> Why Rainbows Make Me Cry > by Midnight Words > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: "Aw crap, where the hell am I?" Heavy Edit! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1: "Aw crap, where the hell am I?" It was a regular day on the battlegrounds of Teufort, the sun was shining high above, the birds were singing, bullets and rockets were flying, and Heavies were calling for their Medic. Soldiers were fighting with one another on top of the bridge, and Sniper was busy camping up in the balcony like the wuss he was. Me? I was busy running to their base with the Demo trying to get the RED's intel. Now, who am I? I'm the guy dat carries this team on my back. I'm the guy dat caps the point and blows over the other noobs, I'm the Scout. I’m the fastest, toughest and most handsome one on either team. "Scout, ye' useless git! Get the bloody intel!" Dat drunk one-eyed cyclops yelled, firing his stickies around the RED’s doorway. "Yeah, yeah, I got it." I said and took out a can of my favorite drink, Bonk! I chugged it and tossed the can off to the side, feeling that same energetic twitch that would accompany it. I turned a corner inside their base and almost immediately, two sentries that some of the RED hardhats set up began started firing at me. Bullets and rockets whizzed past me, missing me by a mile as I jumped and dodged everything that came at me. “Un-freakin' touchable!” I ran up the stairs and went into one of the doors that led to their intel. I didn't hear nothin' on my way there, not even a hardhat setting up a sentry or a dispenser, so pretty much I just strolled on in. I picked up the briefcase and was on my way back to our base to cap it before these numbskulls got ours. I stopped on my way out however as something caught my eye, one of the entrances of the room had a spray tag on one of the walls. It was a picture of a rainbow. Now, I wasn't crying or anything like that... I just had some dust in my eyes. While I was busy rubbing it out, I didn't notice the RED spook uncloak himself behind me. Before I could even react, I was given an ice cold stab to the back. He laughed and flicked a cigarette onto my corpse. "This is Scout, rainbows make me cry!" He taunted and cloaked back into the shadows. The HUD Engie made popped up with RED spy, a picture of him flicking his cigarette on my corpse, and right under that were the words "Dominated." A few seconds later, I was back in the spawn room. "Agh! Dat frickin' spook got me again!" I yelled in frustration. "You failed!" The Announcer shouted through the P.A system. "Aw man!" The only other BLU in the spawn room was Pyro, he/she was flicking his/her lighter on and off. "Hud Huddah Huddah..." He/she said.  I sat down beside him/her. "It's Spy! Ever since he found out about... rainbows... He just doesn't stop!" "Huddah Hud Hun." "I know that I'm awesome and you're the only one I ever told about it." "Huddah? Hud Mmppth?" "Yeah, that's what I wanna know!" “Mmpth Mmmppth Mmpth, Hudda Hud.  Mmmpth Mmmpth Mmpth Hudda Mmppth Mmmpth Hudda Hud? Nud, Hud Huddah Huddah Hud, Huddah Huddah Hud, Hud Mmmpth,” he/she said and tossed me my Sandman and ball. I picked up my duffel bag over by the resupply locker and slung it over my shoulder.  The bag was filled with some stuff I was messing around with throughout the match, a Soda-Popper, a Pretty Boy’s Pocket Pistol, my Force-a-Nature, and a few extra shells and mags. It even had some of my hats and outfits in there too. "Yeah, I guess you're right.  Thanks Pyro, see ya’ tomorrow," I said, giving a half-wave back at him/her and ran out the respawn room. The locked doors outside the spawn were now open; Engie was busy inside playing around with a teleporter the guys use to leave. I saw the nine teleporters, each with a name overhead. "Hey, I'm going home, Engie." I stepped onto my designated teleporter and waited. Engie muttered a few curses because of a broken teleporter. "Ummm... Yeah, see ya Scout," He said and turned back to his own teleporter. "Useless piece of scrap..." I didn't use the teleporter much, mostly 'cause it made me sick as hell and that there was the chance of ending up with a part of yourself stuck in the ground. But it was either this or walking through the desert and reach the nearest, non-destroyed bus stop. I stepped out of the small burn spot on the ground and saw that I was a short ways away from home. Those teleporters didn't have any exits like they normally would, so Engie just set them to "very close" to each of our places. My house was pretty small compared to the others; think of it as a small urban house, like the ones you see in a downtown part of a big city. I walked up the door and opened it, Ma was busy in the kitchen, and, surprise, surprise, the RED spook was here talking pretty to my Ma.   "Hey, Ma. I'm home," I called out and dropped my bag onto the floor.  There were a few pictures of me and my bros stuck along the walls on the way to my room. There were ones that showed us from when I hit my first home run when I was a kid -- Pa always said I got talent -- and of our last family photo before my brothers went their separate ways in life. There was even a photo of when the BLUs stopped by here for dinner last time. I passed by my brothers' old room and ended up at mine in the far back of the house. Since I was the youngest, I got the one on the end. I walked over to my room, the one most distinguishable since I still left the stickers and stuff on the door from when I was a kid. Heck, I even left the 'no girls allowed' sign on there too. Busting on through the door, I could see that the room was a mess. Crap was just everywhere. Clothes, magazines, comic books, and a buncha other junk just lying around. The only thing that wasn't a mess was my desk; a small family photo was sitting at the edge of it along with a few trophies I won during my high school days. Right, the family photo, the day Dad died... I saw my Dad's dog tags sitting on the desk next to the photo. I decided not to bring them today with it being the anniversary of Dad's death and all, might explain why the RED Spook's here too. Ma and Pa ended up divorcing a few years before I joined BLU. Pa still loved us, still went out of his way to see each of us grow.  I guess... I guess I miss him more than I thought. I promised myself that I wouldn't forgot about him or Ma when I grew up; I still haven't forgotten about my old man, and I intend to keep it that way. Back then, our family was taking a day off at the amusement park when it happened. My older bros went straight for the rollercoasters. Rudy, the second youngest, went for the paintball guns. I'd already joined the BLUs at that point and had a few matches with them under my belt. Being there was a good change of things instead of being shot at or blown up all the time. I stood by my Dad pretty much the whole time there, I wasn't really in the mood for doing much. "What's the matter, champ?" He asked. "Not feeling good?" "Nah, just don't wanna do things. I feel... I dunno' bored?" I offered with a shrug. "Bored? Not here, champ. Hey, let's go bug your Mom, it always cheers you up when you see her burning red." "Nah, what about-" Ma then came by with a camera as my brothers followed after her, all of them looking like they were chewed out or something. "Family picture. Now!" Ma yelled. Dad leaned closer to me and spoke in a hushed tone. "What's her problem?" I just shrugged and went into position with Ma and them. I, along with my brothers, took a spot around the mascot of this place, which was a giant peanut. Ma was quick to set up the camera before me and my bros could start messing around. Then she set the timer. "Three, two, on-" Ma started screaming as there were then several loud gunshots heard across the carnival. My bros quickly pulled her away and took her into cover the moment she started. It was just me and my Pa standing there now, with him being low to the ground on instinct. It'd already been a week since I joined the BLUs, and I still didn't tell him about it. “Champ, get out of here!" Dad yelled. I ignored him and grabbed a nearby metal pipe. There were a bunch of armed dudes walking around, all of them were wearing black balaclavas and packing some heavy heat. They were here for me, but I wasn't scared of a buncha nobodies. "Yo, Chuckleheads, over here!" I taunted to the group. They didn't even hear me. People were already running and screaming the moment the shots happened. A few of them were already dead, but it didn't stop the others from running scared. They had their backs turned to me as they looked over some of the bodies, talking in some stupid language I couldn't understand. They didn't seem to notice me yet, nor did they find me among the dead, so I took it as my cue. The crowd, for the most part, hid me from these dumbasses as I began running at them. I jumped right on in; they were too busy shouting orders at one another to notice me. I ran against the crowd and took one of them by surprise, tackling him to the ground and quickly opting to bash his skull open with the pipe. I took his gun from his body, which was some sorta cheap knock-off of my pistol, and turned to the others. It took less than a second for me to line up a shot before I quickly emptied the whole thing in one guy's chest, leaving him looking like our Spy on a bad day. The others turned their heads to me the moment my gun went off. They hesitated for the brief moment they saw me, but it gave me some time. With my gun now dry and no time to reload, I had no way to take all of them on at once. I did the one thing I knew I could do at that point. I dropped the gun, picked up my pipe, and ran in the opposite direction. I jumped behind the counter of one of the nearby carnival games as a shit ton of bullets flew past me, and for a second there, I sorta thought it was the Heavy that was behind me. There, behind the counter, I spotted a baseball sitting next to my feet. It was lightweight, but with enough force, it could hurt like hell. I stood up from behind the counter with the ball in hand and tossed it in the air. “Batter up!” The ball went flying and nailed one of those goons in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground. "Nice catch, Knucklehead!" My gloating was cut short when a bullet tore through my shoulder. I fell behind the counter clutching the wound, as the worst part of the pain had already passed. “CHAMP!” I heard my dad shout. 