other.

Her pace quickened as she reminded herself that everypony's lives hinged on her being able to deliver the message to Canterlot. She was thankful that the sun was still high in the sky: traveling during nighttime could be quite hazardous, especially to a pony who needed to get somewhere quickly and couldn't be bothered with watching her hooves.

The sound was terrible. It was so alien, so unfamiliar to everypony's ears, sharp and ringing. That sound permeated Ponyville for as long as the beings--aliens--whatever they were had been here, and it meant that they were shooting each other. They could end up hurting a pony, and that couldn't be allowed. She had to warn the Princesses!

The trek, however, was a long and grueling one, going up the mountain in a spiraling road. It would take her the better part of an entire day just to make the trek, but if she made good time, she could be there as early as sundown, given her pegasi endurance. She just had to hope that Ponyville wouldn't already be dust and ashes by the time she arrived.

Her focus shifted more and more towards her journey, however, as the thoughts of the town and the pillars of smoke that arose from it was quickly pushed out of her mind. Her sentimentality would only serve to hinder her in this instance, and she could not risk wanting to go back to help as many other ponies as she could. She needed to do this.

The bomb has been defused!

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 3 - T: 3

The kitchen at Sugarcube Corner was a complete mess. Not by the mayhem that had been going on, though; no, Pinkie Pie had not one, not two, but ten new guests in town, and she had to make a really big party for them! They seemed to like going to Twilight's library or the Town Hall, so she decided to cook up one of the biggest parties she'd had yet!

If only they could just keep that racket going on outside just down a little bit more, then she could actually concentrate on making the pies, cakes, and cupcakes she needed for this party! Quickly stirring the batter into the molds, she quickly grabbed the tray and pushed it into the oven.

Her party cannon sat in the corner of the room, locked, loaded, and ready to deliver unfiltered party goodness to any unsuspecting arrival in town. It was only by chance that her Pinkie Sense only went absolutely haywire that it nearly left her in a vegetable state, so she couldn't appear immediately to greet the new arrivals, though it did amuse her that they seemed to have strange objects that worked a lot like her party cannon did. Well, she could only hear them, she'd been too busy in the kitchen to do anything else.

"Pinkie? Pinkie!" Mr. Cake poked his head in through the door. "What are you doing here? Don't you realize Ponyville's being attacked?"

Okay, that was new...

"Uh... really?" She said, her normally peppy responses ill-equipped with this new turn of events. "Wh--where's everypony at?"

"They're all hiding around the town! I managed to speak with Mayor Mare, and she said that the strange new beings seemed to be going after Town Hall or the library!"

"What about Twilight? My friends? Have you seen them?" She quickly trotted up to Mr. Cake with pleading eyes.

He nodded. "Yes, they're safe. They're hiding in some alleys near by Town Hall with Mayor Mare. I've been told that the strange new beings have some sort of ability to negate magic! Can you believe that? Negate magic! Pegasi can't fly and unicorns can't use their magic, and Twilight can't seem to send her letters to the Princess! We're stuck here!"

Mr. Cake turned his head towards the back door of the kitchen, and then his face nearly twisted in shock. Pinkie turned to see a group of the blue-clad beings running towards them, passing through the kitchen and running out the front door of Sugarcube Corner. The screams had subsided by this point as the ponies realized that the beings were only out for each other's blood... though that did not calm them down much.

"Well, I guess they don't want to hurt ponies?" Pinkie nervously laughed.

They continued looking on at one of the blue-clad who had returned to the lobby, and was now looking out through the window. He fired his weapon several times, only to receive a burst returned to him, his helmet making a loud clanking noise as a headshot found its mark. The two looked on in horror as his body crumpled to the floor.

"Upstairs!" Mr. Cake shouted. "Get upstairs, Pinkie!" He grabbed a nearby frying pan and brought it upstairs with him, just in case, even though Trixie had already explained to the group that they couldn't hurt the beings... but he had to try. Nobody would hurt his loved ones on his watch.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 3 - T: 4

Fluttershy had been in the park, lounging with her songbirds until the carnage happened. Her birds scattered to the winds, fleeing for parts unknown, and she was left alone on the bench, absolutely dreading what had happened in town. Her thoughts were only further amplified as she heard the screams of ponies, and seeing several of them run down the park lane.

"Fluttershy!" said Colgate, nearly skidding to a halt as she stopped by her. "What are you doing here? You have to find somewhere to hide!"

Fluttershy noticed that Snowflake was within the group. "Um... c-can't he protect us?" she asked.

Colgate nodded. "That's why we're with him! Snowflake received an honorable discharge from the royal guard before coming to Ponyville, so he still has his armor, and some of the other stallions and mares are heading along with him to see if we can bring back anything to help!" She noticed that Cheerilee, Cloudchaser, Flitter, and Thunderlane were among the group.

"Come on!" Thunderlane said. "We don't have all day! Pony lives are at stake here!"

"Oh, dear, I hope nothing bad has happened to the children... if only today wasn't a weekend!" Cheerilee groaned. "I hope they're all safe."

"It's our job to keep them safe, Cheerilee!" Thunderlane responded. "Come with us, Fluttershy!"

The bomb has been planted!

"There it is again!" Flitter said. "We have to hurry!"

"Yeah!" Snowflake said, but this time with more seriousness and less gusto.

"Wh-what about Twilight? Or the other ponies?" Fluttershy nervously asked. "Are they safe?"

"Yes, they're with Mayor Mare, but they can't really do anything! But there are fires all over the town from stoves left unattended by ponies! We have to put them out before they burn Ponyville to the ground!" Colgate said.

"But... the bomb?" Flitter said.

"Oh, right, you and Cloudchaser were working at the clouds when this all started. Mayor Mare said that we can't actually touch them or hurt them or the bomb, and the same vice-versa. It's like they're... ghosts, or something. So all we can do is help put out the other fires. For some really weird reason, anything they blow up just turns back to normal afterwards, so we can just leave the strange things to do... whatever it is they're doing."

"Will they leave soon?" Cloudchaser asked.

Colgate nodded, waving her hoof in the air. "Yeah, they'll leave eventually. Zecora said something about them only doing this ten times, and then they just disappear. It's really weird."

"So... this is all some sort of prank? A really shocking prank?" Cheerilee said.

Colgate sighed. "Yes. Zecora said they'll go away on their own, and it seems Twilight Sparkle agrees with her. Now come on, let's put out those fires before every roof in Ponyville is burning!" They quickly ran off as Fluttershy galloped behind them, trying to make sense of Colgate's explanation.

When they got to Snowflake's home, they grabbed anything and everything that could hold large amounts of water, and it seemed that Snowflake had several buckets laying around his home. Snowflake himself had agreed with Mayor Mare to help keep the populace calm and direct them to the outskirts of town away from all the chaos.

"Let's get to the river! Quickly now!" Cheerilee said.

The ground rocked again as the Town Hall's roof exploded into a million pieces. They had to hide under the shadow of a tree as the bits of cloth and roof tiling scattered in their direction.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 3 - T: 5

"Quickly! Douse the fire!" Daisy and Rose quickly gathered buckets of water from the Ponyville well, handing them down a line as they quickly tried to put out a fire that had erupted right outside of the abode of Lyra and Bonbon. Following Mayor Mare's no-harm-from-humans declaration, it was quickly decided that preserving the town was far more important. A greater number of ponies had been redirected to Sugarcube Corner because Pinkie had apparently left her tray of cupcakes unattended in the oven, producing a catastrophic firestorm that pegasi were now struggling to put out with rainclouds.

"Ugh, I hate those beings. I know they can't hurt ponies, but look at all the damage they caused..." Daisy said.

"Human!" Lyra repeated. "They're humans!"

"Whatever!" Roseluck shouted. "Those humans destroyed my flower stand!"

"It's just some flowers," Lyra said backhandedly. "You can just grow them again. But these guys, the humans, who knows how long they'll be here?"

"They've been here long enough!"

The argument erupted into pointed shouts as Mayor Mare quickly stepped in on the scene, having gotten over her shock of seeing Town Hall explode. Twilight, Trixie, Zecora, and Rarity followed behind her.

"Please, please, ponies! Now is not the time to argue! We must focus on saving the town first! Roseluck, I know what happened to your stand. We'll talk to some ponies around town about getting a new one for you, and perhaps ask Applejack about helping you get new seeds for your flowers."

"I... thank you, Mayor."

"Good. Then let us quickly put out these fires before all of Ponyville goes up in smoke!" Bonbon said.

There was some commotion as the group heard other ponies shouting from down the street.

"Look out! Here they come again!"

"Ignore them! Put out the fire!"

"Water! I need more water here!"

"Oh, Celestia..." Mayor Mare said. "This is a disaster..."

"Lyra! Water!" Bonbon shouted.

"Huh? Oh, right!" Lyra had again fallen into a staring smile as she saw a whole bunch of the blue-clad run past her, admiring their forms, their clothing, their armor, their weapons, and... well, just about everything about them, really. Then they heard the sound of footsteps and out appeared the tan-clad just down the street. Lyra liked everything about them, too, but quickly turned away to give a bucket swirling with water to Bonbon, before turning back to watch the fight unfold.

The skies thundered as the first shot came out of a green weapon held by one of the blue-clad, tearing immediately through a tan-clad and throwing his limp body to the floor. Then the actual fight began in earnest, as the two sides quickly ran to corners and objects to hide behind, exchanging shots with each other as the ponies tried their best to continue their firefighting efforts in the street.

"Look out! They're going into the Town Hall again!" Attention was drawn to a tan-clad entering a building, retreating from the onslaught from the blue-clad. His plan was not to succeed, however, as a blue-clad quickly rounded the corner from Town Hall from the other direction, carrying two of the smaller handheld L-shaped objects, and walked inside behind him. The sound of gunfire could be heard, but the fight was not to be, as it seemed the tan-clad seemed to hold the advantage with a really loud pipe-shaped weapon that made a huge boom.

The bomb has been planted!

The rest of the blue-clad ran down the street now towards the Town Hall entrance, passing by the bodies of the now-dead tan-clad they had engaged with. Numbering only three now, the blue-clad walked up to the entrance, tossing in several of their hand objects into the lobby, before storming inside. The fight was short-lived as a quick burst of fire without a declared victor indicated to all that the final tan-clad had died.

Before long, the small bush fire had been put out, and Mayor Mare had redirected the rest of the pony task force to putting out the Sugarcube Corner firestorm, and the blue-clad had achieved their mission.

The bomb has been defused!

"Four to five!" Lyra shouted. "I was keeping track of it! Four to five!"

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 4 - T: 5

Twilight, Rarity, Spike and Mayor Mare stood before a single map in Carousel Boutique, now fixed to be a temporary command room. They were joined shortly by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, both of which had been off fighting against the now-rampant fires across the town. Sugarcube Corner had been thankfully preserved, since it appeared that only the aesthetic parts on the outside and the roof had caught fire.

Fluttershy had to return to her home momentarily to calm down her animals, assuring Angel that she would be returning after they'd saved the town.

"Just where is Rainbow Dash? And Applejack, for that matter?" Twilight said.

"Dash had to help with Applejack on her farm, darling. It's a weekend, so that means that they're not selling apples today, but actually preparing for the upcoming harvest."

"Do they even know about what's happening here?"

"It's not unwise to say they don't, but their problem lies with protecting the farm and Granny Smith," Mayor Mare said. "They can't just leave the farm attended. Even Big Macintosh would have trouble trying to save Sweet Apple Acres if the entire crop caught fire or those beings headed their way intending to make trouble."

"The beings can only temporarily destroy buildings, Mayor," Twilight pointed out. "The resulting chaos was because ponies left their stoves and other devices unattended, and that was what caused the fires. Now that we know that they're incapable of hurting us, we can ignore them and stay away from the marked buildings so they can finish up... whatever it is they're doing, and then leave."

"I agree," Rarity said. "The best we can do now is to actually ignore them. Let everypony go about their day, and perhaps keep breakable objects out of reach of the humans, as Lyra called them."

They'd seen the supposedly last teleportation of the strange beings, or at least the blue-clad ones, right outside the Boutique. Several eyewitness accounts from across town had indicated that the tan-clad ones appeared within the Post Office, before both sides marched out to fight on the field of battle.

"Well, Trixie, Zecora," Twilight said. "You two have had the most exposure to these humans. What do you think they'll do next?"

"They seem to be moving all over the place attempting to cause chaos," Trixie said. "Where they will strike next, Trixie does not know. Their motives seem to be entirely random, aside from destroying very important looking buildings and shooting at each other."

Snowflake had taken to maintaining the order in the center of Ponyville, just a stone's throw away from Town Hall, while Colgate, Cloudchaser, and Flitter had taken to leading the de-facto Ponyville Fire Brigade in putting out as many fires as possible. By this time, however, most of the carnage had died down, and most ponies simply waited in their homes for the situation to blow over.

"Can... can you send a letter to the Princess, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.

Twilight sighed. "No, and it still won't work. The only thing I hear about getting help is that Derpy left on hoof to contact Canterlot for assistance." That produced a murmur among the ponies within the room.

"Oh, my. It's such a long distance to Canterlot from Ponyville..." Fluttershy said. "Especially on hoof."

"They only stayed in the forest till dawn, so it won't be long until these humans are gone," Zecora noted.

"Yes, then we'd have to figure out where they would show up next," Twilight mused. "They came from the Everfree to here, so I'd assume they'd probably visit somewhere else with important things... like Cloudsdale, or Canterlot. Usually they seem to be within range, unless I'm wrong... which I usually am not."

"Well, what do we do now?" Spike asked. "No magic, no flying, no letters... seems like we're in a bad place here."

"I still haven't thrown them a party yet!" Pinkie shouted. "I even had my party cannon all ready to go until it got damaged by the fire... now the only thing it shoots out is icky ash and smoke!"

"Okay... so the only thing we can do is wait... let's head on over to Sweet Apple Acres and see if they need any help." Twilight and the group began for the door, leaving Trixie, Zecora, and Mayor Mare with the map. "Mayor Mare, I hope you can take over from here." A nod from the Mayor, and then they were off.

The last cracks of gunfire from the library had slowed to a single pop, and eventually, silence, as the final and decisive round had been won. In the street before the treehouse, the bodies of blue-clad and tan-clad lay across the dirt, their weapons strewn across the field. The lone human victor, a single tan-clad took this moment of glory and spent it running between the bodies and firing randomly at them.

The match finally ended, and the streets of Ponyville returned to peace once more.

Terrorists Win!

END MATCH SCORE:

Counter-Terrorists: 4
Terrorists: 6

MATCH RESULT: Terrorists Win!

