Of mercenaries and.... Ponies?

by Lion Tale

BoS Day two: Getting you left foot wet.

Jacques slowly opened his eyes, only to be met with white fur in his face. He caught a whiff of the mare, and tried desperately to not sneeze. The Frenchman got up as to not disturb Rarity from her deep sleep; like nothing ever happened, she continued to snore quietly, and drew the blankets closer to her body.

He looked at the cute scene, and smirked. It wasn’t every day that you remembered you ended up being in a bed with a fashionista, especially if one could’ve been accidentally presumed to be Jacques’ pet.

He then walked to a nearby white vanity and studied his facial features in the event he might need to shave once more. Jacques grunted in dismay, and pulled out his casual butterfly knife to polish it off before shaving. He walked to his suitcase and pulled out a can of shaving cream and then returned to the mirror and started to apply the cream.

Jacques reached for the blade, and slowly started to remove the rough fuzz. Eventually, he reached for the neck section, and started to shave more slowly. Not wanting to cut himself, he sat down and started to use both hands.

He stopped, and took a second to find a bucket of water to wash his face with. Without any luck, he turned his head and saw that there were no towels to be found. He stood, and ventured back to Rarity.

Jacques loomed over her, and saw that Rarity’s mane sprawled all over the bed. Grabbing it with an ungloved hand, he wiped his face into the purple mane. He stopped and looked at the now frizzy mane. Jacques touched his face, and felt the cool cream still lingering. He looked at the sleeping body, and leaned in to her side.

He rubbed his face onto the soft fur, and felt the cream remove from his face. The Frenchman got up, and saw that his black facial hair had been placed into Rarity’s fur where the shaving cream resided. Jacques put a hand over his mouth to quiet his giggles.

Rarity did a sleepy moan and turned to where her belly was facing up. The spy walked back to his suitcase, replaced the can, and traded it for his usual suit. Not wanting to stay in his same getup, he also grabbed a fez, a pair of sunglasses, and a scarf.

He fastened the last button on his coat and straightened his pant leg. Jacques then looked in the vanity mirror, and did a quick taunt to himself. He smiled, and finally walked over to the pony and started to shake her awake.

Rarity opened her eyes, and saw Jacques shaking her. “May I get five more minutes?” she muttered.

“No,” Jacques replied sternly, and checked his watch. Eight thirty-five it said. “Everybody should be up and ready by ten. We’re having our first battle half an hour later.”

The white unicorn bolted from the bed and ran out of room.

Jacques looked where she had disappeared, and assumed she was probably looking for the bathroom. In fact, he just remembered that he needs to use it too. He stood, and followed where the unicorn had disappeared to.

Meanwhile, Richard was digging into his luggage to find his upgraded earpiece. Since he had gone into that mysterious white and clean store back in New Mexico, he went back and bought newer items. Like the earpiece that’ll never break inside his ear ever again. He gave his old one to Rainbow Dash since he no longer had a use for it. Although he had bought the new earpiece, he never quite remembered about it.

Richard threw one of his plush dolls of himself back. Dash was watching Richard as the plushie hit her cup, and she spilled whatever was in it on herself.

“Hey!” she growled. “Watch it! I have to go and clean myself now.”

“Shouldn’t you be drinking coffee?” Richard replied. “You had a helluva hangover early this morning.”

Dash scoffed. “As if! I was just having a little headache, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh, so if I clap my hands it’s totally not going to be really loud right?” He asked.

“Shut up,” she countered.

Richard chuckled, and started to adjust the new earpiece. Once carefully fit, he grabbed a few accessories and started to place them in their rightful places.

“What’s with the getup?” Dash said once Richard placed a hat on his head, showing off with a milkman style hat.

“Oh, it’s just a fun thing everyone likes to do,” he replied while putting on a pair of elf shoes with a bell on the end.

“So you guys put on silly things, just for fun?”

“Yep!” Richard said, finishing the set-up by inserting a pair of ear-buds.

Rainbow Dash walked next to Richard, “Could you scratch this small spot behind my ear, it’s bugging the crap out of me.”

He sighed and started the mundane task. “You have to be ready too. It’s already nine-twenty. We’re supposed to be out and ready by the front door by ten.”

“Really? Fine then, just let put on this small hat. What do you call this by the way?” She held up a small trucker’s cap. “On the inside, it says ‘I love horses’. Did you do this?”

Richard grabbed the cap and looked on a tag. “This one is named Ellis’ Cap, but I don’t even know a person named Ellis.”

“Well, it’s Rainbow Dash’s Cap now!” She snatched it and placed it on her head, oddly fitting to her head size.

A soft knock on the door caught Richard’s attention. He looked back at the proud pegasus. “You can’t have that hat you know,” he said, pointing at her. “But I’m going to let you use it today.”

She shrugged. “You better get the door, it’s probably AJ or Flutters coming by.”

He opened the door, half-expecting one of the two to be there, but instead it was Drako standing in the doorway.

“You know,” the griffon started. “All of your friends are waiting at the front door waiting for you two. I decided to come up and tell you that in case you were doing… something.”

“Nope!” Richard replied. “In fact, was just about to leave, yep!”

Rainbow Dash stopped him in his tracks by hovering in front of him. “What about our weapons? Don’t we need them?”

