A deep black darkness filled the wood-smelling room. Suddenly, a door opened, lighting a small angle into the room. The door swung open, with a unicorn-shaped silhouette in the doorway. The head of the pony turned, and reached for the nearest light switch. The light flooded the room and revealed that it was a changeling at the doorway. The creature shrugged its shoulders, and walked in. It sighed, and headed straight towards a small shelf with collected books. Slowly, it pulled out one book after another and replacing them into their spots. The changeling did this through the rest of the shelf, and on another one. It stopped then pulled out a large novel. With a smile, it walked away from the shelf and exited the room. A few steps out, and suddenly a brown stallion stopped it in its tracks. The changeling gave a pleading grin, and revealed the book in its hooves.
The stallion read the cover and nodded, then motioned it to follow him. He stopped at a desk with a large, opened book, and written down a small note on an opened page. The changeling placed the book into its saddlebag and left the stallion to his business. Once it reached the door however, the stallion spoke.
“That book is due next week!” He said. “And Proxy, please be sure to bring it on time! You wouldn’t want that one pony that was here before to be mad at your overdue fines.”
“Don’t worry about it!” She replied with a smile at the current librarian. “I’ll be sure it’s back. Besides, I’ll just be reading this anyways. Not like I’ve nothing else to do!” With that, she opened the door to the busy midday of Ponyville. She chuckled, pulled out the book, and read the cover once again; ‘Attack on Gaea; Volume 15’. She giggled like a foal with a new Christmas present. Ever since having to stay at Rainbow Dash’s place, she went lurking into her room and found the first volume of the series behind a stash of magazines underneath the bed. Roxy replaced the book, and resumed to going home.
She trotted past a few stands and nearly collided with a group of ponies. With a quick sorry, she brushed past them and continued to walk. With a pause, she looked back, and saw that they were dressed as the main characters of her new favorite book. Complete with light metal armour, multiple sword holders with swords, small chains and hooks for grappling, and a mask resembling high ranking officer; these looked as close as the real thing within what the noble class calls ‘manga’. With a squee, she ran back towards the group and stared at the costumes with such happiness and light envy. The three ponies looked back at the changeling and smiled.
“You like our costume play suits? We’re wearing for the rest of the day for Nightmare Night.” The stallion said that designed to be the hero. He smiled back at Roxy. “To be honest, this guy suits me, even my brother here thinks differently.” He pointed to a short colt on his right.
“Oh yea right,” He replied. “You’re more like the guy’s brother, not me!”
“Oh please,” a mare replied on the other side of the stallion. “You’re younger than him, so it was by default that you were the brother.”
“But I die in volume ten!” the colt said. “That’s no fun!”
“At least you don’t have to fight fifteen Cronus in the next one!” The older brother spat then looked back at the changeling. “Say, have you read fifteen? I haven’t but I’m waiting for it to come out at the bookstore.”
“I just got this copy at the library,” Roxy replied, pulling out the book. “There were two others there.”
“Really?” The mare asked then turned to the stallion. “Race you there! I bet I’ll get it first!” She opened her wings and zoomed towards the tree.
“You go ahead; this armour is a little heavy for a unicorn like me.” The stallion replied. “I haven’t caught your name, err…”
“It’s Proxy,” The changeling blushed. “But my friends call me Roxy.”
“Nice,” He said. “My name is Leroy J., this little guy is my cousin, and his name is Button. That mare that sped away was my sister, Virtually.” He chuckled, and then analyzed her. “Are you an actual changeling; because that would be nice to talk to one,” Roxy slowly nodded in response. “Really? Wow! So you’re the one staying with the mercenaries?” She nodded again. “Tell me what you know about them, because I’m thinking about making a game with my sister that’ll blow the whole arcade business to shreds!”
“B-but!” Button muttered, tugging Leroy’s leg. “How will I be able to play Tran?”
“Believe me,” the stallion replied crouching down and placing a hoof on Button’s shoulder. “Believe me when I say that, you’ll be able to play Tran and a whole lot of other games once this bad boy I’m making gets sold!”
“What will you called it?” Roxy turned her head to one side.
“I’ll call it,” Leroy paused then put a hoof to his chin. “You know, I don’t know what to call it. How does Oculi sound?”
“Sounds great,” Button said ecstatically. “But what will it look like?”
“It will look like… You know, let’s just wait until it comes out okay?” He patted the colt’s head.
“Well,” Roxy shuffled her forelegs. “I got to head home, so that I can read this and make myself some food. It was nice seeing you three.”
“No problem!” the stallion smiled. “You’re going to be part of the festival right? If you are, then what are you going to dress up as?”
She smiled. “I’m going to be dressing as the Spy!”
“You mean Jacques?” Leroy’s mouth gaped. “That’ll be a great costume! Just add at small suit and a mask with a face painted on it.” He laughed. “It’ll be perfect for you since you’re a changeling; as a suggestion, don’t add the ski mask. It will look silly on you.”
“That’s true,” she turned. “I’ll see you later guy!” Roxy waved goodbye, and trotted home.
Roxy smiled, and muttered to herself. “I think this is the first time I’ve earned my love,” She squeed.
