//------------------------------// // The End of Line (When in Equestria) // Story: Of mercenaries and.... Ponies? // by Lion Tale //------------------------------// Fluttershy rolled over on her soft bed, completely forgetting the mass of items that lay next to her. She yelped and laid a hoof to feel what she'd lain on; small, rounded, and plastic beads. “What are my beads doing here?” the pegasus whispered as she picked up a small rhinestone necklace. “Did I make this? Or did the Crusaders leave this here?” She searched for her lamp and clicked it on. “Who made this?” “We made them,” a male voice spoke from the floor. Fluttershy shuffled across the beads, peered over the other side, and found Discord laying in a mass of rhinestone bracelets and necklaces along with beads scattered everywhere. She giggled and picked up a completely blue necklace and looked at it. “How long ago was this?” Fluttershy then helped the chimera to his feet and looked outside; still dark. “It’s either still night, or really early in the morning.” Discord brushed himself of the stray faux gems clinging to his body, “It’s only two-fifty in the morning,” he plucked a stuck necklace from his back and put it around her neck. “We started making these things after we’ve decided having a best friend night was best idea; although playing ‘chubby bunny’ with small marshmallows wasn’t really a bright idea at first.” “Why?” “For one thing,” he picked up a necklace from Fluttershy’s bed near her pillow; it was made up of marshmallows. “I thought it was a good idea to make one into a necklace, and you grabbed out your rhinestone necklace maker—the one you said you’ve had since you were a filly—and we made a ton for no reason.” The pegasus sighed and blushed, “I never thought I would actually use the machine ever again, not after what it did to me the last time.” “What did it do?” The chimera flew from her bed towards the pink sewing machine-style object decorated with white butterflies. “It looks pretty harmless.” He poked around with the switches and small dials. “It actually hurt me,” she rubbed her hoof. “I was making a necklace like the usual for Rainbow Dash when we were fillies, and once I had finished the last stone, I pulled it out and looked at my work. I noticed red and thought it was paint. I tried to put it down, and that’s when I found out it was actually latched to my hoof and the red was my blood. I fainted as soon as I recognized the blood.” Discord pursed his lips and found the needle that caused the incident. “That must’ve been one hell of a necklace,” he smiled, poking at the sharp object. “But at least it didn’t happen again like last time.” He took the mechanical menace and threw it into the nearby closet. He wiped his hands. “And we don’t need it anymore!” Fluttershy looked around the room and saw the amount of scattered rhinestones and beads. “What do we do about this now?” She asked, placing her medipack and gun against the wall. “We can’t just leave the necklaces and bracelets everywhere! My animal friends might accidentally eat it.” “Do you think we have enough stones for the other ponies to make best friend bracelets for their partners?” Discord placed a claw on his chin, and scratched his head. “I mean, they are leaving today at nine.” He paused and looked at the now smiling pony. “I guess I’ll go and make coffee before you decide to wake the others. It’s going to be a long day.” (…) “Fluttershy!” Applejack moaned. “Ah know this is early sugarcube, but this is really early for some of us.” “Yea,” Dash moaned from Applejack’s back, her eyes struggling to stay open. “This is way too early, you do have some coffee right?” Discord tapped her shoulder and lifted her with one arm. “I’ll carry you to your ambrosia, but promise me that you’ll only have one cup, got it?” He poured the dark liquid into a cup, and placed it in her hooves. “Yea okay,” the pegasus said, barely holding the warm cup. She took a sip. “This coffee is pretty good, for a chimera.” “Thanks,” He replied sarcastically. “Remind me next time to give you my best.” “Everybody!” Fluttershy quietly yelled. “I brought you ponies here so that we can make something for our best friends!” Big Macintosh yawned, “Why am I here again?” “Because I forced you to,” Applejack replied, drinking her cup of coffee. “Besides, you probably want something to give to your partner.” “Now, the things you can make for them are a lot,” The yellow pegasus explained. “I have a machine over here that can make bracelets and necklaces,” she pointed to the pink object. “I also have loose rhinestones and paper over there; and I have plenty of scrap metal, tools, and paint in my shed in case you guys want to make something complicated.” “So we’re doing arts and crafts for them?” Twilight asked, “And what about ceramic items? I can quickly heat them up and cool them down.” “Good on ya!” Spike gave her an approving thumb, drinking his coffee with the other hand. “And while you’re at it, I’ll just go and sew something with that really girly machine you got me.” “That’s a fantastic idea Spike!” Fluttershy clapped her hooves together as the dragon facepalmed. “Let’s get started shall we? We only have eighteen hours and twenty five minutes left, I’m pretty sure we can get something done today!” Spike moaned in agony, “Why couldn’t I’ve just slept in today?” (……) A bird merrily chirped in the distance as Richard opened his eyes. With a smile, he stretched and reached to the other side of the bed to mess with the pegasus’ morning. He felt around for the pony, but received nothing but sheets. He rose from his side of the bed and decided to walk down the stairs. As the Bostonian reached the final step, a rustle in the kitchen caught his attention. “Hello?” Richard said quietly. “Hey brother,” Roxy replied, pouring batter unto a skillet on the stove. “I’m learning how to cook some pancakes. So you’re going to be the one that’ll taste test it.” “Are they going to be burnt?” Richard opened the fridge and pulled out a carton of orange juice. He opened it and drank whatever was left. “I wonder why OJ is more expensive here.” He said, looking at the price tag. “It’s because apple juice is more popular around here, so it’s cheaper,” Roxy flipped the cooking pancake. “Almost done, might as well get a plate and whatnot. OJ is also imported from a different farming town about four hours north by train.” Richard sat down at the cloud table and placed his china plate down. He yawned, “Any idea where baby barf blue is?” “Don’t know,” Roxy placed the golden brown hotcake on his plate. She then placed a cup of warm syrup and butter on the table. “Here’s the butter and syrup,” the scout nodded and poured the syrup. “I was told by Fluttershy that they’re doing something. But she never really told me what exactly they were doing.” Richard moaned in bliss as he ate a bit of the pancake. “Dish ish awshum!” He mumbled, and swallowed. “You should try cooking more often.” “Thanks, but I’m not really into cooking,” Roxy walked to the fridge and pulled out a bar of chocolate. “I don’t actually eat anything except love, but chocolate bought specifically for someone always does the