The Bostonian gave a dismissive hand, “They’ll be there once we get there. Engie usually gets there before anyone. He would build a teleporter here first, then builds one there just so that we’ll have it before the area get set up.”

She gave him a quizzical look, “So… Dell builds a thingy here before we leave, and he leaves while everypony is getting ready just so that he can do that?”

“Yep, and since I’m usually the late one, everyone had already left and they expect me to get their weapons for them, which is why I’m heading out right now!” Richard pushed Dash out of the way, jumped over Drako, and ran down the stairs. He almost ran into an exhausted Twilight Sparkle, but jumped over her also and landed with a roll. He reached the lobby, and found out that Drako had been telling right about everybody already here.

Jacques and Dell were playing an intense game of chess; Arvin and Jennifer was having a rock, paper, scissors battle; Fluttershy was playing with the German Shepard; Dell and Applejack were nowhere to be found of course; and everyone else was talking or mulling around.

Richard felt a nudge on his hip and found Twilight trying to push him out of the way. He moved, and saw Dash riding on her back.

“Don’t ask,” she growled.

Richard shrugged, and poked the Jacques on the shoulder. The Frenchman stood from his seat and stepped on top of it, “I need everyone’s attention!”

The mass of people and equine stopped and stared at the slender man. “Today is the first official day and battle of this city in which ponies call Stalliongrad. Most of us today just want this enemy team to go down to hell where some belong! We know we will be fighting our doppelganger rivals, mainly humans, and the humans know that for the ponies it’ll be a difficult time. But hold strong! We’ll most likely lose this one, but at least we had a good time!”

Nick interrupted, “Enough chit-chat! Let’s get these bloody bastards now! It’s bad enough that we have to wait before the battle starts!”

Jacques facepalmed, “I was just getting to the point. Now, let’s go and kill them! Let’s make sure they’ll never… What is it Fluttershy?”

“U-u-um,” she stuttered, pulling on his pant leg. “A-are we really going to k-kill them?”

Jacques chuckled, “In a way yes. You’ll find out once we get there.”

A crackle in the air was made behind the group and a flash of light appeared. Everyone closed their eyes and tried to look into the flash of light to find the source. What they found was Dell holding The Eureka Effect and recovering from the slight nauseating warp.

“And there’s the engineer that’s going to help us deal with them!” Scout had announced.

Dell chuckled, “If a Spy doesn’t come up and sap my equipment. Now let’s go! I’m ready to wipe their dumb smiles off their stupid faces!”

(……….)

The mass of people and pony alike slowly trudged on towards their destination. Goo and green pods litter the streets of the town, most pods lay empty, while others carry a pony in an entranced sleep. The humans became insensitive after the first batch and the ponies tearfully looked away, knowing that they can to help them, but their job had been lain elsewhere.

Twilight slowly became less caring, but still wished she had her power to release the poor ponies. It was consumed away from her last night, and left her with nothing but only the power to lift simple things. The alicorn looked away, and started to walk faster towards the front of the group.

With only a few blocks to go according to the medic, the humans started to become jumpy and eager to pull the trigger, ready to unload their might with get this over with. The ponies started to arrange their weapons with an uninterested fashion, not really looking forward to doing this, except for Pinkie who only giggled and started to run on her hind legs to properly hold her flamethrower.

The pyro followed suit, and then started skipping while a ballonicorn unexplainably followed her. Scout rolled his eyes with a sigh and ran ahead to alert the other team so that they can prepare.

Engineer raised a hand, and walked to a nearby building where a garage-like door opened revealing a small room with lockers, a kiosk, and a cabinet filled with ammo and medical equipment. The ponies gaped with awe at such a white room. A Celestia-theme filled where the original BLU theme would go.

Heavy walked to the kiosk, and placed his hand on the screen. It gave a green hue and a small ping of confirmation. The Jacques followed suit, and so did the rest of the humans. The ponies stared at the mysterious machine.

Twilight immediately jolted from her haze, and ran to study it. She reached for her notebook, or at least, where it would’ve been if not for the store owner she usually visits was out of it.

The pony muttered a curse, and propped herself on the machine, accidently placing a hoof on the screen and registering herself into the system. Twilight shrank back when it pinged, and stared at the green screen. She couldn’t read what it said—since she never had to read human script.

A poke in her shoulder got her attention and the pony looked, to find Richard gently shoving her out of the way. She scooted over, and let the Bostonian pass. He crouched, and glided his hand over the button interface underneath the screen. He looked, and saw a switch and flipped it to turn on audio for the kiosk.

Richard stood and proceeded with the usual procedure. The screen flared green, but instead of doing a ‘ping’, it said, “You are now registered into the spawning system; please move over so that the rest can get registered.”

Richard did as the machine told, and sat down on the bench with a wrapped mackerel in his hand. “You guys are supposed to touch the blue coloured square. To able to stay alive while we’re fighting for this section of land, you have to do it.” He said.

Dash scoffed. “I could take them all out! I bet you a thousand bits I’ll never die!”

“You go right ahead, just saying that a sentry or a Pyro could be waiting at the next corner waiting to turn you into a thousand bits.”

“Wait! You mean they also have a pyro?” she asked.

