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More Gun

‘Dearest journal

It has been one week since our unfortunate accident. I have neglected to keep you up to date, but at nights combat is put on hold, giving me a chance to catch up. First off, this world or whatever it is contains nothing like us. In fact in this world, as I have ascertained from the Scout, we are part of a television show. Likewise, as Rainbow Dash has told me, the humans here are all stars of a video game in our world. I must do more research to such dimensional anomalies once we are home. Second, We aren’t going to get home for a while. According to the Engineer he hasn’t even scratched the surface of dimensional teleportation. His teleporters are the solution, he has assured us, but the sheer energy they would require makes me doubtful. Third, and most importantly -’

“Doktor! Come quickly! Your video is here! “ Derpy lost control of the pencil at the sudden yell. She scowled slightly, erasing the mark. The Medic stood up, running into the spawn room where the Heavy called from.

“Video?” Twilight looked up from the campfire

“Meet the Medic. It’s his meet the team video”

“Meet the Medic’s done!? And it’s in there!?” Dash charged into the room.

“What’s a ‘Meet the Team’ video?” Applejack said through a mouthful of s’more.

The Sniper shifted the flaming log with a large stick. “It’s like a promo piece. They film us, make us look good”

“Promo for what?”

“…Y’know, I never asked. PR, maybe? Can’t look good for a company to hire a lot of mercenaries to fight each other”

“Wait, didn’t Mann Co. say dey were gonna deliver our weapons today, too?”

From the spawn, the crew heard a muffled yell in the spawn, as if to answer the Scout’s question: “I AM HEAVY WEAPONS GUY! AND DIS! IS MY NEW WEAPON!” Everyone hopped to their feet and headed in. Except the Engineer. Applejack turned back for a second, spotting her new mentor still watching the fire, playing his guitar quietly.

“You comin, Engi?” She trotted back over. “C’mon, everyone’s getting weapons. Don’t wanna be the last one to get new stuff, do ya?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time” His voice was slightly bitter. “‘Sides, ain’t nothing in that shipment fer me”

“Why not?”

“Didn’t ask fer nothin”

“Why? Don’t you want nothin?”

“Nope. Mann Co. won’t make anything fer me.”

Applejack scrunched her nose. “A’course they won’t make anything if y’all don’t ask”

“No, they wouldn‘t. Outta everyone here I’ve gotten the least from our ’Benefactor’ Saxton Hale. I was the last ta get anything. When I did get mah new stuff, Y’know what happened? The SOB sent me mah grandfathers blueprints and a crate fulla scrap metal and junk. Told me ta take the blueprints and make em. An ya know why? It‘s cause I‘m not important to them. Not to Mann Co. not to my team, not anyone” His voice was starting to slur slightly.

“Ah, you don’t mean that. It’s just that BLU Streak you been drinkin all night talkin’. Without you this team would fall apart!”

“Without my machines, this team would fall apart. I’m just here to build and fix them. Without mah sentries and dispensers I’d have gone the way the Civilian went” He stood up, heading to the barracks. “Now I’m goin ta bed. I’ll work on you and yer friend’s problem tomorrow”

“Now just hold yer horses! Who’s Civilian? Engi?” She stood, confused, as the man walked down the stairs toward the sleeping quarters. A gentle nudge snapped her out. She turned and Derpy was looking at her. “I hope he’ll be okay, Derpy. She walked back to the fire, curling up and going to sleep. Derpy returned to her journal and continued writing.

‘Oh dear. It seems as though the one person who can aid our return is feeling underappreciated. This may delay our trip farther. Who knows how long we may be here… Tomorrow’s Sunday. Muffin night at home. Dinky loves those nights. I hope someone is taking care of her.

Derpy Hooves’

-----

“Sentry goin up!” Applejack put the toolbox down right next to her dispenser in the hallway and the gun began to assemble itself. It’d been two days since the campfire, and Applejack hadn’t seen much of the Texan since. The day before had been a day off, and while the others were trying some of the new weapons, the Engi holed himself in his workshop, citing ‘I got work to do’ as his reasoning. Applejack smacked the sentry with her wrench. ‘He think’s he’s useless. Hardly. He’s the one we’re all trusting to fix this mess. Hope he can figure that out in there’

“HEY APPLEJACK!” Pinkie shouted. Applejack yelled in surprise, throwing a kick behind her that narrowly missed clocking the pink pony behind her in the head.

