TF2 Analysis: Event Horizon

by Echoes of the Voice

Chapter 6: On the Horizon

Theme: "Code of Conduct" by Hans Zimmer, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 OST

Sweetie Bloom flew Dr. Wolf to the north. Thankfully, the office and storage shed appeared to be undamaged. It seemed that the bombardment was mostly concentrated in the southern half of Coal Town, though a few shells did land close by. The damage, however, was negligible by comparison.

"This makes little sense," Jiminy said, his voice ringing through her mind. "Bombarding the north would've been far more devastating. What are they playing at?"

"Maybe we just got lucky?" suggested Sweetie Bloom aloud. "Or maybe they got bad intel?"

"Oh yes, of course, the events leading up to this moment are hallmarks of somepony acting on random chance or somepony ill-prepared. How could I be so stupid?"

Sweetie Bloom's eyes narrowed. "Sometimes, your sarcasm hurts, Jiminy."

"Sweetie," Dr. Wolf said. "Now's not the time to talk to that voice in your head. Every second we spend over here is a second we risk losing our friends. Please concentrate on taking us to the storage shed."

"Right, sorry, Doc." Sweetie Bloom knew the situation was serious, but this was the first time to her memory that Doc had spoken with such intensity, as opposed to his usual calm and friendly demeanor; even during the first battle with the robots.

Upon landing, he leapt off and ran to the door, holding it open.

"Come inside!" he said. "Hurry!"

She did so, but hesitated when she saw the carnage inside. Dozens upon dozens of dead jellysquids were piled haphazardly in the center. Despite what she was told, Sweetie Bloom chose to keep Blake. She shivered, remembering the horror of seeing some sort of mechanism emerge from him, then, after the flash of that EMP, his sudden drop and eternal stillness. Even now, it was a struggle to think of them as machines, and not as living beings.

"It's much easier to plant an EMP in an enemy base when the enemy does it for you," Jiminy remarked darkly.

"Here," Dr. Wolf said, hurriedly digging through a pile of spare parts that they've come to regard as random scrap, and tossing the bits and pieces behind him, next to Sweetie Bloom. "Carry as much as you can. We're heading for my office."

"What are these going to be used for?" she asked.

Gunshots echoed from the other side of town. Sweetie Bloom felt a chill down her spine when she realized that the others have engaged the robots. Without either saying another word, she put as much scrap as she could on her back, more tucked beneath her forelegs, and one final piece on her mouth, all as quickly as she could. Doc hefted as much as he could carry in his arms.

They dashed across the way to the office and burst through the door. Doc immediately threw his load next to the respawn generator. "Throw that scrap here, then use your Stickybomb Launcher on both the generator and the pile."

Sweetie Bloom hesitated, confused. Doc himself confirmed that the respawn generator was fried and unusable. What was the point in demolishing it further? "Uh, but Doc..."

"I'll explain everything later. Just do it."

She sighed quietly to herself, but chose to trust Doc and followed his orders. The two of them backed away and she pulled out the launcher, pelting scrap and generator alike. The two of them ran outside and as soon as the door was shut behind them, she detonated the bombs. The deafening boom and the quake beneath hooves and paws told them all they needed to know. That, and the wall that was blasted away from its foundation.

"Now, back to the others," Doc said. "We need to..."

His words died in his mouth as he looked beyond the town's limits. Sweetie Bloom followed his gaze and her jaw dropped. Though the land was now shrouded in darkness, she could see dozens of glowing blue eyes advancing upon them. And that was just the ones they could see. There could be hundreds for all they knew.

"They're coming from the north, too," she said, breathless. Sweetie Bloom yelped as bullets flew just over her head.

Doc leapt onto her back. "Go, go, go!"

She ran as fast as she could, then once she gained enough speed, flapped her wings and took off. "There's no way we can fight off that many."

"No, we can't. We've got to get everypony in that bunker, now!"

