WARNING! CONTAINS A MASSIVE, UNRESOLVED CLIFFHANGER BECAUSE I GOT TIRED OF WRITING
A no man’s zone, full of gravel, sand, nearly exploded bombs, dead and living men, and bullets was before him. A man in a blue suit, laced with thin marks of a lighter shade, a full face mask worthy of a bandit, and a well-tailored tie, was set with one objective at the moment: capture a few small zones in the Dustbowl from Redmond’s Reliable Excavation Demolition Corporation. This was an easy task, as he had some key allies, a man with eleven degrees, a miracle maker medically, a brute with a gun larger than his head, and a disguise kit. He also had a knife, but it was only for emergencies.
The clever man, a spy, pulled out his digital assistant, and chose to disguise as one of the enemy: the lunatic patriotic known as Jane Doe, or the Soldier. He looked at his watch, and pressed a small button, placing a timer on himself. He walked off, invisible to the naked eye, weaving between rockets, explosives, and a small amount of crossbow fire.
The dust moved around him like the smoothest of bodies, twisting, landing and turning. The deep reds of the dust reminded Spy of the bounty here: the iron. This, was why the Dustbowl was so important, because the almost endless amount of iron found within the fragments of the soil. It was almost martian, the soil, and if no one else was here, it may well turly have stayed that way. There was a mine, however, proving that not only humans had been here, but that iron had been discovered and exploited to the fullest here. He was throttled out of this, by a simple reminder of his cloak meter: “25% cloak”.
Men were screaming, as the spy clocked into his team’s comms.
Spy watched the battle closely, as he was usually assigned to, hence his shorthand. The narrow corridor he was advancing toward was next to the last of the control-points nearby, of which, RED was the defender of. The glowing sign, boasting the fact that RED was in control was backstage by the towering tripod-attached turret. The head of which had a single sputter, poised to shoot a volley of bullets in mere moments. The man repairing this, was the RED counterpart to their Engineer.
That Engineer sported a work shirt in RED red, and a hardhat. His focus was to make sure his sentry was a threat and that his teammates, through the use of the dispensers, were ready to fight quickly. Spy could do something to the man, if he was out in the open, sap his sentry and his dispenser, but he couldn’t at the moment. He was somewhat low on cloak, and if he didn’t find someone to kill or notify his team to kill, he’d be a dead man.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a short boy of a man, carrying a scattergun. The gun was clean, bloodless for a short moment, until a stray bomb rolled next to him, a moment later the bomb exploded, causing the Scout to bleed.
“The Scout is hurt. He will retreat soon, if he is smart. If any one of you can kill him, that would be good. I need to get to the engineer, and my invisibility is running low.” The spy told his team.
“Sure, little baby man was going to die anyway”, the Heavy weapons guy responded, changing his sights to the fleeing Scout. Every bullet pierced the man’s body, causing him to collapse as he died once again.
“Thank you.” The spy responded as he refilled his cloak. But, as soon as he did this, he heard a panicked scream from the REDs, “Spy! There’s a Spy near us!”. It was Soldier, the very man he was disguised as.
The spy retreated, losing his chance. “Well, you have next time!”, Ludwig, Builders League United’s Medic, exclaimed, attempting to support the spy emotionally. It did not help, nor did his delivery bring him any hope. The Medic was excited at the prospect of a next time, for it would be another carcass (no matter whose it was) to examine while waiting for a re-spawn. This Spy did not want to be experimented on again. That day as a disembodied head filled his nightmares, and lungs sometimes.
“I will go back to base, I hope you three can do this without me.”, the rouge told his allies. He felt a little disappointed, for one simple mistake had cost him a great deal of assistance with his current team. He’d been in this war for years, playing for the winning side (whichever that was at the moment, currently it was BLU), fighting against another spy, who fought against him. Perhaps he should get on with his life, find another contract, he thought. But, of course, he could not at the moment, too many people would be after him. The fighting was endless, however, so he had to introduce something to make sure RED and BLU could never fight again.
He continued walking, nearing his spawn room with RED Soldier on his tail. Spy wanted some time to think, so he had to not die, shotgun bullets flew at him. “Get back here, you copycatting maggot!” Soldier screamed, but the few bullet wounds would heal, even if the pain was incredibly sharp. He began to think once again once he had healed himself with the first aid in the locker room.
Perhaps a weapon could suffice. He knew that his Engineer was working on a super-tank, impervious to all weapons known to man, but RED’s engineer was working with his medic for an infin-ubercharge, which would grant essential immortality to two men at a time. Neither project had gotten the greenlight from Redmond or Blutarch, and a small fear had been opened, years ago. The two companies seemed to profit off of the fighting. He needed to do something, but what?
He needed to assassinate one of them, and soon. He could stage it as a mission to re-negotiate a contract to rejoin RED, but he knew that the personnel there, the very men he had been fighting, would kill him in an instant, without the chance to live again. A few years ago, he had asked Saxton Hale to help him try to fight his way to one of the bosses, only a few minutes later, the strongest and (possibly) the bravest, man in Australia was screaming like a baby. He needed a weapon to blow them clear off the map if he was going to do any real damage to the place.
He had an idea of just where to get a weapon. He began walking towards the quaint logo of a wrench in blue background, the Texan marvel just out of reach. “Heya, partner… you have that look in your eye that tells me you ain’t just getting another suit. Tell me, what’s on your mind, Spy?” Dell was perhaps the one man, other than Jeremy, his son that he now had to fight, that could really read the Spy’s gaze. It was necessary, as a man just like the Spy was always on the Engineer’s tail.
“Well, I’d like to stop this fighting once and for all.” Spy said.
“Don’t we all?” The Texan with a toolbelt said back.
“Perhaps not. Redmond and Blutrach seem to profit on us fighting.” Spy ‘explained’.
“I thought you’d notice sooner.” Dell said.
“I did, but kept that to myself.” Spy responded.
“Thank God you’re not dumb” ‘Engie’ laughed shortly thereafter. His laugh was almost always incredibly maniacal, his body and hardhat bouncing with great energy and foolishness. It always made Spy incredibly uncomfortable, even if he knew that all of them, including himself, were insane for even trying to be a mercenary.
“Well, back to the more important-” Spy started,
“Nothin’ can be more important than makin’ sure you’re not as dumb as a rock!”, Engineer interrupted. Spy coughed loudly to reign back in Dell’s attention,
“-matter, I think that if we can bring a weapon from another world, we could bring a weapon, into the war, or into the face of Redmond to finish this.” Spy continued.
“Well, I have exactly that, but I can’t control where you go if you use it. I can save a set of coordinates after you go.” Engineer said.
“So it is untested?” Spy asked.
“Yes. If you wanna be a test subject, go right ahead.” Engie responded.
“Thank you for being honest with me, unlike Medic.” Spy said.
