TF2 Analysis: Event Horizon

by Echoes of the Voice

Chapter 3: Natures Strange and True

Theme: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Lorde,

Original by Tears for Fears

AnY dropped the empty bottle next to him, allowing it to roll down the dirt road. It occurred to him that he should probably run and grab it, but that sounded like too much work. Coal Town was already a trash heap. What was a little more at this point? He sat on the ground and leaned against the wall of one of the many unmarked and abandoned buildings of the town, letting out a satisfied sigh. There was nothing like downing a bottle of cider after a day of battling. The fire in his belly was burning strong indeed, and that fueled his courage and abilities in battle.

As he closed his eyes to nap, however, he noticed a yellow glow through his eyelids. Under normal circumstances, he would've been thoroughly annoyed by these things that arrived at Coal Town, but he was too far in his drunken stupor to care. He simply moved away from the approaching... What did Sweetie Bloom call them again? He couldn't remember. Wait, she was gathering them, wasn't she? She must've missed one.

AnY was about to move away from it and find another spot to relax, somewhere where he can be left alone and sleep in peace. Not the bunks, it was too early for that. Somewhere where he can breathe the open air would do nicely. But he stopped, noticing the joyful expression on the creature as it looked upon him. Come to think of it, he was a bit hungry.

It wasn't until this moment that he realized why he didn't particularly care for these creatures. Because he was half-changeling, he's capable of sensing strong emotions across town, but even when these things were right in front of him, he sensed nothing. He shrugged, however, and said, "Well, may as well give it a shot."

In a flash of green that consumed him in a blink of an eye, then vanished just as quickly, he turned into his changeling form. He grinned, feeling his sharpened teeth grind against each other. Between them, his snake-like tongue dangled from his mouth. Usually, he could better sense where emotions were coming from, feeling and tasting the emanations in the air. But there was very little he could sense. He inhaled deeply, using his changeling magic to bring the delectable love and joy to his mouth. As he expected, but hoped wasn't the case, nothing came.

He clapped his jaws shut, then took a few steps back when he realized how close the creature had come to him. However, he tilted his head, intrigued. "Huh. Are you somehow immune to changelings?" His dulled wits didn't allow him to question it further, however. Instead, he shrugged dismissively. With another flash of green, AnY returned to his pony form. "Eh, fine. I'll just get a boring food snack."

With that, he began making his way to the mess hall.

Suddenly, he heard loud metallic groaning, followed by a heavy clunk! of steel against wood. Half out of curiosity and half out of boredom, he decided to see what was going on. Going off the direction it was coming from, it didn't take him long to figure out what caused it.

In a small building at the end of the main street of Coal Town, where it split east and west, AnY found Dr. Wolf hunched over the open hatch that led into the emergency bunker, clipboard and pen in his paws. He seemed to be studying the hinges rather closely, reaching out and feeling the metal. AnY recalled the doctor installing a sturdier door to the building a few days ago. Soon after, Finn barred up the window. Mary Sue did some related work, but he didn't know much beyond that. When Maddy asked what was happening, Doc said that it was just a precaution, nothing more. At the time, AnY wondered if it was some kind of subtle commentary on their performance, but he dismissed that notion.

"Hey, Doc. What's going on?"

Dr. Wolf glanced up at the door, but quickly turned back to the sheet. "Ah, good evening, AnY. I'm just checking the hatch to see if it's in need of any maintenance. So far, it seems to be in peak condition, thankfully."

AnY saw that he wanted to focus on this task, so he shrugged, stepping towards the door. "Well, okay. Have fun."

"Take care."

Once he approached the mess hall, he heard a lot of noise coming from the kitchen, hearing the voice of Jasper coming from within. Even in his state, AnY could tell that Jasper was having another episode and he didn't like the idea of wrestling him away from the food so he could get a snack. That was too much work. Maybe he could trick him into moving, instead.

He then heard a rush of air above him and spotted Ink Rose flying above the buildings, heading south. His gaze followed her, but when she darted in another direction, his eyes instead landed on Dr. Wolf's office. Then he remembered that behind the bar within, some of the mercenaries store the snacks they bring with them, some of which remained there, forgotten. AnY smiled, and pressed on.