MAP ROTATION:
Current Map: de_ponyville
Next Map: de_apple

de_apple

CT: 0 - T: 0

"Big Mac, hurry up with those carts already, will ya?" Rainbow Dash whined. "Applejack's been waiting for new ones for the longest time now! I thought you Apples were all serious about this applebucking business."

"Eeyup, we are," Big Mac strained, pushing in the last of the apple carts into the barn before hitching another train of empty ones on himself. "But it's mighty hard to just work with just the few of us. It's good to have some help on the farm every now and then."

"Don't sweat it, big guy," Dash said, floating alongside him. "But I think... hey, when did that show up?" Dash flew up to the barn and examined the orange stenciled 'A' in a circle marked on it. "I don't remember this being here. Do you?"

"Eenope." Big Macintosh paid it no mind as he hauled the carts full of apples into the barn, carefully lining them up to ensure minimal effort would be required when the time came to retrieve them for the market stalls or to make delicious foods from them.

"Huh. Maybe the fillies are up to something again. I don't know," Dash shrugged. "Got those new carts hooked up yet?"

There was the sound of metal clanking, and then the high-pitched squeal of moving wooden wheels. "Eeyup."

The sound of thundering hooves broke through the dirt path leading through the orchard up to the red-painted barn and house, as Twilight and the others quickly hurried to bring their warning to the Apple family before disaster struck them.

"Dash!" Twilight shouted. "Big Mac! Are you okay?" They all quickly stopped before the confused pair of ponies, unsure as to what had put Twilight in such a crazed state. "You're not hurt, are you? Where's Applejack? You've seen her around, haven't you?!"

"Whoa, whoa, Twi, just calm down a minute," Dash said, casually floating over to her. "You're a total mess right now, you know that? I was just helping Big Mac and AJ here with the farm, bring in the apple harvest, you know? There's nothing bad going on here, but we've been hearing some strange stuff coming from Ponyville. Did you do something crazy with your magic again?"

Twilight rapidly shook her head. "No, it's nothing with magic, sort of harmless, except to buildings, but--oh! You need to move all the carts out as soon as possible!"

"Twilight! Look!" Rarity said, pointing her hoof at the stencil. "The letters!"

"Oh, Celestia, no!" Twilight shouted. "Big Mac, Dash, we need to move the carts out of here now!"

"Huh? What's going on?" Dash said, rubbing her head. "Don't tell me that you're all scared of a giant orange letter now?"

"No time to explain, have to move the carts!" was the reply, as Twilight quickly used her magic to move the carts out of barn, placing them down near a line of trees a distance away from the bomb site. The carts were still strangely in formation, as Twilight's attentiveness to organization still pulled through even when she was manic. Even more stranger was the fact that their magic was still entirely intact. The nullification field seemed to only come into play when the rounds had proceeded further enough, Twilight noticed.

"Dash!" Pinkie said, hopping up to her. "You should have seen it earlier in Ponyville! There were these strange two-legged guys, and they came into town and tried to blow things up, but nopony got hurt, so I thought they were all fine, but then I was making cupcakes, and then I completely forgot about them when Mr. Cake told me to hide upstairs when they came into Sugarcube Corner, so it ended up lighting the roof on fire, and, wow, was that an amazing fire! It took so many buckets of water before we actually put it out, but the cupcakes were all burnt, so the party I wanted to have was totally ruined, and I--"

"Pinkie!" Rarity interrupted. "Not now!" She used her magic and pulled out a number of apple-filled buckets, leaving them next to the carts as Twilight told Fluttershy to search through Sweet Apple Acres for any sign of Applejack.

"Whoa, whoa, do you realize how much work it took to move those in there?" Dash said. "Sheesh, you know, now that I think about it, having all that unicorn magic to help would wrap this thing up a lot faster than just the three of us, you--"

"Twilight, are there any signs of those humans?" Rarity said, peeking around a corner of the barn. "It would appear that they haven't shown up yet, but perhaps they must be at the alternate location..."

"Well..." Twilight thought. "...the barn's practically the most important place on the farm! Where else could it be?"

There were loud and intermittent popping sounds coming from the orchard, in the more heavily dense area of apple trees towards Ponyville... and where the Cutie Mark Crusaders kept their clubhouse.

"Uh... Big Mac? Isn't that where Applebloom and her friends were playing at?" Dash asked.

"Eeyup!" Big Mac said, breaking into a full-speed gallop for the clubhouse.

"No, wait! Big Mac!" Twilight shouted, but was ignored as Dash quickly followed suit, taking to the skies as she traveled parallel to the red stallion's direction of travel. "Oh, this is just so... argh!" she said, voicing her frustration into the air. "Quickly, girls, follow them!"

Before long, the small firefight in the orchard had died down, as was now becoming obvious for the humans' early round antics, before things began to get serious, and the more powerful weapons and useful equipment began to come into play.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 1 - T: 0

"Hey, move it! I'm trying to see!" Scootaloo said, pushing Sweetie Belle away from the window in an attempt to get a better look.

"What's goin' on?" Applebloom asked. "There's a lot of loud noises comin' from outside, and--"

"Shh!" the other two Crusaders responded.

"I think... they're playing some sort of game!" Sweetie Belle said.

"What kind of game?" Applebloom said, sneaking over to the other window to get a look. "I don't think they're--" A pinging noise resounded throughout the tiny clubhouse as a bullet smashed through the window, pelting Applebloom with glass pieces. "Agh! Girls, get back!"

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle quickly jumped back from the window, checking up on Applebloom to make sure she hadn't been hurt: she wasn't, but the glass window was now broken, and would require replacing. It had been fortunate that she hadn't been cut by the pieces.

"Wh--what do we do?" Scootaloo asked. "They're all out there... do you think Applejack and Rainbow Dash noticed?"

"Aw, I hope so," Applebloom said. "If they're still out there... just what are those things, anyway?"

There was the sound of rapid beeps as they heard something hit the ground outside.

The bomb has been planted!

"What?" Sweetie said, exchanging looks of shock with her friends. "Bomb? A bomb?! They're--they're going to blow up our clubhouse!" She quickly moved up to the mirror and noticed the beings running off in various directions, holding their strange noise-making devices.

"I'm gonna hold up here." The tan-clad had successfully driven off a small group of blue-clad as they moved to positions behind various trees to protect the explosive package.

"Those meanies!" Sweetie Belle said. "They're protecting that weird bomb thingy! We need to get rid of it!" She tried to focus her magic on trying to levitate the small green block, but it seemed to have no effect on it. "Aw, horsefeathers..."

"We can't go out there, anyway!" Scootaloo asked. "It's not like we can fight them. We're just fillies, Sweetie Belle! We should just wait and let Rainbow Dash come and save us!"

"Yeah! And my sister will come and together, they'll send those creatures packin', and then everybody'll be happy!" Applebloom happily smiled.

"The bomb's at B--whoa, need backup!" came a voice from outside, followed by more gunfire.

"You mean there's more of those things?" Scootaloo said, pulling her Crusader cape over her back.

"Maybe those ones aren't meanies," Applebloom said. "Maybe they're here to stop the actual meanies from using the bomb?"

"It doesn't matter! We need to find a way out of here! Okay, seriously, next time, we need a Cutie Mark Crusaders escape hatch for our clubhouse," Scootaloo said, looking around the clubhouse for possible escape hatch hiding spots.

"Hey... do you hear that?" Sweetie Belle said. There was nothing, save for the quickening beeps of the bomb. "I think they're all gone!"

"So... what do we do then?" Applebloom kicked away some pieces of glass near her hooves.

"Let's try to find Applejack and Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo said, hopping towards the door.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! I don't see any more of them. Maybe we can make a run for the farm!"

"Better than waiting for that bomb!" Scootaloo slowly cracked the door open a bit, her eyes scanning the grassy clearing and surrounding apple trees. There were a number of bodies strewn about, weapons on the ground, with small blotches of their blood in small pools across the calm clearing.

"Are they all gone?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo opened the door a bit further, walking out on to the balcony that sat outside the small raised treehouse. "Oh, wait, there's one!" She stared down at the base of the tree, where a blue-clad crouched over the bomb, staring at it.

"Who cares, let's get out of here before the bomb blows up!" Sweetie Belle said, running down the stairs. Applebloom and Scootaloo quickly followed suit, as they hit the ground and bolted for the trees.

The bomb has been defused!

"Huh?" They all turned around to see the blue-clad stand up, taking out his small rapid-firing weapon, and shooting into the base of the tree. They could see chips of wood and bark fly off of it as the human claimed his dominance over this early second round of defusal.

"Applebloom!" The Crusaders turned to see Applejack standing off at a distance, with a nearby Fluttershy cowering behind a tree. "Get over here!"

"AJ!" Dash burst through the trees, floating momentarily before her wings sputtered out and she fell to the ground. "What in the hay just happened?" she said, trying to will her wings to move, but receiving no response. "I... I can't fly!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight huffed, quickly catching up as she came in hot on the heels of Big Macintosh, who charged for the blue-clad. "No, wait! Big Mac--" The red workpony slammed his head into the tree as his charge went through the blue-clad and sent him into an impromptu greeting with the treehouse's sturdy support at full force. "...ouch. That's what I was trying to tell you! We can't hurt them! And their magic nullification field just kicked into effect!"

Counter-Terrorists Win!

"And there's that voice in the sky again!" Rarity said, casually walking up behind them. "It would seem that their shenanigans transfer from location to location. On my stroll here, I heard absolutely no noise whatsoever coming from Ponyville!"

"Well, that's not--wait, he's gone!" Twilight said, walking over to where the blue-clad had once been standing. The bodies, blood, and guns had all but completely disappeared, but remaining was the blue-clad's bullet-carved inscription into the side of the tree.

"Uh... Twilight..." Applejack said, walking past her and examining the strange decor.

"I know, Applejack. Do you think they're trying to tell us something?"

"Shucks if I know. 'Sides, what does 'YOLO' mean, anyway?"

CT: 2 - T: 0

"Okay, aside from that, how are these beings even showing up all over the place?" Dash asked.

"From what Lyra has told us, Dash, they're called humans, and for some reason, they only ever seem to appear in specific areas, usually within a small span traversable on hoof. And they always seem to alter two buildings to be some sort of point of contention in what appears to be a recurring mock battle in some show of superiority," Twilight said.

"A mock battle?" Dash said, her wings folded back to her torso after their new-found uselessness. "They just tried to blow up the fillies' clubhouse!"

Twilight nodded. "Yes, but it seems that after every single battle, the buildings always restore themselves to pristine conditions with all contents intact. So far, the majority of explosions have been devoid of ponies, and I hope it stays that way. I'm actually kind of curious as to the nature of this so-called 'game', as well."

"Well, they ain't tryin' to talk to ponies or even play nice!" Applejack said. "It's like they know we're here, but they completely ignore us!"

"That may actually be a part of what they're doing in their battle. Their objective is to prove dominance to the other side through a series of victories eventually resulting in one side having a number higher than their opponents. Zecora and Trixie told me that they only persist for a total number of ten times before they move somewhere else."

"You mean they're gonna do this all across Equestria?" Applejack shook her head. "That's a load of horseapples! And they just appear out of thin air?"

"It would seem so. The humans utilize some of the strangest teleportation magic I've ever seen... most likely because it's not actually magic. It's like it just... I... I'm not sure how to explain it... it just happens. I'm pretty sure that they don't have a unicorn helping them with all this because... well, the magic nullification field that just seemingly appears out of nowhere around the time they begin immediately rules that out... it's just... so strange! I have to learn more about this!"

"They have... w-weapons..." Fluttershy commented, before shrinking back behind her tree.

"Yeah!" Applejack said, pulling Applebloom close to her. "We need to buck 'em to the moon! Nopony hurts my sister!"

"Eeyup," Big Mac agreed, nodding confidently.

"I already told you, we can't hurt them!" Twilight repeated. "All we have to do is wait for them, and they'll go away on their--"

The bomb has been planted!

"Now just wait a moment, Twi," Applejack said. "Since they're not here, that means that they're at the..." Her face contorted in shock as she quickly galloped off. "Mac! We gotta hurry, they're at the barn!" The rest of them, as well as the Crusaders, followed as the cracks of gunfire in the distance could be heard. When they broke the treeline and looked to the barn, the humans could be seen engaging in combat on the horizon, some of them falling as shots found their mark.

"The bomb! Where the bomb?!" Applejack said, looking over her shoulder at Twilight for an answer.

"It's obviously at the barn! But the humans are protecting it, and we can't actually do anything to the bomb! Zecora and Trixie told me!" The group stopped near a fence a stone's throw away from the barn, watching as the humans fired at each other from behind objects, either outside the barn like hay bales or the trees, or within the barn itself, like the second story window or the barn doors.

"I--but--agh, horseapples! So am I just supposed to sit back and wait 'till they just blow up our barn again?"

"Um... yes?" Twilight nervously smiled. "But don't worry! We moved all the apples out before they got there, so your harvest should be safe."

"Yeah, and now we can't finish the rest of the harvest!"

"It's okay, darling," Rarity said. "We moved the empty wagons into a orderly line near the filled ones. You can still complete your harvest, even with this... madness going on. We already know that they can't hurt us, so why not just make the best of it and just continue with what you were doing before?"

"Defusing the bomb now." The blue-clad soldiers walked past the bodies of the tan-clad, taking up defensive positions as one of their own quickly began his defusal of the bomb. The air was tense as the ponies looked on into the barn, seeing the crouched human work his mind magic.

"So..." Applejack said. "You're sayin' that one o' the group tries to plant a bomb, and another one tries to stop 'em?"

Twilight nodded, arching her head higher to try to get a better look at them. "Yes, it would seem as if there are two, and only two, groups involved in this battle."

"Well, that's just fine, just keep my sister away from 'em. Applebloom, where are--" Applejack looked around quickly, noticing that none of the three fillies were in sight. "Applebloom! Where'd you go?!" She looked at Big Mac, who merely shook his head, having not noticed the trio's sneaky disappearance, either.

Rarity gasped. "Look! There they are!" She pointed a hoof at the large red building, as the group watched as the fillies quickly ran into the barn, their small capes flowing on their backs.

The bomb has been defused!

"Oh, thank goodness," Fluttershy breathed out. "W-we should probably keep the fillies safe."

"No doubts about that, Flutters," Dash said, jumping to fly but only hitting the ground instead. "Aw, dang it. I keep forgetting I couldn't fly. These hew-mans have some pretty tough magic if it can stop unicorns from using magic and pegasi from flying."

Counter-Terrorists Win!

"Applebloom!" Applejack shouted, running towards the barn. "Get back here!"

CT: 3 - T: 0

"Aw, shucks, they disappeared!" Applebloom said, stomping her hoof into the ground. "I wanted to ask 'em a few questions..."

