Chapter 2: FREEDOM!

~~~1000 years later~~~

~~~Alex's: Engineer POV~~~

'-and so,' Discord continued, 'that is how I believe everything should exist... what do you think?

If I could move my body at all, my eye would've been twitching for, if I remember correctly, two-to-three centuries just from listening to this madman... er... mad-draconequus? If I have to listen to this freak-o'-nature for too much longer, I think I will become more insane than Medic... well he's not exactly insane... he's me mixed with Medic's mind. Scratch that he probably is clinically insane by now if he can-

"-this is a really interesting statue," a voice, an actual voice, said. "What do you notice about it?" If I'm not mistaken that sounded like an adult female, wait that means-

"It's got an eagle claw!" said a rather young voice with an accent like mine, ah right, Applebloom

"And a lion paw!" said another young voice that sounded suspiciously like a female, child Scout, obviously Scootaloo.

"And a snake tail!" said another young voice with a little bit of etiquette-accent like Spy's, but not as fancy, gonna guess Sweetie Belle.

"This creature is called a draconequus," said the adult female voice, right Cheerilee, "he has the head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things. What do you suppose that represents?"

At this point I started ignoring the conversation since I know they are talking about Discord, our mental pain-in-the-ass.

"Hey, Ms. Cheerilee?" I heard Applebloom talking to Cheerilee.

"Yes, Applebloom?" I heard Cheerilee ask.

"What about this group of statues standing on two legs?" Applebloom asked, I'm gonna listen just in case I pick up something important.

"Ah, what an excellent question!" said Cheerilee. "It is said that these creatures appeared one day, seemingly running from something in the woods that they came from, or to help defeat the draconequus hat appeared 1000 years ago."

After that I heard a large group of young ones 'oh' and 'ah' at us. If only half of that was true, me and Spy were just trying to keep up with the others to prevent them from causing panic, damage, or both-

*crack*

...OK, what in Sam Hill is going on to create that noise? The fillies left along with the teacher already so-

*CRACK*

...Huh... that felt odd... wait... FELT?!

*CRA-BOOM*

~~~~~~~~

Ugh, this hurt's worse than when I first woke up in Equestria, but how am I feeling ANYTHING right now? As I get up, I groan and here the others groan as well, apparently we are all free. But how-

"Well hello there, my little friends," says a voice that has annoyed me for the last 1000 years.

"Discord?" I ask, though I already knew the answer.

"The one and only, anyways your welcome for your freedom, feel free to do what ever you please, right now, it is time to cause some CHAOS!" Discord laughs as he floats away on an anvil... wait, what?

"Ummm..." I hum to myself then look at the others, "what now?"

"FREEEEEEDOOOMMM!!!" Demoman shouts, then everyone glares at him, he then clears his throat, "sorry, I just had to you know?" Huh, I guess being trapped in stone for the last 1000 years with the time to practice his accent really paid off.

"Anyways, let's get to work," Spy announces, "we need to stop Discord, only this time, we do NOT get trapped in stone, agreed?"

Me and the other seven shout our agreement.

"And Scout?"

"Yeah?" Scout asked.

"No running off this without a plan seeing as how well that worked out last time." Spy scolded.

Scout grumbles as Heavy, Sniper, Demoman, and Soldier laugh to his annoyance. Spy then waves us all in for a huddle to discuss our plan.

~~~10 minutes later~~~

OK, so far, somehow, everything was going according to plan, including our navigation of the castle and avoidance of any of the Royal Guard. The Royal Garden is a lot further away from the stain glass hall than we probably first thought, but we got there eventually. Finding Princess Celestia and the Mane 6 all in the same room and, if I'm not mistaken, just after Discord gave them their clue towards finding the Elements of Harmony that he placed elsewhere.

"Twists and turns..." I just barely managed to hear Twilight Sparkle mumble to herself, "Canterlots Royal Garden! The Elements have got to be there-"

"I'm afraid not," Spy interrupted, alerting the ponies in the room to our presence. "For, you see, we just came from there."

Fluttershy 'eeped' and hid behind Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash got in front of their friends and made themselves look threatening, Twilight just teleported to the spot beside her friends eyes squinted and horn ablaze with magic, and Celestia... had a look of shock and familiarity.

"It's OK my little ponies," Celestia says, to my shock, "they are not here to harm us, in fact I believe they are here to help us."

The Mane 6, me, and the rest of my team all slack-jawed looked at her like she was crazy.

"How'd you... how'd you know we were gonna help miss?" I ask.

"Well, all of you obviously are not from around here," Celestia stated matter-of-factly, "maybe Discord's the reason you are here, after all he doesn't do anything to make sense."

I just stared at her, then said, "I'm... kinda disappointed, though I guess this saves us a lot of trouble."

"Huh?" the Mane 6 all say simultaneously.

"I was guess I was expecting... I dunno, maybe you to not trust us and there would be a lot of misunderstandings between you and us, and then eventually us getting along because we help save Equestria, help save you or your sister, or something. I guess I was just expecting a bit of opposition is all."

After that explanation, there was a long and tense silence, when suddenly Celestia burst out laughing. Me and my team all just looked at the Mane 6 awkwardly, who had just done the exact same thing, then back to Celestia.

When she gained control of herself she said, "That... that was the most ridiculous thing... I have ever heard."

I frown at her, "Well hey I bet it's not everyday you have some creature plopped in front of you that wants to help you in some way or another. For all you knew, we probably wanted you dead, that was what we did for a living, mercenaries, we backstab, defend, take hits, heal, blow-up, demolish, slash, smash, and pretty much anything that can be done physically without magic, but with science."

"Yes," Celestia says, "but considering what you just said, you used to... so why don't you anymore?"

"To put it bluntly," I say, "we are out of the job and considering we aren't on Earth anymore, at least from the info I've obtained, I kinda doubt that your country takes this type of currency." I pullout a stack of hundred dollar bills (found this on ourselves 1000 years ago, $10,000 a stack, had we been on Earth, we would be the richest people in existence).

"Hmmm... well..." Celestia starts, "we could do a reimbursement, it can't be that-"

"Ma'am how many... uh..." I start thinking through my memories, "bits? Bits can buy a tomato?"

"On average about two bits," Celestia answers. "why?"

"Well," I hold a single one hundred dollar bill, "tomatoes on average were about 19 cents a pound and the tomatoes you usually have are about medium, give or take, so that means about 4 tomatoes for 19 cents and a cent is a fraction of a one dollar bill. There are a few different varieties of dollar bills, what I have here is a stack of 100 dollar bills, with a single 100 dollar bill, I can buy about... errr..." pulls out pda which doubles as a calculator, " about 2,106 tomatoes, and considering that there are 100 of these 100 dollar bills in this stack..." uses the pda again, "I can buy about 210,527 tomatoes with just this stack alone, but me and my team have a stack for each one of us meaning I can buy about 1,894,737 tomatoes. In total, if I'm not mistaken that would be about... 3,789,474 bits, give or take a couple."

Celestia, Twilight, AJ, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie all slack-jawed at the numbers that they were just told.

Celestia regained her composure and said, "Well... I think I have enough in the Royal treasury to reimburse you, but don't tell anypony your wealth because not even the richest noble in Canterlot has that much, but we will get to that later, right now Discord."

"Right!" me and Twilight said at the same time then looked at each other then remembered why I was here.

"Oh yeah and I'm pretty sure the hedge maze would be a trap of some sort. Could you repeat the riddle Discord spoke I barely heard it on the way here."

"Oh, sure!" Twilight exclaimed, then cleared her throat. "'Twists and turn are my master plan, find the Elements back where you began'."

"Hmm..." I pretend to ponder, then came up with an idea, "Twilight 'twists and turns' have nothing to do with finding the Elements, 'back where you began'... you... weren't originally the Element bearer were you?"

"No," Twilight answered, "I only learned enough about the Elements in the... reference... guide..." Twilight's eyes widened and then she ran up and hugged me. "You are a GENIUS! Thank you mister... um..."

"Just call me Alex if you want, but my friends call me Engineer or Engie," I answer her unspoken question, "and it weren't nothin'".

"Thank you, Mr. Alex," Twilight then turned to her friends. "Come on girls we've got a job to do." Then Twilight and the other ponies besides Celestia left the castle.

"Um..." Spy ponders, "should... should we go help them or...?"

"I think they will be quite OK, right Celestia?" I ask.

"Indeed, this is not the first threat they have faced with the Elements of Harmony." Celestia responds.

Chapter 3: Setting Up

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~~~Zander's: Medic's POV~~~

~~~The day After Discord's (2nd) Defeat~~~

Well, our first day being freed from being turned into stone statues was, rather interesting... being that it was also the same day that Discord was freed... then turned to stone... again. It really is too bad, he was quite the conversationalist, considering he was as predictable as the weather back home... which was 'not at all'. Maybe Engineer and Spy were onto something when saying that we might've had our original personalities mixed with a much more tame version of the characters we look like... I might need to see a psychiatrist when we first get a chance, considering the... 'issues' Medic had according to video game and comic lore.

Anyways, back onto the topic I must bring up to my comrades.

*ahem*

The other 8 and Celestia all stopped their conversation and looked at me.

"I don't mean to be rude, but," I start, "I and my friends here all appreciate letting us stay here at the castle, while ve are here but, I believe I speak for all of us when I say we all feel... what's the phrase? 'Out-of-our-element' I believe is the phrase."

The others nod in agreement, and Celestia nods in understanding.

"Of course," Celestia says, "if there is any place you would like to be, you can live there, is there anywhere specific you would like?"

Me and my team look at each other and I realized only four of us would be good for deciding where a good place to live that WOULDN'T leave us bankrupt, though that is almost impossible if what Celestia said is true about the amount of bits we have. Me, Engineer, Sniper, and Spy looked at each other and looked at the other five who, each in their own way, gestured towards us to make the decision.

"May we have a map, Princess?" Spy asked.

"Of course, my apologies," Celestia said sheepishly, floating a map over in her magic "I didn't think to get a map soon after the idea was suggested."

"It's fine," Engineer said, shrugging, "'twas an honest mistake, after all you're not used to dealing with, literally, out-of-this-world creatures who've never been here before."

Celestia giggled, "You're all so kind, I might appreciate having you around more often."

"Anyways," I interrupted, waving "not to be rude, again, but I believe we need to make an important decision," I said as I gestured toward the map.

"Of course," said Celestia, "take your time, and let me know when you have come to a decision."

"We will," Spy said, "we are going to be wise about our decision."

We all looked over the map as Celestia started to drink her tea that she had brought in to share with us. Unfortunately, I, with a mix of Medic, don't seem to like tea so I declined along with Engineer for obvious reasons, but Spy and Sniper agreed to have have some tea.

"Alright," Engineer said, looking over the map, "if we're all thinking at-least one thing that is the same right now it's that we're going to live nearby the Mane 6 correct?" The rest of us nodded, "alright, so, we're probably going to live in a rather large place so..."

"So it's going to have to be hidden," Spy finished, "and, in a place that not many ponies go to. It also needs to be..."

"Strategically placed," Sniper finished, "just in case if anything, particularly dangerous and decides to follow us, needs to be... 'put down'", he says with emphasis.

Then we all looked to one place on the map that was perfect for all those conditions and then some. We looked to Celestia who was pouring herself another cup of tea and nodded at her gaining her attention.

"Did you all decide where you are going to start your lives?" Celestia asks, as she starts to drink her tea.

"Of course," Spy said, as he checks the time on his Deadringer pocket-watch, "we have decided that the Everfree Forest best fits for where we would like to-"

Celestia's eyes widen and she does a spit-take at Spy, who let out a scream of agony then fell on the ground un-moving when the tea hit him. Just as we all realize what happened, and while Celestia was still coughing from the spit-take, a rather loud electric-like noise is heard and Spy is seen standing over his own body with eyes wide himself, as he looks at his own body. He then crouches down moves his hand towards his body and, just as he is about to touch it, THROUGH his own body.

"Of course," Spy said, "it leaves a hologram of a body not a real body, that would just be awkward to clean-up later." Spy turns toward Celestia, "Sorry for the scare Princess, I didn't know that you could drink tea at THAT high of a temperature, and I also didn't know that my device would activate because of it," he bowed in apology.

"O-of course," Celestia said, still a little shaken from what just happen, "t-though, would you please explain how you did that and how any other pieces of equipment you have that may surprise me work?"

"Of course," Spy said, then frowned, "but unfortunately, that conversation will have to be for a later time. Right now, we are waiting on your response, besides the spit-take, on our request."

"Indeed," Celestia said with a frown, "but, I must ask, are you aware of the dangers that live within the Everfree Forest?"

"But of course," Spy says, as e gestures toward us, "sure we may have been imprisoned in stone for the last 1000 years," at that Celestia cringed, "but we were still able to hear what other ponies passing by were saying and especially what Discord was saying.

"The Everfree may be dangerous, but I doubt that in it have ever encountered anything as dangerous as us." Spy said as the rest of us either smiled and nodded or fist-pumped and cheered.

"I see," Celestia said, then smiled, "very well, you now own whatever land you may need in the Everfree Forest to do as you please, just..." she looked at us with worry in her eyes, "just don't be reckless, OK?"

We all nodded, knowing that if we were too reckless on this venture, we probably won't be coming back.

"Oh," I said, as I held up one finger with my hand, "would it be too much to ask for a ride there? A simple teleport would also do, it might even be faster!"

"Are you sure?" Celestia asks, "Some species are not used to teleportation and, while temporary, get severe side-effects."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine," I state matter-of factly, "we've been using scientific teleportation for awhile now and the only side-effect that we ever found was not happening to us, but to bread. The bread gained tumors, and after a couple more teleports, it became alive, but also carnivorous, then tried to eat me, but, as you can see, I'm no worse for wear."

Celestia was just staring with her jaw on the floor, she then recovered but continued to had pinprick-sized pupils.

"Al-alright," Celestia said, stumbling a bit in speech, "I'll you send to the Everfree via teleportation."

We all bowed our thanks and then in a flash we were gone.

~~~Outside the Everfree Forest~~~

Eugh, magical teleportation leaves a slight headache, dully noted.

"So..." Scout says, "are we gonna do this thing or what?"

"Patience Scout," I say, "we must make sure we have everything prepared." I then look towards the others.

"Heavy, you're with me, Engineer and Spy, you two stay with each other, Demo and Soldier, work together, Pyro, use only your melee and your shotgun while here and protect anyone who needs the extra protection, and Scout you're with Sniper. Everyone ready?" When all I got was nods, all I could say was: "Then let's move!"

~~~Everfree Forest: Castle of the Two Sisters; 10 minutes later~~~

So far, the trip was relatively smooth, not many, if any, of the dangerous wildlife were seen or heard. Then we stopped to the most glorious standing piece in Equestrian History, The Castle of the Two Royal Pony Sisters. I looked at Engineer who looked like he was about go mad with glee, he must have many ideas to do for this and many other areas in the Everfree.

So it looks like it is going to be a great many long days to get everything setup, but in the end, it will be worth all the effort put into it.

Chapter 4: Erectin' a Base

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~~~Alex's: Engineer POV~~~

Oh, boy! It may be because I'm the Engineer, but I'm excited to get this base built up. And, I'm pretty sure that the others are unaware of this but, I know how to build the respawn room! The only time we defy death is when it isn't natural, but this can give us a whole lot of opportunity.

"Alright," I said gaining the others' attention, "I gonna make some schematics for our base, then I'll see if there is anything that I need to improve upon, or add to once it is done."

"Um... Engineer?" asked Medic, as he moved me off to the side. "I would... like to ask somezing be built as a side project for me to... 'practice medicine' in? Such as an underground lab with a hidden door?"

"Hmm..." I hummed, "OK, but only if you follow these conditions: no dissecting ponies or any other sapient creatures, and no genetically modifying ANY creature unless we are given permission from the princesses, got it?"

Waiting for a response with my arms crossed, he hummed then nodded.

"Alright that shouldn't be too much of a problem," Medic states, "but if a pony comes up saying that they need medical attention, send to me and I will heal them."

"Alright," I said, glaring at him through my goggles, " you better keep that promise doc, or... I won't know I'll do, but it won't be purdy."

He nods, as I turn towards the others, "Alright, let's get to it, but first..." I pull out my pda and check through my schematics, select one, and pull out a toolbox from behind me.

"I need to build a dispenser," I said, as I placed the toolbox down which unfolded to reveal slowly building LVL 1 dispenser. I then pull out another toolbox to build... another dispenser?

The others looked surprised, until I stated the obvious to them.

"We're not in the game so we aren't limited to just one dispenser anymore, so why not take advantage of it?" I smirked.

~~~Ten Minutes Later~~~

Jeez, those dispensers were hard to make LVL 3 but, I got them there.

"Well time to start buildin' a base," I tell the others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooxthUUsfgY

Suddenly have this song play in my head, I had to give it some different lyrics.

"Yee-haw!

Build this base, build this base.

One, two, three, four," I sang as I passed each of them a wrench.

"Together, we can build this base.

One, two, three, four," each time I counted a wheelbarrow full of broken bricks and other debris passed by me.

"Up, up, up, get that metal beam.

Weld those joints, work as a team," Heavy was moving the metal support beams we made and almost forgot one until I pointed it out; Pyro was welding the joints of the beams together and Scout batted up a sealed box of rivets up to Soldier who just realized he was out, smiled and thanked Scout.

"Turn around quick, to face a friend.

Help 'em out, 'til the end," I sang this and now Heavy was with Scout, Demo was with Soldier, Medic was with Spy, and Sniper was with Pyro.

"YEAH!" the others shouted.

"Build this base, build this base.

One, two, three, four," this time, I handed them more metal to work with.

"Together we can build this base.

One, two, three, four," with each number sang, an already busted up stone wall was brought down by Demo and Soldier, both wielding a sledgehammer.

"Fixing the frame, recycling metal.

Working hard don't lose your mettle, the Castle was held up by a metal frame but some of it was damaged so Heavy took care of tossing away the, currently, unusable metal and held up the beam for Scout to rivet them in. Spy and Medic were off to the side to rest for a moment after clearing away the extra rubble, that was made by Soldier and Demo, and got up with smiles ready to do more work.

"Turn around quick, face another friend.

Help 'em out, 'til the end,"

"YEAH!" they all shouted again as I pullout a lot of metal and start hammering it all flat. Heavy is now with Soldier, Demo with Pyro, Scout with Spy, and Sniper with Medic.

"Build this base, build this base.

One, two, three, four," I placed down four large sheets of metal on the ground and start to work on another four.

"Together we can build this base.

One, two, three, four," another four large metal sheets are placed down and I wipe the sweat from my brow and continue.

"Sheets of metal come off the ground.

Hold 'em up and rivet 'em down," Heavy picks up the sheets of metal one-by-one to hold 'em up where there were once walls of stone and Soldier goes up and rivets the sheets in place.

"Turn around quick, face another friend.

Help 'em out, 'til the end,"

"Hey look at us, we're like a family," Scout sang as he and Spy were carefully removing the books from their bookshelves, when suddenly Scout lost his balance on the ladder.

"Here to prevent a catastrophe," I and Spy held the ladder to stop Scout from falling and he gave us a thumbs-up and a smile.

"We mercenaries, we're proud to say," Spy sang.

"Stick together the family way!" me, Scout, and Spy sang at once.

"Bow to your friend and circle right," I look around and notice Pyro's not in sight.

"Get back here if you see our light," singing that Pyro came running out of the forest after somehow getting lost in there.

"Forward, back, and twirl around," I danced in the motions I said followed by the others.

"This base is gonna the best in town."

"YEAH!" was shouted once more.

"Build this base, build this base!

One, two, three, four," at each number I hammered in the final components for a generator.

"Together we can build this base!" I flipped it's switch and it roared to life.

"One, two, three, four," handing a can of paint and a paint brush to Spy, Pyro, Sniper, and Soldier.

"Take your brushes, young and old," looking at Scout and Demo.

"Together, paint it good as gold.

Turn around quick, face another friend.

Help 'em out, 'til the end," at this point we were looking at each other then the base then joined each other at the shoulders, the music fading from my head, just before the final verse.

"Whew, will you look at that," I said, gesturing towards our new base, "ain't she a beaut?"

"Well," Spy started, "considering we used what remained of the castle as part of the main structure AND that we managed to get all this work done in one day," Spy checked his watch, frowned then shrugged, "and the song made it feel like only a few minutes passed by, we really did five hours of work almost non-stop... I'd say that this is quite amazing work."

It looked Degroot Keep, but all just one building, mostly made out of metal, and has a large roof. This place is rather large and may be even larger because of all of the hidden rooms, traps, and such. Oh yeah, I pulled out a notepad that I had and wrote: 'Note to self, make sure to find the book with the spell Inspiration Manifestation and give it to Princess Celestia to be properly taken care of'. I put away the note book and looked at the others.

"Well," I started, "we now have a base, but I just remembered all of the traps and such this place had... I'm surprised we didn't activate any of them by accident when we were remodeling. We need the help of Princess Celestia or Luna, which ever will help us sort out this mess."

The others nodded then Spy said, "But how? We can't just waltz out of the Everfree Forest without panic."

"Well," I said pointing at his left hand, "don't you have the Cloak and Dagger watch? That'll help you get where you need to without being seen, even if slowly."

"Alright," Spy said, "I don't see anything wrong with this plan, but just to avoid the wrath of you-know-who's you-know-what I not going to say what I'm thinking."

~~~Half an hour later~~~

~~~POV switch: Alexandre's: Spy POV~~~

Moving through Ponyville without being seen nor being bumped into was rather difficult even with the Cloak and Dagger watch, Ponyville has a lot more ponies in it than one would give credit for, that's for sure. Other than getting out of every single ponies way, I just had the occasional bump or two into a couple objects that I would swear that weren't there before. After getting through town, I finally got to the Golden Oaks Library, which was pretty good to look at in real life than on t.v. or a video game.

Looking through the window, I made sure that there wasn't anypony else besides Twilight and Spike after that, with the invisa-meter at max, I shoved the door open with all my strength and walked to the table in the middle of the room and waited there for a moment.

Shoving the door open like that, I scared Twilight, making her jump and hit her head on the ceiling. She got back up, rubbing her head, and looked around to figure out what caused the noise and saw the door wide open. She went over, used her magic, frowned, closed the door, and went back to the desk mumbling something about 'wind' and 'pranks'. I grabbed some parchment, a quill, and an inkwell and wrote a note for Twilight, dried off the quill without staining my suit and placed it and the inkwell back quietly. I dropped the note above her head to let it slowly fall into her sight as I quickly but quietly walk up the stairs without having to open the already open-door and uncloaked and waited for her to appear.

About a minute later she appeared through doorway, and stopped stock still when she first saw me with shock written all over her face.

"Ah, Miss Sparkle," I said, "it is wonderful to see you again, how have you and your friends been doing since the Discord incident?"

"We've been good," she said, then shook her head, "wait how did you get here? I didn't see you come in Mister..."

"Oh, my apologies," I said, realizing I hadn't introduced myself to her yet, "that was very ungentlemanly of me, I am Spy, that is my profession, but if you want to call me by a name, call me Alexandre. And as for how I got in without you noticing, that was the point, me and my colleagues didn't want to cause a massive-panic just by appearing out of seemingly no-where."

"Oh," Twilight said, "that makes sense, but why did you need to see me?"

"Ah, that's right," I said, remembering why I was here in the first place, "I have a letter I want sent to Princess Celestia, but I'm afraid that I can't deliver it by foot or with the post office for both would take too long," I pulled the letter out of my pocket and handed it towards Twilight.

"Oh, OK, I understand," she said, taking the letter with her magic, "I can just have Spike send it to her with his magic dragon fire."

