>It was Halloween, and that meant you could dress up
>And by dress up, you meant taking the form of nightmarish creatures, outside of the realm of human comprehension, instilling a primal fear on the bravest of hearts
>You yourself were dressed up as Princess Anastasia
>Hopefully the BLU heavy brings a different costume
>If not, someone was going to have to change, and it wasn't going to be you
>You were already all dressed up after all
>Some might think it unwise, seeing as you're currently unloading the truck, which will inevitably get your costume dirty
>It'll get dirty in an hour anyways, as it soaks in the blood of your enemies
>Speaking of unloading the truck
>You lower the hefty box you were carrying to the ground, next to the spawn room
>Only about a couple dozen left
>Walking down to the truck for another box, you start thinking to yourself that maybe you could've taken a teammate along with you
>Soldier's help would be greatly appreciated, he may be mentally impaired, but he was physically capable
>But no, they had to stay behind to get the ponies out of the ventilation system
>Apparently, a handful of them had set up a dance floor and were having a lively party inside of it. They couldn't get out afterwards though
>You didn't want to waste too much time, so you offered to go on ahead and drive some supplies to the upcoming battlefield of the night
>Codename: Harvest
>And of course, some ponies had come with you
>These ponies, they insisted on coming along with you on almost every assignment
>Maybe they get bored at the base, who knows, you’ve never asked
>You didn't mind them however, they were an awfully cute sight for sore eyes after all
>And you weren't afraid of their safety either, as both teams had agreed on considering the ponies as "friendlies"
>Which meant both team's engineers did something you don't quite understand to make them immune to... All of your weapons
>You didn't know how it worked
>But it wasn't your job to know, your job was to kill
>And you were the best at it
>You dust off your tutu as you lower yet another box
>Making your way back to the truck, you see one of the boxes already opened
>You don't remember opening any of the boxes, in fact, you very clearly remember checking all of them were nailed shut before leaving
>You check inside the box to see if anything was taken
>Nothing was missing as far as you were aware, stuff was just moved around
>Probably the ponies got curious and started snooping around
>You've told them numerous times to not touch your things without permission
>Sometimes, these little creatures reminded you of children
>Sighing, you go in for another box and-
>"NO! NO! OH DEAR CELESTIA PLEASE NO!"
>A scream of pure terror echoes into the night
>You drop everything
>You hear how heavy metal hits the ground, some parts very audibly break
>You don't care, you sprint towards the source of the screaming
>Without your equipment you were considerably faster
>You arrive at the source of the noise, which seems to be a shed
>From outside, you could hear arguing
>"... Well it wasn't funny! I really thought you were dead!"
>A feminine voice says, it sounds like she's choking back a sob
>"Alright, alright. That was way too mean even for me, I didn’t know you’d get like this Twi, I’m sorry, but look! I’m okay! Nothing bad happened to me"
>Said a second voice, it was a mix of apologetic and defensive
>You decided to stop eavesdropping and step into view
>When you enter the shed, you instantly recognize these ponies
>They were a couple of the pony leaders
>Twilight Sparkle, the mighty mage
>And Rainbow... Something
>They both turn to look at you, the purple mare looks at you with teary red eyes, as if she was just crying
>The other mare however, catches your attention
>She looked dead, a walking corpse
>Her coat and mane looked terribly dirty, greenish gunk made the hair on her mane stick together, and the coat on her body was heavily matted, pressed against her skin
>The whites of her eyes now colored a sickly a puss tinted yellow
>Her right wing is almost entirely bones, what few feathers were left stubbornly holding on to whatever meat remained
>On her back, a chunk of her flesh was missing, as if something had taken a bite out of her exposing her spinal column to the open air
>Her hooves were awfully dirty, looking as if she'd just crawled out of her own grave
>And somehow, she still looked cute, if a bit silly looking
>But you've seen this before
>"Dude, is that a tutu?"
>You ignore her
"You"
>You say, calmly but with a stern voice, pointing to Rainbow
>"M-me?"
>She asks, as if there was any doubt of who you were talking to
"You poked around our stuff"
>You didn't ask it
>You told her, because you knew
>"I-I..."
>Rainbow struggled for something to say
"You got cursed"
>Rainbow's eyes turns into pin pricks
>She responds, her voice barely a whisper
>"Cursed?"
