Countdown

A man with a backpack was moving through an empty street. He was wearing a dark leather coat, copper-tinted ESS glasses, black hat, black cargo pants and heavy military boots. He was armed with an old "Škorpion" Vz.61, and had spare magazines in pouches, strapped to his belt.

He was moving fast, but quiet, using cars on a road as cover. They were abandoned a long time ago, when Tarkov was put under lockdown. A lot of people were trying to leave the city using cars, but not many of them succeeded. Most of them had to go on foot through military cordons, or use the sea vessels, which were convoyed by UN or Russian Military warships and helicopters.

Suddenly, the man stopped, as he heard voices ahead. They were rough, and the speech was filled with swearing. "The wild ones," the man thought, "probably two or three. If I attack properly, I can do all of them in one run."

He quietly moved forward, and lifted his head above the cover. The man saw two bandits, talking about something. They were armed with sawn-off hunting shotguns. "About one hundred meters. Alright, let's do it."

The man turned his "Škorpion" into full-auto, aimed and pulled the trigger. The first bandit's head immidiately released a large amount of blood, and he fell on the ground. The second one tried to run away to the nearest cover, but also didn't have a chance, as his body was pierced with bullets.

"Alright, let's see what you've got," the man thought, and got from his cover. As he listened to the surroundings, he quickly moved to the first body. After checking the bandit's pouches and backpacks, he took some ammo and food from the corpse, and moved to another one. But as the man turned his head, he saw something strange.

Right at the place, where the bandits were standing, the man saw a net. Under it, was lying something blue. As he got closer, he was shocked -- that "something", in fact, looked like "someone", and didn't fit in his mind.

The creature looked like nothing the man could remember. Figure of a woman, but with short blue fur. Rainbow-colored hair, or even better to say "mane", as it was very long. Same-colored tail. A pair of feathery wings, the same color as the fur. And finally, the face, which looked not like a human one, but more like from an animal. And the creature's clothes were strange, too -- sport shorts, bra and running shoes. Not a choice of someone, who wants to survive in a dead city.

The man got to the body and slightly punched it with his boot. The creature hummed, and opened its eyes.

"Ti kto?" -- the man asked, when the creature started to look straight at him.

"I don't understand... AND LET ME GO!" -- suddenly, it shouted, and started squirming, trying to free itself from the net.

"English language, huh? Strange. Well, at least I can communicate with it." The man stood on his knee, and faced the creature, making an eye contact.

"If you stop making noises, I will let you go. This land is filled with killers, and you don't want to be killed. Or I can leave you here to rot, or even worse," the man said, and the creature stopped moving. "Good. Who are you, and where are you from?"

"Rainbow Dash, from Ponyville. And free me already! My wings hurt!"

"Alright, just don't shout. Noise attracts bandits."

The man put his "Škorpion" into a holster, and took out a knife. After a few swift moves, Rainbow Dash was free. She immidiately got up on her feet, and stretched her limbs. Only after that the man saw, that she was much taller than him.

"Thanks. Hey, you look strange, you know that?" she smiled, and got into air with her wings, hovering above the man.

"Same to you... Fuck me, and that's not just a vision," the man said, while taking off his glasses. The show was very strange to him, and he could hardly believe his eyes.

"Huh, not used to seeing pegasi? And something tells me, that you don't see other ponies much, too," Rainbow Dash smirked, and landed on a ground. "Anyway, where am I?"

"Welcome to the dead city, where only bandits and mercenaries live. See these two corpses?" the man asked, pointing at bandit's bodies. As Rainbow Dash looked at them, she gasped and hid behind the man.

"Wh-who did it? Why? Is he somewhere near?" she started to mutter, shaking from fear.

The man sighed, faced the newcomer and slapped her face. As Rainbow Dash slightly got into consciousness, the man started talking again.

"Alright, I know, this might be shocking to you, but we don't have time to think about it right now. Our main objective is to get to my safehouse in the city center. There we can talk about everything. And you have to be very careful and sneaky. Everyone here will try to kill you. Understood?" After recieving a nod, the man continued, "Good. And also, stay behind me. Don't talk or do anything without my permission."

The pair was moving to the city center. Broken glass of high buildings replaced the cold concrete walls of industrial zone. Pretty soon, they could see the skyscrapers.