Jacques pulled his cigarette out of his mouth. “If anything, they are basically our team, just a different colour. So you better watch your back whenever we are fighting—especially whenever there’s a spy.”

“Like you?” Pinkie stated, removing her hoof from the screen.

“I’m an exception,” Jacques threw his butt of the cigarette away. “Let’s just put it at the fact that if you can hurt me, then I’m the enemy. But only on the battlefield.”

The ponies gave a sound of realization, but that suddenly changed to a look of confusion.

Big Macintosh raised a hoof, “So if you say that I cannot hurt you, would that mean the world is banana shaped?”

Nick raised his hand for a five, “Give me a good one!” He grinned cheerfully. Mac looked at him quizzically, then raised his hoof to slap the hand.

“What was that for?” said the red pony.

“You didn’t understand the reference?” Nick replied.

“What reference? I just made that up.”

“Oh,” the Aussie sighed, sitting back down.

Scout shook his head, “You got remember snipe; they don’t know who Monty Python is.”

“You got to be joking! These mates never got to enjoy comedy!”

“Scout dear,” Jennifer started. “You still have Arvin’s computer, maybe he has a movie on there.”

“Yea but, it’s back at the place in my stuff.”

“You actually brought that?” Dash said. “I thought it had disappeared along with that popcorn.”

“I actually ate the rest,” the medic said, rubbing Fluttershy’s belly. “Before I had found you guys cuddling on the futon.”

“I-I wasn’t cuddling!” The pegasus said. “I uh, I needed somepony to stay warm next-“

“Everyone is registered!” The machine declared. “Get your loadouts ready and please await further instructions.”

The humans stood. “I want to watch them cry like little babies!” Heavy yelled. “They will feel my bullets, in their face!”

“Alright! Calm down Mikhail, we don’t need to have rage here already! Just give it about four more minutes and then you can crush them.” Richard said.

Heavy grunted, and then sat down, adjusting his Warrior’s Spirit.

Macintosh sat next to him and pulled out a sandvich. “Now’s a good time to eat than never,” he handed the Russian the lunchbox and pulled out another for himself.

Arvin placed his Emerald Jarate medipack on the ground and started to place a mask on his face. It looked similar to a bird mask, but the ‘beak’ curved downwards. It covered his entire face, only leaving the ears and small eye slits for visibility.

Fluttershy stared at the mask in horror, and curled up into a ball. “Please take it off, it looks scary.”

Arvin turned his head. “It’s a mask to protect myself from diseases! Well, at least that’s what the doctors during the Black Plague thought.” He wrapped a red and yellow-striped scarf around his neck. “And this is just for cosmetics. Here, take this Vita-Saw. I don’t use it as much, but you can have it.” He handed her the weapon and a hat. “This is the Ghostly Gibus, you’re supposed to earn it, but I’m going to just hand to you instead.”

“B-but I got to pay you back somehow!” Fluttershy said. “How about this token thing I found on the ground?” She revealed an engineer class token and small pile of scrap metal. “And what about this lump of metal, I’m for sure that can pay for it!”

Arvin examined the offers. “I like that you’re learning how to trade, and doing it pretty well. But I’ll just take the class token and it’s a deal!” He placed the gibus on top of Fluttershy’s head and took the token. Then, he walked towards a small table with power tools and a vice and placed his new items on it. He first grabbed two hats, and combined them together to get Max’s Severed Head. He turned his head to take a look at Fluttershy and hoped that this bunny didn’t look like Angel too much. He placed the Token back into the pack and grabbed two other weapons from a different class. Arvin threw the weapons on the table and instantly it had transformed into a pile of Scrap Metal. He then grabbed two more Scrap Metal and crafted a Reclaimed Metal. Then after that he crafted a pile of Refined Metal.

Satisfied, he walked back to Fluttershy, removed the gibus and placed the bunny hat on her head. “I made this hat and decided that it better suits you!” He said, “Since you have a rabbit as a pet.”

“Thanks!” She replied. “But it doesn’t look like Angel at all, but I like it! It feels oddly too real, is it fake?”

By then, Medic had moved from the pony and walked towards Jane, who was practicing his juggling skills with live rockets, and started to talk with trading terms.

(.)

Meanwhile at the other side of the area, Chrysalis was placing the last for her artificial foreleg on.

“It feels weird Engineer,” She said, while moving the leg side to side. “I could feel it, but it feels tougher, like I had developed a much harder exoskeleton.”

“You can say that ma’am,” Engineer said, injecting green fluid into small tubing with a needle. “This is a life support fluid, similar to your blood, but it also contains tiny machines that’ll heal you and make repairs on any mechanical parts that are damaged. It works like a regular body system; self-healing and if the body becomes desperate, it’ll try and convert anything you eat into something edible. Like meat for instance, you don’t eat it, but it’ll try and convert the nutrients and proteins for consumption.”

“…What?” The changeling replied. “I lost you after you said life support.”

“To put it simply,” the Texan removed the syringe. “You are able to eat almost anything that’s edible to other creatures and you can self-heal, but only if the injured part is like your foreleg here.”

She lifted her leg and took a closer look. “Hmm, is it possible to make a complete transformation?”

Engineer stared at her. “You mean fully convert yourself into a cyborg?”