The two began walking down the path of the sometimes horrific, disgusting things that were the Engineer and Medic’s braintrust inventions, until they were at the farthest from anyone or anything. The back of the hall, dim and wide, stood a tower, bustling with electronic parts, flashing and sputtering, mechanical parts clanging and bangning, the improvised mess styled into a phone booth.
“Did you really take the design from Doctor Who?” the Spy asked.
The Engineer laughed, knowing it would aggravate the Spy, just a little. Engie knew more about the Spy than the Spy knew about himself, perhaps other than his name. He saw a man that could be a soft, humble man if he could let go of the commitments that he has forced himself into. He saw a man that needed this, and finally, could get it. Perhaps, Spy, the father, could shine in a few weeks from now. Perhaps, it’ll never shine. It all rides on this one test run.
A small town, empty at the moment, with pale grasses and bright horses was enjoying itself today. Each pastel pony carrying around their children and loved ones, celebrating their lives in splendor, such as every day was. These ponies were greatful for their lives, accomplishments, and abilites. It was always a joy to be in Ponyville, even in the greatest of crisis.
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Ponyville was quite quiet around now, most of the ponies staying inside to enjoy lunch with their families or close friends. It was slightly after noon now, and the green grasses of the town, along with the almost gingerbread houses. Most houses here were similar, resembling a flourishing medieval town’s middle strata. The Cafe Hay was the most empty of all the places, because employees usually took a lunch break around this time, dining on what they had made for customers.
Rarity was enjoying a lunch by herself at the Cafe Hay, with a Hay Sandwich and hours oudvures (meatless, because most ponies do not eat meat, other than the desperate) as a side dish, when she felt a vibration in the ground. One vibration turned to two, then to three, and then it turned to hundreds, becoming a torrent. Rarity had to hold onto the chair she was just standing on to not be blown away. The winds became stronger, her hair messier and messier compared to what was once a beautiful mane. The mane, purple in color, was unfurling from where it once was, a set of small arcs creating a loop near the face, into long strands pulling towards the cafe.
As soon as the ripples came, they died, Rarity hastily bringing herself back to a sitting position, using a comb she hastily cleaned to brush her mane back to some semblance of her preferred design. As she stared at herself, she saw a phone booth, blue and kind of tacky staring back… Or was that a stallion?
Spy had just been through the most nauseating trip of his life, and now found himself feeling two feet shorter, for some reason. As he walked out of the “Tardis” Dell had built, he glanced at a small cafe in a small town, finally realizing he was alive as the rogue planted his feet onto the ground, the grass squished and landed on… hooves?
“...H-” He shushed himself, telling himself to act natural, but also to try to figure out what happened to him. Rarity, the marshmallow-white beauty of a mare before him. God, did I really just think that about a horse? Spy asked himself.
He looked away from the pony sitting right next to where he was… standing? It sure did not feel like standing to him.
“Have a seat, sir.” Rarity opened.
“No, really, I must go.” Spy said Spy found himself at a loss for words, not having a plan to worm his way out of this.
“I insist, if you’re a timetraveller like Dr.Whooves, I think you’d have enough time on your hooves to have a chat.” Rarity implored. Spy really didn’t like what he was getting into, no matter what he did, if he left, he'd look suspicious to the… how many other people are here?
Spy looked around, trying to find a person nearby.
“I’d rather not, madme, but, I suppose I should ask you: what is your name?”, while he asked, he tried to yank a hair off her body, as fodder for a disguise.
“Rarity-” the pluck was sharp, but quick, “-and WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY HAIR?”, but before she could do anything, the Spy was gone.
The Spy loaded in the small strand of purple into the disguise kit’s cigars, and he was forced out of his invisibility for a moment, breathing heavily behind an alley. The charade was formed, and he set that as the first hotkey on his disguise list, and began to attempt to act like Rarity until he realized no one was where he was either. He fumbled at Rarity’s stride, looking improper as to what she did by miles. He reactivated his invisibility watch, and scampered back to a place to recuperate. After walking around for a bit, the Spy chose to go near a pond for a moment of relief. He went out of his invisibility, the noise not quite as loud as he remembered. That was a pretty reliving thing to hear, as that means others would be further hard-pressed to know if he was there.
The reflection became the object of interest, as he saw he was a horse, as he suspected (but slightly feared). “God, I’ve become a horse.” He continued gazing down, staring down his suit. “At least my suit is clean… and fits me.” He thought about that for a moment, wondering how he and his suit matched the people within this odd little town. He had known that the Engineer had said that he knew not where he would be, and that this was a test run. But, what “in the Sam Hill” did turning into a pony have anything to do with it? As he sat down, trying to figure that out, he noticed an odd marking on where he assumed is butt was. It was of two masks, a smiling one, and a frowning one next to a smaller one. What is this, Spy thought.
Perhaps I could find a book about this, he told himself. But, what would these people even call it, if they even had a name for it? he wondered. He knew not, so he decided to use his cloak to figure something out.
Dell wondered how he would tell the rest of BLU the news that Spy was gone, possibly forever. I could try, his thoughts paused for a moment, thinking about this, when the Medic came in.
“Engineer! Where is ze Dimension-Traveller?” Medic asked urgently, “You know zhat if someone goes in, we’ll have to make another one to even have a chance of returning them!” he continued, not caring if Engineer was going to respond.
“I know, Doc.” Engie replied, “But Spy volunteered to find a weapon to end all’a this. And, I’ve seen how tired he’s got from the fightin’. It’s like he’s ran low on blood, if you get my gist.” Engie finished.
“Oh?” Ludwig questioned excitedly.
“Well, look at how he’s relegated himself to the back after years of being the frontline “trickstabbin’ “ man he used t’ be once he re-signed with BLU. I think that hast’a do with him not wantin’ to fight as hard. I’ve seen how he looks at our Scout, and he seems to miss his Jeremy.” Dell answered.
“Interesting, is our Scout Jeremy’s brother?” Medic asked.
“Well, I think he’s Micheal, but nobody round’ here likes t’ call anybody by their real names.” Dell said. “But, since you’re here, could you help me tell the rest of the team Spy’s gone?” Dell asked.
“Surely. It is vital information.” Ludwig said. Medic and Engineer began to walk carefully back through the dark hall, going past their pet projects. A severed head greeted them, it was Spy’s head that the RED Medic had donated, labelling it “Specimen 85 - how to murder the immortal” was the back of it, with a small hole for an electronic plug on the back. Neither of them had figured out exactly what RED Medic (Hans) meant by this, or why there was a plug on the back of the head, other than it possibly being an early prototype to the Ubercharge.
As Engie looked back at his hall of creations before leaving, he really began to realize how strong of a partnership Ludwig and he had made over these few years. From genetically engineered reason to the super-tank they were now prototyping, everything within was made by both of them. It had been a long time since the two had made a solo project, and perhaps that was a good thing.