trick.” “Does it work if I bought you one?” “It does,” The changeling ripped open the package and ate the bar. “This one was given to me by someone I’m seeing.” “You mentioned that person last night,” Richard stood and brushed the crumbs off him. “What’s his name and what is he?” “He’s a unicorn,” Roxy blushed and smiled. “And his name is Leroy.” “Does his last name start with a ‘j’?” Richard looked at his nails for grime. She nodded. “I bought some chicken substitutes from him the other day; he didn’t really seem to like the job.” “Yea, he kind of worked there before,” the changeling threw the wrapper into the trash. “But he’s now the CEO of the new Oculi system, and my current stallion-friend.” “Let’s go see him!” He walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room. “After I change of course, would be bad if they found me in my jammies and laughed.” “…Did you seriously call those your jammies?” Roxy tried to suppress her laughter. “That’s gotta be the worst name I’ve ever heard those get called. If anything they should be called PJ’s.” “So?” Richard replied as he replaced his old shirt with a new, non-bloody, white one. “I call them whatever I want them to be called.” He stopped once he reached for his pants. “Could you leave the room or at least turn around so that I may change my pants?” “I don’t what the big problem is,” Roxy rolled her eyes and turned around to let the Bostonian change. “It’s not like I’ve never seen you naked.” “What?” He yelled. “What do you mean ‘you’ve seen me naked’?” “I mean that one time you decided to take a shower,” the changeling replied. “You walked out without any clothes on as I was waiting for my turn. In fact, you saw me and didn’t even care as I sat there.” “I-I…” Richard paused. “We never had this conversation.” He turned and faced the eccentric bug, “Ever. Now go and put on some perfume or something. I don’t want to walk next to a smelly dragonfly.” He waved a dismissive hand. “Hey! I was told my uncle was a dragonfly,” she pouted and crossed her forelegs. “Let’s go, I already put on my perfume this morning. I don’t need any more unless you wanna walk next to a dragonfly that smells like what could be described as love.” “You mean food?” Richard snickered. “Eh,” the changeling shrugged. “Either way it smells good. Now let’s go before daylight disappears into darkness. It’s a lot quicker now since it’s nearing the end of the year.” (…) “For the last time sir, we don’t allow walk-ins,” a mare yelled at the stallion standing before her. “Now good day, and please schedule an appointment next time! Next!” She said, in a strict voice. “Hey Grace Manewitz,” Roxy spoke, placing a hoof on the table. “Think we can see him today? Oh and this is my figurative brother, Richard the scout.” “Nice to meet you,” the purple mare said, not looking up from her typewriter. “Leroy is in at the moment, but he’s having a conversation with someone-“ “I don’t care if it takes me two minutes, or two hours!” The door leading into the room slammed open with as a vanilla colored mare was forcibly pushed out. “Just get me whatever’s on that list and pronto!” A brown stallion from the doorway watched as the mare left the room. “I swear she’s going to be trouble one day,” He coughed, combing his white mane with a hoof. “I can take the next pony right now if… Roxy? What are you doing here?” He ran to her side and nuzzled the changeling’s neck. “And this must be Richard, nice to meet you.” “Yo,” the scout waved two fingers at him. “That chicken substitute was okay, by the way. It’s nice to see my little sister see a fancy guy.” “Thanks,” Leroy turned around towards his room. “Come in, I want to talk personally.” They slowly walked into the woody, bright sunlit room. Richard walked to a wingback chair and plopped himself in a slouched position; Roxy sat in the chair next to him while Leroy sat behind his lightly colored wooden desk. He sorted his papers and straightened his desk somewhat. “So, let’s get down to business,” The stallion coughed. “I just want to know, who was that changeling you were walking with yesterday Roxy?” “That was him,” She pointed to the scout, who was digging into his nose, “In his changeling form.” “So he has changeling powers? Remarkable,” He smiled. “I have a question for the human; would you like to be in a game that consists of you and your team to fight against others like you?” “You mean like us fighting a team like ours?” Richard asked, adjusting himself in the wingback chair. “Like how we did back in Las Pegasus?” Leroy nodded. “Sure, why not? Though our team and their team look, and act, completely different, I’m pretty sure you can take our team and make a huge copy, why?” “Because I have a feeling this is going to be one the best investments I can ever make,” Leroy adjusted and searched through several papers. “As you being the spokesperson for the team,” he pulled out a packet of paper. “I want you to sign this to confirm you agree to the summarized agreement; I’ll take Luna’s team and make a huge copy so that they may fight ones similar to them. It won’t feature your team, just the others.” “You mean I sign for them? Dude, you should’ve asked them, not me,” The scout replied. He stood up, looking around the room. “I feel there’s someone else other than us three here…” An uncloaking sound suddenly came from behind him. Richard turned with his Pretty Boy’s Pocket Pistol in hand and aimed it at the uncloaking spy. He lowered it once he noticed who it was; François. “Bravo kid,” He slowly clapped, taking the scout’s seat. “Not only you noticed that there was a spy here, you’re also really late on getting that document signed.” “What do you mean?” the Bostonian replaced the pistol into his pocket. “I mean that we—all of us on the Lunar team—have already signed this sheet of the document. Your fellow teammates all elected you to become the one to sign for everyone—it was you, Jacques, or Arvin. So either way, you were going to be here one way or another,” He grinned, but it slowly turned into a frown as he crossed his legs. “Do you know where the restroom is? It just happens that I’ve been standing here for a very long time with my Cloak n’ Dagger.” “Out the room, take a left and it’s the fourth door on the right,” the brown stallion replied. He turned towards Richard. “I only want your signature because not only it’s a game based on the battles, but mainly because it features you guys and that would be copyright law seeing how that there’s plush toys of your group.” “Does that even exist here?” he replied, snatching a ball of yarn from Leroy’s desk. The unicorn nodded. “Wow, didn’t think it would. Anyways, just give me the paper and I’ll be on my way so you and Roxy can talk.” “Very well,” Leroy reached over his desk and handed to thin packet of stapled papers. “The place where you sign is at the very back, last page actually, and that’s where you sign for our usage of the battle’s looks.” The human skipped to the back, not even taking a quick skim of the contents, and wrote in what he calls ‘professional handwriting’. Richard handed it back and walked to the exit, where it was wide open from the spy’s sudden exit. The