“Yes!” She yelled. “I want to become powerful! I want to be able to become invincible!” Chrysalis lifted her arms into the air with anger. “So I can kill the one named Twilight Sparkle, or have her join my side or something.”

He stared at the insane changeling, then to his wrench. “So what will it be human?” Chrysalis said. “Is it possible?”

Engineer grinned, “It is possible, but it comes at a cost.”

“Cost?” she gasped. “Tell me this cost you speak of.”

“For one, you won’t be able to breed normal changelings, only cybernetic. And you’ll no longer be able to change like how you do.” He said. “But it also comes with advantages,” The changeling perked her ears at that. “I can install weapons into the core body frame or give you strength. Oh yea! I forgot; you can use magic like normal, but it uses up the internal battery which must be charged by ‘sleeping’.”

Chrysalis smiled wide, baring her fangs. “Then I will take this cost, let’s begin!” She jutted her hoof out. “Do we have a deal human?”

Engineer looked at the hoof, and met his hand with hers. “Deal!” He said.

The changeling turned around to walk out of the door. “You become a great weapon of mine you damned bug. I’ll be sure to leave a weakness, in case I feel like killing you.” The Texan muttered.

“What was that?” she asked. “I heard you say something.”

“Oh, nothing,” He replied. “Just saying that the announcer should mention about the-“

A speaker nearby screeched, “This is you announcer talking! Be ready to fight in forty seconds! The arena is named Urban Heat, from what I’m told, it looks familiar to your ‘Dustbowl’. A shout out to The Gryphon Brothel and to Atomic Wrangler Casino & Hotel for housing our soldiers today, thank you! This is broadcasted on Pon-3 Radio! Live from Manhattan, this is Speaker Box. Let’s go mercenaries! The mission type is Attack and Defend!”

“How dare they make this a game!” Twilight yelled. “We’re fighting for our lives here!”

Nick patted her head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s our first too, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t announce everything we’re doing at us. Only to the radio I’m pretty sure.”

“Better be,” Richard said. “Would hate for her to scream out that I’m really close to capping the point and then have a couple pyros burn me. Would be helpful, but that would suck.”

“What’re you talking about?” Dash spoke. “It’s a great idea!”

“Think about the other team hearing the exact same thing too!” Richard scolded. “I wouldn’t want to have a sentry placed where my favorite route is!”

“What does a sentry do exactly?” She asked.

Dell grabbed some metal from the restocking cabinet. “It shoots bullets and launches missiles at enemy targets.”

Dash’s ears folded downwards. “Oh, so it’s basically a death machine?”

Dell nodded and pulled out his PDA. He pressed a button and pulled out a large white toolbox. And set it on the ground to reveal a small sentry. “This is a level on construct,” He pulled out his wrench and started to hit it, until it reconstructed itself and added two miniguns. “This is a level two sentry.” He continued to hit the construct and ran to the restock cabinet to grab more metal and continued. It reconstructed itself and had a small box connected to the top. “This is a level three sentry.”

Dash’s eyes widened. “Is that what I would have to dodge?”

Dell nodded and pressed a button on his PDA to destroy the construct.

“Solar Team, you may now start to set up! You are the first to defend. The first team will defend, traveling backwards as Lunar Team advances! Once all the points leading up to the City Hall is captured, Lunar’s team to defend the opposite way will begin! The team that captures the most by the end of three rounds, time varies at each round depending on speed of capture, will call this plot of land their territory! Have fun and…” The announcer trailed off.

“And what?” Applejack said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Dell replied. “Let’s just get going!”

“Go, go, go!” Richard yelled with the rest of the team shouting battle cries.

Dell stopped at the front of the spawn point and placed a toolbox on the ground, upon opening revealed a teleporter entrance. As it was assembling itself, the Texan ran inside and grabbed more metal and started towards the first capture point.

Twilight ran beside him carrying what Nick called ‘The Classic’ and magically fed rounds into the slot of the gun. Once reaching the maximum number of bullets allowed, she placed the rest of the rounds inside of her pocket on her new vest. After following the human for a short amount of time, she found a large building that had small fenced doors.

“Where are they coming from?” the alicorn asked. “I don’t see them.”

Dell pointed at a small gated door. “There, if you look into your scope, you can see them waiting at the door. Sometimes they’re taunting us, hitting the door, or most of the time nowadays, doing the conga.”

“Why the conga?”

“We’ve recently learned in the rulebook that we can do this dance. So we had taught others how to do it.” A dispenser finished building itself and Dell started to work on it with his wrench. “If ah were you, I’d rather start on finding a spot where you can shoot them. If not, then you better be ready for the shootout.”

Twilight’s eyes scanned the area, and found a shed to stand on. She started to run towards there, and climbed the ladder leading towards the roof. The pony looked down the scope and saw Rainbow Dash trying to hit the enemy team on one door, saw Zecora placing sticky-bombs on another, and Fluttershy running around healing people with her medigun.

“Twilight dear,” Twilight jumped and turned around to see Rarity behind her. “Do you really think you can shoot from all the way over here?” The unicorn pulled out The Ambassador. "The design I got for everyone looks great doesn’t it?”

Twilight chuckled. “Yea, I guess it does. But I wonder what the Lunar Team’s design looks like exactly.”