(……)
“Instantarium!” Richard yelled, looking into his spell book.
“What was that about?” Dash moaned from the bed. “Sound like you’re trying to do a spell like Twilight.”
“I am doing a spell,” He said with a green flame erupting from his hand. “It’s the teleportation spell I think. Anyways, I’m reciting these spells because it’s Halloween, and for the hell of it.”
“What’s a hell anyways?” Dash said, tucking herself deeper into the covers. “Besides, it’s seven in the morning; we got two hours left until we leave.”
“Just reciting in case I forget,” Richard said. “And Hell is a place where the damned go to. Like a bad place or something. They got other names, but I don’t care about it right now… Oh wait, I have to remember about Hell!”
“Why?”
“Because last year, we had to take somebody’s brother to Hell; the ironic thing was that the brother also wanted our boss to get sent to Hell too!” He rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t hard to do, but it was really annoying because skeletons, demons, and magic.”
“You guys have magic?” The pegasus raised from her bed. “I thought you were couldn’t”
“We could,” Richard flipped the page. “Oh! Here’s my favorite, Bapmo-bip Brondo!” he threw his hand out in a casting motion.
“What does that do?”
“I have no idea, but it’s fun to say.” Richard chuckled. “One annoying thing was the spinning wheel of death this guy named Merasmus made up. It was fun because both teams sometimes worked together against him, but annoying because some of the things on the wheel was just stupid, like death!”
“Death’s stupid?” Dash cocked her head. “I thought death was just a thought.”
“Oh he can be real, just as real as me touching the floor,” Richard closed the magazine and placed it on the nearby vanity. “Time to get my Halloween on; I’m so pumped!” He jogged in place and checked his pulse.
“Why are you pumped? It’s just a holiday,” Dash rubbed her eye, and rested her head on the pillow. “What day is it anyways?”
“October thirty-first,” Richard replied.
“… You mean Halloween is on Nightmare Night?” Dash bolted from her bed and ran to a hanging calendar. With a slow turn, she looked at Richard and shook her head. “No… This day is gonna be loads of bad!”
“No it’s not! It’s going to be fun!” Richard jumped in excitement. “Because I’m going to be zooming here and there with tons of spells!”
“Wait, does that mean I can also do spells?” the pony asked.
“Of course it does, everyone that has this book,” The scout lifted the magazine from the countertop. “Even you can do the spells that you can find whenever you kill someone that has a spell. Sometimes, you can find pages for a special unfilled book that you can get.”
“So where do I get these things? Like the book you got,” She asked, getting up from the bed. “I want some these things!”
Richard went to his bag and pulled out a small box. “Here,” he placed the box on Dash’s lap. “This is a loot crate, if you have a key,” He held up a Mann Co. Crate key. “Then anything that’s inside the box belongs to you. The Halloween items are things that you just randomly find while fighting. I found this weapon,” Richard pulled out Fan O’ War, “while fighting yesterday. Don’t know how Mann Co. items can still be found randomly, but it’s still possible.”
“So I can just go out and fight, but somehow I still find things?” Dash grabbed the small crate, and turned it around. “So where do I look whenever I think I find stuff?”
“You would usually look inside your locker, anything that you would find instantly goes in there,” Richard grabbed another crate and used the key to unlock it. He lifted the lid, and pulled out the item inside. With a gasp of excitement, he pulled out an Unusual Soldier’s Stash with a flaming effect. “Huh, I wonder how much this is worth.”
“I want a hat like that!” Dash said with a huge smile. “Think I could get an awesome hat like that?”
“How about this Bombing Run hat?” Richard asked, pulling out what looks like a helmet. “I never really liked this thing, but I’m pretty sure you could do something with it.”
“Good enough,” She placed it on her head. “And it fits too! Why does your head size fit me?”
“Don’t know,” He shrugged, “But what I do know is that maybe you should check your locker next time we’re at spawn. Also, tell the other ponies that they should check their lockers every now and then too!” He placed the hat into his bag and pulled out a comb. “I’m going to keep saying spells, and while I do that, you go and tell the others that we have a big day ahead of us!”
Dash grumbled, and slowly walked out of the room. “This day better be worth it too,” she said, closing the door. The pegasus walked next to door to Jane’s room, and found the American juggling rockets while Spike was sitting on the bed reading a comic. “Time to get ready, we have a big day.” She said in a monotone voice.
“Merasmus will get it this time!” The soldier yelled, “I’ll make sure he won’t escape from me!”
“And Spike,” Dash said, getting the dragon to look up from his comic. “Be sure to check your locker every now and then, you might have something in there.” He gave her a thumbs-up and started to place his Gunboats on. “And tell everyone else the same thing; to check their lockers.”
She closed the door, leaving the two rocket-jumpers to do their business. She then walked to the next door where Pinkie and Jennifer resided. The opened the wooden door, and found the pyros playing a card game. She gave them the message, and then closed the door.
Once reaching Jacques and Rarity’s room door, a scream came from behind the door. With a crash, Dash opened the door and suddenly, a pillow hit her on the face. The pegasus flailed against the fluffy object and fell on the ground. She struggled to regain control, and then stood. She looked at her assailant, and then looked at the bed. Dash gasped then giggled at the scene.
