After showing the team that had become his family around Ponyville, Spike had tried to find any of his friends, but they were not in their usual spots.
“Well, that’s weird. Twilight’s not at the library, Pinkie's not at Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy isn’t around her animals, Rarity’s not at her boutique. Rainbow Dash isn’t at her usual training grounds, Applejack’s not at her farm, and the town isn’t in danger. Where could they be?” Spike asked himself, scratching his head.
Just then, Big Macintosh found Spike asking that question, and instantly recognized him. “Spike, is that you, kid?” Spike turned around to the voice, and saw Big Mac.
“Big Mac! Maybe you could answer my question. Where are your sister and the rest of the girls?” Big Mac shook his head.
“That’s what Ah was trying ta find someone ta help out with since this mornin’. Rarity went out ta the ol’ quarry ta find some gems yesterday, and after a few hours she hadn’t come back. The girls got worried, and went out ta find her. They haven’t been seen since.”
Spike thinks for a second, and then gets worried as he realizes something. “The quarry Rarity went to, it isn’t the one just to the west of town, is it?” The red stallion nods, and Spike curses his luck. “Dammit! The Diamond Dogs she faced are still out in that quarry! They probably got captured!”
Big Mac’s eyes widened. “Well then, we should tell the royal guard!”
Spike nods, and says, “You go do that, but if they’ve been missing since yesterday, then I need to head over there now! Diamond Dogs aren’t known to keep useless prisoners long!” Spike tries to run off, but Big Mac stops him.
“You’re not gonna go out there alone, are ya?”
Spike looks at Big Mac with an, “Are You Serious?” face. “Of course not, I’m not stupid! I need to get the team together!” Spike then runs off, and Big Mac looks confused at what the young dragon had said.
“The team?” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spike had finally found the RED team, and starts to speak to them. “Guys, we need to head to the quarry to the west of town immediately. My friends got captured by Diamond Dogs yesterday!” The team immediately grabbed their weapons, remembering what Spike had told them when going over his memories about Diamond Dogs.
“Spike, mein enkel, ve need to be careful.” Medic said, being the one Spike saw as a grandfather figure. “Ve don’t know how many of those… BEASTS are out there, after all.” Medic had growled out the word, refusing to recognize the Diamond Dogs as anything more. They were worse than even Grey Mann, after all. At least even Grey Mann cared about his adopted daughter, Olivia, and when he learned about how Spike had impressed himself onto the RED team as a family, he backed off, refusing to harm a child, physically, mentally, or even indirectly. The Diamond Dogs had no such limits, ESPECIALLY with their hatred of ponies.
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The team went to the quarry, and waited for the Diamond Dogs to appear. 3 eventually dug up to the surface, and looked at the RED team strangely. “Why are ponies and dragons on Rover’s land?” The largest of them said, clearly angry.
Spike snarled, “You have some friends of mine captive in your cave. Let them go, and we will let you live.” The Diamond Dogs start to laugh, clearly not taking Spike seriously.
“HAHAHAHA, You think you scare us? We will kill useless ponies, and use gem-mare to decrease work, have her mining up precious stones!” Rover said, his smile showing a malicious intent. Spike narrowed his eyes, pulled out a M1 bolt-action rifle, and shot Rover in the leg. “ARGH! You pay for that!” The large canine said, as many more Diamond Dogs came out of the ground, hearing their leader’s pain. There was a least 50 of them, and yet the RED team didn’t looked worried in the slightest.
Heavy laughs lightly, revving up his minigun. “You think little baby company scares us? We have faced much bigger odds, against much tougher enemies, and not only survived, but TRIUMPHED! We are efficient killing machine!”
The rest of the team had gotten into position at Heavy’s cry, wielding their prefered weapons. Demoman was setting down Sticky Bombs, Soldier was loading his rocket launcher, Scout was holding his scattergun, ready to rush in, and Enji was setting up a sentry. Sniper had found a perch in a tree within the quarry, and Spy was hiding behind a boulder, holding his revolver, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Pyro had pulled out his flamethrower, anger burning in his eyes, and Medic prepped his Medigun, ready to heal the team at a moment’s notice.
