//------------------------------//
// Meet the Heavy 
// Story: Pony Fortress 2 
// by Bahamut Omega 
//------------------------------//

“Twilight, why are we doing this?” Spike asked as he and Twilight waited for the guy they were interviewing.

“Because we’re not enough for this job,” Twilight said. “We need a team.”

“Fine,” Spike said as their potential teammate entered. He was a heavy built earth pony with a red coat and a yoke around his neck. He set a huge machine gun on the table between himself and Twilight and sat down.

“I’m your heavy weapons guy,” he said. “My name is Big Macintosh. And this is my weapon,” he said as he looked his gun over. “She weighs 150 kilograms and fires 200 bit custom tooled bullets at a rate of 10,000 rounds per minute. It costs 400,000 bits to fire this gun for twelve seconds.”

“Big gun doesn’t make a big stallion,” Spike said as he prodded the gun a bit with his claw.

“Don’t touch my gun!” Big Mac snapped as he grabbed his gun and pointed it at Spike, only to find the barrel of Twilight’s sniper rifle in his face.

“This rifle fires my own self-made brand of 30 caliber bullets. High velocity. Armor piercing. They can take the head off a manticore at 2000 meters. Now what do you suppose would happen if you took one of them point blank?” Twilight asked in a highly conversational tone, despite the fact that she was threatening to blast Big Mac’s head off. “If you don’t want to find out, then don’t point your gun at Spike. Take your anger out on the enemies we’ll face on this job.”

“I’m hired?” Big Mac asked as he lowered his gun and sat back down.

“Your description of your gun is impressive, and you’re certainly quick on the draw despite its size. But first, we need to test you,” Twilight said as she put her rifle down.

“Alright. We test,” Big Mac said.

“Follow me then,” Spike said, grabbing his rocket launcher and leading Big Mac into a special simulation chamber that Twilight had built.

“Alright, Big Macintosh. Let’s see what you can do,” Twilight said over the PA as a simulation began, placing the dragon and stallion in a battlefield facing diverse foes.

“Let’s go!” Big Mac yelled as he spun his gun up and started firing, covering Spike as the dragon charged into the fray with his rocket launcher, blowing enemies up with gusto while Big Mac pumped them full of lead while following Spike. “Cry some more! Run! Run! I’m coming for you!”

Twilight watched the simulation while drinking some tea and cleaning her kukri. During a lull in battle, she checked over her Jarate jars, making sure they were all in order.
.
Back in the simulation, Big Mac and Spike had reached the final area of the map and blasted the rest of their enemies.

“Test complete. Excellent work,” Twilight said as the simulation ended.

Spike led Big Mac out of the chamber and back to Twilight.

“So how did I do?” Big Mac asked as he sat back down.

“You’re hired,” Twilight said, holding out her hoof.

“Thanks,” Big Mac said as he shook Twilight’s hoof.