//------------------------------//
// 30: Endgame part 3, Continue? 
// Story: Fortresshy: The Nine Fathers 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	As the front gate of the outer wall opened, Pinkie Pie looked back at the others.  "I think they accepted our surrender!" she said happily.

Luna groaned.  "I still cannot believe we surrendered," she grumbled.  "If the Night Guard hear of this, I will never live it down."

Twilight glanced over the rocky cover and pointed.  "Look, all the mines and traps are deactivating."  It was true.  The land mines had extended their switches, revealing their locations to direct a safe path through, and the other traps had also shut themselves off.

"They probably do that so they don't blow themselves up on the way in," Discord pointed out.

"It looks like we've been invited in," Spike pointed out.

"Well, it wouldn't be polite of us to refuse, now would it?" Rarity queried, tossing her head before turning to head inside.

"Wait!" Applejack spoke up.  "It could be a trap!"

"Darling," Rarity said slowly, "we are already getting our collected flanks handed to us.  What need would they have to trap us at this point?"

Applejack struggled to think of something, but failed.  "Fine," she grumbled.

Celestia stepped forward, leading the group forward through the gates.  Waiting for them were nine humans that were difficult to describe in their experience, although the matching uniforms indicated they were a unit.  Standing with them was Fluttershy, wearing the same uniform as the humans.  It was almost difficult to recognize her with the red streak in her mane, the markings on her forelegs, and the weapons strapped to her back.  If not for the resonation she felt from the Element of Kindness - which they'd brought with to help find her - she might have thought it was some other pony, except that she had the same soft, open, shy smile.  What could they have done to her to change her so much in such a short time? Celestia wondered to herself.

Composing herself, she spoke up.  "Fluttershy," she said calmly, "we've come for you.  It's time to go home."

Fluttershy blinked.  "But...I am home.  What are you talking about, Celestia?"

Celestia was surprised at the casual informality, and she plainly wasn't the only one.  "Not that I'm complaining," Discord stated, "but don't you normally call her Princess Celestia?"

Fluttershy tapped the metal thing she was wearing over her left ear and eye.  "My scouter didn't say she was a Princess when I blew her brains out," she stated matter-of-factly.  "And...what do you mean normally?  I've never met her - or any of you - before."

Discord fell back in shock, looking like he'd just been punched in the gut.  Twilight and the others weren't much better.  "What do you mean?" Twilight said in shock.  "It's us!  We've been friends ever since I moved to Ponyville just under a year ago!"

"We've been friends since we were kids!" Rainbow Dash gasped out, on the verge of tears.

Fluttershy tilted her head in confusion.  "But...but I've lived here all my life, ever since Daddiem found me in a paper bag!"  She wrapped her forelegs around Medic, and he reached down and stroked her mane.

Luna was the only one who had the composure to form a question.  "Daddiem?"

Fluttershy smiled.  "Well, originally they were all Daddy - except for Mama and Big Brother here," she explained, pointing to Pyro and Scout respectively, "-but since they all came running when I called, I needed to distinguish.  So there's Daddiem, Boom Daddy, Poof Daddy, Big Daddy, Daddenji, Bang Daddy, and General Daddy Sir!"  She gestured to each of them in turn as she introduced them.

Soldier raised his fingers to the star on his helm.  "She gave me the promotion," he said softly, a big smile on his face.

At this point, everypony was stupefied.  Even Discord looked confused.  Spike finally spoke up.  "Dude, that's freaky.  How the heck is this...she only disappeared 2 months ago!"

"I can explain that one," Engineer spoke up.

"You can, Daddenji?" Fluttershy asked.

"I can.  See, 15 years back when you showed up in the bag as a foal, you were giving off numerous wavelengths of energy not native to our own dimension.  I've already checked, and this lot are giving off similar wavelengths to some of those, but exactly two months ago, two of the energies you were giving off spiked violently before dissipating completely.  I'm guessing one was chroniton waves, which dissipated when our timeline caught up to your home world's timeline as far as when you vanished.  The other was probably whatever reverse aged you to a foal wearing off completely when you caught up to yourself."