receptionist took a quick glance towards him, but changed her gaze back towards the typewriter. Tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak… “So was your visit today?” Grace said, continuously typing on the machine. “Hopefully it was delightful.” “It was,” He put his hand on chin and rubbed it. “Not too bad, but really business like and not really a friendly chat.” She stopped. “That’s Leroy Jenkinson for you. Ever since he gained the CEO portion of his life, he has been focused on the job rather than his social life. But whenever he’s not on the job, or on break, he turns into his old self; the playful stallion who had interests in what young kids would like. He still is a kid, that’s why his co-CEO is his sister.” A creak of the couch changed Richard’s focus. He looked and saw François sitting next to him. “Missed me?” Richard asked. “You have no idea my friend,” the Frenchman smiled. “No idea.” “So,” Richard stretched himself out on the couch. “Are you ready to be sent home?” “We’re not going until next week,” François replied as he pulled out a cigarette from his case. “Even then, that’s going to be a long time.” “Who’s taking you?” “The same chimera that’s taking you guys,” He lit the stick and blew a stream of light grey smoke. “Dammit Discord, why couldn’t he have taken our teams together? I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t make a difference that we went together.” “I’m pretty sure he can make all kinds of shit happen,” Richard waved the smoke out of his face. “I bet you that the second after we appear back at Harvest, or Teufort, you guys are going to appear as though nothing had ever happened.” “Yea, but what time is he going to exactly take us to?” François tapped his ashes into a nearby ashtray. “It could be fucking two years after the contract, or even the next Australian Christmas. We don’t even know when we’re going to be back unless we had some calendar.” “I still got my phone,” the Bostonian raised a flat, rectangular object from his pocket. “Well, it’s more like a pager than anything; but Ms. Pauling gave it to me for some reason.” “You mean that slim woman with glasses and black hair?” the spy asked, putting out the burning tobacco. “I always thought it was like a dark brown,” Richard removed his backpack and placed it on the ground. “Anyways, she gave it to me about twenty days after I invited her over for a date.” “How’d it go?” “It could’ve gone better, if that giant bread monster didn’t come by and ruin everything,” Richard looked at the door and found Roxy walking out, licking her lips. “I guess I’ll talk to you next time we meet again.” François laughed and removed his mask, revealing his sharp chin, black hair, and slightly pointed nose. “It’s been a while since I’ve removed my mask. Even then I’ve only removed it because I needed to shower,” He scratched his short hair. “It feels so weird to have my mask off.” “Wow, it’s like Jacques was your brother or something,” Richard studied the man’s face. “Jacques and I were co-workers back when we studied biochemistry for a hobby,” He replaced the mask and adjusted it to fit. “It wasn’t until recently that we had an argument about a small petty thing that it was decided that espionage work was the better idea.” “Well, I ought to go now with Roxy,” Richard stood along with the Frenchman. “See you back at Teufort bud.” “Good-bye,” François replied with a wave, and headed towards the door. “How much of a close friend was François do you think?” Roxy said behind the Bostonian as the Frenchman closed the door behind him. “I’d say if anything, he was a good friend,” Richard bent down and petted the affectionate changeling. “Now let’s go do something, we still have daylight to burn,” His stomach growled. “And maybe let’s go get something at that restaurant I saw on the way here.” (…) “I’ll have a hay-burger with large fries and a fizzy drink,” the stallion said in front of the two. “That’ll be eight bits,” The purple mare with a hat at the register replied. She took the bits as the stallion moved out of the way. “Next.” “Hey there,” Richard said, resting his hands on the counter. “I’ll take the griffon option with water. Make sure the meat is well cooked, humans can’t digest that. And she’ll just take some chocolate milk.” “That’ll be err,” She lifted a sheet of paper from under the counter. “Hmm… That’ll be twelve bits.” “…” Richard looked at her with a blank expression. “…You mean to tell me that the griffon option is more expensive than the order the freaking pony before us had? Are you speciesist against me?” He said loudly, purposely trying to make a scene “No, no!” She replied quickly, shaking her hoofs in defense. “I-I didn’t mean that! Sorry if you got that idea, but it’s just that your order of the griffon option was only nine bits for a meal and the milk is three bits; we’re running low on the drink, so it’s slightly more expensive,” she blushed and scratched the back of her head. “It’s only a bit more expensive because it’s real meat instead of hay.” “Uh-huh,” Richard smirked. “I’m just giving you a hard time. I knew the actual price, except the chocolate milk, that’s new.” He placed the credit on the table. “So how long will it be until I get my burger?” “Five, six minutes maximum,” The mare placed the bits into the register. “Just wait nearby the stallion over there with this,” She handed him a card with a number, and then placed a brown carton on the counter. “And here’s your chocolate milk.” Roxy grabbed the milk and stood next to the Bostonian. “So is this your first time coming here?” “No, it’s my second time, and I’ve ordered the exact same thing before,” Richard looked at his number. “I’m number one apparently, I’m usually listed second.” “Why second?” Roxy placed a small straw into the side of her drink. “Because Jane stole my spot when they were listing us,” He chuckled. “Just as simple as that, he stole my spot when I supposed to be first.” “So what do you plan on doing about it?” “Nothing, just suck it up and deal with it. Like that time when Demoman decided to go on a drinking binge during a battle at a place named Dustbowl. He found a sword, the Eyelander, and started to decapitate the whole RED team. It was pretty traumatizing to watch; I thought I was never going to sleep again,” Richard said, retrieving a tray with his burger. “We kind of fixed his problem, until he accidentally launched a rocket—while finding a bottle of rum somewhere. Tavish took it out with the same sword he used to decapitate the RED team,” He slapped himself on the head. “And it wasn’t until my dumbass-self decided that touching the sword was a good idea! It sent the rocket back to fly mode and it hit our freight facility and blew up.” Richard tuned his head as he heard his number being called. He quickly grabbed his plate of food, and headed to a nearby booth of seats. “That was real smart of you to do such a thing,” Roxy replied sarcastically. She then walked towards a table and sat down with the human. “So what do you want to do for the rest of the day?” “I don’t know,” Richard bit into the meat burger, surprised by the amount of juiciness. “I’m already packed and