Jacques held a knife pointing at Rarity, protecting himself from the angry unicorn. He also held out his Dead Ringer; but before Rarity could throw something, Dash jumped in front of her spreading her forearms to stop her. Jacques gave a note of thanks, and closed the DR but kept his knife out just in case.
“I’m just here to tell you two that you should get ready,” Dash turned her gaze to Rarity. “Next time, tell me when this guy messes with you, I’ll deal with it.” She winked, and headed for the door. “By the way Rarity, you should check your locker every now and then.”
“What should I be looking for?” The unicorn asked, grabbing a towel from her bag.
“If it’s the locker I think you’re talking about,” the Frenchman started. “Then you should be looking for something inside of it at the spawn point.”
“How do I know which locker is mine?” Rarity used the towel to wipe her hair and coat. She looked at it, and grimaced when she saw that there was small hairs and light shaving cream on it.
“There’s a name and type of class on it,” He rubbed his face where he had shaved. “Also, your hair does a great job at being a towel.”
“You know, you could’ve asked me for a towel,” she growled.
Dash backed out of the room and sensing the tension, she then decided that she would better get out before it gets worse. She closed the door, and as if on cue, a bang on the door was heard and Rarity yelled, “I’ll be sure that you are never going to use the Dead Ringer again! Because once I’m through with you, everything of you will cease to exist!”
Dash backed away from the door, and entered her own room where Richard had thrown a teleporting spell in the same instant she opened the door. She moved out of the way of the dark cloud, and watched as Richard suddenly appeared behind her. He smiled, and closed the book. “You will not believe how much fun this is!”
“Can I try a spell?” She asked, reaching for the magazine.
“Nope!” Richard pulled it away. “But when you get one, I’ll teach you how to say the words. Okay?”
“Sure,” she mumbled. “Let’s go, I’m ready for the first match.”
“You better be,” Applejack said, from her bedroom door. “Because all of us are going to head over to the next place now, so let’s go.”
“What’s the next place called?” Dash grabbed a bat.
Arvin walked past the pony, carrying a napping Fluttershy on his shoulder. “The area we’re heading to is nicknamed Mayhem. Apparently, this place was the central entertainment section of the city, and it was named after a popular musical artist who liked to dress up like a shark.”
“How do you know all of this?” Twilight said, heading down the stairs. “It seems like it takes us a bit longer for us to know than you humans.”
“It’s because I have similar place used to be named the same way,” Mikhail said from the end of the hallway. “It was Stalingrad, but now it’s called Volgograd, bad history that name.”
“So, some of these events happened similarly back in your world?” the alicorn asked.
“Not exactly,” Arvin said. “Yes riots happened, but they weren’t really like these kinds of riots. But the reason why we mainly know was because of something that happened between our nations.” The German pointed at himself, then to the heavy. “But that’s history! Now if you don’t mind, I ought to get ready to practice medicine with Fluttershy.”
“What kind of medicine?”
Arvin roared with laughter. “The bloody one and the one that got my medical degree removed!” He then disappeared past the stairs, and left many skins crawling.
Mikhail leaned into Twilight’s ear, “He sometimes scares me with those things he say.”
“They’re just jokes right?” She chuckled nervously.
He patted the pony’s head, “I never heard him lie about his profession.” Twilight gulped.
(…...)
A booming laugh rang the air in the small room. “Tell me,” a voice said. “Is it really a holiday named Nightmare Night?”
Chrysalis walked up to the table, “Yes,” she said. “But I think something unnatural is about to happen.”
“What makes you think that?”
Chrysalis paused. “Because Discord is a part of this battle today,” She placed a hoof on the table. “And I believe that some other force is attending it today.”
“Oh?” A floodlight filled the entire room, revealing the corrupted alicorn Nightmare Moon. “What kind of force might this be? Is it magic?”
“I’m sensing magic, but it feels,” the changeling rubbed the back of her neck. “I don’t know, it feels wrong and shouldn’t even be able to exist.”
Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow and put her elbows on the table, “You mean something similar to necromancy and the dark arts?”
Chrysalis nodded. “Then go and keep a watch on the battle, and send me a changeling whenever you notice something not of this world.” The alicorn continued. “If the force is here and not a part of Discord, then maybe I could harness that power and finally have a kingdom of my own!” She cleared her throat. “You can be my advisor or co-ruler. Either way, I’ll finally have my own kingdom!”
“What about Celestia, and the other two alicorns?” Chrysalis said. “Wouldn’t they be a problem in our plan?”
“You do make a fine point,” Nightmare Moon placed a hoof on the chin in thought. “I’ll take over Grayphon, it’ll be easier and especially since they are a bit more advanced than Equestria! Now join me in our evil laugh so that we can conclude this meeting.”
Chrysalis smiled. “Gladly,” She then took a breath of air, and started to laugh as demonically as she can. Nightmare Moon joined in and started to follow the flow of the laugh, ending when it had started to die out.
“I always wanted to feel like the stereotypical villain like in those recently popular manga books,” the alicorn spoke after a brief silence. “Now I know how it feels, and it feels great!”