'YOU DO NOT TOUCH MY SON!' There were several gunshots and a thudding sound that followed. I barely noticed either as the shock of the wound started to wear off. “Bro!” Rudy said as he crouched next to me, making sure I was all right. I pulled myself up using the counter as I shrugged off Rudy's support. I picked up my pipe and arched my neck to the side, which elicited a few small cracks. “I've had worse,” I said with a sneer. I jumper over the counter and charged at the group a second time. This time, they were too busy looking over the most recent dead guy that they'd shot to notice me. By the time they heard me coming though, it was already too late; I'd already nailed one of them in the side of the head with a powerful wind up, cracking his skull open in an instant. I went onto the next guy and gave a powerful overhead swing that caved in his skull, but in the process, bent the pipe out of shape.  Even my bats were able to withstand more punishment than that. Before they could spot me for a second time, I looted the SMG from the numbskull that bent my pipe and turned it against his buddies. Round after round spilled out the barrel of the gun as I held down the trigger, each bullet hit its mark square in the center of each of their chests. It was all over in an instant. I dropped the gun, letting it fall to the ground with a clatter as I saw the source of their distraction. I started to tear up as I rushed over to my Dad's side. His body was filled with holes, as were the goons and a few others who got caught in the crossfire. They were all dead, slaughtered and shot down... just like Dad.  "Dad? Dad? Come on, wake up! This ain't funny! Dad! DAAAD!" "Scout, what's wrong, mate?" Sniper asked.  I'd been sulking through the entire match, sure I still capped the point and kicked ass, but... "Nothin'." There was a lot of stormy weather today, befitting of my mood; thunder and lightning were constantly booming and cracking across the sky even before the match started earlier today. We were on Thunder Mountain, I hated this place. The match ended with a failure today; a stalemate, and the teams was going home. And, as the contract stated, RED gets to keep Thunder Mountain unless we can take it back the next time we fight there. I picked up my bag and left the respawn room, running out into the rain and making my way to the teleporter room. "Hey, Scout," Engie called out. "Regular teleporters are broken, ‘Ah got one set up near a bus stop in town." "Great, just freakin' great..." I stepped onto the other teleporter and waited. The thunder crackled through the sky. Engie took out his PDA and looked around in a panic. There was another crack of thunder. Everything seemed to slow after that, Engie called out my name right before I was about to teleport. The thunder cracked again, and this time a bolt of lightning suddenly tore through the wall of the room, striking the teleporter I was on. There was a flash across my vision, then nothing. I was suddenly surrounded by darkness. I felt like I was swirling in the shadows for a time.  I couldn't see or feel anything, not even my own hands. Everything just felt like it was empty, I actually thought then and there that I was really dead. "This sucks on ice," I tried to say, but not even the smallest of sounds made it out of my mouth. I was stuck there for a while, thinking of either my teammates or Ma and whether they’d be looking for me or not. I then saw a light appear in the distance along with a few faint voices to go with it. It was hard to make out what they's was saying though. The light soon grew bigger. It was warm, like a hug I guess... I couldn't really describe it. It was almost like a fire though; it was warm and caring.  Though... it looked like it was getting smaller, like it was moving farther and farther away from me with each passing second. I felt as though I was being drawn to it, as though I was supposed to get to it. I ran. I ran like I never ran before, pushing everything I had left in my body and just broke into a full sprint. The light was soon close and I jumped into it, letting it's warmth surround me. Where am I? Wind, I felt wind rush down my face. I slowly opened my eyes. I was falling... Falling... FALLING! "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" The ground was coming closer and closer at an alarming rate. I felt something, like the air was slowly turning solid on my feet. It was just a split second but I managed to jump in the air, breaking my momentum and launching me into the air an additional two feet into the air before I fell to the ground, landing squarely on my feet. I slowly caught my breath as I stood back up. "How the hell did I end up there?" I said, looking up and around. I was standing in an empty field; tall blades of grass and a few flowers surrounding me. Some ways away, maybe about a quick jog’s worth, was a small town. The moon was already high in the sky, and I needed a place to stay. I looked at my bag, and pulled out some "security" just in case, that being my Winger. I checked my ammo, and saw that I had a full load and a few extra in my bag. Man, I really hoped I was seeing things... Two small horses, both of ‘em with a horn and tattoos on their asses, suddenly ran by me. "TRIXIEEEEE!" The two yelled.  A small, purple and green lizard thing ran by with them too. "TWILIIIIIGHT!!!" The lizard thing yelled. I scratched my head for a brief moment as they ran by, unsure if they were some freak drug hallucination caused by the medic, or if I drank too much Bonk again. Turning around, I discovered I was staring face to face with the source of their terror, that being a freakin' humongous bear made of stars. The thing roared, covering me in spit and sliding me across the ground several feet. "Aw crap..." I immediately booked it in the opposite direction, taking a few pot shots at it as I ran. The bear ignored me, brushing off my bullets like they were nothing, and started thundering towards the town, thinking it scared me off. Because of my good conscience, I decided to help the townsfolk out, and the fact that I really needed a place to stay was completely unrelated. With the bear-thing busy rampaging through the town, I fired a few more shots at it with my pistol, trying to get its attention. "Yo! Big, dumb and ugly, over here!" The huge bear, hearing my taunt, slowly turned towards me, roared again, and started chasing after me. He swiped at me with his giant paw, missing entirely. "You can't hit me, you can't hit my tiny head." He swiped again. "Are ya' even tryin'?" And again. "How's that feel wimp?" And agai- "AGHHHH!" I was sent flying across field, tumbling a short distance until I ultimately slammed into the side of a tree and fell against the dirt. A lot of broken ribs from that, that's for sure. I then heard music playing from somewhere, it sounded something like a lullaby or something.  Though I was beginning to feel sleepy from it, my injuries becoming less noticeable the more the song dragged on. I spotted the bear floating, flying, or something... it was just being carried into the forest alright? My vision soon cut to black as I soon passed out. "What is that thing?" "I’unno, some sort of ape?" "Get him to the hospital, he's hurt!" "...I don't know what he is, but his structure is very similar to that of an ape or minotaur, although it appears to be slimmer and smaller in comparison." "I hope he wasn't hurt too bad..." "Ah don't know, he might be dangerous, but Ah’ve seen enough critters that look harmless, but are mighty fiesty." I opened my eyes. To my discovery, I was in a hospital bed instead of lying face down in the dirt. I had a buncha medical gizmos and what not hooked up to me, and my upper body was almost entirely covered in bandages... and in front of me were five techni-colored horses. I didn't know what drugs they put me on but I was certain that I was hallucinating this; pretty sure they don’t allow things like this to happen in a hospital. "Either I'm high on drugs or I drank too much of that new Bonk again..." I said as I rubbed my eyes.  I blinked, and so did they. Yup, still horses.  "You can talk!" "Yeah, I can talk. The question is how the hell are horses able to talk?" I said. The purple one with the weird horn thingy came forward. "I don't know who or what you are, but-" "Lemme stop you right there, name's Scout." "Scout? That sounds more like a job title." The marshmallow pokey thing said as it stepped forward. "Tell me, did your occupation have something to do with delivery?" I rubbed my neck. "Yeah, something like that. Listen I think I'll sleep off whatever the Doc gave me." I lied back down on my bed. Did my pillow just get... fuzzier? "Hi!" I darted off my bed and fell face-first against the tiled floor. I groaned from the newly found pain that came from my ribs. "I'm Pinkie Pie, and you're Scout, right?" She said and peeled off the floor for a large bear hug.   She then gasped and started yammering off way too quickly for me to understand.  "Thatmeansthere'sanotherforthwallbreakerbesidesmeandthatmakesmehappyandnowIcantalkaboutthewallandstuffoutsidethewallwithoutbreakingthewalldoestalkingaboutthewallbreakthewall-mmphmmpht." I shoved my hand in her mouth. "Woah, slow down there Pinks or whatever the heck your name is. I have no idea what you’re talking about." I said and squeezed my way out of her hug. "I don't know nothin' about breakin' walls, that ain’t my job." She frowned and her ears flopped down. "Aw... I thought the author might get somepony else to break the wall," she said, but she instantly perked up. "That means you’re totally new here, and that means, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A PARTY!" "Uhh, no. Tired. Get out of my bed." "Pinkie, I think you shouldn't anger a potentially dangerous creature in the hospital." The purple sparkle butt thingy with the horn said. "Okie dokie lokie!" She said and hopped off my bed. "I'll throw a party when you feel better, right, Scoutie." I climbed back into bed. "Whatever." They all left, leaving me alone in the room. I was freaking pissed right now. My stomach growled, I couldn't sleep, and Engie didn't tell me to not use that damn teleporter of his. Hopefully I'll be able to eat something tomorrow, but man, I could really use a slice of pizza or a hot dog right now... "Ah'm sorry Spy. I tried to warn him, but it was too late." BLU Engineer said to RED Spy. "Mon dieu... Engineer, his mozzer will be not be happy with this." Spy said and took a long drag from his cigarette. "It ain't mah fault, blame the lightning!" The BLUs were very cautious around RED Spy, especially Pyro. He/She was idly flicking a lighter on and off, staring at Spy the whole time. "Easy there, Spook. There’s nothing we can do about it now, what happened, happened." BLU Sniper said. "Best thing we can from here is to let Engie do what he does best." "Hide with his toys?" Spy said with a smirk. He shook his head. "No, now is not the time for that. When will ze Teleporter be fixed?" "Cool your jets, this ain’t a regular teleporter. This thing’s meant for transportation to far-away places without an exit, so I reckon it might take awhile." "Merde." > Chapter 2: "Why am I here?" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2: "Why am I here?" I awoke the next morning feeling like total crap; my head was pounding, I was extremely parched, my chest felt like it was on fire, and I felt like I was surviving the aftermath of another one of Soldier’s cooking phases. Everything from last night felt like a total dream, like it all wasn’t real since the docs mighta’ had me on something at the time. The small talking horses, the unicorns, the bear made outta stars... none of that seemed real or possible. It could’ve been the product of a drugged up sleep for all I know. Well, I thought it was at first... then a beige colored horse with a horn and dark brown mane walked into the room with a chart floating beside it. He stared at me silently for a while, shifting uncomfortable as I stared right back at him. “Uhh... Mister Scout, was it?” he asked, and I gave a small nod. “You seem to have fractured several of your ribs and it appears that you have... the feathers of a dove in your rib cage.” He gave me a blank look. “Is such a thing like that normal for a creature like you?” “First of all, Doc,” I started, “I’m a human. Hoo-man, get it right, I’m not some sorta’ strange creature ya’ know. And secondly, no, that ain’t normal; lemme break that down for ya: I had a heart transplant quite a while ago, and during that, my friend’s pet bird decided to make a nest in my rib cage.” I tried to sit myself up but it hurt like hell trying to move. Man, what I wouldn’t give for the Medic to just be here and patch me up... “You should probably stay in bed for a while...” he trailed off as he looked through his chart, “and I do have to say that’s quite strange. Tell me, where did this friend of yours get their medical license?” He asked. “I must say, I’m quite surprised you’re alive after taking a hit from that Ursa last night.” I shrugged. “I’ve had worse.” There was really nothing worse than being beaten to death by a giant pissed off Russian. “And about the Medic, he lost his medical license one day after he lost all the bones of his patients during a surgery. Don’t know how that happened or how he did it, but that’s what he said happened.” He cleared his throat. “Moving on... you’ll need to stay in bed for at least a week or two before you’ll be given a clean bill of health,” he said, looking a bit disturbed at the idea of how a doctor could even lose the bones of a patient. “Umm... yeah, no. I’m getting outta here.” I made an attempt to pushing myself out of bed, but I was held back due to some sorta weird glow that suddenly covered me from head to toe. “What the?  Hey, lemme go!” “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to remain here until you’re fully healed. We can’t let you leave yet.” He flipped through his chart and shared a brief glance between me and it, scribbling something down I couldn’t see. My stomach then decided that it was high time to remind me of how hungry I was and started gurgling loudly. I really didn’t eat much yesterday, excluding what little I had at lunch, so right now I pretty much felt starved. "I'll have a nurse get something for you to eat," he said as he left the room. "Yeah, sure. Whatever I guess..." I slumped back down into my bed and crossed my arms in defeat. You know... in a way, this hospital kinda reminded me of my brother Mike’s clinic. They were a both a bit identical in construction and they shared the same distinct while-tiled floor, unsurprisingly. Although, I’d probably trust Mike more to patch me up instead of these quacks. Well, they at least left my stuff here with me, so that was okay I guess. They left my headset and hat sitting on an end table right beside my bed, just within arm’s reach, and right beside that on the floor was my duffel bag. Clutching my chest, I reached over for my headset and turned the dial on the side of it. "Nothing," I muttered as I held the earpiece next to my ear, "just static..." Fighting through a dull ache in my ribs, I pulled up my bag onto my bed and tugged open the zipper. ... ... ... "Where the hell's the rest of my stuff!?" The only thing that was left in the bag was my last can of Bonk! They even took my clothes for crying out loud! "Excuse me," a nurse at the door then knocked, "you have a visitor." The door opened with a purple horned horse poking its head through the doorway. "Hello?" It greeted before spotting me sitting upright on my bed. ...Huh, it was the same one from last night. "Oh, you're finally awake. We never had the chance to fully introduce ourselves last night, I'm Twilight Sparkle."  "Twilight?” I snorted a little. “Sounds like a name for a bad book. Mind if I call you Sparks?" "Well I-" "Great. Alright Sparks, did anyone go through my bag while I was out?" I asked and showed her the contents, or lack-thereof, inside my bag. "Oh, I took them to the library,” she said with a smile. “It's not everyday you can get your hooves on such advanced pieces of technology, and as we speak, my assistant is studying them back at the library while I came to see if you were awake.  I hope you don't mind." My right eye twitched. "Uhh... Scout? Is there a problem?" "YES!" I screamed. "There is a problem, Smarty-pants! Do you what most of those things do!?" She shook her head violently. "You did tell your assistant not to touch them right..?" "Uhh..." BANG! ...And there it was, the familiar sound of a round being fired from my pistol. “Aw crap...”  I quickly ripped out all the medical stuff that was attached to me and darted out of bed. I fought through the pain that came with my sudden movements, that being something I was more than used to now, and proceeded to jump out a nearby window, completely ignoring Sparks’ cries for me to wait.   I still felt like crap from earlier, but it’d be more important to find my guns before someone ended up dying and I’m the one blamed for it. I started running the moment I hit the dirt, using the momentum from my fall to get me going even faster. I didn't really stop to make a second thought, but I realized that the town I was running into was the same one the bear was terrorizing the night before, minus all the destruction it caused. Ignoring all the weird looks in the process, I eventually arrived at a giant hollowed out tree-thing. I felt rather worse than I did a couple of minutes ago, but I was at the right place; the gunpowder and smoke was stronger here than anywhere else. I barged in through the door and almost immediately I was met with a familiar metallic smell. Blood? Aw come on! Can’t I get a day without something bad going on!? “I’m so sorry Lyra! I-I... T-Twilight’s here, sh-she’ll know what to do.”  