Rarity scoffed, “They looked nothing compared to our design. It’s a really dark-blue, near navy and it had the moon on their shoulder. Oddly enough, it looks similar to my design but different colours.”

“You could say,” The alicorn started. “That there was a spy on our team.”

“Oh haha,” the unicorn replied. “Well, I believe the match is about to begin. I have a bad feeling it’s going to include a lot of blood.”

Twilight waved Rarity good luck and looked back into her scope. The aimed the sights right on a changeling’s head. “He looks like Spike’s class design…” She muttered. “I hope they stay as a changeling.”

Suddenly, a siren blared and the gates opened. Instinctively, she ‘pulled’ the trigger, and the head of the changeling was no more. She jumped at the explosion, and realized that she had killed somepo—no, somebody else. She felt no remorse, and then looked back at the growing mass of gunners; only to be met with gunshot from the enemy sniper.

Twilight Sparkle felt the pain instantly and tried to scream but none came out. She felt her body fall down, and felt that it was slowly losing life.

She felt warmth, but was jolted away from it to be met with a quick overview of what just happened. What the alicorn found out was that she was shot by a changeling in standing beside one of the doors that she had missed. A quick replay—“How can this happen?” she thought—revealed that the changeling was waiting to shoot her like how she did. The first shot missed, but he waited for the next chance and found it.

Twilight sighed, and saw a small screen that said she was spawning right now.

She felt another slight tug, and felt her body coming back. Only this time, instead of where she had died, Twilight appeared back at the room and found Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, and Jacques standing around her. The spy left the room leaving the bewildered ponies to wonder why they aren’t dead.

The question was answered when Jacques came back into the room. “Science, insanity, and Mann Co. who I think are no longer.” He said. “You better get over it quickly, or you’ll find yourself finding more of your friends hanging around.”

Fluttershy appeared and instantly, she ducked and whimpered. “Don’t hurt me!”

Dash ran next to her and hugged her. “It’s okay! You’re alive, at least until we actually do die.”

“What do you mean? I saw myself explode and that Demoman taunting at me! Please don’t tell me I’m in the afterlife.” She shrieked.

“It’s okay!” Jacques said. “You only respawned so that you can continue fighting. If you want a revenge kill, go and find that person and kill him, simple as that. I suggest all of you ponies over it quickly, we’re a team here. The faster you do, the faster that the Lunar Team will stay where they are!”

“The point is being captured!” A speaker yelled.

“Dammit!” the Frenchman cursed. “I suggest one of you to stay back and tell the rest of the ponies about this. The faster they know, the faster they can get over it.”

“You don’t understand!” Twilight yelled back. “We had just died! How can you tell us to get over it quickly?”

Jacques turned towards the door, and sighed. “I had the same feeling once. That was when I first got this watch.” He pulled up the Dead Ringer. “It let me live a second time. But every time I felt that I get hit or shot, my Ringer activates a dead body based off of me and it always makes me feel like I died. But instead of making two identical people, I instantly get cloaked.”

“So it made that feeling feel new again?” Pinkie said.

“Exactly,” Jacques lowered his head. “I was told by a man that this was made to kill me twice, he was named-“

The speaker screamed, “SAXXTON HAALLLEE!!!!”

Jacques pulled out his gun, “Goddamn it! How did he find us here?”

The speaker gave feedback and the then announcer spoke. “Sorry about that, I just found an audio file here and I thought I just wanted to play at least once to find out what it did. Sorry if I had scared anybody.”

The Frenchman lowered his weapon, and switched his Conniver’s Kunai for Your Eternal Reward. “Well, we must be off. Our teammates are waiting for us.”

The girls and Big Mac nodded and ran out of the room.

Jacques chuckled and followed suit, leaving Pinkie sitting in the room to tell the next pony that come by. She sat, and hummed a small song she had made up. It seemed catchy to her, but Pinkie wasn’t sure that Vinyl would like it. Or would she? Pinkie shrugged, turned her head, and saw a pink unicorn.

Pinkie gasped, and grabbed the balloon and placed it on her back. She started walking around the small room and hummed.

“Uhh Pinkie,” Zecora said. “Don’t you think you should be fighting with us rather than playing hooky?”

“Hmm… Hooky,” Pinkie placed a hoof to her chin. “Oh yea! Zecora, I was told to tell you that you should—“

“Get over my death moment?” Zecora finished. “I already did, blame my old country Zebroid for having defibrillators.”

“What’s a defibra- defibrillt,” Pinkie stuttered.

“A defibrillator is a device to ‘resurrect’ the dead. It only works if the person died within five minutes.” Zecora said. “I was disappointed when I came to Equestria that it was so low-tech.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that we already know how to fly everybody, we have vehicles that are faster than your carriages, and have armour that is stronger than your gold and wood.” The zebra said. “You go and tell Twilight about that. Besides, you guys never come by to actually say hi. If you did, I would’ve at least given you something to improve your lives.” She said sadly.

“Oh don’t worry,” Pinkie walked up and hugged her. “I’ll be sure to come and visit every so often!”

“Thanks,” she replied.

“You’re welcome! Now let’s go and hurt those poopy-heads!” Pinkie stated. “I have a feeling that they’re going to feel my Backscratcher!”

“But Pinkie, were you supposed to help the others recover from their death moment?”

