//------------------------------// // Camp-in // Story: Happy Campers // by Okhlahoma Beat-Down //------------------------------// Twilight fluffed up all 6 pillows, straightened her deep purple mane, and stood by the door. She'd been organising this with the girls for weeks now: though she had become the Goddess of Magic, she hadn't forgotten who had helped her along the path to glory. Wings neatly tucked by her sides, she ruffled her feathers in anticipation for the first of her friends to arrive. Would it be Rarity? Pinkie Pie? Rainbow Dash? She didn't know, and it was getting strangely tense for her. "Hmmm..." she tapped a hoof to her snout. "Where are they? I said 6:15, it's 46 seconds past 6:15! Are they even coming?" Twilight then realised what she was doing, and mentally slapped herself. "No. Bad Twilight. Last time you got paranoid, you hypnotized the entire town into loving Smarty Pants. Calm down. Deep breaths." Just then, the doorbell rang. Yes, she had spent a few weeks designing it, and yes it did momentarily damage the Library's electronic lighting, but still: she'd made it, and it was a testament to how Celestia-damned awesome she was with fiddly things. The lights flickered, and smiling, Twilight opened the door with her magic. "Hey, Twilight." Fluttershy said happily. The small vanilla Pegasus was stood on the other side of the door, saddlebags pressed against her side. She seemed to be struggling with them slightly. "I hope I'm not late, I mean, I'm sorry if I am, it's just-" "No problem, Fluttershy." Twilight giggled, levitating the bags off her friend's back. The Pegasus seemed relieved to have less weight to carry. The Pegasus was ushered inside, and the door closed. "The good thing is that you're here." "Yes, it is." Fluttershy agreed, nodding. "It's getting quite windy outside." "Well, Rainbow Dash did come over to tell me about an upcoming thunderstorm, so the Weather Patrol must be gearing up for that." "I don't like thunderstorms." Fluttershy squeaked, drooping her head slightly. Twilight rolled her eyes, before moving beside her friend and wrapping one of her awesome new alicorn wings over her. "Don't worry, Fluttershy." she comforted. "What are you so afraid of?" "Well, the last time there was a thunderstorm of this scale, a tree fell down and broke through your wall. That, and Angel told me that some strange animals have been running around the Everfree Forest. So, I'm slightly worried that something will arrive in this thunderstorm." "Don't be silly, Fluttershy." Twilight laughed, rubbing a hoof in Fluttershy's mane. "That tree was cut down ages ago, and Angel must be joking. There's no such thing as monsters, we already know about every animal in the Everfree. You know them best, so did Angel describe them?" "Umm...no?" "See? He must be joking. There's nothing in that Forest." ------------------------------------------------ The Bolted-Sniper was lost. The grey, tall robot had already figured out a loophole in the whole 'running on money' issue, easily circumvented by putting dry leaves in the fuel port, which the onboard computer would mistake for paper money, but he hadn't managed to find a way out of the forest. Not to mention it was beginning to rain. Rain messed with his circuitry. Just as he went in-between two trees, the lights in his eyes lighting up the way, there was a faint clanking sound. Confusing at first, since Bolted-Sniper didn't think anybot came with him to this mysterious land, but the confusion was replaced by an irregularity: happiness. He wasn't programmed to feel it, but it was...there. A clanking. The sign that another robot was here. Rather hurriedly, the Sniper checked through his system audio logs to see if he could match the tempo of the clanks to that of another unit. Finally, he found a matching file. "Demoman." Sniper muttered. It was actually a recording from the original Sniper, who supposedly worked for both BLU team and RED team, whatever those were. The clanking gradually increased in loudness, before the bushes nearby could be heard rustling. Finally, they parted to reveal a shaking, steel version of a certain black Scotsman. However, Sniper saw something was...off. He had one eye, sure, as with all Demo-9000 units, except above it there was hair. An afro, to be precise. Below the flapping jaw, he saw the batteries had been replaced with what appeared to be 1800's bombs, black balls with string poking from the top. In front of the individual lens Demomen usually had for eyes, there was a pair of white shutter glasses. However, his choice of weapon seemed to be the most eccentric part about him: instead of the usual grenade launcher, sticky-bomb launcher, or sword, he seemed to be carrying a black metal frying pan. Both stared at each-other for a moment, the non-existent silence cut out by the sound of chugging motors and quite pattering of rain. "Demopan?" asked the unusual Demo. Sniper-Bot facepalmed. "OK, mate." he replied. "That it?" "Aye!" shouted the Demoman, quite loudly echoing into the night. "Nobody else." "OK, mate. Where are we goin'?" "Home, laddie. Back to the other bots, eh?" "Yeah. OK." "Thanks, mate." After refuelling on dry leaves, both bots began to run in the most awkward manner you can imagine, in a random direction. Both had failed to notice the castle built into the mountains above, which is slightly stupid of two machines to miss. The pair also failed to hear the sound of many more chugging motors, and the occasional tap tap to punctuate the noise. --------------------------------------------------------- "OK