“PINKIE! What have I told y’all about sneaking up on me!?”

Pinkie giggled. “But I’m just so excited! I mean, have you seen this gun!?” She hoisted up the new minigun she had gotten. “It starts firing instantly! Plus I got these things!” She showed off the shiny brass horseshoes that adorned her hooves. “I feel so powerful!”

Applejack looked back to her sentry as her next swing turned the small machine into a level two. “You be careful, Pinkie Pie. If ya get too used to this place ya may never wanna go home”

“Yeah right. I love Ponyville! Plus, how am I supposed to make sweets here? All my ingredients are at home!” Applejack laughed a little. Typical Pinkie. “So where’s your new stuff, Applejack? I didn’t see you try anything out yesterday”

“Engi didn’t get anything in that shipment. I feel kinda bad for him. He sounded so mad when he was talkin about it. There’s gotta be some way to cheer him… Pinkie?” She looked around, but Pinkie was gone, leaving without a word.

“Probably chargin into the enemy base again. I swear, She’s gonna get used to this whole thing and gonna be in serious trouble at home”

She finished the Sentry and as the Level three began beeping, she hopped on to of the dispenser, readying herself. Any minute now and the enemies would turn that corner and they’d be face to face with this mean Mother Hubbard. Applejack let out a slightly sadistic laugh at the thought of the opponents’ faces when the gun caught sight of them. She had become lost in the thought until she saw Twilight run in. “Oh hey, Twi! Any enemies comin in?”

Twilight looked flustered. “Uh… there were some on the bridge, but I don’t know if they followed me. Why don’t you check?”

“You okay, Sugarcube? Yer voice sounds funny”

“I’m fine, just… check the corner” Applejack looked around the corner.

“Well I don‘t see anyone, looks like yer-” The sound of a sapper being placed on her sentry filled her ears. “Spy sappin’ mah-” She was cut off by the RED Spy’s knife sinking into her back. In her last look she saw the Spy start to disguise as her, running away and mumbling to himself.

-----

“That dirty RED rat!” She respawned, fuming. Twilight was just about to leave the room, but turned back.

“You too, huh?”

“Yep. He was impersonatin you, Sugarcube”

“He got me by pretending to be Rainbow Dash. I should have known. Dash would never be on the ground instead of flying”

“So now we gotta be paranoid about our own friends tryin ta kill us. Great”

Twilight ran out of the room. Applejack ran down to her former sentry, still scattered around the ground. “Dirty good-fer-nothin…” She muttered under her breath as she set up a brand new dispenser and sentry. Both were soon fully upgraded. She hopped on top of her dispenser. “He can bet he won’t trick me again” She stood tall, surveying the room in a similar pattern to her sentry.

The sentry beeped thrice and a very surprised looking Demoman was blown to pieces. A Pyro ran in soon after, trying to burn the sentry but quickly meeting a similar fate. The orange mare laughed. “It’s gonna take more than a little fire to beat this baby”

Trixie ran around the corner a few minutes later. “You gotta run! They’re coming!”

Applejack scowled at Trixie for a second, giving her a rough hit on the head with the wrench.

“OW! What is wrong with you!?”

“Spycheckin” Applejack smirked.

“Next time can you do that without cracking me over the skull? Fine then. Deal with the Heavy and Medic coming in on your own” She ran off, rubbing her head.

“I will, ya baby!” She yelled after Trixie. “Pfft. I can handle it. It’ll take a miracle for them to get past”

“I am charged!” She heard from around the corner. The pair came around and Applejack screamed. The pair were glowing red like burning metal, their eyes shining a bright yellow. The Heavy laughed, shouting uproariously. “I AM BULLET PROOF!” The sentry fired at full force, but the bullets bounced harmlessly of the beast. But his minigun bullets tore into the Sentry. The orange pony hit the sentry as quickly as she could, but the bullets were doing damage faster than she could fix it. The sentry exploded and the Heavy’s fire came down upon her right after.

-----

“What the hay was that!?”

The Sniper looked up from the paper he was reading. “What happened?”