"Who knows, maybe they might show up again!" Scootaloo said. "You heard what Twilight said. They'll show up either here, or at the clubhouse!"

"Uh, isn't it kind of dangerous?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I know it's cool to try to protect our homes like those blue... humans are sort of doing for us, but we could get hurt!"

"Nah, weren't you paying attention?" Scootaloo said, hopping towards her. "Twilight said that their weapons can't hurt ponies! And she's a real egghead, from what Dash said, so we can totally trust her word on this!"

"I'm still not sure..."

"Come on, don't you want your cutie mark?" Scootaloo teased. "It'll be fine, just trust me!"

Sweetie Belle sighed. "Alright... but we should probably let our sisters know first--"

"Sweetie Belle!" they heard Rarity shout from outside. "Come out here this instant!"

"And you, too, Applebloom! Don't make me go in there!" Applejack said.

"Hey, Scoots? You there? Get out here!" Dash finished.

All three fillies gave each other worried looks before walking outside with tense looks. The mares and the red stallion watched as the children dispersed to their sisters and mentor.

"Really, darling, what's gotten into you?" Rarity asked Sweetie Belle, straightening out her cape. "You could have gotten hurt, and that would just be the worst possible thing! You should do well to stay away from those humans and their barbaric little game." She brushed off a bit of dirt at the corner before giving a smile of approval.

"But--!"

"No 'buts'! You are to stay away from them, and that's final! Now, let us distance ourselves from this place before they return!"

"--no, sis, I want to help them!" they heard Applebloom shout. Applejack held a stern face as her sister tried to argue their point. "If they want to protect our farm and clubhouse, then I say we should help them!"

"Listen 'ere, Applebloom. Those humans don't need no help doing... whatever it is that they're tryin' to do. The main point is that we still have an apple harvest to buck, and I don't want any of you puttin' yourselves in danger!" Big Mac walked up behind Applejack, nodding.

Applebloom's face scrunched in concentration, before she used her secret weapon: the pleading look. She returned her sister's gaze with googly eyes, trying her darndest to be heart-breakingly cute. "Please, sis...? This is for our cutie marks..."

Unfortunately, it didn't work. Applejack slammed her hoof down. "No! And that's final! Now, come on! We have apples to buck!" She walked off back to the orchard, leaving Big Mac to tend to the filly's crushed aspirations. He put a hoof on her shoulder, but was shrugged off as Applebloom huffed and followed Applejack.

Their attention was momentarily broken as they saw a single blue-clad appear from down the dusty road, observing his strange helmet and faceplate as he carried his strange weapon, a green-colored blocky-looking one with a long barrel. He walked inside the barn and looked around, before speaking.

"There's nobody at A." The being took a quick look at the rafters of the barn, ensuring that there was no sneaky tan-clad waiting for him to turn his back, before leaving the barn, hopping a wooden fence and running through the grass fields in the orchard on his way back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders' clubhouse. Applejack gave a calculating glance at the being as he passed by her.

"Shucks, there they go again!" Applebloom said. A ripe red apple plopped down on to her head as her sister bucked the tree she was standing under, which she promptly tossed into the wagon that Big Macintosh had just brought over. "I wanted to go see what they were doin'..."

The bomb has been planted!

The other ponies had gathered outside the barn, conversing on how to get rid of this strange and harmless, yet increasingly annoying group of troublemakers. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo merely deigned to sit underneath the shade of an apple tree--apples already bucked, of course--and allowing the grown-ups to speak.

"Well, if anything," Rarity said, "that voice is a fantastic indicator for how their battle is proceeding. I know Derpy had set off for Canterlot, but the amount of time it would take would be enormous! Is she even capable of using her flight? Will she even remember that at all? She might be too caught up in moment to actually realize that this confounded nullification field only applies within the scope of the battle!"

"Probably. If we're lucky, Celestia will be here by the day's end," Twilight said. "Otherwise, we'll just have to deal with them as they keep moving around, and--Pinkie, just what are you doing?" Upon Twilight's inquiry, the group turned their heads to see Pinkie standing on top of a ladder, trying to hang a banner down from atop the barn doors.

"I'm trying to put up a party banner, silly!" Pinkie giggled. "I still haven't thrown that party yet, remember?"

"Aren't you worried that they might just... blow it up?"

"Then that means I can put up another banner for a congratulations-for-blowing-up-the-barn party!"

Twilight rolled her eyes; there was no arguing with this mare. "Okay, then..." she said, turning back to the group. "Right, so it's all agreed that we'll keep an eye on the humans, and try to contain any mayhem that they may cause?" All the ponies nodded. "Alright, then. When this is all over and we get our magic back, we'll have Dash patrol the region around here, and have Fluttershy and her animal friends keep an eye out in the Everfree. Rarity and I will teleport at a moment's notice when they're spotted to try and contain them. We don't want a repeat of Ponyville, after all."

"And Applejack will need to stay here and collect the harvest before it all goes up in flames," Rarity said, nodding sagely. "Very well. We shall stand ready to counter these brutish humans--as beautiful as the blue on some of their uniforms are--wherever they may strike!"

The ground on which they stood shook with a small shock of seismic force, as they looked towards the treehouse. The Crusaders all walked forward a few steps, their mouths agape, as Twilight's group merely shook their heads, mourning the temporary loss of the clubhouse.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 3 - T: 1

"Ugh, this is just stupid!" Applebloom whined, sitting down next to her friends. "Those brown-wearin' varmints just done blown up our clubhouse!"

"Yeah!" Scootaloo said. "We should fight back against them, kick their flanks to the moon!"

They looked to the Elements of Harmony, minus Pinkie--who was busy turning the barn into a party barn--and Applejack--who was busy finishing the harvest--and collectively sighed. Their capes were mostly intact, save a few cuts and scrapes on Applebloom's when the window shattered in their clubhouse.

Sweetie Belle brought a hoof to her chin in thought for a moment, before putting on an angry face. "You know what? Let's do it!"

"Do what, Sweetie Belle? Finish the apple harvest?" Applebloom asked.

"No! Come on!" She got to her hooves and began running for their clubhouse. Applebloom and Scootaloo merely looked at each other, worried as to what sort of half-cooked plan Sweetie Belle had come up with, and followed her; though the idea of a plan that could help them get their cutie marks was nice, they were simply more worried that their friend might be hurt.

"What do you have in mind?" Scootaloo asked, quickly catching up alongside her. "You heard what the adults said, we aren't supposed to help those humans at all!"

"We aren't going to help them, at least not directly," Sweetie Belle said. "We're going to protect our clubhouse!"

"And that way, we can help those friendly blue guys, too!" Applebloom shouted. They gave proud smiles at each other as they continued over the ridge to their clubhouse, ready to defend their prized abode in tandem with their human compatriots.

"Cutie Mark Crusader Counter-Terrorists, yay!"

"Wait, what in the hay's a 'counter-terrorist', anyway?" Applebloom asked.

"Well..." Sweetie said, motioning for the group to hide behind a tree just outside the clearing. "...terror is a word that means fear, right? So terrorists must mean ponies that try to cause fear! Like what those other guys are doing by trying to blow up our buildings! And counter means 'in opposite' of, so that means that those blue guys are trying to stop them!"

"Oh!" Applebloom said, nodding. "So they're the good guys! Alright, I agree with that!"

Scootaloo laughed. "You're like a walking dictionary, Sweetie Belle!"

"Am not!" she retorted.

Scootaloo face-hoofed. "Okay, fine, whatever! I don't want to start arguing about that all over again! Now, quiet down, I see a one of them over there!" She pointed at a clearing, where a tan-clad carefully stepped in, scanning the clearing with his weapon, before breaking out into a jog to the tree when he was sure that there were no sneaky blue-clads waiting for him to turn his back. He quickly jumped on top of the lunch table they had sitting in the clearing, and pulled out his green box.

"Look! It's the--"

The bomb has been planted!

"Aw, hay! We need to find some tomatoes or rotten apples we can throw at 'em!" Applebloom said, giving a shifty look at the tan-clad as he bounded over to the stairs adjoining their treehouse and crouching down in anticipation of the incoming assault.

"Yep!" Scootaloo looked around and found a bruised apple sitting on the floor, one that had been knocked down from the tree and with only slight decomposition. She hefted the smooth and slightly-mushy weathered red object in her hoof, before flinging it with all of her filly might towards the tan-clad. She missed; it flew over his shoulder and slammed into the side of their tree, sliding down with oozing slime. The human, however, wasn't even fazed.

"Horseapples!" Applebloom said, throwing a rock, only to have it slam into the stairway railing. "Horseapples again!"

Sweetie Belle, aware of the fact that magic didn't work when these strange beings enacted their battle of skill and combat, picked up a stick--small, but with weight--and threw it towards the tan-clad. It landed just short of his feet, and the weight of the matter was quickly increased as more tan-clad took up position around bomb site B.

The sound of what appeared to be somepony ripping paper so loud it could shatter your ears could be heard, and a large number of yellow bolts broke into the clearing, killing one of the tan-clad. A group of blue-clad burst into the clearing, picking their targets and initiating the firefight, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders observed from the sidelines.

"Look! There they are!" Applebloom whispered, holding another rock in her foreleg.

Scootaloo hopped back to their tree, landing down next to them as she threw another partially-rotting apple on to her sizeable ammunition pile. "You girls ready?"

"Hold on!" Applebloom's pile was a small mound of tiny to medium sized pebbles and rocks, and she quickly dug in the ground around the tree for a few more, rolling them all into the pile before leaning against the tree again. "Alright! Let's do this! Sweetie, go find more rocks and apples for us while we hold down the fort!"

"Right!" Sweetie Belle quickly ran off into the orchard again as the fight intensified, as both blue-clad and tan-clad took up positions behind cover and trees, determined to outlast the other. The blue-clad with the loud paper-shredder gun took up position behind the tree to the left of the Crusaders, bringing his weapon up and bringing a earth-shaking roar throughout the area.

"Wow..." Scootaloo said, her hoof slick with the decomposing battle fluid of combat apples. "That's so cool! You could totally tear apart a cloud with something like that!" She observed the human reloading the weapon, removing a huge blocky box and inserting another one in its place, pulling a string of yellow dart-like object into the weapon and slamming the lid on it closed, drawing back a small lever with a clack. He looked momentarily in their direction, his expression obscured by his mask, before returning to his delivery of lead-based death upon the tan-clad.

"Defuse the bomb!" one of them shouted before receiving a blast to the face, as the numbers of both sides dwindled down to a single hoof. The only pair remaining was the paper-shredder blue-clad, and a wily shotgun-armed tan-clad, who hid behind the stairs, as if daring the blue-clad to try and defuse the bomb.

Sweetie Belle returned, heaping on a pile of rocks and apples to their stockpiles. "What's going on?"

"Shh!" Applebloom said. "There's only one of them left!" She grabbed one of Scootaloo's apples and flung it at the tan-clad, who mistook the red object for an incendiary grenade, and immediately bailed from his position. The blue-clad took the liberty of mowing him down without a second thought, before brandishing his knife and charging full speed for the quickly-beeping bomb.

"I don't think that beeping's a good thing!" Sweetie Belle said. "Let's get out of here!" Scootaloo didn't need to be told twice, and immediately ran, only turning to wait when she noticed her friends didn't come with him.

"No!" Applebloom said. "I know he can do it! He has to!" The blue-clad began his work, but the bomb was already beeping at an alarmingly fast pace.

"You heard what Twilight said, Applebloom! Nopony's ever been caught when that thing blew up, and I don't want us to be the first! Let's go!" Sweetie Belle tugged at Applebloom's cape, waving Scootaloo away when she tried to return.

Applebloom shook her head. "He can do it! I know it!" The beeping was now going as fast as her heart rate.

"We don't have time, Applebloom, now let's--"

The bomb has been defused!

They all breathed a sigh of relief, sharing post-jitter laughs when they saw the human hop on the table and fire his weapon, spinning crazily, but the situation took a rather ludicrous turn as the human became seemingly insane as ran off into the woods firing his weapons haphazardly.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

"Maybe we're just not cut out for this stuff," Scootaloo pondered.

CT: 4 - T: 1

"APPLEBLOOM!" Applejack shouted, as the three fillies sat in front of her outside the barn. "All you fillies done worried us sick, you know that?! What in tarnation did you think you were doing?"

"Well, it sort of worked..." Scootaloo said.

"What was that?" Applejack shot at her, the anger in her voice plainly obvious.

"We threw an apple at one of them and it helped! We stopped them from blowing up our clubhouse!"

Twilight walked forward, Spike sitting on her back as a scribe. "Ah, so that's very interesting. They might seem to ignore us, but when it comes to actual stimuli, they seem to react to it normally like anypony would. I believe when you threw the apple, judging by the type of armaments they've used in the past, it might have recognized it as one of those strange hand-held explosive objects, and instinctually reacted to it in an attempt of self-preservation." Spike looked up from his paper when Twilight stopped speaking. "So what happened after that?"

Scootaloo blinked a few times, trying to recall what had happened. "Uh... he ran out from his hiding spot and the blue-wearing one sort of... shot him? It was pretty much a standoff until we threw that apple, and then he went and 'defused' the bomb, whatever that means."

"Hmm, that's about the most blatant reaction to external stimuli if I ever saw it," she said, looking over her shoulder at Spike to make sure he was taking notes. "Was there anything else you could tell?" she asked excitedly. "Well, aside from their appearance and method of engaging each other in combat, of course."

"Yeah... they're... kinda crazy..."

"Oh, yes, I believe Zecora said something about that," Twilight confirmed. "It's our greatest indication that, aside from their continued appearance even after being... uh, killed, that they treat this as some sort of game. Normally, battles in the past, especially in Equestrian history, seem to indicate that fighting is treated as an extremely serious business, with lots of aftermath to contend with. However, it seems like these humans don't even consider it in the slightest, most likely owing to their continued appearance." She thought for a moment. "If they really are immortal, then it's actually a good possibility based on their actions that they might actually be insane."

"Immortal?" Applejack asked. "You mean, like the Princesses or Discord or something? And insane? Like, when Discord used all his magic stuff on us and turned Ponyville upside down?"

"Well, they aren't all powerful, but they seem to have the ability to materialize their new weapons out of thin air, or at least it appears like that. Every single time they reappear, they seem to be even better armed than before, but at the beginning of each of what I have labeled as a 'match', they start anew with only what appears to be the most basic of their equipment. And, yes, insane in that sort of sense, Applejack."

"So-so you-you're saying that... they can just pull out something that can blow up all of Equestria?" Fluttershy asked meekly. When eyes turned towards her, she quickly shrunk behind Dash. "Oh, uh, I was... just wondering... that would actually... be... really... bad..." she said, her voice becoming nearly silent by the time she finished.