“But…” Chrysalis started, but shook her head of the thoughts. “Never mind, I ought to leave now. Don’t want to be late.” She turned to head out the door.
“Yea,” Nightmare Moon said. “You go do that, and I’ll just sleep in this room.”
(…)
Twilight looked around the spawn room, looking for her so called locker. She made a gasp of recognition, and ran towards the tall metal locker. She looked closely at the labeled top and saw her name scrawled on piece of paper just above her eyelevel. She searched around the metal sheet, looking for a latch or something for her to open it with. She found a small combination lock holding a latch still. Twilight then used her magic to try and unlock it, but with no avail. She looked at Rarity, and used her magic to pull out a bobby pin that was at the back of the unicorn’s mane.
Twilight then conjured a screwdriver made out of magic, and inserted the bobby pin, fumbling around with the keyhole on the back of the lock. After attempting multiple times, she finally heard a click and forced open the lock. She pulled off the combination lock and flung open her locker door. Instantly, a couple of items flew out right at her, forcing her to jump back. The alicorn then looked at what attacked her and found small crates, a black hat with an open top, a couple of weapons that didn’t belong to her class, a hat that reminds her of a fedora, and a yellow bandanna.
“That’s a Professional’s Panama there mate,” Nick said. “The other one is a Master’s Yellow Belt, and that black hat ya got is a Ghostly Gibus.”
“What can I do with the rest of these weapons?” Twilight peered inside her locker, realizing that there were many more weapons not of her class. “And what about those? I can’t use those! I don’t know how to.”
“Then you use crafting to turn those into Refined Metal so that you can get more hats,” He suggested.
“But why hats? Why can’t I just get more weapons fit for my class?” She asked with a pout.
“You can get more weapons; it’s just that hats seem to be more popular. Besides, with refined metals, you can get strange weapons and possibly get a hat with a fancy effect on it.”
“Like your Shooter’s Sola Topi with the shine?” She asked, placing the Panama on her head.
“Yea,” He pulled it off from his belt. “This thing was the first thing I had gotten for an unusual hat.”
“So what can I do with a gibus? It seems pretty useless to me,” she placed it on her head, and searched for a nearby mirror. Finding a cracked one nearby Pinkie’s locker, she looked at herself. After several angle changes, she turned, and looked at the Australian. “This hat gives me a spooky look, but as scary as I thought it would be.”
“Here,” Nick handed her a box. “This is a cosmetic item, meaning just like your hat, it really does nothing except make you look better. But this item, it changes your entire look! It turns you into a zombie-like person.”
“What’s the name of it?”
“Haunted Voodoo Cursed Sniper Soul,” He said with a deep look in his eyes. “Believe me when I say, you’ll look dead when you put this on.”
“So, what do you want for it?” She went back to her locker. “I’ll give this hat and some weapons for it.”
He put a finger on his chin, and weighed his options. “Deal, just turn some of the useless weapons into scrap metal and make me a reclaimed metal then we got a deal.”
“Really?” Her eyes shone. “Where’s a crafting table so I can get it?”
Nick pointed to a worktable with various tools. “Just throw the items on the table and the rest will be done for you.”
Twilight cocked her head in confusion then decided to grab a few scout weapons. With her magic, she carried a Soda Popper and an Unarmed Combat. Once reaching the table, she threw the weapons to the table expecting nothing to happen. With a clank, the weapons suddenly turned into scrap pile, and just sat there. With a remarkable gasp, she ran back to her locker and threw several more weapons to the table, and eventually ended up with a pile of Reclaimed Metal. With an excited yes, she ran back to Nick sitting down on a nearby bench and presented the pile.
“Not bad,” he said and handed her the Sniper Soul. “A promise is a promise; you’ve earned it.” He then took the metal out of her grasp and threw it into his locker. “See ya on the battlefield.” He stood and walked towards Richard. “Hey mate, you still got that Aussie Sniper Rifle?”
“Yea I do, but do you got the stuff?” The scout replied.
Nick then placed forty-four golden crate keys and placed a couple of Refined Metals. “I’ll be taking that Strange Australium Sniper Rifle now.”
“Good, I really didn’t want to turn it into scrap.” Richard went to his locker, retrieved the golden rifle, and handed it to the sniper. “It’s official now?” He extended his hand.
“Yep!” the Australian shook the hand. “Now I’ve got what I’ve been saving forever!”
“Good for you. Now I’m so much richer,” the scout looked at his new pile of treasure. “And I have no idea what I’m going to do with this.”
Twilight walked up the Bostonian. ”Maybe you could donate a Refined Metal?” She winked, and gave her best seductive face—which was terrible by the way.
“You ponies are weird,” He said. “But yea, take it. Not like I have a use for it unless for trade.” Richard placed a Refined Metal gear on her horn and a metal slab on her back.
Twilight’s eyes gleamed, “Thanks for the charity.”
“No prob, just next time; don’t ever do that horrible face. No one likes a duck face.”
“Whoa dude!” Dash said from her locker. “What’s this shiny Scattergun about?”