A kid-like voice said through another door. A small, purple and green lizard thing then came bursting through said door, running into my leg almost immediately. The thing slowly looked up at me, looking a bit confused for the moment. Its eyes then narrowed into pinpricks and it started screaming, backing away from me until it bumped into a nearby bookshelf. Ignoring it, I walked through the door it came bursting through and saw som-no... a lot of blood coming from a mint green horse lying against the floor. I looked back to the lizard who was nervously trying to sneak towards the entrance of the building. "Get some hot water, something that has alcohol, a first-aid kit, a pair of tweezers, and some gauze!" I yelled at it. "And hurry up!" The little lizard thing stood to attention and hesitantly turned back to me. "GO!" The lizard jumped and quickly nodded its head, running up a set of stairs on the far side of the main room I didn't notice earlier. I slid on over to the horse’s side and began to access the damage. Now, I wasn’t a vet or anything like that, but I did have a bit of first-aid experience after working part-time at my bro’s clinic a couple of months back. Her wound was several steps out of my league, but if I didn’t get that bullet out soon, she’d likely end up going into shock and dying. And I’m pretty sure none of those doctors back at the hospital knew how to remove a bullet. “Alright, calm yourself down some. I need you to stay with me while I patch you up,” I said to her as nicely as possible. Her breathing was nearing the point of becoming rapid and shallow, indicating that she was already falling into shock. “Okay, okay... umm... take some slow, deep breaths, alright?.” Sheesh, she got really lucky. A little closer to any side and that could'a been fatal. The lizard thing then returned with all the stuff I needed along with some extras, all of which were set down on the floor beside me. “Okay, good... now, go get an ambulance or something!”  I ordered as I started getting to work. I poured a bit of the alcohol provided onto a strip of cloth and held it close to the wound. “This might sting a bit,” I warned. She winced and reflexively started twisting about on the floor, her breathing increasing in intensity due to the brief spike in pain. “You still with me?” She nodded in reply, albeit weakly. I grabbed the tweezers, and carefully, I worked the tool into the wound, digging deep into the wound before I felt, and plucked the bullet out. She didn’t put up much of a fight throughout the procedure, but I noticed that her breathing was steadily declining and she was on the verge of passing out. “Hey, hey!” I quickly shifted over to her head and gave her a couple of light slaps. “Stay awake!” her eyes fluttered open briefly before they focused on me, “don’t close your eyes for nothing!” I pulled out the gauze and set to bandaging the wound. I then heard a large commotion coming from the front of the building. Turning to meet it, I saw a bunch of unicorn paramedics start rushing in with a stretcher and everything. I stepped off to the side and watched as they somehow carried her body onto the stretcher without touching her, relaying a buncha’ orders and what-not with one another. Then, without explaining or asking anything, they left as quickly as they entered. I was left standing there, realizing now that I was covered in blood around my waist, lower torso, and hands. Sparks then decided to come in and immediately paled at the sight of the blood on both me, and the floor. “Wh-what happened?” She asked as she tentatively entered the room. Feeling a sudden anger rising within me, I started storming towards her. “I’ll tell ya’ what happened,” I yelled as she started backing away towards the doorway of the room, “you left a dangerous weapon with some small lizard-thing, and that almost ended up killing somebody! “Do you have any idea of what you’ve done!?” My anger quickly faded as, all of a sudden, it was replaced with me feeling extremely lightheaded. I held my hand up against my head as I made small steps to the nearby doorway, with Sparks slowly backing away from my advance. My limbs quickly grew numb as I held myself against the frame and my vision was becoming fuzzy at an alarming rate. I think I might have blacked out there for a minute, I’m not quite sure... but when I blinked, I realized I was now lying against the floor and was staring up at Sparks’ blurry form. She was saying something to me, that I knew, but despite her being right in front of me, she sounded very distant. I then realized there was a splitting pain coming my heart, as though it was threatening to burst out of my chest. I passed out... or, at least I think I did, I couldn't quite tell. It was all just blackness for a while. I then heard voices. "Get him to the OR!" "Yes, doctor!" "We're losing him! Get the blood packets!" "Clear!" There was a shock, followed by a slight tingling feeling all over my body. I barely felt any of it actually. "Clear!" Another shock. "Hurry up!" "Here you go, doctor!" I felt my mouth being held open and something was now pouring down my throat. I screamed moments later, now feeling an immense energy coursing through my body. It was a good scream though, like the kind you'd do when you're going down a roller coaster. But man, whatever it was I just drank, it musta' been sorta liquid Ubercharge or something like that. It made me feel good, really good. My eyes shot open and I found myself back at the hospital, specifically, an operating room. Well... I thought I was in one anyways, if the unicorns dressed as doctors and surgeons were anything to go by. The one thing I noticed though was that I was glowing a sharp blue and the corners of my vision were surrounded with that very same color. It was exactly as it would be when I'd be Ubered, only the Doc wasn't around healing me with his medigun. And then it popped. The Uber was done, and I fell back down onto the table feeling completely drained. I think... I think I was going to be okay, but I felt tired, dead tired. ...Yeah, that seemed like an idea... I’ll take a nap for now and worry about that Uber later. "So doctor, is he going to be alright?" "Hopefully. We owe him since he saved Lyra's life." “I’m so sorry Twilight... I-I didn’t know something that would happen,” Spike sulked as he cried into Twilight’s shoulder. “I should’ve known better to try and use those things while you were gone.  Now Lyra got hurt badly and it’s all my fault...” “It’s fine Spike, Lyra’s going to be okay,” Twilight said comfortingly as she patted him on the back. “You didn’t know what would happen when you started looking at them, and neither did I. “...I suppose I’m the one who should be taking most of the blame here,” she said with a sigh, “I told you to start looking them over while I was at the hospital. Scout even yelled at me and said it was my fault too. Just please don’t beat yourself up over this Spike, it’s not your fault.” "I'll try not to..." Spike replied quietly amidst his sniffles.  “That’s the spirit,” she smiled softly. “For now, we’re going to have to send a letter to the Princess, she needs to know what happened,” she finished as she let her assistant out of her hug. Surprising the both of them, Spike then belched a letter from the Princess.   Being a bit confused to the sudden arrival of the letter, Twilight quickly opened it up. My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle         It has come to our attention that as of last night, Luna and I felt a very powerful magic summon something from another world and bring it into our own. To what this being may be, and the extent of its abilities are unknown; we advise remaining well clear of its presence until we can find a way to send it back to where it came. In the meantime, I want nopony to enter the Everfree Forest until we can find this being and deal with the situation accordingly.         I will be sending your brother along with a detachment of royal guards there for you, your friends, and Ponyville’s protection out of precaution.   -Your loving mentor, Princess Celestia         "Spike, take a letter," Twilight said as she finished skimming the letter. "I think I may have already found what Celestia's looking for." "Hey, wake up." "Ma?" I slowly opened my eyes. "What?" "Not ma," I grumbled. Instead, I saw a brightly colored winged horse (pegasus I think?) with rainbow hair hovering just above me. “Hey, I just wanted to see how you’re doing,” it said, looking down at me. “Twilight told me what happened a little while ago at the library, with you saving somepony’s life and collapsing after all of that. That made you quite the talk of the town you know, for well... being an alien and saving somepony’s life,” she said while circling one of her hooves in the air. “By the way, name’s Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria, and shoe-in for the wonderbolts,” she struck a pose in the air as she finished. I coughed into my hand to get her attention, unimpressed with her flair. “Alright Dash, first off, I’ll tell you what I told the docs a while ago: I’m a human. Hoo-man, not ‘an alien.’   “Second thing, I have a couple’a questions for ya’. One, how the hell did you manage to get your hair like that, and two, how the hell are you even flying!?” I yelled at that last question. “That’s not supposed to be physically possible!” “All pegasi can fly, and this is my mane’s natural color,” she said dismissively. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re flying!” She rolled her eyes and landed next to my bed. “Hello? I got wings, see?” she said as she flared her wings. I stopped and took a moment to think this through while I stare at her wings blankly. I knew that there was no way in hell that wings as small as those could keep a horse in the air for long, it was just... it just didn’t make sense! “So are you just gonna sit there staring at my wings all day, or what?” I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead, fighting off the hints of a migraine. I wasn’t cut out for that kinda train of thought, the Hardhat or Doc might find think of a way to rationalize it, but I couldn’t. Thinking too hard about stuff wasn’t the way I did things. I sighed and opened my eyes. “Name’s Scout, fastest runner Teufort has ever seen, ace dodger, mercenary extraordinaire, and all-around badass,” I said as I pushed myself up out of bed. "Yeah... are you sure you didn't hit your head or something? 'Cause last night I'm pretty sure you got knocked out by that Ursa Minor." "Hey don't worry about me, I get hit by angry bears all the time." I’m no horse expert, but I’m pretty sure that these things were way too small to be regular horses...  Ponies maybe? The door to the room opened and a different doctor walked in with a nurse carrying a tray of food. “Ah, Scout. You’re awake,” he said in an oddly happy tone. Usually when doctors see me in hospitals they’d say ‘what happened this time?’ and give me a lollipop. ... ... ... What? You're never too old for free candy. “Yup, and I’m feeling pretty good, doc,” I said and gave him a thumbs up. He looked a bit confused from the gesture, but I guess since I’m the only one that has thumbs they didn’t know what it meant. “That’s good, you gave us quite the scare when we gave you that potion; you started glowing a bright blue almost immediately and your eyes turned completely yellow,” he explained with fascination. “Has that ever happened before?” he asked as the nurse set the tray on my lap. The tray was filled with hay, oats, some corn, a bowl of salad, and... sandwiches made from flowers? Yeeeaah... I’m not even going to try some of these. “Yeah, it’s happened several times before, but only if a friend was constantly healing me,” I replied as I picked up some corn. "Healing? Like magical healing?" “Yeah, something like that, but it’s more science than magic.” I took a large bite out of said corn, savoring its fresh taste. Man was it ever good though, heck, it even made most of the hospital food back home seem like crap in comparison. "I see. What do you feel when you... start glowing?" he asked. “Aw man, you don’t know what you’re missing. It. Feels. Amazing! Nothing can hurt you! Bullets, rockets, bombs, knives, and anything else, none of that can hurt you; it makes you feel like you can take on the world!” “It also appears to have healed your injuries as well. We tried using that potion on some of our other patients as well, but it didn’t seem to yield the same results,” he said with a small shake of his head. “Well, did that other doc tell you about my friend who gave me that heart transplant?” He raised an eyebrow -- if he even had some -- and looked at me curiously. “See, a friend of mine swapped out my original heart some time ago with some sorta super heart he pulled out of his fridge,” I said, finishing off the last of my corn. "Removed you say? Did he have a medical license for such a surgery?" "Nope. Do I have to tell ya' how he lost his medical license?" "No, I'm not that curious. Anyway, Ms. Dash, please let the man rest. He had an exciting day." "Trust me, this isn't an exciting day compared to my day job." The three ponies left the room, leaving me to my own devices, which were now safely tucked inside my duffel bag next to my bag thankfully, minus several articles of clothing. A few hours later, I started to get bored. I decided that it was time to have a little fun, maybe figure out where the hell am I too. I jumped out of bed and picked up my stuff, stretching my arms and legs in preparation for another lengthy run. The window was wide open, and the sun was right on the horizon, and I needed to stretch my legs a bit. I dived out the window with my duffel bag in tow and landed against the soil with a loud whump. I think I’ll go back to see Sparkle-butt, see what she’s up to. “Heh, Sparkle-butt,” I snorted. I ran back through the town. Not a lot of those ponies were in the town at this hour so I had a lot of room to run. I made it back to the big tree in a matter of minutes and knocked on the front door. “Hey, Sparks?  Ya’ home?” I called out before opening it. The whole main room was filled with white colored pegasuses (pegasi?). Anyway, all of them were wearing this weird golden armor, and I suddenly found myself with a whole lot of spears pointed at me. “Uhh... hi.” "Scout?" I heard Sparks behind the wall of guards. “At ease,” I heard another voice through the crowd. It sounded like one of those voices you’d hear from a boy-band or something like that. The guards eyed me warily as the order was relayed, but they otherwise broke apart their line and let me pass. Looks like the whole gang from last night was here as well. Pinks, Dash, Sparks, and the other three I didn’t know the names of, were here too. Though there was another one here as well, a white one that was slightly larger than the rest. "Hiya Scoutie!" Pinks waved at me. I half-waved back to her. “Heya Pinks.” “So this is the creature you were talking about, Twilight?” A tall, white horned pony said. He was the only other male voice in the room that spoke, and it was the same voice from just under a minute ago. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hit him because of he sounded, or just make fun of him because of it. "Yes. Scout this is my brother, Shining Armor," Twilight said. Shining raised his eyebrow. "The Princess said that this creature could be dangerous, he doesn't look very dangerous," Shining stated. "Hey, I could kick your ass anytime of the day, tough guy," I said as I dropped my duffel bag to the floor. "Is that a threat?" "It's a challenge. C’mon, show me what you’re made of ya’ wuss." We stared down at each other, neither of us backing down the other. There was gonna be a fight, and I was going to win it. The day had ended with BLU managing to pull off a close victory against a full RED team, the control points of Well and Granary were theirs for the time being. In the aftermath of the match, they all spent their spare time searching for BLU Scout, especially Pyro and Heavy. Heavy organized the search, getting ads on this new Television thing and newspapers. Behind the scenes, RED Spy pulled a few favors he had stored and used them to look for the missing boy. Scout's mom was in a total wreck following his disappearance. She was going back to her old habits of drinking and smoking to try and relieve her stress and drown her sorrows. Her other sons were trying their best to comfort her, but nothing seemed to work. "This is bad," Heavy said entering the respawn room of Teufort, dropping the bag of flyers on the floor. "Where could tiny baby Scout be?" Engineer was tinkering with his PDA, inputting a series of commands before sighing heavily. "I can't seem to find him on the GPS," he said, providing his input. RED Spy uncloaked in front of them with BLU Spy. "Our contact cannot seem to find him as well. Zey will keep looking," RED Spy said.  "Huddah." "What is it, Pyro?" Heavy said. "Huddah Huddah Huddah," Pyro said and picked up his/her flamethrower. "Zat is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard," Medic said, facepalming. "You don't know if he teleported into a wall and ended up suffocating." "Huddah, mmpth." Pyro pointed back to Engie. "Well, it's possible, but we can't be sure you'll land in the same place as Scout." "Huddah?" Pyro said and pointed to the two Spys. "You psychotic imbecile! We will not use another teleporter!" The two Spies yelled. "Darlin' the Respawn only works in the battlefield, that means only around Teufort and other places RED and BLU are fighting for.” "Huddah huddah..." Pyro said sadly and sat back down. "Huddah huddah mmpth?" "When we fix the teleporter Scout used, it should have a 50/50 chance to make him teleport to the bus stop I set it on." Engie scratched his chin. "...Hopefully," he muttered. “What about ze other 50%?” Medic questioned. Engie was silent for a moment. “There’s a chance he’s gonna show up dead or not at all...” Sniper walked in the room with a scowl on his face. "The Announcer ain't gonna call off the matches." BLU Soldier and RED Demo came in with a similar scowl on their face. "Redmond and Blutarch ain't going to support this search, lads." Demo said. "The other REDs are already searching, reluctantly. The RED Soldier even agreed to try an' git his wizard friend to help us too." "As much as it makes my innards twist and turn to work with them, we have to work alongside the REDs if we're to find the Scout," BLU Soldier said with great disdain. "And as soon as we find Scout, I will kill him, rip out his insides, and force feed him his own heart for making me work with these REDs!" "Aye, I'm sure RED Solly's gonna do the same thing," RED Demo said and took a swig of his bottle. "Huddah, huddah..." "Dinnae' worry lad, we'll find 'em." "Huddah huddah..." > Chapter 3: "I Didn’t Sign Up For This!" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3: "I Didn’t Sign Up For This!"     I reached out for my gun, I wasn't going to kill the guy, just give him a little scare is all. I took out my pistol and BAM, I was sent flying across the room and through the window.   It. Is. On!   I got up from the dirt and picked up my pistol. Armor jumped out the broken window, a few Pegasi followed him out. I didn't want to kill any of 'em, it'll look bad for me, but that Armor dude's getting a shot in the leg. One of the Pegasi dive-bombed me, after months of dodging and staying alive on the battlefield, it was a cake walk dodging that dude.   I looked around, trying to find something that I could use like a bat or something. I couldn't find anything, so I used the next best thing. Another Pegasi dived at me with his spear, I grabbed the spear and sent him flying to wall. I snapped the spear in half and threw away the sharp top and took the other end.   "Alright, I'm ready. Come get some." I taunted and placed the stick on my shoulder. "I'm waiting."   The last two Pegasi did some sort of aerial stunt that distracted me, they all dived at me and grabbed my shoulders. "Hey! What are you-" They flew up higher, and then they let go.   They were trying to break my legs! I screamed as the ground started to come closer towards me. I felt it, the same thing that happened last time, the air around my feet turned solid for half a second, I broke my momentum and jumped in the AIR! Man, that will never get old.   I landed right outside the big tree, Armor was emotionlessly staring at me. The last two aimed their spears at me, I dodged and both of them crashed into each other. I laughed. "Tell me, are these the best you guys can do?"   "I have to say, I'm impressed, you managed to beat my best recruits." Armor said. I raised my gun and aimed for his leg. I fired my pistol, but it just bounced off.   "That's not fair!" I yelled and dropped my aim. Sparks came rushing out, she looked pissed, I don't know why.   "SCOUT! What did you do?!" Sparks yelled, and picked up the guards with magic!   "Jeez, relax, they're just knocked out." I said with a small shrug.   She was really pissed off, like red face pissed off. I was going to get my butt chewed out for sure.   "Lighten up, Twi." Dash said and followed her out. "Boys will be boys."   "Yeah, Twily. This just means I have to whip these colts into shape." Shining said, still gonna shoot him later.   "That still doesn't mean he could beat up royal guards!" Sparks yelled. My bag started glowing purple and floated towards Twi. "I'm taking these for the time being, they are far too dangerous, even for you."   "Jeez, Sparks, you're starting to sound like my mom." I said and rubbed the back of my head. "Me and my brothers used to rough-house all the time."   "Ah don't mean to interrupt, but do y'all smell something burning?" The orange pony with a cowboy hat pointed out.   "Yeah, smells like... dragon fire?" Sparks said. There was a smell of burning wood. I turned around and saw a huge cloud of smoke coming from town.   "Dr-dra-DRAGON!" The yellow pegasus yelled, albeit a bit weak, and pointed to the sky.   A large red dragon started spewing flames everywhere just burning everything and anything.   "The times I'm glad Pyro isn't here." I muttered and turned to the guards that were still recovering. "What now?"   Shining pointed to town. "Evacuate the ponies!" He ordered, the guards saluted and flew off. Armor turned back to the girls. "Stay inside, don't come out until it's over."   The yellow one rushed inside, terrified and shaking like a leaf. Pinks followed her in.   "I ain't gonna let some bozo dragon burn down my town." Rainbow said with a confident smirk. I'm liking her more and more.   "Let's send this varmint back where it came from!" The orange one said with a tip of her hat.   "As a lady, I am not one for fighting, but in this case, I think having the Elements on your side would be a great asset." The marshmallow said, she reminds me way too much of Spy.   "I guess that settles it." I said and fixed my hat. "I'll distract that big lizard, you guys get everybody out of here." I said and rushed off and followed the dragon.   The town was burning, everyone running some screaming. Some ponies were on fire, burning, and others were lying dead on the floor. This reminds me of the time with RED Pyro. The big dragon landed on town square, crushing a few ponies under his claw. He let out a loud roar.   I reached for my gun, but I remembered that Twilight took 'em. I muttered a small curse and dodged to the right as the dragon spewed fire at me. "Alright, I need something to hit with..." I muttered and saw a piece of wood with a nail stuck on it.   I rushed for the piece of wood, the dragon swiped at me as I jumped over his huge claw. This was... I can't describe it, it's like fighting two heavy and medic combos at the same time, it was exciting, new, and I knew I was gonna die if I wasn't careful.   I grabbed the piece of wood and rushed at the dragon, and judging from the scales, this wasn't going to work. He did a quick turnaround and tried to hit me with his tail, I jumped and grabbed on his tail. His wings started flapping and we were being lifted above the ground.   I crawled on his scaly back, trying to get to his head, his eyes are the only place not covered in scales and hopefully hurts more than anywhere else. The dragon did some stunts to shake me off, I held on tight but my hat went flying off. I crawled closer and reached his head.   "HEY DUMBASS! GOT A PRESENT FOR 'YA!" I yelled and stabbed his eye with the nail. He screamed in pain and shook his head violently, causing me to lose my balance. I jumped way too early and found myself falling back down to the ground. I tried jumping a second time but it failed, my arms were limp. Falling from this high would kill me, no question.   There was a bright rainbow flash that grabbed me and slowed down to land. The dragon was still in a frenzy, rushing at us, I turned to Rainbow Dash. "Go right, I got an idea."   RD flew to the right and I sprinted to the left. The dragon rushed at me and crashed to the ground. I jumped on his back and was about to deal the killing blow.   "STOP!" I heard a soft yell. I looked around and saw that it was the scared yellow pegasus pony from earlier.   "Huh?" Was the only thing I could think of right now, she was... staring... sort of reminded me when I first met Pyro... just weird creepy eyes staring at you. As big as her eyes were, it looked like they were getting bigger, but her staring wasn't just for me, it felt like it was for the dragon too.   "How would your mother think if she knew you went flying around towns and started burning them." She said with a very motherly tone. The dragon, for the most part looked like he was being told off.   "B-but, voices are telling me to do things." The dragon said, which shocked me a little. "Saying something about the thing on my back." He flicked me off and caused me to fall on face.   I got up and dusted off the dirt on my face. "Me?" I asked   "I need to bring you to the dark unicorn that's been whispering, voices... must... AGHHH!" The dragon screamed, glowing red eyes, he raised his head and spewed fire. That's when I noticed the glowing necklace thing on his neck.   Now, this was a long shot, but I'm in a magical world full of talking ponies and dragons, a magic necklace isn't so far-fetched.   I jumped up to his neck and knocked the necklace off. The necklace thing hit the ground and shattered and black smoke covered the area for a good few minutes.   The dragon was knocked out and fell to the ground. I dusted off and checked around. I saw one small shard and picked it up.   "Come to me."   "Whoa, what the hell was that?" I dropped the shard. Sparks and the others came running with a few guards.   It was like some sort of voice talking to me, but I couldn't tell if it was a dude or a chick.   "What happened?" Shining asked. "Did you just take down a dragon by yourself?!"   "Not really, she helped, sort of." I said and pointed to the yellow pegasus tending to the dragon. The others were mostly surprised. "Oh, and the dragon was being controlled or something. Can we get someone to fix his eye, if it's not too much trouble?"   "Controlled?" Sparks questioned. "But to control a sentient mind, you must be as strong as one of the Princesses."   I picked up a shard from the necklace. "Maybe this'll help?" I said and tossed it to Sparks.   "I've never seen anything like this, I mean I've seen magically infused jewelry before, but this..." She said as she examined it closely.   "Girls, I think we're missing the point here." RD said. "The town's nearly destroyed, I think we need to help with that before anything else."   Sparks got out of her daze and nodded. "Uh, right."     We walked back to town. The place looked like Teufort after a match, fires were spreading, pieces of wood and debris were scattered all around, and a lot of bodies.   "Sweet Celestia..." The white marshmallow muttered, and cried to Sparks' shoulder.   The other guards ran off, probably trying to do some damage control.   "This is messed up." I said and walked around. The town was still busy trying to clear the rubble. I saw a small hoof come out a pile of rubble next to a small house that looked like it was about to fall over. I rushed over and started digging her out. "A little help over here." I yelled.   RD rushed over and started helping me clear out the rubble.   We pulled out a small orange filly with small wings on her back. The little filly coughed up some dust, and stood up.   "Agh... What happen? Pops!" She said and tried to rush back inside, I held her back as the entrance started to collapse. "Pops!"   I held back the crying filly. "Dash, get somebody to help clear out some of this rubble." I said as she flew off, her rainbow trail flew towards the other side of town.   "Pops! Lemme go, I gotta get to my Dad!" The filly tried to break free.   I held on tight. "Listen! Your Pa wouldn't want ’ya to buried under all that debris! That won't help at all, the building would just fall on ya'!"   "I don't care! He's the only family I have left!" The filly kicked me in the face and rushed in through a broken window.   I fell back and fixed my jaw. "Jeez... HEY! Get back here!" I jumped in through the window, there was still a few fires here and there, the ground was burnt, and furniture was either crushed under the debris or burnt.   I carefully walked around, the roof looked like it was about to collapse. I made my way to flight of stairs. The stairs looked like they were about to fall on itself, it was a good thing I was incredibly light for someone of my age.   I quickly made it up the stairs, I heard a faint crying.   "Kid, get out of here, I'll be fine, just... go." There was a large orange stallion under a large beam, his legs looked busted up.   The filly hugged him tighter. "I'm not leaving you!" She cried.   "And you won't have too." I said and grabbed the beam. "Help me push this thing." I said and heaved the large beam. The little filly helped push it up. The stallion pushed himself out of the beam's way. "Right, here 'ya go..." I heaved him up, he was pretty heavy for someone so small.   We made our way back down the stairs and through the rooms, the building started coming down. I picked up the filly and jumped out  the window.   I saw RD come rushing over. A small group of Para-medics came rushing along.   "Hey, are you alright?" Dash said and helped me up.   "Yeah, more or less." I said and dusted off. I tried to grab my hat but I remembered that it fell off. "How's the kid?" I said and looked at the unconscious orange filly.   "She'll be fine, she's a tough little squirt." Dash said with a hint of pride.   "Yeah, but we still got a lot of work to do." I said and looked at the ruins of the town. The town hall was still intact, for the most part.   "We should check with the mayor, she might have something for you to do." RD said. "I'll go check with the others, you should head back to the library later." She said and flew off.     "Pyro's called in sick..." BLU Sniper said with a scowl at the screen. "We're down two men, we're gonna lose today's match."   Administrator took a long drag from her smoke. "Mister Mundy, maybe I haven't been clear. I don't care. If you're as good as you say you are, then this would be easy for you."   "Yeah, listen here, sheila. I can't remember what happened, but the REDs are just as good as us, they're clones or something, and we're down two men. We are going to be slaughtered out there!"   "I recall you had parents living on an old farm, correct?" The Administrator’s grin slowly grew larger.   "You wouldn't dare..." Sniper growled at the screen.   "They're farm doesn't nearly generate enough money to sustain themselves."   "You're treading on thin ice here, sheila..."   "And they need you for support financially. What would happen if their bank account suddenly went bankrupt? I think you know, Mister Mundy."   "Piss off..." Sniper thought silently for a minute. "Fine, we'll play your stupid war game."     Thanks, Sniper. Pyro muttered to herself. Pyro took off her mask and suit, she picked up a blue hoodie and covered her badly burnt face.   Pyro left the small house she called home and made a beeline to a nearby alley.   "Ah, Boss, Here to check up on your old gang?" A young man with a bandana on his head.   "Noe, I need a favor." Pyro said and throwing back her hood, and revealed her crimson red hair.   "Hey, anything for you, you got us out of a bad road leading to nowhere. Whatcha need?" Noe said with a smirk.   "I need someone in Mann Co." Pyro said unblinking.   Noe's smile slowly disappeared. "You're kidding, right?" Noe sighed. "I can get someone inside, but this is gonna be risky as hell. What do you need in Mann Co. anyway?"   "They've got a lot of research data on advance teleportation, I need that." Pyro said calmly. "Just... stay safe, alright?"   "You know us, Boss. We'll stay safe."   "Oh, and if you can find anything about an annoying guy with a blue shirt, give me a call, okay?"   "Sure."   Pyro was about to left the alley, until a two muscled figures blocked her off.   "Hey there pretty lady." A guy on the left said.   "Hey lady, want to have some fun tonight?" The other one on the right said.   "Yeah, sure. How does burning your dead bodies sound?" Pyro said with a smirk. The guy on the left reached his hand and felt her butt. Pyro quickly reacted and punched him across the face.   The guy cracked his jaw. "We got a feisty one, eh?"   A small flame circled around Pyro's fist, she landed another heavy punch on the other one, knocking him out completely. "Come on, hurry up I got somewhere to be." She taunted.   "Little bitc-" Before he could finish, Pyro grabbed him by the neck, her hot hand was slowly burning his neck. He slowly, and painfully passed out.   Pyro made her way towards a small repair shop, there was a large sign that read ‘Conagher Family Repair Shop’.   Pyro walked around the store and went through the back. She quickly pulled out a piece of paper and quickly wrote a message to Engineer.   A small blond little girl came walking down the stairs.   They stared at each other for a small time. "Uh... Hi." > Chapter 4: "Friends?" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4: "Friends?" I rushed towards the library, everywhere I went, there was fire, ponies screaming, crying, and some trying to do the best that they can. I'll be honest, it hurts to not be able to do something. I rushed pass the ruins of what looked like a giant gingerbread house. There were two ponies, crying on each other's shoulder. The tall orange one tried his best to ca;m the short stubby mare. It was a depressing sight to see. Heck, I don't think Engie could make this any better. "This sucks," I muttered and ran towards the large intact tree. I ran through the door and saw Sparks fiddling around with the crystal we found eariler. "Aren't you suppose to be helping?" I asked with a serious look. Sparks wrapped the crystal in a thin piece of cloth. "I would, but the Princesses told me to wait with you until they got here." She said with a sigh. "So?" I said. She gave me confused look. "So what? Ponies are in trouble out there, they need what little help they can get!" "But the Princess-" "Princess nothing! People are dying out there! I ain't the type to sit around and do nothing!" I walked towards the open doorway, the door slammed shut and with Sparks' magic. "The Princess said no!" Twilight yelled. I laughed, really this was really funny. She was just so damn blind and loyal. "Alright Sparkle Butt, lemme ask 'ya this. If your 'Princesses' were to, I dunno, say kill your friends, would you do it?" She hesitated. "I-the Princesses-they would never do that!" She yelled. Yup, she was blind alright. "But that's what's happening right now. I can either stay here and sit on my ass all day, or I can maybe... I dunno save a few ponies trapped in buildings or maybe save a few kids from a falling piece of roof or something. Tell me something, is that worth it? Obeying your 'Princess' to the word?" I didn't wait for the response. I kicked down the door and sprinted outside. "Man... I got my work cut out for me..." I saw the panicking ponies, running 'round like chickens with their heads cut off. If it wasn't for the completely sad mood, it would have looked funny... I'm a sick kid. I wasn't much of a leader, I'd admit, hard to believe, right? I mean look at me! I got leader material written all over, I just don't wanna be in the spot light all the time, you know? Anyway, ya'll know what I'm good at, right? Running. I was fast, really fast. Faster than I'd ever ran before. Heck, RD was rushing around trying her best to get the hurt back to hospital. I wasn't so hot myself, I'm pretty sure my injuries only got worse since the whole "Mid-air dragon fight" thing. But you know me, I'm a trooper. I ran around, transporting meds and stuff all over. Going back and forth towards the hospital for some much needed first-aid on field, felt like the times before Medic joined the team. I shook the thought outta my head. You can think about your friends later, Scout. Right now, you got some lives to save! Wait friends? Who said they were my friends? I was tired... Dead tired, you know, like when you drink a dozen cans of bonk all at once, and the after effects? That kind of tired. We ran out of room at the hospital so we had to use AJ's farm and the school to help out the wounded. I looked around the