//------------------------------// // Highway fight ch.6 // Story: friendship and violence // by trebthegamer //------------------------------// by ~trebthegamer Chapter 6 Highway fight Just outside the Badlands was a big rest stop. It had everything: a bar, minimarket, restaurant, garage, etc... You may have thought it was overdone. But people who come through the Badlands often knew they needed to stop there. No one wanted to have their car break down between a bunch of guns and rocket launchers. This is where Sniper took stops often. He had rented a truck to transport the rocket parts. They found an old semi-trailer at Teufort, so he only had to rent the truck itself. He bought a few things for the ponies; a hairbrush being one of the items, because Rarity asked him buy one for her… she asked for it all the time. An unfriendly looking guy had seen Sniper buy this stuff. "Hey! Liking girly stuff?" he asked with a devilish smirk on his face. Sniper ignored him as he paid the cashier. "Are you hearing me, sissy?" The guy grabbed a book sniper had just bought took a look at it. "An Encyclopedia of modern arms? You don't need to learn about guns." Sniper pulled his SMG and shoved the barrel under the guys nose "Your right, mate. I don't need to. It's for a friend. Now give it back." The cashier looked the guy holing the book. "Just give him the book back. I don't want to clean another body of the floor." The guy slowly gave sniper the book back. As Sniper left, the rest stop the guy turned to the cashier. "You know that guy?" "Oh yes, and you should learn to know him, too." "Why?" "He's one of the guys that made the Badlands look like a warzone." "That guy? He bought hairpins and candy!" "And I believe it's for a friend. Trust me these guys are trouble if you mess with them. The small guy of the bunch got into the bar here once. He caused a fight and got killed in the process. Next day, the guy that killed him had his head batted in; by the same small guy." "You're telling me these guys can come back from the dead?" "Well, they cannot be killed permanently." A shady character came up to the thug. "I may have a job for you." __________________________________________________________________ Back in Teufort the mercs and ponies were already loading up the parts. Medic was searching the facility from top to bottom. "Heavy, have you seen Archimedes?" "No doctor." "Where is that bird?" "Mr. Medic! Archimedes is with me." The small dove popped out of Fluttershy's hair. "I see you taught him to stay somewhere else." "Yes but I haven't been able to get him to make his own nest, with the lack of trees and such." "At least he doesn't get into open wounds as often as he used to." They went to the barn where the Engineer was busy closing up a last box. "Now that there's a fine piece of work." "Never thought them shiny rocks could be so valuable." Said Applejack, who had been assisting Engy. "They're very rare around here. It's hard to believe these just grow like potatoes on your planet." "Well, then dragons eat them, so they have to come back somehow. By the way, what's in the other box?" "What?" "The one I saw you carry from the garage this morning." "That there's Medic's request. I'll show you guys in the well." Applejack was interested, but Twilight interrupted to check up on their progress "Mr. Engineer, are the boxes ready to be loaded onto the truck?" "Yeah!" "Great! There will be room for us in the back. Are you sure these are the parts we need? I mean, is the Rocket really that broken?" Applejack asked, looking at the remnants of their ride here. "That isn't the thing missy. You see, the Well already has a rocket, but its engines and coordinates aren't right, among other things" "How so?" "The engines can't get the rocket into space, but if I replace them with the engines from your rocket they'll not only launch you into space; they will do it in a record time and with minimum fuel." "And about the coordinates?" "I don't know where your planet is, but I think this thing might tell me." Engy pulled out the orb Princess Celestia had made. "That's the orb that points to Canterlot!" "So I was right. This does point to your world." "We completely forgot about that thing." "Anyway if it really does point to your planet, I can try and find its coordinates. The only other thing I need to do is transform the rocket into a non-exploding one. After that we can load it into Steel for the launch." Pinkie came into the barn, but not hopping like she usually does. In fact, she waggled around until she saw twilight "Hey… I didn't know you had a twin sister!" she said, in a shaky voice. "Spy?!" Twilight asked with sudden alertness in her voice. They looked around but saw absolutely nothing. "Applejack! Mr. Hardhat! You have one too!" Engineer looked at her closer. "Is she…?" "What? Is Pinkie Pie sick?" asked Twilight, worried. "I guess you can call it that." The engineer replied. Applejack stared at Engy. "Excuse me?" "She's drunk. Like the Demoman." "DRUNK?!" they asked in unison. "Is that bad Mr. Engineer?" Twilight asked fearfully. "Not yet. But don't worry, she won't die of it." "What did she drink?" "Alcohol, beer, but I suspect scrumpy; Demoman's