Eternal Conflict

by Sparkz

Chapter 1

"Alert! The final control point is being contested!"

Berry Punch turned around at the sound of the alert. "Horsefeathers! Not again!" Not even hesitating for a moment, she turned toward the last remaining control point and took off. She reached for a switch on a divice she was holding and instantly, multiple explosions sounded the moment the switch was pressed. Berry reached the last control point in almost no time at all to be greeted by a four legged figure in a fireproof suit and a gas mask. Berry looked around for anyone else that might be there. "Anybody else here, Pinkie?" She asked hastily.

"Nope! Just set the last one on fire!" She replied in a cheery tone.

Berry rolled her eyes. Even after all these years, Berry was still unable to figure out how Pinkie can remain so cheerful in the middle of a war. But then again, questioning Pinkie Pie was pointless. Nevertheless, she proceeded to use the divice she was holding to cover the last control point with sticky bombs again. These remote activated bombs that could stick to any and all surfaces were useful for keeping foes off control points to prevent them from capturing them. Berry turned back towards the fight. "I'm going to help cap the next point. You stay here and stand guard."

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie replied before Berry took off again. After making sure she was gone, Pinkie chuckled and pulled out something from her saddle bag. A revolver. Pinkie proceeded to shoot every sticky bomb that was on the last control point. The mask that she was wearing fell off and revealed that it wasn't Pinkie Pie at all. It was the BLU spy. "Scout! She's gone!"

* * * * *

Berry Punch quickly made her way back to the other ponies who were trying to fend off enemies while trying to cap the control point. The area they were currently in was known as Foundry. The objective: take control of major points of the land known as control points. This specific area had five. Once a team was able to capture all of the control points, the land was declared theirs until they battled on it again. One of the former engineer ponies had rigged the control points so that if any one of the BLU team were to begin taking control of them, they would be notified by a computer simulated voice. However, he messed up in the process and gave the same luxuries to the humans, themselves. The engineer was able to program several other voices for several other scenarios but he was killed before he was able to fix the initial problem.

Berry Punch weaved herself out of the way of bullets that were whizzing by and scanned the area. The enemy Heavy Weapons user was trying to chase down Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were trying to double team the Soldie- wait a second... Pinkie Pie?! Berry began panicking. In one swift movement, she got out her grenade launcher and helped finish off the Soldier then immediately faced Pinkie afterwards. "How are you over here?! I thought you were defending the last control point!"

"How can I be over there when I'm over here, silly filly? I can't be in two places at once. *gasp* or can I?? That would be so cool! I could-"

While Pinkie proceeded to talk amongst herself, Fluttershy trotted over and whispered to Berry. "Um, sorry to interrupt but Pinkie has been with me the whole time. I hope that's okay..." The color in Berry's face drained "What?? But then who did I..." Berry quickly checked how many stickies she had primed. The counter currently showed zero. But that was impossible! She had just set down a new layer! So then what happened to... "Uh oh."

"Alert! The final control point is being contested!"

"Shoot!" Berry frantically tried to turn around and get back to the last point but it was already too late.

"You've failed!"

Berry skidded to a halt and facehoofed. "Argh... Well that's just great! That's the tenth straight match that we've los- Woah! What the-?!" Berry had to sidestep to avoid being run over by Rainbow Dash who was hastily running away.

"Higirls! Can'tstayandchat! Gottarun!" she said quickly before flying off.

Pinkie decided to try and go after her. "Wait! Dashie! Where are you going??" she asked as she ran off in pursuit of her rainbow-maned friend.

"What in Equestria was she running fro- oh..." Berry met face to face with a minigun barrel which was currently being revved up. "So that's what..." Berry, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, who couldn't get away in time, were promptly filled with bullet holes.

* * * * *

"Ugh... ten straight matches. This is seriously getting old. Can we not get lucky for one day??" Berry complained out loud after respawning in the Red base. And how did I not recognize such an obvious spy??

"And where in the hay were you when ah was trying to beat that Demoman?!" A very upset Applejack said to Twilight as they both re spawned. "You know darn well that ah can't defend mah sentries from those bombs!" Twilight shot a glare right back at Applejack. "Well excuse me for trying to keep the last point from being captured! Why in the name of Celestia was your sentry near the middle point anyway?? The most it was doing was being another target!" she shot back irritably. Applejack rolled her eyes. "Well ah was TRYING to set up some defense in case we capped the second point, which I've been doing in nearly every match! But it seems somepony had better ideas then to help a teammate out!"

"Excuse me??" A new voice said. Rainbow Dash appeared right as Applejack began her rebuttal to Twilight's comment. "Who's helping who out, now? You weren't anywhere NEAR us at all!"

"Umm, girls?"

"Ah was setting up for the middle point!" Applejack repeated, almost shouting.

"Girls, I really think we should-"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Oh and a great deal of help that was. You could have easilly helped us defend the last point or capture the next one. If you had been there for either of them, we might still be out there and we might have won!"

