My Little Fortress: Friendship is Explosive

Chapter 7: Men of Constant Sorrow

(A/N: sorry that I'm taking so long to make this story, but I don't have that much time to do it. Anyway, for all you rule 34 bronys, I'm not THAT interested in the ponies. I have nothing against those kind of bronys, but I just find that messed up in my opinon. If you asking why I'm saying this when I made Scout's dream in the last chapter, that was just to show how Scout liked Dash. Also, I Give a Big thanks to TheAlexRice (that is his Youtube username, I don't know his Fanfiction ID) for narrating this story, so check out his videos of this story narrated and the others he have!)

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As The Mane six, the princesses, the royal guard, and RED came towards Canterlot, Demoman chuckled. Twilight looked at him.

"How can you laugh at a time like this?" she asked him.

"Oh, it's not that, it's just the castle reminds me of me old ancestor's castle back home," Demoman said.

"You have castles where you come from?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah. Me great-grandparents owned an old castle from medieval times. The DeGroots were- and still are- a heroic battle family. Me grandparents fought in the wars of Scotland, me father fought in World war one, and I be fightin' with me RED teammates. When me grandparents they died, they gave me the rights to the castle even though I wasn't born yet. Funny, they must have been drinking our family's cherished Scrumpy when writing the will." he said, laughing afterwards at his own joke. They were soon cut off by one of the royal guards voice.

"We're closing in on the Canterlot Castle, but these ponies are trying to take us down with balls of fire! Keep your heads down!" The Guard said, dodging fireballs that were mere feet away from the carriage he was carrying.

"How'd dey get dat set up so fast?" Scout asked, ducking behind the carriage he was in.

"Remember mate, The princesses and most of their guards came to the town because of that letter," Sniper reminded him.

They covered their heads as parts of a chariot flew by them. Scout looked over the side of the chariot and saw the helpless royal guards that had miraculously survived being blasted by one of those fireballs, only now to be falling hundreds of feet from the sky. The Pegasus that were carrying the chariot were killed in the blast.

"We have to help them!" Rainbow dash said, starting to dash off before Sniper caught her.

"It's too late mate! If we help them, we'll have to slow down and that'll make us easier targets!" Sniper said. Rainbow didn't want to accept it, but she knew inside that Sniper was right.

Dash winced as another chariot was blown up, those guards being killed immediately. Then, another fireball passed by another chariot, and even though it didn't hit that chariot, The fireball's flames was close enough to catch the chariot on fire, along with the royal guards that were trapped. Weather they jumped off the chariot or stayed on it to burn to death, their fate was grim.

Rainbow Dash would have flown off to get a rain cloud to dowse the flames, but it was a clear sky and it would take too long to find another cloud. So the ponies could only watch in horror. RED didn't feel the same kind of sympathy that the ponies did. They were use to death, especially by fire, but they all knew that it shouldn't be happening to these ponies.

"How much farther?" Soldier yelled out to the Pegasus's carrying their chariot.

"We need to find a place big enough to land!" one of them said.

"But zhey have control of most of ze Castle!" Medic exclaimed.

"Not for long," Soldier said before suddenly jumping out of the chariot.

"What is he doing?" Rainbow dash yelled. "Doesn't he know he'll get killed at this height?"

"Helmet head may be stupid, and I mean REALLY stupid, at times, but even he knows this height's suicide," Scout said. "Unless…."

Before Scout could finish, Soldier came flying back up.

"PA-POW!"

"Unless he has the gunboats on and rocket jumps." Scout finished.

They watched as Soldier bellowed on something about cowards, maggots, and hippies, all while clearing an area big enough for the remaining chariots.

"He is Certainly ze one to charge like zhat." Spy said calmly.

When they landed, Princess Celestia made a quick count.

"Cyclone, What's the status report?" she asked one of the unicorn guards.

"We had 15 chariots to start out with, but we lost 3, all with a total of 4 guards each. They were shot down by those fireballs. These things also have control over the castle " He yelled over the battle as the mane six and the rest of RED followed Soldier's lead, taking battle positions.

Celestia sighed at the news of their current losses. But she knew that if they lost this battle, their deaths would be in vain.

"Alright, you and Stonebreaker lead two squads of the guards to cover RED team and The Elements of Harmony. When you meet up with them, do whatever they Command you to. Luna and myself will lead a separate squadron." She said. Cyclone nodded as he informed Stonebreaker of her plans. They nodded and chose a few of the royal guard, Cyclone's squad going with RED, Stonebreaker's with the Mane six.

"You! One with the helmet!" Cyclone said. Soldier turned around.