“The Heavy turned invincible and he was shiny and his eyes were glowing and -”

“Ubercharge”

“Uber-what now?”

“Ubercharge. It’s this special thing Medic’s can do. I think Engi took down a bunch of notes about it in this book” He held up a leather-bound book and handed it to Applejack. “He said to give this to you. Said you could use it if ya didn’t understand something. Oh, and this too” He handed her a shot gun, one that was much more ornate than the one she had at the moment.

“Wait, he told you? So came outta that room?”

“Only because there’s no food or bathroom in there. I just happened to see him Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll leave you to your reading” With that he left the room. Applejack looked at the book, then put it in her saddlebag. She ran to the intelligence. ‘Down here’s safer. I won’t have my stuff destroyed so quickly here. Plus I can look at this book’

She got the usual set up, then laid in the corner, delving into the books contents. Across the first few pages were tips of all kinds, some written carefully while others looked like they were written on the run, in blue and black ink, some even in pencil. She turned until she found a page headed with ‘Ubercharge’ and began reading.

-----

“Huh whazat?” She woke up, looking around. No one was around. A nearby clock told her she’d been down here for hours. At some point she had fallen asleep. She never was good at reading for long periods of time. She stood up and stretched, and as she did she saw what had woken her. A Scout’s leg was just barely poking out from behind the desk. Her sentry must have just got him.

“Good job, AJ!” Dash ran into the room. “I was tryin to catch him, but the little sneak got ahead of me” Trixie and Angel ran in soon after. “Too late guys, AJ got him. What have you been doin’ down here, Applejack? I haven’t seen you for hours!”

“I was… Uh… Readin! That’s it, readin” She smiled sheepishly. Trixie scoffed.

“Probably napping. I doubt you could be reading for two hours”

“What’s that supposed to mean. You sayin I’m dumb?”

“Your words, not mine, bumpkin”

The two started arguing fiercely. Dash dared not intervene, knowing she’d probably get one of Applejack’s famous kicks or get the full force of Trixie’s magic again. Angel however started looking angrier and angrier as the two traded insults

“Why I oughta-” “Oughta what!? Hit me in the head with a wrench again?” “Sounds pretty good to m-”

“ENOUGH!” Angel yelled. He jumped off the Sentry, and landed on Trixie’s back. A second later Trixie was on the ground, dead while the RED spy stood in Angel’s place. He threw a sapper onto the Sentry and fired twice with his ambassador: One hit Dash with a headshot, taking her out. The other hit Applejack’s leg. In pain she dropped her wrench. The man kicked the tool across the room and pointed the gun at her head as she lay on her back.

“Do you know what I’ve had to go through today? Any Idea!? You stupid horses have killed me more times today than I’ve died in the last month. You’re stupid flying Pyro and that Know-it-all Demo. I’ve had to pretend to be FIVE HORSES AND A RABBIT TODAY! This is easily the most humiliating day of my life. But at least I get the consolation of grabbing the Intel and killing you” Applejack panicked and threw a kick in desperation. Her hooves connected with the man’s stomach and he reeled backwards. She pulled out the new shotgun.

“I don’t take kindly to you killin mah friends. And Trixie. Time to dispense a little Frontier Justice!” As her sentence finished the Sapper finished off her sentry, and the tool began to glow with energy. One shot and the spy flew backwards, laying against the wall. She sighed as the announcer called combat for the day and headed back to the respawn for the night

-----

That night, The Engi came out to the campfire. He didn’t really talk much, accept for a brief apology for disappearing all day. Applejack sat next to the Engineer

“I’m sorry about all that. It wasn’t fair for me ta get mad. I’m fine with what I got”

“Well, there was actually something in the crate fer ya” Applejack pulled out a pair of black, thick-rimmed glasses. The bridge was held together with a rubber band and paper clip. “I call ‘em the Professor Speks. Givin to only the finest teacher’s, and you’ve earned em” The Engineer smiled, putting them on. “That book y’all gave me helped me a lot. I know it’s not much, I kinda had to fix em, seein as they were broke and sittin at the bottom of the box… Ya like em?”

He gave his protégé a hug. “Thank ya Applejack. I love em” The team sat, watching the crackling fire while the Engi played a quiet song to compliment the quiet night.