"Girls-"

"It's not like you were any better 'miss professional assassin'! How did you not even notice that pyro, anyway?? It was right in front of you and you completely missed it!!" Rainbow shot back at Twilight.

"Girls-"

"WHAT?!" All three of them turned on Fluttershy and yelled. The room quickly became silent at the outburst. They didn't even have time to register what they had just did before Fluttershy broke down and ran off crying. The other ponies, who had all respawned by now, all stared at the three of them in shock save for Big Macintosh who just shook his head and sighed in disappointment. Rainbow Dash facehoofed, feeling rather embarressed. "Oh great... now we've done it. We've upset Fluttershy again," she groaned. Applejack lowered her head in guilt. "Ah guess we were getting a little bit too heated there..," Applejack agreed. Twilight sighed and began making her way towards the room Fluttershy ran in. "I'll go try and calm her down."

"You might wanna double time that, private. Next mission begins in seven minutes at the gravel pit and we can't fight when we're a man short," a gray pegasus with a blonde mane said in a gruff voice.

Twilight cringed upon hearing her voice. "Alright, I'll keep that in mind, Derpy. I can't make any promises that she'll be ready, though..." she muttered, dejectedly.

Twilight found Fluttershy crouched in one of the corners of one of the resupply rooms, crying. Twilight felt another wave of guilt pass through her as she slowly trotted over to her. "Fluttershy?" She tried to get her attention but Fluttershy showed no signs that she had even heard her. If she did, she didn't acknowledge it. Twilight moved closer and lay next to her in an attempt to comfort her. After what seemed like several minutes, Fluttershy finally spoke.

"It's b-bad enough that we have to fight to live in our own land... but when we start f-fighting with ourselves?" She said in between sobs. "Wh-what's the point in fighting for our land if none of us can get along?" Twilight felt terrible. They had been arguing for a long time but hadn't even stopped to think about how anypony else might be feeling."I know, Fluttershy... I guess that it just this war that's getting to us. It's messing with our heads, making us say and do things we normally would never do... *sigh* but that's not really an excuse, is it?" Fluttershy didn't even open her eyes to shake her head. "Everypony fights with each other almost all of the time. How can we work well together when we keep getting mad at each other? It's so unfair! It makes me so upset!"

"I know, Fluttershy. And I'm really sorry... we all are. We all feel really bad about arguing with each other. You're right. It's not fair. Not to us or to you... So from now on, we're not going to get on each others' nerves. We'll work together as a team to get Equestria back. Okay?" Fluttershy sniffed and rubbed away the tears in her eyes. "No more fighting?" She asked meekly. Twilight nodded. "No more fighting." Twilight stayed with Fluttershy for another few minutes until she calmed down.

* * * * *

The other six ponies began to make their way to the base stationed at the gravel pit. For once, everypony was completely silent with tension high after what took place in the main Red base. Applejack was the first one to finally break the silence.

"Ahm sorry I snapped at y'all the way ah did. It was a little unprofessional." Rainbow Dash glanced at her and snorted. "A little?" She received a rather hard hit from Rarity. Applejack narrowed her eyes but managed to hold back a retort. "All right, a might unprofessional. Ah guess this battle is doing more to me than gettin me killed over and over."

"I have to agree," Rarity intervened, causing attention to shift to her, "I think I speak for all of us when I say that it's trying everypony's patience." There were murmurs of agreement from everypony. "I suppose that we've been too focused on fighting that we lose ourselves in combat. None of us even spared a second thought on how others might have been feeling. Even Fluttershy..," Rarity's gaze drifted downwards out of guilt but she forced herself to look back up and keep an upbeat tone. "But we must keep spirits high! Remember that the fate of what's left of Equestria rests solely on us nine and we simply cannot win if we're constantly at each others throats." Berry Punch nodded. "So! We have to make an extra effort to have each others backs out there from now on. Lend out a helping hoof to those who need one and, most importantly, not argue. All agreed?" The agreement was considerably louder than a murmur this time.

Pinkie Pie began to bounce again. "Yay! We're friends again! From now on, no more fighting against ourselves! Let's all Pinkie Promise to that!" Everypony in the room smiled and chuckled at the pink pony's cheerful antics and then recited the Pinkie Promise in unison.

"Yay! Now let's do it everypony! For Equestria!" The room suddenly got MUCH livelier. Everypony let out a cheer so loud, they barely heard the warning given to them.

"Mission begins in sixty seconds."

* * * * *

Twilight looked up when the sixty second warning sounded out. Wow. It was amazing how fast time went by sometimes, she thought. She gave Fluttershy a soft nudge. "Come on Fluttershy. They need us out there." Fluttershy took a deep breath, finally calming down completely. She nodded and began toward the medigun, which she used to heal her teammates in battle. Twilight grabbed her favorite sniper rifle, a black, armored rifle that fired powerful tracer rounds, and fastened it to her back. "We're headed towards the gravel pit, by the way." Fluttershy simply nodded in response. She pointed her medigun at Twilight and began to overheal her to build up her invulnerability charge. The both of them began their way towards the gravel pit.