Twilight blinked.  "You mean I not only sent her into another dimension accidentally, but I also sent her back in time and turned her into a foal?"

"I did say it was too soon for you to experiment with Alicorn magic, Twilight," Celestia whispered to her, making her duck her head and blush.

Fluttershy nodded at Engineer's explanation.  "Okay.  Not the strangest thing I've ever heard."

The other ponies could only stare.  If that wasn't the strangest thing she'd ever heard...

"Do we want to know the strangest?" Applejack asked.

"I once killed the Grimm Reaper and then asked him to explain how he was able to die," Fluttershy replied.  "It hurt my head."

They all stared at her for a time, though Discord noticed the proud smiles on the faces of several of the humans.  Eventually, the silence was broken by Spy.  "Excuse me," he said, "but what did you mean about it being time for her to 'go home'?  Are you going to...take her away from us?"

Fluttershy flinched visibly at this suggestion.  Celestia spoke up.  "Yes.  She is originally of our world, and for the sake of our world, she must return."  She turned to Fluttershy.  "Come along, my little pony, it's time to-"

"NO!" Fluttershy shouted, clinging to Heavy's leg.  "I don't want to go!  I'm not going to go!  You can't make me!"

Everyone could only stare, Engineer most of all.  While he had expected that others might have come to take Fluttershy back to her world, he had never expected Fluttershy to refuse so vehemently.

Fluttershy continued speaking.  "I don't want to leave you, ever!  Big Brother, you said my wish would come true if I blew out the candles in one breath and never told anyone!  I blew out all the candles in one breath every year, every year the same wish, and I never told anyone!  Why didn't it come true, Big Brother!"  There were tears in her eyes as she now clung to Scout's leg.

"Shy..." he said in awe, realizing what her wish on her fifth birthday - and every birthday following - must have been.  He kneeled down and pulled her into a hug.

"I am sorry, Fluttershy," Celestia said softly, "but when you remember your life and destiny, you will thank me."  Her horn began to glow.

"Excuse me, miss," Sniper spoke up, breaking her concentration.  "But am I to understand you are kidnapping Fluttershy against her will, and intend to mess with her memories?"

"If that is what is necessary," Celestia replied grimly.

Soldier stepped forward.  "If Fluttershy had chosen to go with you, we'd have sent her off with a smile, well wishes, and a promise to find a way to stay in contact, even if we never managed to keep it.  But as for taking her against her will..."  Swinging his rocket launcher to his shoulder, he sighted and fired.

The rocket flew millimeters over Celestia's horn, arced over the rocky cover, and slammed into the respawner, obliterating it.

Soldier then leveled his rocket launcher straight at Celestia, as everyone else drew their weapons and surrounded, Fluttershy in a protective circle.  "Over our multitude of dead bodies," Soldier growled.

"Hrr, HRRRR!" Pyro confirmed, his voice through his mask resounding with bestial fury, like the roar of a mother bear protecting her cub.

Twilight's eyes widened.  "That...was our respawner...death's permanent now..."  She looked absolutely terrified.

Celestia backed up in shock.  "But...but if Fluttershy doesn't return with us, the magic of Equestria will collapse and our world will die!"

"Tough shit for Equestria," Demoman blurted out, dropping money into the plainly labeled swear jar that Engineer held out to him.  This startled an amused snort from Discord.

"How can you say that?" Applejack demanded.  "A...a whole world is gonna die!"

"Ain't our world," Scout said simply, smacking his baseball bat into his palm.

"But you can't turn your back on creatures in need!" Pinkie yelled out.  "You're the title characters!  You're heroes!"

The mercs stared at her for a time, then all burst out laughing.  Even Fluttershy found it in herself to abandon her despair to giggle along with them.

Pinkie blinked for a while.  "Wow, that must have been some joke, but I don't get it."

Heavy spoke up.  "We not heroes, pony.  We are mercenaries."

"We fight who we get paid to fight, and that's it," Scout added.

"None of us are angels," Sniper added.  "We're all pretty far on the other side of morality...and sanity, for that matter."