"What maggot?" he said, turning back around to fire another rocket. Cyclone grunted at his choice of words for them.

"By order of princess Celestia, we're here to aid you in battle!" he said. Suddenly one of the shadow creatures, what looked like a Manticore, pounced towards Soldier. Cyclone instinctively flew up (he was a Pegasus) and caught the creature in mid air and slammed it into the ground, smashing it into tiny fragments of shadows.

"Thanks," Soldier said, running up beside Cyclone and firing rockets again.

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As Twilight threw another one of the shadow creatures aside with her magic, Stonebreaker and his squad of royal guards came in and started to attack the shadow creatures, which allowed the ponies some rest. Stonebreaker came back to inform Twilight on Celestia's orders.

"So you're basically here to protect us." Twilight yelled over an explosion.

"Pretty much!" Stonebreaker said, going back to help his squad. The mane six followed him, all except for Fluttershy.

"Stonebreaker, shouldn't we regroup with RED?" Rarity said, dodging a white arrow. She shrieked and the others nearly jumped, thinking she was hit, but they soon saw that she only shrieked that she had gotten dirt in her mane.

"We better sir, they're getting closer to us, we can't hold them off alone!" One of the Royal guards that was with them said. Stonebreaker nodded as he, his squad, and the mane six made a full dash for RED's location.

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As Pyro Took down 3 enemies with his Backburner, he laughed like a little child during a birthday party. "HUDDA HMPH HMPH!" Pyro yelled. Pyro was covering Engineer while he build a sentry.

"Thanks pardner, Ah've almost got this thang ta level three," he said. Since Engineer's sentries were programmed to attack their BLU counterparts only, he had to use the wrangler to manually point the sentry at these shadow creatures. Sniper came over to them.

"We've hit them hard mate, but it's like they've got two more to replace what we destroy." Sniper reported to Engineer.

"Ah, Hell." Engineer replied. They were both surprised when they heard another voice beside them.

"Is it that bad for you guys to?" Twilight said, making Sniper and Engineer nearly jump.

"Yeah," Sniper replied. Little did they noticed that one of the shadow creatures was moving silently behind Engineer's sentry and dispenser with two of Spy's sappers.

"SPAIH SAPPIN MAH SENTRY!" Engineer yelled, turning around. What he saw wasn't a Spy, but a new creature that they've never seen. The closest thing that engineer could think of it was an insect like creature. The creature laughed and hopped off, only to be caught and burned by Pyro.

"Thanks Pyro." Engineer said as he destroyed the sappers with his Southern Hospitality.

"Twilight, was that thing?" Sniper asked as he turned around back towards Twilight. But instead of Twilight, he was looking in the eyes of another one of the insect like creatures. It jumped on him and knocked Sniper's Tribalman's Shiv out of his hand before he could attack with it.

"HELP!" Sniper yelled, wrestling with the creature. Despite it's small size, it was stronger than it looked. Pyro jumped at the creature, knocking it off Sniper and killed it with the Axetinguisher.

"Thanks mate," Sniper said as he grabbed his Tribalman's Shiv. Pyro gave him a two finger salute and ran into the battle to help Soldier, Demoman, Heavy, and Medic. Sniper and Engineer looked at the creature.

"What do ya thank it is?" Engineer asked.

"I don't know mate, we better ask Twilight." Sniper said.

"Or Fluttershy, considering it could be an animal," Engineer added.

"Speaking of that, here thay come," Engineer said. He pointed to the mane six and the Royal guard that was trotting towards them.

When they got there, they asked if any one of them knew what the creature was. They all nodded.

"That's a changeling. They can change into the form of another pony based on a certain pony's love for them and they feed off of that. Their leader tried that one time, she changed herself into the form of my older brother's lover." Twilight said.

"Well, then this thing disguised itself as you Twilight," Sniper said.

"Well if that's true, they need love to change into a form, so…" Twilight started before being cut off by Engineer.

"look, here comes the others" He said.

Sniper sighed under his breath. "That was close, but I shouldn't be having feelings like that. I'm and anti lover and I like to be alone. This place is starting to change me. Wonder if any of the others feel the same," Sniper silently thought. He then slapped himself. "Mate, that's just messed up, keep your head straight, no need to get too friendly." He told himself.

Soldier, Heavy, Pyro, Demoman, and Medic came back, bloody and injured.

"Ach, I must fix zis medigun to not have a time limit of use," Medic said as they all went to Engineers dispenser.

"There's more coming," Soldier said. Sniper look through the scope of his Machina.

"He's right, too many for us to take out. I don't even think the princesses with their powers combined could take them all out." Sniper said. He then looked up and saw the massive fireballs that were coming towards them.