>Did she not know what she did?
"Heavy told you not to touch his stuff, you touched the pile of curses, so now you are cursed"
>"I-I didn't know! I thought this was a cool Halloween costume or something!"
>She says, exasperated, as if trying to justify herself
>She looks a little scared
>Maybe you can use this opportunity to teach her a lesson
>You get down on one knee to be at her level
>It doesn't work, you're still towering over her, but you think she recognizes the sentiment
"Heavy sees you do not understand what you did, here's explanation"
>Putting your hand over her back, careful to not dig inside of her wound, you continue speaking
>"The powder you touched, it is remains of a great powerful wizard my team has killed. Your flesh, it is changed, and mostly gone"
You pat her back for emphasis
"Is result of evil curse he placed on his remains when he died”
>”And you kept it?!”
>”Дa. Most of us were lucky we didn’t touch any, most of us except scout. He got a tiny amount on him, but it was enough, his muscles disappeared, leaving baby arms in their place, his body shrunk into one of a weak, frail, puny man, and his face deformed, giving him a permanent, punchable, smug grin. We were not able to reverse the curse, so he stayed as he is now, forever”
Rainbow gasps, horrified
“We do not remind him of it, he is sensitive”
>"I-I don't want to stay like this! I only wanted to prank ponies!"
"There is way to destroy curse, if pony does one thousand backflips in an hour, curse will vanish little pony will not suffer her fate"
>You say while you raise your finger, twirling it around as if to teach her the motion
>"Hah! Easy!"
>She says as she starts doing the flips
>Twilight, who had stayed mostly silent up to this point, decided to speak up
>"That's not how curses wo-"
>You place your hand over the purple's mare mouth before she can unravel your wave of lies
"Arg! Other mare must leave! The curse, it can spread! Rainbow pony stay here and does her flips. Heavy will be back"
>Rainbow ignores you as she concentrates on her aerobatics
>You leave her alone in the shed as you take Twilight outside with you
>You hold her mouth shut to stop her from speaking, she kicks and hits her hooves against your hand while you walk away from the shed, you barely feel it
>When you feel you walked a good distance away, you let go
>Twilight plops into the ground, rump first, taking long breaths of fresh air
>Ah, probably shouldn't have blocked both her nose and mouth
>No matter, she's fine now
>After taking a few seconds to compose herself, she starts making her way back to her friend
>You stopped twilight, your hand of almost half her size blocking her path
"Where is little pony going?"
>She points at you with her hoof as she angrily responds
>"That's not how curses work! You lied and I'm going to find out why, I’m going back and helping Dash dispel the curse!”
>You stop her by picking her up by the scruff, she lets you and only gives you a sour look in return
>Chuckling you give her a smile
"Twilight pony, the curse was not born from malice, it was made by heavy and his team. It involved an old boot, a bag of quicklime, a novelty bass..."
>You stop upon looking at her, her annoyance giving way to confusion
"It does not matter, what heavy is trying to say is she is not in danger, the curse will be gone by the end of the night"
>Twilight points a hoof at you
>“So you did lie!”
"Yes, and heavy is sorry for lying, but tiny ponies must learn. Let her believe she is in danger, do not tell her otherwise. Curse is temporary, very weak, lasts no longer than a night. Harmless"
>Your face turns a little more serious
“But there was no mischief in heavy’s heart, there was reason. Is not first time rainbow pony has taken from our stuff. So far she has only found what we consider toys, entertainment, but luck runs out quickly. Heavy would not want to see pony hurt”
>Twilight huffs, but her face softens after a moment
>“Yeah, I’ve told her to be careful, I know your weapons aren’t toys but she never listens! Maybe this little scare will help, maybe it really is for her own good”
>You smile at Twilight, trusting she no longer had any intention of running towards her friend, you set her down, she sits on her haunches and stays were she is
>Returning to the truck, you continue unloading the equipment, picking up the box you’d dropped before
>”You know, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to give rainbow a bit of tough love”
You raise an eyebrow, slightly interested. You continue unloading the boxes as you speak
“Twilight pony has lied to rainbow before?”
>”Okay, maybe it won’t sound good when I start telling the story, but you’re gonna have to let me give you the full context. It all started when rainbow rescued a filly from a well…”