By the time the Scout had gotten back to his home, all of the fires had been put out already. It was rather easy to not let on that his teammates were feeding him info through his headset, so he simply had to say that he saw one of his former colleagues in the forest. Of course there were questions, but most of them were forgotten once they saw the flames. Sure, there were animals who burned to death, but thankfully no one decided to be completely irrational and blame him for it.
A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts. He opened it to see Twilight standing there.
"'Ey, Twilight."
"Hello, Scout. I wanted to ask you a few questions about that... 'friend' of yours."
"I wouldn't say he's a friend, more like a freak who happened to be on my team."
"Right. Anyway, I found out why there were ten of him."
"Really? Why's that?"
"It seems that he stumbled into the mirror pool and cloned himself. We had a problem with it once, with Pinkie, but I sealed it back up, for good this time."
The Scout remembered the teleporter and resupply locker that was in that cave, and he tried to not show a reaction. "W- Well, that's good, I guess."
"Oh yeah, and Pinkie wanted me to give you this." Twilight levitated a pink envelope in front of him, which he grabbed. "It's an invitation to a party tomorrow. Will you be able to make it?"
"Sure, I guess."
"Alright, I'll see you then." Twilight trotted off, and the Scout looked at the envelope. Shrugging, he decided to open it-
"GAH!"
Only to get a face full of confetti. After getting his heart rate back down, he read the short note:
You have been formally invited to your "Welcome to Equestria" party, tomorrow at 3! Come to the Sugarcube Corner, but remember, it's supposed to be a surprise!
-Pinkie Pie
The Scout read that last sentence at least four times. She wanted it to be a surprise for him, yet she both sent this letter and stated what it was for in said letter.
Truly a mystery for the ages.
Putting that aside, the Scout tried to fix the other problem he had at the moment. "Hey, anyone there?"
For a while, no one answered, then the Engineer spoke from the headset. "How are ya, Scout?"
"Doin' good, hard hat. I'm gonna need a favor of ya."
"What is it this time?"
"Well, that cave with the teleporter and locker got sealed off. I was wonderin' if you could come back in and get a new one runnin'."
"Actually, I have a better idea. They got a long-range teleporter here at Mann Co., so I'm gonna try to send it through there."
"Am I gonna have to do anythin'?"
"Yeah, go to where you want the teleporter and place your headset there."
Going to the bedroom, the Scout placed his headset in the corner. Before he stood back, he made sure to say "Okay," in the mic.
He waited, until the familiar sound of a teleporter filled his ears. A self-building teleporter exit had appeared right next to the headset, which he picked up and put back on.
"It get there?"
"Yeah, hard hat, thanks."
"Now, I can't send a resupply locker through there, so you'll have to make due by yourself."
"Got it." Once the teleporter was up and whirring, the Scout decided it was time to sleep, even though it was still daylight out. This did not stop him from his nap.
Meanwhile, Mann Co. HQ
"Mr. Hale, sir?"
"What is it, Bidwell, can't you see I'm busy readjusting my yeti bone desk?"
"It's our prototype teleporter, sir. It was used."
"So what? If it was used, that's good, right? After all, it won't stop being a prototype if no one uses it."
"But, sir, we traced it to the destination... and it's in that one dimension you went to."
"The one with all the demons?"
"No, sir, the other one."
"Equestria?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well I'll be damned. Who used it?"
"One of the mercenaries."
"Hmm... What was sent?"
"We're not sure, but it seemed to be a tool or something of that sort."
"Welp, looks like one of those idiots is spending vacation time in Equestria again. I needed an excuse to pay Tia another visit, anyway. Bidwell!"
"Y- Yes, sir?"
"Fetch my inter-dimensional shorts."
Meanwhile again, in Undisclosed Location
"*beep boop* Sir, we have picked up a teleportation from the Mann Co. base.*bleep bloop*"
"Yes, so what? Those mercenaries use teleporters all the time."
"*baddaboop* But sir, it had an exit point in what seems like another dimension. *blarpa barp*"
"Really now? Hmm... This may prove worthy of looking into..."
"*robot noises* Shall we delay the attack in which we send in waves of giant robots and tanks? *feliz navidad*"
"What have I told you about saying our plans out loud, you idiots? I swear, what was I thinking when I made you..."
"ALL HAIL THE MAKER!"
"I could've sworn I disabled that hailing circuit. Ah well, no matter. Mecha-Engineer!"
"*boop* Yes, sir?"
"Prepare a carrier tank for teleportation. Trace the signal from the teleporter at Mann Co., and place it five kilometers west."
"*beep* Sir, I can't tell which way is west. *beep boop goin' up*"
"Then just move it five kilometers to the side, or something. I swear, whoever said Undisclosed Location was a relaxing place was a filthy liar."
"*beep boop over here* What shall we do, maker? *bop*"
"It seems that Mann Co. has some sort of interdimensional partner. Let us give them a transfusion of our army."
"*beep beep boop, wanker* Nice job working the title in like that, Maker. *that's some shonky beep boop right there*"
"Yes, it was rather clever, wasn't it? In a few days, whoever is in that other dimension will know the name of Gray Mann."