To Run Away...

Chapter 29

To summarize, Ivan, Pierre, and Maribelle would go on eat a decent dinner. It wasn't much though. Just some rice, beans, mashed potatoes, and cut up apple slices (Something that Haystack craved like a lion eating his prey.). During the meal, they wouldn't speak to each other. Ivan was too afraid that Haystack would go on a mental breakdown. He knew that the pony wanted to live through this. He had family back home, just like him. However, he wondered if it was okay for him to be taking so much of that. I mean, that's how the others got sick, right?

   Anyways, the only person Haystack seemed to be very social with during the meal, was Maribelle of course. The two would talk about all sorts of things... other than the dark sides of their lives. Haystack would tell her about how his life in the wheat farm was always nice, and how he was very close with his family. Maribelle wouldn't say much though, in this phase, all she knows is how the night was. But, she would ask so much about Haystack, that he would reply gladly like any friend would. Those two got along pretty well, you and I suppose. However, all that seemed to bug Ivan's mind was the fact that it was a symbiosis between pony and human. Not that that's never been done before, but the fact that it's with a human child. It's never been heard before that ponies can interact with human children before. Not because ponies never attempted it, but that they've never been in contact with children unless they were being hunted for revenge.

  During their cute little conversation (in which Ivan found to be.), he began to recall the time he made an oral report on World war II.

*  *  *

  *  *  *

"Ivan Bentley, may you present your report." said the teacher monotonously.

  He looked up and nodded before getting up from his desk and walking up towards the front of the class. His hands were on the verge of visibly shaking in front of everyone in the dilapidated room.

"W-w..." It was all he could say as he stood still, glancing between his classmates and his reports. All seemed lost in his point of view... until someone in the distance made it all go away. Her delicate smile, her cute little sit... it all made his worries go away.

  The moment he returned to his paper, he stood upright, and began to read like a President at his inauguration (But without the passion that comes with it.), "World war two was a conflict between the allies, consisting of Free France, Great Britain, the United states, the Republic of China, the present day Soviet Socialist Republic of Imperial Russia, as well as more than twenty other nations... fighting against the axis alliance; which was made up of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, present day Equestria, who would go on to defect to the allies in nineteen-forty three, and their puppet states..."

  He read on, knowing that that person keeps giving him the confidence to do so.

  Well, now he lost the reason on why he went back to that thought... oh right, because Princess Celestia was taking part in the Holocaust without even knowing it. Good thing she defected to their side when she still could. Huh, and all for revenge. Funny, maybe that person must've eliminated why he went back to that memory in the first place. Well, it didn't matter anyways. There was a lot of odd things going on in this isolated country, and this new discovery of symbiosis between nearly grown pony and little human girl was probably an addition to the claim's justification.

  That's when the little girl chose to bring up the song he sung to him. "So Haystack."

"Yes?"

"The song you sang to me last night was nice."

"Oh, thank you." He smiled.

"But there's one part of the song that rubs me the wrong way."

"It does? Where is it?"

"I mean, the part that says, 'Can't you see...' ... Um, isn't she blind or something?"

  Haystack questioned, how did she know about Snowdrop, but decided not to ask, "Oh... uh, I don't know why they put it there. That's a good question."

"Meh, it probably means this, She can't see, but she can see the fact that a nice future's ahead of her."

  His cloud of confusion faded once she clarified that part of the song. "Oh, makes sense."

"Mmm Hmm." She grinned.

  Ivan heard the whole thing, but decided not to worry since she cleared that up.

   A few moments later, Pierre and Isabella entered the cafeteria where they were eating, and announced in almost perfectly synchronized unison. "It's time."

"Wow, already?" Ivan responded with a simple groan, feeling full from the meal he just had.

  The two just nodded.

"Perry." Redmond called from his phone. "This is Redmond."

  He then heard a growl from the other end before words would follow. "S'up boss, how's it going?"

"Not so good. Anyways, have the scoutbots reach the location yet?"

*Growl!*, "Yes sir. They've just arrived on the scene. I've ordered Vanessa's troops to let them pass."

  He growled again, "Besides, it was your fault that got them on so much high alert."

"I know, I know. But that's part of the plan, you know."

"*Growl!* So what's the next phase in your plan."

"Killing them."

*Growl!*, Huh, something that we've been doing since they set foot."

"Hey, if you were living under a rock, you'd notice that the state no longer wants them dead, killing them will ultimately be the final nail in the coffin in their eyes. Then we can finally get the hell out of here."

