12 O'Clock

12 O'Clock

Chapter 1.5

"The Shooter"

Stalliongrad. 10:15 am 16th of February, 2019.

the canterlot express pulls into the newly built 'Stalliongrad-Canterlot Railway Station' to the south of the city, once fully stopped the car doors open and the escorts along with the princesses step out and onto the snowy platform and are greeted by the city's new mayor. "Princesses! It's a pleasure to finally meet you two! I am Red Ink. " The mare with a thick rusion accent chipperly greeting the pair, walking up to them and giving a firm handshake to the two princesses. "It's a pleasure to meet you too Red Ink, congratulations on your election!" Celestia says with a smile. "Thank you princess, please, follow me to the city hall." Red ink offers motioning her hand to follow. "Lead the way." Celestia says beginning to follow the mayor along with luna, being flanked by a few of their escorts, five stayed behind to watch over the train to make sure nopony tampers with it, and about four started walking toward the stage a few hundred meters west of city hall to inspect it before the princess arrives. As they walk through the city luna decides to spark up a conversation. "So how long have thou lived in stalliongrad?" Luna asks. "Thou?" The mayor asks back confused. "You..." Luna says enlightening the mayor. "Oh! Okay, i see, you talk funny princess luna!" The mayor ignorantly says slightly annoying luna. "I have lived here my whole life, born here in fact. Rusions rarely leave the city or village they were born in, only time they do is when they move to one of the bigger cities like stalliongrad, moscolt or saint pegasusberg, It mainly has to do with the mentality of 'Why would i leave here when i could help improve it?' sort of thing." Said the mayor finishing her answer. "Interesting," Luna comments. "How long have thou...er, you, been involved in politics?" Luna asks. "Umm....Almost a decade now, i was the minister of law and order in moscolt before i was mayor, and when the ponies here got word of that, it really helped me in the election because they believe that i would be a great asset in keeping the city stable while it rebuilds." The mayor answered. 'So the residents want stability, that could be helpful' Celestia thought listening in on the conversation while looking around the streets as they walked through the city. It looks like your typical rusion city; cobblestone roads, basic three to five storie buildings some with shops on the ground floor with apartments on top, the streets weren't very crowded, probably because the local police restricted a large amount of locals to enter the street the princesses were going to travel down. Celestia's admiration for the simplicity yet oddly beautiful scenery was interrupted by the mayor asking a question. "Would you princesses would like a bite to eat or a snack before we arrive at city hall? The speech won't start for another hour and a half or so." Asked the mayor motioning toward some shops down a street. "We've already eaten on the way here, but a snack would be nice." Celestia said accepting the mayor's offer. "Alright then, we can go down here to the markets to pick up some treats, you will love them, i promise you." The mayor says beginning to walk down to the shops with the princesses following after. Once they reach one of the shops, half full of customers the mayor greets the owner of the shop.

"Привет, мой друг, можем ли у нас новые вишневые пироги для принцесс?" She says to the shop owner in her native tongue. "Конечно, двадцать минут." Replied the shop owner, walking into the kitchen to begin the order, the mayor leads the princesses to a booth in the back of the shop. "Guards, wait outside please." Celestia orders. "Yes your majesty." The guards say in unison and stand outside the shop to keep watch. As the three mares sit down at the booth a young female waitress walks up with a notepad. "Хотите выпить?" The waitress asks. "What drinks would you like?" The mayor translating the question for them. "Mint tea would be fine." Celestia answered. "What kind of soft drinks do you have?" Luna asks the waitress. "Извините?" The waitress responds not knowing equestrian. "Какие безалкогольные напитки у вас есть?" The mayor translates for luna. "Ой! У нас есть байкал, фрукты, квас и тарзана." The waitress give a list of available soft drinks. "They have baikal, fruktime, kvass and tarhun." The mayor translates. "What is fruktime?" Luna asks. "Fruktime a series of the carbonated soft drinks which are not to different from your coca-cola, it is made in various flavouring variants like; caramel, tarragon, hand bell, lemonade, pear, strawberry, apple and cream soda."