Spike had hid behind cover, and had holstered his rifle, swapping it out for his light machine gun. “Y’all done bucked up now!” Spike says, provoking the Diamond Dogs. The beasts charged, and the massacre began. Shots being fired left and right, Diamond Dogs falling to the ground dead, and the Reds standing their ground, determined to rescue Spike’s friends.
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A few hours later, the battle seemed to be at a stalemate. The Diamond Dogs couldn’t do anything to push back against the RED team’s more advanced weapons, and the Reds couldn’t push forward, either. Apparently, there were a lot more of the beasts than first anticipated, and the Reds were not running out of ammo, having brought a LARGE surplus of dispenser refills for the trip. Spike was getting VERY impatient. “C’mon, just die already!” He shouted.
Heavy just shook his head. “Even I am getting bored, and I love battle.” He then turns to Spy, and finds that he had disappeared. “Where’s Spy?”
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Spy had entered the Diamond Dog’s cave, and found an intricate underground compound within the mines. He was trying to find the mares that were Spike’s friends, but he couldn’t use his cloaking device to the fullest. It only had the BLU disguises programmed in, and he couldn’t change it in the middle of such a delicate operation. He could only rely on his knife (His revolver was too loud at the moment) and his invisibility to protect himself. He had cursed his luck and lack of foresight many times in French, and was about to start again, when he heard a voice.
“Do you think that someone’s coming to rescue us?” The voice said in a upper-class tone.
“I’m not sure, Rarity. This could be almost any type of emergency. We’ll just have to wait and see.” Another voice said in a kind, yet scholarly tone. Spy moved towards the origin of the voices, and found a jail cell with six mares inside. Each of them wearing tattered clothes, no doubt torn and stretched when moving to this cell.
“Cagnotte.” Spy said to himself, happy that his luck had turned around. He then silently moved over to the cell, and got the mares’ attention by banging on the bars of the cell. “Excusez-moi, les dames, but would you happen to be friends with a dragon named Spike?” He asked, making the eyes of the mares widen.
“What happened to him, and how do you know him?” A lavender unicorn asked, clearly a bit suspicious.
“You must be Twilight, then. He’s fine, madame, and I am an uncle, of sorts, to ‘im. I believe I should explain, but for now, let us get you free.” Spy said, picking the lock to their cell. “Now then, stand back, I don’t know which way the door will swing.” The six of them stand back, and the door swings open, into the cell. Spy motioned for them to follow him.
“Now then, there are a few things you should know.” Spy says to the mares as they were escaping, noticing the Diamond Dogs were too preoccupied with the fighting the threat outside to notice them. “Spike sees me and my team as family, and he is a bit different than what you may know ‘im as.”
Applejack, an orange earth pony with a blond mane, speaks up. “How so?”
Spy sighs. “He ‘ad amnesia when we found ‘im, and my team and I aren’t… normal, especially by Equestrian standards. We all have complete control of our mental faculties, but each of us has a different quirk. We’re mercenaries, you see, and were in the middle of a war with a, at the time, madman who was controlling robots when we found ‘im.” Spy smiles fondly at the memory. “It was a peaceful day when we found ‘im. A dragon, no older than 10, in front of our fort. Even Soldier, one of the most battle-thirsty of us, knew that he wasn’t a threat.”
------------------------------------------------Flashback-------------------------------------
“So, what do we do?” Soldier said, surprising everyone with his restraint. “What? He’s obviously just a kid. Probably doesn’t know where he is, either, due to him being a dragon.”
“And how are you not freaking out ‘bout this?” Scout asked
“Uh, hello, wizard for a roommate? I’ve seen AND fought weirder, and so have you lot. Seriously, though, what do we do?”
Medic sighed. “I don’t know, Soldier, but it seems like ve need to do something before those robots come back.”