"*Growl!* "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha..."

  He frowned at the Platypus's laughter, "What's so funny?"

"*Growl!*, Ha... what difference will it make if you go on to kill them? I remember now, they also said that it didn't matter. They want them dead or alive, that was the order. So I ask you again, will it all matter."

  He felt the desire to make his frown go upside down, but all he could do was a smirk, "C'mon Perry... War is all about luck. Who knows if Vanessa only wants her own army to kill or capture them. So I'm just going to go with the plan."

"*Growl!*, Alright then, go on ahead."

  Redmond stood up and began to pace around the now darkly lit room, "Besides..."

"*Growl!* What?"

  He looked out the window and giggled in low volume. "Ugh, I got nothing... Redmond out."

  The CEO then hung up.

The five were alerted about RED's scoutbots being present throughout the city. So they were told to carry armor piercing rounds with them before they venture outside. This caused Isabella to let her comrades rest for the night, in fear that she would lose more of them.

  After that, they ran down the emptiest, room-lacking, and longest hallway in the cell. In two minutes, they reached the end, where a ladder was facing up towards the ceiling.

"Alright, Gretchen, lights!" Isabella radioed through her walkie talkie.

"On it!" She replied.

  One by one, each light in the hallway would shut down before it would all go completely dark. The only light that remained was from the small holes above them.

"Okay, let's go up." she said before climbing up the ladder and opening the metal lid. The others would follow, and before they knew it, they were in an alleyway.

"Now what's the next phase in our plans?" said Ivan.

"Simple." Isabella reached into her pocket and took out two knives. The only thing peculiar about these knives were that their handles had an extremely odd shape. But the captain of the Firestorm girls had the briefing all covered, 'It's called the Eternal reward."

  She then handed them over to Ivan and Pierre. "They're capable of disguising you as the person you killed it with."

  They took a brief look at them before she continued, "You'll find them useful when completing your mission."

"Nice..." But then a question popped into Ivan's head. "Wait, but why can't I use one of Pierre's-"

"First off." The spy explained. "I'm all out; and second, you don't smoke."

  He wanted to discipline himself for not knowing that, but he managed to cover it up. "Oh right."

  Isabella then took the time to climb up the ladder of the nearby building to scout for any enemy troops. Unfortunately, it was their lucky day. She went back down to tell the others. "Looks like you'll be needing those after all. There are two soldiers on the rooftop of that building. We need you both to take them out.... and I'll show you how."

"Uh, what?" said Ivan.

"Haystack, do you have that Air-grabber I gave you?"

"Yes Madame, wh'ah?"

  Up on the roof, the two soldiers were conversing as they looked out into the city in front of them, with not a skyscraper in sight.

"Gee, man." said the soldier to their left. "How long has it been since the revolution?"

  His partner sucked on his teeth. "Egh, I don't know. Twenty years I guess?"

"Man, It's been that long since then and nothing's changed."

"Sure things have changed, Luke." He argued. "Just look at how much people we're feeding."

"Meh, not by a whole lot."

"Also, the Crazies been contained. So, the great leaders were and are still making change around here."

"Ugh, they keep saying that they'll restore 'Doofania' to it's true glory. Pfft, good luck with that."

"Oh you." He muttered. "Hey, why did they change the name to Doofania anyway."

  Suddenly, a zipping sound raced through their ears. "The hell was that?"

  They turned around to find a four-legged creature in front of them, armed with a sniper rifle, "Crap, it's the infiltrators!"

  The two soldiers opened fire, but all bullets would miss their target; for the pony was able to dodge the shots and hold on to the edges of the roof.

"Come out there, Pony!" said the right soldier. "In the name of our leader, I demand that you surrender to us or face the might of her fist!"

  There was no sound, only the gentle breeze blowing through their ears. "Come out, god damn you."

  Again, nothing. The man on the left went on with his next plan. "Alright, push forward."

  The two took two steps per second, heading towards their target. They remained quiet as they walked stealthily through the silence.

  Thwap!

"AAArrrgh-Ummmmppphhhh!!!" The left soldier's scream was quickly muffled.

  Hearing the cry, Haystack peeked over to find what was happening. While there, he found that the second soldier to his right would meet his maker as well. The two lifeless soldiers then fell to the ground as Haystack found two knife wielding soldiers in front of him.