Richard perked his head up, and turned around to see the pony. His mouth gaped, and slowly placed half of his keys into his pocket. His face slowly turned malicious as he mind came up with a new idea. “Hey Dashie,” he said with a singsong voice.
“Yea?” She replied, not taking her eyes off of the new weapon.
“Do you to trade for that? I got ten keys I’m willing to trade for you,” He persuaded.
“Really?” She gasped. “It’s a deal!” Dash threw her hand out in a greedy sense.
Richard was taken back then grew his stance again and placed the keys into her hoof. “Alright, no take backs.” His smile grew larger as his prize grew closer with every half-second.
“I don’t care, just give me the keys and I’m out!” She threw the Australium Scattergun into Richard’s arms. Dash then took each of her keys and decided to open her multitude of various crates. “I hope I get an unusual hat or something.”
“Just lost out on a more precious item you pony,” Richard muttered. “Really know your stuff before trade.” He then threw his other plain scattergun back into his locker where it’ll never be used again.
Laughter on the intercom caught everyone’s attention. Richard looked at the speaker, and did some quick thinking about how it belonged to. He slowly lifted his head, and turned to look at Jane Doe holding a Market Gardener with eyes as red as a blood sky.
A yell from the battle fanatic confirmed his suspicions, “Come on out Merasmus! I’ll be sure to make you look beautiful!”
“Oh Soldier,” the wizard’s voice could be heard coming from everywhere. “You were the worst roommate, and you’re just a civilian. Was that pity? No, I doubt it.”
“Magic is for sissies!” Jane yelled in no specific direction. “Go back to Canada where you belong! And where all magic belongs to!”
Merasmus laughed, shaking the building with vigorous vibration. “Let’s play a game shall we? I want to test my newest game; it’s called Strong Mann! You get a couple tickets, and we shall pay the next game!”
“O- o,” Pinkie raised a hoof. “Is the game hacky sack? Is it pinning the tail?” She gave a heavy gasp. “Is it dealing with magic?”
The disembodied voice let out a groan, “Is it has magic, but that’s irrelevant! So, let’s begin shall we?” Merasmus let out a maniacal laughter. With a warble and a pop, a few pumpkins had been placed around the spawn room giving the illusion of it being spooky. “You know what? Let’s add one more element to this ‘game’; let’s bring our old friend, the Spinning Wheel!” He laughed, then a pause. "Wait... Actually, I think I'll leave it at home. Soldier, don't ever touch it!"
Richard shrugged, and went to his locker and opened it. He dug deep into his pile of items that rested at the bottom, and with a smile of recognition, he pulled out a bottle of pills with the label ‘alien gene splicer’. He tore off the cap, tilted the mouth to his hand, and tapped the bottle until a multicoloured pill came out. With relaxed reach Richard opened a cooler filled with ‘Bonk!’ and opened a can. He then finally threw the pill into his mouth and swallowed it with a chug from the can.
Feeling refreshed, he then walked next to Rainbow Dash and patted her on the back. Taking her gaze off of her new unusual hat, she turned to her back and found a black creature wearing the scout’s clothing. Dash screamed, dropping the hat, and ran to the other side of the room. The pegasus reached behind herself for a weapon and came across Jennifer’s Scorch Shot. Without a second thought, she quickly pulled the gun and pointed it right at the scary creature’s eyeless face. Dash pulled the trigger with her wing and with a high pitched whistle, the ball of fire shot at the ‘scout’ and hit him straight in the chest.
He doubled over, and a hit on his back sent him completely to the floor. Rainbow Dash then swung a wrench again on Richard’s back and connected with him. Richard yelped and rolled over to get out of the way. With his fists raised, the Bostonian dropped to a boxing stance. The pegasus then lunged towards Richard with the wrench ready to swing. He braced himself for the next hit and waited. He slowly opened his eyes from nearly flinching, and saw Fluttershy standing in front of Dash.
Embarrassed, Dash slowly placed the wrench on a nearby bench and looked at the ground, rubbing her foreleg with nervousness. “Dash,” Fluttershy said with a soft motherly voice. “It’s a harmless creature; all he wanted to do was to say hi.”
“Yea b-but,” she stuttered. “He was about to kill me, and he killed Richard and stole his clothes.”
“Is this true?” Fluttershy glanced over her shoulder with cold look at the Bostonian. He started to chuckle softly and had soon burst into laughter.
“You should the look on your faces!” Richard laughed then pulled out the bottle of the pills. “This is only a cosmetic item! It’s a type of temporarily gene splice that just changes my DNA!” He clutched his stomach. “And to think that you three thought I was an actual Alien!”
Dash’s face grew hotter and her lips slowly parted to reveal her teeth. Fluttershy, catching the gesture, suddenly hugged the pony and clutched her tight. “Let me go Flutters!” Dash shrieked. “I’ll be sure he pays!” She struggled to escape the pony medic’s grasp; but with every second, the butter pegasus slowly tightened her grip, knowing that it’ll take a while for Dash to calm down.
“Will you two cut it?” Jacques said across the room. “We now got a bigger problem on our hands. We now got to worry about the Headless Horseless Horseman!”
“Who in tarnation has a name like that?” Applejack asked, landing an apple into her upturned hard hat. “Score, take that Pinkie!”
