The crowd was on the edge of their seats, the arena continued to burn as Team Harmony and Team Fortress battled with unrelenting rage. Before, Twilight and her crew were at the bottom of the scoreboard, but now after changing their playstyle, Team Harmony managed to fight back with great determination.
Their might was now known to all, from the smallest creatures of Equestria to the humans of Earth.
The scores were now tied, so the BLU team had to up their ante, by now everything was about trying to outdo each other in a battle of wits. Sadly most of both teams lack that aspect, the dumb ones were too busy killing each other to even think up a plan of attack.
So the brains had to take the initiative, that is why Rarity waited in the shadows, she looked over to the scoreboard displayed on the edge of the arena. The Soldier had recently respawned, which meant he was about to cross her path about...
The Soldier was pulled into the alley by Rarity, with her magic she pressed Soldier against the wall and held her knife at his throat. "Give me the exact location of your allies." She interrogated him.
He spat blood at her. "You won't get anything from me, you little communist!"
Rarity stared at him horrified, she was far more concerned about the fact that he spat blood at her when she had not harmed him yet. And now that she thought of it, she should've waited for someone... saner. Rarity wasted no time and plunged her knife into Soldier's eye.
"Really? A face stab?"
"Just die already you buffoon!"
Twilight trailed behind Applejack, her healing beam tethered on the demomare. The two rushed through the streets with the payload in mind. But Twilight's focus was stolen by something utterly dreadful, her pupils shrunk the moment it came to her attention, and every action she was making came to a stop.
A trail of books, all exposed to the scorching sun above away from the safety of a shelf. Applejack noticed the lack of overheal, her head turned towards Twilight in time to see the alicorn gathering the books.
"Twilight, what you doin'!?"
"These books are just out here where they are exposed to the elements! We cannot just allow them to face the weather like this!"
"Do realize that there is some trap? Ah know one when Ah see one, even y'all ain't that blind Ah'm sure."
"A trap?" Twilight was quizzical towards her friend. "Listen, from what we've seen, and know, these humans are a bunch of morons. No way they'd know of my weakness for books and their safety as well as their proper shelving. Even if they know, I'm sure that it would be one of the dumb ones who'd think that this supposed trap would work."
And just as she rescued another book, Applejack was consumed in fire behind her. Twilight swiveled her head with a loud creak, there stood Pyro who had just barbecued AJ. Nothing remained, only ash and the stench of burnt fruits. Twilight felt absolutely stupid for falling for Pyro's trap.
But fate had other plans because Autumn Blaze swooped in for the rescue. She called for Pyro's attention, once she had it, Autumn revealed a side that many were unaware of. The nirik.
Pyro stared at Autumn with awe, in his eyes he was greeted by a beautiful goddess who had blessed him with her presence. A colorful painting that was crafted by every famous artist of human history, as if the minds of the great had gathered just so they could craft the magnificence that is Autumn Blaze. The two just stood there, eyes locked for so long that Twilight swore she started to hear things. Music, a joyful one at that.
With the two firebugs occupied, Twilight simply slipped away to regroup with the rest of her team... Until she remembered about the books.
"What's happening?" Iron Will questioned his co-host. "These idiots have been fighting for hours!"
"A stalemate," Discord believed. "The two teams once again proved that they are more alike with each other than they thought. Now that the scores are tied, Team Fortress is not holding back anymore. As seen many times throughout our story, they are equal in battle."
"Can't we just do a tie-breaker? One of them is bound to win at one point!"
"Do that, and we might end up here for days!" Discord chuckled as he found the thought amusing. "They are currently trying to distract one another in hopes of breaking this stalemate, but it would seem that the plan itself caused the game to go even longer than we thought."
Iron Will sighed as he straightened himself in his seat. "At least Iron Will isn't bored, that timberwolf is safe for now."
Meanwhile, Luna was honestly glad that the fight was unable to move forward, it meant that it gave time for team Villainous to proceed with their mission without fear of being discovered.
The game had been going for too long which caused her sister to shift focus over to Cozy. Honestly, Luna was disturbed by the amount of affection she was giving to the child. She treated Cozy like a baby, even though she was a toddler at best. Still, though, Luna was honestly jealous of how Celestia treated Cozy.
She glanced over to Olivia and wondered if she should try to butter up with the young human.
"Must I remind you that I am your boss? Please show respect and do not treat me like a child." Olivia told Luna without even looking.
"I was not thinking of such!" Luna shot back.
Celestia chuckled into her hoof. "Aw, is my sister jealous of Cozy and me?" She received a deadly glare from the moon deity. "Oh dear, I understand that you lack a title, but I didn't know you needed my attention now more than ever! Don't worry Luna, though you are a peasant, you are still my sister."
"I'll eat your spine out if you continue to mock me." Luna threatened through clenched teeth.