Twilight contemplated. "It seems possible, but it appears that their current ongoing feud is much too important for them to deal with other things. After all, you all saw what happened in Ponyville. Any actual damage was caused by panicking ponies, not them."

"Hey, look!" Pinkie shouted from her ladder, standing on one hoof and dangling at an angle that seemed impossible. She pointed towards the horizon. "Here they come!"

At first, it seemed that the two groups exited their starting zones completely oblivious to the other as they broke into the road. It didn't take long as they ran by the apple trees before realizing that a group of something didn't fit in with hills of foliage and before long, they broke into an advancing firefight, trying to pick off each other as they advanced towards the barn.

The blue-clad naturally levitated towards more defensive tactics, using the trees as cover and stonewalling the tan-clad advance with their weapons, scoring the skies with sounds of booms and staccato gunfire. The tan-clad simply tried to play with feints and tactical retreats, but unfortunately exposing themselves to fire every single time they attempted to relocate. The proficiency of the blue-clad proved too much for them, and before long, the tan-clad were down to a single man, the lone carrier of the bomb.

"Wow, that was fast!" Pinkie said. "I sure hope they can make it here for the party!"

"I hope those blue guys kick that tan one's flank!" Applejack cheered. "Ain't no way, no how that any explosives are gonna get into the barn!"

The air sat silent as the blue-clad quickly closed in on the sheltered tan-clad, waiting for the terrorist to slip so that they could end him. Several shots taken by the blue-clad snipers missed as the tan-clad adopted what best appeared to them as a rather unorthodox method of movement, zigzagging in a variety of moments in an attempt to throw off the blue-clads' aim.

Unfortunately, he moved far too slow for his own good, and a single fatal shot found his way through his head, sending him, his blood, his gun, and the bomb tumbling to the floor.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

"Aw..." Pinkie said sadly. "Now they'll just go poof like they usually do and I'll have to wait until they try to get to the party again..."

CT: 5 - T: 1

"Wait a moment," Twilight said. "Spike, read off to me the exact number of times they attempt this before the match ends."

"Uh, ten. Why?" he asked.

"They only play to ten if and only if the numbers are equal or somewhere near as such. That means that since those 'counter-terrorists' hold the greater amount in terms of victories, and if they're going for out of ten, then they only need one more to claim complete victory!"

"So we should just be rootin' that they succeed, right?" Applejack asked.

"Um... don't you have a harvest to tend to?" Spike asked.

"Oh, shoot!" Applejack said. "Keep an eye on those humans, Twi! Big Mac, grab another wagon and get to the west side, quickly! Applebloom, just stay here, and don't do anything!"

"Okay..." Applebloom gloomily consented. The recent stint with trying to protect their clubhouse, while successful, had left them a little shellshocked. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle simply sat next to them, with Fluttershy, just waiting for the whole situation to blow over.

"I... just what is going on out there?" Rarity said. "I can see them, but they don't seem to be brandishing weapons of any sort!"

Dash's eyes, however, proved more sharper than Rarity's. "They're holding something sharp... they look like knives or something. And they're charging right at each other!"

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "They're settling the match with a proper duel? Such strange customs these humans have."

Spike began scribbling down any and all visual notes he could see from the imminent battle, ensuring that Twilight would have decent research material, as she oftentimes bemoaned her lack of such.

"I have a feeling that this is going to be one really short battle..." Twilight said, her mouth twisting into a grimace as the two sides collided with each other in the middle of the orchard, jumping and circling each other. The sound of metal clanking could be heard as hit matched hit and their armor was torn through, resulting in two deaths at the beginning, one from each side.

"Wow, totally brutal," Dash said. "Why the knives all of a sudden?"

"Perhaps they're simply trying to settle things with a simple and straight match that'll either finish that one side off, or allow the aforementioned another chance at victory," Twilight said. "Either way, this is something that definitely needs to be recorded, since it's never happened ever in the entire history of Equestria!"

"Seriously, Twi, your egghead is totally showing right now."

"What? This is some prime research material! There's so much we can learn from them, especially for a race never before seen in Equestria! Well, aside from how Lyra knows about them, anyway..."

"Okay, and--hey, they're running!" The groups dispersed: the tan-clads quickly running towards the barn as the blue-clad chased, swinging their knives through the air as if it were some sort of ritual that would help them run faster. They numbered four total now, two from each side. One of the tan-clad peeled away, circling right and attempting to flank the blue-clad, while his comrade wheeled out the bomb, hopping over the fence which the ponies stood at and running for the barn.

"Oh, hey!" Pinkie said, waving down at him from atop her ladder. "You finally made it!"

The ponies looked at the tan-clad crouching in the barn, when they heard the sound of a metal clank and a moan associated with the humans' deaths. Turning their heads, they saw the tan-clad's body splayed out not two tree length's away from the fence, and quickly stepped aside as the two blue-clad hopped over.

There was no chance for victory by bomb since the blue-clad held the advantage in numbers; the only choice was to die with honor... or play dirty. So play dirty the tan-clad did, wheeling out his weapon and loading one of the approaching blue-clad with a volley of fire.

"Whoa!" Pinkie said. "I did not see that coming! And I'd hate to only have a party with only one of them, that's just so boring!"

The next single event occurred as if in slow motion. The single tan-clad, unable to plan the bomb without turning into a pincushion, used his rifle to even the odds. He slowly turned to the right, bringing the final and eventual death of the blue-clad ever more closer, and granting his own group another chance at victory, and perhaps a chance to turn this match around and win.

But the blue-clad had other ideas. Immediately dropping into a crouch, he brought his own weapon: a shining L-shaped weapon, coated with a glorious reflective metal, huge in caliber and seemingly enormous in his bare hands. The lone and brave soldier carefully brought his aim to bear, trying to ensure all possibilities that he would be the one to deal the one concluding shot.

The two men stared each other down.

And fired.

The shots from the tan-clad weapon pinged off of the blue-clad's armor, smacking the rounds into the dirt with recoil, as the blue-clad responded with a decisive and final pull of the trigger. The bullet exited the barrel of the weapon with explosive force, roaring through the air like an infuriated dragon, closing the distance faster than any one of them, human or pony, could blink, and bearing down upon the head of its poor hapless target like the fist of an angry god, tearing into it with a unchained force as if the dogs of war themselves were let loose upon this poor soul's very being.

The tan-clad fell to the ground dead.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

The blue-clad simply stood up and turned around to look at the ponies, and the busybody Spike, uttering only a single phrase:

"And that's how it's done."

END MATCH SCORE:

Counter-Terrorists: 6
Terrorists: 1

MATCH RESULTS: Counter-Terrorists Win!

MAP ROTATION:
Current Map: de_apple
Next Map: ar_appleloosa

ar_appleloosa

Braeburn walked out of his home, ready to start the day with jovial gusto. Today was a big day for the town of Appleloosa, as it was harvest season, and that meant that all hooves were needed to buck all the trees in the orchard. Sometimes, they even needed to bring in some extra help from the buffalo tribes, though they were always happy to help since it meant that they would receive the apple pies sooner than later.

Righting his signature cowcolt hat, he gave a nod to a passing pony dragging a large wagon down the town's main street towards the neighboring orchards. The day would be filled with hard labor and lots of sweat as they worked through the day to clear as much of the orchard as possible before sundown. He stepped off towards the orchard, bounding around a corner only to meet a familiar face.

"Howdy there, Chief Thunderhooves!" Braeburn said. "Here to help with the harvest?"

The chieftain nodded. "It looks like a good harvest this year. I wouldn't suppose you'll be needing extra hooves?"

"Why, shucks, I was just on my way to ask ya!" Braeburn said. "We'd love to have your help! We fell behind last season due to a small drought, so we have to pick it back up quickly if we want to be on schedule for next year!"

Thunderhooves chuckled. "That, and I still need to catch up with Sheriff Silverstar with a drink. That drought was stopped in no small part from my tribe, you know. Our nomadic ways help nourish the land by rejuvenating the fertility of the dirt. Though, considering expansion of the town... it would be hard-pressed to make it happen without causing a larger drought than last year."

"Oh, tarnation. Well, we don't want to step on any tails here, and the Apple family's already got enough on their hooves with our orchards all over Equestria. The town's fine as it is, so rest assured, chief, you won't be hearin' any more trouble from us."

"Indeed. Now, I believe Silverstar said something about some extra help?"

"Yep! On top of you buffalos, a few of the Apple family had some extra time, and send them down here to help us! Let's go meet 'em at the station," Braeburn said, nodding down the street. "Maybe you can meet some more of the Apple family, huh?" he laughed.

Braeburn trotted up the stairs to the Appleloosa train station, humming to himself. Chief Thunderhooves stepped up behind him, always curious as to the nature of the train; the buffalo, when the ponies had first completed it, were amazed that such a contraption could create such a thunderous noise much like the buffalo did when they stampeded, and were even more amazed that train was being pulled by a small number of ponies.

"Oh, look! Here they come now!" Braeburn said. The train slowly pulled past them as it rolled to a stop, giving out a loud hiss as the the engine vacated its heated contents. The doors to the train opened and out stepped a small group of ponies. "Howdy, relatives! Welcome to Aaaaaaaappleloosa! It's a mighty honor to have you all here, just in time for applebuckin' season!"

"Oh, shoot, t'ain't no problem!" one of them said. "You're all famly, so when we heard y'all needed help, we got down here in a jiffy! S'alright, though, the rest of our family can tend to our orchards just fine."

"Well, I thank y'all just the same! Now, I think the rest of the family's already gotten down to applebuckin' already, so let's see if they need any helping hooves--hey!" Braeburn turned around to see a group of blue-clad figures appear out of thin air. "Well, howdy there, strangers! Welcome to Aaaaaaaappleloosa, home of one of the largest Apple family orchards!"

The figures ignored him, immediately jumping to whatever their business in the town appeared to be.

"Well, that's a little rude..." Thunderhooves noted.

"Hey now, strangers!" Braeburn said. "Uh... enjoy your stay in Appleloosa?" He turned to look at his relatives, only to receive shrugs. "Well, let's go to applebuckin' before the sun hits high noo--" There was the sound of loud booms and dinging noises as the ruckus originated from downtown Appleloosa.

"Braeburn!" Thunderhooves shouted. "Get the townsfolk to safety! I'll go warn Sheriff Silverstar!" He nodded and ran off into town, taking the outlying path that led to the side of the sheriff's office.

"Help! Help! Bandits!" shouted a pony, hopping behind a wagon and taking cover. She was joined by a stallion clutching a filly, huddling together as the chaos around them intensified.

"What the buck are these things?" the stallion cursed. "And during applebuckin' season, too!" Several apples were shredded by their weapons as the group moved closer together. "Stay down, and stay close!"

"Oh, Celestia! Somepony! Help!" the mare screamed.

They felt the ground quake as Chief Thunderhooves appeared before them. "Quick!" he said. "Take cover in the buildings, and protect the mares and foals! I'm on my way to find Sheriff Silverstar!" He ran off, as the stallion gathered his nerves.

"Come on! Let's not keep the others waitin'!" He put the foal on his back. "Don't you worry, kid, I'll make sure we'll all get out of this!" He held the mare by the shoulders. "Follow me. And don't look back. Okay?" The terrified mare nodded shakily. "Alright! Let's go!"

Stuck in the middle of the street between buildings, the stallion peeked around to see that there were two groups fighting each other: tan-clad ones wearing masks of some sort, and blue-clad ones with rather intimidating looking attire. They seemed to ignore several ponies running by them, focusing their own efforts on each other.

"Okay! Go! Run now!" he shouted, pointing at the saloon just across from them. He stomped forward, ignoring the scene around him, fully absorbed by the sight of the wooden double doors in front of him. The foal on his back cried loudly, only intensifying the urgency of the situation. He didn't stop to see whether or not the mare had followed him, smashing through the doors and slamming into the ground.

"Sweet heavens to Betsy, buddy!" the bartender said, picking him up off his hooves. "You bolted in through like a train on fire! What in the hay's going on out there, anyway?!"

"I... I don't know! One minute, we're haulin' back the apple harvest, then another, there's noise and explosions all over the place! And that dinging noise! I keep hearing it!"

"I heard it, too! Oh, Celestia, where's the sheriff?!"

"Silverstar!" Thunderhooves roared. "Where are you?!" He skidded to a stop just as one of the tan-clad finished his kill with a ding, switching out his strange booming stick for another matte-black instrument of war. "Out of my way, creature! Your kind have caused enough trouble for this town!" He swiped his hoof at him, only for it to phase through the creature's form as if it were a... ghost?!

Thunderhooves stepped back, shocked by this new discovery. Had Appleloosa been built upon the ancient burial grounds of a long-dead warrior race? And were they now returning to continue their endless fight, with the unwitting ponies caught between it all? But unlike a being from the beyond, the creature could affect objects! He saw how their strange weapons tore through the apples with ease. To imagine such harm being done to any creature, pony or otherwise, was a chilling thought.

Then the strange tan-clad turned towards him, aiming his weapon straight at him. Realizing that he had no time to flee, Thunderhooves shielded his eyes, preparing for the inevitable.

*BANG BANG BANG*

*ding*

He opened his eyes, and looked down at his chest. He wasn't full of holes! Or dead! Turning around, he saw the body of a blue-clad strewn out behind him. Looking back at the tan-clad, he noticed that the weapon has changed, being considerably more block-like than his previous one. They garnered new weapons by gaining kills from their opponents? Thunderhooves shuddered: how barbaric.

The tan-clad ran off past him, only for him to be sniped from long-range by a blue-clad with a long-barreled green weapon. Thunderhooves took no further time waiting and stampeded straight for the sheriff's office. With any due luck, he would already have a plan ready, and perhaps they could solve this problem once and for all.

Sheriff Silverstar quickly looked around his office for any weapons he could use to fight. But, really, bandits? And here of all places! Bandits hadn't been seen for years around Equestria, and now they decide to show up wielding Celestia-only-knows-whats that sounded like lightning striking the same place multiple times! The townsfolk weren't safe, but he couldn't do anything as a sheriff without a weapon!

Scrounging through his desk, he only gave a huff of frustration when the only things he found within was a piece of paper and a quill. As if he was going to look intimidating charging at these things with a quill!

"Silverstar!" he heard a voice roar from outside. The humongous form of Thunderhooves slammed through the doors, the feathers on his hat frayed with dirt. "Are you here?!"

"I'm right here, Thunderhooves!" Silverstar said, running over to a file cabinet and looking inside. "Drat! Ain't there anythin' I can use to fight against those bandits?!"