"OK," I said, trying to sound unconvinced, "I don't quite get how this magic business works yet, but if it works, it works," I shrugged, checked my pocket watch, then looked back to Twilight. "Well, I best be on my way see you around, Twilight," after that I cloaked and left, leaving Twilight with a shocked expression from seeing something disappear without magic.

~~~Forty-five minutes later~~~

~~~POV switch: Alex's: Engineer POV~~~

What is taking Spy so long? He said it should've been a piece of cake to get-in, give Twilight the letter and an explanation, and get-out without any other ponies seeing. Did he get noticed? Has he been beaten to a pulp by the many earth ponies there? I certainly hope not, if he doesn't appear in another-

Then I here the faint, but noticeable sound of a de-cloak from a invisi-watch, and I smile to see Spy rounding the corner with a smile plastered on his face.

"Sorry that I took so long," Spy said, apologetically, "there were a lot of ponies out today and I bumped into a few objects that I had to stop from falling, making the trip back was harder than the trip to."

"Hmm," I hum, then look to Spy, "well you did your best, and it was your first ever REAL stealth mission so that must've been excitin', right?"

"Indeed," Spy said, lighting a cigarette, "I know we were never one for smoking, but if I'm not mistaken, the Medic's medi-gun can fix the symptoms, and besides it actually is quite calming. Hopefully we can see one of the princesses soon, I don't want to wait to-"

A flash of yellow-light happened in front of our eyes and Spy at the last second tossed his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it to put it out and hide it. After the light vanished, in it's placed was Celestia, frowning, that's not good.

"I'm glad that you asked for help," Celestia said, still frowning, "but... I a bit upset that you refurbished the castle me and my sister, once used without permission," she paused, then let her frown fall into a neutral look.

"However," She continued, "I believe it is my fault, for I gave you permission to use whatever resources were in the Everfree Forest, I just didn't think the castle would be used for your home," she then smiled a sad smile. "But I am glad that it will get some use again, maybe not for what it was originally built for, but it will hopefully become another possible town, like Ponyville, built from the ground up."

"You know," I started, "that ain't a half-bad idea," I turned to the others. "What do ya'll think?"

Some nodded and other made noise similar to approval.

"That settles it then," I said, "once ponies get used to us, we'll start a town and, hopefully, use the area to our advantage."

"That's wonderful news," Celestia said, with small, but not sad, smile, "I hope that you can get things to work for you then, but for now," she gestures toward our base, "I believe you will need help with dismantling the traps and finding the secret area of the castle."

"Of course," I said, gesturing towards the castle, "lead the way Princess."

~~~One hour later~~~

That was ridiculous... why would a singular castle need about TWENTY different traps?! At least there were just as many secret rooms, which I had marked, drawn, and described how to open them on my blueprints of the place. After I thanked Princess Celestia, she teleported away, and I was left to my own devices, to which I built nine beds for us to sleep in, gave the others the 'all-clear' and waited for the morning to come. After all, there was still a lot of work to be done with this placed.

And with that I went soundly to sleep.

Chapter 5: On a Side-Note...

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~~~3rd Person: Omniscient: POV(1)~~~

So, after our favorite team of mercenaries built their home base, they went on to finished the smaller parts of the base, which, while they all worked together to rebuild the place, took up-to a week because not ALL of them were working on these parts. The 'smaller' bits of the base were: Medic's lab, Sniper's four sniper towers, a storage room, a freezer room, Pyro's kitchen, Demo's mini-bar, Engie's workstation, a reactor that uses Austrailium for power, Scout and Heavy's training gym, Spy's smoking room, and Soldier's firing-range. Another, really important room, that the Engineer built as a surprise for the rest of his team, was the Respawn Room, which is why the finishing touches (besides their bedrooms and the paint) took the team a week to finish.

Most of the doors in the base were automatic, meaning that they opened if they detect a heat signature within 2 feet of the door, much like that of the bases in the game, Team Fortress 2. Their bedroom doors, however, were manual, but in different ways. Pyro's door has a retinal scan and a five-digit passcode, Spy's has a DNA tester and an item slot for a specific item, Demo's is an alcohol tester, Soldier's requires him to answer a question only he knows the answer to, Sniper's is... well... let's just say... jarate, Heavy and Scout's are psi-testers, Engie's is trigonometry related, and Medic's is... well... no-one knows... except Spy.

Anyways, when all was said and done they took the rest of the day off and relaxed in their own ways. The next day, everyone woke up and noticed Spy was missing, finding a note on his door stating, 'I'm off to check on Twilight, to see if she already had her breakdown on Tuesday.' Engineer checked the calendar to find that it was Thursday, possibly two days after the events of 'Lesson Zero', also noticing that it was sixteen days before Hallow- er... 'Nightmare Night', when Luna would visit for the second time in the show. Then, when Engineer had an idea, Spy returned to confirm that 'Lesson Zero' has passed; Engineer asked Spy if it was possible to use the disguise kit on all of them for costumes on Nightmare Night, Spy confirmed it can be used for that and they went on to have a 'normal day', as best as mercenaries living in a forest full of some of the most dangerous creatures in all of Equestria can.

Chapter 6: First Displaced Encounter (Crossover)

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~~~Third Person Limited: Demoman: Alasdair~~~

Today is the first of two relaxing days of the week, at least for Demo and most of the others, but Engie is still working in that spare room that he has restricted us from using, which is fine since it hasn’t stopped him from doing his stuff. Demo is heading to the mini-bar that he had Engie help me make to get a drink, and to get some junk food, after remembering the original Demoman’s diet made it so that if he had ‘real’ food his body would think he was poisoned.

He gets into the mini-bar and notice Heavy and Engie at it and holding a couple of drinks themselves and Heavy with a sandwich- er… sandVICH, as he likes to correct them on it. Heavy is listening to Engie talking, seeming really into what he is saying, something about how “the administrator was really into that” or something. Engie always says weird things when he had a couple of his favorite beers, then again… who didn’t?

He pulls out his favorite alcoholic drink, Snake Venom, back home, this beer was set the world record as being the strongest beer at 68 percent alcohol. All of their food and other supplies come from Engie’s Dispensers meaning they are all Earth based foods and drinks. He lifts the beer bottle to drink when suddenly something hits him in the head, and yelps in pain from the hit.

“Ah!” Demo shouts, rubbing the pain on his head away. “Hey Engie! I thought you said this place wouldn’t start falling apart anytime soon?”

Engie looks over his way, confusion visible from his tilted head, “Yeah, what hit you? I didn’t see it.”

He looks down and finds a rather large looking red-colored gem that seems oddly familiar, and picked it up. When he did he heard a voice in his head:

“My name is Echo, I am the entity of water and former god of destruction, if you seek my aid, hold this emerald to your chest, speak this prayer and I shall be there.

The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos.“ The deep shallow voice echoed to all who held the gem, or in this case, the whole base heard it as they were all the same different in multiple bodies.

Demo, Engie, and Heavy all looked at each other with a surprised look on all of their faces. Engie then brought out his walkie-talkie and changed the channel to talk to the others.

“Hey team?” Engie says to the radio, receiving words inaudible from Demo’s distance from him. “Yeah, we heard it too, meet us in the intel room, we have got something amazing to tell you.”

~~~In the Intel Room~~~

~~~POV switch: Third Person Omniscent~~~

All of them were gathered: Demo, Heavy, Engie, Sniper, Scout, Spy, Medic, Soldier, and Pyro; they were all waiting for the news, or waiting to tell the others the news.

“So,” Engie started, “I bet you all are wondering what it was that we heard earlier?”

“Talk about hitting the nail on the head, hard hat,” Scout says, annoyed.

“Well,” Engie began, holding out the red gem, “this little guy was the cause of it, and if I am not mistaken from the stories that we have read… I believe that this is a token.”

Those that had drinks, such as Soldier with a lower grade beer and Scout with his Bonk!-a Cola soda, did a spit-take and stared. Engie, Spy, and Medic all looked at the gem with thoughtful expressions, then looked at each other.

“Well,” Scout says suddenly, “what are we waiting for? Let’s summon this guy and get ourselves a friend that isn’t just a pony!”

“Scout,” Spy says, “we must be cautious with Displaced, for there are those that are good and those that are evil. So we must be prepared… in case of the worst case scenario.”

“He’s right,” Medic said, “we must be prepared, have your weapons at the ready.”

When Medic said that Demo pulled out his grenade launcher, along with Soldier who pulled out his rocket launcher. Heavy pulled out the minigun and started whirring the barrel, while Scout loaded his scattergun. Spy instantly loaded his revolver, Engie setup a LVL 3 Sentry and pulled out the Wrangler to manually aim the sentry, and Sniper aimed his sniper rifle. Medic pulled out his Crusader’s Crossbow, and Pyro pulled out the flamethrower.

Engie then pulled out a paper he wrote on and repeated the written words: “The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos.”

The red gem gleamed brightly then energy enveloped its form. It levitates into the air, forcing its way out of the Engineer's hand. The jewel’s light intensifies and lights up the room in an radiant flash.

Suddenly, the jewel was surrounded by an orb of water swirling constantly around faster and faster, soon growing in size to become bigger than the gem itself.

Slowly, the water begins to take shape, first the legs, and then the tail and mane, both braided into a ponytail (no pun intended). Soon, two slits form upon its force, eventually the rest of the body follows suit, taking on the form of that of an unicorn stallion wearing an solid red scarf around its neck and lower head.

The gem slowly submerges from out of the creature, floating down back into the hand of the hard-hat wearing human. Soon, it’s slits open up, revealing two glowing emerald colored eyes, it had no pupils, however there is enough hint in those eyes to tell you there are indeed pupils.

With its body fully formed in the current world, it looks around in utter confusion that eventually fades to pure amusement. It does not open its mouth, yet strangely, an echoing voice is heard from within it’s body.

“That would be most unwise.” the creature comments, it’s voice full of caution. Unknowingly to the humanoids, the creature had a grip on a source of power hidden within it’s structure: Two chaos emeralds to be exact.

Demo looks over to Engie, and waited on him, as he was looking at this creature of water. Cautiously, Engie lowered his Wrangler, lowering the sentries targeting system. Once he did that, Demo and the rest of the team lowered their weapons as well and they all smiled sincere smiles.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Engie says, apologetically, “we were being cautious since there are different types of Displaced out there and we had to take precautions to make sure we didn’t get ended by the bad ones, you know what I mean?”

“You need not to worry, I understand the caution. I’ve had an encounter with an bad Displaced before, he was also a bit overpowered and thus, could not trust him.” Echo say, raising a hoof to push up on the red scarf. “This is his token, don’t worry as it is inactive and merely serves for looks and to allow me to live among the other ponies as one of them.” Echo explained as he looked around at all the humans in the room. “Would this version of Equestria be of that of a different form? Or are you much like myself, a human displaced in body that doesn't belong to them? I need clarifications if you do not mind. “ Echo said.

“It is very much the second,” Spy clarifies, “but, since I’m curious, and you don’t have to answer if you’re uncomfortable with answering these questions, was the gem that brought you here a Chaos Emerald?” Spy gestures towards the red gem.

“Nay, ‘tis a fake, however it does hold the same wave lengths of the original, its energy flow is a lot more slow, thus if you were to try to power anything, it would take longer to provide a charge. For now, it only serves two purposes: As a slow source of energy and as a token to summon me. “ Echo explain, his emerald eyes still looking around at everyone, he had to remember caution in case any of them appeared to be scared, paranoid, or worst trigger happy. But of course their weapons cannot harm him, unless one or two of them happens to be chaos magic or anything related to ice.

“Then,” Engie started, “did you or someone create it? Because as far as I’m aware only a couple of beings I can think of can create something like that.”

“I am the one who created those fake emerald tokens. Does that clear up your confusion?” Echo asked, he was beginning to think that perhaps they don’t know who he was Displaced as.

“Well then,” Engie says, looking to Spy, then back to the pony of water, “since you not Discord, I think your… damn what was his name…?”

“I believe it was Chaos,” Spy says, “the god of all Chaos energy and destruction, creator of the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, and only comes in the form of water.” Spy then has his hand on his chin when he suddenly gasped. “While we were all being cautious, we forgot to get your name and to introduce ourselves!”

The creature blinks in confused, then shifts to a deadpan expression. “Did my token not introduce me? I did say that I am Echo, entity of water and former god of destruction.” He said, he quickly raises an hoof before any of the humans could speak. “One moment, let me shift to a more proper form so you are no longer straining your necks to look down upon me.”

He crouches low, then suddenly begins to spin, twist, and whirl around, forcing his body to stretch to lengths that would most likely break or kill a human. The speed of his chaotic movements soon widens his form’s width. Eventually, he takes on a form similar to the humans, although a little slender plus lacking the real appearance of a human. His colors remained the same, easily hinting that he is a monster and not an actual normal being.

To say that the group of mercenaries was shocked was an understatement, most were slack-jawed, frozen in shock, or just had looks of astonishment on them.

Eventually, all of them came to, and eventually got used to seeing the creat- to seeing Echo, like this.

“Sorry, “ Engie said, “I barely caught the fact that we needed to say something specific to summon you and barely managed to memorize the phrase and get it onto paper. After all, we are still fairly new for displaced, so we weren’t expecting a token like this, much less so soon, after getting the base up and running-”

“Anyways,” Spy interrupted Engie’s rambling, “you can call us by our profession, or you can call us by the names we pick out for ourselves.”

There is an twitch in Echo’s left eye. “I have a serious question, and I need you to answer me as soon as possible.. Is the spirit of chaos in this world currently free, or in stone? I'd rather not repeat history unless you wish for half of Equestria to be merged in a flood. This is not a threat, this is a warning in which I will explain after you’ve answered, it is of utmost importance that I know the timeline. “ Echo said, his head darting around again. “He could of sensed my chaos energy or magic- Oh by the Gods, I pray that your base is not close to Canterlot…”

“First off, and in order,” Medic starts, “he is more stoned than Anne Hathaway. Secondly, we are in the Everfree Forest near Ponyville, I couldn’t tell you how far away we are but… I could confirm we are several dozen miles from Canterlot Castle and, in fact, you are AFTER he was released the first time. Though, now that I think about it there will be a time when he is released again except to be reformed, successfully even.”

“Wait,” Spy said, worriedly, “I think we may or may not be in trouble because, there is a possibility that Princess Celestia now senses you here and may not know you are a friendly.”

“Princess Celestia, I am not worried about. If your timeline is the same as mine, then the elements have chosen new bearers to continue Celestia’s legacy. However, if those six come here, I can simply warp space and time to keep my distance. It would be unwise for me to remain as the beam has a rather unpleasant effect on me. I do not turn to stone, but I do become nothing but an frozen ice-cube..” Echo shudders at the old memories. “I’ve suffered enough at the hoofs of the windigos two times already and I do not wish to relive that nightmare again.” He takes a deep breath then lets out a gentle sigh to try and calm himself down, although he did not need the air, the action itself had a relaxing effect on him, it reminded him of an form he once had millions of years ago, his original form whose name escapes him.

“Well,” Engie says, looking to the others, then back to Echo, “we know the feeling, kinda, we were going to help Princess Celestia defeat Discord the first time he appeared in Equestria; but ended up in the blast of rainbow that turned Discord into stone which in turn also stoned us. For one-thousand years we had to deal with that maniac telepathically talking to us, some of us were patient, but others were resistant to his insanity with their own.” He says that statement while pointing to Medic and Soldier.

“Well,” Medic starts, “I actually believe I’m clinically insane, but, as long as I don’t start talking to myself, then I will be a harmless as Pinkie Pie.”

“Tell me, were you all displaced simultaneously? I’ve never heard of people going to the same Equestria.” Echo asked, keeping his senses wide for any magic that may approach here, unless the Gods smiled upon him and it turns out that the Everfree Forest is far too dangerous for a mere pony to enter.

“Er...,” Medic starts, with a focused look on his face, “I guess you could say that.”

“The reason for-” Engie starts, when interrupted by an alarm blaring.

“Shit,” Engie says, looking a bit nervous, “that was the perimeter alarm, only creatures besides Displaced can trigger that.” He ran towards the next room where there were screens showing different areas of the Everfree. The other mercenaries and Echo all followed as Engie sat down in the chair in front of the monitors, looking for anything unusual.

Echo followed silently, well as silently as a watery human can move anyhow, he has a lot of questions for those creatures, mostly on how all of this worked, it all looked familiar but again his mind refused to cooperate, all it can provide is annoyance, anger, and frustration. He mentally lets out a sigh, no use trying now, the main focus is now. Echo looks up at the strange multiple boxes, all filled with information, visuals, and data.

“Where is it?” Engie asked himself, wondering what creature set off his alarm and if it was even dangerous. Then, there was a noise everyone in the room stood stock still, and Engie saw something in one of the cameras, moving, big, and purple with white dots.

Engie’s eyes widened, unnoticably underneath his goggles, as he heard another noise a slight vibration with it was felt.

“Shit,” Engie cursed, “shitshitshit, ok this is bad, REALLY bad. Everyone gear up, we have an Ursa Major heading straight for our base!”

The others looked shocked for a few seconds before their faces hardened into glares and they all nodded to each other. They all got their guns and ammunition, and made sure their melees were in good condition before heading to the entrance, while Echo followed.

Echo was thinking deeply about this, his power alone even at two emeralds he would still be sensed by those sensitive to chaos, either as magic or as energy, Echo possessed both. One was unlimited and tame, while the other was limited but unpredictable. He looked over at the humanoid with the goggles. “Hey… uh…” He goes silent, not knowing this person’s name. “Hard-hat. I’m going to regret this, but i’m going to help out, I will be keeping my power at a low amount as to appear harmless, she’ll still be curious of my presence and not tell her ponies to be hostile. Now, which one of you can deal the most damage? Either per second or with a single blow.” Echo asked.

“Um,” Heavy says, looking at the others, “we don’t know, this is our first REAL fight, so we have yet to compare how much damage each one of us can deal.” Heavy and the others had sheepish looks on their, faces, except Pyro, for it was impossible to tell what face he was making at all, but he held his head down.

Echo let out a long annoyed groan. “Ok, plan B then. Once we arrive wherever this Cosmic Bear is at, I’ll need one of you, any of you, to have physical contact with me, doesn’t matter which part of the body as long as you’re touching. Yes, I know it probably sounds awkward, but trust me on this one.” Echo explained. If push comes to shove and if numbers alone cannot take it down, then Echo will fight it himself, surely two chaos emeralds should be enough to at least match a quart or half of it’s height, but that’s just a rough estimate.

“Actually,” Engie says, slowly starting to smile a smile that would’ve put Pinkie’s to shame, “I have an idea.” Engie looks to the others, “You guys go and hold off that thing as long as you can,” Engie then looks to Echo, “Echo, your with me, I need you help with something and you might be the only one to help me finish it.” Engie starts hurrying down the corridor across the intel room.

Echo follows, but he is beginning to lag behind as he is not used to this form. Unable to catch on, he leaps into the air, spiraling and transforming at the same time. He lands in his original unicorn form, smaller and faster, his water hoofs making noise along the metallic floor. “What’s the plan, hard-hat?” He asks the human in front.

Engie looks toward Echo, noticing he was back in pony form, “I was working on a room that might help me and my team in situations like this, heck before I was Displaced as the Engineer from TF2, I didn’t know the Engineer could build this room.” He rounded a corner and went up some stairs into a room with automatic garage-like doors. “However, I needed something called australium to power it and realized Equestria wasn’t gonna have it, but then I had a light bulb. Could you possibly make another Chaos Emerald specifically for powering electronics? Our generator won’t be able to handle the strain this room would give it.” Engie looked at Echo, awaiting his answer.

“For an slow charge, use my token, but if you’re looking for something more powerful.” Echo said before igniting his horn in red and silver, and soon two emeralds moved from out of his body. “You can use the real chaos emeralds, I have only found two in my world, I have not found the last remaining five, but Celestia, I mean my Celestia, took it upon herself to find them for me.” Echo explained as he levitated the red one within hard-hats reach. “I would've given you chaos magic, but I do not know how it would react to being in the machine, it is like a disobedient child: It will only do what it wants to do.” Echo said.

“Eeyup, figured as much,” Engie says as he nodded, “I would only trust chaos powers if it were contained within an object much like the Chaos Emerald. Never trust free roaming chaos energy, it only goes so far in listening to anyone or anything. ...Oh and in case if you were wondering what this room was built for, is respawning, which means if we die by the hands of a living creature we would be brought back to life here.” Engie heads over to the control panel, red emerald in hand, sticks it in and the rooms hums to life with energy. He turns back towards Echo, “Welp, now that’s done we can get to the fight.” Engie hurries to the entrance with Echo in tow.

So by hard-hats explanation, this is, in an sense, literally bringing in an army, even they do come in nine at an time. “Just remember, hard-hat, the emerald is mine after all and I cannot leave it here, I will stay in this world until you find an alternative power source. Second, since I am now one emerald less, my chaos powers won’t be as effective.” Echo explained.

“We, won’t need to keep it,” Engie started, “I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before but, if I can have my Celestia charge a crystal with her magic then I can use it to power the room. If she can, she could even make it a self-charging crystal that will automatically replenish any magic with the power from the sun.” Engie surprised himself with his own understanding of magic and technology, and wondered how he knew this would work himself. “Anyways,” Engie then continued, “we won’t need it for long, just until this bear is dealt with.”

“So basically, it’s like solar panels as a crystal.” Echo said. Honestly, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that, even as magic, it’s still kind of the same rays. “How long have you guys been here?” Echo asks.

“It’s much more complicated than that, but essentially, yes.” Engie says, “If you exclude the thousand years of mind torture from Discord while stoned, then I’d say… almost two weeks.” Engie, surprised by this fact, thinks for a moment then concentrates on the present.

“Look at it this way, hard-hat. At least my token didn’t come sooner, otherwise it might of been much worst.” Echo commented. If His token didn’t come sooner and he has been summoned, not only would Equestria suffered a worse fate, but there would of been a extra person staying along with them.

“True,” Engie agrees, “it most certainly would’ve been worse, we probably would’ve had to abandon this base and/or worse, would probably have died.”

Engie and Echo reached the entrance to find Medic has been working overtime to keep the others all healed while Soldier kept the U. Major distracted with rockets and rocket jumping which seemed to do little to no damage upon impact. Heavy was still going in hot, Demo was injured and couldn’t fight at the moment, and Pyro was using his flare gun to keep the beast’s attention away from Medic. Every now and then you would hear the sound of a bat hitting a baseball, see the baseball hit and stun the Ursa temporarily, obviously Scout. Sniper was using one of the sniper nests on the base to fire at the beast from, and every now and then you would see a long range jarate, talk about a helluva arm. Engie now pulls out a toolbox and sets it down as it opens up and he starts smacking it with his wrench and goes to pick up more metal from a nearby dispenser and continues to smack what appears to be a sentry, which then levels up once, then twice. Then, Engie pulls out his Wrangler to manually open-fire on the beast and put a shield around the sentry.

“Echo!” Heavy shouts, “Medic! Is team time!” he says smiling.

“With pleasure.” Echo says, quickly leaping forward and twirling, quickly shifting back to human form. He places an firm three fingered hand on Heavy’s shoulder. “You may feel short but strong movement..” Echo says as he raises his other hand, causing a silver gems to float along arm and into his hand. “This is the power of Chaos… CONTROL!” There is an sudden jolt, as if gravity had released a small explosion, Heavy and anyone without physical contact of Echo, can feel a pull from behind them, or in front depending on their location, coming from the former chaos god.

Time stood perfectly still, everything around them was inverted colors. Sound was dead in this realm, the only thing heard was Echo and his passengers, Heavy and Medic can still feel that slight powerful tug. “You’ve got seven seconds, make it count.” Echo said quickly.

“Alright,” Heavy says, then turns to Medic, “Charge me doctor!” Heavy then takes off towards the beast with his fist raised and wearing what looks like bear claws on them.

“It’s time to practice medicine,” Medic says menacingly, as he activates the ubercharge for the Kritzkrieg, increasing Heavy’s damage output to almost three times its standard damage.

Heavy then landed hit after hit seemingly doing no damage, then decided to hit harder and faster, landing over twenty hits that would kill a normal man with just one, in just seven seconds.

That same gravitational pull exploded again as time resumes to normal, the chaotic energy that was released, returned to its original source. Echo stares in disbelief that nothing was inflicted, no blood, no wounds, not even a scar! Echo decides to try something with a bit more punch… in an literal sense if Heavy is willing to try this experimental move. He pulls on the emerald’s power, suddenly pushing the energy into Heavy’s body, the russian man feels a rather powerful rush, his chest felt like something slammed into it, but there was no pain. Heavy can now hit even harder, like a weaker version of a super form.

“I AM,” Heavy shouts, while hitting the Ursa with each syllable, “BULLETPROOF!” He then lands another thirty or so hits in rapid succession that the Ursa fell onto its side while its front left and rear right legs were broke from these powerful hits. Even though it could no longer get up, the Ursa still swung its paw in an attempt to get those nearest to it, missing completely. Heavy then charged head first towards the head. Then, get swallowed whole by the beast when it clamped it jaws down on Heavy, and everyone just freezes in places in shock at what just happened. Yet, not long after Heavy was eaten, the beast’s face contorted in pain and suddenly a large hole was torn open and a very, VERY bloody Heavy came out of the hole with nothing but a few cuts and bruises.

“...And that,” Heavy says, “is why you chew your food before you swallow.”

Everyone was in shock that Heavy was still alive, then, Medic starts laughing, then one by one the rest of the group started laughing hysterically. When everyone stopped their laughing fits, they all planned a celebration the next day. Heavy then collapsed, and when Medic checked him out, his diagnosis was that he was utterly exhausted and just needed a few hours sleep.

“Doctor, keep an eye on him, his chest is going to be feeling heavy for a while and he will be a bit jittery and jumpy after he wakes up, this was his first rush of Chaos Energy after all. Anyone else might not have been able to handle it, except maybe a robot.” Echo explained, looking around at everyone. So far of what he’s learned, perhaps the monsters here are stronger compared to His Everfree Forest.

“Don’t worry,” Medic says, confidently, “if it is really bad the medi-gun should heal anything unnatural to his body, hell, it can regrow someone’s missing limb if it needs to. Yet, if worse comes to worse, we can just ask the Elements of Harmony to help, I mean if they can disperse chaos from the land then why not the same for one’s body?”

“...I don’t mean to question your medical opinion, but what I gave him was chaos energy, pure raw power. Think of it this way: He’ll feel like he ran a marathon while being awake for twelve hours from a caffeine rush.” Echo explained, giving the doc a firm glare. “Trust me. I know the difference between the two. Chaos magic is wild, while chaos energy is powerful. Remember that, doctor.” And Echo means it, he’s had first experience with it when Discord pumped him full of the magic.

“...Ok,” Medic says, looking at Heavy worryingly, “just if something unusual starts to happen to him, you promise to come as soon as possible to help?” Medic looks at Echo with a heart-wrenching expression.

Echo went silent at Medics words, he takes a deep breath and exhales out softly, “After he wakes up, keep your voice to an whisper, allow him to relax in a quiet peaceful room for a hour. On a side note, I don’t plan to do that again except as a last resort.. “ Echo said, he regretted the idea and for even using it, but the russian man needed that extra oomph when modern weapons weren’t quite cutting it.

“Alright,” Medic says, less worried than before, “I’ll do as you suggest, but… if you ever need any help of any kind… call us and we will come running.” Then Medic’s eyes widen, before he facepalms, then grabs his radio and changes the channel to contact Engie. “Engineer?” Medic calls. “Yeah?” Engie responds. “We forgot about making our own token.” Medic states. A facepalm is heard and then Engineer responds, “Alright, I’ve got an item ready so, yeah see you over there.”

A couple minutes later, Engie arrives with what seems like a Mann Co. Crate Key.

“Is that it?” Medic asks pointing at the key.

Engie nods, “Yeah, took some spare metal, fiddled with it and accidentally made this.” Engie flipping and looking it over, like he was seeing it for the first time.“So… I just say something to it? A speech of some kind?”

“Your first token, huh?” Echo said, letting out a chuckle, his voice mimicking his keepsake. “Remember the message you heard from mine? All it takes is your name, who you are, and what you wish to provide for other displaced. However, since there is nine of you..” Echo stopped to think about this, slowly pacing back and forth with the back of his hand under his chin, and the other arm folded over his chest. A idea soon forms in his head. “Either you can all pitch together, speaking each one word in your message, and then on the last word, you all speak together, like saying ‘until then’ in your own way..” Echo shrugged his arms. “Best I can think of.”

“Huh, well, I think I have an idea, and the rest of the group doesn’t need to do it.” Engineer then look s at the key in his hand and holds it up like a christian would a cross and spoke these words:

“Hello, I’m known as Engineer of the Red Team, there are nine of us: me, Scout, Sniper, Spy, Heavy, Demoman, Pyro, Medic, and Soldier. What we are called is our specialty and we will provide what we can. You can call one of us by saying our name or call all of us by saying Red Team. We are Mercenaries, but we have hearts, if you are evil beware our Fort!”

And with that the key seemed to multiply and the copies disappeared into nothingness.

“Well…” Engie said, “...did it work?” He looked at the key he had in his hand.

Suddenly, a key fell into the water that made up Echo.

“Well, that was convenient.” Echo said with an chuckle. “Yes, it did work. Basically, when you made your token, the void took hold of it and scattered it across the multiverse and into the hands of Displaced, or in this case: Over their head, they might a little bruised though. Don’t worry, it’s just how the void delivers it at high speed. Oh, by the way? You might want to build yourself an interrogation room with lie detectors, truth serums, the works. That way, you can test each Displaced and see if they’re good or bad, the moment you find any you dislike, just say this simple line: Your contract is sealed/over/etc- I DON’T MEAN RIGHT NOW, you’ll send me away by accident.” Echo said quickly.

“Most of this,” Engie states, “we already kinda knew. The interrogation room and such won’t be such a bad idea. And lastly, I also knew that, meaning at any point I could’ve just made you leave with your Chaos Emerald in my possession, but I didn’t.” He shrugs his shoulders once he said this.

“Just testing, just testing.” Echo said with a sigh. A moment of silence sweeps through the forest until finally the birds resume their song. “...Either your Celestia is slacking on her duties, or she knows something I don’t.” Echo commented, not liking how they’ve been ignored despite unleashing chaos energy into the air, Celestia, nor her six bearers, have come seeking the base out. “..Maybe she can’t sense me?”

“Well…” Engie says, scratching his chin, “I could go check on her I have set up a Teleportation Relay from here to the castle, I’ll go check on her.” He walked towards the teleporter room.

Echo at this point decided to go find a place to sit down at, using this moment of peace to mentally prepare himself incase something goes down, like if she suddenly pops in, Echo would rather leave his emerald behind than to risk being frozen in ice for a thousand years.

Demo walks up to Echo beer in hand, and holds it out in his direction. “A drieeenk?” Demo slurs.

Echo frowns a this. “I’m made of water, I can’t drink nor can I eat.” Echo said slowly to the drunk blackman, hoping he understands what he’s saying. Honestly, Echo envied those guys, at least they got working functioning bodies made of flesh, he can’t even remember what tasting was like.

Demo just stared at him like he just what the sun was, “Men neeed alllllllllll offffff theirr orgons funcshuning proporly to lieeeeeeeve and I make miiiine puump alcooohool, yoooooouur excuuuuuusssse doon’t woooorrrk” He slurred almost gibberish words that Echo somehow understood.

“...Um… yyyeeaa, i’m gonna go over there.” He points in an random direct and heads there. Thank the gods Echo can’t smell, so there’s at least some good here that doesn’t make him miserable, poor guy can’t even sleep nor can he die.

“He’s right you know,” Spy says suddenly next to him somehow.

Echo blinks in surprise at the sudden appearance of a suited man. “About what, agent man?” he says as he doesn’t know his name. “His body pumping alcohol or men needing organs to live?”

“Both,” Spy says matter-of-factly, “and please call me Alexandre or Spy if you must. That man over there is a scientific phenomenon, making his very blood alcohol, and when the man back in the original TF2 universe was attacked by blood sucking machines meant to find liquid austrailium, he gave them ‘alcohol poisoning’, machines… think about that for a moment.”

“Considering what I am, Spy, I’m not surprised. I’m a living entity of water that’s been kept alive by both chaos energy and my own spirit.” Echo said, probably failing see the Spy’s point or message.

“And you have the… energy to do impossible things, yes?” Spy asks, as he pulls out his disguise kit/cigarette case and pulls out a cigarette and lights it.

It started off as a soft chuckle, and then an laugh. “Oh, you have no idea. What you saw was only with one emerald.” Echo said, not wanting to give too much hint, he barely knows those people, oh sure, hard-hat means well, but the rest?

“Well,” Spy starts, “have you attempted to make it so you can enjoy drink and food with the powers? I mean, if I were immortal and a god I would find life to be depressing seeing things rise and fall for all of eternity. Why not try using your powers just once to help you enjoy immortal life just a little more?”

“...I did enjoy it for a time, thousands of years ago when Starswirl was himself and when Clover the clever was alive, I was innocent, merely experimenting and learning from what I was able to see from my formless pool of water, I had no emeralds back then, all I could do was send echos of my voice and manipulate the chaos magic in the air. All of that changed when the Windigos froze me, I had nothing but nightmares. I need not tell you what I felt. Picture it like being in stone, except replace annoyance with fear.” Echo said and stopped to let the spy soak in the information.

“...I see…” Spy says, his voice now more somber, “what happened to them, Starswirl and Clover?”

“I don’t know what happened to Clover, all I know was the kid-.. I mean colt, stopped hanging out with Starswirl when that wizard started to get a bit too absorbed into his work. I managed to meet up with him and he got interested in Chaos Magic that I was able to control. This was of course was before I learned about Chaos Energy and the emeralds. So, time went back, I taught him, he got a bit crazy and.. Well. Take a look at Discord and you’ll see what I mean as my worlds Starswirl became Him because of me.” Echo explained, shaking his head. “Yes, I do enjoy the powers I possess, but it’s a little annoying when there are many things mortals enjoy that I cannot do. I mean sure, I can replicate it in water form, but not the functions. I’ll probably be able too once I find the other emeralds before it falls under the wrong hands.” He shakes his head again. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have brought that up, my mind… kind of fell apart.”

“It is nothing you should apologize for,” Spy started, looking at Echo, “from the sound of it, you just didn’t know what your powers could or would do if left unchecked. I kind of understand that feeling, Spy is the biological father of Scout, meaning I’m technically a father and Spy the original, never did anything to raise him properly. I technically hate myself for what I did to my son-”

The sound of the teleporter room door sounded and we see Engie walking with a sort of limp with his leg.

Medic ran up to him, “Engineer are you-,” Medic started.

“Don’t. Ask.” Engie stated with an odd look in his eyes and walked towards the crew quarters and stopped and looked at Echo. “Found out why the Princesses never... sensed you…” he stated. “They were to busy looking for ‘something’ else… especially at this time of the month.”

He turned back toward the crew quarters and walked to his room.

Echo looked between Engie’s retreating body and the Medic, struggling with conflicting thoughts, he couldn’t ask about the leg nor could he ask about what they were looking for, especially when hard hat sounds a bit upset. “Do you… want to talk about it?” Echo asked after finding the courage, he didn’t even use the nickname, not wanting to spark anything or hit a nerve. Hopefully, what happened isn’t Echo’s fault.

“Trust me, you don’t wanna know,” Engie states, seemingly out of breath, “in fact if you wanna know you can probably go through the teleporter and they still won’t sense you even if they see you.” He then continues to open his bedroom door, enter his room, and close the door. Then a sign lit up saying ‘sterilization’ and then all the other team members eyes widened and looked at each other in surprise.

Finally, Spy says, “The lucky sonuvabitch… he just got lucky…”

Echo blinks a couple of times, he looks over at the teleporter, then looks over at spy in confusion, pure, unfiltered, confusion. “..I can’t tell if this is an good thing, or a bad thing.” Echo said with a frown, he was feeling a small amount chaotic activity from Hard-hat, like something bad happened to him, but now the Spy’s comment is making him think that something… ‘Interesting’ happened. Overall, Echo wanted to get to the bottom of this,

With a deep breath, he makes his way over to the teleporter while taking on slightly taller unicorn form, no doubt someone might be protesting behind him, but he ignored him, soon stepping right through the warp with his mind on one thing: Get ready to warp if things look ugly on the other side.