Although the Engineer was probably friends with all of his teammates, Medic and Spy were the only ones Engie himself would consider friends. Medic, because his eccentricness and passion balance Engie’s own coldness, and Spy because of the warm heart he had underneath the layers of gadgets and disguises he owned. They were unlike the other mercs in that way, wishing their teammates and enemies alike well, and openly. It would be a great loss if Spy or Medic were lost, so returning Spy back (once he had the weapon), was a top priority.
They turned to their left, the white hall of the locker room bustling with clothes and mementos of a memorable battle. “Hey, you saw Spy out there? He was amazin’! Goin’ out there, and baiting the soldier to our spawn was a genius idea! Didn’t know what hit him!” Micheal told the pair.
“Well, I’d put that under accidental genius, if I were you.” Engineer told Scout.
“Why’s that?” The Boston boy asked.
“Cause he was tryin’ to get back to me so that he could end the war.” Dell said.
“How? How’s he gonna end the war by himself?” Scout asked.
“Vell, he is not. He’s going to do it by finding a weapon strong enough to kill Redmond from a distance.” Medic said, while pulling slightly away from Engineer, realizing they were very, very close to holding hands.
“Where? Even hell can’t kill us, doubt it’ll affect eith’a of our bosses.” Scout said.
“Anotha’ dimension?” Scout asked, sarcastically.
“Exactly, partner.” Engineer responded.
“Oh, you gotta be kiddin’ me. And you didn’t think to tell one of us about that?” Scout said.
“We could kill baby men before they were born!” Heavy said, listening to the conversation.
“I.. don’t think that’s'' the drunk Afro-Scotsman hiccuped, “How that works” the Demoman said.
“Well? We could stop alternate REDs from being born” heavy responded.
“But that ain’t the point,” Engineer reminded, “The point is to finish our dimensions’ fightin’.” Engineer said.
“Wait a minute! You MAGGOTS want to stop fighting the REDS? Get out of here, you hippies!” BLU Soldier boomed.
“Vell, Soldier, Spy’s finding a weapon, not a peace treaty to stop the fighting.” Medic reminded.
“Very well.” Kyle said. “Where is he?” Soldier asked.
“Another Dimension. Coordinates 85.9103.1010.21, on the Dimeonson locator.” Engineer said.
“What. In the god-blessing United States of America. Does that mean, MAGGOT?” Soldier asked.
“Not entirely sure”, said the Engineer, “This was a test run, but we’d need to make another version of the Demosion-Traveller in order to find him.” Engineer continued.
“You mean to tell me he’s lost!?” Soldier yelled.
“Yep. He knew that goin’ in, so if you wanna yell at anyone, yell at him.” Engineer replied.
“I will. But, you are not off the hook, you incompetent MAGGOT.” “You offered our ONLY Spy to have the slimmest of chances of ending this war-” Soldier continued,
“But Soldier, zere has not been anyzhing else that could end ze war. Our Super-Tank is only in the Alpha stage.” Medic interrupted.
“We still LOST our Spy.” Soldier said.
“Well, that ain’t too much’a problem, cause he ain’t been producin’ for our team for a long while. I say it’s better without the disguisin’ freak.” Scout said while looking at Demoman, not Engineer.
“Well, either way, tiny baby men do not stand a chance against BLU, the real men!” Heavy said, trying to finish the conversation off.
“G’day, what are all you guys talkin’ about?” Sniper, the Australian hunter of men asked.
“Spy’s in anoth’a dimension searchin’ for a super weapon.” Scout said plainly.
“Well, good to know.” Sniper said. “G’night I suppose.” Sniper said, looking at the time, 8PM.
Spy had been waiting around at the back of the small school in ponyville for an hour, waiting for any clues about his predicament, when he noticed a few of the children did not have the markings that the others did. They were called “blank flanks”, as if it were an issue such as being fat, to not have the markings. He peered into the school, invisible and noiseless, observing the knowledge of ‘Equestria’, as it was called, being told to the classroom of twelve-ish. The one room schoolhouse reminded him of a barnyard, like the one he had seen while walking to here.
The interior paint job was quite different, but the exterior had the same areas where wood would stick out, along with similar roofing. He was in a small town it seemed, perhaps stretched off from the rest of this “Equestria” he was in. After another hour of lackluster observation, the Spy returned to his “home base” of sorts, near the pond. As he was walking back, however, was almost rear-ended by a yellow furred, red-maned pony’s named Applebloom. She was as cute as a horse could be if you were panicking about her bumping into you.
That is to say, not very. She moved to the left, he veered to the right. “Heya, Sweetie Belle, are we gonna’ make a chapter for the Cutie Mark Crusaders at th’ school of friendship?” Applebloom asked.
“Well, if Rarity will let me in, mmmmaybe.” Sweetie Belle said. The sound of an electric scooter caught the Spy’s attention,
“Hey girls,” a raspy voice said, “Whatcha’ plannin’?” she jumped off a small incline, not unlike Demoman flying off a ramp in what Engineer called a ‘Trimp’. Although she did not fling herself far, she did fly far enough that Spy had to roll out of the way, causing a large amount of noise, that was thankfully muffled by the landing and revving of the scooter.
Spy began to “stand” up, or what was the closest thing to standing he could at the moment, and tuned himself back into the conversation. “Did we forget t’a tell ya’?” Applebloom asked.
“I… think so.” Scootaloo said.
“Well, we’re plannin’ on makin’ a chapter for the CMC’s at Twilight’s School of Friendship.” Applebloom responded. They continued walking at the brisk pace children and athletes walked at. Spy could keep up however, thinking that this school of Friendship, however childish it sounded, may be an important institution in this dimension that could hold a weapon, or at least a person given access to a weapon.
But, thinking about it, perhaps a person, could be the weapon. He didn’t think about it for too long, realizing whatever happened to him may happen to these ponies if they bring them to his world. And, anyway, none of these creatures seemed fit to fight or decimate a warzone, even if one of them had the anger to do so, simply from parting a hair off her mane. The Spy lost a bit of the conversation, lost in thought. “Well, Rainbow’s one of the teachers… maybe she can get us in?” Scootaloo considered. “She’s cool like that.” she continued.
“Naw, I don’t think we’ll just get’a free pass just cause our sisters are the teachers.” Applebloom replied.
Interesting, perhaps I should take a disguise from them, Spy thought.
“Well, Rarity would probably be against it. Maybe Twilight, too.” Sweetie Belle said. Now he needed a disguise if he was going to get in there. Maybe the Spy simply feared Rarity like he did Dell’s brother (Linun), or maybe it was just because he knew Rarity would likely not forget him, but he needed a disguise.
He thought about the three’s positions, personalities, and gaits for a moment, considering who to take from. The orange one was proficient on a scooter (something Spy could not imitate), and had small wings that Spy could not buzz, but she seemed like the one who would be normally seen sneaking around to see things. Applebloom, in the middle, seemed like the hardest to really pinpoint the exacts on her personality, a mixture of the calmness in Engineer, the eagerness of the Scout, and perhaps a dash of insecurity between all three, now that he thought about it.