The pink mare placed a hoof on her chin. “Oh yea, go get them Zecora!”

The zebra chuckled lifted the Scotsman Skullcutter unto her shoulder. “I plan to do so.” She ran out of the room leaving the pyro.

Once Zecora exited the small spawn room, she found a teleporter and stepped on it. In a flash, she appeared in the heat of the battle, and happened to hear a death scream just on her left. She looked and saw that an enemy spy had died with no obvious reason how. She shrugged and ran towards the first capture point. What the zebra found was a splatter of blood and an enemy soldier launching a rocket right at her feet.

She jumped to her right and rolled out of the way. She raised her head, and saw the Lunar Soldier swinging his shovel down. Zecora raised her axe, blocking the attack and made attempt to cut the human’s stomach in two.

Soldier jumped away and decided to pull out his shotgun. He pulled the trigger, and found it was out of ammo. He tried to reload, but Zecora swung her blade downwards, cutting off the soldier’s right arm.

“Ah no!” He yelled in pain. “My blood, damn you!” The soldier tried to swing with his shovel with his other arm, but saw the axe-blade once again from his left. He gasped and felt the cold steel against his neck before he went to re-spawn.

Zecora smiled, and turned back towards the capture point and saw that it had already been ‘capped’. She left out a breath of disappointment before feeling a knife plunge her back.

Applejack placed a sentry nearby the second point and started to hit it. She sighed, and hoped her level two construct was good enough. The farm pony looked around and found an ammo stash. She looked back at the entrance, and then ran towards the stash. Her metal counter refilled and she ran back towards her sentry. Not a single bullet was shot yet, so she pulled out her PDA and selected the dispenser.

After placing the dispenser, she started to get suspicious about the emptiness of the second point. Looked deeper in the entrance, she saw that the humans were pushing them back right in the doorway.

She chuckled, and started to upgrade her dispenser. Once reaching level three on the dispenser, Applejack relaxed and watched as the humans and pony ran out of the spawn room to defend the doorway. An occasional Scout got out, but was quickly shot down by the sentry.

Pinkie ran out of the doorway and heading right towards her. Applejack smiled, “Hey Pinkie! Having fun?”

The pyro nodded and stood next to the dispenser. Applejack looked back at the spawn room and found a bouncing Pinkie pyro coming out of it. She gasped, and looked back where the other Pinkie was, and found a changeling pointing a DiamondBack to her head.

“No hard feelings,” the changeling said. “It’s just business.”

Applejack closed her eyes, waiting for the re-spawn view, and heard a gunshot. She flinched, but didn’t feel any pain. The orange pony slowly opened her eyes and found Dell holding his Frontier Justice. “Always check if the person coming up to your constructs are not spies.” He said placing a sentry. “Just try and hit them; if it connects, then they’re usually the enemy.”

“Thanks Dell,” she replied. “Y’know, I could use a bit of assistance back here.”

“I’m already on it,” the engineer suddenly lifted his head, and looked towards his back. “Spy sappin’ my sentry! I’ll be right back.” He ran towards the doorway entrance. “Get over here ya sissy!”

Applejack smiled, and watched as the human ran to save his construct from total disaster.

“Oooh!” a voice behind him cooed. “Looks like something’s happening!”

She turned, and saw Pinkie smiling with a gleam in her teeth. “If I’m thinking right, you are being cuckoo for him!”

“Just keep it a secret,” the farm pony replied. “Promise me you will.”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly,” Pinkie recited. “Stick a cupcake in my eye! If anything, I should be telling the rest of our friends about this. But since you asked, I’ll keep it a secret.”

“The final control point is being captured!” The speaker screeched.

“Wait a minute here… Ah thought Ah had placed a sentry over here!” Applejack turned and saw that indeed a sentry was placed, but was destroyed by a sapper. “So that was that crackling sound.”

“I’ll help!” Pinkie yelled and ran towards the enemy scout standing at the point. She pulled the trigger, and sent a burning jet of flames towards the human. With a scream, he tried to run away, but the pain of the fire slowed him down. He fell, and watched as the pony pyro came closer with the flamethrower. Pinkie once again pulled the trigger and sent another jet of flames at the burning enemy.

Pinkie skipped away, leaving the burning scout. She looked back at the point and saw that a few enemy changelings were standing on the point. The pony did a battle cry and tried to burn the creatures. She reached them, and was about to pull the trigger, but the announcer yelled. “You failed Solar Team! The final control point has been captured!”

The changelings looked at her with a smile and launched a couple of explosives right at her feet. She made a frown, and exploded.

(…)

Richard looked at his watch and figured out the time. “Only five more minutes until one o’clock.”

“What’s so special about one o’clock?” Dash replied, firing a bullet from her Winger. “It’s just a time!”

“And?” Scout replied. “We’ve been fighting for about two hours and twenty-five minutes now, with literally no break!”

“Yea, so?” She replied. “Can’t handle it?”

“I can, but I’m starving! Aren’t you a little hungry too?”

Dash blushed as her stomach audibly roared, “Not really! I could use a nap though.”

“That’s what I’d thought!” Richard said. “Come on, let’s go and capture the final point. I’m pretty sure there ain’t any sentries there yet.”

“Yet,” she muttered.