~~~Canterlot: Guards’ Barracks~~~

There is not a single guard or maid in sight, the place sounds so silent that you could probably hear a pin drop. On the door to the guard barracks there is a note with following written on it:

“Dear, Members of Celestia’s Day and Luna’s Night Guards,

Today is that part of the month again where their Majesties are dealing with their monthly ‘mare problem’ so it is recommended that anyone, male or female take the day/night off.

Sincerely,

Iron Knaught, Captain of the Day Guard

Dark Naught, Captain of the Night Guard

~~~Canterlot: Storage Room~~~

“So, my second theory along with Spy’s words rung true.” Echo whispered to himself, his voice still echoing despite the lower voice. “Although this… ‘mare problem’ makes me worried, assuming my thoughts have not betrayed me.” Echo said, he believes that there is an certan ‘pregnancy’ problem, or someone is having trouble getting to that stage. He looks around slowly, trying to get re-familiarized with the castle, if it is anything like the one back in his world, getting to the Throne room should be easy.

Echo began to tread lightly now with two plans on his mind, choose an water form to hide within, or freeze time for an more successful escape. Echo wanders throughout the castle, his eyes scanning around for any guards or any signs of the royal twins.

Then, there was a small noise from hall behind him, small muffled, but audible. Sounded like a female voice, though this direction was the opposite direction from the Throne Room.

Echo’s ignites a silvery glow as he follows the direction of the sound, he walks with caution in his step, each time he moves, his watery hoofs would clip clop, as if the sound was being slightly drowned out by water. If Echo did not have a chaos emerald, his disguise would of been more obvious.

Each time Echo turns his head, he could swear he felt chaotic activity enter his body, the feel all too familiar, it was a sign that something did happen that left negativity in the air.

Another noise is heard, more audible, less muffled, like a female groaning, but still kind of muffled.

For any normal stallion, they would of probably ran away in fear, but for Echo, his curiosity and worry was getting the best of him as he moved closer and closer to the sound of an female, either she is in danger, or… well, you might get the idea. Echo did not dare speak out of fear of being found out, he only wanted answers to Hard-hat’s injury.

Echo proceeds deeper and deeper into the castle, his ears following the sound as best as they can.

Echo comes to an interesting part of the wall, for looking at it makes him feel instantly bored for looking at it.

He frowns at this, so much for following the sound, but his curiosity will never leave him and will probably scratch at his metaphorical mind for the rest of his life. Echo lowers his head to inspect the wall, as if it held secrets. He assumes it is coming from behind it, however if he is mistaken, he will still stand and listen for the actual direction.

Another noise comes from the wall in front of him it definitely femaling, probably groaning, and something else… a wet noise? The noise is still muffled but definitely coming from the wall that always seems to make him bored when even glancing at it.

Echo provides quite an legendary deadpan expression. “Yep, Spy was right.” Echo said in his mind, seems a certain someone is getting it on with someone. Sadly for Echo, his power is focused on destruction, not dispelling enchantments or forcing the wall to open and it would be most unwise to even try to destroy the wall, who knows what unholy wrath may come upon him. With his curiosity satisfied, he goes to turn around and leave just as equally quiet as he came. Yes, disappointing Echo is disappointing.

On his way he accidentally bumps into the armor stand holding up Captain Rank guard armor, which then promptly falls over and makes a large amount of racket. Nothing is heard, even the noises from the wall have gone silent. Then, there is a large groaning noise, as if an age old door was being opened, and the noise was in the direction of where noises were coming from before.

Echo froze on the spot when the door opened, he was expecting someone to come out and chase him away or worst just beat the holy horns out of him… But nothing happened. Usually when lovers are caught in the act, they would of done something bad now, was this all a ruse? A trick? Echo’s curiosity has been resparked.

He keeps his horn glowing the emerald’s power, very cautiously and very slowly moving forward toward the door, Echo was ready to react to anything that is thrown his way.

No noises came from the now visible door, but, yet, it is now inviting like an urge to move forward.

“Welp, I’m gonna hate myself in the morning.” Echo said mentally to himself, now finally moving through the door.

It is just barely bright enough to see that there is a stairway leading downward the urge stronger now to move and… a perfume in the air? Not one that Echo knows of.

Echo raises an eyebrow, he was honestly expecting an hidden room, but it only leads to more of a mystery, perhaps it’s not exactly as he expected? He continues deeper into the stairway, determined to get to the bottom of this, if they wanted this to be a secret, they would of put more effort to hide it, soundproof the walls, make a room accessible via teleport, anything other than this that makes everything so obvious to said-secret. “I bet they’re calling me crazy back at base.” Echo says mentally.

After a bit of climbing downstairs, there is an open yet dark room, here the ‘perfume’ is strong and can’t smell anything through it, and felt the urge to press on felt stronger, when he realized something, ‘how am I smelling?’

Echo’s eyebrow just couldn’t raise any higher than that, it had been way too long since he smelt.. well anything? He frowns at this realization, while it is a good thing he can smell, it won’t be so when he goes near the black drunk. Due to the smell’s enchantment, his body moves on its own accordance, his curiosity wondering just what kind of magic is capable of this sorcery.

Suddenly, he has the feeling of being watched, like prey being sized up by its predator, yet, he is not guard, nor does he care, the urge to keep going was so powerful, there was no resisting.

Echo’s own curiosity combined with the magic was driving him nuts, he wants to know about the magic, he wanted to find its source and its creator. Unable to resist, he has no choice but to press on deeper and deeper into the depths of the castle. He’s never been in here before nor does he recognize it.

Suddenly he feels a presence behind him, his senses are overwhelmed by the smell, the urge, the presence, he turns around without second thoughts. The last thing he hears before his mind becomes foggy is: “Hello would you like feel the true warmth of the day and the true sensations of the night?”

~~~5 hours later: Everfree Fort~~~

All of the team, except Engineer were waiting by the teleport waiting for Echo, but are starting to expect the worst.

“Screw it,” Spy says, activating a disguise for Royal Guard, “I’m going in, wish me-”

Echo appears in the teleporter, with wide eyes and the feeling in the back of his legs slowly coming back. He then notices that there is a ‘Royal Guard’ in the base not freaking out at the bipeds and the pony before him and looked at him for a moment as if asking a question.

The Guard then smiles sheepishly as smoke appears around, him and reveals Spy in his place. Him not wanting to know as of the moment, left it be, and looked at Medic.

“Is there anyplace I can go to recover for a bit?” Echo asked.

Medic pointed out the recovery and Echo walked with a noticeable limp towards it.

Once he left the room the Spy, then looked at everyone else cleared his throat and said, “Well, the moment has passed, back to work!” And everyone left for their workstations.

~~~Everfree Fort: Recovery Room~~~

Echo wore an expression mixing between happy and confused. “They did it.. I don’t know how they did it, but they did it..” Echo started to laugh hysterically. “They somehow made love to me and I felt it…” He said. At this point, Echo was confused beyond reasoning. A creature made of water, somehow got some and got it going with THE. ROYAL. SISTERS! He wasn’t sure weather to be happy, or disturbed about the power they wield just to do it, with an watery creature that never had the tools to do it, but lo and behold, they somehow made it happen.

“Perhaps Spy was onto something when he suggested I could somehow make it work to the point I can eat and drink, and by god if this world can make me smell, by God he can do every other senses!” Echo send before into another fit of confused happy laughter. Soon, it died shown, replaced by random singing reverbing through the door. At this point, the mates of TeamFort were just as equally confused as Echo.

~~~The Next Day~~~

The members of Everfree Fort were probably imagining it, but they thought they saw Echo… happy? When Medic saw it, he thought he had officially lost his marbles, when Pyro saw it he thought he was wearing the Pyrovision goggles again. Spy thought he had smoked too much, Demo thought he was drunk when he hadn’t even drank a drop of alcohol yet, and Scout thought that the world was gonna end because they saw Echo happy.

Engineer went back to Canterlot today, and confirmed that the Princesses were in fact normal again. And he managed to get not only a solar magic powered gem but a mix of solar AND lunar magic, meaning it recharged during the day and night. So, for Echo that means he can go back to his Equestria with both of his Chaos Emeralds.

Echo was singing away, his voice pretty much reverbing. “The hills are ali~ve with the sound of mu~sic.” He sang, not giving a damn of where he knew the song from. “Hellooo all you awesome people!” He said as he entered the main hall, or wherever that was place was when he sat down to wait for Hard-hat to come back.

Engineer enters the mini-bar from the teleporter room and finds Echo still looking happy, as Pinkie Pie when she is throwing a party. Walking over he catches the attention of Echo and waves him over to walk and talk.

“Eeeeehhh, Hard-hat!” Echo says with that same happy attitude, even if he is acting out of character instead of his calm intelligent self, he hasn’t felt this good in forever. Hell, he doesn’t even remember a time where he was actually happy, oh sure maybe a weak smile or an smirk, but never did he remember a time where he was truly happy.

“Hey, Echo,” Engie says, still caught off guard by the sheer amount of positive energy, literally, emitting from him, “I’ve got some good news!”

“Oh? And what would that good news be, Hard-cap?” Echo asks. Was he as happy as him? Nah, couldn’t have been from what Echo went through. Hard-hat was miserable yesterday.

“Well, I remembered what you said,” Engie started, “with never leaving this Equestria, without your Chaos Emerald and I found a suitable replacement. So, now if you want to head back to your Equestria you can, and maybe even be able to have the same thing happen twice,” he winks towards Echo, “if you catch my drift.”

“That is excellent news, where did you find the replacement?” Echo asked, then laughed when Hard-hat suggested he’d get it twice. “Not likely. Luna is an overprotective hothead who will hold a grudge but give it up for her sister while Celestia is too motherly and battle-hardened to even try it, she only wants me for the sake for learning Chaos Magic so that they know how to fight against it or use it if an war ever happens. Let’s just say, in my Equestria, Princess Luna never became Nightmare Moon.” Echo said.

“Well,” Engie says, thinking back to earlier, “I got the replacement from both Celestia and Luna, when they infused their power into a rare crystal called the ‘Twilight shard’ making so that it not only recharges during the day, but during the night as well. Oh well, maybe there might be another alicorn to ascend at some point in your Equestria, but who knows.”

“Who knows indeed? It’ll be fishing in that pond and it’ll be a long time. I mean I’m not saying it in a negative way, it’s just the ponies in my world are very friendly, like they’ll give their friendship to anyone. I mean Spy over there could come with me and everypony would be saying hello and be all hunky doory.” Echo commanded with an laugh, an real laugh of amusement.

“Well, if we need your help with anything else I’ll let you know, but don’t forget you can always call on us for help should you need it.” Engie said as he pointed at the key Echo had on him.

“Indeed I will, friend.” Echo reaches down to shake both of Hard-hat’s hands. “Indeed I will, and I have you to thank for bringing me here.”

“No, thank you, but your smile is all thanks I need,” Engie says, “but I believe now is the time where we part ways, until next time my friend, for now our contract is sealed.” A portal appears next to Echo.