Applebloom, like him, was an earth-pony, as he discovered, though, so it may be wise to disguise as her, as he could imitate what she could do. Although, as he cowered behind a tree to recharge his cloak, Sweetie Belle seemed very reluctant to use magic, but then again, judging from how she introduced Rarity into the conversation, it sounded like she was her sister. Spy wanted to avoid Rarity at all costs at the moment.
He finally decided to pluck a hair from Applebloom’s tail with speed. As he moved, the three split apart, causing him to overestimate how far he had to move, causing him to bump into Applebloom’s flank for a moment, causing her to turn around as the Spy stole a hair.
“What in tarnation? Ow!” she felt herself be punched in the gut as Spy ran from the three.
Meanwhile, Rarity had been trying to enjoy her day, weaving yarns into pristine clothing, while curious as to who tailored that stallion’s suit. That stallion, that stallion was the strangest stallion she had encountered in her life! He stumbled from what looked to be a phone booth connected to a portal, and then had the audacity to try to steal a hair off her mane. It roused her suspicions of what he could really have been very highly.
That Stallion seemed lost inside his own body for those first few moments, Rarity thought. Perhaps he was something else before? She thought. Well, it may have just been him feeling really disoriented from that portal, she reasoned. If so, rarity continued, I wonder why he ripped a part off my Mane, she thought. And, why just one strand? She asked herself. She did not know, but perhaps she would find out within the next few days.
The only thing she could do now, was tell Twilight.
Twilight was at the School of Friendship, getting ready to assign her five friends (minus Rarity, who had been a no-show for awhile, which was unusual for her) to their respective teaching jobs and where they would stay over the summer. She was writing down notes in a hasty, unorganized fashion, trying to allow each of her friends to know what everyone else was doing so that collaborative classes between the teachers and so that no one overstepped their bounds. She began to feel Rarity’s magic signature, along with a weaker one, Sweetie Belle’s. Perhaps Rarity needed to get Sweetie ready, Twilight thought.
Sweetie Belle begged to come along when she realized Rarity was going to the school of Friendship after all. “Pleeease, Rarity? Can I have a tour?” she asked,
“Well, since you’re here and I need to do something somewhat important, yes, you may.” Rarity responded.
“What is it?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Well, it’s nothing too important. Now, don’t press me, I would like to make this timely, Sweetie-boo” Rarity put her face on Sweetie’s, much to Sweetie's embarrassment.
“Sis!” She exclaimed.
Rarity stopped, “Alright, I won’t do it as long as you don’t ask me about it.” she said, continuing her stride.
“Oh, Fine.” Sweetie responded. Rarity entered the school, and what a marvelous thing it was. Cobble roads complimented with pink and purple woodwork and small patches of grass along the new sidewalks. The place looked lovely to the eye, and Rarity headed for Twilight’s room. But, before she could do that, she had to make sure Sweetie was with one of the teachers.
She looked to the orange door, and opened it. “Why, hello, dear. Could you take dear Sweetie Belle with you on a tour of the place? I have some business to attend to, and I didn’t want to be more late than I already am.” Rarity asked.
“Sure can do, Rares. You’ll need these for your teachin’ duties next week.” Applejack, the warm colored farmpony responded while giving Rarity a set of somewhat confusingly messy notes.
“Thank you.” Rarity said. And, with that, Applejack began a tour with Sweetie Belle.
Spy placed the paper on the ground, out of the way, so that he could cloak into invisibility. There weren’t many students at the moment, so it simply required being away from the teacher’s lounge and away from the start of the tour he had set up. Angling himself so was a bit of a chore, but nonetheless, doable. Rarity herself, would likely be coming in a few minutes to an hour.
That was not great, but perhaps he could collect another disguise in the commotion that was about to begin. But, before he did that, he would observe Sweetie’s tour.
Dell had begun placing down his units, the sentry observing the first point, and a dispenser near the ammunition. Heavy began to shove his gun near the enemy doors, Hans awaiting an Ubercharge on the other side, but Ludwig was tensing for one of his own. The Gorge was being attacked by RED, and BLU tensed up for a day of defense, which was not their specialty (RED was bad at offense, as well). But, Pierre, as he was known to BLU, was ready. He was going to infiltrate, stab, and make his enemies beg for mercy. Perhaps “Martin” would stop him, but he had been fighting too conservative for Pierre’s liking.
And, he was going to take advantage of it. ”Three, two, one, go!” The administrator, the moderator of the war, told both RED and BLU. Heavy’s minigun began firing at Hans, but he activated his Uber before Heavy could kill him, with Ludwig on the other side of the entrances, Misha was stabbed in the back by Pierre, who was disguised as Ludwig. He changed his disguise, letting Hans and Linun ram through. RED Soldier was fighting off Ludwig’s Ubering with BLU Demoman.
As the two were distracted with that, Pierre turned his sights to securing the middle gate, guarded by Kyle, and Dell’s sentry. Although, the sentry was only just far enough to barely detect a person or two at the gate, so perhaps he could sneak in a stab, Pierre thought. He disguised as Misha, the BLU Heavy, and joined the intercom. “Little baby men have no chance against us!” he said, perfectly mimicking Misha.
“Turn your darn intercom off, Heavy. I need to be able to hear what’s goin’ on out there. We don’t have Spy anymore, so you’ve gotta check for Pierre yourself.” Dell said.
“Very well.” Pierre said, turning off his intercom. Then, he stabbed Kyle in the back, with Dell finally realizing how badly he’d been duped.
“Darn it!” Darn it!” He yelled into the comms, “Pierre’s killed our Heavy and our Soldier!” “Medic, Demoman, fall back before you fall too!” He told his few reaming allies, “Hey, Engie, Where’d our pyro go?” Scout asked.
“Now’s not the time! Get back to my building base. Scout, you go guard my sentry, watch out for Pierre. Medic, Demoman, please get back here.” Dell told the rest of his team.
BLU Sniper was overseeing the hallway leading to the control point, the marker that tells every man present who had what. Jerry had always found defending to be easier, even if most of the time, he had to aim at more moving targets. It was always a bit relaxing to defend, sitting back, waiting for heads to come to him, rather than him coming to the heads. Today would not be like that. Jeremy was coming to him, trying to ambush him. Jerry knew that, so as soon as RED Scout was out of his sights, he turned to surprise Jeremy. This left his back exposed, which Pierre was counting on.
Pierre had always wanted “Martin'' dead, and he was finally allowed to show why: every time they fought, Spy’s conservative patience and brilliant acting ended up catching Pierre in the act. Now, with him gone, and their Pyro in the mental ward, he could now wreak havoc against the enemy. But, Dell saw this coming, as he knew Micheal was supposed to guard the sentry, and he would have flanked from another angle if he knew something was coming. He brought himself out, ready to shoot Pierre, and he did exactly that, saving Jerry.
Jerry was relieved, and shot down the other Scout with a blow to his approaching chest. Now, it was Ludwig, BLU Demoman, Dell, Jerry, and Micheal for the next minute who had to fight RED.