The scout ran into a doorway leading towards a flight of stairs. “Hey Dash! Catch up and maybe I’ll give you a weapon better than that stock one you have.”

“I don’t need a better weapon!” She yelled, following Richard into a long hallway. “I’m pretty good where I’m at!”

“You sure? I have this Soda Popper here that’ll let me jump about fifteen times.”

“…Oh it’s on!” She pushed more energy into her step. “I bet I’ll get there before you even realize it!”

Richard chuckled, and pressed a little button on the gun. “I’ll see you topside!” He exited out of the hallways and jumped up towards a metal bridge leading to the last control point. “Oh and by the way, there is a ramp on the far side of this ditch!”

Dash growled and ran towards the ramp and made her way up. She looked to her right, and saw the scout leisurely standing there with the scattergun on his shoulder. “You cheat!”

“It was all fair and square pony.” He replied. “I just had a weapon that made me better! Just be glad that this point is now captured.”

“Success!” The announcer yelled. “You have secured the final control point! Please wait in your spawn rooms once returned to receive further instructions.” Dash glared at him, and crossed her arms.

“Give it here Rainbow!” Richard raised his hand in the air.

Dash paused, “What do you mean ‘give it here’?”

“You know, like a high-five—er, hoof.”

“Oh okay then,” she hit the hand with her hoof. “This will be the only time you’ll feel my hoof by the way. I don’t like it when ponies do that, or humans.”

He shrugged, “Let’s go back to spawn, I’m too tired to run back.”

“Well, see ya later then!” she unfurled her wings and flew in the general direction, leaving the scout to walk by himself.

Eventually, Richard had crossed the corner and found one teammate standing outside. “Yo Solly! What’s up?”

Jane turned his head, “We have a teleporter to take us to our break area.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s in the city park.” He replied, drinking his coke.

“So how long do we have to wait? I’m starving!” The scout clenched his stomach.

“It’s our turn, you’re last as usual,” Jane jumped on the pad.

Richard sighed, and jumped on the pad and waited for it to charge up. He felt a slight tingle, and instantly found himself standing a luscious green clearing next to a couple of wooden tables.

Nearby, on the other side of the clearing, was the Lunar Team sitting and eating. He looked around some more, and found his own teammates not too far from him also siting and eating. Richard smiled, and with a sprint, he reached them and was handed a paper lunch sack by Jennifer.

“This was all that was left,” She said. “We made this and also, the other team is willing to do trade and maybe have a conversation or two with us.”

“You kidding?” Richard asked. “I thought they completely hated us.”

“Not really, they were just set under the same rules and similar contract as us; kill the other team for our leader. But really, they’re almost just like us, except some of our friends here have extreme rivalry. Like Jacques and François, even though sometimes they get along very well.”

The Bostonian reached into his sack and pulled out a box of juice. “Are you serious? I’m not a little kid!”

Jennifer laughed, “It was either that or raisins. Also, the other things that are in your bag is a bologna and tuna sandwich, a slice of steak, a bottle of water, some chocolate, and some cotton candy from the helpful Discord guy who kept this park looking great.”

Nick walked by and gave Richard a pat on the back. “This place reminds me of the time I had to visit New Zealand.”

“And this is relevant why?” Jennifer asked.

“No reason, just putting it out there,” he said. “By the way, we won the plot of land we were fighting for.”

“No shit,” Jane said behind Jennifer. “It took us forever but at least we got it!”

“So we’re done for the day?” Richard said.

“If you want,” Twilight replied from a table nearby. “This is basically a social time for all of us. If you want to head back to brothel, go talk to Discord, he could teleport you back.”

“Oh yes, I could teleport you back, but with a price!” A disembodied voice said. “In fact, I think we should play a game!”

“Discord!” Fluttershy yelled. “What’d I tell you about this?”

“What? I just wanted to play a game with these humans. I doubt they wouldn’t mind,” Discord replied. “Besides, I get to play this game too!”

“Alright, what’s your deal,” Jacques yelled. “Or I’ll be sure Heavy here gets a good hit in you!”

“Oh so threatening, you humans!” the voice replied. “In fact, I’ll have you team up with you enemy team here! Let’s place a spawn room now!”

“Wai-,” Richard yelled before reappearing into a room. “I was just finishing my piece of chocolate.”

“I’m terribly sorry,” Discord’s voice replied. A flash of light appeared, and a large chocolate bar appeared in his hand.

“Good enough,” he bit into the bar, and almost dropped the bar. Richard remembered the taste; it was the kind of candy that his stepfather gave him sometimes. He loved the flavor and savored every single bite. Whether it was the fancy name or the texture of it in his mouth, he wanted to know where it was from.

“Yes, I do know what you guys love, I am Discord after all.”

“Hey Scout,” a voice beside him said. “Still can’t believe that you finally gotten over your rainbow fear.”

“I’m going to head-butt you if you don’t shut up François,” Richard replied. “I’ll make sure it’ll hurt.”

“Don’t worry about it! We’re on the same team for now if you haven’t noticed,” François sneered.

“What do you mean?” Richard said.

“What I mean is that we’re going to have to use teamwork if we’re going to survive,” He replied.

“Survive what?”