“Until next time, hard-hat!” Echo says, raising his hand in an salute. “Until next time. Keep that Token Chaos Emerald handy when you need its energy.” He finishes the salute before leaping through the portal, causing it to blip out of existence. To this day in forever, a Displaced goes home Happy.

~~~Alex’s: Engineer’s: POV~~~

“Welp,” I say to myself, “the was a crazy couple of days, well at least one good thing happened, there’s a satisfied customer.”

Chapter 7: Nightmare Night

View Online

~~~36 hours after First Displaced Summoning~~~

~~~Alejandro's: Pyro's POV~~~

So, today was the day of Nightmare Night, or Halloween, and Engineer had said that he has found a way for all of us to have costumes without having to make anything. Wearing my fire-retardant suit and gas-mask, I leave my room and enable the lock, and head towards the Meeting Room (or the former Intel Room since we have all private information in our rooms). I'm in the corridor leading straight to the Meeting Room when I notice Sniper a little bit ahead of me.

"Mmhmmm mm hmhm!" I mumbled loudly, as I waved, '¡Hola mi amigo!' Sniper stopped and turned.

"Oh, hello Pyro!" Sniper said, as he waved back. "You wouldn't happen to know what Engie has planned for our costumes?" he asked, as he walked to my side, keeping with my pace.

"Hm hm hm." I mumbled, as I shrugged, 'No lo sé.'

"Ah," Sniper said in disappointment, "oh well, we will find out soon."

"Hmmhm," I mumbled in agreement, 'Cierto.'

Sniper and I walked down the corridor until we eventually got to the Meeting Room, where another five of the mercenaries were. The only ones that weren't there yet, were Spy and Engineer.

"Hey guys," Scout said as Sniper and I enter, "glad your here now. Say..." Scout starts as he seemed to attempt to look behind me, "you knuckle-heads haven't seen hard-hat or 'Mister Disappearing-Act' have ya?"

"Hm," I mumbled as I shook my head, 'No.'

"Na," Sniper said, "was hoping they'd be here with you."

"Well," said a voice, coming from the doorway that Sniper and I had come through already, "we're here now, better late than never, right?"

"Indeed," Spy said, following Engineer through the doorway.

"So," Scout started, "you said you have a plan for our costumes for Nightmare Night without us having to make them?"

"Of course," Spy stated, "though, the credit for the idea all goes to Engineer. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have even thought of this, let alone believe it would work."

"Well?" Scout asked, impatiently. "Tell us your idea!"

"Well," Spy started, "Engineer looked at my disguise kit and asked my permission to make replicas of it with blank information, then add four different disguises to them while also making certain settings adjustable by the user-"

"Wait," interrupted Medic, a bewildered look on his face, "are you saying you made another set of disguise kits for Nightmare Night costumes?"

"Not just that," Engineer stated, "they can also be used for recon, the only things these disguises won't fool are animals or alicorn-level or higher beings."

"That reminds me," Spy said suddenly, and walked out of the room without another word.

"Anyways," Engineer continued, "you can also have more disguises added on by asking me or Spy, if you want to that is."

"So..." Scout said, a thoughtful look on his face, "after tonight we can use these things whenever we want?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Engineer answered, a confused look on his face.

"Cool," Scout said, a smirk on his face, "now I can go and visit other places and maybe get some souvenirs from other places."

"Well," Engineer said, a slight frown on his face, "we could, but we would need paperwork for our chosen disguise, just in case if we come across anything that requires it, meaning we'll have to ask Princess Celestia to help us setup some paperwork for our pony disguises." He then shakes his head, then looks back at us, "But that is somethin' to do later on first we will setup our disguises for our pony form and costume."

~~~30 minutes later~~~

We have gotten our kits and our disguises/costumes activated and Spy has returned, but has yet to tell us exactly where and what he did. All he said was: 'I have made sure our first Nightmare Night would go smoothly.'

Anyways, Scout has picked a young-adult stallion pegasus with a light-grey fur-coat and a really dark-grey mane & tail, and a Shadowbolts uniform for his Nightmare Night disguise. Heavy has picked a middle-aged stallion earth pony with a brown fur-coat and a blonde tail, a black ski mask, and a dark-pink scarf. Demoman chose a small adult earth pony with a purple fur-coat and a dark-purple tail, a pony knight's helmet, and a spiked-ball on the end of the tail. Spy chose a young unicorn colt with a black fur-coat and red tail, and golden colt-sized royal guard costume. Soldier chose a middle-aged stallion unicorn with a red fur-coat and purple mane & tail, a shirt that said: Faust Bless Equestria, a flag-holder, and an Equestrian Flag. Engineer chose a young-adult stallion earth pony with a light-brown fur-coat and a blonde mane & tail, a black stetson, four black boots, and a black vest. Medic has picked an adult stallion pegasus, decked out in surgeon clothing, and equipped with a fake, bloodied, and light cleaver. Sniper has picked a young unicorn colt with brown fur-coat and black mane & tail, and clothing similar to that of Robin Hood. Finally, I have chosen, to be an adult pegasus with a lime-green fur-coat, and a black chicken costume.

"Well," Spy said, with the voice of a Royal Guard, except really young sounding, "everything seems to be in working order."

"Sí," I said, nodding my head, then clasped my hand over my mouth, eyes widened, "¿Me pueden escuchar?"

All of the others just looked at me, stock-still, wide-eyed, and jaw-dropped.

Then Spy recovered and said, still wide-eyed, "Er... yes, we can hear you... though of all things I was expecting you to say when we we could here you speak, Spanish was not the first thing I would've guessed."

"Then again," Engineer started, gloved hand on his chin, "it makes sense considering the cosmetic the Pyro wears in the game... what was it called again?"

"I think it was the flame- er..." Scout said, gathering his thoughts, "flameboy- no... ah HA! The Flamboyant Flamenco! Which is similar to the sombrero... I think..."

"Anyways," Spy said, abruptly, as he looked to me, "can you speak normal English?"

"Sí- er... yes," I said with a noticeable accent, "but, being in that suit for so long, I might end up slipping back into español, comprenden?"

"Of course," Spy started, moving towards me, and picking up my disguise kit, "we can adjust your voice for your disguises in your kit from being your original to being a fitting voice."

~~~10 minutes later~~~

We all now had fitting voices for our disguises, and had costumes to go with them. Checking the on the clock on the wall above the doorway that leads into the meeting room, it is almost 12:45 p.m., so we still had quite a bit of time before Nightmare Night begins.

"Well," Spy said suddenly, out of disguise, "I'm off to see Twilight, give her a way to find us during the event."

"That's not a bad idea," Engineer said, nodding in agreement, "but... what are we gonna do that won't bring immediate attention to us?"

"I'm... not sure," Spy said, head lowered. Bringing his head back up suddenly, he said, "But I will think of something on the way, see you all in an hour." Spy walks out of the base, out-of-sight.

~~~1 hour later~~~

While we were waiting for Spy to come back, we decided to play some Texas Hold'em Poker. I was considered the most dangerous in the game considering I always wear my mask where-ever I go, so they can't see my expressions. Right now, I was bluffing my ass off, as I have a 3 of Spades and a 6 of Hearts in hand, while on the table there was an Ace of Spades, a 5 of Clubs, a King of Hearts, and a Jack of Diamonds. So far: Heavy and Scout busted after three rounds, Medic has 500 bits worth of chips left, Demoman was just watching the game while drinking as per usual, Soldier was drinking with Demoman, Sniper still has over 5,000 bits worth of chips, Engineer is the Dealer, and I have around 40,000 bits worth of chips. In the Pot was 4,550 bits, this was after I had bet, Medic had folded, and Sniper had called. Engineer burns the top card (not literally) and flips the next card over to reveal a 7 of Diamonds. At this point, I was grinding my teeth and sweating bullets, but the others couldn't tell, and it was my turn; I bet 6,000 and looked to Sniper to see what he would do, mainly hoping that he would fold. He looked at his cards and smiled, looked back and went all-in; apparently, he had 5,700 left so I brought back 300 to see what was inevitably my defeat. We revealed both of our cards and looked in shock, for we both had the same cards; While I had the 6 of Hearts and 3 of Spades, Sniper had the 6 of Spades and the 3 of Hearts! The Pot had to be split, so we each took 7,975 from the Pot which before the Final Flop, was 15,950 bits worth of chips.

"Well played," Spy said, suddenly beside me, scaring me and making me fall out of my chair.

"Hmhmmhm hmhm!" I exclaimed, flipping him the bird, '¡Mierda santa!'.

"I'm sorry," Spy said, genuinely, "I couldn't help myself, after all, who wouldn't do what I just did?" The others and I, begrudgingly, murmur in agreement. "Anyway," he continued, "I came up with a passphrase that only us, Twilight, and Spike know about. If you want to talk to her or Spike as a friend, you must say, 'On the most horrific of days, on the darkest of nights,' if she doesn't respond with something along the lines of, 'the team of RED shall arise,' then she just forgot and I can have Spike remind her."

"OK," Scout said, "so a passphrase, huh? Definitely seems right up Twilight's alley."

"Alrighty," Engineer said, "so, ya'll ready for your first ever Nightmare Night?"

We all cheered our answer, then spent the next few hours playing video games, on consoles that Engineer had built.

~~~6 hours later~~~

It's time... for Nightmare Night! Our group had the disguises activated with the costumes on and bags at the ready.

Passing by Sugarcube Corner, (You know the gingerbread house/bakery?) I had the strangest feeling something quite random was gonna happen. Suddenly, the group and I jump when Pinkie Pie appears suddenly in front of us, almost glaring at us, as she suddenly gasped, eyes wide with realization.

"Oh my goodness!" Pinkie exclaimed, then looked around, then looked back to us. "Follow me, I know someplace where we can talk in private," she said, heading into Sugarcube Corner. With nothing better to do, we followed, only to fall into a pit a moment later.

~~~5 minutes later~~~

We all woke up, each expressing our own discomforts vocally, and discover where exactly we are: Pinkie's Party Planning Cave.

Hearing the sound of a voice being cleared, we turned around to see chicken-costume Pinkie with a smile so wide, the Joker would attempt a Jeff the Killer just to match it.

“Heyya guys!” Pinkie said, waving her hoof, “Ihaven’tseenyouninesinceDiscordwas-”

“Woah there Pinks,” Engineer said, interrupting Pinkie, “slow down, think about what you’re saying and then speak.”

“Sorry,” Pinkie said, “I'm just so excited, I mean, I haven't seen you guys since we defeated Discord and-"

"Wait," Spy interrupted, "you can... see through our disguises?"

"Well, yeah!" answered Pinkie, "I mean, the others can't, but I'm not so easily fooled by a simple mask."

"Interesting..." Spy said, his disguise deactivated and his voice back to normal, "It seems that you, Pinkie Pie, because of your randomness, are just as, if not MORE powerful, than an alicorn."

Pinkie Pie froze suddenly and looked at Spy weirdly. "How do you know that?" Pinkie asked.

"Plenty of tests and volunteers," Medic said matter-of-factly, "including the Princesses and Twilight herself."

"Anyway," Heavy said, "you brought us here for good reason, no?"

"Oh, right!" Pinkie exclaimed. "I wanted to have a 'Welcome to Equestria' and 'Thank You for Helping Us Stop Discord' Party... but since you seem to want to be hidden we can have a private party with my friends at your place!"

"A... fiesta?" I ask.

"¡Sí mi amigo!" she answered, then gasped loudly. "¡Dios mío! ¡No sabía que hablabas en este idioma!" 'Oh my gosh! I didn't know that you spoke in this language!'

"Well," I start, "seeing as the only thing that can give you a clue to what my raza is, is a hat that I have yet to wear, I not sorprendido that you didn't know that."

"You only have a hat being the only thing to show what race of your species you are?" Pinkie Pie asked in shock and surprise. "¡Esto no está bien! We are going to see Rarity... after Nightmare Night."

With nothing much else planned and not really minding the idea I shrugged, "OK," I said.

"OK," Engineer said, "Now with that out of the way, we'll let you know when it is a good time to have the party because we'll most likely have to get things tidied up before then... and also make sure we don't have anymore unexpected visitors around that time."

"Okie-dokie-lokie!" Pinkie said, in her usual sing-song voice, as she bounced out of the building, the rest of us following in tow, Spy changed back into his disguise/costume; then Scout realized something the rest of us didn't notice until he pointed it out.

"Hey," Scout said in confusion, "how did we get out of Pinkie's Party Cave?"

We all stood stock-still with varying degrees of thought, noticeable on our faces, when Demoman said the most obvious thing: "It's just Pinkie, don't think about it."

We all looked at each other shrugged and moved on to have our first Nightmare Night, get a boat-load of candy, and talk with Twilight every now and then.

~~~1 hour and 20 minutes later~~~

So everything went pretty well for the first ten or so minutes and then Nigh- er Princess Luna showed up, causing the entire town to panic. Learned from Spy that he had Twilight send a message to Celestia to have her inform her sister of our existence and location. We went and comforted her and gave her advice on how to mingle with the other ponies in the festivities and gave her a few tips for giving some ponies a surprise. that was another fifteen minutes worth of time and about fifty or so minutes of collecting more candy and playing some Nightmare Night games. Before we left we checked on Princess Luna and she seemed to be getting along well with the other ponies, both young and old.

Right now we are back at base each of us carrying two or three bags worth of candy each. Each bag has at least four hundred fifty pieces to about five hundred pieces of candy (Spy counted). That much candy, in total was about... 403 pounds of candy that we got, I'm pretty sure we all got some looks when we were carrying all of that, but I'm not sure.

We got back home, all of us turned off our disguises, barely even grunted to each other before entering our rooms, and just crashed on our beds, immediately falling asleep.

Chapter 8: The Undying Friendship (Crossover 2)

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~~~POV: Angel~~~

Zencori closed her eyes as she thought for a moment. She eventually nodded, opening her eyes and glaring at the table. “That could work,” she said. “The Ash Haz’rad see their slaves as little more than animals; I cannot imagine them denying such an exchange.” Her eyes turned up to meet Angel’s again. “But we still have no means of collapsing the cave once the slaves are in our hooves.”

Angel reached into her satchel, pulling out an unadorned cardboard box. “I may have a way.” She placed the box on the map, removing the lid to reveal an assortment of random objects. “Do you remember my tale of how I came to this world?”

“Displaced from your home by a being who exists beyond our comprehension, if I recall.”

Angel nodded, leaning forward and taking a large key from the box. “I am not the only one it has happened to. Many others of my kind have been taken from our worlds, scattered throughout the multiverse and placed in various parallel Equestrias. This,” she held the key out to Zencori, “is called a token. It allows us to summon each other should the need arise.”

The zebra took the token, ears twitching as a voice entered her mind. Hello, I’m known as Engineer of the Red Team, there are nine of us: me, Scout, Sniper, Spy, Heavy, Demoman, Pyro, Medic, and Soldier. What we are called is our specialty and we will provide what we can. You can call one of us by saying our name or call all of us by saying Red Team. We are Mercenaries, but we have hearts, if you are evil beware our Fort! “I see,” she said, handing the key back to Angel. “And you think that they have the power to carry out this plan? And that they are willing?”

“Only one way to find out.” Angel held her hand open, palm up, the token resting atop it. “Red Team of Team Fortress, the Undying Angel, Tactical General of the Army of United Zebrica, calls upon you for aid. We face a foe entrenched, shadows and unknown horrors barring our path to victory. If you can hear us, if you are willing, join us as we plan for tomorrow’s victory.” Angel closed her hand around the key, placing it with her other hand in her lap. “And now we wait.”

~~~POV change: Heavy~~~

The team and I are in the dining area of our base. All of us except Pyro, as per usual, are eating lunch. I think he just has his own food in his bedroom before he comes to hang out with us, and he has yet to actually show his face. I tend not to think about it too much since I get headaches from thinking too hard. Anyway, today I’m having my usual small and simple lunch, the SANDVICH! I eat it, making the noises like the Heavy does in the game when he eats it, and everytime I do the others just look at me slightly amused.

“So,” Spy said, while holding a cigarette, to Engie, “what is up next regarding the ponies and the show?”

“Let me see,” Engie said, looking at his PDA, “we just finished Nightmare Night yesterday… and the ‘Sisterhooves Social’ we don’t have to mess with… aha! In about two weeks the ‘Cutie Pox’ episode will happen.”

“So,” Scout starts, “we just have a lot of free time before then?”

“It seems so,” Spy confirmed, looking to the rest of the team, “What do you lot want to do before then hang out with the Mane 6, just explore, or-?”

“Red Team of Team Fortress,” called a voice, “the Undying Angel, Tactical General of the Army of United Zebrica, calls upon you for aid. We face a foe entrenched, shadows and unknown horrors barring our path to victory. If you can hear us, if you are willing, join us as we plan for tomorrow’s victory.”

“Or,” Spy said, with a slightly surprised look, “do you want to help the Angel?”

“The Angel,” Everyone else answered, including me.