“He sounds like a scary person,” Pinkie said, tossing the apple like a basketball player. “AJ, I bet that I can make it if I go to the other side.”
“I’ll bet you five bits that you’ll miss,” the farm pony chuckled. “Also,” she grunted while watching Pinkie backing up. “This headless person, is it really headless? And why is it horseless?” Pinkie tossed the apple, and it landed with a thunk in the hat. Applejack pouted, and pulled out the lost bits. “I should’ve thought about this more.”
“Yes he’s headless and it’s replaced with a pumpkin,” Jacques pulled out a cigarette from his and stuck it into his mouth, not lighting it. “And since that he doesn’t have a horse, he runs around with a giant axe.”
The Demoman shoved Jacques away and pulled out an axe with several holes and a worn style. “This be the axe made from the Horseman’s scrap! I killed him with a blade that makes my patch glow with green fire!”
“The Eyelander you mean?” Zecora pulled out a flask with orange liquid in it labeled with an uppercase a without the center bar. She took a sip and sighed. “This person shouldn’t be too hard right?”
“He can be if you don’t pay attention,” Richard said from his side of the room protecting himself with a chair against a prismatic pony. “Also, the Horseman can re-assemble his body after dying.”
“How disgusting!” Rarity gagged. “What is it made out of? Dead things?”
“Actually mate,” Nick adjusted his sunglasses. “He is made out of a skeleton, and forms himself out of cemetery corpses.”
The mares in the room then made a simultaneous gagging sound, as though they had just seen dead animal. A few humans laughed, but Jane, Richard, and Nick just glared—well, if Richard could glare in his current condition— and went back to their own business.
“It’s almost time for the first round,” Arvin announced while lifting Fluttershy from her small session of eating candy. “Also, instead of just having the Horseman, we’re having Merasmus as our special guest. In fact, he’s our host!”
“Let me out!” Jane yelled, pounding the door to the arena with his Market Gardener. “I want to make sure he’s dead this time!”
The disembodied voice of Merasmus boomed around them. “Oh don’t worry; you’ll have your chance, after I’ve finished playing my game! Oh? You brought your guns? Good! You’ll need them to get your tickets to your game! In order to win this, you must win the game that comes after it.” A click came from the metallic, wide door leading out. “So let’s begin! Discord, will you do the honours?”
“My pleasure,” the chimera’s voice spoke. “It’s nothing personal ponies; it’s just that I wanted fun! Besides, I owe Merasmus some money and this was the only way to repay him.”
“But why!” Twilight pleaded. “How could you do this?”
“Oh please Princess Twilight,” He spoke with a sarcastic tone. “I’m just having my fun for the day. Besides, he’s leaving after today and he’s not going to take over. Now, we have twenty seconds left for the battle. Prepare yourselves, move those jelly legs, and let’s spin the wheel before we begin!” Discord then exploded with maniacal laughter and in the distance, lighting boomed.
“Come on… Big, head!” Merasmus giddily said. A loud chime rang and he declared the result. “You get a crit! You get a crit! Everyone gets a crit for thirty seconds!” He paused. “Wait… That’s not what I wanted!”
“Let’s begin shall we?” The giant metal door panel slide open, revealing the chimera standing with an éclair in his lion paw. “First of all, this éclair is fantastic! You all are going to get some after we’re done. Secondly, all your weapons will now be multiplied by ten for the next two minutes.”
Jane gasped then ran to his locker to retrieve his Beggar’s Bazooka. The other humans noticed, but didn’t really feel like running back just to get a better weapon. Spike followed his friendly American’s strategy and also grabbed his Beggar’s Bazooka, but decided that having his Escape Plan would be great. Spike chuckled at his now devilish smirk, and completed the picture by rubbing his hands together in a sinister fashion.
“Hey Twilight,” Spike said. “I have wings now, and I could prove it!”
“I believe you,” she replied.
“But, you’re not really going to check?” He asked with a hurt tone.
“Not right now Spike, I got more important matters to deal with.”
The purple dragon sighed, but felt a pat on his shoulder. “Private, I felt your pain. But that doesn’t mean you have to wear this lame excuse for a damned hat!” Jane growled, grabbing Spike’s Ghostly Gibus and throwing to the ground. He then slammed a Stout Shako on the dragon’s head. “You take this, and wear it with pride! Now let’s go and kick some commie ass!”
Spike cheered, and launched himself out of the door, and left the mercenaries. They shouted a war cry, and ran out, right into an area faintly lighted with a mammoth, full moon looming over the carnival-like battlefield. A few stopped, unsure with of the three passageways to go through. Although marked which direction goes where, they weren’t sure which direction to head to.
Richard ran down the hallway marked game, and nearly crashed into a few teammates before entering the arena-like area surrounded with various buildings of nightclubs and taverns. A large object stood in the middle; the Strong Mann machine, a colossal tower with a picture of buffed up Merasmus flexing and a hammer with blood—fresh and old—on its pad.
Richard examined the strange sight, and the surrounding area. Strange, he thought. It feels familiar, but there’s pony clubs everywhere here. So why is this carnival here? A yell from the other side alarmed him and he pulled out his scattergun in case of an attack by a soldier. Scout ran to his left, towards the entrance to the so-called tickets.
