Crystal City, Texas.
Taking Pinkie Pie’s Smart Car, the retrieval team for their share of the mission took them not directly to the city this time, but at the wilds outside the city. The object in question is a blue hand-sized amulet with a gold trim and a relief of a bird in the center. For the past two hours, they scoured the brush and rocks for it, but it didn’t seem to be in sight.
“Oh, how long are we going to search for that medallion?” Rarity whined, wiping the sweat from her brow.
“Until we find it, silly!” Answered Pinkie as she bounded from one bush to the other.
Rarity’s stomach began to rumble, moaning once again. “Did anyone bring any snacks.”
“Sure.” - Rarity turned to Chelsey’s voice, being brought face to face with a nine-banded armadillo - “Chili?”
Rarity felt her stomach churn, rolling her eyes before fainting. Chelsey looked down with a grimace before looking at Fluttershy, who also had a similar look of fright. “What? It was a joke.” She answered before placing the xenarthran on the terrain.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere.” - Chided Diver before tapping into her comlink - “Twilight, we seem to be having trouble with the location of the artifact.” - She could only hear static - “Twilight? Damn.”
“What’s wrong?” Muttered Fluttershy.
“Some reason the comms are down.” - Diver curled a fist - “We’re on our own for now.”
Everyone else’s stomach growled, adding to their worry and agitation.
“Well if it’s all the same to you,” - Rarity held her stomach, trying to suppress the rumbling of her stomach before pointing to the direction of the city - “shall we go to a nice little-”
“Restaurant!” Pinkie Pie motioned them to a nearby old restaurant. Far the opposite of Rarity’s idea of a fancy restaurant, it resembled an Old West Saloon, including horses, steel ones, lining up along the entrance. They perused the windows, finding the interior to be a bar, though the presence of small children with equally proportional meals would bring the okay to the retrieval unit.
“Hey, what’s that?” Chelsey squinted her eyes as the others joined her watch. Among the wall of county fair awards, barbecue competitions, and employee of the month awards was a shield-like object that matched the description of the object they were looking for.
“Hey.” The group of girls turned to an employee at the door giving them a glare “You either eat or go away!”
The residents at the restaurant watched as Pinkie Pie, Chelsey, and Diver wolfed down a few well-cooked steaks while Rarity, with slight disgust, and Fluttershy watched while they held their forks above their salads.
“So, uh, how are we going to get the relic?” Whispered Fluttershy before taking another bite of her salad.
“We could win it in an eating contest.” Said Pinkie before sipping her glass of soda.
“Perhaps, Pinkie.” - Rarity tapped her fork on the napkin before standing up - “But allow a lady to handle this one.”
Diver had her cheeks stuffed with cooked flesh when her ears picked up Rarity’s plan.
“We are ladies.” She mutters, forcing the food down her throat.
The guests watched Rarity approach the bartender, preparing herself to become her pleading mode. She leaned on the counter, fluttering her eyes.
“Excuse me, kind sir.” - Rarity flipped her hair aside - “But may I ask of that lovely shield on the wall?”
The bartender turned his head around slightly, glaring at the fashionista before putting down the glass.
“Well howdy, Rarity!” - Rarity could not believe her eyes. The person she talked to was none other than Hayseed Turnip Truck, taking another odd job once more - “Remember me, Rarity?”
“You know this guy?” Asked Chelsey as she brought her plate over to the counter.
“Course, she does.” Hayseed spat through the gap in his teeth - “We met while prepping Applejack's quinceanera. Boy, she make it look purdy.”
Rarity’s white cheeks reddened, tightening herself as she heard the giggles of her compatriots.
“Answerin' yer question,” - Turnip turns to the artifact on the wall - “boss told me that this came from a donation a couple years back.”
“Any chance your boss wants to sell it or give it away?” Asked Fluttershy.
Turnip tapped his chin, “Well, in an eating competition, your friends may have a chance.”
Feeling a slight motion, Rarity turned to Diver, watching her draw her lips back, giving the fashionista a sneer. The overweight Maximal then looked at the bartender. “What’s the challenge?”