"INCOMING!" Sniper yelled. They all ducked except for Twilight.

"Twilight, get down!" Rainbow dash yelled. Twilight simply closed her eyes and her horn started to glow. Before the knew it, they were all being protected by a giant purple shield. When the fireballs hit, they exploded over the shield, and no one was hurt. But Twilight slumped over after the shield dissipated. Medic immediately ran to check on her, Sniper and Soldier covering him.

"She alright doc?" Sniper asked.

"Yah, she has just run out of energy," Medic replied. Soldier ran back over to Scout.

"Hey Shrimp, think you can run and see how many of em's left?" Soldier asked.

"Course helmet head!" Scout said. He then drank a can of his Bonk! and ran out from the cover he was hiding behind. He was gone for only a few seconds, and then returned, breathing hard.

"Well?" Soldier asked Scout.

"They've got hundreds more coming. I ran into Spy, and he said he is trying to disable the catapults they're using to launch the fireballs." Scout replied. Soldier nodded.

"I was wondering where ol' frenchie went off to." he muttered Soldier and scout peeked up behind the cover they were using, and they saw the multiple figures marching their way. Soldier then notice a large hole, big enough for RED and the ponies that they could use for better cover.

"Listen up!" Soldier yelled to his teammates and the ponies. "We're sitting ducks out here, so we need to run to that hole over there so we'll be better covered." he said.

"Okay, you ponies will run behind us and we will provide covering fire. Got it?" Soldier asked. The ponies nodded.

"Okay. On three. One, two.."

"THREE!" Dash finished for Soldier. They all ran across, RED's gun's blazing. In what seemed like a long time, they made it to the hole.

"Everyone alright?" Spy asked suddenly, no one had even heard him appear.

"Yeah." Engineer said. "you disable those catapults?"

"Indeed I did. Zhey are now useless." Spy said. "Was quite easy really."

"Hold on," Sniper said, making a head count. "we're one short." Everyone looked around, until Heavy knew who was missing.

"Where Is flutter pony?"

They looked back from where they came from and swa that instead of crossing with the others, Fluttershy was still crouched behind a broken part of the castle wall, her eys closed. She was also whimpering and looked like she was about to cry. Heavy gasped.

"WE MUST SAVE LITTLE FLUTTER PONY!" He yelled, running off towards her.

"Mate Wait!" Sniper yelled. He then Scoffed. "Soldier, help me cover him. Everyone else, stay here!" Sniper said. Sniper and Soldier then dashed off, Soldier using his rocket launcher and Sniper using his SMG, killing more of the shadow creatures while catching up to Heavy.

"Good thing he runs slow," Soldier said.

"Too right mate," Sniper replied. They soon caught up with Heavy, who was talking to Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy is ok. Heavy is here to help" he said calmly to Fluttershy.

"A-Are you sure?" Fluttershy squeaked.

"Da. Heavy will protect you. We must go to friends." Heavy said. Heavy then picked up Fluttershy as if she was a baby and looked at Sniper and Soldier. They both knew what Heavy was going to say before he said it just by reading his facial expression.

"We got your back, mate." Sniper said.

"Yeah, you may be a commie, but we need ya." Soldier said. Soldier and Sniper took off first, Heavy right behind them. Heavy made sure that he held Fluttershy with care as they ran. Soon, they were back in the hole. The rest of the mane six trotted over the Fluttershy after Heavy set her down.

"Fluttershy, you all right?" Twilight asked.

"Y-Yes, thanks to Heavy," Fluttershy said.

"Don't worry, Sugercube, we're here for ya," Applejack said. The mane six had a group hug as RED watched the approaching army.

"Not much longer until they're right on top of us," Sniper said, looking through the Scope of his Machina.

"We have to figure out a way to destroy them all at one time, but we're low on ammo and Engineer can't find any metal to build a dispenser," Soldier said. They all pondered and thought, Until an idea hit - of all people - Pyro.

"HUDDA HMPH HMMPH!" Pyro exclaimed.

"Kill em with fire?" Enginer said. "haven't you been doin that this whole time?"

"Hudda humph, hudda humph humph hudda hudda. Hudda hudda humph humph! Humph, hudda hudda HUMPH!" Pyro explained, yelling out the last muffled word.

RED all nodded.

"That may actually work!" Soldier said. "Can we do it?" he asked Engineer.

"Hmm, If Sniper can hit the right areas, it can work." Engineer replied.