"I believe they might not be bandits, but for the moment, our priority is safety for the ponies! We have to evacuate them from the town!"

"I agree!" Silverstar reached behind a cabinet and pulled out a shovel. "Great! This'll have to do for now. Let's get everypony down to the train station and get outta here!"

"No! That won't work!" Thunderhooves said. "They seemingly have the ability to endlessly appear, and a group of them always show up at the train station!"

"Buck! Has anypony been hurt yet?"

"Actually, these creatures are completely incapable of hurting ponies... I should know, they attacked me with their weapons, only for it to have no effect."

They were interrupted as a tan-clad burst in through the doors firing his machinegun, the roar of the weapon forcing the two to take cover and protect their ears from the onslaught of noise. Silverstar poked his head over the desk, noticing the being had its back to him, too concerned with eliminating the opposition to notice the pony, if it even cared to do so at all.

"Eat this, you crazy creature!" He slid over the desktop and leaped at the tan-clad, shovel in hoof ready to bring down Appleloosan justice upon the intruder. The shovel was brought into a wide arc above his head, swinging downward with a force intended to completely incapacitate the tan-clad with a strong blow to the back of his head. "Hi-yah!"

The shovel went clear through the being and slammed into the floor with a ping. Silverstar looked up at the backside of the tan-clad, who had completely ignored him and was switching out his weapon with a handgun.

"Silverstar!" Thunderhooves said. "We have to get out of here and get the ponies to safety! They can't hurt us, but we can't hurt them either!"

"Tarnation!" Silverstar spat, tossing the shovel aside. "Then let's get the buck outta here!"

The tan-clad ran out the door, only to be gunned down upon exiting, as Silverstar and Thunderhooves sidestepped his falling body as they made a break down the main street of the town. In the distance, they could see Braeburn leading a large group of ponies underneath the building awnings, towards the orchard fields and avoiding the commotion in the middle of the streets.

"Braeburn!" Thunderhooves shouted. The cowcolt-hat-wearing stallion stopped and noticed them, and nodded towards the orchard.

"I'll meet y'all over there!" he shouted back.

"Braeburn!" Silverstar said, curling his mustache. "What in tarnation is going on here?!"

"You tell me, Sheriff!" Braeburn responded, the group of ponies behind him huffing and puffing as they sat underneath the shade of the orchard. "One minute, everything's all right and fine with the Apple family showin' up at the train station to help us with the harvest, the next minute, it's like a hoedown with too much cider around here!"

"Oh, no!" a mare shouted. "My foal! Has anypony seen my foal?!" There was worried conversation as the mare frantically searched throughout the crowd looking for her child.

"Buck," Silverstar cursed again. "This day just keeps gettin' better and better... Alright, Thunderhooves, Braeburn, we're headin' back in to look for that foal. Ain't nopony gonna be left behind on our watch!" Braeburn and Thunderhooves nodded, until there was the glance of sadness around the orchard.

"Gonna be late on this harvest again, too, huh...?" Braeburn said.

"Nonsense!" shouted the same mare from the train station. "So long as those critters are doin' their stupid thing in the town, we're safe out here! Come on, y'all, let's make this harvest count!" She walked over to the worried mother. "Don't worry, Braeburn and the rest'll bring your foal back safely. So don't worry, 'kay?"

Another stallion stepped up to direct the group. "Alright, ponies! We got the barns all set up on the north side of town, full of wagons! Let's go hitch them up and get them out here! If we make good time, we can be done with the harvest and outta this town before sundown! I'm sure y'all don't wanna stay here any longer than ya have to, right?!" There was a large murmur of agreement from the ponies.

"Can we grab our stuff before we leave town?" another stallion asked.

"Right, well, if any of y'all wanna make a mad dash for yer houses after we're all said and done with the harvest, feel free to do so. But anypony that isn't at the train station when the sun goes down has to deal with livin' around these cretins 'till they either get rid of each other, or Celestia herself flies down here and exiles 'em all to the moon."

"Please..." the mother said to Braeburn. "Please find her. My husband and I live just off of the main street, just two houses away from the saloon. You can't miss it, we have a wind chime outside the house."

Braeburn tipped his hat to her. "Will do, ma'am. We'll bring your foal back safe and sound."

"So, everypony good?" the group leader said. "Then let's get started!"

The ponies dispersed towards the barns as Silverstar, Braeburn, and Thunderhooves galloped for town to look for the filly. Appleloosa roared with the noise of cracks and booms.

"Sweet Celestia's sun!" Silverstar shouted, running through the streets as the bullets flew around them. "I ain't never seen anything like this in all my years of sheriff! I think I might eat my hat when this is all done, 'cause I think I've seen just about everything now!"

"There!" Braeburn said, veering right down a side street. "I see the house's chimes right outside the door!" Though it was distinct and barely discernible, the sound of a foal crying could be heard above the din of battle. "Thunderhooves! We don't got the time, smash through the door! We can just replace it later!"

"Will do!" Thunderhooves took the lead and slammed into the door, breaking it into splinters as Silverstar and Braeburn split up to search the house; the former on the ground floor, and the latter on the second floor.

"I found her!" Braeburn found the baby crying within its own crib, desperate for attention. "Don't worry, young 'un, you'll be safe." He quickly grabbed a nearby blanket and wrapped the filly into a tight bundle, taking special care to grab another larger blanket and wrapping the bundle around his neck. They wouldn't have time to carry her properly, so he needed her to be secured.

Silverstar and Thunderhooves were waiting downstairs for Braeburn, observing the humans fighting outside. By this time, their more destructive and louder weapons had been swapped out, and a majority of them ran around with handheld variants. Some even carried one in each hand, standing off in the streets like some old Western movie.

"Y'ready yet, Braeb--" Silverstar turned to see the cowcolt walking down the stairs, the foal cooing in its adorable bundle. "Oh. Let's get the bu--uh, I mean, let's get outta here!" he said, catching his profanity before it could leave the front door. "That harvest ain't gonna collect itself!"

"Let's get movin'!" Braeburn said. The three ran out into the street, noticing the temporary lull in the fighting. They noticed a blue-clad waiting for potential targets behind a wagon, oblivious to his impending doom. Above him, a tan-clad observed his prey, brandishing a golden knife. He jumped off the roof and landed deftly behind the blue-clad, sneaking up behind him and stabbing into his back.

Terrorists Win!

"Huh-what now?!" Silverstar said. "Where'd that voice come from?"

"Less talkin', more runnin'!" Braeburn shouted, as they made their way through the streets back to the orchard. As they passed the train station, they noticed the blue-clads materialize out of thin air again... they apparently showed no intention of leaving. This was going to be a long day...

"Alright, that's the last of 'em!" the group leader shouted. "Scatter down on home and grab yer belongings, 'cause we are gettin' outta of this here town 'till we can get this settled... preferably with a whole battalion of royal guards. Now git! We don't got all evenin'!" He pulled the heavy bolted lock on the door and gave a nod of approval. They were finally done... surprising how the threat of losing the harvest could inspire ponies to finish several days' worth of work in just one.

The ponies of Appleloosa quickly returned to town to pack their bags and gather at the train station. The train ponies had been given leave to rest for most of the day, as the whole group would be making their way up to Canterlot to appeal to the Princesses to stop this insane situation before it got even worse. They just hoped that the Princess would be inclined to believe their rather far-fetched story on beings appearing out of nowhere and then terrorizing the town.

Braeburn sat down, fanning himself with his hat. He looked over and watched as the mother tended to her foal, wrapping the young colt with the bundled blankets he had delivered to her with, as the night was growing colder. Braeburn himself didn't have much to bring, so he decided to let the accommodations at Canterlot make up for it. At least he had his bits on him.

The ponies had grown less panicky when passing through town, but that didn't make the damage to the doors, windows, and various objects around Appleloosa any less worse. It would take a lot of ponypower and work-hours to replace all those, and they definitely weren't going to do anything about it until the problem was solved... fixing things only to have them broken again wasn't exactly a smart idea.

Silverstar was speaking with the train ponies, willing to pay for transit for the entire town to Canterlot. Thankfully, they understood their plight, and although they couldn't outright do it for free, they cut the cost substantially. Silverstar was thankful that most of Appleloosa's coffers would still have bits in them after this whole ordeal was over.

"Are you ready to leave now, Braeburn?" Thunderhooves asked.

"Better now than never, I guess. What about you? Gonna head back to your tribe?"

Thunderhooves nodded. "I think my appearance at Canterlot would only cause more trouble than needed. Besides, I believe being gone a whole day has been long enough, and I'd rather be present should these... warriors appear somewhere other than Appleloosa, as well."

"Well, shucks. Good luck with that, then. It was good havin' your help around the farm today. I ain't never seen any pony buck a tree like that before... well, then again, you ain't a pony," Braeburn laughed.

"It was good to help our friends today," Thunderhooves said, nodding. "Besides, I would hate to think what might happen to those delicious apple pies if the harvest had been ruined. A lot of my own look forward to this trade every year. Aside from that, I'm surprised we finished in such record time. The sun has only just begun to set!"

"Well, dang, I hadn't noticed." Braeburn dusted off his vest and stood up. "Well, I'd best be gettin' on down to the train station now. Don't wanna keep all the other folks waitin'. You stay safe now, y'hear?"

"You don't have to worry about that," Thunderhooves chuckled. "I'm an old buffalo, and I can take care of myself. You stay safe, too, Braeburn. You and all your pony friends and relatives."

"Thanks, Chief." They shook each other's hooves, and then separated for the time being.

By the time Braeburn arrived at the train station, the line stretched all the way out the door and spilled into the street. Dozens of luggage cases and burlap sacks sat laying around as the ponies slowly inched their way onto the train, ready to leave the mayhem of today's happenings and enjoy a quiet peaceful night in Canterlot. There might be a few naysayer frou-frou ponies in Canterlot, but they would pay them no mind; the Apple family and their close friends usually never did.

Braeburn found a secluded space on the carriage, and lulled himself to sleep, the noise from the train tracks, the dinging noises, and the cracks of battle from Appleloosa the only sounds remaining in the air.

At least he won't be seeing those guys again for any time soon...

...or so he thought.

MAP ROTATION:
Current Map: ar_appleloosa
Next Map: cs_wonderbolts

cs_wonderbolts

CT: 0 - T: 0

Spitfire awoke with a flash of heat bearing down on her head. She couldn't tell where she was, but it was quiet... too quiet. No doubt Soarin' had played another one of his damn pranks on him again... she would definitely tear his flank a new one this time. It was only minutes before the show, and he picked now of all times to do this?

"Soarin'! Where the buck are you?!" She attempted to move and found that she wasn't in control of her body. She wasn't even tied up, so why couldn't she move?

"I'm... I'm right here, Spitfire. Wh-what happened? I can't see anything."

"Real funny, Soarin'. Get these stupid blindfolds off of my eyes. I don't have time for your stupid games! And I can't move, either!"

"Yeah, funny thing about that... I can't see or move either."

"Not buying that. So what'd you do, huh?" Spitfire asked, trying to pinpoint the position of Soarin's voice. "Unicorn magic got my feet rooted to the ground?"

"Uh, really, Spitfire, this... this isn't a joke. I'm stuck here with you."

"A likely story. Seriously, Soarin, our show is in less than half an hour. Whatever it is that you've done to me, stop it."

"I'm serious, Spitfire! I'm telling the truth! It really isn't me!"

"Okay, then who is it? Fleetfoot? Rapidfire? Who else could it be? And if you lie to me, I'll kick your sorry flank all the way from here to Manehattan."

"Agh! I'm not joking this time, I absolutely swear it, Spitfire! I'm stuck in this room with you, and--"

"...hello? Is anypony out there?" they heard a faint voice shout from what appeared to be another room.

"Yes! Fleetfoot, is that you?!" Spitfire shouted back.

"Spitfire? Oh, thank Celestia! I'm... I'm stuck in another room with Rapidfire... what's going on out there?"

"You tell me! You sure this isn't some elaborate prank you're all playing on me? And tell the truth, because if I find out you're lying to me, the whole team is going to get quadruple overtime in every training session for the next year!"

There was the sound of loud rumbling coming from outside, quickly echoing through the room before quickly stopping.

"What... what was that?" Soarin' nervously asked.

"I don't know, Soarin'... but we better hope that noise isn't coming for us..."

"Ahhhhhh! Help! Help me! No, stop it, whoever you are and - Spitfire! Help! Help us! No, Rapidfire! My hooves - why are they moving? Stop, damn it, stop moving! AHHHHHH!" Fleetfoot's shrill voice pinged through the halls, sending chills down Spitfire and Soarin's spines, as her requests began fading into the distance.

They heard the sound of a door opening and more exploding noises, before they heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching them. Spitfire wasn't sure what anypony could want with them... but she wasn't in a position to argue.

"Who... who's there?!"

No response.

"Show yourself! Take off these damn blindfolds!"

"I have the hostages."

"What?! Hostages? Who the buck are you? Let us go, we haven't done anything to you! I--" She felt her body disobey her as her hooves began moving. "What the buck is this? Soarin'? Soarin'! Where are you?"

"I'm right behind--" They stopped moving and Soarin' immediately bumped into her side. "--you."

"What in Equestria is going on here?!" she shouted.

"I don't know either, okay?! Sheesh, I already swore on my own honor and love for pies that this isn't a prank! I'm about as clueless on this as you are! I was enjoying a nice pie until everything went black and I ended up here with you!"

*ding*

A hostage has been rescued!

*ding*

A hostage has been rescued!

"What? Does that mean that Fleetfoot and Rapidfire are okay?" Spitfire asked.

"I don't know! Oh, this sucks... I'll never be able to finish my pie..."

The sound of explosions appeared yet again, except this time, it was far closer. The being that had been bringing them along was seemingly engaged in a fight with others unknown to the Wonderbolts. Whatever weapon it was, it sounded loud, powerful, and absolutely terrifying. It certainly didn't help much when a stray shot barely grazed Soarin's cheek.

"Hooooooooly buck, that hurts!" he said. "Okay, hooves, do you things and keep moving, please!"

They began moving forward, running up and down stairs and around corners, unsure of where they were going due to their blindness. Before long, the fighting had died down and they ran into room with much cooler temperatures and a rolling wind... that meant that they were outside. They felt a surging feeling, as if they were being pulled into some other realm as they walked forward.

*ding*

A hostage has been rescued!

*ding*

A hostage has been rescued!

The blue-clad had led them over a small green square labeled 'Hostage Rescue Zone'.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 1 - T: 0

Derpy slowly made her way to the streets, ignoring the gaze of passerbys as they wondered how such a mare ended up in Canterlot. She looked like she had been through Tartarus and back, and had given it everything to reach Canterlot on nothing but her own hooves.

