Ten minutes later, their vigilance paid off. Although it was dark outside, they could easily see a train, pulling five cars, exiting the station. It slowly put on speed, headed straight towards their spot. It was going around eight miles per hour, and was a hundred feet from their spot.

“Ok everyone,” Vasilyev said. “When the train passes by, we grab on. Sokolov and I will hit the engine, Novikov and Petrov will grab onto the third car, and Kozlov will take the fourth car with Bogdanov. We hit fast, and head for the first car. Are you ready?” He asked with the train fifty feet away.

Five acknowledgments appeared on his HUD. He looked at the train, the headset automatically calculating its speed. Currently ten miles per hour, and gaining very slowly. At twenty feet away, Sokolov and Vasilyev exited the small clumping of brush and trees, headed for the tracks four feet away. The train started to pass them, and they quickly ran alongside it and grabbed onto the railing at the front of the first car, catching behind them as the four others grabbed onto their designated cars.

Vasilyev pulled himself up into the cart using one hand, the other holding his Steyr AUG A3. Sokolov followed moments later, holding his MTAR-21 at the ready. A coal car was all that stood between them and the locomotive. The pair of men simply waited for the all-clear to sound.

-=-=-

Petrov and Novikov quickly latched onto the third car. Each of them quickly pulled themselves up onto the train and stood at the door to the car. They each took a side, and Petrov pointed at the door and help up five fingers, slowly closing them. When the last one went down, Petrov twisted to knob and burst inside. Nobody was in the car, so they quickly marked it as ‘clear and empty’ on the squad’s situational map.

With that done, they noticed Kozlov and Bogdanov enter from the fourth car. It appeared cars four and five were empty as well.

“Lieutenant, this is Petrov.” The sergeant spoke into the microphone. “Cars three, four, and five are all empty. Can we cut them loose?”

A few moments of silence lasted, before Vasilyev came on the radio. “Granted. Disconnect it with all speed. At the same time, clear car two. We shall take car one. Vasilyev out.” The radio clicked off.

Kozlov quickly found them lever that would detach it. He pushed away the lock, and pulled the lever. Hard. The clamp holding the cars together released, the three empty back cars slowing down immediately. The four men took up positions outside the door to the second car. A countdown clock started by Vasilyev appeared on their HUDs, starting at ten. The number rapidly lowered until it reach zero.

-=-=-

When that happened, Vasilyev quickly opened the door and burst into the first car, his AUG leveled. Two pegasi were sitting down on the seats, but sat up as soon as the men entered. One screamed, confirming both of them as female.

“Sit down!” Vasilyev said in his English. “Don’t move. This is a takeover.” Switching over to Russian, he spoke to Sokolov. “Guard the civilians, pilot.”

Seconds later, the news came that the second car had been secured, with two more ponies found, one pegasus and one normal. Petrov reported that the pegasus had almost attacked them, before being restrained by the other pony. They were currently being moved to the first car.

Seconds later, Kozlov and Petrov came in, followed by the two ponies, with Novikov and Bogdanov leading up the rear. The two ponies went to sit down with the other two, forming a small group as they talked in hushed whispers. It was obvious all four of them were female by the voices. What was it with the disproportionate number of females they had seen?

Kozlov quickly detached the second car as Vasilyev and Petrov walked out of the first car. Petrov cupped his hands and turned around, kneeling down, before boosting Vasilyev up to the coal cart. The lieutenant held out a hand for the sergeant, who quickly accepted it; both of them now up on a small platform above the car. Their arrival had gone completely unnoticed, muffled by the sound of the locomotive. They turned around and walked on the catwalk, it connecting to the locomotive. The cabin of it was enclosed, with a small door on a walkway on the back.

For a moment, Vasilyev wondered how the train was fueled, before seeing a small chute leading from the coal car to the locomotive, attached to a flexible conveyer belt that was also powered by the steam engine. The two soldiers finally stood outside the door to the locomotive.

“Ready?” Petrov asked.

Vasilyev smiled. “Ready.”

With that, Petrov quickly turned the knob, pushing the door open, both of them leveling their guns. The inside of the locomotive was very clean and bright, with a single pony sitting down on a chair in the center, surrounded by various knobs, levers, and buttons. The light brown pony quickly turned around, a horn on its head confirming it was a unicorn.

“Wha-” It said in a male voice before seeing the two soldiers there. He froze up, staring at them.

Vasilyev, however, has no such freezing. “Keep the train moving. If you stop it or manage to alert anyone, Sergeant Petrov here will personally kill you. Do you understand?” He said in English.

The unicorn simply nodded, gulping and turning back to the control. Vasilyev turned to Petrov and motioned to the pony.

“Make sure he does not communicate, and continues. If he tries anything, met you what you will.” Vasilyev said in Russian. The lieutenant walked out of the door, closing it and walking up the coal car. He kicked down a folding metal ladder on the other side of the car, making it easy to travel between the cars.

Sokolov barley acknowledged the lieutenant when he entered. Instead, he was busy listening to the ponies talk. He remembered the orange, normal pony from their observations of the town, and had referred that fact to the rest of the soldiers.

Right now, though, they were beginning to discuss escape.

“… And I say that we can get past those things.” The blue pegasus was saying quietly to the rest of them.

“I don’t want to risk getting hurt!” One of the two other pegasi said. Both were a kind of gray-blue, and had bright aqua manes. “Neither me nor Cloudchaser want to do something that rash!”

“Sugercube, don’t you think you might be overreacting? They haven’t hurt us yet.” The orange one said.

“But they might!” The blue one replied. “I don’t trust them. They could hurt us, or try to invade Canterlot. That is where this train is going, right?”

“YA lyublyuuverennosti, chto u nikh yest' v nas. [I love the confidence that they have in us.]” Sokolov said to Kozlov, who sat beside him.

Kozlov buried his head in his hands, mumbling to himself. “YA khochu, chtoby k chertu etoy volshebnoy strany. [I want to get the fuck out of this fairyland.]”

“Look at them!” The blue one was saying now. “Only one of them speaks our language! They are probably aliens, just like in that comic I read!”

Sokolov’s head shot up. “I can speak English very well, thank you.” He shot to them in the same language. “In fact, most of us can. We are not aliens, nor are we going to kill you unless you resist. Either shut up or I will make Kozlov do it. He would love to.” Sokolov finished, daring one of them to talk. When nothing came, he laid his head back again, trying to get some rest.

Vasilyev leaned back against the wall, enjoying the conversation. Petrov had radioed in that they had another two hours before they reached a city called ‘Canterlot’ at their current speed of twenty miles per hour.

He just hoped that it would turn out with him and his men alive.

Author's Note

Hey everyone! This is the end of the planned chapters, and of Act I.

It might be as much as a week before the next chapters as I plan out and write the next act. Be patient, and the end result will be more.