Countdown

Cider was sitting behind a computer desk, while operating the radio transmitter. He was trying to find a radio frequency of Russian Military, but as hours passed by, there was no result.

"Davay zje, rzjavoye koryto... Ti dolzjno zarabotat'," he mumbled, while changing the frequency again. Yeah, the yesterday fight with mercenaries was tough, and the man's moral state was not the best at the moment.

"Hi there, wazzup?" suddenly, Rainbow Dash came from behind.

"Hi. Nothing's up, the chat is empty," Cider sighed, "and right now we only can wait."

"Wait for what? For a transmission?"

"Uh-huh. I've set up a scanner to track any activity at most popular frequencies, but I'm also trying to search manually. You know, just in case."

"You know, that you're worrying about it too much, right?" Rainbow Dash released a small laugh.

"Maybe... Maybe..." the man closed his weary eyes and laid his head on a desk.

"Come on, let the scanner do its job! You need some rest, after all," the pegasus spoke, but then she noticed thet the LED screen has turned on. "Um, Cider, the screen has turned on."

After hearing this phrase, the man lifted his head and looked at the screen. It said "7992 MHz". He slowly put a headset on his head, and turned on the transmission. After a few minutes of listening, a weary smile appeared on his face.

"Hey, Dash," he said, "looks like that we have contact. You can have a little walk around, I'll try to talk to them."

Rainbow Dash was sitting on a rooftop of a skyscraper, enjoying the evening. A chilly wind was slowly moving her hair, as she took off an old rusty cap and looked at it. A long time ago it was black, but time made it grey and rusty. It looked like that it was much older than this city itself.

"Huh... I wonder, what these military dudes would want us to do? These surely must be something that they might be interested into," the mare thought, and stood up. She got rid of an old trench coat and flexed her wings. A cold wind was cooling down the feathers, that were overheating under heavy coat.

Suddenly, a squeaking noise of an opening door appeared from behind, and Rainbow Dash turned around. She saw that it was Cider, who used the maintenance ladder to get on a rooftop.

"Sup. So, any news?" Rainbow Dash asked, smiling. However, the man's face looked dark. Saying nothing, he sat beside Rainbow Dash, and took out a pack of "Belomor" cigarettes. As Cider took one, he lit it up with a gas lighter, and smoke like a steam engine.

"Wh-what happened?" Rainbow Dash asked in a worried tone, knowing that something wasn't right.

"Army won't help us, Dash. No cover from our government. No cover from "blue helmets". The only thing they can do is to accept us, if we get out," Cider stated, "but noone will rescue us. Also, they said that our bunker deal somehow destroyed their spy's cover. So... We're on our own right now."

Cider's words hit Rainbow Dash like a hammer. She felt, how the time itself was literally compressing around her, as she couldn't believe the man's words.

"But... There is a reason for this, right? They can't just leave us here!" she shouted.

"Of course they have a reason. They said that they can't risk losing equipment or men just because of two doomed souls. Understandable. Still, that doesn't help much..."

"Alright, alright... Let's not panic. We still can make it to the seaport, right? You know, hijack a boat and get out of here?"

"You probably don't know, how many mercenaries of all sorts are there, don't you?" Cider turned his head towards Rainbow Dash and smirked. "There will be not just a pretty trio like the one we met in a bunker. There will be two bloodthirsty armies, that will try to rip your guts out if you step on their path. Besides, without any intel or reconaissance we can't tell, what vessel we need to hijack and when..."

"Hey... Wait a minute!" suddenly, Rainbow Dash spoke. "Of course! I can do reconnaisance, because I can fly! You just need to tell me, what do I need to search, and voila!"

"Don't you remember how you tried to fly a few days back? They will pierce your body with bullets!" Cider replied, being confused.

"Oh no, because you haven't seen this... Stand back, pal."

Rainpow Dash stretched her wings, and stood like she was going to make a "low start". However, Cider decided not to argue with her, and made a few steps back. As the pony checked the surroundings, her muscles tensed up, being ready to set off.

"Three, two, one... GO!"

And then, the man's vision became blurry, as the blast wave hit him. However, he managed to stay on foot, but he saw, that Rainbow Dash was gone. He quickly looked around, trying to find her, until he heard a whistling sound from behind.