everything. One thing I was wondering though, is it possible that I could take a changeling larvae and raise it?” The changeling shrugged. “You could Celestia about it. You can talk to her if Spike’s nearby.” “Any advice if I can?” “Eventually, it’ll need to eat love,” she started. “The most common way is to feed off of the host which they’re getting love off of. That requires blood, but if you’re rational about it, the least a changeling actually needs is only about an ounce of blood,” Richard shrugged. “It’s not too much, but they’ll only need it about once a week. Now if you give them about a cup, they’re good for a month but that’s stretching it. A pint and they’re pretty much full for two months, and so on so forth.” “Is there a second option?” He asked, drinking from the fairly large cup of water. “Yea,” Roxy smiled. “And that’s the chocolate option; you feed them about an ounce of blood. That should satisfy them for about a month if you feed them a bar of chocolate—given from whomever to them—about once a day. Sometimes you could skip a day, but that’ll make them cranky.” “Sounds like you know a lot about care of a changeling when it comes to feeding,” Richard wiped his face with a napkin. “How’d you think I’ve survived this whole time?” Roxy chuckled as she threw her carton to a nearby trashcan. “Did you think I’ve survived on nothing but blood from random people this whole time?” He shrugged, “I thought you guys lived off of emotions and usual things.” “That’s kind of the truth,” The changeling shuffled her hooves. “Some changelings grow to be ‘normal’—they live like regular ponies—and others live to be emotion feeding—they’ll feed of the host until they’re nothing but husks of meat. But you are most likely not going to worry about them being emotional feeding, that’s normally Ferals and lower grunts.” “But don’t Ferals slaughter their victims?” “They do, then they feed off of the emotions kept within the blood,” She sighed and hugged Richard’s leg. “I was going to become a Feral until I made my first slaughter, then I realized that wasn’t the life I was meant to have. I eventually hung around with Elites and accepted their way of life—which was to live off of the smallest amounts available. It was hard to do, but if I didn’t do that, then I wouldn’t have met you.” “I just called up a random changeling to help me by bringing a wheelchair,” Richard admitted. “That day went by really fast for some odd reason.” “Wait, I thought Arvin said he asked for my help?” Roxy squinted her eyes as she slowly realized the situation. “You mean to tell me that it was you that called for help?” “Yea, but I only called for just general help about five minutes before I fell into the wheelchair,” Richard pointed to the door, notifying the changeling that he was going to leave. He placed the tray of trash on the trashcan nearby. “Then I asked for the wheelchair in case I get too tired.” Roxy sighed as she opened the door to head out of the restaurant. “So we met out of luck? That’s got to be the most life-changing moment of anyone’s life.” He smiled. “You can say it was a changeling in atmosphere!” He weakly laughed as she slowly shook her head. “No?” “Don’t ever make a pun like that again,” Roxy walked towards an apple stand, where a light yellow filly stood. “Hey there, I’ll take two apples.” “Okay,” she replied, grabbing two bright-red fruits. “That’ll be two bits!” “Thanks Applejack’s sister,” The changeling placed the bits on the filly’s hooves and grabbed the fruit. “Hey Richard! How good are ya at catching?” She pitched an apple. “What do y-,” He stopped as the fruit hit him square on the chest. “Oh crap that hurts worse than a glass bulb.” “How about another?” She yelled as she threw the other apple. The scout looked up at the oncoming apple as it came close to his face. He flinched, but opened his eyes as heard a whoosh sound in front of his face. He looked around, and saw an arrow lodged in a nearby sign of ‘Quills and Sofas’. “You’re welcome mate!” An Australian voice yelled to his right. “Next time, learn how to dodge!” Richard clutched his chest as he brushed the broken apple pieces off. “What was that for?” He yelled at the smiling changeling. “I just saw Nick over there with his Huntsman on his shoulder and decided that he should be able to hit moving targets,” The Australian waved and walked up to them. “He missed the first shot and hit someone’s sofa over there then the apple hit you on the chest. He hit the second one, but it went through the apple and hit the sign.” “You threw it too fast the first time Roxy,” Nick slung his bow over his shoulder. He then looked at his Rolex; quarter after three. “I was just walking around to tell our teammates that we should be over at Fluttershy’s in about forty minutes. I’m going to head on over since I’ve nothing better to do.” He turned around and started to walk away with favorite coffee mug in hand, not caring about the arrow still lodged into a pony’s sofa and on the sign. “We’ll be there!” Roxy yelled as she helped up Richard. “Well, I guess we should follow him. I should get a thing of coffee or some candy, would be good to have at that time.” (….) Arvin stood at the door as the pair came up to the cottage. “What took you so long? The girls, and couple guys, have been waiting for everyone to appear so that they can reveal our ‘go away present’,” he quoted with his fingers. “Well, sorry,” Roxy said sarcastically, placing a brown paper bag on the ground. “Just went grabbing some things like coffee, and maybe some snacks.” “Well, what’d you get?” The German peered into the bag. He smiled. “Nice to know that candy and potato chips were most of the few things inside this bag.” “Yea, couldn’t decide what kind of chips to get,” Richard shrugged, grabbing a bag labeled, ‘Spicy Stuff’. “This sounded great at the time, but I think either me or Jennifer are going to be the only ones that’ll eat it.” “I’ll maybe try it,” Arvin knocked the door and waited until a small crack appeared. “H-hello?” A small and quiet voice spoke behind the door, barely past a whisper. “Is everyone here?” “Yes Fluttershy,” Arvin lightly pushed the door open and entered the naturalist’s cottage. He then turned around and cupped his hands around his mouth to create a loudspeaker-like thing. “Guys, we can go inside now.” The rest of the seven mercenaries—more like just regular humans—stood from various places around the house and walked towards the building entrance. Richard and Roxy looked at each other and shrugged before entering the woody living room. Sharp, sweet smelling incense flooded the humans’, and changeling’s, sense of smell and awoken them up with sudden adrenaline. Fluttershy smiled and presented several couches and chair scattered around in an audience-like position. “Please,” Fluttershy picked up a napping rabbit from one of the chairs, and placed it in a nearby basket. “Sit here. The other ponies will be out here in about a couple minutes.” She opened the door behind her that lead into her room, and slipped inside without letting any of the humans see what’s behind. Fluttershy closed the door behind her, and without a second thought, locked