It would've been another cold night in the desert if it weren't for the heat and haze of battle. The air was alive with bullets, rocket-propelled grenades, or in Keyframe's case, syringes. Very few of the mercenaries on the defensive line could speak. The guns drowned out all else. Though all worked in concert, most had to operate on their own, guided only by their training and instincts. Fortunately, that didn't mean they were struggling. The robots that bore down on them were destroyed quickly and precisely. Keyframe's primary focus was holding back the robots' advancement, aiming between the jutting piles of debris she was using for cover. Their objective was to prevent the robots from reaching the emergency bunker, so that when Doc and Sweetie Bloom return, they can retreat safely. Though she was completely focused on the battle, she was beaming with pride in the back of her mind. It couldn't be going smoother.

The only exception was Finn. Because of the EMP, virtually all of his equipment was ruined. At first, when the battle first began, he thought the Rescue Ranger would've been enough. But as he was placed at the very back of the defenses, the shotgun wasn't particularly useful. But then he had an idea and Finn set up a turret. However, as soon as he able to, he began taking it apart. Keyframe shouted, asking if this was really the right time for tinkering. But once Finn explained his intentions, she understood and redoubled her efforts. It would really help them out, and really was a stroke of genius from the engineer.

“It’s ready!” he shouted. “Or at least it should be.”

“Then start firing!”

Finn took up position next to Keyframe and lifted the hefty head of a turret, taking aim at the kill zone. He fiddled with the new underbelly of the weapon, and a smattering of bullets launched themselves out with such force that Finn lost balance and fell backwards. This didn’t dampen his elation, however. “Yes!” he shouted. “The firing mechanism itself still works!”

“Great, now keep it up!”

Finn got back on his hooves and aimed with the turret, short bursts of bullets tearing through steel.

Mary Sue flew high above, casting a shield around herself as she swooped in and out of the field of fire. She strafed the approaching robots with magic beams, knocking many of them out before they even entered Coal Town. Their fire was drawn to her, but her agile flight patterns kept the shield from wearing down.

Keyframe gasped when she saw a soldier taking aim at Goldie. He had come in from behind and didn't see him. For the first time in that battle, she felt true terror. She screamed to warn him, but her voice couldn’t reach him. Just as she did so, the robot dropped dead, and Thespio decloaked above its ruined body. Goldie turned around and saw what happened. She would've needed a few deep breaths to calm down, but the haze and intensity of battle overrode her usual senses, so she refocused right away. Then a spy decloaked behind Thespio and Goldie shouted to warn him. Thespio whirled around just in time to block a butterfly knife aimed at his eye socket, but he couldn’t stop it completely. He dodged aside as he released the hold, allowing the blade to sail past his cheek, then in a swift motion, levitated his revolver out and blasted the robot’s brains out.

How badly she wished she could tell them to watch for spies.

The robots were truly putting pressure on them, and they were getting closer and closer. A feeling of dread and horror went down her spine when she realized the robots had advanced beyond Silver Quill’s and Lightning Bliss’s positions. Where were they?!

Eliyora sprung her trap, leaping out from behind a building and unleashing her flamethrower. The robots who weren’t killed quickly fired their weapons erratically, taking out their own companions. Finn ducked, allowing Eliyora to throw herself over the pile of debris.

“They’re getting too close!” she shouted. For the third time, Eliyora shot her flare gun in the air, bringing a renewed light to the battle.

"Just keep firing! Don't let up!" Keyframe said.

She then spotted Ink Rose hastily retreating, backing up as she unloaded her scattergun. A swarm of scout robots came into view, one by one falling to her blasts. Once the third fell, she ran out of bullets. And there were three left. Upon realizing that she had no time to reload, she pulled out her bat. Even from here, Keyframe could almost hear her scream, "Come on!" With a sudden charge, she brought the bat down on one, smashing it to the ground with a single blow. The second threw a right cross at her, but she dodged left and landed a strike at the back of its head, effectively disabling it. The last, however, managed to block her strike, and then, rearing upon its hind legs, struck her cheek. She was sent whirling and lost her balance. But before the robot could strike further, Ink Rose scrambled back to her hooves and swung the bat upward, clocking it in the chin. This sent it stumbling backwards. With momentum regained, she swung the bat with all her might, knocking the head clean off. She took a small breather before reloading the scattergun.