She was walking along the main street on the way to the royal castle, when she remembered the Wonderbolts show performing in Canterlot that night. That must have been the reason why so many ponies were out and about, and all the shops seemed to be overflowing with customers.

And then she heard the crackling. That horrible sound, breaking through the air of the Equestrian capital city, a sound that Derpy had hoped that she wouldn't have to hear for a long time. If one hadn't been through what she had, it could be easily mistaken for fireworks.

But these weren't fireworks. The sound wasn't high-pitched as the fireworks shot into the air, nor did they explode with a light puff of sound. These ones were sharp and pierced the air, and repeated themselves in quick succession. That was how Derpy knew that the threat of these strange beings had finally arrived in Canterlot.

"Mommy, are they starting the fireworks already?" she heard a filly ask her mom.

"Oh, maybe they are. Let's head to the skybridge to see if we can catch it there, okay?"

Derpy watched as the filly happily hopped along with her mother. What of Dinky back in Ponyville? Through the chaos, she realized that she had completely forgotten about her foal, and dearly hoped that she was in safe hooves. At least the beings were incapable of hurting ponies... or so she hoped.

She continued down her path to the royal castle, passing by groups of more ponies on their way to the skybridge or the Canterlot stadium to watch the show. Princess Celestia desperately needed to know about the attack on Ponyville: they weren't prepared for what would happen, especially given the fact that guard readiness was too lax.

Suddenly, the sound of screaming could be heard from the stadium as the crowd began to shift towards the opposite direction, scrambling away from the stadium.

"Monsters! There are monsters in there! Somepony call the royal guards!" somepony in the crowd shouted.

So they were truly here... was there no place in Equestria that these beings haven't touched?

Another surge of screams came from afar as more crackling noises from weapons tore through the skies. They quickly ran for the nearest safe haven: the royal castle and any local guard stations. Well, at least everypony knew those weren't fireworks anymore.

A trio of pegasi royal guards appeared in the air, neutrally observing the panic of the fleeing crowd as they approached the stadium. Not soon after, though, a look of shock registered on their faces as their magic began to fail and they plummeted to the ground. Thankfully, though there were a number of hay bales located nearby, which all three landed on with no further harm.

Derpy immediately confronted them with a steeled face. "I have vital information pertaining to the new threat that Princess Celestia needs to know!"

The guard gave her a look of disbelief. "Sorry, ma'am, but I'm afraid we're busy trying to sort out this whole mess right now. And not to mention that whatever's going at the stadium also has the means to disable pony magic!"

"But this is important! This same thing happened in Ponyville just earlier today, and I had to travel all the way here by hoof to deliver this important message!"

He hesitated for a moment, weighing his options. "Fine. Corporal, you take the private and do crowd control. I'll take this mare to the Princess." His wings swung around in random directions as he got off the hay bale. "Sheesh, it's like I've completely forgotten how to fly..." He looked at Derpy. "Very well. If you believe the information is so important, then I'll take you to see the Princess. That, and I have to request backup for this whole thing."

The crackling noise was barely discernible above the din of the screaming crowds, and several more unicorn royal guard units passed by the standing group in the streets.

"Thank you," Derpy said. "I think we should go now."

"Agreed."

"Say..." she said, following him down the street and pushing past other ponies. "Have you heard any loud voices from the sky around here yet?"

"No... what does that have anything to do with--"

Counter-Terrorists Win!

He stopped to stare up into the sky before turning around to look at Derpy with a surprised face.

"...oh."

CT: 2 - T: 0

Outside of Canterlot, the winds swirled with unnatural force as a small area in a grass field nearby crackled with small traces of purple lightning. In a single instant, it exploded with an engulfing bright light and slowly faded, leaving six confused ponies and one dazed baby dragon behind.

"What... it wasn't supposed to do that!" Twilight said.

"Well, what was it supposed to do then, dear?" Rarity asked.

"It was supposed to take us straight to the castle, or more specifically, directly into Princess Celestia's throne room! I don't know what went wrong... it should have worked as intended. I've used this spell plenty of times before without any incident at all!"

"There's always the possibility that it went wrong, you know. Sometimes magic can be such a fickle thing, so if--" Rarity was cut off as more cracks and a roar of screams came from within the city.

"Uh..." Dash said. "I don't think that's a good thing..."

"Ooooooooooh!" Pinkie said, hopping around. "I bet they're already here!"

"But th-that's... isn't that..." Fluttershy whispered. "Isn't the Wonderbolts show tonight?"

"Oh, hay!" Dash facehoofed. "I totally forgot about that! I was going to attend tonight, too. Wait, if those humans are here..."

"...and with the excessive crowding caused by the Wonderbolts show..." Rarity continued.

"...and they're at the Wonderbolts show blowin' things up..." Applejack followed.

"...then that means that we're running out of time!" Twilight finished. "We need to get to Princess Celestia as soon as possible! Or at least hope Derpy got the message across in time. Let's go, girls!" They galloped for the Canterlot city gates as ponies fled past them.

"Looks like they had a full house," Dash said, stepping out of the way of the moving group as she maneuvered to Applejack's side.

"Well, I guess I know why my teleport spell didn't work," Twilight said. "If the magic nullification field is up, then it prevents the spell from completing passage to the castle and instead dropped us off at the nearest available point... which would be outside the city."

"So, what are they after this time? The guards are probably evacuating everypony out of the stadium if that's their target. And that also means that they're going to try to blow up the Canterlot stadium... aw, hay, that's going to get ugly really fast."

"We're just going to have to wait and see, Dash," Twilight said. "We've already extrapolated that the two sides appear within a certain distance from each other, and their target destinations for planting their bombs are always within hoof-traveling distance. That means that if we find one, the other one must be nearby with equal importance. But what could possibly hold as much value as the Canterlot stadium?"

"The royal castle?" Applejack offered.

"No, no that's too far away. And not to mention that the castle itself has multiple buildings all with very important functions. It would just be too counterproductive to try to split between the castle and the stadium."

"Oh, no! What if the Wonderbolts are still in there? I have to make sure they're safe!" Dash said.

"No, wait, Dash, hold on!" Twilight said, but it was no use. Dash immediately started running for the stadium, the lights and tall flying flags on the perches of the stadium's walls viewable in the distance.

"Uh... is it normal for the skies to be like that?" Applejack said, pointing up towards a gathering group of darkened rain clouds. The entire city began to experience a light drizzle as the emergency weather pegasi teams were unable to deal with the newfound problem.

"Oh, no..." The group took cover underneath the awning of a nearby shop observing the skies. "Is their magic nullification field causing this? I really wish I could study this in-depth right now..." Most of the other ponies around them had stopped their retreat and taken cover as they, too, looked up into the skies at the brewing rainclouds.

A single crack of lightning burst forth from above, haphazardly striking the ground in front of Twilight and her friends, accentuated by a single piece of sound, familiar only to them. One that cemented their worries, and made Twilight's heart sink.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 2 - T: 1

Braeburn awoke to the sound of thunder as the train began shuddered slightly, knocking the hat off of his head. Picking it up, he looked out the window, and saw that the train was on the final approach up the final length of track on the mountainside before making the final stop at Canterlot. With any due luck, they could arrange for an expedient meeeting with the Princess and appeal their problems as soon as possible.

Looking around his compartment, he saw Silverstar sleeping on the opposite side, snoring in his sleep and oblivious to the growing bad weather in the skies. The rest of the Appleloosans would most certainly be ready to depart the train as soon as possible and look for temporary lodgings.

Silverstar woke up with a huff and smacked his lips as he lazily looked around. "Where are we?" he groggily asked Braeburn.

"Just on the final run to Canterlot, Sheriff."

"Oh, good. All this business had thrown me for a turn. Kind of hankering for some good food right 'bout now."

"Heh. You and me both, Sheriff. I'd suggest you get everypony up and lodged 'fore the night is over. I'll try and see if I can't get a meeting with Princess Celestia as soon as possible."

"Sheesh. I wonder if she'll even believe us. I hope she does."

"You and me both," Braeburn repeated. "You and me both..."

The train squealed to a halt as the brakes began to kick into action. Dozens of ponies and their belongings disembarked, looking around the station in wonder. Braeburn remembered that many of them had never been to the city before, as most had been farmer ponies for most of their lives.

"Alright, everypony, if y'all would just gather your things and follow me downtown, I'll try to see if we can't get some arrangements for us! I have a few friends in town and I'm sure they'd be more than willing to help us with our troubles."

Ponies all around were content with the answer, and headed out of the station along with Braeburn and Silverstar, only to run into an enormous crowd all circling around a group of royal guards.

"Everypony, please calm down!" the lead guard shouted. "We are well aware of the threat that awaits within the Canterlot stadium! As of this moment, we have teams heading inside to survey and deal with the threat. Unfortunately, it would also seem that the perpetrators also seem to have an unusual magical nullification device, preventing our pegasi and unicorn magic from being used."

"No magic?! We're all doomed!" a crowd member shouted.

"Quiet!" the guard responded. "We have the situation under control. In the meantime, please stay calm and keep away from the stadium. The threat has been confirmed to be contained within, so it's off-limits to civilians. Thank you all for your cooperation."

Braeburn exchanged looks with Silverstar. Had something gone down before they arrived here? It must have been deadly serious if the guards had to close off an entire area in the city to contain it.

He turned to look around the city when he spotted a familiar group walking past the train station.

"Howdy there, Applejack!" he said.

Applejack turned to look at him, her face registering as much surprise as his did. "Braeburn! What'cha doin' in Canterlot?"

"Well, there were some things that showed up at Appleloosa and started tearing the whole place apart! We barely managed to finish the harvest before we packed up all our things and took the train to Canterlot to get help from the Princess! Say, uh, do you know what's goin' on down here? There's a lot of guards about."

"Things...?" Twilight said, walking up next to Applejack. "Did these 'things' happen to walk on two-legs and use strange weapons?"

"And they wear blue or tan?"

"Exactly! So it wasn't just us, either, then..."

"Uh, mind tellin' me what exactly is goin' on here, Applejack?" Braeburn asked.

"These things - 'humans', one of our experts calls 'em - have been appearin' all over Equestria! First, they were in the Everfree, then they came to Ponyville and Appleloosa, and now it looks like they're here in Canterlot! I don't know what these humans are up to, but it can't be good. I mean, they tried to blow up our barn back at Sweet Apple Acres!"

"What?! That's absolutely horrible! Geez, if these things are really like that, then it's a good thing the royal guards are around to put a stop to 'em."

"Well, almost," Silverstar said. "Turns out they can't hurt us, but that works both ways."

"Yes, we saw that when they were running around Ponyville. There are always five wearing each of the respective colors, and they always seem to only fight against each other, but nopony else. Their objective is to destroy one of two key targets within each specific region for at least ten rounds."

"Uh, blow things up?" Braeburn said, raising an eyebrow. "Back when they were doin' all that crazy stuff at Appleloosa, they didn't blow anything up at all! Just went out into the streets and had a straight fight 'till one side won."

"Hmm, that's interesting..." Twilight said, raising a hoof to her chin. "Perhaps their methods of engagement vary between locations. Anyway, we were on our way to warn Princess Celestia about this."

"Well, shucks, I was headin' down to the castle, too! Sheriff Silverstar here was going to lead the folks down to... well, wherever we can grab a place to stay, I guess."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm sure Princess Celestia might be willing to accommodate something for the Appleloosans if I put in a good word."

"Thank you kindly, Twilight, we'd very much appreciate that. Now, what say you we head on down to the castle and--"

*POW*

A single powerful shot resonated as lightning cracked around the stadium and thunder shook the skies.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 2 - T: 2

"Hold on there, ma'am. Princess Celestia has ordered that the entire area around the stadium is off-limits to civilians. Please turn back and return to downtown."

"But the Wonderbolts are in there! Don't you know who I am?"

"Yes, ma'am, we all do, but orders are orders. I'll have to apologize and ask that you let the royal guards deal with this matter."

"But I've seen them before! I know what might happen. Let me in!"

"I'm sorry, but no."

Dash huffed. "Fine. But where are the Wonderbolts? Are they safe?"

The guard visibly shifted. "They're... currently in the process of being evacuated."

"That's a lie. Even I can do better than that. They're all caught up in this mess, aren't they?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "As an Element of Harmony and one of Princess Celestia's chosen protectors, I demand that you let me know what's going on in there!"

The guard maintained his steel-faced visage for the longest time... and then sighed. "Listen, it's really bad. Whatever it is going on inside there, the Wonderbolts, or at least their top four, are caught up in it. From what we can gather from eyewitnesses, Spitfire, Soarin', Fleetfoot, and Rapidfire are the ones still inside, and some sort of strange magic is preventing them from escaping."

"What? Then let me in, I'll get to them!" She attempted to push past him but was stopped by a solid hoof against her chest.

"No, ma'am. Orders are orders. It's too dangerous in there, and we can't--"

*bang bang*

"Oh, my gosh, Soarin'! Soarin'! Are you alright?" the two could barely hear Spitfire say through a grated window that led to the under-tunnels of the stadium.

"Why am I always the one getting hurt?! Can't these guys pick something else to use their hot-pain-pokey weapons on? Like a wall?!" Soarin' said.

"Where did it hit? Can you still walk?"

"Ugh, I think it hit me in the side... I feel like I should be dead right now, but my hooves keep moving!"

"Just... just hold on there, okay? We'll make it out of this just fine!"

"Oh, I hope so... buck, this really hurts."

Dash and the guard slowly looked at each other.

"So... I think I might be wrong..." Dash said. "I'm just going to go report back to my friend Twilight now..."

"Sure... you... go ahead and do that, then..." the guard replied.

With a turnabout, she ran off for the castle, hoping to meet Twilight there. This was big news. Things had changed, and changed a lot, and it seemed that the humans were clearly capable of hurting ponies now. And Spitfire and Soarin' were stuck in there in the middle of all of it! This day just couldn't get any worse.

*bang*

Hostage down!

"I - oh, my gosh, Soarin'! Soarin'?! Are you okay?! Soarin'!" Spitire cried out. She was cut off as another flurry of gunfire engulfed the night, like a symphony of angry drums beating to the atonal rhythm of the storm.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 3 - T: 2

"Ugh... what... what happened... where am I?" Soarin' said, his head feeling like it had just been hit by a brick.

"Soarin'! You're okay!" Spitfire elatedly said.

"Huh...? Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"I... I could have sworn that you just died."

"Oh... right. I remember that. As a reminder to everypony I meet, dying kind of sucks."

"Do you really think now is the time to be making jokes?" The distaste in her voice was evident.

"Sorry, sorry, just my coping mechanism, you know. But I really wish they'd stop picking me as a pincushion."