Rarity galloped, as she had been asleep for a few extra hours, and knew that she would be extremely late to her instructional day at Twilight’s school. As she galloped, she forgot one important thing: if Sweetie Belle was there or not. She wouldn’t run off without her approval, so it wasn’t much of a concern, but nevertheless, it should have been something she thought about today. As she bolted through the door, Applejack laughed nervously, seeing the well-established mare.
“Hey, uh… Sugarcube.” Applejack began, the spy knowing he was likely going to need someone to work with here to stay relatively safe throughout the search, “I just saw you come through here like a minute ago. With Sweetie Belle.” Applejack said.
“There was a changeling?” Rarity asked.
“...Maybe?” Applejacked answered. “Didn’t seem like one.”
Sweetie Belle was right there, jaw dropped in the brightest confusion of her life. She knew that sometimes changelings came in, messing around with people via shapeshifting. But, this was no simple prank. Whoever was pretending to be Rarity seemed to need to do, or know something. Something about or with Twilight, she jerked her head, screaming into the conversation, “Twilight’s in danger!” She announced to the two.
Jerry returned to his position, and Ludwig doused him with a syringe, healing the small amount of damage he had acquired. Nothing more than a scrape, it was. His scope was ready, as the mass of men began hurtling towards the seven. First, Jane flew in like a screaming eagle (quite possibly, because he was shouting so) toward the sentry. He got in a rocket before the sentry returned its own, panicking at this, Jane began to dive to the ground, avoiding the rockets now flying at Hans.
Hans, seeing this, leapt, causing his heavy, Ratuskha, to take a volley, causing him to take a step back.
“Doctor! What is wrong with you?” Ratuskha cried.
“Would you rather me dead, or alive?” Hans replied.
“Very well.” Rathuska admitted, the medigun healing him once again. His bullets rained from below, flying to first the massive tripod, and then to Micheal, who was gunning straight for him.
“Ey, fattie, look out for da’ rockets!” Micheal taunted, and Ratuskha was too late, being torn apart by the resulting explosion.
Hans could fight, but he wasn’t trained for it. He grabbed his saw, and chased after Micheal, reaching out like the hand of god to his stomach. A small gasp burst through Micheal’s mouth, as the incision needed to be healed. Ludwig, however, was trying to make sure that none of the base, or “nest”, as some may call it, was not ripped to pieces by Adair. Adair was launching his pipe grenades at the sentry, now shielded by the remote wrangler Dell decided to bring.
Now, the sentry had to be aimed manually, and he focused his sights on Adair. The storm began, first a trickle of bullets, one, two, three, four, then came the rockets, automatic and precise. But, Adair had brought with him a sword and shield rather than a bottle and sticky bombs, and flung, with the rockets he had just been damaged with, himself at Dell. The Engineer was completely unprepared for this, losing his head. As if on queue, Jerry finally shot someone: Adair. Now both men were in the respawn queue, while Jerry had to refocus.
Ludwig, began to go on the move, defending the point and the deactivated sentry with Luthais, his demoman. Luthais landed a load of sticky-bombs onto the point, tensing for the moment someone dared to land, while Ludwig pointed to the front saying, “Demoman! Ve need to pay attention to the REDs shooting!”.
“Aye. I’m just makin’ a last line of defense.” Luthais said, finished with it.
“Oh, you’re done already?” Ludwig asked.
“Go heal someone else, I have to keep me one eye on this.” Luthais realized, Ludwig groaned in response.
“Soldier’s… is he alive?” Luthais asked.
“No, you dummkopf!” Ludwig responded.
“Fine then, laddie. But don’t cry to me if that point gets capped while we’re doin’ it.” Luthais declared.
“A minute has passed for BLU Heavy, he shall now respawn”, the administrator announced. Micheal, at this point, was about to be next on the respawn list, bleeding and coughing.
“Ey guys, I’m down. Heavy’s back, but Pierre’l be back.” Scout coughed intensely, as blood splashed out, “ RED’s on a roll today.” He croaked on the intercoms, as he finally was declared dead.
“BLU Soldier will now respawn,” the administrator said.
“Vell, who is left?” Ludwig asked,
“I am alive once again, ready to send these twerps a letter from the U.S of A!.” Jane said. “Me, mate!” Jerry said.
“Me,” Luthais said,
“I am coming.” Misha said.
“Oh, dear.” Ludwig responded, “It’s just you, me, and Jerry, for a moment, Demo.” Medic finished. Then, Linun ran from out of the blue, shouting “Yeehaw!” as loudly as he could. Before Ludwig could turn, he was shot in the back twice and downed. Luthais quickly responded, blasting down the rogue engineer with a pipe grenade, hurting him, and Luthais, leading to the ladder dying.
“RED Spy will now respawn,” the administrator said.
The rest of the RED team began capturing the point, Pyro finally being snapped awake to capture the point with Jane. Since it was almost a complete teamwipe, all who were left to defend the last point were Misha and Kyle, against an also somewhat small force of Linun, Pierre, Jane, and Pyro. Three rushed in, Jane taping his injuries with one of the respawning health kits. The others ran and flanked into flanking positions, Pierre waiting for a moment in which he could fool anyone.
Twilight sat back, feeling pretty relaxed, something that was rare for her, even with the plenty of coaching from her friends to help her feel calmer. Setting up the school was about as hard as setting for some powerful spell she couldn’t conjure, like Starswirl’s time spell. Starlight Glimmer, now her personal protege, was the only person who could cast it, which, even if she did not want to admit it, made her a tad jealous. But, that was no matter, as she had finally “set the table”, as Rarity, who was sadly absent, likely due to her overscheduling herself, would have probably told Twilight.
Speaking of which, how has she been late for five hours? Before she could answer that, Rarity, along with Sweetie Belle and Applejack barged through the door.
“Twah!” Applejack yelled.
“Please quiet down, you don’t want to scare everyone.” Twilight said.
“I think now would be a’ good time t’a panic, cuz Sweetie Belle o’er here thinks that some kinda super changeling ‘guised as Rares.” Applejack said.
“Well, Rarity said that she didn’t come with me over here -but she did- told me that she had some ‘important business’ to attend with you- and then told me to go on a tour of the school with Applejack.” Sweetie said. “I think they’re trying to capture you. You’ve gotta look for them!” she said.
“Calm down. I felt Rarity’s magic come with Sweetie.” Twilight said. “This is probably just somepony playing a-” Twilight realized what they were implying, “-oh my Celestia! If you’re right, magic signatures can be imitated!” Twilight exclaimed.
“I’m sorry Twilight, but I don’t think anypony here knows what a ‘magic-signature’ is. Could you please explain it to us?” Rarity, the mare of the hour, asked.
“I was about to.” Twilight began, “All unicorns make a magic-signature, which is the special identity for a unicorn’s magic. Most high-level unicorns can detect these of lower level unicorns from a few miles away. Some signatures, though, are naturally masked from the user’s power.” Twilight continued, Sweetie Belle on the edge of a seat, “Normally, I can sense you, Rarity, along with Sweetie, even if it is quite faint for ponies with such little magic.” Twilight said.