Heavy is in a thinking pose, crouching, his fist on his chin, when he has an idea. “Administrator may not like this, but fort is safest place from robots. Maybe he live here for time being?”
The rest of the team agreed with Heavy. The Administrator may be upset about it, but even she wouldn’t leave a kid out to die. Determined as she was to keep the Gravel Wars, and now Grey Mann’s attacks, a secret, she wasn’t HEARTLESS.
“I think I’ll go talk to him.” Scout said, rushing over as the kid almost stepped into the road. It wasn’t very busy, but you never know when a car could come barreling down. Such as the SUV coming straight towards him. Grabbing him out of the way of the SUV, Scout started to talk to him. “Whoa, kid, that wasn’t safe. You could've gotten hurt.”
The young drake blushed. “S-sorry, mister, I didn’t know.”
Scout shook his head. “That’s okay kid, what’s your name?”
“Spike.”
“Okay, Spike, I’m Scout. Do you know where ya are?”
“N-no sir, I don’t.”
Scout nodded, that was obvious. “Do you know what year it is?”
“No.”
This made Scout frown. “How about this? Do you know who the president is?”
“Who?”
Scout’s frown deepened. “Well, that confirms you’re not from here, at least. Do you remember anything before waking up today?”
“I-I remember a bright flash of light, and that’s about it. Anything before that is just an unexplained blur, going too fast for me to look at…”
Scout sighed. “Amnesia, then. Look, Spike, I’m gonna take you to a friend of mine. He’s a doctor, and he’s gonna see if you’re hurt or if we can do anything about your amnesia, okay?” Spike nodded, and Scout placed the small dragon on his shoulders, running back to Teufort.
------------------------------------------End Flashback--------------------------------------
“So he really didn’t remember anything until now?” Twilight asked, a bit saddened by that fact.
Spy nodded, “The amnesia was memory-based, so only something that reminded ‘im of those memories, such as a smell, a voice, or a visual, could fix it. Anyway, we had to teach ‘im how to fight, as war was our way of life.” Spy smiled again. “I remember when he first picked up a rifle. He was around 17, an acceptable age to teach someone how to shoot back home, and he ‘ad already proven to have superior strength to almost everyone on our team. Only ‘Eavy, who he took to as a father-figure, could beat Spike in an arm wrestling match by that time, and for his first shooting test, he had chosen a bolt-action Colt M1 that ‘ad been nicknamed ‘The Bullhorn,’ by the manufacturer.”
-------------------------------------------Flashback #2--------------------------------------
“Okay, Spike, that M1 has quite a kick,” Sniper said, clearly worried. “Even with your strength, it might be a bit dangerous to use while standing. You remember what I told you about using rifles, right?”
Spike nodded, “I remember, Uncle Sniper. Point the rifle as far away from me and others as possible, the target is often the best position to do so.” He pointed the rifle towards his target, “Make sure that the bolt works, and that the gun isn’t loaded. If it is, make sure it hasn’t misfired. If I don’t know where the round came from, remove it. If the gun has misfired, remove it.”
He removes the round within the rifle, and loads it with his own, just like Sniper taught him. “Hold the rifle so that it is comfortable in your grip without touching the barrel, and push the bolt as far forward as possible, then close it.” He does so, and then says, “Aim with the crosshairs, breath in, let two-thirds of it out, squeeze the trigger gently, and then release your breath.” Spike aims and fires the rifle, barely feeling the kick, and hitting a bullseye. “And done.”
Sniper, Spy, and Scout clap, pleased that Spike did well. “Well done, Spike!” Sniper says, clearly proud. “What do you want to learn how to use next?”
Spike smiles. “Something like Dad uses, only lighter.”
Sniper nods, knowing that Spike was talking about Heavy’s minigun, Sasha. “I think I know just the thing. Spy, see if you can’t get me a light machine gun from Mann Co, would ya? Maybe an Bren!”