"Hostages are safe. Moving 'em now."

"Here we go again..." Spitfire said. Sure enough, the feeling of their bodies shifting their hooves towards whatever doorway they were going through. "Oh, showers, we're going through the locker rooms again."

"Hmm, I forgot, is this the stallion or mare's locker rooms?" Soarin' jokingly said. "But since you managed to point the showers out before I did..."

"Oh, dream on, flier boy."

"I will, don't worry." He chuckled. "So, which way is your locker, huh?" he said as they passed through the humid quarters.

"Soarin', really, you just died, I'm still in shock, and... okay, really, nevermind."

"I'm just coping. Gosh, I could use some pie right about now. Delicious and amazing pie... I really hope I - OW! Hey, that really freaking hurts!" He turned his head in various directions, ears trying to make sense of the gunfight around him. "Come on, hooves, move, damn it!" He felt two more sharp pains in his legs. "Aw, buck!" Then, as quickly as it had came, the fight ended, and they were moving again.

"Soarin'? You okay? I haven't heard from Fleetfoot or Rapidfire in a while..."

"Somepony called us?" Fleetfoot's voice said.

"Fleetfoot! Where are you?" Spitfire asked.

"Um... I think I'm standing... about a bench away from you? I can hear you loud and clear."

"Are you okay? Did you take any hits?"

"Yeah... I took a whole bunch on my way up to here. I don't know who these ponies are, but I think they're all crazy or something! I keep hearing them talk and then things go all explodey and then the next thing I know, I can't hear Rapidfire anymore! It's crazy!"

"Mmhmm," Rapidfire said. "I think I actually sort of... died... at one point." He voiced a shudder. "That was not fun business."

"You, too, huh?" Soarin' asked. "I'm starting to think they have something against stallions."

"Yeah. I think we're stuck with a different guy and - oh, yep, there we go, hooves moving again. Well, good luck to you, Soarin'. I hope the royal guards put these crackpots on trial and slam them with some hard jail time. I'd try to keep Fleetfoot safe, but obviously, I can't do it right now!" he said, as his voice faded.

"Hmm, seems a bit too quiet now..." Spitfire said.

*bang bang bang*

"Guh... oh, I definitely felt those ones..." Soarin' coughed.

"Not again! Just... just hold on, Soarin', you'll be fine!"

*ding*

A hostage has been rescued!

*ding*

A hostage has been rescued!

"Well, I guess they're safe... now I have to worry about my own skin..."

"Stop talking, you might give us away!"

"Spitfire, we're wearing sky-blue uniforms with flashy yellow lightning bolts on them. I don't think secrecy is high on our list of concerns at the moment." He gave a short raspy cough.

"You... well, yeah, okay, I'll give you that. But keep it down will you? No need to talk when you're hurt..."

"Sure. Anyway, I swear, when I get out, I'm going to eat so many pies..."

"Don't talk! You're hurt right now, just hold on, okay?"

A rush of air flew through their manes yet again. Rescue was close. They only had to wait but a moment longer as their mysterious shepherd led them towards their momentary salvation.

*bang*

"Sss, ah!" Spitfire hissed. A shot found her straight in the side.

"Yep, just keep moving, Spitfire, ignore the pain!"

"You make it sound so easy..."

"Already died once, can't be any worse than that!"

"Well, I think that--"

*ding*

A hostage has been rescued!

*ding*

A hostage has been rescued!

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 4 - T: 2

"Panic! Panic in the streets!" a crazed stallion shouted before running out of the bar.

Braeburn sat at his table, nursing his own drink as he stared down at his reflection. At his cousin's behest, he had opted to stay behind and help the Appleloosans. And what a great idea that had turned out to be... despite Celestia granting them immediate asylum, the panic in the streets was still fully held the city in its grasp.

"Shucks, doesn't look like it's gettin' any better," Silverstar said, the gruff sheriff sitting right next to him. "It's like a honkin' madhouse out there."

Braeburn frowned at the ongoing ruckus from the crowd, taking a long drink from his mug. "Well, sheriff, I reckon I've seen a lot of crazy things in my lifetime, but this one takes the cake."

"I'll say," Silverstar said, responding in kind by taking a sip from his own drink. "I hope the Princess can get this whole mess sorted out 'fore it snowballs out of control... like what happened back in Appleloosa with the buffalo."

"Now, sheriff, that was just a misunderstanding, and you know how stubborn both of our sides were. This is nothin' of the sort. Here we got crazy two-legged beings running around with weapons that spew fire and lightning that don't want to negotiate for anythin'. That's kind of hard to work with."

"I hear the Wonderbolts are all caught up in the middle of this."

"Really now? Wish I could do more, but I guess it's out of our hooves with how the royal guard locked down this city faster than a pony can blink. 'Sides, we aren't trained to do deal with crazies like 'em, anyway."

"You hear that loud voice in the sky? Applejack says it's always around when those guys show up."

"No kidding? Judgin' from I heard, it's a mighty huge fight goin' on inside. Strange weapons they got, downright fearsome, but I think our little guess that they can't hurt ponies just got blown straight out of the water."

"Probably picked the Wonderbolts on purpose, I'd reckon. Popular, high-profile, and with plenty of folks worryin' their flanks off for 'em." A large group of royal guards passed the bar window as Silverstar fiddled with his mustache. "At least we have a nice view from the hotel's bar..."

Braeburn chuckled. "Yeah, I guess there's that. Now, if there's any chance that this gets sorted out, I'd--" He stopped as he squinted out the window at a passing entourage of royal guards. "Hey... hey, Silverstar! Is that who I think it is?"

"Isn't that... Princess Luna?"

"Yeah!" A roar of cheers appeared as Luna appeared before the large crowd on a stage, holding up a hoof to silence the crowd. "What do you reckon she's here for?"

"Damage control, obviously," Silverstar said, walking up to the window. "I took one when I was a sheriff. Need some way to keep the folks under control without havin' half the town's property all trampled to pieces by panic stampedes."

"Greetings, citizens of Canterlot!" Luna said in her Royal Canterlot Voice. "I beseech you all to return to your homes for the time being and let the expertise of the Equestrian Royal Guard deal with the situation! We are aware that the stadium has strange intruders wielding otherworldly weapons, and have sealed off the area for the time being! We have the situation under control and are actively working to resolve it as soon as possible!"

"But..." A stallion poked his head out over the crowd. "...what about the Wonderbolts? They're still in there! I heard them! They're all stuck with those wackos inside the stadium!" The crowd exploded into excited whispers, many of them not hearing such news until now.

"Fear not, dearest subjects! We are already working on a method to effect a rescue for the Wonderbolts! We hope that you will trust us and maintain discretion over the night! It is fully intended that we shall have them rescued before the night is over!"

The moonlight barely shone through the heavy cloud cover as the rain continued to lightly drizzle, as another lightning bolt with a crack of thunder resonated through the skies. It faded out slowly... and then a shrill scream sent chills down the spines of everypony within the city limits.

"Well, shoot..." Braeburn said. "I think that was one of the Wonderbolts."

"Can't they just fly out of there?" Silverstar asked.

"Nope. Applejack's friend says they got some kind of fancy-shmancy magic-negatin' doohickeys, or something like that. Pegasi can't fly and unicorns can't use their magic."

"That explains why I've seen so many guards just standin' around doin' nothin'..."

"I reckon they can't do much without their magic. I wonder if it affects the Princesses..."

*crack*

"Buck!" Silverstar cursed. "That was one tootin' loud crack of thunder!"

"Uh... sheriff. That wasn't thunder."

"Those crazy wackos' weapons again?"

Braeburn nodded.

"The royal guards shall be enacting their plan within the next few hours! Do not tarry any longer and return to your homes for the time being! If your home happens to be within the stadium district, please speak with the nearest royal guard and arrangements shall be made for you for the time being! I thank you all for your cooperation!" Luna said, as the strange omniscient voice entered as soon as her statement had ended.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 5 - T: 2

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight said, running into the room with the Elements of Harmony. Dash had rejoined them as soon as possible and relayed her new findings to Twilight. Needless to say, they took immediate action. "We have news on the information of the attack at the stadium!"

Celestia looked up from her throne, as Derpy sat before her. "Ah, Twilight. I'm glad you could join us. Miss Derpy here has just informed me of the situation in Ponyville. It would appear that your problem has spread to Canterlot."

"Not just Ponyville, Your Majesty!" Applejack said. "They also showed up at Appleloosa, too! Would have ruined the whole dang harvest if one of our own didn't take matters into his own hooves."

"Well, have they seen fit to destroy any buildings of value yet?" Celestia asked. "Miss Derpy here seems to indicate that their primary focus is on destroying buildings."

"No, Princess," Twilight said. "According to new information that I obtained from Rainbow Dash, there's a good chance that they now have the ability to hurt ponies! She heard one of the Wonderbolts become injured from within the stadium by the humans' weapons!"

"So, they are called 'humans', hmm? Are the humans openly hostile to ponies?" Celestia maintained her neutral face, waiting on an answer from Twilight.

"Um... no, Princess. They mostly focus on fighting each other... well, most of the time, that is. It seems to be different this time, but I don't know why. Originally, their weapons had no effect on ponies whatsoever!"

"Perhaps their prolonged existence within Equestria has strengthened their abilities to the point where they can do harm to us. But with their magic nullification field in effect, I'm afraid we have little options in stopping them."

"What about the Elements of Harmony?" Rarity asked. "Perhaps we can use them to banish them from our land!"

"A strange choice," Celestia said, "but one that I fear we may have to resort to as it seems that even my magic is failing me. At most, I can only do basic telekinesis with moderately large objects."

"Then we have to act immediately, Princess!"

"Very well. We shall use the Elements of Harmony on these new intruders, and stop them from threatening Equestria!"

"Also, another note, Princess," Twilight said, going into full-on egghead mode. "They always seem to play for rounds out of ten to determine a victor. There's a very good possibility that they'll be doing the same for here, as well."

"Hmm. Then perhaps it was a good idea that I had sent my sister to survey the situation. She has standing orders to rescue the Wonderbolts and bring them here to the castle for safety. If what you say is true, then we must stop the humans from proliferating throughout Equestria."

"We're prepared to do whatever it takes, Princess!"

Celestia stood up from her throne and gave a now-serious look at Twilight. "Then ready yourselves. They are about to venture elsewhere, and I need you to be able to travel on a moment's notice to stop them."

"Prin... cess? How can you tell?" Twilight said, tilting her head quizzically.

"Because one of their sides has managed at least six victories in a row, while the other have only managed two."

"You kept track of all of that?" Celestia only nodded silently to Twilight.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

"And that would mean that they are finished. Twilight, and company, prepare yourselves immediately. We have much work to do."

Their intended plan all went down the drain, of course, when five blue-clad figures appeared in the center of the throne room, standing idly before the next match was set to begin.

"Oh, no... not here, too..." Twilight mumbling.

END MATCH SCORE:

Counter-Terrorists: 6
Terrorists: 2

MATCH RESULT: Counter-Terrorists Win!

MAP ROTATION:
Current Map: cs_wonderbolts
Next Map: de_castle

de_castle

CT: 0 - T: 0

"No... no, no, no, no, no!" Twilight repeated. "They can't be here!"

"Sister!" Luna appeared quickly with the Wonderbolts and a group of royal guard with her. "We have successfully rescued the Wonderbolts from harm! It is strange, though, the beings suddenly disappeared and..." She noticed the blue-clad on the side of the throne room. "...oh, dear."

Spitfire and Soarin', along with Fleetfoot and Rapidfire, stood behind her warily gazing at the idling blue-clad soldiers. "They aren't going to... shoot us again, are they?" Soarin' asked.

"That remains to be seen, my little pony," Celestia said.

"Your Majesty!" a voice shouted from outside. "Something has appeared on the side of the astronomy tower!"

"What is it, guard?"

"It's... I think it's a crudely painted 'A'! Colored in orange and slapped directly on the side of the tower for all to see!"

"So they have returned to their standard antics, then." Celestia looked to Twilight, and past her, the blue-clad. "We must go quickly now, Twilight. Luna, stay here and guard this room. We shall begin the preparations for using the Elements of Harmony for banishing these humans from our world."

"As you wish, sister," Luna said. "Guards! Maintain observation on these humans at all times! And keep your distance away from the bomb sites!"

"But, ma'am, we don't even know where the other one is!" a guard said.

"I know!" A unicorn guard burst into the room. "Bed... room... Princess Celestia's bedroom!" he panted. "Big... 'B'... door!"

"The Princess's bedchambers?!" Twilight inquired. "But... why? What's so important about that place?"

"You mean other than the fact that they're Princess Celestia's bedchambers?" Dash responded. "I don't know, I'd say that's kind of important. I mean, it's practically the only place where Celestia can get time for herself when she's not busy doing her Princess-y stuff."

"Rainbow Dash is correct," Celestia said. "These... 'terrorists' must have a grim agenda indeed if they wish to strike at my only bastion of solace. We must stop them! Come, to the courtyard!"

"Alright, let's go." The blue-clad sprung into action and ran out of the throne room. It took not more than a few seconds before their gunfight started.

"They're in the courtyard! All of them are!" another guard shouted from the second floor.

"We must take this chance, Twilight. Strike them all down at once while we still have the chance!" Celestia commanded. Twilight nodded and looked to her friends, who nodded back at her in turn.

"Then let's kick some flank!" Applejack said.

The Elements of Harmony all ran outside, and feeling the ancient and powerful magic within them well up, invoked the Elements to appear on them. Twilight's eyes glowed with pure energy as the six ponies slowly rose into the sky as the humans below them continued their firefight unbothered. An explosion of light engulfed the courtyard, a direct blast that would have left no evil standing.

"Agh, I'm blinded!" one of the tan-clad shouted.

Twilight gasped as she fell to the ground. "It... the Elements... they... they didn't work?" She looked to Celestia, who awaited on the steps behind them, and slowly closed her eyes in failure. The most they could do was only temporarily inconvenience them with Equestria's most powerful artifacts...

"I had feared as such..." Celestia said. "These humans are no normal threat. If they should go unstopped, there is a good chance that all of Equestria will be permanently threatened by their games... and we may have to relocate the country entirely to escape them."

"Relocate?!" all six mares and baby dragon shouted in unison.

*bang*

The blue-clad soldiers won this preliminary victory against the tan-clad in the pistol match.

Counter-Terrorists Win!

CT: 1 - T: 0

"No, we are not in danger of relocating, so long as we still have options," Celestia said. "Quickly, come with me. We must venture to the vault!"

"But, Princess," Twilight said, "I thought the vault was for the Elements of Harmony?"