By the time they both got there, the others had already began setting up outside. There was, however, a teleporter graciously provided by Applejack. Fluttershy was the first to step into it. After reappearing, she immediately found Applejack and began to overheal her. Applejack looked up at Fluttershy and smiled. "Thank ya kindly. Ya feeling better?" Fluttershy gave a meek smile and nodded. "Where's Derpy or Big Mac?" "Ah think they went towards point B." Applejack said waving a hoof in the direction as well. Fluttershy immediately flew off towards point B to meet up with the other ponies.

Fluttershy began to overheal Big Mac as soon as she got there. Big Mac took notice of his sudden health buff and turned around to see that Fluttershy was back. "Y'all okay?" He asked. The other ponies that were present- Derpy and Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash, Berry and Rarity must have been elsewhere- looked behind them as well when they head Big Mac talking to Fluttershy. Pinkie began bouncing energetically. "Yay! Fluttershy! You're back! Ohmygosh it would have been so boring without you!" Fluttershy giggled at Pinkie Pie, trying to figure out how she even came to that conclusion. Boring? During a war? And Fluttershy too, of all ponies. Nevertheless... "Thanks Pinkie. And I'm alright." Derpy also acknowledged Fluttershy's return. "Good to have you back soldier. Now let's get prepared for battle!" she said, getting everypony to focus on the enemy again.

Fluttershy began to alternate teammates to heal, keeping them all overhealed, until she had built up enough of her übercharge. "I'm fully charged!" She, along with the rest of the team, awaited the beginning of the battle.

"Mission begins in ten seconds!"

* * * * *

Twilight reappeared on the teleporter exit and was instantly greeted by Applejack. "Well Fluttershy's feeling a lot better. What all did you say to her?" Twilight studied her surroundings, looking to see where the teleporter led her to. "I basically told her that we wouldn't fight like that again... which we should probably do, by the way." Applejack upgraded the dispenser to level three before condensing it into carry-on form and putting it on her back. "Don't worry too much about that. We all Pinkie Promised anyway." Twilight laughed. "So then if the humans aren't the death of us, it'll be Pinkie if we break that promise." Applejack laughed with her friend.

They both began making their way to point A. "By the way," Twilight said after a few seconds, "why did you leave the sentry at point C?" Applejack shifted a little bit, remembering their previous argument regarding this topic. "Ah left it there in case the other points are captured. It would give us some time to start setting up for the last one. And the way Ah left it, it also blocks off one way to get to B... or it'll delay them long enough for everypony else to get to B if A is capped."

"But you realize you could just set it up at one of the other points to prevent that from even becoming an issue?" Twilight asked carefully, remembering the argument too. "Ah understand Twilight. But ah just wanna see if this works. If it ends up just being another target, I'll set it up somewhere else. Deal?" Twilight still had a few misgivings about her decision but decided it was a fair compromise. "Deal. And... I'm sorry I wasn't helping as much as I should have been. If you need me, just give me a shout and I'll be on my way." Applejack smiled. She set down her dispenser on point A in a place as out of line of enemy fire as possible. "Thanks Twilight. Ah appreciate it." Twilight nodded and ran off to one of her favorite sniping spots.

"Mission begins in ten seconds."

Applejack pulled out her shotgun and ran to group up with Berry and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow smirked as the two ponies arrived. "You girls ready?" Twilight and Applejack just nodded. Everypony waited in anticipation for the last remaining seconds to tick away.

5

4

3

2

1

...begin!

Author's Note:

My first fanfic in anything! Huzzah! I would really appreciate some good feedback here. I want to know what I did well and what I need to work on. Mostly the latter. And now, the class list.
Scout- Rainbow Dash (duh)
Soldier- Derpy Hooves
Pyro- Pinkie Pie
Demo- Berry Punch
Heavy- Big Macintosh
Engie- Applejack
Medic- Fluttershy
Sniper- Twilight Sparkle
Spy- Rarity

EDIT: I'm not actually dead and there actually is a story of which I am the author of! Ugh... I don't even know why I took this long to get almost nothing done

Anyway, to those who care, no this update didn't add any new chapters but I have been in the writing mood lately so I may actually make progress... or maybe procrastination will hit me again.

Comments

[Bronyhood of steel]

not bad story hope you continue it also will the robots arrive?

[Sparkz]

2486139 Nope! Not giving spoilers! You'll just have to wait and see

[Sparkz]

I'm really sorry for the long delay everyone. I chose the absolute worst possible time to start a fanfic. The final nine weeks of school! What was I thinking? Anyway, the next chapter won't be out for another few weeks because end of course exams are coming up (groan...) Just thought I'd let you all know.