------------------------------------------End Flashback--------------------------------------
“Wait, you had to have safety lessons on how to use your… guns, were they called?” Rainbow Dash, a light blue pegasus with a rainbow mane, asked.
Spy nods. “Indeed, a improperly handled firearm is as dangerous to the user as it is to the enemy. We never let Spike even SEE combat until we knew that he could hit a target efficiently and quickly. We worry about ‘im, you know.”
The mares nodded, knowing how Spy felt. “So, what happened after he fought for the first time? I mean, my dad told me stories about the first battle he was in after he enlisted.” Pinkie, a pink mare with a magenta mane asked,
remembering stories her father had told her. This shocked the other mares.
Twilight was the one who finally asked her the question. “Your dad was in the Royal Guard?”
Pinkie shook her head. “No, he was in the Equestrian Army during the Minotaurian-Equestrian War. You know, the one that civilians have to sign up for, and can get drafted into if it got bad enough?” The other mares nodded, some remembering their own parents’ stories about that war.
Spy cleared his throat, getting the mares’ attention. “He took ‘is first life at 16, a deer that he ‘ad hunted with Sniper and Scout.”
Fluttershy, a butter-golden colored mare with a pink mane, looked shocked. “W-what?”
Spy made an “Ah” face. “Animal lover?” He asked. Fluttershy just nodded. “We weren’t always ponies, miss, and before, we were omnivores, eating both plants and meat. Where we come from, only those like the nine of us, and Spike, were intelligent enough creatures to create languages and governments, and we needed certain proteins our bodies couldn’t make themselves to survive, and the most plentiful source was meat. Even ponies were only sentient, and not sapient.”
Fluttershy nodded, sad understanding in her eyes, so Spy continued. “We could always buy some meat, but Sniper was taught how to hunt by his father, and he swore that nothing tastes better than a meal you caught yourself.” Applejack nodded with Fluttershy, both of them understanding that logic, for different reasons.
“He taught Spike how to trap and kill an animal without causing it immense pain, as it had been agreed by the team that he would be taught to shoot at 17, and no earlier. ‘Is first real battle was about a year after he passed both ‘is shooting tests, fighting with us against the BLU team, who was another one of our enemies at the time. Both teams also couldn’t fully die, due to a… I think the most appropriate thing to call it would be a re-spawn system, we were connected to at the time. Spike’s own DNA was connected as well, so that we knew he was safe. We even gave ‘im a code-name, The Dragoon. Didn’t keep us from being worried, however.”
----------------------------------------Flashback #3-----------------------------------------
“Spike, this is your first time in battle, are you sure you’ll be alright, сын?” Heavy said, making sure the drake he had come to see as a son would be okay.
Spike nodded, “If I have any trouble during or afterward, I know where to find you or the others, Dad. Besides, the respawn’s still working, right?”
Heavy nodded. Enji had checked on it over 12 different times that morning, making sure there wouldn’t be any malfunctions due to Spike’s unique DNA.
There weren’t any problems yet, but both teams had an agreement that if either of their respawns had trouble, the fighting would stop. This agreement had been in place even before Spike came into the picture, and it had only been activated once, when RED’s re-spawn generator had shut down after a storm. It HAD been fixed before the fighting had begun, but both teams had decided to take the day off, just in case.
The Administrator had started the countdown, and the RED team had gotten into position. Spike, with this being his first battle, hid behind a rock, prepping his light machine gun. He then decides to shout out a taunt, like he had seen the rest of the team do many times before. It seemed appropriate, for some reason, but he couldn’t understand where the heck it came from. “Y’ALL DONE BUCKED UP NOW!” And the fight began.
After about 30 minutes of fighting, the RED team had successfully defended their base, and the fighting stopped. RED went inside, celebrating their victory, and Heavy walked up to Spike, who was sitting just inside the entrance to spawn. “Are you okay, Spike?”
Spike nodded, “I think so. I mean, I don’t like that I took a person’s life, even after I remembered both teams can’t really die, and I wanted to defend the base, even if it would have actually costed us our lives. Is that the right way to feel?” Heavy nodded, patting Spike on the back.