“Uh.. so.. Can a’ changlin’ imitate a magic signature?” Applejack asked.
“No. Not to my knowledge.” Twilight said.
Pyro saw the cotton candy land that he had always seen with those goggles on, a fantasy to make a pacifist into a cold blooded murderer, and began hopping joyfully towards Misha, pressing the pull on the horn he was carrying.
Back in reality, BLU Heavy was screaming, burning like wood, and crying out for help, even if he knew no one other than Kyle and he were alive. Kyle was dealing with Jane (who just now came), sidestepping and flying with rockets to duel an equal opponent. “Face it you reb, the Union has won!” He told Jane, who he thought was a confederate.
“I am a loyal American Soldier!” He screamed at Kyle, who he promptly killed. A few moments later, and the day was won for RED; afterwards, all of BLU respawned at once.
A canned crowd of recorded spectators began booing in the ears of BLU, while outside, the intercoms played cheers for RED. “Now is time to take break and rethink plans.” Misha said to the rest of BLU. “If I was there at the gates for longer, I could have stopped RED.” Misha began.
“Maybe. But I think us falling back was the worst part.” Ludwig admitted.
“We need to be more careful. Pierre is a risk taker, and if we coordinate, perhaps we can catch him before he tries anyzhing.” the doctor finished.
“Good idea, Doc.” the Engineer said.
“But, before we do anythin’, we need to start workin’ on savin’ Spy.” Engineer announced.
“Can we help?” Heavy asked, referring to the rest of BLU.
“Naw, less you’d like to end up like Spy.” Engineer said.
Spy was quietly listening to what his victims of disorientation were saying. The conversation was almost over, but he felt a brush, no, something like a rub, on his invisible back.
“Who’s in my spot?” -one of the students, a dull-pink furred pony with spirals of dark toothpaste hair, known as a mane, on her head- asked with anger that died into a calm satisfaction. Her “cutie” mark was a rook donned with a red. Almost immediately, Spy noticed how… off she sounded. Like a maniacal mix of a normal childish mare and someone like him. It sounded like she could be looking for something as well. Perhaps an ally, and Spy began to rise, to meet this person at eye level.
“Come with me.” this filly told him, and Spy chose to wait, pretending to follow, to see if she was leading him into a trap. He brought his arm out, allowing the filly to feel like he was following him.
She groaned deeply, “Just follow me. You need a partner.” the mare told him.
Spy waited, and the mare waited. Finally, he rushed, realizing he was low on cloak.
“Good.” the filly said.
Dell and Ludwig were continuing their reconstruction of the Tardis, as Spy had almost named it. The two of them had informally agreed to wait for RED to attack, knowing that at this point, without Spy and Pyro, their numbers disadvantage would make well-planned defenses the only route to success. Then, a distant knock rang.
Jeremy had been sent by the administrator, somewhat unwillingly, to join BLU. But, as the rules of the war dictated, only one person could play the mantle of each “class”, otherwise many of the mercenaries would simply grab the rockets, scatterguns, or mediguns that laid down in the re-supply closet. So, Jeremy had a choice: don goggles, or learn to stab men in the back.
He wasn’t too sure what to do, but before he could think about it deeply, the strength of BLU Heavy’s voice greeted him.
“What is baby man doing here? Am ready to shoot you.” Misha said.
“Well, the administrator hates seein’ unbalanced games, so she sent me down here.” Jeremy said.
“What?” Kyle, listening from further back, asked.
Both Dell and Ludwig were listening, quite faintly, and then, Dell came out near the door of the base. “So, partner, whatc’a think you’re doin’-” Dell began, menacingly,
“I freakin’ just told these sucka’s, I’m here to be auto-balanced!” Scout interrupted.
“Oh, alright, partner. So… what’s yer new job gonna be on blue? Pyromaniac, or Spy?” Dell asked.
Micheal groaned as he realized what was happening. “Freakin’ unbelievable! They’re bringin’ Jeremy to us!”. He said, with the RED Scout looking at him intensively.
“Not like I wanted this, Micheal.” He responded, cutting into the fact that the two were both Scouts, and that a brotherly rivalry probably made their cooperation nearly impossible.
“Well, settle down boys, we’ve gotta know what RED Scout wants to try fighitn’ as before we get back to any front line.” Dell told the two. Engineer had always been a “mite” confused by why name-dropping had become such a strong taboo within the halls of the two teams, but here, he finally realized why. Everyone who knew another person’s name hated each other, and were on the other team. Every team was made of brothers and work-partners that went sour, so there was no stopping this division unless he could un-sour their relationship.
Spy knew he shouldn’t have grabbed onto the filly, but it was the only thing he could have done. Now, he knew a secret entrance to a hidden room underneath the school, complete with cult-like symbols strewn about, which was the most he could consider positive about his ride into the room. His “companion” and “partner in crime”, as she had been calling herself, was not the most delicate of ponies, bashing him on the edges of the compartment. Although, it seemed like she genuinely thought of the two of them as friends, which could be exploited for information and possibly as an ally once he got back (if he deemed the mission a failure).
“This, friend, is where I’m setting up to create power! So, so much power!” the sweet sounding filly said.
“What is your name?” Spy asked.
“I’m Cozy Glow. What’s your’s?” Her voice was like silk laced in rubber, providing the quality of the years of refining one might undergo as they move up in society, and the childlike innocence that was expected of a child. Judging from how she talked about power, he knew that she was putting on a face of some sort with her voice.
“Just call me the Spy.” The rouge responded rightfully.
“Huh. What are you in Equestria for?” Cozy asked.
“It seems we want the same thing.” Spy responded.
Cozy glow stopped herself, not wanting to seem like a looney to the stallion, “Power.” she responded.
“Well then, I guess we can consider ourselves allies, for the moment.” Spy said passive-aggressively.
“Fine.” “I know more about Equestria than you do, and one of those teachers needs to die in order to have a guarantee of victory for us.” The mare began. “They’re really important, and if they have even the sliver of the thought that one of them killed another, they’ll freak.”
“Just remember to pay me after it is done.” Spy told Cozy.
“Well… since the only listin’s are for’a pyro and Spy… I guess I’ll weild’a flamerthrow’a tomorrow.” Jeremy said. “Anyway, where’s that gas mask Pyro used?”
“Well, it’s down in his locker.” Dell said.
“Why vould you think anyvhere elsze? We are not your maids!” Medic said.
“...huh.” Jeremy thought about for a moment, and then went back to the task at hand: pranking Micheal. He had to, Mike’d always taken the glory from him in the Brooklyn brawls that they battled years ago. The RED donning man began walking to his new locker-room. He looked around the place, noticing the industrial concrete lining the walls, and then noticed the old Pyro’s locker. It had a lot of photos of RED Pyro with smiling stickers placed on them.
