After the rush from the energy drink wore off, Rainbow landed on a cloud and immediately fell asleep. Meanwhile, the ponies on the ground were staring at the cascade of rainbows left in the pegasus's wake. Amidst this, the Scout began walking home. Seeing this, Twilight trotted up to him.
"Scout, are you sure that was a good idea, giving Rainbow that... whatever it was?"
"No idea."
Twilight stopped. "You mean- That stuff could've been dangerous to her?!"
"Hey, I drink it all the time, and I'm fine!"
"Well... I guess so..."
"Once you get used to the tumors, it's nothin', really."
"If you say- Wait, what?!"
Her inquiry went unanswered, as the Scout had began his run back to his house. Once he was out of town, and after making sure he was alone, he tapped his headset a couple times. "Yo, anyone? You there?"
There were sounds of something moving around on the other end, followed by a gruff Russian voice answering. "Da."
"Heavy? Why are you on the mic?"
"Mann Co. have us move to headquarters to fight robots. Was moving things."
"Really? Well, that explains where you all were the past few hours."
"How is little man liking pony land?"
"Eh, it's alright. Met the princess, got kinda-sorta found out, you know."
"I do not know what-" The Heavy was interrupted by someone shouting angrily in the background. "Doctor, you should not lift things with tiny arms. Be like Scout, who got found in pony land." The Medic shouted again, before apparently grabbing the mic from the Russian.
"Vhat do you mean, found out?!"
"Look, some things happened, and I happened to meet th' princess in charge, or somethin'. Also, I got turned into a pony."
The doctor's rage was replaced with curiosity. "Really? You are a pony right now?"
"No, I got changed back. Bein' a pony sucks on ice."
"Hmm... Perhaps I could simply get one of those unicorns to turn one of zese dummkopfs into a pony, and then study zem..."
"Uh, Doc?"
"Oh, sorry. Anyvay, you did not reveal your true purpose for coming here, did you?"
"No, I didn't, don't worry."
"Good, good. Maybe ve can-" Now it was the Medic's turn to be interrupted, as the Heavy said something that the Scout couldn't hear. What he did hear, however, was the Medic's following shout of "Vhat?!"
"What's wrong, Doc?" By now, the Scout had made it home, and started lounging on the couch.
"Zhis is bad, zhis is very bad..."
"Out with it, Doc, what happened?"
"Ze Pyro... It seems he took that teleporter ze Engineer built for you. And... it seems he's not coming back."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Pyro? As in that mute freak who burns things that he don't like?"
"Ja... Ze same. Scout, vhatever you do, keep him from causing harm to ze ponies. He could ruin your reputation with ze ponies, and zey need to trust you completely."
"How long ago did he teleport?"
"I do not know. It could've been hours ago, for all we know."
"Ah, crap..." The Scout sprinted out the door back to Ponyville, trying to come up with an excuse as to why he suddenly knew about one of his colleagues being here.
An hour ago...
The Pyro was confused. This was not the base. Sure, there was a resupply locker, but it was in a cave, not a coal museum, or a quicklime factory, or even whatever the Soldier was trying to make those shacks look like.
What stood out about the cave, though, was the pool of water near the middle. Despite his fondness of fire, and the subsequent hate of water for quenching that fire, he couldn't help but come closer to it...
Only to trip on a rock and fall in.