The mayor says finishing her explanation. "We will have the cream soda." Luna says. "But she wanted the mint tea?" The mayor says confused and motioning her finger to celestia, reminding the princess of the night about her order. "*Sigh* I, will have the cream soda...." Luna says a little more annoyed. "Alright," The mayor says and she begins telling the water what their orders are. "Один мятой чай, сливочная сода и один квас." The mayor says translating their order for the waitress. "Очень хорошо, я вернусь через несколько минут с твоими напитками." The waitress says to the mayor walking off towards the kitchen to retrieve their drinks. "So what will you be talking about in your speech?" The mayor asks celestia while looking at her. "I won't say anything her, but i'm sure you will appreciated it once you hear it." Celestia replied. "Aww, don't get my anticipation amped up, i have a hard time holding in my excitement." The mayor whines. "Well that's how it's going to be until the speech." Celestia says, shutting down the question. The mayor leans back in her seat defeated, hiding her moping from the other patrons so not to look bad in front of the princesses.

"So what will we be having Miss Red Ink?" Luna asks the mayor, the mayor slightly shifts in her seat, feeling a bit off-put yet proud by the princess calling her 'miss', but quickly regain composure with a smile. "I won't say anything here, but i'm sure you will appreciated it once you see it." The mayor says half mocking celestia whom returns the jesture with a slight laugh, the other mares begin to chuckle as well over the quick joke. "Alright, so i guess, I, will see when it arrives." Luna says. After a few minutes of soft chatting, the waitress comes back with their drinks. "Вот ваш квас, ваш мятный чай и сода." The waitress says handing out their beverages off the tray she used to carry them, placing them in front of the group accordingly. Luna was the first to pick up her drink and sip on the straw placed in it. "mm! This is very good!" Luna compliments, downing more of the sweet drink. "That's rusion soda for you." The mayor says feeling more proud over the princess liking a local drink.

A few more minutes of talking about relevant events and memory's, until the waitress comes back with a dish full of butter and sugar covered cherry filled pastries. "Oh! Here's the snacks" The mayor says grabbing the attention of the princesses. "Вот ваши закуски." The waitress says with a smile placing the pastries on the table. "Спасибо." The mayor says to the waitress paying the tab early and tipping the waitress. The mayor then picks up the snack and holds it up for the princesses to see. "This is Vishnevyye pirogi, or cherry pie in your language." The mayor says explaining the snack and hands it to luna, who then takes a bite of it and proceeds to be blasted with extremely buttery, sugary bread balanced with the tartness of the cherry. "Do you like it?" The mayor asks princesses luna who can only excitedly nod in agreement. "I told you, you would love them." The mayor said with a smile feeling the most proud she has ever felt for having the princess love her local pastries.

Celestia seeing her sister enjoy this snack so much, sets down her tea she's been sipping on and grabs one herself and gives it a taste, where then she is hit with the same extreme euphoric feeling. Celestia swallowing her bite asks the mayor a question. "How do you say 'Can i get a thousand of these' in rusion??" Celestia excitedly asks the mayor, the mayor chuckles and answers the princesses question. "I'll tell him on the way out." She says with a smile.

After twenty minutes of talking and celestia trying to pronounce 'Могу ли я иметь тысячу вишневых пирогов?' The princesses leave the shop while the mayor tells the shop owner to cook up more of the pastries and deliver them to the canterlot express at the new train station. Once the mayor was finished she walks out of the shop to meet up with the princesses. "Shall we continue?" The mayor asks the princesses. "Yes, we may." Replied celestia, luna being unable to speak do to her still being in a trance from the snacks she ate earlier.

After fifteen more minutes of walking they finally reach city hall, it wasn't anything exciting but still interesting nonetheless. After touring city hall they begin walking west toward the stage. After about twenty minutes of walking they reach the stage and all the guards take position while celestia talks to the local police. "Is the stage set?" She asks the policepony. "Yes it is, you may go up when ready." The policepony responds. "Excellent." She says. After a briefing of the escape route in case of an emergency, celestia asks a question. "By the way, would you mind telling me the time?" She asks. The policepony looks at the watch on his wrist and reads the time.