girls, I have something to show you." Twilight finally said. The rain pattered against the window, and gave the room a slight gloom in the air. Nevertheless, the purple alicorn had a new spell to show her friends, and one she had perfected a while back. Simply, it was a little trick to bring an animal from somewhere else in another dimension. It seemed, however, that she had tapped into the realm of infinite kittens when she had used it, and summoned hundreds of kittens. Whilst adorable at first, and keeping the Ponyville cat home happy, she felt her skills hadn't truly been tested. "Ooh, what does it do Twilight?" Pinkie asked quickly, before bouncing around in a nearby flowerpot. "Does it summon an animal from an alternate dimension? Because I think that's where you're getting all the kittens from. Those kittens were so fwuffy, and adowable, but then you gave them away. The kittens came from an alternate dimension, so I think that tonight something else will come from a different dimension and have to fight lots of super-cool robots!" Everypony just stared at the pink pony. Twilight was first to speak up. "What...are you talking abou-" "I dunno. Is that the spell? To know what I'm talking about AAAAAAALL the time?" "That's be useful, but no." The alicorn secured herself on the ground. "Step back girls, I'm about to demonstrate." --------------------------------------------------------- Coldfront. 10:43AM. "...sappin' mah dispenser!" "Not much of a quick draw, are you 'pardner'?" BOOM "Dispenser down!" As the last fragments hit the floor, the Engineer swung his Jag wrench. The steel rod whistled through the nearby air, before finally digging into the BLU spy's face. Letting out a cry of pain, Spy immediately fell over, 'dead'. But Engineer knew Spy well enough that he was more than likely using a Dead Ringer. A Dead Ringer would allow the user to fake their own death, and was favoured between the RED and BLU spies, especially when attacking Engineers. As he usually would, Engineer grabbed his Wrangler, and a red shield rapidly formed over the nearby Sentry gun. As Engineer aimed the small joystick around, the tripod machine gun did so, aiming in the desired direction. Engineer grinned, and squeezed the small trigger. The whole area lit up with gunfire as the sentry gun sprayed bullets in all directions, embedding in rocks until it finally hit something invisible...as it headed back into the enemy base, flickered blue, before the figure of a suited man finally lay dead on the floor, painting the snow red. "Fine shot, mate." Sniper said, putting his thumb up. "Much abliged." Engineer grinned, before frowning. "That Spy left his sapper here. Wonder what happens if y'all and your shield get sapped?" "Don't even think about it, mate." Sniper laughed. Suddenly, Sniper felt something tap his shoulder, and the sudden pain of electricity coursing through his veins. Engineer gasped loudly, grabbing at the small box that had appeared on Sniper's Razorback. "Good day to you, mate!" a French voice snorted mockingly. Engineer didn't listen to Sniper telling him to back away: his best friend was in trouble, and he was going to help him. "Hold still, buddy!" Engi yelled, pushing Sniper over and grabbing the small box that was attached to his back. The electronic devices on the Razorback were with energy, wires were unplugging, and the whole shield was alight. Sniper thrashed at the straps on the shield, before he was hauled back up. "We gotta get y'all back t' base!" "Thanks mate!" Sniper cringed. Engineer began to haul him to the nearby teleporter, and the two stood on top of it. Since they were holding onto each-other, the device would count them as one entity rather than two, thus halving the number of journeys. However, just as the teleporter charge reached 100%, it flickered multiple times, before the light turned purple. All three men stared at this, two in horror, one in interest. "Aw, p-" The device flashed brightly, the usual sound replaced by a low growl, and the two men disappeared as the device exploded. Spy stood there dumbfounded, the wind whistling quietly as he scratched his head and shrugged. Footsteps were heard to his right, prompting Spy to draw his revolver. However, when he saw the RED Spy come into view, something prompted him to lower it. RED Spy didn't even bother to raise a finger to attack BLU Spy. Both men just stared at the wreckage of the teleporter. "What happened here?" RED asked. "I threw a sapper onto the outdoorsman's shield, and he and the cowboy fell through the teleporter." BLU replied. "You sapped his Razorback?" "Oui." "..." "..." "Excellent work." "Many thanks. Hi-five?" "But of course." --------------------------------------------------------- Dear Princess Celestia, I am aware it is late, but I may have accidentally summoned two creatures from another dimension. Each resemble a form of skinless monkey, except, not being racist or anything, they seem to be much smarter than them. One seems to be some form of builder, judging by his hard-hat and overalls. He seems relatively fine with his sudden change in location, and is talking to the girls. The other, however, seems to be...miserable. He hasn't said a single word since he appeared, besides 'bloody hell'. I assume this is some kind of exclamation where they are from, but he hasn't said anything else. We have the two secure, in the library basement. They seem fine with being ordered about, but I thought this may be important important in case they aren't what they seem. Please reply with haste, your fellow Princess, Twilight Sparkle.