Trapped in Badwater Basin

by Willowwolf

Chapter 3: Encounter

“Listen up girls,” instructed Twilight, inside the spawn room, “I’m going to need each and every one of you out there and on your hooves if we want to win this. I’ll lead and Rainbow Dash will provide aerial support. Rarity. Applejack. Flank on the right and disarm as many of them as you can. While I’m creating a distraction, Pinkie and Fluttershy can sneak through the tunnel and attack from behind. We can win this if we cover each other’s backs. Is everyone ready?”

“YEAH.”

“THEN LET’S GO KICK SOME FLANK.”

Twilight busted out of the spawn room door holding somewhere between twenty and thirty guns in an aura three times the size of her body, screaming at the top of her lungs and shooting in all possible directions at once. Rainbow Dash bolted over the horizon in a zigzag path, Applejack and Rarity galloped over the boulders, and Pinkie and Fluttershy made a break for the tunnel.

Twilight mowed down the front lines with all the grace and precision of an orangutan with epilepsy, taking out Heavy, Medic and Soldier all at once, then focusing her efforts on the second line of defense. Applejack popped in and out of the rocky cover, disarming Pyro with a swift upward buck that sent its flamethrower in an arc across the battlefield. Rarity trotted alongside her, plucking the sticky launcher out of Demoman’s grasp. In the meantime, Twilight had already pushed the cart halfway through the tunnel. So far, the blue team was down three with two disarmed, and the ponies had received minimal return fire from the stunned opposition. Scout had fled as soon as the majority of his teammates had been rendered useless, Engineer picked up his gear and retreated for better cover, and Sniper followed shortly behind. With their agility, stamina, and massive element of surprise, the ponies were positively annihilating the unprepared enemy team.

Twilight was sure they had figured out the rules of the game.

• • •

Just past the first checkpoint, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie explored the concrete architecture. As they trotted through corridors and past door frames, a blue glow caught Fluttershy’s eye.

“Hey Pinkie,” Fluttershy said in a voice that sounded loud to her. “Pinkie, look!”

Pinkie Pie kept on bouncing along. ‘She probably heard me,’ thought Fluttershy.

Fluttershy cautiously peeked around the corner to investigate the source of the light.

“Twilight? Is that you?” she asked, as she continued into the room.

The small room was filled with a few objects that Fluttershy couldn’t place. One of them was short and spinning, another sort of tall and rocking. Yet a third just stood there, with a funny gauge on the front like she’d seen on some of Twilight’s inventions.

“Twilight?”

Just then the short spinning machine began to spin faster and glow more brightly, and Fluttershy closed her eyes to protect herself from the light. When she opened them again, a large human over twice her height stood in front of her. Fluttershy stood facing him, paralyzed in fear, legs shaking, looking up at him with her large teal eyes.

“Da,” said Heavy, looking curiously at Fluttershy and seeing that she was unarmed.

“Pony,” he spoke once more, while Fluttershy stood as still as she could, her legs unwilling to move.

The two of them stood facing each other for a few more seconds, neither sure of what to do.

“you . . . you can speak?” Fluttershy asked in a restrained sort of way, still looking up at Heavy.

“Da,” replied Heavy, “You speak too.” Heavy put his hand up to his chin and raised an eyebrow. “Is big surprise for me.”

Another moment passed by, the two of them looking directly at each other, trying to think of what to say. Fluttershy continued to look up at Heavy with her sparkling blue-green eyes, and an innocent smile gradually made its way across Heavy’s face. Fluttershy saw Heavy smiling and she couldn’t help but start smiling too. Her legs stopped shaking, and she blew her hair out of the way of her eyes.

“You . . . are . . . adorable!” said Heavy as his expression erupted into a big goofy smile. He picked up Fluttershy behind the front legs, gave her a small hug, and held her out at arm’s length, the both of them beaming at each other the whole time.

“Soldier said to fight you,” Heavy said, with a slight frown on his face, “Soldier is great leader. But I also think Soldier sometimes is wrong.”

Heavy put Fluttershy down and paused another moment in reflection.

“Why do we fight ponies?”

“I guess I don’t blame you,” replied Fluttershy softly, “After all Discord said this is a game, and it makes sense that you would want to win . . .”

“Dis cord?” asked Heavy, picking up an electrical wire running out of Engie’s dispenser.

“He put us here and made us play, and he made me cry too,” Fluttershy said firmly, “I hate him so much, he doesn’t even care about us. It’s all for his own fun, nobody else matters to him.”