As he approached the office, however, he spotted yet another creature hovering outside the town limits, but instead of glowing yellow, it glowed green. Perhaps it was the other gender of the species? It wasn't heading for him, like the others would have. It simply hovered there, bobbing up and down from the undulation of its tentacles, and it was too far to tell from where he was, but he felt like the thing was watching him. Otherwise, it did nothing. He narrowed his eyes and wondered what it was waiting for. In the end, he shrugged and went up to the entrance. As long as it wasn't hurting anypony, it could do whatever it wanted for all he cared.

After closing the door behind him, AnY saw Firebrand sitting at that same bar, drinking out of a glass bottle, a dark liquid swirling within. The stallion glanced up at him, but there was no greeting, nor even any other form of acknowledgement. AnY wondered what was so interesting about his drink; he just stared at it. He sensed the emotions swirling within him, tempted to consume the rage and frustration that broiled within. But there was no way he wouldn't be noticed here, and the attempt to consume them would only anger him further.

AnY approached. "Hey, Firebrand. It's pretty rare to see you drinking."

Firebrand slammed the bottle onto the counter. "I'm not drinking," he grumbled. "It's root beer!"

"Well, somepony is a little testy tonight." AnY, unperturbed by Firebrand's outburst, walked around him and began rummaging behind the bar.

Firebrand sighed deeply. "I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you specifically, just at the state of our teams as a whole."

AnY pulled out a box of old cheese crackers and checked the expiration date. It was a few days ago. He sniffed the crackers, nothing unusual. Maybe it was safe? He popped one into his mouth and winced a little at the staleness. But at least the taste was still okay. Deciding this was good enough, he pulled a stool over and sat across from Firebrand. Placing his hooves on the counter and leaning forward, AnY said in the best Dr. Wolf voice he could muster, "So Firebrand, tell me what's on your mind."

Firebrand chuckled lightly. "That impersonation was terrible." The slight smile that came with the laugh quickly disappeared, as his melancholy mood returned. AnY kept eating as he spoke. "I've been thinking about the first robot attack, when Dustykatt first appeared. We all got our flanks kicked right at the start. The robots' numbers were overwhelming, and the respawn generator was destroyed. We were effectively cornered."

AnY was actually there, but decided against pointing this out.

"With little choice, we fought back. And we were amazing! We stuck with our strategies, properly utilized our strengths, and were able to beat back the robots almost too easily. Compare that with how the teams are now. It feels like we regressed in our competence, running when the slightest thing goes wrong. And that's if they choose to fight at all! I've lost count of how many times I saw them talking to each other rather than engaging in battle. Yeah, we were able to beat back the robots the first time, but..."

Firebrand sighed, resting his head on his forelegs. AnY felt a shift in his emotional state, a transition from anger to depression.

"...I can't help but wonder if it was a fluke. Just dumb luck that we were able to win. Honestly, ever since these thoughts entered my mind, they just swirled around in my head, repeating over and over. The stress and worry it caused built up and boiled over into frustration. At this point, I just want to stop thinking about these things and let my anger go."

AnY thoughtfully munched on the crackers a moment longer before it became clear that Firebrand was finished. He set the box aside. "I guess you forgot about Voice and Jasper already. The two of them alone were able to wage a successful skirmish against the robots."

Firebrand looked up at him in confusion. "And then proceeded to dive under Doc's desk for half an hour because they were 'being watched.'"

"Oh. Didn't know about that part. Still, speaking more generally, I would say we have improved. We had a burst of competence because of the stress of the situation, returned to normal, then continued to improve. I'm willing to bet we'll be ready if another engagement on that scale happens again. But as the saying goes, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Firebrand nodded. He was beginning to calm down. "Well, if nothing else, I'm certainly ready. And from here on out, I'll make sure everypony else is, too."

"Good to hear."

AnY began craving another bottle, then remembered that he had a stash here.

"Now I know you're not much of a drinker, but I have something here that could help you relax and take the edge off." He pulled out the cider, the bright orange liquid reflecting the lights of the bar.

Firebrand laughed a little. "You do know that's non-alcoholic, right?" This would be reminder number five since they formed the Coal Town Mercenaries—and that was from Firebrand alone.

AnY guffawed at that. "Right, and I suppose I'm 'non-drunk,' too."