“Alright,” said the Engineer, as he put an ‘Out Fishing’ sign on the front door of the place, “Let’s get going.”
As he said that, a hole suddenly opened underneath all of us and we fell through what looked like an abyss.

~~~POV change: Third person Omniscient~~~

A few seconds passed in silence as Angel and Zencori awaited any response. Their silence was broken as nine portals opened in the roof of the command tent. Zencori and Angel leapt to their hooves and feet, the Zebra placing a hoof on her blade as Angel stood at attention. Nine figures clothed in red fell through the portals, some landing nimbly on their feet while others crashed to the ground in undignified heaps. Soon after, the portals closed.

“The Red Team, I assume,” Angel said. “Which of you leads this group?”

Those that had landed properly helped those that just crashed up and a man wearing a yellow hard hat walked up to Angel.

“There isn’t really a leader,” the man said, “but I do most of the planning for the group, you can call me Engineer, Engie, or Alex.” Engineer held out his hand.

Angel nodded, grasping his hand in her own and squeezing tightly. “A pleasure,” she said. “I look forward to working with you.”

“Engel,” the Zebra said, looking the new humans over cautiously, “wat is hierdie wesens? En wat sê hulle?”

“Ons is die RED Team,” the red-masked man said, suddenly “hier om haar net te help met wat haar ook al doen.”

“Ok,” said the scrawny man, “what the hell are you saying Spy? It sounded like a buncha’ gibberish to me.”

“What she said, Scout,” said ‘Spy’, “was ‘who are these beings? And what are they saying?’ since she doesn’t seem to speak English but Afrikaan.”

Angel looked back and forth between them before her eyes widened in understanding. “Ah, I see.” She walked to the door of the tent, sticking her head out. “Relay!” sha called. “Send a message to Spot. I need him to link the nine new beings in here into the psychic translation link.”

Angel stepped back, allowing a changeling to poke its head into the tent. It’s eyes went wide upon seeing the Red Team, but he quickly nodded to Angel before his eyes became unfocused. After about a minute, he nodded to her again. “It is done, General.”

Angel nodded back, turning back to the team as the changeling slipped out again. “My apologies,” she said, sitting down at a large table which held a slightly larger map and gesturing for everyone else to do the same. “I have been living with the link for so long that it slipped my mind that the zebras speak a language that is not my own. You should be able to understand each other now.”

“Good,” the Zebra said, sitting down even as she eyed the nine new humans warily. “Trust you I may, but I would still prefer to hear their words myself if we are to work with them.”

“Well,” Spy started, “if you don’t already know, I’m called Spy,” he then gestured towards Scout, “and this is Scout.”

“‘Sup?” Scout said.

The large human steps forward, “I am Heavy weapons guy, but just call me Heavy.”

The Zebra looked him up and down. “That one should be easy to remember.”

Heavy squinted his eyes at her, then laughs, “HA! Very true, I’m big and hard to miss.”

The Engineer stepped up to the Zebra, “I’m Engineer, but my team calls me Engie.”

The zebra nodded to him. “Zencori is my name,” she said, “but few have earned the right to know me by any other name than ‘General.’ If you are to work with us, I expect the same level of respect form you.”

“I apologize for my fellow General’s bluntness,” Angel said, shaking her head. “She has never been one to mince words.”

“It’s fine,” Engineer says, “we get enough of it from-”

“REPORTING FOR DUTY!” exclaimed the human wearing a helmet and has… two grenades strapped to his chest, “Soldier is the name, and blowing enemies to hell is my game!”

“To Tartarus, he means,” Angel muttered to Zencori.

The Zebra nodded, looking over the nine humans. “So, nine experts in various fields. This will prove an interesting addition to our forces. Tell me, how much experience do you have in combat? How many lives have you taken with your own hooves?” Her eyes darted to their appendages. “Or hands?”

“Well,” Engineer said, looking over to Heavy, “do you know what an Ursa Major is?”

“An Equestrian beast of great size and resilience, I believe,” Zencori answered, “but that is hardly relevant to this situation. We face swarms of zebras, not large monsters. Have you any such experience?”

“Sadly,” Spy said, “we have nothing in the way of that type of experience, but we are more prepared for wars than single large beasts,” he gestures to the Heavy, “He was eaten whole and practically tore his way out, which is the only thing that actually damaged it at all.”

“Impressive,” Angel granted. “I have to wonder, do you have a respawn generator? Do you know if it works in worlds other than your own?”

“No we don’t,” Engineer said, “it would be easier, but we don’t. I can build a respawn room for us, but it requires a power source at all times in order to work.”

“It would be best to go without, then,” Angel said. “I do not want to make a habit of planning on anyone other than me being able to die without consequence. That would be a dangerous mindset to get into.”

“Actually,” said the white-coated man, “as long as I’m alive they can be reckless, they have the device that can allow me to revive them, like in the ‘Mann VS Machine’ game mode from the game, oh and forgive my rudeness, I’m Medic.”

“He means that we need not worry about them so long as he is alive,” Angel explained to the Zebra. “I can speak from my knowledge that they will be a powerful force on the battlefield.”

Zencori closed her eyes, meditating for a moment. “Very well, then.” She opened her eyes and looked down at the map. “A Strike Force, then?”

“I was thinking an Intimidation Unit,” Angel countered, pointing down at the map. “If we place them at the front and they fight without fear of death, they will be able to frighten the Ash Haz’rad into their rock quickly and with minimal loss of life. It will be easy to force the exchange from there before we launch our final assault.”

Zencori nodded. “I see. Very wise.” She turned to the team, eyes narrowing. “So? What is your price, mercenaries? Two battles await us.”

“Well,” Engineer said, “we run more of a trade, but it also depends on what you have to offer.”

“A simple matter to solve, then,” Angel said. “A favor for a favor. Angel Wings.” Angel’s brown cloak flew from her back as a pair of pure white wings grew in an instant. Angel turned and plucked one of her feathers, holding it before her by the shaft. “Token Create.” The feather began to glow softly and Angel handed it to Engineer. “Call upon me when next you require aid. I will answer.”

“I do not like this exchange,” Zencori muttered. “This will place our new kingdom even further in your debt.”

“I disagree,” Angel replied. “I agreed to do whatever it took to ensure your tribe’s victory. If this is required to enlist their aid, then it falls under our contract.”

“It is more than enough pay,” Engineer says, taking the token and putting it into his pocket, “and what I meant by a trade is also something that you can’t do that we can,” he pull out a red tool box and places it on the ground, it opens up and starts rising and self-building. Once it reaches its maximum height Engineer smacks with his wrench a few times until it changes twice.

“Here you go,” Engineer said, exhausted, “a Level 3 Dispenser, can heal anyone close to it rapidly and can replenish any ammo or healing items. It’s also an infinite metal generator so if you need building supplies, it will give you what you need.”

“Interesting,” Zencori said, looking the machine over. “We do not use many weapons that require ammunition, but this will be useful for its medical purposes.” She looked to Angel. “We will need to tell our medical runners about this. This tent is close enough to the first battlefield for us to use it as a medical tent.”

Angel nodded, dismissing her wings. “It is large enough, as well.” She nodded to Engineer. “We thank you for this device. It may save many lives tomorrow.”

“Good to know,” Engineer said proudly, “it is also portable just pick it up and it will be a toolbox once more and once placed down it will build more rapidly than before since it is technically already built,” Engineer looks to Angel, “Do you have anything to hold any code based data? If so I can give you the blueprints to build more of this device.”

“Relay!” The changeling stuck its head back in at Angel’s shout. “Get Data over here with my laptop. These guys have some stuff to add!” The changeling nodded and left as Angel turned back to Engineer, grinning ear to ear. “Any other technical data or schematics you can give me would be great! I haven’t had time to add anything new in-”

“Ahem!” Angel winced at Zencori’s glare and drew in a deep breath, crossing her legs and resting her hands in her lap. “Focus yourself,” Zencori scolded. “A General does not allow her mask to slip under any circumstances. If our forces had seen that display, they would have scoffed at your childishness!”

Angel nodded, taking several deep breaths as her face melted back into a hard mask. She opened her eyes, looking back at the team. “My apologies. I suppose we should discuss the tactics of the next two days?”

“Actually,” Spy said, with a noticeable glint in his eyes but not on his expression, “I was wondering if I could do a little bit of… well… spying on the enemy? If so all I need is a copy of the map to their base and where our base is currently located. I can find out more about our enemies, bring down their numbers, sabotage their info and cause a bit of chaos in their ranks.”

Angel and Zencori locked eyes, subtle nods, shakes, and shrugs passing between them before Angel nodded slowly. “That may be helpful to some extent,” she said, getting to her feet. “I suggest staying out of their main base for now. They say that it is guarded by monsters and demons. All that we know for sure is that no zebra who has entered that place other than the Ash Haz’rad has ever returned. But their main army is camped outside of it, so you should face no horrors there. As for a map,” she chuckled, pulling her cloak back on and walking to the door of the tent, “that will not be necessary. Come and see their base for yourself.”

“If it is in seeing distance,” Spy said, “I won’t need to look at it now, also just to make sure I get the right zebras, do they have any specific markings I should look for? Any war paint or colors I should look for?”

“Simply look for those without armor,” Angel answered. “All of our warriors wear leather armor, but the Ash Haz’rad fight in only cloth, if in any covering at all. As for their base,” she grinned, nodding her head at the door, “I think all of you would like to have a look at this.”

“Oh, alright,” Spy said, “I’m pretty sure not much can phase me considering what we have been through.”

Angel led the Red Team out of the tent and into the hot savannah afternoon. Tents lined a makeshift path of trodden-down grasses, the zebras within or walking down the path staring at the humans as they passed. An occasional changeling stood here or there, but none of them gave the group any attention beyond a quick nod to Angel. Eventually, Angel led them to the edge of the camp and pointed off into the near distance. “That,” she said, “is where the Ash Haz’rad have holed up for countless generations.”

A huge rock jutted out of the ground, easily the size of a skyscraper and with the front ending in a sheer drop. Another huge rock jutted out from the base, tilted at an upward angle and supported by a large column of stone near its tip. The resemblance to Pride Rock was not lost on the Red Team.

When they notice the resemblance they each had their own reaction: Spy face-palmed, Scout just looked away, Heavy frowned, Medic quietly cursed, Soldier stood-up straight and saluted, Engineer looked away and said “Aw, shucks”, Sniper held his hat at his chest, Demoman just took a big swig from his bottle, and Pyro just shook his head.

“I’ve already said it,” Spy said, “but I’m not surprised, it just brings up… sad childhood memories.” The others of the team mumble in agreement.

“Your reactions are strange,” Zencori muttered, “but no stranger than Angel’s when she first saw this accursed place.”

“Anyway,” Spy said, “back onto the topic at hand, that’s their base, look for any zebras in cloth not leather, and avoid the main base, is that all I’ll need to know?”

“Do not touch the ones in chains,” Angel added. “We plan to free their slaves once tomorrow’s battle has forced them into their stronghold. An exchange for the many soldiers of theirs that we captured yesterday and the ones that we are sure to capture tomorrow.”

“Hmm…” Spy hums in thought, “If I had even a small chance to release them from the base, even a slim one that I believe I can pull it off, am I allowed to?”

“Do not dare!” Zencori threatened. “There are few laws that all tribes honor, but this is one of them. No zebra from one tribe is to touch the slaves of another. To do so would earn the enmity of every tribe of Zebrica!”

Spy chuckles, “What if it was one of their own? That released them, I mean.”

Zencori glared at him. “Do not think them fools. We are allied with changelings, and all of Zebrica knows it. It matters not what trickery you pulled; they would know that it was us or one of our allies. I will not have you risking everything we have worked for on a whim or a mad grasp for glory!”

“Calm yourself, Zencori,” Angel said, not even looking down at her. “They are not of the tribes. They do not know your ways. Level tones would have provided the same information.”
“But not the same emphasis.”

“I’m sorry,” Spy apologizes, “I just want to help anyone I can, any living thing being enslaved should not have been in the first place and those that enslave others… well…” Spy chuckles darkly, “They should fear the shadows I hide in,” he then straightens himself, “I just… don’t like enslavement. Should I see any slaves I will attempt to free as long as it is the right thing to do.”

“On that we agree,” Angel said. “One condition I insisted upon when joining this cause was that all slaves would be freed. That is why we are doing the exchange tomorrow after we push them back. On that note…” She gave off a single whistle and a changeling buzzed up to hover before her. “Get a tent or two prepared for our guests. They will be joining us on the field of battle these next two days.” The changeling nodded and zipped off.

“We lead the charge at dawn,” Angel said, turning to the team. “You nine and I will be front and center, slaying all in our path. The battle will last until the Ash Haz’rad have retreated into their base. We will then conduct the exchange before retiring for the night. The next day, we storm their stronghold until they surrender or perish. Any questions?”

“Yeah,” Sniper said, “I’m Sniper first off, secondly can I have a small area that would seem irrelevant to the battle, but I can hit enemies from one thousand yards to one thousand five hundred yards away?”

Angel hummed to herself, ignoring Zencori’s incredulous expression. “I think the Rock is the only high ground within range, but I suppose that two or three changelings could carry you to an elevated purchase from which to attack.” She looked over her shoulder at the changeling that had followed them from the tent.

He looked off into space for a moment before nodding to her. “Two of our builders should be able to carry Slate transformed into a table for Sniper to sit or lay on. Also, the tents are ready.”

Angel nodded her thanks before turning back to the team. “If that is all, I will allow Relay to lead you to where you will be spending the night.”

“Alright,” Spy said, “but I will only be here for a few more moments afterward before going to do my mission.”

“Yeah,” Sniper said, “I’m going to camp out at the area you guys are setting up for me, so I can keep an eye on enemy base, and if I see movement heading to our base and it isn’t friendly I’ll let you know.

Angel nodded to them as Relay turned and led them back into the camp. Once they were out of sight, Zencori whispered to her. “You lied to them about the second attack.”

“They are untested in warfare,” Angel whispered back. “I am uncertain that they would agree to what we have planned. It will be easier to convince the demolitions expert in the heat of the moment tomorrow night than it would be to convince the whole team right now.” Her expression hardened as she turned to stare at the rock in the distance. “Remember, whatever happens tomorrow night, it was my idea alone. You had no knowledge of what I was planning.”

Zencori nodded. “Better that one of us be thought a monster than both.”

Spy left the corner he hid around after the conversation between the two generals finished.

~~~Timeskip: 4 hours later~~~

Spy had went to the enemy base, using the Cloak and Dagger invisi-watch, was nearly found 6 times due to him bumping into some items. Figured out that there were around fifteen hundred soldiers ready for battle, now there is about two hundred fifteen less to worry about in the battle. Found out the tactics the enemy were going to use in the battle, their formations and who would be leading the charges, just in case that info is important. Spy also sabotaged some of their weaponry and any info they may have obtained against his side. Then, soon after he finished up, he left and made sure all traces of him were eliminated.

~~~Timeskip: 2 hours later; Time: 4:00 a.m.~~~

Spy had woken up his teammates not long after he woke and has explained what he heard from the generals’ to them.
“So they’re holding something back from us that is vital to the situation at hand?” Engineer asked, hoping he was wrong with his assumption.

“You are correct my hard-hatted friend,” Spy said.

“Normally,” Scout started, “I’d say ‘let’s break their kneecaps’, but considering if she kills herself, she will comeback, probably good as new.”

“That is a good assumption,” Spy said, “but for now, it is only a verbal confrontation, nothing physical, only let her know you are upset with your expression.”

“Very well,” Heavy said.

“Alright,” Scout and Demoman said.

The others remained silent and nodded their heads, then walked out of the tent together outside to find her.

The camp was mostly empty as they walked, everyzebra resting up for the battle ahead. Even the changelings that usually stood sentinel were gone. As the team approached the Command Tent, they heard some grunting and shouting coming from nearby. Deciding to investigate, they rounded the tent to the other side.

Angel stood in a circle that had been cleared of grass, surrounded by a dozen or so changelings, including one as tall as Angel who had slit-pupiled eyes and a mane of light red hair. This changeling stood on the edge of the circle, his horn lit and his brow furrowed in concentration.

Angel, meanwhile, wasn’t standing still for even a moment. Her wings were out, but they seemed to shimmer slightly as she danced and dove to avoid the strikes of the changelings that attacked her from all sides. Her left arm had formed into a familiar blade, the right a large spiked hammer. Angel struck mostly with the blade, swinging the hammer only to deter attacks and using her wings to block. She eventually leapt high into the air, flaring her wings wide. She gave a single mighty flap, sending feathers shooting from her wings down to the field below, which the changelings either dodged or blocked with hastily formed shields.

“I think that’s enough,” the large changeling said, the others backing down immediately as Angel touched back down and folded her wings across her back. “You’ve definitely improved against multiple opponents, though I question your insistence on fighting my changelings in the air. Zebras can’t fly, after all.”

“I’m not always going to be fighting zebras, Spot,” Angel said, taking the towel that a changeling offered her and starting to wipe the sweat from her body. “Got to stay in top form against any type of opponent. We have the gryphons to deal with once we’re finished here in Zebrica, and who knows what we’ll have to do to straighten things out there.” She threw her towel across her shoulders, and walked to stand next to him. “So, how long have they been watching?”

Spot instantly turned his eyes on the team. “A few minutes,” he answered. “Determination. Distrust. A little anger and a good amount of cautious fear.” He smirked. “And at least one of them gained a little infatuation from seeing your display.”
Scout immediately coughed a little and went back to his original pose, though less upset looking and more embarrassed to be called out.

“Anyways,” Spy said, with a slight glare, “we want to talk with you.”

Angel shrugged, her arms flashing back to normal and her wings vanishing. “Sure thing,” she said as most of the changelings left. “Be easier to talk now anyway, since I don’t have to keep up appearances in front of the troops.” She sat on the ground, Spot sitting next to her as she grabbed a canteen. “So,” she said, unscrewing the lid, “what’d y’all want to talk about?”

“First,” Engineer said, “we are talking in private, no one allowed to hear what we are saying, capiche? Not even… Spot...”
“That’s a weird name for a changeling,” Scout whispered to Demoman who snickered.

“That’s ‘King Spot’ to you lot,” Spot said. “And I’m afraid there’s no point in separating us. Whatever you say to Angel, she’ll tell me as soon as you’re gone. We keep nothing from each other, right Angel?”

“Not for the last five years,” Angel replied, taking a swig from the canteen. “Ah. Warm water. Still better than no water, but I could really go for some cider right about now.”

“So you wouldn’t mind him hearing about your military plan?” Engineer said left eyebrow raised.
Angel sighed, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a coin, which she handed to Spot. “In my defence,” she told him, “I didn’t think we’d be dealing with anyone outside the army.”

“I figured you’d call in some help for this one,” Spot said, a smirk creeping across his face. “And if other humans were as nosey as you, which it looks like they are, they were bound to discover your and Zencori’s little plan before too long.”

“Zencori,” Spy started, “doesn’t even know the plan, therefore she is not the target of our anger,” Spy then pulls out a cigarette and lights it, “And also I don’t like secrets related to what we are doing being kept from us, I am Spy for a damn good reason.”

Angel and Spot chuckled, shaking their heads. “You really bought that line about her not knowing anything?” Angel asked, leaning back against Spot’s larger form. “Please. That’s our cover story. Truth is, she’s the one who brought the idea up in the first place.” She shrugged. “It was a throw-away, sarcastic comment since she didn’t think it was possible, but we planned it together from there.”

“Another part of the contract that Angel mentioned yesterday,” Spot chimed in, “is that she and Zencori are to hide nothing from each other related to the conduct of this war. The plan is for Angel to appear to be breaching that contract if the army reacts negatively to what goes down tonight. That way, only one of them gets the blame.”

“Bonus points!” Angel added, pointing to herself with a thumb. “I don’t care if they think I’m a monster. As soon as we’re done with this war, I’m out of here. They can think what they want about the ‘Angel of Death’ after that.”

“That’s why,” Spy said, more calmly than before, and with a smile, “if you tell us the plan we can take the blame for you, and also when you send us back afterward, we won’t have to worry about them finding us, because we won’t even be in this universe.”

“Yeah,” Scout said, smugly, “we don’t care if these guys think we’re monsters, they don’t live in our universe.”

Angel’s eyes widened and she turned to face Spot. He met her eyes, nodding solemnly. Angel’s eyes then narrowed into a glare which she trained on the team, getting to her feet. “Alright,” she said, stomping over. “Since you volunteered, here’s the plan. The Ash Haz’rad keep slaves so that they can sacrifice them to the demons that they summon to keep people out of their little hidey hole. They’re going to accept our trade tomorrow because they think they’ll get their sacrifices back as soon as they beat us. But we’re not going to fight. We’re going to slaughter those slaves to a one and then just sit back and wait. Once the contracts with the demons expire, the Ash Haz’rad will be helpless.” By the time she finished, she was glaring Spy right in the face. “So thanks for blindly volunteering to take the blame for whatever heinous plan we might have thought up. Good to know that we can shove whatever we want on you and say it was your idea.” She turned on her heal, whipping Spy across the face with her hair. “Ha ha,” she said, her voice utterly deadpan. “Just kidding. Next time, don’t be so quick to blindly volunteer.” She turned around and sat down once she reached Spot, crossing her arms and glaring up at them. “Now, do you want to know the real plan?”

The Red Team was unmoving, seemingly shocked into temporary paralysis, then they started laughing, all of them.

“If that is your sense of humor,” Medic shouted to her, putting his arm on Engineer’s shoulder to keep balanced from laughing, “then me and you are going to get along nicely, you see, the healing is not nearly as rewarding as the hurting.”

“Yeah,” Engineer shouted, “that was quite funny, by the way, have you ever considered anyone of us or all of us to be mentally insane, or a sociopath?”

“Yeah,” Scout said loudly, “I mean, when are we going to get this type of chance of a killing job? In our Equestria, so far we’ve been the helpers to the heroes and we plan on being heroes at some point.”

“Yea,” Sniper said, “we are mercenaries as your fellow general said, we are made to kill, meaning doing whatever it takes to get the job done.”

“Also,” Spy said, “I knew you weren’t being serious considering the other general wanted to save the slaves they have. If you are serious about that though, well… I guess freedom in death is better that enslavement in life.”

Angel and Spot were silent, staring across the ring at them. After a few minutes, Spot sighed and shook his head, nudging Angel. “Remember when I said that I take back everything I ever said about your species? I take that comment back now. You lot are worse than even Chrysalis.”

“Can’t say I disagree,” Angel muttered, “faced with the evidence.” She sighed as she and Spot got back up, walking past the team without even looking at them. “I’ll tell you all the plan after the battle. I need to rethink how we’re going to be fighting this now that I know what sort of people I’m dealing with. Two pronged attack? I would probably need Spot to back me up…” Muttering plans and contingencies to herself, Angel walked with Spot back to the entrance of the Command Tent and out of sight.

Unable to hold it back anymore, the entire burst out into hysterical laughter.

“Can you believe she actually bought that act Spy?” Scout asked, holding his torso.

“Yes,” Heavy said, holding his with one of his hands, “tiny winged-woman think were psy… psychopa… you know what? Just pyschos will do.”

“Maybe I’ll have to make her some hard cider as an apology for that wee prank,” Demo said looking at his drink.

“Hey, Spot!” The team froze as Angel’s voice reached them from the tent. “You know what I love about these thin canvas tents?”

“Gee, I don’t know Angel,” Spot’s voice replied. “Is it that they’re cool in the summer? That they’re so lightweight and easy to transport? Or is it that they’re thin enough to easily hear nine people laughing and shouting right on the other side?”

“All of those, Spot,” Angel’s voice replied, suddenly becoming clearer. “Plus there’s the fact that you can lift the bottoms up to grin smugly at whoever you just scammed on the other side.” The entire team turned slowly around to see Angel and Spot lying on the ground doing just that. “By the way, did you guys know that changelings can sense emotions?”

“It makes us very proficient lie detectors,” Spot added. “Well, see you on the battlefield.” Sharing a brief laugh, they pulled their heads back into the tent.

The team each looked at each other, then Scout spoke.

“Well,” Scout sounding annoyed, “this sucks on ice, that was really short lived.” The others mumbled their agreement, and all started to walk away except for Medic.

“But,” Medic started, the rest of his team just out of earshot, “you guys know I wasn’t kidding, right?” He then started running towards them, “right!?”

~~~Timeskip: 3 hours later~~~

The battle hadn’t lasted long. Although Angel was no longer concerned about Red Team’s sanity, she and Zencori had still opted to go with a two-pronged attack. On one side had been Angel, Spot, and the changelings, spinning and leaping through the enemy forces and spreading death with every movement. On the other side had roared the Red Team, their assault reckless and half-crazed. Heavy had torn straight through the center of the forces, gunning down and smashing all who stood in his way as Medic trailed right behind him, powering and defending him. Sniper had lain above the battle on a changeling who had transformed itself into a long table, two other changelings holding them up in the air as Sniper had picked off prime targets.

Meanwhile, the main bulk of the Army had remained in the rear, holding a defensive line in case some brave - or insane - zebras had tried to rush past the champions. The few who had hadn’t even made it halfway before they found themselves impaled on spears.

Less than an hour after the battle had begun, the Ash Haz’rad had retreated into their rocky fortress. An ambassador had been sent to negotiate a trade of prisoners for slaves, which the Ash Haz’rad had readily agreed to.
Angel sat by a campfire near the base of the rock, cooking a lizard over the fire as she examined the blueprints and schematics that Engineer had loaded onto her computer.

“Hey,” Engineer said, approaching her, “I want to give you something else, remember what you asked earlier?”

“About what?” Angel asked, looking up from her screen.

“Remember when you lost your ‘General’ composure?” Engineer asked, “Here.” Engineer holds out a USB Thumb Drive 1 TB.

Angel took the drive, plugging it into her computer. A grin flitted across her face for a moment as she saw the schematics for the Sentry and the Entrance & Exit Teleports. “These are amazing,” she whispered, transferring the data to her laptop and loading it into Angel Player for analysis. “I’ve been trying to crack the teleportation code off and on for years! This may just be the break I need to figure it out once and for all!” She looked up and smiled at Engineer. “Thank you.”

Feeling a bit flushed from the comment and her thanking him, he scratched the back of his head, “Ah, it weren’t nothin’, I wish the character I became displaced as was the true creator, but it was actually his grandfather. Think about it, in approximately 1890 Earth time, he had created a self-supporting, enemy tracking, turret that only needs metal to self-upgrade, automatically reload bullets and missiles, and self-repair.”

“That is impressive,” Angel said, looking over the schematics one more time before closing the laptop and standing up, grabbing her roast lizard as she did so. “Thank you again. By the way, do you know where Demo is?”

“Yeah, he’s back at his tent, almost finished making the hard cider you wanted,” Engineer answered with a smile and knowing look on his face.

Angel rolled her eyes, slugging him in the shoulder. “I’ll be sure to thank him for that, too.” She took a bite of her lizard before nodding and walking off.

She found Demoman’s tent easily enough, slipping inside and closing the door. “Do your friends trust you?” she asked abruptly.

“It kinda depends,” Demoman answered while sober, which is a rare thing to see, “what are we talking about? Explosives? Alcohol? Family?”

“Secrets,” Angel answered. “Specifically, the plan for tonight. You’re the one whose help I need, and I want to know if your friends will trust you to make a good decision regarding it. I want as few people to know about it as possible. Loose lips, and all that.”

“Aye,” Demoman agreed, “I get what you saying and all of us do trust each other as long as I’m sober, and Medic’s not ‘practicing medicine’, and Scout’s not beating creatures skulls in, we were all once just one man… but the second we completed our collection of specific TF2 related items, we all ended up in our Equestria as the nine mercs. Imagine this, your persona from before suddenly mixed with that of the original persona for whose body you now control.”

“I did wonder how exactly that happened,” Angel muttered before shaking her head. “So, if I tell you the plan, can I trust you not to spread word to the others? Whether you agree to help or not?”

“If I agree to help with it while I’m sober then even the others will help, but if you’re absolutely sure, well…” hands her a pill red and blue in coloring, “give this to me when you need my help because I keep secrets by being drunk, drunks spout nonsense, they don’t think much on my slurs. Oh and the pill is an instant-sobering and anti-hangover pill, that way, if I’m needed somewhere I’m not hindered by anything, thank Medic for that.”

Angel nodded, pocketing the pill. “Alright then.” She took a deep breath before letting it out. “Here’s the thing, we don’t know what’s in that rock. Horror stories abound, but we know nothing for sure except that invaders and spies don’t come back out. We can’t risk an assault, not even with an elite strike team. But at the same time, we can’t just leave this tribe here.” Her gaze darkened. “Trust me, they’re one of the worst ones in Zebrica.

“What we need to do instead, is take out the rock.” Angel sighed. “That’s where you come in. The plan is for me to lead you to the top of the rock tonight and set charges to blow it up, causing the whole thing to collapse. If it works right, the Ash Haz’rad will be crushed to death in an instant. If not…” she sighed again. “Well, we’ll never know. They’ll be buried alive with no way to get to them in time to rescue them.”

Demoman waited in silence looking at Angel for a bit before he spoke, “Is that it? The plan was to blow the structure to smithereens? With the possibility of killing everything in and/or near it?”

“Including, the children, the elderly, and the infirm, yes.”

Demoman waited in silence thinking about it, the looked at the hard cider he made, then sighed.

“I can see why you were hesitant to have anyone of my team listen to your plan, the only other one that would do it as well, so long as I said I’ll do it, would be Soldier, most of the other might not agree with it, but wouldn’t stop you, and the only one who would attempt to stop anyone, be Pyro, and he would be the only one with the ability to do so.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Angel clarified. “I have a way to accomplish this on my own.” She winced, rubbing her forehead. “It would mean dying for a bit, but that’s nothing new for me. Be more annoying than painful.”

“I get what you mean,” Demoman said, “I’ve died several times because of being drunk and screwing with explosives… yeah…” he rubbed his neck, then looked back at her, “So, I’ll do it,” Demo then looks at you, a bit pleadingly, “but can I ask Soldier to join in? He will keep any secrets between me and him, even if he disagrees.”

Angel nodded. “Very well.” She sighed, getting to her feet and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Get some rest. We have a big night ahead.”