"Woo-hoo! I was dreaming about doing so!" Rainbow Dash shouted, maneuvering just above skyscrapers. A man couldn't believe his eyes -- she was flying with a speed of a jet airplane, buth with an agility of a glider.

"Fuck me if this isn't real..." Cider thought, while watching Rainbow's flight with awe. The way she twisted, baked and rolled in the air... It was fascinating.

Finally, after a few minutes of flying, the pegasus slowed down and landed near Cider with a wide smile on her face.

"Well, what do you think about that? Will that do?" Rainbow Dash asked, grinning. But Cider didn't reply. Instead, he came closer to the pegasus and tightly hugged her.

"We still have a chance, Dash," he said through tears of happiness, "we still can get out from this hell on Earth."

"Alright, new plan. You will fly to the seaport, and watch anything suspicious," Cider said, while showing the path to the port on a city map, "and I will collect the equipment that will help us to get past these mercs. If you'll have any information about their weaponry, vessels and other equipment, you'll need to find me near this old chemical facility in a working area."

"Okay. But what exactly do I need to look for?" Rainbow Dash asked, while warming up her muscles.

"Small or medium-sized boats. They shouldn't have any mast, we need a boat that's powered by an engine. Also, try to find out, where these guys store their fuel. I don't want to be stuck in a middle of a sea. Maybe you should look out for some heavy weaponry -- something tells me that they have rocket launchers and even maybe anti-aircraft weaponry, which can be deadly for you."

"Why? I thought that you've changed your opinion after you saw me flying!" the pegasus complained.

"Yes, I did. However, anti-aircraft weaponry works not like personal guns. They can have rockets or cannons, that were built SPECIALLY to take down airborne targets," the man's face darkened, "and that's not good for you, since you're gonna be airborne. Understood?"

"Oh... That was unexpected. He-he..." Rainbow's voice cracked, but she kept her emotions inside. "Okay then... When do we roll out?"

"We'll go at night. You'll be more stealthy, and your bright color will be less obvious. And what about me... Yeah, not many people dare to roll out at night. However, I don't want to meet the one, who dare..." Cider stated, while packing his gear, "And we still have a couple of hours before actually going out. Hungry?"

"Yeah, I guess so. What do you have?"

"For you... Hm, let me see..." Cider stopped packing his things and started to search the food in his backpack. After a few minutes, he took a package of fast-making noodles. "Well, that's not very healthy, but since you're herbivore... Let me just boil a water."

After a few minutes of boiling water and mixing it with a solid brick of noodles, Cider gave that more-or-less eatable stuff to Rainbow Dash along with a plastic fork. Rainbow's face showed a few notes of disguist, but she didn't complain, since there wasn't really an option what to eat. After a few moves of a fork, she spoke:

"You know, dude, that's the worst taste I ever had in my entire life. When we escape, I'll wash my mouth with soap."

"I've expected something like that. Some of ours call these things "hobo-packs" or "bitch-packs", because they are cheap. When I was a student of an institute, my ration was filled with these, and also energy cocktails, to keep myself alive during studies and sessions. Huh, these were fun times..."

"Ugh, gross. And you were eating this all the time?"

"Yeah, mainly because I wanted to save a little bit more money. Our capitalist society doesn't really care, how we live. Not just in our country, but everywhere worldwide. There are a lot of people that share the same ideology, you know."

"Seems like that your world is not a pretty place, huh?" Rainbow Dash smiled, while taking another fork of noodles.

"Something like that. But, I like it. Even here, in a dead city, where everything tries to kill you. Because here the life's definetely not boring, you dig?" the man smiled back, while opening a can of meat.

"Yeah, you have a point there. For example, in Equestria, even after all troubles with dark power overlords, there are a lot of problems for me and my friends to solve. Mostly, friendship problems. Still, it's not boring, at least."

"Yeah, that's right. I hope I could meet them one day. They seem to be very nice."

"Totally."

As the sun was going down, a shadow was burying the city under a carpet of night. And when the light completely hid behind a line of horizon, a man stood up.

"Get up. We roll out."