favorite drink. He has several cases in every facility." Applejack looked at Pinkie who tried shaking hoofs with Applejack's non-existing twin. "Are you sure she'll be all right?" she asked him. "You may want to keep an eye on her." He replied. Pinkie waddled around the room "Everything is so woozy." Engineer though for a moment and said, "Maybe we better ask medic what we should do with her." "Agreed!" the two replied. They guided the drunken Pinkie out of the barn. ________________________________________________________________ Just outside the barn, Sniper had arrived with the truck. Everyone had gathered and, of course, Demoman was to blame for Pinkies state. Demoman had returned to drinking his usual amount and had convinced Pinkie to try it too. Most of the mercs found the situation funny, but the ponies were worried about her. Sniper decided there was not much they could do about it now. "Just get in the truck and let Pinkie sleep it off." He suggested. Getting Pinkie in the truck proved harder than expected. She was still energetic as ever and jumped around singing, "Oh, give me cakes! So many, many cakes!" The booze made her drowsier than usual and she eventually fell asleep. Soldier carried her to the back of the truck. Sniper gathered the group one last time in the barn to pick up the last few boxes, but more pressingly to announce something. "When Miss Pauling called to give the ok for our transportation, she suggested we use our earpieces." "What are earpieces?" Twilight asked him. "They are little radios with which you can tell your teammates anything, even when they're not near you." "Why haven't you been using them?" "We use them for serious matches, and as long as we all do our thing in the team, we're solid. But the thing is this; they never suggest us to use earpieces. Miss Pauling must fear something will go wrong on this transportation." "Is it because of the gems?" Rarity asked. "I'm not sure." Heavy said "Maybe it's because of little Ponies" Dash rushed over to him "You think we might betray you guys?!" "No!" "I think what heavy's trying to say is that you guys have been compromised." Engy told her. Medic then said, "Even if the nearby towns fear us, I think the Ponies could catch quite the price if captured. Am I right Heavy?" "Da!" "I'm surprised by how we might be looked at by other people, and even more surprised Mr. Heavy Weapons guy was the first to realize this." Applejack said. Engy patted Applejack "Allow me to stun you even more. The Heavy has a PhD in Russian literature. It's a high academic grade. He's way smarter than he looks, or talks in that matter." Sniper laughed when the ponies' jaws dropped. "Ok back to serious business. If someone else knows about the ponies, it means someone here talked." "I doubt anyone of us could talk about colorful ponies and get someone who believes it. Those who do believe it are smart enough not to tell." the Medic stated "We better watch out when on the road." Engy said, as he loaded up another box. They loaded up the last boxes and got on board. Sniper and Twilight would be in the front and the rest got into the back; except for Scout and Rainbow Dash. Medic opened his window and called out to them, "Are you not coming with us?" "Nah. We'll get there by ourselves. We're fast enough." "Be careful you two." "Aww doc, I didn't know you cared." "I care about my objectives, and they currently are to get these parts, these gems, and these ponies to the Well safely." "No problem." "Remember! When you die you won't spawn in the truck. You'll spawn at the nearest spawn point." "There are some battlements along the way." "Dash you better know how to dodge like Scout. If he dies you'll be on your own while he respawns and gets back to you." "I can handle it!" Rainbow Dash replied as she and Scout took a head start. "Fess…" Sniper saw them pass by with ease. "What are those two thinking they're doing?" "They plan on going on their own." Medic said over the radio as he closed the back. Sniper grumbled as he started the truck. Twilight was a little worried. "Be honest Sniper. How much trouble are we in?" "Can't tell, we have to know who's after us first." When they passed Scout and Rainbow dash he rolled down the window and yelled, "You prancin' show ponies!" Then he looked at Twilight, who wore a little smile on her face. "No offence mate." "None taken, sir." ____________________________________________________________________ Scout and Dash sped after the truck. "You know, I can catch up to them. This is mere jogging to me." Scout told her. "Oh yeah? I bet I can get by them faster." Before they could start a match, scout heard a familiar voice in the distance and stopped at a fork in the road. "Hey! Are you tired already?" Rainbow asked smugly. "No but… Let's go this way. There's something I want to check." "Do I have a choice? You're the one who knows the way." She reminded him. "Good point." he replied. Scout ran down the direction where he heard the sound. Rainbow Dash flew after him. When they neared a T-junction their jaws nearly dropped. Hundreds of people armed to the teeth with weapons from MannCo. They were on bikes and armored jeeps. "Aw Crap!" Scout and Dash