Pyro stared around at the land before him as he stepped through the portal. The bright colors, the shimmering light, the energy given off by every living thing...there was no other explanation. This was Rainbow Land. Fluttershy had brought him to Rainbow Land.
He sank to his knees, falling back to sit on his feet, arms limp at his side. As he stared out at this mystical land he had long thought was delusion, tears fell from his eyes behind his mask, and he shook slightly with his sobs of pure joy.
Behind him, he heard Engineer speak up. "How come they're all asleep?"
Confused, Pyro turned to see what he meant. Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Spike were all on their sides, snoring softly. Luna and Discord stood over them. Luna spoke up. "I need to do some slight alterations to their memories before giving Fluttershy the memories of her old life."
Engineer frowned. "What sort of alterations?" He obviously wasn't happy with this information.
"The battle where Fluttershy killed them so freely and efficiently," Luna explained. "When Fluttershy recovers her memories, her old persona would be drastically traumatized and reviled at so freely butchering her friends. At the same time, Rainbow need not remember being so brutally slain - over and over - by her oldest friend, nor Spike remember witnessing his mother figure, big sister figure, and crush being blown to bits before his very eyes. None of them need those memories, as they would only hurt them." She levitated the scouter off Fluttershy. "They will remember witnessing Fluttershy showing her great combat prowess, and being both awed and somewhat frightened by it, but none of them will remember they were the target of her skills. Engineer, can you alter the records on the scouter so Fluttershy cannot find through it what she had done? Perhaps you can make it look like the data was not yet saved and the portal wiped it, which is why there's no record of the battle she remembers?"
Engineer nodded. "Sure, I can do that," he said, taking the scouter. "I take it ponies aren't normally as comfortable with death and killing as we are?"
"No," Luna replied. "1000 years ago, things were different, which is why it does not bother me as much. And Discord is the Spirit of Chaos, and very little bothers him."
"I'm really going to love having these guys around," Discord said as he floated up over the team of mercs. "They're going to sow so much chaos just by being here, disrupting the lives of so many ponies and altering the equilibrium of the world...and Celestia can't even blame me this time, because you brought them here, Luna!" He cackled loudly. "Such a wonderful gift, Princess, and it's not even my birthday!"
Luna sighed. "As I said," she groaned, "very little bothers him."
"Say," Discord spoke up, "what's up with the fire guy? Isn't he normally bouncing up and down and waving his arms wildly? He's just sitting there unmoving, hardly fun."
Pyro realized everyone was looking at him. Helplessly, he gestured out at the world around him, trying to find some way to explain what was going through his head now, but he had no voice to share them.
As everyone stared at each other in confusion, Luna stepped forward, her horn glowing. "With your permission," she requested, gesturing with her horn towards his forehead.
He thought about what she was saying, and realized she was asking permission to look into his mind for answers. He nodded.
Stepping forward, Luna placed her horn to his forehead. He felt her magic flowing into his mind, so slowly, so gently. It felt like refreshingly cool water in his mind, slowing the rapid fire synapse surge of his thoughts. He relaxed into her magical flow, feeling his mind slowly open in response.
Luna frowned. "I see. The Rainbow Land Fluttershy mentioned...you long thought it a delusion, a sign of your mind failing you. You used it to shield yourself from what you did as part of the team, to convince yourself you weren't the monster you knew you were." Her frown deepened. "Before you joined the team...the people who tried to 'treat' your 'delusion'..." Anger entered her voice. "Butchers!" she barked. She glanced towards the others. "No offense."
"None taken," Medic replied with good humor.
She turned her attention back to Pyro's mind. "But Fluttershy felt like a piece of Rainbow Land..." She suddenly gasped. "Rainbow Land was never delusion!" As her magic flowed into him, flame leapt from his hand. "You've been gifted with magic since birth!" The entire team gasped in shock, Pyro included. "But your world has so little magic, your mind had no frame of reference for it...and you saw beyond your world into a world of magic. Ours was the closest, and so you saw our world, slightly distorted by the dimensional boundary into the 'delusion' you knew."
Pyro glanced around at the world once more, realizing that yes, it wasn't exactly like the Rainbow Land he saw. It was more real, more fleshed out.
Luna continued her examination. "Your magic naturally is in tune with fire...and it responded to the Australium used in the manufacture of your more advanced equipment and weaponry." She pulled back, confused. "What is Australium?" Luna asked in confusion.