Regardless, he accepted the drink. The conversation moved into small talk, and all the while his emotional state returned to normal. In the midst of their exchange, AnY's muddled mind made a connection that was so sharp that he surprised himself. Doc was checking the bunker earlier. Did he also believe they were unprepared for a large engagement? As Firebrand scooted back, saying that he was going to go for a walk and get some fresh air, he made a mental note to ask Dr. Wolf about that later. For now, he wanted to drink some more, and enjoy the rare moment of silence and calm.

Suddenly, a great cry of pain cut through the silence, followed by the unmistakable thud of a body hitting the ground. AnY knocked over his stool as he leapt onto his hooves. In his sudden carelessness for the bottle, he set it down haphazardly on the edge of the bar, where it fell and shattered on the floor. That was Firebrand, and that wasn't the usual cry of death that they hear during their matches. This one was different, and with the strange circumstances and rising tension among the mercenaries...

AnY leapt into action before completing the thought. He dashed out the door, and the first thing he saw was the red medic collapsed on the ground, unmoving. The second was Finn and Silver coming out of the storage shed. They, too, heard Firebrand's cry. The three of them converged on him quickly.

"Wait, is this another death prank?" Silver asked. "I mean, I'm glad it's not me for once, but I got to say at least those were a little funny."

"But he's not dead, Silver," Finn said. "Otherwise he would've respawned by now. He must've been knocked out by something."

"True, but who or what could've attacked him? We're the only mercenaries nearby, and most of the jellysquids are in there," Silver said, jerking his thumb behind him.

"Jellysquids, that was it!" AnY said.

Silver ignored him. "He'll be coming around soon anyway, so why not wait and ask if he saw anything?"

"That would be the easiest way for sure. We should probably take him to Keyframe first, though. Get a medigun on him."

"Or a better idea would be to leave him here and bring Keyframe..."

"Guys, look at this!" Finn suddenly shouted. With a grunt of effort, he heaved Firebrand's body onto his other side. There was no need for Finn to explain further, as they all could see a green jellysquid latched onto the base of Firebrand's neck. It was the same one that AnY saw before, but only now did he see that the tendrils were quite a bit longer on this one.

Silver bent down and tugged it free with ease. The tentacles were completely limp and flopped about, and the expression was completely frozen, constantly smiling. "No resistance," Silver remarked. "It's probably dead."

"Firebrand might've killed it when he landed on it," AnY said.

"Possbily. Either way, at least we know...who..." Silver's words trailed off as his eyes suddenly widened. "Oh, no."

"What?"

"AnY, do you have your Claidheamh Mòr on you?"

"Yeah, but why?"

Silver dropped the jellysquid onto the ground. "Cut it open." Then he saw the look on AnY's face and added, "I know it's strange, but do it. It's a lot easier for you to see for yourself rather than try to explain it."

Despite his confusion, AnY pulled the sword out, the springsteel gleaming from the setting sun. He took firm hold of the red and green plaid grip, lined up the blade, then with swift motion, brought it down. It cut the creature wide open. What came flying out wasn't what AnY expected. Glass shards of what used to be a sort of cylinder were flung from the corpse, and the broken tip of a needle was left jutting out. A tranquilizer dart! What had everypony gawking, however, were the wires and circuitry splayed out from the jellysquid's body.

"Machines," AnY said, breathless. "They're machines!"

"Worse than that," Finn said as he leaned closer to the jellysquid. He pointed at one of the circuit boards, careful not to touch it. "I recognize that part. It's a receiver. Somepony was controlling this one."

The three of them exchanged glances with each other, the implication of this discovery hitting hard and sinking in.

"I guess he wasn't ready after all," AnY muttered, then spoke louder. "Who's watching the jellysquids right now?"

"Well, we were," Silver said. "But now there's..."

It wasn't until now that AnY noticed that there was a bright yellow glow emanating from the cracks of the door to the storage room. Finn and Silver turned around, and he could tell they just now noticed it as well. It was getting brighter and brighter by the second, and a dull, guttural growl was building from within.

"We got to stop it!" Finn shouted, bolting for the door. "Whatever it is, we got to stop it!"

"Finn, no!" Silver shouted. "They might be..."

His words were swallowed up by a flash of light and the growl crescendoed into a roar. AnY could only close and shield his eyes.

They were too late.