Before she could get an answer, the doors to the salon slammed open. The guests turned around. It was the Predacons. Rep, Squirk, and Porcina walked into the restaurant, taking notice of the present Rainbooms and Maximals before walking over to the bar, sitting next to them.
“Howdy.” Said Rep in an amateurish southern dialect. before joining them on the counter.
“Hello.” - Snorted Porcina as she nudged Diver - “Nice little joint to hang out in, eh?”
Diver growled, ready to start a beatdown at the bar. “How did you know we would be here?”
“We had a little… Inside information.” Answered Squirk, sputtering at his tentacles before looking at the artifact.
“Now who will be the first to get it?” Asked Rep, stretching his tongue and licked his eyeball.
Rarity held her hand to her mouth, trying to contain her last meal. But this is not the time to lose a meal. But then again, this was not the place to fight. One sprout of ears or claws will be seen by witnesses, who will then report it to the authorities. They must bide their time for the right moment.
“Hey!” - One cyclist gang member stood up and walked towards the mutates - “You ain’t in a Furry Convention, but we have a policy against picking on kids.”
“Let me assure you” - as more mumbling is heard, the gang member turned to find Sombra looking at him with green smokey eyes before lifting him up with a crystalline arm - “these aren’t ordinary kids.”
The families in the bar began to run out as the other gang members began to brandish their weapons. Squirk, Porcina, and Rep turned around, prepping for a fight against the gang members. Our heroes, keeping an eye at the burning conflict, slowly leaned over to Turnip.
“If you value the stability of this job,” - Chelsey eyed the bartender - “give. Us. That. Shield.”
“Have it your way then.” Sombra tossed the gang member away, pinning him to the wall with a few sharp quills.
Porcina duplicated herself twice before she and the other Preds lunged at the bikers, slapping wooden chairs, smashing beer bottles, the works. Amidst the chaos, Hayseed gently grabbed the shield and slid it over to Rarity.
“Thank you, kind sir.” Rarity gave the odd-job a deep hug. As they escaped the bar, Turnip felt the fuzzy feeling rush up to him.
“Tell Applejack I said hi.” He said, supporting his head with his hand before being snatched up by Squirk’s slimy tentacles, though the threatening glare of the walking mollusk didn’t even falter his loved expression - “May I help you?”
The retrieval unit ran as fast and as far as they could before their lungs almost ceased and their heartbeats can be heard in their heads. They stopped around a few drought resilient bushes, taking several rapid breaths to feed their starved lungs. Pinkie Pie, breathing so rapid that her hair expanded in and out like a balloon, tapped into the comlink. Hearing static once more, the party planner just shook her head as she continued to pant. Five minutes pass as their breathing became slow and relaxed before looking down at the shield.
“Is this relic... really worth the effort?” - Said Rarity, stretching out her hand - “Come now, what does it do exactly?”
Fluttershy took a closer look at the shield, noticing a set of marks along the center. “Deslegrate muri tempi et intervalia.”
The others looked at her with a surprised look on their faces.
“You can speak Latin?” asked Chelsey
Fluttershy gave the similar sized Sophomore a somewhat flustered look, “I studied scientific-”
Without warning the caretaker was engulfed in a ball of flame before phasing out of view, leaving a burn mark in the dirt.
“Fluttershy?” Muttered Rarity as she scraped the dirt.
“She’s gone!!” Shouted Pinkie Pie, and this time knowing this wasn’t a disappearing act like Trixie used during the Battle of the Bands.
“There they are!”
The retrieval unit turned to find Sombra and his Preds right at them. A four-on-four match would certainly have been justified had it not been for 1) Porcina’s ability to duplicate herself and 2) Sombra. Taking Applejack’s advice, Chelsey rushed towards Porcina, smashing her duplicates before attacking the real pig. Pinkie Pie’s usual antics did her justice on Rep once more, donning a Tom Clancy costume with thermal red imaging before stretching her arms in a cartoonish manner, wrapping the humanoid chameleon and slamming him to the ground. Squirk kept lashing out his tentacles at Diver, leaving red marks on her scaly hide as the suckers pulled out. Soon she could tolerate this any further, spun around the next set of lashes, grabbing the tentacles and flipping him over to the ground. The Maximal rushed at the Predacon, pulling him up to her face before Squirk shot steaming hot ink at her eyes. Rarity lifted a few rocks and threw them at Sombra, which was moot whenever he became black smoke.