"Isabella, It's clear." said Haystack before climbing up and rendezvousing with his now disguised comrades.

"Well, now that that's out of the way," she said. "Here's the next part of the plan."

She pointed westwards. "You two walk towards the city hall via the street. Haystack, Maribelle, and I will parkour towards there and take up sniping positions. Got it?"

  Ivan raised his hand.

"Yes sir?"

"Uh, why can't we just parkour with you guys to the-"

  She was quick to answer. "Just don't ask. The gunfire will explain everything."

"What gunfire? You mean the... Oh."

  She pouted her lips. "Ugh, are you even a mercenary?"

"Madame, yes I am, but one,  I'm no spy. Two, I barely know this damn place, nor the damn military of this place."

  She rolled her eyes. "Sheesh, mercenaries."

  After the briefing, both squads split up and headed towards their locations; and since they were parkouring, Isabella, Haystack, and Maribelle reached their position in time. There, they went prone and observed the enemy positions with their scopes and eyesight.

"Damn, they have so much guarding the place." Isabella mumbled. That's when memories began to flood back to her.

*  *  *

  *  *  *

  She was looking at the vast plains before her. The sky was blue with not a single cloud to be seen. She was frowning and her eyes were beginning to water.

"It'll be okay, Izzie." said one of her comrades. But she didn't listen; mainly because the tears began to flow down her cheeks in a rapid rate, "*Sigh* Phineas did what was right. Plus, there was no way he and Ferb could've come out of there alive. They were outnumbered and possibly outgunned."

  She stared at the green grass below, letting the tears land there.

"Ugh, Jeez, suck it up. Plus, we need to move on. Let's prove Heinz that we'll be able to survive in this wasteland... Does it sound like fun?"

  She still wanted to think about him a little more,  but surviving out here is more important than wallowing about a lover's death. So, she nodded and looked back at the blue sky.

"Good, now let's move."

  They began to run... but Isabella was having difficulty doing so. More tears streamed down her cheeks as her arms and legs shook. With them shaking, she dropped her shotgun onto the ground. After taking three more steps, her body said that that was enough; and she collapsed onto the ground. There, she burst into more tears, sobbing in emotional agony.

"Aw, dammit." Her comrade muttered before calling. "Isabella."

"Isabella!" Haystack whispered loudly, ears dropped down.

  Her memory ran away once her name was called in the present. "Uh, uh, what happened?'

"Maribelle just slipped into unconsciousness." He was panicking, while he carried her in his forelegs. "Ah don't know what happened, Ah just found her lah'ke this."

"Oh god." She imagined the worse, but it all went away once she looked at the sky. "Haystack, is her heart still beating?"

  He brought her motionless body up to him, placing her chest next to his ear. "Yeah?"

"Don't worry, then. She's gonna be okay."

"B-but... What..."

  She pointed upwards, making him follow the instruction. He noticed that the moon was gone, being replaced with nothing but dark clouds that covered the entire sky like a blanket. He remembered that she can't speak maturely unless moonlight was present.

Then. he heard a little voice underneath him. "H-Haystack."

  He looked down to find her awake, with her eyes half open as if she just woke up from a good night sleep. Wearing a smile, he hugged in relief. "Oh, I'm glad y'er alr'aght."

"Yeah." She said. "Um... can you... put me d-down?'

"Uh, oh, right." He put her on the ground and she went back to her position.

BOOM!!

  The sound of thunder made her scurry towards Haystack. That's when drops of water hit them on the top of their bodies. Then more hit them, then more, then more.

"It's okay Maribelle." He said gently to her, wrapping a hoof around her waist. "I'm here for you."

  The words made her shake less before completely stopping. She then grinned warmly as the fear was reduced to a minimum.

  Isabella smiled at the sight while they weren't looking. It was an odd occurrence, but it felt nice to see something like that; even after all that has happened between humanity and Ponykind.

  The rain spread throughout the entire country. It was a welcoming sign for some, but an annoyance to others. In the case of Ivan and Pierre, it was pretty much split.

"Grrrr." Pierre growled. "Et il y à plus de Merde à venir."

"I'm sorry?" said Ivan, letting the rain fall onto his hair. In which he found strange because he was wearing a helmet.

"I said that there's more crap to come." He replied cynically. "Damn troops must have the entire city hall guarded after the raid."

"Of course they would." said Ivan. "All Totalitarian regimes are that paranoid about their security."