“Ok,” Demo agreed, “and if you can, before nightfall, get your teleportation thing-ama-jig perfected cause I have an idea that will… ‘blow’ you away.”

~~~Timeskip: 13 hours later; Time: 10 p.m.~~~

The Army of United Zebrica surrounded the rock as they slept, the nearest tents only a few hundred meters from the imposing formation. Changelings took the night in shifts, watching the outward savannah for predators and the inside of their camp for enemy spies or sneak attacks. All was quiet, however, with the Ash Haz’rad content to sleep the night away, confident in their security.

So it was that no-one noticed three bipedal figures slowly and quietly ascending the rear slope of the rock, sneaking towards the top. Angel had her wings out, now modified so the feathers were a raven black, and was using them to hop from outcropping to outcropping when walking became difficult. Soldier and Demoman followed close behind her.

An hour and a half of climbing later, the three of them reached the top. Angel took a canteen from her hip, draining it all in one go. She gasped for air when she finished, turning to Demoman. “So?” she asked, panting slightly. “What’s the plan?”

Demoman pulls out his Quickiebomb Launcher, “I’m going to be using this version of my sticky-launcher here to quickly put down as many sticky-bombs in as little time as possible,” he said, practically hugging the gun, “Oh! And Soldier will be using the… er… what is that item called again?”

“The Buff Banner!” Soldier exclaimed, “it can give anyone in the area that has Team Fortress 2 weaponry critical damage with said weaponry, but also a speed boost to anyone in the area.”

“Right,” Demoman confirmed, “if we wanna blow this place to smithereens, we are going to the most damage possible,” Demo held up the launcher, “normally, this weapon can only have 8 bombs out at-a-time, but since we are in the real-world, there are no-limits in the real world. So, when Soldier here uses the Buff Banner, my bombs will gain critical damage the second they leave my gun and they keep it until detonation and/or they are destroyed.”

“That should work,” Angel said, looking over the area. “Set them up however you think will make this whole place collapse. Don’t be conservative. After that, I’ll get the two of you down and set them off myself. I’ll have to stay here to make sure the whole thing goes down, just in case I need to use plan B.”

“By the way,” Demoman started, “do you have the teleport ability ready? It is going to be important.”

“Not quite,” Angel replied. “Angel Horn.” A familiar chime went off as a spire of bone pushed its way up through Angel’s forehead. A latticework of delicate fibers extended from her forehead and the spire, twisting and branching in complex patterns. Finally, two thin plates of bone broke through the skin, spiraling upwards and together to enclose the fibers and form a bone-white unicorn horn. “I’ve figured out how to send things to the aether with my magic, but retrieving them is a lot more difficult to adapt. That’s why I had Spot steal one of Engineer’s Exit-Teleport devices and set it up outside the camp a ways. He also snuck an Entrance-Teleport devices into your tent and is just waiting for our signal before he and his ‘lings activate them and shove your teammates through. With any luck, you two will be there to explain the situation to them and I’ll arrive a few minutes later once I’ve made sure that the plan worked.”

“Alright,” Demoman said, nodding, “also, I have two ways of setting off my bombs; one is remote-detonation, and the other is not instant, but it will be a little more firepower to ensure destruction where we need it.”

“Yeah,” Soldier said, “if I’m right, the Buff Banner will be ready soon to do more crits! Allowing me to fire crit-rockets! Which is the other way to blow up his explosives.”

Angel considered the two options for a minute, her eyes crossing as she looked up at her horn. “What’s the range on the remote?”

“The remote detonator, well,” Demo said, with a thoughtful expression, “had a range of only halfway across the map of Teufort, so… hmm… that would be about, er…”

“I’ve run that through that place so many times!” Soldier exclaimed “I’d say… 52, maybe 53 yards?”

“Not nearly far enough, then,” Angel muttered, shaking her head. “Here’s the plan, then. After Demo places his bombs, I’ll send him to the drop-zone. Then I’ll fly Soldier up as high as he thinks he has range for and have him let loose. As soon as the explosions start, I’ll send him through as well.” She nodded to herself, facing the two men. “Any objections?”

“Not really an objection,” Soldier started, “but the longest my rockets can go, before they run out of the fuel that keeps them going and self-detonates, is almost as far as your camp is from here, but I’ll have to see my target to hit it.”

Angel nodded. “Alright. Just let me know when we’re about to get too high, and I’ll stop and let you fire away. Now,” her face fell, becoming somber, “let’s do this. Demo? You’re up.”

“Alright,” Demoman said, as he loaded his sticky-launcher, “it’s time for some demolition!”

Soldier uses the Buff Banner quietly enough not to be heard from below, but loud enough to actually affect those within range. As Angel feels the effects of the speed boost Demo is running around and placing explosives in places to make this place become an object of destruction for the enemies far below, even if it looks like there aren’t any patterns. When Demo is done there are a lot of glow crit-bombs ready for detonation and for dealing damage.

“Ok,” Demoman said, exhausted from the work, “it’s ready to blow and I have only five or six bombs ready in case of any threats that appear.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Angel said, looking over his work. “Once these things go off, every predator for miles around will be fleeing as fast as they can. And the Exit-Teleporter is far enough from camp that nozebra should find you before the rest of us get there.” Her horn lit up as she turned to him. “See you in a few.” In a flash of light, Demoman was gone.

Angel turned to Soldier, spreading her wings. “You ready to go flying?”

“Technically,” Soldier started, “I’ve already flown before, but to be in the air for an extended period of time is going to be amazing! Let’s go!”

Angel gave a single mighty flap, vaulting her into the air. She twisted as she came down behind Soldier, grabbing his below the arms as she landed. “Hold on to your dinner.” With that, she lifted up, pouring all of her strength into her wings as she flapped as hard as she could. Though nowhere near her top speed, Angel still rose at an almost dizzying pace, leaving the world below far behind.

“Woah,” Soldier said, a bit dazed, “that was an amazing wake-up call. With all the things I’ve done with my life, being in the air or flying or skydiving was not any of them!”

Soldier then pulls out the Buff Banner, “Just a few feet higher and we’ll be good,” Soldier stated matter-of-factly as he used it.

“Got it,” Angel huffed, rising another yard before slowing to a hover. “Try to make it quick,” she grunted. “You’re freaking heavy.” Her eyes suddenly grew wide as she saw Soldier take out his rocket launcher, a Direct Hit. “Um, quick question. How much kickback does that thing have?”

“Not much,” Soldier said, “I can fire it in place and slightly move backwards and when moving it doesn’t move me at all, why do you ask?” Soldier takes aim.

“Because unlike on the ground, we don’t have anything to brace against up here.”

“Hm…” Soldier hummed in thought, then smiled brightly, “can you make a force-field? Or something similar I can stand on?”

“Who do I look like? Shining Armor?” Angel shook her head, her wings starting to burn. “Just… go ahead and fire. I’ll deal with the backlash as best I can. Worst case, I port you out of here and crash-land myself.”

“Ok,” Soldier said, looking through the scope on the side, “here we go.” He fires the crit-rocket and they stay about the same, just slightly backwards.

“Huh,” was all Soldier, thought to say until he facepalmed his helmet, “that’s right I’ve also fired this when parachuting, it doesn’t move me much in the air either.”

“Good for us,” Angel grunted as she lit her horn, watching the rocket as it neared the rock. “Now, let’s get you out of here.”

***

A deafening explosion woke the Army of united Zebrica in the middle of the night. Soldiers, medics, and others rushed out of the tents, gazing up in awe and horror at the spectacle above them.

The mighty rock, the bastion of the Ash Haz’rad, was crumbling. Giant cracks and fissures raced down the small mountain as boulders fell from the top, crashing to the structure below. The horrible screeching rumble of stone on stone mixed with the cracks and crunches of millions of tons of rock and stone collapsing upon itself. A cloud of dust arose and obscured their visions, but not before they saw the full results of the disaster.
The Ash Haz’rad, the indomitable terror of central Zebrica, were no more. They had been crushed beneath the very fortress that had been their greatest defence for generations.

Far outside the camp, nine figures stood staring at the cloud of dust which was only growing larger in the Zebican night, illuminated by the full moon.

“So,” Spy started, looking to Demoman, “her plan?”

“Yep,” Demo answered.

“Sworn to not tell us?” Spy asked.

“Yep.”

“Got Soldier to help you?”

“Yep.”

“All of the enemy is dead?”

“Hopefully,” Demoman said, gaining a somber look, “otherwise they’ll die of dehydration, starvation, or something else, either way it’ll leave the enemy dead.”

Spy sighed, then smiled, “Well the job is done, and we have another friend on our side, an immortal one no less.”

“True,” Demoman said, then he smacked the side of his own head, “I forgot the cider! I’ll be right back, she’ll be wanting it, no doubt.”

“Don’t bother!” The team looked over to see Angel flying towards them, dropping to the ground and jogging the rest of the way on foot, her body and clothes covered in dust. “I’ll grab it from the tent, later. Right now, I’ve got to get you all out of here. A lot of the army saw me flying in this direction, and it’d be best if I faced them alone.”

“Alright,” Spy said, holding his hand out, “so, until we meet again.”

“Yeah,” Scout said, “it was nice seeing you, but maybe we’ll see each other soon.”

“Bye,” Heavy said simply.

“Auf Wiedersehen,” Medic said, “it was a pleasure meeting such a nice person such as you.”

“I enjoyed my time here,” Engineer said, “hope my schematics help you out with any future situations, but I have one last question before the army arrives; do you know how to send us back?”

Angel looked over from shaking Spy’s hand, nodding to each of them before addressing Engineer. “I’ve heard some Displaced use a formal phrase - contract completed or some such - but any dismissal or farewell works, really, as long as there’s proper intent behind it.”

“Alright,” Engineer said, handing her another red tool box, “this has an entrance teleporter in it, when I get back to my world I will set up the exit, and they work both ways, and then you can probably go to my world at anytime; whatever you do, don’t go through it until I have arrived through it first, if I die because the teleporter didn’t work then I will respawn in my world, because it will have failed to send me to another universe. Then I’ll let you know it doesn’t work, and you can dismantle it.”

Angel nodded, setting the toolbox down. “Understood. Give me a few days for all of this to blow over before trying it.” She stepped back, giving Red Team a salute. “On behalf of the Army of United Zebrica, and the greater world of Equis, thank you for your service. Dismissed!”

Nine holes opened in the ground beneath the team, dropping them out of Zebrica, except Soldier who grabbed the ground around the hole.

“God bless you general. God bless you,” he said as he saluted before dropping into the hole as it closed behind him.
Angel sighed, looking down at her dust-covered feet. “Somehow, I doubt it.”

“Angel!”

Angel turned to see Zencori stomping over to her, a crowd of scared and confused zebras following behind. Zencori’s face was twisted into an ugly snarl of contempt, a slight gleam in her eyes being the only thing to betray her true feelings.
Angel straightened her back, putting on her most intimidating glare. Show time.

Chapter 9: Two Weeks Part 1 of 2

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~~~POV: Third-Person: Omniscient~~~

~~~Time: 4:08 a.m.~~~

After being in Angel's Equestria for almost a day and a half, the entirety of Red Team return back to their Equestria about 15 hours after they left it. With them technically already having woken up just minutes ago, they were all practically awake; Pyro went to make breakfast for everyone, Medic, Spy, and Engineer all went to discuss any future plans regarding Equestria and themselves, Sniper did his thing*¹, Heavy, Demoman, and Soldier, went to train or drink (sometimes both), and Scout just did whatever interested him. They just relaxed for the day, considering they just fought in a very real war, just hours ago, they needed time to mentally prepare for the next possible fight.

***

The next few days were not really interesting, the exception being a few hostile creature encounters; two manticore, seven timberwolves (which then later formed an alpha timber), a cockatrice (they were glad that a sentry found it before they did), and one really mad cragadile. The bodies being cryogenically stored for possible future use, and samples taken from said bodies being studied by Medic. Other than that, there were repairs to the base that weren't taken care of before, checking the place for any bugs, and a surprise visit from one of the Mane 6. Specifically, from Pinkie Pie, who wanted to help plan the date for the 'Welcome-to-Equestria' and 'Thank-You-for-Helping-Us-Beat-Discord' party. Engineer and Spy agreed for it to happen either two days prior to the 'Cutie Pox' event or the day before it, to which Pinkie both reluctantly and excitedly agreed.

For a full week, the mercenaries had just done things that they considered normal in this new life of theirs and without too much hassle from anyone or anything.

That might change...

Chapter 10: The Princesses Princess (Crossover 3)

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~~~POV: Scout~~~

Man, I’m bored as hell, with only a few days until that episode comes into play, but that is going to take forever to happen. With less and less of the preda..predada… meat-eating animals trying to get into our base, things are getting really boring around here. I could go and look for some animals to take on, but that’s a bit too dangerous, even in my book. I’ve even read through all of our comics, everything from the official TF2 Comics to even the Soul Eater Mangas. The Engineer was able to recreate most of the things we had when we were on Earth, and let me tell you it was a relief to be able to read normal human comics again.

I’m hungry now, so I get-up and walk to the kitchen to see Pyro cooking, Demo and Soldier hanging out, and Heavy waiting for lunch, the rest were wherever in the base.

“Hey, Pyro,” I said, getting his attention, “what’s for lunch?”

Pyro looks at the others and while they aren’t looking shows me the recipe for a dish that was our favorite, yet really easy to make: Tuna Casserole. Fish is kind of hard to find on the market in Equestria, but you can find some without using the black market. So this dish is kind of a rarity to even make, but with Spy getting our groceries and his sly tongue, nopony besides the Mane 6 and Celestia know we live here yet or that we even exist.

“Wow,” I said, with a look of shock on my face, only to be replaced with a grin, “Can’t wait for it to be done.”

I start walking to the dining table where Heavy is, when there is a flash of light between me and the table, causing me to squint my eyes while looking towards the light.

“-AAAAHHHHHH!” Someone screamed, then suddenly all I could see was yellow- er… blonde?

~~~POV Switch: Third Person: Omniscient~~~

The first thing Phoebe saw when the light faded was another human. A scrawny one at that. This, at first, excited her. Until the momentum of her sudden appearance caused her to trip and crash into the scrawny man… And toppling him over.

And if that weren’t enough… what came next surely did not help any for Phoebe’s current position. The scrawny guy groaned, and said, “Ok, what the hell-” He feels something in his hand curious he tries to grip it before realizing his mistake.

And before he could do anything to correct that mistake… Phoebe reacted first.

“AAAAHHHH- GUH!” he exclaimed, as he was imbedded in the wall after being thrown. He coughed up some blood, and whispered, “Ow… Medic…”

Phoebe had already gotten back to her feet and drew her blades, pointing them at Scout.

He holds his hands in front of him shouting, while coughing some blood out every now and then, “Woah woah-*cough*-woah, hold it! I’m-*cough cough- I’m sorry! I didn’t realize that that was what was in my hand… Also… can I have a little help out of here.”

Now using one hand to point to the wall, while holding out the other hand as if in a gesture of asking for help.

“... No. Get up yourself.” Phoebe ordered, glaring at Scout. “Who are you? Where am I? And explain why you abducted me!”

“First of all,” Scout started glaring back, “I’m literally stuck in this wall; and to answer your questions in order, the name’s Scout, your in our base known as Fort Everfree, and we didn’t abduct you, you just appeared in front of me.”

“Here,” said Heavy, who was just to Phoebe’s right, walked up to Scout, pulled him out of the wall like he was gum, and handed him a sandwich. “There you go, sandvich make you strong!” Heavy said, then walked back to his seat.

“Thanks Heavy,” Scout said, then practically stuffed the entire sandwich down his throat, and suddenly looked liked he never even took any damage at all.

“Now answer me!” Phoebe demanded.

Scout looks at her with a deadpanned expression. “I just did,” Scout said in an annoyed tone, “I don’t know how you got here, unless one of the other guys used your token by mistake.”

“What’s a ‘token’? Aren’t those just for slot machines in arcades?” Phoebe asked, narrowing her eyes.

Scout looks at her as if she asked, ‘what was the sun’, “Umm…” Scout then looks a bit behind her, and gestures toward her, “I think you might want to take care of this question, Spy.”

Phoebe heard an noise somewhat like electricity behind her, she quickly turns around to see another man standing right behind her who she knew hadn’t been there before. “Gahh!” She screamed, before punching him square in his jaw.

As his body fell to the ground, lifeless from the one punch, she hears another electric noise a little further away and to her left.

“Glad I always have my deadringer active in my pocket,” Spy said casually, lighting a cigarette, “that would’ve been a lot more painful than it was.”

“Who in Equestria are you all!?” Phoebe shouted, getting frustrated.

“We call ourselves the ‘Red Team’,” Spy started, “a team of men who can do just about anything in the ways of combat. For instance, I can hide in plain sight, take down many enemies, steal any intel, and generally confuse the enemy while giving them faulty information. There are many thing we can do as a team, and I could tell you all of it… but then we’d be here all day. In short, we are mercenaries, but we have hearts and will not do anything we would consider evil.”

“I think that just makes you Bounty Hunters and/or hired help…” Phoebe deadpanned. “Where are we? Planet, solar system, country, etcetera.”

Spy looks at her with wide-eyes, then confusion, then understanding, “Ah I think I know what’s going on here. First off, do you know the country of Equestria?”

“Yes, I was raised there.” Phoebe said, narrowing her eyes. “Then… No, no, how the tartarus would there be so many other humans and I haven’t even heard of!? I spent years of my childhood searching!”

“I’ll get to that,” Spy promised, “Secondly, have you ever heard of the multiple universe theory?”

“Multiverse, and yes… Oh, damn it! How in the vast infinite were there two groups sent to the same world but in different universes!? It doesn’t make sense, unless the multiverse is much more flawed than Blueblood!” Phoebe began to pace, spouting out theories and questions that the mercenaries couldn’t understand.

“Woah,” Spy said, stopping her rant, “the main reason, if I’m correct, is that all the threats that appear in our different universes don’t get too powerful, and also… we aren’t the only two groups sent out into different versions of Equestria, we just happened to be the first Displaced you have met so far.”

“Dis… What?” Phoebe asked, stopping in place.

“Oh, boy,” Spy said, then held to fingers up to his ear, “Engineer…? I need the Displaced lecture in the dining room… Yes… I don’t know… Yes… Ok, thanks Engineer.” Bringing his hand down he looked down and backed away from the section of flooring starting to open up.

Once it finished opening a device that looked similar to a movie projector, but noticeably different in some of its parts. Spy flipped a switch on a remote he held and a screen descended from a slot in the ceiling, as the movie projector started up.

“Hello,” said the man on screen, “I’m Engineer, if you are watching this then you are about to learn about a type of human called… a ‘Displaced’! If you are a human, and you have an amazing ability or power and are in a land called Equestria… then you are a Displaced! Displaced is a term meaning: ‘Dimensionally Misplaced’ which is both true and not true at the same time. Displaced are generally humans who once lived on a planet called ‘Earth’ who, when transported to Equestria, end as whatever character they were dressed up as, as the character relating to an item that they had a hard time finding, etc. etc.

Now how are we transported to an Equestria? Well, the Void Dwellers! Sometimes called a ‘Displacer’ these beings have immense amounts of power to, if they wanted to that is…, destroy entire universes! There is once Void Dweller who seems to be the boss of all of them, that are good anyway, called ‘Author’. Anyways, back on topic each Displaced is sent to a different version of Equestria: classic, anthro, opposite-persona, swapped-position, etc.”

“Now,” Movie-Engie said, “we are onto the token portion of this lesson. Displaced sometimes might find themselves in a difficult position and might need the aid of another Displaced. ‘But, how do we get their help?’ You may ask, well tokens are the answer! A token is an item that represents the Displaced and has a message, whether written down or otherwise, and when activated as instructed the Displaced will be summoned right before you. However there are some Displaced that, depending on your mindset, your alignment, etc., could become your enemy, so when summoning a Displaced, becareful, cause they might just shoot and ask questions later. Now if you want to send a Displaced back to their universe, just say something along the lines of: ‘Your contract is sealed/over/etc.’ Now there are some things that might’ve happened in your universe regarding you, such as marriages, adoption, etc. So, if you have a parent figure in your Equestria, a partner in life, or adopted children and they exist in the other Equestria remember this: you know them, but they don’t know you. That is the end of today’s lesson on: Displaced. Engineer signing off.”

The movie projector shut off and the screen slide backup into the ceiling, Spy looked over at Phoebe to see her response.

“That’s… A lot to take in…” Phoebe said.

“I understand,” Spy said, nodding, “yet… in my world, the adventures of the other Displaced were nothing but stories written down. So… we already kinda understand. Also, there even a few different types of Displaced.”

“Explain.” Phoebe said, pulling a notepad from behind her back and taking notes.

“Well,” Spy said, “there are ‘average Displaced’ who are practically in their universe, no one to talk to about their problems; there are the ‘lucky Displaced’ who are a small group of friends who were sent to the same Equestria; then… there are the ‘split Displaced’, our group is the perfect example of that. Would you like to know why?”

“Uh… Why wouldn’t I…?” Phoebe questioned.

“It’s just…,” Spy said, a small smile on his face, “it’s kind of weird… even for us. You see… ‘split Displaced’ are a group of Displaced who were once, only one person, imagine this: the personality of a single person copied one or more times and each one was changed just slightly to fit with the body the personalities were going to end up in. That’s what happened with us, we were all once one man.

And lastly, there are the ‘amnesiac Displaced’ a Displaced that knows that they belong elsewhere, but can’t remember anything before being in Equestria.”

“I think I fit with the amnesiac, but I can remember faces.” Phoebe said, still taking noted. “Can’t remember names, only faces.”

“Ah, I see,” Spy said, a thoughtful expression crossed his face, “Maybe Medic can help you with your memories later if you wish, but… I’m also curious… how in Equestria did you get here without a token? Do you remember what happened before you arrived?”

“I got a letter with a key in it…” Phoebe replied, pulling out said key. “I think it might’ve been altered to do the opposite of what a token does and bring me to another world instead.”

“...Huh…” was all Spy could say, “well that was most likely our token, given ours is a key… but what would have prompted it to reverse instead...? Wait… a letter… did the letter have a return address? If not, did the paper of the letter seem kind of old?”

“No? Not like it matters here.” Phoebe replied.

“Nevermind then,” Spy stated, then looked to Phoebe, “one question, would you like to stay here and hangout for a while? Or would you like to make a token and head back home? If you want to hangout, I’m sure Engineer would like talking to you, you seem to be the machinery type.”

“I’m sure he would. And I doubt making a Token here would be advisable. I might end up here every time I’m called and dismissed. Just in case…” Phoebe said. “I would like to explore the world a little though… And not being surrounded by only human men would help...”

“Sure,” Spy said, a smile plastered on his face, “though I do have one last question, if I may.”

“Go on...” Phoebe replied hesitantly.

“You said you were raised in Equestria,” Spy started, curiosity noticeable on his face, “so… who was kind enough to raise you?”

“Princess Celestia.” Phoebe replied proudly, smirking.

Everyone else in the room went still and, if they weren’t already staring at her, they turned their heads to look at her with surprise. Spy cleared his throat after a few moments, and everyone went back to what they were doing.

“Pardon them,” Spy said, “so… the adopted daughter of Princess Celestia from across the multiverse… never thought I would say such a sentence- oh sorry, I’m rambling. So your majesty,” Spy said playfully, “where would you like to go?”

“Just show me around,” Phoebe said.

“Well,” Spy started, looking around, then gestured to the room they were in, “Welcome to Fort Everfree, former castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, and base of operations for me and my men. Do you want a tour of this place?”

“I’ve been here. Well… You know.” Phoebe waved her hand dismissively. “I’m a bit curious about Earth. I barely remember my life then, other than having been in preschool.”

“Hm,” Spy hummed, in thought, “well, would you like to see this universe’s version of Celestia?”

“Uh… Sure.” Phoebe replied, curiosity taking over.

“Excellent,” Spy exclaimed, as he clapped his hand together, “I’ll go on ahead and let her know we have a guest going to visit, this should only take a moment.”

Spy seemingly vanishes into thin air, leaving Phoebe in the room with the other guys.

“Um,” Scout started, then seemingly had an ‘Eureka’ moment, “I’m going to get Engineer, he seems to get along with your type quite easily.”

“Hmph! My type… I estimate that I know of not one creature that’s your type.” Phoebe shot back in a huff.

“Wait,” Scout said, hurriedly, “I didn’t mean it like that, I mean, with how you act and all, you seem to be a smarty-pants, you know… the type that is always smarter than me?”

“Just get out of here…” Phoebe growled, a vein appearing on her forehead.

Scout leaves the room, after yelping, faster than fast-walking but slower than running, his voice is heard from the corridor he went but the words weren’t able to be made out.

Suddenly, a small flash of light appears and goes away to reveal a man with a hard-hat, goggle, gloves, tool belt, holding a wrench in on hand, and holding a PDA in the other. He seemed to be looking at the pda before looking up at Phoebe.

“Ah,” Engineer said, “you must be the new Displaced, Scout tends to have problems talking to women like you without saying the wrong thing, last time we nearly had a test for the respawn room.”

“Re… Spawn…?” Phoebe asked, confusion clear on her face.

“Ah, yes,” Engineer started, “it hasn’t been tested, but, in theory, if one of us dies in less than a minutes it will ‘respawn’ us, or bring us back to life, so to speak. It should only work if it isn’t a death by age.

“But,” Engineer said, a nervous smile plastered on his face, “we haven’t tested it yet because we don’t want to. I mean if it fails then… we won’t come back. So, the only way we will test it, is with an inevitable death.”

The room falls silent after that sentence.

“Why not test it on a pony on death row?” Phoebe suggested. “Then disconnect them from it if it works.”

“Because,” Engineer began, irritably, “it is NOT supposed to work on aged based death, only weapon-based, poison-based, or natural disaster-based deaths.”

“You’re clearly unfamiliar with what death row means. Death by electrocution. Why not ask Celestia to use a pony on death row as a test subject?” Phoebe replied as if she were speaking to a child.

The Engineer just looked at her for a moment, then spoke, “Is… is that a thing that happens in your Equestria? Because we have yet to hear of anything along those happening in this country ‘til now…”

“It’s not often, but it does happen with the occasional homicide.” Phoebe responded. “Mom always tried to keep it on the down low since she disliked the entire process. No civilization is crime free.”

“Hm,” Engineer hummed in thought, then looked over see medic standing in front of one of the corridors looking at him seeing make a face that said ‘Well, only if you’re ok with it’.

Engineer looked over to Phoebe, and spoke, “Do you know if the results would be the same between the ponies and us respawning?”

“So you’d rather have an accident happen and pray for the best than get an estimate? I’ll even assist with said estimate based on the results of the attempt. I can do the math if I understand the technology.” Phoebe suggested. “Of course, for a price.”

“Well,” Engineer scratched his head, “considering that you seem to have dealt with machines before, would you take a look at the machine and the schematics,” holding out the schematics to her, “If you want payment, I can either pay you bits from this Equestria, or give you some copies of my schematics, heck, if you want, I could even give you a copy of the respawn schematics.”

“I have no need for bits, as I’m royalty back home. Do you have any rare materials I could take as a reward, or perhaps something special to you. Not something personal, but something I’d not find in other… ‘Displaced’ worlds.” Phoebe suggested with a grin. “The respawner plans aren’t in my interests, as I don’t think that I’d be easy to kill… Or willingly put my life in danger.”

“Hmm…” Engineer thought, long and hard before having his own Eureka moment, “I think I’ve got something for you… but one question, what weapon do you prefer to use?” He asked, as he pulled a backpack from seemingly nowhere behind him.

“Uh… What?” Phoebe asked, confused.

“I asked what weapon do you prefer,” Engineer stated, “sometimes a Displaced is sent here with weapons that they can use or can make weapons that they use, but sometimes we like to use something just a little different, you know? I mean, do you like to use those swords on your back?”

“Yes, I built them.” Phoebe glared at the Engineer’s presumption.

“I could’ve figured you built them,” Engineer stated, “and I didn’t mean to insult you if I did, but sometimes… bah, nevermind, so would you like another sword made with a rare material, usually only found by us?”

“I don’t need another sword. Phoebe said, annoyance clear in her voice.

“Well,” Engineer said, scratching his head, “is there another weapon you would prefer? We’ve rifles, shotguns, pistols, revolvers, scatterguns, miniguns, knives, machetes, and even a wrench; and of each of these items, there are at least two of each made of the same rare material.”

“How about a tool?” Phoebe suggested.

“The wrench could work,” Engineer stated with a smile on his, “it can also double as a weapon, though for some reason any melee weapons made of this stuff, upon killing an opponent immediately turns them into a statue of said material.

“Also this material, known as australium, is extremely powerful stuff, if it comes into contact with someone; it either boost one of the things they have little of, which for that would be strength and stealth, or boost something that have great potential in, which for me would be my intelligence and building my equipment. I have no idea how it will affect you so, just be careful with stuff ok? I also have no idea at all on how it will affect ponies so keep it hidden, locked away, and never speak of the stuff to anyone except to those who you would trust.”

“I have wrenches where I’m from… Ugh, we’ll discuss my payment afterwards.” She groaned, taking the schematics. “Let’s get to work.”