“Oh dear…” Said Rarity before the smoke quickly approached her, getting her on the defensive as she lit up her horn.
Fluttershy slowly awoke to a world not like her own. The sky was red, several buildings were completely destroyed, totaled cars littered the streets, which had what appeared to be animal tracks the size of garbage trucks. Cautious as ever, she strolled about the hellish waste. Every two minutes the ground shook, scaring a flock of pigeons and several cats and dogs. At the intersection, the caretaker gasped in fright.
Sugarcube Corner was among the architectural victims of this unknown destruction. Fluttershy walked inside the destroyed hang out, seeing that parts of the rubble littered in splattered pastries. Her eyes did spy a worrying sight: a pink limb, delicately holding a rainbow colored cupcake. As for the whereabouts of the Cakes, there isn’t any evidence they faced the worst, but in this environment, how can one be certain.
Fluttershy Ponied Up, ascending into the air as she scoured the wreckage of the city of her birth. The fitness center has been destroyed, the artifacts of the natural history museum scattered to the winds. Sweet Apple Acres just a fraction of its former self, the trees relieved of a fiery blaze. One such tree bore the shattered remains of the Crusader’s clubhouse. Lying among the wreckage was the upper body of Scootaloo, next to it a small horn and a frayed pink bow on the hand.
Another burnt forested region displayed a grave site. A majority of the erect stones honoring the dead have been smashed or pushed into the ground. One smashed tombstone still had readable writing on the pieces. “Here… C... Daughter… Lov…” the pieces read. Lying next to them was Chelsey’s beast mode, much of her body feathers burned away and her stomach region empty, devoid of any organs. A foot being her tail was what appeared to be a blackened mandrill skull.
Fluttershy felt a rumble again, looking up to see a massive body collapse right in front of her. Flying around it, she could tell that it was a gigantic centaur. His chest had a deep smoking hole in it. The caretaker felt an earth shaking rumble. She looked up once again, finding movement in the dusty air. In a big arc, the massive reptilian body turned to the blood red sky and roared, clearing the dust around its head.
The relic wrapped around her once more, sending her through a spacetime loop back to the wilds of present-day Texas. Her friends were now covered in bruises and scratches, Rarity in particular, had dark crystals embedded into her horn, but they still kept on the fight.
“Fluttershy!” They greeted in delight.
Sombra looked at the returned Fluttershy, but did not see the relic with her. “Where is it?”
Fluttershy began to whimper when for the first time, a ground bridge finally opened up.
“Wherever it is,” - Chelsey conked Porcina hard on the head - “it’s out of their reach! LET’S MOVE!!”
Sombra growled as they each ran towards the boom tube, slamming his foot on the ground and sending dark crystals after them. Diver, the slowest among them, rushed into the portal as a crystal reached out and scratched her shoulder. Their victory ruined, Sombra roared in anguish before turning to his Predacon soldiers, looking furious at their failure.
Now in their mother state again, the Pinkie Pie jumped up in the air in excitement. “Yay! Home Sweet-”
“SWEETIE BELLE!” - Shouted Rarity, and for reasons both hers and theirs. The area around their base of operations was a complete mess. Twilight was panting shallowly next to a busted control panel, her glasses broken. Spike and Dapplewood laid on the ground, the latter twitching as he coughed up blood. Tex, Snips, and Snails were in a dogpile, moaning in agony. Then there’s Sweetie Belle, lying on the ground, looking up at what appeared to be a twelve foot tall, charcoal gray man. Hearing the fashionista’s outcry, he turned around, looking at the returning team with red and yellow eyes, the thick brows adding more to his menacing appearance. Seeing her sister in danger, Rarity clenched her fists. - “What did you do to her, you beast!?”