it. A wave of doubt washed over her as she thought the humans might judge her for not being trustworthy of them. She shrugged it off, gotten this far, might as well go with it. “Hey Fluttershy,” Twilight said behind the pegasus. “Are they out there yet?” “Yes,” She turned and smiled. “And I think we should go ahead and show them our presents!” “Yes, yes,” Rarity happily said from her spot. “I should go out first and amaze Jacques with this fantastic present!” She pulled out a vanilla colored suit that looked it should belong to fancy gentleman’s nightly garment, complete with a small puff-like bulge of cloth nearby the neck. “He told me that he wanted something similar to this, so I made him one!” She gleamed. “That’s… wow!” Twilight looked at the suit. “How’d you make it all today?” “Well,” Rarity started. “I sort of worked on this for the past three days; this was the second day I actually worked on it in terms of sewing on the pieces and accessorizing.” “Good!” Fluttershy grinned. “Is everyone pretty much done?” Pinkie held up a small purse-like bag with a yellow flower on it. “Yeppers!” She nodded her head frantically. “How about you two stallions,” Fluttershy peered over Spike’s and Big Macintosh’s shoulders. Spike pulled the object he was working on close to his chest and covered it. “I uh, I’m almost done.” Big Mac revealed a small head of a robotic changeling. “Eeyup,” He said, grabbing the dangling chain connected to the top of the head. “That’s uh, nice?” Twilight raised a brow then shook her head. “So let’s get ready to reveal our gifts!” Fluttershy walked to the door and opened it, revealing the mercenaries playing another game of poker with hats scattered around the table. She coughed quietly, getting their attentions. “Every one of us has made a present for you guys, and uh, we’re about to give them to you.” “About bloody time,” Nick grunted, crossing his arms and legs. “So who’s going to be first?” “I am,” Fluttershy said as she walked to her German counterpart brown pack. She then placed the package at his legs and smiled. “Open it!” Arvin looked at her then picked it up. He chuckled as he ripped the top of and peered into the bag. He gasped, and pulled out a modified medipack. It was white, but instead of the usual blue cross, it was designed with Fluttershy’s cutie mark, and the electrical prongs on top of the pack were replaced with neon pink ones. Arvin smiled and hugged the shy pony, making her squeak like a rubber duck. “It’s great!” He said. “Thanks.” Fluttershy nuzzled into his chest and closed her eyes. “Next,” she said, not removing herself from his grasp. Big Macintosh walked out of the room holding the robotic head from the chain. “Hrmf if fur oh,” He muffled through the chain in his mouth. He dropped it on Mikhail’s lap. “There,” “What’s it for?” The heavy replied, scratching his head. “It’s a small decoration for Sasha,” The stallion said. “You just wrap it around the minigun barrel a couple times to hold it there, and it should make a nice addition to it.” The Russian smiled. “Thanks for gift friend.” “Eeyup,” He smiled back. “I reckon it’s my sister’s turn.” “Darn right it is,” Applejack appeared holding a toolbox on her back. “Dell, Ah made this from some scrap you had and I think it’s great for you!” She, somehow by any means of physics, tossed the box from her back and watched as it landed in front of her. “What does it do?” Dell pressed the button on the tool box and watched as it constructed itself. As quickly as it started, it finished and ended once it looked like a lain back lawn chair. A small table propped itself on the right side. The engineer sat on the chair and studied the design. “You’re supposed to lay back and have a mug of cider or two,” Applejack gave him a bottle of Blue Streak and placed a couple on the stand. “I call it, Relaxer!” “I got a better name,” He sighed and relaxed with his left hand behind his head. “Let’s call it Rancho Relaxo. Oh and thanks for this, I’m going to use it a lot.” “Ah was never really good at making up names,” Applejack replied. She smiled. “And you’re welcome; next pony!” Pinkie walked out of the room and jumped on top of Jennifer’s lap. She then revealed her gift of the purse. “I made it just for you! We pyros know what’s up.” Jennifer chuckled. “Thanks pinks. I also made you a present,” She reached behind her. Pinkie gasped dramatically and pressed her cheeks in with her hooves. “Thankyou-thankyou-thankyou-thankyou-thankyou-thankyou!” She grinned and hugged the human. “No problem,” Jennifer smiled and lightly pushed away the pony. The pyro then pulled out a small, white, and furry ball. “Here, it’s the biggest secret that I’ve got and I think that it’s about time that he belongs to someone special.” “You mean I’m your best friend?” the pony’s smile got larger. “Yep, and this guy here, his name is Cloudpaw,” She placed the small ball into Pinkie’s hooves. “Take care of him; he was one of the only kittens that I rescued out of a burning kitten orphanage.” “D’aww,” the pony cooed. “Don’t worry little guy, you’re mine now.” The ball opened up to reveal the small kitten’s features; everything ordinary of a kitten except a small nick on the right ear. “Oh thank you Jennifer,” The pony smiled, and placed the small bundle into her hair. “And don’t worry about him inside my mane, it’s like a blanket and a nest inside there,” she giggled. “Come on Dashie! It’s your turn!” “Do I really have to?” The usually narcissistic pony slowly glided to Richard and set herself down at his feet. “I’m still pissed at you for not getting here like the others. So I made you a gift in case you’re mad at me too.” Richard patted the top of the pony’s head. “Oh well, shit happens,” Suddenly, without warning, he picked up the pegasus and turned her around, facing her back. He then stood and raised the pony high above his head. “Ahh-se-venya, Mama-ne-chababa! Seji-woo! When-naah-ah, when-naa-ma!” The Bostonian chanted “Could you please put the poor pony down and accept her gift?” Jennifer slapped his back, making him jerk forward. “And she’s not a lion cub! Isn’t it time that you think The Lion King is old?” “And don’t forget about the copyright infringement!” Pinkie commented as almost all eyes looked at her. “What? It has to be mentioned every now and then.” “Oh shush, she enjoys this! Don’t you, you purty pony?” Richard looked back at Rainbow Dash and realized that he was holding her upside down. She crossed her forelegs. “Oops.” He set her down and sat down. “Alright, gift time,” He rubbed his hands together. “Here,” Dash said, placing a small parcel on his lap. “It’s just things that I thought would be nice for you.” Richard ripped away the brown paper to reveal three objects. He picked one up and analyzed it; an azure blue, uncut, opaque, rock. “What is this, a sapphire?” He took a closer look at the gem. “No you numb-nuts!” Dash barked. “It’s a Lapis Lazuli! It was given by my mother when I turned eighteen.” “And when was that?” Richard polished the gem on his shirt and picked up a small patch that had a lightning bolt with wings. “Nice emblem here.” “Thanks, and I turned eighteen about…” The pegasus put a