And then it was getting quieter. Keyframe was momentarily confused, but then saw that the robot army was diminishing. And then suddenly, there was no more. Only silence.

"We...we did it?" Finn asked.

"Is everypony okay?" Keyframe shouted. Everypony’s responses all blended together, to the point where she couldn’t understand them. But there were no cries of pain or alarm, so she supposed they were alright. “What about Silver and Blissy? Are you two alright?”

“I’m still breathing!” Lightning Bliss responded. “At least, I think I am.”

“I need a change of clothes, but I’m still here…for once,” Silver said.

“So that’s it, right?” Finn asked. “We won?”

Keyframe furrowed her brow, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “I guess. But it doesn’t feel right. Whoever planned out the sneak attack with the jellysquids is too intelligent to do the same thing as last time. The definition of insanity and all that. There’s got to be…”

“Heads up!” Voice suddenly shouted. “More robots incoming! They’re big ones!”

“Big, big ones!” Goldie said. “Never saw them before!”

“Positions, everypony!” Keyframe shouted. “Even if these are tougher, concentrate your fire and they’ll surely fall!”

Eliyora fired another flare into the sky. Silence returned to the mercenaries, and now Keyframe could hear them; the deep grinding of heavy tracks. The sound reverberated through her body. She couldn’t tell whether the shaking below her hooves was her imagination or not. Even if she really was shaking, she wasn’t entirely sure why. Voice and Goldie fired their sniper rifles. “What? That was a direct hit!” the former shouted, while the latter simultaneously shouted, “Oh, you got to be kidding me!” The pink magic from Mary Sue’s magic beams lit the horizon. Gunfire in response. She could recognize the sounds of miniguns anywhere. Finn raised his turret back to eye level once more. His forelegs were shaking. He wasn’t strong enough to hold something that heavy for so long.

“Finn, rest your forelegs,” Keyframe said.

“But…”

“No ‘buts,’ Finn. When the robots come and they get closer, then unleash the turret. We’re going to annihilate them, you’ll see.” She could tell Finn was still worried, but he did set the turret down. She knew exactly how he felt. While she wasn’t one to shy away from expressing worry or stress, she couldn’t allow it here. Not when she was leading them in a battle for their lives.

All the while, Voice and Goldie kept firing. Their cries of frustration were soon drowned out. They had reached Coal Town.

When the robots landed, Keyframe felt the ground lurch beneath her. That definitely wasn’t her imagination. There were four of them, two by two, and they were absolute behemoths, dwarfing all the robots that had come before. They were thicker and bulkier than heavies, each boasting two miniguns each. Voice and Goldie had been firing on them? She couldn’t even tell from here. They began a slow advance, all miniguns whirring.

“Oh, sh—” The bullet storm drowned out the rest. Silver and Lightning Bliss were the first targeted, diving behind the buildings. It was too intense! They couldn’t fire back! “Finn, forget what I said! Open fire now!”

The two of them raised their weapons to eye level and fired with everything they had. Goldie landed a headshot at one in the back row, but it turned its miniguns on him, rotating on an axis so its tracks were still heading for the bunker. He scrambled away from the precipice just in time, before the bullets ate away at the corner of the building. Voice landed a shot as well, same results. Ink Rose flew in from behind and unloaded a scattergun blast into that same robot’s back, then landed on the far side of the nearest roof before she could be targeted. Jasper fired four bazookas in quick succession, all aimed at one in the front. Maddy, seeing this, fired hers as well. The blasts rocked the street, casting dust into the air. Seeing this opportunity, the untargeted mercenaries increased their rate of fire, but as quickly as the dust came, it cleared. Keyframe peered over her cover and saw sparks were flying out of the one that Jasper and Maddy struck. It was almost down!

