"Alright,"
Twilight began to address her team. They once again gathered around the Friendship Map for another meeting. With them of course was their handler, Soarin. He was there to make sure that team Harmony was ready for the upcoming war, Discord's orders of course.
The group kept their skills as sharp as Rarity's fashion sense. They need it more than ever since they will be facing creatures twice their size. Not only that, but they were equals when it came to war. Team Fortress was like mirrors in terms of skills and techniques.
Both teams were deadly on the same level, just as crafty even. None could predict the outcome of the battle, but the team still felt confident with each other. And right now, they need to figure out their enemies and their weaknesses.
Twilight continued. "As we know, or I know since I did my research, humans are called homo sapiens. Primates or apes to be short. And just like you my precious abominations-"
"I resent that." Rarity voiced.
"-these humans are also augmented with animal organs. Not like the ones I've put in you, but just regular animals like lions or baboons. Though I have seen the Medic purchasing some manticore kidneys."
"Get to the point!" Dash whined.
"Ah'm out of whiskey, don't have time to listen to ya blabber." Applejack sneered.
"Fine," Twilight cleared her throat. "They are tall, that is what we understand. Bigger even, but thanks to my brilliance we have kept our bodies in top shape! We are not ordinary ponies, we are mercenaries! These apes are nothing but hurdles in our path to ultimate evolution!"
"This is not what we are here for," Rarity said. "Soarin, could you be a dear and start the projector?"
"No problem!" Soarin answered.
Seconds after the order was sent, he plunged the whole room into darkness. Then the projector brought back the light, the crew stared at the blank canvas prepared for them. Now that everything was set, Rarity immediately placed on the first slide.
A strange blue structure was shown, which was built somewhere in the Everfree. This was evident with the fact that there was a caption below telling the crew the location. Rarity cycled to the next slide.
To which six out of ten members had recoiled in disgust.
"Next slide! Next slide!" Soarin begged.
"Fascinating." Fluttershy hummed.
Rarity scoffed. "Oh don't be such babies, it is just their Pyro."
"My eyes! My youthful eyes!" The youngest in the group cried as his mind felt psychic damage.
"Just do it already!" Twilight gagged.
"Hmm." At least Autumn felt different. Only a sense of curiosity, not disgust like everyone else. "Oh!" The others could tell that she was turning red after she realized what they were looking at.
"Fine, next slide!" Rarity quickly cycled much to everyone's relief.
Now they were shown the inside facility of the fort, and what looks to be some villain's office. A window oversees a large room just below with hundreds of consoles and computers, and a large map of Equestria was displayed on a screen right across the window. There were numerous blue circles, some tiny, a few large. The largest circle located right on the Badlands was labeled "Mann Co HQ".
"Yo, you got some good shots!" Dash commented.
"Yes, but I was discovered soon after this picture. Though I did manage to get some interesting finds." Rarity said. "Yet I have not seem to find any weakness of sorts."
"Aren't they all males? Just hit them where it really hurts." Dash said proudly.
Another slide showed Heavy crushing Scout's head as he stared into the camera with an arched brow. Next, the projector revealed a large bulletin board filled with various information. It showed them more than what they hoped for. Such as how similar Mane Co is with Mann Co, far more than they believed. Even Fluttershy was shocked to see the kidney enlargement pills being advertised by Saxton Hale, not only that, but he was the inventor of the Jarate in the human world. But here, Trixie claimed to be the creator, which was certainly odd to Fluttershy.
There were countless well-drawn pictures of Spy being killed or doing questionable things with objects and structures, like the Eiffel Tower in Prance.
Some guns they've seen or bought before, an advertisement about some monkey. There was also an ad looking for mercenaries for two research facilities, both of which were insulting each other in their ads.
"'Move your buildings anywhere you want'?" Applejack read aloud. "Y'all think that they didn't even build that fort? That flier is missin' a number."
"Applejack, I don't think it's possible to just move a whole fort," Fluttershy said.
Soarin hummed. "Sure is a lot going on that board... Hey look, there's a propaganda poster about us!"
As he said, there was indeed a poster. A crudely drawn picture of Celestia depicted her devouring human babies with the caption "Ponies eat babies, that's a fact!". The idea that it was made by a child was thrown out the window when they noticed the name "Soldier" written in the corner. Surprisingly, it was well made, and really got its point across.
"Heh," Pinkie chuckled. "I find babies funny."
"Right, we've seen enough." Rarity said as she cycled to the next slide.
Finally, they saw something worth noting. It was several whiteboards with written information. There were names they recognized, many of them were relatives and friends they separately knew in their lives. It would seem that the humans were doing their own research, the worst part was that they were ahead of them by a mile. The humans even got their childhood right. Like how Dash convinced Fluttershy to join the group, or the time Rarity got her cutie mark. All of it was listed on the board, all but Autumn Blaze.
"So," Soarin began, looking at Dash with a curious glint in his eyes. "You hold my wonderbolt figurine very dearly." He said as he eyed the picture of Dash in bed with a figurine of his likeness, it was oddly adorable.
"Wait, how did they get that!?" Dash exclaimed as her cheeks turned red. "Soarin, I can explain!"
"No need! I always knew you were a wonderbolt fan!" He laughed. "If you want, I can get you any new merchandise that comes out the line, straight from the factory."
"Y-yeah... can we move on now?" Dash was too embarrassed to even focus, she buried herself deep in her hat wishing the darkness to consume her.
Pinkie laughed at her pain, but Dash didn't take it lying down, furious, she threw a baseball right at Pinkie's face, knocking the smile off completely. The soldier would've retaliated, but Rarity forced Pinkie into her chair and kept the rocketeer in place.
"Dash's little dolls are the least of our problems." Rarity informed them.
"They're not dolls! They are limited-edition collection figurines." Dash argued.
Rarity chose to ignore her and continued. "These humans know who our friends and family are, they have also been collecting information about our past jobs." She pointed a hoof towards the corner of the screen. "As you can see, they know of Pinkie's attempt in joining the royal guard, not only that, they know that she razed a whole town to ruins after the rejection. This is frightening, we must stay vigilant."
"At least I didn't spend time attacking innocent Germans after World War II." Pinkie commented, to which the others stared at her oddly. Pinkie shrugged her shoulders, unsure of what to say next.
Ignoring the rocket mare, Rarity showed another slide, and this is what really shocked the room. It was a large map of Canterlot with several blue arrows pointing at it, and the word "INVADE" written in all caps.
"Something tells me, this whole thing is more than copyright infringement," Twilight said ominously.
It was unnerving, their goal was unraveled to them and now team Harmony saw what was at stake. Not just their jobs or their way of life, but their home as well. The game just kept gaining more and more risks, were it wasn't for the fact that they were hardened mercenaries, the group would have broken into a panic knowing that the fate of their world lies on their hooves.
But no, this information only inspired them to fight, backing down now would be unacceptable, an insult to their predecessors who fought for the present. Twilight smiled once she saw the determination in everyone's eyes, she couldn't be prouder of them now than ever. Her heart pounded in her chest as excitement filled her soul, she could already taste the blood that would surely be shed on the battlefield. They all knew what to do, their skills must improve if they want to win.
So Twilight ended their meeting early, there was much to do, and it was their final day before the first match. There were bombs to be made, blades to be sharpened, and a cake to bake.
Team Fortress should watch out, these Equestrians are hungry for victory, and they better hope that their end would be quick and painless.