hoof on her chin, and turned towards the pony pyro. “When did I turn into eighteen?” “Your birthday was about a couple weeks ago,” Pinkie mentioned. “But even then I didn’t know how old you were. Fluttershy’s the oldest of all six of us.” The said pegasus glared daggers at her. “And she’s only about two years older than me; I’m twenty-two by the way.” “Wow,” Dash turned back to Richard. “I got the emblem from the Wonderbolts Academy when I was a part of it.” She picked up the last object; a picture of herself with a signature. “Here, you stupid human,” She handed the photo to him. “…Why this?” Richard looked and studied the photo; just her in a pose in front of a yellow background. He sighed. “Never mind, I like it. It’s good enough to keep actually,” If my brothers don’t sneak into my room and see this. He thought. “Good!” Dash hugged him. “Can the next pony go before I end up killing this guy of hugs?” “Yes of course!” Rarity walked out with the suit on a hanger, all of it covered with a plastic bag. She handed it to Jacques and smiled. “I made this suit for you! I know how much you liked the fancy sleepwear in the magazines I have in my lobby.” “Why do… never mind,” Dash replied. “What? I only have them for fashion ideas, and in case somebody wants something based on something,” Rarity defended. “It’s nice actually,” Jacques removed his outer suit and replaced it with Rarity’s. He then adjusted it for his lithe frame. “And it’s very comfortable.” He sat back down, legs crossed. “I’m glad you like it!” Rarity smiled and decided to lie in his lap. “So how about the next pony?” “I’ll go,” Twilight walked next to Nick and just jumped to his lap. “So uh, no gift like the others I assume at least?” The Australian spoke. “Yep,” She yawned. “I used a spell to turn all your hats and equipment to an unusual status and they’re all strangified.” Everyone’s mouth dropped—except for Roxy, oblivious what that means—and Nick just blinked. “You’re not happy about it?” Twilight’s lower lip stuck out. “I knew it.” “No-no-no!” Nick waved his arms. “It’s just that, wow! You went above and beyond to give me such a thing! It really shows me how much I mean to you!” It’s bloody brilliant! Totally faking it, I’m totally faking it. “I understand how you feel, it’s a huge shocker to you, for me to do such a thing,” Twilight’s eyes gleamed then turned her head towards the general crowd of humans. “I’m glad you came here and helped us, we wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for you guys!” She smiled. “Alright Spike, it’s your turn!” The small, purple drake appeared, holding a wooden box. “Hey Jane Doe,” Spike said nervously. “I made you something.” “Well bring it over here cadet,” the American replied, waving him over. The dragon practically dragged his feet just to reach the rocket jumper, and handed the box over. Jane looked at the outside, “So you gave a block of wood, anything else?” “You have to open it,” Spike said, pointing to a small latch, barely connecting the two halves. The solder flipped it and pulled the lid apart. Inside it was a barber’s razorblade, a pipe made specifically for smoking tobacco, and a black object connected to pin. Jane held up the black object, “What is this?” He asked, with a curious look. “It’s supposed to be a medal to you for no specific reason,” Spike rubbed his arm. “And the other things were stuff that I thought you would find perfect later on.” Jane smiled. “Thanks Spike,” The patted the top of the drake’s head and attempted to tussle his hair. “I appreciate it.” “I believe it’s my turn to give gifts to my dear comrade,” An enthralling voice spoke from the bedroom door. “And it’s about time that it is to be had. Anyways, I was busy working on this one specific potion for the longest time! And thanks to Tavish over here, after this, I’ll never have to rhyme ever again!” “I thought we had that taken care of?” Tavish rubbed his nose and grabbed a bottle of rum from the crate sitting next to him. “Want another?” “I calmly refuse your offer Scot,” Zecora pulled out a swirling blue potion from her side pouch, popped the lid, and sipped on it. “Maybe later I’ll take a shot,” She handed the potion to the Scotsman. “Take a sip, and I’ll be cured of my troubles. Besides, this is my gift to you.” Tavish shrugged and drank more than half of the potion. “Aye, that’s stronger than my rum here! What is that stuff?” “It’s rum,” the zebra smiled, “and it’s also mixed with cream, a type of herb, and vanillin.” “Bloody hell,” Tavish smiled and drank the rest of the liquor. “That’s some good drink!” He licked his lips. “Thanks mate!” “No problem Tavish,” The zebra then looked at Applejack. “And you’re an orange, so you better act like some.” The farm pony glared and looked away. “That ain’t right,” She mumbled. Fluttershy walked from her lap-sitting and stood in front of her fireplace, where she could see everybody and possibly get their attention. “Hey everyone,” She yelled as loud as she can—which could be mistaken as common outdoor talk, “Can I please have your attention if you don’t mind.” “I would like to say thank you for these stallions that are with us today,” Fluttershy said. “We would love to have you come back someday again. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, who knows?” She smiled as she felt her eyes slightly water. “But I would like to thank Arvin, who became a parenting figure in my life now.” The German smiled, and Fluttershy continued. “But I just wanna let you nine know that we couldn’t have done it without you,” The pegasus turned and pulled out her signature oil burner. “So here’s to everybody!” Tavish immediately stood, forgetting that Zecora was just sitting in his lap, and raised his bottle of rum. “To our homeland,” He yelled. “To friends,” Twilight joined. “To life,” Arvin said. “And least of all,” Applejack started. “To family.” She smiled and looked around. The humans moaned and shook their heads. “Now who’s being the sappy one?” Jacques smirked. “And here I thought Arvin was going to make the cheesiest comment.” Applejack frowned and sat back down in gloom. “Hey, it’s okay,” Dell patted her back and scratched her head. “We’re just giving you a hard time. But if I were you, then I might need to take a bottle of one of the beers.” The farm pony grabbed the liquor from his hand and took a drink. Her mouth felt the aftertaste, “It’s not actually that bad, though it’s a bit more fermented than my ciders I make.” Tavish grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “You make good scrumpy?” He asked. “I want some.” “I’ll be sure to ask, if I can’t help it, Discord to see if he can teleport a barrel to you before you leave,” The Scotsman’s mouth watered. “Actually,” the chimera’s voice spoke from Fluttershy’s room, behind her door. “I will, after I’ve had a barrel also. I wonder what alcohol is like, never decided to have one my entire life.” “Not to be a douche about this,” Richard pointed to his watch. “But we don’t have much time left.” “Aw come on!” Dash whined. “Can’t we just be together for another hour?” She thrust her lower up out and put on her best begging face. “Nope!” Discord chuckled, lifting the pegasus off of his lap and taped a large dress hanger to her. “But the one thing you should do is that maybe you can do one favor for me.” Dash blinked once after seeing a twinkle in the chimera’s eyes, only for it to disappear. “I want you to-“ “Discord! What did I tell you about doing things like that?” Fluttershy scolded. “It’s not being nice and you know it.” He frowned, and hung the pony on a nearby rack. Dash tried to flail her body around to remove the stiff object, but to no avail. Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. Discord groaned and snapped his fingers. “The things that I do for a good friend,” He muttered as Rainbow Dash fell to the ground, in a frenzied attack against the coat hanger. “You know Skittles,” Richard snatched the hanger from under her. “This is on the endangered species list and you should feel ashamed that you tried to kill an innocent hanger.” Dash rolled her eyes at the remark. “It’s sad I couldn’t throw a farewell party to my good friends,” Pinkie yawned and rolled to her back. “But I’m just too pooped.” “Aren’t we all,” Nick smirked and adjusted the strap on his huntsman. “Now let’s get bloody going before the other team ends up having to wait for us.” “I’m with ya on that one,” Richard leaped from his spot and opened the door to be met with a large, blue, and muscular minotaur. “Yo, move out of the way,” he said, trying to get past. The minotaur didn’t budge. “What did you just say to me, pipsqueak?” He prodded the scout’s chest. “I said move!” The Bostonian pulled out his Sandman and swung to the beast’s abdomen. The minotaur doubled over, and got hit again at the back. “Now move before I make sure your face hurts!” Richard spat as the creature fell on the ground. “Stop!” Fluttershy yelled from inside her house, rushing towards them. “That’s a friend of mine, Iron Will!” “Whoops,” Richard shrugged his shoulders, and poked the minotaur with his bat. “Sorry, but I gotta go.” The scout ran past Iron Will as he groaned on the ground. “Didn’t know the humans were so,” He coughed, “brutish.” “It’s okay, go lie down on my couch,” Fluttershy rolled his back over and attempted to pull him inside the house. “Hey heavy, think you can help me with this?” “No problem,” The Russian walked next to the creature and picked him up. “I’ll take him to couch,” The nodded his head towards the village. “You worry about heading over to town.” The pegasus smiled. “Thanks,” she said as she started to walk with her pony friends. “So, when do you actually think that they’re going to be back?” Fluttershy said to Twilight. “I don’t know, but I doubt that Princess Luna actually remembers how she’d summoned them,” Twilight pondered. “We could always ask her,” Fluttershy sighed and watched as the humans a couple meters in front of them talk happily. “It’s like he’s already gone.” “Don’t worry,” Twilight stopped and hugged the shy pegasus. “Just know that they’ll remember us too with the gifts we’ve given them.” Fluttershy chuckled, and wiped the oncoming tears away. “I’m pretty sure Nick will remember your gift.” The alicorn laughed in reply and started back on the dirt path. “Let’s go, before Mikhail gets there before us.” (……) Discord yawned as he stretched his body out on a chair inside Sugarcube Corner. The main door swung open, to reveal Richard holding his bat on his shoulder. “Hey Discord,” He said, sitting down on the couch next to him. “Were you serious about rebuilding your race or something?” The chimera sighed. “Yep,” He spawned a very frothy chocolate milkshake with a snap of his fingers. “I’ve travelled the world to find out what happened to our empire—we even ruled this country—but found nothing except artifacts pertaining to my petrification.” “Well,” Richard replied. “You always try and do self-fertilization.” The Bostonian cursed himself for ever learning that word, mainly because of multiple explanations of the Red Pyro. The chimera gasped in realization. “Why have I never thought of that?” He clasped his head with his hands. Discord then grabbed the human and shook him. “You’ve completely saved our race!” He guffawed as he held Richard in the air. “Uh, you’re welcome?” “How will I ever repay you?” Discord’s yellow eyes glowed with happiness. “I can give you anything; anything! Just tell me what you want, and it will be yours!” Richard swallowed. “C-can you uh,” He looked away, nervous. “Can I what?” the chimera pulled him closer. “You don’t even have to say it too loud; just whisper it into my ear, and the task will be done.” Richard bit his lip and thought about it. “I want uh,” He leaned in and whispered in Discord’s ear. “Oh?” He grinned, and made sure that his tooth gleamed brighter than room itself. “That’s what you want?” Discord chuckled. “I’ll be sure that it’s done. A deal’s a deal.” He snapped his fingers and a faint pink aura surrounded his hand then changed to green. “That’s odd,” Discord fondled with his white beard with the other hand, leaving Richard to hover in midair. “It seems like the spell that I casted was null.” “You mean,” Richard frowned. “It’ll never work?” “Let me try a different way,” the chimera smirked and snapped his fingers again to create another pink aura. He then threw the aura straight at the young man. Richard drew in a breath as he felt a force push against his chest. “Now,” Discord smiled. “How does that feel?” “It hurts like hell,” He coughed as he was gently placed back on the chair. “Good!” The door opened again to reveal the rest of the group. “Welcome! No more sitting!” He spread his arms wide and laughed. “Great, now we wait,” Jennifer commented as she entered the door, and then saw Richard on the chair. “Looks like you just saw some things, then was forced to do it at the same time; like having to do the human centipede.” Richard gagged. “That’s disgusting; I really hope that never happens to anybody.” He stood, clutching his chest. “I had a spell hit me by Discord,” He looked at the pyromancer, and saw that she was standing closer. “Are you okay?” “I-I’m not sure,” She backed away, blushing. “It’s like something is trying to force me to do something, but I don’t know what it is.” Jennifer shook her head. “It’s probably nothing.” “Alright everybody,” Discord’s voice echoed in the building. “Do you have all of your things together? If not, then just ask me to get it.” Suddenly, everyone raised their hand, reminded that they forgot the run home to grab it. “I knew you would forget them,” Discord once again snapped his fingers, instantly making the bags appear. “So I brought them here and ready. So who’s first?” Jane Doe walked up first with a larger backpack than the Cozy Camper and a bag in hand. He then turned around to face everybody, and saluted. “Last one out, lock the door!” He yelled as he turned around to face the chimera. Discord clicked his tongue twice, making a round, and blue, spiraling circle with a black hole in the middle appear next to him. The soldier then jumped into the hole, instantly disappearing as his body went completely through. “Decided not to wait for us?” An elegant and benevolent voice spoke at the door way. “The soldier wanted to leave first, and