"I lost my medical license for removing someone's skeleton while they lived, just to see what would happen," Medic pointed out.

"I talk to my collection of severed heads on a regular basis," Soldier added.  "I severed them myself."

"My Australian friend and I are probably the sanest of our group," Spy pointed out, gesturing to Sniper, "and we are professional assassins."

"After that is me," Engineer adds, "and I mess with the fabric of creation and the laws of causality for fun and so I can watch my TV shows."

"And no one's really sure what's up with Pyro," Scout said, gesturing.

"Oh, he just wants to go to Rainbow Land," Fluttershy informed them happily.

The mercs all stared at Fluttershy.  "You can understand him?" they all said, pointing at Pyro.

"You can't?" she asked in shock.

Celestia spluttered, trying to come up with something to say.  Luna, however, had an idea.  "So we obviously won't be able to appeal to your altruism, since you all appear to be lacking in that."

Heavy grinned.  "We used up all that when we adopt Fluttershy," he laughed.

"Then I shall appeal to a different quality," Luna said calmly.  She turned.  "Fluttershy, I understand your reason for not wanting to come back with us is that you don't want to leave your family, correct?"

Fluttershy nodded.  "Yes, that's right."

"What if they came with you?"

Everyone stared at Luna in shock.  "Huh?"

"If they came with you - if you weren't separated from your family - would you have any objections to returning to Equestria with us?" Luna asked again.

Fluttershy thought for a bit, then shook her head.  "No, that'd be fine.  I mean, General Daddy Sir always said there was a chance we would be assigned to a different fortress, so don't get too attached to this one."

"Now hang on a minute," Soldier spoke up.  "We can't just up and leave just to please you!"

Reaching into her saddlebag, Luna tossed a large bag to the ground at Soldier's feet.  It clinked heavily with the sound of gold coins.  "That's why I want to hire you all," Luna explained.

Soldier opened the bag.  It was full to the brim of gold bits.  "Is this...gold?" he whispered in surprise, holding a coin up to the light.

"Indeed," Luna explained.  "It is our currency.  You are holding one bit coin there."

Soldier stared at the coin.  It weighed about an ounce, making that single coin worth about $615 in the current economy.  "...just how much are you offering?"

Luna smiled.  "20,000 bits each to break your present contract and come work for me, 5000 bits annual stipend each, plus an extra 5000 each per special assignment."

Celestia gasped.  "Luna, do you have any idea what that will do to the Equestrian Economy?"

"We can cut the noble's pension fund by 15% as allowed under the National Magical Security Act of 575 CE and pay all nine of them three times over every year and still have some left over for Special Discretionary Budgets, such as arming them."  Luna smiled.  "I suspected that there was a possibility whoever had Fluttershy was unscrupulous and we would have to buy her off them, so I looked up exactly how much we could make available for such a thing before we left."

"Wait," Soldier spoke up.  "All that money, and you provide free weapons and ammunition?"

Luna smiled.  "And a base of operations.  About the only necessity you'll have to spend your money on would be groceries."  She glance at their pronounced canines as they grinned at her.  "I admit the cost of importing quality meat products into our herbivorous community will be a mite more expensive than you're used to, but it will be easy to get quality."

Luna sat back with a wide smile as she watched them think this over, knowing exactly what they would decide.  They were mercenaries, after all, so she had appealed to their greed.  She had them by their wallets.

"I'm in!" eight of them shouted excitedly.

"Hr HRR!" Pyro cried, bouncing up and down with joy.

"Mama's in, too," Fluttershy translated.

Luna grinned widely.  "I am glad.  I am Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria."

Soldier saluted.  "Reporting for duty, then, ma'am!"

Celestia smiled.  "In that case, let's gather your belongings and-"

"Who asked you, sunbutt?!" Soldier barked.  "I don't recognize you in my chain of command, maggot!"

As Celestia blanched, Discord cackled.  "I like him!"