"Well, what do we got to lose?" Scout said. All of RED high fived and prepared to use Pyro's daring plan. Pyro got out a pack of his Flare gun ammo and handed it to Sniper. Sniper then made the flare gun ammo small enough where they could fit into his sniper rifle, but was still as explosive. He then aimed at a certain creature, one that was white and had an bow and arrow in it's hooves and fired. It exploded on contact, and surprisingly the resulting fire caught on quickly in the enemy's ranks.

Sniper continued to fire the modified flare gun bullets at certain areas, hitting them dead on. Soon, the entire army of The Ghost's Shadow that was at the castle was set ablaze. RED cheered at the sight of the burning massacre, and while the ponies where happy that the enemy was being destroyed, they were still shocked at how they were slowly burning to a crisp.

"Hudda humph," pyro said, wiping an imaginary tear from the fireproof mask.

"Only Pyro can REALLY see this as beautiful," Scout whispered to Spy. Spy nodded.

"Agreed. Pyro probably sees zhis as a magical land, ze flames probably like rainbows to him, or her, or whatever Pyro is." Spy said.

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After the fires died down, RED and the mane six walked among what's left of Canterlot Castle.

"I never thought I would see Canterlot like this," Twilight said.

"I know what ya mean, sugercube," Applejack said. The ponies were all experiencing aftershock after the battle, Something RED got over many years ago. RED stayed silent the whole time to honor the fallen, as the ponies mourned their losses. This victory came at too great a cost.

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Ponyville, 2 minutes after RED and the Mane six returned…

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While Scout, Demoman, Pyro, Heavy, Medic, and Spy talked with the Mane six, mostly doing their best to comfort them, Sniper was leaning against one of the crates that came with them. Engineer and Soldier walked over to him.

"Ya doin alright pardner?" Engineer asked. "I know you like to be off by yourself, but you actually seem troubled about something."

"Yeah, I'm alright." Sniper said. "It's just I was thinking… it's been so long since I've seen death, and I mean ACTUAL death, not like how we've been dieing since we've joined RED. It's sickening in all reality on how these peaceful creatures should see this."

Soldier and Engineer nodded.

"I know what you mean," Soldier said. "I'm a blood thirsty maniac sometimes…"

"Sometimes?" Engineer said, cutting him off.

"Okay, okay, a lot of times, but I still don't think civics should experience this." Soldier said.

"did you think of that while you were in Germany?" Sniper asked.

"No, even if I couldn't get in the army, I knew I had to fight them, they knew what they were doing to those Jews, they were human beings to." Soldier replied.

"Did you ever think that even SOME of them didn't want to do that?" Sniper asked.

"Hey, I fought thier Soldiers. I didn't fight their people," Soldier gruffly said. Sniper got the statement from Soldier's face. He wouldn't ask any more questions about that for now. The trio looked back at the ponies, who were still mourning.

"We have to find a way to go home. War and Bloodshed just follows us wherever we go." Soldier said, Sniper and Engineer agreeing.

"Still, this is the closest thang to outside life that we have seen fer years," Engineer said.

"Yeah, you're right about that." Soldier said.

"You're right mate, but still. If we're here, these sheilas will be in constant sorrow." Sniper said, chuckling a little. "Reminds me of that song you play sometimes Engineer." Sniper added.

"That song by the Soggy Bottom Boys?" Engineer asked. Sniper nodded. Engineer got on top of one of the crates and got out his guitar, tuning it to the tune of the guitar in " I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" and started to play. Even though the Bluegrass music was soothing, they knew it was about a man with a terrible life.

The song was fitting to the situation that they were ALL in, and the situations that await.

(A/N: Hey guys, I'm sorry that it takes me so long to write these chapters, but I'm pretty busy this summer. But I promise I'm going to do my best to see this story to the end! I'll probably finish this one before I finish my other story. Anyway, Like I said at the beginning, I want to thank TheAlexRice ( TheAlexRice is the Youtube username, I do not know his fanfic ID if he has one.) for narrating this story and posting it on Youtube, be sure to check out his videos! He has narrated this story along with others, and I'll sure be listening out for them, so you should to! I also have a Youtube channel, It's TheNumber1Bushwacka and while I've just started it, I'm hoping to upload videos of TF2 and other crazy stuff)

IMPORTANT BELOW!

I'm gonna let YOU, the readers, have a chance to have a character of your own in my story! Whether they be good or bad, royal guard, shadow creature, or wild animal, this is their chance to shine! Really the only rules for making these characters is that they can't be invincible (unless I make them so in this story, which I more than likely will not.) and they can't be human. The RED's are the only humans. I will read the reviews/ PMs of entries and I will see what I can use. Anyway, hope to hear from you guys soon, and be sure to be on the lookout for Chapter eight when I'm able to release it!