The stickers themselves ranged from a strange unicorn that looked like a plushtoy with an overeating problem, to a very stupid looking smiley face. He opened the door to see the suit and the mask, which did not fit Scout at all, rather more like if someone tried to make it not fit for anyone, man or woman, of similar body type to Jeremy. After pushing off the goggles that Jeremy knew caused hallucinations (from trying his Pyro’s on a few years ago), he grabbed the mask.
Then, he grabbed the flamethrower, and a bit of paint, walked into Micheal’s bedroom.
Micheal knew that Jeremy would prank him somehow, so he had not fallen asleep quite yet, waiting for the scare. Mike knew Jerry well, but didn’t know what Jerry’d think would be quite scary until he entered the room. A white mask came before him, fire creeping into his room of metal.
“Come on Jerry, try bett’a next time, that ain’t nothin’ I haven’t seen before. Get out of my room before it burns.”
Jeremy sighed, taking his mask off and going back to his new room.
Applebloom was tending to the farm that Applejack had have to leave behind for a day, the cows mooing, the pigs rolling in the mud, but most of all, the plants beckoning to be maintained. It was nowhere near the harvest at this point, giving the spring greens time to enjoy the dirt around them. Applebloom began to think about that as she watered a few apple trees. She was enjoying the spring that was her foalhood, or maybe the summer of “growth” as Applejack put it? That thing called puberty apparently involved a lot of bleeding, she remembered vaguely, stretching out to a class about it in Ms.Cheerilee's. It was a few months ago, the rotation of classwork being centered on biology and science at that point, but now it was mostly centered around history (since the spring was the time to teach it, apparently).
Applebloom wasn’t exactly a straight A student, or a failing underperformer, like many would assume of her family, but generally moved toward a C-bound average. Her friends were like that too, even if Sweetie got the occasional higher grade (and Scoots needing to cheat a few times), but overall she was fine with that. She didn’t pay much attention in school, and liked to stare out at the fields before her whenever the teacher wasn’t looking. Although, yesterday was a little strange: every time she looked, it seemed like there was a little wind trying to go away from her.
Her watering can had almost subconsciously moved to the end of the set of trees by the end of this conversation of sorts, and she was snapped back into reality. It was a little harsh, how blunt and forceful it always was, to realize you had done the entire chore without even realizing it, but it was normal without Applejack. Applebloom did not want to think too much more, and bounced over to her other chores.
Then, Applejack came along to greet her, even with the dire look on her face.
“Uh… ya’ seen anythin’ strange in the last few days?” she asked her sister.
“Well… naw.” Applebloom said.
“Alright then.” “I gotta get goin’, you wanna come?” Applejack offered, reaching her foreleg out.
“Sure, sis.” the filly said.
Scootaloo was still laughing in her head about what had happened yesterday. It was like an invisible man just bumped into Applebloom, and caused the two to freakin’ fall over! Even if Applebloom was her friend, Scootaloo could never not take the opportunity to laugh at that type of thing, cause that made you cool. Skating around on your scooter, getting some totally awesome stunts in, and maybe, just maybe, impressing Rainbow Dash. She wasn’t here today, because she had to go to Twilight’s kinda (but don’t tell her) lame school.
But then, she saw a blue streak fly right into her face, the force of a hurricane billowing into her body, as Rainbow Dash’s face slammed into Scoot’s.
“Did you see anything suspicious in the last few days?” Rainbow asked, her body language bringing that barely-kempt mane into the spotlight. What a sight! The colors danced like streams of light- no Scootaloo, don’t get weird about Rainbow- she thought, then shutting those pseudo-romantic thoughts down completely once again.
“Uh… does Applebloom falling over for no reason count?” Scootaloo asked.
“Heck yeah!” Rainbow responded urgently.
“Well, in that case, it looked like some invisible guy just slammed his face in her butt! It was really funny, you should’a seen it!” Scoots said.
“Invisible, huh. I wish I was there, but I gotta go, sit tight Scoots!” Rainbow blasted back, body contorting into something that one might mistake for a photon, showering the land in the Rainboom’s light.
The mountain of Upward was a man-made mountain, formed by the decades of gravel and silver mining done there, the mountain was now as colossal as something like Everest, with the top being owned by RED. BLU had been tasked to destroy the base, and the mountain, but Dell had decided that retaking the Gorge was actually a better idea, so he sent two teams of four, one to fight in the mountainscape, and one to take over Gorge.
Task force one was filled with the four men who would make quick work of RED’s defenses, Kyle, Luthais, Ludwig, and Misha, all standing at the closed gates with bated breath. Their improvised spawn room was not pretty, built from some wood and concrete they found nearby. The place was not intended to last long, as it was planned to be destroyed, along with the rest of the mountain, to ruin RED’s base here and their profits. RED actually hadn’t mined there for years, planning to move operations to the island of Borneo, where they would pay off Indonesian officials (as BLU did with Malay ones).
Dell knew this (simply by observation, and the capturing of last quarter's reports) and planned around it, sending himself and the “better men” to the Gorge, which was home to several of BLU’s R&D departments, now being held hostage by RED. Of course, this came as retaliation for the capture of some of RED’s R&D groups back at the “Well”, but BLU had to still save some men from certain death.
“Team, T2 is at Gorge, how many RED’s do ya’ see?” Dell asked his “kamerads”, as Ludwig put it.
“I see five baby men. We have chance for victory!” Misha laughed into the speaker, slightly hurting Dell’s ears.
“I could have reported that, ‘Hammer and Sickle’.” Kyle told Misha.
“Can we please not fight, partners?” Dell asked,
“Fine. But, I challenge Heavy to a killstreak duel, whoever gets the most kills before dying does not have to wear a hat for the next day.” Kyle said.
“Very well.” Misha said.
Dell sighed at this, but it was so low not a single person of Task Force One could hear. He disengaged his microphone with Task force one, and began conversation with Task force two, on the ground; he, Jeremy, Luthais, and Micheal.
“Hello, team. What’s our plan for takin’ back Gorge?” Dell asked.
“I thought you made it!” Ludwug exclaimed.
“I made a bit of a plan, but do ya’ see any REDs out there?” Dell said
“Take’a look for yourself, moron.” Micheal said.
Dell sighed, and looked out of the orange gates instructed to prevent “Spawn-camping” by either team. There was one RED on his side, Jane. He had equipped what looked like a bargain bin rocket launcher, just waiting to explode in his face. Dell laughed at this, wondering how likely it was that soldier would overload the darn thing.
“MAGGOTS!” Jane bellowed, “Stand at attention! My idea to garrison Gorge was a great idea!” RED soldier cheered.
“We know. It’s just the three of us, so we have an even playing field.” Pierre told Jane silently.
“Well, atleast I get to see Dell’s sorry face when I dominate him.” Linun commented.
“Y’a really think we can’t hear y’a?” Dell asked.
“Oh.” Jane said.
“Thirty seconds untill the mission begins.” The administrator told all.