Spike wondered where half of his team went, he alone fought back any attempts at destroying his little nest. The Scout had set his sights on the dragon and made attempts at killing Spike. While the rest of Scout's team focused more on pushing the cart.
Suddenly, the sentry beeped to life, he turned in time to witness a sapper attached to his sentry. Then he felt the earth taken from him as something pulled the young engineer into the air.
Spy held Spike by the straps of his overalls just to look him in the eyes. "I would say bonjour, but au revoir seems to fit more."
Spike showed no fear, he only crossed his arms and pouted at the same time. "I think déjà vu could be said here."
The Frenchman scoffed. "Indeed, but unlike the first time we've met, there is no yellow pegasus to save you."
"What did you do to Fluttershy!?"
"Nothing, but we've discovered a weakness that we could exploit."
The Demoman emptied his stomach into the toilet, and Fluttershy rubbed his back and forth to help him feel better. "If it doesn't bother you, I think you should drink something else... I have a-"
"Don't you give me anything that doesn't- urp!" He gagged. "Alright, maybe giving my kidney a short break would be a good idea... Only just this once, then I'll kill ya..."
"Oh, well let me just grab the smoothie I have-" Just as Fluttershy opened her bag, Demoman took the initiative and grabbed something for himself, the small sniper could not stop him as he popped the lid and drank the contents. "Oh dear, Mr. DeGroot, that's not something you should drink."
"Eh, what is it?"
Fluttershy turned red as she pulled her eyes away from his. "Well um... It's just that, the thing is... I really don't know how to say this without... I mean..."
"for heaven's sake lass, just spill the beans!"
"Pee..."
"Huh...?"
"It's sheep pee..."
"Louder you wee mice!"
"Ja-jarate... From a sheep..."
There was a moment of silence, the crowd showed their disgust as they learned that Fluttershy was one of the many snipers who utilized urine.
Demoman gave the jar a glance before he faced Fluttershy with a dead look in his eye. "Thought it was mead..." Then he collapsed as if he had given up on life.
Panic filled her head, Fluttershy tried her best to save Demoman but it was pointless as the Scottish cyclops felt himself passing over to the light. Until he was pulled back to the spawn room where he awaited another chance to fight.
"Now, where were we?" Spy asked rhetorically as he held his knife at Spike threateningly.
"I don't know, maybe the part where you lose!"
The man scoffed. "Let's agree to disagree."
"Sure," Spike smirked as he pulled his glove off to reveal his metal claws. Spy could not react in time as Spike plunged his claws into his arm.
Spy recoiled in pain, but Spike didn't allow him to recover. He went straight for his sentry and knocked off the sapper, but Spy was quick, another sapper was tossed into the sentry. The two then clashed, despite being small and weak, Spike held Spy's knife in place just an inch away from his eyes. Spy was impressed, so he rewarded Spike with a gun to the face, of which the young dragon was ungrateful.
Spy jumped back as he emptied his gun at Spike, but the little engineer was slippery, he managed to dodge every shot as he ran for cover.
Once he was safe, Spike returned fire with his pistol, but Spy was not a coward. He ran straight towards Spike bravely as he loaded his weapon.
"What the!?" Spike said aloud as he ducked behind cover, the bullets went over his head as Spy grew closer. "What are you!?"
Everything seemed to slow down as Spy slid into Spike's line of sight, gun trained at Spike's head, Spy had nothing on his face. No smirk or grin, he kept a professional look. Then bang, everything went black for Spike.
Saxton Hale was impressed, the Equestrians managed to fight, all determined to win for their home and country. But there was something wrong, he felt it on his chest hair. And it isn't the fact that he missed his daily grilling, he was doing that as we speak.
"Can I have more steak, Mr. Hale?" Some blue chicken lion requested, and of course, Saxton Hale was feeling generous enough to give the bird-thing some steak.
Honestly, if they weren't civilized, Saxton would've hunted the griffons down. Sadly they were part of Mane Co, and he'd rather not harm his employees and potential buyers, unless of course, they'd give him a reason to. And boy he'd welcome it.
Back to the thing that bothered him.
Well, it had been too long since HQ had contacted him, and he suspected that there was some devious play in the shadows. As he scanned the crowd, he noticed something amiss.
He was out of BBQ sauce.
"Crikey! Bottle is empty! Yous behave now, I'm off to grab some more."
The leaders of Equestria watched as Saxton Hale ventured out in search of some BBQ sauce. Though it was a bit disrespectful to just leave like that, he needed to grab another bottle so he could go back to grilling.
There were a couple of engineers waiting for him, Saxton Hale ordered them both to activate the teleporter back to HQ.
It was just a quick process, one second he was in the arena, and the next he was in the badlands far from Canterlot. What greeted him was an odd sight, the whole facility was empty. The monitors that were used for statistics and surveillance were left unmanned. Bullet casings littered the floor and blood stains ruined the walls.