"Alright, stop and listen up," the man said, hiding behind an old trolley bus. "See those skyscrapers? The safehouse is in a nearest one. But we need to be ve-e-ery careful. Listen to the noise."

As the man stopped talking, Rainbow Dash listened to an ambient. She heard a strange sound in a distance, which was like a very fast clock ticking.

"I hear the noise... But I'm not sure what is it," she shrugged.

"And I'll tell you, what is it. It's a gunfire. Probably a submachine gun. Maybe even like mine," the man showed his "Škorpion" to Rainbow Dash, "and it can kill you in no time. That's why we will go very quietly a bit closer, and when there will be noone alive, loot what we can and go further. Understood?"

"Understood... Shoot, your world is horrible!" Rainbow Dash replied, and moved after the man.

Street after street, the pair was going closer to the sound. At some point, they could even hear someone's shouting. After a few minutes, they saw, what was going on.

Down the street, the fight was raging. But not a regular fight between some bandits. Two groups of mercenaries were trying to get control of an old building, which was a supermarket at some time.

"Uh-huh... Alright, listen up. Those men can't see us here, so we'll wait a bit. Those are mercenaries. The most dangerous enemies here," the man said, looking from a wall of a building, where he and Rainbow Dash were hiding.

"Mercenaries? What do they do here?" Rainbow Dash asked, poking her head to see everything better.

"That doesn't matter. The only thing you should know, is to avoid them. Understood?"

"But... Why they are shooting each other? They look almost the same..."

"Two different companies hired them, that's why. Now get back to cover!" the man whispered.

"No-no-no, that isn't right! I will teach them a friendship lesson!" Rainbow Dash shouted, flexed her wings and flew with incredible speed towards the gunfight.

"Stop! Stop, I tell you! Vot blyat'," the man swore, and ran after her, hiding behind everything he could.

"HEY YOU! STOP SHOOTING! THIS IS WRONG!" Rainbow Dash shouted, until she got an attention of the mercenaries. But their reaction was unexpected to her -- instead of stopping the gunfire, now they were shooting at her. And quickly, one of the bullets hit her wing.

"Agh! Help!" Rainbow Dash shouted, trying to stay airborne and fly back to cover, but the wounded wing didn't help much, so she fell behind a burned bus. After a few seconds, the man ran to her and helped to get back on her feet.

"Vot chem ti dumala, a?! Just tell me, why did you do that?!" he shouted, lifting the wounded pegasus. "Can you still run?"

"Yeah, only my wing is wounded..." Rainbow Dash answered, fighting the pain.

"Good, because now we will run! Stay behind!" the man shouted, and sprinted to the next cover, away from the battlefield.

After leaving the battlefield, and emptying one magazine towards the following mercs just to keep them away, the pair finally got to the skyscrapers. As they quickly got into one of them, the man lead the way to an old elevator shaft. After checking the surroundings, he opened the shaft's doors, and got on a ladder, which lead upwards.

"We're going to use this ladder to climb to the third floor. Then, we're going to get higher, using regular means," the man said, closing the shaft's doors, when Rainbow Dash got inside. Then, he took a little radio transmitter, which looked like a car alarm, and pushed the button to open a door on a third floor.

After twenty minutes of walking, the pair stopped at fourty-second floor. The man opened the door and let Rainbow Dash inside the room, which once was an office. But now, it looked more like a base of operations -- glass windows had been sealed with net made of steel, so noone from the outside could tell, what was going on inside. Doors also had armor plates and heavy locks. On one wall, there was some sort of an armory, as a few guns were hanging on it. Magazines and cartridges were lying below guns on a table, all sorted out. On a farther wall was hanging a TV screen, which was connected to a computer. And while Rainbow Dash was looking at everything with awe, the man already took the first aid kit.

"Okay, get over here. Let me see your wound," the man said, sitting on an old couch. As Rainbow Dash got to him, and flexed her wings, he heard a grunt of pain. "That was your fault, so don't complain."

"Thanks, by the way..." she replied, trying not to fall on a floor from the pain. "Anyway, what's your name?"