"This," Engineer said easily, pulling out a block of it he kept in his gear for experiments.
Luna reached out with her magic towards the block and gasped, pulling her magic back rapidly. "Mana Stone!" she gasped out.
"Eh?" Soldier asked, confused.
"Occasionally, the magical field of our world becomes especially intense, and the magic crystalizes in solid form, a magical ore. We call it Mana Stone, and it's one of the rarest, most valuable minerals that can be found anywhere. It's primary use outside spell components is for prosthetic horns, as it has the same magic conducing properties as the carbuncle core of a Unicorn or Alicorn's horn." She looked closely at the lump of Australium. "But I've never seen a deposit this pure, this large."
"We call it Australium," Engineer explained. "It's a mineral found only in Australia in our world, and the energy it gives off has a positive effect on the genetic structure of those who come in contact with it. Between that and the major advance in technology it made possible, Australia's filled with supermen and utopian cities, except for the Outback which is preserved for when people want nature."
Luna stared at the lump. "Given what you said about the amount, I would say at some point in the distant past of your world, 95% of its magical field was concentrated in Australia, and crystalized." She shook her head. "I'm surprised you were able to bring such a large chunk with you."
He shrugged. "It's my own stash. I've got a few blocks for my experiments, and I've got a detector if I need more."
Luna's eyes widened. "You...you can scan for where magic has crystalized into Mana Stone? We've never been able to do so because of the reaction of Mana Stone to magic energies."
Engineer grinned. "Yeah, it's a passive scanner that picks up spikes in the energy field that show the location."
As Luna stepped back, swaying a bit, Pyro turned back to the world around him. That discussion was of no interest to him. Only one thing was on his mind right now.
I'm home...
awwwwww
sooo pryos a pryomancer? BURN THEM ALLL
Holy crap. Equestria's going to change a lot more than I thought it would.
Nice world building chapter, this is. I greatly approve.
4914260 I could put the spoiler tag on it, but I don't think that the Show More button applies for comments.
Also, Saxton Hale's 4913080 trans-dimensional fists hit my comment and caused the font size to quadruple
Loving the headcanon with Pyro and the Australium. I also love Pyro's tears of joy
D'aaw. Pyro.
wow just wow you keep on making this story better and better good job sir, good job. now i am cry tears of joy from reading such a great story this my friend is going into the to 10.
Slight typo there, should be "his mind".
Awwww, Pyro is at home!
Also, Australium for the win!
I can't wait to see what else happens!
Two post endings are done, two to go, if I'm not mistaken!
-Zeph
I can imagine, 1 week later, Ponyville is in fire and everyone run, like in "Meet the pyro"
Heh...
Reliable Excavation & Demolition indeed! Luna may not quite realize it, but she just inadvertently expanded her political powerbase when she gave the mercenaries her Royal charter! Her decision to do so just netted Equestria greater potential access to a valuable national resource!
Pyro is a wizard....
Explains the Hadouken.
Best tf2 fanfic I've ever read. Very well done :3
But wouldn't his scanner have trouble picking up the magical signatures of Astralium/Mana Stone due to the amount of magic strewn about Equestria?
I love the idea that pyro was born with magic. Still a good story. Keep going.
4915451 he'd just have to re-tune the sensitivity so it ignores the ambient magic.
4915451
Nope. His scan detects passive spikes of Australium/Mana Stone ore, not active spikes of refined Australium/mined Mana Stone. He designed it that way so he wouldn't constantly get a false positive from what he had in his own stash or the respawner. Note: he hasn't reported the scanner to Mann Co.
4915492
Actually, it scans for areas of the ambient magical field that is naturally much higher than the surrounding area due to crystallization.
4915403 Yes, most definetly
Huh....I thought Ireland or England would be the main place for magic. Because of you know.....
cdn.funcheap.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone3.jpg
skulduggerypleasant.com/us/img/skul_straight.gif
Happy Pyro is happy.
4915451 imagine if you will the flame of a blowtorch. If you have any familiarity of how to use one then you know a torch has easily identifiable sections to its flame, and you know that the white section is the hottest part. Image the world's magic as that fire, now Enjy only needs to look for the white parts of the flame.
...world burning... :)
4915779
Thank you for that metaphor.
Uh... I noticed that you didn't mention the secondary effect of Australium, namely turning people who are overexposed to it into testosterone-laden lunkheads who box kangaroo to decide the ruler of Australia (TF2's world is kinda insane, even beyond the borders of Teufort). Yes, they're still super-smart, but their common sense drops like a stone.