An opening to a sewer caught his attention. He turned to his back, and saw the lunar pyro looking back at him. With quick dash, Richard sprinted into the sewers, hoping to lose the pyromaniac. He turned at an elbow, and continued until he suddenly appeared in another area. The strange feeling of familiarity hit Richard once again. He shook his head and walked over to a sitting briefcase filled with papers and tickets.
“Never thought they would be actual tickets?” Dash’s voice spoke behind him.
“Not really, but with the magic dude, you could never really tell,” Richard replied. “Come on, we go to take this to the machine.”
“Not if I can help it,” She said.
“Wait, what do you-” He screamed in pain a knife plunged into his backside. “D’aw crap!”
François wiped his pinstripe suit down. “I was never really on your side. Thanks for the help.” The spy stepped over the now dead Bostonian and hurried towards an exit.
With a pop, Richard reappeared into the spawn room along with the original Rainbow Dash still rubbing her back, and Spike massaging his head. “What happened?” the Bostonian asked. “Did you get a head-bang?”
“No,” The dragon replaced his helmet. “I just got hit with a wrench on top of my head. I’ll be fine!” he scoffed. “Yea right, I might need to rest for a minute.”
“Whatever,” Richard waved a dismissive hand. He ran out the room, leaving a baby dragon, a prideful pegasus, and a pink pony lying on the ground.
Spike suddenly stood with renewed vigor. “I will take down that enemy engineer no matter what!” He pounded his chest and grabbed his Direct Hit. The dragon then grabbed his Market Gardener and stomped towards the door.
The door opened, and a draft of warm wind blasted into his face. Without a flinch, he walked to a passageway leading to the machine and slowly marched his way past several rushing teammates.
Twilight screamed about being on fire, but suddenly fell limp in front of Spike. He stared and clenched his fists harder. With pure hatred, he raised his launcher and shot a rocket straight at an oncoming pyro. The changeling tried to use his air compressor, but he was too late as he had run out of fuel. With a yelp, he exploded, leaving nothing but dismembered limbs.
Spike loosened his grip on his launcher, but his blood still pumped furiously. A crouch and jump later, he was in the air gliding around and shooting rockets at random enemies. Unsatisfied, he yelled a taunt at others, and scouted the area for his nemesis on top of a ledge facing the machine.
There! Nearby the red base, was the engineer hammering his sentry with the wrench used to injure Spike on the head. The dragon growled, and banged his head with the Gardner to test the strength of the weapon. Like a cannon-ball, Spike launched himself towards the engineer with such speed, that even the sentry couldn’t register him. Using this as an advantage, he shot a charged rocket from the Direct Hit. It flew and finally hit the Texan on the chest; he exploded, spewing blood and limbs everywhere.
Spike, now finally satisfied with his revenge kill, turned to face the sentry and prepared to die. But instead was met with Jacques sapping the sentry with a Sapper. “You’re lucky this time,” the Frenchman spoke, adjusting his tie. “But next time, you better be ready for anything.”
“Gotcha!” The baby dragon said with a thumbs-up.
“The tickets are almost delivered by the Solar Team!” Merasmus yelled. “By the way, why did you names change? I liked it better the old way. Anyways, here’s a spell! Mortis Lon-disconus!”
Suddenly, Spike felt a tug on his chest and was instantly teleported to the center of the map, he gasped; at the opposite side of the machine, the entire enemy team stood opposite from their own. The dragon tried to pull out his launcher, but instead his elbows bent at an angle, his hands in a claw like a talon, and without a will to his name, did a gesture of rocking back and forth like a doped zombie.
“What is happening?” Spike yelled at nobody in particular.
“What I can tell you is that, be ready to die in the next few seconds,” Richard replied behind him.
“Why?”
“Because an enemy Demoman has placed stickies right at our feet and he can’t detonate them until this spell Is over!” Richard paused. “Be ready to run in three…. two… one.”
Spike braced himself and then crouched-jumped for protection. Suddenly, an explosion happened at his feet and was launched away. Spike flew—unknowing that he was still alive and in air— straight up and unfurled himself after being suspended in mid-air. He looked around, and seeing the roofs of nearby buildings, Spike panicked and tried to predict his fall. But a certain rocket was heading straight towards him.
Spike screamed, and made a futile attempt to cover his face with his arms. He exploded was sent to back to spawn room.
Fluttershy gasped at the scene, and cringed when the dragon turned into mush. She prepped her Medigun, and perked her ears for any calls.
“Medic!” Big Macintosh yelled from behind a boulder.
“Coming!” She yelled. Fluttershy looked from her post, and tried to spot any enemies. A Changeling Scout caught her eye, and she grinned. The pegasus grabbed her Ubersaw and ran towards the Scout.
The changeling noticed the pony, and pulled out his Force-a-Nature. Fluttershy noticed the distinct gun, and ran even faster. She got close to his right and juked to her left, giving the changeling one wasted shell. He snarled, and switched to his gun to his left and aimed. Fluttershy grabbed the arm with a hoof and sent her saw into the shoulder joint. The changeling screamed for help, but instead gave out an incoherent message at she sent another jab into collarbone, silencing him.