The small beeping of the knockoff of Dell’s sentrygun was pounding in RED’s ears. It was Linun’s invention, “inspired” by Dell’s sentrygun. Linun had not replaced his arm with a robotic one, though, sparing himself from that pain. The gun looked around like a lost dog, hiding underneath a bush, while awaiting the loving embrace of someone. Linun was permitted, however, by manner of public patent, to use the blueprints for the dispenser and teleporter units on the battlefield without a lawsuit.
Even if that wasn’t Dell’s greatest worry about it all.
“Twenty seconds untill the mission begins!” The administrator said excitedly.
The Spy had just temporarily fooled the six of the mane into thinking they had just informed Applebloom that something was amuck in the greater Ponyville area. This, however, was simply to infiltrate into their defenses, and gather another disguise, or maybe even murder one of them. He knew he couldn’t get away with an Applebloom disguise for long, so he blasted a shot overhead, rolled to the side, and grabbed a fur off of Twilight’s tail. This was all done in the span of about three seconds, causing the six to turn around.
“What was that?” Fluttershy, the kind pegasus laden with the calm yellows that seem almost like rays of sunshine asked, while in a bush nearby from the loud noise.
“No clue, dude.” Rainbow responded, not having heard a gun in months, if not years. That type of noise stuck around for a while in someone’s head, but eventually faded if deemed unimportant. The gun wasn’t important to Rainbow, as it was the marker of the fall race between her and Applejack, which was way more cool, interesting, or important to her than the gun that started it all.
“Gun. That Bucker’s got a gun!” Applejack almost muttered, and began marching ahead.
“What?” “Musket, right?” Twilight asked.
“Nu-uh, Twi’. I think that’s a revolving-gun.” Applejack replied.
Twilight began to panic, the purple mass of magic forming around her: an emergency meeting with the Princess, Celestia, needed to be convened.
Applebloom was nowhere to be found.
Then, as soon as snow, Twilight was gone.
“Darn. Didn’t tell er’ that we probably need to protect our flanks.” Applejack told the empty space and her friends.
“OH! I need to get to Celestia’s castle, As Soon as POSSIBLE!” Rarity exclaimed.
“Why the hay?” Rainbow asked.
Rarity groaned, as Pinkie pie bobbed in front of her, reminding her of a buoyant caramel apple, “So that I can tell them about that dashing young stallion I saw at the start of this.”
“Now’s not the time for bleh lovey dovey stuff, we gotta stop… whoever this is.” Rainbow said.
“Can I guess?” Pinkie, bright with enthusiasm, passion, and pink-ness, asked.
“Uh.. sure.” Rarity said.
“His name is….. Spy!” Pinkie said.
“That’s not a name, Pinkie.” Rainbow interjected, tensing her muscles to carry Rarity with her to Celestia’s court.
“I don’t care! That’s what he is!” Pinkie said.
“Uh… Alright. Rarity, get in my arms, and prepare to be brought.” Rainbow said.
“Y-you’re taking me, like that?” Rarity said, nervous at the prospect.
“We’re wasting too much time!” Rainbow responded, preparing her roving run to the ruler.
Rarity sighed, placing herself within Rainbow’s lean arms. They perhaps felt like the muscle you’d find on a cut chicken, lean and toned for speed. Almost none of Rainbow’s strength dripped from her appearance.
Then, with a small thud, Rainbow began revving.
The doors to the straw colored mountain's base opened, Task Force Two beginning the diversion. Misha began to rev, screaming with his intimidating passion, catching the Pyro stationed there off guard and into oblivion. The gas-mask donning man grunted as he was showered with bullets.
“There is a fifteen second respawn time for both teams.” the administrator told all after RED Pyro’s death.
Misha, quite idle and sluggish (he is the heavy, after all) was not moving moving forward and onto the kart, simply because of the screams from Kyle telling him that the soldier had the job. As Kyle flew, his uniform blew in the breeze magnificently, the flapping of the deeper than usual baby-blue overshirt of BLU creating an almost songlike rhythm to itself. Then, a pipe-grenade landed in Misha’s face, ripping him to shreds by sheer force of explosion. A sad arrow of health flung itself nearby, missing Heavy weapons by a mile or a half, landing on Adair instead, who was only enraged by that.
Even if his entire team discouraged it, Adair always had his sword with him, no matter how much he bled from holding the dang thing.
“A teamwipe?” “What are you fools doing?” The administrator asked no one but everyone.
Rarity was dropped off at the edge of the marvelous city of Canterlot, only being told by Rainbow Dash that she could go no further due to pegasi guards catching the two. She told Rainbow it was okay, and then began sprinting through the majestic city. As she darted, she looked around at the familiar sights, of silver-plated grandeur, of fanciful restaurants bustling about, and of a planned second botique’s plot coming along. Her hooves clanged with energy, something quite, quite unnatural for her, as it was improper.
Was it truly improper to rush like this, for her purpose? Perhaps, but she needed not to slow down and worry about that at this moment. A Monsieur and Madame passed her, stricken with anger at Rarity “Watch where youu’re goeing!” The Prench man screamed in his thick accent. Rarity had seen his suit before, as she had made it, but paid no mind, simply saying sorry to him as she ran. She blasted through a photo finish by Photo Finish, wind and camera pestering Rarity.
“Vhat was Zhat?” the over decorated mare in the black tracksuit asked, her blue fur being rattled. She looked down at the photo that had been created, seeing Rarity’s mane in disarray and blurriness. The pinkscreen of the photo did not register this new environment, giving the scene a rather unprepared feeling. “I shall save it.” she declared, finding a silent inspiration in the photo.
Then, there Rarity was, standing near the castle, which stood high and grand. A few royal guards, adorned with gold and fur of white, stood in her way. The pseudo Roman feathers were a sight to see in such a modern army, but it had grown dull as the images of soldiers within Equestria had all blurred together ages ago. Rarity almost bumped into the set of spears blocking her, as a hoof brought her back in.
“What is so important that you attempt to break through our spears like an imbecile?” The male guard asked. His face was chiseled and muscular, but only insofar that a stallion would normally be so. On the entirety, he actually looked somewhat chubby, his serious expression perhaps coming from that flab.
“He’s my man! Don’t look at him like that!” The other guard, a mare, said. She looked much stronger than the stallion, yet still had the cutesy face any mare was blessed to have. Her forelegs carried a strong bounty of muscles, only slightly flexing as she grabbed her man.
“I’m here to visit Celestia, if you do not mind.” Rarity said. “I am here to help a meeting between her and Twilight Sparkle go as smoothly as possible.” This was not entirely false, as she was indeed trying to give critical information to the group.
“Fine.” The guards-mare began, “We’ll have people on you until Celestia says not to have any on you.” she said.
Task squadron one, on a whole, was quite eager to fight RED, even if the overall team had been splintered a little because of Misha and Kyle’s rivalry. The gates opened, and his squad, consisting of Dell, Jeremy, Luthais...