"Yep... and the heavy garrison kind of reminds me of the Resistance's former leader."

"Oh? Who was he?"

"His name was Phineas Flynn." He said oh so subtly.

"Why haven't I heard of him?"

  He frowned. "He's dead of course."

"Oh, makes sense... how?"

"He and his step-brother suicide charged towards the old city hall in Danville, trying to get Isabella and her friends out of the city."

"Teh, and how does that work."

"They were the most wanted out of the most wanted, and that distracted those poor dimwits."

"Sheesh, they really are dumb, aren't they?"

"Yeah... and that attack lifted the spirits of many, but it crushed the one of a specific person."

  They reached an intersection, looking both ways before crossing.

"Let me guess... Ugh, I got nothing."

"Isabella."

"Oh, seriously?"

"Yep."

'Uh... so why are you telling me this?"

"Just a heads up since you barely got a chance to know her."

"Well, you didn't need to go that far."

"She doesn't mind. Everyone in the resistance knows by now that he had deep feelings for the leader." He revealed as a convoy of three Armored Personnel Carriers passed by, not recognizing them at all.

"Fascinating." Ivan said as he and Pierre ignored it. Looks like she was right.... I guess.

  The rain continued to pour over them as they walked down the street.

"So, this place is not much of a metropolitan city, isn't it?"

"Nah, this city is agricultural, all the buildings you see here are just homes... everyone works in the field."

"So, why is it barren?"

"If you haven't noticed, there was a drought. And I guess its finally raining after several months."

"Oh right, I forgot there was a drought."

"Man, but why did it have to rain right now?"

"Why say that? The rain's nice." Ivan counter-argued.

"Ugh, there's a reason why I don't like the rain."

"Let me guess, Delilah."

  Reluctantly, he sighed. "You nailed it."

  He was quiet, he at least found out why he moaned in anguish at the feeling of rain. Guess he can learn a little more about this guy, so he decided to ask another question. "How was she like?"

"I keep telling you. I don't want to talk about it."

"C'mon... I thought we were going to kill time here."

"Not until you tell me about your mother."

"Ugh. While Haystack and I were awake in the Humvee, I told him about my mother... so might as well tell you. Now, to kill time, why does the rain remind you of Delilah."

  He frowned, briefly glancing at the cloudy sky above him, "It was raining on that day I met her; but at the same time, when the Ideological wars was beginning. I was visiting Boston as a spy, disguised as a well-dressed man on a business trip to infiltrate BLU facilities there. That's when I was caught in a little skirmish between both sides of the conflict. Then, out of nowhere. A boy came in, armed with a scattergun."

  There was a sound of thunder heard remote. "Then, a woman came in. And she was like an angel in my eyes. But I had to attend to their needs first... Only to realize that the boy just smacked me with his weapon, revealing my identity. They told me that they needed my help. And I agreed.... mostly for the girl."

"But..." He was bewildered at how that all adds up. "So... how did you end up with-"

"The cliché, I got to learn more about them as time went by. And soon, I became friends with them... and then I got close to the lady. And as it began to rain one day..."

  He knew where this was going. "Okay, that's enough... So, that's why you hate the rain?"

"Non, I just hate it when it lands on me."

"Uh, but you told me that..."

"I just didn't have the nerve to tell you."

"Oh... so why do hate it when you-"

"I'm not going that far... not yet." He smirked slightly, feeling a little happy that he got that out of his head. "So... how was your mother like."

  He frowned too, as they approached the now garrisoned city hall, walking through the outer fortress, "She was a nice lady-"

"Follow my lead, and don't ask questions." ordered Pierre, walking in front of Ivan as they went up the stairway towards the City hall's entrance.

"Alright, anyways, she..."

  From here onward, Ivan told him about his mother all throughout the mission. From the entrance, to the lobby, to the stairs, all the way to the mayor's office.

"So, life wasn't easy for you wasn't it?"

"Nope, not at all. Now there's the cabinet, let's go find that file."

"Damn it, Steve and Tank are dead." The soldier declared. He then radioed his comrades. "Attention, all troops, we have two casualties. Both Steve and Tank are now KIA."

  On the other end, troops began to take urgency of this report. And since they saw those two pass them by. They were quick to conclude that those are imposters. Quickly, the troops armed up and headed inside the hall, searching for the infiltrators.

  Meanwhile, the three saw what was happening. Which made Isabella facepalm herself. "Damn it, why did I forget to hide the bodies?"