hid behind a Rock when scout heard the voice again. "Mission begins in ten seconds!" Scout looked and saw the administrator's messenger with the usual TV-screen strapped to his chest. "You've got to be kidding me! When did she get back?" "Is that..?" "The administrator. Yes. Oh man she was the one that knows about you guys." "She looks shady, and why does she carry a TV-screen?" "That's the messenger. The administrator is the one on the screen." "Oh. Um… Scout." "What?" "They're moving." "What?!" The army of goons headed towards the road the truck was following. "Hey, we've gotta stop them!" Scout shouted that too loud and the goons noticed him. Luckily the Messenger had already left. But the goons had noticed Dash too. "Damn! She was right. They do have some rare animals with them." Scout jumped on Rainbow Dash and they flew towards the truck. Scout contacted the others and told them what he had seen. ____________________________________________________________________ "Bugger!" Shouted Sniper, after he heard what scout told him. In the back the others had heard too. Medic thought for a second, and said, "So she was already back?" "Seems like it." Heavy said, while stomping open the doors. "We let tiny men come! I kill them!" Just then, there was a bump in the road that tossed everyone up. Heavy lost grip on his minigun and it fell out the back "Noooooo! Sasha!" Fluttershy quickly flew out and grabbed it. She had a difficult time getting back to the truck, as it weighed a lot. "Come little pony! Bring it back!" Heavy shouted at her encouragingly. Fluttershy was about to give up when the minigun suddenly became lighter. Dash and Scout had arrived to help carry it. They tossed it into Heavy's arms. Heavy immediately gave the minigun a big hug and whispered apologies to it. Applejack approached the exhausted Fluttershy. "What were you thinking girl?!" "But heavy was going to lose Sasha." "It's a gun! He can get a new one. That thing could've smashed you into the road." "But he'd be sad." "YOU!" heavy yelled, who had set Sasha in the back while Engy looked to fix any damage. Heavy Hugged Fluttershy shouting, "Thank you! Little Fluttershy is credit to team!" "Guys, is that gun good to go? Because those morons are here!" yelled the scout, still running after the truck. "She's good to fire!" Engy yelled back. "Horosho!" Heavy yelled. He let Fluttershy go and grabbed his minigun. "Here I come!" He started firing at the goons. Soldier set up next to heavy to fire his rockets, while Pyro fired flares on the other side. Behind them, Demoman fired his pipe bombs. As Engy set up a dispenser in the middle of them, he shouted "Hey Spy! Medic! Open that one crate I brought along!" Spy and Medic tried this immediately. But medic soon had to assist in healing since the dispenser wasn't enough. "Hey I require assistance here!" Rarity came up and tried to use her magic to force the box open. The lid flew off nearly missing heavy, but taking out a few biker goons. "Fine job miss rarity." "Thank you monsieur Spy." Engy finished upgrading his dispenser and rushed to the box. He pulled out another box, with strange marks on it. "Fluttershy, the medic requested this, now stand still." "Oh, are you sure it's for me? I mean, is it ok?" "More than ok." He said with a smile. Engineer placed the box on Fluttershy's back and it deployed. "Going up!" he yelled. Soon Fluttershy had a new type of medigun. There were two small mediguns on each side of her and a battery on her back to supply the power to both. On the box was a drawing of Fluttershy's cutiemark. "You should be able to fly with it. But for now just try it on them fellas protecting you." "Thank you. Um are you sure? I mean…." "Get going!" "Right it's only a competition after all." she assured to herself. Fluttershy immediately tried her new personal minigun out on the Demoman "Eey! Thanks lass. But you should try the guys in front of me. They need it more." "Oh! Ok!" She focused now on healing the mercs in the opening of the truck. The fight was wild. Soldiers' rocket took down several jeeps, while the heavy mowed down anyone who came close. Pyro had to change tactics and air blast incoming rockets. Scout was running among the bikers and smacked anyone who came near him, while dodging their bullets. Dash kept an eye out in the sky. Whenever Scout would be in trouble she could come down and get him out of it. Some goons had started picking up speed, passed the cargo part and attempted to board the front of the truck. Sniper grabbed his SMG and shot a guy off the side. Twilight kept her side safe with a spell. When another goon jumped onto sniper's side of the truck he recognized the guy from the store. Sniper laughed "There was you, very full of yourself." Sniper aimed his SMG "Then briefly surprised." He fired "Then, dead." He turned on his headset "Guys! Finish them off! It won't be long until we're there." "Very good!" yelled heavy. "Demoman, may I make a suggestion?!" Spy pointed at the empty box that until recently held Fluttershy's medigun. "Ah I see." the scot snickered as he disabled his sticky limit and filled the box with active stickybombs. They pushed the box out of the truck, and the