A crackle from her backpack gave the signal that she was fully charged, and a tear rolled down her face. “You made me do this, I’m sorry,” the butter pegasus whispered and chuckled. She then hurried to Macintosh, who watched the whole spectacle with large, wide eyes.
“Remind me to not make you angry,” He said. “Also, now that you got charge, could you help me take out that sentry nest?”
Fluttershy peered around the rock and was met with rapid beeping, gunfire and a bundle of rockets. She jumped back behind the boulder and nodded her head at the work pony. “I think we can do it!” She flipped a switch on her backpack, and adjusted her gun. “Let’s go!”
Big Macintosh gave a war cry and ran out. Fluttershy immediately focused her beam on the stallion and walked right behind him, not wanting to be in the direct line of fire. The Engineer, realizing the ubercharge, tried to get out of his self-made trap and escape. A round hit the back of his knee, and he fell. The engineer yelled a curse and attempted to crawl out.
“Go back home and cry about it baby!” Big Mac yelled. “And be sure to take your toys too!” He turned his aim towards the level-three sentry, destroyed it, and the dispenser behind it.
Fluttershy checked her charge gauge, and saw that it was below twenty percent. She then tapped Macintosh on the shoulder and indicated that the charge was running out. He nodded, and looked around for other enemies before having to stop the gun from spinning.
Suddenly, a couple of small, red pods appeared before the heavy and Fluttershy pushed him forward, knocking him down. She squeaked, and exploded. “Fluttershy!” Macintosh yelled then turned to face the attacking grenadier. The demo-changeling smirked, and charged with a Tide Turner on one arm, and a long blade in her hooves.
Macintosh stood on his hind legs and balled his hooves. He then made an uppercut with his right, and missed, leaving the changeling enough time to bring down her blade. The red stallion watched the blade fall, felt the cold blade before going back to spawn.
“Ah-haha!” Merasmus’ voice laughed. “The tickets have been delivered! Prepare for you next challenge!”
Rainbow Dash smirked, “Bring it on chump!” She then felt a tug on her chest, and instantly teleported.
A blinding light later, the pegasus rubbed her eyes and looked around as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. A first noticed two colours—red and blue— in vertical stripes. A bump from behind her jolted her back to her senses. Dash tried to turn around, but then noticed she was strapped to a chair inside a capsule and checked what the wheel in front of her did—nothing. The colourful pony then felt a pad pressing against her back hoof and pressed it. The capsule jolted forward, Dash stopped pressing on the pad, and the capsule in response stopped. Another shove from a different capsule caught her attention and she stomped on the pad. She sped forward, and nearly drove off an edge until she accidentally turned the wheel. With a deep sigh, Rainbow Dash looked around, and saw that she was on a three by three grid platform with the same two colours at the stripes.
“So the rules are,” Discord’s echoed in the dome. “Go to the flashing square and push off the other team until only one team remains! Also, you have to watch out for the Headless Horseless Horseman. Wow that’s a mouthful!”
Dash gulped and felt a cold breath on her shoulder. The pony straightened her back, and slowly turned. A deep, evil chuckle erupted as she looked into the dark shadows, only lighted with a glowing pumpkin.
“Boo!” the mouth of the pumpkin moved and a blade from an axe swung down to the pegasus. Dash screamed and pushed the pedal until it nearly broke. An unsuspecting changeling turned to the scream, and was bumped off the platform into a dark abyss, screaming. She peered over the edge, and didn’t see the bottom. Fluttershy screamed on the other side of the platform and was cut short. Dash flinched and assumed she was caught by the floating pumpkin.
A flashing square before the pegasus had flashed white and she slowly drove to the square. She then looked to her left, and saw a swarm of similar capsules heading towards her. Suddenly, the square behind her—and the others¬— fell. It left her, four Lunar members, Pinkie, Tavish, and Jacques fighting for dominance of the small square.
Dash looked at her dashboard, and found a small button that said turbo. She grinned, and slowly aligned herself to a Lunar member—a Soldier—and waited for the perfect time. His car stopped nearby the edge with the enemy fazed. The pegasus then slammed the button—with such force that it nearly broke it—and rammed into the side of the soldier. He yelled, “You maggot! You’re gonna pay for that!” His voice trailed off in the abyss, and suddenly his car exploded.
Rainbow Dash flinched, and felt a bump on her car. She leaned on the edge, nearly falling until a square came back up from falling earlier, putting her aligned the ground. The prismatic pegasus then drove to different square, adjusting herself in the seat. Suddenly, a slam into her right side shoved her off the edge. Dash panicked, and tried to escape her car, but instead fell into the dark chasm.
The explosion of her car burned her into flames, and then, darkness.
(….)
Dash jolted her eyes open, and found that she was lying in her bed at the brothel beside Richard—who was sleeping and had multiple wrappers of chocolate and candy around him. She rubbed her head, and looked around some more to verify. A mug of frothy cider on her side of the bed confirmed that this was indeed the room. She sighed and decided that it was better that she’d better get some rest. Tomorrow was going to be confusing and busy.