If Saxton Hale was to guess, this whole base was attacked. And boy was he excited to see the idiots who think they could get away with their crimes.
"Mr. Hale!" The Australian turned to see a survivor, someone he had not seen before. "We have a problem!"
The man was an engineer, someone who was honestly a bit too tall for the job. Anyways he was also scrawny, that much Saxton Hale could tell. Looked a bit sickly as well, so much that there was something wrong in the man's eyes.
"G'day! What seems to be the problem?"
"Equestrian mercenaries sir! They came out of nowhere, killed everybody!"
"Ah," He chuckled. "Well only one problem though."
Saxton Hale turned the man's bones into dust with a single punch.
"I don't remember hiring you." He said in a dark tone.
He ignored the corpse that now decorated the consoles, if he had stayed then Saxton Hale would've discovered the true identity of the man. Sadly there was a bigger problem to deal with. Then he will go look for a bottle of BBQ sauce after. He marched along the halls, the sign of combat was evident and it was going to cost him money just to fill this facility with living people. The dead just can't do work, he'd hire them if they could.
Soon the silence slowly dissipated as he grew closer to his destination, guns and bombs echoed through the halls like a symphony of destruction. It was as he expected, they were attacking the important door and it would seem that the bread monster was activated to attack the intruders.
Once he arrived, Saxton Hale punched in the override code, which was literally punching something with his Australian strength. Then he proceeded to open the door just in time to see the conclusion of an amazing battle. A tired team of equestrian mercenaries stood on the other side of the large room, corpses of both man and bread scattered around all of which were ruined from all the bullets put in them. He could see the terror in their eyes as they took notice of him, and Saxton Hale could tell that they were tired from the fight.
After a long stride, Saxton Hale was upon them, and so far, they were terrified. None said a word as Hale scanned every one of them. He noticed that Suri was attempting to unlock the big giant door that held Mann Co's secret.
"So, would any of you care to explain why you all murdered my men?"
"Classified." Tempest was quick to give him their answer, though she was scared to the core, she showed defiance towards the man before them.
"Brave aren't we? I can respect that."
They waited for the worse as Saxton Hale stepped closer. But what they did not expect was when he pressed a few buttons until the large door opened. The mercenaries stared in disbelief as the man simply allowed them access to whatever it was they were hiding in this facility.
They were more shocked once it was revealed to them, something far grander than they could have ever believed. It was a large room with a teleporter. Not just a simple one, but something built on a greater scale, it was enough for hundreds of mercenaries to use, but only one question remained: Where does it lead to?
"You bunch must be curious about this, aren't you?" He chuckled deeply. "I suppose this is where I should do some big monologue and explain everything. Too bad I don't have time for that."
Saxton Hale took his place right between the giant teleporter and the mercenaries, arms crossed in front of his chest hair shaped like his home country. His muscles bulged as they anticipated a real slaughter that was about to happen.
"Tell me how many of you are in my facility so I can dig a big enough hole for you all to share."
Tempest scoffed. "Sorry to disappoint, but we are all accounted for."
Saxton Hale cocked his brow. "Then who was unfortunate enough to greet me here?"
Then it dawned on him. A smile grew up on his face as he let out a deep chuckle. He then ignored them and simply marched back into the same room despite their confusion. He popped every joint he had, as a manic smile replaced the previous.
"I know you have Australium in you all, best to recover while you can!" He laughed.
"What's going on?" Lightning Dust questioned as she and the rest of the team reloaded, a shared emotion of concern among them.
"These pests finally got through our defenses thanks to you, guess I'll have to clean up your mess."
Tempest scoffed at the man. "What do you mean!?"
As if to clear out any confusion, the entrance was blocked out by a wall of black with eyes that stared at them all with a powerful sense of malice.
"Black Oil Co. They've been trying to break into our headquarters ever since we asserted ourselves in their territory." He explained. "A million dollars each for every ten kills, quite a deal, ain't it?"
"We don't accept jobs from the enemy."
"Well, you bunch are next anyway, once these bugs are dealt with."
Saxton Hale clenched both his fists as he let his voice be heard with a mighty roar, then as expected of him, Saxton Hale rushed towards the wall of insects ready to open skulls. The mercenaries then took action and blasted away at the changelings with whatever ammunition they had left.
As a battle between two races happens in Canterlot, another takes place in the Badlands. Though the mercenaries and the CEO of Mann Co fought like wild beasts trapped in a corner, none of them were able to contain the threat of changelings, they were far too many to handle as some swarms revealed their true intention, the massive teleporter.
Saxton Hale took notice of this, so he went after the changelings that dared to touch his property. But he was too late, as dozens of changeling engineers got through, Saxton Hale scowled as he started to pummel any changeling unfortunate enough to come across his path. His plans were ruined all thanks to the mercenaries, once he was done with these bugs then he'd beat the answers out of them and find out who was dumb enough to hire them to attack his base. For now, he needed to exterminate some pests.