~~~Time Skip: 30 minutes later~~~

Celestia, walking along side Spy, are heading towards the respawn after finding out from Scout where Phoebe went.

“-so I told him they were at fifteenth squad, it took him a full day to find out that the information from his lieutenant, i.e. me disguised as said lieutenant, and they both argued about the info until army arrived!” Spy told.

Celestia chuckled slightly, “My, what an amusing moment in your career.”

“That’s not even the best part,” Spy continued, “after they surrendered, they continued to bicker; that is, until I went in there disguised as the lieutenant and part way through talking to them I deactivated my disguise and they both just stared at me like I like someone would an abomination. It was something alright.”

Celestia chuckled, “Well, I guess you pulled the wool over their eyes.”

Spy smiled proudly, “Indeed, it is my speciality.” Spy then looks around, “It seems we have arrived.”

Celestia looks around, and notices Engineer, next to the one called Phoebe. “Hello,” Celestia greeted, “you must be Phoebe, correct?”

Phoebe jumped up and spun around. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there mo- Princess.” She emphasized this with a courteous bow.

Celestia has a small moment where confusion is slightly noticeable on her face, when Spy whispered to her, “In her universe, her Celestia adopted her and so she considers you, i.e. her Celestia as a mother.”

Celestia’s eyes widen, as she looked at Phoebe, “So, how has your... visit gone so far?”

“It’s… Okay. A little disorienting… Especially since it’s been years since I last saw… Others of my kinds…” Phoebe added sheepishly.

“Oh, I see,” Celestia said with a frown, looking away, then looked back to Phoebe with a sad smile, “I hope that this aids you in your travels, maybe talking with my sister will help you, she… well… you probably already know.”

“I’ve… chosen to avoid Aunt Luna… For some fair and understandable reasons.” Phoebe stated. “I didn’t even know of her until a few weeks ago… But anyways! I can see that my Celestia’s much more experienced than you.”

Celestia lifted an eyebrow, “Experienced in which way?”

“You seem awkward around me.” Phoebe replied.

“Wow,” Celestia said, eyes slightly widened, “I’m that easy to read? … wait… you said a few weeks ago? But she-”

“Got out of the moon months ago,” Spy finished, looking Phoebe over, “you’re not only in a different universe, but technically also in the future…”

“Wow… Can you tell me anything- no, wait, I don’t want to know.” Phoebe said. “Also, I recalibrated your respawner. It’s ready for a test run.”

“Wait, what?” Spy asked, with a bewildered expression. “When were we going to do a test run Engineer?”

“Since Phoebe brought up a good point,” Engineer said, then looked to Celestia, “Celestia… you wouldn’t happen to have… any… criminals… given the… death penalty…?” Engineer asked with a nervous smile.

Celestia stared at him owl-eyed, “Um… why do you ask…?”

“Well,” Engineer said, taking off his hard-hat and held it between his hands in front of him, “there is no easy to answer this so I’m going to give it to you straight…” Engineer looked at her with a neutral look on his face, “We have a machine here that could potentially bring someone back to life, but, we’re not one-hundred percent sure if the device will work. The only time the device will work is if it is a natural death, meaning… anyone attached to it, in order to die permanently, if it works properly, is a death by age.

“But,” Engineer continued, “there hasn’t been a way to test if this works, that is until, Phoebe here brought up an idea,” Engineer gestured towards Phoebe. Engineer sighs, “What I’m proposing to you… is that if you have any criminals put on death row, aka, have been given the penalty of death, we could use them for the tests. If they don’t come back, it would be one less pony you have on death row, but if they do come back, it would mean a successful test, and we would have to to worry less about death.”

Celestia then gained a hard look on her face, almost glaring at Engineer, and just when he thought she was going to tackle him, she sighed as her face softened, looked back up with a sad face.

She looked away in thought, then after a moment, she looked back to Engineer, “You have my permission to use those on with the death penalty, but if, at some point, the test succeeds and the pony does come back to life, send the resurrected pony and the untested ponies back to me, ok?”

Though unnoticeable to anyone who didn’t look closely, Engineers eyes widened under his goggles, then said, as he bowed to Celestia, “As you command princess.”

Then Princess Celestia started to leave the room, a neutral expression on her face, stopped and looked at the Engineer, “Any information whatsoever, regarding this project and test is to be confidential, and any notes that you no longer require I wish to have them given to me personally, understood?”

Engineer did a mock salute, but said with seriousness, “Yes, ma’am.”

Then, she started to walk away, Spy looked at her again as if… as if he was missing something about her, then back to his colleague and fellow Displaced.

“So, is everything in place?” Spy asked.

“Seems so frenchie,” Engineer replied.

“Frenchie?” Phoebe questioned, baffled by the Engineer’s response.

“Frenchie, you know,” Engineer said, gesturing towards Spy, “because he is French? It is kind of his nickname.”

“I don’t get it…” Phoebe grumbled.

“In a way,” Spy explains, “it is a jape towards me, since many things in America, back on Earth, have been named after France, which is where I’m technically from, I hope that helps clear up that bit of confusion.”

“What’s France?” Phoebe questioned, completely baffled.

Engineer hung his head and sighed, then looked back to Phoebe, “Equestria’s equivalent is Prance,” he said, then mumbled something about ‘terrible horse-puns’.

“Wait, what? Equestria doesn’t have France. Or do you mean Prance is the pony version? I’m still not sure...” Phoebe said, scratching her head. “What were we doing again?”

“Prance is practically the pony version, yes,” Spy stated, then gestured towards both Phoebe and Engineer, “and you two were going to work together on testing our respawn room.”

“Oh, yeah. Well, It should work, but we need a test subject. So, have one here asap. Not sure if I’ll be here long enough to work on it again.”

“Shouldn’t take too long with our teleporter system,” Engineer said, “with this system, we can transport anything living or just supplies… except bread.”

“Definitely no bread,” Spy agreed.

“Okay…” Phoebe replied, shrugging.

“Anyways,” Engineer said, “back to the job at hand, we will get Celestia to lend us a few of those prisoners with a death sentence, and then… well… do some testing.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Spy replied, nodding his head, “are you ready Phoebe?”

“I’d rather not see it.” Phoebe said, “But if you can, record the event and focus on the errors. And remember to inject the subject.”

“Inject?” Engineer asked.

“Didn’t we have a thing that goes into the subject so they’re connected to the room?”

“...no,” Engineer stated, “we have a port to put a piece of the subjects DNA into, for which the machine practically turns the DNA into code for the machine to track analyze the subjects vitals and will be on standby to be able to rebuild their body using the DNA’s code… Oh and the code can be deleted at any time using the master passcode to prevent the person from respawning should it be necessary.

“And it also doesn’t matter if the DNA is a flake of skin, a strand of hair, or a dab of saliva, any piece of DNA will do,” Engineer finished.

“This feels familiar…” Phoebe grumbled. “Anyways, need anything else?”

“Nothing besides a few mops and buckets,” Engineer stated, “I remember the first time the original Engineer had respawned and… well… it was like flying for the first time for me, I did not feel well and needed several buckets for every time he respawned.”

“Wait, so it worked?”

“In that universe and time, it did,” Engineer explained, “but that was with the original RED Team that we were turned into, and they had a normal power source, not a gem infused with magic.”

“Well… I suppose that’s it. Go test your machine, I’ll tinker around.” Phoebe said, walking away. In truth, she needed to try to cope with everything that’d happened. She had stopped herself from thinking too much about how she was in another universe, how her mother didn’t recognize her, that somehow a key- token was used to get her into a world where there were others of her species who could reverse death. It was too much for her to handle, or even process. She made a mental note to review each of those baffling discoveries for the next few weeks.

“Okay, so… is there anywhere you’d like to stay?” Spy asked, “Since you may be staying here for who knows how long, I think you’d need somewhere to lay down. If you want I could let you bunk with me, just have to set up the bunk bed, or if you want to, we could also see if Celestia would let you live with her for a while.”

“I’d love the latter, thanks.” Phoebe replied.

“Alright,” Spy said, as he started to leave, “I’ll go check with her, and see if that is possible.”

“Okay,” Engineer replied, “see ya when you get back.”

Spy then left the room, leaving just Engineer and Phoebe in silence.

“I don’t think I have long here… So, can you tell me a bit about Earth?” Phoebe asked. “Culture things and such. I was taken when I was barely in school.”

Engineer’s eyes widened, unnoticably, in realization when told she had not been taken as a teenager but as a child, in preschool no less, then waved her towards the hallway with a sign pointing to it saying ‘intelligence’, and started walked into it.

“Follow me,” he stated firmly and calmly.

Phoebe followed, slightly intimidated by his actions.

“We have all information about what our kind has done in the intelligence suitcase,” Engineer stated, “because that suitcase is the number one thing, besides the respawn room and the generator room, that we will protect with our lives.

“All that humanity has done,” Engineer continued, with a sigh, “sometimes, I wish humanity never even existed, because of all the bad things it has done, not just to itself, but to everything around it.

“Anyway,” he said as he and Phoebe entered a large room, “the suitcase is right here,” gesturing toward the red suitcase with files seemingly just ready to explode out of it.

He opened the suitcase and pulled out some files, all having the same big red wording ‘CLASSIFIED’, and on the tabs of the files, in black wording one says ‘Weapons’, another says ‘Unconventional Wars’.

“I was hoping for more on… well… culture and what not. I never learned history.” Phoebe nervously giggled. “But when you’re a kindergartener, that stuff flies over your head.”

Engineer chuckled, a small smile on his face, “I can understand that, most stuff flew over my head in school… except math, when I get taught how to do it, I could to the same equation without have to write down the work. Sometimes, that was a problem for the teacher when I actually need to write down the work, meaning I had to go over the same equation five to six mentally just to write it down properly.

Engineer then shakes his head quickly, “We have gotten off track,” he said, then looked to her, “say, did you ever learn of the name of the country you were originally born in?”

“I don’t remember… All I do know is that there was someone called… ‘Bush’ running it?” Phoebe shrugged.

“President Bush?” Engineer asked in surprise, “well at least we know you were born in the USA, that makes most of the information finding easy,” he stated pulling out some papers from the files ‘Unconventional Wars’, ‘World Wars’, ‘Terrorist Attacks’, and handed her the entire file labelled ‘U.S. Common History’. “Here you are,” he said ashe handed it to her, “everything about your country.”

“Well… It’s a lot to read. Can I take it back with me?” Phoebe asked.

Engineer sigh, “Sure, as long as you Pinkie Promise to make sure you don’t let a single sentient-” Engineer paused, “no wait there’s also Fluttershy’s....” he mumbled to himself, then looked back to Phoebe, “not one creature, sentient or not, is not allowed to even see these documents, they could make you look… bad politically, or the information could be used to blackmail you.”

“How bad can home be…?” Phoebe asked, more to herself than anything else. “I think this should be payment enough.”

“If I were to tell you right now,” Engineer stated, “you would probably call me a liar, and would get rid of the documents before you read them, thinking I would’ve faked any and all bad information on there. Then again that is just a guess, sometimes… the truth is a bitter pill to swallow.”

“So you wrote this…?” Phoebe asked.

“Had to,” Engineer said with a shrug, “there isn’t exactly any other humans in this Equestria to have this written by.” Engineer looked back to her with a normal posture, “So… are you going to Pinkie Promise to not let another living being see these documents,” he held up the aforementioned documents up, “except any other Displaced?”

“What’s even a ‘Pinkie Promise’?” Phoebe asked, confused.

“Have you…” Engineer then looked around then whispered to Phoebe, “have you met the pink pony who defies all logic, that Twilight has as a friend?”

“Yeah, I recently met her… She made a promise named after her?”

“Eeyup,” he confirmed, “except she makes sure that those promises are kept, even by herself, and nopony dares to break a Pinkie Promise, because if you do…” Engineer shivered, “she will know and she will hunt you down through time and space. Mainly because you broke a promise to a friend, losing their trust-”

“FOREVeerrrrrrr,” said the aforementioned pink pony as she popped out of the files, causing Engineer to freeze up, and Phoebe to scream and fall backwards onto her rear.

“...l-like I was going t-to say,” Engineer said with a bit of a stutter, “she c-can and will b-be quite terrorizing.” Engineer looks over to Phoebe and holds out his hand to help her up.

Phoebe nodded, taking his and and letting him pull her onto her feet. “P-Pinkie Promise… I won’t tell another soul.”

“Good,” Engineer nodded, then walked over to a machine on the other side of the room, “let me give you a copy, after I make the copies.” Phoebe nodded and sighed to herself.

This trip was becoming a hassle for Engineer.

~~~15 minutes later~~~

"Here you are," Engineer stated holding a neatly wrapped packaged containing the documents, "all the history of the United States of America in one neat little package."

Holding it out towards her, she grabs it, and a portal appears out of thin air and sucks her in, with the documents.

Engineer then looks around seeing nothing out of the usual, then brings his hand up to his ear. "Spy...? She's not going to need the room anymore... she left... yes... i'll explain when you get here... yes... yes... OK see you when you get here."

Chapter 11: First Session

View Online

~~~Alexander, Soldier's: POV~~~

I yawn as I, slowly, wake and stretch, causing my back, shoulders, fingers, and neck to all pop, forcing me to let out a satisfied sigh. I look at the clock to see it say 6 o'clock in the morning, or if you want it military style, at zero-six-hundred hours, and got up to get ready for my day.

First I get my towel, my soap, my shampoo, and my toothbrush & toothpaste, then left towards the showers. I had set my stuff down beside the shower curtain, turned on the water to the very warm setting, and started cleaning. As I showered I hummed the beat to the song Seven Nation Army, and I remembered some of my time back on Earth when I was but a magg- err... child... I was hanging out with my best friend, hanging out with my family, and talking with some of my co-workers. Those were the simpler times indeed, I turn the flow of the water to cold, and let the water flow over my body as I brushed my teeth for a few moments, then turned off the water, rinsed my mouth, grabbed my towel out from the other side of the curtain, and dried myself until figured I could leave without creating a swamp with every step. I left the showers for my quarters and got dressed in my 'casual' attire, consisting of the Flakcatcher and the Spook Specs, checked the time: zero-six-twenty-three, and then headed for the kitchen to get some breakfast, specifically the equivalent of an actually healthy McGriddle.

I got into the kitchen area and noticed that Engineer was in there brewing coffee.

"Hey there Engi," I greeted, he looked towards me and I noticed he wasn't wearing his goggles, so I could actually tell where he was looking at the moment.

"Mornin' Soldier," Engi replied groggily, then looked back to the coffee, tiredly waiting for the coffee, and started humming the same song that I hummed while showering.

"You have that song stuck in your head too?" I asked, "I was just humming that song earlier."

"Huh?" Engi asked, then started rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "oh, yeah... it was playing in my head at the time, and I was bored waiting for the coffee, so I decided to hum it, I guess."

"I wonder if the others will hum as well," I pondered, "and have it be the same song as well."

"That'd be quite strange," Engi stated, then shrugged, "but... it wouldn't have been the strangest thing that has happened to us."

~~~Time Skip: 1 hour later~~~

Everybody was up and about around now, and several times and Engi noticed that at some point one of the others or one of us was humming the song again.

"OK," Engi said suddenly getting everyone's attention, "is it just me and Soldier, or have all of us started humming a portion of the exact same song at some point or another?"

"'Seven Nation Army'?" asked the other seven mercs at the same time, who in turn then looked at each other with wide-eyes for a moment, then back toward me and Engi.

Engi looked thoughtful for a moment, who then looked like he had a light-bulb appear above his head and leaned towards my ear and whispered.

'How does setting up a band with instruments and everything sound?' he asked.

I smiled, looked at him, and nodded, "Yes!"

"Alrighty then," Engi said, as he walked off towards the storage room, leaving everyone in the room to look at me.

"What?" I asked, "If you want to know, well to bad, it's a surprise." I then walked off to go help Engi.

~~~Time Skip: 3 hours later~~~

We have finished making all of the instruments: two basses, two guitars, a drum-set, a keyboard, and three microphones. Me and Engi looked to each other smiling and high-fived each other and looked back to the instruments.

"Well, that'll do," Engi stated, looking at the instruments.

"So," I started, scratching my heading, "who will play what?"

"Well," Engi then looked to me, "I play guitar more often than the rest of us, so I should be lead guitarist, and you'll be one of the backup singers.

"We will figure the rest out later," Engi stated.

"Alright," I said, "let's go." I then grabbed the guitars and basses and carried them out of the room, Engi trailing behind with the three mic stands and keyboard.

~~~Time Skip: 30 minutes later~~~

After we had gotten the equipment to one of decently-sized, unused rooms of the base, we had set up the position of the equipment, the speakers, and lights.

"OK, this looking good, REAL good," I stated, then looked to Engi, "should I get the others or...?"

Engi seemed to think about this for a moment, then nodded, "Go right on ahead pardner."

I smiled then walked out of the room, leaving Engi to make some final adjustments on the equipment.

~~~~~~

"So what's the big surprise, militia-man?" Scout asked.

"You'll see, we're almost there," I answered.

"Patience Scout," Spy said, placing a hand on Scout's shoulder, "I may be curious as to what these two have been brewing up, but I know that if we're told we'll see it, then we will to see it, not hear it."

I stopped at that and then started chuckling.

"...and what from that statement was so amusing?" Spy asked, confused.

"The- the irony, heh," I said, catching my breath a bit, "you won- won-t get it until you see it." I then cleared my throat, and proceeded to move forward. We finally entered what me and Engi have dubbed the 'Stage Room'. The was a large platform with curtains all around it, and just when Heavy was about to say something, a loud series of notes were played, the sound of someone shredding a guitar. The curtains lifted to reveal Engi there with a guitar in hand similar to that of a Les Paul.

"Oh my god," said Scout in awe.

"Indeed," said Spy more calmly, yet still obviously in awe.

"Is nice," said Heavy, with a look of approval.

Demo just stood, looked to his bottle that he was holding, then back to the stage, and then to us and said, with a slur, "'Mm I thee onlay one thaat seez de instrements or iz dat an illustion dat ah'm seein' 'cus ah'm dru- *belch*- unk?"

Pyro claps happily, "HMHMHMMMM!"

"We all see it ya blok," Sniper said looking at the instruments with curiosity.

The Medic popped his knuckles and says in a hushed tone, "Let's go practice some music."

~~~~~~

~~~POV Switch: 3rd Person, Omniscient~~~

"Ya'll ready?" Engineer had asked as he checked the sound systems.

Me and the other seven gave a chorus of, "YEAH!"