"Doesn't matter. However, I had a lot of nicknames -- Cider, Seed, or even Khrusch," the man replied, while applying meds to the wound.

"I will call you Cider then. Sounds good?"

"Sure."

As Cider was healing Rainbow's wound, he noticed, how quickly it was getting better. "Metabolism, probably," he thought. As he finished, he patted the pegasus's back.

"You can stand up. I'm finished here," he said, hiding the med kit.

"Thanks again. I will not do anything stupid again, I promise."

"Of course you will not. Or else your body will be filled with bullets."

Rainbow Dash got to the window, and looked at the sight. As the sun was going down, the city looked very impressive -- big, yet absolutely empty. She could see the industrial zone, the "sleeping area", a big park and some other structures, placed at different parts of town. A lot of buildings were burned, along with vehicles and some other machinery.

"Woah... A whole abandoned city? What happened here?" she muttered, trying to fit everything in her mind.

"Everything has gone into deep shit. Welcome to Tarkov, Rainbow Dash." Cider stood beside Rainbow Dash, while unloading his "Škorpion". "It's located in a country called Russian Federation, but after a situation with Terra Group Labs, it's under lockdown."

"But... That doesn't explain anything, really. Do you know, why it's under lockdown?"

"I'll be straight with you -- I don't know much. However, everything started with a corrupted mayor. Through him, a British company called Terra Group illegally bought a lot of territory for its own purpose. I don't really know, for what, but there was something scandalous."

"Still, not really a big reason to start a street war, right?" Rainbow Dash asked, while looking through a window.

"Exactly. Everything fell apart when our government tried to re-take what it lost thanks to corrupted mayor. Our special forces faced heavy gunfights, explosions, and a private military company called USEC. As Terra Group owned a lot of facilities around the city, a street war began. With it, came bandits. Most of civilians left the region through the seaport and using public roads being secured by our military forces or "blue helmets" of United Nations, but some of them had their ways cut. Like myself."

"That's horrible... But, what about those mercenaries? If the city is under lockdown, what are they doing here?"

"I don't know. Two private military companies operate here -- USEC and Bear. Something tells me, that Bear boys are looking for something in this region, and USEC tries to intercept them, or what they are looking for. And both parties won't stop, until the task is complete."

Rainbow Dash stepped from the window. Her face showed, that she was in a deep thought, trying to think over the situation. As she got to the couch, she sat on it, and closed her eyes.

"And you? Who the hell you are and how did you get here?" suddenly, Cider asked. Rainbow faced him and opened her eyes.

"Well, I am a pony. A pegasus, to be more specific. I live in a town of Ponyville, which is in a land of Equestria. And... I don't really know, how did I get here. Probably, through a book..."

"Through a book? How?" the man couldn't help, but leave a laugh.

"Yes, the magic book. You know, the one that you read, and then it suddenly sucks you inside? Don't you have something like that here?" Rainbow Dash said, being confused. As the man shook his head, she sighed. "Looks like in your world there's no magic..."

"Nope. We live without magic. Our machinery can fly, float or ride on its own."

"I see... No wonder that your city has gone into this mess," a pegasus replied with some anger. "I can't believe that you have to live here..."

"The main point is, that I "have to". I want to leave, but I can't," Cider replied with a sigh, "the seaport is filled with mercenaries, all other exits are blocked not just by military forces, but also bandits. They kill everyone, who tries to leave the city. Only if I had a chance to contact our military and get past those wild ones... But, it's literally impossible right now, as I don't have many resources. So, I just have to stay here, looting corpses and avoiding the living."

"But, if that's true, why did you save me? You could kill me and leave my body on a road, after all." Rainbow Dash asked.

"You don't belong here. Something tells me, that your stupid attitude is normal in your world. I mean, trying to befriend those mercs -- that was stupid. Bold, but stupid. And you won't survive here without a good friend," the man said and smiled, facing Rainbow Dash. She looked straight into his eyes, and she saw a spark, almost literally -- something clicked in her mind.

"You know, Cider... What actually do you need to leave the city?"

"Why do you ask?" the man asked with confuion.

"We need to prepare," Rainbow Dash smiled, "prepare for escape."

"And what makes you so confident?"

"Because now," Rainbow Dash hugged a man, "you have a good friend of your own."