stickies flew in all directions when the first motorcycle hit the it. Shortly after, Demoman detonated them. "I don't think they saw that one coming'!" he laughed as he sat down next to the sleeping Pinkie. Soldier looked at her. "I can't believe she slept through all that." "She had quite a few drinks too." Demoman laughed. "Yeah about that, never offer her a drink again." _______________________________________________________________________________ As they drove in Pinkie had still not woken up. Soldier and Demoman carried her to the resupply room and had placed her on the bench. When she did wake up she was experiencing a hangover. "Oooh, I feel horrible." "He he, I guess scrumpy isn't your thing." "Oooow not so loud. My head hurts." She told him. Soldier walked up to her. "What you feel is the punishment of drinking too much." "Why doesn't Demoman have it?" she asked. "Well um…" "Demoman had to put up with hangovers for years before he got used to it. He still gets them but he gets over them faster." said medic, who was followed by Fluttershy and Heavy. "We can't leave her like that. She seems to feel very bad." Fluttershy walked forward and used her medigun. "Ach, you are too kind." medic told her. After a while under the medibeam, Pinkie Pie started feeling a lot better. "Hey is that like Medic's Medigun? It looks so nice! The small mediguns look so cute!" "The sizes of the mediguns are not just cute, they're practical." Engy told her, while he placed the gem box in the corner. "This way they don't get in the way of your wings. The normal medigun is too big and heavy for you, let alone two mediguns. The decrease in size also lowered their weight and power necessity, but I did have to leave several parts out." "Is that bad?" Fluttershy asked, with slight concern. "Not really. It just means you can't use über. You should still be able to overheal." "Assuming this is our gift, I don't think she'll need the über. That is, unless you want me to install the überdevice on every pony in your group." "No thanks!" Fluttershy replied quickly. Pinkie wondered "What is he talking about?" "It's a thing that causes every one of them to become invincible." "Oooh! Is that the thing that makes you all shiny? I want that!" "Wunderbar!" said medic. He pulled out his bonesaw, and Pinkie quickly changed her mind. "On second thought, no thanks!" She ran out of the room "Ah, what a shame. I believe your hearts would be strong enough not to explode." "What?" Heavy asked. "Nothing, Heavy, Just thinking out loud." _________________________________________________________________ Pinkie ran out the base and bumped into Twilight and sniper who were unloading some crates with rocket parts. "Pinkie Pie, You're awake!" "Strange. I thought she'd be cringing in pain by now." "What?? Why would she be doing that?" "Remember that hangover thing I explained to you?" "Oh right. Still, it's good to see she's ok." Pinkie Pie jumped up "I was feeling very sick, but I'm fine now, thanks to Fluttershy's new device! When did she get that?" "They gave it to her during the fight." "What fight? When was there a fight?" "You slept through the entire thing. Apparently the administrator is back and the guys had to fight off a lot of people." "I missed a special match?" "I guess it was a surprise match." Sniper didn't mention it wasn't a match. Otherwise he'd have to admit that those goons didn't respawn. Pinkie Pie was a little annoyed. "So because I drank so much scrumpy, I missed the entire thing, and the moment they gave out gifts?!" Sniper took out a bag of candies "Fluttershy's was a special gift since she's teaching Archimedes to stay out of our guts when medic's operating. You can have these tough." "Thank you!" She took the bag of candies and hopped away. "Is that really the reason she got it?" "Well, medic and Engy like to experiment too, and I guess you can say we've grown to like you guys. I got this book for you." "Encyclopedia of modern arms?" "I've heard from Applejack you're quite the bookworm, so I thought you might want to learn about our equipment." "Thank you! I was interested in the workings of those things." "You're welcome." ______________________________________________________________________ The administrator looked at the screens, streaming the cameras from the well. "They already got the mercenaries on their side. My mercenaries!" She took a drag from her cigarette. "Dead these things would be better." "Administrator, I should remind you of Soldiers attempt. We talked about it." "I know. But just because that idiot didn't succeed in one try doesn't mean someone else can't." The administrator left her chair and walked to the door "If you'll excuse me, I have to make visit to an old friend. I am not looking forward to this." "Shouldn't I just call him?" "Miss Pauling I'm pretty sure you like those animals too. I'm afraid I can't trust you with these tasks until they are gone. See it as your turn to take a vacation." "Excuse me, Administrator?" "I will call you when you can return to your tasks." As she left the facility, she talked to herself. "That Australian idiot better do this. Those things are hard to get rid of, and I'm running out of ideas."