Suddenly, a large projector screen appeared and started to show a video. “This game that we’re playing now,” Discord spoke through the screen. “Is what I call Arena. It’s where you take the best among yourselves and face me! I, on the other hand, will be having multiple aliases that you’ll be fighting! The best two out of three! The first alias,” a picture had shown on the large screen, revealing the alias. “Yes I know you may have faced him before, but think of it as a good way. He’s not actually here! Ok scratch that, it still might be bad. Anyways, are you ready?” His voice changed to fit. “Because get ready for SAXTON HAAAAALE!!!”

Richard gulped, “I might as well go home instead.”

“Remember,” Jennifer said. “This was the price we had to pay?”

“Aw crap! So what is it? Eighteen people against one? We’ll take him down easily!” Richard yelled triumphantly.

“It’s time,” Discord yelled. “To make you extinct like all the other animals that I’ve done!”

“Yea, you ready for this guy?” Richard yelled. “Let’s go! He’ll be easy!”

(…)

Richard gasped for air, and ran across the corner. After two map rotations, a round each, the alias got progressively more creepy or scary. The last one was the Headless Horseless Horseman, and the one before was a discorded sniper named Christian Brutal Sniper. This one happened to be the scariest one, and there was also a theme song to along with the alias. The Discord guy called him Freddy Frazbear. But Richard just named him Bear.

The scout tried to hold his breath, he only has to survive the onslaught and try to kill him. But with the occasional screech and random disembodied head of the bear appearing every so often caught him in a near panic state.

Richard pulled his shotgun closer to his body, with six more teammates left on the battlefield. They could easily kill this animatronic. He pulled out his shotgun shells and quickly counted the amount. Twelve shells, it was not enough but maybe enough to pull a distraction. He also counted his cans of ‘Bonk!’ and found only five. “At least the bat I had saved my life,” he muttered. “Might as well see if I can grab it and go.”

He peered around the corner, and saw Bear looking in the opposite direction. “Shit!” he yelled, and instantly closed his mouth. He pulled his back towards the wall to hide and held his breath to hear if Bear moved.

Dink… Dink… Dink…

Richard silently placed a couple of shells into his Force-A-Nature. He looked around the corner, and his eyes widened when the Bear had disappeared. Without a second thought, he ran down a hallway next to him and didn’t stop until he had reached a door. He pushed it open, and found that he was outside. He fell to his knees, and gasped for air.

Dink… Dink… Dink…

Richard held his breath again, and heard that Bear was behind him. Out of the darkness of the hallway, it did a short chuckle that chilled his spine and bones. With fear as an adrenaline, he sprinted from the doorway and did a quick half-spin to face the bear.

Dink… Dink… Thunk…

“Wait… Did it just fall?” He muttered.

Richard raised his shotgun, and slowly walked towards the doorway. With every step, his footstep felt heavier and heavier. As he neared the doorway, he paused and pulled out a can of ‘Bonk!’ in case it was still alive. He slowly opened the door, and found the bear with a Kunai lodged deep into its back. Nearby lay François heavily panting for air.

“Hey kid,” He gasped. “Thought I’d let you to yourself? I was following you with a Dead Ringer for a long time, in case he hit me at that moment.”

“Are you sure he’s dead?” Richard said. “I don’t hear his announcement.”

“… I should make sure about that,” François stood up and leveled his Ambassador to Freddy’s head and pulled the trigger. “You should fire a couple of shots too just in case.”

Two shots rang into the air, “Already done.”

“Congratulations humans!” Discord’s voice said. “You won your games! Time for you to head back to wherever you’ve came from. The others are waiting.”

“I guess this is goodbye for now?” Richard asked.

“I guess so,” François replied. “See you later kid.”

In a flash, Richard teleported back into the lobby of the empty Brothel. With a sigh, he walked past the first hallways and up the stairs. He opened his room, and found Rainbow Dash sleeping on the bed, hugging the small plushie he had accidentally threw at her. As adorable he thought it looked, Richard needed to sleep badly.

The Bostonian hesitated to get into the bed, but decided that it was better he just went to sleep already. He slid between the sheets and made himself comfortable. Dash quickly enveloped Richard, leaving him to wonder why.

Dash snickered, “Everyone deserves a good cuddle,” she whispered. “Besides, this is just me getting back at you using the Soda Popper unfairly. So you’ll like this whether you like it or not.”

Richard was already asleep by the time she started talking.

Author's Note:

Another chapter! Yay!
Does this mean more chapters in the future? Of course it does! Until I finish this by the way.
"Why is Chrysalis being a cyborg?" One asks.
I have a complete idea for her. Besides, she'll be epic as fuuuu...
"Why are the chapters really long now?"
Well, it would make sense to place one large chapter rather than two chapters based on one act/scene.
(On a side note, name all of the unnamed cosmetics! :D)

Will Fluttershy ever find out if the hat is real or not?
Is Dell truly in love?
What can you trade for with one ref?
Did Discord actually play the game, or did he send out real copies?
Will Solar Team claim all of Stalliongrad? Or will it fall to the hands of the Lunar Team?

These questions will be answered and more next time on
DRAGON FORTRESS TWO!!

"... Huh? ...It's not the title? ...Sorry, I meant
OF MERCENARIES AND PONIES!!!" (I thought the other seemed kind of catchy)