“Sounds like Announcer,” replied Heavy. “She put us in many many battles. She does not ask if we are tired or need break. All that matters is if we win. She says we win more battles, then we get break.”

The small spinning device began to pick up speed again, and in another flash of light, a leaner figure appeared in front of Fluttershy. She jumped and backed a few steps away, looking back at the doorway.

Medic’s eyes locked onto Fluttershy’s as she hunched down and took a few more steps backwards.

“Raus, RAUS,” Medic projected firmly towards Heavy. “Schnell, Heavy, ze pony is our enemy!”

Heavy stood there taken aback, his gaze divided between Medic and Fluttershy. So many thoughts were running through Heavy’s simple mind, and he just stood there trying to make heads and tails of everything.

“Pony is . . . friend?” said Heavy, looking up weakly into Medic’s piercing frown of disapproval.

“No, Dummkopf, pony is enemy.”

Heavy stood there for another moment, looking at Fluttershy and then back up at Medic.

As Heavy’s gun began to rev up, Fluttershy scampered down the hallway and out of sight.

• • •

As the teams adjusted to each others’ attack patterns, the battle became more chaotic and evenly matched. Over a handful of respawns, Twilight and Applejack had managed to push the cart past the first checkpoint, and had begun progressing towards the middle of the map. Pyro was chasing Pinkie all around the battlefield, but couldn’t manage to keep up. Engineer and Sniper had picked up a few more times in retreat, taking cover as the offensive front advanced. Both teams had lost all organization, and combat had more or less devolved into a free-for-all.

Engineer and Sniper were chatting with each other near their mechanical stronghold, which sat on top of a building overlooking the second cart checkpoint.

“I’ve got to thinkin’,” started Engineer, as Sniper was concentrating on battle, “Why exactly would Announcer send out little horses to fight us?”

Engineer sat down next to where Sniper was standing, his legs dangling over the edge of the building.

“Is she fixin’ to humiliate us, maybe?” Engineer continued, “‘Cause it’s workin’ if you ask me. Maybe it’s another test, just to try and see if we can keep the team together . . .”

Sniper continued to look down his scope, taking shots now and then.

As Engineer turned around to check up on his gadgets, he found Applejack staring him square in the face, with Rarity behind her, backing her up with a sticky launcher.

“I’ll send you ruffians right back to where you came from!” exclaimed Rarity emphatically, yet managing to retain propriety in her voice.

Engineer raised his hands, reluctantly accepting his fate. Sniper ignored them and kept on shooting into the distance, figuring he might be able to get a couple more shots off before being sent back to spawn.

“Now wait just one minute sugarcube,” said Applejack, “maybe these fellows have some last words.”

Engineer thought for a moment as Sniper took a few more shots across the map. He let out a sigh, and looked down at nothing in particular.

“Y’all remind me of someone . . .” Engineer said, turning his head towards the far-away battlefront. “Y’all remind me of my days at university. Things were simple back then - I would set off in the day to study, and at night I would come back and tend the farm with my Pop.”

Engineer sat for a minute in reminiscence. The battle raged on as a single tear rolled down Engineer’s face.

“Y’all remind me of my very first horse, Cassy. Beauty she was, passed down to me by my father. We used to go everywhere together. I rode her to university every day, and every day I would take her past the general store to buy her a fresh apple and a sugarcube. Times were tough, what I spent I didn’t have, so I had to take the first job I got, which was here. I promised I’d come back as soon as I could afford to.”

Engineer covered his forehead with one hand. Tears were streaming down his face, and his breaths were heavy and irregular.

“She died a year after I got here. I’ll never forget the day I received that letter from my Pop.”

Engineer took a deep breath and wiped his tears on his sleeve. He looked up at Applejack, his voice fortified with resolve.

“It’s my fault for not staying at the ranch.”

Applejack and Rarity stood silently across from Engineer, eyes wide open in shock. Sniper was still shooting into the distance, oblivious, and beginning to forget there were others beside him.

A figure of a yellow pony slinked up aggressively behind Rarity and Applejack, and a second later they found themselves back at spawn.

• • •

“Fat guy on your right! Explosion man up on the building! Rocket man just around the bend!”