11:59 am.

"Thank you." Celestia responds. and walks up the stage, luna attempts to follow but is stopped by the policepony. "Sorry princess, but we can't let you go up there." He says. "Can't go up there?? We demand to be allowed onto the stage, to accompany our sister!" Luna shouts to the policepony. "Who is 'We'?" The police pony questions. "UGH! I, I WISH TO GO ON STAGE TO ACCOMPANY, MY, SISTER!" Luna shouts louder and stomps to the steps of the stage, regaining some of her composure before going up so not to make her sister look like a fool in front of the whole city. "Что заставило ее так расстроиться?" The policepony asks his colleague who can only shrug.

Once the princesses walk up the stage and to the podium in the middle of it, they begin to observe their surroundings; it's a basic junction where five roads meet, one of them being the direction toward city hall, further to the west is an old clock tower which when it's done chiming is when the speech begins. Looking over the large crowd just below the stage separated by a line of fifteen guards, the remaining ten are patrolling around the block across the street, she continues to look at the large crowd of ponies, must be a few thousand citizens who took some time out of their Saturday morning to watch her speech in person. (In pony?) Celestia looks to her sister standing to her right, who looks to be upset about the citizen's not understanding her dialect, and then to the mayor whose standing to her left giving celestia a wink, then she looks at the clock tower, waiting for the daily enlightenment.

12 O'Clock.

The clock tower begins chiming.

After the first set of smaller bells sound to attract the attention of the citizens of the city. The first strike on the largest bell sounds.

*GONG*

*CRACK*

A loud cracking noise could be heard right over celestia's head who looks upward in an attempt to find the source, all of the crowd heard the noise and are looking for the source of the sound as well. The second strike sounds.

*GONG*

*CRACK* *SMACK*

A second crack could be heard, this time a chunk of the podium breaks off and the mayor falls to the ground clutching her stomach.

'She's been shot.....' Celestia thinks to herself.

"SNIPER!" A guard from the line shouts and the crowd begins to panic, everypony is running in every direction. Celestia stands in place, too shocked to move, she heard about snipers during her weapons training four years earlier. 'You can't see them, you can't find them, but if you hear them. You're already dead.' Are the words echoing in her head, forgetting her training on how to deal with snipers. The third strike sounds.

*GONG*

*CRACK* *SMACK* *THUD*

Was the only thing celestia could hear.

A guard had rushed the stage and shoved celestia to the ground, but was hit by the bullet.

'It was Flying Spear....' Celestia thought to herself.

Princess luna grabs her sister by the shoulders along with a few other guards. "SISTER! WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!" Luna shouts down to her discombobulated sibling. Celestia finally realizing the gravity of the situation, jumps up and begins running south off the stage. The fourth strike sounds.

*GONG*

*CRACK* *PING* *Dissipating Whistle* "AGH!" Celestia shouts in pain.

A bullet connects and ricochets off celestias armor, the kentic energy causes her right shoulder to begin feeling an immense amount of pain. The ricocheted bullet flew right past and whistled the Grimm Reaper's favorite tune right in luna's right ear causing her to fall to the ground in fright, celestia stops and turns around to help her sister up. The fifth strike sounds.

*GONG*

*CRACK* *PING* *THUD*

Celestia grunts in pain as she ricochets another round off her breast plate cause pain in the chest. She hear's that 'thud' sound again. She looks to her right and sees another guard go down, killed by a ricochet. A guard steps in front of celestia. "GO PRINCESS, WE'LL GET LUNA OUT OF HERE!" A guard shouts at her, entrusting her guards would keep her sister safe she hesitantly turns around and continues to run off stage, looking over her shoulder to see the guard that stepped in front of her along with another, pick her sister up and run with her off the stage and toward the north. Celestia continues running with twelve of her guards, while ten stay back to try and locate the sniper. The sixth strike sounds. Celestia knew what would happen next, she knew the sniper was going after her, she knew she would hear that crack again, looking for somewhere to hide and finding nowhere to hide, she continued to run, awaiting for fate to choose her future.