“Let me tell you story, Spike. When I was your age, I broke out of, and overthrew, work camp me, my mother, and my sisters had been unjustly put in, after they had killed my father. I had to kill some men in order to get out, but I was too focused on getting my family to safety at the time. Afterward, I felt nearly sick, as the reality of what I had done set in, but I decided that, while I would never like taking lives, when it was choice between killing a man or letting family die, I would always choose family over letting the man live. Team and comrades are also like family, so I protect them like they are family. You are my son, Spike, so it goes for you too.”
Spike nods, his father figure’s story helping him calm down. “Dad?”
“Yes, сын?”
“Can we go visit your family someday?”
“Maybe, Spike. Maybe.”
------------------------------------------End Flashback--------------------------------------
“Wowie, he really said that? He sounds cool.” Pinkie asked, now wanting to meet Heavy. The rest of the mares nodded, also wanting to get to know the man that Spike saw as a father, along with the rest of the team.
“As far as we know. Heavy did say that he and Spike talked about other things, but that Spike had asked for ‘im to keep it between them.” Spy said, taking the mares towards the entrance he had found near where the team had set up. “We’re here.” The light hit their eyes, nearly blinding them until their eyes adjusted. Spy just blinked. “Well, that was quick.” When the mares’ eyes had finally adjusted, they were treated to quite a horrific, if justified, sight.
The Diamond Dogs had been massacred, the whole tribe slaughtered because of the way they had treated the mares. Rover, their leader, was on his knees in front of Spike, whom had a serrated machete in his hand, begging for his life, feeding him information. Spike, for what it was worth, looked pissed, the pathetic life form before him disgusting him with it’s sniveling when, not but a few minutes before, he had threatened to kill his friends. “Does he look like a bitch?” He asked the Diamond Dog, looking for an excuse to shoot him.
“W-what?”
Spike shoots Rover in the shoulder, and asks again. “DOES! HE! LOOK! LIKE! A! BITCH?”
“NO!” Rover cried out in pain.
“Oh, hey, Spy. Hey, Twilight. Wait, TWILIGHT! Uncle Demo, keep Eyelander to this piece of crap’s throat, I need to talk to my friends!”
Demoman nodded, coming up to Rover. “Keep talking, ya piece a’ shite, and maybe I won’t keelhaul ya!” He screeched, putting a greatsword to the canine’s throat. The Diamond Dog’s efforts doubled, giving Demo piece after piece of information.
Spike ran over to the six mares, excitement on his face. “It’s so good to see you girls again!” He then looked around, and realized what scene surrounding them was. “Oh, this isn’t the best place to talk, is it? Maybe we should go to the library, or maybe the farm.” The rest of them nodded, but not before Demoman called out to Spike.
“Spike!”
“YEAH?”
“These guys are a splinter cell! Apparently, the rest a’ the Diamond Dogs have a new king that’s freeing ponies, paying the laborers, making trading treaties, ya know, doing things that are considered HUMANE, ETHICAL an’ POLITICALLY SOUND!”
“Alright, so we don’t have to worry about a retaliation attack?”
“Sounds like it!”
“Okay then, go ahead and cut the bastard’s head off!”
“Okay!” Demoman grinned, and said to the beast, “Go ta hell, and tell the devil, I’m coming fer him next!” He then chopped off Rover’s head, watching it roll down the quarry, before it fell down a hole. “Welp, that’s that. Who wants a drink?”
Applejack chuckled nervously. “Ah think some of our younger family members might follow us. Would ya mind drinkin’ some non-alcoholic apple cider, Mista Demoman?”
Demo laughed. “First off, call me Tavis, lass. I only let Spike get away with calling me Demo because that was what he first knew me as, and it kinda stuck. Second, I won’t mind, as long as it’s good cider. Right fellas?!” The rest of the team shouted an a affirmative. “See? Good food an’ good company can go a long way with us.” Applejack smiled. That, she could relate to.