Luna smiled.  "Gather your belongings...Team RED MOON.  I will give you your primary assignment when we reach Equestria."  The team dispersed to gather their belongings.  "Rainbow Dash, Discord, perhaps you two should assist Fluttershy in gathering her belongings.  She won't have as easy a time carrying things designed for hands as the others will."

Rainbow nodded.  "Yeah.  And...I need to try and reconnect with New Fluttershy."  She tilted her head in confusion at Rarity and Pinkie Pie's violent shudders.

"I'd like to see what she's like now, too," Discord said softly, sounding almost depressed.





Fluttershy looked up as Rainbow Dash and Discord walked into her room.  "Oh, hello.  I wasn't expecting you to follow me in."

Rainbow Dash shrugged.  "Figured you might appreciate a helping hoof getting all your stuff together," she said, trying to be cool.

Fluttershy smiled.  "Oh, I've already gathered everything," she explained, pointing to a duffel bag, a large suitcase, and a giant bunny plushie.  On the other side of the room was a large weapon case, with her mini-gun, pan, and butterfly knives resting on top of it.  "But you can help me carry it out if you like."

"Sure, that'd be cool," Rainbow said.  She noticed Fluttershy staring at her.  "What?"

"Say that again," she said suddenly, ruffling through her duffle bag.

"What, that'd be cool?" she asked in confusion.

Fluttershy pulled out her rubber ducky and squeezed it a few times.  "You are dead!  Not big surprise!"  "It's time to practice medicine!"  "UAHAHAHAHAHA!"  She squeezed it one more time.

"It needs to be about 20% cooler."

All three in the room gasped, and Fluttershy suddenly glomp-tackled Rainbow Dash.  "It's you!" she cried happily.  "When I was younger, something always felt missing here, and when I heard that voice from my rubber ducky, it felt like the missing piece.  It was you that was missing!"

Rainbow Dash blinked a few times, then smiled, hugging her back.  "It is still you, Shy," she said softly, struggling against her tears.

Discord glanced around the room.  "I suppose you named this fellow Angel?" he asked, pointing to the bunny plushy.

Fluttershy shook her head.  "Nope, that's Angel," she said, pointing to her mini-gun.  She then pointed to the bunny plushy.  "That's Devil Bastard."

Rainbow reacted rather predictably.



Discord blinked a few times, then grinned widely.  "I think I'm going to enjoy getting to know the new you, Fluttershy.  Though I'll miss the old you.  You taught me the meaning of Friendship."

Fluttershy smiled.  "Well, I could always teach you the meaning of Friendship...with Explosions."

Discord's grin became positively wicked.





As everyone gathered once more outside, Luna turned to Discord.  "Open the gate home for us," she instructed.

"Wait," Celestia spoke up.  "What about Fluttershy's memories?"

Fluttershy blinked.  "My...memories?"

Luna shook her head.  "Celestia, you are too straightforward sometimes.  I can give her her memories of her old life with us in her dreams."

"But a pony mind can't hold all the memories of one lifetime, let alone two!" Celestia pointed out.

Luna chuckled.  "And while with any other pony this would mean one personality would have to overrule the other, this is Fluttershy.  The very core of her nature is compromise, kindness, putting others before herself.  Once she has dreamed her entire life in Equestria, the two personas will exist in her mind simultaneously...and they will compromise.  Much as ponies do naturally while they live, the two personas will sort through the two lifetimes worth of memories, choose those that are most important to save and discard the rest.  Similarly, they will determine which qualities are central to their being as Fluttershy and which can be discarded or allowed to overlap.  When she awakens, she will not exactly be the Fluttershy we knew in Equestria, nor will she exactly be the Fluttershy raised by these mercenaries.  She will be a fusion of both, with the memories of both...and she will be able to wield her Element with the others."  Opening the box containing the Element, she smiled.  "Besides, it seems your plan wouldn't have worked after all."

The Element of Kindness was still a pink butterfly jewel...but it now had a bee stinger.  Looking over, the ponies saw how it matched Fluttershy's new Cutie Mark.

Celestia sighed.  "Alright, Luna...you were right."

As Luna smiled, Discord opened the portal to Equestria.