//------------------------------// // Ch. 18 Paintball // Story: Scootaloo's Years // by Broneyofnoel //------------------------------// (Postal’s POV) “Postal, right?” Drizzle questioned as the two of us entered the paintball arena. “Yeah, and you’re Drizzle, right?” I said back. The two of us looked through the clear plexiglass wall at the many ponies competing in a free for all game. Their playing field was a simulation of a jungle area mixed with an old Zebra settlement. “What should we play?” Drizzle asked excitedly, I looked up at the listings of game types and scanned them. There were only three that even looked interesting; free for All, Capture the Flag, and Survival. “What about Capture the Flag?” I offered to the almost buzzing pony beside me. “I’m great at that game!” Drizzle ran off to the CTF gear area. I followed him slowly, I examined the gear, most of it clean or having very little paint on it, but the Flag carrier’s uniforms were completely covered in a variety of paint colors, and inside one of them was Drizzle. I looked around us as I put a face mask on, there were about 16 other colts and fillies. They were wearing either a blue sash or a red sash that connected to their face mask. Drizzle and I both clicked on a blue sash and ran it along our bodies. “I'm so excited!” Drizzle said as he strapped the paintball tube around his foreleg. I smiled and nodded as I strapped the tube around one of my own forelegs. The timer on the wall sounded as the flag carrier of each team was to step forward. Drizzle stepped forward for our team, as well as a smaller pink filly for the other team. they stepped onto a platform and after a moment or two, were teleported away from us. “You will be facing each other in the urban environment of Apocalypto,” a suited unicorn said to us as his horn glowed. The red team disappeared first, and then I felt my own body be moved by another unicorn’s magic. I went from being in the paintball bullpen to inside of a small shack in an unfamiliar environment, AKA Apocalypto. Most of the ponies were already gone or fleeing from the shack, but Drizzle stood beside our flag, he was thinking hard on what he would do, or so it seemed. “Let’s go Drizzle!” I said strongly as i placed myself to leap out of a window. “WOOO!” Drizzle ran through a wall at such a high speed, it threw me through said window. I lost contact with Drizzle as he shot across the playing field. I walked slowly through the shadows as I looked for the other team. I walked around a corner and the small filly appeared, but I was hidden from her view by some debris. She and a larger pegasi walked slowly through the alley, I raised my foreleg with the paintball tube and aimed for the pegasi, as I was about to fire, a stream of paintballs flew into the egasi, causing him to shriek and fly up into the air, leaving the filly alone in the alley. I aimed at the filly and fired several shots at her, they impacted along her flank and neck, sending her spiraling into a wall. “Red Flag Carrier down!” A voice boomed from the sky. Three Red teammates can and grabbed the special piece of armor from the filly and attached it to one of their own as they ran off. I edged towards the filly from mycover as the colts left her behind. Once close enough to her, I poked her with a hoof. She turned her head and had fear in her eyes. I backed up a few paces as she struggled to stand, a mix of paint and blood coming from one of her legs. “Are you alright?” I questioned the filly as she finally stood up. “Yeah, I’ll be alright, thanks though,” she said, she gritted her teeth. “Why’d those guys just leave you?” I questioned her. “I don’t know them, just how the game works I guess,” she responded with some more confidence. “Oh, that sucks,” I said, I felt kind of bad for spraying her with paintballs. Just then, drizzle appeared around the corner with the Red team flag, a few paintballs hitting the wall behind him as he sprinted past the two of us. The pink filly aimed at him, but before she could fire, two of my teammates had appeared and started covering his escape. “What’s your name?” i asked as she and I took cover from each other’s teams on the opposite sides of the same wall. “My name is Style Sense, yours?” Style asked as a few paintballs hit around us. “Call me Postal,” I rose up from cover and fired at the ponies on her team, I ran around a corner of a building as my team covered me. I saw Postal running towards our base, as I neared him, he was hit several times with red paintballs. he fell to the ground nd dropped the flag. “Blue Flag Carrier down!” the same voice boomed. I ran to him and grabbed the flag, an enemy pony appeared and I pelted him with paintballs as I continued towards our base. I reached the our flag just in time as several dozen paintballs shattered the windows and colored the walls of the building I was in. I crawled to the flag placement as raised the Blue Flag, immediately after an alarm sounded, signaling a victory for Drizzle and I. “Blue Team Wins,” the voice boomed, I felt my body be teleported back by the same unicorn’s magic. I looked around me, most of the ponies were hit several times, some (including Style) had some blood mixed in with the paint. i was the only pony on my team that had not been hit, surprisingly there were two on the Red team that had not been hit as well. “Congrats Blue Team,” the unicorn said to us as Drizzle and I took off our CTF gear and headed for another station. He and I went through FFA, where he single hoofedly eliminated everypony, and then to survival, where he and I survived the longest against animated manakin ponies wielding paintball launchers. In the end, he and I were covered in different colors of paint, ranging from the darkest blue to the lightest pink, which Drizzle loved. We exited the paintball arena about ten minutes to closing time, we met Peachy and Endings in the common area, and now we were waiting on Scootaloo and Red. The two fillies looked so in love, it was almost funny, they kept looking at each other differently than they had been earlier, as if something had happened at the concert.