soon,” Discord replied, smirking. “But Celestia, maybe if you were here earlier, then we wouldn’t have to worry about it.” “We had trouble back in the hotel room,” Luna looked at her sister with frustration. “If only somepony could at least be more organized with her materials.” Princess Celestia sighed. “I didn’t pack my suitcase this time Lulu!” The alicorn said. “And you know how busy I usually am during the day.” “Please ‘Tia,” she rolled her eyes. “I just woke up mere moments ago and I still got more ready than you.” Celestia only growled in response. “Girls, girls,” Arvin raised his hands up and separated the two by standing in the middle. “If you two don’t calm down, I’ll have to ask Mikhail to do so.” The said human walked into the building, standing behind the German. Luna scoffed. “We shall see about that,” She looked around the room, not knowing whose name belongs to whom. “Now who is this Mikhail?” “I am,” The Russian pointed a thumb at his chest. “I am Mikhail.” Luna looked at the large, bulky human and shook her head. “If only I had guards that were so built,” she muttered. “Very well; please draconequus, if you may continue.” Discord pointed to the portal once again, and saw that Jacques was standing next to him. The spy sighed, “If only I could come back and visit once a while.” “You can, but it requires a certain qualification to do so,” the chimera replied. He then handed Jacques a yellow stone marked with the chaos symbol on it; a circle with four large arrows pointed up, down, left, and right, and four smaller arrows between each of the large arrows. “Just think of this as a way to call my name, similar to a human’s telephone back in your world.” Jacques nodded, knowing that this was like a similar way of calling the devil. “How do I activate it?” “It’s already in your bag as a note,” Discord said, pointing to the suitcase. The Frenchman smiled, and entered into the portal carrying his luggage. Similar to what happened to Jane, Jacques walked into it and completely disappeared once walking through. “Anyone else want my stone?” Discord raised the yellow stone that rested in his talon. “I will guarantee that it will bring you back here for a visit. Anytime, from anywhere, I will bring you here.” Richard shrugged his shoulders and motioned the chimera to put it in his bag. The Bostonian then walked up to the portal. “I’ll miss you guys, for a while until I want to come back for a visit,” he said. He took a step, but was interrupted by a pony latching onto his leg. “Can you at least say good-bye and give me a hug before you leave?” Roxy asked, rubbing on his calf. Richard smiled, and leaned down to hug crying changeling. “It’s okay,” He cooed. “I’ll be back soon, maybe next year, maybe next month. But I’ll be back. I will be back.” And set of legs surrounded the human; he looked and saw Dash with a pleading look in her eyes. “Pinkie promise?” She asked, feeling her eyes slightly water. The Bostonian chuckled, “Yea sure.” Richard stuck out his pinkie and lodged it into Dash’s forehead, “I pinkie promise that I’ll come back and that I’ll bring me some chicken too.” A knock on the door caught everyone’s attention. “Hey uh, human,” Rogue’s voice could be heard just barely outside the door. “You never told me what the food you gave me was.” He chuckled, “It’s fried chicken, a type of specialty we humans have.” Rogue’s subtle gagging sounds could be heard. “And don’t worry about it, as long as you don’t end up eating the hard parts which are the bones.” Richard stepped closer to the portal, and lightly pushed the ponies off of him. “You can’t come with, it’s too dangerous for creatures like you,” Richard adjusted his hat and threw his luggage into the spiraling vortex. “Hey guys, see you on the other side,” and with that statement, he leaped into the portal. Arvin stepped up to the vortex and also threw his bags into it. He then adjusted his glasses and looked at Celestia. “I have a feeling you are going to say something,” He chuckled. “But what’s stopping you?” The princess looked at the medic, then to the rest of the mercenaries. “I used to have a slight school filly crush on you, but whatever was there is now gone,” She sighed, feeling the stinging pain of admittance in her words. “I knew it,” Arvin stated, straightening his back. “I knew something was different about you whenever I’m nearby. Very well, I must go now.” He quickly hopped to the alicorn and hugged her. Celestia sighed in delight as she finally felt what the humans did to each other, but something she never received. Arvin jumped into the portal, instantly getting swallowed up by the slight tug of an invisible force pulling him. His vision went bright as he knew that he entered the portal. He closed his eyes for a moment to stop an unusual wind from drying out his eyes. And once he opened them, he was being pushed out of the vertex and landed at what looked similar to the BLU team’s headquarters. Arvin looked up, and saw Richard holding a hand out to help him up. “Hey,” Richard said, pulling the medic up. “What’s up doc?” The German tilted his hand back and forth. “It was a delightful experience, don’t you think?” “Yea, it was decent,” Jane commented, looking at his ‘medal’ that he was given the by the dragon. The American sighed. “He was a fine cadet.” “Don’t worry Solly,” Richard patted his back and looked around. “Hey, where’s Jacques?” “He left,” the soldier commented. “France decided to go and check up on any updates to the systems to make sure the companies just didn’t shut down or anything. He’s more concerned about his job more than anything.” “Where is he right now?” “He should be in the control room…” (….) “Fuck!” Jacques muttered under his breath. “How could this happen? I thought they completely hated each other?” He spoke to himself, until he heard the doorway open. “What do you want?” “Hey spy,” Richard replied, standing next to him. “I just wanted to know how you were doing.” “I’m doing decent,” He replied, pressing several buttons on the panels. “I just need to understand one more thing.” “Which is?” “It’s that the companies are now one and we’re practically just a delivery service,” The Frenchman rubbed his chin. “But another strange phenomenon happened; a new company named Grey Mann has appeared and decided to try and take over our company. Or more like take it down.” “So what do you want to do?” Richard played with a butterfly knife, Pink Rose, a knife he looted off of a backstabbed spy. “I mean, we can’t do anything until our team shows up.” “We’ll wait,” Jacques chuckled. “And once they all appear, we brief them the news, and then start up a defensive line.” “How?” Richard motioned the area around them. “We don’t have any idea how they’ll attack!” “We can always do one thing,” Jacques lit a cigarette as Jennifer appeared, holding her Powerjack. “We can always do what we had done back in Stalliongrad.” Richard smiled and threw his last cube of ‘Bazooka!’ bubblegum into his mouth. He watched as Engineer appeared through the vortex, holding his Strangely, Genuine Widowmaker over his shoulder. “Might as well get started,” the Bostonian said as his eyes flicked a bright blue color.