"That was their original purpose, yes, but in time, that purpose expanded." Celestia motioned them to follow, and they obliged. Galloping through the halls of the castle, Celestia continued her explanation. "The vault is home to many powerful magical artifacts gathered throughout Equestria, dozens of them. There may be the slim chance that at least one of them might work... and if they should not, then I am afraid that not even my sister and I can deal with this threat so long as their nullification field remains in effect."

"Did you gather them all, Princess?"

"No, not necessarily... but let us just agree that those Daring Do books may as well be considered autobiographies of a certain adventurous mare under my employ, and we'll leave it at that."

"Whoa! You mean Daring Do actually exists?! And she steals ancient treasures for the Princess?!" Dash said excitedly. "Oh, this is so awesome! I want to meet her!"

"In due time, Rainbow Dash," Celestia assured her. "But for now..." They passed into the high-vaulted arch ceilings that the vault room contained. "Now... we must act!" She quickly unlocked the vault door using her horn, and within lay a huge number of weirdly-shaped and random magical artifacts.

"Um... Princess..." Applejack said. "You sure it's alright to just grab these things and start usin' 'em? Do we even know what they do?"

"All of them have confirmed spell properties labeled out to me when they were turned in. All of them have direct magical effects on targets as one of their functions. All the user must simply do is to will it to happen, and the effect shall appear. Quickly now, I'm afraid we don't have much time."

The bomb has been planted!

"Definitely not much time," Rarity said, picking up a sizeable jewel bordered in a gold-plated frame adorned with more jewels. "I think I shall take this one. Oh, look at it, isn't it just beautiful?" She accidentally pushed one of the jewels in the frame and activated it, producing disco light patterns from the gem and smashing the stained glass in the room with a high-pitched noise. "Well, I'm sure this might do something."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Dash said, picking up what looked like a flail with sharp pointy edges. "Uh... how's this one work?" She tapped it on the ground and produced a shockwave that threw her backwards into the wall. "Ugh... yeah... so that's how it works... I'll take this one."

Fluttershy picked up a small wand with her mouth. When she activated it, it produced a small wisp of light that quickly disappeared. "Um... I shink I'll take zhis one," she mumbled.

Applejack picked up something more old-fashioned: a well-crafted set of enchanted horseshoes. "Now this looks mighty interestin'." She bucked a wall and produced a huge crater in it. "Well, I ain't sure if we can hit these guys this time 'round, but better to try than not."

"Ooooooooooh, lookie, everypony!" Pinkie appeared from the vault wearing a crown vaguely made to look like a cake. "I think this looks great!" She closed her eyes and concentrated hard. A single giant cake appeared at the end of the hallway, then prompted exploded with thundering force, earning uproarious giggles from Pinkie. "Exploding cakes! Now how about that?"

Twilight looked around in the vault. "Surely there must be something I can use..." she mumbled. Finding nothing of use, she picked up a small orb-shaped object that had 'M67' inscribed on the side. "This looks promising, if a bit small." She read the instructions on it. "Hold down priming spoon, pull pin to arm, and then throw... well, that doesn't seem too hard. Where'd this one come from, Princess?"

"Hmm?" Celestia had picked up a giant sword, and used her telekinesis to test its weight. "Oh, that thing? I'm not entirely sure as to what it is. Daring had said in her report that she found it in some strange ruins in the middle of a rainforest somewhere. She also mentioned that there were a lot of wooden boxes sitting around, as well. I'd assume it does something after you throw it, though, so be mindful of everypony else when you do."

"Okay..." Twilight gave it to Spike, who looked at it with curiosity. "Don't play with it, Spike. Remember, everything that we're using here is a weapon against the humans."

"Right, right." Spike lowered his arm with sphere still in hand and looked at Twilight. "So I guess that means everypony's good to go, then?"

"Indeed," Celestia said. "And now, we march!"

*BOOM*

"The tower! The tower has been destroyed at the base!" a guard's shouted echoed in.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 1 - T: 1

"So, remind me what we're supposed to do again?" Dash asked, peeking over the sandbags.

"We're supposed to stop them as soon as they show up," Rarity said. "These ruffians have caused enough trouble for everypony around."

"And when this is all over, we can have a party!" Pinkie said.

The three sat at the end of the hallway, directly in front of Princess Celestia's door, accompanied by two royal guards who maintained their posts. Twilight and the rest had gone with Celestia to try to stop the humans from destroying the astronomy tower yet again, though the sight of it instantaneously reconstructing itself shocked even the Princess.

"Human! Twelve o'clock!" Pinkie shouted, and shut her eyes. A fluffy frosting-lined cake appeared at the foot of the tan-clad approaching down the hallway and exploded. "Yeah, take that you... uh, Dashie? Rarity? I... I don't think it did anything!"

"Take this, you ruffians!" Rarity held up her jewel above the sandbag level and activated it, sending bright and color beams of strobe lights down the corridor. "Haha! Fear the might of this incredible jewel!" The tan-clad were blinded and began running in random directions, while some of them simply stopped and crouched as they waited for their loss of sight to subside.

Dash hopped over the sandbag and charged towards them, slamming the flail into the ground and sending her flying into the sandbags. It had a pronounced effect as it did the same for the tan-clad, and propelled them to the end of the hallway to begin their advance anew.

"Haha! Look, it worked! We can stop them this way!" Dash said, readying the flail in her mouth again.

Pinkie laughed like a madmare. "Take that, you crazy wackos! Hahaha! Have some exploding cake! Get the buck out of our land and never come back! You jerks are going to ruin Equestria and now I never want you here again forever! And on that, I PINKIE PROMISE!" She lapsed for a moment and turned around. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye! OW!" She whirled back around with her angry face. "Alright, let's do this!"

Dash gave a war cry as she charged forward into the incoming crowd, swinging her mace wildly while Rarity continued her light-beam onslaught. Pinkie's exploding cakes combined with the other two produced a hugely disorienting effect on the small group of tan-clad, numbering three, and stopping them from advancing towards the bedroom.

Now, the real test was in how long they could maintain their defense...

***

"Do you see anythin', Twi?" Applejack asked, poking her head into a nearby bush and seeing nothing.

"I don't see anything at all, Applejack. What about you, Fluttershy?"

"I... I don't see anything... and the animals here tell me that everything is fine... oh, for now, at least."

"Wait! I see somethin'!" Applejack said, leaning forward to get a better look. "A bunch of them fellers are comin' into the courtyard now!"

"Look for the one with the bomb and stop him!" Twilight followed the instructions on the green sphere and threw it into the incoming group of tan-clads. She nearly jumped when it exploded, leaving a huge cloud of smoke in the aftermath. "What... what was that?!"

"I think that was a bomb, Twilight," Applejack stated.

"But I didn't know that! Oh, no, did I just kill them?" She started hyperventilating. "What if I'm--" A bullet whizzed past her ear as the tan-clad fired at her. "What?! They're still alive?!" The humans exited the smoke with only minor damage done to them, quickly turning around to engage the blue-clad squad taking up positions within the castle walls.

"Is it just me, Twi, or are there more of them this time 'round?" Applejack asked, jabbing at a tan-clad but only having her hoof phase through the form. "Buck! I was so sure that would work." She tossed off the horseshoes and rejoined Twilight and Fluttershy. "Well, ain't this a pretty sight? It's a straight-up hoedown right in the middle of the Princess's castle."

"Four... five... six.... seven... You're right, Applejack! There are more of them! This is getting really bad." Twilight turned around only to run into a group of blue-clad. "What?!"

"T-Twilight..." Fluttershy said. "They're... everywhere...!" Fluttershy shuddered and a single wispy mote flew forth from her wand, only for it to collide harmlessly against the blue-clad.

She whirled around to see the entire courtyard engulfed in a massive battle. In almost every outcropping or window, there was a human manning the station. Why were there so many? Where did they all come from? Why were they even here in the first place?!

"Twilight!" Celestia bounded over a pair of humans fighting each other with knives. "We're running out of time! Quickly, follow me! I've instructed Luna to bring the rest of the Elements of Harmony with her."

The bomb has been planted!

"But, Princess, the--"

"Now, Twilight!"

Twilight begrudgingly followed, leaving the tower to its ill fate as they met up with Luna and her group at the vault.

"Sister, what do we do?! These humans are nigh unstoppable, and all of our efforts to deter them have little effect!"

"They shot off my cake crown..." Pinkie whimpered, holding the pieces of the crown in her hooves.

"And my giant ball-on-a-stick broke!" Dash grumbled.

"This jewel ran out of power!" Rarity said, poking her now-gray jewel.

"The guards are quickly exhausting the remainder of the artifacts," Celestia said. "It won't be long until all of Equestria is engulfed in this!"

Then, as if by divine intervention, the vault glowed with a holy light from within, as an angelic choir voiced the appearance of something deeply important within. Celestia carefully ventured into the empty vault, only to find a single object on the floor, one that had a small note sitting on top of it.

(===)

Princess Celestia,

I figured you needed some help, so use this. Hit them with it and they'll go away.

-GabeN

P.S. Once you're done with it, leave it in the vault. This is a short-term loan, and I'd like to have it back.

(===)

Celestia lowered the note and looked upon the ornate weapon. It was a hammer, a very large one at that, made of resplendent steel and gold-trimmed with a large fiery gem on the pommel. On the handle read a strange word, one that Celestia had never seen before.

"Ban... hammer...?" she voiced out loud.

*BOOM*

The tower fell yet again in the distance, as the guards streamed into the room with their own used-up artifacts, only to stare at the object in wonder with the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony.

Terrorists Win!

CT: 1 - T: 2

"Stay here, Twilight!" Celestia picked up the hammer with her telekinesis, swinging it around like she had with the sword. It had a meaty weight behind it, and would most certainly deliver divine justice to these intruding humans. "I shall go out and deal with the threat myself."

"Are you sure it'll work, Your Majesty?" a guard asked.

"This is our last chance. It must work."

She walked outside and watched the chaos unfolding. Jumping into the fray, she raised the hammer, and took a swing at one of the humans.

*poof*

The human disappeared instantly, as if he were never there, equipment and all. Celestia smiled and began swinging the hammer wildly as she hopped around the courtyard, quickly dwindling down the number of humans 'till nothing remained.

"Sister!" Luna walked out of the vault room with her own hammer. "Look! The fun has been doubled!" She turned to her right and smacked the nearest group of humans, banishing them all with a single swing. "Haha! Surely they cannot hope to stand against us now!"

They quickly ran through the castle, frolicking as they brought justice swiftly to every unfortunate human found throughout the castle. Some of the guards were absolutely horrified that the Princesses were gaining some sort of enjoyment from it, but after having to deal with the humans in a prolonged period of time, it was better to just deal with it.

"And is that the last of them, sister?" Celestia asked.

"Indeed. I have scoured the last of the scoundrels from Manehattan. I believe our lands are safe once more. Shall we return the hammers to the vault, then?"

"Ah, yes, speaking of the vault... the letter stated that the hammers will only be returned if and only if we have banished all the humans from our realm. This GabeN entity has been the greatest boon for us. Perhaps we should thank him?"

"I'll do it!" Pinkie hopped forward. "We can send back a whole box of cupcakes!"

"Then a whole box of cupcakes it shall be, then," Celestia said, chuckling. She levitated the hammer into the vault, and placed her own hoof-written scroll on top, a correspondence of thanks to their unknown savior. Pinkie stepped forth with her mysteriously materialized-out-of-nowhere box of cupcakes and placed it on top.

"Thank you, mystery pony!" Pinkie said. "I hope you enjoy my cupcakes!"

They shut the door, sending the room into pitch blackness for but a moment until they opened up the doors again, only to find the hammers and the cupcake box gone.

Meanwhile, at Valve Headquarters...

"Whoa!" Gabe Newell jumped back from his seat as the hammers materialized out of thin air and slammed into the floor with a hard thud. "Right... well, at least the prototype for the actual portal gun is working just fine." He moved the hammers into his secret weapon stash located right behind his massive shelf full of knives, and kicked it shut. "Oh, look, cupcakes!"

He picked up the box and rolled over to his desk on his squeaky office chair, ready to enjoy Pinkie Pie's most delectable cupcakes in all of Equestria. Opening the box, he accidentally knocked over his portal gun, and opened a single portal towards the early evening moon that shone in the sky, and looked inside.

"Wow, these look really nice!" He picked up one and dropped the box. "Oh, crap..." He flung himself forward to catch the box, but only ended up stepping on the portal gun again, opening the entry portal in the floor as the room as the vacuum of space began to rush into his office.

"Oh... noooooooooo!" He quickly grabbed the portal gun and keyed the release on it, deactivating the portals and flopping to the ground. Taking deep breaths, he struggled to regain his air, but was thankful that at least some of the cupcakes were intact.

Standing up and taking the bite of the first cupcake, he noticed something missing. Something important. Something that should have been sitting at the edge of his table. That something was integral to Valve's next release, and now he had just blown it all down the drain by throwing it to the moon. There was no going back for that one. Perhaps moving the entire source code for Half-Life 3 on to a hard drive was a pretty stupid move.

But the internet was after him! They almost caught him, and he had to make sure no one, not even anyone at Valve, were aware that it existed! He stored all the files on the hard drive, wiped all the extra copies, and mind-wiped everyone in the office to make sure. Only he knew the secret. And now it was out... in the middle of space.

"Aw, damn it."

MATCH RESULT: N/A
All players banned from game by admin Princess Celestia

EXTRA: de_ponyvillenight

The night had long since fallen, and Luna's shining moon hung high in the sky, Lyra lay awake that night, too riled up by the day's events to focus on sleeping, even with Bonbon softly breathing right next to her. It had been several weeks since the humans were permanently banished from Equestria, and she had been sad to hear that she wouldn't be seeing them again... but, oh, how delicious it had been to rub it in the faces of all those naysayers! Humans actually existed!

But she was still sad that they were gone... she would have loved to speak with them some more, maybe even get involved in that weird game of theirs and use real human objects! She heard a shuffle in the treeline outside, and stealthily exited her bed to see out the window.

It was the humans! The humans had returned!

Slowly opening the window, she quickly crawled outside and followed them to their meeting point. In a small alley behind Ponyville, a small group of them gathered, no doubt to continue their insane game of war within the unsuspecting streets and alleys of Ponyville in the midst of the night.

Lyra quickly crawled in behind them. If they noticed her, they paid no mind.

"Hey, guys... can I join?"

Then, in the blink of an eye, she appeared out in the clearing where she saw them earlier that day... except it was different. She stood immobile among them, and she looked down to see herself wearing that same blue uniform that the other four humans were wearing, as well as the fanciful mask that they all boasted.

Player Lyra Heartstrings has joined the game.

The End... or is it?