The heavies had passed the heavy’s position, and were now a fourth of the way to the emergency bunker. Silver leaned out and fired his own minigun, but the blasts suddenly ceased. He raised it high and shook it, pointing to the still-spinning end.

“Silver’s out of ammo!” Keyframe shouted.

“Oh, if only I could… I got this! Cover me!”

“What?!” Before Keyframe could ask what he was doing, Finn dashed away, heading for the buildings to their right with turret head tucked beneath his foreleg. “Finn, you idiot! Stay put!” But he was well out of earshot already. That kid’s desire to help out really was going to get him killed!

Mary Sue swept across the sky. Her blasts were on-point and struck the damaged robot in a sensitive spot. Its innards were overloaded with pink energy and exploded, causing it to topple over. One down, three to go!

With Mary Sue drawing their fire, Finn made it all the way to Maddy, who was forced to hide on the stairwell behind the building. Keyframe couldn’t see any movement around there for a time. Just as she was beginning to worry, she saw Maddy running across the rooftop as far from the robots as she could be. Of course, it made more sense for her to run the turret to Silver. She could take more hits than Finn.

The behemoths were now halfway to the bunker.

Jasper’s Ronaldo unleashed more rocket-propelled grenades against the robot in the lead. Lightning Bliss’s Starlight punched more penetrating holes near its neck. Then Silver, now wielding the turret head, held down the trigger. As it turned around to fire, he hit the newly formed weak spot, and then the head came clean off. The body slouched to one side, then fell over. That was two down!

But it was increasingly clear that it wouldn't be enough. Keyframe recalled Doc's orders to hold the line and protect the emergency bunker. But the orders were given with the goal to save as many lives as possible. When these objectives conflict, then she didn't need to think twice which she should prioritize. She made the decision and ignited her horn, firing a white spark into the air.

Mary Sue, understanding what that meant, flew over the mercenaries as close to the ground as she dared. Her horn ignited and she shouted in an amplified voice, "RETREAT! RETREAT! MAKE FOR THE BUNKER! RETREAT!" The behemoths must've heard her cries, but she didn't draw their fire until she began blasting them more ferociously.

The mercenaries saw the opportunity. Goldie ran across the rooftops, half-leaping half-flying from one to the next. Ink Rose grabbed Voice around his belly and followed a mirrored trajectory to Goldie, assisting in his bounds over the gaps. Keyframe saw a spy decloak in the corner of her eye. Startled, she aimed the needlegun between Thespio's eyes.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's just me!"

She was about ready to demand he prove it, but there was no time now. If they didn't hurry, she, along with everypony else, were dead anyway. She sighed and lowered the weapon.

"Keyframe! Thespio!" a welcome voice said behind them. She first saw Sweetie Bloom, then Doc, the latter dismounting the former and ran up to them, keeping his head low. "There's another robot army coming from the north. We can't hold them. Time to get everypony inside!"

"You don't have to tell me twice," she said.

With Doc's physical strength and Keyframe's levitation magic, the two of them darted inside the building and opened the hatch, both directing the ponies downward. Sweetie Bloom went in first, followed by Thespio, Ink Rose, then Goldie. One after another, the mercenaries poured in to the dark below. As they passed, Keyframe scanned each of them for wounds. Nothing serious thus far.

Somepony cried out. Keyframe and Doc, along with Silver, Lightning Bliss, and Finn, stopped to turn around, just in time to see the red soldier crash to the ground before the door, screaming in pain.

"Maddy!" Finn shouted, horrified.

Yet, it was Silver who reacted first. He bounded forward and dove towards Maddy's foreleg, grabbing hold of it. Keyframe ran forward as well, but the surprised look on his face and what that meant sent her to a screeching halt. She stopped just far enough out the door to see that the behemoths were just beginning to round the corner, only a few feet away. Chills went down her spine. At this close a range and the fact that they're out in the open... Maddy and Silver were dead, and she was going to watch them die.