Then Engineer, to get us in tune with the beat, said, "One and-a two and-a ready and-a GO!" At which Sniper started off first as the lead bassist.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY

After Sniper played the same measure of music twice, Heavy joined in with the drums.

After almost two measure Spy joins in with the lyrics.

Spy: "I'm gonna fight 'em off,

a seven nation army couldn't hold me back,

they're gonna rip it off,

taking their time right behind my back."

Then Heavy adds another bit to his drumming.

Spy: "And I'm talking to myself at night because I can't forget.

Back and forth through my mind behind a cigarette."

Now Sniper and Heavy both change to a different beat.

Spy: "And the message coming from my eye says leave it alone."

Sniper and Heavy switch back to the original beat while joined by Engineer, as the lead guitarist, Medic, as the pianist, and Demo as backup bassist, following their rhythm.

After four measures, no-one but Sniper, Engineer, and Heavy goes to the other beat that was played. Then, everyone except Sniper is quiet as he plays the original beat again. After two measures, Heavy once again joins in. After about two measures, Scout and Soldier join in on singing for certain parts.

Spy & Scout: "Don't want to hear about it."

Spy & Soldier: "Every single one's got a story to tell."

Scout: "Everyone knows about it."

Scout: "From the-"
Spy & Scout: "Queen of England-"
Scout: "to the-"
Scout & Soldier: "Hounds of Hell."

Spy & Scout: "And if catch you coming back my way I'm gonna sell it to you."

Spy & Soldier: "And that ain't what you want to hear but that's what I'll do."

Once again, Sniper and Heavy switch to the other beat.

Spy, Scout, & Soldier: "And the feeling coming from my bones says find a home!"

Yet again, Sniper and Heavy revert back to the original beat with Engineer, Medic, Demo, and Pyro, who is the backup guitarist, who does a version of the beat with a more techno-sound to the guitar. After four measures, again, only Sniper continues to play the beat with Engineer playing a note at the fourth and eighth notes of the first two measures Sniper plays. Heavy joins in after the second measure.

Spy & Scout: "I'm going to Wichita."

Spy & Soldier: "Far from this o-per-a forevermore."

Soldier: "I'm gonna work the straw."

Scout & Soldier: "Make the sweat drip out of every pore."

Scout: "And I'm bleeding-"
Spy: "and I'm bleeding-"
Soldier: "and I'm bleeding-"
Spy, Scout, & Soldier: "right before the Lord."

Spy & Soldier: "All the words are gonna bleed from me-"
Spy: "and-"
Spy & Scout: "I will sing no more."

Sniper and Heavy switch to the other beat.

Soldier: "And the stings coming from my blood-"
Spy, Scout, & Soldier: "tell me go back home!"

Sniper and Heavy, for the last time, revert back to the original beat as all the others join in again. After to measures of this, nobody except Sniper, Engineer, and Heavy play one note, wait for about 4 seconds, and hit the finishing note.

~~~~~~

~~~POV Switch: Alexander, Soldier~~~

"Holy crap," Scout said, slightly out of breath, "we played one of our favorite songs without a hitch."

"We all did pretty darn good," Engi agreed, "I wasn't sure how well I'd actually do playing an electric guitar, guess I did learn something from grandpappy after all."

Me and the other looked at him curiously, until Spy spoke, "Ah, right... Pépé is what we called him, yes?"

"Da," Heavy said in agreement, then furrowed his brows, "...what does 'pépé' mean, I don't remember what it was..."

"Grandpa, grandfather, granddad, and grandpapa," Spy answer without hesitation.

"Mhmm," Pyro nodded, agreeing with Spy.

"Anyways," Spy said, moving onto something else, "I've had an idea, where we could possibly do a performance for the ponies... after we get introduced to Equestria."

Me and the other seven agreed with this idea.

"I have an idea," Scout proclaimed suddenly, "how about we practice other songs that we know both from home and from Equestria."

"And make some of our own too," I suggested, the getting some nods.

"Alright, alright," Engi said, trying to calm us, "we can do all of these things, but we need time do even do all of this. We still have somethings, to work on, specifically, the Respawn Room."

I and the other nodded, finding no fault in the logic.

"Another thing we gotta do," Engi stated, "is introduce ourselves our neighborhood's friendly zebra."

Chapter 12: To Meet is to Greet

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~~~Alasdair: Demoman's POV~~~

I entered the dining room where Spy was having brunch, looked around for Engie, not finding him, and Spy noticed I was looking around.

"What is it?" Spy asked after swallowing some eggs and cleaning him face with a napkin.

"Where's Engineer?" I asked in confusion, "He told me to meet with him here at around this time."

"Ah, I see," Spy said as he reached behind and pull out a paper from his suit, "he told me to give you this, since he ended getting busy on some work."

I take the paper and nodded, "Alright, thanks Spy," I said as I walked out of the room.

I read what was written on the paper:

'Demoman, I planned for the both of us to do this task, but since I almost forgot some work that I needed to get done, so I leave this task to you: become acquainted with our new neighbor Zecora, and maybe bring her a few gifts, maybe some food, drinks, and maybe something for her to remember you by.

Sincerely,
Engineer.

I reread it to make sure I got every detail and then knew at least what food and drinks to bring.

'But something to remember me by?' I thought to myself, 'hmm... maybe...' then I had it, I knew what to bring as gifts.

~~~Timeskip: 1 1/2 hours of cooking, brewing, and looking later~~~

I was walking through the Everfree Forest now, being wary of my surroundings on the way to Zecora's, and making sure I stay on the path, her house is just off to the right a few meters away from the entrance. I carried my bag full of food, drinks, and my gift, on my back, while I had my choice of weaponry out in my hands, the Eyelander and the Iron Bomber. Surprisingly, I have seen no animals and it has been really quiet, almost too quiet, every now and then I hear a bird close by start singing, but even that only lasts a little while.

I finally caught sight of it, Zecora 'tree house', not too different than that of the Golden Oaks Library, I walk up, put my weapons away, the Eyelander on my hip and the Iron Bomber into another part of the bag, and knock on the door.

I heard a familiar voice on the other side say, "I'll be there in a moment, once I can speed up my movement."

Having forgotten how good she was at rhyming, I was slightly confused by her statement. The door opened up to reveal a familiar zebra with what looks like five large rings made as a necklace, another five smaller rings that she wore on her front left foreleg, and a pair of large earrings.

"So, is there and-" she started, then noticed what she was looking at and looked surprised.

I wave my hand, "Hi," I said, "you must be Zecora," I pointed at my backpack, "I brought some food and drinks, and a gift for you."

She shook her head a bit, possibly in disbelief, and looked at me once more, then to my bag, and back to me.

"Well now," Zecora started, interested, "I have never met a creature quite like you, it is quite interesting to see something new."

"I bet," I said, then gestured towards the interior of her house, "may I come in?"

"Oh, my apologies," she said as she moved to let me in, "please mind all of my oddities."

"It surely is something," I said, looking around after entering, "I can't quite understand it, but there is a... natural feeling for the looks of your home."

"As you know, I am Zecora," she greeted, then looked to me with interest, "though, for you, I have questions in plethora."

"I might be able to answer some of them without you having to ask them," I stated confidently, "I am Alasdair, though my friends call me Demo.

"I came here to meet our neighbor, which happens to be you," I stated gesturing towards her, "I along with a few others, live down the path a-ways, with permission from Princess Celestia herself, in what used to be the Castle of the Two Royal Pony Sisters."

Her eyes widen at this statement, "Are you being truthful?" Zecora asked, slight shock in her voice, "Surely you would believe some would find this doubtful."

"I know," I said as I nodded, rummaging through my bag, "we have a document signed by the Princess herself stating this should somepony have a doubt about us living here."

I pull out a medium-sized three in. by three in. by six in. container (L in. * W in. * H in.) holding what looks like fifteen or more baked balls of dough.

I opened up the container and gestured with it towards her, "Want some?" I asked.

"What is that, if I may ask?" Zecora asked, then smelled it with out moving from her spot, "The smell is amazing, yet what it may be, I can't quite grasp."

I smiled a bit, and answered, "These are Yam Balls."

"'Yam Balls'?" she asked and I nodded, she then gained a bemused expression as I ate one, "I didn't think that vegetables had genitals."

My eye widened as I suddenly started chocking on the food and just as she was about to move in to help, I dislodged it from my throat and spat it out.

Zecora laughed a bit nervously, "Sorry about that," she stated, "I just wanted have a bit of fun during our chat."

"It's alright," I said weakly as I laughed softly, "I did not see that one coming, anyways," I aimed the container towards her once again, "you never did answer."

"Why not," she answered as she grabbed on with her hoof, "as long as it is not too hot."

She popped it into her muzzle and chewed, she had an expression of surprise for a moment and then had look like she was investigating something.

"Are you OK?" I asked kind of worried that I might have screwed up the recipe.

"This... this is..." Zecora paused, then gained look of pure happiness that could only be passed by Pinkie, "delicious! I have never had something like this before it is almost resistless!"

Surprised by her statment, I blushed at her compliment, "Aw, thanks mate," I said, "this is actually the first time I've ever cooked something myself."

Then I remembered what else I have in the bag and looked to her once again, "How do you feel about... alcohol?" I asked her, a tad nervous.

"I don't mind having some from time-to-time," Zecora stated as she shrugged, "I mostly drink for the flavor, though, why do you ask?"

"Well," I started as I pulled out a couple of bottles, filled with a clear, dark orange liquid, and popped off my homemade caps, "I brew some of the stuff myself and thought, 'why not offer some to our neighbor?' so I made some of, what some ponies call, 'Manehattan', a type of cocktail, it's nice enjoyable drink that you can have couple of glasses of without feeling 'too much' buzz."

She took the bottle in hoof and took a small muzzleful of if an swished it around for a little bit before swallowing.

"Hmm..." Zecora said in thought, "not bad, while not my favorite brew... its taste is... hard to construe..."

"And," I continued, "I have a gift for you to remember me by," I pulled out of my bag, some bagpipes, "it is an instrument of my people, one that makes us proud when we hear it played," I offered it to her, "I would like you to have it."

Zecora took it in hoof and looked it over, "This is an interesting instrument," she stated, "one that I have never heard of or seen, even when I traveled, whenever I look at it, I feel a story untold."

"Aye," I said, then got up, "well it was a pleasure meeting you Zecora," I did a slight bow.

Zecora put the bagpipes on the clear part of a table nearby before turning back towards me, holding her hoof out, "Surely the pleasure was all mine," she said with a smile, "I hope you bring more food, those Yam Balls were divine."

"Sure," I said, as I shook her hoof with a smile and walked out the door, "until next time."

I closed the door and turned back towards the path and starting walking back to the base, re-equipping my sword and grenade launcher.

Chapter 13: The Effect of the 'Joke', 'Chaotic Energy', and 'Fire'

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~~~Aleksander's: Heavy's POV~~~

I'm walking through the base and I pass by Demo, who wore a big, bright smile on his face, after returning from... wherever he went.

"Hi," I said, gaining his attention, "what has gotten you smiling like a drunken Scot?"

He laughed a bit at the joke, "Well," he said, "I had to go to introduce myself to Zecora, and I would say it went rather well."

I widen my eyes at that, "Really?" I asked, to which he nodded, "Huh... well next time you visit her, may I come with?"

Demo scratched his chin for a moment and shrugged, "As long as your not needed for something or she doesn't say no, I don't see why not."

Suddenly, a there was a quick yet loud noise, causing me and Demo to look around until I noticed something similar to a swirling cloud of purple-colored gas. Something seemed emerge from it at breakneck speeds towards me.

A single claw, made entirely out of dead bone, flew from nowhere, and stuck itself into part of the wall, just inches from my head.

“I am Jekyll," a voice announced, deep and dark sounding, coming straight from the bone instead of playing directly into my head, "render of flesh and conqueror of nations, call me and be judged. If I find you worthy of my attention, I may help you in your endeavors. Should I find you wanting however, I shall destroy you for wasting my time."

I looked to Demoman, who just looked at the clawed with the same amount of surprise I felt.

"Mother o' mercy," Demo said in shock, then looked to me with worry, "that was a wee bit too close of a call there Heavy, might want be more careful when it comes to them Tokens."

"да," I said as I nodded, then looked over to the claw once more, "this is one we have to be careful with."

I grab it and pull, barely budging it, then I pull harder, dislodging it from the wall, and leaving a massive hole in said wall.

I stared at the hole for a moment then shrugged and said, "Eh, is Engineer's job to fix things."

With the claw in hand I walk towards a large metal door with many locking mechanisms, all connected to a small keypad with a six-digit input. I then turned to the right to face a blank part of the wall and placed my hand on it and started moving it feeling for something out of place. I felt a bump of a corner, I placed my hand on the corner and pushed it, which pushed a small square-shaped part of the wall and made a part of the wall to the right of it lift up, revealing an empty looking bin and a panel with letters and symbols with a 20 character max-input and a green button beside the bin. Next to the panel was a small sticky note which read:

'Don't forget to type the name of the weapon/item/token that you are placing into the vault.'

Signed,
E.

I put the claw into the bin and typed 'Jekyll's Claw' into the bin and pushed the green button, causing the bin to disappear for a moment, and appear again, yet empty. With a confirming beep, I pushed on the square on the wall making it retract to the point where it couldn't be seen easily but could still be felt, and the wall covered the area where the bin was located, almost as if it never existed. I started walking back when I got a crackle over my radio, causing me to react and place my finger on it to hear it better.

"Heavy," I hear my name being called over the radio by a familiar australian voice.

"да?" I answered over the radio.

"I need you to check out something for me," Sniper said, "meet me in the sniper tower connected to the cafeteria and I will tell you where to go from there."

"Alright," I said, and started moving there as quickly as possible.

On the way there, I made a quick detour to pick up the 'Panic Attack' shotgun, my Dalokohs Bar, and my Sandvich from my room.

I practically ran through the cafeteria, passing by Spy and Pyro wearing chef's clothing... must be Ratatouille night.

I arrived at the top of the sniper tower, I noticed Sniper looking through the scope of his standard rifle, and was looking at something off in the distance.

Sniper then turned towards me with a neutral expression and waved me over. I walked over as he held out his rifle towards me, then pointed somewhere off in the distance.

"Look between the two trees that seemed hunched over closest to the path that leads to the front of the base," Sniper stated.

I grabbed the rifle carefully, so as to not accidentally break it, and look through the scope at the area specified by Sniper.

At first glance the area looks normal, just a lot of green from the plants here and there, then that's when I notice it, the bright-green moss-like substance in the area. There is only one conclusion that I could come up with, and Sniper probably came up with it as well.

"Why did you show me this?" I asked Sniper, handing him his rifle.

"I just wanted to confirm my suspicions before raising what could've been a false alarm," Sniper stated, "you saw it too, right? The bright-green stuff?"

"да," I answered simply, "the only explanation I can think of would be changelings."

"I was thinking the same thing," Sniper said.

"We might need a better look at it though before we raise the alarm on it," I stated as I placed my finger on my ear-piece.

"Spy," I called.

"What?" a french voice responded, sounding annoyed.

"Meet me and Sniper at sniper tower connected to cafeteria," I stated.

"Okay," Spy responded, disgruntled.

Not even ten seconds passed before he appeared, still wearing the chef's outfit.

"What is the situation?" Spy asked.

"We need you to get a closer look at something in the forest," Sniper said, then held out his rifle and repeated the instructions he gave to me.

Spy nodded as he quickly ran back down the stairs, presumably to grab some equipment before heading out.

~~~Timeskip: 20 minutes~~~

In my hand, I have a two, five, and king of spades, along with a six and an eight of hearts, on the small table in front of me is seven pairs of cards while, sniper has five cards in his hand and three pairs of cards on the table in front of him.

"Got any Jacks?" Sniper asked.

"Go fish," I stated.

He grumbled as he pulled up another card from the ever shrinking deck, and placed the card in his hand.

"Do you have a King?" I asked.

Sniper facepalmed, then handed me the card he just drew from the deck and I place that pair on the table with a smile.

Sniper looked at me intensely for a moment, before asking, "You got any fives?"

I frowned a bit as I handed him my five, which he took with a smug smile and placed the pair on the table.

"Well," a voice said, startling both me and Sniper, making both of us look over at Spy, "it seems we may have more neighbor than we might've realized."

"Is it changelings?" Sniper asked, "If so, then we might be able to take care of them before they can even start their plans."

"No," Spy said sternly, "there are a few things we may want to avoid intervening, even the changelings. Also, yes it is the changelings, good to know that they are much closer to us than we would like."

Sniper grumbles, then said, "Yeah, yeah alright..."

I shrugged, then left the room, then I had an idea to keep the changelings out of the area, and I hurried to find some supplies.

~~~Timeskip: 20 minutes later~~~

Walking out the front door of the base with a wooden sign in one hand and the Powerjack in the other. I walk for a while, enjoying some of the scenery as I go by, however, what I didn't notice is that I walked through a small patch of Poison Joke, and continued to go until I found the red line that was placed on the ground. I placed the tip of the bottom of the sign just past the line and made sure it would be facing those that would be coming to here, and pushed it into the ground a little bit. Then, with the Powerjack in hand, I start hammering it into the ground, and I only stopped when I was sure it would stand, sturdy to anything that would attempt to knock it over. I walked over to the front of the sign to make sure everything was just right and read it over.

To whoever may be reading this, if you are not a Pony, Minotaur, or any other sentient being or animal that is friendly, do NOT enter this area, or you may be KILLED
on sight. This is your ONLY warning.

I started walking back after making sure I was satisfied with the result, and as I was about to walk into the patch of Poison Joke, again, I noticed it stopped myself.

I wiped my brow, and said, "Whew! That was close!" Then continued on my merry way back towards the base.

~~~Timeskip: 10 minutes~~~

After making and placing the sign, then cleaning up the mess from making the sign, I was exhausted. I normally wouldn't have this problem, but ever since the incident with Ursa Major, and being charged with chaos energy, I haven't been able to do as much as I was once able to.

I lay down on my bed to take a nap and close my eyes.

I look around a see that I'm in a pure black void, yet I could walk, so I moved forward with curiosity.

I see a light up ahead, not like that of sunshine, but that of a fire, and I start to move a little faster towards the light. I move a few images fly past me, but they moved so fast that I didn't get a chance to comprehend them. The area up ahead seems to radiating heat, yet it seems to die down the closer I get, and I can see what looks like a glowing axe standing up in the middle of a circle of fire, another noticeable thing is that the axe seems to be almost as tall as me.

'I could swear,' I thought to myself, with a sense of deja vu, 'that I have seen that axe somewhere before.'

I continue walking until I reach the edge of the circle of fire.

'I hope that this wall of flames isn't too thick,' I thought to myself as I take a deep breathe, then I charged head first into the flames.

It was a few seconds that I was in there but it felt like hours, then I came out the other side, with a few flames on me that I patted out and some charred spots on my body, but nothing too serious.

I look ahead to the axe and realize something, this axe is a much larger version of the Sharpened Volcano Fragment.

Suddenly, there is a low but thunderous noise, and again, and again.

I realize that off in the distance, inside the fire circle with me, is another Heavy but he is silhouetted, so I can't see much of him except his outline.

He seems to be twice my size all around, has what I think are horns, and is the source of the thunderous noise. With each of his steps, the noise slowly gets louder, and has kept a steady beat.

I walk towards the large fiery axe and once I arrive, find that the Giant Heavy was not too far away and his features have become more apparent because of the glow of the Sharpened Volcano Fragment.

I knew who he was but that couldn't be possible, but then again I was turned into a Heavy and sent Equestria, so- he is looking at me.

I noticed he is looking at me expectantly, then I noticed, with one of his hands, he is gesturing towards the axe.

"You..." I said, worried and unsure, "want me to take... the axe?"

He nodded and watched me, waiting to see what I would do.

I move closer to the axe, feeling its intense heat, take it by the handle, look back to him for a moment before looking back to the axe, and pulled the Sharpened Volcano Fragment out of the ground.

I wake up with a start looking around, realizing I'm still at the base, and sigh in relief.

'I was just dreaming,' I thought to myself, 'what a weird dream... I wonder what it meant?'

After laying on the bed for a few minutes, I decided to go outside for a breath of fresh air.

After letting the team know how long I will be gone for, I left explore some of the Everfree Forest that none of us have been in, and I brought my Sandvich, my Dalokohs Bar, my Tomislav, and my Gloves of Running Urgently.

With my Dalokohs Bar being the first thing I will have equipped, in case of an imminent fight. I just look around taking in the unique beauty of this forest, I mean, sure we live in this forest, but we don't get to appreciate it when there is something unnatural in it, whether it is another living being or something that we or someone else built. Without those things, you can see the natural beauty of such places as these.

After having explored some the area I noticed it was getting dark. I looked around for some shelter, and found an empty looking cave, and set up camp in it, then decided to make sure the cave was really empty I made a torch and went further into the cave.

Walking towards the back of the cave I notice an odd passageway off to the side, to which I entered and saw something peculiar: a Sharpened Volcano Fragment.

Having, by this time, forgotten about the dream, I wondered why there was one of these in a cave.

I walked up to it and noticed it was on an obsidian pedestal, and, because of the strangeness of this, I turned on my radio and tried to see if I could get in contact with one of the group.

"Spy?" I called, got no response except static.

"Engineer? Demoman?" I called, once again, nothing but static.

Grunting in annoyance, I picked up the axe and started for the entrance.

Molecules were flying around, some natural, some not at all, and a new one just found its way here heading towards a molecule of chaos energy, that was merging with a molecule of a Poison Joke's pollen. On contact there was a reaction both chemically and magically, and it started to affect the organic molecules attached to them.

Then without me noticing glowing markings started going up my arm from the axe.

I reached the entrance and tried to call for one of group again.

"Engineer?" I called.

This time I got a worried response, "Heavy? Are you OK?! What going on big guy?"

"I'm OK," I stated, "I found the strangest thing, I was in a cave staying for the night, when I randomly found a Sharpened Volcano Frag...ment..." I looked at my arm in disbelief.

"...Heavy? Hey big guy, you OK?" Engineer asked.

"You might want to bring Medic," I said, before tuning off and shouting in fear.

My hand wouldn't listen to what I wanted, I couldn't let go of the fucking axe, and when I started trying to let go of it, the markings started spreading faster. I started flailing, doing everything I could to try and stop them from spreading, but it was all for naught. They quickly covered my stomach and chest areas, and proceeded to cover my legs and my other arm. Finally, they started spreading around my head, then the pain came in, my head and body felt like it was on fire, and soon I couldn't see anything but fire.

~~~POV Switch: Third Person~~~

Heavy is covered, head-to-toe with these fiery markings, and was shouting out in pain and fear. Then, he began grow, his red shirt became a darker red, he grew large horns, and some his teeth became more pronounced. The Sharpened Volcano Fragment grew to be wielded by his growing body. After he had stopped growing, he had become twice his size, and had passed out from the pain of the transformation.

Hello! Sup? Hallo! Howdy! Здравствуйте! MH! Bonjour! Good day! Halò!

by TheUltimateBrony-Class-S

Prologue: Delivery!

Chapter 1: The Arrival of the Not-So-Insane 9

Chapter 2: FREEDOM!

Chapter 3: Setting Up

Chapter 4: Erectin' a Base

Chapter 5: On a Side-Note...

Chapter 6: First Displaced Encounter (Crossover)

Chapter 7: Nightmare Night

Chapter 8: The Undying Friendship (Crossover 2)

Chapter 9: Two Weeks Part 1 of 2

Chapter 10: The Princesses Princess (Crossover 3)

Chapter 11: First Session

Chapter 12: To Meet is to Greet

Chapter 13: The Effect of the 'Joke', 'Chaotic Energy', and 'Fire'