Rainbow Dash was up in the air, relaying back and forth over the battlefront and barking overhead intel to Twilight, who kept steady pace with the cart. They had made it past the second checkpoint and were pushing further and further into enemy territory. Rainbow Dash had been in the air since the teams first met, yet hadn’t been hit once the whole time. Sniper had long since given up on her, preferring the easier targets on the ground, and the rest of the team had realized she was out of range and not a direct threat. As the battle progressed, Rainbow’s turns were becoming loose and sloppy, and she found herself fighting air resistance.

“Twilight I’m takin’ a break!” Rainbow shouted over the noise.

She turned back and landed on the building near the second checkpoint. Rainbow took a deep breath, stretching her legs and wings. She wanted to be quick in getting back to Twilight, but she’d been flying near top speed for a while, and realized that a few seconds rest could mean a few more minutes in the air.

After taking a few deep breaths, Rainbow stretched one last time in preparation to rejoin the battle.

As she saw Twilight push the cart in the distance, she watched Scout run parallel to her through the buildings, ducking and dodging through doorways. A few yards in front of him was an exit to the main battle area. He was going for a surprise attack on Twilight, Rainbow was sure of it.

Rainbow Dash jumped in the air and took off at full speed towards her opponent. In less than a second she had covered almost a quarter of the battlefield. In approaching Scout she braced herself, planning to take him down and yell for Twilight’s attention.

Just as Rainbow Dash was about to make contact, Scout jumped a bit up in the air to clear a piece of terrain, causing Rainbow Dash to hit his feet as she swooped by. The surprise impact caused Scout to flip over backwards, his hat, gun and headset landing in the packed dirt behind him. Rainbow Dash stopped in mid-air and glanced back at the crash site, seeing Scout and his accessories strewn across the sand in display. Rainbow flew over to get a better look.

“You okay?” Rainbow asked, holding back a chuckle.

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Scout yelled enthusiastically. “I seen guys pop out from behind buildings, jump down from ledges, peek around corners and even go invisible. Ain't never seen a guy come clean out of the sky like that.”

“Not a guy, mister. Name’s Rainbow Dash and that’s kind of what I do. I’ve been in and out of the sky since I was a little filly.”

“Yeah, well a team could do good to have someone like you around, just takin’ out knuckleheads from the clouds the whole time. Say, you’re awful fast for a little ball of fluff, would you mind helpin’ me gather up my junk?”

Rainbow Dash and Scout both burst into laughter. “As if,” she said, rolling her eyes, "I’m not about to give you your weapons back.”

“Yeah well I thought it was worth a try at least. It worked one time on Heavy.”

“So where are you guys from? Where exactly is this place?” inquired Rainbow Dash, sitting down next to Scout as the battle receded farther into the distance.

“You mean they didn’t tell you?” Scout asked, looking at Rainbow Dash in disbelief. “TF Industries, weapons manufacturer. The one over there’s a Scattergun Model 104. They make prototype versions of these guns and give ‘em to us. Our job is to fight on this simulated battlefield, they do the numbers and then give us more weapons to try. They’re all totally harmless, the prototypes at least.”

Scout paused with a smirk, then asked Rainbow Dash half-jokingly, “Wait, are they even payin’ you?”

“I’m stuck here - not sure how I ended up in this place actually.”

“Aren’t we all,” Scout replied with a snicker.

“If they’re paying, though,” continued Rainbow Dash, “I gotta remember to collect my paycheck.”

She thought for a moment, then looked back up at Scout.

“Payment in bits, right?”

“Dollars, and what are bits, anyway?” Scout asked. “I’m guessin’ you’re not from around here, I mean I ain’t never heard of usin’ bits as money. Guess I haven’t seen too many talkin’ horses either.”

“Proud Pegasus from Cloudsdale, and don’t you forget it. Winner of the best flier award, first pony to break the sound barrier, and all around best gal to hang out with.”

The conversation went silent, and Rainbow Dash and Scout sat for a moment looking at each other awkwardly.

“Well I gotta go back and be there for my team,” Rainbow Dash said. “Maybe I’ll catch up with you later.”

With that, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and flew back towards the action.

Comments

[themultiversewatcher]

Fluttershy and Heavy, match made in Badwater Basin.

[The Scout]

Somethin' tells me the Administrator met freakin' Merasmus and he did his magic thing to get ponies from another dimension.
I learned my lesson a while ago and if I don't question it I get another couple hats and the occasional new weapon. Still though, screw Merasmus and the Administrator for tormenting talkin' ponies, even if one of themselves rainbow and I almost broke down. It's not funny OK!