farm, seeing all kinds of ponies crying their eyes out. So were tears of joy, having their kids or parents stay alive, some... weren't as lucky... The filly, Dash and I saved earlier was named "Scootaloo" I heard that her dad didn't make it, he got some bones stuck in his blood stream, clogged up his heart... RD was trying her best to cheer up the filly... It wasn't working. Everybody was getting treated, medical pros with ACTUAL medical licenses working on each patient. Sure, I know basic first-aid but a lot of these guys psyco-phyca-mental problems, and I wasn't good at that. I wasn't much of a builder either, sure I could run around giving them tools and stuff, but they needed strenght, not speed. So I got nothing to do, and I was tired. Didn't feel like doing anything. I walked around the ruined town, noting all the used-to-be colorful buildings. I was thinking to myself that maybe I should just hit the hay. Then I saw Pinks. Pinkie was crying her eyes out, her hair turned like straight pink seaweed or something. I walked over to her and placed my hand on her head. "Hey, Pinks? Y'aright?" Stupid, stupid, stupid! Of course she isn't alright, you dope! "S-Scout?" Pinks jumped up and tackled me in a tight hug, crying on my shoulder the entire time. "Hey, hey, stop crying..." Like I said, I wasn't good with all that emotional drama, but I tried my best. "They're... they're dead!" I dunno, she just cried. I usually don't care about stuff like this. People die, I knew that much... Maybe.... Maybe it was 'cause it felt like the time... Dad died... Old wounds hurt, new wounds hurt just as much. I tighten my grip around Pinks. I think I had some dust in my eye or something. I just sat there. Holding her in my arms... This town needed a massive pick-me-up, problem is, I got no idea how to do that. Pinks sort of cheered up. She wasn't crying anymore, but I think she just ran outta tears. We decided to go see Twilight and her "Precious Princess". I walked towards the big library tree. I glared at Sparks and two other ponies, one looked like a normal horse with a big white coat, the other was a small filly, both of 'em had a horn and a pair of wings. I could smell trouble. The big white one, eyed me causiously. Her big moving hair, looked like some sort of hologram or something rather than actual hair. "Twilight, is this the creature you were talking about?" "Yes, Princess." The little filly spoke up. "You! You should bow down! Thou art in the presents of royalty! Monster!" She spoke like some sorta weird Role-playing dudes back in my world. I didn't like her attitude. "Can it, pipsqueak. The adults are talking." I said with a cocky grin. Sparks and Pinks basically had the same expression, shocked, wide-eyed, and the like. The little filly looked like she was gonna explode. "Thou shalt not talk to the Princess of the Night like that! Knave!" She was adorable and annoying at the same time. "Someone throwing a little tanturm? I said can it, small fry." "Luna," The big white Pegacorn thing said. "Enough." I felt my pistol on my back, I tensed up. I really didn't trust the white one. I clucthed my hand into a fist, and eyed the one called "Luna". "My name is Princess Celestia, and this is my sister, Luna." Celestia said, with an elegant nod. I didn't care for formality, but my Ma taught me that I should at least respect someone on the first meeting. "My name's Scout." I said with a curt nod. I won't bow to just anyone, even a princess. "Now, what the hell do you want?" I don't always listen to my Ma. Luna was furious, she turned red, and I swear her mane started to spark. Celly stopped her before she could have made a fool of herself in front of me. "I heard about what you did. Ignoring my direct order, insulting my prize pupil, fighting the captain of the Royal Guard, and most of all..." I grabbed the pistol on my back, getting ready to pull it out in a second. "... You saved my little ponies from a rampaging dragon. For that, I give my respect." She bowed down. My ego needed a boasting. "Yeah, I am pretty awesome." I said, holding my head up high. "But... I didn't save all of them..." Great... I brought my own ego down. "Hey!" I turned around and saw RD flying at me at full speed. "SCOUT! Scootaloo's missing!" "What!?" I ran up to RD and grabbed her. "What? Where is she?" "If I would have know I wouldn't have come looking for you!" She wiggled out of my grip and hovered above the ground. "Come on, you gotta help me look for her!" "Way ahead of you." I jumped up and started running. I'm gonna cover this town faster than a sonic jet! All that tireness just flew away as I ran, all I thought was what the hell that kid would do, I knew what I did.... Flashback "How many times did tiny baby Scout die?" Heavy asked, behind the cover of the battlements on Tuefort. Bullets and rockets bounced off Heavy's giant russian body. "Aghh... To many times to count." Medic said with a sigh, healing the Heavy as he did. Heavy revved up his minigun, and fired wildly at the advancing RED Soldier, making the crazy officer try to find some cover. "Most of 'em suicides... I'm really worried about the kid." Sniper said and took aim. He fired off a single shot and the RED Soldier cried out in pain. "MAH PAINIS!" RED Soldier cried as a bullet passed through his pelvis. "He'd be fine... Kid's tough." Engineer said and fixed his sentry. "Spah, sappin' my teleporter! Excuse me, commin' through." He yelled and ran out of the battlements, and into the sewer water down below.. "Outta the way, Lard fat." Scout said and shoved the Heavy away. The others saw that he had several straps of Demoman's explosives on him as he jumped off the battlements. Demoman came rushing out, he was completly void of any explosives. "Oi! You bloody git! Get back 'ere!" Demoman sighed and rubbed his one good eye. "Ah give up, you handle 'em, lads." The Scottsman gave out an annoyed sigh and walked back into the respawn to get his other gear. The others stared dumbly at the running Scout. They could hear the RED Engineer cry out. "SENTRY DOWN." And on all of their displays, they had a skull and a pair of crossbones next to Scout's name on the top right corner of their vision. "Da, but Scout has most kills." Heavy said to Medic. "Ja..." I shook off the memory and ran faster, my lungs burned trying to get more air into them. RD came rushing aside me. "I'll go check on the west side of town. You go check on the east side!" With that, she zoomed off. I saw an old clock tower. Really old. Like something half a centuary ago, I was surprised that it didn't collapse during the dragon attack. I stopped and looked at the top, a small speck was falling down. I squinted my eyes to get a closer look. Scoots? "Aw crap!" I ran, I ran fast. But she was falling faster. I needed to get to her, before she hit the ground. Come on. Come on! I jumped up and tried to catch her. Tried... BLU Sniper did an excenllent job at holding down the point on Nucleus. He flexed his arms a bit and  adjusted his aim, the crosshairs scanned the battlefield. There was a lull in the battle, Engineer took the opertunity to quickly build a sentry near the point as a choke-point. Engie looked up, admiring his work. He looked around and noticed that the RED Sniper had him in his sights. BLU Engie's head flew clean off, and into the pit of Nucleus. The fight had started again. RED Heavy ran out of their Respawn room, followed by RED Medic, his loud heavy footsteps echoed through the room. Sniper could hear the distinct sound of RED Heavy's minigun revving up. "I am fully charged!" RED Medic yelled out. Sniper scowled as he saw RED Heavy blocking RED Medic. A single headshot couldn't kill a fully overhealed Heavy, he learned that the hard way. A gunshot from behind him rang out. Sniper quickly turned around, his SMG was already equiped. He saw the limp body of a RED Spy, and his BLU counterpart. "My friend, What is za problem?" BLU Spy said. He quickly reloaded his revolver and holstered it for his butterfly knife. Sniper nodded in thanks. "That RED butterball blocking off his Medic, I can't get a shot. If he Ubers then we'll be squashed. Get to it, Spy!" "Yes. I'll take care of i-" Before Spy could finish his sentence, a loud blast from RED Scout's scattergun blasted Spy's head to kingdom come. Sniper reached for his kukri but found himself at the end of RED Scout's gun. "Yeah, I'm awesome. Suck to be you, Aussie." RED Scout fired his gun. Medic sighed and quickly chopped off RED Scout's head, earning himself a domination. "Nein.... Zis vill not do. I hope ze Pyro is doing better zen us." "... And that's how I learned how to breath fire, and make fireballs." Pyro finished as the little girl listened attentively at Pyro. "Wow! That's so cool!" Pyro checked her watched and stood up from her chair. "Sorry, but I have to go. Goodbye, little Cassidy Conagher." She patted the little girl on the head and left. Pyro walked for a little while. She felt her phone in her pocket vibrate. "Hello?" She answered. "Boss..." Noa said from the other line. "One of the guys has got some pretty weird info here. I think you might want to see. We're sending it to BLU base." There was a loud crash and several people yelling. "THAT'S HALE! RUN! RUN!" "Noa? NOA! Shit..." Pyro closed her phone, she didn't want to hear their screams. She silently wiped a tear and started walking again, this time to the battlefield.