Then came an explosion of pink, right as the robots fired. Once the flash died down, the first thing Keyframe saw was Mary Sue, with her active shield, withstanding the bullets pummeling it. But against a bombardment that intense, even her shield won't last long. The next thing she noticed was that Silver and Maddy weren't dead. The former was hastily dragging the latter towards the door. Keyframe stepped aside, and as they passed, she saw that Maddy was pelted in her flank with a few bullets. As long as the bleeding was stopped, it wasn't life threatening, but her movement would be seriously hindered. A real handicap for a soldier, but what was more concerning was the gash on her head. She must've hit it as she fell, and it knocked her out cold.

"Hang in there, Maddy!" Keyframe shouted. "I'll patch you up once we're inside."

"Wounded incoming!" Silver shouted, as he picked Maddy up off the ground and gently lowered her in. The unicorns down below grabbed hold of her with their levitation magic and brought her down. Soon, Silver's hindquarters slipped down into the abyss. As soon as he was gone, Lightning Bliss and Finn leaped down behind him. Keyframe glimpsed dancing lights down below, lighting up the darkness.

Mary Sue flapped within the room and deactivated her shield. She slammed the upgraded door closed and locked it. It would buy them some time, but Keyframe couldn't imagine it lasting long against robots like these. Mary Sue was out of breath.

"Mary Sue, down below, now!" Doc ordered.

Apparently surprised she was next, she immediately turned around and leapt through the hole, folding her wings in to a graceful dive before Keyframe glimpsed her unfurling them before she hit the floor, gliding to safety.

There was a sharp, screeching noise that startled Keyframe. She gasped when she saw what looked like a sword, rapidly cutting its way through the door. That must've been the behemoth, but where did that blade come from?!

"Go, Keyframe!" Doc said.

Keyframe only had a split second to take in what she saw before she leapt inside. The interior was completely dark, except for the lights emanating from the unicorns' horns. Strange. She knew that Doc had made upgrades to the emergency bunker, but she had no idea that included making it larger and roomier. All this information passed through her mind in the space of a second before she was ripped from her observation by crashing metal and gunfire from above.
She looked up in time to see Doc standing upon the ladder rungs. He slammed the hatch shut, miniguns barely missing him. He began turning the wheel below to seal it. When it became clear that he was having trouble, Keyframe joined in, followed by Thespio and Mary Sue. There was a reassuring clunk as the wheel halted. Then he reached for a lever adjacent to the hatch, and tried pulling it. Once more, he gained assistance. As he pulled, there was a screech of metal grinding against metal.

"Clamps in place!" Doc declared. He climbed down the ladder and joined the weary group down below, heaving a sigh of relief. "It was a stroke of good fortune that that model came with a manual lock."

Their breaths caught when an ear-shattering slam emanated from the hatch.

Doc saw the alarm in their faces. "It's alright. That hatch is made from a mix of tungsten and titanium, as is the rest of the outer wall of the bunker. Conventional weaponry will have little effect, if any at all. Everypony, take a breather."

It was as if all let out a collective sigh, including Keyframe. Now that she had a moment, she took in the different surroundings. While the original was cramped, no bathroom in sight, and an absolute mess of emergency rations, this one was much roomier and far better equipped. The room that the entrance dropped into was a sort of meeting room, if the giant table in the center was anything to go off of, that perhaps doubled as a dining area. There were a handful of office chairs that were pushed neatly against the wall, but there were a pair of sofas as well, and even a few armchairs. Upon one of those sofas laid the still-unconscious Firebrand (she noted that he'll be upset once he learns he missed the battle). Keyframe wouldn't have imagined comfort would be a priority, but seeing the mercenaries collapse on them, resting and gathering themselves, she realized how important and welcoming that was. One side of the room led to a long hallway, and on the other was a door leading to an adjacent, separate area. She and the others knew that Doc had been making upgrades to the bunker recently, but not to this extent. When was he planning on telling them about these changes?