*GONG*

A guard grabs her by the waist and pushes her to the ground using his body as a shield. 'Don't you do this too.' She thought to herself, thinking of how she's going to apologize to the despairing family's of the fallen guards.

....

....

....

No crack.

She didn't hear a crack. The guard was shocked by the fact as well, but without wasting anytime, he lifted the princess back up to her feet and pushed her to run. ecstatic that fate has decided that she would live to see the suns morning light again, she begins running like she never ran before, the adrenaline kicking in as she runs towards the corner of the street that the policepony briefed her to run to if anything bad happens. The seventh strike sounds.

As she turns the corner to run into the safe area, confident she would make it, she just barely does.

*CRACK* *SMACK*

*GONG*

The sniper fired before the bell sounded, and the bullet hit the corner of the stone building, not three inches away from her head. She then hears rapid gunfire, presumably from her guards having located the sniper. Celestia slows her running a bit once she rounded the corner in order to catch her breath, as she begins to slow the thirteenth guard drives up next to her in a M3 Half-track leftover from the siege. "PRINCESS! GET IN!" The guard shouts to her, without hesitation she jumps into the APC along with five of her other guards getting in the back of the APC, the other seven guards start running back to the stage to face off with the sniper. As they begin to drive off towards to the train station, celestia hears more cracks.

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

Four cracks are heard with half second spacing. 'Seems like he gave up trying to kill me and turned to the guards, i just hope he still misses his shots.' She thought. As they pull up to the train station and get out of the truck, the guards stationed there rush to meet up with the with the with the six other guards.

"What the hell is going on up there!?" A guard asks the driver. "Somepony just tried to assassinate the princess!" The driver responds. "We got to get her into the train and peel out of this hell-hole!" Shouts the driver to the other guards. As celestia boards the train and the doors close, she remembers her sister is still out there. "Where's my sister! Is she here!" Celestia shouts to a guard that was stationed at the station. "No your highness, she has not been here." The guard answered. Celestia grabs the guard by the shoulders and shouts to him. "We're not leaving until she gets here! Got it!" Giving the order to the soldier. "Yes your high-" As the guard attempts to respond to the new order, a volley of machine gun fire rains down onto the train from a nearby rooftop, the guards in the train car and the princess drop to the floor to avoid being hit from the spray of bullets, three of the guard on the outside of the train were not to lucky. The driver from APC get's on the mounted M2 Browning Machine Gun and begins unleashing hell-fire onto the rooftop, the machine gun fire from the rooftop ceases and the guard stops shooting eyeing down the roof of the building to make sure he doesn't peak. He see's the shooter stand up and open fires, hitting the target with a .50 caliber machine gun round, sending his left arm flying. But then he remembered why he stood up, he looks toward the sky and see's a small silhouette of something falling towards him, the small object lands in the back of the APC giving a clear view of what it is. "FFUU-".

An explosion is heard from outside the train car. "What was that!" Celestia shouted. "Doesn't matter, we're getting out of here!" Shouted the guard. "Conductor! Conductor! this is Royal Escort Squad Leader-01 do you copy, i repeat, this is RESL-01, we demand you to take us back to canterlot immediately!" The squad lead ordered the conductor of the train. "Roger that RESL-01, returning to canterlot." Once celestia heard those words she stood up and grabbed the guard by his uniform. "We're not leaving without my sister!" Celestia demanded. "We have to or else another bastard well come and finally get you!" The guard shouts back, the train begins moving. Celestia grabs the radio off of the guard and speaks into it. "Conductor, this is the prince-" The squad leader snatches the radio from the princess and she tries desperately to get it back, but is restrained by other guards that were in the train car. "We're not leaving without my sister! We're not! Stop the train! Stop the train now!" She yells.

But her cries fall on deaf ears as the train begins to speed away from stalliongrad.

All she can do now it sit on one of the seats and begin to cry.

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

*CRACK*

The princess hears distant cracking.