Canonically, even poor Radigan Conagher (Engie's grandad) suffered the same fate, eventually turning into a huge manly man with a chest like stone and chest hair in the shape of Texas (usually Australium victims grow their chest hair in the shape of Australia, but the Conagher are Texan good ol' boys through and through...), and even Engineer didn't escape unscathed (wonder what's under his single glove? An artificial arm. He cut off his real one himself to install a better alternative - Australium at work, as usual).
If the Sisters know about that, they'll end up paying Engineer NOT to find Mana Stones... if he does, everypony in Equestria will end up looking like Bulk Biceps.
4915977 YEAH!!!
4915977
In my headcanon explanation for this, Australium has that effect because Earth's magical field is naturally weaker than Equestria's, to the point that by the time Australia was settled humanity had adapted to live magicless. The sudden infusion of crystalized magic resulted in the effects you mention.
In Equestria, however, the magical field was always much stronger, and every living being in Equestria has adapted to those levels, so Mana Stones don't have that effect on Equestrians who encounter them. It's basically the difference between swimming in a heated pool and jumping into the Jacuzzi. A sudden surge of heat, but you quickly adapt and barely notice after a while beyond being very relaxed.
...so basically, a pony near a Mana Stone vein or guarding an improperly shielded Mana Stone vault will act stoned.
And the high intensity genius vs low level common sense is a common trait of anyone who blurs the line between genius and madness, because they're pushing the envelope of reality.
*Salutes*
Welcome home, Pyro. Now to forge your application to Hogwarts....
4915335
okay, good for him. So how do I turn mine orange?
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Edit
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kidding. I know what you meant. People not stating information directly to answer a question (but related information instead) is one of my pet peeves.
4916001 ...You DO realize that your headcanon means that people who learned to harness Earth's weaker magical network (like, say, Merasmus) would, upon moving to Equestria, turn into nigh unstoppable behemoths, right?
Well, that or spontaneously combust from magic overload...
4916040
Huh. So they would.
And zat's how I lost my medical license...
Aw that's so sweet. Good on you, Pyro!
Suddenly I just imagined Chompy in a Hachiko situation.
Oh god why
Wonder if the HHH will follow the mercs into Equestria as well in this one?
4916247
Hachiko?
HHH?
Please explain.
4913487
Except for when Red team goes against him and wins (gamemode).
nice chapter!
welp the worse you could do is have Luna and Celestia go on a war for Australium.
4916383
Nah, won't happen.
After all, the only ones who can find it work for Luna.
...not to mention they're the only ones who know anything about advanced warfare...
And Fluttershy would automatically side with them, which means the EoH are either completely unavailable or on Luna's side...
And Discord would follow Fluttershy...
...yeah, Celestia knows better than to start a hopeless war. And Luna has no need for war.
Pyro, you and your fellow mercs had sworn to protect Fluttershy and raise her right. I hold your oaths fulfilled. Go. Be at peace.
4916272 Hachiko would be the name of the dog of a famous Japanese story of where a dog waited for his master ever obediently at the same spot, every day without fail. There's even a movie about it, though I've yet to watch it myself. I believe there was also a statue of Hachiko in Japan.
HHH basically is an abbreviation for;
Horseless
Headless
Horseman
I beg of you with all the begging power I hold to make a sequil. Pleese
4916643
Oh, that Hachiko. I heard about that, but missed the connection. Yeah, there is a statue of Hachiko in Japan where he waited every day, as a testament to canine loyalty to humans.
And...I know nothing of the Horseless Headless Horseman. What is it?
4916686 Righ, kept forgetting you don't play the game
He's basically a Halloween boss that... Uhh... Here's a picture;i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww307/buttcleft/cp_manor_event0002.jpg
No idea about his history because I never researched but I hear that this might be in fact Silas Mann. No idea though
4916722 Yeah the Horseless Headless Horsemann is Silas Mann.
The possibility that Pyro was a former pony with a special talent in fire is in the works.
man i cant wait to see the panic from the ponies when they see the Red Team.
shame gang couldnt keep their memories about the killing
4916182 http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/f/f9/Sniper_goodjob02.wav?t=20100625222359
Once Pyro and Pinkie go into the cooking business together, they'll be unstoppable!
4920118
Many cupvakes shall be made
I shed a tear when pyro finally found rainbow land