"Babe," a familiar voice said.

"Goldie!" she cried out. Barely registering that was him, she immediately began looking him over. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"Just a few bruises, it's nothing. I wasn't hit. I'm more worried about you."

"I'm fine. I didn't get a scratch. I...I guess I'm really lucky."

"I think, under the circumstances, we're all lucky."

"Uh-oh," Ink Rose suddenly said. They turned to her; she was looking down the hallway. Keyframe, GoldenFox, Doc, and Sweetie Bloom went to investigate. As they approached, she pointed. Keyframe sighed. Ink Rose didn't need to say anything else.

The hall extended down the way until it met a ladder at the end, leading up to a hatch. That's right, there was one thing that Doc did go over with the whole group: the addition of a disguised emergency exit on the western edge of town. Not that it mattered now, though. The barrier extended even underground, slicing through the emergency bunker what must've roughly been fifty feet down the way. That meant that the barrier was not a hemisphere as they first thought, but a complete—and enclosed—sphere.

"I guess digging our way out is...well, out," Ink Rose muttered.

From the light of her horn, Keyframe was able to see many rooms lining the hall. More and more questions filled her mind. "Doc, how were you able to hollow this out and build the structure so fast?"

"It's amazing what one can accomplish in such a short time with a willing alicorn by your side."

"You're welcome!" Mary Sue called out in a singsong voice. Didn't take her long to get back to her cheery self.

Keyframe heard the resonant tone of a spell behind her. "Excuse me!" She turned and saw Mary Sue levitating both Maddy and Firebrand, both still unconscious, walking past them. "Doc, I'm going to take these two to the medbay."

"I'll come with," Keyframe said. "Without my medigun, I'm not sure how much good I can be, but I'll help however I can." Just because she lost her usual method of healing doesn't stop her from being a medic. Or so she would like to think...

As she walked alongside Mary Sue, she heard Finn's voice behind her. "Hey, Doc, is there a kitchen down here?"

"Ah, yes, that's the room over there. I take it you want to whip something up?"

"Yep! The sooner we can relax and bring smiles back, the better. Even if we're safe, most of us are very stressed out."

"Mmm, very true. And it's just as well. With the electricity gone, everything in the refrigerator will soon spoil. We should make use of our food while we still have the chance. Though the oven will have been rendered unusable, too."

"Oh, that's no problem! I know plenty of recipes that don't require baking." Before there was anything else said, Finn hurried away to perform his duty.

Then she heard Voice of Reason. "Exactly how many precautions did you take, Doc? Not that I'm not grateful we have a safe place, but it kind of seems like...you knew this would happen."

Keyframe stopped dead in her tracks, twisting her ear behind her.

"Is this connected to our destroying of the respawn generator?" Sweetie Bloom asked.

Her jaw dropped, her brow angling downward. That's what they were doing on the other side of town? Destroying a machine that was already ruined? Why?

There was dead silence. Everypony was waiting. She heard Doc take a deep breath. "I know I owe all of you an explanation. And I owe all of you the truth. There's something...something that's weighed heavily on my heart for some time now. I had this feeling that the conflict between us and the robots wasn't over, but there was never anything more than a feeling, until just recently when Voice and Jasper engaged the robots. So I kept it to myself..."

"Key-key?" Mary Sue said. Keyframe blinked and refocused her attention ahead of her, onto the pink alicorn. "Are you coming?"

"Y-yeah. Yeah, I'm coming."

It was difficult, to tear herself away from this, but Firebrand and especially Maddy needed her more right now. The others will have to fill her in later. She kept walking, but kept her ears turned behind her, listening in on as much as possible before she passed out of earshot.

"I'm not sure if any of you have realized this already," Dr. Wolf said, "but we've become far more than just mercenary teams, and if my theory is correct, it's why we've been targeted..."